第１２５１堀：思い出してください彼女のことを (Part1)
Chapter 1251: Please Remember Her
Side: Yuki
"Kagura. I spoke with the Viscount, and it seems the 'Spirit Maiden' issue is the biggest bottleneck after all."
I brought up the concerns I’d heard from the Viscount earlier that day during our dinner, with everyone gathered around the table.
"I figured as much. The Princess is struggling with that too. How about at Stasia’s end?"
"Yes. My father and my younger brother also consider that the primary obstacle."
Stasia nodded in agreement with Kagura’s words.
Incidentally, I’d had yakiniku for lunch, so I’d kept my portion light. Even though I hadn’t eaten that much, I still hadn’t managed to digest it by dinner. Meanwhile, Tori and the others, who had been there for lunch as well, were shoveling food into their mouths with carefree expressions.
We’re the same age, so why is that? Is it just that I can’t handle things when work gets involved?
As I lamented the inadequacy of my own stomach, Mikos and Enora joined the conversation.
"It can't be helped, really. At my father’s place, you never get a chance to see a Spirit Maiden, and there are so many people here who are considered rare on that level."
"Mikos, it’s not just about them being a novelty. The problem is the fear that people might try to buy them as slaves or drag them away by force."
"Ah, right. Well, my dad did say he’d love to have someone like Shera visit at least once. I guess the name value of a 'Spirit Maiden' really is something else."
"I see. So Baron Jama at your place has those kinds of hopes, too. Well, the Baron has been good to us. Should we consider something like that?"
We’ve been allowed to set up an airbase in Baron Jama’s territory. We provide various forms of support in return, but that’s mostly limited to things like developing local specialties. If there’s a request to send beastmen over...
"Yuki, please, don't even think about it. Sending beastmen to the New Continent carelessly would be a recipe for total chaos."
"She’s right. If you aren't careful, 'special' stops being 'special,' and it’ll lead to a massive uproar—or rather, a disaster."
"True. Adjusting those kinds of expectations is crucial, then."
If I were to accidentally shatter their common sense and end up causing the persecution of the goblin village or the demi-humans, that would be a major problem. It would be entirely counterproductive if the places we wanted to investigate became inaccessible.
"Come on, what is the perception of the beastmen currently here among the Haire Church, Haiden, and Findall?"
I hadn’t actually confirmed this until now. We’d been too busy cleaning up after the chaos.
"For now, Haiden is 'hands-off.' We’ve strictly warned the nobles who come for tours, and it’s not like they could hide someone and smuggle them out through Weed’s immigration control, right?"
She’s right. Smuggling slaves out by bypassing Weed’s immigration is impossible. After all, we don’t just check at the gates; we use dungeon functions to instantly scan everyone’s belongings. Bags that block magic are flagged for inspection, and there’s no way to sneak a person through. If we didn't do that, the risk of my wives and children being kidnapped would skyrocket.
"What about your side, Stasia?"
"Findall is also mostly hands-off for now. However, we do treat the beastmen and Spirit Maidens here as 'similar but different' from those in the New Continent, and we make sure to drill that into anyone coming here."
"Similar but different, huh? Is that because they were born in the New Continent?"
"Yes. We emphasize that they are only Spirit Maidens and warriors *because* they were born on that land."
"Well, that’s not entirely wrong. The fact that they were born at all in an environment where the solidification of magic is inhibited means there must be a reason for it."
As I said that while looking at Enora, everyone’s gaze shifted to her.
"Eh? Me?"
"Yeah. It’s a bit late to bring it up, especially with Havia’s health check coming up, but maybe we should take this opportunity to give Enora a thorough examination as well."
"Ah, I see. If we can unravel that mystery, it could lead to an increase in Spirit Maidens in the New Continent in the future."
"Yeah, it should be possible. If we can solve it. Though, I’m sure that will bring up issues regarding vested interests and the like."
Exactly. Meddling with established interests is the kind of thing that can lead to war. It’s not something to be touched lightly. So, for now, I’m just aiming for the level of "it would be nice if we could figure out the cause."
"True. As Yuki and Kagura said, it’s a welcome prospect for us as individuals, but ultimately, it will inevitably affect those who have been exploiting the existence of us Spirit Maidens—for better or worse. I think we need to discuss that very carefully."
"So it comes back to that, after all."
"Because that’s not something we can just push forward on our own. By the way, what is the status of communication with the Seasypho Kingdom? How is Lady Menou?"
For a moment, I didn't know what they were talking about, but then I remembered: that was the country that had asked us to move our military into Haiden to solve their shipping problems. Menou is a former Japanese office lady and career woman who is now throwing her weight around as an advisor to Queen Emerald in the Seasypho Kingdom. It seems she died of overwork and was reincarnated. Her original knowledge wasn't quite enough to pull off the "cheat-level" internal administration that Taiki or I could, but she still successfully increased the nation's power through things like developing soap and firearms.
...I definitely don't think of her as a degraded version of Taizou-san.
Anyway, putting that aside, regarding Menou...
"No, I haven't had much contact with her lately. She should be at the embassy, though..."
"Menou-san is working diligently at the embassy every day."
"Indeed. Since we work at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, we see Menou quite often."
Souta-san and Enol-san, who were drinking their miso soup with gusto, answered for me. Since today was also meant to be a report on the "lunchtime discussion," I had them join us. I know, it’s a bit odd to talk about work during dinner, but we’re short on time, and they agreed to it, so it’s fine.
Well, I should make sure they get some proper time off later. No, no, I need to listen to what they have to say in detail right now.
"So Menou is working normally, then."
"Yes. It seems she’s been having quite a few discussions with the Solo side as well."
"Yeah, yeah. You know, Yuki-sensei, you mentioned that since they have a great port, they should focus on fish, right? It seems they’re making a killing off that now."
"““Ah.””"
At Mikos’s words, everyone understood.
Come to think of it, the Seasypho Kingdom’s greatest strength is that it’s a major power with access to the sea. It’s not just a small country doing things on a whim; they’re using their navy and treating it as a national project, so they have a lot of flexibility with their catch. I *did* tell them to make use of that.