Genjitsushugi Yuusha no Oukoku Saikenki Volume 5 - Epilogue

Epilogue: Towards the First Trip Abroad

1st day, 4th month, 1,547th year, Continental Calendar

It was the day after the Lunarian Orthodoxys Spring Announcent Festival was held.

The Spring Announcent Festival yesterday had been pretty lively, so the castle town would be busily cleaning up after it today. I was spending the day in the governntal affairs office, staring down a single piece of paper.

Liscia, who had just co into the room, looked suspiciously at and asked, Is sothing the matter, Souma?

Hmm? Oh, I was looking at this. I showed Liscia the piece of paper I had been staring at.

The piece of paper had three characters, or symbols, sothing that I couldnt make sense of, lined up on it. Starting from the left there was an arrow-like triangle pointing to the left, combined with a square; two vertical lines and sothing made with a vertical line with five horizontal lines crossing it; and an umbrella-shaped symbol.

Liscia looked sideways at the piece of paper Id given her. Whats this?

Its apparently a portion of the Lunalith oracle that rula saw. ?

rula rlin had co along with Souji Lester, the bishop wed invited as a counterasure against the Lunarian Orthodoxy. Her research primarily focused on spirits and magic, and her long years of research had produced an incredible wealth of knowledge, so I had welcod her with open arms.

Now rula was at Genia the overscientists laboratory where there was all sorts of equipnt available.

It seed curse ore, which absorbed magic, was a very interesting subject of research for rula. She and Genia were spending day after day together, engrossed in their research.

What sort of chemical reaction would the eting of overscientist and magic researcher have on this country? I was kind of looking forward to it, and kind of worried...

Sothing had happened the first ti Id t rula.

The oracle shed said had appeared on the Lunalith ca up in conversation, and when I asked her for details, rula shook her head in disappointnt.

They call it an oracle, so I think what appeared was text; but it wasnt in a writing system from any country in this world, so I couldnt figure out what it said. If Id had a little more ti, I might have at least been able to figure out if they were phonographs or ideographs, but...

It seed she hadnt had the ti to properly commit it to mory. Her life had been in danger, so I could hardly bla her for that.

When I asked her if there was anything she rembered, no matter how minor, shed said, It really is just a small fraction, but I recall... it went like this...

And then shed written these three incomprehensible characters or symbols onto a piece of paper. rulas mories were vague, so these probably were exactly as shed seen them.

In the end, the only thing we knew was that these sorts of incomprehensible characters or symbols had appeared as an oracle.

Liscia seed to realize sothing and said, Ah...! If the writing isnt from this world, could it be from yours?

Yeah, I said. That was sothing I suspected, too, but Ive got absolutely no idea what they are...

I couldnt claim familiarity with every writing system on Earth, obviously, but I could at least say that in more than a decade of living in Japan, I had no recollection of seeing this kind of writing (?) before. The one in the middle might look a bit like the kanji for pray or samurai if you looked at it the right way, but as for what the arrow-like one that ca before it, and the umbrella-like one that ca after it were... I had no idea.

I gave up and put the piece of paper away inside the governntal affairs offices desk. Well, even if I could read just three characters of it, it wouldnt do any good. I cant neglect my duties just because Im curious about it, after all. Lets forget about it for now.

And so, Liscia and I got started on my paperwork for the day, but... I had one of the consciousnesses I had split off thinking about it.

Events sotis took place outside the Kingdom of Friedonia. If sothing bothered , when it was a dostic matter, I could bring on new people, assign personnel to the issue, and assign a budget to get it investigated. I had my position as king, after all.

However, when it was in another country, I couldnt investigate.

If it was sothing the relevant country had already investigated, it was possible I might acquire the information through diplomacy or espionage. However, if they hadnt investigated it yet, I had no ans of acquiring information about that matter. Because it was another country, I couldnt dispatch a team to investigate, either.

What if, included in that information this country couldnt get its hands on, there was sothing that could decide the fate of our own nation? What if we found out about it too late? Whenever I thought about that, I felt unable to sit still.

The world was not complete with just one country. Especially if I was staying inside the castle, it was only natural that there would be things I couldnt find out that way. I still... had so much to learn about this world.

I need to learn more. Much more, about many different countries...

While swamped with governnt work, that was what I thought about.

It was a mysterious space.

It was as if I were in an abyss where no light seed to reach; or perhaps I had been thrown out into deep space, in a place where I was unable to tell up from down.

I was floating in the middle of that space.

I could breathe properly. But my thinking felt hazy sohow.

Oh... This is probably a dream. Im in a dream world.

Sotis while dreaming, I would realize it was a dream.

When I was sleeping at sothing like a kotatsu, where it was hard to fall fully asleep, I would realize it was a dream and think that I needed to wake up quickly, see a dream of waking up, realize I was dreaming again, dream of waking up... and it went on like that. That was close to how I felt right now.

While I was drifting along in that dozing state, a light suddenly appeared before .

The light gradually grew larger, eventually reaching many tens of tis my own size. The light that grew to a massive size eventually began to form into sothing. As it took form, the once strong light gradually weakened. And then...

What appeared before my eyes was one massive silver dragon.

Its sense of presence was overwhelming. It had curled horns like a goat. Claws and fangs that looked like they could rend steel. Powerful wings spread wide. Its body was covered with a smooth silver fur, and its blue eyes seed gentle sohow. It was a dragon that was masculine, and yet felt motherly.

I had been told that wyverns and dragons were completely different before, but... now I could understand. This creature was so dazzlingly divine that it felt absurd to compare it to a wyvern.

Could it be that youre... Mother Dragon? I asked.

It was a hunch. I had heard of this before. They said there were sentient dragons living in the Star Dragon Mountain Range, and they were ruled by a beautifully massive white dragon. The dragon before my eyes was so beautiful I would have described her as a silver dragon, not a white one, but she fit the image of Mother Dragon perfectly.

Mother Dragon neither confird nor denied, but her unswerving eyes that stared into mine told the answer was yes.

Then Mother Dragon stretched that long neck of hers. Even just her head on its own was incredibly big, and if she had felt like it, she could easily have swallowed whole right there. I panicked a little, but my body didnt move, as if it was sewn in place.

Fortunately, Mother Dragons head didnt open its mouth as it approached, and her large nose just ca up close to my chase. Then she gently inhaled through her nostrils. We stayed like that for a short while, and then Mother Dragon slowly pulled her head away from .

You who have a familiar sll, she spoke.

Huh?! I thought, shocked.

I heard a voice. It had the tone of a gentle elderly woman. Was this Mother Dragons voice, maybe? I thought that it might be, but she hadnt opened her mouth.

You who have a familiar sll.

When I opened my eyes, I was on a bed in a dark room.

I looked around with my mind still hazy. It was probably still night. It was dark, but the moonlight streaming in through the window allowed to make out the inside of this neat and tidy Western-style room.

This is... Oh, right. Im in Liscias room.

Last night... or rather, every night lately, unless I was especially busy with work... Id gone to sleep and woken up in Liscias room. Of course... well... that was so we could do a lot of fooling around.

When I looked next to , as expected, I found Liscias sleeping face. It was hectic the next morning if we did it in the governntal affairs office, and when it ca to my room, half of it was my doll-making workshop, and the other half was where we spent ti as a family, which made it awkward; so, as a result, we were using Liscias room every night.

Nngh... Liscia, who had been lying on her back next to , asleep and naked, seed to lift her head up, but then rolled onto her side. Then, slowly opening her eyes, she rubbed the sleep from them and looked at . Mmm... Souma?

Sorry. Did I wake you?

...No. Its fine. Whats up?

Oh... I just had a kind of incredible dream...

A dream?

That was when it happened.

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh...

Suddenly, there was a sound like that. It was a mysterious sound, almost like a siren, or perhaps the howling of so creature. We could hear it from a considerable distance, so it must have been at a very high volu, but it didnt make our ears ring at all. It wasnt going to wake those who were asleep, probably. I had never heard it myself before, but I imagined it was like the singing of whales.

I put on my shirt, and pulled on a pair of pants, then got out of bed and went over to stand by the window. When I did, I saw a large shadow in the sky flying away to the northwest.

Liscia seed to think it was a coincidence, but when I considered the dream Id just had...

It was a dream, and yet not a dream... Is that it?

I had a premonition that sothing was about to happen again, and I let out a small sigh.

The next day...

While I was still concerned by the events of last night, I was working like usual in the governntal affairs office when an exhausted Pri Minister Hakuya ca in.

Whats wrong? I asked. You look horribly tired.

Hakuya walked over, and then said to with a tornted look, Your Majesty... Could I ask you to get away from the castle for a while?

...Co again?

Get away from the castle? He was telling to get out of the castle? I was kind of the king here, you know?

Youre overthrowing ? I asked. Really, Hakuya, if you want the throne, its okay, I dont mind letting you have it.

Dont talk nonsense. I dont want that thing.

That thing? Now listen...

Its fine. Just listen. Just recently, you announced the date of your wedding ceremony, right?

When Hakuya asked that, I nodded.

The other day, Id announced that I, who was still just a caretaker who had not formally ascended the throne yet, would carry out the coronation ceremony which would make the fourteenth king, along with my wedding ceremony with Liscia and the others, at the end of this year. I had decided to do it this way because handling the big events all at once would be easier on the national treasury.

However, Hakuya said it was causing a problem.

The castle is now being flooded with proposals from nobles, as well as from the kings of dium-sized and small states in the Union of Eastern Nations, all of whom want to form marital ties with you, sire. Theyre hoping to slide in now, before the marriage ceremony happens.

Its a last minute rush of suitors, then? I said. Cant you just refuse them?

We could, but... these are all houses whose position makes it hard to refuse when they say, Even if you are going to refuse, we would like to et with you at least once before you do. Recently, the number of marriage proposals brought to the castle has been on a rising trend, and the section responsible for them is about ready to burst at the seams.

...There are that many people sending marriage proposals? I asked trepidatiously.

No, they arent just for you, sire. The single n at your side who are seen as having promising futures, every one of them, have been receiving a fairly large number of marriage proposals, too.

So if they couldnt marry into the royal family, they at least wanted to marry a retainer with a promising future. That was probably an easier challenge for them to clear than becoming a mber of the royal family, after all. Honestly... if you were to say that this was all nobles ever did, it would be true, but... still, it was impressive that they could keep it up like this.

Incidentally, the most popular of your retainers is Sir Poncho, Hakuya said.

Poncho? Now there was a surprise.

Not Ludwin, the handso captain of the Royal Guard?

Its true, Sir Ludwin is incredibly popular, but the House of Arcs is a great house, and the only people who can propose to him are of the nobility and the knightly class, said Hakuya. On that point, Sir Poncho is of low birth, and so even common rcantile families send marriage proposals to him. Furthermore, while Sir Ludwin feels out of reach, many won seem to think they could easily seduce Sir Poncho.

...Hes being taken lightly, huh.

If the marriage proposals were piling up for Poncho, that ant he was popular, too. Though he was pudgy and rotund, he was also a gentle and considerate young man. More than that, his food was delicious. On top of that, he had led the country to a solution for its food crisis; and if you considered the way he was almost worshiped as a god of food in the Amidonia Region, there had to be a lot of won who would want to marry him.

Poncho was known for giving ground when pushed, which they had seen from his appearances on the broadcast programs. For any woman even slightly confident in her appearance, it might not have been unreasonable that they thought they could push past his defenses with sheer montum. In point of fact, Poncho was not very good at fending off those sorts of advances.

Hmm... I was happy to hear that a good retainer like Poncho was a hit with the ladies, but I was hoping he would continue doing good work for in future, so I didnt want anyone too weird catching him.

Have you taken counterasures? I asked.

Yes. I have already asked Madam Serina to act as Sir Ponchos assistant. She attends arranged marriage etings with him, and drives off won who approach him purely out of personal ambition.

Oh... No need to worry, then. If Serina was there as Ponchos assistant, it would probably be fine.

There were so issues with Serinas personality, but she was extrely graceful and beautiful. If she was at his side, the won who were only a little confident in their appearance, and who thought they could seduce him, would back down.

I had often asked her to serve as Ponchos assistant before this, but Serina always said things like, When I go to such efforts on a gentlemans behalf, I hope he will get his act together a little more. I am working very hard, so please, treat to a al again soti.

Though she complained, and it was obvious she was only doing it because she wanted his food, she seed to be proactive about looking after Poncho. Poncho loved both to eat and to cook, and Serina was hooked on the junk food from Earth that he and I were developing together.

Serina seed unaware of it because she had let her sadistic tendency to bully cute girls get out of hand, but it felt like he had completely tad her with food. He was a timid man you couldnt leave alone, and she was a strong-willed woman who tended to ddle, so they got along well and... Wait, huh?

Serina attends Ponchos marriage etings, right? I asked.

Yes. I hear that many won excuse themselves when they see what the woman standing next to him looks like.

Isnt that like... Serinas unconsciously sheltering Poncho?

...

...

We looked at one another, awkward looks on the faces of liege and vassal alike.

...Yeah, it was best we not get involved in this matter. It would be uncouth for us to butt in and say anything. For the mont, I decided to change the subject.

Ahem... Anyway, Ill bet its not just Ludwin and Poncho, is it? You must have a significant number of proposals coming your way, too, dont you?

Hakuya was handso, and he was the closest of all the n close to . I couldnt imagine the ladies and nobles of the world would let him get away. When I brought it up, Hakuya got a look on his face like he had bitten into sothing unpleasant.

I... have no intention of taking a wife just yet.

Its not that you arent interested in won, though, right? Are you one of those guys who thinks marriage is too much of a hassle?

...So, there you have it, its been decided Im going to the Star Dragon Mountain Range.

It was a few hours later. I had gathered my companions in the conference room for the announcent.

Present were my four fiances, Liscia, Aisha, Juna, and Roroa, as well as Pri Minister Hakuya, Captain of the Royal Guard Ludwin, Finance Minister Colbert, my honorary little sister Tomoe, and the maids Serina and Carla, for a total of eleven people, including myself.