I started the conversation, "Have you lived here for awhile?"

"Hm? I’ve been here since I was a kid."

Good, this guy looks like he would talk after buying him a few drinks.

"Sure then, sit where you like."

"Ooh, thanks."

Understanding my intent, Mirai handed the man some strong alcohol as soon as he sat down.

He was enchanted by Mirai and started acting suspiciously.

Heh, my Mirai was cute, wasn’t she? I would not give her to anybody.

Sekrit raised her voice slightly to provoke him,

"If you’re a man, chug it. None of that small sipping like a girl."

"Y..You mean this? Well, if a beauty like you says so. I’ll do it!"

Spurred on by Sekrit, the man instantly emptied his glass.

Good thing he didn’t realize she was snickering.

He started his tales. He seemed like a mercenary.

"―so I took out the wolves that entered the town."

"Amazing." The girls pretended cheering him while clapping hands  

"Impressive."

"I told the merchant who tried to trick me."

"Amazing."

"Impressive."

Reina and Mirai gave simple responses to acknowledge the random stories of the red-faced man. While Suzy beside him purposely lowered her chest so that he could see her cleavage.

When he got really drunk, he started to tell the important stories.

"This Veria has quite the energetic vibe. I would have thought this place didn’t have long to go after the recent war."

"The noble family who had been ruling us for a century were annihilated...but things have been prosperous ever since Her Excellency Selena Somaxin started ruling, and people came from farm villages all over. It feels like there are way more people than before her conquest."

I see.

When Suzy moved her big breasts just beneath his head to fill up his empty glass, the man ogled her.

What a shameful face.

I hoped I didn’t look like this.

"With the increase in population, there was a shortage of everything from houses to cups. That’s why everybody had jobs. You could literally start any shop and do well. ......because of that, there have also been complaints about there being too many amateur shops though."

The main road was definitely filled with all those barkers, and I guessed everyone ended up getting customers regardless.

"By the way, where do you work?" I asked.

He seemed like the type to work as a barker for one of those dubious-looking shops.

"I’m a trueborn citizen of Veria. I ain’t working at any store run by unreliable guys."

"Oh, so you work at an old-time business?"

He looked down.

"Those kinds of shops have employees who’ve worked there for a long time...... and have to stick to strict traditions......"

So actually, he was currently jobless. I wanted to ask more but he seemed too drunken.

"So in other words, you’re unemployed."

When Reina bluntly chimed in, the man collapsed on the table.

She must have thought he was drunk enough that flattery was no longer necessary.

looks down.

"Lazy."

"......questionable......I guess."

"Useless bum."

Sekrit, Mirai, suzy followed up and brought the man to tears.

"Uoooooooooo, it can’t be helped! I hate physical labor and service jobs are too troublesome. Running a business doesn’t make enough money!"

As the girls could no longer stand him, I had to play the role to cheer him.

"You’re right, you can’t do anything about it. Here, have a drink."

He seemed pitiful so I refilled his glass.

Perhaps he was happy I was on his side, but he started to talk more at me.

"I still manage to get by everyday despite being unemployed, and that’s all due to Her Excellency Selena making food very cheap. I think it’s one tenth what it was...... no, maybe more. Apparently the country is buying food in directly and selling it to the merchants at a discount."

Hooh, that’s amazing.

Selena must be a "socialist" then.

"Everything has gone right ever since Her Excellency Selena ruled. Disease and famine are gone. Job opportunities are overflowing...... even though I don’t have one. At first there were some guys who opposed the motion forbidding the church of Trinity, but the quality of life kept improving and they disappeared before I knew it."

People tend to forget most other things when they had a roof to sleep under, food to eat and alcohol to drink.

It might be a sad thing for the girls I knew though.

"Shhh. Lower your voice! It’ll be trouble if the guards hear you. ――well, you’re right, that’s the only thing not allowed. Priests and believers would gather together to start fires or riot in opposition of Her Excellency before and after the new Orlais was established. Since then, just holding a cross symbol will get you taken away!"

He exaggerated his movements and gulped down more alcohol.

I think that’s all I’ll get from him.

As thanks, I would let him drink lots. I put 10 silver coins in the table.

"Hey. mister. His drinks are all on me!" I called the bartender.

At that moment, I felt someone’s hand plantes firmly on my shoulder.

I turned to see two dirty guys.

"Hey man, you have a nice body. Won’t you join the army?"

"The job pays more than a laborer. A private gets 1 gold a month and then you get 4 gold if you become a captain of 10 soldiers."

It seemed as Selena also had a heavy emphasis on recruiting.

"Sorry. I already have jobs. Instead, why don’t you take this guy?"

I pointed to the drunken talkative guy with us.

This was perfect timing for an unemployed person like him.

"......this one? He seems scrawny and a bit dumb."

"He’s unhealthy either. I guess we’ll stop for today. If you guys change your mind, feel free to let us know."

The two men left.

We also retired for the night.

Before that, I ordered another bottle of alcohol for the sobbing man.

The girls stared at him as if looking down at disgusting garbage.

Just forget about everything that happened.

***

The next day, we left the inn in the morning.

Before we head out, I wanted to see all of Veria.

While looking around, we come across a place which seemed particularly busy.

"Is that a market or something?"

"Wait here. I will take a look."

Reina smoothly and skillfully weaved through the crowd. As expected of a thief.

As expected of someone with her agility.

I would have pushed everyone out of the way.

"There’s a theatre up ahead. They’re doing a play right now." She said after returning.

"Wow. It's rare to have a theatre. The last time I saw was in Abram city." I praised this town.

"Oh, boring. I thought there was a public execution going on."

Sekrit had lost interest.

Mirai fidgeted restlessly, wanting to look around the town more than she wanted to check out a play.

"......I ......am a little curious."

Then we would take a look.

It would be mainly for entertainment and maybe it would give us an insight on something.

The play had already started when we entered the theatre.

"Wahahahaha! I’m taking your daughter!"

"You can’t! I’ve already given you the older daughter just last month!"

The scene appeared to be depicting an evil-looking man taking away the daughter of the feeble elderly man laying prostrate on the floor.

"Two of your daughters will be offered to the great noble. You should be honored!"

"Bullshit! I know you’re doing bad things to the girls you gather!."

"Ooh shut it! I will deliver divine punishment to a traitor like you!"

The evil man drew his sword.

Even though I knew it’s a play, this kind of scene disgusted me.

I grabbed Reina’s and Suzy’s asses.

The one who appeared at that moment was a lady dressed in pristine clothing.

My hands stopped rubbing asses.

"I am Selena Saxon! How dare you great nobles stealing of daughters and the slaying of an old man!? You shall be punished!"

So, this play was about corrupted noble and the actress played as Selena who was the protagonist.

 The villain was portrayed as totally bad while Selena was like goddess of justice.

First, Selena fought and defeated the great nobles.

Afterwards, Selena in the play got into the church of Trinity which made people suffer under the name of God, punished the religious leaders, and finally overthrew the Pope.

By the way, the Pope was some villainous middle-aged man who was made to look like a monster that used suspicious magic repeatedly.

Selena then defeated the rules of Dioral, saved the people and united the countries into one nation. It was an ending where everybody lived happily ever after.

It’s a nonsensical development, immediately reminding me of propaganda movies of my original world.

"The dialogue and acting were sketchy to say the least......" Suzy who used to watch theatres in Abram gave her negative commentary.

The quality of acting was very bad. Suzy, Reina and Mirai gradually lost interest the more they watched.

Nevertheless, the local spectators were fired up.

Unlike me who watched a lot of movies in my previous modern world and Suzy who watched theatres in her hometown Abram, large majority of the people here must not have seen any plays before and nothing to compare to.

By the way, the play was sponsored by the Saxon coalition government so the theatre fee was free.

We also watched a few other plays performed at no cost.

The genres varied from love story to action-adventure, but the similarity in all of them was the villain, who was either a believer of Trinity or somebody from great noble of Orlais.

"Was there a need to deliberately make Orlais the villain in this story?"

".... seems...... forced an fake "

Reina and Mirai also noticed something was off.

That was only because they read books and watched other plays.

Almost all the citizens here could not be said to have done so.

I had this feeling of disgust inside me.

After we finished watching the play and exited the theatre, we found people crowding around a sign on the street corner.

Was it a proclamation of sorts?

"......an advertisement for military recruits and a notice on the penalty for a criminal. A man was executed for the sins of rape and murder―― stress that he was noble of Orlais."

I looked closer and saw a man declaring loudly beside the sign.

"This man who is no less than a demon didn’t give up even after being captured by guards! He tried to bribe them with 10 gold so he can escape! Selena’s guards resolutely rejected it! Justice prevails over evil and the man was finally hanged!"

I see, that guy was reading out the announcement.

A lot of citizens probably couldn’t read.

"Still, he’s exaggerating quite a bit." The happy go lucky Suzy couldn't hide her irritation.

"He’s......good...at spinning facts..." I accidentally uttered the words. 

He’s speaking about things not explicitly mentioned in the announcement, but the story was put together well enough that it’s uncertain how much of it was true.

He’s a skilled enough speaker that he’s almost like a political orator in my previous modern world.

"Justice is with Her Excellency! The rich and the sinners will be punished while the poor will not suffer for false crimes!" 

"Aah, and yet the wicked noble of Orlais continued to remain in the land of Her Excellency, how many more blameless citizens will they swallow up!?"

"Let’s go."

"Yes."

There was no point listening the lies anymore.

When we left, the hole we opened up was soon filled by other people.

Everyone was paying close attention to the speaker.

It wasn’t an abnormal scene in my previous world. I was political activist in my previous modern world. 

Regardless, I couldn’t help feeling something cold in my heart.