“I–Isn’t the way you’re treating me a little undignified?!” Aisha objected.
Ignoring that, I looked back to Jeanne. “I’m sorry, but I can’t accede to that request. I do hear that Madam Maria is charming, but I want to stay here and be king in this country where Liscia and the others are.”
“Whew… I know that,” Jeanne said. “But I really think it’s regrettable that you feel that way.”
Then, saying, “Thank you for allowing me to say something crazy,” Jeanne bowed her head. “Now, back to the topic of the alliance… That’s something far too important for me to decide on my own initiative. Now that you’ve provided a wonderful system for our two heads of state to hold talks over the Jewel Voice Broadcast, I think it would be best if you discussed the matter directly with my sister. For the time being, I would like a few members of your diplomatic corps to come to the Empire. I will also leave a few members of our bureaucracy here, so please take them back to the kingdom with you.”
“I see. That should make coordinating things easier,” I said. “Very well… but how about this? What if we each bestow the title of Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary on the representative of our diplomatic corps, then establish an embassy in each country’s capital? It’s inefficient having to travel back and forth between our two countries whenever we decide on something, after all.”
“That’s marvelous!” exclaimed Jeanne. “I’ll look into the possibility at once. My word… the wisdom gushes forth from King Souma like water from a hot spring.”
Again, it wasn’t like that had been my idea. If she rated me too highly, it was just going to make me feel more constrained… But, well, setting that aside, Jeanne and I continued to talk about various things after that.
For instance, we talked about how Madam Maria wanted to abolish slavery.
Madam Maria had apparently wanted to abolish the system, which was a hotbed for human trafficking, for a long time, but she was now looking to use the looming menace of the Demon Lord’s Domain to do it in the name of national unity. Though the policy would be hard to pass in peacetime, she recognized that she could force it through now, and she was quick to act on the opportunity. It seemed she was more than just an idealistic dreamer.
I was in favor of abolition, too, but I felt it was too sudden, so I asked them to wait. Sudden changes, even good ones, always cause chaos. The French Revolution, with its call for liberté, égalité, fraternité, ended in the purges of the Reign of Terror, and the Arab Spring movement for democratization (though I did not, in any way, mean to condemn the movement itself) brought chaos to the countries of the region. With my knowledge of precedents like those, I had to be cautious.
That’s why I told the Empire that emancipation had to be taken step by step. If possible, I wanted them to move forward on it at the same rate as the kingdom.
And, well, with important topics like that coming up one after another, the bureaucrats of both nations were running around in a frenzy. Even late at night, once the conference wrapped up, they continued.
They would likely be up all night. With a sideways glance to those bureaucrats, I took Liscia and Jeanne with me out onto the government affairs office terrace.
Because it was late at night in autumn, it was quite chilly. I had Serina bring us hot milk in wooden mugs, and though it wasn’t really to celebrate of the end of talks, we shared a toast.
Liscia raised her mug. “To the glory to the Empire.”
Jeanne raised her mug. “To the development of the kingdom.”
I raised my mug. “And to the friendship to both nations.”
“““Cheers!”””
We clacked our wooden mugs together.
It was hot milk in them, so after the toast, we could only sip away at them (because if we knocked them back, we’d burn ourselves), but… oh, was it good. One thing I’d come to appreciate since coming to this world was the deliciousness of milk. It was unpasteurized (they probably milked straight into a metal bucket, like you’d see in The Dog of Flanders, then chilled it with river or well water), so the flavor was fully intact. The tradeoff was that it wasn’t exactly safe, but… this thickness was irresistible!
“This was a highly fruitful conference,” Jeanne said as I was being warmed by the delicious hot milk. “We talked for quite a long time, didn’t we? It’s almost dawn.”
“…Now that I think about it, I feel like we talked about a lot of things today that we really didn’t have to,” I said.
Since we’d gone to the trouble of arranging a hotline using the Jewel Voice Broadcast, I felt like we could have saved a number of the topics we’d covered for a later date. I felt bad for the bureaucrats of both nations whose workloads had increased because of us.
“Maybe because it was so late at night, we got strangely excited…” I said.
“Can you blame us?” Jeanne said with a smile. “I, for one, was thrilled to find new, reliable friends.”
Friends… huh.
True, though our alliance was a secret one, we and the Empire could be called friends now. As for what influence this secret alliance would have on the world… I couldn’t be sure yet, but it was reassuring to know that other countries could share my values. The Empire must have felt the same.
Jeanne suddenly took on a serious expression. “I have something to tell you, my friend in the east.”
“What is it? My friend in the west.”
“It’s about the Demon Lord, said to inhabit the Demon Lord’s Realm,” she said.
The Demon Lord. If I were to employ my knowledge of RPGs, that was the being who ruled over the demons and monsters. While it was unconfirmed, the former king, Sir Albert, had told me there apparently was a being like that inside the Demon Lord’s Domain.
“Have you seen the Demon Lord?” I asked.
“No,” said Jeanne. “More than that, no one has ever claimed to. The ones who penetrated the deepest into the Demon Lord’s Domain were the initial punitive force, but they were almost completely eradicated.”
“Huh? How do you know there’s a Demon Lord, then?” I asked.
“When the punitive force was destroyed, there was a group of demons believed to be capable of speaking, and there was a word they often spoke,” she said. “The researchers in my country have hypothesized that this word might be the name of the Demon Lord.”
There Jeanne paused, then spoke the word as if announcing it.
“That word was… ‘Divalroi.’”
“Divalroi… Demon Lord Divalroi?” I asked.
“Yes. They say that’s the name of the Demon Lord.” Jeanne nodded somberly.
Demon Lord Divalroi, huh… hmm?
“Demon Lord Divalroi… Demon Lord… Divalroi, Demon Lord…” I murmured.
Huh? What’s this? I remember hearing that phrase somewhere, I thought. Is this deja vu?…No, that’s not it. It sounds familiar. Somewhere. I’ve heard it somewhere. Somewhere other than here. Not in this world. In the other world?
No, hold on. Why would I think of Earth? There shouldn’t be any demon lords on Earth. I don’t know any Divalroi. I shouldn’t, at least, but there’s something tugging at the back of my mind.
“Wh-What’s wrong, Souma?!” Liscia exclaimed.
When I came back to my senses, Liscia was supporting me. It looked like I had been clutching my head in my hands and stumbled. Liscia and Jeanne looked worried, so I gave them a smile.
“I’m fine,” I said. “I just got hit by a sudden wave of drowsiness.”
“Hmm… it is late, after all,” said Jeanne. “How about we turn in for the night?”