Having formed our contracts with Naden and Ruby in the Star Dragon
Mountain Range, we returned to the kingdom.
Like I'd told Tomoe, the castle was still being swamped with marriage
proposals, so I planned to continue my trip abroad. Though, we had some
items like the Little Susumu Mark V and Little Musashibo which were
bulky and ill-suited to our trip, so we came back to drop them off.
When Naden, the black ryuu, and Ruby, the red dragon, set down in
Parnam Castle, the castle guards started panicking. Even if they already
knew about Naden, they hardly could have anticipated that Ruby would be
joining us, too...
Come to think of it, I had totally forgotten to report that.
Regardless, I dismounted from Naden and headed over to the gondola
Ruby had been carrying. Naden carried the gondola on the way there, but
she was going to be my queen. If she carried it and Hal's wife arrived
empty-handed, it would have reflected poorly on Ruby, so we decided
Ruby would carry it.
"Ruby," Naden said. "You carried it without any shaking, I hope?"
"Shove off, Naden. I carried it just fine."
Naden and Ruby started bickering the moment they changed back into
human form.
There was supposed to be a hierarchical relationship between them
now, as the wives of a king and one of his retainers, but it seemed like
neither of them cared, and they were having a good time sniping at each
other. This sort of relationship must have been easier for them.
Then the door to the gondola opened and Liscia came out. "Urgh..."
"Liscia?!" I exclaimed.
The moment she got onto the ground, Liscia stumbled, so I hurried to
catch her. With Liscia in my arms, I looked at her to find she was looking
pale, and covering her mouth.
"A-Are you okay?! What's wrong?!"
"Sorry... I'm a little unsteady on my feet... Is it motion sickness?"
Motion sickness from the gondola... Was that it? Seeing Liscia like
that, Naden blamed Ruby.
"You said you didn't let it shake!" Naden yelled.
"I-I don't think it did, okay?!"
"Calm down, please," said Aisha, disembarking. "I don't think it shook
that much."
Liscia laughed weakly, and added, "I don't think it's Ruby's fault," to
cover for her. "I think the fatigue from the long trip finally got to me. I
must have failed to manage my health properly."
"Are you really okay?" I asked.
"Yeah... But I'm going on ahead to rest in my room. Carla, would you
come with me?"
"O-Okay. You can lean on me."
"Should I come with you, too?" I asked.
"You have to give Hakuya a report on what happened, don't you,
Souma? You need to make living arrangements for Naden and Ruby, too.
I'll be fine, so go do your job."
Urkh... When she said it like that, there was nothing I could say back to
her.
In the end, all I could do was watch as Liscia left for her room, leaning
on Carla's shoulder for support. If I acted too worried, she would probably
get mad, so I decided to focus on what needed to get done for now.
"Now that we have everyone gathered together..."
By the time I returned to the governmental affairs office, discussed
with Haakuya the events that had transpired, took care of the various
procedures that had to be handled for Naden and Ruby, and sent out an
order to the research institute regarding an investigation into overscience
relics, the date had changed. Now that the work was all handled, I
summoned the members of my traveling entourage once more.
In the room were the six who returned with us: Aisha, Naden, Carla,
Halbert, Kaede, and Ruby; plus three more, Hakuya, Juna, and Roroa, who
had been holding down the fort. Liscia still wasn't feeling well, so she was
in her room resting.
"Is it still a good idea for me to be away from the castle?" I asked with
a glance to Hakuya.
He nodded in confirmation. "Yes... The number of marriage proposals
coming to the castle still hasn't dropped off."
That figures. The situation in the Star Dragon Mountain Range went by
so quickly that it took fewer days than I'd been expecting, after all. No,
with all that happened, I should be happy it had been resolved so quickly.
"...Well, that being the case, I think I'll go on a diplomatic mission to
another country. Liscia's health worries me, but she herself told me to go."
I was actually thinking of staying in the castle until Liscia fully
recovered, but she said, "I don't want my poor health to stop you from
taking this important opportunity to visit other countries." She strongly
stressed that "Contact with other cultures will help to fuel you. So I want
you to go and see the world."
If she was going to say it like that, I had no choice but to go.
"Tomoe is waiting at that village, so I want to set out tomorrow," I
said. "Now, as for our next destination... I think I'd like to go to the
Republic of Turgis."
The Republic of Turgis was a land of frigid cold in the southernmost
reaches of the continent. It was an inaccessible country, covered in snow
and ice during the winter, and the skies there were disrupted by warm air
currents, making it so wyverns couldn't fly. They had a national policy of
northward expansionism, and they recently showed signs of making a
move north during the war with the Principality of Amidonia, hadn't they?
I looked to each of my companions and then said, "I don't really
understand the moves that country is making. It's a country I don't
understand very well in general, so I'd like to see what things are like there
for myself. Whether we're going to have hostile or cordial relations with
them in the future, I think knowing more about that country will let me
make more appropriate decisions."
The battle with the Principality of Amidonia happened because they
had already firmed up their will to oppose us, so there was no room for me
to investigate their domestic situation. It could also be said that that was
why Roroa had gotten the drop on me in the end. In order to prevent that
from happening next time, I wanted to thoroughly investigate things in
advance.
"Th-The Republic of Turgis?" Naden asked.
"...That's not exactly a place I care to go," Ruby added.
Both of them wore unpleasant looks on their faces.
I knew wyverns hated cold places, but it looked like that went for ryuus
and dragons, too.
It was mid-May, and the Kingdom had already warmed up. Apparently
in the Republic however, the temperature had only risen to around ten
degrees Celsius. That climate would be harsh on Naden and Ruby.
"It's a cold land, after all. I don't think I'll be of much use as a
bodyguard, either," said Carla, who, as dragonewt, also had trouble
dealing with the cold.
If she wore thick clothes, she could come, but she apparently wanted to
say that if that slowed her down, that made bringing her as a bodyguard
pointless.
Not being able to bring those three would be a huge cut to our overall
firepower, but they couldn't help it if their races made them ill-suited to
the task at hand. If they forced themselves to do things they couldn't
reasonably be expected to, and they ruined their health as a result, it would
trouble me. I'd have to give up on them this time.
"Naden, Ruby, Carla: please stay in the kingdom," I said. "I'll have
Liscia rest and recover this time, too. Aisha, Hal, and Kaede, I'd like the
three of you to continue on as my bodyguards. We'll bring Tomoe and
Inugami, too."
"Leave it to me." Aisha pounded a fist against her chest.
""Y-Yes, sir."" Hal and Kaede saluted.
"Also... Roroa."
"Hm? Me?" Roroa had a blank look on her face.
"I'd like you to come along, too. I want you to look into goods we
could trade with the republic. You own a company, so I'm sure you're
familiar with trade goods."
Roroa's face burst into a beaming smile. "Oh! You don't mind me
comin' with you? Yippee! Mweheheh, just you leave it to me, darlin'. I'll
find ya some nice trade goods." She wrapped herself around my arm.
While patting her on the head, I turned to Juna next. "If I'm bringing
Roroa, that leaves me less than confident in the amount of firepower we
have on hand. So, Juna..."
"Yes?"
"Juna, I'd like you to come, too. Can you work that into your
schedule?"
As the Prima Lorelei, Juna was the face of the Jewel Voice Broadcast.
She was the host of the educational program, and she needed to appear on
the singing program, too. That was why there were no openings in her
schedule, and the question was really, Is it possible for you to adjust your
schedule?
Juna gave me a broad smile. "Hee hee. It's fine. Or more like I'll make
it so it's fine," she said definitively, bringing a hand to her chest and
bowing. "If I have Komari and Siena cover for me on the educational
program, it should be no trouble. The younger loreleis are growing up, and
I think they should be fine without me for a little while."
"They will? That helps."
"No, just like Roroa, I want to travel with you, sire." Juna gave me a
teasing wink. Yeah, she was very charming.
For now, the members of the group were chosen.
"Hakuya, could I get you to try putting in a request for talks with the
Republic of Turgis?" I asked. "I basically intend to go incognito, but I may
need to request a meeting on the spot. Set things up for me, would you?"
"Understood." Hakuya bowed and accepted the task.
Okay, that was everything more or less ready.
"Well then, everyone," I said. "shall we be on our way?"
And so we left for the frozen country of the south: the Republic of
Turgis.