National Defense Council (3)
“You’re telling me it was destroyed thirty-four years ago!? I’ve never heard anything like that!”
Gilbert, no, all of the councilors, were stunned. They had been doing nothing but staring in shock.
Still, their reaction was understandable. The intelligence capabilities of the Kingdom of Arland, which routinely dispatched numerous covert operatives into the central regions not only for sabotage but also for intelligence gathering, ranked among the best on the continent.
And yet even that Kingdom of Arland had failed to grasp the fall of the National Fluffers Alliance’s headquarters. For thirty-four years, no less.
Naturally, the Central Nations Federation was probably unaware of the headquarters’ fall as well. If they had known, it would have been loudly publicized.
“That’s only natural. The headquarters’ location and personnel are top-secret, after all. Even with my position, I wasn’t told the exact location. But there’s no doubt the headquarters was destroyed by the Imperial State.”
“Then why didn’t the Imperial State announce it?”
“Because they don’t realize it was the headquarters.”
“Sorry. Can you explain that more clearly?”
“To do that, I need to start with how the National Fluffers Alliance was founded.”
Fluffers were terrorists. That was considered common knowledge in the central continent.
In many countries, fluffers were persecuted and oppressed. In some places, simply being a fluffer was enough to get you arrested, denied the right to a trial, and executed on the spot.
Why had it come to that? To answer that, one had to go back five hundred years.
The National Fluffers Alliance had originally been a multi-race coexistence movement.
Its activities began after the great war between humans and demonkind five hundred years ago, the so-called Human–Demon War, and continued after the Demon King War.
The Land of Evernight, which had once been the demonkind’s nation, collapsed, and demonkind vanished from the continent. The Kingdom of Avalon, which had allied with the Land of Evernight and advocated multi-race coexistence at the national level, was branded a traitor to humanity and beaten down from all sides until it collapsed as well.
Arthur, the Knight of Knights of Avalon, known as the Knight King, was consumed by hatred. The power of the Evil God that had corrupted the Spirit King’s power went berserk, and Arthur fell into what was later called a Demon King. He gathered countless monsters under his command and declared the extermination of humanity.
However, his daughter Lycoris survived thanks to the devotion of her retainers. Chosen by the Goddess, she awakened as the Goddess’s Hero, defeated her father, and sealed his soul within her own blood.
The problem came afterward. As the Kingdom of Avalon’s final act, its last king ordered the surviving members of the Round Table to lead the people northward, into what was then an undeveloped region of the continent.
The Knights of the Round Table took advantage of the chaos gripping the central continent after the Demon King’s emergence and founded the Multi-Race Federation. Because Arthur, now a Demon King, never raised his hand against the people of Avalon, damage to them was minimal.
Lycoris then founded the Kingdom of Arland even farther north. Many members of the coexistence faction aided either the Multi-Race Federation or the Kingdom of Arland. However, not all of them fled north.
The religion now calling itself the Holy Church had originally not condoned racial discrimination. It was hijacked by the current Pope’s faction, which preached human supremacy. Priests who rejected this fought alongside many members of the coexistence faction to reclaim their faith, but they were defeated.
Scattered and broken, the coexistence faction fled into the various central nations and began gathering allies. These groups became the forerunners of what were later called “branches.” In other words, the National Fluffers Alliance was not born from branches splitting off from a headquarters.
The organizations that arose in each nation did not initially call themselves branches. Each used its own name and began their coexistence activities independently.
But by then, human supremacy had already spread throughout the central continent. They were brutally suppressed.
That repression drove them mad. Having lost their comrades, the coexistence faction hid themselves deeper in the shadows, radicalizing further and further.
—If words won’t work, if they suppress us with force, then we will rise with force—
They transformed into armed groups to protect their beliefs and their comrades. As their organizations grew, so did the severity of the repression they faced, and groups sharing the same ideals sprang up all across the continent.
When multiple organizations share the same goal, a leader naturally emerges. After discussions, they designated the most radical organization at the time, based in the Imperial State, as the headquarters. The organizations that agreed to this began calling themselves branches. That was the beginning of the National Fluffers Alliance. Apparently, they used a different name back then.
However, from its founding, each branch maintained a high degree of independence. They were under constant oppression. An organization that relied on other branches or the headquarters risked collapsing entirely if one link was broken. Therefore, each branch became fully independent, capable of surviving on its own.
As a result, even without a headquarters, organizational operations posed no real problem. At worst, coordination with other branches became difficult. For branches that were independent to begin with, even that wasn’t a major issue.
“Wait. Even so, if the headquarters fell, there’s no way they wouldn’t notice. It’s the headquarters. They should’ve found important documents or classified information.”
“They wouldn’t find any. The Arland branch is the same, we don’t use documents. Everything is passed on verbally. We don’t leave records of facilities, funds, or personnel on paper.
“If we did, then when a branch collapsed, our supporters and hidden comrades would be at risk of being captured. That’s why, inconvenient as it is, we don’t use documents at all. So the Imperial State believes they merely eliminated one facility of a branch. In reality, it was the headquarters.”
Unluckily, the headquarters had been exposed, through some kind of mistake, or perhaps betrayal… no, betrayal was unlikely. Fluffers did not betray their comrades. If there had been betrayal, the Imperial State would have realized it was the headquarters. Most likely, its location was revealed by a simple error, and it was attacked.
Everyone at the headquarters was killed.
“By the way, the name ‘National Fluffers Alliance’ has only been used for about a hundred and fifty years. A prophet named Satu appeared from somewhere and began preaching fluffer doctrine.”
It was said he prophesied that humanity would one day reach flufferhood and achieve universal peace.
Prophet Satu was also skilled at organization. He united the coexistence faction, which had been on the brink of extinction after long persecution, and elevated the movement into the National Fluffers Alliance.
“I… don’t get it.”
“Even among comrades, opinions about him differ.”
His origins were unknown, and there were even theories that he was from another world.
More importantly, in this world, fluffers weren’t just people who liked fluffy things. They included people who liked elves, dwarves, winged folk, halflings, anyone who liked non-humans.
The reason was simple: persecution was so severe that individual factions couldn’t survive on their own, so they were forced to unite into a single organization.
Among the many races, beastfolk were the most numerous after humans, which was why people who liked beastfolk were the largest group. Since fluffers formed the largest faction, the organization took the name National Fluffers Alliance.
That meant even elf-lovers were considered fluffers in this world. An otherworlder would probably shout, “There’s no kemono element at all!”—and they wouldn’t be wrong.
“Anyway, that’s enough about the name. Since the headquarters no longer exists, we can’t request their cooperation.”
“Then how about asking other branches?”
“That won’t work either. The Arland Kingdom branch surpassed twenty thousand members last year, making it the largest force on the continent, but it has no connections to other countries.”
“That’s an absurd number. You could call yourselves the headquarters at that point. Why don’t you have connections?”
At Big Brother’s words, both I and the noble of the Light Side faction grimaced.
“It’s embarrassing to admit, but while the Arland branch has the largest membership, it’s not an exaggeration to say the organization itself is dead.”
The Arland branch was certainly large. But it had two fatal problems.
The first was the absence of a core organization. The shell of a branch existed, but the twenty thousand members were just lone-wolf fluffers, not people belonging to a structured group.
Without leadership, there was no way to communicate with other branches. They couldn’t even decide on organizational policy. It had been thirty years since the previous chairman died of old age, and no one had stepped up. Any attempt to choose one just devolved into fistfights over who would be stuck with the role.
The second problem was that, unlike other branches, the Arland branch had no collectivist ideology. If anything, it represented individualism taken to its extreme.
Why had it turned out this way? Simple. The Arland branch had no purpose.
Fluffers became terrorists in opposition to human supremacy and the human supremacists who oppressed them.
But what about in the Kingdom of Arland? Unlike the central continent, human supremacists were the ones being marginalized there. The kingdom did not permit racial discrimination.
It distinguished between races, but it did not discriminate. That was Arland’s policy.
As a result, the branch had no reason to exist. No core organization was needed, and none was created. There were no vested interests, and no one wanted to endure the hardship of organizing a group of utterly self-centered members.
“It’s big, but the organization’s dead. Even last year, when they held the Grand Fluffers Conference, only seventy people showed up.”
“Princess, you were one of the people who skipped it, you know? I attended.”
“I was playing with a red tabby cat in the neighborhood.”
The members were basically the same as Alicetia. They gathered when they personally felt it was necessary, not when the organization needed them.
“Including me, people in the kingdom’s branch are kind of like ascetic monks.”
“Self-improvement comes first, and belonging to the branch is more of a formality, yes.”
“Then how are you supposed to contact other branches?”
“… It would’ve been nice if they’d decided on a new headquarters after the old one fell.”
“They almost did. It was said the Kingdom of Shaharl branch would become the next headquarters.”
“The Kingdom of Shaharl…”
Several nobles muttered the name with open disgust.
The Kingdom of Shaharl was a nation where half the land was desert. It was also a country that Arlandians, in some ways, hated even more than the Empire. Also known as the Slave Kingdom, it was the central continent’s supplier of slaves, specifically, non-human slaves.
Though it didn’t share a border with Arland, it had previously sent kidnapping organizations into Arland, committing hostile acts against the kingdom. Naturally, Arland had retaliated.
The Granzur Empire was Arland’s sworn enemy, frequently sending armies in attempts to destroy it.
But Arland had a saying: “If you want to kill Imperials, join the army and go to the border.”
Hatred of the Empire had plenty of outlets.
Hatred toward the Kingdom of Shaharl did not. Many Arland citizens were former slaves who had escaped from Shaharl, and they harbored deep resentment toward it.
As a result, simply mentioning Shaharl in Arland was enough to sour many people’s moods.
“So that didn’t happen?”
“Four years ago, the core organization collapsed due to a trap set by the current king. It used to be one of the continent’s strongest militant branches, with eight thousand fluffer soldiers… but now, who knows how many are left. I don’t know the details.”
“Eight thousand? That reminds me of the Blazing Sun.”
One noble murmured nostalgically.
The Blazing Sun was the name of a vigilante group that once ran rampant in the Kingdom of Shaharl.
“Wasn’t their leader, the vigilante Ahmad, executed four years ago as well…?”
“You know about him? He was one of our comrades.”
“Seriously…? So that’s why so many citizens revered him as a hero.”
Vigilante Ahmad was a hero of the Kingdom of Shaharl who freed countless slaves. Many non-humans he saved fled to Arland. There was even a memorial in the capital built by those who mourned his death.
Even Arlandians who despised Shaharl would never speak ill of him. Yet few knew he had been the head of the Shaharl branch.
At one point, there were predictions that Shaharl might become the new headquarters. The idea was that the most actively anti-human-supremacist branch should lead. With the Imperial State’s headquarters gone, it was said Shaharl would unite the branches.
“Other branches are also in dire straits, and there are rumors that some have already fallen. I don’t know if they’d help us.”
After such long persecution, the National Fluffers Alliance had lost much of its strength. The oppression from the Holy Church in particular was severe. The appearance of Prophet Satu had once revived them, but that momentum had faded.
“Sounds difficult… I’ll think about other options on my end.
So, what’s next?”
“Next is the agricultural issue.
At present, the kingdom has enjoyed consecutive bumper harvests, and food supplies are abundant enough to export. However, if population growth continues at this pace, we’ll face food shortages in a hundred years.”
The kingdom’s problems were piling up.
What do you think about this chapter?
