Chapter 334: 265. Sign of a good ruler.
The next day before the official print of Sky Times, John was thinking deeply as he read Glenn"s report after Ealdron took a small interview of Plato.
John then looked at Quill and Taylor and asked them, "What do you guys think about this interview?"
Quill sighed as he read the Interview and spoke, "Ealdron was quite naive when he took this interview. He tried to goad the experienced Plato but instead got played by him for his lousy performance."
Taylor too nodded and spoke, "It is still ok since publis.h.i.+ng is still a very new business and he can only learn with time and experience. I suggest that we should completely censor this interview and only keep it in our archives for future purposes."
Quill had no opinions on censoring this news and only expressed neutrality on the matter.
After hearing their answers, John thought a bit and spoke, "No, it would be counter-productive for the peace deal if we censor this news report. I am sure that Plato has already communicated about this interview to his emba.s.sy and then to their Imperial Palace."
John continued as he seriously looked at the report, "Us censoring this news report may be interpreted by Aelius that we are only making fake promises and this may become problematic for completing the deal."
Quill who still had some questions regarding the asked John, "Milord, I still wonder why we didn"t go for a complete fight against Aelius? I think we had quite the weapon superiority which we have in stock."
John shook his head and spoke, "Have you considered Aelius deploying their Dragon Knights or the Whole Magic Swordsman squad against us in Anger? In a battle between two equals, both parties will get destroyed and it is better to avoid open warfare. This would have also revealed many of our hidden capabilities that will only be deployed in times of crisis."
John continued, "The very reason Plato offered peace to us was because he was already sensing defeat from the demons and dwarven side if they continued to battle us. If both of them i.e. Demons and Dwarves joined the fray then we would have been embroiled in a long war with Aelius, Demons and Dwarves. This whole region would be in chaos which is against our plans."
"In the worst-case scenario, Aelius would have diverted their troops from the beastman border to our border where I am quite certain that they would have started using the Dragon Knights to bombard us. So peace on our terms was quite a good offer. When offered an opportunity, One must know to grab it at the right time during times of war."
Quill nodded as Taylor asked another question, "Milord, was it really necessary to give up the occupied territories back to Aelius? I am sure that you know that Eastern Port Town under Mendez is quite a gold mine now due to increased trading with our domain."
John smiled and spoke after hearing out Taylor, "As for why I am ceding the occupied territories? It is to hide our future ambitions. Our enemies will currently have an illusion that I am a naive new king who only thinks of virtue and Ideals. Well, this will also be good for my image-building for propaganda. Ceding occupied territories has 2 main motives,
1. The common populace of Dolores and its Eastern Port will have less or not bear animosity towards Sky.
2. In the Long term, after looking at the progress and the well-being of all the cities of Sky, they will subconsciously think that it would have been better if they were ruled by me. Suppose Even if I occupied them right now. We would have faced insurgencies for at least 6 months to bring the situation under control with many lives lost. We would have also born the animosity of the whole of Aelius regardless of regions. The next time our enemies attack the naive me, we will be able to sweep a lot of land with fewer problems from the local populace."
John continued as he emphasized this point, "You must understand that till the enemy"s weakness is known, we have to keep them on friendly terms. The enemy should not know our weaknesses but we should know all of our enemy"s weaknesses."
"We might think that Lionheart is a fool but he isn"t. He is as smooth as a chameleon. Many a time, he tries to hide his schemes behind the facade of his son Hector. This fact alone can be judged by the courtiers he has like Plato, Ha.s.se and Joel. The intelligence of a ruler can be estimated by observing the men he has around him and these men aren"t fools to follow him. Lionheart is just good at manipulating people to do his bidding. I am sure that you guys know about Prince Lukav"s situation on how he goaded his mother?"
Quill and Taylor both nodded as they tried understanding their enemy from John"s perspective.
Looking that both of them were keenly listening, John continued speaking, "Remember this, Faults of the people spring from the faults of their rulers. However, the Rulers can never be wrong and hence the irony and the need to tackle it. History has proven that One who is a slave of the senses will get destroyed even if he has a bigger army. And hence the reason I always strive for Trust but verify against all the adversaries whether internal or external."
John then asked them a question, "Suppose if Sky was very weak against invasions-, how do you think we should have behaved and interacted against our enemies?"
Quill smiled and spoke, "Answer is obvious Milord, If we were weaker then we should show our fake fangs even if we know that it can"t do anything to our enemies because it will at least buy us more time to prepare ourselves."
John nodded and spoke after hearing Quill, "Yes, Even If a snake is not poisonous, it should pretend to be poisonous. When one is weak he should pretend to be strong and when one is strong he should pretend to be weak to hide his intentions till the right time."
Quill had been pondering for a lot of time and spoke, "Milord, What do you think is the sign of a good ruler?"
John thought for a while and spoke, "What is a good ruler? It is quite a broad question. A ruler should neither be nice neither should he be hated due to excessively cruel punishments. He should be someone who is always thinking about the interests of his country. A ruler must be feared as well as benevolent so that people can recognize what is right and what is wrong in nature i.e. People should be able to distinguish why is someone rewarded or punished."
Quill nodded and spoke, "Your Majesty, how do we deal with Bryndyll and Fire-abyss in the long run."
John nodded a bit and spoke, "Border countries are intrinsically hostile in nature due to small conflicts of interests acc.u.mulating leading to war and hence our conflicts with border countries are inevitable. I either see a conflict between Bluesea Duchy and Fireabyss or Aelius and Fireabyss except Bluesea Duchy against Bluesea first and then Sky. The only chance Border conflicts won"t occur will be due to a Hegemon country being so big that no one will dare to challenge it while the hegemon won"t even give them a glance due to how small other countries are."
John sighed first then smiled and continued, "The world is like a jungle where predators rule it. It is an anarchic place as all the countries are sovereign in nature and have their own laws to govern them. It is either you conquer or get conquered and that is why we must be prepared at all times. Don"t think that just because we signed the peace deal it would be honored. Agreements are bound to be broken and the illusion of peace is just to continue to prepare for the next war. In short, most of the time peace is a facade imposed due to the immeasurable costs of war. When one side can"t bear the costs, it will inevitably choose to negotiate."
John continued and asked, "By the way, what do you guys think of Plato?"
It was Taylor who replied, "Cunning, Capable, and a good schemer. An a.s.set for any country for Identifying, controlling and eliminating any Internal as well as External elements which are a risk to the state."
John too nodded and spoke, "I want to bring Plato over here? What do you guys think?"
Quill had a serious face as he spoke, "It would be quite difficult to move him. He cant be moved by money as he has a lot of honor about his past work. He can only be conquered or if there is a certain situation in Aelius where he has no choice but to accept our offer. So it is not in our hands. If Lionheart dies then we can fish him out."
Both John and Taylor agreed with Quill"s a.n.a.lysis so they could only put this matter for future consideration.
At this time, Grey knocked on their door and bought some news.
John looked at Gray who was perspiring and asked, "What is the matter that you had run here?"
Grey took out a report as he gave it to John and spoke, "Your Majesty, it looks like there were some sleeper cells of the Radiant Church who helped Angel Leo and others to get inside the city when they were entering through the main gate."
John furrowed his brows and spoke, "Is it possible that they were manipulated by Leo and others?"
Grey took out another report and spoke, "This is background report of those guys who helped them enter North-frontier City. It can be seen that these guys changed their names before they joined the Sky. At that time, due to a high number of people joining Sky, we only conducted a basic investigation due to the shortage of people. It was only after yesterday"s incident that we started conducting a complete investigation on the persons who interacted with Angel Leo and others. And it is these 3 people who helped them entering the city and according to our investigations, we are sure that these people are the spies sent by the Radiant Church. We also found one long-distance Magic communication device in their home. I am sure that we aren"t selling it in the open market for now and it is quite expensive even for a baron while they said that they were farmers when they first joined us. They don"t own any business as well so as to afford it in the black market. According to people, they don"t interact with people apart from humans and this is the most striking factor which made us notice them."
John, Quill and Taylor had cold and angry faces as they heard the report.
Taylor smiled and spoke to Quill, "It seems we really need to root them out. Go and arrest them. Start their trial as fast as possible to meet out punishments."
Hearing Taylor, Quill then smiled and spoke, "Do we really need to use the Law enforcement in front of such an amount of evidence and waste the state resources on them. Why don"t we use the ghosts this time around? Who knows we may shake the other spies that may ask the Law enforcement to find them? With this, we can build a bigger case and catch all of them in one go."
Grey had a chill behind his back when he heard Quill but kept his calm.
John thought a bit as he nodded and spoke, "Yes, it is better this way. Quill go and call Dearil. Tell him that we need a complete background check on these 3 individuals before we proceed with our plans."
John then turned to Grey and spoke, "Good Job, tell the team that found about these guys that they will be promoted for this achievement. I will be personally visiting NSB in a few days."
Grey nodded and spoke, "I will take my leave and relay them the good news."
After Grey left, John then turned to Quill and Taylor, "So it is decided, No need to censor the news. Since we got played by Plato, we might very well let him play for a while. Relay the same to Glenn."