Chapter 21: Island of Messenger (part three)
My father and I received a warm welcome from the King of the Federal Kingdom, the King of Ignitia.
The structure of the castle looks like an open sanctuary particular to the South.
Passing through the waiting room for nobles of the countries who have come to have an audience with the king for the Advent Festival, we were led to the slightly private space of the Ignitia’s royal family.
“Oh, it’s been a while, Ernst. Welcome to Ignitia.”
“I haven’t heard from you for a long time, Your Majesty.”
“You’re too stiff. You haven’t changed. Erica-ojousan too, please feel relaxed and make yourself at home.”
“Y-yes, Your Majesty the King. You’re too gracious.”
To the King of Ignitia who looked very relaxed, my father—Duke Ernst, the Duke of Aurelia, gave a stiff greeting.
The current King of Ignitia, Henry is in his forties.
He is an energetic type of king who is filled with self-confidence and energy with a smile on his face.
He has long pale golden hair and purplish eyes which are the distinctive features of the Southern people.
The King’s sunburnt tan-skin tells me that he is still active as a dragon knight.
Either because he laughs often, or because of the strength of the sun, his wrinkles are deep.
The King is being accompanied by a silver dragon about the size of a large dog at his feet.
The nobility and royalty of Ignitia appears to have a small dragon they grow up together with like siblings instead of attendants.
The Queen has exceedingly pale blonde hair that is almost platinum and amethyst eyes as transparent as water.
She is a beautiful, awe-inspiring person who almost looks like a doll.
However, there is no doll-like atmosphere, she is full of vigor and dignity.
Is she really in her late thirties? How amazing……
Her waist is so thin that I can’t believe she has borne three children.
And she also has a blue dragon in her arms.
While being as quiet as a figurine, I listened to the conversation between the frank King and my business-like father.
Although they are not present, the King and Queen have 3-years-old twins – the Second Prince Jules and the First Princess Agnes.
Also, the First Prince Auguste is not in this place.
Even though the story of the twin prince and princess rose to the topic, the story of Auguste didn’t come out.
I don’t feel like touching the topic.
It makes me feel a little uneasy.
At the very least, I want to confirm just his face at the present moment.
“Dear, if we monopolize the lovely lady, we will buy antipathy from the people.”
“Umu. You’re right. People uprising is scary. Then, Ernst, Erica-ojousan, please enjoy the festival slowly.”
In one sentence accompanied by Ignitia’s joking style, the audience ended.
By the way, Ignitia is a country born from a slave uprising.
Although I was a bit nervous, I felt relieved that the audience was over with a harmless and inoffensive impression.
After we left the castle, I was given some free time by my father.
Since it is the long-awaited visit to Ignitia, he said that I should enjoy the exotic atmosphere.
By the way, my father has a meeting with the minister and other aristocrats about the Advent Festival.
Let’s cheer for good work.
(Yeah~~ I can finally loosen up a little bit……!)
I feel a bit regretful that I couldn’t meet Auguste.
However, it can’t be helped.
I decided to use my precious free time to extend my wings with all my might.
☆
In the cathedral near the royal castle, Ignitia’s guide-like booklets for children were being sold, so I bought it as a test.
The booklet was manufactured by automatic grafting golems and the content is a simple map of the Island of Messenger where the positions of religion-related historical sites are filled in along with a rough explanation about each site.
The commentary was tailor-made for the picture book and it was briefly summarized so that it would be easy for children and foreigners to understand.
The price is one gold coin and it is set for aristocrats and wealthy people.
However, considering the technology and the price of this world, it is quite reasonable.
Since a church is selling these, it might be some kind of volunteer activity.
I had made some preparations for Ignitia beforehand.
However, there are many things that I didn’t know among the local legends written in the booklet.
For example, there seems to be some kind of legend about the Island of Messenger.
Once upon a time, the Island of Messenger was called the Island of the Dead.
The island was dominated by a terrible man-eating giant.
The name of the humanoid giant was Cain.
According to the legend, an angel of God beat Cain alone and freed the island, that was why it came to be called as the Island of Messenger.
By the way, the name of the King of Casketia who fought with the Founder King of Ignitia was also Cain.
Casketia became the Country of Vampires during the generation of King Cain and he came to be known as the Lunatic King.
Perhaps there was a mix up between the story of the Founder King who killed the vampires and the Giant War that lasted for a long time since then.
‘Island of the Dead’, it feels like it would be overflowing with zombies rather than vampires.
Horrifying.
But, that name ‘Cain’, I remember seeing it in my previous life.
It was a conversation in the bulletin board of the original game’s capture targets’ information.
According to the character introduction on the homepage, there were seven people to capture in 『Liber Monstrorum』.
The black haired, gloomy and extreme sadist Duke’s son, Klaus who had dead eyes.
Blonde haired, with a smiling poker face and human distrust, the flirty type character at first glance, the First Prince Auguste.
The red haired son of a former Earl with the impression of an outlaw, Harold.
Black haired professor with eyeglasses, a super strict teacher, the young Earl Brad.
My older brother, the blonde haired Duke’s son who was equipped with a monocle, Eduart who had a dark smile.
Elegant hidden noble with glasses and silver hair, the gentle and clumsy teacher, Elric.
Blonde haired Duke’s son with an eyepatch, the wild-type mysterious person, Claude.
It was supposed to be only these seven.
At this point, I remembered the looks of all of the character images, the color of clothes, and their rough profiles.
By the way, the current Eduart-oniisama doesn’t use a monocle yet.
It seems that he would use it in six years.
However, the people who had completed the strategy guide on the bulletin board of the website were excited with ‘Prince Cain of Merry Bad’ or ‘Cain-sama the Final Savage Yandere.’
Merry Bad was a Merry Bad Ending1.
It was similar to the story that got the ending where the prince and the princess kissed on top of many dead bodies2.
I wonder who that is.
Or maybe it is a hidden character?
Because it is impossible to be a giant, I believe he is a vampire.
If possible, to the heroine of this world, I don’t want you to do that kind of route selection.
Now, to the real issue at hand: the tourism.
My real intention is to look at this Island of Messenger once again from the opposite beach.
However, since my father has told me that my range of action right now is only within the island, I will save it for when we return home from this island.
Even inside the island, I can enjoy the exotic atmosphere.
In the city, wherever I went I could see people who brought monsters.
On the contrary, there were only few simple golems such as those seen in Aurelia.
I had disguised Tirnanog as an iron golem, but maybe it only made him more prominent.
Perhaps because golems are unusual, people of Ignitia kept giving us a glancing look as they passed by.
Outside of Aurelia, it is rare to see a fine golem like this.
I spoke with Tirnanog in a low voice so that we wouldn’t be suspected by the people of Ignitia.
“This is a bit similar to an adventure with all the fun and the festive atmosphere, Tir.”
『Me too, everything I see ever since I got resurrected are all unusual and fun.』
My companion seems to be enjoying this as well above all.
According to the booklet and my preparations in advance, the Island of Messenger seems to have a church-related building as the main tourist attraction.
It is a chapel in the cathedral, with such things like an underground crypt and a monastery inside the tower.
Because it is the home of this religion, as expected the full set will be completed if we go there.
“First off, that’s right. Let’s go to the cathedral.”
『Umu!』
Anyway, let’s start from the biggest and most famous place.
I took Tirnanog along as we decided to head to the cathedral.
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1 Merry Bad is an abbreviation from Merry Bad Ending. Ending in which the interpretation of whether it is a happy ending or bad ending is up to the viewpoint of the readers/players. So in this case, I’m guessing that if you get Cain’s ending, that means that you get the bad end (since he’s the villain). But since he’s (maybe) a handsome character some players are intentionally trying to get that ending, and when they get it, it’s a ‘happy ending’ for them.
2 I don’t know what is this referencing at, but what I get from the google search is the real story of Snow White, where the prince was actually a necrophilia and that’s why he was so excited in kissing the dead body of Snow White.
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