Epilogue

Epilogue: Towards the First Trip Abroad

1st day, 4th month, 1,547th year, Continental Calendar

It was the day after the Lunarian Orthodoxy’s Spring Announcement Festival was held.

The Spring Announcement Festival yesterday had been pretty lively, so the castle town would be busily cleaning up after it today. I was spending the day in the governmental affairs office, staring down a single piece of paper.

Liscia, who had just come into the room, looked suspiciously at me and asked, “Is something the matter, Souma?”

“Hmm? Oh, I was looking at this.” I showed Liscia the piece of paper I had been staring at.

The piece of paper had three characters, or symbols, something that I couldn’t make sense of, lined up on it. Starting from the left there was “an arrow-like triangle pointing to the left, combined with a square;” “two vertical lines and something made with a vertical line with five horizontal lines crossing it;” and “an umbrella-shaped symbol.”

Liscia looked sideways at the piece of paper I’d given her. “What’s this?”

“It’s apparently a portion of the Lunalith oracle that Merula saw.” ?

Merula Merlin had come along with Souji Lester, the bishop we’d invited as a countermeasure against the Lunarian Orthodoxy. Her research primarily focused on spirits and magic, and her long years of research had produced an incredible wealth of knowledge, so I had welcomed her with open arms.

Now Merula was at Genia the overscientist’s laboratory where there was all sorts of equipment available.

It seemed curse ore, which absorbed magic, was a very interesting subject of research for Merula. She and Genia were spending day after day together, engrossed in their research.

What sort of chemical reaction would the meeting of overscientist and magic researcher have on this country? I was kind of looking forward to it, and kind of worried...

Something had happened the first time I’d met Merula.

The oracle she’d said had appeared on the Lunalith came up in conversation, and when I asked her for details, Merula shook her head in disappointment.

“They call it an oracle, so I think what appeared was text; but it wasn’t in a writing system from any country in this world, so I couldn’t figure out what it said. If I’d had a little more time, I might have at least been able to figure out if they were phonographs or ideographs, but...”

It seemed she hadn’t had the time to properly commit it to memory. Her life had been in danger, so I could hardly blame her for that.

When I asked her if there was anything she remembered, no matter how minor, she’d said, “It really is just a small fraction, but I recall... it went like this...”

And then she’d written these three incomprehensible characters or symbols onto a piece of paper. Merula’s memories were vague, so these probably were exactly as she’d seen them.

In the end, the only thing we knew was that these sorts of incomprehensible characters or symbols had appeared as an oracle.

Liscia seemed to realize something and said, “Ah...! If the writing isn’t from this world, could it be from yours?”

“Yeah,” I said. “That was something I suspected, too, but I’ve got absolutely no idea what they are...”

I couldn’t claim familiarity with every writing system on Earth, obviously, but I could at least say that in more than a decade of living in Japan, I had no recollection of seeing this kind of writing (?) before. The one in the middle might look a bit like the kanji for “pray” or “samurai” if you looked at it the right way, but as for what the arrow-like one that came before it, and the umbrella-like one that came after it were... I had no idea.

I gave up and put the piece of paper away inside the governmental affairs office’s desk. “Well, even if I could read just three characters of it, it wouldn’t do me any good. I can’t neglect my duties just because I’m curious about it, after all. Let’s forget about it for now.”

And so, Liscia and I got started on my paperwork for the day, but... I had one of the consciousnesses I had split off thinking about it.

Events sometimes took place outside the Kingdom of Friedonia. If something bothered me, when it was a domestic matter, I could bring on new people, assign personnel to the issue, and assign a budget to get it investigated. I had my position as king, after all.

However, when it was in another country, I couldn’t investigate.

If it was something the relevant country had already investigated, it was possible I might acquire the information through diplomacy or espionage. However, if they hadn’t investigated it yet, I had no means of acquiring information about that matter. Because it was another country, I couldn’t dispatch a team to investigate, either.

What if, included in that information this country couldn’t get its hands on, there was something that could decide the fate of our own nation? What if we found out about it too late? Whenever I thought about that, I felt unable to sit still.

The world was not complete with just one country. Especially if I was staying inside the castle, it was only natural that there would be things I couldn’t find out that way. I still... had so much to learn about this world.

I need to learn more. Much more, about many different countries...

While swamped with government work, that was what I thought about.

It was a mysterious space.

It was as if I were in an abyss where no light seemed to reach; or perhaps I had been thrown out into deep space, in a place where I was unable to tell up from down.

I was floating in the middle of that space.

I could breathe properly. But my thinking felt hazy somehow.

Oh... This is probably a dream. I’m in a dream world.

Sometimes while dreaming, I would realize it was a dream.

When I was sleeping at something like a kotatsu, where it was hard to fall fully asleep, I would realize it was a dream and think that I needed to wake up quickly, see a dream of waking up, realize I was dreaming again, dream of waking up... and it went on like that. That was close to how I felt right now.

While I was drifting along in that dozing state, a light suddenly appeared before me.

The light gradually grew larger, eventually reaching many tens of times my own size. The light that grew to a massive size eventually began to form into something. As it took form, the once strong light gradually weakened. And then...

What appeared before my eyes was one massive silver dragon.

Its sense of presence was overwhelming. It had curled horns like a goat. Claws and fangs that looked like they could rend steel. Powerful wings spread wide. Its body was covered with a smooth silver fur, and its blue eyes seemed gentle somehow. It was a dragon that was masculine, and yet felt motherly.

I had been told that wyverns and dragons were completely different before, but... now I could understand. This creature was so dazzlingly divine that it felt absurd to compare it to a wyvern.

“Could it be that you’re... Mother Dragon?” I asked.

It was a hunch. I had heard of this before. They said there were sentient dragons living in the Star Dragon Mountain Range, and they were ruled by a beautifully massive white dragon. The dragon before my eyes was so beautiful I would have described her as a silver dragon, not a white one, but she fit the image of Mother Dragon perfectly.

Mother Dragon neither confirmed nor denied, but her unswerving eyes that stared into mine told me the answer was “yes.”

Then Mother Dragon stretched that long neck of hers. Even just her head on its own was incredibly big, and if she had felt like it, she could easily have swallowed me whole right there. I panicked a little, but my body didn’t move, as if it was sewn in place.

Fortunately, Mother Dragon’s head didn’t open its mouth as it approached, and her large nose just came up close to my chase. Then she gently inhaled through her nostrils. We stayed like that for a short while, and then Mother Dragon slowly pulled her head away from me.

“You who have a familiar smell,” she spoke.

Huh?! I thought, shocked.

I heard a voice. It had the tone of a gentle elderly woman. Was this Mother Dragon’s voice, maybe? I thought that it might be, but she hadn’t opened her mouth.

“You who have a familiar smell.”

I’d heard it again. Yes, I definitely felt like it was coming from Mother Dragon’s direction.

“This... voice that seems to be speaking directly to my brain, is it yours?” I asked.

Mother Dragon looked as if she had nodded. “This is the only way we can talk when in dragon form.”

“That’s interesting...”

What a mysterious ability it was. I didn’t know if it was communication magic or perhaps telepathy, but, well, this was a dream, so anything worked, I guess. But still... having a conversation with Mother Dragon in my dream was like something out of an old fantasy movie.

“...Could it be that you’re showing me this dream?” I asked.

“No,” she spoke. “This is a dream, yet it is not a dream. By synchronizing our consciousnesses, I gave birth to a pseudo-dream, and thus was able to create a space for us to talk like this.”

Mother Dragon explained all that as if this were all very natural.

Synchronization of consciousness, pseudo-dreams... The scenery was like something out of a fantasy movie, but the vocabulary coming up was awfully systematic. It was almost like she was familiar with science fiction.

I had heard there were intelligent dragons in the Star Dragon Mountain Range, and I had assumed that intelligence was just enough that they could speak like humans, but maybe their intelligence far transcended that of the races of mankind. If that was the case, what an unfathomable country they were.

“...So, Madam Mother Dragon, why is it that you’ve arranged for us to meet this way?” I addressed her as I would a queen, doing my best to feign composure.

Even though I’d asked just to see what she’d say... I had some idea why she had contacted me.

It had to be the Mechadra, the thing which Genia had gone and made out of the bones we’d excavated. If the Star Dragon Mountain Range got angry at us, saying, Don’t play with the remains of our kind, our country would have no choice but to offer an earnest apology. Meeting a real dragon for the first time, I was able to reaffirm one thing for myself: We had to be sure we never made enemies of them.

It was said that the monster that a dragon’s remains could turn into, a skull dragon, was able to destroy an entire country, wasn’t it? That probably meant that dragons had that much potential to begin with. It helped me to understand why even at the height of their power, the Empire hadn’t been able to lay a hand or a foot on the Star Dragon Mountain Range. Or rather, it was reckless that they’d ever decided to pick a fight with beings like this in the first place.

While I was feeling a cold sweat running down my back, Mother Dragon seemed to be smiling slightly.

“I have nothing to say about that.”

“Huh?!” Did she read my mind?!

“I told you, this is a place created by the synchronization of your mind and my own. Even without speaking, you should be able to hear my voice.”

“...” ...So we can communicate just by thinking, is that it?

When I chose to think what I wanted to say, without putting it into words, Mother Dragon nodded.

Well, damn. We weren’t just having a heart-to-heart; what was in our heads was open to the other party.

There could be no fairer place to negotiate, but it meant that I couldn’t lie to her, either. No, maybe as great as Mother Dragon was, she was good enough to tell lies in her own heart? When I thought that, Mother Dragon shook her head.

“Even I cannot do that. No creature can lie in their heart.”

“Is that right?” I asked.

“Yes. Also, you don’t need to say things out loud, you know?”

“No... I find it a bit unsettling, so please let me speak out loud.”

This was a space where nothing could be hidden. I decided to ask her about it straight out.

“So, about the Mechadra... you were saying you had nothing to say about it?”

“I have no intention of telling you what you can and can’t do with remains when the soul has already departed, and, on a physical level, the bone had been replaced by stone.”

“...Even if they were the bones of one of your kind?”

“You people put the fossilized remains of your own ancestors on display, too,” she said. “I can’t say I have no reservations about it, but it is unavoidable. All living beings eventually die, and then rot away. Animals, plants, humans, and dragons alike, we all return to the soil in the end. In that case, are we to lament that as we tread the earth, we kick those who were once our brethren?”

I was surprised. Even though she was an object of worship, Mother Dragon spoke in realistic terms. Also, if her mention of returning to the soil was in reference to being broken down by microbes, I really couldn’t afford to underestimate the dragons’ knowledge.

“If it’s not about issues with the Mechadra, why have you set up this meeting?” I asked.

Mother Dragon narrowed he eyes a little. “You who have a familiar smell, King of Elfrieden and Amidonia, Sir Souma Kazuya. I would like for you to come visit the Star Dragon Mountain Range.”

“The Star Dragon Mountain Range?” I asked.

Mother Dragon nodded quietly. “In the near future, we will hold a ceremony for the young dragons of the Star Dragon Mountain Range to form ‘riding contracts’ with the knights of the Nothung Dragon Knight Kingdom. I would like for you to participate in that ceremony.”

“Huh?”

I was going to participate in the dragon knights’ ceremony? ...Wait, didn’t the Star Dragon Mountain Range have no diplomatic relations with anyone outside of the Nothung Dragon Knight Kingdom? When I tried to ask for more details, Mother Dragon’s body began to shine like when she had first appeared. It was so bright, I squinted my eyes.

Just before her form vanished, Mother Dragon left me with these words:

There is something I wish to entrust you with.

When I opened my eyes, I was on a bed in a dark room.

I looked around with my mind still hazy. It was probably still night. It was dark, but the moonlight streaming in through the window allowed me to make out the inside of this neat and tidy Western-style room.

This is... Oh, right. I’m in Liscia’s room.

Last night... or rather, every night lately, unless I was especially busy with work... I’d gone to sleep and woken up in Liscia’s room. Of course... well... that was so we could do a lot of fooling around.

When I looked next to me, as expected, I found Liscia’s sleeping face. It was hectic the next morning if we did it in the governmental affairs office, and when it came to my room, half of it was my doll-making workshop, and the other half was where we spent time as a family, which made it awkward; so, as a result, we were using Liscia’s room every night.

“Nngh...” Liscia, who had been lying on her back next to me, asleep and naked, seemed to lift her head up, but then rolled onto her side. Then, slowly opening her eyes, she rubbed the sleep from them and looked at me. “Mmm... Souma?”

“Sorry. Did I wake you?”

“...No. It’s fine. What’s up?”

“Oh... I just had a kind of incredible dream...”

“A dream?”

That was when it happened.

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh...

Suddenly, there was a sound like that. It was a mysterious sound, almost like a siren, or perhaps the howling of some creature. We could hear it from a considerable distance, so it must have been at a very high volume, but it didn’t make our ears ring at all. It wasn’t going to wake those who were asleep, probably. I had never heard it myself before, but I imagined it was like the singing of whales.

I put on my shirt, and pulled on a pair of pants, then got out of bed and went over to stand by the window. When I did, I saw a large shadow in the sky flying away to the northwest.

“How unusual,” said Liscia. “That’s Mother Dragon on one of her sightseeing flights.”

Liscia stood next to me, naked except for the blanket wrapped around her.

“Sightseeing flights?” I asked.

“It’s my first time seeing it myself. On rare occasions, there are times when Mother Dragon flies around the continent. She doesn’t do anything in particular, but the Mother Dragon worshipers say that good fortune comes to those who see her out on her sightseeing flights.”

“Good fortune... huh.”

Liscia seemed to think it was a coincidence, but when I considered the dream I’d just had...

It was a dream, and yet not a dream... Is that it?

I had a premonition that something was about to happen again, and I let out a small sigh.

The next day...

While I was still concerned by the events of last night, I was working like usual in the governmental affairs office when an exhausted Prime Minister Hakuya came in.

“What’s wrong?” I asked. “You look horribly tired.”

Hakuya walked over, and then said to me with a tormented look, “Your Majesty... Could I ask you to get away from the castle for a while?”

“...Come again?”

Get away from the castle? He was telling me to get out of the castle? I was kind of the king here, you know?

“You’re overthrowing me?” I asked. “Really, Hakuya, if you want the throne, it’s okay, I don’t mind letting you have it.”

“Don’t talk nonsense. I don’t want that thing.”

“‘That thing’? Now listen...”

“It’s fine. Just listen. Just recently, you announced the date of your wedding ceremony, right?”

When Hakuya asked me that, I nodded.

The other day, I’d announced that I, who was still just a caretaker who had not formally ascended the throne yet, would carry out the coronation ceremony which would make me the fourteenth king, along with my wedding ceremony with Liscia and the others, at the end of this year. I had decided to do it this way because handling the big events all at once would be easier on the national treasury.

However, Hakuya said it was causing a problem.

“The castle is now being flooded with proposals from nobles, as well as from the kings of medium-sized and small states in the Union of Eastern Nations, all of whom want to form marital ties with you, sire. They’re hoping to slide in now, before the marriage ceremony happens.”

“It’s a last minute rush of suitors, then?” I said. “Can’t you just refuse them?”

“We could, but... these are all houses whose position makes it hard to refuse when they say, ‘Even if you are going to refuse, we would like to meet with you at least once before you do.’ Recently, the number of marriage proposals brought to the castle has been on a rising trend, and the section responsible for them is about ready to burst at the seams.”

“...There are that many people sending me marriage proposals?” I asked trepidatiously.

“No, they aren’t just for you, sire. The single men at your side who are seen as having promising futures, every one of them, have been receiving a fairly large number of marriage proposals, too.”

So if they couldn’t marry into the royal family, they at least wanted to marry a retainer with a promising future. That was probably an easier challenge for them to clear than becoming a member of the royal family, after all. Honestly... if you were to say that this was all nobles ever did, it would be true, but... still, it was impressive that they could keep it up like this.

“Incidentally, the most popular of your retainers is Sir Poncho,” Hakuya said.

Poncho? Now there was a surprise.

“Not Ludwin, the handsome captain of the Royal Guard?”

“It’s true, Sir Ludwin is incredibly popular, but the House of Arcs is a great house, and the only people who can propose to him are of the nobility and the knightly class,” said Hakuya. “On that point, Sir Poncho is of low birth, and so even common mercantile families send marriage proposals to him. Furthermore, while Sir Ludwin feels out of reach, many women seem to think they could easily seduce Sir Poncho.”

“...He’s being taken lightly, huh.”

If the marriage proposals were piling up for Poncho, that meant he was popular, too. Though he was pudgy and rotund, he was also a gentle and considerate young man. More than that, his food was delicious. On top of that, he had led the country to a solution for its food crisis; and if you considered the way he was almost worshiped as a god of food in the Amidonia Region, there had to be a lot of women who would want to marry him.

Poncho was known for giving ground when pushed, which they had seen from his appearances on the broadcast programs. For any woman even slightly confident in her appearance, it might not have been unreasonable that they thought they could push past his defenses with sheer momentum. In point of fact, Poncho was not very good at fending off those sorts of advances.

Hmm... I was happy to hear that a good retainer like Poncho was a hit with the ladies, but I was hoping he would continue doing good work for me in future, so I didn’t want anyone too weird catching him.

“Have you taken countermeasures?” I asked.

“Yes. I have already asked Madam Serina to act as Sir Poncho’s assistant. She attends arranged marriage meetings with him, and drives off women who approach him purely out of personal ambition.”

Oh... No need to worry, then. If Serina was there as Poncho’s assistant, it would probably be fine.

There were some issues with Serina’s personality, but she was extremely graceful and beautiful. If she was at his side, the women who were only a little confident in their appearance, and who thought they could seduce him, would back down.

I had often asked her to serve as Poncho’s assistant before this, but Serina always said things like, “When I go to such efforts on a gentleman’s behalf, I hope he will get his act together a little more. I am working very hard, so please, treat me to a meal again sometime.”

Though she complained, and it was obvious she was only doing it because she wanted his food, she seemed to be proactive about looking after Poncho. Poncho loved both to eat and to cook, and Serina was hooked on the junk food from Earth that he and I were developing together.

Serina seemed unaware of it because she had let her sadistic tendency to bully cute girls get out of hand, but it felt like he had completely tamed her with food. He was a timid man you couldn’t leave alone, and she was a strong-willed woman who tended to meddle, so they got along well and... Wait, huh?

“Serina attends Poncho’s marriage meetings, right?” I asked.

“Yes. I hear that many women excuse themselves when they see what the woman standing next to him looks like.”

“Isn’t that like... Serina’s unconsciously ‘sheltering’ Poncho?”

“...”

...

We looked at one another, awkward looks on the faces of liege and vassal alike.

...Yeah, it was best we not get involved in this matter. It would be uncouth for us to butt in and say anything. For the moment, I decided to change the subject.

“Ahem... Anyway, I’ll bet it’s not just Ludwin and Poncho, is it? You must have a significant number of proposals coming your way, too, don’t you?”

Hakuya was handsome, and he was the closest of all the men close to me. I couldn’t imagine the ladies and nobles of the world would let him get away. When I brought it up, Hakuya got a look on his face like he had bitten into something unpleasant.

“I... have no intention of taking a wife just yet.”

“It’s not that you aren’t interested in women, though, right? Are you one of those guys who thinks marriage is too much of a hassle?”

“No,” said Hakuya. “I do intend to have a wife and children some day, but I want to find and choose a partner for myself. I wouldn’t want someone else to force a marriage on me.”

“...You’re saying that to me?” I asked.

For Liscia and me, our betrothal had been totally forced on us. Even with Aisha and Juna, they’d both initially approached me with other motives because of their positions; and when it came to Roroa, she had brought her whole country with her so that she could protect the people of the principality through marrying me. I hadn’t met a single one of them in an ordinary way.

When I pointed that out, Hakuya bowed his head to me, more flustered than I would have expected from him. “I apologize. I didn’t mean to speak ill of your betrothals, sire...”

“It’s fine. I mean, in my world, the majority of people thought the way that you do.”

In Japan, marriages were generally for love and with the consent of both parties.

In this world which hadn’t managed to throw off the feudal system, the higher their position in society, the less freedom people had in that regard. In particular, when it came to the marriages of the knights and nobles, their meaning as a bond between houses was majorly important. Like with Ludwin and Genia, or Hal and Kaede, there were cases where the houses were already associated with one another, but those were rare exceptions. In most cases, the higher up you went on the social ladder, the more the house’s expectations determined one’s marriage choices.

Though, that said, if someone had enough authority, like I did, it was an issue that could be dealt with. It had come up with my betrothal to Juna, but if we had arranged to have her adopted into a noble family, it would have been possible to adjust the status difference between us.

In Hakuya’s case, he was the Prime Minister of this country, so he could do something like that. So, in this case, it was an issue with Hakuya’s views on marriage.

Well, if there was one thing I could say, it was that no matter how it got started in the first place, love was love. My bond with Liscia and the others was so deep now that I couldn’t imagine parting with them.

“Hey, some loves have started in a relationship that was forced on people, you know?” I asked, speaking fondly of my own loved ones.

Hakuya looked taken aback, then smiled a little. “...I suppose you’re right. When I see you and your family, sire, I start to think that maybe it would be all right.”

“But for now, you still have no intention of marrying anyone?”

“I apologize.”

Hmm... Well, if he wanted to wait for his ideal woman to appear, I supposed that was an option. Maybe he had already met someone like that, and was engaged in a one-sided love right now.

“But as your king, let me say, you had better start training your heir in case the worst should happen,” I said. “I’m sure you’d like to be able to settle into an easy retirement nice and early, too, right?”

“That’s true. I think I’ll look for a good time to take on an apprentice.”

“Oh, I guess an apprentice works, too. Come to think of it, you’ve been teaching Tomoe, haven’t you?”

Tomoe was my little sister by adoption, and I loved her dearly. Recently she had been learning reading, writing, and arithmetic from Hakuya, and he was apparently teaching her this country’s history, too. I’d heard that she was an enthusiastic learner, and Hakuya was responding to her by becoming an enthusiastic instructor.

When I brought it up, Hakuya smiled wryly. “I gave in to your little sister’s drive to be of help to her big sister. Though she is not especially clever, she does have passion, so I believe she may become an accomplished individual given time. Though, that said, I have no desire to place my heavy burden on your little sister’s shoulders.”

“Haven’t you already turned into a doting teacher?” I asked.

“My opinion is based on a calm evaluation.”

Hmm... Well, if Hakuya was thinking about this stuff in his own way, that was good enough, I guess.

“Hey, wait! How did we get onto this topic again?” I asked.

“From talking about how we’re swamped with marriage proposals for you, sire,” Hakuya said. “And on that note, I want you to get out of the castle for a while. If you are not present in the castle, it is easy to refuse the nobles who insist on you ‘just meeting them once.’”

Oh, right. If I wasn’t present, I couldn’t meet them even if I wanted to. His plan was to be evasive and avoid giving any straight answers while we waited for this wave to subside, no doubt.

“But what about my government work in the meantime?”

“Fortunately, there are no pressing concerns, and the country is stable right now. For your ordinary government work, you can use that creepy ‘Factory Arm’ machine of yours and it will handle the job just fine, won’t it?”

“Don’t call it creepy,” I said. “Well... I guess you’re right.”

He was talking about the human arm-type manipulator that Genia had developed: the Factory Arm #1. By attaching the Factory Arm #1, which could move like a real human arm, to a mannequin, I was able to perform my government work from a distance. It was creepy to look at, so it wasn’t popular with those who had to visit the room, like the bureaucrats or the chamberlain, but it was a very handy thing to have.

It was true that, so long as I had it, there was no need for me to stay in the castle.

“So, once I’m out of the castle, what are you expecting me to do?” I asked.

“Well, in order to provide an environment where it’s easy to shut out nobles who want to meet with you, while also being closed off and easy to secure, I was considering a short-term enrollment in the Royal Academy or Royal Officer’s Academy for you, but...” Hakuya pulled out a single letter. “Now that something like this has arrived, I believe I will send you abroad.”

“Abroad?” I inquired, looking at the letter. There was a dragon crest on the wax seal.

Hakuya bowed his head. “I took the liberty of opening it and perusing the contents. It is a letter of invitation to the Contract Ceremony in the Star Dragon Mountain Range.”

“Madam Mother Dragon sure works fast, huh.”

“Hm? What do you mean?”

Hakuya looked at me questioningly, so I explained to him what had happened last night. When Hakuya heard I had spoken to Mother Dragon in my dreams, he had an excited look on his face that I didn’t often see from him.

“What an honor that must have been!”

“You seem awfully high strung. Hakuya, are you one of those Mother Dragon worshipers?”

“Oh, no... It’s true that my family were Mother Dragon worshipers, but I’m not that pious myself.”

“Okay, then what has you so excited?” I asked.

Hakuya shrugged his shoulder exasperatedly. “The only nation the Star Dragon Mountain Range has formed diplomatic relations with is the Nothung Dragon Knight Kingdom, but there are rare occasions when Mother Dragon will make an exception and invite a specific individual to have them form a riding contract with a dragon. From what I’ve heard, the first king of this country was also invited to form a contract with a dragon.”

Oh, the first king, who’d been summoned from another world like me.

Bringing together the various races, founding the Elfrieden Kingdom, forming a contract with a dragon... he’d sure acted a lot more like a hero than I ever had. Excel probably knew all about those times, so maybe it would be good to talk to her about his achievements at length sometime.

“Well, unusual as it is, is it really something we should be in such a rush to go do?” I asked.

“There is something in common between you and the first king, sire. You were both summoned from another world. That’s why, for some, you remind them of the first king. If you manage to form a contract with a dragon there like the first king did, the number of people who view you and the first king in the same light will increase. If the people respect you more, the country will become even more stable.”

“I’d be borrowing the authority of the first king, then,” I mused. “That sounds like it’d lead to inflated expectations, and I don’t like it.”

“Be willing to put up with that much, please. You are doing your job as a ‘king,’ but your title as ‘hero’ is being left to rot. In order to avoid losing to the Empire or the Orthodox Papal State in terms of dignity, considering that both of them have saints, I’ve been thinking we need something prestigious.”

“I get what you want to say, but... don’t get your hopes up too high, okay?” I hedged. “It’s not guaranteed that I’ll be forming a contract with a dragon. I mean, I might only have been called there as a guest of honor.”

Having warned Hakuya, I rested my cheeks on my palms and thought about it. For a start, if I were to assume it was already decided I would be going to the Star Dragon Mountain Range... then the next thing to decide was who I would take with me.

“...So, there you have it, it’s been decided I’m going to the Star Dragon Mountain Range.”

It was a few hours later. I had gathered my companions in the conference room for the announcement.

Present were my four fiancées, Liscia, Aisha, Juna, and Roroa, as well as Prime Minister Hakuya, Captain of the Royal Guard Ludwin, Finance Minister Colbert, my honorary little sister Tomoe, and the maids Serina and Carla, for a total of eleven people, including myself.

“You’ll be going out of the country, right? Are you going to be okay?” Liscia asked, sounding concerned, so I nodded.

“I’ll have the Black Cats watching over me from the shadows along the way. Mind you, I really can’t have them enter the territory of the Star Dragon Mountain Range with me. Still, once we’re in the Star Dragon Mountain Range, there probably isn’t anyone who’d try to mess with us. Besides, I’ve been given permission to bring a few companions with me into the Star Dragon Mountain Range. Hakuya, how many was the limit again?”

“Up to five was what the letter said.”

Nodding in response to Hakuya’s answer, I turned to face the rest. “That being the case, I want to bring about five people. We’re going incognito, so I don’t want to stand out, but it’s outside the country, and we don’t know what might happen. That’s why, as much as possible, I want people who are capable warriors. Aisha, I definitely want you with me.”

“Yes, sir. I will protect you with my life, Your Majesty.”

“That’s no good,” I said. “You’re already recognized by the people as a candidate to become my future second primary queen. I know it’s weird for me to say this when I’m the one who needs protecting, but don’t say you’ll give your life for me. Make sure you protect yourself properly, too.”

“Y-Yes! Understood!” Aisha bobbed her head up and down, nodding.

Next I looked to Liscia. “On the other hand, the one person I can’t take with me this time is Liscia.”

“...Can you give me a reason?” Liscia asked with a look of discontent on her face. She clearly wasn’t satisfied, but she was willing to hear me out first.

“If I’m the top authority in this country, you’re number two,” I said. “We estimate the trip abroad will last about a month. We can’t have the top authority and his number two both away for that long. I’m sure there’s no risk to our lives, but think what would happen if something delayed our return. In the event that happens, I need to have left behind someone who can run the country for me.”

“...You’re right. It’s unfortunate, but... I can accept that,” Liscia said with a sigh.

I regretted it, too. She was a reliable girl, and I really did want to bring her.

Liscia brought a hand to her chest, as if trying to shift her mindset. “I’ll hold down the fort while you’re gone. In exchange, can you try not to be too reckless?”

“Yeah. I’ll be relying on you.”

With Liscia having accepted it, I turned to Juna next.

“As for Juna, who can handle both fighting and intelligence gathering, I’d really like to have you along, but we can’t take you off the educational program for too long, now can we?”

“...That’s right. It’s a shame.”

“Oh, oh! Me! Me! I wanna go!” Roroa raised her hand and started hopping up and down trying to get my attention.

Colbert immediately pinned her arms behind her back. “Y-You can’t, Princess! We’ve expanded to so many different enterprises, I need you here to help manage them all! Besides, you have to appear with Juna on the educational program, don’t you?”

Roroa’s shoulders slumped. “Aw... but I wanted to go on vacation with Darlin’, too.”

“It’s a trip abroad, okay?” I said. “We’ll all go on a family vacation together eventually.”

“We’d better, darlin’!”

Of the remaining members, I looked to Carla.

“Carla, I want you to come as a bodyguard, too.”

“M-Me?!”

“Out of everyone here, I’m looking for someone with martial ability and nothing important to do, so you’re the most appropriate choice.”

“U-Understood, Master!” Carla cried.

“Carla, take care of Souma for me, would you?” Liscia walked over to her and took her hand gently.

Carla let go, took a step back, and saluted her. “Leave it to me, Liscia. I swear my master will come back unharmed!”

While watching that exchange between two friends out of the corner of my eye, I addressed the group.

“For the rest, they’re not here, but I think I’ll take Hal and Kaede. Hal’s martial prowess comes guaranteed, and I know him well. Kaede’s a powerful earth mage, too, after all. For now, I think I’ll take those four as my companions. Everyone, work on that assumption and...”

“U-Um! Big Brother.” Tomoe hesitantly, but using a clearly audible voice, raised her hand.

“Tomoe? What is it?” I asked.

“T-Take me with you, please!”

“““Whaa?!””” everyone cried out in surprise.

The timid Tomoe, who did everything she could to stay out of the way of the adults in the castle, was suddenly acting aggressive. Maybe the only one who wasn’t surprised was her teacher, Hakuya.

“Um... it’s outside the country, you know?” I said. “It could be dangerous, too...”

“I-I want to see more of the world! Not just the castle. I want to see more of everything, and to eventually be someone who can support my big brother and sister!” Tomoe clenched her fists tight as she made her appeal.

We had been protecting Tomoe up until now, but she’d said she wanted to be able to support us. Tomoe was eleven years old now. If she’d been a boy, it’d be a period in her life where she’d still be doing stupid stuff; and as a girl, she was about to hit a sensitive period. I was happy to see this change in her as a member of the family, and also concerned.

“Sire...” Hakuya said. “If possible, I would like you to take your little sister along.”

I was still at a loss for words.

“During this period, I have judged that broadening her horizons will help her to grow,” he continued.

“Well sure, even in my world there was a saying, ‘If you love your child, let them go on a journey,’ but still.” I crossed my arms and thought about what to do.

“Please, Big Brother...” Tomoe pleaded with teary eyes.

When she asked me with those cute puppy dog eyes that reminded me of this old commercial with a chihuahua, I really struggled to come up with my answer.

We had things covered in terms of martial ability. With Aisha and Halbert there, we could respond to almost any situation.

But still... it could be dangerous...

I was conflicted between my concern for her as as her big brother, and my desire to grant her wish as her big brother. After nearly two minutes of agonizing over it... in the end, I gave in to the earnest look in Tomoe’s eyes and raised the white flag.

“Okay... I’ll allow it. But only after you’ve gotten permission from Tomoko.” That was Tomoe’s mother. “If you can’t get her permission, I can’t take you with me. Also, none of us will be talking to her about this matter. You need to convince your mother on your own. Is that still okay?”

“Yes!” Tomoe energetically nodded.

I don’t know what happened between Tomoe and Tomoko after that. However, in the end, Tomoe managed to convince her.

When Tomoko appeared alongside Tomoe later, she must have been worried deep down. “Your Majesty, please take care of my daughter,” she said, and bowed her head to me resolutely.

It seemed the apple didn’t fall far from the tree. I meant that in a good way, of course.

Well, my companions for the trip were decided.

Off we would go.

Onward to the country of dragons, the Star Dragon Mountain Range.