LS – Chapter 36: Rain for now

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“Now, it is morning!” 

I was woken up from the door opening with force. 

What happened? -there was no need to say that. I could tell that Ilias had entered the room.

I get up while rubbing my sleepy eyes and face towards the direction where the voice came from. What was shown clearly in my eyes really was Ilias herself. 

She would normally wake up later than me and would have a sleepy face, but for some reason, she is full of energy today. By the way, she is not in her pajamas but in full body armor. 

“What, it hasn’t been long since the sky got bright. I don’t think there’s any pressing matters though…” 

“I will be working as your bodyguard from today on. In order to have a clear grasp of the target I have to protect, I simply thought I had to confirm your state from the moment you rise.” (Ilias)

Ilias was more confident than normal. It resembles the excitement of a high school student on their first day of a school trip. 

“Your stance of wanting to understand the actions of the person you must guard is splendid, but is there anyone who would suddenly shift the time they wake up?” 

“…Ah.” (Ilias)

Don’t give me an ‘ah’. That said, if I go back to sleep here, it will be hard to wake up at the usual time.

“It can’t be helped. I have woken up in a half-baked state here, so going back to sleep isn’t really something I want to do. Let’s wake up early for a change.” 

I get up slowly as I confirm the state of my body. Since the time the side-effect of the possession spell that Maya-san used on me to understand the language of this world had been made clear, it has been a daily habit of mine to do some light stretches as I confirm my state. 

“……”

“……” 

Even in the time when I was carefully stretching here, Ilias was watching me intently. She said she was confirming my state, but can you get a hint already? 

“I would like to change my clothes.” 

“I don’t mind.” (Ilias)

“Get out!” 

After that, I had breakfast and took a break with tea. Right now there are 3 people in the living room excluding Rakura. It seems like Rakura is fast asleep because of her new bed. 

Once we took a breather here, Ilias looked at me with a fiery gaze.

“Now then, let’s study for the whole day in the house.” 

“Yes, Shishou.” (Wolfe)

“Wait, why aren’t you going out?” (Ilias)

“Look out the window.” 

The outside of the window is somewhat dark. On top of that, the sound of the rain falling gently felt nice in my ears. I don’t feel like going out without a reason on a day like this. 

“What’s the issue?” (Ilias)

“I don’t want to get wet. That’s why I will take it easy in the house today.” 

“Wolfe doesn’t want to get wet either.” (Wolfe)

“You have been employed by His Majesty, right? How can you take a break just because of rain?!” (Ilias)

“Marito has just told me to go meet him when I am free. I have been given a bit of spending money, but it is on a commission basis, so it is okay for me to take a break whenever I want.” 

By the way, if the story is good, it is on the degree of pocket money; if it is an idea that can be implemented in politics, I will be paid a fitting price for the idea. I am grateful that it comes with meals, but it is not to the degree where I would like to go every day.

“If what you tell to His Majesty today gets included in the policies, it could improve the livelihood of the citizens one day faster, you know?” (Ilias)

“That would entail me going out in the rain, and if I end up getting a cold for 3 days, it would slow down the improvement by 2 days, you know? Marito has his own work to do. The one who will have his burden increase if you forcefully put in more work is Marito.” 

“Muh…but being inside the house the whole time on my first day as a bodyguard is just…” (Ilias)

“Don’t get so stiffened. If you were to defend me every day in such a manner, it would just be tiring for both parties.” 

“That’s true…” (Ilias)

Ilias was still not convinced. She normally lives a knightly life where she just trains and patrols. It is not like I don’t understand her being excited at a change in that.

But whether I will reciprocate that is a different story. It would even be better to have her give up, telling her that this is how life works. 

“Shishou, Wolfe wants to go to the castle.” (Wolfe)

“With this rain, training will be—right. Marito said it was okay to bring you every now and then, so let’s go.” 

“Okay!” (Wolfe)

“That’s how it is. Let’s go, Ilias.” 

“Y-Yes!” (Ilias)

Wolfe went out of her way to read the atmosphere and is saying she wants to go outside for the sake of Ilias. I can’t ignore the desire of two people. 

As a person who wants to live safely, I am weak to the results of democracy, yup.

After I finished preparations, Rakura woke up at the time when we were about to leave.

“Fuwaah, good morning everyo—” (Rakura)

“Alright, all units, run!” 

“Wait a moment please!” (Rakura)

And so, we arrived at the office of Marito. Because we took our time coming here, Marito was free by the time we arrived.

“So that’s why you came in a large group today. I wasn’t expecting even Rakura to come though.” (Marito)

“Sorry. I was thinking about tying her up, but she resisted.” 

“Please don’t exclude only me! Anyways, this is quite the splendid office. The offices of the Yugura Church Archbishops are all cold and simple.” (Rakura)

“Aah, I have heard about that. The current Pope, Pope Euparo, prefers simplicity and the others are apparently influenced by this. This room is used by the successive kings, and it feels somewhat big, but there’s no need to go out of my way to reconstruct it into a smaller one.” (Marito)

“Even so, it still feels cramped with 6 people.” 

“It can’t be helped. Also, isn’t it 5?” (Rakura)

An invisible hand taps my shoulder. Speaking of which, I have to keep silent about Anbu-kun. If it is Ilias, it might be acceptable, but it seems like they want to keep it a secret to Rakura. I look around blatantly. 

“Aah, speaking of which, Lord Ragudo is not here despite his usual presence.” 

“The reason he was always here was because it was a special period of time. He is normally very busy and moving around here and there.” (Marito)

“…The tone of King Marito is pretty casual towards Counselor-sama.” (Rakura)

“He is one of my few friends after all. As long as it is not a formal setting, I prefer this way of interaction.” (Marito)

I don’t mind that, but it is pretty troublesome as the person who has their tone changed so often though. As for Rakura, I feel like she will eventually mesh nicely. 

That said, there’s no point chatting aimlessly here. The reason why I came here today was in order to show my usual daily life to Ilias. Let’s talk about the culture of Earth with Marito.

“I was reminded of this after seeing the rain, but do you people not try to do weather forecasts?” 

“By weather forecast, does it mean to read the weather beforehand, and go around relaying this information? Even though the weather changes at the whim of the world.” (Marito)

“You can’t change the weather, but it has an 80% success rate by reading the movements of the clouds. You learn of it using a variety of methods, and people would get ready for that weather. They also predict the changes in temperature.” 

“Fumu fumu. Even if you can get ready for the rain that comes afterwards by looking at the rain clouds, I thought it wasn’t possible to predict the weather of that day, but your side can, huh. It is true that if you know the weather of the coming day, you can prepare beforehand. You could consider it convenient.” (Marito)

“Artificial satellites…right, they would set an unmanned watchtower at the top of the clouds that would illustrate the flow of the clouds, would be observed on land, and they would predict the weather that will be coming.” 

“I don’t really understand the mechanism of that technique, but if you can observe the movements of the clouds from above the skies, you certainly would be able to predict the weather to a certain degree.” (Marito)

The most they can do is make sound calls with a secret technique of the Yugura Church. They do have something similar to fax, but the spread of it will most likely be in the distant future. 

But considering the possession spell of Maya-san, it might not be impossible to replace it with magic. It is a system that lets you translate perfectly in real time. This hasn’t been perfected even on Earth.

“A lot of things are possible in the world of Counselor-sama, huh.” (Rakura)

“The biggest reason would be that magic doesn’t exist. It hasn’t been denied completely, but it hasn’t been proven. That’s how much civilization has evolved in that state.” 

“A world without magic, huh. Sounds inconvenient.” (Rakura)

“It is after fixing up those inconveniences that we now can do a variety of things though.” 

The fault of this world is that the nations are not researching magic despite such a paranormal phenomenon existing. 

Civilization has evolved with the development of war and medical science. But with magic getting involved here, detailed research doesn’t progress, and due to the existence of magic seal stones, its development has hit a brake. 

The frequency of wars is low and the competitiveness towards other nations is calm. No wonder civilization is progressing at a slower rate. 

The reason why the Yugura Church uses a special technique in magic must be because they are aware that the Demon Lords might appear in the future again.

“Right, 3 more people have come today. If you have questions about the culture of the parallel world, go ahead and ask.” (Marito)

I see. Surprises like this can be used in such a fashion, huh. There might be questions from unexpected directions.

I look at Ilias, Wolfe, and Rakura. The first one to raise her hand was Rakura.

“Counselor-sama has established cooking using salt which is a luxury product in the Dog’s Bone, right? What’s the cuisine over there?” (Rakura)

“Right, it is one of the big differences. On Earth, you can fly to any part of the world within only 1 or 2 days. You can obtain pretty much any ingredient you want if you try to. Due to this, the customs and culture of foreign countries gets mixed and creates a peculiar change.” 

“Fumu fumu, is Earth unexpectedly small?” (Rakura)

“I don’t know how big this world is, but Japan is the 60th in terms of country size. Even with that, it is still several times bigger than the Taizu territory, you know.” 

“60th?!” (Rakura)

“There’s over 200 countries and it has a population of more than 7 billion.” 

“Even though it is that big, it only takes 1 or 2 days…” (Rakura)

“If I had to explain it in terms of this world…it would be ships where hundreds of people can get on and would fly every day. There’s also the large sized ones that can allow for more than 2 thousand on board.” 

“That’s quite the crazy scale!” (Rakura)

No, people being able to bring out speeds of 20 km/h and the horses being on race horse level on average also makes the mobility in this world weird. If we were to match the eras, this world would be the one that’s more advanced by leaps and bounds. 

“And so, our cuisine can usually utilize the ingredients of foreign countries and can put in effort in developing together, so it progresses fast. Any other questions?”

“Here!” (Wolfe)

“Wolfe, huh. What is it?” 

“Are there places like the village of Wolfe?” (Wolfe)

That’s quite the harsh question she threw there. But that certainly is a point of worry. 

“First of all, there’s no demi-humans on Earth. However, depending on the area, the difference between cold and hot is big. Due to this, their skin would be white or black, and the difference is sparse compared to this world. The discrimination towards others due to their skin color was terrible in the past.” 

“How is it now?” (Wolfe)

“Equal in formality. But it is not like the customs of the past have disappeared completely. There’s a hard struggle for reformation as of present.” 

“Wow.” (Wolfe)

“Yeah, it is impressive. By the way, in terms of cultural development, there’s areas that are similar to yours, Wolfe. Those tribes are managing while protecting their own culture.” 

“How about the place where you were born, Shishou?” (Wolfe)

“I was born in a country called Japan. The population is around 100 million, but there’s countrysides and cities. There’s no racial discrimination, but there’s gender, age, and hierarchical discrimination to a moderate degree. There’s no king, they decide the representative through votes by the citizens, and those people would open a congress where they would consult about the direction of the country.” 

“That part is something I can’t get a grasp on.” (Marito)

You are a king after all. The population is still increasing, so there’s probably not much leeway here. 

“All citizens have compulsory education beginning from 6 years old for a period of 9 years. After that, you can study for 3 years by your own decision, 4 more years on top of that, and even more years in order to hone your field. If you have a certain degree of talent, you can aim for a decent social status with effort and luck.” 

“So you are not tied by your father’s occupation.” (Marito)

“There’s a side to it, but the tendency of parents deciding the life of the child has decreased. As for any more detailed talk, let’s leave it for when Wolfe has learned more about this country. Your understanding will be faster if there’s something to compare.” 

“Okay!” (Wolfe)

That said, I don’t want her to be poisoned by the common sense of Earth. If she were to find every single system in this country, her daily life might end up getting stressful.

“I am the last one, huh. Fumu… How’s the military force in your world?” (Ilias)

“Let me be straight. There’s no monster like you over there. If we go by competency alone, there might be people close to you, but due to there not being methods like mana strengthening, there’s a limit to how much your body can achieve.” 

“It is true that there would be things that would be rough to do without mana strengthening. Then, if Taizu and your country were to fight, would we be the ones overwhelming you?” (Ilias)

“It is an era where you normally don’t go to war because you want to, so it would be a pretty special case, but…if Earth and this place were to fight seriously, Marito would surrender completely in as much as 3 days.” 

“Wa?! But according to you, your army wouldn’t be able to lift a finger against our knights.” (Ilias)

“Right, but that can be circumvented. With people on the level of Ilias, it would still be tough, but it would be possible to wipe out the normal knights. Even if you continue to win, it is not like you would be able to win the war, right?” 

Ilias may be able to endure the bombardment of tanks, but it is not like the others are as gorilla as her. Gunfire would be effective too, and it is difficult to deal with urban battles. 

In that case, they can just ignore Ilias and settle things by carpet bombing the place. 

“That’s…” (Ilias)

“If the battlefield were to be pushed to the villages and the country as a whole, it would be a competition of whether the heart of Marito breaks or the people are gone.” 

“There really wouldn’t be anything that can be done if the people were to be shaven off by the numbers.” (Ilias)

“But Japan prioritizes peace. They only have a military force to protect the country. The other countries are a lot more merciless though.” 

As for whether the Japanese would allow an invasion, I would say it would be rough in its current state. The public opinion would be harsh if it came to a fantasy world.

“If it becomes possible to come and go from your world to our world and vice versa, things would turn hectic.” (Ilias)

“This may just be wishful thinking, but Earth has a tendency to not wish for war. As long as you don’t just pull a mass murder on Earth, it should end peacefully. Fortunately, with the possession spell of Maya-san, you can easily communicate with them in this manner.” 

“I see. Meaning that if we can communicate, we could act in a way like the relationship with Taizu and the black wolfkins.” (Ilias)

I wanted to avoid that way of putting it because we are in front of the king, but that’s right. Both sides are not barbarians, so it shouldn’t be difficult to show self-control if you can communicate.

The murder of cultures might happen, but Earth has had experiences with that in history. In that case, there should be no issues; this is my objective opinion.

But things would change depending on which country will become the bridge. If it is Japan, it can proceed peacefully, but I don’t know about the other countries…

“To summarize, the strength of the individuals is higher on a fundamental level, but when it comes to power as a whole, Earth is superior.” 

“I somewhat can’t accept it, but…if you say so, that must be the case.” (Ilias)

“I am a civilian, even so, you should be able to understand the strength of their specialists if you have seen my results, right? Earth is a world where there’s specialists even for criminal acts.” 

“That’s…true.” (Ilias)

“Since there’s the opportunity, let’s just ask. In what area are you?” (Marito)

“A civilian living in the city. I am just at the level where I can use my brain to a decent degree.” 

“Uheh, it is a hellhole of inhuman people.” (Marito)

“That’s what I should be saying.” 

In terms of your ability to survive as an individual, it can’t even be compared on a fundamental level. Earth might be able to win a war, but they will without a doubt be traumatized. 

“Let’s leave the dangerous talk here and dig out a number of things. I was somewhat interested in that technique about relaying a picture from a watchtower that showed in the weather talk. Can you explain in as much detail as you can?” (Marito)

“If it is to a degree where you can agree with it, it would be better for me to begin from the binary numbers, huh. It begins with a combination of ones and zeros…” 

That’s where I go into more detail. I began to explain while using drawings on this part. It would be hard for the others to keep up aside from the intelligent Marito. I will have them concentrate on listening silently. 

That said, Rakura began to sleep so I kicked her out. 

Changing pictures into numbers, relay it into electric signals, have them understand how they output it as a picture again, then it went as deep as how this electric signal works, and by the time I was pretty much done, a good amount of time had passed.

If I had prepared the documents beforehand for the presentation, it would have been possible to shave off a few hours, but because questions increased the further we went, it isn’t easy to prepare perfectly. 

On our way back, the rain had lost strength to the point where it would question the existence of raincoats. 

“In the end, we simply killed time in the safest place in the nation though. How was it in your perspective, Ilias?” 

“Now that you mention it, it certainly did feel more like surveillance rather than bodyguarding… But I think I heard useful things. I understand now why His Majesty wanted to hire you.” (Ilias)

“Just as Marito said, if it ends up being possible to come and go from this world to Earth, I would immediately lose my post though.” 

If you can call and ask stuff from a specialist, there would be no factor the king would like from a civilian of an isekai. I wouldn’t have a knight protecting me either. 

When thinking about it like that, I would like to refrain a bit in the development. 

“But you are currently being useful at this moment and in this place. That fact doesn’t change. Even if that happens in the future, His Majesty wouldn’t forget his gratitude towards you.” (Ilias)

“…Right.” 

“Hnn! Had a nice sleep! The talks of Counselor-sama have the power to bring good sleep!” (Rakura)

“I won’t bring this one to the castle anymore. Or more like, in her current state where she can’t even be given work in the church, doesn’t that make her a completely jobless person?” 

“Yeah… If the Pope-sama were to come, I could return to Mejis and go back to monster hunting… I already don’t have enough for traveling expenses!” (Rakura)

Rakura is apparently outstanding when it comes to battles. Her being a priestess is proof of her achievements. The other parts are terrible, so her skills must be quite the deal. 

But there’s barely any harm from monsters in Taizu. Even if there are, the knights stationed in the villages are enough. 

In terms of office work, she is so bad to a degree where she would get driven out from the church by the person with the highest position in this country. If she had some sort of talent, it might be possible to mediate something though…

Make use of her battle capabilities to serve as a training partner for the knights? But it is hard to expect a salary from that. It would be a mystery whether to call this a battle adviser. 

An instructor that teaches the techniques of the Yugura Church… It would be better to not spread techniques carelessly.

We really should find the reason for the clumsiness of Rakura, understand it properly, and find a job for her that she can perform. 

“Let’s think of a job that Rakura can do… I don’t smell profit from this.” 

“Counselor-sama, you can just maintain me though.” (Rakura)

“…Let’s sell her.” 

“Serious eyes?!” (Rakura)

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