Genjitsushugisha no Oukokukaizouki - Volume 18 - Chapter 2.1

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Chapter 2: New Year’s in Both Camps

— End of the 1553rd Year, Continental Calendar —

The people of each country were holding big feasts to celebrate the end of the year, which would be remembered as the year of the Demon Lord’s Domain’s liberation. Freed from the worry that had haunted them for decades, they were no doubt dreaming of a brighter future. In our country, Juna was heading up the preparations for the annual Song Battle (this one wasn’t for research, but was something like the New Year’s Red and White Song Battle).

However, in contrast to the people’s celebratory mood, the political and military leaders of the countries of the Maritime Alliance couldn’t afford to be in such high spirits. With public opinion in the Great Tiger Empire hardening, the Kingdom of Friedonia was certain that an invasion of the Maritime Alliance was imminent. They had communicated these worries to their three allies—the Republic of Turgis, the Nine-Headed Dragon Archipelago Kingdom, the Euphoria Kingdom—and to the Nothung Dragon Knight Kingdom, who was outside the alliance but had recently been interacting with them as part of their delivery business.

It was necessary to have the others assist with the plan, so I’d been taking the time to explain what I’d heard in the depths of the Demon Lord’s Domain, including how this world came to be, and about the northern hemisphere.

Today I was having a meeting with Kuu, Shabon, and Jeanne—the heads of state of the four nations of the Maritime Alliance—over the broadcast. Once everyone was ready, I spoke first.

“All right, let’s get this meeting started.”

“Yeah.”

“Yes.”

“Okay.”

Once I saw the other three nod, I nodded and turned to Kuu.

“First up...Kuu.”

“Hm? What’s up, Bro?”

“I hear you’ve conceived your first through fourth children. Congratulations.”

“Ookyakya. You’re making me feel embarrassed.” Kuu bashfully scratched the back of his head as Shabon and Jeanne both chimed in with congratulations of their own.

He was still emotional over suddenly becoming a father of four. In fact, Kuu had only learned of both Taru’s and Leporina’s pregnancies just the other day. Furthermore, Leporina was apparently pregnant with triplets, with her belly already a considerable size. The white rabbit race was known for its fecundity, so he could have seen this coming.

Trying to get things back on track, Kuu grinned and shook his head.

“Well, that’s how it is. With four kids, at least some of them’ll get along with yours, Bro. Let’s get them engaged to Kazuha, Enju, or Kaito.”

“You’re getting ahead of yourself when they’re not even born yet...”

There’d be a six-year age gap with Kazuha... That was well within the acceptable range for this world, but I wanted to avoid a marriage that the parties involved didn’t agree with.

“Well...” Kuu began, shaking his head. “Now that you’ve told us how important your blood of old mankind is, Bro, the Republic wants a piece of that bloodline for itself. The Nine-Headed Dragon Archipelago has the betrothal between Cian and Sharan, while the Euphoria Kingdom just needs you to have a kid with their former empress. As head of the Republic, I can’t accept us getting nothing.”

I can see where he’s coming from... I’d have felt the same way in Kuu’s position.

“Fair enough. Once your kids are born and grown a little, let’s have them all meet each other. If there are any pairs that get along, then I think it’s fine to arrange a marriage for them.”

“Yeah! I’ll hold you to that, Bro,” Kuu said with a broad grin.

Jeanne nodded in agreement. “It’s true; we’d like the blood of the old mankind as well. Once you have children with my sister, we would like to adopt one of them.”

“You’re getting ahead of yourself too, Madam Jeanne...”

“Oh! Just Jeanne is fine, Brother.”

Come to think of it, she’s my sister-in-law now. After Tomoe, that makes her my second sister-in-law.

“Anyway... I should apologize, Jeanne. For calling Hakuya away so often when you just got married.”

“I understand.” Jeanne smiled wryly and shook her head. “You don’t have much choice given the current situation.”

“It helps to hear you say that...”

“Honestly, it’s not my husband that concerns me... With Sir Hakuya out of the country, I’m more worried about what nonsense Trill might pull. She’s hard at work developing something to blow off steam over being separated from Madam Genia.”

The Drill Princess is the same as ever, huh? I thought.

Jeanne let out an exhausted sigh. “Earlier she was saying, ‘Just defending the castle alone lacks a certain pizzazz! Would you not agree that it’d be nice to have a castle that can thoroughly crush our enemies?’ and then she started remodeling the castle walls.”

“R-Right...”

“That said, Sir Hakuya does go through her inventions and picks up any that might be of use, so she has been making major contributions to our country’s technology...”

“Ookyakya! Miss Trill’s as entertaining as ever, I see! I’d love for her to come to our country and help remodel the city we stole from Zem!”

“She’s all yours,” Jeanne said with a gesture like she was passing him something.

Though Trill and Kuu had met during the tunnel construction, it felt like they could make a dangerous combination.

“Sir Souma...”

“Hm?”

At this point, Shabon, who had been listening quietly all this time with a serene expression, sat up straight and bowed her head to me.

“I must apologize for how my country’s fleet disgraced itself during the campaign to the Demon Lord’s Domain.”

“Oh... That, huh?”

When we sent a fleet to the Demon Lord’s Domain at Fuuga’s request, Shabon had sent a Nine-Headed Dragon Archipelago fleet to escort us. However, when we encountered the humanoid weapon Jangar, one of the Nine-Headed Dragon Archipelago ships had disregarded orders not to start anything and attacked Jangar, causing an outbreak of hostilities. We’d lost an island carrier in that battle, and there had been no shortage of casualties.

I’d already received one apology from her since returning to the Kingdom, but this was the first time she said it in an official capacity.

“Those who disobeyed orders will be punished under the laws of our country, but I must apologize for the failures of those under my command.”

“Raise your head, Shabon. We hadn’t predicted that situation. It’s my own fault for letting Fuuga push me into dispatching the fleet. I hear that most of the deaths were in the Nine-Headed Dragon Archipelago fleet, so if you say you’ve already taken care of it, then I have nothing more to say on the matter.”

“Thank you for your consideration.”

“The more important thing right now is I have a favor to ask of the three of you.”

“You’re talking about Fuuga Haan, right?” Kuu asked.

“Yeah.” I nodded. “It’s more or less guaranteed that we’ll have to fight a decisive battle against the Great Tiger Empire next year.”

“That’s what Sir Hakuya has been telling me. He says it’s almost certain they’ll invade the Kingdom of Friedonia,” Jeanne said, causing Kuu to cock his head to the side.

“Ookya? Is it safe to say that so definitely? My country borders the former Mercenary State Zem but is far from the enemy’s homeland, and the Nine-Headed Dragon Archipelago Kingdom is across the sea. It makes sense that we’re not the targets here, but doesn’t the Euphoria Kingdom need to worry too?”

“That would take too much time. As long as we have the plan I told you all about, time is on our side. If Fuuga launches a genuine offensive into the Euphoria Kingdom, we’ll disrupt it with everything we’ve got. While Fuuga is dealing with that, he’ll probably run out of time... It wouldn’t be nice for Jeanne, as her country would be invaded, but on the whole, we couldn’t ask for a better outcome than that.”

After saying all that, I let out a sigh before continuing.

“But that man’s risen up as far as he has because he’s got a nose for danger. It’s inhuman, on the level of a wild beast. He’s got to realize we’re up to something. I hear that the covert agents who report directly to Hashim have been getting more active lately.”

“You mean to say he will discover that plan and invade the Kingdom of Friedonia in order to crush it?” Shabon asked.

“Yeah,” I replied with a nod. “But it’s less that he’ll detect it and more likely that he’ll just think ‘something’s up.’ A quick and decisive war is what we least want to see right now. And as that’s the case, it’s the policy Fuuga will pursue without hesitation. If we hope he’ll take things in a different direction and are lax in our preparations as a result, he might just gobble everything up.”

“Ookeekee... Hell of a guy to be born in the same era as, huh?” Kuu said with a strained smile.

You said it.

In a certain Romance of the Three Kingdoms manga adaptation, there’s a scene in which, after being outwitted by Kongming, Zhou Yu says, “Why did Heaven give birth to Zhou Yu, then give birth to Kongming in the same era?” before dying in a fit of anger. If I had been forced to go up against Fuuga on my own, maybe I’d have felt the same way.

“But we’re not facing Fuuga alone.”

We had bonds built and cultivated with other people. Some of our comrades had been friends from the beginning, while others like Castor, Julius, and Mary had once been enemies. At some point, all those people had formed a loose alliance, and before any of us knew it, we were cooperating towards the same goal. This was the strength of the Maritime Alliance.

I thrust my fist towards the three of them to show my enthusiasm.

“We’ll work together to overcome this difficulty and close the curtain on this era of Fuuga in the spotlight. Let’s show him what we’ve built and how resilient it is.”