Vol 5. Chapter 29: Hall of Wisdom
The <Paraiso> force that had secured the upper leadership of the Royal Capital of the United Kingdom of Aphrasia—and their military power—moved on to the next step toward complete control.
First, for public order, they introduced the bipedal Security Machine Sheriffs, which they had hardly used until now.
The reason they hadn’t used them was simple: they hadn’t needed to.
Every city they had placed under their rule so far was small in scale, and none of them possessed any serious military strength.
Because of that, they could grasp everything with nothing more than a few surveillance towers placed at random, and they could maintain public order by deploying Android Communicators appropriately.
But at the scale of a royal capital, they simply didn’t have enough hands.
“A managed society, huh.”
Seeing the scene, she murmured that.
From a torso about the size of something you could hold in your arms—housing the control apparatus—two reverse-jointed legs extended downward.
On the front, it had a single flexible arm with multiple joints, capable of extending and retracting, and on both sides it carried stun guns for riot control.
Sensors were concentrated on the top, with a simple flying drone attached as well.
Its height while walking was about 1.5 meters.
Roughly, about an adult’s shoulder height.
One unit had the processing capability to monitor and suppress the surrounding area out to several hundred meters.
Of course, that came with the proviso: against unarmed civilians.
And now, these Security Machine Sheriffs were trudging along the main streets while accompanying Android Communicators.
With unknown things like this moving around, foot traffic was sparse.
“We are adjusting things so information will spread throughout within a few days.”
From the spy network that had already penetrated, they had already identified influential figures with strong reach.
Toward people who served as hubs for such information, Android Communicators were directly providing explanations—and depending on the case, persuasion.
Once information spread, the Android Communicators would be withdrawn one by one.
“Food transport has also resumed. We will likely be able to lift martial law at the same time.”
“We’re increasing Android Communicator production too, but letting locals handle it is the easiest, you know.”
They had secured the administration, but they wanted to gradually reduce the personnel dispatched from <Paraiso>.
In the end, the ideal was a city—and a nation—running on nothing more than directives issued to the top.
To do that, controlling hearts and minds was essential.
“Even so, the Royal Capital didn’t have as much population as I expected.”
“With this civilization level, I estimate that is reasonable. Fundamentally, it depends on food production volume.”
The food-production region of the United Kingdom of Aphrasia was primarily Wheat Hill City, located south of the Royal Capital.
With a vast lake nearby where large quantities of small fish could be caught, it was a city that produced wheat using fish fertilizer.
Incidentally, because only small fish lived in the lake, it seemed the use of fish meat had not progressed.
The amount of small fish that could be landed was fixed to a certain degree, and from that, the amount of wheat that could be produced would decrease at times, but would almost never increase.
Most of the territory of the United Kingdom of Aphrasia was wasteland, and even if they wanted to increase farmland, plants simply wouldn’t grow there in the first place.
“If we added chemical fertilizer, we could boost it all at once, though.”
“If we use the slum {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} residents as labor, it should be possible.”
With large civil-engineering heavy equipment, production could be expanded quickly and on a large scale, but even if they produced a massive amount of wheat, there wasn’t any particular use for it.
If so, it would be better to use <Paraiso> resources as little as possible and have locals do the work.
“Well, handle that however you like. How’s the Royal Capital suburban base coming along?”
In the end, <The Tree> conquered the United Kingdom of Aphrasia so it could develop freely without worrying about interference.
For the time being, the task was to construct a large hub base on the outskirts of the Royal Capital of Aphrasia, located almost in the center of the country.
“Yes-affirmative, Commander Ma’am. The planned airlift of heavy equipment is already complete. Runway preparation will be within forty-eight hours. That Wyvern has already been brought into a simple warehouse.”
“I heard it caused an uproar in the Royal Capital, but what was it actually like?”
They recovered the crashed Wyvern and airlifted it to the Royal Capital suburban base, and its form was, naturally, fully visible from the Royal Capital.
So she had only heard a report that it caused quite a commotion, but—
“Yes-affirmative, Commander Ma’am. Because the buildings are low in height, it appears it was observed from nearly the entire area. Discourse spreading through the city largely took the line that, of course you can’t beat a power that can bring down something like that, so the intimidation effect was outstanding.”
“Yeah, I mean... fine.”
Right after the Royal Capital was seized, an I-class Strategic AI <Ginkgo> was installed for surrounding-area management.
Controlling a base more than two thousand kilometers away from <The Tree> by remote operation had losses that were simply too large.
Even Fortress No. 2 Black Iron could not fully perform due to lag issues.
Well, in that case, it was also because they had not prepared a fixed Strategic AI, since it was being used for various technical verification purposes such as remote control.
And <Ginkgo>, as part of maintaining public order in the Royal Capital, had held an easy-to-understand event.
It publicized that a power capable of defeating even the legendary Dragon (Rumored) had completely occupied this United Kingdom of Aphrasia.
“Know-how for governing locals is accumulating smoothly. Going forward, we should deploy I-class units as governance AIs.”
“Yeah. Utsugi and Erika are starting to come along nicely too, so maybe we can run independent detachments soon.”
◇◇◇◇
It was a solemn lecture hall constructed in just a single day.
Its exterior and its interior were both unified in a dazzling white, and intricate geometric patterns covered the surface.
The dome-shaped building maintained a perfect circular form, and none of the citizens had ever seen a building so precise.
“Th-this is...”
And gathered before that lecture hall were the dukes who represented the Royal Capital of Aphrasia.
Powerful elders who had steered the nation for many years stood surrounded by heavily armed Android Communicators, staring up at the hall.
“From here on, our directives will be given inside this hall. Once every three days, you will visit here without fail. If there are no specific instructions, you will continue doing this. If there are no problems, we will leave behind only the minimum personnel and withdraw from this Royal Capital.”
“......”
Even with that explained, they had no real way to respond.
“As I believe you have already felt, if you do not resist, we will not treat you harshly. If there are supplies you lack, we will provide them. Just understand this one thing: you will no longer be able to move as you please, as you did before.”
Up to now, those dukes had not avoided resistance. Looking for openings—and sometimes head-on—they had resisted, trying to break <Paraiso>’s rule.
But none of those attempts succeeded.
Despite resisting with everything they had, <Paraiso> had neutralized them with ease.
That said, it was only because of overwhelming force.
There was no doubt that <Paraiso> was expending significant effort on the Royal Capital of Aphrasia.
And the dukes understood that suppressing them by force forever would also be difficult.
That was why absolute obedience was being demanded of the dukes.
“Now then, inside. Entering will be the three of you dukes, and... yes. Up to two attendants will be permitted.”
And so, the nine selected individuals stood before the hall’s main doors.
“Inside, follow the instructions. We will wait outside.”
Before their eyes, the doors slowly slid open to the left and right. Once they had opened fully, the nine entered hesitantly.
The moment their feet crossed the threshold, lights turned on in the floor.
They formed a straight line—a guide—leading toward something like an altar installed at the center.
“...We don’t have a choice but to go.”
The interior was filled with cool air.
As the group began to move, the doors behind them slowly closed.
Before long, they arrived at the center of the hall.
With a bzz, a massive image appeared before them.
It was an icon bearing the motif <Paraiso> used: the profile of a woman with fox ears.
‘Welcome, the dukes’ party.’
A voice echoed through the hall.
‘From now on, I will conduct dialogue with you as <Yuimaia=Ginkgo>.
My mission is to guide you.
And to bring peace to this United Kingdom of Aphrasia.
Once every three days, the doors will open.
Please be at ease.
We desire your prosperity.’