In a Different World with a Smartphone (LN) - Volume 28 - Chapter 2

 Chapter II: A Moment of Calm

The day after we defeated the wicked god’s armies in both Egret and Eashen, we were notified by the Beastking of Mismede that one of the cities of Sandora had been destroyed. According to the testimony of some of the survivors, it was carried out by an army led by a blue-horned Kyklops.

So it wasn’t a two-pronged attack, but a three-pronged one. Given it was blue, I could only assume that its pilot was the guy with the diver helmet. That would explain why he hadn’t appeared to support the other devout.

Each city in Sandora was self-governed, and many of those cities viewed themselves as autonomous. It was one of those larger coastal cities that was attacked.

The place was thoroughly destroyed; there was nothing left. The citizens who had managed to escape with their lives were in the depths of despair.

Perhaps I should note that I had a particularly bad reputation in the region.

Back when Sandora had been a kingdom, I had been the one who both freed its slaves from the nobles, and caused the downfall of its monarchy, so I wasn’t particularly liked by former nobles or slave traders there.

At the end of the day, though, that was only because the king of Sandora had declared war on us. We accepted the fight, and the emancipation of the slaves was reparations, that was all.

Slaves were pretty much nonexistent in Sandora nowadays, and apparently, many of the people who remained there resented me to varying degrees for that reason.

It seemed I was being suspected as the one behind the attack by the wicked devout, as well. Not that I could blame them for this one—the only country known to really own such massive mechs was Brunhild, after all.

For countries part of the alliance, it was easy enough to clear up any misunderstandings, but I couldn’t see my words being believed so easily over there. I had no obligation to help a country that viewed me in such a manner, but I would have wanted to help them if I could have.

“All I can do is somehow try to make up for it after the fact.”

“It is impossible to save absolutely everyone. All we can do is help where we can manage, no? Thankfully, your reach goes far. I believe you will be able to do better next time.”

Ugh, having my son attempt to console me over matters like this left me with complicated feelings. I couldn’t deny what he was saying, though.

There was still another problem too: the twin divine blades.

As a result of being used continuously by people who weren’t wards of the god who had created them, they had run out of divine essence. Those sacred treasures couldn’t be refueled with my divinity, so they were essentially just slightly more sturdy swords like this. There was no way they would be able to destroy another wicked vessel when the time came.

When I tried asking Karen and the other gods what I should do, they said that my only option was to complete my own sacred treasure.

I suggested just finding the god who originally created the swords and asking if they could recharge it, but given that the swords were literally stolen from them, they would probably just get angry at me. I wasn’t the culprit, though...

“Well, worse comes to worse, you can just use your smartphone, y’know?”

“Huh? What do you mean by that?”

“You might have forgotten already, but that’s a sacred treasure too, y’know? And from God Almighty of all things. If you gave it to one of your kids, they would just need to keep whacking it against the wicked vessel and it would break eventually, y’know.”

I know there are brute force methods out there, but hitting something with a smartphone over and over is a first for me.

This might come as a surprise, but I was a little reluctant to entertain the thought. I couldn’t put my children into battle wielding a smartphone. Though Linne might actually manage to get somewhere with it...

“The wedding rings you and your wives have are also pretty much sacred treasures, so that’s an option too.”

She was completely missing the problem. But at the same time, if I failed in forging my own sacred treasure, that really might be the solution I would have to go for. I really did not want to have to turn to my wives and tell them, “I need you to smack the enemy with your wedding rings!”

I still was having no luck in creating the sacred core, though...

In terms of the actual vessel itself, seeing how the wicked devout were able to change the size of their weapons at will, I began thinking it would be neat if my sacred treasure could do that too. It didn’t totally sit right with me that I was essentially using the enemy’s idea of all things, but I couldn’t deny that it would be useful if a Frame Gear could use my sacred treasure, as well.

If the kids could use the Frame Gears to break the enemy’s weapon, it would make their jobs much easier.

Even if I had all these fun ideas, though, at the end of the day, I still hadn’t made the core.

“Nghhhhhhh!”

And so here I was, once more putting every ounce of my energy into trying to forge one.

I slowly but surely condensed the ball of divine energy. Just like before, the resistance was insane, and I was reaching the stage where I couldn’t make it any smaller again. Honestly, I thought it was impressive I’d managed to get it to the size of a baseball.

If I could just shrink it down to golf ball size, and then marble size, I’d have cleared the first stage.

“Ah?!”

But the moment I let my mind wander for just a moment, my divinity blew back on me.

Aaand that’s another failure. You know what, nope, no more today.

I was exhausted in mind, body, and soul.

As a change of pace, I decided to go to Babylon’s research lab.

They were in the middle of analyzing what we now called diluted venom, which I had managed to get a sample of back in Egret.

The diluted venom was still sealed inside the [Prison] I had formed. I had adjusted it so everything but the venom could make it through the [Prison] so that they could still do tests on it.

Doc Babylon was tilting her head with her arms folded—a rare sight—in front of the ten-by-ten centimeter cube.

“Mmmmngh... I got nothing.”

“Were you not able to run the tests on it?” I asked.

“No, we were. We’ve discovered that it disrupts the flow of ether liquid. But we don’t have even the slightest lead as to what exactly this substance is made of, or how to get rid of the substance itself and its effects.”

Well, even if the god who made it was wicked, it was still a god. It would be difficult for regular mortals to analyze it.

“Are you able to block the effects with your [Prison]?” she asked.

“I can block out the powder itself, but the effects still persist.”

The powder itself was just a regular substance, so naturally it could be blocked. But the effects were almost certainly derived from divine power, so a [Prison] not infused with my divinity was useless.

The worst part about it was that if even a single speck of the powder were to touch something, it would instantly taint the area, and that would then spread. In other words, it would literally turn the battlefield into a swamp of poison. Unlike the undiluted divine venom, though, it seemed to turn back to normal over time without interference, at least.

We had the Frame Gears as proof of how fast it could spread too. To a regular person, it had no effect, so we didn’t need to worry about most of the pilots, but even though a few days had already passed, the Frame Gears still weren’t working at maximum efficiency.

“Output efficiency being down forty percent sucks a lot.”

“No kidding. It’s impressive you all still managed to win regardless.”

“Well, we can kind of make up for it with skill and coordination. Our knights are veterans, after all.”

They had been riding the Frame Gears from their initial versions. And it wasn’t as if the enemy Kyklops were showing off the most stellar example of teamwork either.

“Rossweise’s support magic was probably helping too. It increases the output by stimulating the ether liquid, right? So in reality, you were probably all fighting at about a twenty-percent deficit.”

“Ah, that makes sense.”

The Frame Gears should have been strengthened by Sakura’s support magic, that was true. Given the state she had been in at the time, though, it likely wasn’t at the same efficiency as usual. Or maybe Yoshino’s assist would’ve brought it back to its usual levels.

“It might be worth trying to amplify her buffs.”

“Like raise the effect enough so it evens out?”

Well, it sounded simple enough.

“And then there’s the Over Gears.”

“What about them?”

“The Over Gears aren’t structured in a way where the ether liquid is the primary component. It’s the G-Cube that serves as the power reactor, kinda similar to the Kyklops, so they shouldn’t take too much of an effect from the venom.”

So that was an option too.

But we only had three of them: Norn and Noir’s Leo Noir, Nia and Rouge’s Tiger Rouge, and Robert and Blau’s Deer Blau. Or wait, technically four since we had Yumina and Albus’s Val Albus as well. But we were using that in the search for the Ark right now, so I was a little reluctant to count it in.

We only had three at our disposal, but even that would add a decent bit of power to our side.

Should I ask them to assist next time they attack?

We could technically make an Over Gear for Gold as well, but his master was Steph. She’d have to return to the future eventually, so would it not just be a waste to make it? Then again, there was the option of keeping it aside until the future when we could give it to her as a present once the Steph in our timeline was born and grown up.

“Sorry to ruin your fun, but the dev team’s really starting to feel overworked,” Doc Babylon said as she glared at me. “We have to both research and develop the aquatic Frame Gears, we have to repair the Frame Gears damaged in the last battle, and we have to analyze the Kyklops frames that you managed to retrieve. Your Reginleif is also still dismantled; we haven’t gotten to start overhauling it yet.”

“Ah, yes, sorry...”

I had been throwing a bit too much their way recently.

“Honestly, I think you should be spoiling me a little more here, Touya. Y’know, giving me big ol’ hugs, a little smooch here and there, going for baths with me, and then spending the rest of the night in bed all—”

“Okay, see ya.”

“Boo, you’re no fun.”

I quickly fled from Babylon before things turned into even more of a pain.

As I walked down the castle hallways, I suddenly heard a soft tune playing from the ballroom.

Is this Waldteufel’s Skaters’ Waltz?

I peeked in out of curiosity and saw Kuon and Allis dancing together.

“Allis, your smile is very stiff, and you’re starting to dance off-rhythm. Keep up with Kuon’s lead.”

“Yes, ma’am!”

The one instructing Allis and clapping her hands in time with the rhythm was Lu.

Yumina and Lu were the two girls mainly teaching Allis the required etiquette, given they were originally princesses.

Hilde was too, but in Lestia, much more importance was placed on strength. That wasn’t to say that she didn’t have her own grasp of social dancing and proper etiquette, but she said she wasn’t very good at teaching it. She was so good at teaching swordplay, though.

I decided to observe Kuon and Allis’s dance for a little.

Hey...aren’t they pretty good?

Kuon wasn’t much of a surprise, but for someone that had never really participated in social dance before, Allis was doing a good job at keeping up. Even at this level, she could go to a ball and she wouldn’t embarrass anyone. She had always been the athletic type, so maybe it wasn’t that much of a surprise.

Oh, I guess I should record this and send it to Ende. He’d love to see how good his daughter’s getting, I’m sure.

I used my phone to video a dance from start to finish and then sent it to him. That’s my good deed done for the day.

“All right, that’s enough for today. I’d give you a passing grade for that performance. Next time, try paying more attention to your expression while you dance. You were sometimes slipping into a frown.”

“Will do. Thank you very much!”

Allis bowed her head at Lu. That was just a passing grade? A bit harsh, no? I thought that was plenty good...

I decided to tell her what I thought.

“Normally, I’d agree with you. But Allis is the fiancée of a prince, and that means people will expect perfection from her. When she becomes grand duchess, she will become the representative of all noble women of Brunhild, so I cannot afford to give her any slack,” Lu replied.

Oof, talk about a tough crowd...

It wasn’t as if Brunhild even had a proper class system to begin with.

Kousaka had recently been pushing me to come to a decision about all of this. We needed a system of titles not only for our people’s identity domestically but also internationally as well, and one that would be understood. Essentially, the noble titles like duke, marquess, earl, viscount, baron, and knight.

The issue was our territory was small, and we didn’t exactly have land for nobles to own. The most we could give them was a plot of land to build a house. And in terms of the titles, it kind of just felt like they’d end up being in name only eventually.

Belfast and Regulus had actually approached Brunhild offering to give us more of their land, but even if we did accept it, we would have to be the ones to develop it. Ever since the children had arrived in our time, though, I had begun thinking that it might be good to expand our territory.

Why? Because I realized that if my daughters had their own land, there was a chance they could accept a husband rather than having to leave and become the wife of a different land! They could remain in the country as branch families of the royal family.

My wives all had wry smiles on their faces when I told them that, but I was being serious!

My phone suddenly got a notification. It was Ende replying to my message.

“They’re too close! Tell them to dance further apart!”

How else are they meant to ballroom dance, you dolt?

Technically, there were dances that had the two stand further apart, but not this one.

“How was my dance, Your Grace?” Allis asked me.

“You were great. I let Ende see your dance and he agreed.”

“He he he, yay!”

It was a bit of a white lie, but it wasn’t wrong either, really. It was definitely what he would say if he had been here right now.

“On to your next lesson, then,” Lu spoke. “Next is cooking.”

“Okay!”

“You’re even teaching her how to cook?!”

Why would a grand duchess need to learn how to cook? They might need to develop their culinary tastes, but there shouldn’t need to be any reason for them to know how to make the food themselves. Was this just Lu forcing it on her?

“Because I wanna let Kuon eat my delicious food. My moms and dad too.”

What a good kid. Kuon was lucky to have someone thinking about him so much.

“Kuon, you better make sure you take good care of Allis too.”

“I am aware. Allis has displayed the resolve to be by my side. I must respond in kind.”

I had just meant to tease him a little, not get such a serious response out of him. My son was the definition of a smooth talker. At this rate, the son was going to surpass the father.

I had to do better. For now, I should just get to work! Yeah!

◇ ◇ ◇

Determined not to be outdone by my son, I was putting my all into my office work together with Yumina and Kousaka. That said, the job of a grand duke mainly consisted of considering people’s requests or reviewing any plans for the city and stamping them off. On occasion, I’d also be sent out to assist with construction or infrastructure, but that was about it.

“Hm? Wasn’t this concert hall already opened?” I asked, tilting my head slightly.

“The construction and interior design are complete, but it appears they are struggling to find people to perform. They put out a call for any willing participants once more,” Kousaka informed me.

Though we called it a concert hall, it was more intended to be a multipurpose hall that could accommodate not just concerts, but also plays, ceremonies, and other miscellaneous gatherings. It was originally planned at Sakura’s request as she wanted to make music more accessible to the public, but it had been completed before we knew it.

The reason it wasn’t open despite construction being complete was simply because they couldn’t find anyone to perform there.

Typically, music was only accessible to the wealthy, lessons even more so, which meant the average citizen wouldn’t have the ability to volunteer in the first place. What was more, anyone who was skilled at an instrument was generally summoned by the nobility to perform in their own personal orchestra, and naturally, the pay was good.

What reason would there be for a performer to come all the way to such a small country as ours if they had that opportunity instead?

That said, there were bards who went from town to town singing stories with their instruments in hand. I was sure they would happily perform here in Brunhild, but the issue was that they didn’t generally stay in one place. There would be no way to guarantee the timing.

“We might have no choice but to have Sakura sing for us.”

Our orchestra (though not an official one) consisted of the more musically inclined members of our knights; music itself was not their main profession. Thinking it would be an issue if they were to dedicate too much of their time to it, I had decided to not have them participate.

I wanted to make it a place people could go to listen to music whenever they pleased if possible, so it would be far more ideal to have a range of performers and singers available.

“It doesn’t need to be exclusively music that is performed there, right? What about inviting a theater troupe?”

“That’s what I was thinking. I’d rather they had Brunhild as their main performing country, but I wonder if that would be too much to ask...”

“Our population is not that large, after all. Perform for just one week and already most of the country will have seen it, so it is a question of if it would be sustainable for them.”

Hmm. It was true that you wouldn’t go to see the same performance twice unless you were a massive fan, and it was too draconian to expect them to perform a new show every single week.

You know...Sousuke is the god of music. I’m pretty sure he could keep playing music forever if we needed him to.

The sound of a sad melody being played on guitar drifted in just as I was thinking that.

In other words, please don’t entertain such a terrible thought. I understand.

As far as theater performances were concerned, we could record the performances of different countries and then screen it, but...that would just make it a cinema.

Why would that be a problem, though? It would still be a place of leisure. It wouldn’t cost much in terms of labor, so maybe it wasn’t that bad of an idea.

I guess I could go visit Theatro’s troupe and record some of their performances.

“Yoshino appeared to be rehearsing something together with the orchestra. Perhaps she plans to perform?”

“Yoshino does?”

The idea of building a concert hall originally came from Yoshino telling Sakura about the future. Apparently, she performed there a lot, so it would make sense if she was attached to it.

Out of curiosity, I headed to the soundproof practice hall in the castle, and as I was told, Yoshino was there conducting the orchestra.

The orchestra consisted of first and second violins, viola, cello, contrabass, flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, trumpet, trombone, timpani, cymbals, and harp... No way, that meant it had strings, brass, woodwinds, and percussion. It basically was a full orchestra!

“Woodwinds, please reduce the vibrato. Brass, match your volume with everyone else from start to finish. Cymbals, pick up the tempo here!”

Yoshino, as small as she was, was barking instructions out to the orchestra. The members made no complaints, quietly listening to her and adjusting accordingly.

What?! Since when was my daughter in charge of an orchestra?! And hey, that’s Sousuke sitting in the concertmaster’s chair!

“Once more, from the top!”

And so under Yoshino’s command, the orchestra began once again.

...Hang on, isn’t this the overture from that one famous JRPG?!

Sure, maybe it would be suitable for the concert hall’s inaugural performance, but...!

Damn you, Yoshino. You just wanted to perform on a stage, didn’t you? Well, it’s not like I would have had reason to refuse, in all fairness.

Mayyybe it wouldn’t be too much of a bother to adjust the knights’ schedule just a smidge. We were starting to introduce Knight Gollems, so it would give them a bit more free time.

They’re working so hard, there’s no way I could refuse...

◇ ◇ ◇

We ultimately decided to have our orchestra perform the opening act of our concert hall with Yoshino as the conductor. Honestly, I thought it a bit of a joke to have a nine-year-old take the position, but the members all said that it had to be her, so I had no choice but to give permission.

I was pretty sure Sousuke could take up the role just fine, being the god of music, but Yoshino seemed determined to do it herself and there wasn’t really much reason for me to refuse. She’d be going back to the future eventually, though, so we’d need to find and train up a successor for her before then.

Many of Sakura’s songs had also been incorporated into the performance, but it meant that she and Yoshino were so busy putting together the program and rehearsing for it that our mealtimes didn’t match up at all recently. I really didn’t want them to push themselves too hard.

《My liege, may I have a moment of your time?》

“That you, Kougyoku?”

Kougyoku contacted me just as I was finishing off the last of the documents that needed to be signed off.

《The birds under my command have sighted bandits gathering on the road to Brunhild. They do not appear to be based here, so it is but a tad suspicious.》

Bandits, huh? There never seemed to be an end to them. Just where did they keep coming from? I’d heard that adventurer dropouts or mercenaries would often turn to a life of crime in order to earn money, but given they were often quite fit, I’d much prefer if they came to help Brunhild with construction work instead.

Then again, a lot of these guys wanted to make a large sum of money quick and easy, so they probably wouldn’t be ecstatic about the labor expected of them.

“Where are they based, then, if not here?”

《Deep in the woods of Belfast.》

Given it was Belfast, I marked a map with their base and sent it to His Majesty.

And with that, my work was done.

“Bandits, you say?” Kousaka asked, as he walked in and dumped a whole other mountain of documents on my desk. Oh, come on, not even more...

“...Yes. I sent the location of their base to the king of Belfast.”

“Brunhild is located far from Belfast and Regulus’s capitals, so it is difficult for their knight orders to keep an eye. Regardless, many merchants gather here, so it is no surprise that there are those with bad intentions who travel here.”

That was very true. Merchants came to our country to buy rare goods, including treasure and materials from the dungeon islands. That meant that they were often quite well-off, so to bandits and thieves, they must’ve looked ripe for the picking.

The scummiest thing about how these bandits operated was that they didn’t attack the merchants when they arrived in Brunhild, but rather in the areas of Belfast and Regulus where there were fewer guards stationed.

Brunhild was simply the feeding ground where their prey approached. Pissed me off just thinking about it.

“The adventurer’s guild has been receiving many more escort requests as of late too. There are merchants who band together and come to Brunhild as a group for increased safety in numbers.”

It was true they were at much less risk of getting attacked if they had adventurers escorting a whole caravan of them. That did mean they were at least actively trying to deal with the situation themselves.

But at the end of the day, only merchants that had a decent bit of money could hire someone to protect them. For traveling merchants just starting out, all they would have was a carriage and the clothes on their backs as they traveled from town to town.

I would have to develop Brunhild’s cooperation with Belfast and Regulus further in order to make the roads safer.

“Actually, where’s Yumina?”

Yumina was entrusted with a portion of the country’s internal affairs, essentially making her both grand duchess and minister. She was always assisting me with my work. Honestly, if she hadn’t been helping, I definitely wouldn’t have gotten through everything in one day.

“Lady Yumina is having a tea party with the other duchesses, so she has excused herself for the afternoon.”

Ah, the usual, then. I had no idea who named it, but every week, they would have what they called a Queens’ Tea Party. All of my wives took part. Apparently, they took that opportunity to discuss various matters. I say apparently because naturally, I was not invited to their tea parties, and they refused to tell me what topics they discussed.

There were many things that girls only felt comfortable discussing between themselves, after all. Like complaining about their uncaring husband...? No, no, there was no way... Right? Right?!

“I’ll just focus on my work...”

With that anxiety clouding my heart, I sped up my stamping.

◇ ◇ ◇

Meanwhile, at the aforementioned tea party...

“And then! Kuon kindly took my hand and went, ‘Mother, are you all right?’”

“The clothes I bought for Elna the other day fit her perfectly! Look, here’s a photo! Isn’t she just adorable?!”

“Linne slacked off on her studies again...”

“Arcia intends to cook lunch, so I better be precise with any feedback I have.”

“I got to read Steph a picture book! I wonder which I should go for next?”

“Yakumo’s swordplay has only gotten sharper, it has...”

“Frei bought yet another strange weapon...”

“Quun has been so engrossed in her research that she’s trying to skip meals again. Is there really nothing I can do?”

“I have a session with Yoshino later. Looking forward to it...”

Never mind complaints, they weren’t even talking about their husband to begin with. Everything was about their children.

They would each talk about their time with their kids in turn, and then if there were any issues, they would help give each other advice. If their kids had done something praiseworthy, they would all nod their heads in approval.

Now that Steph had arrived, all the kids were gathered, and that meant they no longer had to hold back talking about them to not make the others feel bad. Nowadays, they spoke about their kids nonstop.

They didn’t only talk about their own children, though; they also made sure to tell the other girls about their kids too. It essentially became a place for them to stay informed.

“Ah, right, Allis’s dancing has really been improving recently. She is still rather reliant on Kuon’s lead, but she’s at the level where she could go to an actual dance and not disappoint,” Lu reported to Yumina as their dance instructor.

Allis would become in-laws with Yumina when she married Kuon, so Lu thought it pertinent to inform her.

“Allis really is a ball of potential. Anything she learns, she makes it her own in a flash. I wonder if it’s because she’s Ende’s daughter?”

“You know, I can see that. He literally manages anything through talent alone. It’s so frustrating,” Elze grumbled. Given she had been Takeru’s apprentice before Ende, she couldn’t help but feel frustration at Lu’s words.

“Let it not escape your mind that her mother is also the Sovereign Phrase. I think she just naturally has a lot of talent in her blood.”

“No! This has to be the result of her pure love for Kuon! A maiden in love is invincible! The power of love is unparalleled!” Yumina rebutted, standing up in her passion. She hadn’t noticed how awkward the other eight were feeling.

“Yumina is starting to sound just like Karen, she is...” Yae quietly muttered to Hilde.

“Allis will be her daughter-in-law one day. It’s much better than them having a bad relationship, don’t you think?” she responded.

Frantic for Yumina to not hear what they were saying, Linze quickly continued: “I thought they were a bit young to be getting engaged already, but they both seem fine.”

“It isn’t rare for nobility to get engaged at that age,” Leen explained. “There are the interests of the state to consider, after all.”

Yae tilted her head. “But Yumina, Lu, and Hilde didn’t get engaged until later, correct? I heard that in Yumina’s case, it was because of her Mystic Eye, I did.”

Yumina’s Mystic Eye of Intuition meant that it wasn’t so easy for her to decide on a fiancé. If she were to refuse a partner because their personalities or tastes didn’t match up, the other nobles might have taken it as them being refused maliciously. That would have been uncomfortable for both Yumina and the other party.

“How was it for you, Lu?”

“I was the third princess, so there was no rush for me to decide on who to marry. Keep in mind that the reason these early engagements happen is usually because there is a need to secure a successor to the throne.”

That said, when there was an offer of betrothal from another country, the case was a little different. In that case, they might end up becoming engaged early, but Regulus didn’t have good relationships with other countries until the coup d’état, so no country really wanted to take on any of the daughters as their queen. Regulus had no interest in giving away its daughters to a country where a war might start either.

“Given the kind of man my father is, I’m sure he intended to marry me off to a Regulus noble when I came of age.”

“Entrust his daughter to his vassal so trust may be furthered, I see. And Hilde? What about you?”

“Umm... I did receive several proposals from upper-class nobles and the royalty of neighboring countries, but...” Hilde quietly responded, showing slight discomfort.

Everyone tilted their heads at how unnaturally evasive she was being.

“So, you see, um... I had no intention of marrying someone who was weaker than me...and I ended up beating everyone who proposed...”

“Pfft.”

All it took was one person to crack and suddenly, the whole room apart from Hilde burst into laughter.

“O-Oh come on, you don’t need to laugh that much, do you?! You’re all terrible!”

“Sorry, sorry,” Elze apologized. “I was just thinking about how that is so like you.”

“That is how you were able to meet the grand duke. You did nothing wrong. You’re in the right, Hilde,” Sakura added.

Lestia honored both chivalry and strength, and that was always apparent in how Hilde handled matters. They could understand why she wouldn’t want to marry someone weaker than her, and it wasn’t acceptable for a knight to be able to be beaten by the one he married.

“Our daughters will likely have trouble searching for their own partners too,” Sue muttered, causing uncomfortable smiles to appear on everyone’s faces.

“Their smitten father will likely be their biggest hurdle.” Leen sighed.

“I don’t think that’s inherently a bad thing, but...yes.” Linze chuckled.

“I refuse to give our Elna away to some half-baked man, though. They have to at least be stronger than her.”

“I completely agree. I won’t hand Yoshino away to anyone strange. It has to be someone that will protect her with his life.”

“Those standards may be a little high, they may...”

To begin with, their kids were demigods; it wouldn’t be so easy to find someone who could surpass that sort of strength.

I don’t think Touya is going to be the only problem here, I don’t, Yae thought to herself.

The girls were split into two sides: Yae, Lu, Hilde, and Leen, who were happy to leave their kids to find whoever they wanted; and then Elze, Linze, Sue, and Sakura, who were much more careful and felt they had to take the time to scout out their children’s potential partners.

Kuon was already engaged, but if he was considering taking on any more wives, Yumina would definitely come under the more cautious type. If he took on a bride that was no good, it could lead to the decline of their country.

There were countless stories of countries falling to ruin because of the rivalry between queens. She didn’t want Kuon to take a wife who was liable to cause discord among their family.

And so, the grand duchesses continued their talk concerning their children.

“Ever since our children have come to our time, we always turn to this topic without meaning to.” Leen wryly laughed as she sipped at her tea that had gone cold while they had been so focused on their discussion.

Their gathering was originally meant to be about how they could support Touya as the grand duke and about managing Brunhild, but now it felt no different than idle gossip.

“I’ve begun thinking recently that maybe our kids came from the future to help us.”

“Indeed. If the children hadn’t been there for the battles at Egret and Eashen, our victory might not have been so easily achieved.”

“The diluted divine venom, was it? Trying to fight in our condition would’ve been incredibly tough.”

Remembering the sensation from that battle, Hilde shivered and shook her head. Everyone felt the exact same way. The discomfort that clung to their bodies, and the disgust that welled up from within them, had been tremendous.

“Touya and Karen didn’t appear to be affected, did they?”

“It was not strong enough to affect gods, it was not. It appeared to have a slight effect on wards, or angels and fae that hold divinity, however.”

“Wow, so we’re basically the same as angels and spirits by this point, huh?” Elze breathed out in slight wonder. Leen chuckled at her response.

Their bodies were already enveloped in divinity. They couldn’t use it how they wished yet, but there was no denying they were the wards of a god.

“Our husband is a ward of God Almighty, so is there any surprise, really? I don’t believe the wicked devout intended it to have any effect on us, though; they were likely simply aiming to weaken the Frame Gears.”

“It was an unintended side effect, it was. Do we really have no choice but to rely on our children next time too...?”

“Um, what if we made masks from the leaves and bark of the Puretree?” Linze suggested.

But Leen shook her head. “Even if we do not ingest the powder, it will still affect us if it is in close proximity to our skin.” They had managed to bring a sample back to Brunhild with [Prison], but even that couldn’t completely block out the effects.

The Puretree that Sousuke had cultivated had the ability to purify the effects of the divine venom. If they were able to have a Puretree present on the battlefield, then they could perhaps nullify the effects, but that was a huge ask.

“Then what if we covered our bodies with the leaves? Were there not people wearing similar clothes in the movie Touya showed us the other day?”

The clothes that Sue was talking about were the ghillie suits that snipers and hunters used up in the mountains as camouflage.

When the girls recalled that grassy outfit, all of them, including Sue despite being the one who had suggested it, refused it with a, “No, definitely not.” Though it wasn’t wrong to think that covering their bodies with the purifying effects of the Puretree might serve to nullify the effects of the divine venom.

“The idea itself is not a bad one,” Sakura said. “If we can take the fiber from the Puretree, and use that to make thread...”

“Then we can make clothes made of the fiber of the Puretree!” Linze finished, excitedly clapping her hands together at the suggestion. When it came to sewing, she was absolutely the master of the girls, having received training directly from Granny Tokie, the goddess of Space-time, herself. Her ability already exceeded that of a pro.

“So in other words, we will be making one of those ‘battle suits,’ we will?”

“That sounds good! Having matching battle outfits sounds wonderful!”

“We must make the thread and weave the fabric first, however, and we will need to test it to make sure it will actually resist the effects of the diluted venom.”

The nine excited duchesses began to clamor about what kind of outfit they wanted it to be.

“They should be cute!”

“No, functional beauty is best!”

The racket simply didn’t end.

Even if they’d suddenly had to become mothers for their children from the future, at the end of the day, they were still teenage girls. Getting worked up about fashion was a constant, no matter the generation.

◇ ◇ ◇

“Farnese, Yoshino! You two were the best!”

“He he he, thanks!”

“Yeah, yeah, I get it already.”

We held a party at the castle after the concert, and naturally, the Overlord of Xenoahs was there bawling his eyes out. The reactions from his daughter and granddaughter were complete opposites. He was endlessly repeating his praise for them so I couldn’t blame Sakura for finding him annoying. Even I was starting to feel it, not that I would say that out loud.

Generally, we wouldn’t bring the kids to parties like this where representatives of various countries were gathered, but this time was a little different. The party wasn’t like our usual summits. It was more of a social gathering as an after-party for the concert, so we had invited ministers and royal children as well.

The number of countries who had joined the League of Nations had already well exceeded thirty between both the east and west, and there were more guests here on top of that. Just how many hundreds of people had we invited to this thing?

Of course I remembered the kings and the representatives of their countries, but for anyone else underneath them, my memory was hazy, honestly speaking.

“Grand Duke, I must thank you for the wonderful performance today. I hope that one day your orchestra may perform in my country as well.”

And just as I was thinking that, here I am faced with some important person that I cannot for the life of me remember the name of.

He was just a regular old guy, not even a handlebar mustache or monocle in sight to maybe tip me off. Ummm, who was this again...?

《My liege, that is Lord Rozels from Gardio.》

“Thank you for your kind praise, Lord Rozels. Should the opportunity arise, I would be more than happy for them to perform in Gardio.”

With Kohaku’s reminder, I was able to respond with a polite smile. Shit, that was close.

I glanced to the side and saw Kohaku in Cesca’s arms; the maid was giving me a thumbs-up. Thanks to her being an artificial human, her memory was unmatched, letting me use tricks like this should the situation call for it.

Looking around the party venue, I spotted the representatives of Eashen and Orphen, countries on two completely opposite sides of the continent, happily chatting away with each other. It was probably easier for them to get along given their two countries had very similar cultures.

“Hm?”

In a different part of the room, I saw Quun and Arcia chatting with some other kids. They were all girls around the same age. I couldn’t recall seeing them before, so I imagined they were the daughters of the ministers.

They were both very skilled at acting the part of the noble lady while hiding their true selves, so I wasn’t particularly nervous watching them interact with other nobles. Though worded differently, it also meant that they were both very good at putting on facades...

Since we had disclosed that the children were my relatives, they were still treated like noble ladies of Brunhild. They were probably talking about how good the concert was.

And then suddenly, three boys who were also about their age approached them.

Hm? Are they about to try and hit on them? You’re a hundred years too early for that, kids.

I wanted nothing more than to go in and interfere directly, but given my position, I couldn’t be rude to a noble’s sons out of nowhere, so I stuck to glaring at them instead. If I knew this was going to happen, I should’ve assigned bodyguards to them.

The three boys were chatting away at the girls, but they weren’t getting the most engaged responses. In comparison to how proud they looked of themselves, the girls had smiles that weren’t reflected in their eyes.

Are they seriously that dense?

It was more than clear that the conversation wasn’t going smoothly. It looked as if they were boasting about something and the girls were getting annoyed by it.

They might have been hiding it well, but even Quun and Arcia were starting to look annoyed. Parla was standing by Quun’s feet, and she held a stun gun in her hands that let off a little bzzt.

Hang on, that’s just a little bit too far!

Just as I was hesitating over whether or not I should step in, the three boys’ pants suddenly fell, revealing their underwear to the girls.

“Huh?!”

“Eek!”

At the girls’ screaming, the boys quickly pulled their pants back up and ran out of the room with their faces bright red.

I noticed Arcia subtly drop a few little buckles to the floor, and then Parla quietly picked them up in order to dispose of the evidence. Were those the buckles for their belts? Damn you, Arcia, you totally used [Apport], didn’t you? What sort of child did I raise...? Good job.

Genuine smiles returned to the girls’ faces and they began chuckling among themselves. Their conversation once more resumed as if the boys had never existed.

“Your daughters don’t hold back, do they?”

“Is there any need to hold back against an enemy?”

“Enemy, huh? You guys really are alike...”

Ende was suddenly standing beside me. It seemed he’d seen the whole thing. He was standing in as security for this party too, given how many guests we had.

Ende had a different reason for wanting to do so, though.

And speak of the devil, here his reason is.

Lilting music began to float through the party hall—Yoshino had begun conducting the orchestra. Men and women began dancing together with the music, among them a couple much smaller than most.

It was Kuon and Allis.

This party also served as Allis’s test to see if she could dance well at a real occasion. She wouldn’t be punished if she messed up, though. Kuon and Allis weren’t present here today as the prince and princess of Brunhild, so the people gathered here today wouldn’t be that harsh on them.

The two danced gracefully to the music. Allis had a dazzling smile on her face, looking just like an ordinary noble girl. No, actually, she looked like even more than that. She’d really exceeded expectations.

Sighs of admiration escaped those around me at seeing such a young boy and girl dance so splendidly.

...Ignore the grinding teeth and tongue clicking coming from beside me.

Despite his complaints, Ende was still a doting father, and he was making sure to record the whole dance. He was likely going to show it to his wives later.

Kuon and Allis blended in perfectly fine with the adults, Kuon with his tailcoat, Allis with her ice-blue evening dress. Their clothes suited them well. For a prince and his fiancée, I had no complaints about their performance.

I glanced at Lu from the other side of the room, and she gave a strong thumbs-up. Guess they passed.

The song came to an end, and everyone bowed to their dance partners to a shower of applause. Even Ende had stopped recording and was clapping. While crying.

Come on, not here.

As if the Overlord wasn’t already bad enough.

“Look at how dazzling Allis is right now! But the fact that it’s your son doing that is so frustrating!”

“We really need to sit down and have a chat about this at some point, my dude.”

At this rate, he was going to become a clone of the overlord. If he wasn’t careful, he was gonna be locked into that route, and then Kuon would be subjected to endless suffering. “At least have the decency to accept your daughter’s boyfriend.”

“You better remember what you just said! ’Cause I’m gonna say it right back at you with your daughters! Eight whole times at that!”

“Oi!”

This bastard... He should know that I didn’t want to think about that! You wanna go, huh?!

“You two really are just a couple of big kids. Stop glaring at each other like that.”

Elze yanked us apart. Though she wasn’t that used to wearing dresses, she was wearing one just for today.

I suddenly realized that we had been garnering a fair bit of attention with our argument.

We both gave awkward smiles and bowed our heads. “Nothing’s wrong here. Sorry for the commotion.”

“It was about the kids again, wasn’t it? I really can’t envision a future where you two actually let your kids leave the nest.”

Elze gave an exasperated sigh, shaking her head.

Hey, the kids aren’t even born yet in our time! It’s way too soon for them to be leaving the nest.

“You’re one to talk,” Ende immediately retorted, seemingly ticked off by Elze’s remark. “I hear you’ve barely left Elna alone recently.”

“Uh, excuse me! Elna’s a real good kid! What’s wrong with me wanting to spoil her?”

“Yeah, there’s nothing wrong with that, at all! Elna’s an absolute angel!”

“Huh?! Why are you on her side?!”

Ende was hurt at my supposed betrayal, but like I would ever side with him over Elze!

“What are you three even doing?” Leen cut in, with as exasperated a look as Elze had earlier. Paula was by her feet shaking her head.

Hey, don’t you join in.

“Please don’t make an embarrassment out of Brunhild. What good is it for the children to raise people’s opinion of us only for the adults to plummet it back down again?”

Leen looked over at Kuon and Allis, who were currently surrounded by onlookers praising them for their dance.

Naturally, even we couldn’t ignore those words, and we immediately pulled ourselves together.

C’mon, Touya, you’re supposed to be the role model here.

“Now then, darling, stop carrying on over here and go say your hellos, will you? That is the job of the grand duke, after all.”

“Yes, ma’am...”

I began walking around the venue at Leen’s insistence. I guess I should start with the fathers.

“Hey there, Touya! The concert was amazing!”

Having already started drinking, the king of Belfast raised a wine glass to me in greeting together with the king of Regulus. I returned the greeting. Both of them looked satisfied with smiles on their faces.

“Kuon’s dance was splendid. I’m proud that he is my grandson. Oh wait, I’m supposed to keep that secret.”

The wine appeared to have loosened his lips, and he chugged the wine in his glass as if to cover up what he’d said.

“Your Majesty, Lucia was the one who taught Kuon how to dance. Of course he would be so skilled. I’m proud that she is my daughter.”

Aren’t there one too many doting fathers at this party? “Isn’t that the pot calling the kettle black?” you say? Ha ha ha, good one.

“That aside, Touya, I heard from Zadonia that there have apparently been sightings recently of the Phrase over there.”

“Of the Phrase?”

I couldn’t hide my surprise at the king’s words. All the Phrase should have been absorbed by the wicked god and become mutants. Did that mean there were survivors? I definitely did a [Search] of the whole world for them after the confrontation to make sure.

“Yes, at least that’s what they said. It should be noted that the eyewitnesses were merchants lost in a blizzard, so there is the chance they were simply hallucinating from exhaustion, or simply mistook an ice monster for one. I thought it pertinent to inform you, regardless.”

Being the Land of Frost, Zadonia was a land covered in, well, snow and ice. There were even Ice Turtles with glaciers sticking out their backs. It wasn’t out of the question for someone to mistake that for a Phrase.

If there really were Phrase there, though, there was no way that Dominant Constructs or the former Sovereign wouldn’t be able to detect them.

“Hm, perhaps it was just a mistake, after all. I was a little afraid we were about to face another one of those large-scale invasions.”

I reassured the king that everything would be fine, but...would they really? Could it be that there were latecomers that arrived here from Phrasia? The anxiety refused to stop pricking at my mind like little thorns.

At the end of the day, if they really were Phrase, Melle and the other Dominant Constructs would be able to deal with it.

I took out my smartphone and ran another [Search] for the Phrase.

“No targets detected.”

There really were no Phrase. If they were within a barrier or had a warding amulet, my magic wouldn’t be able to detect them, but they were Phrase. There was no way they held something like that. It had to be a misunderstanding.

But I just couldn’t take my mind off of it, so I decided I should talk to the king of Zadonia about it directly.

Prince Frost...or should I say, King Frost of the Kingdom of Zadonia was chatting away happily with the king of his neighboring country, Dauburn. Given how much their parents had argued, it was fascinating to see them get along so well. It probably helped that their fiancées, who were also attending this party, were siblings.

“Ah, Your Grace! I must thank you for inviting me to this concert.”

“It was a beautiful performance. I hope the day arrives when we may see your orchestra perform in our own country one day.”

The two of them greeted me as I walked up. Their fiancées, the princesses of Allent, gave me curtsies.

After exchanging some casual chitchat and catching up, I asked the king of Zadonia about the supposed Phrase sighting.

“Thanks to the spirits, Zadonia is gradually becoming a much more livable climate, but there are still areas of extreme cold. Some merchants who ended up lost in one of those regions saw a large transparent snail within the blizzard that looked as if it was made of ice.”

An ice snail, huh? If I recalled correctly, there was a monster known as a Cold Snail in the region that was a snail with a shell of ice.

“I’ve seen a Cold Snail myself; they’re about a meter tall at most. Meanwhile, the snail witnessed was at least three meters.”

Yeah, that was way too big to be a regular monster, but there was still the possibility that it was just a Behemoth.

“One of the merchants said something else interesting: inside that transparent shell was a round blue core.”

“A core?”

Now that...made it more possible that it was a Phrase survivor. Still no confirmation, but...

As I said earlier, even if it was the Phrase, we had Melle. There was no way they would defy her. It had to be okay... It had to.

I parted ways with the two kings, and then watched everyone dancing to the music that had begun again. As I was lost in thought about the Phrase sighting, Yumina appeared in front of me, wearing her white evening dress. She smiled and held her hand out to me.

“If you have finished your duties, how about a dance?”

“Um...I’m not as good as our son, but if you don’t mind that, then sure.”

I took Yumina’s hand, and we joined the circle of twirling dresses.

◇ ◇ ◇

“Hazel and Orchid were both defeated. Your strategy was entirely useless.”

“I never anticipated how quickly the enemy would attack. I did think that worst-case scenario, one of us would end up being defeated, but not two,” Indigo matter-of-factly responded to Tangerine’s remark. Not that it appeared Tangerine had been trying to criticize him; in fact, she was almost teasing him.

Their group didn’t particularly view each other as companions anyway; they simply viewed each other as game pieces for the other to use however they needed. They might think it a shame to lose one of said pieces, but nothing more than that.

“Such a shame that they both died for no meaning.”

“There was meaning,” Scarlet piped up. “We were able to gain vital combat information from their battles. If we make use of this, we can enhance the Kyklops even further.” He was scanning the data that had been sent from Hazel’s and Orchid’s Kyklops.

“Yeah, okay,” Tangerine spat out with disinterest.

One of the rooms of the Ark had been refurbished into a research laboratory for Scarlet. The Ark held not only artifacts left over by one of the rare Gollem engineers, Chrom Ranchesse, but also the Gollems that had assisted him in his work. Scarlet was using them as if they were an extension of his limbs as he began designing the next Kyklops. Everything else held no space within his mind.

Having lost interest in Scarlet, Tangerine began looking around.

“Where’s Gold?”

“Next door. Seems he’s as obsessed with the core as always,” Indigo informed her.

Tangerine made her way through an automatic door to the neighboring room. In the dimly lit room, she saw a small golden Gollem standing in front of a large glass cylinder. The cylinder was filled with a dull purple liquid, and within that was some kind of spiky object about the size of a golf ball.

The small Gollem was simply looking up at it. Tangerine sighed. It was the exact same sight as always.

“Seriously, I don’t know how you can just stand there looking at that every day without getting bored. Are you sure that’s going to become our trump card?”

“...It will. It still sleeps. But when it wakes...”

Without turning to look at Tangerine, the little Gollem spoke with a gravelly mechanical voice.

“Hope it wakes up soon, then. Before we lose all the cards we have left.”

The gold crown returned nothing but silence.