Character Refresher
Suarukou – Twin angel
Suaruriu – Twin angel
Suarurou – An angel, mother of the Suaru sisters.
Gol – A beastboy, currently living in the Demon King’s Kingdom’s royal capital.
Sil – A beastboy, currently living in the Demon King’s Kingdom’s royal capital.
Bron – A beastboy, currently living in the Demon King’s Kingdom’s royal capital.
Metora – An impure dragon, newly married and living in Six Dragon God Kingdom.
Yuri – Daughter of the Demon King.
Klim – Recently born daughter of an ancient devil? Can transform into a Multipurpose Humanoid Mobile Heavy Machine (Siegfried).-0-
Zabuton and the others went into hibernation, and Big Tree Village welcomed winter.
First, some joyous news.
Five high elves, four mountain elves, two beastgirls, and three civil servant girls were confirmed to be pregnant.
Well, yes… they’re my children.
A cause for celebration.
And then, the two angels, Suaruriu and Suarukou, are also expecting.
Their mother, Suarurou, was overjoyed at the thought of grandchildren.
She’s been waiting for them, after all.
That said, they haven’t even been born yet, so I think it’s a little early to be discussing educational policies.
For now, let’s just pray for a safe delivery.
On another note, some unmarried angels have been assigned to work near me.
I can’t help but feel someone’s will at work in this.
-0-
Next, there’s the matter of Gol’s two wives, whose pregnancies had been reported earlier.
Both gave birth safely.
A boy and a girl.
In fact, the births happened about half a year ago.
Not at the same time, but about a month apart.
I had received word that both children were delivered safely, but I haven’t had the chance to see them yet.
It’s difficult to travel with newborns, and on top of that, the wives’ families are the Pugyaru Count house and the Glitch Count house.
Each house carefully selected wet nurses, butlers, and maids to guard the children tightly.
They’re not allowed to leave the estate grounds in the royal capital.
It feels overprotective to me, but Frau and the civil servant girls say it’s perfectly natural.
Apparently, until their official debut, it’s standard practice to keep the children hidden, to avoid giving others any of their weaknesses.
I don’t really see what kind of “weakness” could be exploited in newborns, but…
「Did the child wet the bed often back then? I wonder if that’s been fixed now?」
「Oh yes, and he used to throw tantrums quite a lot, didn’t he? Could it be the same this time?」
「Hahaha, I remember how he always hid behind the wet nurse.」
That’s the kind of thing people say if they see a child before their education is complete.
Even if the child was just born, it isn’t a lie.
Facts are facts.
And since such things could be brought up even when they’re adults, parents do everything they can to hide their children until the proper time.
I see.
「Of course, blood relatives such as grandparents, close kin, and members of their faction are exceptions. To prove the child’s legitimacy, they’re introduced early on… but in this case, it involves both Count Pugyaru and Count Glitch. If village chief were invited and happened to run into them, things could get rather troublesome.」
That was how Frau and the civil servant girls explained it to me.
By “troublesome”, they meant noble politics.
There’s always the chance I might be asked for favors.
If it were a stranger, I could simply say no, but with relatives, it’s much harder to refuse.
And it’s not just them being pushy, if I ever asked them for something, they’d help in return. It’s a mutual give-and-take… but still…
The real difficulty comes when subordinates get involved in these noble entanglements.
For example,
「Since the count is related to village chief of Village Five, our domain’s merchants are very interested in obtaining their seasonings… couldn’t you arrange something?」
When pressed like that, you can’t just brush them off with a “nothing can be done”.
If you do, it makes it look like you’ve fallen out with the family you married into. Worse, it could be taken as a sign that you lack the influence to get things done, and once people start doubting your authority, you risk losing their loyalty altogether.
To avoid that, if someone brings a request under those circumstances, you’re expected to see it through.
……What a hassle.
Still, as long as I haven’t met them face-to-face, I can use that as an excuse.
After all, you can’t very well trouble someone you haven’t even been properly introduced to, even if they are kin by marriage.
Formal greetings come first, and only then do requests get exchanged.
Of course, for me, meeting Gol’s children is reason enough to show up and endure some of the social obligations.
But I have no intention of throwing myself headlong into the noble society of the Demon King’s Kingdom.
Frau and the civil servant girls have warned me clearly: once you get too involved, there’s no getting out.
Specifically, they mean endless invitations to the social circles.
So many that I’d have no time left to work the fields in the village.
That sounds unbearable.
Still, one thing nags at me. Gol’s, no, not just Gol’s, but also Sil’s and Bron’s, children are all tied to noble families. Shouldn’t my own absence from noble society be causing them trouble?
I imagined them being overwhelmed by all the noble obligations in my stead.
But apparently, when nobles demanded that I be present, they had been substituting the Demon King as my proxy.
……
I mean, I wouldn’t have minded if they’d actually summoned me.
And as for the Demon King filling in for me, thank you.
Sorry to trouble you with that.
-0-
Back to the main topic.
Gol has told me that he wants both me and Ramurias to see his children.
At the same time, he’s also said he doesn’t want to drag us into the hassles of noble society, so for now it might not be possible.
Things rarely go the way one would like.
Still, I’ve been sending gifts for celebrations within the bounds of good manners, and I’ve received return gifts as well.
I’ll trust that the children are growing up safely.
By the way, Ramurias has been sneaking off to visit them in secret.
-0-
Another matter.
Metora of Six Dragon God Kingdom.
I hear she’s pregnant.
Congratulations.
And it seems that, not wanting to fall behind Metora, the impure dragons connected to Six Dragon God Kingdom are working hard themselves.
Though, really, it’s not something to be competing over.
Perhaps they simply want their children to grow up in the same generation.
Thinking of it that way, I can’t help but cheer them on. But seeing the exhausted faces of the male dragons… well, I ended up sending them some food to restore their strength.
Garlic, yam, that sort of thing.
Still, if it means happy marriages, then that’s a good thing.
Yes.
-0-
Since it was winter, Yoru came to me suggesting we do a test firing.
Well, it was a promise, after all.
She’s been looking after Klim properly, so we went ahead with the test firing of the Sun Castle’s armaments that we’d acquired at auction.
The arrangements… Yoru had already taken care of them.
Efficient as always.
Originally, the plan was to fire from Village Four, but since the Floating Garden had been set to hover around them, securing a firing line became difficult, so we decided to fire from the ground instead.
Good thing we did it before the snow piled up too deep.
-0-
The main focus of the test was Daedalus, the all-weather fortress defense cannon I’d seen before.
Along with that was something newly brought into operation… what is it, exactly?
A cannon with a short barrel, kind of ugly, no, more comical-looking, really.
Then there was the unit two of the multi-purpose humanoid heavy machine, the Arti-Horse: Benze.
That’s the one I once compared to a gorilla.
Benze was loaded up with a large, box-shaped launcher… something like a missile pod, I suppose.
It’s shaping up to be flashy, but… who’s handling the controls?
Yuri, huh.
Hmm?
Klim wants to fire from Siegfried too?
I don’t mind, but make sure you’re careful about accidents.
-0-
The testing site was set north of the hot spring area.
From there, we planned to fire toward the northern mountains.
Of course, the goal wasn’t to destroy the mountains, so a target had been set up before them.
-0-
Spectators gathered.
Pretty much everyone from Big Tree Village, plus Villages One, Two, and Three.
It’s not as if winter leaves them without work, but they clearly weren’t going to miss out on a festival-like event.
Still, getting everyone there had been a bit troublesome.
Seeing the congestion, the villagers of Village Four decided to use the Sun Castle’s functions to watch from above.
Sorry about that.
Food and drink had been delivered in advance though.
Hmm?
Why not just use the Universal Ship or the airship to carry them?
The Universal Ship was busy transporting the titans from the north dungeon, while the airship had been carrying the lamias from the south dungeon.
They’d already made multiple trips.
And we still had to think about the return journey, too.
-0-
The Demon King also came as a spectator.
Apparently, he couldn’t miss it since Yuri was taking part.
Beezel, who brought the Demon King over, was there too, but instead of staying by his side, he went to Frau.
-0-
The test firing began.
It was quite the spectacle.
The targets were blown away cleanly.
And then came the thunderous cheers.
Some of the targets looked like they moved into the line of fire on their own, but… maybe I shouldn’t think too hard about that.
Since Yoru didn’t say anything about it, I’ll just let it go.
Once the round of test firing was over, my thoughts were…
It was a heavy saturation attack, but compared to when I saw the dragons assault the Elf Empire’s island, it felt… a little underwhelming.
And having Loo and Tier counter the test shots with massive magic spells didn’t help either.
Village Four’s armaments ended up completely overshadowed.
Still, Yoru looked so happy, so that’s enough.
Klim did well too.
Yuri, on the other hand, wasn’t too pleased. The missiles fired by Benze she controlled didn’t have the best accuracy.
「If I had used unit five, Hanasaka, instead of the unit two, Benze, the hit rate would’ve been better…」
Both the Demon King and Frau showered her with encouragement.
Unfortunately, unit five was currently in pieces for maintenance.
It needed to be checked over before being sent to Ursa.
-0-
Once the test firing was done, the banquet began.
Since it wasn’t in Big Tree Village, going all night wasn’t an option.
Everyone dispersed before sunset.
I spent the time mingling with the Death Knights, the lion family, and Asura.
I don’t get to stay long in the hot spring area these days, so I should make the most of opportunities like this.
-0-
● Frau’s Lecture on the Nobility of the Demon King’s Kingdom
When they’re babies, everyone makes mistakes. There’s no such thing as a child who doesn’t. But having those mistakes brought up again and again, even once you’ve grown up, is something no one wants.
That’s why, until a child’s debut in society, such things are kept hidden.
In truth, there’s an unspoken rule to simply pretend that anything before their debut never happened. Still, a weakness is a weakness.
There’s also a darker reason for this, protection against poisoning.
Children put anything in their mouths. You don’t even need to poison them directly. Just place something nearby and… well.
Because of this, outsiders are not invited in, nor are the children allowed to freely leave the estate.
However, keeping a child hidden comes with its own risks. If the parents are absent for some reason, people might start to doubt whether the child is truly the heir.
To prevent this, relatives and trusted retainers are introduced to the child even before the official debut, so that their existence is known and acknowledged.
Choosing whom to trust is difficult. Showing the child to higher-ranking nobles is one option, but that comes with the danger of giving them leverage. They might say something like, “We’ll vouch for the child’s legitimacy, but in exchange…” and demand influence over the succession.
In the end, it all comes down to character.
And power.
If you are strong, most problems will solve themselves.
That is the noble society of the Demon King’s Kingdom.