Polymath Redux – Chapter 34

Polymath Redux – That one day this nation will rise up!
Chapter XXXIV

“There can be no such thing! Those malignant bastards must not be given more power!”

Hook, line and sinker.

All eyes had turned towards the Grand Cardinal, Lazzaro Zeder who had stepped out of the crowds to violently voice his objections. His unsightly intentions of full display which was unbecoming of him; however the one most annoyed was the king whose authority had been overstepped by the Grand Cardinal’s sudden outbreak. Even though it was a tough decision it was the king’s to make, not the Grand Cardinal’s.

“Grand Cardinal Lazzaro Zeder, it is not your place to speak out.”

The king glared at him with an intense stare from up above his throne. With merely a single look the unsightly Grand Cardinal had turned into a meek puppy. Cold sweat ran through his back as he just noticed that everyone else’s glares were on him too.

“Your majesty, if I may interject. Though it may not have been the Grand Cardinal’s place to speak out I do believe his opinions should also be taken into consideration. In fact I believe if anyone has any objections they want to make they should speak out now as this is a decision that requires unanimous support in order for it to work.”

Morgana spoke out, though it may have seemed as though she had just saved him from being reprimanded it was far from the case. There were three reasons why Morgana had chosen to defend the Grand Cardinal, the first reason was that it was necessary to identify the parties that were opposed to a human-demon collaboration. It was a well known fact that most of the nobles weren’t fond of the demons but it was a good idea to see just how many were in opposition. Allowing the situation to turn into an open forum discussion was the best follow up to achieve this.

The second reason was that it was necessary to dispel the discrimination that these people had with the demon race. Most of them despised them due to systematic reasons; because they had been raised to believe so. The notion that hearts and minds wouldn’t change overnight applied because those people haven’t experienced it firsthand. So what happens when there was a war right in front of your doorstep and the people you thought you hated came to your defense? Would you still hate them? Wouldn’t that only make you look petty if you still kept that firm belief of hatred?

Right now was the perfect opportunity to shut down all arguments against the demon race and thus slowly eliminating the discrimination.

The third reason was to help the king. Morgana’s proposal was indeed an extremely difficult one to accept, anyone could tell that was the case, so by turning this into an open forum and slowly changing the opinions of the nobles the king could easily make the decision to accept Morgana’s proposal without having him suffer any reputational damage, thereby increasing the king’s reliance on Morgana in the future.

The king nodded after some contemplation.

“Very well then, we shall turn this into an open forum discussion. All those against having the demon aid with the capital’s reconstruction speak your piece. All silence will be considered approval for Morgana’s proposal.”

The throne room once more descended into chatter before a minor noble came up to speak.

“Hiring demons would cost money, money that has gone into the purchasing of materials for the reconstruction. Though it may be slow, the reconstruction is proceeding in the most efficient manner in terms of cost.”

“Yes, but that is only if you take into consideration that we’ll still be putting money into our defenses. As I had proposed earlier the excess funds will come from diverting that money from defense into reconstruction. Should my proposal be acknowledged then the defense of the city will be handled by the siege golems which has numerous advantages over flesh and blood soldiers. For one they do not require rest and can operate on a perpetual schedule and secondly they will be far more effective against any potential invasion, and thirdly their detection rate is much better than that of an average soldier.”

Morgana spoke and shut down the argument of a no name noble as well as elevating the appeal of her own proposal. Several of the nobles on the sidelines who had kept quiet couldn’t help but nod at Morgana’s argument as their perspective were slowly shifting towards support.

“Then what of the matter of expertise? The architecture of the capital is complex, do you think those demons are capable of reconstructing these monumental buildings to a satisfactory degree?”

Another noble came up to speak out his piece. Of course Morgana already had a counter argument prepared for this as well.

“Allow me to ask, have you, no, have any of you stepped out of Solaris’ walls?”

There was a brief silence in the room as none of them understood what Morgana was trying to get at. Morgana continued to speak.

“It seems that you haven’t, then the next chance you get please go visit the places outside the city walls as well. They are not as shabby or inferior as you may have fooled yourselves into believing; the demons are not idiots they understand how architecture works and have built very impressive infrastructure over the years. The infrastructures within the walls are subjected to its protection but what of the buildings outside? They have been built to withstand the numerous hazardous elements of the outside and thus have stood the test of durability and complexity. Not only that but I have for the past week helped them rebuild as well as provide them with expertise on their infrastructure. I assure you all that they are quite capable, in fact I can even argue that they may be better than those who work inside the safety of the walls.”

Once again the room was filled with a tense silence. A high pitched stinging noise was the only thing that could be heard through the cold sweat going through the backs of those who were original in opposition. Slowly Morgana was starting win over more and more nobles onto the side of supporting.

“T-then what of morale? Though unfortunate many of the citizens from within the walls have a deep rooted hatred towards the demon kind. If they are suddenly forced to work together that could ruin the synergy and make the reconstruction take even longer!”

Another no name noble stepped forward.

“It is unfortunate that you do not trust your own countrymen’s capabilities.”

Morgana replied.

“What did you say?”

“Do you honestly believe that something like this would detract from being able to rebuild the capital? Synergy? I believe the soldiers and citizens have proved themselves that they can indeed work together perfectly when they were fighting off the monster invasion. So I asked you once more, what makes you so skeptical that you cannot trust your own countrymen’s capabilities?”

The noble tried to come up with counter arguments but ultimately couldn’t think of anything and stepped down. This was proof that their minds were quickly changing. Had the invasion not have taken place so close to home these people would have continued to argue against letting demons have more rights and power in the city, but they can’t now, because they saw it firsthand the figure of those demons who had received their scorn come to their rescue.

Not only that but a lot of the high ranking nobility were ‘removed’ during the invasion thus the arguments of no name nobility weren’t as potent as it could have been.

As the people’s minds were rapidly changing to the side of allowing the demons more freedom and power there was still one person who was vehemently against the proposal. Lazzaro Zeder once again stepped up to speak his mind.

“Enough of this, your majesty I implore you to consider. Those demons must not be given any more power than they have already been given. Have we all forgotten in whose hands the center continent was taken by? It was all at the hands of those malignant demons! Furthermore about this attack, even if we say it was done by the empire it does not change the fact that it was also those demons that attacked our fair capital, or am I wrong?”

Lazzaro spoke out with a satisfied look on his face. There were numerous murmurs of approval from various nobles which elevated Grand Cardinal’s pride even higher.

“How many…?”

Morgana voiced out weakly.

“Huh? What was that? Why don’t you speak up a little more?”

Lazzaro responded with an unbecoming grin on his face.

“Just how many demons had died in this invasion? In defense of this city? Those very beings who had received the church’s scorn for years and years, yet they still came to the aid of Solaris when it needed it most. They were not trained soldiers, nor were they any more powerful than you or I yet they still took arms to fight; fight for people like you and I. This cycle of systematic hatred and discrimination is losing its flavor, the demon kind has shown nothing but support and love for this city yet you still treat them as lesser beings because of some off land demon invasion?”

Morgana responded with equal passion. Mordred and Morgana, as different as they were starting to become, they were still the same person deep down. Thus she was unable to forgive this single man, this man known as the Grand Cardinal who had taken steps to harm her dear friend, Rena. She would crush him right here in his own domain.

“This is a matter of security and peace! Those demons may seem harmless now but I’m sure the same thing had happened in the center continent. People became too complacent with having demons crawl all around them that by the time they had realized that they were being invaded it was already too late! They have rightly done everything to deserve our scorn!”

Lazzaro spoke back with equal passion to which Morgana shook her head.

“Grand Cardinal… what I speak of is not about discrimination. This is about differentiation, please open your eyes, the demons here are not the same as the ones in the center continent. They are thinking, feeling and capable people like you and I; they have every right to live in peace as we do. I cannot stop you from discriminating against them nor am I here to speak out against such practices. That would be morally presumptuous of me, however I beseech you. If you want to continue to discriminate against them then at least have the courage to discriminate against their true character instead of the weak straw man propaganda you have created them out to be.”

Morgana’s words started to sink into the nobles standing in this room. Self-awareness starting to hit them, that the vision of demons that they had in their minds was indeed simply a straw man created out of fear. This attack clearly drew the lines that differentiated between savage demons and the demons the neutral demons that defended the capital.

The king who had sat in deep contemplation as he looked towards his noble subjects decided it was time to speak up. It was evident that there was no one else who was going to bring up any more opposition at this current time and if he decided to accept Morgana’s proposal at this moment his support from the faltering nobility will not be lost.

The only exception was the Grand Cardinal himself who stood quietly at the back fuming with anger. Most likely whatever was said to him it would not change his mind; he was a lost cause.

The king raised his voice.

“I have understood each and everyone one of your opinions and have come to a decision. However before I speak out the verdict if you have any closing words to add it is time to do so now.”

The king glanced towards Morgana; it was a signal asking for a coup de grace on this argument. To once and for all end the discussion in her favor. Morgana gave a small nod to imply she had understood his intentions and spoke up the final words.

“Your majesty, in closing I would like to speak my mind freely, that I would like for everyone in this city to hear.”

Morgana asked.

“You have my permission.”

The king nodded, not particularly understanding what she meant by having everyone in the city hear. Morgana took out a small item from her [inventory], it was the cash item [Megaphone] that took the shape of a microphone. With this her speech would be told to everyone, though in truth it was not her original speech.

“To everyone here, I have a dream… that one day this nation will rise up and live out to the notion that ‘we are all created equal, be it man, demon or any other race’.

I have dream that one day throughout all of Solaris the sons of demons and sons of humans will all be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even through to the Baliazoural empire, a state sweltering with injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice after it had been shown the way by the great country of Xagontetia.

I have a dream that my friends of the demon kind can live in a nation where they will be not judged by the color of their skin, their appearance but by the content of their character.
I have a dream that one day every valley shall be made exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight.

This is our hope, and this is the faith that I wish all to hope for as we continue to live our lives. Through harmony and synergy this nation will be made strong and I hope that in time people will see the true value of understanding and acceptance.”

After Morgana’s speech so filled with passion, there was no one who was able to speak out against the proposal and the king had delegated all of the city’s defenses to Morgana. Not only that but she was granted the nobility of dukedom and had become the new minister of defense. That was the official side of it but in actuality Morgana had instantly gained a vast majority of support from the people who had heard her speech, even more so than the king himself.

Irina was also promoted to OMEGA rank adventurer in recognition for her efforts in the defense of the city. Full support from the adventurer’s guild was to be given to Irina whenever she required it.

Most of the mystery of the new minister of defense, Morgana Daltress was left unsolved. However as the people’s hearts were captured so readily all official investigations were dropped and the king had decided to trust her character.

Like this the city had returned to a state of normalcy after a few days and as Morgana had predicted the reconstruction of the city with the help of the demons and excess soldiers had sped up the process by many folds. The city’s defenses were all left to Morgana’s siege golems making it many times impregnable than before.

The opinions and status of the demons throughout the city was also raised as many people had started to understand them. The country was slowly shifting towards unison and harmony.

However it was only after the conference was over that the true battle between the Shadow Organization and the Elusive Puppet Master was about to begin. And in the midst of this the true hero of Xagontetia would be found as the holy sword was pulled out from the Hero’s Sanctuary.