Late in the 10th month, 1,546th year, Continental Calendar — Princely Capital
Van.
A little more than three weeks had passed since the army of the Elfrieden
Kingdom had come to occupy Van, the capital of the Principality of Amidonia.
The people of Van had looked harshly on their conquerors when they'd first
arrived. However, with Souma keeping a tight rein on his soldiers, public order had
improved, and with the lily root dumplings being distributed, the people were no
longer at risk of starvation. Their distrust of the soldiers was gradually fading as a
result. The fact that the nobles and knights who would normally have worked to
foment a rebellion had all fled the city likely helped, too.
An air of calm was beginning to take hold in the city.
Though, that said... while it would have been nice if it had been purely calm, it
seemed that the music program Souma was broadcasting had the people of Van
burning with a passion for the arts. On every street corner there were minstrels,
street musicians, and street performers of all kinds plying their trades.
On top of that, there were those who wanted to repaint their homes to be more
colorful, and even those who wanted to produce wall murals displaying the beautiful
countenances of Juna and the loreleis, Chris the newscaster, and Aisha, who was
known for her part in hosting the program. Things were beginning to get out of
hand.
Who would have believed this had been the capital of a militaristic state merely
one month ago?
Souma called this period of Van the Amidonian Renaissance.
Sudden changes were always fraught with confusion, and in Van there were daily
conflicts over the best places to hold street performances. The Forbidden Army
troops who had been left to occupy the city were sent out to mediate, and the
soldiers of the Army and Air Force who were camped outside the city looked on
them with pity. Still, such disagreements never led to a major riot, and Van was more
or less peaceful.
However, this day began with Aisha shouting noisily. "P-Princess!"
"Eek!" Liscia shrieked.
It was morning. Liscia had been getting dressed in the room she was using as her
own when Aisha had barged in without so much as a knock at the door. It was so
sudden that Liscia froze in surprise, but when she remembered she was in the
middle of getting dressed, she continued putting on her uniform and asked, "WhWhat is it, Aisha? Why are you so flustered?"
"Th-That's... His Majesty... His Majesty is..." Aisha sputtered. Perhaps because she
was out of breath, she was having a hard time getting the words out.
"Calm down," Liscia said. "Take a deep breath."
"R-Right." Aisha took a deep breath, as instructed. She swung her arms up and
down in time with each heaving breath.
Once she was sure Aisha had calmed down, Liscia tried asking again. "So, what's
going on with Souma?"
"Right," Aisha said. "I went to the governmental affairs office to greet His Majesty
like usual this morning, but he wasn't there. Instead, I found this note he left." Aisha
passed the piece of paper to Liscia.
Liscia took the piece of paper and read it over. It said, "I am going on a journey.
Please, don't look for me. - Souma Kazuya."
Liscia pressed a hand to her temple and sighed, while Aisha returned to freaking
out.
"Wh-Whatever shall we do? We must search for him at once!"
"I'm telling you, just calm down," Liscia said. "Souma's taking the day off."
"Huh? A day off?" Aisha stared at her blankly.
"Right," Liscia said, with a nod. "He's with Tomoe. It looked like he'd been getting
pretty close to the breaking point with his workload lately, so I suggested he take
some time off. I even cleared it with Hakuya. When I did that, Souma said, 'Well,
maybe I'll just laze around in some room making dolls, then.' It didn't sound healthy,
so I asked Tomoe to drag him outside for me."
"I heard nothing of this!" Aisha exclaimed. "I am His Majesty's bodyguard, you
realize?! Why didn't he take me with him?!"
When she saw Aisha with tears forming in her eyes, Liscia gave a shrug. "You
stand out too much. This was a primarily human country, so dark elves stand out to
begin with, and with your recent fame from the broadcast, you're not exactly going
to be able to keep a low profile."
"This was enemy territory not that long ago, you know?!" Aisha complained. "If
anything were to happen to His Majesty and Tomoe..."
"Have no fears," Liscia assured her. "They're in disguise, and Juna and a number
of elite marines will be watching over them from the shadows this time."
"Madam Juna is accompanying them, too? Well, in that case, he should be safe..."
Aisha got that far before Juna's mature smile flashed through her mind.
To Aisha, Juna was the ideal woman. Gorgeous, graceful, gentle... She would have
given anything to be like her. However... setting that aside, when she imagined Juna's
smile, every instinct Aisha had as a woman began setting off alarm bells.
If we let our guards down, she's going to run off with all the best parts, she thought.
"He will be safe... won't he?" she asked.
"..."
In truth, Liscia had been thinking the same thing, so she had nothing to say in
response.
◇ ◇ ◇
"The weather sure is nice today, huh, big brother?" Tomoe asked.
"It sure is, Tomoe," I agreed.
I was on Van's shopping street walking hand-in-hand with my honorary little
sister, the mystic wolf girl Tomoe. There had been a nigh lethal amount of
administrative work to do lately, so Liscia, unable to watch me torment myself any
longer, had suggested that I take my first day off since that time I'd patrolled the
royal capital.
I figured if I had time off, I'd rather use it to laze around, like a father on vacation,
but Liscia had said that was unhealthy and ordered little Tomoe to drag me into the
castle town.
It was a place that had been enemy territory until just recently, so we were
lightly disguised today. My facial features were supposedly similar to those of
humans from the Nine-Headed Dragon Archipelago, so I was dressed like a traveler
from there. I wore a traveling cape and conical straw hat, making me look like
Kitakaze Kozou. Tomoe, meanwhile, wore a white robe with a hood, like a white
mage from some game. Honestly, I'd wondered if it was worth the trouble of
disguising ourselves to go out, but...
"Wowwie, there are so many different shops, big brother!"
...when I saw Tomoe so excited, nothing else mattered anymore.
"If you see one that catches your fancy, why don't we go inside?" I asked.
"Okay! ♪" she sang.
When Tomoe gave that energetic reply, I patted her on the head. The hair
between her two wolf ears was fluffy and soft to the touch. It felt amazing. Ahh... So
soothing.
I tried talking to the person who was on the opposite side of me from Tomoe, too.
"Juna, are you okay with that?"
"Yes," Juna said, giving me a soft smile. "If it pleases you, Master Kazuya."
For this undercover vacation, instead of Aisha, I was supposed to have Juna and
around ten of her marines watching over me from the shadows.
...Yes, from the shadows.
"Um, Juna? Why are you wrapping yourself around my arm?" I asked.
Juna had wrapped herself around the arm I wasn't using to pat Tomoe's head.
She was incredibly close. Right now, Juna was wearing a longsword on her back,
with breastplate armor over top of her clothes. With her dressed up like a typical
female adventurer, I didn't feel those voluptuous things pressed up against me. Still,
I could feel Juna's warmth directly on my arm.
Juna seemed to see how flustered I was, and she flashed me a mischievous smile.
"Oh, is it wrong for me to do this?"
"It's not a matter of right or wrong... Weren't you supposed to be protecting me
from the shadows?" I asked.
"We're protecting you like we're supposed to," Juna said. "Right now, my elite
marines are protecting you in the shadows. They're circling ahead of us to watch for
any potential blind spots, too."
"No, but... isn't your face out there, too?" I protested.
The people of Amidonia should know Juna's face from the music program. Even if
she wasn't as recognizable as the dark elf Aisha, Juna wasn't hiding her face at all
right now. Wasn't someone going to notice her?
When I asked her that, Juna giggled. "It should be fine. I was wearing makeup
then. I should have given off a very different impression."
Now that she mentioned it... Juna was only wearing the bare essentials of makeup
today. Whenever she stood on stage or before the jewel as a lorelei, she must use
charming makeup that would be recognizable from a distance. The Juna I saw now
had a natural beauty, but just taking off her makeup made her look younger than
usual. Right now, she actually looked her age.
"That's right," Juna said, as if reading my mind. "...The reason I look like a mature
adult is because of that makeup, got it?"
"No, I'm pretty sure the way you act is part of it, too..." I said. "So it did bother
you?"
"I am a girl, after all," she said. "Does it bother you linking arms with me, sire?"
Juna wore an expression that seemed somewhat uncertain. That face... She just
wasn't playing fair.
"It's not that it bothers me," I said. "Bring it on."
"Hee hee," she giggled. "Thank you."
"Whew... You sure are amazing, Juna," Tomoe said. "I wish I could be like you."
"...Don't you think you're fine just the way you are, Tomoe?" Juna said pointedly
to the girl who was looking up at her with great respect. Tomoe was cute, and she
might develop into a beauty like Juna as she grew up. Once she grew up and learned
how to play games with men, it could be the birth of an incredible little tease.
While I was thinking about that, I ended up walking with Tomoe's hand in mine,
and Juna wrapped around my other arm. Nobody realized our true identities, but the
jealous looks from passing men and the whispering of housewives trying to guess at
the relationship between the three of us started to make my stomach hurt.
In order to distract myself from it, I tried talking to Juna. "Well... Where to? Unlike
in Parnam, Van doesn't have much in it, so there aren't many places I want to go
patrol."
"When you're out on the town on your day off, I don't know that you should be
thinking of it as patrolling." Juna laughed wryly at my workaholic thought process.
Sorry for being so work-obsessed, I thought.
Then, Juna took a peek over at Tomoe before whispering in my ear, "How about
giving Tomoe some new clothes as a present? Since she's your honorary little sister,
you can call it a gift between family."
"Ohh, there's an idea."
Now that she mentioned it, ever since I'd accepted Tomoe as my little sister
(though, technically, she was Liscia's adopted little sister and my future sister-inlaw), I had been busy with administrative work and hadn't been able to act like a
proper big brother. Tomoe had been working hard on negotiating with the
rhinosauruses and shoujou, so it might be nice to spoil her rotten today.
"Juna, do you know a good place for that?" I asked.
"I've done my research," she said. "Leave it to me." She placed her hand on her
chest, bowing slightly.
Juna recommended a clothing store on a street corner.