…No, seriously, who was this guy?
The man shouted and leapt down from the balcony. The moment he did…
Ba-bam!
There was a big explosion right behind the young man. The flames rose up, and there was a roaring blast that shook my stomach. For a moment, I thought he was a terrorist and was about to panic, but for some reason, the other guests around him just looked at the young man with wry smiles.
Huh? What? What am I supposed to make of this?
“Your Majesty!” Aisha finally found me and rushed to my side. “Sire, this could be an attack! Please, stay behind me!”
“…No, there’s something weird about it.”
“Huh? What do you mean, ‘something weird’?”
I looked around, but no one seemed all that flustered. The majority of them were just looking at the young man with wry or mocking smiles. On closer inspection, despite how much fire there had been, the area where the blast had gone off behind the young man wasn’t even mildly scorched.
“Oh my, silly brother.”
When I turned back, Siena was looking on with a troubled look.
“‘Brother’?” I repeated.
“Yes, sire. That would be my elder brother, Ivan Juniro.”
“Um… It looked like there was an explosion to me,” I said.
“That is my brother’s ability. It makes for a gaudy display of fire and noise, but it is something like an illusion. There is no real force behind it. Hee hee. Isn’t he cool?”
“Er… Uh, sure…”
If she was able to write that off as just “cool”… in some ways, this girl might be pretty impressive.
I see, I thought. The people invited here were those who had regular dealings with the House of Juniro. Naturally, they must be aware of the family’s strange son. That was why, even when there had been an explosion, they had only reacted with wry smiles.
Moltov shouted in anger. “Ivan! How can you act so rude in front of His Majesty?!”
“Shut your face, old man!” Ivan struck a pose, and this time there was a flash of lightning behind him. “You greedy old man, trying to take advantage of Siena’s innocence to push her into a marriage! Even if the heavens allow it, I, her brother, shall not!”
When he declared that, there was a fire in Ivan’s eyes. Literally; fire was shooting out of his eyes.
…I dunno what to say. I was starting to have a bit of fun. Moltov, on the other hand, was furious.
“To marry the king is the greatest honor a woman born into a noble house can hope to achieve for herself! What’s wrong with a father wanting his daughter to find happiness?!”
“Siena can decide her own happiness! It’s not something for you to decide for her!” Ivan shouted.
“Shut up! You’re all show, just like your ability!”
“You have the same ability, old man! It’s in our blood!”
Their eyes met and sparks flew. Dark clouds formed between them and lightning struck right in the middle. I’m not speaking in metaphor; these things actually happened. And yet, there was no damage done. It was entertaining to watch, as long as you weren’t involved.
I turned to Siena and asked her, “Hey, uh… Shouldn’t we stop them?”
“They do this all the time,” she replied with a grin.
“Oh, okay then…”
Even during our little exchange, the two of them kept heating up.
“Today is the day I finally beat some sense into you!” Moltov shouted.
“That’s my line! Bring it, old man!”
“Chowahhhhhhhhhhhhh!”
“Dahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!”
As the two approached each other, a bunch of arms and legs appeared between them, punching and kicking and blocking. It was like someone had made a live-action adaptation of Dra**on Ball, and that got me pretty excited. For a while, I watched them enthusiastically, thinking, Yeah, give me more! But then…
“Nearly all of those limbs are illusions,” Aisha said. “It’s just their real bodies in the middle, beating the crap out of each other.”
I went silent. When Aisha, who had seen through it with the kinetic vision of a warrior, told me that, it kind of killed the fun.
Five minutes later, Moltov and Ivan collapsed, both of them falling face-up on their backs at nearly the same time.
“Urgh… Not bad, old man.”
“Hmph. I’m not so far over the hill that I’d let you beat me just yet.”
Okay, it was showy and all, but all they had been doing was whaling on each other, so if they were going to pull that “rivals who’ve communicated through their fists” routine on me, I wasn’t sure how to react… Well, not like it mattered.
Anyway, I walked over to Moltov, who was collapsed on the ground. “Moltov.”
“Wh-Why, sire! We’ve made a miserable display of ourselves! I beg your forgiveness!” Moltov hurriedly got up and apologized humbly, but I waved a hand and told him not to worry about it.
“I didn’t mind. It made for an entertaining sideshow. On that note, there’s something I’d like to talk to you about…”
“Wh-Whatever might that be?”
“Forget Siena. Would you be willing to give Ivan there to me for the good of the country?”
““…Come again?”” Moltov and Ivan both blinked in surprise at my request.
“…And, well, that’s how I hired our exercise guy, Ivan Juniro,” I finished.
“You’ve picked up another weirdo, I see…” Liscia looked at me with exasperation.
Yep, that was her usual response.
Out in the hall, Ivan Juniro the exercise guy gave the children a thumbs-up, flashing his pearly white teeth as he said, “A healthy mind resides in a healthy body. Come, children! Train with me, so you grow up strong, kind, and hardy!”
Though Ivan said that, the children had conflicting responses. There were kids who were all gung-ho about it; kids who were intimidated by his excessive passion and driven to tears; kids who got scared and clung to Juna… and, overwhelmingly the most common response, there were kids whose little brains couldn’t process the man who had just appeared in front of them and stood there staring blankly at him.
When she saw the state of affairs in the hall, Liscia asked me, worriedly, “Hold on, Souma, is that going to be okay?”
“Umm… He’s a bit stiff, I guess? Maybe Ivan’s feeling tense?”
“This is supposed to be exercise time, right?” Liscia asked. “They can’t do it like that, can they?”
True enough, it wasn’t looking like the kids would exercise for us.
In the exercise part of the educational kids shows I was basing this on, there were kids who would run and roll around, attack the exercise guy, and generally do whatever they wanted. But, “I think it’ll be fine,” I said at last. “There’s a trick to it, after all.”
“A trick?”
“Heheheh… Hahaha… Bwahahaha!”
In a woman’s voice, a three-stage laugh echoed through the hall.
“Who’s there?!” Ivan looked around.
When he did, the children shouted, “There!” “Up there!” and pointed upwards. There was someone standing on the second floor where Ivan had been earlier.
“Make the children strong, kind, and hardy, you say?” the woman called. “How risible! We, the Black Group who are bent on world domination, will never allow it!”
Those lines that reeked of expository dialogue were spoken by a woman wearing a mask that covered the top half of her face, a swimsuit-like outfit with a cape that was open in the center to expose her cleavage, and end-of-the-century style spiked shoulder pads. She had two horns sprouting from her temples, dragon-like wings on her back, and a whip-like tail growing out of her backside.