Fukushima’s Anguish [Part 1]
Fukushima’s POV
A friend who once trained together with me passed away.
My friend, who suddenly obtained extraordinary powers one day, also passed away.
My master, and my disciples, too, passed away.
Why am I alive?
So what if I am a warrior of the First Spear[1]?
I couldn’t do anything.
That scene of despair was presenting itself before my eyes yet again.
All of Over‘s stems had turned supple and began to bend. It was only a matter of time before the seeds started to fly at full power from the recoil.
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“Fukushima-sama, according to the magic stone slate, Imperial Prince Tasuku will arrive tomorrow.“
Ishida, who single-handedly took charge of the Shogunate office, came to report.
A magic stone slate was a magic stone that was split in half after it had been enchanted with faint restoration magic. If one fragment was scratched, the repair magic would activate to repair the surface. The scratch would respond to the magic and emit light. The other smooth and flat half would also glisten faintly in sync with the scratches on the first fragment.
By carving letters on the slate, they could transmit information at a speed that a letter affixed to an arrow couldn’t compare to. The drawback was that a pair of magic stone plates wouldn’t work if they were too far apart. Nonetheless, the distance a boat could sail in a day was still within the effective range, albeit narrowly.
“I’m still not sure if it’s truly all right for Imperial Prince Tasuku to return.“
The Imperial Prince alone should have been able to live on in the Kingdom. The Emperor and the Shogun as well, sent him there with that intention, so why did he return? The intelligent Imperial Prince couldn’t possibly have not noticed that. That meant that, in the end, he chose to perish along with Imperial Japan and its citizens by his own will.
“I don’t know… Also, I was informed that Melsa Stuart and her family came together with the Imperial Prince using the same ship.“
“Huh? …So she really meant it… back then?“
That woman who came with the Kingdom’s food aid as the interpreter… I was surprised by how she was more diplomatic than that man who claimed to be a diplomat.
She was a talented woman who cooked incredibly delicious food, instantly saw through the imminent collapse of Imperial Japan, and, above all, skillfully mastered Imperial Japanese, a language no one could understand.
Before she left Imperial Japan, she said she would devise a countermeasure against Over and come again around summer, but no one believed her.
A countermeasure against Over.
There’s no way Imperial Japan didn’t try to think one up.
Unlike the Kingdom, which had run out of magic stones and had no magician for decades, Imperial Japan had everything when Over had just began propagating.
It had magic stones, a magician, and excellent samurais.
In particular, the research for putting the abundant magic stone resources to greater use was progressing well. Many magic stone devices had been invented by the mechanic team led by the genius of the century, Hiraga.
Looking back at the country’s history, Imperial Japan had never advanced this tremendously in such a short time.
Despite that, Imperial Japan still couldn’t do anything about Over‘s propagation and was now heading towards ruin.
Melsa Stuart, too, might be gifted.
But, the Kingdom had no magic stones or magicians. Even if there was a genius in the country, there was nothing that could be turned into a weapon.
I didn’t want to give any more false hope to our Imperial Japanese citizens.
We have come up with elaborate plans repeatedly, given them hope many times over, and let them down over and over again.
Everyone was already tired.
Everyone had already given up.
Everyone had finally accepted their fate to perish.
Our only wish was to spend the time we had left peacefully.
We didn’t have any more fortitude to hope and be disappointed again.
Our hearts had grown too weary.
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