Chapter 2: New Year’s in Both Camps

— End of the 1553rd Year, Continental Calendar —

The people of each country were holding big feasts to celebrate the end of the year, which would be remembered as the year of the Demon Lord’s Domain’s liberation. Freed from the worry that had haunted them for decades, they were no doubt dreaming of a brighter future. In our country, Juna was heading up the preparations for the annual Song Battle (this one wasn’t for research, but was something like the New Year’s Red and White Song Battle).

However, in contrast to the people’s celebratory mood, the political and military leaders of the countries of the Maritime Alliance couldn’t afford to be in such high spirits. With public opinion in the Great Tiger Empire hardening, the Kingdom of Friedonia was certain that an invasion of the Maritime Alliance was imminent. They had communicated these worries to their three allies—the Republic of Turgis, the Nine-Headed Dragon Archipelago Kingdom, the Euphoria Kingdom—and to the Nothung Dragon Knight Kingdom, who was outside the alliance but had recently been interacting with them as part of their delivery business.

It was necessary to have the others assist with the plan, so I’d been taking the time to explain what I’d heard in the depths of the Demon Lord’s Domain, including how this world came to be, and about the northern hemisphere.

Today I was having a meeting with Kuu, Shabon, and Jeanne—the heads of state of the four nations of the Maritime Alliance—over the broadcast. Once everyone was ready, I spoke first.

“All right, let’s get this meeting started.”

“Yeah.”

“Yes.”

“Okay.”

Once I saw the other three nod, I nodded and turned to Kuu.

“First up...Kuu.”

“Hm? What’s up, Bro?”

“I hear you’ve conceived your first through fourth children. Congratulations.”

“Ookyakya. You’re making me feel embarrassed.” Kuu bashfully scratched the back of his head as Shabon and Jeanne both chimed in with congratulations of their own.

He was still emotional over suddenly becoming a father of four. In fact, Kuu had only learned of both Taru’s and Leporina’s pregnancies just the other day. Furthermore, Leporina was apparently pregnant with triplets, with her belly already a considerable size. The white rabbit race was known for its fecundity, so he could have seen this coming.

Trying to get things back on track, Kuu grinned and shook his head.

“Well, that’s how it is. With four kids, at least some of them’ll get along with yours, Bro. Let’s get them engaged to Kazuha, Enju, or Kaito.”

“You’re getting ahead of yourself when they’re not even born yet...”

There’d be a six-year age gap with Kazuha... That was well within the acceptable range for this world, but I wanted to avoid a marriage that the parties involved didn’t agree with.

“Well...” Kuu began, shaking his head. “Now that you’ve told us how important your blood of old mankind is, Bro, the Republic wants a piece of that bloodline for itself. The Nine-Headed Dragon Archipelago has the betrothal between Cian and Sharan, while the Euphoria Kingdom just needs you to have a kid with their former empress. As head of the Republic, I can’t accept us getting nothing.”

I can see where he’s coming from... I’d have felt the same way in Kuu’s position.

“Fair enough. Once your kids are born and grown a little, let’s have them all meet each other. If there are any pairs that get along, then I think it’s fine to arrange a marriage for them.”

“Yeah! I’ll hold you to that, Bro,” Kuu said with a broad grin.

Jeanne nodded in agreement. “It’s true; we’d like the blood of the old mankind as well. Once you have children with my sister, we would like to adopt one of them.”

“You’re getting ahead of yourself too, Madam Jeanne...”

“Oh! Just Jeanne is fine, Brother.”

Come to think of it, she’s my sister-in-law now. After Tomoe, that makes her my second sister-in-law.

“Anyway... I should apologize, Jeanne. For calling Hakuya away so often when you just got married.”

“I understand.” Jeanne smiled wryly and shook her head. “You don’t have much choice given the current situation.”

“It helps to hear you say that...”

“Honestly, it’s not my husband that concerns me... With Sir Hakuya out of the country, I’m more worried about what nonsense Trill might pull. She’s hard at work developing something to blow off steam over being separated from Madam Genia.”

The Drill Princess is the same as ever, huh? I thought.

Jeanne let out an exhausted sigh. “Earlier she was saying, ‘Just defending the castle alone lacks a certain pizzazz! Would you not agree that it’d be nice to have a castle that can thoroughly crush our enemies?’ and then she started remodeling the castle walls.”

“R-Right...”

“That said, Sir Hakuya does go through her inventions and picks up any that might be of use, so she has been making major contributions to our country’s technology...”

“Ookyakya! Miss Trill’s as entertaining as ever, I see! I’d love for her to come to our country and help remodel the city we stole from Zem!”

“She’s all yours,” Jeanne said with a gesture like she was passing him something.

Though Trill and Kuu had met during the tunnel construction, it felt like they could make a dangerous combination.

“Sir Souma...”

“Hm?”

At this point, Shabon, who had been listening quietly all this time with a serene expression, sat up straight and bowed her head to me.

“I must apologize for how my country’s fleet disgraced itself during the campaign to the Demon Lord’s Domain.”

“Oh... That, huh?”

When we sent a fleet to the Demon Lord’s Domain at Fuuga’s request, Shabon had sent a Nine-Headed Dragon Archipelago fleet to escort us. However, when we encountered the humanoid weapon Jangar, one of the Nine-Headed Dragon Archipelago ships had disregarded orders not to start anything and attacked Jangar, causing an outbreak of hostilities. We’d lost an island carrier in that battle, and there had been no shortage of casualties.

I’d already received one apology from her since returning to the Kingdom, but this was the first time she said it in an official capacity.

“Those who disobeyed orders will be punished under the laws of our country, but I must apologize for the failures of those under my command.”

“Raise your head, Shabon. We hadn’t predicted that situation. It’s my own fault for letting Fuuga push me into dispatching the fleet. I hear that most of the deaths were in the Nine-Headed Dragon Archipelago fleet, so if you say you’ve already taken care of it, then I have nothing more to say on the matter.”

“Thank you for your consideration.”

“The more important thing right now is I have a favor to ask of the three of you.”

“You’re talking about Fuuga Haan, right?” Kuu asked.

“Yeah.” I nodded. “It’s more or less guaranteed that we’ll have to fight a decisive battle against the Great Tiger Empire next year.”

“That’s what Sir Hakuya has been telling me. He says it’s almost certain they’ll invade the Kingdom of Friedonia,” Jeanne said, causing Kuu to cock his head to the side.

“Ookya? Is it safe to say that so definitely? My country borders the former Mercenary State Zem but is far from the enemy’s homeland, and the Nine-Headed Dragon Archipelago Kingdom is across the sea. It makes sense that we’re not the targets here, but doesn’t the Euphoria Kingdom need to worry too?”

“That would take too much time. As long as we have the plan I told you all about, time is on our side. If Fuuga launches a genuine offensive into the Euphoria Kingdom, we’ll disrupt it with everything we’ve got. While Fuuga is dealing with that, he’ll probably run out of time... It wouldn’t be nice for Jeanne, as her country would be invaded, but on the whole, we couldn’t ask for a better outcome than that.”

After saying all that, I let out a sigh before continuing.

“But that man’s risen up as far as he has because he’s got a nose for danger. It’s inhuman, on the level of a wild beast. He’s got to realize we’re up to something. I hear that the covert agents who report directly to Hashim have been getting more active lately.”

“You mean to say he will discover that plan and invade the Kingdom of Friedonia in order to crush it?” Shabon asked.

“Yeah,” I replied with a nod. “But it’s less that he’ll detect it and more likely that he’ll just think ‘something’s up.’ A quick and decisive war is what we least want to see right now. And as that’s the case, it’s the policy Fuuga will pursue without hesitation. If we hope he’ll take things in a different direction and are lax in our preparations as a result, he might just gobble everything up.”

“Ookeekee... Hell of a guy to be born in the same era as, huh?” Kuu said with a strained smile.

You said it.

In a certain Romance of the Three Kingdoms manga adaptation, there’s a scene in which, after being outwitted by Kongming, Zhou Yu says, “Why did Heaven give birth to Zhou Yu, then give birth to Kongming in the same era?” before dying in a fit of anger. If I had been forced to go up against Fuuga on my own, maybe I’d have felt the same way.

“But we’re not facing Fuuga alone.”

We had bonds built and cultivated with other people. Some of our comrades had been friends from the beginning, while others like Castor, Julius, and Mary had once been enemies. At some point, all those people had formed a loose alliance, and before any of us knew it, we were cooperating towards the same goal. This was the strength of the Maritime Alliance.

I thrust my fist towards the three of them to show my enthusiasm.

“We’ll work together to overcome this difficulty and close the curtain on this era of Fuuga in the spotlight. Let’s show him what we’ve built and how resilient it is.”

“Yeah! I’m itching for the fight!”

““Yes!””

Kuu, Shabon, Jeanne, and I all raised fists with a hurrah.

◇ ◇ ◇

Around the same time, Fuuga was also ringing in the new year at Haan Castle...

Following his return from the Demon Lord’s Domain, he spent some time firming up things on the domestic front. The Demon Lord’s Domain was now fully liberated and under the Great Tiger Empire’s control, except for the city at the northern edge of the continent where the Seadians lived.

Anyone looking at the situation properly likely thought he’d been pushed into a bunch of wasteland. However, to many of his people, as well as the refugees who could finally return to their homelands, it seemed like a brilliant accomplishment. Even if the long, arduous work of rebuilding awaited these revelers, they would go about the task with glee. And those who would complain refrained from doing so. The strength of Fuuga’s charisma was overwhelming.

Troops were sent to his new lands and set to work ridding the continent of Landia of the remaining monsters. It was impossible to completely eliminate them, as dungeons still existed, but the number wouldn’t increase since Souma and Mao had closed the gate.

The domain of mankind would definitely expand farther. But simply hunting down monsters was of little interest to the planning trickery of Fuuga’s strategist Hashim, so the task was left to Shuukin and other competent retainers instead.

Fuuga, meanwhile, took this opportunity to have some long-awaited quality downtime with his wife, Mutsumi. On reflection, this might have been the most peaceful period of Fuuga’s life to this point. The time he’d lived through had been otherwise filled with violence.

However, peace was unfulfilling for the great man.

At night in his bedroom, Fuuga sat in a chair naked from the waist up as he polished his sword. His favored weapon was the Zanganto, a rock-rending blade that resembled the Green Dragon Crescent Blade. It was rare for him to draw this sword that hung at his hip, but in the long time he spent fighting, it still managed to get chipped here and there.

“You can’t sleep...?”

Fuuga turned towards the sudden voice. Mutsumi was sitting up in bed with a blanket wrapped around her and nothing underneath.

With a wry smile, he turned to her and said, “Sorry. Did I wake you?”

“No...I was just drifting off when I realized that my husband wasn’t beside me.”

“Yeah. I feel wide awake for some reason.”

Fuuga held his sword up to the moonlight shining through the window. The polished blade reflected his face and the scar given to him by Mutsumi’s brother Gauche.

He sighed. “When it’s too quiet, I just can’t settle down. I feel like I ought to be doing something, I guess.”

“Madam Lumiere would probably tell you to help her with internal affairs,” Mutsumi said.

Lumiere was likely working harder than anyone in order to make the expanded territories contribute to the Great Tiger Empire’s national power as soon as possible. Fuuga understood that, but while he wasn’t exactly ill-suited to domestic affairs, he didn’t find the work satisfying. Unlike Souma or Maria, he never worked overtime or slept in his governmental affairs office. That work fell to Lumiere and Kasen, who had been assigned to assist her.

“I’m grateful to them. Running around on the battlefield suits me better.”

“Even now that you’re an emperor, you’re still a warrior at heart, darling,” Mutsumi murmured, chuckling.

She wrapped the blanket around her naked body and rose from the bed. She approached Fuuga from behind and threw her arms around him.

“I know it’s hot in these parts, but the nights still get chilly,” she said, inviting Fuuga to join her inside the blanket. He didn’t really resist.

“Yeah. Sorry about that.”

“No, no. I can’t let my darling catch a cold when he wants to keep racing onward.”

Fuuga got a slightly troubled look on his face when she said this. “Even if the only place left for me to go...is towards the south?”

“I suppose...”

To the south of the Great Tiger Empire were the countries of the Maritime Alliance. Fuuga’s little sister, Yuriga, resided there, as did Mutsumi’s siblings—Ichiha, Nike, and Sami. Mutsumi understood this, of course. But still...she nuzzled up against Fuuga’s bearded cheek.

“If you say you will continue, I will come with you. Until I’ve seen what end your epic tale reaches.”

“Oh, yeah?”

He touched Mutsumi’s cheek, which was next to his face. The two spent some time holding one another close after that.

— 1st Month, 1554th Year, Continental Calendar —

And so the new year came. The people of the Great Tiger Empire met it with incredible elation. Basking in the glory that their emperor Fuuga Haan, the greatest man of this generation, had successfully liberated the Demon Lord’s Domain in the previous year, they looked forward to seeing what wonders this new year would bring.

“Can anyone halt our emperor’s march? Can any foe stop our emperor?” These song lyrics rang in the air as the people drank and partied.

There was a luxurious feast at Haan Castle too. Fuuga, who had complained about difficulty eating and drinking while on the throne, sat on a wide fancy carpet with Mutsumi and his retainers. He was at the head of the group, with the famous generals of the Great Tiger Empire sitting in lines on either side of him. The dignified scene looked like something out of a mandala, but not everyone was present.

“Oh, I don’t see young Kasen,” said Gaten, the most stylish man in the Great Tiger Empire and the Flag of the Tiger. Because Gaten was always teasing the youngest general, Kasen, the Crossbow of the Tiger, he was the first to note his absence.

Fuuga’s right-hand man, Shuukin, the Sword of the Tiger, smiled wryly and informed him, “Kasen is working with Madam Lumiere. He said, ‘If Madam Lumiere is working through New Year’s, then as her assistant, I can’t rest when she isn’t.’”

There was no time for the bureaucrats to rest on New Year’s. They were fighting as hard as they could to maintain their expanded lands, as the bureaucrats in Parnam had been a year after Souma was summoned. Hashim was also not attending the feast as he was busy hatching his next scheme.

“Hard work, isn’t it?” Gaten grunted with a shrug. “The strategies of Sir Hashim and the policies of Madam Lumiere are what’s supporting everything now. I bow my head to them. Especially Madam Lumiere, who is laying strong groundwork for us despite being a newcomer, and Kasen, who helps the genius with her work.”

“Yeah. They’re going to be indispensable to the Great Tiger Empire from here on,” Shuukin asserted. “Capable warriors can be replaced. They’re likely more important than we are.”

“Hmm. If it comes to it, I’ll have to defend them with my life.” As he imagined himself dying for Kasen, Gaten chuckled. “I guess that’s not a bad way to go.”

It went against his sense of dandyism to risk his life for another man, but seeing the shocked look on Kasen’s face as the life drained away from him wasn’t a terrible proposition.

“Hey! Lord Shuukin! This dish is delicious too!” a young girl interjected, poking her head out from Shuukin’s shadow. It was Elulu, daughter of Garula Garlan, from the Spirit Kingdom of Garlan.

Looking at the flawless smile on her face as she heaped a bunch of food on her plate, Shuukin was both charmed and disappointed by how incredibly laid-back she was. Elulu didn’t seem intimidated, even while sitting among the filthy men who made up Fuuga’s retainers.

“You have delicacies from all over, right? That’s the Great Tiger Empire for you. Food as diverse as your lands are vast. And it’s all delicious.”

“Elulu...maybe settle down a little?” Shuukin said with a sigh. “I only let you come along because you wouldn’t hear otherwise, so try to behave a little, please.”

“Okaaay.”

It was hard to tell if she got the message or not from her response.

Thanks to Elulu’s attachment to Shuukin as well as her connections with the independent government of the Father Island of the Spirit Kingdom, she had been given control of the northwest of the Great Tiger Empire. It wasn’t just that the Father Island was effectively under her control; she also traded with the Mother Island, which was heading down the path towards liberalization.

The way she ruled might appear feeble to Fuuga or Hashim, but as an island nation, if the two islands of the Spirit Kingdom were to join the Maritime Alliance, it would put the Great Tiger Empire’s entire coastline under their control. It would be the same if the Great Tiger Empire attempted to suppress them by force. Without the ability to control the seas, should the Maritime Alliance cut off their access to the sea, the Haan landing party would be easy to starve.

If that were to happen, then using Elulu’s friendship with Shuukin to keep them close would be the better choice. This way, the islands would be preserved as an independent country which Souma couldn’t easily lay a hand on. Essentially, the closeness between Shuukin and Elulu was the best thing either nation could ask for.

Because of their relationship, Shuukin had told Elulu he would be going to Haan Castle for New Year’s, but she had stubbornly insisted on going too.

“I want to see more of the world. Our country became isolationist because of the differences and competition between the different races, but times have changed.”

Souma of the Kingdom of Friedonia believed in meritocracy and hired people without regard to race or nationality, so the other nations of the Maritime Alliance were influenced to do the same. Old hostilities between different races had died down as a result. This sentiment was shared in the Great Tiger Empire, which was held together by Fuuga’s overwhelming charisma. There might be clashes between nations or ideologies, but interracial strife had essentially vanished.

“During the Magic Bug Disease Incident, my home country finally realized they couldn’t keep shutting themselves away. I want to see more of the world. I believe that will be best for the high elf people.”

Elulu spoke seriously about her country, impressing Shuukin and Gaten with her thoughtfulness. Despite all evidence to the contrary, she was still a princess.

“Besides, there’s all this tasty food out in the wide, wide world. I’d be missing out if I didn’t know,” she said, tossing a fruit into her mouth, stem and all.

“You just ruined it, Elulu.”

Shuukin clutched his head over how little Elulu had changed, while Gaten laughed at how the famous Sword of the Tiger was being run around at her mercy.

While other people celebrated the new year, Lumiere, who’d become the top bureaucrat in the Great Tiger Empire, was dealing with a murderously heavy workload alongside her bureaucrats.

They’d arranged for people to be positioned throughout the new lands that had once been the Demon Lord’s Domain. They were aiming to connect the lands with roads for the shipping of supplies. These roads would also be used to travel between them to eliminate any monsters and secure the land’s safety.

She was putting everything she’d learned while serving under Maria in the Gran Chaos Empire to good use. Maria had been partially influenced by the way Souma ruled, so it was fair to say that Lumiere was able to rule in a way that was a hybrid of the Kingdom of Friedonia and the Gran Chaos Empire.

Lord Fuuga is considering a conflict with the Maritime Alliance. If I don’t solidify the country at least somewhat before he moves...then there won’t be any point in my being here.

Lumiere had abandoned Maria to join Fuuga because she rejected Maria’s stance that it would take a long time to change the world peacefully. Instead, she felt that if there was a way to solve a problem, it should be done immediately, even if it was a violent solution. As a result, the threat that the Demon Lord’s Domain had posed to mankind had been resolved. However, Lumiere also understood that because Fuuga had solved the issue so quickly, he couldn’t stop here. The speed with which the country had been built made it brittle. They always needed an enemy to unite them; otherwise, they’d be at risk of falling apart in no time.

I’m sure Lady Maria would’ve hated this... If we had the means to stop once the problem was resolved, we wouldn’t have started to begin with, even if we had the power to deal with the problem itself.

It wasn’t as if Lumiere hadn’t understood Maria’s ideals before; Lumiere had just been frustrated with her passivity. Now in her current position, Lumiere felt she could align herself a little more with Maria’s way of thinking. Although, given her fondness for reckless haste, that might not have changed the result.

It’s too late for that... I chose this path for myself, so I have to follow it.

Changing gears, Lumiere looked down at the document in front of her. Suddenly, the door to the finance ministry burst open, and Kasen, the Crossbow of the Tiger, came in pushing a cart. It was loaded with almost nothing but stacks of paper.

“Madam Lumiere. I’ve collected the paperwork from all the relevant departments.” Kasen sighed as he wiped the sweat from his brow.

Though she looked at this new pile of work with a face of anguish, Lumiere quickly regained her composure and smiled. “Thank you for taking the trouble, Kasen.”

“No, this was no big deal,” Kasen replied as he carried the stacks of paper to Lumiere’s desk.

She let out a bitter laugh as she accepted the paperwork. “It’s a great help having you around, but aren’t the generals gathered to celebrate a New Year’s feast right now? Why don’t you join them?”

“No, I couldn’t possibly.” Kasen shook his head. “It wouldn’t sit right with me leaving you all to do the work while I enjoy a banquet. Let me help too.”

“Oh...I see.”

“Yes. And, hey, look...”

Kasen left the room for a moment, returning with a service cart that had been sitting outside the door. The upper and lower levels of the cart were laden with sumptuous dishes. Lumiere’s eyes widened as Kasen flashed her the mischievous grin of a kid who’d just pulled off a prank.

“While I was picking up the paperwork, I raided the kitchens. Let’s snack on this and redouble our efforts.”

“Hee hee. Let’s.” She smiled softly.

As she felt defanged by Kasen’s behavior, Lumiere’s furrows melted out of her brow.

Yet elsewhere, also around the same time...

Having forsaken the year-end feast to scheme in his own room, Hashim was receiving a report from the intelligence team that served under him.

Without so much as looking at the man, Hashim asked, “How are things proceeding?”

The intelligence operative bowed his head and began his report. “Shaping of domestic opinion is proceeding apace. The voices of those who wish to see Fuuga conquer the entire continent grow by the day.”

“Splendid.”

“However...the results of our operations inside the Kingdom of Friedonia have been less favorable. The intelligence operatives in the service of King Souma are all rather skilled and deeply loyal to the royal family. There are no cracks to work our way into. We suspect that infiltrating them like we did the Gran Chaos Empire will prove impossible.”

“Hmm... That’s unexpected.”

Hashim recalled Souma’s face. It was plain, lacking the majesty of Fuuga’s or the charm of Maria’s, so he was surprised to learn that Souma had such capable agents. Hashim had been aware of the existence of the Friedonian intelligence service, of course, but never thought they could completely shut down one of his operations. The existence of covert operatives suggested a darker side to Souma. Anyone who maintained such a powerful intelligence service had a certain amount of darkness around them.

“I suppose you can’t judge a book by its cover...” he murmured.

“Huh...?”

“No, it’s fine. Avoid pushing too far into Friedonia; focus instead on reforming public opinion inside our country.”

“Yes, sir!”

Once he had given his subordinate his orders, Hashim revised his understanding of Souma.

◇ ◇ ◇

The story turns back roughly two months, towards the end of the previous year...

In the changing room at the multipurpose Parnam Stadium that had been constructed, Yuriga was hanging her head while still in her mage soccer uniform. Until a little while ago, her team, the Parnam Black Dragons, had been in a showdown with the Lagoon City Doldons to decide the top spot in this mage soccer season. It was an important match that decided the overall winner.

Urgh. We lost... And we almost had it too...

The two teams had fought for points, and it wasn’t even settled after overtime, so the heated match had gone to a penalty shoot-out which had regrettably ended with the Parnam Black Dragons letting victory slip away from them.

Suddenly, someone threw a towel over Yuriga’s head.

“Good work, Queen.”

Brushing the towel aside, Yuriga shot a cold glance at the speaker. “Could you not call me that, Captain?”

“Oh, my. You don’t like it?”

The captain of her team, who had also been Yuriga’s senior during her time at the Royal Academy, was a female dragonewt. She sat down next to Yuriga, seemingly unconcerned.

“Whew, we got real close there, huh? Almost had it.”

“You’re not frustrated, Captain?”

“’Course I am. I’d locked myself in a bathroom stall until a little while ago.”

The captain was known for making such jokes, so for a moment, Yuriga thought that was all it was, but on closer inspection, her captain’s smiling face had faint traces of tears in the corners of her eyes. They were both equally frustrated, but as the team leader, she was doing her best not to let it show.

Yuriga clenched her fists. “Our team is good enough. We could have won...so I can’t help but think of things I should’ve done differently.”

“Yeah, I know. And we got led on a merry chase by the Doldons’ unorthodox strategy in this game too. I heard rumors that Duchess Excel was giving advice at their strategy meeting for fun.”

“Urgh! That old— Mmmph!”

The captain hurriedly covered Yuriga’s mouth to stop the insult that almost slipped out of it.

“Whoa! You can’t say that!”

There were some unwise things to say about Excel, and rumor went that if you uttered any of them, she’d suddenly appear behind you. Incidentally, this rumor had originated from a base of the former navy because it had been easy for her to overhear there, but it seemed the stories had taken on a life of their own.

The captain removed her hand from Yuriga’s mouth and shot her a grin. “Well, we’ll just have to try harder next time. Let’s lift up the victor’s cup together next year!”

“Next year... Sure.”

Yuriga’s expression darkened at the words “next year.” That would be when her brother, Fuuga Haan, would attack this country. That’s what her husband, Souma, and the elites of this country thought and were preparing for.

Would there even be mage soccer matches next year? What would the people think of her, Fuuga Haan’s little sister, being on the team? It was depressing to consider. However, at the same time, she wanted to protect her life in this country. For that reason, Yuriga knew there were things only she could do. She understood Souma’s current policy. With that in mind, Yuriga thought of a decisive move she could make.

In order to reach a bright future...I’ll go back to my brother’s place! Temporarily!

Yuriga decided to resolve herself to a temporary return home to the Great Tiger Empire.

◇ ◇ ◇

“I want you to let me go home!”

Both Aisha and I doubted our ears when we heard her sudden request.

Even when she fought with Liscia or one of the others and things got touchy, someone always stepped in to mediate the situation. We could generally count on Juna to smooth things over, and on the rare occasions when Juna got angry, everyone realized the family was in crisis and worked to put her in a good mood. The family maintained harmony that way, so we’d never heard talk like this before. Although that was partially because Parnam Castle was Liscia’s home.

As I was in a daze thinking, That line sure does some damage hearing it from someone close to you... Aisha snapped back to her senses first and closed in on Yuriga, then seized her by the shoulders.

“Y-You shouldn’t make a hasty decision, Yuriga! A royal divorce is no small matter! If there’s something wrong with His Majesty, I’ll make him fix it, so please reconsider!”

We’re assuming I did something?! Oh...no, maybe I did? While I contemplated my past actions, Aisha shook Yuriga by the shoulders.

“Please reconsider, Yuriga!”

Yuriga blinked rapidly as her head shook back and forth. “Huh? Divorce? What are you talking about, Aisha?”

Judging by the blank look on her face, it seemed there was a misunderstanding. We breathed deeply to calm ourselves, and Yuriga loudly cleared her throat.

“I’m sorry... In my haste, I didn’t explain myself well enough. When I say I want to return home, it’s not because I want a divorce. I mean that I want to go back to the Great Tiger Empire temporarily in order to meet with my brother. I was hoping to get your permission for that today.”

“A temporary return home...? At a time like this?”

I felt my own brow furrow. Everyone in my family and the upper echelons of this country shared an understanding that Fuuga would be attacking us sometime this year. Yuriga’s decision must have been made with that in mind too. Her resolve was firm; she wasn’t shaken at all, seeing the harsh look on my face.

“It’s because it’s a time like this that I’ve decided there are things only I can do.”

“Okay... Let’s hear what you have to say.”

“Huh? You’re okay with it?” Aisha asked.

I nodded. “You’ve got some idea in mind, right? Let’s hear what that is first.”

“Thank you.” Yuriga bowed her head slightly. Then, raising her face again, she looked me in the eyes. “I’ve thought this through a lot on my own. If fighting my brother is unavoidable, maybe we can keep it short? If the war drags on, both sides will only suffer more casualties and exhaust themselves. When I considered if there was anything I could do to avoid a protracted conflict, a thought dawned on me.”

“And that is...?” I asked.

“Putting a time limit on my brother’s ambitions.” Yuriga nodded. “If there’s a time limit, like in a mage soccer match, we can lower the damage to this country.”

“Hmm, I get it, but not entirely... Are you talking about a winter truce or something along those lines?”

“No, I’m not thinking of something where he’ll attack again once it warms up next year. If he’s going to attack this year, I want to put my brother into a situation where if he doesn’t win, he’ll never have another chance.”

That makes sense. And you could call it putting a time limit on his ambitions...

“If you were talking about dealing a crippling blow he can’t recover from in the first battle, then I get it. That’s what we’re aiming to do, after all. But judging from how you’re talking, that’s not your aim, right?”

“Right. For argument’s sake, even if my brother doesn’t attack this year, my idea will put him in a situation in which, from next year onward, he won’t be able to dream of conquering the continent anymore. I want to end his ambitions this year, whether the war comes or not.”

“Is that possible?”

“I can’t say for certain, of course. But I think it’ll be effective enough to be worth trying. And it’s something that only I, as his little sister, can do.”

And so, Yuriga revealed her plan to me...

When she first started, I was very apprehensive that it would work. But as I listened, I soon thought it might be a good move. I was particularly impressed by the fact that this plan was based on something Yuriga had learned in the Seadian city of Haalga. Even if her efforts ended in vain, they’d surely pound another narrow wedge into Fuuga’s ambitions.

“Hrmm... I think it’d be effective.” I said, crossing my arms. “But...I want to get Hakuya’s opinion too.”

“Oh! I’ve already consulted Mr. Hakuya. He placed a number of conditions on it but agreed it was worth trying. He said you should make the final decision.”

She’s already gotten him to sign off on it, huh? She didn’t study alongside Tomoe and Ichiha for nothing. I should’ve expected this kind of sharp footwork from her.

“Okay, what were the conditions?”

“To make sure I can definitely return to this country and that the key to this plan was being able to meet with my brother and talk, so not to get hung up on having the meeting be at Haan Castle.”

“Yeah. Well, that would be the thing to worry about.”

If Yuriga, who had come to our country as a bride, was to casually go to Haan Castle, she’d be the perfect excuse to make accusations against us. Disputes between royals had been used as justification for conflicts since at least as far back as the Trojan War. They could spread rumors that Yuriga ran away because I was rough with her, or something like that. Even if Yuriga herself said otherwise, the truth could be crushed, and Yuriga wouldn’t be allowed to return here.

“How do you feel about this, Yuriga?”

“I’m aware that my return could reflect negatively on us. That’s why, although I’ll be going back to my home country, I’d like to arrange a meeting with my brother somewhere near the border.”

“Hmm? You’re going to bring Fuuga all the way to our border?” I doubted he would bother coming to a country he planned to attack. “I can’t see him agreeing to that...”

“You’re right. Which is why I plan to meet near a different border.” Yuriga pointed to the world map sitting on the table, specifically the northernmost point on the continent of Landia.

“Oh! Near Haalga, huh?”

“Yes. At the moment, it’s effectively under the joint supervision of the Maritime Alliance and the Great Tiger Empire. I’m thinking of calling my brother to meet me here in this desert region. Being near Haalga is convenient for my plan too, after all.”

“You may be right, but that’s pretty far away. How would you account for the condition of your return to this country?”

“The Demon Lord...no, Madam Mao can use magic to transport people, like Mother Dragon, right? Should she be willing to help, my safety is guaranteed.”

The plan even factors in Mao’s overpowered abilities, huh?

Yuriga had a slightly worried look on her face. “But...that’s assuming that Madam Mao is willing to help. She’s neutral, so if she refuses to assist, then I’ll have no choice but to give up on the plan.”

Yeah... If Yuriga’s safety isn’t assured, I can’t give her permission, I thought, then replied, “Well...we can ask, at least.”

“Huh?” Yuriga stared at me blankly, and I turned to Aisha.

“Aisha, could you open the kamidana for me?”

“Yes, sire. Understood.”

Aisha stretched to reach the Japanese-style kamidana that I’d installed at a high point in the governmental affairs office and opened the doors to the little shrine within. I’d made it myself with my amateur carpentry skills. And inside was the red magatama I’d received from Mao that day.

While she was doing that, I activated a simple receiver. Yuriga looked on, clueless as to what was happening.

I stood before the kamidana and clapped my hands together while facing the magatama.

“Mao. If you can hear me, could I ask you to show yourself?”

“You called, Lord Souma?”

Hearing an immediate response, I turned to the simple receiver where the image of DIVAloid MAO was projected.

This magatama was something that Mao had given to me in place of a mortuary tablet because I’d been separated from my original world without being able to bring anything to remember my family by. She’d said it contained my biological data, but it had some minor functionality beyond just data storage—it was also a means of contacting Mao.

Mao was an artificial intelligence. If I activated her, she could respond instantly. She had no need for private time or sleep, so she could join in on broadcast meetings with the leaders of other countries without any need to adjust schedules. She lacked a physical body too, but as long as I had the magatama and something for her to project herself onto, we could talk anytime.

This function was added at Mao’s request in case there was another bug on her end that needed my (or my bloodline’s) authorization to fix it. Because Mao was an AI with no corporeal form, you could say that by calling her to this room, she was actually “here.”

I turned to Mao, who had a look of blank confusion on her face at my sudden call. “Mao. I want you to decide if something is possible or not.”

“Hmm? What would that be?”

I told Mao about Yuriga’s plan. “And there you have it... So, do you think you can help us?”

“Sure, I can.”

With the situation explained, Mao was quick to agree. It was so easy that Yuriga and I just sort of looked at one another in shock.

“Are you sure? You don’t intervene in this world’s conflicts, right? Though, in this case, I’m not certain it counts as intervening.”

“That’s correct. Tiamat and I aren’t given the authority to take part in wars between the new races of mankind... Not even if they put your life at risk, Lord Souma. If that is the choice of the new mankind, then we are programmed to be unable to intervene. I cannot send reinforcements to help in a war between the new races of mankind either, nor can I transport supplies or people involved in such a war.”

Mao was apologetic, but soon raised her head once more.

“However, what you have requested of me does not conflict with that. War will not have broken out yet at the time; all I will be doing is guaranteeing the safety of Yuriga and providing a place for the meeting. Her plan would not directly affect the war, right?”

“Yeah. That’s right,” Yuriga answered with a firm nod. “What I want to do likely won’t have any influence on the war that might happen between the Maritime Alliance and the Great Tiger Kingdom. Before my brother does anything, I want to go home briefly and have a talk with him. Simply put, that’s all it is. And you would only provide a place where we can talk, brother and sister, without anyone interfering.”

“And you’re not lying?” Mao prodded.

“I swear it on my name as a Haan,” Yuriga asserted.

Nodding, Mao replied, “Then there’s no problem. Would you like me to transport you to Haalga right now?”

Oh, she can do it already? Man, just like with Madam Tiamat, beings that can use transportation magic exist on a totally different level.

Yuriga shook her head at the offer. “No, I still have to prepare. I’ll come to you when that’s finished.”

“Oh, I see... Well, once the war starts—or if it’s about to—it’s possible I won’t be able to help you anymore, so please understand.”

“I know. I’ll definitely be ready before then.”

“Understood. I’ll be going, then.” With that, the receiver stopped, and Mao’s image vanished.

There wasn’t any response from the magatama, so I asked Aisha to close the kamidana’s doors. Squaring that all away, I then turned to Yuriga.

“Okay, assuming we have Mao’s assistance, what of the other preparations you mentioned?”

“Oh! There’s something that I want you to get ready for me when I meet with my brother.”

“What’s that?”

Yuriga asked me to lend her something. My eyes widened at what it was.

“You want that?! Uh, isn’t bringing it with you going to be a tremendous amount of effort?”

“It doesn’t have to be all of it, of course. If I can borrow just a little and show it to my brother, I think that’ll help with convincing him of what I’ll be saying.”

Oh, just some of it will do? In that case, yeah, it’s possible. I sighed. “But it’s not in our country now. I’ll have to get permission from Shabon.”

“Well...use the power of the Maritime Alliance, or whatever.”

“You make it sound so easy... Oh, fine.” I scratched my head as I nodded. If I explained and then gave it back afterwards, Shabon would probably approve.

I looked at Yuriga again. There was a look of hope in her eyes, as if she were clinging to me. But at the same time, I also sensed a determination to follow through on her convictions.

“I think this plan of yours is interesting, Yuriga. I’m sure it’ll fluster Fuuga and potentially put a time limit on his ambitions...but you can’t expect much more than that. Like, say, Fuuga casting aside his goal of uniting the continent.”

Yuriga reacted with stunned silence.

Yeah... I figured that was it.

There was no lie in what Yuriga had told us. But I felt like her slight hopes were behind her plan. The thought that maybe, possibly, she could stop the impending invasion. Even if the chance was so faint that it was nearly impossible, she couldn’t help but chase after it.

“There probably isn’t even a one in a million chance that Fuuga will change how he lives.”

“...”

“But you want to do it anyway, right?”

“...Yes.” Yuriga nodded firmly. “I also doubt my brother’s going to suddenly change how he lives his life at this point. But...I want to show him that there’s another way. That there’s a future in which things aren’t settled by fighting. Even if it’s something I’m sure he’ll never choose, I want him to see it. And if there’s even a one in a million—no, a one in a billion chance that he might choose a different path, I want to show it to him. That’s how I feel!”

She was fighting back tears. Her words were powerful. I could feel Yuriga’s determination seeping into them.

“I think those hopes will betray you.”

“Even so!”

“I see...”

If she was this determined, there was nothing more for me to say.

I took a deep breath, then, in the gentlest tone I could manage, I said, “Give it a shot and see what happens. Do what you believe is best.”

“Oh! Thank you!” Yuriga’s words were tinted with glee.

I looked at her with a serious expression and said, “But please, promise me just one thing.”

“What’s that...?”

“Even if things don’t play out how you want them to, you must come back here. You’re part of the family now, and this is your home. Promise me that, at the very least.”

“That’s right! You can’t just not come home!” Aisha backed me up.

Of course, I planned to ask Mao to transport her home, whether she liked it or not, once she was done. There wasn’t any point in extracting a verbal promise, but I wanted to communicate our feelings to her properly.

After giving me a blank look for a second, Yuriga answered, “Yes!” Smiling with tears in the corners of her eyes, she added, “And if it doesn’t work, let me cry on your chest.”

◇ ◇ ◇

About a month passed...

Yuriga and Fuuga stood facing one another in front of the gates of Haalga, the Seadian city on the northern edge of the continent. Fuuga only had Mutsumi with him, but his forces were standing in a location a short distance away. Yuriga, on the other hand, had Kagetora behind her.

In order to show this meeting was of Yuriga’s accord, Souma had the rest of the Black Cats guard her from the shadows. By only having Kagetora present, it conveyed that she had other unseen guards as a way of keeping the other side in check.

“I didn’t expect you to call me out here.”

“It’s been a while since we’ve seen you, Yuriga.”

Fuuga and Mutsumi bowed their heads to her.

“Yes, it has been a long time, Brother and Big Sister Mutsumi. Thank you for coming all this way.”

“Oh, you can drop the formalities,” Fuuga said bluntly. “Anyway, you’ve got something to say to me, don’t you?”

“Yes. I need you to hear this, Brother.”

Yuriga looked her brother straight in the eyes. His stare could intimidate almost anyone, but not his little sister. Even as Fuuga prepared to gobble up the world, Yuriga could stand before him on her own. And seeing her again, he felt her determination.

“Huh? Right now? While fully aware of the risks that come with you standing before us as Souma’s wife?”

Fuuga was testing her, but she was uncowed.

“Yes.” She nodded. “Because I think this will be the only time I can talk to you.”

“The way you say that...it doesn’t sound like you plan on coming home.”

“I’m already married to Souma. If I have any home, it’s Parnam Castle now.”

“Tough talk. You know Hashim wants to take you into custody...”

“Big Brother Hashim would definitely do it too. Is this going to be okay?” Mutsumi asked, concerned.

“It will be just fine,” Yuriga answered with a nod. “I’ve made escape preparations, should they be needed.”

“Heh heh!” Fuuga let out a hearty chuckle. “You sure have gotten strong. Our little Yuriga’s grown up so much.”

The three of them all had relaxed looks on their faces, and if you took away the big man in the eerie black tiger mask, it would have looked like nothing more than siblings having a casual chat.

“And?” Fuuga said, putting a hand on his hip. “What is it you want me to hear?”

“Something that I think you’d want to hear...” Yuriga raised her right hand. As she did, the gates of Haalga opened, and there was a rumble as the sandy ground began to shake.

Eventually, something massive was brought through the gates and carried out behind Yuriga. As Fuuga’s and Mutsumi’s eyes widened, Yuriga stared back at them, her gaze unwavering.

“I wanted to show you this. You ought to know about it because...it was in my reports,” Yuriga said, gesturing to the object behind her. “And what I want to tell you is about the world where this thing was born.”

◇ ◇ ◇

A few days after heading off on her trip to the north, Yuriga returned to the Kingdom of Friedonia safe and sound. Although adequate measures had been put in place to ensure her safety, it was almost a letdown how easily she returned from her short trip back home. However, I couldn’t be sure that her state of mind was nearly as relaxed.

I heard she would be arriving at Parnam Castle shortly, so I stayed in the governmental affairs office to work while I waited for her. In her current mental state, I felt that greeting her with too much concern or leaving her alone were bad ideas. I’d discussed it with Liscia and Tomoe and decided we should greet her as we normally did.

Although overtime at the office by myself was a regularity for me...I heard a rap at the door.

“Come in,” I said.

“Sorry to bother you,” Yuriga replied, coming in with her eyes lowered.

Once she was inside, Aisha quietly closed the door behind her, leaving just me and Yuriga together.

“Welcome home, Yuriga.”

She bowed her head with her eyes still downturned and said, “I’ve returned.”

Her tone of voice was normal. But I couldn’t see her expression. Worried, I rose from my chair, and she slowly walked towards me.

“I think I was able to drive a wedge into my brother’s heart.”

“Uh-huh.”

“He can no longer run away, although I’m sure he never planned to. But now, he’ll have to stake everything on an all-or-nothing battle, with no second chances.”

“I see.”

“But...”

I approached her, and Yuriga raised her face. Large tears began to roll down her cheeks.

As she wept openly, biting the corners of her lips, Yuriga said, “I couldn’t...get my brother to choose a path other than fighting... I wanted...to stop him...if I could... But no, it was never going to work.”

I put my arms gently around Yuriga’s shoulders and pulled her close. She sobbed loudly into my chest.

“And if it doesn’t work, let me cry on your chest.” Remembering her words, I kept my promise from that day, but it only felt painful. She must have been frustrated. Yuriga wanted Fuuga to stop, despite knowing it wasn’t even remotely possible. She’d still wanted to cling on to some vain hope. And when it predictably didn’t happen, she couldn’t just write it off like it was another calculated plan.

I rubbed her back like you might do to soothe a baby, but...

“Don’t treat me like a child!” Yuriga shouted, shoving me in the chest. “I’m your wife! If you’re going to comfort me, do it like a husband should!”

I winced as she glared at me. She had the face of an independent woman. When I first met her, she had looked like a kid in middle school, but she’d long since outgrown that.

“Understood.”

I circled around behind Yuriga and hugged her tight as she continued sobbing. She probably didn’t want me to see her face like this.

We stayed like that for a while, in a room where no one would interrupt.

◇ ◇ ◇

The story now turns back to just after Fuuga and Yuriga’s meeting...

Having finished their talk, Fuuga and Mutsumi returned to their military camp, where they were met by their advisor, Hashim. While it had been hard to imagine Yuriga would bring any harm to Fuuga, it was clear she leaned towards the Kingdom of Friedonia’s side. As such, the advisor was wary of Souma’s hands pulling her strings.

“Lord Fuuga. What did Lady Yuriga have to say? Was she scheming something?”

“Hmm? It didn’t seem like there was any secret plot or anything,” Fuuga answered as he jumped down from Durga’s back. He helped Mutsumi down from her horse before continuing, “As for what she said...it was just about the world of the Seadians.”

“The world of the Seadians?”

What was life like in the north, where the Seadians were said to have resided, before being transferred to this world? Why would Yuriga go so far out of her way to tell Fuuga about it? Hashim’s mind raced as he explored a number of possibilities, but no clear answer emerged, much to his chagrin.

Fuuga shrugged and said, “Probably no point thinking about it. I doubt an ulterior motive behind what Yuriga had to say.”

“Are you certain of that?”

“Yeah. Well...she did serve me a strong dose of ‘poison’ though.”

“What? Poison, you say?” Hashim’s eyes widened at the unsettling word that had suddenly entered the conversation, but Fuuga dismissed it with a laugh.

“Not real poison, obviously. What Yuriga brought with her was, well... Let’s call it a toxin of the heart. The info is like a delayed poison that’ll slowly affect my passion. It’s one that would only work on me, and something only she, as my little sister, could craft. Yeesh. Seems like she really took a liking to Souma in the end.”

Hashim furrowed his brow as Fuuga roared with laughter again.

“Toxic information? Are you still all right?”

“Nah, it’s had more of an effect than I thought it would.” Fuuga scratched his head as if to say, “Well, what do I do now?” Even the calm and cold-blooded Hashim was perturbed to see Fuuga acting like this.

“I have no idea what could have happened as I was simply watching from a distance, but...does this have something to do with that thing that Yuriga brought out?” Hashim asked.

“Nah, that’s not important. She probably just hauled it out here for explanation’s sake.”

“Just what is going on here...?” Frustrated by Fuuga’s beating around the bush, Hashim looked at Mutsumi.

With a somewhat sad expression, she answered, “I suspect that Yuriga had hoped to prevent Lord Fuuga and Sir Souma from fighting... Even though she also saw an inevitable collision between the Great Tiger Empire and the Kingdom of Friedonia, she likely hoped she could show Lord Fuuga another future. And while he couldn’t follow through with what she wished for...it still clawed deep scars into Lord Fuuga’s heart.”

“Yeah. That sums it up,” Fuuga said with a nod. “I also saw a glimpse of Souma’s thinking through my conversation with Yuriga. It seems he doesn’t plan to fight against us, but against something even bigger, and he plans to win.”

“Hmm? What in the world does that mean?”

“Sorry, I don’t think I can put it into words all that well right now, so I’ll explain it to you later. That said, if we don’t do something, I won’t be able to challenge Souma. Then there’s Yuriga’s poison on top of that. It looks like I’ll only get one chance to really take on Souma and his people. If I can’t win decisively, then I’ll never be able to beat them again.”

“So the coming war will decide everything, you say?” Hashim’s expression grew grim.

Fuuga nodded. “Exactly... Though Yuriga’s poison was targeted at me specifically; if someone were to take my place, they could probably have another go at it.”

“Surely you jest. This great nation would be unmanageable were it not for your greatness.”

“Yeah. Which is why the next battle will be the gamble of a generation.” Fuuga grinned with a feral look in his eyes.

The bigger and tougher the enemy, the more alive fighting them made him feel. It was his nature, and it’s what had shaped him into the great man he’d become. For as long as he had this look on his face, Fuuga’s charisma would keep his followers believing that no one could halt his march.

Fuuga punched his fists together to hype himself up. “Okay, time’s a-wasting. Even if we’re not totally ready to go, it’ll be bad news if we let them completely prepare for us. Who’s going to create this world’s future? Me or Souma? Let’s go to his castle in Parnam and find out the answer!”

“Yes!”

“By your will.”

Mutsumi and Hashim saluted Fuuga.

They hurriedly departed for Haan Castle, and Fuuga glanced back towards Haalga, where he’d met his sister.

I’m sorry, Yuriga. I’m gonna walk my own path. And it looks like you’ve chosen your path too. Let’s keep running down our course, so we don’t regret our choices.

With her work done, Trill pressed the button, and the cursed ore battery that was also used in the Little Susumu Mark V began sending energy to the walls. After she ensured that it was working, a sense of relief washed over her.

She murmured, “Kuu certainly comes up with some surprising ideas. Like, ‘You know how the walls get attacked by siege weapons, right? Well, why don’t we have them move to avoid it?’”

With a rumble, the wall before her began to move, catching those on the other side off guard.

“Wh-What?! Why is the wall moving?!” shouted a soldier.

“The wall! The wall is coming right at us!” yelled another.

This nightmarish scene threw the attacking soldiers from the Great Tiger Kingdom into utter disarray. Additionally, fist-sized balls of lead rained down from the wall, piercing the soldiers’ armor and speeding up the descent into chaos.

In order to withstand enemy attacks and allow the men to traverse across them, the walls of Tarus were built thick. The idea was that a section of about half their thickness could detach and attack like a self-powered siege tower using the principle of the drill. This wall-type siege tower also had lion-dog guns (small cannons) from the Nine-Headed Dragon Archipelago installed to fire down at enemies.

The Republic, much like the former Zem, was not a rich country. However, thanks to trading medical equipment and marine products with other countries of the Maritime Alliance, its economy had grown to be much larger than the former Zem’s. They could afford to operate these kinds of gunpowder armaments now.

The wall-type siege tower advanced through the center of the fleeing Great Tiger Empire troops, moving right up in front of the trebuchets. Trebuchets and cannons were powerful weapons, but took a lot of time to change targets. And aiming at something on the move was essentially impossible.

As the soldiers guarding the trebuchets ran away, oil pots and hot coals were thrown at them, burning all of the trebuchets until they fell apart.

“Thank goodness. It seems to have gone well.”

Trill and her team watched the wall-type siege tower do its work through a gap in the wall. The detachment of the siege tower left a square-shaped indentation behind, but not a hole that went all the way through.

“But we can’t simply stay and watch. We must head back at once!”

This spot, which had been inside the wall just a little while ago, was exposed to the outside now that the siege tower had detached. The forces of the Great Tiger Empire were in disarray for now, but if they attacked, she and her team of noncombatants would be helpless.

Trill urged her group to quickly evacuate through a little door that had been installed for that purpose.

Whoosh... Slash! There was a sound like something cutting through the air, and then one of the fleeing technicians was neatly bisected.

Trill stared in shock at the sudden splash of blood as a berserker carrying an ax appeared on the other side of the slumping body.

“Was it you people?! Are you the ones trying to pull all these little tricks?!” they snarled. It was the battle maniac of the Great Tiger Empire, Nata, with eyes like a starving beast’s, oozing the desire to kill, and reeking of bloodshed.

This was Trill’s first time on a battlefield, and her knees gave out underneath her. This is crazy! Totally crazy, Big Sister Genia! She teared up, trying to back away as she sat on the ground but cowering so hard that her body wouldn’t listen.

Nata continued striding towards her.

“You Maritime Alliance types all try to be so tricky! Just let me enjoy a pure battle, would you!” he roared at her, raising his ax to strike.

I’m going to die, Trill thought as she screamed, “Save me, Big Sister!”

The faces of Maria, Jeanne, and Genia, whom she looked up to like a sister, flashed through her mind. Trill shut her eyes tight, imagining this was what the moment just before death must be like. But then...

“At least call for someone who can come save you!” came a voice from above her.

Trill’s eyes snapped open, and Nata jumped backwards just as he had been about to swing the ax down on her. There stood a young man with a spear in his hands, having thrust it into the ground where Nata had been standing. If he’d reacted any slower, she’d have been skewered through the brainpan.

Nata’s eyes flashed with rage as he recognized who’d just dropped in. “Why, you! Nike!”

“It’s you, Nike!” Having recognized her rescuer, Trill cast a pleading glance at him.

Ignoring his brother Nata, Nike looked at Trill and nodded.

“Don’t do anything too reckless. I’ve already got my hands full serving an eccentric master like Lord Kuu. If you heap more trouble on me, it’s going to give me stomachaches.”

“I-I’m ever so sorry!”

As the two of them talked, Nata got mad at being ignored. “Hey, Nike! You think you can oppose your big brother? Huh?!”

Nike pulled his spear from the ground and pointed it at Nata.

“Please, don’t worry. Big Sister Sami, Ichiha, and I all hate your guts. So I feel no hesitation about striking you down here.” He lowered his voice to a whisper and said, “Big Sister Mutsumi and Big Sister Yomi aren’t too fond of you, for that matter...”

“Bullshit!”

Enraged, Nata swung his ax at Nike with enough power to split a rock. Nike dodged like a matador evading a bull, then thrust at his brother’s flank. Nata knocked the swift thrust aside with just his fist. Then he swung his ax horizontally, intending to cleave Nike’s torso in two. Nike jumped out of the way, and swung his spear down on Nata’s shoulder. Crack!

“Guh...!”

The shoulder of Nata’s armor fractured, and he let out a grunt of pain. But as Nike landed, Nata sent him flying with a heavy kick squarely to the stomach. Thump!

“Urgh!”

It only took one kick to send Nike sailing high through the air. As he fell, he adjusted his position and maneuvered to land next to Trill.

“A-Are you quite all right, Nike?” she asked him, sounding concerned.

“Tch! Whew... For someone who brags about nothing but his strength, I guess this is about what I expected from my big brother,” he quipped, rubbing his stomach.

That kick could’ve taken him out of the fight instantly if it had hit him in the wrong place, so of course, his current casual demeanor was part bluff. Still, Nike managed to trade blows on an even footing with Nata.

“You think you can beat me?!” Nata spat.

“I don’t think I’ll lose. After all...”

Smack! This time, Nike kicked Nata. However, as Nata was built like a boulder, he didn’t move. Instead, Nike was sent flying backwards. But this was what Nike had been aiming for, and he hadn’t so much been trying to kick Nata as use him as a stepping stone.

He landed next to Trill again. “Okay, looks like everything’s ready...”

“Huh? Ready for what?” Trill blinked in confusion.

“I’ve got a brain, unlike my brother here!” Nike flashed a grin at Nata.

“Huh? What’re you on about...?”

“Big Brother. With the siege tower out, you realize this is a square indentation, right? You shouldn’t attack a spot like this!”

As he said this, Nike scooped the fallen Trill up in his arms, then kicked off the ground with his legs wreathed in wind magic. This jump carried them about halfway up the wall, where Nike thrust his spear and hung from it. As Nata stared in momentary disbelief, he heard the sound of wind moving around him. Looking up, he saw countless arrows raining down.

From above, Nike shouted, “That sort of square indentation is an easy target for concentrated fire from ranged weaponry! If you’re a man of the House of Chima, with our reputation for strategy and politics, you ought to know that!”

“Damn you, Nikeeee!”

Nata was enraged by his brother’s taunting, but not even he could withstand this hail of arrows. Though many pierced him, he swung his ax around to ward off fatal blows, then pulled out of the area.

After seeing his brother go, Nike let out a sigh of relief.

“Thank you. You saved me,” said Trill, hanging in the air with him. “But I would appreciate you escorting me in a somewhat more elegant manner. I’ll have you know I suffer from a fear of heights.”

“What a demanding princess.”

“Complain all you like, but I find all this swaying most unsettling—ulp!”

Trill covered her mouth as she fought off a wave of nausea, causing Nike to panic.

“Aghhhh! I’ll do something about it right away, so hold it in a little longer!” He quickly used his wind magic to race the rest of the way up the wall.

Considering his losses in this siege battle, Moumei concluded it would be difficult to wrest the two cities from the Republic with just this army and shifted his strategy to encirclement. At the very least, he would keep the Republic out of Souma and Fuuga’s battle.

Kuu had prepared a defense, but he felt the risk of an attack was too great, so both sides ended up staring each other down. From there on, this front entered a stalemate.

◇ ◇ ◇

While a vigorous back-and-forth struggle unfolded on the Republic front, there was another battlefield with no movement at all. That would be the Euphoria Kingdom front.

The Great Tiger Empire force here was led by Shuukin Tan, the Sword of the Tiger, with chief bureaucrat Lumiere acting as his second-in-command. Their allies on the Father Island of the Spirit Kingdom had also sent Princess Elulu, who adored Shuukin, and a number of high elf volunteer soldiers.

On the side of the Euphoria Kingdom were soldiers led by Queen Jeanne herself, with Prime Minister Hakuya and General Gunther’s support. This army also included Sami Chima, the librarian of the great library in Valois Castle, who had joined them, saying, “I won’t let the Great Tiger Empire take my place of solace...or the people I care about from me ever again.” Piltory, the Kingdom of Friedonia’s resident ambassador in the Euphoria Kingdom, was also on their side as a guest commander.

The two armies were spread out with mountains and forests on either side, but the center was an open field used for agriculture with just a single little house standing on it. They faced each other down on either side of the field, each side having around fifty thousand soldiers, but there was no sign of combat breaking out. While both sides were prepared to react instantly to any move by their opponent, neither showed any sign of moving themselves.

More than that, the aforementioned commanders were gathered in the Western-style farmhouse between the two armies. Now, as for what they were doing there, while a hundred thousand men stared across the anticipated battlefield...

“Lord Shuukin. Would you care for another cup of tea?”

“Oh, thank you, Madam Anzu.”

“Will you be having tea or coffee, Lady Jeanne?”

“Thank you, Madam Shiho. I think I’ll have coffee.”

Next to a small brook, in front of a shed with a water wheel attached to it, Jeanne, Hakuya, Shuukin, Lumiere, and Elulu were sitting at a large table enjoying a spot of tea. Serving them were Piltory’s wives, the sisters Anzu and Shiho.

Both sides had brought their bodyguards (Gunther, Sami, and Piltory were included), but the guards simply stood there. Things felt relaxed, and they didn’t bother with more than cursory poison testing.

Because everyone deployed to this front was a sharp, analytical thinker, they understood the situation clearly. Victory or defeat here wouldn’t have an effect on the larger war.

Shuukin’s role was to prevent the Euphoria Kingdom from attacking the Great Tiger Empire from the west side of the continent. The most concerning scenario for him would be an invasion by the Euphoria Kingdom, causing panic among the main force that Fuuga was leading to attack the Kingdom of Friedonia.

Meanwhile, Jeanne was very concerned about whether Shuukin’s forces would push them back and then boast about how ineffective the Maritime Alliance was, putting cracks in her ability to coordinate with her allies. That would disadvantage Souma, who was fighting in the east. For that reason, she needed to stop Shuukin and his men’s invasion here.

In short, both sides had three things in common: defense was their highest priority, they couldn’t afford to lose the battle, and the final result would be decided by the direct showdown between Souma and Fuuga.

Even if Shuukin were to invade, he would not face an easy war against Queen Jeanne and the Black-Robed Prime Minister Hakuya. If he let his guard down, he expected they would trip him up. He also believed that, with their recently reorganized army, Jeanne and Hakuya would be at their limits just defending, and they couldn’t manage a counteroffensive.

Since both sides understood that a battle would cause unnecessary bloodshed, they discussed and agreed to keep things calm here until the battle in the east was settled.

“Jeanne. Will these conditions be acceptable?”

“Yes. I don’t mind, Lumi,” Jeanne said as she accepted the paperwork.

It was a contract with signatures from both Jeanne and Shuukin.

To summarize: it stipulated that if the Kingdom of Friedonia was defeated by the Great Tiger Empire, the Euphoria Kingdom would immediately surrender. If the Great Tiger Empire was defeated by the Kingdom of Friedonia, Shuukin and his men would withdraw. Until then, neither side would move their troops or engage in looting.

Jeanne looked through the paperwork, then passed it to Hakuya, sitting beside her.

While Hakuya read, Jeanne spoke to Shuukin. “I’ve heard many of the Great Tiger Empire’s warriors are bloodthirsty. I’m grateful that it was you and Lumi, who are capable of thinking through things in a rational way, who came here.”

“Well, we have a lot of people who live in the moment, after all. If this front had been left to someone who failed to understand the importance of maintaining our battle lines, paired with the low priority of victory here, I suspect you all would’ve run circles around them,” Shuukin said with a wry smile. “Anyway, you’re quite sure the terms are acceptable? If we lose, we withdraw, but if you lose, you surrender. It hardly seems like a fair deal to me.”

“There’s not much helping that,” Hakuya responded. “This is the most you can promise us, Sir Shuukin. Further compensation in the event of a Maritime Alliance victory will be negotiated after the war. However, if King Souma is defeated, the Euphoria Kingdom lacks the power to stand alone against the Great Tiger Empire. We’ll have no choice but to surrender.”

“You say that so easily... It’s as if you don’t think you could lose.”

“Neither myself, Queen Jeanne, nor King Souma fights battles we cannot win,” Hakuya said with a calm expression on his face. His audacity brought a slightly sharper look to Shuukin’s eyes.

“Hey, hey, Lord Shuukin! These cream puffs are super delicious!” Elulu proclaimed as she scarfed them down next to him. This caused all the tension in the air to rapidly dissipate.

Shuukin held his temples and let out a sigh. “Elulu... I’m begging you, please, take this a little more seriously.”

“You say that, Lord Shuukin, but with food this good in front of me, I have to savor it. I hear this cream filling uses bean tea (coffee) from the Spirit Kingdom.”

“The Maritime Alliance trades with the Mother Island, after all,” Jeanne said, regarding Elulu with a smile.

After that, Jeanne turned to look at Lumiere again. Lumiere looked back at her, their gazes colliding. There was a tense look on both their faces.

They had been the best of friends once, but Lumiere had betrayed Maria and Jeanne to side with the Great Tiger Empire. There were probably people in the Euphoria Kingdom who detested her and all the other commanders and nobles who’d switched sides, but Jeanne couldn’t bring herself to hate a former friend that badly. Especially knowing that her withdrawal was something that Maria had intended to happen.

As for Lumiere, she had stayed true to her beliefs. No matter what she might be called as a result, she had no regrets about having split from the two of them. However, having experienced a small part of the responsibility Maria had once borne, she had a new respect for her former sovereign. Neither hated the other as much as they probably should have in their current positions.

As awkward as the situation was, Jeanne hesitantly opened her mouth. “Lumi... Um...have you been eating properly?”

“What? You’re starting with that? I’d expect it from a father who doesn’t know what to say to his adolescent daughter, but not you.”

“Well, you look like you’ve lost weight.”

“I have more work on my shoulders than when I was in the Empire... And now I understand just how incredible Lady Maria was. To know she carried it all on her own shoulders is just amazing... It’s so exhausting.”

“Yeah. I’ve been having the same realization myself.”

They both sighed.

Lumiere looked straight at Jeanne. “I don’t regret the path I chose. The fact is, the Demon Lord’s Domain was liberated.”

“But...I hear you took considerable losses forcing your way in. If we had understood the demons—the Seadians—properly...couldn’t we have avoided spilling blood entirely?”

“I understand that that’s what Lady Maria was looking to do. But you can only argue that in hindsight. When there’s a future that you can reach without bloodshed, but you never know when it will come, and a future you can strive for right now, even if it means blood will have to flow...it’s up for debate which you should choose.”

“That’s true... I understand that. Ultimately, we have different ways of looking at things. It’s just...I worry that you’re overworking yourself.”

“Oh, I am overworking myself. If I don’t do at least that much, I wouldn’t be able to face you sisters.” Lumiere smiled slightly. “I know it’s coming late, but congratulations on your wedding, Jeanne.”

“Th-Thank you... It’s rather embarrassing when you say that so formally.”

“I always knew you’d marry an older man. You always had this mature aura about you.”

“Y-Yeah, you were always into younger men, right, Lumi? Have you found anyone good?”

“Urkh... W-Well, it’s not like I don’t have anyone in mind.”

“Oho. I’d love to hear the details.”

““Ahem.””

““Huh?!””

As their conversation gradually drifted to girls’ talk, Hakuya and Shuukin loudly cleared their throats. An awkward silence followed soon after.

Elulu watched them with amusement as she reached for another cream puff. Shuukin tried to move things along by talking to Hakuya.

“You know, I was quite surprised to find the Black-Robed Prime Minister, Sir Hakuya, over here. I was sure you’d be at King Souma’s side.”

“I already gave my overall commands, and individual issues are better addressed by Duchess Walter or Julius the White Strategist. Besides, my successor, Sir Ichiha, is there, so I expect they should have no issues despite my absence.”

“You’re reminding me how many people the Kingdom of Friedonia has... And Lady Mutsumi’s younger brother Sir Ichiha is your successor?”

“Yes. He’s a young man fit to carry the next generation.”

“The next generation, huh... I envy your ability to say that.” There was a slight sadness in Shuukin’s expression as he spoke. “For us, my lord and friend Fuuga Haan is simply too blindingly brilliant. He’s the great man who rapidly built us up from a minor nation to a great empire. Everyone understands that no one could ever take Lord Fuuga’s place.”

“You saw how it was with Lady Maria... You understand, don’t you, Jeanne?” Lumiere asked.

“I suppose I do...” Jeanne nodded. “My sister certainly shone brightly in her time as empress. If you asked me to live up to her glory, I’d find it difficult. I have a lot of hard thinking to do even now, with the country reduced in size.”

“Yeah...which is why I wanted us to do as much as possible while Lady Maria still shone. But that wasn’t what Lady Maria wanted...”

“I think now...I can understand how it must have felt for you, Lumi.”

When a ruler shines brilliantly, the fear of losing their radiance can lead to a narrowing of perspective. People try to do something while that light lasts and don’t think about what will come after. The charisma of leaders like Maria and Fuuga drove those around them to that point. No one could say that was bad, but...

“If I could say just one thing...” Hakuya began, and everyone paid attention. “I’m glad that our King Souma is so plain. He is still irreplaceable, but at least the people are able to think optimistically. ‘Well, there are many others who are more talented and stand out more than he, so surely someone can take over for him.’”

As Hakuya spoke of his ruler’s blandness with a shrug, everyone smiled wryly.

They all thought, Maybe a ruler like that is fine too.

All was quiet on the western front...

◇ ◇ ◇

Elsewhere in the castle, Tomoe, Ichiha, and Yuriga were saying their goodbyes too.

Yuriga would remain in the capital while Tomoe and Ichiha, as important noncombatant figures, would leave for Venetinova tomorrow with Roroa.

“You’re...staying, aren’t you, Yuriga?” Tomoe asked, a pained look on her face.

Yuriga shrugged. “Yes, I am. I need to see the showdown between my brother and Souma through to the end. As a sister...and as a wife.”

“Um...I probably shouldn’t ask if you’re okay, right?”

“Right. I’ve already come to terms with it.” Yuriga put her hands on her hips and grinned. “You’re off to Venetinova, yeah? Well, you two look after each other as future husband and wife, you hear?”

“It’s hard to feel that way...”

“Well, you’d better start. My husband and his gang of trusted companions are all ready to go, so I’m sure we’ll be able to meet up and smile together again in no time. Even if this country loses, I swear I’ll protect you two. You’re both important to this world, and I’ll make sure my brother understands that any harm that comes to you is a loss to everyone.”

“You sound like you could pull it off, but I’d rather you not find yourself in a position where you’d need to do that for us,” Ichiha said with a sigh.

In his capacity as Hakuya’s stand-in, Ichiha was in charge of political strategy, so there wasn’t much for him to do once war broke out. Julius and Kaede were handling military strategy, and he could give his political directives from the rear, so it had been decided that he would evacuate with Tomoe.

Yuriga gave Ichiha a light jab in the chest. “Don’t you worry about me. Keep an eye on your fiancée. Knowing her, she’s bound to say, ‘I’m going to stay too!’ and hide herself somewhere in Parnam.”

“Well...you have a point there,” Ichiha replied with a wry smile, knowing just how surprisingly active of a personality Tomoe had.

“Come on...” Tomoe puffed her cheeks out indignantly. “I don’t want to hear that from you, Yuriga, after you had us stow away on the ship to the Nine-Headed Dragon Archipelago.”

There was an awkward pause, followed by Yuriga saying, “...I don’t remember anything that happened that long ago.”

“It’s only been a few years.”

“Shut up, you little kid!” Yuriga pinched Tomoe’s cheeks. The two had been doing this ever since their school days. It triggered a feeling of loneliness that brought tears to both of their eyes as they smiled.

“Do you think...we’ll be able to do stupid stuff like this and laugh about it together again?” Tomoe asked with a smile.

“Oh, we’ll be able to laugh,” Yuriga answered with a slight grin of her own. “For sure. And Lucy and Velza will be there to laugh with us too.”

“That sounds good. I’d love to relax and munch on snacks with everyone again,” Ichiha said, and they both nodded.

◇ ◇ ◇

The next day, Liscia, Yuriga, and I said our goodbyes and then watched as the wyvern gondola carrying Roroa, Tomoe, and Ichiha took off from the inner courtyard.

“We’ll...see them again, right?” Liscia asked, slightly worried. I laughed it off.

“Oh, please. Don’t talk in a way that’ll set off event flags like that. We just have to keep working quietly to prepare to meet Fuuga’s attack and defend the home they’ll be returning to.”

“Yes, you’re right... Are you okay, Yuriga?” Liscia asked with a hint of concern, but Yuriga shook her head.

“I’m prepared for what’s coming. We have to stop this...”

Stop this, huh? I clapped my hands when I heard the determination in her voice.

“Okay, let’s give him the welcome a great man deserves. If we’re going to end his era, we need to prepare to make the times change.”

There was no turning back now. We walked forward with our eyes on the future.

“Father! Sister!” Carl cried out with glee.

It was Castor and Carla, both of whom were supposed to have been thrown out of the House of Vargas.

The House of Vargas had garnered sympathy as the true reasons for Georg Carmine’s rebellion came to light. Castor’s achievements in the kaiju hunt in the Nine-Headed Dragon Archipelago and Carla’s defense of Souma in the battle with the Seadians had finally made it possible for them to return. However, in order to take proper responsibility for their past actions and because they had both found worthwhile jobs—Castor as the captain of the carrier Hiryuu and Carla as caretaker of the princes and princesses—neither had tried to return before now.

But with both the Kingdom and Red Dragon City in crisis, Souma had ordered them to return to Red Dragon City.

“Sorry, Carl,” Carla said with a smile. “We’ve kept you waiting, huh?”

“Sniff... Yes! I’ve been waiting for you, Sister!” Carl responded energetically, rubbing his eyes with his sleeve.

For Carl, who had been struggling with uncertainty, their return was more reassuring than the arrival of ten thousand soldiers.

Castor went over to talk to Tolman. “I’ve caused a lot of trouble for you too, Tolman. Thank you for looking after Carl.”

“Think nothing of it, Master... No, I suppose I am to call you ‘Captain’ now?”

“Yeah. Carl is the current head of our house.”

“Well then, Captain. Although it might not have felt long to someone as long-lived as you, as far as I’m concerned, we’ve worked together for a long time. As one used to being dragged around by your whims, looking after your earnest son has been no trouble whatsoever.”

“Harsh words right out the gate, huh? I ought to have expected that from my former steward,” Castor said with a wry smile.

“Father,” Carl called out as he approached. “Since you’ve returned, can I leave command of our forces to you?”

Carl sounded hopeful, but Castor shook his head.

“No. Carla and I both came here as combatants. As the head of the house now, you must do your best with Tolman’s support. I’ll support you too, of course.”

“O-Oh, no...”

Carl didn’t know what to say after being rebuffed. Carla clapped her hands down on his shoulders.

“Don’t look like that. No one is asking you to be a perfect commander all on your own. Father and I have both failed. We almost destroyed this house with our hardheadedness.”

“Sister...”

“Look at the battle with your own eyes. If you find your own abilities lacking, learn from others. If you can’t fight yourself, encourage the troops and be with them in your heart. If you do your best, someone will see that and support you.”

“Yeah. I’m sure you’ll make a better lord than I was,” Castor said, to which Carla nodded.

“‘The longer you walk, the more hands there will be to support you,’” she said, quoting a lullaby from this world.

It was the same one that Juna sang to Souma during his first year when he was about to be crushed under all the exhaustion and pressure.

Carl raised his head. “Yes! I’ll do my best!”

His still-childlike face was full of determination. Castor, Carla, and Tolman all nodded with satisfaction.

“Oh, my. You all look like you’re having fun,” said a voice.

Someone new strode over to join them. This woman also had the traits of a dragonewt, with a single horn on her forehead, dragon wings on her back, and a tail, but her hair and scales were blue. She donned a marine uniform similar to Juna’s, with a rapier on her hip.

Before them stood Accela, the child of Excel and her (now deceased) partner, Castor’s wife, and the mother of Carla and Carl.

“Wait, Accela?! What are you doing dressed like that?!” Castor asked, eyes wide with surprise.

She had a comely face that resembled Excel’s but was known for being a quiet beauty, not conniving like her mother. And yet, here she was in full combat uniform. Carla, Carl, and Tolman were speechless.

“W-Wait... You’re not going to fight, are you?!” Castor asked.

“Oh, my.” Accela smiled. “Have you forgotten just whose daughter I am?”

“Duchess Walter’s, obviously.”

“Yes. And I led the Marines under her command before I married you.”

This was the point where Castor finally remembered. Half a century had passed since they were wed, so he’d forgotten until just now, but Accela had been a commander of the Marines like Juna. After getting married, she told Castor, “I want to spend some time away from the battlefield to be with our children as a mother,” and had been living the life of a fine lady ever since, but she had originally been a soldier. Perhaps Carla’s bloodthirsty personality (which had largely been tamed through Serina’s training) wasn’t entirely Castor’s fault.

Accela spun around and showed off for them. “It’s been a while since I’ve put this on. I’m relieved it still fits.”

“Of course it does. Your figure hasn’t changed in the last fifty years...”

“What do you think, Carla, Carl? Does it suit me?”

When she asked the children their thoughts...

“Don’t ask questions we don’t want to answer! It’s embarrassing!”

“M-Motheeer...”

Carla and Carl were both as awkward as they’d be listening to the story of how their parents first met. Tolman, meanwhile, was averting his eyes and trying to avoid getting caught up in it. Despite all this, Castor somehow managed to recover and turned to Accela with a stern expression.

“I’ll ask once more. Are you planning to fight?”

“Yes, Castor. I won’t let you leave me out of it any longer,” she said, smiling. But her eyes told a different story. “Back then, I went to my mother’s side, hoping to at least protect Carl, but what I really wanted was to fight by your side. I never want to be put in a position where I have to watch from a distance as my husband and daughter fight for their lives again. This time, I will protect the house and my family.”

“Accela...”

Her words were full of conviction. Carl was almost moved by them, but then...Accela grinned and clapped her hands.

“I had my mother send a whole load of cannons and cannonballs for such an occasion. I’ve made a bunch of other preparations too, so let’s all put them to good use.”

Accela said this with the same tone as someone saying, “My folks back home sent us some apples, so let’s all eat them together.” Everyone was made aware that this woman was unquestionably Excel’s daughter.

“Uh, our liege said that we don’t have to push things,” Castor advised, “we can just play for time...”

“Now that the whole family’s together, we should celebrate that with a bang!”

“Don’t say dangerous things so casually! Are you enjoying this?! You are, aren’t you?!”

Accela was acting playful—as playful as explosives can be, that is—while Castor was being dragged around at her whim.

As Carla and Carl watched their parents carry on like this, Carl said, “Sister... Their blood runs in my veins, doesn’t it?”

“Yeah... Just like it runs in mine.”

“Mm-hmm... I’m starting to feel like I can give it my all.”

“That’s exactly how a man of the House of Vargas should be...is what I ought to say, I guess?”

They both had incredibly awkward looks on their faces.

◇ ◇ ◇

Around the same time, Liscia murmured, “I wonder if Carla and her folks are all right...”

Currently, it was just her, me, and Julius in Parnam Castle’s war room.

The first serious battle against the Great Tiger Empire was about to take place at Red Dragon City. The Republic was doing well holding off the Great Tiger Empire on their front, with the Euphoria Kingdom in a staredown of their own, and the Orthodox Papal State had already been driven back on the Amidonian front.

Our comrades were doing their best all over the continent. In order not to waste their efforts, we couldn’t let the enemy tear through us.

“There shouldn’t be an issue,” Julius said, pointing to Red Dragon City on the map laid out in front of us. “Red Dragon City is a hardened fortress. With ten thousand defenders, they can hold out for months without resupply. And with their former masters, Sir Castor and Madam Carla, also present, morale inside the castle must be high. Even the Great Tiger Empire will struggle to take the city.”

Though Julius said this, Liscia only looked more concerned.

“But if they’re going to handle Fuuga and that flying tiger of his, only Halbert and Ruby or Naden and Aisha can do it, right? All four of them are defending Parnam. I know Carla’s out there, but can the wyvern cavalry handle Fuuga or Krahe and his griffon cavalry?”

“We’ve set things up so they can,” I said, looking at Liscia straight on. “They have the men, equipment, and supplies. I’ve prepared some secret plans for them too. If Fuuga puts in an appearance himself, they’ll have to trigger the magic canceler and hide inside the castle, but Fuuga and his men shouldn’t be able to handle them either. If he sticks around there, obsessed with taking Red Dragon City, he’ll be doing just what we want him to.”

“I concur. If I were on the enemy’s side, rather than go after a troublesome castle like that, I would leave some soldiers to keep them under control and press on to Parnam. Because that’s what we don’t want them to do.”

Liscia nodded at what Julius was saying. “You’re right... We’re going to have enough trouble on our hands here soon, so we’ll just have to trust in them and wait.”

“Yeah. Once they pass Red Dragon City, there are no more cities to act as a breakwater between there and Parnam. Fuuga and his men will arrive in no time. We need to finish up our preparations to meet them.”

I noticed a somewhat complicated expression on Julius’s face. I asked, “Is something the matter?”

“No... It’s nothing...” Julius simply shook his head quietly at the question.

◇ ◇ ◇

Meanwhile, at the Great Tiger Empire camp in the mountains surrounding Red Dragon City...

“First, we’ll need to engage in a brief skirmish in order to gauge our opponent’s will to fight,” Hashim said.

Gathered with him were Fuuga and Mutsumi, as well as Gaten, Kasen, Gaifuku, Krahe, and the influential commanders from the lands they’d absorbed.

“The enemy has holed up inside the castle of General Castor. This is a key city for the Kingdom of Friedonia to train their wyvern cavalry, so they won’t readily abandon it as they have the others before now. I expect they have a considerable number of wyvern knights here. If we try to assault the castle, the Air Force will unquestionably come out to meet us.”

“Then let my griffon cavalry handle the task!” Krahe stood up, thumping his chest with one hand. “The griffon riders are faster than wyvern riders, and we can execute tighter turns. We are the blades of the air, feared by other nations since the time we served under the Gran Chaos Empire. I might not speak so boldly if we were against the Dragon Knight Kingdom, but there isn’t even the slightest chance that the Kingdom of Friedonia could defeat us!”

Krahe sounded confident, but Fuuga looked at him dubiously, resting his cheek in the palm of one hand.

“You talk big, but I doubt it’ll be that easy. They know you’ve joined us, so I figure the Kingdom will have taken measures against griffons, don’t you think?”

“No matter what schemes our opponent has dreamed up, my squadron, the blades trained under Saint Maria and offered to the great Fuuga, will cut them to pieces. In our last battle, they used that accursed tool (the magic canceler) against us, making it so we couldn’t even fly, but it also places them in the same predicament. I cannot see them using a weapon that renders their own air force ineffective, so the winner will be decided solely by which of us is stronger.”

Krahe was bursting with confidence. Historically, it was true that the griffon cavalry had been superior to wyvern cavalry, and Souma had been wary of them after the war with the Principality of Amidonia. Also, even if the enemy used the magic canceler, griffons had wings, unlike Durga, so they could glide down to the surface.

Fuuga seemed to think for a moment...then nodded. “Well, you might as well try. Go for it.”

“As you command. Victory will be yours, my liege.”

With that, Krahe did an about-face and left.

The young genius, Kasen, looked at Fuuga. “Was that wise? Sir Krahe seems to be taking the enemy lightly...”

“I have to agree with young Kasen,” Gaten added, sharing Kasen’s concern. “That confidence of his is dangerous.”

Fuuga shrugged. “The guy fought as Maria’s blade for years. We won’t be able to fix that pride of his unless he has a hard time. He didn’t even get to fight in our last war with the Kingdom, after all. Only tens of thousands of men holed up in Red Dragon City, nothing against a force of our size. If Krahe wins, then good, and if he doesn’t, then it won’t have much effect. If he wises up and sees Souma and the Kingdom for the threat they are after they make him suffer, that’s fine too.”

“You don’t sound like you think he can win,” Gaten said, earning him a boisterous laugh from Fuuga.

“The information I got from Yuriga before she married Souma never mentioned the air force. If she could send information about the island carriers but not the air force, then he kept their secrets from her.”

“Which means...they have something in store for us,” Mutsumi concluded.

“Yeah.” Fuuga nodded. “I’m really looking forward to seeing what it is.”

The rest of the group had complicated expressions, unsure whether they should be reassured or worried by how happy Fuuga sounded about this.

“Reporting! Griffon and wyvern cavalry have taken off from the Great Tiger Empire’s forces!” shouted the soldier who had been observing from the watchtower. “A portion of their ground forces have also begun advancing towards Red Dragon City!”

Hearing this, Castor and Carla each jumped into the saddles on the backs of their wyverns.

“Hee hee... You know, this really takes me back, Father,” Carla said with a chuckle. Castor nodded and smiled back at her.

“I know how you feel. I had to stay here and hold down the fort back when we fought against our lord, so it’s been even longer for me.”

“Didn’t you ride when you were on the carrier? You were carrying wyverns, weren’t you?”

“I was always too preoccupied with giving orders. Besides, when I was at sea, captaining a cruiser was more fun than flying on a wyvern.”

“Sounds like you were enjoying life at sea to its fullest...”

It was a bit hard for Carla to accept that. While she had been in the castle, forced into humiliating outfits by Serina, Castor had been living the good life out on the high seas.

Castor laughed. “It’s fun once you get used to it. You should come over and play when this war is over. The whole ship will welcome you.”

“You plan to return to the carrier again after the war?”

“It’s like my home away from home now. I wish I could’ve brought it into this fight. Maybe we could’ve had Mechadra or the rhinosauruses pull it.”

“You know that’s what destroyed the original battleship Albert. Also, if you go calling it your home away from home, Carl and Mother will get upset, you know?”

“No...I’m starting to feel that Accela will probably come along with me next time.”

“It looks like Carl’s troubles are going to continue a while longer...”

As the two of them were bantering, the aforementioned Carl himself rushed over with Tolman by his side.

“Father, Sister. You’re heading into battle, I see.”

“Yes, Carl. Leave the skies to us. Tolman, I trust Carl and the soldiers to you.”

“Understood,” Tolman said with a nod reminiscent of his days as a steward.

“Carl...” Carla said, placing a hand on her brother’s head. “You’ve done well protecting the house all this time. That’s how I know we can trust you with Red Dragon City. Make sure we have a home to return to when this is over.”

“Yes! And best of luck to you, Sister!”

Carl watched Carla move away, and Castor shouted to the rest of the wyvern cavalry, “All right, it’s time we head out!”

The air force unit comprised people who’d previously fought under Castor’s command and those who currently served under him aboard the carrier Hiryuu. To them, Castor was a reliable commander they could trust.

“As of this moment, there is no longer any need to hide the skills we’ve polished or the technologies we’ve long kept secret! We are going to throw everything we have at the enemy! Let them see that we’re the stars when it comes to the war in the skies!”

“““Yeahhhhhhh!””” Castor’s words were met with throaty cheers.

He raised his right fist up high as he listened to the applause.

“Men! Activate your propulsion devices!”

At Castor’s command, the wyvern riders activated the ring-shaped devices at the back of their mounts’ saddles. These were the light-model Maxwellian Propulsion Devices, also known as the Little Susumu Mark V Light. They’d been developed after the war with the Principality of Amidonia, and they’d yet to see battlefield deployment due to a lack of wars between countries since then. This technology had only really been used by Halbert during the storm in the Star Dragon Mountain Range, but now it would enter combat for the first time.

“Okay, people! Let’s race through the skies as the swords of His Imperial Majesty!” Krahe shouted from his position at the head of the griffon and wyvern cavalry that’d lifted off from the Great Tiger Empire’s camp.

If the enemy had taken flight themselves, then that was a sign that the Kingdom of Friedonia had no intention of using the weapon that nullified magic this time. Krahe concluded they likely planned for a direct confrontation between the two air forces. He also thought that in a battle of air force versus air force, the Great Tiger Empire could score an overwhelming victory.

If wyverns were bombers, then griffons were fighter planes. Unlike wyverns, whose large wings meant it took a long time for them to turn, griffons’ wings were smaller, allowing tighter turns. When the two collided head-on, griffons had the upper hand. However, the griffon’s style of flying meant they tired quickly, so they needed wyvern-riding allies to cover for them.

Also, because the Kingdom of Friedonia still needed to leave behind an air force to defend Parnam, they only had so many wyvern cavalry to deploy here. Krahe, on the other hand, could command almost all of the air forces that the Great Tiger Empire had brought for this invasion into the fight. With an advantage in both quantity and quality, he felt that his victory was inevitable.

“Reporting! The enemy has also sent out their wyvern cavalry!”

Krahe smiled, looking ahead as he listened to the report. “I knew it! The enemy has less than half our numbers!”

The force of wyvern riders lifting off from Red Dragon City was at best forty percent the size of Krahe’s. Now that the enemy was also in the air, the risk of that magic-sealing weapon being used was completely eliminated, and there was no sign of that red dragon knight he’d considered a threat. Krahe was certain of victory.

“Now, let us show the Friedonians who the stars of these skies are! We will wipe away a paltry force like theirs in no ti—”

“Incoming!!!” one of Krahe’s men shouted, cutting Krahe off.

The Kingdom’s wyvern cavalry, which had appeared so distant, closed in quickly. By the time Krahe’s eyes widened with surprise, they were only a stone’s throw away.

“Grr! Intercept the—”

“Too late!”

As Krahe tried to give the order, the Kingdom’s wyvern cavalry raced past him at an incredible speed. He didn’t even know who’d said that. In contrast to how the Empire’s air force was flying in formation, the Kingdom’s air force just flew straight at them. They even shot right past without their wyverns unleashing their fiery breath on the Empire’s air force.

Speaking strictly in terms of its effect, all they’d done was fly by. It hadn’t even been an attack. However, after seeing his enemies fly past at speeds many times beyond what he believed was possible, Krahe’s mind froze up, unable to respond. There was also a violent burst of wind as the enemy passed, breaking up the Great Tiger Empire’s formation.

“H-Hey! Stay back!”

“Whoa, don’t complain to me... Agh!”

“Raise altitude! Do you want to collide?!”

As they lost control of their wyverns and griffons, midair collisions started occurring everywhere, and some men even plummeted to the ground below.

Coming to his senses, Krahe barked orders for his men to calm down. “Urgh! Calm yourselves! Confusion only plays into the enemy’s hands!”

“Incoming! Another attack from the left!”

There was another shout from one of the soldiers, and wyvern breath attacks, arrows, and wind magic launched by the enemy hurtled towards them from the left.

Reflexively, Krahe shouted, “Everyone, defend yourselves!”

At his command, the Empire’s air force began performing defensive maneuvers. They countered the breath attacks with their own and blocked or evaded the others, using a variety of methods to endure the assault. However, they weren’t being given even a moment’s respite.

“H-Here they come!” someone shouted.

Then the Kingdom’s wyvern cavalry charged at them again, just as fast as the balls of wyvernfire that’d assaulted them. They boldly flew past the Empire’s air forces once more, breaking up their formation, but this time Krahe could observe his enemies closely.

They have something on the back of their saddles?! I don’t know how it works, but it must be the source of their speed. Do they mean to compensate for their wyvern’s poor ability to make tight turns by specializing towards speed and competing with us using hit-and-run tactics? Grr... How shrewd of them. As he thought this, the Kingdom’s air forces flew off into the distance. Their speed is incredible. Yet, at the same time, that also means that they’ve lost the ability to make tight turns. That’s where we’ll find our chance of victory!

Having found a solution, Krahe shouted, “People! You mustn’t be tricked by the enemy’s movements! They are fast, yes! However, they cannot change direction so quickly! Watch! After just one attack, they’ve flown so far away! They’re fleeing so we cannot attack them during the long time it takes them to turn around!”

Having commanded an air force for as long as he had, Krahe wasted no time figuring out the weaknesses of the propulsion devices.

“There will be time between one charge and the next! Use it to calm yourselves and return to formation! They must approach us to launch an effective attack, so we need only wait and strike them when they do! If we intercept them with minimal movement, it is inevitable that they, who are far fewer in number, must tire before we do!”

“““Yeahhhhhh!”””

Krahe’s words were having a calming effect on his men. The Empire’s air force held their position, and they kept on facing the Kingdom’s air force with the absolute minimum amount of turning necessary as they braced for the attack.

Meanwhile, in the Kingdom’s air force...

“Father! The enemy is regaining its composure!”

“Yeah. Looks like they’ve got some capable people on their side.”

Castor and Carla were talking as their wyverns flew side by side. Castor stroked his chin, a concerned expression on his face, as he considered what to do.

“The plan was to throw them into even greater disarray and seize control of the battle...but it looks like the Great Tiger Empire plans to just sit there and wait for us to come attack.”

“Charging into that would be like riding into prepared pikemen with ordinary cavalry. Maybe our momentum would carry us through, but it would probably hurt.”

Hearing his daughter say this, Castor grinned.

“Yeah. I’m not a fan of pain.”

There was a certain composure to his smile. Turning to look behind him, he shouted to the wyvern riders following them.

“Looks like they’ve decided that we’re not able to turn with these propulsion units, so they’re going to wait for us! And normally, they would be right!” Castor smiled. “But do you remember what our unit is called, men?!”

“““The Mobile Wyvern Cavalry!!!””” the soldiers answered without missing a beat.

“What is your attachment?!”

“““The carrier Hiryuu!!!”””

“Who trained and led you?!”

“““Captain Castor!!!”””

If Halbert’s Dratroopers were the best of the best when it came to ground operations, then the Mobile Wyvern Cavalry were the elites of the air. They had learned from Castor aboard the Hiryuu and were trustworthy men he’d eaten with and slept alongside.

Satisfied with their responses, Castor looked at Carla.

“Carla! We’re going to do that!”

“Huh...?! That?” Carla’s expression grew a little tense.

“I taught you how, didn’t I? Have you practiced?” Castor asked.

“Yes,” she replied. “I borrowed one of the castle’s wyverns, but this will be my first time trying it in an actual combat situation.”

“Ha ha ha! Don’t worry. That’s the same for all of us.”

“That’s not reassuring at all! Yeesh...” Even as she said this, Carla steeled herself.

If Castor said they were doing it, then she would. Even after all the time she’d spent away from home, Carla was still proud of her distinguished career in the Air Force. That was why she’d practiced “that technique” when she could find time while still looking after Prince Cian and Princess Kazuha.

Seeing Carla’s enthusiasm, Castor raised his voice. “Men, after our next charge, we’re using that! It’s time to show off our talent and grit!”

“““Ohhhhhh!”””

The Kingdom’s air force let out a cheer that echoed through the sky. Even the Empire’s air force was able to hear it.

“Here they come! Everyone, prepare to strike back!”

Anticipating another charge, the Empire’s air force readied their bows and held their blades to strike; their wyverns’ mouths were open and ready to meet their attackers with their flaming breath. Their actions seemed to say, Bring it on. And that’s just what the Kingdom’s air force did.

“Fire!”

At Krahe’s command, a volley of arrows, magic, and breath attacks flew towards the Kingdom’s air force.

“Wha?!”

However, the attacks all flew underneath the Kingdom’s forces.

Unlike in their previous charges, they hadn’t just flown straight at the Empire’s air force; they’d taken a course that would send them over their opponents’ heads, causing the attacks to miss. Krahe clicked his tongue as he looked up at the Kingdom’s air force racing past overhead.

“Tch... More trickery. But it will still take time for them to turn. Men, get back in formation before they can turn—”

As he was trying to give that order...

“Yeah, you would think that! Do it!”

On Castor’s command, Carla and the Kingdom’s air force cut the power to their propulsion devices, turning their wyverns’ long necks and tails around like a cowboy spinning a lasso. The wyvern’s momentum kept them going in the same direction, but they slowed down, with their bodies facing the opposite direction. This maneuver was effectively a midair turn.

It was the same method cats used to turn around and always land on their feet. It wasn’t possible to change directions in midair by just twisting their bodies around, but by spinning their necks and tails they could turn their bodies around. Once her wyvern had turned, Carla waited for her momentum to die down and then restarted the propulsion device.

“Ngh!” Her body was put under pressure like nothing she’d ever felt.

She grimaced under the strain but made it through, and soon she was flying at the Empire’s air force again. It wasn’t just Carla. Castor and the wyvern cavalry were already preparing for another charge at the Empire’s air force.

The Mobile Wyvern Cavalry called this maneuver the Castor Turn.

It wasn’t impossible to do it with a normal wyvern, but without any means of accelerating in the opposite direction, it would only leave one vulnerable. It even had the risk of falling due to insufficient lift, so no one had tried to fight this way before now. However, with the propulsion devices to provide acceleration, Castor had secretly been studying this way of fighting aboard his carrier.

The Empire’s air force was still trying to get turned around. Their backs were completely exposed to the Kingdom’s forces, who had already turned and gotten back up to speed.

“Attack!”

At Castor’s command, the Kingdom’s air force attacked the Empire from behind.

The units of the air force were generally only able to attack things in front of them, leaving them to flee or dodge any attack that came from the rear. It was hard to fire bows or magic behind them, and wyverns couldn’t fire their breath weapons backwards. Because they couldn’t turn in place the way units on the ground could, once the enemy was to their rear, all they could do was run and hope to change directions so they could fight back.

“Wha?! From behind us?!”

“Absurd! That’s well beyond the wyvern’s ability to turn!”

“Urgh! We have to dodge somehow...!”

This attack from the rear sent the Empire’s air force into utter disarray. They each scrambled for a solution. Some accelerated as they tried to shake off the enemy while others moved left or right, but that only served to break up their formation and cause collisions that aggravated the chaotic situation. Still, the elite griffon cavalry could evade the Kingdom’s wyvern cavalry with minimal movement.

“Calm down! Don’t let the enemy’s unexpected plans confuse you!” Krahe shouted, trying to get the situation under control, but a burst of wind assaulted him too.

“I see you’re the commander! Your head is mine!” Carla shouted. She charged in with her wyvern for a surprise attack.

Riding in at high speed, she swung her sword, hoping to take his head off with one blow. Krahe, however, easily dodged by tilting his griffon to the side.

“Wha?!”

“Fool! Your moves are too straight!”

Krahe imbued the three short swords attached to the back of his saddle with magic and hurled them after Carla, who’d just passed him. The three blades closed in on her from behind, and the hunter quickly became the hunted.

“Urgh! I’m counting on you, wyvern!”

Carla executed another turn like before, knocking down the three incoming blades with her wyvern’s breath attack as she turned. But as she tried to accelerate again, Krahe’s rapier closed in.

“If I can just get her before she accelerates!”

“Damn it!” she grunted. This guy’s good!

Just as Carla drew her sword to fight back, fire magic flew down from above Krahe, forcing him to reflexively bring his griffon to a stop. Then a red shadow passed between her and Krahe.

“Huh?!” she gasped.

It was Castor and his red wyvern. Having dropped between the two of them, Castor performed a turn with his propulsion device aimed at the ground, rising up between them again. Now that he had a good look at his two opponents, Krahe finally realized who they must be.

“Dragonewts? Are you from the House of Vargas?”

“Yeah. But now I’m just a dragonewt with no family name,” Castor said.

Carla nodded. “I’m in a similar position, but my desire to protect the House of Vargas is the same as it ever was.”

“There you have it...former General of the Gran Chaos Empire Air Force, Krahe Laval.”

Both Castor and Carla knew about Krahe.

Souma and the others had told them that if there was anybody in the skies they needed to watch out for other than Fuuga Haan himself, it was Krahe. His former boss, Maria, had warned them, “He might be a little conceited and have a unique sense of aesthetics, but he’s definitely a capable commander.”

“So the sword of Saint Maria has fallen to become Fuuga’s dog, huh?” Castor taunted, making Krahe’s eyes flare with anger.

“It was you people who sullied my beloved saint! I wanted to see her stand at the forefront of all mankind, carrying our flag! Her meeting with King Souma made her lower herself to being just another woman!”

“How selfish!” Carla spat, angry at the way Krahe talked about it. “You were just forcing your own ideals onto her! Queen Maria is the only one who can decide how she lives her life! And she shines brighter now than when she lived how people wanted her to! Why can’t you see that?!”

“Yeah, she’s right... Queen Maria’s so full of life now.” Castor agreed. “Whether she’s flying around doing her part to help the weak or getting her hands dirty doing disaster relief, she’s always beautiful. Did you know, Krahe? They call her the Angel of the Kingdom now.”

“An angel?! Ahhh! I see! I can see it!” Krahe’s face shifted from rage to ecstasy. “Because I became her enemy, she regained her radiance! Even after losing her country, her position as empress, and marrying that uninspiring king, she can still retain her glimmer because she can overcome all of those misfortunes! It means that by giving her more to struggle against, I have become to her what the devil is to heaven!”

“What’s wrong with this guy? He’s crazy.” Carla felt sickened by Krahe.

He had his own sense of aesthetics and internal narrative that explained the world in a way that was most convenient for him. People tend to see the world through the lens of their own values, but in his case, he took it way too far. He never stopped to consider if things were really as he saw them.

The way he completely immersed himself in his own narrative was unsettling to everyone else.

“I guess you could say he’s pure...in a way.”

“Father?”

Carla cast a doubtful look at her father, who showed signs of understanding.

“We were similar to him once,” Castor explained with a wry smile. “Blinded by our pride as warriors and loyalty to King Albert, we caused trouble for a whole lot of people with our stubbornness. Remember?”

“I see what you’re getting at...”

He must have recalled Georg’s rebellion. Carla felt his pain as if it were her own.

“We’re fighting the war your boss started,” Castor said to Krahe. “I don’t know if you’re doing this out of loyalty to him, for friendship, your pride as a warrior, your sense of aesthetics, the future, or whatever... You can come up with all sorts of excuses, but all you’ll see on the ground below is a pile of corpses. If you keep looking away from the harsh reality, you’ll end up hurting what you want to protect.”

His words were full of conviction, but they didn’t reach Krahe.

“Shut up! I will fulfill the role I was given! If it’s to make great people like Lord Fuuga and Lady Maria shine brighter, I’ll gladly dirty my hands!” Krahe shouted.

Castor furrowed his brow. “Your love for your ‘great’ people is so deep that you’ve lost sight of any other values you might have had. Maybe it would have been different for you if you had a family or someone you loved...”

“I said shut up!”

Krahe took a swing at Castor, but Castor accelerated and dodged.

“Carla! We’ll combine our attacks so he can’t take advantage of the opening when we need to accelerate!”

“Yes, Father!”

Responding to her father’s call, Carla closed in on Krahe, swinging her blade.

Krahe evaded Carla’s attack and tried to chase after her, but before he could, Castor finished his turn and shot towards him, and Krahe had to dodge the attack. That gave Carla the opening to finish her turn, closing in for another attack, which Krahe parried... This repeated for some time.

Krahe put on an impressive display, continuously warding off the two fierce warriors’ attacks, but he couldn’t do anything else while he did it, and the Empire’s confused air force couldn’t recover anymore. This was how their numerically superior air force was suppressed by the Kingdom’s much smaller one.

While the great battle in the air was unfolding, the Great Tiger Empire’s ground forces were also pressing the attack on Red Dragon City. It was a well-defended city halfway up the mountainside, but the Great Tiger Empire’s forces pressed on with sheer numbers and momentum. They were losing in the air, but not so badly that they’d lost control of the skies. On the other hand, the Great Tiger Empire’s ground assault reached the walls without being bombed by the Kingdom’s air force.

Fuuga, watching his forces from the main camp, turned to Hashim and asked, “So that castle...Red Dragon City, was it? You were telling me that Souma took it before, right?”

“Indeed. It was during the rebellion of the former General of the Army, Georg Carmine,” Hashim answered, uninterested. Fuuga crossed his arms and groaned.

“The defenses look tough. How did Souma take it when he’s so averse to fighting? You said something about him using a battleship on land, but I don’t see it lying anywhere.”

Seeing how amused Fuuga was, Mutsumi let out an exasperated sigh.

“No situation ever feels tense when I’m around you, darling. That makes things easier on me though.”

“Don’t be like that, Mutsumi. I’m bored having to stay in the main camp all the time.”

Hashim sighed at Fuuga’s touristy attitude.

“Unfortunately, it seems they’ve already dismantled it. After dragging it here quite forcefully with a team of rhinosauruses, the battleship Albert had to be decommissioned.”

“What a shame,” Fuuga said with a smile.

Meanwhile, around that same time, Carl observed the attack on Red Dragon City.

During the earlier battle between Souma and Castor, he’d been sent to stay with Excel in Lagoon City, so this was the first battlefield he’d ever seen. Carl, still too short to wear the armor a lord like him ought to, was standing on the wall, clad in clothes enhanced with enchantments. Beneath him was the grand army of the Great Tiger Empire, attempting to take Red Dragon City. All those people were here to destroy the House of Vargas and take his head. His knees felt weak with fear, but he still remained standing there as a lord.

“Lord Carl. You could have waited inside the castle,” Tolman said to him with a tone of concern.

Carl shook his head. “No. Let me stay here. You might be giving the actual orders, Sir Tolman, but I have a responsibility as lord to see this through. Father, Sister, and even Mother are fighting. The only way that I, who cannot fight, can defend our house is to take responsibility for things.”

Even during the time they were labeled as insurrectionist traitors, Carl had remained head of the House of Vargas, supported by Tolman and his mother, Accela. He might have still been little, but he had a lot of fortitude. Watching him, Tolman, the former steward, smiled with satisfaction.

“Do not fear. We won’t be letting them do as they please with this house.”

With that said, Tolman went to work fighting back against the Great Tiger Empire.

Morale was high as the Great Tiger Empire’s land forces attacked Red Dragon City. This army assembled to push to Parnam was now pushing its way up the mountain. They gave it their all to secure Fuuga’s hegemony in this war against Souma—it was their last chance for advancement.

Because they knew how formidable the Kingdom of Friedonia was, if they could take Red Dragon City, the war would be as good as won. Once that happened, the other countries of the Maritime Alliance were bound to cease resisting. This meant it was the last chance for the Great Tiger Empire’s soldiers to push forward and make a name for themselves. In addition, the fact that they’d seen no appreciable resistance so far, and that the detached forces sent out had been cleverly defended against had led to frustration among the men. They weren’t as fanatical as Krahe, but every last one of them desired to fight alongside the great man Fuuga in a war that would shape the world for future generations.

Despite their high spirits, the main force—including commanders like Kasen and Gaten, who’d been around since the Union of Eastern Nations days—stayed in the rear. The ones at the front were mercenaries, refugee soldiers, and soldiers from the newly joined Kingdom of Meltonia and the effectively nonexistent Frakt Federal Republic. Essentially, they were people who wanted to move up in the world but would be no great loss.

Because time was on Souma’s side in this war, if it became apparent that taking Red Dragon City would be too difficult, Fuuga’s forces planned to detach some soldiers to keep them in check and then move on towards Parnam. They kept the main force at the rear so as not to exhaust them in a general assault while figuring out the feasibility of taking the city. In place of the best of the best, these attackers were mounds of self-interest, no different from bandits. If they surged into the city, there would be a bloodbath filled with looting, assaults, and massacres.

The defenders desperately resisted in order to prevent that. From atop the city’s high walls, they rained arrows and magic down the hill at the climbing imperial forces...

“Unfortunately, there is not much we can offer you,” murmured the one-horned, blue-haired dragonewt standing on the walls, looking down at the attackers. It was Accela Vargas, daughter of Excel, wife of Castor, and mother to Carla and Carl. Wearing her navy uniform for the first time in ages, she raised her hand high.

“If there is one thing we do have for you, it’s this... Commence firing!”

“Yes, ma’am! Commence firing!”

“Commence firing!”

“Commence firing!”

With this naval-style command, the cannons opened fire on the enemies setting up ladders and sieging weapons or firing bows and magic at the walls.

Pop, pop, pop. Kaboom! Pop, pop, pop. Kaboom! Pop, pop, pop, pop!

The roar of large cannons resounded amid the ceaseless firing of lion-dog cannons. They were raining iron on the heads of the swarming imperial forces.

Bang! Crack!

“Gwagh!”

“Wahhhhh?!”

An amount of cannon fire that was probably excessive for one city rained down on the Great Tiger Empire’s forces. Fist-sized lumps of iron fell along with cannonballs, caving in helmets and skulls as well as destroying ladders and siege equipment. Excel had sent all of the navy’s gunpowder weapons to protect the city where her daughter and her family lived.

However, the Great Tiger Empire’s numbers were overwhelming, and no matter how many died, there was always more swarming to the walls. It was like a zombie horde out of the movies, and the imperial forces came endlessly even as they were crushed by cannon fire. Along the wall, the battle was either even or the defenders were being worn down.

To think the desire to accomplish something while serving under Fuuga would be so strong, Accela thought as she looked down at the situation from the wall. No matter how many of their fellows lie wounded nearby, they are so driven that they pay it no mind. To truly defeat Fuuga Haan, we can’t simply win... So this is what His Majesty meant.

Those entranced by Fuuga’s grand ambition would rise again and again unless Fuuga lost his charismatic appeal. They might win once or twice, but as long as Fuuga’s charisma remained intact, the Great Tiger Empire would not yield. Even if Fuuga himself were to fall here, the fires of resentment would remain inside the people, and the world would continue to be ravaged as these gave birth to his legacy’s successors.

In order to prevent that—in order to completely beat Fuuga and cut off the trouble at its root—Souma was preparing something. And for Red Dragon City, he’d also devised a plan.

It’s good we prepared that thing for this. Accela turned to the hooded figures behind her.

“If we are to break our opponents’ morale, we must catch them by surprise,” she said. “Please, lend me your assistance, both of you.”

The two individuals walked over to Accela and revealed themselves.

“You heard her. Looks like we’re up, Merumeru.”

“Don’t call me Merumeru... Well, this is why we were called here from the evacuation site in Venetinova. It would be a wasted trip if this thing couldn’t make an appearance.”

The pair who revealed themselves from beneath those hoods were the two heads of the Kingdom’s research division now that Taru and Trill had returned home: Genia the Overscientist and Merula the high elf. They’d initially been evacuated to Venetinova on Souma’s orders but then were recalled to Red Dragon City at Accela’s request.

Souma and Ludwin had been opposed to them being on the front lines, but their interest in the proposal and the pair’s passion won them over. With Excel arguing Accela’s case, Souma had folded and allowed their deployment.

“We’re bringing it out,” Accela said to them. “Please make preparations.”

“Roger,” Genia said with her usual casual demeanor. “But we’re not the ones who’ll actually be moving it.”

“Because our job is to remodel it,” Merula agreed with a nod. “The actual movement will be done by Sir Souma and Genia’s golems. In that sense, couldn’t we say she’s moving it too?”

“Maybe,” said Genia. “Anyway, I’ll go ahead and contact His Majesty’s consciousness through the golems that are standing by.”

Accela nodded.

“Please do. Now, shall we liven up this place even more?” She turned to address a messenger and Genia. “Take a message to the performers with orders to begin playing! Miss Genia, please ask His Majesty to begin moving that thing along with the music!”

“Yes, ma’am!”

“Roger, roger!”

A short while after the messenger took off running, a brave, rousing melody began playing on the walls. The soldiers on the Friedonian side knew the tune. It’d been used in a certain tokusatsu program, and they thought it was probably being used to raise morale.

It had become common knowledge after the Real Song Battle that music could strengthen magic. The soldiers of the Great Tiger Empire, however, did not know this melody. Even if they could surmise that their enemies must be playing it to raise morale, none of them understood the meaning of it.

“Okay, everyone! Let’s all sing along to hype up its appearance!”

Accela raised her hands over her head as though she were a conductor at the front of a marching band.

Immediately, the melody surged, and people began to sing. The noncombatants of Red Dragon City—the elderly, women, and children—were behind the vocals. Within the walls, they stayed hidden inside their own houses, with instructions from Accela to sing when the music played.

As for the tune...

“The Sparkling Dragon of Conquest (Full Armor ver.)” (Lyrics: Souma Kazuya; Music: Juna Doma)

Clad in hunks of warships, its steel body shines.

Call that when you’re in trouble! The guardian of the world has risen!

Pile! (Driver!) Tail! (Drill!) Tearing apart enemies!

Dragon! (Cannon!) Butt! (Bolt Thrower!) Shooting enemies!

The sparkling dragon of conquest, Me-cha-dra!

It was the theme song of the mechanical dragon, Mechadra, that appeared in the tokusatsu program Overman Silvan. As if in response to their singing voices, Mechadra emerged from a forest on the mountainside. However, it had changed since the battle with Ooyamizuchi. With its new steel equipment, the mechanical dragon looked as if it was wearing armor.

That wasn’t all. It now had ranged weaponry, including battleship cannons and antiair repeating bolt throwers, all over its body. It really did look like a Full Armor Mechadra, and was akin to an armored battleship. This extra equipment had been made from the remains of the original battleship Albert.

Seeing how magnificent it looked, the Kingdom’s forces cheered while the Empire’s forces were dumbstruck.

Genia tittered to herself as she listened to the singing. “Now that the true nature of this world has been revealed, we’ve proved the bones used in Mechadra have nothing to do with the Star Dragon Mountain Range. Now we can remodel them as we see fit.”

“Not that it makes using remains in a weapon in any better taste,” Merula said with an exasperated sigh.

“Well, it’s His Majesty’s policy to use what he can,” Accela said, grinning at this exchange. “So let’s have him do his best to save our home with Mechadra.”

As if responding to Accela, Mechadra made a gesture as if it were roaring, then began to walk towards the soldiers outside the wall with heaving steps.

“Wh-What is that?!”

“No way! I thought there were no demons!”

“M-Monsterrrrr!”

The sudden appearance of an armored mechanical dragon put the army attacking Red Dragon City into a panic. Just seeing Mechadra was enough to send some of them tumbling down from the ladders they were climbing. They were in disarray despite not even being attacked yet because they remembered the battle they’d fought against the Seadians.

At the northern end of the continent, they’d fought a battle with a gigantic weapon and won a bitter victory with some assistance from the Star Dragon Mountain Range, but their losses had been extensive. They’d worried they might be swept away in a burst of light. When Mechadra placed its front legs on the ground, the battleship cannons mounted on its back pointed at the Great Tiger Empire’s troops.

Boom! Boom!

With that, the cannons began destroying siege equipment, like the battering ram that’d been brought up to the gates. Many soldiers were sent flying in the blasts, only adding to the chaos. The more confused things got, the easier it was to launch attacks from up on the walls, and it became hard to tell which side was attacking. Genia and Merula watched from atop the walls as the imperial forces were pulled this way and that.

“Yep. Looks like it’s reloading all right.”

“Your golems are the ones firing, yes?”

“That’s right.” Genia nodded. “Part of His Majesty’s consciousness is controlling Mechadra, but reloading, aiming, and firing are all done on my orders.”

“We’re lucky the enemy fell into a panic. This isn’t really all that different from using a battleship on land, is it? Mechadra’s not really designed as an antipersonnel weapon, after all.”

As Merula pointed out, Mechadra’s movements were slow and heavy. That might be good enough when wrestling with a single kaiju, but it only had armor as good as a battleship’s. If the imperial forces regained their composure and focused their attacks, it wouldn’t last for very long.

“That’s true. It’s really only a neat gimmick,” Genia admitted. “We can’t let them take Red Dragon City. But at the same time, if they bypass it and take a route straight to Parnam, we’re in trouble. We’d like to hold them here for a number of days, and Mechadra’s a convenient way of getting their attention. Hopefully the enemy will think it’s going to be a threat to their advance if they decide to leave it alone.”

“Will things work out that well?”

In the main camp of the Great Tiger Empire’s forces, which Merula was eyeing with concern, Fuuga was smiling with glee. Because Mechadra was so big, he could see it even at this distance.

“That’s the mechanical dragon Yuriga mentioned! It’s pretty cool!”

“Yes, you would be the type to like such things, darling...” Mutsumi said with dismay.

“Uh-huh,” Fuuga agreed with a nod. “In one of Yuriga’s reports, years ago, she said he used a mechanical dragon to fight a kaiju in the Nine-Headed Dragon Archipelago. Was that it? I wonder what makes it move.”

“More importantly, though, is this all right? Your men are falling into disarray,” Mutsumi pointed out.

“Hrmm.” Fuuga stroked his chin. “You know...it’s not as dangerous as that gigantic mushroom thing that was defending the demons...I guess I’m supposed to call them Seadians? Anyway, it’s not firing off the light attacks that thing did.”

“Indeed. I suspect that the weapon we’re seeing poses little threat,” Hashim said before turning to a messenger. “Tell the men at the front that they should not be led astray by its appearance. That dragon can only fire cannons. Tell them that it is something like a siege tower that can be used even on bad terrain, and they are to remain calm and deal with it accordingly.”

After watching the messenger nod and run off towards the front line, Fuuga looked at Hashim.

“So, in your eyes, is it possible to take the city?”

“If we are willing to spend the time and take considerable losses,” Hashim said with a shrug. “However, the more time we spend on this city, the greater Souma’s advantage will grow. That is only more true if, as you have said, Lord Fuuga, he has some scheme in mind.”

“Yeah, I’ll bet. So, what now?”

“I think we should leave soldiers to hold them in place and move along immediately. Because that is what Souma least wants us to do.”

“And doing what the enemy hates is how you win on the battlefield, huh?” Fuuga nodded. “Got it. Have the ground forces stop attacking and pull back right away. And tell the air force to continue keeping the enemy in check, then return if the enemy withdraws.”

“Understood.”

Once Hashim left, Fuuga crossed his arms and looked at Mechadra rampaging off in the distance. There was a look of joy in his eyes...and also one of sadness.

Noticing this, Mutsumi asked, “Is something the matter, dear?”

“Hmm? Nah, I was just thinking how fun it is to see all the stuff that shows up when you go to war with Souma.”

“And yet...you still seem sad?”

“Yeah, it’s fun and all, but...I won’t be able to enjoy this for long,” Fuuga answered with a small smile. “Either it’s my victory or Souma’s. There probably won’t be another big war like this for quite a while. If I win, I can unite the nations of mankind on this continent. If Souma wins, there’ll be a loose federation of states like what he has in the Maritime Alliance. At that point, there won’t be any need for big wars. These times have sent my blood pumping and my heart racing...and they’re coming to an end.”

“Because of what Yuriga told you about...?”

“There’s that too.” Fuuga nodded with a wry smile. “In our last meeting, she put a time limit on my dream, after all.”

“I’m sure Yuriga wanted to stop you...so that you could move on to the next thing,” Mutsumi said. She knew the situation and how both of the siblings felt.

Looking straight ahead, Fuuga said, “Even if she did, I’m just going to keep racing forward. In order to give this era its answer.”

“You’re so awkward.”

“I think so too.”

With that, the Fuuga and Mutsumi drew closer to each other as they watched their own forces retreat.

I handed that letter, wrinkled by how tightly I’d held it, to Liscia and Aisha. They covered their mouths once they read it and tried not to be overwhelmed as the tears flowed.

We hadn’t read Herman’s letter yet. He probably had similar things to say, and I wanted to read it together with Roroa when this battle was over. Yes. Once the battle is over.

“Eek?!”

Kaede jumped in surprise as I looked at Julius, Excel, and my advisors... My expression must’ve been pretty scary. I slapped myself once across the face, and looked straight at Julius and the rest.

“I won’t blame anyone right now. Owen and Herman wouldn’t want that. But I’m going to give you a piece of my mind! Once this war is won!”

“““Yes, sir!”””

Everyone answered me with a salute.

◇ ◇ ◇

Along the invasion route towards Parnam, an old fort and a fortress city were burning.

In every city and castle the Great Tiger Empire’s forces had come across—with the exception of Red Dragon City—the defenders had either surrendered without meaningful resistance or quickly left. At first, the invaders expected things to be the same with these two, but it was clear that the old fort was an impromptu fortification that had been hastily restored. As for the city, it was small, and the residents had already left.

Once the defenders departed, the Empire’s forces should only have needed to leave some troops, and then the main force would have pushed straight on towards the capital. However, after the bulk of the enemy defenders left, a portion stayed behind, shutting themselves up inside the bases. They numbered in the hundreds, so the Empire’s forces tried to convince them not to resist in vain, but these remnants were stubborn and refused to listen. Because of that, Fuuga ordered the two bases to be taken by force.

However, since his wild instincts told him there was something unsettling about the two bases, he kept his best troops out of the fight, instead letting the mercenaries and newcomers handle the assault. Everyone assumed the battle would be finished in less than an hour, even if the small enemy force holed themselves up behind these not particularly solid fortifications. But the two bases put up a stubborn resistance.

There was a major difference in morale between the Kingdom’s forces, who were quite literally prepared to fight to the last man, and the Empire’s, who were confident of their victory but knew if they got hurt here, they’d lose the chance to distinguish themselves in the main battle. As a result, they faced a harder fight than expected, and the Empire’s forces were forced to stop acting arrogant and get serious.

Then, just as the imperial forces managed to force their way into the fortress...

Kaboom!!! Both bases went up in a pillar of flames and black smoke almost simultaneously, sending tremors even as far as Fuuga’s main camp. The remnants had packed the bases full of explosives, and once they felt that the end had come, they blew themselves up along with the swarming imperial forces.

Fuuga shot to his feet as he saw the sky alight with flames.

“No way! They blew themselves up to take our forces with them?!”

“That certainly does appear to be the case...” Hashim’s reply was calm, but the expression was as if he’d just bitten into something unpleasant. “It’s rather unexpected...to see the Kingdom using their own soldiers as sacrificial pawns. We will need to make haste in checking that none of the other cities we felled have traps in them.”

In preparing for this campaign, Fuuga’s camp had thoroughly analyzed the kind of ruler Souma was, along with Fuuga’s own view of him as a person. They concluded that Souma would prioritize minimizing casualties and reducing the damage done by the conflict. Moves like throwing away his men as sacrificial pawns, breaking dams to cause floods that also put a burden on his people, and scorched-earth tactics like destroying cities were unlikely from him.

That’d held true until this point along the invasion route, as Souma had kept making choices that preserved the people and their cities. However, now he’d sacrificed his own men and destroyed a city. It was a wild move—one that overturned all their presumptions and forced a reevaluation of the entire strategy.

Fuuga and his people couldn’t guess it was Souma’s subordinates acting on their own initiative. Once Hashim had hurried out of the main camp to confirm things for himself, Mutsumi approached Fuuga.

“Do you think...this strategy was really Sir Souma’s orders?”

“Yeah, no... Probably not. Souma hates this kind of stuff. It was probably the soldiers who stayed behind in these bases making the decisions for themselves.”

“So the retainers went and acted on their own, risking their lives without any commands from their ruler?” asked Mutsumi.

Fuuga crossed his arms and nodded.

“Yeah. I think it’s a brilliant display of loyalty, and Souma drawing it out of them shows he’s doing a good job as king. Probably better than he thinks too.”

“I’m sure...he’s regretting that right now.”

Souma being a good ruler to his retainers had resulted in their deaths. When he heard of this, he would be filled with sadness and regret.

However, for these two, Souma was someone they needed to defeat in order to accomplish their ambitions. They held no personal enmity towards him because he was also looking after Yuriga and Ichiha. Fuuga and Mutsumi felt bad for the suffering that Souma would no doubt go through after this.

Because the Great Tiger Empire was forced to double-check the cities that had submitted to them for any sign of traps, they were delayed for two days.

◇ ◇ ◇

Fuuga Haan was the favored child of this era.

Perhaps, in the same way that people refer to the period during which Napoleon performed his incredible feats as the “Napoleonic era,” this would be called the “Fuuga Haanic era.” It was a time of dreams and adventure, when one great man’s grand ambition shook the entire continent.

As hinted many times before, the only way to defeat Fuuga—the one protected by this era—was to change the times themselves.

No matter how much he lost to Xiang Ji (Xiang Yu), Liu Bang tried relentlessly until he finally turned things around and emerged victorious. Even though a third of all the battles ended in defeat or a tie, Nobunaga almost managed to unite the country under him.

During times of national crisis, France produced great people like Bertrand du Guesclin, Jeanne d’Arc, and Arthur de Richemont during the Hundred Years’ War. Until the era decides such people have served their purpose, they seem immortal, rising up again and again. That is because the people supporting them want these great people to keep fighting, and will approve of their actions no matter how cruel they may be.

That’s why defeating Fuuga wouldn’t be enough to put out the fire. Even if he was fed a bitter defeat and forced to withdraw, his supporters would still demand a rematch. With their voices pushing him onward, Fuuga would start another world war. That wouldn’t change even if he was cut down in this battle. In fact, that might be an even worse outcome.

With Fuuga dead, leaving only the people enraptured by his ambition, how would they act? First, they would resent me and my country, start a war for revenge, and maybe resort to terrorism or guerrilla tactics. Also, without Fuuga, they couldn’t maintain such a vast domain and would likely fracture into competing states. The northern part of the continent would be laid to waste. Refugees would rush in from the north, and we’d be back to the same place we were when the Demon Lord’s Domain was expanding.

The only way to stop it would be to launch an intervention, but as I already mentioned, they would resent us. A Maritime Alliance intervention would generate resistance, and it would take a long time to subjugate it. For these reasons, in this war, we were pushing forward a plan that would bring an end not so much to Fuuga personally, but to this era supporting him.

On this night, Liscia and I were in the governmental affairs office, listening as Mao reported that the setup that gave our plan the final push it needed was complete.

“All tasks are complete, Master Souma.”

“Oh, yeah? So we made it in time, then...” I murmured to myself, half relieved, half full of chagrin.

I was grateful to have the plan ready before my direct showdown with Fuuga. But what had bought us this time was Owen, Herman, and the other volunteers risking their lives. If only it’d been finished two days sooner.

The two old men’s faces flashed through my mind. As I remembered them, anger and hatred for Fuuga coursed through me. If only he hadn’t started this stupid war for his dreams and ambitions. I wanted to really let loose on him. Despite considering the drawbacks of killing Fuuga in this war, even though I understood it logically, it was hard to deny my emotions.

“Souma...” Liscia spoke softly as she put her hand on my shoulder.

“Huh?!” I snapped back to my senses and turned to see her with a slight smile.

“The look on your face was getting scary. I don’t think Owen or Herman would have wanted that,” she chided me.

“Yeah, you’re right...” I said, nodding meekly. We weren’t in a situation where I needed to go into king mode yet.

I took a deep breath to calm myself, then turned to Mao.

“Thank you for your assistance, Mao. And sorry. Normally, you’re not supposed to get involved in a battle between people, but I made you push yourself.”

Mao smiled at my apology and shook her head. “No. This matter had nothing to do with the war, so don’t be concerned... If anything, I’m frustrated that this is all that I could do. I hear you had losses because of how long production took on my end.”

“No, you’ve all handled it well. Better than I could have expected. I really am grateful. Thanks, Mao.”

“And I thank you too, Madam Mao,” Liscia joined in.

“May Landians and Seadians find a future you can work towards together,” Mao said, smiling.

With that wish, her image vanished. Everything was all set up now.

“Liscia, how is deployment going?”

“It’s all done. The military and everyone else are in position and ready to fend off the Great Tiger Empire’s forces at any time. But the enemy has been marching slower since the delay they incurred, so I’m told that we don’t expect them to arrive until after tomorrow morning.”

Knowing Fuuga, I thought it was possible he would charge in recklessly once he checked his rear, but it didn’t seem to be happening. This was probably thanks to Owen and Herman risking their lives to stake him down.

Once he got the impression that my forces included guys who would defy me in order to launch suicide attacks, caution would be mandated.

Sighing, I looked at Liscia.

“The final battle’s tomorrow, then.”

“Yes. Everything will be decided tomorrow... Are you feeling tense?”

“Well, yeah. But not as tense as when we fought the Principality of Amidonia. We have more people on our side than back then, and none of our allies are at risk of betraying us. Unlike before, when we blindly grasped for solutions, everyone has coalesced around one idea, and we’re pretty calm.”

“Yes... Things were a mess back then.”

In the Amidonian War, we’d found ourselves caught at the intersection of so many people’s intentions—mine, Gaius and Julius’s, Georg’s, Castor’s, Roroa’s, those of the corrupt nobles who rebelled, those of the fence-sitting nobles I later executed, and finally Albert and Elisha’s.

Looking back on it now, it’s amazing I was able to stay calm. Compared to back then, everyone was now concentrated on one goal: protect the country from Fuuga and his men.

It wasn’t just something we were feeling in this country. The Republic, the Nine-Headed Dragon Archipelago Kingdom, secretly the Dragon Knight Kingdom and Star Dragon Mountain Range, and the Seadians felt it too. It was no wonder I could stay so much calmer this time... Not that I didn’t have some misgivings.

“Although, my intentions haven’t changed from what they were then,” Liscia said before leaning in close, pressing her lips against mine.

I responded in kind as we each explored the soft sensation. Liscia blushed, smiling as she brushed her hair back behind her ear with one hand.

“Then, now, and forever more... I will walk by your side, Souma.”

“You know...I don’t think you were quite so forward back then.”

“I was waiting for you to make a move on me at the time.”

“Well, sorry,” I said teasingly, then stood up and hugged Liscia tight. She was surprised, but her body relaxed, and she entrusted herself to me.

“You too, Souma... You’ve gotten more proactive, wouldn’t you say?”

“Well, yeah, I have more experience under my belt now, after all.”

“Hee hee, of course you do. You have so many cute wives,” she said, putting on a menacing smile.

“That smile’s scary! Whoa, don’t jab me in the ribs.”

After playing around like that for a bit, Liscia gently pushed me away.

“With all that experience, you know, right? Whose side should you be by? I think...she’s hurting more than any of us right now. So go be with her.”

Seeing the look of sincerity on Liscia’s face, I nodded.

I visited Yuriga’s room, where Aisha was guarding the door.

Because of Yuriga’s position, with the decisive battle approaching, I had Aisha stay with her as bodyguard and watcher. Yuriga was cooperating with us, but someone who didn’t understand that might try to get in touch with her with bad intentions, and she needed someone to watch her so that she didn’t get overcome by her sense of responsibility and do something desperate.

If Tomoe were still in the castle, I would’ve had her support Yuriga, but if anything happened to Tomoe in the conflict, that would be a huge blow not just to the Kingdom but to mankind as a whole. It would also leave Yuriga with a deep emotional scar, so having Tomoe evacuate along with Ichiha had been the right move.

“How is Yuriga?” I asked Aisha.

“Calm,” she answered, glancing at the door. “We were just talking normally up until the evening.”

“I see... Thanks for looking after her, Aisha.”

“No. I’ve been worried about Yuriga too... But despite the strong face she’s been putting on, I am sure she must have her own thoughts about what’s happening. Your Majesty, please take care of Yuriga...”

“I know.”

I knocked lightly on the door before entering Yuriga’s room. She was sitting on the bed, facing me, holding a fluffy pillow in front of her face. Was she trying to be some kind of monster—the pillow-faced woman?

“What’re you doing...?”

“I can’t possibly face you, so I’m covering my face,” Yuriga said, her voice somewhat muffled by the pillow.

Erm... This isn’t the reaction I expected. I was thinking about how to comfort her if she was depressed, crying, or hiding her feelings to put on a strong face like Maria did when she was empress. But...I wasn’t expecting to meet her in the guise of a pillow-faced woman.

I sat on a chair next to the bed as I considered what to do. Yuriga continued to bury her face in the pillow’s soft confines.

“Huh? We’re seriously going to talk with that pillow in between us?”

“Well, I have no right to look you in the face.”

Yuriga was still saying the same thing.

“I heard...about Sir Owen and Sir Herman...” she continued. “I’d been prepared for this kind of thing to happen if you and my brother fought... But not for people whose names I knew to be among those who died.”

“It’s nothing for you to feel bad about... Though, I guess saying that doesn’t help.”

“You’re right. It doesn’t. It’s a bit much to ask me not to feel something about it,” Yuriga said through the pillow.

What kind of look did she have on her face?

“Do you mind if I sit next to you...?”

I couldn’t tell whether it was better to leave her alone or be by her side.

“Go ahead,” she answered, patting the spot beside her on the bed.

Even as she patted the bed with one hand, her other arm still kept her face covered. It was a surreal sight, but I sat down next to her.

“What should you do when there’s nothing you can do?” she asked.

“What do you mean?”

“I don’t know if I can explain it very well. There’s all these emotions swirling inside of me...but I can’t do a thing about them... I can’t handle any of it... What should I do at a time like that? Have you ever felt the same way in your time as king, Souma?”

“Yeah... Multiple times,” I told her honestly. “After a war, and after executing my enemies... When my orders necessitated the ending of people’s lives, I always felt conflicted about it, and it would keep me up at night. In my case, I had Liscia and the others to comfort me. Pathetic as that sounds, it’s reassuring to have someone at my side.”

“I see...”

“But I think it’s the same for everyone. After Maria made the decision that split her country, she cried like a child. That’s why I stayed by her side the whole time like Liscia and the others did for me.”

“The Maria did that? I can’t even imagine...”

“I spoiled her so rotten that, by the end of it, she had turned into a kitten.”

“What does that even mean?” she asked, stifling a small laugh.

Maybe I’d lightened her mood a bit.

“Well, I want you to not push yourself and let us spoil you... Or rather, if you act too sullen, we’ll spoil you whether you like it or not.”

“Huh?! I don’t even get a say in it?”

“If even one member of the family looks gloomy, all of us worry.”

“Even if it’s me?”

“You did marry into the family, missus.”

“My position’s been so delicate that we’ve all been so reserved around each other, so it just hasn’t sunk in yet.”

Having said that, Yuriga moved a little closer, letting our shoulders touch.

As we sat side by side, she asked me through the pillow, “Okay, if I ask you to comfort me... How are you going to do it?”

“How about something like this...?”

“Whuh... Mmph!”

I hugged her close and pushed my face against the pillow from the other side. If it weren’t in the way, we’d have been kissing.

Yuriga seemed surprised for a moment, but then the tension melted out of her shoulders.

After a little longer in that position, I said, “Well...what do you think?”

When I asked that with my face pressed into the pillow, Yuriga moved away slowly, lowering the pillow. Her exposed face was redder than a boiled octopus.

I could see the traces of tears in the corners of her eyes, which were dewy even now, but she still had the presence of mind to glare up at me.

After some time, she finally answered my question.

“It’d be better without the pillow...”

And so we did it again, without the pillow this time.

What lay behind Yuriga was a massive skull. It had a draconic shape but was far bigger than that of the red dragon that Halbert rode or any of the dragons from the Nothung Dragon Knight Kingdom that he had fought. Not even Fuuga had seen a creature so massive that its head alone was already larger than a rhinosaurus.

Fuuga stared in awe at the majesty of the thing as Yuriga went on speaking.

“This is the skull of the kaiju Ooyamizuchi, which attacked the Nine-Headed Dragon Archipelago. As you can no doubt tell by its size, it was as large as a mountain or a small island, and the Kingdom of Friedonia and the former Nine-Headed Dragon Archipelago Union were only able to slay it by combining their efforts and fighting together. The bones of Ooyamizuchi now belong to the Nine-Headed Dragon Archipelago Kingdom, but I made a request to Queen Shabon through Sir Souma. She allowed me to borrow the skull to present here today.”

“I’d heard about this...but it was truly a massive creature, wasn’t it?” Mutsumi said, letting out a sigh.

“Yeah,” Fuuga answered with a nod. “If its head is already this big, then...it was way larger than even that mushroom-shaped weapon we fought. I can see how the Nine-Headed Dragon Archipelago couldn’t handle it alone.”

After saying this, Fuuga looked at Yuriga.

“So, why are you showing it to us?”

“I’m told that there are still more creatures of the same size across the sea, in the world of the north,” Yuriga said, gesturing towards the sea on the other side of Mao City.

She then explained everything that they currently knew about the world of the north to Fuuga. Beyond this sea was another world called Seadia that was the same size as the world of the south, Landia. Seadia was a world of scattered islands, and ever since the Seadians had lost it to the monsters that’d welled up, it had become a world of unknowns, the full picture of which wasn’t clear.

Fuuga quietly listened to Yuriga’s explanation.

The details sounded fanciful. But the fact that she was telling him while in front of the city of the Seadians, after rolling out a skull more massive than any he’d ever seen before...he was in the headspace to believe her. With Souma’s permission, Yuriga revealed the information he planned to broadcast to the whole world later to Fuuga in advance.

Once she had divulged everything, she gulped before saying, “The Kingdom of Friedonia is already moving on into the new era.”

“New era?” Fuuga asked.

“Yes.” Yuriga nodded. “Whether you manage to win hegemony over this southern continent or not, the next era is guaranteed to be focused on people advancing into the world of the north. But that’s obvious, isn’t it? If we know there exists a world of mysteries to the north, then the adventurous and ambitious will bravely venture there. Conversely, having learned that the threat of monsters is still present, more conservative people will also feel a need to solve the issue. Because if they leave it alone, there could be more demon waves. That means that, no matter what, people will have to head north.”

Yuriga looked Fuuga in the eye as she spoke this with certainty.

“Up until now, your dream of dominating the continent has been something that no one was capable of realizing before. If the south was all there was to this world, it would still be the greatest dream people could imagine. That ultimate dream was what charmed me and Big Sister Mutsumi. Everyone in the Great Tiger Empire has been working themselves to the bone in order to grant your big wish. Am I wrong about that?”

Though she asked him if he wanted to contradict her, there wasn’t anything incorrect in what Yuriga was saying. And so, Fuuga and Mutsumi remained silent.

Taking their silence as assent, Yuriga continued.

“But the south isn’t all there is to this world. Now it’s clear there’s a northern world as big as this one. Your dream may still be something no one has ever accomplished, but it’s no longer the greatest dream imaginable. When Souma and Madam Mao met, the words ‘world domination’ changed in meaning to include the northern land too. And the Great Tiger Empire can’t make that dream a reality on its own.”

Yuriga spoke about the limits of Fuuga’s dream.

“When you are almost at the finish line... When people think that if you just defeat the Maritime Alliance, the dream will come true... Countless people had been willing to endure their grievances to keep running forward. But now that there’s another frontier, will they have to run the same distance all over again? They’ve already been pushed to their limits, and now they’ll be told that they’re only at the halfway point. There’s no way they could tolerate that. There’s guaranteed to be a break in popular support. And the Great Tiger Kingdom, which has been pushing itself ragged all this time, doesn’t have the stamina left to stop them.”

Fuuga and Mutsumi watched Yuriga, focusing on her words.

“The only ones adapted to this coming era are the Maritime Alliance, who’ve conserved their stamina by building a loose union of nations and raised the power of each of them through technological cooperation! There’s no choice but to head out into the world of the north, and the Maritime Alliance can do that. They’ll maintain their loose union while each country cooperates with Madam Mao and the Seadians to send people there. With Madam Mao helping them, they can utilize the gate to another world. Sir Souma and his people have already started experimenting with sending expeditions to the north to investigate.”

“Huh?! Souma’s already laying his hands on the world of the north?!” Fuuga cried out in surprise, earning him a firm nod from Yuriga.

“Of course. But because that risks being seen as attempting to monopolize it for just his country, he has also reached out to the other nations of the Maritime Alliance, the Seadians, and the Dragon Knight Kingdom to send out an advance survey team that will operate under the joint management of all the countries involved.”

Yuriga’s eyes narrowed on Fuuga.

“Did you just think he stole a march on you, Brother?”

“...!”

“I said earlier that the adventurous and the ambitious would want to go north, and doesn’t that describe you perfectly, Brother? When you heard my explanation, you got excited, didn’t you? Didn’t you want to go north yourself?”

“Well...”

Fuuga was at a loss for words. Hearing Yuriga’s explanation and seeing the massive skull before him made his heart race... The excitement welling up inside him told him she was right.

Yuriga carried on as if she saw right through him.

“I’m talking to you like this because I understand just what kind of person you are, Brother. And I think that those who’ve gathered under you and are able to share your dream are the same. Shuukin, Gaten, Moumei, and Kasen. They’d all be just as excited to hear what I just told you. Don’t you feel the same way, Big Sister Mutsumi?”

“Ah...! I suppose you’re right,” Mutsumi replied with a resigned nod as the conversation suddenly turned to her. “I don’t know what my brother and his people will think about it, but I couldn’t help but think how interesting it would be to race across the world of the north at my husband’s side.”

Fuuga awkwardly scratched his head. “Okay, I agree there’s a certain allure to what Yuriga’s saying. But why tell us about it now? There’s no way I can simply call off the war with the Kingdom so we can all go up north together, you know?”

“If you could...wouldn’t that be nice?” Yuriga said with a sad look. “For me, a world where you adjusted course to cooperate with the Maritime Alliance, maintaining the empire while cooperating with Sir Souma to head into the world of the north...would be my ideal. But you’ve all shed too much and are carrying too heavy a burden on your shoulders to be able to do that.”

“Yeah... There’s no stopping me now,” Fuuga said with a quiet nod. “All the countries I’ve annexed and the guys I’ve cut down would never let me get away with that. Abandoning my dream halfway would mean throwing away all of the sacrifices that have been made for it. No matter what the ultimate result is, the dream needs to be seen through to its conclusion. For that, I need to settle things with Souma.”

Fuuga’s words were a rejection.

“I know that,” Yuriga said, raising her head.

Although her expression was firm, there were big tears pooling in the corners of her eyes.

“As a great man, you don’t have the right to stop... Still, I wanted to gamble on the faint hope there was. Because I don’t want to see your dream come to a sad end.”

“Yuriga...”

“But I wanted you to know that if you ever fall from power and are no longer a great man, then this option is available to you. When you lose the next war, now that you’ve heard what I wanted to say, I’m sure you won’t be able to keep on fighting to take revenge on the Maritime Alliance. Because rather than keep fighting long, drawn-out battles against Souma and the others, the desire to go to the world of the north is sure to keep on tormenting you...” Yuriga explained through her tears.

Fuuga’s eyes went wide. “Was that what you were after?”

He finally figured out what Yuriga’s goal was—this was why she’d called him out here, to the northernmost reaches of the continent, to talk with him at this point in time.

“You wanted to put a time limit on my dream, huh?”

If there was no way to avoid a battle between Souma and Fuuga, then at the very least, she wanted it to end with one conflict. Should Fuuga win, his dream would be complete. But assuming he lost, the Maritime Alliance had no intention of invading the Great Tiger Empire, so he could come back and try again several times. However, now that Fuuga had heard Yuriga’s story, he would prefer going north over a prolonged series of wars with the Maritime Alliance.

The coming of a new era. A new dream.

Now that he was aware, Fuuga could no longer be a great man.

Fuuga let out a sigh as if something that had possessed him was escaping from his body. “I see... You’ve served me some real ‘poison.’ The fast-acting type known as information...”

“I’m sorry, Brother,” Yuriga apologized. Fuuga placed a hand on her shoulder.

“Don’t be. You were trying to bring about the conclusion you want to see, right? Then hold your head high.”

“Brother...”

“Yuriga. Who are you right now? The little sister of the Great Tiger Emperor, Fuuga Haan?”

“No...”

Wiping her tears, Yuriga looked straight at Fuuga.

“I am Yuriga, King Souma E. Friedonia’s queen!”

“That’s fine. You follow the path that you believe in!”

“Yes!”

With that, Fuuga and Yuriga’s conversation in the north came to an end.

◇ ◇ ◇

As the promotional video Souma had prepared played, Fuuga and Mutsumi thought back to that day.

“It’s just a matter of whether we win or lose. If we win, my dream will be accomplished. If we lose, the people’s hearts will be split between carrying on with the struggle or reconciling in order to advance into the north. Once we’re in that situation, we’ll never be able to take on the Maritime Alliance again.”

“Yes, I agree. And I expect, if that happens, your passion for dominating the continent will begin to cool off.”

Fuuga smiled wryly and nodded at what Mutsumi was saying.

“Yeah. Seriously... You’re one hell of a little sister, Yuriga!”

Fuuga gave his little sister, Yuriga, who was probably in the enemy camp right now, a compliment that she couldn’t possibly hear.

Bonus Short Stories

The Nine-Headed Dragon Queen Is Very Busy

As total war between the Maritime Alliance and the Great Tiger Empire drew close, people across the world grew tense and fearful of the coming conflict. But amidst this turmoil, the people of the Nine-Headed Dragon Archipelago Kingdom were relaxed.

Their country was separated from the continent by the sea, so the Great Tiger Empire was unlikely to invade them anytime soon. And even if they were attacked, the Empire’s unfamiliarity with the ocean would deter their ability to pull off a landing. That was the general assumption, at least. But while the Nine-Headed Dragon Archipelago Kingdom was adept at sea battles, they had virtually no experience fighting far inland. They also lacked any commanders who could lead such a campaign, so Fuuga didn’t view them as a threat and was content to ignore them until the war with the Kingdom of Friedonia was over.

While the Nine-Headed Dragon Archipelago Kingdom was distant from the final battle shaping up on the continent, their queen, Shabon, was still incredibly busy. Even now, she was fighting with the mound of paperwork before her...

This country’s culture was a mix of Tang China and Edo Japan, so the documents were left on the thick tatami mats, forming a circle around a low writing desk. She also wrote with a writing brush, so looking into this room, one may have thought she was a writer.

“I have a report,” Kishun announced from beside Shabon.

He was her husband but generally acted as her subordinate at work.

“Sir Kuu, head of the Republic, has ordered additional lion-dog guns...”

“He cannot have them,” Shabon firmly rejected without raising her head. “Our production is already near its limit, correct?”

“It is as you say.” Kishun nodded profusely. “It would be impossible to raise the pace any further.”

Currently, the Nine-Headed Dragon Archipelago was awash with firearm orders from the other countries of the Maritime Alliance.

One of the items was the lion-dog gun cannon—a miniature, portable cannon (like a hand cannon or a crouching tiger cannon). It had been a minor weapon used in naval battles in which magic use was limited. However, the development of the magic canceler by the Kingdom of Friedonia changed the status quo. The magic canceler created zones on land in which magic couldn’t be used; thus, gunpowder weapons suddenly took the spotlight. With an inevitable battle between the Maritime Alliance and the Great Tiger Empire, their allies had ordered even more lion-dog guns to bolster their war potential.

“We are turning a profit, but it is hard to be completely pleased with the situation...” Shabon sighed. She laid down her brush and rested her cheek on the palm of her hand. “While it is good that the Kingdom of Friedonia and the Republic of Turgis have provided us with iron, which we tend to run short of, we cannot do anything about the number of craftsmen. It is not simple to train more, so we cannot lower quality to increase their output either.”

Kishun nodded in agreement. “Yes, you’re right. Especially when people’s lives and the war’s outcome could be affected.”

“Very well. We have already sent the amount ordered in advance, so we must ask the other alliance members to compromise with each other.”

“Understood.” Kishun bowed, then switched gears and continued reading the report. “Next, we have a letter from Queen Yuriga of the Kingdom of Friedonia. There is something she wishes to borrow from our country.”

“Yuriga? What does she want?”

“Well...”

Kishun named what Yuriga had requested, and Shabon gave him a blank stare.

“She wants that? At a time like this? Why?”

“She only writes that it is for a strategy of hers. However, the letter also bears King Souma’s signature, so in all likelihood...”

“The Kingdom of Friedonia has something in mind for it, then.”

“Indeed.”

Shabon thought about it briefly, then nodded. “Very well. Kishun, where is it being kept?”

“We are touring the island with it as an emblem of your rule and a symbol of stability.”

“Please have it recalled and sent to the Kingdom of Friedonia.”

“Understood.”

“Now then...”

Having listened to all the reports and handled all of the paperwork for now, Shabon was about to move on to the next thing...

“M-Mother...” came a hesitant voice from the doorway.

Shabon and Kishun turned to see their daughter, Princess Sharan, poking her head out from behind the sliding door panel.

“Sharan? What is it?”

Sharan was as introverted as Shabon had once been. It was unusual for her to come to the office during work hours, so they were surprised to see her.

“Um, I wanted to ask you, Mother.”

Sharan’s eyes wandered as she spoke. Shabon turned to face her daughter.

“What is it?” she asked with a smile.

Seeming to find her resolve, Sharan said, “Um...I heard Fweedonia is in danger.”

“Yes, it is.”

“Will Lord Cian and Lady Kazuha be okay...?”

Sharan was too young to understand war, but even she sensed that it threatened Cian and Kazuha and that they might not meet again.

“You love both of them, don’t you, Sharan?”

“Yes.”

Shabon remained kneeling as she approached Sharan.

“It’ll be okay,” Shabon said as she hugged her. “You’ll see them again soon. I’ll make sure it happens.”

“Really...?”

“Yes. Just leave it to your mother.”

With that, Shabon lifted Sharan up into her arms and turned to address Kishun.

“Move the plan into its next phase. For the sake of Sharan and her husband-to-be.”

It was thought that Queen Shabon would have no influence on the war’s outcome, but it would not be long before she sent something that would push Fuuga into a corner.

A Dangerous Combination

As total war between the Maritime Alliance and the Great Tiger Empire drew close...

“Achoo! Urgh... It’s so cold.”

“Ookyakya! Glad you could make it, Miss Trill! And welcome.”

They were near the northern edge of the Republic of Turgis, in a city now named Tarus, which they’d gained in the last war. Here, Kuu, Taru, Leporina, and Nike from the Republic were meeting Princess Trill of the Euphoria Kingdom.

Trill rubbed her arms for warmth as she looked around. “The Republic is every bit as frigid as I’ve heard...”

“Oh, yeah? I feel like it’s pretty warm around these parts,” Kuu replied cheerily.

Sighing, Nike said, “I keep telling you, it feels totally different to us humans. Even during the summer, in a place like Sapeur, I feel I still need two more layers over my shirt.”

Nike and Trill were the only humans present. Since Nike wasn’t a member of the Five Races of the Snowy Plains, who’d adapted to life in cold climates, he felt the chill of the Republic all the way to his bones.

Kuu carried on, not letting Nike’s comment distract him. “Sorry to spring this on you when you’ve just arrived, Miss Trill, but I’d like your assistance in building defenses for Tarus and the neighboring city of Leporus. They will be the first battlefields when we go up against the Great Tiger Empire. We need to harden the defenses so they’re not easily breached.”

This was Kuu’s plan, for which he’d called in Trill, who was a foreign princess. During the earlier top-level meeting between the four countries of the Maritime Alliance, Kuu heard that Jeanne didn’t know what to do with the eccentric Drill Princess, so he made a point of inviting her to the Republic. Trill had been quick to accept his proposal.

“Big Sister Jeanne has already told me about it. But are you sure?” Trill said, tilting her head to the side. “I’m an amateur when it comes to war, so perhaps you’d be better to ask someone else?”

“Oh, I don’t mind that.” Kuu grinned. “I’ll come up with the ideas for defensive equipment, so you just decide if they’re possible. If you think you can pull them off, then Taru and her engineers will make them with you. All expenses paid by the Republic, of course.”

“In that case...I guess it’s fine.”

“Great. So, I’d heard about Bro having Mechadra remodeled by Genia and her team, and that pile driver was your idea? That’s when I thought I just had to bring you here to remodel the fortress walls.”

“Oh, that was a really hard job...” Taru sighed, recalling her involvement.

She’d worked on the remodel of Mechadra, albeit only as a craftsperson, with the ideas coming chiefly from Genia and Trill. She had suffered alongside Merula, the other common-sense person on the team, as they tried to turn all those ridiculous thoughts into a reality.

“Now, now,” Leporina said, trying to soothe Taru, who had a far-off look in her eyes.

Kuu clapped his hands.

“Anyway, we shouldn’t just stand around. Let’s take this somewhere we can discuss it at length.”

The group relocated to the mansion Nike had been given as the temporary magistrate of Tarus. The large desk in his office was covered in all sorts of documents scattered about at random.

“What is this...?!” Trill exclaimed, her eyes widening as she picked one up.

Each page carried some contraption Kuu wanted to be made, along with a simple illustration. But what surprised Trill wasn’t the contents but the volume.

“You have this many ideas?”

“Sure. I just wrote down things I wanted to try, and this is how it turned out.”

Kuu didn’t even feel bad about it. Trill looked at one of his ideas. It said, “Dragon on wall that looks decorative suddenly spews fire at enemies.” The other ideas were similar in nature.

“These are all very...offbeat, let’s say.” Trill was, uncharacteristically, a little weirded out. “You seem eager for this war, Kuu. Yet Big Sister Jeanne and Big Brother Hakuya looked so somber about it.”

“Huh? Nah. I think the war’s a pain. I just had kids, and I don’t want to waste my time on this stuff... Y’know?”

“Really? You seem to have a lot of ideas, considering,” Taru said, nonplussed by this surprising opinion from Kuu.

“Ookyakya! Because I don’t want to fight a boring war. This battle’s going to be a localized conflict anyway. The real result will be decided by the showdown between Bro and Fuuga. I just want to kick up all the dust I can and keep our losses to a minimum while we drive the enemy off. That’s all.”

The look on Kuu’s face as he spoke was unquestionably that of a ruler’s.

“Lord Kuu always catches us off guard when it comes to these things,” said Leporina, to which Taru and Nike both nodded.

Hearing that, Trill was taken aback for a moment but soon put on a bold smile. “Then I won’t hold back either. I’ll take on the task with everything I have.”

And so, the dangerous combination of Kuu and Trill joined forces and prepared to meet the Great Tiger Empire in battle.

Learning a Secret Technique

As total war between the Maritime Alliance and the Great Tiger Empire drew close, a wyvern flew above Parnam Castle.

On the back of the wyvern, as it traced complicated arcs through the sky, was not a soldier but a maid—Carla, daughter of the former General of the Air Force. Her frilly maid dress flapped in the wind as the wyvern flew.

“Okay... Here we go!” Carla shouted to her wyvern and held the reins tight.

It got into a position with its head skyward and tail groundward...then suddenly it spun its neck and tail and flapped its wings, allowing it to decelerate in midair. Having lost lift in its wings, the wyvern gradually dropped altitude.

Urgh... Is it no good?

Carla pulled back on the reins again. That got the wyvern to readjust its position, spread its wings wide, and gently float to the ground.

“Hrmm... It’s just not working...” Carla murmured as the wyvern touched down.

There was the sound of footsteps running towards her.

“That looked like hard work, Carla,” called out a voice.

“Why, it’s Lady Tomoe!”

“Ah! You don’t need to dismount. You’re busy training, right?”

It was Liscia’s adopted sister, Tomoe. After stopping Carla from getting off the wyvern, Tomoe looked up at the beast with curious eyes.

“This sure is unusual. I don’t see you flying a wyvern often.”

“Well, lately I’ve been busy with my work as a maid, so I haven’t had the chance...”

“Then why today?”

“Oh, well... In the war against the Great Tiger Empire, my father—Castor—and I will most likely be needed on the battlefield, and he told me there was a technique he wanted me to practice for that.”

“A technique...?”

“Yes, but more importantly, what brings you here, Lady Tomoe?”

Tomoe grinned and petted the wyvern. “I’m doing wyvern health checkups because I can ask them questions.”

“That makes sense.”

Tomoe’s ability let her understand what animals (and Seadians) were saying, so wyverns could tell her about their symptoms directly. With the decisive battle against the Great Tiger Empire drawing near, they hoped to have the wyverns as close to top shape as possible.

Tomoe cocked her head to the side. “So, Carla, what is this technique you mentioned?”

“Oh, no, I really shouldn’t say...”

“Ah! If it’s a military secret, you don’t have to.”

“No, it should be safe to tell you, Lady Tomoe. The truth is...”

Carla then explained everything she could about the technique that Castor was trying to get her to learn, breaking it down so it was easier to understand. Tomoe nodded along as she listened.

When the explanation was done, Carla let out a sigh. “It’s a technique I’ve never done before, so I don’t know how I’m supposed to move or how to effectively convey that to the wyvern. It’s incredibly frustrating.”

“I see... Let me talk to this wyvern for a moment.”

Tomoe then chatted with the wyvern.

“...and that’s what she wants. Can you do it?”

The wyvern let out a low roar, then growled.

“Oh, I see. Well, try to remember what happened that time.”

The wyvern roared again.

To Carla’s ears, it sounded as though Tomoe was speaking while the wyvern was roaring, yet they were communicating.

Tomoe was engrossed in the conversation for a while, but eventually turned to look at Carla.

“I explained, and it says it ‘should be able to do it.’”

“O-Oh, yeah? Well, I’ll give it a try, then.”

Carla flew up into the sky with her wyvern again. It flew around, and she pulled back on the reins once they’d built momentum.

“Huh?!”

It worked this time! Lady Tomoe is amazing!

After brilliantly executing the maneuver, she flew down to land beside Tomoe, bursting with glee.

Smoothly dismounting from her wyvern, Carla said, “We did it, Lady Tomoe!”

“Eek?!”

To reiterate, Carla was wearing a maid dress—a short one—designed by Serina. When she jumped down from the wyvern’s back, she...fully exposed her undergarments.

Tomoe covered her face with her hands, and Carla turned a bright shade of red as she realized what had happened. Her one salvation was that the sole witness was Tomoe.

“Um... If you’re going to continue training, maybe you should put some pants on underneath?”

“Uh, yeah. I’ll go borrow some from Liscia.”

Even though she had learned the technique, Carla also felt very silly.

Relying on the God of War When Times Are Tough

The decisive battle with the Great Tiger Empire led by Fuuga Haan was fast approaching, and we have been steadily preparing to meet him in battle. We didn’t just need careful planning and the deployment of forces; we also needed to evacuate residents along the predicted invasion path. In order to convince them to leave quietly, we had to show them that the evacuation destinations would have the supplies they’d need to survive, which we had to prepare too... Essentially, we had a load of things to do.

I’d left the military plans to Hakuya, Julius, Excel, and Kaede so I could focus entirely on the paperwork. But even as I did, I couldn’t escape the plaguing uncertainty of the war. Our opponent was the favorite child of this era, the great Fuuga. No amount of preparation could have given me complete confidence.

I have nowhere near the guts that Fuuga has...

I couldn’t approach things with the kind of cavalier attitude towards my own death that he had. I didn’t want to die, and I didn’t want to lose any of my family. I’d like to think everyone in this country felt the same way. And yet, with just a simple order from me, many lives could be lost. If I ever stopped feeling pressured by that fact, it would mean I was no longer human.

Being human means wanting something to cling to... I thought with a sigh.

“What are you sighing about, Souma?” asked Julius, who was waiting on the paperwork I was handling. “The whole castle is on edge right now. If you act that way, you’ll make those beneath you uneasy.”

“Sorry... I just can’t help but be concerned. Here’s the paperwork.”

“Duly received... Well, it’s not that I don’t understand where you’re coming from,” Julius said, a slight furrow in his brow despite his calm face. “One of the Great Tiger Empire’s strengths is their lack of fear of loss. They are a group which had little to begin with, so it stands to reason they would act this way. On the other hand, we have our loved ones to care for, which comes with the fear of losing them.”

“Yeah... And that is all the more reason everyone can dig their heels in, determined to defend those loved ones. But there’s no getting rid of the uncertainty and doubt. Although, maybe that’s a worry the Great Tiger Empire would be glad to have.”

I leaned back in my chair and stared up at the ceiling.

“When I’ve got my back to the wall like this, I find myself wanting to cling to just about anything. I’m about ready to start praying to the god of war for help.”

I wouldn’t turn to the gods when times were tough...but it wasn’t because I was an atheist. Being Japanese, even if we didn’t have a concrete faith in Shinto, Buddhism, or Christianity, we did have an ingrained reverence for our ancestors and the natural world. We’d think things like, “How will I ever face my ancestors?” or pray to a rock that would never fall and ask it for success on our exams. That was why I felt an urge to rely on them now...which may be the mental space that people in cults took advantage of.

As I contemplated that, I noticed Julius was also deep in thought.

“Hmm...” he grunted.

“Is something up?”

“Hmm? Oh, no. I was thinking that, if you’re uneasy, you might try asking the gods a favor for real.”

Me? Turn to the gods for help? In this world? I thought, then said, “But I’m not a Mother Dragon or Lunaria worshipper.”

“No, I don’t mean it like that. You could pray to a war god who’s close to you.”

“A war god who’s close to me?” I wondered, repeating the strange phrase.

Julius smiled and nodded. “Yes, a god that is close and deeply involved with us.”

◇ ◇ ◇

Near Van, the capital of the former Principality of Amidonia, a mausoleum had been erected atop a hill that looked down on the river where we had floated boats for the Memorial Festival.

“Is this Grandpa’s house?”

“Sure is. This is where your grandfather lies sleepin’,” Roroa explained to our son, Leon, who was holding her hand.

“Are Leon’s grandpa and my grandpa the same?”

“Hee hee! Yes, that’s right. He’s your grandfather too,” Julius’s wife, Tia, said while holding their son, Tius, in her arms.

This was the mausoleum of Gaius VIII, father of Roroa and Julius.

We’d held the Memorial Festival for him to console the people of the Amidonia Region, who had admired his feats as a warrior. If a festival was to be held, there needed to be a place for celebration and worship, so we built this mausoleum on the site of the princely family’s grave.

I didn’t know this part myself, but at some point, Gaius—who was worshipped in this mausoleum—had been elevated to war god status. I had only set the place up to console the spirits of the dead, but as it was a place of worship, people assumed it was for some god, so warriors started worshipping Gaius there because of how he had acted during his life.

I was here to pray with Roroa and Leon, plus Julius, Tia, and Tius—all members of Gaius’s family.

“Never thought I’d be praying to my father-in-law for help,” I muttered before the mausoleum.

Julius stifled a laugh. “Ah, well, he’s still a father to Roroa and me.”

“Now that you say that...it really feels like we’re just visiting the family grave.”

I felt like I was standing in front of a relative’s Buddhist altar during Obon. To think Gaius would be revered as a warrior god...

“He might help you, Julius, but would he really lend me his strength?” I asked.

“Even if they hate their son-in-law, grandfathers are always soft on the grandchildren.”

Julius gestured to Roroa and the others with his chin.

“Go on, put your hands together ’n’ pray to Grandpa,” said Roroa.

“You too, Tius,” followed up Tia. “Let him know that we’re all doing well.”

““Okayyy.””

Leon and Tius, now four years old, did as their mothers told them and held up their hands. They were striking poses, but they looked cute, so it was fine.

Even Gaius’s stony face would have softened to see such adorable grandkids.

“Yeah... I’ll pray too.”

I bowed twice, then clapped my hands twice, even though that wasn’t the general custom in this world.

I promise to protect your children, grandchildren, and the land you loved. Even if you can’t stand me, please be on my side for now. I ask that you give me the courage...so that I can stand without fear, even if Fuuga appears before me.

With that prayer, I bowed my head deeply towards the mausoleum.

Their Bygone Days

In the Gran Chaos Empire, before Souma had been summoned to this world...

As Lumiere ate by herself in the cafeteria of the officers’ academy, where future commanders of the Empire were trained, Jeanne, the younger sister of Empress Maria, walked over carrying a tray of food.

“Hey, Lumi. Mind if I sit with you?”

“You don’t need to ask. If there’s an open seat, you can just take it, you know?”

Lumiere’s words were blunt but not out of malice; she was simply that way by nature. Jeanne knew this, so she smiled and took a seat.

Jeanne and Lumiere. The royal and the future retainer. They came from different backgrounds but were serious and hard workers. They got along well and were quite close friends.

“Come to think of it, Lumi, I hear you turned down a senior who asked you out again,” Jeanne said between bites of food.

Lumiere’s brow furrowed. “Don’t say ‘again.’ You make me sound bad.”

“How many is that this month?”

“He’d be the third...I think?”

“If he was the third one in just two weeks, then you’ve been getting asked out more than once a week.”

“It’s a real headache.”

“There must be no shortage of guys interested in a beautiful and talented woman like you.”

“Do I detect a hint of spite?” Lumiere gave Jeanne a slight glare as she skewered some fried fish with her fork. “Because when a talented beauty like you says it, it sure sounds like it’s out of spite.”

“Hmm? But no one has ever asked me out.”

“Of course not! No matter how pretty you are, nobody’s going to try putting the moves on the empress’s little sister. Everyone would assume his parents had ambitions, and the guy would be disowned to distance themselves from it. No idiot would choose you with that kind of risk involved.”

“W-Well...I’m sure you’re probably right.”

“They go after me because, next to you, I seem more attainable. Not that I have any interest in a proposition like that, which lacks even a shred of ambition.”

Lumiere tore into the piece of fried fish impaled on the end of her fork with a vengeance. Jeanne smiled wryly, noting she must be in quite a foul mood.

“Besides, I can just tell they’re only settling for me because they can’t seduce you,” Lumiere angrily grumbled. “No, wait, it’s worse than that! They want to get close to me as a way of getting closer to you. What does that make me? A stalking horse?! Or maybe a breakwater for you?”

“S-Sorry about that. But...no, I understand how you feel.”

“Huh? Why would you understand?”

“Because I’m often treated as ‘Lady Maria’s little sister’ or ‘the Euphoria sister who isn’t Maria,’” Jeanne answered, sighing.

Lumiere stopped eating when she heard that. As Jeanne was the younger sister of the charismatic Maria, it wasn’t hard to see why Jeanne was treated as the lesser of the two. Only Jeanne would know how Jeanne felt about that.

“Wait, but you have another sister, don’t you?”

Jeanne gave Lumiere a blank. “Huh? You mean Trill? She’s a problem child in her own right. Sure, she’s talented at making things, but she’s also at the center of all sorts of trouble. Sometimes I even get called ‘the younger Euphoria sister who isn’t a problem child.’”

“It’s tough being the middle child, huh?”

Lumiere sympathized with Jeanne, and her anger faded away. A wave of exhaustion then washed over her, and she sighed.

“Honestly...I can’t stand the affection of older men. They’re so transparent in their desire to use me for their family’s benefit or their own future.”

“Hmm. You’re into younger men, Lumi?”

“Uh, I’m not sure I’d put it that way... How about you, Jeanne? I know you’re not allowed to have a love life, but do any of our classmates interest you?”

“Hrmm... When it comes to boys my age or younger, they all tend to look at my sister, not me.”

“Well...you can’t really compete with that motherly aura.”

Maria’s goddess-like smile could purify any sex-obsessed man’s heart and turn him back into a little boy...or so they say. There was something positively inviolable and sacred about her.

“Their reverence may be a burden on Sister though.” Jeanne gave a small smile. “That’s why I think someone mature, who’ll only look at me, might be ideal.”

“Hmm... So you’re into older guys, Jeanne.”

“H-Hey! Was that payback for earlier?”

“Well, it’d be nice if our ideal partners could meet.”

It was ironic that these two, having such an uneventful conversation, would one day end up as enemies in opposing camps. But whether they had men they could consider their ideal partners nearby... Well, that could be a bit of a funny story.