[Japanese Ministry of Dungeons — Ishihara Yukie]
Joker’s Legion invaded Brezil right in the middle of the United States presidential election. The Brezilian army’s resistance was fruitless, and the Legion breached the border before heading south. Gamerica decided to work with Brezil and launched an attack, sending Tomahawk missiles from the Atlantic Ocean, but the operation had been a failure. Howard then had a stroke during a fit of rage and still hadn’t regained consciousness...
News of the Gamerican president’s illness reached the rest of the world in the blink of an eye. An emergency meeting between high-ranking officials was immediately organized at the Ministry of Dungeons to discuss the impact these recent events would have on the Gamerican elections as well as what it meant when it came to the dungeons.
“Howard is still unconscious, and considering his age, it’s highly unlikely that he’ll be able to take on his presidential duties again even if he does wake up. The Vice President, Michael Bates, will take over his duties for the time being, but the elections are in a mere three weeks. The Republican Party will have a hard time putting up another candidate before then...”
“Does that mean the Republican Party will have no other choice but to give up the election? I had assumed that Michael Bates would become their candidate by default in such a case.”
“No, Bates had been designated as running mate, but he didn’t even run during the primary election. On top of that, Howard isn’t dead. His vice president and his family will probably continue campaigning for him. If he doesn’t get better, the runner-up of the primary election will eventually step up, though.”
“The runner-up was...”
“That would be businessman Rock de la Banderas. He runs in the Republican primary every single election and usually loses. Since the current president was also running this time, all the other candidates ended up giving up on the primary before the voting even began. In the end, he was the only one running against Howard. He barely got one percent of the votes, but he’s still the runner-up and the only one who can step up if Howard is incapacitated.”
“That’s ridiculous. Well, we also had such a businessman in Japan, didn’t we? He kept saying smiling was the most important thing and put together the Happy Meal Party or something.”
“Vice Minister. And that name was made up to make fun of him online. De la Banderas would become the Republican Party’s new de facto candidate if Howard doesn’t recover. Still, that doesn’t mean we’ll get to see a proper election. Banderas has already declared he wouldn’t run. Since the elections are in a mere three weeks, I think it’s fairly likely that the Republicans just won’t have a candidate to present, which means the next president will be...”
With Howard’s collapse, the elections were now in the hands of the Democrat Party. Even if Howard recovered in time, it had been proven that his health was far from being as good as he had pretended it was, and gathering supporters again would be difficult. Theodore Roosevelt’s record of being the youngest president of the United States of Gamerica in history was likely to be beaten soon.
“Indeed. It’s very likely to be Peter Wozniak, the Democratic candidate. We’re about to see a major turning point in their foreign policy. Let’s examine his dungeon policies once again.”
They went through the campaign pledges of Peter Wozniak, candidate of the Democrat Party and soon-to-be president of the United States of Gamerica. All in all, Wozniak’s plan concerning the dungeons was simple: he planned to consult Japan and outsource dungeon-clearing endeavors. His program could be summarized in five points.
One: clearing all thirty-one dungeons on Gamerican soil was the most pressing objective. Wozniak would contract the Dungeon Crusaders or Dungeon Busters to achieve this.
Two: Gamerica would join the IDAO—International Dungeon Adventurer Organization—and set up a civilian adventurer initiative so that Gamerican adventurers could enter their dungeons.
Three: Gamerica would use the Japanese Civilian Adventurer Initiative and adventurer crime countermeasures policies as a base. They would then build their own systems within one year, which would be designed to take all of the specificities of their multiethnic society into consideration.
Four: the Joker problem should be approached through both hard and soft power. Gamerica would endeavor to support poorer countries, including Venisuela, while designing countermeasures to face criminals such as Joker. They would push for the creation of a special organization designed to focus on adventurer crimes under Interpol.
Five: the United Nations Security Council as well as the United Nations General Assembly would vote to forbid adventurer and monster cards to be used as part of the military of any country.
“What makes them think we’ll play along after they unilaterally decided to pull out their troops, trampling the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty? Well, that guy is an idealist after all. I guess we could work with them then, depending on the conditions they offer. Should we ask for a cutting-edge nuclear-powered aircraft carrier complete with fighter aircraft?”
“We will need to talk this over with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Defense. To be honest, what interests me the most is his plan concerning Joker. He and his Legion should be closing in on Manaus in the State of Amazonas. This will surely result in a fight with the Brezilian army.”
Ishihara let out a sigh. The job of the vice-minister of the Ministry of Dungeons was to think beyond the scope of Japan. Exchanging information with the IDAO, communicating with the office of the Crusaders within the Vatican, handling the requests of the various Asian countries that asked for adventurers to be dispatched, giving advice on adventure initiatives... The Ministry had a broad range of activities. Ishihara sat at the very top of that organization as Vice-Minister, but that chair was far from comfortable. Actually, it was almost a torture device.
A lot of vice-ministers retire after two years, which goes to show how hard it is to handle this job. Well, I am getting stressed out. I should probably take some time to head to the beauty salon...
Someone called out to Ishihara, and she regained her focus. The Foreign Minister of the Republic of Woori had apparently just departed for Venisuela. The Woorian seemed to be treating these talks as groundwork before the upcoming meeting of the G20 next month.
Ishihara sighed again, exasperated by their thoughtless pursuits.