Chapter 389: The Fairies' Future, and a Visit from a Prince.
The talk between Refreese Imperium and Panashes Kingdom proceeded without troubles. The new border line was decided swiftly, and the two sides have established a friendly relationship with each other.
For the countries that used to be in the Surface World, the thing known as golem doesn't exist; and for the ones that used to be in the Reverse World, magic is a very uncommon thing.
For the difference in recognition in that area to be resolved on a national scale, the nations themselves must lead the way.
As a sign of friendship, Panashes Kingdom will be sending a few golems to Refreese Imperium, and the latter will gift the former some magic books in exchange; they'll also send a few golem engineers and magicians to each other as technical guides.
I hope that by adopting each other's culture into their own, they can understand and interact with the other more deeply.
Now then, about the information from Anubis and Bastet, who have infiltrated Eisengard.
As expected, since [Godslaying Poison] doesn't affect normal people, they're living life normally within the country.
Apparently, in the town they're in currently—it's a port town on the eastern edge of Eisengard—rumors that some golden monsters have destroyed several other towns already, and that the Magicraft Kingdom's golem knight order has been dispatched to deal with them are floating around.
Bastet and Anubis will be leaving that town by tomorrow, and head towards a bigger town inland.
While receiving Bastet's report, I went to Dr. Elka to consult about the information regarding the white [Crown] that I heard from the blue [Crown], Blau.
"It was a coincidence that led us to Noir, you see. Normally, [Crown]-class golems are found inside places like ruins or sites of old research facilities, but we found him inside a mine instead."
"A mine?"
"It was a magic light stone mine, if I remember correctly. What's more, it's been in disuse for several decades already, and I only found it by chance too. I thought it was an abandoned
mining golem from before, but it had the [Crown] series' emblem on its neck, so I immediately knew what it was."
Dr. Elka immediately recovered Noir and began repairing it, but with her abilities back then, it took a long time. The repairs finally finished after a year; however, Noir did not choose Dr. Elka as its master.
"The [Crown]s choose their masters. I guess I just didn't have the compatibility required. I had never imagined my younger sister Norn, who sneaked into the laboratory when I was out on a trip, to become its master, though."
Dr. Elka made a wry smile as she took a sip of the coffee placed on the table.
I wonder if the [Crown]s have a set of criteria when they choose their masters. Black-Norn, red-Nia, blue-Robert, purple-Luna…
Muu. I can't think of anything besides the fact that all of the masters have troublesome personalities…
The blue [Crown] had been passed down in the Panashes royal family for generations, and the previous master of the red [Crown] was Nia's father. Genetics or lineage could be a possible factor as well.
"That reminds me, the conditions in which we found Noir in was a bit strange."
"Strange?"
"Un. Normally, when you find Legacies, they're in situations like buried inside the earth or sleeping in some ruins. But in Noir's case, it felt like it was thrown away inside the mine tunnel. Even if it's in disuse now, that mine should still have people who worked in it before, right? Which means…"
"Someone had thrown it away inside the mine after it became abandoned, or it had gone into the mine and shut down by itself…"
"Someone had forced it into a situation where it had to shut itself down… That possibility isn't zero as well."
Noir was thought to be together with the white [Crown]… At least, according to Blau. It sounds unlikely, but could the one who drove Noir into shutting itself down be the white [Crown], Albus?
It doesn't show up on my search magic too. Its appearance shouldn't be different from Noir and Rouge, and its color is likely white. If that's the case, I should be able to tell it's the white [Crown] the moment I see it…
Either there's something blocking my search, or it no longer exists in this world already.
Mu. Nothing'll happen from me worrying about things I can't resolve right now. Let's refresh our mind a bit.
When I returned to Brunhild's royal castle from Babylon, Leen was sitting on a sofa in the living room with her arms folded and pondering something. Pola was folding its arms besides her as well, but you're not thinking about anything, are you.
"What is it?"
"Just a bit. I was thinking about the amount of magic power and aptitude held by the people in our world and the other one."
Dear me, my fiancée-san is thinking about something difficult again… I sat down besides her in order to hear her out.
"It's probably due to the different path of evolution they took, but the people on the other side has lower magic power than us in general. It's likely that the number of people with magical aptitudes is small too. Their sense for manipulating magic power is sharper, but that's most likely because they use magic tools on a daily basis."
Aah, right, while candles are still commonplace here, the other side has things like neon lights made with magic light stones, after all. The light intensity adjustment of that is done through magic power manipulation.
"So, you're saying that the people on the other side aren't suited to using magic?"
"Unn, it's not like that's completely the case. Aren't the people from [Red Cats] and that [Black Cats] manager using magic properly?"
Leaving Nia and the others aside, I had helped out during that time when Silhouette-san used summoning magic, though.
"Well, if the people from both worlds mingle together in the future, after some generations, a new change might be brought forth. It might be somewhere around our grandson's grandson's grandson's age, though."
"That's a long way off into the future, huh."
"Ara, is that so? At least, to us who are gods and his dependants, that's a period of time that could pass as an instant, you know."
Leen grasped my hand. She is of the fairy race, and has a long lifespan. To her who had already lived for a long time, I suppose it would feel that way.
"Our grandson's grandson's grandson, eh. Can't imagine it at all."
"Well, the children born between you and I would be of the fairy race as well, so they would have a long life too."
It's the same with Sakura who's part of the demon race, but children born between a fairy and a human won't take on characteristic of both parents like half-elves. The child will always be of the fairy race.
Further, the fairy race has a very low chance of birthing male children; the child of a fairy would be female with a possibility of around 80% to 90%.
I've asked about this towards Kami-sama before, but our children would be born as children of gods. Of course, their lifespan would be longer than normal. However, it's at most twice the length of a normal person, and by the next generation—our grandsons—their lifespan would drop down to basically the same as average.
Which is why, the children of the ones with long lifespan originally, Leen and Sakura, would probably live the longest.
"It's going to be a long relationship, huh."
"There's just one thing I'm worried about, to be honest… If our daughter grows more than me before her development is stalled, when we line up as a family, wouldn't I get treated as the daughter and our daughter treated as your wife instead…"
Leen muttered under her breath. Well, that possibility does exist… I think?
Leen's outer appearance is around 11 to 12 years old, and right now she barely looks older than Suu. However, unlike Leen whose growth has stopped, Suu would definitely overtake her eventually.
Including me, everyone's aging would stop at a suitable point after we've become adults, but Leen is already an adult according to the standards of her race. She will never grow bigger than where she is now. I guess she's still hung up about that.
"That's nothing you need to worry about. You're you no matter what; just boldly stay by my side and it'll be fine."
"That's not the problem… Well, whatever. It's stupid to be jealous of a daughter that doesn't even exist yet, isn't it."
Snickering, Leen stretched her body and put her arms around my neck before giving me a kiss. I hugged her small and delicate frame back.
"At the end of the day, I'll be fine as long as you love me enough to make me not be jealous of my daughter, I guess."
"I'll do my best… Was that weird for a reply?"
"Since you're nine times more troublesome than a normal person, I don't mind giving you a bit of discount, you know."
That's a thankful offer. To be honest, rather than thinking about which one I love more between my wife and my daughter, I believe that love between spouses and love for a child are different things in the first place. N?
"… It's pretty late to be asking this, but what are your parents or siblings doing now, Leen?"
"It really is late to be asking that."
The fairy girl laughed teasingly.
No, well, since she's the fairy tribe's chief, I somehow got the image of an "elder" from that, and assumed her parents had already passed away or something.
"I don't have any siblings. In the first place, races with long lifespans like us usually find it hard to conceive children, and us fairies are a race with abundant curiosity on top of that. Even married couples would go around and do their own things for centuries on a stretch, so the child is almost always an only child."
I was thinking about how they managed to not go extinct like that, but then I realized that since the parents will live a long life anyway, that actually makes it balanced overall… I think?
"And, your parents?"
"After they've reached a certain amount of age, some—not everyone—of the fairies would head into [Avalon]. They would prepare to spend the rest of their lives there."
[Avalon] is a different land with its entrance situated in the Great Sea of Trees, and is apparently something similar to the Spirit Realm in nature. The elderly fairies would move there and slowly live out the last couple hundred years of their lives, before passing away.
"And my parents have already gone to that [Avalon]. I think they're still alive, but they probably will not come back to this world ever again."
"That's…"
"It's nothing that you need to worry about. I've already finished saying goodbye to my parents a few hundred years ago, you know. Besides, don't I have a new family now?"
Leen smiled with a face from which I couldn't sense and sadness. I suppose to the fairy tribe, that's something normal.
"… I had wanted to meet Leen's parents, actually."
"Ara, if it's about that, then I actually want to greet your parents too, you know."
If I master [Dimensional Transfer] more, I think I can move to my previous world as well. However, I'm treated as a deceased person in that world. If I want to let Leen meet dad and mom, I think the most I can do is something like standing beside their bed like ghosts? Nono, if I do that it'll make their hearts stop and then they'll become ghosts as well. Guess I'll stand beside their bed in their dreams or something.
Well, there's nothing much I can do about the situation.
As if to break apart the atmosphere that had become somewhat solemn, my smartphone vibrated and notified me of an incoming call. It's from the knight order commander, Rain-san. I wonder what happened?
"Yes, hello?"
"This is Rain. Your Majesty, actually there's someone in front of the castle gates who named himself as a friend of Your Majesty's…"
"Friend?"
Who could it be? If it's Zanack-san from the clothing store or Mika-san from [Silver Moon] then Rain-san should know them too, so maybe Ende?
"That is… How should I say it; it may sound rude, but his dress is way too bizarre… He's also wearing something like a miniature crown, and calling himself a prince…"
"Ah… I'll go there soon. Please tell him to wait there for the moment."
Speaking of a bizarrely dressed prince, there can't be anyone besides him. That bastard, he came here with his teleportation ability, didn't he. Call me when you're going to pull
something like this, was what I thought, but when I checked he had actually dutifully sent a mail to me before this. I didn't notice.
Seems like he remembered my words of "Mail me except for important things". However, as expected, I really cannot comprehend the nerves of sending a one-sided message of "Heading over there" before arriving just three minutes later.
"The prince you mentioned?"
"Aah. For the first time, I know how annoying people with teleportation abilities can be. I'm reflecting."
In my case, I would properly confirmed whether the other party is available, though. As much as possible. Whenever I could. I mean, I can't exactly do that when there're emergencies, right.
"Will you come as well, Leen? I can introduce you to him."
"Right. I'm a bit interested too. Come here, Pola."
Pola, who had been rolling around on the sofa in order to not disturb us, jumped off and clung to my right foot.
I hugged Leen close before activating [Teleport]; in an instant, we were before Rain-san in front of the castle gates.
As expected, the one in front of me is the prince with a short mantle, pumpkin pants, white tights and short bob-cut blonde hair, Robert.
"Yaa, Touya-kun! We've come!"
"Zip it with that tone."
Normally, this is the place where I gave him a generous chop on the head, but since he brought guests with him I held back somehow.
One of them, a small blue golem, is—it goes without saying—his partner, the blue [Crown] Blau. Without its spatial warp ability, they wouldn't have been able to come here through teleportation anyway, so it's natural that it's besides him.
And then, there's the girl wrapped in a beautiful dress standing besides Robert. The girl, with flaxen long hair, is smiling while looking at Robert with glittery eyes.
She is Robert's fiancée, Celestia Twente Hernandez. A few days ago, I met her when I went to Strain Kingdom together with Robert to deliver a smartphone. She's the niece of Her Majesty the Strain Queen, and a bona-fide royalty.
This girl… Celes, she has accepted all of Robert's quirks including his bizarre fashion sense, so in a way, she's the perfect fiancée for him.
Honestly, I had legitimate doubs about how such a girl fell for that guy (discourteous but oh well), but it seems that she seriously yearns for Robert from the bottom of her heart. To each their own, I guess.
"Hello, Touya-sama. Thank you very much for the wonderful present the other day. It's like a dream how I'm now able to talk with Robert-sama every day."
"I'm glad you like it."
Holding the mass-production model smartphone I gave her in her hands, Celes smiled with happiness.
Behind the two, four knights—most likely guards—from their countries stood at attention with two for each side, but besides them, there's also one more young man standing there.
His age doesn't seem to be that far apart from me or Robert.
Ash-colored short hair and rare golden eyes. His ears are a bit sharp at the ends, and scale patterns can be seen on his reddish-brown skin. Two horns grew out of his scalp, and a fat tail can be seen behind…
"You're… A dragonkin?"
Leen opened her mouth as she looked at the young man. To Leen, who used to be the royal court magician of Beast Kingdom Mismede, the race of the young man before her must be something she's curious about.
"Dragonkin? We are dragonewt. The ones who have inherited the power of dragons, proud descendants of the Martial King."
(Note: that while "dragonkin" is in kanji, "dragonewt" is in katakana i.e. it's spoken in the English pronunciation in the raw.)
Dragonewt. Wonder if that's what they call dragonkin on the other side. In my eyes, he looks pretty similar to the adventurer Sonia-san, though.
"I've brought him here today to let Touya-kun meet him! He is—"
When he spoke up to there, Robert suddenly toppled face-first and began sleeping with loud snoring. The compensation for the [Crown] ability, huh.
Leen and Pola, and Rain-san who saw it for the first time jumped with surprise and looked towards me.
"Ah, it's fine it's fine. This is normal."
Blau immediately moved Robert onto its shoulder. Celes took out a handkerchief from her pockets, and wiped off the dirt from Robert's face. How gallant.
"Please pardon us. Could you lend us a room with a bed? He should wake up after around four hours."
He sure sleeps well… I'm not reluctant about lending them a room, so I asked Rain-san to lead the way.
After Robert and Blau, as well as the two knights who acted as his guards left, Celes cleared her throat cutely with a *kohon* and introduced the dragonkin… Wait, it's dragonewt, isn't it? Anyway, she introduced him to us.
"I shall introduce him in place of Robert-sama. He is Zanbert Gal Raze. Raze Martial Kingdom's second prince."
The youth known as Zanbert lightly lowered his head upon Celes' introduction.
The prince brought a prince, oi.