MaruMA:Volume07:Chapter 1

Chapter 1

I think the expression on my face was not exactly pleasant right now.

Although it was now winter, wearing this iron mask was suffocating.

“Pfa! And it makes it hard for me to breathe!”

Bearing the pain of my eyelashes being pulled, I plucked the mask off my face forcefully. Air rushed in through my nostrils, helping my overheated face to cool down.

“Really…I have to hand it to Flynn and Norman Gilbit, wearing this mask for so many years.”

“Maybe it’s because they haven't been running around like we’re doing now.”

After getting off our horses at the intersection, we could only walk to get to the harbor. The stone slabs covering the road were cracked and uneven, we could see collapsed buildings and overflowing drains everywhere along the bumpy road. Not only that, citizens who had lost all hope were sitting anywhere they wanted to along the road, children who were trying to find their parents or food were crying out agitatedly while running through the streets so it was impossible for horses to get through this area.

The four boxes that must never be touched. Small Shimaron used the wrong key to open one of them, The End of the Land, and part of the sealed unknown force became uncontrolled, causing massive damage to the midwest section of the land, including Caloria.

The strong Flynn Gilbit never shed a tear, she just spent all her efforts on patrolling and comforting the citizens. After getting back to her family estate, she started shouting orders to her few remaining soldiers to distribute water and food among the citizens immediately. Even I, wearing the mask of Norman Gilbit, joined in on her efforts.

Flynn, gritting her teeth and dragging her tired body along, did her best to fulfill her duties as the wife of the regent of the land. Despite her fever and stomach pain that prevented her from getting up from the chair, she still summoned all the rulers of the counties to gather in the meeting room, and according to her promise divided the rations equally among the all the counties of Caloria.

But just relying on the rations in the estate would not be enough to satisfy the hunger of all the people.

When we finally got back to Caloria, it was that destroyed.

I forced Flynn, who was now completely unable to move, to remain in her room and made my way to the Gilbit business harbor. The harbor, originally so full of life and thronging with people, had been destroyed so much that there was no trace of its original splendor, the remains of the beautiful stone slabs were in pieces all over the place. There were several deep and wide ditches across the land, causing the peaceful farmlands of the inland to be flooded by seawater, and the earth and grass to wither up.

The kindly citizens of a few days ago had turned into violent rebels who robbed the collapsed shops; the originally peaceful neighbors would attack each other over water wells; hungry children, with no more energy left to cry, would be sitting with dull expressions on the ground.

There weren't many young people in this country to begin with. Both manpower and rations were now seriously lacking.

The women, children, and old folk, forced to endure the cold without shelter, were shivering, only the cargo ships anchored at the harbor had lights on in the evening.

Some people, trying to get the citizens to gather around, were shouting with all their might at the depressed people. However, a loud-voiced man was standing at the corner of the street, shouting,

“It’s the end of the world!”

“He might be right you know…”

“What’re you talking about? The end of the world? Don’t be silly, he’s not Nostradamus.”

I was just going to answer Murata’s opinion, but my tone had become sharp without my noticing. This was the first time I had seen such destruction, and my palms were sweating. No, not just my palms, the sweat pouring from my neck and back were taking away my body heat. My body won't stop shaking.

“…We have to do something.”

Someone has to do something.

“Damn it, but I really don’t know what to do… but I’ve been living in Kanto all my life and have put effort while participating in evacuation drills, but I still don’t know what to do in times like these…”

“We should thank television, Shibuya.”

I stared blankly at Murata, thinking, 'what is he I saying at a time like this?' But my friend, with his fake blond hair and his colored contact lenses, was smiling serenely while gazing at the other end of the harbor.

“Aren’t there usually news reports on tv about disasters and refugee camps? Even if this is the first time experiencing it, you should be familiar with this.”

He was right, in the past I did see a lot of similar scenes. Like on the news, documentaries, movies or dramas.

“But just relying on those is not enough. I'm sure you're not the type of person to just watch baseball and anime right? By the way, all good kid children turn on the lights and watch tv from at least 2 meters away. Well, I do at least.”

My friend with the secret identity cocked his head slightly and narrowed his eyes.

“But being in a world without television or radio is a bit nostalgic.”

“And there’re also no vehicles… Murata, what’re you…. argh, just forget it.”

Whether Murata has Sky Perfect or not isn't important right now. What was important was whether I had knowledge on dealing with situations like this. Although I had never dealt with disasters before, I could just do what I had seen others do before on tv. This reminded me of the day I first pitched a baseball, after standing by and watching my brother and father practicing for so long.

“Food… no, water is the most important thing. Normally they gather all those who still have energy left and divide them to all the areas… then set up a tent for food preparation. Hm... we need to set up a headquarters, but there's no UNICEF or Red Cross here, huh?”

“But you said you'd do it.”

That’s right.

I gripped my silver-colored mask tightly. At this moment Wolfram and Dacascos returned from the few ships that had not sank. Josak, in his white apron dress, was with them. He probably wants to be a white-robed angel. He was leading a man I didn't know who had his arms full of sacks of goods.

Upon seeing me, the man dropped all of them at once. His slightly aged face had an expression similar to bursting into tears of happiness.

“Thank goodness you’re alright!”

He ran past Wolfram and Dacascos towards me, kneeling down at my feet.

“Aah! Wh-what is this!?”

“Thank goodness you’re alright….”

The man bowed his head while his eyes filled with tears and the part of his scalp with very little hair shined dully. Francis Xavier - Level 1.

“Just as I thought, that was a ship from our own kingdom. Although it was disguised as a cargo ship, all the crew were soldiers under the orders of this man. This is Captain Sizemore," said the third son of the previous Demon King was kicking at the hemp cloth sacks while speaking, with an expression of disgust on his face. He probably was not pleased at being passed by a soldier.

He is an angelic-looking pretty boy with a head of shining golden hair and emerald green eyes that reminded me of a lake. However, after spending time with him him, I discovered his true nature was actually a spoiled brat that likes to make snide comments... or that was what he was supposed to be. But lately Lord Wolfram von Bielefelt had been somehow different from the person I first met. The three brothers originally had no similarities between them. Even though the three brothers were so dissimilar, lately Wolfram had traces of the eldest brother's irritability and the boldness of his second brother. If I had to be more definite, he would be a cool-looking and fashionable pretty boy?

Oh, this is horrible. I can’t compare with him in looks.

“The other ships in the original fleet will arrive in two or three days. I never thought that my calm eldest brother would send out a quarter of the navy after receiving the message sent by the Flying Skeleton Tribe.”

“A quarter? Why?”

“TO . FIND . YOU . OB-VI-OUS-LY!”

Wolfram gritted his teeth while spitting out each syllable one by one and brought his face closer to mine.

“Don’t you understand what kind of a situation you're in!? You disappeared from the kingdom without a trace under dangerous circumstances!”

“S-sorry.”

“You’re hopeless. Now Gunter has turned into Okiku and Conrart…”

He stopped speaking for a moment and averted his eyes from mine before changing the topic. He probably thought I wasn't ready yet.

“Anyway, the rest of the ships will be arriving soon. The Dugald family's ship will probably be out in the sea by tomorrow. They’re the best in naval war and their ship is fast beyond belief. There’s a Karbelnikoff magic-powered speeding device installed on it. Boarding that ship will the safest way to get back home.”

“Back home? Who?”

“Everyone of course. Although we can’t all get on the same ship.”

“Everyone? I can’t go back yet. There's no way I can go back yet. Caloria is devastated and this business with the boxes has me worried and then there's Conrad’s arm...”

Every time I thought back about what happened to Lord Weller, my breath and words catch in my throat. I can't deal with my feelings, or rather, I don't even try.

“... I can’t go back without dealing with all this... Even though it's just in name, I'm Norman Gilbit.

All the people here believe that I’m the leader here, leaders have to be at disaster areas to lend support, this is important to maintain the people’s hopes and willpower. And also umm… does the term morale exist here? And the speed of rebuilding will be different?”

A speechless Wolfram with his mouth hanging wide open pulled my ear.

“How many times do I have to tell you? Are you stupid?”

The feeling I got was more like 'Aaare youuu aaaan iiidiiioooot?'

“What responsibilities do you have towards this land? Is this your kingdom? Are these humans your people? If you insist on helping them, you can just leave a medical team and rations for them! We have experienced soldiers to help as well, if we could just find more people to repair the roads…”

“Oh yes! You’re right! Gisela is a healer, if we could just use all the manpower here, the rescue efforts would be so much easier!”

“Yuuri! That wasn’t what I meant!”

Wolfram glared at me. His tone had changed completely. Maybe he hadn’t noticed, but the wrinkles between his eyebrows looked exactly like his eldest brother's.

“Mr. Sizemore, are there rations and water on your ship?”

“Rations?”

Maybe my question was too unexpected, Francis Xavier Level 1 had resumed his normal voice.

“In preparation for any unexpected events, we more or less have some…”

“That’s great! I want them distributed as soon as possible. Be as fair as possible to get it to as many people as we can. Ask them to queue up so there won't be any fighting. Wait, are all the crew of the ship soldiers from our kingdom?”

“Of course. They are all prepared to sacrifice their lives at your command, Your Majesty. On the order of His Exellency Gwendal, I chose many who closely resemble humans so if you want them to spy on our enemies there should be no problem either.”

The soldier stands up proudly. He probably has faith in his underlings’ capabilities.

“That’s even better! So that means I can count them all as volunteers.”

“Volu… what sort of mission is that?”

“It’s not a mission. We're doing this voluntarily so they're volunteers. Okay Murata, it’s up to you to select suitable people! Next we need temporary shelters and portable toilets. There's so many things they want. Oh! It would be even better if we had diapers and milk powder for the babies. Although now we have Gisela and her team healing people all around the place, but it would be better if their medical team was bigger and they also need medicines and medical supplies. Aah! Damn it, it’s not enough! Rations, materials, manpower... they’re all not enough!”

“Why don’t you make a wish?”

Murata grabbed the long, thin white object hanging in front of my chest. It was a paper knife I had bought from a young boy from Copperfield's on the Longalbalu river.Although the paper knife cuts paper, it isn't from a logging family and it's made from the bones of an unidentified being.

“On this.”

“If a souvenir could grant wishes we wouldn't be need temples or shrines.”

“It’s not a souvenir. It’s obviously part of a flying skeleton.”

“What?!”

I almost dropped the light and dry blade.

“If that’s true, this is human bone? ! It’s human?!”

“It’s not human bone, it’s a flying skeleton. Or it might be an earth skeleton. They gather together to lend emotional support, and can communicate through thinking. If we’re lucky they even become spies. Hence our demon soldiers will always bring tablets along to communicate with them. Those troops that started out late learned about your whereabouts because of them. But I didn’t rely on the flying skeleton tribe and I found you all by my own eff-”

“Wow, they make really good poets. Who would’ve thought, looking at them?”

Murata made a really off-topic comment, cutting off Wolfram’s bragging. I gazed thoughtfully at the object in my hand and decided to try it out.

“Food, medicine, temporary shelters, milk powder and…”

“Just in case, why don’t we try this too?”

In front of everyone, Josak pulled a bird out from the front of his chest. It was a beautiful white pigeon with its wings folded.

“Wow, that’s so like Mr. Maric!”

“Hey, that’s not nice, Your Majesty! I’m Josak!”

“Come to think of it, this is the first time I saw a dove fly out from someone’s chest. Tokyo Magic Robinson is little jealous.”

Influenced by my friend’s envy, I shifted my eyes down and discovered that Josak’s right breast had gone flat. It seems like he used pigeons to pad up his chest.

Suddenly, Captain Sizemore turned back to stare at the medium sized ship that had just entered the harbor and reassumed his tough navy voice.

“I was wondering why there were such disturbing sounds of waves lapping. That's a Shimaron communications boat, isn't it?”

“Oh? Then they’re after us?! They sent out soldiers to get us?”

About ten days ago, we were still in Small Shimaron being treated as experiment samples. But Maxine aka Crop Pony, the ‘dog’ of the king of Small Shimaron, Saralegui, had used the wrong key to open the box, causing part of the unknown force to lose control and leading to a massive earthquake in the land. We managed to escape during the chaos, preparing ourselves for death any time while making our way here.

However, judging from the destruction there, I don't think that Small Shimaron would send soldiers after us. Maxine wasn't supposed to know that I was a king, after all.

“That’s Big Shimaron’s flag. I can never forget the war on the Sarafian Sea. They used an underhanded night attack. Thank goodness we managed to gather up our forces and burned up all those countless and hateful flags! Just thinking about the burning flags of the enemy ships all over the glowing red sea, even now it makes me shiver with excitement….. aah, Your Majesty, I’m so sorry! Seeing those hateful Big Shimaron ships make me lose myself.”

It seems like he is very easily excited.

“Flynn Gilbit has always been on the side of Big Shimaron, so there probably won’t be any trouble. However, why have they sent people over during this hectic time?”

“They have a green triangular flag so it means they’re ambassadors visiting various kingdoms. Yuuri, remember, even if we’re at war we never attack representatives. Ambassadors are neutral so everyone at sea is prohibited from attacking them.”

“Oh I see, so the Shounan Searex colors of their flag means ‘no attacking.’”

The medium sized ship slid smoothly into the harbor mouth, its light green triangular flag flapping underneath their yellow national flag. Maybe due to the expertise of the person steering the ship, their craft deftly avoided all the sunken ships at the harbor to reach shore.

Two very slim youths stepped elegantly down from the ship. They first reached out with their toes, followed by their heels, just like a bride walking down the aisle.

“Won’t it be bad if you don't hide your face? At least cover up your hair and eyes.”

I only noticed after Murata reminded me. I quickly pulled on Norman Gilbit’s silver-colored mask, strapping on the leather strap at the back of my head.

I must meet ambassadors from human countries in the role of Caloria’s appointed leader.

I don’t know if they were aware that the original leader Norman Gilbit had passed away. But as Flynn was resting now, only I, ‘the man in the iron mask,’ can represent Caloria in greeting ambassadors.

Josak and Sizemore moved to either side of me. As Wolfram was a little too much of a pretty boy to be human, I pushed him behind me with my elbow. Murata was behind me.

The two slim men floated towards me as if they were on clouds, then greeted me civilly. From their unenthusiastic tone and gestures, this was just a formality. But what made me tongue-tied was not their attitude, but the difference between our appearances.

“Wh-what beautiful hair.”

Men aren't very happy when you suddenly praise their hair. However….

“Thank you for your praise. Long hair is the pride of us soldiers of Big Shimaron. We nourish it everyday with egg yolk oil.”

There are humans who are happy.

At this moment Murata behind me interjected, “Free Dial: 0120-Shimaron Heishi wa minaronge-."

Say hello to Crop Pony for me.

In any case, with cropped ponytails the norm in Small Shimaron, it's interesting that in Big Shimaron they have long floating hair as the main hairstyle. Big and Small really are different. The places are not the same, the styles are not the same, even the water flow volume is different.

The two ambassadors, in the main colors of yellow and brown, had slightly curling light brown hair that reached the middle of their backs. Every hair was thin, soft and light. If they were in a battle in the jungle on a rainy day, it would be troublesome in a lot of ways.

Both of them had reddish-brown eyes that were merely presentable but lacked character.

“Are you the appointed leader of this colony of Shimaron – Norman Gilbit?”

I could only mumble my answer, in a tone that was neither too high nor low. The man on the right, the one in charge of explanations, irked me when he said ‘colony of Shimaron’, this was supposed to be Small Shimaron’s colony.

“The disaster this time seems to have brought you great damage. We representing Shimaron wish with all our hearts that you can recover soon.”

“Th... thank you.”

Upon hearing such a polite and formal tone, I, who had grown up in a normal family (and unacquainted with grand situations), did not know how to respond.

“Today we from Shimaron came especially to inform all Calorians of the opening ceremony of Big Shimaron’s 'Use your knowledge, speed and skill to win! The World’s Best Fighter Tournament!'”

“Huh?”

The ambassador was not annoyed at my response which had slipped out unwittingly; instead he repeated again, “It’s the opening ceremony of 'Big Shimaron’s 'Use your knowledge, speed and skill to win! The World’s Best Fighter Tournament!'"

This sounded like a swimming competition like those they organize for celebrities, and most participants would be female, I wonder if there would be any unintentional breast revealing?

“Hopefully under the leadership of Gilbit, skilled contestants can be found to represent Caloria the colony of Shimaron in this event.”

“What’re you talking about?! It’s not as easy as just opening a letter...”

But the duo with the floating hair had handed me a roll of rough paper after their speech, then turned and went back the way they had come. Maybe they were anxious to get to the other countries.

“... What is this elimination thing? This best under the whatever?”

“Ten times.”

Murata was scratching his chin in awe.

“What was ten times?”

“They number of times they mentioned Shimaron! If we include what they said in their farewell speech then it’ll have exceeded ten times.”

“Even if you calculate so precisely, there won’t be anyone to test you on that, you know.”

“Hmph, that’s the way most humans act.”

Wolfram, who I had pushed behind myself, sniffed disdainfully.

“They kept repeating it to remind you that this is their colony. They're trying to show off their authority using that kind of tightfisted method.”

“Wolf, it's bad to talk like that as an ex-prince, isn't it?”

“Oh, so you guys don't do that.”

Murata’s casual remark was completely innocent, but it sent a chill down my spine.

“It's simple, but it it’s also effective, right?”

“….Hmph!”

The angelic-looking pretty boy, the spoiled prince, was obviously losing his temper. Even if he didn’t speak, just standing next to him I could feel his temperature rising and his blood starting to boil.

“Yuuri!”

“Aah! Wh.. what is it?”

“You aren’t still thinking all that nonsense, are you? Listen to me, you’re going back to The Great Demon Kingdom this instant! You aren’t obligated to attend a ceremony for humans! Start acting like a king. There isn’t anything that makes me more ashamed to be from the same kingdom as you!”

“Stop venting at me! Not at me!”

The once proud and haughty Wolfram won't ridicule or comeback at Murata to his face. Although I couldn’t be sure, there seemed to be an unspoked, mutual understanding between them. No matter how sharp Murata’s remarks were, the third son would only vent his anger on me. When I secretly observe them, I find that there are times they won't even look each other in the eye.

Although Josak and Murata had met at the Gilbit family estate, Josak had greeted him with a 'Your Highness' or something I wasn't used to. And, he had adjusted himself to this world at an unusually quick speed. Seriously, he's Mr. Mystery.

Murata, who are you… who are you really?

I choke back the questions that came to me.

If I asked my friend this question then I would have to disclose all my secrets to him as well. If I suddenly proclaimed myself as the Demon King, he would not believe me just like any normal human being. And if I let him know that I was engaged to an 82-year old pretty boy, I had no idea how he would react. If he went back to Japan and spread this around, then I could lose any hope of ever getting a girlfriend, it would be a fate too horrible for me.

To reach this incoming (please come!) rosy teenage future, I would just have to contain my curiosity.

“P-participating or not...”

I unrolled the roll of paper that had been forced on me while talking in a voice that did not belong to ‘the man in the iron mask’. It was the voice of the wimpy new Demon King that was trying his best even in a foreign country.

“Caloria’s real leader is Flynn so we should ask for her opinion.”

“There’s no need to ask. We’re going home.”

“What’s the matter with him? He’s not small anymore, how come he misses home so much?”

Aah… that Japanese boy’s thoughtless remark was starting to make Wolfram’s blood boil again.

But if Murata found out his real age, he would be so shocked his glasses would fly off.

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