Bonus Short Stories

The Five Princesses

I’m a Heavenly Beast, and my name is Kohaku. As one of the guardians of Brunhild, I take the form of a magnificent white tiger and stand by the side of my grand duke. Recently, however, Brunhild’s castle has become a fair bit noisier. That’s due to the arrival of various children, my lord’s daughters from some far-flung future.

“Oh, Kohaku. How are you?”

“Fine thank you, Princess.”

I was awoken from one of my couch-bound catnaps by Quun. She was the third princess of Brunhild, as far as I understood it. The daughter of my lord and Lady Leen. She always walked with a strange little Gollem named Parla in tow. Frankly, I felt a little uneasy around her... She was a princess, yet she spent most of her time in Babylon studying under that frightening doctor.

“Good morning, Kohaku.”

“Yo, Kohaku! Morning!”

“Good morning to you, Princesses.”

Lady Elze’s daughter, Elna, and Lady Linze’s daughter, Linne, both greeted me in their own ways. The two of them resembled their respective mothers, but their personalities couldn’t be further apart. Perhaps it was because their mothers were twins, but they were rarely seen apart from one another. And when they walked around with their mothers, the four of them looked like sisters. It was a rather entertaining sight.

“Morning, Kohaku...”

“Good morning. Did you remember to wash your face?”

“...Oh, I forgot...”

Lady Hilde’s daughter, Frei, looked over at me with very sleepy eyes. At my words, she turned on her heel and headed straight to the washroom. Her mother was a stoic and earnest type, but this girl was far more casual and carefree. Lady Hilde was very much a morning person, but that couldn’t be further from the truth when it came to Frei. That trait of hers was closer to her father’s, really. And just like her father, she still pushed herself to get up in the morning to do what she needed to do.

I decided to head toward the kitchen to get my breakfast when I suddenly saw my fellow Heavenly Beasts in the hallway. Kougyoku, Sango, Kokuyou, and Luli were all very timidly peeking into the kitchen...and I had a sinking feeling as to why.

“Are they at it again?”

“They sure are.”

Kokuyou promptly answered my question. I peeked into the kitchen along with all the others.

Lady Lucia was glaring at her daughter, Arcia, who glared right back.

“It’s cold this morning! Father would be better off having a spicy ginger pork soup with Napa cabbage! We need to use a hearty stock!”

“That might be good if you’re a child, Arcia, but your father ate a great deal at the gathering in Belfast last night. We’ll be making him a more watery consommé with regular cabbage, and that’s that.”

“Grrrrrrh!”

I couldn’t help but sigh.

“The two of them really can’t help but butt heads, can they?”

“You, of all people, dare say that, Kohaku?”

“Right? You and Luli butt heads just like that all the time.”

Both Luli and I moved to protest, but we simply sighed and stopped speaking. I was glad the subject was promptly dropped, though. I didn’t want to get roped into Luli hassling me again. I turned back to the kitchen and saw Lady Lucia hard at work on the soup, while Arcia was making something else. The two of them bickered, but thankfully, they never lingered long on it. Arcia was clearly just after her mother’s approval, anyway. If it was a real point of contention, then my lord would’ve stopped it by now.

“They really are like you two, you know.”

“They are not!”
“They are not!”

Luli and I were in full agreement on one thing, at least. We weren’t bickerers!

Mothers & Daughters

“Hup!”

“That’s right, keep it up!”

“Now look... Loop up through the bottom, see?”

“Oh! I got it!”

Elze and Linne were training on the field while Linze and Elna were knitting together off to the side. One might think the two were matched up with the wrong daughter, but things seemed fairly natural. The mothers were twin sisters, after all, so it stood to reason that they’d be very close with each other’s daughters.

When the training finally ended, Linne ran over to Linze and Elze came over to admire Elna’s knitting. It was quite the tender sight.

“Hm... I wonder about this situation, I do...”

“Ack! Where’d you come from?!”

I was looking over at Elze and the others with a smile on my face when Yae suddenly appeared by me out of nowhere. Behind her stood a grinning Hilde and a mostly confused-looking Frei.

Crap... They caught me looking on all sentimental-like!

Frei spoke up, saying something unintentionally mean-spirited.

“What’s the big deal? Father looks at us like that from afar all the time in the future. Sometimes, he even sniffles and cries.”

“What?!”

“He’s always worried about us getting married or leaving the castle, so he quietly keeps an eye on us while fussing to himself. It’s pretty lame.”

Man... I clearly have some issues, huh?

I tried to imagine giving my daughters away at the altar, but the thought was just too much for me to handle.

“Ghhh!”

“Good grief... That is just how our husband is, it is... How regrettable.”

“He’s getting ahead of himself, if you ask me.”

My wives couldn’t possibly understand the feeling that burned in my chest... Like it or not, it was something I could only share with Ende... But then I reconsidered, since Allis apparently had a thing for my son...and I didn’t want to invite the guy’s ire so early in the day.

“My daughter will be subjected to this as well, she will...”

“Maybe we should marry her off soon so you can stop worrying.”

“Huh?! But she’s not even born yet, technically! Gimme a break!”

Like hell was I going to let that happen... Our girls were barely women!

“The others and I are seventeen, we are. Sue-dono is thirteen, she is. Is that not soon enough for you?”

Ack! Stop using that against me! That’s not my fault! Ugh... Now I know how the overlord feels about Sakura... This is the worst... Maybe I should treat the poor sap a little better next time I see him.

“I wish my daughter would come here soon, I do...”

“Don’t worry so hard. She’ll come when she’s ready.”

“I am glad that you and Elze-dono can spend time with your daughters, Hilde-dono, but I must confess that I am jealous, I am.”

Hilde seemed a bit bewildered by Yae’s dejected response, so Frei butted in to save the day.

“Uhm... You’re my mother too, you know?! Why not train with me?”

Yae’s eyes suddenly went wide, a little smile overtaking her expression as she reached down to pat the girl on the head.

“You are a lovely girl, Frei.”

“He he he... Thanks...”

“Very well, then! Linne, Frei! I will fight you, I will! Have at thee!”

“H-Huh?! But... I don’t wanna train too haaaaard!”

Before Frei could voice further complaints, Yae grabbed her by the hand and bolted off toward Elze and the others.

“Glad to see her mood improve.”

“Indeed. It doesn’t matter who gave birth to whom. We’re all family here.”

Seeing all my wives and daughters get along so well really swelled my heart up with pride. I couldn’t help but smile...

But it was still too soon for my daughters to get married. I knew that for a fact.

Crafting Games

I’ve been playing a ton of video games lately. Partly because of the global situation. That’s right, I’ve cast my beloved board games aside to play stuff on my TV. It’s been fun since I can play them alone, and I can basically play them anytime I want. Sometimes I find myself up at odd hours in the morning just gaming... It’s hard to stop playing when you can tell yourself you’ll just do one more thing...

Recently, I’ve been super into a game called Dragon Quest Builders 2. It’s a crafting and building type of game, kind of like Minecraft. You might be thinking I’m late to the party, but this is actually my second time playing it. I originally bought the game for the Nintendo Switch, and I finished it back then. But now I’ve bought the PS4 version, so I started all over from scratch. I finished the story again, so I’ve just been building freely in Terra Incognita mode. I’ve just been building stuff and breaking stuff... Building stuff and breaking stuff... Over and over again.

The first sandbox building game I ever played was the famous Minecraft, but the first time I played it, I had no idea what was going on. When I realized nighttime was dangerous, I dug a hole in a cliff and hid between the rocks like a caveman. Unlike Dragon Quest Builders, Minecraft doesn’t really have a plot, so you can do whatever you want from the start. But there’s a serious risk there because new players have no real sense of direction.

I figured... Okay, I’ll build a house! So I managed to cobble together an ugly-looking one out of dirt and wood. Then I got wool from sheep, managed to make myself a bed...and bam, the night was no longer scary. I tilled the soil, made fields to grow food in... I dug through mountains for ore to make weapons and tools. It was all pretty simple stuff. Felt awfully repetitive, but I just couldn’t stop myself from doing it. Maybe I just have the kind of personality that’s suited to it.

I deduced that the best ore must be deep underground, so I just started digging down in a straight line...only to hit an open space and fall to my death. I’ve got some good early memories of accidentally digging too deep and dying in the magma below. I’ve been watching a ton of Minecraft videos lately and some of the ideas are really astounding. It makes me wonder how people even thought of crafting this stuff... There are ways people have found to express themselves that I never thought possible.

There were even some videos that explained how to build cool stuff in step-by-step processes, so I ended up copying them. It can be a bit hard to just use your imagination, so that came in handy. But I think it’s vital for creators, and people in general, to exercise their imaginations. That’s why I’m going to go back to my PS4 and learn to expand my horizons right now. For my job, that is. It’s important.