The next part of the novel, featuring Munakata’s family.

Chapter 2 (part 2/2) (volume 2, pages 80-111)

†

On that day, Munakata Reishi had done a nearly unimaginable amount of work with utmost efficiency and maximum energy and, after sowing some hope among his men, left Scepter 4. Munakata, always having an air of composure about him even when he went to visit the ruler of all things on the ground, Kokujouji Daikaku, was now walking with a hurried gait, glancing at his wrist.w.a.tch worriedly and painting the picture of a terribly busy man.

For he had an appointment he absolutely could not be late to.

“Well now. I hope she will like it.”

Nearby, there was a present he bought in a short break between his demanding work - an adorable plush teddy bear wrapped in pink wrapping paper. It was Munakata Ume’s birthday, and as her uncle, Munakata Reishi was invited to her birthday party. Last year, due to an emergency matter coming up, Munakata wasn’t able to make it to his niece’s birthday party which had hurt her feelings deeply. So half a year ago he had promised her that this year he would be there without fail. As far as Munakata was concerned, he wanted to keep his promise no matter what.

Strangely enough, for him, the little girl’s birthday party and the Great Cause of protecting the country had about equal weight. Neither was less important than the other. That’s why he chose to head home even at the time of what could very well be called a crisis.

The moment the door opened, he was ardently welcomed.

“Uncle, you really came!” Umi was overjoyed as she popped up first.

Umi’s younger brother, Kai, approached Munakata timidly and clutched at his sleeve. Although later, next Munakata’s mother, then his father and finally his older brother Taishi with his sister-in-law appeared and gave Munakata Reishi a warm welcome as well.

In this house, he was neither a shrewd government official nor the Blue King chosen by the Dresden Slate and possessing supernatural powers. He was just a person, Munakata Reishi, a second son of the Munakata family.

“Sorry I’m late.”

Hurriedly done with his greetings, he was pulled into the house where they all sat down around the tea table, and the feast began. The table was tightly packed with croquettes and meat and potato stew that Mrs Munakata whipped up, roast beef and minestrone that Taishi’s wife made, beer and authentic j.a.panese sake that Taishi bought, a chocolate cake that the children had picked and sashimi out of mackerel that Munakata Sr caught - a popular commoners’ menu, maybe lacking in cla.s.s and consistence, but overflowing with warmth.

“Congratulations, Umi!” the present toasted, the adults with beer and sake, the children with juice.

They talked about everything that happened to Umi at her school, about the swimming pool Kai had recently started attending, Taishi brought up a professional baseball discussion, his wife demonstrated embroidery she was into lately, and the senior Munakatas brought a pamphlet about Izu where they planned to go for their end-of-year trip.

When they were done eating, games started - Oth.e.l.lo, cards and other typical party games. All the members of the Munakata family were spirited and doing well. After that, they sang the birthday song, cut the cake, and the children ate the cake in utter happiness, smearing their faces in the process.

Full and happy, the children started nodding off, and the older brother’s wife took them to take a bath. With them gone, the living room suddenly became very quiet. Quiet clicking of tableware as Mrs Munakata washed it and the rustling of running water were the only sounds filling the room.

Munakata Sr, taciturn by nature, took out the shogi board and, holding a book in one hand, begun solving shogi problems. On the TV, its volume muted to be only background noise, a news story about a large-scale typhoon closing in on j.a.pan ran. Taishi was idly lying on the tatami with his hands behind his head.

“What a feast we had today!” He looked up at the ceiling happily.

Munakata sat in seiza, quietly sipping tea.

“Gotta thank you” Taishi suddenly added, “for coming, despite being busy.”

Munakata shook his head to that. “Oh, there is no need. I had fun, too. And I’m glad the birthday girl seemed to like my present.”

“Indeed. I shall see what I can do.”

The wandering conversation continued, with Taishi mostly being the one to do the talking and Munakata only replying from time to tim. But it wasn’t like Munakata was being reserved or something of the sort. Time flowed slowly and relaxedly.

It was a curious relationship, to say the least. Munakata Taishi made a living with landscape gardening, had a family of his own, spent his free time watching TV and sometimes going to pac.h.i.n.ko, took his children to the local park to play on Sundays, and liked fishing as a hobby. Once a month, he played gra.s.s-lot baseball with his old friends. He was much better at manual labor than at mental work, he hardly read any books and wasn’t really interested in what was going on in the world around, being the type of wholesome man who could smile, showing his pearly whites, when his close people were healthy and smiled themselves.

Munakata Reishi, on the other hand, was completely and utterly different - not just from Taishi but from anyone else in the Munakata family. From his father, his mother, his brother, his brother’s wife, his niece and his nephew. None of the family had ever written a report on Confucius and Spinoza as a grade schooler, taken the first place in mock exams countrywide for many years in a row or served as the student council president from starting elementary school to graduating from university.

Munakata Reishi was a superior being from the day he was born. He outstripped those around in intelligence, physical ability, character and culture. Everyone who he ever came across were under the impression that he had to be a son of a very distinguished family. And when they learned about the actual environment he was raised in, they all couldn’t help but being puzzled and amazed how someone like him could be born to an ordinary family like that.

His father was a taciturn man taking pride in his work, with shogi and occasional fishing trip being his hobbies. His mother and sister-in-law, although both women of virtue and good cooks, didn’t go in any area past what is considered ordinary and average, and the children they produced, although were quite cute, for now displayed absolutely no ability out of common.

In the Munakata family, only Munakata Reishi was an exception. A child, who insisted on not speaking casually even with his parents and brother, was much too out of place for the family of a mediocre craftsman from the low-lying part of Tokyo.

Truth be told, Munakata’s parents must have had quite a bit of trouble deciding how to treat a child prodigy so unlike the rest of them. But it was somewhat different for Munakata’s older brother Taishi.

Being unruffled and unfussy about the small stuff, from their childhood years on, he kept treating Munakata Reishi in a way that could be seen either as largehearted or insensitive. While their personalities and nature couldn’t have been more different, the two always remained siblings that got along just fine. Munakata held respect for his cheerful and honest brother who had not a prodigious bone in his body.

“Ah, speaking of,” Taishi asked, following the flow of the conversation, “how’s your work lately?”

Taishi only knew that his little brother was the ‘boss’ of "a place that was something like the police’. Being content with only the roughest and broadest idea of things was something that was in Taishi’s nature.

Munakata took a pause to ponder before answering, “Well, not very well, I have to say.”

Munakata let out a chuckle. “Indeed. I’m afraid I made an enemy of a troublesome person. He is even more resourceful than myself, so I’m having a little bit of a hard time.”

Taishi abruptly got up and crossed his legs. “For real? You mean to say someone smarter than you actually exists?” he asked bluntly.

"So what? Are you being cornered?”

Munakata simply nodded, without pretense, embarra.s.sment, self-derision or eagerness.

“Whooa~,” Taishi elongated, stunned. “That gotta be a first, eh,” he remarked, seemingly very impressed. “At least the first from what I know.”
“No.” A shogi piece touched the board with a nostalgic click. “It’s not,” the two’s father, Munakata Jirou, murmured quietly. This time, it wasn’t just Taishi who was surprised by their usually taciturn father’s remark, but Reishi as well as he gazed at Jirou.

For a while, Jirou only stared down at the shogi board, his back to his sons and seemingly oblivious to the gazes they fixed him with.

“You know, with that subst.i.tute teacher that was in charge of Reishi’s cla.s.s for a short while back in 5th grade when their homeroom teacher got injured in a traffic accident."Not changing his cross-legged position, he turned his head to the brothers. "What was his name, again?”

“…Right.” Munakata recalled immediately. “It was Kasuga-sensei.”
“Oh, right, that’s right.” Jirou’s eyes narrowed. “The only teacher Reishi couldn’t get 100 points from on tests.”

Inside Munakata, a spark suddenly flew, and his eyes glinted mysteriously behind his gla.s.ses. In a voice, that had the slightest of quivers in it, he asked as he got up, “Father, brother, would it be alright with you if I wnet to my room for a while? An idea regarding my work has struck me.”

Slight surprise crossed the features of Munakata Sr, but he simply nodded, “Mn-hm,” and turned to his shogi board without saying anything else.

Taishi lied back down on the tatami, asking with interest, “What, Reishi, something about that guy you mentioned?”
“Yes, correct. I just might have the chance to kick his behind,” Munakata provided an explanation for his brother, using the simplest and most understandable words he could find.

Taishi burst out laughing. “Good to hear,” was his reply.

†

“What I’m doing is actually very simple,” Kounomura said after they had finished the driving the advertising van job and relocated to a members-only bar in Nanakamado.

They were in a deluxe room where only a handful of VIPs from even among the members of this closed establishment were allowed to enter. The sofas, the tables and all the other furnishings were stunningly extravagant and posh, but what drew the eye was the masterpiece works of a certain famous maestro. If they were put up for auction, there was no way the price offered would drop lower than a hundred million at worst. In this room, there were 2 such gems that by all rights should have been in possession of an art museum.

Like the regular customer he was, Kounomura came in front of the gla.s.s case where expensive Western liquors were on display, and casually took out a bottle of aged whiskey, pouring it into gla.s.ses - for himself and for Gouoku. He took a sip, held it in his mouth, then lied down on the floor on the fur spread on it.

"As usual, this man looks so out of place in this kind of furnishings,’ Nakamura Gouoku thought. "Just the other day he was sprawling on mats by the riverbed, slurping up some cheap plum shochu, and frankly, that place fit him perfectly, and certainly a lot more than this one. Though the same could be said about me.’

A penguin-like shortie of a man and a balded giant in a place where only the cream of the crop could get in certainly was a sight to behold. What’s more, Gouoku was in his priest’s garb while Kounomura had yet to change out of the fatigues he drove the van in just a short while ago. It was pretty amazing how none of the reception staff so much as batted an eye as they took the two such guests to the back rooms.

Gouoku took a gulp of straight liquor out of his whiskey gla.s.s - his palm easily wrapping around the thing in its entirety - and chuckled a little. The fact that both of them were completely out of place here still stood unchanged though. If anything, it was probably Munakata Reishi, with his gorgeous looks and commanding presence, who would fit right in.

“Mn? What’s wrong?” Kounomura asked.

“Erm? What was it I was saying, again?” Kounomura asked back slowly and drowsily.

“…”

“Ah well, it’s actually pretty simple. You could say it’s "love’, I guess? It penetrates the perception gap between the sense of self, of others and of the world. Umm~m.”

Gouoku patiently waited. If he kept waiting, his prodigious friend would eventually give him an explanation in words simple enough even for him to understand.

“Well, let’s see. The reason why Munakata-kun is so confused this time is because in a sense he’s too smart for his own good.”

“Gouoku. When you’re so smart that you have no equal, you end up seeing through everything like an open book and forgetting that you yourself, too, are part of this world, as well an influence on it. Well, maybe not exactly forgetting but never even realizing it. Perhaps, picturing yourself on top of a big mountain would be an adequate epithet.”

Kounomura slowly rose and put the bottle on the table.

“Munakata-kun is currently here.” He indicated the top of the bottle. “And those around him, people and circ.u.mstances alike, are this.”

He placed a gla.s.s next to the bottle.

“In his case, he basically has a bird-eye view of all kinds of life’s problems, and he can easily solve any problem by moving it in whatever direction is required or switching something with something else.”

The gla.s.s was placed it in different spots in sequence.

“As it keeps on going, curiously enough, a gap born between himself and his surroundings comes into existence,” Kounomura went on, his voice having notes of sadness in it. “Misunderstanding becomes commonplace, leading to creation of an idol molded to people’s wishes and expectations without his consent. Those around start to a.s.sume things, abandoning all attempts to actually understand and starting to pretty much deificate him instead. All because he is much too capable and outstanding. And yes, he is capable, but there is not a single soul who understands him, and it doesn’t cross anyone’s mind to even attempt to anymore. Munakata Reishi is a genius beyond anyone’s reach. This conviction prevents people from thinking on the matter further.”

“No, no.” Kounomura flashed his pearly whites. “I can’t hold a candle to Munakata-kun. He’s the real authentic elite here. I’m just barely keeping up with him in this compet.i.tion by making use of all the years I’ve lived, nothing more.”

Kounomura took out another bottle out of the gla.s.s case and placed it next to the one that was already on the table. The two were of about the same height.

“That said, it’s still probably a first to him, chancing upon someone of his own cla.s.s who is actually trying to a.n.a.lyze him. And it’s due to that unfamiliar experience that the thinking processes of even a genius like Munakata-kun automatically slow down, like a heated swimming pool becoming lukewarm, and the boundary line between himself and those around him becomes blurred. So what I’m doing is simply preventing him from doing his best. Simple as that.”

“It can’t be helped, Gouoku,” Kounomura laughed at Gouoku’s teasing.

“So, in short, it’s because Munakata never met his equal that he’s now falling for your tricks, or something?”

Kounomura shook his head.

“Not quite. Like I said earlier, the point here is that Munakata-kun is too smart for his own good. Let’s use the chess a.n.a.logy, shall we? He’s an impossibly excellent player. He can win in virtually any position, at any point of the game, just after one look at the board, and that’s precisely what he’s been doing repeatedly. That’s why he’s accidentally forgotten that he, too, is one of the factors composing the world, one of the elements that determine strategy and tactics. One of the p.a.w.ns on the board called fate.”

“Putting this into even simpler terms, until now he was a chess player who never moved the p.a.w.n that he himself is. No one ever presented enough threat for him to, so he naturally leaves himself out of his calculations and predictions. …No, it’s not quite that he leaves himself out, he’s just lacking in self-awareness a little, I guess.” He grinned. “But that’s enough for me.”

Kounomura really was a terrifying man, Gouoku reaffirmed once again.

Said Kounomura yawned. “Everyone stopped trying to seriously figure him out. They don’t see Munakata-kun’s typical thinking patterns, habits and tendencies even though everyone naturally has them, no exceptions. But I…”

“That’s right. Because I have "love’ for him. I didn’t treat Munakata-kun as an unreachable genius or a monster, I simply tried my absolute best to get to know him thoroughly. And then I made use of the tiny c.h.i.n.ks in his armor that I had painstakingly searched for and found. That’s all there is to it,” Kounomura simply said, but even Gouoku was well aware just how uncommon and outstanding the ability to do that was. Yes, it really was Munakata’s disastrous misfortune to become possessed by this man.

Under Gouoku’s gaze, Kounomura let out another small yawn and sprawled listlessly on the fur of Russian sable.

“So how is it? Do you feel you can usurp the throne of the Blue King with this plan of yours?” Gouoku changed his question.

Kounomura was silent for a while.

“Hmmm. Dunno. Like I’ve told you many times before, the nature of the Dresden Slate is too mysterious. After all, even the brilliant Gold King, ruling all things on the ground, Kokujouji Daikaku spent half a century on researching that thing and is still hardly even closer to figuring it out than he was in the beginning.”

“Beats me. Maybe he regards us as nothing more than an experiment to advance his research of the Slate. Or maybe it’s his way of testing Munakata-kun. Or…” Kounomura paused. “The fact that you became a strain proves that the Slate is responsive to human will to a certain extent. But beyond that, I have no idea.”
“So even you can’t figure out the inhuman Slate, although you could the human Munakata Reishi, huh.”

Kounomura didn’t reply. He lay curled in on himself.

Gouoku’s shoulders shook with laughter. Now he could see clearly the reason why Kounomura was so unmotivated.

“You’re such a greedy man, as always. You’re gunning for the throne of the Blue King, yet get dejected when the Blue King’s not resisting your ususrpation attempt hard enough,” he accused in a teasing manner.
“You’re mistaken,” Kounomura denied Gouoku’s words, but not hard enough for it to sound convincing.

“Hey, Zen"ichi. Tell me something. What exactly Munakata Reishi can do to turn the tables on us in the current situation?”
“Well,” Kounomura replied in a quiet sleepy voice. “Since we’re striking at the structural flaw that we found in Munakata Reishi as a human being here, he could just remember his own existence - recall who exactly he is. Or…”

But that what all Kounomura said, a peaceful sleeper’s breathing being the only sound escaping him now.

Gouoku chuckled and took another gulp of his drink. He wouldn’t mind drinking in the company of the man named Munakata Reishi together with Kounomura Zen"ichi someday, he thought.

†

It felt like he was drunk, or maybe delirious with fever. But Munakata pushed forward, shivering only slightly.

Ascending the wooden stairs, he headed to the room he used to use as his own. After Munakata became independent and left, his parents kept the room as it was, so he could use it to stay at on the extremely rare occasions when he came to visit them.

It was a straw-matted room, of the size about 6 tatami mats. Out of furniture, it only had a bed, a desk and bookcases. The ma.s.sive amounts of books from when Munakata indiscriminately during his being a student were mostly gone, but certain materials and alb.u.ms were still lined up in a strict orderly fashion on the shelves.

Out of them, Munakata took out his grade school graduation alb.u.m and opened it.

The memories revived with ease.

“Kasuga-sensei.”

Munakata’s brain was fast pursuing several concurrent trains of thought at once. If the process inside his cranium was to be visualized, it would probably look like a mult.i.tude of multicolored lights flashing all the time. The past data stored in the memory field were retrieved, a.s.signed meaning through reasoning and interpretation, linked with the next piece of information and given the unity of a whole.

At the moment, Munakata was engaged in ultra-fast computing of frightening speed magnitudes. That influenced the part of his brain that controlled his body, so he was currently reeling. Or, putting it in layman’s terms, he could also be said to be concentrating extremely hard.

"You are an exceedingly capable child, Reishi-kun. No, maybe I should call you too capable for your own good?’ his teacher, about to retire, said once with a wide smile.

Munakata’s brain reconstructed the details of the appearance of the teacher in question without any problem. His features were like a visual illusion picture meant to form a human face even when turned upside down. He wasn’t particularly fat, but the vertex part was prominently rising, some straight completely white hair looking like fuzz still left on his head above his ears. His nose was bulbous, and behind the Lloyd gla.s.ses, his eyes smiled with kindness. Like a professor from an old school manga, as one of Munakata’s cla.s.smates described him once.

Next, Munakata recalled the teacher’s personal background. From the sc.r.a.pes of rumors, Munakata’s own investigation and what Kasuga-sensei told them about himself, it was a rather eccentric history for a grade school teacher. From it, it followed that Kasuga-sensei earned a PhD in political science in the USA, got a job with the UN as a member of an arbitration committee for disputed territories and worked there for almost 10 years until suffering severe injuries to his right leg. Reluctantly, he had to resign. He had job offers from several business corporations and research inst.i.tutes, but he declined them all, becoming a teacher for a public elementary school instead.

“I’m sure where life is concerned, you won’t get anything less than 100 points, now or in the future,” Kasuga-sensei predicted with the same wide smile.

He really was a strange teacher who would cut a lesson short and take the kids to go watch bugs and flowers outside or would recite poetry non-stop for an hour. But it was during that teacher’s tenure that Munakata had received anything less than full marks twice: 95 the first time and 98 the second.

To Munakata, that was completely outside his expectations.

Perfection. That was the undeniable nature inherent of the human named Munakata Reishi, even if he was only alive for a little more than 10 years at the time. On the day when their regular homeroom teacher came back, which simultaneously meant the end of Kasuga-sensei’s short subst.i.tution, Munakata Reishi, whose features were still those of a young child, knocked on the door of the faculty office with the intention to directly ask Kasuga-sensei the question that needed to be asked, in the boy’s opinion.

Kasuga-sensei welcomed him with a smile on his face. Munakata’s question was straightforward and clear.

"Sensei, please explain why I did not get the full marks on your test?’

Let’s just say that in addition to the question not at all being what a young child would ask, it was also somewhat arrogant and warranting the need for some guidance, from the educational perspective. An ordinary teacher would get angry at that. But Kasuga-sensei only burst out laughing, looking like he really did find it very funny.

"It’s only natural that you would come throw this question at me. I’m happy you did, Reishi-kun. But it’s only just as natural in a sense that you could not get full marks on that test.’ He giggled like a prankster kid. "After all, I designed that test specifically for you. Through observing you, I drew up all the questions in a way designed to lead you astray and guide you to make a mistake. All of them were a trap custom-made specially for you, Reishi-kun.’

He was not shy about what he’d done in the least.

At the time, Munakata was lost and bewildered. "But sensei, is that not an inappropriate manner of conduct for an educator?’ Clearly, this man’s att.i.tude as a teacher was supposed to be the opposite. "Even if you managed to stike me down, in essence the test would lose its meaning as an educational testing tool, would it not?’
"Hahahaha!’ In response to that reproving statement, Kasuga-sensei laughed loudly. "This too is an educational method, Reishi-kun. Make sure you remember it,’ he said and patted Munakata’s head.

In all honesty, at that point of time what his teacher was talking about was beyond comprehension even to the prodigious Munakata Reishi. Only, Munakata Reishi still made sure to store those words in innermost depths of his heart.

Because he had a hunch he should. Because he felt what his teacher taught him might change something in him unnoticed.

"I love you very much, you know.’

The instance those words of Kasuga-sensei’s came to mind, a spark flashed in Munakata’s brain. Pieces connected, instantly falling in place and unraveling the mystery of the events that until then seemed inexplicable. The riddle stopped being a riddle, becoming nothing more than its real structure instead.

At the same time, the exceedingly simple swindling scheme Kounomura Zen"ichi was running was laid bare before Munakata in pretty much its entirety. It only took mere 20 seconds for all of the above to happen.

But even Munakata Reishi ended up dizzy and unsteady from concentrating and thinking as hard as was humanly possible. Beads of sweat dripped from his brow, and his breathing was rough. That’s how intense a thinking process was required.

In addition, at mostly the same instance, Munakata noticed the key that could break down his current predicament. He had understood that for besting Kounomura he absolutely needed to recall who he, himself, was. And once he realized that necessity, coming up with a solution was easy.

Munakata Reishi’s obvious reason d"etre.

He got up, straightened his back and said a single phrase then. “I see. I remember now.”

Pushing up at the bridge of his gla.s.ses with a finger, he whispered with grace and elegance, “That’s right. I’m a king.”

A flash of a smile that tugged at his lips was that of the Guardian of Order, of the Fourth and the Blue King Munakata Reishi, most clever and most young.

†

Driving his car at high speed, Munakata Reishi hurried back to the HQ. He didn’t plan to stay overnight at his parents’ home, but even with that taken ino account, he left the family gathering a little earlier than expected.

He stayed just long enough to say good night to his niece and nephew before they went to bed.

“Uncle, will you visit again?” the two children asked, rubbing their eyes sleepily.
“Of course I will,” Munakata smiled and placed a gentle hand on the two’s heads.

His brother who came out to see him off wrapped a hand around Munakata’s shoulders as he grinned, “Say, Reishi. I made a baseball team with friends, but we don’t have enough people. So… are you free next Sunday?”

“Great, I’m counting on you then. Let’s form a sibling battery while we’re at it, "kay? You’ll be the pitcher, and I’ll be the catcher. The other way is fine, too. Yeah, now I can’t wait!”

Taishi remained Taishi no matter what.

Unusually enough, Munakata Sr appeared in the entranceway to see his younger son off, too. It was anyone’s guess what exactly the taciturn craftsman Jirou figured, but he clapped the younger Munakata on the arm and said, “Nm. Do your best.” With that he slowly returned to the hallway.

Munakata bowed deeply to his father’s back.

He sensed that his father constantly lived with the feeling of confusion when it came to him. And if he was honest, he knew that neither his parents nor his brother could ever gain a thorough understanding of who and what he was. He wasn’t disappointed by it or resigned to it, he simply acknowledged it as a fact. At the same time, never once had he doubted the love they offered him.

"A kite has bred a hawk,’ was what those around kept saying, and both Munakata’s father and mother thought so too.

But still, the kite loved the hawk.

And they did too, in their own clumsy way, but sincerely and unhesitatingly. That’s why Munakata could always return to their household as their second son Reishi, without the need to be cautious or anxious.

Before awakening as a king, Munakata Reishi lived his life without truly knowing who he was. His overly superior intelligence, his insight allowing him to foresee every manner of matter, his prodigious physical capabilities and talents… no matter what he did, he did it so well that he ended up eclipsing others as if it was only natural. What was a challenge to ordinary people, to Munakata was like walking a straight flat road, coming as natural as breathing. Not even an obstacle preventing him from seeing dozens of meters ahead. He was someone who surpa.s.sed in a heartbeat others’ long and painstaking hard work with just his natural talent.

What would it even lead to if someone so superior and reality-defying tried to lead a school life among your average people?

The answer was, exclusion from the collective under the guise of admiration, and alienation from the ma.s.s with no even sense of jealousy involved.

Because Munakata-kun was special. Because Munakata-kun was abnormal.

How many times did he have those words, full of understanding on the surface but essentially ruthless and intolerant if you dug deeper, thrown at him?

His superior intelligence let him see through the pretense of respect veiling people’s wish to distance themselves from him, and the Munakata Reishi of the past allowed it, resulting in his all-encompa.s.sing loneliness.

No matter how much he wished it, no one could stand equal to him. No one could see what he saw even if they looked at the same thing.

Before becoming king, Munakata Reishi was always lonely.

Munakata operated his PDA via voice input as he drove.

During his intense brain storming earlier, he exposed most of Kounomura’s scheme, but there still remained a few unclear points. To figure them out, he absolutely needed capable people who could conduct field operation in his stead.

The line connected. Using a hands-free set, Munakata inquired, “Ah, Fushimi-kun?”

As he said the name of the person he was calling, a thought flashed in his head that maybe he head-hunted this person for his organization because he projected parts of his own past on the way the young man lived at the time. Needless to say, their personalities and environment was nothing alike, and unlike himself, Fushimi had a friend he could confide in, but still, the way the two of them felt out of place and alienated by those around them due to how outstandingly capable they were was very similar.

’—What is it?’ The voice on the other end of the line was openly annoyed despite its owner talking to his direct superior.

Munakata’s lips curved up in a smile.

“I have something to ask of you.”

He then explained the contents of his request, keeping it short. Since the order was almost too concise, a normal person would likely fail to see what exactly Munakata wanted to achieve by giving it.

But Fushimi was not normal.

’—Understood,’ he answered back after a 2 second silence, sounding like he had grasped Munakata’s goal behind the directive in full.

The line went dead almost immediately after.

"He really is capable, extraordinarily so,’ Munakata thought to himself from the bottom of his heart.

Afterwards, until arriving to the HQ, as he was driving, Munakata mulled over the topic of the gra.s.s-lot baseball game his brother invited him to. He was even humming to himself, an occurrence almost unheard-of for him.

Munakata knew he was in an uplifted mood. His drive and motivation were back.