"...ilde?"
"Hilde? Hilde!"
"Wha—?!" Hildegard, First Princess of the Knight Kingdom of Lestia, yelled
out in response to her brother's voice suddenly permeating her consciousness.
"B-B-B-Brother dearest, why must you scream out of nowhere?"
"It wasn't out of nowhere!"
"You know how many times I called you? It's like your mind is somewhere
else and you just can't concentrate, right?"
"Are you dissatisfied that I took the throne?"
"Preposterous! I was just thinking about something." While Hilde grew
flustered at her brother Reinhard's remarks, the council room was enveloped in
snickering.
They were in the council room for the knight order, the symbol of Lestia.
Currently, the knight order was separated into twelve squadrons with Hilde
serving as squad leader for the third. Incidentally, Hilde's brother was serving as
the squad leader of the first squadron.
In the land of Lestia, the king serves as the head of the knight order. This
tradition came from the first king who proclaimed, "They who are worthy of
being known as king must stand on the vanguard, protect their subjects, and
lead them to glory."
The man who stood as the head of the knight order was the father of both
Hilde and her brother, the king, Reid Yunas Lestia, though he would be resigning
soon.
And the current prince would inherit his throne.
In other words, the new head of the knight order would be Reinhard.
The purpose of today's council was to determine who would fill the gap left
by him as the new leader of the first squadron.
"Engrossing yourself such that you lose sight of your surroundings is both one
of your strong points and flaws. Though, it was inappropriate to bring up such a
topic in this setting. Please change topics."
"Sheesh... No need to tell me."
"Well, I won't go as far as to inquire into what you were thinking." Reinhard,
nonchalantly as if nothing happened, shifted his gaze to the list of new
candidates to be the head of the knight order.
Hilde sensed that Reinhard knew what she was truly feeling and became a bit
embarrassed.
She cleared her throat, and with new found guise of composure, followed her
brother's example and turned her gaze to the list of candidates.
For a short while she listened intently to the squadron heads'
recommendations, but her eyes wandered to the sword at her hip.
There were only three crystal swords in this land. Her father had another and
her grandfather the last. Its ability to cut struck fear into people's hearts. It was
seen as either a blade of the gods, or a sword from the pits of hell. Even Holy
Sword Lestia, the sword which had been passed down from generation to
generation through the royal family, paled in comparison.
The event from that time popped into her mind from the depths of her
memories. The memory of the boy that valiantly appeared when she was
attacked by the monsters that were immune to both sword and magic. The boy
that saved her from the brink of despair.
As she recalled the event, her chest began to warm.
First came the feeling of relief from being saved. After he went off on his
merry way, she gained the desire to grow stronger in order to wipe away the
feeling of incompetence that developed due to her weakness. At the same
time, she developed an interest in the kind of man the boy was.
She found it very fortuitous that she was able to listen to the story of the
grand duke of Brunhild from a merchant that she'd encountered on the way
back to the castle.
Hilde didn't just hear of his strength, but also his disposition. And so, her
interest increased.
Slaying Dragons, exterminating Golems, and ending a coup, indeed his force
was one to be reckoned with, but there was more. His philanthropic activity
ranged widely: he offered rare materials to aid in the reconstruction of the
Mismede town that had been ravaged by a Dragon, and created institutions so
that the common man could learn to read.
Hilde began feeling a sense of aspiring to be like that boy blossom inside her.
"...ilde. Hilde? Hilde!"
"Wha—?!" Yet again her brother's voice yanked her out of the sea of
contemplation. Reinhard's expression formed into one of frustration, which was
to be expected since this same sequence had played out twice already.
"I apologize." Hilde shrank and spent the rest of the council meeting in a state
of discomfort.
"Ah... I sure messed up." Hilde sighed. This had been happening nonstop
recently. She couldn't cheer up at all.
Though Hilde knew why it was happening, she had no idea what to do about
it.
"Ah?!" Hilde heard a scream nearby.
"Ohohohoho..." A hearty laugh echoed from the same direction as the
scream.
"Oh, Grandfather." If you heard a woman's scream in this castle, there was an
eighty percent chance that it was the work of the former king. Hilde figured that
the scream most likely came from a new maid that started just the other day.
And just as she expected, the previous king, her grandfather, approached
Hilde from across the hallway with cane in hand. He was in such great condition
that he didn't even need a cane, but he insisted on maintaining his image.
"Hello, Hilde. You look a tad down in the dumps."
"Please leave me be..." The girl wanted to yell at her grandfather, express her
suffering. Express that, unlike him, she had real fears to contend with, but she
also didn't want to lash out.
With no energy to hang around her unreasonably cheery grandfather, Hilde
trudged past him.
"Hey now, hold your horses. A letter just came from the guild."
"From the guild...?" Her grandfather was one of the only two in the world: a
former adventurer of the highest rank, Gold. He had deep ties with the guild,
and was able to acquire information here and there.
"Don't be startled. Yulong has fallen."
"What?! Yulong did?!" Hilde raised her voice. He told her not to be startled,
but how couldn't she be?
Yulong, Empire of Heaven. The only nation in all of the east that could rival
Lestia.
Hilde wasn't too fond of the land of Yulong.
Predicated on the reason that Yulongese merchants tried to deceive people.
Many of them seemed to believe that the fooled were at fault and idiotic.
And they had no concerns about telling such short-sighted lies. When a
Yulongese person was caught committing crimes, they rarely admitted fault.
Say for instance you were to catch a thief. They would tell you that the shop
they stole from was asking for it. They behaved as if those they harmed were
the assailants and they themselves were the victims. Even then, they still got on
their high horses, quibbled in the most obnoxious ways, and still had the
audacity to say others were at fault. Hilde was upset by how self-centered they
were as a people.
And their homeland knew of these deeds but wouldn't attempt to lay a finger
on them. They simply pretended not to see. There were far too many
government officials receiving bribes from the merchants, so they didn't think it
was immoral.
Their logic was that everyone else did it as well, so what was wrong with
doing it? Since others were getting away with it, they may as well do it
themselves. They reasoned that they'd rather take advantage than be taken
advantage of.
Thus, Lestia refused to engage in trade relations with the merchants or their
government. No matter how sweet the deal may have seemed, they'd vowed to
always decline their offer.
The Shady Land. That was the essence of Yulong.
That very Yulong had fallen. Yulong was in fact actually a military state. It
relied on its overwhelming numbers to crush smaller neighboring countries.
They would do anything to achieve victory. Assassinate, betray, and ambush,
all was fair to them in love and war. The people of Lestia held the concept of
'fair and square' in high esteem, which gave them another reason to not be able
to accept the Yulongese.
"Who were they attacked by? No way, are you telling me it was Xenoahs?"
"No, that's incorrect. They were not taken down by another land. You should
know as well. It was the Phrase."
"The Phrase!" Hilde would never forget those crystal creatures. The monsters
that disgraced her for her lack of power.
"The news is that there was a swarm of thousands of them that attacked
Yulong. Amongst their ranks was one that was about as big as a castle and the
mysterious light it expelled from its mouth decimated the capital Shenghai."
"Unbelievable!"
"Indeed. Now I'm going to get to the main point. Someone exterminated the
entire swarm that eliminated the city. The grand duke of Brunhild. It seems that
he found a relic from an ancient civilization. It was some kind of army of giants
that he activated and used to exterminate the swarm."
"Are you serious?!" Hilde raised her voice louder than that time just a little
while ago. And that was because he had mentioned the man who'd been on her
mind for the longest time. It was an unavoidable outcome.
Hilde heard everything from her grandfather from start to finish. The grand
duke of Brunhild cooperated with other lands that he had amicable relations
with and formed an alliance that led to the defeat of the invading Phrase.
In addition, he didn't expect any collateral from Yulong or steal any land.
Just as expected from His Highness the Duke. Hilde was really impressed at his
incredible ability to shoulder a country at such a young age, but adults seemed
to have dissenting opinions.
"Personally, I think it's frightening for a single man to have such power. If the
duke is so inclined, he can wipe a country or two off of the face of the planet.
Even our very own land of Lestia. Hilde... what did you think of the man in
question when you met him?" The former king shifted his gaze over to Hilde.
With a hint of hesitation in her voice, Hilde told him how she really felt from her
heart.
"I felt that he was a polite man with an upstanding personality. He doesn't
hesitate in lending out a helping hand to those in need... Rather, he does it as if
it were the obvious thing to do. That is my opinion of him."
"I see..." She'd only met him once. The conversation they had only lasted a
few minutes. How could she say she knew anything about him just from that?
She realized that her speech was just her desire for how she wished he was.
"I have the faintest idea of what kind of relationship we should form with the
Duke. Some say that the invasion of the Phrase was all orchestrated by him so
he could clean it up himself. A one-man show. Others say that they saw him
summon them."
"That's ridiculous! That's obviously a lie! You know that's the kind of tactic
Yulong always uses!"
"Indeed. I also suspected the same thing. They'd use this as an opportunity to
appeal to the world of them being victims of the Duchy and demand
reparations and his giant warriors. That land is the same as ever, blackmailing
and extorting." The former king whispered as he stroked his white beard. Lestia
had met a similar fate in the past. The Yulongese claimed that five hundred
years ago, Holy Sword Lestia was stolen from them. Though it went without
question that Lestia paid them no heed, such rumors were frustrating for
various reasons.
"Whatever the case may be, we must decide on a course of action. And so... I
shall be making my way to Brunhild and meeting with the duke himself to
determine what his true intentions are."
"Whaaaaaat?!" Hilde gasped as her eyes shot wide open. The reason for her
surprise was, of course, not the fact that the former king of Lestia, her
grandfather, was going to head toward Brunhild, but the childish, egotistical
thought that it wasn't fair that she was getting left out.
"I'm going too."
"Huh? Well, that's..."
"I'm going to go too! I'm going to go speak with father about this!" Hilde ran
to her father, the king, without listening to her grandfather's response.
◇ ◇ ◇
"...So, you're saying that you accompanied the preceding king against his will,
you did? Is that summation apt?"
"Well uh... Yes... Something like that, I guess." Hilde forced a smile in
response to Yae as she drank her tea.
A tea party was hosted at the castle terrace to deepen their friendship with
Hilde, who was the most recently engaged girl.
Of course, the attendees other than Hilde were Yumina, Elze, Linze, Yae, Sue,
and Lu. Their fiance Touya was absent.
Gatherings with only these ladies happened rather frequently. While they
served to deepen bonds, they also discussed how the other fiancees were
doing, as well as exchanged perspectives on Touya.
"Touya gets strangely aggressive when I leave him alone." Such was Yumina's
position.
"Speaking of which, is it okay for you to be here? Didn't you say you had an
official position in the knight order?"
"Yes, though there's no need for concern. I made my replacement the
candidate who got rejected when brother dearest's replacement was being
chosen." Hilde responded to Elze's question with a smile. She was no longer a
knight of Lestia, since she decided she'd serve Brunhild... Or rather, she'd
chosen to be Touya's personal knight.
"Alright. Hilde can reside here. Though, I would really wish to reside here
too..." Sue spoke with a pout as she petted Kohaku, who was sitting on her lap.
Yumina chimed in, addressing her cousin.
"Sue. My uncle would be quite upset if you left home. Stay home a while
longer, alright? You can come here whenever you wish, okay?"
"That is true... but I always end up thinking of Touya when I'm over there. I'm
somewhat worried, but I think it's fine since Yumina is here. Touya's kind of a
dunce." Though they thought that sentiment was quite harsh, everyone except
for Hilde nodded deeply in agreement.
Nobody had the slightest clue what he'd get into if they took their eyes off
him for a second. He'd become acquaintances with some strange fellows, get
himself involved in something totally absurd, or build something
incomprehensible.
Even though his antics didn't result in a large quantity of victims arising, Hilde
could feel her heart getting weaker and weaker each time he startled her.
"When was it again? When he made that weird box that washed clothes?"
"Oh... the washing machine? It just crumpled up all the clothes." Elze and
Linze spoke of a strange contraption Touya had built. According to him, he
miscalculated the amount of wind magic that would produce the optimal
rotational strength. Using too much wind magic to generate the magical blade
was the big mistake.
"Recently he made this weird hair blowing contraption that he calls the dryer.
It was definitely a blunder, though..."
"It blew fire like a Dragon in a rage would, it did." Yae let out a sigh at Lu's
impression. If Touya were there, he'd likely make the excuse that it was difficult
to balance wind and fire magic.
"How does someone get that kind of idea?"
"Well, we are talking about Touya after all." While Elze wasn't too happy
about Yumina's response to her, she more of less agreed with the sentiment.
Everyone other than Hilde probably shared the same opinion.
"Sorry to interrupt, but as the newest member I would feel most obliged if
you would listen to my question."
"That's fine. What is it?" Elze reached for a potato chip as she replied to Hilde,
whose demeanor could be best described as stiff. This meeting also functioned
as Hilde's welcome party. Everyone intended to answer all questions that they
could.
"How would you fine ladies describe Touya's parents? Since I became his
fiancee, I think it may be suitable to introduce myself..."
"Ah, about that."
"The truth is, we've never actually met them ourselves."
"Really? D-Did his parents happen to pass away...?"
"I don't believe that's the case... but I'm not too certain since Touya doesn't
seem like he wishes to speak of his family matters." It was obvious from Linze's
facial expression that she was troubled. She felt a bit left out from the fact that
she didn't even know his family's structure despite being engaged to him.
Even if she tried to get information out of him, she was met with a troubled
face, and he evaded the topic. Linze and the others understood that rather than
not wanting to say something about it, there was some hesitation that kept him
from talking about it.
Upon hearing this, Hilde suddenly came to a realization. Since he had such
overwhelming power, it wouldn't be strange for him to be estranged from his
family. Great power could bring about great misfortune.
"He doesn't have the best relationship with..."
"Wrong answer! It's not that his family hates him. The situation's just a wee
bit complicated. Explaining what's going on to you all would just be kind of hard
is all. Just wait for him to be ready to talk about it." All members present,
including the tiger, were startled to the point of basically jumping out of their
seats at the sudden voice.
"D-D-D-Dear sister Karen?!" Touya's sister, Mochizuki Karen, found an open
seat next to Lu, reached out for the potato chips, and began stuffing her face.
"When did you get here...?" Hilde wasn't able to hide her surprise at the fact
that Karen went completely unnoticed. She was sitting back and relaxing as if
she'd been sitting there the whole time, but rest assured, that seat was empty
until just a second ago.
Hilde thought that she may have used transportation magic. It wouldn't have
been odd for her to have similar abilities to her brother.
While Hilde had such ideas race through her mind, Karen sent a grin her way.
"There's no reason to rush, you know. He should tell you about it before long
if you take the time to get to know him slowly."
"I see..."
"Well, you want to know everything about the person you love! I'm well
aware of a damsel stricken with L-O-V-E. And that's where I step in! I'll give my
cute widdle sisters the hot scoop, y'know?!'"
Everyone in the room's ear started violently twitching in response to Karen's
words. Well, Kohaku's didn't.
Linze gulped as she sat straight across from Karen and opened her mouth.
"Wh-What kind of information?"
"Hehehe. I'll be an open book about the boy's first love during early
childhood! How about that?!"
"F-First love?! Touya's?!" Yumina approached Karen, clearly going into a
frenzy. It was safe to say that he had never said one word about that topic.
Well, it would definitely have been off-putting hearing him boast about his first
love to his fiancee.
There was no blood relation between Touya and Karen. Obviously, she didn't
live with him during their early childhood, nor should she have any knowledge
of his memories when it came to that. But in the end, Karen was the Goddess of
Love.
There was nothing love-related beyond Karen's scope. She knew everything
about Touya's life, at least the romantic aspects. She knew of the different
types of girls he'd been into all the way to the first porno magazine he bought.
Karen looked around to each person there with a mischievous grin on her
face.
"Wanna hear about it?"
"Absolutely!" They all nodded enthusiastically. That made the heavenly beast
on Sue's lap, who was infinitely loyal to its master, begin to panic. After all,
Touya's privacy was in grave danger.
Kohaku was aware of its ignorance regarding human sensibilities, but the tiger
knew full well that it had to inform him of this.
It tried contacting him via telepathy, but alas, it didn't work. Baffled by this,
Kohaku looked up and saw Karen give it a wink.
Though unaware of how she was doing it, the white tiger became absolutely
certain that Karen was the one preventing it from contacting its master.
"Master, please forgive my powerlessness." Kohaku closed its eyes,
completely dejected.
◇ ◇ ◇
"Ah...choo!"
"Are you ill, Your Majesty?" Rubbing my nose, I told him that I was fine. It
probably wasn't a cold or anything, but I had a strange chill go down my spine.
This has happened before, hasn't it? Well, whatever.
We'd opened up a part of the forest to build a large obstacle course.
It was both a place for children to play and a training ground for the knights to
practice.
It was split into three courses: beginner, intermediate, and advanced. In other
words, "for children, for adults, and for knights."
You'd have to go through the course by entering through my right and leaving
through the left. The three courses were all semicircles built around a single
point. The one inside was the one for children, the middle one was for adults,
and the outer one for knights.
The one for children was a simple obstacle course with stone skipping, ropeclimbing, log-crossing, etc. Basically, it was a place where they could train while
having fun.
The adult obstacle course was harder, with rock climbing, spinning logbridges, ropes you had to swing through like Tarzan, and so on.
As for the knight obstacle course...
"Uahhhhhh!"
"And that's the second time Logan has failed." Hearing the huge splash as
something fell in the pond, Lain wrote a cross on the paper she had in her
hands.
We were now testing the completed course. Well, it was done primarily by
the knights who had confidence in their physical abilities.
"Shame. He got pretty far."
"Honestly, that would happen to anyone who had water poured on them
while hanging to a wall."
"I was actually thinking of using oil at first."
"That's just evil," she mumbled under her breath.
Is it really? I think it's pretty normal to use oil, especially on the last stones in
stone skipping or steep wall-climbing.
I'd made lots of varied obstacles. There were even some gravity zones, where
the gravity was several times greater than normal.
Indeed, I had the knights try and make it through monkey bars in areas
imbued with [Gravity]. However, the spell was so strong that not many of them
made it through. Hmm... This is training, so I don't know if I should weaken it.
Yeah, I'll just keep it like this.
"Gwaaah!"
And there goes another knight. He climbed out of the pond and mumbled
something as he went back to the starting point.
"I get it now! I'll make it through next time...!"
"Just gotta put my mind to it!"
"Let's gooo!" It was nice to see them all fired up about it. Not like it would be
enough for them to make it through, though.
"There's rolling stones, springing bridges, swinging guillotines... Are you sure
this is safe?"
"I did design it so no one would end up hurt. The stones are light enough to
not crush any bones, while the guillotines don't cut at all. They're just there to
keep the people on their toes." I could see why Lain was worried, but unlike the
children's course, this one wasn't a game. They were training here, and they
had to be serious about it. A little bit of tenseness couldn't hurt.
"Uhyeeeaaaghhh!" With great momentum, a knight just dropped off the
steep slope. He moved his arms as if swimming through the air, but that wasn't
enough to land him on the safe zone, and he ended up in the pond below.
"He didn't have enough momentum. Well, that always happens when you're
scared of the speed."
"...Is this course even possible?"
"Well, I cleared it."
"You shouldn't be used as the standard, Your Majesty." Lain breathed a long
sigh.
Eeeh...? The knights continued trying to clear the course until it was nearly
evening, when Nikola reached the end, all tattered and torn.
See? It's possible.
When he went down from the goal, the knights all ran up to him and raised
him up high, cheering loudly.
"He did it! He actually did it!"
"We've won!"
"We've cleared the demon's course!"
"Hail the vice captain!"
Hey, who are you calling a demon? That's rude.
In all honestly, I was a bit vexed that someone was able to clear it. I decided
that I might have to enhance it later down the line.
Though, I guess I should keep it like this until everyone's able to do it.
With the training done, I returned back to the castle, where the girls all came
out to greet me, but...
"W-Welcome back, Touya-kun!"
"Touya'-kun'?" Yumina, who always called me just "Touya," was now
speaking to me with a familiar honorific.
"W-Welcome back home, Touya-kun."
"Well done on the t-training, Touya-kun."
"Lu? Linze?" Those two were also acting strange.
Hell, they looked strange, too. Though a bit different in design, they were all
wearing school uniforms... The sailor type. And it suited them all pretty well,
too.
"Hey, Yae! Y-You go first!"
"Please wait! I-I am not accustomed to looking like this, I am not! The skirt is
too short!"
"I-I'm not used to wearing skirts, either, so...!" Elze, Yae, and Hilde were all
fighting over something behind the pillar.
What are you all doing?
They all seemed to have caught some sailor uniform infection. Was there
some sort of boom I missed?
"Oh! Touya, you're back! Do you like how we look?"
"You too, Sue? What's going on here?" She was also wearing a sailor uniform.
And for some reason, she had some machine gun-like toy.
It was cute, but in her case, it felt like she was made to wear it, and it almost
seemed like some sort of cosplay. The others were the appropriate age, so the
uniforms seemed very fitting.
"You like this clothing, don't you? We look just like your first love, Shoko!"
"...UH?" My mind went blank.
Excuse me? Shoko, as in, that Shoko? There was only one person she could be
referring to, and that would be the older girl that lived next to me when I was
younger.
And did she say "first love"? How did she know that?!
"W-We can't become older than you, but we can look like her, at the very
least..." Yumina said that with her face red to her ears.
Wait, wait, wait! That's why they're wearing those?! Well, it's true that Shoko
went to a school that used sailor uniforms, but...!
"Alright, hold on...! Umm, wh-who told you about Shoko...?"
"Karen did."
"THAT GODDAMN IDIOT!"
The hell are you telling them?! Why'd you reveal my secret like that?! I've
never told anyone!
"Wh-What else did she tell you...?"
"What else? Ehm..."
"Like the fact that you went to see her every single day."
"Or that you tried to get her attention with flowers you picked from the
park."
"Or that you cried when you found out that she was moving."
"Oaaagh..." I fell down to my knees on the carpet-covered floor. What kind of
punishment is this?! That had happened before I was even in elementary
school! And such youthful indiscretions surely weren't that uncommon! Also, I'd
heard that she got married by the time I was in middle school.
I wonder if she's happy. No, wait, that doesn't matter right now. What
matters is the embarrassing reality that my first love was revealed. Damn, I
want to crawl into a hole and die...
"Umm... does it look bad on us?"
"...No, not at all. You all look adorable." I threw a thumbs up toward Linze,
making the worry in her face vanish.
They were probably made in Zanac's place, and it surprised me that they had
so many versions. Summer clothes, winter clothes... and Yumina's pure white
sailor uniform must've been pretty rare. Were there some cosplay outfits
among the normal uniforms? Did I really give them all that many designs...?
Well, I wasn't really paying attention when I ran a search on my smartphone
and used [Drawing] on whatever I got.
Gh... I really do enjoy seeing them all in sailor uniforms, but that stupid sister
of mine deserves some serious punishment.
"Touya? Why is my cake so small?!"
"Who knows? Maybe you've been a bad girl." Feigning ignorance, I continued
eating my own shortcake. Unlike the others, Karen's shortcake was so small
that there was a question as to if it could hold a strawberry.
Of course, I was the one who cut it. And obviously, my own portion was all
the more bigger for it.
Feel the resentment of my damaged privacy.
As I calmly ate my cake, Karen directed her fork in my direction and moved it
with the speed of a shooting star. It was aimed at the large strawberry on my
plate.
"Like hell!" With a satisfying, metallic sound, I used my own fork to stop hers.
Apparently, her rightfully-earned cake wasn't enough, so she took to taking
more from the others.
"A little brother should be considerate of his elder sister, y'know?!"
"An elder sister shouldn't take things from her little brother!"
"Please calm down, you two." As we glared at each other, Yumina broke up
the fight.
"We girls will share our cake with you, Karen, so come eat with us."
"That's Yumina for you!"
Damn it, she doesn't deserve that! She was a person who would keep doing
stupid stuff until someone severely punished her. Well, a "god," rather than a
"person," but still. I hoped she could at least act in a manner deserving of the
title. Perhaps I had to tell on her to the World God.
Karen ate Yumina's cake with the most blissful expression imaginable.
"You're all such good girls. I think I should let you in on a little secret."
"A secret?"
"The first erotic book that Touya ever had was—"
"HOLD IT RIGHT THERE! THE HELL ARE YOU SAYING?! COULD YOU PLEASE
STOP ALREADY?!" I went behind her and closed her mouth.
Goddamn, this is annoying! Gods are such a pain in the ass!
Following that exchange, I told her that if she kept leaking my private
information, she wouldn't be getting any more sweets. She got teary-eyed and
cried "Not the sweets!" so I figured I was safe in that regard.
Having such a childish god as a relative sure is annoying...