To be honest, whether it was overthrowing the Empire and becoming emperor himself, or replacing the system from the top down, both were very easy things for the current Iori to accomplish, and history books had already given him plenty of reference templates.
But Iori knew very clearly that there was no such thing as a perfect country in this world, nor a true utopia. A society maintained by force would mostly drift toward extremes, while groups united by benifit would inevitably fight among themselves.
No matter how perfect a system was, it would always have loopholes, and over time those loopholes would turn into tumors.
This was a BUG rooted deep in human thinking. Just look at the countless out-of-control AI brains in science fiction works and you would understand, even under the premise of having no constraints at all, humans still cannot imagine what a "perfect system" actually looks like.
So from the very beginning, Iori never planned to build some earthly paradise. His goal was very simple.
End this chaotic era, establish achievements worthy of becoming legend, and turn the entire Akame ga Kill world into a stable dungeon for farming art-style points.
And in the process, if he could also bring the people a relatively normal society, a country where one could live in peace… then he would have both pursued his own ambitions and fulfilled a great mission at the same time, something he could take pride in.
Therefore, when Najenda fantasized about having all factions negotiate and end the war this way, Iori shattered her beautiful vision without the slightest mercy.
"Honest is undoubtedly a very terrible regent minister. The Empire declining to this point, sure, he absolutely stomped the accelerator hard."
"You don't need to understand what 'accelerator' means, but you absolutely cannot say that the country becoming this rotten is entirely his fault."
"Putting all misfortune on one person, killing him, and then magically solving all problems so everyone can happily sit down and build a wonderful tomorrow together?"
"That's the logic of religious scriptures and chivalric novels. Reality is far more complicated than that, and you should understand this as well."
"Najenda, even if I really did what you said and killed Honest, do you have confidence that the Revolutionary Army and the Empire would abandon their past grudges and sit at the same table?"
With a single sentence, Iori left Najenda speechless. After standing there dazed for a long while, regret and helplessness gradually surfaced on her face.
She finally realized that she had been too agitated earlier, to the point of losing her rationality and proposing such an unrealistic suggestion.
Not to mention that the Revolutionary Army could never trust the court's sincerity, just as the court could never trust the Revolutionary Army.
Even if both sides could establish a basic level of trust, negotiations would inevitably be tense, with fierce tug-of-war over every interest. They would also definitely keep their original military strength, never cutting armaments or letting the people recuperate.
Otherwise, what?
Put down the swords and hand over territory? Don't joke.
Even if Iori used his overwhelming strength to act as a mediator and forcibly push both sides into talks, it would only result in a temporary ceasefire. True mutual understanding would be impossible.
And there were simply too many unstable factors involved, General Budo, for example. He was genuinely a lifelong beneficiary of imperial grace, a diehard royalist.
A single word from the young emperor would make him charge into death without hesitation. So although the young emperor looked like a puppet, he actually possessed extremely powerful latent influence.
If a puppet emperor system was unreliable, then tripartite co-rule was even more absurd…
And this was only the contradiction at the top. At the local level, among civilians, within the military, countless conflicts that one could never even imagine would all surface one by one. Even if a god descended, there would be no saving it.
"So… in the end, can everything only be resolved through war?"
Najenda grasped the prosthetic on her right arm, her tone heavy. "I am a soldier, but I don't like war, because no matter how it ends, the cost is ultimately passed on to the people."
"But if there is no other choice…"
"War also comes in many forms. Perhaps all of them bring misfortune, but we can try our best to minimize the damage."
"You mean…"
"I have an idea. If things go smoothly, it should be possible to end the war in the most efficient and fastest way, while truly resolving the conflicts on all sides."
"But this undertaking cannot be done by me alone, or rather, it cannot be done by force alone. I need people who have both ability and ideals to help me, people like you, Najenda."
"Me?" The short-haired female general's eyes showed sudden realization. "Are you trying to recruit me?"
"I'd like to say some nice-sounding words to fool you, but I know what kind of person you are, so I'll tell you frankly, yes."
Iori said seriously, "I'm recruiting you."
"…As an imperial general?"
"Status isn't important. You're not someone who clings to formality anyway. As long as it can reduce the suffering of the people, you'll agree without hesitation, won't you?"
Iori stared into her single eye. "Think about it carefully, Najenda."
"You want me… to betray the Revolutionary Army?" Najenda's expression grew solemn.
But Iori asked back very casually, "What drove you to give up high office and generous treatment to join the Revolutionary Army, was it better pay or a higher position? Since what you've been loyal to from beginning to end is your own conscience, how can that be called betrayal?"
"You said you have a way to end this war and eliminate future worries?"
Najenda stared intently at his mask. "Why should I believe you?"
"Because I could unify the world by force alone, but I didn't."
Iori asked earnestly, "When a tiger is willing to sit down and negotiate with a rabbit, isn't that sincerity?"
"…That's… kind of true." A sense of absurdity rose in Najenda's heart, but she did dispel many of her doubts and began to believe Iori's promise.
"Then what do you plan to do? This isn't a simple task. As you said before, both the Revolutionary Army and the Empire hide many thorny problems."
"Yeah, just thinking about it gives you a headache."
Iori spread his hands. "I don't have the patience to solve them one by one."
Najenda immediately grew anxious. "Then you..."
"But if you change your way of thinking, as long as you eliminate the people causing the problems, wouldn't the problems disappear as well?"
"…Eh?" Najenda froze.
"The situation looks complicated, but when you boil it down, it's just nobles, bureaucrats, powerful families, and ambitious people fighting over benefit, right?"
"Yes… but you can't just kill them all, can you!" A bizarre guess flashed through Najenda's mind, and she quickly tried to dissuade Iori.
"If you wipe them out wholesale, the country will definitely fall into massive chaos!"
"Of course I wouldn't kill them all indiscriminately." Iori smiled.
Iori's idea was more operable, and more suitable for a transcendent world, "Najenda, you need to understand one thing first."
"The vast majority of the powerful have no intention of carving out their own independent power base. When faced with the tide of the times, their first reaction is to join some faction, or act as fence-sitters between multiple factions."
"What we need to do is continuously apply pressure to certain groups, forcing them to step forward on their own, either to join a faction or to support some big shot."
"Just like after I moved against the local governors, many frontier officials with guilty consciences immediately began sending letters questioning Honest. Who was loyal and who was treacherous became clear at a glance."
"At that point, we can screen these people and classify them selectively."
"That doesn't sound like a simple task."
Najenda murmured, "You'd need an extremely massive intelligence network…"
"The minister, the emperor, the Revolutionary Army leadership, they'll help me gather it."
Iori smiled coldly. "I'm keeping them alive precisely so they can serve as lights, drawing out all the ghosts hidden in this chaotic era!"
Najenda's entire body shook. Iori was confident that he could obtain the private documents of all three at any time.
She had already tried her best to overestimate Iori, yet she was still surprised again and again…
"But I can't do this alone. I need someone to help me."
Iori extended his hand toward Najenda. "Your answer?"
———
Honest did not wait for his reinforcements. After sending out secret letters, they sank without a trace. There was no response at all from Esdeath's side, plunging him into extreme unease.
Was it that the northern foreign tribes were preparing a large-scale invasion, leaving Esdeath unable to spare any attention, or had that woman changed her mind and no longer wanted to cooperate with him?
But no matter what, not even sending a reply letter was just too...
'Calm down! Calm down, Honest!'
'You are the chief minister. Although the changing situation is unfavorable, as long as the young emperor is still in your grasp, there is no need to fear a bit of turbulence.'
That said, his son Syura had already become someone else's puppet, the Four Rakshasa Demons were probably eliminated as well, and now even Esdeath had abandoned him… Turning back, the minister suddenly realized that his wings had withered to such an extent!
The young emperor was indeed a trump card. Strictly speaking, the imperial Imperial Arm he inherited, Supreme Throne, possessed the overwhelming power to suppress all rebellions, and this Imperial Arm was effectively under the minister's indirect control.
But since it was called a final card, it naturally couldn't be used casually. The young emperor himself was not mature enough, and activating the Imperial Arm consumed enormous energy. Using Supreme Throne to suppress small-scale rebellions was completely not worth it.
Stationing oneself in the Imperial Capital and, at the most critical moment, wiping out the Revolutionary Army's elite with a massive, wide-area destructive attack, that was the correct way to use the imperial Imperial Arm.
And that was precisely where the problem lay.
The hand Honest was holding consisted of a single joker accompanied by a bunch of worthless small cards. Compared to enemies holding straights and bombs, he was truly stretched thin in any confrontation…
He keenly realized that he was now in an extremely dangerous position. Just as Najenda and Iori had analyzed, he originally stood on three legs, but now two had been cut off, leaving only the young emperor. Collapse could happen at any moment.
However, a minister was still a minister. His ability to respond was still there. He immediately entered the palace and "reported" his own son Syura to the young emperor.
He claimed that during Syura's capture by the Revolutionary Army, the enemy had used cruel methods to brainwash and control him, then sent him back as a spy.
He had been secretly working for the Revolutionary Army all along, and that "masked general Izou" was the Revolutionary Army's puppet master.
The young emperor was shocked and furious, but he believed Honest without hesitation. He issued a nationwide proclamation stripping Syura and Izou of all their positions, labeling them traitors, and calling on garrison forces everywhere to suppress them.
In this way, the minister temporarily stabilized the senior officials of his own faction, making them believe that Syura's actions were not authorized by him, but rather that the Revolutionary Army was using his name to sow discord.
Although this would create rather bad repercussions, there would definitely be people questioning his ability to control the situation, between losing face and losing his life, he decisively chose the former.
Then, in the emperor's name, he began a massive recruitment drive among the populace, selecting elite warriors and searching for hidden Imperial Arm users.
With extremely generous treatment and prospects as bait, he invited them to the Imperial Capital to form a special police force directly under the emperor.
At the same time, he sent large quantities of money and supplies to the northern frontier as rewards for Esdeath and the border troops.
He did not dare directly question Esdeath about whether she harbored disloyal intentions. Instead, he selected a very clever confidant as the official escorting the supplies, sending him to understand the local situation and Esdeath's personal stance.
Finally, he attempted to transfer General Budo to suppress the Revolutionary Army rebellion, but General Budo refused.
Using "duty-bound responsibility" as his reason, he insisted on guarding the palace and rejected the order, he did not feel at ease leaving the entire Imperial Capital in the minister's hands.
In just a few days, the minister issued a series of political decrees. While they didn't exactly reverse the situation, they at least pulled him back from the brink.
From politics to the military, everything looked proper and orderly. The advantage of holding the emperor hostage to command the lords was fully displayed at this moment.
However, he was not the only one taking action.
At present, Iori's reputation within the Empire was skyrocketing. The arrest warrant personally signed by the young emperor actually increased his notoriety in a certain sense, and even established an extremely vivid and concrete image of him in the minds of the people.
During this period, Iori continued to carry out purges across various regions in an orderly manner. Especially after being labeled a "rebel," he no longer even pretended.
Using overwhelming force, he swept away obstacles even more thoroughly than before, not only local governors and senior officials, but also powerful landlords were brought into his strike range.
Of course, he did not take a one-size-fits-all approach. He only killed major villains with solid evidence of their crimes. Officials and powerful figures with good reputations in the past were spared.
After all, in chaotic times, while scum certainly made up the majority of the powerful, there were also relatively "normal" people, and such people could be used to stabilize local areas and appease the populace.
It wasn't that no one tried to suppress him, but facts proved that all military actions against Iori were futile. Anyone who dared stand against him had to be prepared to lose their head in the next moment.
And after soldiers personally witnessed the exaggerated spectacle of "taking the enemy general's head from amid tens of thousands of troops," they often lost all will to fight… after all, what do the weak fight for?
Even though Iori only had a few hundred men under him, when operating within the Empire, he was completely unstoppable, his marching routes unobstructed.
The only thing that gave the minister a bit of comfort was that Iori did not imitate the Revolutionary Army by splitting forces to garrison and seize territory, nor did he recruit troops locally to expand his army. It was as if he were merely flaunting his strength while touring the provinces…
Unable to understand his motives, the minister could only interpret this as a sign of Iori's lack of ambition and political wisdom.
Overwhelmed with worries, the minister failed to notice some inconspicuous intelligence, for example, wherever Iori passed, the local Path of Peace always gained quite a few more believers.
Its overall scale expanded noticeably, and it even showed a trend of cooperating with local powerful families.
And without anyone realizing it, people among the populace began linking the image of a certain deity in the Path of Peace scriptures with the appearance Iori presented to the public.
The priests of Path of Peace would specifically explain, "Don't make arbitrary associations," yet they always wore an expression as if they wanted to say something but stopped themselves, making people unable to resist all kinds of speculation… the more they denied it, the more people wanted to explore.
He was the guardian of the afterlife, the guide of souls, and the judge of all sins;
No one had ever seen his true face, because he always wore a dark mask symbolizing eternal sleep;
Legend had it that he would protect the peace of all the dead, but only pure souls could enter his realm. Those who committed grave sins in life would be burned by his wrath and cast into a barren, boundless desert, wandering there forever…
[CG Refreshed]
[Imperial Star General: Masked God of Death]
[Art Style Points +6]