CHAPTER 287: CHAPTER 210: THE LAST SAMURAI

A lot of things in this world are easy to talk about.

Especially after humanity stepped into the information age, it became extremely easy for most people to gain knowledge. As a result, everyone can brag about how much they know—doesn’t matter if it’s aerospace or embroidery or birdkeeping, fixing toilets or astronomy and geography, grab any modern person and they can talk like an expert. Give them a beer and a pig’s tail, and they’ll chat away all night while drinking and munching.

But talking is just talking. Same goes for chatting. When it comes to real life, it’s always easy to know but hard to do.

So many times, the moment you really want to do something, you suddenly realize—fuck, it’s actually crazy hard, you have no clue where to even begin.

Nozawa wants to nationalize the Wanjin system, or at least give it the shape of a real country, make it a bit more official, make it look like something serious. But after coming home from the Wanjin theater, he’s racked his brain for days and still can’t make a decision.

What political system should he use?

Which path should he take?

Should he make himself Emperor? I mean, since he’s traveled through time already, playing Emperor feels pretty silly, like becoming a disgrace to all transmigrators. But as a modern person, if you time-travel and just circle back to old habits, isn’t that just as embarrassing? Did all those years of book-reading go to waste?

Should he start a revolution against himself? Give up his vanity?

Or maybe do something special for these unique circumstances—if history demands it, maybe he has to be Emperor for a while. But then, should he be a traditional monarch, or go for some kind of constitutional monarchy?

Should he adopt separation of powers? Should power be locked in a cage?

Sometimes knowing too much isn’t a good thing. The more you know, the more options you have, and the more options, the more you get stuck. Right now, Nozawa is super stuck.

He locked himself in his house for seven or eight days, pacing in circles. If he’d been a millstone he could’ve ground three or five bushels of soybeans and churned out dozens of buckets of soy milk. In the end... he gave up.

He figured he just wasn’t cut out for this kind of thing, couldn’t think it through. So...

Knowing and doing need to be unified, but sometimes doing needs to come before knowing—only when you start something do you figure out how to actually do it. Otherwise it’s all just empty talk.

Yeah, that sounds a bit convoluted and kind of dumb, but so many things in life are just like that. There’s nothing you wait until you’re fully ready to do—you just have to get moving.

Learn while doing, reflect while learning, tinker and fix as you go.

No political system or route in this world is flawless, and there’s no guarantee any of them suit him or this era. Nozawa tossed aside all those complicated thoughts and decided to use this rare moment of peace around him to start from basics—step one: get rid of the Samurai in Wanjin’s territory!

Yep, which means first stripping himself of his own Samurai status, and incidentally doing the same for Ah Man, Ah Qing, and Maeshima Shichiro.

Ah Man was dumbfounded by this. After being called over with Ah Qing and Maeshima Shichiro, she could hardly believe it: "Huh? I’ve only been a Samurai for a few years and I can’t be one anymore? Then what am I supposed to be after this?"

"You’re still you, of course. Just Ah Man." Nozawa pulled out the "Wanjin Equality Order (draft)" she was holding, and handed it to Ah Qing and Maeshima Shichiro, tossing off a reply.

Ah Man was still confused. She glanced down at the wakizashi and tachi at her waist, baffled: "So I can’t carry swords anymore?"

"That doesn’t matter. You’re in charge of intelligence and supervision work in Wanjin, so you’ve got every right to carry weapons openly."

"Then what’s the difference from before?"

Nozawa explained patiently: "There’s no more personal attachment relationships. Wanjin will not allow any sort of personal bondage from now on. No one can have privileges in the usual sense anymore."

Ah Man still didn’t get it, and asked in confusion: "What do you mean? Personal what? What are you on about?"

Nozawa was speechless for a bit, then sighed helplessly: "It means you don’t have to call me Lord anymore, we’re not in a master-retainer relationship."

Ah Qing, who’d just been standing around as background, immediately looked over in shock, and Ah Man was even more floored: "I’m being banished? What did I do wrong that I’m being banished?"

"You didn’t do anything wrong, it’s just that we don’t need this kind of relationship anymore. Wanjin people won’t need it either, and not even I can forcibly seize anyone else for myself." Nozawa explained patiently, "Only by ending these personal bondage relationships and enshrining it in law, so everyone accepts and follows it, can we talk about protecting private property, can we push all kinds of policies. This is the foundation. It’s essential."

"But I need it! I volunteered to become a Household Retainer!" Ah Man protested. She hadn’t been "the Nozawa family’s top scribe and junior Family Elder" for very long, and now she was somehow being ousted?

How is she supposed to go swaggering around outside in Nozawa’s name now?

And how will she keep getting all that respect in Wanjin?

And how’s she supposed to randomly kick people’s butts?

If things get equal, if she kicks someone’s butt, that’s against the law? Same as beating another Samurai? If someone fights back, she can’t just draw her sword and chop them up anymore?

Isn’t that outrageous?

Nozawa ignored her. He’s always been pretty stubborn, and cut straight to the chase: "Doesn’t matter if you want to or not, it’s against the law. And this is Wanjin’s first official law. As a senior official, you have to set an example and carry it out!"

Ah Man couldn’t help touching her sword hilt, tempted to give her Lord a couple of slashes. She started fishing for arguments: "What about loyalty? I... what about them—who do we give our loyalty to now? If no one is loyal to anyone, isn’t that total chaos?"

Nozawa said directly: "Give your loyalty to Wanjin!"

"Wanjin is yours! Doesn’t that mean I’m still loyal to you?"

"For now it is. But... from now on everyone has to obey the law. Even me. I’ll have only nominal privileges... probably..." Nozawa still hadn’t figured every detail out. No way to plan it all out before acting, just have to take it as it comes. He said seriously, "Same for me: I’ll have to pledge loyalty to Wanjin, too. So no more people attached to others, no one owns anyone anymore."