“Where did the bravado you show on the battlefield go?” I asked.
When I said that in an exasperated tone, Aisha groaned pathetically and her shoulders slumped. “I am confident that no one is a match for me in martial arts. However, at a showy event like this, I have no such confidence. There are a lot of people out there who are prettier that I am, you know. The princess and Madam Juna are both slender and fair-skinned, like lovely young maidens. Meanwhile my skin is dark, and I have some muscle on me, too…”
“Really?” I asked. “I think you’ve got a nice healthy look.”
Even if she did have some muscle, she wasn’t ripped like a body builder. In fact, she had such a shapely body that I had to wonder how she managed to swing around that giant sword with so little muscle. On top of that, she was tall enough to be a model, and, though it was hard to tell when she was wearing armor, her above-average figure was good enough that Liscia was the one more likely to be jealous.
“Yeah,” I said. “You’re pretty, Aisha.”
“I–I am?!”
The compliment had Aisha ecstatic. However, she quickly came back to her senses.
“B-But, really, Madam Juna or the princess would make a better host…”
“Juna is one of the singers, so she’d have to run all over the place if we made her be the host, too,” I said. “As for making Liscia my assistant… I thought it would be best not to do that this time.”
“Hm? Why is that?” she asked.
“Oh. There’s a little thing I’m worried about now that I’ve ended up being the host,” I said. “To be brutally honest, I chose you less because I think you’ll be a good assistant and more because I’m counting on your skills as my bodyguard. If anything happens, you’ll be able to protect me if you’re at my side, right?”
“Of course I will, but… Huh?! Is something dangerous going to be happening?!” she asked.
Aisha seemed concerned, so I put a hand on her forehead and laughed.
“It’ll be fine, in all likelihood. But, as pathetic as it is for me to have to ask this as a man, will you protect me if something happens?”
“Your Majesty… Yes! Even if it should cost me my life, I will mmmph.”
I hurriedly covered Aisha’s mouth. “You’re being too loud. We’re broadcasting now.”
“Mmph… I–I’m sorry.”
…At times like this, she really might have been a disappointing dark elf.
“…is what they said. That is all for News Elfrieden. Now then, after this program, we will be broadcasting Elfrieden’s first entertainment program. If you have no prior engagements or are not otherwise in a hurry, I hope you will continue watching this broadcast.”
Whoa, it looks like Chris’s program is finished, I thought. Okay, now it’s our turn.
The set for the music program wasn’t here: it was an atrium that had most likely been used to hold balls. We had lined up tables in there, bringing in some of the soldiers to sit at them and listen, in the style of the Japan Cable Awards. That was because having an audience makes a huge difference to the level of excitement.
I took my assistant by the hand. “Come on, let’s go, Aisha.”
“Sire, I will follow you anywhere!”
With Chris Tachyon’s information program finished, there was a short break. Then the receiver in Van’s plaza showed a young man and woman. They were a young man in a black tuxedo and a dark elf girl wearing an extravagant red party dress. While the young man was confident, the girl seemed a little tense.
Then a person in the crowd said, “Hey, wait, isn’t that guy Elfrieden’s king, Souma?”
When people around the man heard him, those who had seen the Elfrieden Kingdom’s army march in through the city gates cried out one after another, “Yeah! I saw him when they came in through the gate,” “That’s Elfrieden’s King Souma,” “There’s no doubt about it,” confirming the first man’s suspicions.
With no way of knowing what they were saying about him, Souma wore a relaxed expression as he held an object that was twenty centimeters or so long with a rounded end (no doubt intended to be a mic, but since the Jewel Voice Broadcast was picking up the sound, it was really just a prop) up to his mouth and greeted them all with a “Hello.”
“Songs change with the times and the times change with songs,” he said. “These are the songs we want to see handed down across the ages.”
“Wh-What, where did that line come from?! You didn’t say that during rehearsal, did you?!” the dark elf girl exclaimed.
It seemed that his last line had been ad-libbed, as the girl was now confused.
“I will be your host for this program, Souma Kazuya.”
“I–I am Aisha Udgard!”
“Come on now, Aisha, your expression is looking stiff,” said the king. “Smile, smile.”
“Wh-What about you, sire? Why are you speaking so politely?!” she exclaimed.
“Well, I’m the host, y’know,” he said. “Even if I’m the king, I can’t go acting too self-important.”
“You say that, but you’re already back to talking like normal!”
“Whoops, pardon me.”
Souma was throwing in a bit of playful humor while Aisha could only react to him.
The people of the Elfrieden Kingdom looked on at their banter with smiles. However, the people of the Principality of Amidonia wore looks of bewilderment.
The rumors about King Souma said he was a man who had made a fool of the great warrior Gaius VIII using his strategic ingenuity, then struck him down in a display of his own valor. The king of the rumors, blessed with both wisdom and martial ability, simply didn’t mesh with the young man poking fun at and playing around with the dark elf girl in this broadcast.
In actual fact, his strategy had been put together with help from Hakuya, while the ones to strike down Gaius VIII had been a late-arriving unit of archers, but the people had no way of knowing these things.
“Did our prince lose to these people?” one of the members of the crowd wondered.
“I know — this must all be an act to make us drop our guards!”
“What for? Van’s already fallen, you know?”
“Well, it’s so they can… Yeah, what is it for?”
While the people of Van reacted with confusion, Souma continued hosting the program.
“Now then, this broadcast is Elfrieden’s first music program. For this broadcast, we’ve gathered girls with different types of voices. Each of these three is wonderfully gifted, truly, deserving to be called ‘lorelei.’”
The moment Souma spoke those words, this world’s equivalent to an idol, the concept of a “lorelei,” was born.
“I hope this will be a program that helps to soothe the hearts of those exhausted by their daily toil,” said the king. “Please, listen to these loreleis’ songs and enjoy them to the very end.”
“Er… There are just three here today, but we will always be looking for those who take pride in their singing voice in the Elfrieden Kingdom,” said Aisha. “M-Meninwimin…”
“You’re slurring it, Aisha.”
“P-Please, be quiet,” said Aisha. “Um… Men and women of all ages, self-nominated or nominated by another, all are welcome to apply.”
“Yeah, I’d like to have male singers on here, too,” said Souma. “Though, for the guys, it’d be weird to call them loreleis. Well, what’ll we call them, then? Mermen, or something?”
“Then they would just be ordinary sea monsters,” said Aisha. “Can’t you choose something from outside the sea? Ah! Erm… To those of you proud of your singing, or who just like to sing, I’m told you should go to the Lorelei singing cafe in your nearest city to audition.”