Her pose, which was like that of the Mona Lisa, brought out her alluring beauty
and was especially effective at capturing the hearts of the men of Van. It felt to them
as if they were sitting at a bar and this woman, who had been sitting next to them,
had turned to them to talk. Now she spoke.
"Good evening, everyone. I am Chris Tachyon."
◇ ◇ ◇
"This is News Elfrieden. In this information program, we will be bringing the
latest news from Elfrieden and its surrounding countries to you, the people. Now, for
our first story..."
Chris began reading her script in the impromptu news studio that had been set
up in Van Castle's governmental affairs office. I call it a news studio, but we had
really just gotten together a long table and a chair. Still, with the other furnishings
already in place, it looked the part.
Aisha and I were watching Chris from the corner of the room where we wouldn't
be picked up by the jewel.
Aisha pulled on my sleeve. "Um... Why is Chris being broadcast at an angle?"
"Uhh... Stylistic beauty?" I said.
I remembered a female newscaster from my world who had delivered the news
in this position, so I had tried to include it. However, during rehearsal, Chris had
complained to me, saying, "I feel like I'm going to get a kink in my neck," so this was
probably going to be the first and last time we would shoot the program from an
angle.
The news Chris was reading out now was a report on the events of the war up to
this point.
She explained in a neutral tone that, as a punitive action against Gaius VIII and
his son Julius, who had taken advantage of instability in the kingdom to invade, King
Souma of Elfrieden had launched a counter-invasion and struck down Gaius VIII.
Aisha tilted her head to the side in confusion. "Wouldn't it have been better to
deliver this information in a speech of your own, sire? You might have been able to
raise your profile in this country, like you did with that program on ingredient
gathering."
"The situation is different this time," I said. "We aren't only broadcasting to the
occupied territories around Van, we're broadcasting to the rest of Amidonia, as well.
No matter what the king of an enemy state says, the people of the principality aren't
going to listen to a word of it. It's better that they hear it from a third party."
Though, when I had discussed the script for this news with Hakuya, there had
been the idea of using, "For all of us, His Majesty, our Dear King..." and exaggerating
the details, but it had made me sound like some tin-pot dictator, so I'd rejected it.
Well, anyway, as we were talking, Chris continued reading out the news with
those smooth reading skills and pleasant voice of hers that had come with Juna's seal
of approval. "The armies of the kingdom are presently occupying the capital of the
principality, Van, but hostilities have, for the moment, ceased. In regards to this state
of affairs, His Majesty, King Souma of Elfrieden, has released the following
statement:
"'This has been a war of subjugation against Gaius VIII, who invaded my country.
It is not my wish to spread the fires of war further or to harm the citizens of the
principality. We will provide support to the people living in the area around Van to
allow them to get on with their lives. Furthermore, as Van has been annexed as a
territory of the kingdom, I promise that the same food aid and infrastructure
spending will be carried out here.'
"In advance of that, the Minister of Agriculture and Forestry, Mr. Poncho Ishizuka
Panacotta, will be distributing foodstuffs in Van starting tomorrow. He asks that
everyone in Van invite their family and neighbors to come with them."
◇ ◇ ◇
"How dare they do this?!"
In a city close to Van, the crown prince of Amidonia, Julius Amidonia, shouted out
angrily.
Having escaped from the earlier battle, Julius was in a city near Van, waiting with
the remnants of the principality's forces for the Gran Chaos Empire's armies to
arrive. Julius smashed the receiver with a swing of his sword, then immediately gave
an order to his subordinates.
"Dispatch messages to every city with orders not to watch this ridiculous
broadcast."
"""Yes, sir!"""
His subordinates all ran off to dispatch the messengers at once. Once he saw that
they had all left, Julius turned to glare in the direction of Van. He hopes to win over
not just the people of Van, but of all Amidonia, with his honeyed words, does he? I must
not let him!
Julius firmed up his resolve.
Still, even though he'd dispatched messengers, it wasn't as if they could reach
every city instantly. Furthermore, with his defeat in battle, Julius had lost much of
his influence and so his orders were only carried out in the city he was presently in
and those which were very close to it.
In other words, most of the cities in Amidonia were watching Souma's broadcast.
The reactions of the Amidonian citizens who saw it could be broadly divided into
two categories.
First, there were the people in Van, who were relieved to hear that they would
not be conscripted and sent to fight on the front lines, or to have it demanded that
they turn over their assets, wives, or daughters.
In the cities and farming villages outside of Van, what caught the people's
attention was not the death of Gaius VIII, or Souma's righteous cause, it was the fact
that those areas which had become a territory of the kingdom of Elfrieden would
receive the same support as cities within the kingdom.
Of course, the people of Amidonia scarcely believed these words. After all, they
were the words of the enemy king. Everyone thought he was simply trying to buy
their loyalty.
...However, it was also true that Souma's words deeply ate into the hearts of the
Amidonian people, who were currently struggling through an even deeper food
crisis than the one in the kingdom. The harsher their current situation, the more
deeply the words ate into them.
◇ ◇ ◇
"...And so, at present, medicine in our country is..."
It had been about ten minutes or so since the beginning of Chris's informational
program.
The section she was reading out now was the last piece of information to be
disseminated. Once this information program was over, the music program would
begin at last.
As she stood at my side, visibly anxious, Aisha grabbed my arm. Today, Aisha
wasn't dressed in her usual light armor; instead, she wore a cocktail dress. I myself
was wearing a tuxedo.
Aisha turned to me with a look in her eyes like an abandoned puppy dog. "WhWhat do I do, sire? I can't stop shaking."
"Just calm down, okay?" I said. "This is your second time on the broadcast, isn't
it?"
"Last time, I was all right because I just had to eat..."
It had been decided that I would be the host for the music program with Aisha as
my assistant.
I, of course, hadn't planned on being the host of a music program, but Poncho,
who I had intended to push the job off onto, was busy with distributing food, and
Hakuya had refused because it didn't suit him.
It was my first time, too, so if my partner Aisha was going to be petrified with
stage fright, that was a problem.
"Where did the bravado you show on the battlefield go?" I asked.
When I said that in an exasperated tone, Aisha groaned pathetically and her
shoulders slumped. "I am confident that no one is a match for me in martial arts.
However, at a showy event like this, I have no such confidence. There are a lot of
people out there who are prettier that I am, you know. The princess and Madam
Juna are both slender and fair-skinned, like lovely young maidens. Meanwhile my
skin is dark, and I have some muscle on me, too..."
"Really?" I asked. "I think you've got a nice healthy look."
Even if she did have some muscle, she wasn't ripped like a body builder. In fact,
she had such a shapely body that I had to wonder how she managed to swing around
that giant sword with so little muscle. On top of that, she was tall enough to be a
model, and, though it was hard to tell when she was wearing armor, her aboveaverage figure was good enough that Liscia was the one more likely to be jealous.
"Yeah," I said. "You're pretty, Aisha."
"I-I am?!"
The compliment had Aisha ecstatic. However, she quickly came back to her
senses.
"B-But, really, Madam Juna or the princess would make a better host..."
"Juna is one of the singers, so she'd have to run all over the place if we made her
be the host, too," I said. "As for making Liscia my assistant... I thought it would be
best not to do that this time."
"Hm? Why is that?" she asked.
"Oh. There's a little thing I'm worried about now that I've ended up being the
host," I said. "To be brutally honest, I chose you less because I think you'll be a good
assistant and more because I'm counting on your skills as my bodyguard. If anything
happens, you'll be able to protect me if you're at my side, right?"
"Of course I will, but... Huh?! Is something dangerous going to be happening?!"
she asked.
Aisha seemed concerned, so I put a hand on her forehead and laughed.
"It'll be fine, in all likelihood. But, as pathetic as it is for me to have to ask this as a
man, will you protect me if something happens?"
"Your Majesty... Yes! Even if it should cost me my life, I will mmmph."
I hurriedly covered Aisha's mouth. "You're being too loud. We're broadcasting
now."
"Mmph... I-I'm sorry."
...At times like this, she really might have been a disappointing dark elf.
"...is what they said. That is all for News Elfrieden. Now then, after this program,
we will be broadcasting Elfrieden's first entertainment program. If you have no prior
engagements or are not otherwise in a hurry, I hope you will continue watching this
broadcast."
Whoa, it looks like Chris's program is finished, I thought. Okay, now it's our turn.
The set for the music program wasn't here: it was an atrium that had most likely
been used to hold balls. We had lined up tables in there, bringing in some of the
soldiers to sit at them and listen, in the style of the Japan Cable Awards. That was
because having an audience makes a huge difference to the level of excitement.
I took my assistant by the hand. "Come on, let's go, Aisha."
"Sire, I will follow you anywhere!"
◇ ◇ ◇
With Chris Tachyon's information program finished, there was a short break.
Then the receiver in Van's plaza showed a young man and woman. They were a
young man in a black tuxedo and a dark elf girl wearing an extravagant red party
dress. While the young man was confident, the girl seemed a little tense.
Then a person in the crowd said, "Hey, wait, isn't that guy Elfrieden's king,
Souma?"
When people around the man heard him, those who had seen the Elfrieden
Kingdom's army march in through the city gates cried out one after another, "Yeah! I
saw him when they came in through the gate," "That's Elfrieden's King Souma,"
"There's no doubt about it," confirming the first man's suspicions.
With no way of knowing what they were saying about him, Souma wore a relaxed
expression as he held an object that was twenty centimeters or so long with a
rounded end (no doubt intended to be a mic, but since the Jewel Voice Broadcast
was picking up the sound, it was really just a prop) up to his mouth and greeted
them all with a "Hello."
"Songs change with the times and the times change with songs," he said. "These
are the songs we want to see handed down across the ages."
"Wh-What, where did that line come from?! You didn't say that during rehearsal,
did you?!" the dark elf girl exclaimed.
It seemed that his last line had been ad-libbed, as the girl was now confused.
"I will be your host for this program, Souma Kazuya."
"I-I am Aisha Udgard!"
"Come on now, Aisha, your expression is looking stiff," said the king. "Smile,
smile."
"Wh-What about you, sire? Why are you speaking so politely?!" she exclaimed.
"Well, I'm the host, y'know," he said. "Even if I'm the king, I can't go acting too
self-important."
"You say that, but you're already back to talking like normal!"
"Whoops, pardon me."
Souma was throwing in a bit of playful humor while Aisha could only react to
him.
The people of the Elfrieden Kingdom looked on at their banter with smiles.
However, the people of the Principality of Amidonia wore looks of bewilderment.
The rumors about King Souma said he was a man who had made a fool of the
great warrior Gaius VIII using his strategic ingenuity, then struck him down in a
display of his own valor. The king of the rumors, blessed with both wisdom and
martial ability, simply didn't mesh with the young man poking fun at and playing
around with the dark elf girl in this broadcast.
In actual fact, his strategy had been put together with help from Hakuya, while
the ones to strike down Gaius VIII had been a late-arriving unit of archers, but the
people had no way of knowing these things.
"Did our prince lose to these people?" one of the members of the crowd
wondered.
"I know—this must all be an act to make us drop our guards!"
"What for? Van's already fallen, you know?"
"Well, it's so they can... Yeah, what is it for?"
While the people of Van reacted with confusion, Souma continued hosting the
program.
"Now then, this broadcast is Elfrieden's first music program. For this broadcast,
we've gathered girls with different types of voices. Each of these three is
wonderfully gifted, truly, deserving to be called 'lorelei.'"
The moment Souma spoke those words, this world's equivalent to an idol, the
concept of a "lorelei," was born.
"I hope this will be a program that helps to soothe the hearts of those exhausted
by their daily toil," said the king. "Please, listen to these loreleis' songs and enjoy
them to the very end."
"Er... There are just three here today, but we will always be looking for those who
take pride in their singing voice in the Elfrieden Kingdom," said Aisha. "MMeninwimin..."
"You're slurring it, Aisha."
"P-Please, be quiet," said Aisha. "Um... Men and women of all ages, self-nominated
or nominated by another, all are welcome to apply."
"Yeah, I'd like to have male singers on here, too," said Souma. "Though, for the
guys, it'd be weird to call them loreleis. Well, what'll we call them, then? Mermen, or
something?"
"Then they would just be ordinary sea monsters," said Aisha. "Can't you choose
something from outside the sea? Ah! Erm... To those of you proud of your singing, or
who just like to sing, I'm told you should go to the Lorelei singing cafe in your
nearest city to audition."
"Wait, Lorelei has branch stores now?!" Souma exclaimed.
"Why are you sounding surprised, sire?!"
"Well, I left the auditions entirely up to Juna, after all..."
"By the way, I'm told the one in Lagoon City is their headquarters," said Aisha.
"What, Parnam's was a branch store?!"
When Souma dropped that last line, one of the viewers in Van let out a chuckle,
then hurriedly covered his mouth. If anyone took fault with him for laughing while
watching the broadcast, he could be lynched by the rest of the viewers. Because of
that, Van's plaza had a strange air of tension hanging over it.