Chapter 2: Meeting on a Street Corner in Van (part 1)

Late in the 10th month, 1,546th year, Continental Calendar — Princely Capital

Van.

A little more than three weeks had passed since the army of the Elfrieden

Kingdom had come to occupy Van, the capital of the Principality of Amidonia.

The people of Van had looked harshly on their conquerors when they'd first

arrived. However, with Souma keeping a tight rein on his soldiers, public order had

improved, and with the lily root dumplings being distributed, the people were no

longer at risk of starvation. Their distrust of the soldiers was gradually fading as a

result. The fact that the nobles and knights who would normally have worked to

foment a rebellion had all fled the city likely helped, too.

An air of calm was beginning to take hold in the city.

Though, that said... while it would have been nice if it had been purely calm, it

seemed that the music program Souma was broadcasting had the people of Van

burning with a passion for the arts. On every street corner there were minstrels,

street musicians, and street performers of all kinds plying their trades.

On top of that, there were those who wanted to repaint their homes to be more

colorful, and even those who wanted to produce wall murals displaying the beautiful

countenances of Juna and the loreleis, Chris the newscaster, and Aisha, who was

known for her part in hosting the program. Things were beginning to get out of

hand.

Who would have believed this had been the capital of a militaristic state merely

one month ago?

Souma called this period of Van the Amidonian Renaissance.

Sudden changes were always fraught with confusion, and in Van there were daily

conflicts over the best places to hold street performances. The Forbidden Army

troops who had been left to occupy the city were sent out to mediate, and the

soldiers of the Army and Air Force who were camped outside the city looked on

them with pity. Still, such disagreements never led to a major riot, and Van was more

or less peaceful.

However, this day began with Aisha shouting noisily. "P-Princess!"

"Eek!" Liscia shrieked.

It was morning. Liscia had been getting dressed in the room she was using as her

own when Aisha had barged in without so much as a knock at the door. It was so

sudden that Liscia froze in surprise, but when she remembered she was in the

middle of getting dressed, she continued putting on her uniform and asked, "WhWhat is it, Aisha? Why are you so flustered?"

"Th-That's... His Majesty... His Majesty is..." Aisha sputtered. Perhaps because she

was out of breath, she was having a hard time getting the words out.

"Calm down," Liscia said. "Take a deep breath."

"R-Right." Aisha took a deep breath, as instructed. She swung her arms up and

down in time with each heaving breath.

Once she was sure Aisha had calmed down, Liscia tried asking again. "So, what's

going on with Souma?"

"Right," Aisha said. "I went to the governmental affairs office to greet His Majesty

like usual this morning, but he wasn't there. Instead, I found this note he left." Aisha

passed the piece of paper to Liscia.

Liscia took the piece of paper and read it over. It said, "I am going on a journey.

Please, don't look for me. - Souma Kazuya."

Liscia pressed a hand to her temple and sighed, while Aisha returned to freaking

out.

"Wh-Whatever shall we do? We must search for him at once!"

"I'm telling you, just calm down," Liscia said. "Souma's taking the day off."

"Huh? A day off?" Aisha stared at her blankly.

"Right," Liscia said, with a nod. "He's with Tomoe. It looked like he'd been getting

pretty close to the breaking point with his workload lately, so I suggested he take

some time off. I even cleared it with Hakuya. When I did that, Souma said, 'Well,

maybe I'll just laze around in some room making dolls, then.' It didn't sound healthy,

so I asked Tomoe to drag him outside for me."

"I heard nothing of this!" Aisha exclaimed. "I am His Majesty's bodyguard, you

realize?! Why didn't he take me with him?!"

When she saw Aisha with tears forming in her eyes, Liscia gave a shrug. "You

stand out too much. This was a primarily human country, so dark elves stand out to

begin with, and with your recent fame from the broadcast, you're not exactly going

to be able to keep a low profile."

"This was enemy territory not that long ago, you know?!" Aisha complained. "If

anything were to happen to His Majesty and Tomoe..."

"Have no fears," Liscia assured her. "They're in disguise, and Juna and a number

of elite marines will be watching over them from the shadows this time."

"Madam Juna is accompanying them, too? Well, in that case, he should be safe..."

Aisha got that far before Juna's mature smile flashed through her mind.

To Aisha, Juna was the ideal woman. Gorgeous, graceful, gentle... She would have

given anything to be like her. However... setting that aside, when she imagined Juna's

smile, every instinct Aisha had as a woman began setting off alarm bells.

If we let our guards down, she's going to run off with all the best parts, she thought.

"He will be safe... won't he?" she asked.

"..."

In truth, Liscia had been thinking the same thing, so she had nothing to say in

response.

◇ ◇ ◇

"The weather sure is nice today, huh, big brother?" Tomoe asked.

"It sure is, Tomoe," I agreed.

I was on Van's shopping street walking hand-in-hand with my honorary little

sister, the mystic wolf girl Tomoe. There had been a nigh lethal amount of

administrative work to do lately, so Liscia, unable to watch me torment myself any

longer, had suggested that I take my first day off since that time I'd patrolled the

royal capital.

I figured if I had time off, I'd rather use it to laze around, like a father on vacation,

but Liscia had said that was unhealthy and ordered little Tomoe to drag me into the

castle town.

It was a place that had been enemy territory until just recently, so we were

lightly disguised today. My facial features were supposedly similar to those of

humans from the Nine-Headed Dragon Archipelago, so I was dressed like a traveler

from there. I wore a traveling cape and conical straw hat, making me look like

Kitakaze Kozou. Tomoe, meanwhile, wore a white robe with a hood, like a white

mage from some game. Honestly, I'd wondered if it was worth the trouble of

disguising ourselves to go out, but...

"Wowwie, there are so many different shops, big brother!"

...when I saw Tomoe so excited, nothing else mattered anymore.

"If you see one that catches your fancy, why don't we go inside?" I asked.

"Okay! ♪" she sang.

When Tomoe gave that energetic reply, I patted her on the head. The hair

between her two wolf ears was fluffy and soft to the touch. It felt amazing. Ahh... So

soothing.

I tried talking to the person who was on the opposite side of me from Tomoe, too.

"Juna, are you okay with that?"

"Yes," Juna said, giving me a soft smile. "If it pleases you, Master Kazuya."

For this undercover vacation, instead of Aisha, I was supposed to have Juna and

around ten of her marines watching over me from the shadows.

...Yes, from the shadows.

"Um, Juna? Why are you wrapping yourself around my arm?" I asked.

Juna had wrapped herself around the arm I wasn't using to pat Tomoe's head.

She was incredibly close. Right now, Juna was wearing a longsword on her back,

with breastplate armor over top of her clothes. With her dressed up like a typical

female adventurer, I didn't feel those voluptuous things pressed up against me. Still,

I could feel Juna's warmth directly on my arm.

Juna seemed to see how flustered I was, and she flashed me a mischievous smile.

"Oh, is it wrong for me to do this?"

"It's not a matter of right or wrong... Weren't you supposed to be protecting me

from the shadows?" I asked.

"We're protecting you like we're supposed to," Juna said. "Right now, my elite

marines are protecting you in the shadows. They're circling ahead of us to watch for

any potential blind spots, too."

"No, but... isn't your face out there, too?" I protested.

The people of Amidonia should know Juna's face from the music program. Even if

she wasn't as recognizable as the dark elf Aisha, Juna wasn't hiding her face at all

right now. Wasn't someone going to notice her?

When I asked her that, Juna giggled. "It should be fine. I was wearing makeup

then. I should have given off a very different impression."

Now that she mentioned it... Juna was only wearing the bare essentials of makeup

today. Whenever she stood on stage or before the jewel as a lorelei, she must use

charming makeup that would be recognizable from a distance. The Juna I saw now

had a natural beauty, but just taking off her makeup made her look younger than

usual. Right now, she actually looked her age.

"That's right," Juna said, as if reading my mind. "...The reason I look like a mature

adult is because of that makeup, got it?"

"No, I'm pretty sure the way you act is part of it, too..." I said. "So it did bother

you?"

"I am a girl, after all," she said. "Does it bother you linking arms with me, sire?"

Juna wore an expression that seemed somewhat uncertain. That face... She just

wasn't playing fair.

"It's not that it bothers me," I said. "Bring it on."

"Hee hee," she giggled. "Thank you."

"Whew... You sure are amazing, Juna," Tomoe said. "I wish I could be like you."

"...Don't you think you're fine just the way you are, Tomoe?" Juna said pointedly

to the girl who was looking up at her with great respect. Tomoe was cute, and she

might develop into a beauty like Juna as she grew up. Once she grew up and learned

how to play games with men, it could be the birth of an incredible little tease.

While I was thinking about that, I ended up walking with Tomoe's hand in mine,

and Juna wrapped around my other arm. Nobody realized our true identities, but the

jealous looks from passing men and the whispering of housewives trying to guess at

the relationship between the three of us started to make my stomach hurt.

In order to distract myself from it, I tried talking to Juna. "Well... Where to? Unlike

in Parnam, Van doesn't have much in it, so there aren't many places I want to go

patrol."

"When you're out on the town on your day off, I don't know that you should be

thinking of it as patrolling." Juna laughed wryly at my workaholic thought process.

Sorry for being so work-obsessed, I thought.

Then, Juna took a peek over at Tomoe before whispering in my ear, "How about

giving Tomoe some new clothes as a present? Since she's your honorary little sister,

you can call it a gift between family."

"Ohh, there's an idea."

Now that she mentioned it, ever since I'd accepted Tomoe as my little sister

(though, technically, she was Liscia's adopted little sister and my future sister-inlaw), I had been busy with administrative work and hadn't been able to act like a

proper big brother. Tomoe had been working hard on negotiating with the

rhinosauruses and shoujou, so it might be nice to spoil her rotten today.

"Juna, do you know a good place for that?" I asked.

"I've done my research," she said. "Leave it to me." She placed her hand on her

chest, bowing slightly.

Juna recommended a clothing store on a street corner.