5. Power is Justice

The next morning, after eating the breakfast that Miss Micah made for us, we headed for the capital of Radzuel. I’d thought we’d be taking a carriage, but Lord Royz said he’d turn into a dragon and carry us there...!

“I did a lot of freight carrying before I became Emperor,” he explained, pulling a horseless ten-seat carriage from his Item Box. Apparently, we couldn’t bring horses because they’d be scared. Before changing forms, he warned, “I’m gonna transform, but don’t get too surprised, okay?”

He had a long, snake-like body, a mane like a horse, and legs in the same spots as a lizard. I’d never seen anything like it. The dragons in fairy tales had big wings...

“So you’re an eastern-style dragon instead of western, huh,” said Lord Glen.

Lord Royz smirked. “I’m the only dragonman who looks like this. Everyone is amazed because I can fly without wings.”

“Huh? You can fly?” I asked, shocked, only to get a strong nod in return.

“Come on, hop in!”

Lord Glen, Miss Micah, and I, plus the four guardian knights, the box holding the cutting, and Ele on top of it all piled into the carriage... Lord Royz picked it up with us inside, placed it on his palm, and flew up into the sky. It was so strange how we were in a carriage, but weren’t shaking...

“You can see the clouds~” Miss Micah pointed out.

I looked out the little window and saw that there were a bunch of white clouds floating in the blue sky. So we’re high enough to be at the same level as the clouds we usually look up at! Looking down, the trees on the mountains were withered, turned brown and yellow. You could also see a light dark-colored mist covering the ground. The same dark-colored mist was also floating around the fields in the distance, so everything there must’ve been dead, too. There were also some people walking around, but just the immediate area around them didn’t have any dark mist.

“Everyone carries around their Spirit Tree shard~ But the area of effect keeping the miasma away is really small,” Miss Micah explained, pulling out her own shard. “A shard this tiny can only protect Micah~ The knights beside me wouldn’t get any protection.”

The knights balked at her words. None of us had Spirit Tree shards. Won’t we be consumed by the miasma once we land?

«Though there is a cutting here, as well...I have given you a Spirit Tree bracelet. That should repel the miasma of a space about the size of this dragon.»

That was about the size of Lord Royz’s home. I looked at the bracelet on my wrist when Ele mentioned it, and it sparkled. But apparently, Miss Micah couldn’t understand Ele in his kitten form. Her eyes widened in surprise when I explained what the bracelet could do.

“That’s amazing~! No one else would have anything like that! Branches from Spirit Trees just break when you bend them. I can’t believe one was made into a circle like that~!” she said, getting heated up. “With that, your knights should be protected from the miasma~ They’ll be able to fight without worrying~!”

The four knights in the carriage all relaxed when they heard this.

“I hope we can plant it soon. It’d keep the miasma out of the area, so I want to do it as soon as possible.”

Ele nodded. «Because I must protect this branch, I cannot purify the miasma. I also want this to be planted quickly.»

While we were talking, we came close enough to see the imperial capital. It was amazing how we managed a fifteen-day carriage ride in half a day by flying! Unlike the capital of Chronowize, the imperial capital wasn’t enclosed.

“There are no walls?” I asked, getting a nod back from Miss Micah.

“Since strength is number one in Radzuel, the strongest people have lived on the outskirts of the capital. Then, they’d show their strength by defeating monsters and criminals who came here~ There’ve never been any walls, since they were basically begging to be attacked.”

So the capital was protected by strong people rather than walls. I was surprised at how different their thoughts were from us back in Chronowize.

In the middle of the capital was a strange looking castle with a round roof and a big dueling stadium. There weren’t any high walls around the castle, either. How do they protect the Emperor, then?

When I asked, Miss Micah answered again, lifting a finger as she explained, “The Emperor is the strongest person in Radzuel, so they don’t need to be protected. You’ve gotta challenge them to a fair and square duel if you wanna fight them. There’s absolutely no surprise attacks allowed!”

“What would happen if someone did try it, though?” Lord Glen asked.

She grinned. “If someone won because they launched a surprise attack, every citizen in the empire would chase them to the ends of the earth and beat ’em up~!”

It seemed that despite her soft exterior, Miss Micah liked fighting.

Lowering the carriage down into the castle’s courtyard, Lord Royz changed back to demi-human form. And once we all got out of the carriage, it disappeared, as if it’d been waiting.

After we’d landed, various people gathered around us. They were all staring at Lord Royz in shock. After a bit of time, the crowd parted, and a very large man came through. There were cute round ears poking out from his short hair, and it, his eyes, and his clothes were all brown. It was the Current Emperor Bearsley, looking just as he had in the portrait.

“Royz, huh,” he said, glaring at the former Emperor.

“Been a while, huh, Bearsley?” Lord Royz was looking down at him, smiling like a demon lord would. I was a little surprised at how different it was from his usual smirk, but it suited him.

“The hell are you here for? If you’ve got any complaints, tell me ’em after you win our duel. Oh wait, you won’t be winning anything with a body like that!” Lord Bearsley laughed loudly, just like a villain in a story.

“My illness has been cured.”

“What?! It wasn’t something that could be cured! Stop lyin’!”

“You’ll see once we fight. So, I challenge the current Emperor Bearsley to a duel!” The crowd buzzed with excitement after he announced it. “You’re in way over your head. I can’t retire like this.”

Most of the people looked happy, but some were averting their gazes, and others were fidgeting restlessly.

“Fine. It’s my duty as Emperor to accept any challenges to duels. Let’s get to the stadium!”

At his declaration, the entire crowd headed towards the duel stadium. Just as I was about to join the crowd, Lord Glen grabbed my hand.

“Let’s hold hands so we don’t get separated.”

I readily agreed, since I was a bit scared about all the tall adults around.

“Hm? For some reason, there’s no miasma around us,” someone in the crowd said, triggering a chain of confused muttering from the others. Since we had both the box with the cutting and my Spirit Tree bracelet, the area around us was clear of the dark mist. Some of the people made the connection that our group was in the center of the miasma-free zone, and looked at us with shock.

“I will be the referee,” a well-dressed dog-eared man announced as we arrived at the stadium, standing between Emperor Bearsley and Lord Royz. “The duel will be between the current Emperor and the former Emperor. If there are any objections, speak now.”

None of the people gathered stepped forward, continuing to just watch.

“It seems that there are no objections. I will explain the rules.”

The rules were very simple. You’d lose if you admitted defeat, lost consciousness, or left the bounds of the stadium.

“The final rule is that the match will be ruled invalid if one side dies. Are you ready?” the referee asked.

Emperor Bearsley transformed into a bear, while Lord Royz stayed humanoid.

“Let’s go.”

“Just you try, you convalescent!” roared Emperor Bearsley.

“Oh, that’s right. I might just be getting over my illness, but...I’m not gonna go easy on you,” Lord Royz said, smiling his demonic smile with his hands on his hips. The Emperor drew the sword from his hip, standing ready.

“Start!”

Emperor Bearsley charged as soon as the referee said the word. You could hear the thunk of his footsteps, so he must have been quite heavy.

Lord Royz, on the other hand, stayed exactly where he was, deflecting the sword with one hand while grabbing the bear by the throat and lifting him. Then...he threw him. Far. I was shocked at how easily he was flung... How far is he gonna go?

While I was there surprised, Emperor Bearsley flew outside of the stadium, landing with a bang. As he did, some people rushed outside.

The referee bowed reverently to Lord Royz. “Lord Bearsley is out of bounds... The winner is Emperor Royz!”

As the stadium erupted in cheers, Lord Royz pumped his fist into the air. “I’m the Emperor now! From now on, I’m gonna increase the number of Spirit Trees in the country, and make it even better! Get ready!” he yelled.

All at once, the crowd ran to him, gathering around him.

“Kyaa!” I cried, nearly crushed by the rushing crowd.

That was when Lord Glen pulled me close, protecting me. My heart sped up, beating loudly at the sudden gesture. He held me like that for a while as the stampede died down. After that, we started hearing drums and flutes from somewhere. Looking over to where the sounds were coming from, we saw a big palanquin pass overhead. Lord Royz got on it, striking a strange pose before he was carried towards the castle.

I was gawking, not really understanding what just happened, and Lord Glen looked down at me.

“That was a lot, huh?”

When I nodded, he let me go, grabbing hold of my hand again.

The crowd scattered in all directions, yelling things like “Time for a festival!”, “Things’re gonna get busy!”, and “We’ve gotta get ready now!”

Miss Micah was smiling happily, hands on her hips. “Let’s all get going to the castle~!”

Staring at the palanquin carrying Lord Royz in the distance, we headed in the direction of the castle.

＋＋＋

Once we arrived at the castle, someone came to guide us to the meeting room. All the while, Lord Glen and I kept holding hands.

Entering the room, we saw that Lord Royz was sitting in the farthest seat, while various other beastmen surrounded him. They were all speaking to him reverently about something or other.

“The ones in yellow are civil officials, and the ones in red are with the military~” Miss Micah explained from where she stood behind us.

After some time, the beastmen finished their conversation and Lord Royz finally looked up at us.

“You all must have known, but I was ill. The ones who cured me were Prince Glenarnold and Lady Chelsea—from the neighboring country of Chronowize! If not for them, I wouldn’t have been able to retake the throne! Treat them as honored guests!”

All of the officials turned to look at us, each with different expressions. One gave us a short bow, another stayed straight-faced, another smirked, and one even glared down at us in disdain. Other than that, there was one who frowned and another who smiled welcomingly.

I started shaking, scared of all of the different stares we were getting, but Lord Glen gave our linked hands a little squeeze. The reminder that I wasn’t alone gave me a bit of comfort.

“So how long are you going to have us standing around here?” Lord Glen asked, heaving a big sigh.

“Sorry about that. Make ’em feel welcome!”

At Lord Royz’s words, a servant-like beastman reluctantly brought us some chairs. We both sat down, but Miss Micah stayed standing diagonally behind us.

“...Looks like there are a lot more baddies here than there were three years ago~” she murmured.

“So we’re behind enemy lines, huh...” muttered Lord Glen quietly.

“Why are the two of them in the meeting room?”

First to speak up was the straight-faced deer-eared civil official. Then, a rabbit-eared military official continued, frowning.

“Do you plan to take a play out of Bearsley’s book and listen to foreign humans?”

“These two are necessary to the Radzuel Empire’s recovery. There’s no way my Sage-level [Appraisal] would be wrong.”

The rabbit-eared official closed his lips tightly, bowing his head at Lord Royz’s response.

“Anyone else have any problems with this?”

“S-Shouldn’t we handle recovery ourselves instead of relying on inferior humans from other countries...?” A fox-eared civil official argued, shaking like a leaf as he did. At his words, several others spoke up, agreeing.

“What’s a dummy fox like that doing as an official~ ...Bearsley must’ve appointed him. I can’t believe it~!”

I could tell that Miss Micah really didn’t like the fox-eared official...

“Then you can go get more Spirit Trees for us,” Lord Royz told him, resting his chin on his hands.

“...All of the Spirit Trees within our borders have been destroyed, so... Um...”

“And how do you expect us to fix that without relying on other countries? Without the trees, we’re not gonna get any Spirits here to purify the miasma. Your parents must’ve told you that much when you were a kid. Even orphans know the story.” Lord Royz took a deep breath before quietly continuing, “Give it a rest. I’ve no need for people who just wanna look down on others and complain without offering any solutions of their own. Get out of my castle.”

The room went silent at his words, and the fox-eared official (still shaking like a leaf) was thrown out of the meeting room by a soldier. After that, every official who had agreed with him was told to leave as well. In the end, the only ones left were the straight-faced deer-eared civil official and the rabbit-eared military official. Once all of the others were gone, they bowed deeply to both Lord Glen and me.

“Finally, some peace and quiet,” Lord Royz said, taking a breath.