The Newbies

"Haaah!"

"That's it! Stronger now!" Lanz was in the midst of a battle, facing off against

another using his training weapon. It had been about thirty minutes since they

started, and his footwork was getting unsteady. The battle was fierce, and his

enemy showed no signs of stopping.

Commander Lain and old man Baba had left newbie supervision down to

Moroha, so she had organized individual sparring.

"Guh!"

"What's wrong, hm?! Is this all the power a Lestian knight has in him?" His

sparring partner, Hilde, came up from behind Lanz, armed with a sword. She

was well and truly proving her status as a knight princess. The rush of battle

reminded her of her days leading a squadron, and she knew she was sparring

for the greater good.

Back in Lestia, she would often inspire her troops by yelling about Lestian

pride, so this was her own little way of encouraging that from Lanz.

"Ghuh!" Hilde's wooden blade struck true, smacking Lanz right in the

stomach. He collapsed on the spot, keeling over.

"That'll do." Moroha's voice rang out across the training field. All the knights

watching the battle could barely contain themselves, they heaved heavy sighs

as the battle finally came to a close.

Lanz used his weapon as a crutch and staggered to his feet, he bowed his

head to Hilde.

"Th-Thank you for training me, ma'am!"

"Of course." Hilde bowed her head in turn, and Lanz sank to the ground once

more.

A group of other rookies ran forward to check if he was okay, but Lanz raised

his hand to say he was fine. Either way, it was clear he was at the height of

exhaustion.

"Come forth, Light! Breath of Vigor: [Refresh]." I stepped forward and gave a

dose of fatigue-restoration magic to Lanz and Hilde. They had definitely taken a

lot out of themselves, but I was honestly amazed they'd lasted as long as they

did.

"In Lestia, we're taught to hone our physical technique and eliminate any

unnecessary movement. Knowing the limits of our stamina allows us to move

without wasting a single step. Then, at the height of exhaustion, we're still

capable of landing precise blows. Training in such extreme conditions is more

valuable than a hundred sessions of restrained training!" He was pretty wild...

Wasn't too surprising, though, given he was from the Knight Kingdom of Lestia.

"My my, it really did have me feeling like I was back in Lestia. It's been a while

since I had so much fun training..." Hilde seemed pretty pumped up, contrary to

her typical self. The Lestians really did have a bit of a warrior culture in the end,

kind of like Sparta.

The newbies had been put under a grueling training session, courtesy of

Moroha. But, as expected of those that passed the test, none of them were

quite willing to give up. They all had renewed vigor and kept fighting.

The newbies were all assigned to different areas, so they were receiving

training from their established predecessors.

I came over to see how they were doing, but it seemed like they were doing

just fine without me...

The knights currently on the training field were those who had been assigned

to town patrol and the castle guard. We needed them to be strong, after all.

And it seemed that they were managing just that.

Nikola was here to oversee the training as well; he had tentatively taken

command of the castle guardsmen. Logan was here to fight against them as

well, as he was the captain of the watch. Logan was a man who I'd met back in

Sandora; he was helping a group of slaves at the time. He never expected that

he'd end up having a decent role to play in an emerging knight order like

Brunhild's, but here he was.

Norn had also taken command of the patrolmen, with Rebecca as her number

two. Rebecca was an adventurer who had been working in Sandora like Logan.

She was a fairly respectable female knight of our order at this point.

It seemed like my services weren't really needed. Everyone was working hard.

Rebecca was training against a lot of the new female recruits, too. And so, I

looked over at Hilde, who still seemed a little out of it, so I handed her a sweat

towel.

"Looks like the new guys are all doing pretty good."

"Indeed. They're all new and filled with new hopes. They all wish to become

strong, and you can tell they wish to become strong for a good reason. Training

alone can't foster such a feeling, so I'm glad they had it from the start."

When I was interviewing them, I wanted to emphasize the hiring of people

who would fight for the people. Yumina's Mystic Eye and the polygraph test

ruled out those that had impure motivations for getting stronger.

Next up, I wanted to check on old man Naito's agricultural project. Hilde

wanted to come along, so we trotted off to the east. These people weren't

primarily fighters, so their training could be held off for a while.

Many people might not associate the image of a knight with farm work and

cultivation, but it was arguably the most important thing going on right now.

This particular branch of our knight order specialized in developing

experimental crops, opening up more safe land, building homes, and taking care

to build and maintain roads.

The man in charge of most of the planning was Kousaka, but it was old man

Naito himself who did most of the hands-on stuff.

Just as I entered the area, I found the man himself.

"Oh, Your Highness and Lady Hilde. It's good to see you." He seemed pretty

laid-back in general, but Naito was quite industrious. His problem-solving skills

were second to none. Without him, we wouldn't be as far along as we were

now.

"So, what brings you here?"

"Just here to check up on the new recruits. How're they holding up?"

"Ah. Well, we don't need much in the way of intensive training here, so

they're in the middle of basic memorization and learning our protocols." I

looked over to where he pointed and saw a group of recruits using string to

measure plots of earth.

Hmm... Where is he, I thought. Then, I suddenly spotted the plant guy from

the survival game, the guy named Charon.

Developing the land was vital to the growth of a nation. They had many duties

to attend to that would become solid ground for Brunhild in the years to come.

In a sense, the knights of the agricultural sector were general-purpose knights

who build up the country from the roots. That kind of didn't make them sound

all that impressive, though... I decided not to say something like that to their

face.

"Knights tilling the ground with hoes and measuring out plots... A rather

pleasant sight, wouldn't you say? It's not something you'd see back home in

Lestia, at least."

"Really? Even soldiers plow fields in Eashen, as well."

"Is that right...?" Hilde was the princess of Lestia, a major eastern power. It

seemed like it was unthinkable to have commanders and soldiers do farming

and manual labor. All their military thought about was polishing their skill with a

blade.

Lestia's royal family was certainly above such things, but I thought that

looking after the land was a good quality to have for someone who'd be

defending it.

"A good few of the new recruits have Earth magic aptitude, it is proving quite

the help. I gotta tell you, as someone born in Eashen, it's quite remarkable.

Magic just isn't very widespread back there, and the few examples of magic I've

seen are fire and wind." Old man Naito was right about that. Magic was a rarity

in Eashen. Yae's family didn't have much in the way of it either.

Eashenese people devised special techniques like Ninjutsu in place of magic.

Not quite the same thing, but somewhat similar either way. Speaking of which,

it was time to go and visit Tsubaki's infiltration squadron.

I waved goodbye to old man Naito and headed into the western forest. It was

here that you'd find the training zone for our more covert operatives.

The obstacle course was originally designed to help train dexterity for the

knight order. Tsubaki recently had me install courses and runs for all three

levels of difficulty, ranging from beginner to intermediate, to advanced. There

were various traps and obstacles lined up along the courses, each varying in

terms of danger.

The infiltration corps was being trained on the course today.

"Gwaaaugh?!" A screaming person suddenly soared through the air before

landing in a small pond not far from us. She splashed into the water before

rising to the surface, coughing and sputtering.

Water dripped from her short, curly hair. She was a member of the ninja trio

that had recently joined our order, Sarutobi Homura.

"No good, Homura-san! Pay more attention next time. If that was an enemy's

trap, you'd be dead by now. Treat this course as you would a real mission."

"Ugh..." Tsubaki shook her head as she criticized Homura's performance. At

that moment, another shriek echoed through the air, and yet another girl came

soaring through the air before landing in the pond.

It was another of the ninja trio, Fuma Nagi.

"G-Goodness, this is quite intensive..." Hilde seemed pretty shocked, but that

wasn't too surprising given two people had just flown through the air before

our eyes.

"Our mission is primarily the acquisition of intel. We need to be prepared for

every possible dangerous situation, and infiltration is a must. We need to keep

our eyes peeled for even the slightest out-of-place detail." Tsubaki spoke as she

hopped down from a treetop.

Tsubaki's intel corps generally handled information gathering. Brunhild was

recognized by other nations, sometimes for good reasons, and sometimes for

bad. There certainly were countries that didn't think too highly of us. Yulong,

for example, was an example of a country we had poor relations with. Yulong

wasn't really a country anymore though.

But even if I was friends with a world leader, it didn't mean that members of

the nobility wouldn't have it out for me. I remember hearing that a lot of Belfast

and Regulus aristocrats didn't much like my engagement to Yumina and Lu.

People like that could always end up trying to cause trouble in Brunhild. And

that was where Tsubaki and her agents came into the equation. They would

gather intel on potential threats and relay it to me. For the most part, they were

Eashenese, which meant they primarily used ninjutsu. There were a few

capable of Dark magic, however, which meant they were able to summon

stealthy animals to assist in spy operations.

Tsubaki's people also conferred with Mr. Mittens and his cat knights,

swapping information about potential threats within the castle town.

Recently there'd been some discussions about foreign dissidents trying to

gather information on us. Apparently they were after the Frame Gears again... It

was a hell of a headache to keep up with greedy people like that.

"Everyone seems to be trying hard."

"We are, thank you. We're doing our best."

"Would you like to train with me and Touya tomorrow? I think Yae might

want to join in as well."

"Ah... I'm not sure if I can, I've got a few Grand Dukey things to take care of..."

I laughed a little bit at Hilde's suggestion.

To be honest, I was pretty sure Yae and Hilde were at the point where they

could beat me in a swordfight. Moroha had trained them to the point where

only she was beyond them.

The two of them were incredible. Even with my magic, I'd struggle to beat

them.

The daily inspection was over. I decided to split off from Hilde and head back

to the castle. There I saw Sue running down the corridor toward me. Her butler,

Leim, toddled on after her.

"Touya!"

"Yo. What's up, Sue? Hey there, Leim."

"Good day, Your Highness." Sue had practically tackled me, so Leim

apologetically greeted me with a bowed head.

Sue could easily travel to her private room in this castle from her own room at

home. There was a [Gate] tailored just for her that connected the two rooms,

so she visited Brunhild often.

She was one of my fiancees, but she still lived with her parents, so this was

the compromise. Only Sue could travel through the portal, so it was secure.

That being said, if she consented then she could come through with other

people like Leim.

"What brings you here today?"

"I came to visit Renne! It's her day off, you know? Oh, Touya. Can I use the

game room? I'd like to show Renne the Overlord formation."

Overlord formation...? Oh, she must mean the Ortlinde Overlord thing her

Frame Gear does... She's gonna show it in the simulator?

The Frame Gear training room had several Frame Unit simulators, and the

girls could access their tailor-made machines through it as well. Regular knights

wouldn't be able to use them, though.

"Sure, no problem. Be sure to show her."

"Yay! Thanks, Touya!" Sue ran off full-speed toward wherever Renne was. She

was lively as ever.

"Please excuse me." Leim trotted after her. I felt a little sorry for him.

As I watched them dash off, my smartphone started to vibrate. It was a call

from Rosetta.

"Yo, 'sup?"

"Master, sir?! I made a prototype, sir! I was thinking of running an

experiment, yessir I was. Wanna see?"

"Oh, you finished with it? We can test it out in the northern courtyard. I'll

bring Sakura."

"Yessir!" I cut off the call with Rosetta and dialed for Sakura. This was proving

to be quite the busy day.

◇ ◇ ◇

"...Grand Duke. What is this?"

"This is a special microphone with sound amplification. There's more to it,

too." Sakura tilted her head in confusion as she looked at the mic stand.

I asked Sakura to help me with a special magical device experiment, and she'd

brought along Spica as well.

"Preparations complete, sir!" I moved away from the mic that Rosetta had

been adjusting. Monica, who was also observing, flashed a thumbs-up. That

meant it was time.

"Alright, let's try... some pretty simple, light music for starters. The mic's

target should be set to you, Spica, so can you move a little further away?"

"Ah, of course. Is this good?" Spica stood in the middle of the training area

we'd prepared.

"Alright, Sakura. Please sing something soft into the mic. And please channel

your magic into it as well, if you can."

"...I don't quite understand, but I shall..." Sakura gave an obedient nod, and

then she began to sing.

Hm... This song? It was a fairly popular French song that I'd heard back in

Japan, a popular, soft jazz number.

The "Cherie" mentioned in the lyrics wasn't a woman's name, but a French

way of saying "darling."

"Alright, Spica. Can you try moving about, or slashing?"

"Very well— What?!" Spica moved for only a few seconds, but she covered a

surprising distance. She looked down at herself in shock. She suddenly stopped

on the spot and jumped into the air, finding herself propelled three meters

upward.

"My body is light as a feather, no, it's like I've gotten feathers and I can fly!"

Sakura, equally confused, stopped singing as she watched Spica.

"Ah." Spica's enhanced speed suddenly dropped to a standard pace.

Hmm... So the enhancements only work while she sings. And I guess the

effects will change based on the style of song, too.

"Grand Duke, what is this...?"

"Let me answer that, ma'am! It's application of magic, ma'am! Doctor

Babylon calls it Lyrical magic, ma'am! Your magic power passes through the

microphone and your voice, and can then be applied to other people! The

effects vary depending on the oscillation, and we still don't know the full

potential, ma'am! But rest assured that it's support magic through-andthrough, so there are no risks!" Rosetta suddenly chimed in. Apparently it was

based on magic used by a species that existed during the ancient civilization's

era, but I didn't know the details.

From what I understood of it, it was simply amplification through sound

waves, and that's all I needed to know.

"Alright then, Sakura. Feel free to sing any kind of song."

"Okay." Sakura sang one song after another to Spica. She really didn't seem to

mind what she chose as she flicked through several types of music.

There were a lot of western songs, but only stuff from the 1960s through

1980s. That was my favorite kind of music, so I'd ended up introducing her to a

lot of it. My grandpa introduced me to it originally, so it was just one of those

things. It seemed like Sakura was quite the fan, too. So I wasn't complaining.

There were a lot of magical effects based on the types of song she sang.

Enhanced agility, increased magical resistance, a protective barrier, increased

aggression, increased strength, and so on. There were clearly a ton more

potential effects, but we didn't need to go through them all in one day.

The benefit of this magic was that it could affect anyone in range of the

music. The effect could even be applied to the person singing, as well as anyone

in the vicinity. Plus, no matter how many were being affected, it would still take

up the same amount of magic as if it was only one person.

The effect ended when Sakura stopped singing, so we would have to be

mindful that she didn't wear her voice out.

Doctor Babylon was currently designing some kind of aircraft that could act as

mobile battle speakers. The idea would be for Sakura's voice to effectively serve

as background music for the battle while empowering our troops.

That being said, we'd only be able to apply one effect at the time, so it had

limited tactical use. Sakura couldn't sing different songs at the same time, and

recordings didn't work either.

I pondered more as I watched Sakura's spirited performance.

After the experiment ended, I went up to Babylon with Rosetta. The Doctor

was in her Research Lab, pondering over a world map on her monitor.

Her desk had a bunch of papers, books, and scattered stationery on it. I

noticed a bunch of stale looking cookies, cakes, and used teacups as well.

Put your old food away... You're gonna attract bugs.

"What're you up to?"

"Hm? Ah, it's Touya. See anything strange about this?"

"Strange?" The doc motioned toward her monitor, and I took a look at the

world map.

Hm? What's with that... It looks like this world's map, but the details are a

little different.

"This is a map of the world as it was five-thousand years ago, during my era.

It's how it was before the Phrase invaded. There was large-scale magical

destruction during that time, and general resistance against their forces ended

up sculpting global geography. Can you see the key differences?" She

superimposed the current map of the world over the old one.

Oh, huh... There are definitely differences in coastlines and terrain... Weird...

Refreese and Lihnea... were a lot larger... And the Great Gau River didn't go all

the way down to Ramissh? Did the terrain change naturally, or was this all

thanks to magic...? Geez...

"The Phrase couldn't be directly affected by magic, remember? There was a

country that initiated a forbidden spell known as [Grand Break], which changed

a lot of the world's terrain."

Huh... What kind of spell was that? Did it cause the ground to rupture or

something? Well, there's no denying there are some serious topographical

differences here, but damn...

It seemed like it was probably an Earth spell that caused a massive amount of

the ground to rise up and shift, likely to try and catch the Phrase en masse.

Something so destructive would've been insane... To think humanity was

driven to make such a horrible decision.

"This here is where Partheno was. It was a massive civilization that spanned

all the way from where Belfast is now, covering most of Regulus, Brunhild,

Ramissh, Roadmare, Felsen, Lestia, and Horn." I looked at the area she'd singled

out. It was insanely huge. It must've been an incredible empire indeed. It

spanned a massive amount of land from west to east. If you put it in earth

terms, it'd be equal to one nation having control of all land between Europe

and China.

"Back in the day, the Phrase first emerged where Xenoahs is nowadays. The

nations that used to occupy the area where Yulong, Nokia, and Hannock are

were the first to fall. That's why you can see so many geographical changes in

this area."

That does explain all the crater-like lakes in Yulong and Xenoahs... Did they

really fight that hard, though? To damage their own world in the hopes of

defending it? I guess it makes sense though; they would've defended their

homelands with everything they had in them. I can't even imagine how

fearsome the battles must have been.

"Hm? What's that?"

"Oh, this? This is... Just north of where Elfrau is in the current era." On the

map of the old world, there was an island in the sea just north of Elfrau. It was

similar in size to Ramissh. The modern map didn't have that island at all, leading

me to believe it had completely sunk.

"Back in the day, that island was known as The Devil's Abode. There were sea

monsters like Sirens and Krakens that surrounded its waters, so going by boat

was impossible. If you tried to fly, then Wyverns would kill you. The island

reeked of death, and even from afar you could see its dense fog and foul air."

Sounds pretty nuts, definitely worthy of its name.

"I was a little confused as to why it wasn't here in the current era. I wondered

if it sank, but I couldn't think of a reason for it to have. Thus, I used an advanced

form of detection magic on the area, and this is the result." On the modern

map, in the empty spot where the island should've been, a small red haze

appeared vaguely matching the outline of the landmass.

...Wait, a barrier? Did someone put up a barrier around the island to make it

invisible? But could something like that have seriously lasted so long? And why?

"My Babylon works on a similar principle, you know? It's been invisible in the

air for the last five thousand years. I'm of the opinion that someone did this to

the island back then, as well. The only questions would be who, and why?"

"...Do you think some mage escaped from the Phrase, made his way to the

island, and then erected a barrier so he couldn't be found?"

"That's not impossible, but... Such powerful magic would surely be

impossible... The only person other than I from that era capable of such a feat

would be the Sage of Hours, but I was sure he died in a Phrase attack..." Doctor

Babylon muttered as she leaned against her chair. She was in a tiny body, so she

looked kind of silly.

"Sorry, Sage of Hours?"

"Yes, that's right. He was a master of Space-time magic. Foresight,

teleportation, regular time-stopping, the ability to de-age or simply age his

targets, and so on... He was an outrageous old man. Well, it wasn't like he could

do it all on a whim. He still needed to make necessary setups and so on, but he

was the only one who knew how it worked."

"He could stop time...? I didn't know Space-time magic even existed..."

"What are you talking about? You've been using [Storage], [Gate], and

[Teleport] for how long now? What did you think that was? Still, he was far

more adept; he could do all of that and more... I'm a little sad that his

knowledge is lost to time entirely, if I'm honest."

Interesting... So you're saying that there was an old guy who bypassed the

Null magic requirements to perform these crazy feats...? That guy definitely

does sound outrageous...

But if he could so easily manipulate Space-time, then creating a barrier that

blocked someone from seeing an island would be no big deal. Hell, the fact that

the barrier was blocking the outside world from noticing it was practically

Space-time magic in itself.

"Maybe the old guy had a disciple or something and they set it up...?"

"...Hm... It's possible he had students. But I need to warn you, if you plan on

investigating it... I'd hesitate to use Gungnir because if you take a high-speed

flying vehicle you might crash right into the side. It won't show a shadow, after

all." That would be a pain. If I used [Fly] there was also the risk of it having the

whole thing where it disabled magic, so I'd just end up crashing into the sea...

I wondered if I could use a vehicle that didn't need magic.

"Couldn't I go in with Kougyoku or Luli? That'd be easier."

"Yeah, I'm sure that'd work. Sending a summoned beast there would

generally be the least risky thing to do. But you should still be careful;

depending on the type of barrier you might end up losing contact, or even

having your summoned creature get lost entirely." I wanted to head to the

island right away, but the Doctor's words did kind of unnerve me.

I wasn't entirely sure what was there, so I decided to play it safe and have

Kougyoku's birds scout the place out first.

If the barrier was still up, it was entirely possible that the caster was still living

there.

Still, it was an island that nobody had entered even back in the ancient era. It

was kind of like the Galapagos Islands back on earth, completely unaffected by

the outside world... Its inhabitants might've even undergone stark evolutionary

differences.

Just what could I expect in a place like that...?