Horizon:Volume 10A Chapter 2
Chapter 2: Advocates at an Alternate Altitude[edit]
On such windy days
What does the moon do?
What does the sun do?
Point Allocation (Direct Shot)
●
“Oh, so they did it. Or completed one stage of it, I guess I should say.”
A voice expressed some thoughts while looking up at the shooting stars from a vast walled city.
The moons were passing by overhead on their way west.
These were the nighttime moons of early autumn.
Something like fog shaded the sky and the shooting stars broke through that with a windy sound on their way down.
“Heh. All this noise is quite rude for a night of the twin full moons.”
“Could you at least stop standing up on the roof butt naked, idiot?”
A voice from below made the man on the roof look back.
Below the three-story roof, a woman wearing a special assault gown stood flanked by maids carrying lights.
Seeing her crossing her arms made the man on the roof smile.
“Why, if it isn’t Terumoto! You should look after your health better. Head back in the mansion and get to sleep. I will warm the mansion with my sun power to ensure you do not get chilled!”
“You’ll warm the mansion with your dick power? What are you, the lucky tanuki of the Bunbuku Chagama? I already know you like to climb up on things, so just come on down already.”
“Will you reward me if I come down?”
“With my wooden sword, yes.”
“Now that is true love, Terumoto! I so appreciate your thoughtfulness that I will focus all my efforts on warming the mansion!”
“Don’t rub your dick against the roof!”
“I would never do that, Terumoto! Please understand! That would only get it dirty!”
“The roof or his dick?” the glasses maid asked, but Terumoto dismissed the question with a wave of her hand. A nail bat fell from her gown as she did so.
Seeing that roll along the ground, the man paused and then struck a pose.
“Even greater love! You love me so much, Terumoto!”
●
“Hey,” Terumoto said to Mouri-01, who stood diagonally in front of her with a lamp powered by a floodlight spell. “Has he gone nuts?”
“No more than usual, princess. If the Roi Soleil ever stopped shouting his love for you, we would throw him into the ICU and discipline him, but it has not come to that yet.”
…Yikes.
So that’s how they see it, huh? she thought, but there were some small issues with that.
For one, it could be easy to forget, but…
“Doesn’t a part of him violate the concept of public decency?”
“Princess, the Roi Soleil insists his nudity allows him to make full use of the sun power radiating from his body. Even if I personally cannot accept that logic.”
“Are you arguing his case?”
“I wouldn’t dream of it, princess! As the 1st maid, why would I ever side with him? Shall I feign tears here, princess?”
“Try me.”
“You stupid Roi Soleil!” shouted Mouri-01.
Oh, that was a really French pronunciation, thought Terumoto as Mouri-01 ran off, pretending to cry. Eventually, she stopped and looked back.
“Keep going, keep going,” urged Terumoto.
Mouri-01 resumed her fake crying and began a full lap of the mansion’s perimeter. She ran along the right side before circling behind it.
Next to Terumoto, Seki stared at her in utter disbelief. Don’t let it bother you. Then Mouri-01’s voice called from behind the mansion.
“Ah! What are you doing, Three Musketeers!? If the princess knew you were setting up a ladder to allow the Roi Soleil to escape, she would swap out her wooden sword for a BIZEN steel bat!”
Maybe I should make that swap. But then the nudist called down from above.
“Terumoto! Are you saying you want me trapped up here!?”
“Why don’t you keep rubbing your dick against the roof and marry it?”
“So you do want the warming!? Then hurry on inside!”
Uh, oh. He’s being even more incomprehensible than usual.
That was when Mouri-01 returned from the left. She was with Henri and Armand. Mouri-01 wasn’t out of breath, but that wasn’t a surprise.
“Princess! How was my fake crying!?”
“Testament, don’t do that in front of the warriors, okay? Cause they’ll take it seriously. Especially the Good Morning Unit.”
“My! I will be careful, but I could not be happier, princess!”
Mouri-01 placed her hands on her cheeks and wiggled as the nudist called down from overhead.
“What’s this!? I see two of the Three Musketeers have joined you! You two, could you inform Terumoto of the depth of my love! She is having comprehension issues tonight!”
“Sorry, Roi Soleil, but we have taken the princess’s side.”
“Is this treachery I hear!? But that is fine, Three Musketeers! I could not live without Terumoto, but she could not live without me or the rest of you!”
“Stop being so embarrassing!”
Terumoto chucked a weapon into the sky above the roof.
It swooshed through the air and disappeared into the dark night without even grazing the Roi Soleil. The nudist tilted his head.
“Terumoto! How could you miss!? Your consistent critical hits are how you demonstrate the greatness of your love for me!”
After flying in an arc, the weapon returned, striking the nudist in the crotch as it rapidly rotated in from behind him.
“––––”
The sun nudist nearly fell to his knees, but managed to stop himself. He grabbed the V-shaped throwing weapon that had fallen between his legs.
“Terumoto! Is this a new form of love!?”
“I’ve been interacting with Sanuki and they’re throwing these things like crazy as part of the history recreation for their aborigines. It’s called a boomerang and I just proved it works, so try to get along with them.”
“Terumoto! My hat is off to your curiosity in everything new!”
“Just get down already.”
“But there is no ladder! Will you catch me!?”
“Hey, Armand.”
“I refuse, princess.”
Mouri-01 placed a hand on her cheek and breathed a theatrical sigh before speaking.
“Princess…I know it will not be easy, but please do as he asks for the sake of Hexagone Française’s conquest, polity, and the continued functioning of us maid automata.”
“Hm, guess I’ll just have to get used to it. Except, no wait! Bring in a ladder! Since there’s no other option!”
A light tremor came from the right of the mansion. A giant god of war automaton who resembled a ship was approaching with a ladder in his hands.
Henri took a step forward and raised her right hand.
“Isaac! Over here!”
Isaac raised the ladder in his hands and sped up a bit to show he understood. The tremor grew and the nudist on the roof reacted.
“Ohh! So you have brought a ladder with which I can join Terumoto!”
Since Isaac was holding the ladder horizontally between his hands, the ends caught on the mansion and the adjacent storehouse. And pushed by Isaac’s forward momentum, it broke in two.
After the sound of snapping wood, Isaac finally came to a stop.
“––––”
And slumped down in depression.
“Ouch,” said Henri. She waved her hands side to side. “Don’t let it get to you, Isaac! This only means the Roi Soleil is stuck on the roof!”
“Hey, Henri?” said Terumoto. “That’s actually a huge annoyance.”
“Indeed it is, Henri! Now I cannot join Terumoto!”
“You shut up.”
Terumoto ended up leaving Isaac’s mental care to Henri and Armand. “Fine then,” she sighed, which seemed to happen a lot. But…
“Hey, Exiv. You know what’s happening, don’t you?”
“Testament! The moons are obscured and stars are falling from the sky. I do apologize how much more difficult it makes to see you.”
That’s not your responsibility.” She smiled bitterly, but he seemed to know what she meant. “Musashi upheld one of their promises with Anne.”
With that, she looked up just in time to see a fireball hit Exiv in the crotch, knocking him from the roof with an earsplitting boom.
●
Henri gave a swift instruction.
“Isaac! Your right arm!”
Isaac tilted his head even as he swung his right arm outwards. A moment later, the nudist crashed into the armor in something like a backhand blow, bounced off, and broke a window as he flew into the mansion.
Henri only had time to think “ah” before she heard furniture and dishware breaking and shattering and a scream from one of the #30s maids on night duty.
“Kyahhhh! A nudist just flew in through the window!”
That happens a lot.
Isaac did not have sensors in his armor, so he raised and rotated his right arm to see what hit it, but there was fortunately nothing left on him.
Henri didn’t want him to get anymore depressed, so she nodded and spoke to him.
“Don’t worry, Isaac. A fireball fell this way is all.”
“–––––”
Isaac dropped a fist into his palm in understanding.
That settles that, thought Henri while Armand asked Mouri-01 a question.
“What were the odds of that happening?”
“The probability of a meteor hitting someone is said to be 1 in 1.6 million over a lifetime.”
“And the odds of being punched by a god of war’s arm afterwards?”
“Given who we’re talking about, wouldn’t you say 1 in 1?”
“I see,” said Armand before turning toward Henri.
“Did you hear that, Henri? It was inevitable that the Roi Soleil would be hit by a meteor and get punched away by Isaac. Neither of you need to let it concern you.”
“You weren’t listening to that explanation at all, were you!?”
Meanwhile, the mansion’s front door opened and the nudist emerged. Laughing.
“Ha ha ha! The Roi Soleil should not lose his balance to a little thing like a meteor! Terumoto, you must punish me!”
The boomerang hit him in the crotch on the way out this time.
●
“Now then.” Terumoto glared at Exiv who still insisted on joining them. “What should we do?”
“To start with, I will apologize to our neighbors for all the noise tonight.”
“From where?”
“From the roof! I though that went without saying, Terumoto!”
She silently pointed down in a “sit” command and the Roi Soleil scrambled down to sit on his knees.
“Are you giving me some sort of reward, Terumoto!?”
“Why are you so energetic tonight?”
“That, I am ashamed to say, is due to my divinity.”
“Huh?” Terumoto tilted her head and the divine nudist crosses his arms while still sitting on his knees.
“I heard a bell ringing from the sky earlier. Did you hear it as well?”
“Yes, it was the first tone of a school chime.”
“That was the toll of destiny’s bell.”
Exiv brushed up his bangs. He doesn’t need to do that when he’s so good looking to begin with, so that affectation is really annoying, she noted in disappointment, but then he suddenly said more.
“It means destiny has linked with this world.”
“Your grasp of ordinary language has been worse than usual tonight. Are you sure you’re alright?”
“Heh. That just means I have done a poor job of explaining, Terumoto! Would you like more details!?”
“Try me.”
“Very well.” The idiot smiled, nodded, and stood up. He pointed into the heavens. A bit to the west, toward the pair of moons beginning their descent. “To sum up the information arriving from Musashi, Tres España, the M.H.R.R. Protestants, and others, this world used to be under destiny’s protection.”
“Yeah, what of it?”
“Destiny used to reside alongside our world – that is everything that exists – but it did not directly exist itself. After all, it is what you could call the mold of all the ley lines. All things – including space, distance, and time – are under its control.”
She understood that much. But what did it mean for destiny to link with the world?
…The moon?
What was up there right now? While wondering that, Terumoto looked him in the eye. Her ordinary human eyes met the golden flames burning in his.
“Was Nobunaga a representation of destiny?”
“Testament. Yes, representation is a superb way of putting it, Terumoto! I was about to use a word like ‘manifestation’ or ‘incarnation’! Yes. Nobunaga is not the entirety of destiny, but she is an entrance that has pierced into the core of destiny and can no longer be removed. Before, destiny hid in the underside of the world and chose to die in sorrow, but now it has appeared out in the open. In the form of Nobunaga.”
Exiv returned her gaze.
“Now, Terumoto. What do you think about this Nobunaga?”
●
Mouri-01 listened. She instantly linked her auditory devices to the rest of the maid automata and sent the audio into their shared memory.
Those in sleep mode immediately awoke and those sleeping during repairs secured enough space within their priority memory to listen to what Terumoto said.
“Is she stupid?”
Terumoto jerked her right thumb toward the sky.
“That’s just Anne. An Anne on a global scale.”
What did she mean by that? Terumoto stood in the moonlight and a sharp light glowed from her eyes as she continued.
“If we’re not quick enough, it’s all over. But no one asked to be saved like this. I don’t see how anyone could see this as any different from what Anne did.”
●
“You are so beautiful, Terumoto.”
“I already know that, idiot. …And that was the moonlight. Women don’t glow.”
With that, Terumoto looked up into the sky.
“There are clouds in the way, but this is still my night. But, Exiv, I’m making the first move this time.”
“To see if she can become like Anne was for us?”
“So you do understand,” said Terumoto. “I wanted to see Anne again. But I didn’t get my wish. So…so that’s why I defeated the Hashiba forces here at Paris to show I wouldn’t let that happen again.”
But…
“Should we show Nobunaga the same thing?”
“If we do not stop Nobunaga, the world will be saved.”
“And if that happens, I’ll be giving birth to some stranger’s child.”
“Then what happens if we go see Nobunaga and stop her?”
“Testament,” replied Mouri-01 with a bow to her two superiors. “If Nobunaga’s suicide is prevented, it will mean accepting destiny’s suicide.”
“Make it simpler.”
“The world will continue thinning out until it disappears.”
“A blander world, hm?”
“Correct,” said Mouri-01 with a nod.
Just then, a signe cadre appeared between the three of them.
Still Got It: “My, my. Do you know what hour it is? Anne’s children sure like staying up late.”
The signe cadre displayed the caller’s location as eastern Hexagone Française. In a forest near the border with M.H.R.R.
It was the Reine des Garous.
●
Mouri-01 noticed that the Reine des Garous was at her home.
…The Musashi group was there until last night.
There, they had trained for and brainstormed about the Honnouji Incident, which had guided them toward tonight’s result.
Hexagone Française had considered the meaning of their future connection to Musashi and, through the Reine des Garous, had accepted Musashi’s request.
Ankokuji AK was also involved with Musashi as part of Mouri.
If AK represented the part of Mouri that sides with Hashiba, then their acceptance of Musashi’s secret visit to the Reine des Garous’s house represented Mouri’s intention to preserve the connection to Musashi that Anne had established.
And Musashi had done their part.
Still Got It: “At Magdeburg, Anne and the others told Musashi they had to deter and restrain Hashiba and Oda. In particular, they were required to end the history recreations of those two groups before the Peace of Westphalia.”
Former Delinquent: “Testament. Hexagone Française wanted to complete the Thirty Years’ War and ensure our future conquests, so we faced two problems. The first was with my people – Mouri. Hexagone Française’s history recreation battles against the M.H.R.R. Catholics were one thing, but Mouri’s defeat to Hashiba was a problem. That was one reason we wanted Musashi to handle the fight against Hashiba.”
But what was the other problem? Terumoto continued.
Former Delinquent: “Anne, the M.H.R.R. Protestants, and the rest of Europe wanted to do the Peace of Westphalia right so they were ensured the interests and stable future they had long been looking forward to. So separate from the Mouri issue, the European nations wanted something to be done about the M.H.R.R. Catholics who had joined with Hashiba, but it was Musashi who claimed to be capable of opposing Hashiba.”
Still Got It: “I see you understand. Then I do have one question.”
Terumoto knew what the Reine des Garous was going to ask.
…That Magdeburg meeting isn’t actually over yet.
The reason came from Musashi itself.
Still Got It: “Musashi never did make any demands at that meeting at Magdeburg. Because it wasn’t known at the time if they had the strength to uphold their end of the bargain. So to prove they did, Musashi said they would restrain Hashiba and Oda and help bring about the Peace of Westphalia in its proper form.”
Now…
Still Got It: “Only Anne and the others made demands at Magdeburg. So what do you think Musashi will demand now that they are close to completing those demands?”
●
The Reine des Garous had confirmed something.
Even without any lights, the ether light of the spirits gathering around her provided sufficient illumination.
She was in the weapon storage shed.
She had wanted to check something there.
But while bringing her husband along and sniffing around to see what her daughter’s class had done while here, she had gotten all excited and, since her husband was conveniently nearby, it had been “lets absorb” time.
Really, it’s those kids’ fault for having so much fun. I of course participated a little bit, but, long story short, there’s no substitute for youth. Or to say it out loud…
“You need to devour him already!”
But it had taken her and her husband a while too, so she wouldn’t rush her daughter.
The time it takes to figure out if it really is okay to devour him is fun in its own way.
And I just ate my fill. A full course meal of husband. A buffet of everything you like is the key to a truly happy evening. Even he loved it and said it had “never been that good!”
Thanks to that, she had used up a lot of time on private matters, but her daughter’s class had done well in the meantime. They had overcome possibly the greatest concern among the promises exchanged with Anne and the others.
It had helped that Shibata had kept Hashiba busy, but her daughter, her daughter’s king, and the rest had driven off Nobunaga and forced Hashiba herself to retire.
“Now all they need is to repel Hashiba’s forces.”
Her daughter’s class had to be planning their next move aboard the Musashi right now.
Still Got It: “This must be a difficult time for both sides.”
“Because,” she said, waving a hand to gently scatter the ether light and spirits dancing around her.
Still Got It: “With Nobunaga’s history recreation complete and the Genesis Project revealed, the world must make a decision, but Musashi and Hashiba’s forces still haven’t completed their confrontation.”
●
…The world is waiting for Musashi and Hashiba to settle things.
That must be it, thought the Reine des Garous in front of her shed.
The Genesis Project had been revealed and Nobunaga was gone.
Power in P.A. Oda was being passed down to the younger generation.
Plenty of problems still worried the European and Far Eastern powers, but this acted as a new beginning.
So every nation, leader, and organization had to see this as the time for the world to decide what to do next. She was no different.
Would they accept the Genesis Project, sever all the world’s connections, and continue on?
Or would they reject the Genesis Project and search for some other way of letting the world survive?
Would they side with Hashiba or Musashi?
They had to choose one or the other, but Hashiba and Musashi’s final confrontation had yet to happen.
It would be one thing if they could support one or the other right away.
But if the history recreation between them was the Battle of Yamazaki, then no other nation could interfere.
According to the Testament, Yamazaki was a battle where Hashiba slayed Akechi Mitsuhide to demonstrate his intention to inherit the Oda clan.
Akechi asked for assistance from other forces, but almost everyone refused.
Thus, Hashiba and Akechi faced each other on their own.
“But I have another idea.”
This was not the Age of the Gods written of in the Testament.
This world was all about the history recreation, where national interests and interpretations could turn anything into political bargaining chips.
The Battle of Yamazaki might not end exactly the way it did in the past.
With interpretations in play, the conclusion of the battle between Musashi and Hashiba would determine what would be done about the world.
The winner of the battle would attempt to take their preferred path for the world. Only then could the other nations decide on their own stances.
It hadn’t reached that point yet.
Which was why the world was waiting for multiple things.
They were waiting to see what would happen to the world.
They were waiting to see what should be done about the world.
They were waiting to see whether Musashi or Hashiba emerged victorious.
They were waiting to see what interpretations would be used for the Battle of Yamazaki.
It all came down to waiting.
No matter how strong you were, no matter how many skilled people worked for you, and no matter how important your history recreations, there was no getting out of this waiting period.
They could only wait for Musashi and Hashiba to settle things between them.
…Anne.
The Reine des Garous had heard that Anne was friendly with Musashi at Magdeburg. And that she had supported testing Musashi to see if they had the national strength necessary to follow through with their claims.
If that was true, then how much had Anne and the rest at that Magdeburg meeting been expecting from Musashi?
It had looked like Anne was testing Musashi, but she had actually been giving Musashi the right to decide the world’s future.
“That was the greatest present they could have given Musashi at the time.”
Was that why Anne had protected Musashi and Hexagone Française?
And was the same true for Matsunaga Hisahide? As well as Yoshitsune and Satomi Yoshiyori in Kantou?
Former Delinquent: “Reine des Garous. I have a question.”
Still Got It: “What might that be?”
Former Delinquent: “If Musashi does want a foreign power to intervene, who do you think it will be?”
Good question, she thought.
Her knowledge from spending time within Musashi would serve her better here than knowledge of the international situation. Particularly the words and actions of Musashi’s Chancellor and their Princess/Vicereine that had reached her through her daughter.
That knowledge let her say one thing when comparing it to the history recreation.
Still Got It: “Testament. There is one place with a connection to Musashi who they could ask for help.”
But…
Still Got It: “Trying to use them would get ugly in my opinion.”
●
“Tomoe Gozen! I’ve managed to determine what the academies in the Kyou region are doing!”
“Oh?” Tomoe Gozen turned around, scattering ghostly ether light into the night.
She was atop Magdeburg’s city wall in the M.H.R.R Protestant region of Saxony.
A few months ago, the city had been half flooded and hit hard in the recreation of the Sack, but it was now a factory city filled with the sounds of print shops operating through the night even more than during the day.
…I came here, thinking it would be the best place to gather information on Musashi and the other nations’ actions. And…
“So I was right, Guericke?”
“Testament! Ever since the Ariake was here in the summer, Magdeburg was reborn as a printing city and has been up all night every night completing print jobs for the other nations. There are of course measures to protect their secrets, but print jobs from the nations around Kyou came rushing in tonight!”
The outer edge of the city wall dropped like a cliff down to the grassy field far below, but the terrace Guericke stood on behind her was less than a meter above her.
Even so, she had originally been a demonic long-lived. By turning around she could easily look down on him.
With his two prosthetic arms, he opened a lernen figur indicating the print shop operating rate throughout the city and made some adjustments to the work distribution and supply, but…
“Can you see any of them trying to side with Musashi or with Hashiba?”
“Settsu’s academies in south M.H.R.R. are considering declaring themselves to be Hashiba in accordance with the history recreation of the Great Return.”
“Right,” she replied.
…That’s where it gets tricky.
“According to the Testament, after Hashiba learned about the Honnouji Incident during his attack on Mouri, he feared the Settsu forces, who were watching his back, would side with Mouri.”
It was a Settsu representative who brought the news, but the information infrastructure at the time was letter based. So the Settsu representative hadn’t been able to open and read the contents of the letter and thus hadn’t known about the Honnouji Incident.
…So Hashiba lied to Settsu’s representatives, telling them the letter said Nobunaga was alive and well.
Settsu must have suspected the truth. But they decided staying with Hashiba was the better choice and did what they could to help with the Great Return.
That showed just how much promise the people of the time had seen in Hashiba and how skilled he was at negotiation.
“But what the Settsu academies do now is a different matter.”
“Testament. Anyone with halfway decent observation posts would have seen Honnouji being sucked up into the sky.”
Everyone already knew about the Honnouji Incident and both Musashi and P.A. Oda had announced its completion.
The Settsu academies would have no reason to “believe the lie” like they had in the Testament.
“Besides, Hashiba must have seen this coming and already prepared the people who will lead their Great Return.”
Bits and pieces of reports on the Battle of Shizugatake were coming in and Tomoe Gozen had seen the names Kousaka and Inada among them. Both were names the Testament gave for those who assisted the Great Return.
“That means Hashiba must have already planned on the support of Settsu and the other academies along the route of the Great Return.”
Those were all M.H.R.R. Catholic academies. In that sense, they had already been on Hashiba’s side, but…
…They could have used the rapid changes in P.A. Oda as a reason to change sides against Hashiba.
Their decision might be the hardest one, she thought. But…
“Tomoe Gozen. I more or less know what Hashiba, and the groups uncertain if they should side with Hashiba, are doing. As for Musashi…”
“I’m sure a few nations have already figured out what a certain group will be doing. And with that in mind, even Musashi is keeping their distance to avoid rousing suspicions.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well,” she said. “It’s the obvious result of them inheriting Akechi’s name. Musashi must be considering a move that involves his son-in-law Nagaoka Tadaoki…and thus also Swedish Chancellor Christina.”
“Are you saying they will push Sweden to act!?”
“If they make a move at all.”
Tomoe Gozen raised a nearby lernen figur. It had been sent here by the Reine des Garous in the forest near the border between Hexagone Française and M.H.R.R.
…I didn’t think we were that close.
Eh, it’s probably the Musashi connection, she decided as she showed off the lernen figur. The woman’s words were written there.
Still Got It: “It’s that Nagaoka boy, isn’t it? This is about to get ugly!”
Why do you sound so excited?
●
Christina felt her time had been very well spent, in more ways than one.
She was unofficially receiving information on the Honnouji Incident from Musashi and she had had a distant but direct view of Honnouji being sucked up into the sky.
The resultant astronomical show was still in progress, but two more important things had happened.
First, she was aboard one of the Musashi surface pieces being towed to Sanuki by transport ship, but an escort had joined them once they left Nara and entered the Seto Inland Sea.
Self-Destruct Girl: “Thank you very much for the low-speed ship escort this late at night, Tres España Vice President.”
Juana: “I am just glad such a useful opportunity presented itself.”
In the name of “rearranging the fleet for the sea winds”, they had joined with the Tres Españan fleet who had been observing from the edge of the inland sea.
Tres España had likely wanted information and results beyond what they acquired and achieved at the Kyou meeting before they returned home.
Sweden was Protestant in the Thirty Years’ War, so strictly Catholic Tres España was an enemy.
But the Christina of the Age of the Gods had been tolerant of the Catholics and had even converted to Catholicism in her later years.
And she was Catholic in her identity as Akechi’s daughter Lady Gracia. There was plenty of justification for a Tres Españan escort.
She was glad their fleet commander and Vice President was a woman and also a hard worker. Tres España’s western location made it less pressing for them to decide whether to side with Hashiba or Musashi and both Christina and their Vice President knew the Tachibana Couple, so a casual mood had set in between them.
They were able to hold casual chats and discussions while they engaged in a businesslike exchange of information.
They both loved information, were interested in the actions of the other nations, and were at an age where they enjoyed chatting. They naturally wound up staying up late as they talked, so Christina sat on a terrace of the Musashi surface piece being transported while the Vice President worked in her ship’s cabin.
Juana: “And then the Chancellor asked if it would be possible to use the lemons grown in his garden to scent the next shampoo. Ever since, I’ve been able to calculate the planted area of a mountain slope just by looking at it.”
They had been exchanging fascinating and amusing stories like that, but something else important had happened too.
When she had said she would be heading out late at night and speaking with another nation…
“Do you want a view from outside cause of everything happening with Honnouji? Fine.”
Tadaoki had been seated next to her reading a divinely distributed monthly music magazine, but he did her the favor of accompanying her as a guard.
Yes, did me the favor. And he’s been with me this whole time.
He was of course there now as well. But unlike before…
“Nh…”
He was asleep, leaning against her right shoulder.
…Nwh!
Feeling his breath, his body heat, and his weight like this is more than I can handle. How far beyond what she could handle was it?
“Tadaoki-sama…I will just be taking a few photos, okay?”
So far beyond that the number of photos taken with her camera sign frame had reached triple digits. But while enjoying that bliss alongside the conversation, something arrived without warning.
Vice President: “Swedish Chancellor? This is the Musashi Vice President. We are just now arriving back on the Musashi. Our transport ship is making its final approach.”
…Why is she telling me this?
Just to be safe, she checked to see if her camera spell’s sharing setting was automatically sending the photos to the divine net.
<Sharing: Not really>
…Why is nothing straightforward in Shinto?
But that should be fine. It sounds more fine than not fine.
When the Vice President continued, it was about something other than that issue.
Vice President: “I have something to ask you. And I’m including Nagaoka in this too. …Would it be possible for you two to return here and provide a single fighting force worth of reinforcements?”
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