That’s enough of these sea descriptions!

Since I’m not a poet, how can I think of pretty words to describe the beauty of the sky, waves and boats! Although Wolfram is very dissatisfied, he’s still forced to follow the secret seasickness cure Lord von Christ taught him.

“Two hundred and twenty-one… the beautiful, sea… Mmph! d.a.m.n you, Günter, it’s not working at all! Two hundred and twenty-two… the mother of all life, the sea. Stupid Günter, just you wait until I get back! I’ll put Kiku by your pillow-side every night!”

And he doesn’t forget to scold him either.

“I’ve used everything from my father to my great-grandfather a hundred times by now, right? Then four hundred and twenty-three… The sea, like my granduncle, hai… hahph!”

“Don’t you feel like you suddenly have a lot more relatives?”

“That’s right, and I’m tired of praising the sea! How can something as useless as this help me on a happy, relaxed oceanic journey! Besides, I didn’t volunteer to join the navy, it’s only natural that I’d get seasick!”

“Poor Excellency. Your body and your spirit may have grown, but the snails in your ears are exactly the same.”

Hearing her commander, who’s younger than her, scold her adopted father with all he’s worth, not only is Lady von Christ Gisela not angry at all, she even comforts him.

“The snails in my ears? Mm—ph, what is that?”

“Oh dear! Don’t you know? Everyone has a snail in their ears. The reason people get seasick, carsick, or dizzy when riding a horse, is because that snail is in a bad mood and throws a tantrum. If it’s slightly more serious, it will even bite away the membrane in your ear ca.n.a.ls, and suck up all the owner’s brain juices! That way it’s not just a matter of vomiting and dizziness, even your brain juices will leak out of your ears!”

Wolfram’s expression changes visibly, and he instinctively raises his hands to press on his head, yelling,

“D-don’t say such disgusting things! It must be that, what you call folk tales, right?”

Gisela shakes her head with an expression of deep regret,

“No. The mini snail in Your Excellency’s ear is scampering around right now.”

“Then according to you, what will happen to me now!?”

Wolfram, who never took the medical training courses in the army, definitely has no idea that the Sergeant is best known for her ‘unreal medical horror stories’. Facing an innocent reaction that she hasn’t seen in a long time, Gisela can’t help but smile.

“Actually you don’t have to act so tragic about it, all you have to do is cheer it up a bit and you’ll be fine. Please temporarily forget your nervousness about this journey, relax your shoulders, and then the snail will calm down too. Why don’t you go with that bunch of… No, why don’t you try mixing with the crowd, and temporarily forget the worries in your heart?”

Lower down on the deck, some off-duty soldiers are pa.s.sionately interacting with the Caloria reinforcements. That’s putting it nicely, the truth is the cabin door is wide open, and they’re having a huge beer party whether or not there’s a roof above their heads. And now it seems to have gone past a mild haze, because there are drunks all over the ground. Some are hugging their bottles of beer and lying on the deck, while others are sitting cross-legged on wooden buckets full of pure water and lecturing yet others.

Looking down at this peaceful scene, Wolfram’s brow is creased in exactly the same way as his brother.

“A bunch of drunks!”

“Don’t tell me you’re not good at interacting with uncles?”

“This has nothing to do with age. You see, they’re the humans sent by Caloria, right? But the soldiers on our s.h.i.+p have mixed with them in such an unsightly manner. Unforgivable. It’s so unseemly! They have no self-awareness as mazoku at all!”

Indeed, the men stacked on top of each other on the deck, are not differentiated into mazoku and humans at all. Mixed into a mess like this, the only way to tell them apart is by their outfits. Most of the ones in uniform are mazokus, but some of them are in plain clothes too.

“That guy drunk out of his wits, is it Adalbert?”

“It seems like it… Goodness! He’s hugging the railing and crying! I don’t know whose name he’s calling, but just thinking about it is disgusting. Speaking of which, old boy Grantz was always known for his bad alcohol tolerance.”

“He can’t drink!?”

“That’s right, and there are rumors that he can’t stomach it well either.”

Just imagining the muscleman losing it after a few drinks, makes Wolfram uncomfortable again. Will he uproot a huge tree and start swinging it above his head, knocking down some houses in the process? Or will he break into a small house with livestock, and then grab a horse’s or a cow’s tail… How scary, and so his face gets paler and paler.

As expected of Gisela, not only does she watch Wolfram, who’s imagining a crazy drunk Grantz, expressionlessly, she’s also remembering the rumors on the street about Lord von Bielefeld at the same time. He may look cute, but he has a shocking alcohol tolerance, and he doesn’t go crazy after he gets drunk either, could that be true? She wants to verify the validity of this rumor. Compared to that adopted father of hers, who strips stark naked, wears his underwear on his head and starts dancing madly whenever he drinks, she wonders, who’ll be more fun when they’re drunk?

“So you let him go in a one-on-one battle?”

Adalbert is in such a great mood that his eyes are all narrowed as he raises his hand and waves it wildly in front of his face.

“Amongst the soldiers on the losing side, there was a young man who obviously looks like a child, but had a very thick beard. His beard was especially weird, so I pulled him out for a closer look—That man was Maxine. I was going to say that his short mustache looks like it was drawn on, but then I realized it really was drawn on with brown colors! He drew a beard on his face!? A fourteen-year-old brat had such a thick mustache, he really beat me there! So I asked him why, and he said, ‘Because it looks cooler like this.’ And his hairstyle was really weird too, because he made this place like this.”

Adalbert puts down the beer bottle, raises both his hands and starts groping around his ears.

“He cropped the whole part upwards! As for the curly hairs that were left, he left them long and tied them into a ponytail, the reason also being, ‘It looks cooler like this.” Anyway, his look was to draw his beard really thick, and the crop his hair on both sides upwards. Goodness—It was so weird, it made him seem old-fas.h.i.+oned! It made me want to determine if his hair on the lower part of his body is also that thick, and also cropped upwards!”

He flicks his messy blonde hair, laughing loudly. Hearing his vulgar joke and laughter, Dacascos lowers his head in disappointment. Goodness~. The image of the General among the Ten n.o.bles that the people idolized so much, slowly falling apart before his eyes. Turns out Lord von Christ Günter isn’t the only n.o.ble who fell.

“So you guys met under such hilarious circ.u.mstances…”

“That’s right, anyway he was laughed at by our entire team to no end, and then, since he was so funny, we decided to open one eye, close one eye, and let him go… Wait a second! Thinking about it, our country is too nice to our prisoners of war, they came all the way across the ocean from another continent, you know! Compared to the way we’re isolated in s.h.i.+maron, I can’t help but want to tell him sarcastically, ‘Our prisoners of war practically live in paradise.’ For all you know, a lowly soldier like him would have been happier and more relaxed staying as a prisoner here, than escaping back to his country alone.”

“Should I call him lucky, or unlucky?”

“That’s what’s interesting about him. But what’s even more surprising is that later when we faced off against Shou s.h.i.+maron soldiers again, for some reason all the soldiers had exactly the same beard and hairstyle as Maxine. And regardless of age, too. Maybe they want to get his luck, too. But the truth is the real reason behind it is that his beard is too hilarious, so we generously let him go. If no one said this out loud, no one will know. For all we know, he was idolized as a war G.o.d or a hero back home! Aiya—that time we were laughing so hard we couldn’t fight!”

“I-is that so—So the reason their entire army crops the hair on both sides upwards, has such a shocking truth behind it… Hehehe—”

Dacascos touches the world’s simplest and beautiful head, and then sighs deeply.

“So the legend that man will never die, is partly due to me. Only, Nigel doesn’t seem to have any recollection that we met when he was young.”

Adalbert grabs the beer bottle Dacascos left beside him and start chugging it down. Since his doctor and his wife restricted him, he hasn’t been drunk in a long time.

“Milord really likes them, huh?”

“Huh? Like? Like what?”

“Likes the humans.”

The seamen’s favorite strong beer seems to be almost burning his throat.

“Your Excellency must really like the humans, huh? Otherwise normal soldiers or someone like me, who doesn’t fight, would never hear of the truth behind our superior officers. Mostly they’re just slips of the mouth or rumors spreading everywhere, and we can only guess using our imagination. May I ask, Your Excellency, who can be called the descendant of a famous family… Master Adalbert, why on earth would you suddenly abandon our country and follow the humans? Because there are many explanations: Such as someone bought intel about s.h.i.+n Makoku from you with a large sum of money, or you fell in love with a human girl, everyone can only make such base, old-fas.h.i.+oned guesses…”

Sitting on the deck, Dacascos puts his head between his knees, just like a girl worrying about love. The back of his head and neck are both very red, looks like he really is drunk.

“You like humans, right?”

“What!? What are you saying? Of course not!”

Having heard a completely unrelated reason, Adalbert is so worked up he waves both hands around wildly.

“You like them, so you don’t want to fight them… It must be that.”

“What are you talking nonsense about!? I hate those mazokus who watched Lady von Wincott die without doing a thing, I want nothing more than to see this cruel country fall to pieces… that’s why I’m using the humans…”

“Recently, I too have been thinking about this.”

Dacascos brings the thin bottle neck to his mouth again, but it’s empty inside, so all he can do is wipe his lips and chin with his fist. The injury he got while working in the kitchen us almost completely healed, but right now it’s p.r.i.c.king painfully.

“Since we were young, we were taught that humans are the enemy, and they must surely hate and fear mazokus too. Even if we’re walking alone on the streets of a neighboring, friendly country, we’ll have rocks thrown at us, so if we head towards faraway s.h.i.+maron, we’ll definitely get even worse treatment—that’s something everyone knows. Like when Your Excellency was travelling alone, you must definitely have faced unhappy incidents because of your ident.i.ty as a mazoku, right? Because mazokus and humans are enemies and we even had a war not long ago, and if we’re not careful we might start another war soon. Because they’re the enemy… probably. Although I only got the most basic education, even my neighbor’s kid knows something like this. But—but, Your Excellency…”

The young king’s face floats into Dacascos’s mind, and just thinking that he isn’t onboard this s.h.i.+p upsets him. Because there are some things he wants to hear from him.

He really wants to ask, ‘But, His Majesty…’

Dacascos puts his chin on his knees, where the bones are clearly visible, and looks out into the dark and calm sea.

“Please listen to me, recently I suddenly got this idea. It’s just an idea, that maybe they’re all good people.”

Sitting on the ground, Adalbert kicks away the beer bottles and makes a sound.

“Because I was lucky enough to stay by His Majesty’s side, I got to know some humans… like Mr. Hyscliff, Lady Flynn and Mr. Fanfan, they may be humans, but they’re good people! I especially respect Mr. Hyscliff, his s.h.i.+ny head is my target! And Miss Greta may be the princess of s.h.i.+n Makoku, but she used to be the child of humans, you know! But she’s really cute~. Although my kid is really cute too, just mentioning the young miss makes me remember her cheerful personality!”

Whenever pet.i.te little Greta runs past, the dark and gloomy castle corridors seem to lighten up. Whenever she calls His Majesty and His Excellency Wolfram, everyone working in the castle will raise their heads, and smile subconsciously.

“Although they’re humans, they’re all good people. I just can’t figure it out, why are these good people our enemies? Recently it’s bothered me so much my hair is falling out.”

Even Dacascos himself doesn’t know who he should talk about this to. He reaches his hand for his temples where the veins are vaguely showing, and presses them lightly with his fingers.

“But to really get to the bottom of the matter, it could be because we lost friends on the battlefield, and lost brothers in the war. If I ask the Sergeant, Gurrier or Captain Sizemore, I’ll definitely get a more serious answer; but if I ask His Majesty, I’ll get, ‘what are you talking about, Dacascos, isn’t that obvious!’ as an answer, he may even pat my head!”

There’s no other country in this world where the king will pat a low-rank soldier’s head. But His Majesty is just that unique, so much so that we’re changing quickly too.

“Ever since His Majesty appeared, a lot of things have changed.”

Kicking away the third beer bottle with his feet, Adalbert asks in a low voice,

“That brat… the one called Yuuri, what kind of a king is he exactly?”

“A-about that… he’s really impressive you know! His Majesty is really special.”

Dacascos desperately tries to use all his vocabulary to praise Yuuri, but no matter how he squeezes his brain, no matter how beautifully he describes him, the feeling that comes across is very ordinary. Faced without any other choice, he repeats ‘impressive’ and ‘special’ again, pauses for a moment and then adding,

“But recently… I feel as though he’s forcing himself a little.”

“Why would you say so?”

“I-I can’t describe it very well, but sometimes I feel that he may be too tired. But that’s to be expected! After all, it’s not easy to rule an entire country, and he was so young when he rose to the throne too. No matter what it is he’s doing, if he wasn’t trained for it beforehand, or if he doesn’t have a certain amount of experience, it’ll definitely be very hard for him. Did you know? His Majesty is only sixteen!”

“Sixteen, huh…”

Although Adalbert doesn’t say it out loud, his gaze is floating, as though determining this number.

“Exactly! Like when I was sixteen, I may have had more hair than I do now, but I couldn’t even tell the difference between an octopus and a branch! But His Majesty really has the aura of a king—Although I’m not that devout in my religion, but I have no choice but to believe that Lord s.h.i.+nou is protecting us from beyond the grave, that’s why he chose such an appropriate person to ascend the throne.”

“Although he’s only sixteen, I heard that his love life is really colorful! I don’t know if it’s true or false, but I heard that he got engaged to the previous Maou’s third prince a long time ago?”

“That’s right, that’s true. That’s why His Excellency Günter’s nose ran like a river, and he cried while biting onto his handkerchief! But most of the people are happy to see it. In the bet for His Majesty’s affections, His Excellency Wolfram is rather popular too. But that’s unsurprising, since they’re such a good match! Aiya, like that time when the two of them were hiding together in the fruit carton, I thought they were some foreign dolls and couldn’t look away! But I spent three month’s worth of salary to bet on His Excellency Günter—I’ll just take it as my congratulatory present for them.”

Dacascos imagines his superior officer’s crying face every night, as he counts the amount of lottery money he got. This way he can finally pay off the loans and his kid’s tuition fees… Maybe he can still let his wife stop working for His Excellency Gwendal, so he can have a hot meal waiting for him when he gets home. Just because he was imagining such a scene, he instinctively answers Adalbert’s question.

“Is he happy?”

“Very—Ah! That’s not right, you’re referring to His Majesty, right!? I don’t know if he’s happy, but at least he looks very cheerful.”

“Is that so?”

After that Adalbert falls silent, not saying anything at all, and not desperately hugging the railing while yelling a certain someone’s name either, turning into a quiet, sullen drunk.

“Hey~~ Dacchan-san! Come over here and drink with us--! Captain Mountain Range wants to tell you stories of the Seisakoku holy temple--!”

Hearing the calls from the Calorian reinforcements...o...b..ard with them, Dacascos hastily gets up.

The reinforcements...o...b..ard under orders of Flynn Gilbit are all experienced mercenaries. The man like his name, Captain Mountain Range, always has a yellowed skull on his knee, and other than calling it ‘Little Pot’, he even talks to it. To others, be it the scars on his face and arms, or his scary appearance and fierce gaze, fill people with a sense of fear. But normally he is indeed a stable man, and well-loved by his men. And the comrades around him are all rather unusual men too, but since Yuuri helped their country through a crisis, they’re not too against mazokus.

Surely they’re most respected mistress, Flynn Gilbit must have spent a lot of time convincing them, huh?

Even they must surely find this unbelievable.

But Dacascos still walks slowly into this group of people that can share these doubts.

Kotsuhizoku shed their skin.

There has always been a veil of mystery surrounding their unique form of life, one that no one can reveal to this day. People can’t tell which part of them is skin, and which part is bone, or even whether their body has a ‘torso’. Kotsuhizoku and kotsuchizoku sometimes stay in the dark and cold ground, while at other times they discard their old sh.e.l.l in the dry desert, becoming a completely new creature.

On a side note, there’s absolutely no way to tell the difference from the surface.

The ‘Happy-Happy Bone Puzzle’ is a product made of the useless parts kotsuchizoku don’t use any more after molting, or when kotsuhizoku put themselves back together after cras.h.i.+ng and find a spare piece from goodness knows where. It counts as a recyclable and safe toy, and is highly recommended by the s.h.i.+n Makoku Child Education Committee.

The advanced level of playing with ‘Happy-Happy Bone Puzzles’ is to find a combination that fits perfectly together from tens of thousands of bones. Lucky kids can find them within hours, but there are also some who can’t find them even after they’re all grown up. Though most children get tired of it before putting it together, abandoning the ‘Happy-Happy Bone Puzzle’ to think of other games by themselves, thereby saying farewell to their childhood.

Greta is no exception.

Although she’s returned to Blood Pledge Castle, she can’t find anyone to play with her, so all she can do is stay in her adopted father’s s.p.a.cious room and obediently play with the bones alone.

She’s already tired of ‘Playing House of Bones’ and ‘Stack the Bones’, and she’s even measured the bone density of the larger pieces. The instruction manual said that ‘Happy-Happy Bone Puzzles’ can build a pirate s.h.i.+p or a haunted castle, but the little girl who lives in a real castle, and has gone sailing around in a royal sailboat, doesn’t find any excitement in even the picture of the completed sample.

Greta heaves a sigh that doesn’t fit her age, and then puts the palm-sized bone to her ear as though it were a sh.e.l.l.

“Wow~~ There are graveyard sounds—”

She hears the screaming of the winds, a terrified dog howling, and the creaking of a rusted iron door. The rustling of the branches adds to the ominous atmosphere even more. Tomb raiders use a cross-shaped shovel to sig out a coffin, opening the coffin lid to get the treasure map…

“Waa!”

Hearing something like a murmur by her ear, Greta is shocked into throwing the bone puzzle piece onto the ground. But the bone piece doesn’t break on impact, seems like it’s actually rather st.u.r.dy.

“Just now… I think someone said something…”

She did indeed hear something like a voice talking. After a moment’s hesitation, she carefully picks it up again, and brings it to her ear. It really isn’t the graveyard sound effect, but a certain special language. Not only are all the p.r.o.nunciations completely different from the language she uses, there’s even a very heavy accent, so she can’t understand a thing.

“Could this be what Yuuri meant by ‘bone-static’?”

Greta hurriedly gathers up all the bones, wrapping them up in her blanket and carrying them out of the room. At times like these, look for the Poison Lady! There shouldn’t be anything Anissina doesn’t know!

“Anissina… Eh?”

She roughly kicks the door open with one foot, just in time to see the two silhouettes that were huddled closely together immediately separate.

“Eh?”

The one who jumped backwards was Lord von Voltaire Gwendal; the owner of the room, Lady von Karbelnikoff Anissina didn’t move a finger.

There’s a bubbling green liquid on the table again, while Kiku, now just an empty sh.e.l.l, sits on the book shelf. The room looks no different than a normal research lab.

And yet the atmosphere in the room is completely different from usual.

“We—ird--?”

Gwendal freezes in the stance of someone jumping away, but his expression is starting to change.

“Were you guys huddling together just now?”

“W-w-w-w-we were doing an experiment!”

Maybe it’s because it’s a forced answer, his tone becomes completely different. The ten-year-old girl, on the other hand, looks at the man twice as tall as her suspiciously.

“Could it be that you were in the middle of doing that thing that Beatrice"s father and mother do so often, a love-making experiment?

“Ah, no, it’s n-n-n-n-n-n-not what you think—”

Too suspicious, just looking at it it’s suspicious. Hugging the blanket, Greta approaches the two step by step. She cannot forgive any man who tries to abduct Anissina, just because he’s Gwendal doesn’t mean he can make a move on the Poison Lady.

As for Anissina, she’s staring wide-eyed and mouth hanging at Gwendal’s expression of panic, the words ‘men are so useless’ almost escaping from her lips.

“Gwendal, look at you, fl.u.s.tered like this, why didn’t you just reject me from the start? Greta, Lord von Voltaire was almost going to cry just now. He’s so nervous because you saw him in such a humiliating state. He said before, rather than to let a woman see him cry, he would rather stuff his head into the bathtub—It’s just a few tears, and he’s already saying such stupid things. The way I see it, he might even think that there are men who never cried from the day they were born!”

“Gwen, why would you cry?”

“Regarding His Majesty and Wolfram’s matter, didn’t Lord von Voltaire plan to head for Seisakoku as soon as possible as well?”

Günter, who was chosen as the amba.s.sador to Shou s.h.i.+maron, was forced to separate from Yuuri and Wolfram, who had stowed away, by unforeseen circ.u.mstances, so now Yuuri was travelling to Seisakoku alone with the Shou s.h.i.+maron king. Saralegui seemed like a good person at first glance, but as his motives become clearer and clearer, he’s no longer a safe travel companion. Although Wolfram should be on his way to catch up with them, but his power alone can’t do much, so they really need reinforcements. Even if Gwendal, with his powerful maryoku, can’t quite lead the army onto land, he can never stand by and do nothing.

“However, we don’t have any information on Seisakoku in our hands at all—be it maps, drawings, or doc.u.ments, none have anything useful. Therefore, we are completely clueless regarding what goes in within their borders. For future reference, we want to do what we can to collect detailed intel, so I want to use Gwendal, who will soon set foot in Seisakoku, to record the information from within Seisakoku borders.”

Anissina, with her pa.s.sion for research, would never give up this opportunity, of course.

“I plan on opening a hole in Lord von Voltaire’s skull, and then bury the ma-powered surveillance device, ‘Honest Mary’… But he seems to be very afraid of that surgery.”

“Before talking about whether I was afraid or not, there is a medical ethical problem here, don"t you think?!”

Anissina snorts at Gwendal’s tearful retort, and points at his forehead with her neatly-manicured fingernail,

“Ethics? You’re talking ethics with me, in front of these ma-powered devices… Oh, my! Greta, what’s that bundle in your hands that looks like plunderage?”

Only then does the girl seem to remember something, spreading the blanket onto the ground.

“My, my, how nostalgic! These are ‘Oh! Stack the Bones High’, huh. Back then I used to collect a huge pile of used parts, trying to create a manmade kotsuhizoku!”

Another evil game to do with medical theories.

“These are called ‘Happy-Happy Bone Puzzles’ now, you know!”

“How did the name become so slapdash… Oh, right! Greta, there are many small pieces in the Bone High, if you don’t put them in a special jar it’s really easy to lose them!”

“Not that! Listen to me—Greta just received bone-statics, you know!?”

Gwendal pushes aside Greta’s fringe with his large hand, touching her forehead.

“Greta doesn’t have a fever!”

“Then why would you receive what-statics… Greta, listen carefully, there aren’t any aliens in this world, and even if there are, they won’t contact you every time.”

“Who are the aliens? The men?”

“We are aliens. Sometimes male and female can be in one body.”

Anissina straightened her hand, and tapped her throat repeatedly causing her voice to sound strange[1].

“Don’t just borrow His Majesty"s joke material!”

“That’s not it, I’m not talking about ‘Close Encounters’ or ‘ET’, this is real! Greta really received bone-statics! I heard a kotsuhizoku’s soul scream!”

Even if she’s only repeating word for word what she heard from her father who grew up on Earth, but when it comes to the unknown creatures out there, she’s still more knowledgeable than more kids her age. However what she heard just now was the sound of something living in this world, and not the X-Files Yuuri was talking about. To convince these two, Greta desperately waves her little fist.

“But even mazoku can only hear the kotsuhizoku’s mind transmissions after training for it. Technically, Greta, who never saw kotsuhizoku, shouldn’t have this ability…”

“But you’re not Dacascos--!”

“Gwendal, you can’t deny something just with your instincts and logic.”

Anissina looks sideways at an uneasy Gwendal condescendingly, and then, from the almost-crying Greta’s feet, she picks up a palm-sized bone, c.o.c.ks her head slightly, bringing the bone to her left ear.

“Although common sense says it’s impossible, but Greta may very well be a language genius Poison Lady who only shows up once every thousand years… Mm-mm?”

She makes a grunt that doesn’t fit her appearance, c.o.c.king her head even further, one of her pretty eyebrows going upwards.

“Mm-mm-mm-mm-mm-mm? I actually hear something. Sounds different from the rustling of trees or crabs walking, but it’s obviously not the same as the sound of the wind entering a room… Seems to be a language we can’t understand, and it seems like those words aren’t meant to be heard by a Poison Lady! To a race like the kotsuhizoku that’s made solely of bones, this sort of reaction is rather conservative.”

Could it be that we really accidentally received a transmission from the kotsuhizoku!? Right, I’ll call a deciphering expert here right away. A messenger! Call a messenger!”

“If you want to call one, you go ahead yourself. Just think about how long that person will take to get past the countless traps to reach this room in one piece. Anyone with even a little intelligence, would think of a more effective way, right?”

Resisting the urge to say ‘it’s all your fault for installing all those dangerous traps’, Lord von Voltaire’s hands can’t stop shaking. Completely unconcerned, Lady von Karbelnikoff Anissina’s eyes start s.h.i.+ning brightly, and she raises a grey pocket that she took from goodness knows where—

“If it was me, I’d use this! Ta-la-ta-ta-ta-ta---! Translation Year…”

“Wait a second! That convenient device is too dangerous!”

Gwendal quickly blocks Greta with his tall body, so she can’t see the device in Anissina’s hands. Maybe even she herself feels it’s inappropriate? Anissina also puts down her hand, and grabs another device instead.”

“Oh, dear! How dangerous, how could I do this kind of thing… This is something similar, and completely unrelated to ma-powered devices. The one with the real Poison Lady symbol is this one… And it’s the compact version, ta-la-ta-ta! ‘Translation Cold Day!’”

This time she takes out a little brown teapot.

“Let me explain! This is the newly completed ‘Translation Cold Day’, just look at its transparent, slender and smooth exterior, theoretically, all you have to do is pour the cool ‘this’ into your ears, and you’ll be able to understand all the languages of all the races in the whole world, it’s a really~ handy invention.”

“Theoretically.”

Gwendal mumbles, looking at the mad magician after her breathless, long-winded speech. The terrifying inventor known as the ‘Red Devil’ holds up her pointer finger and shakes it lightly.

“What’s there to be unsure of? Or do you think there’s a mistake in my theory? Lord von Voltaire, come! I’ll give you the first honors, bring your ear closer, it doesn’t matter left or right.”

“What!? You’re using me for a human experiment again!?”

“Didn’t you know that a long time ago?”

The Poison Lady’s lips curve into an eerie smile, approaching slowly, step by step. A long and slender transparent object, occasionally pokes out from the teacup. Curled up in the small container, instinctively raring to go… Protecting his head with his hands, Gwendal takes quite a few steps backwards, his armpits and back long since soaked with sweat.

“S-stop! Last time I wore those ‘Stuck-up Ears Headband’ that were supposed to let me understand what cats were saying, and all that happened was my eardrums hurt like h.e.l.l, it had no effect at all. This proves that I’m just not cut out for any experiments to do with ears. Besides, Lord von Christ is more suited for this kind of experiment…”

Although he doesn’t dare to call it a failed product to her face, he has still made his stance clear. Anissina’s body composition is mostly Poison Lad, but two thirds of that was created by Gwendal’s consideration.

“Really, there’s no use in saying any more!”

“Stop! Don’t waste food! I’m telling you to stop aah—ee—wu—ye—woo—”

This sort of thing has been happening for over a hundred years, and the victor was decided from the start. That’s why it makes no difference who’s rooting at the sidelines. Completely ignoring the war between the fox badger and the cobra, Greta brings the bone piece to her ear again. She can hear it—She really can hear the contents of the conversation.

“…There is…”

Even Anissina, who’s getting ready to pour the Cold Day, stops because of Greta’s voice.

“In Seisakoku—there are really, really big temples… used to hide the bodies of dead kings… They’re really, really big graves, you know—”

“Greta?”

Whilst being ridden by his childhood friend, Gwendal listens to the girl’s real-time translation.

“…There are a lot, a lot of s.h.i.+ny jewelry and really rare treasures in the graves… So cool! Isn’t that right—Terine-shan… Um, who is Terine-shan?”

“Enough, ignore those childish parts. Ah! Greta, you don’t purposely have to translate it to sound sophisticated! If it’s possible, please translate it into simpler words.”

Gwendal grabs Anissina with his hands and gently lifts her, pulling her away from his stomach. The Poison Lady forgot to make a fuss of about it, hurriedly rus.h.i.+ng to Greta’s side,

“Impressive! You really are the best language genius Poison Lady since the first Maou ruled the world!”

Seems like she can’t just be a normal language expert.

“How did you translate that!? Information… Did you get any related information? Greta, what does it feel like? Does it feel like ‘hua-hua-hua’? Or like ‘poh-poh-poh’?”

“It’s neither, yees.h.!.+”

The excited Anissina desperately grabs Greta, who started translating with relying on mechanical ma-power.

“After the interference disappeared, I can hear it really clearly. And it’s not the secret conversation between kohi and their comrades, how do I describe it… it’s like that thing I played with Yuuri… that… tele—tele…”

“Telekinesis[2]?”

“Telephone game! It feels like that!”

“In other words, it’s just a communicator?”

And then the three of them fight to put the bone to the ears.

“What? Each king has a huge tomb?”

Dacascos, who had gotten happily drunk for the first time in a long time, reacts loudly in surprise to Captain Mountain Range’s murmurs. Almost everyone around them is in a drunken stupor, collapsed all over the sea-smelling deck and not budging. The only ones left are the mazoku representative, Dacascos, the human representative Captain Mountain Range, and Terine-shan on the captain’s knee.

The skull s.h.i.+nes yellowish-brown, an endless darkness in those hollow eye sockets. Feeling as though he’s meeting his gaze, all the hairs on Dacascos’ arms stand on end.

“And they’re set apart from the temples, too? What a waste of s.p.a.ce~ Our country takes the temple as a tomb, that’s why we only have one s.h.i.+nou Shrine, you know!”

But that s.h.i.+nou Shrine isn’t the tomb of the previous Maous. It’s normal for abdicated Maous to return to their own hometowns, and elegantly live off the rest of their lives. Thus, it’s natural for them to be buried in their clan graveyards after their pa.s.sing. The design of the graveyards are more extravagant than the public cemeteries, but they’re not worth envying or anything. At the most, there aren’t any kotsuhizoku buried there.

“Waa—Seisakoku takes up such a vast area of land—But why is Captain Mountain Range so clear about it? The way I see it, could it be that you are actually from there… No, it shouldn’t be possible. No matter how I look at you, Captain Mountain Range must be a human, right?”

“Lilit Latchie is a meanie, Terine-shan. Because he refuses to talk to Terine-shan, huh.”

Even though he’s using a childish tone, he still scares Dacascos into shaking. c.r.a.p, back then h promised to talk to the skull on his knee whenever he talks to Captain Mountain Range. Rule number 1: Show your respect for Terine-shan.

“S-shorr… Wait, it’s sorry.”

“As long as you know your mistake! Right, Terine-shan?”

The drunken mercenary comrades suddenly stand up and start yelling,

“Terine-shan is too~ cute--! When we die, we want to become bones as pretty and s.h.i.+ny as Terine-shan!”

They don’t know that Terine-shan is a kotsuhizoku, and has always looked like that.

“In that country filled with s.h.i.+nzoku everywhere, are there a bunch of dead people bones as pretty as Terine-shan buried in those tombs--? It must be that, that’s why so many people run in there to steal stuff, right? No wonder there’s no end to the grave robbers! Their first priority must be those pretty dead people bones, and then the gold and jewels are an added bonus. Those things can be sold at high prices in other countries, right—”

“Waa! How terrifying, to think that there are other people who dare to dig graves besides the kotsuhizoku and the Poison Lady Annissina! Isn’t that right, Terine-shan?”

Almost forgetting the promise again, Dacascos hurriedly talks to the target on the knee. As for Captain Mountain Range, he’s so happy his face reddens slightly.

“There are a lot, a lot of sparkly jewelry and really rare treasures in those tombs—Isn’t that amazing, Terine-shan?”

“I heard that Seisakoku was in lockdown, then how on earth do you bring the treasure out? And it’s gold and jewels from the royal graves, wouldn’t it be bad if they were discovered by customs? Right, Terine-shan?”

“Of course they’d go by boat—Terine-shan’s friend’s grandpa, is a s.h.i.+p captain specializing in smuggling loot from Seisakoku, right—”

Right then, ‘Terine-shan’s friend’ that Captain Mountain Range is talking about actually refers to himself. Before Dacascos can say ‘what, then shouldn’t you be called Ocean Bay Captain instead of Mountain Range Captain?’, one of the older subordinates jumps to his feet like a spring, saying cheerily,

“Oh, Captain Mountain Range, you and Terine-shan are the s.h.i.+p captains again. Even if it’s been a long time since we pulled off a big one, we still got a lot of gold and jewels from before, huh. Like the thing we got last time, I heard that’s a box that spews fire—it should be the fire-spewing box from the legends. I think that one can sell for a really high price.”

This time it’s a box that spews fire, huh… Feeling fed up, Dacascos can’t help but sigh.

Why does everything go back to cube-shaped things these days. Be it the one the His Excellency Günter secretly yells about, the one found in Dai s.h.i.+maron on orders, or the one that His Majesty and His Excellency Wolfram found on the voyage last time, they’re all boxes. Boxes, boxes, boxes, all boxes.

Could it be that cubes are in fas.h.i.+on in the world right now?

In the royal capital of s.h.i.+n Makoku, deep within Blood Pledge Castle, in a properly temperature-regulated secret Poison Lady research center, the trio who have the ‘Happy-Happy Bone Puzzle’ or ‘Oh! Stack the Bones High’ pressed to their ears, are currently repeating every single word they hear in a shout.

“Goodness!”

“How could it be!”

“Bone High--!”

Gwendal’s expression changes abruptly, and he suddenly yells at the bone,

“Don’t let Wolfram get close to Seisakoku! Catch him and bring him back immediately!”

But all he sees is the white bone covered with his spit, and there’s naturally no reply whatsoever.

“d.a.m.n it, it can only receive signals!”

The bone piece is hurled onto the floor, making a clear noise then rolling to a side, but it doesn’t crack, as solid as expected.

“What’s the matter, Lord von Voltaire? Spraying your spittle everywhere, it’s really rude!”

“Exactly, how could you, Gwen, it’s so dirty—”

Their fondness for Lord von Voltaire instantly drops by twenty, this is indeed behavior ladies detest.

“You can still be so relaxed!? Aaaa—I’m not mad at Greta, you know! Did you hear what I just said!? Aaaa—I’m not talking about Greta!”

Gwendal is so careful, trying his best to avoid hurting the adorable little girl. Having long since lost his normal cool, he uneasily paces around the room.

“When they said a box that spews flames, it should be that one, right? Either than that I really can’t think of any other boxes that spew flames.”

“What is ‘that’ you’re talking about? If it’s just starting a fire, that are over a hundred of those in the prototype warehouse. But if it’s not just spewing fire, but also freeze rays or touching music, then there aren’t a lot of those.”

Gwendal is so shocked he almost dislocates his jaw, thinking, ‘This mad ma-power scientist, exactly how fast is she making these rare and weird things?’ She said more than a hundred? If they could have simply borrowed one to use during the war before, who knows what kind of an advantage they might have had…

Doing that will go against the treaty, so the idea just flicks past his mind. He must never be led by the nose by the Poison Lady.

“By ‘that’ I mean ‘that". A box. One of those four most fearsome, most dangerous Boxes, that according to ancient legends, must never be touched.”

“Oh~~ You’re talking about the ones sealing up the soushu! About that, there’s one in the s.h.i.+nou Shrine, too! It’s that completely worthless Wind’s…”

“Stop that nonsense!”

Anissina pulls her childhood friend’s hand away from her mouth, swis.h.i.+ng her red hair, tied way up high, and snorts arrogantly,

“Gwendal, you’re already over a hundred years old, why are you still so scared? It’s just a box, what’s there to be scared about? It’s already locked up in the s.h.i.+nou Shrine, there’s no way it can escape by itself, right?”

“That’s because… it doesn’t have legs. Wait, that’s not right. They shouldn’t be talking about ‘Wind’s End’, I remember there should be four Boxes according to legend. One of them is ‘Inferno of the Frozen Land’, fortunately this Box hasn’t fallen into human hands.”

“And—so—what--?”

Anissina puts both hands on her waist, tied until it’s slender and tight, unafraid of her own pet.i.te frame, and makes a contemptuous pose.

“If it appears in the Seisakoku tombs, wouldn’t that mean it had fallen into s.h.i.+nzoku hands since at least the previous monarch’s time!”

“And—so—what--?”

“If the s.h.i.+nzoku are abusing it… why on earth would it be buried in the tombs? I don’t understand it at all.”

“Could it be that they don’t need it at all? This proves that they don’t mean to use it, right? Didn’t we put the ‘Wind’s End’ into s.h.i.+nou’s tomb, the s.h.i.+nou Shrine? We’re not preserving those Boxes at all, since those filthy wooden boxes can’t help increase the majesty of the country in any way. Towards any realities and phenomena unrelated to mechanical ma-power, I believe that seeing is believing.”

Right now Greta’s red-brown eyes staring at Anissina are sparkling with respect and admiration. Gwendal’s shoulders sag helplessly, if only everyone in this world was like Anissina—but then the world would probably be destroyed by some other reason.

“But… if the box that spews fire they’re talking about really is ‘Inferno of the Frozen Land’, and if the s.h.i.+nzoku only temporarily buried it in the tomb because they don’t know how to unleash its power, what will happen then? And more importantly, if the person or item that carries the Key stumbles across the location of the Box…”

Anissina watches Gwendal, whose expression has changed dramatically and is so worried he’s pacing back and forth, while she sips a health drink that (may) help growth with a ‘chuu—’ noise.

‘If, if, if, are you a slow-action land tortoise!? Besides, we’re not even sure who the Key is yet!”

“Who on earth…!?”

According to Gegenhuber’s report, the Key to one of the Boxes, ‘Ends of the Earth’, seems to be someone’s left eye. Back then he fit the criteria very well, that’s why his left eye was burned off, but they still couldn’t open the seals. More seriously, there’s the Key to the other Box, ‘Wind’s End’—Lord Weller Conrart’s left arm, and that brought actual disaster to Shou s.h.i.+maron and Caloria.

Thankfully it wasn’t too destructive a result, but that’s all because the ‘Box’ wasn’t compatible with the ‘Key’. The first time was because it was a fake Key that is close to the real one, the second time was because the Box and the Key didn’t match. But the Key to ‘Wind’s End’ was the first of all the Boxes and Keys to be created, so it can open all the seals. Only, the ‘Wind’s End’ that fell into Shou s.h.i.+maron hands doesn’t seem to be complete.

According to ancient legend, the descendants of the four clans that sealed up the soushu bear a heavy responsibility as the Keys. Right now the confirmed Keys are the left eye of someone related in blood to Gegenhuber, and Lord Weller Conrart’s left arm.

Terrifying ideas keep surfacing in Gwendal’s mind.

“The von Bielefeld has been a prominent clan since before the country was founded. Wolfram is very likely one of the remaining two Keys…’

“Then, the one who defeated the soushu of the wind is Conrad’s ancestor?”

“Ah! Then the one who beat the soushu of the earth to a pulp, was Hube and Gwendal’s great-great-great-great-grandfather, right?”

Greta says excitedly, pleased with herself for getting these blood relations straightened out in one go. But as soon as the girl says that, she realizes the horrifying possibility, and adds in a shaky voice,

“Then, Gwen’s left eye is the Key to the earth Box?”

“Greta, don’t get ahead of yourself. There’s no solid proof.”

“No, it’s okay,”

Only when it’s related to himself, can Gwendal calmly agree to Greta’s hypothesis.

“This is a fact that can be guessed at even without any solid proof, but that s.h.i.+ny… No, since they mentioned Dacascos’ name, we can probably determine that the location was on Captain Sizemore’s s.h.i.+p. And Wolfram’s on that s.h.i.+p—If ‘Inferno of the Frozen Land’ really is in Seisakoku, then it’s really too dangerous to send him there!”

Compared to Anissina, sipping her drink looking completely unaffected, whenever it has anything to do with his brothers, Gwendal will become a completely different person, panicked and lost.

“d.a.m.n it!”

Thank goodness he’s using both his hands to hammer the table, or he might grab his grey hair and start screaming madly.

It was the same the last time. After he met up with Gisela, they successfully found Yuuri—Though they accomplished that very well, they indirectly allowed Kinan to steal the ‘Key’--- in other words, Conrad’s arm. Although it was pointless to scold Wolfram for it, it was undeniably a huge loss.

“There wasn’t any problem with the plan itself, and the contents were conservative and detailed, so even if we failed the losses would be cut to a minimum. But why did the G.o.d of Luck abandon us?”

The way he looks, hammering the table, is too terrifying. Even Greta is trembling in fear, covering her ears as she says,

“Gwen… don’t hit the table.”

“Has all your education gone to nothing!?”

“Don’t be like this, Gwen! Don’t be mad, just don’t be mad!”

“But!”

The fist that’s raised once more is held in mid-air by a white hand—Anissina throws down the silver container and grabs his wrist tightly. As long as those thin fingers exert power, even Gwendal, who’s used to easily swinging around large weapons, can’t budge an inch. After he’s calmed down, Anissina’s lips curve into a smile,

“Don’t act so violently in front of children, look how scared Greta is. I understand your hopes and concerns for your little brother. But these things happen in the world, situations when you’ve done your all and things still don’t go your way. Some people are just that unlucky, so all you can say is that he’s born under an unlucky star.”

“Is Wolfram the Little Prince[3]?”

The little girl asks, her voice nasally as she holds back tears.

After releasing her childhood friend’s hand, Anissina smile brightly at Greta,

“Maybe? But he may not be, too! Even if Wolfram is the Little Prince, he probably isn’t the king, right? But this may not be an unlucky thing. Even if he can’t win on his own, if he gets help from his comrades, and has that certain someone by his side, maybe he can bring out his innate strength.”

“Who is…”

Anissina presses her finger against the child’s mouth, stopping the question, ‘who is that?’ Her fingernail has been trimmed oval, s.h.i.+ning a healthy pale pink color.

“It’s okay as long as he himself understands it. I’m guessing they’ll notice eventually, but that isn’t something that can be solved immediately, after all. Right now the matter of urgency is to investigate which clans bear the responsibility of the Keys. If the von Bielefeld clan is one of the four Keys, then a different danger will approach Wolfram.”

Anissina walks up to the enormous writing table, and beckons her Poison Lady subst.i.tute.

“Greta, come over here! This is a good opportunity, for me to teach you properly how to read ancient books and texts.”

“Reading ancient books!? You’re still in the relaxed mood to do that sort of thing!”

“You don’t have to mind us, Gwendal. Go ahead and do whatever you want! It’s up to you if you want to go to the seaside or the beach, if you want to go then just get going. But if you’re going to operate solo like your little brother, and then cry loudly when you’re in an emergency and don’t have enough information, I won’t be able to help you there!”

“I’ll solve this myself! As if I’d want to listen to your orders even when it comes to my own family matters!”

Absorbed in her own task, Anissina doesn’t even look at Gwendal, who’s lost his calm, and says while holding up the heavy reference book,

“Lord von Voltaire, didn’t I say that there are some people who, without someone else, won’t be able to regain their power, I meant you, you know!”

“Stop joking!”

After hurling the bone in his hand at the table, Lord von Voltaire bolts out of the research room.

“Gwendal…”

Greta looks between the door and Aninssina in a panic. When it comes down to it, this all started when she heard the kotsuhizoku transmission.

“Anissina, what to do… Gwen’s mad.”

“I know, but you don’t have to worry about it. He doesn’t have the ability to operate alone without us. At the most he’ll walk to the end of the corridor or the stairs, count to three, and come back.”

It’s exactly as Anissina said. Not a few dozen seconds later, he walks back in with an expression of sorrow and his head held low.

Because he simply can’t find anyone else to discuss this with.