For those who love military history, this is common knowledge — the greatest advantage of a conscription system is its convenience.
From recruitment to training, discipline, and command, a conscription-based army outperforms mercenary forces in nearly every aspect.
“Conscription… You mean drafting the common people and turning them into soldiers?”
“Yes.”
“Will that even work?”
“Of course. It just takes a little know-how.”
Shall I explain in detail?
Since conscription draws from the nation’s own citizens, gathering troops becomes much easier.
Unlike mercenaries, who require individual contracts and must be recruited from their respective bases or stations, a conscription system only requires a simple draft order.
The cost is also significantly lower.
Because these soldiers are the nation’s own citizens, they’re far easier to command, train, and discipline — unlike mercenaries, who often refuse anything not explicitly stated in their contracts.
On top of that, since all soldiers are recruited and trained in a standardized way, it results in a more uniform and disciplined fighting force.
And when defending their homeland, patriotism becomes a natural morale booster.
From a ruler’s perspective, conscription is almost always a superior alternative to mercenaries.
“We’re no longer in an era where battles are fought with spears and swords — firearms are the standard now.”
“That’s true.”
“That’s exactly why conscription is so effective in this day and age.”
But then, why didn’t conscription become common before the modern era?
The reason is simple: a lack of combat effectiveness.
In the age of cold weapons like spears and swords, it took years of training to become even a competent fighter — a year or two wouldn’t cut it.
You needed several years, at the very least.
Magic was no different.
Only after years of grueling study at towers or academies could a mage finally be considered battlefield-ready.
And how many nations were wealthy enough to maintain a standing army of soldiers who did nothing but train for war during times of peace?
That’s why mercenaries were the go-to solution.
They were expensive, yes — but still cheaper than maintaining a standing army.
But then guns changed everything.
The introduction of firearms shifted the entire paradigm of warfare.
With only a month or two of training, even a rookie soldier could kill a seasoned warrior.
A weapon with lethal power regardless of the user’s strength or experience.
With gunpowder weapons, the ability to mass-produce firearms meant you could also mass-produce a capable fighting force.
The days when years of training made all the difference in combat effectiveness were coming to an end.
This shift in warfare meant that military organization had to evolve — but most national leaders had yet to realize it.
So it fell on me to enlighten them.
The sooner they could start killing each other, the better.
“Lady Kalia, I must ask for your assistance again — if you wouldn’t mind.”
“Of course.”
“And please secure a printing press as well — the same one we used last time should suffice.”
*****
This time, I had two key ideas to spread.
Machiavelli’s The Prince and Rousseau’s The Social Contract.
The first would emphasize the importance of conscription.
The second would justify the necessity and duty of military service, making the case to the citizens themselves.
Initially, I had only planned to use The Prince — but I quickly realized the citizens needed to be convinced just as much as the Doge did.
After all, a conscription system can only function if every class in society understands its value and importance.
“Alright, then — I’ll dictate the draft. Please translate and write it down in Helvetian.”
I had memorized both books — not only in my native language but also in their original versions.
I could recite them almost word for word.
And so, carefully revising and editing the content in my mind, I dictated the texts to Kalia — shaping them in a way that would lead the readers to react exactly as I intended.
Of course, I also added a few provocative expressions, just to spice things up.
[Humans, believing they can achieve a better life, are always ready to overthrow their rulers — and this belief is what drives them to take up arms against those in power.]
[A ruler who relies on mercenaries for the defense and governance of their nation will enjoy neither safety nor peace. Mercenaries lack unity, crave power, and refuse to follow discipline.]
[Mercenaries avoid war — and when war does come, they avoid defeat as well. Thus, a ruler who depends on mercenaries will find their nation pillaged by those very soldiers in times of peace, and ravaged by the enemy in times of war.]
[A nation that seeks to wage large-scale war with mercenaries is, in the long run, dragging both friend and foe into the abyss of destruction.]
[A properly trained army, filled with patriotic citizens, surpasses in every way a band of thieves fighting for wealth and plunder. And as technology advances, this superiority will only grow stronger — never weaker.]
Of course, I removed any praise for republics and the glorification of the people from The Prince.
That kind of sentiment had nothing to do with my goals.
Instead, I exaggerated and emphasized the need for cruelty and the justification of doing anything necessary for power.
You could say I deliberately cultivated the more negative image of Machiavellianism.
After all, I wasn’t writing this to win the hearts of the masses — I was tailoring it for the tastes of those in power.
“….”
[If citizens do not regard public service as their foremost duty and instead seek to resolve everything with money, they invite their nation’s downfall with their own hands.]
[The strength that protects and sustains a nation comes from the voluntary patriotism and will to defend shown by loyal citizens.]
[Hiring people with money to form an army is an act of immorality. In a truly great nation, its people take on responsibilities directly — they do not attempt to solve everything with wealth.]
[The state and its citizens should never treat the sacred duty of national defense as a commodity for sale. Such an act would be nothing short of an affront to human rights and an insult to human dignity.]
The same went for The Social Contract.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, its original author, was a staunch advocate for liberty, equality, and fraternity.
His ideas formed the ideological backbone of the French Revolution, and this book was often seen as a revolutionary’s essential guide.
Because of that, the original work was filled with praise for republicanism and democracy.
I cut most of that out — or rewrote it to fit my narrative.
In fact, I made some parts lean toward supporting monarchy — to the point where certain readers might even find themselves sympathizing with authoritarian rule.
Would future scholars criticize me for this?
Maybe.
But — who cares?
It’s not like this is my world, after all.
If someone’s desperate to spread proper ideology and civic responsibility, they can go beg that damn goddess for help.
“This should be enough. Please handle the paragraph editing and formatting, Miss Kalia.”
It took only two weeks to complete and polish these two twisted ideological treatises, though their final form had been trimmed and tailored along the way.
As I massaged my sore throat after hours of dictation, preparing to enjoy a cup of tea, Kalia murmured beside me.
“…Are you truly okay?”
“What do you mean?”
“The pamphlet you wrote last time was one thing — but this… I’ve never seen such frightening writings before. These words provoke hatred and anger, incite the masses, and encourage exploitation… How can you write such things?”
All I’d done was borrow and reframe the philosophical and political wisdom that humanity on Earth had accumulated over thousands of years.
But I suppose for the people of this world, it was a bit too much to handle.
And since Kalia had been recording my words firsthand, the impact on her must have been even more intense.
“I won’t pretend to spout some moral nonsense about how this shouldn’t be done — after all, I joined this organization precisely because I despise human society. But you… why? What drives you to write things like this?”
From my perspective, I was simply reproducing knowledge and ideas stored in my memory.
But from her perspective, I must have seemed like some twisted visionary, spinning dangerous manifestos and warped ideologies from thin air.
She was asking about my past — what terrible experiences or dark motivations had shaped the kind of person who could conceive such things.
“Who knows?”
Unfortunately, I couldn’t exactly give her the real answer.
How was I supposed to explain that I’d been abducted into this world by a crazy goddess, and that I was now wreaking havoc out of spite?
She’d think I was completely insane — if I was lucky.
“Let’s just call it revenge, for now. And leave my personal history out of it.”
“…Understood.”
And so, our second collaborative project came to a close.
*****
The finished manuscripts were handed over to the organization’s printing press, just like last time.
We credited them to the pseudonym “Ishmael”, the same name I’d used for my previous pamphlet — and we marketed them as follow-up works by the same author.
With 10,000 copies each printed — an unusually high number for publications in this era — even I worried we might be overdoing it.
But the reality was quite the opposite.
“The Prince… and The Social Contract?”
“I don’t know what they are, but I’m buying them! If they’re by the same author as the last book, they must be worth it!”
The books sold out almost immediately in the Helvetian Republic, thanks to the overwhelming popularity of my earlier work.
They sold out so fast that pirated copies began appearing almost instantly.
And there was one man who watched this situation unfold with great interest.
The 34th Doge, Enrico Dandolo.