Ch.53Artificial Hatred Intelligence and Neo-Statism (1)

# Chapter 53: Neo-Theocracy with Hate Intelligence (1)

After a truly long period of agonizing contemplation.

Though the process of choosing was painfully difficult, I finally overcame my decision paralysis and succeeded in selecting the first event to tackle.

‘To think I’ll have to do this nonsense two more times. How depressing.’

With that thought, I looked ahead and saw the message I had selected floating before my eyes.

[Event: Ancient Ruins of Unknown Origin]

[An exploration team from the Holy Sebelli Empire has discovered ancient ruins of unknown origin on a planet while exploring an uncharted area on the galaxy’s outskirts.]

[The exposed outer portions are crumbling, unable to withstand the weathering of time, but the exploration team that ventured inside discovered remarkably well-preserved ruins.]

[When this news reached them, officials from the Colonization Ministry immediately attempted to dispatch personnel for excavation and preservation of the ruins, but…]

[Unfortunately, the problem is that the location of these uncharted lands happens to be near the border of another nation.]

[Option 1: This is a diplomatic matter, so we must handle it! (Proceed with linked event)] <Selected>

[Option 2: There’s no need to create problems where none exist.]

‘I can’t resist ruin excavation.’

In this game, excavating ruins was on an entirely different level from real-world archaeological digs.

‘Vast amounts of treasure and ancient artifacts, plus deliciously abundant research points and integration…’

Unless you were exceptionally unlucky, excavating ruins was inherently beneficial to the Empire.

However, this event had one serious problem, as evident from the message.

‘Seriously? It’s in uncharted territory, but right at the border of another country?’

At first glance, this might seem simple and trivial.

But border friction is a sensitive issue that could potentially lead to all-out war with the other nation.

[Pause Released]

To clear my head, I released the pause and decided to call Riel to discuss the situation.

And after hearing my story, Riel…

“What’s that supposed to mean? Are they asking us to be meat shields?”

She was fuming with irritation, looking ready to storm the Colonization Ministry building and turn it upside down.

Her fury was like a volcano about to erupt.

Normally, I would have immediately stepped in to restrain her, but…

“…Don’t be too harsh.”

Honestly, I felt like joining Riel in cursing them out.

So I simply watched as Riel raged on.

—————————-

After Riel’s exciting outburst show ended.

Having calmed down considerably, we decided to gather personnel from the Diplomatic Enforcement Ministry to begin a meeting about this matter.

Of course, any normal, rational, and sensible Diplomatic Enforcement Ministry staff would naturally be irritated upon hearing this agenda.

“Minister, wouldn’t it be better to ignore this agenda?”

“That’s right, this is purely demanding one-sided sacrifice from us!”

Most meeting attendees appeared to be hawks, arguing that since the other side was demanding one-sided sacrifice, we should respond with equal force.

But it was impossible for only hawks to exist in a room full of people.

“But isn’t it too unfortunate to give up excavating ancient ruins?”

“Regardless of how unpleasant it feels, if the exploration team’s estimates are correct, I believe we can endure a bit of border friction.”

The ever-present doves, or cautious faction, were suggesting that this might be acceptable after all.

While third and fourth opinions began to emerge…

Perhaps because I had already chosen an option.

As the meeting progressed, opinions naturally drifted toward intervention.

If only the opposition had presented some proper counterarguments…

“Tch.”

“…It can’t be helped, that’s reality.”

They were paying the price for responding emotionally to the doves’ rational fact-checking.

If I left things as they were, it would be like throwing souls into a threshing machine.

Not wanting to watch Diplomatic Enforcement Ministry staff tear into each other, I decided to intervene directly and stop the proceedings.

“Good, I think I’ve heard enough.”

“Minister…”

“The meeting’s outcome has been decided, so I won’t accept any further opinions.”

After saying that, I decided to announce the objective of this mission in advance.

“As of now, in accordance with the Colonization Ministry’s request, we will make thorough preparations to prevent our rival nation, the Kingdom of Jubar, from claiming territorial rights over the uncharted area through preemptive occupation.”

“Understood, Minister!”

“Yes, understood!”

——————————–

Several days after the meeting.

“The delegation heading to the Kingdom of Jubar’s border has just departed from the spaceport.”

“I see, thank you for your work.”

With the operator’s rather cheerful voice, I was about to strike a pompous pose while watching the delegation’s rocket exhaust trail fade into the distance, but…

“What are you doing? Striking unnecessary pompous poses?”

“…”

As the fact-bombing Riel approached with a massive amount of work, I whistled nonchalantly and said:

“Remember the meeting we had a few days ago?”

“Yes, but… why bring that up?”

“Those people who’ve been deliberately sharpening their knives by studying international law and various incident compilations have now found an opportunity to show off their skills.”

Hearing this, Riel looked slightly surprised, as if she had forgotten.

“Oh, has the ruins excavation delegation departed?”

“Yes, they just left the spaceport.”

“Ah, so that’s why you were standing by the window with your hands behind your back?”

To Riel’s comment, I shrugged my shoulders as if it were nothing.

“Hmm… I suppose so, but is there something unusual about that?”

I was just saying whatever came to mind since I had nothing else to say, but…

“I’m not sure if it’s unusual, but I do have something to report.”

“What is it?”

Riel put down the stack of work she was carrying and selected one document to show me.

“Actually, this is one of the requests made by the departing delegation.”

“Hmm?”

Finding her statement unclear at first glance, I checked my work terminal to understand what she meant.

“This is…”

“This just came up for your approval, so those people left without getting this processed.”

In the data plate Riel gave me… there was a request approved under the delegation leader’s name.

The request was for deploying a whole platoon from our armed group, the Purge Unit, which we had brought when we merged into the Diplomatic Enforcement Ministry.

Seeing this, I looked at Riel with disbelief and said:

“Did they think I would approve this?”

“I’m nooot suuure…”

Even Riel seemed unsure but couldn’t deny it, suggesting the delegation leader had made this request in earnest.

“This is just my opinion, but I think the delegation leader probably considered the Purge Unit to be just an ordinary special forces unit.”

“…If that’s the case, the requested scale makes sense.”

As Riel said, by ordinary special forces standards, it would be an appropriate level for escorting a delegation or guarding a ruin excavation.

The problem was that the Purge Unit’s capabilities were far from ‘ordinary’ special forces level.

Excluding magical powers like supernatural abilities, they represented the most powerful military force achievable with human bodies.

I was about to stamp “ABSURD” on the delegation leader’s request and immediately shred it.

But thinking about it, I realized we might need some kind of safety measure for this mission, just in case.

“Riel, hypothetically speaking, if we assume the worst-case scenario during the ruin excavation.”

“Yes?”

“How many Purge Unit members do you think we’d need to deploy to secure the information and material items we need?”

Riel understood my meaning and showed her characteristically cheeky smile as she replied:

“Four, no, three would be enough.”

“Perfect. Then let’s modify the request accordingly… and send them.”