larvyde
Uwaaa nii-sama, there are a lot of little shops
Tomoe pranced around seeing the stalls lined up in the plaza. The place Juna took us for lunch was the plaza where the Royal Broadcast receiver was installed. It was nothing but a field just a month ago, but it was now crowded with stalls peddling food and goods. We could hear the peddlers calling for custors and the custors haggling even though we havent yet set foot in the plaza.
There were also all kinds of people passing by. Housewives shopping for dinner, flocks of rchants having lunch, and off-duty Elfriedenian soldiers looking for sothing to eat1. We could see travellers and adventurers, and also the figures of a lot of people from non-human races. It was bustling with n and won of all ages without regard to race, occupation, or nationality.
How did it turn into this?
Even though the food shortage in Vannes had been dealt with sowhat, there are still very few shop owners who have food to sell. However, people who thought they could at least open a stall have been gathering, so were having Vannes first market now
I asked and Juna explained.
This far out of the way? Shouldnt they rather do it on the main streets or sothing?
That would be because the Royal Broadcast receiver is here
Ah, I see. Its not that people gathered because the shops are here, but the shops gathered here aiming for the people who gathered to see the Royal Broadcast. We had been broadcasting Chris Tachyons news program, which doubled as a test, during the day and the music program at night almost every day since the music program. So everyone must be coming here to see that. Its like a post-war black market here, or rather, its like Ayoko2.
Incidentally, the Lorelei Juna only appeared in the music program in weekends, whereas on other days, we have [Singing Contests] to gather aspiring applicants. It was a heavy burden since theyre all broadcasted live. The candidates that passed the [Singing Contests] beca [Singers] like Margarita, or if they also had a good appearance, they beca [Lorelei] or [Orpheus3].
The Broadcasts were simulcasted to both Elfrieden and Amidonia, so anyone can see them anywhere theres a broadcast receiver. Not to ntion Amidonia, but every town in Elfrieden should have turned like this by now. I suppose I should calculate the effect on the economy later. I was grinning with that in mind when Tomoe pulled on my travel coat4.
Nii-sama, Im hungry
Oh, right. We should go buy sothing at a stall I suppose
Yes!
I concur
The three of us then browsed the stalls around the plaza. All in all, four out of every ten shops sell food, two handle accessories, two deal in equipnt, and the rest sell other things. Most of the ones who sell food sell skewered grills. Since Vannes was far from the sea all they could get were river fish; grains and vegetables were low in stock. So on that point, the at would be slaughtered wild animals. They must be grilling ga they caught outside the walls. For that reason, none of the stalls could say what at they were selling. Rather than putting a sheeps head on dog at5, the were putting a mystery head on mystery at.
I think getting grilled ats going to be a gamble
Wild rabbit at is fine, but great rat or great lizard at would whittle down on my SAN points. Also, if they were hunting whatever they could find nearby, they wouldnt know what poisons or pathogens or parasites it had, right. This world didnt have food hygiene laws and they didnt need licenses to be cooks I suppose I should put so in place when we have surplus food.
It will be alright
Eh?
Juna said with a really nice smile.
I had the escort marines go ahead and do poison-tasting. I will show you to the safe stalls
Poison-tasting!? You dont an sampling do you!?
If anything happened to you it would be a big problem for the country, so of course the street food would at least be poison-tested. Your body doesnt only belong to you anymore, right?
What am I, a pregnant lady?or so I would like to retort, but I get what shes trying to say. If I collapsed from food poisoning, I couldnt be sure I could still use Living Poltergeist. If I couldnt then nine s worth of work would stop being done yep poison-tasting is necessary for the sake of the nation. Lets leave it at that.
and the results are?
One person fell to stomach ache
Send a ssenger to the palace! Put out a notice saying that all sellers of at and fish are to be required to indicate their raw materials! If anyone put on a misleading
Understood
Juna called a guard marine over and sent him to the palace with the ssage. It was the run that began Elfriedens Food Hygiene Law. I plan to extend the ingredients indication later, but for now I have to forestall people trying to camouflage at. There are lives at stake when it cos to poisons and pathogens.
Guardian marine. Your death would not be in vain
Um, he didnt die. Just food poisoning
Juna retorted in amazent. No no no, even food poisoning could kill, you know? My grandpa ate a raw egg past its best before date, caught salmonella and had to be hospitalized for days once. Thankfully it didnt turn out too bad, but it cost him several thousands in hospital fees just because he didnt want to waste a ten-yen-a-box egg. Grandma teased him about it for a long while afterwards. Well, that aside, we bought grilled skewers at a stall Juna recomnded and so mixed juice at a fruit stall. We sat down on a bench and ate.
Hmm nom nom mm, its tasty,nii-sama
Yeah. This at goes down easy
The juice is good too, Kazuya-san
The at was nice and juicy. It didnt taste much different to a beef skewer you get in a festival, so I asked and it turned out to be made from Bigbull, a buffalo-like animal, at. The mix juice was room temperature, but since it was autumn, it wasnt too warm. It was a little sour but it went well with the oily aftertaste of the skewered at.
With our stomachs full, we took a breather and got into a slow mood. Tomoe began to nod off next to so I supposed it was nap ti for her. With my lap as a pillow, Tomoe curled her body into a ball and began snoring. I pat her head, it was fluffy, just like a dogs fur. It felt good in my hand.
Fufu, shes cute isnt she
Said Juna who was sitting next to , watching Tomoes face as she slept. She then leaned on to until our shoulders touched and sadly muttered.
If only these peaceful days could go on
but that wont happen, would it?
I asked and Juna gulped.
Yes. The imperial army are already here. They number about fifty thousand
Fifty thousand? Thats much fewer than I expected
The number of Elfriedenian soldiers stationed in Vannes now was 45 thousand, so were about even. Of course, were at a disadvantage if we took into account the number of Amidonian soldiers, but I thought they would at least take three tis our numbers. The empire that was already fighting the Demon King Army would have a two front war in their hands if hostilities broke, so I didnt think they would attack, but the threat posed by bringing enough troops to capture Vannes would have been significant. Juna, however, shook her head.
I think it was likely that Amidonia held them back. They must be afraid that by bringing a large army they could take over the whole country, just like that
The Empire backing the Humanity Declaration wont do that, right?
If the Empire, who said there would be no changes to national borders, began an agressive war, the Humanity Declaration would be as good as dead. They would lose the faith of the signatory nations and their strategy of uniting all of humanity against the Demon King Army would collapse.
Amidonia had already acted against the Humanity Declaration. They would be nervous that while they were deceiving the Empire, the Empire decided to deceive them
seriously, what a hopeless country
After ignoring the Empires intentions, they clung to their power once they got into trouble. To top it off, they didnt trust the partner they were hanging on to, thats hopeless, not just as a country, but as people. Nobody would respect opportunists and turncoats, no country would ever trust them.
Well, its good that its to our advantage though
She talked back full of playfulness. Must be revenge for my teasing her earlier. Thats Juna for you, when you thought you scored a point against her shed get one back right away. The two of us looked at each other and smiled.
[Good afternoon everyone. Its ti for News Elfrieden]
Right that mont, Chris Tachyons voice suddenly ca. Looks like the afternoon news program had begun. We looked up and saw Chris figure reading the news in the mist being sprayed into the air. Ah, so this was how the broadcast looked to the people in town. This was the first ti for seeing it with the receiver installed at the water fountain, but it was about the size of a movie theater screen and had quite the impact. I want to see the music program from here if I could.
[First, for current affairs. The new harbor town Veneti Nova recently under construction in the eastern region of Elfrieden is now nearing its completion. The construction of Veneti Nova is expected to make land and sea transports more efficient and would ]
Incidentally, the news itself were gathered from all over Elfrieden, including Vannes, using the Kui a homing-pigeon-like bird with homing instincts whose ability to sense the waves emanated by their owners to know where they are is used to make contact with individuals and places that Aisha used a while back to receive ssages from the God-Protected Forest. Their strong point was that they could deliver news even from remote valleys where the broadcast didnt reach but on the other hand, unlike the Royal Broadcast that delivered news in real ti, the information they delivered would be two to three days late.
For instance, if sothing occured in Lagoon City at the easternmost point of the Kingdom, the news wouldnt go to Vannes directly, but they had to wait for a Kui that goes to various cities carrying news. The Kui would then carry the news to another city where it would be transferred over to yet another Kui to yet another city like a grade school information network6. That was a asure to prevent the Kui from having to do long distance hauls and being attacked by wild animals along the way, thus severing the contact (ergency news, however, doesnt get delivered by Kui but would be transported by wyvern knights). For that reason, what happened one day wouldnt be delivered within that day.
[The next news is about the uproar happening early morning in Vannes ]
After that, Chris went on reporting the events and incidents happening all across the Kingdom, then continued with useful information for daily life, like how to cook lily dumplings. It wouldve been useful to include a weather forecast along in the news program, but the implentation was harder. This world had lore of weather, or people who were able to predict the weather by reading the movents of the clouds through long years of experience, but since there was no thod of fast communication like I ntioned earlier, that information could not be relayed in real-ti. There were things that concern lives like typhoons, so I wonder if I could do sothing about it
While I was thinking,
I never thought the royal broadcast could be used this way
I suddenly heard a voice. Looking ahead, I saw a young girl in adventurer clothes standing with her back towards us. Her long, straight, golden ponytailed hair swayed on her back. I thought that was Liscia for a mont, but her ponytail was tied high, and Liscia was short-haired nowadays to begin with. The girl turned her face ninety degrees to the side and turned her gaze to us.
So much that I would like to introduce this system to our country by all ans possible. Ill propose it when I get back ho. Still, I wonder how they got an idea as advanced as this?
Asked the beautiful-profiled girl.Whats this all of a sudden?I thought, but then Juna imdiately got up and stood between and the girl.
Juna?
Said Juna while she stood up to cover . Her surprise was clear from her voice.
is she dangerous?
Shes quite skillful. Its vexing that Aisha werent here. I wonder if I could hold her back in a draw
That bad
The ponytailed girl saw the vigilant Juna and chuckled.
Theres no need to worry, I dont an you any hostility. Miss Lorelei, Juna
How did you !
Of course, I made contact with you knowing who you are. We do have spies, too, you know
Which ans she knew whoIam, too. So she ca to make contact with knowing that I was going to co here undercover. It was my fault for delaying the establishnt of an intelligence departnt due to fear of personnel, but she said she didnt an us any harm, so
Are you from the Empire
Indeed I am. It is nice to et you for the first ti, Lord Soma
The young girl put her fist on her chest as she said that and bowed her head.
My na is Jeanne Euphoria, younger sister to the Grand Chaos Empress Maria Euphoria, put in charge of all matters military in my elder sisters stead
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