“Ahhh! S-Saint! Are you okay?!”
“Quick, call a doctor! Gather all the priests who can use healing magic! The Saint’s condition—”
“I’m fine, don’t worry about it, everyone. Please, don’t make such a fuss.”
As soon as she stepped out of the chapel, the clergy members, shocked by her ragged appearance, started making a commotion.
The nuns and priests screamed in unison, causing a chaos, but the Saint sighed and stopped them.
“So, what about those marks on your neck? Was there an assassin involved?”
“That’s… not the case.”
But it was understandable to make such a mistake.
It couldn’t be said that Joan’s current state was even close to something that could be called “fine.”
Her holy vestments were wrinkled and torn, in a complete mess, and her eyes were filled with tear stains.
The mark around her neck, where the goddess herself had used divine power to choke her, was clear as day.
The sight before them made her appear less like a person praying and more like a victim of assault or robbery.
“…Let’s just say I was reprimanded by the goddess for matters here on earth. Explaining in detail would be complicated.”
“Reprimanded?”
“The world’s become quite chaotic lately. More and more people are turning away from our faith. The goddess was quite angry about it.”
However, it was difficult to reveal the truth, so she gave a vague explanation.
How could she explain that the mad goddess had kidnapped her and tried to force her into hard labor, only to be angered by the disruptions caused by the same person?
She herself could hardly believe it, even after hearing it directly in her mind.
Priests who did not receive divine revelations would think Joan was crazy no matter how many times she explained it.
“It seems like the goddess’s anger was quite intense, to the point where she expressed it like that.”
“Well, something like that, yes. She kept shouting while she was speaking.”
“You’ve been through a lot. To endure all of that on your own.”
It had indeed been a lot.
Listening to that insane woman’s stubborn rants, Joan experienced high blood pressure for the first time in her life.
Then, she ended up spouting random things in anger and experienced divine punishment for the first time in centuries.
“It’s nothing. By the way, could you bring me a damp towel and a drink? Anything cold will do.”
“Right away, Saint!”
While a novice priest ran to the kitchen, Joan slumped down on a nearby bench.
She was too exhausted to return to her bedroom.
She needed some time to rest and gather her thoughts.
‘Since I’ve been given an order, I suppose I must follow it.’
She had learned the hidden truth of the sacred being, but the mission and that truth were separate.
Regardless, she needed to fulfill the duties given to her as the Saint.
If she didn’t comply, another divine revelation would likely come to threaten her.
She had no choice but to follow, at least to some extent.
Of course, that didn’t mean she had to comply 100% with everything.
Sigh.
“Is something uncomfortable, Saint?”
“It’s just a sigh, don’t worry too much about it.”
If it were the old days, she would have dutifully carried out her tasks, but now things were different.
She knew the ugly truth and could no longer blindly obey as before.
She couldn’t hold onto mindless loyalty when she knew what was happening behind the scenes.
‘Laemis, or rather, Ishmael.’
He had once been her teacher, and now he was someone bent on burning the world with vengeance.
“…I should meet him.”
In any case, it would be best to meet him directly and talk.
There were things she hadn’t asked last time, so she wanted to find out more.
She had just received a clue to help her visit him, so contacting him wouldn’t be too difficult.
“Saint, here’s the damp towel you requested.”
“Thank you. Your name is…”
“Garrosh!”
For some reason, the name seemed fitting for an orc that was crispy on the outside and moist on the inside.
Unfortunately, this was a human.
Anyway, Joan slowly wiped the dust off her face and clothes with the towel.
Even though wiping away the tears didn’t remove the traces, she looked less disheveled than before.
“Bishop.”
“Speak.”
“Could you send a small delegation? Including myself and my attendants, about twenty people.”
“It’s not difficult, but… may I ask where you intend to go?”
“To the Kingdom of Allein. I must carry out the goddess’s command. It’s not a diplomatic mission, so I plan to go quietly.”
“It will cost quite a bit. Where will you gather people…?”
By invoking the name of God, his expression darkened, but he agreed without hesitation.
It wasn’t that he wanted the highest decision-maker of the church to leave during such a chaotic time, but still, he couldn’t refuse.
Joan quietly thanked him in her heart.
Thank you, always helping me.
“The round trip should take about two months. I’ll be back quickly.”
“That’s somewhat reassuring.”
After all, it was just meeting one person, so it wouldn’t take long.
What mattered was what she would learn, hear, and realize there.
‘What is that person thinking?’
Joan wasn’t confident.
Even after having a serious conversation with Ishmael, she wasn’t sure she could maintain her current faith and attitude.
*****
Let’s tell a little story from the past.
During the medieval and early modern periods, Europe was a chaotic place, constantly at war.
Betrayals, alliances, backstabbing, and all kinds of dirty tactics were rampant as people killed each other.
To survive in such a world, it was inevitable to mobilize large amounts of military resources.
It was common sense to squeeze taxes and food from peasants and waste them on wars.
Exploitation was an everyday occurrence.
In fact, places much worse than the so-called Hell Joseon were quite common.
But surprisingly, there were hardly any cases where nations or fiefdoms were overturned due to rebellion or uprisings.
Of course, there were a few, but compared to the extent of the exploitation, they were very rare.
How was such a system possible?
The secret was the monopoly on force.
The rulers had absolute military power within their territories.
Peasant militias couldn’t compete with knights who had trained their whole lives.
Even after the invention of gunpowder and the decline of knights, there were still standing armies and mercenaries, so the military advantage remained intact.
In short, the overwhelming force made it difficult for rebellions to arise.
The military-first politics is the modern version of this logic.
And the second leader of North Korea, Pogrievus, revived this political technique, which had been abandoned after the modern era.
No matter how much the country’s economy was collapsing and spiraling into chaos, he maintained his power in order to preserve his rule.
“From the name, I can roughly guess the concept, but it doesn’t seem very beneficial.”
“That’s true. It’s not a system that would be introduced in a properly functioning country.”
At that time, North Korea was going through the Arduous March under Kim Jong Il’s mismanagement, and the country was falling apart in real-time.
There was no money, the infrastructure was destroyed, and the government system was on the brink of collapse.
No farm or factory was operating properly.
As a result, the ruling power of the Baekdu bloodline was rapidly weakening.
The countermeasure put forward to resolve this situation was this: using the military to govern and control society, maintaining order through force.
[The people must be governed by the barrel of a gun. Instead of valuing candy, bullets must be prioritized, and the sound of gunfire is necessary for the people to obey the Party.]
Resources, manpower, and funds are funneled into the military.
The common people may be starving and destitute, but as long as the military is sustained, they will find a way to survive.
At the same time, the status of the military is elevated, while the hierarchy with the power holders is clearly defined and tamed.
This naturally directs the military’s loyalty to the one who provides for them—the commander-in-chief.
Once the military is secured, they can crush any resistance below them, suppressing any opposition or dissent.
That’s the essence of military-first politics.
[Pyongyang is the capital of the revolution, symbolizing the ideological and civilizational superiority of socialist Juche Korea. Those with inferior origins should not be allowed to live.]
Ah, and nurturing an elite class is a bonus.
Prioritize benefits and support in areas that serve as the power base for the ruling class, like the capital.
Those who receive different treatment and special privileges will naturally develop an exclusive mentality and a sense of discrimination.
To maintain this, they will become thoroughly loyal to the regime and serve as watchdogs against others.
“But where’s the normal country these days? Even the vast plains where my father-in-law resides are in turmoil due to power struggles and fanatics.”
“…That’s true. I had momentarily forgotten.”
As Kalia, who was fidgeting on my lap, reacted, this is by no means a proper way of governance.
In a country that operates ‘logically,’ it would be expected to refuse such an approach, which could ruin the future.
“Of course, there are plenty of people who do it knowingly.”
But let’s not forget.
We are at war.
When everyone is pulling out the pillars of their homes to squander on military supplies, where is the common sense in that?
Controlling society through the military is something everyone is doing.
Military-first politics just merges political engineering techniques with developed governance skills.
And there are plenty of rulers who couldn’t care less about the future.
As long as they maintain power during their reign, that’s enough for them.
This North Korean-style rule will likely be accepted the same way.
“When do you plan to spread it?”
“Not immediately… maybe next month? First, the anxiety over internal division must spread sufficiently.”
It’s not difficult to write this in a way that suits the state of the world.
I’ve written books more than once, after all.
But timing is crucial.
The rulers’ mentalities must be shaken to accept such ideologies.
We still need to wait a little longer.
And.
“For now, I think we need to focus on the southern seas.”
The Alcyone Federation has inevitably entered its own version of the Warring States period.
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