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This chapter is short, but DEM DRAMZ!
Chapter 5
What happened to him in the few dozen days I hadn’t seen him?
Lord Conrart Weller had the same yellow and white military uniform on from before and was sitting in a seat on Shimaron’s side with his long legs crossed. Right behind the uncle of the king of Shimaron, His Highness Belal II.
According to my bad math skills, it’s only been a month or so since we were separated. Despite that, he looks a little older than before. Although, it’s so subtle that I can’t really express it in years.
“Representatives of Caloria, this is His Highness Belal II of the kingdom of Big Shimaron. Be respectful and stand in waiting,” the guide/commander told us in a great haste.
Even if you didn’t nervously tell us that we understand our position.
Right now I am only the mandated overseer of a territory of Shimaron, Norman Gilbit in a silver mask. The entire continent was subjugated by both kingdoms. In a matter of speaking, the old man in front of me is my master’s uncle and is in actuality, my boss.
That being said, I don’t want to kneel or prostrate myself before him or lick his boots. Kissing the old man’s hand would be even worse. Especially Conrad… He might not be the man I know anymore, but… I didn’t want him to see me act submissively to the man he chose as his new master.
However, if I reveal that I’m not Norman here, not just Flynn but everyone in Caloria will suffer.
I compromise and lightly bow my head. A simple greeting won’t hurt my Made in Japan pride. Trying to make myself sound like a young feudal lord, I offer up salutations to start.
It’s a phrase taken straight from a New Year’s card.
“… Your Highness Belal II… uh, I am glad to see that you are in good health.”
I’ve never even recited the athlete’s oath of fair play for the summer tournament so I couldn’t think of what to say to royalty. Your Highness the Second, have you been well lately? And more importantly, what’s with ‘the Second?’ Are you a member of the Diet or an actor or something?
When I turn to Muraken who I can count on in a pinch, he was suppressing a yawn of boredom.
Amazing.
“Brave warriors representing the territory of Shimaron, Caloria, first I offer my blessings to you for your victory in ‘Use your knowledge, speed, and skill to win! The World’s Best Fighter Tournament’ otherwise known as the World’s Best.” Even if he is raging on the inside over the humiliation of his country being defeated, he could not lose his rationality on the surface. “Your daring courage and strategic fighting even struck the hearts of us Shimaron citizens.”
His beard moved while he talked. I focused on that pleasant up and down motion and desperately avoided focusing my gaze on the person waiting behind him.
“Thank you. All of my team members cooperated together and moved towards victory as one.”
I wonder if this sort of baseball tournament talk is okay.
The old man made a slight gesture with his hand and a petite man that seemed to be an attendant came forward.
“A toast to bless the Caloria representatives.”
Before I could say that I don’t drink alcohol because I’m a sportsman, Wolfram, Josak, and I were each handed their own cup. It was a stone liqueur glass with a stem. The amount inside was less than my mother uses for cooking so I gave up.
“That is the ceremonial water known as the Holy Water of Gillesby.”
Luckily, it wasn’t alcohol.
“It is the water from the well that the last king of the boastful Gillesby family, one of the three royal families of old, is said to have despaired and thrown himself into.”
“Ugh.”
Wait, wait, wait. He’s not saying he threw himself in. He’s saying that he was said to have thrown himself in. Those few words are very important.
“By the way, his corpse never surfaced.”
“Uegh.”
That’s probably because there was never a corpse to begin with. It would be childish to refuse to participate in a ceremony because I was swayed by a disgusting legend. I can’t spoil the host’s mood. Prepare yourself, Yuuri Shibuya. From a worldwide point of view, even the water in the ocean is full of corpses. Like plankton.
“Th-then I’ll help myself…”
When I resigned myself and raised the glass to my mouth, Josak grabbed my arm.
“It’s something like a lucky charm, You-… Lord Norman. If you don’t mind…”
“Huh?”
He immediately swaps my cup out. It’s the one that Josak took a sip from. I reflexively start to ask why, but I instantly remember the reason. He quickly tasted it for poison and handed it to me after he verified its safety.
“But that’s…”
… doubting the important Highness who handed out the drinks. It won’t be seen as a rude act?
“We want to offer the most auspicious cup to our leader. Will Your Highness Belal II sympathize with that sentiment?”
“Of course. Now, Lord Norman Gilbit, please drain the cup.”
I was wondering just what was so auspicious about it when I noticed that there was a red object inside the water.
“Um, this… did someone’s pet goldfish end up in here…?”
It’s flapping its tail energetically.
“No, it is a lucky charm. Feel free to drink it in one gulp.”
“It’s a goldfish!”
By some chance did Josak switch cups with me because he didn’t want to drink a leaping fish? I’m about to doubt even my precious subordinate. Okay, prepare yourself even more than you did before, Yuuri Shibuya. This is a test, Demon King. This is a test, Norman Gilbit.
“… ng… uck… blegh.”
It’s hoooorible, I’m alrea-… reflexes are terrible. I downed it all in one go so it wouldn’t hit my teeth so it didn’t actually feel like I drank Mr. Goldfish. However, it definitely wasn’t a ceremony I would ever want to participate in again.
“Amazing, Shibuya. The flame of a tiny little life is going out inside of you.”
“Stoooop. I want to cry I feel so bad.”
“Now then, Caloria representative, Lord Norman Gilbit.” His Old Highness started speaking again so I once again focused on his beard. I absolutely want to look at the person behind His Highness, but I desperately restrain myself from doing so. “That was truly an impressive victory. Especially that getaway at the last curve with the ‘seep.’ It made me want to reopen the races for the first time in a while.”
Oh, is His Highness Belal II from the same village as the Sheep Master Miss Mary?
“And then the decisive battle in the third round, your fighting prowess was riveting. I could not hear your voice from the high up place I was seated or through the glass, but what was that? Was it magic that could control the weather simply by chanting a curse?”
“That was the rumored super magic. It will destroy even a new building in Odaiba.”
However, the days where people would think it was a curse are long gone. Now they would just think it was the Northern Kantou dialect. (1)
“However, how would Lord Norman, the mandated overseer of Caloria, be able to use magic? I have heard that magic power is gained from the quality of a soul, not through religious training and discipline.” I feel like Belal’s right eye that had clouded with age is glaring at me quite sharply. “It is written in the regulations that one out of the three representatives must be from the concerned region so if the other two happened to be demons it would not be considered a violation of the rules. However, I had not heard that you were born as a demon.”
“Norman Gilbit’s… in other words, my Caloria was the origin of the Wincotts. Your Highness has some knowledge of this, I assume. You have requested the Wincott poison from none other than my own wife, after all.”
His Highness’s eyes narrowed. He must have thought that the agreement would be kept confidential even when it came to her spouse.
“As you know, the Wincott family crossed the ocean and became a distinguished family of demons in a new land. However, why do people say that there aren’t any left on the continent who shared their blood!? It seems that my soul and body were abundantly endowed with the qualities of the Wincotts. Humans like that are born on the rare occasion.”
I’m full of lies. As many lies as there are gods.
“I see. So then that is why you could use something like magic in a place controlled by the particles that obey exorcism like this. What a truly enviable story. You did not retreat from having Adalbert von Grantz as your opponent and instead showed admirable courage. That man Adalbert just showed up and defeated all of the soldiers chosen to be representatives through the severe, kingdom-wide selection process. Cornering him into being unable to continue fighting was quite impressive. Thanks to that,” His Highness Belal II glanced at Lord Weller. “Lord Weller from the famous fencing family lost his opportunity to take part. Which reminds me, I could not hear from above, but I wonder what you talked about with Conrart before the match. Just what exactly did you agree upon? Or, Lord Norman, had you been acquainted with our countryman Conrart Weller somewhere previously?” (2)
“Previously, huh…”
Even though I had decided that I absolutely would not look at him, my gaze ends up meeting Lord Weller’s. He has his arms crossed as he leans back in his chair and he is twisting his foot around irregularly in his military boots drawing senseless designs in the air.
He asked something ridiculous like if me and Conrad were acquaintances. I’ll tell you, you mean old man.
Conrad and I are…
On my left side, Wolfram put a hand to his forehead and looked down. The color of his face hasn’t changed much, but his ears are bright red. Probably in anger or sadness.
“… Not personally,” Norman Gilbit with his mask shook his head slowly while grinding his teeth. “I simply felt that I had seen him in another country’s military. I had thought that maybe he was a soldier somewhere else before he came here.”
“Is that so?”
Lord Weller let an emotionless smile appear on his face and gave a short answer to the power of Big Shimaron. “I have been a soldier for a long time.”
“When I saw him,” I was clenching my fists so hard my nails were painfully digging into my palms. The skin on my neck that I had gotten healed was pulled tight with the pulsing of blood in my veins. “When I saw him, he was calling someone besides Belal IV ‘Your Majesty.’”
“Yes.”
I stared dumbfounded at his long fingers threaded together on his lap. When I’m crouched behind home base, my job is to read the minds of the other players. I’m an amateur, not even a half decent catcher, so I can’t read into all of my friends’ and enemies’ minds, but I should have at least been able to see a little bit into the person closest to me.
I can’t reach Conrad anymore.
“I ended up calling him that. My previous master always told me not to refer to him as His Majesty.”
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