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Cast of Characters Arc 5: The Shining Dragon
— One day in the 1st month, 1,548th year, Continental Calendar —
“Hmm...” Roroa muttered in consternation, her arms crossed. There was a feather pen tucked behind her ear.
She was in the staff room of a clothing store in Parnam called The Silver Deer. And not everything was as she wanted it to be.
The master of this shop, Sebastian, came in with tea for her. “What’s the matter, princess?”
“I dunno what to say, Sebastian,” Roroa said. “Have a look at this, would ya?”
She handed the man a number of sheets of paper.
Sebastian laid the prepared tea on the table, then took the proffered papers and looked through them. It seemed to be an expense report for the Silver Deer Trading Company.
In public, the representative of the trading company was Sebastian, but it was actually Roroa’s personal company. They dealt in clothing and sundries like Sebastian’s own business, The Silver Deer, but also a shipping business using the Roroa Maru, and management of restaurants serving dishes from Souma’s former world.
“Hmm...” Sebastian spent some time reading the report, but he couldn’t find anything that seemed particularly problematic.
The trade in medical supplies using the Roroa Maru seemed to be making a loss, but this was a national project, so it was the country that was seeing the return. That wasn’t an issue for the company.
Their other endeavors were similar. In fact, despite all the pies Roroa had a finger in, she seemed to be getting some level of results from all of them. He was so surprised that it made him realize how skillful a businesswoman Roroa was all over again.
“I don’t see anything here that would cause you such worry,” Sebastian said.
“Out of all of them, which one takes the most work, and which one’s makin’ the most profit?”
“Would that be this ‘toys and related’ section?”
From what Sebastian could see, this business had a record of success for itself. Sales had grown bizarrely high for the amount of money invested.
Roroa nodded. “Ya got it. And eighty percent of those sales are comin’ from Overman Silvan goods.” Roroa counted off on her fingers as she recalled the things she’d turned into products. “Let’s see, there’s the Silvan Baton that Silvan swings around as he transforms, right? There are Silvan transformation costumes, rubber dolls of Silvan, Miss Dran, and Danbox, and even Silvan Cookies with Silvan’s face printed on ’em.”
“The cookies are one thing, but aren’t those transformation costumes rather expensive?” Sebastian queried.
“Rich kids from families in the noble and knightly classes are buyin’ them. I mean, we even got request from adults for adult-sized ones, and we made those into products.”
“Even adults are playing with Silvan transformation goods in this country?” Sebastian asked, astonished.
When he imagined the usually-well-dressed gentlemen changing into Silvan transformation costumes in their rooms and striking poses in front of the mirror, he became seriously concerned for the country’s future.
Roroa shook her head with a wry smile. “They’re not usin’ them for themselves. Seems like most’ve been buyin’ them to entertain their young kids and grandchildren.”
“Oh, is that it? I can see that...”
“Well, it does seem some of them are buyin’ them for themselves. I mean, even Big Sis Ai had one of those rubber dolls in her room...”
Sebastian went silent.
The woman who would one day become this country’s second primary queen was playing with Silvan dolls.
The common people might have trouble believing it, but for these two who knew Aisha’s childish side, all they could do was sigh.
“So, why the long face?” Sebastian asked, trying to shift the mood. “Sales are positive, are they not?”
Roroa scratched her head. “It’s just that... I’m all outta ideas. Right now, if we put out a Silvan product, it sells. That’s likely to continue for awhile, but we’ve already gone and turned near everythin’ we can into a product. There’s not enough variation in the products to meet the massive demand.”
“That... would be frustrating, as a business person, yes.”
“Right? Still, if we go and produce too many easy ideas like those cookies, it’ll end up reducin’ Silvan’s value as a product. There’re already pirated copies goin’ around.”
Indeed, some merchants had decided that if they had some connection with Silvan, it would improve their sales. So they’d begun to make copies of their goods, as well as fake Silvan food carts (which lacked the brand, and just had a vaguely Silvan-ish drawing on the containers).
The imitation goods were satisfying the demand of children who couldn’t afford the real deal and were willing to buy a cheap knock-off, so they couldn’t clamp down on them too hard.
That was why Roroa was working with the merchants’ guild to allow such things, so long as they were clearly marked as knock-offs and sold at an appropriate price.
Naturally, if anyone tried to pass off their fake goods as real, they would be prosecuted for fraud.
Roroa leaned over the table, letting out a groan. “I think we’ll need to rework things to create more products. But it’s not gonna be easy. The Silvan Sword we had them add before is sellin’ great, but that wasn’t enough to satisfy demand.”
“It would be strange for him to constantly change weapons,” Sebastian said.
“You’re right about that. Honestly, I’m not sure what I’m gonna do...”
“Is there anything to do but rely on His Majesty’s knowledge here?” Sebastian suggested to Roroa, who was clutching her head. “This sort of... tokusatsu program, was it? It came from His Majesty’s world, correct? Might he not be aware of the products developed from them?”
“I guess that’s what it’ll have to be, yeah...”
“You’re not overly enthused by the idea?”
“I don’t want to go relyin’ on Darlin’ too much when it comes to runnin’ the company. Money’s my specialty, so I’d rather have him relyin’ on me.”
“What are you saying...?” Sebastian sounded exasperated. “That pride of yours isn’t worth a single copper. And relying on each other is what being a family is about. It’s the mark of a good wife to know when to have her husband indulge her.”
At the talk of being a good wife, Roroa’s ears perked up.
“Ya’ve got a point. I’m the cute, clever, well-loved kind of princess, right?”
“No, I didn’t say that...”
“I must’ve panicked a bit when I saw Big Sis Cia with the two babies.” Roroa stretched, standing up and grinning at Sebastian. “Well, I’m gonna go have Darlin’ adore me and spoil me rotten.”
Having said that, Roroa left with a gleeful spring in her step.
“Good grief...” Sebastian murmured, taking a sip of his warm black tea.
He watched her go.
It was around the time things were settling down after the birth of the twins, near the end of the year and after the New Year’s festivities were over.
“So, there ya have it,” Roroa declared, leaning over onto my desk. “Got any good ideas?”
I stared down a pile of paper in the governmental affairs office, like I did almost every day. Then I let out a sigh. “I dunno what to tell you...”
It seemed she wanted to make business off the country’s current Silvan boom, but most of the possible goods had already been made, and she wanted to come up with something new.
Because Roroa’s company was the biggest sponsor of the production, I wanted to help, but... a new way to profit off a tokusatsu program, huh...
“Having a new weapon appear and selling that... is something we already did, isn’t it?” I asked.
“We just got finished puttin’ out the Silvan Sword.”
“Well, we can’t add a new weapon for a while, then.”
In the children’s programs in the other world, there was about a one cour break between new weapons being introduced. No, I guess there were shows that put out inexpensive add-ons regularly. That was because if they overdid it, the children’s backers, the parents, would end up with empty wallets.
“What about starting another tokusatsu program?” I asked.
“The special effects are made usin’ Ivan Juniro’s magic, right? We can’t start another one without endin’ Silvan first. I mean, we’re tryin’ to ride the Silvan boom, so there ain’t much point in startin’ another program that’s not Silvan, is there?”
“So we have to rework Silvan, then...” I tried to ponder how to do that.
“Hey, what were the tokusatsu programs back in your world like, Darlin’?” Roroa asked.
Well...
“They started with something like the period dramas where good punished evil, and then eventually programs for children where Something Mask or Something Man fights an evil organization became the mainstream. I based Overman Silvan on those sorts of heroes.”
“I see, I see...”
“There were lots of developments from there, and we got metallic machine heroes, giant heroes who fight giant monsters, and sentai teams where multiple heroes fight together. With the metallic heroes and the sentai heroes, as the monsters got bigger, they’d take them on with an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth mentality where... Ah!”
“Hm? Is somethin’ wrong?” Roroa cocked her head to the side, but I was thinking and didn’t respond.
Yeah, I might have come up with something. A way to rework Silvan.
But was it possible to portray it with our current technology?
It might not be impossible, but it was going to require putting together a pretty good set to pull it off. That was going to cost a lot of money. This wasn’t like monsters, where we could make them out of cardboard and play pretend. Did we have the room to make proper sets each week...?
No, hold on. Was there a need to make a set to begin with?
We had that thing that wasn’t any use to our country and was just sitting in a warehouse somewhere.
If we used that... and just borrowed her power... Yeah, this might work.
“I’ve got it,” I said. “A way to rework the program.”
“Ya do?!”
I smiled wryly as I nodded to a sparkly-eyed Roroa.
“Yeah. This may seem sudden, but could you call Tomoe in here?”
“A-All right!” Roroa took off out of the room.
She always came in like a storm and left like one, too. Though the bureaucrats who came in after her smiled wryly, they were long since used to it.
Everyone liked Roroa best the way she was.
Two weeks later, on the day of Overman Silvan’s broadcast...
Today’s broadcast of Overman Silvan was different from the very beginning.
First of all, Silvan and the rest of the cast were appearing outdoors.
It had always been shot in a studio in the castle using a room with panels for the backdrop before, but this time they were in an open field with nothing around.
In addition, the broadcast time was usually evening, but this time, they were starting early, at three in the afternoon.
Despite that, because this had been advertised in advance, and because it was a day off, there was an audience gathered.
The format was different, too. The Silvan Exercises that were popular with children were normally done at the end of the program, but today Ivan was doing them before the program in his non-transformed state.
“Good! Well done, everyone!”
Ivan Juniro, AKA Silvan, and his sister Siena had been teaching the children to exercise in what was effectively an open-air classroom, but then an unsettlingly loud laughter echoed across the area.
“Ah, ki, ki, ki! Silvan, you won’t be smiling any longer!” a voice called.
“Wh-Who’s there?!”
When Ivan turned, there stood a monster, with a great cloud of smoke that made it look like he was carrying darkness on his back, wearing an ogre mask and a black cape. His alarming presence made some children burst into tears.
The monster thrust out his hand, and with a voice as deep as Ii**** Shouzou, he told Iwan, “I am the head of the Black Group, the Great Evil Ogre Emperor Akki Taitei.”
“Akki Taitei?!”
With a swish of his cape, Akki Taitei pointed a finger at the shocked Ivan. “You were getting full of yourself after driving off Miss Dran, so I thought I’d give you a taste of true fear, you see. That’s why I’ve come out to see you personally.”
“What?! Siena, take care of the children!” Ivan exclaimed.
“Okay, Big Brother.” Responding to his alarm, Siena evacuated with the children.
With only the two of them left on the field, Ivan and the Great Evil Ogre Emperor were staring each other down... and that was the scene Juna, Roroa, Tomoe and I were watching from out of frame.
Juna looked at Akki Taitei’s frightening form curiously as she asked, “Who is Akki Taitei? It looks like he’s really carrying darkness on his back.”
“It’s Ivan’s father, Moltov. He can use illusion magic, too, so I asked him to play the villain for us.”
“The Juniro family’s magic’s convenient for puttin’ on a tokusatsu show, after all,” Roroa grinned. “We could let them handle the whole production, don’t ya think?”
Yes, but... the Juniros were a noble family with a long history.
“It’d be hard to ask him to neglect managing his domain in order to produce a broadcast program,” I said.
“Isn’t it worth thinkin’ about? You’ve got examples like Ludwin of the House of Arcs and Genia of the House of Maxwell already. Couldn’t ya set up an environment that lets them focus entirely on making tokusatsu programs?”
“...Well, maybe. I’ll think about it, I guess.”
Ivan and Moltov were putting a lot of passion into making this tokusatsu program, and the younger sister Siena was cooperative, too. A tokusatsu family, huh...? That could be a thing.
While we were talking, Ivan transformed into Silvan.
“Here I go! Transform!”
I couldn’t make the armor parts fly around with Living Poltergeists every single time, so normally he set off a bunch of flashes and changed quickly.
I’ll skip the “Let me explain” part this time.
“Charge! Silvan!” Having finished his transformation, Silvan pointed at Akki Taitei. “For as long as I exist, things will never go your way!”
“Ah, ki, ki, ki. You fool who doesn’t understand the difference in power between us. Despair at my overwhelming magic! Ah, ki, ki, ki, ki!”
I watched in amused silence.
For all his frowns when we’d offered him the villain role, Moltov was surprisingly into it. Well, being Ivan’s father, perhaps it was just in his blood.
Swinging a great staff upward, Akki Taitei bellowed, “Come forth, the great demon beast, Death Rhino!”
Behind Akki Taitei a great darkness expanded, covering the whole area.
That was when I gave Tomoe the signal.
“Okay, Tomoe, we’re counting on you.”
“Okay. It’s time, Mr. Rhinosaurus.”
“Gauh!”
When Tomoe spoke to it, the rhinosaurus that had been behind me waiting for its cue trudged toward Silvan and the rest.
He was a mellow rhinosaurus that usually helped us pull the train, but now there were spikes attached all over its body, and the specially-made armor that hid his beady little eyes made him look exactly like a Death Rhino should.
In human terms, this was like putting a wishy-washy guy in post-apocalyptic cosplay, but he was a beast to begin with, so he looked the part.
When the darkness cleared, Death Rhino stood before Silvan.
With a cry of surprise, Silvan’s head flew back in shock. “Wh-What is this monstrous beast?!”
“Ah, ki, ki, ki! With my magical prowess, tainting a gentle rhinosaurus’s heart with evil is simple! Now, do it, Death Rhino! Squash Silvan!”
“Grrrrrr.”
“Gwahhhh!”
With a snort and a slight push of Death Rhino’s nose, Silvan went flying.
Ivan flew pretty far. He’s holding back, right? I worried despite myself.
“It’s okay,” Juna explained. “Ivan went flying on his own.”
I breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed like having to replace him with Silvan 2 due to actor injury... was not something we’d have to do this time.
Now then, Silvan had continuously won against human-sized opponents, but there was nothing he could do against a foe this beastly.
The people watching this broadcast must surely be waiting with bated breath to see how he’d win against this thing.
“Argh! Is there nothing left I can do?!”
On the field, Silvan who could do nothing against Death Rhino, punched the ground in frustration.
Silvan’s heart was breaking... but then it happened.
A new voice echoed across the field. “Don’t give up, Ivan. No, Overman Silvan!”
It made Silvan look up to heaven. “That voice... Father?!”
It was the voice of his father, who was supposed to be dead.
It might be hard to get this since Ivan himself was playing the role, but the story was that Ivan’s (Silvan’s) father had been killed by the Black Group.
Incidentally, the one providing the voice was his actual father Moltov. When Moltov, who had been playing Akki Taitei, released his darkness, he moved off screen and began talking to Ivan through a megaphone.
“Hey, Darlin’,” Roroa objected. “Isn’t it a bit of a stretch to have the same person playin’ both his dead father and Akki Taitei?”
She was grasping her temples with an I-can’t-keep-up look on her face.
“Well, it’s probably fine,” I said, and laughed it off. “The powerful enemy was actually his father who he thought was dead... is a development I’ve seen plenty of. Akki Taitei has a good heart and an evil heart inside him, and now the good heart of his father has come out to talk to him. If we go with something like that, don’t you think it makes the story deeper?”
“Hm... It seems too haphazard, though...” Roroa cocked her head to the side, apparently not convinced.
Well, it wasn’t like I didn’t understand how she felt. Those tokusatsu programs from the early days had probably been made while experimenting like this.
Then Moltov (the voice from the heavens) made a declaration to Silvan.
“I thought this might happen, so I’ve prepared a new power for you. A mechanical dragon of justice that will be your partner and defend the smiles of children.”
“The defender of children’s smiles... The mechanical dragon of justice...” Silvan whispered.
“Now, stand up, and call that name,” the voice from heaven commanded.
It was time for the star to take the stage.
“Juna, are you ready?” I asked.
“Anytime.”
“Okay. Well, then... let’s do this.”
“Got it, Dad!” Silvan cried. “Okay... Come!”
My voice overlapped with Silvan’s.
““Mechadra!””
Clank...
The next moment, the sparkling silver metallic dragon stood up with a metallic clanking.
Now that we had a real dragon skeleton, this mechanical dragon made from metal parts and materials from monsters, Mechadra, had been gathering dust in Genia’s workshop for a long time now.
This was my idea for reworking Silvan. We would recreate the battle between a robot and a monster that had blown up to giant size that took place about twenty minutes into an episode of a sentai show.
Normally, these scenes needed to be shot on a set with miniatures, making a human-sized robot and monster look massive. However, making that sort of miniature set cost a lot of money.
So, rather than make a miniature set, I figured, why not have an actual giant robot and monster duke it out?
Mechadra couldn’t transform and combine, but it looked robot-like, and with my power, Living Poltergeists, I could make it move.
Also, this world had other giant creatures, and with Tomoe’s power, I could ask them to perform.
By having the two of them fight, I could replicate a giant robot battle scene.
Mechadra walked with slow, heavy steps, getting in between Silvan and Death Rhino. And so, the mechanical dragon sparkling in the light of day appeared on the broadcast.
Then, at that exact moment, an orchestra began to play a powerful tune, and Juna and the chorus began to sing as if on cue.
It was Mechadra’s theme song.
The Sparkling Dragon of Conquest
(Lyrics: Souma Kazuya; Music: Juna Doma)
Bathed in the light that has broken the night, its steel body shines.
Look up when you’re in pain! The guardian of the world has risen!
Iron! (Bite!) Tail! (Whip!) Crushing evil!
Dragon! (Flame!) Spark! (Tornado!) Burning evil!
The sparkling dragon of conquest, Me-cha-dra!
“Were you the one who wrote those lyrics, Darlin’?” Roroa asked.
“Don’t ask. I’m tired, okay?”
I felt a little embarrassed. I’d written those lyrics while busy with my duties through a combination of impulse, inertia, and a general impression of, “This was what tokusatsu songs sounded like, right?”
Thanks to Juna making a heroic theme for it, it had just barely shaped up into something reasonable.
The bits where Juna and the chorus took turns calling out the attack name worked well, too.
Though, when it came to the Spark Tornado, there was just a name right now, and I hadn’t decided on what kind of attack it was yet...
This sort of heroic song didn’t suit Juna, but I didn’t have time to ask anyone else, so I’d asked her to sing it this time. Maybe I’d have Margarita do it next time.
Regardless, after showing off its impressive form with a heroic song, Silvan jumped onto Mechadra’s lowered head.
Once it was sure Silvan was aboard, Mechadra raised its head quickly. Silvan was rapidly lifted about eighteen meters.
Though there was equipment to fix his feet in place, it was frightening seeing him on what looked like a screaming thrill ride. However, Silvan went on performing like it was nothing.
“Akki Taitei!” Silvan roared. “Mechadra and I will crush your ambitions!”
Come to think of it, Ivan had performed a dynamic entrance from a high place the first time I’d met him, too, hadn’t he? They say idiots and smoke... No, he was probably good at working in high places. I was sure of it.
“Go, Mechadra!” Silvan called.
In time with Silvan’s voice, I had Mechadra imitate a roar and charge at Death Rhino. The two wrestled in a test of strength.
Maybe it was because of the dragon bones used in Mechadra’s construction, but Mechadra was more powerful than I’d expected. If I didn’t hold back, I’d send Death Rhino flying in no time.
“Grrrrrr!” Death Rhino cried.
(Clank, clank!) was Mechadra’s response.
Once the two had pushed back and forth for a while, I looked for an appropriate time to give Tomoe the signal.
When Tomoe raised her arms and waved them around, Death Rhino collapsed with a thud. Then Silvan immediately gave the order.
“Mechadra! Iron Bite!”
Mechadra bit Death Rhino’s head lightly, pulling off his helmet. With the helmet removed, Death Rhino suddenly calmed down, and cowered where he was.
This was to portray that Death Rhino was a mere rhinosaurus being controlled by Akki Taitei, and removing the helmet had set him free.
When Silvan saw that Death Rhino had quieted down, he turned to Akki Taitei, who had returned to where he was standing before at some point, and declared, “Did you see that, Akki Taitei?! This is my power, and Mechadra’s!”
“Curse you, Silvan!” Akki Taitei yelled. “I’ll withdraw for now, but I swear I’ll be back for your head!”
Leaving those words behind, Akki Taitei disappeared into a puff of smoky darkness that suddenly arose.
Silvan tried to give chase, but when the smoke cleared, Akki Taitei was gone.
Silvan looked up to the heavens and announced, “Akki Taitei easily manipulated that gentle rhinosaurus. What a terrifying enemy. However, for as long as Mechadra and I exist, we will always foil the Black Group’s schemes!”
Then Mechadra slowly rose up in front of where Silvan was looking...
...and that was how the broadcast ended.
The program normally closed out with the Silvan Energy Exercises, but we had done them first this time, so now there were none.
While everyone was preparing to leave, I talked to Roroa.
“How was it, Roroa? Think this is fine as a rework?”
“Hmm, I can’t say until I see how the people are reactin’ to it, but... Yeah, sure, why not? Toys of Mechadra and monsters like Death Rhino’ll probably sell. I think I can do some good merchandisin’. Thanks, Darlin’.”
Roroa embraced me with a broad smile. I was glad I’d somehow managed to meet her expectations.
Then Juna came over. “Hmm,” she had her head cocked to the side. “But, sire, won’t shooting it like this every time be a lot of trouble?”
“Oh, yeah, that’s right,” Roroa said. “If we don’t have enemies other than rhinosauruses, it’s gonna be hard makin’ merchandise, too. What other opponents were you thinkin’ of?”
I wracked my brains. “As for other creatures Tomoe’s ability could handle, there are wyverns and sea dragons, I guess. The shoujou are too small. Also, we could try having them fight Genia’s golems. Naden and Ruby’s dragon forms would work, but... if I make Naden a villain, Liscia’s bound to get angry.”
“You’d be makin’ the future second secondary queen play a villain, after all,” Roroa said. “We could try makin’ the same creatures look like different ones with accessories and such, but ya can’t overdo it.”
“True... Maybe it’s safest to have the giant robot battles only once every second month.”
With us having confirmed that, the day came to an end.
Later on, that giant robot battle became a huge topic in the kingdom.
Like Roroa had predicted, Mechadra toys, and even monster toys, flew off the shelves.
However, because of that, there were an incredible number of requests to see more of Mechadra’s powerful body.
In the end, we had giant robot battles once a month, and most the money made on merchandise went into accessories to put on the monsters.
“It’s no good,” Roroa sighed. “We may not be takin’ a loss, but we ain’t makin’ enough of a profit, either.”
“This business is totally living paycheck-to-paycheck, yeah.”
“Do... we have to keep doin’ this forever?” Roroa complained.
“It might be best to just give in and make a Mechadra costume and set, you know?”
Yes, the tokusatsu program had become a headache for Souma and Roroa once again.