The Dairam People

Dairam Island, the capital city of Dallon.

In a way, this city, where 500,000 people lived, could be seen as the place where all 10% of the mainlanders lived. In truth, once one went outside the city, the Dairam people ostracized them so severely that proper life was impossible.

It could be said that there were invisible walls both within the island and within the city. Those called the Dairam thoroughly banded together only among themselves and spoke only among themselves. Because of such behavior, the mainlanders living here could not help but feel displeased.

Since it was not something they could really make an issue of, they lived while thoroughly ignoring it. In a situation where they lived while treating each other as if the other were there and not there, the atmosphere had recently been growing quite bad. The distance had existed before as well, but recently it had become even worse.

In the midst of this, a clash even broke out in one tavern. Someone was shouting at a Dairam man.

“Hey, what did you just say!”

“Hmph, what did I say?”

“You just said something insulting about His Majesty the King!”

“How is that an insult?”

“You just said that His Majesty is a crippled bastard who cannot even produce a son!”

The one shouting and pointing his finger was thoroughly a mainlander. On top of that, he was someone who had crossed over within the past half year for the purpose of handling administrative work. In a situation where he had to endure roughly three years in this place he disliked before he could return to the mainland, hearing such words naturally made his anger rise to the top of his head.

“Did I say that?”

At the sight of the other man speaking curtly as if he had no idea what was being talked about, the man grew even more enraged. To speak such words about the king of all things—on the mainland, it would not have been strange if he had been beaten by a group on the very same day. Since he had heard the words directly no matter what, he thought he could not just let it pass like this.

“Do not pretend not to know now! Just for speaking that way about His Majesty, you are already subject to arrest! I am calling the police right now!”

As the man strode toward the place where the telephone was installed as if he truly meant to call the police immediately, the eyes of the people inside the tavern changed. The majority of those present here were Dairam people. To them, the man’s actions looked like nothing other than threatening one of their own.

A stick flew toward the telephone in front of the man just as he was about to reach out to report it, and with a crash! it smashed it apart. At that sight, the man was flustered, but soon raised his voice in anger.

“W-what the hell are you doing!”

“What report? If you pull that kind of nonsense, we will not let it slide!”

“You bastard, why do you keep making our lives miserable!”

“Why are you tormenting an innocent man!”

“What kind of crazy talk is that?!”

In the eyes of the man raising a bewildered voice, the people here looked abnormal. They all seemed out of their minds. The king had been insulted, yet they not only said nothing, they even smashed the telephone when he went to report it. On the mainland, such a thing could never happen.

‘So this is what my superior meant when he told me not to cause friction with the people here if I could help it?’

He had been there for nearly half a year without incident, so he had just let it go, but watching how they behaved, they truly had no sense of respect for the king, and if it was one of their own, they protected them no matter what. Normally, with his fiery temper, he would have fought back against them, but now he judged that he had to retreat.

“Y-you people, can you really do this?”

“What about us!”

“It is because of mainlanders like you that this island keeps staying noisy!”

“Get out right now! Get out of here!”

“Just try making some report. I will break that wrist of yours!”

Everyone was shouting at once. There were certainly mainlanders in this tavern too, but they kept lowering their heads while watching the situation nervously. At such a sight, the man felt this really was a crazy place, and inwardly resolved to wait and see before leaving the tavern.

In the midst of this, the tavern seemed to regain its calm once again. Meanwhile, the Dairam man who had been helped spoke to the people around him as if grateful.

“Thank you for helping me. I will buy everyone a drink. Haha!”

“No need for thanks. As fellow Dairam, we have to help each other and get by.”

“That is right. We have to stick together!”

“I will gladly drink to that! Hahaha!”

Everyone spoke with easy familiarity. If it was a fellow Dairam, they showed a kind and friendly side. Seeing that, the mainlanders who remained could not help but inwardly curse them as lunatics. In truth, they too had heard the words insulting the king, but they were too afraid to step forward.

And so, it seemed that what had happened in the tavern would simply end there. But the man who left the tavern headed straight for the police station. There had been threatening words, but he could not just let this matter pass.

Thirty minutes later.

Seven people entered the tavern. Every one of them was strongly built, and they were wearing police uniforms. In their hands were police batons, and at their waists were pistols in holsters. One man entered as if leading those policemen, then pointed toward one spot and said,

“It is that man over there. I clearly heard with my own ears that he insulted His Majesty the King.”

At that sight, the expressions of those inside the tavern stiffened deeply. In the midst of that, the police entered the interior of the tavern. In truth, all the police in the city of Dallon were composed of mainlanders.

No one serving in any administrative institution or public duty was allowed to be Dairam. In one sense it could be called discrimination, but since they banded together among themselves and ostracized others from the start, they could not be trusted, and for that reason people had long refrained from selecting Dairam for public office.

In any case, one of the policemen approached the man whose face had grown reddish from drinking more alcohol and spoke.

“Good day. There is something I would like to ask. Did you, by any chance, make insulting remarks about His Majesty the King a moment ago?”

“Me? I do not think I did.”

“You would do well to answer properly. This gentleman here says he heard you.”

“If I say I did not, then that is that, so why are you talking so much! Are you taking sides and discriminating just because you are fellow mainlanders?”

“Just answer the question properly. Then would that not be the end of it?”

“This man clearly said that His Majesty the King was a crippled bastard who could not produce a son! When I could not endure hearing that and tried to report it, the people here even smashed the telephone, did they not!”

At the words of the complainant beside them, the expressions of the policemen also turned grim. To speak of the king in such a way—one could not do that unless one was mad. And indeed, they could see that the telephone was really smashed. It felt like a very credible situation.

At that moment, the Dairam people watching began stepping forward. Just as before, they came out tightly gathered together.

“Hey, is that not going too far?”

“That is right. The police are going too far, ganging up on one man!”

“What is this, discrimination against us or what!”

“Boo! Get out!”

Boooo-

The people inside the tavern were throwing the side dishes from the tables and jeering. At such behavior, unpleasantness began to appear little by little on the policemen’s faces. To begin with, the police did not like the Dairam people here.

Not only did they fail to cooperate properly with public safety activities, but it was not just once or twice that they had gone so far as to shield criminals when there were any.

“Will you not stop this at once!”

At the policeman’s furious shout, the jeering of the people only grew louder. Faced with such behavior, the patience in the hearts of the policemen could not help but disappear. Before long, they were striking the tables with their batons, bang bang! Only then did the jeering stop.

“If you keep this up, know that we can take all of you in for obstruction of official duty!”

“Do not move and stay still!”

“If anyone there even twitches, I will throw it!”

A few people looked as though they were about to throw plates, and the police gave a harsh warning, which made the atmosphere turn savage. In that atmosphere, the policeman who had first asked the questions decided there was no helping it and seized the arm of the man accused of insulting His Majesty the King.

“For now, you will have to come to the station and be investigated.”

“Let go of me!”

“Do not resist and stay still!”

Thud! They forced him to the floor, twisted his arm, and began putting handcuffs on him. At that sight, the onlookers leaped to their feet in agitation. Then they shouted as if asking what they thought they were doing.

“What do you think you are doing! Why are you trying to drag him away by force!”

“Stop that at once! Just because you are police, you think you can do anything!”

“Release him right now!”

Crash! A plate thrown by someone shattered, and fragments scattered in all directions. At that sight, one of the policemen seemed unable to endure it any longer, shoved aside his baton, drew the pistol at his waist, and pulled the trigger toward the ceiling.

Bang!

“Nobody move!”

Only then did they flinch at the gunshot. When it came to guns, they all had no choice but to quiet down. Meanwhile, the fellow policemen were concerned that a gun had even been used, but soon thought there was no helping it considering how those people were behaving.

In the end, the man was dragged away, and the police, along with the complainant, left the tavern. Outside, people had already gathered in large numbers because of the gunshot. At that sight, the policemen could not help but naturally place their hands on the guns at their waists.

If all the gathered people threatened them, they would have no choice but to use firearms. Fortunately, since the crowd did not know the circumstances, they were able to load him into the police car and go to the police station without incident. Then, when the next day came, many people began gathering at the entrance to the police station.

There were at least tens of thousands gathered. Whatever they had heard overnight, all of them were stepping forward to defend the Dairam man arrested at the tavern the night before.

“Release the Dairam man you arrested at once!”

“We oppose discrimination! Why did you arrest an innocent Dairam man!”

“The police even fired guns while threatening the Dairam people! Apologize at once!”

As so many people gathered, the police had no choice but to pour out and block the entrance. Then they tried to explain last night’s events and disperse the crowd.

[The person arrested yesterday was arrested because the crime of insulting His Majesty the King was confirmed! Therefore, disperse at once!]

That was what the police said over loudspeakers, but they could not persuade the Dairam people. Faced with the reality that it was like speaking to a wall, the police could only feel sick of it. They even began to wonder whether those people possessed normal reasoning at all.

Even so, they thought they would absolutely never release the person they had arrested.

They had already secured witnesses among those who had been at the tavern the day before. In a situation where the crime was all but certain, they could not let him go. If it had been another matter, that would be one thing. They could have shown some degree of compromise. But in a situation like this, the crime of using words and conduct that insulted the king was something from which they could absolutely not retreat.

Word of this incident had already reached the mainland as well, and in response, the central police bureau had not only ordered the case to be thoroughly investigated, but had even sent down an order for the culprit to be transferred to the mainland.

“Release him right now!”

“We oppose discrimination!”

“A false confession is not the truth!”

The people still kept shouting for the arrested Dairam man to be released. Seeing how they would not listen at all, the police could not help but feel anger surging within them. To think such people were called fellow citizens of the same Polia Kingdom—everyone could not help but wonder whether they were really people of the same nation.

As time passed, the number of people flooding in continued to grow. In response, additional police arrived after support had been requested, but even then they numbered only around a thousand. Of course, it made a difference that they were armed, but with tens of thousands of people continuing their protests, the pressure had no choice but to grow.

Once another day passed, the area around the police station was already packed with as many as 100,000 people. Before long, this incident had come to be seen by the Dairam people as something that absolutely had to be resolved. No matter how much the police explained the situation, they would not believe it.

Rather, they thought they were being oppressed through discrimination and false words. Unless someone had planted this perception behind the scenes, such a thing would have been impossible. In truth, this incident really was something in which someone had interfered. Agents had been planted, and those people were misleading ordinary citizens so that the flames would burn even hotter.

At that time, one piece of information came in to the police. It was none other than the fact that the public official who had first filed the complaint had been murdered. Not only were his arms and legs broken, but he had been hung on a pole and placed conspicuously in the middle of the city. Around his neck was a placard, and the words written on it were these:

[Blood Justice for Discriminators!]

In such a situation, some policemen stepped forward and recovered the corpse, but even this action drew curses from the Dairam people. As the situation grew more and more violent, it was judged that this could no longer continue, and in the end, troops were even mobilized.

With tanks and soldiers entering toward the city center, the situation could only become more serious. In the midst of this, the man at the center of the incident was secretly removed from the police station and sent to the mainland.

He was put on a ship in the dead of night and sent away, and when the Dairam people learned of this belatedly, they reacted with even greater fury. The situation was steadily worsening.