In the World of Midgar 86 — The Beast Country Draupnir (1)

꒰ঌ The Beast Country Draupnir 1

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What do you usually imagine when hearing the word 'capital'? Wouldn't the first thing be a huge castle surrounded by the roofs of houses in a castle town? All the places we'd been until now — Laevateinn, Svel, and Gjallarhorn — all had that in common, though the particulars were all different. Blutgang was basically a gigantic castle itself, so it was an exception…

Well, most people would imagine a capital in an RPG setting to be a western town from the Middle Ages with a castle plopped down in the middle. That's what I think of, at least. Basically, it's a trope. All fantasy RPGs were fundamentally built on Western culture. There was an Eastern one every once in a while, though. They'd be obvious about it from the very start, with yokai or oni instead of monsters, among other things. At the very least, all the concepts of monsters, magic, swords, heroes, and a demon lord were all united under Western RPG sensibilities.

At any rate, reality was… Like, if someone woke you up by saying "Now awaken, hero," and you were a sword-wielding hero, but you picked up your sword and went outside to see a townscape straight out of Old Edo… Like, that'd be weird, right? It'd just feel wrong, right? I mean, how would you feel if you were sent on a quest to defeat the demon lord and needed to go to the demon lord's castle, but the castle looked like Osaka Castle and the demon lord had a topknot and wore a kimono? What if the hero also had a topknot, wore a kimono, and talked like an old-timey samurai… It'd be weird, right?

Then, the demon lord would be, like, "Why do you struggle to close your borders so? Cultural exchange is a joy, and Western culture is the most beautiful thing. Now come. Be swallowed by my culture and modernize!"

That'd be awful, right? It'd be really weird. At the very least, I'd refuse to play it.

Well, I hadn't encountered an Eastern-style town yet, as expected. This was also a trope in RPGs where there'd inexplicably be a Japanese-style country named Zipang or 'Eastern Country' or something in the Eastern region for some reason. That didn't seem to exist in this world, though.

Katanas did exist, though, so something like that might have existed in the past. After all, some of the countries players had set up in the game had basically been purely Japanese in culture. Well, they all disappeared when I'd conquered them, though.

Whoops, got off track.

The point I was trying to make was that when tasked with imagining a capital, people automatically think of a western town. But right now, the town I saw was as far from Western as you could get.

Wait… Is this actually the capital? Is this even a city in the first place?

Right now, the place we were standing could be summed up as grasslands. While the grass may have been trampled flat, it was still straight-up just grasslands. There weren't even any clear roads built so it was easier for people to pass through.

Tent-like buildings were set up here and there. What are those called…? Those things that Mongols and other nomads used…? A yurt? Not really sure about that…

There was a forest nearby, and it seemed as if there were more beastmen living in there too.

"Just what are capitals?"

"Capitals are wherever the king is. Well, it seems like Draupnir has an Emperor, though, not a King. So instead of a kingdom's capital, this'd be an empire's capital."

"Oh? Emperor? How confident."

"Beastmen have a much larger variety of peoples compared to other races. For example, among the flugels you basically just have the white-winged and everyone else, but the beastmens are different. There're felines and canines and horses and cows. There're even elephants and rabbits… If you start counting, there'd be no end to them. And even among the felines, there're cats, tigers, lions, panthers, cheetahs, and even more besides."

I nodded in understanding. "Hmm. So unlike the group the name beastmen suggests, they're more like a bunch of finely separated species."

It was common knowledge that there were seven races of humanity in Midgar, but apparently the 'beastmen' were just a bunch of different races forced into a single category. It made sense, though. There was no way a lion beastmen was the same as a rabbit beastmen. The forest in this world had animals like tigers and bears living in it. If each of these different groups had counted as individual races, then the races of humanity would've easily cleared one hundred, and almost all of them would've been beastmen.

Right, so that's why they combined them into one…

"They needed a ruler who could unite and rule over all these different beastmen. That's why they used the higher-ranking title of emperor rather than king. Well, that's how they explain it, anyway."

"So, an emperor because they stand above many races? We see."

"Naming themselves equal to Lady Lucy? The true emperor…? Absurd! Maybe I should fill this tiny, hackneyed country up with poison right now… !"

I was fine with Minako's exposition, but apparently Anko wasn't a fan. I hurriedly stuck out my hand to stop her, since she was already preparing for battle while spitting violent, poisonous words.

"Stop that, Anko. It's true that We are no emperor at the moment. It does not matter who names themselves what."

"Ahhh, yes, Lady Lucy! You're so tolerant and forgiving!" As soon as I stopped her, she immediately withdrew her murderous aura and once again stuck herself on my arm. With my specs I didn't really feel anything, but if I were normal, I was sure my arm would have been torn off long ago. I was scared to tell her to get off already, since I wasn't sure what she'd do if I said that.

Maybe I was a tad too hasty in recruiting her…?

"But Anko has a point. Lady Lucy is the only one who's worthy of being called an EMPEROR, which stands above KING, since she once managed to unite the world. What do you think, Lady Lucy? After we reunite all the Twelve Zodiac's Guardians, we can conquer the world once again so you can take your Emperor title back!"

"That's a good idea for a crab. Then when that happens, why don't we rename ourselves? We can go from the Heavenly Twelve Zodiac's Guardians to the Imperial Heavenly Twelve Zodiac's Guardians!"

"Oh, that sounds cool!"

Behind me, a crab, a goat, and a sheep were getting excited over plans about me while ignoring my opinion.

How many times have I said that I don't care about world conquest anymore? Why do I have to retread the same path? You all realize that if I do that, I'll just end up in the Last Boss route again and get defeated by the hero?

Having to deal with the hero, the Grimm King, and the Goddess's factions all at once is just impossible! The hero's weak right now, but he had really high class bonuses. If he ever got to level 1000, he'd be able to match us, you know? Seriously, calm down with those ridiculous cheat-powers.

Oh wait. I forgot about Ruby and Sienna. I'd have to deal with five factions. Yep. Impossible.

"Well, We don't care much for that. More importantly, where do you apply for the hunting festival?"

"I think we can just follow everyone else for now."

"Then let's do that."

I followed Minako's suggestion and went with the flow.

This was just a small detail, but right now, I was using the full suspicious-person disguise, the cloak completely covering me. It was just in case, since there were elves and flugels around at this festival too. There was no guarantee that no one here would remember my face.

Luckily, I didn't stand out too much thanks to the fact that there were so many travelers and adventurers streaming in from everywhere. Some of the adventurers around me had such eccentric appearances that even I wanted to question their choices out loud. Thanks to that, I was in the more sensible camp for once. More specifically, I could see some idiotic dude in bikini armor, among others. Like, come on. That's just suspect no matter how good the stats are… It's true that you can put on women's armor if you really want to, since this isn't the game, but…

"Miss Lucy, that…" Wendy pointed out the bikini armor guy, but I quickly blocked her view.

"Don't look."

You can't look at perverts like that. You'll ruin your eyesight.

"Still, there really are all kinds of beastmen, aren't there? It's amazing that Blake managed to unite all these people."

It was once again impressed upon me just how many different beastmen there were as I looked around. The more I looked, the more varieties I saw, from the obvious dogs and cats, to even lizardmen and other reptilian types. It was surprising that they also counted as beastmen. I also confirmed people who basically looked like regular human with just ears and/or tails stuck on. Were they half-beastmen?

There were a couple demerits to it at first glance, though. If the half-beastmen was a guy or had a less-than-ideal face, the animal parts just wouldn't fit. Like, just who would want a bearded old dude with rabbit ears? Was he gonna leap through the air while saying "Mamma mia," or something?

"If I may, you shouldn't expect much of these empty-headed livestock. I can say this for sure, since they were stupid enough to destroy you and take over your rule."

I was simply impressed by Blake's achievements, but Penny was much more critical. You really are completely ruthless to all the Seven Maidens of Midgar other than Jenny, aren't you?

"Oh, that looks like a line. Let's go."

"That looks like our destination."

As we followed the stream of people, we eventually found a line with all sorts of travelers in it. The front capped at some sort of reception-like setup, so it seemed to be what we had been looking for.

We got in the back of the line and waited for our turn.

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