by Yuu Kamiya
Sora, once raging and swinging his fist, now spoke softly.
“Let me repeat: We are the weak. Indeed, still we are—just as we always have been—”
Someone took in a sudden breath, realizing something. After waiting for it to spread, Sora shouted out once more.
“—Indeed…is not the situation exactly the same?
“The strong may imitate the wisdom of the weak, but they will never attain true mastery! For the truth underlying our weapon—is the cowardice born of abject weakness!”
…Answering to preempt the crowd’s question.
“Who, through cowardice, has honed their eyes and ears, their wit, to learn to survive? It is we humans!”
…Showing hope in despair.
“We cannot use magic. We cannot even perceive it—however, cowardice has given us the wit to escape magic, the wisdom to see through it! We have no supernatural senses. However, cowardice has given us, through learning and experience, wisdom approaching precognition!”
…One who speaks only of hope is an optimist.
…And one who speaks only of despair is a pessimist.
“For the third time! We are the weak who, throughout the ages, have torn out the throats of the complacent strong—we are the proud weak!”
…The deeper the despair and darkness, the more it is true.
“I announce that my sister and I have been crowned here as your king and queen, as the 205th monarch of Elkia.”
…That only one who lights the watch fire of hope can attract the masses.
“I announce that the two of us shall live as the weak, fight as the weak, and slaughter the strong as the weak do! Just as we always have—and just as we always will!”
…So people look to their steps as a guide.
“Accept it! We are the weakest race!
“We are those who, in endless cycles of history—devour the fattened strong!”
…Thus.
“Take pride! For we are the weakest—we are the most empty-handed! We are born with nothing—and so we can become anything—and we therefore are the strongest race!”
…A monarch is born.
Cheers—no, roars. They shook the square, the sky. The shouts that could sound like howls of rage, or cries of victory. Out of expectation for the two on the platform? Or—out of the souls of the cornered, baring their fangs?
Before this sight, Sora and his sister looked at each other.
……The sister nodded. Slightly, with a pleasant smile. With this confirmation, Sora started his final speech. Spreading his arms wide, innocent as a giddy child. Yet like a strategist who’d seen it all, bold as a warrior. Spreading across his face a guileless yet brazen smile, Sora—the new king of the human race—spoke.
“—Come, let the games begin!”
“Surely you have had your fill of suffering. Surely you have been humiliated too much. Surely you have tasted life’s bitterness to the point of sickness… Surely this is enough! Here I am, my fellow Immanities.”
His palm rose to the horizon, as if he might even clutch the heavens. And then—closed.
“Now, as of this moment! We, Elkia—declare war on all other countries in the world!”
“Light the signal for a counterstrike! We will have our borders back!”
Amidst cheers so great as to split the earth. The two left the stage, to be attacked by Steph.
“H-h—hey, you! Wh-what the heck are you talking about?!”
“Aaagh…what’re you freaking out about, Steph? You’re freaking me out.”
“…Steph, so creepy…”
With Steph honking and bleating in mad disorder, the siblings sneered at her unjustifiably. But Steph had bigger things on her mind.
“You think everything’s okay now?! You just got crowned and haven’t even taken care of domestic affairs yet, and you think Elkia is ready to take on other countries? Are you trying to destroy the country?!”
Steph clutched her head and cursed her own foolishness for believing in these swindler siblings, though perhaps she was getting used to it. With gesture that suggested he was already in his element, Sora spoke with a sigh.
“Hhh… Look—didn’t I tell you to learn to doubt people?”
“—Huh?”
Steph stopped in her tracks and fixated on Sora.
“After the Elves—Elven Gard, right?—went as far as to get Chlammy working for them to try to take over this country, you think they’re going to think they were beaten face-on by mere humans who can’t use magic?”
“—Wh-what do you mean?”
“Did you forget? They think we’re people with the support of another country. At the very least, whoever was supporting Chlammy must be reporting it that way, and it’s probably what the other countries think, too.”
The sister continued her brother’s words as if to supplement them.
“…The world thinks…a spy from some other country has taken over Elkia.”
Her brother nodded and went on.
“But they don’t know what country. They don’t know whose spy, whose puppet is running the country, and then suddenly we declare war on the whole world, and this is what they think—‘Some country has installed a puppet government in Elkia and is ready to go on the offensive’—right?
“Oh—”
In this world’s contests, the challenged party had the right to determine the game. So it was in spite of the fact that taking the offensive was extremely disadvantageous that they had declared war on the whole world. And also considering that they had defeated the spy of Elven Gard—
“They’re going to be worried that now there’s some country, some race, that’s got a trump card that can even beat the Elves, right?”
“…So.”
“To throw the whole world into paranoia…”
“…We’re going, and declaring, war on them…”
“…And then not doing anything. See?”
The siblings’ smiling words left Steph speechless.
“The Fifth of the Ten Covenants: ‘The party challenged shall have the right to determine the game.’ When all those countries we declared war against get worried, they’ll probably, like…try to figure out what country is backing us, even though there is none. While the whole world is stretching itself to try to pry into us, let’s pry back, find their weak spots, and solidify our base.”
To the brother who smirked, spoke, and turned his back, Steph asked:
“S-so…when you said you were going to take back our land…you were…lying?”
Steph surprised herself with her significant feeling of regret. Perhaps it was due to a momentary aggressiveness stirred up by Sora’s speech. Or perhaps—
“—Hey, Steph. I talked it over with my sister—whether we want to go back to our old world.”
“Uh?”
“There was nothing to talk about. Our answer is No—there would be no point whatsoever in abandoning a world as fun as this one to go back to that one.”
“…Especially…for us.”
“So, there you go. Now.”
Clapping his hands together, Sora.
“We are humans. The last country of Immanity is this one, Elkia. To prevent it from disappearing, we have set our objective as taking the throne for now—but?”
The sister and the brother. Exchanging looks, laughing happily.
“Okay, my sister?”
“…Mm.”
“The enemy can use magic, can use superpowers. We can’t. We’re at an overwhelming disadvantage, playing against an overwhelming handicap; we have only one city left in our territory; the situation is hopeless. However, to protect the name of Blank, we can’t have a single loss—what do you think?”
On the face of the sister, typically lacking in expression, a childlike smile emerged, and she answered in one word.
“…Sweet.”
“I know, right?”
Steph, watching this exchange with eyes as if watching something unknown—something literal
ly from another world. After lining up each of the conditions of a hopeless situation, the first word that came out was “sweet”—? To Steph, who had no idea what it was supposed to mean, Sora turned back.
“So, returning to your question, Steph.”
“—Uh, yes?”
At being spoken to when she was out of it, her voice slipped into a falsetto.
“About taking back the borders. To be honest, that was a lie.”
“Uh?”
Sora, taking out his phone as he talked. Opening his task scheduler and putting a check by “being king.” He input a new task. Namely—
“Final Objective—Conquer the world, for now!”
“—Wha—?!”
That Sora’s words had gone past taking back the borders—past taking back the continent—to taking over the world. And at just how many times she could be surprised in one day, Steph made a sound with a double meaning. Sora twirling back and walking away, Shiro following him. Steph, finding herself being left alone, panicked and chased after them discombobulated.
“Uh, um, umm, a-a-are you serious?!”
“Blank can’t be anywhere but first place. Whether it’s a play for dominion or whatever, if we’re gonna play a game, our target is to be the only one at the top—that’s our rule.”
Shiro nodded decisively.
—Now that it had come to this, all the more. Stephanie Dola had to realize that she’d still underestimated these siblings. Could it be. Against all odds. It really was true. These two—
—could be the saviors of the human race?
She watched Sora’s back as he departed, and her heartbeat quickened with a thump. Her chest tightened—but there was no more hatred in it. He’d restored her grandfather’s honor. Saved her beloved country—saved Elkia. Declared he’d even take back its territory. Turned to go as if he actually could and would do it. His form, seen from behind—Stephanie Dola could no longer find a reason to hate it.
—In the Kingdom of Elkia, the capital, Elkia: Block 1, Central District…meaning the Elkia Royal Castle: the royal bedchamber. The king of Elkia, sprawled on a bed so huge one asked just how many people were supposed to sleep there. The man who, days before, had been a mere unemployed video game vegetable—Sora (eighteen, virgin).
“—From a cramped gaming room to a dump inn room to Steph’s mansion and finally the royal bedchamber—huh.”
Chuckling at a rise that would make a spaceman sick, Sora held a book. The title of the book, lit in the darkness by the moon and dim lighting: The Ixseed Ecosystem. Sora paused his eyes on the first page and lost himself in thought.
“—Flügel…eh. These seem like guys I could get on my side…”
In the book it was explained: Flügel. A war race created as the sky-soaring vanguard of gods in the ancient Great War. Since the Ten Covenants, their combat abilities have been effectively sealed off. Still, they possess enormous life spans and high magical aptitude, which they have utilized in building a literal city of the heavens on the back of Avant Heim (ä’-vänt hām’), a colossal Phantasma drifting through the sky—which they preserve as their single territory without participating in play for dominion. However, perhaps because of their long life spans, they do have a powerful thirst for knowledge, and engage in games solely to obtain knowledge from the world’s other races—that is, to collect books.
“It sounds like they know a lot about magic, and I could draw them in with my knowledge of another world.”
If he could just make contact with this race somehow, it seemed it would help in figuring out how to fight against magic—
—Knock, knock.
As he thought about such things, there was a reserved knock. Feeling a déjà-vu-like sense that something like this had happened a few days ago, he responded.
“Uh-huh, who is it?”
“It’s—it is Stephanie Dola, Your Majesty… Can I—may I enter, Sir?”
“—Huh? Sure.”
To Steph, who opened the heavy door of the royal bedchamber with a deferent demeanor, Sora spoke.
“Hey, why are you talking and acting like that? Just come in like normal.”
“Well…you see, when I thought about it calmly—Sir—it is true that you are the king of Elkia, and thus—”
“Aaaah! That’s so embarrassing!”
Sora, interrupting Steph with a shout.
“That makes me feel all itchy and it takes too damn long! You can just talk like always; so, what?”
Electricity had not been discovered in Elkia. The royal bedchamber was illuminated only by the dim candle chandelier and the moon. In this faint light, Steph stood with her expression unreadable in the center of the room, unmoving.
“Then—Sora…”
“Right.”
“You ordered me, ‘Fall in love with me,’ so that I would fall at your feet, correct?”
“Uh—yeaaahh…”
“Now that you have become the king of Elkia—I’m—now I’m…”
Through a gap in the clouds, for a moment, the moonlight strengthened, and Steph’s expression became clear.
—It was anxious.
“Uh…so, you’re saying, since I don’t need you anymore anyway, you want me to release you from your covenant?”
“N-no! That’s not what I mean!”
—There he was: for all his brilliance in games, an eighteen-year-old virgin. Flusteredly correcting Sora’s totally off-the-mark interpretation, Steph asked:
“I-I—want…to know. Wh-why you asked me, well, not to—be your possession, as your sister suggested, but to…fall in love with you.”
“…Umm…”
It was due to ulterior motives. I.e., due to Sora’s base desires, i.e., a mistake. As Sora contemplated whether he ought to admit this, a further unexpected question came first.
“So—did you make me fall in love with you…because, well, you had that kind of feeling for me?”
……Huh?
“If—if that happens to be the case…I, uh—all I have left…”
With that, she walked up to the bed, and, with an uncomfortable yet beet-red face. She—pulled up her skirt and said in a pleading tone:
“…to give you now is…this, you know…”
—Hold on.
Hold on, Sora, virgin, eighteen. You just got hit with an issue you can’t overlook. I see…looking at Steph objectively…she is pretty hot. It’s only natural that a healthy young man would want to be liked by a hot chix0r like her. But—what did he want to do after making her fall in love with him?
—Love at first sight? Eh, I don’t know about that. He searched his heart, asking whether he really had romantic feelings for—
Wait—to begin with. (Huh—? Romantic feelings—how are those even supposed to feel?)
—As Sora ran upon the limits of the dateless loser.
“…Well…that’s, uh…”
Snap. A flash and a click. From the other side of the bed had emerged—Shiro, phone in hand.
“Ee—eeyaaaah!”
Seeing Shiro in the same room, Steph hastily lowered her skirt and retreated.
—But she should have realized it was a matter of course. Thinking back on the incident in the inn—there was no way Sora could be by himself.
“On behalf of…Brother…anguished by the limits…of the virgin—Shiro shall explain.”
“Shiro… If I may be so bold, your brother finds it somewhat scarring to be told this by his eleven-year-old sister.”
However, ignoring her brother’s protest, Shiro showed the picture she had just taken. Showing Steph with her skirt pulled up, showing her panties completely.
“…This.”
“—Hnh?”
“…is why Brother told you…to fall…in love with him.”
Looking completely confused, Steph—and even Sora. Shiro explained bluntly so that even they would understand.
“…There is one thing…Brother misses…about our old world.”
Which was that
“…This, world—lacks…pr0n.”
“ “What?” ”
Questioning aloud were both Steph and Sora. But with different meanings. In Sora’s case, it was a protest against an overly blunt demonstration. In Steph’s case—
“‘Prawn’…? What do you mean?”
It was an innocent query. While manipulating her phone, Shiro responded.
“Materials…for fapping… Photographs, videos…etc.… Fantasies…to aid the fap. Collectively, they are called—pr0n…”
“Fap-ping?”
To Steph, who apparently still didn’t understand, Shiro, still without expression.
Closed one hand loosely—and pumped it up and down.
“Wha”
As Steph’s face reddened so violently it seemed it should make a boom, Shiro went further. Started a video playing on her phone and showed it to her.
—A video of when Steph was washing Shiro’s hair: the bath scene.
“…Steph…this is…the meaning of your existence.”
Steph’s reddened face blanched, then dropped and quivered.
—So, anyone would do.
All he wanted was an outlet for his sexual urges.
And, on top of that, he was, you know, doing that stuff looking at his naked sister?!
“Y-you’re scum!”
Shouting, Steph fled the room—as Sora watched her, dazed. Then, to Shiro, who had returned to reading her book on the edge of the bed without apparent concern, he asked.
“—Hey, my thoughts aren’t actually that dirty, y’know.”
“…I summarized…”
“I think you mean summit-ized… And about that bath video? I thought you said it wasn’t okay and didn’t ever let me see it… Could it be you’re trying to get Steph to hate me on purpose?”
“…I’m just eleven… I don’t get this confusing stuff.”
“You sure know how to act like a kid when it’s convenient for you…”
“…You don’t want the photo from just…now?”
“Oh, excuse me, Director. I am much obliged.”
—However. After all—what was the difference between romantic feelings and sexual desire? As Sora pondered such philosophical questions of great weight to an eighteen-year-old virgin, in a voice too soft to hear, Shiro—his sister who wasn’t blood-related—mumbled:
