Isaac set his spoon back on the edge of the bowl and considered what Carlo had said.
With the new elite rallying support, the repeal of the Corn Laws should win broad public backing. After all, lower food prices would be a tangible benefit to most ordinary people.
But if the Grand Duke truly wanted to keep the Corn Laws, he had countless ways to silence the new elite. The fact that he had allowed the debate to keep growing showed that he had no intention of protecting them.
He had let talk of repealing the Corn Laws grow, tacitly allowed the new nobles to rally public opinion, and even let potatoes take over the Joint Investigation Bureau's cafeteria... Taken together, these signs pointed to one conclusion.
"On the surface, repealing the Corn Laws looks like a struggle between the new and old nobility, but the Grand Duke is actually pushing it from behind the scenes," Isaac said.
"Mm-hmm." Carlo put a piece of potato in his mouth.
"Then what about the old nobility..."
"What can they do?" Carlo chewed his potato. "Go to the Grand Duke and say, 'Have a heart, you can't do this,' or tell him, 'Do this and we'll rebel'? The Grand Duke no longer needs the nobility's support to hold on to his position."
Isaac was somewhat surprised. "But isn't the Ogway Family itself noble, and the largest of the noble families in the Western Territory?"
"Precisely because he's the most powerful noble in the Western Territory." Carlo swallowed his potato. "As the Western Territory's supreme ruler, with no emperor above him, his interests have long since ceased to align with those of ordinary nobles."
"The privileges the old nobility hold in their grip are gradually being stripped away, and not just over grain, but taxation, the postal service, household registration... Like I said before, the Joint Investigation Bureau has taken authority not only from the churches, but from the City Police Force too.
"A good number of the people in high positions in the Vista City Police Force belong to the nobility. When a case is reported, whether to investigate it, how to investigate it, and whether to report it to higher authorities are all up to the City Police Force. If the victim is a commoner and the killer a noble's child, the case will most likely be dropped; if the victim is a noble and the killer a commoner, the case can be solved with unbelievable speed.
"Once the Joint Investigation Bureau steps in, though, the City Police Force can only provide assistance on cases involving anomalous incidents. Even with ordinary cases... who knows whether they might involve heretical secret rites? The Joint Investigation Bureau can demand that the City Police Force hand them over too."
Isaac listened in a daze. Carlo set down his fork and suddenly asked, "After hearing all that, what's your impression of Vista?"
Questioned again, Isaac thought for a while, sorting through the scattered fragments of information and piecing them together, trying to see the whole picture.
The establishment of the Joint Investigation Bureau had broken the churches' monopoly over anomalous incidents and the nobility's hold on the City Police Force. The railway plan was changing transportation between cities. The dispute over repealing the Corn Laws involved a reshuffling of the interests of the new and old nobility. The Grand Duke was driving it all from behind the scenes, while the Church of the Golden Bough cooperated with the changes...
"It feels complicated. In Palmer, I heard about struggles between nobles too, but at most it was a few families fighting among themselves." Isaac paused. "But here in Vista, it feels like something on a different level. The old rules are being broken, and new rules are being established, forming something different from the past... a new order."
"A new order. The fact that you came up with that term shows you've grasped the direction Vista is taking." Carlo propped up his chin with one hand and smacked his lips. "Do you know why people call this era the 'Fading Day Era'?"
Isaac recalled the explanation in the history books. "Because the ancient empire's order collapsed, but its afterglow remained?"
"More or less. Many people believe the ancient empire's order shone over the land like the sun, from sunrise in the east to sunset in the west, from the ocean in the south to the ice fields in the north. Everyone lived under the same order, as if under the same sun... but that sun set.
"In the 'Great Sunset,' the sun that shone over all things shattered and sank, but the world did not immediately fall into night. The system left behind by the ancient empire still gave off its lingering warmth, just as the horizon stays bright for a while after the sun goes down. The world was left with a twilight clinging to life, and so it was called the 'Fading Day.'
"The signing of the 'Convention of the Churches' meant that everyone had realized no one would benefit from further fighting, and that it was better for each side to maintain the status quo. From then on, the nobility and the churches tacitly maintained the afterglow of the old order. None of them wanted to let that lamp go out completely.
"That is the Fading Day Era. The afterglow of the old order still lingers, keeping people from falling into complete darkness, but no new sun has appeared to shine over everyone once more. People can only cling to life by that afterglow."
Isaac nodded. He had heard this history from his foster father and at school. Though they had emphasized somewhat different things, their accounts broadly matched what Carlo had said.
"But Vista-or rather, the Ogway Family and the Church of the Golden Bough-doesn't want merely to tend the lamp, clinging to what remains of the afterglow." Carlo looked out the window. "Before the old afterglow sinks completely, they want to raise a new sun, an order belonging to this era. The old sun and the new will follow directly after one another, keeping night from falling."
"That sounds like a grand ideal," Isaac said.
"If it weren't grand, how could they dare call it 'The Sun Never Sets'?" Carlo shrugged.
Outside the window, the sky was growing dark, and the gaslights in the cafeteria came on. People trickled in, probably having just finished the work at hand and come to eat at dinnertime. Some nodded to Carlo in greeting, while others pretended not to see Carlo and hurried around Carlo as if nothing were amiss.
Isaac's attention was drawn to those people, and then he heard Carlo's voice.
"But without ever experiencing the night..."
Isaac stared and looked at Carlo, but Carlo merely pushed the empty plate aside. "It's nothing, just a passing thought. Let's go."
Isaac stood up after Carlo. They left the cafeteria, and Isaac walked beside Carlo, still turning that sentence over in his mind.
Without ever experiencing the night... He wasn't sure whether Carlo had been hinting at something, but from what he knew of his boss, Carlo wouldn't have made a remark like that for no reason.
He didn't ask. Since Carlo had said it was just a passing thought, he probably wouldn't learn anything more by pressing the matter. At least, now wasn't the time.
As they left the Joint Investigation Bureau, the streetlights came on. Isaac looked up and saw their dim yellow light stretching along the street, while the last trace of afterglow faded on the horizon.
"Come on, don't stand there daydreaming." Carlo had already gone a few steps ahead and called out without looking back.
Isaac looked away and hurried after Carlo.