The Song of a Little Ghost, page 8
part #6 of The Silent Assassin Series
He pulled out a dagger and blocked her strike.
The maid’s expression turned to shock.
“Don’t give me that, the surprise is on me,” Audi said in monotone. “I thought maids are supposed to be trained in tea pouring and dust cleaning, not armed close quarter combat.”
Dina stepped back and kept her fighting posture. “Do you know what Lèse-Majesté is, commoner?”
“The French for ‘hurting someone great’,” the boy replied. “A set of laws that prohibits harm to the Royal Family; verbal, physical, or otherwise.”
“So you do know the punishment for failing to adhere to Lèse-Majesté law.”
Audi shrugged a shoulder. “A minor scolding by a maid?”
“Five years imprisonment and a fine of five hundred thousand Weymars!” Dina yelled. “If you physically harm a royalty member, it’s death penalty!”
“But I was doing no such thing,” the boy replied. “If not kneeling in her presence is considered breaching the law, then you and that maid over there should also be executed. Neither of you are kneeling now.”
Dina gritted her teeth and swung her baton at him.
“Enough!” Victoria shouted.
The maid’s swing stopped mid-air.
Princess Victoria walked towards Audi and stopped in front of him. She looked in silence for several seconds. “Everyone, rise and carry on,” she raised a hand.
Bryant, Matthew, and police officers in the lobby stood up. The latter resumed their investigation work.
“You’re lucky it was me you’re facing,” Victoria said. “Had it been any other Royal Family member, you would’ve been thrown to jail immediately.”
The boy rolled his eyes. “What makes you different than the rest of the pack?”
“I abhor the unnecessary special treatment,” Victoria replied. “They might be part of our culture, but it is easily exploited by many to serve their agenda.”
“But the Royal Family should be unquestionably respected for The Crowned Confederacy to work,” Audi replied. “Your family’s role in governance is to act as the commoners’ guiding hands. The wisdom of those who were well-equipped with knowledge of statesmanship and access to impartial information.”
Victoria frowned her eyebrows. “Why are you suddenly defending the family? Didn’t you just refuse to kneel before me?”
“I don’t refuse for the sake of acting rebellious, Your Imperial Highness,” the boy replied. “But the current ruling generation is pretty bad at doing their job. How can you let the Terran parliament do whatever the hell they want with laws and regulations?” he paused. “Relaxing labour and corporate laws, for example.”
The princess kept silent.
“I mean, fine, it’s what most people want. Freedom. Liberty. The right to do what they want without being barred and restricted by rules and obstacles,” the boy crossed his arms. “By that logic, however, criminal law is also an obstacle to freedom. The freedom to commit whatever crime we want. Is that an attack on liberty?”
“Listen,” Victoria frowned. “Do you think I like the present state of The Crowned Confederacy more than you do? Do you think I’ve done nothing to try preventing the senators’ reckless attempt at deregulating our society and economy?”
Audi kept listening.
“I wanted to! I would die to do so!” she cried. “But I’m just a 19-year-old princess without a solid voice! People don’t trust me as much as they do my older cousins! How am I supposed to fight off the governing elite of the Civilian Sector on my own?”
The boy raised both eyebrows.
“Nothing has worked in my favour so far. They all treat me like a doll, a princess who exists only as a decoration—“
“Princess,” Dina grasped her shoulders. “That’s enough. Everyone is looking.”
Victoria turned to Dina. “I…I’m sorry. But I just…”
The maid looked at the boy. “Listen, you commoner,” she said. “It might be easy to treat the Royal Family as a lump of posh creatures whose lives are centred on luxury and party, but it is a complex institution,” she paused. “Princess Victoria is not a simpleton you think she is. Princess Victoria is the only one who can save The Crowned Confederacy from tearing apart into a tyrannical oligarch state.”
Audi glanced sideways.
“So watch your mouth and act,” Dina pulled Victoria and nudged her away from Audi.
“For she’s suffered enough from the cruelties this world has imposed upon her.”
The Princess and her two maids entered the lift and disappeared from the boy’s sight. Matthew and Bryant stared at him and shook their head in simultaneity.
“You’re brave and screwed up,” Bryant chuckled. “To confront a royalty like that. Which shithole of a planet did you grow up in?”
“Vurste,” the boy replied in monotone.
Bryant paused. “That is actually one shithole place of a world. Sorry for asking, buddy.”
Audi turned to the huge red-head. “Why is the Princess here? She has no business showing up in this company, moreover without Order of the Nightingales escorting her.”
Matthew shook his head. “You don’t do your research, do you?”
“What?”
He took his UFX-PDA out of pocket and displayed Simonovsky Tech’s profile page. “Here,” Matthew clicked on a page listing company directors and pointed at a name. “Familiar?”
HER IMPERIAL HIGHNESS
PRINCESS VICTORIA SCYTHE TANUYA
Audit Committee
“You’re kidding,” Audi’s eyes widened. “A young brat like her? Audit committee?”
“There, you casually denigrated her again,” Bryant chuckled.
The boy crossed his arms.
“Remember, the Princess has undergone a spartan education system designed specifically for Royalty members. It’s safe to say that the dumbest royalty is at least as knowledgeable as the brightest student in a normal high school,” Bryant tapped on the princess’s photo. “The only thing that can ruin a Royal Family’s rule is greed, not incompetence.”
“Must be one hell of a greedy generation the current rulers are then,” the boy shook his head. “It’s not like she’s the first royal family member I’ve ever met.”
“Oh? You’ve met another?”
“Doesn’t matter,” Audi shook his head. “We need to focus on planning our defence against Petit Fantome. If we have a lot of people attending the event, then this might turn into a bloodbath—“
The boy paused.
“What happened?” Bryant asked.
Audi glanced at Matthew. “That list you showed me earlier,” his voice stiffened. “Wasn’t that the list of the Board of Directors?”
“Didn’t you read the title?” Matthew replied.
“One where the Princess’s name is listed?”
He nodded.
Audi clenched his fists and marched forward. “Fuck!”
“Wow,” Bryant chased after him. “Calm down, buddy. What’s on your mind?”
“Calm down?” Audi yelled without looking back. “The Princess is a member of the Board!”
“That means she’s in Petit Fantome’s kill list!”
Chapter 2 / Part 5
Hundreds of businesspeople and reporters gathered in a conference hall brightened with theatre spotlight. They carried an electronic pamphlet with the names of Entrepreneur of the Year Award nominees. On a far corner of the hall, a group of security guards clustered for a meeting. Audi, Bryant, and Matthew stood in their midst.
The bandana boy looked at a guard. “Did you install the devices in places I specified last night?”
“Each and every one of them,” the guard nodded. “Even if Petit Fantome’s suit comes with an optical stealth unit, the laser detector is sensitive enough to detect the slightest photon stream deviation. She won’t heave a breath without the entire building knowing.”
“Excellent,” the boy turned to Bryant and Matthew. “Both of you, stand guard on the exterior of this building. They might try to divert your attention by using a frontal assault like before,” he said. “Are you prepared to fend them off with minimal amount of reinforcement?”
“Affirmative, bandana boy,” Bryant thumped his chest. “This place is a fortress even the strongest tank won’t be able to punch through.”
Audi sighed. “You’ve never learned war history, have you?” he cleared his throat. “Now man your posts. I will stay inside this hall in case the worst happens—”
Princess Victoria entered the hall with her two maids.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” the boy gritted his teeth. “Here, of all places?”
He shoved away the guards blocking his way and strode through the conference hall. The Princess caught a sight of him and waved slightly with a smile. Dina frowned.
“What on Terra are you doing here, Princess?” Audi asked. “Have you any idea what’s about to happen?”
“I’ve briefed her the situation,” Ayu said. “But she insisted on coming to meet the award winners.”
The boy scratched his head like ticks infested it. “Are you not aware what Petit Fantome is capable of doing?” he whispered loud. “If my security measure fails, this room will turn into a battlefield.”
“Are you not confident with your defence plan?” Dina smirked. “So much for a cocky bastard like you.”
“Shut it, maid,” Audi frowned. “This is a matter of life and death. The Princess cannot be harmed even a little,” he paused. “Now get the hell out of here, all of you!”
“I shall not,” Victoria replied.
“What?”
“If I cower in the face of mere mercenaries, what would the people think of me?” she said. “You said it yourself, that the Royal Family must be respected by the people. Do you think they’ll respect me when they discover that I’m just a coward who runs away from the slightest bit of threat?”
“They’ll consider you sane for steering away from a full-on mercenary assault,” Audi sighed. “I beg you, Princess, please leave.”
She shook her head and walked past the boy.
“Don’t try to stop her, commoner,” Dina said. “Once the Princess is determined to do something, nothing anyone says will stop her.”
The boy turned to her. “As her guardian, aren’t you the least bit worried?” he asked. “She’s part of the Board of Directors, which means Petit Fantome will target her when given the chance!”
“Ayu and I will protect her.”
“You’re confident because you have yet to fight Petit Fantome.”
Dina kept silent.
“How about this,” the boy pointed to himself. “I will guard the princess, and both of you keep an escape route secure just in case matters turn south.”
Dina frowned. “And why should we trust her safety to a commoner like you?”
“Because I’m the one with contingency plans against them,” he replied.
“Neither of you would react fast enough if an attack begun.”
The Entrepreneur of the Year Award ceremony began with a speech from the committee head. He spoke the tale of his harsh childhood and subsequent upbringing that brought him into becoming a successful businessman, then he introduced a motivational speaker and had him share his theories of positive thinking and law of attraction.
Victoria watched the stage with a neutral expression from a seat in the middle row. The chair next to him was empty, but Audi came and sat with his arms crossed tight.
“Hi,” the princess smiled. “Where did Ayu and Dina go?”
“They’re helping me secure this place for your safety,” he replied. “For the meantime, you are my responsibility.”
“Ah,” she lowered her head. “I’m in your care, then.”
The boy kept silent.
“Can I have your name?” Victoria asked. “I’d like to be able to call you properly.”
“Audi Prabian,” he replied. “You’ll forget it after everything’s done.”
“I doubt so,” she replied. “I don’t forget people easily, which is a regrettable trait at times.”
The boy glanced at her. “What’s with the insistence of royalty to have permanent acquaintance with others? Your uncle is no different.”
“My uncle?” Victoria raised her eyebrows. “Which one?”
“The Grand Admiral,” he replied. “I’ve fought alongside him against Gleicherde’s rebellion.”
“You’ve never told me that you’re a soldier.”
“I’m not,” he shook his head. “I was just a tourist when the damned war erupted. Luckily, I know how to pull a gun’s trigger, so he had me help him.”
Victoria stared at him. “Uncle Evan is extremely difficult to impress,” she said. “Only someone with extraordinary skill could hope to make him glance at them.”
He shrugged his shoulders. “I helped him blow up a few things, but that’s about it,” the boy scanned around. “Oh look, there’s Roy Pakuan.”
Victoria turned the stage and caught a man in his fifties climbing up the stairway. He waved his hand and began his introductory speech. “Mr. Pakuan, one of the richest individual in Bandar Prime and the one responsible for changing Simonovsky Tech to his will.”
“Change?” the boy cocked an eyebrow.
The Princess put both hands on her lap. “The company might have boasted the word Tech in its name, but it now ceased to be a dedicated technological firm since its public offering to the stock market,” she said. “It is increasingly becoming a holding company: an investment entity whose operation involves purchasing stocks in different companies hoping to gain a maximum benefit out of it.”
“Hold on,” the boy said. “I thought the company is making some sort of climate technology. That’s what the CEO told me.”
“I purchased a majority stake in Simonovsky Tech to save the Climate Restoration Technology they are developing,” she continued. “Other shareholders and directors have seen it as a waste of investment for its inability to generate short-term income.”
“How true is this view?”
Victoria frowned. “It’s not wrong, but these investors are missing the point,” she bit her lip. “This technology could be The Crowned Confederacy’s salvation. By improving the climate of extreme planets, we could create habitable zones from areas previously considered too hazardous to live in. We could grow crops and build farms. We could build new centres of commerce. Jobs will be created. Economy will prosper.”
“But those would take years,” Audi asked. “Perhaps decades.”
“Exactly,” she nodded. “Simonovsky Tech is working for the long-haul, not for a monetised short-term benefit. These investors, however…they cannot be reasoned with.”
The boy shook his head. “It’s not that they lack rationality, Princess; it’s because they are highly rational that they rejected the notion of long-term projects. Particularly those which benefit can only be realised decades away.”
“But—“
“My actual employer, Nagisawa Corporation, is facing a similar problem back in Kaneguni,” he continued. “The way people think of companies, the culture that we’ve been taught; they encouraged people to prioritise short-term goals over long-term ones,” he paused. “And when I say long-term I don’t mean one year, five years, or ten years—but fifty years. A hundred years. A thousand years.”
Victoria listened.
“This is the reason why I’m supportive of the basic notion behind The Royal Family’s existence,” Audi turned to Victoria. “You forced your bloodline into an education system tuned specifically for governing a civilisation spanning lightyears of stars. Politics. Economics. Mathematics. Science. Military Science. You studied all these while having direct access to the necessary field and unbiased information sources—things commoners would never have access to.”
The Princess nodded.
“The problem with leaving Terran parliaments to their own device, like what the current generation is doing, is allowing individuals with personal agenda and lack of vision to gain control of public governance,” he continued. “Senators and representatives can be bribed and lobbied with by private actors. The policies and edicts they pass are naturally tuned to benefit those with wealth. The so-called election they do every five years are focused on crafting images irrelevant to actual public policy, yet appeals to the mostly uninformed masses,” he paused. “Has that ever passed the back of your head?”
“At times,” Victoria replied. “Brother—I mean…Prince Horlix has spent his time with this in his mind, how the senators and representatives are abusing and being exploited, whichever way it is, in order to turn the country into a giant corporation which only benefits the few,” she paused. “I am continuing his legacy, working to empower the people so that they don’t have to be subject to a system they have no control of.”
Audi chuckled. “Prince Horlix, huh? What a naïve guy.”
“What?” Victoria’s voice rise in abrupt.
“Don’t get me wrong, I totally agree with your vision to empower the people. I was part of the disadvantaged poor after all,” Audi replied. “But I just think this approach of individual empowerment, mass charities, and the call for protests and expressions are not well thought, and frankly, a waste of effort.”
“They are not!” she said. “How else are you going to fight against the culture of inequality if you don’t start acting?”
“Culture, huh?” the boy crossed his arms. “Do you know what culture is?”
Victoria kept silent.
“A culture develops not in a single night, but through diffusion of ideas and norms into everyday life,” he began. “In order for you to untangle the knot, you have to reverse this process: by identifying the atomic component which constitute the initial ideas and norms, and carefully filtering them out of society,” he paused. “Actions, whether protests or performing charity, will never do the job. Only by thinking, deliberation, and deconstruction can these components be identified and subsequently drained away.”
“But—“
“I understand the impulse to act and do—the image of power that acting and doing gives you—but without careful deliberation, any action you perform will be fruitless, or at best, works merely in the short term,” he paused. “Thoughtless actions risk creating a world worse than one where no actions have been done.”
The maid’s expression turned to shock.
“Don’t give me that, the surprise is on me,” Audi said in monotone. “I thought maids are supposed to be trained in tea pouring and dust cleaning, not armed close quarter combat.”
Dina stepped back and kept her fighting posture. “Do you know what Lèse-Majesté is, commoner?”
“The French for ‘hurting someone great’,” the boy replied. “A set of laws that prohibits harm to the Royal Family; verbal, physical, or otherwise.”
“So you do know the punishment for failing to adhere to Lèse-Majesté law.”
Audi shrugged a shoulder. “A minor scolding by a maid?”
“Five years imprisonment and a fine of five hundred thousand Weymars!” Dina yelled. “If you physically harm a royalty member, it’s death penalty!”
“But I was doing no such thing,” the boy replied. “If not kneeling in her presence is considered breaching the law, then you and that maid over there should also be executed. Neither of you are kneeling now.”
Dina gritted her teeth and swung her baton at him.
“Enough!” Victoria shouted.
The maid’s swing stopped mid-air.
Princess Victoria walked towards Audi and stopped in front of him. She looked in silence for several seconds. “Everyone, rise and carry on,” she raised a hand.
Bryant, Matthew, and police officers in the lobby stood up. The latter resumed their investigation work.
“You’re lucky it was me you’re facing,” Victoria said. “Had it been any other Royal Family member, you would’ve been thrown to jail immediately.”
The boy rolled his eyes. “What makes you different than the rest of the pack?”
“I abhor the unnecessary special treatment,” Victoria replied. “They might be part of our culture, but it is easily exploited by many to serve their agenda.”
“But the Royal Family should be unquestionably respected for The Crowned Confederacy to work,” Audi replied. “Your family’s role in governance is to act as the commoners’ guiding hands. The wisdom of those who were well-equipped with knowledge of statesmanship and access to impartial information.”
Victoria frowned her eyebrows. “Why are you suddenly defending the family? Didn’t you just refuse to kneel before me?”
“I don’t refuse for the sake of acting rebellious, Your Imperial Highness,” the boy replied. “But the current ruling generation is pretty bad at doing their job. How can you let the Terran parliament do whatever the hell they want with laws and regulations?” he paused. “Relaxing labour and corporate laws, for example.”
The princess kept silent.
“I mean, fine, it’s what most people want. Freedom. Liberty. The right to do what they want without being barred and restricted by rules and obstacles,” the boy crossed his arms. “By that logic, however, criminal law is also an obstacle to freedom. The freedom to commit whatever crime we want. Is that an attack on liberty?”
“Listen,” Victoria frowned. “Do you think I like the present state of The Crowned Confederacy more than you do? Do you think I’ve done nothing to try preventing the senators’ reckless attempt at deregulating our society and economy?”
Audi kept listening.
“I wanted to! I would die to do so!” she cried. “But I’m just a 19-year-old princess without a solid voice! People don’t trust me as much as they do my older cousins! How am I supposed to fight off the governing elite of the Civilian Sector on my own?”
The boy raised both eyebrows.
“Nothing has worked in my favour so far. They all treat me like a doll, a princess who exists only as a decoration—“
“Princess,” Dina grasped her shoulders. “That’s enough. Everyone is looking.”
Victoria turned to Dina. “I…I’m sorry. But I just…”
The maid looked at the boy. “Listen, you commoner,” she said. “It might be easy to treat the Royal Family as a lump of posh creatures whose lives are centred on luxury and party, but it is a complex institution,” she paused. “Princess Victoria is not a simpleton you think she is. Princess Victoria is the only one who can save The Crowned Confederacy from tearing apart into a tyrannical oligarch state.”
Audi glanced sideways.
“So watch your mouth and act,” Dina pulled Victoria and nudged her away from Audi.
“For she’s suffered enough from the cruelties this world has imposed upon her.”
The Princess and her two maids entered the lift and disappeared from the boy’s sight. Matthew and Bryant stared at him and shook their head in simultaneity.
“You’re brave and screwed up,” Bryant chuckled. “To confront a royalty like that. Which shithole of a planet did you grow up in?”
“Vurste,” the boy replied in monotone.
Bryant paused. “That is actually one shithole place of a world. Sorry for asking, buddy.”
Audi turned to the huge red-head. “Why is the Princess here? She has no business showing up in this company, moreover without Order of the Nightingales escorting her.”
Matthew shook his head. “You don’t do your research, do you?”
“What?”
He took his UFX-PDA out of pocket and displayed Simonovsky Tech’s profile page. “Here,” Matthew clicked on a page listing company directors and pointed at a name. “Familiar?”
HER IMPERIAL HIGHNESS
PRINCESS VICTORIA SCYTHE TANUYA
Audit Committee
“You’re kidding,” Audi’s eyes widened. “A young brat like her? Audit committee?”
“There, you casually denigrated her again,” Bryant chuckled.
The boy crossed his arms.
“Remember, the Princess has undergone a spartan education system designed specifically for Royalty members. It’s safe to say that the dumbest royalty is at least as knowledgeable as the brightest student in a normal high school,” Bryant tapped on the princess’s photo. “The only thing that can ruin a Royal Family’s rule is greed, not incompetence.”
“Must be one hell of a greedy generation the current rulers are then,” the boy shook his head. “It’s not like she’s the first royal family member I’ve ever met.”
“Oh? You’ve met another?”
“Doesn’t matter,” Audi shook his head. “We need to focus on planning our defence against Petit Fantome. If we have a lot of people attending the event, then this might turn into a bloodbath—“
The boy paused.
“What happened?” Bryant asked.
Audi glanced at Matthew. “That list you showed me earlier,” his voice stiffened. “Wasn’t that the list of the Board of Directors?”
“Didn’t you read the title?” Matthew replied.
“One where the Princess’s name is listed?”
He nodded.
Audi clenched his fists and marched forward. “Fuck!”
“Wow,” Bryant chased after him. “Calm down, buddy. What’s on your mind?”
“Calm down?” Audi yelled without looking back. “The Princess is a member of the Board!”
“That means she’s in Petit Fantome’s kill list!”
Chapter 2 / Part 5
Hundreds of businesspeople and reporters gathered in a conference hall brightened with theatre spotlight. They carried an electronic pamphlet with the names of Entrepreneur of the Year Award nominees. On a far corner of the hall, a group of security guards clustered for a meeting. Audi, Bryant, and Matthew stood in their midst.
The bandana boy looked at a guard. “Did you install the devices in places I specified last night?”
“Each and every one of them,” the guard nodded. “Even if Petit Fantome’s suit comes with an optical stealth unit, the laser detector is sensitive enough to detect the slightest photon stream deviation. She won’t heave a breath without the entire building knowing.”
“Excellent,” the boy turned to Bryant and Matthew. “Both of you, stand guard on the exterior of this building. They might try to divert your attention by using a frontal assault like before,” he said. “Are you prepared to fend them off with minimal amount of reinforcement?”
“Affirmative, bandana boy,” Bryant thumped his chest. “This place is a fortress even the strongest tank won’t be able to punch through.”
Audi sighed. “You’ve never learned war history, have you?” he cleared his throat. “Now man your posts. I will stay inside this hall in case the worst happens—”
Princess Victoria entered the hall with her two maids.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” the boy gritted his teeth. “Here, of all places?”
He shoved away the guards blocking his way and strode through the conference hall. The Princess caught a sight of him and waved slightly with a smile. Dina frowned.
“What on Terra are you doing here, Princess?” Audi asked. “Have you any idea what’s about to happen?”
“I’ve briefed her the situation,” Ayu said. “But she insisted on coming to meet the award winners.”
The boy scratched his head like ticks infested it. “Are you not aware what Petit Fantome is capable of doing?” he whispered loud. “If my security measure fails, this room will turn into a battlefield.”
“Are you not confident with your defence plan?” Dina smirked. “So much for a cocky bastard like you.”
“Shut it, maid,” Audi frowned. “This is a matter of life and death. The Princess cannot be harmed even a little,” he paused. “Now get the hell out of here, all of you!”
“I shall not,” Victoria replied.
“What?”
“If I cower in the face of mere mercenaries, what would the people think of me?” she said. “You said it yourself, that the Royal Family must be respected by the people. Do you think they’ll respect me when they discover that I’m just a coward who runs away from the slightest bit of threat?”
“They’ll consider you sane for steering away from a full-on mercenary assault,” Audi sighed. “I beg you, Princess, please leave.”
She shook her head and walked past the boy.
“Don’t try to stop her, commoner,” Dina said. “Once the Princess is determined to do something, nothing anyone says will stop her.”
The boy turned to her. “As her guardian, aren’t you the least bit worried?” he asked. “She’s part of the Board of Directors, which means Petit Fantome will target her when given the chance!”
“Ayu and I will protect her.”
“You’re confident because you have yet to fight Petit Fantome.”
Dina kept silent.
“How about this,” the boy pointed to himself. “I will guard the princess, and both of you keep an escape route secure just in case matters turn south.”
Dina frowned. “And why should we trust her safety to a commoner like you?”
“Because I’m the one with contingency plans against them,” he replied.
“Neither of you would react fast enough if an attack begun.”
The Entrepreneur of the Year Award ceremony began with a speech from the committee head. He spoke the tale of his harsh childhood and subsequent upbringing that brought him into becoming a successful businessman, then he introduced a motivational speaker and had him share his theories of positive thinking and law of attraction.
Victoria watched the stage with a neutral expression from a seat in the middle row. The chair next to him was empty, but Audi came and sat with his arms crossed tight.
“Hi,” the princess smiled. “Where did Ayu and Dina go?”
“They’re helping me secure this place for your safety,” he replied. “For the meantime, you are my responsibility.”
“Ah,” she lowered her head. “I’m in your care, then.”
The boy kept silent.
“Can I have your name?” Victoria asked. “I’d like to be able to call you properly.”
“Audi Prabian,” he replied. “You’ll forget it after everything’s done.”
“I doubt so,” she replied. “I don’t forget people easily, which is a regrettable trait at times.”
The boy glanced at her. “What’s with the insistence of royalty to have permanent acquaintance with others? Your uncle is no different.”
“My uncle?” Victoria raised her eyebrows. “Which one?”
“The Grand Admiral,” he replied. “I’ve fought alongside him against Gleicherde’s rebellion.”
“You’ve never told me that you’re a soldier.”
“I’m not,” he shook his head. “I was just a tourist when the damned war erupted. Luckily, I know how to pull a gun’s trigger, so he had me help him.”
Victoria stared at him. “Uncle Evan is extremely difficult to impress,” she said. “Only someone with extraordinary skill could hope to make him glance at them.”
He shrugged his shoulders. “I helped him blow up a few things, but that’s about it,” the boy scanned around. “Oh look, there’s Roy Pakuan.”
Victoria turned the stage and caught a man in his fifties climbing up the stairway. He waved his hand and began his introductory speech. “Mr. Pakuan, one of the richest individual in Bandar Prime and the one responsible for changing Simonovsky Tech to his will.”
“Change?” the boy cocked an eyebrow.
The Princess put both hands on her lap. “The company might have boasted the word Tech in its name, but it now ceased to be a dedicated technological firm since its public offering to the stock market,” she said. “It is increasingly becoming a holding company: an investment entity whose operation involves purchasing stocks in different companies hoping to gain a maximum benefit out of it.”
“Hold on,” the boy said. “I thought the company is making some sort of climate technology. That’s what the CEO told me.”
“I purchased a majority stake in Simonovsky Tech to save the Climate Restoration Technology they are developing,” she continued. “Other shareholders and directors have seen it as a waste of investment for its inability to generate short-term income.”
“How true is this view?”
Victoria frowned. “It’s not wrong, but these investors are missing the point,” she bit her lip. “This technology could be The Crowned Confederacy’s salvation. By improving the climate of extreme planets, we could create habitable zones from areas previously considered too hazardous to live in. We could grow crops and build farms. We could build new centres of commerce. Jobs will be created. Economy will prosper.”
“But those would take years,” Audi asked. “Perhaps decades.”
“Exactly,” she nodded. “Simonovsky Tech is working for the long-haul, not for a monetised short-term benefit. These investors, however…they cannot be reasoned with.”
The boy shook his head. “It’s not that they lack rationality, Princess; it’s because they are highly rational that they rejected the notion of long-term projects. Particularly those which benefit can only be realised decades away.”
“But—“
“My actual employer, Nagisawa Corporation, is facing a similar problem back in Kaneguni,” he continued. “The way people think of companies, the culture that we’ve been taught; they encouraged people to prioritise short-term goals over long-term ones,” he paused. “And when I say long-term I don’t mean one year, five years, or ten years—but fifty years. A hundred years. A thousand years.”
Victoria listened.
“This is the reason why I’m supportive of the basic notion behind The Royal Family’s existence,” Audi turned to Victoria. “You forced your bloodline into an education system tuned specifically for governing a civilisation spanning lightyears of stars. Politics. Economics. Mathematics. Science. Military Science. You studied all these while having direct access to the necessary field and unbiased information sources—things commoners would never have access to.”
The Princess nodded.
“The problem with leaving Terran parliaments to their own device, like what the current generation is doing, is allowing individuals with personal agenda and lack of vision to gain control of public governance,” he continued. “Senators and representatives can be bribed and lobbied with by private actors. The policies and edicts they pass are naturally tuned to benefit those with wealth. The so-called election they do every five years are focused on crafting images irrelevant to actual public policy, yet appeals to the mostly uninformed masses,” he paused. “Has that ever passed the back of your head?”
“At times,” Victoria replied. “Brother—I mean…Prince Horlix has spent his time with this in his mind, how the senators and representatives are abusing and being exploited, whichever way it is, in order to turn the country into a giant corporation which only benefits the few,” she paused. “I am continuing his legacy, working to empower the people so that they don’t have to be subject to a system they have no control of.”
Audi chuckled. “Prince Horlix, huh? What a naïve guy.”
“What?” Victoria’s voice rise in abrupt.
“Don’t get me wrong, I totally agree with your vision to empower the people. I was part of the disadvantaged poor after all,” Audi replied. “But I just think this approach of individual empowerment, mass charities, and the call for protests and expressions are not well thought, and frankly, a waste of effort.”
“They are not!” she said. “How else are you going to fight against the culture of inequality if you don’t start acting?”
“Culture, huh?” the boy crossed his arms. “Do you know what culture is?”
Victoria kept silent.
“A culture develops not in a single night, but through diffusion of ideas and norms into everyday life,” he began. “In order for you to untangle the knot, you have to reverse this process: by identifying the atomic component which constitute the initial ideas and norms, and carefully filtering them out of society,” he paused. “Actions, whether protests or performing charity, will never do the job. Only by thinking, deliberation, and deconstruction can these components be identified and subsequently drained away.”
“But—“
“I understand the impulse to act and do—the image of power that acting and doing gives you—but without careful deliberation, any action you perform will be fruitless, or at best, works merely in the short term,” he paused. “Thoughtless actions risk creating a world worse than one where no actions have been done.”
