Day 54 Evening, the Castle at the Fake Dungeon.
The crying princess, the ex-dungeon emperor patting her on the back, the ex-dungeon master jiggling in consolation, and me who is making dinner, total chaos?
Well, it seems the rest has nothing to do with me, if there is anything theyd surely call me. I mean, Im not a person from the kingdom, and Im yet to hear even the kingdoms name, so I have no idea?
Besides, Meripapa told me this.
Can you please leave the rest of this to us? The frontiers army and I might appear unreliable to you, even so, Im the ruler of this domain and a noble of this kingdom. The responsibility to set things right lies with me, the lord of the frontier, not the princess. That is what it means to reign over a domain. I might be an incompetent ruler who could neither save nor enrich the frontier, but I cant leave this issue to anyone else. Please understand, Haruka-kun.
In that case, there is no room for me to butt in, or rather, I only came because I was called, this has nothing to do with me, to begin with? Like, I came for the Fake Dungeon maintenance? Like the rest of this or the rest of that, I dont even know the rest of which kingdom is lying beyond the mountain range? In the first place, where is this?
Moreover, were I to awkwardly get involved with the war effort, the girls will pop up as well. They are definitely training to fight against humans. Training for war.
Unlike monsters, humans possess a wide range of skills and utilize them intelligently.
Fighting in groups versus other humans is the type of combat that I have the worst affinity with. In other words, war. So they mustve been training all this time anticipating that.
And they also probably feel indebted to me for killing Whatever-kun, so they are trying to get their hands dirty as well. Trying to become murderers, just like myself.
The geeks are getting ready for naval combat, and the idiots are practicing jungle warfare techniques.
In that case, there must be a person, who is actively preparing for the events of which even I am yet unaware. If so, it must be the Librarian!
How could she! I even made ten bags for her in secret, but she went and betrayed me! Making me use the leather of the finest quality, she was acting behind my back all this time.
With this, I cannot participate in the war. If I do, Ill end up dragging them into it. Im checkmated, they shut me down before I could make my move. The bags will cost them a lot more from now on!
And I also was told this.
I know full well that you are strong, even so, I dont want to get you involved in the war. You are not suited for it, you are hopelessly not suited for the war. No matter how strong you may be, I wont invite you to my army. You arent suited for it. You are trying to save everything and everyone, you indiscriminately reach out even to complete strangers, thats why you desperately arent fit for killing strangers. The more you kill the more youll end up hurting yourself, the stronger you are, the stronger you end up hurting yourself. And the same goes for your comrades, they are way too kind. No matter how strong you are, you arent suited for carnage, you are way too gentle for living in this cruel world. You possess the dream-like hope, that we long since lost, and we cant be thankful enough that it saved the frontier. But at the same time, that hope you carry is not fitting for humans killing each other. That would be too cruel to you. Thats why I want you to leave this to us, and want you to keep that dream-like hope that we have lost. Because it was that hope that saved us, the frontier, and allowed us to dream again.
He is totally overthinking it? While most of the girls indeed arent suited, the guys are alright. The idiots are especially unstoppable when it comes to fighting humans, even large groups are nothing but a prey for them. Going to Hell would allow one to spend time much more pleasantly and peacefully than if they were to fight them in a forest, even demons arent that savage. And if their opponent is an enemy, they wouldnt care no matter how many they buried.
The Geeks will fight even crying, and they arent going to break down. They didnt spend their lives being constantly bullied for nothing. There is no one more paranoid yet more trusting than them. They wont yield before anything if its for the sake of someone they deemed worthy, the only way to stop them would be to kill them.
But the girls are just normal girls.
They are doing their best to keep up a strong front, but they miss their families, they hide their tears, but their thoughts go to their friends, they are only acting tough, trying not to cause others any worry. Acting tough means they are not actually tough, inside, they are soft.
But the guys dont care about families and friends left in the original world, after all, they are off in the head. The previous world is a concluded chapter to them.
Resolving oneself is not an easy thing to do.
But its a different story for the outcasts of the previous world, who have no need to resolve themselves in the first place.
The worst would be the Geeks and the Idiots getting into the war while Im sitting it out in the frontier trying to avoid dragging the girls into this. They cant beat real monsters yet. They cant kill them.
(Jiggle Jiggle)
Yeah, lets focus on cooking.
Its finished. Those are cutlet burgers, so please pass them to the guards too? Or rather, Ill just put those in the dining hall so they can swarm, struggle, and fight for them? Among fellow smelly dudes?
First, lets guide the soldiers to the dining hall. Its a bit inconvenient since no one has a map.
Royal Girl, Meripapa-san, where are they going to eat? You can eat those even here, you know? But since its a standing meal Meripapa-san might also eat it on the top of the castle on his own? The view from there is amazing, but accidentally falling from there is painful? Just falling alone really hurts, but hitting something on the way to the ground hurts a lot? Speaking from experience.
They are giving me wry smiles. Thats good, just keep that bitter smile, seriously tackling a merciless world with a serious face will only tire you out. Even taking it half-seriously is too much for this world. Its ridiculous after all.
However, if speaking of the frontier alone, then simply sticking to defense is more than enough. Taking this castle after passing through the fake dungeon is too much of a reckless adventure, and whats even more important, the profits wont make up for that.
Suppose they managed to subjugate the frontier by using the entire army, without farming monsters they wont get any new magic stones. If they were interested in that, they couldve come to the frontier and hunted monsters here.
Were they to beat the frontier forces, they will have to fight monsters on their own, even though they never even tried to come here for that. They want to get money by doing nothing, and yet they will have to do something, the profit doesnt match the effort.
Its already a checkmate for them, yet they wont give up. And now there is also a probability of Meripapa-san taking action if Royal Girl were to act, I didnt account for this at all. I didnt even think that Half-Naked Hooray Incident will lead to something like this. Now, if a civil war were to break out, the cause would ultimately be the half-naked hooray? It will be named the War of the Half-Naked Hooray too, you know? Victim of the War of the Half-Naked Hooray or casualty of the War of the Half-Naked Hooray sounds way too pitiful! But I also hate the idea of the victor of the War of the Half-Naked Hooray or the Champion of the War of the Half-Naked Hooray! Crap, this war has to be stopped, or certain outrageous details will make their way into the annals of history! And if in the distant future, the high school boys appeared in this world after it underwent modernization, they will be taught about the War of the Half-Naked Hooray! They definitely wont be able to concentrate on lessons, I mean, they are high school boys after all? Their minds will be too preoccupied byHalf-Naked Hoorayin their textbooks?