by Dojyomaru
With that said, Merula looked him straight in the eye.
“What do you say, Mr. Inugami? Do you think the king you serve would take in a woman who’s wanted as a ‘witch’ by the Orthodox Papal State?”
If, by some chance, the Orthodox Papal State managed to discover she was in the kingdom, it might lead to thorny diplomatic issues. Merula was asking if he would accept her with full knowledge of that risk.
If she were turned over to the Orthodox Papal State later, her life would be forfeit. If she couldn’t get a promise that that wouldn’t happen, she couldn’t go to the kingdom.
Inugami understood how serious she was, so he carefully considered the question before answering. “...Well, let’s see. His Majesty is always saying, ‘If they have a gift, I will put it to use.’ I am sure he would give a warm welcome to someone who has as broad a base of knowledge as you.”
This was Souma, the guy who could be said to be crazy for collecting talented personnel. Even if it meant some political risk, he wasn’t likely to hesitate in employing a person as well learned as Merula.
“Just to be sure, I will send you with a letter recommending you to the castle signed by Master Kagetora and myself,” finished Inugami.
“...That decides it,” said Merula. “Let’s go, Souji.
With Merula urging him onward, all Souji could do was smile wryly. “Honestly, there you go, deciding something this important for me...” Though Souji didn’t seem to mind it that much. “Well, even if I stay in this country, it’s a bit too stifling for a guy like me. I don’t have any choice, so I guess I’ll go impose on this king of yours.”
Even as he acted like he was being forced into it, he easily agreed to go to the Kingdom of Friedonia. Thus did the Kingdom add two new talented members to its staff.
Souji Lester, the Commandment-breaking Bishop of the Orthodox Papal State of Lunaria; and the high elf researcher, Merula Merlin. What impact might these two joining the kingdom have on its future?
No one could have known at this point, though perhaps the Lunalith did.
◇ ◇ ◇
Flashback finished. Let’s get back to the present.
Having joined the Kingdom in the way described, on this day, Bishop Souji Lester appeared before the People of Friedonia for the first time via the Jewel Voice Broadcast.
Souma had only just finished announcing that every religion that registered would be recognized as a state religion. With the bishop of a monotheistic religion like Lunarian Orthodoxy coming on directly after him, followers of all religions, including the Orthodoxy, were waiting with bated breath to see what he would say and do.
However, as if to say he didn’t care one whit about their anticipation, Souji briefly introduced himself and then began talking in an easygoing tone. “Now then... King Souma was saying he would recognize any religion that registers as a state religion, but, by some luck, our Lunarian Orthodoxy have been allowed to become a state religion ahead of the rest. It seems like Mother Dragon worship has been, too, and godbeast worship practiced by the dark elves of the God-Protected Forest was also registered by the second primary queen, Madam Aisha. For the rest of you people out there in the other religions and sects, you should hurry up and register yours quickly.”
The citizens were by and large bewildered by the easygoing way that Souji spoke. The believers of Lunarian Orthodoxy were especially surprised. That was because their bishop, the head of the believers in the Kingdom of Friedonia, was speaking in a way that recognized other religions.
Due to the nature of the kingdom as a multi-racial state, the vast majority of believers in the kingdom were moderates who abhorred causing friction with the other races. Even so, they still were hesitant to actively get involved with the followers of other religions. However, the way Souji was talking now removed that hesitation.
Ohh. I guess it’s fine for us to get along...
The believers had a look on their face as if they had been freed from something that had been possessing them.
Souji continued.
“Also, Young Miss Roroa was asking if we had any sort of religious events. I’m sure our believers all know this already, but it’s almost time for the Spring Announcement Festival.”
The Spring Announcement Festival was the biggest spring event for Lunarian Orthodoxy. It was a festival to celebrate the end of winter and the coming of the season when the flowers would bloom.
During this festival, the children of the believers would dress up as fairies and walk around with baskets of picked flowers giving them to the adults. In other words, the children became “envoys of spring.” Then the adults would give those envoys of spring candy in exchange for the flowers, and they would pray for a bountiful harvest that year.
And, well, it was a festival that felt basically like a spring version of Halloween.
“Now, about the Spring Announcement Festival... I have happy news,” said Souji. “Young Miss Roroa has agreed to recognize it as a national event. This may seem sudden, but it will be held next weekend. Towns and cities with Lunarian Orthodox churches should already have been notified. Everyone is free to participate. Whether they are a believer or not, every child will be receiving candy. We’d like for the adults who belong to other faiths to help out, too, if they can. If a child comes to you, take their flower and give them candy, that’s all. Simple, right? I think it’ll be a fun festival for adults, too, so please take an active part in it.”
The crowd erupted into applause at Souji’s words. It seemed that it sounded like fun to them.
In the time since Souma created broadcast programs, a tendency to enjoy these sorts of events had taken root in the people of the kingdom. When the day came, many of them would surely be there to enjoy the festival.
Souji said, “Thank you for listening,” stepped back, and Roroa stepped forward once again.
“This time we’re doin’ a Lunarian Orthodox festival, but if any of you out there involved with the other religions’ve got some interestin’ festival to share, just you let us know. We’re gonna give this country some color with events from all sorts of religions. I’m thinkin’ it’ll be wonderful. Let’s liven this country up, believers and non-believers alike!”
When Roroa raised her fist in the air, the people cheered.
“Now, let the preparations for the festival begin!”
◇ ◇ ◇
The last day of the 3rd month, 1,547th year, Continental Calendar — Day of the Spring Announcement Festival
On this day, I brought Aisha and Tomoe down to the castle town with me. The town was crowded with people there for the festival. I was wearing my usual outfit for when I went incognito, the traveler’s outfit from the Nine-headed Dragon Archipelago Union, but with the number of people there, maybe I needn’t have bothered with a disguise.
“I-I’ve come with spring blessings...” Tomoe stuttered. “Okay!”
In all that hustle and bustle, Tomoe, who was wearing a white mage’s robe with feathers sewn into it, was offering a flower to an old lady at a street stall.
The old lady smiled and said, “Oh, dearie me, what an adorable little fairy,” accepting Tomoe’s flower with a soft smile and giving her a bag full of candy.
Once she had accepted the candy, Tome bobbed her head up and down, thanking the lady before she rushed back in my direction with her little steps and showed me her candy bag.
“Big Brother, look what I got!”
“Yeah, I saw. Good for you.”
“Yeah!”
When I patted her on the head, Tomoe’s tail happily wagged back and forth. Seeing Tomoe like that, Aisha, who was disguised in a school uniform, had a silly grin on her face.
“Ohhh,” Aisha said. “Madam Tomoe is so adorable.”
“Here. You have some, too, Aisha,” Tomoe offered.
“Can I?! I love you, Madam Tomoe!”
“Eek!”
Aisha picked Tomoe up and rubbed their cheeks together. Like always, it felt lik
e I could see an invisible tail wagging back and forth on Aisha’s rear, too.
...And hold on, what was she doing, letting an eleven-year-old tame her with food?
While I was watching Aisha with some exasperation...
“Hey, if it isn’t the king himself,” someone suddenly called out to me.
When I looked in the direction the voice came from, Souji was there, sitting in one of the patio seats in front of a bar and drinking wine. He had a wooden mug in hand, and already looked pretty plastered. Was this man drinking in broad daylight really a member of the clergy? There was what looked to be a woman sitting across from Souji, and this one was sipping away at her drink a little at a time.
“...It’s still only noon, you realize, clergyman,” I said. “Is this Merula?”
“Hello, King Souma,” the hooded Merula waved to me cheerily.
It was Merula, right? It would be a problem if people found out she was a high elf, so she was probably trying to keep a low profile.
Souji knocked back his drink, and said with glazed eyes, “Whew... It sure is a festival. Don’t be such a stiff. Aren’t you out on the town with Aisha and Tomoe? You’ve got a beautiful flower on each arm, don’t you?”
“Well, yeah... Have to spend time with the family, you know.”
The reason I was heading out in secret today was to survey the castle town, but also to have a date with Aisha.
Though I had... um... developed my relationship with Liscia, I hadn’t laid a hand on any of my other fiancées yet. That was to prevent a troublesome birth order of the children, in order to prevent it developing into a succession issue. Especially with Roroa, who was in the dicey position of being the sovereign princess of a former enemy state; for her sake, and the sake of the child who would eventually be born, I couldn’t go laying a hand on her yet.
It probably wouldn’t be an issue if I laid a hand on my secondary queen, Juna, whose children wouldn’t have the right to inherit, or on Aisha, who was from a long-lived race and would have trouble conceiving to begin with, but they were holding back out of consideration for Roroa.
Honestly... they were all such lovely women.
Well, the result was that Liscia now had my other fiancées asking her to, “Hurry up with the heir already,” and she’d complained to me, “I swear, the pressure is making my stomach hurt.”
...I kind of felt bad for her.
Ahem... Anyway, even if I couldn’t lay my hands on them, it was important that I still do other things with Aisha and the others.
When I explained that to Souji, he said, “Hmm. Must be tough having to be a family man when you’re so young,” as if it was none of his problem, and then he knocked back his mug and polished off the rest of his wine as if rubbing it in my face. “Pwah!”
“Don’t you think you’ve had more than enough?” I asked.
“In Lunarian Orthodoxy, wine is sacred. In other words, by pouring this liquid into my body, I’m accumulating virtue.”
“That absolutely sounds like the excuse of a drunkard,” I informed him. “You really are irresponsible.”
“But it’s convenient for your people that I’m so irresponsible, right?” Souji grinned.
...Honestly, this octopus-headed old man.
I shrugged my shoulders. “Well, yeah. I mean, Hakuya’s plan is to use you to sever the believers from the homeland.”
“Well, you scratch my back, I scratch yours, Your Majesty. I’ll slack off with everything I’ve got.”
“I’m counting on you,” I said. “Now then, I should get back to Aisha and Tomoe.”
“Sure. May God’s protection and peace be upon you and your family.”
Hearing the delinquent bishop’s prayer behind me, which it was hard to know how serious he was about, I headed back to where Aisha and Tomoe were.
Epilogue: Towards the First Trip Abroad
1st day, 4th month, 1,547th year, Continental Calendar
It was the day after the Lunarian Orthodoxy’s Spring Announcement Festival was held.
The Spring Announcement Festival yesterday had been pretty lively, so the castle town would be busily cleaning up after it today. I was spending the day in the governmental affairs office, staring down a single piece of paper.
Liscia, who had just come into the room, looked suspiciously at me and asked, “Is something the matter, Souma?”
“Hmm? Oh, I was looking at this.” I showed Liscia the piece of paper I had been staring at.
The piece of paper had three characters, or symbols, something that I couldn’t make sense of, lined up on it. Starting from the left there was “an arrow-like triangle pointing to the left, combined with a square;” “two vertical lines and something made with a vertical line with five horizontal lines crossing it;” and “an umbrella-shaped symbol.”
Liscia looked sideways at the piece of paper I’d given her. “What’s this?”
“It’s apparently a portion of the Lunalith oracle that Merula saw.”
Merula Merlin had come along with Souji Lester, the bishop we’d invited as a countermeasure against the Lunarian Orthodoxy. Her research primarily focused on spirits and magic, and her long years of research had produced an incredible wealth of knowledge, so I had welcomed her with open arms.
Now Merula was at Genia the overscientist’s laboratory where there was all sorts of equipment available.
It seemed curse ore, which absorbed magic, was a very interesting subject of research for Merula. She and Genia were spending day after day together, engrossed in their research.
What sort of chemical reaction would the meeting of overscientist and magic researcher have on this country? I was kind of looking forward to it, and kind of worried...
Something had happened the first time I’d met Merula.
The oracle she’d said had appeared on the Lunalith came up in conversation, and when I asked her for details, Merula shook her head in disappointment.
“They call it an oracle, so I think what appeared was text; but it wasn’t in a writing system from any country in this world, so I couldn’t figure out what it said. If I’d had a little more time, I might have at least been able to figure out if they were phonographs or ideographs, but...”
It seemed she hadn’t had the time to properly commit it to memory. Her life had been in danger, so I could hardly blame her for that.
When I asked her if there was anything she remembered, no matter how minor, she’d said, “It really is just a small fraction, but I recall... it went like this...”
And then she’d written these three incomprehensible characters or symbols onto a piece of paper. Merula’s memories were vague, so these probably were exactly as she’d seen them.
In the end, the only thing we knew was that these sorts of incomprehensible characters or symbols had appeared as an oracle.
Liscia seemed to realize something and said, “Ah...! If the writing isn’t from this world, could it be from yours?”
“Yeah,” I said. “That was something I suspected, too, but I’ve got absolutely no idea what they are...”
I couldn’t claim familiarity with every writing system on Earth, obviously, but I could at least say that in more than a decade of living in Japan, I had no recollection of seeing this kind of writing (?) before. The one in the middle might look a bit like the kanji for “pray” or “samurai” if you looked at it the right way, but as for what the arrow-like one that came before it, and the umbrella-like one that came after it were... I had no idea.
I gave up and put the piece of paper away inside the governmental affairs office’s desk. “Well, even if I could read just three characters of it, it wouldn’t do me any good. I can’t neglect my duties just because I’m curious about it, after all. Let’s forget about it for now.”
And so, Liscia and I got started on my paperwork for the day, but... I had one of the consciousnesses I had split off thinking about it.
Events sometimes took place outside the Kingdom of Friedonia. If s
omething bothered me, when it was a domestic matter, I could bring on new people, assign personnel to the issue, and assign a budget to get it investigated. I had my position as king, after all.
However, when it was in another country, I couldn’t investigate.
If it was something the relevant country had already investigated, it was possible I might acquire the information through diplomacy or espionage. However, if they hadn’t investigated it yet, I had no means of acquiring information about that matter. Because it was another country, I couldn’t dispatch a team to investigate, either.
What if, included in that information this country couldn’t get its hands on, there was something that could decide the fate of our own nation? What if we found out about it too late? Whenever I thought about that, I felt unable to sit still.
The world was not complete with just one country. Especially if I was staying inside the castle, it was only natural that there would be things I couldn’t find out that way. I still... had so much to learn about this world.
I need to learn more. Much more, about many different countries...
While swamped with government work, that was what I thought about.
◇ ◇ ◇
It was a mysterious space.
It was as if I were in an abyss where no light seemed to reach; or perhaps I had been thrown out into deep space, in a place where I was unable to tell up from down.
I was floating in the middle of that space.
I could breathe properly. But my thinking felt hazy somehow.
Oh... This is probably a dream. I’m in a dream world.
Sometimes while dreaming, I would realize it was a dream.
When I was sleeping at something like a kotatsu, where it was hard to fall fully asleep, I would realize it was a dream and think that I needed to wake up quickly, see a dream of waking up, realize I was dreaming again, dream of waking up... and it went on like that. That was close to how I felt right now.