“Together!?”
“Yes, I want Reina-kun to be Sword’s bodyguard, and at the same time, aim to become a Holy Knight. That’s why I want you to spend time together.”
“Understood.”
“You just accept that!? Is that okay!?”
“Hmph! If it weren’t for Lord’s orders!”
For some reason, Zeke makes a frustrated face.
I don’t want to see an old man knight who’s about to be defeated.
Kenyya understands that this is the reason Zeke asked earlier.
Reina is accepting it surprisingly easily, and she even seems a little happy.
“Let’s organize our immediate goals. Starting today, Sword and Reina, head to the Aasgard Empire. I’ve arranged for an airship. Zeke, you need to stay as the representative of this country’s military. Tanaka-kun, cross the sea with Takemikazuchi. Zeke, you can arrange a ship, right?”
“Understood. I’ll make preparations.”
“I understand as well. Zeke-san, could you help with the retrieval?”
“W-wait a minute. Is this okay? Zeke-san, no, Papa.”
“You heard my answer earlier, didn’t you? Then it’s not for me, your parent, to interfere any further.”
For some reason, Zeke’s eyes are teary.
His daughter is suddenly leaving home and living with another man.
I’ve never had a daughter, but is this NTR?
“Sword… no, Kenyya. I’m counting on you to take care of Reina.”
“Yes!”
Kenyya replied to Zeke in a straight, loud voice.
He straightened his posture and was serious, because Kenyya knew that was sincerity.
“Well then, there’s nothing more to decide. The airship departs at 3 PM. You should arrive in the home country by night, you should leave now. I’ll be heading there too, but I have a Royal Family Custom Aircraft. We’ll meet again over there.”
And with that, the Nichia Alliance meeting for the day ended.
Tanaka went to his house to gather research materials for preparations.
I thought it might be dangerous, but it hasn’t spread yet within the military that Tanaka Issei is a resistance member.
If they investigate, they’ll find out soon enough, but on that day, no one except Zeke knew who Tanaka Issei was when they heard his name.
And Kenyya, who didn’t have much, finished his preparations.
Since he doesn’t have anything at his own house, he’s supposed to buy what he needs in the Aasgard Empire.
Reina had apparently anticipated this, so her packing was already complete.
“Well then, Papa. No, Zeke-san, I’m off!”
“Ah, I’m counting on you to take care of Reina. Although, I often return to the home country, so we’ll meet again soon.”
“Is that so? Then I’ll be staying at your place for a while.”
Apparently, Zeke has a mansion in the capital, Valhalla.
That’s actually the main residence, and this place is considered a villa.
Kenyya and Reina will be living in that main residence.
“Farewell for now, Reina.”
“Yes, Papa.”
Reina and Zeke also exchange greetings.
It feels a little lonely for a parent-child farewell, but it’s not a final goodbye, so it’s probably like this.
Besides, he seems like a doting parent, but since she’s adopted, their relationship might be complicated.
And then Kenyya and Reina head to the airship together.
As temporary siblings with the same silver hair.
At first glance, they look like close siblings.
Lord and Zeke see them off.
Lord, looking at their backs, speaks to Zeke, who is also looking at their backs.
“Zeke, how long are you going to keep it hidden? From Reina-kun.”
Lord knows about Zeke’s past.
He even grasps the reason why he’s hiding it, though it’s just speculation.
“Yes… It’s just because I don’t have the courage. I’m afraid that this relationship will break, so I still can’t make up my mind.”
“That doesn’t sound like something a man who almost destroyed the EU would say. Are you afraid to tell the truth?”
“…Right now, that child has sealed away her memories up to the age of 10. It might be better if she doesn’t remember, maybe both of us would be happier this way.”
Reina was picked up by Zeke as a war orphan.
At that time, she had closed her heart, and her emotions were dead.
She was trying to pretend it didn’t happen, as if sealing away her memories, to protect her heart.
“But someday her memories will return, whether it’s good or bad, because of Kenyya’s influence.”
“That’s right, I feel it too. That he’s gradually melting my daughter’s heart.”
Meeting Kenyya, her emotions trembled, and the ice melted.
The ups and downs of her emotions, which had stopped, became intense, and gradually Reina showed expressions, and finally even smiled.
That in itself is probably a very joyous thing.
But at the same time, it meant that Reina would remember her past.
“When my daughter remembers everything and faces it, I will talk too.”
“I see… She’s strong. She’ll surely accept it.”
“Yes… At that time, will we become a real parent and child, or will she reject me?”
“It’ll cause a rift in the Nichia Alliance. Please stop it? No infighting.”
“I don’t want that either. That’s right, if. If Reina knows everything. And if she still calls me Papa…”
Zeke stares in the direction of Reina, who is now far away and whose back can no longer be seen.
He looks up at the sky, tears welling up in his eyes, and makes a decision.
“I’ll go to visit the grave of my wife, and that child’s mother, Sakiko, together. As her real father by blood.”
…
“Wow, it’s just the sea.”
Kenyya and Reina are on the airship heading to the Aasgard Empire.
“Is this your first time seeing the sea?”
“No, it’s not my first time, but… it doesn’t change, does it?”
Reina, not fully understanding the meaning of Kenyya’s words, tilts her head in question.
“Hey, Reina. Which way is the Asian Union?”
“Uh, it’s southwest of Japan, so it’s that way. The direction we’re going is the Aasgard Empire.”
“So the world map is just like Earth. Well, it’s a game world, after all.”
“Game?”
“No, it’s nothing.”
And Kenyya looks out the airship window in the direction of the Asian Union.
The other heroine, the girl Kenyya risked his life to protect.
The girl who told him she loved him at that time, the girl Kenyya also loves dearly.
He thinks of Kurokami Kaguya.
◇Kaguya’s Perspective
“We’ve arrived… Kaguya, we’ve arrived.”
After crossing the sea by ship for a whole day, Kaguya and the others arrived at the edge of the Asian Union, and the largest nation in Asia.
They arrived in the country called Nakatake, which is said to be the leader of the Asian Union.
Nakatake was formed when the emperor of the time united many scattered countries into one nation.
And as time passed, the monarchy was abolished, and it became a democratic nation.
In terms of form, it is almost the same as the EU, with representatives of the people elected by elections taking command.
Therefore, all citizens are equal under the law.
However, in reality, the gap between rich and poor is severe, and those who have wealth continue to have wealth, making it a capitalist nation.
Rights are equal, wealth is unequal.
It cannot be said that making wealth equal is a good thing, but it was undoubtedly a country ruled by the power of money.
That is Nakatake, a huge nation with such a political and economic system.
In terms of countries, it is the second largest country after the Aasgard Empire.
“Welcome, people of Japan. And my fellow countrymen.”
At the port, those who greet Kaguya and the others are military personnel from the Asian Union.
A suspicious-looking civil official takes a welcoming pose with his large hands.
They know that Isshin and the others are coming today, and that Japanese resistance members are heading there one after another.
To put it nicely, they are comrades fighting together.
To put it badly, they are disposable pawns.
“Thank you for accepting the Japanese.”
Isshin shakes hands firmly.
“No, we also need to strengthen our forces urgently. We don’t know when the Aasgard Empire will bare its fangs again. We welcome you. We are comrades. Let’s fight together.”
(Hmph, what you want is pawns to fight to the death, how hypocritical.)
Even so, Isshin and the others have no choice but to accept it.
They know that if they are ordered, they will be sent to a place of death.
Now that the EU is about to fall, the only group of countries that can oppose the Empire.
They believe that joining the Asian Union is the only way to achieve Japan’s independence.
On this day, Isshin and the resistance group “Amaterasu” will be stationed as the Japanese army within the Asian Union.
In exchange, they are guaranteed food, clothing, and shelter.
Then, a girl steps in front of the civil official.
Slowly, firmly placing her feet on the ground, she raises her face straight.
“Nice to meet you. I am Kurokami Kaguya, and I have a request.”
“Hmm? What is it? Miss.”
“I will fight with my life on the line, I will train to the death and become strong. So… so please give me power, the power to fight. That country that took my brother, my precious people, and those guys from the Empire who took Kenyya from me, I will…”
Her eyes, red and swollen from crying, held a burning flame of revenge.
“I will never forgive them.”