MISTERLP
While watching Aisha cry like a child, Carla smiled dryly. "If she feels
that strongly about him, Master is a lucky man."
"It's a heavy love," Halbert said, spinning his shoulders in circles to
loosen up his body. "In an it'll-crush-you-in-one-hit sort of way. Wait,
don't we get any backup? You sent a messenger kui to the castle, didn't
you?"
"It seems the best they can manage is to put up a safety cordon and
keep the general populace away from this whole area," said Kaede. "They
must be relying on us to work something out on-site. They can't let people
who don't know the situation into a place where the future second primary
queen may do something to embarrass herself."
Halbert's shoulders slumped. "You make it all sound so easy. They
don't know the suffering we go through out in the field."
"Whining will get us nowhere," said Carla. "Focus on the matter at
hand for now, Sir Halbert." Though she was just as beat up as he was,
Carla seemed full of life for some reason.
"Hey... Why are you so energetic?" Halbert asked.
"I can feel the warrior's blood inside me seething for the first time in a
long while. I've done nothing but maid work lately, so I've been getting
close to forgetting I was once a military woman. Oh, don't you fret.
Compared to the humiliation of being forced to wear that sexy costume"
(designed by the utter sadist, Serina) "and play Miss Dran" (the evil
female commander who appeared in the tokusatsu program Overman
Silvan, now airing to rave reviews all across the Kingdom of Friedonia)
"in front of a Jewel Voice Broadcast crystal, this is nothing!"
"...You've got it hard, too, huh."
For Halbert who had, until just recently, been forced to do descent
training as part of the dratrooper unit that Souma had proposed, he
couldn't help but sympathize with another person being run ragged by
their superiors.
Looking at the two of them, Kaede shrugged her shoulders in dismay.
"I think that's enough of that silly conversation, you know."
"Don't call it silly! This is important to us, okay?!"
"I'm telling you, now isn't the time! If you let your guards down...
you'll wind up dead, you know."
"Augh, geez!" Having been warned, Halbert looked at Aisha, who had
her greatsword at the ready. "Whatever! Let's do this!"
Halbert and Carla kicked off the ground, charging toward Aisha.
Halbert and Carla's battle had only just begun.
◇ ◇ ◇
"...And that's how we got to where we are now," said Tomoe.
"Just how much of a rampage did she go on to leave Hal and the others
in that state?" I asked.
"They tried to avoid troubling the villagers, at least, by leading her into
the fields near the village and fighting there. But it was still scary, with
explosions like there was a war going on."
"What, you were the one who left all those holes in the ground?" I said
jokingly, with a look at Aisha, despite not having meant to. But Aisha was
deliberately looking away and pretending she couldn't hear me.
When Aisha was let totally loose, she caused changes to the area's
topography? I thought of her as a loyal dog before, but when she took it
this far, she was more like a weapon of mass destruction.
I'll contact the castle and have them fill the indentations back in, I
thought.
For the time being, we waited for Hal and the others to recover, then
went up to the four-person room where they were staying. I introduced
Naden to everyone.
"This is Naden Delal, a ryuu from the Star Dragon Mountain Range
who I'm going to be forming a contract with. The contract is one that is
premised on us getting married, so she's planned to be my second
secondary queen. Naden, this dark elf warrior is my future second primary
queen, Aisha. The little mystic wolf girl is my honorary little sister,
Tomoe. The other three are my vassals, Halbert, Kaede, and Carla."
Carla was actually my slave, but explaining all the details behind that
would be too time-consuming, so just calling her my vassal was good
enough.
Naden turned to everyone and bowed her head slightly. "I'm Naden.
Nice to meet all of you."
"Ohh, Madam Naden, is it? As fellow queens, let's work together to
build up His Majesty." Aisha shook Naden's hand in a friendly manner.
...Huh?
"I was pretty sure you were going to be opposed to it...?" I asked.
"Hm? Why would that be?"
"No, it's just, you almost tried to kill the envoy from the Star Dragon
Mountain Range, didn't you?"
"That was because they just went and took you away!" Aisha explained
with a snort. "I was angry at the Star Dragon Mountain Range because
they took my sire away from me. But Madam Naden bought me my sire
back. I have every reason to be grateful to her, and none at all to be
angry."
"I don't really get the basis for that reasoning..."
"People who take your food are bad people," said Aisha. "People who
bring you food are good people."
"It's that simple?! And, wait, I'm like food now?!"
Well, considering how devoted Aisha was to eating food, I didn't feel
bad knowing she loved me just as much. I was a bit worried that my
second primary queen was becoming more and more like a puppy, though.
"So... you don't want to hog all the food to yourself, then?" Liscia
asked Aisha.
What kind of question was that?!
Aisha gave her a blank look and tilted her head to the side quizzically.
"Hm? Rather than hog the food to myself, won't it taste better if we all eat
together as a family?"
Liscia laughed. "Ahaha! I'm glad that's the kind of person you are,
Aisha."
"???"
Liscia smiled as a bunch of question marks floated over Aisha's head.
I feel bad saying this when they had such a harmonious accord going,
but it was a bit chilling that I was being treated like everyone's food.
...Well, it was better than them drawing daggers at each other, at least.
While I was thinking that, Tomoe introduced herself to Naden. "I'm
Big Brother and Big Sister's adopted little sister, Tomoe. It's a pleasure to
meet you, Naden."
"Nice to meet you, too. You seem like a cute girl with a good head on
your shoulders, just like Liscia was telling me."
"Hee hee! Am I really?"
"Yeah. It feels like a real perk, getting a cute little sister like you!"
"Eek! That tickles!"
Naden hugged Tomoe. Naden was petite, but still much larger than the
eleven-year-old Tomoe, so the younger girl fit in right against her chest.
Now then, with everyone's introductions out of the way, I explained
the flow of events so far to everyone who'd been left holding down the
fort. I told them about the reason Madam Tiamat called me, and the storm
that she (?) was worried about. That, and about how Naden was a special
kind of being called a ryuu.
"That's my sire, always sniffing out talented individuals wherever he
goes!" Aisha declared.
She'd chosen a weird thing to be impressed with. What was I? A pig
sniffing for truffles...?
Anyway, once they had heard everything I had to say, Carla was the
first to raise her hand.
"I understand that Liscia is able to come with us now, but the limit on
the entourage you bring with you to the Star Dragon Mountain Range was
five people, wasn't it? Doesn't that leave us with one too many?"
"Yeah... About that, I was thinking I'd leave Tomoe here in the
village."
"Wha...?" Tomoe was dumbstruck when she heard she'd be left behind.
I felt guilty seeing the look on her face, like that of a kid whose field
trip just got canceled because of rain, but her safety really did have to
come first.
"Now that we have the unknown element of the 'storm' in the Star
Dragon Mountain Range, I can't bring Tomoe with us anymore," I
explained. "Pathetic as it is, I'm in a position where I have to have others
protect me. There could be a situation where they can't protect both of us.
Nothing can be allowed to happen to me, but if anything were to happen to
Tomoe, I wouldn't be able to keep a level head."
"...I understand," Tomoe said, being the reasonable girl that she was,
but the way that her ears and tail drooped communicated her
disappointment all too clearly. "I'll wait here for you and everyone else to
come back."
I patted Tomoe on the head. "Even when this matter with the Star
Dragon Mountain Range is settled, I intend to keep traveling until the
number of marriage proposals I receive at the castle dies down. I want to
try visiting other countries, too, and I'll definitely bring you with me, so
I'd like you to be patient for now. That's a promise."
"Okay... Big Brother."
When I wrapped my pinky finger around hers to seal our promise,
Tomoe's ears and tail perked back up just a little.
Once everyone was relieved to see Tomoe taking it a little better, Liscia
asked, "I understand what you're saying, but are we just going to leave
Tomoe alone in the village like this? I'm a little worried."
"It's okay," I told her. "Though they haven't shown themselves,
members of the Black Cats have been deployed to this village. So she
won't be alone."
"Really?"
"Yeah... Inugami."
The door to the four-person room opened, and a man wearing a black
dog mask entered. This was Inugami, a member of the clandestine
operations unit called the Black Cats, and the leader Kagetora's second-incommand.
Inugami came to stand in front of me then dropped to one knee. "I have
come at your behest."
"Indeed," I said. "While we are away in the Star Dragon Mountain
Range, I want the Black Cats to look after Tomoe."
"By your will."
"Also, Inugami, as for you personally, instead of watching her from the
shadows, I want you to stay by Tomoe's side and give her someone to talk
to. Your face is not widely known by the common people. You are
permitted to remove that mask while you're in this village."
"...Understood."
With that, Inugami removed the black dog mask he was wearing to
reveal the face of a male beastman with a wolf's face. When he saw that
face, Hal shot up from his chair.
"Y-You! You're Beo—"
"Mind your tongue, Officer Halbert," he said sharply. "I am only
Inugami."
"..." Hal looked to me.
No, he could look all he wanted, but I wasn't about to give him an
explanation. The only ones familiar with Beowulf were Liscia and Hal
who had been in the Army, after all.
Looking at Inugami, Tomoe tilted her head to the side. "Are you a
mystic wolf, too, Mr. Inugami?"
"No, my people call themselves the gray wolf race. Because our faces
aren't human, after all."
"But we're both fellow wolf people, right? Let's be friends, please."
"You are too kind, Little Sister." Inugami bowed his head to Tomoe.
They were a gray wolf and a mystic wolf, two races with outwardly
similar appearances, and their ages were twenty years apart, so anyone
looking at them would see them as a father and daughter. Despite that,
they were in a weird position where the father was bowing to his daughter.
Well, it looked like they'd get along, so it'd probably be fine.
With that all sorted out, I turned to the others. "Naden will be taking us
to the Star Dragon Mountain Range. If we left now, we'd arrive in the
middle of the night, so we'll be setting out first thing tomorrow morning.
Plan accordingly."
"Then are we staying in this village tonight?" Kaede asked, and I
nodded.
"That would be what it means, yes. Let's see, as for how we'll split up
the rooms..."
"Let's get one room for two and two rooms for four," Liscia said before
I could get any further. "Halbert, Kaede, Carla, and Inugami will take one
room. Naden, Tomoe, and I will take another. Souma and Aisha, you take
the two-person room."
"Can we?!" Hearing she'd be sharing a room with me, Aisha wore a
full-face smile.
I couldn't argue with that face, so I whispered to Liscia, "Erm... Are
you okay with this?"
"You had her worried sick, so be sweet to her for today, at least."
"...Okay."
I didn't know what to say. Liscia was shaping up into a lovely woman,
one suited to her role as the first primary queen.
It wasn't just Liscia, I guess. Juna, Roroa, and even Aisha had each
grown with every passing day since I met them, and they were all growing
more attractive. I was sure Naden would probably be the same...
I needed to grow, too, to make sure they wouldn't desert me.
That night, Aisha and I ended up sleeping in the same room.
"You had her worried sick, so be sweet to her for today, at least." I
remembered what Liscia had whispered to me.
...She's right, I thought. I caused her a lot of worry this time, so today,
I'm going to be really sweet to Aisha. I'll do anything I can for her,
whatever she wants.
I was prepared to do that, but...
Aisha had a surprising request.
"This is all you want? ...You're sure?" I asked.
"Yes! This is the best, sire."
So now I was sitting on the bed, while Aisha lay sideways with her
head resting in my lap. In other words, this was a lap pillow. What Aisha
had asked for was a lap pillow, and a head pat. Even just patting her head
like she'd asked, and running my fingers through her hair, which was
currently down, was enough to get Aisha's face to melt. It was kind of cute.