While Juno was thinking about all of this, the program continued. When Little
Musashibo and Juna's short theater segment came to an end, the broadcast video
moved to another place.
This time it wasn't a stage but what looked like a great hall. There were around
ten three-to-five-year-old children there. Owing to their young age, they weren't
coordinated at all, and they would sit down, run around, lie down, and generally
move about freely. These were the children of the castle's workers who had been left
at the daycare center.
Souma had thought the audience for an educational program should be made up
of children, so, with the permission of their parents (though, with the king asking
them a favor, they could hardly decline...), he had arranged for them to appear. Also,
in with the children there was a young girl who looked to be around sixteen years
old.
"Hey, isn't that Princess Roroa?" one astute viewer pointed out.
That girl was indeed Roroa, the former Princess of Amidonia. Roroa was wearing
a boyish outfit like Juna's, and said in a cheerful voice, "Look, everybooody. Your
singin' big sister is gonna come out and plaaaay. One, two, aaaand...!"
"""Big Sister Juna!""" the children called.
With Roroa giving them the signal, the children all called her name together.
When they did...
"Helloooo." Juna appeared again, waving her hands. She stood next to Roroa and
said, "Now, everyone, it's time for a song."
Then she began to clap her hands.
◇ ◇ ◇
Meanwhile, back where we were recording in the castle, Liscia was crying out in
surprise.
"Roroa?! What is that girl doing?!"
"When I told Roroa we would be making an educational program, she said,
'Sounds fascinatin'! Darlin', I wanna be on it, too!'" I said. "She forced me to do it. I
had no other options, so I decided to let her be on the show as Juna's assistant."
"Can you really go around deciding roles on a whim like that?" Liscia asked
skeptically.
"...I have a soft spot where crying children or the sponsors are concerned, you
know. Besides, this program is being brought to you by The Silver Deer, which
Sebastian is the public face of; but Roroa runs it behind the scenes, after all."
Right now, our country was providing funding for multiple businesses and for
research on a variety of topics. We were heavily focused on foodstuffs, medicine, and
the military because those were things that would have an effect on the lives of the
people. Thanks to that, the national treasury was always on the verge of collapse.
Eventually, as the population grew, the increase in taxes would make back our
money on the investment, but we couldn't count on it to happen right away.
With that in mind, the finance minister, Colbert, kept a tight hold of the country's
purse strings, and he wasn't about to allocate funds for some new program that had
no record of success. That's why I had asked Roroa's company to fund it. Because of
that, I was now left with no choice but to listen to Roroa, the investor, when she
asked me for something.
When Liscia heard the details, she sighed. "It's always about money, huh. It's a
hard life."
"You said it."
...Though I'm sure Roroa set up her own company with this exact sort of situation in
mind.
The truth of the matter was, if Roroa hadn't invested, I wouldn't have been able
to do this broadcast. Besides, if I didn't let her have a little of what she wanted, I was
probably going to be hit with divine retribution someday.
I looked over to the hall where Juna and Roroa were singing "Musunde Hiraite"
with the children.
The children watched Roroa's exaggerated movements and then imitated her.
When I saw them bouncing around, moving their arms and legs, it put a smile on my
face. While my heart was being warmed by their angelic behavior, Liscia asked me a
question.
"I understand why you want to make an educational program, but why are there
so many songs?"
"Don't you have songs from your childhood that have stuck with you for a
strangely long time?" I asked.
"Like lullabies?"
"Yeah, exactly. Songs and melodies get stuck in your head, and it's easy for people
to end up singing or humming them on their own. That's why it's more memorable if
you use songs in education than if you just taught the material normally, and it'll
spread farther, too."
For instance, before they taught us "Irohanihoheto" in school, I'd already learned
it from Minna no Uta's "Iroha Matsuri." Also, I feel like a major part of the reason I
could remember the ordering of the Chinese zodiac without getting it confused was
because I'd learned a song called "Eto wa Merry-go-Round." If I still remembered
those songs even now that I was an adult, Minna no Uta really was incredible.
Liscia said, "I see..." with a grunt of admiration. "Honestly, I think this was really
well thought out."
"Hm... Well, thinking is my job, after all."
"It's not as easy as you make it sound. Thinking about the people and coming up
with policies to benefit them." Liscia was looking at me approvingly... I averted my
eyes. "Wait, why did you look away?"
"Well... If you were to ask if it's really for the people, I'd have to admit a bit of my
own self-interest came into it, too..."
"Really? How?" Liscia stared hard at me.
...Well, there's no helping it, I thought. I guess I'll fess up.
"We're holding the wedding ceremony as I formally inherit the throne, right?" I
asked.
"Y-Yes, I suppose we are."
Liscia's cheeks flushed red when I said the word wedding. It had been just the
other night, on New Year's Eve, that I had proposed to Liscia and she had accepted,
and it was still a little embarrassing to think about it. It was adorable when she did
that, but... let's move the story along.
"So, at the wedding, I want to reveal all of my queens, with no discrimination
between who's a primary and who's a secondary."
Because secondary queens, whose children would lack the right of succession,
had originally been the kings' concubines, they were seen as lower than the primary
queens. As a result, even now that they were treated as queens, there were many
cases where they would not be given a big wedding ceremony in front of the people.
There had even been cases when secondary queens had felt inferior to the
primaries, and so had declined to attend on that basis. They must have feared it
would be a seed of later troubles.
I wanted to change that custom.
"Roroa said she was fine with being a secondary queen, but since we are going to
be ruling over the Amidonia Region, I want to make her my third primary queen," I
said. "That would make Juna the only one who can't participate in the ceremony,
right? I was thinking, if possible, I'd like everyone to be there together."
"You're right. I think that would be for the best." Liscia nodded and agreed
without hesitation. "Aisha and Juna were with us during the hard times, and we got
through them together. They feel like war buddies to me. Oh, I don't mean to leave
Roroa out. I think she can be a nuisance sometimes, but the way she'll play around
with me like a little sister is cute. It's just that Aisha and Juna are special. It doesn't
matter who's a primary and who's a secondary; I don't want anyone to feel
neglected."
"I see... I'm relieved."
It was a good thing the first primary queen, Liscia, was so tolerant. Liscia and the
others got along well, so I hadn't been worried, but... even so, it was a relief to hear
Liscia herself say all of that. Honestly, these wonderful girls were all better than I
deserved.
Liscia tilted her head to the side. "But does that have anything to do with this
broadcast?"
"Yeah," I said. "For now, my betrothal to Juna is secret, but that's going to become
untenable as the ceremony gets closer, right?"
"Well, of course. The wedding will be broadcast nationwide."
"Yep. So, there needs to be an announcement made at some point... I was
thinking, when that happens, between the lorelei Juna and the Juna who sings songs
with children, which would the people be less upset about... you know..."
Liscia narrowed her eyes and gave me a hard look. "Don't tell me you planned
this program just for that. Did you?"
"Oh, no. The plan itself was meant from the beginning to help educate the
people," I said, trying not to make eye contact. "It's just, well... I let my own selfish
interests get involved a bit, too, you could say..."
Liscia let out a sigh. "You're hopeless. Do you really have to worry that much
about how the people see you?"
"No, no, it's a pretty critical issue, you know?!"
After all, Juna had become such a national idol that we had gotten petitions from
the Congress of the People saying, "Have her on the Jewel Voice Broadcast more
often." If I just announced our engagement the way things were, there seriously
might be riots. That was why, in order to keep them under control, I was planning to
gradually shift Juna from idol work to children's songs.
When I told Juna that, as much as it pained me to do it, she said, "If I can sing at
your side, sire, I don't care what position it is in," and smiled for me.
Judging by the fact she had then immediately recommended a new lorelei,
Komari Corda, who could carry on her current style, Juna was enthusiastic about the
idea.
And, as we were discussing that, the part where they sang with the children had
come to an end.
"All right, everyone, well done," Juna said.
"And did all of ya out there watchin' us manage to sing along, too?" Roroa asked.
Juna and Roroa were closing out the segment.
"What's scheduled after this?" Liscia asked quietly.
"Next up is exercise time. It's a program to get everyone's bodies moving."
"Exercise? Since so far you've only been using family members... Is Aisha doing
it?"
"No. I've brought on a proper expert for the exercise segment."
"An expert?" Liscia was tilting her head to the side in confusion.
Roroa in the hall took the lead again. "Okay, it's time for exercisin'. We're all
gonna call the exercise guy together. One, two, aaaand...!"
"""Exercise guuuuuy!""" the children all shouted together at Roroa's prompting.
"Hahhhh!" A man jumped down from the balcony on the second floor. The man
landed stylishly in front of the children, flashed his bright white teeth, then turned
towards the screen and gave the viewers a thumbs-up.
The young human man was tall, standing at around 185 centimeters. He had a
muscular physique that was apparent even with all of his clothes on. His face, taken
as a whole, would have been considered handsome, but his thick, upturned
eyebrows, his sharp eyes, and his shining white teeth... Each of the individual parts
had a lot of "character."