Outbreak Company: Volume 12

by Ichiro Sakaki

  “...Koganuma Minori... regrets... nothing...”

  Ahh. Having observed an all-too-loaded conversation between two handsome guys at close distance, she had become terminally moe. You know, when your heart bursts from sheer delight?

  I took this in in an instant, and felt better. She would be fine. We could leave her alone.

  Loek and Romilda, though, naturally didn’t realize what was going on. “Minori-sensei!”

  “Don’t die on us!”

  They helplessly shook Minori-san, still on the ground and completely white (figuratively speaking) from moe overload. Then...

  “Shinichi... Is that you?” Garius turned toward us and called out.

  I guess you can’t exactly hide five people at close range making that kind of noise.

  “No, it’s uh—”

  “You heard everything?” He had a slight smile on his face. It didn’t look like he was going to chew us out for eavesdropping. In fact, I thought he seemed almost relieved. He didn’t seem like his usual, unflappable self, but almost like a little kid who hadn’t been sure what to do. The only real question was how I should respond. Before I could figure it out, though—

  “You’re up, Shinichi-kun.” Minori-san, who had come back to life in the meantime, put a hand on my shoulder and whispered in my ear.

  “What...?”

  She had been on death’s doorstep just a moment before, but now her fingers were digging into my shoulder so hard it was uncomfortable. Adjusting her glasses with her free hand, she said, “The only cure for the agony of love spurned is a new love born.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Hey, ouch, that hurts!” I looked at Hikaru-san, standing beside Minori-san, as if to say Help me!, but he grabbed my shoulder, too.

  “Minori-san’s right,” he said. “You’re the only one who can comfort Minister Cordobal now.”

  “Yikes!” The next moment, the two of them were shoving me forward, out of the shadows. Directly at Garius. “Uh, um, uhh...” It was all I could do not to fall over. A few stumbling steps later, I found myself standing in front of the knight. Our eyes met. “Uhhhhh... ahem.”

  I quickly looked away, no idea what to say to him. I could see Minori-san and Hikaru-san both clenching their fists and nodding at me from the shadows, urging me on. But what the heck were they expecting from me? I mean, I knew. But still...

  “That’s a lot to put on my shoulders...”

  Even I could tell how wounded and dejected Garius was feeling. Setting aside all the liking-men stuff, I did want to make him feel better somehow, if I could. But I was a girlfriendless shut-in of a NEET who had never so much as been on a date, so what was I supposed to do?

  Garius smiled a little to see me so at a loss. “It seems you’ve caught me at a rather less than flattering moment.” Then he turned away, as if he didn’t want me to see his face right now.

  He started walking. Was he just going to walk away? His bearing was as regal as ever, yet the disappointment in his mood was almost palpable.

  “H-Hey, Garius-san?”

  “Hm?”

  He stopped. Thank goodness.

  He glanced over his shoulder at me, and I scoured my brain for something comforting to say. I played back the conversation I’d just heard in my mind, desperate to find some other spin I could put on the words.

  And then it came to me.

  “That thing Prince Rubert said earlier...”

  Your own feelings, any affection for anyone else—if it can be used, you use it, he’d said.

  “Wasn’t he pretty much admitting that he cares about you, Garius-san?”

  Something unusual happened then: Garius’s eyes went wide in an expression of surprise.

  “Yes, he ended up using those feelings for political ends, but the feelings themselves were real, right? He’s, like, the ultimate tsundere.”

  The same was true of what he had said before that. The freedom to love is something we don’t have and will never have. Wasn’t that, in essence, a way of lamenting that because he was born a royal, Rubert could never openly express his love for Garius, however great that love might be?

  Garius stood silent for what seemed like ages.

  “Of... of course, that’s just my... my personal interpretation...” I said, rapidly losing confidence. Garius knew Rubert about a million times better than I did. I was just an ignorant outsider offering baseless speculation.

  Finally, Garius said, “I see.” After what appeared to be a moment’s contemplation, he smiled a peaceful smile. The way he narrowed his eyes, the way his expression looked almost affectionate—in a way, it reminded me of Petralka. No question the two of them were related. He didn’t exactly look like he was suddenly full of energy, but the shroud of darkness that had seemed to hang over him a few minutes before had dispersed. Assuming I wasn’t just imagining that, then I guess I had managed to make him feel at least a little better.

  I let out a little breath. “Well, uh, I guess I’d better be going...”

  Job done, I turned to go back to my friends, who were still “hiding” nearby.

  About a second later, though, someone pulled on my hand so hard I almost pitched forward. It was Garius, who had come up quickly.

  “Thank you, Shinichi,” he said, still grasping my hand tightly.

  “D-Don’t mention it. I’m glad you’re feeling a little better.”

  Garius’s face was definitely closer to mine than was absolutely necessary. I looked away from him a bit.

  He seemed to be feeling better, and that was what mattered. I had done my part, so I wanted to go back to my friends. I wanted to get out of here! (I really did, so I’m saying it twice!)

  Garius, though, didn’t seem to pick up on my private wish. “Your help, Shinichi, seems to have relieved me of a great many burdens,” he said. “For that, I must thank you.” He smiled tenderly at me.

  ...Tenderly?

  “G-Gee, that’s great...”

  “If I may ask, have you no thoughts about these recent events?”

  “Huh? Should there be?”

  “I see...”

  Excuse me...?

  I thought I saw a shadow pass over Garius’s face, but maybe I was just imagining it. The gaze he leveled at me was so intense... I found myself wishing I could look away, or at least get this over with. Quickly. Please?

  “U-Um...”

  I had a rapidly expanding bad feeling. I glanced back at the others in hopes of rescue, but Loek and Romilda were just watching, wide-eyed but uncomprehending; Hikaru-san was positively enjoying this; and Minori-san was giving me a huge thumbs-up.

  Forget the encouragement, guys!

  “Shinichi.” Garius almost whispered my name. His face was very, very close.

  Too close! Too close!

  If this were a gal game, I’d be wondering where I had taken the wrong path. That thought constituted my attempt to escape from reality as the door to a new world forced itself open before me.

  It was several days since Prince Rubert had gone home. The employees of Amutech were in the small audience chamber, giving our regular report. Myusel was with us today. Partly that was because she was slated to teach at school—but it was also because as a half-elf, and a maid at that, she had been understandably avoiding the castle while Prince Rubert was here.

  The first thing Petralka said from her place on her throne was, “These events have provided a valuable lesson.”

  “What events?” I asked.

  “Everything involving Prince Rubert,” Petralka said with a thin smile. It had been days since the prince left, so I’d thought maybe she was talking about something else, but apparently the prince and everything that had happened with him was still in her mind. “There is no need to hurry,” Petralka said, and for some reason she looked away from me, into the distance. “We have decided that we shall take time to consider, to think, and to find an answer.”

  An answer? She’d already answered Prince Rubert’s marriag
e proposal... ahh. But there were sure to be a lot more proposals in the future, and she would have to think about what to say. To me, as a twenty-first-century Japanese person, Petralka still seemed young—maybe too young to be getting married. But this world thought differently. Women married younger, and empresses were seen as eligible earlier than most. Suitors would come from both inside and outside Eldant. She’d refused this time, effectively returning us to the status quo. But the idea of marriage had been planted in Petralka’s mind, and it wasn’t going to go away.

  “By the standards of Ja-pan, we are yet young to be married, is that not so?”

  “Er, yeah. Yeah, that’s true.”

  In fact, people were marrying later and later in Japan—the plummeting birthrate was becoming a real problem—but I figured most places in the world would consider your mid-teens pretty early to be getting married. Considering how bothered Petralka was by her childish looks, I wondered if she might see marriage as a sign of adulthood, and be eager to get hitched because it would help show that she was fully grown up. But then again, nothing says still a kid like the urge to prove you’re an adult.

  From that perspective, maybe Petralka had started to mature. To become an adult, you have to start by recognizing that you’re a child. Or at least, I thought so. I was hardly a wizened old man myself, so maybe I wasn’t one to talk.

  “That being the case...” Petralka leaned on the right arm of her throne and looked—not at me, but at Myusel. The maid promptly straightened up. “We will not brook your overtaking us while we take our time to think, Myusel.”

  “Wha...?” The befuddled interjection came not from Myusel, but from me. Why was Petralka suddenly talking to my maid? Was she telling Myusel not to marry anyone before Petralka herself did? No, that would be tyrannical, wouldn’t it? Or did she have something else in mind?

  It looked like I was the only person who was confused, though. Myusel sort of shuddered fearfully, but then, to my surprise, she replied with a firm nod. “Understood, Your Majesty.”

  “Mm.” Petralka nodded back at her.

  An empress nodding at a maid was like the heavens nodding at the earth, yet the two of them seemed to be recognizing each other almost like friendly rivals. Or was that just my overactive imagination? I was starting to feel uncomfortable; I wasn’t sure where to put my eyes. My gaze was just darting this way and that when it happened to meet Garius’s eyes as he stood beside Petralka.

  Oops. Now that I had looked straight at him, I couldn’t exactly look immediately away again. I forced myself to smile as pleasantly as I could and tried to think of something harmless to say.

  “Uh, I guess it’s been a bit of a rough few days for you too, huh, Garius-san?”

  Shoot! I didn’t realize until the words were out of my mouth that it wasn’t really the right thing to say. It was like pouring salt in his wounds.

  But Garius, with no sign of offense, said, “Not at all.” In fact, his smile seemed more genuine than ever. “These events offered me a chance to do some thinking as well.”

  “Oh, uh, they did?”

  Garius looked so... cheerful. I guess he considered the matter of Rubert settled for the time being. I didn’t know how he had managed to accept it so quickly, but if he felt okay about it, and even thought he had learned something from it, then that was great.

  Still smiling, Garius went on, “Value the truth of things above appearances and pretensions—that’s one way.”

  “Come again...?”

  “A public marriage may not be necessary, if the substance of the relationship amounts to the same thing. It’s just a possibility.”

  “Huh...?”

  What was he talking about? Er, I mean, if Prince Rubert had married Petralka, then Garius would practically be—well, I knew we had considered that possibility, the idea that one royal marriage could serve two purposes. But why bring that up now? And why look at me while he said it? And so seriously?

  I was just starting to really sweat when Petralka clapped her hands and exclaimed “Yes! That is indeed a possibility!”

  I guess this made sense to her somehow.

  “Ow!” I was still at a loss to understand what was going on when somebody pounded me on the back. I glanced over my shoulder to find Minori-san, using one hand to cover her mouth and the other to slap me heedlessly on the back. Again and again. It was like she couldn’t hold it in. What the heck was going on?

  “A public proposal? Garius-san... oh, what an operator!” Minori-san exclaimed gleefully.

  “Er...?”

  “Oh, come on! You don’t have to be embarrassed!” She continued to smack my shoulder, practically laughing out loud.

  Well, at least there was one thing I understood. I might not know what was going on, but it was obvious that Minori-san had completely lost it. Again.

  “I’m sorry, I don’t know what you’re talking about. And that really hurts.” She might be a girl, but as a trained member of the military, her open-handed slap was enormously powerful. And painful.

  “Uh—Um, Shinichi-sama?”

  “Huh? Wh-What is it, Myusel?”

  “I’ll... I’ll be sure to give it my all, too...!”

  “Huh? All of your what?”

  Even Myusel was jumping on the nonsense train now? She had clenched her fists in a kind of I’m-on-it! pose. Was I seriously the only one who wasn’t getting this?

  “H-Hey, Hikaru-san...” I said, turning to the one person who had been quiet the whole time so far. He was given to outbursts of 100% chuunibyou-ism, sure, but his slantwise take on things had a sort of rationality all its own. I figured he probably had the closest thing to an objective perspective on whatever was going on here. “C-Can you explain—”

  But Hikaru-san didn’t say anything, just put a hand to his cheek and let out a very long sigh. Then he narrowed his eyes at me and finally spoke: “I really, really want to hit you right now.”

  “What?!”

  “Yeah, no kidding.”

  “Y-You too, Minori-san?!”

  So I really was the only one who wasn’t getting it?!

  “Do you think maybe he has some kind of sickness that makes him this dense?”

  A sickness! They said I was sick!

  Wait—and dense?! Why?

  “C-Come on, what’s happening?”

  “Ohhhh...” Hikaru-san let out a very pointed sigh.

  ..................................................................................................Oh.

  Then, and only then, I finally put the pieces together.

  Myusel. Petralka. And me.

  That was—but we—

  Hikaru-san gave me a sarcastic look where I had frozen with fear, sweat dripping down my brow.

  “Eh, looks like you’ve got plenty of time,” he said. “Think about your options and get back to us.”

  （つづく）

  To be continued...

  Afterword

  Hullo, light novelist Sakaki here, bringing you Volume 12 of Outbreak Company: The Power of Moe.

  At long last, this is the volume you’ve all been waiting for! The one focused directly on...... him!

  .................................

  .................................

  Um... er. You were waiting for it, weren’t you? (Crickets)

  To be fair, he didn’t end up having the cover to himself. He and Petralka have a sort of sibling (?) shot there. We were afraid that if it was just Garius on the front, people would have to double-check that they were actually reading Outbreak Company. Or that it might accidentally get shelved with the BL... (Okay, we were thinking too hard.)

  You might be interested to know that I never originally intended to do this plot. Hadn’t even thought of it. But the moment Outbreak became an anime...

  “Sakaki-san. This is the moment. This is when you do the story about Garius’s ex-boyfriend! You know there has to be a handsome someone in his past from when he was studying abroad somewhere! Th
ey (BLEEP) and they (BLEEEEEP) and they murmur ‘It’s been so long...’ while touching each other’s hair...!”

  Thus my friend, an author, known for light novels like Gun Princess and Carly, regular novels like the Tokkan series, and also even manga like Makai Ouji—so pretty well-known all around, is what I’m saying—Takadono Madoka insisted—er, persuaded me, and so I wrote this story.

  Thank you, Takadono-sensei. No, really.

  I left the broad contours of this story about Garius and his ex-boyfriend to my thoroughly rotten assistant (“Leave the brainstorming to me! In fact, just let me write the whole thing!”), and she got to it with an enthusiasm worthy of Minori-san. I’ve been known to turn to her for Minori-san’s dialogue before (with appropriate touch-ups by me to make sure they’re in-character and fit with the surrounding dialogue), but this was something new, what with the entire story having certain proclivities.

  When it comes to stuff like the floor and the ceiling never meeting, or a spoon that’s being chatted up by a fork... I mean, that stuff just wouldn’t have occurred to me. The possibilities are truly limitless.

  Once again, this tale started life as a short story, but grew in the writing until it filled an entire volume all by itself. I was a little worried that if I focused exclusively on the relationship between Garius and Rubert, I might discover some places within myself that I really didn’t want to find (or am I just imagining that? I am, aren’t I?), so I handled it this way instead.

  And so we have Minori-san going completely off the deep end in this volume. I’m no Loek, but I kind of think she’s cutest when she’s like this...

  For the past two or three volumes now, I’ve been gradually pointing the series toward its conclusion (not to say it’s coming anytime soon, mind you), and that includes my attempt in this book to start to shatter the love triangle (or however many sides this polygon has by now). It may prove to be a crucial volume in terms of Petralka’s story.

  Even I, the author, don’t know for sure yet whether Shinichi will end up making a harem proper, or getting himself stabbed to death by someone (hey!), or something else entirely—all I know is I hope my dear and endlessly indulgent readers will come along for the ride (grin).