The Truth Overlapping Events Lead Us To

With a heretofore unseen baby boom hitting the Kingdom of Friedonia,

our royal family was just as busy as so many others with taking care of our

newborns.

In the middle of this busy time, Archbishop Souji Lester, head of the

newly independent Kingdom Lunarian Orthodoxy, and his right hand, the

former saint Mary, requested a meeting with me. They likely have reports to

make about the saint candidates we had granted asylum the other day. That

was what I thought, but the request also bore the names of Overscientist

Genia M. Arcs and Merula Merlin, who was a high elf and enchantment

magic expert.

The two tops of the Kingdom's science and engineering team were

asking for a meeting together with people connected to religion. I always

thought religion and science were like oil and water, or that they got along

like cats and dogs. Is this going to be okay? Merula, in particular, had been

considered a heretical witch in Lunarian Orthodoxy until just recently too.

Curious about what was going on, I arranged the meeting immediately.

Then, the day after the request came, Hakuya, Souji, Mary, Genia,

Merula, and I all gathered in a conference room. After some brief

formalities, Mary cut straight to the point.

"First, let me thank you for your help regarding the saint candidates.

Having a role in the choir has helped them to settle into life in the

Kingdom."

Nearly fifty saint candidates had sought asylum after a political struggle

in the Lunarian Orthodox Papal State. In order to comply with Mary's

request not to separate them, I put together a gospel choir called the Lunaria

Choir. I was aiming for an image of sisters who sing love songs to angels,

but because they had all been trained to please people of influence, the saint

candidates were all beautiful and gifted at song and dance.

Basically, they were well-suited to become idols. That's why, despite

being a choir, they managed to amass a following similar to a group of

loreleis.

"I hear they're popular with the people too. But what do you mean by a

role?" I asked.

Mary lowered her eyes, a troubled look on her face. "The saint

candidates are loyal to the gentlemen they serve, and have been taught that

service is their duty. I was the same way. Only by serving someone—being

needed by someone—can they find their place. Conversely, without a role

to play, they can't feel they belong anywhere."

"Is this...something we should be happy about?"

"The saint candidates are all former orphans. They know instinctively

that if no one needs them they'll be left to die in a ditch. So I'm grateful for

their current situation," Mary replied, a small smile forming on her face.

I was relieved, but also felt like I had seen the dark side of Lunarian

Orthodoxy. If this let them feel at ease though, it wasn't my place to say

anything.

"So long as they're able to live in peace, that's fine with me. I have the

Lunaria Choir helping with our research on Area Heal, after all. And Souji

is finding us light mages who want to become medics too, so it's a case of 'I

scratch your back, you scratch mine.'"

"Well, the guys in the Orthodox Papal State may not like it much,"

Souji said, crossing his arms with a wry smile. "Obviously, they're not

going to be happy about the saint candidates, but if they found out about the

other thing..."

"You mean with Hilde...?"

A little while back, our doctor couple Hilde and Brad discovered a way

to cure diseases with light magic. In short, what this meant was that with a

sufficiently advanced understanding of medicine, it was possible to heal

illness with magic.

It had been thought for all this time that curing such sicknesses with

magic was impossible, but with a thorough knowledge of the human body,

as well as the parasites and bacteria afflicting it and the damage they cause,

it could be done.

Brad was a man who couldn't use light magic, but had mastered

surgery in order to save lives. He often worked with Hilde, who had the

medical knowledge of the three-eyed race, and could use healing magic.

This led to deep ties between medicine and magic, and culminated in a

higher level of magical medical treatment.

It was the sort of discovery that would change history. However...for as

wonderful as these techniques were, it was very difficult, politically, to put

them into practice.

For instance, because Hilde could use magic to heal some illnesses, the

Orthodox Papal State might try to use her as a saint, or eliminate her. That's

because the church's power was supported by God's blessing (or so they

called it), which was the large number of light mages in their service. From

their perspective, if a light mage who was greater than their own light

mages appeared, they had to act in order to defend their authority. They

would almost certainly come after Hilde.

And this was precisely why this new technology had been kept secret

from most of the people and our allied countries until enough magical

medical practitioners could be trained.

"I'm really grateful to you, Souji, for finding us so many light mages."

Souji crossed his arms and smirked at my words of gratitude. "Up until

now, light magic was seen as the blessing of the gods. That's why many of

the light mages feel a duty to heal others. Many people without magic feel a

sense of powerlessness over their inability to heal the sick too. Those kinds

of people wouldn't hesitate to study medical techniques."

"Thanks to that, we have been able to steadily increase their numbers,"

Hakuya said with a bow.

With Souji finding people for us, the number of light mages who had

studied medicine under Brad was increasing. We wanted to grow those

numbers to keep Hilde from being seen as special, so I was working with

Hakuya on providing the information to our allies.

Anyway, that's enough about that for now. I looked at Genia and

Merula.

"So, why did you two come here with Mary and Souji? I feel as if

science and religion don't really mix."

"Yeah... That doesn't seem to be true, you know? We're here to bounce

ideas off each other."

"Bounce ideas off each other?"

"Let me explain," Merula said, raising her hand to interject. "You

remember I snuck into Yumuen, the holy capital of the Orthodox Papal

State, and stole a glance at the Lunalith, right? It's a monolith stored deep

inside their main temple, and oracles from Lunaria appear on it."

"Ohh... That's why they were chasing you as a heretical witch, right?"

I glanced at Merula and she had a difficult look on her face. She'd said

she didn't plan to stir up any more trouble, but there were probably things

she wasn't satisfied with.

I pretended not to notice and moved things along.

"You saw text on it, right? Hold on..."

I rose from my seat and headed to the governmental affairs office which

was nearby. Rummaging through my desk there, I produced a single piece

of paper. Then, returning to the conference room, I laid it on the table for

everyone to see. It was a note with the symbols Merula said she'd seen on

the Lunalith.

"This is what it said, right?"

"Yes. And it seems Madam Mary remembers even more details than I

do. Isn't that right, Madam Mary?"

"Indeed... I believe the characters looked like this..."

Mary rose from her seat and drew three new characters beneath the

symbols that seemed to be made of triangles, squares, and lines.

"Wha?!" I cried out, my eyes widening as I saw what she'd written.

"如 律 令"

There was no question that this was writing from my world.

"Were these characters in front of them, maybe?"

I took the pen from Mary and wrote 急急 in front of the other three

characters.

This time it was Mary's turn to be surprised.

"Huh?! Y-Yes. That's right."

"Do you know what these words mean in the Orthodox Papal State?"

"Not exactly...but I know they're written before urgent messages."

"I see..."

Kyuu kyuu nyo ritsuryou... Act with haste, in accordance with the law.

It meant something should be done with the utmost urgency. It

originally came from ancient Chinese documents, but Japanese people

would recognize it better as that thing onmyouji say.

"Kyuu kyuu nyo ritsuryou. These are words from the world I came

from."

"I figured..." Genia said with a knowing laugh. "Your former world is

connected with ours in some way. That's been suggested repeatedly. Most

of your knowledge is applicable to ours, and you were able to have children

with your queens. The new field of Monsterology that Ichiha created has

led to new perspectives on the origin of man, animal, plant, and monster."

The dungeon theory on the origin of life, huh? This was also

information we hadn't made public, but... Yeah, she has a point.

"In my view, this is a phenomenon that fuses science and religion, and

links our worlds together. You must have some sense of that yourself,"

Genia continued, sounding uncharacteristically serious. "It's likely that

we're living in the future of your world. Where it lacked magic, but science

was more developed, right? In that case, the magic and miracles in this

world could be the products of science from an era after your own."

"Hm..."

"So, with all that in mind, I want to ask you about the foundation of this

world's magic and miracles. The substance at the root of it all." Genia

looked straight into my eyes. "What is magicium?"

I gulped at the question.

Magicium. It was said that all magic was generated by the workings of

this substance. However, that was simply an old-wives tale. No one had

actually seen it themselves, not even the three-eyed race with their

microscopic vision.

"I told you, didn't I...? There was no magic in my world. Obviously,

that means no magicium either. How could I possibly know?" I replied,

troubled, but Genia quietly shook her head.

"That was probably true in your time. But I feel as though there's a

large gap between the era that you came from and now. Even if it couldn't

be realized in your time, wasn't there any technology that seemed feasible,

or like it might be feasible in the future?"

"I'm not sure what to say to that..."

"It might be good to think through this one step at a time," Merula

interjected. "Fire, water, and wind magic manifest in the open air, or

wreathe objects in those elements. We could see this as the magicium in the

air or on the surface of objects reacting to the caster's mental image."

"Hmm..."

"We call the other one earth magic, but it actually alters the weight of

things. It can manipulate the magicium in the ground to cause it to rise, or

control the weight of substances."

"There's my magic, which makes golems from dirt, and yours...Living

Poltergeists, was it? That magic that lets you control puppets seems similar.

Though, in your case, you're able to divide your consciousness too, so it's a

bit special," Genia said, chuckling.

Dark magic was where they lumped any magic they didn't understand,

after all.

Merula nodded. "You could say my enchantment magic is the same. By

carving a spell into something, it reacts with the magicium inside it, which

does things like making arms and armor more durable. Good examples of

that would be the set of equipment left by this country's first hero king, and

the Empire's Magic Armor Corps."

Oh, yeah, that ridiculously hard helmet (which was just hard, and did

nothing else, so I'd had no use for it but as a museum piece) and the

Empire's heavy pikemen who wore black armor that was almost impervious

to magic. Both were examples of equipment with attached spells being

strengthened by magicium.

Here, I noticed Merula glancing at Mary and Souji.

"And there's light magic... What you might call healing magic."

When the name light magic came up, the two religious figures in the

room's brows perked up.

"It's said," Merula continued, "that a capable mage can even reconnect

a severed arm. Up until now, it was only external wounds that could be

healed, but now some of them have discovered they can treat illnesses too."

"With medical knowledge, light mages can cure a certain subset of

sicknesses..."

"Exactly. If we think about how this connects with magicium, we have

to conclude it exists inside our bodies as well. With external injuries, we

could assume it was due to magicium in the air, but that doesn't work inside

the body."

Magicium exists not just in the air, but inside objects, and even the

bodies of living creatures, huh? A substance inside the body that fights

disease... Not antibodies and the immune system which we already had, but

something which could fight illness at the will of something outside the

body. Huh...? Could it be...?

"Sire, do you have any idea what it could be?" Genia said, noticing I'd

thought of something.

"Nanomachines..."

"Nanomawhats?"

"Machines too tiny for the naked eye to see. They could be injected into

the body to remove diseased parts, or treat them... I think?"

"I see. That sounds like exactly what we're looking for."

"No, no! They weren't implemented! It was a potential future

technology...still just the product of people's imagination."

"Sire..." Genia tabbed her index finger on the table. "This could very

well be that future, you know?"

"Urgh..." She had a point.

Genia crossed her arms and grunted thoughtfully. "Machines too small

to see, huh? If they're all over the world, and in our bodies, and they cause

the phenomena we know as magic, then that's fascinating."

"But is that possible? Making machines so small even the three-eyed

race can't see them?"

"I don't know if this is connected, but...one of your wives can make

major changes to her body mass, can't she?"

"Oh! You mean Naden?"

It was certainly true that the dragon race's body mass changed

considerably between their dragon and human forms. I believe Lady

Tiamat, who was Mother Dragon, had an even larger form which she could

change with that of an elderly woman. Their whole race just up and ignored

the principle of mass conservation.

"Perhaps those who created magicium could freely control mass too.

That's just speculation, though."

"Right..."

"But if magicium is made up of small artificial machines, then that

could explain all sorts of interesting things. There are places in this world

where it's harder or easier to use magic, right?"

"For places where it's easier... You mean my old homeland, right?"

Merula said. She had come from the Spirit Kingdom of Garlan. The high

elves who lived there wielded powerful magic, and that was one reason they

believed they were the chosen people.

However, based on the fact that Merula's own magic weakened after

leaving, it seems that land is simply suited to manifesting more powerful

magical effects.

Genia nodded.

"And for a place where it's harder, there's the sea."

"Oh! I get it!"

For some reason, it was hard to use anything but water magic at sea.

That was why gunpowder weapons that hadn't seen much use on land were

developed by the navy and in places like the Nine-Headed Dragon

Archipelago. If magicium was nanomachines, I could see why. Saltwater is

like the natural enemy of machines.

"The more complex the machines in my old world, the more trouble

they had with saltwater. Even some that were waterproofed couldn't handle

it."

"Hmm... There may be different types of magicium then. The magicium

that water mages control was designed to work in water, so maybe they

took countermeasures."

"Makes sense."

They could only use salt-proof, water-proof nanomachines, or other

types of magicium that had usage limitations on them, huh?

"What sort of face am I supposed to make as I listen to all of this?"

Mary mumbled, looking troubled. "It's not just Lunarian Orthodoxy, but

every religion in this world believes magic is the blessing of the gods... I've

always believed it too. If you're going to say it was made by people..."

"But there's a similar story in Lunarian Orthodoxy, isn't there?" Merula

interjected. "Lunarian Orthodoxy was founded when the people of the

moon, the lunarians, descended to this world and brought the Lunalith. If

the lunarians built the Lunalith, couldn't we assume that magicium was

built by a similar group...or even the exact same one?"

"So magicium may still be a gift from the gods, then...?" Mary glanced

in my direction. "In that case, would Sir Souma, who lived before the age of

the gods, become an object of worship for us?"

"Please, no..."

I had already nearly been crushed under the weight of titles like "king"

and "hero" before. If they went and tossed "living god" on the pile, it'd be

more than a hassle, it'd be a disaster. There would be pushback from the

Orthodox Papal State since they had sided with Fuuga's Great Tiger

Kingdom, and even my own allies like Maria would look at it and say

"Wait, you're deifying yourself now?"

It was bound to have a bad influence on my wives and our children too.

"We're still speculating about the origins of magicium. Even if this

becomes established as fact, the era I lived in and the era in which they

would have made magicium might be far apart. If you want to venerate the

people who made it, go ahead, but please leave me out of it."

"I see..." Mary backed down, looking a little disappointed.

Then Genia clapped her hands as if to dispel the heavy atmosphere that

had fallen over the room.

"There's one more important thing about magicium we need to

consider."

"Still...?"

I'd had enough, and was starting to develop a headache.

"Just this one last thing," Genia said with a laugh. "Curse ore."

"Those cursed rocks...?" Mary's brow furrowed with suspicion.

Because you couldn't use magic near this ore, it was hated by miners

who used magic to mine. As for the religious people who saw magic as the

blessing of the gods, they thought it was the devil's ore because it rejected

magic. However, the House of Maxwell's research had shown it actually

stored the energy from magic. Our country had since used it to produce the

Little Susumu Mark V propeller and to power the drill.

Genia produced a black lump from inside the pocket of her lab coat and

unceremoniously rolled it onto the table.

"That's a crystal of curse ore, huh?"

Genia nodded. Mary and Souji's eyes narrowed.

Paying no mind to the two of them, Genia continued, "My family has

studied curse ore for many long years. You could say our discovery of its

ability to steal and store magic's power was the result of intergenerational

research. During all our time studying it, I had one constant doubt: If magic

was the result of magicium, what exactly was curse ore?"

No one answered her question, so Genia elaborated.

"I had a vague idea. Perhaps the curse ore which was able to steal the

power from magic was, in fact, magicium itself."

"""Wha?!"""

Curse ore is magicium... In other words, a mass of nanomachines? The

moment I thought that, a theory started to come together like the pieces of a

puzzle falling into place.

If magicium were nanomachines, they needed energy. Solar, wind,

geothermal... Honestly, in this case, any source, even ones I knew nothing

about would do. If they were machines, they needed to have some sort of

charging mechanism. This was important to stop them from suddenly

ceasing to function due to an inability to take in energy.

If nanomachines that had finished their job accumulated on the ground,

and all they had left afterwards was that charging mechanism, they might

become something like curse ore.

How can this be...? I'm sure only someone like me, with knowledge

from the past, could have come up with a theory like this.

Her explanation wasn't going to click for anyone else here. Still, Genia,

or rather, the House of Maxwell had come to a similar conclusion. That was

scary. I was really glad they were a part of my country.

Genia looked at me.

"These nanomachines you told us about are fascinating. I have a feeling

that there are about to be great leaps in the study of magic and curse ore.

Could I ask you to explain in more detail at a later date?"

"Yeah. It piqued my interest too. I'm probably going to have you focus

on it in the future. The country will provide support, of course."

"I'll be grateful for that. It'll save me from doing too much damage to

Big Brother Luu's wallet and stomach."

Genia smiled when I promised to support her research.

Still, magicium are nanomachines, huh...? I dunno. I felt like, after

today, a lot of things were going to begin to move.

◇ ◇ ◇

Some days after we got a vague glimpse of the true nature of magicium,

and by extension this world, Yuriga came to visit while I was working in the

governmental affairs office with Prime Minister Hakuya and Liscia.

"Sir Souma, Mr. Hakuya, I have a letter for Sir Souma from my

brother."

"From Fuuga?"

"Yes. It isn't the usual update on how things have been going lately, but

a formal letter from King Fuuga Haan of the Great Tiger Kingdom of Haan

to Souma A. Elfrieden, head of the Maritime Alliance."

A letter from a guy with a big, important-sounding title to another guy

with a big, important-sounding title, I thought.

In truth, I was only allowed to call myself head of the Maritime

Alliance by Kuu, the head of the Republic, which had no real navy to speak

of, and Nine-Headed Dragon Queen Shabon, who felt indebted to me over

the incident with Ooyamizuchi. Once things settled down a little more, I

figured we could have the head of the alliance be a revolving position.

Still, hearing that this was a formal letter, Liscia and Hakuya's

expressions grew a little harsh. I probably looked the same way. What

exactly is he going to say to us...?

"Do you know what it says, Yuriga?" Liscia asked and Yuriga nodded

affirmatively.

"Yes. I don't think it should be too difficult a request..."

"You don't?"

"Anyway, let's read it and see," I said, accepting the letter from Yuriga

and looking through it.

If I were to sum up the contents, it went like this:

Hey Souma,

How're you and Yuriga doing?

We're making good headway liberating the Demon Lord's Domain. I'm

following your advice and not pushing too far north, moving west through

the areas close to the nations of mankind.

I've got the western sea in my sights now. Malmkhitan's on the eastern

sea, so I've just about crossed the continent. The land we've liberated is

still like a bunch of cities dotted about, connected by a line, but with our

march across the continent almost at an end, the men's spirits are high.

I think I'm going to take the west coast even if it involves pushing

ourselves a little too hard.

So, here's the deal. I want to ask the Maritime Alliance to ship us

supplies. I'd like you to carry material from my homeland and all the other

countries to the west coast. The supplies should already be prepared back

home. Could you carry them across the sea for us? You basically rule the

seas, after all.

If you talk to the Nine-Headed Dragon Archipelago Union and the

Empire, you should be able to deliver the stuff without issue, yeah?

If you could throw in a little something extra from the Maritime

Alliance while you're at it, that'd be great.

After showing it to Liscia and Hakuya, I pressed my fingers into my

temples and groaned.

"He says it like, 'Hey, man, it's summer, let's hit the beach...'"

"He's so innocent..." Liscia said. "And I mean that in both a positive

and negative way."

"Umm...I apologize for my brother," Yuriga said apologetically as

Liscia and I let out a communal sigh. It seemed Yuriga had felt the same

way, and was troubled as the messenger.

Hakuya brought his hand to his mouth as he read the letter.

"Setting aside the content here... As a general policy, it's not bad."

"What do you mean?"

"Sir Fuuga gathers people with his rare charisma. And in order to keep

them together, he needs results that back up that charisma. 'Cutting across

the Demon Lord's Domain' has to be one of the best accomplishments he

could ask for in that regard. And so long as he's dealing with that aspect, we

can't afford to refuse him."

"I'd rather not be declared an enemy of mankind, yeah..."

The people of this continent longed to reclaim the Demon Lord's

Domain. It was a problem that those driven from—or at constant risk of

being driven from—their lands always had in mind. Right now, the only

nation that appeared to be grappling with that problem was the Great Tiger

Kingdom.

We and the Empire were working behind the scenes to prepare for when

the day came to address it, but no one could see that. If we got in Fuuga's

way or refused to help him, it would earn us the enmity of a large number

of people. Had Fuuga asked knowing that? He even asked us to throw in a

little something extra.

"He's even prepared proper compensation for us...huh? All the bases

are being covered."

At the end of the letter, Fuuga had written "In exchange for delivering

the supplies, we will give the Kingdom a port city on the western coast."

He'd probably looked at the naval base exchange agreement we'd signed

with the Nine-Headed Dragon Archipelago Union after slaying

Ooyamizuchi and thought a port would be good bait for us.

The Great Tiger Kingdom of Haan had considerable land forces, but

almost nothing at sea. The west coast would be close to the Empire's

territory, and if they dispatched their fleet, it would be hard for Fuuga to

hold the coast. The Empire was also primarily a land power, but they still

had a proper navy when compared with the Great Tiger Kingdom.

That's why Fuuga wanted to bring the Maritime Alliance into port, in

order to keep the Empire in check.

Because it was far from our homeland, he saw us as less of a threat than

the Empire. Hidden behind the casual wording of the message there was no

doubt a plan that had been carefully crafted by Hashim.

"Well...we probably have no choice but to help," I said, resting my head

on the palm of my hand.

"I believe that's acceptable," Hakuya agreed, nodding.

The fact was, we wanted a port on the west coast. I had been planning

to eventually sign the same sort of naval port exchange agreement with the

Republic and the Empire. But because it would reveal our close ties with

the Empire to sign such an agreement, it would have been a poor move right

now. I was more than happy to have a port on the west coast outside of the

Empire. However, I wasn't going to say that with Yuriga here.

"Tell Excel to prepare a transport fleet. She can choose the number of

ships and which ones to send. Also, throw in some extra rations as a bonus

for them."

"Understood." Hakuya bowed and left the room. After he'd left, I

looked at Yuriga.

"You heard how it is, Yuriga. Send Fuuga a response to that effect."

"Thank you, Sir Souma," Yuriga said, sounding relieved.

Still...I feel like this request came to me because I had become the head

of the Maritime Alliance, putting myself on the same level as Maria and her

Mankind Declaration or Fuuga and his Great Tiger Kingdom.

I may get more requests like this in the future... When that thought

occurred to me, I let out a sigh.

And my premonition was soon proved accurate.