“Oh, hey… you’re right,” Genia said. “That’s the face I’m used to seeing on the Jewel Voice Broadcast.”
In contrast to Ludwin’s panic, Genia seemed relaxed. She lifted up the hem of her lab coat as if it were a dress and curtsied to us. “We haven’t met before, Your Majesty. My name is Genia Maxwell. Welcome to my messy home.”
I couldn’t tell if she was being respectful with that greeting or not, but she didn’t seem to be trying to insult us, at least. She was a little off, but this was probably her doing her best at being respectful.
I introduced myself. “I am the (provisional) King of Elfrieden, Souma Kazuya. This is my fiancée, Liscia.”
“I’m Liscia Elfrieden,” Liscia said.
“Hee hee! I am aware,” giggled Genia. “I do humbly note my pleasure to find you in good health.”
Ludwin buried his face in his hands, unable to watch. Her attempt at polite language was so bad, she came off like a clown.
“If you’re not used to it, there’s no need to stand on formality,” I said. “We’re the ones who dropped in unannounced. Feel free to talk whatever way is easiest for you.”
“Y’sure? Well, that’s what I’m gonna do, then.”
“G-Genia!” Ludwin exclaimed.
Ludwin started to protest at Genia’s sudden shift to a more easygoing tone, but I held up a hand to stop him. “It’s fine. We’re the only ones here.”
“B-But… when you consider why we came here…” Ludwin stuttered.
“Oh, we can leave that for later,” I said. “In the short time we’ve talked, I’ve more or less become convinced that she’s not the type to be plotting anything nefarious. Before that, I think I’m more interested in hearing more about her.”
“I–I see…” Ludwin seemed deflated.
Genia chuckled. “Well, no point standing at the door all day. Come in! Even in a house like this, I can at least serve coffee.”
She led us inside to a living room of sorts. When we sat at the table there, Genia brought out four mugs of coffee. She apparently had no cream or sugar.
When Genia had finished giving everyone their coffee and had taken a seat, she introduced herself once more. “Once again, I am Genia Maxwell. I’m the head of the House of Maxwell, the owner of this dungeon, and also a researcher, scientist, and inventor. Oh, I’m technically a mage in the Forbidden Army, too. I was originally in weapons development, but I did some stuff, you see…”
It started as a relatively smooth self-introduction, but Genia had gotten vague with that last part.
“You ‘did some stuff’…?” I asked. “Just what did you go and do?”
“She created something outrageous.” Ludwin said with a frown.
Genia hastily explained. “Hey, you know how wars are always laying waste to the land? Well, to make sure the land is full of greenery after the battle, I made these arrows with fast-growing plant seeds loaded into them.”
“Planting trees on the battlefield?! Isn’t that idea way too far out of left field?!” I exclaimed.
Oh. But while that wasn’t an idea that should have been coming out of the weapons development department, it felt a little weak as a reason to drive her out. As I was thinking that, Genia seemed to be deep in thought.
“Hrm… I think it was a good idea, just that maybe it was a mistake to enchant them with light elemental magic to encourage growth. They started growing incredibly fast, you see. Ahaha… I never thought that the one test shot I fired would engulf the training grounds, and the lab attached to them in a sea of tress.”
“That was you?!” Liscia shouted in surprise.
It seemed to have happened before I came to this world, but it might be a rather well-known incident here.
…Yeah. I could see how she’d gotten thrown out.
Genia was laughing it off, but Ludwin was clutching his head in his hands.
“Well, I didn’t like the atmosphere in the development department much anyhow, so that was fine by me, really,” said Genia. “They’re all just sort of going in the same direction. Wouldn’t it be better if they were more free in the way they think?”
“No, in your case, I think you were a little too free,” I said.
“No, no, I think a superior culture or civilization can only be born from freely pursuing ideas,” she insisted. “If you ask me, development is an explosion!”
“That’s the one thing we don’t want to let explode!”
Please, let art be the only thing that’s an explosion. I mean, if whatever you’re developing explodes, that’s just an accident.
It wasn’t just Ludwin now; Liscia looked exhausted just from listening. “It feels like having three Soumas here.”
“Huh? Does that mean dealing with me is half as exhausting as dealing with her?” I asked.
“Ever since we were betrothed, you’ve been running me ragged,” she said. “Though… lately, I’m starting to feel that’s not so bad.”
“Ahaha!” Genia said teasingly. “I’m glad to see the future royal couple are so close.”
Liscia turned bright red and looked at the ground.
“We had a good atmosphere going there, and now you’ve ruined it,” I complained.
“Sorry about that,” said Genia. “Well, anyway, that’s about all there is to say about me. By the way, Your Majesty, have you heard what kind of pedigree the House of Maxwell has?”
“Your house distinguished themselves by studying artifacts discovered in dungeons, right?” I asked.
“Precisely!” Genia declared, with a snap of her fingers. “My family has been researching dungeon artifacts for a long time. These are things that go well beyond what this world’s technology can replicate, and we’ve studied them for generations. And so, in the long time we’ve spent researching, we’ve vaguely come to see a certain thing.”
“A certain thing?” I asked.
“It’s a principle of this world, separate from magic.”
A principle that’s separate from magic? I thought. What’s that?
“I hear that you’re using the Jewel Voice Broadcast.” Genia put on a meaningful smile, then asked, “Do you understand what sort of thing it is?”
“If I recall… it’s an artifact from the dungeons, filled with the magic of the sylphs and undines. The jewel is a tool to send out images and sounds it picks up… right?”
“Yeah,” said Genia. “That’s the answer about 99 % of the people who know about the Jewel Voice Broadcast would give, I’m sure. But there are two mistakes in that understanding.”
“Mistakes?”
Genia nodded solemnly. “They’re found in the dungeon. That part’s fine. Mistake number one is the ‘filled with the magic of the sylphs and undines’ part. You said it like it was a given, but have you ever seen a sylph or undine yourself?”
“Well, no, I haven’t, but… I’m not from this world, but weren’t they supposed to exist here?” I asked.
“Okay, let’s ask the princess next to you, then. Princess, have you ever seen a spirit?”
Liscia hurriedly shook her head. “I–I’ve never seen one. I mean, spirits are the stuff of legend. But magic, and magicium, the base substance used to produce it, is said to be a gift from the spirits. They’ve got to be out there somewhere, right?”
“That’s not enough to prove their existence,” Genia shrugged, looking dismayed. “Do you see now, Your Majesty? Maybe you, as someone not originally from this world, might actually be more able to understand? Because there’s this mysterious power called magic in this world, it’s harder for people to see the truth. Snow falls and the ice forms in the rivers in winter, then it melts when it gets warmer in the spring. That sort of obvious thing is simply hidden from them by magic.”