Epilogue: Before the Inevitable Conflict

One day after the wounded were sent back to Fuuga...

Fuuga and I were having a broadcast meeting. First, I explained the key

details of what had happened to him.

"...And that's how it is."

"You called a truce with the demons and closed the gate to another

world... Yeah?"

"Seadians, not demons."

We had gone into battle with the Seadians and taken considerable losses,

but agreed to a cessation of hostilities when it became clear during the

battle that each side was misunderstanding the other. After that, I held a

meeting with Mao, the representative of the Seadians—who we had been

calling Demon Lord Divalroi—and we exchanged information.

There I learned that the demons were in fact people from beyond the

north sea called the Seadians, and they too were the victims of monster

attacks. Mao and I then cooperated to close the gate the monsters were

coming through. This would suppress the demon waves that had been

occurring once a decade before now, but even with the gate closed, the

scattered islands of Seadia were still overrun with monsters.

Who knew when the gate might open again and the monsters pour out?

We had bought ourselves time, but the problem still needed to be solved.

I relayed all these things to him without a single lie. I did, however,

conceal that the ones with the authority to control Mao and close the gate

were me and any of my children. That information could only spark trouble.

It would have also taken a while to explain how this world came to be, so I

skipped over that detail too. I didn't know if he'd understand, and even if he

did, it would be hard for me to prove it.

"This 'world' of the north...the one you're saying these Seadians came

from, it's beyond the north sea?" Fuuga asked.

I nodded. "Yeah. It's terra incognita on this world's maps, right?"

"Sure is."

"I hear that even if you head due north from the north of the continent,

you'll eventually get turned around and end up back where you came from.

If this is hard for you to grasp, you can just think of it like there's a barrier

placed there by some spiritual entity. With it in place, no one could traverse

between the worlds of the north and the south before now, but the gate

opened a hole between them."

"Hmm... Some parts of what you're saying are hard to accept, but they

did have those giant mechanical weapons. You came from another world

too, so I guess I'm just gonna have to buy the idea that there's another

unknown world to the north. A dangerous world that still exists... Right?"

"You've got it. There's no point in continuing the war with the Seadians.

They're like refugees that escaped from the world of the north. This war

started because of ignorance and misunderstandings. I think we should

reconcile now, and work together on addressing the problem posed by

Seadians who came here."

"And that's why you agreed to a truce...?" Fuuga turned a harsh glance

in my direction. "You think the people will accept that? Everyone on this

continent believes there's a demon lord in the Demon Lord's Domain, who

has demon servants and is controlling all the monsters. Do you think it's

that easy to lower our fist now that we've raised it?"

"They'll need convincing, sure. But if we don't slowly correct their

misconceptions and reconcile, there's going to be a war between the worlds.

The northern world is unstable because it's swarming with monsters. We

can't solve this without Mao and the Seadians' help."

"There were a lot of deaths on our side during this campaign. I'm

grateful that they treated our wounded, but do you think that's going to be

enough to convince me that we should stop fighting?"

"We lost people, same as you, and one of my prized carriers got

wrecked. If we don't stop things here, the damage will get worse. The

combined forces of mankind started this by invading in the first place, so

we're the ones in the wrong to begin with."

"If I don't at least have the demon lord's head to show for all this, I

don't see how I'm going to satisfy my people, you get me?"

"You need a head to show for all this...?"

"Hm? What do you mean?"

"Madam Mao, could you show yourself?"

I called for Mao as Fuuga gave me a dubious look.

In an instant, she appeared. Fuuga's eyes widened at how sudden it was.

"Fuuga. This is DIVAloid MAO. You can call her Madam Mao. The

name Demon Lord Divalroi just came from people mishearing her name."

"That's the, uh...Divalroi I've heard rumors about?"

"It's DIVAloid... Well, from our perspective, you can think of that as

more like a name for her race, and Mao is her actual name. Do you think

anyone's going to be convinced if you lop her head off and show it around,

saying you've slain the Demon Lord?"

Fuuga was at a loss for words.

Mao was an anthropomorphized reading software, and the simplest way

to describe her appearance was that she was a cutesy girl. It was a far cry

from how mankind had been imagining the Demon Lord all this time. If he

brought back her severed head, people would question the great Fuuga's

sanity, and be really weirded out.

"Besides, there's no way you could even put her severed head on

display."

I swung my arm as if to slap her on the back, but it simply slipped

through her without any resistance. Fuuga's eyes widened even more.

"Huh? What's going on?"

"She only exists as a projection... You can think of her as something like

a spirit or a ghost. The Seadians all worship her as their mother, much like

people venerate Madam Tiamat in our world. You can't take her head. It's

both physically and politically impossible."

"That's a problem... People want results."

The look in his eyes was cold, but I shrugged.

"You've got results. By reconciling with the Seadians, we were able to

close the gate to another world. Half of the reason we were able to make

contact with Mao and her people was that you chose to heed the Seadians'

warnings. People will be free from the demon waves for a time thanks to

you."

"You're saying I can take your credit?"

"I'm only stating the truth... I may resent how being dragged into this

cost a lot of lives, but if you hadn't raised your army we wouldn't be here

now with these results."

"What will you do with the Seadians? Add them to the Maritime

Alliance?"

"Well, I did consider that..."

If I did do that, I'd be stealing Fuuga's glory and earning the enmity of

those who supported him. After discussing the matter with Hakuya, we

decided it was better not to.

"However, it'd be wise to instead have the Great Tiger Empire and

Maritime Alliance both send observers, and we treat the Seadians as an

independent faction. As I said, we're absolutely going to need their

cooperation in the future. This area has always been a desert wasteland with

no inhabitants. We should accept them as immigrants from the world of the

north, and engage in trade and cultural exchange with them."

"We escaped here while fighting the monsters, so we're not prosperous,

but we'll help you clear out the remaining monsters in the northern regions

of the continent," Mao offered.

"Hrmm..." Fuuga grunted in response.

If he was going to stabilize the expanded Great Tiger Empire, the

remaining monsters in the north were an obstacle to that. If the Seadians

were saying they would fight the monsters, that shouldn't have been a bad

offer for Fuuga.

He turned a probing glance in my direction. "The Seadians only have

one city, right? Wouldn't it be faster to just take it and force them to

submit?"

"If you do that, the Maritime Alliance will have no part in it. I hear you

ran into a super weapon on your end too, but the steel giant that sunk our

battleship with a single shot remains intact. You won't be getting any more

help from the Star Dragon Mountain Range and the Dragon Knight

Kingdom either, so if you want to fight the Seadians on your own, have at

it."

"I won't say we couldn't win, but the cost would be exorbitant." Fuuga

seemed to think for a moment...and eventually nodded. "Fine. I'll agree to a

truce. But we're going to have to get our story straight before we announce

it to the people."

He wanted to make sure neither side took credit for this.

"Okay... Let's have Hakuya and Hashim hash out the details."

"Yeah. By the way, Souma."

"Hm? What?"

"Is the world of the north big?"

I looked over to Mao. She nodded, saying, "Yes. It lacks a major

continent like this world and is made up entirely of islands, but if you

include the seas as well, it's the same size as the world of the south."

"Hmm. Terra incognita, huh? Sounds interesting," Fuuga said, a glint in

his eye.

Well, it's a new frontier, I guess. That was the kind of thing Fuuga would

be into. It'd be perfect if his interests could shift from this continent to the

world of the north, but...that wasn't going to happen. His people wouldn't

let him set aside the path of dominance he had been walking all this time.

They were going to demand an answer. The answer to the question: "How

will the era of Fuuga come to an end?" Fuuga had to sense that too.

"Before going north, I need to bring together the south first," Fuuga said

with a pointed look in my direction.

Yeah, go figure, I thought. "You know, if you'd just take the path of

cooperation, the south could come together the very next day."

"Ha! Ha! Ha! If I was the kind of guy who would take the easy route

like that, we'd never have come this far. I'm just going to keep on racing

forward while those who support me push me from behind. Will I unite the

continent? Will I not? I think it's time to find out what answer this era is

going to give us."

"""Hm?!"""

The looks on the faces of Aisha, Excel, and Castor, who were listening

in by my side, grew stern.

Fuuga's words suggested that the time had come to settle things with a

direct confrontation between the Great Tiger Empire and the Maritime

Alliance. It wouldn't be long before Fuuga came to attack the Kingdom of

Friedonia, no doubt. The result of that battle would decide not just our fates,

but the fate of this world.

"If you plan to lay a hand on my home, expect to face retribution for it,"

I said.

Fuuga blinked at me.

What?

"Ha! Ha! Ha! I didn't expect you to basically say, 'Come at me!' You

think you have that good a chance of winning, do you?" Fuuga said with a

smile of pure amusement. "Sounds like fun. Let's see what you've got in

store for me."

With those words, Fuuga cut the transmission.

"Whew..." I was sighing when Excel came over to me.

"Sire... He'll be coming to attack us, won't he?"

"With the problem of the Demon Lord's Domain solved now, the

Maritime Alliance is the only potential enemy he has left. Because I'm the

leader of that, he and his people are going to want to settle things with me.

If he can just defeat us, the continent will essentially be unified."

"Uniting the continent is a feat no one in all our history has been able to

accomplish."

"Yeah. Which is why his blind followers will demand it of him."

But here's the thing, Fuuga. That's a goal that's viable because of the

times we live in now, and it may well be seen as worthless in the era to

come. You're going to find that out the hard way.

I told Excel, "Fuuga will want to come at us fully prepared. But we

don't have a lot of time to spare. We need to hurry back to the Kingdom."

"Yes, I agree."

With that, we agreed on a speedy return home.

◇ ◇ ◇

The next thing I knew, that black cube was in front of me...

There was a truce in place between the Maritime Alliance, Great Tiger

Empire, and the Seadians for the moment, and we would continue our

dialogue going forward as we sought a path towards reconciliation.

Whether the Seadians chose to stay on this continent or seek our help in

returning to the northern hemisphere, we were going to need to build a new

relationship between Landians and Seadians.

With the north technically now stabilized, we decided to immediately

return to our own country. We needed to get home quickly and start

preparing countermeasures against Fuuga, who was going to try following

up liberating the Demon Lord's Domain by dominating the continent.

In order to launch a conquest of the south, Fuuga would need to get

public sentiment on board. And if all he said was that they had taken care of

the demons, so now it was time to invade the southern nations of

mankind...well, that was bound to provoke war exhaustion and anti-war

sentiment. We had to use what little time we had here to prepare.

Just as we were about to head home, Mao called on me to speak to her

alone. Her appearance as the DIVAloid MAO was just an interface for

communication, while that black cube was apparently her main body.

Mao, Tiamat, and I were alone together, standing in front of the cube.

"I have something to give you, Lord Souma. Please stick out your

hands." Mao cupped her hands, like you would when scooping up water,

and extended them towards me.

"Huh...? Uh, sure."

I did as she asked, extending my cupped hands towards Mao. When I

did, she gently placed something in them. It was a red magatama about the

size of my palm. The comma-shaped jewel looked pretty big, but wasn't

that heavy. The surface shone a little, the shimmering looking like flames or

perhaps pulsing blood.

"What is this?"

"A show of my gratitude, and the least that I could give you as a parting

gift when you go to face a storm," Mao said, her expression serious. She

pointed at the magatama in my hands. "It contains a record of your

biological data which I collected earlier. In the world that was, we would

have been able to use it to reconstruct your body, or even the body of an

ancestor dozens of generations removed. I've also modeled it after an

accessory from your home country."

"I don't understand... You're, uh, scaring me here."

With the right technology, I could be cloned? Did people in the future go

that far? As someone who didn't understand the tech or the ethics involved,

I didn't know what I was supposed to do with what she'd just given me.

"Please tell me you're not planning to make another 'me' who can fix

any more of your future errors. I'd really rather you didn't," I said.

"Have no fear. I wouldn't be able to give administrative privileges to a

reconstructed entity like that."

Is that something I should feel relieved about? I thought. "Then why

give this to me? How am I supposed to use it?"

"We've heard how you came to this world with nothing," Madam

Tiamat said in a calm voice, speaking on Mao's behalf. "You were suddenly

cut from your former world by the actions of this world's people. That

summoning system was designed to find an appropriate person from a

group of isolated individuals with no family, but you still had parents and

grandparents at one point. We feel sorry for you, not being able to bring

anything that showed your ties to them to this world."

"Madam Tiamat..."

"But your body was given to you by your parents," Mao continued.

"Even if your cells are being replaced day by day, your body still contains a

record you inherited from your parents and grandparents. This can extract

that, putting it into a form you can see."

Her explanation let me understand what this magatama was for.

"This is...supposed to serve like a mortuary tablet, since I couldn't bring

my family's, huh?"

I'd left our house, our family altar, and their graves in my former world.

If this was the distant future, nothing would remain of them by now. I'd

wished I could have at least brought their mortuary tablets many times

before now. Okay... So this magatama has a record of Grandpa and the

others inside it.

I pocketed the magatama.

"Thanks, I'll be glad to take it. Maybe I should set up a home shrine in

Parnam and decorate it with this."

I didn't want to let the mood get too heavy, so I kept my tone cheerful.

Mao and Madam Tiamat both smiled and nodded.

"In our position, we aren't allowed to interfere with the decisions made

by the people of this world. Though we know that you and your country are

about to be caught up in a conflict, we can't extend a helping hand."

"So, at the very least, we will be praying for you and yours to stay safe."

That meant neither the Star Dragon Mountain Range nor the Seadians

could get involved in our battle with Fuuga.

That said, if they did, it was pretty clear we'd be accused of "siding with

the demons against mankind," or "suppressing faiths other than Mother

Dragon Worship," which would make managing our internal affairs

difficult. I needed God and the devil to sit this one out. Mankind had to sort

out its own problems.

"I understand. Me and my friends and family will handle it somehow."

Mao and Madam Tiamat smiled.

""May good fortune go with you.""

As I was listening to those words, I suddenly blacked out.

◇ ◇ ◇

"Huh?! Your Majesty!"

"Whoa! Your Majesty?! Are you okay?!"

When I came to my senses, I was aboard the Albert II, being supported

by Juna and Aisha. It seemed I'd been teleported here by Mao or Madam

Tiamat's power. I'd apparently stumbled over when I suddenly appeared,

and my wives had rushed to catch me.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Nothing to worry about," I said as I stood on my own

feet, then Excel walked over.

"Did you say your goodbyes?"

"Yeah. I got an unexpected souvenir too," I replied casually, and Excel

covered her mouth with her fan as she smiled.

"Hee hee! You did, did you? Okay, Your Majesty, your fleet is ready and

waiting."

"All right, how about we get headed back home."

"Understood."

Once I said the word, Excel gave the signal, and the combined fleets of

the Kingdom of Friedonia and the Nine-Headed Dragon Archipelago

Kingdom headed back to their respective countries. When we moved away

from shore, we saw Seadians standing on the rocks, waving to us as we left.

Was the elderly kobold who had saved Tomoe with them? The man

who'd saved our beloved little sister. Things were so hectic that I only

heard the story. I never met him myself, but I wanted to thank him in

person. And to that end...if I wanted to meet the Seadians again one day

with a smile, I needed to make sure all our preparations for the war were

perfect.

◇ ◇ ◇

Some days later...

We left the fleet with Excel in Lagoon City and flew home to Parnam

Castle with Naden.

"Waaah! Waaah!"

"H-Hey, Cian!"

The first thing that greeted us when we arrived home was an attack by

my son Cian. With tears in his eyes, he was punching my leg. It didn't hurt

in the slightest with him only being six years old, but his desperation

stunned all of us. Liscia looked troubled as he ignored her attempts to get

him to stop, while the usually rambunctious Kazuha was hiding behind her

mother, also with tears in her eyes.

Aisha, Juna, Naden, Tomoe, and Carla, who had all come home with me,

were looking on, wide-eyed. Cian was usually so withdrawn and patient,

and held in his anger even when his tomboyish little sister ran him ragged

or got him hurt.

"Wh-What's the matter, Cian? Why are you hitting me?" I asked,

confused, and Cian looked up at me with teary eyes.

"Waaah... Carla got hurt... I might never have seen her again... I said it

was dangerous... I told you it was dangerous, Father... Hic..."

"Huh?! This is about me?!" Carla said, eyes wide with surprise.

Oh, that makes sense... He's upset that Carla could have died, huh? He

was still just a kid, so he probably didn't understand the situation out there.

Just...that someone he cared about got hurt, and he was mad about it. That

was immature, but at the same time...it was a very proper, very human

reaction.

"I see, Cian... You're scolding me, huh?"

I knelt down and hugged my son. Cian sniffled again and hugged me

back, his arms tightening around my neck. And before I knew it...I was

crying.

Carla had been fortunate enough to survive, but others didn't make it.

The families of the fallen must have felt the same way as Cian. They just

didn't have the chance to vent their anger. It was my fault... Those losses

happened because I'd let Fuuga take the lead.

"Fortuna is the arbiter of one-half of our actions, but she still leaves us

to direct the other half by human virtù."

Those were Machiavelli's words, which I had repeated to myself time

and again.

I'm not going to make the same mistake again... Fuuga, you're not going

to get your way anymore. I'm going to end your era... Personally.

I swore that to myself as I hugged Cian tight.