The Magic Country Svel 1
If the times change, so do games.
Ever since Space Invaders came out in 1978, games have endlessly evolved to fit in with the times and their needs.
Two years later, the first portable game was released in Game&Watch, and a scant three years after that, the NES appeared. Another seven years, and it was time for the SNES. The PlayStation came out four years after that, and from then on, every time gaming advanced a generation, there'd be a new set of consoles.
And what surprised players every time was the progression of graphics. From the 8-bit NES to the 16-bit SNES. And once we entered the age of PlayStation, CG started to throw its weight around. Every time we went into a new generation, the CG lost its awkward movements and looks, and started to look much more natural and real.
Once, a nationally famous game company released their first game for the PS2; the kids back then must have been really surprised, like, "Oh man, look how real the CG looks!"
By the way, kids nowadays'll look at the same game and say, "Wow, this CG does not hold up." That's just how far CG has come and how discerning people's eyes are now.
But still, the evolution didn't stop.
Graphics and games got better every generation, becoming closer to the real thing. Fictional worlds that could be mistaken for real pictures on the screen, and in that world, fictional people moved about, looking so real people might think that they used real models for it. It hasn't been realized yet, but the VRMMOs that are the subject of so many novels might actually come to life one day.
But that was just the stuff of dreams right now. Doing something like moving all your senses into a game was still far too dangerous to do. It might actually happen someday. But that someday was, in fact, 'some day,' which means not now.
—So why is it that I'm currently the character I made in a game world, being shaken around on top of a carriage? If I knew this would happen, I would have made a dude.
"We can see it now, Big Sis. It's the next city!"
"Yes, We see it, too. Don't make such a fuss."
Orange, who was sitting in the next seat, shook me, making the already bad shaking of the carriage even worse.
The money I earned from killing orcs and the money Orange got from selling their meat somewhere came to 5500 el in total, so we were currently on a carriage traveling to the country of Svel.
Of course, Orange didn't sell any of the best meat that raises HP, but just the other parts. (Well, it does seem that she also sold the fillets that had been damaged and lost their effect.) I did wonder just where she sold all that meat, but she does have the ability to teleport. It wouldn't be surprising, no matter where she sold it.
Being able to move around so easily is enviable.
Moreover, it seemed like she was unable to teleport other people along with her. Apparently, in order to teleport someone else with a will, you had to either render them unconscious or have them agree to the teleportation. According to her, as long as there was some sort of sense of rejection or distrust in the target's heart towards the user, the magic wouldn't work.
Ahh, oh right.
As for my HP, I ate the other pieces of orc fillet, and now my HP is at 336100.
It's kind of an ugly number and it does bother me a little, but whatever. I can ignore it.
"Thanks fer da patronaaage!"
I paid the driver and got off the carriage. And we started walking towards the gates protecting the capital.
There were several soldiers standing guard before the gates, and they seemed to be guarding the gate strictly.
Oh yeah, this place was under attack from one of the Twelve Zodiac's Guardians right now. Sorry for causing so much trouble.
"Stop there, you two!"
Stopped by the guard, we waited for him.
Yeah, of course we'd get stopped. I mean, I'm wearing a hood and mantle. No matter how you look at it, I'm suspicious.
"Past this gate is the country of Svel. Show me your entry passes."
Entry… passes? Oh no, this is the first time I'm hearing of that.
There wasn't anything like that back in the game…
—No wait, there was. Back then, the game was all about armies and countries, so in order to get into other countries, you had to go through your own and gain permission from the other country's king. Now that I thought of it, that probably was this entry pass thing.
And right now, unfortunately, I had no such thing.
But unlike me, who'd made no preparations, Orange responded calmly, taking out several papers from her person before handing them over.
"Here. These are our entry passes. Please check them."
"All right."
What the heck is this super-competent little sister? She's way too prepared!
She even got mine ready, too. She even winked at me, as if to say, "Don't worry about it."
"Hm, so you're free merchants without any citizenship? Your names are Orange, and Haruko. Looks like your papers are real."
"There's been more people around forging papers recently, you know? Well, anyone who'd be tricked by those has pitch-black holes where their eyes should be. Hahahah!"
Nice job having pitch-black holes.
I don't have any sort of ID of my own, so that's without a doubt a forgery.
Actually, isn't my fake name way too simple? Haruko… what the hell.
"Hm, you may pass."
"Thank you very much."
Having gotten permission, Orange put on a full-faced smile. But as we tried to pass, once again, a voice stopped us.
"Ah, wait a second. Just in case, you need to take off that mantle and show us your face. Sorry, but we need to make sure that you're not a monster or a devil under there."
Ahh, yeah. Of course this'd happen.
But, to be honest, I figured this would happen, so there's not actually much reason to panic.
It's true that I was world-famous in a bad way, but people only remembered my black wings. This world didn't even have pictures or anything, so nobody would remember my face if they didn't have long life spans and weren't alive back then.
To put it simply, if Oda Nobunaga is to put on modern clothes and get a modern hairstyle, nobody would point at him while he's walking through the streets and go, "That's Oda Nobunaga!"
And these guards didn't have wings or fangs. Their ears weren't even pointed; they were clearly human. That meant that I should've been able to at least show them my face.
"Ahh, sorry about that. ...Here, is this fine?" I removed my hood and smiled at them.
I'll say this now; I'm no narcissist. But I was a guy before, so I'm aware of just how earth-shatteringly beautiful I am right now.
The ones who know what guys like best are other guys. Like, just what kinds of movements, expressions, and attitudes make a guy's heart race. I just know how to move to shake up a guy's heart. It happens a lot in games, where guys who pretend to be girls online are more popular than real girls. This is why.
There's no reason not to use this weapon.
"Forgive us, guard. If We don't hide our face there will be no end of trouble in the streets."
"Y-yeah… that's true."
"So? We want to go already, so may We pass now?"
Personally, I wouldn't want to make a bad impression on a beautiful girl. Even if I was to never meet her again, if someone like me were to say, "I don't want to get near that guard, he stinks," I'd get pretty depressed.
Of course, there were differences between people, and, depending on the situation, he might even be a really brazen guy who'd say something like, "Come now, woman, don't be cold like that." But any healthy, upstanding man would have only one answer here.
"O-Of course! Please, go ahead!"
Yep, as I expected.
I once again donned my hood, and this time, we stepped over the border into the country.
Right before us lay water, water, and more water.
The lake that looked to be an entire ocean unto itself filled my vision, only broken by the single bridge that stretched from the gate all the way into the capital.
This country didn't exist back when I was playing the game.
It was founded thousands of years ago, and the founder used to be one of the seven women who put Haru… or in other words, me, up as the villain of the world and led the people to defeat me. She was the "Witch Princess," Juvia Rayne.
According to Orange, she was currently in hiding but still alive, and even now, she was living in these walls, it seemed.
I thought while we walked.
Juvia was there back when I was playing the game. We went hunting together, and we'd also partied like idiots. Even that battle wasn't because we stopped being friends; it was just a story thing to liven up the game that we all acted out... Basically, it was just a play. I just happened to have the evil boss role, and she just happened to side with the protagonist.
Then we all had a great party and built up a story around it. ...Yeah, we did fight, but we were friends who shared joy playing the same game.
But which one is the Juvia who's living here now, in this world? Is she the same as I am? The player from another world? Or is she someone named Juvia who has nothing to do with me? If that's the case, just what happened to the past where we hunted together and talked and all that?
"Sword Princess" Erza Belserion.
"Beast Princess" Lisanna Ursa.
"Blacksmith Princess" Jenny Polendina.
"Mercenary Princess" Neo Politan.
"Wise Princess" Juvia Rayne.
"White Princess" Hina Otsutsuki.
And the "Vampire Princess" Rozelia Ruby.
My friends whom I once had fun with. The seven high ranking players who represented their races and livened up the game along with me.
I need to meet them.
Four of them have already died, it seems, but the three in the latter half are still alive.
I need to know. Are there others experiencing strange circumstances like I am? ...Or am I alone?
"...So this is the country that Juvia built..."
I raised my head.
If I were to use one phrase to describe the city that jumped into my sight, it would be 'City of Water,' I guess.
This entrance gate seemed to have been the subject of someone's desire for a magnum opus, and thanks to it being taller than everything else in the capital, it had a great vantage point over everything. Added to that, ever since I've been in this body my sight's gotten a lot better, and right now, I could see clearly into all corners of this country.
There was a castle in the center and a lake surrounding it. There were four bridges extending in cardinal directions from the castle to the main city. The city itself was also split into north, south, east, and west areas, with a bridge for each one. Rather than a man-made river in a city, it was more like a huge city, and bridges were built on top of an expanse of water by force. A total of five pieces of land, including the center, stood on top of clear water, with eight bridges connecting them. What an odd capital.
… Ah, it's nine bridges if you count the one for the entrance.
The water glittered under the sunlight, and artificially planted trees and woods swayed in the wind.
Also, once I started to concentrate closely on what I was seeing, I noticed that everywhere I looked was lit with a strange light. Was that… what's referred to as raw magic power? Thick clouds of raw magic power suffusing the air were referred to as mana in the game.
The light that was probably mana imposed its presence everywhere it reached, and the effect was overwhelming.
As expected of the country of the Witch Princess. You're showing off some pretty cool things there.
"The great magic country, Svel. This country, which was founded by one of the Seven Maidens of Midgar, the elven heroine Juvia Rayne, is special for its extremely dense mana. They've poured their efforts into teaching magic and other academics, and aspiring scholars and mages from all over the world gather here. But due to their dislike of the dense mana, the flugels almost never visit. ...Big Sis, are you feeling alright?"
"There's no problem. We don't know about others, but to us, this is actually quite a new and fresh feeling. It's nice," I said to Orange as I looked around at the mana.
At the moment, I wasn't feeling any discomfort. I did remember that the game lore said that the flugels hated mana, the power of demons, but right now, I didn't feel anything of the sort.
Or maybe the flugels's hatred of it was, unexpectedly, mostly emotional? If that's the case, then I get why I'm fine, since I don't really have any opinion on the stuff.
"Now then, as for our plans from now on… where should we go first?"
"Of course, we will be going to meet Juvia. We have a lot to ask her."
"Straight on, huh? But Juvia is most likely inside that castle. You couldn't be planning to just barge in, could you?"
I shook my head in response to Orange's question.
If I were to go boldly punching my way in like that when the monster I raised was raising hell, too, I'd just be adding to the chaos. No matter what I do, whether it's sneaking in or waiting for her to leave the castle, it'd be better to avoid causing chaos as much as possible.
Then, the first step should probably be some light information gathering, shouldn't it?
"No, We will be doing things peacefully. We don't enjoy causing unnecessary fuss," I told Orange before climbing down the stairs leading off the bridge, aiming to get to know the city first.
Orange said that this place is popular for its academics. Then, I should be able to read more detailed books on history somewhere. I know far too little about the thousand years that've passed. They're a blank for me. First, I need to fill that hole in my knowledge. For that, this country could be called convenient for how useful it is.
Let's see… let's find a library first.
With that in mind, I talked to someone on the street.
"The library? Is this you guys' first time here? The library's in the east area."
I talked to a muscly human man who looked both frank and sociable. He has dark hair, and is wearing a helmet. There was a cross scar on his cheek and a sword at his hip. And his armor was full of nicks and scratches, while his posture screamed 'Mercenary.'
The reason I deemed him 'frank and sociable,' even with all that, was because of his charming and lively smile. It was bright enough to completely cancel out the effect of his looks. That's how strong his expression was. He was just that kind of guy.
"The east area... Which means..."
"This is the south area, so you need to cross the bridge on the right. The east area's where all the bigwig scholars and passionate students gather. You could say it's the center of this country. It's got all the libraries, schools, and museums and stuff... Well, basically, if you want to find out or study anything, you should probably go to the east area. That's all you really need to remember."
Orange and I nodded in understanding.
Apparently, each of this country's separated areas had its own dedicated purpose. Now that I know that, I really want to just explore. After I get everything I need out of the library, it'll probably be fun to take a lap around this place once.
"Thank you, this was helpful. Then we'll be going this way."
"Hey hey, just wait a second, girls. Are you really going to go there on foot? The day'll be over by then."
Just as we were about to walk off again, the man stopped us. Then, he took a map out of his pocket and started talking.
"This country's pretty damn big. Each area's like 500km by itself. And if you put it all together with the castle area in the center and all the bridges, this entire city's over 2500km. Trying to go everywhere by foot'll kill all your time, you know."
"Then, how do you all get around?"
"We use the monorail. Follow me. I'll show you to the terminal."
A monorail, huh? This is getting really modern all of a sudden.
I mean, it's not like this world doesn't have its science, and it's even got magic. So I guess it's not surprising that there's one or two convenient vehicles around. I bet the monorail moves on magic or something.
"Oh, whoops, I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Teuchi. I'm a mercenary who's working as a border guard for this country. I'm off today, though."
"I'm Orange, a free merchant. This person wearing a golden mantle exuding suspiciousness at full force is my big sister, Haruko."
Without a word, I stepped on Orange's foot. Orange shouted in pain, but I ignored her.
What kind of person introduces another with "exuding suspiciousness at full force?" I mean, it's completely true, but you're the one that told me to dress like this in the first place!
"You've got quite the getup, haven't you? Well, you've probably got your own problems, so I won't pry."
"...Thank you."
I'm glad that he won't pry.
I said my thanks and followed Teuchi as he started walking.
"Um, I'd like to ask you some questions about this place; is that OK?"
"Sure, ask away." Teuchi agreed right away to Orange's request.
He was a really good guy to be this kind to us even though we had just met. My first impression of him really wasn't wrong, it seemed.
"First, this country's split into five areas. As for how they're split, first, the southern area, where the entrance is, is the 'Trade district.' For those who just entered this country, it's made to be the first place you enter. Anyway, this place has everything. There's a lot of stores competing with each other, after all. But these last few years, Fiona of the Twelve Zodiac's Guardians keeps attacking, so this place is a little less crowded than it should be."
...My head's starting to hurt.
I'm getting real complicated feelings towards the actions of a subordinate I haven't even seen yet.
For now, I'm gonna kick you once in the head when I meet you, Fiona. Be ready. Of course, I won't be holding back at all. Don't worry. If memory serves, Fiona should be at the max level for a tamed monster of mine, 800, so she shouldn't die even if I kick her for real.
Going off topic, a Monster Tamer's monster's levels were made so that they could never exceed their master's. For example, even if a monster was level 1000 in the wild, when tamed, if the Tamer's level was 500, their level would be reduced below that. The formula was the Tamer's total level/2 + [Class level x 3]. So for me, the max level would be 500 + 300, or 800.
Also, if, for example, the formula exceeded the Tamer's level, (like if the Tamer's total level was 100 and their class level was also 100, making the theoretical level 350), the Tamer's total level was set as the limit instead, so it was impossible for a tamed monster to be stronger than its Tamer.
In other words, with the formula, it was only possible to have monsters be the same level as the Tamer up to level 600, and that was assuming the Tamer's class level was maxed out. And at level 700 and over they completely started to be eclipsed by the Tamer, so at that level it was actually better to just party up with some players at the same level.
Not only that, but Tamers could only bring one monster with them at a time. Even if the Tamer had over 100 monsters tamed, they could only bring them out one at a time. Of course, that was because it'd break game balance if players were allowed to go around with tons of monsters stronger than them, and solo play would run rampant.
MMOs are based around team play. Naturally, by paying for it, players could solve this problem and start toting level 1000 monsters. Well, in the end it'd still just be a two-person party, so it wouldn't change the fact that it was still better to party up with other players.
"The eastern area is the 'Academics district.' I've told you about this already, so I'm just gonna skip this part. Next is the western area, the 'Industrial district.' Starting with the monorail I just told you about, all the magic engines that power vehicles and other tools are produced there. Of course, we're not as good as 'Blutgang,' said to be the country of craftsmen, though. That place is famous for having most of them there."
"...Magic engines, Blutgang... We've never heard of either of these."
I listened to him talk while I whispered questions to Orange, who was beside me.
I knew of neither of those names. At the very least, they weren't around when I was playing the game.
Orange whispered back:
"Magic engines were invented by Juvia twenty years ago. They're a system that uses mana as fuel. It's much cheaper and more efficient than the traditional coal, so it's really hot right now. However, it's almost unusable by the flugels, so at the moment, coal is still more prevalent."
So it's that, right? It's just oil.
I don't know just how much mana is around in the world, but I wonder if we'll run out of mana if we keep using it like this. Or is mana something that's basically infinite... I'm clueless on this subject.
Well anyway, I can't use mana myself, so I guess I just don't care.
"Blutgang is a country founded by one of the Seven Maidens of Midgar, the Blacksmith Princess Jenny Polendina. It's called the country of craftsmen, and a lot of the dwarves, amongst other races, take residence in that country. Most of the world's industrial goods are manufactured there and exported."
"We see."
Industry... I know even less about jobs like that where you make things.
I muttered an appropriate reply and, once again, concentrated on what Teuchi was saying.
"The northern area is the 'Residential district.' Almost all living quarters are concentrated there. It's the farthest away from the gates, so right now, it's the second safest area."
"Second safest? Would it not be the safest since it's the farthest away?"
"Well, of course that's because it's not guaranteed that monsters will behave themselves and come from the front door. Even though this place is a natural fortress surrounded by a lake on all sides, it's not guaranteed that monsters won't come charging in from behind us. Actually, monsters that can fly or swim have, in fact, gone around and invaded from another area."
Having heard that, I replied, "We see."
True, there's no need to be polite and come in through the front door only to be forced to deal with the border guards. In fact, it'd be more natural not to do so.
Teuchi must have figured out my confusion. So he offered a follow up.
"Well, doing that takes an extraordinary amount of work. The lake surrounding this place is actually a water golem created by Lady Juvia. That's why if anyone tries to force themselves through the water, they'll just find themselves a victim of its jaws. Isn't it awesome? It's a golem that's a whole lake big enough to surround this country, you know? It's totally a guardian deity that protects this whole country."
I honestly was impressed by that fact. I was also a level 100 Alchemist, but I'd never thought of a golem that would be an entire lake.
I see, so stuff like that's totally possible because this isn't a game anymore. In the game, there was no way anything that'd change the map itself would work. But this was reality. That meant that, as long as the materials were there, you could totally do what you wanted with your surrounding land.
...Let's try something out if I ever get the chance.
But still, a water golem, huh? Juvia made something pretty cool here.
Heavily mana-infused water makes for pretty good material. If he made a golem out of that, it wouldn't be surprising if it's level 500.
...Let's see, I guess I should check its stats, just in case. I thought and turned on my "Observing Eye."
[Guardian Deity Levia]
[Level]: 500
[Race]: Artificial Life Form
[HP]: 180000
[SP]: 0
[STR (Strength)]: 2750
[DEX (Dexterity)]: 800
[VIT (Vitality)]: 3400
[INT (Intelligence)]: 650
[AGI (Agility)]: 1028
[MND (Mind)]: 722
[LUK (Luck)]: 2300
[Teuchi]
[Level]: 82
[Race]: Human
[Class Levels]:
・Warrior: 82
[HP]: 6860
[SP]: 476
[STR (Strength)]: 303
[DEX (Dexterity)]: 263
[VIT (Vitality)]: 368
[INT (Intelligence)]: 99
[AGI (Agility)]: 245
[MND (Mind)]: 72
[LUK (Luck)]: 208
Hm, so its level is 500, just like I expected.
For a world where a sword saint is level 120, it's more than powerful enough. More than anything, its HP pool is massive, probably because all the water is part of it.
I mean, what the hell? 180k at level 500? Is that a bug?
For golems that can't use stat-boosting items, it's an overwhelming number. Normally, a level 500 golem using mana water would have around 50k HP. Golems made out of water get a little extra HP, but only a little. To be able to drag that up to 180k, I can only compliment the Witch Princess on her ability. This thing's already almost a boss.
On the other hand, Teuchi is, well, a normal early-game warrior.
No, wait, since the Sword Saint's level 120, is he actually really strong by the standards of this age? As always, I can't seem to get a good handle on the general level of this world... Well, he shouldn't be weak, at least. Probably.
While I had all that running around in my head, Teuchi continued to talk.
"Lastly, there's the 'Nobles district' in the center. This is the area where only people of a certain status may live, like royalty or nobles, and it has basically no connection to us. If you try to sneak in like an idiot you'll get caught right away, so be careful."
So the center, where Juvia probably is, is a place for the privileged, huh? That means it'll be real difficult to get in legally.
Oh well, I can think about this later.
"All right, we're here. This is the terminal."
The place we were led to was very different from modern Japanese stations. That was only natural, though. With it looking like a metal coffin, I got the feeling that the station was built literally just to let people onto the monorail. There were no escalators or elevators, and though there was a fence to stop people from falling in, there was no yellow line. The inside wasn't especially nice, and there weren't any ads, and of course, there weren't any electronic screens to display when the next arrival would be. It was literally a bare metal coffin, only there for people to get on and off the monorail.
And the center of it all, the monorail was also a metal coffin. It was just a square box with windows and sofas. There were no patterns or paintings or any decoration.
I guess I would say that we would be riding in a metal coffin inside a metal coffin.
"Now then, I'm going to leave you here. All right, see you again if the fates will it!"
"Yes, thank you very much, Teuchi."
"You were helpful. We give you our thanks."
As expected, Teuchi wasn't coming with us all the way to the Academics district, so he said goodbye to us, and we did the same. It was more than enough for someone we didn't know to come this far with us.
I gave my thanks to the kind mercenary that didn't mind our appearances and got on the monorail.
Now then, first up is the Academics district. For now, I'll bone up on everything I don't know.
The monorail started moving, but it wasn't really something to get excited over. To the passengers, it didn't make much of a difference whether it was being powered by electricity or magic. It was only different enough for me to think that it was a little fast.
But when it came to the scenery outside the window, things were different. The lake was so huge it could be mistaken for an ocean. And the city was built on top of that, with lots of buildings all lined up. It greatly aroused my curiosity and made my heart dance.
I wasn't sure how old my body was, but with my eyesight I could pick out people going about their lives from inside the monorail, and I was staring out the window at them, feeling almost like a child.
And when we got off the monorail the atmosphere changed. The crowd was now full of intelligent-looking, slender people. It was actually worrying how skinny everyone was, and it made me want to tell all the people walking past that they needed more exercise.
But my eyes were especially drawn to the beautiful ones with long ears—elves. For elves, I seem to remember them being forest people that basically never left the woods, but times probably changed in thousand years.
I could see elves walking down the street normally, talking and being friendly with humans. In fact, I could even see middle-aged humans and elven girls walking around like lovers when I looked closer. Humans and elves had far different lifespans. So I bet that, which just looks criminal, is probably actually fine, and the elf is actually older.
In other words, he gets to have an eternally beautiful lover. Go explode.
I found a library right away. Fitting for an academic district, it stood out. I was lucky that it was built so close to the station. The library itself was also taller than other buildings, shaped almost like a tower.
I went through the doors and entered the building. Inside, a woman who seemed like the librarian looked at me suspiciously but didn't say anything.
The library is open to the public. So I guess that means I'm fine as long as I don't cause any problems?
The inside of the library was a circular hall. There were desks lined up in the center with shelves surrounding them. Of course, the shelves didn't completely enclose the desks; there were aisles and passageways left so it didn't feel too constricting.
I immediately made for the history section and started looking at the titles lined up on the shelves.
The Genesis of Midgar ~Just How Did the Goddess Alovenus Create Our World?~
History of Midgar Part 1: The Secret of the Birth of the Seven Races
The Wars of Midgar - From the Appearance of the Grimmfolk until Now
….I can ignore this section.
This doesn't have anything on what happened in the last one thousand years, and it probably doesn't change much from the lore that I know of.
What I want to know happens from when I was defeated by the Seven Maidens of Midgar to now. Those one thousand years.
The Black Empress: Haru Heartfilia's Life and Rule
Great Persons of History: Haru Heartfilia
Was Haru Heartfilia Really Evil? A Historical Inquiry
Haru Heartfilia: The Only Ruler to Have Ever United the World
So this section is all books about me, huh? This might be perfect to find out how the world thinks of me.
I took the Great Persons of History and the Historical Inquiry books for the moment and moved on. As always, I couldn't move my arms, but ESP's really convenient. If I knew things were gonna turn out like this, I would have gotten my Esper levels to 100, not just 50... But in the game Espers were kinda meh at fighting... ESP being convenient for moving things around was only fluff in the game, too.
The Seven Maidens of Midgar: The Heroes that Defeated the Black Empress
The Glory and Foolishness of the Seven Maidens of Midgar
Great Persons of History: Erza Belserion
Great Persons of History: Lisanna Ursa
Great Persons of History: Jenny Polendina
Great Persons of History: Neo Politan
The Peak of Humanity and Its Fall. Did Humanity Make a Mistake?!
Kill the Seven Maidens of Midgar! Humanity's Biggest Mistake According to Historian Oobleck
This section was for the Seven Maidens of Midgar, and it seemed what I wanted to know was here, too.
The fact that Juvia isn't among this Great Persons series is… well, it's probably because she's still alive. She's not dead, so she can't be a great person of the past.
Still, what's surprising is that there're more books here that clearly criticize the Seven Maidens of Midgar than I thought there'd be.
Is this okay? This country's founded by one of the Seven Maidens of Midgar. Even though she's not the king right now, that doesn't change the fact that she's a legendary hero to this country. I wouldn't be surprised if the authors of these books were deemed guilty of lèse-majesté...
"Heheh, were you surprised? You're not actually that hated, Big Sis!"
"...It truly is strange. We should be the villain that forcefully conquered the world..."
"Well, there are books like that as well, but as time passes the fear leaves, too. And right now, people are starting to think that allowing you to stay would have seen us fighting amongst ourselves less, and we wouldn't have to fear the grimmfolk, either. And most importantly, you weren't really all that awful as a tyrant."
Orange's words still left me half in doubt.
I can somehow imagine how people feel towards me. I'm probably being treated like Napoleon or Oda Nobunaga. Looking at history, it's clear that Oda Nobunaga did some pretty awful stuff and put fear in people. But modern Japan was full of people that thought he was 'cool,' and not only are there fans of Oda Nobunaga, he's even being picked as the protagonist of mangas and novels.
Nobody that was actually there and experienced the fear of him would say that, probably, but in the end, they're in the past. It's a viewpoint only achievable because you can look at him like a character in a story. Most likely, the authors of these books are human, not elves or something similar.
"Well, for now, let's just read it. We will probably be here for a while. What will you do, Orange?"
"Of course, I'll accompany you. I have books I want to read, too."
"Oh? What books?"
"This! Ninja Warrior Jiraiya Volume 1 Jiraiya Dies on Mission."
A novel? I almost reflexively fired a retort, but it wasn't my fault. I mean, what's up with that novel? It's volume one, but the protagonist's already dead in the title. The meaning of it's so impenetrable I'm actually getting interested.
"By the way, I recommend the second volume, Sorrow! Killed in Action, and the third volume, Chance Meetings of Death."
"He dies every time?!"
The urge to read it ran through me, but I stood fast.
I sat in an available space in the center and flipped through my selection of books.
For now, let's read up on what happened these past one thousand years and compare things.
With that decided, I looked at and picked out one of the books I had. Let's see...
The goddess Naru. Presides over the elements of water and metal. She takes the form of a beautiful girl with carnelian red hair and bright orange eyes, but there are also accounts that claim that she has golden hair and crystal blue eyes, so the truth is unknown. She's recorded as a kind goddess that loves the world she created, but there are also accounts that suggest she despises certain unsightly beings—
...Ah, I made a mistake. This isn't it. This isn't the one I want right now.
I set the book aside and opened the book I actually wanted to read.