Even if I never did figure out what the heck was going on.
Epilogue
Her Imperial Majesty Petralka was in high spirits.
“What a most interesting display that was!”
It was the day after the soccer tournament, and I had shown up for my usual early-morning audience. Prime Minister Zahar and Garius were in the audience chamber with us. They both looked almost as pleased as Petralka.
“Gee, uh...”
As far as I was concerned, the tournament had been a complete disaster. To my chagrin, however, almost everyone involved rated the event highly.
I had been afraid it was going to turn into some rip-off of Shaolin So**er, but it was much, much worse. We ended up with what amounted to a battle royale. That was probably more interesting for the spectators, especially if the crowd didn’t actually know anything about soccer. If anything, I felt like they knew less about soccer at the end of the game than they did at the beginning.
“We were pleased to see that the First Knights seemed rather more engaged than in the average military exercise,” Petralka said to Garius. It was probably true that there were some good tactics to pick up in this “substitute for war” (never a more literal expression), given that what had happened wasn’t so much soccer as it was an all-out battle that happened to involve a ball.
I learned later that military drills in the Eldant Empire tended to focus on individual skills, without much in the way of coordinated movement. Although they recognized the need for teamwork among units on the battlefield, an effective way to practice such tactics hadn’t yet been developed, or so I was told. Soccer seemed like it could fill that gap.
“I must say, we were also able to observe a most unexpected side of the lizardmen,” Garius put in. “To be honest, I have at times struggled to fathom what those things were thinking in the last extremity. Lizardman units can be rather difficult to coordinate with other squadrons...”
I suspected this was the first time most people had seen such raw emotion from the lizardmen. They had pictured these “cold-bloods,” these “lizard-things,” as intimidating, or cruel, but never as passionate. It was well over a century since the lizardmen had been defeated by the humans and forced into a slave-like existence; they had buried their natural intensity and the feelings behind it so deep that most people had never seen them.
Of course, it wasn’t as if that one game of soccer was going to catapult the lizardmen to equality with humans or anything. Even I wasn’t naïve enough to believe that. It would be enough if yesterday’s events caused some people to stop and think, “Hey, those lizardmen are a lot like us in some ways.” Like I said, I’m a businessman. I wasn’t here to force anything on anyone.
“We cannot overlook the economic effects, either.” This comment came from Prime Minister Zahar, and he was beaming.
“What economic effects?” I muttered. Admission to the tournament had been free. Maybe he was thinking of the money that could be made from operating a stadium? But I hardly thought one tournament constituted a macroeconomic consideration. Maybe he expected shops to pop up around the stadium?
“How do you mean?” the Prime Minister asked. “It was your idea, wasn’t it, Shinichi-dono?”
“Er... What was my idea?”
“Ahem... I was quite sure Matoba-dono asked me to handle it on your behalf.”
“Seriously, what are we talking about?”
“The oddsmaking...”
There was a long, awkward silence.
That dirty, rotten bureaucraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat!
So there’s no law against it, huh?! He’s in no position to criticize, is he?!
He acted like it had nothing to do with him, when he was the one who introduced the whole idea of gambling! A public servant!
I would have loved to give him a piece of my mind, but as it happened, Matoba-san wasn’t in the audience chamber with us that morning.
“You know Matoba-san. I’m sure he did it because he thought it would help you, Shinichi-kun,” Minori-san whispered placatingly in my ear.
“Help me?”
“It’s a quick way to make a little money so the Japanese government will see the whole Amutech thing as profitable. A nice little line on your resume.”
“..................Ah.”
Given that soccer balls and everything else associated with this tournament were nonexistent in the Eldant Empire, all the supplies had come from Japan, and they weren’t free. What was more, the government had been keeping a much more severe eye on what I was up to ever since I had “gone rogue.” In short, to prevent a reprisal of the assassination attempt, we would have to convince the government that I was either making them money right now or would be in the near future.
Prime Minister Zahar said that the novelty of gambling on the soccer tournament had helped propel tremendous sales. Apparently everyone involved—Amutech itself, as well as the Japanese and Eldant governments—had made a considerable amount of money on the venture. As Matoba-san had said, the JSDF team, hailing as they did from the home of soccer, had been the heavy favorites—so having the knights and the lizardmen finish one-two worked out well for the house.
By the way, in the end we decided that the grand prize would be admission to the school, while the second-place finishers would receive 3TSes and PLPs. The knights boasted a comparatively high literacy rate, so adding them to the student body wouldn’t be so difficult. Not to mention the political benefits, with the whole “the empress is into this stuff” angle. We figured the knights would like that. The lizardmen, meanwhile, wouldn’t need to be able to read much to enjoy puzzlers, or reflex-based games like shooters. Or they could sell the handheld consoles to nobles or merchants for a pretty good price. Hence why they got the video games.
I confess, I had one more motive for this choice. The game systems needed electricity. And at the moment, the school was the only place where electricity was publicly available. So if the lizardmen wanted to play their games for very long, they would have to show up at the school. That meant they and the students would be bound to run into each other, and while that might create a little friction, I hoped it might create a little friendship, too.
If that led to future generations regarding the lizardmen with just a little less bias or resistance, I would be happy.
“The war has dragged on for some time now,” Petralka said reflectively. “The fires of battle have not touched the capital, nor do we believe that they will, but the fact remains that the situation has caused the people to spend less, and our economy is suffering. In that context, a festival-like atmosphere as was present yesterday also helps energize the market. Of course it cannot be done every day, but we believe it would be well to do something like this periodically.”
“As Your Majesty says,” Garius responded.
“A most perceptive comment,” Prime Minister Zahar concurred.
So all’s well that ends well... I guess? I honestly wasn’t quite sure. I gave a small sigh that was part exasperation and part relief.
We decided to make the day after the tournament a vacation day for the school. Most of the students were going to be tired and achy anyway; I figured they would probably be sore just turning over in bed. So it was really the only thing to do. I heard that about half our pupils had headaches from overusing their magic, too. Romilda and Loek, so it seemed, had both collapsed even as they taunted their opponents.
Hence, Minori-san and I headed for home after the morning audience. Having a chance to just relax at the mansion would be a nice change of pace.
“Welcome home, sir,” Myusel said, just like she always did.
“Yes, welcome ’ome,” a second voice added. It was Brooke, standing beside her just outside the front door. He was rarely in the mansion when we got back—he was usually in the big garden or off tending the grounds somewhere. So he didn’t often greet me when I came home. In fact, I think he often didn’t notice that I had.
Today, however, was d
ifferent. I saw that his clothes were clean—had he not been in the garden today, or had he changed especially to welcome me back?
He stood there, kind of looming, for a very long moment.
“Brooke?” I asked. If he had gotten changed specifically for this moment, there was probably something he wanted to talk to me about. Or perhaps...
“Brooke-san,” Myusel said. She sounded encouraging, but there was a hint of strain in her smile.
“...Aherm.” Brooke gave a small nod.
Wait a second. Was Brooke... nervous? That would be surprising, but at the same time, knowing that someone like him could feel anxious brought him another step closer to me, and that made me happy.
“Master. I ’ave... a request,” he said hesitantly.
“A request?” I echoed, but I already had a sense of what it was.
The whole reason that he had quit the army, fled the other lizardmen, and come here to work as a servant at my house, all despite being called a hero by his people, was because of what had happened to his eggs. But in yesterday’s soccer game, he had managed to overcome that memory. That didn’t mean forgetting the past, but simply not being imprisoned by it.
It also meant he had no more reason to serve at my mansion.
“Gee, it’s... gonna be pretty lonely around here,” I said with a sad smile.
True, it always just about gave me a heart attack when I ran into Brooke in the dark, but I really liked the forthright lizardman. After living together for all these months, he—just like Myusel, Minori-san, and Elvia—had started to feel like family. There would be a hole in our lives without him.
But if Brooke wanted to rebuild his own family, his real family, then I wouldn’t stand in his way. I wasn’t actually his employer, but I could at least speak on his behalf.
Then, though, Brooke cocked his head and asked, “Lonely? You expect to be lonely?”
“I mean... you’re leaving, aren’t you, Brooke?”
He was silent for a moment.
Uh-oh. Did I say something wrong? I really wish I were better at reading lizardman expressions.
I glanced helplessly at Myusel, who said, “No, Master, he’s not. Brooke-san was just wondering if we could use another maid around here...”
“Another maid?”
Er, well, I had raised the issue of a second maid with Petralka. I could understand Myusel bringing it up, but why would Brooke—?
“Wait...”
“’S’right,” Brooke nodded. He could see that it had dawned on me, what he was asking. “Perhaps, if it’s all right, my wife could—?”
Even as he was speaking, someone came around from behind the house—it was Cerise.
Sure. That was one way to play it. I had been so convinced that when Brooke remarried (?) Cerise, he would move out of our house—but if Cerise came to work here instead, well, that would be no problem, would it?
“Shinichi-sama, please give us your kindest consideration in this matter,” Cerise said, bowing her head alongside her husband. And then...
“Master,” Myusel said, looking at me somewhat nervously. Could it be that hiring Cerise had been her idea? “Let me add my voice...”
“Gosh, guys, you don’t have to resort to all this groveling,” I said with a half-smile. “It’s good by me.”
Myusel’s face brightened immediately. Brooke and Cerise’s faces didn’t really appear to change at all, but then again, how would I know? I thought their tongues started to slide in and out of their mouths a little quicker, as if they were excited.
“I’m not the one who gets to make the final decision,” I reminded them, “but I think it should be okay. I know Her Majesty was impressed by how Brooke played yesterday.”
That much was true. It was also Brooke who had been the catalyst for the previous day’s destruction, so he wasn’t exactly in for a royal commendation. But a little request like this... I figured Petralka would be open to it. I had already broached the topic once, after all. And Cerise had an impeccable background.
“Thank you very much.” Brooke and Cerise bowed their heads in unison.
“Sorry to put you to work right away,” I said, “but do you think you could go catch our beast girl?”
I pointed to the garden, where Elvia had been kicking around the soccer ball for quite some time. She had really caught the bug. Unfortunately, it kept her from doing her art. She hadn’t so much as made a sketch from the moment I had left the house this morning. If she never got away from that ball, what would be the point of having her here as our “in-house artist”?
“A simple task,” Brooke said.
“Yes, right away,” Cerise agreed, and then they both set off toward Elvia.
“Oh? Master lizard, here to avenge your humiliation yesterday?”
“Shut your mouth, wolf. I never knew canids had such short memories. Or have you forgotten you were the one collapsed on the ground at the end of that game?”
“It’s two against one,” Cerise said. “You can’t win.”
The demi-humans sounded like they were enjoying themselves. I smiled.
“I guess that counts as a happy ending for now... doesn’t it?”
“Yes, I think so,” Myusel said. Then she gave me her most beautiful smile yet.
(つづく)
To be continued...
Afterword
Hello! Light novelist Sakaki here, happily presenting Volume 3 of Outbreak Company.
I seem to have run out of pages for this afterword, so I’ll be brief (grin).
Brooke is the main character of this volume, believe it or not. I was really keen to do a lizardman story. The seed of the plot emerged in a planning meeting with a particular company, during which Furuhashi Toshiyuki-shi* wondered aloud what would happen if modern-style soccer were to be brought into a fantasy world.
Of course, Brooke would be lonely all by himself, so I’ve put Elvia to work throughout the volume, starting on the cover. Mostly just to show some skin, haha.
I hope all my readers will enjoy this book from cover to cover!
Ichiro Sakaki
23 March 2012
*Note: -shi (from the kanji meaning “master”) is an honorific often attached to the names of artists and craftspeople.
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Copyright
Outbreak Company: Volume 3
by Ichiro Sakaki
Translated by Kevin Steinbach
Edited by Sasha McGlynn
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Copyright © 2012 Ichiro Sakaki
Illustrations by Yuugen
All rights reserved.
First published in Japan in 2012 by Kodansha Ltd., Tokyo.
Publication rights for this English edition arranged through Kodansha Ltd., Tokyo.
All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher is unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property.
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The publisher is not responsible for websites (or their content) that are not owned by the publisher.
Ebook edition 1.0: April 2018
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