“Um, you two, is something the matter?” Poncho asked hesitantly, sensing the abnormal atmosphere between them.

Having been addressed by him, Komain was the first to come back to her senses. “Oh, that’s right. Poncho, I’ve brought the list of newly arrived refugees.”

“Well, well. Thank you for your hard work, yes.”

When Komain turned over the papers to Poncho, the oppressive vibe she had been getting from the maid vanished. In fact, the maid bowed to her and said, “I’ll go prepare tea now,” then left the room.

While there was still a question mark floating over Komain’s head at her sudden change in attitude, Poncho spoke.

“I’m sorry it seems we kept you waiting, yes,” he apologized as he perused the documents.

“Oh, no. Um... Do you have a lot of people expressing interest in marrying you?”

“Y-Yes. Let’s see. From what I hear, many of the unmarried men among His Majesty’s vassals have been receiving such offers, yes. Even I have received a fair number. If Madam Serina, who is the head maid at the castle, hadn’t handled them for me, I’m sure things would have gotten even worse, yes.”

Serina... Is that the incredibly beautiful maid from before? If she’s the head maid in the castle, she must be highly capable.

Poncho put on a troubled smile. “Of course, maybe it’s because of the way I look. I’ve received an awful lot of offers to discuss the prospect, but not one of them has worked out, yes. I’m often told, ‘Actually, let’s call the whole thing off,’ the moment they see my face at the interview.”

Huh? Does that mean...

Komain recalled the moment of first entering the room. She’d seen the kindly Poncho, and the super beautiful maid Serina standing behind him.

Yeah... That was the first barrier. For those who had a little confidence in their appearance and thought they could easily seduce Poncho, when they saw Serina’s beautiful face, they were likely to beat a hasty retreat. Even if they held their ground, the next thing to hit them would be that wave of intimidation from Serina. The average woman probably couldn’t withstand that pressure.

Even Komain had felt something akin to the kind of shudder she would feel if she encountered a large wolf.

“Serina has been kind enough to manage things, so I feel bad for her, yes,” Poncho said apologetically.

No, isn’t it Serina’s fault that none of these offers have worked out?!

Komain nearly said that out loud, but the maid interrupted.

“Pardon me. I’ve brought the tea.” Serina brought in the tea with what felt like carefully planned timing, so the words never left Komain’s mouth.

While she was drinking the delicious tea, Komain’s mind spun in confused circles. Madam Serina is getting in the way of Sir Poncho’s marriage offers? But why? Since she was sent from the castle, is that under His Majesty’s orders? No, that can’t be right. I can’t see the king doing anything so nasty. Then is it her own will? Does she have something against Sir Poncho, maybe?

While Komain was thinking that, Poncho gently began talking to her. “How are the former refugees these days? Is there anything troubling them?”

“Oh, right,” Komain said. “Everyone is getting used to life here. It’s a gradual process, but I’m getting fewer requests for mediation than before.”

“That’s good, yes. Peace is the most important thing.”

“It is. From my standpoint as a community organizer, I feel it’s a load off my shoulders, and I’m relieved. At the same time, I have less and less to do, so I’ve been thinking of starting up something new. Sir Poncho...you’re as busy as ever, aren’t you?”

“Yes. In addition to my work as governor, I also have to meet all the people making proposals, and His Majesty has instructed me to study something new, too. So I’m busy, yes.”

Poncho looked at the mountain of books beside his desk and sighed.

“Study...? What exactly?” Komain asked.

“The transportation of provisions. According to His Majesty, whether my name is listed among the people managing our soldier’s food or not will make a large difference in the entire military’s morale. That’s why, even if just for show, he apparently wants to place me in an important post, so I’m in the middle of having the bare minimum of base knowledge pounded into me, yes.”

Poncho was so widely regarded as a specialist on food that the common people referred to him as “Ishizuka, the God of Food.” Even just having his name listed as a manager of military provisions would be enough to convince the troops they could eat something good, and it would raise their morale.

That’s a trouble you run into when you’re famous, I guess, thought Komain.

Serina leaned in to whisper something in Poncho’s ear. “Madam Komain is your last visitor for the day. Thank you for your hard work.”

“Oh, she is? Thank you, too, Madam Serina, yes.”

“No, I was ordered by His Majesty to support you, after all.”

“Still, I’m always grateful, yes.”

Komain’s far-too-sensitive ears picked up their whispered conversation.

Hearing their voices, Komain quickly struck down her earlier theory. There was no trace of hostility in Serina’s voice. More than that, there was an excited “sweetness” in it. It was amazing Poncho could keep a level head while she whispered to him like that.

“If you’re that grateful, then do it again tonight,” Serina whispered.

“You really do like it, huh, Madam Serina?” Poncho whispered back.

Komain nearly spewed her tea.

Tonight?! She likes it?! Huh, what?! What are the two of them talking about?!

While pretending to drink, Komain glanced at the two of them over the rim of her teacup.

D-Do the two of them have that kind of relationship, maybe?! Oh! That explains why Madam Serina was being so intimidating! To keep anyone from taking Sir Poncho from her... Huh? But that’s a surprise. I wonder why a beauty like her is so deeply infatuated with Sir Poncho...

Komain’s head was filled with a different confusion than before, and it worried her.

“Oh, that’s right,” said Poncho. “Madam Komain.”

“Huh?! Uh, yes...?!” Komain unintentionally let her voice go a little shrill.

“Do you have some work after this, Madam Komain?”

“No, this was the last thing for today... Um, why do you ask?”

Poncho put on a happy smile and said, “Oh, it’s no big deal. I just thought I’d invite you to dinner, yes.”

H-How did it turn out like this...?

Komain didn’t understand the situation she now found herself in.

She was in the governor’s private dining room at the governor’s mansion. There, Serina and Komain were seated across from one another. Poncho was away cooking, so Komain felt indescribably awkward.

Serina suddenly bowed her head. “Madam Komain, I must apologize for earlier.”

“Huh? Um, why is that?”

“For looking at you with appraising eyes. I thought you were another one of those women who think they can so easily seduce Sir Poncho.”

It seemed that look hadn’t been a glare, but one of appraisal. Komain was relieved to realize Serina had been protecting Poncho from the venomous fangs of women with ambitions.

“Um... I was wondering, are a lot of the people who seek to meet Poncho and talk about marriage like that?” Komain ventured.

“Yes. Like you’ve seen, he’s a man with many weaknesses. I’ve been asked by His Majesty to make sure Sir Poncho isn’t ensnared by any strange women, but many of them run away at the first sight of my eyes. I do wish they would at least pay us the most basic level of respect.”

Well, yeah, of course they’d be scared, Komain nearly said, but managed to swallow the words just before they left her mouth.

Serina may have only intended it to be probing, but even those with no ill intentions might get scared and run away at the sight of that look.

“But you didn’t run away, did you, Madam Komain?” Serina asked.

“I come from a tribe of hunters. I felt like I was being glared at by a large wolf, but you can’t be a hunter if you let fear get the best of you.”

Komain’s words seemed to have left Serina a little shocked. “My look was on the level of a large wolf?”

At that moment, Poncho came back carrying a large pot. “Sorry to keep you waiting. This is our experimental dish for the day, yes.”

Poncho went on to serve portions from the pot onto each of their plates. When she saw what she was served, Komain winced for a moment. Her entire plate was covered in brown. What was more, it looked unappetizing.

Is this...the rice the mystic wolf people were cultivating? But I can see bits that look like thinly-cut pasta here and there. On top of that, the whole thing’s brown, too...

“Ohhh, this is wonderful, Sir Poncho.” Unlike Komain, Serina was entranced by the sight of this dish. “This is like the ‘sauce yakisoba’ you served before, but you’ve mixed in rice this time, too. The noodles are thin, making them easy to eat together with the rice. This sinful sight of a staple food cooked together with another staple food, combined with the scent of the sauce, is simply the best.”

Serina praised the dish like she was a young maiden in love. The gap between this and the intellectual beauty she had seemed like earlier was so great Komain found it a little off-putting. However, Poncho seemed reasonably used to this reaction, and went on smoothly explaining the dish.

“In His Majesty’s world, this is apparently called ‘soba meshi.’ First, you make sauce yakisoba, then add rice. From there, you add things like tendon and mix it all together. I’m thinking of serving it at my experimental restaurant in the castle soon, yes.”

“I’ll dig right in.”

Serina scooped up some of the soba meshi with a spoon and carried it to her mouth. The moment she put it in her mouth, she broke into a smile of ecstasy, as if she had just received a revelation from on high.

Poncho watched her with a smile on his face. “I must say...you really do like it, Madam Serina.”

Hearing those words, Komain recalled their earlier whispers. It seemed this was the thing she “liked” that they’d be doing “tonight.”

Feeling a little embarrassed at what she had imagined, Komain took a bite of the soba meshi on her plate without hesitating, and...

Ohhh! Komain felt like she’d just had a revelation from heaven, too. What is this?! It looks awful, but it’s so delicious!

The sweet and spicy sauce stimulated her appetite, and her spoon went back for scoop after scoop of soba meshi. What an alluring flavor. She could see why Serina’s face had melted like that. While she was satisfied with her explanation, she remembered what Serina had said.

“If you’re that grateful, then do it again tonight...”

Do it again tonight... Serina had said “again.” In other words, didn’t that mean Serina was eating delicious meals like this with Poncho nearly every night?

The moment that thought occurred to her, Komain couldn’t restrain herself. She kicked back her chair and stood up, then kneeled on the floor in front of Poncho.

“Sir Poncho!”

“Y-Yes! Um, Madam Komain? What are you doing, suddenly kneeling like that?”

“Madam Komain?” Serina asked, startled.

Seeing the dubious looks on their faces, Komain spilled forth the feelings she could no longer keep inside. “If I can eat food like this, I want to serve you, Sir Poncho! Please, keep me at your side!”

Komain was suddenly offering to serve under him.

While Poncho was still at a loss for words at the sudden turn of events, Serina rose from her seat to stand in front of the kneeling Komain. Her eyes had that same intensity in them which had driven away the women looking to discuss marriage with Sir Poncho.

While laying a gaze meant to make those it fell on shrink away on Komain, she said, “Is that...something you truly feel?”

“Yes! I swear it on the honor of my people.”

Komain looked straight back at her, eyes unswerving.

Serina and Komain were ignoring the man who, normally, should have been the center of this conversation, in order to stare each other down.

Poncho, as usual, was just flustered.

Shortly, Serina slumped her shoulders in resignation.

“It seems you’re serious... Very well.” With that said, Serina extended a hand to Komain. “I accept you. Welcome to the Ishizuka family table.”

“Madam Serina!”

The two exchanged a firm handshake. Their hearts had both been stolen by the same thing.

On this day, the two who were entranced with B-grade gourmet dishes were bound by a tie stronger than any plate.

Incidentally, Poncho, who had been left out of this, continued quietly eating soba meshi by himself.

Furthermore, though this is but a side note, from the next day onward, there were two women standing behind Poncho when women came to talk marriage with him.

“Erm, excuse me... Would you happen to be Madam Taru?” I asked, standing up straight.

The girl cocked her head to the side and looked at me with sleepy eyes. “Yes, I am. What is it?”

Dealing with you is tiring. If you have no business here, go home. That was what her general demeanor seemed to say.

Some people may have gotten offended at this point, but I was used to dealing with people like Genia, so I didn’t think much of it.

I bowed politely, then introduced myself. “I’ve come here with an introduction from a lady in Noblebeppu. My name is Kazuma Souya.”

Naturally, I used a fake name. Because if my name got out, not to mention all the other members of our group, it was bound to turn into a hassle.

I then introduced the rest of us. “This is my wife, Juna, my younger sister, Tomoe, and my employee, Roroa.”

“I’m Juna. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“I-I-I’m Tomoe.”

“Roroa. Nice to meet ya.”

“Taru Ozumi. Nice to meet you.”

I felt like Taru relaxed her guard a little after the girls introduced themselves. Well, hearing Tomoe’s stuttering introduction would warm anyone’s heart.

When Taru took off her bandanna and introduced herself, I noticed two bear ears on top of her head. She was a bear beastman? I guessed that would make her a member of the snow bear race, one of the Five Races of the Snowy Plains. The atmosphere had lightened a little, so I immediately got to the point of our visit.

“I saw the accessories made by this country’s craftspeople in Noblebeppu, and oh, my, was I ever impressed. Looking at the detailed and fine ornamentation on them, I could tell you must all be very skilled with your hands. It made me think that, if we used this country’s craftspeople, we might be able to make a certain thing that I’ve been planning to have made. I asked if there were any good craftspeople around, and the lady I was speaking to gave me an introduction to this place. Are you willing to listen to the rest of what I have to say?”

“Come in...” Taru gestured for us to come inside the workshop.

I was thinking, Phew... I managed to speak smoothly, like the young son of a businessman, but...

“Also, talk normally. I’m sure you’re older than me. Besides, I doubt you’re used to talking that way.”

It looked like Taru saw through me completely.

Seeing me awkwardly scratch the back of my head, Roroa bit back a laugh.

Hey, no laughing! I’m embarrassed here!

When we were brought into the workshop, the roaring flame of the furnace made the place fairly warm. No wonder Taru could dress so lightly. We took off our coats, too, but when Tomoe removed my handmade white mage hood, Taru’s eyes narrowed.

“You’re a dog... No. A wolf beastman?”

“Oh, yes!” Tomoe beamed. “From the mystic wolf race.”

Taru looked to me as if she wanted to ask something. “Wasn’t she supposed to be your sister?”

Oh... That was what was bothering her, huh. Fair enough, since Tomoe and I weren’t the same race, and our faces didn’t look alike at all. We must not have looked like siblings.

“From another mother,” I said. “It’s a family matter, so I’d appreciate if you didn’t pry too deeply.”

“I see...”

I made it sound like there was a difficult story involved, and Taru didn’t ask any more. When it came to topics like this, even if she was interested, it was best to let them slide, after all.

With that, Taru led the way, and just as we were about to take a seat at a table, I noticed something odd leaning against the wall in the corner of the room.

It was pole-shaped, but both ends bulged slightly. If this were an RPG, I’d probably call it a cudgel. It had a distinctive design with a long, thick centipede wrapped around it that continued down to where the wielder would hold it. I thought it looked cool, but I wasn’t so sure about it as a weapon.

While I was looking at it dubiously, Taru asked, “Do you like it?”

“Oh, I mean, it’s an impressive design, that’s for sure, but...”

I didn’t want to say anything weird about her products, so I avoided answering the question, but Taru just shrugged as if to say, I know what you want to say.

“It’s fine. Your view is perfectly normal. What’s abnormal is the taste of the idiot who ordered it.”

“Idiot? Really? Um, this is your customer you’re talking about, isn’t it?”

“I know him well, and I call him that to his face.”

Someone she’d call an “idiot with no taste” to his face? What was this person like, and what was Taru’s relationship with him?

Well, setting aside the weird cudgel, it was time to get our business taken care of. Taru waited for everyone to be seated then asked, “So, what is it you want me to make?”

“Could you make something like this?” I used a feather pen to draw on a pad of paper I had prepared in advance to explain exactly what sort of thing I wanted.

When she saw my drawing, Taru tilted her head to the side. “The shape itself is simple. But I think it would be incredibly difficult.”

“I thought so,” I sighed.

“The fact that you want it ‘as thin as possible’ but also ‘sturdy’ is especially hard. If it was one or the other, I could manage it, but balancing both is pretty difficult. Around how many will you want?”

“The more the better. I want them in the thousands or tens of thousands. I’m not saying I want to make them all here, of course. I’ll be having this same conversation with other craftspeople, too.”

“Tens of thousands?” Taru said in surprise, staring closely at me with her sleepy-looking eyes.

“Wh-What?” I asked. “So, can you make them?”

“Before I answer, I want you to tell me one thing,” Taru said in a serious tone. “How exactly will they be used?”

I was silent.

How they’d be used, huh. I was making a strange request, so it was only natural she’d be curious.

But was it okay for me to say why here? It would be one thing inside my own country, but this was a foreign land. They were something I needed, but I honestly didn’t want to reveal too much about the revolutionary new information my country had.

“Do I really have to say?” I asked.

“You do. Or I won’t make them, and I won’t refer you elsewhere.”

She was being blunt about it, so I whispered to Roroa, “What do you think?”

“I know you don’t wanna say why, darlin’, but lookin’ at what she’s made, I’m thinkin’ this girl here can make what you’re after.”

“Then, do you think it’s okay to reveal how they’ll be used?”

“I dunno. If we’re gonna procure a whole load of ’em, that’s more than this workshop’s gonna be able to handle alone, so we’ve gotta hope whoever’s in charge of this country ain’t too hard-headed...”

“It all comes down to that, in the end...” I murmured.

While we were whispering back and forth, Taru slowly pulled out the neck portion of her apron, pulling something out from between her apron and shirt. What she held out toward us was an obsidian arrowhead. It looked like she’d been wearing it as a necklace. The arrowhead was polished, and had a dull shine to it.

While holding it, Taru said, “This arrowhead was a lesson from my grandfather, the blacksmith.”

“It’s from your grandpa?” I asked.

“‘A bow and arrow can be used to hunt animals and fill people’s stomachs, but it can also be used as a weapon to kill people. The arrowhead is a part of the bow and arrow. Even if it’s just one part of a product we craftspeople are making, we must know how the things we make will be used.’”

Taru looked straight into my eyes as she spoke.

“For a craftsperson, it is their duty to know how what they make will be used. If something I made were used for evil, that would make me very sad. That’s why I don’t make things when I don’t know how they’ll be used. I can’t.”

“What happened to your grandpa?” I asked.

“He passed away last year.”

“I see...”

This was a girl who took her grandpa’s words to heart as she ran her workshop. I had lost my own grandfather just last year (though that year had switched to this world’s calendar for me partway through), so I felt a strange kinship with her. I always had a weakness for hearing stories like this. The human part inside me said, “Can’t you just tell her?” while the part of me that was a ruler said, “Be cautious in all things.”

While I was seriously agonizing over what to do, I suddenly felt something cold in my hand. When I looked, Juna, who was sitting next to me, had placed her left hand on top of my right. I looked at her in surprise, but Juna didn’t say anything, just smiled quietly.

Please, do what you want.

I felt like she was telling me that. In that instant, my heart felt a lot lighter, to the point that Juna’s cold hand felt good to me.

Well...okay then. Taru seemed to have thought hard on the matter, so it was probably safe to tell her.

Having decided that, I asked Taru a question.

“Can I trust this will remain confidential?”

“Are these dangerous?” she asked.

“No, that’s not it. Well, if they were misused, they could be, but the same could be said of a knife, right? This is one part of a tool that will save lives.”

“A tool that will save lives?” Taru tilted her head to the side questioningly, and I firmly nodded in response.

“What I’m thinking of making is a hypodermic needle.”

In persuading Brad and Hilde to become the two pillars of my medical reforms, I’d made two promises:

The first was to make a national health care system which would allow any citizen of the kingdom to receive medical treatment. The second was to have the top smiths in the country make scalpels, needles for suturing, and other medical equipment.

To secure the funding fulfilling the first of these, I had prioritized raising taxes. There was still a long way to go, but things were making steady progress.

As for the latter, the development of medical equipment, it was going well in some parts, and not so well in others.

The medicine in this world was mainly light elemental magic (recovery magic), and herbs brewed by a medicine man or woman (medicinal baths), and surgery was only practiced in a truly limited number of places. The tools made by one extremely rare example of a surgeon, Brad, were needed to specially order for himself. While he had developed scalpels, stitches, and syringes on his own, there were limits to how functional they were. He had been unable to make his scalpels small, and his syringes were considerably larger than what I had been used to seeing.

His funds for research were probably limited, so it was hard to blame him, but it was still putting a lot of strain on the patients. That being the case, I wanted to set out on a national project to improve our medical equipment. I had been able to produce tools that satisfied Brad and Hilde for now, but I couldn’t bring them into mass production yet.

Even if I had one craftsperson who could make thin hypodermic needles, there were limits to how many that one person could make. They weren’t being produced in a factory, so that was a given, and there weren’t many craftspeople capable of manufacturing a thin needle. In the current situation where we were trying to increase the number of doctors, we were obviously short on equipment. Because the medical equipment couldn’t be immediately reused, and it had to be boiled again for each patient, the number required increased.

So, we were having difficulty producing medical equipment, but it seemed there were many talented craftspeople in this country who could do detailed ornamental work, so I thought it might be possible to set up mass production in this country.

Our country was currently studying many fields, and we were short of hands everywhere, so I thought it might be best, while protecting our existing smiths, to leave what could be left to other countries to those other countries.

While thinking about that, I explained the use of a hypodermic needle to Taru. Because surgery itself was unknown in the Republic of Turgis, I had to start with that, so it took a rather long time.

Once I had given her the rundown, Taru’s eyes opened wide in surprise. “In the kingdom, you can heal people without mages that use light elemental magic? I think that’s incredible.”

“Y-You do?” I asked.

“In this country, the ground is covered with snow from October to March. Those with weak legs can’t even go outside properly. If we had at least one doctor in every village, I think it would be a lot easier to live here.”

“Well, it’s a real considerate policy the king’s puttin’ forward.” Roroa grinned at me as she said that.

It was a compliment, so I didn’t mind that much, but still.

Taru crossed her arms and frowned. “I understand these hypodermic needles are important. I think that, with our country’s craftspeople, you should be able to mass-produce them, too. I want to take on the challenge. It’s a job that’ll set my heart dancing, I think.”

“Oh! Then you’ll...”

...take the job, I was about to say, but Taru held up two fingers.

“Still, even if I make them, there are two major problems with bringing them to the kingdom. First, exporting weapons to another country requires clearance from the state. If it’s just adventurers buying weapons for personal use and carrying them out, they won’t be accused of anything, but if we’re exporting a product in large quantities, we need government clearance. It’s the same in the Kingdom of Friedonia, too, right?”

“Well...yes, it is...”

It was true, our country also managed the import and export of weapons.

Not quite on the level of Edo Era prohibitions on guns coming into the city and women going out, but...excessive amounts of weapons being brought into the country from elsewhere could be a threat to peace. If the weapons were brought out of the country, that lowered our ability to defend ourselves, and if they were brought in, that could foreshadow a rebellion. That was why, in any country, arbitrary importation and exportation of weapons was clamped down on.

“But needles aren’t weapons, are they?” I said.

“If that’s the case, you will need to prove that to the authorities. No country has had needles before this, so it will be difficult to tell at a glance whether they’re weapons or not. If we try dealing them without a guarantee they aren’t weapons, there’s the risk of problems.”

“If it’s just needles, surely no one will think they’re weapons, right?”

“Even if they aren’t weapons themselves, it’ll all be over if they’re suspected of being weapon parts.”

“I see your point...”

Unfortunately, Taru was right.

It was true, if someone unfamiliar with syringes saw a hypodermic needle on its own, they wouldn’t be fully confident it wasn’t a weapon. If we had to explain their usage every time we were stopped at the entrance of a city or at the border, that would be a hassle, and there was no guarantee they’d believe us. It looked like I’d need to seek permission from this country to import and export them, after all.

But this country was a republic, right? They did, technically, have a head of state. But until I saw the balance of power between their head of state and the Council of Chiefs, I couldn’t be sure who to persuade. It was a total drag.

I needed to think about this more carefully.

“So, what’s the other problem?” I asked.

“It’s about shipping. The winters in this country are long. The land is closed off by snow, and the sea is coated with ice. You said you wanted tens of thousands, so that means there’s a continuous need for them, right? That’s one thing in the summer, but how do you mean to transport them in winter, when the land and sea routes are unusable?”

“I wonder...” I could only hold my head. It was true, shipping would be a problem.

Even in the Kingdom of Friedonia, the south was locked in snow and ice in the winter. It seemed like it would be really difficult to secure shipments from the Republic of Turgis, where the winters were longer and harsher. This being a foreign country, I couldn’t roll out a transportation network.

I asked Roroa in a whisper, “Can we only trade with them in the summer for now? Well, even for that, we’d need to get official clearance, I’m sure. What do you think?”

Roroa brought a hand to her mouth and thought about it before quietly responding. “Yeah... But if you’ve decided on doin’ it, darlin’, I think ya should negotiate directly with their top officials. If ya try to keep pushin’ things forward as a merchant, it’ll take time for reports of what’s goin’ on to filter upward.”

“Don’t negotiate under a fake name, but as Souma Kazuya, you’re saying?”

“Ya can’t very well meet the people in charge while wearin’ a mask, now can ya?”

“Fair enough,” I said. “Well, I guess we need to take this matter back home with us then. Just when it looked like we could mass-produce them, too...”

While my shoulders slumped in resignation, Taru looked at us funny. “I thought you were the young master and his employee? You look like you’re acting as equals to me.”

Urkh... That had been unnatural just now, hadn’t it? Roroa always felt like my partner when it came to business like this.

“Mwahaha, ya think so?” Roroa snickered. “Well, I’m not just any ol’ employee, I’m his mistress with his wife Juna’s approval, after all!”

With that, Roroa hugged my arm tight. Wait, a mistress my wife approved of?!

What kind of ridiculous backstory is that?! Now I have to play along with it?!

I wanted to complain, but we were in front of Taru, so I held back.

Roroa was smiling happily as she looked at me. Why that little... She knew I couldn’t correct her here, so she’d laid it on even thicker.

The air seemed to have frozen over. While Juna was smiling, there was a strange intensity to it, and Tomoe panicked when she saw her face.

Sensing the unease in the air, Taru backed away a little.

“Is this...your family situation, too?”

“I’d appreciate if you didn’t pry...” That was all I could manage to say.

Suddenly, Juna stood up. “Darling, we will be excusing ourselves for a moment.”

“Huh, Juna?”

She had the same plastered-on smile as before. Then she stood behind Roroa and planted her hands on her shoulders.

Roroa’s expression instantly stiffened. This was a cool country, but she was obviously sweating buckets.

“U-Um, Ju... Madam, is somethin’ the matter?” Roroa turned just her neck to look at Juna.

She smiled as she said, “Why don’t the two of us go get a breath of fresh air together?”

“No... I wanna stay here...y’know...”

“Don’t be like that. Come with me. Miss Roroa, the mistress I personally approve of.”

There was a weight to those words that would brook no argument.

It was said “the quieter the person, the scarier they were once mad,” and it looked like Juna was that type.

Roroa shot a look in my direction. Her eyes cried, H-Help me!

But I simply shook my head in silence. You joked around too much, Roroa. Deal with it.

I-I just got a li’l carried away!

Make your excuses to Juna...

Noooooo...

“Hee hee! Shall we be on our... Hm?”

Just as Juna was preparing to drag Roroa off, it happened.

Thump... Thump... There was an earthshaking sound off in the distance. At the same time, the room shook. It was a low magnitude quake.

The tools hanging on the walls were rattling. The sound and shaking were getting louder and louder.

“What’s goin’ on? Is this an earthquake?” Roroa asked.

“It seems...a little strange for that to be the case,” Juna said.

“Tomoe, if the shaking gets any stronger, you take shelter under the table,” I ordered.

“R-Right!”

While we were panicking, Taru’s expression didn’t change in the slightest. Not only that, it seemed a little cold, and she sighed as she said, “This isn’t an earthquake. It’s just an idiot coming.”

“An idiot?” I asked.

Then the shaking subsided, and Hal rushed into the workshop. “Hey! There’s this huge thing outside!”

Huge thing?

When we all went outside, there was this huge, hairy thing just standing there. It was there right when we opened the door, so I let out a “Whoa,” despite myself, and my head went back in shock. Then, in that moment, I saw the hairy thing’s face.

Its long, fat nose.

Its four big, tough tusks.

The surprisingly beady eyes that peeked out from beneath its bushy hair. If I were to describe the creature looming in front of me...

A four-tusked mammoth?!

Its body hair was long enough to touch the ground, and its legs were pretty short, but that seemed like an apt description of the creature. I knew the people of this country kept long-haired creatures as free-range cattle. However, it was too much for me to instantly recognize this thing in front of me as a mammoth.

One time, when Grandpa had taken me to an event at the science museum, I’d seen a reproduction of a mammoth’s skeleton. Its height from the ground to its shoulder blades had been four, maybe five meters.

The one in front of me looked to be about ten meters.

I was used to seeing massive creatures like the rhinoceroses and dragons, but that felt a little different from seeing an upsized version of a creature from my old world.

Then the four-tusked mammoth bent its front legs and sat down. In that instant, its hair touched the ground and spread out. Even seated, it was still huge. It was probably only two, three meters lower.

While I was thinking that, a voice that sounded like it belonged to a young man came down from above. “Hm? That’s unusual. Don’t usually see so many people at this workshop.”

The mammoth spoke!

Yeah...no. That couldn’t be right.

It sounded like a young man’s voice, so he was probably riding on top of this mammoth.

“Sire, get behind me.” Aisha rushed over to stand in front of me.

Hal and Kaede were tensed and ready for action, too, while Juna was subtly waiting by my side.

Maybe because such a massive animal had shown up all of a sudden, everyone had gone into battle mode.

Roroa, being a non-combatant, had taken Tomoe and evacuated to a spot a little further away. Probably sensing our unease, the voice up top turned threatening.

“Who’re you guys? You’re not planning to attack this workshop are you?”

“Huh?! No, we’re not! We’re...”

“Oookyakya!” Before I could explain, someone jumped down from the mammoth.

The one who flipped in midair before landing was a white monkey beastman. A white monkey... Did he belong to the snow monkey race, one of the Five Races of the Snowy Plains, maybe?

He stood around one hundred and sixty centimeters high, and appeared to be fifteen, maybe sixteen, at a glance. Rather than having a full monkey face, he had large ears and long sideburns, and what you’d call monkey-like features.

Even in this cool climate, he wore a short-sleeved shirt and half-length pants, and the arms and legs sprouting from them had thick hair the same color as the hair on his head. He had a long tail like a lemur’s growing out of his half-length pants, and if I were to quickly describe him, he looked like a live-action version of Sun Wukong (white monkey version) from Journey to the West. That (white) Sun Wukong thrust his hand out as if striking a pose.

“Oookyakya! You’ve got real nerve, trying to force your way into Taru’s workshop! I, the great Kuu Taisei, show no mercy in the face of such insolence! I hope you’re ready to...”

“Master Kuu!” a weak voice called from on top of his mammoth. A girl with rabbit ears poked her head out and shouted, “Please, don’t suddenly pick fights with people!”

This girl of about seventeen was apparently a member of the white rabbit race, like the lady running the shop in town. Now this one felt more like a bunny girl, although she was wearing a thick duffel coat that didn’t show much skin.

The girl hopped down to stand beside Kuu. “If you cause a scene, your father will get mad again, you know?”

“Oookyah? But, Leporina, these guys are armed, so they’re bandits, right? You think I can stand by when Taru’s workshop’s about to be attacked?”

Bandits...? It looked like we’d been badly misunderstood.

The girl called Leporina put a hand on her hip and said, “Come on, that’s clearly not the case. Look over there. You see the little girl, right? What bandit brings a child with them on a raid? They’re just ordinary adventurers who were startled by your numoth, right?”

Having said that, Leporina stroked the...numoth’s (?) trunk with one hand while pointing to Roroa and Tomoe with the other.

Kuu’s eyes opened wide in surprise. “Oookyah? You’re right, there is a cute girl.”

Before I could stop him, Kuu headed toward Roroa. Hiding Tomoe behind her, Roroa put her hands on her hips and glared at Kuu.

“Ah! Hey...” I began.

“What? I can’t have ya fallin’ for my pretty face,” Roroa said. “I’ve already got a man I’ve set my heart on.”

“Huh? I don’t have any business with someone like you who doesn’t have any.”

“Doesn’t have any...?” Roroa’s gaze drifted down to her own chest, then her eyes went wide.

While Roroa was letting out a silent exclamation of surprise, Kuu peeked around behind her.

He was after Tomoe?!

“You’re a cutie! What’s your name?”

“T-Tomoe...”

“Tomoe, huh! That’s a good name! Hey, Tomoe...”

“Y-Yes...?”

“Will you be my bride?”

With those words, the atmosphere froze over. The climate was already cold to begin with, but now it felt even more frigid.

Tomoe...his bride? They’d only just met, and this man was already trying to lay his hands on our cute little sister? Before I knew it, I could feel the anger emanating from Aisha beside me, too.

This was...a challenge to us, right?

We had to put him in his place.

“Aisha,” I said heatedly.

“What is it, sire? I feel like cutting up a monkey right now, you know.”

“I’ll allow it.”

The blood had risen to my head because he’d mocked Roroa, a member of my family, and tried to make a move on my little sister, Tomoe. Like, there was a story in my old world, wasn’t there? Slaying a demon monkey was a job for the dog, Shippeitarou. When I was about to sic the fierce dog Aisha on that insolent monkey...

“Both of you, calm down,” Juna ordered.

““Gwuh!””

Juna grabbed both of us by the back of our necks. Unable to breathe, I turned back to look at her, and Juna rebuked me, anger seeping into her smile.

“You two, this is another country, you realize? You both have your positions to consider, so please refrain from doing anything to cause trouble.”

“Uh, right...”

“S-Sorry.”

“Honestly... Now listen, sire, Madam Aisha.” Juna pressed a finger into my chest, then, with a powerful smile, she put her face between Aisha’s and mine and whispered in our ears, “In times like this, you have to dispose of him in a way that won’t be discovered.”

““Wha?!””

Aisha and I ended up staring at Juna despite ourselves.

Then Juna said, “Hee hee, just joking,” and gave us a charming smile.

While I was relieved it was a joke...having just witnessed how scary she was when she was angry, I doubted whether it really was a joke.

Maybe the anger I had seen seeping into her smile before hadn’t been directed at the two of us, and Juna was angry at Kuu’s behavior, too? When I looked at Juna, considering that...

“If I say it’s a joke, it’s a joke,” she insisted with a smile.

Yeah. Best not to think too much about it.

No matter how I thought about it, it would be provoking trouble I didn’t need to. Thanks to her, I had managed to mostly cool my head. For now, I was more worried about Tomoe and Roroa.

Looking over, Roroa was picking a fight with Kuu. “Hey, you! Ya said I ‘don’t have any,’ so what are ya doin’ tryin’ to seduce a little girl like her for, huh?!”

“Huh? Are you misunderstanding me? What I was saying you don’t have is fur, okay?”

“Huh? Fur?”

Seeing Roroa so taken aback, Kuu snickered. “I like girls like her who have furry ears and tails. That, and this girl looks like she’ll be a total knockout in ten years. I figured I’d make her an offer now. So, how about it? Will you be my wife?”

Whup, whup, whup, whup! Tomoe silently but vigorously shook her head back and forth.

From behind me, I felt an intense stare. When I turned back, Inugami, her bodyguard, was staring hard in this direction. He seemed to be hiding his bloodlust so his target wouldn’t notice, but the glint in his eyes said, Please, allow me to take out this trash.

Yeah... When there’s someone madder than you, don’t you find you suddenly calm down?

Having settled down, I approached Kuu. If nothing else, I had to acknowledge he had a keen eye to have recognized Tomoe’s cuteness. However, as her older brother, I wasn’t giving my little sister to a man she’d just met.

“You’re bothering my sister, so could I ask you to stop?” I asked coldly.

Kuu’s eyes went wide. “Huh? You’re this girl’s big brother? You don’t look like it.”

“We have a complicated family situation.”

“Hmm... Well, it looks like she’s shot me down anyway, so I don’t have much choice. Oookyakya.” With that said, Kuu intertwined his fingers behind his head and grinned.

Seeing how he didn’t seem all that disappointed, the proposal just now must have been almost entirely a joke. Well, of course it had been. He’d only just met her, and Tomoe was still just a child. Unless he had that sort of predilection, there was no way he would propose to her seriously. It looked like we’d been the ones who needed to calm down.

Thinking about it, I realized we hadn’t exchanged greetings yet, and, after taking a breath, I extended my hand to him.

“I’m Kazuma Souya, a merchant here from the Kingdom of Friedonia to investigate possible trade goods. These people here are my family and employees.”

“Oh, that’s all. Tell me that in the first place.” Kuu accepted my hand and shook it vigorously. It kind of hurt. “I’m Kuu Taisei. Taru and I are childhood friends. I came because I figured the thing I ordered ought to be about finished, but then I saw there were these tough-looking guys with weapons surrounding the workshop. I figured you were getting ready to attack the place, so that put me on guard.”

“We could say the same,” I said. “When you rode in on this huge creature, it was only natural we’d be on our guard until we figured out what was up.”

“Oookyakya. No kidding. But my numoth is more docile than he looks.”

As if responding to Kuu, the numoth trumpeted loudly.

Hearing its voice, Tomoe came over to me and whispered in my ear, “Um, Mr. Numoth said, ‘I’m sorry for startling you, young lady.’”

“He’s surprisingly gentlemanly?!”

Maybe this numoth was a better person than his master...? Uh, no, he wasn’t a person, he was a pseudo-mammoth thing, but still.

Then Kuu asked a question. “So, why did you people come to this workshop? It’s outside town, isn’t it?”

“We came to visit because we heard there was a talented craftsperson here,” I said. “I thought maybe the person here could create the item I was thinking of as a trade good.”

“Oh! If you discovered Taru’s talent, you’ve got good taste. Taru may have no curves, but she’s got skills like no other black— Ow, that hurt!”

Kuu suddenly grabbed his head and squatted down. Standing behind him was Taru, brandishing the cudgel with the golden centipede design that had been leaning against the wall inside her workshop. It had made a good sound, so she must have hit Kuu upside the head with it.

Taru looked irritated. “Don’t say I have no curves. And don’t hit on girls in front of my business.”

“Oh-ho? You jealous?”

“Do you want me to hit you again?”

“Heh heh, I’ll pass... Wait, is that the thing I ordered?”

Kuu jumped up, snatched the cudgel from Taru’s hands, then spun it around like a windmill. He looked just like Sun Wukong swinging the Ruyi Bang around. After swinging the cudgel vertically and horizontally, and jumping around himself, Kuu suddenly stopped.

Ohhh, it was kind of like Chinese martial arts.

“It feels good. That’s my Taru. You do good work. I love you.”

“I don’t need your love,” Taru said. “I just want to be paid for my work.”

“I’ll pay. Jeez... You always play so hard to get,” Kuu said, pouting a little.

Huh? He had been just fine when Tomoe rejected him before, but he made this sort of face when Taru was cold to him?

Oh, I get it... So that’s how it is.

He was a really easy guy to figure out.

“Ah...” Taru said, seeming to have realized something. “This may be a good opportunity. Can we tell the dumb master about what we were talking about before? It might resolve one of our problems.”

“Erm... What were we talking about again?” I asked.

“The part about needing permission from this country to make a deal. The dumb master has connections to the higher ups in this country. After all...for all his shortcomings, he’s the current head of state’s son.”

I poured Kuu another drink. Kuu sipped at his drink this time, and then slapped his hand down to rest on my shoulder. What? Was he looking to argue with me? I was thinking that, but...

“So, how is it, Kazuma?”

“How is what?”

“This country, I mean. You enjoying it?”

I thought about that for a little bit before answering. “Yeah. I think it’s a good country. There are hot springs, and the local dishes and fermented milk are delicious. You have capable craftspeople, too, so I think it’s an attractive country.”

“Oookyakya! Yeah, you bet it is. I love this country, too.” Kuu let out another cackling laugh, then took on a more serious expression. “I honestly... think it’s a good country, you know? We put our livestock out to pasture in the summer, and make excellent handicrafts indoors in the winter. It’s cold, but the people huddle together to survive in this country. There’re some hardheaded old folks who seem bent on expanding to the north, though.”

I was silent.

I had heard the Republic of Turgis had a national policy of northward expansionism. In fact, during the time our country had been shaken by internal issues and a conflict with the Principality of Amidonia, this country had massed troops on the border showing their intent to invade us. While there was no direct conflict between our nations, I was surprised to find someone in the Republic of Turgis who thought like Kuu.

“Besides, even if we take land to the north, we can’t hold it,” Kuu continued, crossing his arms and nodding. “In the outside world, air power like wyverns is the most effective, right? A cold land like ours isn’t suited to breeding wyverns. That’s a plus when it makes it difficult for others to come to invade us, but it’s impossible to slice off part of a neighboring country’s territory without wyverns. No matter how hard we tried, we’d take maybe a city or two at most. Besides, when winter came, the snow would shut down contact with the mainland, so it would be hard to maintain them.”

His dumb behavior made it hard to see, but he had an incredibly precise grasp of his country’s situation. Talking to him, I felt a charisma that would draw people to him, too. If Kuu had been born into the royal family of a kingdom with a better territorial situation, he might have become a rare hero.

Kuu gulped down his fermented milk in one gulp again. “Listen, Kazuma, I seriously think this country has its own way of becoming prosperous. We don’t have to go north. This country has the underlying power to develop itself. That’s how I feel.”

“I feel like I understand,” I said soberly.

“You do, huh?” he laughed. “I’m glad you get it! Here’s hoping the negotiations between my old man and your king go well!”

“Yeah. I’m sure... the meeting will be meaningful for both parties.”

With that, we clacked our goblets together once more.

I was still dumbfounded by this sudden occurrence when Juna laid down the tray and began pouring hot water over herself.

“Excuse me while I get in beside you,” she said as she got into the bath. Then she sat down so close to me that our shoulders were touching. Her soft, white flesh was right next to me.

Once she had soaked up to her shoulders, she let out a breath. “Whew!”

That sexy sigh finally brought me back to my senses. “U-Um... Juna? This is the men’s bath, you realize?”

“I asked the innkeeper to reserve it for us for an hour or so. So it’s fine.”

Now that she mentioned it, Roroa had been saying there was a system like that.

“No, but it’s still embarrassing...”

“Hee hee! Where’s the harm? We’re a couple, after all.” With that said, Juna leaned against me. “So, please, feel free to call me by a pet name now, darling. We’re all alone, so I don’t want you to be so formal.”

“With you, being polite just feels natural, though,” I objected. Still, I tried to loosen up, like she wanted. Hmm, yeah, this was embarrassing. “I actually have to actively try to speak less formally.”

“I think, in terms of our positions, it’s only natural for you to speak informally,” she told me. “I know you said you feel tense around older women, but you call my grandmother Excel, don’t you?”

“That’s because I have a stronger sense of Excel being my vassal. I need to make it clear who’s the master at all times, or that woman will run me ragged. But with you, I just feel like being extra polite. Naturally, that’s not an attempt to set you aside from my other fiancées or anything like that. You’re like my reliable older wife.”

“Hee hee! Am I?” Juna watched me with a calm smile as I did my best to explain myself.

Juna pulled over the tray she had brought. The tray had two small glasses, and a pale yellow bottle on it.

She passed me one of the glasses and held up the bottle for me to see. “First, a drink.”

“Is it alcoholic?”

“No. Considering last night, I decided on juice instead. This juice is made by almost the exact same process as a cherry wine that Leporina said she likes. It seems the only difference is whether you add water or alcohol to the syrup produced.”

With that explanation, Juna poured me a glass.

While it was juice, it felt like alcohol, so I poured Juna’s drink for her in return, as was common courtesy.

Finally, with me having gotten used to the sight of Juna’s white skin... well, I wasn’t tired of seeing it, of course, I just was able to keep myself under control a little better... we had a toast.

Then, soaking in the bath together, we drank together, with juice taking the place of wine.

During that time, I couldn’t help but glance at those swells which were larger than Liscia’s. Her wet skin had a glossy shine to it.

Juna noticed, of course. “Hee hee! You can go right ahead and look.”

“Please... spare me,” I murmured.

The juice shouldn’t have had any alcohol in it, but I was feeling woozy. I was going to get dizzy from the heat in no time. There was an epic battle between lust and reason being waged inside my head.

“Is there something you’re thinking about?” Juna asked suddenly.

I was on edge, thinking she’d realized how full of lustful thoughts my head was right now, but Juna had a serious look in her eyes.

“Ever since the cookout on the beach, you’ve had something on your mind. Today, too... your mind seemed to be somewhere else.”

“You noticed that, huh?”

It was true, there was something I’d had on my mind since the cookout. No, it might be more appropriate to say I was confused about it.

Juna leaned her head on my shoulder and spoke to me with downturned eyes. “It may not do any good to tell me what it is. Still, if telling someone will lessen your worries any, please, darling, do not bear the burden alone. You have partners, including myself, with whom you can share anything.”

“Juna...”

Among all my fiancées, Juna was the one who was always taking a step back to look at the big picture. It was fair to say that she was the best of all of them when it came to showing careful concern. That’s why she’s easily seen through to the worries I thought I was hiding.

Then Juna took on a tone like a sullen girl. “I thought you would tell me on your own once we were alone, you know? Despite that, you’ve said nothing. This is why I arranged for us to be together like this. In a place where nothing is hidden, I thought you might bare your heart to me, as well.”

“You did it all with that in mind, huh?” I commented. “I really am no match for you...”

“Hee hee.”

She looked cute when she was sulking, so I stroked her face, and she gave me a happy smile. She had seen through everything, but seeing Juna’s smile wiped away any frustration I had over that.

That was why I revealed what was concerning me.

“Juna... what do you think about Kuu?”

“Sir Kuu? He seems a bit boisterous, but I find him to be an affable young man.”

“Yeah,” I nodded. “He’s got a mysterious ability to attract people, too. He’ll be a good ruler someday, I’m sure. If he were an expansionist, he’d be an enemy we couldn’t afford to underestimate, but Kuu is satisfied with internal development. He’s the kind of ruler I’d want to see in a neighbor.”

“None of this sounds bad, though.” Juna tilted her head to the side.

It was true, it wasn’t bad.

“If he’ll become my sworn friend, there’s no one more reliable,” I said. “Having the illegal fishing problem with the Nine-Headed Dragon Archipelago Union to our east, the Union of Eastern Nations struggling with the Demon Lord’s Domain to our north, and the unpredictable Mercenary State Zem and the theocratic Lunarian Orthodox Papal State to our west, it would make things a lot easier if we could have amicable relations with the Republic of Turgis to our southwest, at least. It’d give us a land connection to our secret ally, the Gran Chaos Empire, too.”

She listened silently.

“However, we haven’t formed an alliance yet. I learned too much about Kuu before that happened.”

I stared into the glass in my hand.

“When we were drinking with Kuu, Taru, Leporina, and the other people in this country and acting like idiots, it was fun. It was fun, but I had another thought then, too. If it came down to it, could I make enemies of these people?”

“Enemies...?” Juna’s expression grew clouded.

Why would that come up? her face seemed to ask.

“I think Kuu is a likable guy,” I said. “But in addition to being myself, I’m the representative of a nation. I have to think about my preferences as a person and my preferences as a country separately.”

“Because we haven’t formed cordial relations with the Republic of Turgis yet?”

“Yeah. If the Republic of Turgis were to become hostile to in future, could I fight the country where Kuu and his people live...? That’s what I thought.”

That was the vague worry I’d been feeling.

“When I resolved to open hostilities with Amidonia, the enemy’s plans were already in motion, and it was a kill-or-be-killed situation. That was why I decided to go to war. But if I had known there were people like Roroa, Colbert, and Margarita there before the war started, would I have been able to make that decision? Even when it might mean losing Roroa and the others?”

She was silent.

“It’s the same this time,” I said. “If the republic opposes me, it’s my vassals and my people who will suffer if I’m too slow to decide. Knowing that, can I still resolve myself to do it? I may have grown too attached to Kuu and his friends. I felt worried, thinking that.”

Now that I had revealed my feelings, Juna placed her hand on my cheek.

“Juna?”

“I am sure you will make the decision, darling.” Her voice was endlessly calm and gentle.

Then Juna wrapped her arm around my neck and held me close. Surprised by the suddenness of it, I dropped my glass into the bath. My left arm was wrapped in a soft sensation.

“Whoa, Juna?!”

“I’m sure you’ll struggle with the decision. You may even regret it afterward,” Juna whispered gently in my ear. “However, even with the hesitation and regret, you are the kind of man who does what he needs to do. I’ve been watching you all this time. I know your strengths and weaknesses. No matter how your heart screams out that you don’t want to fight, you are the kind of person who can fight when necessary.”

I was silent.

“If the choice tears your heart to pieces, then tell us. We will carry your hesitation, regrets, and sins together as a family. Hee hee! You have five future wives, so let’s split it into six equal parts?” Juna said the last part teasingly.

I felt like my heart was a little lighter now.

“Thanks, Juna.”

“Hee hee! Also, thinking about fighting the Republic of Turgis now is like worrying if a boulder might roll down a distant mountain. If you do that, you may trip over the rocks at your feet, you know?”

“Ahahaha, true.”

While looking into the distance, I’d trip on what was at my feet, huh? She was so right.

Rather than consider what to do if they became hostile to me, it was better for now to think about how to prevent that from happening. If I didn’t want to fight them, that was even more true. Yeah... I had a direction now.

“In order to forge a formal alliance, I need to show a ‘gain’ to be had from forming amicable relations with us, and a ‘threat’ to make them hesitate to oppose us,” I said. “I have to impress upon Kuu’s old man that our country could be a valuable ally, but a terrifying foe.”

“Gain and threat, is it?” she said. “But how will you do that? You can’t be planning to bring our military into the meeting, right?”

“Don’t worry. I have a number of ideas.”

Unlike before, my mind was working properly now.

It was good that, instead of fearing their becoming hostile, I could now decide to do everything it took to keep them from becoming that way. It was thanks to Juna.

“Thanks, Juna,” I said. “Thanks to you, I think the path... Huh?”

Suddenly my vision blurred. The world was spinning. Oh, damn, this was bad.

“D-Darling?”

It looked like I’d gotten dizzy from the heat. Now that I thought about it, I’d been in the bath since before Juna’s arrival.

The last thing I saw in the spinning world was Juna’s white skin, and then I lost consciousness.

When I came to, I was on top of the bed in the room where I was staying.

Erm... I passed out in the hot springs, right?

I was... not naked now.

Had Juna carried me back and dressed me?

I felt a gentle breeze on my face. Looking next to me, Juna was sitting on the edge of the bed and fanning me.

“Juna?” I asked.

“Oh, you’ve come to?” Juna said with a look of relief. “You passed out in the hot spring, so I had the inn staff help me carry you back to your room. The outside air was too cold to pull you out of the spring and treat you there, after all.”

“Sorry. That was embarrassing of me.”

“Don’t worry about it. It gave me the chance to look over your body.” Juna brought a hand to her cheek and smiled mischievously.

Urkh... Even if it had been in the hot spring, I was really embarrassed to think she’d seen so much of me while I was unconscious.

As if she saw through to my innermost feelings, Juna giggled. “By the way, are we already back to you being so polite with me?”

“Ahh... Yeah, this just feels more natural.”

“I see,” she said. “Then let’s have you loosen up with me when it’s just the two of us alone.”

“It’s embarrassing to have you put it that way, but... let’s do that.”

Talking differently when we were alone together. I thought that might be okay.

“By the way, are Aisha and the others back yet?” she asked.

“No, not yet. You were only out for about ten minutes.”

“I was...?”

“Yes. So we can do things like this.”

Juna leaned in, brushing back her beautiful, blue hair, and pressed her lips against mine. Then she pulled her face back and giggled.

“Shall we keep the fact we took a bath together our little secret for a while?”

“Huh?”

“If Aisha and Roroa hear, I’m sure they’ll get jealous and want to join you for one, too. I want you to be able to rest, darling.”

I understood her meaning. So, for now at least, let it be our secret.

Wait, Hal, he’s the son of their head of state, okay?

Kuu was holding the cudgel decorated with a golden centipede that we had seen in Taru’s workshop. Hal was holding two short spears, but the bottoms of their shafts were bound by a thin chain. Was that the new weapon he said he’d bought at Taru’s place? I believe it was called the Twin Snake Spear.

“You punks are gonna pay for what you did to our people!” Kuu spun his cudgel around like a windmill, then weaved nimbly through his opponent’s onrushing arms to accurately whack the ogre’s forehead, solar plexus, and other vital points. “Too slow! Here, you can eat this, too!”

Most likely, that cudgel was strengthened with an enchantment. Every time the cudgel struck flesh, there was thumping sound. The ogre held the place where it had been struck and winced in pain.

Compared to Kuu’s style of infighting, Hal was working at medium range.

He wreathed his right hand spear in flames, and threw it at the ogre. When the ogre evaded it, the spear stuck in the tree behind it. That moment, the flames burst. There was a loud roar and the tree exploded into pieces.

The ogre closed in on Hal, unintimidated, and raised up its huge arms.

“Oh, crap!” Hal cried.

Before it could swing down, Hal pulled on his remaining spear.

That pulled on the chain connecting the spears at their base, and the other spear smoothly returned to his hand. Hal crossed the two spears and blocked the ogre’s downwards blow.

“Urgh... Yeah, I’m not doing so hot, taking it into battle without any practice,” he groaned.

While he slid his crossed spears and redirected the ogre’s arms to the right, Hal spun his body, and landed a flaming backwards roundhouse kick on the ogre’s flank. The ogre’s body, which was easily over two meters tall, was thrown back about five meters.

Hal cracked his neck, and looked at the ogre. “Sheesh... I’ll have to train to be able to use it quickly.”

Hal grinned, then threw his left spear at the ogre this time.

The ogre tried to dodge it again, but Hal used the remaining spear and chain to change its course. The ogre was unable to avoid it, and it struck its right shoulder.

“Blow up!” Hal shouted.

The flame-wreathed spear blew away the ogre’s right arm.

While Kuu and Hal seemed to be holding the advantage in their battles, Aisha was fighting two ogres alone. Despite that, there was no sign whatsoever that Aisha was in trouble.

Warding off all of the ogres’ heavy blows with her greatsword, she followed that up by slashing them. As time passed, the number of gashes carved into the two ogres’ bodies increased.

“So inexperienced. This isn’t even a warm up,” Aisha said as she cut off one ogre’s fat arm at the shoulder.

All three of them were doing an amazing job fighting.

Incidentally... for my part, I was watching them from a distance.

That was so I could keep a watch on the seven that were being delayed, as well as keep an eye out for any signs of further enemy activity in the surrounding area.

While I would occasionally see an opening and have my Little Musashibo (Small) with Bowgun Equipped take a shot, the ogres’ thick muscles kept getting in the way, so my supporting fire wasn’t doing much more than harassing them.

“Everyone so strong,” I murmured to myself.

“Of course,” Juna said. She was standing beside me as my bodyguard. “Aisha and Sir Halbert are among the best warriors in our country. Sir Kuu is strong, too, I might add. I’m not sure I could beat him.”

“Oh, yeah. Now that you mention it, you were one of them, huh...”

The commander of the marines in the former navy. She was someone who had a strength she could compare against others.

“I know I can rely on you,” I added.

“Hee hee.” She seemed pleased. “But... don’t let your guard down, okay?”

Juna suddenly pulled out a number of knives and threw them forward.

The water-wreathed knives left a trail as they flew forward, then stabbed into a large boulder that had flown our way at some point, and in the next instant, the boulder was pulverized. It seemed one of Aisha’s ogres had gotten cornered and started throwing around anything that came to hand in desperation. One of those things must have ended up coming our way.

“Because the thing to truly be afraid of at a time like this is the stray arrow that comes at you without killing intent,” she finished.

“Oh! Okay...”

As she brushed her hair back and said that, I felt myself falling for Juna all over again.

When there was only one ogre left, we learned there had been movement from the other seven.

“Ah! The seven are coming this way! Kaede and Leporina are coming, too!”

I reported that to everyone, then prepared myself for battle again.

Leporina and Kaede rushed in from over there. They were moving as planned, but for some reason, Leporina looked flustered. She rushed straight over to me.

“Wh-What is it?” I asked.

“Hah, hah... K-Kazuma! In addition to the seven, another group is coming in from eight o’clock! There are five of them!”

A group?! Reinforcements, now?!

But I’d received no report from the Black Cats. Whatever the case might be, I sent a wooden mouse in the direction Leporina indicated. Then, when I confirmed the group... I was shocked.

Huh?! What are they doing here?!

I was so surprised, I was at a loss for words. When I came to my senses, I hid my Little Musashibo doll in the bushes. It’d be bad if those guys saw it.

“Wh-What is it?! Is it something bad?!”

Leporina had a worried look on her face, so I hurriedly shook my head.

“Oh... It’s fine. They’re not our enemy.”

And then they came out from the other side of the bushes.

You could tell at a glance that they were five adventurers. The handsome swordsman, the green-haired, boyish female thief, the muscly martial artist man, the mild-mannered priest with the gentle face, and the quiet beauty who was a mage. I... knew these people well.

“We’ve come to support you in response to a request from the adventurers’ guild!” the handsome swordsman known as Dece shouted. “Is there someone in charge here?”

Whenever I had Little Musashibo go out and play adventurer, this was the party he often teamed up with.

The swordsman’s name was Dece.

The female thief was Juno.

The mild-mannered guy in the priest’s uniform was Febral.

The female mage’s name was Julia.

The muscle man’s name was... Who was he again? He hadn’t been there the first time I’d teamed up with the party... Oh! Augus. It was Augus.

“Hm?”

Then Juno came over to me, and...

“Hey, you. Haven’t we met somewhere?” she asked while staring me in the face.

◇　◇　◇

This is just a reminder, but adventurers were people who made their living clearing the dungeons that existed all over this continent, slaying the dangerous creatures that sometimes spilled out of them, and performing tasks like defending merchants and subjugating bandits.

An group of adventurers’ final goal was to clear a dungeon and earn wealth and glory by destroying and bringing back its dungeon core.

Among themselves, they had job names based on the roles they played.

If they specialized in close combat, they were a “swordsman” or “brawler.” If they specialized in long-range combat, they were an “archer.” And if they focused on magic, they were a “mage.” In addition, there was the scouting and commando role played by the “thief” and the healer role played by the “priest,” but these were only job titles, and that didn’t mean they were actual thieves or priests.

They were like Jacks and Jills of all trades whose bodies were their primary assets, which meant their position in society was not particularly high, but if they managed to recover something useful from a dungeon, they could possibly strike it rich, so it was a reasonably popular and romanticized profession.

Furthermore, due to the nature of their trade, they often worked across borders, so registering with the adventurers’ guild also had the benefit of simplified checks when entering or leaving a country.

You might think that would make them easy to use as spies, but it also meant that it was easy for them to draw attention. If an adventurer carelessly got too close to important secrets, they would surely be put down without question.

Still, it was true that it was a convenient way of getting someone into another country undercover, and that was why the Gran Chaos Empire’s Little Sister General, Jeanne, had used it to make contact with Souma in past.

Now, returning to the story. We turn back to about half a day earlier.

On this day, the swordsman Dece, the thief Juno, the priest Febral, the mage Julia, and the martial artist Augus left their usual area of operations in Friedonia in order to visit the Republic of Turgis.

They were here to buy equipment. They needed to procure new arms and armor to replace the ones they had used up in their adventuring business, and they all agreed that, if they had to buy them anyway, they should get Turgish equipment, which was noted for its high quality.

Being contractors who took jobs from others, not only was function important, but appearance, too.

Because imports were relatively expensive, they had decided to go to the place where they were made as a means of conserving money.

Dece and the others were all smiling after buying their new equipment, but then the adventurers’ guild issued an emergency quest.

Apparently, there had been a dungeon discovered near a mountain village, and ogres had crawled out of it to attack that small settlement. The quest was to “cooperate in subjugating the ogres.”

These sorts of emergency quests were issued in the name of both the guild and the country, and adventurers in the affected area were half-forced to accept them. They could refuse, but in the event they did, they would face harsh measures such as being stripped of their status as an adventurer.

“Well, if it’s an emergency quest, we can’t exactly refuse,” Dece commented. “Let’s go, everyone.”

“Urgh... I just got this new equipment, and I need to get it dirty already?” Juno complained.

Their shoulders slumped, as they realized they were getting dragged into some real trouble.

Even so, they couldn’t ignore an emergency quest.

There nothing else they could do, so Dece and the others hurried into the mountains to join up with the group that was already on location and dealing with the issue.

◇　◇　◇

“...Hey, you,” Juno said. “Haven’t we met somewhere?”

The female thief had distinctive green hair and was seventeen, maybe eighteen years of age. Her defiant eyes seemed a poor fit for her childish face stared hard at me.

Within her party, she specialized in scouting and ambushing, so she dressed lightly, with hot pants and a tank top with a breastplate over it. But because of this country’s cold climate, she was now wearing a cape over top of that.

“Your face...” she went on. “I feel like I’ve seen it somewhere before?”

“Erm...” I said.

I wasn’t sure exactly which face she meant. Was it my face on the Jewel Voice Broadcast as the King of Friedonia, or my face from when we’d encountered each other in the former slums, or the face of the person inside the adventurer Little Musashibo...? Oh, wait, I had been controlling that Little Musashibo remotely. Well, no matter which of my alternate identities it was, it would be troublesome to explain.

Judging from the wrinkles on Juno’s brow, it seemed Juno herself couldn’t recall where she had seen me. In that case, my solution was decided.

I offered my right hand to Juno. “Nice to meet you. Would you people happen to be the adventurers coming to support us?”

“Huh? Uh... Yeah, but...”

“Whew, it’s a good thing you’re here.” I took Juno’s right hand and shook it hard.

My plan was to move things along before she figured anything out. While I was still holding Juno’s right hand, I pointed to the last of the five ogres which the others were working on defeating.

“We also came here to slay ogres and answer the request for aid that Sir Kuu issued.”

“Y-You did?” Juno looked at me blankly.

Whew... It looked like I’d managed to play it off well enough.

“...Darling?” Juna, who had been standing beside me, was looking at me with a smile.

Even though she hadn’t said a word, I could tell what she was thinking...

“Oh, my, just how long do you plan to hold her hand for?”

“Just what sort of relationship do you have with her...?”

I felt like I was being interrogated. I was like a frog, paralyzed by being glared at by a snake. No, not just any snake, a giant sea snake. It was times like this when I could really sense that Juna was Excel the sea serpent’s granddaughter.

I let go of Juno’s hand, then turned the conversation over to the party leader Dece, who had a look on his face like he was wondering what we had been talking about.

“We’ve finished slaying these five, but another seven ogres are coming this way,” I said. “I’d like your assistance in subjugating them.”

“S-Sure,” he said. “Got it. Let’s go, everyone!”

“Yeah!” said Augus.

““Yes, sir!”” Febral and Julia shouted.

Juno continued staring at my face, but thanks to Juna subtly inserting herself between us, we were able to break her line of sight.

Juno took on an irritated expression at someone getting between us.

Juna didn’t let her smile break even as the other woman glared at her dubiously.

Sparks flew between them.

...Why was it? I felt a pain in my stomach.

Well, that aside.

Not long afterward, the seven ogres appeared, but with our original group of seven being bolstered by the five adventurers, there were now twelve of us.

Even excluding me, because I was unable to use my Little Musashibo doll in front of Juno and her party, which meant I had been reduced to a scouting role with Juna guarding me, we still had enough people to overwhelm them.

While Dece and Juno were way below Aisha or Hal in terms of ability, Dece and Augus kept the ogres under control on the front line, Febral healed their wounds, Juno disrupted the ogres and cut them with twin poison-coated swords, and Julia finished them with magic.

They used that sort of party-like teamwork to take out two ogres. They were defeating enemies they couldn’t beat alone with the power of teamwork.

It was a style that differed from soldiers on the battlefield, and it suited them as adventurers.

Little Musashibo has been part of that...

The Little Musashibo I was making act as an adventurer had often formed a temporary party with them. His role was the sort of front-line fighting that Dece and Augus were doing. Even if it was temporary, he had joined them a number of times, so I was confident he could work in concert with them.

He had been asked to formally join the party, too, but I couldn’t afford to let one of my consciousnesses be constantly devoted to adventuring, so I’d politely declined.

To think I’d encounter them in this country... I pondered. Was this mean to be...?

“Fate is a fickle mistress, and misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows...” I murmured.

“Hm? Did you say something?” Juna asked.

“Nope, not a thing.” I shook my head.

What had at some point become the last ogre took Hal’s flaming spear in its flank, which created a big hole when it exploded.

Now we’d exterminated all the ones in this area.

There was no report of more enemies from the Black Cats watching the entrance to the dungeon, so this was mission accomplished.

“You all did great,” Kuu said. “Kazuma and company, and you adventures, too. I thank you on behalf of the people of this country.”

Kuu and Leporina both bowed their heads. He was speaking formally, no doubt because he was the quest issuer.

Then Kuu raised his head and smiled at Dece and the others with a laugh. “You really saved us. We’ll tell the guild the quest’s complete. And about your part in it, too, of course. Go to them for your reward.”

“R-Right,” said Dece. “Understood. We’ll be going, then.”

Dece and the others bowed and turned back down the road they came.

When they were almost out of sight, Juno seemed to panic about something and raced back over on her own.

Oh, crap! Had she figured something out?

She stood in front of me, and thrust a finger in my direction. “I remember now! You—you were the guy in Parnam’s refugee camp!”

Oh, that’s the one she remembers, huh...

It seemed she recognized me not as a king, or as the one inside Little Musashibo, but as the guy she’d happened to encounter in the refugee camp. I wondered how I was going to dodge the issue, but I had a feeling that trying to lie while she was staring at me so hard would backfire.

I put my hand on top of my head and bowed slightly. “Ohh... Thank you for that time...”

“I knew it! I’ve wanted to ask you all this time! Back then, I never gave my name, but you called me Juno! How’d you know my name?!”

“That’s...”

What was the best way to answer that? I couldn’t say it was because I was Little Musashibo and I had often worked with her party... right?

But, huh? Was there a need to keep that secret? It would be problematic if they learned I was the king right now, but if they found out I was connected to Little Musashibo... that wouldn’t really be a problem, right?

“Well... The truth is—”

“Hey, Juno! We’re leaving you behind!” Dece was calling her from off in the distance.

Juno ground her back teeth, then thrust her index finger towards me again. “Next time we meet, I’m getting answers out of you!”

Leaving those words behind, Juno ran over to the rest of her group.

“Next time we meet... huh.”

I was fine with telling her, but I’d ended up keeping the secret, after all.

To be fair, I was always in the center of Parnam, and I didn’t go out to the castle town that often, so was I ever actually going to meet Juno in the flesh ever again?

While I was wondering that, Kuu clapped his hands. “Now then... Leporina, Kazuma, there are no more ogres left outside, right?”

“Right,” Leporina said. “I don’t hear any more groups moving around.”

I concurred. “I sent my wooden mice after the individual sound sources, and can confirm that there are no ogres left near here.”

Kuu nodded. “In that case, it should be fine now. The army should be getting here anytime now, so we can leave guarding the dungeon to them. You were watching the entrance, just in case, right?”

“Yeah,” I said. “Looks like there’s been no movement there.”

Though, if I were to be wholly accurate, the ones watching it were the Black Cats. There had been no more reports, so it was probably fine.

Kuu considered for awhile.

“Then can I get you to watch until the military arrives?” he asked finally. “If any more monsters come out, we’d have to deal with them.”

It spoke well of him, as one who stood above others, that his position was that every caution should be taken until things were fully secured. Naturally, I wholeheartedly agreed to do it.

“Roger that,” I said. “I’ll keep watch until the military arrives.”

“I’m counting on you. Okay, shall we get going back, too, then? Man, I’m sorry. Getting you caught up in our problems like this,” Kuu said with a grin. “I’m really grateful, you know? Let me pay you the same reward we’ll be paying the adventurers.”

But I shook my head. “No, this was within the realm of international cooperation. I don’t need any compensation.”

“Huh? I don’t feel right leaving it like that...”

“You don’t? Hm... If you insist, then could you ask your father to be willing to make all sorts of concessions to my country in the coming talks?” I asked jokingly.

Kuu laughed and threw his arm around my shoulder. “Oookyakya, that’s not happening! When it comes to negotiations with other countries, my people’s livelihoods are involved. I may be grateful, but we can’t make concessions there.”

“Ha ha ha, really? That’s too bad, then.”

“You don’t mean that,” Kuu grinned. “If you do, then try to look a little more disappointed.”

We looked at one another and laughed.

Aisha and Juna watched us with smiles.

“I don’t know how to say it, but they’re just so young when you look at them like this,” Aisha said.

“Hee hee,” Juna giggled. “It’s relaxing, somehow.”

I felt a little bit embarrassed.

I explained how it worked for Gouran and Kuu, who were still flabbergasted.

“Like Roroa said, this is a ship that can run on a water surface without waves, or on land. By constantly sending air into the black rubbery part, that large body floats, and even if there’s water underneath, it’s able to drive across it. In the world I came from, it would have been called a hovercraft.”

“Hovercraft...” Gouran repeated the unfamiliar word.

This massive object was the hovercraft Roroa Maru, which I had sent for from the kingdom.

This Roroa Maru hovercraft was the one of a kind, built as an experiment while we were looking for uses for the overscientist Genia’s invention, the Little Susumu Mark V.

The Little Susumu Mark V was a ring-shaped machine that created propulsion by pushing water or air that was in front of it out the back side. I’d thought it might be possible to create a hovercraft that floated off the ground if that ring was faced towards the ground, and the air was blown up into an enclosure made of the recently discovered rubber-like substance.

And so, with Genia’s design, and with funding from Rora and Sebastian’s company, The Silver Deer, the Roroa Maru was now complete. Incidentally, when I’d asked Roroa what she wanted it named, since she had put up the money to develop it...

“Hey, hey, darlin’, in the world you came from, what were ships’ names like?”

“Hmm... Most used the names of people or places.”

“Hmm, that ain’t much different from how we do things here.”

“Yeah. Oh, and for fishing ships, a lot of them had Maru on the ends of their names.”

“Maru? Hey, that’s got a cute sound to it... All righty then, I’ve decided! This ship’s gonna be the Roroa Maru!”

“Roroa Maru?! You’re putting your own name on it?!”

...And that was how it had ended up with that name.

It was registered to The Silver Deer, which was the investor. Dealing in everything from apparel to the dishes from Earth that Poncho and I had recreated, The Silver Deer had its fingers in a lot of pies, but did they plan to enter the trade business as well now? They had clothing, food, transportation... almost everything at this point.

“A ship that runs on land...” Maria said, sighing in admiration, on the other side of the simple receiver Aisha was carrying. “The kingdom can even make things like this, huh?”

We were having the jewel carried behind us so that she could see this scene clearly, too.

“Would you sell us this ship?” Maria asked. “I’m prepared to pay a handsome sum, you know?”

“It uses technologies that are a state secret, so I can’t sell it.”

“You can’t? That’s unfortunate.” Maria looked like a child who had been told she couldn’t buy a toy. She was as much of a quiet beauty as Juna, but her actions were a little childish.

“Well, it looks impressive, but it’s hard to use,” I said with a wry smile. “It’s got a bad cost-to-performance ratio, and it takes a fair amount of labor to move it.”

“Is that right?”

“Yes. Its top speed is only a little higher than a rhinoceros going at full speed, and its carrying capacity isn’t that high. Technically, it’s an amphibious vehicle, but using rhinoceroses on land and ships at sea is a much lower cost option.”

It had a Little Susumu installed, and it ran on magical power stored in curse ore. For the Little Susumu Mark V Light, which was loaded on wyverns, we had people charge it themselves, but the charging of the large model Little Susumu used on ships and such was carried out by multiple mages attached to the military.

Because of that, the amount of magic power that could be charged in a day was limited, so I had prioritized deploying the Roroa Maru on battleships or carriers over it being a substitute for the rhinoceros train on land.

These were also reasons why it was hard to apply the Little Susumu for use on civilian transport ships. To provide propulsion on civilian ships, we had to wait for the development of a motor as an alternate technology.

Setting that aside, though, the Roroa Maru did have its benefits.

“It’s not efficient enough as a means of transportation in peacetime, but because it doesn’t make contact with the surface, it has the benefit of it being hard for it to be affected by the terrain,” I said. “To be more specific, in places where it’s normally hard to move around, such as marshes, sand, and even snowy plains, it moves ahead smoothly.”

“Snowy plains... I see. So that’s it.” Sir Gouran seemed to realize what I was leading up to.

“Yes. This Roroa Maru is the only one we have for now, but if only in winter, I am sure it will serve as a viable means of transportation that links my country, the republic, and the Empire.”

“Certainly, if it can tie the three countries together as a means of winter transport that’s faster than a rhinoceros and has the same capacity as a ship, even if there is only one of them for the time being, it will become a valuable trade route.” Sir Gouran crossed his arms and grunted.

Then, as might be expected from a head of state, he began thinking about the trade route created by this Roroa Maru.

“Even in winter, domestically we can use our military numoths and other such livestock to secure transportation. If we gather all our goods at a port town, can we use this amphibious ship to trade with other countries? It looks like we’ll need to expand a port town like Moulin.”

Maria giggled. “Hee hee! I think we’ll need to open a port town near our border with the Republic of Turgis, too... I think I do want one of those ships, after all.”

She glanced sneakily in my direction, but I told her, “No can do,” with a shrug. “Please, don’t do anything like seize her the moment she comes into port, either. It’s hard to build one, and you’ll be forcing us to make it self-destruct just to keep our secrets.”

I said that to casually indicate to the two of them that if they tried to steal it, we would destroy it ourselves. I wasn’t bluffing, either. When we used this Roroa Maru for trade, I intended to have a mechanism in place that would cause it to self-destruct if seized.

I couldn’t let the Little Susumu and other technologies fall into the hands of other countries yet. In order to send the one-of-a-kind Roroa Maru to other countries, I had to be prepared to destroy it, if necessary.

Maria gave a wry smile. “I know. I can’t put the relationship between our nations in danger over one ship. I really do want it, though.”

That was the third time she’d said she wanted it. Was this one of those It’s important, so I said it three times things?

Whatever the case, I wanted to wrap this topic up now.

“With the use of this Roroa Maru, I would like to conclude a medical alliance between our three countries, as I was saying before. How does that sound?”

Sir Gouran laughed heartily. “Gahaha! If you’ve gone this far, I’m not about to say no. I’ll accept your alliance.”

“We of the Gran Chaos Empire will accept, too.”

With Gouran and Maria’s assent, the Tripartite Medical Alliance between the Kingdom of Friedonia, Republic of Turgis, and Gran Chaos Empire was formed.

The formation of this alliance not only promised that the field of medicine would develop by leaps and bounds, it was also significant that, in this era of uncertainty, with the Demon Lord’s Domain sitting to the north, it was laying the groundwork for our three nations to coordinate.

While I was silently breathing a sigh of relief to have successfully concluded the medical alliance, Sir Gouran extended his hand to me.

“Sir Souma. We are now sworn friends. I look forward to working with you.”

“Yes, Sir Gouran.” I extended my own hand, and we exchanged a firm handshake. “I look forward to working with you, too.”

Maria, who was watching us, said, “It’s a shame. If I weren’t on the other side of a receiver, I could have shaken hands with you, too.”

Which made Sir Gouran and I look at one another and laugh.

Once we had finished laughing, Sir Gouran suddenly took on a serious expression. “Now then... Since you’ve become my sworn friend, there is a favor I’d like to ask of you.”

He had a pensive look on his face.

“A favor?” I asked.

“Indeed. The favor concerns my boy, Kuu. Could I ask you to keep Kuu with you in the kingdom for two to three years?”

“Huh...”

“Whaaa?!” Kuu exclaimed.

The look on his face was a mix of shock and bewilderment. He’d heard his name brought up, and now there was immediately talk of him being left in a foreign country, so it was hard to blame him.

Once Kuu returned to his senses, he rounded on Sir Gouran in anger. “What’re you talking about, out of nowhere, Dad?! You want me to be a hostage in the kingdom?!”

“That’s not it,” said Gouran with a serious look on his face. “In want you to go see what the kingdom is like now for me.” He paused. “I’ve been thinking about this since last night. When young Empress Maria of the Empire was invited to take part in our meeting today, that cemented it for me.”

“Cemented it? What?” Kuu demanded.

“That there’s a ‘new wind’ blowing across this continent,” Sir Gouran said, then turned to me. “If you’ll excuse my rudeness, Sir Souma, may I ask how old you are?”

“I’ll be twenty this year.”

Sir Gouran nodded in satisfaction. “From what I can see, Madam Maria must be about the same age.” (If I recalled, she was twenty-one.) “The Empire in the west is ruled by a young queen, and a young king has arisen in the kingdom in the east. When you get old like me, you start to sense something akin to fate in these things.”

Kuu, Maria, and I listened intently to what Sir Gouran, the only member of an older generation who was present, had to say.

Sir Gouran continued in a quiet voice, “In the world of man, there is something like a ‘flow.’ Whether we want it or not, that flow has an effect on all things. Some ride that flow, others struggle against it, and yet others drown in it. That is how one might become famous, and another might fall. How one country might prosper, and another might perish. The fierce warrior, Sir Gaius, fell, and Sir Souma, a man of culture, was victorious. With the help of Princess Roroa, he annexed Amidonia and created a new country.”

It was hard to react to what he was saying. The look on Roroa’s face said she didn’t know what kind of expression she should be making, either.

However, hearing Sir Gouran’s words, Machiavelli’s words about preparing for the changes of fortune came to mind.

Gouran laid a hand on Kuu’s shoulder. “That’s what the times are like. No one can read where this world is headed. However, when the east and west are both led by the younger generation, our country may be left behind by the era if we are the only ones to cling to old ways. In order to avoid that, I want to raise a breath of youth of our own.”

“A breath of youth... You mean me?” Kuu asked.

Gouran nodded firmly. “You are still inexperienced, but you have a flexible mindset. If you see how the kingdom changes under Sir Souma’s reign, that will act as a compass for you when the time comes for you to be leader of this country.”

“No... I haven’t decided if I’ll take over the headship or not yet...”

“You may not be head of state.”

“Huh?”

Sir Gouran answered the question mark hovering over Kuu’s head with a serious look on his face. “Depending on the flow of the times, our country may need to centralize power and abolish the Council of Chiefs in favor of a monarchy. In that event, you must become a king who can stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Souma and Maria. That may be the era that comes. That’s all the more reason why I want you to broaden your horizons while you still can. While you’re in the kingdom, I will bring the Council of Chiefs under control, and build the foundation for you to put your shrewdness to work.”

...This was some incredible stuff he was saying. The look on Sir Gouran’s face right now resembled the face of the former king, Albert, when he’d entrusted Liscia to me and left the castle.

It was the face of one entrusting things to the next generation.

Even though I was awed by the atmosphere, I hesitantly raised my hand. “One question. You said you want to leave Kuu with us, but do you mean you want him to study abroad in our country?”

“No, not as a student. I want you to use him as a temporary vassal. I think that will be a better experience for Kuu.”

“An uninvited vassal, then...” Kuu muttered.

In terms of position, he’d be like Aisha was initially. Basically, I could treat him as a vassal who doubled as a friend, like Hal. I could let him stay in a room in the castle.

“I don’t mind, but does Kuu?” I asked.

“It doesn’t matter if I mind or not... I don’t have the right to refuse, do I?” Kuu glanced at his father, seeking confirmation.

Sir Gouran simply nodded without saying anything.

Kuu, sensing the man’s unbreakable will, scratched his head. “My stubborn old man’s made up his mind, so throwing a tantrum won’t get me anywhere. Besides, I’m interested in what kind of country Souma’s building, too.”

He couldn’t have fully accepted suddenly being told he would be entrusted to a foreign country, but it was very like Kuu to already be thinking about it positively like that.

“...I see,” I said. “Welcome aboard, Kuu.”

When I offered him my hand, he took it firmly.

“Oookyakya! But since I’m imposing myself as a vassal, that means you outrank me, doesn’t it? Still, I’m from a foreign country, so calling you Your Majesty doesn’t feel right. That’s why I’m going to call you Bro from now on.”

“Uh, Bro?”

“Yeah. Think of me like your little brother. Well, so long.” Kuu put a hand on his hip, grinned like always, and said, “I’m counting on you from here on! Bro!”

Midword

Thank you for buying How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom volume 7. This is Dojyomaru, who is worried that these midwords are appearing earlier and earlier in each volume.

This time we had the Republic Arc. With Kuu, Leporina, and Taru from the Republic joining the cast, the era is moving into a new stage with young people at the lead... and yet, Liscia is now off on maternity leave.

I don’t think you’ll find many series in which the main heroine is away from the story temporarily because of maternity leave.

The composition of this story is as odd as ever, but I do hope you’ll stick with it.

Now then, in regard to what I wrote in volume 4 about the true value of web novels, there was some response to it, so I think I’ll say just a little more.

When volume 4 came out, I boastfully wrote that the true value of web novels was that you could write as much as you wanted without worrying about the length, but they also have one other strength.

You can choose the timing for when they’re published as books for yourself.

This is it.

Of course, unless you choose to self-publish the physical books, it is necessary to have a publisher approach you about print rights. What I’m talking about is the timing for releasing the physical books after you’ve been contacted by a publisher.

For instance, with a new author’s award, the results are announced on the publisher’s homepage with a bang.

“This novel won a grand prize. It will be published soon.”

It’s announced in a way that also acts as advertisement. New works need to attract the attention of readers, so this is the right way to do it. However, this also places a time limit on publishing the work. If there’s too long a gap, people ask, “When is that work that won the grand prize going to be published?”

On that point, when it comes to web novels, even if the request to publish the novel in print comes, it’s possible to delay your response. If you aren’t confident, or are concerned about readers’ responses to as-yet-unpublished sections of the work, or if you don’t have enough material built up, you can defer your response to the request to publish.

Naturally, there may be some publishers who won’t allow you to put things on hold. However, publishers like Overlap will wait if you ask them to.

Now, as for how I can say that with such certainty, that’s because, with my own Realist Hero, I actually delayed my response for about half a year after I was approached. (By the way, I’ve checked with my editor if I can talk about this, and I received the okay, so have no worries there.)

The request to publish Realist Hero as a novel came just as I was writing the finale of volume 1 of the web novel version. That was around the time when people had started to take notice of this story. However, I asked to defer my response.

My reason was, “I didn’t know if the Subjugation Arc that will be volume two or the Post-war Arc that will make up parts of volumes three and four will be accepted by the readers,” and, “If I can’t write through to the last scene of volume four, I’m not confident I can conclude the story.”

Thanks to that, I was blessed with readers who stayed with me past the Subjugation Arc and Post-war Arc, and I found the confidence to continue writing this story, so I decided to accept the request around the time I wrote the last scene of volume four.

And that brings us to the present.

If I had immediately accepted the publication request back then... I’m sure I’d be in a different situation now. I’m a slow writer, and there were a few times I pulled down something I wrote, thinking, “This isn’t it,” and then reworked it.

If I’d started my career as a professional author with no confidence or stock of material... The thought scares me. Probably I wouldn’t have had as much leeway, and would have had even less freedom to write the story the way I want. In my case, there was the risk that after messing up once, my will might have broken.

Writers are self-employed and responsible for themselves. If there are any aspiring authors out there reading this, I want you to remember that this sort of choice is an option.

It’s okay. Overlap will wait. (This is important, so I said it twice.)

Now then, I’ll wrap things up here for this time.

Now, I give my thanks to Fuyuyuki, with apologies for requesting four new character designs this time, to Satoshi Ueda, whose rough drafts for the manga I’ve been enjoying reading, and to my editor, the designers, the proofreaders, and everyone who now holds this book in their hands.

This has been Dojyomaru.

After this, we have stories that take place after the return from the republic. Please, stay with us to the end.

“...Very well,” the maid said. “I will, at the very least, kill your master before that.”

There were two beautiful women on either side of Kuu staring each other down. If it weren’t for the weapons, this would be a situation any man would be jealous of, but even Kuu couldn’t enjoy this one.

“Would both of you calm down already! Ugh, someone do something about this!”

Perhaps Kuu’s shout reached someone, because a young man came over. “Um... San? Just what kind of situation is this?”

There was a skinny, frail looking young man standing behind Sandria, and his cheeks were twitching as he looked at this scene in bewilderment.

“You mustn’t, master!” Sandria shouted, looking panicked for the first time.

His name was Ginger Camus. Despite his youth, he was the principal of Ginger’s Vocational School.

Ginger had just come over to invite Sandria to have lunch with him, but he’d panicked when seeing the situation near the gate.

Sandria had a broom with a knife on the end pointed at a young boy who looked like a monkey beastman, and a girl who looked like a rabbit beastman had her bow drawn and aimed at Sandria. Ginger had been taken aback by the dangerous scene, but...

“S-Stop, please!” he yelled.

The next moment, his body was moving. Ginger interposed himself between Sandria and the archer so as to block the line of fire, and even in his terror, he managed to spread his arms and shout at Kuu and Leporina, “This is a school sanctioned by His Majesty King Souma! Please, stop with this violent affront to it!”

“Like. I. Keep. On. Saying. This is all a misunderstanding...”

“Master?!”

Cutting off Kuu, Sandria threw aside her broom-sword, embraced Ginger, and spun them around to change their positions. She ended up exposing her back to Leporina who was still taking aim with her bow.

“Wait, San?! That’s dangerous!” Ginger shouted.

“I will protect you, even if it costs me my life, master.”

There was Ginger who was worried for Sandria, and Sandria who was risking her life to protect him. It was a scene that showed at a glance what their feelings for each other were like.

Having been shown that scene, Kuu awkwardly scratched his cheek as he said to them, “Uhhh... Sorry to stop you when you’re all fired up, but we aren’t here to attack the place. Hey, Leporina. I’m free now, so how long are you going to keep holding that bow?”

“Huh...? Ah! Yes, sir!”

Leporina had been so focused on her task that only now did she realize Kuu had been released. She hurriedly lowered her bow and returned the arrow to her quiver.

With a laugh, Kuu turned to Ginger and Sandria and said, “Sorry to make a scene. I’m Kuu Taisei. I’m from the Republic of Turgis, but I’m currently freeloading at my bro Souma’s place. Well, think of me as something like his little brother. Bunny ears here is my servant, Leporina.”

“N-Nice to meet you. Oh, and sorry for the trouble.” Leporina bowed her head.

Ginger managed to pry Sandria off of him somehow, and stood in front of Kuu. “You’re an acquaintance of His Majesty’s, then. I am Ginger Camus, the one tasked with managing this school. This is my secretary, Sandria.”

“I am Sandria.” Sandria lifted the hem of her skirt a little and curtsied.

Her discomposure from earlier seemed like a lie, and she wore a look on her face like nothing had happened. However, she must have felt embarrassed inside, because her cheeks were just a little red.

Still, the only one here who would notice that was Ginger, who had been together with her for a long time.

Kuu smiled and shook Ginger’s hand. “Nice to meet you, Ginger. You’ve got a good subordinate there who cares for her master.”

“Yes. She is a reliable partner.”

“Guess I can’t take her for myself, huh. Her looks are just my type, though.”

“Huh?!”

This sudden talk of taking her away and how she was Kuu’s type made Ginger panic.

Compared to that, Sandria didn’t seem flustered in the least. “I regret to inform you that I have already devoted my body, my heart, and every last drop of my blood to my master.”

“Whoa, San, what are you saying?!” Ginger cried.

“It goes without saying that if my master orders me to spend the night with him, I am prepared to bite back my tears and do it.”

“Don’t say things that make me sound bad! I’d never order any such thing!”

Ginger was panicking. That seemed to satisfy Sandria somehow.

Looking at Ginger get toyed with by his maid, Kuu found himself sympathizing despite himself. “I dunno how to say this, but... you’ve got it rough, too, huh?”

Now that Kuu thought about it, he felt like his bro, Souma, who was also the king of this country, had times where he couldn’t stand up to his fiancées, too. Were the women being stronger than the men a part of this country’s national character?

She’s too sadistic, so I can’t bring myself to ask if she wants to be my wife, like I did with little Tomoe... Wait, huh? Is that what she’s aiming for, maybe?

Had she been trying to keep Kuu from being interested in her by deliberately being sadistic to Ginger? So Kuu wouldn’t try to take her away from him? Considering the loyalty she’d demonstrated by using herself as a shield to protect Ginger, it wasn’t out of the question.

Kuu thought that while looking at the two of them, but...

“Master... will you keep me by your side for life?” Sandria asked.

“Of course. You’re an important partner to me. I can’t run this school myself, after all. So... please don’t leave my side.”

“Those are not quite the words I wanted to hear, but... of course I will stay at your side, serving you always. Master.”

A correction, Kuu thought. It seems a good half of it was just Sandria’s personality.

Ginger seemed a little airheaded, so he’d been able to dodge it without recognizing her intentions, but if the maid had said that to Kuu, he’d have picked up on it, and she’d have had him right there.

“That’s one scary maid,” Kuu said to Leporina in a quiet voice.

Leporina giggled in reply. “That just shows how important Ginger is to her. Did you see that show of devotion, young master? If it’s for the man she loves, a woman can become as calculating as she need to be.”

“Is that how it works? ...I’m just a little afraid of girls now.” Kuu sighed. “Thank goodness my servant’s so simple.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t be so sure about thaaat,” Leporina said with a mischievous smile. “Do you think any simple girl would be allowed to serve as your bodyguard? You might not think it when you look at me, but Master Gouran regards me quite highly, you know?”

Leporina puffed her chest out with pride. Though her chest was being held down by the breastplate she wore, when she took that pose, it was clear she had more than Taru.

For an instant, Kuu almost stared, but the fact of her chest size fact rubbed him the wrong way, and he forced himself to look away.

“Hmph... Well, I’ll recognize your skill with the bow, at least.”

“It’s not just Master Gouran, you know? I’m childhood friends with Taru, too, and we get along great. When that time comes, I’m confident the two of us can get along.”

“...When what time comes?”

“That time is that time.” Leporina dodged the question with her usual weak smile.

That smile made a shudder run down Kuu’s back.

That was because, while he’d always been under the impression he was running Leporina around, she had become an important person to him at some point. If Leporina got fed up with him, that would hurt his relationship with Taru, who she was also close to. And at this point she had become so reliable a presence for him that he’d never dream of replacing her with another servant.

While Kuu was still confused, Leporina started giggling. “Hee hee, I’m just joking. You always run me ragged, so I wanted to tease you a bit. Sorry.”

“T-Tease me?”

“Yes. You don’t have to worry about what I said now in the slightest.”

O-Oh, so that’s how it is... Is it?

Kuu was almost satisfied, but there was a small part of him that couldn’t accept it.

Leporina said she was just teasing him, but Leporina’s position hadn’t changed. Kuu didn’t know anything about stories from Earth, but this must have been how Sun Wukong felt in the palm of the Buddha’s hand.

And, in fact, Kuu didn’t know what Leporina was really thinking at all.

Hm... the young master seems like he’s misunderstanding what I meant by “when that time comes.” While the confused Kuu glanced furtively at her, Leporina smiled wryly. Hee hee, I’d never do anything you wouldn’t like, Master Kuu. I know very well how you and Taru feel. That’s why, when the time comes, I’m confident I can get along with Taru. I won’t get in the way of the two of you, so don’t treat me badly, either. Okay, Master Kuu?

Leporina gave Kuu a troubled smile.

Noticing that smile, Kuu thought, Eek... Bro, I don’t get girls, after all...

He felt like he could understand Souma’s feelings just a little.

“What’s wrong, dumb master?” Taru asked Kuu, who had a slightly odd look on his face while they were eating.

When Kuu had explained to Ginger and Sandria that he had come to invite Taru to lunch, they’d suggested they all go together, and the five had gone to the cafeteria inside Ginger’s Vocational School.

Kuu laughed awkwardly and said to Taru, “Well, you know... A lot happened,” and glanced at Leporina who was standing next to him.

Kuu, Taru, and Ginger were seated at the table, while Leporina and Sandria were acting as servers. It had ended up with them in positions like it was a meeting, but Kuu and Ginger were able to have a rousing conversation about their respective circumstances.

“I see,” Ginger said. “You’re the son of the head of the Republic of Turgis. Even though she didn’t know any better, San... our Sandria... was awfully rude to you.”

When Ginger bowed his head, Kuu laughed.

“Don’t worry about it. It’s partly my fault for showing up without an appointment.”

“The dumb master was just being dumb. There’s no need for you to bow your head to him, Sir Ginger,” Taru said with a cool look on her face.

Taru was as merciless with Kuu as ever, but her behavior made Ginger’s eyes go wide.

“You’re a craftsperson, weren’t you, Taru? Aren’t you being a little too casual towards the son of your head of state?”

“Hm? The dumb master is just the dumb master. That is all.”

“She’s a childhood friend of mine, you see,” said Kuu. “We don’t stand on ceremony. I mean, she likes me enough she followed me to this country... Gwah!”

Kuu tried to put his arm around Taru’s shoulders, but Taru elbowed him.

She looked away from him, and in a sharp tone she said, “The dumb master has nothing to do with it. I came here at King Souma’s request.”

“Ouch... Honestly, you sure can’t be honest with yourself.”

“You’re just too honest with your desires.”

Seeing the lively exchange between Kuu and Taru, Ginger more or less figured out their relationship and smiled wryly. “Ahaha... I think I get the idea.”

Kuu munched on some bread as he asked Ginger, “So, is Taru getting along fine here?”

“Yes. The people in our blacksmithing techniques department are happy to have a talented craftsperson here.”

“The people here are passionate about their studies. They have a long way to go, but I think they’ll master it eventually,” Taru said with a serious look on her face as she drank her tea.

It was moving for Kuu, who rarely ever saw Taru praise anyone, to see that face.

“You even have a blacksmithing techniques department...?” he said in amazement. “What other research do you do here?”

“All sorts, really,” Ginger said. “Sciences to technologies of all kinds. We study a wide range of topics, from things like agriculture that we know are important, to things that, at first glance, are not important at all. For an example, we even have a newly created Department of Dungeonology.”

“Dungeonology?”

“Yes. The study of dungeons, which exist everywhere on this continent, and are a place where monsters exist outside the Demon Lord’s Domain. We record and categorize the layout of dungeons, and the monsters that reside within. It was established with the sponsorship of His Majesty, who wanted to know more about monsters.”

“My bro Souma?”

If Souma was involved, there had to be some meaningful intent behind it. Monsters, huh... Kuu developed a pensive look on his face, but Ginger continued on without noticing it.

“We cooperate with the adventurers’ guild, and ask active adventurers to tell us about their experiences for our studies. Occasionally, we have novice adventurers use the gym here, and have veteran adventurers come to train them... Though, for some reason, San goes and joins them in training.”

“As one who serves you, Lord Ginger, I want to have at least a bare minimum knowledge of self-defense,” Sandria said unabashedly, causing Ginger to smile wryly.

“So that’s why...” Kuu felt like it finally made sense. Her moves when she had put that broom-sword to his throat were something an adventurer had taught her.

Kuu crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair. Dungeonology, huh? Even that’s a subject for academic study in this country...

Scholarship. For Souma, whose policy particularly emphasized the importance of basic research, Ginger’s Vocational School was a clear representation of that. They were building up a pile of plain and possibly useless research. However, even if that research was seen as being useless, it was not meaningless. That pile of research would eventually become a driving force for the development of this country.

In his interactions with Souma, Kuu had gotten to the point where he could think that way. It’s a country that’s even more incredible than it looks. We can’t let them outdo us.

Then something occurred to Kuu. “Hey, Ginger. This school, could me and Leporina attend it, too?”

“Dumb master?” Taru asked.

“Young master? What are you saying all of a sudden?”

Taru and Leporina cocked their heads to the side, but Kuu ignored them and made his request of Ginger.

“Please. I want to learn all sorts of stuff in this country, too.”

Having received such an earnest request, Ginger scratched his cheek.

“Erm... We don’t turn away anyone who wants to learn, but you’re from another country, right? I’m sorry, but I think you’ll need permission from His Majesty.”

Kuu stood up with a look of glee on his face. “Got it! I’m gonna go get permission from my bro right now!”

“Huh?! Right now?!”

“Strike while the iron’s hot, they say! C’mon, Leporina, let’s get going!”

“H-Hold on, wait, young master!”

Kuu took off, and Leporina rushed after him. The two had run off like a storm, and Ginger was left dumbfounded.

“What can I say? He’s a very decisive individual, isn’t he?” Ginger said at last.

“It’s always like this,” Taru said while quietly drinking the tea Sandria had poured for her. “Oh, Master Kuu... You really are dumb.”

However, when she whispered those words, she was smiling just a little.

Some days later...

“All right, Leporina, let’s go study in the Department of Dungeonology today. I hear we can see a dungeon relic provided by the House of Maxwell.”

“I-I get it, so please stop pulling. Geez.”

At Ginger’s Vocational School, there was Kuu, who had been attending with enthusiasm since receiving clearance from Souma, and Leporina, who he was dragging around with him, but who didn’t seem to mind that, and...

“Oh, dumb master, you’re so dumb.”

There was Taru, watching the two of them from a distance, with the corners of her mouth turned ever so slightly upwards.

What would they study in this country, and what would that bring about in the Republic of Turgis?

That, we would not learn for a while yet.

Then Juno’s eyes started darting around the area.

“What is it, Juno?” I asked.

“Nah, I was just wondering where the presences that were chasing me up until a moment ago went.”

“Oh. Those are my people. I asked them to guide you here.”

“Those were your underlings?! I was super scared, you know?!”

“It was your fault for spying on the castle. If you were unlucky, you might have been killed out of hand for being a potential troublemaker. Who knows what would have happened if they hadn’t contacted me...”

At that reasonable argument, Juno groaned, unable to come up with a response.

“Um... Sorry,” she said. “I just really wanted to know who you were...”

Juno was acting meek. It wasn’t like her, so I laughed.

“Well, it’s fine. And? How do you feel, knowing my true identity?”

“I’m relieved to have my doubts cleared up,” she admitted. “But why’s the king playing with dolls?”

“It was just an experiment at first.”

From there I gave Juno a simple summary of how Little Musashibo had come to be.

Wanting to test the range of my ability, I’d registered him as an adventurer and had him go all sort of places, he had met Juno and her group because of that, we’d ended up adventuring together, and so on.

I also explained that I was able to see whatever Little Musashibo saw.

“Wha?! Then you saw when my breastplate melted, too...”

“Uh... Yeah. It’s a good thing you didn’t end up not just showing your breasts, but your ribs as—Ow!”

“Don’t talk about my breasts!” Juno planted a hard kick in my flank.

I was just paraphrasing Dece, though!

“Ow... Hey, I’m kind of the king, you know?” I complained.

“You said we’re comrades, and to act like normal, didn’t you?”

My agony must have made her anger settle, because Juno was cackling. “Come to think of it, what happened to that awful salamander?”

“I sent the military in to put it down,” I said. “We couldn’t leave it be forever. We stripped the body down to its bones and sent it to a research institute. There’s a replica on display in front of the museum.”

“Those massive bones were that salamander?!”

“Looks like it was the one that ended up showing off its ribs, huh,” I said jokingly.

“It sure did!” she replied, with a big laugh. “I see. Then the hand I saw when we were eating at the cafeteria was your hand?”

“Yeah. Because of the heat of the kigurumi suit and the alcohol I’d been drinking, I was a bit out of it, though.”

“Ah! That’s why the princess conveniently came along, huh.” Juno clapped her hands, seemingly satisfied with the explanation.

Was she talking about the time I’d collapsed at the banquet and Liscia had shown up to collect me? Now that I thought about it, Juno knew Liscia, didn’t she? If you included the time in the refugee camp and our encounter in the republic, too, she’d also had contact with Aisha, Juna, and Tomoe.

When I told her that, Juno was taken aback.

“Without knowing it... we met some really important people.”

“It sure is a small world,” I agreed.

“Normally it’s a little bigger!” Juno said angrily.

Her reactions were fun, so I was enjoying this.

Then, wiping her smile away, she spoke with a little concern. “But still, how is it being a king?”

“What’s this, out of nowhere?’

“Nah, I was just thinking it must be a hassle.”

“Well, yeah,” I agreed. “But so is every job, right? Being an adventurer means you’re always putting your life on the line, doesn’t it?”

I looked idly into the dark sky. Oh, hey, the stars were out.

“King, adventurer, or baker, it’s all the same. If you face your work head-on, you’re putting your life on the line. If you keep trying hard like that, someone will help you. For me, it was my family and retainers, while for you it’s Dece and your party, right?”

“Sure is. ‘The longer you walk, the more hands there will be to support you.’”

“I’ve heard that before.”

“It’s a line from a children’s song. The one we sing to children when they start to walk.”

Ohh, the one Juna had sung for me that one time. When I felt like I might be crushed by my responsibilities as king, and I couldn’t sleep, Juna sang me a lullaby...

It had been a long time since then, and the number of hands supporting me had gone up, but how far had I been able to walk?

“I’d actually like to ask you something,” I said. “What do you think of this country, Juno?”

“What do I think?”

“I mean, do you think it’s a good country? I want your frank opinion.”

“Hm... It’s an easy country to live in.” Juno placed her hand under her chin and thought as she spoke. “There’s a wide variety of foods, and, as an adventurer, being able to get around by rhinoceros train is nice and easy. Having proper roads makes quests to protect traveling merchants easy, too. Oh, also, this country terminated its contract with the guild to conscript all adventurers in the country in times of war, right? Being able to stay here and know we won’t be drafted if a war comes is good.”

“I see, I see...”

Like I thought, it was different from what an ordinary citizen thought of as a “good country.” I didn’t often get the chance to hear opinions from adventurers, so it was interesting.

“Turning that around, it makes it easy for adventurers to gather here, though,” Juno said. “If too many adventurers gather, the competition for dungeons gets higher, so you could say that’s a problem.”

“Well, for the country’s part, we’re happy to have dungeons cleared earlier.”

“For us adventurers, they fill our bellies, and feed our spirit of adventure. You went on an adventure using that doll, so you understand, don’t you? That exhilaration.”

“Well, yeah... I know the stories of your feats of martial prowess are a source of entertainment for the people, too.”

Besides, dungeons played a role in the local economy. That was why the state shouldn’t get involved more than necessary. I wanted dungeon cores for the Jewel Voice Broadcast, but I also wanted to avoid causing any unexpected problems.

“So, well, do your best, adventurer,” I said.

“Don’t talk like it has nothing to do with you! If you can use that doll, you can be an adventurer too, can’t you?”

“But now you know I’m the one controlling it. I was thinking of stopping the adventuring.”

“That’d be a waste, you know,” she said. “I know the doll’s empty, so I can use it to slow down the enemy, sacrifice it, or use it as bait without hesitating.”

“You’re totally planning to get it wrecked. It wasn’t cheap, you know.”

“Hey, let’s adventure together again. I swear I won’t say a word about who you are.”

Juno put her hands together and pleaded, so I shrugged.

“Well, if your tongue slips, I can just have him retire then, I guess.”

“I’m telling you, it won’t!”

From there we argued over some silly things, and by the time I realized it, a fair amount of time had passed. It felt like having a good conversation with a friend I hadn’t met in a long time. Talking with a like-minded companion really was fun.

That was why...

“I hope we can talk like this again sometime.” Those words came out of my mouth naturally. “I want to hear more about the castle town, and about all sort of other inconsequential things.”

“...You want to make me your spy?” Juno asked.

“That’s not it. I have better spies available, after all.”

“Well, of course you do... I learned that firsthand.” Juno clutched her chest and trembled a little. She must have been truly terrified to be chased by the Black Cats.

“If I’m in the castle all the time, I feel like I’ll be disconnected from the people,” I said. “That’s why I want to hear about the little things that went on in town. Like how one lady was saying, ‘These vegetables are too expensive! Make them cheaper!’ or Gonbe’s baby caught a cold.”

“Who’s Gonbe supposed to be?” Juno chuckled and nodded. “Sure. When I’ve got free time, I’ll chat with you. Is this a good time of day?”

“Let’s see. I’ll tell the spies to show you in.”

“I’m getting an escort from those guys...? Well, it’s fine.” With that said, Juno stood up on top of the railing. “We really got talking, didn’t we? Well, I should be off.”

“Yeah. Be careful on your way back. I’m looking forward to the day we can talk again.”

“Sure thing. I’ll try to have an interesting story ready for when that time comes.”

“All right, I’ll have something to eat prepared next time.”

“Sounds good. The food in that cafeteria was delicious, after all.”

Juno turned to go, but then she suddenly looked my way.

“If you get sick of living in the castle, just tell me. I’ll take you on an adventure anytime,” she said with a smile.

“Well, if you get tired of living like a tumbleweed and want to settle down somewhere, tell me,” I replied with a laugh. “I can introduce you to any number of places where you can live where you work.”

“Ha ha, nice comeback. Well, later then.”

“Yeah. See you next time, Juno.”

Juno jumped down from the railing, bounced along the rooftops as she vanished into the darkness of night. As would be expected from the party’s scout, she was nimble.

Watching Juno’s back as she left, I whispered to myself, “If I get sick of living in the castle... huh.”

That day would surely never come. Because there were people precious to me here.

There is a debate over which is happier, the flower that blooms in the field, or the caged bird.

It is meaningless.

The flower and bird each have their own happiness.

Bonus Short Stories

The Master and Servant Aren’t on the Same Page

It happened in the Republic of Turgis, on the south of the continent.

Near the town of Noblebeppu in the east, a young snow ape boy named Kuu Tiasei, the son of the current head of the republic, was riding on a numoth as it broke through snow and ice. He was heading to visit his childhood friend Taru the blacksmith with his servant Leporina in tow.

Lying down on the numoth’s back, Kuu stared idly into the sky.

There was a blue sky and white clouds. Partly because summer was approaching, today was a clear day. However, in this country, when the winter came, thick clouds would block out the sky, and frequent blizzards would impede the coming and going of the people. That meant they tended to stay cooped up inside their homes, making them even more introverted.

If only this weather would last a little longer...

Kuu was always saying being the son of the head of the republic didn’t suit him, but he wanted to change the situation in this country. The winters here were too dark. He preferred things to be bright. He wanted the men and women in town to smile with good cheer. That was why he made the effort to at least smile himself, but it wasn’t an issue he could fix without help.

If I just knew what to do, I could work hard to do it... he reflected.

“Thinking about something, Master Kuu?”

Leporina’s face entered Kuu’s field of vision. Because he was resting his head in Leporina’s lap, her face appeared upside down when she looked down at him.

Kuu and Leporina were master and servant, but they had also known each other from a young age, so they were close. They had often played together with Taru in their youth, and at those times Leporina had been like a big sister to the two of them because she was a little older. That was why it didn’t feel unnatural to be resting his head in her lap.

“Hm... I was thinking about how to make someone—everyone—smile.” Kuu stretched as he answered.

“That would be simple... if you would just be open with your feelings. You’re always so indirect, it’s hard to tell if she’s taking you seriously.”

“...Ook? What’re you talking about?” Kuu asked, getting the sense they weren’t talking about the same thing, which caused Leporina to tilt her head to the side.

“Huh? This wasn’t about Taru?”

Kuu had been thinking about how to make the people of the republic smile, but Leporina hadn’t been able to imagine he was thinking about something so serious, so she’d misunderstood and assumed he was thinking about the girl he loved.

Kuu realized that Leporina was misunderstanding, noticed he had been thinking about something uncharacteristically serious for his ever-cheerful self, and since he was embarrassed to let Leporina know that, he decided to run with it.

“Hm? Oh, you’re right there. Taru’s been prickly lately. She used to be a little more willing to smile.”

“You say that, but weren’t you more honest with your feelings back then, too?” Leporina asked.

“Huh? I’m always telling her how I feel.”

“I’m telling you that the way you do it is warped. When we were little, you gave her a crown of white flowers as a present, didn’t you? That made Taru happy, didn’t it? But lately you’ve been trying to get her jealous, making passes at furry girls like her, right? That’s having the opposite effect.”

“Ookee... But if don’t do that, she won’t even look at me lately,” Kuu said sulkily.

“I understand the feeling, but...” Leporina sighed.

She understood quite well why the two were on different pages. Kuu played at being a joker, but he had the potential to be the next head of the republic. Taru was working to master her trade as a blacksmith so as not to be left behind by him. The more Taru devoted herself to her work, the more she neglected Kuu, and the more obstinately Kuu tried to get Taru’s attention, the more stubborn he made her.

They’re the same type of people, you could say... ultimately.

The crux of the matter was that they were both stubborn. Neither would admit defeat to the other, and their stubborn attempts to make themselves look good to the other put them at cross purposes.

Well, that is what makes room for me, though...

Leporina had always had feelings for Kuu.

Kuu was the one with the greatest potential to carve a new future for this country, and Leporina always wanted to be close by his side, watching him. It might be fair to say she yearned for him. She wouldn’t get in Kuu and Taru’s way, and she meant to cheer them on, so she hoped she would be allowed to stay at his side.

But Master Kuu never tries to woo me...

In order to get Taru jealous, Kuu had been making passes at beastman girls with furry ears and tails like hers. In short, he was hitting on girls who were like Taru.

Still, if that was what he was trying to do, Leporina’s rabbit ears should have fit the bill, too. However, Kuu had never hit on Leporina.

Am I so unattractive... Master Kuu?

While thinking about that, Leporina had unconsciously been patting Kuu on the head.

Ookyah?! Kuu was greatly surprised by this. That was because it was disrespectful for her, in her position as his servant, to be patting her master on the head.

When Kuu looked up at her, Leporina was staring off into the distance, her mind elsewhere.

What? Leporina... What’re you thinking?

Realizing that she had acted unconsciously, Kuu opted not to say anything. He normally enjoyed seeing how his actions messed with people, but he didn’t want to embarrass her by pointing out her mistake.

Man, that spooked me...

The reason Kuu didn’t hit on Leporina... was because, if he did make a pass at her, it wouldn’t end as just a joke. If he did it to someone he was meeting for the first time, they would let it slide as mere banter. However, because of his close relationship with Leporina, if he made a joke of hitting on her, it would hurt her. The one he loved was Taru, but Leporina was important to him, too. That was why Kuu never tried to woo her.

So I wish she’d stop unconsciously trying to tempt me...

Leporina sighed to herself. Do I need to show off my femininity more...?

Kuu and Leporina, like Kuu and Taru, were also at cross purposes because of how much they cared for one another.

The numoth pressed on, carrying along two people who weren’t on the same page.

Liscia Writes a Letter

“Dear Souma, how are you? I hear you’ve headed for a cold place, so I’m worried you’ll ruin your health. The weather here continues to be...”

“Wait, this is way too formal!” Liscia crumpled everything she had written so far into a ball and tossed it on the floor.

This was Liscia’s room in Parnam Castle, but the floor was scattered with similarly crumpled papers. She was wasting a large volume of paper that, while as a noble she could easily obtain it, was still a valuable commodity, but it was forgivable for today, at least.

She was writing a letter to convey something important to her fiancé, Souma. But, unable to put it into words properly, Liscia was clutching her head.

Souma was on a diplomatic voyage to the frigid Republic of Turgis in the south. Liscia had honestly wanted to accompany him, but because her health had worsened of late, she had ended up holding down the fort this time. Then she had been examined by Hilde, the best female doctor in the kingdom.

“Princess, about the reason for your feeling unwell. You’re...” Hilde had leaned in and whispered her diagnosis in Liscia’s ear.

Upon hearing the word, Liscia’s face had gone white with shock, and then a feeling of euphoria had welled up from the bottom of her stomach. Finally, after calming down, she’d started to grow more and more uncertain.

Those around her had been sent into a frenzy of activity by the diagnosis, but Liscia herself was now under orders to get rest, and she had nothing to do.

For now, she was taking up her feather pen to inform Souma of the news, but she was finding herself unable to discover a way of wording it that she liked.

Then there was a knock at the door.

“Yes, come in!” Liscia called.

Naden, a fellow fiancée who was also staying behind, entered the room. “Liscia, are you all... Wait, it’s kind of a mess in here, huh?”

She sounded exasperated, looking at the disastrous state of this room with all the failed letters scattered across its floor.

“Ahaha...” Liscia laughed awkwardly. “I was writing a letter to Souma to let him know about my diagnosis, but... it’s not been going well.”

“I understand how you feel, but if you overwork yourself, aren’t you going to end up feeling sick again?”

“I’m feeling comparatively relaxed at the moment.”

“Good grief...” Naden picked up one of the discarded papers and looked over it. “There’s only one thing you need to tell him, right? Why not just write that?”

“But when I consider how Souma will feel when he reads it... I really can’t write just that one thing.”

“Well, fair enough. I’m sure he’s going to be really surprised.” Naden sat down on Liscia’s bed. “So surprised he might come flying right back here. Not that Souma can fly.”

“That’s no good! Souma won’t get many chances to take his time looking around another country, so I need to write to make sure he does his duty in this letter.”

“Do you think warning him in a letter will be enough to make Souma listen?”

Liscia shook her head in response to Naden’s question. Souma was family-oriented, and when a member of his family was involved, his field of vision narrowed. If he was informed of this diagnosis, she suspected he’d rush back to the country. Writing that he shouldn’t do that in her letter was probably not going to stop him.

“I’ll need to write to Aisha first,” Liscia decided. She would write a letter to Aisha and have her restrain Souma.

As Liscia turned back to her desk, Naden shrugged.

“I think we can rest easy with that.”

“...Can we really?”

“Huh?”

The hand holding Liscia’s feather pen stopped as she thought about it. “Aisha does pretty much anything Souma tells her to. She can hold him down with force, but if Souma seriously orders her to let go, I think she will. Hmm... In order to stop that overprotective Souma, I’ll need to convince him I’m right with logic.”

“Y-You will?”

Seeing Liscia come up with a multilayered plan to keep Souma from returning, Naden found it a little off-putting. In her heart of hearts, Liscia surely wanted Souma to come back home quickly, but she was firmly ordering him not to for his own good.

Who are you calling overprotective? You’re being pretty overprotective yourself here, Liscia.

Ultimately, they were a like-minded husband and wife... No, a like-minded fiancé and fiancée.

Naden was exasperated internally, but Liscia went on mumbling without noticing that.

“Maybe I shouldn’t be in the castle, after all. If he knows he can’t see me immediately by returning to the castle, I think that should keep Souma’s desire to return home under control.” Then something seemed to occur to Liscia, and she clapped her hands. “I’ve decided. I’m leaving the castle.”

“Huh?! What’re you saying when you’re supposed to be sick?!” Naden exclaimed.

However, Liscia grinned. “I know why I’m feeling unwell now. It’ll settle down in a little while. Besides, I said I’d be leaving the castle, but only to rest in the countryside where the air is fresher. My father’s former domain, now part of the crown demesne, just so happens to be that sort of place, too.”

“Oh! You’re just going to rest, huh...”

Naden’s relief made Liscia giggle.

“It’s a good opportunity, so I’ll have Mother teach me all sorts of things while I’m there. From here on... I’m going to need that knowledge.” With that said, Liscia turned back to the desk. “Now that that’s settled, I need to let Souma know. If I write, ‘You can’t see me even if you come back now,’ he won’t force his way back here, I’m sure. Oh! I’ll have to tell Aisha not to let him come back, either.”

Watching Liscia’s feather pen dance happily across the page, Naden was filled with exasperation. “...Oh, just do whatever you want.”

Unable to put up with any more of this, Naden left the room.

Now alone in the room again, Liscia quickly began writing.

“I’m pregnant.”

Juno’s Ridiculous Story

“Come to think of it, there was that time rumors started spreading about Mr. Little Musashibo as the ‘kigurumi adventurer,’” Juno said all of a sudden.

Juno and I were now meeting once a week for an hour or two to talk. We had been doing that ever since the first time.

I had brought a glass table and chairs out onto the terrace of the governmental affairs office in Parnam Castle, and I was talking to Juno over a light meal from Ishizuka’s Place.

Also, the drinks were juice and tea, no alcohol. If we got drunk, there would be a security issue, not to mention the issue of whether Juno could get home properly. It was like a late night tea party.

Juno sipped her tea as she recalled events for me. “There were other weird ghost stories, too.”

“Oh, what would those be?” Aisha asked from beside us. She was stuffing sandwiches into her face as she talked.

All of my fiancées knew I was meeting with Juno, as was only proper, and I invited them to participate in our tea parties occasionally, too. I didn’t want anyone wrongly suspecting these were romantic trysts and I was cheating on them.

Aisha and Juna (and Liscia, but she was away) were at least acquainted with Juno, and Roroa and Naden weren’t exactly shy, either, so they’d gotten used to her in no time. If anything, I got the feeling that Juno was the one feeling tense.

“I-I’m Juno, and I often go on adventures with Souma... er, I mean His Majesty... er, not in person, I mean with his puppet...”

That had been her stammered self-introduction to Aisha, but, well, she’d seemed to get used to it after the third time.

But I digress. Let’s get back to the ghost story Juno had to tell.

“Like, ‘A giant snake was seen entering the castle at night,’ or, ‘The bones of the giant salamander in front of the museum move at night.’”

“The former must be Naden,” I said. “No clue about the latter, though.”

“You mean the skeletal specimen out in front of the Royal Museum? It moves?” Aisha asked.

“I don’t recall installing that gimmick...” I muttered.

Aisha and I were both perplexed.

“It’s just a rumor,” Juno explained as she drank her tea. “They think ‘the soul of the owner of the bones still resides in them, and is making them move,’ apparently. Like a skull dragon, you know?”

A skull dragon was a monster made of the bones of a dragon that had died with lingering regrets. The bones would begin to move, and would spread miasma around the area. In fact, whether they’d died with lingering regrets or not, if the bones were left sitting for many years, a dragon’s bones might spontaneously transform into one.

“But those bones are a replica, you realize?” I said. “I sent the original out to be studied.”

“Ohh, I suppose there’s no way the original’s soul could be inside it, then,” Aisha said.

“I don’t know,” Juno shrugged. “I’m just saying that’s the rumor.”

Hmm... It sounded like just a ghost story. In the other world, there were stories like “the running statue of Ninomiya Kinjirou,” or “the portrait of Beethoven in the music room that smiles in the middle of the night.” Maybe people were just talking about something moving at night because they thought it would be creepy if it did.

While I was thinking about that, I realized Juno was staring at me.

“...What?” I asked.

“Oh, no. I just thought the bones thing might have something to do with you, too.”

“Don’t go blaming everything on me. Well, I’m sure I could move it with my Living Poltergeists, but I haven’t.”

“No, but a good percentage of the weird rumors up until now have had something to do with you or one of your people.”

“I just can’t see any point in making a skeletal sample move. No one would do something as pointless as... Ah!”

There was one person. The one standing on the thin line between genius and idiocy, who had created Mechadra with no way to move it.

◇　◇　◇

Later, when I had Ludwin bring her to the governmental affairs office for questioning, Genia answered without any sign of feeling guilty: “Ohh, I’m glad to see someone noticed.”

I knew it had to be her.

“The setup itself is simple, you see. I put a rubbery material in the shoulders and other joints. The sample is in a spot that gets a lot of sunlight, so the material expands from the heat during the day, then it cools and contracts at night. That makes the angles of the arms and such change. If you check it hourly, you’ll see it’s moving, though just a little.”

If people stood watching it the whole time, the change was too subtle to notice, but the gimmick was such that, if someone who saw the skeletal sample in the morning looked at it again in the evening, they would think, “Huh? It’s different from when I saw it in the morning, isn’t it?”

What did she do that for?

“The ghost’s true identity was on the thin line between genius and idiocy...” I muttered.

“Genia... Why do you do these things?” Ludwin clutched his head over his fiancée’s bizarre antics.

Uh, yeah, hang in there, Ludwin.

◇　◇　◇

“I knew it had to be someone connected to you,” Juno said exasperatedly when, later on, I told her how things had gone.

“I can’t deny that, but I can’t accept the way you say that like it’s my fault.”

“But you’re the one employing that weirdo, right?”

“Well, yeah, but...”

While I was still unable to make excuses, Juno cackled.

“You said you wanted to hear about the goings-on in the castle town, but from where I’m standing, it sounds like the more interesting stuff’s going on around you. Doesn’t sound like you’d ever get bored.”

“Well, no, I’m never bored,” I admitted. “I’m just swamped with work every day.”

“That’s good, isn’t it? I became an adventurer because I’d hate to live a boring life, but it seems to me like maybe you can live a life without boredom no matter what job you choose. It’s all a matter of how you go about it.”

“Oh, are you up for quitting the adventuring life now?”

“Don’t be silly. This life suits me,” Juno said sticking her tongue out.

I laughed. It really was fun talking to someone who normally lived a completely different lifestyle from me.

“Oh!” she said. “Now that we’re on the subject, I think I remember another rumor that was going around!”

“...What’s it about this time?”

“There are these things running really fast across the roofs in town. There’ve been silhouettes like a monkey, a rabbit, and a dear or lizard thing, I hear.”

“...”

Those were obviously people I knew. Honestly... There was never a shortage of things to talk about.

Juna’s Nursing

“...Huh?” Juna gulped.

In a hot spring in the town of Noblebeppu in the Republic of Turgis, when Juna and Souma were in the open air bath together, Souma suddenly started to slump over.

“D-Darling?” Juna caught his head in her arms as it fell towards her ample bosom. Looking at him, he was red as a boiled octopus. The symptoms of someone who’d gotten dizzy from the heat. “O-Oh, no! We need to get you out of the water, now!”

Juna pulled Souma out of the water and dragged him towards the changing room.

Having served as a commander in the marines, Juna could carry Souma by herself. When she did, his most private parts were clearly visible to her, but she didn’t have time to worry about that right now.

Juna carried him to the changing room, put his clothes on, and went to call someone... and then she realized she was buck naked, too. Though she had to hurry, as an unwed woman, she couldn’t let any man other than her fiancé Souma see her bare flesh.

“I’m sorry, sire, please wait just a moment.” With that said, Juna hastily clothed herself and hurried to get someone.

Their companions had all either drunk themselves silly or were away, so Juna got help from the inn’s staff to carry Souma to the room where they were staying. The inn staff concurred with her assumption, saying, “The heat probably just got to him,” so she decided to let him lie down and cool off for now.

Thanking the staff as they left, Juna let Souma rest his head in her lap with a cool cloth on his forehead as she fanned his face.

While she looked at Souma’s unconscious face, Juna lowered her eyes apologetically. “Is it because... I took too long to find my resolve, perhaps?”

The truth was, Juna had been ready to enter the bath as soon as Souma did. However, when the time had come to do so, she’d suddenly gotten embarrassed.

“It... It was embarrassing for me, too...” she murmured.

Juna had boldly acted as if her feelings were “I don’t mind being seen naked if it’s by you,” but she was a young maiden, and seeing him naked and being seen naked herself had left her heart racing the whole time.

Because she’d hesitated, Souma’s time in the bath had lasted longer than hers, making him get dizzy from the heat.

The truth is... I don’t have that much extra composure from being the older one, sire, Juna thought as she looked down at Souma with his eyes closed.

Souma and his other fiancées tended to look up to Juna like a big sister, but in some ways, she was trying to act more mature than she was. When she sensed that was the ideal vision of her that people held, she couldn’t help but try to be that.

Lately, Souma had started to understand that aspect of her, so he had started to talk with her like they were the same age whenever they were alone, like they had been just now, but...

The fact of the matter is, Aisha and Naden should both be older than me.

While those two members of the long-lived races were stubborn about not revealing their true ages, they most likely had lived far longer than Juna and the rest. She was a little dissatisfied that, despite that, they treated her like she was older than them. Yes, that had to do with Juna’s high mental age, but...

Juna removed the cloth from Souma’s forehead and patted him there.

“Oh, but being able to hear His Majesty’s complaints may be one perk of that position.”

Juna recalled what Souma had said in the bath.

He had said he’d learned too much about Kuu and the others before learning about the republic. If a time ever came when he needed to become hostile to the republic, he was worried he wouldn’t be able to give the order to fight. Even as everyone else had been letting loose at the party, Souma had been thinking about his duties as king. Worrying without letting anyone else know.

Back then, too... you were worrying about things.

She recalled that night in which war with the corrupt nobles and the Principality of Amidonia had been drawing near. Juna had, at Liscia’s request, sung a lullaby for a sleepless Souma.

You haven’t changed since then. I like that.

There must have been many times since then that he had been forced to make a decision as king. The reason Souma was now at a loss for what to do was because, even after those decisions, he had not lost his natural kindness.

He was king, yet unable to fully become king. That was who Souma was.

That might be a weakness, and it was only in front of Juna that Souma could expose that weakness well. In front of his other fiancées, he always ended up trying to be tough.

“I think you would do a fine job of indulging a young boy who’s trying to put up a strong front,” Liscia had said back then.

When Souma was in front of Juna, he was willing to show a comparatively weaker side of himself. It made a sweet sense of superiority over the other fiancées spread through her chest. Feeling that, she thought, Sorry, everyone.

“It’s okay, sire,” she murmured. “I will hide your weakness.”

She spoke the same words she had spoken that time, with an awareness of her own feelings which hadn’t changed since that time... no, which had grown even stronger since then. And then...

“...Juna-san?” It looked like Souma had awoken.

“Oh! You were awake?”

Juna explained that he had passed out in the hot springs, and she had carried him here with the help of the inn’s staff.

When he found out she had gotten a good look at various parts of him while he was out cold, Souma put on an embarrassed, forced smile. They were enjoying a quiet moment together after that, when...

“By the way, have Aisha and the others come back?” Souma suddenly asked.

Internally, Juna was a bit miffed. Geez... Here we finally have some time alone together, and he’s thinking about other people.

She wanted to fill Souma’s thoughts with nothing but her. So that...

“So that we can do things like this.” Juna pressed her lips to Souma’s.

His surprised eyes only saw Juna. Satisfied, Juna let out a mischievous giggle. Her smile held enough power to entrance anyone who saw it.

“Shall we keep the fact we took a bath together our little secret for a while?” Juna asked charmingly, and Souma could no longer look away from her.

Guardians of the God of Food

The waiting room of the governor’s mansion in the Kingdom of Friedonia’s new city of Venetinvoa was today, like every day, filled with ambitious women, confident in their beauty, aiming to become the wives of Minister of Agriculture and Forestry, Poncho Ishizuka Panacotta.

“I’ll take the position of head wife, with my beautiful face.”

“Hmph! It will be I who wins Sir Poncho’s heart.”

The waiting women each believed that they were the one who would marry into wealth.

And yet, among them, one woman had a stern look on her face.

She was a woman of around twenty years of age, no less pretty than the boastful other women, but she had a desperate and almost tragic look on her face as she stared at the women around her.

This battle... will not be nearly so easy to win.

Looking at the enthusiastic women around her who were here to discuss a potential marriage, the woman brought her hands together and intertwined her fingers.

She, too, had initially believed she could easily seduce a man like Poncho with her beautiful face. However, what separated her from the other women was that she had done a thorough job of gathering information before this meeting, in order to ensure her quarry did not escape her. Thus, in gathering information, she had quickly learned how difficult this meeting would be.

It’s telling that, despite the number of meetings he’s had, no one has managed to secure an engagement to Poncho.

Though many women believed Poncho would be easily seduced, no one had yet succeeded in that task. She had tried to ask those who failed about their stories, but as if there were something scandalous about their stories, none of the women would speak a word about it.

However, there was just one thing she had learned in all of that. A maid who worked in the house of one such woman had heard her mistress mutter something:

“Poncho has a terrifying guardian.”

A guardian. Remembering that word, this woman felt her body tensing up. There was no doubt about it. The one rejecting Sir Poncho’s potential marriage candidates was this guardian, or whatever it was.

But if I know in advance there is such a person, I can take countermeasures.

She was betting on this meeting.

I’m going to marry well, and change my destiny!

It wasn’t that she had a pure affection for Poncho. She simply had a greater ambition than the other women around her.

“Are you seeking to become Sir Poncho’s wife?” a voice asked suddenly.

“Huh?!”

When she turned to look at the person who had suddenly spoken to her, there was a cute girl with her hair in braided pigtails. Her skin was slightly tanned and her bright colored dress looked good on her. Was this girl here to discuss a potential marriage, too?

“...Yes. Is that wrong?” the ambitious woman said guardedly, but the girl with braids shook her head.

“Oh, no. I just had a feeling you were different from the other women. I thought you might love Sir Poncho.”

“The world of the nobility isn’t so easygoing that you can get married for mere love,” the ambitious woman said, averting her eyes from the seemingly innocent girl with braids. “Both my parents and my elder brother are mediocre but good-natured petty nobles. There is no hope of them expanding their domain, and I can only see a future in which they eventually end up in debt to someone, and then I’ll be wed off to a house that can shoulder their debt. I don’t want that.”

“...”

“That’s why I want to marry Sir Poncho, who is so promising, and carve out a future for myself!” She didn’t know why she was being honest about all this, but the girl’s pure-looking eyes made her want to be stubborn.

The girl with braids looked at her with a gentle expression. “I see. I think that’s a wonderful feeling.”

A moment later, the ambitious woman was called in by one of the House of Panacotta’s maids.

Finally, it was her turn for a meeting!

As she walked down the corridor, led on by the maid, she passed by one of the women who had been boasting confidently in the waiting room. Where had that confidence gone now? Her face was twisted, and she was rushing off in a hurry.

Aww, she must have gotten taken down by that guardian, the ambitious woman thought. I need to steel myself for this...

At last, when she was shown into Poncho’s office, she encountered the rumored guardian. Standing behind Poncho, with a quiet smile, was a stunningly beautiful maid.

“Huh?!”

The intense wave of intimidation unleashed by that beautiful maid made her legs feel like they might freeze with fear.

B-But... I won’t give up! She managed to endure that gaze somehow.

And then she heard a gentle voice from behind her. “Pardon me.”

Had someone entered when they were supposed to be in the middle of her meeting? When she looked back in surprise, there was the girl who had been in the waiting room before. The girl walked over to Poncho, and stood behind him, opposite the beautiful maid.

In this moment, the ambitious woman sensed what had happened, and her knees gave out.

“Oh! A-Are you all right?” Poncho asked worriedly. “Yes?”

She couldn’t even raise her face to respond to his inquiry.

I was being watched... all along... from the time I entered the waiting room...

There was no question that the girl with braids was connected to Poncho. The girl’s mission must have been to probe the intentions of those in the waiting room. Because she had gathered information and learned of the guardian at Poncho’s side, the ambitious woman had grown complacent.

No... Don’t tell me there were two protectors...

As she knelt there, crushed, two lithe legs entered her field of vision.

When she looked up, the beautiful maid from earlier was there.

“I have heard the situation from Komain, and your grit and information gathering abilities are exceptional. How about it? Will you work as a maid in the castle?” With those words, Serina extended a hand to the woman who had been stunned into silence. “Many high-ranking nobles come and go from the castle. You may meet someone who is good for you, you know?”

The ambitious woman sensed an opportunity, and she didn’t hesitate to take Serina’s hand. “Ah! I’ll do it!”

As a result of Serina recruiting people who seemed like they might be useful this way, Poncho still had yet to find a fiancée, but the castle’s maid force was gaining personnel and expanding.

Furthermore, though this is a digression, this ambitious woman would, in future, meet the son of a great noble while working in the palace, and retire after getting married to him, but... that is a story for another time.