An air of calm was beginning to take hold in the city.
Though, that said… while it would have been nice if it had been purely calm, it seemed that the music program Souma was broadcasting had the people of Van burning with a passion for the arts. On every street corner there were minstrels, street musicians, and street performers of all kinds plying their trades.
On top of that, there were those who wanted to repaint their homes to be more colorful, and even those who wanted to produce wall murals displaying the beautiful countenances of Juna and the loreleis, Chris the newscaster, and Aisha, who was known for her part in hosting the program. Things were beginning to get out of hand.
Who would have believed this had been the capital of a militaristic state merely one month ago?
Souma called this period of Van the Amidonian Renaissance.
Sudden changes were always fraught with confusion, and in Van there were daily conflicts over the best places to hold street performances. The Forbidden Army troops who had been left to occupy the city were sent out to mediate, and the soldiers of the Army and Air Force who were camped outside the city looked on them with pity. Still, such disagreements never led to a major riot, and Van was more or less peaceful.
However, this day began with Aisha shouting noisily. “P-Princess!”
“Eek!” Liscia shrieked.
It was morning. Liscia had been getting dressed in the room she was using as her own when Aisha had barged in without so much as a knock at the door. It was so sudden that Liscia froze in surprise, but when she remembered she was in the middle of getting dressed, she continued putting on her uniform and asked, “Wh-What is it, Aisha? Why are you so flustered?”
“Th-That’s… His Majesty… His Majesty is…” Aisha sputtered. Perhaps because she was out of breath, she was having a hard time getting the words out.
“Calm down,” Liscia said. “Take a deep breath.”
“R-Right.” Aisha took a deep breath, as instructed. She swung her arms up and down in time with each heaving breath.
Once she was sure Aisha had calmed down, Liscia tried asking again. “So, what’s going on with Souma?”
“Right,” Aisha said. “I went to the governmental affairs office to greet His Majesty like usual this morning, but he wasn’t there. Instead, I found this note he left.” Aisha passed the piece of paper to Liscia.
Liscia took the piece of paper and read it over. It said, “I am going on a journey. Please, don’t look for me. - Souma Kazuya.”
Liscia pressed a hand to her temple and sighed, while Aisha returned to freaking out.
“Wh-Whatever shall we do? We must search for him at once!”
“I’m telling you, just calm down,” Liscia said. “Souma’s taking the day off.”
“Huh? A day off?” Aisha stared at her blankly.
“Right,” Liscia said, with a nod. “He’s with Tomoe. It looked like he’d been getting pretty close to the breaking point with his workload lately, so I suggested he take some time off. I even cleared it with Hakuya. When I did that, Souma said, ‘Well, maybe I’ll just laze around in some room making dolls, then.’ It didn’t sound healthy, so I asked Tomoe to drag him outside for me.”
“I heard nothing of this!” Aisha exclaimed. “I am His Majesty’s bodyguard, you realize?! Why didn’t he take me with him?!”
When she saw Aisha with tears forming in her eyes, Liscia gave a shrug. “You stand out too much. This was a primarily human country, so dark elves stand out to begin with, and with your recent fame from the broadcast, you’re not exactly going to be able to keep a low profile.”
“This was enemy territory not that long ago, you know?!” Aisha complained. “If anything were to happen to His Majesty and Tomoe…”
“Have no fears,” Liscia assured her. “They’re in disguise, and Juna and a number of elite marines will be watching over them from the shadows this time.”
“Madam Juna is accompanying them, too? Well, in that case, he should be safe…” Aisha got that far before Juna’s mature smile flashed through her mind.
To Aisha, Juna was the ideal woman. Gorgeous, graceful, gentle… She would have given anything to be like her. However… setting that aside, when she imagined Juna’s smile, every instinct Aisha had as a woman began setting off alarm bells.
If we let our guards down, she’s going to run off with all the best parts, she thought.
“He will be safe… won’t he?” she asked.
“…”
In truth, Liscia had been thinking the same thing, so she had nothing to say in response.
“The weather sure is nice today, huh, big brother?” Tomoe asked.
“It sure is, Tomoe,” I agreed.
I was on Van’s shopping street walking hand-in-hand with my honorary little sister, the mystic wolf girl Tomoe. There had been a nigh lethal amount of administrative work to do lately, so Liscia, unable to watch me torment myself any longer, had suggested that I take my first day off since that time I’d patrolled the royal capital.
I figured if I had time off, I’d rather use it to laze around, like a father on vacation, but Liscia had said that was unhealthy and ordered little Tomoe to drag me into the castle town.
It was a place that had been enemy territory until just recently, so we were lightly disguised today. My facial features were supposedly similar to those of humans from the Nine-Headed Dragon Archipelago, so I was dressed like a traveler from there. I wore a traveling cape and conical straw hat, making me look like Kitakaze Kozou. Tomoe, meanwhile, wore a white robe with a hood, like a white mage from some game. Honestly, I’d wondered if it was worth the trouble of disguising ourselves to go out, but…
“Wowwie, there are so many different shops, big brother!”
…when I saw Tomoe so excited, nothing else mattered anymore.
“If you see one that catches your fancy, why don’t we go inside?” I asked.
“Okay! ♪” she sang.
When Tomoe gave that energetic reply, I patted her on the head. The hair between her two wolf ears was fluffy and soft to the touch. It felt amazing. Ahh… So soothing.
I tried talking to the person who was on the opposite side of me from Tomoe, too. “Juna, are you okay with that?”
“Yes,” Juna said, giving me a soft smile. “If it pleases you, Master Kazuya.”
For this undercover vacation, instead of Aisha, I was supposed to have Juna and around ten of her marines watching over me from the shadows.
…Yes, from the shadows.
“Um, Juna? Why are you wrapping yourself around my arm?” I asked.
Juna had wrapped herself around the arm I wasn’t using to pat Tomoe’s head. She was incredibly close. Right now, Juna was wearing a longsword on her back, with breastplate armor over top of her clothes. With her dressed up like a typical female adventurer, I didn’t feel those voluptuous things pressed up against me. Still, I could feel Juna’s warmth directly on my arm.
Juna seemed to see how flustered I was, and she flashed me a mischievous smile. “Oh, is it wrong for me to do this?”
“It’s not a matter of right or wrong… Weren’t you supposed to be protecting me from the shadows?” I asked.
“We’re protecting you like we’re supposed to,” Juna said. “Right now, my elite marines are protecting you in the shadows. They’re circling ahead of us to watch for any potential blind spots, too.”