by Hyougetsu
“You’re Ryunheit’s viceroy! Please don’t add to my list of VIPs I need to guard.”
Why does everyone want to go to that frozen wasteland of a country?
I had the feeling if I tarried any longer I’d end up returning to Rolmund with more people than I’d left with, so I decided to leave as soon as possible. To be honest, I’d actually been planning on returning to Rolmund the very same day, but Belken insisted that I stay at least one night, so I took him up on his offer. As expected, Belken held a banquet that evening in honor of me and my werewolves.
“Meraldia’s food is so damn good!”
“Rolmund’s food wasn’t half-bad though!”
The Garney brothers were wolfing down huge chunks of pork. Personally, I didn’t think the taste of grilled pork differed that much by region. The older werewolves grinned as they watched the Garney brothers stuff themselves. Though werewolves were practically invincible in their wolf form, the harsh climate of Rolmund had still taken a toll on everyone. We’d have to go back into that frozen hellscape soon enough, but everyone could relax for tonight at least.
I sat down next to Belken and started eating my fill as well. I did have to admit, the salt poured over the meat definitely made it taste better. Rock salt was nature’s ultimate seasoning. I remember reading something back in Japan about how the minerals in salt are naturally designed to...nevermind, I forget. Either way, I could see why southern Meraldians wanted to import rock salt rather than use sea salt. As I was marveling at the wonders of salt, Lacy staggered drunkenly over to me, a beer mug cradled in her hands.
“Veeeeeeeeight! Wanna drink!?”
“No thanks.”
I didn’t particularly dislike alcohol, nor was I a lightweight, but I didn’t want to drink when I had work waiting for me tomorrow.
“Well, I’m drinkin’!”
Yeah, I can tell. Lacy downed her mug, then beamed at me.
“Veight!”
“What is it?”
I stiffened up as I noticed the angry look in Lacy’s eyes.
“You’re waaay toooo dense, you know that!? I mean it! Oooh, I said something great just there!”
No doubt in Lacy’s drunken mind she was enthusiastically applauding herself. I never knew she was such a belligerent drunk. I looked over to Kite for salvation, but he pointedly ignored me, opting to continue slowly sipping on his glass of grape juice. He clearly didn’t want to get involved. Some vice-commander you turned out to be. Emboldened by the liquor, Lacy continued lecturing me.
“Do you have annnnny idea how delicate and...sensible? Sensitive? Sennnsitive! Delicate and sensitive girls’ hearts are!?”
Her language faculties were already starting to leave her. At this point, I was so worried about her that I wasn’t really paying attention to what she was saying.
“Between Airiaaaaaa annnd...who was the other one again?”
How would I know?
“Anyway, who do you like more?”
How am I supposed to answer when I don’t know who she’s being compared to? Lacy looked at me, cross-eyed, waiting impatiently for my answer. Just then, Kite came over. Like me, he was perfectly sober.
“Lacy, I think that’s enough. You’re bothering Veight.”
“Huh? U-Umm, Kite...”
“Let’s just stop here.”
As Kite dragged Lacy away, I noticed her drunkenness seemed to have suddenly vanished. From the looks of it, she was just a little tipsy at best. Meaning she’d pretended to be dead drunk to try and lure me into answering whatever question she didn’t manage to fully ask. I don’t understand girls’ hearts? Well, I’m not a girl, so... As I was contemplating Lacy’s words, Woroy walked over to me.
“Do you have a minute, Veight?”
“Yeah.”
I had just been thinking I needed to have a discussion with Woroy, so this was good timing.
The two of us left the dining hall and walked to the manor’s balcony. Though snow still covered Krauhen, the weather was much milder than in Rolmund. Woroy looked down at the city below and muttered, “This is a nice country.”
“What did I tell you?”
Granted, I was glad that a foreign prince was taken with Meraldia. After all that had happened here, I’d come to quite like the place myself. Woroy leaned over the balcony railing while I found a nearby pillar to rest my back against.
“I can tell there’s a lot you want to ask. Where should I start?”
With his back still facing me, Woroy shrugged.
“You’re a werewolf, aren’t you?”
“Yeah.”
The moment I dueled Viscount Schmevinsky, I was certain the Doneiks family had opened up an investigation into me. While I knew they hadn’t been able to gather any conclusive evidence, Woroy and Ivan had probably guessed the truth. I was almost certain Woroy had only refrained from asking until now out of consideration for me.
“Sorry for keeping it hidden until now. I probably could have just told you.”
“Nah, it’s no big deal. Don’t worry about it.” Woroy turned to me and sipped his goblet. “Did you know? There are rumors that surviving demon clans are still around in Rolmund. Supposedly they’re living in hiding.”
“First I’ve heard of that.”
“From what I’ve heard, the Sternenfeuer cult is hiding them. Though I don’t know the full details myself.”
Sternenfeuer cult? That was an unfamiliar name. Woroy saw the confusion on my face and added, “Sternenfeuer is the pagan religion indigenous to North Rolmund. But after multiple crusades and an era of persecution by the Sonnenlicht Order, they’ve gone underground. Public records claim they don’t exist, and even I don’t know what their numbers are.”
Interesting... The Sonnenlicht Order’s tenets existed to unify people under a single system of values, which is why it was such an influential religion. But because of how much Sonnenlicht believers valued unity, they were extremely intolerant of other religions. Meanwhile the Mondstrahl Church approved of diversity, and it had dozens of different sects, some of which could hardly even be called Mondstrahl. While the sects rarely fought with themselves, the church itself wasn’t very united.
I wonder what kind of religion Sternenfeuer is. Woroy didn’t seem too knowledgeable about their theology, so I’d need to do some investigating of my own.
“So, Veight. If you’re a werewolf, what do you believe in?”
“Uhh, I’m not that religious. Most demons worship the Demon Lord, but I don’t really...”
I trailed off, lapsing into thought.
“On second thought, I might have worshiped the previous Demon Lord after all. The current Demon Lord is my magic master, so while I respect her I wouldn’t necessarily say I worship her.”
Woroy peered into my face for a few seconds, then grinned.
“Even though you barely blink when we’re talking about women, your expression totally changed when you mentioned the previous Demon Lord. You must have really loved them, huh?”
“Well... Yeah, I guess so.”
The old demon lord had been a fellow reincarnator, and an all-around amazing man. But why was Woroy bringing up women?
“What does this have to do with women though?”
Woroy’s expression grew serious and he asked with a straight face, “Are you sure you’re not gay?”
“How many times do I have to tell you I’m not?”
“Then what kind of woman’s your type?”
“Well...”
I’d never really thought about it. Woroy gave me an exasperated look.
“It’s a noble’s duty to make heirs and raise them up to be wise rulers who can inherit your position. So stop acting so coy all the time.”
“You might be right, but I really don’t have the time to think about love right now.”
Ensuring Meraldia’s stability took priority. My job was to protect all the husbands and wives and couples living in Meraldia; I didn’t need a romance of my own. But Woroy
just sighed.
“Stop talking like my brother. After his wife died, he became exactly like you are now.” Woroy downed the remaining alcohol in his goblet and wiped his mouth. “Maybe I’m sticking my nose where it doesn’t belong, but I really think you should pay more attention to the ladies in your life.”
“I get what you’re saying, but...”
Thanks to my work, I’d made a lot of acquaintances, many of whom were young women. And all of those young women were quite kind to me. There had been times where I wondered if I might actually be quite popular with girls. But I’d thought something similar in a previous life and been burned horribly for it, so I was proceeding more carefully this time. My last experience had been so traumatic that I broke out in a cold sweat just thinking about it.
Besides, I was a werewolf. I didn’t even know if it was okay for werewolves to marry humans in this world. Granted I wasn’t sure I wanted to marry a werewolf either. Regular werewolves were attracted to other werewolves even in their transformed forms.
Take Fahn for example. All the other guys in my village claimed she looked absolutely stunning when she transformed. But if you asked me, Fahn just looked overwhelmingly powerful in her werewolf form. I lacked the aesthetic values and bloodlust all the other werewolves possessed. In a werewolf wedding, the newlyweds went on a grand hunt together with their family and friends. And it was customary for the husband and wife to consummate their bond by biting a large boar or deer to death together. I could really do without that.
As a human in a werewolf body, I was a pretty unique case. Especially since I’d retained all my memories of Japan. Everything about me was out of the norm. Hell, even I don’t know what I should be thinking of myself as. Like what exactly is “Veight?” Of course, I wouldn’t be able to figure that out just by sitting here and agonizing about it. Which was why I was hoping to slowly discover who exactly I was through my work.
“Until I can sort myself out, I don’t want to think about building relationships with other people.”
I frowned to myself, and Woroy cocked his head inquisitively.
“It seems you’ve got more on your mind than you let on.”
Damn, are all Doneiks psychic or something? I nodded and replied, “Yeah, I don’t have anyone I can talk to about them either, which sucks.”
Woroy nodded in understanding. To my surprise, he didn’t say “You can always confide in me.”
“I’ve got my own worries that I can’t share with anyone. If I ever reach the point that I can, that’ll mean I’ve finally grown as a man.”
I see. But man, I never expected you of all people to have stuff weighing on your mind. Now I’m curious what’s bothering you so much. Seeing my expression, Woroy grinned.
“Oh no, you’re not getting any answers out of me. Not until you tell me your secret, at least.”
Figures. Woroy scratched his head awkwardly and added, “To be honest, it’s a pretty serious issue, at least to me. When I’m finally ready to talk about it, you’ll be the first person I come to.”
His vague hints were only feeding my curiosity, but still I nodded in acceptance.
The next morning I gathered my werewolves and prepared to depart. But just before we left, I heard voices coming from our luggage.
“Oi, get out you fucks. I’m the only help he needs.”
“No way. We wanna go see Rommund too!”
“I thought it was pronounced Rolund?”
“It’s Domund, you moron.”
You’re the one getting it the most wrong. The other werewolves smelled the stowaways in our luggage as well, and they grinned at each other.
“Hey, boss?” Monza licked her lips with relish, a wicked smile on her face. “We don’t really need that box, so how about we burn it?”
Suddenly everyone inside the crate fell silent. Damn Monza, you’re brutal. Well, I guess you are a werewolf. That being said, so was I.
“Yeah,” I grinned. “Better to burn empty boxes in case assassins or something try to stow away inside our luggage.”
“Heh. I’ll go get the torch.”
Suddenly, a lagomorphus and four canines tumbled out of the wooden box. I was amazed they’d all managed to squeeze in there. The lagomorphus was my fellow disciple, the artificer Ryucco. He nervously glanced around, then patted the snow off his pants and cleared his throat.
“Yo, Veight.”
“Yo.” I walked over and squatted down as low as I could to meet his eyes. “What’re you doing?”
Ryucco scratched his head and stamped the ground a few times.
“Well, I was thinking of doing maintenance on your Blast Rifles for you.”
“Oho.”
I narrowed my eyes at him and the lagomorphus straightened up to his full height.
“Look, Parker alone just ain’t gonna be enough. You gotta take more of your disciple friends with you. Domund’s full of magic tools, ain’t it? You need me, don’t you?”
It’s Rolmund. Though his tsundere attitude was endearing, Ryucco also had a very good point. Kite and Lacy had been immensely helpful, but they were exhausted. I couldn’t bring them with me any longer. Parker was of course reliable as well, but his epoch magic and illusion magic couldn’t hold a candle to the two experts. He could cover some of those deficiencies with his expert necromancy, but only up to a point. As I debated whether or not to bring him, Ryucco sniffed excitedly.
“There’s tons of magical goodies to see over there, right? You’ve gotta take me. Not only can I repair anything you need, but I’ll also be able to steal all of their tech. Plus I’m tiny so I don’t stand out.”
“Well...you’ve got a point.”
He was small enough that he could hide in luggage, and if need be he could just disguise himself as an oversized rabbit.
“Alright, you can come.”
“Well, if you insist, I guess I can help you out!”
“Actually, hang on a second.” I suddenly remembered something important. “Did you ask Master for permission to come?”
Ryucco suddenly buried his head in the snow-covered grass and started making bunny noises.
“Oi, don’t think you can play dumb. Did you ask— Hm?”
Suddenly I picked up a human’s scent coming from one of the other boxes. It was a very familiar scent, too.
“Master?”
The box shook. You’ve gotta be kidding me.
“What are you doing, Master? Err, I mean, Demon Lord.”
The box shook again. Oh, give me a break. You’re the commander of the demon army, the ostensible ruler of Meraldia, and the second generation Demon Lord. You can’t just go around hiding in boxes.
“Please come out of there, Demon Lord. We need to talk.”
“I-I am nothing more than a passing eddy of mana...”
“No, you’re the Demon Lord.”
If there was anyone else in the world with that much mana I’d probably have a heart attack.
The Demon Lord Gomoviroa sat down on a rug the canines provided for her and smiled awkwardly at me.
“You see, I was worried about my beloved disciple, so...”
“I appreciate your concern, but...”
I pulled a face, but if I was being honest about myself I was actually happy Master was so worried about me. She really was soft when it came to her disciples. It turned out my hunch had been correct, too. Master had sent that huge snowstorm my way after Mitty had divined my plight and informed her of it. She’d created huge quantities of steam by using her new powers and sent that massive cloud of steam across the northern mountains to turn it into clouds. The previous Demon Lord had taught her that was how precipitation worked, so she’d known what to do. I can’t thank you enough for saving my ass back there. But while I was grateful, I still had a responsibility to fulfill. As much as I would have liked to avail myself of Master’s kindness, I couldn’t.
“Great Demon Lord. Leave this matter in the hands of your underlings. As our ruler, it is your re
sponsibility to watch over the people of Meraldia.”
Master looked up at me with a wistful smile.
“You’ve grown, Veight.”
“It’s all thanks to you, Master.”
Blushing, I scratched my cheek. Though if I was this happy she was willing to take over my work for me, I clearly had a long way to go still. I bowed to Master, then turned to the others who’d be staying behind.
“Lord Belken, I’ll be counting on you to keep the tunnel secure.”
“Leave it to me... And make sure you keep Lady Eleora safe out there.”
Belken bowed to me, looking every bit like the serious, no-nonsense military man he was.
“As for Eleora, don’t worry. She’s well on her way to becoming the most influential person in the empire. And of course, I intend to continue supporting her.”
I then turned to Kite and Lacy.
“Things’ll definitely be harder without you two, but I can’t have you dying on me. So rest up and shoot the breeze with Woroy for a while. I’ll have need of your services again later.”
Kite and Lacy looked reluctant to let me go, but they nevertheless nodded.
“You better not replace me while I’m gone, Veight. I’m the only vice-commander you need.”
“Yeah, Veight. Kite was bragging to us so much when you promoted him to vice-commander. Don’t take that away from him.”
“Do you have to ruin every moment with unnecessary comments!?”
Did he really? Vice-commander of a vice-commander isn’t that fancy a post you know... While I was idly thinking that, Kite rounded on Lacy and started chewing her out. I smiled to myself as I watched the two of them bicker amicably, then turned to Woroy.
“Enjoy Meraldia while I’m gone, Woroy. I’m honored I was able to introduce the place to you.”
Woroy grinned back at me and replied, “Don’t worry, I’m planning on touring all the cities. I can’t wait to create a harem of southern beauties for myself.”
“Well you’ll definitely be popular with the people here. Especially with that friendly personality of yours.”