by Dojyomaru
“The messenger told me that the Mother Dragon, Madam Tiamat, wanted to meet me. Then we were invited to the Star Dragon Mountain Range, and we met her there.”
As I watched, Naden grew, becoming a massive, long, black creature. Her face resembled a dragon’s, but I had no idea what manner of being she was.
Touching the creature’s body, Liscia added, “She’s Naden Delal. The dragon Souma formed a contract with.”
“Well, there’s still some time before the Contract Ceremony, so it’s just a provisional contract for now, though,” Sir Souma added, scratching his cheek.
A dragon...? Really?
“Geez! You can talk about all that later, can’t you?!” I heard Naden’s voice echo inside my head.
This creature... the black dragon... was talking, so did that mean this dragon really was Naden?
“It looks like the sight of me has the soldiers down below making a fuss,” she added.
“We’d better hurry then, huh?” Sir Souma said. “Okay, everyone, get on Naden’s back! There’s nothing to tie us down, so everyone will have to hold on tight to each other, and not let go!”
Following Sir Souma’s directions, we got on Naden’s back. Liscia held on to Sir Souma, Albert held on to Liscia, and I clung to Albert.
“Okay, go for it, Naden!” Sir Souma ordered.
“Roger that!”
Then, in the next moment, Naden rose into the sky.
The burning castle shrank away beneath us. The capital was going off into the distance.
“Sir Souma, where do you plan to go now?” Albert asked.
“We’ll head for Lagoon City, and join up with Duchess Walter,” Sir Souma answered. “We’ll have Duchess Walter announce Liscia’s survival, and reassemble the currently scattered Army. Those officers deeply respected the late Duke Carmine, and they hold Liscia, whom he loved like a daughter, in high regard. That’s why they broke when they heard the two of them had perished, but when they learn Liscia is still alive, I believe they will gather once again. Duchess Walter and Duke Vargas support the royal family, so the three forces will come together.”
“It’s not just me,” Liscia added. “Those corrupt nobles hated you, Souma, but you had the support of the people. If they know you’re alive, it will embolden the people.”
The two of them hadn’t given up. I felt something rising in my chest.
The passion of these two youths, whom I had thought were still just children, brought tears to my eyes.
I could believe the future would go on.
I tightened my arms around Albert’s waist.
Hey, “me” who I sent my memories to.
It looks like, even after sending my memories, life goes on.
Like I thought, I really am the happiest.
Bonus Short Stories
Visiting the Doma Family
It was early spring, with my coronation and marriage to Liscia and the others gradually approaching, and I was now visiting a port town near Lagoon City with Juna.
“It’s been a while since I’ve ridden in a traditional carriage. It’s a bit hard on the backside, huh?” I commented, pressing a hand to my lower back.
Juna giggled. “The carriages in the capital and the rhinosaurus trains have been designed to reduce the shaking, after all.”
We had flown out of the capital with Naden, but I figured it would cause an uproar if a ryuu landed in a little town like this, so we’d asked her to set down in Lagoon City, and we were taking a merchant’s carriage from there.
Our business being what it was, Naden was waiting back at Lagoon City.
“Mmm... This sure is exactly what you’d expect a port town to feel like.” I yawned, taking a big, deep breath of the sea breeze.
“It’s a town like any other you’d find on the coast,” Juna said. “If there’s one thing we can pride ourselves on, it’s that you can always eat fresh fish.”
“I love towns like this.”
“Hee hee, thank you. Welcome to the town where I was born.” Juna extended her hand to me.
I took her hand in mine and started walking with her. In a romantic way, of course.
As we were walking, several people called out to Juna.
“Oh, Juna, you’re back?” one lady asked.
“It’s been too long, ma’am,” Juna said. “I’m here to visit my family for a bit.”
“From the way you two are holding hands, could that man be your...”
“Hee hee, it’s a secret.”
It seemed, as you might expect from her hometown, a lot of people knew her here.
Well, even if some people seemed to have cottoned on to who I was, no one was prying too deeply. That probably showed just how much everyone in this town loved Juna.
We kept walking until we stood in front of a house. It had a cute red roof that made me think of a doll house. As someone used to the dense neighborhoods of the country I’d come from, it seemed reasonably large, but by the standards of this world, it was a normal size.
“Your father manages the Lorelei singing cafe, which has a large number of branches, doesn’t he?” I asked. “This place is... Well, it’s comforting to a former peasant like me.”
“Hee hee, it’s tiny, isn’t it?” Juna giggled. “The main branch is in Lagoon City, and this house is just for our family to live in, so it’s big enough.”
“I guess you’re right. Having a house that’s too big can be inconvenient.”
The castle was so huge, it was a lot of trouble getting from one side of it to the other. Well, it was generally just my own room and the governmental affairs office I was going in between, and when I got busy, I slept in the office, so it felt less like I lived in a luxurious mansion and more like I was a live-in worker at a company, or something like that. But still.
“I’d love to live in a little town by the sea like this,” I told her.
“Would you? Once Prince Cian is all grown up and you can abdicate the throne to him, why don’t we live here?”
“Ha ha ha, that could be a good idea.”
If Liscia could have heard us, she would have angrily told me I was getting ahead of myself.
We reached the entrance.
“Now then, sire, please, come inside,” Juna told me.
As I was shown into the house, Juna’s family was already waiting in the living room. They greeted us warmly, though they seemed a little tense.
“Wh-Why, Your Majesty! How could of you to come to our humble home,” her father said nervously.
“Oh, no, I should have come to pay my respects as soon as possible.” I shook hands with Juna’s father as I apologized. “I’m sorry that I used my busyness as an excuse not to come sooner.”
I greeted Juna’s mother and sat down on the sofa at her father’s invitation. Once I was seated, I bowed my head deeply one more time.
“I’m truly sorry. I’m taking Juna... your daughter... as my bride, but it took me far too long to come pay my respects.”
In the time since I had gotten engaged to Juna, I had been busy with government work, diplomatic visits, and dispatching reinforcements, so I just hadn’t managed to find time to come meet her folks. I was in frequent contact with Juna’s guardian, Excel, at least, and I had stayed in contact with her parents by exchanging letters, but I had long wanted to come pay my respects in person, like any man ought to.
Her father hurriedly shook his head. “No, no! The engagement was something Juna wanted for herself.”
“But... you’re not worried about your daughter becoming a secondary queen?” I asked.
“I am, but Juna has never been one to back down on something once she’s made up her mind, so I always knew she’d choose her partner for herself. It seems Excel’s blood runs thicker in her veins than in mine. I don’t know whether to call her devoted, or stubborn...”
“D-Dad!” Juna sounded unusually flustered. Like with a parent-teacher meeting, having a relative tell someone about you had to be embarrassing.
“It happened when Juna was maybe ten years old,” the man reminisced. “She said she was going to join the Navy with my mother. And then, while she was being trained by my mother, who was amused by the idea, she became more and more like her...” He trailed off and paused. “Um, are you sure you’re okay? She won’t run you ragged like my mother does, will she?”
“I would never!” Juna’s face was red with embarrassment. “...Please, you’re embarrassing me.”
I wanted to see more of these rare expressions from Juna, so I said to her father, “No, do tell more. We have lots of time, so tell me all your old stories about Juna.”
“Not you, too, sire!” Juna elbowed me a bit, but I really did want to hear.
After that, Juna’s parents and I talked at length about her. By the way, we kept talking even after Juna left the room in utter humiliation, and I had to go to a lot of trouble to get her back into a good mood later.
Ruby Roars
“Congratulations!”
“You make such beautiful brides!”
“I wish both the brides happiness!”
Under clear skies, the wedding guests were scattering wheat to celebrate the new brides and groom who had just said their wedding vows in front of a priest at the church. This was supposed to be a ritual where the brides and groom were showered with wheat as a wish for fertility. However...
“Out with the oni!”
“Out with the oni!”
“Ow, ow, ow! You idiots, hold back a little!”
Some tough male guests were throwing the wheat overhand, directly at the groom. This was Halbert, Kaede, and Ruby’s wedding ceremony, and the ones throwing wheat at Halbert were his fellow Dratroopers. In order to give their blessings to Halbert, and to take out their jealousy over him being the only one to score two cute brides, they were throwing the wheat with all their might.
“Out with the oni!”
“What is that strange shout for?” Halbert shouted.
“It’s apparently an incantation from His Majesty’s world, used when driving oni out of your house, you know,” Kaede, in her white shiromuku outfit, said with a peaceful look on her face.
The men were, of course, being careful not to hit Kaede or Ruby. That meant Halbert was facing the relentless assault of wheat grapeshot on his own. The wheat attack finally let up by the time it was time to throw the bouquet.
“...Yeesh. That was hell,” Halbert muttered.
“You held up well, you know, Hal,” Kaede smiled.
“Come on, the ceremony isn’t over, so keep yourself together!” Ruby grinned.
With Kaede comforting him, and Ruby, wearing a wedding dress borrowed from his mother, rousing him to action, Halbert smiled wryly and fixed his collar.
“Whew... That’s the ceremony finished, at least. Now it’s just the reception.”
Kaede giggled. “Come to think of it, Sir Glaive was crying manly tears at the ceremony. I always thought it was the bride’s father who was supposed to cry at times like this.”
During the ceremony, Halbert’s father had been crying as if he was overcome with emotion. However, remembering the scene, Halbert could only shrug and smile wryly. “Nah, I’m sure he felt emotional seeing the two of you in your wedding dresses. He’s known you since you were little, Kaede, and because Ruby’s hair is red, he’s been treating her like his own daughter. I’m sure he didn’t see me as anything more than a bonus that came with the two of you.”
“He has been treating me as well as a daughter,” Ruby agreed. Even before officially becoming Glaive’s daughters-in-law, they had already been his daughters, as far as he was concerned.
“Still, I’m not sure he should have cried even more than your old man, Kaede,” Halbert added.
“Ahaha...” Kaede laughed wryly.
“Why not? I’m envious of you for having a family like that,” Ruby said. As a dragon, she had no family, just like Naden. Ruby had no blood relatives who could come attend a ceremony like this.
Halbert and Kaede seemed at a loss for what to say.
“Hey, don’t look at me like that.” Ruby shook her head. “I have family, too, now. The two of you and all of the Magna and Foxia families are my family now, and that’s enough for me.”
“Ruby...” Halbert said slowly.
There was a sudden murmuring from the crowd.
“What’s that?!”
“It’s huge! Could that be?!”
Wondering what it was, the three of them looked up to the sky, and...
“““Huh?!”””
Though it must have been flying at a great height, they could clearly make out the figure of a white dragon.
“Is that Lady Tiamat?!” Ruby gasped.
“Mother Dragon’s observational flight... You almost never see her out in broad daylight like this...” Kaede murmured.
Normally, Mother Dragon made her observational flights at night. If she was appearing in broad daylight like this, and over the capital where both Naden and Ruby were having their weddings, that showed clear intent on her part.
Halbert hugged Ruby close and said, “See, Ruby? You had a mother who would come to your wedding, after all.”
“Yes!”
Then they heard a roar from the direction of the castle. It must have been Naden. Not wanting to be outdone, while still in human form, Ruby unleashed a dragon’s roar towards her “mother” in the sky. Had her two daughters’ voices reached her? Madam Tiamat’s voice echoed back like the song of a whale.
The Secret XXXXXX Fortitude Enhancement Plan
“Hm... We’ll need this... and a little more of this,” Serina murmured.
It was a day with Souma’s coronation and wedding fast approaching. In the study at Poncho’s mansion, the castle’s head maid, Serina, seemed to be looking over some documents. As she did, Komain, who was passing by with some laundry, cocked her head to the side.
“Serina? What are you doing?”
“Oh, I was making sure we’ll have enough of the ingredients we’ll be using for the dishes we serve at our reception,” Serina said nonchalantly.
The fact that Souma’s coronation and wedding were close also meant that Poncho, Serina, and Komain’s wedding and reception, which would be held at the same time, were close, too.
Komain laid the dried laundry on the sofa and took a peek at the documents Serina was looking at. “It’s almost time for the wedding, yeah. Are we short on anything?”
“No, I was simply checking to be certain. We do expect a good number of people to be in attendance, after all. As the House of Ishizuka Panacotta, it would be a disaster if we were to be short of food during our reception.”
“Ohh... You have a point there.” Komain winced a little as she agreed.
This was Poncho, who had first acted as the Minister for the Food Crisis, resolving the food crisis which tormented people both in the kingdom and the principality. He now acted as Minister of Agriculture and Forestry, working to spread knowledge of delicious ingredients and how to cook them. He was even worshiped by some as the God of Food, Lord Ishizuka, by some of the people.
There were high expectations for the food at his wedding, and the guests would no doubt be arriving hungry. Poncho was also an emergent noble, and members of the knights and nobility would be in attendance. Not only that, he had invited his wholesalers and suppliers as well, so they expected that many people who were more concerned with their appetites than their appearances would be coming.
“If your family hadn’t stepped in to help, I’m sure it would have been chaos,” Komain put in.
The servants for the event would be Serina’s family. Having been able to secure a large group of specialists in the service industry had really saved the three of them.
Serina smiled slightly. “If they’ve been of service, nothing would make me happier.”
“
Hee hee, are you feeling a little embarrassed, Serina?”
“Not in the least.” Serina turned away peevishly, making Komain chuckle.
This was the same Serina who loved to toy with Liscia and Carla, but she wasn’t used to being teased herself. Serina cleared her throat a little, then showed Komain one page from the document.
“I do not think there will be any shortages, but we should acquire large quantities of the ingredients used in any dishes we expect to be popular. I suspect many people will eat Napolitan spaghetti as a main course, not a side, so it might be best if we were to buy more pasta.”
“You have a point... Oh?”
Komain was looking through the papers when she stopped on an item at the bottom of the list of ingredients to add. There were a small number of items there that seemed unlikely to be needed for cooking.
“Mead...?” she read slowly and looked up.
Serina quickly looked away. From that reaction, it seemed these were items Serina had ordered personally, with her own intentions.
“You like mead, Serina?” Komain asked.
“No... I don’t mind it, but I’m not especially fond of it, either.”
“Huh? Then why are you ordering it?”
“That’s... for Sir Poncho to drink...”
Serina was being evasive, so Komain looked at her dubiously.
“Does Poncho like mead?”
“...I couldn’t say. I am not aware whether he does or not.”
“Huh? You’re ordering it even though you don’t know if he likes it or not?”
“Well, I intend to force him to drink it, either way.”
“Huh?” Komain had no idea what Serina was up to. “Um... What exactly are you doing...?”
“This isn’t solely for my sake. I am doing it for yours, as well.”
“Huh?”
“It’s nothing. Now, let us get back to work.” Serina clapped her hands.
Komain wasn’t satisfied with her answers, but she remembered she had left the laundry out, so, even as she cocked her head to the side in confusion, she gathered up the laundry and left the room.
Left alone in the room, Serina looked down at the list Komain had left. Thinking of the purpose of the mead...