<1>
The next morning.
“When the former Holy Demon Lord ruled over the land...the people from the old civilization greeted the day like this-”
Mahiro slowly walked towards the sun rays that shone into the room.
“ "A new morning has come! Yes, that"s right, a morning filled with hope...!!" ”
“The people from the old civilization must"ve been really energetic then. Then, Prince, you should dance energetically too!”
Pariel clapped her hands.
Inside the room were several court performers, and a court dance teacher who was acting as the narrator.
Mahiro had these social dancing lessons every Wednesday morning. No matter which country it was, social dancing was an important skill to have. How could someone from the royal family not know how to dance?
“I say, Pariel, you"re only an escort, who are you to think that you could you set my schedule? I"m the prince.”
“You already said that yesterday. This is Edelweiss-sama"s orders though. I don"t dare to disobey her!”
“Telling excuses like this, aren"t you ashamed of yourself? Do you get enjoyment from ruining people"s lives...”
Bam.
“...Eh? You were here, Edelweiss?”
“Yes, is there anything wrong?”
“Nothing.”
“If Your Highness cannot take over the management of the country, then at least you need to act like a prince”
Bam.
“Like a prince...then, I"m not the prince...? Then...do you mean that...I"m only a body double for the real Mahiro who"s someone out there in this world? The shocking truth has been revealed?!”
“Edelweiss didn"t mean that! Why do you have such an outrageous imagination...”
“Simply put, I don"t like social dancing and stuff like this.”
Mahiro slowly walked towards Pariel, until their faces almost touched.
“P-prince?”
Pariel"s heart unconsciously began to beat faster.
“Give me your hands.”
“O-okay...”
“Put your hands on my waist.”
“Okay...”
“Front, front, back, back, right, across, across...Look, isn"t this really obscene!?”
Wham.
“Isn"t right and across the same thing?! ...And wait, how is this obscene?!”
“All in all, I just want to dance more soulfully!?”
“S...oul? Ful? Eh?” [TL Note: Mahiro said soulfully in English.]
"And so, I"m going to go to town again...”
Mahiro stealthily watched Edelweiss"s face, but her expressionless face, so like ice, had such an intimidating aura far beyond any maid"s nitpicking.
"That was what I first thought but.. never mind...”
“Do as you like.”
“Yahoooo~!”
Mahiro weirdly cried out, and sprinted out of the room. The performers and the dance instructor breathed out sighs of relief, and started packing.
“E...eh....Edelweiss-sama, is this all right...?”
“What are you still here for? Go chase him.”
“Huh? Urm, am I supposed to bring him back...?”
“His Highness plans to stop the Imperial invasion by himself.”
Pariel doubted her ears, because Edelweiss was someone who would never joke around. Furthermore, the Empire was not supposed to make a move yet, so what exactly was there for Mahiro to stop?
“If we ignore him, he just jumps straight into a dangerous situation. But, if you stay by his side, he wouldn"t be so reckless. So, you have to follow him, and aside from immediate dangers you are to let him act as he pleases. Understand?”
“I...I understand! I will follow the prince, and guard him!”
Pariel hurriedly bowed, and then ran out of the room to chase the prince.
(Eh...What did she mean by that prince saving the country...!?)
2
So, Pariel changed out of her uniform, and switched into a casual outfit much like the one she wore yesterday. She followed Mahiro to the rear garden of the castle.
“Prince, weren"t you going outside the castle?"
“Of course.”
Even though this was the rear garden, because of the sheer size of this castle, there was a clearing here where one could go riding or have a small-scale hunt; a small forest filled with sunlight. There was a stable, a stop for carriages, and even a garage where the automobile that the king rode on came from. Mahiro"s purpose in coming here was probably to head to the repair area.
A strong waft of machine oil was immediately apparent after they stepped into the huge warehouse. There were numerous carriages and an automobile being repaired here.
“...Did you come here to rent out a horse, or did you want to get a carriage?”
“That"s right, I came here to rent out my favorite horse.”
“I thought you said yesterday you didn"t know how to ride horses...”
“In this wide world, of course there are horses I could ride.”
If that was the case, then wouldn"t it be faster to just send someone to prepare a horse? It was probably because the prince was used to sneaking out of the castle; this was probably the first time he could walk out so brazenly, so he probably didn"t know of such a convenient method.
“Do you want me to have them prepare one for you?”
“Nay, nay...I came here for that.”
Mahiro pointed towards a cloth-covered object placed at the corner of the warehouse. At this, everyone in the warehouse became frightened.
“He"s really going to ride it?!”
“The prince is finally going to use that?!”
“Is it really fine if we don"t stop him?!”
It suddenly became a chaotic scene.
The head of the mechanics, wearing industrial-grade protection goggles, came over with an apprehensive expression. Pariel often rode horses, so of course she knew him by face.
Older officers like him were all pretty strict and hard to handle, and this person seemed just like a merciless instructor. Especially seeing as how he dealt with iron machinery, not horses, and had the t.i.tle of the “Stubborn Boss” .
“Prince! Are you really planning to ride this?!”
“YES!!”
Mahiro, in the blink of an eye, gave him a thumbs up.
“The day has finally come, boss!! Are you ready?!”
“Ooh...oooohhhhh, Prince!!”
The head mechanic looked like he was about to beat someone up. Pariel had no idea why he was mad, but he looked like he could easily give the prince a spanking. Just as she thought this--
“Ahhh, I"m truly glad that I chose to follow you, Prince!”
“Huh!?”
Pariel subconsciously shouted.
It seemed like he was actually shivering from over-excitement. He even had to take off his goggles to wipe away his tears of happiness.
“I never expected that I could really see this monster in action...!”
The head mechanic let out a weird laughter.
“The mechanics team has already repaired everything. We"re only missing one part now, and that"s you, Prince Mahiro!”
“Good! Look, Pariel!!”
Mahiro lifted the cloth covering the object, and underneath was...
“This is my beloved horse...the “Bronco of Steel” ZX-7RR--!!”
“Wait, isn"t this a bike?!”
Obviously it was a relic from the old civilization.
Compared to the few Cub cla.s.s bikes in the shop that could be seen, this bike was far larger. Seeing how huge it was, it must"ve been stuffed full of parts on the inside.
“Bo...boss, where did you get this thing...?”
“Huh? Of course, it was made from the parts that Prince collected!”
It seemed like he was saying that “Since you"re always with him, why didn"t you know of this?”
“I actually have a secret mountain of junk. I like to go there to pick up parts, and then buy or custom order the missing parts from the Veronica Trade Alliance...and then!”
Mahiro gestured towards everyone in the repair facility.
“Then I request everyone to put together my machine!”
“Wow...”
Before they realized it, the two were surrounded and mobbed by the machine geeks.
“Amazing...amazing...”
“It must be super fast...”
“It definitely can go at two hundred kilometers."
“So terrific...”
Chatter chatter chatter.
“Prince, don"t be so stingy with this! I want to play with this toy even if I have to kneel and beg for it!”
Chatter chatter chatter.
(So...so scary...!)
Pariel could only retreat backwards in tears.
Vrooom!
“...!?”
Pariel reflexively clamped her ears shut at the loud noise from the start of the engine.
Including the noise from the exhaust, the cacophony of noises made the bike seem almost broken. Everything was completely different from the Cubs.
“Ahahahaha!! Pariel, this is the real neighing of a horse! And this beat of the heart! It"s truly the union between rider and horse!!”
Vroom! Vroom! Vroom! Vroom! Vroom!
Every-time Mahiro twisted the handlebars, a sound that seemingly reached into the heavens came out of the exhaust. The surrounding mechanics all shut their eyes and were in a stupefied state, almost as if they were enjoying an orchestra of the highest quality.
(Abnormal...everyone here"s abnormal...!)
Not only did curious people come to see what the commotion was about, even patrolling knights came in with their lances at ready, thinking that a monster had appeared.
“Hm, only this has the qualifications to be my horse! Let"s go, Pariel!!”
“G-go...are you planning to ride this out...?”
No matter what, she couldn"t let herself be left behind again. Pariel climbed up onto the seat behind Mahiro, who already had his gloves on, and Mahiro put on his protective goggles.
“It"s time for me to rewrite the highest speed record in the Middle Plains.”
“Huh? You aren"t going to find a new way to dance?”
It seemed like finding the soul in his dancing was just another excuse. Pariel"s comment was completely submerged beneath the shouting and cheers of all the mechanics.
“Nice, Prince!”
“Don"t die!”
“Come back alive!”
“Don"t die!”
“You can do it!”
“Don"t die!”
“Don"t die!”
“Hey, why are there so many voices worried about your life?”
Suddenly a safety helmet was put on top of Pariel, who was becoming quite frightened.
“Bos-boss!?”
She only saw a thumbs up from the head mechanic.
“Don"t die, young lady! Good luck!”
“Wh-?”
Vrooooooooooooooooooooooooom!
“Ahh..aaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!”
Part 3
It actually wasn"t very hard to get used to riding on the bike. One would think that they would be faster from the sound they made, but this speed was similar to a sprinting horse. The only difference was that everyone turned to look at them because of the loud noises that the bike made, making Pariel feel very embarra.s.sed to be riding the bike.
After a while, the two arrived at the south gate they were at yesterday. The guards thought that there was an incident because of the sound, so they all rushed out fully armed.
“Ah, it"s just the prince.”
“Wow, is that a new machine?”
“Prince, riding a horse is definitely better than riding a machine!”
(I think so too. Horses won"t be this loud, and they"re cute too...)
Though, Pariel suddenly thought, maybe it was because Mahiro liked the things that others liked. He seems to be very welcome here. He looks like he was very close to the young soldiers here, as well as with the mechanics back in the repair facility.
(This is the prince"s good point..I guess?)
Then, even the captain ran out from the guard station.
“Prince, did you need anything today? As per your orders, we haven"t had any inspections ever since yesterday...”
“I"m going to do two things. The first is to bet the name of our knights squadron, and break the speed record on the Middle Plains. The other...”
The bike was loud even when it was parked. Pariel was unable to hear what Mahiro said clearly, but the captain who heard opened his eyes wide.
“...Prince, are you really going to...!?”
“Listen, you mustn"t close the gate. Properly convey this to the people at the north gate. If I do not return before sundown, then go to Edelweiss for instructions. Understood, captain?”
“I...I can"t accept this, this isn"t something that someone like you should just go and do...”
“Ahahaha, let"s go, my beloved horse!”
Vroooooooom!!
Before long, the prince and his guard faded into the distance, growing smaller and smaller.
“...He really went...”
“What happened, captain? Why do you look so pale?”
The captain stroked his beard and then answered.
“Un...eh, that"s impossible...I think the prince was only joking, he said that he"s going to scout out the approaching Imperial army...”
“He must be joking. There"s not a single trace of the Imperial army around here, and the countries to the south haven"t reported anything awry.”
“I-it must be so! After all, he can"t go scout out what doesn"t exist. Ah, it was because his gaze seemed more serious than usual...”
The captain kept on stroking his white beard, as if he was wiping away cold sweat.
“Prince...you really went outside the city! What do you want to do!?”
“If you don"t want to come along then you can get off! The hopes of everyone on the mechanics team is on me! How could I return empty-handed!?”
“...Who cares about that! After all, this beloved horse of yours is not fast at all, only loud!”
As they spoke, they left the road.
Mahiro turned the bike towards a distant mountain, and then stopped it.
“Are you done playing around? Then, we can return? This bike is loud and uncomfortable to sit on, my b.u.t.t hurts a lot...”
“Pariel, you just complained about my beloved horse being slow, right?”
“Ah, I did say so. My Limiel runs faster, and is more comfortable to sit on. Plus it"s warm and cute too...”
An unnerving smile appeared at the edge of Mahiro"s mouth.
“One hundred and twenty horsepower.”
“...Huh?”
“According to the records of the old civilization, my beloved horse has a total of one hundred and twenty horsepower.”
Hee hee hee.
“P-prince?”
“Too slow? Don"t give me that! I was only warming up right now; would you whip a horse that just woke up?”
“O-of course I wouldn"t do something so unreasonable...”
“It"s the same logic. I need to warm up the transmission and the engine, so I was purposefully riding it slowly. I"m about to use the whip now. Listen, Pariel, don"t ever let go of me.”
“O-okay.”
She didn"t know what was going on, but the prince sounded so serious, so much so that Pariel just hugged him tightly.”
“Now howl, my beloved horse, ZX-7RR!!”
He started off again.
Pariel thought that Mahiro should at least think of a more appropriate name...
“Eh...?”
Something seemed a bit off.
“Huu-------!”
The pitch of the wind had changed in an instant. No matter how hard you whipped a horse, there was no way that you could hear such a monstrous sound. Even so, this “horse” was still speeding up.
“P...pppppppppppprinceeeeee....this bike, right now, how fast is it...!?”
“Only about a hundred kilometers! We"re still far from our goal! It"s only twice the speed of your horse right now!”
...Now that she recalled, didn"t the mechanics say that the goal was 200 kilometers?
(…)
Pariel was on the verge of fainting.
“Ahahaha! We can do it! We can do it Pariel! This thing"s too awesome! This is the best thing I"ve ever ridden! Even at this speed, there are no problems!”
Vroooooom!!
“Waaaahhhh! …Prince, I get it! I was wrong! It"s fast! It"s really fast! And wait, the mountain"s ahead already! If we keep going like this we"re going to crash into it!”
“Nah, that"s not it. That mountain is our destination. You should duck and take care not to get your head hit by a tree branch!”
“Really~~~! Aaaaaaaaaaahhhh...!?”
The bike rushed into the mountain. Branches and leaves kept whittling by their sides. The uneven ground caused them to b.u.mp up and down, and they were almost thrown off the bike.
(So scary, going to die, going to die, going to die...!) [TL Note: I made an arbitrary decision here to separate this from the original paragraph and put it separately as Pariel"s thoughts.]
…!
The next second, everything from before vanished. The bike rushed into a meadow in the forest. Mahiro stepped firmly on the brakes, and slid the the bike to a stop.
Pariel opened her eyes to an unbelievable scene.
An army of hundreds of black-armored figures stood in the clearing. In the Middle Plains, none of the countries had any corps that wore such an uniform. After she took a closer look out of curiosity, the armors bore the of the Empire. Which meant that they were...(The Imp...Imperial...Imperial Army!?)
The knights also were frozen in shock.
If those who approached were an army, or obviously a demon, the knights probably would"ve attacked right away. But since the intruders were completely unexpected, they had no idea how to react.
The two sides were equally shocked.
“Erm...erm...we...we"re...”
Pariel was the only one who hastily tried to say something.
If Pariel followed along, Mahiro wouldn"t be in danger, she said...
“Edelweiss-sama you liar!”
Too bad that she wasn"t here. Cursing had no effect.
“What should we do, what should we do, you idiot!!”
Then, Mahiro suddenly talked to her in a low voice.
“To tell you the truth, I wanted to scout out to see if there was an Imperial scout force here.”
“Ah...? T-then...”
“Uh huh. But, since we were going so fast, I couldn"t stop the bike in time.”
Shock.
“We charged into the enemy"s camp for such a simple reason...?”
As the two were having their exchange, they were already surrounded by the army of black knights.
“What happened? Was that a cry of a demon?”
The knights replied with a bit of uncertainty to Lunas" inquiry.
“Erm, well, we caught some spies...probably not, bandits, maybe...eh, they don"t really seem like so either...ah, well, I"m not really sure, we caught two strange people...”
“...Hmm? Well then, let me meet them.”
As Lunas stood up, Reiner interjected.
“Princess, please leave this to me.”
“Don"t say that. We have nothing to do until night time anyway. Let"s wait until we see them to judge whether it"ll be a repeat of last night"s events.”
There were more people crowded around Mahiro"s beloved horse than there were around the two.
“What"s this?”
“A bike, you"ve never seen one before?
“Oh, so this is a bike? This is my first time seeing one.”
“How does this work?”
“What does this switch do?”
“Let"s carve a memento on here with a coin.”
The Empire did actually have relics from the old civilization. Automobiles were used for the transport of large objects or supplies over a long distance, and a bike had little use for them, so it was normal that they have not seen one before.
“Ahhh, please stop, please stop! Don"t randomly leave your fingerprints on there, much less carve a memento with a coin! Think of the younger generations, don"t destroy things mindlessly!”
(He"s actually more worried about the bike"s safety rather than his own...)
Of course, Pariel was bound by ropes as well, so she was considering how to escape. Fortunately, the attention of all the soldiers were on Mahiro"s bike. As long as she could loosen the ropes, there will be a chance for them to escape...or so she thought.
“Quiet! Her Highness Princess Lunas has arrived.”
After the order shouted by the young man, the chaotic scene quickly returned to order. The black knights lined up quickly, which spoke volumes about the harsh training that they went through. As Pariel wondered what they were doing, an eye-catching beauty dressed in male attire appeared.
Her face was filled with spirit, and her chestnut-colored hair fell to her waist. She even brought high level maids to such a place. Most importantly, when she appeared, the black knights were filled with tension.
The Gran Ma.r.s.enal Empire"s third royal princess – Lunas Victora Majestia.
Her very presence changed the atmosphere around them.
(The Third Imperial Princess, in a place like this--!?)
Lunas, wearing a calm, composed smile, stood before the shocked Pariel and Mahiro.
“These two? You"re right, they don"t look like spies or bandits. Who are you two?”
Royalty. It was the same as Mahiro bringing a Royal Guard along with him to this place. The only difference was the fact that she brought hundreds of soldiers all the way from the Imperial capital.
“Answer.”
She held in her hands a beautiful sword, with prismatic gems lining the edge of the sword all the way from the hilt to halfway up the blade.
“Ah, eh...we"re, this is my young master, and I"m his family tutor...”
Something like this that she would say on the streets to hide their ident.i.ties would obviously have little effect here.
The blade, almost seeming to flare as it moved, was slowly brought to Pariel"s throat. Aside from the feeling of impending death in her, she also felt an odd sense of loss.
“What"s there to be scared of, Pariel?”
Mahiro shook his head in disappointment.
“We haven"t done anything wrong. Why not tell her clearly?”
Compared to Pariel who was in a stupor and frozen still, Mahiro, despite his hands being bound behind him, drew up his body with dignity and answered.
“Everyone hear this! I am the Royal Prince of the Kingdom of Mismarca – Mahiro Yukelsnike Edenfalt!”
4
The area was dead quiet.
“Young master?”
“Hahaha, look Pariel. Even though I came alone into their camp, I could scare them with a single sentence!”
Bam!
Despite both her hands being bound, Pariel subconsciously gave a reverse roundhouse kick to the back of Mahiro"s head.
“Okay, young master, is your mind clearer now? You"re in the presence of Her Highness Lunas, who bears such a name to herself. Introduce yourself again correctly."
Mahiro could only squirm on the ground after being disciplined by Pariel, who turned on her high level teacher"s switch.
“Y...yes, I was wrong. Actually, I am Mahimahi, King of the South Seas, I apologize for any disturba-geh.”
“All in all, young master has a severe case of mental disorder and vivid imagination...so...”
It was hard to believe. After she said it, she had trouble even believing herself. Pariel thought that she must have angered the princess, and lifted her head slightly to peek, only to see the princess smiling.
“Did you think I would believe that?”
Pariel immediately thought that “Of course it didn"t work”...but looking carefully, Lunas was talking to Mahiro.
“Heh heh, did you believe that you would live longer if you called yourself the prince? You should consider what you say more carefully.”
Well, there was the possibility of being taken as a hostage if he were to say that. Of course, there was also the possibility of immediate execution.
Lunas turned to ask the young general.
“Does he seem like a prince?”
“Definitely not.”
An instant reply.
“How about a spy?”
“Impossible.”
“Hmm, I think the same.”
(Un...unbelievable...)
It seemed like they wouldn"t believe him because he seemed so stupid.
Well, honestly, as a prince, it definitely seemed weird for him to venture out alone, and not to mention that he was punished with a kick to the back of the head. He even changed his name to Mahimahi. He had none of the princely grace that was expected of a prince.
Ahh, if she was an outsider, she wouldn"t even consider the possibility that Mahiro was a prince...
Lunas looked over at the bike.
“So, what were you doing with this?”
“I wanted to establish a record for the fastest speed on the Middle Plains.”
Because Mahiro spoke of such unusual things, Lunas had some trouble understanding him.
“The fastest speed...establish a record? What use does that have?”
“That"s easy. Mismarca has no special industry or produce. But, if I establish a record for the highest speed here, then it would prove the might of Mismarcan mechanics and of its scientific might, and would spread the fame all over the continent. So, after that, countries would come to Mismarca for repairs, modifications, or even for building entirely new automobiles. After that...famous and skilled mechanics would come from all over the continent. So, Mismarca would finally have its unique industry that no other country could match. We could match, no, even exceed the technologies of the Far East and the Veronica Trade Alliance.” [TL Note: I made an arbitrary decision to combine two paragraphs here since it seemed awkward.]
It was amazing that Mahiro could easily spin such a tale of lies.
(Sigh...it seemed that he had a lot of practice in his everyday life...)
Anyways, after Mahiro"s speech, not just the black knights, but even the princess was moved. The tension in the air slowly faded.
“Hmm..so, you mean, you"re part of the mechanics?”
“Nay, I"m not a military officer; to be specific, I am an outside subcontractor. Monsters like this bike, there aren"t many people willing to test them out.”
Since they came this far, might as well as rely on the Prince"s lying skills. He was a genius at it, if he could keep his calm and speak so naturally while surrounded on all sides by enemies. It seems that idiots had their strengths in unusual situations.
Lunas looked deeply at the bike, and then, smiling, said.
“Ahhh, you said that this little thing was a monster? Between it and a horse, which one is faster?”
“Of course the bike is faster!”
“Ohhh? What about comparing it to a truck? Our army uses them regularly for transport, and they could easily exceed one hundred kilometers on flat ground! You mentioned speed record, what kind of speeds were you talking about?”
“Our goal is twice of that speed, two hundred kilometers.”
As Mahiro said that, everyone was quite shocked. The princess let out an expression of disbelief.
“For real? It couldn"t really be that fast. Two hundred kilometers were the attack speeds of dragon knights! What if the bike crashed at that speed?”
“Then of course you would be turned into meat mush.”
Mahiro said nonchalantly.
“Even falling from a horse would result in heavy injuries. And unfortunately, I don"t know how to use magic, so I can"t erect magical barriers or things like that.”
At this, even the , infamously fierce, felt that Mahiro was unbelievable and reacted a little cutely, having a sweat drop on her temple.“Something"s not quite right. Why did you come up to this mountain that is filled with trees? If it were really that dangerous, then wouldn"t somewhere with less obstacles be better...?”
“Something with wheels is different from a horse. It goes even faster down a slope.”
– So I climbed up a mountain.
So it was only because it was faster to go down a slope.
“““...”””
Mahiro wore such a radiant and simple smile that left others speechless.