Volume 5 - CH 16

“An envoy from the demon territory is a strange story.”

The day after the entrance ceremony.

I was visiting the principal’s office on the top floor of the main building.

I say this in front of the petite dwarf old woman.

“The demons are enemies of the empire, and there is no official diplomatic relationship with them. In the era of the Demon King, they formed an allied army, but they never became a nation… What kind of representative of them is there, and for what purpose, will they visit, not the imperial capital or border towns, but in places like Rodonea.”

“… Stop asking obvious things.”

The principal replies with a pained expression.

“Such a thing, of course is just a pretext to seize the Hero.”

“Yeah, I guess so.”

“But… it’s true that demons were visiting this city. Of course, they weren’t messengers.”

“Yeah… I guess they came to kill the hero anyway, just like they did two years ago. It’s a pity that even after they’re dead, they’re still being used for human conspiracies.”

“…………Is it you?”

I answer with a smirk on my face.

“Come on. What are you asking?”

“… well, that’s fine. I don’t care about things like that now.”

The principal says in a harsh voice.

“As you can see, Marquis Greville used the demons’ invasion and death, which the royal court knew about, and invented a suitable reason to kidnap that girl.…What did you come here to do? Did you come to blame me for my student’s kidnapping?”

“No”

I say with my eyes down.

“ I just want to know why they took Amiyu.”

“….”

“It seems to me that the Marquis de Greville wants to get rid of the—- hero for some unreasonable reason. I don’t understand that. Why would an aristocrat in charge of national politics dare to shatter the vessel of a national hero and abandon their superiority over the demon tribe?”

“That’s… no.”

The school principal started to say something and immediately stopped.

“I’m not a military expert. Let’s not say anything uncertain. The only thing I can say is……is that the Empire is not a monolith.”

“….”

“Lamprog, you too are a nobleman, you know what I mean. There are various factions among the nobles in the court, in the assembly, in the society, in the city, in the trading companies, and in the nobility. Among them, of course, there is also a faction made up of school graduates. Do you understand, Lamprog The fact that the academy has a Hero means that their faction is powerful and violent.”

“……”

“Some people don’t like that.”

I open my mouth after a short silence.

“You betray your …… homeland and your people and kill a Hero……a girl because of a circumstance of that magnitude?”

” It’s not that, Lamprog.”

The principal says admonishingly 

“They are never motivated by simple desire. There are very few of them. Political events are complex. In their own way, they are in the dark because they care about their family, their friends, and their empire. Last night’s outburst was no different…… Perhaps.”

“Yeah… yeah. I understand. The political conflicts I’ve seen so far have been like that.”

Just that.

It has nothing to do with me or Amiyu’s circumstances.

“Lamprog. Don’t think too much.”

The principal stops me as I turn on my heel.

“We are now making appeals to the court from all over the place. No matter what their intentions were, there is no way such an outrage would go unchecked. They probably did not even have the proper groundwork in place before they started the affair. We should just wait for the good news. I’m sure they will send her to …….”

“Sensei, what do you mean by think too much?.”

To the silent principal, I continued to ask with a smirk.

“Do you think I’ll go alone to get Amiyu back?”

“Huh? Lamprog, you…”

“There’s no way I can do that. I’m going to wait for the good news, just like you said….By the way…”

I continue to ask the question.

“How long will it take to get her out of there before she is tortured out of her mind or poisoned with food and dies a suspicious death?”

“…..”

“Excuse me, I asked you a mean question. I understand that you are also working hard for Amiyu.”

I turned on my heel again and started walking.

This time I did not hear any words to stop me.

***********

The sun was setting.

The sky, which had been purple, had already taken on a dark blue hue.

“—-Every politician likes to look for something other than power as the source of his privileges.”

The plaza of the school, where no one is around anymore.

I muttered to myself as I stared at the sky in the world of the falling night.

“Because we are of the rightful lineage, or the higher law, or the faith, or the approval of the people…… because we are the family of kings, because the law says so, because God said so, because we are recognized by everyone,…… we are privileged. They have privileges. They insist that they can lay taxes, set rules, and take away someone’s freedom. How they can think so conveniently is astonishing……. Or perhaps it is because they believe there is something more precious than the ability of people to live together without fighting…… But you know what, Yuki? They often forget.”

A single floating hitogata was released from its invisibility and appeared in front of me.

“Such things, after all, are only illusions. —-”

I open the door.

“――――Everything can be taken away by a greater power.”

《Invoke――――Koi Mizuchi》

A long body with blue-green scales rises from the distortion of space.

As the dragon rises into the night sky, it begins to lash out, trying to shake off the clinging shikigami.

I put magic in my voice and tell him.

“Look, dragon. Look at me.”

He still rages.

“Am I not good enough to be your master now? Mizuchi!.”

At that moment, the dragon, Kou suddenly slowed down and turned his head to me.

Staring at me with blue eyes that looked like they had turned a lake into a bal …… it slowly lowered its massive body in front of me.

When it reached near the surface of the earth, the sand and leaves on the cobblestone pavement floated by the divine power of its body.

I involuntarily clucked my tongue and muttered to myself.

“What a troublesome yokai you are, …… you’re not very powerful, but you have a very high rank.”

Still, it would be easy enough to destroy one city in this country.

“Seika-sama.”

On top of my head, Yuki says.

“I am afraid to say this. If you still see life in this world as something to be lived with cunning, then I think you should —- give up trying to save her this time.”

“… For now, let’s ask the reason. Why is that, Yuki?”

“In this life, Seika-sama must have decided to hide his power so that he would not be involved in political disputes again. A Hero is merely an umbrella for that purpose. It would be a complete reversal of purpose if you were to expose yourself to the wind and rain in order to spare the umbrella.”

“What are you talking about, Yuki?”

I say quietly.

“There is no substitute for the umbrella you speak of. There is no substitute for the Hero. What if we just do the impossible here?  the wind and rain —- let’s clear away every rain cloud.”

“…”

Yuki was at a loss for words for a moment.

“Seika-sama, do you understand ……?　The very people you are trying to influence …… are the very people who are running this country!　You said so yourself!　If you show your power to them and they see you, …… you could end up in the same situation in this world as you were in your previous life……”

“What about it?”

I say to Yuki, who is speechless.

“’I told you before, this is a situation where you have to push yourself. There is only one Hero. There is no way to accomplish what I have planned except to save her.”

“However,…… the enemy is the centre of this mighty nation. How could things be so …… easy?”

“How many difficult things are there for me to settle by force?”

“That’s…”

“Listen, Yuki… There are many countries in this world, just like in my previous life. What――――”

I say 

“It wouldn’t matter to me if I destroyed one —-.”

“Seika-sama ……”

Yuki says, with bitterness.

“Being with the hero isn’t the goal, it’s just the means…? 　For Seika-sama to be happy in this life.”

“Of course, I know that.”

“Then…”

A small voice that seems to squeeze out.

“Then why… are you so angry…”

Yuki said to me, as I remained silent.

“Don’t you think you should reconsider?”

I ask in a low voice.

“Are you still going to tell me what to do, Yuki?”

“……No.”

Yuki replies in a surprisingly firm tone.

“If that’s what Seika-sama decided… then I have nothing more to say.”

“…… don’t stick your head out. You’ll get blown away.”

I step on the shikigami in the air and land on the head of the Youkai.

The edge of my mouth hangs slightly as I mutter to myself.

“Let’s see how good you are, my fellow …… politicians of the other world. Can you really defeat the strongest of them all?”

I tell Kou.

“Turn to the west. Dragon.”

The supernatural power that it clings to increases in strength.

The head with me on it turned to the western sky where the stars began to twinkle.

A huge body undulates.

The wind whips around.

The water dragon that once guarded the divine lake in Japan has begun to fly toward the Imperial City in the sky of another world —-.