Chapter 370: The Marriage Interview, and a Stand-Off.
Within the Reverse World, our main hideout would be Dracliff Island.
With the silver dragon, Shirogane, at the top, numerous dragons live on the island, and humans aren’t allowed to land there.
If a ship approached the island, elders who could converse in the human language would warn them; and if they do not heed that warning, they would be chased away by force.
While I did tell them to refrain from killing if possible, that’s not a strict order. If danger would befall the dragon, it is permitted to retaliate in order to protect the island or itself.
Dracliff Island is located in the middle of an inland sea surrounded on four sides by Trihalan, Strain, Diem and Alent.
As I thought that it isn’t a bad place for the marriage interview between the crown prince of Trihalan and the princess of Strain, I decided on this place for the location of the meeting.
On the day itself, the Trihalan emperor and crown prince, the Strain queen and princess, as well as their respective escort knights met inside the villa on Dracliff Island, under a sky where dragons freely flew about.
While Crown Prince Rupheus simply looked to be wearing a more formal attire than before, Princess Berlietta looked completely different from her glasses-and-overalls look we saw her in the other day.
A moderately glittering dress wrapped around her body, a small tiara sat on top of her light brown hair which was let down, and a stylish-looking pair of glasses as well as some light makeup adorned her baby face. A woman really can change…
In any case, after a round of simple introductions for either side, the marriage interview began in a room within the villa.
Although I’m technically the matchmaker for these two… Or rather, for these two countries, I’m also somewhat of an outsider, so I tried to not speak out too much during the conversation. And besides, I don’t know much about either of their countries anyway.
Still, most of the talking was done by the Trihalan emperor and the Strain queen, and the two persons who are the main reason why we’re here are not saying much to each other. They’re probably nervous.
“The garden of this villa has some beautiful greenery, and you can also view the entire island from there. How about the two of you go there for a walk?”
“Eh? Ah, yes, if Princess Berlietta is fine with it…”
“E, umm, I don’t mind. The, then let’s go.”
As they kept acting shy with each other, the two of them left for the garden with one escort knight each following behind.
As a precaution, I also had Kougyoku watch over them from above.
“Surprisingly, the first impression doesn’t seem to be bad.”
“Yes. It looked like a decent atmosphere.”
Both His Majesty the Emperor and Her Majesty the Queen were looking at the two of them with satisfied expressions; it showed their wishes as parents, not as the leaders of their respective countries.
Still, from their standpoints as monarchs, this is a rare occasion where they can talk with each other. While waiting for their children to return, the two parents started talking about various proposals and other things, and completely entered working mode.
As it’s not a talk where I can participate in, I left the two monarchs in the care of the butler Shirogane as well as the three golem sisters, Rubi, Sappha and Emera, and went out to the garden as well.
Of course, there’s no way I’m going to go get in the way of the two young people out there. I just wanted to take a peek at the situation. Just a bit, okay?
When I synchronized my eyesight with that of Kougyoku’s—she’s currently stooped atop a tree branch in the garden—I caught the figures of the two of them, walking around the garden while maintaining a delicate distance between each other.
Seems like they havn’t broken the ice yet. They were both trying to start a conversation, but they just couldn’t find the right moment, or so it felt. Why aren’t they using the common hobby they shared as a topic?
“Both of them seem unfamiliar to this kind of situation, so…”
On one hand is a man who had been chained into an engagement with an oba-san until recently, and on the other hand is a woman who holed up inside her workshop without caring about the outside world all the time. While it’s a bit late to be thinking this, are these two really royalties?
“Shouldn’t Touya-kun push their backs a little-no yo?”
“Unn, that might be me doing something excessive though.”
“But at this rate, even if they do marry each other, we’ll just have a couple who’s cold to each other, you know-no yo?”
“Right, it certainly does feel that way… Eh, uowaaah!?”
I yelled out in reflex upon seeing Karen nee-san, who was standing besides me before I noticed it.
“How many times have I told you not to erase your presence and approach me like that!? It’s bad for my heart! Wait, why are you even here!?”
“My onee-chan sensor reacted-no yo. Although, since the people involved this time aren’t really related to Touya-kun, the sensitivity was kind of bad-no yo.”
The Love God made a rather regretful face. Can that sensor of yours just break down already?
“Still, I think it’s best if you helped them out a bit-no yo. See, the number of times they spoke are getting smaller, and the atmosphere is also gradually turning into something awkward-no yo?”
Ah, she’s right. Umu, I feel like I’m being moved against my will, but whatever.
I took out an ether vehicle from [Storage], and started up its magic engine. Karen nee-san lightly hopped into the passenger seat… Well, it’s fine, I guess.
While the magic engine let out a low hum, I slowly drove the vehicle towards where the two of them are.
“Ah!?”
“Your Majesty the Sovereign King, that is…!”
Rather than the fact that I appeared before them, or Karen nee-san who’s sitting next to me, the two of them were focused entirely on the ether vehicle we were riding.
While the ones I gave them as presents were models based off the Fiat 3.5 HP, this one is modelled after the Renault type K.
In the year 1902, the France-based Renault won a race held between Paris and Vienne with the aforementioned model. The real thing can put out a maximum speed of up to 125km/h, but this one can’t go that fast. Since it’s only mimicking the external appearance, and the insides are completely different, after all.
However, depending on the method, it’s possible to make this run faster than even that. Although I’ve made sure that it can’t go too fast since the body may not be able to withstand that.
As I stopped the ether vehicle in front of the two of them (precisely, the four of them, since the two escort knights are there too) and got off, they immediately drew close.
“This is a different ether vehicle from the one a while ago, isn’t it!?”
“Excuse me, b-but is it ok if we take a look at the inside?”
Nodding to Princess Berlietta’s question, I opened the bonnet of the type K.
The two of them immediately rushed to peer into the car with glittering eyes, almost as if competing with each other.
“There are three ether lines engraved. And this magic engine… I’ve never seen it before.”
“Isn’t it the model used in Garudio Empire’s golem carriages? The one made by the Griten Company.”
“No, that one is larger, and it also doesn’t have the same detailed construction.”
“If that’s the case…”
The two escort knights looked at their charges, who had suddenly started talking flowingly to each other, with dumb-looking faces.
A magic engine is, as its name suggests, an engine which moves with magic; however, it’s extremely hard for an average human to be able to provide the magic power necessary for the
engine to start. Only with the magic power of a golem with its G-cube can the magic engine start to output power.
The ether vehicle moves, in this case, by replacing the G-cube with the ether liquid, and putting the amplified magic power from that into the engine.
Of course, depending on the magic engine, various factors such as durability, noise, output and ether liquid usage amounts would change. That’s the interesting part about this.
“That’s a new magic engine made in our world. New ether vehicles are still being born right now over in the other side.”
Well, this type K was made by Rosetta during her spare time, though. If I left this to Professor Babylon or Dr. Elka, it felt like they would make something outrageous, so I didn’t.
Besides that, others are also developing ether vehicles like the dwarves and the magic engineers of Ferzen. If I were to borrow the words of the professor, they were “interesting” due to their rather unique shapes and functions.
“I was thinking about holding a race with all the different ether vehicles developed by the various countries in the future. Right now, we’re drafting a testing stage, so to speak. We’re planning to let a few ether vehicles run on an experimental course we made.”
It’ll still be dangerous without some rules, though. We’ll need to set some safety standards too.
However, this time’s race is more about experimenting; if this kind of ether vehicle runs on this type of course, what would be the result? Or something like that. As such, we’re planning to do some unreasonable things.
With magic, the dangers can be reduced to a degree; also, interesting courses can be made with magic’s help.
We can even make something like a tile that drops the vehicle’s speed for 10 seconds if one goes over it, or an acceleration tunnel, you know.
We also prepared things like seats enchanted with [Teleport]. If the vehicle’s body experiences a strong shock, it would transfer the driver to a safe location instantaneously. It’s the same thing used in Frame Gears; honestly, it’s much better than airbags, isn’t it.
“Would the two of you like to participate in that test race? It’ll be interesting—”
“Yes! I’ll participate!”
“Of course! No way I’ll miss something that interesting!”
Cutting off my words with a great momentum, the two of them expressed their intention to participate. You guys are too excited, really.
As they immediately asked to know about the type K’s inner structure, I took out the blueprints drawn by Rosetta and passed them over. If it was the professor or I, we can do it easily with [Analyze], though.
Well, leaving the professor aside, even if I knew the internal structure, I wouldn’t be able to understand that information, though.
“I see… So this kind of method was possible too…”
“But if it’s like this, in the case of sudden magic power emission…”
“For that, this part here…”
“In that case, if we leave out this place…”
Leaving the couple who had already entered a world of their own while looking at the blueprints, we turned heel and left the garden.
“With this, they’ve begun to speak to each other properly, I guess?”
“This is only the beginning-no yo. They need to start being conscious of each other, and wanting to know more about each other. Right now, the thing they want to know more about is the ether vehicle-no yo.”
Well, yeah. It’d be good if they would start being conscious of each other through that shared hobby in the near future. Well, that would be up to the two themselves, and things like timing also comes into play, so. Eh, I’m not qualified to be saying these things like a know-it-all, am I?
When we returned to the villa, His Majesty the Emperor and Her Majesty the Queen were making small talks while relaxing.
“Ohh, Touya-dono. How were the two of them?”
“They were speaking to each other nicely. I think it’s going well.”
“Maa. That is well.”
The two leaders looked at each other and smiled with joy. I guess they were worried as parents.
I introduced Karen nee-san to the two, and while drinking the black tea Shirogane poured us, we talked about the coming two-world conference.
For Strain Kingdom’s invitations, while Holy Kingdom Alent promised to participate, Raze Martial Kingdom was apparently still hesitating on their decision.
As for the reason, since they have not suffered an attack from the variants as yet, and doesn’t have any transferrers from our world in their country, they found it hard to believe all this talk about a different world.
Having said that, it’s stupid to wait until something also occurs in Raze for them to believe in our talk, so we’ll have to find some way to convince them right now.
“Well, if it’s that country, then there shouldn’t be any need to worry. Touya-dono just needs to show a bit of your strength, and everything would be settled.”
“What does that mean?”
“Like the name Martial Kingdom suggests, their country has a culture of respecting individual strength. If you go at them from the front, fair and square, and show your strength to them, even if they wouldn’t believe you they’d at least listen to what you have to say.”
Umu, so it’s a country filled with musclebrains? I feel like if I threw Takeru ojii—who’s the Martial God—there, the problem would be solved in an instant…
“I can guess what you’re thinking right now, but that’ll lead to lots of trouble later, so it’s best if you don’t do it-no yo.”
“Ah, I knew it.”
Karen nee-san saw right through me. True, that felt like it would blow up into something huge.
And as for Panashes Kingdom, the pumpkin pants prince from last time helped in making the final decision, apparently. He apparently boasted all over the place that we’re friends, but I don’t remember ever becoming something like that. We’re acquaintances, you know. Just acquaintances.
For now, Trihalan, Primula, Alent, Panashes, and if things go well, Raze; we’ll proceed while assuming these five countries will be participating in the two-world conference. (Note: wait what. Strain? Hello? Also, what about Garudio?)
As we were trying to put our schedules together, a telepathy came from Kougyoku.
[Master, there’s a slight problem.]
[What happened?]
[Those two had started arguing with each other/p>
“Eh!?”
“Has something happened?”
Her Majesty the Queen tilted her head towards me who had suddenly let out a voice.
“Ah, I’m sorry. There’s a sudden call, so I’ll be leaving for now.”
While taking my smartphone out from my breast pocket, I faked a bitter smile while acting as if I’m on call with someone else as I walked away from the room. When I reached a position
where the two leaders wouldn’t be able to see me, I immediately used [Teleport] to move to Kougyoku’s location.
“Like I was saying! Shouldn’t the first thing be strengthening the magic engine!? We should design a body that would utilize that well afterwards!”
“Isn’t there something called balancing the body first!? Nothing well would come from ignoring safety, you know!”
“I’m not ignoring that! I’m talking about how focusing on durability alone isn’t enough! It’s obviously better to make a specialized type instead of a well-balanced one!”
“That way of doing it will give the driver extra burden! There’ll definitely be some part that’s tough to handle! People are not machines, you hear me!?”
The two of them were shouting back and forth at each other. The escort knights behind them looked very uncomfortable being there.
Sounds like the two of them had a difference in opinion when discussing the direction they would take when trying to make an improved model of the ether vehicle.
“Alright, alright, the two of you should calm down a little…”
I tried to soothe the two of them who were glaring at each other, but for some reason, their eyes turned to me simultaneously. What is this, scary.
“What does Your Majesty the Sovereign King think!? Don’t you agree that by raising the level of the magic engine and the quality of each model, the overall possibility of the ether vehicles would expand!? If we don’t do this, ether vehicles would not be able to develop!”
“If it cannot be used by the average people, those high specs would just be wasted! I believe that by designing a more easy-to-handle frame, the durability of the vehicle would increase, and it would become a vehicle that is capable of overcoming all sorts of obstacles!”
“I’m sorry, I’m not exactly an expert so…”
I’m not the one who made that, you know…
“Fine! If you’re going to keep sticking to it, then I shall show you at the test race! I’ll never lose to Rupheus-sama’s ether vehicle!”
“I accept that challenge! I’ll prove to you at the race, that speed isn’t the only thing that matters!”
No, uh. We didn’t even finish the course yet, what are you guys deciding here by yourselves? It’s not like you two would be the only participants.
I thought inviting them to the race would be good, but it backfired!
“OK-nano yo! The both of you should fight it out fair and square, with all your power-no yo!”
“Oi wait! Why the hell are you egging them on!? Onee-sama!?” (Note: he’s calling Karen “onee- sama” in a bit of an acting kind of way. It’s hard to explain in words like this… Uhh… Just think of it as exaggerating.)
Before I noticed, Karen nee-san appeared behind me with both her hands pushed out and in a thumbs-up pose. Don’t appear at a time like this to make things worse!
“Relax, relax. There’s the kind of love that sprouts from conflicts such as this-no yo. Since it’s important for them to both become conscious of each other, right now it’s a good option to let them fight it out all they want-no yo.”
“… Really? You sure you didn’t do it because you thought it’d be fun?”
I looked at Karen nee-san, who stealthily whispered her explanation into my ear, with suspicious eyes. Well, it’s true that they are currently completely conscious of each other…
Is this really going to be alright…?
While looking at the two of them, who are facing each other while having fearless smiles on their faces, I felt just a bit uncertain.
- Pixel
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