"Well then, time for you to speak."
With a *don*, I hit the table I'm sitting at, and stared at Ende, who's directly sitting across from me. Within the dim room, the stand on the table, which had light magic enchanted on it, illuminated Ende's face from the side.
"Your mother back in the countryside is crying, you know… Want a katsudon?"
"… I have absolutely no idea what you've been trying to do since a while before, but since I'm hungry, I'll have some."
Un, well, I got a bit carried away. I mean, isn't this the obvious pattern when it comes to interrogations?
In maid clothing, Cesca brought in three bowls of katsudons. Me and Ende, and tentatively for Mel as well.
"Me as well?"
"I know Phrase doesn't need to eat, but since it's already been made, try it out. It's ok if you can't finish."
Mel turned at Ende with a troubled look, but seeing Ende taking up his chopsticks and starting to eat, she too picked up a piece of the katsu with wobbly chopsticks and put it into her mouth.
"!"
Mel opened her eyes wide and began eating the katsudon with great relish. Seems like she likes it.
"Come to think of it, what's the relationship between ruler-types and food anyway?"
"The Phrase is a species that can operate as long as there's a bit of light and magic power. As such, they don't really have much experience with the act of eating something. Well, Rize was pretty adamant on food-related matters, though."
"Right, what happened to that Rize girl? Weren't you guys moving together?"
"I'll talk about that later as well. For now, let's eat."
That's right. I'd better finish this before it gets cold. Mm, delicious. I guess Claire-san's the one who made this… Or maybe Luu? Even though she's a princess of Regulus, her cooking skill has risen so much that it can be compared to a professional these days…
After we finished eating the katsudons (although Mel looked like she wanted to eat more), I started listening to Ende's story.
"Touya knows about them too, right? The golden Phrases."
"The variants?"
"Variants… Yeah, those are something like sudden variations, I guess. The Phrase that have come to this world are currently split into two forces. The [Sovereign] loyalists led by Nei, and the reformists led by Yura. And that Yura, after getting his hands on an unknown power from somewhere, became capable of transforming Phrases into entirely new lifeforms."
Nei is that female ruler-type that I've only seen once before, and Yura would be that ruler-type that gave off an eerie feeling, right? His dark eyes have an unreadable feeling to them… So that guy got his hands on the evil god's powers.
"I tried to ascertain the current strength of Yura's faction, and tracked them down within the Dimensional Gap, but a pair of twin ruler-types… They're called Leto and Luto, and I got taken out by them. It's embarrassing, but I couldn't do anything against them. They weren't that strong before, but after being reborn as variants their strength rose to unimaginable levels. It took me all I had just to escape."
"They still had more ruler-types…? And they've even become variants…"
"That power is abnormal. I know since I've passed through a lot of different worlds before this. That was… The power of a god. Power from an absolute being that could create entire worlds."
"A bit off the mark there. That was power from an evil god. It's sourced from an imitation of the gods born on the ground, and is definitely not the power of a true god."
Ende blinked at me who gave such a reply to him. It was clearly a face which said, "How do you know something like that?", and I unintentionally laughed a little when I saw that.
"… I've always wanted to ask, but who exactly are you, Touya? You're not a normal person, right?"
"Right… Well, I guess it's ok."
To make it easier to understand, I activated [Divinity Release] and let my divinity flow out into the surroundings. Ende and Mel should be able to notice this aura.
Just as I predicted, the two of them sensed the divinity coming off me and backed off while showing shocked faces. Oops, did I overdo it a bit? I dispelled the divinity in the surroundings, and returned to my normal state.
"That, that aura was…"
"Tentatively, I'm a member of the divine, so. Well, I'm still something like a trainee."
Ende and Mel solidified on the spot with their shock written on their faces. Well, can't blame them. [Divinity Release] is something that basically forces the recognition of "It's a god!" onto the people who are hit by its aura. I don't think mine has even reached the level of Karen nee- san yet, though.
"… Should we kneel down and start praying…?"
"Stop it. That's just uncomfortable. Didn't I say I'm a trainee? I'm still not a god, so don't start treating me like one, please."
Ende and Mel looked at each other and nodded to themselves. They still look a bit nervous, but I think they'll get used to it after a while.
"And? Did you lose your memories from getting beaten up by those twins?"
"Beaten up… I can't deny that. But no, I did manage to run away at that time. However, I felt that the situation is looking grim, and as such I sought out new powers for myself too."
"And I guess that's these?"
I took out the two shortswords that Ende had been holding from [Storage]. These are weapons imbued with divinity, or in other words sacred treasures.
"These two swords are things from a world some distance away form this one. In that world, apparently an evil dragon-something that had been rampaging around was destroyed by a hero-something wielding these. After that, the swords had been passed down within the hero- something's descendants, and I just borrowed them for a bit." (Note: the "-something"s are in the raws. Ende…)
Stolen goods!? Wait, if it's left on the ground it's just a potential evil god-seedbed anyway, so I guess the end result is alright?
"And then, a mysterious man who claimed he came to retrieve those swords suddenly appeared before me, you see. Saying something like 'Leaving that sacred treasure on the ground is bad', he easily beat me up. I barely escaped with my life by transferring away, but it seemed like I mistook the destination world. And then I lost consciousness like that. After that, that senate chairman geezer found me and the rest was as you know."
Retrieve the swords? Bad if they're left on the ground? … Could that perhaps be a lower- ranked god?
I asked the two of them to wait a moment, and made a call to Kami-sama. When I roughly explained to him the circumstances, a light-hearted reply came back.
"Ah, that's the Martial God. He was saying something like wanting to make that person a disciple since he shows promise, you know. Oh, the swords are free for you to use as long as you don't lose them."
Aaaaaand that's a bingo.
This guy, to have survived fighting against the god governing martial arts, that's amazing. Hmm, but he almost died and lost his memories too, so that's only barely surviving, I guess?
When I told him that, as expected Ende only made a forced smile and didn't say anything.
Beaten up by the twins -> beaten up by the Martial God -> beaten up by me, a three- consecutive-defeat eh. I kinda feel sorry for him… It's not as if Ende's weak, for that matter.
For now, I'll return these sacred treasures back to my [Storage].
"Well, I know about your circumstances now. Then what about that ruler-type girl, Rize?"
"I let her go to Nei. Asked her to explain various things to her. Things concerning the variants, and so on… They're sisters, you know."
Is that so? They don't look like each other at all, though…
On a side note, I wonder how do the Phrase process familial relations… I don't even know how they reproduce, come to think of it. Having said that, I can't exactly ask about it, so let's just leave it for now.
"So, what's Touya planning to do with us?"
"Yeah… I'm sorry, but there's no way I can let Mel out of [Prison]. For now, anyway. Spare me from the Phrase launching an assault on my own country. As for you, Ende…"
He's not our ally, but Mel's ally in the current picture, after all. If you say it's easy to understand, it is, but it's also not at the same time…
"I'm willing to help out as long as Touya doesn't harm Mel in any way. Now that we've come to this stage, we can't move forward without cleaning everything up once and for all."
"I… I want to talk with Nei one more time. One more time, properly facing her from the front… And tell her to stop doing these kinds of things. It may be hard, but…"
Mel gave her own thoughts while looking down. For that, we'll have to first wait for contact from Rize, I suppose. As long as she stays in the [Prison], her safety is guaranteed anyway.
"So it's maintaining the status quo for now. I feel bad, but you'll have to stay detained by us."
"Oioi, me as well?"
"You're staying with her as punishment for leaving her alone. We won't be doing things like monitoring and whatnot, so feel free to flirt with her all day."
"Wh-!" (Note: *whistle*)
I left the room while looking at the flustered Ende. Before I left the room, I saw the sight of Ende holding Mel's hand. It'd be great if he can properly care for Mel mentally after she's been feeling down all this while.
"Have the talks finished-degozaru ka?"
When I returned to the living room, Yae was waiting for me in a chair. Empty donburi bowls are piled on the table besides her. You, how many katsudon did you eat…
"For the moment, yeah. If things go well, we probably won't have to fight with the Phrases again. The variants are another matter, though."
"That is excellent. Oh, also, a letter came from aniue in Ishen-gozaru. As he wishes for a rematch with Moroha aneue in the near future, he wants to know when would be a good time, apparently." (Note: the closer translation here is Moroha elder-sister-in-law for the term Yae used, but that's way too long, so I chose to use aneue in the end.)
Rematch? Juutarou-san? When did he fight with Moroha nee-san again…
"The martial tournament from last time. Aniue who was the winner fought with aneue after that-degozaru yo."
Ah, that time. The last day of the festival, is it? I was asleep for that entire day due to the battle with Gira the day before, after all.
As for the results, it's a complete victory for Moroha nee-san. There's zero suspense there. What's more, it sounded like she went all-out against Juutarou-san. Thrusting someone who had just tasted the joy of victory into the depths of defeat, is she a demon? Wait, she's a god.
"I feel sorry for Juutarou-san, but I think he'll just lose again…"
"That's something aniue acknowledges himself-degozarou. He probably wants the opportunity to train against her-degozaru yo."
If it's like that, it should be fine. Thank god he's a positive person. If his heart actually breaks or bends over this, I'd feel guilty after all…
Suddenly, the smartphone in my chest pocket lets off a sound. A call from Kousaka-san. I have a bad feeling…
"Yes, hello…"
"Your Majesty. You need to start clearing today's work soon, or there's going to be some complications that will appear elsewhere. Where are you right now?"
"Ah, yes, I'm heading back right now."
Recently, I've been bogged down by matters in the Reverse World, after all. It's probably best if I stay and do some work over here for a while.
My work regarding the governing of the country is just deciding on some prepared proposals, after all. Oh right, there was that proposal from the Adventurers Guild's Guildmaster, Rerishia- san, regarding the founding of an Adventurer Training School.
The number of adventurers who came to Brunhild for the dungeon islands have further increased from before. And together with that, cases where novice adventurers pushed
themselves too far which led to grave injuries, or even death, are on the rise. This is to reduce, or possibly prevent, such cases from occurring.
There's not a thing to lose in learning about skills that can save your lives. Well, I am thinking of lowering the tuition fees as much as I can so they would actually feel that way, but…
Let's head over to Kousaka-san's location in any case.
"I'm off for work then."
"Have a good trip-degozaru yo."
While being seen off by Yae, I opened a [Gate] to the castle in Brunhild.