The point at which Prince Rial, having left for Vespia on diplomatic business, was due to return.
The United Kingdom of Gandharva was in an almost festive mood.
Not that it was truly a festival; it was simply because the date of Prince Rial’s return was nearly upon them, and they were preparing to welcome him and his guests.
—“It’s the Academy’s pilgrimage for the first time in years! Make sure nothing goes wrong in receiving our guests!”
—“Lodgings as assigned! Why are they being split in half? Because His Highness ordered it!”
—“The First Saintess of the Saras Order is asking about our response to the monsters? His Highness comes first! To be honest, we don’t have an answer either!”
Officials and military officers were running here and there, utterly absorbed in preparations to receive people.
In particular, those moving most actively all had one thing in common: they were women, and exceptionally beautiful ones at that.
And as they were carefully looking at the bracelets engraved with numbers, they began to feel the ground trembling.
“Have they arrived?”
A slightly tanned woman looked into the distance with a hint of tension.
Then, far away, she saw flags.
A great flag symbolizing the Kingdom of Vespia.
A flag symbolizing the Saras Order, with a number engraved within it.
And last, the flag of the Academy.
Since they had been at war with the Empire, an event that should have taken place almost every year had been delayed. As if they intended to do everything at once now that they had the chance, an enormous number of people were coming to Gandharva.
“Vespia, and the Saintesses who must’ve joined them along the way, are coming too….”
“…But something’s strange.”
It wasn’t the flags that were strange.
Though it was a friendly event meant for experiencing each other’s cultures, it was also a diplomatic occasion, so it was common enough for the Academy side to come bearing a kingdom’s flag, or the flags of influential families.
To begin with, those flags served to announce the nature of the procession, so it was necessary if anything.
The problem was the flagpoles.
“For flags that size, the standard-bearers holding them must be no ordinary people.”
“A show of force by the kingdom… no, I don’t think Lord Rial would allow that….”
The women who had been busily moving about began to gather one by one.
The women wearing bracelets engraved with numbers exchanged serious opinions, and soon, other people who appeared to be high-ranking officials gathered as well and began speaking with them.
—Gwaaaaaaaarrrr
The identity of the standard-bearers they had been wondering about was revealed.
“Are those… golems?”
“…What kind of speed is that…? Is that the Cyclops?”
“No. According to our intelligence, those should be… Caterpillar Golems.”
As the women murmured among themselves, the figures of the standard-bearers gradually drew closer.
Caterpillar Golems, dragging something large and long like boxes behind them, were entering one by one.
Aside from the one at the very front, golems engraved with the emblem of the Krista Merchant Guild and the symbol of the Fifth Saintess approached the city gate.
And behind them, the long, long procession of people continued.
“Open the gates!”
At the gatekeeper’s command, the gates opened.
Soon, something like a door opened on the foremost golem.
“Gandharva! I have returned!!”
Prince Rial appeared, and cheers soon erupted throughout the city.
—“You’re blocking my view, so please move.”
“You really can’t read the mood.”
At the irritation drifting out from inside, the prince obediently climbed on top of the golem and waved his hand.
****
The cockpit of the Caterpillar Golem.
While driving a golem that had been altered to focus entirely on comfortable travel and had transformed from a combat machine into more of a transport vehicle, I grumbled as I looked at the now-comfortable view ahead, with the prince who had been sprawled out blocking half of it gone.
“He’s popular, that prince.”
“It makes sense.”
People everywhere were cheering and scattering flowers.
Though it was a desert city and full of sand, the neatly maintained road was quite easy to travel on.
The people’s clothing also looked rather clean and tidy.
“This is the largest city in Gandharva, after all. It has the holy land of the Order and is the biggest commercial city. Looks like it became the capital this year.”
“Became?”
“The capital changes every year here.”
What kind of country does that, I wondered, but thinking about it, the name was the United Kingdom.
They probably alternated between the capitals of the places that had united long ago. It wouldn’t be strange for them to have something like that.
“More importantly, I’m glad the trip was comfortable.”
“I agree. This is why golems really are nice.”
Erika and Noel said as they leisurely looked outside.
Naturally, to get here from the Academy, we had to cross the desert.
There was a designated road, and there were signposts too, so it was said to be an easy route, but originally, it was a path where you had to fight through sandstorms.
But if you rode in a golem, none of that mattered, so it had been a comfortable journey.
It was also a major event, and Mina said she would take the opportunity to make a profit, so she mobilized some of the mass-produced transport Caterpillar Golems she had made in advance. Thanks to that, a considerable number of students had been able to ride here as well.
As for those who didn’t ride, it wasn’t as if we were discriminating against them. They were the ones who chose not to.
A representative example was Abatus.
“They probably can’t use them because they have their pride.”
I did wonder why they were being so stubborn instead of just riding something comfortable, but apparently, if a noble went abroad, it was already politics from that moment on.
How they went, what they used to get there—things like that were all evaluated, it seemed.
If the Abatus side, which was in the position of opposing golems, used golems themselves, their credibility would be shattered that instant.
Surprisingly, credibility was one of the few areas where Abatus was far ahead of me right now, so if he did something to damage his credibility among the nobility, the scales would tip even further.
So they didn’t use golems. Instead, they came in a scene that looked exactly like a circus, with oddly shaped animals pulling ornate carriages, and cages full of chimeras being dragged behind them.
They said the tents inside were packed with magic tools too, so it must have been comfortable enough in its own way.
“But when a sandstorm came once, they immediately stuck right to us.”
“Well, let’s let that slide.”
On our side, thanks to the heavy, sturdy body of the golem, we weren’t affected at all, but on the Abatus side, their tents had nearly been blown away and it had been a mess.
They craftily stuck right beside the golems immediately.
I’ll record that as a good example of how pride means nothing in the face of survival.
“By the way, is this prince really that popular?”
“T-to be honest, I was surprised too.”
We were moving slowly in case he fell if we went too fast, and the prince was spreading his arms wide and waving, showing himself to the people.
The atmosphere didn’t feel like the people had simply been mobilized and brought there either.
The flower petals seemed to have run out by now, but the applause for the prince continued.
Especially from those in worn-out clothes.
“From our point of view, he may be an unpleasant and arrogant prince, but from the other side’s perspective, it can be different.”
Mina spoke quietly.
Then she looked at us and said,
“His intentions may not be entirely pure, but he is the person who does the most for poor relief and donations to the Order.”
“How does Mina know that?”
“The Order’s internal information network.”
Well, this place did have the holy land of the Saras Order, so it made sense that the Order’s information network operated here.
Mina quietly looked at Prince Rial and said,
“A man of false virtue and false vice.”
“Huh?”
“The Order’s assessment of Prince Rial.”
Mina said no more.
And soon, the Academy’s massive procession arrived at what appeared to be the royal palace.
****
After that, there wasn’t anything special.
The kingdom’s delegation that had come with the Academy and Headmistress Calliope greeted the king as representatives, the king of Gandharva nodded, ordered Prince Rial to handle the response, and gave his welcome.
He looked entirely as if his mind were elsewhere, but there was nothing to complain about.
“But the lodgings being split in two…”
“That is a bit much.”
Noel quietly added to my words.
Because such a large number of people had come, an entire building with a large plot of land attached to it, located some distance away from the city center, had become the Academy’s lodging for this occasion.
The schedule included sightseeing, a visit to the holy land, and all sorts of other things, so for the sake of management, it would probably have been better to keep everyone together as much as possible….
“He’s openly divided us into factions.”
Even the professors had been split in half.
You could call one side the golem faction and the other the chimera faction.
“No matter how much of a political fight this is, this is something the Academy could protest.”
“Professor Reina did protest, but Prince Rial said that even if they put us together, we’d split up anyway, so she couldn’t say anything more.”
“They say the Headmistress still arranged for us to eat meals together. She said this incident should be like a one-time match, not a tradition going forward.”
No wonder they were using magic to set up something like a tent in the center.
It looked like they intended for us to receive food and eat outdoors.
“Come to think of it, what about the chimeras?”
“They say they’ve been placed in an area like the backyard of that dormitory building for now.”
I’d caught a glimpse of them, and the chimeras were not what you could call small.
There was probably no place to house them, so they must have left them there for now.
I didn’t trust them much, but I decided to assume the Abatus guys would manage them on their own, and just take measures so they couldn’t cross over to our side.
“…Wait, manage?”
“Lord Aizen?”
A belated thought hit me, and I felt a little dizzy.
Chimeras were, at least for the moment, monsters.
In other words, since they were living creatures, of course….
“…I need to talk to Professor Reina and… no, to everyone, and get permission.”
“Lord Aizen?”
Taking Noel, Erika, and Mina, who had no idea what was going on, I hurried into the dormitory and gathered people.
And a short while later.
By unanimous agreement of the professors and students who heard my ominous prediction, a towering clay wall was erected in front of the golem faction’s dormitory building.
Mina bought a mountain of air fresheners and set up a stall in front of the chimera faction’s dormitory building, but no one stopped her.