“How did your time go at the camp?” one of the grandchildren asked.

“It worked out surprisingly well. At first it seemed more like boot camp or a military prison, but eventually it became more of a regular work camp with a regular schedule and plenty of education. Before too long I found myself doing more than working on digging fence posts in the camp itself, but working with the garden and even helping build a bridge over the Western river and working on designing a town outside of Point Pleasant camp that would serve as the border town for the area. That work, in turn, brought me attention from the palace and once my time in the camp was done, I went to the palace to serve, where I have served ever since then.”

“That sounds like fun,” the children said.

“It was work, but it was rewarding work.”

“How did you meet grandma?” one of the grandchildren said.

“That is another story. We will have to save that for another day, if you don’t mind.”

“That’s okay, grampa,” the children said, hugging him.

***********************************************************************************

It was hard for me to express what I felt about the story, having heard it. For sure, I thought the Bravians were a very unusual people for organizing their society the way it did. It would be hard to imagine a country that was as religious as the Bravians that would not believe in forgiving someone outright for a sign that had obviously been done without malice, or that a nation, having a rather severe form of punishment, would not exceed what was just and punish someone without the chance of providing a way back from judgment. I wondered how such a case as this one would be judged in our own land, O dread sovereign, and I was perplexed. A Marxist revolutionary would surely face very serious punishment, but to have the chance to recover a good enough reputation to serve in the palace would be unheard of.

Though I was very puzzled by the story and its details, and did not think that our country would ever have a ceremony as solemn and as strange as the living death, nor have a citizenry that would be anything but deeply discouraged by the thought of losing property and political rights, I was deeply honored to hear the story from the mouth of the person who had gone through this himself. And, truth be told, the young man who had unwittingly brought revolutionary materials into a deeply paranoid country did not end up doing too badly for himself. He was able to be a palace courtier, marry, and have a large and successful family, and to be honored in the sunset years of his life with a place to live in the palace where he was able to entertain guests as well as show his obvious affection for his family. That is something that any people can appreciate.

One thing that this story did not do, though, was to make our own efforts at building a peaceful relationship with this nation any easier. To be sure, they are very different as a nation than we are, even though we both would be considered as anti-Marxist nations, broadly speaking. As a nation they are both far more strict and far more generous than we are. And just as they are very concerned about the dangerous influence of ideas coming into their country, there are many nations who would be just as concerned about the influence of that country on their own population. As a matter of fact, there is a matter of interest in precisely that area that I will recount to you next, after giving the necessary context as to how I came across this knowledge.