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TLN: Two chapters today! Make sure you didn’t miss the previous one!

—–

I managed to get an audience with the king of Torin without much issues once I had Odyus get an appointment for me.

The ones accompanying me are: Odyus as the guide, Mix as my bodyguard, and Gold who I promised to bring along with me.

A human being the king for generations in a country with a high ratio of demi-humans is a pretty peculiar situation, but what’s the personality of the king himself?

“It is nice to see you have come, resident of Yugura’s planet. I am the king that rules this Torin, Tarma Torin. I am grateful that you have cooperated with Odyus in this occasion to save Torin and eliminate the evil in it.” (Tarma)

“…”

“Is something the matter?” (Tarma)

“Ah, no, you give off the impression of a normal king, so I was a bit taken aback…”

Marito is the young Wise King, Gold is a golden fox folk, King Zenotta is an old man that’s good at getting pampered; leaving aside their qualities as a king, they were all people that were a bit far from the picture of a king, so the sight of King Tarma is a bit fresh.

Long gray wavy hair, and a long beard that has no partition from the hair. And then, there’s the extremely fancy cloak fitting of a king and a staff with embedded jewels.

He is the very image of an old king that shows up in fantasy games.

“T-To think you would be surprised by me being normal. So that means the kings of other countries are peculiar people?” (Tarma)

“I can’t deny that. But I do think that you are a person suitable as an all-encompassing king.”

“Being able to say those words so smoothly must mean that’s the case. I have had letter exchanges with King Zenotta a number of times, but I do think he is a pretty charming king.” (Tarma)

That old man really has the talent of spreading amicability. The talent of not being hated is a pretty rare one.

“So the one by your side is the little sister of the Wise King I have heard so much about. She has good eyes. And…I have heard murmurs about it, but to think the king of Gahne was actually such a lovely girl.” (Tarma)

“Nfufufu, I am happy being praised, but this one is far older than ya, ya know?” (Gold)

“It would be impossible to act like an old person as long as you don’t give off a sober atmosphere like the one I give off. Don’t think this presence can be imitated easily. See?” (Tarma)

King Tarma holds both hands and makes some sort of cool pose.

It is true that he gives off the aura of a king. Mix and Gold were pushed back by it.

“Uoooh… What an utterly calculative pose…! I can tell the majesty of a king no matter from what angle I look-desu zo…!” (Mix)

“U-Umu… He is far more perfected as a king than the Foolish King and Zenotta…!” (Gold)

“…What’s with this sight?”

I look at Odyus, but he must be moved by the appearance of King Tarma, there’s tears building up at the corner of his eyes.

What’s this?

“It is not like I am showing you a charade here. This is my duty as the king of Torin. The meaning of being a human king in this country that cradles many demi-humans. You should be able to understand as an intelligent person, right?” (Tarma)

“…Aah, that’s what you mean.”

The country called Torin was made, and the demi-humans chose a human as king when deciding who to make their king.

It is not because humans are superior to demi-humans. It is because not being a demi-human has been put emphasis on.

The Strife of the Scarlet Demon Lord. This wakes up the desire for strife of demi-humans at an instinctual level, and has the effect of changing them into ferocious beasts.

They learned the fear of this and the demi-humans feared being kings.

But as long as they accept the ruling of a human, they expect big returns from that human.

They all hold strong expectations for the king to act like a king, and Torin has weaved history in this manner.

The result of this is the current King Tarma.

“Basically, I have been taught harshly by the previous king about not only politics, but also appearance, mannerisms, and all other aspects as a king. There’s most likely people who will want me to polish my knowledge and abilities rather than getting my image right. But a king is the symbol of a nation. It is exactly because I have the image right that I am a person worthy of being looked up to by the people.” (Tarma)

“So it is like going full in from the form first.”

“That said, I have the confidence I wouldn’t lose to any king when it comes to appearance, but I am proud to say that I don’t have much skills when it comes to politics.” (Tarma)

“That’s not something to be proud of. Is that okay?”

I ended up blurting my real feelings.

But King Tarma and Odyus didn’t seem to be bothered by this.

“That’s fine. This country is a country of demi-humans. We are having the people choose what they think is the best. What I do is maintain dignity as a symbol, and shoulder all the responsibility for what they have chosen.” (Tarma)

This person is in a sense more of a monster than the other kings.

He is leaving all the government of Torin to the demi-humans and only exercising the last decision.

Leave everything to others, act as a king, and shoulder only the responsibility of a king.

Even though the mental burden of shouldering only the responsibility of others is already heavy, he is fine with shouldering the responsibility of all the people of the nation.

“I feel like this king’s popularity is polarizing.”

“Yeah, it is not rare for demi-humans to hold prejudices towards humans. But Tarma-sama is a wonderful king that everyone supports.” (Odyus)

I can tell clearly that there’s no lie in Odyus’s words.

King Tarma is pushing through being the symbol of the nation as their king without any hesitation.

I can palpably feel that resolve of his.

Who can criticize a person that has offered their whole life to become a pillar for the sake of the country?

I feel like I would end up talking formally if I wasn’t a 3rd faction.

“But it does bother me that yer resigning on yer responsibility to guide yer nation as a king.” (Gold)

“If I had the intelligence of the Taizu King or the power to see the future like the Gahne King, I certainly would have been able to rule as an even more outstanding king. But that would make me a way too fearsome being for the people. A king that provides an outstanding regime would be encumbering in a country that chose a human king because of fear.” (Tarma)

Leaving aside Gahne, you can easily understand the meaning of this if you think about the sight of Taizu.

Everyone has acknowledged the ability of Marito and have acknowledged him as a king.

But if the outstanding king that is Marito were to disappear, the country called Taizu would tilt in one go.

That’s why everyone treats Marito carefully and fears him.

“Isn’t it fine to rule like Zenotta?” (Gold)

“King Zenotta isn’t the only one putting the government of Kuama in order. It is thanks to the power of the guilds. If we were to simply imitate King Zenotta, this nation would just become an inferior version of Kuama.” (Tarma)

“…It is pointless to give out opinions on the fly here.” (Gold)

“Arguments like this one have been done over and over in our history. I can proudly say I am better than any king when it comes to never running out of words to say.” (Tarma)

“Is it okay to be proud of that?”

The light greetings are done, so I decided to do a brief summary of the matter with Soraid.

We will be bringing the Illegitimate to the Kuama Nether, and they will be under the supervision of Gestaf to shelter them.

The facilities that are said to have been used by Raheight and his group in Torin have all been seized, and we have investigated them to a certain degree, but we couldn’t get any noteworthy information.

Nektohal, who is experimenting on the Illegitimate, is in Serende, so the important research files are most likely over there.

“The Illegitimate that Yugura created, huh. Even though they are not born sinners, they are still hated. Such pitiful people.” (Tarma)

“I think there won’t be any issues if the nations are aware of their existence and take the stance of accepting them.”

“Formidable people will stand out no matter what. It would be nice if they were to be seen with good eyes, but the opposite will definitely haunt them. It’s not like everyone has a strong heart.” (Tarma)

It is as King Tarma says.

The talent of the Illegitimate is viewed as weird in the eyes of people.

There may be people who see this power as bringing big changes, but there’s a lot who would feel jealousy and fear towards the talents they do not have.

Resolving all of that won’t be easy.

“Let’s leave that for later then. That’s all for our report.”

“Good work. I am looking forward to you crushing the stratagems of the people that are trying to throw the nations astray.” (Tarma)

After that, Gold made a number of proposals to King Tarma regarding their diplomatic relation with Gahne.

King Tarma said all of them are not bad and promised to push them favorably in the parliament.

After leaving the Torin Castle and separating from Odyus, we ride on Kutou and head to the place Gold guided us.

She dodged the question when I asked what business she had there, but her face said she wanted to bring me there, so I accepted without saying anything.

“Umu, it is probably around here.” (Gold)

“Probably?”

We arrived at a prairie with nothing but a good field of view. There really is nothing. It is to a degree that it even feels sad despite the good weather.

“It changes completely after more than a century of not coming. I can’t even find anything that could serve as a landmark.” (Gold)

“Could this be…”

“Umu. The village that this one was born in was around here.” (Gold)

The demi-human race called the golden fox folk that disappeared in the warring era a bit before the Demon Lords were born.

Gold lost everything here and met Yugura.

“Didn’t you say you didn’t have any lingering attachments?”

“None. But I do at least get sentimental. Do ya remember how I told ya about being freed by Yugura, and at the time the other Demon Lords were rampaging, I was feeling lonely, so I tried creating a Nether too?” (Gold)

“Yeah. You are talking about the Nether that doesn’t even have a name thanks to Yugura defeating you instantly, right?”

“By the way, that place is a bit close to the coast, but I was actually thinking about making the Nether here at first. But when I was about to do it, I got a bit embarrassed.” (Gold)

The Nethers can apparently be expanded easily.

If Yugura had been late for a month in going around defeating the Demon Lords, the scar of the Nether that Gold created in Torin would have been deep.

“Does that mean you resurrected around here?”

“Umu. That damn Yugura, he threw me into a nearby lake after killing me. I was about to drown right then and there after waking up.” (Gold)

Dying in the respawn point would not be good.

Right now there’s two of them who are being spawn killed by the same method though.

“And so, why have you brought me here?”

“Because I heard about yer story, Ser. I simply wanted to show ya my past too.” (Gold)

“There’s nothing though.”

“I wanted to show ya that there’s nothing.” (Gold)

“…I see.”

There’s nothing of Gold’s past that remains.

I don’t know if the other Demon Lords are aware, but she doesn’t even have the scar of sin that are the Nethers. The present is most likely all she has now.

“Now then, I managed to make it into a bit of a good atmosphere, so let’s return.” (Gold)

“There was a good atmosphere?”

“Ya managed to comprehend personally instead of just imagining it. I think we have grown closer, Ser.” (Gold)

“…Fumu, you have a point.”

Gold and I have too many things we have to do, so we can’t stay too long here getting all sentimental.

This degree of insipidness might be fine.

I thought this and looked back, and Mix seemed to be stabbing knives on the ground.

“What are ya doing?” (Gold)

“The family of Gold-dono is sleeping here, right? I thought we could at least prepare simple graves for them.” (Mix)

“Even if you were to make graves here, the people who are going to live here in the future will not think much of it and just destroy it, you know. In the first place, the wind and rain—”

“Fufufu, it would be troubling to look down on my magic skills! There!” (Mix)

Mix uses magic and the ground, where the knives were surrounding, swelled up, and became a hill around the size of a person.

Moreover, it is different from the magic that knights use. It feels like the soil has been prepared.

“That’s awfully big.”

“I dried the surface of the soil and burned it lightly, so simple wind won’t make it budge an inch-desu zo. I can carve a name too. How about it?” (Mix)

It is completely a grave.

With this, there…will still be people who will destroy it without thinking about anything, but there’s no doubt somewhat reasonable people will show some self-restraint.

“—There’s no need for names. Many people died in this land centuries ago. It would be best to take into account those people too instead of preparing graves for the sake of just a few of them.” (Gold)

“Right. Then what’s left would be offerings… I only have knives.” (Mix)

“Don’t. I only have rations with me… Oh well, this should do.”

This should be good enough as an offering for people I had no connection or fate with. Being punished for something like this would be way too unreasonable.

“I am also empty-handed. Don’t worry about it.” (Gold)

“Ah, then, a bit of the fur in Gold-dono’s tail.” (Mix)

“Don’t wanna. The golden fox folk have a tradition to groom their tails with care in order to use it as a material to make small accessories for their lover that’s sent to the battlefield. There’s no such person sleeping here.” (Gold)

It is probably something similar to girls making charms out of their hair.

It feels like it is mixed with stories of charms made out of animal tails though.

Or more like, I currently have a decorative string made from the fur of her tail at the pommel of Kutou though. Moreover, I was thinking about making a scabbard at first.

“I-I apologize for that… Maybe I should let my hair grow.” (Mix)

“The others will simply imitate you. This guy will most likely make a fed up expression, so it would be better to not.” (Gold)

“Really, Mister Friend?” (Mix)

“I wouldn’t really want to carry around a part of someone else’s body.”

“Even though you are carrying around the tail of Gold-dono?” (Mix)

“…Her fur has a good texture.”

“My hair is not on that level… That’s too bad-desu zo.” (Mix)

“Nfufufu!” (Gold)

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