by Yuu Kamiya
—Putting the tea set and the dainty plates of cut pancakes on a tray.
“…All right, I think this should be good.”
Wiping her brow at the sense of accomplishment at a job well done.
“Excuse me, Miss?”
The maids interjected as if they had been waiting long for the right timing.
“Oh, what is it?”
“Ah, well… Please excuse my impertinence, but is something wrong, Miss?”
“…Impertinent indeed. What’s this all of a sudden?”
“Well, it’s just… If you had asked, we, the staff, certainly would have prepared tea and sweets for you, yet you went ahead and steeped your own without a word… And with so much effort…”
………Huh? Come to think of it, why should I have to steep my own tea? Faced with this question, Steph saw a certain image in her mind’s eye.
“Oh! This is delicious. I didn’t know you were so good around the house, Steph.”
Sora, with a smile on his face and a teacup in his hand.
……Flush. The feeling of blood rising to her cheeks.
“Aaaaaaah, Goooooood!!”
Steph screamed and bashed her head against the wall.
“Why do I have to show off how good I am around the house with my homemade sweets! A man like that deserves some water—some rocks and grass lying around!”
“M-Miss! Please compose yourself!!
“M-Missus! M-Miss Stephanie has—Miss Stephanie has lost her—”
The maids fell into chaos as they tried to stop Steph’s forehead resounding against the wall with a loud, dull sound.
“Hhh…”
Sighing, Steph carried a silver tray down the hall. On the tray were a tea set and sweets for two—that is, the siblings. In the end, she couldn’t win against her emotions and ended up bringing what she had prepared, and that made her sigh again. She hated herself, and yet, when she imagined being told it was delicious—
“…I can’t deny part of me is looking forward to it… Hh…”
However. Steph, stopping in place.
“Wait a minute, Stephanie. Is this a taste that will appeal to otherworlders?”
Steph did have confidence in her own tea and baking skills. But her guests were from another world.
“Oh—cra—”
Another image crossed her mind.
“Egh, sorry, I gotta pass on this.”
Sora, with a face.
“Aaahh… Th-that’s no good; then I won’t be able to get out by saying it was the maids—wait, why do I need an out? I don’t even care what—yes, I do! Aahh, God… This is a curse…”
Already too frazzled to see straight. Steph breathed deeply and built an excuse in the name of collecting her thoughts.
“Th-that’s right. They’ve already belittled me to no end; should they now think I’m not capable of preparing some simple tea and sweets, it will bring shame upon the house of Dola. There is no mistaking that this is delicious; if it suits them not, it is a difference in culture—and certainly not—uh…”
Muttering excuses with her hands full. Steph struggled to open the door of her library and came back in.
“—What’s this?”
—But, wherever she looked, the siblings had disappeared. Looking around, on the second floor of the room. Above the stairs, the door to the veranda had been opened, and the garden swayed in the wind.
Steph went out onto the veranda…and there they were. The brother, in his butler outfit, was leaning over the rail of the veranda, capturing the city with his phone. The sister, suggestive of a white-haired young lady—was leaning on her brother’s legs, reading a book.
—Natural as two in one, as though they would die if split apart. The too-picturesque sight—the relationship. As Steph felt a significant constriction in her chest, while telling herself it was just nerves.
“…The town’s excited.”
Sora spoke to her, watching the commotion outside.
“—Yes…it is. After all, the gambling tournament to decide the monarch is still underway.”
She placed the tray on the veranda table and poured tea into the cups.
“…So…here’s tea.”
“Oh, thanks.”
“For the little sister as well.”
“…Mm.”
Sora took a swig of tea and looked back out on the city.
His first impression—the town of a “typical fantasy world”—had been a little bit off.
—Perhaps it was because the town had never been destroyed since war was forbidden. Several styles of architecture intermingled, reminiscent of Roman, classical, Baroque. The streets were paved, yet what traveled on them were carriages, and at the distant port floated three-masted sailing vessels. It appeared that not even the steam engine had been invented. The terraced fields built on the hills, visible in the distance, were being cultivated with methods even older than the mode of the city.
—Here was the recoil from not waging war. War had an ironic aspect of accelerating science, catapulting forward technology for fertilizer and fuel. Thinking back, Sora realized the books he had viewed in Steph’s library were handwritten almost without exception—hand-copied. Printing either had not been invented or was not yet widely available.
“The Europe of the mid-Renaissance. Before the sky was sullied by the Industrial Revolution… A beautiful town.”
“…Nice…strategy game…quote.”
—But then, Sora thought. According to myth, the Great War that had reduced the planet to scorched earth wasn’t even just thousands of years ago. It was said that it had been thousands of years already by the time the Covenants were exchanged. Immanity, who couldn’t use magic at all. In other words, humans under conditions equivalent to those in the world where they used to be. After thousands of years, they were still at the level of their world in the early fifteenth century.
—In that case, what about the races who could use cheats like magic? What in the world were their civilizations like?
Then it occurred to Sora:
“Hey, Steph—why did you wanna be queen?”
“—Excuse me?”
“Well, I heard a rumor you were desperate because you weren’t gonna be royalty anymore.”
He recited what he’d heard outside the tavern-inn. But.
“—I don’t really care about that.”
—Rumors were rumors, after all. To be dismissed with a laugh. She came beside Sora, leaned from the veranda, and looked out at the town.
“…This country—Elkia used to actually be a pretty big country, you know?”
She spoke with eyes that seemed to be looking into the distance—into the past.
“Long ago, there were several Immanity countries in the world. It was the biggest.”
With a hint of pride, but also irony, she continued.
“Big enough to be the last country of Immanity after it lost and lost, ever since the Ten Covenants…”
“……”
“So it looks to you like we’re excited? Even so…Elkia is already broken.”
Once more looking out at the commotion of the town, but this time with sad eyes. Following her gaze, Sora found that he could imagine.
Territory lost, surplus population on insufficient land. Shortages of resources and food leading to a deadlocked economy. Without land for food, there could be no production, and without production, there could be no jobs. The Ten Covenants may have secured peace—
—but he remembered. The bandits who had attacked them as soon as they came to this world. The brother looked steadily in the direction of the cliff. Now his sister, who had been leaning on his legs reading a book, turned to Steph.
“It’s true the old king—my grandfather—lost in the play for dominion until we were backed into the capital with nothing else left. But Immanity had already been beaten to the ground, left poor as dirt…”
Gripping the railing, Steph spoke as if grinding her teeth.
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�My grandfather was reviled as a fool king, yet he went on trying to save the country. He wasn’t wrong—”
—If they didn’t take back their land, humans wouldn’t have long, anyway. Rather than sit and wait for destruction, he chose to charge forward for a chance at salvation—something like that.
“I—wanted to save Elkia…”
And then Steph seemed to be fighting back tears.
“And I wanted to prove that my grandfather wasn’t wrong—that for Immanity to live…we need to take back our territory, even if it means going on the offensive, or it won’t be long before we really are gone.”
—At Steph’s words, wrought out of a face of gloom, Shiro asked, with her usual look of indifference.
“…Steph…this country, this world…do you like it?”
“Yes—of course!”
—With a smile mixed with tears, Steph answered without hesitation. But the siblings lowered their heads instead.
“…Sounds nice…”
“…Yeah, I really envy you being able to say that with conviction.”
But—the brother continued in a quiet but implacable voice. To cut down Stephanie Dola’s hope.
“But your wish won’t come true.”
“—Wha…”
“I’m also sorry to say—”
He rained a second blow upon the speechless Steph.
“Your grandfather—ended his life as the worst fool king, no matter how you look at it.”
—………
Breaking a terribly long silence, Steph opened her mouth as if squeezing it out.
“—What makes you…say that?”
Biting her lip and feeling her nails stabbing her clenched fists… If violence were not forbidden in this world, instead of that answer, her palm would likely have flown to Sora’s cheek. But she spun her certain anger into words. Because she loved him—no, because she had been made to love him, all the more, she could not tolerate this insult from him. However, in response to her question, Sora only sighed and scrolled through the photos he’d taken on his phone. A town reminiscent of fifteenth-century Europe. A beautiful town where new and old architecture intermingled thanks to a lack of war. But that was why—it was so sad.
“At this rate—this country will die. At the same time as the next monarch is chosen.”
Words she hadn’t anticipated all sent Steph not into confusion, but almost into hysteria as she rebutted.
“Wh-what do you mean! The very purpose of the tournament is—”
With an air of disbelief, Sora and Shiro looked up above their heads. A sky that wasn’t gray like the one they knew, but blue as if primary-color ink had been spilled all over it.
—And they thought back to when they came to this world. To what “God” said. Disboard, the world on a board, where everything was decided by simple games. The world—
—I dreamed of.
—In which I’ve been—reborn.
“Steph, how long is this gambling tournament?”
Steph looked dissatisfied that she’d still not received a proper answer, but she replied anyway.
“—Today is the last day.”
Turning her gaze east from the veranda, to the place that looked like a castle.
“In the evening, the final match will be held in the royal hall. If no one raises any objections, the winner will become the new monarch…What of it?”
—Whump. The sister closed her book and stood up. The brother stretched dramatically and slapped his cheeks.
“—Hmp! Hey, little sister.”
“…Mm.”
“Will you follow your brother no matter what?”
“Yeah.”
“Wow, that was quick. I mean, I’ve really got to brace myself—”
“…B.S.”
“Hnh?”
“…You look like you’re having…fun.”
Expressionless, as usual. But with a hint of a smile only her brother could see.
“—Ha-ha, I couldn’t fool you?”
At this, the two turned and walked back.
“Wai—wh-where are you going?!”
“The royal castle.”
“—Hunh?”
Unable to grasp the intent behind Sora’s prompt answer, Steph uttered a silly sound. But they took no notice and went on.
“We’ll go prove your grandfather was right.”
“Wha?”
Feeling the presence of Steph hurriedly catching up behind him. Sora checked what he’d put into the task scheduler on his phone.
—Objective—Try being king, for now. Sora chuckled, put his phone back in his pocket, and spoke.
“After we managed to get reborn into this world, it would suck if we ended up without a place to live.”
Shiro nodded in agreement.
“Why don’t I go become king and take back some territory.”
—Had she heard him right? Stephanie Dola carefully reviewed the words she had heard. Once she was sure that she couldn’t have misheard him, she looked at his back. He had a bounce as if he were just going down the street for some groceries. But it was full of brazen pride and confidence, as if going to check something that was already settled—the back of the man who had declared he would reclaim the territory of the human race.
“Oh, that’s right.”
Sora grabbed the sweet that had been left on the table of the veranda and stuffed it in his mouth.
“—Oh.”
With Steph looking like she’d forgotten herself, Sora spoke.
“Mm, this is good. The tea and the sweets were both really good. Thanks.”
Sora turned to say these words with a smile. Was it, after all, the Covenants that made her heart race? Steph hardly knew anymore.
CHAPTER 3
EXPERT
Evening—Great Hall, Elkia Royal Castle.
There, where it appeared that the final match to decide the monarch had ended. In front of the throne, a small table and a pair of chairs. One person sat there, surrounded by a crowd that packed the hall.
—Sitting at the table, with folded arms and a blank expression, with black clothes and a black veil as if for a funeral, with an emptiness somehow suggesting a corpse, was a girl with long black hair—. Yes…it was that girl—the one who’d cheated to eliminate Steph at the tavern.
An old man wrapped in official-looking garb spoke.
“—This woman, Chlammy Zell, has emerged victorious to the end in the battle to decide the crown… Is there anyone left who would challenge her?”
The hall only murmured. It seemed there was no one who would challenge her. It was as expected—for the girl who had so far won every match she fought—Chlammy. At this point there could be no one who expected to defeat her. Chlammy, closing her eyes upon these facts and casting a yet deeper emotionless shadow over her expressionless face. Seeing this, the old man continued.
“—Then, in accordance with the will of the late king—I shall crown Chlammy as the new Queen of Elkia. If there be anyone among you who may object, speak now; if not, your silence shall—”
“Oh, yeah, here! Objection! Objection!”
At that voice which rang out to interrupt the speech, the black-haired girl’s—Chlammy’s—eyes opened. The eyes of the stirring crowd all turned at once to the source of the voice. And there stood a butler and a girl with long, white hair—Sora and Shiro, raising their hands.
“Right, right. We have an objection, we two.”
“…Mm.”
“…Who are you?”
Chlammy looked at them expressionlessly, then moved her eyes behind them.
“—Servants of Stephanie Dola?”
Behind the two, Steph’s shoulders jolted. And, emotionlessly, but with a trace of ridicule.
“…You disqualified yourself by losing to me, and now you send your servants? Truly, your inability to accept defeat is unsightly…”
Chlammy spoke with no attempt to conceal her tone of scorn. But Sora stepped up frivolously and said:<
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“—Aha-ha, you’re in no place to talk about that, are you?”
“—Whatever do you mean?”
“Well, you know, really, I’m not that interested in the royal throne and such; it seems like it would be a drag.”
As Sora spoke, scratching his head, looking like he really thought it was a drag, Chlammy squinted.
“…Then would you please leave my sight? This is no place to bring children to play.”
Sora, smiling—adding, “But, you know,” and sharpening his gaze.
“It’s no place to give the throne to a charlatan backed by another country, either, now, is it?”
This line made a stir in the castle.
—Another country?—What’s this about? Ignoring such voices, Sora asked so only Shiro could hear.
“—You find ’em?”
In Shiro’s hand was the phone Sora had used the previous day to capture the tavern. Shiro answered with the number of people who were in the photos displayed on the screen and also in this hall.
“…Four.”
“How many of them have their ears hidden?”
“…One.”
“Bingo. Point in sync with me.”
“…Mm.”
As the siblings plotted, Steph spoke up.
“Hey—wh-what’s this about another country?”
Steph whispered this to Sora, who answered disgustedly.
“You still don’t get it? Okay, hypothetically, all right? Hypothetically—”
And then, loudly:
“Hypothetically, if someone who won using magic by colluding with an Elf were to become the monarch, this country would be screwed, right?”
The din in the castle finally began to take on a note of fear. Watching, Sora asked, Didn’t anyone figure it out?
“…Well, if no one can catch on to such a glaring flaw, it’s only natural that humans would get their asses kicked.”
“—You there.”
…Quietly standing up, Chlammy walked toward Sora. With a face from which feeling was obscured even further by the veil, and with a strangely intimidating presence.
“Are you trying to say that I’m using magic to cheat?”
“Oh, my. Didn’t you hear me say ‘hypothetically’? Or did I hit a nerve?”
But it was as if he didn’t even feel her presence. Brushing it off like a leaf, Sora’s provocation was clear. But he must have had absolute confidence.