Chapter 466

Day 105 – Nighttime, Gamerein Commonwealth, Royal Castle

The welcoming feast. A banquet held by the Beast King to honor and entertain the guests, a place of dining and conversation. Entertain, yes, but what’s actually happening is the Beast King and the beastmen nobles are running around, and kneeling as they carried one dish after another…

And It probably has the opposite effect of what they are hoping for. The boy seated in the place of honor at the head of the hall, reverently attended by the Beast King and nobles surrounding him, looks utterly displeased. That’s because the King and the nobles are trying so hard, currying about carrying all of the dishes themselves, the beastman maidens who should be serving the dishes are unable to enter the hall. They only bring trays of food, then leave again. Each time the boy glances after the retreating serving girls, his expression darkens further, while the girls at his side grow inexplicably more cheerful. The contrast in mood between them is staggering.

「「「Miso soup! With tofu and wakame!」」」 「This is kanroni!」 「S-sushi! It’s river-fish sushi, but still sushi!」 「W-wait, calm down, no hogging the oden for yourself!」 「There’s daikon and spinach too. The preparation is a little different from proper Japanese style, but still.」 「E-everyone calm down! Coming up next is… sukiyaki-like something!」 「「「「Sukiyaki-sama!」」」」

They even knew the peculiar and unusual dishes of Beastmen Country, rare across the continent, and were deeply familiar with its culture, of which so little information had spread. Information is wisdom, and to comprehend it is education. These boys and girls possessed more learning, more reason and culture, than the kingdom’s ministers or scholars.

Negotiations with Beastmen Country no longer seem necessary. No matter what they are told they answer with nothing but 『Sir, yes, sir!』.

Negotiating between the kingdom and Beastmen Country itself is simple. The real challenge, it was thought, would be finding a way to obtain Haruka-kun’s cooperation. Asking why he would not help was meaningless, why should a foreigner aid Beastmen Country? That the kingdom had once been helped at all had already been a miracle.

We pondered on the way to understand the reason for his dramatic disdain, but it turns out it was in the position of this very castle. Anger at a castle standing deep into the territory, failing to protect its people, while beastmen were left undefended, hunted and slaughtered. He was raging over that. Alone, he sensed the attack on Beastmen Country no one else had foreseen, struck first, and cut it off before it could begin. He was praised and lauded as a prodigy of foresight and strategy, yet none realized he was lamenting that he had been too late.

That is why, even now, I oppose it. They should not be drawn into the foolish, ugly strife between countries. They must not be caught in the mire of human greed and hatred. There is no one as pure or as kind as them.

They reach out to help because to them it is natural. Not because, like those living in the frontier, they have to rely on one another to survive, and also not from the calculation of merchants, nor to flaunt false piety like the church. No, it is simply because, in truth, they believe it is natural.

If such a thing truly were natural, how many could’ve been saved, how much happiness could’ve been born. If a world existed where everyone simply lived following that as something natural, that place would be paradise. That is what fills the frontier, what is becoming its natural way, and that’s why the frontier continues to grow happy and prosperous. Because this Boy and his comrades extended a helping hand naturally, those they saved now strive to do the same.

That is why the laughter of children fills the streets. Hearing it, everyone feels the happiness, and wishes to protect it.

And that strength, that overwhelming, abnormal strength, is terror. The only reason none see it as terror is because it belongs to this Boys and his comrades. That is all.

If monsters, unresistably strong, are frightening, then those who can slay them are far more frightening, for they hold even greater power. If they can slay dungeons said to be capable of destroying the world, then naturally they themselves hold the power to destroy the world. That strength may save the world, and with their kindness they may change it, but why, why must they be made to suffer for it!

Far too kind. The very last kind of person who should ever be thrust into a world of carnage, the very last who should ever be involved in it. The boy who would shed tears over the destruction of a town he had never even seen, who would regret being unable to save a village in a land he had never set foot in, why must such a one be forced into something as base, as cruel, as killing? That is why I still oppose it.

「Haruka-kun, I understand what you want to say, and frankly, before you even said anything, they’d already sworn obedience, so there is no need to say anything, but you see, being a minority people, they were desperate to preserve the tribes with high battle power. From what I know, many tribes have already vanished. The beastman tribes, which once numbered over a thousand… These few here are all that remain of the warrior clans. So they retreated deep into the interior, protecting and preserving, clinging to the dream that someday, they will strike back. It’s just like the frontier, we stepped forward and had our rear pinned, but the beastmen withdrew and could no longer advance. They clung to that 『someday』 that would never come. For us, that 『someday』did come, but for Beastmen Country it still has not. That is the only difference… hey, are you listening? Heeey?」

The boy and his group played idly with brush and ink, scribbling and laughing as though it were a game, drafting up plans for the future with their noisy and cheerful banter. So this is how the ultimate blueprints for the future were created… This is just like the miracle that was once bestowed upon the Frontier.

「Wait, if we just connect it here, isn’t that simple? Look, there’s a village and fields here, so if we loop around like this, huh? Or maybe this way? Wait? Really?」

「But if you extend over there, the length of the wall shoots up all at once… ah, so that’s why you are just connecting it straight through?」

「I see… so it would become a canal from the river and it doubles as a moat. But then couldn’t they just around it?」

Spreading the map, each one proposed their own suggestion, steadily shaping it into a detailed blueprint. These notes were compiled and organized on the spot, turning into a full-fledged design document, the very sort of scheme that had once transformed the frontier, fueling its continued growth. A group of technocrats, each precisely measuring and swiftly calculating, bringing their knowledge together.

「If they come this way, it’s a swamp, and over there it’s impassable, right? But wait, could they climb this?」 「That’s a sheer cliff, normally impossible. But if they circle around the back, it could be taken.」 「Ah… then just pinch them off here? That way the wall runs along the rocky mountain itself?」 「Ooh, this area here is sacred ground to the deerfolk. That entire thing is a tomb basically.」

With every line drawn, the map is reborn. What had been nothing but a river chart is becoming walls and fortresses before our very eyes, canals and roads tracing along it. Data, meticulously gathered and analyzed, flew back and forth, compiled, taking the form for the future, becoming reality by taking shape on paper.