I Saved Too Many Girls and Caused the Apocalypse: Volume 12 Page 10
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After we met, the king of Laputa led us to her private quarters.
“We don’t get many visitors, you see... The reception hall has long since been demolished... and remodeled into a reference room. There is an audience chamber, but there are... no chairs there. Apologies... but you will have to settle for our room.”
“Certainly not. We should be thanking you just for inviting us in,” I replied graciously as I looked around her room, which was lined with stacks of books just like I’d expected.
“No one’s asked yet, but I have to... Paper hasn’t been invented in this era, yet? And it looks like these books were printed, not hand-copied. Talk about out of place...”
“Ahaha, silly Chelsea,” teased Sherlyn. “If you want to talk about out of place, how about the robots with optical camouflage? Not to mention the king is riding on a flying sphere...”
“Come to think of it... Why is that foreigner wearing the royal crown of Atlantis and not Nyanyan?” asked the king as she studied the laughing Sherlyn carefully.
“Well, you see...”
There, I explained the whole situation to the king of Laputa.
“Hmm... Unexpected visitors from the future, huh?”
“These guys are a little strange in the head. All this talk about Atlantis sinking and stuff... Just ignore them.”
The king of Laputa appeared relatively unfazed by our story, but Nyanyan clearly still didn’t believe us.
“It’s true... The threat of Atlantis sinking cannot be taken lightly. We shall conduct... our own investigation.”
“Thank you.”
“Not at all... If Atlantis were to sink, it would involve Laputa too, after all.”
“...?”
It would? Like, she’d be sad to lose her only neighbors? Come to think of it... This raises a question. Atlantis was gone in the time period we’d come from, but what about Laputa? I’d never seen or read anything about a flying island, which had to mean...
“Gosh, that’s enough of Rekka’s weird chitchat for now! What’s really important here is dealing with Uncle Boboza’s coup d’état!” Nyanyan, who had been impatiently waiting through our whole conversation, yelled as she waved her arms. She then reached out and grabbed the king’s arm. “King Laputa, I’m begging you. Please save me. There’s nothing I can do by myself...”
“Hmm...” The king fell pensively silent for a spell. “That... would be a little difficult.”
“What?!” Nyanyan whined in shock.
The king’s expression remained unchanged, but she muttered, “Bothersome...”
“What is that supposed to mean?!”
“It was... a joke.”
Huh? Was the king actually a joker? Her still-emotionless expression was starting to unnerve me a little...
“However... it’s true that forcibly interfering with the politics of Atlantis is... undesirable.”
“Politics? Boboza is only doing this out of his lust for power, you know?”
“Violence... can be a part of politics, too. While Boboza’s methods may not be pleasant... the real problem is you, Nyanyan.”
“M-Me?!” she nearly shrieked at the sudden accusation.
“Nyanyan... Firstly, you are too young. You are still a little unreliable to serve... as a ruler.”
“Th-That’s... But if you would help me and—!”
“Why should I?”
“Wh-What...?”
Being questioned so seriously, Nyanyan was at a loss for words.
“K-King Laputa, you’ve always doted on me since I was little, haven’t you? So why would you betray me now?!”
“This is no... betrayal. It is true that we are friends, but that will still be true... even if you do not become the ruler of Atlantis.”
“But why shouldn’t I be?!”
“Boboza has ambition... He is a capable politician. He also excels at the art... of seizing people’s hearts. As the younger brother of the previous king, he also has the ability to use the space-time stitching technology... should he be so taught. So, Nyanyan... are you or are you not more fit to rule than he is?”
“Grr...”
“Do not growl at us. If Boboza were to aim for your life, then we would save you. However, we do not feel it necessary to interfere in Atlantis’s domestic affairs... in order to see you crowned.”
“B-But...!”
“Let us ask you this.” Her expression never even wavering, the king leaned in and peered into Nyanyan’s eyes. “Nyanyan... Once you become king, what will you do? Or are you simply under... the mistaken impression that you get to be king... just because you’re the princess?”
“...”
“Were we... a little too harsh?”
Looking down at the dumbstruck Nyanyan, the Laputian king apologized without looking particularly affected.
“W-Wait a minute, please,” I said, speaking up after the two of them had fallen silent.
“What is it?” the king asked, turning to look at me in a rather mechanical fashion.
“Didn’t you just say yourself that Nyanyan is young? We have no way of knowing what she’ll be like as a ruler, right?”
“Young or not, a ruler is a ruler. A kingdom will fall apart... without a competent king.”
“But until she becomes an adult, the people around her can help her rule.”
“You...” Nyanyan murmured, rubbing her teary eyes as she looked up at me.
“Hmm...” the king mumbled, looking up into the air. “There is truth in your words... Yet there is still no reason for us to interfere directly.”
Dang. That was probably my best shot at persuading her, but it was still a no-go, huh? I was just about ready to give up all hope, when...
“Let us see... If you people can afford our assistance... we might consider helping out... a little.”
“Really?!” I leaned forward in excitement and asked.
The king nodded.
“Well? What’s the price?”
“We wish for a surprise,” the king replied plainly.
“You want to be surprised?”
“Indeed. We would like to be shown something that will surprise us... but it need not be a physical item,” she said before spreading her arms wide. “This is the Great Library of the Heavens. Laputa’s raison d’être is to go around the world and collect knowledge.”
“You collect knowledge?”
I’d believe it after seeing all the books in this place...
“But a surprise is the price for your assistance?”
“After living for 300 years, it has become more difficult to find new and fresh knowledge. As a result... we have gradually lost our emotions and passion. We can barely remember how to make expressions anymore. That is why... we’d like you to show us something... that might move our heart?”
“Why was that last part in question form?”
Whatever. At least her request was simple enough. Now we just had to come up with something to surprise her.
“Okay, let’s start with the basics,” I said as I dug through my pocket and pulled out my phone.
“What’s that?”
“A cellphone.”
Surely the guaranteed answer was whipping out technology from the future. I’d seen how Chirika reacted to the television.
“A tool? What does it do?”
“It has various functions, but its main purpose is to talk people who are far away.”
“Communication at a distance?”
The king cocked her head to the side for a moment before pulling a cord from the sphere she was sitting on and holding it up to her mouth.
“YS-8, suspend operations and come to our location,” she ordered in a quiet voice.
A few moments later, a single librarian puppet entered the room. It walked by everyone, right up the king, and then halted.
“We are familiar with communication at a distance... It is nothing new to us.”
“Ugh...”
“Why a
re you groaning?”
I guess I had to concede that the king already had technology that outclassed anything I personally had access to. A mere cellphone wasn’t gonna cut it.
“Iris, Shirley... You too, Rain. Do you guys have anything that might surprise the king?” I asked, turning to the three aliens in our group.
“I don’t... What about you two?” Rain said with a shake of her head, looking to the other two girls.
“I may or I may not. Who’s to say what might surprise her?” mused Shirley.
“Ooh, ooh! Rekka, I have a laser gun!” volunteered Iris.
“Laser?” the king inquired.
“Maybe you’d call it optical weaponry. See, it works like this...”
“Wait, Iris! No! Don’t fire it in here!”
And so we went around, pulling out one thing after another that we thought might surprise the king. But...
“We’ve seen... this before.”
“We know... this one.”
“We could... make that.”
Her responses were all pretty much the same. This was turning out to be tougher than expected... Even when we showed her items from the future, she’d either made something similar herself already or grasped the concept and mechanics so quickly that it hardly passed as a surprise. And that went doubly so for magic. She apparently could see the flow of mana better than most people, allowing her to see through Satsuki and Harissa’s magic while they were chanting their spells. There was no way we were gonna surprise her like that.
“All right... Then how about this?”
I gestured with my arm, directing the king’s gaze to Corona.
“Hm?”
She placed her fingers against her chin as she looked at Corona, transformed into full-on Demon King mode with horns, tail, and all.
“A demon, huh? How rare... The demon and human worlds should have separated a fairly long time ago... actually.”
“Wait, you know about demons too?!”
“I have read of them, yes...”
Seriously? That must mean they used to exist in this world too. I mean, I guess that wasn’t all that unbelievable considering we had vampires and whatnot. But I was sure meeting a Demon King in person would be enough to surprise her...
“Sorry I couldn’t live up to your expectations.”
“No, it wasn’t your fault, Corona.” I consoled a disappointed Corona, then made my next move. “Next is a double whammy! Here we have... an angel and a mermaid together! How’s that?!”
“We’re familiar with these also.”
“Bwaaah!”
Shot down instantly...
“If she didn’t know about angels, wouldn’t she have been surprised the moment I got here anyway? It’s not like I hide my halo and wings!” commented the ever-carefree Rachelle.
“It was a little embarrassing bringing out my tail on land...” said Rain, slightly blushing for some reason.
“Wait... a minute.”
There, the king approached the two of them atop the flying sphere she rode. Just as I was wondering what she was up to, she suddenly started to pet Rachelle’s wings and Rain’s tail together.
“Oooh!”
“Eek!”
I just had to look the other way...
“What are you doing all of a sudden? Three seconds of contact, max!”
“Um, my tail is a lot more sensitive on land, so please don’t touch it...”
“Forgive us... Although we know of you, we have never touched the real thing before, so...” After apologizing, the king returned to her original position. “Well? What will... you show us next?”
“Hmm...”
I crossed my arms and sat down, thinking about what to do next. Sherlyn then walked over without warning and mussed my hair.
“Hey!”
“Rekka, you’ve been frowning for a while now,” she said, curling her lips into a grin.
“I just don’t know how we can surprise the king... She knows everything.”
“Oh? You’re mistaken there.”
“Huh?”
Sherlyn’s unexpected rebuttal made me reflexively look up at her.
“She said it didn’t have to be a physical object or some kind of knowledge, right? She just said she wanted a surprise.”
Yeah, that’s right... At some point, I’d gotten fixated on the knowledge part and narrowed my field of vision without realizing it.
“You know, the secret to surprising people with magic tricks is to show them something that makes them wonder how you did it.”
“...”
The trick is in making them wonder how it’s done... Thinking about it carefully, the reason why we couldn’t surprise the king of Laputa was because she already understood everything we were trying to show her. But Sherlyn was right. Magic tricks were all about the delivery. The result could be simple enough; surprise was in how it happened. And once my mind was on surprises, I couldn’t help recalling my biggest surprise of the day. Something that had nearly made my heart leap out of my chest...
“That’s right. With her...”
I excitedly leaped to my feet, fueled by a new idea about how to surprise the king.
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“Hm? What is this?”
“It’s fine, it’s fine. Just stand right there.”
I got the king to come down from her sphere and stand in front of her desk.
“Okay, so... First, look at this.”
“An iron box?”
“Put something you don’t mind being cut into it.”
“Something that can be cut?”
“Yeah. Put whatever it is in the iron box, and Chirika will cut it from over there.”
I gestured over towards Chirika, who was being awfully standoffish... I wished she’d be a little more sociable.
“We can see what looks like some type of sword at her waist... Judging from her outfit, she’s Oriental. And you say she’ll cut the iron box?” the king asked, observing Chirika.
“No, she’s only going to cut what’s inside the box. And from a distance, at that.”
“...Oh?”
She sounded the slightest bit interested this time.
“YS-8, bring us the item on the third shelf of that case over there.”
She then ordered the puppet that came in earlier to retrieve what looked like a bottle from one of the many bookcases in the room.
“Is that a ship in a bottle?” I asked.
“We made it out of... boredom,” said the king as she placed it inside the iron box.
“Are you sure?” I asked. “Doesn’t it take a while to make one of those?”
“It’s fine. There will... be more boredom.”
Well, if she insisted... I closed the lid of the box and placed it on the desk behind the king.
“Okay, Chirika. We’re all ready to go.”
“I don’t appreciate you treating my swordcraft like some kind of street performance...”
Chirika let out a heavy sigh as she readied her blade. Then a serious look flashed in her eyes, and...
Clink!
The next thing I knew, her katana was back in its sheath.
“...Huh? What? Is it over?”
“Yeah.”
The stance she’d taken was different from what she’d used at my house, but I guess the move had variations.
“She cut it already?” the king asked, blasé as could be.
Wow, what a reaction... or lack thereof.
“Let’s open it up and see!” I excitedly cracked open the box and took out the bottle, but... “Huh? It’s not cut?”
At first glance, the ship inside the bottle was exactly as it was before.
“Chirika, did you, uh... fail?”
“Fool. Look closer. At the flag pole.”
“The flag pole... Wait, you mean the mast?”
I looked down again, and sure enough...
“Only the flag at the top is cut!”
“It is a beautifully made piece, after all.
I thought the flag should be easy enough to fix.”
“Wait, you actually aimed for it?”
“Listen here. The Silkworm Slash is a technique that can cut a silkworm in its cocoon. Just how big do you think a silkworm is?” Chirika replied in exasperation.
Now that she mentioned it, a silkworm was only about as big as my thumb. But this was even more incredible than that. She’d cut a tiny piece of a delicate model that was in an iron box behind a person. The Silkworm Slash was really as amazing and precise as Rosalind had said... Wait, I wasn’t supposed to be the one who was surprised here! The real question was what the king thought of it.
“Just now, that wasn’t magic... How did you do it?”
She was peering intently into the bottle, her cheeks faintly flushed and her eyes sparkling. She then patiently scoured the iron box to make sure there wasn’t some kind of trick to it. Naturally, she didn’t find any evidence of the sort.
“Girl... Just now, what did you do?”
“I’m no mere ‘girl.’ I’m a samurai. That was a secret technique of my sword school—a human skill. Don’t lump me together with sorcerers and demons.”
“A human skill? We see...”
The king carefully turned over the bottle in her hands again before calling over YS-8.
“Take this to the safe... Carefully.”
YS-8 didn’t nod or anything, but it carefully carried the ship in a bottle away as instructed.
“Well, what do you think, Your Majesty?”
“Indeed... You have shown us something good,” she said, climbing back on her sphere to be eye level with me. “Going around the world, constantly gathering knowledge... Sometimes it makes us worry that perhaps... there’s nothing left that could surprise us.”
I guess that was an understandable worry considering she’d amassed all kinds of knowledge that shouldn’t even be available for 1,500 years to come. The invention of the telephone and airplane were historical turning points for mankind, but she was completely disinterested by them. And she was up here all alone, literally flying over the heads of people baffled by the very idea of flight. Yeah, I could understand her worries.
“But as it turns out... We sometimes forget how much of a surprise people can be. Perhaps we have underestimated people... in a way. You have indeed shown us something good.”