What the hell?! How did he do that?! Ende descended to the desert surface alongside a rain of glittering crystal.

He found the two basketball-sized cores amidst the debris, took one in each hand, and smashed them against each other. They were obliterated instantly. His work done, Ende dusted his hands off.

“What the hell was that?!” I stared at Ende, dumbfounded. That was all I could say.

“Hm? I just attacked it by attuning my own magical oscillations to the wavelength of the creature.” Magical oscillation? Like in the resonance phenomenon? Wait, it’s magic, so it’s probably a bit different...

“Ende, earlier on you mentioned something about a Dimensional Boundary... What is that?”

“I guess you could consider it a kind of net that prevents entities from their own worlds crossing over into other ones. For whatever reason, there’s a small hole in it that opened up recently... This Manta Phrase came through, and the other ones as well. But luckily it’s only the small-fry for the time being.” Ende muttered an explanation while looking over the shattered fragments of the former crystal creature.

“These ones are just mooks, pawns working together for a common goal. They’re not the real threat.”

“So what’s their goal?”

“To find the slumbering Sovereign Phrase, their leader. It’s a goal I share, actually...” What the hell?

“Oh, I have to go now. I have a prior arrangement to tend to. I do hope we meet again though, Mochizuki Touya.”

“Wai—!” Ende ignored my protest, gave a small grin, and vanished in the blink of an eye. What the hell kind of magic is that? Teleportation?

“The Sovereign Phrase...?” I could do nothing but stare blankly as I pondered the mystery Ende had left behind.

◇　◇　◇

“That’s way too suspicious,” Leen concluded, folding her arms. Well, I figured much the same thing.

After that I returned to the garden and told everyone about Ende.

“He had this currency from five thousand years ago, and he was able to take down a creature that we couldn’t even scratch in just a single hit. Also, he knew a lot about the monster and was wearing some stupidly hot-looking scarf. Even that attack he did was super huge and dramatic, too.” I didn’t feel like that last point was particularly important, but it didn’t change the fact that it was suspicious. Just what in the world is that guy?

“He called that crystal creature a Phrase. But what exactly was it?” Elze brought up the obvious question. It clearly wasn’t an ordinary monster.

What I did know was that the Phrase came to ravage the world 5000 years ago. But the only ones who knew that were Cesca and I. And to be honest, I really didn’t know if telling everyone else was the right thing to do.

Worrying about whether or not to tell them, and thus bring about undue anxiety, just made it even more difficult to bring up.

Staaaaaaare...

Ugh. It’d been a while since Yumina assaulted me with her eyes. My own eyes started to dart around. Shit. I can’t be lying to Yumina if I’m going to marry her! “You know something, don’t you, Touya?”

“Urgh...” With Yumina seeing right through my suspicious behaviour, I had no choice but to convey the message I’d gotten from the doctor to everyone.

“Why would you keep silent about something so important!”

“Well, I was going to bring it up sooner or later...” Leen scolded me, to which I desperately tried to make excuses for myself.

“An invasion of tens of thousands of the Phrase. That’s the reason the ancient civilization was destroyed. So there were that many of them 5000 years ago, but barely any eyewitness reports of them nowadays. Until now, that is. Now that they’re appearing again. Just what is going on here...?”

“Maybe it was a survivor, or one that got sealed away?” Leen seemed worried, but brought up her ideas to Linze. The Cricket Phrase we’d first come across had seemed half dead, so that way of thinking did make sense...

“I’ve been thinking about what that Ende guy said about the Dimensional Boundary... The Snake Phrase did seem to come out of a crack in space. It makes me think that perhaps the Phrase are sealed in another dimension...”

“So that would mean... someone is breaking down the boundary?”

“I don’t have any proof of it, though.” Paula crossed her arms and nodded by Leen’s feet. Does that bear really get what’s going on? What was weighing more on my mind was that we had no method of fighting against the Phrase. Ende had called the one we fought an Intermediate Construct. That means that there were Lower Constructs and Upper Constructs too.

The Cricket and Snake Phrase were likely Lower Constructs. But that meant we couldn’t even defeat an Intermediate one. If an Upper Construct appeared... I had no idea what we’d do.

Looks like we really need to seek out the other Babylons.

“Cesca. Did humanity fight against the Phrase 5000 years ago?” Cesca turned to face me from in front of the monolith.

“Yes, they did fight. Not that it went too well for them, though. The doctor did manage to finally create an anti-Phrase weapon, but the Phrase had disappeared entirely by the time it was completed.”

“What kind of anti-Phrase weapon?”

“The doctor created weapons that are controlled by a person housed within them. She called them Frame Gears.” What?! Sounds like giant robots! Did the doctor really manage to create those too?! Well, she did manage to make smaller, Cesca-sized robots, so I guess making giant ones isn’t too much of a stretch...

“What happened to them?”

“They were stored in the Hangar of Babylon.” Cesca answered Elze’s question. Which means if the ruins we’re heading toward ends up leading to the hangar... we can get some giant robots for ourselves?! Holy shit. This is getting me all excited. I mean, they’re robots? Robots that you can get inside of and ride around! All men dream of this! Not that any one here would understand, since they’re girls...

“It seems we’ve arrived at our destination.”

“But I don’t see anything.”

“Apparently it’s buried under the sand.” Kohaku informed me as he looked at the monolith’s screen. The coordinates were spot on, but I couldn’t see anything but desert outside.

“Well, let’s head down and have a look.” Leaving Kokuyou and Sango on the garden in case anything happened, I used [Gate] to get down on the ground. Desert spread out as far as I can see, with nothing else in sight. I looked up the ruins again on my smartphone, but the pin dropped on the map exactly where I was standing.

“Right below us...” Well, what do to... We couldn’t just start digging through the sand. We had no idea how long it’d take to dig out with a shovel after all.

“I’ll use wind magic to blow away the sand. Stand back.” Leen thought up an idea before I did, then stepped forward. I moved away, just as told.

“Spiral forth, O Wind! Raging Sweeping Gale: [Cyclone Storm]!” A tornado sucked up all the sand, whirling it into the skies. It flew downwind from us as a sort of basin opened up in the desert below.

Finally, the ruins came into sight. It was a dome that was made out of some sort of stone or concrete. There was a door at one part that seemed to be the entrance. Not a double door, but a single one.

The tornado died down, so we made our way into the basin, but there wasn’t a handle on the door.

I wondered if it was automatic, but it didn’t react to my presence. There didn’t appear to be any sensors on it, either. I casually reached out to touch the door, but my hand didn’t stop there. I passed straight through it.

“Whoa?!”

“Touya?!” I took a step forward to keep myself from falling over, which made me end up inside the ruins. Six pillars stood in the center, illuminated by a faint light.

I touched the door again, but this time it felt cold and solid. I tried to use [Gate] to get back outside, but my magic wouldn’t work. Huh? Am I trapped in here?

《Are you alright, my lord?!》

《Kohaku? Yeah, I’m fine. There’s nothing going on or anything. But I can see a circle of pillars, just like the last time... I’m gonna go on ahead, so tell everyone not to worry.》

《Very well. Please be careful.》

At least I can still use the telepathic link...

I figured there must be some sort of a trick to the door, to stop people coming in and destroying the circle. Like, it only lets in all-attribute holders, or only lets in one person at a time. I didn’t know why it wouldn’t let me out, though.

I thought back to all those cryptic things the doctor had said.

Well, there’s nothing I can do here. I’m not gonna be getting out unless I get this circle moving, so time to get to work.

I sent forth magic into each pillar in turn, one attribute at a time. When all six were filled with magic, the center of the circle began to glow. Seeing that as my cue, I headed to the center. I allowed the Null magic to flow from me, and began to feel myself teleporting away. Please let this one be the hangar...

Light swirled around me, glowing, covering my vision, until I found myself somewhere that looked rather similar to the garden. The one difference was the massive building standing before me. The building was a sort of cube, like a massive white die.

I started to head down the path toward it, when a girl suddenly jumped in front of me, blocking my path.

“Stop right there! Yessir!” She held up her right hand, stopping me in my tracks. The girl’s orange hair was tied into a bun on either side. The buns were wrapped up neatly under chignon covers with ribbons trailing off them. Her white skin and golden eyes immediately made me think of Cesca.

Her clothes were a similar design to the ones Cesca was wearing when I first met her, only this new ginger girl had long sleeves and black socks. The cuffs of her sleeves had the number twenty-seven stitched into them.

She must be the manager of this place. She seems younger than Cesca. Mostly because she looks shorter, though...

“Welcome to the Workshop of Babylon. I am High Rosetta, the Terminal Gynoid tasked with managing this facility. I’m a nice enough guy, so I’ll be kind enough to allow you to call me Rosetta, yessir.”

Knew it. Wait, she just said she’s a nice guy. Isn’t she a girl? She’s a girl, right? I mean, she’s wearing a skirt. She’s a girl... right?! Wait, this is the Doctor we’re talking about! I can’t trust her! Couldn’t this be a trap?!

“Uhh, Rosetta? You’re... a girl... right?”

“Hmm? I do not understand the intent behind your question, but yes, that is what I am. Yessir.”

Whew, guess it was just a mistake on her part. I mean, Cesca did say the doctor hadn’t made any males. So this is the workshop, huh... It’s not the library that Leen was hoping for or the hangar that I wanted.

“Ahead of us lies the center of the workshop. There is currently a ban on all those deemed incompatible from entering!”

“Well, Cesca said I was compatible, so...” I figured they were sisters, so I tried mentioning Cesca by name.

“Cesca... as in Francesca? I see. So you have already obtained the garden, then. That speeds things up, yessir it does. You must allow me to perform a test on you to verify that you are indeed worthy.” A test...? I’ve got a bad feeling about this.

“Guess the color of my panties without moving from that spot.”

“Are you stupid?!” I knew this would be bad! Nothing made by that doctor could ever be good! Is she actually asking me to flip her skirt up?! What’s with this?!

“You are only allowed one guess. Your time limit is five minutes, yessir. Now, what color are they?!”

Tch! Why is she in such high spirits! Time began to tick down as I worried about what to do. Well, I’ll just have to do things my way!

“Blow forth, Wind! Soaring, Spinning Gust: [Whirlwind]!” Wind picked up around Rosetta’s feet, making the ribbons on her chest and her bangs flutter in the breeze. However, her skirt didn’t budge an inch. What?!

“This skirt resists wind magic.” Rosetta grinned.

Grrrr... So it’s not gonna be that easy, huh? Then I’ll just get rid of the skirt entirely!

“Sear forth, O Fire! Oral Incineration: [Fire Breath]!” I conjured forth fire magic, intending to burn away her skirt, but it didn’t catch. I had no idea why that didn’t work.

“Similarly, this skirt also resists fire magic.” What is this, the world’s strongest skirt?! It’s pointlessly powerful! Tch, don’t think this is over, Rosetta. When I get serious, I can peek at whatever panties I want! Wait, this is silly. Why am I so desperate anyway...?

I’d had enough. I decided to peek directly. All I had to do was send my line of sight into her skirt.

I don’t have any other choice. This is the only way forward... I’m kind of making excuses for myself here, but whatever.

“[Long Sense]!” I fired my eyesight under her skirt, then opened my eyes. It’s a bit dark... Can’t really see so well... Wait, what... is...

...What the hell?! I crouched on the spot, trembling, as I tried to hold back the blood flowing from my nose.

She has those on?! Those?!

“Now, what color are they?!”

“C-Colorless... Th-They’re transparent...”

“Yessir! I recognize you as a compatible person. Henceforth, Gynoid Number Twenty-Seven, designation ‘High Rosetta’ shall be assigned to you. May we work together forever, sir yes sir!” Rosetta spoke with a snappy salute, but I honestly didn’t care. They hadn’t been entirely clear, more on the level of commercial cling wrap, but... She definitely should’ve had more shame! They were transparent...

Drip, drop... My nosebleed refused to let up.

“Has it stopped yet?”

“Somehow...” The torrent of blood had finally subsided. I’d managed to avoid death by hormonally induced nosebleed. That was a relief.

I had Rosetta change into a regular pair of underwear. It wasn’t good for my health to have her going around like that. That being said, I hadn’t seen proof she’d done as I asked. Although, I wasn’t exactly able to look at her directly at that point either.

“Well then, let’s get down to touring the workshop. Yessir, let’s.” Rosetta spoke before starting off into a brisk walk. She glanced back at me.

...What is it now?

“Don’t you want to see the pair I’ve changed in to?” Rosetta giggled, then grabbed the hem of her skirt.

“I most certainly do not! Hurry up and get on with the tour!”

“Sir yes sir! By the way, do you prefer large or small chests?”

“Just get on with the tour!”

“Yessir!”

Where does she come up with this stuff?! If parents are parents, then shouldn’t kids be kids? Please just give me a break...

I trudged along after Rosetta, approaching the die-shaped building. Since it was a workshop, I figured it must have been a place where they created things.

The white building was about fifty meters tall on each side. That made it roughly the same size as the Arc de Triomphe in France, but this building was a cube. It was about the same in length as it was in height.

Still, there didn’t appear to be any windows... Actually, there didn’t seem to be any doors either. We arrived at the edge of the building, and Rosetta gently pressed her hands up against the wall.

In the next instant, several lines ran down the white wall, then turned into a small cube. It transformed into an entrance in the blink of an eye.

Is this building made up of tiny cubes or something?! A building made up of small cubes that can reform themselves based on the orders given to them by Rosetta, maybe? The workshop truly was something else.

We went through the newly constructed entrance, then up several flights of stairs until we entered a wide, open space. What is this place...?

It was a completely white space. There was nothing around. There was literally nothing there, as if it was a white void. White walls, white floor, and a white ceiling. It was vast and wide. Far too vast, and far too wide, in fact. It’s bigger on the inside, so... is the space being spread out through magical means?

“What is this place?”

“This is the workshop, yessir. It’s a facility outfitted with all imaginable crafting tools, a sophisticated workbench, and mass production capabilities.” As she spoke, Rosetta touched a floor panel, which made a white table sprout up before my eyes. The table seemed to have a bunch of tools jutting from it as well.

I see... So the small white blocks that compose the building can reform into tools and equipment.

“Only you and I can operate the workshop! You can build original items here, but also mass produce copies of other items! Well, so long as you have the raw materials, yessir!” That made sense. If it was just a matter of making things, then I already had [Modeling], but the mass production of items was another thing entirely. For example, I could mass-produce bicycles and start selling them... I’d be able to seriously start doing some business, then.

Making something more complex like a smartphone probably wouldn’t be doable, though. I had no idea what went into those things.

I figured I’d be able to make the general shape, even the insides maybe, but if I made it out of something like iron, then it obviously wouldn’t function.

But really... this place would’ve been better off being named the Production Plant of Babylon... The name’s totally misleading.

I decided to run an experiment. I unholstered Brunhild and asked Rosetta to reproduce it. I took out a lump of mithril from [Storage], then asked her to use that for the materials.

Rosetta placed Brunhild on the white table, placed her hand above it, and recited a command.

“Scan.” A dull green light blinked briefly from the table. After it was done glowing, Rosetta removed Brunhild from the table and placed the mithril lump where it was.

“Copy.” The table opened up slightly, swallowing the mithril lump into it. The green light flashed once more. Then, the hole opened up, and the completed product came out. That was fast! The excess mithril was scattered to the sides, but the product in the middle was unmistakably Brunhild. Well, except for the fact that this one shone with a silver luster.

“Get a load of this.” An image of the silver Brunhild was projected in front of Rosetta. She traced her finger along it, changing and tweaking the finer features.

At the same time, the silver Brunhild on the table warped and deformed itself to a form that was roughly similar, but definitely different to how it was before. It changed to match the form Rosetta had created on the projected screen.

“You can freely change the design of what you produce through these means, yessir.” I took the weapon into my hand and tried to activate Blade Mode, but it didn’t extend. That was puzzling for a moment. Then I realized that it wasn’t able to copy any programming I’d applied to the base object.

I applied all the battle programming I had put on my original Brunhild to the new one, then stashed the old one using [Storage]. Mithril felt better to me, after all.

“If you note down an exact number during the initial copy, it’ll continue to produce them automatically after that. Yessir it will.”

“That’s definitely handy.” There was nothing I felt like mass producing, but I knew it would definitely be of use later. Oh, right...

“Rosetta. Cesca mentioned something about a weapon that could oppose the Phrase...”

“Sir yes sir! That’d be the Frame Gear, sir! You can definitely produce those here. I helped the doctor make it, sir!” It was as I had thought. The Frame Gear were built in the workshop, and then stored in the hangar after that. So all I had to do was...

“Rosetta, can we make a Frame Gear?”

“Sir no sir! Right now, the best I can produce is equipment and modifications. The schematics for the actual Frame Gear are not on site. Your best bet would be the storehouse, yessir!”

Damn it... Then we’ll need to find either the hangar or the storehouse... Guess I’ve got no choice...

“I’ll call the others here for the time being. Cesca’ll probably be happy to see you, too.”

“I’m looking forward to it, yessir.” I had completely forgotten about the friends I’d left behind in the desert. I hurriedly opened up a [Gate] to where the others were.

◇　◇　◇

“So this is the workshop... is it.”

“...Don’t irritate me now, yessir!” Leen made her disappointment immediately obvious, receiving a menacing glare from Rosetta in return.

“This place is far more useful than the garden, yessir it is! That place is only good for looking pretty.”

“Excuse me? The garden is a place of healing, a place to help regain peace of mind, a place of moral support for our master! How dare you misunderstand its use.” I sensed that this might go beyond glaring, so I stood between the two gynoids.

“That aside, can we link the garden and the workshop?”

“Yep. Now that master owns the workshop as well, it’ll be a good idea.”

“We can lower the barrier and link to the garden. We can even combine the control systems of both facilities now, yessir.” There was a terminal monolith, much like the one in the garden, situated in the corner of the workshop. Rosetta led Cesca over to it.

“What shall we do, Master?”

“Let’s send the garden to Belfast. We can move the workshop there, as well. After that, we can start docking while we’re there.”

“Docking...?” The two gynoids seemed confused.

What? Did I say something weird? Why are you staring at me like that?

“H-How indecent...”

“Just do it already!” Great, we have another troublesome person in the crew now... This is one of the reasons why I didn’t want to do this in the first place! These two are probably similar to the old doctor as far as personality goes.

《Massster? The garden appearssss to be inexplicably moving.》 Kokuyou sent me a telepathic message. Oh, almost forgot about them.

《Don’t worry. We’re moving it to Belfast from here. We found the workshop.》

I opened a [Gate] and everyone moved to the garden. It looked like both facilities were making their way toward Belfast with no trouble, so I opened another portal, picked up my familiars, and took everyone back home to the mansion.

We went across the terrace and entered the living room. Rebecca, Logan, and Will were there. The moment they saw us, they leaped up from their seats and kneeled before us.

“Hey, don’t do that! That’s enough!”

“No, no! We heard everything from Miss Cecile! Please forgive our rudeness. Please ask that the king forgives us!” Just what did that maid tell them, exactly... I looked over at Cecile and she stuck out her tongue at me. Plus, she gave me a wicked little smile, too. Don’t think I’ll forgive you for this!

“Really, don’t worry so much about it. Formalities aren’t necessary here.”

“But...” The three of them hesitantly stood up. I told them to sit back down on their chairs, and they did so.

“Well, we’ll take a bath.” Elze and the other girls went off to their respective rooms. Leen and Paula had returned to the royal palace to report about the Phrase and other matters. I did make sure to tell her that any mention of Babylon was forbidden, however.

Cesca and Rosetta headed toward my bedroom. That reminded me, I wasn’t sure whether Rosetta would become one of our maids now or not.

“Where are the former slaves?”

“Th-They are erm, very-ly... tired, yes. So they indeed-ly, went to rest and... recuperate themselves.”

“Rebecca, I’m not a noble or anything. You don’t need to force yourself to speak formally or anything like that.” Rebecca clearly looked strained and uncomfortable due to her low social status, so she gave a wry smile and gulped down the water that Renne had brought.

“That right? Then I won’t worry about it.”

“H-Hey, y’sure that’s alright...?”

“He said it was fine, didn’t he? There’s no problem here, Logan.” Rebecca disregarded Logan’s remark and gave me a grin. I didn’t mind so much since I was sure he’d come around eventually.

“So, what’s next for you guys? You three can easily work with the guild, but what about the girls?”

“Well, that’s the thing... these girls are originally from poor villages. They have no specialized skills to speak of, and their combat ability is minimal. We won’t leave them behind until we’re all working and stable, I know that much, but...”

“Hm... I understand.” Work, eh... I considered mass-producing bikes in the workshop and having the girls sell them, but that would be a little difficult...

I preferred to keep the workshop a secret anyway, and I’d rather have asked a professional about distribution and sales instead of doing it myself. That merchant from Mismede, Olba. He was Olga’s father, as I recalled. The fox beastman.

When it came to work other than that, I considered running some kind of food stall, but there was the cost of ingredients to take into account. Plus, it wouldn’t generate much revenue for seven people.

Hmph, I can’t really think of anything good. Business is harder than you might expect...

I wondered what to do.

“Er... Touya... You do know what The Order of the Rose is about... don’t you?”

“Hm? No, never heard of it. Is it a famous tale or something?”

“E-Er, well... It’s the tale of a male-only knight order in a certain country, the Order of the Rose. They have a confrontation with the female-only Guards of the Lily, and... Well, it’s a series well known because of the love scenes within the knight order...”

...Hold the hell up! The love scenes within the knight order? What? But there are only men in the group, so...

Yumina’s eyes met mine for a moment, but she quickly looked away. ...Is it really like that? “...A-Anyway, you’ve already promised to pick it up, so it’d be bad to go back on your word now...”

“You have a point... Well, the bookstore staff might start thinking weird things about me...” Guh... this sucks. I can’t exactly have Yumina go pick it up for me, either.

“...Hold on, Yumina. You seem to know that book pretty intimately... Why would that be?”

“Ah, wait. No, er, don’t misunderstand! I don’t read books like that, I just, er... I don’t have that kind of hobby, really!”

I wonder about that... I gave Yumina a look full of doubt. I thought about Linze, too. She was definitely into that kind of thing, but it probably wasn’t a bad influence or anything. Everyone has their own hobbies, in the end. Still, I didn’t need to say anything like that out loud.

“...Touya, I actually know the person who wrote the story. That’s how I came to know about the tale myself, I promise. The author is a public figure, so the stories were published under a pen name.”

“Huh? For real? Anyone I’d know?”

“No, I don’t believe you’d know her. You mustn’t tell anyone her identity either... The author of that work is Reliel Rehm Refreese. Princess of the Refreese Imperium.”

......What. Hold on, hold on, hold on just a minute! Is she trying to tell me that the heir to an entire nation writes that kind of weird book?!

“The royal bloodlines of Refreese and Belfast have mingled since the olden days. I know Reli quite well, too. She’s like an older sister to me. Before anyone could see what was happening, she developed... a certain kind of interest, and began writing things herself, that’s all.”

This is... unpleasant to hear about. I don’t think I’ll go to Refreese much, if I can avoid it. I wouldn’t want to meet her by mistake and have her base one of her characters on me or anything... But I still have to get the damn book series, this sucks!

Well, I figured there’d be no way a member of the Imperial Royal Family would be in a regular old bookstore, so I thought I’d be fine.

Still... the receptionist and a lot of my customers are quite... into this stuff now. I’m a little worried I might’ve introduced a certain subculture to this nation. If this is what I end up going down in history for, I quit. I decided to stop thinking about that nonsense and focus on the Bloody Crab. I opened up a [Gate] and dragged Yumina off with me.

◇　◇　◇

The Bloody Crab was said to live in a habitat a good deal south of the Stael Mine, the place we had slain the Mithril Golems so long ago. I stepped out of the portal just outside the mine, leaving us with no choice but to head south on foot.

“It’s not far enough for us to bother using the garden, so let’s run instead.”

“H-Huh? Eek!” I picked Yumina up and held her with both of my arms. Naturally I princess-carried her. With that, I began to dash down the road.

“[Gravity]!” I reduced my own weight and Yumina’s weight by about half. If I brought our weight to anything close to zero, we’d be way too light and I wouldn’t have good control over our balance.

“[Accel Boost]!” I stacked my acceleration magic and my body fortification magic on top to produce an extreme level of speed. But despite that, I didn’t feel any resistance or drag. No headwind either. This was part of [Accel], of course.

It sort of felt like I was in one of those VR games. I was clearly running at tremendous speed across the landscape, but it almost felt like I was in another world entirely.

Yumina seemed to feel the same, as she didn’t respond to the intense speed with fear, but curiosity. She gazed at the flowers as we quickly passed by them.

After running for a short while, the habitat came into sight. I set Yumina down after stopping.

“Run search. Bloody Crab. Radius: three kilometers.”

“...Search complete. One Bloody Crab located. Southwest. Displaying.” A map of the area was projected before my eyes. The crab’s location was marked on the map, about one kilometer away.

“Touya, just now... was that Cesca...?”

“Hm? Ah, right. I decided to use her voice for my programs here. To be honest, I chose hers because it’s pretty emotionless and cold, don’t you agree? Less of a distraction, at any rate.” I took my smartphone out of my pocket and explained the functions to Yumina. After that, I picked her back up and ran in the direction of the crab.

We located it soon enough. It was enormous and red-shelled. It had a pair of pincers on each side of its body, and carried its lumbering form on eight legs.

Man it’s big. Around the size of a garbage truck, I guess. It had a rugged, blood red shell covered in various rock-like outcroppings and lumps.

It sort of gave off the image of a king crab that had been grossly mutated or warped. Its pincers were extremely large, too. Almost disproportionately so. If you got caught in one of those, you’d be finished for sure. It would easily snip you in half.

The Bloody Crab suddenly noticed our presence. It turned to face us. There was a large foam of bubbles on its mouth, but I was fairly sure that was an indicator of a land-locked crab beginning the first stages of oxygen deprivation. However, I quickly disposed of that thought because it was rooted in the sense of another world. To begin with, the fact that there’d be a crab out here in the wild was nonsensical enough by my standards. I couldn’t think with the logic of my old world, or I’d be toast for sure.

I set Yumina down, and we prepared our weapons. I set Brunhild to Blade Mode and Yumina pulled out her Colt Army Model 1860.

The battle began, a barrage of bullets flying at the crab. It was completely unaffected, likely due to its tough shell. It seemed that this creature had a naturally high magical defense. Magic probably wouldn’t be too effective, either. This was a Red Rank quest though, so I wasn’t too surprised.

“Entwine thus, Earth! Cursed Soil: [Earthbind]!” Yumina chanted a spell, and the soil at the feet of the Bloody Crab came alive, twining itself around each of its armored legs and impeding its movement. It seemed that indirect magic would work just nicely.

Yumina shot her bullets at the immobilized Bloody Crab, targeting the joints and hinges of its legs. The girl went after the naturally weak points with expert precision. She certainly had the makings of a sniper.

To my surprise, Yumina shot through the joints one after another. The crab’s movement became even more impeded with each new blast.

“[Accel]!” Not wanting to miss my chance, I used acceleration magic to leap above the crab and land atop its rugged back. Even though the spell I intended to use was direct magic, I had a feeling things were going to work out well. I squatted down and touched the crab’s exoskeleton before uttering a single word.

“[Gravity].” With a mighty creak, the crab’s legs bent and groaned, bringing it crashing to the ground. I jumped back down to the ground and looked over the beast, who could now barely move at all.

Heh, now that I’ve invoked that spell, your weight will change to suit my whims!

“What did you just do?”

“I increased the weight of his body several times with my new spell. His body’s way too heavy now, so he can’t even move!” Even though it should have been far too heavy to move, the Bloody Crab still tried to make an attack. I added more weight to stop it in its tracks. The pincer that it had somehow managed to raise came crashing to the ground and didn’t come back up.

Hmph... I added an absolute ton of weight, but its shell didn’t crack at all... This guy’s annoying.

“...Touya? I-I think it’s dead.”

“What?” The foam around its mouth had already begun dispersing. Bodily fluids were leaking out of various parts of its body, too. I could only conclude that, while it had a hardy shell, the creature’s internal organs couldn’t handle the sudden weight shift.

I canceled [Gravity]. The Bloody Crab didn’t move at all. I got close and smacked it around a bit with Brunhild. It didn’t react at all, so I knew it was dead.

“That was a tad easier than I expected.” Yumina holstered her weapon and looked over the dead crab.

“One of the best parts of this spell is that once I invoke it, I can manipulate the weight from a long distance.” I tried to lighten the mood a bit and picked up some small pebbles from the ground. I cast [Gravity] on them and tossed them into the air. I then multiplied their weight a hundred times or so while they were in flight. Soon enough, there were holes and dents in the ground all over from my scattered pebbles.

“...It’s an incredible spell, isn’t it.”

“Yeah, I could probably even smash a Phrase up with this. The only drawback is I have to touch an enemy to apply it, but I might have found a way around that, too.” I took my smartphone out of my pocket. I’d been able to use [Paralysis] on people without touching them using this method in the past... so I wondered if I might be able to do the same with [Gravity]. I thrust Brunhild into the ground, burying the blade partially into the soil.

“Run search. Brunhild. Target lock. Invoke [Gravity]. Let’s see... double its weight.”

“...Search complete. Target locked. Invoking [Gravity].” I took a hold of Brunhild. It was heavier than usual. Apparently the test had been a successful one. It had worked exactly as I wanted it to. I had no doubts in my mind that this application of magic would become one of my greatest weapons. Still, I had to remind myself not to get cocky. There was magic that could negate magic in this world, after all, so it wasn’t infallible.

I canceled the spell and put Brunhild back on my waist.

“Alright, all that’s left is bringing the crab back.”

“The proof of the deed is only one claw, but they said that the guild purchases other parts of it, too. Should we bring all of it?”

“Sure, why not? We’ll keep one leg though, for Crea. I feel like crab stew today.”

“Very well.” I put the crab into [Storage] and opened up a [Gate] to return to the guild.

The receptionist went wide-eyed with shock as she saw us come in with the proof of the kill, but she understood well enough after I explained my portals to her. Guild staff were meant to keep individual abilities like this confidential, so I had no real worries about telling her what I could do. That being said, there were still people who’d doubt my feats as a result.

I took the Bloody Crab out of [Storage] in the guild’s courtyard and had it assessed. One leg was kept aside for personal use, of course.

All-in-all, shell and meat included, it was worth a pretty penny. We received the reward for the quest at the reception desk, as well as the pay for the sale. Our guild cards were stamped with the mission seal, as usual.

“With this, Yumina’s guild rank has increased. Congratulations.” Yumina smiled with delight as she picked up her guild card, which was now a full red.

“Thank goodness, now I’m the same rank as everyone else.” Heh, was she that worried about being left behind? How adorable... She didn’t want to be the odd one out.

Now all that was left to do was to go to a bookstore in Refreese and acquire the goods. We earned a ton more money than we expected, so I wondered if we should buy other books... Books of that specific type, I meant.

Sales were dictated by the customer base, after all. And luckily enough, I had someone in front of me who was quite well-versed in that field.

“Er... receptionist lady?”

“Ah, you can call me Prim. Can I help you?” I told her that I was off to make the purchase of that series, and asked if there were any others in that genre she’d be interested in as well.

“W-Wait, you’re going to go and buy a lot of these?!”

“If they’re in stock, sure. The money I made today should be more than enough to cover it.”

“W-Wait j-just a moment, please?!” In a flash, Prim got up and headed to another female member of the guild staff. She spoke to her about something and jotted down stuff on a notepad. Then, she went to another female staff member and scribbled down some more notes. She repeated this process in a cycle, then even asked some female adventurers for their input, too. C’mon lady, your job’s on hold here...

“I-If you can acquire all of these, I promise you that all of the women I spoke to will definitely come to Moon Reader tomorrow! Please take note!” “R-Right... I’ll definitely... make a note of that.” I took the torn piece of note paper from her and suddenly looked up to see several women staring at me. They had stars in their eyes.

...Is this really something to get that worked up over? I left the guild and headed home. I planned to go to the bookstore after taking Yumina home, but in a stroke of maybe-good luck, I encountered Linze, who was eating on the terrace. I showed her the note that Prim had given me.

“...A-And you plan on buying... all of these?”

“If they’re in stock, sure.” Linze took out a pen from her pocket and started scribbling some titles down. Please stop adding to the list, Linze. Please. Please stop.

“These are must-buy titles. The last volume of this one in particular just came out, so missing it would mean trouble. If it became available at Moon Reader, people would go wild, I promise.” I didn’t really understand any of that, but I decided to trust Linze’s judgment regardless.

I thanked her and decided to look over the various title suggestions.

“The Order of the Rose” - 15 Volumes

“The Butler’s Secret” - 5 Volumes

“The Disgraced Slave Prince’s Oath” - 8 Volumes

“Cage Boy” - 6 Volumes

“Saccharine, Deadly Embrace” - 12 Volumes

“The Red-Hot Night Between The Two Who Couldn’t Turn Back” - 5 Volumes

“The Magician’s Sweet Trap” - 12 Volumes

“Immorality! On His Wedding Day!” - 17 Volumes

“Rose-Tinted Magic” - 9 Volumes

“Beneath My Master’s Gaze” - 18 Volumes

...Is this okay? Is it really okay if I buy these? My heart is breaking already. But I already said I’d get them... so I have no real choice.

I felt I should probably separate those books from the others and give them their own section. I’d include a curtain, too, to stop people snooping in. And a waiver to refuse entry to those under eighteen. W-Wait, actually, no, that makes it the same as an adult corner in a DVD rental store. Ugh... I don’t want to have such a seedy image. W-Well, it’s not illegal or anything, and it doesn’t promote anything bad, so... I guess it’s fine, and wholesome, yeah! I headed through a [Gate] to Refreese, all the while seriously grappling with the idea of just handing the place over to Linze and washing my hands of it entirely.

◇　◇　◇

The Imperial City, Bern. The Refreese Imperium’s shining star. To say that “white” was the theme of the city would be an understatement. The entire place was bleached white. From the walls of the buildings to the paving of the road and stairs, all was white. It brought to mind places like Mykonos and Santorini in Greece.

The center of the port city featured the magnificent white Refreese Castle. The blue sea and the white architecture mingled together to create a beautiful atmosphere. It was a little too bright if you asked me, though. Some sunglasses would’ve come in handy.

I didn’t come for sightseeing this time, so it’s off to the bookstore for me. Luckily, I came here before Moon Reader even opened, so there’s no need to worry about getting lost either.

I leaned on the heavy door and pushed it open, entering the building. The bookstore was pretty sizable, so it had a wide selection ranging from old novels to new releases. A lone black-haired woman sat there at the desk in the middle.

Darn it, it’s a lady... Well, even if it was a guy at the counter I’d be pretty nervous. No point worrying about it, just gotta ask her already.

“Excuse me, ma’am. I’m looking for some specific books.”

“Yes, sir? Please tell me the titles so that I may look them up for you.”

“R-Right, here you are.” I took out the note from my pocket and handed it over to the woman at the countertop.

“Let’s see here... The Order of the Rose, The Butler’s Secret, the...” Her voice slowly grew quieter, and she started to look more closely at my face. I didn’t dislike it, but her eyes started to take on the same luster as the eyes of the women who were going to be at Moon Reader the next day. There were stars in there, stars for sure...

Do you seriously think I’m that kind of person?

“Uh, well... give me a little while. I’ll need to locate all of the books you requested just now.”

“...Got it. Alright, I understand, thank you.”

Wait a sec... What am I being understanding and thankful for here? It’s not like I’m requesting anything unusual! I’m not trying to make excuses for myself, this is a regular request!

“Thank you for your patience, I’ll go and take care of the order now.” The woman gave me a gentle smile and made off toward the book inventory. I couldn’t understand why she was treating me like that.

Since I had no idea how long I’d have to spend my time waiting, I decided to pick up a basket and look for more books. After all, I needed some more genre variety. If I just let things run their course, my precious business would be corrupted by that kind of literature.

I went to the fiction section and put adventure stories, military epics, real love stories, and unusual tales into my basket.

After I was done gathering stuff up, I returned to the counter to find a pile of books waiting for me. I figured they were mine. But that wasn’t the only thing I found there. There appeared to be a small commotion going on, with a female customer getting quite fussy with the lady at the desk.

“I-I’m sorry, ma’am... We’ve just sold the last one in stock, and I’m unsure when the next shipment will come in.”

“No way... what the hell...” The customer leaned on the counter with a look of absolute defeat on her face. She looked to be about twenty years old, with a youthful face. Her long, chestnut hair was tied up into a single braid that was held together with a fancy-looking barrette. She was wearing a cardigan and skirt combo that looked plain, but was clearly high-quality. I briefly wondered if she was a noble or something. The lady at the desk finally noticed my presence, then smiled in my direction.

“Ah, hello there, dear customer! I’m just putting together your order now. Do you want to buy those books as well?”

“Yep, sure do. Add these on to the current total.” I piled up the books I had chosen along with the others on the counter.

“W-Wait, are you the person that bought the last volume of RoseMag?” The defeated girl at the counter suddenly rose up and challenged me with a question. RoseMag? The hell is she talking about? Wait, does she mean that “Rose-Tinted Magic” book from my list?

“What is going on, exactly...?” I turned to the lady at the desk.

“Ah, well... this young lady came to purchase the final volume of ‘Rose-Tinted Magic,’ but the last of our stock is included in your bulk order, you see...”

Hm, so that’s how it is... Just a case of really poor timing on her part. She missed it by a hair’s breadth, really. It’s a shame, but I can’t just hand it over to her. I can’t just go back without the final volume. I need the full set or there’d be no point.

“Excuse me, can you please give me that last volume of RoseMag?”

“Er, no... I came here with the intentions of buying it, and that’s exactly what I did.” The girl seemed determined to get the book. In fact, she even turned and bowed her head to me, but of course something like that wasn’t going to deter me.

“Please, this is my last chance... Every other bookstore has run out of stock, too...”

“E-Even if that’s the case, I still can’t...” Suddenly the girl’s eyes drifted... landing right on the small mountain of books I had purchased.

“Did you buy ‘The Order of the Rose’ as well?”

“Er... well, I, uh...” She looked over the various titles on the book heap. After a while she looked over at me, eyes shining in the same way I’d seen too many times today. Getting real sick of these misunderstandings, people...

“My my, you certainly have a good eye for literature, don’t you?”

“Don’t get the wrong idea. It’s not like that at all, alright? This isn’t for personal reading or anything, I’m running an errand.”

“Sure, sure. Don’t worry about it. I totally understand.”

You clearly don’t understand. Quit grinning at me like that!

The girl lost herself in thought for a while, but eventually snapped out of it and called me over to a corner.

“What do you want?”

“I’m willing to make a deal with you. If you give me that last volume of RoseMag, then I’ll autograph all of your Order of the Rose volumes.”

“Excuse me?” Is this girl an idiot? Why would I want some random girl’s autograph?

“Why would I want you to do that?”

“That’s because I’m the author! Riel Rifrese herself!” The girl proudly puffed out her chest. Th-They’re big... around Yae’s level... Er, wait. Gotta focus.

“Heh... so you’re really the author?”

“I am! You think me a liar?”

Of course I think you’re a liar. What are the odds of meeting the author of the book I just happened to be buying in the middle of a bookstore? Not to mention the fact that I know who the author really is, Yumina told me! Hmph... I guess I’ll have a little fun here and call her out.

“So that means you’re really Imperial Princess Reliel, doesn’t it?”

“Wh...uh...” The self-proclaimed author turned white as a sheet, blood draining from her horrified face. That’s right, I’ve exposed you as the fraud you are.

Just as I was thinking that, she started sweating profusely and flapping her mouth open and shut like a fish. It looked as though she’d entered a state of shock. Er... what is happening here? “Wh— Huh— Buh— Wha— Ho—How did—?! E-E-Even my father doesn’t know that...!” W-Wait, seriously? Is it actually her?

“Wh-Why would you expose my true... Ah! Y-You plan to blackmail me, using me as a stepping stone to get close to my younger brother, first in line to the throne. After that, you plan to steal his purity and claim the country for yourself!”

“You goddamn moron!”

“O-Ouch!!!” I gave the girl a swift karate chop to the head, hoping that it’d pull her out of such ridiculous thoughts. Princess or not, I’d do it again. “Ow... Wh-Why’d you do that?!”

“Shut up! If it wasn’t for Yumina, I’d be totally ignoring this situation right now, but is this country gonna be fine with you as its princess?!”

“Y-Yumina? You mean Yumina of Belfast? Who are you, exactly...?” Princess Reliel looked my way with curiosity clouding her face, though she was still rubbing her head. Despite the fact that she was older than me, I felt no need to be polite or respectful around someone like that. She was only about two years older than me, anyway.

I took a deep breath and tried to compose myself.

“My name is Mochizuki Touya. I’m engaged to Yumina. Yes, that Yumina, princess of Belfast. It’s not official news yet, however.”

“Wh-What?! Engaged? That girl, of all people, is engaged?!” She looked at me, awestruck for a moment. But eventually her eyes began to dart around, as if she was concocting some strange story in her mind.

“Huh? But Yumina is a girl, so... What? Errm, like a fake marriage...? I-Is your true aim to seduce the king?!”

“Enough!”

“Ouch!!!”

That isn’t even remotely how it is! You’re seriously pissing me off now! I returned to the counter and paid for all of my books. It was quite costly, but it still fell under the amount I had gained from the day’s questing, so I didn’t mind so much.

I put all of the books into [Storage], then left the store with the princess in tow. There was a magnificently built carriage outside, which I assumed belonged to the girl and her escorts.

I took her behind the store, opened a [Gate], and pulled Yumina and Kohaku through it.

“It’s been a while, Reli.”

“Yumina?! Eh? H-How long have you been in Refreese?!”

“Gimme a minute, Yumina. I’ll leave the explaining to you. Kohaku, you keep an eye on those two. Tell me if anything comes up.”

《Very well.》 I left Yumina and Kohaku behind, then headed off to the workshop. I took my volume of “Rose-Tinted Magic” out of [Storage], made a copy, and immediately returned back to the group.

I handed the book over to Reliel, who was surprised by my sudden reappearance.

“Here, now there shouldn’t be an issue.”

“H-Huh? Is this alright? I thought you wanted it...”

“I’m saying it’s not like that! I wasn’t buying these for me, it was for my store!”

“You know what they say about people who get so defensive, don’t you...? Er, actually... never mind.” Reliel shut her mouth when she saw me preparing to deliver a karate chop.

Alright, time to go home... I opened up a [Gate]. Kohaku jumped ahead and crossed to the other side.

“Please take care of yourself, Reli. I hope to see you again soon.”

“You too, Yumina. Please invite me to your wedding.” Honestly, I’d prefer it if she didn’t attend, but I simply wore a blank expression and persevered.

I headed through a [Gate] and went straight home. I slumped down on to the sofa in the living room.

“Man... I’m beat.” I’m not tired because of the hunting mission, though... Linze brought me a fresh glass of ice water.

“Thanks a ton.”

“N-No, thank you...” I gulped down all the water she brought me. Ahh, that’s the stuff. I savored the cool liquid, but Linze still remained in one spot, looking at me. What is it now?

“Er, those... books. Did you get them?”

Heh, I get it... Someone wants to get reading, does she? I took out today’s haul from [Storage] and stacked it on the table.

“I asked Rosetta to make a bunch of copies of each volume to prepare. If there’s anything in particular you want, just tell her.”

“Got it!” With that, Linze went to call Rosetta. Rosetta had the ability to recall herself to the workshop, and there was an active [Gate] connecting my house and Babylon, so they probably didn’t need me.

I went to the kitchen and gave the Bloody Crab leg to Crea. She seemed quite pleased. Crab stew’s on the menu for today, after all...

I decided that I wanted to go and have a rest. I’d had quite a busy day, after all. I went to my room, flopped down onto my bed, and closed my eyes. I was suddenly and satisfyingly assaulted by sleep.

Zzz...

The next day, Moon Reader was even more lively than ever. Word must have spread, because there was a line stretching right out of the doors. Because there were brand new books available, it made sense that people would want to come and get their chance to read it first.

The store becoming more popular was a good thing, but I couldn’t really feel good about it.

Bah, as I expected... I’ll just toss this place over to Linze and open a new store.

As it turned out, a few months later... the author behind “Order of the Rose” released a new series.

Apparently it was the story of a man with incredible power, who attempted to take over a country. To do so he forced the country’s knights, beautiful princess, and her younger brother, to succumb to his wicked ways. I asked Linze to show me it, and the illustrations of the man bore a subtle resemblance to me. This counts as harassment, right?! Next time we meet, I’ll thank you with a [Gravity]-infused karate chop to the head, you wretch! You better prepare yourself!

◇　◇　◇

That morning I woke up with a pressure on my lips and a wet sensation in my mouth. Right in front of my face was the face of another individual. Rosetta. Her eyes were closed.

“Mmmph?!”

“Oho! I’ve woken you up, sir yes sir!” Wh— Huh?! What the hell?! Why is Rosetta here?! Why is she kissing me awake?! Wha—?!

“Genetic registration complete! I was simply storing your genes, master sir! Now it’s official! The ownership of the workshop and my delightful self has transferred to you, Mochizuki Touya, sir yes sir!”

Huh? Uh...? Oh, right... the registration for the workshop. I hadn’t done that yet, had I... I’ve been so busy that I’d completely forgotten about it. Even so... this method of registration is trouble. Kind of bad for my health.

I wasn’t sure if Rosetta had become a maid like Cesca had, but either way she wasn’t wearing a uniform. She was wearing what looked more like a mechanic’s jumpsuit. I wondered if that was what an industrial manager should be wearing, but I didn’t bother thinking too hard about it.

From what I understood, she was manufacturing something in the workshop. I had no idea why, but I figured it had something to do with her trying to prove herself.

Well, I didn’t mind. She was free to make whatever.

“Master, sir! I would like some more iron and silver, sir!”

“Again? Just what in the world are you making?”

“That is a secret, sir! Need-to-know only, sir yes sir!”

Always with that response... Well, whatever. I’ll find out soon enough. I handed over some change to Rosetta so she could go and buy the necessary materials. She accepted the money with a giddy little smile on her face. It was kind of like giving pocket money to a child, honestly.

“Oh, status report, sir! A guest has come to the mansion!”

“A guest...? I wonder who it is.” I quickly changed out of my PJs and headed downstairs. Upon entering the living room, I was greeted by Laim and General Leon.

“Ah, Touya my boy! Sorry for dropping by so early.”

“I’m surprised to see you, General. Is there something wrong?”

“No, I actually came on personal business. I’d like something from you!”

Hm? What could he possibly want from me?

“You made my Lyon an interesting weapon, didn’t you? One that takes the form of both spear and sword.”

Oh, the one I gave to him after beating down those asshole noble brats...

“I did. Why, is there something wrong with it?”

“On the contrary, it’s great! Which is why I came to ask, could you make me a pair of gauntlets with similar functions?”

“Huh?”

“Today, the knight order and the royal army are engaging in a joint training session. It would be most embarrassing for a father to lose to his son, I’m sure you understand.”

That’s your reason...? Man, it’s hard to believe a guy like this raised Lyon.

“But your gauntlets are already imbued with magic, aren’t they, General?” As I spoke, the general removed the gauntlets tied at his waist and set them upon the table.

“It is as you say, these ones are imbued with fire magic. But there’s no real effect beyond that. If possible, I would like an enchantment that bolsters my offensive force. I’d also like to ask for a defensive enchantment, if it wouldn’t be too much.”

“I... see...” Well, if I imbue it with [Gravity], I could boost the destructive output for sure... And I could probably make a program that changes it into a shield, too.

“Alright, I’ll work on it for you. Do you want me to apply the effects to these ones? Or should I just get a new set entirely?”

“These gauntlets have sentimental value to me. I’d rather they remain unchanged, so I would prefer you make me a new pair.”

“Fair enough.” I used [Storage] to pull out another lump of mithril. I then molded it into two gauntlets. I lined it with the pelt of a powerful monster, and had the general try them on so I could make relevant size adjustments. The general was right-handed, so I made sure the shield would be on the left. After that, I applied the relevant [Program] and [Gravity] enchantments.

“Will this do for now?”

“Wow! You did it!” I handed over the newly created mithril gauntlets. The general put them both on and smacked his hands together with a smile on his face.

“Hoho, just as one would expect from mithril, it’s certainly light.”

“I’ll explain how they work in combat, if you’d like to join me elsewhere.” I opened up a [Gate] to the area where I had fought the Bloody Crab. An out-of-the-way place like that was best for testing out the destructive capabilities, after all.

“Alright... first off... The left gauntlet can become a shield. You need to say the phrase ‘Shield On’ to trigger it, and the phrase ‘Shield Off’ to return it back to normal.”

“Ohoho... Shield On. Ohohooo!!!” The left gauntlet responded to the general’s voice and expanded into a medium-sized shield. I figured it’d come in handy against enemies wielding blades and such.

“Next is the offensive capabilities. When you say the word ‘Impact,’ your right gauntlet will increase its weight by about two hundred times the standard for about a second. If you say it right as you attack, you should have an extremely powerful strike on your hands. It’s extremely dangerous, so please don’t use it against lightly-equipped people or soft people.”

“Tw-Two hundred times?!” One gauntlet weighed around five kilograms. I figured amplifying the weight by two hundred times would be enough, but maybe it was a little bit too extreme... Kind of like swinging around a massive hammer wildly.

As I lost myself in thought, the general took a battle stance in front of a big hunk of rock. He pulled back his right hand... And struck the mass with startling speed.

“Impact!” The moment his hand hit the rock, it crumbled into tiny fragments before my eyes.

...I-It’s true that only I can make something like this, but maybe I gave him a little bit too much...

“Ohoho! This is superb, my boy! I’ll surely be able to handle heavy infantrymen and great monsters without any worry at all, now!” Well, he’s the general... so I’m sure he won’t abuse it or anything.

“Aside from that, there’s the phrase ‘Stun Mode’ to paralyze your enemies, and the phrase ‘Burning Mode’ to burn your enemies. Just say ‘Mode Off’ to restore it to default.”

“Ooh, you enchanted it with fire as well? I’m so grateful, now I can keep my moniker of Fire Fist Leon.” The general smiled. He seemed really excited, honestly. He switched on Burning Mode right away and began to shadow-box. After fighting nothing until he was satisfied, he deactivated the gauntlets and looked them over with a happy expression.

“Ah, this is wonderful... When Lyon showed me his weapon, I was quite taken aback. Are you sure you aren’t better suited as a master smith or something?”

“I haven’t got any intention of doing this on a professional level, no.” The weapons that I made were more fit for beast than man. They could be too easily abused. Making them for friends was fine enough for me. I didn’t really want to take money off them, either. But whenever I mentioned that, I was always told “That won’t do, at least let me give you something to make up for the trouble.” I always tended to accept substitutes for cash, at least. Food was the best option.

The general was excited to beat his son immediately... or rather, excited to train with his son, so we opened up a portal to the training grounds.

The general went off to search for Lyon, gleefully clanging his gauntlets together. Forgive me, Lyon...

My mission accomplished, I figured I’d go home, but then I noticed a pair of familiar faces. It was Will, and Neil as well. It looked like they were training.

Will made a slash toward Neil, but the older man dodged quite easily and kicked at the boy, tripping him over.

“The opponent may be a swordsman, but that does not mean he can only use his sword! Attacks can come from many places, boy. Never break stance!”

“Y-Yes sir!”

Heheh... Looks like these two are working hard. I rested my elbow on the fence surrounding the training field and watched them go at it. Compared to earlier, Will was definitely improving. I was glad. It looked like Neil was really giving him a serious runaround. I had confidence the kid would be able to become a real knight yet.

“Hm? Touya?”

“Huh? Elze?” Elze showed up, wiping some sweat off her brow with a towel.

“What’s going on? You’re up early. You don’t normally get up until around the time I make it home...” When she put it like that she made me seem like a lazy layabout. In my opinion, they were too early to rise.

“I was woken up by a visit from the general. He wanted me to make him a new weapon.”

“Hmm, gotcha.” If I was more honest, I’d have said that I was woken up by Rosetta’s kiss, but I didn’t feel a need to add fuel to the fire.

“Oh, that’s right, Touya! If you’re heading home with a [Gate], can we swing by the Silver Moon first? I wanna use the hot springs!” Elze suddenly brought up something unexpected. We had taken a few group excursions to the hot springs in the past. Hell, we’d gone in the mornings a few times, too. I could understand why Elze would be so eager. She seemed extremely sweaty and had probably been working hard.

“Alright, shall we head off now, then?”

“Yeah!” I opened up a [Gate] to Reflet, exiting in front of the Silver Moon. Elze quickly headed inside and called out to Micah, who was manning reception. Since they were technically loaning the land used for the springs, we got to enter free of charge.

“I’m heading in, then!”

“Of course, take your time!” Elze cheerfully gathered her towel and washing gear from the counter, then headed into the women’s side of the springs. I wasn’t sweaty, so I didn’t particularly care for going in myself.

I decided to gossip with Micah a little bit, making sure everything was going well in town. Apparently there was never a shortage of customers, so the springs were more profitable than the lodging at this point. I wondered if the Silver Moon was becoming more of a bathhouse than an inn.

“Howdy there, long time no see.”

“Oh! Zanac? You here for a morning bath or something?” Zanac, owner of Fashion King Zanac, strolled out of the men’s side with a towel on his head.

“Mm, in a sense, I suppose. If I don’t come here in the morning and evening, my mood tends to get worse... I’m a regular regular! Ha!” Zanac gave a scattered laugh. Something suddenly occurred to me. With the effects of [Recovery] being infused into the bath, people in the springs would always feel great.

But, much like dosing someone with a small drug... maybe they’d feel withdrawal if it wasn’t a regular thing. I decided not to dwell on that thought too much, at any rate.

“Come to think of it, I’ve completed a new clothing design based on the concept you gave me. I think it came out quite well, actually.”

“Eheheh... is that right?” As he spoke, bubbles of mischief welled up inside me. I would have Micah cooperate with me for this little scheme, after I purchased the outfit from Zanac, of course. This would be fun indeed.

“E-Er, what is this?”

“Well, it’s a gift from me, of course.” Elze tugged a little at the hem of the outfit she’d gotten changed into. A red dress with a slit in the middle and a diagonally-buttoned collar. It was a cheongsam dress. Though the lower part was a bit shorter, so it was a mini-cheongsam, I supposed. A pair of high heel shoes had also been laid out for her. I based the size of the outfit on Micah, overall.

As I had expected, she wore it well. Moreover, the fact that she was a melee fighter made it look even better on her.

“Yeah, it suits you. You look very cute.”

“Wh-What are you saying all of a sudden?! A-And hey, don’t just swap out my clothes on a whim!” Elze suddenly looked down, her face blushing red. Her expression was an extremely shy one. She and Linze were definitely more alike than you’d expect.

It was the same back when I had her wear that gothic outfit. For whatever reason, despite liking cute clothing, Elze never wanted to wear them. I was convinced she didn’t want to because she felt they didn’t suit her. Therefore, I was forced to manufacture a situation in which she had to wear the clothes.

I had Micah take her regular clothing away, swapping them out with this new outfit. At first Elze was mad, but she quickly seemed more pleased.

“So, will you accept my gift?”

“...Y-Yeah. Thank you...” When she said that and looked up at me with her puppy-dog eyes, I was filled with the desire to cuddle her! But... there were people around, so I was way too embarrassed to do something like that. We put her old clothing in a bag, opened up a [Gate], and left the Silver Moon.

After we came out the other side, in the garden of our home, Elze wobbled a bit. It seemed she wasn’t used to heels. She clung to my arm for support.

“I-Is it... okay if I... stay like this for a wh-while?” I had no reason to refuse her. Even better, I felt a certain softness from a certain soft couple of things against my arm.

The early bird catches the worm, as they say. Today’s a great day. I’d be fine if the whole day ended now, even!

Her eyes were fixed on mine. She wasn’t even blinking, she was simply staring... the sensation was a little familiar.

“...What is it?”

“Wh-What?! N-Nothing! I-It’s nothing at all!” The girl’s cheeks flushed faintly pink.

“I... I don’t usually get a chance to interact with gentlemen such as yourself... So, please, forgive me if I seem rather tense...”

“...Don’t sweat it.” Seemed the girl was sheltered, which only made my suspicions more concrete... Just as I was about to ask her name, I heard someone charge through the door frame I had left in my wake.

“Princess!”

“Carol!” Carol barged into the room and ran over to the girl. It was as I had expected. The girl was the princess of the empire.

“Are you safe?! Are you hurt?! Who is that?” Carol motioned toward the uniformed man on the ground.

“He was here to kill me! But Touya here saved my life...”

“He what?! Unforgivable... to even lay a hand against the princess is high treason! I’ll kill him!”

“Hey, wait a sec!” Carol unsheathed her blade and brought it close to the unconscious man’s neck. I grabbed her by the collar and dragged her back. She was a frustrating person who didn’t think before she acted.

“So you’re the princess? That explains your general behavior.” I called out to the princess as I dragged Carol. I had a feeling it would end up like this.

“I am the Third Princess of the Regulus Empire. Lucia Leah Regulus. ...My apologies, but you don’t seem terribly surprised, Touya. Many people change their attitudes upon learning I’m royalty.”

“I’ve met two other princesses besides you, I guess I’m just getting used to it at this point.” Yeah, one’s my fiancee, and the other’s a freaky author.

“To know so many members of royalty... just who are you?” This time Carol was the surprised one. In all honesty, I had no idea how to define myself at this point. I felt as though my position on the political stage hadn’t exactly been well established. Tentatively, I was affiliated with Belfast due to my engagement to Yumina, but... I definitely didn’t want to become the king.

“Well, I can explain the details later. For the time being, shall we carry on? I can use transportation magic to send Princess Lucia to safety, if you want.”

“That would be wise, I think.” Carol started to ponder, I assumed she was thinking of safe places to send her, but the princess herself actually refused.

“I’ll go later on. I’m more worried about father and my elder brother right now. Let’s all go together.” Lucia spoke with bravery and determination in her voice. I thought it was a tad dangerous, but I probably needed her with me to get the crown prince and the emperor to trust me, as well. I decided that once we found her family, we’d all teleport back to my house and take refuge there.

I left Lucia’s safety to Carol and focused on the surrounding area. We returned to the main hall where I had parted from Carol, then continued down it.

“We only need to rescue the emperor and the crown prince, right?”

“That’s right. But I’d also like to keep an eye out for the state minister and the aides, too.” Carol answered me as we ran along. That reminded me, Lucia called herself the third princess, but where were the other two? I asked, and apparently her oldest sister had married off overseas, while her other sister was studying abroad. They were in countries on good terms with Regulus for the time being, but... But depending on what happened to the empire after the coup, anything could happen. The princesses abroad might even be forced home and subjected to who knows what.

We ran through the corridor and turned the corner. Five soldiers were waiting for us with drawn blades.

“It’s Lucia! Catch— no, slaughter the little bitch!” The soldiers turned their blades on us and charged in unison.

“That’s dangerous, you know.” I pulled out Brunhild and unloaded a barrage of paralyzing bullets. With a ra-ta-tat-tat, the men fell one after the other. It was pretty simple.

“Y-You killed all five so quickly...”

“It’s not like that. I only paralyzed them. Is the emperor nearby?” Carol was annoying me a little bit, so I asked Lucia a question.

“Yes, the room ahead is my father’s bedroom. He’s ill, so I haven’t been able to see him very much...”

“Is he diseased? Is it infectious?”

“No... he’s just very old and unwell. I think he doesn’t want me to see him like that. I’ve heard that he’s become very frail and weak as of late.” That was worrying... I had no idea how to proceed. The fact that there were five enemies waiting for us this far in didn’t exactly bode well for us. It was entirely possible that the army had made it in there and already slain the old man. I didn’t want to be responsible for exposing someone so young to her father’s potentially brutalized corpse. Lucia noticed my hesitation, and quickly grabbed me by the sleeve.

“I’m prepared to see it through, regardless of the consequences. If I don’t see my father with my own two eyes, even now... I’ll truly regret it. Therefore, I shall come with you.” The girl’s determination was nothing short of admirable, so I couldn’t say no to her after that. Steeling myself, I flung open the door.

The room was very spacious, clearly build for royalty. Several men were standing around a king-sized bed on the far wall, but they turned toward us as we entered.

They were all clad in military-style uniforms. Three regular soldiers, two men who looked like officers, and a single general. There were several corpses dotted around as well. They had been clad in armor, so presumably they were the royal guard.

There was an elderly man amongst them all, lying in the bed. He appeared to be neither a member of the army or the royal guard. It was likely the emperor of the Regulus Empire himself. If that was the case, then we were too late.

“And just who are you? You aren’t with the royal guard.” The man who appeared to be a general spoke up. He had sharp eyes and a hooked nose, kind of reminded me of a hawk, overall. He looked to be about forty years old.

“General Bazoar! Have you laid hands upon His Eminence the Emperor?!”

“Father...!” Carol furiously roared at the man, and I heard Lucia gasp in horror. So he was a general. I wondered if he was the mastermind behind the coup.

“Hmph, if it isn’t Princess Lucia and the stupid daughter of the Rillettes house. How vexing. I’m sure I had ordered both of you be killed.” The general frowned. It seemed he was annoyed by their survival. I wondered if Carol had a reputation... I gave her a cursory glance before looking back at the general.

“You’re the one behind all this, then? Tell me this, at least. Why? What are you doing this for?” I spoke my question right to General Bazoar’s face. In the end, I was an outsider to this situation. I had to hear him out in order to know which side was the right one.

“The emperor has a sickness. A sickness within his heart. He signed a peace treaty with Belfast and Roadmare, and he even hesitates when we say to trample on such agreements and conquer those territories! The emperor as he was in his prime would never have behaved this way. Truly, age is a frightening sickness with no cure.”

“...And just for that, you’d kill him?”

“For the sake of his people, an emperor must be strong. If he loses that strength, then he must move aside and make space at the table. A new emperor must take his place, one with true strength and drive.”

That’s not how it is, is it? This is just treason, it’s clearly a hostile takeover. The general must command more respect from the military than the emperor does, otherwise he would have never been able to kick off a revolt like this. An unwell old emperor with no plans for his people, and an unreliable crown prince... When you put them alongside a determined general who’ll stop at nothing to win... Well, it’s pretty clear which of those three has the biggest presence. Still, do these guys seriously intend to break the treaty and wage war?

“Belfast, Refreese, and Mismede all stand together in an alliance. Can you even hope to go against all three nations at once?”

“Of course I can! Do you think that I’ve been sitting by, idly twiddling my thumbs for the last twenty years of peace?” General Bazoar raised his right arm toward a nearby window and began to focus.

Oh, is he a magic user?! Wait, more importantly... what kind of magic is this?! I felt an immense pressure. This was clearly a greater force than I had encountered from any magic user before. What is this feeling...? My body feels... heavier, somehow?

“Come forth, Darkness! I seek a fiend of the highest order: [Demon Lord]!” The general spoke his incantation. As he finished his sentence, the window shattered to pieces and the room was engulfed in a white light.

When it finally subsided, the wall that the window had once been attached to was no more. More importantly, there was an enormous creature floating outside, clearly visible despite the fact that we were on the third floor. It had the head of a goat, the wings of a bat, the upper body of a well-built man, and the lower body of an owl.

What the hell is that thing?! He called it a Demon Lord? That’s an understatement, the damn thing looks like the Devil himself!

“I-Impossible...! How could he forge a contract with such a creature? Wh-Where is he even getting the magic power to keep it on this plane?” Lucia mumbled to herself, awestruck and horrified. She had a point. Lizardmen, Silver Wolves, and Skeletons were standard summons, but this thing was on another level entirely. I had no idea where the general was getting this kind of magical energy.

“Contracting with the beast was a trifling matter. I simply offered it living sacrifices. Criminals of our great city were offered up as fodder for the creature. The emperor stubbornly opposed the idea, of course. But think of the potential. If one could contract a Greater Demon, then one could also control Lesser Demons vicariously. After fulfilling the contract conditions and feeding the beast with as many lives as it desired, I was able to successfully collar it. And now, an entire army of monsters is at my disposal! As for the magic...” General Bazoar held up his right arm and pulled back the sleeve. He lifted it up to show us a beautiful bracelet wrapped around his wrist. A stunning red gem was fixed on to it, which shimmered with a terrifying glint. Is that... an Artifact?!

“This Drainbracer absorbs the magic energy from places and people around me. Little by little, it has drained the magic from everyone in the vicinity. You people are the ones maintaining the Demon Lord.” It drains magic? That explains the weird feeling from before, I guess... That’s bad news, though. I should get out of here or he’ll just gain more magic.

I noticed that Lucia and Carol had fallen to their knees. It looked like they were becoming weaker with every bid of energy they lost.

My magic had already regenerated enough, but there’d be little point in using [Transfer] on the girls. Any magic I gave back to them would just be sapped away again.

Then there’s only one thing to do... I’m gonna have to wipe it out at the source!

“[Apport]!” I tried to pull the Drainbracer away with magic. Instead of what was supposed to happen, a strange sound reverberated near the general, and the spell failed completely.

“Hm? My my, you little whelp. You still have magic to spare? It’s unfortunate for you that such things will not work on me at all. Why do you think I chose a demon of all things to contract with?” The general gestured toward the monstrous creature that was still hovering in the air nearby.

“This Demon Lord has a special trait. It’s called Magical Nullification. Magic attacks, and the effects of enchanted weaponry, have no effect at all on it. And, as its master and contractor, the ability now extends to me!” Magical Nullification?! How am I supposed to do anything against that?! Guess I have to use physical attacks, then...

I pulled out Brunhild and reloaded it with paralyzing bullets. If magic didn’t do anything, that was likely my best bet.

“Hm?” I pulled the trigger on the general. The gun echoed out, and... the bullet struck an invisible wall in front of the general’s face. The hell was that?!

“Hm? Was that some kind of projectile weapon just now? You thought you’d switch to physical after failing to strike me with magic? How unfortunate.” The general rolled up his left sleeve to reveal another bracelet with a different red gemstone set into it.

“This is my Blockbracer. It forms an invisible barrier equal to the level of the magic poured in, nullifying all physical damage entirely. My Drainbracer absorbs magic, my Demon Lord grants me a resistance to all magical attacks, and my Blockbracer resists all physical strikes! This is my holy trinity! My ultimate defense! I cannot be damaged, regardless of the means employed!”

H-He’s gotta be lying, right?! That can’t be possible! I mean, I’m not exactly in a position to be saying anything at all about this, but doesn’t that sound kind of cheap? He’s way too overpowered! That’s not fair at all! And he’s using me as a magic battery, too! No fair! So even if I used [Gravity] to do an extremely heavy or powerful attack, he could just use my own magic to generate a shield to block it. Wait, does that make sense? How can he draw that much magic out of me at once? Well, I guess others are supplying magic to him, as well...

Tsk... this is bad. If only I could get rid of his damn bracelets.

“I don’t know where you hail from, but you can’t be allowed to leave alive. You’ll become fodder for the Demon Lord, another sacrifice for the pile.”

“Then what? You plan to summon a monster army and wage war? How many of the innocent citizens of this nation do you plan to sacrifice?!”

“I’m not sacrificing the citizens, the only ones that died so far were criminals. In life they were trash, of no use to our glorious empire. Is it not better for them to die for the sake of my ambition? But if that’s your concern, worry not. We’ll be using Belfast’s soldiers as sacrificial fodder soon enough!” The general laughed heartily. It was at this point that I realized he was nothing more than a madman with a lust for carnage.

I didn’t know whether the coup was righteous or not, but his tirade sealed the deal. It was wrong.

Using and abusing the lives of others for one’s own ends was simply an unforgivable sin.

“Uuh...” The emperor, who was out cold on the floor behind the general, moved his foot very slightly. Is he alive?! Neither the general nor his companions seemed to notice. I decided then that my priority should shift to saving the emperor. The two behind me seemed to be on the edge of consciousness themselves, so it seemed like their magic reserves were at their limit.

“Invoke [Gate]. Target three individuals. Emperor, Lucia, and Carol. Send them to my home, just outside.”

“Copy that. Invoking [Gate].”

“What?!” A light appeared around the three individuals, and they vanished in a flash.

“You wretch, you can even use transportation magic?!”

“That’s right. I’ll be retreating just for today, but don’t think for a minute that I’m done with you.” I reloaded Brunhild with a different set of bullets. I leveled my gun and aimed it at the general.

“Foolish child, it’s futile! For as long as I wear the Blockbracer on my wrist, you cannot lay a scratch upon me!”

“Fine. It may not be possible to damage your body, but... I’m sure I can still do a number on your pride.”

“...What the devil are you talking about, boy?” A cruel grin spread across my face. I lowered the aim of my weapon, then fired near his feet.

“[Slip].”

“Augh!” The general fell with a magnificent thump. He put his hand to the ground and tried to get up again, but the bullet I had fired was programmed to create a frictionless zone in a wide area. It didn’t matter where the general put his hands, his feet, his anything. He was entirely at my mercy now.

“G-General! Don’t worry!” His allies ran to help him... like idiotic lambs to the slaughter. The magic effect wasn’t just focused on the general, after all. It was an area of effect spell.

“Whuh!”

“Gah!” As expected, they were pulled into the slippery hell and began to fall over repeatedly. They didn’t have a Blockbracer like the general did, so they’d definitely take some damage after bashing into the ground repeatedly for a while.

“Ohoho... Ahahaha!!! Yes, writhe! Fall forever! Keep dancing this pathetic dance until you die!” I said a few dramatic things to try and provoke him, but he didn’t bite. He could have used his Drainbracer to absorb the magic I’d imbued into the ground, but he didn’t seem to realize. I didn’t have any obligation to tell him, though.

“Demon Lord!” The goat-headed monster reached for me in response to his master’s call. That wasn’t good. I didn’t think [Slip] would work on things in the air.

This thing could definitely be damaged by physical attacks, though. Still, the general would probably be able to call it back if I defeated it... And so, I decided to do the only thing I could do.

“Farewell, dear gentlemen! But don’t think you’ve seen the last of me! Soon enough the Hammer of Babylon shall descend upon you! The thunder of my vengeance shall bear upon you with the gust of a thousand winds! Live in fear until then, vermin! Fuhahaha!!!”

I got a little too into it.

Just before I left, I conjured up a mirage to shock their senses. The image I created was that of cockroaches, maggots, centipedes, and other disgusting squirming animals, all over the floor. That was my parting gift.

“Eek!!! Augugh!!!”

“B-Bugs! They’re everywhere!!!”

“Y-You son of a...! I’ll g-get you for this!” They let out their anguished cries in response to my abuse. Either way, their suffering made me feel a lot better.

I opened a [Gate] beneath me and escaped.

I landed in my garden, looking over to see that Lucia was by her father’s side. He looked pale and cold.

“F-Father! Father...!” The situation was looking grim. It seemed I needed to treat him immediately. Lucia was clutching one of his hands, so I bent down and grabbed the other.

“Come forth, Light! Calm of the Goddess: [Mega Heal]!” My advanced recovery spell created a beautiful light that wrapped around the emperor’s body. The stab wound on his side sealed itself up. Even so, that spell wasn’t enough on its own.

“[Recovery].” I cast another spell just in case there were any unusual effects on him. Now there was nothing else I could do. It was all down to the man himself at that point.

I had the emperor moved to a guest room, then quickly put him in bed. After that, I told Laim to contact the Royal Palace and bring Doctor Raul, then brought Lucia and Carol to the emperor’s room.

While I waited for Raul to arrive, I gathered everyone together in the living room. Then, I gave them all a brief overview of the situation.

“Geez, Touya... why do you keep sticking your nose into these crazy circumstances?” Elze sighed.

It’s not like I’m sticking my nose into things! It’s more like things keep sticking to my nose!

“Even so, disregarding the trouble in the empire... what about the prince?” Linze muttered her concerns, but all I could do was pray. I’d have preferred to teleport everyone out to safety, but I hadn’t seen the prince before, so I was unable to include him in the mass recall.

“But this is terrible... What if the empire makes a move against Belfast soon?”

“The demon army is the most important thing, here. We need to take care of that before anything else.” The easiest way to do that would be to defeat General Bazoar, but... Magic attacks did nothing, and I couldn’t think of a way to defeat him with physical attacks, either.

If I were to use [Gate] and drop him from a great height, his Blockbracer would nullify the damage. Plus, it’s way more likely that he’d summon that Demon Lord before that. Then he could just fly off and make a retreat. [Gravity] would likely have the same lack of effect. Man, what a pain in the ass.

Spells like [Slip] and [Mirage] worked fine, probably because they were indirect. It was pretty clear that I had to think of something, but more importantly than that... I obviously had to report this to the king of Belfast.

A military coup in the Empire was an enormous deal, and the king had to be informed about the rise of a demon army, as well.

But should I tell him about Lucia and the emperor...? They do have a tentative peace treaty, but they’re former enemies as well...

I briefly entertained the idea of what might happen if the king wanted them out of the country. I decided I’d just let them take refuge in Babylon. I didn’t want to ally myself with any particular nation, but I definitely couldn’t give up on an injured person just like that.

As I was thinking, Laim brought over Doctor Raul. I figured it was best to leave the rest to the professional. In the meantime, I had some planning to do. I had to devise a way to defeat the Demon Lord, as well as the general controlling him.

Can I get those Artifacts off that general and manage to beat him, too...? Actually... hold on, it might be easier than I expected... Definitely might need some prep time, but I think I can do it... I carefully mulled over my idea and came to a solid conclusion. Yup, that should do.

I had formulated my plan. Harassing people wasn’t exactly the classy thing to do, but I suddenly imagined the face of the general, weeping and begging. It was hilarious. Before I knew it, a sadistic grin was spread across my face. Everyone that looked at me kind of backed off a little.

What, do I look that weird?

◇　◇　◇

“His condition is stable for now. He just needs some bedrest and time to recuperate. He’ll be awake soon enough, I’m quite sure.” Raul put his stethoscope down and gave us the prognosis. By all rights, the emperor should have been riddled with an illness, but apparently there was nothing symptomatic of that at all.

I wondered if it was the effect of the [Recovery] spell I had used on him. But it shouldn’t have been able to purge sickness or disease from the body. I once tried to use it on Linze to get rid of a cold, but it did nothing.

[Recovery] was one of those spells where the details were a bit obscure. I wasn’t exactly a medical specialist, though, so I didn’t have a handle on the intricacies of disease classification. Viruses and tumors might have been a whole other ballgame. I decided not to worry about it too much, since the end result was clearly positive either way.

“Goodness me... I never did think I’d be treating the emperor of Regulus... Life certainly comes at you fast.” Doc Raul gave a small wry smile as he spoke. I asked him to keep this matter a secret from the rest of the palace, just for the time being. The plan was to inform the king of the situation once the emperor woke up.

From a medical perspective, he probably understood that we wouldn’t want to put any unnecessary strain on the patient. Yumina’s presence probably helped boost his confidence, at least.

Lucia sat by her father the entire time, nursing him gently by the bedside. Naturally, Carol stood by the girl throughout all of this as well.

“Princess Lucia... You should take some time to rest, If you end up passing out from exhaustion, your dad’ll get worried, won’t he?”

“A-Alright, then... Erm, could you please call me Lu? I-If that’s okay, I mean.” The princess looked up at me with innocent eyes and a hesitant tone of voice. Well, if that’s what she wants, I don’t mind.

“Alrighty then! Lu, was it? That’s nice.”

“Y-Yes, thank you. That’s much better.” Lu looked up with a smile. I noticed someone staring right at me through a crack in the door. That someone was looking right through me. It was unsettling, honestly. Whoa, that’s scary! I-Is that Yumina? Why’s she glaring like that...?

With that, the door opened and Yumina strolled in. She stood before Lu and bowed with decorum and grace.

“A pleasure to meet you. I am Yumina Urnea Belfast, princess of the Kingdom of Belfast. Daughter of Tristwyn Urnes Belfast, king of the Kingdom of Belfast.” Carol and Lu both went stiff at the sudden introduction, but quickly snapped out of it. After a few short moments, Lu stood up and bowed in return.

“Good tidings and a pleasure to make your acquaintance. I am Lucia Leah Regulus, third princess of the Regulus Empire. Daughter of Zephyrus Loah Regulus, emperor of the Regulus Empire.”

Heh, so this is a formal greeting between royals, is it? It’s more adorable than beautiful or awe-inspiring, though. Probably because of their age, actually.

“I’ve heard the news, how horrible. I’m quite glad you’re safe.”

“Thank you. Thanks to the assistance of Sir Touya here, I managed to escape to safety.” Lu smiled like a flower in full bloom.

“Indeed, that’s wonderful to know. It makes me happy that my fiance is so selfless. Touya is a wonderful fiance indeed.”

“A-Ah... I-I see...” The flower wilted immediately.

Is she okay?

“My dear Lucia, would you please join me in my private quarters for a while? I think we have a matter to discuss.”

“H-Huh? Right then, of course!” Lu hastily followed behind Yumina. After the door closed, Doc Raul muttered something under his breath.

“...Catfight...”

“P-Please don’t make jokes like that.” I personally didn’t find this to be a laughing matter.

“Well, no matter how you look at it, you’ve swayed that little princess from Regulus. Two princesses enamored by the same man... It’s a recipe for trouble indeed.” Wait, seriously?! I thought she was just uneasy because I saved her life!

“...You think Yumina noticed?”

“Sorry kid, but she definitely has. She’s a little lady, but her ability to sense rivals is pretty well-honed, I think.” That’s... troubling. I hope those two’ll be okay. A sense of unease suddenly washed over me.

It’s not like I can imagine Yumina yelling something like “Hands off, you hussy!” or something... I was still a bit worried, though.

“...I don’t feel so good.”

“Need a medical checkup?” That wasn’t what I meant.

“Doc, if you wanna head back to the castle we can go through a [Gate]. I should probably report to the king, anyway.”

“I’ll take you up on that offer, then.” I left the emperor in Carol’s care and headed through the [Gate] to the royal palace. Then, I immediately reported in to the king.

“And that’s what’s going on in the Regulus Empire right now...” I explained most of the situation and proposed that a defensive line be drawn on the border closest to the empire. I also recommended that they focus on magical troops to prevent frontline casualties. After that, I made several Gate Mirrors for ease of communication.

Gate Mirrors were small mirror pairs that I had enchanted with [Gate]. If a letter was sent through one, it would come out the other.

If one was sent out to a fort or the front lines, it would allow near-instant contact with the capital.

“Hmph... to have such good news and bad news all in a short timespan... What a day this has been,” His Majesty the King muttered with a small sigh.

Hm? I only brought bad news, though... What’s the good?

“Well, I’ll be blunt. Yumina is going to have a little brother or sister.”

“Whuh?” I exclaimed.

The king gave me a small grin. He seemed a bit embarrassed.

“Heheh... congratulations! I hope your wife gives birth to a strong successor.” If it’s a boy, the likelihood of me having to take the throne’ll go way down. That’s just fine by me.

“Hm... my feelings are somewhat mixed. If you succeeded me, Touya, I’d be quite happy.”

“But if you have a boy, he’ll take the throne, right?”

“Hoho, so you’re saying if we have a girl, you’ll be taking the throne?”

“...No, that’s not what I meant!” The king’s argument was a little irritating. He shouldn’t have been assigning roles to people who hadn’t even been born yet.

“So, what does the emperor intend to do...?”

“Uhh... I’m not sure what’s going on there. He either fled with his daughter or was executed, the details are hazy.” I gave as vague an answer as I could. I wanted to wait until the emperor was at least stable and conscious before explaining everything.

“For now, the general has an army and something needs to be done about that. If I defeat him, then the invasion should be prevented.”

“Hoho... you seem quite confident, lad! I trust you have a plan, then?”

“Well, I won’t know until I give it a shot...” I left the royal palace after giving yet another vague answer as to my intentions.

The Demon Lord nullified all magic, but I still felt I could take it out with physical force instead. I couldn’t use [Gravity] on it, but maybe dropping something really heavy from above would do the trick...

But even if I defeated the creature itself, the general would probably still have that passive magic resistance. On top of that, his Drainbracer would just absorb all the magic in the area and call the Demon Lord back immediately.

Everything in this world had magic in it, no matter how miniscule. Animals, plants, tiny insects... all of these things had magical energy. Alone they were nothing worth noting, but combined they were great. If his bracelet could passively absorb magic from everything in the vicinity, then it gave him a fearsome power indeed. It was the very nature of magic that made the Drainbracer something truly formidable.

The Blockbracer was another matter entirely. At first I thought it was preventing my bullets, but it was a bit different. The barrier generated itself depending on what hit the general. If his whole body was hit, then it’d deploy across his whole body.

It didn’t seem to fully block damage when I made him slip over, though... He continued to fall regardless of whether or not he was hurt. In general, it was a troublesome automatic shield, though. I had to do something about it.

There was nothing else for it, I’d have to use that.

Well... it definitely won’t be fun for him. He certainly won’t like it one bit. Hey, at least it won’t kill him! There’s one positive for him. Heheh... I’m looking forward to it already.

I decided to get ready for the battle ahead. I went home and asked Linze about a certain item that I hoped existed in this world. As it turned out, the item did not exist here, but there was something similar and considerably more powerful. It would be my ultimate weapon against him if magic proved impossible. I decided to head off and arrange it.

I scoured the marketplace in Sandora, and was finally able to obtain it. The old merchant begged me not to open it anywhere nearby, so I put it in [Storage]. I wanted to test it out before the big day, but I didn’t want it to go wrong or anything. I decided there was no need to get ahead of myself.

I headed off to the workshop and had Rosetta create several thick iron plates. I then enchanted them with [Invisible] and made them completely transparent. I had basically created reinforced metal with the visible properties of glass.

I didn’t really understand the technical aspects of the spell that Leen often tried to explain to me, but it was good enough as glass for me.

I was amazed to find that no matter how thick I made the sheet, it was completely see-through. I could probably set up some kind of aquarium through this method.

Instead of getting sidetracked, however, I focused on my goal. I put the item I had bought in Sandora right in the middle, then finished the whole thing off with [Modeling].

After it was complete, I quickly stashed my secret weapon in [Storage].

“Hmm, you said something about the Drainbracer and the Blockbracer...” Rosetta suddenly tilted her head and folded her arms.

“Hm? Do you know something about them?”

“I’m pretty sure those things were meant to be inside the Storehouse of Babylon, yessir!”

“Wait, what?” Seriously? Did those bracelets just fall out of the sky into his hands or something?!

“Well, sir! It’s been thousands of years, sir! There’s no guarantee the storehouse is even still intact, sir! It may be that various artifacts and other such things fell out and are now all over the place, sir yessir!”

“Wait a second... have you ever heard of an artifact that grants its owner immortality and control over the dead?”

“Yessir! That’s definitely in the storehouse! Doctor Babylon sealed that one in there good and tight, sir!” I knew it! So the crisis in Eashen was caused by that, too? Wait, doesn’t that mean the storehouse might’ve crashed, or burst open, or something? That also means there might still be a ton of dangerous artifacts out there being spewed out even now, doesn’t it...?

“If it crashed, what about the gynoid managing the place?”

“We have short-range emergency teleportation capabilities, so it’s possible she escaped, sir! However... The one in charge of the storehouse is quite a careless and unruly girl, sir! So it’s also possible that the artifacts fell to the ground through other means...”

Sounds like a troublesome robo-girl... Though, Cesca and Rosetta are just as bad, really.

Oh well, no point worrying about it right now. Not like I can do anything.

All that aside, my weapon against the general was ready. Evening fell, so I returned to my home with Rosetta, and it was here that Carol told me the emperor had finally woken up.

I was glad he’d woken up, but I was still a little concerned. Carol set those fears to rest, however. She said he looked better than ever and was even ready to talk.

She followed behind me as I entered the spare room with the emperor in it. He was there having a casual conversation with his daughter. He actually looked very well.

“T-Touya, my father has awakened!”

“Oh? This is the fabled Mochizuki Touya?” Lu turned around with a huge smile plastered on her face, while the emperor regarded me quietly. He had a gaunt face and a long, white beard. He almost looked like a mountain hermit.

“Please accept my most sincere words of thanks. You saved my daughter, you saved me... Words alone are not enough, but even so...!” He bowed his head to me. Honestly, it was all a tad embarrassing.

“Don’t mind it, Your Highness. I happened to be in your capital on a shopping errand.” No matter how you looked at it, it was just a coincidence. If I was there a day earlier, it would’ve been a very different story.

“Regardless, I am thankful. To have had such a horrible thing happen, it indeed fills my heart with regret.”

“So, what do you want to do now? I haven’t informed the Belfastian government of your whereabouts just yet. If you have somewhere you’d prefer to escape to, I can open up a [Gate] and take you there instead.” The emperor suddenly stopped and stared at me.

Is there something on my face?

“Touya... are you not an agent of Belfast?”

“I live here, so I guess I could be called a citizen. But aside from that, I don’t serve the country formally or anything. I’m friendly with the king, but I don’t like to get involved in political affairs.” I figured he should go seek asylum in a safe place away from any political issues. Maybe he could go and see his second daughter, who was studying abroad or something.

The emperor took a small while to think, then finally gave me his conclusion. “I would like to meet with the king of Belfast. Ideally, I’d like to meet him confidentially... Could you arrange this, perhaps?”

“I mean, I could probably arrange that, but... Is that really fine with you?”

“I think so, yes. It’s about time I spoke with him anyway, about the past, and our future together.”

Hm... it’s not too late, so the king is probably still available... I decided that I’d take Yumina with me and speak to her father. I left the emperor and went off to find her.

“Excuse me, can you repeat what you just said?”

“Er, well... I’ve been granting political asylum to the Regulus emperor and his youngest daughter. I, er... I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner.” The king was completely surprised by what I had told him. He wasn’t entirely sure how to take it.

“The Regulus emperor? In my capital? Today is just one surprise after the other, isn’t it...?” I couldn’t really say anything about that. Everything other than the queen getting pregnant was kind of my fault anyway... Well, not kind of. It was totally all my fault.

“So, the emperor wishes to meet with you, Your Highness. What do you wish to do?”

“The emperor wishes to meet, does he?” The king slouched slightly, lacing his fingers together with a sigh. He pondered for a while, then stood up as if he’d made a final decision.

“There’s no point in running from this. I’ll open up negotiations with him.”

“Alright, let’s go to my house.” I used [Gate] to bring us directly to the emperor’s temporary room.

The emperor, who was laying in bed, was initially startled by the sudden appearance of my portal. He was even more surprised when we passed through it. The two monarchs locked eyes and, after a short while, the emperor averted his gaze and bowed his head.

“Please excuse my sorry state, O king of Belfast. I have brought trouble for your nation, it would seem.”

“Fret not, O emperor of Regulus. I’ve heard the circumstances from Touya, and I know you are not to blame.” The king sat on a chair at the bedside. A high-level political discussion was clearly about to take place. I left the room. It was best to leave the two royal families to sort this out.

Carol stood guard outside the door. She was initially surprised when she saw me come out of the room, since I’d entered through a [Gate] and all. I figured she’d get used to it, so I didn’t mind too much.

“Don’t go inside, the emperor is having a political discussion with the king of Belfast.”

“You what?! When did that happen?!” Carol suddenly spoke up in surprise. She had a habit of overreacting to the tiniest things.

Suddenly, my eyes drifted toward her sword, and I was reminded of something. It was that crest on her blade’s guard. I couldn’t shake the feeling that I’d seen it before. Now where did I... Oh, right!

“Excuse me, Carol? What does the emblem on your sword there mean?”

“Hm? You mean the Rillettes family crest? What of it?” She let me look at it up close. It was definitely the same one that I’d seen before. The one that Renne had on her.

“I’ve seen this crest somewhere else before, Carol. On a pendant.”

“What?! Was it a wind spellstone?! Tell me, now! Where’s the owner, where is she?!” Her eyes suddenly grew sharp and focused, and Carol began marching toward me with passion in her tone. She clearly had her reasons, but I didn’t know them yet, so I decide not to mention Renne to her.

“The owner died of an illness. I’m sorry, she was sick.”

“Oh... I-I see...” In response to my words, Carol faltered and the strength seemed to drain from her body. The person must have meant a lot to her.

“The owner of that pendant was my elder sister. When we were younger, our stubborn and strict father expelled her from our household.”

Her older sister, huh...? No wonder she seemed so desperate. Hmm... does that mean Renne is Carol’s niece? They don’t exactly look alike. Carol is blonde, but Renne has auburn hair. I wonder if she took that from her dad’s side.

“Is the Rillettes family a noble house in the Regulus Empire?”

“The house isn’t especially affluent or anything, but we’re descended from one of the Twelve Blades of the Empire.”

“Hm? What’s that?”

“I doubt the people of Belfast would know much about it, but the Twelve Blades were the people who supported the first emperor and helped found the nation to begin with. Kir Rillettes the Twinblade was one of those men, and he’s my ancestor. But the descendants of the Twelve Blades are really just nobles in name only these days...” Carol let out a small laugh as she spoke.

So they’re noble, but they’re still impoverished and largely obscure... Even Laim didn’t know what their crest was.

“So my elder sister passed away... Our father fought with her until the day he died, and they never reconciled their feelings... On his deathbed, he named it as his biggest regret... I can only hope they made up on the other side.”

“Ah, er... well, about your sister... She has a daughter, which means you have a niece. The girl’s actually here, right now...”

“......Say what?” Carol was at a loss for words. She just stared. I wasn’t too surprised. After all, it must’ve been a lot to take in.

Just then, in a case of terrible or excellent timing, Renne came charging through the hall.

“Oi, Bruv— Touy— Er, Sir! Dinner’s ready!”

“Ah, thanks, Renne. I’ll get it soon.” Renne gave a short bow to Carol and myself. Carol followed the girl with her gaze, until she turned the corner. Then, she returned to looking at me.

“That’s your niece. Her name’s Renne. Before I hired her, she was living in the slums and picking pockets.”

“What...?!”

“She had to do what she could to survive. Her dad was an adventurer who never came back from a particularly difficult mission. But even though she was on the edge of poverty, she still treasured her mother’s pendant above all else.” Carol looked over at the spot where Renne just was.

“...Would it be fine with you if I spoke to the girl?”

“Right now? I can call her, if you like.”

“No, not while the empire is in such a state. I want everything settled first. I’m glad she’s here, actually. It seems to be a safe and happy place for her. But I would like her to meet my mother. The girl... her hair is reddish, and her eyes are different, but she looks almost the spitting image of my sister.”

Carol’s mother... So that’s Renne’s grandma, right? I hope they get to meet each other soon.

As I thought about that, Yumina appeared in the hallway.

“Touya, my father and the emperor are asking for you.”

“For me?” What do they want? I deliberately left the room to avoid being roped into this!

The emperor was seated on his bed, seemingly relaxed. The king looked equally relaxed on the bedside chair, as well. The two of them seemed quite calm, given the situation. I wondered if negotiations had finished already.

“Touya, about earlier today...”

“Hm? What about earlier?” I didn’t understand what the king was getting at, since a lot had happened today already.

“Is it true? The king here says that you had some kind of plan. A plan to defeat General Bazoar.” The emperor chimed in to clarify what the king had meant. Oh, that.

“Well, yes. I’m pretty sure I can defeat the general. I can probably take all power away from the army, too. I feel like I could take back the capital in less than a day. Probably tomorrow, honestly.”

“Excuse me?!” Everyone, aside from Yumina, stiffened with shock. Yumina proudly puffed out her chest as if to say “That’s my man!” to the room. Heh... they’re growing a little.

“I’m curious. The members of the army that joined the coup... Do you intend to punish them all?”

“Not to the same extent. The general’s execution is inevitable, as he’s the mastermind, but I think I’ll simply banish the soldiers that joined the coup.”

Dismissing them, not a bad call... Pretty fair, really. It’s close to half of their standing army force, so it’s not like they can’t recover those numbers over time.

“Display map. Regulus Empire. Heart of the Empire.”

“Understood. Displaying map.” A map of the empire’s capital was projected in the middle of the room.

“Wh-What is this...?”

“A map of our capital...? This detail is incredible...!”

“This is one of my Null spells. Do you like this?” Lu and the emperor seemed extremely surprised and impressed. The king was quite shocked, as well. That was weird, as I could’ve sworn I’d shown him before.

“Run search. Royal Knights in blue. Standing Army in red.”

“Understood... Search complete. Displaying.” A red wave painted itself across the map of the capital. It felt like there were more people than there were last time I checked. They were likely called in from other towns across the country. In one corner of the castle, there was a concentrated cluster of blue points.

“What’s this?”

“It’s the underground dungeon. The remaining knights are likely there, but this can’t be right. There are so few of them... Did they flee? Or, were they killed...?” The emperor clenched his fists. He was understandably frustrated. Lu suddenly spoke up and asked me a question.

“Uhm, Touya...? Could you please look for my brother?”

“Well... yeah, I think I can do that, but... Does he have any distinguishing features? Something that would let me notice him right away as the crown prince.” The search function was based on my subjective perception, after all. It could find members of the army because I viewed people in military uniform as “members of the army.”

But because of that, I can’t exactly search for people I’ve never met or seen before. It’d be good if he had something that made him stand out. Like how Yae’s brother had a scar on his cheek.

“Something distinguishing...? Um... well, he has silvery hair, but...” Lu was thinking pretty hard. The emperor smiled a little as he saw her trying hard. I guess he didn’t stand out too much, after all. So there was nothing else for it. I just had to enter her memories.

“Lu. Can I have your hand for a moment?”

“Hm? Yes... ah...” I grasped her small hand in mine. Lu’s face suddenly turned a beet red, so I spoke up and tried to get her to calm down.

“Close your eyes and picture your brother for me. The most recent memory of him you can muster.”

“Y-Yes...” I pressed my forehead against Lu’s as she concentrated. Taking a memory from the emperor probably would’ve been easier, but I didn’t want to push my head against another guy. It just made me think of the Refreese princess. She’d surely have a field day with a concept like that.

“A-Ahh?!”

“Concentrate, now.”

“Y-Yes!!!” Honestly, Lu was pretty cute when she was flustered, but it wasn’t the time for that. I focused my energy and cast the spell.

“[Recall].” A vague face began to appear in my mind, and the image gradually grew more clear. His hair was a faint silver, but it wasn’t especially distinct... His face, on the other hand, was extremely gentle. “Wait... if this is the crown prince... then I’ve met him already.”

“What?!” Everyone in the room yelled out in surprise.

There’s no doubt about it. When the capital was under assault... I saved a young knight from a group of soldiers. And... that was the crown prince, apparently. Was he trying to escape in disguise?! Ah crap... I just left him there in a bed!

“Search. The empire’s crown prince.”

“Understood...... Search complete. Displaying.” A green pin fell down on the map of the capital. It was moving around, which meant he must have been alive. That was a relief.

“He’s alive, then... Where about is this?”

“That’s the home of our empire’s western general, Romero. Wonderful, it seems my son is safe.”

He’s safe? But he’s with the army... Just as I thought that, the emperor gave a chuckle. He then spoke up like a true mind-reader.

“Not every division of the army operated under General Bazoar. General Romero was a strong opposing force to Bazoar’s proposed plan to use demons to bolster our troops. He likely got a handle on the situation and offered refuge to my son.”

I see... So not every soldier blindly follows Bazoar. Guess that makes sense... He’ll be safe there for now, but I don’t think we have a lot of time left.

“Then we’ll head to the capital tomorrow morning.”

“W-W-Wait a moment! Are you sure that’s alright? The opposing army is massive, and they have the ability to call down demonic reinforcements!” The emperor flew into a panic and tried to stop me. I understood where he was coming from. If it was a normal person, I’d definitely have my doubts, too. But I had no intentions of losing. It was a similar situation in Eashen, as well.

“I’ll work it out, don’t worry. I have companions I trust, after all.” I glanced over at Yumina, and she gave me a firm nod. The emperor also seemed to be relieved by our confidence in one another.

“Tomorrow morning, then... Will you take me with you?”

“Are you sure about that? It’ll be dangerous. It’d probably be safer to wait here.”

“No, I have to see this through with my own eyes. It’s the very least I can do as the nation’s emperor.”

Hmph, if he’s gonna be like that... Well, I can’t just leave him here after that, but I can hardly put him out on the front lines either.

“Let’s have Belfast’s knight order serve as the emperor’s guardsmen. I wish to see Touya in battle, myself.” The king put forward an offer, and the emperor gratefully accepted. I guess things might be fine after all, then.

I decided that the following morning we’d head to the capital, along with the emperor and a group of Knights.

I used a [Gate] to see the king back off to the palace, then left the emperor’s room.

I went out on to the terrace and called over Kokuyou, Sango, and Kohaku. I had to ask them some questions about summoning magic. I wasn’t going to just go in with these guys, after all. I needed to call in reinforcements.

“So what you’re saying is... while the summoned beast is completely random, if you contract a high enough being from a certain family of creatures, then you can freely call upon any lower-level creature in that same family?”

“That’s correct. As my contracted lord, you can summon almost any kind of brutish beast, typically ones with fangs or claws.”

“And in our cassse, you can sssummon any beastsss with ssshells or ssscalesss.” Kokuyou and Kohaku explained their specializations to me. In effect, as an extension of my ability to call on them, I could call on any four-legged mammal or reptilian creature. To command such power... they really were worthy of their Heavenly Beast status.

“It would be bessst if you could contract with the massster of each family. That way, once you’ve granted their leader a name, the entire tribe would be at your disssposssal. The practice isssn’t just limited to demonsss, after all.” Kokuyou chuckled slightly as it spoke.

“Well, I’ll give it a try... Er... what should I go and summon?”

“If I might suggest one... Cerberus has excellent combat potential.”

Oh, I recognize that name. Cerberus is the guardian hound of Hades, right? Large, black, and three heads, if I recall correctly. I don’t see any harm in summoning him...

That afternoon, I summoned countless beasts. I summoned one, I named it, I summoned another, I named it... Frankly, I ended up naming them pretty randomly by the end. I hoped they’d forgive me, but wasn’t like I had a stockpile of names ready or anything...

After that, I went to bed early. I needed to be prepared for the next day.

Just like that, the next morning came. I stood atop a roof in a corner of the empire’s capital.

I took out my smartphone to confirm the time. It was eight in the morning. I tried to open up a portal straight to the castle, but it didn’t work. I wasn’t surprised. They knew I could teleport, so it was only natural they’d erect a barrier to counter it.

I was accompanied by Elze, Linze, Yae, Yumina, Kohaku, Kokuyou, and Sango. His Majesty the King of Belfast, as well as His Highness the Emperor of Regulus were there as well, accompanied by General Leon, Deputy Commander Neil, Lyon, and some other members of the Belfastian knight order. And, even though I didn’t want to bring her, Lu was here with Carol as her personal guard.

I told everyone other than my core party to wait here for the time being. I also left a [Gate] open by them, just in case we needed to perform a tactical retreat. It was programmed to close one minute after someone went through it, in order to prevent the enemy army from invading through it. I didn’t think it’d come to that, though.

“Now, for the declaration of war... Uhh... Video playback. In the sky above this city.”

“Understood. Playback initiating.” A great big screen was projected across the sky over the empire’s capital. It was about two hundred meters across. It was definitely big enough to see at a distance, I didn’t think it’d be appropriate to have such a large screen at close range, anyway.

I also included a loud audio track alongside the video, since I had to be sure that everyone below paid attention. The music I chose was Wagner’s “Ride of the Valkyries.” I reduced the volume of the backing music and faded in the audio from the video that we had recorded earlier that morning. The emperor appeared on the video feed.

“People of the Empire’s Heart. I am the Regulus Empire’s ruler, Zephyrus Loah Regulus. The situation is this. The standing army has staged a violent military coup. Please accept my most sincere apologies for the carnage caused in their name. I intend to quell this rebellion once and for all, so please stay safe until then. Be at ease, and rest easy. As I speak, my warriors make steps to retake the city from the insurgents. Remain within your homes.”

“Goodness, is that what I sound like?” The emperor turned to his daughter, seeming quite surprised. I shouldn’t have been too surprised he reacted this way. Few people in this world had heard their own voices, after all.

“Now, this is a message for the army staging the coup. I have my faults, I will readily admit that. And so, I will let your voices be heard, but this is not the way to get my attention. I will offer you one chance to surrender. If you remove your uniforms now, you will be pardoned. But for those of you who are still clad in your military uniforms by the time I count to ten... Well, I assure you my judgment shall be swift. The count begins now. One... two...” A smaller screen was projected in front of me, showing the uniformed soldiers marked in red on the map. The city was packed full of them, but one by one their numbers dropped. It seemed that many of them were listening to the emperor, and discarding their uniforms.

“The men who remain in their uniforms... are we to attack them?”

“We’ve no choice. But I’d prefer you to attack to detain or maim, rather than kill.”

“Very well.” The emperor image, high above our heads, continued counting up to ten. As he did, the red dots on my map began to reduce in number. Two thirds of the capital was still red, however.

“Nine... and ten. Your opportunity to surrender has now ended. We will proceed to retake the capital by force.” The giant screen disappeared alongside the giant emperor. A trumpet began to blare. This time it was Suppe’s “Light Cavalry Overture.”

Alrighty, time to begin.

“Lock on to the uniformed soldiers. Invoke [Paralysis].”

“Understood...... Target lock confirmed. Invoking [Paralysis].” There were various shrieks that echoed out across the capital city, but I noticed something strange. The red dots didn’t decrease in number at all.

What the hell is going on here? Oh, wait... obviously. Paralyzing them doesn’t change who they are. Soldiers are soldiers, regardless of whether or not they can walk.

“Display incapacitated soldiers as yellow pins.”

“Understood.” About half of the pins transformed into yellow ones. Less than I expected, actually. I figured that a surprising amount of soldiers had either magical talismans on them, or abnormally high magic resistance. That wasn’t promising.

“Touya-dono, over there!” Yae pointed over at the castle. The enormous Demon Lord was rampaging over it. Surrounding it was a massive swarm of demons, both in the sky and on the ground. There were a lot of them, a lot of different types too. I counted dozens upon dozens of them on my screen.

“Heh, I think it’s time we called out our own cavalry.” I focused my magic, and a magic circle appeared on the ground.

“Rend forth, Darkness. I seek a Guardian of Hell: [Cerberus]!” A dark mist began to ooze and pool from the magic circle, and a three-headed dog crawled out from it. Right now it was the size of a regular dog, but once it switched to battle mode it’d be the size of a lion.

I continued to call out the various creatures I had spent most of yesterday afternoon contracting with.

I called out groups of Lizardmen, a gang of Griffins, a troupe of Armored Turtles, a band of Blood Ligers, a platoon of Power Bear, and a regiment of Lizard Knights. By their powers combined, they were my very own monster army.

Come to think of it, is it really fair to call Kohaku and the others Heavenly Beasts? All we summoned were terrifying monsters! I guess I shouldn’t think too hard about it. I decided not to dwell on the issue, instead choosing to issue my next command.

“Target lock. The demons. Invoke [Shining Javelin].”

“Understood. Invoking [Shining Javelin].” Several magic circles appeared in the sky, and light rained down upon my foes... But the demons were unscathed.

“The attacks were repelled by an invisible barrier. No effect recorded.”

Well, that’s not surprising. The Demon Lord offers magical resistance to everything on its side. Just means we’ll have to lay a physical smackdown on them.

“Summoned beasts, you follow the orders of Kohaku, Kokuyou, and Sango. Yae and Elze, you join them. Yumina, Linze, you stand in the back lines with Cerberus and use long-ranged attacks through magic and guns. I’ll make a beeline for the Demon Lord and the general.”

Kokuyou, Sango, and Kohaku suddenly vanished in a puff of smoke. A popping sound rang out, and they reappeared in their full forms. It’d been a long time since they were last in their true forms, so I told them they could go all-out.

“Alright, I’ll be off.”

“...I’ll be counting on you.” I looked back at the emperor and informed him of my plans. Then, I hopped along the rooftops and headed for the front lines.

Elze, Yae, Sango, Kokuyou, and the ground troops charged along the city streets. Meanwhile, Kohaku, myself, and the Griffins made our way up along the rooftops toward a group of incoming flying demons.

“Don’t overdo it now, and remember... aim for their wings. The guys on the ground should be able to take them out once they fall.” I issued orders to the Griffins. The ground-based demons were engaging the others in the streets already, and a second group of flying ones was already inbound. I needed to take out the airborne ones as soon as possible.

“Erm... John, wait, are you John or Paul? Oh, George? Alright, uh... You three take the left flank. Ringo? You take the right!” The Griffins let out a war cry as they charged from two different sides. Griffins all looked the same to me, so it wasn’t exactly my fault! I made a mental note to buy them some differently colored collars.

As I jumped from roof to roof, I reached into [Storage] and pulled out a mithril greatsword. It was forty centimeters wide, and about two meters long. Mithril was light by default, and it became even lighter when I reduced its weight through [Gravity]. It turned this massive blade into a one-hander.

I used [Boost] to leap up high above an enemy demon. Then, as I plunged down toward it, I invoked [Gravity] to massively increase the weight of my weapon.

It was so powerful that the demon was cleaved in half instantly. I quickly changed the weight again and reduced it to a manageable amount.

Being able to change the weight of my weapon on the fly was exceptionally useful. A demon charged me from the right, so I quickly cleaved it in half, but it was a horizontal slice this time, rather than a vertical.

I needed to make sure the timing was right or I could really hurt my arms. I felt like I was getting the hang of it, though. Honestly I might’ve even been fine without using [Gravity], since the sword was doing a good job of slicing things.

Kohaku leaped up near me and sliced off a demon’s wings with a set of fearsome claws.

“Kohaku! I’ll leave the rest to you!”

“Very well! Good luck to you, my liege!”

I combined [Boost] and [Accel] to quickly make a beeline for the castle. I reasoned that if I could defeat the general, all the demons would disappear and the fight would be won.

I jumped from roof to roof, using the momentum to propel myself into the castle courtyard. After I touched down, a group of soldiers immediately surrounded me.

I quickly jumped up in the air and pulled out Brunhild, firing a salvo of paralysis bullets toward the men in the vicinity.

Well, if [Paralysis] doesn’t work, then I guess these bullets are useless too. I’ll have to hold back against them for the time being.

I had aroused the Demon Lord’s attention. It turned toward me and fired some kind of red beam out of its eyes.

Holy shit! The beam hit an area on the ground near me. It was smoldering. It has laser eyes?!

It kept firing waves of heat at me from a distance, while the smaller demons swarmed me from all angles.

I managed to cleave them apart fairly easily using my mithril greatsword. The normal demons were definitely not very strong. They were more of a pain in that ass than anything else, actually.

The Demon Lord finally stopped its barrage of heat. Guh... about damn time.

Electricity suddenly began to build up around its body. Seemed the Demon Lord’s horns were acting as some kind of lightning rod. Eventually, it built up a huge charge, and light flashed around its body in various enormous swirling masses.

I have no idea what it’s doing, but it doesn’t look safe at all... It’s gotta be charging something up, right?!

“Gruuugaaaaaaaah!!!” It attacked and let out what appeared to be several snaking blasts of lightning. I avoided the attacks, but they hit a building behind me and wreaked absolute havoc on a small neighborhood. Now it has a laser barrage...?

This was some next-level stuff. It must’ve been the Demon Lord’s ultimate attack. If it kept up like this, it could level the entire city.

“Nngh.” I felt a sudden sensation. My magical energy was being drawn out of my body. Is it absorbing my energy to make up for the charge it just let off? Is the general nearby and doing this?

Even if my magical power was absorbed, I’d be able to recover it near-instantly. In other words, the Demon Lord could launch as many bolts as it wanted.

It was a never-ending attack. It could make use of my own magic and use it against me.

I used [Accel Boost] to dash up the side of the castle wall like a ninja, then bounced off it.

I jumped up high above the monster’s head and turned my blade toward it. Then, I swung down the mithril greatsword right on its head.

“Time to sleep!” I brought the blade crashing down, and the Demon Lord fell to the ground. Even if it nullified magic, that meant nothing. This was still a sword, magic effect or not.

Though it clearly took harm, it didn’t seem to be seriously hurt. Well, one of its horns was sliced open, at least. To survive a blow like that, it must’ve been hardy indeed. It clearly had a thick skull.

The Demon Lord tried to steady itself with its arm and get back up, which was when I unloaded my final assault.

“[Slip].” Its arm slipped, bringing it crashing to the ground and exposing its shoulders and back. I leaped into action, cleaving off its wings with my blade.

“GyAaAAaauuUuuuUuggGGghhh!!!” As the Demon Lord screamed, I finished off the job by firing numerous [Slip] bullets at its feet.

The Demon Lord began to fall forever. It couldn’t fly away, as it no longer had wings. Nobody could possibly come to its aid.

Every time the beast fell, the ground rumbled and quaked. I’d have to apologize to anyone living in the vicinity later on.

Leaving the Demon Lord behind, I jumped up to the grand balcony. General Bazoar was up there, pale-faced and horrified.

“Ready for your divine punishment, General?”

“Wh-Who are you?! That was a Greater Demon! One man alone cannot possibly hope to...!”

“It doesn’t matter what you say, bozo. I still did it.” As I spoke, I gestured to the Demon Lord, which was still falling into infinity.

It did take a lot more than I expected, though... My mithril sword is all bent out of shape after that last attack! It’s seriously damaged...

“Hmph... you won’t be doing the same to me, however! My Blockbracer makes physical strikes meaningless, and I still have the ability to nullify spells! Even if that were to fail, my Drainbracer still absorbs any incoming magic anyway!”

Tch... guess he’s aware of how my [Slip] works now... Suppose that means he won’t be dancing to the same tune if I use it again.

“The emperor didn’t die, but it matters not. This is no longer his domain! I will become the new emperor. And then, I shall use the power of the demons to strike down Refreese, Belfast, Mismede, and all the other western nations! Under one banner, the Regulus Empire will be reborn! Reborn as the Bazoar Empire!” The general began to laugh like a madman.

How does he expect to maintain his army, exactly? He can’t just keep sacrificing people, it’s not sustainable! This man is completely delusional, there’s no saving him.

I saw no other options, so I elected to remove that from my storage. My secret weapon, a three-by-three meter cube, was now sitting on the balcony. Aside from the base, it was entirely made of a transparent, glass-like material. You could clearly see inside.

In the middle of this transparent box was a disgusting-looking Slime creature. It was discolored and almost looked toxic. Still, despite the coloration, it wasn’t actually poisonous at all. In fact, it was mostly harmless. Mostly harmless.

“Wh-What is that thing?”

“This, my friend, is a Sludge Slime. They’re a wonderful little part of a standard ecosystem. They live in water and clean it up. But, they do have one quite horrible thing about them. About one hour after death, they begin to exude one of the most foul odors known to man. Well, it’s supposed to go away after two hours, or so they say... But this one? Well, it died just about an hour ago.” As I explained, I smiled at the general and gave him a sidelong glare.

“Y-You wouldn’t dare...”

“[Gate].” A magical circle appeared beneath the general and he sank into it like quicksand. It didn’t target him directly, so the nullification didn’t activate. It was a spell that connected two places, after all... And my glorious scheme all hinged on where I’d just sent him.

The general instantly reappeared inside the glass box. And then, the show began.

“GHAGUAAAAAUUUGH!” From within the thick iron plating I had enchanted to look like glass, the general began to scream. He pinched his nose tight, but it was too late. His face turned paler than before and he began to sweat bullets.

“Ghaugh!! Wh-What’s this smell?! It— N-No! Please! It hurts! I-It hurts!” It must’ve stunk just as bad as I thought it would in there. The general began to turn purple.

My original world had something known as surstromming. It was a kind of fermented herring. The smell was said to be among the most atrocious in reality. But it seemed that the smell of the Sludge Slime was even worse than that. The general looked about ready to pass out already. I raised my brow slightly as I watched the man struggle. He attempted to focus his magic on one of the windows, but he fumbled it. It was impossible for him to channel vast magical energy with one hand, and he had his right hand firmly planted around his nose. Eventually, he gave up and began to sit in the corner of the box, rocking back and forth. He was crying.

I wondered if he was trying to wait it out, but I knew it’d be futile.

His surroundings were entirely composed of the foul stench. His face contorted in disgust and agony every time he took a breath. All he could inhale was the fetid, noxious odor of defeat.

“Auugh!!! Make it stop!!!” His stoic facade began to crumble. His face was slick with tears, sweat, and snot. There was a small [Gate] at the top of the box to allow fresh air inside, since I didn’t want him suffocating. I connected it to an unsettled place high in the mountains, so at most it would’ve upset some animals.

He began to convulse. He could no longer even concentrate on his own breathing. He fell to his knees and slumped forward. The whites of his eyes were showing, as they had rolled back into his head. He was completely passed out.

I had originally considered just sending him into the middle of the sea somewhere, but... He’d surely just summon the Demon Lord again and have it fly him off.

Then, I considered burying him in this box at the bottom of the sea, but I’d never been there, so wasn’t like opening the [Gate] would be especially easy, either.

Alright, guess he’s done, I’ll transport him out now... I opened up a [Gate] and warped him out, but I immediately regretted it.

“Ghaughaguh!?” What the hell is that smell?! It smells like a bunch of trash took a dump on a pile of used sanitary products! HOLY HELL MAKE IT STOP. I immediately closed the [Gate], but the smell didn’t stop. It’s coming from the general? Gross!

I quickly yanked the bracers off of him and put him back inside the container. The Sludge Slime was said to stop exuding a stink after being dead for two hours, but I seriously wondered otherwise about things the smell had infested. The stench was so strong that I was worried it’d never go away.

In seconds flat, the demon army vanished. The Demon Lord stopped slipping and faded into nothingness, too. With the bracers gone, the magical supply line had been cut.

With that, the demons were vanquished. Only the regular army remained.

I decided to open up a [Gate] and call the emperor and others through.

“You’ve actually done it... Incredible...” The emperor spoke in an astonished tone, staring at the general all the while.

“I-It certainly smells rather foul.” Lyon held his nose as he spoke.

“Sorry, it’s the Sludge Slime’s death stench... A little bit of the stink ended up getting out. Geez, it’s pretty potent.” The stink wafted out from the two Artifacts that the general once wore.

The Drainbracer and Blockbracer, huh...? They’re useful tools, no doubt about that, but... They stink. They stink really badly. Even my fingers stink slightly, and I barely touched them.

Given that this was the state of the bracelets, I dreaded to think about the general himself.

The Belfastian Knights headed underground to the dungeon to free the Regulus Knights. As they did that, the emperor and I set up on the balcony for another broadcast. We needed to update the people about the situation, after all.

This time, the broadcast was live. I held up my smartphone and started filming the emperor.

“Citizens of the Empire’s Heart, I apologize for what has transpired this day. The leader of the coup has been detained, and our capital city is once more in the hands of the just. Thank you for your understanding.” The projection panned over to show the general. He was unconscious, eyes rolled over white, snot running down his face, and drool leaking from his mouth. I hoped that the other members of the army would surrender after seeing something so horrid.

This might be seen as a little cruel, but... it’s necessary.

“I promise to you now that I will work harder. This shall never again happen to us as a people. From the bottom of my heart, please accept my sincere apologies. I am truly sorry.” The emperor bowed his head slightly.

Huh, he’s apologetic... I had honestly heard he was quite arrogant, but perhaps the illness had instilled some humility in him.

After the broadcast, the emperor looked over the general with sad eyes.

“Is something wrong?”

“It is nothing... I just feel this man is a pitiful sort. His feelings for the empire were sincere, I know that much. He joined the army at a young age and wanted to make a real difference. In some ways he reminds me of myself when I was younger. Had I not fallen ill, I may have ended up treading a similar path. It makes me sad to think about it...”

“Even so, this man’s crimes are unforgivable.” He summoned a legion of demons and monsters. Each one was summoned at the cost of several human lives, meaning he had to have slaughtered many people in his mad campaign. Not all of those people were condemned to jail or execution, either. And honestly, it wouldn’t really have been okay even if they were.

“I understand it well. A crime is a crime. He must atone for his sins. He has caused great sorrow to our people, and I will show no leniency.” The emperor let out a small, sad laugh. He was a victim in all of this too, after all.

“Milord!” A group of knights charged out onto the balcony and prostrated themselves immediately.

Oh, were these the ones who were confined in the dungeon? An older, black-haired man with one eye came forward and bowed down on one knee.

“Milord, how can this be?! You seem to be in full spirits once more!”

“I am rather well, Knight Commander Gaspar! It’s all thanks to the amazing young Touya, here. By his might, I am restored to full strength. It is also by his might that General Bazoar was vanquished!”

“What?!” The knight commander stared at me, wide-eyed and shocked. The emperor simply nodded and smiled. I wasn’t so sure that it was down to me, but... I figured it was probably that [Recovery] spell I cast.

Elze and Yae showed up, riding on Kohaku’s back. He was in his full form, after all. Sango and Kokuyou were floating nearby, but they were in their mini-forms.

“It’s all done, for now at least. Most of the soldiers collapsed!” Elze hopped off Kohaku and reported in.

Good. I’m glad the remaining soldiers have been taken care of. Even better to see these two are safe and sound.

“Now then, detain the unconscious soldiers. However, spare those that surrendered their arms during the initial call.”

“Yes, Milord!” The emperor issued an order to Knight Commander Gaspar, who departed at once.

I guess the riots’ll die down now... I’m glad that nothing major ended up happening in the end. Now I’ve got nothing to do but leave it to the people of the empire.

Oh, whoops... I gotta recall all those creatures I summoned first, don’t I...

All of the Regulus Empire’s soldiers who had collapsed were rounded up and placed in custody. They were immediately dishonorably discharged from the standing army, then interrogated about their other potential crimes.

Aside from a specific band of instigators, it was found that most soldiers simply went along with orders and didn’t partake in any serious criminal activity. Naturally, those who deliberately instigated the rebellion would be subject to the most grave of sentencings, but those who participated would have to be punished as well. Still, I was sure they’d be thankful to learn they weren’t going to be killed, at the very least.

The emperor ordered the remaining troops out to the various towns and cities within the country. Peacekeeping was the number one priority for the coming days, it seemed.

The captive heads of state were also freed from their confines. General Romero brought the crown prince back to the palace as well. When the boy saw me, he was taken aback. He really was the kid that I saved back during the crisis.

He had disguised himself as a knight in order to escape the castle, but because of that outfit he found himself under attack by the rebel soldiers.

I wasn’t thoroughly impressed by what I saw in him, to be honest. He didn’t have much of a commanding presence... But he did seem to have a gentle heart, so I was sure he’d turn out alright.

“We are truly, so truly, in your debt this day. Touya, you most dignified man... you have not only saved my life, but the life of my only son and daughter. Please, name your price. How might I reward you for this feat?”

“Please don’t worry about it, it just happened to turn out this way, honestly... It was more coincidence than heroism or anything.” I politely declined the emperor’s ludicrous offer. I didn’t really want anything at all from him. After hearing that, however, the king of Belfast let out a chuckle.

“Such things matter not to my boy Touya. Indeed, we tried to give him a noble position in Belfast, but he declined that as well. In the end, we managed to settle on a sizable home and a lump sum... But I’d prefer for him to settle on my daughter! Hohoho!”

“Ohoho... Then how about this, I would be honored if you would accept my Lucia. If both the princesses of Belfast and Regulus were joined to the same man, it would create a more powerful unification between the two nations than there has ever been before!”

“Now hold on a moment there.” The discussion started to go to weird places, so I was about to tell them to knock it off. Instead, however, Yumina was the one to speak up. I wondered what she was going to say.

“This is no mere political arrangement, I have spoken with Princess Lucia. She feels the same as I and the others do about Touya, and would therefore be more than happy to become his fiancee. You are indeed right, it would improve relations between our nations, but what’s important here is that it’s what she wants as well.” I was dumbstruck. What the hell was Yumina saying?

“I... think it’s fine, too...” uttered Elze.

“Y-Yes, as do I,” chimed Linze.

“I have no objections to such an arrangement, I do not,” spoke Yae. All the other girls who were engaged to marry me had spoken up in support of this new addition.

All I could think of in that moment was the simple line, “Et tu, Brute?” I’d been betrayed on the deepest possible level! I mean, why weren’t they considering my feelings in the matter?!

“W-Wait just a darned minute, don’t I get a say in this?!” The conversation seemed to be heading on a one-way track to “Touya’s opinions are invalid,” so I had to say something! In response, Lyon simply shrugged his shoulders and smiled wryly at me.

“Hmph... really, Sir Touya... this is your own fault, in a way.”

“What? How could this possibly be my fault?!”

“From the first moment I met you, Sir Touya, I realized that your power is abnormal. For a single country to be tied to such a... superhuman, it would only be perceived as a threat on an international scale. Try to see this from our perspective. If you’re viewed as dangerous, then Belfast would be viewed as dangerous. But if you were engaged to the princess of Regulus as well? Well, then we’d be able to say your power isn’t simply consolidated in one place, and that you aren’t going to instigate some kind of horrific war.”

“The Empire is the Empire, and the Kingdom is the Kingdom. No shady political dealings. It is a simple political alliance using Sir Touya’s body!” Knight Commander Gaspar continued on from where Lyon had left off. I could understand what they meant, but my opinion still had to count for something, surely! I glanced over at Lu, who was blushing madly and playing with her hair. Every so often she’d shoot a glance my way, as well. Ah, crap.

“Ahaha! Touya, my boy! There’s no real difference between the number four and the number five, is there? What’s there to worry about, lad?!”

“W-Well, even so, I don’t...” General Leon strutted over and smacked me hard on the back in his usual fashion. He seemed very upbeat about this whole thing. I couldn’t really think of a way out of the situation. But we’ve only known each other for two days, isn’t this a little sudden?! It’s a huge commitment...! Wait, I also got engaged to Yumina the same day I met her, didn’t I...? I-I guess that means... It’s okay...?

“What of you, Lucia my love? Are you against marrying brave young Touya?”

“Not even slightly, Father! I’m so happy that I might burst with pride and faint! I’ve never felt this excited in my life! I-I wish to be his and his alone!” Her hands were clasped in front of her chest, her eyes were practically glittering... there was steam shooting out of her nose...!

Oh, damn it... I don’t think I can get out of this at all, huh?

I couldn’t really begin to grasp how people in this world viewed marriage. In my world it was more of a sacred institution between two people, but here... it seemed much more light-hearted. Part of me was a little afraid of just how different this world was from my old one on a social level.

“Well then, what say you? Will you accept my Lucia into your arms and take her as your bride?”

“Hrmph... w-well, can we at least wait until I’m eighteen until any ceremonies happen, please?”

“That’s no problem to me! It’s settled, then.” It’s not like we actually had to wait until I was eighteen or anything, but I needed to put up some kind of resistance or I’d look like a complete pushover.

Gah, Lu’s running off to join the other girls already?! Th-They became friends pretty fast, huh... What is this, a “let’s marry Touya” club?!

“Very well, then. I would like to offer you another reward alongside this, naturally. Now that my Empire and the Kingdom of Belfast are on equal footing, I’m sure we’ll have a lasting alliance.” What the emperor said was something truly astounding. With this, almost all of the major western powers would be unified. Belfast, Mismede, Refreese, and now Regulus, all connected peacefully...

“In addition, we will formally announce your engagement to both Lucia and my Yumina in both nations. Due to this, it is prudent that we grant you a true, proper title. I spoke with the emperor of Regulus, and we’ve both agreed to split off some of our own territories and grant the combined land portion to you.”

“I’m sorry, what?” I’m having trouble processing what was said just now. Giving me a portion of each country’s territory? It’s gonna be a pain in the ass if they want me to rule over some place like a lord or something...

“It’s less of a bestowment of land, and more of a transferal of territory. In other words, we intend to form a small country between the border of Regulus and Belfast. The sovereign of this freshly-birthed nation will be you, Touya. Please be just and kind in your rule.”

“Excuse me?!” Founding a country? Wait?! Sovereign?! Me, what?! Stop!

“Well, we say it’s a country but there are no people to rule over quite yet. It’s a fairly uninhabited stretch of land, and under your rule it will be bound by the laws of neither Regulus nor Belfast. Our two countries, in support of your fledgling nation, will naturally sign a peace treaty with you as well. Whatever happens within that country, we vow not to interfere. The country will be solely yours, Touya. With this, the issue of your social standing is completely invalid, and you may marry both princesses without any concerns!”

So what, kind of like the Vatican? Or I guess it’d be more like a sovereign duchy or a principality... Augh, I really don’t know about this...

“Touya, my boy. Can you pull up that map?”

“Huh? Er, sure. Display map.”

“Understood. Displaying map.” I was unsure what the king wanted exactly, but I did as he asked and let the map project itself in the air.

Belfast was on the left, and Regulus was on the right. The king pointed his finger at the border line between them.

“Now, between our great nations is the Melicia Mountain Range. It extends down a good way, but at the bottom here is a forest and a great plain. Although the land is fertile, there are many demonic beasts that infest the area. For that reason, neither country has involved itself in that territory very much. To the south of that area is a road that will become the nexus of trade between the two nations. That’s where we’ll found your country!”

What?! Didn’t you just say that place is infested with man-eating monsters?

“You plan on having us settle in a dangerous place like that?”

“Now now, nobody said you have to actually live there. That being said, that area’s completely independent and out of our hands now. Even if something happened there, neither Regulus nor Belfast could do a thing. Even if a group of brigands holed up there and used it as their base of operations, it’s completely out of our jurisdiction. Touya, my boy. You’d be the grand duke, so the responsibility of clearing out the mess falls to you.” Both the emperor and the king were grinning ear-to-ear.

You no-good crooks... you’ve saddled me with cleaning out your new trade route, haven’t you?! After the alliance is announced, a lot more people will start to take the only road between the two nations. So this is your plan to make the path safe, is it? You... bastards!

Wait, was this their plan the whole time? Did they just offer Lu up so I’d fall into the palms of their hands?! These guys are seriously scary... I walked right into it!

“I feel like I’m being cheated here, but...”

“No, no! Perish the thought. It’s a rich and plentiful area with wide borders. The people passing through it will receive safety and peace of mind, and in turn you’ll receive status, praise, and accolades. Isn’t that good in itself?”

So that’s how it is, huh...? I feel like these two are using me, but whatever. They’re a little too conniving for my tastes, but I guess I can understand. They’ve both had troubles with their neighbors in the past, so having me there would be good for peace of mind.

Hmph... It’s not that bad of a deal, I guess... In order to marry both of the girls, I do need a suitable position. Plus, it’s not like there are any citizens there to worry about, either... Not to mention the fact that having a large expanse of land I can do whatever I want with is definitely a plus. Well, why not? Having a country of my own might come in handy.

“Yeah, fair enough, then. You just want me there to make it safe, right? I’ll do it.”

“Our apologies, lad. In that case, we shall formally declare the formation of a new nation! Both countries shall formally recognize your right to rule!”

Right to rule, huh... I can’t even begin to imagine how I’ll be as a head of state. Well, I don’t really have that many responsibilities to deal with, I guess. Am I gonna have to build a castle?

“You have finally taken a royal position, you have. Our husband-to-be is truly magnificent, he is...”

“I know, right? I never thought he’d take it this far, but it’s seriously amazing!” Yae and Elze began chattering with each other. In all honesty, I never expected anything like this to happen, either. I think I was more shocked than they were.

“Uhm, what do you want to do in regards to the name of the new nation?” Linze looked over at me, asking an important question that I hadn’t really considered.

Uhh... a name? Maybe... Mochizukiland? N-No, that’s way too embarrassing! No way...

Nihon? Eh, that’s a little uninspired... Japan? Japang...? Ugh... None of these really feel good as names at all! Oh... wait, maybe...

“Brunhild... I think. The Duchy of Brunhild.”

“Isn’t Brunhild the name you gave to that weapon of yours, Touya?”

“Yeah. Though where I come from, it’s a derivative name taken from a legendary shieldmaiden.” Yeah, the Duchy of Brunhild... Sounds pretty nice, if I do say so myself. Plus, it’s more like a micro-nation than a real kingdom, so it’s more like I’m just giving my land a fancy name.

“The Brunhild Duchy, was it? A rather splendid name. Very well, the Kingdom of Belfast will formally support this fledgling nation in an alliance!”

“Indeed. As will the Regulus Empire.”

“Now then, shall we get to work on making the land safe?”

Just how big is the territory, anyway? I better use my phone to check, just to be sure. Just as I’d asked, the phone read back the exact size.

“Total Size: Approximately four hundred and ten square kilometers.” I honestly have no idea what that means... Lemme compare it to the size of the 23 Special Wards in Tokyo... I ran a search for the size of that, and the phone told me it was around six hundred and nineteen square kilometers.

Wait what?! That means my country’s about two thirds the size of the special wards?! That’s a little much, isn’t it?!

◇　◇　◇

“There’s really nothing around, huh?” We looked over the forest and the plain. There were some hilly areas, as well as the mountains off in the distance. There was also a river nearby, so that was nice.

We’d decided to go and visit the land that Regulus and Belfast had oh-so-graciously bestowed upon me. I found it to be rather barren. Though, to be honest, that was better than it being too noisy.

“Alrighty then... Run search. Monstrous creatures that could cause potential harm to human beings.”

“Understood. Displaying.” With several “pings,” red markers dotted themselves all over the surrounding area on the map. There were a lot. I mean it is a huge area, so it’s not too surprising... I guess? But I didn’t even include lesser monsters in the search query! Now it was simply a matter of figuring out what to do.

“Should I just wipe them all out at once with magic, maybe?”

“If you dealt with them all like that, I-I’m not so sure it’d turn out well...” Yumina furrowed her brow.

Hmph, I guess... if I did that, then there’d be a huge pile of dead bodies. Carnivorous animals might eat some of them, but I highly doubt they’d be able to clear all that meat before it became an issue. The smell would definitely end up being a major problem for everyone. Plus, it’s more likely that the carnivorous ones would be the ones being killed in the first place.

I considered just sending them somewhere through a [Gate] or something, but that would cause trouble for the people on the other side. I thought about just sending them all into the sea to drown, but then Elze spoke up.

“Some of those monsters might have valuable raw materials, you can’t just send them off like that!” She had a point, too. Sending off monsters like that would mean less potential finances for us. Teleporting them to the sea was a needlessly wasteful act.

Even so, since we were looking over the territory from Babylon, it was possible to make a [Gate] anywhere down there, so I didn’t want to waste that opportunity...

“What if we used [Gate] to teleport dead ones to us? We could defeat them, and then transport them here... Then we can harvest them manually for materials... But uh... what about the dead bodies?”

“It would be good for the natural order of things if we spread their corpses across the mountains and countryside, it would. So long as there are not too many, we could provide food for the animals, and nutrition for the ground and plants, we could.”

Hm, let’s just do that then. Yae’s sense seemed fair enough to me, so I rolled with it.

“Let’s do it, then. Target Lock. Invoke [Shining Javelin].”

“Understood. Invoking [Shining Javelin].”

“I-Is it finally over...?” I’m done, damn it... Harvesting materials from monsters is too difficult...! Every monster has different parts and different features with different values. It’s way too much to keep track of! Fangs, claws, hides? How am I meant to know what all of this is worth?!

Partway through we quickly realized that we weren’t the best-equipped to be determining exactly what was worth what, so we called over Will, Logan, and Rebecca from the capital. We decided to give them half of the harvest, so they graciously accepted the job.

I also called over my maid, Cecile, and my gardener, Julio. Then, I grabbed Lyon for good measure, because he was off-duty today. Honestly, it was a pretty decent part-time job for them.

Lyon ripped, tore, and furiously shredded the monsters apart. Something made me think he seriously needed the cash. Something to do with Olga, perhaps... Was he getting engaged, I wondered. The polar opposite of Lyon’s enthusiasm was Lu, who was clearly struggling to take apart the dead animals. I decided to give her a helping hand.

I was surprised by how well she took to it once she got a handle on it, though. She seemed to be pretty skilled in preparation.

“You’re a princess, so it’s only natural. This is your first time doing something like this, right?”

“Yes, it is. But I still want to do it to the best of my ability. I wish not to be a burden to you, dear Touya. I wish to be as much of a help as the others.” After she said that, I gave her a little pat on the head. She blushed a bit red. Heh, she’s a cutie...

The third princess of the Regulus Empire, Lucia Leah Regulus, became my fiancee. At the same time, on Yumina’s recommendation, she came to live with me in Belfast.

I thought the same around the time I met Yumina, but the princesses of this world sure had a lot of autonomy...

She wasn’t wearing a big regal outfit like she was the first time I met her, either. She was wearing some more easily-manageable clothing.

She wore a long-sleeved shirt with a big bow about the neck, and black tights under a white pleated skirt. At her waist, behind her back, were two holstered short-swords.

From what I understood, Lu was a dual-wielder. It seemed she had learned a little about the style from Carol and developed a taste for it. Her magical aptitude was completely in the red, so no spells for her.

Apparently Yae tried training her a little, but Lu just wasn’t compatible. Since twin blades were based on speedy and deceptive movement, it was only natural it wouldn’t mesh with Yae’s samurai style.

I certainly wondered if she’d be fine with just two swords on her side... But I decided that it’d be better to wait and see her in action.

“Well, now the really dangerous stuff is taken care of...” I fired up my map app again, just to be sure. Not a single hit registered in the area. Mission accomplished.

However, I had a sudden thought and decided to run a search for humans in the vicinity. Sure enough, there was a whole bunch of them in the forest...

Do people really live out here? It’s kinda dangerous, so I didn’t think this was a place someone could call home...

“It’s likely a band of brigands.” Lyon let out a mutter as he looked the map over.

“Really?”

“From what I’ve heard there have been a lot of bandit attacks in the surrounding territories lately... Such a gathering of them is surely their main base of operations. They likely have a great price upon their heads.” The forest was huge, and dangerous, so logically it made sense as a place for cutthroats to hide. If there were enough of them, and they were tough, they’d be fine to repel the monsters.

“...So what should we do?” Linze spoke up, as if she didn’t know already that we’d be clearing them out. This place was to be part of my territory, after all, so clearing out bad people was for the best.

“Well, I’ll go take care of it.”

“Mind if I accompany you?” Surprisingly, Lyon offered to tag along. I had no reason to say no, so I let him. We left the handling of the monster bodies to everyone else, and the two of us walked off to the hideout. It was only a thirty minute trip on foot, so there was no need to overcomplicate the travel method.

“Heh, you’re after the bounty, aren’t you?”

“H-Huh? Aah... ahaha, well... Guess you figured me out, Sir Touya.” Lyon chuckled a little, scratching the back of his head all the while. I could feel the desire to earn money emanating from him when he was stripping the monsters bare, so this was only natural.

“Are you saving up for an engagement ring to get Olga?”

“Ah, no... I-I’ve actually already given her one of those.”

“You serious?!” I was completely taken aback. Talk about left field. He might’ve had it in mind since the beginning, but isn’t he moving things a little bit too quickly? It didn’t take me long to realize I was in no position to speak about that of all things.

“Wow, man... congratulations. So then, why are you trying so hard to get money?”

“Well, weddings are quite expensive... as will be cost of living after the fact. Ideally, I’d like to purchase a home for the two of us.” Lyon let out a slightly worried laugh, but he seemed happy all the same. I understood his feelings well enough, money was definitely necessary to maintain a happy married life.

“Can’t your parents help you out?”

“Ah, well... my folks believe in cutting your own path in life, and her folks believe that money is something you need to earn yourself...”

Oh dear... The resolute natures of iron-clad military tradition and merciless mercantile tradition are both bearing down on him.

“We both live with our respective parents right now, but... As I am the second son, I must move out after I marry.”

“So will Olga be coming to Belfast?”

“Her father needs a successor for his mercantile empire, but... I’m really hoping I can afford to call her over soon enough.” Lyon let out a small, irritated sigh. Hmph... I can loan him the cash, but that would probably make General Leon angry at both me and him, so I better not...

“Oh, what about any of the stolen goods that the brigands’ll have?”

“Ideally, we’d like to get those returned to their original owners. Anything other than that rightfully belongs to the ones that bested the bandits, I’ll say. There’s no real profit in rooting bandits out, so they usually manage to hole out for a good bit of time.”

“So you’re saying their leader probably has a ton of money, right...?”

“That’s what I’m hoping for, actually. Obviously I’ll return anything that has a known owner, though.” So if there’s nobody to claim the goods, he gets to pocket it. Makes sense.

The map indicated a roughly-constructed hut at the forest’s edge. I assumed that to be their hideout.

“So what bandits in this area have bounties?”

“Three of them. A trio of thieves, all siblings.” I confirmed their presence on the map, three markers dropped down. Seemed that was all of the big-named bandits, though. Lyon drew the weapon that I’d made for him and morphed it into blade mode.

I’m gonna leave this one to Lyon, I think... If I got involved, then he’d probably want to split the reward with me, and I’m fine with him having it all.

In the end, Lyon wiped the entire camp of brigands out. Well, I say wiped out, but he used Stun Mode to paralyze them all. I thought they’d be tougher, given that they had a reputation, but it seemed I didn’t have anything to worry about after all.

The bandits had accumulated a pretty big pile of loot, which I was quite pleased to see. With a smile on his face, Lyon bound up all the brigands and I opened up a [Gate] to the Royal Capital.

I stashed all of their ill-gotten gains in [Storage], making a mental note to hand it over to Lyon later. After that, I crushed their miserable shack using [Gravity]. It would have been a pain in my ass if any other guys got the bright idea of squatting there, after all.

After we returned to the others, it looked like they were pretty much done with the material harvest. We bagged them up and I put all the good stuff in [Storage], making a point to label two bags “Rebecca,” and “Cecile.” It would’ve been bad for them to lug around so much stuff, after all.

We returned to the guild in the capital and headed straight to the trading desk. Immediately, I pulled a ton of stuff out of [Storage] and hefted it on to the counter. The amount of stuff was so obscene that the man at the desk had to take a few minutes to collect himself.

While he figured out the value, I took Lu over to Prim’s desk.

“I’d like to register this girl with the guild. There should be a notification from the Regulus Empire?”

“Ah, yes! We did get that, but... D-Did you really suppress a military coup all by yourself?!”

“Well, I didn’t quite do it alone, but... yeah.”

“H-Holy... I-I almost can’t believe it’s true. I should have known that Moon Reader’s owner was such a magnificent man...” As Prim stood around admiring my accomplishments, another employee gave Lu the basic explanation, and Lu explained her reasons for becoming an adventurer. Naturally, I listened in. From what I understood, Lu definitely didn’t need to become a pro adventurer, but she couldn’t bear the thought of staying at home and being excluded from the rest, so she took it upon herself to become stronger.

“Ah, please hand over your guild card.” I handed over the card, just as Prim asked. She stamped down on it with a different seal than usual.

“This is proof that you took down a Greater Demon in the Regulus Empire. On behalf of the guild, please accept this new title. You’re formally a Demon Killer!”

Dragon Slayer, Golem Buster, and now Demon Killer, huh? I’m just racking up titles like crazy.

“With this, you have acquired three titles in total. This, combined with the formal recommendation from the Kingdom of Belfast and the Regulus Empire, means your guild rank has increased by one. Congratulations!”

“Huh? Is that how it works?” The guild card she returned to me was a shimmering silver. It was really pretty. I guess the guild had no issue promoting me to this level after realizing the extent of my power, not to mention my political backing.

“Well, this is certainly something special! It’s almost been two decades since our country had a Silver-ranked adventurer.” I was surprised it had been that long, but it was true that I’d never seen any Silver or Gold-tier requests on the job boards.

“When you stand at Silver, and Gold above that, you typically receive quests right from the guild.” That made sense enough to me. It made sense to limit who could see such jobs, since they’d probably be sensitive or only be able to be handled by the most proficient of people.

Lu finished registering and happily showed me her black guild card.

I took Lu over to the trading area, and it seemed that the man had finally figured out how much everything was worth.

Rebecca and the others from Sandora seemed extremely pleased by the unexpected boon. Cecile and Julio also looked very happy. That was to be expected. They’d all come out of this quite well off, after all.

The portion for myself, and the portion for Lyon, had been set aside and handed to us as I left the guild. The bandits were apparently apprehended without any trouble. Lyon had to report it in solo due to the bounty on their heads, but he was able to receive it without any hassle.

The money from the materials, coupled with the money from the brigands... It was a pretty penny for Lyon, all-in-all. With that, he’d definitely have enough to secure his wedding at the very least.

I suddenly realized that I should get Lyon and Olga a wedding gift. I made a mental note to ask the girls for suggestions later on.

She clenched her fist tightly and raised it high up to the heavens. She had way too much enthusiasm, if you asked me.

“The workshop doesn’t just replicate stuff, y’know?! We have an automated remodeling system, too! Yessir we do! We can scan objects and reshape them to suit your tastes, sir yes sir!” Rosetta’s ragged breath spewed from her mouth as she explained it all at once. Automated remodeling system? So we can manipulate objects that get scanned?

“Let’s hustle, on the double! Right-left, right-left! To the workshop!” Lu couldn’t contain her awe when she saw the workshop for the first time. We all walked over to the great cube that housed the actual facility.

There were smaller cubes piled up in various places around the floor, and a structure somewhat like a monitor was built up near the middle of the room. In a similar fashion, there was a cobbled-together chair composed of the white cubes right in front of the monitor. Rosetta plonked her butt down on the chair and reached her finger toward the monitor.

“Ten-hut! Gonna scan this country’s castle good, sir!” Babylon had been moved to the skies of Belfast, just above the royal castle, a bit earlier. Naturally, it wasn’t noticed by anyone due to the built-in stealth field.

I was a bit perplexed by the fact that it didn’t even cast a shadow over the city, though... No matter how many times I looked at it, it was unreasonable to think about. But maybe it made sense... Shadows were cast when light was blocked by an object, but in this case light was still going around the object...? I decided it was best not to think too hard about how magic and science worked. I’d simply lose sleep for no good reason.

The monitor displayed an aerial view of Belfast’s Castle. Suddenly, a green light covered the castle for a split-second, only for the display to be replaced by a three-dimensional model of the building.

“Scan completed, sir! I’ll switch to the automated system now! Did you have something specific in mind?” Rosetta turned around and posed a question.

“Uh... anything specific? Well, it definitely doesn’t need to be so big, so could you start by shaving off some of the rooms?”

“Mission orders received, sir!” Rosetta frantically swiped here and there on the screen, slashing and slicing away various rooms on the 3D model. I wondered if it had some kind of smart learning system that automatically picked changes in relation to cuts and tweaks.

“Oh, this rampart tower is pointless, too. You should get rid of it. I’d like the courtyard to be a little wider, as well.” As if responding to my whims, the castle transformed again. I could definitely get used to this kind of remodeling function. It was really useful. I didn’t realize that the workshop could also be used for such intricate designs and renovation. Then again, it was pretty much the same as when I modified my Brunhild, just on a larger scale.

“Anyone else got any changes to make?”

“Ah, yes... I would prefer a wider balcony.”

“I desire a magnificent dojo, so that I might spar and train there, I do.”

“Oh, if she’s getting one, then I want a training zone for unarmed combat, too!!”

“I-If it’s not too much, I’d like a library installed...”

“I’d love a broad moat, and a magnificent drawbridge as well!” As everyone made their own changes, the castle model distorted. It was no longer recognizable as the Belfast Castle it originally was. It had become completely unique. A moat, a gate, a drawbridge, even little buildings around the castle now made it distinct.

“Well then, sir! Is this quite alright?!”

“Yeah, looks fine by me. So, how’re you gonna make it real?”

“A paltry matter, sir! We simply take off to the desired location and plot this data. I flatten the landscape and begin automatic assembly! I estimate it’ll take three days, sir!” I was amazed that she could do it in such a short amount of time. The workshop was truly an amazing tool. Why stop at a castle? We could easily construct a town or hamlet with it.

“Well, that is if the materials are readily available, sir!”

“...Sorry?” What did she mean, exactly? Materials for the castle?

“You mean like the basic stuff, right? Marble, brick, metal, and so on?”

“Not just that, sir! Lumber, glass, brass, iron, cloths like cotton and silk! All these materials are necessary to complete your castle, sir!”

“I don’t have all of that!”

Besides, do you know how long it’s take for me to gather all that stuff?! It’d end up costing me the same as if I just went and bought a regular castle, if not more! We’d maybe save on labor, but it’s not like it’d be a considerable sum to begin with!

“Uhm... d-do the materials have to be brand new?” Lu suddenly spoke up, nervously addressing Rosetta.

“No, ma’am! Old materials are disassembled and rebuilt from the ground up like new anyway, ma’am! Only extremely decayed material would be totally useless!”

“I-If that’s the case, then... there’s an abandoned castle fort to the north of the Regulus Empire. If we harvested it, wouldn’t we have enough materials for our new home?” That made good sense to me. If we used a building that pretty much used to be a castle anyway, we’d save massively on material needs. Even if stuff was tattered, shattered, or worn down, it could be recycled and used again! Lu was a genius.

I didn’t think it would be a big deal if an old abandoned fort was torn down, either, so I decided to go and get permission from the emperor at once. The plan was settled.

Lu suddenly spoke up in concern, despite being the one to suggest it in the first place.

“A-Ah, uhm... actually... about that fortress, perhaps we shouldn’t... or they might be disturbed...”

“What might be disturbed?”

“The... The ghosts...”

Oh come on... Was she serious? A haunted castle?!

◇　◇　◇

So the story goes, there was once a benevolent young lord who lived in a castle fortress to the north of Regulus. He had the full trust and support of the emperor, and the people loved him for his kind nature, wonderful work ethic, and generous policies.

But one day everything changed. The young lord’s wife passed away. Afterward, he became reclusive, shutting himself inside his castle. Not long after, strange incidents began to occur in the surrounding area...

One by one, people went missing. And one day, a young girl was seen being carried away by the very lord who had locked himself up not so long ago. The people of the village all went to the castle, wanting answers.

Strangely, there were no people guarding the great gates of the castle. Even more strangely, they found the castle completely barren. No servants, no men-at-arms, no guardsmen.

The people pressed on, desperate to find their missing families and friends. What they found instead... were corpses. Mounds of corpses, piles of the dead, lazily discarded and strewn around. The young lord had been committing the most vile of acts. He had researched the art of necromancy, all in the name of returning his beloved wife to the world of the living. Those who lived inside the castle were culled like lambs, used for his twisted experiments. And when they were all used up, the young lord simply started reaching into the nearby village for new livestock.

The people, horrified, clambered and ran their way out of the castle. They appealed directly to the emperor and gave testimony. The army was sent in, and the young lord was easily caught. He was executed without trial.

But it didn’t end there. Before long, a new lord was appointed to the castle. He died of a withering disease, so another was appointed. The second fell off a horse and broke his neck. The third lord? Stabbed to death by his wife in a furious rage. Rumors spread that the young lord had left behind a most malignant curse. The fourth lord assigned to the territory refused to live in the castle, and it slowly decayed, with no residents to call it home.

Naturally, the abandoned structure attracted the dregs of society. Brigands and bandits took up lodging there, seeing it as the perfect base. But none of them stayed for long. All the thieves who were captured had only one thing to say...

“A revenant spirit walks those halls...”

“It’s that castle, isn’t it?”

“Well, that story is from over a hundred years ago.”

A cursed castle... That kind of thing might be super spooky at night, but in the daytime it wasn’t terribly frightening. The air was clear, and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. If anything, it was quite pleasant.

I brought the usual suspects, along with Lu, to the castle. My monarch trio, consisting of Kohaku, Sango, and Kokuyou were with us too. Before our eyes was an enormous, ominous-looking old castle. I unconsciously crossed my arms. It gave off the vibe that a monster was going to pop out or something.

“We got the emperor’s permission, right?”

“Yes, we do! Destroy it, recycle it, rebuild it, we’re permitted to do as we like.” Sounded good to me. I figured the best course of action would be to move the whole thing off at once. The castle was a little bigger than the one we had designed at the workshop, so there was even a chance we could get all the materials we needed right here. Even if it wasn’t enough, I’m sure we’d be able to afford whatever leftover stuff we required.

“Alrighty, should I just expand a portal underneath this thing to move it all to Brunhild?”

“Please wait a moment... Shouldn’t we make sure everything inside is fine before we do that? It’s possible that thieves, or monsters, or the undead might be inhabiting this place right now.”

“Maybe even the ghost, h-heh...” Elze suddenly cut in as Linze was advising me. Linze definitely didn’t believe that old story, but Elze almost looked a little nervous...

Either way, there was a fair point being raised. It was probably important that we at least check out the interior before moving anything potentially dangerous onto my land. Hope I don’t run into any weird Slimes.

We passed through the gates and entered the castle, making our way to the entry hall. The interior was just as gloomy and downtrodden as the exterior, dust and cobwebs all over the place.

“Alright gang, let’s split up and search for clues. We can pair off, and have the Heavenly Beasts go with each group that isn’t mine. That way, we can stay in telepathic contact in case something goes wrong. Kohaku, you go with Yumina and Lu, Sango and Kokuyou, you go with Linze and Yae. Elze can come with me.”

“Wh-What? I-Is that okay...? Th-Then let’s, uhm... Yeah, let’s go this way, ahahah...!” Elze spoke up noisily and began a brisk walk to the interior. She abruptly stopped once she got far enough and turned to yell at me.

“H-Hey, Touya! C’mon already!” Linze suddenly smiled and let out a small giggle. I wonder if she knew Elze would end up like this. I briskly walked to catch up with my adorable partner, then started to walk by her side. The other groups all dispersed in their respective directions, too.

I looked outside, noticing a gathering of clouds. That’s weird, it was clear earlier, wasn’t it?

“So, Elze. You’re the type who’s scared of ghosts, huh?”

“Huh?! Wait, what are you saying?! Ghosts, where?! There’s no such thing as ghosts...”

“Then what’s that white thing behind you?”

“Eeeek!!!” Elze shrieked out loudly and clung to me.

Ow, ow! This is supposed to feel good, don’t squeeze me like that! It’s like a goddamn bear hug!

“Sorry... was... curtain... Can’t... breathe...”

“Curtain?” Elze turned to see a slightly-yellowed old curtain that was now blowing slightly in the breeze. After she ascertained that it was not, in fact, a ghost, she released me.

Man, I really thought she was gonna break my spine.

“O-Of course it was just a curtain...” An expression of relief came over Elze as she placed a hand over her chest.

“So you’re not good with them after all, then?”

“Ugh...” Elze turned to face me, her cheeks a bright crimson. Her mouth was flapping open and closed like a fish. Honestly, I think she was trying to find some kind of excuse.

“There’s no shame in having fears, everyone has one or two!”

“Well, I guess so... Didn’t expect you to say something like that, though.”

“It’s just that you can’t hit them, so they’re a pain, that’s all...” Elze frowned and turned away. Her face was still red, regardless. That reason felt pretty weak to me. I didn’t think Elze had any issue smacking skeletons or zombies, so ghosts shouldn’t have been that frightening to her.

I grabbed Elze by the hand.

“E-Eek!”

“You don’t need to pretend like that with me. If you’re scared, just take my hand.”

“...O-Okay...” Elze nodded, just a little bit. With our hands locked together, we began searching for suspicious stuff. We started peeking our heads into rooms to confirm whether or not there was anyone around.

As expected, the castle was remarkably big, but it was also covered with dust, looking largely unused. For this amount of dust and spider webs to gather up, you’d expect there to have been nobody in here for a long time. Just as I fell into that comfortable line of thought, something moved in the corner of a room we were checking.

“A-Agh!” Elze freaked out and pulled her whole body against my arm. Two soft, round objects squeezed up against my arm as well.

I’m okay with this.

The bringer of my good fortune, in this case a rat, scuttled out from the corner and left the room.

“I-It was a rat...”

“You’re fine with rats, right?” Normally you’d expect girls to be scared of things like mice, rats, and roaches, but the girls of this world were quite tough. I didn’t think it would rattle her that badly.

“Should we check out the second floor?” As we ascended the stairs, I noticed a massive portrait hanging up at the top of the landing. It was of a fairly young-looking woman in a lovely green dress. She was seated in a rather luxurious looking chair and looking out with a smile.

Is this the wife of the last lord who lived here? She’s really beautiful. They’re pretty big, too...

“What are you staring at?”

“Huh?! Nothing! Nothing at all!” Elze glared right through me, so all I could do was look away. She definitely didn’t lose to Yumina or Lu in the bust department, but perhaps she was worried about being slightly smaller than her sister. It wasn’t like I cared, but that was probably just how she felt.

Still holding Elze’s hand, we marched up to the second floor. I looked outside a nearby window again, and noticed the clouds were getting darker and more intense. But it was so clear earlier on that it made no sense to me.

《Kohaku, Sango, Kokuyou. Report in, what’s the situation on your ends?》

《Nothing to report, my master. Not even a mouse.》

《There’ssss nothing to report here, either.》

《There was only a rat here, a little boring if you ask me.》

It seemed that nothing was happening anywhere. While it was true that you couldn’t expect six people to scour every room of the place in this amount of time, thieves or brigands would’ve definitely made themselves known already. Not to mention the fact that the rooms we’d been in so far were clearly long-abandoned. Every corner of the place was covered in dust. We’d even left footprints in some places. If an animal, monster, or person had been here, they surely would’ve left a trace.

“Hm, were they just rumors after all, then?”

“Y-Yeah, as I thought... there’s n-no way ghosts could exist, right?”

“Well, I mean, there are probably spirits in the world like Wraiths, Phantoms, and Specters, so I guess you could consider monsters like those to be ghosts. In fact, just yesterday Linze was—”

“Augh! Sh-Shut up! I can’t hear you, I can’t hear you!” Elze stuck her fingers into her ears in an attempt to blot out my words. How childish of her.

Monsters like Wraiths and Phantoms were well-known in this world, but there was no evidence that actually linked them to the souls of the departed. That being said, I think it was proven that zombies and other undead monsters were still linked to formerly-living people.

Hm...? Oh, it’s raining.

I took a look outside, and noticed heavy raindrops pelting down from the sky. I hoped that the roof wouldn’t leak or anything, but given that the building was over a hundred years old, it definitely would.

With Elze clinging on to my arm ever-tighter, I made my way deeper into the castle. It was a lot darker than it was back at the entrance.

Before long we reached the end of the hall, a great big double-door. I wondered if this was the door to the lord’s chambers. I turned the knob. It creaked slowly and spookily, and the door opened.

The room was huge, and the ceiling was high up. A beautiful chandelier surely swayed up there once in the olden days, but now it was a smashed and scattered pile of glass on the floor. The metal parts must have gotten rusty or something.

There was an old worn-down chest of drawers near a ruined fireplace that had a row of vases sitting atop it. In the corner of the room was an old rusted suit of armor, giving an unusual feeling to the situation at large.

“Something doesn’t feel right about this place...” Elze nervously tightened her grip on me. She sure was acting bold for such a frightened girl.

There was a portrait on the wall of this room, too. This one depicted a sturdy-looking fellow in military dress, who sported a fine beard. Beside him was a fairly plain looking woman in a simple dress.

Is this the lord who killed all of his servants? Wait, that can’t be right. The ownership of this castle changed hands three times after he died. So, does that make him the most recent resident of the castle, then...?

Suddenly, a cold chill went down my spine. Something was very wrong.

Wait, but... this can’t be right. If the woman in this portrait is the last lord’s wife, then... they’re... not big.

“What’s wrong?”

“The person in this portrait... she’s not the same as the one in the landing portrait, is she?”

“Oh, maybe you’re right...” Just as I turned to take a closer look at the portrait, the wide-open door that we entered the room through slammed shut with a bang.

“E-Eeeek?!” Elze screamed and squeezed me even tighter.

Ow, ow, ow!!! Are you casting [Boost] right now or something, woman?!

“Was it the wind or something?”

“Th-The wind?”

This place is falling to bits, so I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a wall with a hole letting in the wind somewhere... Wait, what’s that? I perked up my ears and suddenly heard a faint clattering noise.

A rat again? No, this sounds more like... a shaking vase? One of the vases atop the chest was shaking and gyrating like crazy.

Suddenly it stopped spinning and lunged at us.

“Gah!” I leaped out of the way, dragging Elze with me. The vase shattered on the wall behind where we stood.

What the hell?! Isn’t this a stereotypical horror movie event?!

Another vase jumped up toward us in a similar fashion. I shattered that one mid-air with Brunhild. Right after that happened, an old ink pen and a pair of scissors laying atop a desk came flying at us, then books came flying off some shelves.

I shot them all down with relative ease. Elze wasn’t much use at all in the situation. Just when I thought it was out of things to throw at me, I heard a creak from the corner of the room. The old, rusted suit of armor drew its blade, then began staggering toward us.

“H-Hey now...” Outside the window, lightning crashed and thunder roared. Heavy rain continued to brutally pour down.

The armor stomped and rattled, slowly making its way toward me.

“Strike true, Light! Sparkling Holy Lance: [Shining Javelin]!” The spear of light impaled the suit of armor, and even went through the wall behind it. The armor itself was reduced to hunks of twisted metal.

“O wretched fiends that dare to invade my castle... I will murder you... murder you all...! This is divine retribution... Leave now, this is your final chance...” A disembodied voice echoed through the room. I was mostly surprised by the fact that it was giving us a chance to leave. I’d have expected it to be more unreasonable, to be honest.

“So you’re saying that if we leave, you won’t hurt us?”

“That’s riiight... nothing will happen If you leaaaave.”

“Then I refuse.” With that, I fired off more light spears into a nearby wall. A huge hole burst open, exposing the pouring rain outside.

《Kohaku, Sango, Kokuyou. Tell everyone to get outside and take cover. I’ll fight the ghost alone up here.》

《Very well. Leave the safety of the ladies to us.》

《Of courssse, darling.》 I fired off another light spear as I sent my telepathic message off. I broke through to the room next to this one. The main pillar was still intact, so I didn’t have to worry about the roof collapsing on me just yet.

“Y-You theeeere, wh-what do you think you’re doiiiing?”

“I’m trashing the place. It’s all coming apart anyway, so it doesn’t matter how I do it!”

“W-Wait, you mean... you’re gonna destroy the castle?! Er, stooop this at once, mortalll! The curse will claim your liiife!” Something felt off. I didn’t feel any kind of pressure or intensity at all from this supposed malignant spirit.

“Hey, ghost... Are you actually a ghost?”

“Cough, cough! Th-That’s correeeect! I am a wicked ghoooost, bound to this castle by faaate!”

This thing just coughed. Why would a ghost cough?

“If you’re bound to this castle, then you’ll disappear along with it!”

“Thaaat’s trueee, er— Wait, no! It’s not! Even if you trash this place, I’ll live on and haunt you foreeeeverrrr.”

You’re really not impressing me anymore, fake-ghost. Even Elze, who was completely terrified, was now just staring ahead with a blank expression.

“Hey, ghost. Who are you, then? If you just explain what’s going on, I’ll listen. But here’s your last warning, if you don’t explain, I’ll turn this place into rubble.”

“......” The ghost didn’t reply. I had no idea who they were, but they were definitely here in this castle. With that in mind, I figured they might be up for a reasonable chat.

“Fine then, if you have nothing to say, I’ll bring this place down.”

“Agh!!! W-W-Wait, please! I got it, I got it! Loud and clear! I’ll explain everything, just go to the landing again.”

“The landing?” We left the now-extremely-ruined lord’s chambers, returning to the stairs. Just like before, the portrait of the woman in green was there. I looked at the image of the woman, who was standing up with a chair behind her.

Just as I thought, they’re really big... That meant this portrait wasn’t a portrait of the last lord’s wife.

“Hold on a minute...”

“Something wrong?”

This portrait... it can’t be the wife of the first lord who lived here, can it? This place has changed hands three times already, and I definitely wouldn’t have placed a picture of some dead crazy guy’s wife in my hallway. And hold on, wasn’t this portrait of a woman sitting down?! Why is she standing up now?!

“Agh, h-hold on...”

“Wh-What?! How is that— T-Touya, someone’s coming out of the painting! It’s a ghost!” Elze once again held onto me for dear life. It was no longer, soft, delicate, and playful. It was actually causing me extreme pain, so I wanted her to stop already!

“I-I’m not a ghoooost. I am a maaaagical being. The portrait frame is my true body, and this form is merely a projection of my wiiiill.”

A magical being? So she’s a creature made from magic or something? Does she mean like a homunculus or a Golem, maybe? But why a picture frame of all things?

“I see... Well, obviously something like that is gonna get you confused with a ghost. Why’d you try to chase us away?”

“W-Well, that’s because thieves and baaandiiits used to come heeere, and they’d make a real mess of the plaaace. My real body is this fraaame, so if it were to be damaged or destroooyed, then I could dieee!”

Hm, that reminds me, I heard that thieves and bandits made this place their home a few times... Did she drive them out or something?

“So was it you who murdered each new lord who moved in?”

“N-No, that’s a misunderstaaanding! I didn’t murder anyone, got it?! The first lord had a terrible illness and died in the night. The second lord fell from his horse and died of a tragic accideeent! The third lord got into a really bad argument with his craaaazy wife, and she stabbed him! Honeeeest!” As she spoke, she pointed right at Elze with a dramatic flair. Elze suddenly shrieked and took a few steps backward.

So the murdered feudal lords weren’t murdered by a ghost... In fact, they weren’t even murdered at all!

“After thaat, nobody came here for a looong time. Sometimes thugs would come insiiide and start traaashing the place just for fun. It was then that I staaarted to worry about my preeeecious picture frame being damaged...”

“So you donned the guise of a vengeful spirit to protect your own life.” The woman from the frame nodded her head and gave a small bow.

“Who even created something like you?”

“A briiilliant doctor from a long-dead civilizaaation. She was a true geniuuuus, but certainly a little off-beat and eccentriiic.”

“...Wait just a damn minute.”

Doctor, woman, eccentric, and genius...? When all those keywords line up, I can only picture the smug grin of a certain individual...

“...What was the name of that doctor?”

“Doctor Regina Baaabylon!”

“That bastard!” Well, I guess bastard isn’t quite right, but why her again?! Why does she keep causing trouble, and why does that trouble always come to me?! What sorcery is this?! I’ve had enough, damn it! Ugh...

I decided that freaking out wasn’t wise, so I calmed down and resolved to approach the situation sensibly.

“So, you’re something that Doctor Babylon created, but why are you here?”

“Uhmm, weeeell... for the longest tiiime I was floating up in the storehouse in the skyyy, but the administrator up there is suuuper clumsy, and about three-hundred yeaaars ago she totally broke part of the wall in theeere! So by accideeent, me and a few other items of intereeest fell aaaall the way down to the ground. Luckily, we were at a looow altituuude, and I fell on to a snooowy mountain, so I made it out intaaact.”

“Wait... do you mean the Storehouse of Babylon?!”

“Oh myyyy, do you know of it?” I felt like I was repeating a lot of old events.

First that damn jewel that Kansukay had, then the Blockbracer and Drainbracer combo that General Bazoar had, and now this. The culprit has to be the administrative gynoid running that place. I’ll have to find her and mete out justice.

“I’m just a picture fraaame, so it’s not like I could do much. I waiiited around until a hiker found me, and from there I was treated like an antiiique. I just went with the flooow, y’know? For whatever reason, once this old looord put a portrait of his dead wife inside my fraaame, I gained the ability to use magiiic! So I would waaalk around in the dead of night, but slooowly that guy went crazy...”

Oh no... Anyone would go insane if they saw their dead wife walking around every night, wouldn’t they?

“So eventually, he started to research reaaaally weird stuff. And just when I thought I’d enjoy some peace and quieeet, the royal army came in and killed hiiim! After that, a new lord moved in. I waaaanted to see what kind of peeerson he was, so I went into his rooom in the middle of the niiight. When he saaaw me, he suddenly stopped moving and dieeed! Then, the next lord saaaw me while he was riiiding his horse. As soon as he did, he lost control and fell oooff!! The lord who came after, well, his wife must’ve been craaazy. She ran around yelling about how he was a cheaaaater, and hiding another woman in their hooome! Then she stabbed hiiim!”

“But that means—”

“Elze, just don’t.” I cut off Elze, who was trying to state the obvious. This picture frame person was clearly the source of everything and she didn’t even realize it.

The first lord went insane at the supposed phantom of his dead wife roaming his halls. The second clearly went into shock or had a heart attack when he thought a spirit was approaching his frail, ill self. The third obviously went into a panic on his horse after seeing her and lost control. And the wife of the last lord here must’ve mistaken the frame-woman as her husband’s secret lover.

This was most unpleasant.

“Is there something wrooong?”

“No, not really... But now at least we know the story, so I can demolish the castle without any worries.”

“Wait, whaaat?! How could you be so wickeeed?!”

“At least hear me out first. I’m offering you alternative accommodations. If you come with us, you can live freely and not have to worry about being trashed. How does that sound?”

“Oh, really? Is that trueee?! I’d definitely be happy with thaaat!” With that, the negotiations were complete. I had her return to the picture, then unfastened the frame from the wall. As I did so, I was struck by some curiosity and wondered why the lords after the first kept the painting of the first’s wife around. Typically, one would expect a painting like this to be removed during the redecoration process.

“Uhhm, they were gonna toss me out a few tiiimes, but it turns out the guy who painted this thing is really faaamous, so they kept it because of thaaat!”

Well, that made sense. So the artwork itself was actually quite valuable. I wondered if I shouldn’t just remove the picture and sell it off, then. Wasn’t like I wanted to keep the portrait of a long-dead lord’s wife laying around, anyway. I could just put another picture in the frame and the frame-person would be fine, probably.

We returned to the entry and reunited with the others. I roughly explained the circumstances and let them know the truth behind the ghost story. Remnant of the ancient civilization or not, it was a pain in the butt to me. Still, it was hardly something I could change at this point.

Now that the problem was sorted, I opened up a portal and sucked the whole castle back to Brunhild. As you might expect, I was a bit nervous moving something so huge for the first time, but it turned out just fine.

After that, I went to the workshop and spoke with Rosetta. According to her, we still didn’t have quite enough materials. The missing material wasn’t much, though. Just some lumber, glass, and cloth. I had no choice but to cover the cost for that stuff myself. Glass would be easy enough to acquire from old structures, but cloth should’ve probably been bought new. It seemed you could only recycle and reuse fabric up to a certain point.

“Alright, sir! Bring the relevant materials to the workshop whenever you can! They’ll automatically hop to it and be added to the build site based on my projection data, sir! Ah, a query, sir! Where do you want the castle?!” I pointed to the dead center of my territory on the map. That was only natural. Brunhild had a fairly level terrain, so it would be easy to get around and expand for the most part. In my opinion, it was most sensible to put the castle in the middle. After all, we had no other building plans at the time. If it caused an issue, I’d be able to move the castle again using a [Gate].

The castle should take three days to complete, so I should get to work finding the remaining materials...

◇　◇　◇

“It really only took three days...”

“Yessir! That’s the power of my workshop, sir!” Rosetta pridefully puffed out her chest. Not that there was really anything to puff out.

I looked at the monitor in the workshop. It was displaying my brand new, white castle. Though it was rather small for a castle, it was still considerably larger than my mansion in Belfast.

Apparently worn-out fabrics and cloths couldn’t have their integrity restored even if we recycled them, so I ended up buying most of that stuff brand-new. I could’ve gone out and harvested from silkworm cocoons, but it was easier to just buy it. Making stuff out of raw materials was a pain in the ass anyway. I’d rather spend money than time and effort.

That being said, I chopped a lot of oak and hinoki for the lumber. That was faster and easier than buying.

So, with a bit of elbow grease, the castle was finally built.

We brought down the drawbridge over our vast moat and advanced on toward the inner walls. The water in the moat was crystal clear, and was being sourced from a nearby river. The water purifier was similar to the one employed in the Hanging Garden of Babylon.

It was also possible to manipulate the flow of the water by using floodgates situated both up and downstream. That would be handy during flash floods or heavy rain.

We passed the castle walls, through the sturdy castle gate. We made sure to take time to admire the defensive buildings in the area. There was a station for guardsmen, as well as some well-built towers for men to be stationed inside. There was a trail that led around to a fully-equipped training field around the back, as well.

We continued on toward a fine marble staircase that opened up into a magnificent garden with a water fountain in the middle.

We crossed through the garden until we finally came across the double doors to the castle interior. We opened up the large doors and went inside. What greeted us was a magnificent hallway with a high ceiling. A beautiful chandelier was suspended in the middle of the room, just above a vast staircase. The staircase split off to the right and left partway through, leading to two other entrances. The stairs were also covered by a beautiful red carpet.

That smoothly curving staircase really reminded me of the royal castle in Belfast. That shouldn’t have really been surprising, though. This place used Belfast Castle as a base, after all.

“Ah, how wonderful. There’s just something calming about this place.” Yumina seemed to feel the same. It was probably because the place was based on the place she had called home most of her life.

We went up to the second floor and came to an enormous door that opened out into a vast room. There was a huge skylight fitted on the ceiling, which seemed to focus the light down in a single ray on to an extremely beautiful elevated chair. Is this the royal audience room?

“I-Isn’t this a little bit too extravagant?”

Who’s supposed to sit there, me?

“This is surely the room where you will entertain visitors from other nations and so on. If it isn’t a little gaudy, you may be looked down upon. My dear Touya’s magnificence must shine on display at all times!” I could understand what Lu was getting at, but I still found it embarrassing. After a bit of coercing, everyone eventually convinced me to try sitting on the chair. I felt extremely uncomfortable. But everyone said stuff like “Wow!” and “Incredible!” without considering my feelings.

Who’s going to send representatives to a country that has nothing in it, anyway? We don’t have any vassals, either. This room’ll probably go unused for a good while.

After we left that room, everyone scattered off to look around the castle at their own leisure. I tried to look around too, but wasn’t able to see every single specialized room in one go. The ones I did look at included a ballroom, a dining hall, a library, a music hall, a training hall, and a nice courtyard.

Isn’t this place a little big? I thought the plan was to make it small-ish and manageable...

After everyone finished looking around, we all gathered together to relax in a large room with a balcony attached to the outside.

“It certainly is spacious here, it is. Cleaning it up will be quite the feat, it will...”

“Nope, we’ll be fine. The whole castle is enchanted with [Protection], so dirt and wear won’t affect it. Well, dust will still pile up, I guess...” As I answered Yae, I looked out to the balcony and saw Yumina and Lu happily chatting with each other and looking out across the landscape. Ah, youth... Such an energetic time. Wait, that makes me sound like an old man.

Lapis, Cecile, Renne, and Cesca came into the room bearing tea and cakes. Laim dutifully followed behind them, as well.

“Ah, sir. This is a magnificent castle. I didn’t think that I’d be serving inside a castle again just one year after re-entering service.”

“Ah, I’m sorry, Laim. You stopped working in a castle, finally became a mansion butler, and then I went and did this...”

“Think nothing of it, sir. Youngsters nowadays certainly seem more hot-blooded. I’m sure things will get even more exciting as the days go by.” Laim let out a small laugh as he spoke. Well, if he didn’t mind working in a castle again, then I wouldn’t mind either.

“Master, there is a garden here with a fountain, but I’d like permission to restructure it.” Cesca made a curious request as she poured my tea. She managed the floating garden of Babylon, so it went without saying that gardening was her specialty. Julio was in charge of the courtyard, so I decided to let Cesca do what she wanted with the general garden area.

“By the way, where can I find the naughty training room?”

“Enough!”

This girl really doesn’t know when to stop! As I picked up my teacup, Renne brought a selection of cakes to me.

Renne was slowly becoming a very proficient maid. She was helping out a lot more compared to when she started out. Sometimes she messed up, but that really wasn’t a big deal. As an aside, it seemed that Renne was happily exchanging letters with her grandmother in the empire almost every day. She was making good use of the Gate Mirror.

“Heyyy, sir. Isn’t it a little inconvenient for us to live heeeere? It’ll be difficult for us to go and buy stuff, you knoooow?” Cecile spoke up with her usual soft, elongated tone. She had a point. There was nothing but this castle in this country, so no shopping could be done here at all.

“Well, the current plan, at least for the time being, is to connect the castle to our Belfast home with a [Gate]. It’s not perfect, but it should help.” I intended to create a special [Gate] that could only be used by certain people. By combining [Search] and [Gate], it should have been simple enough to create a portal that only opened for certain people. Better to be safe than sorry, after all.

“I’ll ask Tom and Huck to continue being the gatekeepers at the mansion. That way, if anything happens over there, they can contact us about it. As for the guard here... should I just summon Cerberus and let him live in the garden?”

“He’s definitely the strongest watchdog we could ask for.” Elze chuckled. The Hound of Hades was now my watchdog. I was fairly sure he’d be able to sniff out any intruders with that powerful nose of his.

It should be fine to summon Lizardmen and werewolves to guard the castle, right...? Wait, no... if I go that far, people might start thinking this is some kind of monster territory or something...

“Hm...? What’s that...? Is it a puppy? No, wait, it’s... a bear? Is that a stuffed bear...?” Lu, who was out on the balcony, suddenly spoke up. A stuffed bear? It can’t be...

I ran out on to the balcony and shifted my gaze over to where Lu was looking. Sure enough, there was a little stuffed bear toddling along through the castle gates. A little stuffed bear accompanied by its master, who was strolling along with a black parasol...

“Goodness me, I look away for a moment and you end up becoming a grand duke or whatever... That’s quite the step up, isn’t it? Color me surprised.” Leen sipped tea and commented on my situation as she reclined on a couch. Paula was nearby, prostrating herself and rubbing her paws together in my direction. The programming of that bear never ceased to confuse me.

“Not to mention the fact that you’ve claimed the Regulus Empire’s princess, too... What a carefree life you’re living now.” The sardonic nature of her sentence did not go unnoticed. It wasn’t like I’d claimed anyone, if anything I got a princess and a country as a package deal.

“Well, I won’t bore you with the details, but here’s the short and long of it. Starting today, I’ll be living here as the ambassador for Mismede. Yep, yep. Nice serving you, Your Dukeliness.”

“What?! Hold on a second, aren’t you serving as the ambassador to Belfast right now?”

“I already delegated that role to another. This place is far more interesting.”

Are you for real...? It’s not like I mind, but changing your place of work on such a dumb whim isn’t exactly good... Well, if the beastking is fine with it, I guess it’s alright.

“There’s one final, personal matter. There are a few youngsters who asked me if they could work here... Could you possibly allow it?”

“They want to work here... in this country?”

“That’s correct, yes. They want to serve the Duchy of Brunhild.”

H-Hrmph... it’s true we don’t have a lot of staff right now, but I don’t want to needlessly employ anyone. I don’t want anything to get complicated, or for bad people to end up being employed by me. Oh, Yumina has her Mystic Eyes, at least. I guess I can use that to see if anyone has any bad intentions.

“Well, I may as well meet with them. Where are they?”

“They’re waiting for you outside the gates.” I took Yumina and Leen along with me to the end of our drawbridge. There were three young people there. Well, I said young people, but it wasn’t like I was old or anything. They were around my age, maybe younger. When the three of them saw me coming, they bent down to their knees and lowered their heads in reverence.

Augh, stand up! That’s not comfortable for me or you!

All three of these people are beastmen... There’s a rabbitboy, a foxboy, and a wolfgirl... I think. Hold on a sec... this rabbit, don’t I know him from somewhere...? Oh, I know!

“Excuse me, you’re Lain, right?”

“Ahaha... it’s been quite some time, but I’m glad you remember me, Sir Touya.” The short, redheaded boy grinned at me.

He was one of the subordinates of the wolf beastman Garm, from the excursion to Mismede. But wait, shouldn’t he be in service to the Kingdom of Mismede, then?

“I’ve retired from the employ of my country, so I’ve come to ask if I may serve your nation instead.”

“I see... But why? Garm definitely seemed fond of you, so I’m sure you were going places in that army.”

“Sir Touya, when I saw you strike down the Black Dragon, I... I was moved beyond words. When I heard you had founded a country, I knew I had to serve you here. I asked Lady Leen for your details immediately.”

Wow, talk about dedication. I don’t deserve that kind of devotion at all... As Lain spoke, the wolfgirl next to him gave a short giggle.

“Now now, Lain, calm down a little. You’re gonna scare Sir Touya off!”

“A-Ah... Forgive my overzealous tone.” Lain turned beet red and bowed his head in shame. The silver-haired wolfgirl glanced sidelong at me, bowing her head.

“The name’s Norn. You worked with my big bro some time ago.”

“Your bro?”

“Norn is Garm’s younger sister, Sir Touya.” Lain piped in with a brief explanation.

Ah, that makes sense.

The foxboy was the only one who remained. He quickly bowed his head. He definitely seemed the overly-serious type. From looks alone, he seemed one or two years older than me. That much was clearer up close. He was really tall, too. His gold-blond fox ears twitched, and his tail wagged dutifully.

“Nikola Strand. The pleasure is mine, my liege.” He stood at attention as he spoke, his posture firm and upright.

Please don’t say “my liege”... I know I’m the head of this duchy, but apparently the term “duke” is a bit more flexible in this world. My title’s different from the “duke” in Duke Ortlinde’s title, too. Over here I guess it’s just something akin to “king of a nation.” Well, there’s no point sweating the small stuff. More importantly...

“Did you say Strand? Are you related to Olga Strand?”

“Olga is a cousin of mine from my father’s side. Her father, the famous merchant Olba Strand, is my uncle.”

Aha, just as I thought. Wait, doesn’t that mean all of these guys have some kind of personal connection to me? Well, I guess that’s not unreasonable. I only just founded this country, so only people related to me, however tangentially, would bother coming to work for me.

“These three are rather skilled individuals, so they’re more than fit to protect your castle.” After hearing out Leen’s recommendation, I looked over at Yumina. She looked back at me, giving nothing but a small nod and a silent smile. It seemed that her Mystic Eyes of Intuition hadn’t picked up anything bad about them.

“Hm... well, nothing’s final just yet. I don’t have a formal Knight’s Order or a standing army, either, so I think your duties will mostly just consist of odd jobs for the time being. If that’s still fine by you, then I’d be happy to have you here.”

“Thank you for having us!” All three of them exclaimed those words in unison. I was pleased by their response.

Now, for the time being... where should they sleep? I should probably divide their quarters by sex. I guess they can just live in the castle for now... I decided to think about that more later.

If they ended up becoming the foundation for a formal knight order, then I’d probably end up giving them a separate building.

“Alrighty then, two men and one woman. It’s not quite enough to call a knight order yet, but I’m pretty sure we’ll e...ventually... get there... Uhh...?” The air around Lain grew heavy as I spoke. Norn smiled somewhat awkwardly and averted her eyes, while Nikola just looked at the ground as if he’d just heard something awful.

Huh, what’s wrong? Did I say something stupid?

“You absolute twit. Lain is a girl, you know.”

“......What?” Leen suddenly shot those words out, and I noticed Paula put her paws to her own face as if to say, “Oh man, what are you doing?” Sweat began to spill from all of my pores as I started to process my mistake.

Wait, seriously? I slowly turned my head toward Lain, who was now looking somewhat dejected, rabbit-ears dangling in resignation.

But... that short hair... that handsome, androgynous face... I-I guess it looks a little womanly if I look close enough... Oh geez, oh no.

“...She’s a woman.”

“Oh no, I’m so sorry! Really!!!” I suddenly fell to my knees in apology. It was unprecedented for a sovereign to prostrate himself before his subordinate, but that was just how my country began.

Afterword

Hello again, it’s me. Patora Fuyuhara.

Well, we’ve finally gotten around to releasing the fourth volume. Did you like it?

In this volume, Touya technically became a sovereign ruler, but I don’t think that should change up the adventuring formula that much. He’ll carry on with his friends, just like he always has.

One of the things you should look forward to is the kind of things that’ll happen in Brunhild. Naturally, it won’t just be a quiet country that sits there and does nothing, oh no. The surrounding countries will get involved, there’ll be riots, explosions, all the good stuff.

As you may have been able to tell, Moon Reader was based on the general idea of a manga cafe.

I used to work in one of those places, so I had some pretty fond memories as I wrote that section. I never expected the experience there to come in handy while I was writing, but here we are. In all honesty, I wish I had the [Paralysis] spell, since it would’ve made dealing with shoplifters a lot more convenient.

Although it was a good job, I never really made use of the services because it was hard for me to feel settled there. I’m the kind of person who can only really settle down with a book he bought and took home.

Honestly, my idea of how those venues work might be a little outdated. I only worked at one a long time ago and haven’t visited one since...

But that aside, here are my special thanks.

Eiji Usatsuka, your illustrations are as wonderful as ever. Thank you for so lovingly rendering the new characters that appeared in this volume. Your rendition of Lu is absolutely wonderful. She’s truly adorable.

K, as always, thank you so much for what you’ve done for me. Please stay in good health, and I look forward to working together even more from now on.

To everyone at Hobby Japan’s editorial department, it’s all thanks to you that we’ve reached four volumes. Thank you so very much.

And once again, to all of those who supported me on “Shousetsuka ni Narou,” you have my deepest gratitude.

— Patora Fuyuhara

An Unlucky Day

I often think about luck. What does it really mean to be lucky? Sometimes I get told I have good luck, other times bad luck. But how lucky am I really?

I haven’t ever been seriously injured or gone to the hospital, so my luck can’t be that terrible.

That being said, I distinctly remember one day in my life where I thought “My luck’s been terrible today.”

Back then I was living in Sendai. On a day I’d made plans to meet up with a certain company in Tokyo that had helped me out a lot in the past, I woke up in the morning, and as I was getting ready to leave, I realized I couldn’t find my wallet.

It wasn’t where I usually kept it. I turned my room inside-out looking for it. It took some time, and when I finally found it, I took my bike and pedaled as fast as I could to the station. But as luck would have it, I got a flat tire when I was nearly there.

Fortunately, if the word fortunately could even be applied to my predicament, there was a bike shop nearby and I took it in hoping they’d be able to replace it. But of course this would be the one time they had to be busy.

With how long it would take for them to get to me, I wouldn’t make it to the bullet train on time. I explained my situation to the store clerk, left my bike there, and went to hail a taxi to take me the rest of the way.

I guess I was lucky since I managed to find one pretty quick. I made it to the station with just enough time to get some gifts for the people I was visiting before sliding onto the bullet train seconds before departure. Hoping to finally get to relax for a bit I headed to my seat, only to find some old dude sitting in it.

Confused, I told him, “Umm, excuse me, I think that’s my seat...”

The old man looked really embarrassed as he got up and left, which made me feel kind of bad. At that point, however, I was completely exhausted. I just slumped in my seat the whole ride over.

Now unfortunately, I’d only been to Tokyo a few times before this. I was almost certain I’d get lost trying to walk to my destination, so I got another taxi to take me there instead.

I sat in the taxi, told the driver to go to xx company’s office, and enjoyed the view while thinking that if I’d made it this far I’d somehow make it on time. But when the driver stopped, telling me we’d arrived, and I noticed something strange.

When I looked at the plaque in front of the building, I realized he’d taken me to the offices of the parent company of the company I’d wanted to go to, which, to add insult to injury, was on the opposite side of town.

I urged my apologetic taxi driver to go as fast as possible, but I was already very late by the time we arrived at the correct destination. The people I had gone to meet told me not to worry about it, but I couldn’t help but feel sorry for my tardiness.

After our meeting was over, we naturally segued into a party, and by the time I left for home, it was already quite late. Of course, the bike shop I’d left my bike at was closed. Then, when I finally got home, it looked like a burglar had ransacked the entire place. Of course, that had actually been me when I was looking for my wallet.

The next day I’d have to go back to the bike shop to get my bike. With that unpleasant thought lingering in my mind, I fell into a deep sleep.

Until now, I’d considered the events of that day just plain bad luck, but now that I’m writing about it, I realize I could have avoided a lot of those if I’d just been a bit more careful.

And, I guess, in a way I was lucky that all those things happened to me, since now I have something to write about.

Short Story: The Squire

“Come on, now! Don’t tell me that’s all you got!”

“N-No! I-I can still go on!” Though his words displayed will to continue, Will didn’t seem to have the strength to keep holding his wooden sword. Still, he pointed the tip toward Vice Commander Neil and calmed his breathing.

The situation didn’t allow for any more tactless tricks. His only hope lied with giving his all into one final blow.

“YAAAHHHH!” After mustering fighting spirit great enough to heat his blood, he leaped to close the distance between him and Neil. It seemed as though the tip of his sword would reach the man’s chest, but Neil avoided it right before the impact and went on to land a strong hit into Will’s neck.

“GHAH!” Naturally, it made Will drop to the ground. He no longer had the energy to even stand.

“That last lunge was quite good. Anyway, that’s it for today.”

“Th-Thank you... very... much!” Will thanked him, still lying on the ground and facing up. Neil smirked in response and went on to leave the training grounds.

The soft flow of the wind touched his sweaty skin and robbed it of heat. The chill was pleasant, but there was a chance that he could get sick. However, he was far too tired to even move, let alone get up.

“Come forth, Light! Breath of Vigor: [Refresh].”

Suddenly, Will heard someone chant a spell, after which his body was showered by light. The shine made the burdening weight on his body fade away, almost as if it was never there. He then stood up, looked around, and saw a boy lightly raising his hand toward him while leaning on the fence on the edge of the training grounds.

“Working hard, eh, Will?”

“Sir... No, Duke...”

“Having you call me that just doesn’t feel right.”

The white coat-wearing boy before him was the hero who had recently become the ruler of a small country. Not only that, but he was also a Silver adventurer. Due to him being the fiance of the princess of this country, Belfast, Will had met him in the castle many times before.

“You sure are strong now.”

“No, I still have a long way to go... In fact, I spend most of my recent time thinking only about how to become stronger...” Will’s words made the coated young man fold his arms and think about something before making a comment.

“What about a special move, then?”

“A-A special move?”

“Take a skill you’re good at and improve it to the point that you’re unmatched when using it. The order is diverse when it comes to that, right? Some swing their swords real fast, some are good at defense, and others are all about maneuverability, stuff like that. You should find something that feels right for you.”

Indeed, the stronger members of the order all had their specialties. It was a question whether they could be called ‘special moves,’ but Will understood what the boy meant.

After he left, Will pondered for a bit before deciding to retry the last lunge he attempted to land on Vice Commander Neil. Though it failed, he felt like it could’ve been his very own special move if he gave his all into it. He pictured himself jumping to his opponent faster than anyone and thrusting his sword just as swiftly.

Whether this encounter and the practice routine it created was what caused Belfast to ultimately gain the proud and mighty knight who would come to be known as ‘Will the Flash’ was a subject of rumor.