"Haaah!"
"That's it! Stronger now!" Lanz was in the midst of a battle, facing off against
another using his training weapon. It had been about thirty minutes since they
started, and his footwork was getting unsteady. The battle was fierce, and his
enemy showed no signs of stopping.
Commander Lain and old man Baba had left newbie supervision down to
Moroha, so she had organized individual sparring.
"Guh!"
"What's wrong, hm?! Is this all the power a Lestian knight has in him?" His
sparring partner, Hilde, came up from behind Lanz, armed with a sword. She
was well and truly proving her status as a knight princess. The rush of battle
reminded her of her days leading a squadron, and she knew she was sparring
for the greater good.
Back in Lestia, she would often inspire her troops by yelling about Lestian
pride, so this was her own little way of encouraging that from Lanz.
"Ghuh!" Hilde's wooden blade struck true, smacking Lanz right in the
stomach. He collapsed on the spot, keeling over.
"That'll do." Moroha's voice rang out across the training field. All the knights
watching the battle could barely contain themselves, they heaved heavy sighs
as the battle finally came to a close.
Lanz used his weapon as a crutch and staggered to his feet, he bowed his
head to Hilde.
"Th-Thank you for training me, ma'am!"
"Of course." Hilde bowed her head in turn, and Lanz sank to the ground once
more.
A group of other rookies ran forward to check if he was okay, but Lanz raised
his hand to say he was fine. Either way, it was clear he was at the height of
exhaustion.
"Come forth, Light! Breath of Vigor: [Refresh]." I stepped forward and gave a
dose of fatigue-restoration magic to Lanz and Hilde. They had definitely taken a
lot out of themselves, but I was honestly amazed they'd lasted as long as they
did.
"In Lestia, we're taught to hone our physical technique and eliminate any
unnecessary movement. Knowing the limits of our stamina allows us to move
without wasting a single step. Then, at the height of exhaustion, we're still
capable of landing precise blows. Training in such extreme conditions is more
valuable than a hundred sessions of restrained training!" He was pretty wild...
Wasn't too surprising, though, given he was from the Knight Kingdom of Lestia.
"My my, it really did have me feeling like I was back in Lestia. It's been a while
since I had so much fun training..." Hilde seemed pretty pumped up, contrary to
her typical self. The Lestians really did have a bit of a warrior culture in the end,
kind of like Sparta.
The newbies had been put under a grueling training session, courtesy of
Moroha. But, as expected of those that passed the test, none of them were
quite willing to give up. They all had renewed vigor and kept fighting.
The newbies were all assigned to different areas, so they were receiving
training from their established predecessors.
I came over to see how they were doing, but it seemed like they were doing
just fine without me...
The knights currently on the training field were those who had been assigned
to town patrol and the castle guard. We needed them to be strong, after all.
And it seemed that they were managing just that.
Nikola was here to oversee the training as well; he had tentatively taken
command of the castle guardsmen. Logan was here to fight against them as
well, as he was the captain of the watch. Logan was a man who I'd met back in
Sandora; he was helping a group of slaves at the time. He never expected that
he'd end up having a decent role to play in an emerging knight order like
Brunhild's, but here he was.
Norn had also taken command of the patrolmen, with Rebecca as her number
two. Rebecca was an adventurer who had been working in Sandora like Logan.
She was a fairly respectable female knight of our order at this point.
It seemed like my services weren't really needed. Everyone was working hard.
Rebecca was training against a lot of the new female recruits, too. And so, I
looked over at Hilde, who still seemed a little out of it, so I handed her a sweat
towel.
"Looks like the new guys are all doing pretty good."
"Indeed. They're all new and filled with new hopes. They all wish to become
strong, and you can tell they wish to become strong for a good reason. Training
alone can't foster such a feeling, so I'm glad they had it from the start."
When I was interviewing them, I wanted to emphasize the hiring of people
who would fight for the people. Yumina's Mystic Eye and the polygraph test
ruled out those that had impure motivations for getting stronger.
Next up, I wanted to check on old man Naito's agricultural project. Hilde
wanted to come along, so we trotted off to the east. These people weren't
primarily fighters, so their training could be held off for a while.
Many people might not associate the image of a knight with farm work and
cultivation, but it was arguably the most important thing going on right now.
This particular branch of our knight order specialized in developing
experimental crops, opening up more safe land, building homes, and taking care
to build and maintain roads.
The man in charge of most of the planning was Kousaka, but it was old man
Naito himself who did most of the hands-on stuff.
Just as I entered the area, I found the man himself.
"Oh, Your Highness and Lady Hilde. It's good to see you." He seemed pretty
laid-back in general, but Naito was quite industrious. His problem-solving skills
were second to none. Without him, we wouldn't be as far along as we were
now.
"So, what brings you here?"
"Just here to check up on the new recruits. How're they holding up?"
"Ah. Well, we don't need much in the way of intensive training here, so
they're in the middle of basic memorization and learning our protocols." I
looked over to where he pointed and saw a group of recruits using string to
measure plots of earth.
Hmm... Where is he, I thought. Then, I suddenly spotted the plant guy from
the survival game, the guy named Charon.
Developing the land was vital to the growth of a nation. They had many duties
to attend to that would become solid ground for Brunhild in the years to come.
In a sense, the knights of the agricultural sector were general-purpose knights
who build up the country from the roots. That kind of didn't make them sound
all that impressive, though... I decided not to say something like that to their
face.
"Knights tilling the ground with hoes and measuring out plots... A rather
pleasant sight, wouldn't you say? It's not something you'd see back home in
Lestia, at least."
"Really? Even soldiers plow fields in Eashen, as well."
"Is that right...?" Hilde was the princess of Lestia, a major eastern power. It
seemed like it was unthinkable to have commanders and soldiers do farming
and manual labor. All their military thought about was polishing their skill with a
blade.
Lestia's royal family was certainly above such things, but I thought that
looking after the land was a good quality to have for someone who'd be
defending it.
"A good few of the new recruits have Earth magic aptitude, it is proving quite
the help. I gotta tell you, as someone born in Eashen, it's quite remarkable.
Magic just isn't very widespread back there, and the few examples of magic I've
seen are fire and wind." Old man Naito was right about that. Magic was a rarity
in Eashen. Yae's family didn't have much in the way of it either.
Eashenese people devised special techniques like Ninjutsu in place of magic.
Not quite the same thing, but somewhat similar either way. Speaking of which,
it was time to go and visit Tsubaki's infiltration squadron.
I waved goodbye to old man Naito and headed into the western forest. It was
here that you'd find the training zone for our more covert operatives.
The obstacle course was originally designed to help train dexterity for the
knight order. Tsubaki recently had me install courses and runs for all three
levels of difficulty, ranging from beginner to intermediate, to advanced. There
were various traps and obstacles lined up along the courses, each varying in
terms of danger.
The infiltration corps was being trained on the course today.
"Gwaaaugh?!" A screaming person suddenly soared through the air before
landing in a small pond not far from us. She splashed into the water before
rising to the surface, coughing and sputtering.
Water dripped from her short, curly hair. She was a member of the ninja trio
that had recently joined our order, Sarutobi Homura.
"No good, Homura-san! Pay more attention next time. If that was an enemy's
trap, you'd be dead by now. Treat this course as you would a real mission."
"Ugh..." Tsubaki shook her head as she criticized Homura's performance. At
that moment, another shriek echoed through the air, and yet another girl came
soaring through the air before landing in the pond.
It was another of the ninja trio, Fuma Nagi.
"G-Goodness, this is quite intensive..." Hilde seemed pretty shocked, but that
wasn't too surprising given two people had just flown through the air before
our eyes.
"Our mission is primarily the acquisition of intel. We need to be prepared for
every possible dangerous situation, and infiltration is a must. We need to keep
our eyes peeled for even the slightest out-of-place detail." Tsubaki spoke as she
hopped down from a treetop.
Tsubaki's intel corps generally handled information gathering. Brunhild was
recognized by other nations, sometimes for good reasons, and sometimes for
bad. There certainly were countries that didn't think too highly of us. Yulong,
for example, was an example of a country we had poor relations with. Yulong
wasn't really a country anymore though.
But even if I was friends with a world leader, it didn't mean that members of
the nobility wouldn't have it out for me. I remember hearing that a lot of Belfast
and Regulus aristocrats didn't much like my engagement to Yumina and Lu.
People like that could always end up trying to cause trouble in Brunhild. And
that was where Tsubaki and her agents came into the equation. They would
gather intel on potential threats and relay it to me. For the most part, they were
Eashenese, which meant they primarily used ninjutsu. There were a few
capable of Dark magic, however, which meant they were able to summon
stealthy animals to assist in spy operations.
Tsubaki's people also conferred with Mr. Mittens and his cat knights,
swapping information about potential threats within the castle town.
Recently there'd been some discussions about foreign dissidents trying to
gather information on us. Apparently they were after the Frame Gears again... It
was a hell of a headache to keep up with greedy people like that.
"Everyone seems to be trying hard."
"We are, thank you. We're doing our best."
"Would you like to train with me and Touya tomorrow? I think Yae might
want to join in as well."
"Ah... I'm not sure if I can, I've got a few Grand Dukey things to take care of..."
I laughed a little bit at Hilde's suggestion.
To be honest, I was pretty sure Yae and Hilde were at the point where they
could beat me in a swordfight. Moroha had trained them to the point where
only she was beyond them.
The two of them were incredible. Even with my magic, I'd struggle to beat
them.
The daily inspection was over. I decided to split off from Hilde and head back
to the castle. There I saw Sue running down the corridor toward me. Her butler,
Leim, toddled on after her.
"Touya!"
"Yo. What's up, Sue? Hey there, Leim."
"Good day, Your Highness." Sue had practically tackled me, so Leim
apologetically greeted me with a bowed head.
Sue could easily travel to her private room in this castle from her own room at
home. There was a [Gate] tailored just for her that connected the two rooms,
so she visited Brunhild often.
She was one of my fiancees, but she still lived with her parents, so this was
the compromise. Only Sue could travel through the portal, so it was secure.
That being said, if she consented then she could come through with other
people like Leim.
"What brings you here today?"
"I came to visit Renne! It's her day off, you know? Oh, Touya. Can I use the
game room? I'd like to show Renne the Overlord formation."
Overlord formation...? Oh, she must mean the Ortlinde Overlord thing her
Frame Gear does... She's gonna show it in the simulator?
The Frame Gear training room had several Frame Unit simulators, and the
girls could access their tailor-made machines through it as well. Regular knights
wouldn't be able to use them, though.
"Sure, no problem. Be sure to show her."
"Yay! Thanks, Touya!" Sue ran off full-speed toward wherever Renne was. She
was lively as ever.
"Please excuse me." Leim trotted after her. I felt a little sorry for him.
As I watched them dash off, my smartphone started to vibrate. It was a call
from Rosetta.
"Yo, 'sup?"
"Master, sir?! I made a prototype, sir! I was thinking of running an
experiment, yessir I was. Wanna see?"
"Oh, you finished with it? We can test it out in the northern courtyard. I'll
bring Sakura."
"Yessir!" I cut off the call with Rosetta and dialed for Sakura. This was proving
to be quite the busy day.
◇ ◇ ◇
"...Grand Duke. What is this?"
"This is a special microphone with sound amplification. There's more to it,
too." Sakura tilted her head in confusion as she looked at the mic stand.
I asked Sakura to help me with a special magical device experiment, and she'd
brought along Spica as well.
"Preparations complete, sir!" I moved away from the mic that Rosetta had
been adjusting. Monica, who was also observing, flashed a thumbs-up. That
meant it was time.
"Alright, let's try... some pretty simple, light music for starters. The mic's
target should be set to you, Spica, so can you move a little further away?"
"Ah, of course. Is this good?" Spica stood in the middle of the training area
we'd prepared.
"Alright, Sakura. Please sing something soft into the mic. And please channel
your magic into it as well, if you can."
"...I don't quite understand, but I shall..." Sakura gave an obedient nod, and
then she began to sing.
Hm... This song? It was a fairly popular French song that I'd heard back in
Japan, a popular, soft jazz number.
The "Cherie" mentioned in the lyrics wasn't a woman's name, but a French
way of saying "darling."
"Alright, Spica. Can you try moving about, or slashing?"
"Very well— What?!" Spica moved for only a few seconds, but she covered a
surprising distance. She looked down at herself in shock. She suddenly stopped
on the spot and jumped into the air, finding herself propelled three meters
upward.
"My body is light as a feather, no, it's like I've gotten feathers and I can fly!"
Sakura, equally confused, stopped singing as she watched Spica.
"Ah." Spica's enhanced speed suddenly dropped to a standard pace.
Hmm... So the enhancements only work while she sings. And I guess the
effects will change based on the style of song, too.
"Grand Duke, what is this...?"
"Let me answer that, ma'am! It's application of magic, ma'am! Doctor
Babylon calls it Lyrical magic, ma'am! Your magic power passes through the
microphone and your voice, and can then be applied to other people! The
effects vary depending on the oscillation, and we still don't know the full
potential, ma'am! But rest assured that it's support magic through-andthrough, so there are no risks!" Rosetta suddenly chimed in. Apparently it was
based on magic used by a species that existed during the ancient civilization's
era, but I didn't know the details.
From what I understood of it, it was simply amplification through sound
waves, and that's all I needed to know.
"Alright then, Sakura. Feel free to sing any kind of song."
"Okay." Sakura sang one song after another to Spica. She really didn't seem to
mind what she chose as she flicked through several types of music.
There were a lot of western songs, but only stuff from the 1960s through
1980s. That was my favorite kind of music, so I'd ended up introducing her to a
lot of it. My grandpa introduced me to it originally, so it was just one of those
things. It seemed like Sakura was quite the fan, too. So I wasn't complaining.
There were a lot of magical effects based on the types of song she sang.
Enhanced agility, increased magical resistance, a protective barrier, increased
aggression, increased strength, and so on. There were clearly a ton more
potential effects, but we didn't need to go through them all in one day.
The benefit of this magic was that it could affect anyone in range of the
music. The effect could even be applied to the person singing, as well as anyone
in the vicinity. Plus, no matter how many were being affected, it would still take
up the same amount of magic as if it was only one person.
The effect ended when Sakura stopped singing, so we would have to be
mindful that she didn't wear her voice out.
Doctor Babylon was currently designing some kind of aircraft that could act as
mobile battle speakers. The idea would be for Sakura's voice to effectively serve
as background music for the battle while empowering our troops.
That being said, we'd only be able to apply one effect at the time, so it had
limited tactical use. Sakura couldn't sing different songs at the same time, and
recordings didn't work either.
I pondered more as I watched Sakura's spirited performance.
After the experiment ended, I went up to Babylon with Rosetta. The Doctor
was in her Research Lab, pondering over a world map on her monitor.
Her desk had a bunch of papers, books, and scattered stationery on it. I
noticed a bunch of stale looking cookies, cakes, and used teacups as well.
Put your old food away... You're gonna attract bugs.
"What're you up to?"
"Hm? Ah, it's Touya. See anything strange about this?"
"Strange?" The doc motioned toward her monitor, and I took a look at the
world map.
Hm? What's with that... It looks like this world's map, but the details are a
little different.
"This is a map of the world as it was five-thousand years ago, during my era.
It's how it was before the Phrase invaded. There was large-scale magical
destruction during that time, and general resistance against their forces ended
up sculpting global geography. Can you see the key differences?" She
superimposed the current map of the world over the old one.
Oh, huh... There are definitely differences in coastlines and terrain... Weird...
Refreese and Lihnea... were a lot larger... And the Great Gau River didn't go all
the way down to Ramissh? Did the terrain change naturally, or was this all
thanks to magic...? Geez...
"The Phrase couldn't be directly affected by magic, remember? There was a
country that initiated a forbidden spell known as [Grand Break], which changed
a lot of the world's terrain."
Huh... What kind of spell was that? Did it cause the ground to rupture or
something? Well, there's no denying there are some serious topographical
differences here, but damn...
It seemed like it was probably an Earth spell that caused a massive amount of
the ground to rise up and shift, likely to try and catch the Phrase en masse.
Something so destructive would've been insane... To think humanity was
driven to make such a horrible decision.
"This here is where Partheno was. It was a massive civilization that spanned
all the way from where Belfast is now, covering most of Regulus, Brunhild,
Ramissh, Roadmare, Felsen, Lestia, and Horn." I looked at the area she'd singled
out. It was insanely huge. It must've been an incredible empire indeed. It
spanned a massive amount of land from west to east. If you put it in earth
terms, it'd be equal to one nation having control of all land between Europe
and China.
"Back in the day, the Phrase first emerged where Xenoahs is nowadays. The
nations that used to occupy the area where Yulong, Nokia, and Hannock are
were the first to fall. That's why you can see so many geographical changes in
this area."
That does explain all the crater-like lakes in Yulong and Xenoahs... Did they
really fight that hard, though? To damage their own world in the hopes of
defending it? I guess it makes sense though; they would've defended their
homelands with everything they had in them. I can't even imagine how
fearsome the battles must have been.
"Hm? What's that?"
"Oh, this? This is... Just north of where Elfrau is in the current era." On the
map of the old world, there was an island in the sea just north of Elfrau. It was
similar in size to Ramissh. The modern map didn't have that island at all, leading
me to believe it had completely sunk.
"Back in the day, that island was known as The Devil's Abode. There were sea
monsters like Sirens and Krakens that surrounded its waters, so going by boat
was impossible. If you tried to fly, then Wyverns would kill you. The island
reeked of death, and even from afar you could see its dense fog and foul air."
Sounds pretty nuts, definitely worthy of its name.
"I was a little confused as to why it wasn't here in the current era. I wondered
if it sank, but I couldn't think of a reason for it to have. Thus, I used an advanced
form of detection magic on the area, and this is the result." On the modern
map, in the empty spot where the island should've been, a small red haze
appeared vaguely matching the outline of the landmass.
...Wait, a barrier? Did someone put up a barrier around the island to make it
invisible? But could something like that have seriously lasted so long? And why?
"My Babylon works on a similar principle, you know? It's been invisible in the
air for the last five thousand years. I'm of the opinion that someone did this to
the island back then, as well. The only questions would be who, and why?"
"...Do you think some mage escaped from the Phrase, made his way to the
island, and then erected a barrier so he couldn't be found?"
"That's not impossible, but... Such powerful magic would surely be
impossible... The only person other than I from that era capable of such a feat
would be the Sage of Hours, but I was sure he died in a Phrase attack..." Doctor
Babylon muttered as she leaned against her chair. She was in a tiny body, so she
looked kind of silly.
"Sorry, Sage of Hours?"
"Yes, that's right. He was a master of Space-time magic. Foresight,
teleportation, regular time-stopping, the ability to de-age or simply age his
targets, and so on... He was an outrageous old man. Well, it wasn't like he could
do it all on a whim. He still needed to make necessary setups and so on, but he
was the only one who knew how it worked."
"He could stop time...? I didn't know Space-time magic even existed..."
"What are you talking about? You've been using [Storage], [Gate], and
[Teleport] for how long now? What did you think that was? Still, he was far
more adept; he could do all of that and more... I'm a little sad that his
knowledge is lost to time entirely, if I'm honest."
Interesting... So you're saying that there was an old guy who bypassed the
Null magic requirements to perform these crazy feats...? That guy definitely
does sound outrageous...
But if he could so easily manipulate Space-time, then creating a barrier that
blocked someone from seeing an island would be no big deal. Hell, the fact that
the barrier was blocking the outside world from noticing it was practically
Space-time magic in itself.
"Maybe the old guy had a disciple or something and they set it up...?"
"...Hm... It's possible he had students. But I need to warn you, if you plan on
investigating it... I'd hesitate to use Gungnir because if you take a high-speed
flying vehicle you might crash right into the side. It won't show a shadow, after
all." That would be a pain. If I used [Fly] there was also the risk of it having the
whole thing where it disabled magic, so I'd just end up crashing into the sea...
I wondered if I could use a vehicle that didn't need magic.
"Couldn't I go in with Kougyoku or Luli? That'd be easier."
"Yeah, I'm sure that'd work. Sending a summoned beast there would
generally be the least risky thing to do. But you should still be careful;
depending on the type of barrier you might end up losing contact, or even
having your summoned creature get lost entirely." I wanted to head to the
island right away, but the Doctor's words did kind of unnerve me.
I wasn't entirely sure what was there, so I decided to play it safe and have
Kougyoku's birds scout the place out first.
If the barrier was still up, it was entirely possible that the caster was still living
there.
Still, it was an island that nobody had entered even back in the ancient era. It
was kind of like the Galapagos Islands back on earth, completely unaffected by
the outside world... Its inhabitants might've even undergone stark evolutionary
differences.
Just what could I expect in a place like that...?