Chapter 2: Meeting on a Street Corner in Van (part 3)

In our search for a place to get lunch, Juna had led us to the plaza with the Jewel

Voice Broadcast receiver. This place had been an open field only a month ago, but

now it was packed with stalls selling food and assorted goods. We had only just set

foot in the plaza, but we could already hear the owners of stalls calling in customers,

and customers haggling for a better deal.

The faces in the crowd were diverse, too. Housewives were here to buy

ingredients for dinner. A group of craftsmen was here for lunch. Even off-duty

soldiers from the kingdom's forces were here to buy snacks.

Must be from the Army, I thought to myself. The Army and Air Force soldiers

camped outside were allowed to enter the city when they were off duty.

I could also see a large number of non-humans who looked like travelers or

adventurers. Race, job, nationality... none of it mattered here. It was one big

hodgepodge of people of all ages and genders.

"...How did it end up like this?" I wondered.

"Thanks to Sir Poncho, Van's food crisis has been alleviated considerably, but

only so many people can produce food good enough to support a restaurant," Juna

explained. "However, the people who think they can manage a food stall gather here.

This is the largest marketplace in all of Van now."

"In an out-of-the-way place like this?" I asked. "Wouldn't they be better off on the

main street?"

"It's because the receiver for the Jewel Voice Broadcast is here."

"Oh, I get it..."

Ever since that music program had aired, as a test, we had been broadcasting

Chris Tachyon's news program during the day and the singing program at night. The

customers hadn't gathered because there were stalls here; the stalls had gathered

because there were people here waiting to watch the Jewel Voice Broadcast.

It's kind of like the black market in post-war Japan, I thought. Maybe it'll end up

like Ameyoko someday.

Juna and the loreleis only appeared on the music program on weekends. On

every other day of the week, we ran a program where contestants hoping to become

loreleis competed. The Jewel Voice Broadcast was always live, so if the loreleis had

been the only ones who ever appeared on the program, it would have put too much

stress on them.

If anyone who appeared on that contest program was deemed to have a gift for

singing, they could be newly instated as a singer like Margarita, or, if they were

attractive, a lorelei. If they were male, they could debut as one of the new class of

male idols: the singing knights, orpheuses.

The program was simulcast in two countries, Elfrieden and Amidonia, and it

could be seen in any city where there was a receiver. The reaction might be different

in Amidonia, or the cities in Elfrieden might be reacting similarly to this.

I'll need to estimate the economic impact of this later, I thought with a grin. That

was when Tomoe pulled on my coat.

"Big brother, I'm hungry," she said.

"Oh, right," Juna said. "Well, how about we get something from one of the stalls?"

"Yeah! ♪" Tomoe sang.

"Then that's what we'll do," said Juna.

The three of us looked around the different stalls. Forty percent of the stalls sold

food, twenty percent sold various accessories, twenty percent sold equipment, while

the remainder dealt in other things.

It looked like a lot of the food stalls were selling skewers. Van was a long way

from the sea, so they could only get their hands on river fish, and with the food

crisis, grains and vegetables were in short supply. For meat, on the other hand, all

they had to do was hunt wild animals.

They were likely selling meat that had been hunted outside the city walls.

Because of that, none of the stalls openly stated what kind of meat they were selling.

This was worse than them mislabeling their meat to sell it at a higher price; it was a

total mystery what creatures any of it came from.

"It feels like a gamble buying any of the skewers..." I muttered.

Horned rabbit meat, I could probably handle, but giant rat and lizard meat, well...

I think my sanity stat would take some serious loss from eating that. Besides, if they

had just hunted whatever they could get their hand on from the nearby fields, there

was no telling what diseases or parasites it might have. There were no food

sanitation laws in this world, and none of the cooks were licensed.

I'll need to institute all of that, too, eventually... I thought.

"It's fine," Juna said with a very lovely smile. "I had the marines come here ahead

of us and serve as poison tasters. Allow me to guide you to a safe stall."

"Poison tasters?! Not taste testers?!"

"If anything were to happen to you, it would be a national crisis," she said. "It's

only natural that we would test anything from the market for poison. Your body is

no longer yours alone, you know?"

What, am I pregnant now? I wanted to quip, but I got what she was trying to say. I

didn't know if I'd be able to use Living Poltergeists if I was sick from food poisoning.

If I couldn't, that would mean the country's administration would be short several

instances of me.

...Yeah, it looked like poison tasters were going to be a necessity, for my people's

sake. I'd just have to accept it.

"And? What was the result of the poison tasting?" I asked.

"One person complained of stomach pain and dropped out."

"Dispatch a messenger to the castle!" I exclaimed. "Whenever a dish including

meat or fish is sold, the ingredients must be listed in the store! Inform them that if

they fail to do so, or if there is an error in the ingredients displayed, their business

will be shut down!"

"Understood." Juna sent one of the marines who were guarding us to run off that

message to the castle.

This was the moment the Elfrieden Kingdom saw the beginnings of its first food

safety law.

I intended to expand the range of things that required their ingredients be posted

in due time, but before that, I wanted to clamp down on meat fraud. If there were

bacteria or parasites, it could be a matter of life and death.

"O, fallen marines," I mourned. "I will not let your deaths be in vain."

"No, they're not dead. It's just food poisoning," Juna said, rolling her eyes.

No, no, even food poisoning can be a matter of life and death, I'll have you know, I

thought. Once, my grandfather had eaten some raw eggs that were past their

expiration date. He got salmonella, and was hospitalized for days. Fortunately, it

wasn't too serious, but his refusal to throw out a few eggs that were ten yen apiece

had cost him tens of thousands of yen in hospital fees. Grandma had teased him

about that for a good long time.

Well, setting that aside for now, we bought our skewers from a place Juna

suggested, along with some mixed juice from a fruit seller, and sat down on a simple

bench to eat.

Tomoe chomped right down on her skewer. "Yeah, this is delicious, big brother."

"Yeah. This meat is pretty good," I agreed.

"The juice is delicious, too, Master Kazuya," said Juna.

The meat was nice and juicy. It wasn't that far off from the beef skewers that

were sold at festivals, so I asked what meat it was. It turned out it was from a

bigbull, a big, buffalo-like animal.

The juice wasn't chilled, but it was getting to be late in autumn now, so it didn't

feel too warm. It was a bit sour, but that was refreshing after eating the greasy meat

skewer. With our stomachs now full, we took a breather and relaxed for a bit.

Tomoe started nodding off next to me, so I decided to let her have a nap. Tomoe

rested her head in my lap, she curled into a ball, and her breathing became shallow.

When I petted her head, it was silky smooth, like a real dog's fur.

"Hee hee, isn't she just the cutest?" Juna said as she peered at Tomoe's sleeping

face. Then, moving in close enough that our shoulders touched, she quietly

whispered with a sad look on her face, "I hope these peaceful days last forever..."

"Please don't go saying things that trip event flags like that," I said. "You know

that can't happen, right?"

Juna nodded. "The Imperial Army is almost here. They number nearly 50,000."

"50,000? That's fewer than I thought," I said.

We had a force of 45,000 troops from the Elfrieden Royal Army gathered in Van

now, so our forces were more or less equal. Of course, once Amidonia's troops were

added into the equation, they'd no doubt had the superior force, but I had expected

them to come with three times our number.

For the Gran Chaos Empire, which had called for mankind to unite against the

threat of the Demon Lord's Domain, I highly doubted that they wanted to open a

new front against us, but if they'd brought enough troops to make it possible for

them to take Van, it would have worked to intimidate us.

And yet, Juna shook her head. "Most likely, the Amidonians were hesitant to

allow that. They must have been worried that if the Empire came with a huge army,

there was a risk they'd take this country for themselves."

"As the country that issued the Mankind Declaration, I somehow doubt the

Empire would do that, though, you know?" I said.

If they said they wouldn't recognize any changes in borders on one hand, and

then launched a war of invasion on the other, the Mankind Declaration wouldn't be

worth the paper it was written on. If that happened, they would lose the trust of the

countries in their alliance, and the Empire's strategy of uniting mankind in the face

of the Demon Lord's Domain would collapse.

"I mean, that's exactly why the Empire offered to mediate," I added.

"Amidonia has already circumvented the Mankind Declaration," said Juna.

"Having betrayed the trust of the Empire themselves, they may be nervous about

being betrayed in turn."

"...Like being caught in their own web of lies, huh."

They had been caught in their own trap. The principality had acted against the

wishes of the Empire, but they had to cling to its authority now that they had found

themselves in a crisis. They must have felt somewhat guilty about that.

On top of that, nobody respects opportunists, so they had lost the trust of other

countries. They had to be trembling with fear that the Empire would abandon them.

"It makes you want to roll your eyes a bit... but it's convenient for us," I said. "If

there's a rift between the principality and the Empire, there may be room for us to

act."

"Hee hee hee, it's time for our king to show off his skills," said Juna.

"...I wish you wouldn't put so much pressure on me, you know?" I asked.

"Oh, my, and here I thought you were Master Kazuya right now?" she responded

playfully.

She probably wanted to get back at me for earlier. That was Juna for you—just

when you thought you had a leg up on her, she'd turn things back around.

"Good day, everyone. It's time for News Elfrieden."

Then, suddenly, we heard Chris Tachyon's voice.

It looked like it was time for the afternoon news broadcast. When I looked up, the

image of Chris reading out the news was displayed on the mist in the air.

Wow... So this is what our broadcasts look like to the people in town, I thought. This

was my first time seeing it on one of the fountain receivers. With the screen being as

big as a movie theater's, it made quite an impact.

"Now, our first story of the day. The new coastal city under construction in

Eastern Elfrieden, Venetinova, is currently nearing completion. With Venetinova in

place, shipping by land and sea will become more efficient, allow for the faster

delivery of commodities to..."

This news would had been gathered from all around the Elfrieden Kingdom

(which included Van), using messenger kuis like the one Aisha used to stay in

contact with the God-Protected Forest. (Messenger kuis were birds, like messenger

pigeons. Using their homing instinct and their ability to detect the waves emitted by

their master at long distances, they allowed a specific individual and location to

contact each other.) Their strength was that even mountain villages that didn't

receive Jewel Voice Broadcasts could still receive information. However, unlike the

Jewel Voice Broadcast, which could communicate information in real time, that

information would come a day or two late.

For instance, if an incident occurred in Lagoon City in the far northeast of

Elfrieden, the information wouldn't be directly delivered to Van. Instead, it would

wait for the kuis that carried news to each city at regular intervals. Then, when the

kui carried the news to another city, other kuis would leave that city to bring the

news to other cities. The kuis had to fly long distances, so this was to protect against

communication being cut off if a kui was attacked by a predator en route. By the

way, urgent news would be delivered not by messenger kui, but by wyvern riders.

Because of that, it wasn't possible to deliver all the news that happened in a day

on that same day.

"Now, onto our next story. In the early hours of yesterday morning, a minor fire

broke out in Van..."

From there, Chris reported the various accidents and incidents that had occurred

in the kingdom, followed by information on how to cook lily root dumplings and

other useful information for people's daily lives.

As for myself, I thought it would be convenient if we could incorporate a weather

forecast into the program, but that seemed like it would be quite difficult. There was

a certain amount of weather lore in this world, and there were people who could

predict the weather by reading the clouds based off many long years of experience.

However, as I just mentioned, without a high-speed means of communication, we

couldn't transmit that information in real time.