MaruMA:Volume06:Chapter 1

Chapter 1

It was a carriage path.

In Germany, this would be called the Autobahn. In Japan, it would be the Kan'etsu Expressway. Matsutouya Yumi, who my mother loves, would call this the Chuuou Freeway. But I don't see any racetracks.

In other words, this is a road that was built so that carriages could quickly and comfortably travel upon it. There were service areas at regular intervals where you could take a rest or change horses if you were in a hurry. So, you would able to maintain your top speed.

Due to that convenient exchange system, our carriage was barreling along at full speed.

Thanks to the evenly-laid paving stones, the swaying was held more or less to a minimum so although the trip had already lasted four days, my backside didn't hurt that badly.

When I turn my head, I see scenery that can only be found on 'See the World by Train' and there is a beautiful woman with platinum blond hair sitting across from me. Even though we slept inside the carriage, it was a fairly comfortable journey.

As long as you didn't consider the fact that I was a prisoner.

Flynn Gilbit, who feared that Captain Crusoe - that's me - would run away, had me guarded by macho subordinates on both sides as I sat on this cushioned seat. With my arms linked with theirs like we were going to do a line dance, it probably looked like an alien being hauled away by NASA from far away.

I called them the Muscle Seat Belt.

If I imagine that I'm sitting sandwiched between Bonds and Cabrera, my spirits lift, but if I think that one of them is Bob Sapp, then I lose my will to live.

It's a lot better than being made to sit on their laps in some sort of Muscle Child-Seat, though.

The Seat Belts absolutely would not look at me. Could that be because I hadn't been able to wash for two days?

"They're afraid of you."

Flynn Gilbit had removed her mask and was smiling gracefully as a lady.

The mask by which she transformed into the feudal lord, Norman Gilbit, shone silver on her lap.

"They're afraid of your black hair and your black eyes, Captain Crusoe." As if she didn't share their feelings, she reached a hand out to my bangs. "Robinson, your assistant, had a black eye too, but then the next morning it was blue like it was originally. His black was surely not real, right? Your eyes possess a completely different luster."

"That's probably because Mu- err, Robin-chan's smart."

Murata 'Robinson' Ken sat in the carriage behind us. I didn't know the reason, but Flynn didn't like it at all when the two of us were together.

"Whatever the case may be, I find them beautiful. They have the color of a moonless, dark night... There are said to be men who would give up all their worldly possessions to own someone like you. With such a beautiful color, it might be true that you could be wonder drug for immortality and eternal youth."

Imagining how I would be eaten, I ended up feeling like I was being sold at a Szechuan food market. Like baby monkeys, and baby deer, and baby dobsonfly larvae.

"Tch, like you can talk. You've got a pretty face yourself. If a beautiful person praises your looks, it's just insulting."

"Oh, well you're good at sweet talking women. What I'm really afraid of is this stone, not your eyes."

Flynn's delicate fingertips approached the stone on my chest.

She hesitates to touch the strong blue, bluer than the sky.

"... I can't help but think that it has terrible power and a deep meaning. Of course, it is special to Calorians just for having the Wincott crest."

"If Adalbert is right, you guys stabbed them in the back after they helped you. It's no wonder it would keep you awake at night and make you feel bad if you saw the family crest."

"Please don't misunderstand. The Gilbit family came into existence long afterwards. We have nothing to do with the conspirators of that time."

"Then why are you searching for descendants of the Wincotts now after all this time?"

"If I you knew, would you stop thinking of escape and aid our plan?"

She bestowed a graceful smile upon me as if we were taking afternoon tea. Her platinum blond hair sparkled in the weak sunlight and the ends touched her seat. The sky was slightly cloudy and the almost winter sunlight shone through them. Even though it was the rainy season before spring in Shin Makoku, in Shimaron territory it was the end of fall. Thinking in simple Earth terms, maybe it was because they were in opposite latitudes?

We've come far to the northern hemisphere, now that I think about it... I needed to make a joke about it.

"In any case, the sky is unsettling."

"Why? It just looks a little cloudy."

"As a native I can tell. Hopefully there's no earthquake or other catastrophe waiting for us."

We finally returned to an innocuous topic. You can't talk about politics, religion, or baseball with a person you've just met. For us few Pacific League fans, avoiding talking about our mental health and baseball was a wise move. In that case, the weather was a good topic. No one will be hurt or lose their temper.

At our first meeting, we had both pretended we couldn't speak.

However, once Flynn Gilbit took off her mask and returned to being a woman, she was beautiful and her words and attitude were both full of confidence. It was a bit different than being resolute. Her voice was sweet and there was a cunning look in her eyes, but because she was doing things according to her own will and ideals, she seemed proud.

She had horrible things said to her because she was governing over the territory using her husband's name, but someone like her was strangely suited for leading a country.

Human beauty looked different from the mazoku beauties like Miss Anissina, Lady Cherie, and Günter. If mazoku were the result of a brilliant artist, then Flynn seemed more like an actress or a pit babe. Athletes completely devoted to sports regularly end up captivated by the female journalists and TV personalities that appear before them. I am no different and even though I'm being treated horribly, I can't truly hate her.

Anyway, I was imprisoned for three days and forced into a starvation diet. That was hard. And what was worse, I hadn't been locked up in some place to fast, but had actually had mouthwatering, full course meals brought to me and I had to do my best to resist them.

Now that I think about it, the food situation had been serious from the very first day of my imprisonment.

I could manage to get to sleep if I counted 27,000 sheep. Therefore I was fine during the night, but when I woke up in the morning, a fancy breakfast would be brought to me. My stomach, belonging to a growing boy who loved to eat, made some interesting noises. But, I couldn't just eat it without suspicion and I just had to keep it around until dinner.

Even Pavlov's dog didn't have to suffer this much. It's too bad that an empty stomach can't save the world -- I'd have been a hero several times over.

All this only because I was taking Günter's warning seriously.

Don't thoughtlessly eat any food that a stranger has offered you. It might be poisoned by someone who wishes me harm.

I wasn't about to test their credibility, so I tried throwing the bread and meat out the window to make it seem like I did eat.

In no time at all, a sharp-eyed bird spotted it and started to pick at it.

And then came the showstopper! The bird let out an unusual, tortured cry of 'mugyu!' and flopped over on the windowsill unconscious! Its eyes were half closed and its tiny tongue even jutted out a little from its open beak.

This is horrible! Have I stolen a tiny, innocent life because of my stupid experiment? Ah, birdy, I cry for you. It's too late to sing 'Thou Shalt Not Die' for you. Your life won't come back and my guilt will never be taken away.

"Ah, I'm sorry. I don't even know your name, you pretty rat color- no, stylish grey, pretty Mr. Bird. Please forgive my carelessness. I will definitely take good care of all your surviving dependents. You can have all my savings... huh?"

A few hours later, the victim I'd thought dead picked itself up and flew off flapping its wings stronger than before. Maybe it caught up on its sleep deficit because its eyes were full of life. It looked like the the food hadn't been poisoned but simply laced with a sleeping drought.

But that doesn't mean I can pass the time by eating and being put to sleep then waking up and eating and being put to sleep again. That's just what the enemy wants. They want Captain Crusoe put to sleep so he didn't make any trouble.

In the first place, the reason that I ended up being forced into this extreme fasting diet for three days was because I had ended up far away from my country in enemy territory.

I, Shibuya Yuuri Harujuku I-Don't-Care-Anymore, a high school student of normal stature, normal appearance, and average intelligence, age 16, was borne to a father who worked at dubious bank that planned to take over the world via finance market speculation and to a mother who was a former fencer and who I wished would grow up already.

However, what I was told after being flushed down a western-style toilet to another world was a truth that was far too shocking.

I was the Maou.

Because I'm the Maou that would make even crying children faint, (it seems that) I can use evil magic, and since I'm a king who is loved and respected, I have a lot of subordinates who are so beautiful it's troubling. I have a mountain of issues I need to resolve, but I have a non-blood related, cute daughter and life in Blood Pledge Castle is pretty nice.

I should have been used to these facts.

And then this tragedy that was suddenly thrust upon me has been playing out over the past few days.

Called to Shin Makoku stuck in the middle of crisis, I was attacked by unknown assassins and separated from Lord von Christ and Lord Weller. Of course, they are both definitely alive and in the tutor's case, Miss Anissina was there for him so I can rest easy.

And even though Conrad had his left arm cut off...

I tightly clenched my fists as I remembered the sound of the explosion and the words of apology I shouldn't have been able to hear.

There's no way he died alone. He had promised me that he would help me whenever I wanted him to.

After that, on my way back to Earth I ended up in human lands and I realized that even my Japanese friend who was in my class in second and third year in middle school, Murata, had gotten mixed up in all of this.

"... Murata," I whisper like I'm pretending to be an Enka singer as I stand up on shaky legs from my empty stomach. That's right, Murata.

Flynn Gilbit, Mask de Madame, was a beautiful woman who had governed over Shou Shimaron's autonomous territory of Caloria using the name of her husband, but she ended up believing the lie that I was a descendant of the Wincotts and had imprisoned Murata Ken and I separately. Flynn was very beautiful, but her thorns were just as sharp.

At any rate, I hold some responsibility when it comes to Murata. Even now he thinks he's on Earth and is searching for a consulate you won't find on any map. I can't let him be put in any more danger. I'm the only one who can protect him.

I had to figure out where he was.

As the third day of my prison life dawned, my early panic receded and I could take in my surroundings in a more or less composed fashion. I had already come up with a few escape plans, but all of their chances of success were pretty remote. The window was large and I could open and close it freely, but there was no veranda or balcony and the room was about five stories above the ground. If I gathered my courage and 'Let's bungee!'-ed out the window, it was very obvious what would happen.

I had already tried to craft myself a makeshift rope, but I didn't know much about fabric so I couldn't rip the sheets properly and I just kept adding to my pile of crescent-shaped shreds. For the first time in my life, I regretted that I'd only played baseball my entire life.

If there was a magic trick that would let us escape with a mitt and ball, I'd be able to pull it off better than anyone else, though.

In the end, I never got to test out my bungee jump of hell or my makeshift rope and by Earth calculation, almost 58 hours had passed.

I opened the window as wide as it would go as I basked in the noon sunlight. I'd be able to get out of here right away if a ladder truck came by.

A song in a language I didn't know flows out in the air so cold it makes your body tense up. Wait a minute, I remember this melody?

"Triumphal March?"

Just a few months ago, I'd been forced to listen to a lifetime's worth of 'Aida.'

I leaned my body out the window and looked around stared around. Six, perhaps seven rooms down, my friend also sat in the window singing opera in happy-go-lucky fashion. Thanks to his radical image change, his head was covered in artificial blond.

He had taken care to even wear blue contact lenses, but I don't know how much they added to overall effect.

"Murata!"

Trying to get the soccer fan's attention, I waved one of the crescent shreds around wildly. It was a towel performance of life and death.

"'Sup, Shibuyaaaa!" Mr. Color Contacts without glasses waved his arms in big circles happily. 'Sup? Don't say 'sup. "How've you been~?"

"What are you going on about? Look out, I'm coming over to you."

"Ahhh, but..." Murata eyed the wall from top to bottoma and continued speaking after confirming that there weren't any protrusions. "Unless you're Spider-man, that's not going to work. There's nothing for you to hold on to. If something goes wrong, you'll be able to call yourself Splatterman. Haha..."

"This isn't the time for laughing at your own stupid jokes! First of all," I swing both my legs up onto the bronze windowsill. "We have to get out of here somehow without being noticed! I'm gonna starve to death at this rate!"

"But Shibuya," Murata leaned out of his window as far as he could. "I don't think this is very secretive anymore with you yelling so loudly."

"Your friend is right, my dear Captain."

I was suddenly grabbed by the belt.

"Why can't you do us a favor and act like a mature guest? If you get hurt, I..."

Flynn furrowed her eyebrows theatrically and shrugged as she stood behind the middle-aged butler. With a grunt, Butler Baker pulled me back from the window to the floor.

"And I was relieved because I didn't have to worry about majutsu because you two were separated, but not only are you refusing food, you're risking your life playing out this drama trying to escape with your entire heart and soul... The ideals of military men really are troublesome."

Huh? Ideals of military men? Oh yeah, I said I was a captain. But capturing a Japanese pacifist and treating him like a military man is rude.

Flynn's delicate fingers carefully closed and locked the window with a key.

"Baker, please prepare the carriages." Flynn locked the window tight with her delicate fingers. "With things as they are, we can't wait for the escort to arrive. It might be better for Captain Crusoe if we bring him to the motherland as fast as possible. Now that Maxine knows who was wearing the mask, troops from Small Shimaron could arrive at any moment to occupy Caloria."

"Milady, but then..."

"We'll be able to bring a certain number of soldiers with us if we take those stationed here from Shimaron. It wouldn't be the the best idea to attract attention with a large part. Once we get through where the Plainsmen appear, we won't need to worry about much."

The What-men? Are we going to get ambushed by a vi-violent group?

That is how we ended up traveling in four carriages to the 'motherland' with held in place by the Muscle Seat Belts.

And at this exact moment, I am sandwiched between two filthy guys.

You know, I had only caught a fleeting glance when we boarded the carriages, but wondering why Murata seemed so happy I noticed that he had an Amazoness Seat Belt.

Why?!

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