Oh no, this isn’t resonance… it’s a trap by that bureaucrat!
There must be something going on.
Remember the crazy jerks I’ve met before who spat out all sorts of nonsense at complete strangers? This guy might not be thinking rationally or nicely either.
…Alright, for now.
“Oh, no. I’m not here to file any complaints. Actually…”
Actually, I was going to go to a more approachable place and ask some questions.
But I had enough common sense not to say that outright. If he had been outright hostile from the start, I would have thrown out some insults too, but it’s common sense to respond logically to someone who’s being logical.
Of course, I definitely can’t trust him 100%.
“Actually, I don’t know much about the beastmen society. I wanted to ask a little about that since I’ve been doing volunteer work and… well, I’ve had some inadequacies in that area.”
I mean, nobody in their right mind would come knocking on a local government office just to ask questions.
But no matter how my words were interpreted, Brassner’s face lit up like the Fourth of July. He wiped his face with a handkerchief and let out a small sigh of relief.
“Oh, that’s a relief! Thank you.”
Not sure if that’s something to be grateful for.
…Wait, this could look a bit off. Uhm, how should I put it? It might look like the Saintess barged in, all huffy, to exert her power over someone who’s actually in a fairly high role in the local government, right?
Could it be that he’s playing me? If that’s the case, he’s got some serious political acumen…
Wiping his face with a handkerchief, he picked up the paper on the desk and fanned himself, pulling at the collar of his shirt and letting out a sigh of relief, looking like just an ordinary middle-aged man who was just glad to have dodged immediate danger.
“…No, there’s no reason to be grateful. I’m worried I’m interrupting your duties instead…”
Brassner, grasping the situation, waved his hands dismissively.
“Oh, no! I should have gone and spoken to you first! The Church is a huge help to us! We should be sorry for not coming to see you right away since the Saintess herself is here!”
Brassner, who had barely settled down in his chair, was about to bow again when I waved my hands frantically to stop him.
“No, I mean, there’s no need to feel sorry about that!”
Besides, taking time to shake hands and take pictures at a place I’m volunteering at would be annoying in its own right.
“That’s… I’m really sorry about that, but we received a formal notice from the central government not to approach the Saintess carelessly. It’s tough for us too, you know? So when you came directly, we were genuinely surprised… Sorry if we were uncomfortable.”
No, the more you apologize, the more uncomfortable it gets, seriously. And I didn’t even want to know that uncomfortable fact! The truth is that the government and I have a very uncomfortable relationship.
I can’t tell if it’s because they’re embarrassed from trying to bribe me before or they’re just worried about making things worse by approaching me cluelessly.
The meeting room had the air conditioning set to the perfect temperature, so there’s no reason to be sweating despite the sunlight outside, but I feel sweat trickling down.
“I’ll repeat myself, but I didn’t come here to make trouble about what I experienced there. The actions of the people living there… don’t represent all beastmen, you know? Unless someone insults me in an official capacity at an official place, I won’t hold the mistakes against others of the same race.”
Finally, gathering myself, I sat straight up and placed my hands neatly on my lap, which seemed to finally put Brassner at ease. …Hmm, wasn’t this guy malicious, but he seems pretty persistent in a different way.
Well, being a high-ranking official must have made him skilled at reading the room. He probably knows a thing or two about ‘not getting in trouble.’
“Thank you for your profound consideration, Saintess.”
Hearing my words, Brassner bowed his head again.
“…So, um, could you tell me a bit more about the incident I experienced?”
I was worried we’d just keep exchanging pleasantries all day until sunset, so I quickly asked him.
“So… you’re curious about the common occurrences in the slums, right?”
Brassner asked with a calmer expression now, and though he was still a little damp with sweat, the reason he was sweating so much was clearly because I visited, so I wasn’t about to point it out.
“Yeah, we can only see the behavior of the residents. Most of them are really uncooperative, and it’s hard to understand why…”
At my words, Brassner nodded.
“Indeed, extreme ideologies cannot be understood without knowing their context.”
Seeing him seemingly understanding, I tilted my head and asked.
“So, does that mean you were aware of that?”
“I can’t help but know. It’s a well-known ideology in the beastmen society. Of course, there’s a big difference between being famous and actually agreeing with it, but considering how it’s been gaining momentum, it can’t be ignored.”
He let out a slight sigh and wiped his neck with his handkerchief, looking like a middle-aged man grabbing his neck to relieve rising blood pressure. Given how red his face was, he might actually have health issues. Or at the very least, his blood pressure must be way above average.
“No, it’s more accurate to say that an already existing ideology has radicalized. If you’ve lived in beastmen society, you’d have no choice but to know about it.”
Brassner nodded seriously to himself.
“Could you tell me in detail about that ideology?”
Brassner bitterly smiled at my request.
“Even if you ask for information about the ideology… it’s such a simple-minded concept that the Saintess probably already knows all of it. Survival of the fittest, winner-takes-all. The strong rise to high positions, and the weak take low positions. It’s more of a reflection of how beastmen lived in the past, summarized in human terms, that some beastmen have started to believe in again.”
“Summarized in human terms?”
I frowned slightly at the phrase ‘summarized in human terms,’ and Brassner looked startled and waved his hands.
“Oh, no! I didn’t mean to speak negatively about humans. It’s just that… when we, the beastmen, first encountered humans after crossing over, the initial impressions of beastmen society were summarized like that.”
“So does that mean that it was an inappropriate summarization?”
“If we’re talking about whether it was appropriate or not, it was appropriate. At that time, beastmen society indeed established hierarchy based on personal strength rather than voting, appointing the strongest as chief and allowing strong males to take more females. So I’d say that summary reflects the truth of that time.”
Brassner sighed deeply.
“But society didn’t solely operate that way. Even if the weak held lower positions, they knew that without protecting them, society wouldn’t function. If all the old folks were discarded, they’d lose the experience to help, and if weak children were abandoned, society itself couldn’t maintain.”
If they really held onto the idea of survival of the fittest, there wouldn’t have been a choice to run away from demons.
That’s right. If they had, they would have submitted to the demons and chosen to live as slaves beneath them. If they revered that as ‘the law of nature,’ that would be their only option.
“So, you’re saying it’s appropriate but not entirely accurate… it merely expresses one aspect of society?”
As I nodded in agreement, Brassner nodded along.
“Yes, and at that time, beastmen civilization had no proper writing system. Each tribe had someone responsible for remembering the wisdom and history of that tribe. Naturally, these people devoted almost all their time to memorizing everything, so they often lagged in combat skills compared to other tribe members. By the time they could memorize everything, they’d be weak old men too.”
So, if they had actually eliminated all the weak, those important figures would have disappeared as well.
“I see how the concept of survival of the fittest came about. But what about ‘winner-takes-all’…?”
“Tribes fundamentally belong to the chief. The strongest person possesses everything. However, just because a tribe member is not a slave doesn’t mean they aren’t. Even if there’s a concept of national wealth, that doesn’t mean he’s the true father of all his people. The chief’s possession of the tribe is symbolic in that it means they must protect what’s theirs.”
No matter how strong a chief is, they couldn’t possibly defeat all their tribe members. A tribe member stronger than the chief could challenge them to a duel, and if they won, the chief’s position would change. In some politically sophisticated tribes, a duel was just for show, and the transfer of position was just a convenient arrangement…
…Really, there were places where the heir would lightly tap the retiring chief’s leg with a cane to end it. It was amusing in many ways, but I didn’t have the time to hear all that.
“So in other words… that’s a correct statement, but it doesn’t represent all beastmen. Thus, for several decades now, those terms have been removed from educational materials teaching about beastmen, and proper examples have been added.”
So that’s why I hadn’t heard any talk of survival of the fittest or winner-takes-all before coming here.
“So that means the ideologies spreading in the slums aren’t legitimate at all?”
“You can’t expect much from an illegitimate ideology.”
Brassner lamented.
“The funniest part is that this ideology started gaining traction right after the textbooks were revised. Even when correcting wrong thoughts, they seem to be insisting on reverting to the past beastmen way, claiming they want to go back to former glory. But there’s nothing glorious about that.”
…If we were to go back 500 years, we’d find only unfortunate immigrants who got their homes stripped away and fled.
“So, that means most beastmen society no longer follows survival of the fittest?”
Hearing this eased my mind a bit. I had been worried about an entire society being a lost cause, but if most were normal and only a few were extreme, then—
“No, saying it has completely disappeared would be a bit off.”
Brassner smiled for the first time today.
“Eh?”
I was caught off guard by his response when he shrugged a little and smiled.
“No matter how many years pass and we stop our nomadic lifestyle to settle down, it’s hard to fully shake off habits formed over hundreds of years. Even if we don’t directly fight anymore, remnants of hierarchy and elitism still remain. I don’t even think that I’ve completely escaped that ideology.”
…Oh, so maybe the reason he was sweating buckets when I walked in earlier could be related to how ingrained that ideology was in everyday life. The way his subordinate moved so briskly might also have been due to that.
And the fact that everything was functioning somehow means his subordinate perceived him as ‘the strong one.’
If hierarchy and elitism are strictly followed, it’s pretty easy for the members of that society to become rigid. But considering that beastmen believe “If someone has more ability, they will naturally assume a better position,” I wonder if they would even regard an incapable superior as one.
In a primitive society where everything was decided by individual physical ability, maybe that wouldn’t have been the case. In this much more complex modern society, however, ‘being strong’ isn’t only determined by physical capability. One must possess knowledge, connections, and wealth to be recognized as strong.
“I guess it’s true that the most popular sport is mixed martial arts; remnants of that era still linger.”
Saying that, Brassner finally got to take a break and enjoy a cup of coffee.
*
After that, we exchanged quite a bit of information. How much of the beastmen society consists of slums, how many radicalized individuals are grouping together, and if they knew, why they were tolerating that.
“The slums are widely spread throughout society. You can almost think of every dark part of urbanization as a slum. It’s hard to say the rural areas without development have become slum-like, but the outskirts of cities are a bit risky.”
That was the answer to “How many slums are there in the beastmen region?”
“But to help all those slums, we always lack budget and personnel. To be honest, if we’re just talking about simple food distribution or school fees support, we do have enough budget, but as you can see, the slums currently undergoing decline are quite exclusive to outsiders. 20 years ago, they were ready to accept help from the Church.”
And this was the answer to “Why is there insufficient support for the slums?”
Surprisingly, I realized that the reason I was alienated wasn’t just that I was associated with the “Church.”
“Yes, that’s right. It’s not because of ‘the Church,’ but because of ‘the civilization of human society.’ Surprising, right?”
…I think I’m starting to understand why this man’s head is so empty. And now I know why his subordinate was so speedy. Honestly, if my boss worked that hard, to the point of losing hair because of stress, I’d respect him too. And if he quit before finishing his work, it would become my responsibility.
To protect my hair, I’d have to work hard and hope that my boss solves things before he quits.
“But didn’t those people live in houses made with modern technology?”
At least from what I saw, they weren’t log cabins or huts, but proper concrete or brick houses.
“If you expect too much from an illogical ideology, you’ll be in trouble. If it were that simple to persuade them, we’d have resolved it long ago.”
Brassner smiled bitterly before speaking seriously.
“However, among all those slums, the area where the Saintess is currently volunteering is particularly severe. It’s not that the Church isn’t popular in beastmen society; I believe it’s not completely impossible to establish a Church. In fact, while some slums dislike the Church, it’s common to receive food regularly.”
Hmm. That’s definitely a thought-provoking topic.
“As for whether radicalized individuals are grouping together, discussions still vary. Personally, I don’t think they are officially forming groups yet, but some worry that they might already be underground.”
…Honestly, it seems unlikely that I can resolve this in a week.
At first, I thought, ‘Oh, then maybe I can resolve it with the aid of a cooperative local government?’ but the more I listened, the more it felt like “The local government can’t handle this problem.”
Well, wanting to solve a deeply rooted societal issue in just one week is a little unreasonable.
“Then can I ask one last thing?”
“Yes, go ahead.”
Seeing Brassner nod at my question, I gathered my resolve for the final one.
“I’ve thought that the reason beastmen don’t mix with human society is due to ideology… But after hearing all this, why don’t they merge with humans?”
That could sound rude, but Brassner responded with a gentle smile.
“Your assumption isn’t entirely wrong. After the beastmen initially arrived here, there were some who still wanted to continue their nomadic lifestyle, while others tried to absorb human society. Naturally, there were conflicts with the surrounding areas. If you dive deeper, it might be partly because they were judged or discriminated against by their different appearances.”
Ugh, the uncomfortable subject resurfaced.
“However, it was never just a one-sided discrimination by humans, as the central government claims. Cultural clashes are too vast and complicated to be compressed into a catchphrase. There were humans who tried to communicate, and there were beastmen who refused to interact. We only started fully adopting human technology and culture around 300 years ago.”
So the adoption and advancement of modern science came after the major compromise.
“Even in rural areas, some groups still maintain a nomadic lifestyle, making it challenging to fully blend into human society. Above all, there are those who love the leisurely traditions rather than the advancement of urban life.”
“…It might have been a rude question, but thank you for your answer.”
As I bowed my head, Brassner hurriedly waved his hands.
“Oh no! Those kinds of questions are where relationships start to build. I’m actually happy to receive such inquiries.”
“Then I’m relieved.”
As I said that, I could finally let out a sigh of relief.
To be honest, with a local government functioning this well, I was starting to wonder if I really needed to intervene. Wouldn’t my involvement only complicate matters, given my lack of knowledge?
As I thought that, preparing to leave,—
“Oh, are you going to meet with the local government representatives now?”
Brassner suddenly stood up, asking a rather random question.
“…Huh?”
I repeated his unexpected question in confusion, and Brassner looked bewildered as well.
“Weren’t you here to meet the representative to discuss the welfare of the area?”
As I looked at him in disbelief, he started to sweat again.
“Uh… I was just here to hear about the slums, though…”
“Ah…”
Brassner’s face was slowly turning red again, and he spoke hurriedly, wiping the sweat rolling down his brow.
“Sorry, but I thought the Saintess was coming to meet with the representative to discuss that area’s welfare. I had told the representative, who’s on leave, about your visit…”
“…Huh?”
I was caught in a loop of confusion, looking at him as he spoke in a small voice.
“Well, this is the first instance of the Saintess making direct contact with the government, after all. I thought it had to be done properly…”
…Oh.
That means, with the Saintess storming into the local government office, it has been made into a very, very ‘official’ visit.
By the way, Jane, who had brought me here and created this situation, had been dozing off the whole time, sipping her coffee.
Sleeping after drinking coffee? Quite a talent she has.
I might just make the local newspaper as ‘the envoy who brought the Saintess.’
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