Shadow of Nokia

"Nokia sent an envoy?"

"That's right, yes. They wish to meet with you."

I was a little bit surprised by the sudden news from Kousaka, our prime

minister. Nokia was a country east of where Yulong had once been. It was a

secluded country that didn't interact with any other, save for a little bit of trade

with Xenoahs. It was similar to Horn in that it only traded with an immediate

neighbor, but Nokia was far more strict about its isolation policies. The reason

for that, much like it was with Horn, was the former nation of Yulong.

Nokia was a country formed by those who'd sought to escape the oppressive

Yulong regime. They'd used terrain to their advantage, defending themselves

against Yulong by hiding behind a huge mountain range. Because of their

geographical and political reclusiveness, visitors to and from Nokia were

practically unheard of. Even during the Phrase invasions and the whole crisis

with the mutants, they'd kept to themselves and didn't ask for aid. Therefore, it

was only natural for me to be surprised about them sending an envoy. I was

very curious about what they wanted.

It was a tiny country, after all. They certainly didn't have any specialty

exports, so I couldn't think why they'd be here. I wondered if it was related to

the league of nations, but I felt like they'd have tried to broach that through

Xenoahs.

"Well, guess there's only one way to find out what they want."

"Very well, then."

I decided to meet them after an hour. Before that, I had to change into my

ceremonial garb. I didn't exactly like the outfit, but I was told to wear it when

meeting with royal representatives from foreign lands. With all that said and

considered, though... I actually wore casual clothes around other world leaders,

for the most part.

The outfit was basically a formal suit. I wasn't a huge fan of flashy capes or

fur-lined cloaks, so I had Zanac make me something stylish and sleek. It was

woven from rare magic beast fur fibers. It let my ass breathe, which I truly

appreciated. I wore a simple black coat on top of the ensemble. If I added a top

hat to the mix, I'd have looked like a stereotypical English gentleman from some

country... Er, that country being England.

Lapis, our head maid, called out to me. We made our way to the audience

hall. The envoy from Nokia hadn't yet arrived. Commander Lain, along with her

direct subordinates Nikola and Norue, stood by in the room. Baba, Yamagata,

and Naito were there as well. On top of that, we also had Tsubaki and Leen

(who was there as court mage). We'd really rolled out the red carpet.

These were the most important people in Brunhild as far as official duties

went. We also had a few regular knights lined up for the sake of keeping up

appearances. Paula the stuffed bear toddled around at Leen's feet, and Kohaku

was curled up in her heavenly beast form by my throne.

"Man, we really went all-out on this, huh?"

"We don't know their intentions, darling. I feel that this kind of welcome is

appropriate. We wouldn't want them thinking less of you, would we?"

As I moved to sit upon my throne, Leen positioned herself to my left and gave

her opinion. Even with that reasoning given, I wondered if all this was really

necessary. After a short wait, three individuals entered the hall. One man

walked in front of the other two. He wore a robe and cape with yellow-red color

tones and seemed to be in his mid-twenties. His hair was brown and cut short.

In all honesty, he looked pretty average. That being said, he was surrounded by

armed knights and diverse individuals, so many people would look ordinary by

comparison.

The two people trailing behind him wore green robes that covered them from

top to bottom, including their lower faces. It was hard to discern their sex at a

glance. One had black hair, while the other had chestnut hair. Their hair was

also cut fairly short, but they both gave off a feminine vibe. The two of them

stood immediately before me before lowering themselves to one knee.

"I-It is, er, our pleasure to meet you, Grand Duke. I am a diplomat from Nokia,

and my name is Faro Jantje."

"Please rise, Ambassador Jantje. Allow me to bid you welcome to Brunhild. I

am the grand duke, Mochizuki Touya."

I sat upon my throne and spoke to him in a lordly manner. My instincts told

me to go over and try to shake his hand, but Kousaka had expressly forbidden

that kind of behavior. He told me that being too friendly off the bat created

complicated relationships down the line.

"Now, Ambassador. What brings you to our lord's fair nation?"

"Ah, erm... That's, well..."

Kousaka immediately cut to the chase, skipping all formalities and asking the

visitor for his business. The ambassador only murmured and muttered in

response.

He kept saying things like "Uhm..." and "I, uh, well...", completely failing to

bring anything of note across. I wondered if this guy was really qualified for a

diplomatic position.

"A-Ah! I hear y-you'll be having your wedding before long, Grand Duke! CCongratulations on that front!"

"Uh... Thank you...?"

...Did he just come to congratulate me on my wedding? Why would they send

an ambassador for that when a letter would have sufficed?

Everyone around me seemed stunned and confused. I wondered if the people

of Nokia just had no idea how to deal with outsiders due to their lack of

outward contact.

"Y-Yes! W-We've heard that y-you're marrying nine women! A very, e-er,

sturdy number, Your Majesty! We t-truly respect your bold nature and virile

charm! I-I am not s-surprised to hear it, as the tales of your womanizing h-have

even reached Nokia's borders...!"

"Ahaha... Right..."

I forced a smile on my face and laughed at his words. Leen tried to hold back

her laughter. I glanced around and saw every last one of my people (except

Kousaka) desperately holding back their own laughter as well.

What the hell, man? Did you come here to try and publicly embarrass me or

something? Or are you trying to get me to hit you?

"...Please be more clear with your intentions, Ambassador."

"A-Ah, yes. Sorry. W-Well..."

Kousaka cleared his throat, stone-faced as ever, and implored the

ambassador to continue speaking.

Yeah, there's gotta be more to this visit than just congratulating me.

"W-Well, Grand Duke... we are here today to ask if, w-well... you'd be

interested in a t-tenth bride!"

"Sorry?"

The atmosphere suddenly turned cold, or at least the vibe from the girl to my

left had turned icy in an instant. When I glanced at Leen, the grin on her face

had completely vanished. Her expression was difficult to read, but it was

obvious she was in a state of deep contemplation. Paula moved away from her

feet and shuffled behind the throne. Kohaku, still laying down, scooched back

slightly from me.

C'mon, you guys...

"What exactly are you proposing, Ambassador?"

"Well... Please take our offer seriously. We wish for you to marry Nokia's

second princess, Pafia Lada Nokia."

Oof... I had a feeling this kind of thing would happen at some point. But I kind

of figured most countries had given up on the idea of marrying me into their

families once they realized nearly half of my current fiancees are royals...

Though, maybe Nokia doesn't know that part.

"W-We won't ask that you take her as a primary wife or anything. We'd be

content even with her as a concubine, or a low-ranking mistress... Princess Pafia

is an educated woman with a fine grasp on literature and military history, and

also a fine beauty. I am certain you would find her of use."

"I'm sorry, but I already have more fiancees than I ever thought I'd have, so I

don't think I can—"

Just as I was about to let them down softly, the cloaked individual with

chestnut-colored hair stood up and looked at me. She was a woman, and one

around my age group. She had to be sixteen at the very least, but my gut told

me she was around seventeen. Her short hair swished a little as she moved

forward.

"Please, Grand Duke. You can merely consider me a beneficial retainer. I

would ask that you at least consider adding me to your list of potential brides."

"Wait, then, you're..."

She removed her robe, revealing a colorful exotic outfit with red and white

markings covering it.

"I apologize for my delayed introduction. I am Pafia Lada Nokia, second

princess of the Nokia Kingdom. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance,

Grand Duke."

The girl, who had a surprising degree of fire in her eyes, bowed her head as

she spoke.

◇ ◇ ◇

With her chestnut hair cut short, her narrow eyes, and her small grinning

mouth, it would have been more accurate to call this princess a beauty rather

than a cutie.

The second princess of Nokia, Pafia Lada Nokia, stared me down. The fight in

her was quite something. She certainly wasn't looking down on me, so I wasn't

intimidated or provoked by the action, but at the same time, I couldn't exactly

say that it felt good.

"We hear what you're saying, Princess Pafia. But this isn't a matter you can

only consult the grand duke on. I and the rest of his fiancees would need to

confer on it as well."

Leen, who'd been standing to my left, smiled as she walked forward. She

seemed to be in diplomacy mode, given her way of speaking.

"Forgive my impertinence, but who are you? Am I to presume you are one of

the grand duke's betrothed?"

"Forgive my late introduction. I am the former clan matriarch of the fairies,

the greatest court mage of Brunhild, and a fiancee to the grand duke. You may

call me Leen."

Leen gave a small, elegant curtsy.

...Greatest court mage? You're the only court mage...

"Lady Leen, I would ask that you consider adding me to your numbers. I'm

sure your country would benefit from it."

"My... Even if it would be a boon for our nation, the grand duke didn't choose

to marry us for profit alone. I'm not entirely sure how to treat this offer."

"Then tell me, upon what does he base his choices for a partner? Is it literacy?

Martial prowess? Beauty? Breeding? I am certain that I have sufficient skills,

and that my lineage is of potent enough stock."

"Well, I must say... You certainly sound confident in yourself. But I have heard

that Nokia doesn't communicate with the outside world very much. Perhaps if

you look around a little more, you may find the world a wider place than you

had initially believed."

Uh... This ain't good. I can already see the sparks flying between these two.

Please... someone save me...

"...We cannot give you an immediate answer, since your request is rather

sudden. Ambassador, is it quite alright if you give us time to deliberate?"

Kousaka broke the silence by addressing Ambassador Jantje, who had been

nervously watching the exchange the entire time. He immediately began to nod

his head at a rapid speed.

"V-V-Very well! P-Please take your time to consider it! We'll be warmly

awaiting your response!"

"Head Maid, take the ambassador and his companions to a guest suite."

"Of course. Please, follow me."

Lapis ushered the visiting trio away. They turned and left with our maid, but

not before the princess turned to give me one last parting glance. I sensed the

determination in her gaze. When the three of them were out of earshot, I let

out a loud groan. This was a real pain in the ass.

"I didn't think they'd come looking for marriage..."

"Indeed, I am rather surprised as well..." Kousaka gently stroked at his beard

as he muttered those words. Everyone seemed surprised. None of the countries

we'd interacted with so far had done anything quite like that.

"I feel like they're trying to unify with me, rather than Brunhild..."

"Can you blame them? You're a gold-ranked adventurer, and you're a

renowned hero who saved this entire world. You command legions of giant

metal soldiers, and you're known to have the ability to talk peace between

almost any nation. I'm sure many covet what you have."

Kousaka was right. This was clearly a marriage based around getting access to

my abilities. If I was tied to Nokia through family, then they probably thought I'd

do as they wished.

"That's why I find the situation strange. Nokia is an isolated country. They

only do bare-minimum trade with Xenoahs, and they've never shown up at a

conference despite our invitations. Why would a country that kept to itself even

during the mutant invasion suddenly decide it wants to make a political

marriage to Brunhild? What would they want Touya's power for?" Leen folded

her arms, calm and analytical as she spoke. I was surprised she wasn't angrier.

"We've seen something like this coming for a while, darling. I'm certain

they're planning to seduce you."

"Really...? I don't think that'd work, though..."

"They'll try it later, I'm sure. Lock your bedroom door tonight, okay? Put down

a few barriers in case they have magic or some kind of artifact that'll let them

bypass walls. If you actually put your hands on her, it'll be harder for us to turn

down the proposal."

Wait, hold on a sec?! Why are you acting like I'm gonna succumb to her?!

"H-Hold on, Leen! I'm not putting my hands on anyone. If she comes to my

room, I'll just have her removed."

"Darling, you're forgetting the most important thing here. She's a woman.

She'll be alone in a room with you. It'll be your word against hers in that

situation. Think about it, even the ambassador won't be able to deny the

possibility of you coaxing her there in the night. It's well-known that you can

use teleportation magic, so the rumors will likely spread that you warped her to

your bedroom."

"Whaaat?!"

That sounded insane to me... Surely that wouldn't happen.

"Well, if they tried to frame the story that way, we could flip it on them. If we

plant a knife on her, we could easily make her out to be an assassin."

"Whaaat?!"

"To be honest, I'm sure they're aware of those kinds of risks. I have my doubts

that she'll try and visit you in the night. But I want you to keep an eye out, just

in case. It's still possible they could make use of some kind of artifact in order to

seduce you, after all."

...I'm divine, so I don't think artifacts will work on me, but even thinking about

the prospect is unnerving.

I decided that setting up a [Prison] around my room would probably be fine.

That way nobody would be able to enter unless they had something in the same

league as my divinity.

"By the way, darling... What did you think of her?"

"Oh? Hm... She's definitely beautiful, but she didn't really seem to care much

about emotional connection. I saw a fire in her eyes, but it wasn't directed at

me. She only looked at what I have and what I wield. She definitely didn't come

here out of romantic feelings, so I don't really want to get involved with her."

I didn't think the girl was solely a tool. I was sure she had many good parts to

her, but I definitely hadn't fallen for her. Nothing even close to that. In Lu and

Hilde's case, I knew off the bat how they felt for me. They didn't yearn for my

status or my strength, they just liked me. Pafia was a whole other kettle of fish.

Also, it kind of felt like she had a lot on her shoulders. Like she was burdened

by responsibility or a sense of duty that came with being a princess. I definitely

didn't think she was a bad person, just dedicated to her cause.

"I felt the same about her. By not truly loving you, she's failed to meet the

criteria required for becoming one of your fiancees. I've already ruled her as

completely unsuitable, and I don't see my stance changing."

Leen started tapping on her smartphone as she spoke. I wondered what she

was doing.

"I have a small meeting to arrange with the others."

Oh boy, another meeting of the brides-to-be, huh? I remember the time when

Pam wanted me to get her pregnant... Though Leen wasn't around for that,

come to think of it.

Leen was busy with her texting, so I walked over to Tsubaki.

"We need to gather intel. Can you get me some information on Nokia and our

guests?"

"Very well. I'll send a few of our agents out to Nokia at once."

As soon as I gave Tsubaki her orders, she vanished in a flash. Our intel

operatives had access to various tools, including teleportation artifacts long

thought lost. With those at their disposal, I had a feeling it'd only take them two

days to reach Nokia and come back. No matter how difficult Nokia's terrain was

to navigate, it couldn't hold a candle to the harsh training that Takeru and

Moroha imposed upon all our knight order members. I knew they'd come back

with what we needed. Not that they actually needed to come back to relay the

information, they'd be able to call us from Nokia, after all.

It was easy to just outright refuse the proposal, but something bugged me

about all this... And so, I decided it was time for a little sleuthing of my own.

◇ ◇ ◇

"Sorry, couldn't tell you. We don't speak much with Nokia, in all honesty.

Even if a coup happened there, we wouldn't know until the new government

told us about it. Again, sorry... We've just kind of had no reason to take an

interest in them."

"Right..."

I tried asking the overlord of Xenoahs about Nokia, but his answer was about

what I'd expected. They only shared a small portion of their border with Nokia,

and they were both fairly isolated nations. It only made sense that the two

countries wouldn't pay much attention to each other.

"Before the last conference, we did extend an invitation for them, but they

said there was a civil matter in their country that needed to be taken care of..."

"Huh... You think there might have actually been a coup?"

"That sounds like more than a simple civil matter... That being said, it is true

that many Yulongese citizens spread out to the surrounding nations after the

country collapsed... Yulong is despised in Nokia, and they have harsh terrain like

we do, but I'm sure they must have gotten at least some refugees. The

immigrants might have brought trouble with them."

Hrm... I guess that's possible, sad as it sounds.

The Yulongese people liked to exaggerate stuff. They'd inflate the number

one-thousand to one million, and then probably inflate that million to a billion.

It was common knowledge in this world that if a Yulongese person quoted you a

number, it was probably ten times smaller in reality. They were pretentious

people who had the habit of licking their wounds, too. If those kinds of people

moved to Nokia and started telling them strange rumors and untrue things

about the outside world, it could put the country into a panic.

"Did any refugees come to Xenoahs?"

"Yup. Some weird rumors were going around, but they didn't last. No

demonkin trusts the words of a Yulong dog, after all."

Just about everyone felt that way. People from Yulong had little to no

credibility. The eastern countries (Eashen excluded) had several issues that

were all caused by Yulong in the past. Xenoahs, Horn, Felsen, Hannock, Lestia,

and so on all had no reason to trust or believe in the words of Yulongese

people.

Nokia was a country that had been founded by those who'd escaped Yulong's

violent and cruel regime. It went without saying that they hated the Yulongese,

so I couldn't imagine them buying any cock-and-bull stories that their

immigrants might have tried to start. We simply lacked enough information to

work with.

After we finished the talk about Nokia, the overlord started to ask me a ton of

questions about Sakura. It was a real pain in the ass, so I gave him a few general

updates then ended the call.

Apparently, every time he tried to call Sakura, it went something like this:

"Ah, Farnese! How are—?"

"Fine..."

"And what about Fiana—?"

"My mother's fine..."

"Would you perhaps like to—?"

"I'm busy. Try again later. Bye-bye..."

And then, she'd hang up. Sakura really had no mercy for her father... That

being said, the fact that she'd actually been picking up his calls was a step in the

right direction.

Sakura was working as a helper in the school along with her mother. She was

in an assistant teacher role, helping kids learn about music. One of our knights,

Spica the dark elf, often accompanied her there. Ordinarily, Sakura would spend

her afternoons at the school along with Spica. But today was different. All the

girls had gathered for their little round table conference about the current

issue.

"This is just like the Pam situation, so they definitely won't let her into their

ranks..."

Pafia definitely didn't have any real romantic feelings for me, I knew that

much. It was obvious. In any situation with real love involved, my idiot sister

would've appeared out of nowhere with a huge grin on her face. But she was

nowhere to be found. I hoped that she wasn't sitting in on the meeting

between my fiancees. That would definitely have caused needless

complications.

I grumbled and worried for a little while until a call came in from Leen.

"'Sup?"

"Ah, darling? We've decided that we're all meeting with Princess Pafia

tomorrow. I'm the only one who's met her in person, so we felt it unfair to

judge her as a group until we've all met with her."

"You say that, but I'm pretty sure you've all made your minds up."

"Now, now, she deserves a fair chance. She's a foreign royal, so we can't just

reject her for no good reason."

That made sense. Giving her a flat-out rejection would be pretty uncivil. If we

didn't care about formalities, then we'd have just turned her down at the first

meeting.

"Either way, darling. Don't meet with the girl until we speak with her, okay?

No need for any complications, after all. I think it'd be better if you had some

company tonight... Eheh... Want to spend the night in one of our rooms?"

"N-NO THANK YOU I'M OKAY."

Leen suddenly switched to a teasing tone of voice, causing my heart to beat

out of my chest. I stammered out a reply and ended the call. It was true that

staying with one of my fiancees would prevent Pafia from doing anything,

though.

"Still... I think I have a better solution to all this."

I started scrolling through my contact list and made a call...

◇ ◇ ◇

"And that's pon." I picked up the mahjong piece discarded by Emperor

Regulus.

Alright, if I hang on a little longer I'll get chinroutou...

"I must say, I didn't expect you to call us to play mahjong... Not that I'm

complaining, I didn't have anything else going on."

The beastking of Mismede picked up a tile as he spoke. I was currently sitting

around the game table with the beastking, Emperor Refreese, and Emperor

Regulus. I'd invited King Belfast as well, but he said he needed to look after

Yamato. Apparently, the little prince still cried through the night.

"It's not bad to play once in a while, right? Plus, I kind of can't really hang at

my place tonight, anyway."

"Oho? Did you upset Lucia and the others?"

"You can't do that, Touya. The most important thing in a marriage is getting

stuff right at the start. If you don't put your foot down at the very beginning,

you'll have to tiptoe around the relationship later in life."

C'mon, man... I'm not married yet... Still, Emperor Refreese's statement

probably came from personal experience. I'd heard he was completely

powerless against his wife behind closed doors.

I didn't want to make Emperor Regulus worry too badly. Lu was his daughter,

after all. And so, I decided to quickly explain the situation.

"My, that is a surprise. I didn't expect Nokia to play that kind of hand at all."

"Yeah, sounds suspicious to me. Especially since they're usually so isolated."

"It's not that strange for countries to try and make connections through

marriage, to be fair..."

If I recalled correctly, Princess Thea of Mismede had recently gotten engaged

to Prince Redis of Refreese. That would make the beastking and the emperor of

Refreese bound through those ties. Beastman discrimination was quickly

becoming a thing of the past, especially in more progressive countries like

Refreese. I wondered if people were more tolerant there because there was

more overall happiness there compared to other countries.

"Is it that big of a deal, Touya? What's one more wife when you already have

nine?"

"It is a big deal, yeah. I don't really want to get myself wrapped up in a

politically-focused marriage."

"It might not be bad, though. Many people I know only got to know their

partners after marriage."

Really? I can't really see that working out so well, Beastking... But uh...

different strokes for different folks, I suppose.

"First, I just need to figure out what they're up to... Ah, that's pon."

I picked up a tile.

"Ack, a chinroutou?!"

Welp, that's my cue. I'll just take a tile... I quickly discarded one that I didn't

need.

"Tsk tsk, you must always pay attention to the flow of the game... Ron!

Suuankou tanki. Read it and weep."

"Agh?!"

"No fair, Emperor!"

"Whew, that was close... I might've actually lost out more if you hadn't made

that move."

Damn it... I should've focused on reading him better while I was biding my

time. Well, whatever. The night's only just getting started!

I felt a little bit sorry for the knights who were here with their monarchs, but I

needed them all here in the game room until morning. I'd cast a [Prison]

around my bedroom in my absence, just in case. Plus, I had plenty of witnesses

who could place me here.

I got ready for the next game as my thoughts began to wander... The girls are

meeting with Pafia tomorrow, huh...? Wonder how it'll work out.

I started sorting through the mahjong tiles, quietly hoping things would turn

out okay.

◇ ◇ ◇

"Oof..."

My body hurt all over when I woke up, probably because I'd slept hunched

over the mahjong table in my chair. I quickly cast [Refresh] and [Recovery].

"So, how'd it go?"

As I walked down the corridor out of the game room, Kougyoku flew over to

me and perched on my shoulder. I'd asked her to have a few of her owl allies

spy on Pafia's people through the night.

"Nothing unusual to report. They didn't leave their rooms or cast any unusual

magic."

"Huh, really...? Maybe I was too paranoid, then."

Kougyoku's report was disappointing, in all honesty. But I started to actually

think about the situation for a moment, and kind of realized it'd have been nuts

to expect a princess to do something so reckless.

"She's meeting with the fiancees today... I sure hope nothing weird happens."

I sighed slightly as I walked further down the corridor.

"...Oh... Something weird happened."

I quietly mumbled to myself as I reached the training field and saw what was

going on. Two girls faced each other, each wielding a wooden sword and shield.

One of the girls was Princess Pafia. The other was Hilde. They had a little

audience made up of my fiancees, Ambassador Jantje, and the princess'

handmaid, Lycia. Moroha and Karen also happened to be in the area.

Hilde and Pafia faced each other in the middle of the training grounds.

"Is this alright?"

"Of course. If anything, it's more than alright. I want you to use your full might

against me. I don't plan on holding back."

Hilde raised her concerns, but Pafia smugly grinned. She was certainly

confident. Apparently, this all started because Pafia wanted to show off her

martial prowess to the girls. She had the confidence, but I couldn't help but feel

that was about to be shattered. I sent a glance over to Hilde, trying to tell her

not to go too hard. Hilde nodded back at me, hopefully understanding what I

meant.

"Alright, you two. Fight!"

Moroha, who was the referee for the match, raised her hand into the air and

then swung it down. In the blink of an eye, Hilde jumped in and swept her

sword upward. She'd disarmed Pafia instantly.

"Wh—?!"

Pafia was too stunned to react as Hilde held the wooden blade to her throat.

Ah crap, Hilde! That glance earlier was to tell you to go easy on her, not to

give it everything you've got!

"Hilde wins."

Moroha announced the results of the bout. After a few short moments,

Pafia's disarmed blade clattered to the earth. It had clearly been knocked a

considerable distance upward...

I looked over to find Ambassador Jantje and Lycia staring in absolute shock.

That was a pretty reasonable reaction. The entire thing had happened over the

span of a second, so I was sure they had no idea what Hilde had just done. From

their perspective, Hilde's motions were imperceptible.

"H-Hold on! I just slipped, that's all! Let's go again!" Pafia yelled out,

desperate not to be outdone.

"Well, if she wants it... Do you agree, Hilde?"

"That's fine..." Hilde said as she walked back to her starting position.

Moroha raised her arm again, prompting the two girls to take battle stances.

Pafia's expression was no longer smug. Instead, she looked tense and almost

fearful.

"Fight!"

Moroha swung her arm down, and Pafia held her shield up in a flash. Hilde,

however, didn't charge in like last time. The two of them sidestepped in a circle,

maintaining distance from each other. Hilde gradually closed the gap, pointing

her sword towards her enemy the entire time.

I wondered if she was planning to fight on the defensive this time around.

Hilde maintained a stoic expression, but it was clear that Pafia was getting

impatient with the flow of the battle. It wouldn't be long before she...

"Hiyah!"

...Charged forward with her sword, thrusting at her foe. But Hilde was

undeterred, simply shrugging the blow off with her shield.

"Gh!"

Pafia charged in with a follow-up strike, then another. She was definitely a

skilled swordswoman, there was no doubt about that. I had a feeling she was

stronger than Yae was when I first met her, but she was still no match for Hilde.

Hilde kept blocking each strike with her shield, almost toying with the girl

while barely exerting any energy. Pafia was the only one making large motions,

which meant she was starting to run out of stamina. Hilde seized an opening,

swooped in, and disarmed Pafia like it was nothing. Just like last time, she held

her wooden sword to her enemy's neck.

"...Do you yield?"

"...Yes, I yield."

Hilde's voice was low, and Pafia quietly accepted her own defeat. Part of me

wanted to tell her that she'd done well, but I had a feeling she might think I was

being snide.

"You're powerful, Miss Hilde. I've never seen anyone handle the blade as well

as you."

"Not at all. I am but a mouse when compared to Moroha, a true lion. There's

always a bigger fish."

Hilde's words prompted Pafia to look at Moroha in awe.

"Don't beat yourself up too much, Hilde. I'd say you're at least a kitten

compared to me."

"A kitten, you say...?" Hilde smiled awkwardly. Personally, I thought it was

pretty high praise, coming from Moroha of all people. Comparing yourself to

one of my eccentric family members was never a smart idea, anyway.

"So, now what? You said you'd show us your magic after your

swordsmanship, right?"

"That I did! I'll show you all! I may have fallen behind in swordplay, but my

magical prowess is simply uncontested."

"You're gutsy, I'll give you that."

Moroha gave Pafia a light compliment. The girl didn't seem completely

crushed, but that was probably because she was more confident in her magic.

Hilde picked up Pafia's discarded gear and walked over to me.

"Nice work, Hilde. How was the fight?"

"I'd never seen her fighting style before; it was interesting. She's certainly a

strong fighter, just not quite strong enough."

After Hilde talked a little, Elze and Yae came over with a wooden dummy. It

was the target for the magic contest. The wood it had been carved from was

particularly hardy stuff from Mismede. I wasn't sure what spells Pafia had at her

disposal, but breaking or even burning it would be hard. Although, if she had a

slicing-style spell like [Aqua Cutter], that'd probably do the trick.

"Alright, go for it. It's fine to break the target."

"Very well."

Moroha gave Pafia a small pat on the back before moving back. Pafia pointed

both hands at the target, magic energy swirling within her. The quality and

amount of her magic was actually pretty impressive. If we talked about this in

RPG terms, she had the makings of a fine Spellsword.

Suddenly, things changed when Pafia's right hand started emitting bright

sparks, while her left conjured up a swirling gale. I almost couldn't believe it.

She was using two different types of magic at the same time. She quickly

clasped both hands together and launched the combined magic forward.

"Rage forth, Lightning and Wind! A Dazzling Cyclone: [Plasma Storm]!"

A whirling vortex appeared around the target dummy, followed by strike after

strike of lightning. I hadn't expected that. It wasn't immensely powerful, but it

was a legitimate compound spell. She somehow knew an ancient magic spell

that hadn't fallen to the decay and downgrade of modern magical convenience.

The charred dummy shook around a bit before collapsing to the ground and

splitting into pieces.

"How'd you like that?!"

Pafia turned around, smugness written all over her face. But she frowned

slightly when she saw that we weren't all that shocked. It wasn't that I wasn't

impressed or anything, it was just that I was so used to weird and over-the-top

stuff at this point that the best reaction I could muster was "Neat."

"[Plasma Storm]... It's a spell that fuses Light and Wind magic. Though I feel

she was too heavy on the Wind."

"I agree. She didn't bring out the full potential of the Light magic. I think if she

gets the balance right, she could make it twice as powerful."

Leen and Linze exchanged opinions on the spell, prompting Pafia to adopt a

startled expression. She clearly hadn't expected anyone here to so easily

identify the mechanics of her spell.

Leen and Linze turned toward each other and started playing rock, paper,

scissors. Linze lost, so she let out a little sigh and started walking toward the

demonstration area. Pafia backed off as Yae and Elze hauled in a new wooden

dummy.

Much like Pafia had done, Linze brought both arms forward toward the doll.

One hand produced Ice, while the other produced shimmering beams of Light.

She effortlessly merged both magic elements together, making Pafia's earlier

movements look juvenile in comparison.

"Shimmer forth, Ice and Light! Multi-Colored Ray: [Prisma Rainbow]!"

A shining laser shot out from Linze's hands. The upper half of the doll was

vaporized in under a second, but the laser kept going until it bounced off the

nearby protective barrier and scattered away into the air. The icy particles

inside the beam gleamed in the sunlight, creating tiny rainbows in the sky.

"What?!"

"Ooh, pretty!"

Pafia looked utterly devastated, while Sue beamed merrily. The utter contrast

between their expressions made me want to laugh.

"Princess Pafia, where did you learn your spell?"

"Hm? Ah... It was in an old book we unearthed from a dungeon ruin in

Nokia..."

"Oh my... Nokia just got a little more interesting..."

Linze's interest appeared to have been piqued. In the olden days, notable

mages would protect their work by keeping them stored in strongholds. Many

of them had castles or towers, but most just settled on dungeons. After all, you

only needed rudimentary Earth magic to dig one out of the ground. It certainly

wouldn't be odd to find powerful tomes in ancient ruins. In Doc Babylon's case,

she built the floating fortress to house all her great works.

We returned to the small terrace, and Yumina raised her voice toward Pafia.

"Well, we know your strengths now. But we'd like to get to know you better.

Would you join us for tea?"

Pafia just nodded quietly, apparently still in shock at her utter defeat. I was

about to follow them when Leen suddenly stopped me.

"It's time for a girl's talk, darling. We'd appreciate it if you stayed out. Lycia is

fine to participate as well, but we'd also appreciate it if Ambassador Jantje kept

his distance."

The ambassador seemed reluctant to leave his princess, but Lycia calmed him

down. The group of girls made their way into the castle. The ambassador went

off on his own, so I walked back to a different part of the castle when Tsubaki

suddenly appeared from the shadows.

"What's the intel?"

"Well... According to our findings, King Luhm Ladeaux Nokia is on his

deathbed."

"Seriously? Is he sick?"

"The cause is unknown. He's in critical condition, however. He has two

daughters. The older sister, Lefia, and the younger sister, Pafia. The protocol

says Lefia will succeed the throne if their father passes."

Given the lack of a male heir, that made sense.

"I can tell what you're thinking, and it's not that. Lefia will succeed

uncontested because Pafia died three months ago."

"What?!" She died?! Then who's the girl in my castle right now?!

"...So there's a fake here?"

"It's possible that this person is a fake using Nokia's isolation to her advantage

in order to win your favor... But that sounds extremely careless. Princess Pafia is

confirmed as deceased. She fell into a ravine with her horse on an excursion,

and her body was recovered."

If a body was recovered then there's no doubt about it. This person's a fake...

Did she maybe impersonate the princess without realizing she died? This seems

pretty sloppy. Complicated, too. If I had accepted her as my bride, then wouldn't

I have had to go to Nokia at some point? At that point, the people of Nokia

would confirm that she's a fake, so why even bother going to all this trouble? Or

was she planning to drag out the formal meetings until I'm fully hitched...?

"That's only preliminary information, there's also—"

"My lord!" Commander Lain cut Tsubaki off. She was running full pelt down a

nearby hallway, her rabbit ears swaying as she moved. I didn't really think her

frantic behavior was fitting for a commander... If it was that urgent, she

could've just called me on the phone.

"Please hurry, we need you in the greeting room. An ambassador from Nokia

is here!"

"Huh? But we just waved off Ambassador Jantje. Why would we go to the

greeting room when we already greeted him?"

"No, no! Not him! Another ambassador!"

...Another?

"This ambassador said we're harboring someone impersonating their

princess! That we need to hand them over at once!"

So that means she has to be a fake, right? Ugh, this is too confusing... I'll just

head to the greeting area for now...

◇ ◇ ◇

"Do they have ID?"

"Yes, I verified it with the Xenoahs overlord's information. The medallion he

presented looks legitimate... But so does the one presented by the other

ambassador."

As I walked down the hallway, I confirmed a few details with Lain. At the very

least, it seemed like these potential impostors hadn't killed anyone for their

credentials.

"So Jantje's medallion's identical to the real thing?"

"It is, sir. It's certainly unusual for there to be more than one in circulation..."

It wasn't that odd for larger countries, but Nokia only did business with

Xenoahs, so having multiple signifiers for foreign interaction seemed highly

unusual. I also wondered how this new ambassador had learned we'd been

visited by a fake one. Nokia was isolated from outside affairs, so it was a little

peculiar. I wondered if they had a spell similar to [Search] or something.

"Guess I'll find out more by talking to them." I entered the chamber and saw

five men. They immediately took a knee and bowed their heads. One was a

middle-aged man with a portly body, while the other four were fairly plain

young men in leather armor. Presumably, the four were escorts.

"Your Majesty. My name is Dryfe Chyomah, ambassador of the Kingdom of

Nokia."

Kousaka raised his voice to begin my formal introduction, but I stopped him

with a wave of my hand.

"Let's skip the formalities. Ambassador Dryfe, I've heard that you want us to

hand over Princess Pafia and Ambassador Jantje, but what exactly is going on

here?"

"...Haaah, yes... That girl in your care right now is a fake. The real Princess

Pafia died three months ago during an excursion."

Hm... That matches up with what Tsubaki told me... I looked Ambassador

Dryfe up and down. He was a chubby man with a white beard. On the whole, he

was quite stout, with a little smile curved at the edges of his mouth. But I could

tell from the tired bags under his eyes that he probably wasn't smiling on the

inside. He had a ring on his finger and a jangly bangle on his arm, probably as a

ward against magic or dark forces.

"Ambassador Jantje has the same credentials as you, what about that?"

"...Faro Jantje was an ambassador in the service of Nokia, that much is true.

The medal he carries is legitimate. He was out conducting operations in

Xenoahs and was due to come home, but for some reason, he's now in the

company of a pretender princess..."

"So now you want him back?"

"Indeed."

Hmm... So Jantje is a legitimate diplomat to Xenoahs... This is pretty weird,

though. How'd they manage to track him here?

"How did you learn about the fake princess?"

"...This is an off-the-record admittance, but our country has recently begun to

gather intelligence on the outside world beyond Xenoahs. Ever since the fall of

Yulong, we have decided international trade would be a viable route."

"So you have spies."

"...If you really must put a label on it, yes. By chance, one of our agents came

across Jantje and the others en route to Brunhild. We headed out via our fastest

mode of transportation the moment we heard the news."

What he said made sense. Nokia was a country that was isolated more due to

its surroundings than anything else. Now that Yulong had fallen, it was logical to

reach out to other countries for support.

"I understand the allegations against this supposed fake, but we have no way

of verifying what you're saying is true. We can base our understanding on what

Xenoahs has told us, and what you've told us. If indeed Jantje was ambassador

to Xenoahs, then that lines up with the information we've received from them

about the legitimacy of his medal. But we still can't take you at your word. Do

you have anything from your king?"

"...The king is currently unwell. Princess Lefia is taking care of state affairs at

present. However, the princess doesn't know about this situation. We are

currently working on orders from our nation's Marshal, Caezar Nortelis."

He's unwell? Guess it makes sense they wouldn't mention the part where he's

dying. But how does neither the king nor the current acting sovereign not know

about this?

"Princess Pafia was a beloved sister to Princess Lefia. Our marshal believed

that learning about this heinous impostor would only serve to further damage

her wounded heart. Ah, I should also mention that Marshal Caezar is engaged

to our Princess Lefia."

Hmhm... I guess it makes sense. If my sister just died, my father was on his

deathbed, and I had to deal with governmental affairs on top of that, then

learning someone was impersonating my sister would probably be too much to

bear. But, at the same time... something just doesn't feel right here.

Ambassador Dryfe's eyes were darting around here and there. He seemed

fairly unfocused and antsy. His responses to my questions were also surprisingly

blunt.

"There's no real way we can pass judgment here. Both you and Jantje have

the medal signifying you're legitimate ambassadors, so we can't really say for

sure that he's here illegitimately."

This was a matter for Nokia to decide, not Brunhild. Something was still

unsettling me, though... Dryfe's demeanor in general was pretty creepy and

unusual. Though I did know it was unfair to judge a book by a cover.

"...Then we will judge. Will you hand over the impostor and the others?"

"Well, I mean, I guess I—"

"We profusely refuse your request."

"Huh?"

I turned around toward the sudden voice. Yumina was by my throne. The

other girls weren't with her. I wondered if something had happened.

"I've heard the entire story from Pafia. The true story. Return to Nokia and

tell your marshal this. If he's going to run, he should do it now while he still has

a chance. I hope you understand the message, Ambassador."

Yumina glared down at Dryfe, not mincing a single word. It was really unusual

for her to be this stern... Just what had Pafia told her?

"Touya."

"Y-Yes?"

"Look him over with your divine sight."

"Huh? Okay..."

Let's see here... Divinity flowing, annnd... There we go... Wait, what?! There's

a dark substance inside his body... It's kinda like smoke or gas, but it's filling

every bit of him.

"What did you see?"

"Uh... like a gassy miasma inside of him. What is it?"

"He's not himself. There's something possessing his body. My mystic eye

noticed it off the bat. There are two beings there instead of one."

In response to Yumina's words, Ambassador Dryfe rose to his feet. His

unfocused eyes, now looking far more hollow than ever, glared back at us.

"...Wrghh... WrEtCHes... Pahhfffia... If OnLy... diED, hnn..."

Another voice started to come from Ambassador Dryfe. Though it was more

apt to say it was a second voice being overlaid upon his own.

"The ambassador's possessed?"

"It seems that way, yes. My mystic eye's showing me a dark presence inside

him, but not in the man himself. I think that Dryfe himself is probably a fine

man, but not whatever has a grasp on him."

That meant the person I'd been speaking to probably wasn't Dryfe at all. Still,

possession like that was rare. There were certainly a lot of monsters that could

possess people, but they only compelled people to rampage and act out on

their base instincts. From what I'd seen so far, Dryfe hadn't done any of that.

He'd come here and acted far too rationally for a traditionally possessed man.

Which could only mean one thing...

"Are you a summoned beast?"

"M...y name... is IpTimUS... My LoRd CaEZaR... EnTRustSteD me... To KiLL thAT

wReTchED... PaFiA..."

Iptimus? This guy sure is a chatterbox... It's pretty rare for a summoned beast

to be able to hold a conversation like this.

Usually, it took a hell of a lot of magic to keep a summon maintained for a

long period of time, but by infesting Dryfe's body, he could probably siphon off

the man's magic. It effectively turned the summon into a parasitic organism

that could pretend to be the man while maintaining deep cover.

"Well. Now we know who we should be trusting."

The four guardsmen from Nokia had taken up arms. Each one of them

brandished their weapons at us. I looked over them with my divine sight, and

sure enough, they also had some of the dark miasma in their bodies.

Lain and the others immediately brought their weapons out. I decided to take

matters into my own hands, but Linze suddenly jumped out and cast [Banish]

on the group, much to my surprise. I felt a little bit disappointed, since it'd been

a while since I'd gotten to use that spell.

"Hrk... Brhgh... Blaaarghh?!"

The men screamed as what I could only describe as black bile started flowing

out of their mouths. It was disgusting... Kind of reminded me of ectoplasmic

goop.

After they were finished vomiting, all five men fell to the ground. If it was just

an undead monster then that spell would've killed it, so that was proof this was

a powerful summoned beast.

"You... YoU yOu YouUyouYouUYoUuU!!!"

The five misty fragments all merged into a single being, a Specter. Apparently,

Iptimus had been a single entity the entire time, but it could split itself to

possess multiple people at once.

Two golden, gleaming eyes emerged from the whirling smoke. I wasn't

entirely sure what to do with the Specter in front of me.

"[Boost]!"

Elze jumped out from behind her sister, kicked off the ground, and charged

toward the Specter. She had her specialized gauntlets equipped.

"FOol... BringiNg fiStS to a SpeCTer?! You'Ll maKE a FiNE nEw hoST!"

"The only fool here is you."

Elze's gauntlets shone with awesome power. These gauntlets represented

Elze's will, and I'd recently enchanted them both with every magical element

possible. Even a Specter couldn't avoid damage from it.

"Divine Combat Art: Luminous Flashfist!"

"GRAAARGH!"

Elze's fist drove through the Specter, scattering it into tiny tatters of light. The

monster's misty form began evaporating into thin air.

"LoRd CaE...ZaR... ForGIvE... mE..."

He transmitted one final thought to his master before vanishing. I was certain

that Caezar knew exactly what had just gone down. Advanced summons

maintained psychic links with their contractors, after all.

That certainly landed us in a predicament.

"Touya, please cast [Recovery] on these men."

"Huh? Oh, sure thing."

I was too lost in thought to notice Yumina trying to get my attention, so I

hopped up from my throne. Then, I cast [Recovery], [Refresh], and [Area Heal]

on the fallen men. They'd be back on their feet in no time.

"Sir Dryfe...!"

Ambassador Jantje walked into the room alongside Nikola. Yae, Lu, and the

rest of my fiancees appeared as well. Princess Pafia, along with her handmaid

Lycia, was with them. The trio from Nokia looked over the five fallen men.

"They'll be okay. They're just resting for now. Their bodies were possessed by

a spectral creature, but they're physically fine."

"To manipulate people like this... Caezar... I'll never forgive him!"

Princess Pafia clenched her teeth, a look of rage upon her face. There was still

the matter of determining whether or not she actually was the princess,

though.

"Ambassador Dryfe... Or rather, the thing possessing his body, said you were

an impostor. He said that the real Princess Pafia died in an accident three

months ago."

"That's untrue. I am absolutely the second princess of Nokia, I swear it. That

death was a falsified incident conjured up by Marshal Caezar. The body they

recovered was a double."

Geez... That definitely kind of makes more sense, all things considered. I'd

have a hard time trusting the Caezar guy after all this, anyway.

"So Caezar was responsible for the accident?"

"He was. He sought to kill me, the last obstacle in his path, and take over

Nokia through his engagement with my sister. I uncovered his plans by chance,

so I fled Nokia. I went to the only place I knew of the outside world, Xenoahs. It

was there that I met Jantje."

Pafia's gaze turned to the man by her side. In response, the man awkwardly

spoke up.

"I-I was on my way home to Nokia from Xenoahs, so I had little grasp of the

situation... but I trusted in the princess. I-I always had my suspicions about the

marshal, if I must be honest."

Caezar had apparently built significant influence in Nokia over the last few

years. He was seen as a rising star in the military branch by many. But others

were confused about the speed of his ascent, and the strange behavior of those

that got too close to him.

"Dryfe was one of the people who suddenly started acting strange. He was

such a warm and gentle man, but one day he was a completely loyal follower of

Caezar. He began to make political decisions that directly benefited Caezar as

well... The rumors said he acted like a man possessed. It was honestly hard to

watch..."

Well, that's because he literally had been possessed. I don't think anyone

would act normal if they had weird ectoplasmic spectral shit inside them.

"Princess Pafia needed a powerful ally to stand against the marshal. That's

why she came to us, Touya."

"...She could've just asked normally, then..."

Why bother selling yourself as my wife when you could've just been honest?

I sighed slightly at Yumina's words before Pafia bowed her head to me.

"I-I'm so sorry! I-I-I had just heard that you were a notorious lover of women,

s-so I thought the fastest way to earn your favor would be to enter your

harem..."

"Gimme a break, here!"

Why do rumors like that keep cropping up?! Has someone got it out for me or

something?!

"Touya, we talked it over and we'd like to lend Pafia our aid. We want to go to

Nokia by ourselves for this."

"Wait, Yumina... Just you and the girls? Why do you want to do that?"

I wondered what had prompted this.

"Well, darling. I'm basing all of this on what we heard from Pafia and the

Specter we just saw, but... I'm assuming that this Caezar fellow is a

manipulation mage. He's effectively a subtype of necromancer that uses others

as puppets through Dark magic..." Leen replied in Yumina's stead, but I wasn't

fully convinced. I wasn't familiar with manipulation mages, but Linze suddenly

cut in with more information.

"I read about it in Babylon's library. Manipulation mages possess those with

weak wills, strong negative feelings, or just those with room in their hearts for

corruption. It would make sense he'd be able to take control of a government,

since they're usually filled with either ambitious, spineless, or complacent

men."

Oh yeah. I think I read about that, maybe? Instead of controlling corpses, this

type of necromancer controls living people by exploiting them through ancient

forbidden magic.

"So this guy's been using his magic to increase his status and power within

Nokia?"

"It doesn't just stop there. This wretched man has also manipulated innocent

women to his own ends. He's a scumbag who cares little for morals, clearly."

The way Hilde spoke was downright indignant. She was a knight princess, and

all about fairness, so it made sense she'd be so disgusted. I could see the spark

of rage burning in her eyes.

The power to manipulate others would inevitably lead to someone using it to

their own ends. It seemed like Caezar was doing exactly that.

"I heard that Caezar has even offered up women to nobles that support him.

And that he toys with girls until he gets bored of them, and then he just discards

them."

"We cannot allow this to happen. He's an enemy to all women!"

"That is right, it is. Toying with the lives of others makes you irredeemable, it

does."

Elze, Lu, and Yae all seemed just as incensed as Hilde. I kind of felt a little

awkward, since I was capable of that manipulation magic, too... That being said,

it wasn't as if I'd used that power or anything.

"Fortunately, it seems that King Nokia and the first princess had strong

enough wills to resist his control..." Leen spoke up, gesturing toward Pafia. The

princess continued that train of thought.

"Caezar has swayed the nobles, forcing my sister to become his betrothed via

their influence. Most of the people in our government had their own ambitions,

but they've all been twisted into supporting Caezar now. My father, now on his

deathbed, is too ill to do anything to stop him... And if my sister didn't manage

to warn me, then I'd have been killed! My sister let me escape, saying there

didn't need to be any more sacrifices beyond her. But when I escaped with

Lycia, we were chased by the marshal's men. We ended up tumbling from a

cliffside into a river..."

So that's why he assumed she was dead... But then, why produce the fake

body?

"...Do you think he staged a fake corpse to upset Pafia's sister?"

"When your emotions collapse, little holes can open up in your heart.

Weaknesses can appear in your mind. These tiny gaps are the perfect places for

darkness to fester..." Leen folded her arms as she replied. Paula copied Leen's

motion, folding her arms and wandering around. I kind of felt like she was

glaring at me.

Don't get uppity with me, stuffed toy... Just because I know these spells

doesn't make me a bad guy!

"Doesn't that mean the first princess could already be Caezar's puppet? Why

doesn't he just do away with her?"

"I doubt it. My sister isn't that weak, even in the face of grief. Even if she was

told I was dead, she'd hold herself together for the sake of her nation. That's

why Caezar decided to marry her no matter what her feelings on it were. When

my father passes, she'll succeed the throne. And by right of marriage, he'll be

king. He needs her."

"So if she dies after she's ascended the throne, he'll have complete control..."

Pafia nodded her head. This was a truly despicable plot.

I asked Jantje why he hadn't gone to Xenoahs for help before coming to

Brunhild, but apparently, the overlord had gotten into a really bad mood the

last time I'd been brought up in conversation. That was why he didn't want to

disturb the overlord, and just came straight here. It wasn't like Brunhild had a

bad relationship with Xenoahs. The overlord was just sensitive when it came to

me and his daughter... Still, now we knew the truth of what was going on in

Nokia.

"But why just you guys?"

"A monster who uses women should be judged by women... We'll snip his

thing off..." Sakura spoke coldly as she made a scissor gesture with her fingers.

"We're going at the behest of Princess Pafia of Nokia in order to verify the

truth of this situation. In solidarity as women, we feel we have to. At the very

least, Caezar's summoned Specter ran wild in our royal palace and attacked one

of us. He has to pay for that, and we're the ones who'll make him do so," Hilde

stated.

...I think Elze was the one doing the attacking there, not the Specter.

"Did you just think something bad, there?"

"N-Nope, not at all!"

Elze shot me a death glare. In all fairness, the Specter did say it was going to

possess Elze... so she could go for a self-defense plea.

"I still think I should go... If he manipulates people, what if one of you gets

possessed? Plus, what about Sue? She's so young!"

"You can't treat me like a child forever. I'm a proper lady now, I'll have you

know. So have a little faith in me, okay? Don't you believe in me, Touya?"

"No, I uh... I believe in you..."

Sue narrowed her eyes at me. She'd been pretty angry as of late whenever

anyone babied her. Despite my worries, I decided to trust them.

"Worry not, dearie. I shall accompany them."

"Huh?"

I heard a fluttering sound, and a kindly old voice called out from behind me. I

turned and saw the goddess of space-time herself, wearing a hand-knit shawl. I

wasn't sure what to think.

"Granny?!"

"I would like to stretch these old bones once in a while. Plus, I will be able to

provide easy transportation for everyone with my powers."

The old lady smiled gently, as if she was talking about dropping off a group of

kids at the mall.

"I know you care deeply about your fiancees, dearie, but protecting them is

not the only way to show your love. You need to believe in their own strengths

as well. There will be many situations like this in the future, so it is best to get

used to them. Do you understand?"

Granny Tokie had a point. If I was going to be the divine administrator of this

entire world, then there'd be many situations where I'd want to help, but would

be forbidden by the rules to directly interfere.

Yumina and the others had the divine blessing from me, Karen, and other

members of my family. With Granny Tokie by their side, what did I really have

to worry about?

"...Alright, fine. Just take care, okay? Don't overdo it."

"Relax, Touya! Don't worry so much, or you'll turn into one of those fussy

husbands."

Guh... You don't have to put it like that, Elze... Isn't it enough that I

begrudgingly agreed?!

"Don't you worry, Princess. We're here to help you, and we're all in this

together."

"Thank you... Thank you so much, everyone...!"

Leen's words prompted Pafia to burst into tears. She bowed her head as she

sniffled. Lycia and Jantje bowed to Yumina and the other fiancees, too.

"...Whew... If Touya saved Pafia on his own, she'd definitely be brought in as

the tenth bride..."

"Yeah, exactly. It'd just be a repeat of when he met Lu."

"Y-Yeah! That kind of situation should be mine alone!"

"Is it really so bad if Touya has more wives?"

"You're too naive, Sue. If there are more wives, we'll have to share him

more."

"Yes, we should not give up our slices of pie, we should not."

"In the end, it's better for everyone if we take out that scumbag ourselves."

I could've sworn I overheard some disturbing murmuring from my brides-tobe, but surely I was just hearing things.

◇ ◇ ◇

"And that's basically how it went..."

"Dang. You have it rough, Touya."

Ende greedily gulped down his juice before asking the barkeep for another.

We were at a tavern named The Warmaiden's Wing. It was bustling with

people. I'd called Ende over, so we sat together at the far end of the bar so I

could chat with him about recent events.

There were a few of my knights around, so I'd changed my appearance with

[Mirage]. I didn't want them too tense in a casual environment, after all.

"I think it's important to give women time to talk amongst themselves,

though. It's been the same at my place, too."

"That right, Ende?"

"Yeah. Melle, Ney, and Lycee all go out on their own pretty often. And, unlike

a certain someone, I'm not always worrying about where they are."

Guh... Don't bully me, bro. My situation's a little more complicated than the

girls just going out on a shopping trip...

"A man needs to be secure in himself, Touya. Girls like security in a guy, you

know? It's about confidence. It's about standing firm, too. You feel me on that,

man?"

"...I don't know if I wanna hear that from a guy who got kicked out of his

house on account of a slumber party."

"Ugh..." Ende groaned slightly as he leaned forward.

Melle and the other Phrase girls had befriended Micah from the Silver Moon

Inn, Fleur the waitress, Rebecca and Spica from our knight order, Sonia the

adventurer, and Est from the Red Cats. They were all having a sleepover at

Ende's place today, and the poor sucker was here with me because he'd been

booted out.

"I'm glad that Melle made friends, at least... But hey, why don't we tear up

the town tonight? We could have a guy's night."

"Sorry, I already had a guy's night recently."

"What, why didn't you invite me?!"

He hadn't really missed out. Mahjong was more an old guy's game anyway. I

made a mental note to invite him next time, though.

Man, these potato chips are pretty good. Guess I'll have a couple more.

"Thanks for waiting, here's your drinks."

The barkeep walked over and dropped off a cup of fruit juice by Ende. He

then placed down a bottle of alcohol and three drinking glasses. I didn't know

why, since I certainly hadn't ordered it.

"Uh, I didn't—"

"Hic! Eeeheheh... I've been, hic, wahnting to drink this Regulus booze for a

while. But I haven't had much pocket money lately... Well, time for, hic, my first

sip!"

The annoying little gremlin herself, Suika, appeared in a nearby seat. Much to

my chagrin, she reached out for a glass of booze. She inhaled the scent of the

drink, then downed the whole glass in one go.

"Did I say you could drink during work hours?"

"Eheh... You're, hic, just treating me to some booze! It's a good thing!"

"Don't you remember the promise you made?"

"Uhhm... I-I haven't been drinking as much at night..."

Suika was the goddess of alcohol, but she looked like a little kid. I didn't want

any misunderstandings, so I'd banned her from going out to drink at night. She

was banned from going to taverns and bars unless she had very important

business there.

"That's why, hic, I came here today! Because I heard you and Mr. Ende were

her—"

"You just wanted to drink, Suika."

"Th-That's just a happy little coincidence! That's all it, hic, is!"

Suika laughed her irritating little laugh. Still, she'd already ordered the booze,

so there was no helping it.

"...Only for today, okay?"

"Yahoo! That's our Touya!"

Suika took another gulp of the previously forbidden brew.

"Phwah! That's the stuff! I can feel it soaking through me!"

"...You drink like an old man."

She seemed to be having a great time. Even Ende was laughing a bit at her

antics. I wondered if this strange, warm atmosphere was part of her ability as

the goddess of alcohol. Somehow, I felt like I was at home.

"So why'd you come all the way out here? Couldn't you have just called me

on the phone?"

"Eheheeeh... As soon as I, hic, heard you were in the tavern, I had to come

running! There's a, hic, another god coming down soon, you know?!"

"Huh? One of the invitees is coming down early?"

"Nope, hic! Not an invitee! He just needs to talk to you directly!"

...You're talking pretty casually about a literal god descending into the mortal

realm... But who the hell could come down here so casually? Isn't there a system

where you need permission?

I sipped at my fruit juice a bit more before asking.

"Uhh... It's the, hic, god of destruction!"

"WHAT?!"

"Bwaugh!"

I sputtered, sending a mouth full of fruit juice all over Ende.

The god of destruction, of all people?! The one that's supposed to erase nolonger-necessary or out-of-control worlds?! Why?!

"Wh-Wh-What?! Tell me why the god of destruction's coming down!"

"Huh? Hic, because they're a good drinking buddy!"

...That is definitely not the reason.

"I'm being serious, Suika..."

"Well, hic... If I had to guess... I'd say they're coming to check on how you

shape up. Because they're also a, hic, one of Gramps' beneficiaries."

Huh, really...? That'd make them a direct superior to me, then... But what's

their intent?

"Touya, I feel like I just heard something I really shouldn't have heard. Is the

world gonna get wrecked, or something? I'd like some advance warning so I can

take Melle away with me."

"No, it's fine... Probably."

Ende had an expression equally exasperated as it was amused.

No matter who this god of destruction is, I'm sure they won't trash the world

for no good reason... Probably...

I wondered if this was like the new employee at the office being harassed or

hazed by his seniors. Yumina and the other girls had their own struggle to face,

but apparently, I had my own to deal with, too... All I could do was gulp down

my juice.

◇ ◇ ◇

"Hmph. So Iptimus failed... Pathetic. Defeated by a woman, of all things? I've

no room for trash like that in my employ..."

The man cursed the failure of his summoned beast. He stood on a balcony,

overlooking a great city as a cold wind blew from the mountains. Shembhala,

the capital city of Nokia, was a rugged city nestled between several rocky peaks.

The yellow triangle flag, a symbol of the nation, fluttered here and there around

the castle town.

This man was the country's marshal, leader of all its armies. He wore a jetblack robe and had a fine jade necklace around his neck. The other pieces of

jewelry adorning his body were coral, agate, gold, and silver. All of this gaudy

equipment served to highlight his affluence. He was a tall man in his midthirties, with copper-red hair and a small mustache. His gloomy eyes shone with

a faint light as they looked down upon the castle.

A ratcheting sound came from behind him as a door was opened. He found

himself joined by another man. This man had a hunched back, but the blue robe

he wore signified his status as a military officer. A direct underling to the darkrobed man.

"You called, Lord Caezar...?"

"Iptimus has fallen. Pafia seems to have sided with Brunhild. That filthy little

cretin... She should have just been a good little dog and obeyed me..."

"Fret not, my lord... Brunhild is no match for you. You hold in your hands the

proud Elks legacy, do you not?"

"That is correct."

The hunched man in the blue robe spoke without moving his lips. That was

because it wasn't him speaking at all, it was the Specter that inhabited his body.

The man himself had long been placed into a dormant state. He was little more

than a puppet for Caezar's whims.

"You'll take over where Iptimus failed, Zebeta. Go and infest Pafia's body. If

you can't do that, then kill her."

"As you command."

"Ah, and take care of the bitch in my bed. Have her clasped in irons and sold

to our usual broker."

The small man, infested with the Specter named Zebeta, glanced over at the

naked woman sprawled out on Caezar's bed. She wasn't sleeping, she'd been

rendered unconscious. The whites of her rolled back eyes were visible. She was

the daughter of an influential count who had fallen so deeply into Caezar's debt

that he had committed suicide. Upon learning of the count's death, Caezar

simply took the girl as a substitute for what had been owed to him.

"Are you sure? It must have taken great effort to get your hands on this one."

"I've no use for women that refuse to submit. She was worth a single night of

pleasure, nothing more..." Caezar waved off his subordinate's question and left

on more important business.

Zebeta, now alone in the room, took a closer glance at the girl. Her body was

bruised and lacerated, evidence of whip strikes upon her supple flesh. She must

have resisted Caezar until she passed out from the pain.

Caezar's methods were shockingly brutal. The girl may have been given over

to pay her father's debt, but her will hadn't been broken. Her current sorry

state was the result of her unyielding spirit.

"You are far too brutish, my lord... If you only learned how to better exploit

mental weaknesses, you'd become an expert manipulator..." Zebeta muttered a

few small criticisms of his master's tactics as he hoisted the woman over his

hunched back. From the look of things, her injuries would leave lasting scars.

The Specter sighed quietly. Former noble or not, she wouldn't sell for much

with such nasty-looking wounds.

◇ ◇ ◇

"Hohoh... So this is the Nokia capital, it is..." Yae glanced around her

immediate surroundings, eyes brimming with curiosity.

Shembhala, Nokia's capital city, was pretty similar to Mismede's, in that it had

no walls and was an open environment. But the housing structure was more

like Eashen's in style, featuring many wooden buildings with pillars and white

plaster walls. Many of these buildings flew yellow, triangular flags from their

rooftops.

Yumina, Lu, Elze, Linze, Yae, Hilde, Sakura, Sue, Leen, Princess Pafia, her

handmaid Lycia, and a small stuffed bear took a few steps into the city streets.

Thanks to the goddess of space-time, Tokie (who was also with them), they'd

gotten there in an instant.

Pafia was wearing a hooded cloak for obvious reasons, but the others did not

need disguises. Nokia was an isolated country, so it didn't have much diversity

when it came to ethnic groups or multiculturalism. The girls definitely stood out

based on their clothing alone, so their first mission was to acquire native Nokian

outfits.

Pafia only had a few pieces of clothing with her in Brunhild, and they didn't fit

any of the other girls. Therefore, they just decided to buy some in Shembhala.

"Let's shop here."

The store they'd chosen was quite large, and Lycia was quick to guide the girls

toward suitable outfits. There were various articles of clothing on the walls and

shelves. There were also various accessories, hats, and scarves.

"Nokia's clothes are so vibrant!"

"Yeah... Looks like the fashion here is about wearing lots of different colors,

rather than just one..."

Lu and Linze murmured to each other as they looked at the clothing.

Obviously, they didn't want to go for random colors, though. They still needed

to match up nicely.

"There are lots of accessories here, too. I dunno if I like jangly, bangly stuff..."

Sue grumbled slightly as she looked at the armbands and necklaces on display.

"Different jewels mean different things here. For example, in the case of men

and women, agate means you're single, while jade means you're married. There

are also gender-specific ones. The tiger's eye gemstone means you're the

firstborn son, for example, while this amethyst would mark you as the firstborn

daughter."

"Interesting. So you can learn a little bit about someone by the jewelry they

wear..." Yumina seemed enthralled by Lycia's explanation.

Princess Pafia's outfit didn't have any particular meaning to it, though. She

hadn't exactly been dressed for friendly territory.

They spent a long time mixing and matching fabrics, outfit pieces, hats, and so

on. If Touya were there, he'd have surely become exasperated long before they

were finished.

After deciding on her own clothing, Tokie moved in to assist Sue, who seemed

to be struggling.

"This should suit you, sweetheart."

"Thanks, Granny!" Sue exclaimed as she gave Tokie a big hug.

The elderly woman had a very sweet and caring temperament, so Sue had

immediately come to adore her. She was even thinking of learning how to knit

just like Linze and Melle could.

Eventually, everyone finished picking out their clothes. Princess Pafia and

Lycia opted to remain in their hooded robes. She still wore her regal outfit

underneath, but she didn't want to be identified as the princess. After all, there

was no telling how far Caezar's sight stretched. Lycia kept her hood up for

similar reasons.

If Touya had been there, he'd have been able to solve the problem of possible

recognition via his [Mirage] spell. There was also [Invisible], but that would've

made coordination difficulty for the group. It also wasn't a great spell to use in

crowded areas.

Yumina and the others paid for their clothing and left the store. Even in the

busy street, the size of their group stood out a little bit. Thankfully they didn't

turn too many heads, however.

"Guess we got our destination, then..." Elze fiddled with her collar slightly as

she glanced over to Nokia's royal castle.

Nokia's royal castle was a majestic structure with towering walls of white

plaster. It looked like it was built into the mountain itself. The foundation was

apparently built on the site of some ancient ruins, and according to Pafia, there

were several unexplored dungeon depths beneath the castle itself. One of these

dungeons had housed the magic tome that had information about the [Plasma

Storm] spell inside.

"We need to find a way to contact my father and sister first..."

"But we can't do that, can we? Doesn't that marshal have everyone under his

thumb?"

"The people in there are his puppets, they are. The castle itself is a den of vice

now, it is."

Hilde and Yae gave less-than-hopeful responses to Pafia's concern. The

people in the castle would surely recognize Pafia at a glance. They had to be

careful, or Caezar would discover them and unrelated individuals could end up

getting hurt. Those under his control weren't necessarily bad people, after all.

"If Touya were here we could just teleport inside, but..." Linze muttered

slightly, casting a gaze over to Tokie. The kindly old goddess opened her own

mouth in response.

"It's true that I could send you all into the castle if I wished it, my dears... But

would that be a victory well-earned? You told Touya that you could take care of

it yourselves, so you should try and do it without relying on me too much."

"...Yes, it'd be a little bit pathetic of us to take that option."

"Indeed. Let's do this without Grandmother Tokie's help, girls. I'm sure we

can do this."

Everyone nodded in agreement with Lu. After a few moments, Sakura raised

her hand.

"...I could use my [Teleport] to get us inside... It's way more handy than

[Gate] in this situation, anyway..."

"That's true, you don't need to have already been somewhere to teleport in...

But can you take multiple people at once like our darling?"

"...Mm... One or two at a time, maybe..."

"We don't know where we'll land, right? What if we appear right in front of

Caezar..."

"Mmh..."

[Teleport] was a spell that depended on its caster's senses to determine

placement. To use an analogy, you could think of the destination as a trash can

located far away. You could try throwing some trash at it, but your chance of

hitting the mark exactly wouldn't be high. You could still wind up near it,

though. If you got lucky you'd make it to the right spot, but there was always a

chance of missing. Obviously, you could refine the accuracy with repeated

practice, but since Sakura didn't know the layout of the place she was basically

firing blind.

[Teleport] wasn't useful for longer distance travel precisely because it relied

on a sense of distance and spatial awareness. That didn't make it useless,

though. If you didn't care about getting exposed or landing in the wrong place,

it was a very useful spell.

"We don't want to come out in the wrong place and heighten their security

measures."

"Could Yumina or Sakura summon a creature to scout the place out in

advance?"

"...I have magic power from the grand duke in my ring, and that's directly

connected to Mr. Mittens... If I summoned something else, it might cause him

to be un-summoned, so I can't... Mr. Mittens isn't good at being sneaky,

either... He's a very noisy cat..."

"I also don't have any contracted summons that can be used for covert

operations... It'd take a while if I tried to randomly summon something, too..."

"Oh, I see. Sorry, Touya always summons exactly what we need. I thought it

was easy..."

"Yeah... Touya can summon whatever he needs to, but for most normal

people, it's a randomized process."

"Hmhm... Then we are at an impasse, we are."

"Oh, uhm..." Princess Pafia hesitantly raised a hand. She was actually outside

the brainstorming circle, so her sudden intrusion caused Touya's fiancees to

raise their eyebrows.

"Erm... There's actually a secret passage that leads to the castle. We could use

it to sneak into the castle undetected... I-I'm really sorry I didn't mention it

sooner! I just couldn't find a chance to get a word in..."

Pafia immediately felt scrutinized by nine silent stares.

"...Ahem. Could you tell us more?" Lu cleared her throat and spoke up.

"It's an emergency escape passage in case of enemy attack. I don't know all

that much about it, I don't even think it's been used before..."

Nokia had been an isolated kingdom since the very first day it was founded.

The mountains gave it near-perfect protection. Even though Yulong had

attacked Nokia several times in the past, those attacks had never penetrated as

far as the capital. It was no wonder that they'd never had to use their escape

route. After all, such methods were only last-resort options for when a country

was about to fall.

Just about every castle in the world had an escape route built into it

somewhere. Belfast's castle had one, as did Brunhild's. Brunhild's castle was

inspired by Belfast's, so the escape route was in a similar location.

Either way, Princess Pafia proposed that the girls use this route to sneak into

the castle.

"It is a royal escape route, it is... Is it okay for us to use, is it?"

"We don't really have other options at this point. The passage is part of an old

dungeon, anyway. It probably isn't the safest exit. Once this is all over, I'd like to

have a better one built."

In an ideal situation, they'd have been able to consult with Nokia's king, but

as things stood, the country was infiltrated by an opposing force. Pafia believed

that if they sat around worrying about trivial matters, then they wouldn't make

any progress. If they sat around doing nothing, then Caezar would win by

default. The most important thing they had to do was secure the safety of the

king and the first princess.

"So where do we enter this passage?"

"There's a mine owned by my family. It's just north of town. That's where

we'll be able to access it."

"Cool! Let's get going, then!"

"Hold your horses, Sue. Princess Pafia, did you say it was owned by your

family? That means it'll have guards. We should wait until nightfall."

"Yumina's right. It'd be too suspicious if we went as a group in the middle of

the day. Plus, the castle will probably be emptier at night."

Sue was raring to go, but she was quickly shot down by Yumina and Lu. The

little lass wasn't exactly happy about it, but she understood the gravity of the

situation.

"So, where to now?"

"We should find a place to sleep until nightfall..."

Elze's question was immediately met with a response from Sakura. She

definitely had a point. They needed to conserve their strength for the conflict

ahead.

"Why don't we eat first? I'd love to try some of Nokia's cuisine!"

"I agree with Lu-dono, I do! You cannot fight on an empty stomach, you

cannot! Hunger is the enemy, it is!" Yae excitedly bounced up and down at the

mere mention of food. She and Lu were a deadly combo whenever the subject

of cooking came up.

Yae had tried many of Lu's experimental dishes back in Brunhild. Lu loved to

cook, but she hated the idea of wasting ingredients purely for her own curiosity.

That was why Yae was the perfect complement to her cookery skills. The

ravenous samurai was willing to eat just about anything. She was also a very

honest critic, which Lu greatly appreciated.

It was only natural that the two of them would take an interest in Nokian

cuisine, even if for different reasons. None of the girls disagreed, so they

decided to head toward a restaurant.

"Perhaps you'd like to try our mutton. We have a dish here that features

spiced lamb wrapped up with vegetables in a thin skin, almost like a cloth

bundle. There are quite a few lamb-based dishes in our country. I know a good

restaurant that serves them..." Lycia suggested some food.

Pafia had been born and raised in the capital city, but she'd never visited any

of its restaurants. Lycia, on the other hand, had a keen eye for the best eateries

in the area. She'd dined in the capital often during her days as a trainee. She

was still from a noble family, however, and didn't have comprehensive

knowledge of the city.

They all decided on a restaurant and enjoyed a tasty dinner together. Once

they finished, they found temporary lodging where they could rest incognito

until nightfall.

After that... Their long night would begin