Chapter 49: Please Don’t Fight Over Me

Galdeia Kingdom and Meldeia Kingdom.

There were indeed many factors that overlapped to cause the split of these two countries from their original unified status. But among those factors, the one that is considered to be the biggest one is the discord between King Matteus—Meldeia’s founder—and the Church.

Matteus, who had been the younger brother of the Galdeian king and held the status of a Duke, had been long discontent with how much political power the priests of the Church held.

However, the Galdeian king of the time was in a very close relationship with Abigail, the Head Priest of the time. Matteus’ repeated warnings continued to fall on deaf ears.

In spite of that, on the surface they still seemed to be getting along fine. But then a certain issue came up which brought their confrontation out into the open.

It was the person who was summoned from another world in order to become the king’s bride. The young girl was summoned with the aim of further cementing the relationship between the Church and the kingdom, but what ended up happening was the Galdeian king and Matteus engaging in a very public and bloody fight over her.

In the end, the country split into two, between the nobles and priests following the traditional Church and those agreeing with Duke Matteus’ vision.

Land, king, people, church, priests. Everything was divided.

There are several theories as to why Duke Matteus rebelled and started a war for the sake of a single teenage girl.

Mere pity for a girl is not enough to move a man to take actions that he knows would break the country apart.

Though some would like to believe the highly romantic theory that he had fallen in love with the girl, but Duke Matteus had already been married by that time, and there are no historical records of him taking the young girl as a concubine afterwards.

The only thing that could be said for sure is that it was the ritual to summon a bride that triggered the series of events that led to the country splitting apart.

Because of this, the bride summoning ritual has long become taboo in not only Meldeia, but also Galdeia.

But now.

At a certain village on the border between Galdeia and Meldeia, the king of Galdeia—King Richard—and the first prince of Meldeia—Prince Heinz—are fiercely glaring at each other.

——Over a teenage girl, as if history is about to repeat itself.

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“Who the hell are you calling a teenage girl?!”

In the clear skies over a tranquil village echoes a tsukkomi from a Japanese who had wandered into this otherworld, Akechi Ryouko-san (24 years old).

“That surprised me. What’s the matter, Ryouko-chan?”

“Hah?! S-, sorry about that. Just now, I thought I felt someone saying something really rude about me.”

The one who was surprised by Ryouko-san’s sudden shout is the person standing guard beside Prince Heinz, Onee.

Due to Ryouko-san’s own diminutive size, when she stands next to Onee, the scene seems reminiscent of a certain Hercules and magical girl together.¹

“Are you alright? Though I understand how stressful this situation can be.”

“Ehh, that’s true, I suppose. I kind of feel like, why can’t they do this some place else.”

Both of them look towards the two young men glaring at each other at the entrance of the village.

It is Galdeia’s King Richard, and Meldeia’s Prince Heinz.

The recent world situation is one where even the commoners have some surplus, to the degree where a not insignificant number of them have begun distinguishing themselves. Then miraculously, the top leaders of both countries thought of the same thing.

——Wouldn’t it be great if we could build an educational institution like what Fitzgald has?

In order to make an educational facility, naturally they would need teachers.

And so their eyes naturally fell upon this village on their border from which extremely capable people have been coming out from recently.

“Would you like to be a teacher at our place?”

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“Eh, no thanks.”

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“Now, now, please don’t say that.”

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“I’ve also already rejected the invitation from ____”

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“What?! This won’t do. Since it’s come to this, I’ll personally go over to negotiate!”

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“Eh? I cannot imagine that ending well at all.” ← Current situation

Ryouko-san is now stuck between the solicitation from both countries’ royalty.

If it was only one country, then she might have eventually folded. But in the current situation, accepting one side’s invitation would surely earn her the ire of the other side.

Now that things have progressed this far, Ryouko-san’s free will might as well not exist, in regards to how much it can affect the situation.

“As always you have such bad blood circulation. This land is the territory of Galdeia after the previous war. Thus, it should be self-evident that it is in Galdeia that Akeshi-shi should serve as a teacher.”

“Ahaha. You, on the other hand, are as befuddled as always. Akechi is from Japan, the same as Yuki and Her Imperial Majesty Asahi, so she does not belong to any specific nationality in this world. Consequently, your assertion is moot!”

In this way, the king and prince as fiercely battling each other with words, all while ignoring the very person who is the topic of their argument and is standing right in between them.

Both of them have on refreshing smiles, but their truth thoughts of ‘stop whining you senile fool’ is very clearly leaking out from underneath those smiles.

“Since I can’t accept both sides, I actually want to steer this situation towards me rejecting both though.”

“Both are stubborn, so that might be difficult. Though if Asahi-chan is here, she might be able to draw the king of Galdeia away.”

“Then after that Kokushou-san can draw the prince away and all would be well.”

“…… Did you just offhandedly imply what I think you did?”

Belying her innocent face, Ryouko-san’s suggestion is pure darkness.

Onee shivers at being reminded of how frightening women can be.

“More like, in the first place I don’t even want to leave this village.”

“They might as well just make this village common land and build a school here, no?”

——?!

Onee’s words were just carelessly thrown out there. But the two people who had been skillfully glaring at each other while smiling immediately reacted.

““THAT’S IT!!””

“Eh?”

“Fortunately, the roads near here have been recently re-done, and this location is easy to reach from both countries’ capitals. There is no place more appropriate to build a joint venture between our countries.”

“Indeed. Then about we take this opportunity to place this village under our joint rule, or else turn it into neutral territory?”

“Hmph. If you want your opponent to agree to such a suggestion, then you’d have to polish your conversational skills a bit more. But well, this time alone I’ll agree to it, as it seems like it’d be more interesting if I do so.”

“……”

With a speed that makes their previous quarreling seem like a complete lie, the king and prince begin speedily putting together their objective and constructive steps.

Now that things have reached this point, there is literally no one else other than Ouhi-sama that can stop this train.

“…… Kokushou-san no BAKAAAAA!”

“Ehh, no, I mean, I’m really sorry.”

The diminutive Ryouko-san is stretching herself to her full height and pounding her powerless fists on Onee’s chest, while Onee just stands there and takes it with a ‘oops I did it’ look on his face.²

Today, too, this otherworld is in peace.

¹ Hercules and Illya from the Fate/stay Night.

²Poka poka naguri is the thing you see often in animes where a weak character (ie. child, girl) pounds someone else’s chest but it’s weak as heck and doesn’t hurt at all.