Newest Post
// On :Wednesday, May 30, 2018
Beginning the Counterattack
Part 1
The carriage was shaking.
This carriage was the property of the Sorcerer King, and in contrast to its plain appearance on the outside, its interior was classy, refined, and functional to boot. Neia was particularly grateful for the soft cushions that did not hurt her butt no matter how long she sat on them.
Neia peeked at the Sorcerer King, who was seated opposite her and gazing outside.
He may be a fearsome undead king, but she did not feel the oppressive grandeur he had shown when he had met them in the audience chamber.
This was probably because she had spent more time conversing with the Sorcerer King during their journey.
During all this, one thing which Neia had learned was that the Sorcerer King was extremely magnanimous.
It was true that the Sorcerer King acted with the dignity of a sovereign, his every action reflecting his quality as a monarch.
However, when Neia sat in the carriage with him, he would act like an ordinary person from time to time. In addition, these occurrences had been getting more and more frequent recently.
In all likelihood, the Sorcerer King had considered that Neia would be nervous while sharing the same carriage as him, and in his generosity, he had chosen to act more like a commoner. The reason why such incidents were recurring more and more were surely because his skills were improving.
The reason why he did not act that way around the others was probably because they were still playing the role of paladins.
To think he would treat another country’s citizens this way… what a compassionate man he is...
What was he looking at? Was he looking at the paladins riding alongside the carriage? Or perhaps something else, something that Neia did not see—
“Hm? Is there something interesting on my face?”
“Eh! —No, my apologies, Your Majesty! There’s nothing on your face…”
It would seem she had been staring too intensely at the Sorcerer King. Puzzled, the Sorcerer King touched his face with those bony hands of his.
“I suppose it must be quite awkward to sit in a carriage and not say anything. Yes, in that case, let us speak.”
Although she had gotten slightly used to it, conversing with the Sorcerer King always made her stomach ache.
“We are not entirely familiar with each other, so previously I did not ask questions which might have intruded on your privacy, but we have shared the same carriage for several days now. I suppose we can be honest with each other now. Neia Baraja. Can you tell me about yourself?”
“About me?”
Even talking about herself was too vague a topic. She had no idea what she could say to please the Sorcerer King.
“Yes, indeed. For instance, why you wanted to become a squire. What sort of work a squire does. Could you tell me about that?”
“If it pleases you, Your Majesty.”
After bowing her head, Neia began talking about what had been asked of her, but it was hardly an exciting topic. Talking about family and the work of a squire was not particularly interesting.
Besides, I was told not to reveal anything to the Sorcerer King about matters within the country but this much ought to do.
Rather, if she had to cover up even those details, then there would really be nothing to talk about.
Soon, the drab exposition with no structure ended, and the Sorcerer King nodded deeply.
“I see, I see. So you’re an archer, a rarity among squires, Miss Baraja.”
“My skills aren’t good enough for me to proudly call myself an archer, Your Majesty. I am simply better at archery than swordsmanship, and the truth is that people have scolded me and told me I ought to focus more on training up my sword skills.”
To Neia, an archer was someone like her great father, and she was only a little more talented than a commoner.
“...No, I should say that a paladin candidate who has an affinity for ranged weapons is quite a rare thing. If it were me, I would advise you to hone your bow skills. Since there are others better suited to swordplay, then you should let those people handle swordsmanship.”
“—Thank you very much.”
The Sorcerer King’s words were sincere, and it made Neia feel that he was earnestly thinking, What an odd combination; she must be travelling a path towards a rare vocation. However, she had no idea what to make of what the Sorcerer King said next, and his mutterings bothered Neia.
“I feel embarrassed about dumping the work of minding me onto you. Nor is it just you; the same goes for the rest of you paladins. The best way to make use of your skills would be to station you outside.”
His gentle words made Neia stare at him.
This was why talking to this king was so bad for her heart.
Not only did he stand at the peak of his country, he was also an individual of overwhelming might. Yet he had not chosen to talk down to her from above, but he had lowered himself until he could see eye to eye with her before engaging her in a conversation.
No! I can’t let His Majesty spoil me like this! If I don’t lower myself a little more—
Neia pulled herself together.
“Everyone knows I have been designated as Your Majesty’s follower, so please do not take it to heart. In addition, there is no job more important than accompanying Your Majesty.”
“Really now… Still, I would like to offer you some form of recompense.”
In the past, the Sorcerer King had mentioned the topic of payment. She had declined, of course, but it would seem he was bringing up that topic again. Neia immediately began to think about how to reject his offer without causing offense, but the Sorcerer King was not finished yet.
“That said, it might not be good to receive a gift from the king of another country. So at the very least, allow me to verbally express my thanks. I believe I have inconvenienced you in many ways, and I hope I will continue to be in your care.”
And then, the Sorcerer King bowed to her.
A king was actually bowing to someone like herself, who was nothing more than a squire.
It was only natural for a king to carry the weight of his nation upon his shoulders. Slighting a king would be the same as slighting the entire country. The idea that a country lived through its king was a very common notion.
In other words, the fact that a king was bowing was the same as a nation bowing. Of course, it was hardly unthinkable when a king did so to someone of high station.
However, Neia was little more than a citizen of another country, and frankly speaking, there was no need for him to apologize to someone of Neia’s stature.
I can’t believe it. His Majesty is wise and sagacious, and surely he must know the meaning of bowing. Even so, he still bowed to me like an ordinary person— No. Don’t get full of yourself. I can’t possibly be that valuable. This simply shows how magnanimous the Sorcerer King is; he even treats a commoner politely. —Ah! He mustn’t!
“Please do not do that! Your Majesty! Please raise your head!”
Yes. That was what she should have said before anything else.
The Sorcerer King looked up, and Neia sighed quietly. Frankly speaking, if anyone else had seen what had happened just now, something terrible would have happened.
“Your Majesty—”
Neia took a knee within the cramped confines of the carriage’s floor.
“Your servant is of humble origins, but I swear that until Your Majesty’s work is complete, I will loyally and faithfully serve you.”
Since a king had given her his respect, it was only natural that she return it.
Neia ignored the voice in her head which said that he was not the king of the Holy Kingdom, and bowed.
“No, no. Raise your head… Come now, could you take a seat and continue your previous topic? We haven’t reached our destination yet, have we?”
“No, not yet.”
She sat back onto the cushion, and looked outside.
“Yesterday, we passed safely through the ruins of the wall by the grace of Your Majesty’s power. We have chosen a route that will make us harder to discover, so it may take a little more time, but I believe we will arrive at our base tomorrow, or the day after.”
Although, said base was just a cave.
“Is that so? Even then, we still have some time, do we not? Tell me about the topic from just now. Also, I have not yet heard why you have your sights set on becoming a paladin. Given your talent for the bow, surely there must have been some other path you could have taken. Why aim to be a paladin? For the sake of justice? Or perhaps to be the pride of your nation?”
“No—” When she narrowed her eyes, what came to mind was her personal experiences. “—My mother was a paladin.”
She was a paladin who was skilled with the sword, completely unlike Neia.
“I see, so you heard something from your mother, or you admired her, hm.”
“Ah, no. My mother often said I shouldn’t aim to be a paladin. And my mother couldn’t do the work of being a mother, and while she could do the laundry and sew, she was completely inept at cooking and that sort of thing. She did everything sloppily, the roast meat was always undercooked, that sort of thing was common.”
Therefore, it was only natural that her father had been the one who cooked in their household. When she was young, she even thought that it was true for all families.
“...Is that so? Well, she still didn’t stop her daughter from becoming a paladin, so I guess she was still a good mother.”
“Ah, no. When I told my mother I wanted to be a squire, she went and took out her sword and said, ‘I’ll let you if you can defeat me!’ and so on. The only reason why I was allowed to become one was because my dad desperately blocked for me. If I had fought her normally I could never have beaten her.”
That was the first time she had understood the meaning of killing intent.
“...Ahhhh, mm, good, how shall I say this… it was a good family… mm.”
“Yes. While the neighbors often looked strangely at us, I thought it was a good family.”
“...Really, how nice… th-then, why, why become a paladin? Did you not think to follow your father’s path— Hm. Was your father a househusband?”
“No, my father was also a soldier who served his country. However, I never really thought of following in my father’s footsteps… why was that. Maybe it’s because dad gave me these eyes, so I sort of ended up resenting him for it…”
Neia pressed her index fingers to the corners of her eyes and tugged them around in circles.
When she was young, her friends often said, Why are you staring at me? Are you angry with me? and the like, and she had often complained to her father for it. After that, Neia had been beaten by her mother, who had overheard her saying so.
Thinking of them was quite nostalgic, Neia thought.
“But perhaps after becoming a squire, I became more open-minded. At some point, I started to think that this was a gift from my father. Well, I could do without the fierce glare, though.”
“How are your parents now?”
“My father fought Jaldabaoth’s army at the wall and died. I lost contact with my mom, and I don’t know what happened with her, but I think she must have died during the defense of the city. After all, she was the sort who would have struggled to the bitter end.”
“It seems I have inquired about a painful topic.”
The Sorcerer King bowed to her once more. Since this was the second time, the impact was not so great. However, it was enough to make Neia feel anxious.
“Please, please raise your head! How could you bow to someone like me!?”
“I thoughtlessly inquired about your dead kin. Although I did was not aware of that beforehand, now that I know the facts, an apology is still in order.”
The Sorcerer King tilted his head after he raised it.
No, that’s not right, that’s how it should be between equals. A king is not the equal of a citizen from another country. Moreover, we’re the ones requesting his help...
“Erm— well, such exceptions are everywhere. Er, if someone sees Your Majesty bowing to me — ah — they might look down on Your Majesty, because I’m just a squire, after all.”
“...Umu, I see, you do have a point. That’s how kings are.”
These things are complicated, the Sorcerer King muttered.
He must have meant that it was difficult to mix with people from other nations even if he wanted to show his sincerity, probably.
“Yes. While this cannot begin to count as an apology, I shall lend this to you, Miss Baraja.”
The Sorcerer King swiftly reached into his robe and produced a bow.
—Hah?
It was bigger than what could have been hidden inside his robes. Neia blinked several times, but reality refused to change.
“This is a magic weapon. Use it to protect me.”
Portions of the bow were made with animal parts, but it did not feel raw or gory; instead, she felt an air of holiness around it.
She could tell at a glance. In other words, this bow was a masterwork which needed to be described with the word “super.”
“This is the Ultimate Shootingstar Super, made with the ancient art of runecrafting. For various reasons, I was carrying it on me to lend it out to someone else. Ahh, normally there would be runes carved here, but you can’t see them now because of wear and tear. What do you think?”
Neia used all her strength to suppress the urge to cry out.
Typically speaking, she ought to refuse it. This was very likely to be a national treasure of the Sorcerous Kingdom. However, would anyone lend such a treasure to a follower from another country?
Maybe it just looks amazing — as if! This, it’s definitely a very powerful weapon!
“What do you think? Will you not accept it? Your job is to keep me company and protect me, is it not? In that case, it would be good to equip you with a better weapon, am I wrong?”
“Ngh!”
He was right.
Neia felt her head spinning around.
“Ahh, my apologies. Is it because it looks too showy? In that case, I have something more sedate, the Great Bow Special, which is also a product of runecraft.”
Saying so, he reached into his robe again—
“P-Please do not trouble yourself! I am more than satisfied with this one! Please allow me to politely decline!”
Neia’s words came out as a mournful cry as she begged the Sorcerer King to stop producing any more weapons. If he took out another weapon in front of her, Neia did not think she would be able to retain her senses, and lending it to her would probably entail that she had to spend the whole day on maintaining it.
“Your Majesty! I humbly accept this Ultimate Shootingstar Super which you have bestowed upon me!”
She took the bow with trembling hands.
Given its accessories and decorations, it looked to be very heavy, yet it felt surprisingly light in the hand. In the moment she took hold of it, she felt her body strengthening, as though power were coursing into it, or was that just due to the shocking lightness of the bow?
Ah, this is bad. I wanted to reassure myself with the thought that this was nothing more than a fancy-looking magic item. This… this is definitely a bad thing. For all I know… This might be better than the holy sword… eh? Wait, wait a minute… no, surely it can’t...
“Do you? To me, that’s hardly worth being proud of, you know? If you’d like some other — if you’d like a better weapon, please let me know.”
This was bad. If this sort of thing continued, if she kept hearing about it, things would become extremely bad. She could not begin to imagine what would happen if a squire ended up with better gear than the top ranking person in the Holy Kingdom.
“Thank you very much, Your Majesty. I am very grateful that you have spent so much time considering someone like myself…”
Letting someone else hold this would be very dangerous, so Neia clutched it tightly to herself.
She smiled to the Sorcerer King while she nodded. While the smile was a little stiff, she had managed to skillfully conceal her thoughts.
“If others see this, tell them I lent it to you.”
Can’t I not let them see it? If possible, I’d rather wrap it up or something — but I can’t do that with a weapon His Majesty lent me to protect him… Ahh… wait, my head’s starting to hurt. So something like this is nothing to be proud of… His Majesty’s standards are just too high… Will I have to pay him back if I damage this bow? Me? Ahhh, my tummy hurts… I wish I didn’t have to think about this bow… Ah!
Neia thought of a wonderful topic she had not yet mentioned.
“Your Majesty! I saw those huge and grand statues of yourself in Your Majesty’s country!”
“—Hoh.”
He responded in a quiet voice that was tremendously different from the one he had used in the past. It made Neia uneasy about whether she had made some sort of mistake.
He had named his country after himself. Thus, Neia guessed that the Sorcerer King was eager to show himself off, which was probably why he had built those huge statues of himself to proclaim his might to those around him.
Did I not praise him enough?
“Those statues not only showed off Your Majesty’s greatness, but they also demonstrated your power as well! We don’t have any statues like that in the Holy Kingdom!”
That was most definitely not a lie. Size notwithstanding, one would need engineering techniques that had been refined down to an art in order to produce such a life-like product. There was a similarly-sized statue of a Sea Dragon at a place called Lighthouse Cape, but it was cruder, and it looked quite pathetic after being worn away by the elements.
“My subordinates often say that.”
Ahhhh, is that it? He’s heard praise like that from his subordinates, so this much is only to be expected, is that what he means?”
“My subordinates are now planning to raise statues like these in various places of my nation.”
“I see. Indeed, it would be a good way to declare the glory of Your Majesty!”
The Sorcerer King looked at Neia in what seemed like surprise.
“...Uh, mm. Still, I feel that placing statues of myself within my country is a little… how shall I put this? Even so, my subordinates built statues of myself that are over a hundred meters tall in the middle of the city in order to show me off to the world… I think they’ve gotten carried away with the concept of bigger is better.”
“But why is that?”
The Sorcerer King coughed to clear his throat, and that was when a question arose in Neia’s mind, Did the undead still have throats to clear? However, the Sorcerer King was speaking as that question echoed in her head, and she could not interrupt him.
“A king’s greatness cannot be shown with physical objects.”
“Ahhh!”
Neia was shocked, but that was only to be expected.
Neia had not only forgotten that the Sorcerer King was undead, but had come to harbor feelings of genuine respect for him.
This man was truly a King.
Suddenly, she saw the Sorcerer King clenching his fist out of the corner of her eye.
“Of course, declaring my greatness to the world by allowing my people to live without impediment is a different matter. But showing it off with statues of myself is… well. I wish to be known by the peace of my rule.”
“It is as you say!”
Neia gulped, and then asked a question.
“Your Majesty is one of the undead, but why do you spend so much time thinking of the people?”
Neia did not think the Sorcerer King’s compassion for the masses was an act. She even began to wonder if he was even undead.
“...I have not spent much time pondering that. But doing that much should be par for the course, no?”
Neia was shocked.
Were all kings such amazing people?
Could the Holy Queen and the nobles rule the people with these thoughts in their heart?
Or — was it because he was undead? Did he have this perspective because he was undead?
Neia could not answer that question.
“Also, if it really was one hundred meters high, there’d be complaints about things like not getting enough sunlight and so on.”
The Sorcerer King followed up with what sounded like a joke, which only served to drill the humility of this incredible monarch into Neia’s heart once more. This man was truly a King of Kings.
