CHAPTER 4
ORIENTATION SHIFT
TURNING WORLD
The capital of the Republican Dukedom of Elkia, previously the Kingdom of Elkia.
A week had passed since the group finished their game with Foeniculum.
It was Sora and Shiro’s first time being back at the castle since they were kicked out of the throne room a month and a half ago.
But Sora—arms crossed, eyes closed, face the epitome of serious—wasn’t in the throne room…
“…Okay, one last time. Are you sure you can do this, Emir-Eins?”
He heard someone answer from beside him, though he couldn’t see them.
“Affirmation: This unit will compile all captured visual and drone footage. Edited footage will be sent to Master’s smartphone in a replayable format. Easy-peasy, hee-hee.”
“…Ex Machina…are mad, useful…”
“Sora is the only one who would use an Ex Machina for something like this…”
“Request: Reward upon accomplishment of mission. Will Master compliment this unit?”
Shiro and Steph listened incredulously to the exchange while Sora nodded magnanimously.
You bet I will! I’ll sing your praises on high!!
There’s an incredible spectacle about to take place in Elkia Royal Castle’s Great Bath. I won’t be able to see paradise in the flesh as I sit here still clothed and eyes shut. But if you provide me with the means to see it, I’ll praise you as much as you want!!
Slam!!
“Sora! Shiro! Long time no see, please!! Let’s play a damn game, please!!”
“Hey, Izuna! Yeah, it’s been ages since I last saw you. That was around when Holou showed up, so…maybe two months?”
“…’Sup… Yeah, let’s play. If we win…we’re gonna fluff, your fur… ”
“Come now, Izuna…! We’re in the presence of the Holy Shrine Maiden; let’s not forget our manners—”
“Hee-hee, ’tis quite all right… A little thing like her ought to be a touch rowdy. So cute.”
The first person to show up at the bath—by tackling Sora and Shiro into a big hug—was Izuna Hatsuse, a small Werebeast girl with fennec fox-like ears and a matching tail.
She was followed by the Shrine Maiden, a golden fox-like Werebeast and the leader of the Eastern Union, and then Izuna’s grandfather Ino Hatsuse.
Emir-Eins, meanwhile, made sure to edit out any indelicate objects (read: Ino) that appeared within the frame.
That included Izuna, although in her case it was more of an ethics issue; some conveniently placed steam would keep things in check.
In any event—after the beautiful pair of Werebeast ladies made it onto the scene—
“Thou! Thou, thou, thou! Sora! Thou promised to answer all of Holou’s questions!! Where hast thou been the past 1,268 hours since thou left me with my host?! Holou now hath 43,237 more questions!!”
“My bad, my bad. I’ll get back to answering your questions starting today. Same goes for your pop idol career. Just let my little slipup slide this time, ’kay? ”
“What was that?! Thou intendeth to make Holou sing and dance again?!”
Holou showed up as if she’d been painted into existence and rushed at the siblings, foaming at the mouth. An inkpot about the same size as she was floating at the beautiful young goddess’s side.
She was the soon-to-be agent plenipotentiary of Old Deus, not to mention the next big thing on the idol scene.
“Nyaaa, Jibsy, you have no idea how lonely your big sister was without you… Everyone back at the Council just ignores me!! All I did was try mobilizing Avant Heim to wipe Elven Gard off the face of the planet when I heard you were missing!! Don’cha think they’re overreacting?!”
“Yes… I’m relieved to hear that my other elders have some sense. In fact, don’t you think now would be the perfect opportunity to retire as our agent plenipotentiary and spend the rest of your life in hermitage? ”
It was Azril who appeared next, clinging to Jibril and wailing as they arrived via shifting.
Jade hair, a single horn protruding from the top of her head, and motionless wings at her waist—this being was the first ever Flügel.
She was also the Flügel Alipotentiary and the chair of Avant Heim’s government.
Although evidently, she might not hold that position for much longer…
“Daaaaaarling! You called? That means you’ll step all over me, right?! Step on my face, kick me, ignore me—then use me as a doormat for the castle gate?!”
“Your Majestyyy!! I shouldn’t have to constantly remind you that you need water to liiive!! You’ll dry out if they use you as a doormaaat!!”
“It’s fiiine. You’re such a worrywart, Plum. We’ll just need to splash her every now and then. You know, just enough to keep her alive. Our simpleminded queen actually came up with a good idea for once. She gets stepped all over, and I get to watch—it’ll be quite the spectacle. ”
Next came Laila leaping into the bath with her masochistic tendencies cranked up to eleven. Despite what went on in that head of hers, this shimmering, scaly-tailed maiden was in fact the queen of the Siren.
She was followed by two others: Plum, the last surviving Dhampir male who was clad in black and on the verge of tears, and Amila, the de facto Oceand representative and a somewhat-more-sane-than-most Siren.
“And hold on! I heard everyone showed up via Flügel magiiic! So why did we have to come here on our ownnn?! I’ll h-have you know I had to stuff these two into barrels and carry them all the way from Oceand under the blazing suuun!!” Plum pleaded. His life was hanging by a thread after he’d used up nearly all his magic.
Sora ignored his cries, though. Needless to say, he’d forced Plum to make the trek purely out of spite.
And then:
“Wow-wee! Look at all these faces!! So fill me in, people!! Who’s got the hots for who?! Anyone strike your fancy?! Doesn’t matter either way, ’cause we Fairies will give ya the push you need to make some love happen!! So let’s hear it!! Geh-heh-heh!!”
The last member to show up was their newest addition.
It was Foeniculum, who apparently had become the Fairy agent plenipotentiary after recent events.
The Werebeast agent plenipotentiary—the Shrine Maiden.
The Flügel agent plenipotentiary—Azril.
The Siren agent plenipotentiary—Laila Lorelei.
The Dhampir agent plenipotentiary—Plum Stoker.
The Ex Machina agent plenipotentiary—Einzig, present remotely through his link with Emir-Eins.
Also present: the future Old Deus agent plenipotentiary—Holou.
And finally, representing Fairy, most of whom remained enslaved to the Elves—Foeniculum.
In other words, each of the major figures representing the Commonwealth of Elkia’s nations were present.
In even more words, there were animal-eared girls, angels, mermaids (although unfortunately, no real vampiresses), a mecha-girl, a goddess, and a literal Fairy!
Female representatives from pretty much every race—women so beautiful, it’s quite literally beyond human comprehension—and they’re all here!! Assembled in the Elkia Royal Castle’s Great Bath!!
Ah, the Great Bath—what a wonderful phrase!!
It should go without saying that the women were present in the nude—one of the stipulations of their invitation to the Great Bath.
The men, however, were there under the stipulation that they would be clothed and keep their eyes closed. As unfortunate as it was, Sora was unable to see the beautiful scene.
For now, at least…! I can’t see it…yet!!
Be that as it may, if there is a heaven on Disboard, it is most certainly in this very bath!!
Heaven itself has manifested within our castle’s Great Bath and is playing out around me as I sit here!!
I may not be able to savor the scene in this moment—however!! Thanks to Emir-Eins, I’ll have everything on video to watch as much as I’d like!! With the men edited out and the children obscured with steam, the footage will be perfectly legal!!
Sora was convinced: Ah, yes—surely, my entire life has been leading up to this very day…
Sora trembled with emotion, tears escaping his closed eyes and running down his cheeks—and then he was hit with a new thought.
“…Hey, Shiro? Is Foeniculum…wearing any clothes?”
“…She…is…”
Shiro timidly answered Sora’s question—one that was on everybody’s minds:
Is Foeniculum a guy or a girl?
“Hmm? Pretty sure your invitation said ‘women come naked, men come clothed and with their eyes shut,’ right? I didn’t know what to do since I’m not a guy or a girl, so I just decided to come clothed. Should I strip down?”
“Report: Judging by past statements made by the Fairy unit known as Foeniculum, this unit estimates Fairies have no gender.”
Makes sense—so Foeniculum isn’t a guy or a girl.
What’s there to get hung up about, then?
Sounds like the decision is mine to make, and now I gotta know for sure—so strip she must!!
“Then, what’re you waiting for?! Hurry up and take off those clothes and get in frame for the—”
Wait.
“Hold on… Didn’t you say something about having both—?”
“Yep. I got a stamen and a pistil. Wanna see?”
A troubled Sora folded his arms and reconsidered Foeniculum’s offer to strip—an offer she’d made at the drop of a hat.
So…what does she have…?
Foeniculum did have a modest bust, suggesting a more feminine physique. She appeared female based on looks alone, unlike the more androgenous Plum.
If she literally has a stamen and pistil…then it’s safe to assume she’s just like the flower in her hair.
…What if Fairies aren’t genderless, but…bi-gender?
What if…they have both…?
Fairies don’t experience love and romance for themselves… What if they’re not embarrassed by showing their own equipment?
Whichever parts Foeniculum may or may not have, Emir-Eins was going to edit out anything inconvenient from Sora’s final cut.
But for the females currently in the bath, it was a different story. They would have to see the truth with their own two eyes, live and in the flesh.
This could be problematic, especially with the presence of Shiro and Izuna…
“……Foeniculum will strip from the waist up but cover her bottom half with a towel!!”
“Hmmm? I don’t get what you’re so worked up about, but sure, if you insist.”
After significant consideration, this was the great compromise Sora came up with.
…Schrödinger’s cat is best left inside its box.
An unobserved phenomenon is a paradox of quantum superposition—in this example, simultaneous female and male parts.
…Granted, there might be an actual pussy inside that box…
In any case, Sora opted to save this discovery for a later date.
“ Right. Now that we’re all gathered here, might I start us off with a question?” came the somewhat lackadaisical voice of the Eastern Union’s leader, the Shrine Maiden. “You’re not serious about holding a Commonwealth meeting here in this bath, are you…?”
“You bet your tails I’m serious. What, is that up for debate or something?”
Sora was truly thrown off by the question. He cocked his head in confusion, eyes still closed.
Jibril, who was sitting by Sora’s side, smiled and added, “It is Master’s policy to welcome new allies into the Commonwealth with a communal bath—far more important than any of the silly Ten Covenants. ”
It was a necessary ceremony, though too much had been going on when the Ex Machina joined the Commonwealth.
This bath was meant to make up for lost time!!
“…Aye. Then, I have an official statement to make as the agent plenipotentiary of Werebeast and the Eastern Union. I would like to ask the Kingdom of Elkia—that is, the Immanity agent plenipotentiary—some questions.”
The Shrine Maiden’s two tails hit the water with a sploosh as she sank into the bath.
“Depending on your answer, the Eastern Union may drop out of the Commonwealth of Elkia.”
……And then there was silence.
The friendly mood instantly turned icy.
A stifling silence descended on the group, so quiet that even droplets of water could be heard echoing throughout the bath.
…No one was shocked by or opposed to the Shrine Maiden’s statement.
Izuna hung her head; Ino sat wordlessly, his expression serious.
Amila and Plum grinned nervously while they waited to see where this was going.
Each individual had their own personal reactions, but their silence wasn’t out of surprise or opposition—it was out of agreement.
“ Recent events have split the world into two factions: the Commonwealth of Elkia and Elven Gard.”
Sora, Shiro, and even Steph knew this was coming. They waited for the Shrine Maiden to continue.
“As the leader of one such Commonwealth nation—this Commonwealth I’ve entrusted the fate of all Werebeastkind to—I say: Our membership is dependent on your victory. We lack the capacity to remain allied if you’re going to lose… My apologies.”
Sora and Shiro sat quietly, not offering a verbal response.
She was right—the siblings had lost. It was an all-out, full-on defeat.
They’d lost to Elven Gard—to the man who represented the Elves…
They knew now what had happened before they got wrapped up in Foeniculum’s game.
The group had their memories back—their real memories ……
Just before Foeniculum’s game started:
Sora and the others were watching Elkia’s parliament through a hole Jibril had created in space.
What they saw was:
“I have been secretly communicating with Demonia. I shall now reveal everything I know step-by-step.”
“I have been secretly communicating with Elf. I shall now reveal everything I know step-by-step.”
The members came forward with the exact same statement, proclaiming their connections with Fairy, Lunamana, Dhampir, and Dragonia as well…
Sora and Shiro’s poison had forced a confession out of them all.
A heated espionage battle was secretly underway within Elkia between spies for each country and race under the guise of the Commercial Confederation—exposing their intel all at once.
If the confessions continued, each race would end up leaking critical national intel. Such intel could be used against them in games—information that, at worst, might lead to the decimation of their entire race.
To stop the confessions, the races needed an antidote—a word in Japanese that only Sora and Shiro knew.
The price for Sora and Shiro’s medicine? Your whole damn country.
No one in their right mind was willing to pay that price.
But if their race was going to survive, they would have to bargain with the siblings via games.
And thus, Sora and Shiro were going to absorb several races into the Commonwealth in one fell swoop—however:
…A Sprite Tune…
Two days later: A voice shook the world around them, and the next instant, all of Elkia disappeared; the country was wiped off the map…
…………
“ Hey… What the heck happened?”
Jibril had shifted the group to what should have been Elkia.
“…Where…is this…?”
“We are in Elkia Royal Castle’s Great Conference Chamber—at least, that is what these coordinates indicate…”
“Th-that can’t be!! Where is the castle…?!”
The five of them stood there in shock. A field of flowers stretched out as far as the eye could see.
There was nothing left.
No castle, no town, no people… Everything was gone—and replaced with flowers they’d never seen before. A breeze blew a storm of petals through the air like snowfall.
“Report: Analyzing recent audio data—explanation possible based on records available from the Great War.”
Emir-Eins began calmly reporting her findings to the speechless group.
“Prediction: A Sprite Tune—a phenomenon wherein Fairies replace position space with a spatial phase boundary.”
They’d heard the name before during their battle with Holou—specifically, during the Great War RTS against Jibril.
But even with Emir-Eins’s explanation, the siblings were uncomprehending.
“…So what you’re saying is…?”
Sora prodded her for further explanation, to which Jibril obliged.
“…I believe it means the Fairies have sealed the entirety of Elkia away in a separate space.”
Yeah…I figured…, Sora bemoaned to himself.
Elkia was gone.
It didn’t matter who was behind it or how they did it. That wasn’t the core problem here
“ How the hell does that make any sense?! You can’t just erase a country!! What about the friggin’ Covenants?!”
They forcibly removed an entire country from this plane of existence, sealing it away.
That’s literal abduction and confinement—of a whole country and its people!!
Even if they didn’t directly harm anyone in the process, there’s no goddamn way this was in line with the Covenants!!
Sora was at a loss for words, but Emir-Eins simply nodded and continued.
“Affirmative: No confirmed incidence of a Sprite Tune following the establishment of the Ten Covenants in the postwar era. Literally unprecedented.”
Therefore, only one lone factor determined if it was possible to execute such a technique in accordance with the Covenants:
“ Someone must’ve consented to this… And at the very least, someone who was in a position to wager their country…”
Not just someone, but an entity with that much decision-making power—namely, the Elkian parliament.
“Addendum: Number of Fairies required to create a Spratul of this scale determined to be greater than four hundred thousand. Therefore—”
A country that had control of over four hundred thousand Fairies was behind this—Elven Gard.
They’d used Sora and Shiro’s poison against the pair to set a trap…
…………
The group stood rooted to the spot as the sun passed over their heads.
Even Steph was tuckered out after raising hell over what they ought to do first.
Jibril and Emir-Eins remained speechless while Sora and Shiro racked their brains over what options they had.
No amount of racking, however, brought them to any one conclusion other than the obvious:
They were in checkmate…
Elkia was sealed away in some kind of spatial phase boundary…
So far, the Ten Covenants had proved unyielding against the Flügel and Ex Machina—even an Old Deus. And yet it had been bypassed by the Fairies—and by the Elves who controlled them.
There was no way to fly under the spies’ radar and therefore no way to stop the confessions.
All the intel the spies confessed would be Elven Gard’s alone.
What would this mean?
Sora and Shiro knew that intel as well; they’d collected it via coded banknotes.
Therefore, they were certain—at the very least, Demonia and Lunamana would be forced to play an unwinnable game against Elven Gard.
And unlike with Sora and Shiro, the wager wouldn’t be to create an alliance.
They’d be playing by Elven Gard’s terms. Worst-case scenario: The two races would end up enslaved by the Elves.
There was no way to stop this fate.
Not at present, when the siblings weren’t the Immanity agent plenipotentiary let alone their monarch—especially with Elkia being held hostage.
Neither Sora nor Shiro could think of a single way to potentially turn the tables.
This meant one thing:
“…We… Blank…lost…”
It was as plain as the words on Sora’s lips—they’d lost. To make matters worse, now that their schemes had been upended and successfully used against them, two whole races were on the brink of demise.
This was their grave mistake—Sora and Shiro had worked so hard to unite the Ixseeds without shedding a single drop of blood all so that they could challenge Tet…only for their entire premise to be uprooted and the game rendered unplayable.
The siblings had been utterly defeated—no ifs, ands, or buts about it…
And all this had been done without meeting Sora and Shiro face-to-face, without ever playing a single game against them.
The fact of the matter was: Someone out there pulled this off unbeknownst to the pair, without exchanging a word with them.
Standing in silence, awash with unfathomable despair…Sora and Shiro almost felt like they heard a voice tell them:
“Good effort, but checkmate.”
…………
………………
…………………… They stayed like this for who knows how long, until they realized the sky had grown dark.
Sora and Shiro chided themselves for being shocked to the point that they didn’t notice the sun had already set.
That’s when it happened.
“What…on earth…?! No—don’t tell me ?!”
They heard Jibril cry out in awe and lifted their heads, curious.
Sora and Shiro followed her gaze, squinting at the sky…until several moments later—they finally realized why it had grown dark.
The sun hadn’t set; it was merely blocked out by a pair of gargantuan wings.
Gargantuan? Massive? Friggin’ huge?
There wasn’t really an apt word for the sheer scale of the wings above; their size was beyond comprehension.
It actually took the siblings a few full seconds to even process what they were looking at—
—a dragon.
A mighty, enormous, immense white dragon.
There was no mistaking it… Sora and Shiro thought back to when they’d first been transported to this world.
This was the same white dragon Sora saw in the distance from atop a cliff as he took in their new surroundings.
And then—
“Analysis: . Speechless: . The last remaining Ruler of Dragonia… Reginleif the Enlightened—?!”
“Impossible!! The final Ruler of Dragonia has never made an appearance, even after the end of the Great War!! Why now?!”
—Emir-Eins questioned the result of her analysis, while Jibril was unable to believe her eyes.
The dragon began to descend.
With a flap of its mighty wings, the pure-white creature loomed closer as if it were a mountain falling from the sky.
It was a sight equivalent to the heavens crashing to the earth, a cataclysm of biblical proportions…and yet Sora, Shiro, and Steph felt no fear.
The dragon soundlessly lowered its perspective-skewing frame before slowly landing in the flowery field that, until yesterday, had been Elkia.
All the while, it gracefully crouched low to the ground without disturbing a single flower petal.
“ ”
There was a simple reason why the three Immanities were unafraid in the face of this extraordinary being.
It barely felt real.
Were it not for the Dragonia’s overwhelming presence, they would’ve assumed this was some sort of mirage.
They couldn’t tell if it was near or far—or even if there was anything there to begin with.
It was like envisioning the ancient metropolis that once occupied a set of ruins.
Or picturing a new, enormous building from its blueprint.
There was nothing there, but at the same time there was. They could feel it.
Past, present, or future, this dragon is—or was?—undoubtedly there.
Sora knew; he was forced to know with his mere human vessel.
…Just looking at the dragon was enough to destroy his sense of time and space.
The emotion produced by looking up at this being—was most certainly not fear.
It was like staring at a mountain range that had formed after millions of years—or at a galaxy billions of light-years away.
The most natural emotion one felt when a person beheld something beyond any and all mortal understanding—this was pure awe.
The dragon then dropped its gaze toward the group.
The very moment they met its gaze, the five of them were struck with a flash of comprehension, like a lightning bolt.
“TAKETH BACK THY COUNTRY.”
An arrogant command—one that was neither spoken aloud nor communicated via telepathy. It had no sound or vibration.
The words were simply given to them through their eyes meeting. That was it.
A forced comprehension sent directly into their minds, an awareness carved into them.
“MAKE HASTE. I HAVE PROVIDED THEE WITH THE MEANS TO DO SO.”
This was the Dragonian tongue.
Simply perceiving their will was enough to bring a person to their knees and submit.
If not for the Ten Covenants, all of creation would surely obey every word, however—
“Oh-ho? Have the isolationists finally decided to come out now that the Great War has ended? Are the fabled Dragonia tired of playing the troglodyte mediator role, and have they come to offer my masters some assistance? How admirable of you. ”
—it seemed Jibril didn’t appreciate this entity giving orders to her masters, Sora and Shiro. Sneering, she brushed off the Dragonia’s unquestioning authority to make a snide remark.
In the next instant—the group felt a mountain collapse into itself.
For a Dragonia, this was hardly considered a show of anger.
It was more like the vaguest hint of frustration, the kind a parent might direct at their newborn—however.
This titanic entity surpassed comprehension to the point that it even felt surreal.
They stood no chance against the raw, cataclysmic scale of what loomed before them.
The sheer pressure from its gaze was enough to have even Jibril and Emir-Eins preparing for their death. Then several words entered the group’s minds:
“I PROVIDETH NO ASSISTANCE. THIS IS THY PUNISHMENT.”
The Dragonia’s gaze curtly—but with utmost clarity—gave them their judgment.
“REDEEM THYSELVES. THOU HAST THROWN THIS WORLD INTO DISARRAY.”
Disarray—six thousand years had passed since the end of the Great War.
Even during the War when the Ixseed fought for their lives, not a single race had been wiped from the planet.
But these siblings from another world were about to eliminate two races.
Their failure was unmistakably theirs and theirs alone.
Their defeat was unequivocally a crime.
The literal all-seeing eyes of the Dragonia—witness to the dawn of time and the future ahead—swept over the group.
“THOU HAST SAVED IMMANITY FROM THE BRINK OF DESTRUCTION.”
An achievement worth commendation.
“BUT THY REACH HATH EXCEEDED THY GRASP. THY POISON SHALL WREAK HAVOC UPON THE WORLD.”
The dragon was right; Elven Gard had used their poison against them.
Their failure beckoned the destruction of multiple races, maybe even the entire world.
Sora listened, unable to respond. “THEREFORE,” the dragon continued:
“I SHALL CONFISCATE THE POISON—FROM ALL WHO POSSESS IT.”
It lifted its head and spread its wings that extended beyond the horizon. The mountain range of a being then rose to its feet—and flew off.
What should’ve generated a seismic shock capable of reshaping the continent failed to create so much as a light breeze. The Dragonia drifted away in silence until it was no longer visible …
……… ,
…It left nothing behind, almost as if it was never there to begin with—
“…Ughhh… I’m so tired of this shit…”
—or actually…not quite.
The Dragonia did leave one thing behind: a small figure the size of a grain of rice.
So small, in fact, that no one realized she was there until they heard her speak.
It was a tiny girl with an even tinier cigar wedged between her lips and a sort of apathetic, devil-may-care attitude.
“For the love of… First a Dragonia appears outta nowhere, then it turns out they’re the quote, unquote Enlightened. Ooh, look at me, I know everything… Gimme a break! It’s a big friggin’ lizard, for gawd’s sake… Hmm? Oh yeah, I’m Foeniculum, and you guys probably figured this out already, but I’m here to save the day—and your asses. Whoop-de-friggin’-doooo… Ughhh.”
………
The group had gone from transcendent entity to…this…at breakneck speed. Everyone had whiplash.
“But hey, beggars can’t be choosers, eh? Our goals kinda line up, so we might as well see where this goes. ”
Foeniculum flashed a grin before sharing her plan.
Which was, effectively:
Hit the subspace created by Elven Gard’s Fairies with an even more powerful subspace, releasing Elkia before the spies disclosed any intel to the Elves.
Foeniculum was going to send the group into her own Spratul—a space where romantic feelings increased as time went by.
She’d stream the group’s love affairs to get tips—or soul power—from her Fairy viewership.
Once you crunched the numbers, it turned out they’d need to accrue five billion units of soul in tips.
“But first, you gotta tell ol’ Reginleif your safe word. Once Elkia’s free, the big lizard’ll use that on the spies to keep ’em from fessin’ up their intel to the Elves. You also gotta forfeit all the dirt you’ve dug up, too.”
That wasn’t all:
“Also, I’mma make it so you don’t remember any of this—or anything pertaining to the game. I won’t be giving you any info unless you ask me first. Those are all of the stupid lizard’s terms.”
Sora didn’t feel like he could win this game even with his memory intact.
But he and Shiro didn’t really have a choice. The playing field was defined by their loss—their mistake—and this was a way to even things out again…
Their only option was to go along with Foeniculum’s plan. However…
“…Cool if I point out three major holes in your plan and ask you a single question?”
…Sora had to double-check a few details before agreeing.
“Let’s start with the holes: Pretty sure I won’t even play the game under those conditions…”
Sora pictured how he would act with that much of his memory gone, and there was only one conclusion he could come up with.
He knew he’d realize that he and Shiro had been defeated and then assume they were being forced to play an unwinnable game.
“I’ll answer whatever questions you got about the whole situation when you ask ’em. You just gotta figure out how to get there.”
“………’Kay, then let’s talk about the second hole.”
Figure it out…?
That’s literally the most useless answer possible, but let’s set that aside for now.
“…The only way I picture a game like that ending is with me single…”
The plan involved forming two couples, with the remaining fifth person using a key to exit.
There was little to no chance that the fifth wheel was going to be anyone other than Sora.
Basically, the equivalent of evenly dividing the number one by anything other than itself.
So it was pretty much fixed at a 0 percent chance.
In other words, even if the group managed to safely escape the subspace and get Elkia back, they would end up in two girl-on-girl couples and a single Sora—!!
I mean, it is kinda my fault this situation happened in the first place, but isn’t it a bit much to sacrifice any hopes for romance just to right these wrongs…?
“Oh, you don’t gotta worry about that.”
Sora was ready to accept his fate, but Foeniculum shrugged off the concern with a shake of her head.
“After you’re released from my Spratul, any amplified affection will return to normal. That part’s only there to rake in the tips. It’s a necessary evil—forcing love between two people goes against every fiber of my Fairy being. Once you’re out, I’ll make sure the only love you guys feel for each other is organic. ”
Right, so we’ll be returned to normal once it’s over.
I’ll be forced to be single only for the duration of the game.
I—I guess I can roll with that…
Sora wiped the tears from his eyes. “All right, now for the final and biggest hole: I can’t imagine myself actually falling in love with anyone.”
This is me we’re talking about. Sora, virgin, age eighteen. You want me to fall in love?
You’d have better chances of teaching a jellyfish to walk.
And to top it off, you want me to do it without my memories intact…?
Impossible. Sora looked up blankly at the sky, not expecting any sort of solution for his concern.
Foeniculum, however, took a puff of her cigar before flying right into his face.
“…It’ll work. You guys’ll be a hit if you just act natural.”
All their friction and brooding, their ups and downs, their resignation.
Her eyes smoldered with fiery passion.
“Show the Fairies what you guys think is typical—the new world, new future you’re trying to make—and they’ll show up in droves with soul tips galore. I’m willin’ to bet my life on it.”
Sora watched as an intrepid Foeniculum offered her very life. He felt even more compelled to ask:
“That brings us to my question, then… This is the first time we’ve ever met you, right? So why do you have so much faith in us?”
It’s clear why Reginleif the Enlightened wants to lend us a hand.
It wants to confiscate the intel on the other races from both us and Elven Gard.
But…what about Foeniculum?
No matter which way you sliced it, she had way too much on the line here.
If the plan failed—worst-case scenario, the Elves would consider her an enemy.
And if it succeeded? Most of the Fairies would side with Sora and Shiro—and the Elves would still consider her an enemy. There’s only risk for her no matter which way the tables turn.
What’s worse—the siblings had already lost to Elven Gard once.
Why would she go as far as putting her life on the line for a bunch of losers?
Sora was unable to figure out why her eyes were aflame with so much trust in him and his sister.
“…C’mon, I feel like that should be obvious… You’re really gonna make me say it out loud, huh? Ugh, how embarrassing.” Foeniculum continued with a wink and a smile. “You know the Fairies sent in their own spy along with the Elves, right?”
They did know. Sora and Shiro had the same information available to them as the Elves—
“Well, after talking to our spy, I’ve come to like you guys. I’m kinda a fan. ”
A fan?
“Sorry, lemme tell you a little ’bout myself. I’ve said for years that hetero love between members of the same race is about as fun as a bag of nails. But there’s one teensy problem: The world’s never seen a mixed-race couple before.”
“……”
“So like, the other races think Immanity’s just a bunch of talking monkeys. You’d hafta be crazy to date a monkey, right? At least, that’s what everyone else says. Mixed-race couples aren’t normal here, so when I said it should be normal, people acted like I was off my rocker. To be honest, I’d pretty much given up on the whole idea…”
Foeniculum paused. She exhaled some cigar smoke and watched it dissipate before continuing:
“That is, until I learned about you guys… You have Werebeast, Flügel, Ex Machina—heck, you even have a Dhampir and an Old Deus just walkin’ around your castle grounds, free to do as they please.”
…This information wasn’t particularly valuable.
Sora and Shiro were neither trying to hide this nor promote it. It was just their everyday life.
“Exactly. The other races didn’t really care about this intel. They figured, well, we live with our pets, too—but you guys make even less of a deal about race than you do about gender. The moment I realized this—it reinvigorated the spark in me.”
Her cigar finally fizzled out.
She flicked away the nub before revealing a ferocious grin. “So how ’bout we show those folks who’s really the crazy one here?”
“…Uh-huh. Hate to break it to you, but you’re definitely the crazy one,” Sora quipped with a fierce grin of his own. “You’ve gotta be out of your mind to go all in on this—especially when the chips you’re betting are an entire race. Anyone who doesn’t see that has more than a few screws loose themselves. ”
“You’re probably right. We’ll just hafta bring the rest of the world to my own level of crazy. ”
…………
And thus, the group played Foeniculum’s game. Which they…as you know…properly won.
She used an insurmountable amount of soul power provided by her viewers to engulf Elkia in a Sprite Shade, which released Elkia from the spatial phase boundary Elven Gard’s Sprite Tune had sealed it in.
Sora and Shiro had to forfeit all the intel they’d gathered, allowing Reginleif to stop the spies from sharing said critical information just in the nick of time.
The Republican Dukedom of Elkia’s parliament consisting of spies for each race—under the guise of the Commercial Confederation—were branded as traitors by Steph, the Commonwealth’s de facto ruler, and subsequently purged.
Since this coup d’état was the work of foreign nations, she reinstated Sora and Shiro as the shared monarch, thereby managing to keep their intel from reaching Elven Gard by the skin of their teeth.
Thus, the siblings returned to the Kingdom of Elkia as its rightful sovereign.
…With that said…it should be obvious that this was hardly the time for celebration
The siblings were faced with an array of problems upon returning to the throne.
Among those problems was the one the Shrine Maiden was pressing Steph about in the Great Bath.
“First—what is the kingdom to do about the republic?”
“…We, ah…still need to discuss that with…the Commonwealth…”
The Shrine Maiden was right—Elkia was divided…
Immanity’s only nation had become two nations.
The foreign spies went into hiding before Steph could give the Commercial Confederation their final judgment.
Then, without a moment’s notice, they reappeared on the far western continent of Valar in the state of Tírnóg—a territory Immanity had taken from Elven Gard that was currently under the care of the Flügel—where they started a new parliament.
This new parliament maintained that they were the legitimate Elkia, the true home of Immanity.
They announced to the world the establishment of what they called the Republic of Elkia…
Sora and Shiro were the Kingdom of Elkia’s monarch and the Immanity agent plenipotentiary—but Immanity was no longer united, which meant:
“There is significant support for the republic within the kingdom as well—how do you intend to handle that?”
“We…are working on it… I—I have already convinced Lord Dalton and Count Zaphius to stay with the kingdom. There are a number of factions standing strong with the house of Dola—”
“Aye, and just how many do you think remain loyal to the kingdom?”
“……”
The question left Steph speechless.
The answer was…not even half.
Why were the Commercial Confederation spies receiving so much support?
Because people suspected that Sora and Shiro were spies for the races they’d brought into the Commonwealth.
The siblings had initially been the ones to fan flames for a coup d’état, and indeed, several races had gotten involved, but nonetheless, the Elkian nobles had grown suspicious of and disgruntled with their brother-sister monarch.
So siding with the spies and their ample support and protection from the various races made the republic appear that much more trustworthy. That’s right:
The Commonwealth was too good to be true—there was some kind of catch—and this reassured them.
Of course, it wasn’t difficult to see that the Commonwealth was a scam in the first place.
As unfortunate as it was, trust in the Commonwealth of Elkia was in shambles, its reputation poisoned. There was nothing good at all about supporting them…
The Shrine Maiden continued her inquisition with an expressionless face.
“And now my last question. What are you going to do about the war being waged on the Commonwealth?”
“……Well… I…”
Just as the Shrine Maiden said, the Republic of Elkia was at war with the Commonwealth. The effort was spearheaded by Elven Gard, with support and protection from a multinational alliance. Besides Elf, this coalition included Demonia, Lunamana, Dragonia, and Gigant—as well as the Elven Gard Fairies and several Phantasma, plus a little more than half of all Immanity.
Thus, the Commonwealth was now thrown into all-out war.
The Shrine Maiden heaved a sigh.
“Very well. Then, I’m afraid I have no other choice…”
“Wait!! You don’t mean to tell me the Eastern Union is going to side with Elven Gard, do you?!”
The Shrine Maiden had gotten out of the bath and was preparing to leave when Steph stopped her.
“The anti-Commonwealth faction intends to dismantle our government and take over its nations!! Siding with them means that you agree with their enslavement and abuse of other races!!”
This all-out war—its goal was, as Steph said, to dismantle the Commonwealth and take over its countries. There was no room for peace and reconciliation.
The republic wouldn’t allow the Commonwealth to exist; they were going to crush it, and—at the very worst—obliterate it.
All Commonwealth citizens would lose their rights and become Elven Gard’s slaves.
Exiting the Commonwealth was a hard rebuke of everything that Blank stood for.
“I take it the Werebeast only care for themselves, then! I should have never put so much faith in you!!”
“Miss Stephanie! Take back those words at once!!” Ino Hatsuse lashed out at Steph for her remark. “If you truly believe this is how the Holy Shrine Maiden feels, then it is I who placed far too much trust in you.”
“…!”
“This anti-Commonwealth front—it involves five unified races and half of another three races’ population. The entire world will be engulfed in this conflict… We’ll be up against half of the world’s population, led by Elven Gard.” Ino gnashed his teeth audibly. “This new republic has already robbed the Eastern Union of the lion’s share of its resources.”
This meant Werebeast were on their knees, and
“To fight a force like theirs—with our Commonwealth supply chain cut off—would be suicide for the Eastern Union, especially if they hit us with an overseas embargo. Moreover—”
Ino let out a sigh before cutting into the group as he continued.
“—this predicament is…entirely the Commonwealth’s fault!!”
“ !!!”
He was…right.
Why had the other countries sat idly by while the Commonwealth continued to expand?
It’s because all eyes were on Blank. The races outside the Commonwealth assumed the siblings had an unbeatable trump card capable of defeating certain races in games.
They just didn’t know which races this trump card worked on.
Those doubts ended up being the glue that kept the other Ixseeds on the sidelines and prevented them from conspiring against the Commonwealth.
But following recent events, the least of which were the confessions forced by the races outside the Commonwealth—namely: Elf, Fairy, Demonia, Lunamana, and Dragonia—proved that these five weren’t involved with the Commonwealth, allowing them to join forces.
This, in turn, led to the present situation: The Eastern Union’s economy had been brought to its knees.
The whole debacle was caused by Sora and Shiro’s defeat.
Unable to speak, Steph hung her head and trembled, when the Shrine Maiden said with a sigh, “…Don’t misunderstand, lass. I don’t intend to pin this all on your nation.” She cast her gaze downward. “Indeed, you two lost, and now multiple races are in peril at the hands of Elf… That is, multiple races will end up enslaved. The only reason that has yet to pass is thanks to sheer dumb luck.”
Precisely.
The siblings lost. Their hands were tied; there was no way to right their wrong.
The only reason they’d come out of this was thanks to Reginleif’s predictions and Foeniculum’s resolution.
In other words, it was pure luck. There just so happened to be other forces in motion unbeknownst to them.
And now Reginleif had sided with the Elves…
“And yet,” the Shrine Maiden said with a strained smile. “That isn’t to say I think you did the wrong thing, mind you.”
Everyone looked at her in surprise—especially Ino.
Noticing his dubious expression, she let out a low chuckle before continuing.
“The dream you two spoke of—bringing the sixteen races together without sacrificing a single soul—a full upheaval of conventions that have continued for thousands…no, millions of years. ’Tis about as nonsensical as trying to make the planet spin left instead of right. You’d have to do something quite daft to ever make that happen—that much I know perfectly well.”
They saved her dearest friend—Holou.
The siblings bet five Race Pieces for the Shrine Maiden so they could save her friend. After all they’d done for her, the Shrine Maiden had no intentions of reprimanding them, nor was it her place to do so.
But she went on:
“…Aye, but flipping the planet’s rotation will bring its own fair share of problems.”
To make the planet spin left, they’d need to create enough force to first stop it on its axis. That required a tremendous amount of power—enough to potentially destroy the planet.
The more Sora and Shiro tried to make their dream a reality, the more friction they caused.
“That’s what it takes…to change the world.”
That friction begets discord, and when that discord reaches critical mass—it destroys everything caught up in it.
And that convention known as reality was what caused the Shrine Maiden to give up on her dream once before.
“You two wished to change the world.” Her golden eyes grew sharper. “But there were those who did not wish for the world to change. They have you in their sights, and the world is on the verge of turning stark raving mad. At this rate, the first ones to fall will be us—the Eastern Union.”
Therefore…
She exhaled, and her tails slapped the water’s surface.
“ This is my last question, so I beg you to be honest.”
A mounting pressure could be felt emanating from the Shrine Maiden. Sora tightened his grip around his sister’s hand.
“Your dream to change the world without a single sacrifice—is that really nothing more than a pipe dream?”
The Shrine Maiden’s words, her gaze, her presence—Sora sensed everything they were telling him even without having to open his eyes.
“Should you have any way to avoid the immense loss of life—what will most likely be Werebeast life—that is about to happen, then you’d best speak your piece now.”
The world was on a crash course for total warfare—not a direct path, but one that would nonetheless result in enormous destruction.
If there remained a way to avoid this fate, then the Shrine Maiden wanted to hear it.
“…You two made me want to dream again…”
No matter how much she resisted, how much she fought, things always ended in bloodshed.
The Shrine Maiden wanted to see a world where such conventions didn’t exist !
“Tell me I made the right decision—nay, show me!!”
The Shrine Maiden growled—however, Sora wasn’t the one who broke the silence.
“Sorry I’m laaate!! My subterrane broke as I was making my way to the surface, and it took me three hours of digging to get up here, but I have arrived!! Shamefully covered in mud, I am!!!”
WHAM!!
Someone had flung open the door and stormed their way into the Great Bath.
A tan-skinned girl with a pair of horns emerging from her silvery mithril-colored hair…the one Commonwealth nation yet to make an appearance—the last agent plenipotentiary.
“Be that as it may !! Sir, Ma’am—just where did you two go off to?! I’ll— I’ll have you know I took two and a half laps around the planet looking for you, I did!! How cruel of you to leave little old me behind!!”
Dripping with mud, the girl rattled off her grievances before lunging at Shiro.
Shiro reflexively latched on to Sora in order to bear the brunt of this accusation, practically shrieking, “…Y-you’re, filthy… Take a…shower…!”
“As for the terms for participating in this Commonwealth Summit—I would like an explanation of this nudity clause, I would!! A summit in a bathhouse?! In all honesty, that’s kind of stupid, it is!! Ah, but now that you mention it, I am quite filthy, yes, so I suppose I’ll take you up on that shower, I will.”
Heedless of her surroundings, the girl began washing herself in front of everyone—
“ A D-Dwarf?! What is a Dwarf doing here?!”
—when Ino hollered with shock and confusion in lieu of the other speechless bathers.
His question was what finally made the girl notice that she was the center of attention.
“Hmm? Ah, yes, I am King Sora and Queen Shiro’s big sister!! The name’s Nýi Tilvilg, that it is!!”
“…B-big…sister…?”
The Dwarf agent plenipotentiary (by proxy) left everyone—with the exception of Sora, Shiro, Jibril, Emir-Eins, and Steph—wide-eyed.
“My uncle—uh, Veig Drauvnir, chieftain of Hardenfell, said he’s ‘Busy goin’ to space,’ then mentioned something or other about big boobs—so he sent me here to fill in his spot as agent plenipotentiary of Dwarf, he did!! Although I would never ever leave your side anyway, I wouldn’t!! Pfft!”
The members of the summit could only watch in speechless disbelief as the Dwarf scrambled to introduce herself.
Before any of them could muster up the presence of mind to say something:
“What’s this? Oh, silly me. Did I forget to tell you guys that the second largest nation on the planet was on our side? ”
Sora grinned from ear to ear, laying it on thick.
“The Dwarf agent plenipotentiary Veig said Hardenfell was mine to do with what I pleased. So I was thinking I could have the Dwarves send the Commonwealth some of their excess resources, but the Eastern Union wants out, eh…? That’s too bad. ” He reveled in the sound of Ino’s grinding teeth as he spoke. “Hey, Til? Just how much armatite does Hardenfell dig up every year?”
“Hmm? By armatite, you mean that rubbish we have to dig through to mine algorite? No one has any interest in mining non-spiritual minerals, none at all. We toss it straight into the garbage, we do.”
“Is that so? What if I told you the Eastern Union would be willing to buy whatever armatite you’re going to throw away?”
“…They want it? Mm, I would probably pay them to take it off our hands if they were willing, I would.”
“Really, now? Oh, but the Eastern Union isn’t going to be a part of the Commonwealth anymore, so I guess it doesn’t matter…”
…Getting on people’s nerves is a form of genius in its own right, and that’s where Sora really shines.
He flaunted this talent of his with a little wave of his hand.
“Guess we’ll be seeing you, Shrine Maiden. We’ll drop by the fluffy ear dynasty to take you over again in the coming days. ”
“ You damn monkey bastard…”
I knew there was a reason Jibril kept quiet when the Holy Shrine Maiden was talking!
After finally filling in all the blanks, Ino couldn’t help but let a curse slip out.
“Oh? What did that pathetic little doggy just say? I believe it was along the lines of ‘Forgive our transgressions. Please let us stay in the Commonwealth—I shall get on my hands and knees and beg for your forgiveness,’ but do correct me if I’m wrong. ”
With an exuberant sneer, Jibril was finally able to taunt the Werebeast.
Then—
“Sorry, Shrine Maiden… I can’t answer whether you made the right decision.”
—Sora opened his eyes and fixed his gaze on the Shrine Maiden.
She stared back at him as he offered an earnest apology.
…Never mind the Shrine Maiden; Sora and Shiro had done the wrong thing themselves.
They’d made many mistakes on their journey—which finally led to a big defeat.
Therefore, the two of them were unable to give her an honest answer…
“That said—I can answer your other questions.”
“……”
The Shrine Maiden was silent. Her ears perked toward Sora, listening to both his words and his heartbeat.
“First—Shiro and I never said anything about a dream.”
“……”
“All we talked about was an achievable reality—gathering all the races without a single sacrifice and challenging Tet to a game. And the fact that you thought this reality should be achieved—that wasn’t a dream, either.”
“……”
“Next—so what if half the world’s against us? Like I give a shit about that.”
The Shrine Maiden was listening to his pulse—she could tell he was calm.
Just like when they faced off once before. He smiled, despite knowing the weight of his words.
“We were the ones who challenged the world first. It used to be us versus ninety-nine percent of the world, and now we’re at an even fifty-fifty. Incredible doesn’t even begin to describe that. If you’re gonna get cold feet, you oughtta do it when the scale’s tipped one hundred percent in your opponent’s favor.”
“……”
“And last—you said something about flipping the planet’s rotation, right? Do you have any idea how damn easy that is?”
It wouldn’t cause any friction, destroy the planet, or involve a single sacrifice. You don’t even need any real power to make it spin left.
The reason for that is—
—the planet doesn’t actually spin to the right.
Right and left are just arbitrary concepts someone made up.
If you look south from the northern hemisphere, the planet’s already spinning to the left.
And if you look at it from space? There isn’t an up or down in space to begin with. That’s why:
“You just gotta trick ’em. The world, I mean. Just trick everyone.”
Yup, just pull one over on everyone. And if they believe it, then it becomes real.
“Make ’em think that right is left, and boom, there you go: The planet’s spinning left. ”
“ ”
Sora had no clue what the Shrine Maiden was thinking as she looked into his eyes and silently listened to his words and his heart.
He simply closed his eyes again and said:
“ Taking that into consideration, I’m gonna ask everyone here again.”
He turned his attention to the rest of the Commonwealth’s agent plenipotentiaries and inquired whether they would be willing to put the future of their races on the line:
“Which do you prefer: a world that spins right or left?”
“Whichever direction Master prefers. The Flügel shall make it spin vertically for you if you so wish.”
“H-h-hold your horses, Jibsy! I’m the Flügel Alipotentiary here!!”
“Oh-ho…? If you mean to tell me that you wish to keep the planet’s boring left-spinning orientation, then I daresay you should resign at once…”
“Nng— Avant Heim will continue to back the Commonwealth of Elkia! But just bear in mind that support within the Council is still at seven to two, and I still need to check if everyone would approve of— H-hey, I’m on your side!! Don’t give me that stink eye, Jibsyyy!!”
Flügel came forward first.
“Heeey!! I have no idea what everyone’s talking about, but I do know that my darling should be stomping all over me!!”
“…Given the current state of Her Majestyyy… Uh, put Oceand down on the Commonwealth’s side as wellll.”
“Hee-hee. Oh, Pluuum? We’ve yet to hear an explanation as to why Dhampir came forward with a confessiooon. Since you guys are a bunch of traitors, you’d better say, ‘Oceand with the exception of Dhampir,’ ’kaaay? ”
“I—I simply wanted to keep tabs on the espionage warfare going on in Elkia—the fact that I didn’t prevent King Sora from stopping our spy’s confession should speak for my innoceeence!!”
“We can’t have thaaat. There’s always the chance that you’re in cahoots with Elven Gard, after aaall. What, you think I’m some kind of idiot, you little twerp?”
Siren and Dhampir…still had some minor details to work out.
“Message: From Einzig— ‘We Ex Machina will never go back on our word again.’ Over and aus.”
Ex Machina’s answer was straight to the point.
“If Elf wants to go to the right, then rest assured Dwarf will go left, we will!! O-oh, but… Do we really have to get along with the Elves once this is all over? …We do? That, I can assure you, is impossible, it is.”
“…You don’t have to…get along… Just, tolerate each other…and keep your distance…”
“Not a problem, then!! As long as they stay out of our sight, that’s just dandy, it is!!”
Indeed, the two races didn’t need to understand each other. Just tolerate each other.
That was a compromise Dwarf could make.
All eyes then turned to Foeniculum, who was caught off guard by the attention.
“Huh? Me too? I feel like our answer should be pretty obvious at this point. I wanna see love that goes beyond racial lines, people—I’ll have the planet spinnin’ left before you can say dandelion!”
With a grin, the tiny Fairy extended her middle fingers to the sky.
“I don’t have time for y’all to be mopin’ just ’cause ya lost for once. Don’t forget that I’m betting everything on you losers here. There’s only one thing ya gotta do when you lose, and that’s make a big friggin’ comeback win. Nothin’ more, nothin’ less. ”
Fairy was clear with their answer.
And thus…
“ Hey, wait a second!! Who the heck is this little Fido here gnawing on my tail fin?! The only one who’s allowed to punish me is my darling!! Do you have any idea who I am?!”
“Sora said I could, please. And he said Til can fluff my—”
Sora gave Izuna permission to nibble on the fish girl—er, the mermaid, Laila.
“Wha—? Whaaaa—?! You freakin’ suck at this!! You’re clumsy as shit, please!!”
“Heh-heh-heh, why hide it? You’re absolutely right, you are!! I’m the clumsiest grubby mole in all the world, I am!! …Q-Q-Queen Shirooo—y-your friend haaaates me, she does!!”
In exchange for that, he gave Til permission to pet Izuna’s fur.
Jibril and Emir-Eins were in turn allowed to toy with Til.
“…I really would like your mithril hair and orichalcum eyes… Do you mind if we split them?”
“Agreement: Further processing available within fellow Commonwealth nation Hardenfell. Question: Mind if I pluck them out?”
“My hair’s one thing, but I only have two eyes, I do!! You may absolutely not have them!!”
The price for this? Jibril sold—er, gave Azril away.
And finally, Sora was allowed to play with Azril’s wings. Something he had wanted to do for a long time now.
“N-n-nyaaa… S-Sora? Wh-why are you so good at that…? Do you really have your eyes closed?! Mngh, not in front of Jibsy… I hafta keep my dignity as her big sis…!”
“You needn’t worry about that, Elder. Lose yourself to the pleasure as much as you wish. ”
“Really?! I think I’ll do just that, then— Nyaaaa, that’s it, that’s the spot… Nyaaa. ”
The leader of the Flügel was left moaning and twitching from Sora’s touch.
Meanwhile, the lone Old Deus twiddled her thumbs and hesitatingly called out to her friend:
“H-hark, O Host… Holou hypothesizes— Holou d-doth not wish for thou to fight with Sora and his kin.”
Flügel, Siren, Dhampir, Ex Machina, Dwarf—and Werebeast.
Even the lone Old Deus wished for coexistence without conflict.
…Yes, the Shrine Maiden thought, the world really is split in two.
Half of it was already on the brink of realizing her dream.
A wry smile played on her lips.
“ Very well. I shall wait till the very end to see whether I made the right choice.”
The Eastern Union also chose left.
Still smiling, the Shrine Maiden submerged herself into the warm bath once more with a cup of sake in hand.
Only one person picked up on that smile, along with Sora’s and Shiro’s resulting facial expressions—and that was Steph.
The Commonwealth Summit came to an end, and its members made their way home.
Night had fallen, and Steph was walking through the nearly empty Elkia Castle.
With a basket in her right hand and a small lantern to light her way in her left, she thought:
Did my footsteps always echo this much in here?
The silence was the result of most of the castle’s personnel defecting to the republic…
Steph sighed as she walked through the dark corridors in search of Sora and Shiro.
She thought about the Commonwealth Summit—about how firm Sora’s voice was and how reliable he seemed.
That was why she was looking for him. The first places she checked were Shiro’s and his bedroom and the library, but the siblings were nowhere to be found.
Her only option at this point was to wander aimlessly around the castle grounds in hopes of stumbling upon their latest hiding spot.
Eventually, even with the cloudy night sky obscuring any moon or starlight, Steph spotted the two, thanks to the dim light from their devices.
They were on the Elkia Castle veranda.
With its panoramic view of the grand square below, this was where Sora gave his speech when he was crowned the king of Elkia.
Thinking back on it, this is where it all started.
Steph found herself growing increasingly sentimental, when—
“……Hmm? Steph?”
“…Something, wrong…?”
—Sora and Shiro called out to her after noticing she was there.
Caught off guard, Steph scrambled to get her emotions under control before forcing a smile. “Oh, no, I merely baked some treats for the first time in ages. It took me a while to find you two out here—”
The basket was, in fact, filled with handmade doughnuts.
“Thanks, I love this stuff.”
“…Mm. So…tasty…”
They took the doughnuts off her hands and started munching away.
The same reaction as usual.
But something about the pair served to reinforce this baseless feeling that lingered in Steph’s mind.
She paused for a moment before opting to mention that feeling.
“U-um… I can’t help but feel you two seem a bit…depressed…?”
A silly question with an obvious answer.
Blank doesn’t lose.
That was basically their mantra at this point.
Unlike in their battle against Holou, where they lost to Jibril in order to pull off a win in the end—this was a legitimate defeat.
Steph couldn’t imagine them not being depressed by this, however—
“Hmm? Uh, not really… I’m perfectly fine.”
—Sora answered with a dubious expression, which left Steph gaping with shock.
“I mean, yeah, it’s not like we’re not upset. Any gamer gets upset when they lose. It sucks. I’ll be totally honest—it sucks so bad that I just wanna scream and smash my keyboard in half till the keys go flying everywhere.”
“…Brother… I’m pretty sure, you still need…to keep it classy…even when you’re upset…”
Sure, defeat sucked.
“But gamers don’t get depressed when they lose.”
“…Mm. We analyze our loss… Re-strategize… Then come back for a…”
“Rematch, where we’ll get our revenge when we emerge victorious. We don’t have time to get depressed; we gotta think things through.”
And those words rang true to Steph. She considered anything the siblings said at a moment like this to be genuine, heartfelt.
And yet—
“So anyway, we’re gonna do some analyzing of our own… Collect our thoughts, that sort of thing. It’s gonna take a while, so sorry, but if you don’t need anything else, mind leaving us alone for a bit? Thanks for the doughnuts, though. Really, I mean it.”
“…Thanks for…everything, Steph…”
Ah… I knew they’d say that. Steph clenched her right hand.
But I also shouldn’t leave them alone like this. Steph instinctively knew she had to stay.
“Uh, um! About what the Shrine Maiden was saying before—is it true? Did you two really lose?”
“Yup, we did.” Without even looking at Steph, Sora gave it to her straight. “In a bad way, too. You can’t really lose worse than how we did.”
“…We got pummeled…on the world stage…for the first time, ever…”
Their answers got Steph choked up momentarily, but she shook her head. She knew she needed to stay strong.
“B-but—even though Elven Gard almost had us, you two were able to keep the secret information out of their hands!! Not to mention you also allied with the Dwarves and Foeniculum—and all the Fairies who aren’t slaves. One loss and one victory… Doesn’t that kind of make this a tie?”
…Sure, this was by and large due to luck.
Foeniculum happened to be a fan of Sora and Shiro, and Reginleif the Enlightened intervened on their behalf, even though the dragon wasn’t exactly on their side.
Nonetheless, Sora and Shiro were able to take Elkia back. Nothing could change that.
The Elves’ scheme failed, and the Commonwealth stayed together, their bonds now stronger than ever.
Half the world might be against them, but Sora and Shiro still had more than enough power to fight back.
So I think it’s safe to call this one a draw, Steph thought.
“…Yeah, we lost one and won another; but a single loss is still a loss…” Unbridled frustration finally colored Sora’s expression. “Taking over this world meant not losing even once.”
Sora and Shiro expressed this sentiment on a daily basis—except there was something off about it this time.
Though the words were the same, Steph felt they now carried a slightly different nuance.
“…What do you mean?” she asked, voice quavering even as she kept her eyes fixed on Sora.
He said nothing—but after a few seconds, he caved to her stern gaze and started explaining himself.
“Steph—remember what I said during our match with Jibril, back when we went up against Holou?”
“…You said all sorts of things. Would you mind being a bit more specific?”
“I mean the part about what happens when you suck at winning…”
Steph nodded; she remembered that conversation. “When you are playing against multiple opponents, if your victories stir up too much hate, the other players will grow wary and eventually conspire to take you out, was it…? I believe that’s what led to Jibril’s self-ruin.”
She was right—that’s exactly what happened.
It was the same reason the Great War never came to an end on its own.
And why a world bound by the Ten Covenants currently found itself in the same situation.
To change the world, all the races needed to band together.
Even if this was done without bloodshed or loss of life, no matter what greater good this goal was touted to serve—anyone who didn’t want the world to change would consider Sora and Shiro’s plan an act of aggression.
Effectively: world domination.
And just like how world domination always failed, their goal was going to fail as well.
That is, if they tried to achieve it through logical means.
Such means couldn’t possibly help them this time around, not in this world. Therefore:
“So—we needed to hit our enemies with a sneak attack before they could band together.”
First, the siblings convinced the world that the Commonwealth wasn’t a threat.
Then they made it seem like a tricky entity, one that couldn’t so easily be dealt with.
That eventually led the rest of the world to suspect that the Commonwealth had some sort of unbeatable trump card capable of taking out an Old Deus.
But no one knew who had that trump card, and that sowed the seeds of doubt and suspicion.
This was how Sora and Shiro effectively maneuvered the Commonwealth’s position up until now. They made it difficult for other players to team up against them.
Blank needed to never lose.
Blank couldn’t afford to lose, not even once.
It was more than just a motto—it was a goal that had to be achieved no matter what.
A condition required to take on the world.
“But obviously, there’s a limit to how far we could take this. If we kept on winning, the other players would eventually be willing to accept the risk that came with teaming up against us. The Commonwealth became too large to ignore—it was only a matter of time before this happened.”
They had Immanity, Werebeast, Flügel, Siren, Dhampir, and a single Old Deus on their side.
Seven of the sixteen Ixseeds were part of the Commonwealth.
Just under half was the tipping point—that was the most they could get while still flying under the radar.
“ That’s why we used our poison. We were going to try to bring in three…ideally more than four races to our side in one fell swoop.”
Had they succeeded, they would’ve had ten races; had things gone perfectly, they’d have more than eleven. That would’ve left just five or six.
The siblings tried their absolute hardest to keep anyone from turning the tables even if they wanted to.
“But not only did they see through our plan; they used it against us… We lost.”
And now—the world knew that Blank didn’t have an unbeatable trump card.
Sora and Shiro had been brought to this world by Tet; it wasn’t their own.
That said, they didn’t have any special powers or a patron to support them. Defeat was always a possibility—they were mere humans.
Elven Gard, at the very least, definitely realized as much. That was most likely why they created an anti-Commonwealth coalition in the first place.
“What I’m trying to say is… We can’t play the same way we have been anymore. Sneak attacks aren’t gonna work from now on.”
So what happened when they figured this out?
The enemy would use logical means to crush their opponent: all-out war—a tried-and-true method since the dawn of time.
Violence was forbidden in this world, but all indirect forms of combat were allowed. Economic warfare, diplomatic warfare, civil disobedience; half the world was coming together to use these on Sora and Shiro.
With things as they were, there was no way of going forward without some sort of sacrifice.
The same scenario where the Eastern Union was brought to the brink of economic destruction—which was only avoidable thanks to the inclusion of Dwarf into the Commonwealth—was bound to happen to other nations in several different ways down the line.
That fate could no longer be stopped.
Sora and Shiro—two gamers—couldn’t pull it off.
Moreover…their defeat brought this situation on.
Therefore—it was a massive loss in every sense of the word.
Sora explained this to Steph with a gloomy expression, but—
“ Wait. Wasn’t that a matter of time in itself?”
—puzzled, she asked a question with a tilt of her head.
“…Huh…?”
The siblings stared blankly at Steph, who questioned things even further. “After all, no matter how skilled you two are at games—you’re still only human. As a matter of fact, neither of you are remotely as capable as the average Immanity… You’re barely even functional. I’m quite sure you would be pathetic failures regardless.”
“…Uh…Steph…”
“You two make mistakes all the time. I don’t think we’ve ever had anything go exactly as planned before, and I highly doubt that’s going to change—you always win by bluffing your way through the hard parts and figuring out the smaller details afterward. Now that I think about it, you’ve only ever managed to barely eke out your victories up until now…”
She meant no harm by any of this. Sora and Shiro could tell Steph was speaking in complete earnest—
“…Sheesh, Steph. You’re ruthless even at a time like this…”
“……J-just…take it easy, on us…okay…?”
—and her simple doubt brought them to tears.
Sora and Shiro were lower than the average Immanity.
With this fact laid out on the table, Steph continued:
“You two didn’t really think in your heart of hearts that you would never lose, right?”
“………Uh, I mean, i-it’s not like we’re that full of ourselves…”
She kept on kicking them while they were down, striking fear into their hearts with a thorough tongue-lashing…
She was so ruthless, it was almost entertaining to Sora, who broke into a pained smile and thought:
Yeah, she’s right—Blank’s always been this way.
We walk the thinnest of tightropes.
One wrong step is all it takes—and kaput. That’s why we plan for that misstep.
Making a mistake and falling off the tightrope is a part of the game. Sometimes it’s even the premise of our strategies.
But you can’t plan for everything, so you just put your heart and soul into recovering.
That’s why—
“It should be obvious that we’ve been ready for a critical error that’d make us lose.”
The key is how fast you can make your recovery—and how you recover. Making the right move quickly to recover properly would be the terms of the game. That’s what we thought, at least—but.
“But this time—we haven’t made a single mistake yet.”
“……Come again?”
“No matter how many times Shiro and I think it over, we can’t figure out why we lost.”
After going over every little detail, their plan was perfect no matter how you sliced it.
Even if Elven Gard was able to see through the plan, there was no way to escape it other than by remaining isolated.
This worked to pull one over on that freak of nature Veig Drauvnir—the world’s strongest Dwarf who just bullshitted his way through anything that was thrown at him—which proves it should’ve worked this time, too.
Sora and Shiro were convinced the plan was foolproof, perfect.
“We executed our plan to the letter, without a single mistake, and yet they turned it on its head and used it against us. So how exactly did we lose? We can’t figure it out at all…”
Elkia had been sealed off within a spatial phase boundary.
That required prior consent, which couldn’t have been achieved on the fly right as the Commercial Confederation was making their confessions.
And at the very least, every member of parliament—the spies who were in cahoots with the various races—would’ve had to agree on the spot to erase Elkia, too. That move was without a doubt premeditated.
The problem was: When did they do it?
Not only did Elven Gard need to weed out which spy worked for which race, but they also needed to lay their trap before Sora and Shiro caught on. They wouldn’t have been able to move behind the scenes so easily otherwise.
But they shouldn’t have thought of that if they’d believed the siblings were hiding an unbeatable trump card up their sleeve.
In short: Elven Gard sensed Sora and Shiro were keeping their cards close to their chests.
They knew that Blank was just two Immanities who didn’t have any special powers or support.
The Elves predicted the utterly inconceivable—that Blank could even take down an Old Deus.
Then and only then could they make a move.
So…when did they find out? How long had they known what Sora and Shiro were up to?
The two siblings mulled this over, and the best answer they could come up with was the enemy had been onto them since before their game with Holou.
Which meant it was sometime soon after the Commonwealth had absorbed the Eastern Union, maybe even earlier…
This enemy would’ve had to predict what Sora and Shiro were going to do from that point on—their every goal, every clandestine move.
Was that even possible?
If it was—if it truly was—then they might have a far more serious problem on their hands.
Can we even beat an opponent of that caliber?
What if Elven Gard really did read all their moves from the very beginning…?
What if they were the ones who had Sora and Shiro establish the Commonwealth and amass all the Race Pieces?
Those were the questions that had weighed on the siblings’ minds as they wandered through the castle and eventually ended up here:
The Elkia Royal Castle’s veranda.
The place where it all started. What if they had been onto us from here?
No—that’s impossible. I’m thinking too much about this. We can’t let our suspicions get the best of us.
But still… What if…?
The two siblings felt a collective chill run down their spines as they began doubting everything they thought they knew.
…What if we’re the ones playing into the hands of someone else?
What if we’re mere pawns being used to destroy Disboard?
It was the first time Sora and Shiro lost control over the flow of the game; they wondered if they ever really had any control to begin with…
“Hey, Steph… I wonder if what we’re trying to do is really the right thing…”
Unable to keep his thoughts to himself, Sora finally shared his doubts with Steph.
Saying it out loud put his heart in an ice-cold vise grip—a chill that wasn’t quite self-loathing and anguish. However:
“Um, no? Of course it’s not. I thought you knew that already.”
Steph cocked her head again and calmly shut Sora down.
…………
…Wh…at……?
“You two have been in the wrong this entire time. You’re both mistakes as people, and everything you achieve turns out to be completely off the rails. I’ve always thought you and Shiro were able to pull off all these mistakes because you’re both not right in the head, but if neither of you even realize that, this may be far worse than I ever imagined.”
““…………””
Sora and Shiro froze in bewilderment.
“That’s right,” Steph went on. “No matter what you do, you’ll always be in the wrong.”
But. She took a breath.
Without changing the tone of her voice, she continued, “Now it’s your turn, Sora. Do you remember what I said to you during our match with Jibril back when we fought Holou?”
“…You said all sorts of things… Mind being a bit more…specific…?”
Steph was giving Sora a taste of his own medicine.
Seeing as he decided to play along, she responded:
“The irrational idea that ‘if someone must be sacrificed, then we should all die indiscriminately’—that is definitely the wrong thing.”
The stars twinkled in the sky as Steph spoke.
“But that’s precisely why you will sacrifice no one—a line of reasoning I’m willing to stick with to the end.”
The clouds had lifted, revealing a night sky filled with pale light.
“You two aren’t in the wrong there—that much I can assure you.”
Bathed in moonlight, Steph beamed gracefully. Her usual tone of voice, her usual smile, her usual gaze.
That’s right: Nothing had changed.
Whatever the two siblings did was always full of mistakes.
But their mistakes had an end in sight. They were a means to their end goal.
It was their desire—the Commonwealth’s desire.
And it was truer and more noble than anything else in this world.
Thus, Steph said what Sora would usually tell her.
“What difference does it make? You’re trying to change the world without a single sacrifice—if it gets destroyed in the process, then that was bound to happen anyway. ”
“…………”
With a strained smile, she stuck out her tongue before adding, “Oh, b-but of course, the Shrine Maiden, Mr. Ino, and I will do our best to keep that from happening!! The same goes for Izuna, and Jibril and Azril, and Emir-Eins and the rest of the Ex Machina. Not to mention Til and Queen Laila, along with Foeniculum, Holou, and even Mr. Plum—you have the entire Commonwealth on your side.”
The siblings watched as Steph frantically rattled off a list of names, and they thought:
Yeah. Changing the world… That’s not something two gamers could’ve done from the get-go.
“So pay no mind to the rest—and simply be your usual selves.”
Exactly. Sora and Shiro needed to be themselves. Do what they’ve done up until that very point—calmly stir the pot.
“Gamers have to act like gamers. Stop thinking about any responsibilities that no one bothers with and just play the game. That is precisely what you two were meant to do. ”
I’ll always be here for you both…
Sora looked at Steph, who had a smile that outshined the stars in the sky.
“…Uh, say, Steph… Is it cool if…”
“…we call you…Mom, from now…on…?”
“T-talk about out of left field!! I—I can’t say I’m fine with that, no!! I’ll pass!!”
Steph was so tolerant…it was almost motherly. The two couldn’t help but let the words escape their mouths.
Everything started here. Sora made his first move when he gave his coronation speech on this very balcony.
But at that moment, they weren’t alone—they had Steph. And she was going to be there for them from here on out as well.
She would be the same Steph, even as they tried to change the world.
They were sure of that.
“So anyway—I take back what I said before about you leaving us alone.”
“…Will you…join us while…we think…?”
“Hmph! I shouldn’t have to tell you that I don’t know the first thing about games!!”
“Yeah, yeah, we know. We have about as much faith in you as a grain of mustard, so chill out.”
“Well, now it’s just sad when you put it like that!!”
Between the crimson moon and the glittering starlight, Steph could see that Sora’s and Shiro’s grins were back to normal.
This brought her great relief as she yelled at the two.
Doughnuts in hand, the gamers who risked their very future spent the night thinking…
………
That’s right. A gamer is as a gamer does.
Losing didn’t change what they needed to do.
They would never in a million years forget who defeated them:
Elven Gard— No… Auri-El.
The Elf agent plenipotentiary—Auri-El Violhart.
This ain’t over yet…
Far off in the distance, a giant chess piece loomed over the horizon. Perched atop the black king piece’s crown was a small boy kicking his legs.
Technically he wasn’t a boy, or even a human, for that matter; his eyes, with their diamond-and-spade-shaped pupils, were on a book in his hands. It was the One True God, Tet. He smiled.
“This little book has really started to fill up. I bet the story’s approaching its end.”
He sounded very excited but also somewhat lonely.
A medley of emotions struck Tet as he flipped through the book.
Now…what should this page say next?
He looked out at the crimson moon and thought for a moment.
Eventually—perhaps the result of a sudden divine revelation—the One True God began writing on the blank page with a feathered quill.
“‘The second coming of the weakest—found an archrival in the second coming of the strongest.’ ”
Yeah, I like it.
He briefly stared at the sentence with significant satisfaction before gazing into the distance again.
What he saw was a world on the verge of changes that could never be undone.
Was the world he created going to end as a long, drawn-out, dysfunctional game?
Or would it end just as he hoped—this time, as the most fun game in existence?
It was all or nothing for this six-thousand-year-long once-in-a-lifetime gamble. The outcome of which not even the One True God knew.
Tet watched with mounting anticipation as the game at last plunged into its climax.
“‘…See you soon. —Next time, on the chessboard.’”
A promise he held dear.
A future he awaited with all his heart.
“He’s gonna be your biggest obstacle if you want to keep your promise, Blank.”
You can do this, right? I’m counting on it, you know. I believe in you.
So hurry up and get over here.
Bring the world—bring him—with you.
You’re almost there—to a world where we can all play together.
Meet me here, in the future……
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