Chapter 870: The Rewards and Risks of Opening Minds

The man stares at Pabos for a moment, then bursts out laughing.

The other Knight laughs too. "Little officer, do you think you can throw your weight around with us as well?"

"Hand over those soldiers who broke the law. Now."

"As for the ones who ran away, we'll let that go as a favor to you."

Pabos frowns. "We are the coalition's Mobile Strike Group! No member of the alliance may detain or try our soldiers."

"Our men fight in every country, with immunity from local jurisdiction in each. Only we may try them for their offenses."

"And my orders are binding on you too."

"Article Fifteen of the alliance agreement's supplementary provisions is quite clear."

"Unless alliance headquarters gives an order, the Mobile Strike Group has full operational autonomy and overriding command authority!"

Many of the noble soldiers join in the laughter. The Knight rests his lance on his shoulder. "Where did you come from, you little brat? Here to pad your credentials?"

"An alliance agreement? Immunity from foreign jurisdiction? Overriding command authority?"

"What a joke!"

"We never signed any alliance agreement. The baron's law comes first here. His Majesty the King gave him that privilege!"

Pabos isn't angry. He looks at the man curiously. "Do you have a grudge against your baron?"

The others understand what he means. Beside him, Harry smiles. "Pabos, you're used to dealing with the people at the top of the various powers."

"Those people know what matters. They see things differently."

"These men are only the foundations of their countries' rule. How broad a view do you expect them to have?"

"To them, the height of power is a viscount, one step above a baron."

"They may know a count is stronger still, but they've never met one. They have no real idea of what that means."

"An alliance agreement between nations is further beyond them. They've only heard the name."

"They don't know what it does or who signed it. They don't care, either."

"They're used to lording it over their own little patch of land. For the locals, their word is law."

"As for outsiders, they have complete control over them."

"These two Knights don't look as though they had proper training as Knight squires, either. They know even less."

"It looks as though the higher concentration of extraordinary properties since the Calamity War began gave them a chance to advance."

"Before that, they might have been ordinary soldiers. Serfs, even."

"Expecting them to understand the continent's situation, or what the alliance agreement means, is asking rather a lot."

"They may still be illiterate. What sort of insight can you expect?"

Harry makes no attempt to lower his voice.

The two Knights hear every word and erupt in fury. "Dismount! Now! Come with us for questioning."

"You may send someone back to inform your superior. He can discuss with our baron how to deal with your crime of insulting nobles."

Harry finally laughs aloud. "Look, Pabos! He has heard your name."

"And he still doesn't know what it means. They aren't pretending to be fools. They really are fools!"

Harry is laughing, yet there is a strange sadness in his eyes.

He climbed up from the bottom himself. He knows how the nobles control knowledge and keep the people as ignorant as possible.

It makes them cheaper to govern and encourages blind loyalty.

Peace Haven opens access to knowledge and teaches everyone to read and write. Henwell offers still more valuable instruction to those who can learn.

The current Calamity War is a case in point.

Peace Haven paid dearly to force the church and the empire to agree to let it teach a limited amount of extraordinary knowledge.

Henwell had personally divided the Knight Body-Tempering Method into several stages.

But the most important part still had to be taught in secret. This was mental tempering, the use of will to draw extraordinary power into the body and temper it.

Now that access is fully open, Peace Haven can expect large numbers of new professionals to emerge during this Calamity War.

The approach has drawbacks, too.

The changes driven by independent interests within Peace Haven are one example.

The Battle of Cellarwine City and the Phoenix family's Bloody Coronation have both given the leaders of other nations reason to mock Henwell.

In their eyes, he gave too much away.

That let his subordinates develop ideas of their own and dare to maneuver behind his back.

Those foreign leaders think he has no idea how to keep his subordinates in line and is already losing control of Peace Haven's internal factions.

But there are two sides to it. Rapid development means sharing knowledge and opening people's minds. Industry cannot advance without it.

Learning inevitably broadens people's horizons. They think more, and they want more.

Why do Lumir's reforms in its new districts never catch up with Peace Haven?

Restricted access to knowledge leaves very few workers able to become engineers.

His subordinates may develop wills and demands of their own. One day, those could turn against him.

Henwell would still rather have Peace Haven develop faster.

He knows he didn't come here to enjoy life as an emperor. The power behind the scenes, with its occasional displays of extraordinary means, keeps reminding him that his task is to transform human civilization.

Keeping people ignorant to secure one's rule is nothing more than a weak ruler's fear of those beneath him.

Henwell has no such fear.

If someone more capable, representing a more advanced level of production, were to overthrow him, he could accept that.

He would gladly settle down to a wealthy man's comfortable life.

A coup for the private interests of one person or a small group is another matter.

That doesn't worry Henwell either. The people's minds have been opened. They know whom to follow for a better life.

As long as he keeps moving forward, no one can shake his rule.

Harry has seen this in Peace Haven. That is why he believes no country on the continent can prevail against it.

He believes that once Peace Haven clears another hurdle in the near future, no one will be able to stop its growth.

The other nations will not stop it.

The empire will not stop it.

The church will not stop it.

As for the gods... perhaps not even them.

What grieves Harry is that not a single country understands what makes Peace Haven strong.

They simply put it down to Henwell's presence.

Everyone in the empire opposed Harry's plan to make education widely available. Even his younger brother, Senar, disagreed.

The scene before him shows how absurd rule through ignorance can be.

These men are Knights, members of the lower nobility, with one of the continent's finest forces stationed nearby.

Yet they have no wish to learn about it, or even to understand the alliance agreement on which humanity's survival depends.

It all directly concerns every one of them.

But ignorance has bred arrogance. They cannot see beyond these few dozen square kilometers.

They have no reason to look farther, and no urge to do so.

That is the tragedy.

A tragedy of the soul, and of civilization itself.