Illustrations

Chapter 1 – Reconnaissance and Special Food Procurement Mission

A small magic airship left the Baumeister Earldom, heading westwards. This ship had been excavated from an underground ruin under Arnest’s guidance. The royal family had permitted the Baumeister House to run it, resulting in the ship being added to the Baumeister Earldom’s feudal army.

An air fleet considered to belong to the demon country had suddenly appeared at the Terra Harrez Archipelago, an island chain located west off Holmia’s coast, and occupied that area. In response the Margrave Holmia House was now preparing for war.

Currently we were traveling to that margraviate in order to reinforce the margrave and his forces. However, the demons were building a temporary base on one island of the Terra Harrez Archipelago, making it an emergency. Because of that, almost none of the reinforcements brought ground forces with them, I hear.

The higher-ups of the royal army judged that a genuine invasion of the Holmia Margraviate itself was rather unlikely, so neither the Kingdom nor us dispatched any ground forces. Both of us are going to mostly provide magicians and air forces.

Had we dispatched regular military troops, the one receiving the reinforcements would need to make certain preparations, too. The side sending the reinforcements had the duty to cover their soldiers’ expenses, but if many soldiers had to be fed with food in the west, it’d hike up food prices and it’d likely be difficult to secure the necessary amount of provisions.

And even without us sending our ground forces, the western lords are currently under martial law, urged to mobilize their feudal armies. The supply of their troops will take the highest priority.

The Kingdom’s west sported the biggest grain-producing areas within the realm, but given that it was indispensable for the west to export their grain to other areas in the Kingdom on top of filling up their own storages, they didn’t really have that much leeway.

For this reason, it was decided to limit the dispatch of ground forces as much as possible…in what you’d basically call a tacit understanding. Or in other words, they’re telling me to guess as much myself since I’m a noble.

“Hmm, turning a magic airship into a creche is an amazing idea.”

“Well, it’s a stopgap measure since all the mobilized female magicians of the Baumeister Earldom are young mothers.”

The ship had picked up Doushi and Burkhart-san at Breitburg. Both blinked their eyes in surprise when they saw a magic airship having been changed into a child-care station. Taking one’s children along to what might become a battlefield being unprecedented…wasn’t actually true.

Even in the past, some female magicians had taken their children along to their army’s encampments during wartimes.

“It does require diapers and baby goods as supply.”

“We brought enough with us.”

And not only that. We’ve also prepared the goods necessary for the maids under Dominique who were helping out with the baby-care.

“You’re not going to resupply at Holmialand, the central city of Holmia Margravate, then?”

“We won’t get close to that city…”

Minister Edgar had contacted us, informing us that we are to directly head to the western Port City Sirius, the city closest to the archipelago and home of Holmia’s naval forces.

“Well, you see, I’m just worried and concerned that you might earn yourself some criticism if you don’t splurge a bit by buying bigger chunks.”

The majority of nobles was a lot stingier than you’d expect from them, but if they departed to another noble’s territory, they’d generously spend their money. The biggest reason was prestige, but another reason might be found in the attempt to lower the amount of money spent in another noble’s territory as much as possible.

Burkhart-san must be worried about me as I didn’t do any of that.

“He is going to spend money in Sirius anyway. Besides, we are practically at war right now, so all the little society games can wait for later!”

It’s just as Doushi says. Right now, the Kingdom is in a state of 『Quasi-War』. The sole reason why it still had a “quasi” attached to it lay in us not having grasped the demons’ objective so far, and the residents of Holmia Margraviate not having suffered direct damage, despite the demons occupying the archipelago, since the islands were uninhibited, so it wasn’t necessary to urgently counterattack.

However, because the demons could attack at any moment, we had to get ready for interception either way. Depending on the situation, the Kingdom might also order us to recapture the archipelago. In such a case, it’d lead to tremendous expenses as infantrymen would be gathered from all over the Kingdom. Accordingly, the Kingdom only sent a select few such as magic airships and magicians to the Holmia Margravate as reinforcement.

“We will leave the guidance within Sirius to you two, Burkhart-san, Doushi.”

Previously I had heard that both often stayed in the west during their active days as adventurers. Since they should have visited Sirius as well, they’d be naturally suited to serve as our guides.

“You can count on me!”

“I don’t mind, but wouldn’t Erwin be more suited here, seeing how he was born in the west?” Burkhart-san advised.

“Burkhart-san, I never left my family’s territory until I came to Breitburg, so it’ll be impossible for me. I never went to Sirius or Holmialand neither.”

“Really?”

“I can’t use magic, so my means of travel are limited.”

Because Erw also hails from a poor Knight family, I doubt he went on trips in the past. At most, it should have been outings like picnics in the Arnim Knightdom and its circumference.

“Erw, where’s the Arnim Knightdom located anyway?”

“Towards the western edge of the margraviate. It’s surrounded by mountains and extremely rural,” Erw explained in response to Ina’s question.

According to him, the Arnim Knightdom was a typical hinterland territory, but since you could reach a somewhat bigger town if you followed a mountain road for around a day, it was still better off than the Baumeister Knightdom.

“Erw, are we going to run into your father and brothers are Sirius?”

“Who knows? I think they’ve been mobilized as a vassal of Margrave Holmia’s vassal, but I don’t know where they’ve been stationed.”

Because we were at a critical juncture where the demons could attack the western territories, Erw’s family should have dispatched its soldiers, too. It was unthinkable that Margrave Holmia wouldn’t order them to send their troops.

However, it’s also possible that adding such small, untrained forces into the defense forces might become a drawback instead. The unskilled and untrained feudal armies would get in the way of the trained elites.

I don’t know anything about the skill level of Margrave Holmia’s forces, but no matter what you say, they were still the army under one of the three margrave houses. It’d be ludicrous to think that they were less skilled than the feudal troops of the Arnim Knightdom.

“If you add clumsy, untrained folks and cause chaos within the ranks, it’ll lead to the collapse of the whole army. Aren’t they simply guarding some place?” Erw asked.

I had witnessed many such cases during the Empire’s civil war. An army isn’t just about the numbers.

For that reason, such troops are often deployed as guards of supply or transport units. And even if they considered whining about such deployment, they’d need to face a margrave. As it’d be impossible for any lower noble to speak up here, they’ll very likely do as ordered, even if reluctantly.

“Life sure is tough.”

“A place like ours is still better off than your old home, Wend. If we take the family affluence into account, my family’s equal to Ina and Luise’s, I’d say.”

Poor knights were often inferior to the chief retainers of high-ranking nobles when it came to economic power. Officially, master-servant-relationships don’t exist among nobles, but in reality, it was impossible for Erw’s father to defy Margrave Holmia.

“For a tiny noble that might actually be welcome.”

“Maybe, but won’t they itch to make an appearance at the front line, since they’re nobles, even if insignificant ones?”

In case of a war, such nobles always want to get in the front line to wield their sword. This stemmed from all the stories and historical records of cool nobles who made names for themselves through their heroic achievements on the battlefields, but if a family head did something like that and died during the campaign, sorting out the succession would take time. Moreover, the economical output of the territory also drops with each lost soldier as most of them are normal inhabitants of the fief.

In reality, they might wish to be deployed in the rear, if possible.

“Anyway, I don’t want us to meet my old man or my brothers. They’d only cause trouble to Wend.”

For a long time now, some people have been believing that they’d be able to score important posts at the Earl Baumeister House through Erw’s connections. From Erw’s point of view, he must be worried that they might say something unnecessary if we run into them here.

“It looks like we have arrived.”

The big port city Sirius sprawled beyond the airship. The city itself looked as peaceful as ever, but a fleet consisting of the Royal Navy and Holmia’s navy was imposingly docked at the port, making the preparations for war pretty obvious.

“The navy, huh…?”

Yep, because of the existence of magic airships, maritime transport isn’t overly developed in this world. The main cause is to be found in the usefulness of airships simply being too predominant, but because of many dangerous ocean currents and topographical issues, it isn’t easy to build new ports, and the existence of sea serpents also plays a role in this.

As a result of that, most of the maritime ships had developed in the direction of downsizing, arriving at the current state of the navy.

Bigger ships would be okay with traveling the oceans since they were difficult to attack for serpents, but they came with troubles in regards to fitting port facilities. Regardless of fishing ships or marine transport, it’d be an eternal conflict between inconvenience and deficits. And, although such big ships would be a valid means to travel between continents, they would mostly serve as deadwood since the existence of continents other than Lingaia wasn’t proven as of yet.

Medium-sized ships would get attacked by serpents out on the ocean, and they lost out to small ships in utility near the coast. They could carry more freight than small ships, but they were outdone by airships, which could take the shortest route in the sky on top of that.

If you excluded fishing, ships could mostly cover the parts which were left unattended by airships, I suppose.

Many of the landed nobility with ports possessed their own navy to crack down on smuggling and piracy. …But, since the ships and scale of the organization necessary for that kind of policing work were small, their combat abilities were limited to handling common pirates, smugglers, and other sea criminals.

I had heard that Holmia’s navy was leading in the Kingdom, but the sizes of their boats and the number of ships was shabby at best. The Royal Army wasn’t much better in comparison with Holmia’s navy as they only deployed their navy in territories under the Kingdom’s direct control. With the air force being prioritized, the navy was doomed to a life in the shadows within the army.

“In the first place, the navy is probably useless anyway since the opponent seems to use an air fleet.”

Given that the navy ships weren’t equipped with convenient weaponry like cannons, they had no means to deal with airborne enemies. On the other hand, they’d be under constant threat of sinking after suffering an air raid.

They’ve been informed about the magic cannon developed in the Mizuho Dukedom, but it’d be impossible to suddenly mass produce and distribute something like that. Also, it was unthinkable that Duke Mizuho would offer his technology to the Kingdom. Even the Empire only recently entered the testing phase with prototypes, I hear.

“I guess we’ll first head over to greet Duke Holmia…”

As soon as we landed our airship at the designated docking place, we went over to the temporary headquarters while leaving our babies, the maids, and the guards behind.

◆◇◆

“You’re Earl Baumeister-dono? Thank you for your support.”

Margrave Holmia was 38 years old. He inherited title and land after his father died of illness a few years back…Elise had briefed me.

He seemed to be average when it came to his abilities as lord, and just like he wasn’t a particularly wise ruler, he wasn’t a fool either.

“Things have become quite dire, haven’t they?”

“And here not much time has passed since the end of the Empire’s civil war… But…”

Going by the latest news, the mysterious ─ or rather it’s pretty much set to be demons ─ fleet has been carefreely continuing the establishment of a base on the Terra Harrez Archipelago without showing any hints of moving from there.

“That’s the result of your navy’s reconnaissance, right?”

“Well, the reconnaissance itself is limited to small boats, though. As the other side didn’t do anything to hinder us from scouting for some reason, it wasn’t all that difficult to obtain that information either, but…even so, they feel somehow eerie.”

“We can’t see the objective of the other side, that’s why.”

“Because of that, we’re troubled right now, but the only work we currently have to do is to remain on standby while staying vigilant. This keeps me fairly busy, however…”

The army of the Margrave Holmia House, the armies of other local nobles, and the royal army is successively assembling in the area. And since they use up big amounts of goods even without doing anything, Margrave Holmia has to administer all of it.

The costs are covered by the Kingdom and nobles who sent reinforcements, but their troops still need to procure on site what they don’t have on hand. Guaranteeing a smooth transport of materials is the margrave’s most important task.

“Some of my retainers are insisting on attacking with the whole army to recover the archipelago…I feel so drained even though nothing has even happened yet…”

“I see…”

“Even if we manage to recover the archipelago successfully, it only consists of empty, uninhabited islands. With our opponents being demons, the casualties will likely be high, so if you consider the price to be paid, I cannot put such a loss-heavy order into practice as long as the Kingdom’s government doesn’t make the call.”

“Having said that, it’ll also be a problem to leave things as they are, eh?”

Allowing for his own territory to be stolen would damage his honor as a noble.

It’s pretty obvious that Margrave Holmia wanted the demons to withdraw. As margrave, he was very unwilling to admit his true thoughts that there would be almost nothing to gain from carrying out a recovery operation, but even the Kingdom’s government wasn’t as foolish as to blame him for this. After all, they’d be hard pressed, if Margrave Holmia told them to recover the archipelago with the Royal Army since he’d yield the territorial rights to the Kingdom.

“It means we have no choice but to watch the situation for now, but even that action alone lets the expenses skyrocket. Why did things develop like this…?”

All I could do was to conversationally agree with Margrave Holmia’s bickering.

◆◇◆

Given that I had fulfilled my duty of showing up and greeting, I left the headquarters and went back to our ship. My babies were over there, and the ship’s interior possessed all facilities and equipment necessary for living.

I think it’ll be plenty for us to wait here, even while not staying at an inn or something like that.

“It’s essentially the troop headquarters of the Baumeister army, isn’t it?”

“Leaving aside the quality, our numbers are too lacking to call it an army, though.”

It was a campaign with our only combat forces being magicians who were my wives at the same time. So far as it went, we had some soldiers with us, but they ultimately came along as guards. Burkhart-san and Doushi were present too, but they were treated as reinforcements of Margrave Breithilde and the royal family respectively.

“Is there anything for us to do?”

“Hmm, no, I don’t really think so. We won’t have anything to do as long as nothing happens,” Luise answered Ina.

It’d be bad for us to push ourselves and steal the work of the normal soldiers. I mean, I’m not all that eager for us to be ordered to spearhead an attack on the archipelago as a result of us drawing attention to ourselves by working too hard.

I’m simply hoping that the Kingdom’s government chooses the solution with the least casualties.

“How about we go shopping then?”

“Oh, nice idea, Katharina. Let’s go all together, okay?”

Leaving the baby-care to Dominique and the other maids, we headed to Sirius. Currently the city was practically in a state of war, but it wasn’t as though they were fighting in the streets. Given that many soldiers from the outside were around, the city seemed to prosper thanks to all the business they brought about.

There would be no end if they were to transport the necessary goods each and every time, and if they did, it’d also require bringing a supply unit along. As such, it was easier to simply bring money and buy what was necessary in Sirius. Because of the current state of the city, the prices were somewhat high, but it was still cheaper than having supply units transport the goods.

But, I guess you can’t expect anything less of the city’s merchants who are good at calculations.

“Ironically, they are making a profit because of the war.”

“I wouldn’t bet on it. Even if the tax revenue increases a bit, Margrave Holmia will probably end up deep in the red…”

Burkhart-san and Doushi examined the city’s state while stuffing our mouths with roasted skewers of a creature resembling squid (though I think it’s squid anyway).

The number of people from the outside had increased, and the merchants seemed to rejoice over the grown sales. We could see members of the royal army, western lords and their troops, and other magicians who have come here to support the war effort like us. Even without any battle raging, they were eating and drinking just as usual, and some of them also stayed in inns, if their numbers were on the lower end.

The city of Sirius was thriving within a sort of war state, in other words.

“Hmm? Earl Baumeister-dono?”

“Phillip-dono? Christoph-dono, too? How come?”

“We’re here as reinforcements.”

We reunited with the two, who fought together with us during the Empire’s civil war, while strolling through the city. Several dozen officers of the royal army were following them. Apparently they were just coming back from greeting Margrave Holmia.

“Long time no see. But, I heard that the royal army only dispatched its air force.”

“Elise-dono, that stems from things being roughly abbreviated, I think.”

Since I wanted to hear the latest news, I decided to invite the two for tea. Phillip and Christoph had their men, except for a few guards, return to their camp, and then headed to a restaurant together with us. Over there, we booked a room, and started to chat while eating desserts and so on.

“The reinforcements mainly consist of the air force, but a certain number of ground forces have also been stationed on the ships.”

“After all, they’ll need infantrymen if they’re going to launch a landing operation to retake the archipelago.”

However, supply would become tough if they sent too many soldiers to the Holmia Margraviate. Accordingly they selected the royal soldiers, who lived through the Empire’s civil war, and their commanders, Phillip and Christoph, under the principle of going with a few elites who would be capable of coping with accidents.

“It feels like something bothersome has been pushed on me, but my peerage was raised and I was also appointed as general, so well…”

“I was also appointed as a military official, and since it’s work, it means I should do my best to an extent where I won’t die.”

Their reputation took blow during the succession dispute of the Margrave Browig House, but afterwards they played an active role in the Empire’s civil war while leading royal forces. It seems they are disqualified as lords over territory, but they are treated favorably because they’re two of the few successful, battle-hardened appointed nobles.

“So, Minister Edgar had a decent foresight, I’d say.”

“Erwin, I actually think so as well, and it’s true that he’s taking care of us, but Minister Edgar has also been evaluated highly for his decision to have picked us up.”

“That evaluation is yet another reason why we’ve been mobilized.”

Well, that might be the nobles’ way of 『I scratch your back if you scratch mine』. I’ve heard that Phillip became an appointed Viscount and Christoph an appointed Baron. Both then became Minister Edgar’s vassals after going separate ways and becoming independent.

“That man is noble contrary to what his appearance would suggest, isn’t he?”

“Thanks to his appearance, he’s treated as a meathead, and many nobles fall for that trick.”

According to Christoph, Minister Edgar seems to be a genuine, high-ranking noble. Though I’ve known as much for a while now after considering the matter with Wilma.

“So, what is the Kingdom planning at this point?” Elise asked about the main topic, steering the conversation in that direction.

“They’re divided on it.”

According to them, some nobles regarded this as war since the demons occupied the archipelago and were now building a base there. Others thought that it’d be more constructive to have at least one talk with the demons first, given that the Kingdom is in the middle of preparing its defenses at the moment and since it’s not like they invaded the continent’s mainland but the uninhabited archipelago.

Christoph explained that the authorities were still discussing the matter as opinions were divided in those two camps.

“Has His Majesty not made any decision yet?”

“No. One of the reasons is the lack of information to make a qualified call.”

At present, none of us could grasp the demons’ aim.

“Even though it’d be common sense to dispatch diplomats first, they suddenly occupied the archipelago. But, according to the reconnaissance intelligence, the number of soldiers on the demons’ side is low…”

The number of personnel on their airships remains unclear, but it sounds like less than a thousand people are currently working on constructing the base.

“The demons as a race have a low population to begin with, but although their technological level should surpass ours by leaps and bounds, it looks like they’re working awfully slowly, so it begs the question what they’re up to.”

“Hmm.”

“Our side’s preparations to intercept will take some time as well, so it appears we’ll be on standby for a while.”

Neither side has sent out diplomats or diplomatic corps. The demons are leisurely building their base while Margrave Holmia is getting ready to intercept them. Under these circumstances, it’s impossible for us to make a move. After all, I got no authority in this matter whatsoever.

“I guess we’ll buy some souvenirs to take back home, and go back…”

“I think it’d be better to hold back on the souvenirs for now. It looks like this is still going to take quite some time.”

I ended up being told something very mother-like by Ina. Instead of souvenirs, we decided to buy fish that would be good as ingredients before heading back to the airship.

As former Japanese, the option of not buying fish after coming to a port city simply doesn’t exist.

However…

“Noble sir, Sirius is a port city and fish are our specialty, but the bigger fish boats have been procured for scouting the Terra Harrez Archipelago, and the haul that can be obtained with small fish boats has been completely bought up by the army. I mean, recently there’s a lot of soldiers in the city, right? Then again, we don’t really mind since we can sell all of our catches.”

“WHAT WAS THAT───!?”

“Earl-sama, is that any reason to get so angry?”

“Burkhart-san, don’t you find it terrible if you go on a trip to other regions but can’t eat the local specialties over there?”

“I think it’s regrettable, but would that qualify as reason to get so upset about it?”

When we went to the fishing harbor to directly obtain some fish, no decent fish were left. Asking the old fishmonger about the reason, I got pissed by the reality of being unable to purchase the local fish.

“Erwin, you tell Earl-sama as well.”

Burkhart-san, who was wondering why I suddenly had such an attitude, apparently hoped to get Erw to support his case, but right now he was on my side.

“Even though Haruka-san had planned to dry salted fish overnight for us… That dish tastes best with fresh fish, and yet…”

“Erw-san, a tasty dried salted fish with the old fish over here will be impossible.”

Haruka, a Mizuho woman, already had full control of Erw’s stomach.

“That’s totally true, isn’t it? Dried fish really lacks impact if you don’t use fresh fish…”

“That is Milord for you. You understand this very well,” Haruka praised me, but I’m no former Japanese for show.

Still, is it really okay to have to put up with the absurdity of coming to the sea and yet not being able to get any fresh fish!? No, it’s as ridiculous as going to war.

“Ugh…Doushi, you say something to this as well.”

“The true charm of traveling lies in the local ingredients and cuisine! Not being able to eat fish after coming all the way to Sirius is awful!”

Doushi is someone enjoying the culinary experience during trips, too. He was as pissed about fresh fish not being available as me.

“If it’s a matter of money, I’ll play! So please sell us fresh fish!”

“That is…we have a contract with Margrave Holmia’s army to wholly sell the small amount of fresh fish to them…”

It sounds like they put in a recurring, regular order in advance since they’d hate to receive old fish.

“It’s His Lordship’s request and it’s not like they beat down the prices either. Sorry, but I got no share for you.”

“Bloody hell…!”

“Dear, how about we visit another store?”

“Madam, all of us fishmongers in Sirius are in the same situation.”

Not only the Margrave Holmia House, but the other nobles, who had mobilized their feudal armies, had also ordered regular deliveries, resulting in us being unable to buy fresh fish as we got a late start here. I ended up dropping my shoulders in disappointment over that fact.

“Wend, you alright?”

“Say, isn’t there at least a bit?”

Knowing with my obsession over food, Ina gently consoled me while Luise gave it another attempt by asking the fishmonger about his stock of fresh fish.

“It’s so dire that even our family doesn’t eat any fresh fish right now.”

The stomachs of soldiers are to be feared. Even if the haul quantity might have dropped, for them to have bought up all of Sirius’s fish…

“Being unable to eat fish…it makes me wonder whether I should regard Holmia’s army as much more of an enemy than the demons who I’ve never actually seen myself anyway.”

“Wendelin-san, I kind of doubt that this thinking is the right attitude for a noble of the Kingdom…,” Katharina chided me right away.

“I can totally relate to hubby’s feelings. As an adventurer I went to all kinds of places, but one of the joys in doing so was being allowed to eat the local dishes.”

“Oh, so you think so as well, Katia?”

“Every once in a while, I ran across some crazy local cooking, but I heard that Sirius’s fish tastes good.”

“Indeed. I heard the fish over here are quite decent in their own right, although they’re slightly inferior to the fish imported from the north.”

In the eyes of the former Duchess Philip, Therese, the fish in her homeland must be the best. And yet she apparently knew that Sirius is the place with the most delicious fish in the Kingdom.

“Say, Wend-sama.”

“What’s up, Wilma?”

“Why don’t we catch some ourselves?”

“Err…because of fishing rights, I’d suspect?”

Wilma was apparently claiming that we should simply catch the fish ourselves if we can’t buy them. Which reminds me, me fishing with her at the coast south of the Demon Forest allowed me to get along for real with her.

However, fishers are usually a pain when it comes to fishing rights. Not only will you get scolded if you catch fish on your own accord, but depending on the region, poachers are turned into fish fodder.

Currently only small boats are left, and it’s possible to get attacked by serpents who appear at the coast.

I thought it might not be that simple to catch fish.

“When it comes to fishing right, it’ll be okay if you hire a certain number of fishermen as crew. It’ll be no problem as long as you get them to come along for the fishing while paying them a daily wage,” explained the fishmonger.

The rules were a lot laxer than I had expected.

“Are any fishermen left over?”

“There are. Since the folks, who were recruited as scouts of the archipelago, can’t fish, less fishermen than usual ride on boats. And with just small fish boats, some fishermen will be out of work, no matter what you do.”

Given that they can’t do their work normally, they currently ignore the ownerships of the small fish boats and seem to use them in shifts to sail out for fishing. However, as they’re unable to avoid a loss in income with this method, they’ll probably jump at any opportunity to make some extra cash with a side job, the fishmonger said.

“But, even if you have fishermen left over, no boats are available, right?”

As someone who had worked for a long time as an adventurer, Lisa seemed to have an abundance of experience in society, something you could probably describe as fitting for her age. She immediately pointed out the contradiction in what the fishmonger was saying.

“Sure am no match for you, young miss. But, as long as you’ve got a boat, you can catch fish if you head around one kilometer off the coast. If it comes to an amount to feed a noble family like yours, you can catch plenty with a normal fishing rod. And serpents won’t show up either if you don’t head out beyond ten kilometers off the coast.”

“I see, so a boat is indispensable, huh?”

In that case, it’s not going to be any problem.

At once I started to prepare the boat necessary for fishing.

＊　　　＊　　　＊

“Wend-kun, where did you get that boat from?”

“From my magic bag.”

“I saw as much myself, but…it kind of looks like an expensive boat.”

“Well, I got it for cheap, though.”

I just need to catch fish myself if I can’t buy any.

Using Wilma’s opinion as a reference, I put a boat into water at the wharf, near my magic airship. It was around thirty meters long and its form somewhat resembled a cruiser. It was something I found in the underground ruin located in the Demon Forest, and according to its manual, it’s a magic touring boat for leisure which was popular among the rich in the era of the Ancient Magic Civilization.

The main feature of this boat was to be found in it moving its propellers through mana provided by magic crystals. Only a part of the larger navy ships in the royal army and some noble’s armies are equipped with such a propulsion system, and its weakpoint would be that you can’t install this system on smaller boats like this one here with the current technological level of this era.

Being told that it was for research purposes, the magic tool guild bought several of those boats off me, but it looks like they weren’t in time to come up with a new magic propulsion system for the currently boiling conflict. Nowadays, most of the medium and smaller ships are moved by sailors rowing and sails.

However, since it’d be pointless for only the larger ships to be faster in case of maneuvering within a fleet, this propulsion system probably won’t boost their combat prowess much unless they also equip the smaller boats with a magic propulsion system.

“A boat for yourself, huh…? My father only has a small boat to go out fishing on rivers.”

The Meinbach fief, where Amalie-san grew up, only has small rivers, but no ocean access. Boats are at most small crafts whittled out of wood logs, and even so, they seem to only possess one boat, their whole pride, that’s owned by the local lord.

“Amalie-san, the Baumeister House of the past didn’t even possess a single boat.”

“Now that you mention it. But, are we going to be alright with suddenly using a new boat?”

“Yes, we have naturally tested out its functionality.”

I had the fishermen, who seemed bored as they haven’t been able to go out fishing, practice with this boat until a little while ago, seeing how it’s just another ship anyway. Its propulsion system works automatically, and the part about moving a boat shouldn’t be that different either.

『With the need to operate the sails and row when there’s no wind gone, it’s pretty chill』

『It’s actually so easy that I’d love to sell it to us』

The fishermen got the gist of how to run the magic cruiser after around an hour of training. I guess that’s professionals for you.

I didn’t make any licenses for boat driving or anything like that, so I don’t really get how they work.

“Are we going to fish with that boat?”

“Yes.”

Given that it’s no fishing boat, it lacks a bit of storage room, and you can’t really use nets with it, but you can at least catch some fish by angling. Seeing how we were clearly planning to just catch enough fish for ourselves anyway, we immediately decided to head out.

“Amalie-san, you’re not going to come with us?”

“I get very seasick. And I have to look after the babies. So, please catch some fish for me as well.”

“Got it.”

At once, we loaded all necessary materials and fishing tools, before sailing out off the coast with the usual members.

“I’m not quite sure whether it’s smart to do something like this,” Burkhart-san said, but as soon as we arrived at the spot recommended by the fisherman, he’d take out his own fishing rod, get the bait ready, and begin to angle.

“Burkhart-san, you’re quite used to it, aren’t you?”

“Adventurers occasionally need to rely on the blessings of the ocean and rivers to eat something. I did angle every once in a while. But, my trick is to use a good fishing rod, I guess.”

His fishing rod is another item from the underground ruin in the Demon Forest. Reels exist in this world as well, but since they’re very simple, it’s easy for the line to get all tangled up. On that account, the excavated fishing rod isn’t that different from those made and used in Japan. It’s easy to use for beginners and women.

“Erw, get in the mood and fish some as well.”

“I am, but just like Burkhart-san, I’m wondering whether it’s really alright to do this.”

“No, you’re looking at it wrongly. We’re doing proper military maneuvers.”

Even though we came all the way here as reinforcements, neither the Holmia House, nor the royal army or the other noble armies seem to have the spare time to bother with us.

We’ve been completely ignored except for receiving the order 『to remain on standby until the situation changes in some way』. We supposedly came here to help out, but some younger nobles seem to mess around in the city, causing unnecessary extra work to deal with them, and consolidating a jumble of miscellaneous armies into one entity is a tough job.

Since I’ve seen Therese and Peter badly struggling with that, it’s nothing new at this point anymore.

Under such circumstances, we, who don’t cause any issues, are left to our own devices since it doesn’t require any effort that way. But, because I feel a bit sketchy about doing nothing, we’ve headed out for the sake of procuring food ourselves and an independent reconnaissance.

After explaining that, Erw commented, “Procuring food and reconnaissance…right…”

“You could also say it is a convenient excuse!”

“Whoa! Doushi, that’s way too straightforward!”

Reconnaissance or whatever; this place is around one kilometer off the port. The Terra Harrez Archipelago lies more than 100 kilometers west from here. Even if we used magic, it’d be impossible to check on the demons.

So far as it went, I brought up the excuse that we’d be dealing with serpents as the navy preoccupied with the demons, but it was very improbable for a serpent to appear so close to a place with many people in the first place.

Even when it comes to the argument of procuring food, it’s not like we’re low on food. The west is one of the Kingdom’s bread baskets. And given that they’ve also put effort into livestock breeding, there’s no shortage on grain and meat.

In short, I simply hate the idea of not being able to eat fish.

“Since we will not be able to do anything for a while, it is best to prepare for any eventuality while taking a breather and looking after the children.”

“You hear? Even Elise is approving.”

Nothing less of my wife. She’s saying some truly great stuff.

“I have heard that fresh fish, and especially those caught with fishing rods, are very delicious, so let us do our best.”

“You got it right, madam. Fish taste better when caught with a fishing rod in comparison to a net,” The fisherman backed up Elise’s claim while steering the boat. “The fish caught with nets usually struggle inside and end up hurting themselves. In reality, the fish caught by hand cost lots more. Now then, we arrived, so feel free to toss your lines.”

With him saying that, all of us put the bait on the hooks and cast the lines. We used slices of fish and squid as bait which the fishermen prepared for us.

“Something bit!”

Ina was the first to have a fish bite. After she followed the fisherman’s advice on how to reel in the line, he used a catcher to get the fish at the end.

“It’s red bream, huh? It’s great if you eat it raw or grill after sprinkling salt on it.”

Given that it looks just like red sea bream, it should taste decently enough.

“Please prepare it at once.”

“Noble sir, you sure know your fish. Leave it to me.”

The fisherman cut off its tail and gills, and let out its blood in the cold ocean water.

“Wend, aren’t they tastier if you keep them alive?”

“That’s a misunderstanding.”

Restaurants that cook fish, which they let swim around as an attraction for tourists and rich folks, exist in Sirius as well. As it allows you to eat fresh fish, that method seems to be very popular, even if the price is close to a rip-off, but if you ask me who used to work at a trading company working with fish as goods, that’s just an illusion.

“They force the fish to live on in small fish-tanks without even feeding them. That’s different from the mud extraction of river fish. The taste will naturally deteriorate. They appear to be alive, but in reality it’s just an illusion of them being fresh and delicious.”

I immediately pickle and drain the blood, and once that’s finished, I swiftly remove the intestines and gills, before putting the cooled fish into my magic bag.

“Noble sir, you do know how to handle fish quite well. Since it’s our job, we carry them to fish-tanks while forcing them to stay alive. Shellfish, prawns, and crabs have to be kept alive, so I guess you could think of it like that.”

“Haaah, I’m counting on you.”

“Wend, you’re fairly knowledgeable about food, aren’t you?”

“Somehow something bugs me about the way you’re phrasing it.”

“I mean, you can’t really remember the names of nobles and such. You leave that part to Elise for the most part, don’t you?”

Having the facts pointed out to me by Ina, my face freezes up. From my view as former Japanese, the names of the nobles in this world are complicated and difficult to remember. Then again, I’ve been bad at remembering names to begin with.

“Let’s put that aside and catch lots of fish!”

If there’s any noble I really need to know about, I should be able to naturally remember their names. Thus, me not being able to remember their names simply means those nobles are of no need to me.

Deciding to interpret it like that, I cast my line once more.

“Dear, I caught one.”

“It’s a sokozoko.”

Elise caught a large flounder. By the way, sokozoko seems to be the local term for flounder. The name for the fish is also different in the capital or the Philip Dukedom.

“Mine is pretty big.”

“It’s a big amberjack. This also rocks if you grill it with salt.”

Luise had vigorously reeled in a fish resembling a huge amberjack. As usual her superhuman strength goes beyond what you’d imagine from her appearance.

[TN: The author comes up with some extra fish names, sometimes. But is a lazy fuck about it as the “new” term is ブーリ while amberjack is called ブリ. I’ll just call the thing for what it is, even if it might make the explanatory sentence a bit awkward.]

“Caught one.”

“Wilma, yours is fairly big too.”

“A flathead, huh? That’s a high-class fish.”

Even Wilma cheered up after catching a fish similar to a flathead with a length close to one meter.

Still, I gotta say, everyone’s doing well to catch such big hauls.

“They are simply not biting, are they, Wendelin-san?”

“How about you, Katharina?”

“I have caught a few.”

Katharina has been pulling out fish similar to mackerels with a length of around 40 cm in succession while angling on the other side of the boat.

“It’s a big haul!”

“It is fun to catch fish like this.”

Katia and Therese were doing fine as well.

“Mackerel, huh? I think they will do nice when cooked with miso or marinated.”

“Madam, they are called sappa in Sirius.”

The fisherman was fussing over the local terms for some reason. Him not being able to compromise on that might mean that he’s embracing unexpectedly strong feelings about his hometown.

“Angling together can be quite a bit of fun.”

Erw and Haruka, who are fishing as a couple, had caught a huge amount of mackerels. Since Haruka said that she’ll cook them in miso, I’ll have her share some with me later on, too.

“If they’re fresh, you can also use them for sashimi.” While explaining, the fisherman snapped off the head, drained the blood, and quickly removed the intestines and gills. “Some parasites also nest in their stomachs, but if you remove the intestines quickly, it’s going to be alright. The freshness will also deteriorate if you don’t get rid of the gills fast.”

He quickly processed the fish in such a way while using the cold ocean water.

Given that mackerel are cheap fish suited for commoners, they can’t do all this extra work when catching them in big nets. The ones sold in the city are basically cooked with heat.

Moreover, the one providing the cold ocean water was Lisa, or rather, 『Lisa the Blizzard』. If she gets involved, creating something like cold sea water is a breeze.

“I’m truly envious of magicians for being able to create such great amounts of cooled ocean water.”

“When we’re processing the fish with normal ocean water, it’s always a race against time.”

Fishermen can’t get their hands on a magic bag so easily. For that reason, they’re always hard-pressed on time to not lose the freshness of their haul.

“Even when we bring them back alive, we can’t store that many as our boats’ fish tanks have their limitations, and more than half of them die.”

“Because of a difference in freshness?”

“Yes, Madam. Some merchants are eagerly awaiting our return at the port as they plan to sell the fish to high nobility in the capital.”

So it looks like some merchants rush over to their befriended fisherman right after they came back from fishing, quickly hurl all the processed fish into magic bags, and then head over to the capital. Compared to them, we can procure fish that are much fresher.

“No matter how much a magic bag might prevent decay, the cooks will also spoil the fish by needing time to prepare it after getting it out of the bag. Even if you’re going to put them into a magic bag, it’s better to process them beforehand, just like the noble sir said just now.”

Given that you can’t put living fish into a magic bag either way, you have to kill it first.

“Hmm, I see. But, considering how knowledgeable you are about all this, you sure don’t have any luck with your angling, do you Earl-sama?”

At that point, Burkhart-san stabbed where it hurt the most. Everyone was successively reeling in catches, and the fishermen were throwing them into magic bags after processing the fish, but for some reason I was the only one without a single catch so far.

“Okay, so how is it going on your end then, Burkhart-san?”

“Me? I’m catching them alright.”

“Sir Magician has caught lots of makrel. They’re great for eating raw, grilling with salt, or open-air drying.”

“They’re also awesome as fish to go with wine, right? I guess I’ll catch plenty of them.”

In the beginning Burkhart-san had doubted whether it was okay to fish at all, but now he was pulling one mackerel-like fish after the other out of the sea.

Given that the shape of its fins and skin patterns were slightly different from the mackerels on Earth, it was unfortunately impossible to call it a genuine mackerel.

“That’s really bad…”

Looking at the other’s catches, our current location should be thriving with lots of fish. And yet, I alone couldn’t catch anything, let alone get a fish to bite.

“Won’t this affect my reputation as Earl Baumeister?”

“Wend, if you’re worrying about your reputation, make it something more befitting for a noble than fishing.”

Erw blurted out something fairly rude, but from my point of view, most of those present here are beginners at angling. As such, it naturally affects my good name if I’m the only one not catching anything.

Let’s make it clear that this has nothing to do with the common sense of this world’s nobility.

“I caught another one.”

“Everyone sure is going at it.”

“Well, you’ll always find someone who can’t catch even a single fish.”

Luise’s blunt remark stabbed my heart because it was the plain truth.

“But wait! Right! Doushi is here as well, right!?”

I felt relieved about having a comrade who didn’t catch any fish like me. It’s a ridiculously low level of thinking, but even so, it was good news for me.”

“Oh, one has bitten!”

“Wuuuut!”

However, my relief was shattered a few seconds later.

“Fight, fishy!”

“Wend, you’re…”

“I hate being last!”

No matter how much of Erw’s scorn it earns me, I hate being the only one without a single catch.

“I caught it!”

Doushi reeled in a fairly big fish, but seeing its body, the fisherman shook his head.

“Big noble sir, you cannot eat its intestines and meat because of its poison.”

The fisherman immediately tossed the fish back into the ocean.

“Is it not possible that you can eat it under some circumstances?”

“No, it’s a truly poisonous fish…so you’ll die from eating even a small amount…”

Even the burly fishermen got overwhelmed by Doushi’s excessive intensity while answering.

“Doushi, you should accept the opinion of a professional. You just need to catch another one, right?”

“Yes, I suppose I have no other choice.”

Being rebuked by Burkhart-san, Doushi cast his line once more. And then he caught the next fish just moments later.

“It is a reward for my usually good conduct!”

“(Why does Doushi have so much confidence in the goodness of his usual actions?)”

Erw’s awful retort reached my ears, and certainly, I didn’t know what kind of basis Doushi was using for his judgment either. If I were to make a guess, I’d say it’s probably “because he’s Doushi.”

“This fish is big as well!”

“Big noble sir, this one’s no good either.”

“Is it poisonous?”

“No, it’s got no poison, but it tastes very nasty. So much that even a cat would steer clear of it…”

He added that it was commonly referred to as “cat repellent,” which no one would take even if for free.

“No, maybe it is edible!”

Doushi immediately sank his teeth into the cat repellent as soon as it was off the hook. It was raw, but since the fish itself was fresh, it wouldn’t spoil a stomach as strong as Doushi’s.

Or rather, since he was pulling such stunts regularly anyway, even Elise had stopped worrying about him. But instead of seeing the pointlessness of worrying, she’s simply gotten used to it by now.

“Is it good, Doushi?”

“It tastes really bad!”

Even Doushi, who seemed like he’d eat anything, appeared to be bad with the cat repellent. He used his full strength to toss the rest of the cat repellent away.

“Uncle-sama, killing living beings pointlessly is…”

Even if it might have been a bad-tasting fish, killing for the fun of it was bad. Elise chided Doushi with a very religious reasoning.

“Madam, a cat repellent won’t die from this much. It won’t die even if you leave it lying in a place with no water for several hours.”

It appears to have a wondrous vitality, but unfortunately it’s a bust when it comes to cooking.

“Well, I will comply since I caught something at last.”

That statement of Doushi was clearly directed at me.

“What, thou didn’t catch a single fish yet, Wendelin?”

“Maybe I’m just in bad shape today?”

“Thine shape plays no role in this, does it? This place appears to be a spot with many fish.”

I was a beginner at angling too, but my uncle, who should still be going strong nowadays, took me fishing with him during my childhood, and while being a junior high student, I also participated in a few bus fishing tours. Even as a company worker, I went angling on several occasions during business receptions.

Why am I not catching anything today, although I always caught something during all those occasions?

“But, it’s alright. I’ll catch the boss of this patch of ocean!”

In the past, it was also mentioned in a fishing manga my father read to me back in Japan. In the end, the protagonist managed to fish the lord of the fishing spot after putting in a lot of effort.

“Boss? Is this a monster domain?”

“No, but if you fish at places like this here, a boss-like, big fish rules over the area,” I fervently explained the story of a certain fishing manga.

“Wouldn’t that just mean that they fished a big fish? Why would you be able to identify that fish as the boss?”

“Because it’s the biggest one.”

“Isn’t it possible for bigger fish to be around?”

Just as I thought, women simply can’t understand the awesomeness of Sanpei-kun. It’s very saddening.

[TN: I think the author refers to Fisherman Sanpei. It’s got a 109-episode anime adaption (released in the early 80s) and a movie. Though I’m not aware of the manga or even anime having been translated into English. The author died around three years ago.]

“And just as we’re talking about it!”

Finally I got a bite, too. But, now’s not the time for careless rejoicing or kicking up a fuss. Because, this is nothing more than a natural outcome.

“How big!”

Its pull is truly ridiculous and the fish seems to be quite huge, too. Hence, I must avoid letting it escape by becoming too fretful.

Regarding this as my last chance, I carefully reeled in the line.

“It looks like it’s really big,” Burkhart-san commented after seeing how much my fishing rod was bending under the strain.

“Fishing the biggest catch at the last moment! How magnificent!”

That was my current take on this, but suddenly the rod became even heavier. And afterwards it didn’t move, no matter how much I tried to reel it in.

“Wend, did it get stuck on a root?”

“No, the line is not long enough to reach the bottom.”

No matter what I tried, the line didn’t move, as if the hook got stuck in the ground. Just as I started to wonder, the reason became clear.

As soon as the line loosened up, a huge object could be seen gradually rising to the surface. And the fishermen became startled when they realized its identity.

“Why is one of them so close to the port?”

“A serpent!?”

A serpent peeked out from the ocean, hatefully looking our way. My fishing line was clearly hanging from the corner of its muzzle.

“In short, Wend’s big game got swallowed whole by that serpent, huh?”

“And, feeling the hook stabbing its mouth, it’s very angry at our dear husband who perpetrated all of this.”

It was just as Luise and Lisa had guessed. The serpent had apparently identified us as new enemies.

“Noble sir!”

“We must flee!”

Fishing was profitable but very dangerous. Regardless of whether one’s boat sank or not, occasionally some fishermen would be unlucky enough to run into a serpent and get eaten.

“My catch…”

However, I didn’t feel threatened by the serpent at all. Rather, I felt truly pissed that it had stolen my precious catch

“Am I not staying without a single catch because of you!?”

The serpent opened its big muzzle wide and tried to attack us, but I took it down with one shot by ramming a huge spear made out of sea water into its muzzle.

“Noble sir, that was damn incredible…”

The fishermen are astonished, but a serpent is weaker than a dragon, and this is my second time encountering one. It’s no big deal.

“It’s no fish though… No, wait!”

Maybe some fish are still left inside the serpent. I froze the serpent’s corpse and tossed it into my magic bag. Then we hurried back to port.

◆◇◆

“Uuhh…that blasted serpent…”

Once we got back to port, I gathered the fishermen at once and we dismantled the serpent. Its scales, meat, intestines, and bones were quickly bought up by merchants who had heard rumors of the kill.

That part was still fine, but when we opened up its stomach, we found a huge fish with a length of approx. two meters inside, but half-melted by gastric juices.

“Noble sir, a valuable catch got snatched away by the serpent.”

The fish resembled a longtooth grouper which was treated as a high-class delicacy in certain areas of Japan.

“It’s rare to find a gropper with such a length. Those fish are perfect for hot pots, grilling, and eating raw. You can’t eat this one though…”

“Its original form is still intact to some extent.”

“You cannot use fish that got in contact with a serpent’s gastric juice. It’ll give you a stomachache.”

“WHAAAAAAT!”

Even though I’d caught a rare, high-quality fish which was the biggest game of today on top of that, it was spoiled by the serpent eating it…is it really okay to be bogged down with such bad luck?

“Dear, did you not manage to catch a serpent?”

“But, it’s no fish…”

I wanted to catch a fish, and moreover, I brought down the serpent with magic in the end. I can’t think of this as having angled it.

“Wend, didn’t you catch what you’d call the boss?”

“Milord, your tenacity bore fruit, you know?”

“No, that’s wrong! It’s no good if the boss mentioned by me is no fish!”

A serpent is not a fish.

I powerfully objected to Haruka and Erw’s consolations. Given that the serpent entered the category of animals, it didn’t count, no matter how big the catch might have been. And anglers hated to go against the established rules of angling.

“But look, the merchants of this city were really happy about this.”

Now that the haul had dropped due to the shortage of ships and most of the remaining catch being bought up by soldiers, all of them cheerfully bought the serpent materials after they heard that one of those, which would be hunted down only once every few months under normal circumstances, was being processed at the port in a near-to-perfect state. The merchants competed over the parts, which the fishermen dismantled, in an auction. But, as I left that part to them while paying a bonus, the problem remained that I hadn’t managed to catch a single fish.

“Damn it! Tomorrow I’ll catch lots! Definitely!”

“We’re going to fish tomorrow as well, Earl-sama?”

“It’s a military operation for the sake of procuring food!”

“You sure insist on that line of argumentation…though I don’t particularly mind as long as I can get some side dish to go with my wine…”

“Angling is fun!”

“Doushi, you know…”

Interpreting that it’d be fine to go on with this as Margrave Holmia hadn’t said anything, I decided to head out for fishing in the name of food procurement tomorrow as well.

Chapter 2 – No Battle but No Progress either

『General 3rd Class Earlyton, is the construction of the base proceeding as planned?』

“Yes.”

『Fine』

In the sky above the uninhabited island chain called Terra Harrez Archipelago by the humans floated an airship. Around a hundred kilometers east from here a noble holding territory in the western part of the Lingaia Continent claimed possession of these islands, according to our most recent intelligence.

This was information we procured from the sailors of a large magic airship which was captured by our defense forces after they got fired at the other day, but just as those captives had told us, you can only see a crude lighthouse and some very frugal and basic huts.

This place didn’t allow people to live on grains, and one had to dig very deep to obtain fresh water. For this reason, these islands have remained uninhabited or so they said.

“Parliamentary Official Gary, when are we going to begin the negotiations with the Helmut Kingdom?”

『I would like you to wait for a bit longer since it requires sophisticated political decision-making』

I, 3rd Class General Earlyton, fleet commander of the National Sky Armada stood on the bridge of the flagship while giving my regular report to a senior government official through a 『Magic Picture Transmitter』.

“Sophisticated political decision-making, huh…?”

The official had said so on the other side of the magic picture, but in reality, the government was simply confused as they didn’t know how to deal with this whole situation.

Gary is actually a handsome man who’s rather popular among women. In the previous election, he ran as a candidate for the opposition, the Civil Rights Party, and won his seat after gathering many votes from women. Him holding the position of parliamentary official for national defense in spite of him being a congressman in his first year is solely owed to the huge support he obtained through the women’s votes.

His popularity allowed the Civil Rights Party to obtain more than 20% during the last election, leading to them making a significant breakthrough as they came to power. The National Sovereignty Party, which had held the power until then and formed the government for the long period of 630 years, suffered a crushing defeat during the election as they didn’t manage to prevent the demon’s decline, which has been going on for a long time, and lost many of their seats, despite not having made any particular mistakes in their government.

The people simply wanted to see some kind of change, I suppose.

But, the Civil Rights Party had few people with practical experience in running a country. They were able to say lots of popular things when in public, but when it came to putting all their promises into practice, it was foreseeable that it’d prove difficult.

Anyway, the incident in question occurred merely one week after they formed their new Cabinet, making this a real bad timing. The humans, whose highly advanced civilization vanished 10,000 years ago, suddenly showed up on an ancient magic airship from the eastern continent said to be a place where savages were competing over land while forming primitive societies.

Our defense forces immediately ordered their ship to withdraw from our territorial waters and skies in accordance with regulations, but because the human airship fired magic at them for some reason, our army had no choice but to seize their vessel.

Fortunately, this whole incident didn’t lead to any casualties, but it seems like a few people got injured. Their medical treatment finished a long time ago by now, but interrogating them gave us a fair share of troubles.

After all, the last records pointing to us coming in contact with the humans all dated back more than 10,000 years ago.

Because they had fired magic at us, unprovoked, they’re currently held as prisoners of war. But, our country possesses no laws in regards to how prisoners of war are to be treated.

We did have such laws in the past, but since they were unnecessary, all those laws were abolished over time. And since we had no contact with other countries or races either, we got rid of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at the same time.

For all these reasons, the public opinion was split on how to handle those prisoners and which governmental department should be in charge of their questioning and management. And even though their treatment shouldn’t have been bad, the mass media arbitrarily started to kick up a fuss over civil rights violations towards the prisoners and so on.

Well, then again, it’s their business to garner interest by kicking up a fuss. They’re the same as all those people who complain about environmental destruction through river construction works as it puts rare fish species in danger.

Many of the people hearing and reading their articles took the whole thing with a grain of salt, but quite a few people believed their fabrications, joining the racket as well.

According to all these people, humans seem to be a pitiable race since they only live for a short time and only have few members who possess mana.

Certainly, they might have a point in that, but I don’t think that they’re all that different from us, except for a slightly lower cultural level.

I clearly understood that part after also participating in the interrogations. Two people, who introduced themselves as captain and vice-captain, had calmly explained the circumstances. They apparently spoke with us while rationally deciding what information they could share and which they shouldn’t reveal, which urged me into holding a high esteem of them as someone also striving in handling his professional duties diligently.

At the very least, I evaluated these two much higher than the parliamentary official, whose face was in front of me right now as I made another of those totally pointless reports.

On the other hand, they also had an irredeemable idiot on their huge airship. He was their second vice-captain.

I wouldn’t say that his abilities are lacking, but maybe because of his youth, he’s lacking patience. Either way, he keeps whining about being mistreated as heir of a noble.

As it appears like the humans have a noble society on their continent, it sounds like some of their youths have a strong bias towards possessing special rights. Since you can find the same kind of people among the relatives of politicians, important bureaucrats, and enterprise owners in our country as well, I think we’re not that different in this respect either.

But, according to what a part of the populace and the mass media are claiming, the Helmut Kingdom appears to still be a savage nation that’s infested by an autocracy of nobles. A reporter, who shares their view, wrote those claims in an article.

The people believing in all that are demanding that we should immediately invade the human country in the name of spreading the moral values of democracy. The slogan sounds great, but those people are pushing us to move our army with us only knowing that a Helmut Kingdom and a Holy Empire Urquhart exist on the continent, but nothing about their population, technological level, national power, or military forces. They’re fairly irresponsible with their demands just because they won’t be the ones that have to enforce them.

In the first place, our defense forces aren’t even a regular army. Because we didn’t have to worry about any real threats for more than 10,000 years, our defense force is no more than a police organization endowed with the ability to suppress domestic conflicts.

Every once in a while demons with tremendous mana are born, who then grow into outstanding combat forces. Given that we’d be troubled if such demons planned terror or subversive actions, the main duty of the defense force lies in preventing such demons from committing crimes. In addition, police forces to deal with common crimes and rescue forces to perform relief and fire fighting also belong to our defense force, but even if you combine all these forces, they number less than 30,000.

The population of our country amounts to a million, but most recently large-scale, atrocious crimes or terroristic acts have been rare. Because of that, there had been complaints about the costs for renewing the equipment, and at present there’s also a trend to decrease the personnel.

So how are we supposed to occupy and rule over an entire continent with these forces?

It was a view that could only be described as utter stupidity, but the whole situation was so problematic because a certain number of influential politicians endorsed the continent invasion idea──as it seems like it’s bad to call it invasion, they coin it as liberation, although it’s the same thing either way──among the members of the Civil Rights Party, including the idiot on the other side of the magic picture. In addition, that idea also had sympathizers among the congresspeople of the former ruling party, media people who wanted to boost their sales, and financiers.

The mass media advocated that newspapers as public institutions were necessary in order to teach the people on the continent about democracy. I feel like they just want to improve their sales with this, but they are probably able to talk themselves into believing their own public stance while masking their true motive.

And to be honest, I’m quite envious of them. Their frank, greed-based approach of wanting to expand their potential customers is something I can still understand. But then again, most of the demons are regarding the media with inborn skepticism and indifference.

For all these reasons, the troop dispatch has turned into such a half-baked mess. The politicians want to pressure the other party by building a temporary base on this archipelago, which belongs to the other party but has been left deserted, in order to push the other party into apologizing for their preemptive attack, so that they can afterwards tie a trade agreement with them.

As might be expected, even our government isn’t as stupid as to immediately plunge into war. Though, even if they wanted to do it, they’d likely have to face an opposition by the uniformed personnel of the defense forces since they’re no combat forces after all.

On the other hand, diplomats are necessary to tie trade agreements and demand apologies from the other party, but unfortunately our country has abolished the Ministry of Foreign Affairs two thousand years ago.

Back then, the government was under heavy criticism for keeping the ministry going and thus paying a budget for the department, despite it being completely useless. I hear the members of the ministry opposed the notion, but since they were reassigned to other ministries and departments to help out over there after they lost their posts, they probably accepted their lot in fate at some point.

So far as it goes, there are still documents about how to handle foreign diplomacy left behind, but currently the politicians are debating who should go. But contrary to expectation that everyone is flinching back because of lacking experience, it’s actually a quarrel over taking the initiative by various ministries, which has turned the whole issue into a chaotic mess.

Today was yet another day of Gary dodging the crux of the matter with a pointlessly refreshing smile, but just the face of the Minister of Defense not having shown up means that they’re still arguing.

“So, about the diplomats of the Helmut Kingdom who have arrived in absolute secrecy…”

The continent has two big nations, and thus the Helmut Kingdom naturally has diplomats working for it. A delegation of ten such diplomats visited us. In absolute secrecy.

Right now, our defense forces are kindly taking care of them. We’ve been telling them that we’ll transport them to our country if the time’s ripe, but it’s completely unclear when that might be.

Still, it’s funny in a bad way. Most of our politicians and media folks believe them to be savages with inferior culture and technology, but even though these barbarians immediately dispatched diplomats, our country is in complete disorder, unable to send any diplomats from our side. Doesn’t that make it kind of hard to tell which of us are barbarians?

『It’s going to take some time to build the base anyway…』

“That’s certainly true…”

There exists yet another problem: the base we’re currently building. At first it was planned to build it as a temporary base allowing for a quick withdrawal. But, the government has been frequently changing its plans.

After the initial idea of a temporary base, they soon started to clamor about taking this as an opportunity to use this base as a launch pad for an invasion of the continent.

Now that the Helmut Kingdom has started to amass its troops to repel us, it’ll lead to war if we try to occupy this place permanently. The defense forces have been against this idea of occupying the archipelago from the very start. Then again, they could take such a passive stance because the defense forces are under civilian control. Or in other words, they don’t have to obey the government’s orders.

I don’t particularly mind that. A militaristic dictatorship by the army as it existed in ancient history must have been a nightmare.

But, seeing how civilians control the defense forces, I’d like them to at least learn the minimum amount of knowledge needed to run an army.

By the way, the idiot on the other side of the magic picture device isn’t even able to differentiate between a naval and air fleet. Considering that this retard is going to effectively act as No. 3 within the defense forces in the case of an emergency, I get headaches.

『Are the young civilians in military employ doing well?』

“Yes…”

And the core hindrance delaying the construction of the base are those very civilians in military employment.

For the last few hundred years, the birth rate – accompanied by an increase in singles – has been decreasing in our country. It’s reached such an extent that there have been worries about an economical degrowth. Well, if you take the reality of more than half of the youths being unemployed into account, that might be inevitable.

However, the youths themselves weren’t overly worried about this. Because we could perform farming with few people thanks to our high technological level, the excessive amounts of leftover food were distributed for free, and on top of that, the state also offers public assistance on the level of paying people some pocket money. As such, they’ve been enjoying a life of unemployment, except for the few times when they did some part-time jobs or immersed themselves in work they like.

According to the elderly, this behavior was outrageous and inexcusable, but since there simply weren’t enough jobs to be found, it was pointless to make a fuss over it. Yet, the government recruited those young people for the army as civilians in order to cover up that contradiction.

In short, the defense force was lacking combat forces, so they recruited unemployed folks, who looked like they’d be interested in the world beyond our island, and had them work on the base’s construction.

As a result of that, the work progress on the base kept falling behind schedule. Of course, the reason was simple enough: they were amateurs with little to no work experience.

The few defense force members, who possessed the necessary skills, had to protect them while those amateurs were building the base through trial and error.

Some officers and men got totally pissed by the ridiculous slowness of their progress, but the government shut them up over the possibility of causing work injuries to the youths. Therefore, everyone stopped caring and let the amateurs go at their own pace.

It was good that we applied for a delay in the base completion as it wouldn’t get finished any time soon anyway. And if we blamed the delay on the young civilian workers, we’d only get rebuked and punished by the government.

Honestly, politicians sure got it easy as they just need to talk down on others.

『They’re inexperienced. So please be lenient with them and take the long term into consideration』

“Yes…”

I don’t particularly mind that, but some of them have quite a bit of past experiences. They won’t do any decent work, but instead investigate the island’s geological features and ecosystem. They’re university graduates and have apparently performed research in those fields.

The university’s autonomous student bodies are strongholds of the Civil Rights Party. Using the system of employing young civilians for the army as pretext, the real intention is probably to let them research for free.

“(Well, in a certain sense I admire their strong will, though)”

Besides, it’s also possible that the idiots over at the government would get funny ideas if they built an outstanding base in no time. Looking at it like that, it might actually be convenient for the base’s completion to get delayed.

In the first place, I can still understand that the young civilians are amateurs, but what should I think about the No. 3 of the defense force being an amateur at politics? Or am I the odd guy out for believing that amateurs shouldn’t become politicians? (T/N: lol)

“(In your case, you’ll stay an incompetent dolt no matter how long the term that’s taken into consideration…)”

『Did you say anything just now, General 3rd Class Earlyton?』

“No, nothing, Sir.”

My mutterings were almost heard by him. I felt like it’d have been fine for him to hear them as well, but if I got punished for military insubordination at this point, my severance payment and pension would be toast. It’s best to just endure for now.

『The negotiations should begin around the time when the base has been completed. Since the Helmut Kingdom resorted to violence first, they’ll apologize, I suspect. And if we can tie a trade agreement afterwards, things will get better too』

“You’re right, Sir.”

It’d be great if everything goes so smoothly…

I was gradually starting to become jealous of this parliamentary official who was an utter birdbrain.

＊　　　＊　　　＊

“The supply work sure keeps you busy.”

“Earl Baumeister, you’ve become just like a fisherman. Anyway, what’s going to happen with this dispute?”

After finishing the fishing, giving milk to the babies, and putting them to sleep, we held a dinner party. Because the situation wasn’t moving at all, we invited Philip and Christophe and tried to exchange some information.

Since we were still living on the airship, we didn’t invite too many guests. Basically it’s those two, their subordinates, and their new vassals.

“You’re already taking vassals?”

“Well, I’m not the only noble who received medals for the civil war in the Empire.”

Several of the commanders, who had become soldiers in order to make a living as second or third sons of noble houses, were appointed as Knights and became independent as appointed nobles. Those guys apparently became Philip’s vassals.

“It took you no time to herd them in…”

“Earl Baumeister, even if you might think so, don’t blurt it out like that. Even I was perplexed about it.”

“Eh? Even though you were originally the son of a margrave?”

“Did you think that I knew about our vassals in detail? Christophe was in charge of such things.”

“An eldest son cut out for military affairs, and a second son suited to be an official for domestic affairs, huh…?”

“What’s so bad ’bout it?”

“Philip-niisan, please conduct yourself properly, even if only for form’s sake,” Christophe rebuked Philip.

But sure, revealing that you haven’t done what was necessary for a noble isn’t the smartest idea, I guess.

“I mean, even you, Earl Baumeister, haven’t been paying that much attention to your vassals, have you?”

“Well, I haven’t, but still…”

I haven’t been doing it since I dumped everyone on Roderich.

“Nowadays, I’m doing it though. After all, everyone’s relying on me. Appointed Knights are basically treated like nobodies after all.”

Different from the past, Philip seems to believe that it’s bad if he doesn’t take care of his people. And his subordinates, who suffered together with him during the civil war, appear to idolize Philip after having watched him taking care of his men.

“Christophe and I have also been indebted to a vassal of Minister Edgar. That part is very appreciated and makes things easier on us. In exchange, we’re striving to exchange information with you, Earl Baumeister… Let us pass you some intel as well, as thanks.”

According to their patron, Minister Edgar, the Kingdom has already dispatched a delegation of diplomats in secret to the demon fleet in question. But, it sounds like they’re being detained on their ships without any negotiation having started so far.

“Are they being confined?”

“We don’t know. It looks like they can regularly contact our side, and the demon’s commandant also told them that they can go back at any time if they got some business to take care of.”

“So they’re keeping us in suspense to negotiate under good conditions?”

Our side sent a diplomatic delegation, so it’d be common for someone in charge to deal with them.

“The palace also finds it hard to make heads or tails out of it. Some of the nobles are claiming that the demons are looking down on the Kingdom and that we should attack them right away…well, mostly it’s the folks around Earl Platte, though…”

“That guy again…”

He seems to be advocating that even starting a war to recover his heir, who’s a vice-captain on the Lingaia, would be justified. He’s taking the doting father act to the extreme, but I wonder if I’d react in the same way if Friedrich went through the same experience?

“Since the A information has come from Roderich at your place, we’ll be thankful as long as they don’t make any moves while we’re not understanding anything.”

『A information』 was referring to the information of the demon freeloading at our place, aka it’s mostly 『Arnest’s information』.

Since it was suspected that he might betray us by contacting the demons on his own accord if we brought him here, he had to stay back home. They guy himself appeared to be busy with his theories and had locked himself in his room, though.

And, in exchange for the Kingdom turning a blind eye on him, we’ve been providing information about the demons which he told us about.

Arnest was a guy who had fled his country as he wanted to investigate the historic ruins on the Lingaia Continent. Therefore, his allegiance to the demon country was rather weak, allowing him to tell the Kingdom everything he knew.

Thanks to that, we managed to gather some information about the demons, but because he’s been a university professor over there, he could only provide an outline about the demons’ government and army. Even so, it was plenty for the Kingdom’s government to be tilted towards negotiations.

“All demons are magicians. Even the weakest demons possess mana above intermediate level. The performance of their magic airships and other weapons goes far beyond anything the Kingdom owns. So even if they might be outnumbered in personnel and resources…”

It might not turn into a total war because of their low numbers, but if it develops into a limited clash of armies for the sake of improving the negotiation conditions, our side would likely get completely devastated. And what if the Kingdom had to accept a disadvantageous treaty, including the cessation of territory, as an outcome of that? It’d likely develop into a situation where even the Empire would scoff at us.

“The Kingdom’s government wants to apply pressure by relying on numbers to somehow get the demons to conclude a treaty among equals with us.”

“They think that’s possible?”

“They wouldn’t be doing it, if they doubted the possibility. The problem is to be found with the folks who keep getting in the way like Earl Platte and his followers.”

“Them thinking that they could win a war against the demon country is astonishing. Even though they have access to Arnest’s information, too.”

“According to them, that sort of intelligence seems to be unreliable.”

“Then tell them to go and look for reliable information by themselves.”

“Those retards would never do anything so bothersome.”

In their eyes, war is a bet with their career as a chip.

“The ministers, soldiers, and upper echelons hate war. The nobles hawking war think that they can rise in rank if everything proceeds smoothly, and if not, they’ll just dump responsibility on the guys above them. And then, once some positions have opened up after the upper brass got punished, they’ll come back while acting all innocent.”

That’s very scummy, but such behaviors and opinions are prevalent among mid-tier nobles and non-mainstream factions. I feel like pitying the upper ranks, but since they’re in positions where they’ll be held accountable if they go along with such ideas, it probably comes as a part of the deal when being appointed to higher posts. Higher-ups eyes to take responsibility after all.

“That means we can still continue to fish, right? Great, I’ll use this opportunity and go all out on sea fishing, ya───ay! So far I haven’t caught any fish you could categorize as the boss of an area.”

“Earl Baumeister, what kind of fairy-tale is that supposed to be?”

“It sounds likely, or rather, it’d be interesting if such a boss really exists.”

Philip immediately dismisses it while Christophe partly approves of my boss idea.

“One day I’m going to catch such a boss!”

“There was also the serpent from the first day, so you just need to make another such big haul, dear.”

“Right. You totally get my drift, Elise.”

Yep, this area is home to a wonderful fishing zone that has been blessing us with an abundance of fish. If I do my best, I might be able to make yet another big catch.

“Wend, so far as it goes, we’ve been heading out to fish under the pretext of procuring food for the armies stationed here…”

“Erw, you think I don’t know as much myself?”

Because I’m well aware of it, I’ve been heading out every day while repeating that pretext. Besides, we’re also selling loads of fish to them, too. We set the prices to be a bit below market price and we also guarantee the fishermen’s income. Because of all that, Margrave Holmia hasn’t said anything about this either.

“I’m just worried that you might have become so absorbed in fishing that you forgot about our original objective here.”

“Ahahaha, there’s no way that’s true,” I answered Erw with a laugh.

“Really? I consider Erw’s worries as rather valid.”

“E───ehh!? Why are you stabbing me in the back, Ina?”

“I’m not stabbing anything, It’s just that you’ve been happily fishing or staying with the babies every day, Wend.”

“Spearheading the era, I’m a noble who takes care of his babies. That’s my calling as Earl Baumeister-sama!”

Ideas like child-rearing fathers or division of house chores don’t exist in this world. It’s a common way of thinking that women mostly take care of the children. And most high-ranking nobles entrust this duty to wet nurses or maids so as to not bother the mother.

It seems like guys who feed the babies with milk or change their diapers, like me, are a rarity.

“Usually I cannot do it, so you should let me at least do it now when I’ve got some time.”

I’m busy with various things while I’m back home and Roderich is a pain about it, too. For that very reason, right now is the perfect chance for me.

Even though the situation might develop into a war at any moment, I’ve got plenty of free time for some reason.

“I don’t think it’s bad, but it might be a problem for you as Earl Baumeister.”

“Yep, you could be looked down upon.”

Luise agreed with Ina’s view.

It sounds like society would terribly gossip about a guy, and moveover a high-ranking noble like me, if they catch him taking care of babies. I wonder how the women of modern Japan would react if they heard of this.

In a certain sense, it’d be very interesting.

“It’s nothing thou need to mind so much.”

Therese became my ally.

“What does it matter if a noble does something slightly peculiar? Many trends in society are started by weird big nobles or kings.”

In Therese’s eyes, conspicuous people create most of the trends.

“In other words, you’re saying people, who see Wendelin-san take care of babies, will imitate it, turning this into a fad?”

“Something along those lines, yes.”

“I cannot believe that.”

Katharina is a woman who’s strongly obsessed with nobility. Because of that, she sticks closely to the rules and customs of nobility, regarding my baby-care as odd.

“I think you should just let him do it if he likes it.”

“Right, Wilma. My big brother also took care and responsibility for me when I was still small.”

Katia’s home was one of those noble houses where the lord’s family would do farmwork. Well, they probably did such things without a care as no other nobles would see them anyway.

“But, we’re there as well, so helping out every once in a while is fine.”

“Dear husband, in the end, you’re in the center of public attention…”

“Hmm, I guess I should do it in secret then.”

From Amalie-san’s point of view, it’d be troublesome if not only her work, but also that of the maids, who came with us, would disappear. And certainly, she has a point here.

I guess I should make sure to not be targeted about this by other nobles, as Lisa has mentioned.

“In that case, I have to intensify my fishing, huh?”

“Dear husband, why would you talk about fishing now?”

“Why, you ask…the sea is calling me!”

And, the boss, whom I haven’t seen yet, is also waiting for our fight.

“No, isn’t it a bad idea for you to not work on the development of our territory, seeing how you can use 『Teleport』? You’ll get scolded by Roderich-san, you see?”

“Lisa-san is absolutely right with what she is saying. Dear, please go home once every two days. I will contact you through the MHCD if something happens.”

As Elise also put pressure on me, my fisherman’s life got reduced to once every two days. The other day would be reserved for my job as engineering adventurer after going back to my fief with 『Teleport』.

＊　　　＊　　　＊

“Excuse me, is Earl Baumeister-dono present?”

Just as the usual waiting game was going on, five men visited us all of a sudden. Going by their attires, they looked kind of like a low-ranking noble and his children.

Under normal circumstances, they’d have been turned away at the gate, but unexpectedly, they were Erw’s father and elder brothers. So I decided to listen to what they had to say for the time being.

“The thing I dreaded the most…”

Up until now, they’ve been guarding the supply lines and never visited Sirius. But, when they entered the city with their troops after finishing their previous mission and taking a break, they ran into their family. A family reunion after running into each other would usually be the ordinary course of events afterwards, but it didn’t play out like that because they had pulled a huge blunder in the past.

Around the time when I received my territory, Erw’s father unreasonably demanded preferential treatment while relying on Erw’s connection as my retainer. This didn’t go down well with me, becoming one of the reasons for my shunning of the western lords.

Well, phrasing it as shunning would invite misunderstandings since it’s not like I refused them or anything. I accommodated the southern lords the most since we were basically neighbors, and the ones receiving the second-most accommodations from me were the central lords as I had received patronage and aid from the royal family and the central lords during the development.

We’ve been at odds with the eastern parts of the Kingdom for a while now, but after that got settled, it wasn’t as though I ignored the new Margrave Browig, effectively helping him out a bit since the east had suffered quite a few damages due to the dispute. The overall goal here was to stabilize the reign of the new margrave so that no new dispute would break out.

But sure, if you consider it objectively, the west might have had the least luck.

Anyway, Erw hasn’t contacted his family ever since then. Given that his late mother had been the only person he felt indebted to, he adopted the thinking that his father and brothers had nothing to do with him anymore, now that he left home and went independent.

“Erw got his fair share of troubles as well, huh?”

“No kidding. Your families are truly enviable, Ina, Luise…”

Erw had put on a bitter expression, regarding his family’s arrival as a seed of trouble.

“I don’t think my family is as wonderful as you make it out to be.”

“That’s true, isn’t it? My family is quite normal, you see?”

“And that very normalcy is what makes me jealous.”

Given that Ina and Luise’s children would establish vassal families and become spearmanship or Magic Combat Style instructors of the Earl Baumeister House, both preferentially recruited relatives and their style’s pupils to help out with that. Of course, this kind of familial networking could be found in any noble house, and in addition, we were lacking hands anyway. As such, it posed no particular problem for the two to handle it like that.

“I’m not quite sure whether I’m the right guy to say it, but my family consists of only average Joes.”

Which basically meant his family would try to exploit Erw, who excelled in swordsmanship, out of jealousy.

“But, why are Lex-niisan and Barton-niisan here?”

“Why, you ask…isn’t that because they’re family?”

“I’ve heard those two were serving at Margrave Holmia’s House after leaving my parents’ home before I did.”

The young of tiny nobles also had the option to choose a local, high-ranking noble as a place of employment. But, even in an aspect like this, the difference between big and small nobles played a role. A big noble would be able to marry into a vassal family, but Erw’s elder brothers came from small nobility and could only serve as low-ranking guards, which ultimately meant that their noble status would disappear alongside their death.

“If they’re serving the Holmia House, they should be busy right now, shouldn’t they?”

Because of the situation with the demon fleet, I doubt they’d have the spare time to come here.

“Oh my, what a please Earl Baumeister-dono. I’m Erwin’s father and the head of the Armin House, Viktor.”

The initial greetings were nothing special. Erw’s father merely introduced himself and his four sons.

“I have also heard the rumors about your great exploits, Earl Baumeister-dono. So, putting that aside, when can my other sons enter the service of your house?”

“Pardon?”

I couldn’t quite understand what Erw’s father was telling me. If they want to work for my family, they’re free to respond to our recruitment. And in case they prove to be capable, they’ll be able to make a career at our place.

“As long as they respond to our recruitment. However, I would like them to retire from the place they have been serving thus far to avoid any unnecessary troubles further down the line.”

Our conditions are quite good, so I don’t know whether it stems from people becoming impatient, but some of them apply without quitting their previous job. That’s quite a bother, to be honest. After all, from the eyes of their previous employer, it looks like my family has arbitrarily headhunted them. And because they naturally file protests to us about that, it only adds to our already existing workload unnecessarily. Roderich and the other civil officials have been complaining about it, too.

Therefore, I stressed here that they should quit their current job first.

“Eh? Why would they need to do something like that? Please sort this matter out with Margrave Holmia-dono.”

“Pardon?”

What is this bloke yapping about all of a sudden?

“Erwin, I’ve had enough of working as a low-ranking soldier for Margrave Holmia. Make sure to prepare a good post for me.”

“Yep, yep, you gotta show respect to your older brothers.”

Lex and Barton, the two guys working for the Holmia House according to Erw, ordered Erw around with a condescending attitude.

But look, you morons, you might be his older brothers, but your standing and statuses are completely different.

They’re thinking that their connection as family is still going to work wonders for them…or they probably want to think so, I suppose.

“Erwin, you have to take care of my children in the future as well. Listen, you gotta let me inherit a vassal family that’s going to permit my children to inherit their noble rank.”

The second son-like person acted very arrogant as well for some reason. And Erw’s father as well as his eldest brother nodded at that calmly, also acting very high and mighty. They’re talking as if it’d be a law of nature to have their children serve the Baumeister House.

Or rather, aren’t these guys actually much worse than my family?

I told them before that I wouldn’t give them any preferential treatment, but it looks like these dolts still haven’t given up.

“Father, brothers, I do not have any such authority.”

I thought Erw would totally snap here, but he reacted surprisingly calmly. Maybe he’s already gone beyond rage, entering the domain of reproachful serenity.

I turned down all of their demands as we didn’t have any such connection.

“Please wait, Earl Baumeister-dono! This much is normal…”

What a disgusting visage. Even if you look at me with such servile, pleading expressions, I don’t plan to give you any boons just because you’re Erw’s family. In the first place, I don’t have any relation or connection with you people.

“He’s right. The likes of Erw is your vassal, Earl Baumeister-dono. So isn’t it only logical for us to be given higher posts?”

“Erwin, you tell Earl Baumeister-sama as well.”

“(Hey, Erw, have these guys always been like this?)”

“(No, it’s gotten much worse, I’d say. Your older brothers were all decent except for one, you know?)”

But yeah, with such a family, even Erw wouldn’t feel like having anything to do with them, I’m sure.

“(They probably fell in disgrace with Margrave Holmia-sama after they didn’t manage to form a marriage connection with you through me, Wend)”

Even if it’s Margrave Holmia, wouldn’t that kind of reaction be misguided? He and I met for the first time just a few days ago. Rather, my relationship with the Margrave Browig House is a lot better after all the problems they caused before.

If the relationship between east and south improves, it’s quite possible that the west will become the odd man out. And Erw’s family, which became the reason for that, must be getting heavily blamed from all sides right now.

“I don’t have any intention to employ you people as my guards, though.”

Why would I need to place people like you, who I don’t know at all, at my side? Roderich would oppose this for dear life.

True, Erw and I became friends by coincidence. And it’s also a coincidence that he became my vassal. But, Erw is in his current position because he worked hard for it.

Did you people actually invest any effort? No, if you did, you wouldn’t be telling me to take you in as vassals thanks to your family connection with Erw, would you…?

“Earl Baumeister-sama, I’m much more suited to be your guard than someone as inexperienced as Erw.”

“Quite so.”

“Hmm, is that so?”

Then let us put that to a test.

“You people seem to believe that you’re more fit to be my guards than Erw. Then I’ll have you prove me just that. Erw, have a sword duel with them.”

“Very well. Brothers, you’ll be able to obtain my position if you can defeat me with your swords,” Erw said and drew his sword.

“Earl Baumeister-dono, something like a duel on an occasion like this too sudden!”

“Indeed!”

“Our abilities aren’t just limited to swordsmanship, but encompass a wider, comprehensive skill set.”

What the hell is a comprehensive skill set? If they at least had the backbone to take on Erw in a duel, their running their mouths would be less annoying.

Ah, come to think of it, these are the folks who couldn’t win against Erw in archery or swordsmanship even back during Erw’s childhood, aren’t they? They don’t look like the sort of people who would diligently work either.

I’m sorry, but I have no need for you people.

“In addition to being my guard, Erw also commands the guard unit during his spare time, and back during the Empire’s civil war, he cut into enemy armies at the head of his own unit. If your sword skills fall flat in comparison to Erw’s, then it’ll be tough for you to ask for a position higher than Erw’s. Therefore, please prove yourself by winning a mock battle against Erw.”

Thinking back on it now, Erw got some really amazing military achievements under his belt.

Huh? Isn’t the hurdle quite high here? I can say with certainty that it’d be impossible for me before I became Wendelin.

“That’s…”

“I intended to serve you with my head…”

“Right! Just like Barton, I also excel in smarts!”

“Okay, then please pass the exam for lower-ranking government officials at the capital.”

It’s the exam which Erich-niisan passed. It’s quite hard, but it’s not like it’s impossible to pass, if you put some effort into studying.

The lower-ranking officials, who passed this exam, are immediately usable as civil officials. We’ve been actively recruiting those who passed it into our service, and many of them were also assigned to responsible posts by Roderich.

If they want to work for us as civil officials, I’d like them to pass that exam at the very least.

“””……”””

“Is something the matter? We’re lacking manpower. That much is true. But, if you want to succeed at our place, that much ability is indispensable. Or putting it the other way, you can make a career with us even without any connections or high pedigree, as long as you have such skills. Anyway, please provide me with proof.”

“””……”””

“How about it? If you have the necessary abilities, Roderich, the household manager of my family, will immediately assign you to a responsible post. Please apply by all means.”

“Earl Baumeister-sama, I’ve got another urgent business scheduled, so…”

“Me too. Excuse me!”

“Me too!”

I just made some sound arguments, but Erw’s father and brothers scurried away at full speed. Even though I only mentioned those conditions, since they started to talk about wanting to have positions higher than that of Erw.

“Holy shit, even if they’re my family, I gotta say they’re truly lame.”

I didn’t say anything. I’m certain it took Erw all his effort to hold back here. So, I believe it to be kinder to not comment on this.

“Erw-san, today was truly hard on you, wasn’t it?”

“Guess so.”

After having heard about the circumstances, Haruka only thanked Erw for all his efforts and prepared a meal for him without asking about any details.

Nothing less of a Mizuho nadeshiko. She’s excelling in attentiveness to her husband.

“Shall we go to sleep early today?”

“Yeah, I think that would be good. Somehow, I feel drained…”

On that day, the two called in early, but all of us felt relieved when we saw Erw looking cheerful and energetic the next morning.

Chapter 3 – Second Contact

“Noble sir, today we’ve got ‘nother big haul.”

“I see. Be careful of accidents, okay?”

“Please leave it to us.”

For some reason, negotiations between the Kingdom and the demons haven’t started yet. The demon’s air fleet has landed on the Terra Harrez Archipalego and started to build a base, but they’re so slow at it that many consider this to be some sort of plot.

All of the demons should be magicians, making this turtle-paced building speed more than unusual. Some among the nobles in the government regard this as the demon’s message to us that they don’t really plan to build a base and only want to use this as a card in the negotiations. Other nobles claim that the demons are deliberately provoking us.

At any rate, speculations about it remain meaningless as long as no negotiations have started, but so far no one can tell when that’s going to happen.

Even so, the Kingdom, and especially the west, is running through huge amounts of provisions as many troops have been assembled. Especially food and water are of crucial importance, and thus we’ve been working on securing some of that.

I’ve been renting out boats with a magic propulsion to the fishermen, who had their fishing boats confiscated by the navy for the surveillance of the archipelago, to allow them to go on with their fishing, and that led to the number of boats available greatly increasing. Thanks to that, the fish price in Sirius stabilized. As such we not only greatly contributed to the supply of the army, but also gave the residents some reprieve.

As usual, Margrave Holmia didn’t say anything, but maybe he’s just too busy to bother with us.

“Although you call it contribution, you could also describe it as plain ole’ fishing.”

“You say so, but haven’t you simply been drinking booze while eating your own processed fish as snacks, Burkhart-san…?”

Today was yet another day of Burkhart-san getting Elise and my other wives to prepare his catch for him as he planned to enjoy it together with his evening drink. He was certainly not qualified to quibble about other people on this matter.

“Can’t help it, can I? We’re at a standstill right now.”

Having said that, it’s only been around two weeks so far. We’re already used to this sort of long war campaign, and since I can use Teleport, I’ve been going back home once every two days to continue my public works. Given that Katharina, Lisa, and Therese are doing the work with me as they can use magic similar to mine, the development of my earldom is proceeding as planned in spite of the semi-war state.

Meanwhile Malie-san and Elise have been focusing on taking care of the babies while my other wives placed their priority on getting some fishing done. It sounds like they even learned how to span fishing nets from the fishermen in their free time.

“I’m starting to worry that we might spend the rest of our days fishing at this rate.”

It was worrying indeed, but it didn’t seem like the others hated angling or fishing. From Burkhart-san’s point of view, fish that were perfect for creating a great menu of side dishes for his drinks were magnificent.

“Hm───m.”

“Is something the matter, Doushi?”

“I cannot catch them!”

“Wait, you have been catching fish all the while, haven’t you?”

After the disastrous catches from the first day, Doushi had been catching fish at a good pace. Today was no exception to that.

“No, I meant tuna or sea beasts!”

“Doushi, you can’t catch those in waters so close at port…,” Erw shot down Doushi’s willful whining with a fed-up voice, and he had a point as it’d definitely be difficult to catch such game in an area that’s only one kilometer off the port.

I think we won’t have any chance to catch those unless we head out a bit further.

“Tuna? Sea Beasts? You won’t get to see those unless you head out at least ten kilometers off the coast,” answered a fisherman when we asked him while processing our catch. “Well, if it’s sea beasts, you can spot them not that far out in the sea every once in a while. But, you won’t be able to catch them easily since they’re big.”

Sea beasts over here indicate whales and dolphins. This world also treats them as mammals since they give birth to children instead of laying eggs. That’s why they’ve apparently been called boars of the sea in the past.

This world has no animal welfare groups complaining about it being disquieting to kill whales and dolphins since they’re intelligent, so you could occasionally buy their materials on the market. The occasional stems from them being difficult to catch because of their size.

“Earl Baumeister, how about we aim for a bigger game for a change?”

“Big noble sir, you can’t catch sea beasts so easily,” a certain fisherman explained to Doushi, whom the fishermen had started to cozily call “big noble sir.”

This world had no guns for whale-hunting and since you couldn’t store the body, even if you caught one, unless you got a big ship, making it a fishing with fairly big hurdles.

“We are magicians! You can leave it to me if we catch a sea beast!”

“So you say, but…”

Even though he’s never actually caught one…Doushi is being quite reckless once again…

“Is it not fine to have a little adventure every once in a while? We will depart tomorrow!”

For some reason Doushi forced the decision, resulting in us getting stuck accompanying him on his sea beast hunt.

＊　　　＊　　　＊

“Pardon? What did the young civilian contractors say again?”

“Some of them mentioned they’d like to go angling since they’re bored.”

“Are those guys morons?”

Even though the construction of the base hasn’t been finished yet, I, the commandant of this fleet, had to face yet another ordeal.

Some of the young civilian contractors did not have an ounce of motivation, let alone capability, and yet they started to talk about wanting to head out on the ocean to enjoy a holiday.

“Are these people actually understanding our current situation?”

“Most likely not… Or maybe they do, but don’t care?”

“I suppose either would result in the same outcome anyway.”

“Indeed.”

They had been recruited by the Civil Rights Party under the pretext of supporting their youths, who couldn’t, or rather, didn’t bother to find employment, but after being sent here, their motivation was basically non-existent, as might be expected from their background. After all, their contract stated that they’d be paid a preset amount of money if they worked as civilian contractors for a certain amount of time. However, that contract didn’t mention anything about their abilities or their work completion degree. Therefore, they had no need to show any motivation, and if you took it to the extreme, it’d be unnecessary for them to finish the base, too.

Hence their behavior was just logical since they’d get paid for just being present here. Besides, since they weren’t employed as regulars here, they’d be discharged once their contract period came to an end. As such it was beyond pointless to order them to take their work seriously.

The folks of the Civil Rights Party only needed the fact of the youths having been employed for their political agenda, so if you took this into account as well, you might even call the young people victims here.

But, personally I believed that the biggest victims here would likely be the defense forces.

“I guess it’s pointless to get upset at this point. Anyway, when is the government going to start its negotiations with the Helmut Kingdom?”

“Wouldn’t that be anyone’s call?”

“Ah, yeah. The people in the government are just as bad as those young civilian contractors.”

“No kidding. But, seeing how the politicians aren’t young anymore, you can’t hope for any improvement anymore.”

“You got a point there.”

This much cynicism is to be expected at this point, I think. At any rate, some among the young civilian contractors have apparently started to feel bored with staying on the island during their days off.

In compliance with the politicians of the ruling party, we’ve allotted plenty of leave days to them. According to those idiots, they’re allies of laborers, so it’s only natural for them to comply with labor laws.

I mean, even the defense forces are well aware that excessive exhaustion can lead to unforeseen accidents or troubles on top of work-efficiency dropping, and so our organization has been managing its labor properly. Those people’s problem is their steady bickering despite not doing any work, which only causes us trouble instead.

“The area around this archipelago is being monitored by various bigger and smaller ships…”

“I doubt they’d lose if it came to a fight, but we’re surrounded by enemies here…”

“3rd Grade Assistant Bermel, they haven’t been designated as enemies yet, so watch your words.”

“Excuse me, Sir.”

If the Helmut Kingdom is designated as an enemy, the probability of us starting a war will rise exponentially. Thus, it’s better to watch what you say right now. Besides, our defense forces are under civil control. So the defense force mustn’t judge the humans to be enemies without any orders by the government.

And even before that, telling the Helmut Kingdom that they’re our enemies after selfishly building a base on their territory is a case that would affect our dignity as demons. Ultimately, this is but my personal opinion, and it’s not like I can read the minds of the government members.

After a deep sigh, “…But, if we don’t phrase it out like that, those young folks will head out to play for real, I think…”

“What a nightmare…”

If we allow those civilians to go on holidays in the surrounding waters, the other side will definitely make some sort of hostile assumption based on that, no matter how much we claim otherwise. I believe it’s pretty much set that it’ll lead to battle.

“Have them spend their time on the islands!”

“We will be strengthening the guard protocol right away.”

The troublesome part about the young contractor is their ability to use magic, which is something all demons can use naturally. Even demons with small mana capacity still register as intermediate level compared to human magicians.

Many demons know about that from the ancient records we still have left, and thus I can’t deny the possibility of them getting carried away and simply letting their magic loose at the humans.

“This is the very reason why I said that we didn’t need any young civilian contractors over here…”

All demons are strong as magicians. And using that fact as an argument, some of them have been insisting on invading the continent. However, the defense forces don’t have enough personnel to successfully launch such an invasion. True to its name, the defense forces lost their capabilities as a true army in the distant past.

In addition, the demons themselves are waning in population. Even if we won, any casualty would cause the public to lash out at the government and the defense forces. War and war casualties are words that have long vanished from our country. If things go really badly, even just a few casualties would have the potential for several members of the cabinet to resign.

Besides, the majority of the populace is against a war or an invasion. There’s no need to invade another country if your own country has an ever growing space for living because of a dwindling population.

Even in regards to our current mission here, some people and intellectuals have been kicking up a fuss over it being problematic on a legal basis.

“3rd Grade Assistant Bermel, I sometimes wonder about this, but why have I been assigned as the commandant of this fleet?”

“……”

Bermel remained silent as he appeared hard pressed to find an answer. But that’s okay since I didn’t expect him to give me a satisfying answer anyway.

To be honest here, I didn’t want to participate in an operation like this.

If I get through this without any grave errors, my retirement payment and pension… Most recently, people have started to debate a raise of the retirement age and a cut of the pension, but…well, I should be able to live normally on what I’ll receive.

“The young contractors are strangely skilled at magic.”

“Well, they had plenty of time on their hands, so it makes sense…”

The demons of several ten thousand years ago had formed a savage society that used power (magic) to subdue others. Nowadays, magic technology has advanced and the ruling system of society has been refined, which led to magic maniacs being shunned among demons. Rather than focusing on magic, it’s more beneficial for finding employment to study properly, enter good schools, get good grades and certificates, and hone your social skills with friends and the people around you.

Of course mana is necessary to maintain the social system and infrastructure, but the amount of mana required has been decreasing with each year thanks to progress in magic engineering. Given that demons, unlike humans, possess a certain amount of mana once they obtain the ability to understand what is going on around them in early childhood, they don’t really need to train magic.

Rather, if they don’t focus on learning some skills or studying knowledge, they won’t be able to find any jobs. And even if they obtain all these, half of the young demons transform into social problems because they can’t find jobs.

Some among those unemployed youths devote all their effort and time in practicing magic. Occasionally, “crazed youths” will also go ballistic in urban areas because they want to vent their dissatisfaction on society, but such demons are quickly arrested.

The policing unit within the defense forces has been doing proper combat training while employing a certain number of serious, diligent youths into their ranks.

But, since it’s not like you won’t starve just because you can’t work in our society, the number of folks going ballistic is low. The media uses those few youths for criticizing the government by calling them “Victims of Society,” so the problem looks bigger than it actually is.

“As a matter of fact, my younger brother remains unemployed as well… He has been training his magic since he got tired counting the leaves falling from trees. And even while doing that, he can’t find a job… Our parents have been asking me whether I couldn’t help him out in some way, but I don’t have any connections…”

It sounds like Bermel’s family has its own share of issues.

“Does that change once you become a general?” He asked.

“No, at least not for me. Our son has found a job with a civilian company.”

Fortunately, our son is somehow managing to stay afloat as a salaryman, but he’s looking quite exhausted every day and the pay is quite bad. There’s few jobs for youths and many companies pay so badly and have so nasty work hours that they’re called 『Black Companies』.

Because many youths got cornered by such circumstances, falling into depression or killing themselves, some of them started to think that it’s just as fine to not take jobs at all costs. The elderly complain, 『Back in my younger days, we’ve been worked a lot harder for much less pay! Young people nowadays are so spoiled rotten!』, causing the youths in question to ridicule them with, 『Geezer, you and your dreamy nostalgia of better times lol』.

Well, in reality, many companies paid and treated their employees better in the past…

Of course there also existed many companies that worked their employees like horses, but in exchange, their pay was higher, according to my deceased grandfather.

Such being the case, our country has been continuing this unproductive quarrel for the last few hundred years. I guess you could summarize this whole argument under the category of generation gap.

Telling all of this to Bermel, he commented, “Okay, but even if you invade the continent for the sake of covering that contradiction, it’ll just make things worse.”

“Yes, it’d likely aggravate the demon’s decline…”

If we can’t govern the occupied territory decently, it’s quite possible that the few demons would have their heads cut off during their sleep or die on battlefields. And since they’re aware of this, the uniformed personnel are probably flabbergasted by the retarded arguments of the politicians.

“It’s good that I’m no uniformed personnel, really…”

As I thought that, suddenly, a 2nd Grade Assistant in charge of security rushed into the room, shouting, “It’s an emergency! Three of them escaped!”

Apparently three of the young contractors slipped through our surveillance net and left the archipelago.

“But, how?”

“…Underwater.”

If they had left the islands with 『Flight』, we’d have immediately spotted and retrieved them. Accordingly three of them cast 『Underwater Breathing』 on themselves and dove away.

“Shall we give chase?”

“That sounds like it’ll be difficult…”

If we move our ship, it could provoke the ships watching this island, if we’re unlucky. Having said that, it’d be dangerous for me to send out my precious personnel while only relying on their magic.

“If we treat those three as ship-wrecked, it’ll also turn us into targets for blame and persecution, though.”

“Those fucking morons!”

I felt dizziness assailing me while believing that no other commandant could be as unfortunate as I am.

＊　　　＊　　　＊

“Hahahaha! Found you! Time for you to get caught and eaten by us!”

On the next day we headed out to catch sea beasts aka whales and dolphins off the coast thanks to Doushi. Since I had ordered the other fishing boats to keep fishing as usual, we left the coastal area with just one boat.

“Wend, we’ve gotten pretty close to the archipelago, don’t you think?”

“Do not worry! It is still a long way off!” Doushi denied Erw’s worries with a booming voice.

Usually in situations like this, it would be the young ones trying to pull something reckless, just for the older ones to stop them, but here it was the other way around.

“Sea beasts, huh…?”

For me that equates to whales, I guess. During my time as salaryman, I was taken along to special restaurants where they also handled such ingredients. I think the meat tastes great, but unfortunately many people considered eating whales as taboo, so it was an ingredient hard to come by. Given that there exists a lot of other meat as well, it didn’t sell that much anyway, and it wasn’t as profitable as many people might think.

Just as some among the elderly liked it for 『nostalgic reasons』, others claimed, 『There’s so many delicious food nowadays, so it’s unnecessary to insist on eating that』. Whale dishes might be a part of Japanese culture, but it’s a fact that it lost much of its prestige compared to the past because the diversification of food has advanced quite a bit.

On the other hand, in this world whales might make for a good business, if you can catch them reliably at low risk.

“Wend-sama, sea boars are very cost-efficient since you can use a lot of their parts,” Wilma explained.

“I see.”

According to Wilma, whale oil was apparently used to light lamps in this world. And given that many other parts of sea beasts were used as base material for all kinds of products, all of a whale’s materials would be immediately sold as soon as the ship unloaded.

“Did people not catch sea beasts at your place, Therese?”

“The Mizuho people caught them with the help of harpoons. It was a dangerous endeavor and since you couldn’t catch many of them with this method either, the people of the Philip Dukedom didn’t eat sea beasts often. Mizuho has many people who like catching sea beasts, but I heard most of their catches are consumed inside Mizuho.”

The Mizuho people resemble Japanese people. That’s probably why they like to eat whales and dolphins.

“Now then, let us do our best to make Doushi happy.”

“Noble sirs, we will start the search at once.”

Logically, it’d be pointless if we couldn’t actually find any whales. As such, the fisherman, who acted as captain, moved the ship around to look for a swarm of whales.

“Noble sirs, over there!”

I thought that he might not discover any, but because the whales of this world haven’t been hunted by humans much, they should inhabit the oceans in a considerable number. Even us amateurs could soon spot a swarm of around a dozen whales leisurely advancing through the sea.

“So, you take those down with harpoons, right?”

“That’s correct, but…”

Of course, our boat didn’t have a harpoon thrower installed at its bow, and because it looked like Doushi would pulverize the whales by unleashing mighty magic at them, if we left it to him, I had Ina throw a spear with a rope attached to it.

“They’re quite a distance away…”

Although she bickered like that, Ina skilfully used her mana to strengthen her throw, succeeding in hitting a whale. The whale thrashed around after having its body penetrated by a spear, but Doushi and Wilma used their prized superhuman strength to reel in the rope connected to the spear.

“Treat, not getting away.”

“Ooohh!! That is a great tug!”

I think any ordinary person would have been pulled into the sea, but that would be an unnecessary worry with Doushi and Wilma.

“Wilma, let me help you as well.”

“Me too. Though I don’t know how useful I’m going to be.”

Luise and Katia joined in as well after boosting their strength through mana.

The whale kept resisting, but it was gradually drawn closer to the boat, and just when it was around a hundred meters away, I made it faint by casting Lightning at it – an improved version of Area Stun.

After finishing off the unconscious whale, I stored it in my magic bag. Naturally, it’d be tomfoolery to dismantle it here and now, so I decided to do it on land.

“Next, I will catch one!”

We started to catch whales with the same method as before. Doushi participated in throwing spears at whales or finishing them off with magic, enjoying himself very much.

“It is a huge haul!”

“I suppose we’ll have the fishermen dismantle them after taking the haul back, and then sell off some of it.”

“It’s rare for so many sea beasts to raise to the surface all at once.”

For half a day afterwards, we continued to catch whales at a good pace. We actually had too much firepower for this task when it came to our line-up, so we managed to catch so much that we might have been able to take on a veteran fishermen association.

“However, I think it’d be difficult to handle this without a magic bag after all…”

“Yes, otherwise there is simply not enough room to store the sea beasts.”

As she didn’t have anything particular to do, Elise started to cook on-board, using whale meat and fat as a test.

“A general-purpose magic bag is quite expensive…”

“Indeed.”

You need a big ship to store the caught whales. But, normal fishermen are hard-pressed to arrange such big ships. And if it’s a small ship, they have no choice but to return to port while pulling the caught whales via rope, but as sharks will immediately pounce on the catch if they’re negligent in their watch, it often leads to a drop in value of the materials.

Moreover, with sharks it’s limited to them simply taking bites out of the pulled whales, but if the blood lures serpents over, even the fishermen are in danger. Because whales are big, you can make a lot of cash by selling their materials, but they lose in size when compared to serpents or similarly big monsters.

The whales themselves aren’t so powerful, but since they’re more ferocious than the whales on Earth, some of them will ram themselves against boats if they feel their life is in danger.

So there exist all sorts of reasons why the amount of caught whales remains low despite existing demand.

“If you secure edible meat through safe whale fishing, it’ll also help with general livelihood. Maybe I should have this option investigated in the Baumeister Earldom, too.”

“Earl-sama, just in case you forgot, we came here to go to war.”

“So you say, but Margrave Holmia hasn’t said a word, has he?”

For some reason even negotiations with the demons haven’t started yet, so we’ve been fishing under the pretext of procuring provisions as we don’t have anything else to do.

“We’ve already got plenty, I’d say.”

“Noble sir, I see some drifters over there.”

Just as we were about to head back, the fisherman at the wheel spotted something like a raft in the distance. I checked it with the binoculars I took out of my magic bag. It allowed me to immediately spot three guys sitting on a small raft.

“Why in such a place?”

“I haven’t heard any news of any ships having had any accidents.”

All the fishermen belong to the guild, so the guild would always inform them before their departure, if any ship encountered an accident. After all, the fishermen would be able to keep an eye open for the wreck or its sailors while fishing, if they’re told about this in advance.

“Maybe one of the smaller surveillance boats around the archipelago had a disaster? Either way, we’ve got to rescue them.”

Saving shipwrecked people is a duty of anyone boarding a ship on the ocean. Being told so by Therese, the fisherman brought our boat close to the raft.

But, when we drew closer, all of us noticed that they possessed long ears.

“Demons!? But, why didn’t I notice them from their mana?”

“Burkhart-dono, it looks like these men have run out of mana!”

As might be expected, even Burkhart-san with his fine mana detection skill wouldn’t noticed them if they’re out of mana. Doushi was also looking terribly embarrassed over having missed them.

“Demons? Noble sir…”

We were somewhat used to demons since we got Arnest with us, but the same couldn’t be said about the fishermen. Seeing demons for the first time after having only heard about them in gossip, they started to become so scared that it was actually pitiable.

“Now, now, calm down.”

If the fishermen get oddly nervous here, it’ll only trigger the other party to become wary. Besides, there’s no need to be so vigilant about them right now, if they’ve run out of mana anyway.

I addressed the three guys normally, “Did your ship sink?”

“Hmm? Humans? First time for me to see live ones.”

“You’re right. They have short ears, too.”

“Or rather, they’re no different from us other than that, are they?”

The three, young demons wore work clothes resembling that of tradies. Even after spotting us, they seemed genuinely curious about humans without showing any wariness. Going by their appearance, they didn’t appear to be soldiers at all.

“Are you out of mana?”

“Yeah. We tried to leave the island since we were bored during our day off. Since we’d run into human ships if we flew, we chose to go by boat, but probably also because it was our first time doing this, the mana consumption was much higher than we had anticipated. And thus we’re currently taking a break.”

“How about you take a break with us then? We’ve just finished catching sea beasts, so we’re also making some trial dishes.

“Sounds good. Since we’re here anyway, we’ll take you up on the offer.”

The demons accepted my invitation all too easily. After guiding them into the boat’s interior, I had Elise serve them mate tea.

“This ship has a high female ratio!”

“How enviable. Our youth forces have been forcibly separated into male and female departments. If I had known that it’d turn out like that, I’d have preferred staying at home to read my books. I thought it’d be more like a school trip!”

“Hey, are you possibly popular?”

The tall lanky guy among the three was called Mall Clint. The short but stout one was Ramul Arton. And the youth with the bald head was Silas Hector.

“I’m Wendelin von Benno Baumeister.”

“Err, you’re nobility?”

“I’m a landed earl. I’ve come to this region as reinforcements for the current strife.”

“Eh? Despite fishing?” Mall looked at us suspiciously as we had been fishing whales while having come here as reinforcements.

“It can’t be helped, can it? Both sides haven’t started their negotiations. And since the food is being consumed with just military forces having been mobilized, we’re working at procuring provisions locally.”

“Military forces sure sound like a high-cost, low-return endeavor. Our defense forces also seem like they’re in dire problems when it comes to funds and supply.”

“Even just the costs for the base’s building materials are nothing to sneeze at, you know?”

“Looks like it. After all, it sounds like they’re even now struggling, claiming that they got no budget to spare.”

“The citizen’s group and others have been naggy about abolishing the defense forces for a long while now, haven’t they?”

I wonder why, but somehow I’m being reminded of my time before coming to this world when listening to Mall and the other two.

“Budget tightness looks to be the same with demons and humans alike.”

“It simply means both suffer the same hardships.”

As I thought, these guys are total amateurs when it comes to military matters.

＊　　　＊　　　＊

They readily answered my leading questions.

“We’ll treat you to some food. It’s sea beast cooking, though.”

“Sounds great.”

“We’d get flak by pro-environmental groups, if we actually caught a whale.”

“Everyone once in a while, they’ve got some meaningless clashes with fishermen, don’t they? I saw it in the newspaper.”

So demons call them whales, huh? Still, listening to these three makes me feel as if I’ve come back to Earth. It looks like the demon country uses a social system that’s fairly close to something you could also find on Earth back in my previous life.

In that case, it’ll be dangerous if things head towards war, as expected. I doubt we’d be able to win, if we fought them fair and square. I guess it’s already plenty of harvest to just have learned this.

“(Say, Earl-sama)”

“(Let’s gather some information by cleverly talking about various things)”

“(These guys do not look like they would become malicious either. I agree with your plan, Earl Baumeister)”

“(You got a point there. But we should stay vigilant, just in case)”

Seeing how negotiations haven’t started at all yet, I think we should gather information so as to somehow push things in that direction. Doushi and Burkhart-san agreed with my thoughts on this, too.

“(I’ll stay cautious so far as it goes, but these guys are complete amateurs, aren’t they…?)”

In the eyes of Ina who had stopped being an amateur herself after surviving the Empire’s civil war, it didn’t look like Mall and his two friends followed some secret agenda or special attack plan. Even so, I warned Elise and the others to avoid making contact with the demons while being alone.

“All of them are his wives!”

“Everyone has given birth to his children!”

“Not going to stay alone with unmarried guys!? Such modest women have long gone extinct in our country!”

When Elise and my wives told them that they wouldn’t be able to interact with them privately as they were already married to me, so as to not hurt the feelings of the demons, Mall and his two friends raised their voices in surprise.

“How nice…Earl Baumeister, aren’t you the ultimate winner in life?”

“It comes with a fair amount of hardship, you know?”

“Okay, I suppose it’s the same for humans and demons then.”

At that point, Elise’s group showed up, carrying the food. They had experimentally created all sorts of dishes based on sea beasts, and the three demons wolfed everything down with great relish.

“The handmade food of a girl rocks!”

“Many of the women in our country can’t cook.”

“It’s said cooking is a matter of skill, but in the end, things taste different if girls make them.”

The three happily continued eating the sea beast dishes.

“Say, didn’t you bring any food with you?”

“We prepared some for the worst-case-situation.” Ramul, the one carrying their luggage, retrieved a sealed plastic pouch and canned goods from his rucksack, and showed them to Luise.

Okay, just as I thought, the demon country resembles Earth quite a lot.

“You can eat this? It looks silver, no?”

Luise apparently didn’t understand how to eat the canned food and retort. She was tilting her head in confusion while holding them in her hands.

“You can open them up, Luise-chan.”

“Wow…for food to be stored inside a metal container…”

Ramul opened several of the cans with a can opener so that we could test it. He had cans with beef stew, gratin, pickles, and even bread.

“Bread can be preserved without a magic bag, too. But, why don’t you use a magic bag?”

“Adult reasons, to summarize it.”

According to Lamru’s explanation, the demon country had an excess of food.

“If we stored food in magic bags, even more food would be left over, right? It’s forbidden to use them for farmers, animal husbandries, fishermen, food companies, and restaurants. The defense forces employ cooks full-time, so these here are emergency rations.”

“They can actually enforce a ban on magic bags?”

“We’ve got devices that can detect magic tools, so officials of the responsible ministry are doing regular inspections. It’s at the level of them occasionally catching restaurants where they used magic bags because of the management being too greedy, I’d say?”

“Having too much food sure sounds like a dream.”

“You think so? But because of that, food-related businesses can go bankrupt quickly, even if they can be started easily, so people regard working there as insecure or basically unemployed… In the end, you have to be a fairly big company to make a living from it.”

The state is compensating for the falling food prices through subsidiary aid, and that aid is apparently being paid from taxpayer money. As such, it wouldn’t be a solution for such companies to simply produce masses of food either, explained Ramul.

“It was my first time eating whale, but it’s quite delicious, I have to admit.”

“The cooking was wonderful.”

“Thank you very much,” Elise answered Ramul after getting praised for her cooking.

“Earl Baumeister, I’m quite jealous of you since all your wives are pretty girls!”

＊

After lunch, we kept chatting while enjoying tea and desserts. In the end, even idle gossip could become important information for us.

According to the three guys, the demon country has been a peaceful country without any conflicts for many years, but because of a decreasing birth rate, the country’s population was gradually declining. Their political system was a democracy where the politicians would be decided by vote. They had two bigger parties called the National Sovereignty Party and the Civil Rights Party, as well as several smaller parties.

Their magic engineering outclassed the Kingdom and Empire, but probably because of the long period of peace, their military technology has stalled a lot more than I expected. However, magic guns and cannons have been deployed as common weapons. Their magic airships overpowered the human ones in defense capabilities, mobility, and firepower. Even the Lingaia wouldn’t be able to compete here.

I also understood that it’d be possible for them to conquer the continent if they felt like it, because all demons were magicians. In short, they were complacent about peace because they didn’t experience a war for a long time, but they were quite capable of devastating human countries if they got pissed off.

“It would have been better to not have asked.”

“Indeed.”

Everyone silently agreed with Wilma and Katharina’s honest impression. We had heard something similar from Arnest, and this just confirmed his information.

“But, I think the majority of the demons are against war.”

“Really?”

“No matter how much large companies and politicians might use the media to clamor about the possibility of increasing the work for young people, when looking at us young civilians in military employment, we’ll still be no more than disposable, non-permanent employees, right? And it’s not like we haven’t been able to make a living so far either.”

“Regardless of whether it’s the National Sovereignty Party or the Civil Rights Party, neither can resolve the unemployment issue so easily. Everyone has become quite disillusioned about that.”

“How to describe it. Thou people lack ambition.”

“You may say so, but would you prefer demons who love war, regard the humans in their occupied territories as exploitable livestock, and slaughter all those going against them?”

“We stopped doing that sort of stuff tens of thousands of years ago.”

“Yeah, true. The demons as they’re recorded in old documents were crazy.”

Therese seemed to harbor various misgivings about those three demons, but personally, I had a good impression of them. If the demons were to aim for conquering the world, I’d lose my calm──well, let’s just pretend it’s calm──life then and there. Also, I can easily associate with their mindset as it resembles that of many Earthlings.

“We now understand things about the demon country a bit better. But, why haven’t negotiations started yet?”

“There has been a change in political power just recently- That’s why.”

“What? Why wouldn’t negotiation start just because the administration got changed?”

Burkhart-san was apparently unable to comprehend what Silas was saying.

“Our country has no department that’s in charge of foreign affairs to begin with. The Civil Rights Party came to power for the first time in a very long time, but their members lack the abilities to get things done.”

“Why would such people win in the election…?”

From Burkhart-san’s point of view as someone not understanding democracy, he probably couldn’t understand a system completely based on popular election. And its impact…

“The elections are held every four years, so incompetent people will get voted out during the next elections. It might be rude to say it like this, but how many dozens of years do you have to curse your own fate, if the successor of a noble or royal family proves to be an incompetent dunce?”

“Well, if they suck too much, it does happen that their retainers get rid of them, too.”

It’s common sense that listing the merits and demerits of political systems results in an endless endeavor. Both systems won’t work if the ones at the top aren’t good enough to run an administration.

“What do you think, Earl-sama?”

“Eh? Both depend on what people make out of it, no? I think both systems have their advantages and disadvantages, though.”

I don’t really mind either political system, but I think it’ll be a problem if you nitpick or intervene in the political system of another country. And if this resulted in war and many deaths because you poked your nose where it doesn’t belong, it would make no sense either.

“Earl-sama, aren’t you unexpectedly well-suited to be a politician?”

“No way that could be true.”

I just have an extent of such understanding because of my previous life. But, if I got involved in politics while having such an incomplete understanding of things, it wouldn’t lead to anything decent. That in itself would be just like the members of the Civil Rights Party.

“It’s wonderful that we could talk about so many interesting things. Those will be a big help.”

I don’t plan to deliberately get invested in the negotiations, but it’s always better to possess information.

Since I’d draw criticism on myself if I butted in while disregarding the royal family and Margrave Holmia, I’ll ultimately just use it as a reference though.

“Okay, then please be careful on your way back.”

“Huh? I’m not going back.”

“Me neither.”

“It’s just going to be boring if we go back anyway.”

“Pardon?”

We were thrown for a loop when the three started to talk about not returning to the archipelago.

“No, no, wait. What’s the plan when you’re not going back?”

“Earl Baumeister, you seem like some sort of VIP, so I think I’ll rely on your hospitality while also using it as an opportunity to sightsee.”

“You won’t be paid your wages if you don’t go back, will you?”

“We’re not that hard pressed on money anyway. As long as you provide us with daily allowances and commonplace entertainment expenses, we won’t mind moving to the Lingaia Continent at all.”

“I joined the military as a civilian employee because my parents told me to, but that place is no good at all.”

“We’ll provide you with more information, if you want, so take us in for a while, will you? We’ll head back at a suitable time.”

“……”

Even Doushi was speechless while looking at those three who didn’t possess a shred of loyalty towards their country and comrades. I could understand their way of thinking, however.

“Oh right, did you know, Earl Baumeister? The daily pay of young civilians in military employment amounts to 6400 En. Taxes, health insurance, and pension are deducted from that.”

“That’s the pay of working poor.”

Given that their job was nothing more than a measure to lower the unemployment rate of young people, its pay wasn’t good either. But, assuming the currency of En has a similar value as Yen, it’s not that bad a deal, if you include that the necessities of life are provided for free, is it? But, even then it’s a non-permanent employment.

Even I, as someone entering the category of former corporate slave, had permanent employment…so my job might have actually been better than theirs.

“Once the troop dispatch ends, we’ll be unemployed once again. We’re nothing but disposable pawns in this.”

“I see…”

I ended up simultaneously feeling an emptiness and nostalgia as if having returned to the world of my previous life. Which reminds me, I went to a reunion meeting of my junior high school class before I was transferred to this world here, but many of my former classmates were scraping by with temporary jobs or part-time work.

No matter the world, young people got it tough anywhere, I suppose.

“I don’t know how much 6400 En is worth, but can you convert gold or silver coins?”

“That’s no problem. Gold can be converted at recycle shops.”

This reality caused me to ponder for a bit.

＊

In the end, Mall and his friends followed us back. Because we couldn’t announce their arrival publicly, I had them hide their ears and decided that they’d live inside a small magic airship. Moreover, I told them that one of their brethren was freeloading at my place and brought Arnest over with Teleport.

Unexpectedly, those three appeared to be acquaintances of Arnest.

“Oh, you’re here as well, sensei?”

“So you were still alive, sensei. The media mentioned that you had likely died during the exploration of a remote ancient ruin.”

“Sensei, we couldn’t get a job in the end.”

The world appears to be a surprisingly small place.

“You’re acquainted?”

“That is correct. I have been teaching as a professor at a certain university before moving to this continent. Back then, those three took part in my seminar.”

“They are unemployed despite having received such a high education?”

“Madam, sometimes having too much education can have an adverse effect. The posts available for humans with high educational levels are limited, and people, who had been aiming for those kinds of positions will refuse doing regular jobs. This is described as an employment mismatch in our country.”

“It sounds like the demon country has its own share of problems.”

Speaking of universities in the Kingdom and Empire, each has just one academy. The enrollment exams are pretty harsh, but if you graduate from either of those places, you won’t have any trouble finding a job. As such, Elise can’t believe that those three are unemployed despite having graduated university.

“Still, are all the students of my seminar unemployed?”

“No. Demitorr passed the exam for governmental officials. Horst joined a company that has absolutely nothing to do with archeology. Mian is living in the countryside, providing for himself.”

“All of those have nothing to do with archeology…”

Arnest’s field of expertise is archeology. And yet, none of his students is working in that field. That would be very unlikely in the Kingdom, so even Erw cannot hide his surprise at hearing that.

“That is truly saddening to hear. Archeology is the best field of study as you learn about the knowledge of ancient times, and yet…”

“Archeology doesn’t put any food on the table.”

“In the first place, sensei, you had absolutely no connections to any companies.”

“Even becoming a university professor is quite a challenge. It was nothing we could have accomplished.”

Arnest was an outstanding archeologist. But, he couldn’t selfishly increase the number of lecturers and assistant professors, and archeology is a bad starting point for finding a job, too. Even if you do research, you’re basically dependent on funding by the state, or so they said.

Most recently they haven’t been able to do any decent excavations either because of budget cuts.

“That is the reason why I came to this continent in search of new ruins and a sponsor.”

And seeing how he cooperated with Duke Nürnberg, he is truly a researcher at heart. He puts his research in front of all, even if it’s justice or morals.

“Sensei, you did well to get out of our country.”

“It was quite an ordeal, but I possess a lot of mana.”

He apparently stayed out of coastal and air patrols by traveling underwater, and then he aimed for the continent by using Flight. Of course, he had to stay in the sea for several days as it was a journey that couldn’t be covered in a day. As he didn’t use a magic airship either, it was equal to crossing the Atlantic by yourself, when put in Earthen terms. A feat that should only be possible for demons with huge mana pools.

“Did something change back home during the many years of my absence?”

“Nothing major. If anything, it’d be the loss of the National Sovereignty Party in the election?”

“If it is only that much, that country is an utter incarnation of boredom.”

“You could argue that this was the reason why we were able to apply as civilian employees for the military and reunite with you like this, though.”

“The Civil Rights Party, huh? The guys who made a ruckus as an autonomous organization at the university, right? Those people were nothing but trouble since they did not study at all.”

As Arnest didn’t care much about politics, he didn’t seem overly interested in what his students told him. Moreover, he didn’t have the highest attitude of the new party in power either.

“Having said that, it might have a negative impact on my excavations if both countries go to war. Earl Baumeister, I hope you are going to handle this matter carefully.”

“Why me?”

“Because you are an earl, it is your duty to take the initiative in the name of noblesse oblige.”

“The heck…”

“Even if you do not do anything, Earl Baumeister, my report is going to catch the attention of His Majesty the King.”

“……”

Okay, it’d have been better to have left that guy back in my mansion after all.

＊　　　＊　　　＊

『Milord, you must stand firm here, if you dislike war』

“I’m working quite hard, okay? Mostly at fishing, though.”

『You are out on a military campaign either way. How about trying to leaking the information to the royal court, seeing how that would be still better than getting dragged into a war against the demons?』

“Yeah, that’d be a major pain…” I sighed at Roderich through the MHCD.

The number of demons freeloading at my place had grown to four, and thanks to that, I could obtain a certain extent of overview about the general situation. But, there’s a truckload of problems to be dealt with.

First, the demon country has apparently been arguing over the composition of their diplomatic corps for the negotiations. Moreover, some demons were domestically hawking an invasion of the Lingaia Continent in order to somehow alleviate the demon country’s stagnation. In addition, the 『Lingaia』 had fired its magic at a vessel of the defense force when the demons were advising the sailors to leave their territorial airspace.

『So who made them fire the magic, seeing how the captain wouldn’t be able to escape responsibility?』

“According to their information, it was an inexperienced noble heir who served as vice-captain on the ship.”

『Ah, so it was the son of that awfully deplorable man…』

“I see you’re quite well-informed, Roderich.”

『I would rather say you set a thief to a catch a thief…』

Without me being aware of it, Roderich had apparently opened up some new routes to obtain information from the palace. He immediately realized that I was talking about the heir of the Earl Platte House.

Is he getting his intelligence through Minister Rückner?

“Somehow it sounds like it came out as a big story in the newspapers over there.”

However, the spell used lacked power and thus didn’t have any effect on the thick hull of the demon country’s ship, but that doesn’t change the fact of it having been an attack. It looks like the demons immediately counterattacked and seized the Lingaia.

All of this was information I received from Mall and his friends.

According to a newspaper article, the son of the Platte House haughtily clamored that he should be treated appropriately as he was the next Earl Platte during his interrogation, putting the one in charge of the questioning in a bind.

“It sounds like that guy was heavily criticized in the demon country’s newspapers as 『selfish man playing with fire after becoming a noble just because of his lineage』.”

『That is a reasonable assessment, I would argue』

We were nobles of the same kingdom, but neither Roderich nor I saw any groundings in defending that guy. I never met the son, but since I hate his father, I don’t feel a shred of desire to rescue that spoiled brat.

Well, I think the newspapers on Earth would write around the same, if something like that happened over there. In the eyes of the media, a selfish, arrogant noble, who believes himself to be special, would register as the perfect target for criticism.

“But, even if I inform His Majesty about this, it’s meaningless, isn’t it?”

『Indeed…』

I don’t have any conclusive proof that it’s the truth. If people said that this was a trap planted by the demons to trick the Helmut Kingdom, I’d have no counterarguments.

And in reality, some nobles are already saying such things. Especially the hawks around Earl Platte. For sure he’s not going to honestly admit that it’s been his son’s fault at this point in time.

Not few among the Kingdom’s nobles wonder whether we can’t somehow invade the continent inhabited by the demons. In the worst case, it’s also possible that I’ll be doubted and attacked as a demon collaborator.

『Under these circumstances, it is a big help for us that the demon country has not decided on the diplomatic corps yet』

“So, how do you wish for things to develop, Earl Baumeister?”

“I’d prefer to maintain the status quo,” I answered Arnest’s question.

It’d be great if the demons could withdraw their airfleet from the Terra Harrez Archipelago. Then the Kingdom could officially apologize if the retard of the Platte House had been the ringleader behind the 『Lingaia』 incident, and sign a fair trade agreement afterwards.

However, that’s easier said than done.

“Earl Baumeister, what are you going to do?”

“As I thought, it is way too troublesome, so let us inform His Majesty about everything!”

Once Doushi declared so, we quickly headed over to the palace through Teleport. Arnest and Mall’s group accompanied us while hiding their ears, but since Doushi had contacted His Majesty in advance, the soldiers didn’t ask anything as we passed through the palace.

“Earl Baumeister, as always, I cannot quite decide…whether you’re a very lucky or unlucky man.”

This time we had an audience with His Majesty while even the ministers were absent. This was a rare occurrence, but it was approved of as Doushi would be present as His Majesty’s guard.

“It’s not like we have been playing around without doing anything.”

His Majesty explained that the Kingdom sent forth a diplomatic corps under the lead of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, but the negotiations didn’t proceed in any way. The diplomatic corps had been detained on the demon air fleet’s flagship, and although they could contact the Kingdom, they were apparently told to wait a bit longer every day.

“Just what is going on with the demon country?”

Arnest’s information has been regularly delivered to His Majesty, but no matter how different their political system might be, not even starting to negotiate posed a problem to them, said His Majesty.

“About that…”

After listening to Mall and his friends, His Majesty sighed. He didn’t have much interest in the four demons who had hidden their ears. After all, this was not a situation to bother with such things and neither of the four was a politician. Only Arnest drew His Majesty’s interest somewhat since he had been providing the palace with information about the demons so far. Though it was also possible that he was deliberately pretending to be disinterested because it’d otherwise draw the attention of the other nobles, if he kicked up too much of a fuss.

“Chaos due to this immediately happening after a change in political power? Well, it’s not like this has never happened in the Kingdom either.”

According to him, at some point in the past, the change of the king and ministers overlapped, and since the Kingdom was at war with the Empire back then, it delayed the beginning of ceasefire negotiations.

“Still, that’s a problem.”

The west had mobilized all the troops it could scrape together and the royal army had sent forth its air-force and a part of its soldiers, too. Moreover, some nobles like us had also sent their magicians and magic airships. This whole machinery was tearing through funds and goods even while standing still.

And all of this happened just as the Kingdom tried to build up power by developing various areas while the Empire’s national power had declined due to the damages caused by the civil war. In the eyes of His Majesty, it had to seem as if a nightmare had befallen the Kingdom.

“Having said that, it’d be pointless even if I sent you out to negotiate, Earl Baumeister.”

I’d likely end up being forced to wait just like the diplomatic corps, and the diplomats wouldn’t be overly happy to see me either. Given that I didn’t belong to the foreign affairs faction, it’d be a clear-cut transgression into their authority.

“I’m grateful for the new information, but things sure look bleak…”

＊

On the next day after discussing the situation lengthily, it seemed like there was finally some sort of movement on the diplomatic front. A new airship from the demon country had apparently arrived at the archipelago, carrying a diplomatic corps of their government.

The Kingdom’s diplomats informed the palace that they’d start the negotiations quickly.

“Somehow, I got a bad feeling about this…”

“Usually you’re spot on, whenever you get those feelings of yours, Wend. Are they going to argue during the negotiations?” Ina asked while looking worried, but right now we couldn’t do anything.

We got up early, did all sorts of training sessions, and while keeping an eye on the babies, we went sightseeing in Sirius.

“This place sure is overflowing with an exotic flair…”

“Since it’s such a rare opportunity, we should eat some local dishes.”

“I wonder what kind of souvenirs I should get for my parents?”

Our sightseeing had also been for the sake of our four demon guests, and it looked like they were enjoying the overseas trip from the bottom of their hearts.

“My dear, former students, did you consider what you are going to eat for lunch?”

“We’re in a port city, so it’s got to be seafood!”

“Maybe there are some other good dishes.”

“And, it’s going to be sensei’s treat, too!”

“Well, I do not particularly mind, but…”

Arnest usually appeared to be an aloof genius, but it seemed like he was rather pleased about the reunion with his former students. He readily paid for their food and souvenirs.

“Sensei, you are quite a rich man.”

“I have been getting paid by Earl Baumeister because I brought decent results.”

At this point, he had already discovered many underground ruins and obtained all sorts of excavated items for us, so I’ve been paying him a corresponding reward. Arnest is a research nut, but he never forgets to properly provide benefits to his own sponsor.

Seeing how he was able to get along with Duke Nürnberg, he’s a man who’s capable of at least that much consideration.

Usually he doesn’t use much of his money since he spends a lot of time locked up in his own room, but he appears to be flexible enough to splurge during occasions like this.

“If only we had some girls with us here…”

“We do, don’t we? Moreover, all of them are cute.”

“Even if they’re cute, the part about all of them being married… nowadays, adultery is being looked down upon by society.”

“You got a point there, I guess.”

“Then again, we haven’t been able to marry to talk about adultery.”

“……”

Haruka is Erw’s wife, and the rest of the women are all my wives. Given that there’s not much of a difference between demons and humans, they might harbor various thoughts about the difference to us.

However, demons get publicly flamed if they do adultery? I feel like their place sounds increasingly familiar to me…

“It is not like it poses a particular problem to stay single.”

“Well, sensei, you treat your research like a lover, so…”

“We’d like to have at least a lover, too.”

“Marriage…is impossible because of a lack of funds.”

Monogamy is the norm in the demon country, but marriages among the young people have been gradually decreasing. As the number of youths unable to marry has grown, Mall and the others wanted to at least find a girlfriend. They frequently looked at the young women walking through the city.

“Considering it properly, I guess it’s impossible to land a girlfriend while being jobless.”

“It might be possible if you’re a very handsome hunk or something like that. You could also become a pimp?”

“Where do you see any handsomeness among us? Also, I hear that pimps have it surprisingly hard.”

“”””””””””……””””””””””

Elise and the others couldn’t say anything as the content of the demons’ conversation was too far out.

“Are all of you single?”

“More than 90% of our generation are singles.”

“How old are you?”

“I’m 54 years old. Lamru and Silas are 53.”

Mall answered Haruka’s questions.

Because demons lived almost three times as long as humans, you could regard them as approx. 18 years old, if converted into human age. It looks like we aren’t that far apart in age.

“You are still students after having lived for more than 50 years?”

“Indeed. Demons have a long life, you see? Also, it’s because we have no job.”

According to them, compulsory education takes 27 years. On top of that, higher education requires another nine years, and university another twelve years. Apparently there also exists a graduate school after university that lasts between six and twelve years, but they didn’t go there.

“Is there so much to learn?”

“No, it’s just because you can cover up your unemployment by being a student.”

Even demons had no need to go to school for such a long period of time. However, if they went out into society after just the time required to learn the necessary stuff, the number of unemployed people would keep growing, so they were simply allowed to stay students for many, many years.

“So, a very long moratorium, huh?”

“Earl Baumeister, you sure know some complicated words.”

“You’re right. However, we go twice or thrice per week to school.”

“Everyonce in a while, we simply forget to attend or some such.”

“Even so, it’s easy to advance through the grades, and it’s also alright for us to waste some time on part-time jobs.”

Mall and his friends laughed, but it sounds like long-living demons have their own share of troubles, too.

“Even though you’re magicians…”

“Wilma-san, magicians might be rare among humans, but all demons are magicians.”

“In short, there’s simply too many of them.”

It made me think that it’d be possible for them to enter governmental service in no time, if they weren’t demons.

“Let’s forget all about harsh reality and enjoy the sightseeing for now!”

We had a blast with everyone on this day, but I wonder how long such days would continue? Given that further developments depended on the other side’s response, it might be fine for us to keep going like this for the present. After all, we might become very busy very quickly.

Chapter 4 – Ambergris

“The heck’s this!? So expensive!”

“Sensei, is this a clump of wax, mineral or stone?”

“It is deplorable how very little you know despite having been my pupils. This is ambergris.”

“Pardon? The incense of what? Does that mean it comes from a dragon?”

[TN: In Japanese it’s written with the kanji for dragon, drool, and incense]

“At least that is what the people of old believed, but in reality, it is a calculus produced by the intestines of a serpent. Among natural aromas, it is the single-most expensive.”

“Hoh, I see.”

Today was yet another day of us strolling through the city with Mall’s group while sightseeing. Mall got very surprised when he discovered an ingredient that was ridiculously expensive in a certain store.

That store was filled with nothing but expensive goods which explained why there were no other customers but us in here.

The merchandise in question looked like marble that combined various colors such as gray, amber, black, white, etc. It had a texture making it appear similar to wax, but its price was outrageous. I mean, they slapped a price tag, which reflected a value that was manifold its weight in gold, on something I didn’t even know how to use.

Arnest knew its identity and informed us about its name. Actually I also heard about it in my previous life, but it was my first time to actually see it with my own two eyes.

After all, it used to be fairly expensive on earth as well since you could only obtain it if the ocean carried it on-shore after a whale spat it out. It’s definitely surprising for it to exist in this world too.

“(I think sperm whales produced ambergris… But, if it’s this world…)”

Oh, which reminds me, Arnest mentioned earlier that it could be obtained from serpents…so that’s a difference to Earth.

“You have a very discerning eye, dear customers. We actually managed to get our hands on ambergris for the first time in three years.”

“Is it that hard to get it?”

“Yes, you can count yourself lucky if you can collect one ambergris from the bowels of a serpent after killing many of them.”

Does that mean something like that could have been inside the guts of the serpents I killed before? Also, serpents are much more like dragons than whales, I’d say.

“Earl Baumeister, you cannot get your hands on ambergris that easily.”

“So it seems.”

“Or to be precise, it is impossible to obtain it from the intestines of a healthy serpent. Fish, shellfish, whales, and other aquatic creatures, which have been eaten by a serpent with a sick stomach, stay in the intestines while undigested and eventually crystallize together with the intestinal fluids. As for its fragrance, it is said that it tastes heavenly. I hear that you can sell it for ten times its weight in gold in the demon country.”

So both humans and demons fork over big money for ambergris, huh?

“You won’t find any in healthy serpents…? Then, wouldn’t it be possible to produce ambergris by having Wend catch a serpent and then ruin its health by making it drink tons of alcohol?”

Erw…I don’t think it’ll be that easy.

“Umm…Erw-san, even then you must keep the sick serpent for many years.”

“Oh, I see!”

No, I mean, everyone except for Erw has realized that part even without Elise pointing it out. If you could make a profit by producing ambergris so easily, someone would have adopted that method long ago.

“We managed to obtain some of it after three years, and even before that, we did not receive a new batch for around five years. How about, dear customers? Would you be interested in buying it?”

Is it something so rare? In such a case, it’s only logical for it to be expensive.

Though, I don’t need it. And as might be expectable, no one else felt like buying it either.

“Naturally, we won’t buy it!”

“I mean, we’re jobless.”

“We got no money.”

Although that’s certainly true, it sure sounds saddening to hear it out Mall, Lamru, and Silas’s mouths. For me personally, nothing was as painful as the term jobless. I felt that it’d still be better to be a corporate slave than to be unemployed.

“Even if I had the money, I still wouldn’t buy it though.”

“Indeed. If I’ve had so much money at hand, it’d be a better investment to spent a life of lazing around.”

“I mean, it only smells nicely, right? Some sort of mental relief then? In such case, it’d be much smarter to avoid working in a place that exploits its workers than huffing some weird incense, I’d think.”

“””””””””…”””””””””

＊

Maybe it was triggered by that conversation, but the old fisherman, who was acting as mediator between me and the fishermen renting my boats, approached me about a certain topic on the next day after Elise and my other wives got astonished by the words of Mall and his two friends.

“A serpent nest?”

“Rather than a nest, it’s an island located slightly beyond Sirius’s port…well, as a matter of fact, it’s just a plain, big rock to be fair, but the serpents have started to stay there.”

“They started to stay there? Why?”

“Maybe because it’s a nice spot for them? They spend most of their time lazing around on the rocky surface, and only dive into the sea to catch some food. At first, it was just around two to three serpents, but…”

I heard that even in Hokkaido, sea lions would occupy islands and rocks situated close to fishing grounds, causing big monetary harm to the fishing industry. I guess serpents are their equivalents in this world.

A few dozen sea lions is already an overwhelming sight, but a dozen serpents living on a rock has to be incredible to watch. I’m pretty sure the fishermen stay clear from there out of fear.

“Didn’t you file a request for extermination with Margrave Holmia?”

“That’s…right after we put forth the petition, the demons showed up, so…”

So it’s been simply impossible due to a shortage of people to handle it, huh?

“How about asking adventurers?”

“Adventurers loathe to exterminate serpents.”

“I see.”

“Wend, it’s because serpents are half-baked,” Ina provided the explanation, “Serpents are big, so it’ll be dangerous unless you send out a party of skilled adventurers. Or in short, it’d be reckless for unskilled adventurers to take a serpent on. They’d end up in their stomachs in no time. But, in relation to the necessary firepower, the rewards are low, so…”

Serpents aren’t monsters, but they are almost as strong as wyverns or other flying dragons. You have to exterminate them with a big group of people, and it sucks that you won’t get any magic stones even if you kill them.

Wyverns and other flying dragons are much more rewarding in regards to loot for the same level of danger you have to brave. On top of that, their materials such as meat and scales generally sell for a lot more, too. Of course, serpent materials aren’t exactly cheap either, but they still fall behind.

Because of such reasons, many adventurers appear to hate serpent subjugations. Given that they’d need to fight on a ship, something they wouldn’t usually do, on top of steering the ship itself, they’d also run the risk of possibly suffering an unexpected, embarrassing defeat.

Serpents often cause havoc to the fishing grounds of humans. And if the tax revenue for a lord plummets because his fishermen can’t catch any fish, it’ll cause a serious blow to the fief’s budget, so it’s often the duty of a lord to exterminate or drive away serpents who have appeared in waters used by humans.

“Are they so difficult to handle?”

They can’t fly, nor can they fire a breath at you. They aren’t as tough as wyverns either. Their bodies might be big, but they’re fairly weak against magic, so they shouldn’t be that hard a target as long as you don’t take profit into consideration. At the least, that’s my take on serpents.

“Wilma chopped the head off with one swing in the past, didn’t she?”

“But, that’d be difficult for any ordinary adventurer.”

“You got a point there.”

Even if fishermen specialize in catching fish, that doesn’t mean they can kill serpents. In that case, I guess we’ve got no choice but to take care of it ourselves.

However, I had a worry.

“The extermination of serpents would originally be the task of the Margrave Holmia House. Wouldn’t it anger the Margrave if I, as Earl Baumeister, arbitrarily went ahead and did their job?”

Many people would probably wonder why I worry about something as silly as that, but we’re currently inside the Holmia Margravate. Disregarding the margrave, the lord of this fief, and selfishly killing serpents as I please could lead to House Holmia taking a hostile stance towards our family in the future.

When I expanded on my concern, Katia asked, “Aren’t you exaggerating, hubby?”

“No…it enters the category of being possible…”

Katia thought that I was going too far, but Elise understood the annoying parts of high-ranking nobility as granddaughter of Cardinal Hohenheim.

Even in my previous life, there was a situation where I forgot to contact a certain superior about going ahead with a new project, resulting in him getting totally pissed and afterwards constantly getting in the way of the project because he felt butthurt. His position within the company was fairly high and he wasn’t a youngster either, but sometimes such people will haunt you for a long period of time, if you hurt their pride once.

And even though anyone could see that the new project would be a big hit, he used his position in the hierarchy to obstruct the project’s progress with all he had, just because I hadn’t informed him about it in advance.

Even though a child would understand that him acting like that would only cause damage to the company, he still opted to go through with it for the sole reason of having his pride hurt once.

So, assuming I exterminated the serpents that jeopardize the fishing grounds out of good intentions, my not informing Margrave Holmia in advance could drastically worsen my relationship with him.

Of course I’m in a different world right now, but I do believe that it’s possible for him to react like the superior in my past.

“Well done, Wendelin. Thou noticed it without any help.”

“Don’t treat me like a child!”

That was all I could retort to Therese.

“But, if it had been Milord from before…”

“…he’d have probably exterminated them first and then reported about it afterwards.”

“Uuhh…”

I couldn’t deny Lisa’s guess.

“Nobles sure are a pain to deal with.”

“Isn’t that the same, no matter where you work?”

“Who knows. We haven’t worked before.”

“Figures.”

“There were some nasty seniors and professors at university, too.”

“…You heard him, nasty professor,” Luise teased Arnest.

“You mean me? I was not nasty or anything like that.”

“Yeah, he’s right, Luise-chan.”

“He’s a bit of an oddball..”

“He couldn’t arrange a workplace for us either.”

“Huh? That’s some very casual dissing there, no?”

“I-Indeed…”

For a change, Arnest’s expression became rather gloomy when having this pointed out by Luise.

As we were chatting like that, another old fisherman showed up, “Earl Baumeister-sama, it’s actually about the permission by Margrave Holmia-sama… He judged that he wouldn’t mind it if we entrusted this matter to adventurers. So, could we have you somehow take this request on?”

“Hmmm.”

As Earl Baumeister, I’d need to write up a letter and send it to the margrave. The reply would take a few days and in the meantime, the fishermen wouldn’t be able to get anywhere close to the rock infested by serpents.

Of course, you could argue that this was the situation before we even arrived here in Sirius, but now that the fish haul all over the margraviate has clearly decreased because of the demons, I think it’d be best to make fishing around that rock available as quickly as possible.

“If there’s too many serpents around, they quickly run out of food. Usually it’d be impossible, but under these circumstances it’s also possible that some of the serpents plan to get closer to Sirius and attack the city or its vicinity.”

“Okay, I understand. We will handle it.”

With that said, we accepted the task of exterminating the flock of serpents on the rock to make fishing in its vicinity possible again as adventurers.

＊　　　＊　　　＊

“So, you’re going to come with us as well?”

“Of course.”

“These sorts of things also count as experience. Though its novelty also plays a role.”

“We’re going to exterminate huge serpents. Doesn’t that sound like lots of fun?”

On the next day, he headed for the rock that had become a sunning spot for the serpents. Given that we’d be hard pressed with the steering of the boat and the navigation, I hired one of the fishermen and left it to him. He appeared somewhat worried since the opponents would be serpents, but I accordingly raised his pay.

It shouldn’t pose much of a problem since Doushi, Burkhart-san and I are present. Moreover, all of our women are taking a day off to give their attention to baby care.

For some reason, Mall and his two colleagues came along as well, but since all three possess mana in the upper ranks of the intermediate level, it should be alright. Rather than security issues, the reason why they’d accompany us seemed much more mysterious. I mean, they look mildly motivated, if at all.

“Can these three fire spells?” Erw, who had come along as my guard, suspected Mall’s group to not have practiced how to use magic decently, despite having a reasonable amount of mana.

He likely doubted the usefulness when we’d start the extermination of the serpents. In my eyes, it won’t be much of a problem even if they don’t add anything to the combat, though.

“Huh? You’re evaluating us surprisingly low, aren’t you? Even though we’ve got quite a bit of mana.”

“Mall, Erwin probably believes that we can’t aim our spells since we haven’t practiced our magic enough.”

“Oh, so that’s it.”

“Though I don’t think it’ll be a particular problem since we can simply shoot our spells normally.”

Mall, Lamru, and Silas declared that all demons could cast spells.

“It’s just that we don’t have many opportunities to use our spells under normal circumstances. But, since that’s related to our social environment, it’s inevitable, I guess.”

“If we suddenly started to unleash our magic smack down in the middle of a city, we’d be arrested by the police right away.”

“Moreover, it’d quickly turn into a debate why we’re doing something like that in the first place.”

Makes sense. They’ve already outgrown the era when demons would wreak havoc all over, and now that their civilization had advanced, something like meaninglessly releasing magic all over the place had become obsolete. Though, it’s clearly going against any prejudice one would have of demons.

“But, since you’re going to deal with the serpents anyway, you won’t really need our impromptu magic, right?”

“How about getting ready just in case?”

“We’re going to only watch.”

“If nothing happens to Wend, it’ll result in me just watching too…but, it’s such a rare chance, so how about you try releasing some spells?”

“So you’re saying we won’t get many chances like this one to release our magic?”

“Though you can apparently practice your magic if you enter the defense force.”

“I guess I’ll give it a try.”

Going along with Erw’s incitement, Mall planted himself at the boat’s bow and released his magic towards a serpent which was lazing around on the rock.

“Only once around five years ago did I practice my magic deep in the mountains. I don’t know whether it’s a secret killing technique, but 『Wind Cutter』!”

His 『Wind Cutter』 was fairly powerful in correspondence to his mana capacity. If this hits, things shouldn’t end nicely for the serpent…

“Well, first you gotta hit something. Your control is…” Burkhart-san commented, looking quite perplexed.

But that’s only natural. Mall had cast his 『Wind Cutter』 so exaggeratedly, but it missed the serpent by leaps and bounds. To be honest, this was a level of aim that didn’t even justify talking about hitting a target.

Burkhart-san and Doushi appeared to be disappointed by the clear difference between Mall and the demons as they were described in old documents.

“Huh? That’s weird!”

“It’s meaningless to cast a spell if you don’t hit anything with it, isn’t it?”

“Well, yeah…” I couldn’t possibly deny Erw’s sound argument.

“It is bad to not train your skills!”

“I’ll eventually get to it if I find some time. Probably.”

The amazing part about Mall was him staying so indifferent even when dealing with Doushi. Even though magic should be their strong point, they aren’t practicing it since it’s unnecessary. In some respect, that’s quite incredible.

“Okay, I’m next!”

Following Mall, Lamru went up to the boat’s bow and released his magic. This time the spell was heading for the serpent properly, but…

“You idiot! Don’t fire a 『Fireball』 at this sort of prey!” Burkhart-san shouted angrily.

But, that was only natural. This time’s request was about us spontaneously hunting down the serpents as adventurers because of the serpents’ materials. Because of that, we wouldn’t get any rewards from House Holmia. Since we’d get our reward by selling the materials of the serpents we hunted, it’d be a bad idea to use fire magic which would scorch the prey, or rather, it was close to taboo.

Even if we could take them down with fire magic, we’d come out at a loss if the price of the materials went down the drain due to quality loss.

“Well, the other side appears to be more skilled though,” commented Burkhart-san with a bitter smile.

The aim of Lamru’s 『Fireball』 was fine, but as expected, he wasn’t accustomed to using magic. Because his spell was far too slow, the serpent avoided it with ease.

“Raise the speed of your spells!”

“In short, the same as Mall, huh…?”

They certainly fall short when it comes to mana capacity, but they still enter the region of being in the upper top ranks. And yet, they sucked at shooting their spells. Seeing them like that as demons, Burkhart-san pulled a troubled expression. After all, it was completely different from the belief that demons were experts at magic, a belief shared by many people, including Burkhart-san.

“Lamru, I’ll go next!”

“Oh, you are nicely motivated there, lad!”

The third demon, Silas, proudly planted himself at the bow, and seeing him act like that, Doushi put some hope into his performance. His mana capacity was big…but the same could be said about the two others as well…

“Why are these guys getting all heated?”

“Maybe they’re in the process of reverting back to be wild creatures?”

“You make it sound like they’re animals. Are they possibly targeting the ambergris?”

“””*gulp*”””

What an easily understandable reaction. I thought that demons were more proficient at hiding their schemes, but their bodies easily revealed their true intention here when Erw made a guess about the ambergris.

“Are you going for the money?”

“Rather, who wouldn’t?”

Well, usually anyone would take that chance, I suppose. But, if it’s about a too big amount of money, like it’s happened thus far, it stops feeling realistic instead and your desire of wanting that money actually decreases, I believe.

“If we harvest some ambergris from a serpent, we’ll be able to get a share of the money!”

“In such a case, I’ll be able to harden my heart, even if I’m told by my mother, 『Give it already a rest and get a proper job!』 once I get back home!”

“I’ll be able to stay calm even when my nephews and my small cousin tell me, 『Uncle, what sort of job are you doing right now? Please give me some pocket money』.”

I wonder why? Listening to those three demons causes my heart to ache.

“Okay, I get that part, but first you have to hit the target, otherwise it’s meaningless.”

I think they’re pitiable, but please hit the target at least.

“A barrage of 『Pebble』! 『Let me explain! Pebble barrage is a spell rising the hit rate by showering a target with large quantities of pebbles!』. Yahoo! I hit!”

“It’s not about just hitting, you know…?”

“Why? I hit the serpents.”

“But you didn’t kill them!”

“You just angered them!”

It wasn’t as though the serpents remained completely unhurt from Silas’s 『Pebble』. Several serpents had their skin torn and were bleeding now. However, that didn’t mean he managed to bring down a serpent. Rather, he pissed them off, resulting in them sliding off the rock into the ocean to head our way.

They were fully intent on destroying the boat and eating us.

“Oh, did they become angry?”

“We’ll be eaten!”

“What should we do?”

Mall and his two friends panicked, unable to do anything as the serpents approached. If you didn’t actually experience surmounting dangerous situations, even demons won’t be able to react to spontaneous events, huh?

“Earl-sama, please take care of it.”

“Got it.”

Burkhart-san apparently gave up on our three guests, leaving the killing of the serpents to me. I created several 『Wind Cutters』 simultaneously and used them to behead the closest serpents.

“Earl-sama, don’t miss.”

“You sure are strict as master of my master…”

“That much counts as the basics of the basics, doesn’t it?”

As soon as Burkhart-san said so, Mall, Lamru, and Silas looked embarrassed.

“It is as Burkhart-dono has said! It is impossible to miss even one shot!”

Doushi also hurled harsh things in the direction of the three demons.

“Okay, we’ll need to pick up the defeated serpents afterwards.”

Since I lopped off their heads, large quantities of blood spread in the sea. Because of that, even serpents, who hadn’t been on the rock, were drawn in, resulting in us hunting more than twenty serpents on that day alone.

＊

“Earl Baumeister-sama, I couldn’t see any serpents around that rock anymore. I don’t know how to thank you for this.”

“We made some profit out of this as well, so it’s a win-win for both of us, right?”

As we were watching the serpents being dismantled, the elderly fisherman from before approached us to express his gratitude. He apparently sailed out earlier to check the rock, just to find it completely deserted. According to him, he and his colleagues would be able to safely fish over there from now on.

“Luring more serpents in by spilling their blood in the ocean was unexpectedly smart.”

“It’s the result of Master and Burkhart-san’s teachings.”

“Mine as well, right?”

“Of course.”

“I am glad to see that you have grown into such an outstanding magician, Earl Baumeister!”

Oh shit! I forgot about Doushi. However, this man didn’t teach me anything remotely close to knowledge required for adventuring or magic. All he did was drag me through rigorous combat training. I recall that I got most of my knowledge from Burkhart-san…

Then again, in his case old-man’s wisdom might have played a big role in this. But, since he’d get pissed if I voiced that out in front of him, I decided to keep it to myself.

“So, where are Mall and the other two?”

“That’s…it sounds like they hated watching the dismantling, so…”

Well, I can relate to that. The time I spent in my previous life and here are almost identical, and only now I got so used to it that it didn’t irk me to watch stuff like this.

“I thought demons would be more…well, completely different.”

“I heard they would cut open rabbits while alive and suck out their blood and intestines!”

Doushi, you’re talking about vampires…

In the past demons were savage and possessed a strong urge to kill other creatures. But even those demons, who had acted on their desires, spent many years on this planet and ended up changing their civilization into one going beyond those of this world’s humans.

I think it’s great how easy it is to get along with the current demons.

“Isn’t it great that the demons aren’t like that, Doushi?”

“Why?”

“Do you want to go to war that much? Personally, I’d like to avoid it though…”

“You got a point. The demons being peaceful is preferable!”

I believe it’s just as Erw says. If the past version of the demons had invaded the Terra Harrez Archipelago, this city would be the frontline around now. From Erw’s point of view as someone who would be forced to swing his sword at the forefront, it’d be a matter of life and death. After all, we’d be fighting demons who were said to be all magicians.

“Earl Baumeister-sama!”

As we were talking about this, a young fisherman, who had been dismantling a serpent, carried something over to us. It was a stone similar to a clump of wax that had a marbled pattern of white and black.

Luckily, we got an ambergris from one of the serpents we hunted today.

“That’s huge luck as typical for you, Earl-sama.”

“So now you don’t call it bad luck anymore, eh?”

“Ambergris is extremely valuable. So much so that a commoner could easily spend a life in luxury. Being able to find something like that meant you got big luck, Earl-sama.”

“Ah, but…”

“What’s wrong?”

“Earl Baumeister-sama, there exists another reason for ambergris to be so valuable and expensive. Isn’t this actually a 『Stinkstone』?”

“A 『Stinkstone』?”

“It is a type of ambergris, but it stinks nastily if you burn it.”

So there existed winners and duds among ambergris…? Since you could use a stinkstone as material for magic potions, it wasn’t a complete dud, but its price was no more than small change when compared to the nicely smelling ambergris.

“In other words, you’re saying it’s very likely to encounter a stinkstone, even if you finally loot an ambergris?”

“Yes. The chances are fifty-fifty.”

Half, eh…? It’d be great if this was a proper ambergris with a nice aroma.

Thinking that we had to check on it, we grabbed the ambergris and headed over to yesterday’s store.

＊　　　＊　　　＊

“Fifty-fifty, eh…?

“Please, let this be a winner.”

“Huh? No one’s here.”

“According to the rumors, a stinkstone smells so much that it’s not even funny anymore, so everyone’s keeping their distance. It’d also have an influence on the babies since they identify their mother by smell, so Elise and the other women haven’t come along either.”

“Doushi and Burkhart-san have stayed away as well, huh…? I’d love to take refuge too…”

“As if I’d let you get away by yourself!”

“Hey, don’t get me involved in every bullshit that happens!”

“But, if it’s ambergris, it’s going to be some very nice extra income, Erw.”

“That’s definitely very appealing…”

Mall, Lamru, Silas, Erw, and I went to the store from the other day. The question was now whether the stone we luckily looted from a serpent was a winner or a dud. As you apparently couldn’t tell without shaving off some of it and igniting it, we came here to get it appraised.

Moreover, Elise and the other women opted to be absent from this. After all, a stinging stench would spread across a wide area, even if they took some distance or if we lit it inside a closed room. In the worst case, that stink would stick to their bodies for several days and that would become a bad influence for the baby-care, I judged.

Burkhart-san and Doushi ran away at once. They said they wouldn’t participate in the appraisal since they didn’t want a share of the profits anyway. I ended up wondering just how much stench could waft over when doing the appraisal in a completely airtight room.

The three demons wanted a share of the profits, so they’d naturally participate in this.

Erw wanted to scurry away, arguing that he wouldn’t be able to approach Leon for several days if this proved to be a stinkstone, but I forced him to participate.

I mean, I won’t be able to meet my children for several days straight either in the worst case. We’re close friends and share a lord-retainer-relationship, so we should go through thick and thin together.

“It’s mostly 50%. Think about it positively.”

“A 50% probability of landing a winner, but getting punished terribly for the other 50%? I get a really bad feeling about this. Didn’t Doushi and Burkhart-san run away already? Isn’t that proof of their special intuition as veteran adventurers?”

“Such bad thinking is wrong.”

“Yep, you have to believe in your win here.”

“It’s okay, it also follows reason!”

“Oh? What sort of reason are we talking about?”

Silas clearly declared our find to be ambergris.

“Despite advancing all the way to university, we weren’t able to find a job and had to spend every day in a moratorium.”

Moratorium…I’d say they’ve simply been unemployed…

But, since you couldn’t be jobless on the Lingaia Continent, unless you were the heir of a fairly rich family, Mall and his friends are blessed in a certain way, aren’t they? Over here, unemployment would normally equal starvation, after all.

“Considering the total amount of our luck thus far, it should have accumulated quite a bit by now.” (T/N: Gacha logic)

“So you’re saying, your bad luck is going to be balanced out with an ambergris?”

“Correct!”

“To add to this, I’m single and don’t even have a girlfriend.”

“Lamru, the same applies to all three of us, right?”

“If you calculate all our bad luck until now, it’s only logical to expect something good to happen very soon.”

“What a flimsy reasoning…,” Erw rejected the whole train of thought.

But, despite that, I also felt like they could be right about it. I often heard about luck accumulating, but no one could prove anything like that.

“It’s alright! We are certain to become wealthy through the ambergris!”

“What are you going to buy with all the money?”

“Maybe it’ll make it easier for me to marry.”

Our three guests were already certain of this stone being ambergris, seeing how they had started to seriously plan the spending of their share.

“I’ve got a bad…the heck is this!? It stinks! My nose hurts!”

“This stench is terrible!”

I supposed I was just now able to smell the incense of the ambergris that had been ignited in a minuscule amount inside the room behind the shop’s counter. The door was firmly closed and yet it stank so much after igniting just a tiny amount of it.

I see. It doesn’t betray its name of stinkstone. The whole store is now filled with a revolting stench.

“Ooeeehh───!”

“Well…”

We could hear the shopkeeper puking from the other side of the door. But, considering how nasty the smell was over here, it was only reasonable for him to be unable to endure the stench, when confronted directly with it.

“…It’s a stinkstone…with this weight, it’s 5,000 cents worth…”

So 1,000 cents per person, huh…? In that case, the serpent’s raw materials are more valuable.

Still, what magic potion would use this sort of thing anyway?”

“I’m fine with that…”

I immediately agreed, hating the idea of negotiating with another store as it’d probably mean another confirmation of its smell.

After selling the stinkstone for 5,000 cents, I equally split the cash among the five of us.

＊

In the evening, Erw, the three demons, and I were preparing our camp in a forest a slight distance away from our airship. Because of the stinkstone’s burning, a nasty stench had permeated our clothes and bodies, so we couldn’t go back to the airship until the smell had dissipated.

“Well, that’s the reason why Burkhart-san and Doushi ran away.”

The stench of the stone was quite intense and persistent, so we would apparently need to camp out for around three days. Otherwise, we’d just spread the smell around to our family as well. And because this stench would negatively affect our babies, Erw and I ended up camping out.

The same applied to Mall, Silas, and Lamru. They tried to help us with the camp preparations, but as city boys, they weren’t accustomed to camping out in the wild. Even though they set up one tent, they weren’t much use otherwise.

“Ooohhh! You truly smell quite badly!”

“Sensei.”

“Did you come here to check on our situation?”

“Are you going to camp with us, sensei?”

“No way I would do that. I just came here to check whether that stinkstone really smelled as badly as mentioned.”

In a certain sense, this was expectable for a research nut like Arnest. After checking the stench clinging to his former pupils, he went back to the airship. A decisiveness you could even call refreshing in a way.

Given that Arterio had recently succeeded in starting the mass production of curry powder, we used a sample of that to make curry for tonight’s dinner. Once we started cooking it together with whale meat and various veggies, a fragrant curry aroma started to spread from the big pot.

“It looks delicious!”

“Curry is the standard for camping, yep.”

“It does remind me of my school’s camping trip.”

So the demons also went on camping trips as an extracurricular lesson at school with curry being a standard dish during such events, huh?

“So, is this going to be spicy?”

“Mall, I’m bad with food that’s too spicy.”

“Ee───eh!? I can’t agree with you on that one, Lamru! I prefer curry to be as spicy as possible…”

“Huh? Does it actually matter?”

“Erwin, do you lack a sense of taste? It’s weird to be okay with whatever, you know?”

“I can enjoy the food either way!”

“How fickle a man you are…”

“Aren’t we just talking about the spiciness of curry here…?”

It’s difficult to adjust the spiciness when eating curry with several people. I went with a neutral approach of 『medium-spicy』.

“I guess it’s bearable with this much spiciness.”

“It’s great for it to be not too spicy!”

“It’s nice that it’s not too sweet.”

“Curry is a dish that tastes great whenever you eat it outside for some reason.”

After we had our fill of curry, we discussed what we would do for the coming three days. The stench of the stinkstone clung to our bodies, so we had to stay away from other people as much as possible.

“Sightseeing is out of the question then, right?”

“Erw, do you want to be seen as a smelly nuisance by the residents of Sirius?”

We can’t tell anymore because our noses have already adapted to the stench, but initially it was such a nasty stench that we thought our noses would fall off. Because we’d only cause trouble to other people by coming close to them, we’ve got no choice but to obediently sit this one out.

“Oh right! Earl Baumeister, please teach us magic.”

“THat’s a good idea. We got more than enough time on our hands anyway.”

“I’d like to become capable of hitting a target at the very least.”

“What a low level, considering you’re a demon…” Erw mumbled in appall, but Arnest had explained that common demons almost never practiced offensive magic on the pretext of being able to pour mana into magic tools.

As for Arnest’s case, his strongest attribute was darkness, and because that was yet another quite special magic attribute, he’d only started to properly train his magic after he took shelter at Duke Nürnberg’s place. Given his talent, the rate of his improvement was somewhat terrifying, but it lacked a thorough polish. Because of that and his lacking experience, he probably failed at dodging Elise’s 『Overheal』.

“You should become able to at least hit targets with your spells in no time. Okay, I’ll show you how to do it.”

“I think I should also use the time to practice my swordsmanship and katana arts.”

We couldn’t appear in public, but thinking of this as having three days off proved to be productive. I taught Mall’s group about magic while Erw practiced his sword and katana arts by himself. We cooked together and camped out all the time.

We didn’t have a single woman with us, but it was fun as it felt like playing with school friends after a long time.

“Converging 『Wind Cutters』 to make them as small as possible raises their power. If you take on serpents, it’s best to aim for their long necks. If you manage to sever their artery, you can aim to bleed them to death.”

“I see…like this? Oh, that was close!”

“You’ve mostly become able to aim properly by now.”

Mall had aimed a target placed a few dozen meters ahead and released a 『Wind Cutter』. Unfortunately for him, he only managed to graze it, but it was clearly an improvement compared to the other day on the boat.

Demons sure are prodigies at magic, I must admit. It’s just their instincts became dull after they got too used to convenient tools making life easy for them…I’d say.

“Alright! I hit!”

“Me too!”

After training them for just three days, the three had reached a point where they could hit targets with their spells. With this level of skill, they should be okay even if they have to handle another serpent subjugation.

When I told them so, Erw commented, “Requests for serpent subjugations don’t come around sooo often, you know…?”

He was swinging his katana next to us while labeling the serpent subjugation from a few days ago as a rare case.

“Unlikely stuff does happen sometimes, too.”

“As if.”

＊

“Sorry, but we got that exception on our hands right now. A swarm returned to that spot from the other day, making it impossible for the fishermen to head out fishing over there again.”

“””””Burkhart-san!”””””

Because Erw raised a flag…is probably not the reason, but Burkhart-san suddenly showed up, bringing a request to kill serpents at the previous spot with him.

Even now the smell hasn’t dissipated from our bodies, so Burkhart-san has been pinching his nose all the while.

“We can’t meet Elise and the others until tomorrow anyway, so let’s head over and quickly get rid of the buggers.”

“This time we’re going to finish them off with our magic!”

“We’ll show them the fruits of our training.”

“This time for sure we’ll obtain ambergris…okay, I won’t get my hopes too high, but we’ll take down the serpents with our magic!”

“Earl-sama, this sure is a weird sight…”

It’s not that I can’t understand what Burkhart-san wants to tell me. Demons, who ought to be experts in magic, are being taught magic by me, who is a human youngster.

Even Burkhart-san hadn’t seen any demons until he met Arnest. But, old documents contained many depictions of demons unleashing massive spells. This knowledge had edged itself into Burkhart-san’s memory, now giving him a feeling of misalignment when seeing Mall and the other two act like this.

＊

“Is it going to be alright this time around?”

“Their spells pack enough of a punch now, so it won’t pose any problem as long as they hit their targets.”

He must wonder about the difference in their power. After all, you’ll only piss off the serpents if you hit them with a weak spell, no matter how great your magic control might be.

“Look, it seems to be okay.”

“I hit!”

“Earl Baumeister, I’m properly aiming at the serpents’ necks.

“I also took down a serpent!”

Ten-odd serpents had gathered on and around the rock from the other day, but this time they were all defeated by our three demon guests, now that they’d become able to aim their spells accurately.

Unlike the other day, I could take it easy.

“Okay, let’s pick up the serpents and head back, huh?”

On the last day of our self-inflicted isolation, we experienced an unforeseen event where Mall and his friends showed off the magic they learned, but this was fine since it allowed us to kill some time.

Tomorrow the smell will probably be gone completely and I’ll be able to meet my wives and children. It’s one thing when I can’t meet them because I’ve departed to the battlefield, but not being able to meet them because I stink is odd.

＊

“The proceeds from the serpents’ material sale has turned into nice extra cash, hasn’t it?”

“You got a point there.”

“It’s wrong for humans and demons alike to be too greedy. Steady work without hoping for something like ambergris is the best.”

“I wonder what I should buy with the money?”

“Umm…once again I found this in a serpent…”

With that single comment of the young fisherman, who had been dismantling the serpents, Mall, Silas, and Lamru became all excited.

“I think this one smells nice.”

“Getting a miss twice in a row with a chance of 50% would be plain weird going by probability.”

“For us to successively encounter serpents with ambergris…we sure are fortunate.”

Even though they just talked about the value of steady, honest work, we ended right back where we started once the three heard about ambergris having been found in a serpent. If this one is the real deal, we’ll be able to strike it rich.

The chance for it to be a stinkstone or ambergris is around fifty-fifty, so they seemed to harbor even higher hopes in this one being a genuine ambergris this time.

“Huh? What about Doushi and Burkhart-san?”

“They said they’ll skip out on this one as well. They also said they don’t need a share. Aren’t you getting a bad feeling about this, somehow?”

“If you put it like that, I certainly can’t deny it…”

Just as pointed out by Erw, you couldn’t underestimate the intuition of these two older men. Maybe this one is a stinkstone, too?

“Should we skip out on this?”

“That won’t work. Mall, Silas, and Lamru aren’t adventurers.”

I was the one who accepted the request to subjugate the serpents, so it’d be impossible for Mall and the other two to sell the ambergris by themselves. Given that it was also possible for their identities as demons to be exposed on top of that, we had to accompany them.

“Well, I don’t really need to come with you guys. It’ll be enough for you to handle it, Wend. The stench will be gone by tomorrow and I’ll be able to see Haruka-san and Leon, so… Personally I think that it’s common to draw a series of misses when the chance is around 50%.”

“…I feel you have a point there.”

But, someone needs to accompany Mall’s group and I can’t ask anyone else to do it either.

“Oh well, I’m sure this time it’s going to be a winner.”

“You’re confident in that, Wend? I’m not, so… Hey! Wend! Let go of me!”

“As if I would! This is an order as your lord!”

“That’s plain power abuuuuuuse!”

“You’ve got to go either way since you’re my guard, right!?”

I headed to the store while pulling on Erw’s hand.

“Another ambergris? Just how much luck do you have?”

The clerk was surprised by us bringing yet another ambergris. Considering it normally, it was very improbable to find two such stones in a row.

Moreover, we had no trouble with entering the store as the clerk was also stinking from the previous stinkstone. However, that wasn’t clear to us since our noses weren’t working anyway.

“Will your other customers be okay?”

“The story about the stinkstone has spread in the city, so people have been staying away. I think they’ll start coming back tomorrow. This store doesn’t deal with daily necessities after all.”

All of the goods in this store are extremely expensive and you can find many different types of luxury items here. As such, I guess it won’t have much influence even if the sales fall flat for two or three days.

“Hmm, I’d really like this to be an ambegris.”

“It’s fifty-fifty, right?”

“Approximately. I don’t know about other stores and regions, but going by the records of our appraisals, around 60% have been ambergris.”

So it actually was 60% instead of the 50% he mentioned before? In that case, the probability for this one to be a stinkstone decreases even further.

“Sounds like we can expect good news.”

“Erw, you now sound quite hopeful as well, don’t you?”

“Wouldn’t a special bonus be really great? I could go back with some nice presents for Haruka-san and Leon.”

Erw immediately became quite motivated as soon as he heard about the probability actually being 60%. I considered him to be a calculating man, but then again, the possibility of consecutively pulling duds with a chance of 40% isn’t all that high. In short, it’s very likely for this to be a nice-smelling ambergris.

“Very well, I will appraise it.”

The clerk went into the inner room again, scraped some of the stone off, and set it on fire.

Is it ambergris? Or a stinkstone? Tension spread amongst us.

“Should I buy a new car?”

“A house…is nothing I need, I suppose. For the time being, I’m going to get lots of new books.”

“Let’s go to some expensive restaurant.”

“That’s a great idea, Silas.”

Mall and the others got all excited as they imagined what to do with the money if they got their hands on a big sum of money.

“Aren’t you a bit too hasty here?”

“Only those who believe will be saved. Elise said so as well.”

“Come on, man. Don’t rely on God only during such times…”

I can’t help it, can I Erw? I’m a former Japanese.

“What, this time for sure…gaha! Agaaaain?!?”

“It stinks! My nose!”

How could it be? For us to miss twice in a row with a chance of 60%…I got way too little luck!

“No way…”

“My money for dating the girlfriend I don’t have yet…”

“Is it because of us?”

“It was another stinkstone…this one was on the bigger side, so it has a value of 8,000 cents.”

The clerk offered us the money to buy the stone with teary eyes after deciding the fate of our bodies stinking for another three days. As for the purchase price…even if we went to other stores in hope to get more money out of this, it’d only lead to misfortune for us, so we had no choice but to accept what he was going to give us.

This allowed Mall and his two friends to get their hands on a slightly bigger sum of money, although it wouldn’t allow them to spend their lives playing around.

Besides, I wonder whether they’ve realized.

＊　　　＊　　　＊

“Silver and copper coins can’t be used in our country!”

“The exchange rate for the currencies hasn’t even been set to begin with!”

“We got our hands on money we cannot use!!!”

Unfortunately for them, the Helmut Kingdom and demon country were still in the middle of negotiations. Deciding on an exchange rate was still a matter of a distant future, so the three dropped their shoulders in disappointment while staring at their share of silver and copper coins.

“Now that it’s come to this, I’ll party in the city of Sirius!”

“Time for fish n’ booze!!!”

“Buying-A-Huge-Amount-of-Souvenirs-Jutsu!”

Still, you could say this or that about the whole ordeal, but it was great that they seemed to enjoy the sightseeing of Sirius. It meant that we became friends.

“What weird demons.”

“They are not violent, so they are fine like this!”

Burkhart-san and Doushi appeared to be puzzled in some way after watching Mall, Silas, and Lamru, three demons who weren’t quite like demons.

Chapter 5 – Feeling a Deja Vu from the Demons’ Speech and Behavior

“I’m back, Elise. Man, I’d never expected for us to get a stinkstone twice in a row…”

“Dear, messengers from the royal palace and House Holmia have arrived.”

“Eh? That sounds as if they’ve only waited for me to get back here, doesn’t it?”

At long last the stench clinging to my body had dissipated. Once I came back to our magic airship which served as a provisional home, a messenger from the royal palace and a retainer of the Holmia House were waiting for me.

It seems like they’ve got some urgent business with me, but…that only gives me bad vibes, if anything at all.

“Is something the matter?

“It is a royal command from His Majesty: 『Today the first round of negotiations has been held, but far from reaching some sort of agreement, it’s actually doubtful whether both sides will continue with the negotiations. Earl Baumeister-dono, I order thee to urgently head over to the Terra Harrez Archipelago』.”

“Me?”

“Yes. I do not know of any other Earl Baumeister, so…”

I, a guy who has magic as his only redeeming merit, was assigned a diplomatic mission all of a sudden. At once, I was acutely assailed by worries whether I’d be able to carry out this sort of duty.

＊

“Baaah, I really don’t wanna go…,” I bickered.

“It can’t be helped, right? I mean, it’s a royal decree from His Majesty,” Burkhart-san retorted.

“I’ll definitely be treated as a nuisance over there…”

“You have no option but to resign yourself to that.”

Upon His Majesty’s order, it was decided that I’d join the diplomatic negotiations between the Kingdom and the demon country which had finally started yesterday. A room inside the demon fleet’s flagship, which was currently floating above the archipelago, was set as the venue.

Basically it meant I’d march into enemy territory, but the diplomatic corps of the Kingdom has been up there without anything happening to them, so it’s not like I don’t want to go there because it’s dangerous.

I just think I’ll earn myself some sarcastic comments and draw the hate of the nobles belonging to the diplomatic corps. As far as they’re concerned, I’m an enemy who’s come to steal their achievements.

“It seems like the negotiations started just yesterday, but they say Foreign Minister Überschaar is useless.”

“Foreign Minister Überschaar?”

So far as it goes I’ve heard the name from His Majesty, but I don’t know what sort of person he is. Even though I’m a prominent high-ranking noble within the Kingdom, I don’t know much about the other nobles.

“He was switched in at some point, wasn’t he?”

“Yeah, each ministry post is held in turns by several families.”

However, it’d be a potential seed of chaos if all ministers were switched out at the same time. Accordingly, each ministry had a different timetable for its shift change. This time the change at the top of the ministry of foreign affairs apparently happened just one month ago.

“I didn’t know about that.”

“The shift of ministry posts usually becomes a topic to some extent, but since it’s a custom, many people don’t pay much attention to it and above all, we’re talking about the ministry of foreign affairs here..”

The sole job of the Minister of Foreign Affairs lies in diplomatic relations with Urquhart, so it’s the least glamorous ministry among all cabinet ministers. Even so, the predecessor successfully wrapped up the peace negotiations with the Empire together with His Majesty. But, since the crown prince helped out with this as well, it remained mostly unnoticed by the society…

“How would you rank the abilities of Foreign Minister Überschaar?”

“They’re not bad per se.”

Burkhart-san had apparently gathered information about the minister from Margrave Breithilde in advance. Because of that, he could now answer my questions.

“I didn’t hear any bad rumors about him, but it’s said he’s somewhat timid.”

“Isn’t that quite bad for a minister of foreign affairs?”

I feel like it’d come with various issues if you’re timid during diplomacy. Coming across too bullish is of course not that good either, but being so weak-minded that he gets pushed around means he’ll basically go along with any demand forced on him.

“There don’t seem to be any particular problems with his other abilities…”

“Yesterday was a failure, wasn’t it? That’s the reason why His Majesty ordered me to join…or why was I called over?”

I’ve never done anything remotely close to diplomatic negotiations…at most I had business negotiations with clients in my previous life.

“Well, you did quite a good job during the civil war in the Empire and you’re a magician, so maybe he thought that you’d be good as a threat against the demons?”

But, all of the demons are magicians, so if I picked a fight with them, I’d be defeated after getting outnumbered. Also, going by what I heard from Mall and his friends, it’s more than doubtful that the demons would know about my war achievements.

“There’s no way the other side will suddenly draw their swords anyway. Earl-sama, let’s go.”

“Okay.”

“Have a safe trip, Dear.”

“I’d been quite content with my days of fishing and taking care of my babies, though…”

“It is a royal decree from His Majesty. So you do not have much of a choice.”

I ended up whining to Elise.

As expected, it’d be silly to take my babies with me to the frontline, and as such Burkhart-san, Erw and I got into a magic airship of the royal army to head over to the archipelago. Elise and my other wives saw us off while holding their babies.

“Plenty of young and pretty wives, huh…?”

“My flames of jealousy shall illuminate you, Earl Baumeister.”

“He won’t burn anyway, you know!? I’m going to pour all my anger into sightseeing!”

For some reason our three demon guests had also shown up to see me off while hiding their ears. The magicians employed by the royal air force tilted their heads in confusion upon seeing those three intermediate magicians for the first time.

“I’ve hired those three temporarily.”

“Oh, adventurers, huh? You’re a rich man, Earl Baumeister-sama.”

They revealed expressions showing their comprehension. Given that magicians hired by the government didn’t care much about unaffiliated magicians, they didn’t notice that I was lying.

“Don’t fret, Earl Baumeister. We’ll go fishing in your stead.”

“We’d get bored with just sightseeing.”

“Also, helping sensei with his thesis, sorting the data, and so on is more fulfilling for me than my time of unemployment.”

It’s not like they’ve been apathetically lazing around just because they’ve been jobless so far. Not only did they go sightseeing and join the fishing, but they also assisted Arnest in his work.

Which reminds me, these three have apparently graduated from an elite university in the demon country. They’ve got enough smarts that they’d be appointed to a responsible post in the Kingdom as part of the few intellectuals over here. Seeing how they say they can’t find a job despite that, the demon country might actually be in fairly dire straits.

“We even get a share depending on our catch, so we’ll definitely do our best!”

“Time to master fishing!”

“Is there no boss in this area of the ocean?”

“Silas-san, you’re saying the same things as Wend.”

“Eh? It’s normal to mention encounters with a boss whenever you talk about angling, no?”

Ina seemed perplexed by Silas saying the same things I mentioned before. He was looking at her with a face that made it clear he considered this common sense.

It looks like the demon country also has this sort of publication.

“Sheesh, just why did Wend become chummy with the demons so quickly?”

“Earl Baumeister simply has a way of thinking that resembles ours,” Silas replied to Luise.

Certainly, the demon society resembles that on earth, so they have many aspects I can understand.

“Earl Baumeister, it is about time!”

This time Doushi would stay behind. On the one hand, we would have him watch Arnest and the other three demons just in case, on the other hand it was also a political decision since it’d be possible for Foreign Minister Überschaar and his peers to fly into rage if even Doushi crashed their show. I guess his close relationship with His Majesty plays into this as well.

Even if the other party might be incapable of doing his own job, he’s still a high-ranking noble. As such, the Kingdom cannot afford to make the whole situation even more complicated by getting him upset.

“Well then, I’m off.”

＊

The magic airship departed on time and we arrived at the archipelago without any particular problems.

“The shape of their magic airships is different, huh?”

“It looks like they use different materials to build them, too.”

The magic airships on the continent looked like sailing ships and were mostly made out of wood except for the armors of warships, but the airships of the demons looked like eggs. Their exterior was completely made out of metal and they seemed to be equipped with around a dozen magic cannon openings (although those were usually kept closed).

To describe them in layman terms, they looked just like sky battleships.

“The Royal Air Force won’t be able to win if it comes to a fight.”

“That’s the reason why His Majesty wants the negotiations to somehow succeed.”

Because we had contacted them in advance, our airship could dock right next to the flagship without any further issues. We quickly moved over to their flagship and were currently walking through the ship’s gangways, but seeing how the walls and floor were made out of metal too, I doubt it’d be easy to destroy this ship. The demon soldier, who was guiding us, appeared to be very well-trained. He led us to our destination without losing any unnecessary words.

“The design is incredible, Wend.”

“Our technological abilities are too far apart.”

Erw and I couldn’t stop admiring the futuristic design and structure of the flagship. Meanwhile, Burkhart-san was spellbound by the floor, walls, and ceiling being made out of metal without a single seam being visible.

“Oohh! Earl Baumeister, how wonderful of you to have come here!”

As soon as we entered the room we were guided to, Minister Überschaar drew close as if only having waited for me. He was a man in the midst of his thirties who obviously grew up well and looked like a noble youth, but the rumors about him being timid seemed to be true.

Even though the other members of the diplomatic corps were watching, he cried out pathetically as soon as he spotted us.

“Umm, did something happen?”

“Those guys are different from the Empire’s folks!”

“Well, that makes sense since they’re demons.”

Even Minister Überschaar had participated in smaller meetings and negotiations with the Empire without so much as a hitch. But, demons are another race and since it’s said that all of them are magicians, he seems to have become scared of them. Of course, this also meant that expecting negotiations on equal footing would be all but a pipe dream.

“At any rate, those people are weird!”

“Weird?”

“They keep repeating incomprehensible stuff!”

“Hmm, let me hear the full story.”

Since we wouldn’t get anywhere at this rate, I decided to listen to the minister first.

『I’m Remy Shahar, the leader of the diplomatic corps representing the Republic of Zontark』

“Earl Baumeister, the likes of a woman has been assigned as the leader of their diplomatic corps!!”

“(Uh-oh…)”

Even though he had been covering all the time up until now, the minister started to bicker about a woman leading the demons’ diplomatic corps as soon as we showed up.

For women it was next to impossible to participate in politics when it came to the Kingdom or Empire. People like Therese were extremely rare cases and even that was something the Kingdom wouldn’t approve of. Hence, Minister Überschaar snapped when they demons sent a woman to lead the negotiations.

He probably felt that the demons were looking down on him.

“(That’s bad news, isn’t it…?)”

It was obvious that the demons would also be unhappy if they were suddenly confronted with tensions due to such a minor issue. Given that their side had their own way of handling things, it’d become impossible to negotiate with them, if our side suddenly nitpicked their methods. Moreover, the demons might actually be pissed about the Kingdom suppressing women.

“That bitch dared to complain, telling us that the Kingdom should use more women and commoners in its politics!”

“(So both sides are equally bad, eh…?)”

There appears to exist some problem with the demon’s side as well. The delegation leader Remy is a member of the Civil Rights party, the party’s chief secretary to be precise. On top of that, she’s the president of an organization fighting for women’s rights and equal treatment of women in society. She appears to be an amateur politician and thus she didn’t even try to hide her belief that the advanced demons should teach the dumb humans about democracy and gender equality.

Thanks to that, Minister Überschaar apparently became so angry that he forgot the negotiation. However, because he’s afraid of the demons, he didn’t show any of this in front of them, but waited to vent his anger in front of me. However, using us like that is nothing but a nuisance…

“Even though we’ve come here to negotiate, that woman told us how to run the Kingdom! On top of that, she said the original cause for all of this is to be found in the reckless behavior of nobility!”

The demons had passed a detailed report, stating that the cause for the seizure of the Lingaia was to be found in the noble vice-captain having ordered a magician to open fire first. Because the ones having investigated this were the defense forces of the demons, I read the report while doubting its credibility, but I couldn’t find any contradictions or unusual parts.

“If our side truly invaded their territorial waters and fired magic at them first, we should apologize for that and then check out how to negotiate on even ground, shouldn’t we?”

“Won’t we be taken lightly by the demons then!?”

The minister remained stubborn and cocksure while in front of us. Burkhart-san and I could defend ourselves with magic if needed as we possessed more mana than the demons present on this ship. That’s probably the reason why the minister came across so strongly despite us being outnumbered.

Does he believe that it’ll definitely become a disadvantage for the Kingdom if we apologize for the preemptive attack? Or is he possibly connected to Earl Platte in some way? Either way, why didn’t he simply use his cocky attitude while in front of the demons?

“Who do they think they are anyway!” The minister exclaimed.

Not just the leader, but the other members of the demons’ delegation seemed to be somehow odd. The gender split was almost 50-50. That seems to be the idea of their leader, but some among their members clearly looked like they were on some sort of entertainment trip while being complete laymen at this. This is probably another reason why the negotiations haven’t been proceeding well.

Some among the demons’ delegation were running businesses and had approached our side about concluding a trade agreement. But, once they started to talk about the tariffs, contraband, and trade volumes, the folks believed to be amateurs butted in. Moreover, according to our diplomatic corps, those amateurs only talked about stuff unrelated to trade.

＊

『Aren’t things like forced child labor and abuse growing increasingly worse in the Kingdom and Empire? If that’s the case, you should put a stop to it at once!』

『Haven’t you been using discriminatory terms in literature and other publications? I’m an activist working towards the erasure of discriminatory terms in written language…』

『Hunting and selling pelts is terrible! I demand that you forbid the sale of goods using such materials! I have been serving as director of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals…』

Ignoring the actual negotiations, these demons threw the Kingdom’s diplomatic corps into confusion by making incomprehensible demands. Meanwhile Minister Überschaar didn’t know what to do about it. And thus he sat there frightened while secretly seething in rage.

Given that these negotiations were completely different from the ones with the Empire, the first day ended by them just listening to their demands.

“(That’s a lost case…),” muttered Burkhart-san under his breath, but now I can understand why His Majesty sent us around as reinforcement after learning of this.

In short, he’s trying to test the waters by throwing an irregular noble like me at the demons after realizing that normal nobles wouldn’t be able to handle this.

“I don’t get what they mean! How are they surviving without hunting!?”

“Maybe the demon country has made progress in farming, animal husbandry, fishing, and so on, making hunting, where you kill animals directly, obsolete and shunned?

I stated my own opinion when one of the diplomats got all exasperated. I mean, personally I don’t quite get the difference between hunting and animal husbandry.

“Even with animal husbandry, the animals will eventually be put down as livestock…”

“Umm… It’s just my guess that they might be considering things in such a way,” I didn’t have any way to refute the minister’s objection.

Animal protection groups existed in my previous life as well and they performed many protests. Some of those things made me wonder whether they aren’t simply reading too much into things. On some occasions I sat in front of the TV, wondering why they are protesting against certain circumstances or things.

And now I had learned that the same sort of people was among the demons, too. Is this an effect of their society’s ethics having diversified too much?

“(Magic won’t be of any use here whatsoever. Should we just go back like this?)”

Because I understood to some extent what those hot-blooded demons were talking about, I could tell the gravity of the situation. Ignorance is bliss, seriously.

“We were told that we shouldn’t kill sea boars since they’re intelligent, but are cattle dumb? I can’t really believe that there’s that much of a difference between both…”

Minister Überschaar’s simple question is very reasonable, but he won’t be able to do his work as foreign minister if he only considers things like that. If you don’t gather information skillfully, understand the other side’s way of thinking and methodology, and adopt countermeasures, I fear it’ll be difficult to hold any decent negotiations with them.

“Anyway, I will listen to more of the details during tomorrow’s negotiations.”

After deciding to attend the next round of negotiations, I prepared with the minister and his diplomats as much as possible.

＊

“You are an awfully young diplomat, aren’t you?”

“His Majesty might have believed that my youth would account for a more flexible thinking.”

The demon granny called Remy got surprised when she saw me, who still hasn’t reached twenty in age, attend the meeting on the next day. As might be expected, no minors were present on the demons’ side.

Well, I’d suspect that minors don’t have a right to vote over there.

“Even the Kingdom is capable of assigning flexible personnel to match the situation.”

Either way, it’d be bad if things don’t proceed in some way to avoid a war from occurring. Seeing how the demons value a democratic mindset, I should probably emphasize how a young person like me was assigned to such an important duty first off.

The soldiers of the defense forces, who stood behind the demons’ diplomatic corps, started to whisper as soon as they saw me. Maybe they have already obtained information about the Empire’s civil war.

“(Their government officials sure are superb… But, their politicians seem to be…well…)”

In addition, several people, who seem to be news reporters, appeared to carefully take notes. They’re likely going to report about the negotiations’ progress to their respective media outlets.

“Still, it is definitely bad to see that your diplomatic corps has no women among it.”

Remya nitpicked about the lack of females among our diplomats. This granny is the leader of such a movement, and she probably won her seat in parliament on a ticket heavily supported by women.

Even if this might seem to be the wrong place to bring up such a topic, she cannot afford to not mention it. After all, it’s connected to the next election. Though she might also just be clamoring around as a layman in politics.

“I would like to ask you something about this matter. Since when did the social progress of women start to advance in the Zontark Republic?”

“Around a thousand years ago.”

After the collapse of the Ancient Magic Civilization, they were under monarchical rule until a few thousand years ago, and then proceeded into a limited democracy. Only a thousand years ago, women were also allowed to take part in politics, according to Remy.

“Women work in the Kingdom as well.”

There exist female adventurers, and the female ratio among guild staff, shop clerks, and the clergy is relatively high.

“I think it’s roughly around 30% of all women.”

“What about politicians?”

“Well, it’s not like they don’t exist at all.”

There was Therese in the Empire, and noble houses where the wife runs the show because the patriarch doesn’t have the necessary abilities, do exist as well. Though, those are rare cases, to be honest.

“What is the female ratio among politicians in the Zontark Republic?”

“It’s 28%…”

“What’s the female ration among members of the defense force?”

“…Around 5%…”

As I thought. Given that Remya serves as president of a gender equality organization, she must have felt embarrassed that it’s not 50%, but that’s how reality works. Things are never so convenient in society.

“But, our side doesn’t oppress women unlike yours!”

“Oppression, huh…?”

I have completely no clue about such emotions since I’m no woman. And given that I’m like this, I can easily guess that it doesn’t even enter any sort of relevant category in the minds of Minister Überschaar and his diplomats.

However, I could say at least this much:

“The continent we inhabit basically started from scratch when the Ancient Magic Civilization collapsed 10,000 years ago. Political systems and social life take time to change and evolve. If you try to force these things, it leads to unnecessary chaos. Currently the Kingdom is in the middle of development. If you say you’re going to meddle in this, it’ll be equal to an intervention.”

“But…”

“If you keep insisting on this, it will only lead to a sorrowful future for both sides. In the first place, these negotiations are supposed to be about forming a friendly relationship between both countries, making trade agreements, and resolving the conflict surrounding the airship, right?”

The insights of Mall and his friends weren’t wrong. The currently ruling Civil Rights Party actually knows nothing about foreign diplomacy. If they only try to push the political agenda of their own party, they won’t be able to get on with the negotiations at all.

And in such a case, people will naturally ask just what the point was in changing the government.

“I think such issues will resolve themselves over time…”

Once all women in the Kingdom work, the gender ratio in most occupations would become half-half, leading to men participating in childcare and housework. If the people were to suddenly elect their rulers on top of all those changes, the Kingdom would fall apart in no time. After all, the groundwork for all of these measures to work doesn’t exist.

Well, it’s unthinkable that Minister Überschaar and his diplomats would agree to these demands anyway. Also, there are oddly many demons who’re saying weird stuff despite this being diplomatic negotiations.

“You should prohibit child abuse, though.”

“Children should be raised with love and care.”

Those were some crazy sophisms, at present we could only say that things would slowly improve as long as the Kingdom became more prosperous. Besides, even if these arrogant demons were to rule the Kingdom, it’d still remain impossible to resolve this issue.

“(What empty talk…)”

“What about the freedom of speech?”

“You’re allowed to publish books of any sort, besides those heavily criticizing the monarchy, in the Kingdom.”

That’s ultimately limited to just the Kingdom. When it comes to local fiefs, lords will deal with residents, who publish books criticizing the local rule, in their own way. The church also has been calling out on books they deemed to be bad.

To be honest, it’s nothing that can be answered easily.

“How about a ban on hunting?”

“That’s realistically impossible.”

The Kingdom cannot easily increase the farming output because of the monster domains, and it lacks the space to carry out animal husbandry on a large scale. In short, people need to hunt if they want to eat meat. On top of that, pelts are essential trade goods to be exported to the Kingdom’s north or the Empire. Or to be more precise, the number of people freezing to death would likely grow significantly, if they couldn’t rely on pelts because of the low production of silk and cotton wool.

When I explained all this to the demons, one of them told me, “You would just need to import food and clothing from our country!”

“When it comes to trade, we first need to negotiate the currency exchange rates, tariffs, and trade volumes.”

On that day we somehow managed to push the talks to a conclusion where we’d continue the negotiations. But, I’ve become completely drained from doing something I’m not used to. As I thought, in the end I’m not suited to be a politician.

＊

“Earl-sama, you have much more of an aptitude than that braggart Überschaar.”

“Is that supposed to be praise?”

Burkhart-san approached me to express his admiration after the negotiations for the day had ended.

“It’s not like Lord Überschaar failed in his negotiations with the Empire. And I’m telling you that you’re more capable than someone like him.”

Because of all the deja vus, it’s probably going to become even better as I learn to understand what sort of people the demons are. Either way, let me just say one thing: I have absolutely no talent in diplomacy.

“Rather than that, those groups, which had bickered about hunting, quickly shut up.”

“Ah, about that…,” I gave an explanation to Erw, “…they’re actively endorsing the prohibition of hunting in their country, right? But, do you know who’s funding their movement?”

“I already considered that to be weird. Can such a protest movement be profitable?”

“Yeah, it can.”

The folks, who are doing all the volunteer work at the base, might do it because they genuinely feel sorry for animals. However, it’s also true that those at the top of the movement earn money with it.

“Even though they should be running their movement based on the donations by its supporters, I suspect big companies dealing in food to be among those supporters as well.”

Or to be precise here, I think it’s going to be trading companies and enterprises selling food.

“Why would such people support them financially?”

“That’s simple. In order to sell agricultural produce and animal products to the Kingdom.”

According to Mall and his friends, the demon country currently has a surplus on food. That’s also why food is being distributed to jobless people for free. If we assume the situation to be the same with clothing, it’s not strange that they put all their criticism aside for the moment when I mentioned that import would be possible, depending on the following negotiations.

They probably wanted to avoid calling potential customers savages.

“They won’t be able to sell a piece of cloth for each pelt clothing our people wear. Correct?”

“So it’s not a virtuous movement at all…”

I won’t say that they’re doing this completely for the sake of profit, but the heads of the folks, who have come to the negotiation this time, should be filled with nothing but the intentions of their financial backers.

“No, they’re endorsing a ban on hunting based on a virtuous mind because they really feel pity for the animals. However, things have become oddly mixed up as soon as the country and the interests of their backers also came into play here.”

It meant that some within the movement had only joined to make some money out of this.

“It’s the same with the sea boars, too.”

Given the sheer size, they’d provide a sizable amount of meat if they were to be used as a source of food. From the perspective of the food companies in the demon country, it’s more convenient to label an action, which would steal their own profits, as evil.

“I cannot understand why they talked about the sea boars being intelligent either.”

“That makes sense. I mean, if you keep horses and cows, they can get used to it as well.”

Neither Burkhart-san nor Erw seemed to understand the demons’ point here. The same applied to me as well, though.

Given that I had received the horse, which I had borrowed from Peter during the Empire’s civil war, as a reward, it’s currently being raised on my estate and every once in a while I ride it too, but it’s a smart horse that will skilfully match its pace to me who’s rather bad at horse riding. Furthermore, it’s unclear whether sea boars are actually smart since we’ve only been catching them as food.

“How to say it…? They’re a nitpicky bunch.”

“Since we were able to understand each other to some extent, I think it’ll be okay to leave the rest to the Minister.”

I quickly summarized my predictions about the demons’ way of thinking and the minutes of the negotiation I had joined, and then I handed these to the diplomatic corps and His Majesty.

＊　＊　＊

『A different race with a different set of values, huh…? Just when I thought we finally came to an agreement with the Empire…』

The tone His Majesty used was rather grave, but considering the current technological gap between both our races, a war would be a pretty stupid option. In the worst case, it was possible for the Kingdom to get betrayed by the Empire and get pincered from two sides.

When I brought this up, Minister Edgar rebuked, 『The Empire, you think? Aren’t you overthinking this?』

“No, nothing like that.”

I was using two MHCDs to also talk with the minister since it’d be too much work to continuously switch around.

If the Kingdom and demons went to war, it couldn’t be completely excluded that the Empire would use that opportunity to backstab the Kingdom.

“The demons possess armaments and equipment which is far more efficient and lethal than the magic guns and cannons used by the Mizuho Dukedom during the Empire’s civil war. On top of that, all demons are magicians at intermediate level and above.”

『But, aren’t they lacking the numbers?』

“You’re right. Currently, they have few people at arms.”

Right now, the royal army might be able to somehow repel the demon force at the archipelago, if it defends with the will to do or die. But, if the demons go at it seriously, the Kingdom’s military forces will be finished in no time.

『Without a doubt, Doushi, Burkhart-san, I and the other magicians won’t stay alive in this world for long either, I’d say』

If the high-level magicians among the demons, who we don’t know as of yet, go for it seriously, we might not be able to fend them off unless we trade our lives for it.

“We’ll likely lose the magic airships and most of our elite forces, too. It’s quite likely that the demons would get the military preparations in order and attack us once more, once they become serious. Even the fact of many demon youths being jobless might become a big problem for us.”

The government could lure those youths into overtaking the Kingdom by promising them great rewards. Also, it’s possible that the demons would instigate the Empire’s government by shouting, 『Do not forget all the sacrifices during your civil war!』. It’s a possible scenario that the Empire would go along with the demons’ plan, I’d assume. In such a case, the Kingdom would be stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Even Peter would choose to call off the peace treaty with the Kingdom and attack, if the other option would be to fight the demons and ultimately lose. Given the low numbers of demons, they could see some value in the Empire which is impoverished because of the civil war.

After explaining all of that, Minister Edgar said, 『Uuhh…just when I thought things have become a bit easier now that the Empire’s national strength has deteriorated somewhat… We’d have no choice but to gain some time through trade and exchange that doesn’t lead to friction』

Because we wouldn’t be able to win the war, our only option is to tie a friendship treaty while trying to make the conditions as favorably for us as possible.

“But, there’s salvation in this.”

『There is?』

“First off, there have been basically no confrontations between the Kingdom and the demon country across history. There’s the matter with the Lingaia, but it didn’t lead to any casualties on the demons’ side. We haven’t had any battles so far. Rather, the demons’ country is much more of a blank sheet than the Empire with whom we went to war regularly until two hundred years ago, if you exclude the incident of Marquis Läger marching into the Empire during its civil war so as to take advantage of the situation.”

『That makes sense. The demons shouldn’t have as many grudges and hard feelings towards us as the Empire』

“Another factor would be the demons’ way of thinking. It seems like a part of them follow radical ideologies, but their numbers are low. The majority of the demons have a living standard going way above that of humans. I doubt they have any incentive to force an invasion.”

『Being able to embrace such a way of thinking is very enviable, I must admit』, said His Majesty.

Warharks are few and far between in the Kingdom as well, but during the Empire’s civil war, His Majesty had quite some troubles to restrain them from departing to the front. After all, nobles can’t resist the temptation of growing their territory.

Upon my reminder of that circumstance, His Majesty asked, 『It’s not the same for the demons?』

“About that…”

The island inhabited by the demons was named Solent, but you could call it a subcontinent with a size of around a quarter of the Lingaia Continent.

“I heard the demons lived spread out across the whole island in the past, but…because of their declining population, they abandoned many of their settlements in the outskirts. Nowadays, three quarters of the island are uninhabited. As such, the demons have lots of land available they could easily develop, and something like monsters do not pose much of a threat to demons, if they feel like getting rid of them. But, even if they reclaim the land, they lack people to settle there, so they’re leaving a lot of the monster domains and nature alone. Then again, parts of it are used as research areas for scientists or as nature reserves.”

『That sounds like a waste』

“Maybe, but please avoid offering to settle in those places, no matter what you do.”

『Why?』

“Because it’d aggregate the warhawks among the demons. They could claim that the humans are trying to destroy their race by slowly stealing their motherland over time. Such rhetoric would instigate the other demons, possibly causing some among the general demon public to shift towards support for an invasion of the Lingaia Continent.”

『We’ll be busy with developing our own territory for several hundred years. And given the distance to the demon country, it’d be difficult for us to control anyone we send there, too』

His Majesty didn’t seem to consider sending immigrants to the demon country, as might be expected.

『I have understood most of the situation now. But, I must say you’re holding up much better than expected, Earl Baumeister』

“No, it’s just a fluke.”

Yep, I have no abilities as a diplomat. The circumstances in the demon country are simply resembling some of the political situations on Earth by chance. And since I can understand the demons to some extent, this much of an analysis would be possible for anyone who’s not completely incompetent.

“But, my job is done with this.”

『Minister Überschaar, huh…?』

Initially Minister Überschaar was too confused because of the wide difference between him and his thinking and the demons and their thinking, but since he has learned to comprehend the demons to an extent, he told me that he wouldn’t need any further assistance.

『I suppose Minister Überschaar wouldn’t feel overly happy about being beaten in his own field of expertise by you, who’s not a part of the foreign affairs faction』

“Yes.”

『I will make sure to stay in contact with Minister Überschaar. Earl Baumeister, could I have you remain there on standby, in case your help becomes necessary again?』

“As you wish, Your Majesty.”

I must stay on the archipelago, but it looks like I don’t need to join the negotiations anymore. Since it’d just piss off Minister Überschaar and his diplomats if His Majesty were to push me into joining the negotiations, this way of handling it was welcome to me.

“But, with just Erw and Burkhart-san at my side?”

“Got a problem with us? I mean, even I’d obviously prefer to have Haruka-san at my side!”

“I’ll be fine either way as long as I can drink some good wine and eat some delicious fish. I haven’t been able to take my wife and daughter along anyway.”

However, there would be no problem even if I brought my wives along.

＊

With that out of the way, I immediately called Elise and the others over.

“Bringing your babies to a place brimming with demon military, demon diplomats, Holmia’s naval reconnaissance ships, and the Kingdom’s military and diplomatic envoy; you sure are a bold one, Earl Baumeister!

The Terra Harrez Archipelago included close to fifty islands, but at the moment, the demons were building a base only on the biggest island, and they had merely stationed a few guards on some of the other islands.

We built stone houses――the same types as the ones during the Empire’s civil war―― and a simple dock on a small island located at the outer edge of the archipelago and moored our airship over there.

“Wend-kun, have you now become an important noble?”

“So far as it goes, I’m just here to support.”

“I don’t quite understand it, but the demons’ magic airships are definitely unusual.”

Even Amalie-san, who had been mostly in charge of baby-care until now, had followed my wives. We left a part of the guards and retainers back in Sirius, entrusting them with the management of the fishers working for us.

However, I also had several fishermen come with us as well. Just now I was taking out the boats from my magic bag at the island’s beach so that we could check, repair, and get them ready for fishing trips.

“Wend, is this a vacation?”

“Something like that.”

Either way, I have to stay on the archipelago due to His Majesty’s decree, and since it’d be boring to simply sit around here doing nothing, I might as well enjoy vacations on an uninhabited island with my wives.

“The demons’ army is around though…”

“That’s no problem.”

I doubt that they’re planning to suddenly kidnap and murder us. If they had such plans, Minister Überschaar and his diplomats would be dead by now.

“They’re proud of their own progressive culture. The possibility of them suddenly doing something to us is low.”

“But, it’s not zero, right?”

“If these negotiations break down, things will head towards war in the worst case. With the demon army as opponents, the outcome will be the same, no matter where we might be. Hence, it’s indispensable for me to support the diplomatic efforts as much as possible.”

“Support? But, wouldn’t Minister Überschaar hate that?” Elise argued against my thinking while holding Friedrich.

“I’ll do it in addition to Minister Überschaar’s efforts?”

“So the support is us being on vacation?”

“In the end, it’s very likely to take that shape, yes.”

“I don’t get it,” Ina tilted her head in confusion.

But certainly, I think the people living on the continent cannot understand the kind of support I’m planning here.

“Anyway, let’s get started on the vacations.”

Given that we built ourselves a place to live within a few hours, I took a stroll along the coast while holding Friedrich in my arms.

“Friedrich, it’s a pretty ocean, isn’t it?”

“Aah――――”

“That’s because the area hasn’t been developed. It’s still all nature.”

“Auu――――”

“You’re right.”

“Umm, listen Wend, I don’t think you can talk with him yet.”

“Don’t worry. Friedrich is a smart boy so he already understands me.”

“Aren’t you going way too far with your doting!?”

“Is that bad!?”

This boy is supposed to deal with troublesome nobles and the Kingdom’s government after succeeding me. His mother is Elise, and his mana should keep growing as well, so I’m sure he’s going to become an outstanding second Earl Baumeister.

“At any rate, he’s the guarantee for me to retire with a peace of mind. He’ll allow me to live freely as I please afterwards.”

“You really shouldn’t place such a big pressure on a newborn…” Erw complained about my plan of letting the smart Friedrich take over the family headship ahead of time so that I’d be able to spend the rest of my life with an early retirement.

“Anyway! All that matters right now is for him to grow up into a healthy boy!”

“Hey, you’re trying to distract, aren’t you?”

Ignoring Erw’s retort, I held Anna, Elsa, Cayenne, Flora, Irene, Hilde, and Laura in the order of their birth. No matter how often I look at them, babies are cute and innocent. Someone like me, who’s already sullied, cannot hold a candle to them.

Once evening started, my wives breastfed the children, and then we had an outdoor barbecue. We roasted the meat and veggies we brought along as well as the seafood caught by the fishermen, enjoying a relaxing holiday for the first time in a while.

“You may be whining about this and that, but to me it looks like you have had quite a bit of fun most recently.”

“Come to think of it, how about you, Arnest?”

“In my case, my work and hobby overlap.”

We built three houses. One for us, one for the fishermen, and the last one for Arnest and his former pupils. Doushi and Burkhart-san also used the house of the four demons. Mall and his two friends mentioned that they had already enjoyed enough sightseeing of Sirius, and Arnest followed because, according to him, he could write his thesis anywhere.

“Still, the negotiations seem to not be going too well, are they?”

“Sensei, the other party’s delegation consists of new parliament members of the Civil Rights party.”

“Aren’t they kind of doubtable as politicians?”

“The only good thing is that they haven’t called off the negotiations all of a sudden and started to tout for war.”

For some reason, our local demons seemed to harbor a low assessment of Remy and her delegation. Even on Earth, you could find such politicians every now and then.

“So, our playing around is going to become a support for the negotiations? Personally, I’m happy if you, Wend, can spend some time with the babies as well, though.”

“Hah, war isn’t any good. Babies save a country.”

“I can understand that the Kingdom will be in dire straits if it has no children, but…”

Luise got worried while not understanding my train of thought, but suddenly she took a combat stance and directed her bloodlust in a certain direction.

“Aww───human magician, you’re not half bad. As might be expected, one shouldn’t mess around with someone experienced in actual combat.”

“Who are you? Seeing how our children are here, I won’t show any mercy, you know?”

“No, wait, wait. I don’t have any intention to fight you. Even though I might look like this, I’ve got a certain extent of training, seeing I’ve occasionally ventured deep into monster domains to get my news coverage.”

“News coverage?”

“Yes! The negotiations are so damn tedious, and since my editor-in-chief told me to send in an interesting article, I thought I might use you, Earl Baumeister-san, as source, seeing how you started something weird over here.”

At last, the sort of demon I had hoped for showed up. She was in her early twenties. Her dark brown hair was tied together into a braid on the back of her head. She wore clothes that resembled an overall. A magic camera was hanging down from her neck.

“Hello, I’m Lumi Carchs, a rookie reporter of Everyday Journal. I’d like to ask for permission to cover you in an article…”

“Coverage for an article? What does she mean, Wend?”

“I don’t particularly mind. It’s bad manners to talk outside, so please come inside.”

“Thank you.”

Ina scrutinized Lumi skeptically as she didn’t know what to make out of this whole 『news coverage』 business, but as far as I’m concerned, she’s the person I’ve been waiting for. Just as I had predicted, the demons’ mass media showed up, thus starting my support strategy that didn’t rely on magic.

After all, even an amateur like me would likely be able to at least apply the countermeasures against the press I knew of.

Chapter 6 – Demon Reporter Lumi Carchs

“Demons have a method of passing on information that’s called newspaper, and the public opinion is often formed based on what’s written in those newspapers. Seeing how politicians are voted into office through an election, politicians and the journalism of newspapers, which serves as criterion for the people to vote for certain politicians, is quite tricky. If a politician were to criticize the newspapers, turning the media house into their enemy, they could potentially lose the public’s backing, resulting in them losing in the election.”

“Ohh─── Earl Baumeister-san, you sure are quite knowledgeable about this.”

“I’m also someone who could be described as a newcomer among high-ranking nobility.”

“I see, you’re really up to date.”

I just tried to come up with something suitable, but Lumi was thrilled about my commentary. I’d suspected it was a possibility, but it looks like corrupt people also exist among the demons’ media folks.

“Those in power will always become corrupt over time, so the same might also apply to newspapers as well.”

“That’s a biting remark there, good sir. You truly understand our country quite well, don’t you…?”

A new journalist of the demon newspaper Everyday Journal had suddenly appeared in front of us. She was called Lumi Carchs. She boasted that she was working for the newspapers with the most sold copies in the demon country.

“And you were allowed to report on the diplomatic negotiations despite being a newcomer?”

“The delegation’s leader Remy-san promotes emancipation for women. I was chosen since I’m a woman myself. Well, it’s not like I’ve got anything special to do, though.”

“I thought you’d cover the negotiations? Or are you not going to do that?”

“Luise-san, was it? That’s just a public front. If a young, female newbie reporter like me were to butt in, the veteran male reporters would give me hell.”

“And Remy-san doesn’t say anything about this?”

“That woman is quite clever, too. As long as a woman is part of the press group accompanying her delegation, she won’t mention anything since that much is enough for it to work as a publicity stunt. Though, personally I’m kind of conflicted whether you can actually call that a step towards equal rights or just a meaningless formality.”

It sounds like Lumi has nothing to do with reports about the negotiations since there are several male reporters with a lot more experience already covering that part. She might have been taken along for publicity, but it’d probably be asking too much from the publisher to let a newcomer reporter, and moreover a woman, to cover the news regarding an important negotiation.

“So who would read a report about those boring negotiations in that newspaper of yours anyway?”

“You can phrase the articles in various ways to make them more appealing like, 『The politicians of the Civil Rights party are a lost case, seeing how they’re endlessly dragging out the negotiations』, or 『Nothing less of the Civil Rights party, they position themselves as tough opponents during the negotiations』. How people interpret the articles later on depends on the readers.”

“You sure don’t hold back…”

Burkhart-san was appalled by Lumi’s honest, blunt way of speaking.

“Many of the former Everyday Journal reporters are currently members of the Civil Rights party. Of course, some of them are in the National Sovereignty party as well, though. The current chief editor for politics used to be a subordinate of a reporter who became a politician of the Civil Rights party. If an article comes across as too much of a criticism against the party, he’ll bicker so that the wording gets softened down.”

“How half-assed.”

I don’t know whether I should call this collusion, adult circumstances, or plain corruption, but I guess one’s way of talking changes in various ways depending on a person’s position.

“At the moment, true journalism is no more than a dream within a dream.”

Something akin to newspaper extras has been distributed in the Kingdom and Empire as well. Basically it’s similar to tile block print that’s being published around once in a week or once in a month. The common masses can get some information through this, but it’s difficult for such outlets to criticize the lord in a noble fief.

In the past, Margrave Breithilde wrote up a report of my stay in the capital in a humoristic way and distributed it to the residents of the Baumeister Knightdom. That became one of the reasons for Kurt going haywire, so nobles and politicians are no different when it comes to using information and news as means to control politics.

“So, does that mean you are going to write an article that covers us?”

“Elise-san, was it? It will cover you perfectly! Ah, of course I will show you the article before publication as I’m currently in a position of monopolizing the news coverage of you and your family. Some of our folks are also very pesky about privacy issues and so on.”

With that said, we had Lumy write an article about us while enjoying a vacation with the negotiations still going on.

＊

“Earl Baumeister-san, you have to work, right?”

“Pretty much, yeah.”

Given the current state of the negotiations, I use Teleport to go back to my earldom every once in three days in order to do some public works. Though on the condition that my schedule would be adjusted so that I can finish in the morning while I’ve got nothing else planned on that day, according to Roderich.

Moreover, once a week I teleport to Sirius’s port and supply mana to the magic propulsion systems of the ships I lent to the fishermen. My soldiers and retainers, who I’ve left back in the city over there, are managing the fishermen on top of selling the haul to the armies stationed there and the market.

“So other than your work time, you spend your time on vacation here?”

“For better or worse, it’s called being on standby.”

“Gotcha!”

Minister Überschaar and his diplomats apparently want to avoid relying on me as much as possible, so I’m being ignored for the most part. Then again, it’s only natural that they’d be upset, if some rookie were to give his opinion on their specialized work. Accordingly, I’ve been spending the rest of my time as I please.

In the first place, I didn’t come here because I wanted to do it, and it’s not like I’m that eager to get involved in the negotiations that I’d steal the work of others.

“For the diaper changing time to occur almost simultaneously is unfair!”

In the morning, Amalie-san was running about by herself, changing the diapers of my babies. Given our current location, we left the maids behind in Sirius except for a few who accompanied us. Because of that, Amalie-san’s workload is much bigger than usual.

Dominique, Lea, and Anna are with us as well, but they’re currently in the middle of preparing breakfast.

“Ah, I’ll help out as well then.”

“Wend-kun, you can join in over here, but you mustn’t do the same back in the Baumeister Earldom, okay?”

“I know, I know.”

At first I struggled with the changing of the diapers, but after having done it a few times, I became quite skilled at it. Well, a person can handle anything as long as they get used to it.

“Hoh, you’re helping with the diaper change, Earl-san?”

“Usually I don’t, but I’ll chip in during times like this. I usually don’t do it because of my reputation as Earl and because it’d be a problem if I were to steal the maids and babysitters’ work as family head. But, over here it’s basically just family, so it’s no issue for me to help with the diaper change.”

“Nobles sure got it tough as well.”

“I will help out as well.”

“Katharina, did you finish your magic practice?”

“Yes. My mana won’t rise anymore, but I still have a lot of room to improve my accuracy.”

Following Katharina, Elise and the others also came back after wrapping up their special training outside. Thus, we all changed the babies’ diapers together while my wives also breastfed.

“I’ve already heard that your breasts would grow once you give birth to children, but…even yours have become somewhat bigger, haven’t they Katia?”

“Gah! Luise! Don’t be so mean! I’ve had a moderate chest to begin with!”

Luise grumbled about the difference between her breasts and those of the others while feeding her baby. It’s not like she’s lacking milk, so I don’t see any particular problem here…

“Say, Reporter-san, do the breasts of demon women also grow when they give birth?”

“Yep. I suppose there are some individual differences, but since I haven’t given birth myself, I can’t quite comment on it.”

“Lumi-san, do you live for your work?” Lisa asked.

She had finally given birth after turning thirty, but before that she was solely focused on her job as adventurer.

“I’d like to marry if possible, but my job has irregular work hours and since I don’t have a partner either, I’m single. Still the sight of nine babies is quite amazing in and by itself.”

Because Haruka-san is currently taking care of her own child as well, we’ve got nine babies in the room right now. According to Lumi, you can only find so many babies on one spot in a big hospital when it comes to her own country.

“Which reminds me, the demons had a declining birthrate and an aging population, hadn’t they?”

“So you heard from my countrymen, huh?”

＊　　　＊　　　＊

Lumi had noticed the existence of Arnest and his former pupils a good while ago.

『Sensei, what are you doing here?』

At first, Lumi was surprised to find Arnest over here.

『Hmm? Ah, a former student of mine. I am currently doing my real research over here』

『I see you haven’t changed your ways of being a weirdo, Sensei』

『For not a single of my students to have pursued the path of archeology…what a truly deplorable state』

『You can’t put any food on the table with archeology』, Lumi said the same thing Mall and the others had mentioned before.

『If you had been a reporter for the culture department, I would have praised you as my student』

『The culture department is being treated badly at my publisher. The star among the departments is the politics one』

At the beginning, Lumi explained that her newspaper wasn’t just all politics, but in reality, she was actually a member of the politics department.

『How regrettable』, replied Arnest

Lumi went to the same university as Mall and his friends. She apparently had been two years above them. And on top of that, she also used to be a student under Arnest. However, as far as Arnest was concerned, Lumi was a failure as his student.

『I’m surprised to see you still alive, Sensei. According to the news, you were eaten by a monster during the exploration of an unknown ruin in the 『Great Atemongo Forest』』

Personally, I wouldn’t believe that someone with the mana of Arnest’s level would easily become fodder for a monster…

『This guy would not die even if you kill him!』

Doushi seemed to believe the same, but since he’s also the type of guy who won’t die even if you kill him, I doubt that he’s qualified to comment on others.

『I am bad at fighting since I focus on scientific research』

『How ridiculous!』

In the end, Arnest and Doushi aren’t very compatible as characters.

『Still the media does have rather low standards. Even though I actually headed to the Lingaia Continent in search of new ruins, they got swallowed up by corruption, reporting what the government wants them to write, despite being the fourth power according to them, huh?』

『As always, you dish out well, Sensei. Moreover…I see, my useless juniors at university are with you as well』

Lumi’s eyes pointed at Mall and his two friends. Even so, the word seems to definitely be a small place.

『Indeed』

『We’re happy with this, so it’s fine』

『For you to have sneaked out of the youth corps, just to end up with Earl Baumeister-san together with Arnest-sensei who was supposed to be missing; truth definitely is stranger than fiction』

Lumi was flabbergasted by her juniors which wouldn’t be able to complain if they were branded as deserters.

『Are we going to receive the death penalty for desertion?』

『In that case, we will apply for political asylum』

『I’d hate to go back just to be killed, so that’d be okay with me, too』

『Death penalty? No clue whether it’s going to result in that. Though, there’s no doubt about you guys being nutcases』

The defense forces have already given up and accepted that the members of the youth corps are useless bums who only cause problems. Then again, even if you call it causing problems, most of them are just bad at working or bicker about higher salaries. Among those corps members, the three guys over here left the island under the pretext of going fishing. This should have been more than enough to make their superiors at the defense force panic.

『Because our defense forces are the regular army due to an ancient law, desertion is punished by death. However, it’s not like they’ll be killed in reality. Even though they’re part of the youth corps, they’re merely temporary laborers』

Given that they aren’t official military personnel, it’d be impossible to kill them just because they ran away. Even if they were punished by broadly interpreting the law, it’d produce other problems.

『Some people don’t consider the defense forces a regular army anymore. We have groups advocating peace, who obviously prefer to not have any wars. They share the opinion that the defense forces are merely responsible for public order and disaster relief. They also regard the current dispatch of the defense forces very critically. In their eyes, the idea of reviving the army and punishing deserters is abhorring, and it’d very likely trigger them to start protests against any such motion』

At that point, demon rights groups and people advocating the reduction of the defense forces would join that peace movement, resulting in a huge uproar. The current government wouldn’t be able to oppose them because many of those people would be supporters of the ruling party.

『A political problem, huh…?』

『Well, such things exists as well. We demons have our own share of troubles, too』

It sounds like many people were pitying the ruling party for being faced with this situation right after coming into power, but politicians have no use if they don’t produce results.

『Given those circumstances, I will look the other way while covering you, Earl Baumeister-san. I’ll pretend to not have seen Sensei and my juniors over here』

Lumi also promised to not mention them in her article.

『If I wrote about them, some demons would kick up a fuss over them being traitors and so on』

And in such a way, Arnest managed to reunite with yet another of his former students.

＊　　　＊　　　＊

“Wend-kun, we put all of them to sleep.”

“Okay, let’s take a break then, shall we?”

“Sure, I will brew tea.”

My babies were peacefully asleep after having had their diapers changed and their bellies filled with milk. But, it’s the duty of babies to sleep, so it’s fine like this.

Because Amalie-san brewed tea for all of us, we continued to chat with Lumi while taking a break at the same time.

“Demons have it hard to give birth to children. I envy you humans.”

“You envy us?”

“Ina-san, I’d like to marry and give birth to children as well.”

Demons live almost three times as long as humans, so their lifespan lasts around 250-300 years. The longer the lifespan, the harder it is to give birth to offspring. And because of that, the demons appear to be worried about their dwindling birth rate.

Lumi also said that she’s still single.

“Demons have a long youth and almost no one will marry before fifty.”

It sounds like there’s not much difference between demons and humans when it comes to growth until the age of twenty. But, since demons won’t find a job even after turning adults at twenty, they spend an awfully long time as students.

“And we don’t grow old until the age of 200, or in human terms, during the first half of our twenties. Only after that, we’ll gradually grow older for the remaining fifty to hundred years.”

That means, that grandma called Remy is actually older than 200 years old, eh…?

“If you marry at an age of fifty, you can give birth to two or three children.”

Marrying late has festered in demon society, and many of them marry past the age of 150. As such, they only have time to raise one child. And if you cut the birth rate by 20%, it basically means a decrease in population.

[TN: Not sure what the author is counting here. If you lower the birth rate from 2-3 children to one child per couple, it’d be a decrease by 33-66% in birth rate. You could average that and say 46%, but surely not 20%. A birthrate of 1.0 is definitely a decrease. A steep one at that.]

“The government has been adopting countermeasures, but since half of the young demons are jobless, it makes it hard for them to marry.”

Lumi’s eyes wandered to her three juniors.

“Because Lumi-senpai’s abusive language doesn’t lose out to Sensei’s, she never had a boyfriend during her student days.”

“Even I had a girlfriend during my time at school…”

“Senpai, your looks and figure aren’t bad. But, I thought that you were missing something. And after seeing Elise and the others, I can say with conviction that you simply don’t have enough kindness in you!”

“Uugh….you guys are pissing me off…,” Lumi glared at those three reproachfully after they had apparently found out about her not having had any boyfriends as student. “But, I’m pretty tolerant, so I’ll accept a guy as husband as long as he takes care of the house.”

“Marry you?”

“No, thanks.”

“I think you’re a nice person as a friend, but…”

“I was rejected even by my juniors who are jobless, virgin losers!” Lumi dropped her shoulders.

It looks like Mall and his two friends aren’t fine with just any woman either.

“Whatever! I’ll simply live for my work!”

However, Lumi got a rather positive mindset, so she quickly recovered, resuming her work as a reporter.

＊

After we finished taking care of the babies, breakfast was up next.

Currently, the air force of the demons was patrolling the archipelago, but it was a treasure trove of fish anyway since fishermen usually didn’t come all the way out here anyway. At times when we couldn’t fish ourselves, we left it to the fishermen we brought with us, and ate their haul.

Since it was such a rare opportunity, I made sur to serve plenty of dishes based on fresh fish. And because I had also stocked lots of ingredients from Mizuho, many of those dishes ended up being Japanese.

“───Maaan, a drink in the morning rocks.”

“Burkhart-san, it’s bad to drink too much.”

“It’s just one cup.”

Burkhart-san had been drinking wine since morning while eating dried fish as a snack to go with his booze. Erw was eating rice while chiding him for that.

“Fresh fish sure tastes great.”

“Right? You have to eat plenty!”

“No, eating such a big bowl like you, Doushi-sama, is impossible for me…,” Katia commented

“Another serving please,” Wilma requested curtly.

“Always the same with you, Wilma!”

Wilma was even more amazing than Doushi for ordering a second serving of that big bowl.

“You’re not going to eat some traditional meals of the Earl Baumeister family or some such?”

“Huh? You want to eat something like that?”

Lumi had apparently heard that noble families had traditional dishes and believed the nobles would constantly eat those. But, no matter how you think about it, I’m sure even Lumi, who comes from a middle class family, is eating better food than that thin salt soup.

Maybe she’s actually misunderstanding me as a descendant of some super high-class family or some such. Also, she might not have realized that there are all sorts of differences between nobles.

“I’m kind of interested, yes.”

“How eccentric… But, right now I can’t make it since I don’t have the ingredients at hand.”

We actually don’t have the veggies, meat scraps, and hard, black bread with us to make that soup. Unfortunately, it looks like our palate has evolved beyond that, and nowadays even my parents have stopped eating that soup.

『Tastes absolutely horrible. We sure did well to have been able to eat this nasty stuff for decades』

『Dear, even without you forcing yourself to eat something like that…』

Some time ago, Dad messed around and tried to eat that soup of the past after having my mother cook hit for him, but since it was very thin with its only seasoning being salt, I heard from Paul-niisan that our Dad couldn’t eat it any longer because of the lackluster taste.

“I guess the documents were wrong? The demon nobles of old wrote that it’s supposed to be like that among human nobles.”

The Kingdom’s nobles have something like a menu they’ll serve when they want to impress their guests, but usually they don’t eat any fixed menus. However, since the ingredients available were limited, just like it had been for my family in the past, many noble houses would eat the same stuff.

“In the past, the Baumeister family basically ate the same menu every day, but…”

Once I told Lumi about the menu and the reason for it, she clearly looked like she’d lost all interest in eating it.

“So you clawed your way up from being very poor? That’ll make for a great news story.”

Lumi continued to take notes while appearing overjoyed.

“Is such a story going to be well-received among demon citizens?”

“Definitely.”

It seems like novels about people building up their own companies after weathering through a childhood of poverty, or people who made a name for themselves and became politicians, often become bestsellers in the demon country. Personally I feel like it’s a bit weird to put me on the same level as such amazing folks.

“Demons and humans are the same in idolizing such success stories.”

“I guess you got a point.”

I can understand that demons hold strong curiosity and yearning towards successful people, just like humans.

“But, that’s great. It sounds like I’ll be able to write a great article. By the way, do humans like eating fish?”

“Demons don’t do it?

“They do, but only small amounts. Majority of the fish eaten by us demons are farm-raised. Moreover, only a small fraction of local fishermen and people, who like to angle as a hobby, eat freshly-caught fish. And on top of that, every once in a while news about those few fishermen clashing with animal rights groups would make the rounds. Those groups claim that fishing destroys nature and that it’s pitiful to kill wild fish.”

“I feel like you also kill fish when doing aquaculture though…”

“Erwin-san, that’s just the usual pattern of deceiving yourself by coming up with all sorts of excuses.”

“It’s not understandable to me…”

If you catch too many fish in an area, it can throw the ecosystem into chaos, so it might follow the train of thought that cultivating fish would be okay. However, because of that thinking, the demons don’t eat much fish, except for those living along the coast.

“The demons living in inland areas eat meat and grains as staple food.”

Large food makers process ingredients which can be obtained cheaply at huge farms and ranches, and sell them. The variety of goods is low for the sake of making a profit with little effort, so if you want to eat something unusual, you need to go to high-class grocery stores or obtain and cook the ingredients by yourself.

“Many demons eat the same things every day.”

Because the demons are used to similar daily meals, the makers can mass produce food at a cheap price, also resulting in food being left over. In such a society, starvation won’t become a reason for a revolution, but it might also lack appeal when it comes to food.

“The food on the human’s side is more delicious.”

“Sensei, didn’t you used to be indifferent to taste in the past? You ate bread everyday since you didn’t leave your laboratory.”

According to Lumi, Arnest stopped going outside except for excavations whenever he got zealous about his research. But, if I consider things closely, it’s the same nowadays as well.

“I did not have any interest in food in the past. At present I am very satisfied as well since a huge variety of dishes is being served to me.”

Come to think of it, Arnest always eats all of his food without leaving anything behind. At first I thought that he had no interest in the food, but it sounds like he actually enjoys his meals.

“But, will a report about such commonplace livelihood be any good for a news article?”

“It’ll be alright. It looks like Earl Baumeister-san is actually understanding as well, though.”

Erw probably thought that Lumi would be talking with me about stuffy politics and consolidate all of it into a news article. The actual newspaper, which we had Lumi show us during the initial explanation, seemed to have that sort of political-paper feel.

“Our newspaper doesn’t only cover politics!

＊

And then, in the evening of the same day Lumi handed a manuscript of her article to us.

“『The negotiations between both countries aren’t quite finishing! The young noble Earl Baumeister, who had suddenly made an appearance during the negotiations on the Kingdom’s side, was someone completely overthrowing our image of nobility!』 will be the title.”

[TN: As typical for JP authors: coming up with catchy titles is asking too much.]

In addition, she wrote about me taking care of my babies, enjoying some fishing with my wives, preparing the haul and cooking it into dishes during my spare time when I’m not working hard at the development of my territory as lord.

“It’s a depiction of Wend’s usual daily life, but is this going to be of any use?”

“Erwin-san, the biggest problem of the current negotiations can be found in both sides not knowing much about each other and thus making assumptions based on some weird prejudices.”

The demons consider the humans to be savages who live in outdated, feudal societies, and the human’s side is resisting that labeling. The negotiations won’t get anywhere as long as we can’t somehow break up that wrong image of humans, Lumi apparently believed.

Unfortunately, female politicians such as Remy apparently don’t think so.

“For that reason, it’s essential to tell the demons through this article that the Kingdom’s humans aren’t that different from them.”

“Oh, okay. I see.”

Lumi was apparently planning to have humans and demons reconcile by deliberately publishing such a news article. She got a fairly bold and determined way of thinking, despite being a newcomer reporter.

“I mean, I’d hate the idea of a war starting.”

“Does such a danger exist?”

“Yes.”

At present, we can’t even see a start to resolve the standstill in the negotiations. As such, it’s possible that some people start to claim that it’d be fine to resolve things by waging war.

“The number of hawks among the demons is low, but they’re loud.”

“And there are people behind them who instigate things, right?”

“That’s correct, Earl Baumeister-san.”

According to Lumi, some of the demons have started to argue that this would be no war, but a special operation to bring democracy to the humans on the continent by defeating the nobles and royals reigning over them through an old feudal system.

“No…democracy…”

That’s doubtlessly impossible on the continent as it is right now. Most of the people are barely capable of reading characters, so it’d be way too fast to implement democracy, I think.

“I think it’ll only lead to unnecessary chaos…”

“Accordingly, they’re saying they’ll take the necessary positions for themselves and guide the foolish humans in the proper way.”

How boring. So they’re basically using democracy as front while actually wanting to rule over the humans with a few demons.

“Nowadays it’s often normal for the seat of a politician to be hereditary, and those politicians allow their family members to make careers in enterprises or public institutions through their connections. We’ve got plenty of people who are no different from nobles.”

It’s unclear whether this corruption is the reason, but the demon country’s economic strength has been gradually declining over the years. The hawkish demons want to invade the continent to resolve this issue. The companies are looking for new markets while the politicians desire new land to rule. In the past on Earth, this sort of ideology was called colonial expansion and rule.

“What a pain in the ass.”

“However, I think you can say that this isn’t overly popular with the ordinary people.”

It’s certainly true that many of their young people have no job, but it’s not like they struggle to survive either. Lumi says that only a portion of the demons are kicking up a fuss while the majority of the populace is looking critically at their demands.

“In the first place, if everyone was so eager and full of energy, we wouldn’t possess so much undeveloped land in our country.”

Apparently, most of the land that proved to be impossible to maintain had been abandoned in the last few centuries. The regions, where the population dropped to zero because of the extreme advancement of depopulation, were tagged as waste of taxes to manage.

“Are the demons going to be okay?”

“I do hope so.”

It’s inevitable to feel uneasy. It looks like many demons share the opinion to leave things to the providence of nature. The ones making a racket might only be politicians, whose income has dropped, and businessmen whose markets shrunk.

“At the time of the Ancient Magic Civilization’s destruction, the demons’ population amounted to no more than 100,000. Maybe nature is simply trying to return our numbers to a reasonable amount since we’re currently just too many.”

“I see.”

The demons might be headed for decay after having passed their golden age. Still, their population has grown tenfold since the era of the Ancient Magic Civilization, huh? As I thought, you cannot underestimate the demons.

“So, it won’t be any problem if we publish this article, right?”

“No.”

“That’s a big help. Even I would have found it difficult to write an article about you levying your fief’s population with heavy taxation and labor while indulging in luxury every day and summoning any pretty woman in your territory to your own harem.”

“I never did any of that…”

Lingaia is a huge continent, so I can’t say that no one does any of that. But, rather than that, I’d prefer to avoid getting any more women.

＊

Because the article had no particular issues, it was published in Everyday Journal.

“The response isn’t bad.”

The number of politicians advocating, 『Our technological level is above theirs, so we’ll be able to defend ourselves against any potential attack by them. As such, wouldn’t it be smarter to simply sell valuable goods to the continent? It’ll yield a nice profit』, apparently started to increase in the parliament.

After reading the article, they apparently reached the conclusion that it’d be better to form a treaty with us since our side was civilized as well. In addition, a report stating, 『Right now we won’t be able to maintain the occupation, even if we take over the continent. Even if we pool all of our soldiers, bureaucrats, and engineers, we’ll be able to field 50,000 at the most. Such number would be far too low to rule over the humans who have an ever-growing, estimated population of 50 million』, was released by the defense force.

『Can’t you dispatch more personnel?』

『That’s impossible. We also have to take care of public safety in our own country. In the first place, that number was based on the idea that the defense force would be significantly bolstered with personnel. It’s pretty clear that we’d suffer casualties if we tried to overthrow the Helmut Kingdom, and Holy Empire Urquhart which isn’t negotiating with us right now』

『How many casualties does the defense force expect?』

『We estimate the losses to number 2,000 at the least while it could also go up to around 10,000』

『At the least 2,000 people…』

In the current demon country those would be losses which would lead to the current cabinet resigning and the opposition definitely winning in the next election. The demons, who hadn’t gone to war for a long time, probably wouldn’t be able to stomach the death of their brethren.

『This is the estimate of the losses during the invasion. When it comes to maintaining the occupation of the continent on top of that…』

It’s possible that the humans would start to resist the demons as their vicious rulers. Knowing that they wouldn’t be able to win in a frontal assault, the humans would start terrorist acts. Crushing those terrorist organizations and their bases would produce further losses among the demons.

『It’s possible that the casualties would grow above 30,000 over ten years』

『Don’t we possess a lot more mana than humans, and outstanding technology!?』

『That is true, but it’d be impossible to prepare against human terrorism always and everywhere. After all, we are at an overwhelming numerical disadvantage』

The humans could poison their food or cut their throat during sleep. Because there’s not much of a difference between a human and demon body, demons could be seduced by beautiful women or men, just to be lured to a deserted area in order to get murdered over there.

『We will drastically increase the defense forces personnel!』

『With those young demons in military employ?』

『Indeed!』

『Those people will probably get killed right away after showing the slightest opening』

The defense force’s might came from its members regularly running strict drills. Even if they upgrade the youth corps to regular soldiers all of a sudden, it’d just increase the casualties, the officer of the defense forces explained.

『We will head out if the government orders us to do so, but I can only remind you that the government will have to bear responsibility for the casualties caused by that decision』

『Uugh…』

Debates like the one above were held at the parliament, and the government apparently lost the possibility to advocate a troop dispatch. However, a part of the parliament members still kicked up a fuss about it.

“Some people are also talking about a demon-human-economical-sphere or a demon-human-cooperative-body.”

It sounds like the right and left wings are also clamoring about such political ideas.

“You might get angry if I say this, Earl Baumeister-san, but in regards to these political ideas, I actually prefer the war advocates.”

“Because a conquest of the continent would mean that they’re aware of themselves committing a crime, huh?”

“Yep.”

The ones being more dangerous are the demons arguing to overthrow the nobles and royals for the sake of teaching democracy to the humans.

“They truly believe that they’re doing something very good.”

However, right now I can’t do anything in the current situation. I’m not participating in the negotiations. Though I didn’t forget to regularly contact His Majesty.

“Even if they conclude the negotiations in a hurry, it likely won’t lead to a decent outcome.”

I think it’s just as Therese says. From my point of view, it was questionable whether the diplomatic delegations of both countries were actually doing their job, but His Majesty apparently planned to leave the negotiations in the hands of Minister Überschaar and his diplomats for the time being.

“However, there exists one unresolved issue.”

“You mean the captured Lingaia and its detained sailors?”

“Aye. Our government wants to return them as quickly as possible.”

“Does it cost that much to take care of them?”

“It’d be a huge problem if rumors about them treating the imprisoned humans badly were to crop up. Detention eats up money as well. And that big ship called Lingaia has no use to us as an outdated model by demon standards either.”

It looks like we were the only ones expecting the demons to use the nobles, government officials, and sailors of the Lingaia as hostages during the negotiations. In reality, it cost money to detain the crew, and the ship itself was no more than dead wood to the demons. Because it has been occupying a dock of the defense force for an extended period of time, the government has been pressured by the parliament to quickly send back both, making it very likely that the Lingaia and its crew would be released very soon.

“An issue of expenses, huh…?”

“Recently our national budget has become quite tight because of the increase in social welfare spending. My newspaper has also been pointing out in articles that our government is wasting quite a bit of money.”

Somehow it’s a story I feel I’ve heard somewhere before.

As I thought something like that, I suddenly heard my MHCD ringing. Once I took the call, His Majesty was on the other end.

『Earl Baumeister, I actually have a request』

His Majesty gave me a certain order while skipping on the greetings. He called it a request, but since I couldn’t refuse, it was basically an order.

“Yes, what might it be?”

『I’d like you to check on the status of the imprisoned Lingaia crew』

“Me?”

『The other side has started to talk with us in a way that kept stressing they were advance, civilized people. They shouldn’t arrest you all of a sudden. Accordingly, I’d like you to directly visit the demon country』

“Okay…”

That’s fine with me since I’m interested in the demon country anyway, but it’s also possible for the demons to suddenly attack me.

“Earl Baumeister-san, us demons are bragging over being a sophisticated, civilized nation! We aren’t the demons of old either. If you visit as an official, special foreign envoy, no one will attack you!”

It sounds like Lumi has quite a bit of pride as a demon, seeing how she denied my worries with all her might.

Certainly, even the Kingdom only killed the messengers of the Empire in the very distant past, during the war. If it’s the demons who haven’t been at war for more than 10,000 years, the possibility of them killing is next to impossible, I guess.

『Is that the newspaper reporter you mentioned in your previous report?』

“Yes.”

『It’s quite troublesome that Minister Überschaar hasn’t been able to make any progress at all. Having said that, it’s quite possible that the conditions will become disadvantageous for us if we hurry the negotiations. As such, I’d like you to go there and settle things skillfully』

“I don’t mind that, but aren’t there any other applicants for this task?”

Their numbers might be low, but I think the foreign affairs faction should have other nobles.

『All of them were seized with fear when they heard about the demon country. In the end, they claimed that you’d be suitable for this task as hero who achieved so many military exploits during the Empire’s civil war』

“Haaah…”

Seriously, the nobles of the foreign affairs faction truly deserve to be called useless bums.

『I’ll leave all of it in your capable hands. The crew of the Lingaia takes maximum priority. Feel free to choose the personnel you wish to take with you』

“Got it. I shall hurry to the demon country.”

＊

Of course it was impossible for me to reject His Majesty’s order, and thus it was decided that I’d be heading to the demon country.

Chapter 7 – Republic of Zontark

“Bah, such a troublesome job…”

“It’s a decree by His Majesty, so it cannot be helped.”

“I know, but still…”

Ina, you may say so, but troublesome stuff remains just that, troublesome.

“A man shouldn’t keep whining about things, once he made up his mind on something.”

“Yes, I know.”

Well, if Amalie-san says so…

“Wend, you sure listen closely to what Amalie-san tells you, don’t you…? Are you a kid?”

“No! I’m an adult!”

After traveling westwards for one week on our small airship, we finally reached the demons’ country. Starting with next time, I’ll be able to come here with Teleport, but at present I don’t think I want to visit this place again.

As far as I’ve heard from Mall and his friends, I feel like it’s going to be a fairly dull and uninteresting country.

The country with the name Republic of Zontark was located on an island, or rather, a subcontinent with a fourth of Lingaia Continent’s size. In the past, most of the subcontinent had been inhabited by demons, but as their population slowly decreased, many regions were abandoned, resulting in nature taking back the land.

Therefore, you can find many ruins in no-man’s land. Arnest apparently did some excavation work in those ruins. But, given the government’s budget deficit, large-scale excavation had been impossible in recent years. The dissatisfaction over this led to Arnest smuggling himself to the Lingaia Continent.

“Arnest, it’s your dearly missed homeland.”

“It has a highly efficient society, but it is quite boring,” Arnest answered indifferently as he stared at the port, visible outside the window of our airship.

And he was right. This port, which served as docking place for airships and regular naval ships at the same time, consisted of nothing but orderly-arranged, cold concrete, containers, cranes, and prefab buildings. One short look at it all made you get bored of it right away.

I think it’s quite amazing from a technological standpoint, but…unlike Sirius with its old-fashioned feel, this place prioritized efficiency, lacking anything that could serve as a tourist attraction.

I’m sure only a few tourists would want to look at this place. Though the higher-ups of the Empire and Kingdom would probably love to observe operations over here.

Taking efficiency to the limit wasn’t limited to just the port either. Even the townscape visible beyond was the same. Rows of identical, box-shaped homes lined up neatly with the streets between them extending in straight lines, making the whole area look almost as if this was a huge Go board.

“You did well to have obtained permission to come with us. Won’t you be treated as a traitor by your motherland?” Doushi asked Arnest.

As a matter of fact, not only Arnest, but Mall and his two friends were accompanying us as well. They were treated as our mediators and advisors.

As might be expected, the demons were no idiots and had long noticed their presence, but currently they were apparently hesitating to punish Arnest for his flight and Mall’s group for their desertion. Arnest’s flight had stopped being a felony after the demons stopped interacting with the continent. As such, they didn’t regard it as much of a reason to actually punish him.

Even nowadays, almost no demons thought about leaving their own country, and I heard that Arnest was the first person to actually flee the Republic of Zontark in a very long time.

As Urquhart and the Helmut Kingdom should deal with any illegal immigration onto the continent, it’d end up becoming an intervention, if the Republic spoke up about this. Having said that, neither of those countries were inclined to punish Arnest, I doubt they’d do so in the future either.

Since he’s now under the protection of House Baumeister, them not being able to meddle with him easily anymore also plays a role.

『They stayed behind for the sake of friendship between both countries!』

Moreover, the party members of the Civil Rights Party (CRP), who were accompanying the diplomatic delegation, covered for the three young men under military employ, making it impossible for the defense forces to say anything about it. The CRP didn’t regard the defense forces as real army and many of its members also held aversions towards them. As such they restrained the defense forces who tried to punish Mall and his friends for having deserted.

Then again, the defense forces didn’t hold any high hopes for the young people in military employment who were only hired for a short term as part of a publicity stunt of the politicians in power. Even if such people deserted, it’d be a waste of time to force the issue of punishing them.

Given that the defense force has been busy as of late, they probably have no time to be preoccupied with Mall’s group. Hence, it was decided that they had an accident during their vacation and got rescued by us.

As for their employment with the defense forces: it was officially handled as them having finished their employment period after getting hired by us.

To be frank, I do have my doubts about the diplomatic corps of the CRP, but on this matter, that delegation actually saved Mall and his friends.

『Uuhh…I will give permission to you guys…to freely act as escort of Earl Baumeister and his retinue…』

The commandant of the defense forces had no choice to disregard the escape of Mall’s group while looking very bitter about it. It’s the boon of civilian control, or rather, they probably thought that the public would condemn the government if the defense forces punished those three. Newspapers had apparently written criticism about the youth corps in military employment being used as disposable due to their irregular employment.

“Mall-san, all the buildings are identical.”

Ina apparently felt uncomfortable about the city looking so orderly, contrary to the Kingdom.

“The only ones able to build their homes with unique designs are very rich people. The property market is dominated by a few major players, and no matter the company, all are building the houses in almost the same way,” explained Mall.

Just like in modern Japan, the building materials were processed in factories to a certain extent, before being assembled on-site. The house builders apparently managed to survive by selling lots for small profits, putting their highest priority on efficiency in everything. Because of that, smaller and medium house builders and carpenters have drastically decreased in numbers of the past few centuries.

“Always building the same houses is more efficient and cheaper. You can also construct them quicker.”

I feel like they look quite cheap, but it seems like the interior is spacious, sturdy, and easy to live in.

“Still, everyone is buying them by taking a loan.”

It’s just like a certain salaryman has bought his house. Recalling my previous life, I felt slight pangs of melancholy. Back then, I didn’t buy a house just like I didn’t marry, but I often heard my married bosses and older colleagues whine about the loans during company-sponsored drinking parties.

“People with lots of money get palatial residences or custom-ordered homes. But, even if you’re unemployed, the state provides you with cheap rented apartments.”

“Those people don’t live in the district with the identical houses, though. That area is a residential district for fairly affluent people.”

“It’s unrelated to us. Jobless folks can’t buy houses.”

On the other hand, poor people are apparently allowed to rent units in apartment buildings, which have become deserted due to the depopulation, for free, even if they can’t buy houses as they don’t have money and job. Given that the state also provides their basic necessities of life and a small amount of pocket money, it’s not like it’s a disaster even if you’re unemployed.

In exchange, the number of those people marrying remains low. They won’t starve, but without a job and income, they can’t marry. I wonder whether you could call this a state of limbo where you don’t die but don’t live either.

“I think it is a wonderful society though…”

“True.”

“It might lack competition, but it’s much better than the poor in the Kingdom.”

Elise, Ina, and Luise might believe the demon country to be a great place since you can eat even without working for it. And certainly, the state of the slums, which definitely exist in any bigger city of the Kingdom, is terrible. Since those slums are unsanitary, and given the bad food situation, children often die. The number of people dying from starvation is low, but it’s still easy to fall ill over there.

Compared to that, the demons’ country might definitely appear like paradise.

“But, welfare recipients can’t really marry. Children cost money after all.”

“Education expenses until they become adults and so on.”

“Children might be more of a luxury than a house or a magic car.”

Given the long school time for demons, you can’t raise a child unless you can provide money for a long time. For this reason, many poor people are singles, regardless of gender.

“Well, you can somehow manage, if you live alone while following your hobbies for a bit.”

“The ratio of divorces among demons has already exceeded 40%.”

“That’s definitely a lot of divorces…there’s some among my friends, too.”

As I was listening to the conversation between Mall and his two friends, I experienced the hallucination of having returned to my previous life.

“So we landed in the army’s port, huh…?”

“Burkhart-san, the demons’ country has no army. It’s a defense force.”

“Even though they have so much military equipment? I kinda feel like that’s no more than a word game.”

The battleships are made out of sturdy metal that cannot be produced by the Empire or Kingdom, and their ships are faster than ours, too. They come with loads of magic cannons, so they’ll likely eradicate the air force of both countries in an instant, if it comes to a war.

In Burkhart-san’s eyes, saying that this country here has no army must sound like sophistry.

“Please think of it as them having developed into an organization in charge of public safety since they don’t have the concept of neighboring countries over here.”

“Earl-sama, you sure have adapted unexpectedly fast.”

Rather than adapting, I just didn’t see much of a difference between the image I had of the defense forces here and Japan’s Self-Defense Forces.

Just as we had consulted before, our airship landed at the base of the defense force.

＊

“Thank you kindly for taking the effort to make this long trip, Earl Baumeister. My name is 2nd Field Officer Lage,” a young officer of the defense forces greeted us with a smile, but once he saw Arnest and his three former students, his expression turned grim.

There must be many things he wants to say, but because of his and their position, he couldn’t do so. Having said that, it didn’t mean that he could make such a clear cut that would allow him to lock away his feelings completely.

“Good work on guiding out guests…”

“You might harbor many thoughts and doubts about this, but it is impossible to punish me. If you look it up, you will find that it is a law so full of holes that it is actually laughable.”

Even though Arnest had illegally fled the country, he didn’t feel a shred of remorse. In reality, he had apparently checked the law in his spare time and discovered that illegally leaving the country wasn’t punishable.

I can understand his attitude, but I think the young officer would show his approval as well, if only Arnest pretended to repent a bit. Well, I think it’s asking too much to expect Arnest to show any such consideration, though.

“Smuggling yourself out of the country might be illegal, but it is not punishable. You were 2nd Field Officer Lage of the defense forces, right? It is wrong to cut corners on the law’s intricate, multi-layered structure.”

In a way typical for a scholar, Arnest directly attacked the part about it not being punishable by the law, causing the demon officer’s face to cramp up drastically. However, it’s not like he wrote the law, so I think Arnest is barking up the wrong tree here.

“Because the defense forces are no army, the government regards desertion as not punishable.”

“To be precise, the punishment for regular defense force personnel goes up to one year in prison and up to one million Yen as penalty.”

“But, this law doesn’t apply to the young corps under military employ.”

The students were just like their teacher. Because they were pointlessly smart, they relentlessly stabbed at the shortcomings in the law.

2nd Field Officer Lage’s face furthermore started to twitch.

“You people have merely been deemed as innocent because of political circumstances as you were chosen for the role of guiding Earl Baumeister’s party around. Let me give you the warning that it’d be better to not get carried away. In the first place, your attitude could potentially hurt even Earl Baumeister’s image.”

The politicians seem to have quite a few rotten apples, but it looks like quite a few capable people were working among the elite officers of the defense forces. He responded to Arnest and his former students’ smart-assing with a firm attitude.

“Excuse my rudeness then. I could not excavate ruins in this country. Hence, this was no more than the complaints of a humble archaeologist. I would be happy if you could forget them.”

“I will carry out our job, but I wanted to at least make a single comment on this.”

“Unlike an elite like you, we used to be unemployed.”

“The work as a young man under military employment lacked any dreams and hopes. We will act properly in public.”

“Got it. I pray that you will be able to carry out your duty of supporting Earl Baumeister’s party during their stay here.”

It’s good that all five managed to reconcile. I thought things would become a hassle if they started to argue here, but it looks like Arnest and his former pupils were better adults than I thought. Or rather, I feel like it’s a big loss to keep personnel of such level unemployed…

Then again, there’s also the precedent of Roderich, so maybe the Kingdom is no different?

“Sensei, I was on tenterhooks here,” Lumi apparently got scared by the actions and words of her former teacher and juniors.

She clearly complained to Arnest who had provoked Lage.

“Please keep it off the record.”

“I won’t write anything about it in my articles! Well, I got permission from the main office to exclusively report on Earl Baumeister-san. Since I can write articles about other stuff anytime, it won’t be a problem.”

Lumi planned to write articles about us from now on. This was an exceptional treatment for a rookie reporter, but it was a fact that Lumi had been quick-witted enough to offer to cover us as the very first. Given that the main reporters of the politics department were currently on the archipelago to watch the negotiations, the other reporters wouldn’t get jealous of Lumi, even if she was in charge of covering me as a rookie.

“Reporters who are gung-ho with their little fights over achievements…”

“Using articles as a tool for career promotion…newspaper reporters are completely corrupt as well.”

“A newspaper is a business, too. It’s meaningless for them if they can’t make a profit off it.”

“I sure got some peevish juniors…”

Lumi started to calmly prepare her material while complaining to Mall and his two friends who were dissing the media.

“So, what are we going to do here?”

“Friendship diplomacy,” I answered Erw.

“Right…”

We don’t have any authority to negotiate, but the government of Zontark had been eager to release the Lingaia and its crew. However, if they suddenly released them unconditionally, the government would be blamed by its voters for its weak stance.

Accordingly, we’re going to act friendly in Zontark, trying to shift the public opinion towards a good impression of the Kingdom. This is His Majesty’s idea.

In the eyes of the demons, who consider them highly advanced in politics, that way of thinking might come as a surprise, but kings and emperors rely on public support just as much. It’s only natural for His Majesty to come up with an idea of such a level.

“The article about you, Earl Baumeister-san, has been extremely popular. You’re just like a commoner, contradicting us demons’ view of nobility quite a bit. You’re kind to your wives, and if you find some time, you also look after your children.”

The people of the demon country seem to think that I’m an extremely affectionate young noble. That peace between demons and humans is at hand if the nobles of the next generation are like me.

I feel like they’re having a huge misunderstanding here, but His Majesty apparently felt that it might make the negotiations a bit easier if he sends us here. And I was to take my wives and children with me to engender a peaceful mood.

“Over here, politicians are basically required to bring their wives if they visit the provinces. If they bring their children with them on top of that, it gives them a boost in popularity.”

My wives and children accompanying us were also influenced by Lumi’s opinion, who was basically collaborating with us.

“Erw’s and my children haven’t even turned one year old yet, and they’re already experiencing traveling abroad, huh?”

“But, isn’t that dangerous?”

Erw seemed slightly worried since we had entered Zontark, which could be described as hostile territory, with our children.

“In Wend’s case, there’s also the danger of his entire family being discontinued.”

If the demons tried to harm us, my wives and children could all get dragged into this as well.

“We are here for this very reason.”

“Yep, to buy time.”

Doushi and Burkhart-san would protect us while I would let Elise and the others escape by using Teleport.

“Probably because my mana rose during the Empire’s civil war, or maybe because I intensified my training of magic accuracy as I was told by Master, I have reached a point where I can Teleport fifteen people at once, so I could get everyone out with two trips.”

Because of that, we left our maids and retainers behind.

“I’ve been telling you, our country isn’t such a savage place that we’d kill a special diplomatic envoy or his family.”

Lumi seemed to harbor various discontent about her own country, but that didn’t mean she hated it. As such, she firmly stated that the demons wouldn’t violate diplomatic rules.

“Well, it’d be nice if you’re right about this.”

“Erwin-san, please trust me a bit.”

“In the worst case, it’ll be fine as long as Wend manages to get away. Wend is still young after all.”

As long as I survive, my House won’t die out since I can produce new children. Usually Erw has some parts where he does and says silly nonsense, but that way of thinking is unexpectedly pragmatic.

“I suppose it’s good that no maids are with us since they’d become hindrances in such a case.”

“Oh my, I am here, am I not? Anyway, what will be will be, correct? It’s my first foreign trip, so I’ll enjoy myself.”

“Women sure are tough…”

Erw admired Amalie-san who didn’t feel worried about the visit to Zontark.

“The demon country looks kind of dreary. But, I’m able to visit various places as long as I’m with Wend-kun, and that’s fun.”

“That’s because it’s an exceedingly efficient society. Since the Empire will need to negotiate with the demons as well, it should greatly increase the workload on Peter-dono as well.”

Just as Therese says, the Empire must get in contact with the demons in the future. As such, it will cause Peter more work while he’s still busy getting his domestic issues sorted.

“How would you deal with it, Therese?”

“No one could have anticipated contact with the demons. I would have no choice but to slowly keep negotiating while watching the situation. Usually thou don’t find a plan to break through a complicated situation easily.”

“Politics are definitely not easy.”

Amalie-san continued to chat with Therese while looking down at the defense force’s base.

＊

“Welcome and thanks for visiting our great country.”

We were greeted by a big-shot said to be the commander of the base, but I wonder what the intention might be behind receiving us in a tasteless base. I mean I heard they got a civilian airport in Zontark.

When I asked the commander about it, he explained with an apologetic face, “As a matter of fact, the airport has…”

『Take down the Kingdom which upholds an evil system of monarchy! Teach Lingaia about our superior form of democracy!』

『It’s time to revive the national army for this! Increase our forces by ten times and have the soldiers march on the continent!』

『Welcome, Earl Baumeister-san. We will teach you about the beauty of democracy. And then we will have your Earldom spearhead as breeding ground of democracy on the continent』

After telling me about the protesters, the commander further added, “It would turn into a huge disgrace for our nation if we could not guarantee the safety of you and your retinue, Earl Baumeister-dono…”

Political and citizen groups had apparently intruded the airport, loudly proclaiming the beauty of their own democracy and demanding to teach the humans about it by conquering the whole continent.

“So the defense forces are the most rational ones…”

The protesters are free to make political claims towards us under the banner of democracy. But, that didn’t give them any right to yap about 『liberating out land because your country sucks』 or 『teaching you democracy』.

Other nobles might have lost it at that point.

“As far as we are concerned, we are relieved to see that you have been chosen as special envoy, Earl Baumeister-dono. I hear you do understand the circumstances in our nation quite well…”

“You won’t remove those weird people at the port?”

“You see, Mrs. Baumeister, many of them are sympathizers of the CRP…”

I heard many people, who used to be activists, are now politicians in the CRP. Since the CRP is in danger of immediately losing in the next election if they complain to those supporters, it seems even possible that those politicians would actively help them, if things go badly.

“The defense forces will definitely protect you during your stay in this country, Earl Baumeister-dono, so please do not worry.”

“Umm…that sounds like you have quite a hard job ahead of you, so please take care of yourself.”

Due to the fact that the defense forces were the ones whom I could trust the most in Zontart at this point in time, I ended up realizing just how unexpectedly challenging this task of being a special envoy would be.

＊

After we finally arrived at the demon country, we were led to our inn. Right after storing our luggage away, we were told by a certain, elderly demon, “Earl Baumeister-san, you will be appointed tourism ambassador of Celtnia City.”

That demon, whose entire appearance screamed petty official, seemed to be the mayor of a region troubled by depopulation, out in the countryside of Zontark. The region’s main features were agriculture and sightseeing. They were quite troubled by the outflow of young people, so they apparently put in a lot of effort to somehow stop the population decline.

“If our country and the Helmut Kingdom conclude a trade treaty, it’ll make free travel possible as well. Accordingly, I would love you to come sightsee our Celtnia by all means…”

“Wow───Earl Baumeister-san, you’re quite the celebrity.”

No, that’s because you write an article about me in your newspaper, right?

Lumi was talking about it as if it was someone else’s affair altogether.

“The city of Celtnia is a lovely place, Madams.”

With those words, the mayor handed us a tourist guide pamphlet. The demon’s printing techniques were superior to those of the Empire and Kingdom.

“It does look like it has an abundance of nature…,” Elise didn’t want to criticize it too straightly and thus she chose a roundabout way to express herself, but she had a point.

Celtnia was a rural city with plenty of nature, or rather, it was a rural place with nothing but nature. The mayor was talking about sightseeing, but I couldn’t imagine that the people of the Kingdom or Empire would pay high travel expenses to go to a city like that.

“(Is the abundance of nature the actual tourist attraction there?)” Erw asked me in a whisper.

As far as Erw was concerned as someone who had grown up in a place with lots of nature, he probably couldn’t understand why anyone would deliberately invest the time and money to visit something like that.

“(Hmmm, I wonder?)”

You couldn’t say that no humans would visit for the reason of it being a foreign country, in case the demons and humans deepened their relationship.

Well, they’d likely reach the conclusion that it was more than enough after visiting that place once, so tourists might eventually stop flowing in.

“Earl Baumeister-san, I would love to welcome you for a sightseeing tour at Celtnia at least once.”

“Okay……I’ll take it into consideration if I find some time…”

As a matter of fact, I was treated as diplomatic envoy, but hadn’t been told a thing about our schedule thus far. It seemed the government was unsure how to handle us as well.

“I see. That’s regrettable to hear. Please take it into account during your stay,” said the mayor, before handing us some souvenirs and leaving the room.

The souvenirs were agricultural produce that had been produced in Celtnia. All of them were very common types, but even so, it was clear that demons were superior in selective breeding and cultivation techniques.

“Those are great vegetables.”

Given that Elise said so, there was no doubt about it.

“What did that man come here for?”

“He appointed me as tourism ambassador for publicity, but since he didn’t want to pay a proper reward, he couldn’t ask anything unreasonable. I’d call it a sort of name loaning.”

Therese explained to Katharina in my stead.

“Is there any meaning in that?”

“Well, if that mayor is truly capable, the depopulation issue of Celtnia City might have been resolved by now.”

Therese’s comment was scathing, but it was definitely hard to believe that using my name would resolve any of their region’s issues.

“For starters, should we first carry out the job we can do, hubby?”

“What job?”

“Confirming the safety of the Lingaia’s crew.”

“Oh right.”

Having this pointed out by Katia and Wilma, we headed to the defense forces’ prison. The crew of the Lingaia had been held there since their arrest.

Because the number of people allowed to visit was limited for security reasons, Elise, Doushi, Burkhart-san, Lisa, and I went there.

“Just when I wondered why Blizzard is accompanying us, I have to hear that you’re acquainted with the magician who fired the spell?”

“Yes, I taught him for a bit in the past.”

“Somehow it totally throws me off, you know?”

Lisa, as Burkhart-san knew her, was the big sister type wearing flashy outfit and makeup while using a very rough language. Apparently he still felt quite uncomfortable with her having now transformed into a normal, pretty lady.

“Should I put on my makeup again?”

“No, it’s fine as it is right now,” Burkhart-san shook his head at Lisa’s offer.

No matter how much her current appearance might feel out of place for him, he still preferred the current version compared to her old self that was hard to get along with.

＊

“You are Earl Baumeister-dono, right? This way please.”

We headed into the prison while guided by a defense force member. Although the building looked very inorganic as it was made out of concrete, the interior was nice and it didn’t look like the crew of the Lingaia had to suffer.

When I commented on this, I was told, “Violence or mistreatment of prisoners is strictly forbidden.”

I could trust them on that since the demon country is a civilized nation.

After passing through several barred doors and corridors, we arrived at what appeared to be a visitor’s room. Four men were waiting over there. I knew the captain and the vice-captain of the Lingaia from back when I defeated the bone dragon. The other vice-captain was said to have given the weird order to attack.

And yes, he was the son of the Earl Platte, that annoying pig.

The last of the four was the magician who had fired the spell. Going by the amount of his mana, he failed to reach intermediate level, making him having less mana than any demon.

“Oohh! Earl Baumeister-dono! Please look at the unreasonable treatment of the demons towards me, the son of the distinguished Earl Platte House! You have to inform His Majesty at once and attack the demons!”

He might be happy over being able to meet a countryman in a land full of demons, except for the crew of course, but I don’t think that this is something you should say right off the bat.

Everyone but him noticed how the faces of the guards inside the room darkened upon hearing his remark.

“Also, have them release me right away. If you can do that for me, I’m sure my father will be grateful.”

“(Why is that guy acting like such a bigshot anyway?)”

Even if asked, I cannot really give an adequate answer either.

“(Isn’t that because he’s an idiot?)”

I whispered to Burkhart-san what was the best answer I could come up with. It was a reply completely devoid of any ingenuity.

“I’m sorry to tell you, but I just came here to confirm your safety and don’t hold the authority to negotiate your release. Please wait for the outcome of the negotiations which are being held at this very moment.”

“Can’t you somehow handle it one way or another!? Even if it’s just me!”

“What a waste of air you are as a man,” Doushi openly criticized Earl Platte’s son without even trying to keep his voice down.

“You bastard! Who do you think…Doushi-dono?”

“For you to have forgotten my face clearly shows that you are unqualified to engage in the defense of our Kingdom! Or did you become a tottering fool after being imprisoned for a long time?”

The son of Earl Platte shrunk away under Doushi’s merciless onslaught like a slug that got sprinkled with salt.

This guy is an idiot, but even he seems to understand that it’d be a bad idea to piss off Doushi.

“Now, now, Doushi. He should be released once the negotiations end. By the way, I’ve got a question for the youth called Anakin.”

Anakin was the name of the magician who had fired the spell.

“Yes…?”

Even a child could tell what he’d be asked next. Believing that he’d be punished, his expression was quite gloomy.

“Sorry, but the one wanting to ask you actually isn’t me.”

Burkhart-san then introduced Lisa to him.

“Huh? Did we possibly meet somewhere before?”

Anakin couldn’t identify Lisa because she wasn’t wearing her flashy get-up from the past.”

“You cannot tell?”

“Umm, was there someone as pretty among my acquaintances?”

Lisa coughed, “Let me return to my old way of speaking for a moment to help you remember… Anakin, you fuckin’ shithead! I took all the trouble of busting my ass off to teach you magic for a year, and yet you get carried away and just randomly fire off some magic! I’m going to fuckin’ freeze you to hell!”

“Aa───hh, Big Sis!” Anakin apparently realized Lisa’s identity at last. “Sorry! Sorry! Please forgive me!”

“Come on, now spit out the truth.”

Anakin repeatedly bowed in front of his former magic teacher so much that it actually looked like a comedy act while beginning to explain the full account of what happened.

As a matter of fact, His Majesty asked me to find out.

『It will be enough if you can make sure of the Earl Platte’s dumb son’s safety for me. Also, please find out the details of the incident just in case』

After being ordered like that, we decided to hear about the full account of the incident from the offender who had fired the spell without permission.

“It was Vice-Captain Platte’s order. He told me that he would punish me for disobeying orders if I were to refuse.”

“You piece of shit! Are you trying to pin all the responsibility on me!?” Earl Platte’s son shouted after hearing Anakin’s testimony.

It looks like this guy had planned to blame it all on Anakin and escape all liability by himself. It made me wonder why he didn’t desist from going through with this in the first place then.

“Could you stay quiet?”

“What!? Who do you think I am!?”

“The son of Earl Platte, right? I’m Earl Baumeister. So, do you have any complaints?”

“……”

It’s a bad way of handling things, but you don’t have much of an option but to use your rank to make stupid nobles like him shut up. He’s just the heir, and as such he doesn’t hold any title. Hence, his standing is far below mine.

“Besides, a protocol has been long handed over to the Kingdom from the defense forces.”

Earl Platte and his gang are kicking up a fuss about the demons falsely accusing Earl Platte’s son for being responsible, but most of the nobles have started to believe that it must have played out just as it’s written in the protocol.

Apparently he’s a fairly excellent son, but as soon as something unforeseen occurs, he tends to take weird actions. As it also happened in the past. But, these incidents would cause his hidden, arrogant side to come out in an extreme way. In a certain sense it might be his bad luck to have boarded the Lingaia.

“Earl Baumeister-sama, do you have an idea when the negotiations might end?”

“Probably soon?”

Of course, that’s a huge lie. But, even if I honestly tell them that the negotiations are kind of stuck, it’ll just make them worry more. Or rather, I’ve noticed since coming to the demon country, but the authority to negotiate a release of the Lingaia and its crew seems to only lie with the folks on the archipelago.

But, if you asked me why I came here then, I wouldn’t know how to answer either. I think it’s no more than me showing my face around here.

“Is it possible to give them some things?”

“Sorry, but if those objects are used for a jailbreak…” A defense force member told me while looking very apologetic.

It’s possible that a book can be used as fuel for fire, and it was likely for a wine bottle to be used as a weapon, so you could call it a fair reason as to why they didn’t approve of giving the prisoners supplies.

＊

“I want to drink the wine made in the Helmut Kingdom though.”

“””””…”””””

Only the son of Earl Platte alone was unable to read the mood and said something so selfish that even Doushi became speechless.

“Umm, Captain Fulger, Vice-Captain Begim, please contact me if anything should be troubling you.”

“Thank you kindly. We have been imprisoned heer as you can see, but it’s not like they’re treating us badly or anything. We will simply pray for the negotiations to fish as soon as possible so that we get released in due time.”

“That’s right. The food and hospitality isn’t bad, but in the end, nothing can beat freedom.”

The same applied to the other crew members as well, but as could be expected of the staff chosen to man the Extra-Large Magic Airship Lingaia, all of them were outstanding sailors. Without revealing any weaknesses, they endured this situation in a stout-hearted manner.

“Have me released without further delay. Otherwise, you’ll turn the Earl Platte House into your enemy.”

Just one guy was unable to fully grasp the situation…

“Give it a rest with the annoying yapping of your useless flap!”

“Ugh!”

Earl Platte’s son lost his consciousness after Doushi chopped him――while holding back to the utmost――since Doushi got fed up with the other man’s terrible conduct. The defense members couldn’t even react because Doushi’s movements were so quick.

They ended up frozen on the spot.

“This guy apparently fainted and fell down all by himself. I would like you to toss him onto his bed.”

“Understood…”

The defense members were apparently fed up with the noble heir’s attitude as well. Without even blaming Doushi with a single word, they picked up Earl Platte’s son with several members and moved him to an isolation cell.

“Bloody hell, what a hopeless fool he is.”

“Doushi, won’t that result in the Platte House becoming hostile to you?”

“Burkhart-dono, if they desire a duel, I will humor them at any time.”

Doushi had a reason why he would be fine, even if he vented his anger or disgust at nobles he didn’t like without holding back anything. After all, he could always accept their duel requests if they felt like complaining. And since everyone would likely avoid a genuine duel with this guy, only very few people would dare to publicly criticize Doushi.

Though I think Doushi is about the only one who can use this sort of means…

“Forgive us for this idiot causing you so much trouble. We don’t have many of such idiots, luckily.”

As I’ve ended up becoming a noble myself, I excused things to defend the honor of the Kingdom’s nobility. I feel like I’ve come a fairly long way with this.

Considering my previous life, I feel a strong affinity with the culture and political system in the demon country, though…

“You will find anywhere a fixed percentage of idiots. I doubt that the demon country is all that different in this regard.”

“That’s true. The idiotic sons of politicians, high-ranking bureaucrats, and the owners of large enterprises are repeatedly causing disturbances and scandals as well.”

There seems to be no difference between monarchies and democracies when it comes to things like this. It’s just that the transgressions of those dumb children are usually covered up with money and political influence.

“It’d be best to not let that guy starve to death, so place keep him alive until the negotiations end.”

“Of course. We will keep treating him in accordance with our regulations.”

It sounds like the demon politicians, who are currently negotiating with the Kingdom, could be seen as rather questionable, but it looks like many decent demons are doing their job on site. They’re giving me a hundredfold better impression in comparison to that dumb noble son.

As I was thinking about this, there was one more idiot who was being punished for being unable to read the mood.

“But, Big Sis, I heard the rumors. You married. So you were finally able to find a guy, Big Sis.”

“……gh……”

“Ah…idiot…”

Because I hadn’t been in time with covering his mouth, Lisa snapped in silence and let loose her magic which had given her the nickname of Blizzard. However, Anakin wasn’t frozen, but locked up in a cage of super-hard ice.

“Big Sis, I feel cold here.”

“Humans won’t die even if they’re cold for a whole day.”

“Big Sis, forgive meeee! I’ll rephrase my words! For you to take Big Sis as a wife, you must have way too much male spirit, Earl Baumeister!”

“This guy is seriously an idiot….”

As he said something needless once more, another lay of ice was added to his cage, and he ended up stuck in there for two days with no heating.”

＊　　　＊　　　＊

“Now then, this finishes our work here.”

“That’s a serious problem, hubby.”

“Yeah, I don’t know what we should do next.”

After wrapping up our meeting with the crew members of the Lingaia, we went back to our hotel, but so far we haven’t been told our schedule. Erw was looking at the wrapping paper of the sweet that had been provided in the hotel room as he was chewing on it. Because Haruka had gone back to the Baumeister Earldom, he was probably pondering whether it’d be possible to reproduce this sweet.

Elise, Amalie-san, Ina, and Wilma were taking care of the children. Although I came here as a special envoy, I had no idea what to expect. I was sitting on a sofa while brooding, but just like me, Katia seemed to be wondering what we should do here as well.

“In the first place, we do not hold any authority to negotiate anything!”

To say nothing of them dragging their feet and not making any decisions, the negotiations seem to be at a point where they could break down because of the differences in values. But, since we’re no diplomats, there’s nothing we can do about this.

However, then it was decided that we’d be taken around to various places, starting with tomorrow morning.

After finishing our breakfast at the hotel, we were taken to a senior citizen’s home in a bus-type, magic four-wheel that seemed to be wide-spread in Zontark.

This is usually a standard part of a schedule, if a celebrity from overseas visits Japan. It creates nice pictures for the TV of the celebrity amiably interacting with the elderly, and thus causes the populace to hold a good impression of them.

“Earl Baumeister-san and his retinue visited a special retirement home and spent some pleasurable time with the elderly people living there,” Lumi talked to herself while taking notes for writing an article later on.

She had been exclusively attached to us as a reporter for this trip.

“(You really think so, Lumi?)”

“(No, it’s just that the politicians over here like those sort of pictures. Those are popular with the general public, right?)” Lumi answered, but Arnest and his three pupils looked rather frosty.

To begin with, I feel like Lumi also sounded somewhat cold when she was talking about popularity with the general public.

“(Some people still fall for this stuff, but half of the populace knows that this is just a political play).”

The demons around Arnest have been avoiding interacting with the elderly while pretending to be our guards.

“(Mall, help me out here)”

“(E───eh, I don’t want to)”

“(At least take a look, will you?)”

The meaning behind this seemed unclear, but everyone was doing their job by listening to the old people’s stories or playing ball games with them. The picture of Doushi playing ball with old people was especially surreal at best.

Seeing how Mall and the others had been hired by me and the government, I forced them to work by telling them that they must keep the elderly some company.

“(I know….)”

“(You guys sure seem to hate this from the bottom of your hearts…)”

“(I mean…)

It seems like the idea of cherishing your old has existed since old times among demons. Just as it does among humans. For this reason the retirement homes are being expanded all the time, but nowadays the increase in elderly is quite considerable, resulting in the young demons get the short end of the stick because of it.

“(The consumption tax has gone up to 30%, and because no politician will be able to win any election if they suggest a cut of the elderly welfare budget, they don’t even mention it. Yet, the decline in birth rate likely won’t be solved unless they allot more money to the young folks)”

Seeing how their politicians are elected through votes, political measures are advantageous towards the many old people who have a very huge influence on elections. For this reason, the voter turnout among the younger generations has been recently dropping as well.

“(Everyone has become apathetic, huh…?)”

Even so, work is work. Mall and his friends did enough at the retirement home so that Lumi had the necessary material to write a newspaper article.

“This is a political activity? I do not understand the point behind it.”

After leaving the retirement home, Doushi couldn’t quite grasp why we had done all this.

“Don’t nobles and wealthy merchants donate to orphanages or participate in the Church’s charity work? I think this counts as similar. Well, it’s also related to the old people’s votes…”

“The parliament members, who are chosen through an election, give me the impression of resembling nobles.”

“They get their votes by securing concessions for their region, and it often happens that the children take over the parliament seat, right? So yeah, they do feel similar…”

“Doushi-san, Burkhart-san, our press is watching them,” Lumi said, but she might also harbor doubts about the current state of her own country.

After all, she used to be Arnest’s student.

“Miss Reporter, even the Kingdom will imprison nobles who mess around too much.”

“But, nobles won’t be out of a job if they lose in an election, right? Ah, oops…there’s no point in us arguing about this here. Our next, scheduled visit is a day nursery. Excellent facilities that were provisionally established to raise the birth rate by supporting the working mums make for a great story.”

While leaving my babies’ care in the hands of others, my next job was to show the reporters how I was playing and nursing the children of other people.

If forced to say, I’d admit that I possess some familiarity with this society as it’s similar to Japan, but no matter what I do, I find it difficult to like the demon country.

＊　　　＊　　　＊

“In the first place, what is the meaning of our presence here?”

The negotiations were going quite roughly due to the differing opinions, so we’re being treated like some sort of star attraction.

“Should we go back to our babies…?”

“Right…,” Elise answered.

My wives had also become worn out by the weirdness of the demon country. We decided to head back to Amalie-san who was taking care of our children at the moment.

“Welcome back, everyone.”

We traveled to all sorts of places after this for around a week. We visited many different places, met with politicians, and attended banquets. And Lumi turned all of those events into articles published in many newspapers, including her Everyday Journal.

“Wend, you can see me in this picture.”

Luise was apparently happy to find herself in a picture used for a newspaper story. But, once ten days of our visit here had passed, articles about us started to disappear from the newspapers.

“Well, I suppose we’ve served our purpose as interesting material.”

“Earl Baumeister-san, that’s a fairly pragmatic and cynical assessment!”

A noble had visited from a human country for the first time in more than 10,000 years together with many wives in tow. Him and his family going around the regions had offered a great topic for the people, but the demons have probably gotten tired of this kind of story.

Now the front page of all newspapers was covered by 『Twins of Black-White Bears have been born at the National Zoo!』.

“How terrible. What do the people of the demon country take us for?”

“Ina, we’ve still got the better treatment over here.”

The diplomatic corps currently negotiating at the archipelago had been devalued to such a degree that they were only mentioned in a corner of the politics section of newspapers. Even if it only lasted ten days, we dominated the front page all the time.

“I mean, the diplomatic corps isn’t even taking the top of the politics section…”

Articles about the lack of elderly homes and their servicing, a revision of the laws as fake production areas of foodstuff have been increasingly cropping up, and budget cuts for the welfare programs dominated the politics section.

Most of the demons prioritized problems close to them over foreign countries they’ve never seen. And given that they hadn’t even been aware of those foreign countries up until now, their sense of danger was weak, too.

“The demon country sure is blessed much more than ours. But…,” Therese said.

Many are jobless, but it’s not like they’re starving out on the streets. The bare minimum of life necessities is being guaranteed by the state. But, Therese has also noticed that a feeling of hopelessness permeated this country for some reason, despite all its riches. Somehow I was unable to calm down here as well, despite it being a place similar to my previous world.

“Wendelin, thou work as special diplomatic envoy is mostly done, right? I think it’d be best for us to withdraw from here as soon as possible.”

“It’d be great if we could do just that.”

Therese was speaking what I was thinking. We had come to this country while the negotiations were stuck, but it was unclear what sort of role we had over here. We didn’t participate in any conference of substantial relevance and were mostly handled like some exhibition show as we were sent around various areas in a way that suited the demons.

But, I had come here on His Majesty’s order. Seeing how the negotiations remained fixed in place, it was hard to imagine that we’d be able to leave this land until the prospects for the negotiations picking up again had improved somewhat.

“I really want to go back home.”

“Erw, you know that it’s impossible, don’t you?”

Since this place resembled my previous world, I thought I’d want to look around a bit more, but it looks like I’ve become accustomed to this quite a bit by now. (T/N: Yet you compare everything to your previous life…)

I didn’t feel a shred of attachment to the demon country, but it was a fact that I couldn’t just pack my luggage and head back home on my own accord. Since this fact couldn’t be changed, we ended up spending every day in the hotel while prioritizing baby care.

“Say, wouldn’t a normal government set up all sorts of programs for guests such as us?” Burkhart-san asked Lumi who was still staying with us, but her reply was something unexpected.

“I think the utility value of your group has vanished during the first week.”

“What’s with that?”

“The negative effect of a change in government.”

The demons had voted the CRP into power after the NSP (National Sovereignty Party) had somehow run the administration even while being criticized quite harshly for their ways. Most of the new government members were amateurs in politics. Moreover, the CRP was split into conservatives and reformers, each side saying and doing whatever they pleased.

The ones shouting the loudest stood out. Those people then disorderly stated their own opinions to the media. Hooked by that, the government couldn’t decide on a policy. As such, they had, according to Lumi, tried to use us in order to gloss over their internal disorder.

“Their alibi was them getting things done by saying that they had welcomed a diplomatic envoy. This was a move to cover up that the negotiations weren’t going anywhere.”

“Quite a nasty story, I gotta say.”

“Many of the news people are supporters of the CRP, so it also plays a role that those people have difficulties to simply criticize the CRP.”

“People working in the media somewhat possess a disposition of being anti-government and anti-authority after all. Because the CRP leans closer towards supporting the citizens, the media people want to back them, I guess.”

“Oohh! You understand the circumstances quite well, Earl Baumeister-san,” Lumi praised me.

But that was knowledge from my previous life.

“It’s unclear whether there are people with ability as statesmen among the CRP.”

Going by what I’ve seen so far, I’d say no. If you read the newspapers, you’ll immediately find many articles stating that people should give them some time since the CRP members were still beginners. This would be no issue during times of peace, but currently when Zontark is at odds with a human country, the view of giving them some qualifying period because they’re rookies comes with a lot of problems.

“Well, it’d be hard for me to criticize the politics of another country. I’m a noble of the Helmut Kingdom, so it’d be regarded as an intervention.”

“The demons seem to be brimming with the will to meddle with our domestic affairs, though,” Ina commented.

As of late, citizen’s groups and political organizations have been showing up in front of our hotel every day. However, they get quickly expelled by the defense forces. According to the defense force members, it’d be a waste of time to deal with them seriously.

Given that I don’t have the authority to accept their demands either, it’s probably better for me to not meet them. But before that, Helmut Kingdom and Holy Empire Urquhart are both feudalistic states, so both countries would be hard pressed if you told them to suddenly have their populaces elect their politicians in votes.

In the eyes of Ina, the will to intervene in other people’s affairs by these demons was quite extreme.

“Those people are no politicians, so it does not amount to anything even if you talked to them.”

“Huh? Who are they then?”

“People with too much time on their hands because they are jobless.”

According to Arnest, many of those who were unemployed used their free time for political activism since they didn’t need to worry about their necessities of life.

“They’re killing time with this?”

“Many such people exist as well. They feel like they can become important if they criticize the authorities, and that alone already serves as a possibility for them to vent some stress. Another reason is to be found in them having plenty of time, too. Some of them were also able to become members of the parliament after running for election like the politicians of the CRP. This is also work.”

“Work?”

“Of course, some people genuinely wish for the lives of the citizens to improve as much as possible. Though it is also true that such people are few in number and that such serious people do not stand out.”

Ina became dumbfounded by Arnest’s extreme explanation which we couldn’t verify from our side.

“Anyway, it looks like nothing good will come out of getting involved with the demon country. It’d be best to leave the negotiations to the foreign minister and his diplomats.”

We had visited this country on His Majesty’s order. Wasn’t this fact alone already plenty?

“Arnest, I got tired of the hotel food.”

“I can guess. Earl Baumeister, you have a tendency to be quite interested in the food of normal people.”

“Well, it’s because I can only eat at the hotel and whenever we visit some place.”

Given that our treatment has gradually become sloppier and since we had nothing to do, we decided to go out in the city. I felt sorry for the defense force who would need to guard us, but I’d die if I had to stay cooped up in the hotel any longer.

“Sensei, are you going to guide Earl-sama to a chain restaurant?”

“He is tired of the high-class food provided by the hotel. Personally, I have always liked the hamburger set at this place.”

Arnest had led our big group to a restaurant resembling a family restaurant. He gave the others the impression that he had guided a foreign earl to a commoners’ eatery, but in reality, Arnest simply wanted to eat the food here.

“It’s a fairly pretty place.”

“There is a lot to choose from on the menu, too.”

The family restaurant over here closely resembled the ones in Japan. It has a lot of different dishes, and most of the prices remained below a thousand Yen. All of the food served was above average, too.

However, since it was ready-made, you couldn’t call it super delicious either. All the dishes overflowed with a feel of retort food, making them taste so-so.

I just sampled it and passed the Doria plate towards Erw.

“I’d say it’s so-so. It might have felt a bit more delicious, if we had this while hunting. Haruka-san’s cooking is much better.”

Erw’s palate has apparently leveled up quite a bit ever since getting married. Next to him, Haruka looked very happy to hear that he regarded her food as delicious.

“Erw-san, the dessert is quite good.”

“Oh, right. There was no need to force myself with the main meal.”

Erw got fed with a crepe by Haruka.

“Die! Erwin, die!”

“Right now, the flames of jealousy are burning me to the cinders.”

“Right now and here you stopped being our friend.”

Seeing the happy couple, Mall and his friends got pretty pissed. I can understand their feelings since I was the same as them in my previous life. Though I didn’t say anything because I didn’t want to be told, 『We don’t want to be pitied by YOU!』.

“You sure are intolerant…” Lumi commented.

“Whether you are married or unmarried, what difference does it make either way?”

“””Senpai, Sensei, you simply don’t understand!!”””

Mall’s group objected to Arnest and Lumi with tears in their eyes.

“Getting back to our original topic: the demon country only has restaurants like this one here or special, personal restaurants. Since they allow me to eat my meals without reserve, I do like such places.”

Because the competition was fierce due to the population decline, chain stores aimed at the masses and private restaurants that were supported by regular customers were the only eateries left in this country.

“It’s great that they also got booze.”

“Burkhart-san, please don’t drink too much.”

“It’s just a bit. Right, Doushi?”

“Young Lady, please bring us a bottle of wine.”

It was supposed to be just a little, but Doushi suddenly ordered a full bottle of wine. In addition, he also ordered fried potatoes, stir-fried spinach and other side dishes to go with the wine.

“Having no joy in life but alcohol; that is quite a lacking life, I must say.”

“Shut it, demon. Not drinking any alcohol despite being old enough to do so is the real proof of a lacking life.”

Arnest and Doushi’s compatibility was somewhat bad.

“Now, now, don’t fight. You’re only troubling the other guests.”

For some reason it resulted in me having to mediate, but our big group of my whole household, Doushi, Burkhart-san, and five demons monopolized the inner section of this restaurant. Of course we drew the attention of the other guests and clerks.

“Sensei, wouldn’t you choose a place with private rooms in such a situation?”

“Hmm? I wanted to eat the hamburger set here.”

“No way, it’s not that delicious that you’d feel a dire urge to eat it, is it?”

“This cheap taste is great.”

Mall criticized Arnest’s choice, but there was no way that Arnest would care about the looks of others.

That’s fine and all, but don’t say that it’s not delicious or cheap in front of the clerks!!

“Well, it’s not all that bad, so it’s okay.”

“Still, sometimes I get a craving for the doria sold at this place.”

Ramul and Silas were slightly dissatisfied as they’d hoped to go to a slightly better place, but they seemed to know this restaurant here. They quickly finished up their dishes and went to get some drinks at the self-service drink area. Seems like family restaurants in the demon country have those as well.

“Being able to drink as much as you want for one and the same price is incredible. What’s the trick behind this?”

“Well, even if you can drink as much as you want, no one can realistically drink dozens of cups. And since the customers fill the cups themselves, it saves the restaurant personnel costs.”

“Earl Baumeister-san, you sure are well-informed about the details of the restaurant,” Lumi commented in praise, but it all stemmed from me having sold ingredients to family restaurants in my previous life.

“It would be great if you could drink as much alcohol as you want!”

“That’s an unreasonable demand since this place isn’t a bar.”

“You’re also aware of all-you-can-drink bars, Earl Baumeister-san?”

“Ahaha…it was written in a newspaper.”

“I see.”

What, so all-you-can-drink bars also exist? It’s good that I managed to dupe Lumi successfully.

“So it’s not all-you-can-drink? What a bummer.”

“Let us limit ourselves for now!”

Doushi and Burkhart-san were unhappy about them not being able to drink as much as they wanted, but in reality both had already downed one bottle of wine each. We were lucky that this place didn’t allow for endless refills on alcohol.

“Earl Baumeister-sama, will we be fine on money?”

“Yeah, I did convert enough.”

I didn’t possess any of the local currency, so I handed a gold nugget to the hotel staff, asking for a conversion. The employee exchanged the gold for Yen at a broker for me.

If it’s only this much, I shouldn’t have any problems footing the bill.

“Is 8700 Yen per gram a lot?”

Back in my previous life, the price for gold was around 5000 Yen per gram. If the currency here and Japan’s Yen have a similar value, I feel like gold is somewhat expensive, but I don’t know how much gold Zontark possesses to begin with.

“It has increased drastically compared to the time before we were hired by the military.”

“Indeed. Previously it was approximately 7500 Yen per gram.”

“Back when I still lived in this country, the price for one gram of gold was around 6800 Yen.”

“Well, that’s because gold is an object of speculation, sensei.”

According to Silas’s explanation, the people couldn’t hope for economic growth and a rise in their income with the population decline, so things like stocks, credits, and futures have gained a lot of traction, and gold has apparently been rising in value as well because of its scarcity on the market.

“The contact with the humans plays into this as well.”

“Yes, because trade might start soon.”

In such a case, the payment for trade goods will be done in gold and silver.

Arnest suspected that enterprises and such were buying up the gold on the market in order to secure it ahead of the crowd, pushing the gold price upwards.

“Quite the hasty bunch of people…”

“The current Zontark is ruled by those people.”

“And the politicians are just puppets for those guys, huh?”

“That is why it does not matter which political party comes in power since it will not change anything about the country’s system.”

Even in this world, the rich hold all the power, I suppose. Royalty and nobles have fallen in the demon country, just to be replaced by merchants, enterprises, and banks as new rulers. The politicians are no more than their lap dogs.

These parts completely align with my previous world.

“Dear, it is about time…”

“Oh right.”

The food over here was normal. If I had to give them points, they’d receive 65 to 70 out of a 100. The taste isn’t bad and the food is cheap, so the restaurant is packed with quite a lot of customers despite it being a normal weekday.

Groups of female demons were eating, and amusing themselves by chatting about gossip while ordering desserts and drinks. We had been featured in newspapers and since we had nine babies with us too, they apparently realized our identity right away. They were talking quietly while watching us from a distance, but I suppose our guards simply prevented them from addressing us directly.

As we’re only adding burdens on our guards, we’ll go back to the hotel as soon as possible.

“Somehow, we’ve got a lot of free time on our hands.”

“Those were my thoughts as well. Arnest got it nice since he seems to be quite busy.”

＊

It didn’t become much of a recreation, but we had nothing to do once we went back to our hotel.

My babies had their diapers changed and got their fill of milk. Currently they were focusing on the main job of babies – sleep. Elise and my wives were talking while drinking tea. Meanwhile Arnest had begun to sort his material about the various historical ruins while getting his former four pupils to help him.

“All of you have completely forgotten the charm of archeology.”

“I’ve been without a job for a long time.”

“Me too.”

“We told you, archeology doesn’t earn you enough money to put food on the table.”

“I would like you to put some spirit into excavating some place since you can live on the welfare program and thus do not need any money. You are my pupils, after all.”

“Sensei, we simply attended your classes because we joined the archeology faculty by chance. It was all part of the moratorium until finding a job.”

“That period has become quite long, though.”

“At this rate, we’ll stay unemployed until our death.”

As might be expected, even Arnest saw that there was no chance to make Mall and his friends divert from doing everything at their own pace. For a change, he voiced some complaints.

“You guys are truly lost cases,” chimed Lumi in.

“Lumi, why did you not set your sights on archeology?”

“I did request to join the culture department at the time of entering the newspaper. But, it was rejected by my superiors and I was sent to the politics department.”

“What a tragedy, I must say. Certainly, demons do not die from hunger. But, they completely lack energy as well. At this rate, the decline of our race will be set in stone. What do you think, Earl Baumeister?”

“Even if you ask me about this…”

Or rather, why is he dragging me into this topic? It’s not like I can’t understand his feelings, but even the humans on the continent, who Arnest praises as being full of energy, have their fair share of troubles…

Many people live in slums, and although many children are born, they’re being treated badly.

A lot of demons cannot marry, but I think it’s still better to have your minimum necessities of life taken care of, if you don’t have a job. Life isn’t easy.

Thriving societies with growing populations might have many members who become unhappy without anyone caring or realizing, and if they lost their anxiety over starvation like the demons, their vitality as a race would plummet. In the end, this might actually be a law or the nature of all living beings.

“Anyway, even if I were to say this or that to the demons, they’d very likely interpret it as meddling by an outsider.”

I’m Earl Baumeister, so I must be careful about what I say when and where.

“As far as I am concerned, I do not plan to support the Republic of Zontark. As long as there exists another country or community, I can live over there without any issues.”

“Don’t be so unreasonable…”

The demons have taken many years to consolidate their entire race in one state called Zontark, and yet Arnest was talking about founding another state. It was obviously very likely that he’d be labeled as a rebel and hunted down.

“If they believe the Helmut Kingdom or Holy Empire Urquhart to be behind this, it could very well lead to a total war between demons and humans. Be a nice guy and do your ruin explorations in the Baumeister Earldom.”

That blasted Arnest. It was the same during the matter with Duke Nürnberg, but every once in a while dangerous thoughts appear on the surface from deep within him. Since he’s no politician, I’d like him to avoid thinking about weird stuff.

“When it comes to land, there is more than enough available. The Republic of Zontark does not redevelop abandoned areas that have been completely reclaimed by nature, nor do they avail a budget to excavate underground ruins. That is the very reason why I fled this country.”

“It’s not like I don’t understand where you’re coming from, but isn’t that mostly based on your own desires?”

“Humans and demons evolve because they have their desires. But currently the demons do not follow their desires,” answered Arnest.

He’s right. Many of the folks in this country seemed to be indifferent to stuff. I haven’t met a single demon full of desires and lust as I had imagined them to be.

“Looking at it pragmatically, it’d be a pain if they started a war with us, so I’m fine with them lacking desires.”

At long last, the development of my earldom was proceeding, so I’d be troubled if someone came to steal my land or lay waste to it. For the sake of my wives and children, I must focus on remaining conservative with my moves.

“We came here because of the decree by His Majesty, but it’d been a waste of time so far.”

We were simply delaying the development of my fief without getting any results out of being here. I’m pretty sure that Roderich is eagerly waiting for our return. As soon as I get back, he’ll minutely plan my entire schedule.

“Oh well, let us hurry back to our territory and proceed with the development…”

There was nothing left I could do in this country. Everyone seemed to be bored and thus I started to plan our return to the Baumeister Earldom.

But, just as I thought all that, Mall’s group, which had been hired by us on the condition that it’d only last for our stay in Zontark, appealed with frantic expressions.

“I’ll be fine being treated as Arnest-sensei’s assistant, so please hire me!”

“Being without a job all the time is boring!”

“Being jobless is fine and all, but the looks of my parents do sting at times.”

“I see…”

It makes sense since they remained unemployed even after leaving university. Many of the young demons end up without a job, but since there are also people like Lumi who do find employment, they probably feel embarrassed about being compared to those people.

“There’s plenty of work in the human country, right?”

“Yes, but…”

These three are magicians, so they’ll be in great demand, if we just talk about their abilities. But, the fundamental question of whether humans will hire demons still remains unsolved.

“Earl Baumeister, you have hired Arnest-sensei, so we should be alright as well.”

“Working in a place completely unknown to us will be scary, but I think it’ll be okay if it’s your territory, Earl Baumeister.”

“As such, please hire us!”

They’ve started asking something excessive all of a sudden.

Or rather, don’t go shouting about getting hired in a place where the defense unit has its eyes and ears. The demons had already been fussing over the Kingdom with just Arnest, and yet I’d be hiring three more demons in such a case. It’s very likely that the demons might suspect me of scheming a rebellion in the worst case. How would they assess an extended stay in a human country?

“I believe you to have sufficient ability, but there exists a condition for you to work in a human country.”

“Which is?”

“The Republic of Zontark and the Helmut Kingdom must conclude their negotiations. Maybe they’ll even tie an agreement about immigration and emigration. It’s also necessary to decide on the rules for the working conditions, and since you’re going to work in a foreign country, taxes are an issue as well.”

“What about sensei?”

“Arnest is an exception. It’d only lead to problems if we increased the exception.”

“””No way…”””

Learning that they wouldn’t be allowed to escape their jobless status so easily, Mall and his two friends dropped their shoulders in disappointment.

After all, it doesn’t really look like the negotiations between the two countries are going all that well, as far as I can tell. Most of the reasons for that are to be found on the demons’ side. It’s only natural that they will receive strong opposition if they make such silly demands as telling the Kingdom to abandon its monarchical rule and shift to a democracy.

Besides, it’d only lead to chaos in society, if the Helmut Kingdom suddenly shifted to a democratic system. The folks of the CRP can’t understand this part…though it’s also possible that they’re planning to place the kingdom under their control after intentionally causing chaos.

“Democracy doesn’t help us in any way!”

“It doesn’t give us any jobs either!”

“I want to marry!”

The three young demon men shouted.

It’s not like these guys are idiots or slackers. They’re just having slightly bad luck. That’s all. They probably have a lot they want to tell the authorities, too.

“It’s quite amazing for half the youth to be unemployed. But, the island housing the Republic of Zontark has much more uninhabited land than inhabited, right?” Ina asked.

“Well, that’s because many places were abandoned over the years.”

Mall was somewhat well-informed on the history of this land since he had been studying archeology.

The population continued to dwindle among the demons who had reached a high level of prosperity. And with the decline of the population came a gradual desertion of habitats, explained Mall to Ina.

“How about you move there since it’s a waste to let the land lie idle?”

“But, in that case, the social security…”

If you live in the uninhabited lands that are outside Zontark’s jurisdiction, you’re free to do what you like, but you’ll lose the guarantee of being provided the bare minimum to live. I think demons could still pull through since they possess mana, but I suppose they’re against it because no one could guarantee them a civilized life.

“You want to leave since you dislike the life in the current Zontark, yet you cling to its social security? Isn’t that odd?”

“That’s…” Mall fell silent upon Ina’s fair point.

And she’s right. It’s weird for someone, who wishes to live freely by escaping Zontark, to depend on Zontark’s social security so much. Freedom also includes the possibility of starving to death or dying from illness.

“I think this country is quite blessed.”

Something like public assistance doesn’t exist in the Helmut Kingdom. Neither pensions or health insurance. With the final safety net being the church, one can easily guess the level of social security in the Helmut Kingdom.

“I think you won’t have any option but to choose.”

“A life where I’m not troubled due to public assistance, albeit jobless, or a life of being able to work freely but having no social security whatsoever, huh…?” I contemplated their situation.

In my case, I had to simply and earnestly claw my way up with the start point being the Baumeister Knightdom. If I had been reincarnated into this country as a demon, I might still be living the life of a student.

“Earl Baumeister-dono,” a young demon man, who had been standing guard in front of our room in the inn, called out to me as I was lost in thought.

“Is something the matter?”

“As a matter of fact, you have a visitor?”

“A guest? Who is it?”

I’d hate to be forced into dealing with those weird activists. Our guards have apparently been keeping those people away, but there was no guarantee that they could avoid any of them sneaking past.

“They have introduced themselves as Her Majesty the Demon Queen of the old Zontark Kingdom and her prime minister. They mentioned that they’d like to build a friendship with you as fellow nobles believing in noblesse oblige.”

“Umm…the ruler of the demons is still around?”

I was convinced that they had chopped off his head during some sort of revolution. Mostly imagining things based on the French Revolution.

If you look at the people of Zontark, they don’t really give you the impression of being tolerant towards the existence of a sovereign.

“So far as it goes, I have been aware of her existence… But I have never met her myself,” answered the young guard.

And since he had never met that king in person, his face clearly suggested that he wasn’t all that convinced about the girl in question being the real deal.

“Wouldn’t it be dangerous to let such people through?”

Burkhart-san reacted quite excessively to the guard leader trying to allow such suspicious people to get close to us. After all, it’d be a disaster if something happened to me and the children.

“There is no danger.”

“Really?”

“Yes. Even if she is called queen, she does not possess any power or authority nowadays.”

According to the young guard, the Zontark Kingdom, the predecessor of the Republic of Zontark, stopped existing as a nation in a bloodless revolution. Neither the royals nor the nobles were killed, but the majority of their assets were confiscated by the new government and their statuses were lowered to those of commoners.

Thanks to the ideology of democracy, they were free to call them king and nobles on their own accord, but royals and nobles calling themselves as such while having the same authority as commoners was nothing but ridiculous.

Gradually the number of people adhering to those titles continued to decrease and eventually most of them stopped using their former titles, explained the guard to us.

“Although they lost their power, wouldn’t it be dangerous for us to become close with royalty and nobility over here? I’d hate to be suspected for no reason.”

It’d also loathe the idea of being regarded as instigator who tries to drop the Republic of Zontark into chaos by spurring on former royalty. Therefore, I see no reason that I have to meet them at all costs.

“They truly don’t hold any authority whatsoever. Besides…”

“You may step back. I shall explain things from here on.”

Pushing aside the guard, the king of the demons…the demon king, I guess…but, it doesn’t mean he’s the final boss of a RPG…showed up.

Well, she’s supposed to have shown up, but I don’t see anyone…

“Earl Baumeister-dono, below.”

“Below?”

Once I lowered my sight a bit, I found a girl in the outfit of a king standing there. So I guess it should be queen, seeing how she’s a female.

[TN: JP is good at masking genders because the way the language is constructed. This doesn’t work well with English and it also makes little sense for the guard to know about her name and have seen the two upon entering, but not be able to decipther their gender, so I went with the proper pronoun early on.]

She was quite small since her height remained beneath 120 cm. Her age should be seven or maybe eight? Given that I don’t know the growth speed of demons, she might actually be older, but no matter how you look at her, she totally looks like a little girl.

She might turn out to be a beauty in the future, but if I had to summarize her current appearance, I’d call her a cute queen.

“How small…!”

“Heeey! Don’t call me small!”

She apparently didn’t like to be called small, based on her immediately protesting my words.

“Your Majesty, please remain calm… Someone who is the demon queen wouldn’t get upset by something of this level. A ruler’s caliber isn’t reflected by the size of their body. It’s reflected by the level of generosity the ruler possesses.”

“I see, I was almost about to lose my calm there. It’s also possible that this Earl Baumeister-dono has deliberately provoked me to gauge my caliber, huh?”

“Keenly observed, Your Majesty.”

The companion of the cute queen had a height of around 165 cm. She had black, short-cut hair. The suite covering her body fit her perfectly and showed no openings. She was a very pretty woman with the air of a career woman around her.

She’s the prime minister…no, seeing how she holds no real power either, it means she comes from the family of the former prime minister. Because the queen is still a child, the prime minister would be the addressee for any serious talks.

“Earl-sama.”

“Earl Baumeister.”

“What an amazing amount of mana…”

As predictable, the demon queen and her prime minister had more mana than Arnest, even though he already possessed quite a substantial amount. Especially the queen was hoarding a ridiculous amount of mana. I could fully agree with her ancestors having performed outstanding in the wars of old as demon kings and queens.

“No matter how much mana you might have, it has no use in the Republic of Zontark.”

“Really?”

“All demons possess at least a certain level of mana,” the prime minister answered in the queen’s stead.

“Magic tools have been developed in the Republic of Zontark. And as these were improved on, the amount of mana they consumed steadily grew less too. Nowadays it’s regarded as meaningless to possess a lot of mana.”

A decrease of mana consumption…I’d say that sounds awfully similar to energy saving for consumer electronics due to technological advance…

All demons possess mana, so I guess individuals won’t be able to make a career unless they’re skilled at managing this advanced society or possess the engineering skills and brains to develop magic tools. The pattern of the demon kings and queens as well as their nobles with their big mana pools exhibiting their might in wars while many of the other demons obeyed them has become outdated nowadays, I guess.

“So, what kind of business do you have with me today?”

“It is just as you were told earlier. Let us establish a friendly exchange as fellow people believing in noblesse oblige.”

“In other words, this country has almost no one left who refers to themselves as royals or nobles. So we wish to get in contact with our kind.”

“Quite blunt, aren’t we…?”

Since it doesn’t seem like it’d be particularly harmful, I invited the demon queen and her prime minister into our room.

“Allow me to formally introduce myself. My name is Elisabeth While Zontark the 999th. This person here is Lyra, the prime minister who has been serving me well.”

“Greetings. My name is Lyra Mill Lyra.”

The demon queen had introduced herself while pushing out her own chest, but since she unfortunately had no chest to speak of, her gesture bore no meaning. Unless she grows up a bit more, I think it remains pointless for her to push out her chest like that.

“Uugghh…Earl Baumeister, all of your wives have big breasts…”

The demon queen looked at my wives, beginning with Elise while ignoring Luise, putting on a rather envious expression.

“Ah, as I thought…” Luise felt depressed being the only one left out by the demon queen.

“Your Majesty, you are still ten years old. Give it another ten years.”

“You’re right. Once I grow up, I’ll become a demon queen with an eye-popping figure who’s loved by all her citizens.”

Somehow she’s quite disconnected from things, or…is beauty and breast size related to rulership in some way?

“Can women become the rulers among demons?”

“You are?”

“Your Majesty, going by her conduct, she is no ordinary person.”

Lyra mostly perceived Therese true identity from just the aura she exuded.

“I’m a former Duchess and might have very well become an empress, if fate had been different. But, nowadays I’m no more than a plain woman.”

Therese appeared to be interested in the demon queen who has a position similar to her past self.

“I see, now I understand. During the era of the Zontark Kingdom, only men could wear the crown, but this is yet another change of times.”

“I aim to become a demon queen who is loved by all her subjects. Besides, this era has also seen some people who became politicians after winning elections for the sole reason of being female. A demon queen might be quite popular among the people.”

How should I comment on this…? In the end, it’s fairly cheap reasoning, I guess.

“Doesn’t that mean it’s no more than a public stunt,” asked Therese.

“My current situation isn’t overly pleasant. I cannot choose my means. Moreover, I’m the last, surviving direct descendant of the royal family.”

The fallen royal family had lived their lives while doing regular office jobs. However, Elisabeth’s mother died of sickness soon after giving birth to her, and her father passed away in an accident three years ago. Accordingly, Lyra, the sole daughter of the prime minister family, apparently took custody of Elisabeth as her guardian.

“Life is hard.”

“I cannot come up with any other words fitting it better…”

Just like Wilma and Amalie-san, I couldn’t think of any other way to comment on this either.

“So both your parents passed away? And yet you’re still so young…”

Maybe because she compared Elisabeth to our babies, who were currently sleeping next door, Elise deeply sympathized with Elisabeth.

“I’m grateful for you worrying about me. I don’t remember Mama, but when Papa died in a traffic accident, I was very sad. But, this was also the very reason why I swore myself that I must revive the royal family! This will be the perfect method to give Papa and Mama a peace of mind as they’re watching me from heaven.”

“Your Majesty, that is a wonderful mindset.”

“……”

It sure is wonderful, but…I doubt I’d have been able to look so positively at life in spite of losing both parents at a very early age…despite being the demon queen, she’s still calling her parents Mama and Papa, instead of father, mother, or Her/His Majesty, huh…?

“In addition, I’m an only child, so I’m right now receiving public assistance, allowing me to somehow make a living.”

“I have always seen it as a privilege to serve you.”

“I’m very thankful of your constant devotion, Lyra.”

“You are too kind, Your Majesty.”

This country’s social security is pretty good, and that’s probably the reason why Elisabeth has no problem with her livelihood. The prime minister also seems to look after her if she has some spare time. But, I think it must be quite a strain on her because she has her own job, too.

When I asked her about it, she answered, “I usually handle it with several part-time jobs so that I can keep some flexibility in my schedule.”

A demon queen reliant on welfare, and a prime minister hopping from one part-time job to the next, huh? In a certain sense, they’re a novel combination.

“So you’re jobless, huh?”

“Just like us then.”

Mall and his two friends appeared to feel compatible with Elisabeth, but she treated them coldly.

“I receive public assistance because I’m an orphan, but I attend school normally. I suppose your parents are still doing fine, and I dare to guess that you also graduated university. And yet you remain jobless. That’s deplorable.”

“Argh! It’s the same nasty way of speaking as society has been using against us!”

“You’re still small, and yet your tongue is already so wicked!”

“Despite being a washboard…”

“Don’t call me small! I’m set to grow taller soon! I’m sure my breasts will also become boin-boin soon like those of Earl Baumeister’s wives!”

A country full of unemployed youths bickering at each other over who’s better off; certainly, you can’t really expect much good for the future, I’d assume.

But, is Elisabeth really going to grow up like Elise and my other wives?

“Your Majesty, please calm down.”

“You’re right, Lyra. Forgive me. I came here because I have something very important to discuss.”

“Before that, please enjoy our tea and cakes.”

As it’d be rude to not even provide some tea after allowing guests into our room, Elise and Lisa prepared some tea. Today’s tea cake was a cream puff which we had bought at a local bakery. They cost 500 Yen each, but the cream possessed a refined sweetness and it was stuffed with plenty of puff. As their customers only consisted of rich folks, that bakery seemed to be for celebs.

“Ooohh! Those are the high-class cream puffs of 『Demoire Chou』, aren’t they!? It’s really been a long time since I last ate one.”

Elisabeth started to eat her cream puff while looking very happy.

“Your Majesty, you have cream at the corners of your mouth.”

“Aye, cream is justice.”

Elisabeth enjoyed the cream puff from the bottom of her heart while getting Lyra to wipe her mouth. Looking at her rejoicing over sweets so open-heartedly, it drives home that she’s still a young girl, despite being called demon queen. Lyra-san also looks more like her mother…err, sorry, her big sister than her prime minister.

“I cannot buy this as someone living on public assistance. In society, newspapers will start flaming, if welfare-recipients buy expensive goods or gamble around. Sounds very nitpicky, doesn’t it?”

“Well, I don’t really know how to answer that. Heh,” Lumi looked quite troubled after having been criticized by the demon queen while scratching her head.

“By the way, I have heard that it’s a common fact among the noble class, regardless of their race, that tea goes well with tasty cake. Isn’t that so, Layra?”

“I think it is just as you say, Your Majesty.”

“Ah, sure. I will refill your tea right away.”

It is definitely true that tea goes well with sweets, regardless of race. It’s a weird way to request a refill, but since it was charming and not disagreeable, Elise immediately started to pour another cup of tea. By the way, the tea leaves are our own.

“This tea seems to use good leaves.”

“Yes, it is a valuable forest mate tea. Those are precious tea leaves which have been grown naturally,” I explained to Elisabeth.

“Oh, I see! Certainly, this tea is excellent! Natural growth is great, isn’t it?”

I had Helmut-nii-san send them over the other day, but it’s great to hear that she has taken a liking to it.

“Oops, I almost forgot that we have something important to talk about. Yep, as I thought, the high-class cream puffs of Demoire Chou are exquisite.”

Once again Elisabeth focused on the cream puffs, and apparently liking them very much, she dirtied her mouth again, resulting in her having Lyra-san wipe her mouth once more.

“We still have more of them, so how about you take them back with you as souvenirs?”

“Oohh, sorry for appearing to be so demanding, Earl Baumeister-dono,”

Going by extreme logic, it means you can entice this demon queen with a cream puff costing 500 Yen, huh? The royals and nobles of this country sure have it hard.

“……”

“I don’t like sweet food overly much, so…how about it, Your Majesty?”

“Thank you.”

“By the way, Your Majesty, I hear you have something complicated to talk about with my Lord,” Erw asked for the true reason for her visit after yielding his cream puff to her.

As Erw says, it’s hard to believe that they only visited to deepen the exchange between fellow members of the higher class.

At once Elisabeth, who had been eating her second cream puff, started to look tense in response to Erw’s question, who acted like a proper retainer for a change.

Before Lyra-san could wipe her mouth again, she stood up on top of her chair and began something like a speech while hoisting her half-eaten cream puff into the air.

“At this rate, noblesse oblige is bound to perish among the demons. Therefore I made a decision. I shall become a demon queen in name and reality! Won’t you strive at this together with me, Earl Baumeister?”

“Haaah…”

Apparently a seed of trouble has visited us once again.

Extra – Encountering a Fire (maybe) on a Charred Stake

“Work for Erw?”

“Yes, just a few days would be fine…because Margrave Holmia’s feudal army has been mobilized, we’re running low on sword instructors. I’d like Erwin-san to teach swordsmanship to the newcomers at our guard unit in Sirius.”

“Erw, are you okay with that?”

“Please leave it to me, Milord (it’s a temporary employment, right? That much should be fine. We’re in the same boat in this regard).”

“Take care of it then.”

“Since the boys gathered on Sirius’s training ground will be your charges, I think it will make commuting easier too.”

The negotiations with the demons weren’t really going anywhere as both sides had their own circumstances preventing them from conceding. Around the time when Master was standing by in the city of Sirius, or rather, fishing. …Well, usually it’d be unthinkable for a noble to fish, but we’re talking about Master here.

Anyway, a retainer of Margrave Holmia-sama had requested Erwin-sama to work for them. He was to teach the rookie guards, who were scheduled to be deployed in Sirius, in the ways of the sword. The usual sword instructors were all enlisted into the feudal army, and due to the current lack of qualified instructors, Erwin-sama had been chosen from among many.

But that makes total sense because of Erwin-sama’s military achievements, elevating him into being one the famous swordsmen in the Helmut Kingdom.

“Erw-san, should I teach them together with you?”

“Haruka-san, you’re using katana arts, right? You can’t readily get your hands on a katana in the Holmia Margraviate, so the sword lessons will be ultimately limited to regular swords. Please remain at home with Leon.”

“You got a point. I cannot use a sword overly well…I understand. Please come back home soon.”

Haruka-sama appeared sad when she heard that she’d have to stay back.

Katana and sword; they look the same to me, but it sounds like there exists a big difference on how you handle those two. Erwin-sama can use both, but Haruka-sama can’t wield swords quite as well. That means Haruka-sama will be of no help with this time’s sword training.

“Ah, but I’d like to have an assistant to handle the miscellaneous chores.”

“Heeeere! I will do it!”

“Me too.”

“Okay, Lea, Anna, I’m counting on you two.”

Applying to help Erwin-sama was only a matter of course as his future wife. Haruka-sama has to take care of Leon-sama, so it’s only logical for Anna-san and I to take care of that side.

“Alright, I’ll be off then.”

“I’m counting on you, Erw.”

“Please do, Milord.”

After being seen off by Haruka-sama, Leon-sama, Master, and the others, Erwin-sama, Anna-san, and I headed to the training ground adjoining Sirius’s guard station.

Without knowing that a fateful reunion would be awaiting Erwin-sama over there.

＊　　　＊　　　＊

“Erw-san? You’re Erwin-sama, right?”

“Karla-san? Why are you here?”

“My husband has been summoned to join the feudal army. And since they’re low on hands, they asked me about teaching archery…”

“The same for me. It was set that I’d be teaching swordsmanship…still with your skill in archery, the ones receiving the teaching can count themselves lucky.”

“I have heard that you have been quite active yourself as well, Erwin-sama.”

“I’d like you to stop with the Erwin-sama…if possible.”

“That won’t do. You’re a chief vassal of the Earl Baumeister house with an established reputation.”

“It doesn’t really feel like that, though.”

After arriving on the training ground, we went to greet the person who would be teaching archery together with Erwin-sama. She was a pretty woman with black, glossy hair who somehow resembled Haruka-sama. Moreover, she looked very delighted to have met Erwin-sama here.

Who could she be?

I didn’t know anything about people who are close to Erwin-sama in the West, except for his family.

“Anna-san, is she someone from his hometown?”

“No, I’ve never seen her before.”

In that case, he got to know her for some other reason?

“Lea-san, temporary instructors are usually chosen from among the retainers and their families depending on their reputation. Could she be the daughter of one of the retainers of House Holmia?”

Nothing less of Anna-san. Nice deduction.

Given that they’d be teaching the newcomers in the guard unit, no noble house would allow some shady folks to handle the teaching, no matter how skilled they might be.

That means she’s the daughter of one of Margrave Holmia’s retainers…or his wife? But, could Erwin-sama, who spent his time in the same environment as Master, have gotten acquainted with a retainer of the Holmia house and his family?

The more I thought about this, the more questions popped up.

“Lea, Anna, I’m going to start soon.”

“Okaaaay.”

“Understood, Erwin-sama.”

Oops, now’s not the time to keep brooding over this. Anna-san and I have to help Erwin-sama…but then again it’s not that much work since it mostly revolves around preparing towels for wiping off the sweat and tea as well as water during breaks.

Given that Erwin-sama has a certain social status, he couldn’t have come here by himself. This is the major reason why he took us along in the first place.

“Oh my, those two are quite cute maids.”

“She’s my second wife Anna, and Lea who’s going to become my third wife,” Erwin-sama introduced us to the mysterious beauty.

He did so without any real hesitation…so it means they’re just acquaintances? But, if you look at how Erwin-sama is talking with her, they seem fairly close…!

“That’s only reasonable, considering your position. As a matter of fact, my husband has married a second woman as well…”

“I see…back then, just congratulating was already weird, so I was troubled about what I should say.”

“I can relate to that.”

The beauty seems to be the wife of one of the retainers after all. However, I really don’t get her relationship with Erwin-sama.

“Now then, time to start the training, I suppose.”

“Yes, good idea. I must play my role as my husband’s substitute well.”

Afterwards, the two seriously taught the boys in swordsmanship and archery. But, looking at them, I got more and more curious about their actual relationship.

Is there something to it?

“Yes, I believe there’s some more to it!”

Figures…

After all it was so obvious that even Anna-san believed that to be the case.

“Sorry. Would it be alright to request you several more times?”

“I don’t mind,” Erwin-sama answered.

“That is a big help. All our experienced guards have been mobilized and now the Holmia House is lacking hands on all ends,” The one in charge of the training ground thanked Erwin-sama while requesting further swordsmanship lessons.

Erwin-sama readily agreed to it, but in that case, will it take place together with the beauty again?

“Erwin-sama, your coaching has been very popular.”

“That’s great to hear.”

“We will be able to meet again, right?”

“Ah, Karla-san, you’re going to teach archery for a while too?”

“Yes, I’m replacing my husband after all.”

At this rate, those two will be meeting for at least a few more times. They don’t look like simple acquaintances to me.

Anna-san and I returned to the magic airship and immediately rushed over to Dominique-nee-san

＊

“With that said, we’ve come to you, Dominique-nee-san, the one who has lived the longest among us and served as maid for a long time.”

“Who are you calling old!?”

“Ouuuch─── That’s not what I meant.”

“(I don’t really get the exchange between those two…)”

“Did you say something, Anna-san?”

“No. Erwin-sama almost never left the territory back when he lived at his parents’ home, so it’s quite a mystery how he got to know that woman called Karla…”

Anna-san, that casual dodge of Dominique-nee-san’s probing question was marvelous…

I must follow her example.

“Karla-sama, huh? She used to be a member of the Margrave Browig House…”

According to Dominique-nee-san, Erwin-sama got to know the woman called Karla during a dispute with the Margrave Browig house which took place before I started working for the Baumeister family. Moreover, she seems to be the daughter of the previous Margrave Browig, which is quite amazing.

“Isn’t it kind of odd for a family member of the Browig house to become the wife of a retainer belonging to the Holmia house?”

The daughters of high-ranking nobles usually don’t teach archery as substitutes for their husbands.

“After the dispute, Karla-sama left the Browig family and wedded the man with whom she had promised to marry as a child. He’s an archery instructor of the Browig family or something like that… Karla-sama seems to be a master at archery, too.”

“I see.”

So that’s why she taught archery in her husband’s stead.

“So, how is she related to Erwin-sama?” Anna-san asked about the crucial matter without a moment’s delay.

“Erwin-sama fell in love with Karla-sama…umm…but she already had a fiancée at that time, so…”

Erwin-sama got rejected, huh?

“Afterwards he married Haruka-sama, soon to be joined by Anna-san as well. And as bonus he got Lea too, so I doubt he has any lingering attachments to her. She’s more like a nice memory, I’d say.”

“Dominique-nee-san? I’m a bonus?”

“We’re maids. Spreading groundless rumors about Master and the people around him is out of the question.”

“You ignored me!?”

Isn’t there quite a difference in treatment between Anna-san and me? I feel like it’s totally unfair!

“Okay, I understand. Erwin-sama has Haruka-sama, me, and Lea-san. Besides, Karla-san is the wife of another man.”

“You think so?”

“Lea, is there anything you want to say?”

“Well, look…even if he was rejected back then, Erwin-sama has nowadays established his standing as chief vassal of the Baumeister House. What about the husband of that Karla on the other hand?”

He was called into the feudal army in a way that feels like he’s just a part of the mob, and now she’s teaching archery in his stead. Doesn’t she do this unwillingly as a former daughter of the Browig House?

“It’s the usual pattern of having married the one you love, but now finding out that it wasn’t all pretty.

Her discontent with the marriage should be growing. Even though she wedded the person she loves…she’s asking herself why she isn’t happy right now, and where she made a mistake in her choices. I’m sure she’s wondering whether she’d be happier around now if she had married Erwin-sama.

So as you hear, it’s quite possible that she could switch to Erwin-sama…”

“Lea, such things don’t even happen often in the books read by Ina-sama…”

Come to think of it, Ina-sama…even though she’s so lovey-dovey with Master, she loves stories with such unrealistic settings, doesn’t she?

“Ah, but…”

“Anna-san, are you also worried about something?”

Dominique-nee-san pays awfully a lot of attention to Anna-san… Even though I know her much longer than Anna does…

“The woman called Karla mentioned that her husband welcomed a new wife.”

“Karla-sama’s husband is an archery instructor. Him having two wives isn’t weird, is it? You could even say he made a career.”

“That’s the point, Dominique-nee-san!”

Her discontent had been getting worse all along. And then a new factor came into play, namely the new wife!

“Her husband became all engrossed in his new wife, furthering the friction between that Karla person and the new wife. Soon this started to rekindle and grow her feelings towards Erwin-sama. Erwin-sama isn’t all against it either…”

He was being courted by a woman who had rejected him previously. As a man, he might end up going along with her seduction against his better judgment.

“Lea, those are ultimately just your own deductions, right? Wasn’t it you who mentioned that Erwin-sama and Karla-sama have been working at their instructor jobs seriously?”

“But, look. I highly doubt they’d boldly flirt around while we’re watching.”

Maybe they’re actually keeping in touch secretly, setting up dates on their free days? I mean, we’re basically abroad here in the Holmia Margraviate, so the danger of people knowing Erwin-sama spotting him on a date with her is low since we aren’t in Baulburg.

“…I believe you’re overthinking this. Anyway, make sure to not spread any weird rumors.”

“Ah, but, from my point of view, this whole matter has quite a few worrisome aspects.”

If Erwin-sama and that Karla woman enter a relationship, won’t that close off my road to becoming Erwin-sama’s wife?

“Before any of that, that Karla person is married, isn’t she?”

Given that it’ll be a forbidden relationship since both are married, they will elope together…

I read a story like that in a book I borrowed from Ina-sama before. Those kinds of romances become stronger and more passionate, the bigger the obstacles the pair overcomes together.

“Umm…if I remember correctly it was fire…on something…oh, wait! I remember! It’s Fire on a Charred Stake! It’s easy for such a stake to flare up again!”

“If you’re so worried about it, you just need to keep an eye on Erwin-sama, right?”

Dominique-nee-san didn’t trust a single word I said about this matter. But, if something were to happen, it might result in me having to start over my 『Lovely-New-Wife Plan』. I will keep a close watch on that Karla woman for the sake of my own happiness.

＊

With that decided, I did just that for around a week after this conversation. Finally, Erwin-sama’s swordsmanship training greeted its final day.

I think it’s planned for the retainer of House Holmia to come back and take over the sword training, starting with the new week. The Karla woman is the wife of a retainer serving that house, so she will apparently stay there as archery instructor.

After the training finished, both shared a random chat about various trivial matters.

But maybe those two included some hidden love code only they can understand within their gossip…they could have agreed to meet up for an affair, couldn’t they?

“Erwin-sama, what do you have planned for tomorrow?”

“I will be off. I was thinking about wandering Sirius by myself for a change.”

“I see. I’m usually staying in Holmialand, so I don’t really know Sirius all that well.”

“Oh, okay.”

“As a matter of fact, I have a free day tomorrow, too. Since I was requested for this job on a short call, I must go shopping to buy the things necessary for living. After all, I might need to stay here for a longer time”

“Is your husband still enlisted with the feudal army?”

“I think the situation will remain like this for a while, so we might stay separated for a long time.”

“That sounds terrible.”

“It’s the same for all the other retainers, too.”

At a glance it sounds like an idle chat, but I noticed it.

Isn’t this possibly quite dangerous!?

“Is something the matter, Lea-san?”

“Anna-san, tomorrow will be a dangerous day!”

First off, Erwin-sama and that Karla woman both have a day off tomorrow. I have known about Erwin-sama having a holiday tomorrow, but he mentioned he wants to go take a look at swords and didn’t invite Haruka-sama or us to it. Moreover, that Karla woman mentioned that she’d use her free day tomorrow to go shopping for daily necessities.

“At this point, the likelihood of them meeting in the city is quite high!”

“Ee───eh! Really?”

I think Anna-san is a bit too naive. Sirius isn’t that big a city, and the shops selling weapons and livingware can be all found on the same shopping street.

In short, it’s possible that they’ll meet up in the city while pretending to have run into each other by coincidence.

“So that’s why he didn’t invite us…”

“That’s quite likely the reason.”

He will be able to offer her to drink tea together or grab something to eat, if he’s alone.

“Lea-san…”

“It’d be best for us to take some measures in advance.”

“Okay, but what are you going to do?”

“At times like these, you consult with Dominique-nee-san.”

With that said, Anna-san and I immediately went back to the airship and repeated the entire conversation between the two, word for word, to Dominique-nee-san.

＊

“…Lea.”

“Yes, is something wrong, Dominique-nee-san?”

“You’re overthinking this, aren’t you?”

Ee───eh!

Dominique-nee-san’s reaction was a lot more lackluster than I expected!

“Given their past relationship, it’s absolutely necessary to be cautious of such possibilities!”

“I won’t go as far as calling it exaggerated, but I think you worry too much about this. If I put it like that, it might sound a bit mean, but Erwin-sama, umm…was rejected by her.”

“Isn’t that a story of the past?”

Unlike back then, Erwin-sama now has big achievements under his belt. He has become Master’s most trusted friend and he’s known in society as a famous chief vassal in the Earl Baumeister House.

On the other hand, the husband of that Karla person cannot measure up in rank to Erwin-sama at all.

“It’s never wrong to be careful.”

“Also, Lea, if you talk so loudly about these mat…hii───i!”

“Is something the matter, Dominique-nee-san?”

It’s rare for Dominique-nee-san to scream like that. Did a big frog show up or something?

“Eh? What is it? Behind me?”

Is there something going on behind me? Even if it’s not…a big frog…maybe a cockroach has shown up?

But, the kitchen in this airship is still shiny as it’s brand new. We have been cleaning it properly, so cockroaches shouldn’t appear there.

Because the change in expression and facial color of Dominique-nee-san is funny, I looked back, wondering what might be going on.

Thereupon…I found Haruka-sama standing there with an expression so frosty that it almost looked as if she was clad in an ominous aura…

“Ah…that’s why you’ve warned me about talking too loudly…”

This was already an incarnation of horror.

“It’s too late by now. Besides, there is something I must tell you right away, Lea.”

“What is it?”

I could somehow tell with my intuition as a maid. I’m pretty sure that I’m going to encounter various unfortunate events from now on.

“Haruka-sama didn’t know about Karla-sama so far. That means you must explain things to her from now on…”

“Dominique-san, Lea-san, I would like to hear more about that person called Karla.”

Haruka-sama! Please take your hand off the hilt of your katana!

At this point, it’s no more than the story of Erwin-sama’s unrequited love that ended a long time ago!

“You went ahead and selfishly blew up the whole story. So I will have you take responsibility for it,” Dominique-nee-san said before powerfully grabbing my arm.

It clearly told me that she wouldn’t let me get away.

I’m a beautiful maid girl of suitable age who wants Erwin-sama to do such things to me.

“Ah, but Anna-san, who is Erwin-sama’s wife as well, has joint responsibility in thi…wait! Where is she!?”

Just when I realized that she had been awfully quiet all this time, I noticed that Anna-san was nowhere to be found anymore. Obviously she took the first opportunity to get away from here.

“Haha, I don’t really know all that much about the woman called Karla-sama, so…”

I think Dominique-nee-san will be more than enough to cover the explanation part. I have to prepare dinner…if I’m late with that, Master will…it’s one of the few things I must pay close attention to, thus…

“There’s no way I’d allow you to escape by yourself after getting her feeling of danger completely riled up. Stand next to me!”

“Okay…”

For a while after this, Dominique-nee-san explained the relationship between Erwin-sama and that Karla woman to Haruka-sama while I ended up experiencing a terrible time as if sitting on a bed of nails.

＊　　　＊　　　＊

“I see…Erw-san had such a past…”

“It’s not such a big story. I think Erwin-sama might have simply been rejected by Karla-sama.”

“Dominique-nee-san, you’re really amazing for being able to spill all of it without holding back anything…”

“Then it’s necessary to keep an eye on him. If he gets courted by that Karla woman…let’s secretly follow him tomorrow.”

“Roger!”

Having heard about the circumstances, Haruka-sama announced that we’d be shadowing Erwin-sama tomorrow to make sure whether he actually gets in contact with that Karla woman. As Erwin-sama’s future wife, it’s only natural for me to participate in this as well.

I cannot afford to deny it. I mean, I’ll soon become Erwin-sama’s wife. As such, I’d be troubled if he eloped with that Karla woman at this point.

“But Haruka-sama, won’t it be difficult to tail Erwin-sama?”

I can understand Dominique-nee-san’s concern. When it comes to an outstanding swordsman and adventurer like Erwin-sama, we might be found out quickly.

“Besides, we’ll stand out because of our maid attires.”

Maids aren’t that unusual a sight in Holmialand, but Sirius is a port city. The number of people wearing maid clothes besides us is rather low. If we tailed him like this, it’s a foregone conclusion that we’ll stand out.

“I’ll also be noticed if I’m wearing my usual clothes. We have no choice but to go with a disguise on this occasion.”

We will make sure that Erwin-sama won’t suspect being followed by putting on inconspicuous clothes. This much of a countermeasure belongs to the basics of basics.

“What sort of outfit would be good?”

“An outfit that won’t stand out in Sirius. I’ll prepare something.”

“Thank you, Dominique-san.”

Feeling that it’d be impossible to deny the tailing of Erwin-sama at this point, Dominique-nee-san had apparently switched into her loyal-maid mode. But, is it the job of a maid to prepare clothes for stalking?

I guess that’s another necessary skill for a maid, if required. After all, we’re maids of the Baumeister House.

“Sirius is a fishing town. Because it houses many fishermen but few nobles, I think I will go with an outfit matching that setup. Now then, it looks like tomorrow will be quite eventful.”

Or so she said, but somehow I feel like Dominique-nee-san looks somehow happy about this…

She might actually look forward to it because she usually doesn’T get the chance to tail other people. But, given that she’d drop a fist on me again if I mentioned any of this, I kept my mouth shut.

＊　　　＊　　　＊

“It should be fine like this.”

“Dominique-san, what are these outfits?”

“They are the common attire worn by fisherman wives and daughters.”

“They don’t come with skirts, huh…?”

“Anna-san, fisherman wives and daughters wash fish and process them, so it’s normal for them to wear pants as it’d be easy to get the hems of skirts dirty.”

“Those are fairly thick aprons.”

“This is a measure to make it simple to launder them because water and fish blood usually cling to these.”

“I see. If we wear a disguise like this, we won’t be found by Erw-san. We also dyed our hair and changed our hairstyle.”

Dominique-nee-san, Anna-san, Haruka-sama, and I began to tail Erwin-sama after putting on our disguise. First off, Erwin-sama went to take a look at swords in the weapons shop as he mentioned the other day. While pretending to check out the kitchen knives sold in that store, we observed whether Erwin-sama would meet up with Karla-sama.

“(We haven’t been spotted)”

“(Well, we have disguised ourselves quite a bit after all)”

The hair dye we used for this disguise is a magic potion of sorts. It’s an amazing product, allowing you to recover your previous hair color right away, if you use the counter potion.

And if you change the color and style of your hair, it only makes sense that it’s not easy to find us out. Haruka-sama now has blond hair with her hair up, Anna-san has red hair in braids, and given that I’m the only one in our group with short hair, I was given a black wig with long hair.

As for Dominique-nee-san…

“(Why did you go with this? It doesn’t suit you)”

“(Mind your own business! Rather than my hair, we have to keep a close eye on Erwin-sama!)”

Dominique-nee-san was wearing a light-green wig with a similar hairstyle to mine, but…since observing Erwin-sama took priority right now, it didn’t pose a problem even if Dominique-nee-san’s wig didn’t fit her at all.

“(He’s just looking at sword…it doesn’t seem like he’s going to join up with someone)”

“(That’s odd)”

Erwin-sama was single-mindedly focused on checking out swords. Every once in a while, he asked the clerk about a sword, enjoying the expert chat. That clerk is an old man, and yet…

“(Maybe, he’s meeting with that old man!)”

“(As if that could be! What about Karla-sama? Erwin-sama simply visited this place to look at swords, didn’t he? In such case, it’s best for him to come here alone)”

“E───eh!? He’s merely here to look at swords, you say?)”

Personally I’d get bored of that within a minute. I mean, all the swords look the same to me, so what’s the point in looking at them by yourself?

“(But, I’ve heard people say that men occasionally like to have some time for themselves)”

“(Master steps out himself as well at times. Maybe it’s like that for all men)”

Anna-san and Haruka-sama know quite a bit about the mentality of men. Nothing less of married women… Huh? Dominique-nee-san is also married, however…

“(Is everything okay with your husband?)”

Maybe he has little breathing room during his life married to Dominique-nee-san? I feel like I’ve previously heard somewhere that you must let men catch their breath every once in a while…

Given that I plan to become a capable wife myself, I intend to properly put that part into practice.

“(That’s not the case…but, leaving that aside, he left the shop)”

Oh, she’s right! Erwin-sama hasn’t bought anything at…oh wait, he seems to have bought a tool to maintain swords, though.

“(Where is he going next?)”

“(Let us go after him)”

“(Dominique-nee-san, you’re enjoying this quite a bit, aren’t you?)”

Following Haruka-sama, we dashed out of the store…

“(He’s wandering the city. Maybe sightseeing?)”

“(He might be looking for Karla-sama)”

Haruka-sama and Dominique-nee-san continued their passionate shadowing of Erwin-sama. Is it because both of them usually have such serious characters?

“(Lea-san?)”

“(Somehow I’ve got tired of this)”

“(Umm…I don’t think you should be the one to say that, Lea-san)”

I got warned by Anna-san, but look, Erwin-sama is merely strolling through the city…

…Just when I thought that…

『Oh, Karla-san? Did you finish your shopping?』

『Yes. I didn’t buy all that much』

Unbelievable, Erwin-sama and Karla-sama ended up running into each other in the middle of the city. Is this pure coincidence? Or did they arrange this beforehand?

The two started to chat on the street, and after a short while, they began to move without parting.

“(We must make sure to not lose them)”

“(Lea-san, your motivation has fully recovered, hasn’t it?)”

Wouldn’t anyone in my position want to know what those two are going to do next? That is the real question here.

“(It looks like they entered a coffee shop)”

The two sat down on the open terrace of a coffee shop located on the city’s main road, and apparently ordered tea and sweets. It seemed as though they had started some sort of conversation, and I was kinda curious what they were talking about.

We must secure ourselves a set of seats allowing us to listen in on their conversation without being noticed by either of them.

“(This table here should be good)”

“(Over here we’ll be right behind Erwin-sama, and I doubt we’ll be suspected either)”

Haruka-sama and Dominique-nee-san were quick to act. At once they sat down at a nearby table and began to attentively listen to Erwin-sama and Karla-sama.

“Welcome. What are your orders?”

“Umm, this cake set and as for beverage…a milk tea.”

“(Lea, we didn’t come here to enjoy a nice tea time. You don’t need any cake, do you!?)”

“(Eehh!? But, but…the cake looks super delicious. The menu also mentions it as recommendation of this shop…)”

“(We didn’t come here to eat cake)”

“(It still looks tasty though…)”

Since we went out of our way to enter this coffee shop, we should at least try its specialty. Why must Dominique-nee-san be such a serious stickler? Is she going to fall sick and die early or something, if she’s not serious?

“(Ah, but Erwin-sama and Karla-sama might be less suspicious of four fisherman girls, if we act like we came here during our free time to enjoy some cake)”

“(Now that you mention it, I must admit you have a point. I’ll also get a cake set and milk tea)”

Dominique-nee-san…you always accept Anna-san’s opinions at face value, don’t you? Isn’t this what you’d call discrimination?

“(Order this cake set for me as well)”

Haruka-sama casually ordered cake as well. Well, it’d be weird for none of us to order cake after we came here in a group of four women.

Based on the just cause of not giving Erwin-sama and Karla-sama any reason to suspect us, all of us ordered cake sets.

Huh?

I didn’t make some sort of mistake, did I?

“Thank you for waiting. Here you have four servings of our recommended cake sets.”

“They look great. At this rate, I could even go for a second serving of this.”

“(I told you, we didn’t come here to eat cake. How many times must I repeat myself!? We ordered cake to now appear shady to Erwin-sama, but we didn’t come here to simply enjoy cake!)”

“(Ouch, that huuurt… What is that technique?)”

Please don’t grab hold of my face after spreading your hand as far as possible! I feel a fierce pain as if my face is going to be crushed any second…

Even without such techniques, Dominique-nee-san possesses inhuman strength that completely contradicts her outward appearance.

“(Who possesses inhuman strength!?)”

“(Gahh, you read my mind agaii───in!)”

“(This technique is called Iron Palm. Luise-sama learned it from Master. Dropping a fist on your head shows increasingly less effect.)

What effect? In the first place, the huge loss of me forgetting my happy memories thanks to her fist…hasn’t appeared. In the end, I don’t forget anything.

“(That technique is off-limits since it changes the contour of my face!)”

“(It might lead to your face becoming smaller)”

“(As if!)”

“(Umm…what happened to observing Erwin-sama, you two?)”

Oh right! Now’s not the time to mess around with Dominique-nee-san!

Haruka-sama was watching Erwin-sama seriously…and at the same time, she was properly tasting her cake. As might be expected, women love their sweet stuff.

『I heard that your wife gave birth to a child, Erwin-sama. Congratulations』

『Thank you. It’s a boy, but he’s really cute』

『I’m envious of you. I still haven’t had a child…』

As I listened in on those two, I heard that Karla-sama still hadn’t given birth. If I remember correctly, Karla-sama got married before Erwin-sama, according to Dominique-nee-san’s information.

In that case, this might worsen her position somewhat. I heard that her husband welcomed a concubine, but this might be a recommendation by the people around the couple since Karla-sama hasn’t given birth yet.

If no children are born, the family will die out. There’s the option of adopting children into the family too, but in the end, most families wish for children sharing their blood.

Accordingly, her husband’s relatives urged him to take a concubine, and her husband accepted because he couldn’t afford to refuse. Karla-sama was discontent about this arrangement as first wife. Moreover, the two ended up living apart due to the current tensions…

This is…!

“(Karla-sama is trying to get intimate with Erwin-sama quickly after having accumulated quite a bit of discontent! If her husband’s seed can’t impregnate her, she’s going for Erwin-sama’s seed as he’s already produced a child!)”

“EE───EH!?”

『What’s going on? It’s got pretty loud all of a sudden』

『Umm…it’s the women sitting nearby』

“Your husband got arrested again because he went on a rampage after getting totally wasted? You sure have it tough.”

“…Yes…indeed.”

『Ah, I guess it’s because we’re in a fishermen’s city… I’ve heard from Wend that many fishermen are dumped by their wives because of booze, gambling and kicking up a fuss due to women when their hauls are good』

『Oh, really?』

Haruka-sama had cried out upon hearing my deduction, so I thought we might be found out by Erwin-sama, but our disguise saved us. Dominique-nee-san immediately coming up with an act also played a role in this.

“(Haruka-sama, you must be more careful)”

“(You’re right…as daughter of a samurai, I must always stay calm…)”

“(It’s all because you said something so shocking, don’t you think!?)”

“(Ouuuch…)”

My face is creaking and hurts due to her iron palm, so I’d like her to stop. But, it might also help me in getting a slightly smaller face…

“(In my eyes, this is just Karla-sama voicing her worries, or rather, getting consultation from Erwin-sama who is her acquaintance, you know?)”

“(You say that now, but what will you do if something happens beyond that?)”

“(Uuhh…that’s…)”

Se,, even Dominique-nee-san believes that there are some doubtful parts to this whole arrangement. That’s why we’ve followed Erwin-sama today.

『I came all the way to Sirius for the archery training because I thought I could be of help for my husband. Right now, his new concubine is watching the mansion…he’s not a bad person, but my husband hasn’t come back after departing to the front and it’s not like I’m not worried either. Having married him was…』

『Ah, stop right there』

『Erwin-sama?』

Huh? Usually you’d expect Erwin-sama to go 『I’m here for you』, and then…wait! That would be bad, wouldn’t it!?

『It might be disgraceful of me, but you see, back then I was in love with you』

『Really?』

So Karla-sama didn’t realize Erwin-sama’s feelings towards…

Erwin-sama’s one-sided, unrequited love… It caused us to feel slightly melancholic.

『At the time of our final parting, you introduced your husband while looking very happy, didn’t you?』

『Sorry…』

『No, it’s okay. When I saw that, I knew that I wouldn’t have any chance…. Well, having said that, I wasn’t that understanding after the initial shock, to be honest. I remained spaced out for a while because of it. But, that’s also why I was able to meet Haruka-san. So in the end, it worked out fine for me』

『Haruka-san? Your wife?』

『Yep, she’s too good a wife for me. I also have a wife called Anna who’s come all the way from our hometown to meet me. Right now, I consider myself to be a happy man. However, this happiness of mine is based on you having decided to marry your husband without paying me any attention. To me it looked like you two were a good match. Currently some things might be going on and you might also feel anxious as he’s absent, but sooner or later you will be able to happily live together again, won’t you? You’re still young, so you also got more than enough time to worry about children. It might be an irresponsible way of consolation, but I’m an idiot, so…』

Erwin-sama, you’re such a kind man! Even to a woman who broke your heart in the past. Also, you exceed Master by leaps and bounds when it comes to handling women at critical moments.

Master is a lost case when it comes to such things after all.

『Listening to you calmed my heart. You’re right. Even if I fret, it won’t change anything, I suppose』

『Besides, you won’t hit your targets with the bow if you lose your composure』

『Quite true』

『I’ve heard that this coffee shop has fairly decent cakes. How about I treat you to one, Karla-san?』

『No, I would feel bad after making you listen to all my worries』

『Don’t mind the small stuff. Even though I may look like this, I’m still a chief retainer of the Earl Baumeister house. I got enough money to at least treat a friend to cake』

『Thank you kindly, Erwin-sama』

『I wonder whether I should order one as well』

『Oh, so you also like sweet stuff, Erwin-sama?』

『Without a doubt, it’s influenced by Milord. Also, if I go out with my wives, it naturally leads to that, I guess?』

『Oh my, you seem to be very happy couples then』

Afterwards, the two enjoyed tea and cakes, before eventually bidding farewell in front of the shop.

It looks like my worries ended up to be needless.

＊

“Ehemm, I have always believed in Erwin-sama.”

Haruka-sama, you came with us because a small doubt about his integrity had actually nested in your heart, didn’t you?

Moreover, because she was praised by Erwin-sama for being too good a wife for him, she was now beaming in joy.

“I also believed in Erwin-sama.”

Anna-san also…seems overjoyed after being praised by Erwin-sama.

“Haruka-sama, we should cook one of Erwin-sama’s favorite dishes for dinner.”

“That is a wonderful idea. Okay, let us go shopping for the necessary ingredients.”

“Yes.”

With their worries gone, Haruka-sama and Anna-san cheerfully left us behind and left the coffee shop to buy the groceries for dinner.

Now only Dominique-nee-san and I remained here.

“Well, isn’t it wonderful that it ended up to be needless worries?”

“Having said that, I also just believed it to be a measure for the very unlikely event of something happening between the two.”

“By the way, Erwin-sama referenced Haruka-sama and Anna-san, but you…I think you must invest more effort into your relationship with Erwin-sama.”

As soon as she said so, Dominique-nee-san placed both hands on my shoulder and started to look at me as if watching a very pitiful existence.

Is she saying that I’m a useless fiancée because Erwin-sama hasn’t mentioned me at all?

“No, no, no, I’m still his fiancée, and that’s why Erwin-sama left me out there. If I were already married to him, he’d surely say that I’m wasted on him as a wife.”

“You think so? Didn’t you doubt your own, future husband?”

“Am I the only bad one here?”

I mean, didn’t all of them come along? In other words, they all agreed with my thinking, even if only to some degree…

“By the way, is it alright for you to not go? Haruka-sama and Anna-san went shopping for the dinner that will be served to Erwin-sama…”

“Oh, right! I will head out as weeell!”

Wait! I cannot leave these behind! I still haven’t eaten all of the cake…

“Ah, whatever! Ngggnh…all finished! Please wait for meeeeee!”

I’m also going to help make Erwin-sama’s dinner! While shouting after those two, I rushed out of the shop and chased after Haruka-sama and Anna-san.

＊　　　＊　　　＊

“The sudden day off was a lot of fun. Skillfully using your available times is yet another must-have skill of maids.”

There are all kinds of things when it comes to married couples. At times, you relax peacefully while enjoying cake and tea by yourself in a coffee shop located in a city with no acquaintances.

It’s a truly superb way to spend your holiday.

For Lea’s antics to come in useful like that might be what you call a lucky break, I guess.

＊

And, this is a story from another day, but Karla-sama eventually became pregnant and gave birth to a male heir. Just as Erwin-sama said, it must have been needless anxiety on her side.