kscans

Chapter 43 - The Forest of the Sea and Kobito-san

"There should be a request for Lady Sakura’s return to Frontier!"

"There is, from His Majesty the Emperor. Shall we inquire with His Majesty? Including the matter of your visit."

"ーーーーーーーー!!"

The imperial native was at a loss for words, having been hit with a sharp retort. Romel had a supremely dark smile.

When it comes to political maneuvering, no one can beat Romel.

Kobito-san chuckled.

They could no longer even put up a struggle. They, who had come to overthrow the emperor, had been ensnared by Frontier, along with their ambitions.

But such things were not on Frontier’s radar. In fact, they were annoying and irrelevant.

"There’s no need to confirm with His Majesty, though. Because Sakura is here. Sakura is Chihiro’s lady-in-waiting, so she is staying at the royal palace. Please feel free to come at any time. We will welcome you with all our might."

Romel’s grinning smile did not reach his eyes. A sharp thorn was hidden in his words. Come if you dare, we will be your opponent. That this was no bluff was something Kilfan, which had suffered so many defeats, knew best. Frontier had been hesitant to accept the imperial princess’s asylum until now, but now that Kobito-san was involved, they were all in this together. They couldn't accept her into Frontier proper, so formally, they had her belong to the Manmaden and had dodged the return requests, but if Kobito-san wished for it, they had no objections.

They had formally prepared to accept the imperial princess. This, they had not told Kobito-san.

Because she did not doubt.

She did not doubt that the royal palace would help Sakura. In that case, they must respond to that trust with all their might.

While thinking so, Romel’s eyes looked a little distant.

Even if the royal palace didn't help, she would probably manage on her own anyway, that child. If that happened, the adults would lose all face. Really.

Besides, the atmosphere of the royal palace itself had changed. Frontier, which had been half-heartedly waiting and seeing until now, had recently begun to actively engage with neighboring countries. The Golden King had appeared, the pilgrimage had begun, and naturally, groundwork with various countries became necessary. Very few countries had a master's forest. If they did, it was in a place like a deep forest very close to the frontier, or a wilderness or desert. To make a pilgrimage to such places, the cooperation of nearby countries was essential. To facilitate this, the current Frontier was diligently engaged in diplomacy.

Well, except for Kilfan, that is.

Romel narrowed his eyes as he looked at the dispirited and gloomy men.

The area around the continent where the empire was located was mostly vast sea. It was splendidly on the outskirts of the world, and even if one were to make a large circle around the frontier from Frontier, it would be outside that ring. There was no master's forest, and unless Chihiro newly moved a master, it would be outside the range of the Golden Ring. And since it wasn't included in the Golden Ring, moving a master was also impossible. A land where the revival of magic was absolutely hopeless. That was the Kilfan Empire.

With that, the discussion seemed to be over, and the Frontier party stood up.

However, there was someone who put a stop to that.

Katsumi, who had been observing from the sidelines, slightly apart from the Kilfan group. He raised his hand lightly, stood up, and tilted his head slightly to look at Romel.

"Can I come with you?"

Huh?

The Frontier party and the Kilfan men all wore the same questioning expression. Katsumi gave a wry smile and turned his gaze to Sakura with a bashful look.

"We still don’t know anything about each other, and it’s natural to be rejected when marriage is suddenly brought up. So how about we try to meet in the middle and exchange ideas?"

"You think you can win me over?"

"Hmm? How should I put it. I’ve only been here for about two years, and I only know Kilfan, so I want to see the world. Fortunately, I hear Frontier is a safe country, so would it be alright if I imposed for a little while?"

The otherworlder smiled with a charming grin.

The Frontier side felt a rather complicated emotion.

Saying that they would be staying at this inn for a while and to think about it, Katsumi and the Kilfan men left the room. Dolphen, watching them go with a suspicious look, muttered resentfully.

"What a familiar fellow. Lady Chihiro, please be careful."

"He’s a bit of a different breed. The two who came before were awfully arrogant and unpleasant men."

She was probably talking about the previous seekers. They had apparently died when Sakura was a child, but they were lecherous and dissolute, having many wives and laying hands on any female servant they could. Since there was no direct-line imperial princess of a suitable age, they did not become emperor, and they themselves had refused, saying it was too much trouble. Still, they were rare pure-blooded Japanese. They were close to many of the imperial family members and had taken their daughters as wives, so they had a certain amount of influence. They had lamented the injustice of Kilfan having no magic while its neighboring country did, but they had shown Kilfan how to use magic effectively. Freeze sterilization and preservation with ice magic tools. Turbine-style wind power generation using wind magic tools. They had taught various other useful technologies, but Sakura remembered their abysmal personality, which was worse than minus, more.

"Come to think of it, the frequency of seekers has increased recently. A few hundred years ago, it was about once every hundred years, but now they come every few decades."

Sakura’s words caught Kobito-san’s attention, and she asked for an explanation.

And upon asking further, it seemed that until about a thousand years ago, the seekers had come in large numbers. Groups of several dozen were normal, and the largest was several hundred. The most recent large group was about a hundred years ago, appearing in a large metal ship. A large number of men dressed in similar uniforms had landed on a small island near Kilfan from the immobilized ship and had come to Kilfan via that country. Hearing that, Kobito-san’s face tensed.

Could that be... the Japanese Navy?

Ahhhh, so that’s it!!

Chihiro finally understood. If that precarious era had slid into this world, it was possible to swing from one extreme to another.

During the war. Conscription had gathered many people from all over the country as soldiers. The corps, made up of a motley crew, would have included people from many professions. Farmers, poultry farmers, livestock farmers, and other specialized technicians, all gathered in one place in a merciless era.

One of those ships visited Kilfan.

An immobilized ship probably meant it was a ship fated to be sunk. If something like that had come, she could understand Kilfan’s disjointedness. Once every hundred years or so meant it was like modern times suddenly arriving in the Edo period. Before they could learn and understand the knowledge, the seekers’ lifespans would run out. As a result, superficial knowledge and the legacy of the seekers, the actual objects, remained. The destruction of the coral reef was that. If it was a wartime ship, it should have had ten or twenty naval mines or torpedoes. As long as they knew how to use them, they could probably make them explode on their own.

An infant who had only traced the surface of modern civilization. That was Kilfan.

Moreover, at that time, professional women were just starting to emerge. The tendency for male chauvinism was strong, and it was an era where women were not let outside. It wasn’t that women were being demeaned, but there was just the ancient pattern of men working outside, earning a living, and women protecting the home and supporting the men. After that, probably seekers with poor personalities came one after another and distorted the pattern of male chauvinism.

Kilfan was a group of amateurs who had been given the answer without knowing the process. It must have been easy to go astray.

The roots are deep. Isn’t it impossible to correct this?

But it was certain that Japanese knowledge had been passed down to Kilfan. Over its long history, there were certainly skills they had made their own. Sakura and the others’ kimonos, the Manmaden’s farm and ranch. Japanese food and ingredients that had been correctly inherited, and so on. Remembering these things, Kobito-san pondered.

If things continue as they are, the future of the Kilfan Empire is endlessly dark. It could collapse from within, leading to a bloody civil war and turning into a burnt field. Even if it was from a hundred years ago, they had modern weapons. And if it was a den of barbaric men, a glorious death for the motherland was also possible.

It’s too much of a waste to abandon it. Isn’t there something that can be done?

The Frontier party looked suspiciously at the serious-faced Kobito-san. No one would have thought that she was calculating in her head a plan to save Japanese food and its ingredients.

While indignant at the gods’ unfortunate choice of people, all she could think about was food.

No matter the time, she was a laid-back Kobito-san whose fundamentals never wavered.♪