After that, King Soma would settle their food problems, purge the rebellious Three Dukes, and invaded back the Principality of Amidonia that used the gap to invade them, and occupied their capital Vannes. He was a young man who was about the same as Maria in age but was able to do this in such a short time. He was an outstanding talent she would’ve wanted even if he weren’t a hero. In truth, rather than Julius who just did whatever he likes, she would rather tie a bond of friendship with King Soma, but because of the prior incident of the Empire demanding his person, friendly relations seemed hopeless. “However,” Maria said, not abandoning her hope.
“Based on what I hear, I think Lord Soma is a person who would listen to reason”
“Really? I think that you and him would get along like oil and water, though, Elder Sis …”
Jeanne, however, contradicted her opinion. Through all the reports that she heard about Soma, she can’t help but feel that he would be Maria’s opponent in the game. If in the face of the Demon Race invasion, Maria would call for humanity to band together, Soma would’ve thought to make his own country stand on their own two feet. Also, where Maria would respect the laws and conventions even in hard times, conducting things with empress-like reasoning, and be rendered immobile, Soma would consider royal authority, Three Dukes, laws, and conventions as mere tools and select them based on his sensibilities of “if it can be used I’ll use it, if not I’ll throw it away”.
Maria who moves on reasoning and Soma who moves on senses⁴. In other words, the idealist Maria and realist Soma⁵. Jeanne thought that the two could never possibly understand each other.
⁴ «TN: i.e. Maria does things based on how she thinks they should be, while Soma does so based on how he sees things are»
⁵ In this case, the moral philosophical term naturalism is more pertinent, but to distinguish them would make things unnecessarily obscure so I made it realism to match its counterpart idealism.
“I think the two of you would be facing in the exact opposite directions …”
So Jeanne said. Maria had a blank look for a moment but then smiled.
“My, if we’re both looking in opposite directions, then that means we won’t have any blind spots, doesn’t it?”
Saying that with an impish smile, Maria looked sweet even to her sister Jeanne.
«TN: ugh, I’m getting the urge to play CK2 again >.