Shimuin, located in the Southern Seas, was an island nation made up of thousands of large and small islands. More than half of its population and infrastructure were concentrated on the central islands of Shedor and Larupa, so naturally, the royal capital was also located on the central Shedor Island.
The same went for Shimuin’s warp-gates. Apart from Shedor and Larupa, no other island had any warp-gates constructed on them.
As convenient a service as warp-gates were, they were just as expensive to install, and even after installation, they required a constant maintenance fee to operate. As such, warp-gates were not installed on the other islands that had much lower population numbers than Shimuin’s main islands.
Under such circumstances, the people of Shimuin were still heavily dependent on maritime trade. Sailing ships were commonly used to trade with the islands that lacked warp-gates, but apart from those islands, the ships were also used to trade with the small countries that neighbored Shimuin as well as the savage tribes of Samar.
While it might have been better to just install a few more warp-gates than to go through such trouble, there was an unavoidable reason why more hadn’t been installed until now.
This ancient island nation had been founded on the maritime trade long before warp-gates had become commonplace, and countless citizens were dependent on the industry.
From the guilds of the small shipbuilding firms that made smaller fishing vessels to the guilds of larger shipbuilding companies that made warships and passenger ships, as well as the trading guilds, all depended on the sea.
Since countless people would lose their jobs just from the installation of a few warp-gates, who on earth would take responsibility for the loss of their livelihoods and push for more warp-gates to be installed?
“Though perhaps they might have a secret set of warp-gates for personal use, like in Yuras,” Eugene murmured as he flipped through a guidebook.
The Holy Empire of Yuras might be recognized by the public as one of the most advanced countries on the continent, but with the exception of the capital, there were hardly any warp-gates installed throughout the nation. However, that was only true on the surface. In the basement of the Tressia Cathedral, there was a hidden warp-gate that was kept secret from the common people and used only by high-ranking clergy members.
“The situation in Yuras is different from Shimuin. While it is true that Shimuin is a nation made up of thousands of different islands, strictly speaking, the only real territory that they can claim to control is the central islands of Shedor and Larupa,” Kristina informed him as she leaned her slightly unsteady body against the ship’s railing. “Yuras has a vast expanse of land, with their citizens spread all over the place… ahem. Even if they reject the use of warp-gates on the surface, they have no choice but to secretly use them to maintain the spread of their faith.”
Eugene raised an eyebrow, “It seems you’re still quite fond of Yuras?”
“No, I have no attachment to it. I just feel that you shouldn’t be blind to the obvious. I have never once felt any fondness for that country,” Kristina insisted expressionlessly. “In any case, what I wanted to say was that the circumstances of Shimuin and Yuras are very different. The upper classes of this country, such as the magnates, the nobles, the royals, or the public officials, have no reason to ever leave Shedor or Larupa—”
“Kyaaah!” Raimira, who was next to Kristina, suddenly let out a strange cry.
Currently, Ramiria didn’t appear to have her usual horn-like protrusions sticking out of her head. Having promised not to do anything strange, Raimira had been let out of Eugene’s cloak and was now looking down at the sea with most of her body sticking out over the railing.
“Look, look, look over there. There’s a really, really huge fish,” Raimira said excitedly.
“Stupid. That’s not a fish; that’s a dolphin,” Mer, who had had her hair dyed black, corrected Raimira smugly while happily swinging her arm entwined with Raimira’s.
It was as Mer had just said. In the sea below the railing, a pod of dolphins could be seen swimming below the surface of the water.
“Jump!”
“Do a jump!”
The two brats were shrieking noisily, but this didn’t cause too much of a fuss as the dozens of other tourists who were currently riding this ship were also pointing at the dolphins and letting out cheers.
“Even so, don’t you think the world has gotten a lot better compared to the old days?” Sienna asked from Eugene’s other side.
She had previously given a lot of thought to whether she should tie up her hair, but in the end, Sienna had decided to just leave her hair free.
While pressing her hand down on her hair, which was fluttering in the sea breeze, Sienna turned to look at Eugene and continued speaking, “In this era, even the ships have gotten a lot faster. When we rode the ship to travel to Helmuth back then, it took us half a year just to get there, didn’t it?”
“It was around that long,” Eugene nodded in agreement as he also leaned against the railing.
They were currently riding a cruise ship propelled by a mana-powered engine. Even though not much time had passed since they embarked, Shedor Island could already be seen in the distance before they knew it.
“Though if we had used a warp-gate, we would have already arrived by now,” Eugene grumbled.
Sienna chided him, “Since we’re here, you should just enjoy the boat ride. Just like Mer is doing, and Rai also says this is the first time she’s seen the sea.”
Eugene muttered, “What’s with calling her Rai? Is it the ‘Rai’ in ‘rai-tarded’[1]?”
“Heh!” Sienna let out a snort of laughter at Eugene’s pun.
Kristina, taken aback by Sienna’s short and inelegant grunt of amusement, looked back and forth between Sienna and Eugene.
Was she meant to be laughing now? Should she try to giggle, even if it was just for Eugene’s sake…?
The thought did go through her mind, but Kristina just couldn’t bring herself to laugh.
[You don’t need to laugh. These two have just got a screw loose,] Anise commented with an exasperated tongue click, unable to relate to their sense of humor either.
“Raimira takes too long to call out in a hurry, but if we call her Mira, that might get confused with Mer,” Sienna explained.
“This lady really likes the nickname Rai,” Raimira, who had been chasing the dolphins with her eyes, also piped up with a giggle.
Since they had decided to thoroughly disguise their identities, it was necessary to deal with the issue of their names.
Eugene felt the need to say something, “By the way, Sierra.”
“Yes, Yuri?” Sienna responded.
“Although it might be too late to say this, aren’t the names we picked way too obvious? We’ve only changed a single syllable…,” Eugene pointed out hesitantly.
“But the new names are pretty common, aren’t they?” Sienna argued.
“That’s true,” Eugene nodded before turning to Kristina, “Especially yours, Kris.”
All they had done was remove the last two syllables of her actual name. With a hesitant expression on her face, Kristina nodded her admittance.
Yuri, Sierra, and Kris. Those names really did feel common.
While exchanging such trivial chit-chat, their ship arrived at its destination.
They were landing at the second largest island in Shimuin, the island of Larupa. As a popular tourist destination, the holy land of prize fighters, Larupa had the largest floating population in all of Shimuin.
The reason they had come here was simple.
Eugene’s goal was to secretly enter Shimuin, figure out Iris’ movements, and find a chance to kill her. In regards to this, the Grand Duke of Shimuin, Ortus, had promised his support — but there was no way they could easily meet up with a high-ranking noble like the Grand Duke just by saying they wanted to meet with him.
‘Though it might have worked if we had sent word in advance,’ Eugene thought.
But they hadn’t done so because they were wary that Iris might go into hiding before they even got the chance to meet with Ortus. Fortunately, since Ciel had been making a name for herself in Shimuin starting a year ago, by making contact with Ciel first, they could request her help to get in touch with Ortus while also investigating Iris’ whereabouts.
Of course, they couldn’t just rely solely on Ciel. Before coming to Shimuin, Eugene had also mobilized the Lionheart clan’s various connections to find out any information about the Fury Pirates that Iris led.
In just a few years, those dark elves had managed to unite hundreds of pirate bands that had been sailing the Southern Seas, both small and large, and were said to have made the Solgarta Sea, the roughest of all the seas, into their base of operations.
The Solgarta Sea was also called the Devil’s Sea in Shimuin because of the wild ocean currents that swirled there. Even exceptionally experienced and skilled sailors who had lived entire decades on the sea were afraid of going near the Solgarta Sea.
But if their sailing skills weren’t enough, couldn’t they still rely on magic to supplement their efforts? Although anyone could come up with such a simple idea, until now, the Solgarta Sea still had yet to be fully conquered.
The other reason it was called the Devil’s Sea was that magic didn’t work properly there. The reason for this had yet to be investigated in detail, but there were speculations that it might be due to certain natural resources buried deep below the sea.
“Though that just sounds like bullshit to me,” Sienna grumbled as she gazed out the carriage window.
As soon as they arrived on Larupa, they had taken this carriage and were now heading towards the largest coliseum on this island.
“Those fools say that a large amount of mana stones must be buried in the seabed and that the mana emitted by those stones is what’s interfering with any use of magic… but do they really believe that idea makes any sense? Well, apart from that, they do have several other similar hypotheses. Since natural materials that interfere with magic, while rare, do exist, it may be because of that that they can come up with such bullshit,” Sienna said with a dismissive snort and a shake of her head.
“However, when it comes to materials like those, the range in which they are able to limit the use of magic is minimal, right?” Eugene pointed out. “Let’s see now… adreate is the most effective of all such materials, but to create a magic-suppressing forcefield that can cover such a wide, fucking area like an entire sea, you would need to replace all the seawater with adreate.”
Sienna recalled something, “It’s said that the sea has a lot of reefs.”
“That’s right,” Eugene nodded along. “Another reason that entire sea is so fucked up is that there are too many small islands within its borders.”
The large and small islands that dotted the Solgarta Sea were used as strongholds by the pirates.
“To find out why magic doesn’t work well there, we’ll have to go there in person to know for sure, but…,” Sienna hesitated. “Well, among all the hypotheses floating around, there is one that I feel may be the most plausible: that the Salgarta Sea was once the lair of a dragon.”
The hypothesis stated that a dragon may have taken the Solgarta Sea as their territory, establishing their lair somewhere deep beneath the sea or in an undersea cave connected to an island. They then tangled up the sea currents and created a forcefield that inhibited all magic to prevent any unauthorized access.
“Although Ariartel said that all the dragons apart from herself went into hibernation, it wouldn’t be strange for the magic that a dragon had cast before going into slumber to remain active until now. If there really was a dragon, there must be a staggering amount of treasure piled up in their lair, so the dragon would have naturally wanted their treasure to remain right where it was while they were in hibernation,” Sienna surmised.
“Magic might not work properly in that sea, but it seems that Demoneyes are still usable?” commented Kristina, who had been listening in silence as she tilted her head curiously.
The pirates had succeeded in making that hellish sea their base because of Iris’s Demoneye of Darkness and its power to create a passage from one patch of darkness to another, allowing her to jump over the entire mess of raging sea currents.
“Demoneyes are different from magic; they don’t even use mana… and even among the demonfolk, it’s a very rare power,” Eugene muttered with a furrowed brow.
Even back during the war three hundred years ago, there were only at most a dozen or so demonfolk who were equipped with a Demoneye.
Eugene further noted, “And even among the Demoneyes, Iris’s Demoneye of Darkness and Gavid’s Demoneye of Divine Glory are extremely unique. Because their powers were granted to them personally by a Demon King.”
Assessing them simply by rank, those two Demoneyes were actually of a higher rank than the Demoneye of Fantasy. The Demoneye of Fantasy, as its name suggested, was only able to show you an illusion. It couldn’t do anything to actually affect reality.
However… that Demoneye matched perfectly with its user, the Queen of the Night Demons, Noir Giabella. On top of that, Noir had used all sorts of methods to raise her power level and had trained her Demoneye of Fantasy to its very limits.
Yeaaaaaah!
The sound of cheers echoed through the carriage window from somewhere nearby.
“What the?”
Surprised by the cheers, Eugene poked his head out the window to take a look. He saw people waving their arms in the air excitedly from within their carriages and on the roadside.
They were looking at a tower in the distance and an image that was magically projected from its spire. Could it be an imitation of the magic screens that were a common sight in Helmuth? However, the screen projected from the spire of the tower was of much lower quality than the ones seen in Helmuth, and in terms of quantity, it was also the only one that could be seen.
“Are you heading over to watch the games as well, dear guests?” the coachman holding the horse’s reins asked with a hearty chuckle. “That sound means the opening match has just started. But well… that match isn’t really worth seeing, so please don’t feel too impatient. The Mador Coliseum never adjusts the scheduled game times, so you’ll have plenty of time to get there.”
“If the matchup isn’t worth watching, why are they making such a fuss?” Eugene inquired.
“Ah, that’s…. As you’ve been riding in the carriage, dear guests, you must not have seen it. Just now, today’s main heroine appeared on the screen,” the coachman explained with a bright grin as he turned to look back at Eugene, whose head was still sticking out of the window. “It was the White Rose, Ciel Lionheart.”
Eugene’s eyes blinked in surprise at the coachmen’s excited smile. So what the coachman was saying was… that the countless people he had just seen going crazy in the streets were all because Ciel’s face had shown up on the screen?
“It seems that she’s exceptionally popular?” Eugene commented.
“Hahaha! Why are you asking something so obvious? After all, aren’t you also on your way to your reserved seats in the second-class, dear guests? Really now, tickets like those aren’t just expensive, they’re very hard to find…,” the coachmen trailed off jealously.
“Um… we were just lucky,” Eugene said as an excuse.
Naturally, it hadn’t been luck. They had bought the tickets with a large sum of money.
In fact, they could have tried to buy even better tickets with more money, but the best tickets that ordinary tourists could purchase in this city were limited to second-class tickets. Even a first-class ticket required a title of nobility if you wanted to buy it, and as for the VIP tickets, as their name suggested, they could only be purchased by VIPs.
“Well, the truth is, it’s only natural that she can’t help but be popular, you know? She’s only at the tender age of eighteen and with such a pretty face…,” the coachman trailed off dreamily before snapping back to his senses. “Also, today’s matchup is crucial for the White Rose.”
“Is that so?” Eugene prompted.
“That’s right,” the coachman nodded. “The White Rose’s opponent in today’s match is a knight who has also managed to get his name into the Twelve Finest[2], just like her. His rank might only be at the tenth position, lower than the White Rose’s, but he’s not an opponent that should be taken lightly.”
The nickname of the knight who currently held the tenth rank was the Iron Wall Knight.
The coachman elaborated further, “His match points might be lower than that of the White Rose, but today is the first time those two will face each other. If the White Rose manages to win this match, she’ll earn the match points she needs to challenge one of the higher ranks. Also, the Iron Wall is equally determined to win. If he loses this battle, his match points will be greatly reduced, and he won’t even be able to keep his current rank.”
While listening to the coachman’s explanation, Eugene’s eyes were fixed on the screen.
Although the coachman had said that this matchup might not be worth watching… that wasn’t really the case. It might only be a showdown between two fighters in the top 100 rankings, but it was surprisingly fun to watch.
‘They’re not allowed to kill their opponents,’ Eugene recalled.
But the conflict appeared bloody enough, making it hard to believe there was such a rule in place. The matches in Shimuin’s coliseums were mainly held for the purpose of providing entertainment. If the fighters weren’t able to excite the crowd, they wouldn’t be popular, no matter how high their match points were. Fighters without popularity wouldn’t be able to attract sponsors, and they also wouldn’t be able to move any tickets, so in severe cases, they might not even be able to stand inside a coliseum.
As a result of that, the fighters had to walk a tightrope at the edge of life and death. As their battle went on, their wounds would only grow in number, and their blood would begin to spray out.
“Dear guests, do you know why Ciel Lionheart is called the White Rose?” the coachman asked.
The Mador Coliseum was just starting to be visible in the distance.
“I do,” Eugene responded.
Eugene had already looked into the news surrounding Ciel. She had participated in dozens of matches over the past year to rise to seventh place in the rankings. Her record was a whopping thirty-four wins and zero losses.
The surprising thing was that Ciel hadn’t gotten hurt even once during her many matches.
‘She’s grown a lot,’ Eugene thought fondly.
On their way to the Knight March, he had been attacked by Noir Giabella. Ciel and Cyan, who were with him at the time, hadn’t been able to put up any resistance against Noir and were knocked unconscious.
Eugene was well aware of just how much those two resented that fact.
After experiencing the helplessness and humiliation of being unable to do anything, the events of that day brought a lot of changes to the twins.
Then those changes had borne fruit in the Samar Rainforest when Cyan defeated Hector.
—Don’t look at me. Don’t come any closer, either.
Could that have happened to Ciel as well? Eugene recalled how Ciel had looked during that moment in the snowfield, her tearful face as she was unable to get over the shame of her own weakness and the words she had spoken in a trembling voice.
—I never want to experience something like this again. I don’t want to burden you either.
—It’s not like I’m an idiot. I’m only saying this after I’ve worked out my own situation. Why? Do you feel sorry for me because I’m saying something like this? I would truly hate it if that were the case. I don’t want to receive any sympathy from you.
—I don’t want to stay around you any longer because it just makes me feel ashamed and embarrassed.
—If you cling to me and tell me not to go, I will hate you for the rest of my life.
Recalling those words, a grin appeared on Eugene’s face.
* * *
Aaaaaaaaah!
The second-class seats in the Mador Coliseum might not be the best seating available, but they were still pretty high-class seats, so it seemed like there wouldn’t be any huge issues with enjoying the match from here. The match hadn’t started yet, so the only thing to look at right now was the waves of white roses filling the stands.
“The White Rose!”
“Ciel Lionheart!”
The shouts of her name and title could be heard coming from all directions. Ciel’s fans were all wearing matching white clothes and were tossing around the petals of Ciel’s nickname, the White Rose.
The same thing was happening in the higher-class seats, which were closer to the field and had even better views. Moreover, among the VIPs, who only numbered in the bare dozens, a few could be seen holding white roses.
‘Ortus isn’t here,’ Eugene noted.
If Ortus had come to watch the match, Eugene had been planning to try and make contact with him somehow. While feeling some disappointment at the missed opportunity, Eugene leaned against the railing.
“I’ve never met that young lady, Ciel, before, so what type of person is she?” Sienna asked as she held Mer up slightly so she could get a better view of the field.
“You’ll know once you meet her,” Kristina said as she, seemingly out of a refusal to lose, also lifted Raimira up for a better view.
Thanks to this, Eugene, who was caught between them, couldn’t help but feel slight distress.
Two grown women with children and one man standing between them…. Eugene was afraid of what he must look like in the eyes of others, especially in Carmen and Ciel’s eyes….
“What on earth is going on? Mer won’t tell me anything, and you’re not saying anything either. Kris, just what aren’t you telling me?” Sienna demanded.
Kristina seemed to prevaricate, “Haven’t you seen Sir Cyan?”
“Of course I’ve seen him,” Sienna confirmed. “He’s quite cute and like a baby.”
“Since they’re twins, she looks similar. As for her personality…,” Kristina paused before clearing her throat. “Ahem, she’s also adorable.”
The reason Kristina refused to say anything about Ciel was that she honestly had no idea how to introduce Ciel.
In particular, Kristina was concerned about Ciel’s feelings for Eugene. She couldn’t decide just how sincere Ciel’s feelings for Eugene were, so Kristina thought it would be better if she didn’t comment on it at all.
“Here they come,” Eugene announced, pointing a finger at the arena.
The closed doors on one side of the field were thrust open.
The first person to come through those doors… wasn’t Ciel, but instead Dezra. Marching into the field ahead of Ciel, Dezra raised her hand, and a white carpet rolled out from the open doors. The pure white path created by this carpet led straight to the center of the arena.
After checking to see that the carpet had rolled out evenly without a single wrinkle, Dezra spun around gracefully and dropped down onto one knee.
Click, click, click.
Light footsteps could be heard coming from the open doors.
Aaaaaaaah!
The crowd let out a cheer so loud it made their eardrums hurt. The white roses the spectators had been waving were all thrown into the field in one motion. Large roses fell into the middle of the arena, which was already covered with the flower’s petals, like snowflakes.
“They’ll have to clean that up before the match, right?” Sienna muttered as she watched the flowers pile up on the field, leaving no room to even take a step.
Of course, all of those petals and roses would be cleaned up before the match by wizards stationed in the corners of the arena so they wouldn’t interfere with the match itself.
Eugene stretched out his hand and caught one of the roses pouring down like rain as he watched Ciel walk through the doors.
Ciel wore a pure white outfit different from the dress uniform she had worn as a member of the Knights of the Black Lion, but it had the same Lionheart sigil embroidered on her left chest. Ciel responded to the cheers with a bright smile and waved her hand at the spectators as she walked down the carpet.
“Hmm,” Eugene unconsciously let out a pleased hum as he took in her appearance.
He felt the urge to make a comment about how Ciel really had grown up.
1. Sorry if this is offensive, but this is the closest I could get to translating the pun in the original text.
2. The Twelve Finest are the twelve strongest knights of Shimuin
