Chapter 8

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So I know this took longer than usual but I’m hoping that how incredibly interesting this chapter is makes up for that! (even though everyone is literally just sitting around a campfire the entire chapter XD)

Mini-warning! There are some gory things mentioned in this chapter that might gross some people out. It doesn’t just jump out at you though; you totally see it coming.

The ill.u.s.tration for this chapter is from Portrait of a Demon King. That being said, I couldn"t help but notice that everyone"s position in the ill.u.s.tration is the opposite of where they were described to be in the text :)

Chapter 8

      The sheep have travelled to a far away desert.
      I sing my own silly parody of a song in a low voice so I don’t wake anyone up. The moon is pale and high in the sky. Is it about four days until the full moon?
      The way to the finals in the royal capital of Big s.h.i.+maron, Lambert, isn’t actually a desert. It is a rough landscape with hard yellow earth and scarce gra.s.ses. There is a road covered with wheel tracks made for carriages, but since there are rocks and deep ruts and even vegetation covering it depending on the area, it’s not a road that we can drive down carefree. A moment’s negligence can result in a wheel popping off or some other accident. The leader of Team ‘Seep’ T-Zou was courageous, but the ones riding were under more stress than the ones running.
      Murata reached peak exhaustion from our forced march and collapsed in the cargo hold of ‘So Light It’s Like a Dream’ wrapped up tightly in a blanket. I hear his systematic breathing. It seems it’s warm and comfortable in there. After volunteering to be the first lookout, Wolfram has leaned against my shoulder and is now snoring. His blonde hair is s.h.i.+ning copper in the light of the flames.
      The sheep have short sleep cycles and they grouped together in fours and fives to hunker down.
      I’m absentmindedly gazing at the dancing flames with a piece of firewood gripped in my hand. Night in the wilderness is even dryer and colder than the daytime. Everyone’s breath is white. My head is still heavy, but my nausea is subsiding somewhat. At the very least I was even able to eat the field rations we had for dinner.
      “It seems like none of our comrades are nearby,” Josak said as he came back to the fireside and sat opposite of me. It was just a mere thirty minutes ago that he’d went to take his turn as lookout. He’s an experienced soldier so he can keep surveillance on our surroundings by himself. The novices can just go to sleep.
      “You can’t sleep?”
      “Yeah, I’ve just, I’ve been thinking about what’s going to happen next. At any rate, I never imagined that sheep would have no sense of direction. They’re all sleeping happily right now, though.”
      “You Young Masters were all raised in castles so it must be hard camping out in the wilderness.”
      His orange hair, combed back carelessly, looks bright red in the light of the flames.
      “Murata and I didn’t have a sheltered upbringing. Wolfram is a prince so he might have been brought up in a castle with a bunch of servants.”
      “That’s true, but His Excellency is considered a soldier as well. He might have been mostly put in charge of logistical support, but he has some experience with camping out. I’m more concerned about Your Majesty and His Highness. If anything happens to either of you, I might end up burned at the stake or being dismembered.”
      Josak jokingly placed his hands on the sides of his face. It was meant to complement his mocking tone, but there’s something in his eyes that I can’t laugh at and dismiss.
      “Pink-eared poison rabbits appear in these lands. You look at them and think ‘Oh! They’re so pink and cute!’ and reach a hand out to them and then they chomp down with their big mouths.”
      “Chomp…”
      s.h.i.+maron Quest has finally begun. It seems like the reason their ears and mouths are pink is ‘so they can hear and eat a lot.’ That’s all well and good, but don’t leave out ‘-ra.’ (1)
      “How unlucky am I to get stuck guarding the both of you at the same time? On the dawn of your honorable and safe repatriation, I humbly request you consider bestowing a special award upon the hard worker Josak Gurrier.”
      “I’ll consider it.”
      Naturally, Captain Sizemore, Dacascos, and a number of the Dugald soldiers are making their way to Lambert as we speak. Be that as it may, contacting them during the race would be a serious violation of the rules regarding supplies. They have been forced into keeping pace with us on side roads while making their best guess as to our position. To put it bluntly, all they have to rely on is their intuition.
      “But you know, those Dugalds are unrivalled on the seas, but when you throw them on land they turn into amateurs. Sizemore can still get around on the field, but… honestly, why did His Animal-Loving Excellency send those guys to search for Your Majesty? Does he really have no faith in me?”
      “Animal-loving? Are you talking about Gwen?”
      “That’s right. He’s been sending me pigeons ever since I got in contact with you. If it was my Commander here and not me, His Knitting Excellency would probably have had more faith, huh? Well, for the moment it’s best to have as many guards as possible. We are talking about Your Majesty, His Highness and the other Young Master after all.”
      “Sorry for being a trio.”
      “You should be~”
      Josak Gurrier hasn’t changed very much since the first time I met him. We’re quite literally in a king-subordinate relations.h.i.+p, but he cracks jokes without hesitation. If you pay attention to the way he speaks, it’s not only not respectful, but can sometimes be rude. Even so, he is a man who is worthy of trust and I think that he acknowledges me nowadays. I’m just arbitrarily thinking that, though. Above all, Josak was Conrad’s childhood friend and he has been thoroughly endorsed by Lord Weller.
      There is no better acknowledgment than that.
      “And on top of that, this time you’re pretending to be the representative of a foreign country and are partic.i.p.ating in a tournament in an enemy country. I can’t believe it. Someone help! Stop the sheephardy king!”
      And there it is: an expression used only in The Great Demon Kingdom. Normally, people would say ‘foolhardy.’ (2)
      Josak uses a dry branch to poke at the fire before snapping it in two and throwing it in. His lips, dyed scarlet red, lift in amus.e.m.e.nt.
      “… Well, I decided to abide by whatever bizarreness you set out on.”
      “Did Conrad tell you to do so?”
      “By my Commander… by Lord Weller? No, no, not at all. Even without being instructed, the majority of the demons feel that way.”
      “‘My Commander.’”
      I wanted something warm so I poured some hot water from the kettle into a cup. When I moved to drink it as is, Josak fished out a tea bag for me from the food bag.
      “You say that a lot, ‘My Commander’… Thank you, I can do that myself. Are you talking about Conrad? The Commander thing.”
      “Well, yes. Although, now he’s got a quiet personality and is relatively harmless. Way back when, he was an intimidating and terrifying man.”
      “When he was the Lion of Luttenberg?”
      Josak gave a look of surprise as he took my cup away. “You’ve heard. That’s right, The Young Lion of Luttenberg. His father took up residence there after all. Or perhaps I should say the area was a region where a lot of humans lived near the western border of The Great Demon Kingdom. It’s the name of that place. Originally the people who lived there… I wonder if it’s alright to talk about this. Your big sister would just hate to get in trouble later~”
      Josak had suddenly switched to his big sister voice and put on a little act. It was a signal that we can stop right here. We’re right on the dividing line where I can pretend I didn’t hear anything.
      “I’d like to hear it, if possible. If you do get in trouble, I can pretend I heard it from Wolf.”
      “Well that’s kind of you. But, I wouldn’t mind if you said that I told you. It’s Lord Weller’s fault for not being here.”
      As he handed the cup now filled with black tea back to me, the orange-haired man gazed out into the expanding darkness.
      “… It was right around here, huh. No, it might be more to the west. Several decades ago, people lived here. It might be easier to say that they were kept here rather than they lived here. They were surrounded by fences in all directions and there were guards making sure no one left.”
      “Kept? What, was it some sort of facility?”
      “Well, I suppose you could call it a facility. At the very least, it was called a ‘village.’ The residents were all humans who had slept with demons and the mixed children born as a result. s.h.i.+maron and… at the time it hadn’t been split into Big and Small and this place wasn’t occupied territory. Around the time when the relations between The Great Demon Kingdom and The Kingdom of s.h.i.+maron became turbulent, all those involved with demons were hunted down and a village was made in this wasteland. There really is nothing here and most of the people were random women. My mother was a human who was with a demon for a short while, but as soon as he left for somewhere she immediately moved into a house with a human man. She didn’t say a word about having a child with a demon. I was left in the care of a church or a temple or something, but my growth was slower than normal. Compared to a human child at age ten, I still had the body of a five year old… Don’t worry, Your Majesty. In two years I’d have a sudden growth spurt and not only would I catch up, nowadays I have these huge b.r.e.a.s.t.s. But that aside, it was obvious that I was part demon. So, I was brought to the village.”
      Josak places his own cup of tea on the ground and lifts his face, illuminated by the flames.
      “Your Highness, I thought you had gone to sleep.”
      “I thought it would be unfair if I were the only one who didn’t take a turn as lookout.”
      Still wrapped up tightly in the thick blanket, Murata sits to my right. Wolfram stirs and s.h.i.+fts his body, pus.h.i.+ng his head even more against my shoulder. It’s okay, you sleep.
      “Were you talking about an internment camp?”
      “It"s a boring story.”
      “No, I want to hear. The owners of my soul haven’t lived in this world for a long time. s.h.i.+buya, there were similar situations in America during World War II. I’m sure you know already, but people of j.a.panese descent were gathered together and held captive in a harsh environment. It was said to be for their safety, but frankly it was because no one knew when they were going to betray the country.”
I didn"t know that. When it comes to discrimination in World War II, I only knew about the most infamous and horrible example.
      Josak puts new tea leaves in the pot in order to make tea for Murata as well. The national traits of my kingdom must be somewhat refined for there to be a tea set in an ultra-lightweight military tank.
      “It was a life where we didn’t even have the luxury of having a cup of tea every day. It was amazing if we had water and barley. Compared to those days, being in the army was like heaven. I lived in that village until I was twelve. One night during the summer I was about to turn thirteen, several humans came under the cover of darkness and freed us all. I’ll never forget the black shadows riding on horseback, silhouetted by the moon. ‘Those who want to stay can stay, but those who decide to live according to the other blood in their body should come with us across the ocean’… that’s what Dunheely Weller said. He had a son around ten who looked like he still couldn’t travel on his own.”
      “I see, he was Lord Weller,” Murata said.
      “That’s right. I’d never have dreamed that he was the son of royalty. Dunheely Weller swiftly got us onto a boat, brought us back to The Great Demon Kingdom, and set us up on a modest plot of land that he had been given. According to rumor, he had graciously entered into a loving relations.h.i.+p with the king of the demons and had been given a part of her land. That was Luttenberg. It’s amazing if you think about it. A man with the tattoo of an exile on his left arm had married a queen in the land that he washed up in.” (3)
      “An exile!?” Wolfram reacted to my voice as he leaned on my shoulder and almost woke up. However, his drowsiness soon took over and he instantly closed his eyes. “Whoops… Conrad’s father was exiled? In other words, he was someone who had committed some atrocious crime?”
      “Who knows? I never asked. He seems to have been from a long lineage celebrated for their swordsmans.h.i.+p. Anyway, The Great Demon Kingdom was very different than s.h.i.+maron. We weren’t restricted and we were free to travel around to a degree. Unlike this wasteland, the land was fertile and there were those who cultivated crops and settled down and those who made use of their experience from s.h.i.+maron to become craftsmen. If one desired, they could move to other areas and find appropriate work. There were elderly people who joined the military and even women who found new families. This was all thanks to Lady Celi’s doctrine of free love.”
      Viva Free Love! The result of that wonderful love murmurs some inaudible gibberish in his sleep.
      “Lord Weller… oh, Conrad is the only one called ‘Lord.’ Even though he had human blood, his mother was the Demon King, after all. It was only natural that her son would receive a high social status. Although at that point in time he was treated as lower cla.s.s and he wasn’t even at the level of an upper-cla.s.s n.o.ble. If he would have just taken his mother’s name he would have been able to become a member of the ten n.o.ble families. It’s those sorts of things about him that I just don’t understand. If it was me, I’d have taken the Spitzweg name without a moment’s hesitation. But anyway, Lord Weller and I were close in age so we had our coming of age ceremony around the same time and left for the capital to enlist in the army. Well, as a low ranking soldier I only had to go through the motions and had a fairly easy time and got to complain that ‘the sergeant is annoying’ and ‘training is hard,’ but it seems like he had to go through the naval academy and officer training surrounded by young n.o.bles and thus had to deal with all sorts of issues.”
      “It’s a society I can’t imagine in modern j.a.pan… although there’s definitely some phony celebrities here,” Murata said as he narrowed his eyes and moaned. I guess he"s remembering something from somewhere in his distant memories of a hierarchical society.
      “Well because of that there were ups and downs, but we were a.s.signed to the same unit… Of course, we were a common soldier and a military cadet so I was Lord Weller’s subordinate. After that we ended up inseparable by a stroke of luck and became comrades who sipped broth from the same saucepan.” (4)
      In j.a.panese that would be ‘eat out of the same pot.’
      “I see, so that was the Luttenberg Division-”
      “No Your Majesty, it wasn’t!” Josak vehemently denied this, interrupting my admiration. It’s strange for him to be this serious. However, when he repeated those words, there was another emotion mixed in. “That absolutely wasn’t it.”
      “It’s hard to talk about,” Murata said.
      “… Yeah, definitely. Because in a way, it’s a disgrace to the kingdom.”
      The Great Sage who has been reincarnated on Earth lately and looks like he hopes to run a column in an occult magazine has been concentrating solely on information gathering. It’s like an illness that you catch when you talk about it. Not being able to withstand the silent demand, Josak gives a small sigh.
      “You know that the demons were at war until the ceasefire around twenty years ago, right? You heard that from Teacher GüGüGü or the former Crown Prince, right?”
      “GüGüGü… You mean Günter? Yeah, I’ve heard that.”
      “Then what about the danger of losing the war?”
      “It looked like you were about to lose, is that it?”
      I hadn’t thought about it. Ever since the first time I came to this world I’ve been screaming that I’m against war. Abandon war, pacifism, I’ve constantly emphasized those ideological thoughts. But war is something I’ve never experienced and have never known its pain. Cruelty, heartlessness, tragedy, I didn’t come to know of all these evils with my own body. I’ve only been taught solely through lessons and textbooks that war is evil.
      Parents, teachers, newspapers, television, movies, books, videos, celebrity comments, stories from grandparents, stone monuments you don’t notice as you walk by, museums, archives, paintings, photographs. I’ve only been taught that people shouldn’t fight and kill each other from the various things around me.
      I believe that is right. Of course, I am confident of that.
      But in my sixteen years of life, I have not found myself on a battlefield and taken someone’s life. I’ve never relished in the joy of victory nor experienced the humiliation of a defeat. Although, I have no intent – ever – to experience either of those things…
      “That means it looked like you were about to lose? The Great Demon Kingdom?”
      “It seemed that way no matter how you looked at it.”
      There is a winner and a victor in nearly all wars. Of course, j.a.pan has also suffered defeat. But somehow, it’s hard to put in words, but I couldn’t see myself accepting the reality that my country – and the country I govern, at that – would be about to lose.
      I can’t even imagine what the loser would go through.
      And yet, the man in front of me has survived an actual battleground. No, not just him. Many of the demons I’ve met since coming to this world have lived through that time. Günter and Gwendal and Miss Anissina and Conrad who’s not here.
      Even Wolfram, leaning on me as he sleeps, has experienced life and death situations.
      “I just can’t imagine it… It was only twenty years ago, yeah? I wasn’t born yet, but my older brother was in my mom’s stomach. It’s so recent, but… to think my own country was about to lose.”
      “At the time, the s.h.i.+maron army had landed in the southwest of the continent and was quickly advancing north by conquering two small, powerless countries. After one more city, if Arnold fell, the s.h.i.+maron army would have easily broken through our borders and a decisive battle would have inevitably been fought inside the country. However, our main forces were scattered in the Grantz territory in the north and in the Karbelnikoff territory on the coast. Even if soldiers were spared for Arnold it would have still been a defensive battle and we would have been short-handed in both areas. In any case, the military strengths weren’t the same. s.h.i.+maron had taken over most of the continent so their number of soldiers was unimaginably higher. On the other hand, we had no alliances with other countries. We had no plan so we thought it would be best to abandon Arnold and meet the enemy within the country.”
      Josak stared at the now cold contents of his cup. The image of the moon floated on its surface.
      “Her Previous Majesty left everything to her older brother Stuffel with the reason that she was inexperienced in politics. Lady Celi certainly did have a heavy burden, but she shouldn’t have left everything to a regent. She should have made some decisions by herself and listened to the opinions of others, but… by the time a request for reinforcements to hold back the enemy at Arnold was made… everyone thought it was too late. It was right around that time that G-… a person gave improper counsel to Stuffel. Completely groundless, cowardly counsel. Lord von Voltaire was out beyond the Grantz territory so it was the perfect opportunity.”
      There was a strong hatred mixed in with his voice. The image of the moon swayed on the surface of the red liquid.
      In my place, Murata asked the question.
      “What did he say?”
      “… That he had doubts about their fealty.”
      I’m not good with words I don’t hear often. Fealty? Is that something important to everyday life? This isn’t the feudal era.
      Josak’s voice is low, bitter.
      “He had doubts about the fealty of those with human blood to the kingdom, The True King, and to the Demon King.”
      “… That’s… like s.h.i.+maron.”
      “Yes, it was the same. The same. They thought that since half of the blood of the enemy was running through their veins, there was the possibility they would betray… d.a.m.n it!”
      The cup breaks.
      “So what if we have human blood!? So our oath to live as demons can be swayed by something like that!? So we’ll betray our country, the land we love, our fellow countrymen and our trusted companions just because we have enemy blood!? But Stuffel used those words. It was the perfect opportunity for him as well. He could reduce the number of people who could take away some of his status and authority by at least one… I apologize, Your Majesty, Your Highness. I lost my composure.”
      “That’s okay. You don’t have to apologize for that.”
      When Josak continued, his voice had become calm again.
      “… We… especially him… we couldn’t stay quiet. We couldn’t let things be like that. If we stayed quiet and endured that humiliation, things would eventually go back to how they were before. We didn’t want to experience the same treatment in The Great Demon Kingdom that we had to endure in s.h.i.+maron. There were women and children and new families and even those who had been born in the kingdom. We couldn’t let them all suffer through that. Dunheely Weller who helped us cross the ocean wouldn’t have wanted that either. For Conrad… For Lord Weller, there was only one choice left. Prove our fealty. To the kingdom, to The True King, to all the citizens. He would prove our absolute fealty with his life."

      “That’s…”
      “Yes, that was the Luttenberg Division. All of the soldiers with mixed blood from all over the kingdom gathered together. Among them were rookies who hadn’t even finished training and young amateurs. Everyone had gathered to give their lives to save the kingdom. If we could gain trust through fighting boldly, the weak wouldn’t have to suffer. We thought they wouldn’t have to be subject to prejudice and discrimination. It was a special division composed of those with human blood… We set out to the most important yet most hopeless battleground… Arnold, on the brink of defeat. Think about it, although he hadn’t become a high level n.o.ble, he was still the legitimate child of the king. There was no need for him to choose death. There was no precedent for His Highness to set out to a battle with no hope of survival. Stuffel commanded him to and Lord Weller said it would be an honor… The outcome of the battle was decided the moment we arrived. Even with the new recruits, we had a little less than 4000 and the enemy had more than 30,000… It was h.e.l.l.”
      I desperately tried to calm the trembling of my body in order to not wake up Wolfram.
      “Arnold was h.e.l.l. The s.h.i.+maron army had exorcists, but they didn’t have much war potential on demon lands. We were also sent soldiers who could use magic, but due to the catastrophic state of the war, there weren’t very many soldiers left who were skilled in powerful magic. They could just barely use healing magic. They had no use in combat. In the end, it was a swordfight. For those soldiers using light swords, after they cut several bodies they would become useless. The blade would dull with fat. For those using axes and heavy swords, the hilts would break and they wouldn’t be able to hold them anymore. When that happened, they would throw away their weapon and take the weapon emblazoned with the s.h.i.+maron coat of arms from whatever soldier they just killed. If there was a corpse of a comrade nearby and it was grasping a bloodless sword, they would use that as well. When that became useless they would take another. When that became useless they would take yet another weapon. In the end, no one was using demon arms. Ironically, a large amount of the enemy was taken out with the weapons they themselves had forged. And that’s not all. The worst part was that, by the hands of people who had the same human blood as them, they… There’s the possibility that if you looked up their family trees, there might have been distant relatives among the enemy. I might have killed a child or grandchild or nephew of my mother’s new family without even knowing.”
      With a look that seemed as if he might smile gently, Josak"s flame-colored eyelashes pressed together.
      “… Even so, we didn’t waver. Enemies and allies fell on top of each other and there were so many corpses you couldn’t see the ground. The gra.s.s shone red and, in the places you could see it, the ground was pitch black. There was no time to avoid legs and arms and even if they were still alive you had to step across the fallen to move forward. Arnold was h.e.l.l, but at the same time it was equal. Whatever blood flowed in their body, not a single person doubted their allies and soldiers who had just met the night before entrusted their backs to each other. That was what we wished for. Equality, faith. In the end, we slaughtered the enemy until their numbers were less than a thousand and forced them into a miraculous retreat. But many of our comrades had died as well. Even if we survived, most of us were weak and wounded.
      “What was especially tragic was that the new recruits we had sought to protect by ordering them to retreat early had been drawn into another skirmish, but… Anyway, there were next to none in the battalion who were able to return in good health… Even Lord Weller had sustained injuries so severe he couldn’t move and he had half given up on life and ordered the few survivors to return without him.”
      Out of the scars he had shown me, the one on his side was the worst. The person in question had laughed and said that he just kept walking while holding his guts in. Just by remembering the twisted skin, the same spot on my body aches.
      “We lost many, but we defended Arnold in the southwest to the last and prevented the enemy from advancing. Using this opportunity, The Great Demon Kingdom made a comeback and the tides turned in the Grantz and Karbelnikoff territories. We didn’t pursue the enemy into their territory, but in naval battles the Dugald family and Roberski’s fleet of unsinkable battles.h.i.+ps used their power to corner the s.h.i.+maron forces. The reason we eventually reached a ceasefire was because we won at Arnold. We believe that. In fact, with the sheer amount of honor from that military achievement, Lord Weller gained a social status equal to the ten n.o.ble families. It was this that Stuffel had not desired and it had been approved with unanimous acceptance at a special conference. He had set out to get rid of the threat to his political power and had instead bestowed upon him an unshakeable position. However, it seems like my Commander had no interest in social cla.s.s. Not that I ever asked him personally, but it seems there was something even more important that had happened.”
      “By the time Conrart had returned…”
      The weight from my shoulder had lifted. When I turn my head, there was intelligence and strength s.h.i.+ning in Wolfram’s eyes.
      My left shoulder suddenly grows cold.
      “… Julia had died. And ever since then, Conrart has never attempted to return to military service."
      “Oh, did we wake you?”
      “Of course. There’s no way I’d be able to sleep peacefully with all that fearful trembling. You really are a coward if a story has you scared.”
      By Julia he probably means Lady Suzanna Julia von Wincott. Was a woman that wasn’t even his lover that important to Conrad? It might have been adultery… I swallow the question that I hesitate to even ask.
      Now that he was facing the younger brother of the person caught up in all of that, Josak’s expression softened. Now he really has to pay attention to what he can and cannot say.
      “That’s right, he had finally gained the social status he should have started with, but then Lord Weller abandoned his successful career in the military. Not only that, he returned to his previous status and now,” for a short moment, he hesitated. “… He decided that there was no better life than protecting His Majesty. And here I am, not having anything else to fall back upon, without my direct superior. Now I’m serving under Lord von Voltaire, for lack of any choice. Even now there are still a lot of people who want to see Lord Weller reinstated. The sheer amount of those who want to work under him is endless… Well, that’s not unreasonable. He would lead attacks to cut through enemy lines while roaring out a war cry, he was strong even when wounded, the way he pulled his sword from an enemy corpse. His unwavering gaze that only faced forward. He knew who he should protect, but his figure splattered in blood was ferocious. If one saw that part of him easily mistaken for a monster of war, they would want to run towards the very brink of life and death for that man.”
      Like a scene in a movie, I imagined an image tinged with red. A national hero in near jeopardy brings to mind flames and the scent of blood. Josak Gurrier held back his tone with a slightly self-derisive look.
      “Not a single person there wavered in the slightest in giving up their life. It’s likely that Lord Conrart Weller is the pride of Luttenberg.”
      Forever.
      You could almost hear in his voice the word he didn’t say.
      “But…” without thinking of the situation, I murmur to the fire. “But I don’t like that Conrad.”
      After I say this, I notice the dumbfounded looks the two demons are giving me.
      “Uh, did I say something inappropriate!?”
      Josak gave a vague smile and Wolfram said ‘d.a.m.n wimp’ to the sky. I don’t know if he was astounded or if he agreed with me, but to my right Murata clapped twice.
      “Huh?”
      For just a moment, something cold touched my nose. It melted immediately and became a water droplet. I take off my smooth leather glove and hold up my warm palm to the sky. Small, light and feathery objects are swaying back and forth as they fall.
      “It’s snow.”
      “Snow!? Snow is yet another problem. It was hard running around in this wilderness as it was, now the weather is against us.”
      “Hm, it would be hard even for horses to run in the snow. Sheep seem to be strong against the cold, but I hope it doesn’t pile up on the road.”
      I look up at the ultramarine sky. It was like the pure white flakes were falling directly from the moon.
      It happened when we all sluggishly stood up to get into the vehicle to keep from getting wet.
      “Nmokin!”
      “Uwah!”
      That weird noise travels through all sixteen sheep. Nmokin, nmokin, nmokin, nmokin! Maybe I should jump in and ask who the monkey was. (5)
      The sheep stand one by one, eyes wide open. Their eyes are s.h.i.+ning a fiery red and showed that it was a bad situation.
      “Look, they’re kinda changing shape!?”
      Their fluffy wool lost its form and was plastered down their bodies. The 100% Wool poofs had turned into what looked like greasy, swept back, old man hair. The snow falling on them slipped right off and went straight to the ground.
      “Transform! Snow Mode! Is that it? Whoah, their eyes, their eyeb.a.l.l.s are red.”
      “So sheep are strong against bad weather. And then there’s the time. Are they nocturnal?” Murata asked as he looked up at the sky. He checked the position of the stars and then grabbed my arm to look at my digital a.n.a.log just to make sure. It’s just before 3am.
      “Or maybe they’re super-early morning animals… But doesn’t it seem like they’re ready to run away? Going just by the moonlight is a bit unsettling, but the strategy of gaining as much distance as we can before the snow piles up might be a good one. Should we get moving?”
      “What place were we in right now?” Josak asks.
      We had received a fourth place stamp at the checkpoint we pa.s.sed earlier in the evening. At the time, the distance between us and the lead was a little over 12,000 horse legs. It’s not a distance we can’t close. We knew where our opponent was.
      “s.h.i.+buya, do you know how to go in the dark?”
      “Nope.”
      Muraemon dug through the cargo area of the tank and pulled out a tube the size of his fist. Tada! (6)
      “A magic-powered telescope! If you pull on this joint here, it’ll turn into a handy sized telescope. It’s small but works perfectly, here here, the origin of the magic-power is right in here. That way you can use it no matter where you are on the planet. If you’re travelling with children in s.h.i.+maron and want to look at the scenery and go, ‘Oh darn, there’s no magic here,’ you won’t have to worry that your child will say ‘Daddy, you’re the worst!’ Also, when you want to observe wild animals or use it at night, look here. Night-vision comes standard so even in the dark, you won’t miss anything. If you act now, you get this attractive case, lens cleaner, and this fas.h.i.+onable strap, all for the price of 24,000 pesos! Of course, we’ll take care of the s.h.i.+pping charges!”
Toll Free: 0120-s.h.i.+maron Soldiers Have Long Hair. (7)
      Are you trying to sell this to me!?

--------

(1)    Reference to the RPG series, Dragon Quest. There are a few different rabbit enemies. As for ‘-ra,’ a few spell names in the j.a.panese version of Dragon Quest are the more powerful version of a certain spell if ‘-ra’ is tacked on the end. Although, I think this is more common in the Final Fantasy series.
(2)    The word for ‘foolhardy’ in j.a.panese is ‘chototsumous.h.i.+n’ which literally translated means ‘a wild boar charging madly ahead.’ Josak swaps out the ‘wild boar’ part (cho) with ‘sheep’ (hitsuji) and then Yuuri comments on that in his head, “Normally, people would use ‘wild boar’ there.”
(3)    It’s been a while since I last mentioned this so I figured I’d reiterate that the ruler of The Great Demon Kingdom is referred to as a king even if they’re a woman. Although Josak does call her a queen in this chapter right after calling her a king so I dunno what’s up with that. Maybe it’s supposed to show his ex-s.h.i.+maronian-ness. Totally just made that word up XD
(4)    Linguistic note! And not on the saucepan thing because that’s fairly self explanatory~ The word for inseparable here (kusare en) has the connotation that the inseparability wasn’t desired. In fact, the literal English translation means something along the lines of ‘rotten destiny.’ So, you kind of get the feeling they got off to a bad start.
(5)    If you say ‘nmokin’ a bunch of times it starts to kind of sound like monkey, written here in Katakana English as ‘monkii.’
(6)    Yuuri is comparing Murata to Doraemon, which is this blue cat from the future in a manga of the same name. He has all these wacky gadgets, kind of like Inspector Gadget.
(7)    Murata made this joke earlier in the novel when they met the amba.s.sadors from Big s.h.i.+maron in Gilbit and they were looking at their hair. It’s a joke on the mnemonics commercials and companies use to help customers remember their telephone numbers, but this one doesn’t actually make a number.

And there is chapter 8! So the reason I love this chapter – besides how interesting the information is – is because Josak’s backstory is the first we get to hear that’s significantly different than the anime version. In the anime, Josak and his mother were thrown into that ‘village’ where his mother got sick and died then Dunheely and Conrad came and saved them all and a friends.h.i.+p was formed. But here Josak’s mother abandoned him, Josak got sent to the village alone, and he and Conrad didn’t even interact with each other until they were a.s.signed to the same military unit later on in life. And then there"s the fact that we actually get to hear some info on the war. It"s like it"s been this huge secret up until now. (Also, Dunheely has got to be the strangest name in this entire series)

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