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Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari (LN) - Volume 16 - Chapter 3




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Chapter Three: The Genius 

It was one week and five days after the defeat of the Phoenix. Motoyasu had reached the vicinity of Faubrey, and now Naofumi and the others were getting ready to go and join him. 
It was the morning of their departure. 
With various calls of “Raph” in various styles, Raph-chan and all of the Raph species were praying in front of the biggest sakura lumina in the village. The fruit on the branch of the sakura lumina finally came free and dropped down to the ground, giving off a pale glow as it fell. After the fruit landed in front of the Raph species, it turned into pure light and changed shape. 
“Dafu?” said a new voice. 
I was headed outside with Raphtalia to prepare breakfast when she stopped and suddenly said, “Hold on?” 
“What’s up?” I asked, but then I quickly noticed myself. “It’s gone.” The large fruit that had appeared on the sakura lumina after the festival had vanished. 
“Indeed. I hope everything is okay,” Raphtalia said. 
“Raph-chan and the others were practically worshipping that thing. It might have been stolen. Should we enhance security?” I wondered. 
“Raph,” said Raph-chan as we reached her and the others. Behind her . . 
. there was a type of Raph species I’d never seen before? 
“Dafu.” That was an odd call for it to make. 
“What’s that thing? That’s not a Raph species from the village,” I said. 
“You can tell them apart?!” Raphtalia exclaimed. 
“Yeah, pretty much—by touch and by their voices. This one has got thicker eyebrows than the others too,” I explained. 
“When did you learn that trick?” she asked, a strange look on her face. Not like I’m hurting anyone! They’re cute, so sue me! They were like a litter of kittens born from the same parents—they all looked alike. But after living together long enough, you started to be able to tell them apart. 
“Even Ruft can do it,” I told her. 
“I think I need to have a serious discussion with both you and Ruft at some point soon,” Raphtalia said. 
“You do?” I asked. 
“Dafu!” said the newcomer. 
“This one isn’t registered to my monster seal . . . Just where did it show up from?” I wondered. 
“It isn’t a monster the Sword or Bow Hero are looking after that they turned into a Raph species . . . right?” Raphtalia suggested. 
“Don’t ask me,” I replied. It wasn’t as though the Raph species was a virus. As we stood there, perplexed, the new Raph species popped off a spell toward me. That triggered the monster seal and completed its registration, regardless of my intent. I wanted to comment on that, I really did, but first I checked its status. 
 
Pretty high, all across the board. The highest among the Raph species I had. It was almost as high as Raph-chan—level 95! Just what was this little cutie?! 
“In any case . . . I don’t know what this Raph species is, so let’s take it under our wing and give it a temporary name,” I suggested. 
“Take it under our wing?” Raphtalia raised an eyebrow. 
“Dafu!” The mysterious Raph species was waving its hand at Raphtalia. 
“For now, how about we go with Raph-chan II?” I said. 
“I’ve been meaning to bring this up for a while now . . . When you encounter a person similar to someone you already know, you have a tendency to just add ‘II’ to the first person’s name, don’t you?” she questioned me. Ulp, I was reminded again just how perceptive Raphtalia could be. 
“Dafu!” said the newcomer. 
During the subsequent breakfast, I showed Raph-chan II to Ren and Itsuki and asked them about her. As we had suspected, it wasn’t either of their monster. It also wasn’t one of the filolials that Motoyasu was taking care of. 
With no idea where she came from, or how she ended up under my care, a mysterious Raph species joined the party. 

“So are we going to have a meeting in Faubrey today?” Ren asked. “Most likely,” I said. We finished breakfast, met up with the queen, and set out. Motoyasu had reached a point just outside the capital of Faubrey, so we had decided to all gather at that point together. Then we would join him on his carriage journey from there and discuss what we were going to do next. Due to how widely known she was, we’d also decided to take the old Hengen Muso lady along with us. Including her, the party comprised me, Raphtalia, Raph-chan, Filo, Fohl, Ren, Itsuki, Rishia, Motoyasu, his three colored filolials, Gaelion, Wyndia, and Sadeena. Then there was the queen, Trash, and Eclair acting as an escort. S’yne was also quietly tagging along. 

Far too many of them, all things told. Apparently it was to look after me in my emotionally unstable state. Ruft and Shildina had remained behind to watch over the village. 
“Raph,” Raph-chan gave a call, summoning a ball of light . . . and Raph-chan II appeared. 
“Dafu!” she said triumphantly. I was at a loss for words. So Raph-chan had also learned C’mon Raph? 
I didn’t have the heart to send her back anyway, so based on the condition of her not causing any trouble, I agreed to let her come along. 
“They’ve sent a message that they are ready to receive us, so it shouldn’t be a problem,” the queen informed us. 
We had also heard the details about the Kirin battle. It had been one of the seven star heroes and his party who had been in Faubrey and confronted the beast. 
“The report informed us that all of the seven star heroes have finally been gathered together. Achieving this gathering has apparently been quite the task,” she went on. 
 
“I see. So the heroes have gathered. I very much suspect one of them of the deed. We’ll find out which one was in Faubrey and capture them at once,” I declared. 
The wagon continued to rumble and jolt onward. Along the way, the path had changed to stone cobbles, but who had the time to care about that? 
“Ren, what do you think heroes from other worlds, people like us, might be thinking?” I chose Ren to ask because Itsuki was totally spaced out for the wagon ride, and Motoyasu was only interested in Filo and his three own filolials, so he was never going to listen to me. 
“There are multiple possibilities,” Ren pondered. 
“Sure. Go on,” I prompted. 
“One pattern would be not to care about the waves at all, completely disregarding their duty,” Ren started. 
“That one I can understand right away,” I quipped. It wasn’t a bad move to think about yourself first. I wouldn’t be surprised if there were one or two who simply chose to drop out of this shitty world and live in seclusion. I’d even wanted it to get wiped out myself, although that was a while back now. 
Thinking about Raphtalia and Atla helped make me more optimistic. 
“Or maybe the seven star hero who defeated the Kirin said that he’d handle everything and so the others decided not to join in?” Ren continued. 
“Leaving other people to handle the problem would rub me the wrong way. There are already warrants out for them under the orders of the four holy heroes. If they don’t gather together at least once, they’ll be treated as criminals,” I replied. I couldn’t imagine anyone who was enjoying being summoned to another world skipping out on an event like this. 
 
“I guess there could also be the type getting lost in simply raising their level, becoming a monster out in the wilderness,” Ren posited. 
“Ah. Maybe that was the most suspicious type of all. There was that guy in Siltvelt pretending to be the Claw Hero,” I recalled. The type of player who didn’t take part in events but loved to just raise their level, living away from civilization the whole time. That could be a big problem for this world too, to be honest. Looking at Ren and the others, I could kind of understand why there had been that imposter pretending to be a hero in Siltvelt. That move wouldn’t work on us again. 
“In any case, whoever it was who interfered during the Phoenix battle must be punished. Even if they are a hero. That’s one crime I’m never going to forgive,” I stated. 
“I’m with you,” Ren agreed. “There was evil intent behind that attack, no doubt. It isn’t worthy of mercy.” 
“That’s right! They have to be punished!” Fohl, who had been listening quietly, chose that moment to speak up and give a vigorous nod. 
“Under the authority of the four holy heroes, I shall see them punished! Even if they are one of the seven star heroes!” I affirmed. That might be contrary to the image of an ideal hero held by Raphtalia and the others, but this was one point on which I simply couldn’t back down. Even if I lost myself in anger, I could never forgive the act that had killed Atla. There could be no reasoning, no peace reached with the one who would do such a thing. 
 
I was aware that I was taking things very personally and acting simply to fulfill my own desire for revenge. Yet I still couldn’t forgive the coward who had killed so many of us as we fought for the sake of this world. The one who had killed Atla. 
“Master! It’s pretty incredible out here!” Filo shouted from outside. 
“What’s up?” I took a look. The town itself looked like a pretty affluent place . . . and I could see cars that looked pretty steampunk-like, running on some kind of steam-engine technology. Cars from a level of technology featured in a series of mystery novels featuring a famous detective, perhaps? 
Then I saw a weapon shop. It appeared to be selling . . . guns? 
Faubrey looked like a pretty modern place. 
“Looks like they also sell guns here,” I commented. 
“Are you interested in guns, Hero Iwatani?” The queen looked at the weapon shop and then back at me. 
“I was just thinking about how different this place is from Melromarc. All these advancements, they look pretty powerful,” I responded. 
“Faubrey is a powerful nation, and we would certainly want to avoid conflict with them. That said . . .” She trailed off. 
“Right. Weapons rely on the status of the user here, don’t they?” I said. 
“Correct. You surely learned during the Cal Mira islands battle how things work differently in this world from your own, Hero Iwatani,” the queen said. I recalled being unable to rely on Itsuki’s attacks and having Raphtalia using the ballista on the ship. “The majority of the summoned heroes propose making use of them, but it never really works out.” Trying to get ahead by making use of modern knowledge from home? It sounded like lots of heroes had similar ideas. 
 
“They have all sorts of operational problems, too, and cost a lot to keep running.” 
“The costs when compared to a bow mean that only a few cities such as Faubrey handle them.” 
“That’s what I’ve heard too.” 
“They also run the risk of blowing up if they get hit by fire magic. If you want to make ranged attacks, magic, a bow, or a thrown weapon is a far better bet.” 
“In games, they can be strong once mastered. But not the strongest.” Itsuki also got involved in the conversation. Now that he mentioned it, I’d also played games in which guns were difficult to handle—games in which guns were clearly inferior to swords and other weapons. While this world was unquestionably real, this was also a sobering reminder that it was a place that mimicked a fantasy world. 
Seeing as the user’s status was reflected, maybe they would be strong if Itsuki tried them now—if he was able to, I mean. Itsuki’s weapon was a bow . . . so maybe he couldn’t use guns. He could use crossbows. Seemed worth getting him to try it. 
“Should I take a quite detour and copy some weapons?” Itsuki asked. 
“Yeah. If it goes well, this may make you stronger,” I told him. 
“I’ll do my best to meet your expectations, Naofumi,” he replied. 
 
“We’d better go, Itsuki,” Rishia said. Itsuki gave a nod, perhaps detecting my intent, and headed with Rishia into a weapon shop. 
Right now, we wanted all the fighting strength we could find. 
Itsuki quickly finished his copying and came back. He’d been able to copy the guns. Whether he could use them in battle or not was another matter, and they would likely need upgrading. 
The wagon rolled on, gradually moving closer to a castle larger than the one in Melromarc. It had white dove-like monsters flying through the air around it, giving off a really intense “fantasy” vibe. 
If I’d come here right after being summoned, I probably would have broken down into tears. It was far more extravagant than Melromarc and looked like a pretty nice place to live. 
As I reflected on it now, the Middle Ages setting for this world was really just a façade. I’d heard that most of the big cities during the Middle Ages in my world had truly terrible hygiene, with excrement and urine discarded from the windows and onto the street. 
I’d even heard that high heels had been created to avoid that slop. Was that a thing? 
In any case, this world certainly didn’t feel as unhygienic as that. Many places seemed to have water and sewer services—although probably not villages out in the sticks. Still, I wondered if it could have been information learned from people coming from other worlds. 

The capital of Zeltoble had seemed pretty unsafe, but this place just looked like a normal city. 
 
“Now that I think of it . . . there seems to be less discrepancy in the handling of demi-humans and humans here than in Melromarc,” I commented. Thanks to our own efforts, Melromarc was currently trying to put an end to demi-human discrimination. That said, it wasn’t going smoothly. Most of the demi-humans found in the castle town were adventurers or merchants with no real intention of actually settling down there. 
The town in my own territory had quite a few demi-humans, of course, but here in Faubrey it was like there was no discrimination at all. In Melromarc, I almost never witnessed scenes of human and demi-human children playing together, apart from in my village or the nearby town. That made this place feel quite refreshing. 
“You’re right. We could learn a lot from them,” the queen muttered, seeing the same sights as me. Melromarc was improving its treatment of demi-humans, but now the demi-human side was starting to cause problems. It was wrong to back either of them, of course. 
We passed a large church. A church of the Four Heroes, with a characteristic emblem evoking the four weapons. There was the same emblem on the church in my territory. 
The queen pointed in a different direction and said, “That’s the Church of the Seven Star Heroes.” I looked in the direction she indicated and saw another large church there. It also looked familiar. The queen proceeded to explain about both churches. 

“The altars in there have holy items that prove the existence of the heroes,” she said. 

“The ones taken from the Church of the Three Heroes?” I asked. 
“Yes. The ones the Church of the Three Heroes secretly swapped out,” she explained. 
“Wow, okay.” After we were done with our business here, maybe I’d go and take a look. 
“Look. You can see it even from a distance,” she indicated. 
“Huh?” The queen was pointing at the large stained glass window located above the emblem on the church. Both examples of circular stained glass had a design divided by lines from the center, with each section of divided glass individually sparkling. 
The stained glass on the Church of the Four Heroes was divided into four, with all four pieces of glass sparkling. Meanwhile, the Church of the Seven Star Heroes showed seven sparkling pieces of glass. However . . . there was something strange about the stained glass on the Seven Star church. 
Like there was a piece unnaturally missing. 
It looked like a certain pill-munching yellow character or like a pizza with a slice missing. Everything other than the missing piece was shining. 
“Until recently only six of them were shining. When the Gauntlets Hero was selected, apparently the seventh started to shine,” the queen explained. 
I saw some monks praying in front of the church. Then I glanced at the other heroes inside the wagon, and they looked pretty embarrassed. If the people outside found out we had heroes in here, we’d likely get mobbed by the faithful. Best to keep that one quiet. 
 
“It’s still all pretty suspicious to me,” I said. “The imposter in Siltvelt came into the castle as though he owned the place.” 
“The Seven Star church took that incident very seriously and has been investigating the seven star heroes as a result. They intend to question the heroes during this meeting,” the queen told me. 
“When we were in the village, someone did come to confirm that I’d become the Gauntlets Hero,” Fohl said, looking at the gauntlets. 
“We’ve let Faubrey know that all of the four holy heroes will be coming. After meeting with the king of Faubrey, you’ll return here to the church to officially register as the heroes,” the queen explained. 
“I see,” Ren said. 
“Anything else? Trash is the Staff Hero, right?” I turned to look at him sitting quietly in a corner of the wagon. We couldn’t leave him behind for something so important and so had brought him along. 
He was still a worthless old goat though. 
“Correct.” The queen gave Trash a poke. Trash returned it with a silent nod, just looking at Fohl and me. There was nothing regal about this guy, not a thing. “He did have an incredible battle with the Claw Hero, back in the day.” 
“I don’t need to hear about that,” I quickly stopped her. However incredible he had been in the past, now he was just an old husk. 
“Thanks to you, Hero Iwatani, I did have a fruitful discussion about legends with members of the coalition army from Siltvelt,” the queen continued, changing tack slightly. 
 
“Go on,” I prompted. 
“You know that Siltvelt worships the Shield Hero, of course,” she said. 
“I have some idea,” I replied, understating things a little. I’d had guys groveling on their knees in front of me. The Shield Hero definitely got preferential treatment over there. 
“I asked them about all sorts of legends and realized something big that doesn’t match up,” the queen explained. 
“What?” I asked. I’d known for a while now that the queen had a thing about investigating legends. Melty had mentioned it too. The legend of the filolials was apparently something she had dug up herself. From the Lost Woods, if I recalled correctly. 
“It seems that from among the four holy heroes, the Shield and Bow have been most active over there. Based on their level of activity, there’s also a bias in the legends about the seven star heroes. They mainly talk about the Hammer, Claws, and Whip.” A bias. The Shield and Bow did complement each other well, that was true. 
“Putting that together with what we learned in Kizuna’s world, it sounds like the effects of the fusing of worlds,” I pondered. There was a wave that had combined the Shield world with the Bow world, and then the Shield and Bow world had been fused with the Sword and Spear world to create the current one. It was only natural that a bias in the legends would arise. 
“Indeed. It could very well be said that we are living within a time of legends,” the queen posited. 

“The end of that time, too, if things don’t go well,” I reminded her. If the next wave caused another fusing, the world would apparently be torn apart. We’d heard all about that in Kizuna’s world, over and over. 

“It looks like we’ve reached the castle.” The queen pointed, and indeed, the castle was right in front of us. There was no more time for long discussions now. “Let’s get ourselves inside, shall we?” With a nod to herself, the queen then addressed the guard on the castle gate. 
“The queen of Melromarc and the heroes, is it? I have been told to expect you. Go ahead!” The guard had been expecting us and proceeded to open the gate without any further ado. 
Fohl, his head tilted at a suspicious angle, watched the guard as we passed. 
“What’s up?” I asked him. 
“No, it’s just . . .” Fohl trailed off. I looked at the guard myself. He was smiling broadly. What was so odd about that? “Maybe I’m imagining things. I felt something strange there, for just a moment,” he said. 
“You did? About him?” The man was still smiling and waving. Sure, it was a little creepy, but I could speak from experience when I said being too suspicious could leave you crippled in place. 
Once the cart was inside the castle grounds, the gates rumbled closed behind us. 
“Should we send Filo to park the wagon and go on ahead?” I asked. 
“I was informed we can just park it in the garden,” the queen replied. 
“Fair enough,” I said. We did so and then headed into the castle itself. Now this was a castle. The sheer size, the profundity of the place was far more than that of Melromarc. So this was the way things were in the largest country in the world. 
 
A red carpet was laid out in front of us, leading to some stairs. We were led up those stairs and toward a waiting room for our audience with the king. 
“Can you tell me more about the seven star heroes? I want to whittle down the suspicious candidates,” I asked. I probably should have sought this information sooner but hadn’t really had the chance to do so. Now one presented itself, so I took it. 
“Due to his role in taking down the Kirin, shall I start with the Whip Hero?” the queen asked. 
“Is he from this world?” I replied. 
“Yes,” she told me, explaining things as we walked along. “He’s said to be a great genius, of a kind rarely born in this world.” 
“A kind rarely born? I have a really bad feeling about that,” I said. Kyo, the one who had controlled the Spirit Tortoise, had been called a genius. There had been lots of that kind of person in Kizuna’s world too. 
“Such a genius is said to be born once every few generations in this world. An individual capable of revolutionary technology, skilled in commerce and a variety of other fields, enough to completely change the world,” she went on. I just listened in silence. “He’s a distant relation of the Faubrey royal family. He acquired and mastered magic at just the age of three.” I guess every world had its geniuses. So one of them had been selected as the hero. I’d heard Trash was a genius at strategy too, if I recalled correctly. 
 
Putting it like that, I’d had plenty of trouble with geniuses already. 
“At age five he brought about a revolution in paper-making, greatly advancing bookmaking technology around the world.” Age five? That was quite something. Itsuki had also moved closer, his ears picking up. He came from a different Japan to my own, a world where people had special abilities. But as his own abilities had only been average, he probably had some feelings about geniuses himself. The queen continued. “Everyone around him was amazed by his unparalleled abilities. At age seven he absorbed all sorts of further fields of learning, including alchemy and mechanical magic studies. He graduated top of the Faubrey school for nobles that same year. Eventually he settled in the Adventurers’ Guild, making a name for himself as an adventurer. He won the martial arts tournament hosted by Shieldfreeden and was selected as the Whip Hero prior to the arrival of the waves.” 
“A textbook genius. Incredibly suspicious. We may need to set a trap for him,” I said. 
“If in doubt, seek punishment. I do understand how you feel,” Ren chimed in. 
“But what if he isn’t the one?” the queen asked. 
“He fought one of the four benevolent animals around Faubrey but didn’t come to the Phoenix battle? That alone puts him on the wrong side of this. Worthy of punishment,” I said. 
“We’ll put it to the king of Faubrey like that. I really don’t want to trust him myself,” the queen said. 
“Something happened?” I asked. 
 
“Yes. When Witch was studying in Faubrey, I heard she was friendly with him,” the queen said, looking away from me as she answered. That sounded completely suspicious. Either that or she had been taking advantage of him. 
Even Witch’s parents didn’t trust her. Getting involved with that bitch was nothing but trouble. 
“He also has a considerable connection to Melty,” the queen continued. 
“What? Melty too?” I responded. Melty had some connection to the Whip Hero? 
“When she was in Faubrey, the sister of the Whip Hero took a liking to picking on her,” the queen said. 
“Teasing her and stuff?” I asked. 
“Having such a capable brother has grown his sister into a bit of an entitled brat. A level supremacist, believing that those with high levels are innately better than those with low levels, she took a liking to messing with Melty, who was learning technology,” the queen explained. I imagined a hero with a muscle-headed sister. She went on. “I’m sure Melty tried to avoid her, but his sister was probably pretty pushy about it.” 
Sounded like a real nuisance. I felt sorry for Melty being surrounded by people her own age like that. It was good she found a friend like Filo. 
“I bet Melty could handle her easily now,” I said. Maybe not to the extent of Filo, but Fitoria had still drawn out Melty’s latent abilities. Any level supremacists who gave her trouble now would get a beating. 

“Back on topic, anyway. Apparently the Whip Hero is currently investigating new means of travel,” the queen said. She pointed outside the window of the room. Huh? Something was flying through the air. For a moment, I thought it was a flying monster, like a dragon, but no . . . it was an aircraft.
 
“That’s what you’re talking about?” I asked. 
“Yes. A past hero provided information about a machine that allows flight without using a dragon, griffon, or magic. The Whip Hero has advanced that idea to practical implementation,” the queen confirmed. So this guy really was a genius. The doubts swirled and thickened inside me. 
“A genius? I can’t say I like smart folks.” The old lady ostentatiously cut into the conversation. First Itsuki, now the old lady. I wished they’d stop listening in on other people’s conversations. 
She’d also caught my interest though. Why did the old Hengen Muso lady hate geniuses? 
“I’ll bite. Why?” I asked. 
“Hengen Muso Style was torn apart from the inside and destroyed by one of these rare geniuses,” she explained. 
“It was?” Now she really had my interest. 
“That’s right. A genius who believed he was the one to rule the world and sought to wipe out all other styles in order to achieve that goal,” she said. 
“Wow, okay.” Something else that every world seemed to struggle with. 
“Geniuses are said to be in command of both growth and decline. At every major turning point in history, such an individual is always there in the shadows. The Whip Hero has all those expectations, and those worries, pinned on him,” the queen continued. Turning points, she said. So things like big wars. It did feel like the big incidents for which many materials were lost had geniuses involved. Thinking back to everything that had happened in Q’ten Lo, there were also often bitches like Witch involved too. 
 
“I’ve actually never met the king of Faubrey. What’s he like?” I asked. The queen covered her mouth with her fan, narrowing her eyes and looking away. What? It was that bad? 
“The king of Faubrey is one completely given over to his base desires. When he sees a woman . . . to put it bluntly, he sees nothing but a toy for his pleasure,” the queen explained. I managed an exasperated sigh. She went on. “He is truly an ugly man, in not just appearance but all things. When I was younger, I was so scared that my parents would send me to marry him,” she confided in me. 
“Hold on, what?” I blurted out. I wondered what she was talking about. Weren’t we just talking about the king of Faubrey? 
“If we could capture Witch alive, I was thinking a fitting punishment might be to give her to King Faubrey. I’m sure she’d beg for forgiveness right away and bow and scrape before you, Hero Iwatani,” the queen said. 
“If Witch would hate it that much, I’d very much like to capture her alive and do just that,” I said. If it would make that horrible bitch grovel like that, I’d love to see it. I wouldn’t back down on that point. 
“M-Mirellia?! You wouldn’t really do that—” Trash asked the queen with a terrified look on his face. He was pale. 
“Fehhh . . .” Rishia said, clearly frightened herself. 
 
“Rishia, are you okay?” Raphtalia asked. Even Rishia, on the fringes of the conversation, was turning pale. I pondered whether it would really be that vicious of a punishment or not. 
“Would it really be so unjust?” the queen replied to her husband. “You’ve heard the stories of what she’s done, correct?” Trash could only grunt in reply. 
“How old is this king anyway?” I asked. 
“He’s Trash’s older brother by about thirteen years,” the queen said. Trash was the youngest of the Faubrey princes, if I recalled correctly. So it would be like sending Witch to be married to a relative. “He’s stupid and ugly, but he has enough intellect to protect his own authority. He’s been honed by being king of a tumultuous nation for many years, after all,” the queen continued. 
“I still don’t understand why she would hate it so much?” I said. Witch was pretty fixated on appearances, true, so maybe an ugly husband would be hellish for her. 
“Let me explain a little more about that. The Faubrey royal line has a long history of taking husbands and wives from among the four holy and seven star heroes. As a result, they are known throughout the world as the bloodline of heroes,” the queen explained. This was a world in which gods basically existed, after all. I’d come close to being deified in Siltvelt myself. Those summoned as heroes likely enjoyed the special treatment. Even if those on the royal side had their own schemes, it was probably still a pretty decent place to end up. Children from the royal side could probably go and serve in large nations too, receiving preferential treatment and get married there. That very bloodline was also why there was so much conflict over authority, however. 
 
“Are there more male heroes than female ones?” I asked. 
“There are women, but the bloodline never spread as far as the men,” the queen said. That was simply the difference between the stud and the mare, to put it . . . graphically. I wondered if the heroes were generally scum. Was that it? I’d heard about more than one of them making a harem. 
If I’d obeyed Atla’s final words, maybe I’d have ended up the same. 
Maybe this was just limited to those four holy heroes summoned from another world. So I guess it made the royal bloodline the grandchildren of people like us—just those who decided to set up their own harem here. 
“The current king is more skilled at power plays than even Witch. There’s definitely a reason he’s been king for so long,” the queen explained. 
“I see . . .” Even worse than Witch. And there was no way to avoid this meeting. 
“I once heard the king of Faubrey say something disgusting about how the closer one of his playthings is to death, the tighter they are,” the queen said, her lip curling. Oh God. So he was a real sadist. A true enemy of women. 
“The first place well-born ladies who cause any problems are married off to is Faubrey. When they learn of their intended, many of them choose to kill themselves instead,” the queen said. 
“Suicide? I guess it’s better than being beaten to death,” I replied. 
 
“It’s a famous method of execution in this world. They say he once kept a favorite girl of his alive for more than three months, using magic and medicines such as Elixir of Yggdrasil,” the queen continued. So marrying someone off to him was the same as an execution. Quite the punishment. Faubrey clearly had its own fair share of darkness. 
They also apparently had the right to summon the four holy heroes first. I couldn’t imagine getting summoned here. According to Rat and some of the others, they also had a number of the seven star heroes under their wing. 
It was a country with vast lands, power, and military force—a long history too, enough to be called the “nation of heroes.” With such a twisted ruler in power, I wondered why the people weren’t rioting in the streets. 
“His engagement with Witch had already been set up. She avoided it by becoming a companion to a hero,” the queen said. Who knew where she was then? She’d discarded Motoyasu, set up with Ren, and then horribly betrayed him before cleaning him out and fleeing. After she tricked Itsuki, she’d gone on a rampage in Zeltoble and ran up massive debts before vanishing. No word of her since then. 
“The last thing I heard was that he was prepared to receive Witch as his ten-thousandth toy,” the queen unwillingly admitted. 
“Ten-thousandth?!” I exclaimed. Hold on a moment. Math wasn’t my strong point, but that meant he’d already used 9,999 women as “toys?” That was just going too far. The most extreme humiliation porn game would never go that far. 

But hold on. This guy was older than Trash, right? I didn’t know how many days there were in a year in this world, but at one a day, that would be 365 for one of my home years. Considering his age, then, even 9,999 might not be enough. 

In either case, it was still a terrifying number. 
First Melromarc, then Siltvelt, Q’ten Lo, Zeltoble, and now Faubrey— were there no reasonable, measured countries in this world? I wanted to know if there was only suffering to be found anywhere you went in the world. 
Rather than the next of the waves, I was starting to become more concerned for this world itself. 
“As one who continued to allure and use men, you could consider it fitting if she died by the hand of a man. She escaped that fate through service to the heroes, including her slights to you,” the queen said. The king certainly did sound like pure scum, but the fact he was male still nagged at me. I wondered what would happen if Witch managed to get him under her thumb. She was a genius at deceiving people. Making use of her attractive exterior, she might have taken control of even the king of Faubrey. In that case, we’d have been looking at a worse situation than the current one. 
“Is there a chance Witch would have been able to survive?” I asked. 
“I can’t say there’s zero chance she would win him over, but I’m sure other countries have already attempted such a ploy. Considering the size and power of his nation, making an ally of him would bring the world to your feet. Yet there are no examples of his ever having listened to anything a woman has said,” the queen replied. He was like Motoyasu had been when we started out, but in the worst possible way. However, Motoyasu had been a feminist. 
 
“Enough of this. I’m more focused on punishing the one who interfered with the Phoenix battle.” That individual wasn’t going to die easily. They were going to pay dearly! 
As we talked, some soldiers came to the waiting room. 
“The king is ready for his audience with you. Heroes, please come this way,” one of the men announced. Finally! They had kept us waiting long enough. 
“King Faubrey has the habit of sleeping past noon. He keeps anyone waiting for at least this long,” the queen mentioned. I wondered if this country could really function. 
Huh? Right then, I felt something . . . tremble in my pocket. I took it out to see the anchor accessory that Ethnobalt had given me. I checked the accessory a couple more times, just to make sure, but there was no response. It was like I had just imagined it. 
I didn’t give it any more thought, and we followed along behind the soldiers as one of them shouted, “Announcing the queen of Melromarc, the four holy heroes, and their entourage!” 
 





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