"Cocolia was nothing more than a foolish woman with a little cleverness. Look at all the stupid things she had done since taking office: retreating and cowering from external threats, concerned only with protecting herself out of fear; yet being harsh internally, sealing the miners of Boulder Town away underground where they would never see daylight. Lady Rosalind once believed she was creative, but what had her creativity brought us?"
"A shortage of labor, dwindling resource output, countless valuable research projects being halted, the closure of Belobog University, cuts to military spending... As the chief of the Technical Development Department, it was impossible for you to have noticed none of this."
After a slight pause, the brown-haired woman spoke again.
"Someone used me and created a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for me. That person lured Cocolia and her adopted daughter out of Belobog together, so I have to seize power in Belobog in the shortest time possible."
"I have already won over twelve officers among the Silvermane Guards. That is practically half their force. Next... so long as you are willing to hand over the 'Automaton-Soldier Key' in your possession, nearly all of Belobog's armed forces will fall into our hands."
Having said that, she dropped another bombshell.
"Furthermore, Doctor Elisabeth, I did not choose to betray Cocolia merely because of my own ambition. I received an extremely crucial piece of information from the person who used me."
"Cocolia has already abandoned Preservation. She no longer possesses the qualifications to be Supreme Guardian!"
"If you are willing to provide the key and cooperate with us, then once we reclaim Lady Arisa's scepter, we are willing to support you in setting things right and becoming the new Supreme Guardian!"
Minister Spanya, You Deserve to Die! (4/4)
Dr. Arlan, Elisabeth McSmith, had been born into an upper-class noble family.
When she was ten years old, Rosaliya Landau, the Supreme Guardian at the time, secretly announced that she would choose an adopted daughter to inherit the Rand name.
To noble society, the pattern behind the succession of Supreme Guardians was not particularly secret.
Every Supreme Guardian bore the surname Rand, carrying on the legacy of Alisa Rand, the first Supreme Guardian.
Of course, that rule had actually been established by Svetlana, the second Guardian.
She herself had been a girl adopted by Alisa Rand. After taking office, in order to prevent a single family from monopolizing the position of Supreme Guardian in the future, she established the rule that a Supreme Guardian could not marry while in office.
Thus, every Supreme Guardian had been an adopted daughter raised by the previous Supreme Guardian.
That adopted daughter could be an orphan from an orphanage or the daughter of a noble family. So long as she was sufficiently capable and could completely sever ties with her birth family, she was eligible.
Elisabeth McSmith had naturally been included among the candidates. She had also hoped that the great Guardian would choose her, allowing her to become a key force in Belobog's future protection.
But unfortunately, Cocolia, a girl even younger than her and only eight years old at the time, became Rosaliya's adopted daughter and inherited the Rand name.
At the time, many nobles lamented on Elisabeth's behalf. Some initially believed that if she inherited the Rand name, she would surely revitalize Belobog and become an outstanding Guardian comparable to the iron-fisted Svetlana.
But reality did not unfold as the nobles had hoped. Elisabeth, born into an upper-class noble family, ultimately lost to Cocolia, who came from an ordinary household. Her parents had merely been an ordinary Silvermane Guard and a housewife. Many nobles realized that Rosaliya had done this deliberately.
However, after the disastrous incident during the Eighth Supreme Guardian's era, when Minister Spanya had sidelined the Supreme Guardian and seized power, the relationship between the Supreme Guardians and the nobles had always been deeply divided. Beginning with the Ninth Supreme Guardian, the nobles no longer had any room to interfere with the selection process.
Cocolia thus inherited the Rand name. Though she quickly displayed intelligence and courage, in the eyes of the noble faction, her achievements were still not worth mentioning compared to Elisabeth, who had earned her doctorate from Belobog University at fourteen.
This genius girl had once been burdened with great expectations. In truth, she did not disappoint. While still young, she achieved a vast number of research results, making remarkable accomplishments in technological development for both civilian and military use. At only twenty-two, she became chief of one of the departments under the Technical Department. At the time, many believed she would become a dazzling light in Belobog's long night. Thus, the name Dr. Arlan spread far and wide.
But later, as Cocolia took full control of Belobog, the Upper City and Lower City were isolated from one another, social resources became scarce, and many rare materials could no longer be extracted from the mines. Even the cleverest housewife could not cook without rice. The Technical Development Department shelved countless research projects, and funding was cut again and again. By now, the Technical Development Department had been reduced to little more than maintaining and repairing military armaments.
It was impossible for Dr. Arlan not to feel resentment over this. But if she betrayed Belobog over that alone, she would be completely denying the efforts of her past thirty-odd years.
She had never worked for Cocolia or any Supreme Guardian. She had sincerely followed the guidance of her family teachings and worked for Belobog's revival.
"Cleo Jackal."
Standing behind the High-voltage Barrier, Dr. Arlan silently watched the woman attempting to tempt her with enormous benefits. Nagamitsu knew something of her background. The current Minister of the Interior was Cleo's elder brother, but Miss Cleo herself had displayed exceptional talent and intellect at a very young age. One sibling operated openly, the other from the shadows. Over the years, they had risen to prominence within the noble faction and showed faint signs of becoming its leaders.
"I have no interest in your plan. I gave up my obsession with becoming Supreme Guardian long ago."
Her gaze was exceptionally calm, entirely unmoved by others' desire to place her at the pinnacle of Belobog.
"If your coup succeeds, I will still work in the Technical Department. If you do not need me then, I can leave. If you wish to put me on trial, I am willing to die."
"But those are your affairs. I will not interfere, nor is it convenient for the entire Technical Department to interfere."
"Leave now, and we can remain at peace. If you insist on forcibly invading the research institute and harming Technical Department personnel, then Belobog's database will be completely destroyed before you can get your hands on it."
The moment she heard that, Cleo's expression turned ugly. None of the Technical Department's data could be allowed to go missing. The nobles were but a drop in the ocean compared to the commoners. To govern the many with the few, technology was indispensable. Even Nagamitsu's mind itself was one of their targets.
This uprising had come suddenly. In particular, the Masked Stranger had even left her with numerous vulnerabilities, forcing her and her brother to act in haste. If they missed this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, who knew how long the nobles would have to wait before they could once again rule from Kliperburg.
The Supreme Guardian's loss of the Power of Preservation had given them the best possible pretext for rebellion. Standing on the side of righteousness, they could even win recognition from the people of Belobog. After all, it was undeniably true that every industry and resource yield in Belobog had declined sharply during Cocolia's tenure.
But...
They had been blocked here, at the Technical Department.
"I can't give up like this."
A vicious gleam began to show in her eyes. Just like their clan's name, they possessed the gloomy, ferocious eyes of jackals, and the members of that clan shared the same temperament.
Just as she considered how to break the deadlock, hurried footsteps suddenly sounded from outside. Cleo turned her head, and in an instant, a man clad in full silver-blue armor and holding a massive instrument-case shield had appeared in the corridor behind them.
Her heart sank sharply. At last, unrestrained madness spilled into her light-brown eyes as she roared at her subordinates.
"Fire! If we can't have it, then we absolutely cannot leave it for Belobog!"
Who Isn't a Paradox Grand Inquisitor?
"Honestly, I really didn't want to help you two."
Standing on an open-air platform atop Everwinter Peak, Mr. Emiya looked at the mother and daughter before him with a headache. Because of that brat Sparkle, he had forcibly lent the two of them a hand in order to prevent everything she designed from playing out smoothly.
Besides,
Now that they had escaped, these two might still become pieces in Sparkle's hands. On this little planet, Sparkle, an apparent Emissary of Joy, practically had no natural enemies. She could act as wildly as she pleased without any restraint.
"But I don't want that brat to have too easy a time either."
Mr. Emiya rubbed his forehead before looking at Cocolia.
"Actually, I have a very bad impression of you. Extremely bad. Even though I had never met you, your name and appearance both made me think of a psychotic woman who would stop at nothing to achieve her goals, someone who turned three or four million people into living corpses just to advance a single objective."
"And that woman also claimed it was for her daughter, yet she suspected her daughter would not remain absolutely loyal to her and stuffed a control chip into her head."
"By the way, that controlled daughter was also named Bronya."
At Shirou's words, Cocolia's expression did not change much. Instead, Bronya frowned and took a step forward, seeming to want to defend her mother.
"I am indeed capable of doing the things you described."
Cocolia's expression was calm and composed, her voice steady, without even the slightest trace of hesitation.
Bronya's expression instantly froze completely...
Emotion Points from Bronya +55
"When I kill the first person, I will feel guilt. When I kill ten people, that guilt will gradually weaken. By the time it is a hundred, a thousand, I will regard it as ordinary... because that is who I am now."
"Fine, at least you know what kind of beast you are."
Shirou was almost angered into laughter. This mother and daughter pair really had something wrong with their heads. One knew she was a beast but refused to repent, while the other knew her mother was a beast yet still believed she could be saved.
"Forget it. Compared to you two, that brat is more infuriating."
"That naturally evil little brat of Joy—I have to personally make her suffer a setback today!"
Still, although the Cocolia from this world was also a beast, at least she was not the genuine monster from the Honkai Impact 3rd World who used millions of innocents as sacrifices. At the very least, she had made her choice only after genuinely weighing the pros and cons, then being tempted by the Stellaron. If one had to put it that way, she still had some moral bottom line.
Honestly, back when he played Frostpunk, who had not been a living King Yama? In a post-apocalyptic setting with scarce resources, the laborers at the bottom were bound to be expendable. But Cocolia's problem was that she only went after those laborers. She did not turn her blade on the privileged classes who contributed little labor. If he, Lord Emiya, had been in charge, he would absolutely have learned from the Instructor's—no, the Emperor's—methods and turned those troublesome noblemen into canned meat.
That Lilia Land's assessment was not bad. Cocolia's governance had not been fundamentally misguided; she simply needed to remember to sit at Siriil's table whenever the Supreme Guardians gathered for dinner. The others would probably find her somewhat distasteful.
But although this mother and daughter pair were one foolish and one rigid, if no one else had interfered, Mr. Emiya would absolutely never have involved himself with them.
But Sparkle was now treating the lives of Belobog's remaining several hundred thousand people like a joke. That Stellaron was most likely in the hands of someone prone to losing control. Once it broke free of the restraints and fully revealed itself, that unstable person would immediately become one with the Stellaron and transform into a Stellaron Jinchuriki.
Then they would cause havoc throughout Belobog. By the time they returned, they might find themselves facing a tokusatsu scene where "a monster suddenly appeared in this peaceful city."
"According to my original plan, there should have been an armed uprising in the Lower City. We would have stormed your Upper City, rushed into Kliperburg, and personally taken your position as Supreme Guardian."
"But now... Bronya, you said you would give up the position of Supreme Guardian, right?"
Shirou looked at the gray-haired girl and spoke decisively.
"Actually, it would be best to fight a civil war. Only civil war can push the old order, classes, and everything else into the dust of history. Nobles, the Guardian system... There is clearly only one city, yet internally it is like a constitutional monarchy and a cabinet parliament at the same time, filled with all kinds of bizarre nonsense. Administrative efficiency is slow, and the people below are full of grievances."
"I usually prefer to do things thoroughly. This time, I can help you retrieve the Stellaron, perhaps even deal with it while I am at it, and suppress the rebellion. But there are a few conditions you must agree to in advance."
"Go ahead."
Cocolia nodded. Since Bronya had made her choice, then... she did not wish to make her daughter experience everything she herself had experienced all over again.
Being Supreme Guardian was not simply a position of holding great power and comfortably enjoying authority.
The moment one opened one's eyes, there were hundreds of thousands of people to feed and clothe. It was only a city, yet it needed every function a country should possess.
If they could simply revert to the primitive society of ancient times and use policies of keeping the people ignorant and exhausted, that might have worked.
But the external conditions did not permit it. Every resource reserve could be measured at a glance.
By the time the burden reached her generation, all she could do was scrape by frugally.
If she did not embrace the Stellaron, the burden of this mess would only become heavier for the next generation.
Her feelings were complicated. She neither wanted Bronya to suffer as she had nor wanted Bronya to be purged by future rulers.
Her original way of protecting Bronya had been to solve most of the problems in her own generation, leaving her daughter a stable situation that could continue on. As for the nobles and traitors, her original intention had been to take all of them down in one sweep.
Now that Bronya wanted to leave Jarilo-VI, a new choice had been offered. Honestly... she wholeheartedly approved.
"First, my help is not unconditional. You need to sign a commission contract."
"Second, once this matter is resolved, I need you to use your authority as Supreme Guardian to completely abolish the noble system."
"Finally, if I need you for anything in the future, you must come whenever called and cannot refuse."
A cold smile appeared on Cocolia's face. She did not feel even the slightest guilt about moving against the nobles. Ever since Siriil's generation, the Guardian line and the nobles had always been irreconcilable. If there was an opportunity to abolish the nobility, then even if Shirou had not made that demand, she would have taken the initiative to do so.
As for the final condition—that they must come whenever summoned and could not refuse—if she was still alive after this incident, such a matter was unimportant. Bronya also needed a new source of support. If so...
Why refuse?
"I accept."
"Very good. In that case, hurry up and write the commission contract."
"Once matters here are settled, I might have to find someone to cover for me. And those two over there need to be released as well."
PS: Since this work has not been published yet, let me explain in the PS. I have arranged the power levels of characters from other works. There will not be situations where someone suddenly arrives and is absurdly strong. Modern Western magi from the Type-Moon side need a Mage Foundation; only those capable of creating one themselves can truly function here. The same applies to Thought Key Patterns. It will not be a case of pulling in any random magus and having them perform a Deus ex Machina.
There Are Cows! There Are Cows!
"The suburban snowfields. Lingbao had appeared there before, though the most recent sighting was probably four days ago."
"The condition of Lingbao's campsite was also obvious. She did not even have time to pack up her supplies."
"All the clues we have indicate that Lingbao was attacked after she was last sighted."
"The Silvermane Guards on duty seemed to be concealing something... We need to pry more precise intelligence from them."
"...Lingbao was indeed taken away by the Silvermane Guards. Quite a few members of the Jackal Tribe have already infiltrated the Guards."
"Everwinter Peak? They actually tied Lingbao up there? Why?"
"Miss Serval was indeed lured there by them as well."
"...The Supreme Guardian also entered Everwinter Peak..."
"Because of the defensive line there, it had always been a restricted zone guarded by the Iron Guards. But now that the Guards have been infiltrated, it has instead become an advantageous location for them."
"Now, every clue points to Everwinter Peak. Stelle, March 7th, we may face a tough battle up there. You need to prepare yourselves mentally."
Closing the notebook in her hands, Pela looked toward the two-member team of 'Sea Rangers' traveling alongside her, who had contributed quite a lot.
"Don't worry. We're battle-hardened Nameless. No matter what problem we encounter, we'll overcome it!"
"Nameless?"
"...Another name for Sea Rangers."
Little Pink Hair stubbornly bluffed her way through the explanation, but the intelligence officer did not press the issue any further. Nameless or Sea Rangers, to her, the identities of these two now meant only one thing.
New friends.
Before you continue