Ch.42The path to diplomatic victory is incredibly arduous.

# Chapter 42: The Path to Diplomatic Victory is Far Too Treacherous

The severe practical constraints were beginning to fill my brain with irritation.

“Haaaa… damn it all…”

“Minister, please calm down and take deep breaths.”

Things had gotten so bad that Riel was trying to calm me down after watching my behavior.

But perhaps I had unknowingly accumulated stress all this time…

“Urgh…”

“Minister?!”

With a sudden onset of headache, my vision went completely dark.

‘Damn it, I still have things to do.’

———————–

How much time had passed?

When I regained consciousness and opened my eyes, I saw a ceiling that seemed familiar yet unfamiliar.

But in situations like this, there’s a standard line I’m supposed to say, isn’t there?

“…This is an unfamiliar ceiling.”

“Unfamiliar my ass, it’s the hospital ceiling you used to stare at whenever you were bored.”

-Flush.

Since I hadn’t expected anyone to respond to my muttering, I buried my flushed face in the pillow and said:

“…I’ve shown a pathetic side of myself.”

“You used to do this often before, so there’s no need to worry about it.”

Despite her blunt tone, Riel was taking care of me quite attentively.

While receiving her care, I glanced around my surroundings.

Snow-white wallpaper, calm interior design to ensure patients’ comfort.

A few simple pieces of furniture made of natural wood—a stand, desk, drawers.

A bed covered with spotless white sheets and blankets.

And contrasting with all this, some extremely complex, unidentifiable machine.

After quietly taking in all these sights, I softly uttered:

“What happened?”

“The doctor said you collapsed from overwork.”

“…”

Hearing that, I suddenly began to miss the quests that used to appear frequently until just a year ago.

‘I didn’t really feel much difference when it said my fatigue was recovering, but it was actually preventing things like this from happening!’

After hearing Riel’s words, I felt a tingling sensation throughout my body.

“Nngh…”

“Don’t try to move. You’ve got muscle pain on top of overwork, so the doctor said you need to rest for the day.”

“Tsk, but this is such a busy time.”

Of course, even as I said that, I obediently lay back down, yielding to Riel’s strength, which wasn’t even greater than a human’s.

“Riel, you’ve gotten much stronger.”

“Minister, I’m not even using any force.”

“Shut up. I’m unable to get up because of your strength.”

“…”

…Anyway, having been ‘forcibly’ made to lie down, I wondered how I should spend my time.

“Riel, when the doctor says to rest… exactly how much rest are we talking about?”

“Well, at the very least, it means no work.”

“Hmm.”

“So I won’t talk for long. Rest is the most important thing right now.”

Riel said that, and then, despite being a robot, took a deep breath before finally speaking:

“Pleasecomebackassoonaspossibleeveryone’sdyingthesecretariat’sfallingapartwithoutyouinchargesomepurgetroopmemberstriedtoplananhospitalvisitattackbutwerestoppedtheemperoralmoststoppedbytovisityoubutbarelycametosensesit’schaos.”

“…Oh.”

And then came Riel’s intense rap… or rather, ultra-high-speed word barrage.

Seeing this, I hung my head and uttered just one phrase:

“I couldn’t understand that.”

“You understood perfectly well, so stop joking around and get discharged quickly.”

“Treating a minister like this is too much.”

But after Riel left…

‘…Hmm.’

How should I put it?

I tried my best to enjoy this suddenly imposed vacation(?), but…

“Damn it, what am I supposed to do?”

Unfortunately, I only now realized that by this world’s standards, I was nothing more than a newborn who had no idea what to watch or how to entertain myself.

What good was having an all-purpose terminal that could solve anything?

‘…I don’t even know what games are what.’

I didn’t know how to play the games available on the terminal.

I managed to access something like a streaming site reminiscent of YouTube, but…

-“Breaking news regarding the recent border conflict between the Holy Sebelli Empire and the Riksi Congressional Territory—”

“Ha, they’re only lifting the embargo on this now?”

Unfortunately, all that came up was news.

And even that news was only reporting on matters I had dealt with weeks or even half a year ago.

“I already know all this.”

Thanks to this, I once again clearly understood why depriving someone of any tasks is sometimes used as a form of torture.

————————-

The next day.

I was semi-forcibly given the opportunity to experience how far medicine could advance in the future…

And before lunchtime.

“I have returned, my subjects.”

“Ah, here’s today’s report.”

“…”

After disciplining the mischievous Riel who brought up work during mealtime, I immediately began working.

Shortly after.

“Hmm, nothing unusual happened while I was gone?”

“Of course not. A galactic-scale imperial government institution wouldn’t falter just because one person is absent.”

Despite Riel’s impertinent attitude while saying such things.

“I see, so why did you say those things to me yesterday?”

“…Urk.”

Unfortunately for Riel, no matter how impudent a smile she wore, it was meaningless.

Yesterday’s freestyle rap was so intensely imprinted in my mind that I felt I could counter any impudent remark from her for a while.

“Well, jokes aside… so there really weren’t any problems?”

“No.”

“Really? Well… that’s good.”

After saying that, I decided to continue the thoughts I was having the day before yesterday.

“Let’s see… by the way, I hear the refugees are starting to return to their homelands?”

“Yes, that’s right. Especially the Ztrakians—they’re all eager to enlist in their national army.”

Nodding at Riel’s words, I decided to open the status window to check the national situation.

[Holy Sebelli Empire]

[Current Overall Ranking: 5th]

[Population: 67.4 billion (1 billion decrease from last month)]

[Political System: Empire, Theocracy]

[Constituent Races: Sebellian (60%), Other Races (40%)]

[Current Ruler: Emperor Artraia Belliard Penash Khan Sebelli]

‘Indeed, there’s no need to view the constituent races in detail right now.’

While I was satisfied with the cleaner look of the constituent races section, I suddenly felt something odd when looking at the population.

“The population has decreased significantly.”

“What?”

Unfortunately, Riel couldn’t see the status window, so I had to explain it to her.

After hearing my explanation, Riel said:

“Oh that, it’s because we weeded out those who were pretending to be war refugees just to leech off our paradise planets.”

“Ah, you mean those who falsely claimed to be refugees but were actually looking for employment.”

I nodded at Riel’s words, but inwardly I was newly impressed by the sheer scale of galactic matters.

The trash who infiltrated among war refugees amounted to numbers in the hundreds of millions when combined.

Moreover, regarding yesterday’s discussion about the Empire’s attempt to gain the chairmanship of the Federation…there was still much to consider.

‘Territorial expansion… the Empire is already doing its best within its capabilities, so there’s not much more for me to think about.’

Even now, how many resources and capital were being consumed in exploring and pioneering planetary systems in the galactic west… or more precisely, the galactic outer regions?

Even during the massive organizational restructuring where numerous departments were merged or had their budgets cut…

The Pioneering Ministry was one of the few that actually saw a budget increase.

Of course, if pioneering proved difficult, there was always the option of invading neighboring minor nations, but…

‘War! How dreadful!!!’

‘No to war! War, war never changes!’

We had to consider the seizures of our benevolent pacifist faction, who went into convulsions at the mere mention of war.

‘Oh, war? I like that too.’

‘Ah.’

Above all, considering that the Prosnak Union, the galaxy’s strongest warmonger nation, was lurking right above our empire…

This was something with a feasibility of zero, to put it mildly.

‘Indeed, this is why Artraia’s eyes roll back whenever expansion of any kind is mentioned.’

To avoid such a situation, the Empire’s Pioneering Ministry continues to explore all sorts of places today, shouting about the frontier spirit, but…

‘The vast majority of planetary systems either can’t have hyperspace jump routes installed, or even if they could, most have no resources worth mentioning.’

Nevertheless, attempts to find usable star systems and expand the Empire’s territory through claiming continue.

‘…Damn border territories.’

Because of this, the closer you get to the galactic center, the more you see a terrible map reminiscent of the Holy Roman Empire in medieval Europe—which made me shut off the terminal’s map and status window immediately.