Prologue: Two Years After

It's been two years since the members of The Mankind Declaration, The

Maritime Alliance, and The Fuuga Faction joined together to stop the

spread of the Spirit King's Curse—an illness known as the Blood-Borne

Magic-Eating Bug Disease, or Magic Bug Disease for short.

Although the great three powers competed on the continent of Landia,

their combined effort resulted in peace throughout the continent. The

Demon Lord's Domain still remained to the north, but during this time,

there was no great outpouring of monsters. No countries were ravaged, nor

were any annexed as well. It was a harmonious era—however fleeting it

seemed to be.

Despite the silence within the Demon Lord's Domain, however, its

threat to mankind was ever-present. And held steadfast alongside this was

Fuuga with his great ambitions. While there was a premonition of great

waves to come, until that came to pass, each country spent this peacetime

developing itself for the future.

First, there was Fuuga's Great Tiger Kingdom, which was bound to be at

the eye of the storm. For these two years, Fuuga had been actively

expanding his territory into the Demon Lord's Domain. He gained land,

increased his population by calling for those who'd initially fled south, and

steadily increased his power. This resulted in a state that rivaled the Empire

in landmass.

Their liberation of the Demon Lord's Domain also steadily built their

fame. It solidified Fuuga's position as the "great man" of the era.

In foreign affairs, Fuuga had strengthened his relationship with the

Orthodox Papal State and the Spirit Kingdom and—together with them—

surpassed the Empire in power. With internal affairs, he'd learned medical

techniques from the Kingdom and the Empire, and was hiring a wide

variety of personnel to fix his shortage of bureaucrats. Using Fuuga's fame

to recruit, the Great Tiger Kingdom was able to take in those who were

upset with the status quo, those who wanted to make a name for themselves

up north, and those who were inspired by his heroic tale. The adventurers

spread around the continent were especially likely to heed the call and join

Fuuga's country.

"Thanks to him liberating so much territory, there's a lot of work.

Adventurers drift from country to country, having no real attachment to any

of them. But the expansion up north really appeals to our sense of

romanticism. I hear adventurers in other countries have all been heading

there," Juno the adventurer explained at a late-night tea party with the

queens present.

When adventurers weren't exploring dungeons, they were basically

jacks-of-all-trades around the towns they stayed in. So the north being a

frontier abound with opportunity really appealed to them.

"You're not going north yourselves?" I asked.

Juno smiled and shook her head. "No, adventurers can make a decent

enough living in this country. And if we ever want to quit, we can go to

school and train for another line of work. All of the policies to improve the

lives of slaves have also worked to support people like us, who tend to be at

the bottom of society. Any adventurer working in the Kingdom who wants

to go through the inconvenience of heading north is either ambitious or an

idiot."

Having said that, Juno drained the rest of her tea, then put on a slightly

more serious expression.

"But on the other hand... Those who can't stand this sort of treatment—

who don't want to be looked down upon—will be drawn to the north, right?

They're looking for an upset to turn things around in their miserable

existence. With nothing to lose, it's easy for them to gamble it all."

I shuddered at those words. It meant more ambitious people were

gathering around a man who already had great ambitions. It might be

difficult for Fuuga to completely fix his shortage of bureaucrats with the

kind of people he attracted, but it was creating a group that would be even

harder to deal with.

Next, there was Maria's Gran Chaos Empire. The size of the Mankind

Declaration had shrunk and Fuuga had stolen the attention of the world, but

Maria was still able to remain the Saint of the Empire. In contrast to

Fuuga's expansion of his territory, Maria had her eyes focused on internal

matters.

She'd hired capable personnel, gradually reforming the old systems.

And if there was new science and technologies her country lacked, she

wasn't above looking to other nations to teach her. She'd learned medicine

from us, and other technologies from the Republic and the Archipelago

Union. She also had matched pace with us in abolishing slavery in all but

name—even before the Republic and Archipelago Union did the same.

Now they had a social safety net that was at the same level as the

Kingdom's. That made the people support her even more, and there was no

sign that she'd stop being the Saint of the Empire anytime soon.

Meanwhile, there were those among their nobility and knightly class

who couldn't accept that Fuuga had stolen the world's attention from them.

They regularly pressured Maria to send a force into the Demon Lord's

Domain. Maria, however, refused to stop focusing on domestic matters, so

they were getting more and more discontent.

In regards to this, Maria had told me over a broadcast conference...

"I've said this before, but if our country grows any larger, it will only

result in more places that we can't adequately look after. If we obsess over

appearances, we'll lose sight of what's really important."

Her exhaustion was almost palpable.

Now let's talk about our allies in the Maritime Alliance. First, Kuu and

his Republic of Turgis.

Not long after returning home, Kuu took his father's place as Head of

the Republic and set to work reforming their technology with the help of his

fiancée, Taru the blacksmith. With the revolving mechanism that they'd

developed alongside the Kingdom and Empire, the Republic was hard at

work using drills to dig tunnels through the mountains. This would support

their transport network when it was shut down by snow. This meant that

travel between cities in winter, which required a numoth—a beast that

resembled a wooly mammoth—would be possible without one. These

tunnels would also allow them to trade with other nations, resolving their

perpetual shortage of supplies.

He'd also taken my advice—or careless slip of the tongue, rather—and

created a lift near the hot springs in Noblebeppu for a ski resort. It looked

like he was seriously trying to use that to bring in some foreign currency.

We were even sent invitations. Kuu was a man of eccentric tastes, so he'd

asked his genius technician Taru to make a variety of "improvements,"

turning his country into something stranger than it already was.

Speaking of Kuu, he was supposed to marry Taru and his former servant

Leporina soon. Knowing him, I thought they'd tie the knot the moment they

got home, but he got so busy with reforms that it apparently went on the

back burner. That invitation to the ski resort came with a wedding invitation

too. Does that mean he wants us to try skiing while we're there?

I was arranging things so we could go as a family.

And we have our other ally, the Nine-Headed Dragon Archipelago

Union.

Over the past two years, Shabon centralized power within the islands

and renamed the country to the Nine-Headed Dragon Archipelago

Kingdom. (Shortened to "Archipelago Kingdom" for simplicity's sake.)

With the assistance of her father Shana, the previous king, and Kishun,

the royal advisor, she solidified her position as the Nine-Headed Dragon

Queen, ruler of the archipelago.

Shabon had formed a skills and technological exchange treaty with the

Kingdom and Republic, and was strengthening her country with knowledge

from the continent's mainland. In particular, she'd unified the maritime

forces of the individual islands into one force known as the Queen's Fleet.

Even if another massive creature like Ooyamizuchi appeared, they wouldn't

run into the problem of not being able to coordinate a response. The fleet

also made travel between the islands easier than ever, and they cooperated

with us and the Republic to bring in foreign currency.

During this time, Shabon had also married Kishun and given birth to a

boy and a girl. Perhaps because islander names tend to be said all as one

word, neither of them had changed their family names when they'd married.

According to our earlier promise, her first child, Princess Sharan, would

be my eldest son Cian's fiancée. Shabon and Kishun had visited one time to

let them meet each other, but the easygoing Cian just sort of vaguely looked

at her. It was actually Kazuha who seemed more interested in Princess

Sharan. Maybe she'll get along with her sister-in-law.

Next, let's talk about the Nothung Dragon Knight Kingdom, which

didn't belong to the Maritime Alliance but did have relations with us.

After becoming the Dragon Knight Queen and inheriting the throne

from her father, Queen Sill Munto was running the dragon knights as a

courier service—initially beginning two years ago. With their lands

surrounded by the Fuuga Faction, the Dragon Knight Kingdom was

engaged in trade with them for now. Rather, Fuuga hadn't decided to

blockade them yet. But they'd received permission from the Star Dragon

Mountain Range to pass through their airspace when making deliveries, and

they were flying all over the nations of the south.

Their pact with the dragons made it so that other countries could trust

them with transporting supplies and VIPs. This resulted in the nations of the

Maritime Alliance and the Mankind Declaration using their services. In our

case, our ambassador to the Empire, Piltory, used them for short trips back

home. And the Empire's ambassador to us, Trill, used them when Jeanne

demanded she come back home (to be lectured).

Their treasury was apparently more flush with lucre now than when they

were operating solely as knights.

Lastly, let's talk about my country, the Kingdom of Friedonia.

In these two years, we have made steady progress in trade, technological

development, and military preparations. The overscientist team, composed

of Genia, Merula, and Trill, was focusing its efforts on the theory that

magicium were nanomachines—which we'd discovered while studying the

Magic Bug Disease.

This led to the theory that curse ore, which was the power source for the

drill, was made up of nanomachines that had lost all of their functions other

than the ability to recharge. Using this idea as a basis, our understanding of

curse ore as a storage tank for magical power deepened, and we were able

to utilize that in a variety of different applications.

Incidentally, among the first implementations was a lighter that didn't

need gas or oil. Fire mages could create sparks with ease, but this lighter

could store the magical power of any type of mage in its curse ore. By using

the formula carved inside, it could then turn the stored power into fire

magic power and create a spark.

Frankly, this lighter had no practical application. It'd cost as much as a

small destroyer to build one, and it was no more useful than a standard oil

lighter. And anyone who could use fire magic didn't even need it. While

impractical, the ability to store magic power and convert it had a wide range

of applications, and we were looking forward to seeing what came of them.

On the topic of military preparations, our island carrier, the Hiryuu, has

been joined by two more, the Souryuu and Unryuu, giving us a three-carrier

fleet.

Using Tomoe's ability, we'd set up an environment the wyverns could be

trained in, and expanded our air force at the same time. This meant we

could now deploy air forces overseas in multiple theaters at the same time.

In other words, we could launch bombing runs from three locations at sea

simultaneously. That was a pretty major threat to other nations. The ones

who understood this were pretty much all our allies though. Fuuga's faction

was focused on the land, so it was hard for them to grasp the importance of

sea power and recognize the threat of it.

Now, moving on to personal matters—during these two years, another

member joined our family.

Juna gave birth to her second child, a boy we named Kaito. We chose it

because "kai" means "sea," which Juna has a deep connection to. Not much

else had changed. Me and my wives were all over twenty—although some

of their ages were still undisclosed—so a couple years barely changed how

any of us looked.

But there were some people whose appearance had changed a lot in two

years.

—In the 4th month, 1552nd year, Continental Calendar—

Tomoe, Ichiha, and Yuriga graduated from the Royal Academy.

◇ ◇ ◇

On a spring day, when the sun felt warm on my back as it shone in

through the windows...

Recent graduates Tomoe, Ichiha, and Yuriga were standing in front of

me at my desk in the governmental affairs office. They were all going

through puberty, and had grown to the point where I couldn't treat them like

kids anymore—though, they still looked young.

Standing on either side of me, Liscia and Hakuya were both smiling at

the trio too.

"Ahem... Tomoe, Ichiha, Yuriga. Congratulations on your graduation."

"Thank you, Big Brother," Tomoe replied with a smile.

Tomoe was fifteen, going on sixteen this year. Now at the same age as

Roroa was when I'd first met her, Tomoe had gotten taller, and her figure

was getting more womanly. She was growing her hair a little longer too.

Aside from her studies, Tomoe had also been taking lessons from Juna

in etiquette and how to make herself look beautiful. Thanks to that, even

just standing there, she had a beauty that could overwhelm people.

I probably shouldn't say this, but she looks a lot more like a princess

than her big sister Liscia.

"I guess we can't go calling you 'little' Tomoe anymore..."

"Hee hee. Call me whatever you like, Big Brother."

"That laugh... It's just like Juna's. Seductive...I guess you could say,"

Liscia said with a sigh.

At some point, Tomoe had evolved from a cute little girl into a pretty

girl.

She could have men dancing in the palm of her hand, should she want

that... If we don't find her a partner and announce their engagement soon,

she'll end up making men go mad. As her big brother, I had complicated

feelings about that.

"You're going to keep working in the castle, right?"

"Yes. I'd like to keep using my ability to help arrange environments

where we can breed all sorts of different animals," Tomoe said, nodding.

Clapping her hands, she added, "Ah, I've also been learning about royal

ceremonies from the royal chamberlain, Marx. I love living in the castle

with you and all my big sisters, so I'd like to take over for Marx, and run

things inside the castle at some point."

"A successor for Marx... That sounds good."

"O-Oh, I see."

I welcomed this, but Liscia seemed a little conflicted.

"Hm? Is there a problem?" I asked.

"No, but in Marx's position, he had to worry about producing heirs,

right? I'm not sure how I feel about Tomoe being the one to pester us about

that from now on..."

"I see where you're coming from..."

With that in mind, I felt awkward about it too. Marx was a man, so while

he'd been fussing about an heir, it was the court ladies who kept track of the

queens' health and scheduled our nights together. But with Tomoe in his

role, she would be making the decisions herself.

While Liscia and I were exchanging awkward glances, Tomoe grinned.

"Big Brother, Big Sister, isn't it about time you had your third?"

"S-Sure..."

"W-Well, give us time... Okay?"

The king and queen were powerless before this little devil.

I cleared my throat loudly, trying to get past this awkwardness, and

looked over at Ichiha. He was fourteen, turning fifteen this year. Of the

three of them, he had grown the most. He was taller than both the girls now,

and was rapidly catching up to my own height of 174 centimeters. His face

was still youthful, but he had grown into a handsome, literate young man.

If we put him on the broadcast, housewives'll love him. When he stood

next to Hakuya before, it looked like something off the cover of a fetishized

manga magazine targeted at women.

"I assume you're going to keep serving with us, so do you want to be

assigned to Hakuya's place?"

"Yes. Please let me work for Hakuya as I continue to learn."

"I'd like that as well, sire," Hakuya said, bowing his head too.

While Ichiha had become recognized as an expert in the field of

monsterology during his time at school, he'd also been learning about

politics and strategy from Hakuya. When he saw his elder sister Sami—

who fled here after being caught in the political struggles of their homeland

—he'd been motivated to study those sorts of things to protect the people he

cared about.

Hakuya had taken a shine to him and was raising the boy to be his

successor. I was considering him as a candidate to be the next prime

minister too.

"Hee hee. Do your best, Ichiha," Tomoe cheered.

"Okay! I will."

Tomoe and Ichiha smiled at each other.

For a foreigner like Ichiha to attain an important position, he needs

powerful backers... Like a marriage to an adopted daughter of the royal

family of Elfrieden... Is it time I had a talk with the two of them?

As I was thinking that, I looked at Yuriga.

"And Yuriga..."

"Yes..."

Yuriga was older than the other two, and would be turning eighteen this

year. She was about as tall as Liscia now, and also had a more womanly

figure. Her hair was the same length as before, but now she wore it half up

and half down. According to her, "Wearing twintails at my age would be

pretty cringey!"

She had a brave, dignified appearance that reminded me of how Liscia

was when I'd first met her. While she didn't have a unique skill like Tomoe

or Ichiha, she'd developed into an all-rounder who could handle military

matters, academics, and administrative tasks better than average.

But...compared to the others, she was in a much more delicate position.

"Has Fuuga given you any instructions? Like about what to do after

graduation?"

"No."

"He hasn't called you back to the Great Tiger Kingdom or anything?"

"Nope."

"Seriously, nothing?"

"I told you, there's nothing! Augh!" Yuriga crossed her arms and

peevishly looked off to the side. "I've asked him for a long time what I

should do after graduation, but all he'd say was to 'stay in the Kingdom.'

Seriously, what does he want me to do?! I'm just stuck here in the dark

otherwise!"

"Whoa, Yuriga," Tomoe said. "Please calm down."

"Shove off!"

Yuriga pinched Tomoe's cheeks. Their relationship hasn't changed much

even as they're older.

Still...what's Fuuga planning? Back when Malmkhitan, the precursor to

the Great Tiger Kingdom of Haan, was part of the Union of Eastern

Nations, Fuuga had sent Yuriga to study in our country. He'd done so in

order to protect her from the chaos during their war of unification, and also

to have her learn. I never would've expected that she'd have no instructions

for what to do post-graduation.

Things had settled down in the Great Tiger Kingdom, so there shouldn't

have been any problem with her returning home.

"Is he intending to leave Madam Yuriga in our country as a hostage?"

Hakuya suggested.

Yuriga let go of Tomoe's cheeks and snorted. "Hmph! If that's what he

wants, I wish he'd just say so. I wouldn't mind being a hostage for his sake.

As long as Tomoe and Sir Souma are around, I won't be mistreated, and I

can lay back and relax. The worst thing is being left hanging with no

instructions."

That was an incredible way to look at it. Yuriga's pretty gutsy.

She turned and looked at me. "Hey, Sir Souma. Is there any work I can

do while I'm waiting to hear from my brother?"

A job for Yuriga, huh? We could always use another pair of hands, but...

Thinking about it, I said, "Well...your abilities make you an appealing

candidate, but until we know what position you're in, I don't know how we

can utilize you. The way things stand, you're still a guest, which makes it

hard to give you a job in the military, administration, or academia."

Hearing my response, she slumped her shoulders.

"I don't want to just sit around... Velza and Lucy are working too."

Their friends Velza and Lucy had also graduated. Velza had joined the

land forces through her connections with the House of Magna. Apparently,

she was acting as a secretary for Halbert now. Lucy had taken over her

family's parlor, and I occasionally spotted her at the castle, planning events

with Roroa. Yuriga felt impatient, seeing all four of her friends doing their

own things while she had nothing.

Ah! Come to think of it... That's when I remembered something, and

pulled a document out of my desk.

"It just occurred to me, there was a request from someone who wants

your help."

"There was?"

"Yeah. A mage soccer team, the Parnam Black Dragons," I said, handing

her the document.

Mage soccer started as a club in the Royal Academy. It was soccer, but

you were allowed to use magic. So, people went around doing things like

kicking literal balls of fire. We'd tried broadcasting a game, and the people

really liked it, so we'd ended up forming several pro teams to make it work

as a broadcast program. The Parnam Black Dragons, based out of the royal

capital, was one such team. Their mascot was actually inspired by Naden in

her ryuu form.

"You played a lot of mage soccer while you were at school, right? They

were saying—if it's possible—they want you on the team. I just assumed

you'd be going home after graduation, so I never brought it up before."

"This could be good..." Yuriga said as she looked through the document.

"It looks like some of my seniors are on the team, and it might be nice to

keep on playing. Not like I have anything else to do."

It sounded like Yuriga was on board for it. She wasn't going to run into

any classified information as a mage soccer player, and she'd make the

broadcasts more fun, so it suited her well.

"Good for you, Yuriga," Tomoe said. "You don't have to be an

unemployed bum."

"Don't call me a bum!"

I smiled as I watched the two of them go at it.