“My certain-kill technique! Burst Rising!”

“Ooh!”

“As amazing as ever.”

The next day after I arrived in the Holy Empire Urquhart as member of the Friends.h.i.+p Visit Group, the magic exhibition was carried out by magicians of both countries.
Performing something like a martial arts tournament in the coliseum which is located next to the imperial palace, the venue is crowded by a large number of spectators and even His Majesty, the Emperor, is present as main guest.
The magicians are showing their unique spells in this place one after the other.
As it’s a chance to see offensive magic, which one can’t usually see quite often, many people are interested even among the commoners. It seems like obtaining tickets has gone as far as ending in distress.
Amongst them there were also those ridiculing it as 『an extension of a sleight of hand show』 though.
There are magic shows used privately as entertainment by elementary magicians, but people are curious because they can watch the magic of famous magicians of both countries at the occasion of the Friends.h.i.+p Visit Group’s attendance which is usually impossible.
Since the ones at intermediate level are first, they burst stuff like huge rocks and set-up targets with flashy attack spells judging by appearance.
For it to not be in the form of duels was because neither side wants casualties amongst their precious magicians even if it’s just by chance.
Going ahead with the magic exhibition, dous.h.i.+ melted the entirety of a 10 meter high rock into magma with the fire pillar spell he used against Kurt.
The spectators raise loud cheers and applause due to its power.

“From dous.h.i.+’s point of view it’s probably a skill at the level of making him yawn.”

If dous.h.i.+ really displayed his true power here, there would be large damage to the surroundings.
Thus he made do with rising a 20 meter high pillar of fire.
And that spectacle was watched by me who sat in a seat for n.o.ble visitors.

“If it’s that gentleman, he’s likely capable of routing even an army of 10.000 man with ease.” (Therese)

“I guess so.” (Wendelin)

“That’s because he’s a gentleman who overturns the principles of common sense in military affairs. Does that apply to you as well, Wendelin?” (Therese)

“…” (Wendelin)

That troublemaking, sensual beauty, Therese-sama, sat on the seat next to me.
For some reason I’m liked by her. And I even have the permission to embrace her to my liking.
Elise, who is sitting in the seat opposite of her due to being my first wife, seems to harbour a large sense of impeding danger towards Therese-sama.
I still haven’t told Elise about the matter of having received the right to have s.e.x with Therese-sama, but since Elise would be jealous all the more if I told her, my mind was filled with the worry whether I could pa.s.s this period safely somehow while at the same time keeping it a secret from Elise.

“(If I make a child with Therese-sama, the troublesome matters will just increase again.)” (Wendelin)

Even though I should be a successful man by having five beautiful wives, I can’t feel superior for some reason.
What’s even more troublesome is that, different from Karla, Therese-sama is a woman who appeals to my male instincts and makes me want to sleep with her. That’s what makes it so vicious.
I don’t want to get close to her in order to not be tempted, but she is the manager of us magicians.
Even if she’s at my side, there’s nothing strange about it whatsoever.
Or rather, that’s her job.

“It looks like His Majesty, the Emperor, is pleased as well.” (Wendelin)

For the sake of the conversation not drifting towards the matter of having s.e.x, I inquire about His Majesty, the Emperor, who is applauding at dous.h.i.+’s magic.
According to the information I obtained in advance his name is Wilhelm the 14th and he is 78 years old. He is an old man whose reign is now lasting for 38 years.

“His Majesty hails from the Duke Metternich household. He was enthroned through a vote by the n.o.ble’s Congress 38 years ago.” (Therese)

Because this country’s emperor is someone who is a candidate from the seven Duke households, who nominate a prince-elector, and the imperial family in the capital, the emperor is chosen through a vote by the members of the n.o.ble’s Congress.
For it to have turned into such a system seems to also be a desperate measure in old times to include many different nation-states.
a.s.signing the imperial throne to the imperial family in the capital and the Duke households appears to be an act to keep the power between them as equal as possible.
It can also be regarded as slightly unstable, but because Holy Empire Urquhart, which was quick in unifying since the old days, overpowered the Helmut Kingdom in the south, it wasn’t that much of a problem.
Later they lost the southern territories beyond the Giganto Crevice, but Helmut Kingdom didn’t advance further north because of the ceasefire agreement.
Splitting labour towards development of backward regions and liberation of monster domains at the same time, there isn’t much of a difference in national power between the two now and there’s also the risk that it will turn into a big situation if they go to war. In other words, the current peace is supported by the power balance of both countries.

“Since he is and elderly gentleman, he has to consider about retiring soon as well.” (Therese)

Another difference, although the crown of Helmut Kingdom can’t be abdicated until death, the emperor is allowed to retire due to advanced age and sickness.
Even if he resigns, it’s fine as the next emperor will be decided by an election. That method is also convenient for the other candidates.
Furthermore, the retired emperor spends his remaining years while receiving an annuity and being referred to as former emperor.
Although the t.i.tle possesses prestige, he will become a person who doesn’t wield any real power.

“Given that there are such tattles, the other Dukes are busy with mediating things like technology exchange and revisions of the trade agreements.” (Therese)

Since they intend to become the next emperor, they have likely entrusted the partially play-like practical exhibition of magicians to the old emperor and Therese-sama, who is a woman, and are focussing on the promotion of technologies and trades which yields profits.
You can even call it plainly as earning achievements. It’s a story I know very well.

“Therese-sama, you won’t run as candidate?” (Wendelin)

“The previous emperor was mine own great-grandfather. By just being too closely related to me, it turns into an issue for becoming empress.” (Therese)

Since it will also be a problem if too many emperors appear from only one household, some discussions are carried out at the stage of announcing the candidacies.

“Rather than that, next is your turn, Wendelin.” (Therese)

“Seems so.” (Wendelin)

I’m in a seat for n.o.ble visitors since I’m an Earl-sama, but as I have to present my magic as well, I hurry to move to the grounds while holding a wand.
I don’t particularly need a wand, but the action of swinging a wand is necessary as it’s an exhibition.

“Dear, please do your best.” (Elise)

“Don’t make it too flashy though.”

While receiving encouragement from Elise who is restraining Therese that is behaving as if she’s my wife, I moved to the centre of the grounds.
There’s a rock with the same size as the one, which was changed into magma by dous.h.i.+’s spell, set up. With the rule that it’s fine to break it by casting a spell on it, it has been decided to not inquire about the spell’s attribute and type.

“(Rather than power, with accuracy…)” (Wendelin)

Once I focus my mind and prepare the wand, I create a whirlwind after several seconds and hit the rock with it.
Since great power wasn’t obviously visible, there was no change to the rock on a first glance.

“A failure?”

“There’s no change?”

The spectators are noisy, but the spell has been already activated successfully.
I leave the place after hitting the rock with a pebble I picked up from below my feet by lightly throwing it and the rock crumbles down on the spot after breaking into dices with a length of around one cm on each side.

“Incredible…”

“If this was a war, would all of the soldiers be cut into such dices…?”

Voices of awe and cheering begin to swell up from the spectators who realized the effect of my spell.

“Hee, the results of my coaching are finally appearing a bit.” (Burkhart)

Seeing the rock which was cut into equal dices, Burkhart-san, who is scheduled to show his magic next, gave me a more or less pa.s.sing mark.

“The next one is you, Burkhart-san.” (Wendelin)

“I’m also bad at being too flashy…” (Burkhart)

Next was Burkhart-san’s turn.
Once he stands in front of the rock and has set up his wand, similar to me, he makes the rock freeze to the utmost limit with coldness, not ice spheres, and hits it with a small ice bullet.
The rock, which was frozen down to almost absolute zero, is shattered into pieces due to the impact of the ice bullet hitting and drops to the ground.
The broken rock displayed a brilliance like diamond dust on its way to the ground and showed a fantastic spectacle to the spectators.

“Have you gotten slightly weaker?” (Therese)

“Therese-sama, I’m still not at that age.” (Burkhart)

“It’s because you art newly-wed.” (Therese)

“You are obsessive about that. Therese-sama is…” (Burkhart)

Therese-sama calls out to Burkhart-san who returned to the seats for n.o.bility, but seeing him, the magicians of Holy Empire Urquhart’s side whispered amongst themselves.
Do they consider it as imprudent since he is pretty much a fellow magician of the enemy nation, I wonder?

“Next is Katharina.” (Wendelin)

“Is the lady one of your wives? She appears to be a capable magician.” (Therese)

Even though she is originally a magician possessing top-cla.s.s abilities even in the Helmut Kingdom, her mana has grown due to her night activities with me.
Casting a tornado spell that easily wrapped up the rock, the rock was changed into small pieces once the tornado ceased and vanished at the spot.
Since it turned into sand after being cut up to the limit, it ended up getting scattered into the surroundings due to the wind.

“That doesn’t even serve as warm-up.” (Katharina)

“That can’t be helped. There’s no way for it to be okay to battle here.” (Wendelin)

“It’s as Wendelin says. If you freely use your magic in duels, it will likely cause injuries to the spectators. For the time being both countries have a ceasefire agreement. Irresponsibly causing injuries and death shall turn into a main cause for increasing the antagonisms.” (Therese)

“That’s true, but…” (Katharina)

Even Katharina should understand this much.
However, I believe it’s just something she expresses to Therese-sama who is addressing me as Wendelin and nonchalantly monopolizes the seat next to me.

“Next is Holy Empire Urquhart’s side, huh? So, how will they do?” (Burkhart)

Burkhart-san, who sensed a delicate atmosphere spreading between Therese-sama and Katharina, changes the topic to the magicians of Holy Empire Urquhart’s side who will exhibit their magic after this.
In reality it might be something I had to do, but the current me didn’t have such mental composure.

“That’s because there was the Armstrong shock 10 years ago.” (Therese)

“Because of dous.h.i.+?” (Wendelin)

“That gentleman’s outside-the-norm mana was well-known.” (Therese)

Dous.h.i.+’ mana growth pattern has the style of being completely Great talents mature late.
Dous.h.i.+’s mana was at the intermediate level around 20 years ago and moreover he was weak at emission spells.
Currently he has more than enough mana to use a snake-emission spell but it seems he was unable to use it back then. He apparently didn’t possess the ability to be added to the Friends.h.i.+p Visit Group.

“Such gentleman demonstrated strength of monster-cla.s.s 10 years later. Furthermore, isn’t his mana even now growing? It’s only natural for him to cause an uproar.” (Therese)

For that reason dous.h.i.+ was the centre of attention at the previous time.

“This time you and 『Storm』-dono are also partic.i.p.ating in addition to him. There’s 『Saint』-dono who specializes in healing and purification magic as well. Burkhart-san has displayed his true ability as usual, too. The roaster of Helmut Kingdom’s magicians is deep.” (Therese)

As it’s a gathering of big guns, one might feel like that, but Holy Empire Urquhart’s side shouldn’t be inferior to the degree of one being able to tell either.
If they are even, they can’t be that different, I think.

“In these 10 years quite the powerful people have appeared amongst us as well. Well, have a good behold at them.” (Therese)

As I watched the magic performances after being told so by Therese-sama, there were many great magicians on Holy Empire Urquhart’s side, too.
Since there’s also the dignity of a state, they likely have secured the numbers properly.
Beginning with Blatson-san, who is the Head Wizard, there are many other magicians who possess mana at the upper regions of intermediate level.
And once we got into the second half, the venue was wrapped in large cheers.

“It’s the four Peachu siblings!”

“The four siblings have appeared!”

“Are they celebrities?” (Wendelin)

“That is so. The four Peachu siblings are the most famous magicians in today’s empire.” (Therese)

Therese-sama answers while nodding towards my question.

“They are magicians and siblings?” (Wendelin)

“To be exact, they are quadruplets.” (Therese)

Since the talent for magic isn’t hereditary, a person’s relatives being able to use it doesn’t necessarily mean that they can use it as well.
However, since the Peachu siblings are quadruplets, they are capable of using magic as they possess the same talent.

“(Because their genes are identical? It’s probably hopeless if it’s fraternal or such.)” (Wendelin)

It seems that the four siblings, who showed up on the grounds, are identical and the four people certainly have the same faces.
Black hair and black pupils, but it’s not like their faces are j.a.panese either.
It’s also not like they are exceeding in appearance that much with their western faces. To put it plainly, they have common faces.
Their ages appear to be around 18. They have a slender build with a height of approximately 175 cm and seem to be normal youths you can find anywhere.
The four of them wore robes, but for some reason all of them were in different colours, namely red, blue, yellow and green.
And, because of the conspicuous bright, striking robe colours, I want them to hold back a bit since I would have been embarra.s.sed if it was me there.

“(They look like a squadron*…)” (Wendelin) (T/N: The kanji used here is usually used for hero units like Power Rangers or other such groups of cosplaying weirdos. Not sure whether a proper word to express that even exists in English. I sure hope not.)

What I imagined at the very first after seeing them was the TV program about hero squadrons I watched in my childhood.
Though there’s one thing lacking, I think.

“Each of those quadruplets has a different stout attribute in magic.” (Therese)

“Really?” (Wendelin)

It seemed that talent for magic was related to the genes, but they have differences in their own magic attributes even though they have the same genes.
Maybe that might vary depending on the cause of acquisition.

“I have heard that the eldest son, Eins, is stout at fire magic.” (Therese)

Once the youth, who wore the red robe, swings his wand, the rock melts into magma after being wrapped up by a blaze.

“The second son, Zwei, uses the water attribute.” (Therese)

Once the youth with the same face, who wore the blue robe, swings his wand, a rock is cut into pieces with water cutter.

“The third son…” (Therese)

“(He’s probably named Drei, isn’t he?)” (Wendelin)

“Drei is strong at earth magic.” (Therese)

These four siblings’s names are apparently originating from German numbers.
It was unknown whether German existed in this world, however it wouldn’t be strange as many of the people’s names are German-styled.
The youth, who wore the yellow robe, breaks a rock by hitting it with a great number of high-speed rock bullets.

“And the last is the fourth son, Vier.” (Therese)

The youth, who wore the green robe, cuts a rock into pieces with a wind cutter.
They are indeed possessors of quite the ability.

“Even our country has a.s.sembled quite the seeds.” (Therese)

“The fourth’s son’s robe being green is just because it’s wind and since it overlaps with the second son’s blue if he performs the blue* attribute?” (Wendelin) (T/N: Can be either blue or green)

“You are paying attention to trivial matters.” (Therese)

Facing the end of the entire magic performance by the four, loud cheers and applause is raised by the spectators.
They probably believe that the peace will last for a long time if the magicians, serving the country, have remarkable abilities.
Alongside our country’s dous.h.i.+ being a powerful deterrence, the a.s.sembled seeds of magicians, led by those four, are the powerful deterrences of Holy Empire Urquhart.

“…” (Wendelin)

“Dear, what’s wrong?” (Elise)

“I don’t think those guys are acquaintances, but…” (Wendelin)

Given that the four of them, who finished their performance, met my gaze, I ended up feeling uneasy by just that.

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