Chapter 72: Revelation

The cathedral in the capital held a holy chalice brought to them from the Western Empire. It was the only holy artifact in the kingdom’s possession. On this day, however, something quite strange happened to the strictly guarded chalice.

“Something terrible has happened, Bishop!” A nun, who would hardly ever find cause to raise her voice, rushed into the bishop’s room.

“What has you in such a fuss, Sist—?!”

“Please, this way!”

Before the bishop could even finish his sentence, the nun nearly forced him to the room where the chalice was held. The short and stout bishop chased after the nun, huffing and puffing as he ran for the first time in ages.

“Wh-What?! Who could have done this?!”

The chalice was filled with a red liquid. Normally, the chalice was left empty, and was only filled to baptize a child of the royal family.

“Not a soul has been in here, Bishop. It just suddenly started to fill all on its own!” The nun refuted the bishop’s accusation fervently. Nobody would have dared to toy with the holy chalice. There couldn’t possibly have been anyone in the church willing to spit in the face of the heavens.

“Then how...?”

“Wait! Look inside the chalice!” The nun pointed.

“Wh-What in the world...?!”

The red liquid began filling the chalice up more and more, like water welling up from a spring.

“Bishop!”

Not even seconds had passed before the red liquid steadily rose to the top, then began to overflow. The substance slowly began to spread onto the cloth under the chalice as though it had a will of its own.

“Could it be...?!” The bishop exclaimed as he realized what was forming from the stain. “Ancient imperial text?” It wasn’t a simple stain. There were legible characters being formed. “A divine...revelation?” The bishop’s legs gave out and he fell flat on his behind on the floor.

“This...has never happened before...” The red stain spelled out the name of a girl in the ancient imperial language. It was a name even the bishop had heard talk of in recent days.

It was a miracle that the chalice should fill outside of the royal family’s baptismal ceremonies, yet with a girl like this, it was certainly understandable.

“We must announce this at once! A saint chosen by heaven has appeared here in the kingdom! W-We must hurry and... Hmm?” The nun who had been there only shortly before was nowhere to be seen. “Where did she go? Ah, now’s not the time to be worried about that!” The bishop grabbed the chalice and the stained cloth and rushed out of the room. Having been so excited by the miraculous scene before his very eyes, the bishop didn’t notice that the chalice was now suddenly empty.

Everything was as the heavens demanded.

Chapter 73: The Saint

“What is the meaning of this?! Are you seriously telling me that the church has officially consecrated a saint?! Despite everything, Emma of the Stewart family was not a saint until the Western imperials came! I was able to pass the rumors off as just some unfortunate town gossip, but if we announce that she’s a saint now, we can’t keep our protection plan in place!” The king practically exploded with rage. After hearing the news, he was told they should speak somewhere more private, and they moved away from the banquet hall.

“Exactly! If we’d known ahead of time, we could have put a gag order on the city, forbidding them to speak of Emma! Even then, it is utterly unheard of to have them announce this to the people before informing the royal family first!” Even the second-born prince, Edward, who had been described as emotionless until a year ago, didn’t try to hide his fury as he pressed the prime minister further.

“Your Majesty. Your Highness. Please, calm yourselves.”

“And how the hell are we supposed to do that?!”

No matter how the prime minister tried to comfort them, the king and the prince weren’t having it. Considering the prime minister had supported the royal family for so long, it was truly bewildering. It wasn’t exactly praiseworthy for the royal family to get this emotional and protective over a single citizen, even if she was a noble.

The prime minister had never even seen this Lady Emma Stewart either. She only showed up to the bare minimum of social events, but she still stood out as everyone who had seen her had only good things to say.

It’s suspicious as hell, the prime minister thought.

After all, on the very rare occasion Emma Stewart did appear, there would always be some kind of incident. And once that incident was wrapped up, her popularity would skyrocket. Before anyone knew it, rumors of Emma Stewart being a saint began to spread around the capital like wildfire, at completely unnatural and shocking speeds. What was more, it wasn’t just the nobles; the people in the shopping district, the fisherman in the Simmons region, and even the children of the slums were calling her a saint.

It was ridiculously suspicious.

But this wasn’t the time to think more on that. The prime minister needed to tell them the exact contents of the church’s proclamation, even if it meant upsetting the king even further. The king was already intense enough because of his martial prowess, but it was the prime minister’s duty to provide the king with accurate information.

“Your Majesty, Your Highness... The thing is, the saint the church has consecrated isn’t Emma Stewart.”

It was as the prime minister said. As if scoffing at the mere suggestion of the Saint Emma Stewart rumors around the capital, the church had announced the name of someone else entirely.

“What.” Both the king and the prince gave a completely deflated response before pressing the prime minister once more.

“What do you mean Emma’s not the saint?! In what world does that make sense?! There’s not a single cutie out there more modest and delicate and pure than Emma!”

“Emma has to be the saint! There’s nobody kinder, more gentle, more dainty, or more beautiful in the whole kingdom! I swear by that! What is the church even looking at?! Do they even have eyes?!”

Damned if she’s a saint and damned if she’s not... These guys are such a pain. The prime minister groaned internally.

“Don’t get upset with me. I’m just the messenger. The name the church gave was for a girl in the Skyte region named Juana.” She had no last name; only the first name of Juana.

The king and the prince had been seething with rage until then, but the moment they heard the girl’s name, they were stunned silent.

“You don’t think they mean...that Juana, do you?” the king asked in a low voice, clearly hoping he was mistaken.

Unfortunately, the prime minister couldn’t grant the king’s wish. “The very same, Your Majesty.”

“Just what is with that girl...?” the king asked with a sigh, no longer grilling the prime minister and instead sinking deeply into his chair.

While the prince sat as well, he looked quite jittery about the whole affair. “It’s just one thing after another, isn’t it? We were already worried about how to handle her...”

Both the king and the prince knew this Juana person. To understand why they knew someone with no last name, who wasn’t even a noble, one had to go back to the party marking the start of the school year. The very party where Emma had been subjected to a “baptism” by the firstborn prince’s faction and had wine spilled all over her. At the party, a girl had been escorted by the son of a baron from the Skyte region. She’d had no invitation, no last name, no known birthplace. Ordinarily, there would have been no way she could have entered the castle. However, the reason she was allowed could have only been because of her shocking appearance.

The girl’s eyes were black. In the kingdom, pitch-black eyes were a sign that someone was part of the royal family. It was impossible for an ordinary citizen to be born with such black eyes. While her hair wasn’t pure black, it was a dark brown that was near black, which could only mean she had royal blood in her veins. Naturally, everyone who saw her was in an uproar, and news of it reached the king despite him being busied with the formalities of the party.

The girl had been taken into the royal family’s care before too many rumors could start, and all who witnessed her appearance were put under strict gag orders. There was a crackdown on anyone who tried to spread any rumors about her as well.

According to the baron’s son who escorted her there, the girl had been living alone in the woods. She had apparently helped his father, who had been lost in the woods while hunting monsters, and he had been stunned by her appearance. There had been no doubt in his mind that she was a girl of noble birth, connected to the royal family. Since he was sending his son to the academy around that time anyway, he decided to have his son bring her with him to the castle to seek their judgment on the matter.

Why didn’t they send us a letter?! the king fretted. He had admonished the boy at the time, thinking surely there must have been a better way to alert him. This was something they should have been informed of ahead of time. He couldn’t imagine what they were thinking by suddenly thrusting her at them during a party out of nowhere.

“If I may, Your Majesty. Those of us in the Skyte region don’t have the time to get involved with the royal family’s domestic affairs. You should be grateful we even brought her here,” the baron’s son replied coldly at the king’s brazen anger. “My father lost three brothers to monsters, and I lost my left arm to them. Yet you still wouldn’t let him resign from his post. Here you have plenty of nobles parading around in their fancy clothes, yet not a single one of them would take my father’s place. Monsters are growing more active than ever lately, and all the royal family has done is send us some utterly useless knights. You haven’t even thought of any way to solve the fundamental problem at hand.”

It was difficult for any person to take charge of regions where monsters appeared. Not only were their lives in danger during monster hunts, but they barely received any financial support from the capital either, no matter how much they struggled. Knowing that was exactly why no noble was willing to throw away their lavish capital lifestyle to go take over a monster-infested domain.

But then, the black-eyed girl appeared. She was probably some royal’s illegitimate child. It was enough to make the people of the countryside spit.

“We got her here safely, so do take care of her.” And with that, he put his hand on the black-eyed girl’s shoulder.

“I’m Juana. I’ve been living with my grandmother in the forest all my life, but she passed away a year ago, so I’ve been on my own.” The girl didn’t even bow before the king, and began introducing herself without being told. It was less that she was being disrespectful and more that she likely didn’t know any basic social proprieties.

The girl said she had no memory of her parents and that she’d lived with her grandmother for as long as she could remember. Yet there was no mistaking those black eyes. If it were just her hair, they could have suspected she’d colored it with charcoal, but there was no way she could have changed the color of her eyes.

Even the king had to admit that he was seeing clear proof that this girl had royal blood.

Thus, Juana was temporarily brought to the castle to be cared for. For the time being, she was being looked after in a room deep within the castle, away from prying eyes. She’d been assigned an etiquette tutor just in case it was determined she really was of royal descent, so that she could at least have the bare minimum of manners drilled into her.

While the gag order kept the nobles from discussing Juana in public, it was only a surface-level measure. Behind closed doors, everyone knew.

On top of everything, the church was ignoring the gag order and announcing Juana’s name anyway. It was as though they had some sort of information the royal family themselves didn’t.

“What are we going to do about this...?” When the king thought back to when Juana first arrived, it made him remember an even more agonizing conversation that had occurred after as well.

◆ ◆ ◆

“I saw the girl too. The one with the nearly black hair and pitch-black eyes. Now, I just want to put this out there, but...she’s not mine.” After the party celebrating the start of the school year, Rose and Edward, who had both heard the prime minister’s explanation as well, had been shooting the king the coldest glares. “I-I really mean it...”

“...”

“R-Rose? You believe me, don’t you?”

“...”

“Ed...?”

“...”

“G-Guys?”

“...”

The king’s beloved concubine and his son were simply staring him down in silence.

“Th-There’s other members of the royal family who could be her father, right? S-Seriously, don’t look at me like that! Can’t you do something about this, Prime Minister?!” The king pleaded with the prime minister to help him explain that this was all one big misunderstanding.

“Of course. After the attempted coup d’état, I was sure to speak with your housebound elder brother about all of this.”

“Right! Yeah! My brother! My brother could be responsible!” The king’s older brother was scummy enough to try to take both his younger brother’s throne and his life. The prime minister’s efficient work was a ray of light for the king.

“Indeed. When we spoke, your brother said, ‘In what world would I ever help some filthy peasant woman? What a sickening thought.’” Unfortunately, the ray of light was more like a laser pointed right at the king.

The response from the king’s unsavory older brother Cain was convincing to Rose. “That makes sense for him. He told me I was out of his league even with my family’s marquess peerage.”

“Uncle Cain’s always been one of those super elitists,” Edward agreed.

“But...I’m still saying, she’s not my daughter.”

“...”

“C-C’mon, Prime Minister! Say something to them!”

“...”

“N-Not you too!” The king’s face at being betrayed by his closest companions was truly pitiful.

“Your Majesty, the queen will be finishing up her duties soon. We need to report this to her as well.” The prime minister whispered to the king so Rose wouldn’t hear.

“V-Victoria?! Right... We have to explain all this to Victoria too...” The king twitched and began trembling the moment he heard the word “queen.” The prime minister’s act of consideration was all for nothing as the very man he was trying to be considerate of simply said her name out loud, voice cracking. No matter how many years he’d known her, he was still no match for her.

Rose glared and puffed out her cheeks when she saw the king panic. “Well, it must be so difficult for you to have so many people to make excuses to.”

“I-It’s not like that, Rose! You’ve gotta believe me!”

“...”

“You even look adorable when you’re pouting... Ack! Where are you going, Rose?! We’re not done talking! Roooose!”

◆ ◆ ◆

It was three days before Rose would speak to him again. Her little pout with the puffed-up cheeks was truly adorable, but Jadwiga following her mother’s example and not talking to him was too much to bear. He might have cried himself to sleep over it.

The second-born prince, Edward, gave a sigh over the king’s despair as he recalled the whole ordeal, then turned to face the window—toward the Eastern Empire.

Come to think of it, Emma always denied it when people called her a saint... the prince realized. She’d go red in the face, even looking slightly angry as though to say it was far too great an honor for her. Everyone could clearly understand why a girl with such a modest personality would be a saint, and the more she denied it, the more people believed she was one.

The desperation in her face as she denied it was so adorable. It filled him with such a warm and fuzzy feeling.

I want to see her again... I want to see Emma again.

If all had been going according to plan, they should have received notice that the Stewarts would be coming home around this time. Yet they hadn’t heard anything, making the prince wonder if maybe something had happened to prevent them from returning. The prince murmured an earnest prayer.

“Emma... Please come back to us safe and sound.”

Chapter 74: A Look That Could Kill

White rice.

Monster-based cooking using soy sauce and miso.

A natural hot spring dug up by their adorable kitties.

“The Eastern Empire is heaven... I kinda wanna live here...” Emma muttered with utter satisfaction as she held a perfect traditional rice ball with umeboshi in it in one hand.

“Yeah. That might be the move,” Leonard responded, and the rest of the family nodded in agreement.

“Lady Emma, I’ve prepared some tea.” Joshua gently served Emma a tea they called “ryokucha” in the Eastern Empire. While he was initially surprised by the green color of the tea, after seeing Emma drinking it so happily, he’d bought the tea leaves without any hesitation and learned how to prepare it himself.

“Thanks, Joshua! The tea you make is always so tasty. And I mean both your black tea and ryokucha. I wonder what makes it so different?” Emma grinned, now with a rice ball in her right hand and freshly poured ryokucha in her left. “Man... Rice balls and ryokucha really are a match made in heaven...”

“You can say that again...” George and William responded with expressions of pure bliss.

The Tanakas were currently enjoying their lives in the Eastern Empire to the fullest. They couldn’t have all the rice they could eat, but they still were able to have it once a day.

The Eastern Empire really was heaven.

“Lady Emma, I’ll gladly serve you tea every day for the rest of our lives!” The reason Joshua’s tea was so delicious was that he was using the highest-quality tea leaves he could procure in the Eastern Empire (even with its food shortages), preparing it perfectly by the book, then serving it at the exact temperature and steep time that Emma liked. For Emma’s smile, Joshua would not skimp even on tea preparations. That was just how Joshua was; he would keep up the hard work until Emma realized she simply couldn’t live without him. In fact, he’d be pampering her even more once she did think that. What made Joshua’s tea so different was the intense affection he felt for her.

“Hee hee. You say the funniest things sometimes, Joshua.” Unfortunately for him, Emma didn’t notice it a bit. He might as well have been proposing to her with that declaration, but she ignored it spectacularly. Emma/Minato Tanaka, the woman who lived to thirty-five years old without ever having married, was truly a force to be reckoned with.

“Lady Emma’s smile...is just so angelic...” Yet all of Joshua’s myriad efforts were paid back in kind with the utter bliss he felt upon seeing a single smile from Emma.

“Quit your relaxing, dammit!!!”

Oliver, the man who had accompanied the family as a diplomat, was the one to destroy their peaceful, relaxing vibe. His frustrated screaming was understandable. In fact, it had already been over a month since they’d defeated the owatas. They’d achieved what they came to the Eastern Empire to do a month ago, so they should have been able to go back to the kingdom a month ago. Yet here they were, still in the Eastern Empire.

“Oh. You’re here, Oliver.” Melsa shot a dirty look at the diplomat. She’d wished he’d quiet down while they were trying to eat.

“I’ve been here the whole damn time, Melsa! Do you have any idea how long it’s been since we got rid of those owatas?! Even if we leave right here and now, the social season in the kingdom will be over by the time we get back!”

The family had defeated the owatas lickety-split, so Oliver had been hoping he’d actually be able to get home for the social season he’d initially given up on attending that year. Unfortunately, that hope was dashed, so he was extremely displeased.

During the social season, every envoy and merchant from the Western Empire would come to the kingdom, and it was the perfect chance for the kingdom’s nobles to make connections with people in the Western Empire. If they did well enough, they might have been able to get the Western Empire’s major export of cotton for cheaper than the market price. In doing so, the nobles could get a little pocket change by selling it within the kingdom afterward. Therefore, lords who were trying to compensate for the harsh financial situations they were in gathered in the capital, and it was packed so full the people looked like little bits of trash. But this meant that Oliver, as a diplomat, had missed his chance to make an impression on the envoys from the Western Empire who had been staying in the capital.

“You could’ve just gone on ahead without us,” Leonard sneered as he tried out Emma’s freeze-dried miso soup. He was none too happy with Oliver being so rude to his wife.

“You think a diplomat can just waltz on back home by himself?! They’ll think I’m just some coward who couldn’t handle being in the Eastern Empire!” Oliver’s face was red with shame and fury. He’d been a diplomat for many long years, yet he was the only one who couldn’t get used to life in the Eastern Empire, and it was a major blow to his pride.

“You can go if it’s too hard on you, man. There’s nothing wrong with running if you wanna.” George put a hand on Oliver’s shoulder. Oliver had gotten quite haggard over the two months they’d been in the Eastern Empire. After all, he was surrounded by people who didn’t speak a lick of his own language. He thought that if the Stewarts could do it, then surely he could do it too...but reality was cruel. No matter how long he was in the Eastern Empire, no matter how much he surrounded himself with the Eastern imperials, no matter how much he put himself in places where the Eastern imperial language was used, he hadn’t gotten the slightest clue how to speak it. He was still far from understanding it, and he couldn’t even pronounce simple greetings correctly.

It was so hard. It was so painful that of course he wanted to just go back home. And yet...

“Why won’t you people just go home?!” Oliver was suffering from a major case of homesickness for the capital. “The food here isn’t terrible, but I can’t get used to it. And all their weird customs like taking off your shoes when you go into a building? And all those weird chhkk chhkk sounds I keep hearing every single night?! And it’s smaller and closer to the border than the kingdom, so I’m constantly terrified monsters are going to show up... I mean, aren’t you all?!” After bottling it up for so long, Oliver had reached his limit and exploded. Unfortunately, nothing bad had actually happened to him since he’d come to the Eastern Empire, so he was just lashing out in general.

“The rice here is like...the best ever, though?” William said, puckering his lips at the umeboshi in his rice ball.

“It’s more hygienic to take your shoes off indoors too, isn’t it?” Melsa responded, reaching for her second rice ball.

“Having monsters nearby is normal anyway, isn’t it?” Leonard and George said as they each reached for their third rice ball.

“Grrr... What is with you people?! How can you be so callous?! What about you, merchant boy?! You want to go back already, right?! You had some serious nerve leaving the capital during the social season! You can’t seriously think now’s the time to be dawdling in the Eastern Empire!” The Stewarts seemed like they were actually living it up more than they were in the capital. If Oliver couldn’t get through to them, then it was time to shift targets to Joshua.

“Hmm? Well, I’d heard that the quality of cotton in the Western Empire this year was atrocious, and they were trying to sell it at exorbitant prices too. If we’d just bought their cotton like they wanted, we’d be sitting on a major loss right about now. I think you’ll see when you get back, but I think it was for the best that you weren’t in the capital this year, Lord Oliver. That being said, I’m happy as long as I can be by Lady Emma’s side.” At that, Joshua dutifully put himself by Emma’s side and refilled her tea. His actions practically screamed, This is the perfect chance to get a leg up on all my romantic rivals too!

“More importantly, Lord Oliver! Can you tell me more about the weird sounds you were hearing?” Emma completely ignored Joshua’s honeyed words to latch onto Oliver’s whining instead.

The family was currently not in Edo, but rather staying in the little village (camp) they’d made out of owatas, so this was the first time they’d seen Oliver in a while. Even though they’d defeated the owatas, the majority of buildings in Edo had been destroyed, and it would take some time to go back to the way it had been before. It was also easier to receive food from the distribution system in Edo, so many of the Eastern imperials were still living there. As such, the family decided it was probably for the best not to let the citizens see the cats and amblypygids. Or rather, after seeing the emperor’s and shogun’s reactions, they realized they had to hide them. Therefore, the Stewarts were simply taking it easy in the village they had made, hunting monsters from time to time, and making can openers and the like.

However, unlike the Stewarts, Oliver, whose distrust of others was only exacerbated by being in a foreign country with a language barrier and a culture and way of life he didn’t understand, found even being in the capital with all the other civilians was enough to make him throw a big old tantrum. Yet even with all his complaining, he refused to stay with the Stewarts in the village they’d made of the owata breeding grounds, for fear of monsters.

“Oh, I’m so glad you asked! There’s something in that manor. I hear it every single night!” Emma was the only one who took an interest in any of his complaints, and Oliver jumped at the opportunity to be heard.

“Ugh. Oliver, can’t you just live with it?” Unlike Emma, Melsa’s voice showed utter disinterest.

◆ ◆ ◆

It all started when Oliver had a special manor prepared for him after he’d reached his stress limit.

“I’m so sorry we were unable to arrange for sleeping quarters he could be satisfied with at such a sudden juncture...” Fukushima bowed to Melsa, who had come along to interpret for Oliver.

“It’s quite all right. Rather, I should apologize for our diplomat being so selfish while you’re so busy.” It was before the Stewarts had finished cutting down all the owatas. They’d heard from Joshua how Oliver had been doing, so Fukushima and Melsa, along with several samurai, came rushing back to Edo.

He didn’t want to go home by himself. He didn’t want to stay in Edo with all the refugees. He didn’t want to stay with the Stewarts in their campgrounds. Melsa fought back the urge to tell him he was whining like a little baby and instead negotiated with the people in charge to get Oliver his own place to stay. She had to go from the owata breeding grounds to Edo, from Edo to the house over and over again. Even though they’d left early in the morning, it was already dark by the time they’d arrived, so Melsa, Fukushima, and the many samurai who accompanied them were staying at the estate with Oliver that night. They shoved Oliver in the first room nearest the entrance as he complained the whole way, and Melsa was guided to her own room.

“It’s been some time since I’ve been completely alone.” After deciding to stay the night because of Oliver, Melsa had gotten some unexpected free time to herself. She stretched out her muscles, weary from the long carriage ride, and thought back to what she’d seen when she’d first arrived in Edo. It had been right around lunchtime, so the citizens had been receiving rations of spaghetti napolitan. The food was prepared mostly by the Taros, who had learned western-style cooking from the Stewart family. Kato, who facilitated the distribution, told her that the people were singing its praises like wild.

“Well, I’ve got some time, so maybe I should do some writing. Maybe make a cookbook of recipes you can make in the Eastern Empire...” Seeing all those people enjoying her spaghetti had Melsa recalling all sorts of recipes from her previous life as a housewife who’d loved to cook, and she was filled with the desire to have them try one recipe after another.

Skitter.

“Oh, right. I guess I’m not alone, am I?” When Melsa decided to part from her family, the top security advisor, Violsok—aka the slightly oversized purple spider, Violet—came along. Once the spider determined there were no people around, it came out from Melsa’s skirt, hopped onto the desk, and looked up at Melsa. “Hee hee, Violet. You want to help me with a little something?”

Skitter!

The purple spider hopped as if responding to Melsa’s mischievous smile, then jumped up onto Melsa’s head to help her write even more recipes she thought of from her previous life.

At the same time, Oliver thought he could finally get a good night’s sleep and went straight to his futon. Unfortunately, despite the fact that all he had done was ride in a carriage all day, his sleep was light, and late in the night, he was awoken by a strange sound.

Shhkk... Shhkk...

What in the world? Oliver rubbed his eyes and looked around, but nothing was there.

Shhkk... Shhkk...

It sounded so close, but he couldn’t tell where the sound was coming from.

Could it be a robber?! I can’t be sleeping through that! Oliver thought, and sat up in bed. While the gate to the residence was beautiful, the actual doors to the rooms were just wooden frames with paper put between them. They were hardly secure. There wasn’t even a lock to the room, so it wouldn’t have been hard for someone to break in.

“Wh-Who’s there?!” Oliver couldn’t stand the fear that he might be being attacked and shouted.

Shhkk... Shhkk...

But there was no response to his show of bravado.

Maybe the sound’s not coming from in here. Maybe it’s coming from outside? Oliver thought.

Shhkk... Shhkk...

Melsa! Oliver’s ex-fiancée came to his mind. Please say she’s safe! If I’m this terrified, then a woman like Melsa must be practically paralyzed with fear!

Thinking that there might be an intruder outside, Oliver wrung out all the courage he could to get out of bed and open the door.

“Nobody’s there...?”

Shhkk... Shhkk...

“Eeek!”

There was nothing there...but the sound was still as loud as ever.

Oliver was terrified. He was scared out of his mind. But as the terror crept up his spine, he remembered his ex-fiancée’s face. He felt like he could hear her screaming, “Oliver! Help me!”

“I-I’m coming, Melsa!!!” The man was normally a pompous jerk, but when he thought of Melsa cowering tearfully alone in fear of the strange sound, he broke into a run, and threw open the door to Melsa’s room. After all, there was no lock, and that door was nothing but wood and paper. He was able to open the door and... “Melsa, are you all righ— Aiiiiiieeeee!”

Oliver blacked out.

Oliver’s screams rang out through the estate, and Fukushima and the samurai ran in to see what the commotion was about.

“What happened here?!”

Oliver had collapsed on the floor in front of Melsa’s room and was foaming at the mouth.

“Oh, Lord Fukushima. I’m so sorry for the fuss. I think he might’ve been half asleep.” Melsa said with an ice-cold expression as she smacked Oliver’s cheek. “Oliver. Oliver?”

“Nngh... Mmngh... Eek!” As soon as Oliver woke up and saw Melsa’s face, he let out a cry.

“Seriously? You’re going to scream the second you see me? How rude can you be?” Melsa sighed with exasperation.

“I-Is it really you, Melsa?! The real you?!” Oliver shot up and looked Melsa over with a panicked expression.

“Are you talking in your sleep or something?”

“You had that giant spider on your head...” Oliver remembered the horrifying sight he’d seen before he lost consciousness.

“Did you hit your head when you fell?” Melsa furrowed her brow and shut Oliver’s mouth.

“What’s he saying?” Fukushima looked puzzled at Oliver’s uncommonly terrified countenance.

What Oliver had seen as he threw open Melsa’s shoji screen—without knocking—in the middle of the night was Melsa with a massive spider on her head, writing her best recipes so quickly that he couldn’t follow her pen with the naked eye. It was such a terrifying sight that he’d passed out instantly.

“What were you thinking, barging into a lady’s room without knocking? And in the middle of the night too.” It was a real annoyance for Melsa.

“I-I swear I saw it! There was a giant spider on your head!”

“Could you knock it off with the sleep talking? Why were you in my room? Wait... Don’t tell me you were sneaking in here for nefarious purposes?!” Melsa ignored his insistence about the spider and glared at him with utter contempt.

“O-Of course not! I heard a weird sound! It was this constant grinding sound! I couldn’t see where it was coming from. I just heard it! I-I thought it might have scared you, so... But then when I saw that spi—”

“In what universe would I ever have a spider on my head?”

“I-I saw it, though! I know I did!”

“Is he quite all right?” one of the samurai asked. Oliver’s flustered response had him worried.

“He’s saying he heard a strange grinding noise, but couldn’t see where it was coming from.” Though Melsa deliberately omitted the bit about the spider, her explanation made Fukushima and the samurai all burst into laughter.

“That’s probably just an azukiarai. It’s a perfectly harmless yokai. Please tell him that.” The samurai were in utter disbelief that Oliver could be that terrified of a simple azukiarai, and they returned to their rooms.

“Melsa! Why the hell are those Eastern imperials laughing?!”

“They said that grinding sound was just a yokai called an azukiarai, and that it’s perfectly harmless.”

“Yok...what now? What the hell is that? A monster? Is it a monster?!” The most important word was in the Eastern imperial language, so Oliver couldn’t catch it and had no idea what was allegedly harmless.

“I mean...I think it’s probably more like a ghost of some kind?” Melsa also added that it’d be a much bigger deal if a monster had appeared there.

“A ghost?! But that’s dangerous too! We’ll be cursed! You’ve gotta call whatever this country uses for an exorcist!” Oliver was one of those people who really believed in ghosts.

“The imperials were saying they’re completely harmless. Goodness, an azukiarai really takes me back... I didn’t realize the Eastern Empire had yokai too. What was it they used to say? ‘Shall I grind my beans or get a person to eat today?’” Melsa giggled to herself as she remembered her past life.

“They eat people?! How is that harmless?!” Oliver began to tremble.

“They always choose the red beans, so obviously it’s fine. Not like I know for sure, though. Anyway, could you go back to your room already?” Melsa sighed. He had no right causing such a ruckus.

“But I still don’t know why you had that spider on your...”

“I told you, there’s no way I would let a spider onto my head! This conversation is over!” Melsa shouted, forced Oliver out of her room, and slammed the shoji screen shut.

After making sure the shoji screen was shut, Violet cautiously peeked out from the shadow of the desk where it had been hiding. Melsa smiled at the spider.

“I was able to brush this off. Now, maybe we should go to bed,” she said, then gathered the massive amount of recipes she’d written and dumped it all in her bag. “Ugh, Oliver really can’t get anything right.” It didn’t matter whether he was traveling or not, bursting into a room without even knocking in the middle of the night was not the action of an upstanding gentleman. When Melsa thought that she might have been married to the man if their engagement hadn’t broken when she was in school, it sent shivers up her spine. She was so glad the marriage had been called off, because now she was happily with her family.

I wonder if the children are sleeping right now? I’m sure Leonard is being crushed under Zhang and groaning about it with the happiest face ever.

Thinking of her husband and children, Melsa went to sleep as well.

◆ ◆ ◆

Melsa sighed as she recounted all of Oliver’s complaints to Emma. He was too scared of the owatas, and he was too scared of the Eastern imperials because of the language barrier, but he somehow still had the nerve to complain about the domicile they’d prepared for him, all because an azukiarai happened to have gotten there first.

Oliver, meanwhile, was still too scared to sleep, so he was clearly sleep-deprived. “It was just shhkk, shhkk, shhkk, every single night! But no matter how much I looked, I couldn’t find the damn thing! I feel like I’m going crazy!”

“Wait, azukiarai? Like the thing from PetPetPet Kitaro?” George asked, thinking back on his past life. He used to love that anime.

“Yokai and stuff tend to be natural phenomena like foxes, tanuki, or weasels. It’s just misunderstandings and confirmation bias. Yokai aren’t real,” William said with a laugh. Besides, the monsters of this world were a thousand times scarier than yokai that just licked the grime off your bathtub, or got heavier when you carried them, or just sat around washing red beans.

This was too much for the sleep-deprived Oliver, and he snapped at the two bubbly brothers. “No, dammit! You can see foxes, and tanuki, and weasels! I’m not biased! I searched the house, the yard, and all around the house every single day, and I haven’t seen a single thing!” The whole time that the Stewarts had been immersed in owata slaying and can opener making, Oliver had been searching for the azukiarai.

“Hmm... Azukiarai, huh? I thought for sure the sound would be like...some kind of bug... Hmm?” Emma was a bit disappointed that it turned out to be something different than she’d expected, but the word azukiarai was sticking in her mind for some reason.

Azukiarai... I think I saw an explanation of it before... Like I read a book about it in my previous life...but what was it?

“Um... Er...” It was right on the tip of her tongue. “Oh, if only I could just Mewgle it or something...” She couldn’t exactly search her memories of her previous life, and the thought that she wouldn’t be able to place what was bugging her so much was intensely frustrating.

“Lady Emma? Is something the matter?” The Mewgle of this world—that was, Joshua—came around to peer at Emma as she muttered to herself. He hoped to get ahead of his romantic rivals while he was in the Eastern Empire, so he was closing the distance between them a bit more than usual, and his face was quite close by.

“Oh!” Joshua’s backbreaking hard work was rewarded when Emma grasped his face firmly in both hands.

“Wha—?! Lady Emma?! Whabuhhuhwhaaaa?!” Joshua had no time to even be shocked as Emma’s face, which was already very close, grew closer and closer. “A-Ah, Lady Emma? Er... I... Hanngh!”

Emma’s face was right smack-dab in front of his, and she stopped just as their noses were moments away from touching.

Could she be... No, we can’t! Oh, but... Aaah!

Joshua put his hand to his heart, which was pounding in his chest like an alarm, as he barely managed to fight back the desire to close the distance between their lips. Poor Joshua, who was always practically overflowing with his adoration for Emma, was pushed right to the very edge of sanity at the sudden treat. Even still, Joshua did not move a muscle. The tried-and-true Joshua Rothschild would never give in to his own greed.

Probably.

There they stood in limbo, as Joshua used monumental restraint and force of will that made all his previous efforts look like nothing.

Control yourself, Joshua! Don’t give in, Joshua! You have to live! Live through this, Joshuaaaa!

“They’re barkflies!” Emma, completely unaware of the fierce internal battle waging inside Joshua, had simply been staring at his best feature—his freckles.

Emma’s memory of comparing Joshua’s freckles to barkflies when they’d met connected to Minato’s memory of reading a book by an Edo researcher of yokai who noted that azukiarai were actually barkflies.

“Barkflies?” Oliver frowned as if to show his utter displeasure at the brazenness of the youths. They’d just started flirting right then and there in front of everyone.

“Sis! You’ve gotta let Joshua go! He’s not gonna make it!” William shouted, pretty certain that Joshua was no longer breathing.

“Huh? Oh, sorry, Joshua! Are you okay?” It wasn’t until William said something that Emma realized Joshua’s face was bright red, and she took her hands off his face. It must have hurt when she grabbed his face so suddenly.

“Hangh... I-I’m okay. Yeah. I’m fine.” Joshua dizzily gathered up the last remnants of his sanity and began breathing again.

As always, Emma’s actions were completely unpredictable.

That was a close one. Like, really, really close.

Joshua steadied his breath somehow, then looked at Emma with a deathly serious face. “Lady Emma, I know I’ve said this before, but you can’t do things like this with the prince or any of the boys at school, okay? You don’t want to get accused of offending someone of a higher status, do you? So please, keep this sort of thing between only you and me. Okay?”

“Ah... Er... I’m really sorry, Joshua.” Emma earnestly apologized in the face of Joshua’s sudden seriousness.

“The consequences of that sort of crime are terrifying. Think of it as ten times worse than Lady Hilda’s lectures.”

“Eek! Joshua, I-I promise I’ll be careful!”

Joshua knew all too well what Emma was most afraid of and he used it fully to his advantage. “You know, maybe it would be wise for you not to even touch any boys but me. Just to be safe.”

“I-It’s that bad?! Noble life is way stricter than I thought...”

“It sure is. You can’t let your guard down for a second. But Lady Emma, you can touch me as much as you please. In fact, touch me to your heart’s content.” Joshua turned the situation around so beautifully, one never would have guessed he’d been on the brink of collapse just moments ago.

“He really is hopeless, huh?”

“Wait... You actually still had hope for him, George?”

George and William both sadly looked on at the scene when suddenly, the area around them grew dark.

“Huh? Why’d it go dark?”

“Oh, shoot!”

Both of the brothers turned around to see what caused the darkness. There was their father, Leonard, standing to block the light coming in from the window, wearing an expression that could put a demon to shame.

“Joshua? Can I speak to you for a moment?” A blood vessel was throbbing on his forehead, and he was forcing a smile as he spoke.

George and William both screamed in a panic.

“F-Father, let’s calm ourselves!”

“Joshua! Apologize! Apologize if you don’t want to get thrown again!”

But Joshua wasn’t hearing it.

“No, I want to make myself perfectly clear. My feelings for Lady Em—”

“Come again, boy? I don’t think I heard you properly.” Leonard was getting more and more brutish by the second.

“Aaagh, sis! You do something about this too! Wait... Huh?!” William tried to get Emma’s help, as she was the reason Joshua was in so much danger, but when he turned to face her, he found her happily chatting away with Oliver about barkflies.

“So the thing is, barkflies actually make those grinding sounds when they’re on shoji paper!”

“Sorry, bugs? I didn’t see any bugs either.”

“They’re super tiny, that’s why! Oh! Do you think I could come see them...”

“Sis!” While William wanted to wail over how Emma could possibly be chatting about bugs at a time like this, it was honestly normal for her.

Just then, they heard another voice.

“Oh dear. Have I caught you all at a bad time?” Fukushima appeared just as Leonard had caught Joshua by the scruff. He’d attended a meeting at Edo Castle the night before and had just returned to the village (campgrounds).

“Oh, Lord Fukushima. You’re back early! I thought you’d be in Edo a bit longer. Did something happen at the meeting?” Leonard asked once he noticed Fukushima, smiling with the same demonic expression he’d directed at Joshua.

“Egad, your face! Er, I mean. At the meeting, we discussed what sort of reward you might all want for your courageous deeds. Could I ask you to come with me to Edo... Uh...?”

Leonard’s horrifying expression went from terrifying to deathly pale in an instant. Emma, who had been talking Oliver’s ear off about barkflies, George and William, who were trying to rescue Joshua from their father, and even Melsa, who had been carefully watching over the group chimed in at once.

“No compensation!”

◆ ◆ ◆

The next day, they were at Edo Castle. While the family had kept saying they wouldn’t accept any reward, Fukushima had said they couldn’t just go without taking anything in return and dragged them there. Sitting before them were the emperor and the shogun.

“You really mean to say you don’t want anything from us?”

“No compensation!”

The family responded fervently and simultaneously, almost talking over the emperor. Every single one of them were of the opinion that government rewards were horrific. The only things they’d wanted from the Eastern Empire were rice and various spices, and Joshua had already begun negotiating for those and making preparations to import them to his shop.

“What about magic tools? They’re very convenient!”

“No rewards!” If they took any magic tools, rumors would run rampant once they got home, and that was not something they wanted to deal with. So they refuted the shogun’s suggestion simultaneously. Besides, Joshua had already done the negotiations necessary for the import of magic tools and stones. They didn’t need to get them as a reward when they’d be able to just get them the normal way through a store soon enough.

The family’s goal in the capital was to not stand out. It was far more important to stay on the same level as everyone else than to get special treatment through political compensation.

The Stewarts all still had their very Japanese sensibilities from their previous life. Unfortunately, the family didn’t realize that that was the very thing that made them stand out the most. Any of the stuff that wound up being a huge pain to deal with, Joshua would handle for them anyway, so they didn’t really think about the tough stuff all that often.

“But we really must...”

“The official story is that we’re here on a cultural exchange for the summer. It would cause far too much of a stir for us to receive any accolades.” Leonard once again turned the emperor and the shogun’s offer down, acting as the family’s representative. The memory of the hassle brought by accepting the kingdom’s “reward” was still fresh in his mind. “We’ve been able to enjoy ourselves thoroughly while here in the Eastern Empire. That is enough for us.”

The Stewarts had been able to relax and hunt monsters with their kitties and amblypygids in the village they’d made out of the owata breeding grounds, all the while filling their hearts and bellies with the nostalgic old Japanese flavors they’d loved. Coming up with dishes that combined Japanese flavors with monster meats they could only get in this world, trying them out, and eating them had all been very fun.

“Then why don’t you move here? As far as I can tell, you seem like you’re having a much nicer time here than in the kingdom,” Prince Tasuku, who had spent some time in the kingdom with them, suggested. It was clear no matter how anyone looked at it that the family was thoroughly enjoying their stay in the Eastern Empire. Especially Emma, whose demeanor in the kingdom was like night and day. Back home, she seemed to be terrified of something (the Etiquette Demon) and kept her eyes downcast during evening parties, which truly did make her look delicate and adorable. But upon seeing her genuine smile in the Eastern Empire, Prince Tasuku felt that it would be far easier for her to live there.

“M-Move here...?” While they’d mentioned offhandedly that they might like to move there before, Prince Tasuku making it sound like it could easily be done had the family all starting to bend.

Shrewdly noticing the family starting to change their tune, the emperor began a stellar sales pitch. “Oh, that’s a marvelous idea, Tasuku. We can prepare a most suitable estate, servants, and peerage. We can give you a stipend of about one million koku. Naturally, I’ll deal with convincing the kingdom to let you immigrate here. You may hunt monsters or expand your canning facility if you please. And it could be interesting to have a little store where you cook up more of those dishes that somehow match our palates.” Getting permission to immigrate in this world was very difficult, and rarely approved. However, given all the meritorious deeds the Stewarts had performed, the shogun agreed that they’d be more than welcome.

“Moving to the Eastern Empire... Meaning we’d get all the rice we could eat... Make as much kitty wet food as we want... Hunt as many monsters as we want... And make as much western food as we want...?” The family’s hearts were starting to sway at the sweet deal. They were beginning to tap their toes to the emperor, the shogun, and Prince Tasuku’s tune.

“Saving the Eastern Empire is no small deed. I believe we could make Count Stewart a daimyo, and George could serve the shogun’s house as a samurai.”

“A daimyo...”

“A samurai...”

In the kingdom’s terms, Leonard would be a nobleman with land and peerage, and George would be both a hunter and a knight.

“I think I could live with that...” Both Leonard and George mumbled.

“Perhaps we could put Lady Melsa up as an official in charge of cooking...” Ume, the head lady-in-waiting, proposed.

“And maybe we could let Lady Emma research bugs as much as she wants too?” Miguel, who had also been permitted to attend, suggested.

Both Melsa’s and Emma’s eyes were sparkling. “I think I could live with that...”

Lastly, Fukushima had a proposition of his own.

“And perhaps William could...become my squire?”

“Uh. What.” William was a bit put off because Fukushima’s suggestion had seemed a bit different from the others.

Fukushima approached William, then stuck out his right hand as though he were going for a handshake. “William, I made up my mind the moment I saw you. Please, I want you as my kosho!” He looked more serious than he ever had before.

“What?! Lord Fukushima, what are you...”

“Oh my...”

“Goodness...”

Fukushima stared at William, his cheeks a slight rosy pink as he awaited William’s response. While William responded to the wild suggestion with shock, Emma and Melsa were watching it all pan out with extreme interest.

“I thought you were adorable the first moment I laid eyes on you. I think it must have been fate that brought us together. Please, William. Become my kosho.”

“Whoa, whoa, hold your horses for a second. Like, we’re talking about a kosho, not a regular squire, right?” William suddenly broke out into a sweat. When he thought of “kosho,” the strongest image he had was of Ranmaru Mori, who’d definitely had a certain kind of relationship with Nobunaga Oda, so he really couldn’t just accept the samurai’s offer like it was nothing.

“My, my...”

“Interesting...”

Emma and Melsa continued to watch the developments with great interest.

“Hold it right there!” Just then, several other samurai raised their hands and rushed to Fukushima’s side.

“Wha—?! What are you all doing?! You little homewreckers!”

Nobody’s agreed to a relationship yet, Lord Fukushima...

“Lord Fukushima, you were the one who taught us that we should get the greatest kosho we could, no matter the cost, were you not?!”

“A boy with Lord William’s cuteness and intelligence is hard to come by in this day and age!”

“Lord William! Please, be my kosho! I swear I’ll make you happy!”

“Oh myyy!”

“Goodness gracious!”

Emma and Melsa were enjoying themselves to the fullest as they watched the samurai fight over William like this. While the two of them hid their smiles behind their hands, it did nothing to hide how amused they were by the whole situation.

“Come on! Mother! Sis! How can you just sit there enjoying this?! Are you seriously okay with me becoming a kosho here?! Emma, you’re always saying pedoscum should rot in hell, but you seem pretty comfortable with this shota stuff! And what about you, mother?! You want to see grandbabies, don’t you?!” William begged his mother and sister to quit grinning and put a stop to it all, pointing out the very obvious.

“But, I mean...”

“Yeah...”

Melsa and Emma met each other’s glances, their hands still covering their mouths.

“It’s our favorite BL trope...” they said at the same time.

“Th-They’re both rotten to the core...” George muttered. He never would have guessed both his sister and his mother were fujoshi.

“It’s not happening! No way in hell! I refuse! I like little...er, I mean, young...er, I mean... Uh... I like girls! So this sorta thing is just... It’s just...!” William squealed in protest, near tears. He couldn’t afford to let himself get swept away in all this. “Besides, you can’t let father rule a land on his own! We’d be in the red in seconds! And if you let Emma research bugs ‘to her heart’s content,’ all the bugs in the Eastern Empire will wind up as big as the amblypigids!”

“Oh... That would be a problem...” Melsa was convinced before she knew it.

“M-Mother... Can I at least still research the barkflies...?” Emma sensed things were going south for her and tried to at least be allowed to research the source of Oliver’s azukiarai problems.

“Are you serious?! Swarming bugs like that?! What would you do if they grew in size like your amblypygids?! They’d wind up eating the whole Eastern Empire in an instant!” Barkflies loved mold and dust, so they tended to swarm very quickly. Letting Emma have them after she’d already hit three strikes (with silkworms, a spider, and amblypygids), there was no doubt that she’d have a most lethal weapon in three days flat. It’d mean after finally getting rid of the owatas, they’d be presenting the Eastern Empire with a brand new horror.

“Aww... But barkflies have such cute little faces...” Emma slumped her shoulders sadly, and the shogun and the emperor both gulped.

Do bugs really get that big so easily with her?

The memory of all those giant amblypygids was still fresh in their minds. The creatures still had them tossing and turning in their dreams. Emma was talking like she was trying to convince her mother to take a puppy home, but these were giant bugs. And not just any giant bugs, but ones that swarmed. That would be way more than just a little fire to put out.

“W-Well, if William insists, there’s not much we can do about it...right, shogun?”

“Y-Yes, you’re right, Your Majesty. We can’t force him.”

Neither the emperor nor the shogun wanted the people of the Eastern Empire to be exposed to the horrors they’d seen.

“Nngh... So I suppose we must relent. But William, if you ever change your mind, you can tell me any time. I’ll come running no matter where you are, okay? Okay? Okay?”

“We can’t go against His Majesty’s word...”

“I thought for sure the shogun would understand the love in my heart...”

Fukushima and the other samurai who spoke up all (quite dejectedly) returned to their seats as the emperor and the shogun struck down the plan in order to protect peace and safety in the Eastern Empire.

“Th-The new school year has already started too, so I really want to get back home!” William realized he had an in and began rapid-fire trying to convince the emperor and the shogun of his cause. “I think mother’s already finished her monster plus Eastern Empire recipe book, we’ve been making great progress on repairing the ruined buildings, we’ve gotten to the point where canned food is being produced with no problems, and I’ve heard the merchants have gotten to the point where they can communicate with people of the Eastern Empire well enough too.”

It was just as William said. They’d done all they needed to. In fact, they’d done far more than they’d needed to, to the point that it was excessive. William was getting more and more frantic about getting back home. After all, his very purity was at stake. The Eastern Empire would be fine without the Stewart family now. The Rothschild Company would be perfectly fine mediating any future diplomatic relations between the kingdom and the Eastern Empire.

The Eastern Empire had been isolated for many years, so they had limited experience dealing with foreign trade, plus there was the language barrier. If it was known that they had an abundance of magic stones, they’d be targeted by the world at large. In order to make sure no other countries got the jump on them or exploited them, it was best to have a company mediate. Since the Rothschild Company was the greatest in the kingdom, they had plenty of experience with foreign trade.

What was more, in the two months they’d spent in the Eastern Empire, they’d been helping the Stewart family as well as the Empire’s restoration efforts, so they’d gained a lot of trust. They’d helped manage the relief supplies, helped carry the seawater necessary to make owata bricks, helped reconstruct the canning factory, and procured staff for it. It was all quite mundane but difficult and necessary work, and the Rothschild Company had carried it out without even complaining. They were all used to the Stewart family’s weird ways, so even being in a foreign country with people who couldn’t speak their language wasn’t enough to faze them. They simply did what they had to, and since Joshua was in control and he himself was a cut above any other, they were able to even solve the biggest problem of all: the language barrier.

People of the kingdom couldn’t understand the Eastern imperial language.

People of the Eastern Empire weren’t used to using other languages.

Therefore, he realized they could just use a language that the kingdom’s people could understand and that the people of the Eastern Empire could easily learn. As such, Joshua decided to use Sunklothian. Sunklothian, the official language of Sunkloth, was an unusual language that could convey quite a bit through just the words “lakkuru” and “lokkuru.” The twins, Catherine and Caitlyn, had been taking an elective course on Sunklothian and taught them the words on their way home from school. While detailed conversations and understanding the contents of a contract would fall to either the Stewart family or Prince Tasuku to translate, using Sunklothian allowed both parties to understand each other on general terms.

The Eastern Empire’s certain doom at the whims of the owatas was averted, the food situation on an upward trend with the relief supplies and monster recipes, and the ruined buildings were being fixed up at a rapid pace using owata materials. On top of that, with the Rothschild Company’s help, even foreign diplomacy might have been taken care of.

“Even still, I wish to give the kingdom...or the Stewart family my thanks for all of their support. So surely, compensation would be appropriate...?” The emperor suggested once more. He couldn’t stand just being on the receiving end of such kindness.

“No compensation!” But the Stewart family were adamant in their refusal.

“But I don’t know how much time I have left in this world,” said the emperor. “It would be far too much to bear to leave without giving you my deepest thanks...”

“Father...” Prince Tasuku’s expression darkened. The emperor’s bloodline had short lifespans. His father was no exception, and his health had been failing for the past few years. When Prince Tasuku had left for the kingdom, he had been fully prepared to say farewell to his ailing father for the last time.

“You mustn’t worry for me, Tasuku. I won’t die until I’ve taken proper measures to help you inherit the emperor’s throne. I’ve been feeling quite well this month too. I haven’t had any tingling in my limbs, and I haven’t been worried about any swelling either. I’ve even been able to walk without a cane more days than not.” The emperor gave his worried son a gentle smile. He really hadn’t been feeling all that bad lately. In fact, he’d actually been feeling well. While his fated short life wasn’t something he could feel positive about, the owatas had been defeated and his Empire saved from destruction. Perhaps that burden being off his shoulders had had an effect on his health as well.

“That’s true. I was glad to hear from Ume that you’d been looking healthier, and you’ve gained your appetite again,” Tasuku replied, his expression softening. It was as though the Stewarts themselves had extended his father’s lifespan by a few months. He knew the disease tormenting the emperor’s bloodline couldn’t be fixed so easily, but he was just so glad to see his father smile. This illness his father suffered from was the same one his grandfather, and his grandfather’s father, and more through the generations had lost their lives to. Tasuku was sure it would come for him too before long.

“Your Majesty...” All the retainers, samurai included, choked out in a sob, showing just how common knowledge it was that the emperor didn’t have much longer left to live.

“Are you ill, Your Majesty?” Emma alone tilted her head in the suddenly solemn atmosphere.

Prince Tasuku spoke up, perhaps to convince his father, the retainers, and himself the most, that the future they envisioned would not come to pass. “But we have hope now, father. We’re capable of foreign trade now. I’m sure there’s a medicine out there that will fix you.”

“Tasuku, we can’t change the damage already done. Beriberi is incurable. Even if we were to find some kind of medicine, by the time we did, it would already be too late.”

“Father!”

The emperor looked as though he’d long accepted his fate, while Prince Tasuku refused to give up, clinging to even the smallest of hopes. The vassals all looked on, having witnessed this scene time and time again. And among them, Emma alone tilted her head once more.

“Er. Sorry, did you just say ‘beriberi,’ Your Majesty? Like...that beriberi?” Emma had been a history buff in her previous life, so she wondered if it was the same disease she’d heard so much about.

“Huh?”

“Hmm?”

“What?”

“Sorry?”

Unfortunately, her family only had dumbfounded looks in response. Emma was the only one with one hundred percent of her memories back, and it seemed she was the only one to whom the word ‘beriberi’ meant anything.

“Lady Emma...do you mean to tell me that there’s medicine for beriberi in the kingdom?” Prince Tasuku asked, desperate for any glimmer of hope.

“I mean, I’ve never even heard of beriberi before...” William couldn’t think of any equivalent word in the kingdom’s language. He didn’t want to get anyone’s hopes up, so he shut it down right away. There was no way this was something that could be solved as easily as the sailors’ disease had been.

“Er, I mean... It’s not really medicine...?” Emma started to mumble hesitantly.

“Right...” Prince Tasuku slumped his shoulders. “All the doctors in the Eastern Empire said it was impossible to fix. I’m sorry for being so unreasonable.” He knew better than to think that the Stewarts could fix everything. There were definitely things they were unable to do.

“Er, it’s more like... What was it? Beriberi was caused by... I think Vitamin B1...deficiency?” Emma was trying to piece together what she could from her vague memories of her past life. “I think it was like...the reason this illness broke out in the Edo period was because the upper classes were eating white rice instead of brown rice? White rice is so tasty, though...”

“What’s...a vitamin?”

“How can you be deficient in it?”

“And what does delicious white rice have to do with it?”

Emma’s unclear mumblings now had not just Prince Tasuku, but the emperor, the shogun, and all the samurai tilting their heads.

“So fixing it works the same way as scurvy. You just get more of what you’re deficient in, so we just need to get some vitamins...but wait, hold on... Armored boars and orcs are piglike, right? Pork’s super high in vitamin B. And so’s the wheat that we brought in our relief supplies!” After combining her knowledge from her previous life and this life, she realized the problem had already solved itself. They’d already begun distributing canned armored boar kakuni at the markets. The spaghetti napolitan Melsa made using the relief supplies had been handed out to the civilians in food distributions as well. They’d heard from Kato, who was in charge of rationing the food, that it had been the emperor taking initiative and eating the food himself that had led to it being accepted among the people.

“So...what does that mean? Please, explain it in a way we can understand.” Prince Tasuku pressed Emma, who had been muttering and nodding to herself, for an answer.

“Er, uh... So beriberi is a nutritional deficiency, and the nutrients that were a problem should be in armored boar and orc meats, so by eating those, the problem should be cleared up. It’s also in the wheat that we used for the bread and pasta that we brought from the kingdom, so as long as you continue eating the way you have been, you should recover from your illness.” Emma explained that the illness they were calling “beriberi” came from a nutritional deficiency. The emperor’s family was wealthy enough to eat white rice every day, as it was more expensive than brown rice. As such, they were especially susceptible to beriberi, making them think that it was a genetic disease.

“Then...beriberi can be cured? Just by eating monster meat?”

“I mean, it’s less that it can be cured and more like, you’re kinda already being treated for it? And things are already looking up.” Emma’s wishy-washy reply made the emperor gasp.

It was absolutely true that he’d been feeling better than ever lately. He’d had no idea that eating monster meat for the sake of his people would be for his own sake as well. He’d thought at the time it would be difficult for his people to accept eating monsters after having avoided them for so long. Therefore, he’d had a news bulletin printed about the emperor’s beloved armored boar kakuni, or the emperor’s favorite black-tea-marinated orc, with portraits of the emperor himself spread around to the masses. If the emperor was willing to eat it, then the masses had no reason to reject it. Just one bite would be enough to prove how good it tasted too.

Because of the bulletins, Melsa’s recipes had captured the hearts of not only the emperor, but the citizens of the Eastern Empire as well. It was no exaggeration to say that the armored boar kakuni’s spicy-sweet flavor and melt-in-your-mouth texture had the whole country in a choke hold.

The Rothschild Company had used the Eastern Empire’s canning technology to commercialize and distribute the armored boar kakuni at a frightening speed. What was most important was to create an environment where it was easily accessible to anyone, so that even a commoner could eat it whenever they pleased. At the same time, the spaghetti napolitan that had been made from the kingdom’s relief supplies was being distributed even more widely through rations. The emperor had decided to eat the same foods as his people during the crisis period, so nobody would complain. Essentially, without even knowing it, the emperor had begun eating a healthier diet, and the effects of it had already started to perk him up.

In the not too distant future, the people of the Eastern Empire would be prosperous enough that all its people could have meals centered around white rice, and the side dishes would all be various monster-based foods. Using monster-based cooking could even stave off beriberi.

“I-I can’t believe this...”

I’m going to live? I’ll be able to do more for the Eastern Empire?

The emperor had seen countless miracles over the course of the summer.

“We...we need to reward them. This family deserves compensation for having saved the Eastern Empire of the present and future...” The shogun raised his voice, putting his arm around the emperor’s trembling shoulders. The emperor was akin to a god to the people of the Eastern Empire. There was nobody in the history of the entire Empire who had ever contributed as much as the Stewart family just had.

“No rewards!” But the Stewart family didn’t waste a second unanimously turning the offer down. Why was it these big, important people in both the kingdom and the Eastern Empire were so obsessed with giving things out? The Stewarts wished they’d understand that these “rewards” they were giving out were nothing but a big burden for a bunch of commoners.

From that day forward, they’d get more and more rewards offered to them whenever they met with the empire’s officials. The samurai were looking at William differently afterward as well. Any time he was alone, samurai would come from every which way to beg him to be their kosho. No matter how many he refused, another would be right behind him, then another, and another. Considering he hadn’t had a very monumental romantic track record in his previous life, he understood it might have seemed like a great problem to have, but when he saw the way they huffed and puffed as they came to ask him, he knew there was no way he could agree to it. Even knowing that becoming the kosho of Fukushima, one of the best of the best, would guarantee him an easy path to greatness wasn’t enough to sway him.

While the Stewarts had already built good relationships with the Eastern imperial citizens, it seemed that dynamic had changed as well. It became widely known that they’d saved the empire from the owata threat, the food shortage, and even saved the emperor’s own life. They began calling Emma a celestial maiden who saved their godlike emperor. Whenever she would walk down the street, everyone would prostrate themselves before her to show their respect. Any time she chose to go out in town, people would fall to their knees on both sides of the road as though she were a one-girl procession.

Now that it had all come to this, the Eastern Empire that they’d come to know and love and eat white rice from had become utterly unbearable, and the Stewarts finally resolved to return home.

It should go without saying that when Emma asked if they wanted to keep a few amblypygids just in case any owatas started growing again, not a single soul in the empire agreed to it.

Chapter 75: Unrest at School and Homecoming

Though the summer holiday had come to a close and the new school year had begun, the Stewarts still hadn’t returned. Even if their friends wanted to contact them to ask what had happened, they’d gone to the Eastern Empire, so there was no way to do so. Even if they had a general idea of where the Eastern Empire was, there was no accessible port. If the reason for that had something to do with magic, the people of the kingdom were out of luck since they had no mage.

As they waited for class to begin, Prince Edward let his thoughts linger on the Stewart family’s daughter, Emma.

Sitting next to him was Arthur, his personal guard on campus. “Looking awfully gloomy there, Your Highness.” With a wry look, he suggested the prince try to have a softer expression.

“There’s no point in smiling when there’s nothing to smile about.” Edward glared at Arthur, who could always put up a warm smile. “I’ve always had a naturally stern expression anyway.”

“Oh yeah? I seem to recall you being able to put on a big ol’ dopey grin when Lady Emma’s nearby.” Only Arthur could blow off the prince’s glare like it was nothing. The boy’s icy expression could freeze anyone in their tracks, so they were far too terrified to tease him. Of course, anyone could tell his expression only softened when Emma was around, and it was so utterly sweet that it didn’t make them want to tease him anyway.

“So, is it that you’re worried about Lady Emma? Well, we haven’t heard anything from the Rothschild Company, so I’d say that means everything’s fine. They say no news is good news, right?” Arthur had served the prince since they were both young, so he was very adept at figuring out exactly what was on the prince’s mind.

The Stewart family had gone on a trip to the Eastern Empire over the summer break. While the official story was that the family had gone on a cultural exchange, the truth was that they’d gone to assist the Eastern Empire in their hopeless botanical crisis. Only a very select few knew the truth. The family had looked so excited and taken off with such smiles that surely nobody would have suspected they were going on a life-threatening monster hunt. They looked as excited as though they were on their way to see a popular theater troupe.

“Summer vacation is already over and they still haven’t come home. Doesn’t that tell you something happened? They could be injured or sick, or... No... There’s even a possibility the ruler of the Eastern Empire could have tried to court her with how adorable she is!” The prince was beside himself with worry. Of course, the prince couldn’t have known that it was overwhelmingly William who was getting courted rather than Emma.

“Your Highness, I’m a bit worried as well, but in a way, it may be for the best that Lady Emma isn’t here right now, what with the church’s proclamation and all.” After all, the church hadn’t proclaimed Emma as a saint. Arthur stole a glance at the girl sitting at the edge of the classroom. She had pitch-black eyes and very dark brown hair, which was most unusual for a girl in the kingdom. She was the one the church had consecrated: Lady Juana.

They had been shocked to hear she would be attending their school once summer vacation had ended. They still had no idea whose child she was (though the king swore she wasn’t his), but because it was certain she had royal blood, she was permitted to attend the academy.

What they really couldn’t understand was the diplomat from Western Empire who had been so adamant about meeting the saint. After he’d met her, he didn’t try to force her to come back with him. In fact, it was like he was a completely different person. He just quietly and swiftly left the kingdom empty-handed.

At school, all eyes were on Juana the Saint. They watched every move she made, and little skirmishes even broke out as some tried to get her attention before anyone else. Even now, she was surrounded by a group of animated students giving her their full attention. Just a single glance from those dark eyes was enough to make any boy blush. Even those who had been saying Lady Emma was a saint were now head over heels for Juana instead. Since Emma had left and not returned from the Eastern Empire, her popularity was slowly starting to sink.

Meanwhile, there was a little something that was starting to bug Arthur about the saint.

“Your Highness... This is just between you and me,” he whispered to Edward. “But everyone’s going on about how beautiful Lady Juana is, but I don’t really get it. Is she really that gorgeous?”

“Do you realize how rude it is to say a lady isn’t, Arthur? You should really watch yourself.” Edward warned as he furrowed his brow. Disparaging a woman’s looks was hardly becoming of a gentleman, and even less so for a soon-to-be knight like Arthur. Rumors were bound to spread about him.

“That’s why I’m saying it’s just between you and me! And I didn’t say she wasn’t pretty. Every woman is. It’s just, I don’t know that she’s pretty enough to justify just how smitten those boys are.” Arthur didn’t think Juana was blessed with especially good looks. In fact, he thought the girls who sat on all sides of her were just as beautiful as she was.

The prince fell silent.

“Don’t you think so too?”

“It’s not right to comment on a lady’s appearances, Ar—”

“Every single one of them is saying she’s even more beautiful than Lady Emma.”

“Like hell she is! Lady Emma is clearly the cuter of the two! Do they not have eyes?!”

“Your Highness! Keep your voice down!” Arthur covered the prince’s mouth in a panic. He couldn’t have the students surrounding Juana hear them—they were willing to start fights just to get her attention. It felt like they might even start something with the prince himself, but luckily, his voice was drowned out by the bell signaling the start of class.

However, Juana alone, surrounded by all those students, looked at Arthur with an eerie smile.

“Did you not hear the bell?! Get to your seats, everyone!”

Once the teacher arrived, everyone dispersed to their seats. None of the students, Arthur included, noticed Juana’s smile.

◆ ◆ ◆

“Well, what do you think?”

During their lunch break in the courtyard of the cafeteria, Arthur decided to indirectly find out if his sister, Marion, knew anything about Juana. The prince was busy with official business as usual, so he’d gone back to the castle to have his lunch and deal with paperwork at the same time. His sister was with Francesca and the twins, so he decided to press them for information as well. He’d been spending every lunch break with this group since the new term started, and while he didn’t mind being surrounded by girls, it also made him miss George, William, and Joshua.

“Saint Juana? I’m not in any classes with her, so there’s not much I can say,” Marion said and shifted her gaze to Francesca.

“Lady Juana... Oh! I’ve heard she’s a deeply devout woman who often goes to the church to pray. I heard that she was even visiting the church the day she was proclaimed a saint. And I think I’ve also heard she’s been helping the nuns with laundry and meal preparations lately as well.” Francesca’s father worked in the castle, so she’d heard many rumors about the girl. He’d been getting home from work much earlier these days, bringing sweets for the family to eat while chatting the evening away.

“Lady Juana seems quite popular with boys and girls, doesn’t she, Caitlyn?”

“Lady Juana does seem quite popular with boys and girls, Catherine.”

The twins did find it odd that Juana’s popularity was growing so much when most of her activity was church-related; she was just taking classes like anyone else was.

“Oh, right! Lady Emma’s coming home soon, right, Caitlyn?”

“Oh, right! Lady Emma is coming home soon, Catherine!”

The twins both clapped their hands as they steered the conversation toward the topic they were more interested in.

“Oh, is that so, Lady Catherine and Lady Caitlyn? I’ve been so worried since she hadn’t come home when school started.” Francesca looked relieved.

“I’m so glad. I was rather worried it’d be difficult for the family to catch up if they missed any more school.” Especially George, Marion thought, and smiled.

“Wait a sec, where did you hear that, Lady Catherine and Lady Caitlyn?! We haven’t heard anything about that at the castle!” Arthur was shocked, recalling Prince Edward’s gloomy expression.

“We heard it from the sailors in Simmons, right, Caitlyn?”

“Yup, we heard it from the sailors in Simmons, Catherine!”

According to the twins, some of the sailors had crossed paths with the Stewarts’ ship on their travels.

“Wait, but shouldn’t the Stewarts have gotten back to the kingdom before the Simmons’ ship did?” Arthur was even more confused. The ship the Stewarts were on was the fastest of the Rothschild Company’s high-spec ships. It was odd that a ship that impressive would be arriving later than a lower-quality one.

“The sailors said Lady Emma’s ship was full-up with cargo and couldn’t go very fast at all, right, Caitlyn?”

“Yup, the sailors said Lady Emma’s ship was full-up with cargo and couldn’t go very fast at all, Catherine!”

The twins explained that the Stewarts’ ship had been so loaded up with souvenirs and the like that they’d be even later than they already were.

“Cargo?” While the official story was that they’d gone on a trip, the truth was that they’d gone to hunt monsters in a country on the verge of ruin. It was hard to imagine they’d be bringing back a ton of souvenirs from a place like that. Arthur put his hand on his chin.

While it was a closely guarded secret, the Eastern Empire apparently had an abundance of magic stones. Normally, the kingdom’s hunters didn’t have the luxury of being able to help out other countries with their monster problems. If it weren’t for the Stewarts pleading to go to the Eastern Empire, then the kingdom likely wouldn’t have been able to send anyone over for support. If, by some miracle, the family had managed to solve their monster problem, then the Eastern Empire might have thanked them with a ton of magic stones...but the ship they took off on was quite large. Were there really enough magic stones out there to weigh a ship like that down? He really doubted it. If, on the other hand, the threat was too much for them to handle, the family was known for their benevolence. Perhaps they’d brought as many people from the Eastern Empire as they could on board so they could escape?

“I really hope this doesn’t turn into a big kerfuffle...” Arthur sighed. The latter option sounded far more likely too.

“They said the cargo was a secret too, right, Caitlyn?”

“They did say the cargo was a secret too, Catherine!”

The twins didn’t seem to know much more either.

If the twins were right, then it didn’t matter whether the secret cargo was an influx of magic stones or a crowd of refugees; it was going to bring tons of trouble either way.

◆ ◆ ◆

“Oh, I can see it! It’s the Simmonses’ harbor!” William shouted from the deck of the ship.

“Thank goodness... I was really worried we were gonna sink...” George gazed out at the harbor with a look of exasperation.

“The owata pods were too heavy, huh? They told us to take all of ’em, so I was happy to do as they asked, but...” Emma trailed off. While they were able to put all the pods on the ship, they were well over the weight limit. What was more, they had loaded tons of owata pieces to help with the slums restoration project. They were coming back with far more in cargo than when they had left with the food and relief supplies. They did try asking if they could leave a few pods behind since there were so many, but the Eastern Empire wouldn’t let them. While they could use pieces of the owata in the Eastern Empire for rebuilding, they had no use for the pods, and one wrong move could lead to a new outbreak of owatas, so it was a firm no.

“I really don’t want to stand out, so let’s carry all of this back under cover of night. We won’t be able to make it back before the sun sets anyway, so it works in our favor.” Melsa gave the order with a resigned expression. They would absolutely get chewed out if anyone found out they’d purposefully brought the seeds of a plant monster back from the Eastern Empire. Worst-case scenario, they might even get arrested. She was well aware it was far more dangerous than smuggling in an invasive species in their previous world. But while they would easily get caught in that world, the kingdom didn’t have quarantine procedures, so as long as they weren’t seen, she figured they could make do. Though honestly, she did think they should have quarantines in this world.

“We’ll need the cats and the amblypygids to help us carry things when we get back to the kingdom too.”

The shipping containers they’d originally prepared for the amblypygids had been filled up with owata pods, so the not-so-little guys were staying in the same rooms as the family during the voyage. The sailors and the Rothschild Company employees had all pretty much found out about the cats and the amblypygids while they were living in the Eastern Empire anyway, so there wasn’t any need to hide them anymore.

“Mrowr!”

Skitter skitter skitter!

Hearing they’d be let out of the cramped ship’s quarters soon had the cats and the amblypygids gleefully reacting.

Late, late into the night...

“Mrowr!”

The kitty carriage was stuffed full with shipping containers of owata pods as it rushed through the capital. Even though they were in the capital itself, there weren’t any streetlights still lit this late at night, so it was pitch-black.

Skitter skitter! Skitter skitter!

The amblypygids were also working extra hard. Since it was so dark, they could help carry the bags full of owata pieces after the kitty carriage.

“Ugh... How come we can’t ever come to the capital like normal people? We didn’t when we moved here or now,” William mumbled, rubbing his eyes as he rode on Liu’s back.

“What do you expect, William? You know all our neighbors would be giving us weird looks if they saw this. It’s just a little bit longer until we get to the manor, so just keep at it.” Melsa tried to comfort William from the front. She was riding on Zhang, who was pulling the kitty carriage.

“We still have two more trips after we drop this off, though...” George laughed, though there was no joy in it or his expression.

“It sure is fun getting to go on a nighttime walk, huh, Kongming?”

“Mrowr!”

Even though Kongming was also pulling a carriage, she was in good spirits, getting to run all she wanted again. Emma, who was riding on her back, was having a great time chatting with her.

“Ha ha ha, you look pretty sleepy, William! You can leave the rest of this to us and get some rest once we get back!” Leonard said, running alongside the family with Violet on his head, carrying the same amount of owata parts as the amblypygids.

“I really can’t tell if I should be more impressed by Violet or my father right now...” Seeing his father all full of vim and vigor had William sighing and looking up at the sky. It might’ve been impossible for his family not to stand out. “Sure am glad it’s too cloudy for the moon to be out tonight.”

The night was able to hide the absurd sight from the world. This was about the only time William had ever been grateful that the kingdom didn’t use magic stones for streetlights like the Eastern Empire.

Chapter 76: A Roundabout Report

The day after the Stewarts safely returned to the kingdom, they went to the castle to report on their trip. Considering it was very likely they would be talking about the top secret subject of the magic stones in the Eastern Empire, everyone was driven out, save the king on the throne, the prime minister, and the family.

“I have some unfortunate news.” Before the family gave their own report, the king softly opened his mouth with a pained expression. “We received notice that someone had been consecrated by the church...and it wasn’t Emma.”

Up until summer vacation had started, everyone in the kingdom had been certain that Emma was a saint. The way she’d pleaded directly to the king to let her save the children of the slums; the mercy she’d shown Robert, the orchestrator of the amblypygid incident; the way she’d treated those patients with such incurable illnesses... Everyone adored her and was in utter awe of her perfectly impartial kindness. There was no doubt in anyone’s mind that she was a saint.

Yet as Emma had gone to extend that kindness to the Eastern Empire, things had changed. The church had proclaimed that it wasn’t Emma, but Juana, who was the saint. It was such a cruel blow to Emma, given how she was risking her life in the Eastern Empire. The king asked the church over and over whether there wasn’t some kind of mistake, but the answer was always the same.

“Huh? Uh, yeah, I know.” Emma was baffled by the king’s seriousness. She’d been telling them for ages. It was all she could do to keep herself from asking why he was only just now figuring that out, but she knew it wasn’t right to get mad.

“Hah... It makes sense that the Stewart family would already be aware of what’s happening in the kingdom even while in the Eastern Empire.”

Emma cocked her head. “No? I’m not sure what you’re talking about.”

None of them knew what had happened in the kingdom. They’d gotten home in the middle of the night, fallen right asleep, woken up early in the morning, and gone straight to the castle. There was no way they could’ve known anything about what was happening there. It wasn’t just Emma—the whole family was confused.

“They’ve declared Lady Juana a saint instead,” the king said resolutely.

“Um... Okay?” Once again, the whole family was confused.

Uh. Who’s Lady Juana?

The king said it like they were supposed to know her, but there wasn’t a single person in the Stewart family who knew who Lady Juana was. If Joshua had been there, he could’ve probably told them, but there was no way a mere merchant could land an audience directly before the king, regardless of whether he’d bought a peerage or not.

“So, uh... Lady Juana being a saint means...I’m not?” Emma couldn’t understand. Weren’t saints meant to be good in fantasy worlds? What did that have to do with the whole consummation business?

“Exactly. I will always think of you as a saint...but the decision of sainthood lies entirely with the church. This isn’t something that I can do anything about, even as the king.” The king looked truly apologetic for some reason. Though Emma was enjoying having the king’s puppy dog eyes totally focused on her, she realized there was something not really adding up about the conversation.

Wait a second. Hold on. Does “consecrate” not mean what I think it does? Did it have something to do with being a saint this whole time? They weren’t calling me “tainted”? They were asking me to be a saint?! Even when I was staring longingly at Lady Rose’s beautiful bosom and grinning like a dope at the king’s handsome face? I knew I was staring and stuff, and I knew I couldn’t keep from grinning and stuff, but...

Wait, how the hell did they even get to that point?

How low are the kingdom’s standards for sainthood?!

“If I may, Your Majesty. Perhaps we could move on to our report on the Eastern Empire? We can talk more about my sister’s...not-sainthood at another time.” William had enough experience to know that Emma was thinking something weird, so he cut in before she could say something weird too.

Not to mention, none of them really cared about the saint business anyway. If it meant the rumors of Emma being a saint were going away, it was honestly a dream come true.

What was far more of a concern for the family was the amblypygids.

After the family had exhausted themselves carrying all the owata pieces and pods home, they still stayed awake long enough to have a family meeting as they rubbed the sleep from their eyes. The topic was how they were going to keep the amblypygids a secret. That was the one thing they absolutely could not have the kingdom find out about. They were very important to the kingdom, and people were likely still frantically searching for them. Emma would have been devastated if she were forced to give them back. Though it was likely they wouldn’t even believe they were the same bugs, given their current size.

They managed to get the Eastern Empire not to talk about them, and they managed to threaten Oliver (who had accompanied them to the Eastern Empire) into not talking about them either. As long as they could spin the report they gave to the king well, it would greatly increase the chances they could keep the amblypygids a secret.

“Right. It’s only natural that hearing something like this so soon after you just returned would be overwhelming. I know how disappointed you must be, Emma, but try to stay positive, okay?” the king said with a smile. William was being so considerate of his sister by asking the king to avoid the topic for now (or so the king thought).

“Uh... Yeah, no, I’m sure there are people way more suited to being a saint than me, so...” Emma gave a noncommittal response, while casually thinking to herself that she’d need to check with Joshua about the kingdom’s view on saints. She wanted to believe the kingdom was not the type to canonize a girl just for staring at boobies.

“Then allow me to give our report,” Melsa spoke over Emma before she said anything unnecessary. “We finished our journey when the Eastern Empire’s botanical crisis ended.”

“What?!”

Both the king and the prime minister standing behind him let out a shocked sound at the blunt and completely unexpected update.

“We had only gone to the Eastern Empire to lend support for their food shortage, after all.”

“Huh?!”

“The Eastern Empire had plentiful magic stone supplies, and they were able to use them to quell the owata threat.”

“Now, hold on one second!” the prime minister interrupted. “That’s far too convenient to have—”

“Happened? Well, it did!” Melsa spoke over the prime minister even more strongly. While the plan they’d concocted during the family meeting was rather flexible, William said that as long as they could convince the prime minister, the king would be easy to deal with. Therefore, this was the moment of truth. “The Eastern Empire is a very technologically advanced civilization. They can use magic stones to send messages over long distances in an instant. They can start fires with them or create water. Anything they do, they use magic stones for. They use magic stones to make their houses bright as day even in the middle of the night, and magic stones to dry off instantly if they get caught in the rain.”

“B-But how can a country more advanced than the Western Empire even—”

“Exist? Well, it does!” Melsa glared at the prime minister, who had shrunk back after her initial outburst, and shut him up with a look alone. “The Eastern Empire also employs samurai, a warrior class fulfilling the roles of both knights and hunters, who are all skilled enough to cut metal into two clean pieces.” And by metal, she meant cans.

“Metal?! In two clean pieces?!”

“You heard me. Metal.” Cans.

There wasn’t a knight nor hunter in the kingdom capable of cutting through metal. Nobody would have even thought to try.

The king and the prime minister both swallowed nervously. They’d thought the Eastern Empire had needed to be rescued, but neither of them imagined that it was so far superior in technology and military prowess.

“Then how had they gotten so pressed up against the wall that they had to ask us for help?” The prime minister got straight to the core problem with Melsa’s claim.

“Huh? Um... Well...” Melsa shifted her gaze around. The real reason was that owatas were tougher than metal, and only a select few katanas could cut through them.

“I-It’s because of how fearsome the owatas were! I heard that Professor Wolfgang told you just how dangerous plant-type monsters are.” William, who was known for his brains, picked up the explanation after Melsa lost steam.

“Indeed he did. I didn’t know what sort of monsters they were when Oliver told me about them. He said they were extremely tough plant-types who fired seeds that would land with the force of bombs, and were extremely adept at propagating, I think?”

“That’s right. If I’m being frank, we wouldn’t stand a chance if the owatas tried to take root here,” William said, nodding solemnly at the king’s explanation. There weren’t any specialized katanas or mages in the kingdom, so it would’ve been impossible.

“My word! Then don’t hold back, William. How in the world did they defeat such awful creatures?!” While the king did want a definite answer, he told William there was no pressure (while simultaneously pressuring him).

“Er... It was the amb...amb...nngh!”

“Whoa there!” William was just about to succumb and say amblypygids until George quickly covered his mouth. “I-It was like...y’know...a whole thing. Right, Emma?”

George tried to take over, but it was beyond his abilities. He wasn’t booksmart and was honest to a fault, so lying wasn’t exactly his strong suit. He deferred instead to his sister, who excelled at thinking extremely outside the box.

“Huh? Uh... Yeah, a whole thing.”

“Meaning...?” The prime minister turned to Emma, looking especially nervous.

“Uh... Well, the Eastern Empire mostly uses magic stones for like...really practical purposes. They’ll use ’em to keep ingredients cool so they’ll last longer, or to seal food in metal containers so the air doesn’t get in...” Other than magic, they used magic stones for convenient household items more than anything, so they didn’t have any stones that contained magic to be used against monsters.

“That’s...quite convenient, but that’s also what they’re meant to be used for outside of keeping the barrier intact, right?”

“Wait, it is?” Emma, who was born in an age without any magic stones or mages, couldn’t even have imagined such a thing.

Seriously? Is nobody using magic to make big ol’ fireballs in this world? It felt totally different from the magic she knew about from her previous life. Honestly...

“Feels like a waste...”

“Hmm?”

Emma thought out loud. Louder than she’d realized, because the king gave her a strange look.

“W-Well, when I heard that in the Eastern Empire, I was like...wow, that’s kind of a waste! Y’know, because if you used the magic in magic stones combined with those super well-trained samurai and katanas and stuff, they might’ve been able to beat the owatas...y’know?” Emma felt like she wasn’t being all that convincing, but she kept talking as the ideas came to her.

“Goodness! So you can use magic stones to fight monsters!”

“I-Is that really possible?! I-I’ve never even thought of such a thing!”

“Huh?”

But both the king and the prime minister seemed amazed by Emma’s terrible lie.

“I have heard there are quite a few monsters who are weak to fire...”

“And it’s not just fire, Your Majesty. I’ve heard water is quite effective against monsters who cloak themselves in flame. There may be even more effective methods to use against them too... How is it we never thought of such a simple idea?”

“Huh?” Emma was so shocked by their reaction that she looked to her parents, her mouth completely agape as she was unsure of what to do next.

“Ah... I-It’s... Oh! The generation gap! That’s what it is!” Melsa realized this was a pivotal moment, so she piggybacked off of Emma’s idea and rose to the challenge.

“The...what now?” the king and the prime minister both asked. They’d never heard of this concept before.

“Well, you see, when Leonard and I were young, magic stones were very familiar to us, though they weren’t very plentiful. However, there are many kids these days in the kingdom who don’t even know what magic stones are. In fact, my children didn’t until just recently. Since my children were raised in Pallas and knew just how dangerous monsters could be, they were able to come up with an idea like this the moment they heard about magic stones!”

The reason there was a magic stone shortage in the kingdom was because a subsection of nobles used them up. They were so embarrassed at their behavior that they deliberately avoided talking about it; thus a generation of children were born who knew nothing about magic stones.

The prime minister scrunched up his face in thought. “So basically, the Eastern imperials and we adults had preconceived notions about magic stones, and it was the children’s flexible thinking that led to the salvation of the Eastern Empire?” The whole family was terrified he’d seen through their paltry excuse. However, his expression softened all at once, showing he believed the crappy excuse they’d created out of Emma’s spur-of-the-moment idea. “Incredible. A change in perspective really is everything!”

Apparently, the prime minister was a bit of a sucker too.

“E-Exactly. Other than supplying them with food, this idea was the only other thing we helped with. We just gave them a breakthrough on how to deal with the monsters that had been plaguing them for so long. Once they had that clue, those owatas were a piece of cake for the exceptional samurai they have over there.” Melsa explained (lying through her teeth). It was a very different conclusion than they’d come to during the family meeting, but all that mattered was that it fooled the king and prime minister.

“But if that’s the case, our kingdom is at a major disadvantage without a mage who can help us.” The thought that there might be weapons made utilizing magic stones one day had both the king and the prime minister terrified for the future.

“But the only reason we came to this conclusion was because we didn’t know about magic stones. There are some things you can’t figure out unless all the right conditions are fulfilled. And I bet the revitalized Eastern Empire will come to our aid in the future, actually!” Emma’s smooth response sounded authentic enough. Considering it was the amblies and the cats who defeated the owatas, even if the empire had made weapons with magic stones, it was doubtful they’d be stronger than the real victors. Weapons were meant to be used en masse, so even if some other countries managed to conceptualize it, Emma felt they’d eventually run out. Magic stones were a finite resource, so it was only a matter of time.

If they really wanted to make more weapons, they could breed more amblypygids and create a special buggy squadron around the border. Yes... More... More amblies! Hee hee hee!

Emma’s thoughts fully went off the rails as she began coming up with plans to increase the number of amblypygids, and she was grinning without even meaning to.

“Your smile truly is soothing, Emma. You really must be a saint. I commend you all on your efforts in the Eastern Empire. We really should come up with some kind of reward for your family...”

The king, as per usual, started up with his royal compensation talk again, and the family all had the same simultaneous knee-jerk reaction.

“No rewards!”

The whole family had to wipe the cold sweat from their brows. You can’t let your guard down for a second around the king or the emperor, or they’ll start going on about rewards again...

◆ ◆ ◆

“Emmaaa!”

After Emma had somehow managed to fool the king in that heart-pounding meeting, she left the room and was immediately pounced upon by Jadwiga.

“Whoa! Lady Jadwi...ga?” Jadwiga nuzzled her face into Emma’s clothes, then looked up at her like she was about to cry.

“I just... I just love you so, so much, Emma!” Jadwiga gave her a huuuge hug.

Oh. My. God. Could she get any cuter?

“Well, I love you too, Lady Jadwiga!” Emma had no idea what this was all about, but Jadwiga was so adorable, she gave her a hug right back.

“Hey, sis!”

When she turned to look at her brother, he was standing there with his hands out expectantly. “What’s with the ‘where’s my hug’ look, huh?” Behind him, she saw a mirage of a greasy-haired man (William’s previous self, Heita. Thirty-three years old. Single. Worked at a convenience store). “Ugh. We should’ve just left you back in the Eastern Empire, William.” Maybe getting some of Lord Fukushima’s all-encompassing love would’ve fixed him.

“Eek! Seriously, don’t even joke, sis!” William recoiled, looking utterly horrified.

I’d say it’s a fair exchange for forcing me to see you do that creepo pose.

“Oh dear! I was wondering why you took off like that, Jadwi!” A floral scent wafted by, and when Emma looked up, she saw the concubine, Rose Alicia Royale, and her maid, Meg, rushing toward them.

“Lady Rose!” Seeing the family’s favorite person in the whole wide world, the most beautiful woman in all of the kingdom, had Emma grinning ear to ear. It had been so long since she’d seen her, and as always, she had those big, beautiful, bountiful boobies on display. She was blessed with such perfect assets and was extra diligent in bringing out their full potential. Every single time the Stewarts saw her, they thanked their lucky stars that a woman as amazing as her could even simply exist.

“It’s been too long. Thank you for always being as beautiful as ever!” When Emma bent down in a bow, the rest of the family behind her fell to their knees in a bow as well. It was a bit difficult with Jadwiga clinging onto her, but Emma wasn’t about to push her away. She had a mission to protect Jadwiga from William’s crooked whims at all costs.

“Oh, it has been! Your summer holidays ended long ago already! The king and Jadwiga and I were so terribly worried about you! And Edward was sending people to check at the Simmons’ harbor whether your ship had come back every single day!” After telling the family to be at ease, she puffed out her cheeks in anger over them getting back so late.

“Oh, Lady Rose. I’m so sorry. But you look so beautiful when you’re angry too. It’s such a feast for the eyes. Thank you.” Emma’s apology had the rest of the family agreeing. Her chin made a perfect line as she turned her head away from them, her hair fanning out so luxuriously, her delicate arms leading up to her perfectly smooth elbows...

“The Eastern Empire really was amazing, but...seeing you again is a great reminder of why the kingdom really is the best.” George grinned as he praised Rose as well. The Stewarts never missed a chance to compliment their favorites.

“Oh... You know I can’t stay mad at you when you heap on the praises like that!” Rose started to blush.

“You’re cute when you’re all shy too, Rosie!”

“Oh, stop it, Emma!”

After they’d worked so hard to at least leave the topic of the king’s reward up in the air, taking in Rose’s every last move was just the soothing ointment they needed.

“Lady Rose, I believe you have much to discuss. Shall I prepare a room for you all?” Meg, the maid, proposed, her brow furrowed and her eyes darting around. It probably wasn’t a good idea to cause a scene in the castle hallways.

“It’ll be a tea party with Emma!” Jadwiga giggled. “The castle’s like a maze, so I’ll show you the way!” Jadwiga took Emma’s hand.

“Hee hee, you are just so sweet, Jadwiga. Well, do you all have the time? If so, I’d like to invite you to my palace.” Rose gave a most elegant smile and brought them all to the concubine’s palace.

◆ ◆ ◆

While she had invited them all, it wouldn’t have been appropriate for a grown man to enter a woman’s inner palace, so Leonard declined. He and Melsa left the castle together. They had only just returned from the Eastern Empire, so it was likely they had a mountain of work waiting for them when they got back to the manor.

The palace where the royal family lived was in the furthest depths of the castle. It was a private space for the royals where only those with special permission could ever be allowed to tread. It wasn’t a place one could easily just waltz into. The passage leading there was heavily guarded, with guards stationed at even intervals and civil officials recording everyone who came and went. Today, the Stewart siblings’ names were written in the records. Because they’d been so casually invited, the siblings hadn’t realized the gravity of the situation.

“Wooow, just look at this place!”

They were brought to a room with soft cream-colored wallpaper, with hardly any of the ostentatious decorations that were common in the castle. All the furniture was simple and elegantly arranged.

“Hee hee. I bet you’re surprised by the minimalism.” Just as Rose said, her palace was very low-key, and it felt like it was far less shiny than a place for the royal family should be.

“The castle’s furnishings are all quite beautiful, but we like this style way more,” William said with a smile as he took in the relaxing air of Rose’s place. The castle was decorated with opulent things, making the former commoners feel very on edge. Honestly, the siblings felt relieved to be in this sparsely furnished space.

“This is meant to be a place the king can sit back and relax, so we intentionally don’t have anything all that fancy here. I’m so glad you like it!” Rose smiled.

It looked like all was going well between her and the king.

After guiding the siblings to the sofa, the concubine’s head maid, Meg, lowered her head after she’d finished passing out the tea. “I’m truly sorry for the rudeness earlier.”

“Rudeness? When did that happen?” Emma was engrossed in the fragrant tea with the royal mark and gave a sidelong glance to George. Meg said “earlier,” but Emma really couldn’t remember anything worth apologizing over.

“The attitude of the people here. While this has not happened before...the way they were stealing glances and whispering among themselves...must have been unnerving, was it not?”

After the Stewarts had finished their report to the king, there had been a not-insignificant number of people waiting to have an audience with him, knights on guard, and civil servants in the large hallway. A large portion of them had glared at the family. Such behavior was completely unacceptable toward guests of the king.

“Wait, really? I didn’t notice at all.” Even after hearing the details, the siblings didn’t seem all that bothered. After all, Jadwiga had come crashing into them the moment they’d exited the room, and once Rose came along, they only had eyes for her. It would have been a shame to let a few rude looks spoil the joy of the most perfect woman in existence gracing them with her presence.

“Thank you for showing such mercy.” Meg bowed her head deeply at the siblings. The Stewarts were so compassionate that they paid no mind to such cruelty and even pretended not to notice it. From Meg’s perspective, that made everyone else’s attitudes even more intolerable. It had been obvious enough that even young Jadwiga had noticed.

The Stewart family’s popularity had plummeted within high society...because Emma was not the saint. Everyone had been spreading rumors that she was one until the church announced a different girl’s name. Ever since then, people had started to say it was because there was something wrong with Emma, and some had even started to wonder if reports of the many “praiseworthy” things she had done were going too far. To make matters worse, the Stewarts hadn’t been in the kingdom to refute any of this. Since they weren’t around, it gave those unfounded rumors an air of legitimacy, and since they’d been absent during the ever so important social season, people were even more critical of them.

Unbeknownst to the people of the kingdom, the Stewarts had gone off on a top secret mission to help the Eastern Empire come back from the brink of destruction. Nobody knew why they’d gone, and that made it worse. People now believed that Emma herself had spread the rumor that she was a saint, and once the church consecrated someone else, she ran off to another country in shame. Of course, one look at the timeline would have made it obvious that couldn’t have been possible, but nobody ever really thought about rumors all that deeply.

And of course, there was the fact that high society was all about dragging each other down. It was a world where spreading negative rumors was often advantageous.

Seeing just how worried the king and Prince Edward had been led Meg to guess that the Stewarts were going to the Eastern Empire to solve some unimaginably difficult problem. They hadn’t done it for hope of a reward; they’d gone only out of a sense of duty and kindness. The Stewarts’ kindness was as all-encompassing as the ocean itself, so of course they would lend a hand to the Eastern Empire if they were in trouble. Even if they’d known what criticisms would be lobbed their way, they still would have gone to help. She knew, because the Stewart family had been the ones to save her Lady Rose’s heart.

“Oh, that reminds me! Do you know anything about this Lady Juana, Lady Rose? The king told us the church proclaimed her a saint.” Emma brought up the new saint after a bit of friendly, casual conversation. She brought it up casually, thinking that getting chosen to be a saint was a lot worse than just having people suggest you be “consummated” or calling you “tainted,” but as soon as she brought up Juana’s name, the air went cold.

“Emma... Don’t be too down on yourself. It’ll be okay.”

“I’ll protect you, Emma!”

Both Rose and Jadwiga began to comfort her.

“Uh... I, uh... You don’t have to?”

“If anyone picks on you at school, I want you to tell me, okay, Emma? And that goes for afternoon and evening parties too. High society is a cold, cruel world... I’m just so worried. Maybe it would be best for you all to stay home from school for a bit longer...” The rumors had reached Rose as well, and she was worried they might lead to the siblings getting hurt. Unfortunately, the three siblings had only just gotten home the previous night, so they had no idea what she was talking about.

William stood up at Rose’s warning. “No, we can’t take any more time off!” There was no way they could.

“Huh? Why, is there some special reason you can’t, William?” George was confused why William was so determined to stress this point.

“Not me, George! You’re the one who’d be in the most trouble falling behind on your studies! Unlike me and sis, you’ve got the whole future of Pallas riding on you inheriting it! How can you be so lax about this?!” William shouted.

The greatest obstacle for the Stewart family was the Monster Studies exam. Anyone who was going to become the lord of a land had to pass Advanced Monster Studies, but studying...was not George’s strong suit.

“Why me...” George slumped his shoulders. It was hard being the oldest.

“Then why don’t we trade places and I take over? Grandmother told me that as long as you fulfill the requirements, there are cases where girls can inherit the family too! I’m pretty confident I have a better chance at passing Advanced Monster Studies than you do, George.” Emma knew how hopeless her older brother was in school, so she suggested trading places out of pity.

“Eeek! No way! You’ll cover the whole region in bugs!” both the brothers screamed.

“Wow, rude much?! We can’t let William do it, can we?” If George and Emma were out, that only left William, but Emma shut that down right then and there.

“No, we can’t, huh?” George agreed. While William had the highest chance of passing Advanced Monster Studies out of all of them, thinking back on how hapless he’d been in his previous life, they knew they couldn’t leave any major responsibilities to him.

“You guys are so mean to me!”

In the end, they had no choice but to leave George to try his best.

“Hee hee, well, you certainly seem to be in good spirits. But there’s something very odd going on, so be careful, okay? Everyone’s quite excitable right now.” Though Rose was giggling at their comical bickering, she still tried to push her warning again.

“Excitable? How so?” William asked.

“Well, you know that the nobles tend to buy lots of cotton during the social season each year, right? This year’s cotton was apparently far more expensive than the usual market price. Many nobles still bought it from the Western imperial merchants, but...” Rose sighed.

“But what?” William encouraged her to continue. He remembered Joshua and Oliver saying something or other about cotton when they were in the Eastern Empire, but he didn’t really remember what.

“Well, the quality was terrible at best, so the nobles here took a huge loss.” They’d been hoping to earn a bit more money, but many had wound up digging themselves an even deeper financial hole.

“Wait, then why didn’t they just trade it for something better? Besides, shouldn’t you check the quality of things before you buy them?” It didn’t matter whether you were planning on using something yourself or selling it; it was always important to check whether something you were buying was worth it.

“I agree, but people here tend to have trouble saying no to people of the Western Empire. Even if they’re just talking to merchants, they tend to just buy it at whatever price the merchants set.” The main headquarters for the church in the kingdom was located in the Western Empire, and the overwhelming power of the church created similar power dynamics from country to country. People from the kingdom, and especially those who lived in and around the capital, were raised thinking the Western Empire was almighty because of the church, so they couldn’t speak up even when talking to merchants.

This trend was something the three siblings were unfamiliar with because there was no church in Pallas. The church’s teachings said that monsters were vile corruptions, thus they would not build any churches in lands along the border of the barrier. Though the places most in need of help were the people living along the border, they never received any charity from the church. As such, it fell to the lords of those border lands to do the jobs usually relegated to the church.

Churches weren’t just in charge of approving marriages. They also were in charge of caring for and educating orphans, listening to the people’s confessions and guiding them along the right paths, finding support for the homeless and the hungry, running free clinics, and more. The costs normally would be covered by donations from the nobles, but that money never reached the borders. As usual, the people of the borders drew the short end of the stick.

“So did all the nobles just...give up after that?” If they bought all their cotton in bulk during the social season, that would’ve been way more than just a major loss.

“Now if there were some families out there who hadn’t bought any cotton and hadn’t had any financial hardships as a result...you wouldn’t really be happy about it, would you?”

“Who wasn’t buying cotton, then? Oh... Right. Us.” The Stewart family had all gone to the Eastern Empire, so they hadn’t bought any cotton at all. They probably wouldn’t have bought any even if they hadn’t gone, since they weren’t allowed to make any major purchases without Joshua’s permission.

“Apparently, the Rothschild Company didn’t buy any either. They’re sticklers for quality, so I imagine they plainly saw just how terrible it was.”

Oh right. Joshua was saying he’d had the slum kids learn how to work with hemp... Emma remembered. Joshua had apparently determined that hemp would’ve been better to deal with than poor-quality cotton before the social season began. As it turned out, there were signs that hemp-made clothes were growing quite popular among the commoners for its low price and high quality.

“Huh... Well, Joshua and his father are never wrong about quality, so the Western Empire must’ve offered us some pretty awful stuff. It really makes me question their professionalism.” Emma had lived in Japan—a major manufacturing power—so this was hard for her to believe. Did they not have any pride in their products? It made her think they should curtail business with the Western Empire and deepen relations with the Eastern Empire instead. Then in the near future, they could get rice at any store, and miso and soy sauce would be available in any household, and eating sashimi would slowly start to become the norm... It could be great...

“If that wasn’t bad enough, the cotton they bought this year is such poor quality that the nobles can’t use it, and even if they wanted to sell it to the commoners, they bought it at such a high price that they’d be selling at a loss. And the commoners would rather buy the cheap, high-quality hemp that’s been going around anyway. So what are they meant to do to make up for the losses? Well, the only choice they had was to raise the taxes on their land. And now, things are difficult for all the commoners too.” The cotton issue was causing economic problems all across the kingdom.

“What a vicious cycle... Well, that’s why anyone gearing up to be the lord of a land has to study extra hard, right, George?”

“Why are we looping back around to this?!” George balked as the topic boomeranged back at him.

“Studying is all well and good, but I mean it. Be careful, okay? Nobles aren’t used to having to cut back, so you should expect they may be trying to find a scapegoat to pin all their frustrations on. I don’t want you to think I’m exaggerating about this.” Rose warned them a second time that if they really were planning on going back to school that they should prepare for the worst.

“Thank you for your concern, Lady Rose.” Rose’s extra serious expression made Emma straighten up. Basically, the other nobles had more money than sense and now the money was gone.

I guess it’d be like if a bunch of people at school couldn’t even afford mochi for New Year’s because their dads didn’t get bonuses, but then one kid got to leave school to go to Hawaii on vacation with their parents. Yeah. That’d really annoy me too.

“Just...try not to cause a scene at school, sis.”

“Anything you can do to not cause a scene at school, do it.”

William and George both gave Emma resigned looks for some reason.

“Wha? Why are you making this all about me?! I’ve said it a million times! I’m not the one causing scenes here! The scenes come to me! It’s like I’m a scene magnet or something!” Emma was always saying this, but there was never a time when it wasn’t immediately preceding a major incident. It happened every single time, without fail, so the brothers just readied themselves for the inevitable.

◆ ◆ ◆

Shortly after the church consecrated the new saint...

“So you’re the saint, then?” The senior envoy who had sought an audience with the saint looked quite doubtful. One of the things the Western Imperial Church put particular emphasis on when selecting a saint was that they had exceptional beauty. It was the senior envoy’s job to take the saints of any given country into his custody and bring them back to the Western Empire with him. But no matter how good of a look he got of this Juana girl, she just appeared as average as average could be. All she had going for her was her black eyes. There weren’t any people with black eyes in the Western Empire, so naturally, they weren’t revered like they were in the kingdom. In fact, it was more that they didn’t place any value on it whatsoever. What the royal family of the Western Empire wanted wasn’t some average Joan with rare-colored eyes; they wanted someone who was especially beautiful.

Perhaps it had been different in the past, but the system now worked so that the Western Empire’s royal family could gather up and entertain themselves with the most beautiful women around. In a sickening twist, “consecration” and “consummation” weren’t so different in the eyes of the Western Empire’s royal family. The system was corrupt, and the Western Empire and its church were equally so.

The Western Empire was the greatest power in the world, using cotton and religion to gain control over other countries. Missionaries had special permission to migrate to other countries, proliferating both the church’s teachings and the empire’s cotton wares. They could win over the citizens and gather information from them, all so they could present beautiful women to the Western Empire. All this, to give the Western Empire higher standing among the other countries.

The monster threat had never been fully eradicated, so the people of the world continued longing for heaven’s salvation to help them through their fear. They suffered from their social status, their livelihood, their heavy taxes, and starvation. All it took were some sweet words and a slice of bread to have more and more believers dancing in the palm of their hands. In the blink of an eye, over half of the populace supported the church, making it so politicians couldn’t just ignore the church’s will either.

“Hmm? Ah, is that you, Joseph? Excellent timing. I’ll be staying in the kingdom for a bit longer. When you return, inform the emperor.”

Joseph, the senior envoy from the Western Empire, gulped nervously. “Wha— Wait, could it be...?! A-As you command!” His face went pale and he prostrated himself before the saint.

How could this be?! I never thought... It’s...!

Joseph had been serving as an envoy to the kingdom for many long years, and he had the status within the Western Empire to match. There were only a select few people who could so casually speak to him like that. While the envoy had no memory of having ever met this Juana girl, the way she spoke to him, her behavior, and her subtle mannerisms could only belong to one person. None of it was something he could just write off as some country girl not knowing her place. Joseph remembered some of the rumors whispered among the upper echelons in the Western Empire. If those rumors were true, and this average girl was who he thought she was, then there was nothing he could do to intervene.

The emperor of the Western Empire had chosen to make the kingdom the world’s very first vassal state.

The envoy was sweating bullets. He’d been coming to the kingdom every year and grown pretty attached to it, but apparently it didn’t have much time left as an independent realm. It had such beautiful people, the largest land area after the Western Empire itself, and it had developed such incredible-quality silk in recent years. It wasn’t hard to see why the kingdom had attracted such attention.

“I’ll be here a bit longer than I’d planned. This appearance has even made it easy for me to access the royal family, so I’m sure there won’t be any problems.” Juana grinned as she stroked her chin as if stroking some impossible, invisible beard, and it made the envoy tremble in fear.

◆ ◆ ◆

“Lady Juana, allow me to take you to your next class.” Someone called out to Juana as she was reminiscing about her meeting from a few days ago.

Right, I was in the middle of class. Juana snapped herself back to attention. Though it seems to have ended before I even knew it.

“Lady Juana?” One of the boys gazed at Juana, worried at her lack of response.

“Ah, it’s nothing. Nothing at all. Take me there. Er, I mean. I’d appreciate your guidance.”

“Leave it to me!” the boy said, his eyes dazed as though there wasn’t a thought in his head. He grabbed her bags as though it were the most natural thing in the world and escorted her to her next class. It didn’t seem like he’d paid any mind to her unusual speaking.

“Good day, Lady Juana.”

“Lady Juana, please come to my family’s next party!”

“Lady Juana!”

“Lady Juana!”

Several voices called out to her as she walked to her next classroom. Everyone who called to her had the same dazed expression as the boy from her class, and those who hadn’t were looking on in confusion.

Something had gotten in the way of the plan.

Normally, everyone in the school would’ve been under Juana’s command by this point. In fact, since it had already been several months since she’d come to the capital, everyone in the capital should have been under her control by now.

Juana was well aware of her own powers. She should have been able to take over this population easily, but it wasn’t working as well as it was supposed to. She recognized the people who were staring at her in confusion from afar. She’d tried to control them before, but it had had no effect. She would use her magic on multiple people at the same time, but some would be controlled and others wouldn’t.

Was it because she wasn’t used to this body yet?

She’d said everything was going well to the envoy, but she’d started to get a bit annoyed with how few she’d managed to snag these past couple of days.

Once Juana reached her seat in the next class, the boy spoke to her again with a dazed expression and a monotonous voice. “Lady Juana, have you heard? Lady Emma Stewart still hasn’t come back from school despite summer vacation being over.”

“Lady...Emma Stewart?” It was a name Juana had heard before, but she couldn’t remember where from.

“She was the girl everyone assumed was the saint before you appeared. She went to another country with her family during the summer break and still hasn’t returned.” A girl sitting next to the boy with the same dazed expression responded in a similarly monotonous tone.

“Oh, her... I think I’ve heard about her.” Juana remembered when she’d parted with the envoy, he’d suggested giving Emma over as a saint offering to the Western Empire instead. If she wasn’t in the kingdom, he would be unable to do that. Unlike Juana, who had manipulated the bishops to become a saint herself, the true-blue beauty seemed to have had extraordinary good luck. After all, if she’d been taken to the Western Empire, even Juana would have been unable to look upon what sort of awful things they would have done to her.

Actually... Juana’s thoughts began to run wild. She began stroking her chin, but since there was none of the hair she was so used to there, it just looked silly. I feel a bit bad for the girl, but I think we need a scapegoat.

Creating a target of criticism for everyone made them even easier to control.

“Dear... It seems awfully thoughtless of them to have gone out traveling during such an important time...” The students who’d been looking at her in a daze widened their eyes at this. Her words resonated in their heads as if their brains had been jolted and their consciences retreated to the corner of their minds. In its place came a strange sense of fury at the injustice of it all.

Lady Juana’s so right! How can they call themselves noble if they look down on the rest of high society?!

Where is their pride as people of this good country?!

How selfish could they be?

“You think so too, Lady Juana?”

“I was thinking it was rather odd myself!”

“Maybe getting all that praise as a saint got to her head?”

“It’s so ridiculous. Lady Juana’s the saint!”

Spite began to infect the students like a ripple spreading across the surface of water. One little word from Juana was enough to turn the whole school against this Emma person. The more they looked down on her, the more Juana would rise in their ranks. Her magic worked much more effectively with negative emotions. By gaining more influence, Juana’s power should return to its normal state.

Juana felt bad for the poor girl, but it was all for the great Western Empire. For the Empire’s sake, she would use her to the fullest extent.

◆ ◆ ◆

Meanwhile, in an impoverished farming village in the Lance region...

“What the hell are you doing! Use your heads, would you?! I’ve been watching you put all the seeds in one damn spot! You know it’s gonna make it so they have to compete for nutrients and the crop’ll come out horribly!” Robert, who had been watching over the villagers as they did their farmwork, couldn’t stop himself from shouting when he saw their shoddy work. The Lance region was a prosperous agricultural land, so as the heir to the land, Robert had learned a lot about botany and had an abundance of knowledge when it came to growing crops. “Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! Why are you wasting all our precious water?! You wanna drown the seeds or what?!”

“Darius, how about you quit your bellyachin’ and show us how it’s done? Ogh, my back...” The old woman who’d taken Robert in straightened out her back. The other villagers all agreed with her.

It had been several months since Robert had been dropped off in the village. Oddly enough, the villagers had all taken a liking to him. All the young men of the village had been conscripted by the duke’s army, and the young women had all gone to work in the capital. Anyone who was capable of leaving had already left, and all that remained were feeble lands and feeble people. When young Robert appeared in the village, the old woman thought he was someone named Darius, and all the villagers treated him like a grandson.

“Ugh, look, you put the seeds at even intervals. Then you slowly and gently add the water so it can spread evenly among them...”

“Uh-huh!”

“Oh, I see...”

“If you’ve got time to agree, you’ve got time to do it too!”

“Hoh hoh!”

“The youth sure are bundles of energy!”

The elderly villagers looked on at Robert with big grins. He complained a lot, but he still worked quite diligently in the field. When he first showed up, they’d thought perhaps he’d returned to the village due to a broken heart. Compared to when he first arrived a few months ago and would throw a tantrum over having to draw water, he’d made significant progress and now helped tend the crops with them as well.

“Excuse you! Quit getting all sentimental and work already! It’s almost time to harvest those potatoes, so we don’t have time to sit back!”

“Oh, them foreign taters from when you first started helping us in the fields?”

“Right, from the Impossible Crops the lord hoisted on us!”

“Yeah, yeah. He told us to grow them taters and handed us some vine things, but we had no idea how to grow them and they wound up rotting every year. We got a big ol’ crop this year with Darius helpin’! Bless his heart, and I mean it.”

The lord of the Lance region would sometimes find rare seeds and seedlings from foreign countries and distribute them to the farmers. For the citizens of the region, it was just one of his whims, and they’d started calling them Impossible Crops. He wouldn’t explain anything—he’d just hand them out to them, and the poor farmers, who’d never dealt with soil outside of the land they were born in, wound up with a ton of foreign seeds and seedlings they’d never seen or heard of before. They couldn’t ignore any crops the lord provided them, so they had attempted to plant them, but whether it was because the climate of the kingdom wasn’t right, or they didn’t have the proper amount of water, or they didn’t know how to raise it, but every time they’d tried, it hardly ever worked out very well. On the rare occasions that they could harvest anything, they had no idea how to even eat the poor harvest they got. As such, they were just a waste of field space and effort with no real benefit for the village at all.

But then, Darius (Robert) came along with knowledge of how to raise the crops because he’d read about it before, so they let him take care of it. Their trust paid off. Though it was far past the season to grow them, the crops had grown like wildfire and it seemed like they were about to have a massive harvest.

“Ugh, just get to work or we won’t finish before the sun sets!”

“Hoh hoh hoh! He must be real excited for the harvest!”

“For sure, for sure!”

“Oh, looks like it’s breaktime!”

“I don’t think so! You just took a break!”

“Hoh hoh hoh! Well, when ya get to my age, just a little work’ll get your whole body achin’!”

“For sure, for sure!”

The elderly villagers all heaved a sigh as they sat down and looked out at the field that Darius (Robert) said the potatoes were growing in. Though they’d said the land was barren, the place he’d been growing the potatoes was thick with green vegetation. No matter how many times they saw it, it filled them with an excitement unworthy of their years.

“Did you hear me?! Get back to work!” The one fine and fit boy in the village shouted loud enough for the whole village to hear. Maybe it was because the lord had changed, but this village’s taxes had suddenly gotten a lot lighter.

Chapter 77: Cold Glares

“Wow. We’re really being snubbed, huh?” Though the siblings had made it safely back to school, William could immediately tell something was off as he looked around on their first day back. The vibe was a stark difference from how it had been before their trip. Nobody was trying to talk to them. In fact, nobody would even look at them. They’d worried George’s chances of earning credits in school would be in the gutter if they missed any more classes, so they’d rushed back to school the day after their meeting with the king, but even when William answered a difficult problem with ease or George struggled with the simplest of questions, it didn’t get a single reaction from the people around them.

“Phew! The Eastern Empire was great, but school is pretty fun too, huh?” While William was worried about the tension in the air, Emma had just taken her beloved Biology class and been in perfectly good spirits the whole time. “I know Joshua wanted to take this class too, but I guess he’s too busy with the store, huh?” Joshua, who had gone with them to the Eastern Empire, was unable to return to school right away and had to take the whole week off. Emma recalled how disappointed Joshua had been when they’d left his store without him that morning.

“Uh... Yeah, totally.” William was pretty certain Joshua wasn’t specifically disappointed he couldn’t take Biology, but decided to just give a standard response instead.

It was just as Rose had said. The kingdom was suffering from a quality cotton shortage. The price of imported cotton had skyrocketed, so commoners were unable to get their hands on it. With cotton out of their reach, the commoners instead began lining up to purchase the Rothschild Company’s hemp products, and since the Rothschilds hadn’t purchased any of the poor-quality cotton, there wasn’t a single cotton product to be found. Nobles were making crazy demands of the company, so they had their hands completely full.

“It’s exactly what Lady Rose was worried about, huh?” George sighed as he put a thick textbook into his bag. Before the summer holidays, George would always go to get tutored and William would tutor people after class, but now it seemed like nobody was around. Or rather, they were keeping their distance and whispering about the siblings. It felt pretty awful.

“Sis is still having a shockingly grand old time, though.” While William had started to look awfully gloomy along with George’s sighs, seeing his sister made his attitude seem awfully silly. Emma, who had been right next to them until just a second ago, had caught her Biology professor passing by and was showering the poor teacher with questions with as much fervor as she had before the holidays.

“Professor! I had a question about what we were talking about in class! So, I’m thinking in the future, we have a very real possibility of eating bugs. Wait, you think that’s crazy? Au contraire, Professor! Bugs are a fantastic source of protein and are full of vitamins necessary for human life...”

“Ugh, she’s really freaking the teacher out. Time to put the brakes on, William.”

“On it, George.”

Nobody had mentioned eating bugs in class that day, but Emma’s imagination had gone wild as usual. Though she had been excitedly talking with Miguel about stir-fried locusts in the Eastern Empire, so it might have just been on her mind still.

“Right. Yeah, I see your point. The legs could get stuck between your teeth, and that might be a texture issue for some. But then what about using their larvae? I bet it’d be super creamy and—”

“Emma, let’s let the poor professor get back to work. And please don’t get people thinking about the texture of eating bugs. Like, c’mon. ‘Creamy’?”

“Sis, you can leave this topic for another time. We’ve got lunch to eat.”

The Biology professor had gone pale.

“Aw... But it’s important to consider where you get your nutrients in the event of a food shortage! But you’re right, I bet talking about all these bug meals is just gonna make us hungrier. I’m pretty excited to have our school’s cafeteria food after so long! Maybe I’ll get a cream stew!”

“Eugh, sis!”

“Stop!”

George and William separated (physically removed) Emma from the Biology teacher, who practically ran back to the staff room. However, despite it being the lunch break, the professor had zero appetite anymore.

“You two butted in just when things were getting good!” Emma puffed out her cheeks in a pout and glared at George, but given the height difference, the angle made it look like she was giving him adorable puppy dog eyes. Considering how that very same girl had just been talking up a storm about the merits of eating bugs just moments ago, it was a pretty jarring switch. His sister was seriously the biggest handful.

He flicked Emma on the forehead. “Mother has told you to keep your bug talk reined in when you’re at school, remember?”

“Ow! But I wasn’t talking about bugs, I was talking about eating bugs!”

“That’s worse!” William retorted without missing a beat. They’d just been warned that the Stewart family wasn’t being seen in a good light lately. Emma was right there at the center of everyone’s wrath because of the whole saint business, but she was stressing her brothers to death by going about business as usual.

“How did you even get to that topic during a class on photosynthesis, anyway?”

“Oh, you want me to explain? It’ll take a while...”

“Please no.”

“Well, the professor’s gone now, so let’s get to lunch! All that bug talk has really worked up my appetite!”

“Eugh...” Both George and William should have been used to this sort of thing by now, but even they were grossed out.

◆ ◆ ◆

“Lady Emma!”

After the siblings had gotten their lunch and headed to the courtyard, they found their Embroidery class friends all gathered in their usual spot in the gazebo. The twins spotted the siblings first and waved toward them with big grins.

“Oh, hello, girls! It’s been too long! Do you mind if we sit with you?” Emma happily ran up to where her friends were waiting. George and William were relieved that the girls seemed normal and followed after their sister.

“Why, of course! Ladies Catherine and Caitlyn were just telling us you’d returned, and you’re already back at school! I am so relieved to see you all doing so well.”

“We don’t know anything about the Eastern Empire, so we’ve all been greatly looking forward to what tales you have to tell.”

Francesca and Marion gave them friendly smiles as well. However, as the other students in the courtyard heard the twins call for Emma, their excited chatting died down, and they all glared coldly at the siblings.

“Oh jeez... If looks could kill, huh?” William hugged his bag as he anxiously glanced around at all the glowering students. He sat down, unable to bear it any longer. He sometimes heard them muttering about the “false saint,” which was surely them bad-mouthing Emma. The Embroidery group were the odd ones out. All the other students in the courtyard were acting just as their classmates had that morning.

“It’s the nicest time of year right now. More students are using the courtyard, and I’m sure the more willful among them were hoping to claim the gazebo as their territory but found it occupied by its usual crew.” Arthur arrived after the three siblings and attempted to comfort them in the face of such negativity.

“Oh, Lord Arthur! It’s been too long!” William smiled as Arthur joined them. As the son of a duke, the willfulness of the students (or rather, the firstborn prince’s faction) was of no matter, as his peerage was far higher than theirs.

“Afternoon, you three. Glad to see you made it back all right.” As Prince Edward’s bodyguard on campus, Arthur knew the siblings hadn’t just gone to the Eastern Empire for fun. While he didn’t know the details, Prince Edward’s sullen demeanor tended to break when it came to Emma. It was easy to tell just how dangerous a task the siblings had undertaken.

“I’m glad to see you’re doing well, Lord Arthur!” Emma grinned, and the whispering around them grew louder.

“And you’re looking as cute as ever, Lady Emma.” Arthur shot a glare at the onlookers and the whispering stopped. “I wonder how our once proud school turned into nothing more than a zoo. It’s truly a shame. If these animals have any complaints, they’ll have to come to me first. I’ll be glad to hear them out.” Arthur gave the whisperers a warning before slowly taking his seat. No matter how much they might have issues with the Stewart siblings, no one was about to get on Arthur’s bad side, since he was both the eldest son of a duke and the current captain of the knights. All those students’ rude stares were averted.

“Thank you so much, Lord Arthur. Lady Rose warned us something like this might happen, but I never really expected it to be this bad.” George breathed a sigh of relief. His combat skills were sharply honed, and having all these hostile people around him had made him extra sensitive. If someone actively came to attack them, he would have been even more defensive with Emma and William there to protect. While that was acceptable against monsters, it would be difficult to hold back against humans. He’d begun to consider studying Knight Skills in addition to Hunting Skills next year.

“I imagine it’s awfully tough with how sensitive you are to other’s presences, George. But I doubt anyone is willing to go the extra mile to harass you like Robert did, so I imagine you’ll be fine. I’m awfully impressed by Lady Emma, though. I was worried she’d be down in the dumps after hearing she wasn’t the saint.” He hadn’t even noticed when she’d begun, but Emma was now cheerily talking with her friends, not about her travels but about what gifts she’d gotten them. His eyes widened. Every day, it seemed the Stewart family’s reputation had sunk lower and lower, and the worry was taking its toll on his sister Marion, Francesca, and the twins. Yet Emma, the girl in the center of it, was giving them all smiles that assured them she was okay.

“For Lady Marion and Lord Arthur, I’ve brought you some swords they use in the Eastern Empire called katanas. For Lady Francesca, I’ve gotten you a whole bunch of sake made from rice in the Eastern Empire, and some colorful Nishijin fabrics. For Ladies Catherine and Caitlyn, I’ve gotten you some matching marionettes and a set of camelia oil and combs. The Rothschild Company should have them delivered to your houses sometime today.” Emma giggled and gave them that beaming smile that had made everyone think she was the saint. Seeing her like this, interspersing unfamiliar words as she told everyone about the gifts she’d gotten them, made Arthur harbor doubts in the church for the first time since he’d been born.

Lady Emma truly is far more suited to sainthood than Lady Juana.

“Lady Emma, has anyone caused you any trouble on campus? You can talk to me if anything happens. The prince and I are on your side.” While he thought it might be uncouth of him to show his worry while Emma was acting so cheerful, he would rather have gotten ahead of any possible issues.

“I’m on your side too, Lady Emma. I have confidence I could easily take out those boys. You can count on me. No need to hesitate,” Marion added.

“As am I, Lady Emma. I may not be as reliable as Lady Marion, but I will always be on your side! No matter what happens, I’ll always be here!” Francesca said.

“We’ll be with you no matter who hates us for it, right, Caitlyn?”

“Yes, we’ll be with you no matter who hates us for it, Catherine!”

“You’ll get the last laugh for sure, Lady Emma!” the twins said together.

All of Emma’s friends made these declarations completely unprompted.

“You guys...”

“Thanks so much!”

George and William were touched by the warm display of friendship. They had their status among high society to worry about, but not a single one of their friends had hesitated to stand by them. The siblings were deeply grateful.

Meanwhile, Emma, the person of the hour, was a bit taken aback by the sudden barrage of friendship, and after thinking for a bit, she flashed a grin at them all. “Well, I love you all too!”

“Hnngh! What a knock-out smile... Lady Emma, you can count on me if anything happens, okay? Even if you just can’t stand the glares from everyone!” Arthur almost let himself get taken in by Emma’s smile, but he had pride in his reputation as a pretty boy (with plenty of spicy rumors about him), so he managed to recover his senses and push his point again.

“Glares? Oh, right... Yeah, people have been pretty on edge, huh?” Emma said.

“Wait. You’re only just now noticing?!”

“I thought you were letting it roll off your back, but...I guess you were just too dense to notice.”

Both William and George were in disbelief.

“I mean, it’s just...” Emma’s once bright face suddenly darkened. “Those expressions are nothing compared to grandmother’s...”

It was true. Emma had experienced true fear. She’d been having one-on-one etiquette lessons with the Etiquette Demon, Duchess Hilda Sullivan herself. The looks she received from Hilda during those lessons felt like they could have literally killed her. The whole student body could gang up against her and it would’ve been nothing compared to the near-death experience of Hilda’s training.

Yeah. That makes sense.

Her brothers and friends all remembered the Etiquette Demon and understood instantly.

◆ ◆ ◆

This is fun. But it can’t be. But it’s fun. But that’s ridiculous. But it’s fun.

Every day, Robert had this internal back-and-forth as he plowed the fields. He’d remove the tree roots and stones and aerate the fields, and every time he gazed out upon them, he’d be filled with an indescribable sense of satisfaction. He’d hardly ever felt anything like it when he was in the capital or at school. He thought maybe he’d felt it long ago, when he’d been very young and his mother had always been by his side. When his mother had passed away, his father had taken one of the maids as his wife.

Robert’s new mother would never raise her head to him and was stiff and formal in her speech. Having been born to a duke, there were only a select few around him who were higher in status than him, so everyone lowered their head to him. Just like the adults who served his father, so too did his school friends and stepmother.

He couldn’t say it made him sad.

Whether he destroyed the yard for attention, or yelled at the maids, or bullied the kids at school, his new mother would never say anything about it. Even if he was vulnerable and asked her to have tea with him, it looked like she was just barely tolerating it and trying to end this time with him as soon as possible. He couldn’t hold a conversation with her.

His father was never home until late at night. Even if Robert planned it out so he could spend time with him, his father would just glare at one of the butlers and tell them to handle him instead. Robert had caused so many issues that he’d been cut off from his stepmother and little sister, and was forced to eat alone every day too. Perhaps if his new mother had ever once smiled gently at him the way she looked at his little sister, none of this ever would have happened.

“Darius sure is strong!”

“Our fields are comin’ back better ’n ever!”

“I woulda loved a man like him if I were ten years younger!”

“You would’ve still been over sixty ten years ago, lady.”

“But I was a right beauty at sixty!”

“You can say that again!”

Robert was silent.

There was no way that Robert, the son of a duke, could be enjoying himself in this farmland as Darius, who couldn’t even afford to renew his underwear.

It just wasn’t possible...

◆ ◆ ◆

“Okay, but why is everyone so on edge, anyway?” Emma cocked her head curiously. Even with the heavy losses in cotton, the Stewart family being gone for the social season, and Emma being a false saint, it didn’t make sense that they’d be that upset. Other than the cotton, it was all other people’s business, and even if they’d lost a bunch of money, the nobles would receive taxes from their land, so it wasn’t like they were too poor to feed their families or anything. The only ones who had any right to be angry about that were the civilians living on land owned by a bunch of idiot rulers who were increasing their tax burdens.

“It’s because they can’t renew their underwear. I thought that was obvious?” Arthur responded, equally confused. Marion, Francesca, and the twins all nodded along with him.

“Uh... Run that by me again?” William was so shocked that the topic of underwear was coming up that he had to ask. Emma and George were just as in disbelief.

“It’s part of the church’s teachings. Negative energy collects in one’s underwear, so you’re meant to renew all of your underwear once a year after the social season so that the gates of heaven will be open to you. Hemp is far too boorish, and silk is far too luxurious, but cotton is just right.” Francesca had heard the church’s teachings over and over since she was very young, so she had it memorized.

“Uh... What?”

“The church says stuff like that?”

“And everyone just goes along with it?”

Why the hell would the church care what material your underwear is made of? What kind of ridiculous setup is that? Are the people here right in the head?

Though the three siblings thought the whole thing was ridiculous, their friends all looked so serious that they could tell it was unlikely they were lying.

Instead, Francesca was surprised by their reactions. “Wait...you didn’t know that?”

“We don’t really...have churches on the border lands.” There were no two ways about it. They’d never heard anything like this before. Even their mother, who had been raised in the capital, had never told them about it. Though truthfully, the Stewart family hadn’t been wealthy enough to renew all their underwear yearly until just recently. It was unlikely their mother could bring up changing out underwear when she’d first married into the family either, and even though they weren’t struggling financially anymore, they still had that poor family’s mindset.

“Lady Emma... You need to renew all your underwear once a year. It’s directly touching your skin, and all sorts of terrible things can collect there. Letting such things cling to your body is an affront to heaven. But because there’s hardly any cotton to go around, even just getting the materials for it is difficult. That’s why everyone is so upset.”

So like...if this were our last life, this would be like a feng shui sorta thing?

Marion’s very serious warning did nothing to stop the siblings’ heads from cocking to the side.

“So, uh...why is silk not an option for your underwear?”

The Stewart family tended to always live self-sufficiently. They’d decided to only use the taxes they collected on the land. The family would collect their own food. They’d hunt for monsters and use them for food and materials. They’d take care of the silkworms and make silk with them. That was why most of their clothes, underwear included, were made of silk. Even if they wound up getting holes in their underwear, they’d just sew it right back up and wear them again. They washed them every day, so they knew they were clean.

“Silk is too luxurious, right, Caitlyn?”

“Silk is too luxurious, Catherine!”

The twins insisted they had to have cotton.

Cotton wasn’t grown in the kingdom, so that meant they had to depend on imports. To the siblings, it sounded like cotton was plenty luxurious, but their friends wouldn’t budge on cotton being more appropriate than silk for these purposes.

Come to think of it, Lady Rose was pleased when we got her a silk nightgown, but I think she refused silk underwear...

“Now, correct me if I’m wrong, but saying something’s a luxury means it’s asking for more than what you need, right? And since we can’t get cotton right now, but we can get silk, I’d say that means cotton is more luxurious right now. I mean, it’d be way better than just putting up with not being able to renew your underwear and getting all antsy about it...”

For the Stewarts, who had only ever prayed to god whenever they were dealing with some kind of trouble in their previous lives and had no church on the borderland in their current lives, they just couldn’t comprehend why their friends were so particular about cotton. The fact alone that nobody thought it was weird to talk about underwear so seriously was bizarre.

To be perfectly honest, considering the Western Empire was the greatest producer of cotton in the world and the ones in charge of the church, saying that you have to renew all your underwear with cotton underwear right after the social season when the Western Empire would be selling all their cotton...

Am I the only one who thinks that’s the most obvious scam? Emma thought. Did the whole country get swindled?

Emma’s opinion was definitely reasonable, but none of her friends agreed. They just kept saying it had to be cotton. Apparently, it would take more than that to get them to turn their backs on things they’d been taught since they were little. William started to get a feeling of dread as he saw how stubborn they were. It’s like they’ve been brainwashed or something. If even half of the kingdom’s nobles feel the same way, then it’s likely the price of cotton will get higher and higher, and the price of silk might decrease in value.

“Wait. This could be bad for our family, huh?” This underwear talk might have an effect on the family business. The fact that Joshua, who always wanted to be by Emma’s side, was unable to come to school lent some credibility to that possibility. The biggest source of income for the Stewart family and the Pallas region was from silk products, and while the Rothschild Company had a wide selection of goods, their main line was Pallas silk. “George, this could be really bad for us in the future.”

If things continued like this, they might be looking at a life of poverty again by the time George took over. It was already hard enough ruling a land with monsters around it.

“Yeah. The future. The near future,” George responded, completely ignoring William’s worries. After all, their pitiful older brother couldn’t fathom these difficult topics. Thinking about five or ten years in the future didn’t matter much when he had more pressing matters to worry about. “William... Do you think I’m gonna survive tomorrow’s Ancient Imperial Language class?” he asked, hanging his head and moping.

Ancient Imperial Language was George’s worst subject. The one thing he could think of to worry about once he’d finished his lunch after the first day of school was the next day’s class.

“You’ll be fiiine, George. Even though your grades were always crap, you still survived, right?” Emma pet George’s head to comfort him.

“You’re just rubbing salt in his wounds, sis...” William sighed.

It made sense he’d be more worried about classes than the far future. Though on that note, William realized that George becoming the ruler was a coin flip anyway. His inability to understand the ancient imperial language was slightly worse than his inability to understand English had been in their previous life. And their mother told them that you had to understand the ancient imperial language in order to take anything beyond Intermediate Monster Studies.

Wait. That means that in the worst-case scenario...I’ll be the one getting screwed, doesn’t it?! William realized.

“George, when we get back home, we’re studying the ancient imperial language! Sis and I will drill it into your skull!”

“Wha?! I’ve got other stuff I wanna do, William...” Emma grumbled.

“It can wait! You have to help me! George won’t be able to graduate if we don’t fix this!”

“But I don’t really...”

“No buts! Only studying! You want George to be stuck in school ’til he’s in his forties?!”

“I mean...not really...”

“I thought not! So we’re studying!”

“Yeah, yeah...”

The siblings’ friends all watched their comedic exchange with amusement, glad to forget frustrations of their underwear predicament for a moment.

“It really is a lot more lively and fun when they’re around, isn’t it?”

“It totally puts the mind at ease, huh, Caitlyn?”

“It totally does put the mind at ease, Catherine!”

“I’m so glad they made it home safely.”

George looked miserable, William looked desperate, and Emma was reluctantly along for the ride. This familiar scene in the courtyard gazebo had all the siblings’ friends even more glad that they were back.

◆ ◆ ◆

“I’m sorry, but we just don’t carry any.” In a little hole-in-the-wall tailor shop just off the main shopping district, the shopkeeper was lowering his head apologetically to a customer who was making unreasonable demands.

“Are you sure? You’re sure you don’t have any in the back? It’s just too strange for a tailor not to carry any cotton.”

Starting a few days after the social season ended, nobles’ servants had been coming to this shop asking if they had any cotton. Silk dresses had been more popular in recent years, so the shop simply never had cotton in stock.

“We’ve just had so many orders this year that we’ve run low on fabrics. I’m truly sorry. We really don’t have any at all.”

“Some tailor you are! You can’t even keep track of how much fabric you have!”

The timid shopkeeper watched as the furious customer stormed out, then began massaging his shoulder in exasperation. That had been the third unhappy customer he’d seen just that day.

Once the shop had quieted down, a seamstress peered out from the workshop. “Another customer asking about cotton, Matthew?”

“Yeah, it’s all servants of the nobles. They’ve gotta be pretty desperate if they’re coming all the way to us.” Matthew sighed. After all, he was a tailor. They sold fully made clothes, not fabrics. He’d thought that once the busy social season was over, they could take it easy. But instead, he had customers banging on his door nearly every day demanding cotton.

“Hey, so like, why are these nobles getting all worked up over underwear, anyway?” Some of the kids from the slums who’d been helping out at the shop poked their heads out from behind the seamstress.

“Well... Nobles consider it unbecoming of their station to disobey the church’s orders.”

“Un...becoming? But nobody’s gonna see your underwear, so how would anyone know? Unless they go showing each other their underwear or something?”

“What? No, they don’t do anything like that. It’s just...” While they weren’t showing each other their underwear, they were trying to show off their piety by making sure everyone saw that they would come all the way to a tailor like theirs in search of cotton.

“Well, if nobody’s gonna see, then how come they don’t use hemp? I saw the cotton they brought from the Western Empire this year, and our hemp is a far superior product. Besides, they’re nobles, so they can afford silk, right?” The kids proudly were using the words they’d learned at work, like “efficient” and “sufficient.”

The shopkeeper nodded, looking a bit flustered. “Yeah, you’re right about that.”

“I think so too, but...nobles are all about appearances,” the seamstress responded.

“Oh, also! Everyone’s talking about saints and stuff, so how come they’re all saying Lady Emma’s not a saint?” For the kids who slept in the slums and worked in the public district and shopping district, that was the thing that made the least sense to them. Up until recently, everyone had been talking about Lady Emma being a saint in the slums, in the Rothschild Company’s public district storehouses in the public district, and in the shopping district’s tailor shops, whether someone asked or not. But it had suddenly all come to a stop.

“Oh, that’s because the church canonized a different girl. It surprised me too,” the shopkeeper explained.

“But that’s weird! Saints are supposed to make people happy, right? Well, Lady Emma made it so we could eat every day! That means we’re happy! But now this ‘real’ saint’s coming around and saying Lady Emma’s a fake! How does that make any sense?! This ‘real’ saint never did anything for us!”

Lately, whenever the kids walked through the shopping district where there were lots of nobles, they’d hear people bad-mouthing Emma. Why can’t grown-ups see the facts? Lady Emma made so many people happy, and you’re calling her a fraud!

“I thought that was odd too.”

“Hannah!” The shopkeeper shushed her, warning her that there could be trouble if anyone heard her say that.

“But it’s true, don’t you think? Lady Emma saved us just like she saved these children. They say she’s the one who cured the sailors at the port as well. What more could the church be looking for?” Every time Hannah overheard people speaking ill of Emma, it made her blood boil. Why did such a sweet girl have to get called a fraud like that?

“Hannah...”

“Matthew... I just can’t believe what the church says.”

“But the church has influence everywhere. If you criticize the church too openly, you could get thrown in prison.” Regardless, Matthew also thought the whole situation was odd. He thought it was wrong, but he was a mere tailor. He didn’t stand a chance against the might of the country’s religion.

“Right...so we just don’t do it openly.”

“Huh?”

“We’ll start by talking to the sailors at the harbor. Then we’ll steadily gather like-minded comrades.”

“What are you planning, Hannah?”

Hannah had set her sights on spreading the word of Emma. “We’re going to do what we can, Matthew. We’re gathering allies for Lady Emma!”

“Oh, we’ll help too! We can talk to the other kids in the slums!” Thus the slum children became their allies as well.

“Hannah, please don’t do anything dangerous...”

“Matthew, please help us! I care more about Lady Emma than I do about the church!” the seamstress begged with puppy dog eyes.

“Ngh... Fine. The church hasn’t done anything for us, but we owe Lady Emma everything. Just...make sure you keep this under wraps. Don’t do anything to stand out.” The tailor had been fully converted to their side.

“Of course. I’ll recruit in the shadows so the church will never know.” Thus, the seamstress’s proselytizing was a success.

And so, though there was nothing set in stone about their plan, this secret society of Emma believers burst onto the scene. Even without Emma to guide them, they steadily began growing a quiet but steadfast group of underground believers.

◆ ◆ ◆

“H-Hey, Matthew? I... I made you some underwear using the hemp the children brought us...”

“Huh? You should’ve made some for yourself instead...”

“Oh...I-I did. They’re matching pairs.” The seamstress handed the shopkeeper a pair of elaborately embroidered underwear.

“Wow, you even embroidered it to make it even more... Wait, this pattern... It seems a little different than usual. You didn’t!” When he got a closer look at the underwear, he saw the hexagonal pattern Hannah usually made was slightly different.

“You noticed? I-I turned the hexagons...into hearts.”

“Hannah... It’s wonderful.”

“Not as wonderful as you, Matthew...”

The two gazed into each other’s eyes.

“Hey, bro? Do grown-ups really just show each other their underwear for the embroidery or somethin’?”

“Don’t look. You’re too young to see this sort of thing.”

Two shadows stood at the door, peering in at the scene. One was a child from the slums who’d come back to grab something he’d forgotten, and the other was Harold the painter.

“Whoa, you look just like the Stewarts right now, bro!”

Harold’s face had taken on the same expression as a Tibetan fox.

“Just sneak in and grab your stuff so we can get going. And don’t get caught.”

“Hannah... Thank you for staying with me. You make me the happiest man alive.”

“Matthew... I feel the same way...”

While the child was grabbing his things, Harold was being forced to witness the shopkeeper and the seamstress cooing over each other like there was no tomorrow.

“I’m back! Whoa, are you crying, bro?!”

Though Harold’s face was still morphed into a Tibetan fox’s, there was a sorrow about him that the child could sense even from behind.

“O-Of course not! You got your things?! Then let’s get going. I don’t want to be here a second longer. A-And it’s not because I’m jealous or anything, okay?!” The painter fled the lovey-dovey scene.

“Wait, bro! When my paycheck comes in, I’ll buy you some underwear too! So cheer up, okay? Oh, and! I’ve got some really great news. There’s a group I wanna introduce you to. I know you’ll fit right in. We’re even doing a campaign where there’s no admission fee, you can come and observe, and you can try it out all for free.”

That night, the secret society that had only just begun gained a painter.

Chapter 78: A Most Bewitching Charm

It was lunchtime the day after the Stewart siblings returned to school.

“A-Are you really sure about this, Lady Juana?” The students surrounding Juana were all raising impressed voices.

“I am. This is the fabric that the kingdom’s merchants refused to purchase. The church bought it instead. You all seemed like you were suffering so much, so I asked the bishop if I could bring some and share it with you all. Now, you can make new underwear for yourselves.” Juana smiled as she handed out the cotton from the church.

“Sh-She really is a saint...”

“Makes sense that the real deal would be so much different...”

“And just think. Did you hear what Lady Emma was saying? She said if you don’t have cotton, you should just use silk instead!”

“The nerve! So typical of a nouveau riche family! Clearly, they have no idea how normal people live their lives!”

“Besides, that’s against the church’s teachings! How shameful can she be? I guess that’s just how fake saints are.”

The church had bought all the Western Empire-made cotton that the Rothschild Company had turned down during the social season due to the poor quality and high price. Not many would have known that the exorbitant costs to buy it all had been paid by tithes from the kingdom’s people.

“Lady Juana truly is the picture of sainthood!”

“There’s a reason the church didn’t accept Lady Emma as their saint, after all.”

As the students gratefully accepted the poor-quality, overpriced cotton, they praised Juana and disparaged Emma. Juana seemed quite pleased with this state of affairs as she handed more and more cotton to each new person, increasing the effects of her charm.

One of the girls handed Juana an invitation with trembling hands. “Lady Juana? Would you happen to be free this weekend? We’re having a birthday party for my father and I would love to have you there. My father said he really wanted to meet you!”

“Oh, why, happy birthday to him. I would love to attend.” Juana had been proactively attending parties outside of school as well in order to increase her believers even more. Each time, they’d compare her to Lady Emma of the Stewart family, who only attended the bare minimum of social events. Juana’s popularity would grow, Emma’s would fall, and soon they would flip-flop entirely, with everyone scorning the false saint’s name.

“No need to be shy. You’re more than welcome to some cotton.” Juana realized some boys had been watching her from a distance as the students flocked to her and deigned to bless them as well. It’s only a matter of time before I gain total control of the school...

“Ah... Yeah, no, I’m good.” While it looked like one boy was about to accept, he saw the condition of the cotton and returned it to Juana.

“What?” Juana tilted her head in confusion at the boy’s unexpected response.

That’s strange... Nobody should be turning down my goodwill in a situation like this.

Juana had been using a charm spell that affected anyone within a ten-meter radius, and she’d cast another spell the night before to hide how shoddy and yellowed each and every piece of cotton was. Anyone who came into contact with it would have the effects of the charm strengthened even more.

So why was this boy seeing through this magic? In fact, it seemed like the magic wasn’t working at all. He looked completely in his right mind.

“Well...you need cotton right now, do you not?” she asked. The wealthiest merchants in the kingdom, the Rothschild Company, usually bought massive amounts of cotton from the Western Empire, but now it was all with the church. Therefore, nobody could get any cotton at this time.

The boy gave the yellowed cotton a look over and shook his head. “I mean yeah, but...I’d really rather wear silk or hemp than have to wear underwear made with this cotton.”

Juana couldn’t believe it. The magic she’d used to hide the quality of the cotton wasn’t working on him. Magic that affected one’s mind had a tendency to be weaker on those with strong wills, those experienced in battle, or those with little desire, but it was nothing more than weakening. For it to have zero effect whatsoever was simply unthinkable. At a glance, nothing seemed much different about this boy to the ones around them. To think he had such incredible will, been through so many hardships, or had no desires whatsoever...it completely belied his appearances.

“Then...what about you all in the back?” Juana cursed her bad luck to have run into such a strong-willed student and changed her focus to the boy’s friends. It was a shock, but a single student being unaffected by the charm wasn’t a major obstacle for her. Rather, it would be better to simply charm everyone around him and steadily isolate him instead.

“Look how yellow it is... I’m good too.”

“Y-Yeah... I appreciate the thought, but no.”

“Eugh... Yeah, I think not.”

But it was like they were all mocking Juana’s plans as every last one of his friends returned the cotton too.

“What?!”

There was no way this could have happened. Juana simply couldn’t believe it. How were they also completely unaffected?!

“H-How dare you! Lady Juana was being so kind to you, and that’s how you treat her?!”

“Please don’t pay them any mind, Lady Juana. There’s clearly something wrong with them.”

The charmed students all stood up for Juana. It was clear that they were the ones who weren’t in their right minds, but they were in the majority at the moment.

“B-But like...anyone would be put off of wearing underwear made with this.”

“I don’t really get why people in the capital are so obsessed with cotton underwear in the first place.”

“I feel like this stuff would give me a rash or something. Like, are you guys okay?”

The charmed students’ eyes couldn’t seem to focus on anything, and the boys were worried.

“W-We should be asking you the same thing! Lady Juana, you needn’t waste your time on such country bumpkins.”

“Exactly! They’re just being sore losers because the church officially designated you a saint instead.”

While Juana was deep in thought, trying to figure out why her magic wasn’t working, the students who had already been charmed (who had started to be called the Saint Juana Faction) tried to protect her from their cruelty.

“Oh, shoot! We’ve gotta get to the cafeteria courtyard!”

“You’re right! Which bell was that? The lunch break’ll be over before we know it!”

“We’ve gotta hurry! Sorry, but give our cotton to someone else who wants it!”

The bell that rang every fifteen minutes during the lunch break had gone off, and the uncharmed boys ran off without any resistance whatsoever.

“Excuse you! You owe Lady Juana a formal apology, you jerks!”

“I bet they’re just off to give Lady Emma more snacks or whatever.”

The charmed students sighed as they watched the boys run off.

“Emma?” Juana was trying to remember where she’d heard that name before, then realized it was the name of the girl they’d called a saint before her.

“Yes. They’re all in the Emma Faction.”

“Exactly. People have started calling us the Saint Juana Faction, so now they’re calling those students the Angel Emma Faction in opposition.”

“But Lady Emma’s a fraud who never got picked by the church! You have nothing to worry about, Lady Juana!”

Since she’d come to the capital, Juana had heard the name of Emma Stewart from time to time, but she’d thought it was just a passing craze in high society and paid the girl no mind. But it might have been that the reason she was running into problems with her charm magic was hidden in something trivial like that.

“If that little girl’s what’s behind all this...I’ll have to dispose of her before she becomes an actual threat.” The plans were already in motion.

“Huh? What did you just say, Lady Juana?”

“I said I’d like to meet this Lady Emma! Would you introduce me sometime?” Juana asked with a smile. If Emma’s smile was like an angel’s, then Juana’s was like a devil’s—not saintly at all. And that devil’s smile was drawing the Saint Juana Faction deeper into her spell.

“As you wish. But Lady Emma is a wholly unremarkable girl. You’re the most beautiful girl in the world, Lady Juana.” There was nothing reflected in the students’ eyes as they responded.

◆ ◆ ◆

“Oh, hello, Lord Chris! It’s been too long! You’ve brought me cookies? Eee! Thank you so much!”

The boys who’d gotten away from Juana had come to meet Emma with gifts in hand. Once they’d heard Emma had come back to school the day before, all of them rushed to the shopping district to buy cookies.

“She’s so dang cute...”

“She’s an angel.”

“Oh, my heart...”

The boys all looked on in satisfaction and adoration as Emma savored each of their cookie offerings. It really did cement in their minds that she was completely different from the so-called “saint” they’d just encountered.

I mean, no matter how you look at it, Emma’s the clear winner here.

Lady Juana? Yeah, she’s not even in the same dimension of cuteness as Lady Emma.

How the heck could she be looking so smug while giving out such crappy cotton, anyway? Is she right in the head?

“Oh, I know! I made a whole bunch of omamori on the trip home! Here, you all can have some! I based them off of the stuff they sell at shrines in the Eastern Empire. They’re kinda like churches! I know the designs aren’t what you’re used to here in the kingdom, but there’s purified salt in there!” Emma reached into her bag and began handing out a bunch of omamori-style charms to the boys as thanks for the cookies.

“A-Are you sure?”

“Wow, the embroidery on this is stunning!”

“I’ll keep it on me forever!”

The boys all admired the presents Emma gave them, then put them in their uniforms’ inner pockets so they wouldn’t lose them. The little gifts Emma would give in exchange for the snacks all used silk and thread made by the Stewart family, and Violet (the spider)’s thread was very often spun into it. While they didn’t know it at the time, Violet (the spider)’s thread had antimagic properties.

Before the summer break, students had come by every day to give her snacks and bask in her smile, and every time, Emma had given them something she’d made in her Embroidery class in return. Cuff links, handkerchiefs, things one could put on one’s clothes—all of them could have been sold for a very high price, but the boys kept them on themselves at all times like personal treasures. The reason these boys hadn’t been affected by Juana’s charm—that had infected the entire country while Emma, Violet, the cats, and the amblypygids were gone—was because of these little gifts Emma gave as thanks for these treats.

“Sis, you really don’t need any more snacks. You’re eating way too much.”

“What do you mean, William? I’ve got plenty of omamori to go around!”

“That’s not the point. You’re eating too much.”

Emma’s great appetite had managed to protect the school from being fully taken over by Juana’s bewitchment without her even knowing.

Chapter 79: Complaints

“I’m truly sorry, but we simply do not carry cotton products at this time.”

“But we need them. Surely you have some in storage?”

“No, we don’t. The Rothschild Company did not purchase any cotton this year.”

“But why? You know we must replace our underwear with cotton every year around this time!”

“As I have said many times before, the cotton that the Western Empire presented us this year was not up to our company’s standard of quality.”

“But surely you have some left over!”

“We do not.”

“I really didn’t want to do this, but you know that my master is a marquess, do you not? He has always favored this store. Isn’t there anything you can do? Because if not, I may have to advise him to take his business elsewhere.”

The marquess’s servant had been grilling the poor employee for around an hour, trying to get cotton. This had become an all too common scene since about a few weeks after Joshua had departed for the Eastern Empire. While Joshua had returned home at the same time as the Stewart siblings, the heaps of complaints he received day after day forced him to take more and more days off of school. The customers were worse than he’d anticipated.

“If I may, sir.” As the customer continued on and on, refusing to believe the unsettled clerk’s assurances that there was no cotton at the store, Joshua gave the poor man a look and took his place. While the clerk was relieved to finally be free of the customer’s pressure, he had rather mixed feelings about letting Joshua—a boy more than ten years younger than him—take over, whether he was the manager or not. Joshua gently patted the man on the back and nodded to let him know he’d be fine as he made his way to the customer.

“We do have extraordinarily high-quality silk at this store. I believe that would be far more suitable for a marquess than cotton.”

“Uh, excuse me? I’m not talking to some kid!” The customer’s attitude degraded even further when Joshua stepped in.

“My apologies, sir. My name is Joshua Rothschild. I’m in charge of all the Rothschild Company stores within the capital. If you have any complaints, I’d be glad to hear them.” Joshua responded politely. He’d gotten so used to the customer service smile, it seemed like his face would be stuck that way.

The man’s demeanor changed once more upon hearing Joshua’s name. “Rothschild...? W-Wait, but that’s... L-Look, you see my point, don’t you? It’s just wrong to not carry cotton! How are you planning to deal with this?”

“We at the Rothschild Company are extremely selective with the quality of products we carry in order to bring the most satisfaction to our valued customers. As my employee informed you, the quality of the cotton we saw this year did not meet the standards we hold for our customers. It would be wrong for us to put poor-quality products on a Rothschild Company shelf. Cotton aside, we have plenty of high-quality silk and hemp products I can recommend.”

Joshua couldn’t make cotton appear out of thin air. The fact that his father hadn’t bought even a single piece just went to show that the cotton was even worse quality than Joshua had previously determined.

“What?! You can’t seriously say you don’t know the church’s teachings on silk! It’s a luxury! And are you suggesting it’s appropriate for my master to put hemp on his person?!”

All merchants were taught never to get fed up with customers complaining about the same thing over and over, and never to promise the impossible. Integrity was most important, and no employee would ever be taught to fall back on stopgap measures to escape criticism.

“It isn’t just any hemp, good sir. It is the highest-quality hemp one can find, and I guarantee it. In fact, I would say it’s cleaner and softer to the touch than the cotton your master bought during the social season.”

“Wh-What did you say?!”

There had been a lag in when the complaints started rolling in because the nobles had bought cotton from the Western Empire the same way they did every year. They hadn’t checked the quality at all, so when they’d tried to use the cotton, they’d been extremely shocked by how yellowed the fabric was. It was far too late for them to claim they’d been a victim of fraud, not to mention they were too proud to do so in the first place. Besides, if they had the guts to complain to a Western imperial’s face, they wouldn’t have come to the Rothschild Company. They’d realized that the cotton they bought wouldn’t sell, so they’d have to use it instead. While they had made underwear with it, the quality was so poor that the garments were likely already uncomfortable and falling apart.

If they would have just used silk or hemp to make it, their problems would have been solved. But they were far too stubborn and insistent upon cotton. It was just a tradition, yet they were acting as though they’d straight-up be arrested if they weren’t wearing cotton underwear.

There’s no reason to get so freaked out. It’s not like you show your underwear off to each other, so you could easily just lie. Joshua felt like something had suddenly shifted while he was away in the Eastern Empire. The church hadn’t had nearly this much influence before the social season started. Perhaps it had something to do with them proclaiming a saint...

Either way, Joshua felt sorry for the rude customer. He’d been fidgeting and rubbing his legs together the whole time. And it wasn’t just him who’d been doing it either. Every person who’d come in asking for cotton had the same uncomfortable mannerisms. They were probably itching up a storm. Using that cotton for underwear would surely cause some sort of rash, and it’d likely wind up getting holes in it after being washed only two or three times. The quality the Western Empire brought was so bad, even his father had said as much.

“Don’t you have an abundance of cotton at home? I was made quite aware that your master saw fit to purchase quite a bit of cotton this year. Real business starts before you buy.” While Joshua felt bad that the servant would be blamed for the marquess’s mistake, that didn’t mean he was willing to let the man take his frustrations out on him. After all, once that pain in his side left, Joshua could go to his afternoon classes. While he generally did believe in the customer always being right...there were some things that were more important to him.

“I want Lady Emma to try our new gelato already...” There was an angel awaiting him that did far more for him than being right ever did.

◆ ◆ ◆

“Hang in there, George.”

“I tried so hard...but none of it makes any sense...”

“Yeah, you really never can keep up, can you?”

William and Emma were trying to comfort George as he staggered through the school’s halls. It was like all their reviewing had been for nothing, as he’d done about as well as he always did during his Ancient Imperial Language class. It wasn’t the kind of little screwup one would expect from missing a class or two. He just couldn’t do it one bit. Whether it was before the summer holidays, the class right after they got back to school, or the class they took that day, ancient imperial language was utterly incomprehensible to him.

“I just don’t get it... Why does that teacher do immersion teaching, anyway? We’re in the kingdom, for Pete’s sake!”

“Bro, I don’t know how to tell you this again, but the teacher gives explanations in our language both during the class and afterward.”

“Yeah, no, I don’t think so. There’s no way. I couldn’t understand any of it!”

“Yeah, no, like, I think you’re just way too convinced you’re gonna fail.”

William and Emma did their best to support George—whose shoulders were drooped and who could barely walk with how little energy he had—on both sides. It was like he’d deflated, like all the gorilla-strength he showed off in his best class, Hunting Techniques, had completely vanished.

“You know that if you can’t understand ancient imperial language, you’ll have trouble in Intermediate Monster Studies and up.”

They weren’t asking him to ace an exam on ancient imperial language by any means, but not having basic comprehension of it would get in the way of his Monster Studies, as knowledge of monsters stretched back to ancient times. In order to read and understand all the books that have been passed down through the ages, the ancient imperial language was unavoidable.

“I know but... I just don’t get it.” George moaned and fell to his knees. He wouldn’t be moving for a while.

“Hmm... I just don’t get what’s so hard about it...” William, who had become quite a brainiac when he reincarnated, couldn’t figure out what it was George didn’t understand.

“I’m saying if you guys and the teacher could just teach me in our language...”

“And I’m saying we all have been,” William patiently explained, just as he had many times before.

“But that’s impossible! Why can’t I understand you, then?!”

“Honestly, we should be asking you that.”

While people from the kingdom had terrible listening comprehension when it came to the Eastern imperial language, they could still retain some basic sounds. Their brother couldn’t even do that much with ancient imperial.

While the Juana faction and the Emma faction were all fiercely rising up against one another in the weeks since the siblings had returned, the Stewarts themselves weren’t in any position to worry about that. They had their brother’s schoolwork to focus on instead. Even though he’d been studying for half a year, he was still completely hopeless. Once the social season was over, it was less than half a year before exams.

Even the Stewart siblings, who usually lived a carefree life, stressed over exams.

“We’ll be studying when we get home today, George!”

“Sure, but...could you please explain all of it in our language?”

“I’ve said it a million times, but we’ve been doing that the whole time.”

“Seriously... That can’t be true. Say it’s not true.”

“Ugh... Sis, you’ll help out too, right?”

“Me? I was kinda wanting to play with the cats again...”

“Sis!”

“Yeah, yeah... Hey, what’s with the crowd?”

Looking down into the courtyard from the hallway window, Emma saw a large crowd of students. It was lunchtime, and they were pretty far from the cafeteria. Maybe there was a shop set up there?

Suddenly, a boy appeared with a whoosh sound to answer Emma’s question. “That’s where the saint’s giving out cotton.”

“Oh, hey, Hugh. What are you doing here?” The boy was Huey, a kid from the slums who had once pickpocketed George’s monster karuta set.

“Just doing some work.” Hugh had been awfully busy lately, using the various techniques he’d learned from the ninjas. He’d only appeared once he was absolutely certain nobody but the siblings were in the hallway. He’d been making money by infiltrating the school to find out whether someone’s fiancée was cheating on them or who was behind recent harassment and the like.

“Really? What’re you working on today? You need any help?” William asked, letting his exhausted brother sit in the hallway.

“Tsk tsk, Lord William. My work is strictly conf—confiden...tial? You know. I can’t tell you nothin’.”

“Look at you! You’re like a total pro!”

“Out of all the slum kids, Hugh is the one making the most money, after all!”

William and Emma were both praising Hugh’s ninja skills. It was true: he had been making quite a bit of money off of all this.

“Heh heh, you know it. I gotta tell ya, though, you shouldn’t get too close to that saint chick,” Hugh warned, looking out at the crowd of people from the window. His client today had been Joshua, and Joshua had asked him not to let Juana or Emma meet while he was absent. The young merchant had been quite guarded around Juana since she was the reason everyone had been calling Emma a fake saint. He wasn’t about to wait to act until after something happened. Therefore, on days he was unable to be at school, he hired Hugh to sneak in for him. There was a very thin line between Joshua and a stalker, but...no, this was just plain stalker behavior.

“But... I really wanna know what kinda girl she is...” Emma said, following Hugh’s gaze and resting her elbow on the window frame as she looked for the saint in question. It was a totally relaxed action with no sense of urgency whatsoever, unbothered that people were calling her a fraud behind her back. “Oh, is that her?”

From far in the distance, Emma could see a girl with conspicuously near-black hair in the middle of the crowd. She seemed to be handing out cotton that was yellowed enough that Emma could see the poor quality from far away. Setting aside the discoloration of the cotton, Emma was pretty chuffed about the fact that Juana was doing real saint work. It’d make it easier for Emma to not stand out, just like her mother wanted. With the real saint around, people seemed to have all forgotten about calling her a saint, so Emma wanted the real one to keep up the good work.

Though Emma knew she’d been mistaken the whole time, she did still maintain the whole “sainted” equals “tainted” and “consecrated” equals “consummated” thing in her mind. But being seen as the symbol of all things pure and clean like a saint was pretty embarrassing too, and she couldn’t accept it.

A lot happened in my previous life, after all... I’d rather not remember all of it, but hey, when you hit thirty-five, everyone’s bound to have one or two sketchy things in their past. Or three. Or four. Or...five or six...

“Hmm? Hey, isn’t that...” The very pure and righteous girl in question, the true saint, had her back turned to Emma, so she couldn’t see her face, but something about her was bugging Emma regardless. She couldn’t keep her eyes off of the saint’s near-black hair that made everyone think she was part of the royal family. Since Emma was originally Japanese, where black hair was the default, this girl’s black hair shouldn’t have bothered her...but something about it was oddly familiar. She rubbed her eyes, trying to figure it out, but it wasn’t coming to her.

Just then, the saint turned around to pass some cotton over to a boy who stood behind her. She exchanged a few words with the boy, but then, as if she’d sensed Emma’s gaze, she looked up toward the window.

“Ah!” Though it was over a great distance, the true saint who had been consecrated by the church, Juana, and Emma, who had been looking down with her elbow on the windowsill, met each other’s gazes. The moment Emma got a glimpse of the saint’s face, she screeched in fear. Her body reacted before her thoughts caught up to her. A chill ran up her spine, goose bumps covered her skin, and her complexion went white as a sheet. “H-How...?”

Emma managed to pull herself away from the saint’s gaze, tear herself from the window and crouch down so Juana wouldn’t see her. She wanted to run away, but her body was trembling so hard she could hear it, and she couldn’t will herself to move. Her instincts were screaming at her to run. Though her face was deathly pale, her heart was hammering in her chest, and her legs were practically frozen so she couldn’t stand. She didn’t know what to do.

“Sis? What happened?”

“Are you okay, Emma?”

William and George were confused by Emma’s odd reaction.

“O-Out there! I-It’s the...the saint... Saint Juana... H-Her face... Her face...!” Emma was desperately trying to point out the window, but she was shivering so hard it was hard to tell where she was pointing, and she didn’t have the courage to look again.

“The saint’s face?”

“Hugh told you not to get close to her, didn’t he? What happened?”

William and George tried to follow her shaky finger to look for the saint out the window.

“Hmm... Is that her? What’s so bad abo— Yeaaagh!”

“Whoa! William, get away from the window!”

The moment William and George spotted Saint Juana out the window, they also shot out of sight and squatted down like Emma had.

“Whoa, what’s up with you three?!” Hugh was alarmed by the three’s absurd reaction to seeing the saint. These siblings, who had tamed giant cats, dealt with ruffians like they were nothing, and somehow managed to save the slum kids like magic, were scared stiff.

“This is bad. This is really, really bad.”

“What are we gonna do? What are we gonna do?! What are we gonna do?!”

“Huh?! Huh?! Wh-What even... A-And why?! Huh?! How?! What does it mean?! What kinda flag is this?!”

George had gone from sulking seconds earlier to wrapping his arm around his sister’s trembling shoulders, ready for battle in an instant, while William began muttering to himself, his brain working at maximum power to try and make sense of the situation.

“G-Guys, what’s going on?! What happened to you all?!” Hugh tried talking to them, but the siblings were unable to respond. Considering this was a school that nobles attended, and nobles loved to spin stories about just about anything, it was likely that rumors would spread like crazy if anyone saw them like this, especially while people were already talking about Lady Emma faking being a saint. She had no shortage of enemies among the student body either. Hugh wanted to at least move them somewhere where nobody could see them, but he was too small to do so.

“Oh, wait here! Don’t move, okay?!” Just as Hugh was starting to panic about what to do, he sensed several students approaching, and one of those students happened to be his current client. “I’ll be right back, okay? I promise!”

He was the only one in the whole school Hugh could count on.

◆ ◆ ◆

“Hello there, Joshua. Feels like it’s been ages!” Once morning classes were over, the prince, who was on his way to the castle, and his bodyguard Arthur called out to Joshua. Though he’d returned from the Eastern Empire, he’d been so busy that they’d only been able to meet face-to-face a handful of times.

“It has been, Lord Arthur. I take it you’re on your way to do official business, Your Highness? Why, I tip my hat to you. You’re always so busy.” Joshua turned to face them and bowed to the prince as he replied to Arthur.

“You’re awfully busy yourself. If people are causing too much of a scene at your store, the royal family would be happy to help.” Edward gave Joshua permission to raise his head once more and offered his condolences to Joshua, who was so busy he barely could attend classes.

“Oh, no no. It’s far too trivial a matter for the royal family to get involved. It’s a bit trying at the moment, but this is all part of a day’s work.”

While this seemed like a peaceful conversation, it felt like every discussion the two had was crackling with tension.

The royal family and the merchant were in different positions, but the appearance of Saint Juana and the cotton shortage had both of them busier than ever. Both were used to being busy, but this situation was cutting into their time spent with Emma, so it was definitely causing some stress.

A new saint had been chosen by the church. Normally, this would have been cause for celebration, but it was causing nothing more than suffering for these two. At present, the prince hadn’t fallen head over heels for the saint, and the merchant hadn’t started worshipping her—they only saw her as the person who had increased their workload tenfold. Besides, their focus always stayed on one person and one person alone.

“Well then, I must be on my way to see Lady Emma. Be careful on the road, you two.” Joshua gave a smug grin and bowed so beautifully that one never would have suspected he had only just become a noble himself.

“Right.” When Joshua raised his head once more, he could see Prince Edward’s pained expression. Joshua had heard from Hugh the night before that, while Joshua had been out, the prince had been sitting next to Emma all week during Monster Studies. He knew he could get away with putting him in his place a little bit. It didn’t matter who Joshua’s rival was for Emma’s affections; he was not about to hold back.

Just then, Hugh, who was supposed to be tailing Emma, appeared with a whoosh sound. “Master Joshua! It’s Lady—”

“Take me to her!” Joshua responded and took off running before Hugh had even finished. He knew that if the ninja had appeared while the prince and Arthur were present, it must have been a terrible emergency.

“Yeesh. Talk about your quick reactions...” Arthur, who had been left alone in the hallway, muttered to himself. Before Arthur could even ready his sword at the boy who appeared out of nowhere, Joshua and the prince had run off after him. Their speedy reaction time was impressive, but he was a bit...no, very taken aback by how intense their feelings were. “That prince is gonna be the death of me, taking off without his bodyguard like that...” Arthur laughed, then took off after the others before he could lose sight of them. The boy was already out of sight.

“I’m gonna have to ask for an explanation for this too, huh? Though I’m almost too scared to ask...” Arthur said with a laugh, though he was definitely wiping away a cold sweat from his brow.

◆ ◆ ◆

“Lady Emma!”

“Emma!”

Joshua and the prince found the three siblings cowering in the middle of the hallway. Emma was crouched down and had her arms wrapped around herself as if she were trying to stop herself from trembling. William had been muttering something to himself the whole time. George was frightfully pale as he put his arms around his younger siblings protectively and kept watch over everything around him.

“Just what happened here?!”

“Emma? Emma! Are you okay?”

Joshua and the prince both rushed to the siblings and began firing off questions at them, but couldn’t receive any clear answer.

Hugh appeared again with a whoosh to explain the situation. “The saint was handing out cotton and stuff down below, and the second they saw her they just...got like this.”

“Lady Emma? Lady Emma! Can you hear me? Are you hurt? Tell me if it hurts anywhere!” Joshua crouched down to Emma’s eye level and continued questioning her intently.

“Joshua?” After Joshua called to her several times, the moment Emma’s eyes met his, she scrunched up her face and practically dived into a hug.

“Whoa!” Joshua fell onto his butt with the impact, but held the trembling girl in his arms.

“Wh-What do we do, Joshua? Why? Why is this happening? Tell me... Why? What is that thing?!” Emma clung to Joshua and pleaded with him, her voice trembling just as much as her body.

“Lady Emma, everything’s okay. I swear it. I’ll protect you no matter what happens.” Joshua tightened his hug around Emma in an attempt to ease her trembling even a little bit. I’ve never seen Lady Emma this scared in my life. “Hugh, have a carriage prepared. We’re closer to the back gate, so have it brought there.”

“G-Got it!” After Joshua’s orders, Hugh disappeared in an instant.

“Your Highness...ah, and Lord Arthur too. Please take care of Lord George and Lord William.” Joshua then issued commands to the prince and Arthur, who had just arrived, and who were both standing agape at Emma’s state.

“R-Right.”

“What in the world happened here, Joshua?” Arthur looked between the terrified siblings and the eerily calm Joshua, then checked the area for any unusual activity or danger.

“I don’t know yet, but they’re terrified. We need to get them somewhere they can feel at ease as soon as possible.”

Be it to their father, their mother, their cats, General Kongming... The sooner the better.

“Joshua, why? How?! Why?!” Emma desperately kept begging Joshua for an answer to questions she couldn’t even fully voice. She just couldn’t stop from asking this world’s Professor Mewgle. She knew Joshua wouldn’t be able to answer, but she couldn’t keep her anxieties from spilling out.

The person handing out cotton to those boys had looked back up at Emma as though she’d sensed Emma looking at her. And it was a face Emma knew better than anyone.

Why did the saint look exactly like her?

Why didn’t anyone notice how odd it was?

It wasn’t just her face. It was her hair, her hairstyle, her body type...everything was the same as it had been back then...on the day she died in the earthquake.

Why am I here in this world?

Is that really me?

The saint Juana...was Minato Tanaka.

Emma’s self in her previous life.

◆ ◆ ◆

“Mrooooowr!”

“Mrooooowr!”

“Mrooooowr!”

“M-Master, they all started acting like this out of the blue!”

Evan the gatekeeper had told Leonard there was an emergency. When he got there, he saw Kongming scratching at the fence around the manor and crying. Liu, Guan, and Zhang seemed unnerved and were wandering about, constantly looking at the gate with worry.

“Something has happened to Emma.”

The air went cold. When Evan turned to look behind him, he let out a startled yelp. There he saw his master, with a face that would have made even the devil tuck his tail and flee.

“I’m going to the school,” Leonard said, growling with gritted teeth.

“B-But sir, you need permission!” It didn’t matter whether one was a child’s guardian or not; the school wouldn’t allow any outsiders in without proper permission. Prince Edward bringing the knights during the amblypygid incident had been a tremendous exception to the rule. Even the prince had had mountains of paperwork to deal with after the fact, and Leonard was definitely not royalty. If he showed up with a face that terrifying, it would likely cause a huge panic and paperwork would be the least of their worries.

“You think I care about the school’s permission?! I have to save Emma!” Leonard easily shook off Evan’s attempts to stop him, breathing heavily through his nose. It was next to impossible for the aging gatekeeper to stop the monsterhunting monster that was his master.

“Wait! Someone! Someone call Lady Melsa!” While he screamed out of desperation, the Stewart manor’s grounds were so large that no servants were able to hear him. “M-Master Leonard is... Someone, please!”

“Myah!”

Just as Evan was about to give up, the white cat Zhang meowed and rushed toward the manor. It was like he was saying, Leave it to me!

Evan sat there with his mouth agape for a moment. “Zhang? Did I just...communicate with the cat? There’s no way, right?” Or have I been corrupted by the family’s influence without even realizing it?

Just as Evan had that thought, the giant white cat came back with Melsa riding atop him.

“Myah,” he said, as if to say, Sorry to keep ya waiting!

“Uh...Th-Thanks, Zhang...?”

“Mrowr!” he said, as if to say, You’re welcome!

The cats were too good at reading the room.

“Wait...did I really just...converse with a cat?” Emma had said that talking to them was all about “vibes and intensity” before, but he hadn’t thought it would be true. He wasn’t sure about vibes, but he definitely had the intensity.

“What happened here?” Melsa hopped down from the cat in a practiced motion. As the daughter of a duke, she wouldn’t have even been expected to know how to ride a horse, yet as the wife of a count, she cut a dashing figure riding on cat-back. Though she seemed to be the most normal of the family, Melsa was still indeed a Stewart.

“Melsa! Come quick! The general’s saying Emma’s in trouble!” Leonard had been moments away from barging into the school, all the while with Kongming yowling and scratching at the gate.

“Calm yourself, dear.” Melsa looked between Kongming and Leonard, then went to stop Leonard.

“How am I supposed to be calm at a time like this?! Emma’s in danger! I’m not going to let myself get there too late like with the slime!” Leonard wouldn’t back down, which was most unusual for him.

“If Kongming is still here, it means she’s not in life-threatening danger.” During the localized barrier crisis, Kongming had taken off the moment she sensed trouble. “Kongming is being good and keeping her promise to Emma not to leave the manor grounds. You could learn a thing or two from her!”

The academy was a place where spoiled noble children gathered each day. Apparently, Emma had been getting all sorts of nasty comments on account of the saint appearing. While she didn’t seem to be all that bothered by it, Melsa knew hearing such things over and over again had to be hard.

“But Melsa! Listen to how much Kongming’s crying!”

While hearing Kongming yowling so desperately did hurt her heart...

“You and Kongming need to learn to let Emma leave the nest! How old do you think she is?!”

“Mrowr!”

“Oof!”

Kongming and Leonard both froze in place when Melsa shouted.

“You two are far too protective of her.” Melsa sighed. Their obsession with her was so intense that she never even noticed when any lords tried to flirt with her. And Melsa was not going to live another life without grandkids.

“Emma’s still only...well, thirteen years old!” he shouted, then added in a whisper, “Plus thirty-five.”

“Exactly! She’s thirteen, Leonard!” Melsa replied, then whispered, “Plus thirty-five!”

“Myah... Meooow... (Put together, that makes...forty-eight...)”

Even just her past life was around the same age as they were currently. But if that were the case...

Wait. Is our daughter okay?

“Well, it doesn’t matter how old she is! She’s still adorable, and I’m worried about her!”

“Myah!”

“You and Kongming both! If anything had happened, George and William are there with her! Oh... Wait, he had Ancient Imperial Language classes today, didn’t he?”

He wasn’t going to be of any use.

“Aaagh, I knew it! I have to get to the school!”

“Myah! Meooow!”

“L-Leonard, wait! Wait, you dolt! Not you too, Kongming!”

Leonard made a mad dash for the servant door to reach his family on the other side of the gate.

“Myah!”

“Blegh!”

Just as Leonard raised his hand to open the door, Kongming tackled him, knocking him away. While Leonard was enormous for a human, he didn’t stand a chance against Kongming.

“Oof... Kongming, what was that for?! Wha... Ah!” Though Leonard had been caught completely off guard and knocked back several meters, he’d still managed a perfect landing. When he turned around, the door next to the gate opened from the outside.

“Oh, General Kongming! Sis, Kongming came to see you!” William was in the lead and had opened the door, while Joshua was carrying Emma bridal style and George followed behind him.

“Emma!” Leonard came running when he saw his daughter, furious he hadn’t been able to get to her sooner. “What happened to you? Are you hurt?!”

Emma, who had latched herself around Joshua’s neck, did not respond.

“Myah!” Kongming slipped in front of Leonard and meowed.

“Kongming!” Emma snapped to attention at Kongming’s voice and put her arms around the cat’s neck. Joshua gently lowered Emma and let Kongming handle her.

“Myah! Meow?”

“Kongming... Kongming! Kongming!”

“Myah myah!”

“Why?”

“Meow? Myah myah?”

“I’m so, so scared...”

“Mrowr...”

Kongming wrapped herself around Emma, gently licking and nuzzling her.

“Myaaaah!”

“Myah myah!”

“Meow!”

Liu, Guan, and Zhang all came by and surrounded her, sniffing at her worriedly.

“Joshua? You want to explain what’s going on here?”

“Eek! Lord Leonard! Please, remain calm! Y-You know murder is wrong!” The face Leonard was making upon seeing Emma’s current state was far more furious than that Evan had witnessed earlier.

“Father, Joshua saved us! We’ll explain everything later, so just calm down! Get your hand off your sword at least!”

“Take it easy, father! I hate to say it, but if he hadn’t been there, we might still be shaking in fear at school right now!”

William and George both desperately tried to protect Joshua from their father’s wrath. Even if Joshua happened to be the equivalent of Mewgle for them in this world, even he couldn’t explain what was happening here, as he had no idea that they’d been reincarnated nor did he know what Minato had looked like.

“Why is Emma this scared in the first place if you two were with her?!” Leonard’s rage had a new target with the two brothers now.

“Something totally out of left field... No, something completely unbelievable happened!”

“It was horrifying enough that I was scared outta my mind too!”

After seeing something like that, nobody could have had any idea how to react. They were scared stiff. It wasn’t just Emma. George and William had both been unable to move in their shock and confusion.

“Lord Leonard, I leave Lady Emma in your capable hands. I must go now.” Joshua showed no sign of being overwhelmed by Leonard’s rage. He gave a glance to Emma, surrounded by cats, bowed his head, and turned heel to leave.

“Joshua, thank you for saving us!” George called after Joshua. He was going home surprisingly quickly given his usual behavior. He had no idea what had happened, but he’d picked up Emma and brought her here in no time. George and William had wanted to run away or help her escape too, but they’d been useless.

Joshua turned and smiled at the brothers. “Glad to have been of service.” Then he left the manor. It was the same smile he always had, but for some reason, it sent chills up George’s spine.

◆ ◆ ◆

Once Joshua had left the mansion, he entered the carriage waiting for him in the street and murmured. “Are you there, Hugh?”

“Of course.” Hugh appeared in the seat opposite Joshua with a whoosh, as though he’d been sitting there the whole time. “Man, Lord Leonard’s face was scary as heck, huh? Agh!” Hugh flew backward when he saw Joshua’s face. “Yours is too, Master Joshua!”

“Tell me what happened.”

“Um... It’s just like what I said in the hallway. They saw the saint and freaked out.” Hugh shrugged. He’d seen the whole thing and still had no idea what had happened.

“So then there’s something going on with the saint. We need to ascertain what. Hugh, I’ll pay even more handsomely if you can get me more information on that Lady Juana.”

“Righto, sir. I owe Lady Emma a lot too, so I’ll do my best. I kinda feel like everyone’s a bit too protective of her, though...” Like Lord Leonard, her brothers, the cats, and Joshua all looked like they were all getting way too serious about all this. It made sense to worry with the extent of her fear, but still... Hugh just supposed it was nobles being weird as usual.

“Hugh, would you like to know what the stupidest thing anyone could do is?” Joshua asked quietly.

“Huh?”

“It’s taking Lady Emma’s smile from her.”

“Okay, you are really freakin’ me out now.” The ninja Hugh took off on his reconnaissance mission on Lady Juana, almost as if he were trying to get away from Joshua’s freakish obsession.

◆ ◆ ◆

The family cleared out the area and met in the west wing of the manor.

“You saw Minato?”

“Yes, we saw her at school. It was from far away, but that was definitely Mina-nee. And apparently, she’s the ‘Lady Juana’ that the church claimed was a saint,” William explained. Though they’d calmed themselves well enough since the incident, Emma was still lost in thought. It was like she was there in body but not in spirit, as the four cats surrounded her worriedly.

“So...what does that mean?” Leonard furrowed his brow.

“Are you sure you weren’t just seeing things?” Melsa asked, making sure it wasn’t just a mistake. A common Japanese saying was that there were three people out there who happened to look just like you. It wouldn’t be all that unusual to have run into someone who just happened to look similar to Minato.

George shook his head at his mother’s suggestion. “No, no. It wasn’t just that she looked like her. That was Minato.” This wasn’t simply a case of look-alikes. This girl was the real deal. George wouldn’t have been this freaked out if she had just been a look-alike. The moment he saw the girl, he hadn’t been surprised—he’d been terrified.

“Mother, people from the kingdom have totally different faces from Japanese people, so that part was already weird enough. But it felt like Mina-nee...er, Lady Juana wasn’t even from this world.” William agreed with his brother. There was something clearly wrong with the whole situation. Nobody else there seemed to notice how weird it was either, which made the whole thing even creepier. Why hadn’t anyone noticed how different she looked?

The brothers were quite certain of themselves, so Leonard felt the need to remind them, “You all know Minato can’t possibly be in this world, right?”

They all remembered their deaths in the last world. The whole Tanaka family had been wiped out just as they were about to enjoy a beer with their nabe. Minato had died several years...no, maybe several decades...possibly even several centuries ago with Kazushi, Yoriko, Wataru, and Heita. They couldn’t forget it even if they wanted to.

The bitterness and regret they’d all felt in the moment of their deaths still lingered within them once they’d realized they’d been reincarnated. They’d all come together for the first family gathering in so long...and died before they could drink the beer they’d splurged on for the occasion. They’d always been stuck with low-malt beer, so they’d all really been looking forward to it. But rather than the delicious beer they’d all been excited for, they’d been forced to taste the bitterness of regret.

“I know, but you know that William and I have been honing our insight through our training for monster hunts. The biggest bit of evidence is that Emma herself said it was Minato.” George remembered what had happened, but after seeing Emma in that state, he knew it couldn’t just be a misunderstanding. Whether it was with bugs or embroidery, Emma was always allowed to indulge herself thoroughly in her obsessions, and as such, she had the ridiculous ability to discern a dress’s exact measurements with a single glance. Emma, who could assess things with pinpoint accuracy, was completely terrified. She was shaking with fear. If Emma said she had seen Minato, then it had definitely been Minato.

The whole family had somehow managed to reincarnate into a world with giant cats and bugs and even magic. The fact that they had the memories of their past life was reason enough that they couldn’t let this go. The fact that they’d run into someone who looked exactly like Minato couldn’t have been a coincidence. Rather, it felt like it was an inevitability. If this were like the countless isekai stories they’d read in their previous lives and there were predestined storylines set up for them, then it might have meant that Minato’s appearance signaled a new major twist in the story—leading to something terrible and tragic.

“What if it’s a doppelgänger of Mina-nee?” William forced himself to say. There was no guarantee the story unfolding wouldn’t be horror. They couldn’t just laugh that sort of thing off as occult nonsense, and if the family were supposed to be the main characters of this story, it would mean their very lives were in danger.

A doppelgänger was someone who looked exactly like you. According to what the Stewarts knew from their previous lives, those who saw their doppelgängers were about to die. That was what William was afraid of. If the thing they saw at school really was Minato Tanaka, his sister’s doppelgänger...she might have been destined to die soon...

He couldn’t just accept that.

“Uh... Oh, right! Doppelgängers! Wow, haven’t heard that in a while...” Leonard had to search his memories, feeling like maybe there was some television drama about them that had been popular for a while.

“Why is this happening to Emma again, though?” George clutched his fists at his own powerlessness, gazing at the scar on Emma’s cheek. Despite being surrounded by cats, she still looked so miserable.

“George... Hmm? Wait, actually... If this is a doppelgänger of Minato, then it wouldn’t have any effect on Emma, right?” Leonard asked. If his memory served correctly, doppelgängers were meant to be someone who looked the exact same as you. Since Emma and Minato looked completely different, it wouldn’t have applied.

“Huh?”

“O-Oh...?”

Both the brothers raised their heads.

“That would be the logical conclusion. You couldn’t call someone who doesn’t look like Emma Emma’s doppelgänger.” Melsa agreed. For once, Leonard had actually gotten to the crux of the issue. The two brothers had seen Minato and been unable to think straight. Their parents, on the other hand, hadn’t seen her, so they were able to think quite clearly.

“Right... If I’d just thought about it a little more, I would’ve realized that too... Why didn’t I figure that out? Running into Mina-nee’s doppelgänger wouldn’t mean Emma would die, then?”

“That’s right. She won’t die. Not on my watch. I’ll protect her no matter what.” Leonard gave William’s fearful, yet hopeful question a decisive answer. He wasn’t the kind of dad who would just sit back and let his daughter get killed by some unexplainable occult crap.

“Y-Yeah... Makes sense.”

“It does, huh?”

It would all be fine. They’d figure something out. That was what the Tanaka family always did.

“Everything’s gonna be okay, sis! That wasn’t a doppelgänger! It was something else entirely!”

“And as long as it’s not a curse or something and I can kick its butt, you bet I will!”

William’s and George’s expressions had brightened again. They honestly couldn’t understand why they’d even thought that someone who looked like Emma in her previous life would have been a doppelgänger for her current one. Maybe it was because it was so sudden and unexpected that they’d just lost their cool. Then while they were in a panic, they’d just fixated on their first thought and didn’t interrogate it any further. They’d been filled with worry the moment they’d seen Saint Juana, but now that they’d calmed down and had time to think, they felt like they could actually manage again.

“Sis?”

“Emma?”

But while the brothers were visibly relieved, Emma didn’t look any less miserable.

“No... It can’t be...” Emma clutched her skirt and shook her head. Emma had thought Juana was a doppelgänger when she’d first seen her too. They were from the same generation, after all. She just knew intuitively, “this is that whole thing you see before you die.” But unlike her brothers, her thoughts hadn’t stopped there. No, she’d begun theorizing all sorts of other things. She’d thought of every possibility her mind could conjure up. And with Emma’s imagination working on overdrive, one horrible theory rose to the forefront. She’d denied it could possibly be true, yet it kept sticking in her mind. Even when she tried to think of other ideas, she couldn’t do it. The more she tried to get rid of that theory, the harder it was to ignore. Though she knew logically it was full of holes and shouldn’t have even been worth considering, it pushed all the other possibilities away and grew so large she couldn’t stop it any longer.

“It’s... It can’t be right...”

Lady Juana looked exactly like Minato had right before she reincarnated. She’d just gone to a beautician the week she died, so the freshly dyed appearance of her hair was proof. It was her favorite dye. She remembered that even now. Even though it was the tiniest difference in color, Emma was a master of observation from her bug watching, so there was no way she’d mistake it. If getting reincarnated into a different world was possible, then traveling between worlds might have been possible too. That was why she couldn’t ignore that awful theory.

What if Minato’s still alive? And what if Lady Juana really is Minato?

“I-It just can’t be...”

The theory would never have held water. There were obvious contradictions, including that Emma still had all of Minato’s memories.

And yet...

Just now, when she’d tried to shake off the thought, she voiced her desperate desire for it to be wrong. Seeing Lady Juana looking like Minato filled Emma with utter dread. There was something that filled her heart with far more fear than her just looking like her previous self. Something she couldn’t just dismiss as some supernatural nonsense. Something that had her readying herself for death. Something so terrifying. So horrible. A feeling she remembered all too well.

“Mroooowr?” Kongming peered at Emma. The cat had been curled around her this whole time. Seeing her sitting with her knees to her chest on the sofa made her look just like Minato when she was younger and afraid of everything. The very same one that always had something after her, that Kongming swore to protect.

“Kongming...” When Emma met Kongming’s gaze, her face scrunched up like she was desperately trying to fight back tears. If anyone were to ask what it was she was so afraid of right then, she would have immediately responded she was terrified that she’d be torn away from Kongming. When she’d had to say goodbye in her previous life, it had been so painful and agonizing that she’d barely recovered.

But what if Emma wasn’t Minato?

If Juana was Minato, then who would General Kongming choose?

The moment the thought popped into her head, her whole body was racked with fear.

“No... I can’t do it...”

I can’t have Kongming taken from me again!

Emma shook her head as hard as she could, and the cats surrounding her all leaped back as though they’d been repelled from her. All four of them meowed in surprise. Their fur bristled and they watched her like a hawk.

“Liu, what’s the matter?”

“Guan?”

“Zhang?”

“Even Kongming!”

William, George, Leonard, and Melsa were all shocked by the cats’ sudden guarded appearances.

“Meow! Myaaah!” Kongming cried, as if to say, Stay back! Don’t come any closer!

“Myah?!” A pitch-black miasma had suddenly started to swirl around Emma. It was the very same one that had surrounded Minato in the forest in their previous life. The exact miasma from when Minato had been chased into the forest by that dog when she was younger.

Why is it here?!

“What’s gotten into you, Kongming?”

“What’s going on?!”

Humans couldn’t see miasma, so the family had no idea what was happening. In the previous world, the cats and dogs living in the neighborhood all knew instinctively to never go into that forest. No living creature could stay sane after spending long periods of time in that shroud.

“Nngh...” Emma was the only one remaining in the cloud, sobbing. She was weeping so hard that even just looking at her made the heart ache, just like when she’d gotten lost in the forest.

“Emma!”

“Myah!” Leonard tried to rush to her side, but Zhang stopped him.

“What are—Why are you stopping me?!”

“Myah!”

“Huh?”

“Let go of me! Emma’s in danger!”

“Myah myah!”

George, William, and Melsa were all being held back by Guan and Zhang too.

“Myaaaah!” Kongming meowed as the miasma grew denser. She swore she’d exorcise every last bit of it as she drew steadily closer. Yet it was so thick around Emma that it simply wouldn’t disappear when she tried.

I have to help her!

“Myah! Myaaah! Myaaaah!” Kongming didn’t hesitate. She jumped right into the fog.

“Myaaah! Myah?!” There wasn’t even a single meter between Emma and Kongming, yet no matter how she tried to run or jump, the cat couldn’t reach her. The space between them had transformed.

“Mroooowr! Mroooooowr! Mroooooowr!” Kongming’s vision grew blurry in the fog and she cried for Emma.

It was just like the day she’d gone searching for young Minato in the forest all over again.

Chapter 80: Real and Fake

Emma was standing in a forest. She didn’t know why she was there, but Minato was crying in front of her. Emma thought she must have been having a nightmare about the time she got chased into the forest by Labbie.

“It’s okay. General Kongming will be coming to get you soon,” Emma told Minato, who was inconsolable. Kongming would be there to save her soon.

At her voice, the young Minato stopped crying and slowly looked up at Emma. “Who are you?” She cocked her head to the side, and suddenly was no longer a little girl. Suddenly, she was grown. That was just how dreams were, yet now that Emma got a better look at her, it seemed Minato was wearing a proper academy uniform and everything.

She was no longer young Minato but Saint Juana, who she’d seen from the hallway.

“Wh-Why are you here, Lady Juana...?”

“Upsy-daisy!” Juana ignored Emma’s surprise and stood up. “You sure you should say that?”

“Huh?” Emma had no idea what Juana was asking.

“You said Kongming was coming to get me. So then, what about you?” Juana asked with a grin. “Who’s coming to get you? After all, nobody needs a fake, right?”

Juana’s expression as she closed in on her was enough to make Emma want to punch her, even if it was her own face from her previous life. Yet even so, she couldn’t answer the question.

“Your family? They’re not coming. Why would they when I’m the real you?” Juana was gleefully saying all the things Emma was too terrified to even say aloud.

“You’re not. You’re not me.”

“You don’t get it, do you? You aren’t me.”

This is a dream. A really horrible dream.

Emma averted her eyes from Juana, who was grinning triumphantly, and looked at her surroundings. Looking for anything that could wake her up from this dream. Yet her wishes went unanswered, as she was surrounded by a black void. The darkness extended forever, and it was enough to make Emma wonder how she’d been in a forest at the start at all.

“Hee hee! Looks like she’s here!” Juana lifted her chin to signal the appearance of something surrounded by a dim light.

“Kongming!”

A little calico cat was sitting in the light.

“Myah?”

Emma ran up and extended her hand to the cat, but Kongming turned her head and instead rubbed up against Juana.

“Wha... Kongming, why?” Emma was shocked to see Kongming loving on Juana instead.

“Myaaaah!”

Kongming wasn’t looking at Emma.

She only looked at Juana.

“Kongming, what’s going on? Kongming!”

This is all wrong.

“How is it wrong? She’s smart enough to tell who the real and the fake are.” Juana smiled, as though she’d read Emma’s mind.

“But that’s not... It can’t be...”

There was no way that Juana was real and Emma was fake. There was no way that Emma wasn’t Minato. There was no way that Kongming would choose Juana.

The whole world went dark as if in response to Emma’s despair. There was no Juana or Kongming. Just her, alone in the dark.

“No... Please, no... Kongming, where did you go? Please, don’t leave me...”

I don’t know what to do... It’s so dark. There’s nobody here. I’m all alone. Nobody’s coming for me. Nobody wants a fake like me.

But I’m not a fake.

When will I wake up from this dream? I feel like I’m going crazy.

Emma trembled. Would she be left like this forever? Alone and miserable and afraid? She was swallowed by the darkness and unable to do more than just curl up on the ground, just like young Minato had before. Yet just as she felt she was about to lose her grip on reality entirely, she noticed a small glint as she crouched down. She was finally able to notice it. It was so faint that if she’d even lifted her head slightly, she wouldn’t be able to see it anymore, yet she could tell that little speck was doing everything it could to protect her.

Where is it coming from?

To check, she hung her head and crouched down once more. Once again, she saw the faint light.

“Wait, is this what I think it is?” It was so dark that she couldn’t even see her hands in front of her, but when she held her hand up to her right cheek, a gentle purple light shone upon the wrinkles of her palm. The purple scars on her cheek were glowing.

Skitter... Skitter skitter... Skitter skitter skitter!

Emma desperately tried to focus on the dim light and heard a sound over her head. She couldn’t see anything, but she would never have mistaken this sound.

“V-Violet...?”

Skitter skitter! The spider answered Emma’s cry.

“Are you there?”

Skitter skitter! (We’re all here!)

“You are?”

Skitter skitter! (Yes, all of us! Listen!)

Emma did as Violet instructed, taking a deep breath, closing her eyes, and listening. It was like she was clinging to the spider’s thread for life.

Mrowr!

Mroooowr! Mroooooowr! Mroooooowr!

“Mrooooowr!”

Emma awoke to the sound of Kongming’s voice. She found herself lying on her own bed, in her own room.

“Huh?”

Skitter skitter!

Violet was atop her head, and all four kitties were around her, along with her family as well. Melsa was holding her hand with worry.

“Oh... Back in Kitty Heaven again... Wait, why are you all here?” Emma didn’t know when she’d been moved to her bed, but waking from that hellish nightmare surrounded by her family had her putting her hand to her heart with relief. The fact that she couldn’t completely discount everything in the nightmare as untrue did give her a pang in her chest.

“Mrowr?” Kongming licked Emma’s right cheek. Normally, she licked Emma’s left cheek, where there was no scar. But today, she was licking the right one like crazy.

“Sleep took ya for a bit there, sis.”

“Something took me? What was it?”

“Huh?”

“Wha?”

Kongming thought Emma’s misunderstanding was quite on the nose. William and the rest of her family hadn’t been able to see the miasma around her, so they’d thought when Emma started crying and the cats were comforting her, she’d simply been exhausted and passed out. No matter how much Kongming had tried to blast the fog away, Emma still wouldn’t come back. Her fears and anxieties had her trapped within it. If Violet hadn’t been there, she would’ve been in serious danger.

“Mrowr?” Kongming gently asked Emma what had scared her.

Emma clammed up, unable to answer. Even though Emma was protected by Violet’s thread woven into her uniform, her fear had struck her so far deep into her heart that Kongming’s voice had been unable to reach her.

“Mrowr?” Kongming had to find the source of the fear and remove it. It might have been difficult for Emma to answer so soon after waking, but if the miasma from the forest was in this world too, Kongming couldn’t put it off until later.

“Mrowr?” (Emma? Talk to me.) Kongming wrapped her body around Emma and asked again and again.

“K-Kongming...” Emma drew the strength to speak from the feeling of Kongming’s warmth wrapped around her body and her gentle licks on her cheek. She was so utterly terrified, but she tried her best to force herself to talk.

“Myah?” Kongming watched Emma and waited for her next words. The family silently watched over her too.

“Kongming... Y-You...” Yet still, Emma couldn’t choke the words out.

“Mrowr?” Kongming waited quietly, only responding to let Emma know she was there. She simply waited and watched so she could catch even the smallest of Emma’s sounds. (It’s okay. You can talk to me.) Kongming said with a voice like that of a mother cat soothing her kitten.

“Nngh... Oh...” The kinder Kongming was to Emma, the more it broke the girl’s heart. She loved Kongming so much that she never wanted to leave her side, and that was what made her fears even worse.

Kongming just waited for her to continue.

“Kongming... Y-You won’t... If you saw the...the other Minato... You wouldn’t...go to her...right? Y-You wouldn’t prefer...being with...th-that Minato...instead of Emma? Instead of me? You wouldn’t leave me for her...would you?”

Emma didn’t want Kongming to leave her. The thought was too much to bear, and giant teardrops flowed down her cheeks. No matter how many times she tried to convince herself Kongming wouldn’t leave, that awful idea and the nightmare shook her to the core. Even though she had Minato’s memories, Emma was still Emma. She didn’t have the appearance of Minato Tanaka, the Japanese girl.

Then, what if Juana were to start calling herself Minato like she had in the nightmare? And if she had Minato’s appearance and Minato’s memories? Wouldn’t that just make her Minato? Wouldn’t that make her the true-blue Minato Tanaka?

Emma was just a fake. Juana was the real one. It wasn’t just her nightmares telling her that. The way people at school were bad-mouthing her in whispers, calling her the fake saint, was weighing heavy on her now.

But what if...

What if Kongming thought the same thing? They’d finally met after all this time. They said they’d be together forever—for as long as they lived. She couldn’t bear to lose Kongming again. She never wanted to feel such grief and sorrow again.

Even if Labbie chased her into a forest, nobody would be coming to rescue her. She’d be lost in the darkness forever, sobbing all alone. But there was nothing she could do about it. Emma wasn’t real. Kongming and her family didn’t belong to her.

But even still...

“I don’t...want...to be alone...” The day she’d lost Kongming in her first life, it had felt like her heart was torn in two. Seeing Kongming refuse to even look at her and snuggling with Juana instead...she was so scared thinking it might be a reality that she hung her head again. Then Kongming’s big nose pressed up against her.

“Myaaaah!” (You’re not a fake, Emma!) She gave a loud cry and licked Emma’s face again. Kongming even doubted her own ears, unable to imagine why Emma had thought such a thing. Kongming’s beloved Minato, the one she’d sworn she’d always be with, was right there before her. Emma was undeniably Minato.

“Myah myah!” (How long do you think I waited for you? I worked so hard for so very much longer than you all know, just to come back to your side!)

“Myah myah!” (So I know I’m not wrong. And I’ll never leave your side. We’ll be together forever. I swore we would be long, long ago.)

“B-But you still haven’t...” No matter how much Kongming denied it, Emma was still so full of fear. Because Kongming still hadn’t seen Juana. If she saw Juana, would she still choose Emma?

Emma couldn’t do it. She couldn’t be separated from Kongming again no matter what. Not even if it was the right thing to do.

“I-I’m so...sorry... E-Even if you s-said you w-wanted to go to her... I-I wouldn’t let you. I can’t let you. I don’t want...to lose you. I never want t-to lose you ever...ever again! I’m sorry... I’m sorry!” Emma clung to Kongming. She squeezed her so very tightly, so that even if someone told her she had to let go, she couldn’t. Having to live in a world without Kongming again was what frightened her more than anything. Even if Juana was the real Minato and Emma was the fake, she still couldn’t lose Kongming again...even if that was what was best for Kongming.

I’m such a scumbag.

“Myaaaah!” (It’s okay! I’ll be with you from now on.) Kongming rubbed her face against Emma’s. (I know perfectly well that Emma here is the same Minato I loved.)

“You really mean it?”

“Myah!” (I do.) “Myah myah!” (I know because I wasn’t in the kingdom when you were born. I was far, far away. When you were born, I knew. And I came running from that faraway place. I ran, and ran, and ran all the way here. Once your memories came back, I could sense your presence even more strongly. I was finally able to tell exactly where you were, and I came running. That’s why we were reunited. I won’t ever leave your side. And you won’t ever leave mine either, right? We’ll be together forever.)

Kongming had turned Emma’s theory completely on its head. She completely and utterly refuted it.

“You really, really mean it?”

“Myah!”

“Myah myah!”

Liu, Guan, and Zhang all agreed with Kongming. All three of them were looking right at her and saying so.

“Oh... I’m so glad...” Emma was so relieved at Kongming’s answer that her arms dropped to her side and she slowly sank back into her bed. It was then that they could finally see Emma’s nerves had calmed.

“Good gravy, Emma... Forget thinking outside the box, you think in another dimension...” George had stayed silent while listening in on Kongming and Emma’s conversation, but now he breathed a sigh and scratched his head. He was amazed by her ability to jump from doppelgängers to thinking she was actually the fake one, and that the thought would send her this deep into an existential crisis.

“W-Well...” Emma looked sheepishly at George, the strength completely drained from her. Coming up with the worst-case scenario was an important part of crisis management, but the one she’d come up with really was as bad as it could get. They didn’t have very much information on Juana, so there was no way to completely rule it out, and that nightmare really was just that bad. If Emma wasn’t Minato, then that would mean her connections with the family before her would come into doubt as well.

“George... I-If it...turned out that I was a fake...you’d still stay with me...right?” Though Kongming said it was all right, Emma turned to her brother now that this new worry had arisen. “A-And what about you, father? Mother? William?”

She had to ask her whole family. Emma was living in a world where anything was possible now. It was a terrifying development in this world that not only had a saint appeared, but she had the same face as Emma’s past self. Saints were always either the main characters or the main love interest when it came to manga, light novels, or otome games. If this were one of those stories and Emma was deemed a fake saint, she’d be cast as the villain. The evil villainess would get her just deserts. She would lose everything: her family, her friends, and anything else she held dear. That was so much worse than a doppelgänger. Just thinking about it was enough to scare her.

“Emma...” George heaved another sigh, climbed onto the bed, found an opening between the cats surrounding her, and looked at her straight on. Emma was so scared of hearing the answer that she’d been hanging her head again. He tousled her hair roughly and laughed. “You’ve got nothing to worry about. You hear me? I have total confidence that you’re my little sister, Emma. Kongming said the same thing, right?”

“Myah myah!” Kongming gave a firm nod and rubbed her face against Emma’s cheek again.

“R-Really? You mean it? You promise?” Emma asked to be absolutely sure as George and Kongming gave their responses. Her voice quivered as she continued. “You promise you won’t leave me?”

“Hggh... Emmaaa! You never have to worry about that! Your daddy knows exactly who you are! I don’t care if someone out there looks like Minato! You’re my baby girl no matter whaaat! You’re not a fake! My love for you is the real deeeeal!” Leonard had, at some point, burst into tears and dived into the mix, wrapping his arms around the cats, George, and Emma, bringing them all into a bear hug. He was hugging them so tightly it was hard to breathe, and he was screaming his overbearing declarations of love.

“Really, what am I going to do with you?” her mother said with a sigh. “You can’t think too far outside of the box, sweetheart. Do you really think I’d mistake a child I birthed myself for someone else? Emma. I know that you are both Minato from our previous life and Emma in this life. You are my daughter, without a doubt. You’re okay now. Let’s dry your eyes now.” Melsa found a space between the cats, loosened Leonard’s hold on them all, and gently wiped Emma’s tears away with a handkerchief.

“Hck... Nngh... B-But Lady Juana... S-She looks...just like Minato did...right before she died...” Emma’s observational skills were second to none. That was how she’d known without a doubt that it was Minato. And it was because she was a total nerd in her previous life that she had come to so many different terrifying conclusions about it.

“You’ve got nothing to worry about, Emma. I’m not so stupid that I don’t know who my little sister is.”

“Myaaah!”

“Emmaaa... Hck... Oogh... Daddy’ll protect you no matter what... So you don’t have to cry anymore, Emmaaa!”

“Come on, you and Emma both need to pull yourselves together. And William, don’t just sit there! Say something!” While the whole family was trying to help soothe Emma, Melsa caught sight of William still standing deep in thought.

“You never fail to impress, sis... You seriously focus on the most off-the-rails stuff, huh? It makes sense... I guess bodyjacking is something that could’ve happened...” William had been the biggest nerd in a whole family of otaku in their previous life, and in their current life he was the smartest of them all. He’d been thinking that he couldn’t completely write off the worst possibility Emma had thought of. He continued muttering to himself that it really would be bad if she wound up getting exiled or being the bad guy suddenly.

“William!”

“Myamyamyam!”

Melsa, George, Leonard, and even the cats glared at William for saying such things at a time like this.

“Uh... I-I’m pretty certain you’re my sister too! I was just thinking it wasn’t completely impossible that maybe... Hey, c’mon! Don’t glare at me like that! B-Besides, if I’m being totally honest... Even in the one in a million... No, one in a billion chance that Lady Juana is the real Mina-nee...” William took a huge breath in, put on his game face, and spoke with utter conviction. “I’d choose my super cute loli sister Emma over a cougar like Mina-nee any day!”

William wouldn’t budge on this. If the whole world were against Emma, William would be the one ally she could have in the world—he was a complete utter loli-loyalist. He thumped his chest with his fist as though he were offering up his very heart to her.

“Waaaah! Peyta is such a freakin’ creepo!” Emma started crying even more at William’s loli-brained declaration.

“Hee hee. And that total foul mouth of yours is proof positive that you’re Mina-nee too.” William smiled warmly and hopped onto the bed, then hugged his sister, who was already at the center of a big pile of cats and the rest of her family. “Besides, we have one off-the-wall way to tell for sure that we’re the real deal. Right?” William said with a mischievous grin.

“Huh?” The family all cocked their heads.

“Ahem.” William cleared his throat for dramatic effect, took a breath, and shouted, “Tanaka Family, roll call! Countdown!”

“Three!” Leonard stood up, not even caring he was on the bed, and saluted.

“Two!” Melsa stood up, not even caring she was on the bed, and saluted.

“One!” George stood up, not even caring he was on the bed, and saluted.

“Liftoff!” Both Emma and William thrust their fists into the air.

“Myaaaaah!” The cats all thrust their paws in the air at the same time.

There was a pause.

“See?” William exchanged a look with Emma, both of them frozen with their fists up. “There’s no way a bunch of weirdos like us could be anyone but the Tanakas.”

“You can say that again!” Leonard, Melsa, and George all looked down at Emma, still saluting.

“Yeah!” Emma shined with the greatest smile ever. They really were, without a shadow of a doubt, her one and only family.

Chapter 81: Unstoppable Wings of Imagination

While the Stewarts were deepening their familial bonds, another situation was brewing at school.

“Lady Emma collapsed?!”

Naturally, the cause of the incident was the usual suspect.

“A bunch of people saw that merchant’s kid carrying her in his arms.”

“Joshua Rothschild? Why him? Weren’t Lord George and Lord William there?”

“Yes, but both of them were white as sheets, with the prince and Lord Arthur helping support them.”

“Just what could’ve happened to them?”

There had been no way for Joshua to carry Emma out the back entrance of the school without any witnesses, and said witnesses were now spreading more and more rumors.

“They were saying she looked like she was really suffering. Poor girl was shaking like a leaf.”

“I heard the prince and Lord Arthur didn’t come back for afternoon classes either!”

“Thing is, I heard Lord George was in the same Hunting Techniques classes as them, and pretty much nothing fazes him!”

“Same goes for William. He’s so young you can’t imagine how collected and smart he actually is. He’s always chiding her to take better care of herself, but he was like a totally different person when he was following after Joshua...”

William’s chiding was usually telling her off for eating too much, but it looked to these students like he was worried about her condition.

“I’ve heard Lady Emma’s always had a weak constitution. Like how she fainted at the royal banquet a few months back...”

“Yeah, the prince had to carry her to another room... I heard she was out for a while too...”

All of the incidents Emma had caused had given everyone else an impression of Emma that was far removed from the reality of her, and without ever having been corrected, that impression was starting to drift even farther away.

“Wait... You don’t think... Oh no. It can’t be.” One of the boys spoke up as though he’d thought of something, but then clammed up.

“Oh, no you don’t! Do you know something about all this?! What is it?! Spit it out!” The other boys swarmed him. Every one of them wanted to know more.

“Well, I mean, it’s just a theory, and...” The boy cut himself off again.

“Don’t leave us on a cliff-hanger, man!”

“But...”

The students weren’t about to let the boy go. “Okay, look. This’ll just be between us, then. We won’t tell a soul. So go on. What did you figure out?”

“Well... It’s just a theory, okay? Like, nothing more than a theory.” The boy gave in to their persistent pestering and warned them once more that it was just a theory, before finally whispering what he’d thought. “Maybe...Lady Emma doesn’t have much longer to live.”

All of the students there gasped.

“I mean, I know she’s been putting on a brave face at school, but even with a weak constitution, would someone really be passing out over and over again like this?” While there were other sickly students at the school here and there, none of them had nearly as many reports of passing out as Emma Stewart.

“W-Wait, you can’t just say that, man!”

“That’s why I said it was just a theory! It’s just my guess. But the more I think about it, the more it starts to make sense.” He kept trying to deny his own theory, but this was a boy with a wild imagination that was starting to take off. “Lady Emma was always weak, so the Stewart family used their wealth to get her the best medical care just to keep her going a little longer. But when she was wounded in the localized barrier crisis in the Valerie region, it signaled a downturn in her health. You’ve all seen that awful scar on her cheek, right? There’s no way someone so frail could have gotten an injury like that without it taking a major toll on her.”

The looser the boy’s lips became, the more he made his theory sound more like a certainty.

“Remember she had to leave during the party celebrating the start of the school year. People said she was completely drained before lunch on the first day of school and her brothers had to practically hold her up on both sides. And then there was the banquet. The week before the banquet, she definitely didn’t seem like she was doing all that well either.”

“You know... I think I remember seeing her looking totally exhausted during breaks back then...”

The week before the royal banquet, Emma had been forced to take grueling etiquette lessons with her grandmother Hilda (otherwise known as the Etiquette Demon) as punishment for staying overnight in the slums without permission. But hardly anyone knew that.

“So Lady Emma’s health is in shambles. I think...she might...be reaching her limit.” The boy became overwhelmed with emotion at his own imagined story and his words became choked with tears. “Then there was that incident with that awful Lord Robert and the bugs... Adding psychological suffering to her already weakened physical state...”

“No, stop! That can’t be! Why is all of this awful stuff only happening to poor Lady Emma?!” The students all remembered Emma as the greatest victim of that horrible scene and were aghast.

“It’s because she’s too kind... She always prioritizes others’ needs over her own. That’s why everyone was so certain she was a saint when she told the king she wanted to take the slums as her land.” Of course, the only reason she’d wanted the slums was that the materials she needed for some extremely valuable pigments happened to be underground, beneath them, but hardly anyone knew that either.

“You know, I remember she even brought a bunch of people with some incurable disease to her manor and nursed them all back to health.” People had been calling her a false saint recently, yet everyone was now starting to wonder what basis anyone had for calling her a fraud of any kind.

“So come to think of it... It’s just because the church said Lady Juana was a saint, right?”

“Yeah. The church canonized Lady Juana...”

The students all thought back to the work Emma had done up until then.

“W-Wait, you’ve gotta be kidding me!”

She hadn’t done a single thing worth criticizing.

“Wh-Why would we all...start calling her a fraud? Why would we be so cruel?!”

The students were ashamed of themselves, berating themselves for being so easily fooled by a little rumor or two. Unfortunately, they were also currently getting fooled by rumors in the present tense.

“But wait, it was wrong of her to leave the country during the social season, so of course we were upset with her. And then she didn’t come back even after school had started!” One student raised his voice to try and absolve them of their guilt. It was completely unacceptable for a noble to not participate in high-society socials, especially not when envoys from the Western Empire were coming. Traveling to another country during that period was simply out of the question. Procuring cotton during that period was of the highest priority in the kingdom, so of course everyone would have started bad-mouthing them for being absent during it.

Yet the boy with the overactive imagination was one step ahead.

“I don’t think it was traveling for leisure. I think...she went for medical reasons. Here in the kingdom, we hardly know anything about the Eastern Empire. I bet that even with all the money the Stewarts spent gathering the greatest doctors and medicines that money could buy, it wasn’t enough to cure Lady Emma. They had no choice but to rely on the unknown medicines and treatment methods of a land nobody had even set foot in before. The Stewart family and Lady Emma herself were simply that desperate.”

Dear reader, a word of caution: This was all just a story cooked up by a boy at Emma’s school. Yet all the students listening were scrunching up their faces with more and more sorrow at the tale. Again, it was just some story cooked up by a kid with an overactive imagination.

“My word... Poor Lady Emma...”

“So then...I— We had just accepted these rumors...while poor Lady Emma was just trying to live. And we even went so far as to call her a fraud? Were we really so cruel?!”

“Hey! Tell me there’s a way to save her!” The students all begged the imaginative boy to tell them the story had a happy ending. Surely the poor, frail girl had been cured in the Eastern Empire, and...

“Unfortunately...no matter how hard they searched...there were no doctors or medicines in the Eastern Empire that could help her.” The imaginative boy’s answer could not save them.

“No!”

“They made it all the way to this foreign land and were unable to find anything that might help. Meanwhile, Lady Emma’s health was getting worse. Though she wanted to go home, a sea voyage was far too difficult on her already weak body, so she was unable to make it back to the kingdom before the summer break was over. B-Because...she didn’t even have the strength to travel by sea anymore! They took utmost care and somehow managed to get back home, but her time was running out...yet even still... Lady Emma...she just wanted to go to school...like a normal girl...even if it’s too much for her...” The boy was straight-up just monologuing at that point. He usually faded into the background with his overactive imagination, yet this seemed to have opened the Pandora’s box of his ideas. Using his overactive imagination on the Herald of Hullabaloos herself had a stunning amount of influence on the others.

“Oogh, Lady Emma!”

“She’s such a brave girl!”

“It can’t be true... Say it’s not true!”

The students all wailed.

Great news, kids. It wasn’t true. It was all a big fat lie. But unfortunately, if the conditions were in place for the Herald of Hullabaloos to herald a new hullabaloo, it would happen even if she wasn’t present.

The boy with the overactive imagination reluctantly began to speak, in what was sure to be the finishing blow. If Emma had been there, she might have dismissed his reluctance as showoff-y, just like the big fat lie he’d come up with. Unfortunately, nobody was there at the school to make any witty remarks and the boy with the overactive imagination had become the center of attention...so the hullabaloo still wasn’t over. The wings of his imagination and the wings of Emma’s ability to cause trouble were joining forces and taking flight.

“The doctors told them that the next time Lady Emma had a flare-up like that, it might be her last. In other words, they already told her she’s out of time. That’s why her brothers were willing to support her desire to just be an ordinary girl until the very end...but then...”

“But then what?!” the other students cried.

“Then today...it happened. Meaning that Lady Emma... The reason the merchant was carrying Lady Emma was because Lord George and Lord William were so overcome with despair at the loss of their sister that they couldn’t move on their own. That...may be the truth of what happened.” Quietly, the boy’s theory drew to a close.

After a brief moment of silence, the students began to wail in utter agony at the truth (lie) of the matter.

“No... It can’t be... Lady Emma’s...dead...?”

That’s right. It couldn’t be.

“No! Please, say it isn’t so!”

Okay, it wasn’t so.

“Waaaaagh!”

Calm down, kid.

Naturally, the theory this boy with an overactive imagination had concocted had been intended only for the ears of the students present, but by the end of the day, it had already spread throughout the whole school.

Chapter 82: The Visitors

“They really let us have it, huh?” Arthur asked the prince once they’d returned to the castle after they made sure the Stewart siblings had made it into their carriage.

“Yeah.” Edward thought back to what Joshua had said to them. He’d been so worried about Emma, he’d tried to go back to the manor with them until Joshua snapped at him.

“Your Highness, the royal family should have done more looking into this Lady Juana person. With that hair and those eyes, the citizens have been left to determine her heritage on their own. We haven’t even heard why the church suddenly named her a saint, nor why she wasn’t taken back to the Western Empire after the fact. There’s clearly something going on here.”

Only the royal family could criticize the king, yet Joshua had implied they had failed to call him out. He’d hit a very sore spot. Edward didn’t want to get involved with a close family member’s infidelity, so he’d just left it at glaring at his father. It was exactly like Joshua had said. The subjects could only surmise. None of them could press it strongly enough.

“I couldn’t say anything for myself. Now that I think on it with a clear head, I find it extremely odd that I didn’t look into Lady Juana more when she first showed up.” He knew they’d thought it was going to be a big hassle, yet they hadn’t taken any action. It was careless of them. They hadn’t looked into her to any sufficient degree, and not only had the royal family taken care of her, they’d even arranged for her to go to school. How was it she’d gotten this far without a single person saying that it was strange and wrong to give her such treatment? How had they not done anything until Emma had suffered such horrible rumors about her, leading to her collapse? Yet even if someone were to ask her what had happened in such crushing circumstances, the frail, delicate Emma would have been too kind to blame anyone.

“Arthur.”

“Yes?”

“I want to do a thorough investigation on Lady Juana. I want to send people to the Skyte Region, where she lived before she came here, and to the church. Be certain you do it in a way she doesn’t catch on.”

Maybe it was too late, but it was better than simply doing nothing. Though he did have a kneejerk reaction to following up on Joshua’s criticism, he suppressed it. Those were feelings he could do without to protect Emma. They’d just get in the way.

“As you wish, Your Highness.” Arthur knelt before the prince, then left. He tried to pretend he didn’t notice how pained the prince, whom he’d been friends with for years, looked. The prince wasn’t the only one who hadn’t realized what had happened until Joshua said something. Arthur hadn’t either. In fact, nobody had. Every single one of the elites who ran this kingdom had screwed this up. It shouldn’t have been possible. In fact, it was a major problem that it was possible. All Arthur could think was that it was as if they were all being manipulated by someone.

◆ ◆ ◆

“I want you all to stay home this week.”

After the siblings devoured their late lunch of spaghetti napolitan, they returned to Emma’s room and commenced with another family meeting. The subject matter was...well, what to do next. Leonard, the doting father that he was, was so worried about Emma that he decided to have them all stay back from school for a little while.

“Myaaah!” Kongming meowed happily, because if the siblings were staying home, it meant that she would get to spend all day with Emma.

“That sounds like a good idea. I’d rather we didn’t run into this Minato look-alike while we’re still in the dark about the whole situation.” In a rare turn of events, Melsa agreed with Leonard despite her usual strictness in regards to their studies. Acting without knowing the whole situation would not have been a good course of action.

“B-But what about George’s studies? Will he be okay, mother?” The only worry any of them had about taking a break from school was George’s grades. Emma felt a bit guilty that her overblown fear might get in the way of her brother’s studies.

“No need to worry. George will be undergoing one-on-one lessons with me, starting today.” Melsa had once been praised as one of the greatest prodigies among her classmates, and her eyes were sparkling with excitement.

“Starting today?!” George had already studied ’til he dropped at school. He couldn’t handle more.

“Studying is only as effective as the amount of time you spend on it. You can’t waste a single second.” Melsa was prepared to cancel any plans she’d had for going to afternoon parties just to oversee George’s studies.

“Eep...” Here they were getting a chance to stay home from school, but poor George was going to be put through hell from the get-go. His weekly Ancient Imperial Language courses were already bad enough. He didn’t want to think about how bad it would be under his mother’s tyrannical guidance.

“So we’ll have George working on his studies while we figure out what to do next.” The conversation had gone off the rails, so William steered them back on track. They had to figure out what on earth this girl who looked exactly like Minato was about.

“Even if she starts to make a move, I’d rather we have more information before we make ours. We’re completely in the dark right now.” Even just some kind of baseline to work off of would help.

“Then we probably should start by looking into Lady Juana first. She’s pretty shrouded in mystery right now. Pretty sure Professor Mewg—I mean, Joshua could do it faster than light, though, so we can probably just sit and wait, huh?”

“Sounds about right.”

“Yep.”

As per usual, the family shirked the most annoying jobs off onto Joshua. However, they never exactly told Joshua that they all had memories of their past lives, so the topic of the family meeting had been narrowed down to one in particular.

“So, I know Joshua can’t find anything about why Lady Juana looks exactly like Mina-nee, but there’s one thing that’s kinda bugging me... Something that just doesn’t make sense. Something that’s got me like, ‘dude, are you serious?’” William said, causing Emma and George to look his way.

“Yeah, true.”

“Huh? What?”

George agreed with William, but Emma was confused.

“Sis, do you really not get it? She looks exactly like Mina-nee, and none of the students think that’s weird. But it is, right? Mina-nee’s almost in her forties. Her forties. And she’s in a school uniform.”

It was just as William had said. Juana hadn’t taken on Minato’s teenage appearance. While there were indeed some students who were unable to pass their monster studies class and were stuck in school past their thirties, they were all men meant to inherit their land. The women in school only ranged from around ten to twenty-three years old.

“Oh my god, could you quit rounding up my age? Besides, that just goes to show how youthful I looked in our previous life.”

“There are limits, sis. You were almost forty.” William shut Emma down before the makeup nerd could go on about the brilliance of her antiaging regimen.

“I still got carded when I tried to buy alcohol at the store, you know. They kept saying they couldn’t sell to anyone under twenty!”

“Pretty sure the cashier needed their vision checked more than anything. You’ve gotta face reality, sis.” William had had a horrible case of loliconosis since his previous life, so he had a strict definition as to what qualified as a “young person,” and someone in their mid-thirties didn’t even come close. “You want to know young? I’m talking teens. Their young frames, supple skin, pure hearts, youthful energy... There’s a charm about them that people in their near-forties don’t have! A purity! A...” As William was in the middle of his impassioned speech, he suddenly felt a chilling glare.

“You wanna go, William?” The constant barrage of ageism had made Emma snap.

“I’ll back you up, Emma.” Considering Melsa was currently nearing her forties, she’d been silently raging as well.

“Myah!” Kongming was always going to be on Emma’s side.

“Myaaaaah!” Liu even joined in. As William’s favored kitty, it was her job to teach him right from wrong.

William’s thoughtless remarks on age had put him in the crosshairs of an army of angry Tanaka women.

“Um... I was just stating objective facts, you— Agh, I’m sorry! Please don’t throw things at me! Sis, quit throwing everything on the table at me! Calm down! Ow, mother! Please, not the dictionary! Please! Kongming! A-And Liu too?! Agh, I-I’m sorry!”

Emma was throwing every last object on the table with perfect form. Melsa recommended a thick dictionary and handed it to her as well. Kongming and Liu both had their claws fully out of those fluffy little paws. All of them were dead serious. Even just this intimidation tactic was powerful enough.

“L-Let’s be reasonable, Emma! Mother! William didn’t mean anything by it! He’s just saying it’d be hard to pass someone near forty off as a teen, y’know? Like, that’s just a clear, obvious...fact?” George cut in before Emma could throw the dictionary...but had said a bit too much himself.

“Wow, Violet. You’re right! Some people really have no manners whatsoever! Maybe we should call the amblypygids too!”

“N-Now, we don’t have to go that far!”

“I-I’m really sorry... I’m seriously sorry!”

“Myah myah myah!”

With a little skitter, Violet (a girl spider) had crawled onto Emma’s head to join the fray. If they called the amblypygids, they’d have enough forces to hold off a whole country’s army. While George and William were deathly pale at the prospect, Kongming meowed happily, seeing that Emma seemed to have gotten the pep back in her step.

“So, what should we do with these two, General?”

“Myah myaaaah!” Kongming seemed like she’d be happy to dole out the punishment on a shrimp like William in seconds if it meant Emma would keep smiling.

“C-C’mon, William. Apologize, already!”

“I’ve been apologizing the whole time, George! And you know, no matter what this Lady Juana winds up being, I feel like our girl’s army here is way, way stronger...” There was no way Lady Juana could hold a candle to how terrifying the women in their family were.

“Uh... Oh, Guan! Guan, you’ll side with us...right?” George tried asking Guan for help, but he was grooming his face as if to say, I won’t get into fights I can’t win. He wouldn’t even look them in the eye.

“Wh-What about Zhang?!” William turned to face Zhang.

“Myaaaaah.” Zhang was napping blissfully as Leonard brushed him while the rest of them were fighting for their lives.

“F-Father! Do something!” William shouted, fearful of the low morale of the cat-and-man troops.

“Leonard, dear?”

“Father?”

“Myah?”

Melsa, Emma, Kongming, and Liu all shifted their gazes to Leonard.

“Hmm? Well, I understand what William was trying to say. Minato would probably stand out in a school full of all those young students...”

“F-Father...”

“Could you have said anything worse right now?”

William and George were happy for the support, but it was very much not the time to say such a thing.

“But only because Minato’s so especially adorable!”

“What.”

“Hmm?”

“Oh...”

“Well!”

“Myah!”

Leonard had obsessively doted on his daughter even in his previous life, and it had given him daughter-tinted glasses. It didn’t matter whether she was in her thirties or not; as long as she was his daughter, she’d always be the cutest ever.

“Myah!”

“See, Kongming’s saying Minato’s the cutest too! You hear that, boys? Cuteness has no age limit!”

“Y-Yeah...”

“Right... I’ll keep that in mind.”

He’d missed the point, but it settled the situation at least.

“That being said, I think running into Minato at school every day would show she’s got an adult charm she can’t hide too. After all, your mother was beautiful in her school days, but I think she’s even more stunning now.”

“Oh, Leonard...”

And they fell into their usual pattern, staring into each other’s eyes lovingly, leaving the rest of the room in stunned, exasperated silence.

What they’d decided at the family meeting was that they’d be taking a break from school for the week. What George and William had learned at the family meeting was that hell hath no fury like a near-forty-year-old woman scorned.

Since Melsa had informed the school that the siblings wouldn’t be attending the next day and canceled all of her afternoon parties, the rumors of Emma’s death seemed to have an air of authenticity. But the family didn’t know any of that.

◆ ◆ ◆

“How’s Emma?”

“She’s asleep with Kongming.”

“Do you think she’s gonna be okay?”

“I mean, I never would’ve thought of something like that...”

That night, Leonard, Melsa, George, and William all went to the parlor—people only went when they absolutely had to.

“You think she got more freaked out because she’s the only one who remembers everything about our past lives?” William asked with a serious expression. Though he’d been laughing and playing around in front of Emma, as the biggest otaku of the family, he was especially concerned about Juana’s appearance. If this had been an isekai manga or light novel, it was a clear sign that some kind of event had been triggered.

“Huh... I guess there were quite a few things from our past life that only Emma could remember when we were in the Eastern Empire.” George agreed with an earnest expression.

The Eastern Empire had been eerily similar to Japan. It wasn’t just the language: the food, the culture, and the place names were the same too. Because of this convenient coincidence that during their visit, there were far more situations in which Emma was the only one who could remember something, as opposed to when she was in the kingdom.

“I-I can’t believe we...hic! I can’t believe we made her feel so alone!” Leonard had burst into tears already.

“I-I’d really like to do something nice for her.” William suggested, thinking that if she were left alone with her thoughts, her imagination might take her to some terrible places again. Anything would have helped. They just needed something to distract her before that anxiety could take her again.

“Hmm... Maybe get her some more bugs? Oh, actually, no...we’d need to convince Martha first.” George thought bugs would be the quickest way to cheer Emma up.

“I could bake as many cakes as we need,” Melsa suggested sweets.

“She likes meat too, though! I can run to the border and hunt some monsters for us.” Leonard stood up, raring to go.

“Oh, what if we invite all the family she missed seeing this year since we didn’t go back to Pallas?” William suggested, as they weren’t the only family she had. There were some family members that were only in this world. Uncle Arven was especially niece-brained, and practically adored her. And if they’re calling relatives, her first cousin once removed, Guillermo, was one of those muscly types that Emma liked so much, so it was almost a guarantee seeing him would boost her spirits significantly. And speaking of her type, Uncle Gane and Uncle Zack would’ve been right in the age range she liked, and they were pretty beefy themselves. And every single one of them adored Emma to a shocking degree.

“That’s a great idea! We probably can’t get everyone since it’d cause issues for monster hunting in Pallas, but we could probably have one of ’em come by for a month without causing too many issues.”

There were plenty of things Emma liked, but she liked people even more. Every summer there would be a family reunion, and Emma always looked forward to it. Since she’d recovered her past life memories last year, she’d thought of it as the Shangri-La of silver foxes.

“The problem is...who do we ask?”

“Oh.”

All of them knew that if they sent a letter asking one of them to come help Emma when she was feeling down, it would cause a horrible, bloody scene. William recalled the report he’d received about the damages after a fight had broken out between them when they’d heard Emma wouldn’t be returning for the summer. The cost was devastating. This wasn’t just a bump in the road—this was a major obstacle to consider.

“W-Well, maybe we could invite some of her school friends instead?” William offered an alternate solution, unwilling to turn all of Pallas into a sea of fire for Emma’s sake.

“Y-Yeah. Let’s write up some invitations once everything’s calmed down.” Thinking about the repair costs for the mansion...or rather, the fact that there might not even be a manor left once their relatives were done, was enough to get Melsa onboard with William’s new idea.

What the family didn’t know was that those relatives were already on the way before anyone had even called for them.

◆ ◆ ◆

The next morning, a carriage stopped before the Stewart estate. The gatekeeper, Evan, went to see who it was, thinking it odd since they hadn’t been expecting any visitors that day.

“Whoa!” Evan couldn’t help but yelp when he saw the men who exited the carriage. Every single one of them looked like the kind of ruffian you would never see in the capital’s aristocratic district.

“Is Emma here?” a man with a thick neck asked in an intimidating voice. No matter what way Evan looked at them, these did not appear to be respectable gentlemen, and he was very on guard.

“Can you get Emma out here?” An older man with an impressive presence akin to a mafia boss brushed past the thick-necked man, drew his terrifying face closer to Evan’s, and asked the same question.

“Wh-What do you want with us?!” While Evan’s voice was tinged with fear, he managed to stand his ground. This might have had something to do with why Emma had come home in tears the day before. Evan was near tears himself. It would have been impossible for him not to be when surrounded by such terrifying men. He tried to steel his quivering legs and blocked the gate entrance.

“C’mon, no need to mean-mug the guy. Your face is way too close. Sorry about that. I’m sure the kids are busy getting ready for school, but could we possibly see them for a little bit?”

“Eek!”

Another older man pulled the Mafia Boss man away, and though his words were polite as he asked the same thing, the pressure he put on Evan left no room for argument. Everything about this man’s face was horrifying. Evan was sure that the man with the large neck was an assassin hired by the mafia, the first older man was the mafia boss, and the second older man must have been like an advisor type. What in the world had Emma done to get all these hoodlums demanding to see her?!

Evan gulped. This was the most danger he’d ever faced in his life. Yet no matter how much they threatened him, he couldn’t let them pass. As the Stewart family’s gatekeeper, it was his job to keep Emma safe.

“I-I-I can’t let you g-g-go any f-furth—”

“Whoa, what?! Hey guys! What are you doing here in the capital?!” Suddenly, George cried out from behind Evan, who had been ready to risk his life to protect them.

“Oh, hey, George! I’m guessin’ the black cat there forced you awake as usual?” The thick-necked man waved at George, who had indeed been dragged out of bed into the yard by the black cat, Guan.

“Young master, please stay back! It’s dangerous here!” Evan shouted at the boy. No matter how strong George was, Evan was sure he didn’t stand a chance against these men. They were far too rotten!

“Wait, why? Is something wrong with my family, Evan?” Yet despite Evan having prepared for the worst, George had a most unusual response.

“Wait. What was that, young master?”

George cocked his head to the side. “I was asking if something was wrong with my family...”

“Th-These men here...are...relatives of yours?”

“Oh, yeah. That’s Great Uncle Gane, Great Uncle Zack, and our cousin Guillermo.”

“Th-Then they’re not...the mafia?”

“The mafia?!”

“Pfft. Y’hear that? Mafia! I can see that!”

The extended family all burst out laughing at Evan’s misunderstanding. The three of them had gotten new clothes since they were coming from the border to the capital. They had all wanted to look their best for Emma, so they’d gotten all gussied up with black suits over their rippling muscles in a way that seemed pretty uncharacteristically formal for them.

“M-My deepest apologies!” Evan gave his most heartfelt apology for having said something so incredibly rude.

“All good, man! No worries!” The thick-necked man, who was not an assassin and was named Guillermo, gave a boisterous laugh.

“Well, we probably have to take some of the blame. We were so desperate to see Emma, we didn’t exactly explain ourselves.” The not-mafia-boss, Gane, scratched his head apologetically.

“A few people on the road made the same mistake, actually...” The not-advisor to the mafia boss, Zack, had been a bit confused, because his wife Serena had said the suit looked good on him.

“No, I insist! It was a terrible mistake of mine! I’ll bring you to Lady Emma right away!” Evan said, wiping the nervous sweat from his brow and turning toward the manor in a panic.

“Oh, don’t worry about it, Evan. I’ll take ’em there. Could I ask you to take care of their carriage, instead?”

“Myaaaah!”

George felt bad for how much anxiety Evan had been dealing with, so he took over guiding the family instead.

“Thank ya, George and Guan! Get us to Emma on the double!”

“Myah!”

“Honestly, I should be thanking you. You all couldn’t have come at a better time.”

Evan watched George and the relatives head off toward the manor with a smile, and once they were gone, he breathed a sigh of relief.

“That was a close one... I almost said I could see why when Zack said people thought they were mafia types...”

“Great Uncle Gane!” When Emma heard her relatives had come to visit, she came running to the parlor, still in her nightgown, to hug Gane.

“Ooooh, Emmaaaaa!”

“Uncle Zack!”

“I’ve missed you, Emmaaaa!”

“Guillermo!”

“It’s been so long, Emmaaa!”

She then gave Zack and Guillermo a hug, and all these grown men burst into tears at the reunion. At some point during this, William had appeared, having just quickly finished getting changed.

“Whoa, what are you all doing here?! I didn’t think you’d actually come!” He was surprised and worried whether Pallas would be okay with the three of them gone.

“Long time no see, William.”

“’Sup.”

“Still a little pip-squeak, huh?”

The family members wiped their tears and greeted William too, but with only about a tenth of the enthusiasm they’d had for Emma.

“Ugh... Been a while since I felt the sting of inequality like that...” Even if William was used to just how differently Emma was treated compared to him, he still had mixed feelings about it.

“What are you all doing here in the capital? Did something happen in Pallas?” Emma asked after giving her millionth hug of the day. Gane, Zack, and Guillermo were the main forces in Pallas, so Emma was worried whether Pallas would be okay with all of them in the capital.

“Obviously we came here to see you, Emma!”

“And we’ve got plenty of souvenirs for you in the carriage too!”

“Arven’s taking care of Pallas while we’re gone, so you’ve got nothin’ to worry about!”

The relatives were all so overjoyed to be talking to Emma again, there wasn’t a trace of their mafia-like countenance.

“Poor Uncle Arven...” George could only sympathize with the man, knowing full well just how wide the area monsters could appear in was in Pallas.

“Anyway, this is the first time I’ve ever seen you all in suits! They’re giving you kind of a bad boy look that’s soooo cool!” Emma was praising the very same black suits that’d had Evan quaking in his boots thinking they were mafia members.

“Kind of?” William was about to say they looked less “bad boy” and more “felon,” but he stopped himself midway. The relatives were only kind like this with his sister.

“I bet they’re going to keep wearing those suits for a while now that Emma’s complimented them...” George muttered. At best, they were scary as hell in the suits. They probably had encountered plenty of people terrified of them up to this point.

“Oh, you noticed?! We got all fancied up so you wouldn’t be too embarrassed around us here in the capital!”

“We used the fabric you sent us to make ’em!”

“It’s a capital design, so it’s pretty formal and stuffy, but using your silk made it so it’s nice and comfortable anyway!”

The relatives had no idea about William or George’s concerns and happily showed off their suits.

“They look so good on you all! It’s a shame you don’t wear them more often. They really look good! Oh, but I really love your usual hunting outfits too!” Emma said. (This was because the hunting outfits showed off their muscles.)

“Y’hear that, Zack?”

“You bet! Looks like workin’ through the night sewin’ this stuff was worth the effort!”

The suits they were wearing were all handmade, as the whole Stewart family were skilled tailors.

“The only reason you had to work through the night was because you got too into it and were embroidering a dragon in the lining of it!” Guillermo unbuttoned his father’s jacket to show Emma.

“I-Is that Shennyan?!” On the lining of Zack’s jacket, he’d embroidered a dragon rising out of seven balls.

“Doesn’t it take ya back? It’s the first picture Emma drew for me back when she was a li’l tot!” Zack said with a big, dopey grin.

“Huh? I drew this? I don’t really remember, but...” No matter how one looked at it, it definitely was the same wish-granting dragon she remembered from her past life.

“Makes sense you wouldn’t remember. You were only about three years old.” The relatives all started gushing about her artistic prowess, given she’d already been so talented at three years old.

“Wow, so I drew this when I was three?” Emma asked as she got a closer look at the embroidery. This would have been before she’d gotten her memories back. Just as she was thinking it was awfully detailed, as she’d even gotten the little stars on each of the balls, a familiar scent tickled her nostrils. “Huh... What’s that smell? You smell kinda sweet, Great Uncle Zack.”

“What?!” Zack jumped and started sniffing his suit. He wouldn’t be able to live with himself if he’d gotten so old that Emma started saying he had an old man smell. “I-I’ll hop in the bath right away! Please don’t hate me, Emma!”

“C-C’mon, William! Draw us a bath!”

Gane and Guillermo were starting to panic as they started sniffing themselves too.

“Why me?” As per usual, William was made to be the errand boy.

“No, that’s not what I mean. Something smells really tasty...” While her relatives were all panicking, Emma insisted it wasn’t that kind of smell and continued sniffing.

“Oh! Come to think of it, we did find a funny li’l stand near one of those farm areas on the way here. I put the stuff we bought in my inner pocket.” Zack said, then pulled out a paper bag from his pocket.

“G-Great Uncle Zack! Do you know what this is?!” Emma shouted as she looked in the bag.

“What’s in the bag, sis? Whoa!”

“C’mon, I’m sure it’s nothing worth getting that surprised over... Whoa!”

William and George, who had become a bit overprotective after the events of the previous day, both drew closer when they saw Emma’s surprise and peeked into the bag, only to have the same response.

“You got roasted sweet potatoes!” Indeed, there were sweet potatoes in the bag. The very same fall flavor they’d loved in their previous life in Japan.

“Wow, that really takes me back!” William sniffed the sweet potatoes, and sure enough, found that they were indeed the very same kinds he’d had back in his previous life.

“Come to think of it, we never found any sweet potatoes in the Eastern Empire, huh?” Though there had been a whole treasure trove of Japanese ingredients, George realized that sweet potatoes had not been among those flavors.

“That’s ’cause sweet potatoes weren’t native to Japan. They were brought there by China in the Edo period, so I’d pretty much given up on them... Where’d you get these, Great Uncle Zack?” Emma asked with a serious expression.

“Huh? Uh... Where did I get them...?”

“It’s really important that you remember! Please!” Emma raised her voice at Zack’s nonanswer.

“Huh? Wha?” Zack was a bit stunned that they’d taken such a shine to some random snack he’d picked up on the way there.

“Since when have you been so serious about sweet potatoes, sis?” William asked, confused where the sudden desperation was coming from. Sure, sweet potatoes were tasty, but they weren’t that big of a deal, were they?

“You know how it is, William. Girls love sweet potatoes.” George seemed pretty confident in this assumption.

“Do you two not see the possibilities here?!” Emma shrugged in utter disbelief at her brothers. While sweet potatoes were indeed tasty, there was a far more important usage for them. “If we have sweet potatoes, we could make sweet potato shochu in the Eastern Empire!” Emma boomed. Since there were no sweet potatoes in the Eastern Empire, they were only able to make rice-based shochu, but not sweet potato.

“Sweet potato shochu?!” William and George both eagerly turned to face Emma at those words. With the botanical crisis in the Eastern Empire, there were a few sake breweries left, but the distilleries had all been victims of the owata’s spread. They had been allowed to bring some of the sake from the storehouse home with them, but there was no shochu at all.

“I-I had no idea we could do that!” George barked. While they’d definitely improved on the food shortage situation, the Eastern Empire still didn’t have the luxury of using rice for sake. It’d still be difficult to make more sake or shochu for a few more years.

“Since they already knew how to make shochu in the first place, I’m pretty sure they could make sweet potato shochu too!” The Marie Antoinette inside Emma was telling her that if they didn’t have rice, then let them use sweet potatoes.

“Great Uncle Zack! Please, try to remember where you got these sweet potatoes!” George was now pestering Zack about it too.

“Right...you never really liked wine all that much, huh?” William muttered. The whole Tanaka family loved alcohol, but George (aka Wataru) had only ever drunk beer or shochu. However, the country they’d reincarnated into was pretty much all wine. No beer, no shochu. He still had his preferences in this world, and even though he was old enough to drink (sixteen), he just couldn’t enjoy wine.

“I mean, it was all fields and stuff... I don’t really know how to tell you where...” Zack could only confess he didn’t know the exact location. It felt awful to admit when Emma was so excitedly asking him, and he hung his head in shame.

“Oh, we’ve got a bag of unroasted ones, actually! Maybe you can figure it out by looking at the bag?” Guillermo recalled there might have been a mark on the bag saying what region they’d come from.

“I-Is that true, Guillermo?!”

“Sweet! We’ve gotta check the carriage, Emma and William! Evan’s probably already bringing in everyone’s luggage!”

“Okay! Ack, wait up, George! You don’t have to run! The potatoes aren’t going anywhere!”

George took the lead to the horse stables with Emma and William in tow.

Gane nodded happily as he watched the siblings run off. “No idea what that was about, but it’s good to see Emma and her brothers in good spirits.”

“Yup. I never know what she’s talkin’ about, but Emma’s always just as cute as ever.” Since the siblings had said sweet potato and sweet potato shochu in the Eastern imperial language, none of the men had understood the most important parts of their conversation, but Emma was cute, and that was all that mattered to them. They all had big, satisfied smiles.

“Man, way to go past me for picking up a bag... Agh!” Guillermo had been feeling quite pleased with himself and hoped Emma would thank him for the act, when suddenly he saw the Stewart family head, Leonard, out of the corner of his eye, and let out a yelp.

“Wh-Whoa, Guillermo! What’s with the screa— Whoa!”

“What’s you two’s pro— Eugh!”

When Zack and Gane turned around at Guillermo’s cry, they found Leonard behind them, his trademark muscular Stewart body and stern face, with tears gushing from his eyes like waterfalls.

“Ough, Emma looks like she’s having so much fun... You all came at such a good time. I should’ve known... I should’ve known I could count on the men of the Stewart family!” Leonard sobbed.

Just as Emma had been suffering through the incident with Lady Juana, her extended family had appeared. Emma was not alone—not at all. She wasn’t just loved by her family from the previous world, but by her extended family here in this one. He felt this deeper than ever now. Every single one of them was on Emma’s side. Emma still had a glimmer of anxiety in her eyes from time to time, but once her family showed up with sweet potatoes, it was gone in a flash. Seeing his daughter smile like that was enough to make him ugly cry.

“Leonard, did something happen to Emma?” Zack, who always had good instincts, picked up that there was something behind Leonard’s words.

“Something happened to Emma?! Who do I have to kill, Leonard?!” Zack’s concerned words turned Gane’s expression right back into a horrifying villain’s. The mafia boss had made his great return.

“Oh, someone’s in for a world of hurt if they think they can make our little Emma cry...” Guillermo was grinning pugnaciously as a blood vessel twitched on his forehead.

“Wha! Uh, N-Nothing! I-It’s not like that! Uh, um... It’s just, Emma’s been saying how much she’s wanted to see you all, that’s all!” Leonard started to panic, imagining what would happen if the three leading hunters on the borders of Pallas got out of hand. If he wasn’t able to distract them, the whole capital might have ended up in smithereens.

“Emma wanted to see me that badly?!”

“Oh, come off it, Zack. She wanted to see me the most.”

“Ha ha ha! Sorry you two, but the one Emma really wanted to see was me.”

The three of them growled, facing off and ready to fight over Emma’s love.

“Hey, Leonard! Who did Emma say she wanted to see the most?! It was me, wasn’t it?! Wasn’t it?!”

“Heh, don’t be ridiculous, Zack. She clearly wanted to see her Great Unkie Gane, right?!”

“No, obviously she wanted to see her cousin, Guillermo!”

They were easier to fool than Leonard had expected. Unfortunately, there was one thing Leonard simply couldn’t let pass with these relatives.

“You’re all being silly. The one Emma wants most in the world is obviously her daddy!”

They sure were related.

“The hell did you just say?! No way in hell that’s true, you little punk!”

“Heh... Guess we’re gonna have to settle this... Who does Emma love the most?!”

“You better get your asses ready!”

Just as the usual Stewart family war over Emma was about to break out, Guillermo felt a chill in the air and turned around.

“If you’re doing this, do it in the yard,” Melsa said with a big smile.

Gane lowered his raised fist. “Oh... Long time no see, Melsa...” It felt like her smile had frozen everything around her.

“Ha ha ha... Uh... Er... Don’t tell Serena about this...” Zack put his suit jacket, which he had just thrown off, back on and begged Melsa to keep this a secret from his wife.

“Come to think of it, the stuff in this parlor is uh...quite extravagant! I don’t know how many decades I’d be forced to stop drinking if I broke it!” Guillermo, who had been forced to go completely sober as a result of the brawl in Pallas, took a look around the parlor and went white as a sheet.

“Glad to see I made myself clear.” Melsa’s chilling smile came from a far different place than Emma’s angelic grin, and it was enough to finally calm the relatives.

◆ ◆ ◆

The charm was wearing off, and Saint Juana was getting concerned. It was all because of the rumors that Lady Emma Stewart was on the verge of death. Magic that affected the psyche had different effects on different people, and when it came to matters of life and death, the target tended to have a psychological defense mechanism that made it difficult to control.

At the news that the flame of Emma Stewart’s life was fading, everyone began to fear, lament, and mourn as though it were their own lives ending. As such, that defense mechanism had been triggered on a massive scale. Since the ones who’d been hit the hardest with the charm were the ones who had been bad-mouthing Emma the worst, the guilt was causing that mechanism to go into overdrive.

Lady Juana simply couldn’t understand or believe that a single count’s daughter could have such an effect on everything. Just who was she? Juana had finally managed to get half of the student populace under her control by handing out cotton, but in the few weeks since Emma Stewart had returned, her months’ worth of work had been reduced to nothing. Here she’d had to sit giving saintly smiles, listening to all sorts of chatter she couldn’t have cared less about with a bunch of schoolchildren, and this girl came along and ruined it all. Juana was at her limit. Normally, she wouldn’t have even had to give out cotton to make her magic work, but even that had been ruined. Not only had her plan not been going as smoothly as she’d hoped, the charm she’d worked so hard to cast on so many people was starting to wear off, and she was ready to scream.

Magic was not infinite. One needed magic stones in order to sustain the effects of a spell. The Western Empire’s magic stone reserves were gravely low, so Juana had only been able to secure the bare minimum number of stones she needed for her plans. While the cotton was already bad enough, having lost all the magic stones she’d used for her charm was especially painful. It was such a ridiculous concept that she’d never even considered it when formulating her plan.

If she had to guess where it all went wrong, it had to have been because the largest merchant group in the kingdom, the Rothschild Company, had refused to buy their cotton. The kingdom’s Pallas silk was extremely popular in the Western Empire, and in recent years, the most efficient way for an imperial merchant to make money was to sell cotton and buy silk to bring home. It was difficult to cultivate cotton in the kingdom, so the Western Empire was able to mark up the prices. While individual aristocrats had purchased some cotton, it was nothing compared to how much the Rothschild Company usually bought wholesale.

The cotton crop that year had been truly atrocious because of the magic stone shortage, but using charm magic should have made selling it a cinch. Both the cotton the Western imperial merchants had brought and the cotton Juana had been giving out at school had magic cast upon it to hide its flaws. It should have looked like the same quality as it had in all the years prior. Yet the head merchant seemed to have seen through it. They’d used the same technique with every country, and had had no problems outside of the kingdom.

She probably should have realized something was wrong with the kingdom right then and there. For a country that hadn’t had magic for several decades, there were far too many people there who were resistant to magic, and yet none of them seemed to have magic resistant tools.

She also couldn’t understand why the easiest place in the kingdom to use her magic was the church where the Western Empire already had influence. The cotton that the merchants wouldn’t buy had been bought up by the church with no issue. The church’s funds were always meant to go to the Western Empire, so setting them aside for the cotton wound up being an overall loss.

As of that moment, the only things that had succeeded were managing to convince others that she was related to the royal family and manipulating the church into accepting her as a saint. While her charm hadn’t completely worn off, its effects had greatly been lessened, and they’d failed to make a profit on the cotton as well.

The Western Empire didn’t have much time left, and Juana was starting to sweat. She needed to at least figure out where the kingdom kept their magic stones...

Juana had managed to sneak past the guards to get deeper into the castle when a voice rang out from behind her. “Lady Juana, you’re not permitted to go any farther than this.”

It felt like her heart stopped for a moment; she hadn’t noticed anyone there. It was so strange. She hadn’t been restricted from going anywhere in the castle up until this point.

“I-I’m so very sorry. I seem to have gotten a bit lost...” Juana lied as she turned around to find Arthur Bell. He was the son of a duke who served as the second-born prince’s bodyguard at school and was always by his side. His features were quite handsome, enough so that even standing at the prince’s side wasn’t enough to distract from them. According to Juana’s prior investigations, he was quite the playboy compared to the cold, straitlaced prince. As the second-born prince’s bodyguard with a personality like that, Juana thought he’d be the perfect target and had deliberately cast a powerful charm spell on him...but it ended in failure.

Right. It failed on him too. The charm magic didn’t work at all.

As it was, this Juana girl’s features weren’t especially beautiful. She was using her charm magic to make people see her that way. For those on whom it was particularly strong, it practically made them deify her. Conversely, those who weren’t all that affected would simply see her as an average girl.

Every time someone called Juana beautiful, this Arthur Bell would get a confused look on his face. Though he’d always switch back to an inoffensive, gentlemanly smile, it was clear from his attitude later that the charm hadn’t been effective on him at all.

It was simply unthinkable in the Western Empire for someone to be barely affected by her charm magic. Especially not when they were a thirsty playboy type.

“Well, that’s an interesting little excuse. This castle is quite a maze, yet you were rather confidently taking a shortcut straight to our treasure room.” Arthur was smiling, but his words were biting.

“Wh-Why...that’s mere coincidence.” When Juana had left the room the royal family had prepared for her to wait out the illegitimate child rumors, she knew she’d had several knights around her. Yet she was certain she’d chased them all away. Her magic was more effective at the castle than at school where rumors about Emma Stewart abounded. Those knights meant to watch over her were fully under her control. She hadn’t noticed anyone but the knights, and hadn’t been stopped by anyone until just then either. So how was it that Arthur Bell had noticed her?

“Heh. You confused why I’m here after you chased away all the knights keeping an eye on you?”

“K-Keeping an eye on me? What do you mean?” It was like Arthur had read her mind, and her response was quite forced as a result.

“Whoops. Must’ve been a slip of the tongue. I meant guarding you. I know you’ve usually got a posse of boys around you both at school and at the castle, and you might want to be alone, but you really need your guards with you. You don’t wanna cause the poor guys any headaches, right?” Arthur said with a smile. It was clear he was telling her to back off.

“O-Of course. I just needed some time alone. I apologize for having caused you such trouble. I-I’ll go back to my room.” Juana realized there was no getting past him and gave up on her plan to infiltrate the treasure room. She couldn’t cause a scene, because as long as he was willing to yield here, it was likely he wouldn’t investigate her any further.

“I understand. Now, let’s get you back to your room, Lady Juana.” Arthur said, extending a hand to her. He had his trademark playboy smile and perfectly practiced movements as he led her back to her room, where the number of knights watching over her had increased three fold.

◆ ◆ ◆

“So hey, I did what you asked and told that lady-killer dude about her. You sure it’s okay?” On the third floor of the Rothschild Company’s store in the shopping district, Hugh was lounging on the windowsill of Joshua’s living space. His employer, Joshua, had told him in no uncertain terms when to stop trailing his targets at the castle.

“Even if you were just tailing her, if anyone found out you’d infiltrated the castle treasure room, it’d be a threat to your life. I’m not going to put one of Lady Emma’s beloved children in that kind of danger.” Joshua responded as he swiftly worked through document after document regarding various complaints (that still seemed to have no end in sight).

“Huh... You’re nicer than I thought, Master Joshua. But y’know, us slum folks are willing to get a little crazy for Lady Emma too.” Hugh puffed out his chest with pride. They owed her a lot.

“I know, but Hugh...the most important thing is that we never make Lady Emma sad. Not to get crazy.”

“Okay, but I think you’ve been getting a little crazy, goin’ all this time, workin’ without any sleep, Master Joshua...”

During the day, he was working at the shop, and if he had time, he’d go to school. At night, he was dealing with paperwork and other various tasks, while also investigating Lady Juana’s every movement and coming up with theories of some sort. Hugh had to wonder when he even slept. It was pretty clear that his master was pretty much the definition of “getting crazy.”

“This is normal for me. Working on Lady Emma’s behalf comes as easily as breathing to me.”

“Okay, that’s freaky. But don’t you think it woulda been better if we knew what Lady Juana was after in the treasure room?” If he hadn’t told Arthur and instead just quietly followed her, Lady Juana would’ve made it to the treasure room and gotten what she was looking for. It’d have been way easier to arrest and charge her that way. Hugh had been watching her on Joshua’s orders this whole time, and she was using some kind of trick to make it so locks were completely useless against her. Rooms that were usually locked up would open like it was nothing when she’d hold her hand over them. Not even the most skilled thieves could do something like that. Hugh had grown up in the slums, so he was pretty familiar with how things were done there, yet he’d never seen lockpicking like that.

“If we were to report that, you might fall under suspicion too, Hugh. And if Lady Juana were to be seen as a victim, it would make things much harder for us in the future.”

“But...” Hugh wanted to repay Emma for all she’d done. He wanted to do something useful to her. If the Stewart siblings hadn’t shown up when they did, Harold might’ve starved to death. And now, they were able to eat three meals a day plus snacks. They had nice clothes, soft beds, were offered jobs, and schooling. It was like a dream come true. Only a few months prior, they’d given up on life and had been just going through the motions. Lady Emma was the one who’d lifted them up to the lives they had now. No matter how much they feasted, they could never forget the taste of oatmeal with salt, boiled in milk and water from the day they’d met her.

“It’s all right, Hugh. You’re being extremely useful. Just knowing Lady Juana wanted something out of the treasure room is enough. Now, we just connect all the information into one theory and the answer will come to us in due time.” Joshua grinned and pointed at his head. He already had his main theory. All that was left was to look through the information he’d received and check to see if he was right. “The only thing I have yet to understand is just why Lady Emma was so terrified of her. As usual, I never know what she’s thinking...” Though even that uncertainty was sweet to Joshua. Just thinking about Emma brought a smile to his lips. She was like an angel, and she was always on his mind. From the moment she first smiled at him, Joshua’s number one priority had been set in stone.

“Freaky, man...” Hugh shuddered when he saw Joshua’s smile. As a boy raised in the slums, he was especially intuitive, and he knew that Joshua was one man he never wanted to make mad. He knew that the perverts of the world were the scariest of all.

Nothing had actually happened yet. Lady Juana hadn’t confronted Lady Emma. Lady Juana hadn’t been bullying Lady Emma. Lady Juana hadn’t taken anything from anyone yet. All that had happened was that Lady Emma had seen Lady Juana from far away. That was it.

Joshua was talking like he’d already mostly figured it out. “First the Eastern Empire, next the Western Empire...” he muttered, then signed the last paper. The mountain of paperwork Hugh had seen when he arrived was now complete.

“Good work, Hugh. I have a list of fabrics that need to be dyed for Harold, so I’d appreciate your taking it back to him. I still have some things I’d like to look into, so if any of the staff come asking for me, can you tell them I’m in the archive?”

“Wait, you’re still working?!” It was already night, around the time when all good kids should have been settling in for bed.

“Oh, this is my personal time. It’s a very important time when I can dedicate myself fully to Lady Emma. It’d be a shame to waste such a blissful period with sleep, don’t you think?” Joshua responded, then disappeared into the archive.

“Freaky, man...”

Chapter 83: The Brothers’ Agony

The week flew by and soon George and William had returned to school. Since they still hadn’t completely ruled out the possibility of a doppelgänger, they’d claimed Emma wasn’t feeling well and kept her home.

“Lord George! Lord William! I-I wanted to ask...how Lady Emma is?” The students who’d been worried about Emma swarmed the brothers the moment they saw them.

“Sis?” She had been feeling better than ever since she’d gotten to see her relatives and gotten her hands on some sweet potatoes. That morning after they saw her extended family off on their way back to Pallas, Emma and the cats had busied themselves with a project in the yard...but he couldn’t say that or it’d just sound like she was playing hooky.

Just as he was about to maintain that Emma wasn’t feeling well, he realized that he recognized some of the students asking about her. “Why, she’s doing just fine. I didn’t expect you’d worry so much about a false saint.”

These were all the students who had been bad-mouthing Emma. William’s biting words made all the students’ faces go white.

“W-We’re so sorry!”

“I don’t even know why I said such awful things about her!”

“We regret everything we said! No, we deplore everything we said! We’re so, so sorry!”

The students who had already been racked with guilt all lowered their heads apologetically.

“My sister never once said she was a saint. In fact, she strongly denied it at every turn. You really had no excuse.” No matter how his sister treated him, William couldn’t stand unwarranted bad-mouthing, and he was the type who tended to hold grudges. He’d been put through the wringer by the women of the family after his comments on their ages, so he was using this opportunity to relieve some of his stress.

“William, let’s just leave it at that...” George put his hand on William’s shoulder. It wouldn’t have been fair to take out his frustrations on someone who wasn’t involved.

“But they... Yeah. You’re right.” William remembered the cruelty he was subjected to by the women’s army of his household and clutched his fists tightly. It didn’t matter how much she’d cried in front of everyone, his sister had been worse than ever after his comments on her age. Middle-aged women trying to hide their shame over their age was too much to bear...though his mother had been silently furious around that point too.

“Sorry folks, he’s just got a lot on his mind today. Don’t mind him.” George apologized to the students and urged them to head to class.

“I-It’s fine, we really...!” It was just then that the students noticed William’s shaking fists and the deep bags under George’s eyes. Unfortunately, to them, they saw this as proof that Emma Stewart was on the verge of death.

The theory that the boy with the overactive imagination had spouted off had since gained even more legitimacy, and soon the students had started coming up with their own stories as well. Even at this moment, more and more details were being added to the story and spread through the school, completely unbeknownst to the brothers.

◆ ◆ ◆

“Please, you must tell us the truth! We’ve been worried sick about her!” That afternoon in their usual spot, Francesca was pestering George and William.

“She’s fine, really! I mean, she’s annoyingly fine, even!” William shouted, begging them to believe him.

“So then why wouldn’t she be at school, Caitlyn?”

“Why wouldn’t she be at school, Catherine?”

“It’s just too odd!” the twins said in unison.

“Since Lady Emma collapsed, my brother and the prince have also been absent from school and are researching something quite fervently. You keep saying nothing’s wrong and that she’s completely fine, but it must hurt to make all these excuses. You have such bags under your eyes, Lord George, and both of you seem so exhausted.” Marion tilted George’s chin up to get a better look at his face.

“Whoa, Lady Marion! Watch the chin tilt! You wanna make me fall for you?!” Marion’s handsome vibes were about to turn George into a blushing schoolgirl. “The bags under my eyes are just...because my mother’s been tutoring me for hours on end...”

At this half-baked answer, the girls all ganged up on George.

“Then why is Lady Emma not at school?!”

George wanted to ask the exact same question. He had so many he wanted to ask. Why did Lady Juana look exactly like Minato? Why did nobody say anything about this grown woman in a school uniform? Why had the students who’d been bad-mouthing Emma all this time suddenly started to worry about her?

Something was obviously wrong.

Suddenly, a familiar voice called to them. “I would like to know as well.” Even her voice was the exact same.

“G-George! What do we do?! It’s Lady Juana!”

Lady Juana, accompanied by several boys, had come to the gazebo where George and the others were spending their lunch. Emma’s friends had been so worried about her, their voices might have carried far enough for her to hear.

“Why, it’s Lady Juana, Catherine.”

“Why, it is Lady Juana, Caitlyn!”

The twins seemed surprised by her presence.

“Mina... Er, L-Lady Juana. I wasn’t aware you’d made my sister’s acquaintance...”

“Why are you worried about her?”

George and William were both quite guarded around Juana, who (now that they could see her up close) really did look exactly like Minato. She’d never even seen Emma before, let alone spoken to her, so it was strange that she’d be asking about Emma’s condition. Just what was she? What was she thinking?

“Why, George Stewart, there are abundant rumors about your sister right now,” Juana said with a relaxed smile as she stopped in front of George. Calling him by his full name made clear that it wasn’t just Emma she knew.

As it turned out, Juana was getting quite annoyed that Emma Stewart’s absence meant she couldn’t look into her more. The reason Juana’s charm magic was wearing off was because of the rumors that Emma Stewart was dying. She also realized that the boys who gave snacks to Emma during lunch, the girls here, the second-born prince, and the boy who’d stopped her on the way to the treasure room, Arthur...not a single one of them had accepted her cotton.

Could it have been a coincidence?

While Juana was the one who’d spread the rumor that Emma Stewart was a false saint...could she actually have been the real deal? Juana had made certain over and over that the church’s saints didn’t actually have any holy powers, but she couldn’t ignore the facts before her. If the rumors were true, the frail girl was on the verge of death. If that were true, then Juana didn’t have anything to worry about. The problem came if that wasn’t the case. If that girl had some kind of antimagic powers, Juana needed to find a way to deal with them, and fast.

Juana gripped the pendant around her neck. Inside, she kept priceless magic stones. The stones weren’t just something to imbue with magic; they could be used to amplify it as well. Even if a single mage were to show up, they wouldn’t be much use without any magic stones. It was with the combination of stones and mages that one could create large-scale, continuous magic. She needed to remove all obstacles if she was going to get her hands on more magic stones. While it was a shame she couldn’t meet Emma Stewart, Juana decided to at least try casting a powerful charm spell on her brothers. After all, it was best to use caution where caution was due. Even if it meant using up some of her precious magic stones, it was something she had to do. She couldn’t have her plans run any further behind than they already were. The stones in the pendant she held gave off a dim glow.

“George Stewart. William Stewart. Please tell me what Emma Stewart is doing right now.” The magic she was casting now wasn’t the puny kind she’d used on the other students. It was the most powerful kind of charm magic that was activated by looking deep into your targets’ eyes and saying their full names. She then amplified it even further with her magic stones. With weaker magic, there was a chance that someone could fight back against it psychologically, but there was no resisting a charm spell that used magic stones. If they were able to repel this twice-strengthened magic, then Emma Stewart and her brothers...no, the whole Stewart family were enemies of the Western Empire. They would need to be disposed of, whether it be by military or magic.

“Hah!”

“Hawawa!”

After receiving Juana’s powerful charm, George and William immediately averted their eyes.

“Lord George? Lord William?! What happened?” Francesca noticed something was off about them. It was clear as day.

“N-Nothing. I-I’m fine.”

“Y-Y-Yeah. Nothing to worry about.”

Both of their faces were red all the way up to the tips of their ears, just like Prince Edward’s when he saw Emma smile.

“Emma’s, uh...resting back home...”

“Y-Yeah! She’s sleeping!”

The two looked like adolescent boys meeting their favorite idol for the first time when they answered Juana’s question. They were clearly acting strangely, and they were sputtering out their words. They couldn’t look her in the eye, and when they tried to steal glances at her, their faces got even redder.

“Your faces are so red. Are you sure you’re all right?”

“They’re about as red as apples, huh, Caitlyn?”

“They’re about as red as strawberries, Catherine!”

“I’ve never seen them like this!”

Marion noticed how red their faces had gotten, and the twins cried out in worried unison.

“Hah... I’m so sorry. It seems I’ve been a bother during your lunch.” Seeing George’s and William’s reactions, she left them as though she’d lost all interest.

Hmm. The charm seemed to work just fine on those two. In fact, it worked better on them than the others. Perhaps I was thinking too hard about this. Once the charm is effective, the target can no longer lie to me, so I can assume that Emma Stewart truly is on the verge of death. There really are some times when a mountain of unfortunate coincidences just happen to line up. Well, I’d best focus on casting my spells again rather than worrying about the broken ones.

Juana then quickly left the two blushing boys, having seemingly come to some satisfying conclusion.

◆ ◆ ◆

“Lord George! Lord William! Are you sure you’re all right?”

“Should we call for help?”

“Do you think it was something they ate, Caitlyn?”

“I’m sure it was something they ate, Catherine!”

After Juana left, the brothers sank into a crouch while Francesca, Marion, and the twins fussed over them.

“W-We’re fine.”

“N-No need to worry.”

Despite their insistence that they were okay, they were groaning and covering their red faces in utter agony.

“It hurts,” the two brothers groaned in unison.

“That was a lot, huh, George?”

“Right? Was she trying to kill us or something?”

They’d prepared themselves for the worst, but seeing the middle-aged woman in a school uniform up close was a powerful blow. The fact that it was their sister made it so embarrassing that they couldn’t even figure out where to look. This must’ve been one of those Loafcraftian creatures that drove you insane just by looking at them! Unlike their phone-damaged vision in their previous world, their eyesight in this world was sharp and trained for monster hunts.

And oh, how this sight hurt. They were practically full-body cringing. After seeing their almost forty-year-old sister in a school uniform right in front of them, George and William were unable to even stand for quite some time.

◆ ◆ ◆

“Tell me what’s going on, Carlos.” Joshua had stopped working and shifted his gaze to the man lounging on his sofa.

“The Western Empire has been trying to strengthen its military.”

The Rothschild Company had scouts it sent on reconnaissance missions to various countries. Joshua had called for one of them, a man named Carlos who was stationed in the Western Empire, to come back to him as soon as possible. He was tall with chiseled features, and he let his long, curly, olive-green hair down, giving him a very specific vibe.

“Its military? Don’t you mean its guardians?” There was no country that referred to its monster hunting organizations as a military. In the kingdom, they called them hunters. In the Eastern Empire, they were called samurai. And in the Western Empire, they were called guardians.

“No, I know for sure it’s their military. They’ve been gathering a lot of personnel at the ports too,” Carlos said with his trademark sidelong glance as he combed his fingers through his hair. “Rumor has it they’ve painted some ships black to make them harder to see at night, and have been loading ’em up with these things that can fire off these iron balls... Maybe cannons? It all sounded awfully grim.” Carlos couldn’t imagine what they could be planning by putting a cannon on a boat as he shrugged his shoulders. While it wasn’t common in the kingdom, the Western Empire frequently used cannons against monsters. While Joshua was aware of them, he’d never actually seen one before. And normally, they weren’t things used on a ship, because there weren’t any monsters to target in the ocean.

Joshua fell deep into thought for a moment. “Right... I see. So I suppose the Western Empire is finally about to start invading other countries...” He nodded slowly. Of all the theories he’d formulated, this was the one he’d really hoped wouldn’t be true. However, all the information he’d carefully gathered, hoping to prove it wrong, had ended up supporting the theory instead.

“Invading other countries? But there are people in those countries?” Carlos gave Joshua a look of disbelief. Invasion was the kind of word one only used between monsters and people. Monsters would break through the barrier and invade the lands humans lived in. Humans would use a mage’s magic to widen the barrier and invade the monsters’ territory. The idea that humans could invade a land where other humans already lived was unthinkable to Carlos.

“What else are they supposed to do? Humans are animals too. They’re just as wont to lash out to protect their own as any other animal. It just hasn’t happened between us until now because our groups happen to be so far apart.” Joshua responded readily, with a terrifying expression he would never have let Emma see.

“But all the countries are still pretty far from each other now too, right? We’ve all been working together for centuries without ever fighting! So why would that change all of a sudden?” The women in the kingdom were beautiful. The women in the Western Empire were charming. The women of Balitu were soothing. Though every country had its differences, they were all wonderful. The thought that countries could go to war with each other was inconceivable. Yet Carlos had worked for the Rothschild Company for many years, so he knew that Joshua was exceptional at his job, and if Joshua said he saw this horrible future in store, then it was most certainly going to come to pass. He just didn’t want to believe it would.

“The distance between countries hasn’t changed, but shipbuilding technology has improved so much that we can now sail from country to country at unbelievable speeds. We’ve also managed to make them bigger, giving us far better loading capacity.” In other words, ships were now capable of carrying enough soldiers and weapons to invade another country.

“But why would the Western Empire need to invade anyone? They’ve got a long and storied history. They have the most land in the world and they’ve never once wanted for mages!”

Since the dawn of time, the Western Empire was the only country to always have had a mage available. If a mage appeared in one of the island nations or the smaller countries, a scout from the Western Empire would be there shortly after. Island nations didn’t have any monsters because they were surrounded by water, and because the sizes of these countries were so small, it meant the land they had on the border of their barrier was small as well. Some countries even felt that as long as the mage could fortify their barrier, getting the Western Empire’s support would be better than having a local mage. The Western Empire would send out emissaries around the world, sometimes negotiating, sometimes threatening, in exchange for these mages, and with their powers, had grown larger and more advanced than anywhere else.

“Well, if I had to guess, the most likely reason is because they’ve run out of magic stones.” Unlike Carlos, who was utterly bewildered by this news, Joshua’s answer was cool and collected. Magic stones were a special kind of ore that could store magic. Maintaining the barrier that kept each country safe from monsters took a massive quantity of magic stones, and they didn’t last forever. If their veins of magic stone ore had dried up, it wouldn’t be out of the question for them to attack other countries to get their hands on more. After all, the Western Empire was the largest country in the world, so its magic stone usage was bound to be high.

“Magic stones? You really think people would invade other countries over a little thing like that? You really think they’d hurt other people over magic stones?” Carlos couldn’t understand. Unlike mages, the value of magic stones wasn’t common knowledge. In fact, there was a whole generation in the kingdom who didn’t even know what magic stones were. Now that it had come to this, it might have been better to say the existence of magic stones had been deliberately hidden from them. Magic stones without any magic already imbued in them were about as useful as regular old rocks, so the thought that a country would invade another country over a rock was not just unimaginable to Carlos, but to the majority of ordinary people. However, all it took was a little bit of thinking to understand that without stones to imbue with magic, the mages would have to constantly be fortifying the barrier at all times. Mages were still humans who had to eat, sleep, and take breaks as well. Just as there weren’t any people who could run for days on end without resting, there weren’t any mages who could do the same with magic either.

“Invading another country would be worth it to ensure their survival. Without magic stones, it would spell the end of their country. That’s why it makes sense that they’d target our kingdom first; we haven’t had a mage in many long years.” No mages meant there was nobody using up their magic stones.

“Wait... You can’t really mean...they’re trying to invade us? The kingdom?!” Carlos had thought this would all be some other country’s problem, so this came as a major shock to him.

“No. It’s probably more apt to say they’re not trying, they’re already doing it.” Joshua was calm even as he said this. He believed the reason Lady Juana had been going to the castle treasure room was to find out if they had any magic stones. That way, they could easily obtain them once the invasion began. “But I don’t think we really have many magic stones left here.”

Joshua had heard the last time a mage appeared in the kingdom, the nobles used up all the magic stones that had been excavated there. Yet despite that, there hadn’t been any recruitments for people to mine for magic stones in about thirty years, which told Joshua that the kingdom’s veins were all dried up.

“Wait, what?! That means we’re just sitting ducks here! Look, I’ll go tell the Western Empire that we don’t have any magic stones, okay? I’ll tell them to hold off on the invasion!”

“I doubt they’ll believe you. I wouldn’t use the word ‘invasion’ with them either, or they’re bound to take offense. People aren’t likely to listen to you when you put them on the defensive. And stupid people love to hurl false accusations,” Joshua replied, stopping Carlos from turning right around and running back to the Western Empire.

“But...then what are we gonna do? There’s no way we could fight against the Western Empire.” As the one in charge of scouting them, Carlos felt entirely hopeless. The power imbalance between the two countries was staggering. Just having one country with mages and one without gave a technological imbalance that couldn’t be compensated for.

“Perhaps...” Joshua agreed. “But only if we were to try to fight fairly.” Even the Eastern Empire, which had been closed off from all trade or interactions with other countries, was still several times more advanced than the people of the kingdom because they had a mage. Using the power of magic, they were able to create countless devices that could do things like start fires, give off light, obtain water, or more. The people of the kingdom would have loved to get their hands on them.

The Western Empire held the opinion that they were the center of the world since they had the largest country and always kept mages on hand. They’d use the excuse that they provided lesser countries with food and technology in order to take their mages and involve themselves in their politics. A blip in the Western Empire’s cotton production was enough to throw the second largest country, the kingdom, into a flurry as well. If the Western Empire were to truly go on the offense, the kingdom would have no way to fight back.

“Come to think of it, is your business doing okay? I know I barely ever come back to the kingdom, but I’ve never seen this place so dead.” Carlos was too scared to continue on the train of thought this conversation had started, so he changed the subject. Even if Joshua’s prediction was right, there wasn’t anything a merchant could do about it. That was the sort of thing for the royal family, the knights, and all the elite nobles to think about. A merchant should focus on his merchant work.

“We’re certainly feeling the effects of refusing to buy cotton from the Western Empire. We can’t sell what we don’t have, but there are still some nobles who stubbornly think we can. Our store in the public district is doing well enough, but since this store is mostly patronized by nobles, it’s having some trouble.” Commoners were willing to buy hemp underwear if there wasn’t any cotton available, so sales in the public district hadn’t changed from the previous year. However, the store in the shopping district was facing a slump. Every day, people came to complain that there was no cotton, and it had started to chase away even the customers who were shopping for other wares. Even if they put silk underwear out instead, nobody would buy them. It might turn out that this would be the first time a store Joshua had received from his father would be in the red.

“It’s so weird, y’know? Girls in the Western Empire don’t even wear cotton underwear. I guess people in the kingdom are more fervent believers or something?”

“What? Carlos, could you tell me more about that?” Carlos had thrown out some idle gossip to try and dispel the serious vibe, and Joshua seemed to have taken a shine to the topic.

“Oh? I guess you are about that age, aren’t you? Well, the women in the Western Empire are pretty assertive. Get a drink or two in ’em and—”

“I don’t care about that. Tell me about the underwear.” Joshua glared at Carlos.

“Heh heh, right. You are still young, huh? Kind of a relief, really. Makes sense that a healthy man in his teens would latch onto underwear talk.” Carlos grinned lecherously. Even if Joshua only talked about the state of the country or work, a man was still a man.

Joshua said nothing.

“Doesn’t matter whether it’s young baronesses or widowed marchionesses. They all wear silk undies in the Western Empire. I’m one of those who likes getting to take ’em off while we’re all hot and bothered, and without fail, I can tell by the texture that they’re silk. Though the quality varied from Pallas silk to Western imperial silk, y’know? I haven’t even seen commoner girls wearing cotton lately either. Just hemp and wool and stuff.” He hadn’t expected Joshua to listen so seriously to his underwear talk, so Carlos got quite detailed in his descriptions. “Wait...does this mean you’re one of those underwear fetishists?”

“You didn’t mention any of this in your regular reports, Carlos.”

“Uh... I mean, I just didn’t know how much you were into ’em, that’s all... So wait, should I make sure to remember the colors and sizes too? Or you want me to give you illustrations?”

“No.”

“Uh...” Man, working with other people’s fetishes is tough. I mean, he really doesn’t need to be getting into anything so niche at his age. Maybe it’s just because he’s working too hard. “For future reference, could you tell me which underwear you’re interested in? Bras or panties?”

“Both, obviously.”

“Right, so you like both equally... Man, you really are serious about this, huh?”

“When did cotton underwear fall out of style? And do the people of the Western Empire fully renew their underwear once a year as well?”

“Uh, no? I mean, it was only commoners who wore cotton underwear in the first place. Nobles all wear silk. And they don’t seem to renew all their underwear after the social season like we do in the kingdom either. I mean, a pair of Western imperial silk’ll last ya for about three months. Pallas silk can easily last for over a year. W-Well, I don’t know exactly how long they last, since my partners usually get caught cheating with me before two years are up.” Joshua already had a very serious expression, and it was getting scarier by the second. By the latter half, Carlos was practically racing to get the words out to the point where he was babbling about irrelevant details. He couldn’t believe that the young master was already such a twisted little pervert. It was a bit of a shock to the man who’d known the boy since he was so small.

“What about in the church? Do you know what material the nuns’ underwear is made of?”

“Whaaa?! Now listen here, pal, I might be a total playboy, but even I wouldn’t lay hands on a nun...more than once. Three times, actually. All of them were wearing Pallas silk, and the colors were surprisingly—”

“I don’t care about the colors.”

“O-Oh, right. Sorry.”

Young master, I’ve hung out with a lot of little perverts, but you’re the first one to be this obsessed with underwear, Carlos thought. He had to tip his hat to the kid, as Carlos apparently still had a ways to go in understanding the ways of the pervert.

◆ ◆ ◆

Joshua had had an inkling that the rule of cotton underwear had been spread by the church for the Western Empire’s benefit, but Carlos had made it sound like there was a cotton shortage in the Western Empire as well. Joshua thought the Western Empire had brought the worst-quality cotton they had to the kingdom to put them on the spot, but it seemed that wasn’t the case. Was their stock of magic stones running so low that they no longer had enough to help them harvest their cotton? If that were the case, it was entirely possible that the ships carrying the imperial army and weapons would be in the kingdom’s port sooner than he expected.

I just hope this doesn’t put Lady Emma in danger... Joshua sighed. These were all possible signs that pointed to the world’s first war drawing near.

Chapter 84: Playing with Kitties

“Myah?”

“Yeah, exactly!”

“Myaaaah?”

“Yeah, you’re doing great!”

“Myah myah?”

“Hee hee.”

“Mmmyah!”

“Who’s a good girl?”

In the wide-open Stewart family yard, as George and William were studying at school, Emma, Violet, the four cats, and the amblypygids were playing together. Things had been terribly crazy since they’d gotten back from the Eastern Empire, so it was the first time in a while since Emma had gotten to just enjoy hanging out with her cats and bugs.

Skitter skitter skitter skitter...

“Eeek!” Carlos, whom Joshua had brought with him to visit the Stewarts, let out a shriek. “Y-Young master, wh-what is all this?!”

Giant cats, giant spider, and an army of giant, horrifying bugs. While Carlos prided himself on being able to flirt with any lady out there, this was such an onslaught of horror that he had no idea where to even start.

“Master Joshua?” Unfortunately, Carlos’s last ray of hope was walking toward Emma, the cats, the spider, and the army of utterly horrifying bugs without any hesitation. “You’ve gotta be kidding me...” While every one of Joshua’s employees knew he was head over heels for Emma, Carlos couldn’t believe he could look at those bugs and not grimace in disgust.

“Lady Emma! I’ve come to deliver the goods you asked for.” He pushed his way through the massive bug army to get to Emma.

“Oh, Joshua!”

“Mya mya myah!”

Emma turned to face Joshua and waved with a smile.

“Wh-What are you making there?” He couldn’t see what she had been doing due to the bug swarm, but now that he’d gotten closer, he could see that the cats were flattening the ground under Emma’s orders.

“We’re thinking of building a couple of towers outta owatas!” Emma explained that they were planning on using the owata pieces they’d smuggled home from the Eastern Empire to make towers.

“Towers?” Joshua lowered his gaze to the detailed blueprints (that had been made under the guidance of the former construction foreman, George) Emma was holding. It looked less like a tower and more like a giant baumkuchen cake.

“Oh, Kongming! We’ve gotta make extra sure the ground is super solid, okay?”

“Myaah!”

On top of the perfectly pounded foundation, the amblypygids were lining up owata pieces without any spaces between, and the cats were leveling them with their paws.

“We’re gonna make these tall walls in the shape of a donut now. It’s a tower made out of owatas...an owatower!” Emma announced with a smug look. Unfortunately, she’d inherited her ability to name things from her father, Leonard.

“Wow. Interesting! You’re putting the owata building techniques you used in the Eastern Empire to use here.” While Joshua had been outfitting the canning factory, the Stewart family had been enthusiastically using owata parts to build an entire village, so a tower or two really was no surprise. The cats, the amblypygids, and Violet had all helped out in the Eastern Empire too, so they were used to it by now and were faster than even the most proficient carpenters.

The cats were leveling the ground with an adorable little bop bop sound, completely belying the power behind each strike, which sunk the owata pieces into the ground with perfect ease.

I’m gonna use this tower as a napping spot, so I’ve gotta do my best to make it nice and cozy! Kongming thought as she diligently leveled the ground.

Skitter skitter skitter skitter skitter...

“You keep it up too, little amblies!”

Skitter skitter skitter skitter!

The amblypygids were carrying great amounts of owata parts for the tall tower walls. With Violet sitting atop her head, Emma could see much farther than Joshua could, and she appeared to be issuing commands to amblypygids beyond his vision.

“Hee hee! I think we’ll finish our owatower a lot sooner than we thought with everyone working so hard!” This girl—who was grinning ear to ear, giggling and surrounded by cats and bugs—was the one everyone was gossiping about being on the verge of death at school.

“L-Lady Emma! Where would you like me to put the seesaw and the trampoline?” Carlos asked, pointing to the orders that were far too large to get into the yard without a carriage. He was too scared of the amblypygid swarm to get any closer.

“Oh, that’s not a seesaw! Could you bring those over here for me, little amblies?”

Skitter skitter skitter skitter! A few of the amblypygids began marching toward Carlos. She didn’t even need the cats to translate for her anymore; they were able to understand each other just fine.

Carlos shrieked as the over one-meter-long bugs began encroaching upon him.

“Carlos, these bugs are quite cute once you get used to them.” Joshua laughed as Carlos fell on his butt in fear.

“Oh, like hell they are!” Even in the midst of his fear and confusion, Carlos was still able to fire back a retort. The word “cute” had absolutely nothing in common with these bugs...these monsters. How the hell could anyone find them cute?!

And for that matter, could someone explain what the hell is happening here?! Why are the cats and bugs here so huge?! Could someone just, like, lay it all out for me so I can understand?! And if Lady Emma could stop talking to the cats and bugs like it was the most normal thing in the world, that’d be great too! She’s making me feel like I’m the weird one here! It took two horses to bring all that in, and these bugs are carrying it like it’s nothing at all! Like, could any of you be considerate of my feelings here? Could someone please explain all this?!

Carlos’s very justified pleas were, unfortunately, drowned out by the sound of the amblypygids’ skittering.

◆ ◆ ◆

“Myaaaaaaaaah!” The black cat, Guan, was jumping high in the sky on the Rothschild Company-quality trampoline that Joshua and Carlos had brought. The massive trampoline was made using the skin of the armored boar they’d eaten back in the Eastern Empire. It was specially made after careful trial and error to make sure it would be strong enough for even the kitties to play on.

“Myah!”

“Myaine!”

What Carlos had thought was a seesaw was actually a device used to fire balls in the air, though it still looked pretty much exactly like a seesaw. They’d place a ball on the end of the plank, then Liu would strike the other side of the plank as hard as she could, making the ball fly up in the air. The plank had been reinforced with owata shards to withstand the kitties’ playtime. Zhang was excitedly catching the ball whenever it flew up.

“Having fun, guys?”

“Myaaaaah!”

“I’m so glad! We haven’t been able to play much since we got back from the Eastern Empire, so I had a few toys made for you!”

“Mroowr!”

“Oh, no claws on the trampoline, Guan!”

“Myah myah!”

Guan answered Emma in midair. He hadn’t stopped jumping this whole time, so apparently he really had taken a liking to the trampoline.

“Um. So. What? What...is going on here?” Carlos really couldn’t believe his eyes. Both the seesaw (-looking thing) and the trampoline had been specially made by the best engineers the Rothschild Company had to offer. Since it was an order from the Stewart family, Carlos couldn’t have imagined what it was for, but he had been sure it was something that they would’ve used for monster hunting. They were using some of the highest-quality monster parts, so even just the materials cost a pretty penny. He never, in his wildest dreams, would have imagined they would be using them...on cat(?) toys...

“Wha... I...” The truth was, when Carlos heard Joshua was making a delivery to the Stewart family, he’d half forced his way into tagging along, hoping he could see Emma again, since it’d been so long. But this was way different than what he’d expected. He’d heard that she’d suffered a grievous wound when the first localized barrier crisis in the kingdom in decades had occurred. And though the scars had healed, Carlos had really been worried Emma would still be broken up about it. “But...she seems like she’s having a lot of fun...”

The scars on her cheek looked even worse than he’d imagined, and seeing her in such good spirits meant she wasn’t still upset by it, which was great and all but...there was so much to comment on here. Carlos had been in the Western Empire for ages and hadn’t seen Emma in about three years. Here Carlos was starting to wonder if the bug-obsessed girl might have grown up a little since then...but now he was starting to curse himself for having such a thought. Like, sure, she had gotten taller. And she was able to hold conversations better. And she definitely appeared older, and her personality was more grown-up. But that wasn’t the problem.

The daughter of a count was doing construction work. That was weird, right? And there were giant cats. That was weird, right? And there was a big, purple spider. That was weird, right? And then there was that swarm of bugs (who were giant for some reason) that she was calling her little “amblies.” Those weren’t the ones that were supposed to be used for that specialized medicine, right? They couldn’t be the same ones that the kingdom had begged the Western Empire for over and over again all those years ago, right? Was he just seeing things? Or maybe it wasn’t that the cats and bugs were giant. Maybe he’d just gotten small all of a sudden? Ugh, of course that wasn’t it.

“Make sure you take turns playing on them, okay? No fighting!”

“Myaaaaow!”

Skitter skitter skitter skitter skitter skitter!

The cats and bugs seemed to understand her perfectly too...

“Lady Emma? What’s going on here? Like, with this. And that. And everything.”

“Hee hee. What’s got you in such a tizzy, Carlos? Look at how much fun the cats are having!”

As a man experienced in the ways of business, Carlos knew it was rare for anyone to give clear explanations of anything and had mostly given up on expecting it. But today was the one time he wished with all his heart that someone would.

“Hee hee, look, Carlos! The amblies are playing on the trampoline too! Be careful, little amblies! You know your legs pop off easily!”

Skitter skitter skitter!

The giant “amblies” all raised their pedipalps as if to say Aye aye, captain!

Seeing all the giant bugs doing the same thing at the same time was so creepy. And horrible. And did Emma say that their legs pop off?!

“Hee hee! Maybe I’ll try jumping on it too?”

While Carlos was fighting off his fear, Emma really was excitedly rushing toward the trampoline.

“Whoa, wait! Please, just give me a simple explanation! Eek... Don’t leave me alone here!” Carlos didn’t have the confidence that he could maintain his sanity watching this incomprehensible scenario by himself.

Meanwhile, a little bit away from the excitement, Kongming and Joshua were watching over them.

“Myah?”

Suddenly, Joshua leaned up against Kongming’s back. “I’m so relieved to see Lady Emma smiling.” Feeling his weight up against her, Kongming turned around and saw Joshua whispering. He was trembling in a way that was very unusual for him. As he leaned against Kongming, he covered his face to hide the tears of relief streaming down his face. “I’m just...so glad...”

Joshua had been worried about her for so long. He’d been so worried he couldn’t even sleep. He’d seen Emma pushed to the brink that day. It wasn’t all that strange of a scenario, but something about it had baffled and terrified Emma. Yet Joshua had been unable to give her any clear answer or comfort as she’d clung to him and asked him how it was happening. All he could do was prioritize her safety and get her away from the scene.

“Thank you, General Kongming. Thank you for bringing back her smile again...” Emma was wearing that beautiful angelic smile that Joshua loved as she played with her amblypygids. There was no trace of the fear she’d shown back then.

“Myah myah!” (I didn’t need you to tell me to!) Kongming huffed through her nose. (You’re not the only one who loves her, you know.) “Myah?” Suddenly, Kongming felt Joshua’s weight sinking into her.

“Agh... I’m just...so...relieve—” Whether it was out of utter relief at the sight of Emma’s smile, whether his brain forced him to nap after his severe lack of sleep, or whether Kongming’s fluffiness lured him into dreamland, Joshua had fallen asleep right where he was.

“Myah myah...” (Well, okay then...) Kongming said, and slowly shifted her position to wrap herself around Joshua to make him more comfortable. (He worked extra hard this time, so I’ll let him have this one.)

“Huh? Did Joshua fall asleep?” Emma had just decided to take a break from the trampoline when she found Joshua fast asleep. Come to think of it, this might’ve been the first time she’d ever seen him sleeping.

“Myaaah.” (Let’s let him sleep for a little bit.) Kongming replied.

“Okay... Well, maybe I’ll get a little nap in too! Gosh, I’ve got it made, skipping school and taking a nap with the kitties!” Emma said as she snuggled on in next to Joshua. She was using Kongming’s tummy as a pillow and cuddled up close enough that her forehead was almost touching Joshua’s, but Emma didn’t really care much about that sort of thing. “You’re soooo fluffy... I bet anyone could fall asleep on you!”

“Myah!”

Emma began huffing Kongming’s fur, which was nice and warm in the autumn sun. “Aah... Just what I needed...” Kitties and sunlight were truly the perfect combination of smells.

Kongming felt the odd sensation of Emma’s sniffing and peered at her. “Myah myah?” (Why do humans always sniff us cats?)

“Hmm... Good question! Maybe...just ’cause you’re there? And you’re like...our drug of choice...” Emma tried to answer Kongming’s age-old question while fighting off sleep.

“Mrowr!” (Don’t call us drugs! We’re not gross or bad for you!) the extremely straitlaced Kongming replied, but her words simply couldn’t reach Emma anymore, as she was fast asleep on her comfortable kitty bed.

“Hey, Melsa?” Leonard called to his wife, who was perusing paperwork in the manor’s office. There was something that had been on his mind ever since their relatives had left.

“I’m guessing you’re wondering the same thing I am,” Melsa responded to her husband, who was rapidly embroidering some thick, winter sheets so beautifully they could be hung in a museum. He was likely going to ask about what he’d noticed as Emma had giddily introduced her amblypygids to her family before they left.

“There’s more of ’em, huh?” Leonard asked in an uneasy voice.

“Yeah...there are.” Melsa gave Leonard a look that said You noticed too, huh?

When the amblypygids had formed a file for the first time in ages, both of the parents seemed to have noticed that the ranks had increased again. The two sighed.

“I guess moving them to the cave might not’ve been the best idea, huh?” The cave did have plentiful food for them.

“They’ve gotten bigger too...”

It used to be that only the particularly big ones were over a meter long, but now almost all of them were over a meter long.

“Yeah... I thought we might’ve brought more big ones to the Eastern Empire, but...now I’m sure of it. Maybe it’s because we were feeding them monsters?” Leonard asked.

The two of them looked at each other in silence.

“Well, I guess it’s fine...as long as Martha doesn’t find out.” They said in unison, not wanting to think about it anymore. Honestly, the amblypygids listened better than the cats did. Their food was mostly covered by the things that lived in the caves, and their manor plot in the capital was big enough that they could easily keep more of them without it being too much trouble.

As long as Martha doesn’t find out.

“So we’re good, then?” Melsa began perusing her paperwork again.

“Yep, we’re good!” Leonard started embroidering faster.

The two of them agreed they could consider getting the amblypygids to help with hunting once they got back to Pallas.

“Ugh, it’s happening again...” William wrapped his arms around himself and crouched down. Every time he remembered Juana in her school uniform, he got chills up his spine.

“Don’t make me think about it too, William! You’re giving me goose bumps!” George said as he rubbed his arms.

“Why does this stuff always happen around Emma, anyway? What did she do in our previous life to make all this happen?” William asked.

“I mean, this time it wasn’t her fault, at least... She hadn’t gotten involved with anything she shouldn’t and nobody’s done anything to her...” George responded.

“But something’s definitely going to happen, huh?”

“Yeah, probably...but I’ve got bigger worries...”

The sun had gotten steadily stronger, but now was growing gentler as autumn began to set in. Students were now even using their break times for self-study here and there, because come winter, it was exam season. They still had a few months, but there were some who were getting a head start.

“You think I’m gonna pass Monster Studies...?” George wanted to get the beginner’s course out of the way on his first try, and he slumped his shoulders.

“You’re just gonna have to do your best, George.” William tried to comfort his brother...all the while thinking it was probably not going to happen.

Here they’d come to enjoy their life in this new world, but it felt like something particularly difficult was on the horizon. The family was desperately clinging to these peaceful moments, praying that it wouldn’t all amount to the calm before the storm.

Special Side Story 1: Robert’s Challenge

The poor village in the Lance region was bustling with energy. The potato harvest that Robert (Darius) had led them to was far greater than they’d expected.

“This is really somethin’... Who woulda thought we’d get so many outta these seeds?” the old woman remarked. No matter how much she dug and dug, more and more potatoes just came rolling out.

“We’ve gotta report this to the lord right away!” The old man grinned, carrying a hempen bag stuffed full of potatoes. With the profits from this harvest, he was sure they’d have a nice and warm winter this year. While raising these Impossible Crops that the lord had brought them on a whim was difficult, since they had managed to raise them, they had a guarantee that he’d buy them all up.

“These are real rare ’uns, so I bet he’ll buy ’em for a real high price!”

“I’m on the edge of my seat!”

“You and me both!”

The elderly folks in the poor village were filled with hope...but they had no idea the cold reality that awaited them: The lord they knew had lost every single one of the invaluable bugs the royal family had entrusted him with and had been imprisoned for it.

◆ ◆ ◆

“What do you mean you won’t buy them?” Robert (Darius) glared at the official and his unbelievable response.

“What makes you think we’d buy a dinky offering like this?” the official responded. No matter how many times Robert told him they were potatoes, the man refused.

“Look at them, you dolt! They’re potatoes! The lord brought them from another land, so they look a little different, but they’re still edible!” Robert had practically broken his back bringing the massive harvest from the poor village to the one where this official was stationed. The horses were aged and they didn’t have enough, so Robert had to rent a wagon with his own money. He’d managed to get here by the skin of his teeth, and now was sitting baffled by the official’s refusal to buy his potatoes.

“Oh, wait, is this that stuff the Western Empire foisted on the last lord? I guess those were potatoes, huh?” The official scratched his head as he inspected the inside of one of the hempen bags Robert had brought.

“The...last lord? What do you mean last lord?”

“Oh, you hadn’t heard? There’s a new guy in charge now. Last guy ticked off the royal family for the last time and got stripped of his peerage. They’ve got one of his relatives taking over the Lance peerage, and they’ve revised a bunch of the rules. So y’know... Sorry, but you’ve gotta go home with your potatoes, kid. I’m only allowed to buy whatever the lord says I can.”

“Sorry... What?” Robert couldn’t believe his ears. The last lord had...been stripped of his peerage?

“You wanna get mad, get mad at the guy who caused all this. Or wait, maybe it was his son? I don’t really know the details, but I guess when his no-good son caused a huge scene, all the lord’s other nefarious schemes were brought to light.”

The Lance family, with such noble blood in its veins, had fallen from power. And it was all because of their no-good son. In other words...it was all Robert’s fault.

“You...must be joking.” Robert couldn’t believe a family with royal blood in their veins could have been smited so easily. They weren’t as untouchable as he’d once thought. He knew from the conversations he’d overheard while in jail that his father’s crimes were akin to betraying the royal family itself. Yet he still hadn’t surmised it could have turned this badly. He’d truly underestimated how bad it could have been. “Wh-What about the younger sister?! Wh-What’s going on with Lila?!”

Robert recalled his younger sister’s face. While he knew what he and his father had done was bad, his sister, Lila, hadn’t done anything wrong.

The official raised an eyebrow. “What, you got a crush on her or somethin’? Look, I dunno how you know her, but I heard she got married off to some viscount near the border.”

“A viscount?!”

“Oh yeah, and he’s apparently thirty years older than her too. Poor girl had to get caught up in her family’s stupidity.” Though the official was saying he felt bad for her, he seemed to think it was all awfully funny.

“N-No... Lila...” Though they had different mothers, his sister still had the same royal blood in her veins. That she should be forced to marry a viscount who was that much older than her, near the border of the barrier, was what finally made Robert realize just how horrible his actions had been.

His own punishment had been to work in this impoverished village, tilling the soil, caring for the seeds, and using whatever he harvested to compensate for the damages he’d caused. He’d even started to find it fun, deep down in his heart. But while he was happily tilling the fields, his sister was suffering.

“Anyway, go on. Take those weird potatoes of yours and get on back home. We’ve got our hands full with our own harvest season, and we don’t have time to deal with you. Now get.” The official shooed the noble-blooded Robert away like he would a stray dog.

His father, the lord of the land, had fallen from grace. His sister had been married off to some old viscount in the sticks. Nobody would buy the potatoes he’d worked so hard to cultivate. All of it was such horrible news, and he couldn’t respond to any of it. All he could do was return to the poor village with a heavy heart.

◆ ◆ ◆

“C’mon, Darius (Robert). Let’s getcha smilin’ again.”

“It’s a cryin’ shame... After you had to use yer own money carryin’ all of ’em too...”

“The lord is always breakin’ his promises. We shoulda told ya sooner. Even if he didn’t buy the potatoes from ya, at least we’ll be able to stave off starvation through the winter, and it’s all thanks to your hard work, Darius (Robert).”

The elderly villagers didn’t blame Robert (Darius) one bit when he came back with the same amount of potatoes as when he’d left. They’d had their hopes dashed in outrageous ways time and time again in this land, so they’d grown used to giving up on it. But while they tried to comfort him by blaming the lord, it was nothing more than salt in the wounds for the Lance family son, Robert.

The village wasn’t that far from the capital, but it had a harsh winter ahead. Even with their potatoes, there weren’t any trees in the barren land around them that could have served as firewood, so it would be difficult to fight the cold. Robert had assimilated into the village enough to imagine at that point. It was filled with elderly people who were mere skin and bones, so he couldn’t know how many of them would make it through the winter.

“I’ll...use this to buy us some firewood.” On the table, Robert placed the leather bag of copper coins he’d received from the knight who’d left him there. He wanted to at least atone for it all. The bag had originally been heavy with coins, but with all the daily costs of living and the carriage he’d paid for that day, it had grown awfully light.

“But that’s the money you worked so hard to save up in the capital!”

“You don’t gotta worry about us none, son. We’ll make do.”

“We can’t let a youngin’ like you keep payin’ for us old folks.”

The villagers all said they couldn’t accept Robert’s money and put the bag back in his hands, their wrinkles deepening as they smiled.

Robert had a realization. Those warm, affectionate smiles had given him déjà vu. Suddenly, Emma Stewart’s smile rose in the back of his mind. Why was the girl he’d been so cruel to always smiling like that? The elderly villagers’ smiles, so full of affection, resembled Emma Stewart’s smile for some reason. It warmed his heart with a feeling so tender and sweet, but gave him a tightness in his chest all the same. That smile filled him with confusing feelings...and Robert was the one who had taken that smile from her in such a horribly malicious manner.

Thinking back on it, he really was just a huge idiot who had wanted her to look his way. He wanted someone as special as her to think of him as someone special too. Or rather, he thought she should have seen him as special without needing to be told. He just hadn’t realized how mistakenly he’d gone about it.

Robert hadn’t known how to be loved. His father and his stepmother had never given it to him, nor did they ever pay him any mind. That was why he was so envious of her, the girl everyone loved.

Robert began to sob. He’d never wanted to know, let alone acknowledge, that he’d never been loved before. It was just too sad and miserable, and it hurt his heart to think about it.

He was so scared of being alone.

As the son of a duke with royal blood in his veins, he’d never wanted to know that he was afraid of something so small. In fact, he couldn’t let himself know. He wouldn’t have been able to live with himself if any lower-class people started pitying him.

“Oh, Darius (Robert)... Please don’t cry.”

“It’s okay. You’ve got nothin’ to worry about. When you get to our age, you’ll see life is full of hardships. But we almost always make it through!”

“You said it! And it’s times like these we’ve gotta eat up. Havin’ a full belly will make it so all those sad, painful, unfair things will feel a little less awful.”

“Ain’t nothin’ worse than an empty stomach. And if ya think of it that way, we’ve got it mighty good, since we’ve got all these potatoes you helped us grow, Darius (Robert). We’ve got a real feast!”

The elderly villagers all gave Robert gentle words of encouragement and patted his head as tears streamed down his face.

“Hic... Y-You have it...good?”

“Darn tootin’! We’re all like family here, and knowin’ our family don’t gotta worry about starvin’ through the winter means we’ve got it made!” An old woman cackled before the sobbing boy. The one youngster in the village was now everyone’s beloved grandson. He had a foul mouth, but he’d become a real hard worker, and everyone had learned to love him for it.

“All right, y’all, I steamed up them potatoes, so let’s eat up, Darius (Robert). You ain’t got nothin’ to worry about. Just eat ’em while they’re hot, y’hear?” Nobody had eaten the potatoes since the lord said he’d be buying them all up, but now the old ladies of the village had prepared some for Robert.

“Hot, hot, hot! Oh, but what a smell!”

“They get soft when ya heat ’em up, just like regular potatoes! Hot, hot!”

“Go on, Darius! They’re pipin’ hot!”

Even if they’d tended to the crops themselves, all of the villagers were a bit hesitant to try them for the first time. They blew on them to cool them down.

“Hot hot hot... Ooh, they’re red on the outside, but orange on the inside.”

“Hngh... Think I’m gonna need ta toughen up to eat this...”

“W-We’ll eat it on the count of three! And that means you too, Darius (Robert)! No waitin’ ’til we’ve all tried it to eat!”

Even though they were worried after having seen the color on the inside, they knew if they weren’t able to eat these, then they’d starve through the winter.

“Ready? Three...two...one!” At the old woman’s voice, the other villagers and Robert steeled their nerves and bit into their potatoes.

“It’s so sweet!”

“Sure is!”

“It’s so soft and the sweetness is so strong! Dontcha think, Darius (Robert)?”

“Yeah... It sure is.”

The potatoes really were sweeter than he could’ve imagined, and their mild flavor brought tears to his eyes.

◆ ◆ ◆

The next day, Robert was muttering to himself, his arms crossed as he looked down at the great number of potatoes with a testy expression.

“What’s the matter, Darius (Robert)?” an old woman asked him. At that, Robert nodded as though he’d made up his mind and turned to face her.

“I’m thinking I might go to sell these.” If the lord wouldn’t buy them up, then he could just sell them himself. “They’re so sweet, I just know they’ll sell.” Unlike the sweets they made at the patissieries in the capital, these potatoes had a mild sweetness that even Robert, with his discerning tongue, honestly found delicious.

“Well... I dunno how well that’ll work out, hon.” The old woman seemed to disapprove.

“Why not? You all said they were good too.”

“Well, people like us don’t buy food we’ve never seen before. We can’t afford to mess up when it comes to food, y’see. We can’t do none of that money math neither. Buying and selling means you gotta keep track of the money coming and going, right? We always just sold it for however much that government official wanted, and whenever we’re buyin’ stuff, we just buy it at the price already set.”

The people of this impoverished village were never afforded the opportunity to get an education. They never learned their letters or numbers, so they just had to depend on the word of someone who had when they bought and sold goods.

“But that just means you won’t even know if someone’s taking advantage of you! You wouldn’t be able to get adequate compensation for a bountiful harvest like we have here!”

“Not much to be done about it. That’s just how it’s always been.”

This was a major problem from Robert’s perspective, but the villagers couldn’t help not understanding, so he just let it slide. They’d likely been exploited for ages. Robert’s father had always said it was a waste to give peasants an education. It cost money, after all, and had no benefits to the Lance family whatsoever.

What had Robert done when he heard that? Had he just agreed without thinking any further about it?

It wasn’t nearly as simple as his father made it sound. People who couldn’t read or understand math would never be able to utilize any windfalls that could have possibly come their way. They wouldn’t have anyone who’d know how to help them escape any disasters that might suddenly befall them either.

Robert’s father was wrong.

These past few months he’d spent in the village had made Robert lose all respect for his father. If he’d inherited the Lance family as the person he had been back then, what would’ve happened to these people?

And what would happen if he’d inherited it now?

What was it he could do for the people of this village?

Robert thought long and hard about what he could do. Regardless of his grades, he had been receiving the greatest education the kingdom had to offer. What could he have to offer this village? It was the first time he’d ever thought so hard on someone else’s behalf.

“I’m going to borrow another horse,” Robert said, deciding to use the last of the money the knight had given him for the village.

The old woman looked confused. “To do what? That official said he wasn’t gonna buy yer potatoes!”

“There’s a large road running north and south a little bit away from here. Merchants use it to go to and from the capital and other areas. I’m going to sell our potatoes there.” If people weren’t going to buy the potatoes here, then he’d just have to sell them somewhere else.

“But Darius... Them merchants are real stingy with their coin. I don’t think they’d spend much on some potatoes they’ve never seen before.” While merchants had occasionally come to the village, the old woman didn’t have a good impression of them.

“I’ll set the price. They won’t get a say in the matter. I’ll set it a bit higher than the price of regular potatoes and see how it goes. If business seems bad, I’ll change it. And since they’re potatoes...we can make it so they can see and try them before they buy it. We’ll sell some potatoes they can eat right there on the spot,” Robert began moving toward making these ideas bubbling up in him a reality. “Potatoes taste best when they’re hot, so we can put some hot stones in the box with them. That way, they’ll be cooked all the way through when we get there and be ready to eat. People on the road will likely stop for us when they smell the potatoes.”

Robert had become this world’s very first stone-roasted sweet potato salesman.

◆ ◆ ◆

“Ain’t nobody comin’, huh?” the old woman who tagged along with Robert said.

It had been about a week since Robert had made the suggestion, and they’d not missed a single day coming to sell their potatoes, but all they’d managed to sell were a few of the ready-cooked potatoes and a single bag of the raw ones.

“Well, there was that one group, but it sure was an ordeal...” The old man who’d tagged along began to shudder at the old woman’s comment. There was a single carriage that had stopped for them, and the three men inside were definitely not the type you’d want to hang around.

“I’ve never seen anyone who looked that nasty before,” the old woman agreed. Even in the great, wide world of the capital, they’d had an intimidating presence and such terrifying faces that it was unlikely most would ever approach them. All of them had it as well, meaning they were the worst ruffian customers around.

“I think the younger ones were callin’ one of ’em uncle...? I’m thinkin’ it’s one of them groups what use familial nicknames and all, and the older guy was the don of some big gang everyone in the capital knows,” the old man said, feeling certain based on his many long years lived.

“But Darius (Robert) held his own sellin’ them potatoes to ’em, even while quakin’ in his boots.” The old woman looked toward where Robert was standing. Even though his knees had shaken at their terrifying presence, he hadn’t run away and left his elderly companions behind when they couldn’t do the same. Even with his voice cracking, he’d still answered all their questions too.

“He’s a real good kid.”

“That he is.”

The two old folks admired their “grandchild,” who had grown so reliable in the past several months, he was nearly unrecognizable from the day he’d arrived. Even though he had hardly sold any potatoes, seeing how much he’d grown was a gift in itself.

“You there!”

Just as the old folks were feeling all warm and fuzzy, they heard voices calling for them.

“Did you hear that?”

“Hmm? It sounded like someone calling out to us...”

The two looked out at Robert, who was frantically waving his hand to try and flag down a passing carriage. It didn’t seem like he’d heard the voices. But if the only young one among them couldn’t hear it...

“Have the angels come for us already?!” Just as the two made their terrible old-people joke, they saw a familiar carriage in the distance barreling toward them.

“D-Darius (Robert)! Watch out!”

“Th-Those mafia men are back!”

It was the carriage those ruffian types who’d bought the potatoes from them had been riding in.

“Was there a problem with our potatoes?”

“Should we run?”

While the two panicked and threw out ideas, that familiar carriage had already reached Robert and had come to a stop.

“I forgot!” The carriage those men were riding had been faster than any other carriage the pair had seen before, both when the ruffians had first come to buy the potatoes and now. They couldn’t run even if they’d wanted to. That speed made them wonder if they’d doped up their horses somehow—not that they thought anyone would ever do such a thing.

“Man, what a relief you’re still here!” The youngest of the ruffians hopped down from the coachman’s position and put his hand to his chest in relief.

Though Robert had been frantically waving down carriages, even he’d realized who it was and his voice cracked. “Eep! I-It’s you!” These were the only people who’d bought potatoes from him. They were the types of people you never wanted to get involved with, and he was just as scared of them on his second meeting as he had been the first time. “S-Sorry, sir... Was there a problem with the potatoes?” Robert asked, hopelessly expecting them to say the potatoes had made their boss sick or something.

“Oh, there sure as hell was.” A middle-aged man, who looked like the right-hand man, popped his head out of the carriage.

No matter how bad these people might have been, money was money. And that money would be used to get firewood for the village. That was why he’d sold these people potatoes in the first place, shaking all the while, but now it was coming back to bite him. Robert cursed his past self.

“I-I’m so sorry, but...it would be very difficult for us to, erm...pay any damages...” Robert had used up all the copper coins the knight had given him, and nobody else had bought any potatoes. There was no way he’d be able to compensate anyone for any issues.

“Damages? For what? You hurt or somethin’?” After the right-hand man came another middle-aged man who seemed to be the boss of them all.

“Oh...” Robert said. At least he seems healthy... he thought. “Eek!”

Unfortunately, just as Robert was comforting himself that the boss was in good health, the younger man who’d hopped down first cracked his neck to the side.

“Our little angel’s taken an interest in those potatoes of yours.”

“Eeeeek! I-I’m so sorry! I— Wait, what?” Robert immediately started apologizing out of fear, but once he actually took in what the man had said, he realized he’d praised him.

“You got any more of these potatoes?” The right-hand man held out the bag of raw potatoes they’d bought a few days back.

“W-We do... They’re, er...” Robert’s legs were shaking just as badly as they had been the first time around. He looked to the cart he’d put all of his potatoes on. The villagers who should’ve just left Robert in the dust were faithfully still watching over the cart and looking worriedly at him.

The boss glanced at the cart and glared at Robert.

“That all you got?”

“S-Sorry?”

“I’m askin’ if you got any more.”

“Eep! I-If you don’t mind them raw...we have plenty more at our village.” The cart was packed to the brim because they hadn’t sold a single potato that day, but it seemed like that wasn’t enough for the man. Robert was too scared to lie to him.

“Great. We’ll buy everything you’ve got in the village, then.”

“Huh?”

“I’m sayin’ we want all your uncooked potatoes.” As the boss spoke, his right-hand man opened up an attaché case. It honestly seemed more like the kind of scene one would see during an illicit drug deal.

“Will this be enough?”

“Wh— Is this gold?!” There were more gold coins packed into the attaché case than Robert had ever seen in his life, even as the legitimate son of a duke.

“Hmm? Oh, right. Might be tough to exchange gold coins around here, huh?” The right-hand man knocked his forehead for forgetting in his haste.

“I-If possible, I’d like copper coins.” With that much gold, Robert could have paid back the restitution he owed and had plenty left over to boot. He could have finally left that crappy old village and gotten back to living the noble life again...but Robert instead requested copper.

He couldn’t buy firewood to help the village survive the winter with gold coins. Blankets, coats, preserved foods, and other things the village would need could only be bought with copper, as gold wasn’t used out there.

If Robert had to choose between living in the village or living as a noble, he would absolutely choose his old life. But if he had to choose between saving his father or the elderly villagers, Robert’s answer would be the complete opposite. Even now, those same villagers were watching him with concern as he was surrounded by the ruffians.

“Hmm... Well, I wish we could make a deposit of some kind... All right, in a little under an hour, a Rothschild Company carriage will come by and pick up those potatoes. You think you can wait ’til then?” The right-hand man seemed to be nervously looking back at the carriage, stating he didn’t have much time to hang around.

“Huh?”

“We’ve gotta get back home on the double. If you can wait another hour, that Rothschild Company carriage should catch up to ya. Just don’t sell any of those potatoes to anyone else until then, okay?”

“Uh...?”

Why could they have wanted those potatoes so badly? Robert couldn’t hide his confusion.

“Come on, Zack. We’ve gotta get goin’ if we don’t want Arven to chew us out even more.” The boss placed his hand on the door of the carriage and hurried his right-hand man on.

The youngest man was already back up in the coachman’s seat. “It’s because we stayed as long as we possibly could in the capital.”

“I know, okay?! Look, when the merchant comes here, show him this and they’ll pay you. I’m pretty sure they’ll know what to do. All right? I’m counting on you, kiddo.” The right-hand man took a handkerchief out of his breast pocket, shoved it at Robert, and hopped back into the carriage.

“Huh? But I... Huh? Wha?” Robert wanted to press him for what they were going to use the potatoes for, but the carriage was already off before he could. “Damn, those horses are fast...” All Robert could do was watch the carriage ride off into the distance.

“What’d you get there, Darius (Robert)?” the old man asked curiously as he approached. They hadn’t been able to hear most of the conversation, but the old woman breathed a sigh of relief seeing that Robert was safe.

“Oh, uh... They said they’d...buy all our potatoes...” As Robert answered, he unfolded the soft handkerchief the right-hand man had given him and his eyes widened. On the edge of it was an embroidered cat-print crest. “This is...Emma silk, isn’t it?! Then that’s from the Stewart family! Why?! Why would the Stewart family be buying my potatoes?!”

He couldn’t fathom it. This was supposed to be Robert’s punishment. He’d caused a horrible scene trying to torment such a poor, young girl.

“Darius (Robert)?”

“What’s the matter?”

The villagers asked Robert as he stood transfixed by the handkerchief, but he didn’t respond.

“Just...how good-natured can you be, Emma Stewart?!” Robert fell to his knees. Was she trying to save him? Was she trying to say she forgave him, even after the awful things he’d done to her? “Hah... Ha ha... Wow... She really is a saint...” Robert said, looking up at the sky at the clear show of the difference in their character.

“Hmm? What’s all this about the saint, Darius (Robert)?”

“Hmm? Did you see the saint, Darius (Robert)?”

After hearing the word “saint,” the villagers’ eyes lit up. To the impoverished villagers, stories about saints were the height of entertainment. They began bombarding him with questions: Was it true that she’d saved the slums? Was it true that she’d personally cured people with incurable diseases?

“Yeah.” Robert laughed to himself. That all had happened, hadn’t it? He could only laugh at how his past self had been unable to just accept that as truth.

“‘Yeah’ isn’t gonna cut it, Darius (Robert)! You’ve gotta tell us more!”

“You can’t keep your stories about her all to yourself!”

The villagers couldn’t possibly have known how their questions poured salt on Robert’s already terribly wounded pride. Talking about the saint—in other words, Emma—meant remembering his worst moments. Yet even still...she was willing to forgive him. Therefore, Robert spent the next hour until the merchants showed up telling the two about the saint, unaware that he was proselytizing for her even further.

Talking about the saint was just entertainment for the villagers. As the stories passed from person to person, more and more embellishments would be added. As such, the rumors about a false saint that had been spread throughout the capital were stopped in full in that village. Then, those legends that had been deeply embellished seemed to follow the sweet potatoes all the way back to the capital again.

Special Side Story 2: Excitement on the Border

On the border land of Pallas...

“Lord Arven!” A hunter burst into the office where the acting lord of the Pallas region, Arven, was at work without even knocking. “You’ve gotta come quick! A red monstaurus appeared!”

“A red monstaurus?!” Arven stopped staring at his paperwork and stood up.

“L-Lord Zack and Lord Guillermo are holding it off right now!” The hunter had ridden on horseback as quickly as possible from the forest near the barrier to the Stewart household, and he was very out of breath.

“I’ll join them. Show me the way!” Normally, Arven would have told the panting hunter to rest before heading out again, but things were different when it came to monstauruses. Especially red ones. Arven grabbed his favorite bow (which Emma had gifted him) and rushed out of the office.

Monstaurus were extremely special monsters to hunters and lords of the border alike. To put it simply, they were extremely profitable. Black monstaurus were more delicious than any other monster meats, and they fetched a high price as a result. Monstaurus were several sizes larger than a regular cow, so managing to hunt three black monstaurus would be enough to feed the whole region through the winter. Unlike hunters from other lands, Pallas hunters would do more than just slay the beast. The know-how on draining the blood, removing poisons, butchering the meat, and preparing monsters to be as tasty as possible had been practically pounded into their skulls by the Stewart family. All the nitty-gritty field dressing details were documented on Emma’s monster karuta set as well. Unfortunately, none of that was likely to appear on any of George’s tests.

At Emma’s suggestion, they’d begun a marketing campaign to make Pallas brand monster products that were far tastier than any other land’s. Pallas’s Special Black Monstaurus was especially popular. It was just as Emma said: Just one bite was enough to prove just how much better it was than anything else, and word of mouth was increasing sales little by little.

There were also brown monstaurus, which had meat that was too tough to eat but milk that was safe for humans to drink. Since they were monsters, it was impossible to raise them like cattle, so one had to find the opportune moment to milk them during the hunt in order to get any. It took considerable skill and was especially dangerous to attempt as the beast was frenzying, but no hunters in Pallas were so timid as to back down from a challenge like that. Afterward, one just had to pasteurize it the same way one would with normal milk to make it safe for drinking or making dairy products like cheese, butter, or cream. Naturally, since Emma always loved sweet whipped cream, her relatives always took the initiative to milk any monstaurus they encountered.

On Emma’s suggestion, they quickly branded this as Pallas’s Special Jersey Monstaurus Milk the year before. Nobody knew what “Jersey” meant, but none in the Stewart family or the Rothschild Company would ever go against Emma’s will.

In restaurants around Pallas, Melsa came up with the idea of melting Jersey Monstaurus Cheese with some white wine and serving it as a dip with bread and vegetables, which had started gaining steady popularity as Pallas’s local monster cheese fondue. Melsa only taught people in the Pallas region how to make it, so people had started coming from far away specifically to try this famous monster cheese fondue. Until that point, people had avoided the border lands due to the risk of monster encounters, but the monster cheese fondue had now brought tourism to the Pallas region.

Then there was the red monstaurus, as was just reported. It very rarely appeared, it wasn’t edible, and its milk wasn’t suitable for human consumption. However, red monstaurus were more valuable than black or brown ones, and it wasn’t even a contest.

A red monstaurus’s value was in its tears. Their tears had a nourishing effect on the body, so that even a sip of them diluted in water a thousand times was enough to make one able to work for half a month without sleep. It was definitely like doping, but despite their incredible properties, they had no side effects whatsoever. They couldn’t cure anyone of their illnesses, but they’d give them enough energy that they felt like they could practically fly. To nobles who placed so much importance on leaving a legacy, it sounded like a miracle drug. These tears fetched an unbelievably high price, but even when they were put on the market, they’d apparently be sold out almost immediately.

While they’d planned on branding this, “Red Monstaurus Energy: The Drink That Gives You Monster-ous Energy,” red monstaurus appeared so infrequently that they were simply forced to wait until they could obtain more of the necessary ingredients.

These special brands, known as the Monstaurus Series, were known for their quality and scarcity, and now stood right alongside Pallas’s silk as Pallas’s main products.

The acting lord of Pallas rode out to the hunting grounds to hunt the red monstaurus himself and bring even greater prosperity to his land...or rather, so Emma could have the complete monstaurus series she wanted so badly. Red monstaurus were also far more vicious and dangerous than black or brown ones, so Arven and plenty of other hunters had to be there to deal with them.

“Agh, Arven! Hurry!” Upon arriving at the hunting grounds, he found Guillermo holding off the monstaurus. When he noticed Arven, he shouted out. They had to harvest the red monstaurus’s tears while it was still alive, which was extremely difficult. Freshness was key when it came to monsters. Whether it was tears or milk, the taste would be significantly worse if they’d tried to harvest it after death.

“Guillermo’s obscenely strong as ever...” Arven couldn’t help but be a bit intimidated when he saw his cousin. Guillermo was doing almost all the heavy lifting, holding off the massive monstaurus.

“Seriously, get a move on, Arven! I’m just about at my limit! Oh, shoot!” Guillermo lost his balance as the monstaurus huffed and writhed against him. “Quit fightin’ back, damn you!” he said, and put more muscle into his efforts. Blood vessels were pulsing at the surface of his thick neck and arms.

“All right, which one are we going to do...?” Arven pulled out the monster karuta card for red monstaurus from his breast pocket. Since red monstaurus were so rare, they hadn’t managed to test any theories on them. Information about the monsters was on there, but nothing about how to extract their tears. However, there were also many stickers on the sets where Emma had written a few ideas off the cuff.

Sing “Donnya Donnya” to them.

Read them a really sad story.

Do really weird faces or tell such a good joke that they laugh until they cry.

Put mint oil around their eyes.

Hold their eyes open so they can’t blink, and their eyes start to dry.

“What’s a ‘Donnya Donnya’...?” The paper said he was supposed to sing it, so he could tell it was a song, but he’d never heard the title before. Maybe it was because he’d gone off to college in the capital for so long, but Arven had been feeling like he understood what Emma was talking about less and less these days. He’d heard children grow up fast, but this little moment was enough to make his heart ache. “Ough... I miss Emma...” When Emma hadn’t come home for summer vacation, he felt more distant from her than ever before.

“Wha—Arven, what the hell?! Nobody asked for your tears! We need this damn bull’s tears already! Hurry up already before I...can’t hold on any... Ack!” While the niece-brained Arven was crying about Emma, Guillermo’s strength gave out. The red monstaurus shook him off and began stamping its front legs on the ground menacingly, preparing to charge.

“Look out!”

“Agh!”

“Hold your shields steady!”

The hunters all grew distressed at the sight of the freed monstaurus. With the thing’s massive size, getting charged by it head-on was bound to kill them, and the now excited monstaurus was aiming right for Arven.

“Lord Arven!”

Arven wasn’t a meathead like Guillermo, so even if he’d managed to move out of the way of its initial charge, he wouldn’t have been able to recapture it.

“Sorry, Arven! I can’t feel my hands anymore!” Guillermo had been holding the red monstaurus off for so long, his arms had finally given out.

“Eek! Lord Arven! Let’s just give up on the tears!” one of the hunters screamed.

“You can probably defeat it with your bow, Lord Arven!”

If Arven waited for Guillermo to recover, it would mean every one of the hunters there would be sitting ducks for the monstaurus to attack.

“I guess...I have to.” While harvesting those tears would have been a tremendous financial boon for the land, life was far more important. Arven fixed the grip on the bow Emma gave him.

“Whoa there! Not on my watch!” A loud impact that sounded almost like a bomb exploded along with a mystery voice.

“Lord Gane!”

Leonard and Arven’s uncle, Gane, took the monstaurus’s charge head-on. The monstaurus kept stamping the ground trying to push back against him, but Gane wasn’t budging.

“You seriously got outdone by a monstaurus like this, Guillermo?” Gane gritted his teeth and lifted the creature, which was several times his size, up in the air.

“Uncle Gane?!” Guillermo gasped. His hunting grounds were far from Gane’s, so there was no reason he should’ve been there.

“Thank goodness we happened to be passing by.” Guillermo’s father, Zack, appeared behind him.

“Dad?!” Guillermo turned around when he heard his dad’s voice.

“All righty, let’s tie this puppy’s front and back legs with this thread. Think you could put it down for me, Gane?” Zack pulled a purple thread from his breast pocket and asked his brother to drop his catch.

“Oh, that must be Violet’s thread!” Arven’s eyes lit up at the sight of it.

“Yeah, it’s the spider webbing that was wrapped around those jerks who attacked Emma way back when. Thought it was pretty interesting, so I asked Leonard for some. It’s ridiculously tough. You can pull on it like crazy and it never rips. It’s great for tying up monsters.” It was the very same thread Violet had used to tie up the ruffians who’d tried to catch the four cats to make some quick coin. Zack had taken an interest in how sturdy the webbing was and tried all sorts of things with it, and found he could reuse it as well.

As a sidenote, it was obvious to say the ruffians who’d attacked Emma in the Pallas region had gotten a thorough lesson from the Stewart extended family to make sure they would never misbehave again.

“Ugh. My knots always come out so crooked,” Zack said as he attempted to tie the thread around the monstaurus’s front legs in a knot, but it just wasn’t working out. “If Emma were here, she’d say, ‘Unkie Zack, your knot’s all cattywampus!’ and fix it for me.” It was such a shame he couldn’t see those tiny hands working so hard trying to fix the knot for him, Zack thought with a sigh.

“Don’t remind me, Zack! Ough... My heart!” Hearing his little brother’s quiet lament, Gane, who had easily lifted the massive beast just moments before, clutched at his breast.

“I miss Emma...”

“Why couldn’t she have just let that faraway country be...”

There the red monstaurus was, mooing thunderously after being tied up. And there the two older men were, feeling miserable.

“Er... L-Lord Arven? We should probably extract those tears...” The other Pallas hunters were awkwardly trying to get the acting lord to continue his work. They’d suggested giving up on the tears when their lives were in danger, but even a regular hunter knew that red monstaurus tears would bring even more prosperity to the already prosperous Pallas region.

Even when red monstauruses did appear, they very rarely could extract any of their tears. Since the price was hiked up due to scarcity and the demand was quite high, they really would yield an unimaginably high profit for the region.

“Right... We’ll just have to try every method Emma wrote in her monster karuta set.” Arven showed Gane, Zack, and Guillermo the card in his hand.

After a brief moment of silence, Gane clutched at his breast again.

“Egads... It’s so adorable...” Most people would have just said to hurt the monstaurus to make it cry, but Emma’s suggestions were all so kind.

“Read them stories? Man, that takes me back to when Emma and I were reading books about bugs together three years ago...” Zack went back to his memories to chase away the reality that Emma wasn’t there with him right now.

“Making it laugh with weird faces and jokes?! Where does she get these ideas?!” Guillermo wanted to see Emma do funny faces so badly. He just knew they’d be the cutest expressions ever.

“So, uh... I’ve, er...never heard of any monsters that understand our language...” One of the newer hunters said to the more experienced hunters. Arven was singing the mysterious “Donnya Donnya” song (he’d never even heard of it, so he pretty much was just making it up on the spot), Zack was telling the saddest story he knew (how Emma had gone to school and not come back home for the summer break) with extensive emotion, Guillermo was doing his best to make funny faces (and they were all scary, just scary as hell) and tell jokes (which were all terrible, just terrible as hell).

“Watch your mouth, greenhorn. They’re doing the best they can right now. They believe Emma’s methods will work no matter what.” The more experienced hunter admonished the newer one, though he was secretly thinking Arven’s singing was atrocious. The Stewart family were all notoriously tone-deaf.

“Wait, they are?! That’s them doing their best?” The newbie was trying his hardest not to laugh at the bizarre scene before him. The acting lord was a horrible singer, Zack was bringing himself to tears with his story, and Guillermo kept making terrifying faces and telling awful jokes one after another.

“That’s how all men of the Stewart family are destined to be. It’s unavoidable.”

“Are you sure they’re not cursed?!” If something like this hadn’t happened, they never would have known that such a cool, stoic beauty like Lord Arven was completely tone-deaf. They never would have seen the intelligent Lord Zack, who could defeat a monster with maximum efficiency, bringing himself to tears telling stories to a cow monster. And Lord Guillermo...he’d just been telling the same joke over and over again now. Had he run out of jokes? Or did he just really like that one? And if he just really liked it...that joke of all of them? The one about the monstaurus being ground beef now? It wasn’t funny. It seriously wasn’t funny. “C-Come to think of it, what’s Lord Gane doing...?”

Gane was always the loudest of the group, but he was awfully quiet then. The new hunters looked over to him and saw him digging around in his pocket for something.

“Was it this pocket? Or my inner pocket? Oh, there it is!” Gane pulled out a tiny bottle from his breast pocket.

“I-Is that what I think it is?!” The new hunters had seen a bottle like that before. Gane was clutching a bottle of breath freshener, called Mintsk. The Rothschild Company had started selling it at some point last year. It was a product that advertised, “One spray of mint oil will turn your breath minty fresh!”

After Emma had been injured in the localized barrier crisis, the family had ordered her to recuperate at home (“For the love of all that’s holy, please just behave!”) for quite a long time. As a result of having too much time on her hands, she had come up with a ton of new product ideas and told them all to Joshua of the Rothschild Company, who had come over practically every day to check on her. Joshua was a freak who would always use every single one of Emma’s ideas. With the rush of new products coming out of the Rothschild Company last year, the new hunters were wondering what part of this constituted “recuperating” for her. However, the hunters who worked with the Stewart family for some time kept saying things had grown so much more peaceful once Emma stopped leaving the house, so the newbies came to the conclusion that it was likely the Stewart family recuperating from her instead.

“I never expected Lord Gane would be worried about his breath...” Gane was the cream of the crop among the Stewarts, and the most rugged of the bunch. The fact that he was carrying around a little travel-sized breath spray was actually quite charming to the newbie hunters.

Like the others, Gane believed in Emma’s ideas one hundred percent and was trying them out.

“Mooooooo!” The red monstaurus’s cry practically shook the earth, as a bunch of old men were, very seriously, trying out Emma’s ideas.

It was...utterly ridiculous.

“Hee hee. I-I don’t think I can keep from laughing anymore, man...”

“You clearly need more training, then. I’m sure this looks like they’re all just messing around, but this is very important work!”

“What?”

“Do you have any idea just how much of a windfall it would be for Pallas if we were to establish a surefire way to obtain a red monstaurus’s tears, knowing how extraordinarily rare they are? We wouldn’t just be selling them within the kingdom. We’d be able to sell them at a high price to the Western Empire too. If we manage to find another product like our silk that the Western Empire will buy at the asking price, the kingdom’s economy will improve significantly.” The kingdom would become so prosperous that it could afford to not only feed every single person in Pallas, but the entire kingdom. It would be a utopia for even the poorest citizens.

“I didn’t realize it was that important...” The newbie hunter felt bad for having judged the situation at such a surface level. Even if Lord Arven was singing horribly with all his might, and Lord Zack was sobbing (ugly crying at this point) while telling his stories, Lord Guillermo was doing his (extremely scary) “funny faces” and repeating the same unfunny joke because he liked it, and Lord Gane was the type of guy to worry about how his breath smells...this absurd situation would make it so nobody...would ever have to suffer...starvation... “Pfffffft!”

Even knowing it could help so many people wasn’t enough to change the fact that the whole situation was extremely funny.

“H-Hey! Its eyes are watering!” Gane shouted, having just finished smearing the mint oil around the red monstaurus’s eyes.

“Our time to shine!” the more experienced hunters said, running toward Gane with the newbie hunters in tow. “You there! Hold the monstaurus’s eye open with your hands!”

“Y-Yes, sir! What are you going to do?” The newbie remembered the last suggestion on the notes in the monster karuta set Lady Emma had come up with was to hold the monstaurus’s eye open so it couldn’t blink. But the newbie couldn’t figure out how they were going to dry its eyes out.

“When you hold open its eye, I’ll blow on it!”

“Pffffft!”

“What’s your problem, greenhorn?! This is serious! I’m gonna do it now!” The hunter gently blew on the monstaurus’s eye.

“Pffffft!”

The scene repeated again with the hunter gently blowing on the monstaurus’s eye and the newbie hunter unable to hold back his laughter. The experienced hunter had lost one of his eyes over the course of his long life and had an eye patch to cover it. Even so, he’d survived and continued the dangerous work of hunting, and he had the muscles to show for it. Seeing this one-eyed macho man gently blowing on the monstaurus’s eye was what finally made the newbie lose it.

“I said this is serious, rookie!” the hunter said between puffs.

“Pffffffft!”

“Rub-a-dub-dub the mint all around...”

“Pffft!”

“Hic... And then...hic...they finally decided...oh, the pain! That our sweet baby Emma wasn’t coming home... Ooogh...”

“Pfffffft!”

“Donnyaaaa... Donnya nyaa...”

“Pfffffft!”

“Ooooh, here it comes! Quit your cackling and get us a pitcher, rookie! It’s crying! Here come the tears!”

And so, the party was successfully and safely able to extract the red monstaurus’s tears. The rookie hunters later became more experienced hunters, then veterans of the job, and eventually retired. Yet even after all that time, they never forgot that day. Every time they went out drinking with the hunters they later helped to train, it would come up in their drunken stories. After all, it was the only time they’d ever struggled that much with self-restraint during a hunt.

◆ ◆ ◆

“Sorry...you want to give Red Monstaurus Energy to a horse?” The head of the Rothschild Company, Daniel Rothschild, balked.

The hunters had passed the red monstaurus’s tears on to the Rothschild Company right away to be processed and sold. When Daniel came to review the product with the acting lord of the land, he was instead subject to an unbelievable plan.

“You see, I realized something. With the effects one might get from Red Monstaurus Energy, we could have our horses running all day and night without rest.” Arven spoke quietly in the Stewart family’s parlor in Pallas.

“I mean... I suppose if it could let a human work without sleep, it would likely do the same for a horse...” Daniel had a terrible feeling about this. If a human were to consume undiluted red monstaurus tears, it would cause them to lose their mind. When making it into a product, they paid careful attention to how much to dilute it. At 1/1,000th, it would allow one to work for half a month without rest. If it was just being used by nobles trying to conceive a legacy, then they could dilute it even further. In fact, if they diluted it all so its effects only lasted one night, they could make far more product and make far more money off the nobles. Daniel had come that day specifically to ask about that, but apparently things were going in a more ominous direction.

“And that means that it could allow a horse to run all the way from Pallas to the capital, all through the day and night.” Arven had realized that the reason he couldn’t see Emma was that the capital was so far away. The travel time alone was about a month, so it wasn’t a trip he could take on a whim. And as someone tasked with defending the country as a monster hunter, he could only be absent from his land for ten days at most.

“Er... Lord Arven...” Daniel felt he was about to lose the majority of the money he’d made since starting his business.

“You wouldn’t have to change horses on the way, and if they’re running morning, day, and night, then it should cut the travel time in half. No, even more than half! Red Monstaurus Energy would make their legs stronger and faster, so you wouldn’t even need to waste time setting up camping or lodging because you wouldn’t be on the road as long!” If they really tried their hardest, they could get to and from Pallas within the ten-day window.

Arven’s eyes were bloodshot. He hadn’t been able to sleep since he’d realized this fact the night before.

“I don’t know, sir. It’d be awfully dangerous to make your horses run at night. They wouldn’t be able to see very well.” Daniel knew objecting was pointless, but he still voiced his disapproval. He couldn’t believe the ridiculous suggestion this man was giving him, and as a businessman, he couldn’t possibly approve of using Red Monstaurus Energy on something so trivial. Unfortunately, as someone who had worked alongside the Stewart family for many years, he knew all too well that to them, going to see Emma wasn’t a “trivial” thing. He knew it was the most important thing in the world to them.

“Not to worry, my friend! Take a look at this.” Arven opened a map of the kingdom. “This is the capital, and this is Pallas. See? There’s a completely straight road that connects the two of them. Even if it’s hard to see, you can just keep going straight!”

Oh, I’m worried. Daniel thought, but didn’t say it.

“And since we don’t have to find lodgings for the night or trade horses out, there’s no reason to veer from that road. What’s more, with that Red Monstaurus Energy, our horses wouldn’t be afraid of the dark either!” Arven argued with a smug grin.

Considering how much money Pallas could be making by using this valuable resource any other way, it was an incredibly stupid plan, but none of that mattered. They didn’t care how much they had to use or how much they’d lose in the process if it meant getting to see Emma again.

Daniel was none too happy to find that all the problems he’d considered before coming were now completely blown out of the water by the Stewart family’s desire to go on this trip. They were all meatheads who settled just about everything with their fists.

“Well then, I suppose I should get ready for my tri—” The moment Arven stood up to leave, the door to the parlor opened with gusto.

“We heard everything, Arven!”

“I’m so ecstatic we’ll get to see Emma again!”

“I’d better get ready now too!”

Arven’s uncles, Gane and Zack, and his cousin Guillermo barreled in.

“What?! How did you hear about this?!” Arven whipped around to look at Daniel, who averted his eyes quickly. Daniel had called them in, as people who had participated in the hunt, to get permission to make the product exclusively for nobility.

“C’mon, we can’t all go and leave Pallas without a leader! Someone has to stay behind!” Arven shouted after his relatives, who had all turned around to get ready for the journey.

“’Scuse me? You weren’t planning on going all by yourself, were you, Arven?” Zack, who was quite perceptive, slowly turned back to him.

“Oh, you wouldn’t. Would you, Arven?” Guillermo turned back at Zack’s voice too.

“Now, who woulda thought we woulda had a traitor in the midst of this happy family...” Gane glared at Arven like he was the scum of the earth, his rage plain on his face.

“Oh, don’t be so dramatic! There’s nothing ‘traitorous’ about me going to visit when I’m the one who came up with the idea!” Arven was so nuts about his niece that he wouldn’t even back down against these three meatheads.

“You wanna fight?! Get your ass over here, Arven!”

“Screw you, Arven! You’re in for the ass-whoopin’ of a lifetime’!”

“You know you screwed up, Arven! We decide things in this family with our fists, you sly bastard!”

Arven’s words sent his meathead relatives into a rage.

“Hmph. I’m not giving up on this. I’ll take you all on!” Arven unbuttoned his sleeves and rolled them up.

Meanwhile, Daniel silently escaped the parlor. It was too dangerous for a normal person to be in there. It was no longer a parlor; it was a battlefield. Now that it had come to this, there was only one thing Daniel could do.

“I suppose it’s time to call up their wives.”

While Arven had conspired to cut the rest of his family out of his plans, he didn’t stand a chance against all three of them and was forced instead to stay behind in Pallas while the others visited Emma instead.

Special Side Story 3: The Villainess Who Gained a Gentleman

“Is the young lady still in her room?” The maids whispered the latest gossip among themselves in the laundry room of the duke’s house. The duke’s daughter hadn’t come out of her room for several months now. She’d been absent from school for ages, and it didn’t seem like she was even going to come out for the all-important social season.

“It isn’t like the mistress can keep a constant watchful eye on her, and the master and his son... I just wonder what’s going to happen now.” It wasn’t just the young lady of the manor they had to worry about. The entire Lance family (one of the four great dukes of the kingdom) was in danger of utter destruction because of the commotion Robert Lance, the heir of the family, had caused. Though the more details the servants heard, the more it sounded like a silly little prank. Despite the pettiness of the scheme, it had led to greater and greater problems, and the Lance house had even been searched by the knights. As a result of the search, every last crime Duke Lance had committed was brought to light, and he’d even been sent to the dungeon. He hadn’t been back in months. During that time, the duke’s younger brother became the head of the Lance family, and his son became the new heir.

“To think the poor young lady would get caught up in all this too...”

“She was a potential candidate to marry the firstborn prince, but was forced to withdraw herself from consideration...”

“The mistress’s family didn’t have very high peerage either, so it’s unlikely she’ll be able to marry her daughter off to anyone high-class even if she were to ask them for help.” The young lady’s options would be limited to ugly men, poor men who were noble in name only, becoming a much older man’s second wife...at the very least, she wouldn’t be getting a single letter or request from royalty or high-class men anymore. In fact, all the mail Lila had received lately was from families who had initially asked for her hand in marriage, withdrawing their proposals.

Falling from grace in high society was truly a harsh punishment. Anyone seen showing any sympathy would wind up getting themselves involved, so the other nobles intentionally ignored the disgraced instead.

“We might need to start thinking about our future too, huh?”

“You think? The new master said we could continue working here, didn’t he?”

“He’s bringing servants from his old house too, you know. And once they’ve figured out the gist of how things work here, people are saying we’ll be let go,” one of the maids, who was unusually familiar with this insider information, then lowered her voice even further. “This is just between us, but I’ve heard Count Stewart’s family is very nice to work for.”

“How so? The salary? The working conditions? Or the food?” Another maid nearly jumped out of her seat at this very sweet news.

“Shhh! Quiet! It’s everything. Apparently, the salary’s two times what we get here, and it can get even higher depending on your skill. They also have some kind of worker’s union, and they actually listen to requests from them. They let you take two days a week off, and they even have maternity leave and everything. Oh, and apparently the food’s really amazing on top of all that. They get the best quality ingredients from the Rothschild Company, and the staff eat the same food as the family.”

“You can’t be serious! That sounds heavenly!” The maid had locked onto the topic and her eyes were sparkling. All her worries about the duke’s family were gone now.

“What’s more, I heard they made a wedding dress entirely made of Pallas silk for one of their maids when she got married!”

“That’s incredible! So, what’s the catch?” There was always a dark underside to stories like this, so there had to be something here.

“Well, you see...” The maid lowered her voice even more, so softly that if they didn’t huddle up, they wouldn’t have been able to hear. “They apparently have a secret you can’t tell anyone.”

The maid gulped. “A-A secret? What kind of secret?” She had been of half a mind to take her resume to the Stewart family the next day for an interview.

“Well, no matter how much I tried to press them on it, they wouldn’t tell me. It was weird how tight-lipped they were about it.” She had tried everything in her arsenal to figure it out, but to no avail.

“But there’s no way a little thing like that would be enough to make them want to quit working there, right?”

“It wasn’t a little thing. I mean, every person I talked to about it looked really uncomfortable. Especially lately.”

“What for? What is it, a ghost or something?”

“I asked the same thing! But they sighed and said a ghost would’ve been way better than what they had to deal with.” The maid ended the conversation by saying that if the other maid wanted to work for them, that she’d need to prepare for something worse than a ghost.

It should be said that when going to interview for the Stewart family, the first question they would ask was always “Do you like bugs?”

◆ ◆ ◆

“Lila, we aren’t going to be able to live here anymore.” Lila’s mother announced the nail in the coffin as Lila lay on her bed, in tears. When the Lance family name had been passed from her mother’s husband to her younger brother-in-law, the new masters had let the two women live in the manor out of pity. Unfortunately, even that couldn’t be afforded to them anymore.

“B-But why, mother? This is my house!” Lila was Robert’s half sister, and she’d been crying every day since the incident he’d caused. Her almost certain marriage to the firstborn prince, her social standing, and now even her home were all slipping through her fingertips.

“This house belongs to the new Duke Lance. Your father and your brother won’t be able to live here anymore either.”

A family falling into ruin wasn’t exactly a rarity, especially in the kingdom, where it felt like every year a border family fell. But the Lance family was one of the only ducal families in the kingdom. There were only three others. What was more, Lila’s brother clearly had deep ties to the royal family. How could he get punished so easily? His foolishness even got his father involved.

Strictly speaking, the Lance family hadn’t fully fallen, since Duke Lance’s little brother had taken over the family name. But from Lila’s perspective, they might as well have fully fallen into ruin.

“I’m so sorry, Lila. I can’t give you this lifestyle back home. We’ll only be able to get you three dresses a year, and the food will be quite a downgrade from what you’re used to.” Lila’s father was very particular about having noble bloodlines, but even he was no match for how beautiful Lila’s mother was. She stroked her daughter’s head apologetically.

“It’s not your fault, mother! I just don’t know what I’m supposed to do...” Even though the future she’d thought was all but certain had suddenly been taken from her, she no longer had time to wallow in sorrow.

“It may be best to find you a husband sooner than later.”

Lila was just as beautiful as her mother, though her father was apparently disappointed that she’d inherited her mother’s blue hair rather than the dark brown that showed off the Lance family’s royal blood. Even then, her hair was one of her favorite parts about herself.

“But there’s no way I can marry the firstborn prince now...” They’d heard the firstborn prince was supposed to return from studying abroad in the Western Empire soon and the Lance family had been planning on finalizing the plans for their marriage then and there. But now, she was being driven out of house and home.

“You’re still so young and beautiful, Lila. I believe there’s someone out there who could give you a life almost as good as the one you have here.” In high society, a woman’s beauty was her greatest weapon. Leyla, Lila’s mother, knew that more than anyone now that she’d lost her own.

“But I heard all the other suitors retracted their requests...” Saying it out loud made Lila feel even worse. It was like they were all implying that nobody would want a girl whose father and brother had earned the royal family’s ire.

“Not all of them. Just look here. We haven’t gotten any rejection letters from the more rural nobles yet.” Leyla showed Lila the list of potential suitors. While a great majority of them had been crossed out in red, there were still some names remaining. If she were to marry someone far away from the capital, it would mean she’d miss out on the spectacle of the social season, but her mother pressed that the distance meant she still had a chance with them. After all, news traveled slowly to the rural lands, and she could use that time to get what she needed.

“But it’d just wind up being the same story if they found out, won’t it?” Lila could already see her would-be husband shouting at her for tricking him.

“That’s why you need to make him fall for you before he finds out.” Leyla impressed upon her daughter that this was all she could hope for.

“Oh...” Lila’s mother showed her a list of names that would still be viable if she made her move as soon as possible, and there she came across a name she very vaguely recognized. “Viscount Theodore Ward...”

“The Ward family? I believe they’re in charge of a border land. That might be good, actually... I’ve heard that the Pallas region’s prosperity has been having an effect on the surrounding areas too. And considering how far it is, I’m sure the rumors haven’t gotten there yet.” And so, Leyla left the room to begin penning her letter before Lila could change her mind.

◆ ◆ ◆

No matter how much a noble might dream of love and romance, it was rarely a factor when it came to marriage. Both when she was of a duke’s family and after she’d fallen from grace, marriage was only something Lila could do for the good of her family or to have a comfortable life. What her mother considered when choosing someone and what Lila wanted when she chose someone were completely different things.

Viscount Theodore Ward—if her memory served her right, it was her Embroidery class where she’d first heard his name. As long as everyone kept at their work, they were allowed to chat, so it was a place where she could overhear plenty of girls’ conversations.

It was the day after Lady Emily’s public proposal. The classroom was bustling with discussions of everyone’s ideal partner. Lady Emily’s case was one of the rare occasions when those who were getting married actually had mutual feelings for each other, so the girls had been all excited about it.

The most popular choice in the discussion had been Lady Marion, and even with her right there in the room with them, they had all been vying for her attention, telling each other what was most wonderful about her.

Lady Marion Bell was the “handsome prince” type that every girl fell for. She was also a member of one of the four great ducal families of the kingdom, and although they couldn’t marry another woman, she really was extremely handsome. After her, her brother Arthur’s name came up. When it came to looks (and looks alone), Matthew the tailor was quite stunning. And though Arven Stewart was a bit older, he was unmarried, and extremely handsome to boot. The girls sitting at the same table as Lila had even brought up her brother Robert out of politeness.

Lila had really enjoyed those days.

“I want to know what Lady Emma’s ideal partner is, don’t you, Caitlyn?”

“I want to know what Lady Emma’s ideal partner is too, Catherine!”

That was right... Emma Stewart’s answer had been where Lila had first heard the name Viscount Theodore Ward. Lila remembered the room went silent for a moment after that. Even though he was the lord of a land near the border, nobody had ever heard of him.

“Lord Theodore is so very tall and kind, though not nearly as tall and kind as my father. He looks so gallant when he rides his horse, and I just can’t emphasize enough how kind he is! He’s just so effortlessly considerate of everyone. I wish my brothers would take a page out of his book.” Lady Emma had seemed to be a bit embarrassed that the room had gotten quiet after her suggestion, so she was talking faster than usual, and her cheeks were tinted a light pink. Unfortunately, with a room full of girls who knew how the second-born prince, Edward, felt about her, it had made the whole thing all the more awkward.

Emma Stewart was the girl her brother had chosen as his victim, and it put a wicked smile on Lila’s face to think about stealing the man she was in love with out from under her nose. Though she had to admit that what her brother had done was extremely childish, and she did feel a bit bad for Emma Stewart. But there was also another part of Lila that thought if it wasn’t for her, she wouldn’t have been put in this position. That was why she felt as if she were walking on air on her way to seal the deal in the border land...until she met Viscount Theodore Ward face-to-face.

“I’m so sorry you had to come all the way out here. Normally, I would have come to meet you instead.”

It was as Lady Emma had said. He was indeed quite tall. And he must have sent for Lila’s favorite tea, which he served alongside light snacks that were perfectly suited to a young lady. He really was extremely considerate too. He had nothing but kind words for Lila, despite her pressuring him for the meeting.

She had no issue on those fronts. No, she was perfectly fine with all of that.

The problem was that the Viscount Theodore Ward was, to put it bluntly, an old geezer.

Lila had no idea about Emma’s obsession with older men. Lila had no idea that when her classmate had been blushing and gushing about him, it was the way an otaku would talk about her best boy.

“I really am surprised that a young lady like you would want to marry an older man like myself. Are you sure that’s what you want?”

Egads, he even calls himself an old man.

Her tiny hope that he was just a young man who was aging poorly was dashed in an instant.

“O-Oh ho ho... Why, you’re not that old...” Lila was perfectly aware of how hard she’d pushed for this meeting, so she couldn’t just say she didn’t want to be with an old fart no matter how much it killed her to stay quiet about it. “B-Besides, I’m not exactly perfect either...”

Lila was praying that the man would hear about what her brother had done and that her father was in jail so he’d break the whole thing off.

“Your hair is awfully beautiful, though. I don’t think there’s any reason I could ever have to reject a young lady like yourself.” He really complimented her favorite feature like it was the most natural thing in the world.

I wish there were a reason you could reject me already!

“Lord Theodore, I apologize for the interruption, but I have urgent news.” Just then, a servant rushed and whispered something in the viscount’s ear.

“Lady Lila, I’m terribly sorry. I need to take care of this right away,” Theodore said, then took off with his servant.

Lila swallowed a sip of her tea. It was one with a nice fruity aroma that was very popular among girls her age. It was then that she came to her decision.

I’m out of here.

She quickly stood up, then slowly opened the window to the terrace so nobody would hear her. It didn’t appear to be locked, so she then quietly went from the terrace to the yard. One step. Two steps. Three steps. And then she broke into a run.

I can’t! I can’t, I can’t, I can’t! There’s just no way! Sure, he’s tall and he’s kind, but he’s a grandpa!

It was the first time Lila had ever sprinted with all her might. She ran and ran and ran until she ran smack-dab into...something. She fell back onto her butt with the impact, and when she looked up to see what it was she’d collided with, she could only squeak in fear.

It was a dog. One that was bigger than a human.

“What...?”

Though it was growling like a dog, the creature was standing on two legs before her.

“What...? Is that...a monster?!” Lila had completely forgotten that she had come out to a land so close to the border. Monsters sometimes appeared in the neighboring lands that weren’t directly on the border. These monsters were usually beasts that the hunters along the border had either missed or failed to strike down, so they were often extremely agitated.

Lila knew she had to run, but she couldn’t get her legs to move. She knew monsters attacked humans. If she couldn’t get away, then she was going to die.

“Noooooo!”

The monster’s doglike mouth opened wide, and its fangs were fully bared. The moment Lila screamed, thinking it was just too horrible that she would die being eaten by monsters, she suddenly felt something pull her arm back.

“Are you quite all right, Lady Lila?!”

“L-Lord Theodore...?”

“I’m so sorry you had to experience something like this. I had just gotten news that a monster had escaped from the hunters,” Theodore said. The viscount cautiously put himself between Lila and the growling monster. Though he had a sword at his side, he was up against a monster. There was no way an old man could defeat this creature on his own. “A kobold, huh?” Theodore gripped the hilt of his sword.

“L-Lord Theodore! We should run!” Lila was still trembling, but she reached up to grab his sleeve and plead with him.

“We can’t. Kobolds are too fast. It’d catch us in no time. Stand back, please.” Theodore gently pried off Lila’s hand.

She saw the monster lash out at Theodore with its sharp claws, and she shouted, “W-Watch out!”

“Hup!” Theodore leaped to protect Lila, and she heard the sound of tearing cloth.

“L-Lord Theodore!”

“Heh, not to worry. It just scratched me. It’s nothing I can’t handle.” Theodore gently patted Lila on the head before standing up again. She was unable to choke back her tears with all the fear and worry in her heart.

“It’s awfully rude to interrupt a date, you know. Sorry to say, but any monster who crosses the border must be brought to death, little kobold.” Theodore leaped onto the kobold’s back. It growled in confusion. “You should know the borderland lords aren’t the only ones who know how to hunt!”

With that, Theodore sliced the monster’s head clean off. It rolled onto the ground and the neck spurted a fountain of blood. Kobolds had the same vulnerabilities as humans, and so were easily killed; that was the one silver lining of a monster showing up that day. Theodore sighed with relief, then looked at Lila.

“Lady Lila? You’re safe now. Huh?! Lady Lila?!” Unfortunately, while this was an all too common scene among hunters on the border, Lila had been extremely sheltered as the daughter of a duke, and it had taken its toll on her. She’d reached the limit of fear, and as her consciousness faded, the last thing she saw was Theodore leaping on the kobold’s back. As her vision faded, she recalled what Emma had said that day so excitedly:

“Lord Theodore is so very tall and kind, though not nearly as tall and kind as my father. He looks so gallant when he rides his horse, and I just can’t emphasize enough how kind he is! He’s just so effortlessly considerate of everyone. I wish my brothers would take a page out of his book.”

Lord Theodore was so very tall...and kind...and he looked so gallant riding a horse (or monster)...and he really was just so kind... Come to think of it, Lady Emma had mentioned him being kind twice. But she was right...

He really is kind...

She could hear Theodore calling out to her from far away as she slipped out of consciousness. Regardless of whether she’d intended it, that was the moment that Emma’s Theodore propaganda worked its magic on her.

◆ ◆ ◆

When Lila awoke, she was atop a soft bed. She was a bit confused to have woken up in a bedroom that wasn’t her own, and she looked around and saw Theodore, who was worriedly watching over her.

“Lady Lila! Have you come to?” At the sound of Theodore’s voice, Lila began to stir, feeling another person’s warmth on her hand bringing her back into reality. “Oh, I’m so sorry. You were moaning in your sleep, so I felt it best to comfort you by holding your hand.” Though he apologized with that gentle voice of his, it didn’t seem like he was going to let go of her.

In fact, it was a bit of a relief that he hadn’t let go yet.

Ba-dump.

Lila felt the oddest sensation, like her heart had skipped a beat.

“You’re in the Ward manor, Lady Lila. There are no monsters here. You’re safe.” Theodore hadn’t responded to it, so the sensation must have been something invisible that only she felt. Instead, he very naturally reached over and tucked Lila’s hair behind her ear so it wouldn’t be in her face anymore.

Ba-dump.

It happened again. That strange sensation within her.

“I take it you’re feeling better, then? I still would like to have a doctor look at you, just in case...”

When she felt his hand start to move away, she found herself not wanting him to leave, and accidentally made a small squeak.

“Hmm?” When Theodore realized Lila was squeezing his hand, he stopped trying to leave and sat back down.

“But if it would be all right with you... Perhaps we could hold hands for a bit longer.” Theodore could sense what Lila wanted and instead pretended it was what he wanted. Kindness really did just come naturally to him.

Ba-dump. Ba-dump. Ba-dump.

The sensation inside her wouldn’t stop. Her heart was beating so fast.

It was just...the body she’d seen when his clothes had been ripped by that monster was certainly not the body of an old man. His sword skills and the way he had effortlessly dodged the monster’s attacks and rode atop it were not the least bit elderly either. And the way he was never condescending, instead always being so kind to her, was nothing like the old men Lila knew.

So maybe he...wasn’t an old man?

Lila was doing some major mental gymnastics.

But it was because he was her fiancé.

She had fallen in love before she knew it. The very thing she doubted would ever happen to her, happened on that very day.

Afterword

Hello, everyone. How have you been? This is Choco.

Thank you so much for buying The Tanaka Family Reincarnates Volume 5. This isekai novel was made by people who like fakes, for people who like fakes, about people who like fakes. I really never thought I’d ever make it to volume five! I’m so grateful and humbled! I both feel undeserving and like I’m on cloud nine!

This one might be a bit thicker than the others. I don’t think I planned on writing this much originally, but I had so much new content and so many revisions to make after volume four. Robert and the elderly villagers were so easy to write, it was definitely a problem for me. I wound up writing so much of them, it ate into the actual main story... I was worried I wouldn’t be able to fit the story about Lila at the end, but I’d already written it, so I forced it in anyway.

Since volume five was a bit more on the serious side, I also wound up having Emma’s three older relatives, who were not in the Shosetsuka ni Narou version, come crashing in. They were also far too easy to write.

Oh, I almost forgot. I have something very important I need to say. Though there weren’t as many bugs in this volume as usual (though there certainly were still some of them), I need to say this to protect myself as the author and you as the readers:

If you look up those bugs you should never look up online, you do so at your own peril. My company(?) takes no responsibility for what happens if you do. Though, personally speaking, if you’re going to do it, I think they look awfully cute when they’re eating.

We’ve looped back around on the cover kitties, so we’re back to General Kongming again. She’s so cute.

While I feel a bit bad because I’m sure kaworu was thinking, “You packed volume five with a bunch of old fogeys too,” I wanted to use this space to show my gratitude for the absolutely beautiful character designs and illustrations I received. It always feels like I’m getting a treat for finishing my book every time.

I also want to express my thanks to everyone for being so patient when I took forever to submit my manuscript. I was worried everyone was going to be mad at me, but I couldn’t stop making revisions here and there. I’m sure you were all on pins and needles waiting for me too. I really hope you can still be so merciful from here on.

And most importantly, I wanted to thank every last one of you who have stuck with The Tanaka Family Reincarnates for five whole volumes, keeping an open mind even with all the bugs, the old men, and the weird protagonists. If the Tanaka family’s weirdness can make your lives a little brighter, then I’ll be a happy camper. I hope you’ll keep reading! Thank you for everything!

Choco