Volume 8, Chapter 5: Princess-sama’s Magnificent Daily Life, Part 2
Travelling together with Kyoji, the Hero of Water, they departed the great nation of Sail with twelve hors.e.m.e.n and 4 high-speed military carriages.
Along with the 4000-strong army consisting 500 knights, 2500 soldiers, 300 mages and their logistics and support force, they paraded through the main streets of the Kingdom’s capital as a show of force and left immediately after.
Incidentally, the ma.s.ses had all gathered to see the ‘rumored’ [Saint] but because of certain ‘circ.u.mstances’ they were unable to do so, and their shoulders sagged with disappointment.
“…… What do you mean, because some of them might have weak hearts……?”
While murmuring about what someone else had said, Hero Kyoji was deep in thought as he rode his beloved pure-white horse that he’d gotten from the royal family.
This time around for Kyoji, there was little to gain in going to battle.
Since he had already gained immense fame as a hero during the past ten years, he needed no further achievements, but if for ‘some reason’ he chose not to move, his fame would fall.
Kyoji’s main goals were, in a word, nefarious.
He wanted to become the King of Sail. The only person who supposedly knew about this besides the knights who had followed him for years was the Second Princess, Bianca.
But to put it across strongly, those were pretexts to deceive those who were familiar with him.
Kyoji had thrown the First Princess, who had similar ambitions to him, into disgrace, and bearing a grudge against her newborn prince, married him to another country.
Thereafter, he worked hard for the Royal family, gained the trust of the king, and then gradually brainwashed the young Bianca to favor him.
Now, before that young prince matured, all he needed was to ensure that the current king and the First Prince both ‘died of illness’.
Though his plans were supposed to only kick in in a few years, Kyoji had decided to take advantage of this war.
And it was all because Yurushia’s fame as a Saint and that her powers were greater than Kyoji speculated or even imagined.
The Lower-ranked knights and the soldiers had begun to favor her. He heard that the boys and girls from the other world, who were supposed to have been cut off and labelled useless, were quickly acquiring enough power to match the senior soldiers.
Although they didn’t reach the level of Kyoji yet, as some of the older statemen were beginning to lean towards the Saint, he felt the impending collapse of his domestic power.
The plan needed to be brought forward.
And the first stage was bringing Prince Fjord and Yurushia together.
The prince, whose age was similar to hers, had heard the rumors of the beautiful Princess from another world and was interested in her after hearing from one of the spies that had been placed next to her by the Royal Family.
Prince Fjord was already 10. It would not have been strange to have a fiancée already.
But since he was a late-born boy of the royal family, the selection of his consort was being conducted very carefully, as since overtures had come in from the other imperial families, he would not be able to convince the other nations to stand aside unless it wasn’t someone of similar stature.
For example,… someone who was a [Saint] of such fame that they rivalled a Hero?
Yurushia was 12. As a fiancée, she was of the appropriate age, and she was even a d.u.c.h.ess with succession rights to a throne, though it was the throne of another world. And if she raised her achievements in this war, the ‘case’ would be flawless.
Just that in order to do so, he needed ‘either’ of them to want it.
For Kyoji, understanding what that girl was thinking was very difficult. But that terrifying beauty that incited fear at a glance should have captivated the heart of the prince, who had already become accustomed to beautiful things.
And as expected, it seems that Prince Fjord developed a crush on Yurushia.
According to the reports from one of the maids who was spying for him, the Prince seemed to only talk about Yurushia. Of course, the maids had also been guiding his interest, but it was a matter of time before this longing turned into love.
The second step of the plan was to lure the prince out onto the battlefield.
As a prince who’d turned 10, he was supposed to have taken over command of the army as one of the Royals, as a future king. But since he had been mollycoddled since birth, they stopped him from doing so now.
If the war dragged out, the people he’d left in the castle would incite the prince, and then the prime minister that Kyoji had installed would direct the prince to take to battle [For the Princess].
However, he needed to manufacture the situation where it would become convenient to do so.
He needed to prolong the battle into a stalemate.
But for the prince to head into battle, the war needed to also be in a somewhat stable state.
And he would need to draw the Saint Yurushia into the forefront of the war.
On top of that, he would need to deceive both the prince and Yurushia simultaneously……
[Buruu…]
“Oops…… were you worried for me?”
As Kyoji’s eyebrows knitted over this problem, his beloved horse sensed his mood and neighed softly.
Kyoji smiled, and tapping the neck of his horse, sighed lightly.
“The worst thing is, I’ll need to borrow the help of the hero of the south……”
It’s his last resort.
But since this was going to be one of the stepping stones on the way to his ‘ultimate purpose’, as long as that was achieved, Kyoji had no problems doing so………
* * *
“I’m surprised that it doesn’t shake……”
said Mizuki as she looked out of the window of the carriage.
We were occupying the last two carriages of the line formation, travelling together with Kyoji. This carriage had the girls, and the boys were at the back.
In this carriage I rode with Tina and Fannie, along with the two girls who we forcibly dragged along, Touka and Mizuki.
On the men’s side, there was Noa, Daichi and Futa. As well as some of the lesser n.o.bles who were the overseers from the castle.
There was someone surveilling us, but that’s alright, because he’s one of the prime minister’s men, who’s been drawn to our side by scalp ‘rejuvenation’. There is no problem at all.
fufufu…… It seems that he’d been on Kyoji-kun’s side for nearly ten years, but really, that person’s ‘karma’ was terrible. Don’t underestimate the power of a Demon.
Anyway, the reason why the carriages weren’t mixed gender is simple. Mizuki would start getting ‘sick’ immediately, even on carriages that weren’t particularly b.u.mpy. I didn’t say any of this, but it’s inevitable since there were no cures in this world And so, with that reason, the men are placed together in a single carriage.
“What’s with this carriage, does it have a ‘suspension’? I heard that otherworlder technology is being used for this.”
“Wow…… it’s amazing, isn’t it.”
No no no, Touka-chan, it’s just an ordinary technology available on Earth, and you’re already impressed. Well, I don’t know much about the principle either……
It seems that ‘antibiotics’ or similar seems to have been developed recently, and so when the war against the [Forces of Darkness] is over, the population would explode and then the [Fear] would vanish from the earth, and then all of the magic would disappear, no?
Because it seems like magic runs the world instead of science, civilization would collapse when magic power declines.
I can’t even laugh at the otherworlders’ knowledge cheats when as a result, the other world is collapsing.
“…… Or maybe we were called to this [World]?”
“Eh? What’s wrong, Yuru-chan?”
“No, it’s nothing.”
…… Was I overthinking it? Because there seems to be Demons in this world, I was called to this world by the will of the world, or rather…… by their human resource shortage, so to speak.
Here…… it seems that the Demon World entrance for [Tess] was relatively close to the Demon World for [Atra]where we were from, given that rumors flowed from there to here, but Noa has yet to find the coordinates for Atra.
I wonder if it’ll be easier to just pull out one of the [Demon Lord] pillars of the Demon World……?
Well, not that I want to.
Even that “ordinary-cla.s.s” guy, had he fought me in the material world with Rinne, would have caused inestimable millions of lives in damage.
…… Maybe there was a shortage of Demon resources, because Rinne and I have crushed two of the pillar [Demon Lords]……
No, there’s no way.
“…… Hey, Yuru-chan?”
“What’s the matter, Touka?”
Touka that’d been relatively quiet ever since we started out journey suddenly asked me a question with a serious expression.
“We’re going to war now, right……?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
I thought that she’d been quiet since we’d forcibly dragged her along. Because I pulled them along forcibly, having forgotten to tell them that they would be coming, and I’d been pushy.
“We’re…… going to…… have to kill people?”
“……!”
At Touka’s words, Mizuki next to me gasped.
Well, that’s certainly true…… Ever since I became a [Demon], the only differences between human and animal lives was in their [Taste], but I can empathize.
But……
“If you don’t like it, you don’t have to do it, you know?”
“……eh?”
“B-but…”
As I gave them that offhand answer, Touka and Mizuki had complex expressions on their faces.
Since you’ve been kidnapped to this world for a few months, you’ve already begun to think about what it means to live in this world, haven’t you?
One has to fight to live. But; there were mountains of people who weren’t fighting in this world.
“You don’t need to force yourself to do anything. But…… even if you don’t want to ‘kill’ on the battlefield, it’s also possible to ‘help’.”
““………””
That’s why I’ve been training you. Well, it was also because it was convenient for me.
“Save people. Allies…… I don’t care even if it’s an enemy. If anyone has any complaints, ‘I’ will do something about it.”
I smiled as gently as I could at the two to put them at ease.
“……Is that alright?”
“We’re…… we’ll rely on Yuru-chan…”
“It’s okay. That’s part of my ‘work’ too.”
As I told them so, the sadness that hung around Touka and Mizuki’s faces lightened.
Do your best!
…… It’ll become a problem if you all don’t become proper [Heroes].
It’s not that I don’t want them to kill. …… or so I told myself, but along the way, I became unsure of that.
Fannie suddenly turned away towards the window as I spoke.
…… Fannie-chan, are you turning away to hide the fact you’re laughing at me?
Author’s Notes:
Note: the will of the world, isn’t a G.o.d, but rather something like the [Singular Life] of the world. It doesn’t have feelings like people do.
Just like how people don’t deal with a single fungus in their body individually, but only adjust their bodily conditions, so too does the world.
Next time, the journey continues. It’ll get a bit relaxed.