by Dojyomaru
Once the money was evenly split five ways, Dece asked Febral, “So, about what she just told us... What do you think?”
“You mean about the unexpected hazard pay?” Febral asked him back, to which Dece nodded.
“The towns and villages that just happened to be being attacked by the flame pierrots just happened to be on the route the principality’s forces took, and because we just happened to be evacuating the residents human loses were kept to a minimum... I mean, isn’t that all a little too convenient?” Dece said.
“...You’re right,” said Febral. “Perhaps what the kingdom was on guard against was the principality’s army all along. Could they have hurried to have us evacuate the residents because they were anticipating an attack?”
When Febral presented that theory, Juno tilted her head to the side. “Hm? But, I saw the flame pierrots myself when I was with Mr. Little Musashibo, remember?”
“They looked like mannequin torsos with torches for heads, right?” Febral said. “That sounds pretty easy to make, doesn’t it?”
“Were they made-up, thennnn?” Julia asked in a relaxed tone, to which Febral nodded.
“Yes. That sounds highly likely. The king must have had some reason for it.”
“Heh. Not like it matters to us.” Augus wrapped his thick arm around Febral’s neck. “The intrigues of countries are no business for adventurers. What’s important for us is that we complete the quest, and that we make good money for it. Am I right?”
Dece smiled wryly. “You’re right. Rather than fret over it, let’s think about what we’re going to do with all this money.”
“For tonight, how does a feast sound, hmmmm?” Julia said gently... and then it happened.
A roly-poly something-or-other came in through the guild’s entrance. In its hands was a naginata, over its back a wicker basket, over its face a silk covering from under which peeked two adorable acorn-like eyes and bushy eyebrows. Who was it?! Was it a big moth cocoon?! Was it an egg monster?!
“Wait, that’s Mr. Kigurumi!” exclaimed Juno the moment she realized it.
When Little Musashibo entered the guild, he tottered over to the receptionist and handed her something. It was... a letter?
“Oh! A delivery, I see,” said the receptionist. “Thank you for your service.”
“...” (Little Musashibo gave a thumbs up.)
Having delivered the letter, Little Musashibo turned to go, his job done, but Juno wasn’t going to let that happen.
She leaned on the top of his head. “Hey, long time no see. You’re back from down south, too, I see.”
“...” (“J-Juno?” Little Musashibo reacted with surprise.)
Little Musashibo, who had shrunken slightly under Juno’s weight, flailed his arms around.
Juno stayed on top of Little Musashibo, rubbing his cheeks teasingly. “Thanks for the save back there. The principality almost got me.”
“...” (“No, I’m just glad you were okay,” he said, clapping her on the back.)
“Ahaha! But, now I think about it, weren’t you in more trouble than me, walking around all alone like that? I’ll bet you were there on the same quest, so you could have relied on us for help, you know.”
“...” (“I-I’m honored to hear it,” he said, bowing his head repeatedly.)
The rest of the part watched this exchange unfold with rolled eyes.
“How do they even make a conversation work like that...?” Dece wondered aloud.
“Could it be... love?” suggested Febral.
“Oh! You’re starting to believe Julia’s theory now, too, huh, Febral?” said Augus.
“Hee hee,” giggled Julia.
While the four of them were talking about it, the receptionist, who had been reading the letter, called them over. “Oh. You over there. You took the villager escort quest, didn’t you?”
“Hm? Yes, we did... Did something happen?” Dece asked.
The receptionist grinned. “It looks like there’s another additional reward for you from the castle. It was in the letter that just arrived. ‘The work of adventurers saved the lives of many of the people of this country, and so, to reward their hard work, a small banquet will be held at the castle, which they are most welcome to attend.’ That’s what this says.”
“A banquet at the royal castle?” Dece furrowed his brow. When they had already received hazard pay, a banquet seemed lavish.
“I don’t wanna go,” Juno said, clearly uninterested, as she continued to lean on Little Musashibo. “The castle sounds like a stuffy place. We’d look so out of place there.”
“Heh heh heh. Are you sure you want to say that?” the receptionist chuckled and said in a confident tone. “The banquet is being held at Ishizuka’s Place, you know?”
““Did you just say Ishizuka’s Place?!”” Augus and Febral gasped.
“You’ve heard of it? Augus, Febral?” Dece asked.
The two of them nodded eagerly.
“We haven’t just heard of it—it’s the talk of the town,” said Augus. “There’s a restaurant with amazingly delicious food in the castle, they say.”
“From what I’ve heard, it’s a restaurant that King Souma and the Minister for the Food Crisis, Mr. Poncho Panacotta, set up inside the castle,” said Febral. “I hear it was made to see if people in this country would be able to accept the dishes eaten back in King Souma’s old world.”
“Yes, yes, yes, that’s right!” For some reason, the receptionist was getting very excited as she spoke. “There are various dishes there, but all of them are quick, cheap, and tasty. It’s the best. However, with it being inside the castle, and only open at night, you can’t eat at it unless you work there. Just once, when I accompanied the guild chief to the castle, I had the opportunity to eat there... Slurp, the taste was unforgettable.”
When he saw the receptionist wipe the drool from the corner of her mouth with an enraptured look on her face, Dece was weirded out. “Are you all right? You’re sure there’re no weird ingredients in that food, right?”
“I’m sure it’s probably fiiiine,” said Julia. “It’s food fit for a king, after all.”
Juno tried asking Little Musashibo, who was underneath her, “You want to come, too, Mr. Kigurumi? You took that quest, too, right?”
“...” (“Oh, no, not me...” he said, sticking his harms out in front of him and shaking his head.)
“What? Come aloooong,” pouted Juno. “If you don’t, I’ll pull you out from inside there.”
“...” (“N-No, stop, please!” he said, flailing his arms and legs around.)
Juno kept manhandling Little Musashibo. In the end, she forced him to promise he would attend the banquet.
And so, on the evening of the banquet.
In the castle, an old wine cellar in the castle that was no longer in use had been remodeled into something like an chain izakaya and given the name Ishizuka’s Place. It was here that the few dozen adventurers who had participated in the escort quest were celebrating.
For this banquet, tables were lined up in the center with large plates of food that everyone was free to take from. It was what would be called a buffet. The adventurers ravenously swarmed around the unusual and delicious-looking dishes. (Especially those using soy sauce and miso.)
It happened just when Juno’s party, with Little Musashibo in tow, had finished getting in line, securing all of the different dishes and alcoholic beverages they might want, and returned to their seats.
Someone walked up to the podium opposite the entrance. It was a young girl who wore a red military uniform and had medium-short hair.
When they saw that girl...
“Wha?! The princess?!” someone exclaimed in surprise.
There was an excited murmur that spread through the room. The one standing at the podium was, without a doubt, Princess Liscia, the daughter of this country’s former king and the one betrothed to the current (provisional) king, Souma Kazuya.
Liscia bowed, then began to spe
ak in a clear voice. “Adventurers, I welcome you to Parnam Castle. I am King Souma’s fiancee, Liscia Elfrieden. I am here to greet all of you today, in place of Souma who is currently indisposed due to his heavy workload. I would like to thank all of you for accepting the recent quest.”
Liscia bowed once again.
Juno looked on, seeming deeply impressed. “That’s a princess for you. She looks about my age, but she feels so ladylike.”
Little Musashibo blatantly averted his eyes when Juno gave that impression. That was because he was hesitant to call the princess ladylike, given that she had, just recently, been leading a massive force on the battlefield.
Liscia picked up a glass of wine. Lifting it up high she said, “Thanks to all of you, many of our people were saved. On behalf of Souma, and all the people you saved, I salute you. Now... Cheers!”
“““Cheers!”””
With that, the banquet began. The adventurers drank much wine, and smacked their lips at tatsuta-age, spaghetti buns, fried seafood skewers, and many other dishes not yet common in this country.
“This tatsuta-age stuff is great! I can’t get enough beer with it!” Augus declared enthusiastically, and Febral nodded in agreement.
“It seems they use the mystic wolves’ soy sauce for it,” said Febral. “It’s very good.”
“The fried octopus skewers are good, too,” said Julia. “Here, Dece. Say ahhh.”
“Wait! Julia?! Are you drunk already?!” Dece exclaimed.
They each enjoyed themselves. Juno, whose eyes were already a little unfocused, was wrapping herself around Little Musashibo. She was pushing a wooden mug full of beer up against his cheek. “Come on, Mr. Kigurumi, you’ve gotta drink toooo.”
“...” (Y-You’re a bad drunk?!” he said, panicking.)
“If you won’t drink, I’ll give it to you mouth-to-mouth,” Juno threatened.
“...” (“It will just stain the cloth, so please don’t! I’ll drink it myself, okay!”)
Then Little Musashibo turned his back to Juno. When she was wondering what was up, looking at him dubiously, suddenly a man’s hand came out of the seam in his back.
“Wuh?!” That shocking scene made Juno throw her head back in surprise. The arm that grew out of Little Musashibo took the mug of beer from the dazed Juno before slipping back inside Little Musashibo’s body. Then, after some gulping sounds from inside, the empty mug was expelled from his back.
“Whaa, what was that just now...?” Juno yelped.
Little Musashibo turned to face her and clapped a hand on her shoulder. “...” (“A fantastical illusion.” he said, nodding his head up and down.)
“Huh? But, just now I saw...”
“...” (“A fantastical illusion.” Got it? He tilted his head to the side.)
All Juno could say at this point was, “Uh, sure.”
From there on, with the occasional interruption for a fantastical illusion, the two drank together.
As they did, Liscia kept peeking over and watching them.
Twenty minutes later.
“...” (Little Musashibo’s body suddenly tilted over and he fell down on his back.)
Juno who was eating and drinking beside him, shouted out in surprise.
“Whoa, are you okay, mister?! Isn’t it a bit early for you to pass out?!”
Juno shook his body, but Little Musashibo couldn’t get up, it seemed. Then, “Pardon me a moment,” said an adult voice.
“Huh?” Juno asked.
When Juno looked up at the voice that suddenly called out to her, the young girl in the military uniform was rushing over to Little Musashibo. It was Princess Liscia. She was so surprised to have the princess suddenly call out to her that her mouth bobbed open and closed in mute shock.
Liscia pressed her ear up against Little Musashibo’s mouth.
“You’re at your limit. Because of the alcohol. That makes sense.” With those words, Liscia sat Little Musashibo up. “I’ll take care of this guy. You handle things here.”
“S-Sure...” Juno replied vacantly.
Liscia stared into Juno’s face.
“Hm? ...Um... is there something on my face?” Juno asked.
“No, it’s nothing,” said Liscia. “Anyway, I hope you enjoy yourselves.”
With that said, Liscia took Little Musashibo away.
Juno was at a loss for what to think, only able to watch their backs as they departed.
◇ ◇ ◇
“Why did you push yourself so far to be able to participate?” Liscia demanded. “Even going so far as to wear a kigurumi suit.”
As they walked down the castle hallway, Little Musashibo borrowing Liscia’s shoulder for support, a male voice came from inside Little Musashibo. “Hey, can you really blame me? Even I’ve got people I have to go out and socialize with.”
“You say that, but they’re not your associates, they’re that doll’s, right? Now hurry up and get out of that thing. Nobody else can see you here.”
When Liscia said that, the doll’s back opened wide and Souma emerged, dripping sweat. In addition to the heat of the kigurumi suit, he had alcohol in him, so his face was pretty red. When he finished crawling out of Little Musashibo, Souma sat down on the floor right there, exhausted.
Normally, Souma controlled Little Musashibo remotely with his ability, Living Poltergeists, but today he’d to eat and drink, so he’d gotten inside it himself.
Liscia looked at him with exasperation, lending Souma shoulder to lean on. “Look, if you’re going to rest, don’t do it here, do it in your bed in the governmental affairs office. I’ll have someone put away the doll later.”
“Ahh, sorry,” said Souma. “It’d be a big help if you could do that for me.”
Souma leaned on Liscia for support as he walked on shaky legs.
“By the way, that girl, Juno?” Liscia asked as they headed to the governmental affairs office. “She was pretty cute, huh?”
Souma looked away. “I haven’t done anything with her that I should feel bad about, okay?”
“Oh, I never said anything about that, did I?” Liscia asked.
Liscia was staring, while Souma couldn’t meet her gaze.
If anyone had overheard, they might have sounded like an old married couple.
Chapter 6: Standing in Front of the Lion’s Cage
It had been a few days since we’d returned from to the royal capital Parnam from Van.
Right now, I was beneath Castle Parnam in front of the dungeon. With only candlelight for illumination, it was gloomy. While you likely could infer this from the fact it was inside the castle, a lot of people of high status had been put in here. Most of the inmates were political prisoners.
I was in that underground dungeon, facing a certain individual across a set of iron bars.
After some silence, I spoke to the person in the cage. “This is our first time meeting in person, I believe. I am the provisional king, Souma Kazuya.”
“It is an honor to meet you,” said the beastman. “I am Georg Carmine.”
With those words, the former General of the Army, the man with the face of a lion, Georg Carmine, bowed his head deeply.
While I was seated in a chair, Georg sat directly on the dungeon floor like a general from the Warring States Period might sit when greeting his master.
“I congratulate you once again on your recent victory,” Georg said, his head still bowed.
Georg had been imprisoned here a few days before our return. Up until then, he had been under house arrest at his former castle Randel, so he must have been gathering information.
“Raise your head,” I said. “It’s hard to talk when you’re like that.”
“Ha ha!” Georg laughed.
I looked straight at Georg as he raised his face. He had a muscular physique and stood nearly two meters tall, so even though he was kneeling, his eyes were at roughly the same level as mine while I sat in a chair. On top of that, the ethos he exuded as a veteran warrior made him
appear all the larger.
Magnificent. That was the word that best suited this warrior.
What I felt while talking to him over the Jewel Voice Broadcast is nothing compared to this... I thought.
I struggled not to be swallowed up by the atmosphere that surrounded Georg. This feeling was similar to what I’d felt when Gaius had been closing in on me. This man had an incredible sense of presence, and yet he was the youngest of the three dukes. Castor was around 160, while Excel was over 500.
“Aren’t the apparent age and actual age of the three dukes kind of reversed?” I asked. “Oh, and mental age, too.”
When I said that, Georg gave a hearty laugh. “You could be right. Generally, they say that the longer-lived a race is, the longer it takes them to develop mentally and physically. For most the long-lived races, if you take their actual age, multiply it by around one hundred, the oldest a human or beastman generally lives to, then divide by the longest that race live to, you get a good estimate of their mental age.”
I see, I thought. In this world, where in Japan we might say “Cranes live for a thousand years, turtles for ten thousand,” they could say “Dragonewts live for five hundred years, water serpents for a thousand,” when talking about long life. (Though, in this case, they actually do live that long.) In other words, taking Castor as an example, 160 * 100 / 500 = 32. If I look at it that way, his impulsiveness makes sense, maybe... Wait! Huh? Hold on?
“By that reasoning, Excel’s mental age should be over fifty, shouldn’t it?” I asked.
“...There is an exception to every rule,” said Georg.
“Don’t blatantly look away.”
Apparently even Georg, who didn’t seem like he had to fear anyone, was hesitant to touch the topic of Excel’s age. I could relate.
After talking carrying on with that sort of aimless conversation for a while, I cut to the heart of the matter. “I had a lot I’ve wanted to ask and hear from you once we finally got the chance to meet.”
“Ask away,” said Georg.
“Before that,” I said, “won’t you meet with Liscia?”
