There are still a few days left before the unpleasant meeting.
I had a few things I wanted to clean up.
I’m going to say no to my wife about it.
“Can I spend the day with Kiara tomorrow?”
Mil nodded her head a little.
“Oh, you mean to talk about that with Kiara today.”
“Yes, because the conversation ended undecided. I thought it would be better to talk about it now.”
Mil smiled with kind eyes.
“Okay. I’ll lend Al to Kiara for a day.”
With Mil’s permission, I took Kiara out of town the next day.
Is she really being distant from her brother?
She folded her arms around me and was in a very good mood.
Without any particular purpose in mind, the two of us look around the town together.
The conversation we have is just small talk.
It seems that Kiara has her own attachment to the people of the town.
At first, she was just imitating me and was rather distant from the townspeople.
Recently, she has been in close contact with them, although she is in the position of a lord’s sister and a lord’s citizen.
And because she looks like a beautiful girl, she is quite popular among the boys.
At first, she was bewildered, but now she can at least smile and wave her hand to them.
We take a break and go into a tea store.
It is our favorite place.
It wasn’t our favorite tea shop from the beginning, but now we go there often because it has the kind of tea that Kiara likes.
As we went there many times, they even prepared a private room where we could have a confidential talk.
When I took a break in the private room, Kiara looked at me seriously.
The guards were waiting in another room, so it was just the two of us.
“Brother, this is a continuation of what we talked about yesterday, isn’t it?”
“Correct, because yesterday ended undecided. I treated everyone without questioning their status, but I know that Kiara is concerned about that as of late. I wonder if there’s a reason.”
Kiara’s eyes were closed for a moment, but then she turned to the cup in her hand.
“I haven’t reported it to brother yet, but there have been several reports that came from the Ears.”
“Failure to report is not a one-time event or a sign of something else. Is that what you’re talking about?”
“Yes, we’ve received reports of rare stories and graffiti that criticizes Brother.”
I see.
“No matter what I do, I can’t please everyone. Criticism will come no matter what I do. If the accusation is persuasive… and if it needs to be improved, we will do it.”
“I know that. It’s not a good sign when the accusations are nothing more than naivete and stress-busting innuendo.”
So you were worried that I was letting it escalate.
“Well, we can’t help it, as long as I tell them to think and act for themselves. A poor response can easily fall into the direction of containing opposition and criticism. Regulations with blurred boundaries are like taking away the ability to think. If done poorly, it becomes a word hunt. If you can speak ill of someone with no basis in fact and not be charged with a crime, then you are free to speak and think what you want.”
Kiara puffed out her cheeks.
“If that’s all it is, I don’t have a problem with it either. The person who’s making that snide remark is escalating because he’s angry that he’s not being taken seriously by those around him. If they’re that desperate to say bad things about you, there will even be people who suspect that they might not be true.”
I look down at my cup.
A lie told a hundred times becomes the truth.
It can be a danger factor, easily exploited by hostile forces.
But it’s hard to crack down on.
At the time of the arrest, the malicious statements are false and harmful to the community.
We have to prove it.
Failure to do so will lead to a surveillance society, as is common in dictatorships.
But some people may sympathize with the malicious statement.
Kiara’s own answer to this problem is that I don’t have enough dignity.
This is not an easy problem to solve.
“I see, but I don’t want to control speech. But it’s also not wise to ignore Kiara’s concerns.”
“Do you have a secret plan, brother?”
“Hmmm, I guess we’ll just have to counter speech with speech…”
“With speech?”
“I’d like to know what policies they’ve decided on, or what they plan to do, and post them in town in the form of an official gazette. If they at least knew what we were doing and what we were planning to do, it would change things somewhat.”
Kiara nodded her head but chuckled quietly.
“In other words, you don’t want groundless stories spreading.”
“If you try to regulate such things, you will end up in a quagmire. As long as we tell people on a regular basis to think for themselves, we have to avoid excessive intervention.”
“Is that all we should do for those who vindictively try to spread groundless stories?”
“I can’t charge them with a crime just for telling a lie. Moral values are important as a deterrent. People who force their opinions on others will not be seen as decent. Until then, just keep an eye on them and leave them alone. If they go out of control and cause harm to others, they are guilty as charged.”
If they are in contact with an enemy agent, it’s a different story.
Since we are not in Japan, the law allows us to crack down on spies.
Kiara laughed at my moderate approach.
“Brother is trying to keep things civil without resorting to heavy-handed tactics, though. Some people would call that hypocritical. I’m tempted to wonder if he would be more satisfied with having his head chopped off.”
I chuckled at Kiara, too.
“It’s up to the person to decide how they want to look at me. People only see the reality they want to see. The problem is, if it’s getting a lot of support, then maybe I’m not doing it right. Otherwise, if there is something to see in that opinion, then refer to it. If there isn’t even that, then it’s probably a good idea to leave it alone.”
Kiara looked troubled.
“The slander that is circulating is the kind of slander that would easily get their head chopped off if it were another lord, you know.”
Is that the level of talk going around?
Not willing to make penalties like disrespect, I had to shrug my shoulders.
“Just for the record, what kind of stories are there about the slander and libel? “
Kiara’s face became deeply indignant.
“That Brother doesn’t like the sacrifices that are made, so he shows up at the war memorial, but in the end he chooses to fight. His aversion to sacrifice is just a pretense; he thinks of his citizens as nothing more than disposable tools. He is just a hypocrite and his actions are inconsistent. That kind of thing. Don’t you think that’s a terrible accusation?”
I couldn’t help but chuckle.
He’s the type of critic who wants to divide things extremely black and white.
In most of these cases, they simply don’t like it or have their own preferred conclusion first and try to lead you to it.
He pretends to be calm, but it is easy to see that he is emotionally involved.
“The person doesn’t seem to be convinced that I am not willing to resist or willing to sacrifice and continue to fight. I’m sure he’ll make another accusation then. But I’m sure it’s not entirely untrue.”
Kiara’s pouty face never changed.
“Where the hell is that?”
“He conveniently pieced together the facts and inserted speculation. It’s true that I don’t like sacrifice, and it’s true that I’m at a monument to the war dead. It’s also true that I chose to fight.”
“I think that’s just conveniently piecing things together without considering the circumstances before and after. He is forcibly leading us to the conclusion he wants.”
Maybe that gentleman has a talent for journalism.
“That’s how you lead or incite the masses. Ostensibly, he is telling the truth.”
A method of inducing people by listing only convenient facts.
So it is in this world too.
Even before my reincarnation, there were stories stating that only facts were enumerated.
But the criteria for extracting those facts are never stated.
It is inconvenient to pretend to be fair and neutral.
There is no such thing as fair and neutral, though…
Kiara was staring at me with a glare, as if it doesn’t affect me.
“It’s a firestorm that’s raining down on Brother, isn’t it?”
That’s right.
This is a necessary expense.
“As long as the rule of law is the basic premise, we cannot forcefully eliminate them. Maybe they know they can’t be eliminated, so they can say whatever they want. If they’re that devious, they might have a good opinion once in a while.”
Kiara sighed in astonishment.
“Seriously, Brother is too kind of a person…”
There are still a few days left before the unpleasant meeting.
I had a few things I wanted to clean up.
I’m going to say no to my wife about it.
“Can I spend the day with Kiara tomorrow?”
Mil nodded her head a little.
“Oh, you mean to talk about that with Kiara today.”
“Yes, because the conversation ended undecided. I thought it would be better to talk about it now.”
Mil smiled with kind eyes.
“Okay. I’ll lend Al to Kiara for a day.”
With Mil’s permission, I took Kiara out of town the next day.
Is she really being distant from her brother?
She folded her arms around me and was in a very good mood.
Without any particular purpose in mind, the two of us look around the town together.
The conversation we have is just small talk.
It seems that Kiara has her own attachment to the people of the town.
At first, she was just imitating me and was rather distant from the townspeople.
Recently, she has been in close contact with them, although she is in the position of a lord’s sister and a lord’s citizen.
And because she looks like a beautiful girl, she is quite popular among the boys.
At first, she was bewildered, but now she can at least smile and wave her hand to them.
We take a break and go into a tea store.
It is our favorite place.
It wasn’t our favorite tea shop from the beginning, but now we go there often because it has the kind of tea that Kiara likes.
As we went there many times, they even prepared a private room where we could have a confidential talk.
When I took a break in the private room, Kiara looked at me seriously.
The guards were waiting in another room, so it was just the two of us.
“Brother, this is a continuation of what we talked about yesterday, isn’t it?”
“Correct, because yesterday ended undecided. I treated everyone without questioning their status, but I know that Kiara is concerned about that as of late. I wonder if there’s a reason.”
Kiara’s eyes were closed for a moment, but then she turned to the cup in her hand.
“I haven’t reported it to brother yet, but there have been several reports that came from the Ears.”
“Failure to report is not a one-time event or a sign of something else. Is that what you’re talking about?”
“Yes, we’ve received reports of rare stories and graffiti that criticizes Brother.”
I see.
“No matter what I do, I can’t please everyone. Criticism will come no matter what I do. If the accusation is persuasive… and if it needs to be improved, we will do it.”
“I know that. It’s not a good sign when the accusations are nothing more than naivete and stress-busting innuendo.”
So you were worried that I was letting it escalate.
“Well, we can’t help it, as long as I tell them to think and act for themselves. A poor response can easily fall into the direction of containing opposition and criticism. Regulations with blurred boundaries are like taking away the ability to think. If done poorly, it becomes a word hunt. If you can speak ill of someone with no basis in fact and not be charged with a crime, then you are free to speak and think what you want.”
Kiara puffed out her cheeks.
“If that’s all it is, I don’t have a problem with it either. The person who’s making that snide remark is escalating because he’s angry that he’s not being taken seriously by those around him. If they’re that desperate to say bad things about you, there will even be people who suspect that they might not be true.”
I look down at my cup.
A lie told a hundred times becomes the truth.
It can be a danger factor, easily exploited by hostile forces.
But it’s hard to crack down on.
At the time of the arrest, the malicious statements are false and harmful to the community.
We have to prove it.
Failure to do so will lead to a surveillance society, as is common in dictatorships.
But some people may sympathize with the malicious statement.
Kiara’s own answer to this problem is that I don’t have enough dignity.
This is not an easy problem to solve.
“I see, but I don’t want to control speech. But it’s also not wise to ignore Kiara’s concerns.”
“Do you have a secret plan, brother?”
“Hmmm, I guess we’ll just have to counter speech with speech…”
“With speech?”
“I’d like to know what policies they’ve decided on, or what they plan to do, and post them in town in the form of an official gazette. If they at least knew what we were doing and what we were planning to do, it would change things somewhat.”
Kiara nodded her head but chuckled quietly.
“In other words, you don’t want groundless stories spreading.”
“If you try to regulate such things, you will end up in a quagmire. As long as we tell people on a regular basis to think for themselves, we have to avoid excessive intervention.”
“Is that all we should do for those who vindictively try to spread groundless stories?”
“I can’t charge them with a crime just for telling a lie. Moral values are important as a deterrent. People who force their opinions on others will not be seen as decent. Until then, just keep an eye on them and leave them alone. If they go out of control and cause harm to others, they are guilty as charged.”
If they are in contact with an enemy agent, it’s a different story.
Since we are not in Japan, the law allows us to crack down on spies.
Kiara laughed at my moderate approach.
“Brother is trying to keep things civil without resorting to heavy-handed tactics, though. Some people would call that hypocritical. I’m tempted to wonder if he would be more satisfied with having his head chopped off.”
I chuckled at Kiara, too.
“It’s up to the person to decide how they want to look at me. People only see the reality they want to see. The problem is, if it’s getting a lot of support, then maybe I’m not doing it right. Otherwise, if there is something to see in that opinion, then refer to it. If there isn’t even that, then it’s probably a good idea to leave it alone.”
Kiara looked troubled.
“The slander that is circulating is the kind of slander that would easily get their head chopped off if it were another lord, you know.”
Is that the level of talk going around?
Not willing to make penalties like disrespect, I had to shrug my shoulders.
“Just for the record, what kind of stories are there about the slander and libel? “
Kiara’s face became deeply indignant.
“That Brother doesn’t like the sacrifices that are made, so he shows up at the war memorial, but in the end he chooses to fight. His aversion to sacrifice is just a pretense; he thinks of his citizens as nothing more than disposable tools. He is just a hypocrite and his actions are inconsistent. That kind of thing. Don’t you think that’s a terrible accusation?”
I couldn’t help but chuckle.
He’s the type of critic who wants to divide things extremely black and white.
In most of these cases, they simply don’t like it or have their own preferred conclusion first and try to lead you to it.
He pretends to be calm, but it is easy to see that he is emotionally involved.
“The person doesn’t seem to be convinced that I am not willing to resist or willing to sacrifice and continue to fight. I’m sure he’ll make another accusation then. But I’m sure it’s not entirely untrue.”
Kiara’s pouty face never changed.
“Where the hell is that?”
“He conveniently pieced together the facts and inserted speculation. It’s true that I don’t like sacrifice, and it’s true that I’m at a monument to the war dead. It’s also true that I chose to fight.”
“I think that’s just conveniently piecing things together without considering the circumstances before and after. He is forcibly leading us to the conclusion he wants.”
Maybe that gentleman has a talent for journalism.
“That’s how you lead or incite the masses. Ostensibly, he is telling the truth.”
A method of inducing people by listing only convenient facts.
So it is in this world too.
Even before my reincarnation, there were stories stating that only facts were enumerated.
But the criteria for extracting those facts are never stated.
It is inconvenient to pretend to be fair and neutral.
There is no such thing as fair and neutral, though…
Kiara was staring at me with a glare, as if it doesn’t affect me.
“It’s a firestorm that’s raining down on Brother, isn’t it?”
That’s right.
This is a necessary expense.
“As long as the rule of law is the basic premise, we cannot forcefully eliminate them. Maybe they know they can’t be eliminated, so they can say whatever they want. If they’re that devious, they might have a good opinion once in a while.”
Kiara sighed in astonishment.
“Seriously, Brother is too kind of a person…”
