Parnam, the Capital City of the Elfrieden Kingdom.
In a government affairs room at Parnam Castle, I heard the latest report about the food problem from Hakuya.
「Based on the documents, the autumn harvest is satisfactorily within our expectations. Furthermore, owing to the transportation network that Your Majesty had laid out, the number of people and amount of traffic has increased, and goods started to flow to the entire nation from the surplus regions. Of course, this also include foodstuffs. With this, we may consider that from this time on, the food problem has been resolved, more or less.」(Hakuya)
「Then, this is good news. It is worthy that our hard work has led to this result.」(Souma)
It has been a longtime, but with this, I can finally take a breather. Because I had been dealing with this problem most of the time, I personally have a very deep emotional attachment to it. However,
「Yes. With this, we could be at ease to proceed to “the next stage”.」(Hakuya)
While ignoring my sentimental time, Hakuya spoke out.
The next stage, right?
「As expected…… We must do it, right?」(Souma)
「Do you feel reluctant?」(Hakuya)
「Well, you know. Even though I know this is something necessary, but……」(Souma)
Yes. This is necessary.
The political thinker Machiavelli had said in the 『De Principatibus』:
『If a Ruler has a hand in a cruel act, even during a in time of peace, then it would put his position in jeopardy. However, even when some Rulers didn’t restrain themselves from cruelty, there aren’t any rebellions among his subjects or attacks by foreign enemies. This is because of a difference in whether a Ruler’s usage of cruelty is well-used or poorly-used.』
『A skilled person would immediately act cruel when a danger to him had arrived. After he used it, he would decisively abandon the cruel act and thereafter returned to the governing manner that was in accordance to the public interest as much as possible. Then, he will be called a wise Ruler. If conversely, he struck the root of evil in the beginning, and afterwards dragged it on and the cruel acts were used repeatedly, then this would be an unskilled usage of cruelty.』[5]
(Excerpt of De Principatibus Chapter VIII. Especially Parable of Agathocles)
Because of this sentence, Machiavelli’s 『De Principatibus』 had been long criticized by the Christian Church and humanitarians. It recommended the Ruler to employ “Cruel Acts”. Certainly, if someone had read this at first glance, then they would say that this was a tremendously terrible thing. Love and Peace. Besides, wouldn’t it all be better if everything resolved with Love? However, things didn’t happen that way in the Real World. If someone remembered this fact and then read that sentence again, then they would understand how Machiavelli’s ideas conformed to reality more.