by Mamare Touno
Thinking that way vastly increased the amount of freedom Shiroe had.
He held his breath and moved mental pawns over the timetable in his mind. His own plans, the plans of other players. He strictly separated the information he had from the information he hadn’t confirmed yet, filling in board surfaces one by one.
Shiroe wasn’t God, and so of course there were lots of situations he wasn’t seeing. However, by nature, with each move they made, players disclosed a surprising amount of information. …Just as the enemy’s arrogant methods had exposed their own carelessness.
Humans were creatures who couldn’t do a thing without leaving footprints.
When that additional information was added in, the game boards he couldn’t see began to dimly materialize.
The efforts of each resident. Their reliability on-site. Against a background of festival atmosphere, various forces’ intentions regarding the town of Akiba writhed.
Shiroe thought that the world was filled with players on his level, and to him, it was a form of pondering. There were countless situations he couldn’t handle.
He’d contacted Krusty and Isaac and was having them quell all the incidents involving violence in Akiba. On top of this, he was moving every last movable pawn. Because he was following a policy of not making the incident public, the system at every location was a bit like a volunteer effort, but the main forces of Akiba’s famous guilds were involved in the affair. Strong players were gathered on this game board.
In fact, right now, he was unable to handle the enemy on his own and was borrowing Soujirou’s abilities. His personal bodyguard was on the frontline of negotiation issues with People of the Earth merchants, solving problems with enough force to literally drive them away. These were abilities Shiroe didn’t have.
And again, he remembered the voice of his little companion who had contacted him from the Production Guild Liaison Committee.
Shiroe could sense her fingertips: still young, but filled with intent. Although it was still small and faint, he saw a vision of a move like a newly hatched chick flapping its wings.
Calasin’s processing speed had risen, and the backlog of trouble was clearly dwindling. This acted as covering fire for the patrol squads led by Isaac and the others, and the slight leeway they created was being pried open by force through the power of Soujirou’s personal bodyguard.
They were pushing their disadvantage back further than he’d expected.
Although it hadn’t yet taken shape, he’d begun to be able to visualize how the situation would be settled. At this point, Shiroe could pay out the next countermeasure.
Shiroe turned his thoughts toward the freedom Akatsuki’s words had shown him. Doing something that hadn’t been planned, yet would not destroy the Libra Festival’s timetable, and adding excitement to the festival. That sort of move.
After all, the enemy had used these methods—adding stress and sowing wild rumors—because they were ultimately plotting to weaken Akiba’s unity. Their goal was to make people think, Akiba’s nothing big. It was an attack aimed at weakening spirits, quite apart from the actual state of things. The most effective way to counterstrike was to rev up the Libra Festival and maximize the participants’ satisfaction.
“—My liege?”
At Akatsuki’s worried voice, Shiroe looked up and smiled back at her. It was, in Henrietta’s words, his black-hearted smile.
“Ah. Akatsuki? Have Henrietta get outfits ready. Contact the nearby guilds, too, and have them pull together head-to-toe coordinates somehow or other. The nosebleed-provoking kind.”
“Huh?”
“Squads Nine through Eighteen!”
“Yes?!”
At the prompt response that returned to him, Shiroe stood up and spoke, his expression fearless.
“Go out and patrol the town! I know I’m causing you trouble, but please help me out. After today’s duties are over, I’ll treat you to a delicious meal. I want you to show Soujirou just how lovely you can be!”
2
At Lord Malves’s words, Raynesia went pale.
It wasn’t that she understood. She hadn’t gotten that far yet.
Raynesia had picked up the scorched scent of danger.
“Come. You will hurry and make the preparations, won’t you, Princess?”
“Huh? Oh… I, um…”
Raynesia turned, as if looking for help. Her eyes found Elissa; she was roundly rebuking a subordinate maid and looking through some copied files she’d received from Lord Malves’s men.
“Princess.”
“Well?”
“The documents are real. …It’s hard to imagine, but all I can think is that they must have slipped through the cracks due to an oversight on our part.”
An oversight.
Slipped through the cracks.
Even when she heard those words, Raynesia’s brain didn’t respond right away. Then, slowly, the mistake sank into her consciousness. It felt like an icy cold liquid.
In other words, it probably meant that when Lord Malves had planned to make for Akiba in a transport ship, he had sounded out Raynesia about borrowing a storehouse in advance. He’d sent the same documents to Maihama as well, and had received a response approving them.
In other words, it meant that Raynesia herself had committed to preparing a storehouse. Apparently the long and short of it was that while she was preparing for the festival, she’d forgotten.
Of course, she didn’t know what had actually happened. The message might not have reached her due to some accident in transmission, or the office maid might have forgotten about it, or Raynesia herself might have been so very busy that she’d mislaid the documents somewhere…
However, there was no time to question anyone about it now.
Lord Malves had a response from Raynesia’s side. At this point, it could be nothing other than Raynesia’s mistake.
In the first place, Raynesia was the hostess, and she had a duty to accommodate her guests. In addition, the daughter of the House of Cowen, who was posing as a freeloader in the town of Akiba, and Lord Malves, the marine transport noble of the West, were very different in terms of personal rank. Then, considering the tense relationship between the East and the West, her only option was to humble herself.
Raynesia was a woman.
In accordance with the customs of the People of the Earth, she hadn’t received any political training, but even so, there were things one picked up simply by being in fashionable society.
“Hmph! What’s the matter? You aren’t about to tell me preparations haven’t been made, are you? Not after I applied so carefully beforehand.”
“I, um…”
It would be easy to apologize.
However, Raynesia wasn’t used to negotiations of this sort, and she couldn’t decide whether it would be all right to humble herself in this situation or not. If this is how things are going to go, I should have learned more. …This was something she was too lazy to think, but even so, she thought she ought to have taken steps of some sort.
Naturally, she should have done something along the lines of having Maihama send over a few distinguished civil servants for her to keep close by. Of course she’d chosen attendants within the range her grandfather had allowed, but even then, it hadn’t been enough.
“Is this Cowen etiquette?… Or was the story that you’d formed a relationship of cooperation with the Adventurers, and the town of Akiba, a false one?”
At his mocking voice, Raynesia hung her head.
She was bursting with retorts she wanted to make, but she didn’t know which would be right and which would be dangerous.
At any rate, she had to apologize, compensate him for the ship’s cargo and settle things peacefully. Setting aside the detailed procedures to think about bit by bit, would it be possible to postpone this problem for the moment, at least until after the banquet? This was what Raynesia thought with her numbed mind.
She’d always been called a beautiful princess
.
No matter what party she appeared at, she’d been surrounded by praise from knights and civil servants.
In the midst of those frozen days, she thought she’d acted well, but she felt her temperature falling. Raynesia couldn’t understand it. Why were her emotions this unstable? Why was she so out of sorts?
This frustration wasn’t Raynesia’s. After all, Raynesia didn’t really care about a thing like this. The displeasure and frustration and self-reproach must be the fault of this thoughtless town—
“Good evening!”
Raynesia had frozen, her gaze lowered to the magnificent carpet. When its colors abruptly fell into shadow, she realized there was someone standing in front of her, and her eyes came up as if she’d been stung. The back she saw was covered by unfamiliar clothes.
Over a shirt made out of a soft-looking cloth, a type the People of the Earth didn’t know, the figure wore a long, hooded vest. It was a young man, the culprit who, on the date of that fateful speech that had started them toward Zantleaf, had pushed Raynesia off a metaphorical cliff, making it impossible for her to turn back. Shiroe.
“Master…Shiroe?”
“And who is this?”
“Pardon me. I’m Shiroe; I lead Log Horizon, one of the eleven guilds on the Round Table Council.”
“Shiroe… No family name, then? Oho…”
“That’s right. I’m an Adventurer, you see.”
Before Raynesia’s eyes, even when confronted with this great aristocrat from the West, the young man in town clothes didn’t let his carefree attitude flicker. Raynesia was at a loss for words, but even so, she took half a step forward. There was no telling what sort of trouble an Adventurer who wasn’t familiar with the courtesy and customs of the People of the Earth might call down upon them. She’d resolved to become Akiba’s shield in order to prevent this from happening.
However, there was a hand on Raynesia’s shoulder, restraining her with a strength that was gentle but absolute. It was a large, sinewy, masculine hand, and it belonged to Krusty: Krusty had checked her from behind. Raynesia looked up at him over her shoulder. Without lowering his gaze, he spoke to her.
“There’s no need to worry.”
His glasses got in the way and she couldn’t read his expression, but there was a very cruel smile on his lips.
“Welcome to Akiba, Lord Malves. We’ve heard many rumors of the success of your spirit ship, which uses spirits in its engine, and of your skill in marine transport.”
Shiroe smiled as he spoke, and at his words, Malves’s eyes widened very slightly. However, he only said, “Why, thank you,” and the set of his lips remained ironic. In terms of People of the Earth etiquette, his attitude bordered on scorn.
He was clearly ridiculing Shiroe and—viewed in combination with the fact that Shiroe had introduced himself as a member of the Round Table Council—Akiba’s Round Table Council as well. His attitude irritated Raynesia so much that she felt her cheeks grow hot.
However, Shiroe didn’t seem to mind in the slightest. It was possible that he knew nothing about People of the Earth etiquette in the first place.
“Well, was there something? Miss Elissa? Where are you?”
“Here, Mister Shiroe. …These are the particulars.”
However, Shiroe’s words threw cold water on that irritation.
Raynesia, her expression flabbergasted, found herself watching her own lady-in-waiting show Shiroe the letters from a moment before. She hadn’t been aware that the two were acquainted. Elissa wore a sour expression, but even so, she seemed to have a kind of respect for the young man called Shiroe.
“Oh. Hm. …I see, yes, that would have been possible, too. I understand the gist. …Hey, Michitaka!”
Without even bothering to set up a telechat, Shiroe called to a big man in the hall. At his voice, Michitaka—the guild master of the Marine Organization, a man who was built like a bear—ambled over to them. Shiroe interrupted the man’s greeting and began to discuss the issue without preamble.
“Clumsy, you know. Clumsy, or sloppy, or a complete lack of style… Michitaka, Princess Raynesia has messed up, and apparently it’s caused trouble.”
“Oho. Well, well. Isn’t that something.”
Raynesia thought that, rather than being ill-mannered, Shiroe seemed to have a personality that was abnormally impetuous, or maybe utilitarian. Her first impression of him hadn’t changed: Raynesia wasn’t good with this young man. She wasn’t good with Krusty, either, but her discomfort with Krusty stemmed from the fact that she couldn’t tell what he was thinking.
Her sense of being unable to deal with Shiroe came from the feeling that if he decided to do something, he’d probably do it, no matter how reckless, and he wouldn’t listen to a word she said. Krusty was simply impossible to understand, and that made him scary, but Shiroe was a hunter who wouldn’t hesitate to use Raynesia as bait.
“And who are you, exactly? I’m currently inquiring about the error Miss Raynesia has made.”
At Lord Malves’s words, the corners of Shiroe’s lips curved up. He explained the situation so that the newcomer would understand as well.
“This big man is Michitaka, leader of the Marine Organization, one of the eleven guilds on the Round Table Council. Now, Lord Malves has come by sea and brought cargo with him, and he needs a storehouse. A letter asking Raynesia to have one ready arrived, but she either forgot it or lost it. Well, either way, she bungled it, and that’s how things stand.”
At Shiroe’s words, Lord Malves nodded, looking triumphant.
“That’s right. The cargo includes foodstuffs and precious spices. If left in the hot, damp hold, they’re sure to rot within a few days.”
On hearing this, Raynesia wanted to raise her voice in protest.
It was a false accusation, something she had no memory of. …Well, it was, but it was also true that bringing that into question now wouldn’t do any good.
“You must have been planning to do some very big business.”
“I was attending in person. It’s only natural that I would use the most elegant ship in my trading firm as transport, Shiroe or whatever your name was.”
Shiroe’s attitude had probably pleased him: The middle-aged noble, who smelled of powder, gave a purring, bestial laugh.
“The new Spirit Ship Aegir, just commissioned last month. I only know of it through rumors, but I hear it’s a beautiful, swanlike vessel.”
“Oho. Such rumors have already reached Akiba as well? Well, that’s correct… And due to Miss Raynesia’s negligence, all the cargo on that ship will be lost. Don’t you think that’s a cruel betrayal, Adventurers?”
“That’s very unfortunate.”
Why is Shiroe just agreeing with what the lord says…? Does he think the People of the Earth don’t matter, because he’s an Adventurer…? But this incident is already reflecting on the dignity of Akiba!
“Well. I came because I have business with Princess Raynesia. Akatsuki, Miss Henrietta.”
“Huh?”
She’d been distracted by Shiroe and hadn’t noticed, but a capable-looking woman with glasses and the small, black-haired girl who’d given her such a horrible time during that speech had quietly appeared.
“The princess says she’ll work with us to make this festival a success. Help her dress.”
“Huh? Huh?”
Raynesia didn’t understand. She looked to her right, at Elissa.
Elissa shook her head and gave a small sigh.
Giving up on her unreliable friend, Raynesia looked back over her left shoulder at Krusty, but he only shrugged his shoulders.
While this was going on, the serious black-haired girl and the smiling woman with glasses had apprehended Raynesia. Although their attitude was polite, their atmosphere brooked no argument, and even though they were in public, their hands reached for Raynesia’s clothes.
“Wha…?! What are you doing?! Huh? Change clothes… I can’t possibly do that in a place like… I-I mean,
I’m in the middle of a serious discussion with Lord Malves! It’s important, in order to protect Akiba— Master Krusty! Say something to them, please! You are my knight, aren’t you?!”
“Wasn’t that only for the duration of the lords’ council?”
“Are knights’ vows so inconstant?! Do you mean to make me—me!—believe you spoke in jest?!”
More than half panicking, Raynesia begged Krusty in tears. She’d seen the quiet, dark smile this bespectacled, alabaster knight wore, but Krusty was the only one here she could look to for help.
“We’ll extend the contract, then.”
“D-do something about this. I-I’ll change! I’ll do it later, properly, so for now, please explain to Lord Malves—!”
“Shiroe. …My princess has been granted an extension, and you heard her.”
Before they knew it, the fuss created by the smiling Henrietta and the too-serious Akatsuki, who had secured Princess Raynesia’s arms from either side, had become the focus of attention in the hall. In the center of the crowd that had formed around them, Krusty prompted Shiroe to continue.
“Understood, Krusty… Everything is ready.”
“Lord Malves. We understand what you’re saying. However, those letters have already reached Akiba’s Round Table Council.”
Krusty, whose expression was hidden behind his glasses, spoke briefly. His voice wasn’t at all loud, but his unique timing left a strong impression on everyone there. Malves was caught off guard; for a moment, his expression looked foolish, but as if he’d collected himself almost immediately, he raised his voice.
“Wha…?! The Round Table Council, contacted?! That can’t be! …It’s a storehouse! You can’t possibly get one ready so easily. You don’t understand. I didn’t come here in a cart! Weren’t you listening?!”
“The New Spirit Ship Aegir, wasn’t it? It has a carrying capacity of five hundred tons, if I recall. It’s equipped with an ice room as well. Truly an elite vessel.”
“That’s right, Adventurer. What storehouse is there that can house that much material, under controlled temperatures? You could never prepare one right away; you’re babbling nonsense.”
