A Moment of Calm

The day after we defeated the wicked god's armies in both Egret and

Eashen, we were notified by the Beastking of Mismede that one of the cities

of Sandora had been destroyed. According to the testimony of some of the

survivors, it was carried out by an army led by a blue horned Kyklops.

So it wasn't a two-pronged attack, but a three-pronged one. Given it was

blue, I could only assume that its pilot was the guy with the diver helmet.

That would explain why he hadn't appeared to support the other devout.

Each city in Sandora was self-governed, and many of those cities viewed

themselves as autonomous. It was one of those larger coastal cities that

were attacked.

The place was thoroughly destroyed; there was nothing left. The citizens

who had managed to escape with their lives were in the depths of despair.

Perhaps I should note that I had a particularly bad reputation in the

region.

Back when Sandora had been a kingdom, I had been the one who both

freed its slaves from the nobles, and caused the downfall of its monarchy, so

I wasn't particularly liked by former nobles or slave traders there.

At the end of the day though, that was only because the King of Sandora

had declared war on us. We accepted the fight, and the emancipation of the

slaves was reparations, that was all.

Slaves were pretty much non-existent in Sandora nowadays, and

apparently, many of the people who remained there resented me to varying

degrees for that reason.

It seemed I was being suspected as the one behind the attack by the

wicked devout, as well. Not that I could blame them for this one—the only

country known to really own such massive mechs was Brunhild, after all.

For countries part of the alliance, it was easy enough to clear up any

misunderstandings, but I couldn't see my words being believed so easily

over there. I had no obligation to help a country that viewed me in such a

manner, but I would have wanted to help them if I could have.

"All I can do is somehow try to make up for it after the fact."

"It is impossible to save absolutely everyone. All we can do is help

where we can manage, no? Thankfully, your reach goes far. I believe you

will be able to do better next time."

Ugh, having my son attempt to console me over matters like this left me

with complicated feelings. I couldn't deny what he was saying, though.

There was still another problem, too: the twin divine blades.

As a result of being used continuously by someone who wasn't a ward

of the god who had created them, they had run out of divine essence. Those

sacred treasures couldn't be refueled with my divinity, so they were

essentially just slightly more sturdy swords like this. There was no way they

would be able to destroy another wicked vessel when the time came.

When I tried asking Karen the other gods what I should do, they said

that my only option was to complete my own sacred treasure.

I suggested just finding the god who originally created the swords and

asking if they could recharge it, but given the swords were literally stolen

from them, they would probably just get angry at me. I wasn't the culprit,

though...

"Well, worse comes to worst, you can just use your smartphone,

y'know?"

"Huh? What do you mean by that?"

"You might have forgotten already, but that's a sacred treasure too,

y'know? And from God Almighty of all things. If you gave it to one of your

kids, they would just need to keep whacking it against the wicked vessel

and it would break eventually, y'know."

I know there are brute force methods out there, but hitting something

with a smartphone over and over is a first for me. This might come as a

surprise, but I was a little reluctant to entertain the thought. I couldn't put

my children into battle wielding a smartphone. Though Linne might

actually manage to get somewhere with it...

"The wedding rings you and your wives have are also pretty much

sacred treasures, so that's an option, too."

She was completely missing the problem. But at the same time, if I

failed in forging my own sacred treasure, that really might be the solution I

would have to go for. I really did not want to have to turn to my wives and

tell them, "I need you to smack the enemy with your wedding rings!"

I still was having no luck in creating the sacred core, though...

In terms of the actual vessel itself, seeing how the wicked devout were

able to change the size of their weapons at will, I began thinking it would

be neat if my sacred treasure could do that too. It didn't totally sit right with

me that I was essentially using the enemy's idea of all things, but I couldn't

deny that it would be useful if a Frame Gear could use my sacred treasure,

as well.

If the kids could use the Frame Gears to break the enemy's weapon, it

would make their jobs much easier.

Even if I had all these fun ideas though, at the end of the day, I still

hadn't made the core.

"Nghhhhhhh!"

And so here I was once more putting every ounce of my energy into

trying to forge one.

I slowly but surely condensed the ball of divine energy. Just like before,

the resistance was insane, and I was reaching the stage where I couldn't

make it any smaller again. Honestly, I thought it was impressive I'd

managed to get it to the size of a baseball.

If I could just shrink it down to golf ball size, and then marble size, I'd

have cleared the first stage.

"Ah?!"

But the moment I let my mind wander for just a moment, my divinity

blew back on me. Aaaand that's another failure. You know what, nope, no

more today. I was exhausted in mind, body and soul.

As a change of pace, I decided to go to Babylon's research lab.

They were in the middle of analyzing the what-we-now-called weak

venom I had managed to get a sample of back in Egret.

The weak venom was still sealed inside the [Prison] I had formed. I had

adjusted it so everything but the venom could make it through the [Prison]

so that they could still do tests on it.

Doc Babylon was tilting her head with her arms folded—a rare sight—in

front of the 10x10cm cube.

"Mmmmngh... I got nothing."

"Were you not able to run the tests on it?" I asked.

"No, we were. We've discovered that it disrupts the flow of ether liquid.

But we don't have even the slightest lead as to what exactly this substance

is made of, or how to get rid of the substance itself and its effects."

Well, even if the god who made it was wicked, it was still a god. It

would be difficult for regular mortals to analyze it.

"Are you able to block the effects with your [Prison]?" she asked.

"I can block out the powder itself, but the effects still persist."

The powder itself was just a regular substance so naturally it could be

blocked. But the effects were almost certainly derived from divine power,

so a [Prison] not infused with my divinity was useless.

The worst part about it was that if even a single speck of the powder

were to touch something, it would instantly taint the area, and that would

then spread. In other words, it would literally turn the battlefield into a

swamp of poison. Unlike the undiluted divine venom though, it seemed to

turn back to normal over time without interference, at least.

We had the Frame Gears as proof of how fast it could spread, too. To a

regular person, it had no effect, so we didn't need to worry about most of

the pilots, but even though a few days had already passed, the Frame Gears

still weren't working at maximum efficiency.

"Output efficiency being down 40% sucks a lot."

"No kidding. It's impressive you all still managed to win regardless."

"Well, we can kind of make up for it with skill and coordination. Our

knights are veterans, after all."

They had been riding the Frame Gears from their initial versions. And it

wasn't as if the enemy Kyklops were showing off the most stellar example

of teamwork either.

"Rossweise's support magic was probably helping too. It increases the

output by stimulating the ether liquid, right? So in reality, you were

probably all fighting at about less than 20% the usual."

"Ah, that makes sense."

The Frame Gears should have been strengthened by Sakura's support

magic, that was true. Given the state she had been in at the time though, it

likely wasn't at the same efficiency as usual. Or maybe Yoshino's assist

would've brought it back to its usual levels.

"It might be worth trying to amplify her buffs."

"Like raise the effect enough so it evens out?"

Well, it sounded simple enough.

"And then there's the Over Gears."

"What about them?"

"The Over Gears aren't structured in a way that the ether liquid is the

primary component. It's the G-Cube that serves as the power reactor, kinda

similar to the Kyklops, so it shouldn't take too much of an effect from the

venom."

So that was an option too.

But we only had three of them: Norn and Noir's Leo Noir, Nia and

Rouge's Tiger Rouge, and Robert and Blau's Deer Blau. Or wait,

technically four since we had Yumina and Albus's Val Albus, as well. But

we were using that in the search for the Ark right now so I was a little

reluctant to count it in.

We only had three at our disposal, but even that would add a decent bit

of power to our side. Should I ask them to assist next time they attack?

We could technically make an Over Gear for Gold as well, but his

master was Steph. She'd have to return to the future eventually, so would it

not just be a waste to make it? Then again, there was the option of keeping

it aside until the future when we could give to her as a present once our

timeline Steph was born and grown up.

"Sorry to ruin your fun, but the dev team's really starting to feel

overworked," Doc Babylon glared at me. "We have to both research and

develop the aquatic Frame Gears, we have to repair the Frame Gears

damaged in the last battle, and we have to analyze the Kyklops frames that

you managed to retrieve. Your Reginleif is also still dismantled, we haven't

gotten to start overhauling it yet."

"Ah, yes, sorry…"

I had been throwing a bit too much their way recently.

"Honestly, I think you should be spoiling me a little more here, Touya.

Y'know, giving me big ol' hugs, little smooch here and there, going for

baths with me, and then spending the rest of the night in bed all—"

"Okay, see ya."

"Boo, you're no fun."

I quickly fled from Babylon before things turned into even more of a

pain.

As I walked down the castle hallways, I suddenly heard a soft tune

playing from the ballroom. Is this Waldteufel's Skater's Waltz?

I peeked in out of curiosity and saw Kuon and Allis dancing together.

"Allis, your smile is very stiff, and you're starting to dance off-rhythm.

Keep up with Kuon's lead."

"Yes, ma'am!"

The one instructing Allis and clapping her hands in time with the rhythm

was Lu.

Yumina and Lu were the two main girls teaching Allis the required

etiquette, given they were originally princesses.

Hilde was too, but in Lestia, much more importance was placed on

strength. That wasn't to say that she didn't have her own grasp of social

dancing and proper etiquette, but she said she wasn't very good at teaching

it. She was so good at teaching swordplay, though.

I decided to observe Kuon and Allis dance for a little. Hey... Aren't they

pretty good? Kuon wasn't much of a surprise, but for someone that had

never really participated in social dance before, Allis was doing a good job

at keeping up. Even at this level, she could go to a ball and she wouldn't

embarrass anyone. She had always been the athletic type, so maybe it

wasn't that much of a surprise.

Oh, I guess I should record this and send it to Ende. He'd love to see

how good his daughter's getting, I'm sure.

I used my phone to video a dance from start to finish and then sent it to

him. That's me done my good deed for the day.

"All right, that's enough for today. I'd give you a passing grade for that

performance. Next time, try paying more attention to your expression while

you dance. You were sometimes slipping into a frown."

"Will do. Thank you very much!"

Allis bowed her head at Lu. That was just a passing grade? A bit harsh,

no? I thought that was plenty good...

I decided to tell her what I thought.

"Normally, I'd agree with you. But Allis is the fiancée of a prince, and

that means people will expect perfection from her. When she becomes

grand duchess, she will become the representative of all noble women of

Brunhild, so I cannot afford to give her any slack."

Oof, talk about a tough crowd...

It wasn't as if Brunhild even had a proper class system to begin with.

Kousaka had recently been pushing me to come to a decision about all

of this. We needed a system of titles not only for our people's identity

domestically, but also internationally as well, and one that would be

understood. Essentially the noble titles like dukes, marquesses, earls,

viscounts, barons, and knights.

The issue was our territory was small, and we didn't exactly have land

for nobles to own. The most we could give them was a plot of land to build

a house. And in terms of the titles, it kind of just felt like they'd end up

being in-name-only eventually.

Belfast and Regulus had actually approached Brunhild offering to give

us more of their land, but even if we did accept it, we would have to be the

ones to develop it. Ever since the children had arrived in our time though, I

had begun thinking that it might be good to expand our territory.

Why? Because I realized that if my daughters had their own land, there

was a chance they could accept a husband rather than having to leave and

become the wife of a different land! They could remain in the country as

branch families of the royal family.

My wives all had wry smiles on their faces when I told them that, but I

was being serious!

My phone suddenly got a notification. It was Ende replying to my

message. "They're too close! Tell them to dance farther apart!"

How else are they meant to ballroom dance, you dolt? Technically there

were dances that had the two stand further apart, but not this one.

"How was my dance, Your Grace?" Allis asked me.

"You were great. I let Ende see your dance and he agreed."

"Ehehe, yay!"

It was a bit of a white lie, but it wasn't wrong either, really. It was

definitely what he would say if he had been here right now.

"Onto your next lesson then," Lu spoke. "Next is cooking."

"Okay!"

"You're even teaching her how to cook?!"

Why would a grand duchess need to learn how to cook? They may need

to develop their culinary tastes, but there shouldn't need to be any reason

for them to know how to make the food themselves. Was this just Lu

forcing it on her?

"Because I wanna let Kuon eat my delicious food. My moms and dad,

too."

What a good kid. Kuon was lucky to have someone thinking so much

about him.

"Kuon, you better make sure you take good care of Allis, too."

"I am aware. Allis has displayed the resolve to be by my side. I must

respond in kind."

I had just meant to tease him a little, not get such a serious response out

of him. My son was the definition of a smooth talker. At this rate, the son

was going to surpass the father.

I had to do better. For now, I should just get to work! Yeah!

◇ ◇ ◇

Determined not to be outdone by my son, I was putting my all into my

office work together with Yumina and Kousaka. That said, the job of a

grand duke mainly consisted of considering people's requests or reviewing

any plans for the city and stamping them off. On occasion, I'd also be sent

out to assist with construction or infrastructure, but that was about it.

"Hm? Wasn't this concert hall already opened?" I asked, tilting my head

slightly.

"The construction and interior design are complete, but it appears they

are struggling to find people to perform. They put out a call for any willing

participants once more," Kousaka informed me.

Though we called it a concert hall, it was more intended to be a multipurpose hall that could accommodate not just concerts, but also plays,

ceremonies, and other miscellaneous gatherings. It was originally planned

at Sakura's request as she wanted to make music more accessible to the

public, but it had been completed before we knew it.

The reason it wasn't open despite construction being complete was

simply because they couldn't find anyone to perform there.

Typically, music was only accessible to the wealthy, lessons even more

so, which meant the average citizen wouldn't have the ability to volunteer

in the first place. What was more, anyone who was skilled at an instrument

was generally summoned by the nobility to perform in their own personal

orchestra, and naturally, the pay was good.

What reason would there be for a performer to come all the way to such

a small country such as ours if they had that opportunity instead?

That said, there were bards who went from town to town, singing stories

with their instruments in hand. I was sure they would happily perform here

in Brunhild, but the issue was that they didn't generally stay in one place.

There would be no way to guarantee the timing.

"We might have no choice but to have Sakura sing for us."

Our orchestra (though not an official one) consisted of the more

musically-inclined members of our knights; music itself was not their main

profession. Thinking it would be an issue if they were to dedicate too much

of their time to it, I had decided to not have them participate.

I wanted to make it a place people could go to listen to music whenever

they pleased if possible, so it would be much more ideal to have a range of

performers and singers available.

"It doesn't need to be exclusively music that is performed there, right?

What about inviting a theater troupe?"

"That's what I was thinking. I'd rather they had Brunhild as their main

performing country, but I wonder if that would be too much to ask..."

"Our population is not that large, after all. Perform for just one week and

already most of the country will have seen it, so it is a question of if it

would be sustainable for them."

Hmm. It was true that you wouldn't go to see the same performance

twice unless you were a massive fan, and it was too draconian to expect

them to perform a new show every single week.

You know...Sousuke is the god of music. I'm pretty sure he could keep

playing music for forever if we needed him to.

The sound of a sad melody being played on guitar drifted in just as I was

thinking that. In other words, please don't entertain such a terrible thought.

I understand.

As far as theater performances were concerned, we could record the

performances of different countries and then screen it, but...that would just

make it a cinema.

Why would that be a problem, though? It would still be a place of

leisure. It wouldn't cost much in terms of labor so maybe it wasn't that bad

of an idea.

I guess I could go visit Theatro's troupe and record some of their

performances.

"Yoshino appeared to be rehearsing something together with the

orchestra. Perhaps she plans to perform?"

"Yoshino does?"

The idea of building a concert hall originally came from Yoshino telling

Sakura about the future. Apparently, she performed there a lot, so it would

make sense if she was attached to it.

Out of curiosity, I headed to the soundproof practice hall in the castle,

and as I was told, Yoshino was there conducting the orchestra.

The orchestra consisted of first and second violins, viola, cello,

contrabass, flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, trumpet, trombone, timpani,

cymbals, and harp... No way, that meant it had strings, brass, woodwind and

percussion. It basically was an actual orchestra!

"Woodwind, please reduce the vibrato. Brass, match your volume with

everyone else from start to finish. Cymbals, pick up the tempo here!"

Yoshino, as small as she was, was barking instructions out to the

orchestra. The members made no complaints, quietly listening to her and

adjusting accordingly.

What?! When was my daughter in charge of an orchestra?! And hey,

that's Sousuke sitting in the concertmaster's chair!

"Once more, from the top!"

And so under Yoshino's command, the orchestra began once again.

...Hang on, isn't this that one famous JRPG's overture?! Sure, maybe it

would be suitable for the concert hall's inaugural performance, but...!

Damn you, Yoshino. You just wanted to perform on a stage, didn't you?

Well, it's not like I would have had reason to refuse, in all fairness.

Mayyybe it wouldn't be too much of a bother to adjust the knights'

schedule just a smidge. We were starting to introduce Knight Gollems, so it

would give them a bit more free time.

They're working so hard, there's no way I could refuse...

◇ ◇ ◇

We ultimately decided to have our orchestra perform the opening act of

our concert hall with Yoshino as the conductor. Honestly, I thought it a bit

of a joke to have a nine-year-old take the position, but the members all said

that it had to be her, so I had no choice but to give permission.

I was pretty sure Sousuke could take up the role just fine being the god

of music, but Yoshino seemed determined to do it herself and there wasn't

really much reason for me to refuse. She'd be going back to the future

eventually though, so we'd need to find and train up a successor for her

before then.

Many of Sakura's songs had also been incorporated into the

performance, but it meant that her and Yoshino were so busy putting

together the program and rehearsing for it that our meal times didn't match

up at all recently. I really didn't want them to push themselves too hard.

My liege, may I have a moment of your time?

"That you, Kougyoku?"

Kougyoku contacted me just as I was finishing off the last of the

documents that needed to be signed off.

The birds under my command have sighted bandits gathering on the

road to Brunhild. They do not appear to be based here, so it is but a tad

suspicious.

Bandits, huh? There never seemed to be an end to them. Just where did

they keep coming from? I'd heard that adventurer dropouts or mercenaries

would often turn to a life of crime in order to earn money, but given they

were often quite fit, I'd much prefer if they came to help Brunhild with

construction work instead.

Then again, a lot of these guys wanted to make a large sum of money

quick and easy, so they probably wouldn't be ecstatic about the labor

expected of them.

"Where are they based then, if not here?"

Deep in the woods of Belfast.

Given it was Belfast, I marked a map with their base and sent it to His

Majesty.

And with that, my work was done.

"Bandits, you say?" Kousaka asked, as he walked in and dumped a

whole other mountain of documents on my desk. Oh, come on, not even

more...

"...Yes. I sent the location of their base to the King of Belfast."

"Brunhild is located far from Belfast and Regulus's capitals, so it is

difficult for their knight orders to keep an eye. Regardless, many merchants

gather here, so it is no surprise that there are those with bad intentions who

travel here."

That was very true. Merchants came to our country to buy rare goods,

including treasure and materials from the dungeon islands. That meant that

they were often quite well-off, so to bandits and thieves, they must've

looked ripe for the picking.

The scummiest thing about how these bandits operated was that they

didn't attack the merchants when they arrived in Brunhild, but rather in the

areas of Belfast and Regulus where there were less guards stationed.

Brunhild was simply the feeding ground where their prey approached.

Pissed me off just thinking about it.

"The adventurer's guild has been receiving many more escort requests

as of late, too. There are merchants who band together and come to

Brunhild as a group for increased safety in numbers."

It was true they were at much less risk of getting attacked if they had

adventurers escorting a whole caravan of them. That did mean they were at

least actively trying to deal with the situation themselves.

But at the end of the day, only merchants that had a decent bit of money

could hire someone to protect them. For traveling merchants just starting

out, all they would have is a carriage and the clothes on their body as they

traveled from town to town.

I would have to develop Brunhild's cooperation with Belfast and

Regulus further in order to make the roads safer.

"Actually, where's Yumina?"

Yumina was entrusted with a portion of the country's internal affairs,

essentially making her both grand duchess and minister. She was always

assisting me with my work. Honestly, if she hadn't been helping, I

definitely wouldn't have gotten through everything in one day.

"Lady Yumina is having a tea party with the other duchesses, so she has

excused herself for the afternoon."

Ah, the usual, then. I had no idea who named it, but every week, they

would have what they called a Queens' Tea Party. All of my wives took

part. Apparently, they took that opportunity to discuss various matters. I say

apparently because naturally, I was not invited to their tea parties, and they

refused to tell me what topics they discussed.

There were many things that girls only felt comfortable discussing

between themselves, after all. Like complaining about their uncaring

husband...? No, no, there was no way. ...Right? Right?!

"I'll just focus on my work..."

I sped up my stamping while that anxiety clouded my heart.

◇ ◇ ◇

Meanwhile, at the aforementioned tea party...

"And then! Kuon kindly took my hand and went, 'Mother, are you

alright?'"

"The clothes I bought for Elna the other day fit her perfectly! Look,

here's a photo! Isn't she just adorable?!"

"Linne slacked off on her studies again..."

"Arcia intends to cook lunch, so I better be precise with any feedback I

have."

"I got to read Steph a picture book! I wonder which I should go for

next?"

"Yakumo's swordplay has only gotten sharper, it has..."

"Frei bought yet another strange weapon..."

"Quun got so engrossed in her research that she's trying to skip meals

again. Is there really nothing I can do?"

"I have a session with Yoshino later. Looking forward to it..."

Never mind complaints, they weren't even talking about their husband to

begin with. Everything was about their children.

They would each talk about their time with their kids in turn, and then if

there were any issues, they would help give each other advice. If their kids

had done something praiseworthy, they would all nod their heads in

approval.

Now that Steph had arrived, all the kids were gathered, and that meant

they no longer had to hold back talking about them to not make the others

feel bad. Nowadays, they spoke about their kids non-stop.

They didn't only talk about their own children, though, they also made

sure to tell the other girls about their kids, too. It essentially became a place

for them to stay informed.

"Ah, right, Allis's dancing has been really improving recently. She is

still rather reliant on Kuon's lead, but she's at the level where she could go

to an actual dance and not disappoint," Lu reported to Yumina as their

dance instructor.

Allis would become in-laws with Yumina when she married Kuon, so Lu

thought it pertinent to inform her.

"Allis really is a ball of potential. She makes anything she learns her

own in a flash. I wonder if it's because she's Ende's daughter?"

"You know, I can see that. He literally manages anything through talent

alone. It's so frustrating," Elze grumbled. Given she had been Takeru's

apprentice before Ende, she couldn't help but feel frustration at Lu's words.

"Let it not escape your mind that her mother is also the Sovereign

Phrase. I think she just naturally has a lot of talent in her blood."

"No! This has to be the result of her pure love for Kuon! A maiden in

love is invincible! The power of love is unparalleled!" Yumina rebutted,

standing up in her passion. She hadn't noticed how awkward the other eight

were feeling.

"Yumina is starting to sound just like Karen, she is..." Yae quietly

muttered to Hilde.

"Allis will be her daughter-in-law one day. It's much better than them

having a bad relationship, don't you think?" she responded.

Frantic for Yumina to not hear what they were saying, Linze quickly

continued: "I thought they were a bit young to be getting engaged already,

but they both seem fine."

"It isn't rare for nobility to get engaged at that age," Leen explained.

"There are the interests of the state to consider, after all."

Yae tilted her head. "But Yumina, Lu, and Hilde didn't get engaged until

later, did they not? I heard that in Yumina's case, it was because of her

Mystic Eye, I did."

Yumina's Mystic Eye of Intuition meant that it wasn't so easy for her to

decide on a fiancé. If she were to refuse a partner because their personality

or tastes didn't match up, the other nobles may have taken it as she refused

them maliciously. That would have been uncomfortable for both Yumina

and the other party.

"How was it for you, Lu?"

"I was the third princess so there was no rush for me to decide on who to

marry. Keep in mind that the reason these early engagements happen is

usually because there is a need to secure a successor to the throne."

That said, when there was an offer of betrothal from another country, the

case was a little different. In that case, they may end up becoming engaged

early, but Regulus didn't have good relationships with other countries until

the coup d'état, so no country really wanted to take on any of the daughters

as their queen. Regulus had no interest in giving away its daughters to a

country where a war may start, either.

"Given the kind of man my father is, I'm sure he intended to marry me

off to a Regulus noble when I came of age."

"Entrust his daughter to his vassal so trust may be furthered, I see. And

Hilde? What about you?"

"Umm... I did receive several proposals from upper-class nobles and the

royalty of neighboring countries, but..." Hilde quietly responded, showing

slight discomfort.

Everyone's head tilted at how unnaturally avoidant she was of

answering.

"So, you see, um...I had no intention of marrying someone who was

weaker than me...and I ended up beating everyone who proposed..."

"Pfft."

All it took was one person to crack and suddenly, the whole room apart

from Hilde burst into laughter.

"O-Oh come on, you don't need to laugh that much, do you?! You're all

terrible!"

"Sorry, sorry," Elze apologized. "I was just thinking about how like you

that is."

"That is how you were able to meet the grand duke. You did nothing

wrong. You're in the right, Hilde," Sakura added.

Lestia honored both chivalry and strength, and that was always apparent

in how Hilde handled matters. They could understand why she wouldn't

want to marry someone weaker than her, and it wasn't acceptable for a

knight to be able to be beaten by the one he married.

"Our daughters will likely have trouble searching for their own partners,

too," Sue muttered, causing uncomfortable smiles to appear on everyone's

faces.

"Their smitten father will likely be their biggest hurdle," Leen sighed.

"I don't think that's inherently a bad thing, but... yes," Linze chuckled.

"I refuse to give our Elna away to some half-baked man, though. They

have to at least be stronger than her."

"I completely agree. I won't hand Yoshino away to anyone strange. It

has to be someone that will protect her with his life."

"Those standards may be a little high, they may..."

To begin with, their kids were demi-gods; it wouldn't be so easy to find

someone who could surpass that sort of strength. I don't think Touya is

going to be the only problem here, I don't, Yae thought to herself.

The girls were split into two sides: Yae, Lu, Hilde, and Leen, who were

happy to leave their kids to find whoever they wanted, and then Elze, Linze,

Sue, and Sakura, who were much more careful and felt they had to take the

time to scout out their children's potential partners.

Kuon was already engaged, but if he was considering taking on any

more wives, Yumina would definitely come under the more cautious type. If

he took on a bride that was no good, it could lead to the decline of their

country.

There were countless stories of countries falling into ruin because of the

rivalry between queens. She didn't want Kuon to take a wife who was liable

to cause discord amongst their family.

And so, the grand duchesses continued their talk concerning their

children.

"Ever since our children have come to our time, we always turn to this

topic without meaning to," Leen wryly laughed as she sipped at her tea that

had gone cold while they had been so focused on their discussion.

Their gathering was originally meant to be about how they could support

Touya as the grand duke and about managing Brunhild, but now it felt no

different to idle gossip.

"I've begun thinking recently that maybe our kids came from the future

to help us."

"Indeed. If the children hadn't been there for the battles at Egret and

Eashen, our victory may not have been so easily achieved."

"The weak divine venom, was it? Trying to fight in our condition

would've been incredibly tough."

Remembering the sensation from that battle, Hilde shivered and shook

her head. Everyone felt the exact same way. The discomfort that clung to

their bodies, and the disgust that welled up from within them had been

tremendous.

"Touya and Karen didn't appear to be affected, did they?"

"It was not strong enough to affect gods, it was not. It appeared to have a

slight effect on wards, or angels and fae that hold divinity, however."

"Wow, so we're basically the same as angels and spirits by this point,

huh?" Elze breathed out in slight wonder. Leen chuckled at her response.

Their bodies were already enveloped in divinity. They couldn't use it

how they wished yet, but there was no denying they were the wards of a

god.

"Our husband is a ward of God Almighty, so is there any surprise,

really? I don't believe the wicked devout intended it to have any effect on

us though, they were likely simply aiming to weaken the Frame Gears."

"It was an unintended side effect, it was. Do we really have no choice

but to rely on our children next time, too...?"

"Um, what if we made masks from the leaves and bark of the Puretree?"

Linze suggested.

But Leen shook her head. "Even if we do not ingest the powder, it will

still affect us if it is in close proximity to our skin." They had managed to

bring a sample back to Brunhild with [Prison], but even that couldn't

completely block out the effects.

The Puretree that Sousuke had cultivated had the ability to purify the

effects of the divine venom. If they were able to have a Puretree present on

the battlefield, then they could perhaps nullify the effects, but that was a

huge ask.

"Then what if we covered our bodies with the leaves? Were there not

people wearing similar clothes in the movie Touya showed us the other

day?"

The clothes that Sue was talking about were the ghillie suits that snipers

and hunters used up in the mountains as camouflage.

When the girls recalled that grassy outfit, all of them, including Sue

despite being the one who had suggested it, refused it with a, "No,

definitely not." Though it wasn't wrong to think that covering their bodies

with the purifying effects of the Puretree may serve to nullify the effects of

the divine venom.

"The idea itself is not a bad one," Sakura said. "If we can take the fiber

from the Puretree, and use that to make thread..."

"Then we can make clothes made of the fiber of the Puretree!" Linze

finished, excitedly clapping her hands together at the suggestion. When it

came to sewing, she was absolutely the master of the girls, having received

training directly from Granny Tokie, the goddess of space-time, herself. Her

ability already exceeded that of a pro.

"So in other words, we will be making one of those 'battle suits', we

will?"

"That sounds good! Having matching battle outfits sounds wonderful!"

"We must make the thread and weave the fabric first, however. We will

need to test to make sure it will actually resist the effects of the weak

venom."

The nine excited duchesses began to clamor about what kind of outfit

they wanted it to be.

"They should be cute!"

"No, functional beauty is best!"

The racket simply didn't end.

Even if they suddenly had to become mothers for their children from the

future, at the end of the day, they were still teenage girls. Getting worked up

about fashion was a constant no matter the generation.

◇ ◇ ◇

"Farnese, Yoshino! You two were the best!"

"Ehehe, thanks!"

"Yeah, yeah, I get it already."

We held a party at the castle after the concert, and naturally, the

Overlord of Xenoahs was there bawling his eyes out. The reactions from his

daughter and granddaughter were complete opposites. He was endlessly

repeating his praise for them so I couldn't blame Sakura for finding him

annoying. Even I was starting to feel it, not that I would say that out loud.

Generally, we wouldn't bring the kids to parties like this where

representatives of various countries were gathered, but this time was a little

different. The party wasn't like our usual summits. It was more of a social

gathering as an after-party for the concert, so we had invited ministers and

royal children as well.

The number of countries who had joined the League of Nations had

already well-exceeded thirty if you included both the east and west, and

there were more guests here on top of that. Just how many hundreds of

people had we invited to this thing?

Of course I remembered the kings and the representatives of their

countries, but anyone else underneath them, my memory was hazy, honestly

speaking.

"Grand Duke, I must thank you for the wonderful performance today. I

hope that one day your orchestra may perform in my country as well."

And just as I was thinking that, here I am faced with some important

person that I cannot for the life of me remember the name of. He was just a

regular old guy, not even a handlebar mustache or monocle in sight to

maybe tip me off. Ummm, who were they again...?

My liege, they are Lord Rozels from Gardio.

"Thank you for your kind praise, Lord Rozels. Should the opportunity

arise, I would be more than happy for them to perform in Gardio."

With Kohaku's reminder, I was able to respond with a polite smile. Shit,

that was close.

I glanced to the side and saw Cesca holding Kohaku in her arms giving

me a thumbs up. Thanks to her being an artificial human, her memory was

unmatched, letting me use tricks like this should the situation call for it.

Looking around the party venue, I spotted the representatives of Eashen

and Orphen, countries on two completely opposite sides of the continent,

happily chatting away with each other. It was probably easier for them to

get along given their two countries had very similar cultures.

"Hm?"

In a different part of the room, I saw Quun and Arcia chatting with some

other kids. They were all girls around the same age. I couldn't recall seeing

them before, so I imagine they were the daughters of the ministers.

They were both very skilled at acting the part of the noble lady while

hiding their true selves, so I wasn't particularly nervous watching them

interact with other nobles. Though worded differently, it also meant that

they were both very good at putting on facades…

Since we had disclosed that the children were my relatives, they were

still treated like noble ladies of Brunhild. They were probably talking about

how good the concert was.

And then suddenly, three boys who were also about their age approached

them. Hm? Are they about to try and hit on them?

You're a hundred years too early for that, kids.

I wanted nothing more than to go in and interfere directly, but given my

position, I couldn't be rude to a noble's sons out of nowhere, so I stuck to

glaring at them instead. If I knew this was going to happen, I should've

assigned bodyguards to them.

The three boys were chatting away to the girls, but they weren't getting

the most engaged responses. In comparison to how proud they looked of

themselves, the girls had smiles that weren't reflected in their eyes.

Are they seriously that dense? It was more than clear that the

conversation wasn't going smoothly. It looked as if they were boasting

about something, and the girls were getting annoyed by it.

They may have been hiding it well, but even Quun and Arcia were

starting to look annoyed. Parla was standing by Quun's feet, and she held a

stun gun in her hands that let off a little bzzt. Hang on, that's just a little bit

too far!

Just as I was hesitating over whether or not I should step in, the three

boys' pants suddenly fell, revealing their underwear to the girls.

"Huh?!"

"Eeek!"

At the girls' screaming, the boys quickly pulled their pants back up and

ran out the room with their faces bright red.

I noticed Arcia subtly drop a few little buckles to the floor, and then

Parla quietly picked them up in order to dispose of the evidence. Was that

the buckles for their belts? Damn you, Arcia, you totally used [Apport],

didn't you? What sort of child did I raise...? Good job.

Genuine smiles returned to the girls' faces and they began chuckling

amongst themselves. Their conversation once more resumed as if the boys

had never existed.

"Your daughters don't hold back, do they?"

"Is there any need to hold back against an enemy?"

"Enemy, huh? You guys really are alike..."

Ende was suddenly standing beside me. It seemed he'd seen the whole

thing. He was standing in as security for this party, too, given how many

guests we had.

Ende had a different reason for wanting to do so, though.

And speak of the devil, here his reason is.

Lilting music began to float through the party hall—Yoshino had begun

conducting the orchestra. Men and women began dancing together with the

music, among them, a couple much smaller than most.

It was Kuon and Allis.

This party also served as Allis's test to see if she could dance well at a

real occasion. She wouldn't be punished if she messed up, though. Kuon

and Allis weren't present here today as the prince and princess of Brunhild,

so the people gathered here today wouldn't be that harsh on them.

The two danced gracefully to the music. Allis had a dazzling smile on

her face, looking just like an ordinary noble girl. No, actually, she looked

like even more than that. She'd really exceeded expectations.

Sighs of admiration escaped those around me at seeing such a young boy

and girl dance so splendidly. ...We ignore the grinding teeth and tongue

clicking coming from beside me.

Despite his complaints, Ende was still a doting father, and he was

making sure to record the whole dance. He was likely going to show it to

his wives later.

Kuon and Allis blended in perfectly fine with the adults, Kuon with his

tailcoat, Allis with her ice-blue evening dress. Their clothes suited them

well. As a prince and his fiancée, I had no complaints about their

performance.

I glanced at Lu from the other side of the room, and she gave a strong

thumbs up. Guess they passed.

The song came to an end, and everyone bowed to their dance partners to

a shower of applause. Even Ende had stopped recording and was clapping.

While crying. Come on, not here. As if the Overlord wasn't already bad

enough.

"Look at how dazzling Allis is right now! But the fact it's your son

doing that is so frustrating!"

"We really need to sit down and have a chat about this at some point, my

dude." At this rate, he was going to become a clone of the Overlord. If he

wasn't careful, he was gonna be locked into that route, and then Kuon

would be subjected to endless suffering. "At least have the decency to

accept your daughter's boyfriend."

"You better remember what you just said! 'Cause I'm gonna say it right

back at you with your daughters! Eight whole times at that!"

"Oi!"

This bastard... He should know that I didn't want to think about that! You

wanna go, huh?!

"You two really are just a couple of big kids. Stop glaring at each other

like that."

Elze yanked us apart. Though she wasn't that used to wearing dresses,

she was wearing one just for today.

I suddenly realized that we had been garnering a fair bit of attention with

our argument.

We both gave awkward smiles and bowed our heads. "Nothing's wrong

here, sorry for the commotion."

"It was about the kids again, wasn't it? I really can't envision a future

where you two actually let your kids leave the nest."

Elze gave an exasperated sigh, shaking her head. Hey, the kids aren't

even born yet in our time! It's way too soon for them to be leaving the nest.

"You're one to talk," Ende immediately retorted, seemingly ticked off by

Elze's remark. "I hear you've barely left Elna alone recently."

"Uh, excuse me! Elna's a real good kid! What's wrong with me wanting

to spoil her?"

"Yeah, there's nothing wrong with that, at all! Elna's an absolute angel!"

"Huh?! Why are you on her side?!"

Ende was hurt at my supposed betrayal, but like I would ever side with

him over Elze!

"What are you three even doing?" Leen cut in, with as exasperated a

look as Elze had earlier. Paula was by her feet shaking her head. Hey, don't

you join in.

"Please don't make an embarrassment out of Brunhild. What good is it

for the children to raise people's opinion of us, only for the adults to

plummet it back down again?"

Leen looked over at Kuon and Allis who were currently surrounded by

onlookers praising them for their dance.

Naturally, even we couldn't ignore those words, and we immediately

pulled ourselves together. C'mon, Touya, you're supposed to be the role

model here.

"Now then, darling, stop carrying on over here and go say your hellos,

will you? That is the job of the grand duke, after all."

"Yes, ma'am..."

I began walking around the venue at Leen's insistence. I guess I should

start from the fathers.

"Hey there, Touya! The concert was amazing!"

Having already started drinking, the King of Belfast raised a wine glass

to me in greeting together with the King of Regulus. I returned the greeting.

Both of them looked satisfied with smiles on their faces.

"Kuon's dance was splendid. I'm proud that he is my grandson. Oh wait,

I'm supposed to keep that secret."

The wine appeared to have loosened his lips, and he chugged the wine in

his glass as if to cover up what he'd said.

"Your Majesty, Lucia was the one who taught Kuon how to dance. Of

course he would be so skilled. I'm proud that she is my daughter."

Aren't there one too many doting fathers at this party? 'Isn't that the pot

calling the kettle black?' you say? Hahaha, good one.

"That aside, Touya, I heard from Zadonia that there have apparently

been sightings recently of the Phrase over there."

"Of the Phrase?"

I couldn't hide my surprise at the king's words. All the Phrase should

have been absorbed by the wicked god and become a mutant. Did that mean

there were survivors? I definitely did a [Search] of the whole world for

them after the confrontation to make sure.

"Yes, at least that's what they said. It should be noted that the

eyewitnesses were merchants lost in a blizzard, so there is the chance they

were simply hallucinating from exhaustion, or simply mistook an ice

monster for one. I thought it pertinent to inform you, regardless."

Being the Land of Frost, Zadonia was a land covered in, well, snow and

ice. There were even Ice Turtles with glaciers sticking out their backs. It

wasn't out of the question for someone to mistake that for a Phrase.

If there really were Phrase there, though, there was no way that

Dominant Constructs or the former Sovereign wouldn't be able to detect

them.

"Hm, perhaps it was just a mistake, after all. I was a little afraid we were

about to face another one of those large-scale invasions."

I reassured the king that everything would be fine, but...would they

really? Could it be that there were latecomers that arrived here from

Phrasia? The anxiety refused to stop pricking at my mind like little thorns.

At the end of the day, if they really were Phrase, Melle and the other

Dominant Constructs would be able to deal with it.

I took out my smartphone and ran another [Search] for the Phrase.

"No targets detected."

There really were no Phrase. If they were within a barrier or had a

warding amulet, my magic wouldn't be able to detect them, but they were

Phrase. There was no way they held something like that. It had to be a

misunderstanding.

But I just couldn't take my mind off of it, so I decided I should talk to

the king of Zadonia about it directly.

Prince Frost...or should I say, King Frost of the Kingdom of Zadonia

was chatting away happily with the king of his neighboring country of

Dauburn. Given how much their parents had argued, it was fascinating to

see them get along so well. It probably helped that their fiancées, who were

also attending this party, were siblings.

"Ah, Your Grace! I must thank you for inviting me to this concert."

"It was a beautiful performance. I hope the day arrives where we may

see your orchestra perform in our own country one day."

The two of them greeted me as I walked up. Their fiancées, the

princesses of Alent, gave me curtseys.

After exchanging some casual chit-chat and catching up, I asked the

King of Zadonia about the supposed Phrase sighting.

"Thanks to the spirits, Zadonia is gradually becoming a much more

livable climate, but there are still areas of extreme cold. Some merchants

who ended up lost in one of those regions saw a large transparent snail

within the blizzard that looked as if it was made of ice."

An ice snail, huh? If I recall correctly, there was a monster known as a

Cold Snail in the region that was a snail with a shell of ice.

"I've seen a Cold Snail myself; they're about a meter tall at most.

Meanwhile, the snail witnessed was at least three meters."

Yeah, that was way too big to be a regular monster, but there was still

the possibility that it was just a Behemoth.

"One of the merchants said something else interesting: inside that

transparent shell was a round blue core."

"A core?"

Now that...made it more possible that it was a Phrase survivor. Still no

confirmation, but...

As I said earlier, even if it was the Phrase, we had Melle. There was no

way they would defy her. It had to be okay... It had to.

I parted ways with the two kings, and then watched everyone dancing

with the music that had begun again. As I was lost in thought about the

Phrase sighting, Yumina appeared in front of me, wearing her white evening

dress. She smiled and held her hand out to me.

"If you have finished your duties, how about a dance?"

"Um...I'm not as good as our son, but if you don't mind that, then sure."

I took Yumina's hand, and we joined the circle of twirling dresses.

◇ ◇ ◇

"Hazel and Orchid were both defeated. Your strategy was entirely

useless."

"I never anticipated how quickly the enemy would attack. I did think

that worst case scenario, one of us would end up being defeated, but not

two," Indigo responded to Tangerine's remark matter-of-factly. Not that it

appeared Tangerine had been trying to criticize him, in fact, she was almost

teasing him.

Their group didn't particularly view each other as companions anyway;

they simply viewed each other as game pieces for the other to use however

they needed. They may think it a shame that they lost one of said pieces, but

nothing more than that.

"Such a shame that they both died for no meaning."

"There was meaning," Scarlet piped up. "We were able to gain vital

combat information from their battles. If we make use of this, we can

enhance the Kyklops even further." He was scanning the data that had been

sent from Hazel and Orchid's Kyklops.

"Yeah, okay," Tangerine spat out with disinterest.

One of the rooms of the Ark had been refurbished into a research

laboratory for Scarlet. The Ark held not only artifacts left over by one of the

rare Gollem engineers, Chrom Ranchesse, but also the Gollems that had

assisted him in his work. Scarlet was using them as if they were an

extension of his limbs as he began designing the next Kyklops. Everything

else held no space within his mind.

Having lost interest in Scarlet, Tangerine began looking around.

"Where's Gold?"

"Next door. Seems he's as obsessed with the core as always," Indigo

informed her.

Tangerine made her way through an automatic door to the neighboring

room. In the dimly-lit room, she saw a small golden Gollem standing in

front of a large glass cylinder. The cylinder was filled with a dull purple

liquid, and within that was some kind of spiky object about the size of a

golf ball.

The small Gollem was simply looking up at it. Tangerine sighed. It was

the exact same sight as always.

"Seriously, I don't know how you can just stand there looking at that

every day without getting bored. Are you sure that's going to become our

trump card?"

"...It will. It still sleeps. But when it wakes..."

Without turning to look at Tangerine, the little Gollem let out a gravelly

mechanical voice.

"Hope it wakes up soon then. Before we lose all the cards we have left."

The Golden Crown returned nothing but silence.