I clutched my head in my hands. I figured this was probably gonna get me in trouble with the Star Dragon Mountain Range.
With ancient humans, sure, maybe we’d put them on display in a museum. But if you started embedding one in a machine, people would start to draw the line. It could be taken as profaning the bodies of the dead, after all. If they found out that one of their kind’s bodies was being used like this, the dragons might come to attack.
…When I get back, I’ll write a letter of apology to the Star Dragon Mountain Range, I thought. Depending on their response, we’ll dismantle the thing and either bury it or send it back to them.
As I was swearing that to myself, Genia’s words, “The way it is… It’s just a glorified scarecrow,” came back to me.
A scarecrow… A doll put up to protect the fields… A doll?! Don’t tell me…
I tried touching the tip of the Mechadra’s toe. Then, using Living Poltergeists, I transferred one of my consciousnesses into it. When I did, with a great sound of metal creaking… Mechadra began to move.
Whoa?! I managed to control it?!
“Hold on, Your Majesty?! Did you do something?!” Genia exclaimed. Even she had to be surprised by this turn of events.
As I looked up at Mechadra spreading its arms like a monster from a kaiju movie, then start doing radio calisthenics, I held my head in my hands.
Seriously, what was I going to do with this thing? Might the ability to move an iron dragon be seen as a threat by other countries?
“But even if you can move the iron dragon, will it be any use in battle?” Liscia asked.
I snapped back to my senses. Now that she mentioned it, if all it could do was move around, an iron dragon wasn’t going to be much of an asset in battle. With its big, bulky body, it would make a prime target. If the wyvern cavalry focused their aerial bombardment and dragon breath on it, it would be blown to pieces in no time.
“Is Mechadra armed?” I asked.
“Of course not,” Genia said. “Even I’m not so whimsical that I’d install armaments on something I never even considered moving.”
“I wouldn’t put it past you…” I murmured.
If that was the case, it really was useless. The best thing I could think to do with it was set it up somewhere like the Odaiba G*ndam and use it to attract tourists. It was likely to make other countries cautious of us, but it had absolutely no use. It was the absolute worst. Talk about a white elephant.
In conclusion, all information regarding Mechadra was declared top secret, and until I received a response from the Star Dragon Mountain Range, it was to be kept sealed. Would it ever eventually see the light of day?
As for Genia, who had produced the dangerous thing, we had her move to a lab built especially for her close to the capital. Even now, she was working on research and development there. As soon as the country began supplying her with most of the funding for her research, it only spurred her to work harder.
…I think I’ll send Ludwin some stomach medicine sometime soon.
Chapter 2: A Story of Using Shrimp as Bait to Catch Sea Bream, but Instead Catching a Shark
— Late in the 11th month, 1546th year, Continental Calendar — Royal Capital Parnam
It had been close to a month since the war with Amidonia had come to a close.
On this day when we began to feel the onset of winter, I was in the room with the jewel for the Jewel Voice Broadcast, facing a simple receiver with a certain person’s image projected on it.
My partner was a single woman. Her well-balanced figure was wrapped in a pure white dress, and her light, wavy blond hair was beautiful.
I was acquainted with her younger sister, but she left a very different impression on me. While there was a resemblance in the contours of their faces, when this woman blinked, there was something childlike about her large eyes, making her appear to be the younger of the two. Even though I had been told she was supposed to be a year older than me. She was a very beautiful person.
I thought that, having been surrounded by Liscia, Aisha, and Juna, all beautiful in their own different ways, I had developed a discerning taste, but at a single glance, I had been struck by how beautiful this woman was.
The beauty opened her mouth. “Greetings, Sir Souma. I am Maria Euphoria.”
She was Empress of the Gran Chaos Empire.
“Greetings to you, too, Madam Maria,” I said. “I am Souma Kazuya.”
The heads of the largest nations in the west and the east were meeting for the first time. Normally it would be a time for handshakes, but that wasn’t possible through the Jewel Voice Broadcast’s screen.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you like this, Madam Maria,” I said formally. “I’ve always wanted to be able to speak with you at length.”
“I feel the same,” she said. “We’ve heard of your great ability here in the Empire, too.”
“It’s not my ability… I’m helped by my capable subordinates.”
“That’s very humble of you to say, but talented retainers gather under a great ruler.”
We kept up with the polite talk for a while. While discussing nothing of importance, I tried to get a feel for Maria. But her smiling face was a thing of childish innocence; so brilliant that I almost felt guilty for trying to read into it. Though, at the same time, I also thought this:
There was no way a girl who was only pure and innocent could rule a vast Empire.
“May I ask a question, Sir Souma?” Maria asked.
“What is it?” I asked.
“What are your thoughts about what happened in Amidonia over the past month?”
Maria’s eyes narrowed as she said that. That alone was enough to completely change the aura around her. She appeared to be smiling, but looked angry in spite of that.
Not that I could blame her. From the Empire’s perspective, what I’d done was close to a betrayal.
“When Jeanne delivered me her report on the negotiations, I thought we had found ourselves a reliable ally in the east,” Maria said. “Was I mistaken in that?”
“…No. We still view ourselves as sworn friends of the Empire. This may sound like an excuse, but this result was unexpected for us, too.”
“It wasn’t arranged by the kingdom, you mean?” she asked.
I nodded and scratched my head. “I won’t deny that I was plotting something, but I never intended for it to go this far. Honestly, it’s turned into an ongoing headache for me.”
Maria’s anger seemed to subside, for the moment at least. “Can you explain it in detail for me?
“Of course,” I said. “According to our agents in the principality…”
One month earlier, when Van was returned to Amidonia…
Julius took back the capital of the principality, Van, and the area around it by borrowing the influence of the Gran Chaos Empire. He returned to Van to succeed his father, Gaius VIII, as the Sovereign Prince of Amidonia.
The first thing that Julius’s close retainers thought to do after he became the new sovereign was to remove any traces of Elfrieden’s influence.
“There’s been an appalling degradation of public morals in Van,” one of them said stiffly.
“Indeed,” another agreed. “The austere atmosphere from Lord Gaius’s lifetime is the most appropriate for our principality. We should clamp down on this.”
“Why not begin by dismantling the shanty town that’s built up around the Jewel Voice Broadcast plaza?”