Koukaku no Regios

Mifi Rotten.

She boldly stepped into the outer area.

It was an action that was kind like a ritual for her when she came to a new city.

"Ah, hmm."

Mifi had murmured this when she got off the roaming bus and felt the wind blowing over her. Her hair, which had grown because she was too lazy to cut it, was still tied in twin tails like before.

Now that the cities didn"t move, the roaming buses that had once chased after the autonomous moving cities (Regios) roaming over the land had become scheduled transportation that went between cities.

Even so, they still hadn"t abandoned their name of "roaming buses". It was because everyone was used to that name.

Maybe the name would change in ten or twenty years. If someone thought of an appropriate enough name before then, the name might even be replaced right away.

Mifi knew that it was common sense.

They had moved from an era where the cities moved around to one where the cities didn"t move. Mifi knew what she did because she had lived through such a period of time.

"So this is Grendan, huh. It’s my first time coming here, even though it"s nearby."

The people getting off the bus jostled Mifi as she looked around the scenery of the road.

This was the city where the strongest Military Artists gathered, a city that had continuously fought with filth monsters, as well as the city that had fought with a certain being that fell from the sky and had become the site of the final battle. Mifi had naturally imagined that this place would have a pointed atmosphere full of killing intent.

But that atmosphere was nowhere. Though Mifi was only walking from the outer area to the city along this road, she already noticed that she would have to fix her inflexible impression.

Houses, restaurants, and billboards for consumer stores densely lined the road to the city.

It had become possible to watch buildings spreading away from the city center in cities other from this one after the cities stopped moving, but Grendan"s style of expansion was unique and of a level that couldn"t be seen anywhere else.

This place was rapidly responding to the changing times.

It was because Mifi had naturally imagined this place with the atmosphere of a stubborn, traditional old man that she was surprised at this kind of adaptability.

But upon thinking carefully, maybe that wasn"t strange.

"Well, after all, it"s Layfon"s and Clara"s hometown."

That impression of hers seemed very strange when she considered those two.

She had probably prepared her mind too much - Mifi secretly scolded herself.

"First is to gather information, but......"

Mifi held up the tourist map she had gotten on the way as she sank into thought.

Though she had rushed here after hearing the rumors, what should she do to confirm the truth?

"I can"t just run on in."

Mifi spoke as she continued walking.

She had already folded up the tourist map and stuffed it in her pocket.

During her walk, she noticed map terminals for travelers to use, so she took a more detailed look there and found her destination.

Actually, Mifi already had someone to get information from.

"That"s how things are, so here I am."

"Oh."

Mifi had suddenly showed up with a smile, but the other person reacted a bit dully.

"Uh, Mi-chan?"

"Yes yes, it"s been a while."

Mifi had come to an inst.i.tution called the Psyharden Orphanage, and in front of her was Leerin.

"It"s been... a while."

"Did you forget about me?"

Leerin"s stiff reaction made Mifi feel a bit anxious.

"You"re Mifi from Zuellni. I remember."

After saying this, Leerin"s stiffness finally let up a bit.

"But I was only there for a short year, and--"

"Yeah, it"s already been a long time."

Mifi nodded, noticing what Leerin wanted to say.

In other words, Leerin wanted to say that it had already been too long.

It had already been three years since Mifi graduated from Zuellni. And when you added her time in school......

"It has been a long time."

"Yeah."

There was no helping it if Leerin didn"t remember Mifi"s face.

After all, Leerin looked a bit different from what Mifi remembered. The Leerin she knew was a mature girl who gave off a somewhat calming atmosphere, but now she felt much more depth from that calm att.i.tude.

"Sorry, sorry."

Mifi smiled leisurely.

"Well, I have something to ask of you."

"Huh?"

"Actually......"

Mifi prepared to say her request right away, but right then.

"Leerin-san!"

A somewhat-unreliable voice approached them.

"What is it, Myunfa-sensei?"

A bespectacled woman who looked somewhat unreliable just like her voice did showed up. Her age was probably about the same as Mifi"s.

Though that woman gave off an unreliable atmosphere, her movements were very precise. Maybe she was a Military Artist - Mifi thought.

"Um...... Shefa..."

"What about Shefa?"

"He said he wanted to fight with Shasheila. Um, in the Luckens dojo."

"What?"

Leerin frowned at Myunfa"s words.

"How did things end up that way?"

"Uh, I don"t understand the situation either."

Mifi looked at the teary-eyed Myunfa and the fl.u.s.tered Leerin as she thought "no, she can"t be a Military Artist, right", continuing to observe the gla.s.ses-wearing woman.

But she wouldn"t be able to bring up her topic if this went on.

"Uh, who are Shefa and Shasheila? Also, is Luckens the same as Gorneo-senpai"s family?"

"Uh, who"s this?"

Myunfa gave her a surprised look.

"Hm~~"

Leerin put a finger on her forehead and thought.

It looked like some troublesome problem had happened, but Mifi obviously wouldn"t back down so easily.

"Ah, nice to meet you. I"m Mifi Rotten. I"m from here."

She gave her business card after saying this.

"Ah, okay."

Myunfa, who wasn"t used to things like business cards, looked at the name and the name of the magazine written on the card with a clearly confused appearance and tilted her head.

"What"s "World Times"?"

"It"s the name of the magazine that I"m an editor for."

"Huh? O......Okay."

"It"s alright, our magazine will be published here soon."

Mifi smiled at the confused Myunfa.

"After all, we"re aiming to be the first large-scale informational magazine in the world!"

Though her true goal was important, she couldn"t forget about the matters right before her.

Mifi secretly decided to persist until the very end.

Gorneo Luckens.

He had rarely felt relaxed through his entire life.

The seed of his headaches was always near him and never disappeared. Once he resolved one, another would show up, often coming with one or two more.

That "seed of his headaches" would germinate and proliferate even if he didn"t plant and water it.

What a bothersome thing.

"What is it?"

The noise from outside made Gorneo return to the present.

Morning training had ended and it was now break time.

"Ah, Acting[1] Master."

There were several Military Artists staying behind in the vast dojo to carry out individual training. They also looked through the windows at the commotion outside.

"Uh, the girl--"

Gorneo vaguely knew what was happening just by hearing those words.

Shrill childish voices he had grown accustomed to overlapped and reached his ears from the courtyard.

"Shefa came?"

"Seems so."

Gorneo pressed on his temple at the disciple"s words.

Gorneo"s daughter, Shasheila, got along very poorly with her childhood friend Shefa.

They got along so poorly that people wondered why they were still called childhood friends.

And they would fight all the time.

"Honestly, what are they fighting about at age five."

Gorneo groaned quietly as he moved to the courtyard.

Even Military Artist children should be able to smile and watch from the sidelines at age five. Even Military Artist children were very limited in what they could do at age five.

But unfortunately, these two weren"t ordinary children.

Gorneo complained as he ran to the courtyard.

"We"ll decide victory today for sure!"

"Decide victory!"

What did they mean, "decide victory" - though he couldn"t help but think that, commenting on everything a five-year-old child did wouldn"t help with anything.

"Cut it out!"

Gorneo shouted as loud as he could, and the Kei-infused war cry resounded through the courtyard.

But unfortunately, his intimidation had succeeded in knocking out the disciples who were watching the situation in the dojo behind him, but didn"t work at all on the children and the others who should have taken the entire sound head-on.

The two children stood face-to-face.

One was a red-haired girl who looked very fierce. Her hair was very curly, and stuck out here and there even when it was tied up behind her head.

She was Shasheila Luckens, Gorneo"s daughter.

The other person was the complete opposite, a boy with straight, black hair.

His name was Shefa Almonise.

That"s right, he was the son of the Queen of Grendan - Alsheyra Almonise.

What was the prince of the Almonise family of the Three Royal Families doing?

"Oh, Goru. What are you doing?"

"Ah, Gorneo. Hi."

The kids ignored Gorneo and glared at each other, but two other people looked over at him.

These two were very annoying.

"Why didn"t you stop them?"

Gorneo asked the woman closer to him with a reproachful tone.

Though he was ninety-nine percent sure this was a futile effort, it was unfortunate that his personality made him ask this.

"Why? The two of them seem like they"re having fun."

The woman, who had red hair just like Shasheila, said with a calm att.i.tude.

"That"s not the problem."

Though it was just like he imagined, this answer that didn"t resolve anything at all felt very bothersome to Gorneo.

Her name was Shante Luckens. In the past, her name had been Shante Leite and she had been in the Academy City Zuellni together with Gorneo. Now she was Gorneo"s wife and Shasheila"s mother.

And the other person.

She was also a mother.

Of course the two of them were both mothers.

Gorneo didn"t think that Shefa"s father had any common sense, but he was certain that he wasn"t the kind of person to excitedly join in on this kind of fight.

Right, so based on personality, the person there definitely had to be the mother.

That ought to be correct, but--

"Why did you turn young!?"

In any case, Gorneo wouldn"t be satisfied unless he said this, so that"s what he shouted.

Over there was Shefa"s mother, Alsheyra. That was completely correct.

But her appearance definitely couldn"t be called that of a mother.

She was definitely two heads shorter than she was the last time he had seen her, and her shoulders had shrunk according to the same ratio. Even her expression held a youth to match her physique.

In terms of her appearance, she had returned to that of a ten-year old.

"Hehehehe, I surprised you, didn"t I, Gorneo."

The little Alsheyra put her hands on her hips and stuck out her chest next to Shefa.

"Though I can stop my body from aging, it"s impossible to reverse aging no matter how much Kei power you have. That"s been a foregone conclusion among Military Artists for a long time."

Though it had become a foregone conclusion, no one among the Heaven"s Blade successors could even maintain their youth like the Queen.

"I was always thinking about where the problem was. Even if the muscles have already grown, you should just need to tighten the skin. If you do that, your muscles naturally return to a suitable size after a while. That"s right, the problem is with the bones. The bones are the only thing you can"t shrink. But I finally solved that puzzle."

Alsheyra said this with a pained expression, perhaps thinking that she had become a scholar.

"Bone density is the key to solving the puzzle!"

Alsheyra made a fist as she said this, her face filling with light.

"Your bones will fracture if you just rapidly increase the pressure over your entire body. If you don"t do that, and instead take your time to gently pressurize them, you can push the surface bones inside bit by bit. With those methods, you can shrink your body without harming your bones!"

Gorneo didn"t understand what she was saying at all.

"Oh, I see."

"You get it!?"

Gorneo looked at Shante with a stunned expression, who was wearing an expression of admiration.

"Hey, you"re too loud!"

Shasheila shouted angrily at the adults who had ignored the children and begun becoming noisy themselves.

"This is my and Shasheila"s fight, so watch quietly."

Shefa also looked worriedly at Alsheyra.

"What? You were getting dominated before."

"Sh......Shut up!"

"And Shasheila even ended up protecting you!"

"I said shut up!"

Gorneo felt sympathy for the red-faced, shouting Shefa.

"Anyway, I said not to fight!"

Though he felt sympathetic, it was an unrelated matter.

"That"s not something kids should do!"

"Even if I"m a kid, there are things I can"t back down from!"

Shefa retorted to Gorneo"s anger.

"Right, right!"

The two of them would only get along at this sort of time.

"Today we"re definitely going to decide victory!"

"Decide victory!"

The two of them released Kei as they shouted.

In that moment, Gorneo lowered his center of gravity and prepared to meet the incoming shockwaves.

The air pushed strongly against him and his face was a.s.saulted by a pain as if it were being struck.

The two kids had unleashed Kei.

Just that much had led to a phenomenon of this level.

They couldn"t be spoken of as mere five-year-old kids.

These five-year-old children were already displaying incredibly abnormal Military Artist talent.

"Honestly!"

The birth of this child was a joyous thing for the Luckens family - perhaps it made up for his brother"s failures - but Gorneo himself just wondered why things had turned out this way.

"Why do I have to get played around with like this!?"

He was always being toyed with by others, so much that he even felt hate for it.

"Ahh, it"s always like this! My whole life has been like this!"

"Goru, calm down."

Shante consoled the dismayed Gorneo.

Now that things had turned out like this, Gorneo could no longer stop it.

After all, he was unable to approach due to the Kei pressure.

"Come on, we"ll see who"s the best today!"

"Yeah!"

Shasheila nodded after Shefa said this.

"Today for sure......"

"I"ll show you whose mom Leerin-sensei is!"

The two of them shouted this in unison and collided with one another.

The shockwave produced was completely incomparable to the one before, and Gorneo was blown away.

"Uh, your moms are right there!"

"Y......Yeah. Shasheila, I"m your mother!"

Their wails reached his ears as he was being blown away.

"............You get what you deserve."

Gorneo"s mood improved somewhat.

Alsheyra Almonise.

The fact that she was her mother had been denied completely.

"Why!?"

Her question became a wail, but no retort or answer came. Her son was fighting, and Shasheila"s mother was also frozen in the same state. That guy who pretended to be a normal person had been blown away.

"Why, why? Is it because I became so young? Meaning that being young is a sin? Is the problem that I"m beautiful and strong and the queen and perfect? Is it hard to feel close to me? To think even my son would think that! Ahh, my existence itself is a crime."

"How"s that possible."

A retort came from behind her.

"What are you doing? Honestly, you"re the same as before."

It was Leerin.

"What do you mean, "same as before"."

"You"re the same as before. Stop it, you two!"

Leerin"s voice got through the explosive sounds of fighting booming around them.

Stop.

The children, who hadn"t even listened to a certain large man when he bellowed this, stopped instantly.

"Sensei!"

"Sensei, don"t stop us!"

"I"m stopping you! Actually, what are you even doing?"

"We"re already fed up with our moms."

"Yeah, yeah."

The children’s" words froze the two mothers.

"What"s wrong with them?"

Leerin asked.

Those words were generally thoughtful.

"Because Mom can"t cook."

"When I ask for sweets she tells me to steal from the orchard."

"She get in loud arguments at night."

"She stole the fruit I brought back."

"When she really likes a food she always makes me eat the same thing."

"She broke my toys."

"She can"t sew either."

"She got me kicked out of kindergarten when she made a fuss at the parent conference."

"Me too."

The children listed their points of dissatisfaction one by one, making Leerin"s expression colder and colder.

Shefa and Shasheila had only recently entered the Psyharden Orphanage that Leerin managed.

Their mothers" reasons were that the children had extraordinary talent, so a normal kindergarten would be unable to foster them. Myunfa was a rare individual who was a Military Artist and had preschool teaching qualifications, so they had wanted to entrust their children to her no matter what - supposedly.

Leerin had also felt split when she heard those requests. The children gave off a very crude impression, and they might have led to problems in Leerin"s orphanage inst.i.tution.

The days when she could meet Alsheyra so casually were no longer a reality, so Leerin hadn"t seen Shefa either. That had been the same for Shasheila.

So she had been a bit worried.

But she quickly realized that those worries were unfounded.

Shefa and Shasheila were both very obedient children. They would pick up on things right away, and quickly got along with the children of the orphanage.

Leerin had even wondered what exactly the problem with them was.

Meaning that the problem was with their mothers.

"Ignoring the first half for now, I can"t ignore the last part."

Leerin glared fiercely at the two of them.

"Hahahahaha......"

Alsheyra could only laugh dryly.

"Well, this is okay though."

"I only met Leerin-sensei because I got kicked out."

"And I made lots of friends."

"But there"s only one open bed right now."

"So only one person can become a family member."

Alsheyra instantly paled the moment she heard this.

"Ah, not good."

She spoke unconsciously.

Though they hadn"t met in a long time, she didn’t think her intuition about Leerin was wrong.

Myunfa"s face became pale behind Leerin as if to back up Alsheyra"s feeling.

If she, who was always with Leerin, was also reacting like this, it meant that Alsheyra"s feeling was correct.

So she had better run.

She thought this to herself.

But she was grabbed firmly.

"Where are you running?"

"Ah, huh?"

Her arm had been grabbed and hence she couldn"t move. Alsheyra felt helpless.

"Leerin, if I remember right, didn"t you turn back into an ordinary person?"

Airen had revived in that battle back then, and Leerin had lost Airen"s factor from inside her body at the same time. She had returned to an ordinary person, and thus her decision to abandon her right to succeed the throne had obtained approval.

Even if their mission had already ended, the pursuit of strength that was so valued among the Grendan royal family wouldn"t vanish so easily.

So Leerin"s decision to abandon her right to succeed the throne had pa.s.sed very easily.

Could it be that Leerin had tricked everyone?

"Yeah, I turned back into an ordinary person."

"Huh? What"s that mean? I thought I was supposed to be the strongest in Grendan, right?"

"Of course, the fact that Your Majesty is the strongest hasn"t changed.

"Uh, then what"s this?"

"Your Majesty, didn"t you know?"

"Kn......Know what?"

"What happened to Airen-sama and Saya after that battle?"

"They...... disappeared.

Right, Airen and Saya had fought in that battle and disappeared. According to what Nina, who had been in the center of that battle, had said, the two of them been swallowed up by Dixerio"s flame and had vanished.

But Saya had created this world, and it still went on. Her death ought to be equivalent to this world"s death, and since that hadn"t happened, it meant she hadn"t died.

That part brought Alsheyra relief, so she hadn"t sent anyone to find their whereabouts. After all, Grendan had been incredibly busy after the battle, and they couldn"t even decide where they ought to look.

"It"s very troublesome, but they were hurt in that battle and are recovering right now. The hiding place they chose is--"

"No way."

"Yeah."

The moment she nodded, in that very instant, her left eye changed. It became a strange eye with a ring of thorns in it.

"This time it"s the factors of both of them, which is honestly very troublesome."

"In other words, you"re the one maintaining the world right now, Leerin?"

"Maybe so."

Alsheyra could only feel terrified at that smiling face.

Incidentally, this conversation was spoken in a volume that only the two of them could hear. The fact that they she could do such a thing directly proved that Leerin wasn"t an ordinary person.

"Then......"

Creak......

The hand that Leerin grabbed Alsheyra with increased its strength.

"Uh, that really hurts."

"Of course. It"s to keep you from running away, right? Since I"m going to lecture all four of you at the same time."

"Noo~ooo~ooo~"

Alsheyra"s resistance was ignored magnificently. The children’s" expressions also changed when they noticed the change in Leerin"s atmosphere.

"I won"t forgive you if you run away."

With those words, the children froze where they were and didn"t move.

Afterwards, Shefa and Shasheila were scolded for scorning their mothers and for their misunderstandings of the orphanage.

Of course, their mothers were also admonished as those responsible for overseeing them.

Leerin would also correct her operating procedure and fix what the children thought about the orphanage.

"What a capable caretaker."

"Yeah, I look up to her a lot."

Myunfa expressed her agreement.

"But come to think of it, you really have no presence."

"Uuu."

Alsheyra"s retort made Myunfa cringe. But even so, she was the fiancee of the Heaven"s Blade successor Haia. The world was really hard to understand.

Come to think of it, she seemed to remember that Haia had become the head of the Psyharden style.

"Um......"

Someone with even less presence than Myunfa spoke up as the local situation was being neatly resolved.

"Hey, who are you?"

"Ah, she was Layfon"s cla.s.smate."

"Ahh, from Zuellni?"

"Yes. It"s good to meet you, Your Majesty, I"m Mifi Rotten."

After saying this, Mifi gave Alsheyra a business card. It was plain to see that this woman had guts.

"Actually, I came to ask Leerin to get you to accept an interview. If it"s convenient, could I interview you directly?"

"Huh? What do you want to ask?"

"Well......"

Just then......

A sound split the air.

"A gunshot?"

Mifi tilted her head.

Her figure seemed to be tilting.

"Huh?"

As Alsheyra said this, she collapsed.

A red stain spread on her chest.

Sharnid Elipton.

Why had things turned out this way?

After shaking the sensation of the trigger off of his finger, Sharnid clicked his tongue as he left the area. He had finished his mission, and all that was left was to escape.

Sharnid Elipton ran on the rooftops. He down the Dite he had used, but placed the Dite he preferred to use back in his weapon belt.

"Honestly."

He suppressed his voice to the smallest range and erased his presence with Sakkei. Sharnid ran across the skyline of Grendan, sprinting over rooftops.

Sharnid had come to Grendan seven days ago.

Someone had called him over.

No, come to think of it, the job hadn"t been entrusted to Sharnid.

It had been forced onto him by Sharnid"s father.

"Stupid old man."

That was why Sharnid was complaining nonstop.

"He definitely ran away because he was afraid of trouble. I want to run away too."

Sharnid closed his complaining mouth.

Killing intent exploded out from behind him.

Someone had understood the situation and gotten angry.

There was no longer any time to complain anymore. Sharnid sharpened his mind and maintained his Sakkei.

The distance instantly shortened. But the opponent didn"t spot him.

He would be dead if he got noticed. His skin felt numb just from the powerful, overwhelming Kei. Sharnid could only suppress his breathing.

Next to him was a child, a boy.

Sharnid had secretly heard their conversation before, so he knew that this boy was called Shefa.

To think such familiar faces had gathered here - he felt stunned.

There was no helping the people who were supposed to be there, but there was even an ordinary person among the people who weren"t supposed to be there.

What was going on?

A child who was only several years of age gave Sharnid a tense feeling as if he had been forced to swallow a stone.

Sharnid quietly moved as he endured that unreasonable feeling.

"Where are you!?"

The crying, shouting boy made his guilt well up.

Just that made Sharnid feel like he had been entrusted with a worthless job.

But even if it were a worthless job, he had reasons why he couldn"t ignore it.

"Where are you!?"

Sharnid endured his guilt as he fled the scene.

Where would the fleeing Sharnid go?

Sharnid quietly slipped into a residence that looked particularly high-cla.s.s. He wasn"t spotted by any of the maids walking here and there as he snuck into his employer"s room.

"Ah, good work."

It was another familiar face that came out to greet him.

Claribel.

"I"ve had enough of these requests."

"Ahahahaha, sorry. But it won"t hurt Shefa."

"It doesn"t matter, it feels bad to trick a kid."

Sharnid frowned at the smiling Claribel.

Right.

The bullet Sharnid shot had certainly hit Alsheyra in the chest.

But would Grendan"s most powerful Military Artist just silently take Sharnid"s sniping?

Such a thing couldn"t happen.

"Though I did snipe Layfon before. But back then I took advantage of his weariness and tense nerves to get him."

Sharnid suddenly thought of the past, so he muttered those words.

In other words, this was just an act.

It was just a game where the sniper and the sniped were both aware.

He hadn"t used a Kei bullet, but rather a paint bullet filled with blood for transfusion.

"Speaking of which, what"s the point of doing this?"

"Hmm~~ It"s a custom of ours, something like a tradition."

Claribel said this. It felt more like she was too lazy to explain than not allowed to tell the truth. Sharnid sighed.

"Also, there"s an expert stronger than me here, so couldn"t you ask her?"

"If I asked her, it might not be an act."

"Give me a break."

"Hehehe. But Sharnid-senpai, you accomplished the goal too."

"Ugh."

Sharnid groaned as she poked him.

"That"s how it is, so here"s your reward."

Claribel gave him a palm-sized wooden box as she said this.

"Though I just happened to get it by coincidence, is this thing really that desirable?"

"Judging by the reward, your initial target must have been me all along."

"Well, I heard that Sharnid-senpai"s father loves women, and my master happens to have that same trait, so I didn"t really want to call him over."

"Well, sorry about that."

"Well, Senpai has the same trait too anyways."

"Well, sorry about that!"

"Yeah, that"s how the order should be."

"Uwah!"

The degree to which he was seen through made Sharnid yelp.

"If she"s that important, why don"t you just stop playing around?"

"Those are two different things."

"I can"t understand."

She looked over speechlessly after stating that.

Sharnid had gotten what he wanted, so it didn"t matter what anyone else said.

Sharnid lightly stroked the wooden box in his hands with a finger. The box was an expensive, decorated object, possibly something Claribel had chosen.

"Well, Shefa"s pretty much realized the truth, or maybe he"s getting angry again. We should prepare for the next step."

Claribel said that as she left the room.

With his back to her, Sharnid opened the box he had received in order to check its contents.

The object kept inside it was a pendant. The chain had been pulled open, and part of it had melted together. The part connecting the chain and the jewelry had also melted together. Maybe that was why the two hadn"t been separated, or why it had been noticed.

No, this was undoubtedly a miracle regardless of the chain.

Though half of the pendant had been melted together, the jewelry could still be recognized as a spear and shield.

A name was engraved on the somewhat-melted spear.

Dalshena.

"Well, I hope this helps that girl to cool down."

Sharnid"s battle was only beginning now.

Claribel Ronsmier.

Claribel walked in high spirits.

"Alright, my time"s finally come!"

She walked in the hallway as she thought about the next thing in line.

"First is the crowning ceremony, and then~~"

As she thought about these things, a presence approached the residence.

Though she thought that Shefa might have broken in, this presence wasn"t his.

Claribel hurried to the main entrance to welcome him.

"What, it"s you."

"What a mean tone~"

It was Haia who had come.

"This city is just as outrageous as always~"

"Isn"t that obvious? After all, even that kind of person was able to become the Queen."

After Haia made that complaint, Claribel looked at him with a surprised "how did you only realize that now" gaze.

"Never mind that, how"s Shefa?"

"Just like I imagined~"

"Ah, as I thought."

"After all, even though she"s like that, she"s still his mother. Even if it"s an act, he"ll obviously get confused when something like that happens right in front of him~"

"But it was Her Majesty who brought it up, so it"ll be unfair if he keeps a grudge against me or Sharnid-senpai."

"Well, maybe."

"Well then, do you have anything to tell me?"

"Ahh, right, right. She says to proceed according to plan, and good luck."

"That"s it?"

"Yeah, that"s right~"

"For only a couple words, couldn"t she have just gotten Elsmau to tell me?"

"She"s mad about it~"

"Ahh, since she"s so virtuous."

"That"s how she was about Her Majesty"s prank, but she was also unhappy about not noticing the sniper~"

"It was tiring to find someone of that caliber outside the city. I ended up relying on connections."

"I can"t imagine much talent over there either~"

Claribel felt like some kind of emotions were buried in Haia"s tone.

"Come to think of it I remember you fought against Layfon before, right?"

"That"s my life, manipulated by the Grendan Royal Families~"

"Then please be manipulated by me next."

"Will it be that successful?"

"I"ll make it successful."

Claribel smiled boldly after saying this.

Mifi Rotten.

The Queen fell.

Shefa cried as he rushed out towards the possible direction of the sniper.

Just as the atmosphere turned to that of an uproar.

"That"s how it is, I"m dead ☆"

Alsheyra suddenly got up and said.

"............Hey, you."

Leerin sighed speechlessly.

She had even lost the energy to get mad. Alsheyra spoke to her:

"No no no, I"m pretty serious. Although I"m just playing dead."

"I realize that!"

Leerin thundered, forcing herself to look angry.

"The important point is, why are you doing something like this?"

"Hmm, politics?"

"What politics?"

"No no no, this is something important. It"s more accurate to call it a ceremony. Once the Queen dies, we"ll have to decide a successor, right?"

"What are you saying? In the end you"re just playing dead, right?"

"Even if I"m playing dead, it"s unsuitable for the Queen of Grendan to get shot in the heart by a sniper, right?"

"............Ah."

Leerin seemed to understand what Alsheyra was conveying.

"That"s right."

Feeling satisfied with this, Alsheyra said.

Grendan"s monarch had to be strong.

She had to lead the Heaven"s Blade successors and drive off attacking filth monsters.

That was Grendan"s monarch.

"In other words, even if it"s only temporary, an accidental death has happened. So I"ve already lost my rights to the throne."

"I feel like you"re being unreasonable."

Leerin still held her head.

"In that case, are you planning on giving away the throne?"

"That"s right."

"I remember that first among the current throne successors is......"

"Oh my! I won"t let things end that simply."

Leerin could only make a detesting expression at Alsheyra"s high spirits.

"It"s the duty of the previous monarch to figure out how to decide the throne. It"s too boring to decide just by order of successions, so I want to hold a big event."

"Normally, I think dead people wouldn"t be able to give input on how to decide succession."

"I"ll be resourceful."

"You"re too free-spirited, so there will be problems."

"Okay, okay. That"s how it is, so I want to gather all of the throne successors and hold a big event. Leerin, do you want to be there? Right now it would be fine to call yourself Eutnohl again."

"I don"t want that."

"Huh~ Don"t say that. If you"re like that, the Eutnohls won"t have any shining light."

"......I"m getting mad."

"Tch."

That kind of conversation unfolded before her.

Mifi was just dumbstruck.

As for why......

"I came here because I heard there was a dispute among successors for the throne. I didn"t think it would happen right in front of my eyes."

Even Mifi couldn"t help but think this some kind of joke.

"Actually, where"d you hear that from?"

"Huh? It"s a very popular rumor right now."

Mifi replied to Leerin"s question with a natural expression.

Her lifelessness and slumped shoulders looked very strange.

In any case, Mifi succeeded in covering the Throne Succession Battle held in Grendan.

The World Times had pictures of the battle from start to finish, and hence it became a miracle that sold out no matter how much was printed.

Thus, the informational magazine called the "World Times" crossed the boundaries between cities and became well-known over a large area, and not long afterwards the whole world was reading it.

At the same time, the strength of Grendan"s Military Artists spread, and soon afterwards it was known to be a holy land for Military Artists.

And Mifi, who succeeded in writing this report, continued to be a capable reporter of the World Times......

As for whether she would grow or not, that was up to what she did next.