Chapter 3: Negotiations (part 1)

20th day, 10th month, 1,546th year, Continental Calendar — Van Castle

"Now then... Here I come, sire!" Aisha cried.

"Bring it on, Aisha!" I called back.

We were in the training grounds inside Van Castle. In this space, which was open

to the sky like an archery range in Japan, I stood facing a fully armed Aisha. In her

usual light armor, Aisha took up a stance with her greatsword pointed towards me. I

had medium-sized Little Musashibo dolls (the ones that were toy-sized were small,

while the ones large enough to fit a person were large), five of those medium-sized

dolls (hereafter referred to as A-E) protecting me.

In the corner of my vision, I saw the referee, Liscia, raise her right hand.

The next moment, Aisha made a big downwards swing with her greatsword. A

visible shockwave flew towards me and the Little Musashibos.

I put Little Musashibo A (equipped with shields in both hands) up front, having it

ready its shields. The moment the shockwave hit, there was an incredible clang, but

somehow Little Musashibo A managed to hold its ground.

"It's not done yet!" Aisha called.

There was no time for relief. Aisha turned to the side, keeping the blade of her

greatsword pointed in my direction, and then thrust with all her might. Little

Musashibo A tried to overlap its shield to defend, but Aisha's blow hit with the force

of a battering ram, punching through both of the shields and Little Musashibo A.

Uwah... She can punch through two thick shields...? I was nearly struck dumb by

the absurd amount of power she had, but then Aisha stopped moving momentarily.

Thinking this was my chance, I sent Little Musashibo B (equipped with two

swords) and Little Musashibo C (equipped with a spear) around to attack her from

both sides.

Aisha stabbed her greatsword, which was still impaling Little Musashibo A, into

the ground, using it to fling herself into the air, like she was doing a cartwheel.

Aisha was standing on her hands atop the hilt of her greatsword.

"There!" I cried.

With the remaining two Little Musashibos, D and E (both equipped with

crossbows), I took a shot at Aisha, who presumably couldn't maneuver with her feet

off the ground. The two bolts fired straight towards Aisha.

"Not good enough!" Aisha called.

On top of the greatsword thrust into the ground, Aisha did something similar to

one of those capoeira kicks where you stand on your hands (I don't know the proper

name for them), spinning her feet and kicking the incoming bolts out of the air.

"Ow!" I called.

With a splat sound, a light impact on my forehead that knocked my head

backwards.

In the middle of my forehead there was a smushed ball of clay about the size of a

10 yen coin. If it had instead been a throwing knife, or a stone, I'd have died

instantly.

Well, this being a practice match, the bolts didn't have arrowheads, and we were

using clay instead of stones, so neither of us could possibly have died, but still, losing

this badly was depressing...

I sat down dejectedly.

"Aw, geez... I'm not even a match for you, huh," I said.

"Th-That's not true..." Aisha stuttered, hastily trying to reassure me.

"Aisha, an accurate analysis of his fighting strength is important, so you should be

honest with him," said Liscia.

She was right. I was searching for a fighting style that suited me. As king, I was in

a position to be protected, but it wouldn't hurt to be able to protect myself, if it ever

came to it. I'd had a narrow miss with Gaius in the battle a little while ago, after all.

"Liscia's right," I said. "Give it to me straight."

"W-Well, then... it may seem harsh to say this, but even though you set up your

dolls like an adventuring party, they didn't feel all that strong," Aisha said. "I feel as

though giving them each two swords and having them rush me would have been

more difficult to deal with."

I considered that. "Pi*min tactics, huh... but you still blew them all away when I

did that, didn't you?"

"Which means what you did was even worse than that, I suppose?" said Liscia.

"Urgh..."

When Liscia pointed that out, I slumped my shoulders. Since Pik*in tactics

wouldn't work, I'd tried using a composition based on an adventuring party, like

Juno's, the one I'd gone adventuring with using Little Musashibo, but... the result had

been a miserable defeat.

"In an adventuring party, they'd have a mage, after all," Aisha said without

seeming to care too much. "If those shields had been reinforced with magic, I

would've had difficulty punching through them, and if I'd had spells flung at me

instead of arrows, it would have been more difficult to respond to."

That she said it would have been "difficult" for her, rather than that she "couldn't"

do either of those things, only served to show how ridiculously powerful Aisha was.

"We can talk about mages all you want, but I can't use elemental magic or

reinforcement magic..." I said. I couldn't use any magic whatsoever, so there was no

way I could use it to give the weapons carried by the dolls I controlled with Living

Poltergeists an elemental alignment and make them shoot fire or ice.

"If I went to a magic school, or some place like that, to train, could I learn how,

maybe?" I said.

"No, not possible." Liscia quickly shot down the idea. "I mean, I've never heard of

someone with dark-type magic being able to use another element."

She proceeded to explain.

"The four major elements, fire, water, earth, and wind, manipulate magicium

found in the atmosphere to produce various phenomena, and the light element

interferes with magicium inside the body to do things like speed up the natural

healing process, or strengthen the body. The dark element doesn't have any sort of

ability like that. So... just give up."

It looked like I could train all I wanted, but I'd never become a mage.

This, after I had the good luck to be summoned to a world with magic, too...

somehow, I'm disappointed. I slumped my shoulders dejectedly.

"What're you moping about?" Liscia asked, with an exasperated look. "The dark

alignment isn't that common, you know? I've only ever seen three people with it."

"Three?" I asked. "Assuming two of the three are Tomoe and me... who's the

third?"

"Mother, or so I hear. She's been never willing to tell me what her power is,

though."

Hmm... Lady Elisha can use dark magic, huh, I thought. Lady Elisha is Liscia's

mother. If I recall, Lady Elisha was the one who actually inherited the throne, but she

left managing the country to her husband, Sir Albert, right? We haven't had much

occasion to talk, but she's always smiling and seems like an amiable sort.

"But with the abilities I have, I can't see any way to defend myself..." I said.

"Rest at ease, sire! I will always be there to defend you!" declared Aisha,

thumping her chest with pride. While she seemed reliable, I was starting to feel

pathetic myself.

"It's pretty lame for a hero to need girls defending him..." I said.

"What are you saying after all this time?" Liscia said bluntly. "You were never

much of a hero to begin with."

I mean, she was right... but couldn't she have sugar-coated it just a wee bit more?

I was thinking she could have, but then she said, "Besides, isn't delegating the tasks

that you can't handle yourself one of your strengths, Souma? You're protecting all of

us in ways that only you can." She smiled tenderly.

Aisha nodded in agreement. "The princess is right! You protect the country we all

live in, sire, so let us protect you in turn!"

When they said it like that, I still felt pathetic, but I was a little happy. I might be

an unreliable king, and a hero in name only, but I just need to protect them in my own

way... no, I want to protect them. I felt that way from the bottom of my heart.

"Your Majesty!" a voice called out, and I turned to see Juna in her marine uniform

bowing to me with one hand at her chest.

"Sire Hakuya has been looking for you," said Juna. "He wishes to discuss the

districting of the city, he says."

"Okay," I said. "I'll be right there."

I stood up and brushed the dirt off of myself. Leaving the clean-up to the soldiers,

I brought Liscia and Aisha with me to the governmental affairs office. It was time for

me to do what I was able to do now.

◇ ◇ ◇

When I reached the governmental affairs office, Hakuya and the Captain of the

Royal Guard, Ludwin, were waiting for me.

I sat at my desk, while Liscia, who had been acting as my secretary for a while,

and Juna, who had been doing the same because we had a shortage of people lately,

stood behind me, on either side. Aisha stood by the door, acting as a guard. Lately, it

had become the norm for us to work in this formation.

Once I confirmed everyone was ready, a somewhat sleepy-eyed Hakuya laid out a

map of the divisions of Van that he had prepared. "I have completed my proposal for

the redistricting of Van, so I will have you take a look."

At Hakuya's behest, I looked at the map. The square walls of city were vertical,

while lines representing the main roads were running towards the princely palace in

the center. Each of these main roads had side roads running off of them at a right

angle in regular intervals, giving it a grid of squares, like a Go board. It was like a

map of one of the ancient capitals of Japan, Heijo-kyo or Heian-kyo, that you might

see in a history textbook.

The nobles' residences were clustered in the northeast, while the workshops

were clustered in the southwest. Garrisons for the guards were distributed evenly

throughout, and it looked super efficient.

I was silent. I leaned back in my chair, looking up to the ceiling, and sighed.

"...Hakuya."

"Yes, sire," he said.

"This goes too far," I said.

What's with this efficiency-focused layout? I thought.

Ane san rokkaku tako nishiki... I felt like I needed to chant the Kyoto road song, or

I was going to get lost.

Actually, if we're going to change so much, it'd be faster burning the entire castle

town to the ground and starting from scratch, I thought. Are you trying to turn me into

Emperor Nero?

"I'm sorry," Hakuya said. "When I saw what a chaotic mess the town layout was, I

was impelled to make it more efficient..."

Hakuya seemed to understand that what I'd meant. He smiled wryly and pointed

to the main streets. "However, as a measure against fires, the city must be split into

districts. Laying down these main roads is a necessity, I would think."

"I agree, but... for everything else, I'd like the changes to reflect the will of the

people who live here," I said. "What sort of city they want to make this, how they

want to make it more livable for them. I want the people who live here to think

about that. I mean, if we just decide everything ourselves, they'll probably resist it."

"I have already reached out to some of the architects who live here, but... you

want to make the locals think?" Hakuya asked skeptically. "With the atmosphere in

the city now, they're likely to turn it into a piece of avant-garde art..."

"An artful city, huh... that could be interesting in its own way," I said. It might be

good to try building art galleries and museums, too.

...Wait, huh? The marketplace already looks like it's going to turn into something

like Ameyoko. If I build a bunch of galleries and museums on top of that, I feel like Van

is going to end up more and more like Ueno. Maybe I ought to build a zoo and call it a

day.