Enlightened Empire

Chapter 220 Lessons Between Lessons

On most days, Saniya’s royal school would be dominated by a studious, but light-hearted atmosphere. However, an air of deference permeated the school grounds on this day, as if all the students were holding their breaths. After all, for the first time since the start of the war, the head teacher was back on campus grounds. For the first time in several months, Corco was heading classes again.

As his first lecture of the day, he taught one of a series of special classes, ones he had arranged to make up for a prior lack of attention put on some aspects of the administration. Yet despite his best efforts, some of his students had proven resilient to learning. With tired eyes, Corco stared at the collection of bald-headed priests seated in front of him. These were the people he had chosen to be his first judges, and he was starting to his regret decision.

"No, I don’t ’intend to joke’. Your personal feelings on any legal issue should be suppressed as much as possible. I know you can’t always do that, that there will always be some amount of personal bias involved in your judgments. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t at least strive for impartiality. Though at the same time, the laws are sufficiently vague to give you some room you can operate in. After all, you can’t design perfect laws that account for any possible human action, so we need some flexibility. However, you need to meet me halfway here. You still need to move within that flexible framework, not around it. If that somehow goes against your personal convictions, you need to put the law above your convictions. As a judge, you embody the law first and foremost, so the law always comes first, and your own opinions are a distant second. You are free to disagree with this view of course. But in that case, you can’t be a judge anymore. Not here at least, not in my kingdom. If you consider the role of judge a position of power rather than a natural extension of Saniya’s laws, then you will be better off back in the temples, preaching to the masses."

Halfway through his last sentence, the large, mechanical clock in the corner struck for noon. Despite the copious show of hands, Corco slowly got up from his seat in front of the class.

"Okay, that’s enough for today. Please try to internalize what I’ve told you today about the basics of a judge’s proper attitude and conduct. If you’re not convinced that you can fulfill that role, please note it with the administration and you can return to your previous work. There will be no punishment if you do so, and you will still receive remuneration for the work you’ve done so far. After all, not everyone is made to be a judge. All of you who are will return here tomorrow, when I’ll talk about the proper ways to structure a court case in a fair and impartial manner. Class dismissed."

Once the king had finished his talk, the new judges of Saniya stood up and collected their writing utensils. Paper, quill and ink were always supplied by the school, so everyone had the chance to record their own insights during class. As the king watched the group of hopeful young judges leave the room one by one, a light sigh escaped his lips. All these people had been either apprentice priests in Saniya and the Chawir marches, or traveling priests from throughout the southern kingdom. As a result, all their personal opinions were somewhat skewed in a certain direction.

While he had wanted to establish the judicial branch of his government early, he hadn’t expected the war with Pacha to come so soon. Thus, he had been forced to abandon the new judges to their own devices for far too long, without any proper direction. While some of them had tried their best to adhere to Corco’s spirit in the administration of justice and at least loosely kept to Saniya’s written laws, many had seen their new role as a chance to rid the world of whatever they considered its greatest evils.

As a result, some of the priests had done outrageous things. Some people had been convicted because they drank too much alcohol, others because they hadn’t prayed enough at the Pacha shrines. At this point, it was high time for Corco to step in and properly teach his judges a thing or two about the impartiality of the law.

Of course, this was only the first of many different classes he had to teach. He hadn’t forgotten about the Chutwa doctors either, and then there was also his regular classes, which consisted of his accountants, his friends and the verdant prince and princess. Overall, it was a tight schedule for a single teacher, on top of juggling all his regular work as a king. At least he had the chance to do some of the work on the go, which saved him some time.

One such piece of work waited for Corco at the classroom entrance, his arms crossed inside the sleeves of his long, dirty gray-blue robes.

"King Corco, thank you very much for allowing this mortal to listen in on your lectures," Watachay said as he bowed. Ever since he had arrived in Saniya, the young priest had stuck around to take in the sights and – Corco assumed – get a handle on the goals behind Corco’s involvement with the local priests. Not that the king really minded too much. The grand readers had every right to observe the goods before they made any commitment to support him. As far as he was concerned, this was just good and proper customer service.

"No worries. One more face in the room doesn’t make much of a difference to me. You seem quite popular though." Corco grinned. As the new judges had filed out of the classroom, all of them had offered respectful bows to the guest who had stayed behind.

"They overestimate me," Watachay said, his cheeks turning a light shade of red from the attention. "In the end, it is not me they respect, but my status. The grand reader of Mount Urquna is a name that rings throughout all of Yakuallpa."

"But isn’t that how the priesthood works? Status over personality? I thought you threw away your old names once you become priests and take on titles instead? Wasn’t the whole point that you would become an embodiment of the position and leave behind earthly attachments? Or were my old teachers wrong?"

"Of course King’s teachers made no mistake in his education. For now however, I am still far too young for such lofty thoughts. I am only an apprentice, and thus do not deserve to carry a true title, nor do I deserve such high praise from my peers."

Corco nodded his head in response and left it at that. Although he wasn’t a huge fan of this impersonal aspect of the Pacha faith, he wouldn’t insist on an argument. At best he would seem ignorant, and at worst heretical.

"We have a few minutes until the next set of classes start. Mind eating together?" he asked instead.

"I would be honored, King Corcopaca."

As they walked through the school’s halls, the young priest looked entranced by the campus’ airy architecture all around them, as well as by the lively student atmosphere. The many young Saniya children who came here to learn the basic foundations of knowledge really added a flair of life and innocence that was hard to find anywhere else in this world. Where but here could so many children just study at their own leisure, without having to fear hunger or persecution?

"I wonder, King Corco... what would happen if the laws were not perfectly aligned with the beliefs of the priests?" the young monk asked out of nowhere. Although it ruined the nice atmosphere for the king, he still had to answer. If he screwed up, it might just ruin his cooperation with the priests.

"I mean what I said. If they don’t stick to my laws, they can’t be judges. Rather, if they break the laws, they can’t stay inside my territory at all. I think that would be the same for any of the priests, whether they are judges or not."

"However, would such harsh treatment not divide the priests into those who are loyal to King and support his vision on one side, and those who believe King to be in the wrong on the other? The priests have always been neutral, an entity apart from Medala’s system of hierarchy. Yet now, some of them are employed by the crown, and in real danger of becoming a king’s subordinates."

For a moment, Corco looked at the young priest in surprise, but he got a hold of his features before anyone could notice any problems. Of course, more direct control over the powerful caste of priests in Medala was one of the reasons he had decided to give them the position of judges. However, he had considered his approach quite sneaky and hadn’t expected anyone to notice for quite a while, least of all a young priest who struggled with the basics of meditation.

Of course Corco couldn’t admit his plans, even though he had been called out. No matter how open Watachay may have appeared so far, he was still a priest and would fiercely oppose any attempts to secularize the country.

"I don’t think that’s the case," Corco lied after a short pause. "In the end, I’m not employing priests, I’m employing judges. It’s just that my judges coincidentally also work as priests for now. In the future, the background of my judges will become more diverse, as the education of my citizens improves. So it’s not like I’m aiming at the priests in particular. Any one priests who disagrees with any laws I make is free to quit as a judge, and then leverage his influence as a priest to convince the people of the false ways of their king. After all, I have no laws against speaking one’s mind. Further..."

Corco looked through the columns of the walkway, past the garden and out into the cloudy sky. Ever since he had gained his new knowledge, he had spent countless hours thinking about religion and what it meant to him. Before the incident, he had been a devout Pacha faithful, so the knowledge of a world without Pacha had weighed heavy on his mind. After he had gone through a prolonged crisis of faith, he had found his own answers, and regained his clarity in the process. It wouldn’t be bad to share his ideas with a young priest who still had a malleable mind, he felt.

"I believe that some of the priests are too narrow-minded in what they consider Pacha faith. In these lands, the religion of Pacha has been around for a very long time, for much longer than even the Medala Empire itself. Over the millennia, it has remained true to itself at its core, but proven incredibly adaptable when it comes to details. It has integrated all kinds of people, cultures and customs. If you travel around the country, you will find countless expressions of faith, all under the same religion, and all so very different. Even entire pantheons of gods have been swallowed and declared Divines of Pacha. As far as I see it, everyone has their own view on what ’faith to Pacha’ means, and I don’t believe the priests should have a monopoly on interpretation. Rather, they should be spiritual guides, to help people find their own way, about what Pacha means to them."

"And what does Pacha mean to you, King Corco?" Before, Watachay had spoken in a more casual tone, but now he was almost breathless, with a deep reverence in his voice. It reminded the king of the first time he had met the young priest at the top of the mountain, so it made him smile.

"Well," Corco began, "Pacha is the earth, the stars and everything in between. That much every faithful can agree on. You priests have spent countless years trying to understand Pacha by staring at the stars, or into the water, or the earth. At the same time, everyone, all the people who were created by Pacha, as part of Pacha, have spent countless years trying to improve themselves and the world around them. That’s the natural instinct of people, to strive for improvement, for progress. I think as a society, it should be our purpose to observe and understand the world, to uncover all its secrets, as far as the limited human mind can comprehend them. On a more personal level, I believe that it is every person’s responsibility to do as much with their time as they can, and to strive for perfection in whatever they do. Be it a craft, an art, or a science, everyone should aim to uncover all its intricacies and pass them on to the next generation, in an eternal, ever-growing spiral. That’s my belief. It’s my own, personal answer for what it means to believe."

At this point, the young priest also sported a small smile, to match the king’s

"I believe some of the older readers would consider your view quite unorthodox, King Corco."

*Rather than unorthodox, I’m sure some would call me a heretic. How dare I take this much power out of their hands?*

Nervous, Corco waited for Watachay’s own judgment. Although he trusted that the young priest would be more open to his unconventional ideas than most Pacha priests, the king’s frank attitude had still been a gamble.

"Yet I cannot find any fault in king’s thoughts, nothing that contradicts the old teachings. I do not believe anyone has ever thought about Pacha in such a way, yet I cannot help myself but wish to agree with King’s sentiment," Watachay said at last.

"Well, you have your whole life left to come up with holes in my world view," the king joked and hit the priest’s shoulder. It was hard for him to contain his relief. "Now let’s go, I hear our ships have brought home some of the Garum from the northern kingdom yesterday. Ocaza-brand, the good stuff. Can’t wait to dig in."

And so, a thoughtless king and a thoughtful priest went to grab lunch together.