There was no question that this was writing from my world.

“Were these characters in front of them, maybe?”

I took the pen from Mary and wrote 急急 in front of the other three characters.

This time it was Mary’s turn to be surprised.

“Huh?! Y-Yes. That’s right.”

“Do you know what these words mean in the Orthodox Papal State?”

“Not exactly...but I know they’re written before urgent messages.”

“I see...”

Kyuu kyuu nyo ritsuryou... Act with haste, in accordance with the law.

It meant something should be done with the utmost urgency. It originally came from ancient Chinese documents, but Japanese people would recognize it better as that thing onmyouji say.

“Kyuu kyuu nyo ritsuryou. These are words from the world I came from.”

“I figured...” Genia said with a knowing laugh. “Your former world is connected with ours in some way. That’s been suggested repeatedly. Most of your knowledge is applicable to ours, and you were able to have children with your queens. The new field of Monsterology that Ichiha created has led to new perspectives on the origin of man, animal, plant, and monster.”

The dungeon theory on the origin of life, huh? This was also information we hadn’t made public, but... Yeah, she has a point.

“In my view, this is a phenomenon that fuses science and religion, and links our worlds together. You must have some sense of that yourself,” Genia continued, sounding uncharacteristically serious. “It’s likely that we’re living in the future of your world. Where it lacked magic, but science was more developed, right? In that case, the magic and miracles in this world could be the products of science from an era after your own.”

“Hm...”

“So, with all that in mind, I want to ask you about the foundation of this world’s magic and miracles. The substance at the root of it all.” Genia looked straight into my eyes. “What is magicium?”

I gulped at the question.

Magicium. It was said that all magic was generated by the workings of this substance. However, that was simply an old-wives tale. No one had actually seen it themselves, not even the three-eyed race with their microscopic vision.

“I told you, didn’t I...? There was no magic in my world. Obviously, that means no magicium either. How could I possibly know?” I replied, troubled, but Genia quietly shook her head.

“That was probably true in your time. But I feel as though there’s a large gap between the era that you came from and now. Even if it couldn’t be realized in your time, wasn’t there any technology that seemed feasible, or like it might be feasible in the future?”

“I’m not sure what to say to that...”

“It might be good to think through this one step at a time,” Merula interjected. “Fire, water, and wind magic manifest in the open air, or wreathe objects in those elements. We could see this as the magicium in the air or on the surface of objects reacting to the caster’s mental image.”

“Hmm...”

“We call the other one earth magic, but it actually alters the weight of things. It can manipulate the magicium in the ground to cause it to rise, or control the weight of substances.”

“There’s my magic, which makes golems from dirt, and yours...Living Poltergeists, was it? That magic that lets you control puppets seems similar. Though, in your case, you’re able to divide your consciousness too, so it’s a bit special,” Genia said, chuckling.

Dark magic was where they lumped any magic they didn’t understand, after all.

Merula nodded. “You could say my enchantment magic is the same. By carving a spell into something, it reacts with the magicium inside it, which does things like making arms and armor more durable. Good examples of that would be the set of equipment left by this country’s first hero king, and the Empire’s Magic Armor Corps.”

Oh, yeah, that ridiculously hard helmet (which was just hard, and did nothing else, so I’d had no use for it but as a museum piece) and the Empire’s heavy pikemen who wore black armor that was almost impervious to magic. Both were examples of equipment with attached spells being strengthened by magicium.

Here, I noticed Merula glancing at Mary and Souji.

“And there’s light magic... What you might call healing magic.”

When the name light magic came up, the two religious figures in the room’s brows perked up.

“It’s said,” Merula continued, “that a capable mage can even reconnect a severed arm. Up until now, it was only external wounds that could be healed, but now some of them have discovered they can treat illnesses too.”

“With medical knowledge, light mages can cure a certain subset of sicknesses...”

“Exactly. If we think about how this connects with magicium, we have to conclude it exists inside our bodies as well. With external injuries, we could assume it was due to magicium in the air, but that doesn’t work inside the body.”

Magicium exists not just in the air, but inside objects, and even the bodies of living creatures, huh? A substance inside the body that fights disease... Not antibodies and the immune system which we already had, but something which could fight illness at the will of something outside the body. Huh...? Could it be...?

“Sire, do you have any idea what it could be?” Genia said, noticing I’d thought of something.

“Nanomachines...”

“Nanomawhats?”

“Machines too tiny for the naked eye to see. They could be injected into the body to remove diseased parts, or treat them... I think?”

“I see. That sounds like exactly what we’re looking for.”

“No, no! They weren’t implemented! It was a potential future technology...still just the product of people’s imagination.”

“Sire...” Genia tabbed her index finger on the table. “This could very well be that future, you know?”

“Urgh...” She had a point.

Genia crossed her arms and grunted thoughtfully. “Machines too small to see, huh? If they’re all over the world, and in our bodies, and they cause the phenomena we know as magic, then that’s fascinating.”

“But is that possible? Making machines so small even the three-eyed race can’t see them?”

“I don’t know if this is connected, but...one of your wives can make major changes to her body mass, can’t she?”

“Oh! You mean Naden?”

It was certainly true that the dragon race’s body mass changed considerably between their dragon and human forms. I believe Lady Tiamat, who was Mother Dragon, had an even larger form which she could change with that of an elderly woman. Their whole race just up and ignored the principle of mass conservation.

“Perhaps those who created magicium could freely control mass too. That’s just speculation, though.”

“Right...”

“But if magicium is made up of small artificial machines, then that could explain all sorts of interesting things. There are places in this world where it’s harder or easier to use magic, right?”

“For places where it’s easier... You mean my old homeland, right?” Merula said. She had come from the Spirit Kingdom of Garlan. The high elves who lived there wielded powerful magic, and that was one reason they believed they were the chosen people.

However, based on the fact that Merula’s own magic weakened after leaving, it seems that land is simply suited to manifesting more powerful magical effects.

Genia nodded.

“And for a place where it’s harder, there’s the sea.”

“Oh! I get it!”

For some reason, it was hard to use anything but water magic at sea. That was why gunpowder weapons that hadn’t seen much use on land were developed by the navy and in places like the Nine-Headed Dragon Archipelago. If magicium was nanomachines, I could see why. Saltwater is like the natural enemy of machines.

“The more complex the machines in my old world, the more trouble they had with saltwater. Even some that were waterproofed couldn’t handle it.”

“Hmm... There may be different types of magicium then. The magicium that water mages control was designed to work in water, so maybe they took countermeasures.”

“Makes sense.”

They could only use salt-proof, water-proof nanomachines, or other types of magicium that had usage limitations on them, huh?

“What sort of face am I supposed to make as I listen to all of this?” Mary mumbled, looking troubled. “It’s not just Lunarian Orthodoxy, but every religion in this world believes magic is the blessing of the gods... I’ve always believed it too. If you’re going to say it was made by people...”

“But there’s a similar story in Lunarian Orthodoxy, isn’t there?” Merula interjected. “Lunarian Orthodoxy was founded when the people of the moon, the lunarians, descended to this world and brought the Lunalith. If the lunarians built the Lunalith, couldn’t we assume that magicium was built by a similar group...or even the exact same one?”

“So magicium may still be a gift from the gods, then...?” Mary glanced in my direction. “In that case, would Sir Souma, who lived before the age of the gods, become an object of worship for us?”

“Please, no...”

I had already nearly been crushed under the weight of titles like “king” and “hero” before. If they went and tossed “living god” on the pile, it’d be more than a hassle, it’d be a disaster. There would be pushback from the Orthodox Papal State since they had sided with Fuuga’s Great Tiger Kingdom, and even my own allies like Maria would look at it and say “Wait, you’re deifying yourself now?”

It was bound to have a bad influence on my wives and our children too.

“We’re still speculating about the origins of magicium. Even if this becomes established as fact, the era I lived in and the era in which they would have made magicium might be far apart. If you want to venerate the people who made it, go ahead, but please leave me out of it.”

“I see...” Mary backed down, looking a little disappointed.

Then Genia clapped her hands as if to dispel the heavy atmosphere that had fallen over the room.

“There’s one more important thing about magicium we need to consider.”

“Still...?”

I’d had enough, and was starting to develop a headache.

“Just this one last thing,” Genia said with a laugh. “Curse ore.”

“Those cursed rocks...?” Mary’s brow furrowed with suspicion.

Because you couldn’t use magic near this ore, it was hated by miners who used magic to mine. As for the religious people who saw magic as the blessing of the gods, they thought it was the devil’s ore because it rejected magic. However, the House of Maxwell’s research had shown it actually stored the energy from magic. Our country had since used it to produce the Little Susumu Mark V propeller and to power the drill.

Genia produced a black lump from inside the pocket of her lab coat and unceremoniously rolled it onto the table.

“That’s a crystal of curse ore, huh?”

Genia nodded. Mary and Souji’s eyes narrowed.

Paying no mind to the two of them, Genia continued, “My family has studied curse ore for many long years. You could say our discovery of its ability to steal and store magic’s power was the result of intergenerational research. During all our time studying it, I had one constant doubt: If magic was the result of magicium, what exactly was curse ore?”

No one answered her question, so Genia elaborated.

“I had a vague idea. Perhaps the curse ore which was able to steal the power from magic was, in fact, magicium itself.”

“““Wha?!”””

Curse ore is magicium... In other words, a mass of nanomachines? The moment I thought that, a theory started to come together like the pieces of a puzzle falling into place.

If magicium were nanomachines, they needed energy. Solar, wind, geothermal... Honestly, in this case, any source, even ones I knew nothing about would do. If they were machines, they needed to have some sort of charging mechanism. This was important to stop them from suddenly ceasing to function due to an inability to take in energy.

If nanomachines that had finished their job accumulated on the ground, and all they had left afterwards was that charging mechanism, they might become something like curse ore.

How can this be...? I’m sure only someone like me, with knowledge from the past, could have come up with a theory like this.

Her explanation wasn’t going to click for anyone else here. Still, Genia, or rather, the House of Maxwell had come to a similar conclusion. That was scary. I was really glad they were a part of my country.

Genia looked at me.

“These nanomachines you told us about are fascinating. I have a feeling that there are about to be great leaps in the study of magic and curse ore. Could I ask you to explain in more detail at a later date?”

“Yeah. It piqued my interest too. I’m probably going to have you focus on it in the future. The country will provide support, of course.”

“I’ll be grateful for that. It’ll save me from doing too much damage to Big Brother Luu’s wallet and stomach.”

Genia smiled when I promised to support her research.

Still, magicium are nanomachines, huh...? I dunno. I felt like, after today, a lot of things were going to begin to move.

◇ ◇ ◇

Some days after we got a vague glimpse of the true nature of magicium, and by extension this world, Yuriga came to visit while I was working in the governmental affairs office with Prime Minister Hakuya and Liscia.

“Sir Souma, Mr. Hakuya, I have a letter for Sir Souma from my brother.”

“From Fuuga?”

“Yes. It isn’t the usual update on how things have been going lately, but a formal letter from King Fuuga Haan of the Great Tiger Kingdom of Haan to Souma A. Elfrieden, head of the Maritime Alliance.”

A letter from a guy with a big, important-sounding title to another guy with a big, important-sounding title, I thought.

In truth, I was only allowed to call myself head of the Maritime Alliance by Kuu, the head of the Republic, which had no real navy to speak of, and Nine-Headed Dragon Queen Shabon, who felt indebted to me over the incident with Ooyamizuchi. Once things settled down a little more, I figured we could have the head of the alliance be a revolving position.

Still, hearing that this was a formal letter, Liscia and Hakuya’s expressions grew a little harsh. I probably looked the same way. What exactly is he going to say to us...?

“Do you know what it says, Yuriga?” Liscia asked and Yuriga nodded affirmatively.

“Yes. I don’t think it should be too difficult a request...”

“You don’t?”

“Anyway, let’s read it and see,” I said, accepting the letter from Yuriga and looking through it.

If I were to sum up the contents, it went like this:

Hey Souma,

How’re you and Yuriga doing?

We’re making good headway liberating the Demon Lord’s Domain. I’m following your advice and not pushing too far north, moving west through the areas close to the nations of mankind.

I’ve got the western sea in my sights now. Malmkhitan’s on the eastern sea, so I’ve just about crossed the continent. The land we’ve liberated is still like a bunch of cities dotted about, connected by a line, but with our march across the continent almost at an end, the men’s spirits are high.

I think I’m going to take the west coast even if it involves pushing ourselves a little too hard.

So, here’s the deal. I want to ask the Maritime Alliance to ship us supplies. I’d like you to carry material from my homeland and all the other countries to the west coast. The supplies should already be prepared back home. Could you carry them across the sea for us? You basically rule the seas, after all.

If you talk to the Nine-Headed Dragon Archipelago Union and the Empire, you should be able to deliver the stuff without issue, yeah?

If you could throw in a little something extra from the Maritime Alliance while you’re at it, that’d be great.

After showing it to Liscia and Hakuya, I pressed my fingers into my temples and groaned.

“He says it like, ‘Hey, man, it’s summer, let’s hit the beach...’”

“He’s so innocent...” Liscia said. “And I mean that in both a positive and negative way.”

“Umm...I apologize for my brother,” Yuriga said apologetically as Liscia and I let out a communal sigh. It seemed Yuriga had felt the same way, and was troubled as the messenger.

Hakuya brought his hand to his mouth as he read the letter.

“Setting aside the content here... As a general policy, it’s not bad.”

“What do you mean?”

“Sir Fuuga gathers people with his rare charisma. And in order to keep them together, he needs results that back up that charisma. ‘Cutting across the Demon Lord’s Domain’ has to be one of the best accomplishments he could ask for in that regard. And so long as he’s dealing with that aspect, we can’t afford to refuse him.”

“I’d rather not be declared an enemy of mankind, yeah...”

The people of this continent longed to reclaim the Demon Lord’s Domain. It was a problem that those driven from—or at constant risk of being driven from—their lands always had in mind. Right now, the only nation that appeared to be grappling with that problem was the Great Tiger Kingdom.

We and the Empire were working behind the scenes to prepare for when the day came to address it, but no one could see that. If we got in Fuuga’s way or refused to help him, it would earn us the enmity of a large number of people. Had Fuuga asked knowing that? He even asked us to throw in a little something extra.

“He’s even prepared proper compensation for us...huh? All the bases are being covered.”

At the end of the letter, Fuuga had written “In exchange for delivering the supplies, we will give the Kingdom a port city on the western coast.” He’d probably looked at the naval base exchange agreement we’d signed with the Nine-Headed Dragon Archipelago Union after slaying Ooyamizuchi and thought a port would be good bait for us.

The Great Tiger Kingdom of Haan had considerable land forces, but almost nothing at sea. The west coast would be close to the Empire’s territory, and if they dispatched their fleet, it would be hard for Fuuga to hold the coast. The Empire was also primarily a land power, but they still had a proper navy when compared with the Great Tiger Kingdom.

That’s why Fuuga wanted to bring the Maritime Alliance into port, in order to keep the Empire in check.

Because it was far from our homeland, he saw us as less of a threat than the Empire. Hidden behind the casual wording of the message there was no doubt a plan that had been carefully crafted by Hashim.

“Well...we probably have no choice but to help,” I said, resting my head on the palm of my hand.

“I believe that’s acceptable,” Hakuya agreed, nodding.

The fact was, we wanted a port on the west coast. I had been planning to eventually sign the same sort of naval port exchange agreement with the Republic and the Empire. But because it would reveal our close ties with the Empire to sign such an agreement, it would have been a poor move right now. I was more than happy to have a port on the west coast outside of the Empire. However, I wasn’t going to say that with Yuriga here.

“Tell Excel to prepare a transport fleet. She can choose the number of ships and which ones to send. Also, throw in some extra rations as a bonus for them.”

“Understood.” Hakuya bowed and left the room. After he’d left, I looked at Yuriga.

“You heard how it is, Yuriga. Send Fuuga a response to that effect.”

“Thank you, Sir Souma,” Yuriga said, sounding relieved.

Still...I feel like this request came to me because I had become the head of the Maritime Alliance, putting myself on the same level as Maria and her Mankind Declaration or Fuuga and his Great Tiger Kingdom.

I may get more requests like this in the future... When that thought occurred to me, I let out a sigh.

And my premonition was soon proved accurate.

Elulu looked at him with eyes full of admiration.

“Lord Shuukin, you’re so cool!”

“Is this really the time...?” Shuukin said with a sigh, wiping the bug juice from his sword and sheathing it.

Then, mounting his temsbock once more, he pulled Elulu up with one hand and placed her behind him. Elulu hurriedly wrapped her arms around his waist.

“Hang on tight, Elulu!”

“Okay!” she replied, squeezing him.

Looking around as he maneuvered his temsbock, Shuukin saw that the insects that were closing in on their camp had been fended off and wiped out by Lombard and Yomi. As for the bugs that were surrounding the cavalry, they had been destroyed by a coordinated attack with the Garlan Volunteer Force.

“Okay! The monsters nesting in the forest have been dealt with! Everyone, head back!”

With that order given, the cavalry and Garlan Volunteer Force returned to camp.

Bringing Elulu back to camp, Shuukin was greeted by Lombard and Yomi.

“Good work. I was scared when you got surrounded out there.”

“It’s a good thing you were okay.”

Looking a bit relieved, Shuukin said, “It was a close shave, but the Garlan Volunteer Force saved me.”

He dismounted and then helped Elulu down from his temsbock.

“It’s only to be expected that we’d come to our allies’ aid!” Elulu said, puffing her chest out proudly, and the other three smiled wryly.

“Weren’t you in danger yourself, Madam Elulu?” Yomi pointed out, and Elulu gulped, short for words, her eyes darting around awkwardly.

“W-We just let our guards down a little.”

“You say that, Princess, but your endgame has always been weak,” one of the other high elves chided her.

“I’m sorry, Sir Shuukin, for making you protect our princess,” another apologized.

“Huh?! You people...!”

Elulu turned a bright shade of red. Shuukin and Lombard watched the Garlan Volunteer Force warmly.

“She’s a nice girl, isn’t she?” Lombard said.

Shuukin nodded. “Yeah. All of the high elves she led here are good people.”

“Agreed. I always had the impression that high elves were arrogant and full of themselves...”

“There are probably misfits and dissenters no matter where you go.”

Lombard watched Elulu chase the subordinates who’d teased her.

“Apparently, they’re the reformers and liberals,” Shuukin explained. “They’re a group of relatively young high elves.”

“Are they? I can never tell an elf’s age by looking at them...”

“It probably means their ideologies are more flexible. They’re the ones who found themselves in a closed-off way of life and wanted to go beyond. They wanted to bring in things from outside, and would be willing to abolish the policies that favor their own race if it will make that possible... Elulu said she’d gathered people like that who have no place in the Spirit Kingdom as it is now.”

“And she’s the king’s daughter? She must have been a handful for King Garula... Hmm? So the reason he sent these reinforcements...”

“I’m sure part of it was getting rid of troublemakers,” Shuukin said with a shrug. “If they can retake the Father Island, then good. If they can’t, the Spirit Kingdom can at least isolate its dissidents. Maybe he’s thinking it would be best if they never returned from their mission?”

“Even though his own daughter is here?”

“That, I don’t know. From what Elulu tells us, she seems to be on good terms with her father, so I don’t think he’s abandoned her. He may have yielded to her passion, and plans to take her back once the fighting is over. Well, we have no way of knowing the truth.”

“It’s difficult when you have a position to consider...” Lombard said, his voice full of emotion. Shuukin, however, had his mind elsewhere.

It’s certainly a difficult situation for the Garlan Volunteer Force, but...you could say it’s convenient for us.

Shuukin was under secret orders to search for high elves who they might be able to support as a puppet regime. While he was able to make political decisions, Shuukin was too honest, and was not fond of scheming, so he hadn’t been keen on the order. However, he thought Elulu might be the right person for that role. She was a reformer and a liberal with an interest in the world outside. She also got along well with other like-minded high elves. It seemed likely that she wouldn’t hesitate to become the head of a puppet regime for their sake.

So long as he was careful to respond to their needs, she and her people wouldn’t end up in a bad situation because of it. Elulu was someone he could support without many pangs of conscience.

Maybe I’ll talk it over with her at length tonight. To see if she’s willing to act as our puppet.

That night, Fuuga’s forces held a small victory banquet in their camp.

With the insect monsters in the forest wiped out, the surrounding area was now safe. The battle for the Father Island was still ongoing, but it wasn’t good to be too tense. This was probably a good time for a break. That was what Shuukin had decided when he arranged this banquet.

“Hey, you high elves! Is this enough to get you drunk?”

“What are you talking about, young’un? We’re not even tipsy yet!”

“Who’re you calling young? You’ve got the face of a kid!”

“And you haven’t even lived a century! You’re basically a child compared to us here in the Spirit Kingdom!”

The mixed races of Fuuga’s forces and the high elves of the Garlan Volunteer Force were all sitting shoulder to shoulder, pouring drinks for one another. Some drank, sang, or fought, while others told emotional stories. Maybe because many of the members of both forces were so approachable, it felt like they were comrades who had been fighting together on the battlefield for a long time.

Shuukin sat around the campfire with Lombard, Yomi, and Elulu, and they all poured drinks for each other. Elulu was in high spirits, and looking a little flushed as she chatted with Yomi.

“Lord Shuukin was just so cool when he protected me!” Elulu exclaimed, knocking back and draining a wooden mug full of wine. “Have you seen his muscular arms when he swings his sword? Is there a girl alive whose heart wouldn’t race seeing that?!”

Elulu seemed quite taken with Shuukin, and it was awkward for him to listen to her praise him so effusively. Lombard and Yomi could only listen with wry smiles.

“But aren’t the warriors of Garlan strong too? You all seem so reliable,” Yomi said as she refilled Elulu’s mug with fresh wine.

Elulu held her mug tight, groaning in thought.

“Sure, they’re strong, but most of them are thin. It’s how our race is. We’re more suited to long-range attacks. Oh! It’s not that I’m into, like, super buff guys! I just think that some nice, firm muscles are good and healthy.”

Is this girl into muscles? the others all thought, but decided not to dig into it. It seemed like it’d be an awkward question, and more importantly, they had more pressing questions.

When Shuukin signaled to the other two with his eyes, they stood up.

“I’m tired from today’s fighting,” Lombard opined. “We’ll be going now.”

“Pardon us.”

With that, Lombard and Yomi headed into their tent.

“Whaa, you’re going already?” Elulu protested, her voice carrying a tinge of loneliness. Although there were other soldiers drinking and having a raucous good time around them, it was only Shuukin and Elulu left at this campfire.

“It’s suddenly feeling all lonely,” she mumbled. “I wanted to talk with the two of them some more.”

“Well, Sir Lombard and Madam Yomi are husband and wife. They need their alone time.”

“Ohh, that’s why...” Elulu’s ears perked up a bit with interest.

With a wry smile at her behavior, Shuukin moved on to the main topic. “By the way, Princess Elulu?”

“Grr, you’re calling me Princess again?”

There was indignation in her eyes, but Shuukin continued.

“This is a serious question. What do you plan to do after this battle?”

“What do you mean, ‘what’?”

“After the island is liberated. Will you be returning to your father?”

“Hrmm... I wonder about thaaat,” Elulu said, the wine having left her relaxed and easygoing. “I’m one thing, but those hard-heads back on the Mother Island probably don’t want the reformers I brought with me coming back. They probably think this volunteer force was a good way of getting rid of us, so we’ll probably need to stay here awhile. None of the reformers are going to want to go back to the Mother Island where they’re looked at with scorn either.”

Shuukin’s eyes widened at how easily Elulu broached such a heavy topic.

“Umm...Princess Elulu, does your father treat you unkindly too, perhaps?”

“Hmm? My father and I get along well.”

Shuukin had asked out of concern, but Elulu laughed it off.

“I hear he used to be a militarist, but father has always seemed like a flexible thinker to me. He’s far easier to talk with than the old folks who are set in their ways. Even with this volunteer force, it felt less like father wanted to exile us, and more like he wanted to set us free. He even let me, his own daughter, lead it, after all.”

The more he heard, the less Shuukin understood. He’d been convinced that the Garlan Volunteer Force members were driven out of their country due to policy differences. And due to this, it’d make them easy to bring in. Yet, from their discussion just now, it didn’t seem that simple. At the very least, Spirit Kingdom King Garula didn’t view Princess Elulu with any sort of hostility.

Is it...really okay to have her join our side? Shuukin was at a loss. As a figurehead for pulling the Father Island away from the Spirit Kingdom of Garlan, there couldn’t be a better candidate. However, since her relationship with her father Garula wasn’t particularly bad, she might still want to return to the Spirit Kingdom.

For his own part, Shuukin was hesitant to tear father and daughter apart by pulling Elulu into his own forces. He thought over all of this, not saying a word, before finally resolving himself and downing his drink in one go. It’s not like agonizing over this is going to get me an alternative plan... He wasn’t like Mutsumi or Hashim. Shuukin knew better than anyone that he couldn’t use trickery the same way those two did.

That was why, at the very least, he wanted to be loyal to his lord and honest with his allies. To be trusted by everyone—the easiest pawn to use. Hashim had to have known his personality when choosing him to lead this force anyway.

“Hey, Elulu.”

“What is it?”

“I’ve heard that the reformers and liberals are interested in the outside world,” Shuukin said, looking straight into her eyes. “Lord Fuuga is seeking to strengthen our country even more in order to liberate the Demon Lord’s Domain. That’s why he wants to incorporate the Father Island into our forces.”

“I’m sure he does... It’s why he sent us reinforcements, right? To have the Spirit Kingdom of Garlan form an alliance with him as a reward.”

“Yes. However, at the same time, our leaders can’t trust the high elves.”

Hearing this, Elulu’s eyes downturned.

“It’s said that people who hold themselves up as superior and look down on other races can’t be expected to meekly submit. Of course, I now know there are relatable people like yourself and the others in the Garlan Volunteer Force. But as for whether we can trust those on the Mother Island...”

“...is another issue entirely, I’m sure. I can’t say that I blame you,” Elulu answered quietly. “And? What will you do, Lord Shuukin?”

“Let me be honest with you... Lord Fuuga has tasked me with finding high elf dissidents, and supporting their independence on the Father Island so that we can incorporate them into our forces.”

“So he means to set up a puppet?”

“That makes it sound like a bad thing, but you’re welcome to see it that way. It’s just that we want to see the Father Island in the hands of those we can trust,” Shuukin said, cautiously gauging her reaction. She chuckled.

“You can’t tell a lie, can you, Lord Shuukin? You’ve probably missed out on a lot of things as a result.”

“It’s just my nature...”

“I find it pleasing, you know? So, have you found the person you’re going to support?”

“I think you’re the one best suited to it, Princess Elulu,” Shuukin said. “You aren’t steeped in traditional views of your own race’s supremacy. You’ve been able to interact with a group of mixed races, like ours, without discrimination. And you’re highly interested in the outside world and what mysteries it holds. I think you could serve as a bridge between the continent and the Spirit Kingdom.”

“Aren’t you overestimating me...?”

“We just agreed I can’t tell a lie, didn’t we? This is how I truly feel,” Shuukin asserted. “I don’t think I’m making you a bad offer. Not every reformer and liberal on the Mother Island has joined this volunteer force, right? If you rise up, then you’ll be able to take in those still left behind. From what I’ve heard, they seem suffocated there. Why not invite them to the Father Island and wait for attitudes to soften across the whole of the Spirit Kingdom?”

Elulu was silent for some time before finally speaking. “I hear that our views on high elf supremacy were born from a sad history of oppression on the continent.”

Shuukin looked straight into her eyes once more.

“If we’re separated from the motherland, the Father Island will have little power. Will you and your people protect us during that time, Lord Shuukin? Will we find ourselves oppressed the moment we change our allegiance?” Elulu asked, staring right back at him.

Shuukin crossed his arms.

“I swear that I will protect you and the high elf liberals. If Lord Fuuga mistreats you, I will risk my life to chastise him for it. I will be your shield against the terrible customs of the Spirit Kingdom, political malefactors, and the threat of the Demon Lord’s Domain,” he said sincerely, bowing his head.

“Okay. I understand,” Elulu answered quickly. Even Shuukin was taken aback.

“Huh? That easily...?”

“It wasn’t easy. I’ve given it a lot of thought,” Elulu said, chuckling. “Which, of course, means I already had a similar idea of my own. It seems we can trust you, Lord Shuukin, so I thought we should go along with your plan.”

“R-Right...”

Seeing how thrown off Shuukin was, Elulu let out a little sigh.

“The situation the Spirit Kingdom finds itself in right now...is worse than it appears from the outside. When we have no ability to resolve it ourselves, closing the country to the outside is the stupidest thing we could do.”

“Are you talking about the monsters that landed on the Mother Island...?”

“That’s not all...” Elulu said with a self-effacing smile.

“What are you...” Shuukin began, confused at her words.

“I...can’t say anything for certain just now. It’s an issue on the Mother Island. I don’t know if it affects the Father Island too at this point...”

Elulu made no attempt to answer. That bothered him, but he decided that since he’d accomplished his goal, there was no need to push her and provoke her to anger.

And so, as the night went on, a secret agreement was formed.

◇ ◇ ◇

Some time later, Fuuga’s forces and the Garlan Volunteer Force succeeded in liberating the Father Island.

When Fuuga received a message from Shuukin saying “The Father Island has declared independence under Elulu, and joined your forces,” Gerula Garlan just so happened to be visiting.

“So, there you have it...”

Fuuga related the events to Gerula, who was kneeling before him in the audience chamber.

Once he had heard it all, Gerula glared at Fuuga.

As he did, Fuuga asked, “Are you angry that things played out this way?”

“Of course...”

“Well, you went to the wrong people for help,” Fuuga said dismissively. “No, maybe we were the right people. We’ll leave the Father Island to Princess Elulu and her high elves. Shuukin asked me to, and as long as they cooperate with us, I’m not going to mistreat them.”

“If you’ll excuse me...” Gerula rose and left.

Fuuga didn’t feel anything in particular as he watched him leave in frustration. Gerula, however, was highly irritated—angry—not at Fuuga and his men, but at himself. How pathetic... Everything I’ve spent my life to protect...

It wouldn’t be until a little later that they’d hear Shuukin had collapsed out on the Father Island.

“I’ll do just that, then. First, there’s a number of transmission routes. The most common in epidemics is person to person. If you’re in the same room as them, breathing the same air, or talking to them and their spit flies in your direction, that’s how it happens. Does this disease spread person to person?”

“I don’t know...”

“Hrm... What about those treating the infected? I know you probably don’t have a lot of doctors like me, but there must be light mages and those providing first aid to the patients. Have they gotten infected?”

“No... We haven’t received any reports like that.”

So there was no infection of medical practitioners...uh, if you could call them that, then?

“How about the patient’s family?”

“We have no confirmation on that.”

“Eh? Hrm...” Hilde seemed to be thinking deeply. “Now, just so I’m clear on this... The disease really is spreading, right?”

“Yeah. It seems that twenty to thirty percent of the soldiers we sent to the Father Island have come down with symptoms.”

“Soldiers? Have any of the common folk been infected?”

“That’s part of why they call it a curse...” Fuuga said, scratching his head in total confusion. “More than ninety percent of the people affected are in the military. And almost none of them were in the rear support group. It was all people involved in the fighting. That’s what got people jabbering about how it’s a curse, divine punishment, or whatever other nonsense they’re spreading.”

A disease that only affected soldiers? That interested me a little.

“Fuuga,” I began, “you guys built a semi-autonomous domain for the liberal high elves on the Father Island, right? If ninety percent of the people infected are in the military, then is that true in the high elves’ territory too? No differences based on race or gender?”

“Yeah. It seems like it. I could go a bit further and say that the disease on the Mother Island is the same way, because they know it as a disease that mostly affects warriors too.”

“Even in the Spirit Kingdom, huh...?”

“Sire,” Hilde said, turning to face me. “Based on what we know at this point, we can speculate that it’s not contagious through airborne or droplet transmission either. The spread compared to the number of patients is just too low.”

“Yeah... It looks like being in the same place doesn’t cause infection,” Brad, who had been listening, agreed.

I cocked my head to the side.

“So there’s no person-to-person transmission?”

“We can’t rule out transmission from close contact or bodily fluids, but...there’s been a large number of cases in a short time frame. Not having examined the patients myself, I can’t say anything for certain, but person-to-person transmission seems unlikely. And with the number of cases...the cause has to be elsewhere, I think. Some foreign element.”

“Could it be in the water? Perhaps something they ate?” Brad asked, and Hilde groaned as she thought about it.

“What gets me is that they’re all warriors. I can’t imagine they keep separate reserves of food and water for the front line fighters and their supporters back in camp. If the supporters have been largely uninfected, food seems like an unlikely cause.”

As I was listening to them, something came to mind.

“Hey, Fuuga. Did the expeditionary force use the monsters as food?”

“Huh? Nah. They were sent with plenty to eat. They’d have to have been pretty desperate to do that. That ‘Monster Encyclopedia’ you gave us said to be really careful when using monsters for food too.”

“Then it’s not food poisoning from eating monsters...”

Remembering Jeanne’s story about eating monsters, I thought that might be a possibility. I figured the kind of tough soldiers who went to fight on the front lines might want to give that sort of thing a go, while the guys in the rear wouldn’t go to the trouble. But if they hadn’t eaten monsters, as Fuuga says, it probably wasn’t that.

That left me even more lost though.

“Monsters...” Hilde started mumbling to herself. “What if the monsters...”

What could that be about?

Suddenly, she looked up, and realized something.

“Your Foreign Majesty! The expeditionary force only fought monsters, right? Not soldiers from the Spirit Kingdom?”

“Yeah.” Fuuga nodded. “We just drove the monsters out of the Father Island.”

“I heard monsters had pushed the Spirit Kingdom to the brink. That means they were fighting them back there too. In other words, the people who fought monsters are the ones who caught the disease.”

“““Ah!”””

Everyone gulped at what Hilde had said.

“So...it’s monster-to-human transmission then?”

“That’s right. And if the supporters in the rear have barely gotten infected at all, whatever the cause of the infection is, it must have happened during direct combat. Either those who were wounded in battle or covered in their enemies’ blood... It should be something like that.”

That makes sense. I could see how that would mean only warriors got infected.

“Hey, Doctor. What should we do about it?” Fuuga asked Hilde with a serious expression on his face. “Monsters are going to attack us even if we don’t attack them. You can’t expect us not to deal with them. Is there any way to heal the warriors, or keep the disease from spreading any further?”

“Not knowing the kind of disease it is, I have no idea how to treat it. It’s purely speculation at this point that monsters cause it, but...if you don’t want any more victims, you’ll keep to long-range attacks, and not get too close to the monsters.”

“Got it. I’ll make sure my men do that.”

“Also, I want to hear exactly what kind of symptoms it causes. I understand that it’s ultimately terminal, but what problems do the patients experience before then?”

“Right... The most typical symptom of the Spirit King’s Curse...” Fuuga looked directly at us as he said this. “Is losing the ability to use magic.”

Losing the ability to use magic?

“Can I understand that as losing the ability to use your own magic?” I asked, but Fuuga cocked his head to the side in confusion.

“What else could it mean?”

“There’s stuff like recovery light magic that has a magical effect from outside the body, after all.”

“Oh, that’s what you mean. It seems like you gradually lose the ability to use your own magic. As for light magic... How was it again?” Fuuga looked behind him.

Looking through a report, Hashim replied, “It seems to work at first, then gradually weakens, and ultimately fails...is what our reports say.”

“Is the magic itself being neutralized? What about magic attacks from enemies?”

“We have no reports of experiments like that, but...there are reports that one of the patients who had injuries from a fire attack was slow to heal, so I suspect attack magic works.”

Their own magic becomes unusable, and so does external light magic... What’s the difference that decides what magic works and what doesn’t?

“Hey, Souma,” Fuuga called out to me as I was thinking.

“What is it?”

“How about your country and my country fight this disease together?”

“Fight...together? You mean do a joint investigation?”

“If we stay ignorant, there’s no telling when it might spread across the whole continent. That’s something you’re worried about, right? So I’m saying we ought to team up.”

“I get that, but...”

His reasoning made sense. But when it came to working with Fuuga’s forces, I was always going to be hesitant. Fuuga was a man who hid nothing and had no ulterior motives when he was on his own, but now he had a shifty guy like Hashim at his side. I felt like we’d just be taken advantage of.

If we acted like we were close to Fuuga’s faction, that might provoke the people of the Empire. In point of fact, after Fuuga turned over that port to us, Maria’s vassals had put some serious pressure on her.

As I hesitated to respond, Fuuga went on. “We’d like to do what we can not to create any more cases, and if possible, find a treatment. You wouldn’t want this disease in your country either, right? The only way to prevent that is studying it together and coming up with countermeasures.”

I remained silent, unable to give a response.

“That’s an awfully self-serving thing for you to say,” Hakuya interjected. “For one thing, if you had never intervened in the Spirit Kingdom’s troubles, you wouldn’t be suffering from this disease right now. This is the result of actions that you took, so it’s not right for you to seek other countries’ help in solving it.”

“I believe we have a difference of understanding here,” Hashim swiftly countered. “Our liberation of the Father Island was done at Sir Gerula’s request. It troubles me that you would suggest it was done for personal gain.”

“You quibble, but the fact of the matter is that the Father Island is now a part of your sphere of influence, is it not?”

“You must not know the circumstances there either. When we actually made contact with the high elves, we found they were divided into a group obsessed with notions of their status as the chosen people, and those who sought reform or liberation from those who held such views. As the liberators of the Demon Lord’s Domain, we merely decided that the latter group were correct, and sided with them.”

“All you did was create a puppet state. It is disgusting to think you call yourself liberators.”

Neither Hakuya nor Hashim would cede an inch of ground in this exchange. They both needed to stay in control of the argument—Hakuya to keep the Kingdom from being pulled into the Great Tiger Kingdom’s situation, and Hashim to prevent any excuses for refusing to help them.

You could have called their war of words a power game between us and the Great Tiger Kingdom...

“Shut up, both of you.” Fuuga tired of it and shut them both down. “In this matter, my will as an individual comes before my will as a king. I want to save my friend Shuukin, as well as the other men who serve under me that are suffering from this disease. If I have to lower my head and beg, I’ll do it. So please.”

With that, Fuuga took off his helmet and bowed his head deeply.

One of us was asking a favor of the other. That should have made our positions clear, but somehow, when he was able to so confidently bow his head to me, it made him feel like the more impressive one here. We had made him bow his head, and yet it felt like he was the one in control. This has to be the difference in our caliber as individuals...

Unlike me, who was able to manage because he was supported by others, Fuuga had incredible capacity all on his own. In one-on-one situations like this, the difference between us was readily apparent.

“Fine... We’ll help you.”

It was the only answer I could give.

“If it’s transmissible through contact with monsters, not air or droplets, the doctors aren’t at much risk of infection. It’s easy to send people.”

“Ohh! Thanks.”

“However, our medical technology is several levels above yours. You’re to follow our doctors’ instructions to the letter. I don’t want you moving around patients and spreading the disease. If you can’t abide by that, we’ll have to decline.”

Fuuga gave a large nod in response to my demands.

“Yeah, you’ve got it. I’ll be strict with my people about that.”

“I’m counting on you... That goes for Hashim too, all right?”

For better and for worse, when Fuuga said he was going to do something, he did it. Now that he had accepted my demands, I could expect he wouldn’t go back on his word. But that didn’t hold for everyone on his side.

“He seems like the kind of guy who’d send the dead bodies of people who died from the disease to an enemy country.”

“I’m not that ruthless...” Hashim said, looking away like my words wounded him. I wasn’t convinced.

“It’s human nature to want to use the tools we have at hand. Even when they’re too much for us.”

In my previous world, there were things like bioweapons and anthrax, after all. Bacteria and viruses were alive. Living things rarely moved the way people wanted them to. For an example that didn’t directly harm humans, I’d heard a story where people had released mongooses to fight vipers, but they instead started attacking some endangered local wildlife.

“If you get arrogant and think you can control this thing, I guarantee it will come back to bite you in the ass.”

Fuuga looked pensive for a moment before saying, “Yeah, I get it. I’ll keep an eye on Hashim so he doesn’t do anything weird.”

He took it on himself because he didn’t want to see the negotiations descend into squabbling again.

Well... I figure that’s probably good enough for now. We had agreed our two countries would cooperate where the disease was concerned.

With that decided, I had to look into what the Kingdom could do, so we decided to end the broadcast meeting there. Once the video cut out...

“This has all turned into...kind of a big deal, huh?” Liscia said, and I nodded in agreement.

“But this time, we really do need to cooperate. Disease knows no borders.”

“Yeah...”

“Um, I’m sorry about my brother,” Yuriga said apologetically.

“You don’t have to be,” I reassured her, placing a hand on her shoulder. “In this situation, it’s not entirely Fuuga’s fault.”

“Right...”

Next Hilde and Brad came up to me.

“Sire, once I hear about a disease, I can’t leave it alone. Let me go there.”

“No, they’ll need someone to perform autopsies. I should be the one to go.”

They both volunteered out of a sense of duty as doctors. But...

“Not happening!” I immediately refused. “You’re the Kingdom’s top authorities in medicine. I’d even call you the king and queen of the medical world. You two are so famous that people know your names even when they don’t know the name of their nearest doctor. If I sent the two of you out and you got sick, what would I do? The country would fall into chaos if it was a disease even the two of you couldn’t overcome. When they found out, there might even be rioting.”

““.........””

“As doctors, you wouldn’t want a riot that broke out because of you to result in casualties, would you? Well, as king, I feel the same way. I can’t send you there.”

“Urgh...” Brad groaned.

“Fame has its price, huh?” Hilde complained.

They looked frustrated, but they were going to have to deal with it. I don’t want to say some lives were more important than others, but the fact is that some deaths have a lot more of an effect. As king, I had to do everything I could to keep losses to a minimum.

“You need to be patient. Ludia’s still little too.”

When I brought up the name of their child, they both had a moment of realization. They couldn’t make an orphan of her. Still, they had a job to do as doctors. I could see the conflicted expression on their faces.

I bowed my head to the two of them.

“I want you here as my advisors. I’ll give you all the information we have. And once specimens are available, I’ll have them brought to you. So please, stay in the capital for now.”

“Fine, I get it...” Brad said.

“I guess we’ve got no choice,” Hilde agreed.

They didn’t like it, but they accepted it. That’s a relief.

Brad produced two vials from his coat pocket and laid them down on top of the monster drawings. They were filled with fluid and had little things inside them.

“One of those is the parasites that came out of a patient who died of the Spirit King’s Curse. They’re big enough to be seen with the naked eye, right? Hilde says they match the ones in Gerula’s blood that she saw with her third eye.”

“I see. So then these are...”

“The parasites that cause this disease?”

Hakuya and Ichiha both let out a sigh as they looked at those parasites, each no larger than a grain of sand. They were small enough that Ichiha, who always wore glasses, struggled to see them. It was hard to believe this organism was the cause of so many deaths.

“It’s inconvenient not having a name for them,” Brad continued. “They are bugs that hide in the blood vessels, eating away at our magicium... Let’s call them blood-borne magic-eating bugs. And we found what seems to be magic-eating blood bug larvae in the dead bodies of monsters.”

Having said this, Brad showed them the other vial. It looked similar to the others, but this time it was hard to see anything other than liquid inside. Ichiha squinted but couldn’t make out anything.

“The larvae...are in there?”

“They are. But they’re only large enough that someone with good vision might just barely be able to make them out. It’s only with the three-eyed race’s third eye or a microscope that they’re easily visible.”

Brad picked up the vial between his fingers. “The monster I found these in had a spiral shell, like you said. The infection is caused by contact with fluids from monsters with them...just like you were thinking.”

“Is it possible for there to be person-to-person transmission? Like if we touched someone’s infected blood...” Ichiha asked.

“You don’t want to try it, that’s for sure.” Brad crossed his arms and cocked his head to the side. “But it seems like there are practically no cases of transmission that way. Even if you come in contact with their blood, so long as you wash and disinfect yourself afterwards, there shouldn’t be a problem. The risk to those who get covered in monster fluids during battle and then don’t clean themselves is far higher.”

“What measures can be taken to prevent infection?” Hakuya asked.

“Well... First of all, you could stay away from them. Fighting up close with these monsters is dangerous. If you really have to fight them, then ideally you want to finish them with ranged attacks, at a distance where their fluids won’t get on you.”

“It seems they’re already doing that, but I’ll let them know to take special caution with monsters that have spiral shells.”

“Also, if you get fluids on you, wash and disinfect anywhere it touches immediately. If you leave it as is, you run a higher risk of infection.”

“Understood,” Hakuya said, nodding. “Sir Ichiha.”

“Right! I’ll go let the people from the Great Tiger Kingdom know!” Ichiha replied before running off.

Brad scratched his head as he watched him go. Turning to Hakuya, he said, “Still...I know I shouldn’t say this, but I never expected to find the cause so easily... This would never happen with a normal disease.”

“You’re probably right. It seems a lot of things came together to help us out. We had you, who is familiar with the inside of the body; we had experts on monsters; Hilde, who can remove parasites with magic; His Majesty’s knowledge of a disease in his former world; and...”

“And someone who donated his body to the cause.”

They both looked pained as they remembered Gerula, who had fallen victim to the disease.

“Yes... It was all thanks to this confluence of events.”

“So it only worked out by coincidence, huh?”

“Perhaps. However, without His Majesty’s decision to pursue medical development, Madam Hilde’s and your assistance, and the contribution of Gerula, who wanted to save his homeland, such a coincidence wouldn’t have happened. Even if it was the result of chance, our will to overcome diseases is what brought it to fruition.”

“You’ve got that right.”

Brad was often a contrarian, but on this, he readily agreed.

◇ ◇ ◇

Patients from the Father Island afflicted with the Spirit King’s Curse were arriving at the medical facility in the port city. These were ones with relatively minor symptoms, and would be experimental subjects to test the efficacy of the treatment Hilde had discovered.

The first subject was going to be Shuukin.

“I’ve heard the reports from Yuriga, so it’s not like I don’t trust the Kingdom’s medical science, but I don’t want to test anything on my men when I don’t know the risks. Besides, if I show them that I’ve accepted your treatment, my quick-tempered lot will be more willing to submit to it too.”

Shuukin was lying in bed as Hilde examined him. Tomoe, Yuriga, and Elulu were watching at a distance. Yuriga seemed unsteady on her feet, and Tomoe had to help her to stand.

“Are you okay, Yuriga?”

“Ungh... I’m a little dizzy, but I’ll be fine.”

Hilde made a shallow incision in Shuukin’s arm with a scalpel. Shuukin didn’t bat an eye at it, but all three of the girls gulped. Hilde immediately began using light magic on the wound. It was a little small and shallow, but it took far longer than normal to heal.

“Your case is fairly advanced,” Hilde said with a sigh as she examined him. “The blood-borne magic-eating bugs—okay, apologies to Brad, but that’s way too long. I’m just going to call them magic bugs... Anyway, the magic bugs have damaged the magicium in your blood pretty badly. If I was going to exterminate them with just the magicium you have left, it would take a long time. Considering your symptoms, that’d be the death of you.”

“Is...that right?”

“If I did it the normal way, yes. Honestly...since we’re trying to test the safety of this, I’d have preferred a subject who had somewhat lighter symptoms,” she grumbled.

Shuukin laughed. “Sorry for putting you out like this. But Lord Fuuga entrusted me with those men. If this body of mine is no longer fit to stand on the battlefield, then let me offer it up as a test subject.”

“I hate the way you warriors think... But if that’s what you’re going to say, I’m going to take you up on it.”

With that, Hilde produced a large bottle containing a dark red liquid, causing Shuukin’s brow to furrow as he saw it.

“What is that?”

“The blood I took from that girl over there,” Hilde replied, pointing to Yuriga. Shuukin’s eyes went wide.

“From Lady Yuriga?!”

“Yeah. The method I’ve developed for treating the Spirit King’s Curse involves identifying the magic bugs in the blood and using an awareness of where they are to control the magicium in the body to eliminate them with light magic. If I know what effect the magic bugs have on the body, I can treat the other symptoms too, but...Brad’s still busy dissecting cadavers and looking into that. That’s why I’ll be focusing on eliminating the magic bugs for now. If your magicium has been thoroughly destroyed, though, I can’t do it... Which is what this is for.”

Hilde held up Yuriga’s blood for Shuukin to see.

“I’ll give you a transfusion from this girl, who’s of the same race as you, and supplement your magicium with hers. I’ve already checked that she’s a viable blood donor for you.”

“N-No! How could I make you shed the blood of my liege’s sister?!”

Shuukin was hesitant, but Yuriga, despite seeming somewhat anemic, waved her hand as Tomoe helped her stand.

“Oh...don’t worry about it, Sir Shuukin. My brother needs you on his path to supremacy, and it’s no big deal for me to give up a little blood for that.”

“Lady Yuriga...”

“You should be grateful for the situation, and accept it with grace. It was a stroke of good fortune that there was a healthy member of the same race here to act as a donor... Some lives couldn’t be saved even after coming up with this method,” Hilde said, her expression clouding. “It was all too late for the high elf patient we saw back in the Kingdom. The only other high elf there wasn’t a blood-type match for him, so we couldn’t even have tested this method. Although, with the organ damage he had already suffered, it would have only extended his life a little at most... His name was Gerula Garlan.”

“Huh?! Uncle...” Elulu murmured.

Hilde lowered her eyes before responding. “He was...a relative of yours?”

“Yes. He knew he didn’t have long, and was looking for a way to use what life he had left. I see... So he passed away in the Kingdom, then...”

Elulu looked down as tears filled her eyes.

In an uncharacteristically gentle tone, Hilde said, “To that end, he passed away with one of his own kind watching over him, and a peaceful expression on his face. It was only thanks to him offering up his body that we uncovered the true nature of the disease, and I was able to come up with this treatment.”

“My uncle’s death...wasn’t in vain then?” Elulu asked, looking up, and Hilde gave her a firm nod.

“I’d never let it go to waste. None of us would.”

Sniffling, Elulu replied, “Right!”

“It sounds like I’ll have to be prepared too, then,” Shuukin said, exposing his arm with a look of determination. “Princess Elulu’s uncle gave his life to help find this treatment. If my body can be the one that proves it’s effective, I couldn’t be happier. Lady Yuriga, I will be borrowing your blood.”

With Shuukin’s resolve set, Hilde began the treatment. First they extracted some of Shuukin’s blood, then transfused Yuriga’s healthy blood into him. Because blood couldn’t be preserved for as long as in Souma’s old world, time was of the essence. And so the blood was transfused. Hilde also used light magic to eliminate the blood-borne magic-eating bugs.

Shuukin sweated heavily throughout the procedure.

He didn’t seem to be in pain, but the feeling of something messing around inside his body was unpleasant. It was exhausting too, and eventually he passed out like someone had flipped an off switch.

Two hours went by...

Hilde used light magic on every blood vessel in Shuukin’s body. She sent an image of the magic bugs to the magicium inside the body, and then they destroyed them. There was no standard for how many it might be safe to let escape, so she was as thorough as she could be.

After a long time, Hilde stopped casting magic on the body.

“Please...let this work.”

And then, making another incision on Shuukin’s arm, she tried casting light magic on it. When she did, it still healed slowly, but faster than before, showing that the magicium in the body was functioning properly.

“Whew...”

Hilde collapsed into a chair, exhausted.

“Um, Doctor. Will Lord Shuukin...” Elulu asked, unable to wait any longer.

“I can’t say for certain until I’ve had time to observe,” Hilde said, waving her off. “But this should have eliminated the magic bugs in his blood. I’d say we can call it a success so far.”

“Really?! Thank goodness!” Elulu cried out with glee, gently taking the sleeping Shuukin’s hand.

With a sideways glance at her, Hilde let out a great sigh.

“For now, I think it’s safe to say we’ve established a treatment. If it can be treated when it’s advanced this far, then we should be able to treat the others with comparatively light symptoms without even needing a blood transfusion. But I hear there’s still far more patients on the Father and Mother Islands.”

Hilde leaned back in the chair, looking up at the ceiling.

“It took all this time and effort just to treat him. Much as I hate to admit it, I can’t handle all of them with just the doctors we’ve brought with us... No, even with all the doctors in the Kingdom, it still wouldn’t be enough. What can we do...”

“It will be okay,” Tomoe said, leaning in to peer at Hilde’s face. “Big Brother stayed in the Kingdom because he said there are things he needs to take care of. I’m sure he has an idea. So...it’s going to work out.”

“Here’s hoping...” Hilde replied, smiling wryly at Tomoe’s total belief in her big brother.

◇ ◇ ◇

One week later...

With the treatment of the first batch of patients at the port city complete, they were all on the way to recovery. Shuukin had had the heaviest symptoms, and even he had recovered to the point where he was doing training as a form of rehab. When Shuukin stood up and got out of bed on his own, Elulu jumped into his arms in glee.

And now, on this day, Prime Minister Hakuya; Tomoe, Ichiha, and Yuriga; Hilde the doctor; Brad the surgeon; Shuukin; and Elulu were gathered in one room to discuss the current state of things and what they were going to do going forward.

“How about we start with the condition of the patients?” Hakuya suggested.

“That’s no problem,” Hilde replied. “They’re all on the way to recovery. Even the one with the worst case of it, who’s right here with us.”

“Thanks to you, Doctor,” Shuukin said, bowing his head. For some reason, Elulu, who was next to him, bowed hers too.

With a wry smile at the two of them, Hilde told Hakuya, “For now, I think we can safely say that we’ve established a treatment for the Spirit King’s Curse. The light mages with a knowledge of medicine should be able to perform it the same as I did without any problem.”

“That’s a relief to hear,” Hakuya said with a nod before looking to Brad. “Now, what can you tell us about the blood-borne magic-eating bugs...the magic bugs?”

“All we know so far is you can get infected with them by touching the fluids that come out of the spiral shell part of a monster’s body,” Brad replied, crossing his arms. “But when you consider the almost total lack of infections coming from patients, I think the magic bugs only have the power to infect humans when they’re covered in monster blood.”

“Is this that ‘intermediary host’ thing that His Majesty told us about?”

“Yeah, that’s probably it.”

Souma had told them about Japanese schistosomiasis. It was an endemic disease from the world he came from, and it infected people through mollusks that lived in the rice paddies and rivers. In the country Souma lived in, they had overcome the disease by preventing the mollusks from reproducing and eliminating the environment that allowed the parasites to exist.

“It’s not clear if the demon wave caused preexisting parasites to change inside the bodies of the large number of monsters it produced, or if they existed in the monsters’ bodies all along. The one thing we do know is that to stop the chain of infections, we need to completely eliminate the monsters with spiral shells that are causing it.”

“I’ve reported that to our forces on the Father Island. They’re to make eliminating any spiral shell monster their top priority. They have strict orders to do so from a distance; defeating the enemy with long-ranged attacks or magic, and avoiding contact with their blood.”

Elulu nodded at Shuukin’s explanation.

“I’ve given the same report to my father, the Spirit Kingdom King, on the Mother Island. I think that should help lower the rate of new infections, but...” Elulu’s expression darkened. “There are still a large number of people suffering from the Spirit King’s Curse on both islands. Could you possibly perform the Kingdom’s medical treatment on all of them? Please!”

Elulu bowed her head and Shuukin joined her.

“I’m asking you too. Please save my wounded soldiers and the high elves.”

“That seems to have been His Majesty’s intention all along...” Hakuya said.

Hilde began vigorously scratching her head.

“But the patients on both islands vastly outnumber this first group, right? And from what I hear, many of them are in even worse condition than Sir Shuukin was. I already told little Tomoe and her friends this, but we don’t have nearly enough people to handle them all with just the doctors we brought here. Even if we brought every light mage in the Kingdom with medical knowledge, it still wouldn’t be enough.”

“Also, it would be inefficient to bring them all to this port. There’s no telling how long it might take if we only brought them in batches as large as we can house here, and we don’t have enough blood for Hilde’s treatment either,” Brad added, pointing out further problems. He looked at Yuriga. “We got lucky that her blood happened to match Shuukin’s, but if it hadn’t then his treatment would have been delayed further... Well, if it came to it, we’d have relied on using blood from another race.”

“Hm? It’s possible to do blood transfusions between different races?” Hakuya asked.

“If you’re asking if it’s possible...then, yes. Even if people’s races are different, so long as the blood types match, there is no problem with doing a transfusion, but...the medical society doesn’t encourage it,” Brad answered awkwardly.

“Why is that?”

“A little knowledge can lead to rampant superstition. Blood transfusion isn’t an established medical practice outside of our country. What do you think would happen if it became known that you can transfuse the blood of a long-lived race like the elves into humans? What if that started a baseless rumor that doing so could extend a person’s life or restore their youth?”

“I see... I’d rather not think about it.” Hakuya got depressed when he considered what would happen.

Hunts for members of the long-lived races, completely disregarding their rights, and trafficking in their blood—every illegal method might be tried. The long-lived races wouldn’t just take it, of course. In the worst case, it could develop into a civil war.

Brad nodded. “Let me just tell you straight up, their blood doesn’t have that sort of effect. But if people are ignorant, they won’t believe you when you tell them. We should save transfusions from other races until the people have been enlightened as to how it works.”

“You make a good case... It would be advisable to stick to transfusions between the same races until then. That being the case... Should we go to the Spirit Kingdom of Garlan, where there are members of the same race, in order to treat them?”

Hakuya brought his hand to his mouth as he thought, looking at Tomoe.

“If I recall, you and your friends are on summer vacation right now, correct?”

“Yes. We have about another month.”

“It’s kind of a problem that I haven’t even touched my assignments yet...” Yuriga said, getting dispirited. “If I don’t get them done, I’m in for more remedial lessons...”

Hakuya thought for a short time, and then made his decision.

“Yes, let’s go to the Father Island and treat the people there. Since Shuukin has recovered, we’ll want him leading his men to prevent further infections.”

“Sure! Thank you, Sir Hakuya!”

“Thank you so much!”

Shuukin and Elulu were overjoyed, but Hilde’s expression was still grim.

“I’m fine with going there, but that doesn’t change our shortage of staff.”

“Ah, as far as that goes, I suspect...” Hakuya began to say, but hadn’t even finished before it happened.

A messenger rushed into the room, handing a letter to Hakuya.

“It’s a report! It came from the Kingdom of Friedonia, by messenger kui! It’s from His Majesty!”

“Oh! Let me see it.”

Hakuya accepted the letter and looked through it. When he was done, he let out a sigh of relief. Everyone could immediately tell that it wasn’t a negative report.

Looking around at each of them, he said, “The manpower shortage is resolved. Let’s head to the Spirit Kingdom at once.”

“I-I’m sorry. Hee hee. When you said ‘reverse march,’ it just struck my funny bone...” Maria wiped the tears from her eyes as she apologized. “Oh, goodness me. I don’t think I’ve laughed this much all year.”

“Well, good for you,” Liscia replied in monotone.

“Hee hee. My, don’t look at me like that. Oh, right, speaking of songs... I’ve been learning the songs of your country, particularly those from Sir Souma’s old world, during our broadcast meetings.”

“Hmm? You have?”

Liscia stared blankly at her. The broadcast meetings between the Kingdom and Empire were generally handled by Hakuya and Jeanne, and Liscia was often absent when Souma held meetings with Maria, so she had no idea they’d been doing that.

Maria smiled and nodded. “Yes. Of all the songs I’ve learned, I liked Katyusha the best.”

“What language is that? Something from Souma’s world?”

“He said it was a foreign language to him too. It’s not a bright and cheerful song, but singing it makes me feel more energetic somehow.”

“Hmm... Why’s that?”

“Who can say? I wonder.” It seemed Maria was unsure herself. “Hee hee. This is fun, chatting like this.”

In the middle of their peaceful chat, Maria’s smile suddenly vanished.

“Madam Maria?”

“I think about it sometimes... If I hadn’t given the Kingdom the option to pay us subsidies, and instead insisted on having the hero sent over, what would my life and the Empire be like now?”

“If we’d sent Souma to the Empire back then, you mean?” Liscia asked, and Maria silently nodded. After thinking about it a little, Liscia shook her head vigorously, saying, “No, no, no, no, I don’t want to think about it. I can’t imagine that the antiquated, history-filled country that is the Kingdom could’ve overcome all the troubles that we were facing back then without Souma. It would have slowly worn us down, and we’d be dead by now, wouldn’t we? Besides, without him, I’d never have met the people he hired, and Cian and Kazuha would never have been born.”

“Yes, you’re right. It’s natural for you to think that in your position, Lady Liscia,” Maria replied, affirming everything Liscia had said. “That’s exactly why I think about it. Obviously, it’s all just possibilities, but I think there was a future there. Where Sir Souma became my partner, and we reformed the Empire, gathering comrades, and building a vibrant country... That sort of future.”

“Madam Maria...”

“I might have been a mother too, you know?”

“Er, I dunno about that. It feels kind of weird.”

Liscia had complicated feelings about it, but Maria chuckled. Was she teasing her there, at the end? Liscia looked at Maria then let out a sigh.

“You know, if we’re talking about being partners, I think you and Souma have a perfectly fine partnership as is. In fact, when I first saw you two talking over the broadcast, it was weird how much you were on the same page.”

“Oh! Is that right?” Maria’s eyes widened. She must not have expected to hear that.

Liscia put a hand on the back of her own neck, awkwardly explaining, “You come from different countries, and your positions are different. Because you’re negotiating, you need to try to read the other person, so you can’t have too much fun, but can’t act hostile either. It’s a complicated relationship, but you and Souma seem strangely able to understand one another sometimes.”

“Ohh... Jeanne has said that to me on numerous occasions. When she listens to Souma and me talking, she feels left out.”

“I...kind of get that. I mean, that’s just me being jealous though.”

“Oh my,” Maria said, blinking. “You just come right out and say it.”

“It’s natural for me to be jealous when the person involved is so important in my life. So I learned a long time ago, I need to accept it, not force it down.”

“You truly are wonderful, you know that?”

Maria smiled peacefully. Liscia smiled back.

“Hey, Liscia. It’s about time.”

Souma, who had been talking over on the other side of the room, called out to her. He presumably meant it was about for everyone to return to their respective countries.

“I’m happy we could have this talk, Lady Liscia,” Maria said, extending her hand.

“I hope we’ll have the chance to continue in a more relaxed environment sometime.”

“Yes! I long for the day.”

Liscia took her hand, and they exchanged a firm handshake.

Midword

Thank you for buying volume 15 of Realist Hero. This is Dojyomaru, who has been either inside his house working or biking alone along the embankment during the state of emergency. I was already an at-home worker, but this has turned me into even more of a shut-in.

Now then, this volume has mainly focused on the Spirit Kingdom of Garlan and medicine... I have a vague sense of what your readers must have thought when you first read the synopsis.

“Is this guy crazy? This theme, really? Is it really okay to be doing that?” I can practically hear you all saying it.

Err, at the point when I’m writing this, I still can’t say whether it was “okay” or not. However, this scenario is actually one I’d already been thinking of back in 2019, before the virus really took off. I’d have medicine as my theme, drop the information that magicium is made of nanomachines, and more or less make it certain that there was a temporal connection between the time Souma lived in before and the one he lives in now. All that to show this isn’t a transferred-to-another-world story, but a time-travel story.

At the time, I had no idea that all of our lives would be turned upside down like this...

The web serialization of the content in volume 15 started in February of 2020, and in March I wondered if it was okay to keep serializing this story for a while, but by April I realized, “Oh, this problem isn’t going away any time soon.” If I tried to wait until it was over, there was no telling when I could start back up again, so I decided to resume serialization. There were a lot of twists and turns, I have to admit.

Obviously, the disease that appeared in this story has no connection to any real-world disease.

My reference wasn’t a virus, but diseases like schistosomiasis that are caused by parasites. Souma mentioned in the story that he went to the Dr. Sugiura Memorial Museum in Yamanashi Prefecture as part of his social studies class, and I did too. It was a very quick trip where we took the highway bus to Showa Town, looked at the exhibits, bought lunch at a convenience store, and headed straight home, but it was still a valuable experience.

We heard all sorts of stories from the guide there, and were shown oncomelania hupensis nosophora, the intermediate host for schistosoma japonicum, the Japanese blood fluke. I was surprised it was so small, and indistinguishable from other freshwater snails. They showed us the medical equipment that was used back then, including a big syringe that made me shudder, and then, on the second floor, we watched an American-Japanese co-production titled In the Name of Mankind.

I’d like to use this space to thank the guide who showed us around the Dr. Sugiura Memorial Museum.

There was also a newspaper article on display on the second floor of the memorial museum which explained how people faced this disease, and I found it very moving. I think that people’s stance towards disease is the same whether it’s a virus, parasitic infection, or a fictional disease.

There are patients who want to get better, doctors who want to treat them, and people who don’t want to see more victims. That’s why they can make logical decisions, and even if they’re standing in different positions they can fight together. I’m sure there are people who think it would never go so well, but as far as fighting diseases goes, I want there to be some hope, even if only in the world of fiction.

This is getting kind of depressing... Let’s have a change of mood.

◇ ◇ ◇

Now then, volume 15 is scheduled for release in June, so the Realist Hero anime will be airing soon. As I’m writing this, they are still very busy with production, so I don’t know how it will turn out.

I’ve seen up through episode 2 at this point, and Liscia’s gestures are just so adorable. Thanks to the acting of Ms. Inori Minase and the comical way she moves, she’s turned into an even more appealing girl than I imagined. I’m going to have to write short stories for the anime’s Blu-ray release now, and I think Liscia may get a little influenced by that acting.

Now then, I give my thanks to the artist Fuyuyuki, to Mr. Satoshi Ueda of the manga adaptation, to my editor, to the designers, to the proofreaders, to the people involved with the anime version, and to all of you who now hold this book in your hands.

This has been Dojyomaru.

Bonus Short Stories

The Noise Lover and the Loner

My second secondary queen, Naden the black ryuu, acted like a handywoman of sorts for the women working on the shopping street. One day, she brought back a big daikon radish she received as thanks for her efforts. She used it to make oden, and we sat around the table with my other wives as well as Tomoe, Ichiha, and Yuriga.

Because my wives and I all have our own duties and work, it wasn’t uncommon for some of us to be missing at any meal other than breakfast. It was only because Naden let us know in advance that we were all able to gather like this. It would have been nice if my beloved Cian and Kazuha could have been here too, but they were a bit too young to be eating oden, so I fed them ahead of time and left them with Carla.

“It feels crowded with so many of us here, huh?”

“Hee hee! You’re right.”

The family usually ate together at the kotatsu I’ve mentioned before, but obviously it was a little small for nine people, so we prepared another low table and a second pot for oden. Still, it wasn’t a very large room, so it was a bit cramped anyway.

“Ah! That’s my octopus, Big Sis Ai!” Roroa bemoaned.

“First come, first served,” Aisha asserted.

“Hee hee, the broth has seeped into the daikon wonderfully, Naden,” Juna said.

“You’re a daikon fan, Juna? I like the boiled eggs more,” Naden replied.

“Come on, Ichiha,” Tomoe began, “if you don’t hurry up and eat, you’ll miss out.”

“T-Tomoe?! Don’t just dump an octopus leg in my bowl like that!”

“Honestly, what are you doing...?” Yuriga sighed.

“Here, you too, Yuriga.”

“Wait, don’t put kombu in mine, you little kid!”

And, well, it certainly made for an eventful dinner.

“Maybe we should have used the long table in the royal dining hall,” I murmured.

“Really? I like it this way. It’s exciting.”

“Yeah...” I smiled wryly at Liscia. “It’s nice having everyone here and chatting, but...”

“But?”

Her question made me think back.

“There’s a girl I remember whenever I see a lively table like this.”

This is a story from when I was in my old world, not long after I’d entered high school.

It had been lunchtime. Tatsuya and Yoshiaki, the friends I’d made after coming to school, had left right away to attend a meeting that introduced the various clubs. I had no intention of joining a club, however, so once I’d finished the lunch grandma had made for me, I went for a walk for lack of anything better to do. I was still very new to this school, so I hadn’t known where things were yet, and figured it couldn’t hurt to take a look around.

As I headed past the shoe lockers and out through the front door, I’d felt a chilly wind on my neck. Hmm... Maybe it’s a bit cold out?

It was spring at the time, and the Yoshino cherry blossoms had finished falling. I’d decided to head for somewhere I wouldn’t normally go: behind the school building, near the second gymnasium—a place I had yet to see. And as I rounded the corner of the building...

“Ah—”

The cherry blossoms there were in full bloom. However, because the color was so vibrant, each flower had left a heavier impression on me than Yoshino cherry blossoms would. Oh right, I know these... They’re called double-flowered cherry blossoms. There was one tree of them in the sunlit space at the back of the school.

It’s prime viewing time for double-flowered cherry blossoms... As I was thinking that, I’d noticed someone under the tree.

There was a corpse—no, a girl. She had black medium-length hair and a plain face with symmetrical features. She was wearing her uniform properly, which was kind of unusual those days, and on her lap was a book. At a glance, she had looked like your run-of-the-mill bookworm.

Seeing this bookish girl beneath the cherry blossoms had made me think that it made for a pretty picture.

I had silently observed her until...

“Ah...!”

Our eyes met. After being caught like this, it would be kind of creepy to just leave.

Okay... I’d thought to myself as I decided to talk to her. “Are you...alone?”

She gave no reply and had just stared back at me.

What’s her deal? I felt super awkward. Maybe she’s mad at me for disrupting her alone time? I’d thought and considered making a hasty retreat.

“I like being alone...” the girl said.

She had spoken so suddenly that I wasn’t sure the words had come from her at first. But when I’d realized she’d answered my question, I hastily replied.

“Oh, okay... You’d rather be by yourself than in a crowd, you mean?”

“Yes.”

“So it’s not that you don’t have anywhere to be.”

Apparently, she hadn’t been eating by herself because she was a loner who had no place in the classroom. Fair enough. I hadn’t gotten that sense of pathetic loneliness from her, either. If anything, she’d seemed to have melded into the atmosphere of this place.

Then, like a passing breeze, she spoke again. “It’s exhausting being around a lot of people. I prefer to stay in a more relaxed place...like here.”

“Hmm...” I began. It’s better to be alone, huh?

After giving myself a brief moment to consider my response, I said, “I’m not sure I get it. I prefer things to be more...lively, I guess.”

“So you’re a party person?”

“Not exactly.”

I had no memories of my parents, but I’d been raised by a loving grandma and grandpa. I wasn’t unhappy about that, but not knowing my parents had made me feel a little lonely. That was why I’d wanted to make fun memories with other living people—as many of them as I could.

“I, uh, just like feeling connected to other people.”

“I see...” she’d replied curtly, then looked back down to the book in her lap. “I don’t really understand that. To me, I think time alone can be just as fulfilling.”

There was nothing wrong with thinking that way. She’d been fine being alone while I’d wanted to connect with as many people as possible. We were different people, so we couldn’t exactly see eye to eye.

Still, for that very reason, I’d been a little interested in her. Will there be a day she falls in love?

“Maybe someday you’ll find someone you want to connect with,” I said.

With those parting words, I’d turned to leave.

“Who would listen to the bird that sings in the night...?” I’d heard her say.

Those whispered words still echoed in my ears even now.

“So, yeah, that’s a thing that happened to—ow, ow, ow!”

As I was fondly recounting a memory from high school, Liscia pinched my cheek with a smile.

“Huh? What was that for?”

“Oh, nothing,” she said. “I was just thinking—here you are, surrounded by all your adorable wives, and you go spouting off about some romantic, bittersweet memory from your student days?”

Uh, that’s a nice smile and all, but I can see the veins rising on your temple.

“Romantic? Nothing ever happened between me and that girl.”

“If you say so... It’s a little vexing, I guess. You know, when I met you, I was already working in the Army. And before we’d even met, we were already engaged.”

“Er, yeah, sorry about that.”

“Oh, I’m not dissatisfied... It’s more like if we could have met in my student days—before I had to worry about the country and whatnot—maybe we could have had those sorts of bittersweet memories too.”

“Ha ha, maybe.”

What if I’d gone to school with Liscia and the others? It could have been fun. Liscia and Aisha in my class, Juna in the year above us, and Roroa and Naden in the year below... Oh, actually, maybe Aisha and Naden would be in the year above us. Though, my old world was monogamous, so there’d probably be some fighting. Still, it’d have been lively nonetheless.

“Hmm...” Liscia cocked her head to the side. “But do you think that girl was really okay being by herself? That strikes me as a bit lonely.”

“Nah, maybe not so much?” I mused, giving a slight chuckle.

Liscia returned my chuckle with a blank expression.

During my second year, when I’d visited the library, I’d spotted her reading away while at the librarian’s counter. Only this time, there was a boy reading with her. And as she read, she leaned her chair to rest her back against his shoulder.

There were no words between them, but I could tell they trusted one another.

Oh, hey, there was someone after all.

She had been fine by herself, but there was still someone she wanted to be with. I left the library, thinking how I’d like to find someone like that for myself one day.

Well, that wish came true a few years later... And with multiple someones too.

Looking at my family busily digging in and eating oden, I bit into a piece of octopus, and savored the flavor and this experience.

Margarita and the Saints

“A mission? For me?”

On this day, King Souma had summoned Margarita, the former Amidonian soldier turned singer—but not lorelei, as she competed purely on her singing talent.

Souma greeted her with his elbows on the desk in a pose you would likely recognize from a certain bespectacled commander.

“I’ve determined you to be the most suitable candidate to undertake this mission. You have what it takes to see it to completion.”

“What it...takes? Do you mean as a soldier? Or as a singer?”

“As a singer, this time... All right, I think I’ve played this up long enough,” Souma said in a more relaxed tone, feeling too embarrassed to keep acting like a big shot when he usually didn’t.

He pulled a piece of paper out of the desk drawer and handed it to Margarita. It was a list of what were presumably people’s names.

“And this is...?”

“You recall the other day, right? When the saint candidates from the Lunarian Orthodox Papal State turned to Souji and sought shelter in our country? This is a list of their names.”

“Ah... I heard they formed a choir of some sort.”

Margarita had learned of this before. It seemed she didn’t know why they had formed a choir, but she assumed that since King Souma was the one to come up with it, there must be some meaning behind it.

“They’re helping me with a certain sort of magic research,” Souma said.

“I feel like I know even less about what’s going on now...”

“Well, have the researchers fill you in on the details later. I’d like you to meet up with the choir. You’ll be looking after them.”

“Looking after them?”

Souma nodded.

“Yes, they only just arrived in the country and hardly know left from right. Mary, who had been the one keeping them together, seems to be busy with assisting Souji now that he’s an archbishop too. I’m sure you can support the girls in her place,” Souma explained with a confident smile. “You’re a woman. And you grew a strong spine training in a paternalistic society. I doubt it will happen, but you’re someone I can count on to look out for the girls and keep people in line so that they’re not mistreated.”

“Yes, sir! If that’s what you need, you can count on me!”

Keeping people in line: that was something Margarita felt she could do.

However, she soon regretted how easily she took on the job.

“““.........”””

Sigh... What do I do about this...?

The researchers were investigating the effect of choir singing on wide-area healing magic. Margarita and the girls’ mission was to support that work. Their orders came directly from Souma himself, so none of the researchers dared look down on the former saint candidates. If anything, it was the girls who were the problem.

They had been taught to be loyal to their god and religion, but wouldn’t open up to other people at all. They lacked communication skills. Without Mary around to bring them together, they were more afraid of the researchers than they needed to be and couldn’t sing properly. This had slowed the research to a crawl.

Margarita crossed her arms. If they were a batch of fresh recruits, I’d shout at them and get them motivated, but... If she tried that with the former saints, she’d only intimidate them.

What can I do? Margarita was wondering when she remembered something.

“Do you mean as a soldier? Or as a singer?”

“As a singer in this case.”

That was what Souma had said back then.

That’s right... I was chosen for this job not as a soldier, but as a singer.

“All right,” she murmured, trying to get herself motivated.

Once she’d hit on that idea, she began tapping her feet forcefully on the spot. The loud noise made the saints all look at her in unison.

Tap, tap, tap! Tap, tap, tap!

She struck a powerful beat with her feet.

“La, la, la, la.”

Adding her intense voice to that powerful rhythm, she sang a hymn the girls all knew well. Normally, it was a more austere piece, but her rhythm and singing voice lent it power. Soon, the former saints followed suit.

“““La, lu, la. Lu, la.”””

One after another, they joined her in song. Eventually, the whole choir was singing. When the researchers recovered from their surprise, they gave directions to use Area Heal, and began recording results.

“““La, lu, la. Lu, la.”””

The former saints were enjoying singing with Margarita.

And on this day, their research ended with great success.

Later, the former saints would come to call Margarita “god sister” out of respect and adoration. Not being a particularly strong believer herself, Margarita wasn’t sure how to feel about that.

Merula and Mary

As the Spirit King’s Curse incident was coming to a close...

Creak... Slam!

“Ugh... Your Holiness, please clean up already. This room is dusty.”

Mary, a former saint of Lunarian Orthodoxy, opened a window. She was wearing an apron over her holy raiments, covering her mouth with a handkerchief and wielding a feather duster. Dressed to clean, she started to beat the dust off the shelves, earning a groan from Souji, who was trying to get work done.

“The reason I’m not cleaning is because you keep piling work on me!” Souji grumbled, scratching his smooth head.

He was in the middle of filling out paperwork. Having become the archbishop of the new church of Kingdom Lunarian Orthodoxy—which had declared itself independent from the Lunarian Orthodox Papal State—Souji had a workload commensurate with his position.

Mary looked at him with exasperation.

“Of course I keep bringing things to you, Your Holiness. You’re the archbishop. And I look after you like this so that you can carry out your sacred duties.”

Mary was playing a role similar to that of a meddlesome wife. She was still called a saint by their coreligionists, despite no longer being one, because she had aided many of them in escaping to this country.

“This, really? Sacred duties?” Souji picked up one of the papers in front of him.

The work brought to Souji was largely dealing with the inconsistencies that arose between Lunarian Orthodox doctrine and their situation as believers in the new Kingdom Lunarian Orthodox sect. Essentially, he was in charge of thinking up excuses and justifications.

In terms of Souma’s world, it would be like when monks were asked, “Is it okay for you to eat rabbit when it is forbidden to eat meat?” and they answered, “Those ears are wings, therefore they are birds, not rabbits, and we are allowed to eat birds.”

“Come up with excuses on your own.”

“Isn’t eloquent articulation one of your talents, Your Holiness? I’ve seen how you’re able to talk your way out of trouble with the higher-ups, despite countless warnings.”

“Come to think of it, you looked at me pretty coldly back then... Are you okay with this? With an archbishop making excuses?”

“I have a fair bit of respect for you and your flexible thinking now.”

Mary shamelessly pretended like she’d forgotten the past. There was no trace of her former doll-like persona. She now acted like an independent human being. Her life with Souji and Merula must have had an effect on her. That was a positive thing, however...

“Yeesh. You’re quite the talker yourself, little missy.”

“It’s not a lie when I say I respect you. You’re the one I have to thank for saving our people. And you took the role of archbishop for them too.”

Souji looked like he wanted to say something, but stopped himself.

“I sincerely think you’re a man worth serving under. Which is why...my first order of business is to get this room tidied up. If only Merula were here.”

Merula Merlin was the high elf that Souji had sheltered. Because she had been declared a heretical witch by the Orthodox Papal State, her relationship with Mary had been awkward. But at this point, though, they were united in their common desire to not let Souji live a life of sloth.

Souji leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms. “We’re going to need to leave Merula alone for a while...”

“Yeah...”

The high elf refugee had recently watched one of her people die in this country. Ever since that day, she’s spent a lot of time thinking by herself.

After pondering for a moment, Souji suddenly clapped his hands. “I know. Why don’t you go and listen to her?”

“Huh? Me?”

“You’re good at listening to confessions, aren’t you? Why don’t you give the lost little lamb some guidance?”

“Merula’s of a different faith...”

Mary might have been objecting, but it was true that she was concerned for Merula. Maybe hearing her out would be a good idea? she thought. Granted, whether Merula was ready to talk was another matter.

Having made up her mind, Mary visited Merula’s room that night.

When she knocked, a “come in” came in response, so Mary opened the door and entered the room.

“Good evening, Merula.”

“Good evening. What can I help you with at such a late hour?”

“Um... I’ve been wondering how you’ve been. If there’s anything I can help with, I hope you’ll tell me. Lending an ear is about all I can do, though,” Mary said meekly.

Hearing this, Merula’s eyes widened a little. Then she smiled.

“Well now, I’ve been worrying you and Souji.”

When she said that, Mary let out a sigh.

“As a member of a long-lived race, I thought I had all the time in the world. Still, illness can make it come to an abrupt halt. Like it or not, these recent events have forced me to come to grips with that. Even as a high elf, if I let my guard down, I could die at any time. I’m just as mortal as anyone else.”

“Yeah...” Mary nodded. “Life is short. That’s why Lunarian Orthodoxy teaches that we should live to our fullest until we are taken up to Heaven. His Holiness has been interpreting that a little too broadly, however.”

For a moment, Merula looked at Mary blankly, then said, “Hee hee... It looks like maybe once in a while I could stand to learn from Souji’s belief in living in the moment.”

With that, she finally smiled. Sensing it wouldn’t be long until Merula came to terms with the death she had witnessed, Mary smiled too.

“For now, how about we get some drinks?”

“Oh, is it all right for a former saint to be drinking alcohol?”

“His Holiness himself will attest to the sacredness of wine.”

“And we’re leaving that same Holiness behind?”

“He’s got a pile of work to do, after all.”

They bantered back and forth for a while longer, a smile on each of their faces.

Elulu’s Worries

As the Spirit King’s Curse incident was coming to a close...

“Hmm... What should I do?”

A new independent government had begun on the Father Island, one of the two islands of the Spirit Kingdom, and Princess Elulu had been appointed as their representative.

But now she had a problem.

Elulu was sitting at a wooden table in the yard, feather pen in one hand, her chin resting on the other, agonizing over what to write on the piece of paper before her.

“What’s the matter, Madam Elulu?” Shuukin asked as he walked by, wiping his brow with a hand towel.

Shuukin had been training heavily since recovering in order to make up for the stamina he had lost while ill. He had just finished washing himself at the well, so he was naked from the waist up.

“Ohh, those are some nice pecs...” she whispered to herself.

Elulu, who kind of had a thing for muscles, couldn’t help but stop and stare at Shuukin’s well-toned body—but then had to shake her head to clear her mind again. Once she had regained an expression befitting a princess, she smiled at him.

“Hello, Sir Shuukin. Have you finished your training?”

“Yes. Now, Madam Elulu, you seemed to have a difficult expression on your face a moment ago. Is something the matter?”

As Shuukin took a seat across the table from her, Elulu smiled wryly and nodded.

“Yes. Ah, but it’s nothing major!”

“Don’t say that. If it’s something I can help with, I’d like to. You and the other high elves have been helping me all this time, after all.”

“It’s kind of you to say that, but I don’t know that we have. Ah ha ha.”

Elulu laughed shyly before deciding to consult him about the thing that was bothering her.

“You see... It’s the name I’m worried about.”

“The name?”

“We’ve created a new government for the liberals and reformers on the Father Island, right? So I thought we should use a different name; not the Spirit Kingdom of Garlan to refer to ourselves, but... You see, we’re still taking in patients from the Mother Island, and our relations with the homeland are still good, so...”

“Hmm, I see your point. It’s probably similar to the relationship between you and Sir Garula.”

Spirit Kingdom King Garula had chased out his daughter who was the leader of the reformers and liberals in order to bring the conservative faction together, but it was also partially to let Elulu escape the confines of the mainland. Even if they had different philosophies, they could understand and respect how the other felt. That was analogous to the relationship between the two islands.

Elulu sighed and rested her elbows on the table.

“We want to show we’re an independent government in order to repay what you and your people did for us, Sir Shuukin. But I’m not sure it’s smart to change the country name and stoke tensions when we’re not on bad terms...”

“I see...”

Shuukin crossed his arms and thought about it. From the Great Tiger Kingdom’s perspective, they wanted to bring the newly independent government of the Father Island into the Fuuga faction, and to prevent the Spirit Kingdom of Garlan from joining the Maritime Alliance. That was why it was in their interest to have Elulu and her people at odds with the Spirit Kingdom mainland.

Still, I wouldn’t feel good about it on a personal level... Shuukin thought.

He felt a debt of gratitude for Elulu who had looked after him while he was ill. And he felt a sense of camaraderie with her people who had fought alongside him to eliminate the insect monsters. Obviously, he understood that as a commander, those personal feelings didn’t override the interests of his liege, but...

Shuukin looked at the high elf girl in front of him. She smiled, unrestrained by the schemes and intentions of her own homeland. He felt indebted to her and didn’t want to do anything that would tarnish that smile.

I don’t have Lord Fuuga’s overwhelming charisma, nor do I possess Sir Hashim’s calculating ability to manipulate people. So, at the very least, if I’m going to be a useful pawn, I want to maintain sincere relations with my lord and his allies.

And he felt the same way about the girl in front of him.

“You don’t need to force yourself to change the name, do you?”

Elulu’s eyes widened at what Shuukin said.

“Huh? But aren’t we making an independent government?”

“If you’re de facto independent, that’s good enough. It shouldn’t be a problem to maintain your independence while building cordial ties with your homeland, so there’s no need to change the name. You’ll tell outsiders you’re independent, yet internally you’ll act like different regional administrations.”

“Huh? Is that okay? Didn’t you want us as a puppet state?” Elulu asked with upturned eyes, but Shuukin laughed it off.

“There’s no need to make puppets of you. You’d never betray us. We’ve a bond forged in battle, and I can trust in that. You wouldn’t leave us to join the Maritime Alliance, right?”

“Of course not!” Elulu said without reservation. “They did indeed aid us with the Spirit King’s Curse, but you were the ones who helped retake the Father Island! We could never stab you in the back like that!”

“Then it’s fine. I plan to act as a bridge between you and the Great Tiger Kingdom.”

“Okay! We’ll be counting on you!”

Elulu’s perfect smile received a nod from Shuukin.

She and the islanders had joined the list of things Shuukin wanted to protect. Now he had to keep the things on that list from fighting among themselves, maintaining his sincerity to the best of his ability. This is what Shuukin resolved to do.

Yuriga’s Yukata

The night of the summer festival Souma planned...

“What do you think, Yuriga?”

“Yeah, it looks good.” Yuriga smiled shyly as she looked at herself in the mirror.

She was currently wearing one of the yukatas that Souma had made for Tomoe—who had given one of them to Yuriga so she could participate in the summer festival. Because Yuriga had wings, Souma had cut holes in the back for them to fit through.

“You look cute, Yuriga. It looks good on you.”

“W-Well, it’s not bad. I’ll give it that.”

Yuriga didn’t seem to mind the compliment. Her wings flapped busily, making it readily apparent she was happier than she let on. Tomoe chuckled at the way Yuriga was acting.

“Your hair is deep blue, so a yukata with a relaxed vibe suits you.”

“Hmph. And yours looks strangely good on you too. It’s weird how well those fox ears and fox tail go with a yukata.”

“Murgh. They’re wolf ears and a wolf tail,” Tomoe protested, holding down her ears as she did.

“But when you look at it that way, don’t you think mystic foxes like Kaede and Kishun looked good in Nine-Headed Dragon Island clothes too? These yukatas are kind of similar.”

“Now that you mention it... That kind of outfit probably looks good on dog, wolf, and fox beastmen. With feline beastmen... I won’t say it doesn’t suit them, but it gives off more of a creepy vibe.”

That was likely because of the image of inugami and the god Inari as compared to bakeneko. But those were preconceptions from Souma’s old world, so these two, lacking that knowledge, didn’t understand why they should feel the way they did.

“Well, anyway, the problem’s been solved, so now I can enjoy the summer festival without any fears.” After saying that, Yuriga held the sleeves of her yukata and did a little twirl.

She must have really liked the outfit.

“Ah ha ha, you sure can, Yuri—ah!”

Tomoe had been watching with a smile, but when she noticed something, her eyes went wide.

“Yuriga!”

“Whoa! Wh-What? Why did you shout all of a sudden?”

“Y-Y-Your...pa...pan...”

“Pan...?”

“Your panties are showing. I can see your butt.”

“Say what?!”

Yuriga hurriedly looked at her rear end in the mirror. Her underwear was peeking out through a hole in the rear of the yukata.

“Oh, right. There was a tail hole there,” Tomoe said, clapping her hands as she figured it out.

Because it was originally Tomoe’s yukata, Souma had put in new holes for Yuriga’s wings, but he’d forgotten to close up the one for Tomoe’s tail.

“It all makes sense now.”

Yuriga rounded on Tomoe, her face beet red. “I don’t care if it makes sense! What’re we going to do to fix it?!”

“Let’s talk to Big Brother about it. Okay?”

Tomoe was intimidated, but managed to mollify Yuriga somehow.

◇ ◇ ◇

“Whew, sorry about that. I totally forgot about the tail hole,” Souma said when Tomoe and Yuriga asked him for help.

Having just finished his tasks for the day, he led the two of them to his workroom, where he also made the Little Musashibo dolls. Obviously, Yuriga couldn’t walk around with her panties exposed, so she’d taken off the yukata and was carrying it in her hands.

Once inside the room, Souma sat down in front of the foot-operated sewing machine he had there.

“All right, let me borrow that yukata for a bit.”

“Here.” Yuriga handed it over to Souma.

“I guess I can put another piece of fabric of the same color there for now, and then come back and fix it properly later. We don’t have a whole lot of time, after all. I wouldn’t want to be late to the festivities,” he mumbled to himself as he efficiently worked the sewing machine.

Yuriga watched with her arms crossed, as if something about it didn’t sit right with her.

“I realize it may be out of line for me to say this after asking you for a favor, but was it really necessary for you to do this yourself? Surely you have servants who could have managed it.”

“Oh, come on, Yuriga,” Tomoe said, sounding a little miffed, but Souma seemed unbothered.

“Huh? Well, it’s not that much trouble... There we go.”

Apparently finished sewing, Souma spread out the rear portion of the yukata to inspect it.

“My grandma always did this kind of sewing, and she’d smile wide when grandpa and I would thank her. I feel like I can understand the joy of having your work enjoyed by family now.”

“Sir Souma...”

“Here you go. It’s ready.” Souma handed Yuriga the yukata. And then he placed a hand on each girl’s head. “Now, get out there and enjoy the festival.”

“Okay, Big Brother!”

“Okay.”

Tomoe replied energetically, while Yuriga stared at the yukata as she responded. Then, holding it tight, she seemed to find her resolve and looked up.

“Um, Sir Souma.”

“Hm?”

“Thank you for the yukata.”

Souma smiled wide when she said that.