Epilogue 2: On To Yet Another Country(1)

MISTERLP

Having formed our contracts with Naden and Ruby in the Star Dragon

Mountain Range, we returned to the kingdom.

Like I'd told Tomoe, the castle was still being swamped with marriage

proposals, so I planned to continue my trip abroad. Though, we had some

items like the Little Susumu Mark V and Little Musashibo which were

bulky and ill-suited to our trip, so we came back to drop them off.

When Naden, the black ryuu, and Ruby, the red dragon, set down in

Parnam Castle, the castle guards started panicking. Even if they already

knew about Naden, they hardly could have anticipated that Ruby would be

joining us, too...

Come to think of it, I had totally forgotten to report that.

Regardless, I dismounted from Naden and headed over to the gondola

Ruby had been carrying. Naden carried the gondola on the way there, but

she was going to be my queen. If she carried it and Hal's wife arrived

empty-handed, it would have reflected poorly on Ruby, so we decided

Ruby would carry it.

"Ruby," Naden said. "You carried it without any shaking, I hope?"

"Shove off, Naden. I carried it just fine."

Naden and Ruby started bickering the moment they changed back into

human form.

There was supposed to be a hierarchical relationship between them

now, as the wives of a king and one of his retainers, but it seemed like

neither of them cared, and they were having a good time sniping at each

other. This sort of relationship must have been easier for them.

Then the door to the gondola opened and Liscia came out. "Urgh..."

"Liscia?!" I exclaimed.

The moment she got onto the ground, Liscia stumbled, so I hurried to

catch her. With Liscia in my arms, I looked at her to find she was looking

pale, and covering her mouth.

"A-Are you okay?! What's wrong?!"

"Sorry... I'm a little unsteady on my feet... Is it motion sickness?"

Motion sickness from the gondola... Was that it? Seeing Liscia like

that, Naden blamed Ruby.

"You said you didn't let it shake!" Naden yelled.

"I-I don't think it did, okay?!"

"Calm down, please," said Aisha, disembarking. "I don't think it shook

that much."

Liscia laughed weakly, and added, "I don't think it's Ruby's fault," to

cover for her. "I think the fatigue from the long trip finally got to me. I

must have failed to manage my health properly."

"Are you really okay?" I asked.

"Yeah... But I'm going on ahead to rest in my room. Carla, would you

come with me?"

"O-Okay. You can lean on me."

"Should I come with you, too?" I asked.

"You have to give Hakuya a report on what happened, don't you,

Souma? You need to make living arrangements for Naden and Ruby, too.

I'll be fine, so go do your job."

Urkh... When she said it like that, there was nothing I could say back to

her.

In the end, all I could do was watch as Liscia left for her room, leaning

on Carla's shoulder for support. If I acted too worried, she would probably

get mad, so I decided to focus on what needed to get done for now.

"Now that we have everyone gathered together..."

By the time I returned to the governmental affairs office, discussed

with Haakuya the events that had transpired, took care of the various

procedures that had to be handled for Naden and Ruby, and sent out an

order to the research institute regarding an investigation into overscience

relics, the date had changed. Now that the work was all handled, I

summoned the members of my traveling entourage once more.

In the room were the six who returned with us: Aisha, Naden, Carla,

Halbert, Kaede, and Ruby; plus three more, Hakuya, Juna, and Roroa, who

had been holding down the fort. Liscia still wasn't feeling well, so she was

in her room resting.

"Is it still a good idea for me to be away from the castle?" I asked with

a glance to Hakuya.

He nodded in confirmation. "Yes... The number of marriage proposals

coming to the castle still hasn't dropped off."

That figures. The situation in the Star Dragon Mountain Range went by

so quickly that it took fewer days than I'd been expecting, after all. No,

with all that happened, I should be happy it had been resolved so quickly.

"...Well, that being the case, I think I'll go on a diplomatic mission to

another country. Liscia's health worries me, but she herself told me to go."

I was actually thinking of staying in the castle until Liscia fully

recovered, but she said, "I don't want my poor health to stop you from

taking this important opportunity to visit other countries." She strongly

stressed that "Contact with other cultures will help to fuel you. So I want

you to go and see the world."

If she was going to say it like that, I had no choice but to go.

"Tomoe is waiting at that village, so I want to set out tomorrow," I

said. "Now, as for our next destination... I think I'd like to go to the

Republic of Turgis."

The Republic of Turgis was a land of frigid cold in the southernmost

reaches of the continent. It was an inaccessible country, covered in snow

and ice during the winter, and the skies there were disrupted by warm air

currents, making it so wyverns couldn't fly. They had a national policy of

northward expansionism, and they recently showed signs of making a

move north during the war with the Principality of Amidonia, hadn't they?

I looked to each of my companions and then said, "I don't really

understand the moves that country is making. It's a country I don't

understand very well in general, so I'd like to see what things are like there

for myself. Whether we're going to have hostile or cordial relations with

them in the future, I think knowing more about that country will let me

make more appropriate decisions."

The battle with the Principality of Amidonia happened because they

had already firmed up their will to oppose us, so there was no room for me

to investigate their domestic situation. It could also be said that that was

why Roroa had gotten the drop on me in the end. In order to prevent that

from happening next time, I wanted to thoroughly investigate things in

advance.

"Th-The Republic of Turgis?" Naden asked.

"...That's not exactly a place I care to go," Ruby added.

Both of them wore unpleasant looks on their faces.

I knew wyverns hated cold places, but it looked like that went for ryuus

and dragons, too.

It was mid-May, and the Kingdom had already warmed up. Apparently

in the Republic however, the temperature had only risen to around ten

degrees Celsius. That climate would be harsh on Naden and Ruby.

"It's a cold land, after all. I don't think I'll be of much use as a

bodyguard, either," said Carla, who, as dragonewt, also had trouble

dealing with the cold.

If she wore thick clothes, she could come, but she apparently wanted to

say that if that slowed her down, that made bringing her as a bodyguard

pointless.

Not being able to bring those three would be a huge cut to our overall

firepower, but they couldn't help it if their races made them ill-suited to

the task at hand. If they forced themselves to do things they couldn't

reasonably be expected to, and they ruined their health as a result, it would

trouble me. I'd have to give up on them this time.

"Naden, Ruby, Carla: please stay in the kingdom," I said. "I'll have

Liscia rest and recover this time, too. Aisha, Hal, and Kaede, I'd like the

three of you to continue on as my bodyguards. We'll bring Tomoe and

Inugami, too."

"Leave it to me." Aisha pounded a fist against her chest.

""Y-Yes, sir."" Hal and Kaede saluted.

"Also... Roroa."

"Hm? Me?" Roroa had a blank look on her face.

"I'd like you to come along, too. I want you to look into goods we

could trade with the republic. You own a company, so I'm sure you're

familiar with trade goods."

Roroa's face burst into a beaming smile. "Oh! You don't mind me

comin' with you? Yippee! Mweheheh, just you leave it to me, darlin'. I'll

find ya some nice trade goods." She wrapped herself around my arm.

While patting her on the head, I turned to Juna next. "If I'm bringing

Roroa, that leaves me less than confident in the amount of firepower we

have on hand. So, Juna..."

"Yes?"

"Juna, I'd like you to come, too. Can you work that into your

schedule?"

As the Prima Lorelei, Juna was the face of the Jewel Voice Broadcast.

She was the host of the educational program, and she needed to appear on

the singing program, too. That was why there were no openings in her

schedule, and the question was really, Is it possible for you to adjust your

schedule?

Juna gave me a broad smile. "Hee hee. It's fine. Or more like I'll make

it so it's fine," she said definitively, bringing a hand to her chest and

bowing. "If I have Komari and Siena cover for me on the educational

program, it should be no trouble. The younger loreleis are growing up, and

I think they should be fine without me for a little while."

"They will? That helps."

"No, just like Roroa, I want to travel with you, sire." Juna gave me a

teasing wink. Yeah, she was very charming.

For now, the members of the group were chosen.

"Hakuya, could I get you to try putting in a request for talks with the

Republic of Turgis?" I asked. "I basically intend to go incognito, but I may

need to request a meeting on the spot. Set things up for me, would you?"

"Understood." Hakuya bowed and accepted the task.

Okay, that was everything more or less ready.

"Well then, everyone," I said. "shall we be on our way?"

And so we left for the frozen country of the south: the Republic of

Turgis.