Novel Full 10-44. The Face under the Mask
10-44. The Face under the Mask
Satou's here. It's said that there are three people who look like you in the world, but while it's not so bad if it's a celebrity, I think it'll be the most annoying if you have the same face as a criminal.
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"Good evening, your majesty."
I talk to him with the violet-haired Nanashi's tone as carefree as possible. The other party is the king of Shiga Kingdom. I've left a letter on his office regarding my visit two days ago, but there isn't anyone besides him in this room. I think he should have left the body double in this room, and peep from another room while being surrounded by holy knights, but there are only the prime minister and the head of the Shiga Eight Sword in the next room.
I think that he's a bit too careless.
"It's been a while Nanashi."
His voice is like the body double-san too. Apparently the setting about me meeting his body double in the duchy capital is in effect.
"I've got a little business beyond the sky see."
"Fumu, the only people who are invited by the heaven are only the hero, the saint, and the savior hero of Shiga Kingdom."
No well, it's the space, not the heaven though. I guess I don't have to correct him as explaining it would be troublesome anyway.
I seem to have been recognized as the Shiga Kingdom's hero, but I ignore it.
"Sorry for taking your time your majesty."
"I do not mind. I also want to meet you."
Thanks to Arisa's supervision, I feel that my way of speaking has become more gross. I feel that there might be better way of speaking to make people not liken it with Satou. It's a regretful mistake, but I have to endure it and do it. Right, making Nanashi and Maou kill each other, and then create a new Nanashi Mk.2 might be a good idea.
"What is wrong, Nanashi?"
Oops, not good. My thought has wandered off.
"My first business is this."
"You do not need the sword of sky?"
The king frowns when he sees the fake Claiomh Solais that I've presented to him. Returning the holy sword is like declaring myself that I don't want to protect Shiga Kingdom from demon lords. Let's quickly clear the misunderstanding.
"You misunderstand. This is a fake see. Unlike the quickly made one before, this has a function to limit as to who can be its owner and the scripture to make itself flies in the sky."
Since the fake this time is made from mostly the same material as the real Claiomh Solais, its authenticity can't be judged by some half-hearted skill. Due to the alloy made from orihalcon and true silver, it's also equipped with the automatic attacks capability by using the same scripture as the original. Its attack power is lower and it cannot split like the real thing, but it has quite the ability for a fake. I had added the circuit I learned from the elf village in order to put a function to limit the sword's owner. I originally searched the circuit to prevent Pochi's and the other's equipments from getting stolen.
With this function, only [Shiga Kingdom King] and [The One the King has admitted the ownership] can use the Claiomh Solais. The procedure for it is the same as normal knighting ceremony. Only one person can be admitted, so the ownership of last one before the current will become invalid.
"This one should be more real-like than the one from before you know?"
"Umu, it looks exactly like the real thing from what I see."
"You'll know it's fake once you try using the scripture later. I'll leave the details on this paper okay."
I tell so and pass the manual. I entrusted the writing to Tifalize, and she wrote it while looking expressionless yet happy. She must like paperwork.
"Creating a holy sword such as this in such short amount of time..."
The king groans while stroking his white beard and looking at the fake Claiomh Solais. I probably shouldn't say that it was done in one week including the planning.
Rather than that, this is just the preface, let's quickly get down to the real business.
"Oh Nanashi, would you let me see the face under your mask once."
"Sure. However, only for a bit okay, it's embarrassing."
I have already prepared a disguise mask under the outer mask since I thought that he would surely ask. This time I'm using disguise mask version two that has special see-through inhibition and recognition inhibition circuits installed. The outer mask also has recognition inhibition circuit too so it can shut out most see-through magic tools.
I don't feel like putting an air, so I just take off the outer mask and show the disguise mask.
This time I use the face of an acquaintance for the mask. An acquaintance from Japan since using one from here will cause problems. I was hesitating between Mr. Overweight's or my junior-shi's face, but since Mr. Overweight's face didn't match my body build, this time I used the junior-shi's face.
"Oooh, god!"
Huh? Maybe the king likes Junior-shi's face, he's shocked to the point of convulsing. I don't think it should be at the point of praying to god though.
"N, No, Nanashi-dono, would you show that face to the prime minister too."
Dono? Leaving that aside, please stop talking like it's an old man's last request.
"Just call me Nanashi okay, your majesty. I don't want to show my face to too many people, but it's okay if it's just prime minister-san."
"I'm sorry, then I will call him."
The prime minister who was waiting in the next room came after being called by the king. According to Toruma Memo, this person is of one of the only three duke houses in Shiga kingdom, the previous Duke Dukus-san. Looks like he has handed over the house to his son, and come to the king's side to handle administration.
This prime minster's appearance completely betray his occupation. He's a big man with bulking muscle that would very much fit if he were introduced as a general. The fan he's holding on his hand is really ill-matched. How did he become like this when he only has [Self-Defense] skill as the battle skill.
"Have you called, your majesty."
Prime minister-san seemed to have been told beforehand about Nanashi, he didn't show any surprise when he saw the masked me and asked the king about his business. We finished introducing ourselves by the king and greetings.
"Nanashi, please."
"Ho~i"
When I took off the mask, at first minister-san hardened and then began crying flood of tears.
Both the king and the minister, why do you guys react like this.
Junior-shi's face is a normal plain one, and even though you could even say that it's relatively good-looking, it shouldn't be enough to make other people shocked.
Unexpectedly, maybe it's like Lulu's case, and it's reacted strangely by the aesthetic sense of this world.
"It's enough right?"
"Umu, I thank you."
I don't think you need to thank you.
"This Dukus's house is a family that has served Yamato-sama before the founding of this kingdom. They've kept the photographed figure of Yamato-sama during the kingdom's founding with the [Figure Copy Tool].
Fu~un? That's quite an abrupt trivia.
"Yamato-samaaaa!"
After wiping his flood of tears, he tried to hug me with both arms, so I smoothly evaded. The king stopped him before he tried again, so I didn't have to evade.
Yamato-sama?
Er~r, that means junior-shi's face resembles the ancient king Yamato-san's?
However, it's impossible for them to be the same person.
In case there's a slip in time during the summoning, that fellow is weak to pressure, and easily taken by the flow more than me. At the very least Junior-shi isn't someone capable enough to be a king, or rather, not the type to create a nation.
It's another person, and even if there's a relation between them somehow, maybe Junior-shi is a descendant of the ancient king Yamato.
"I'm Nanashi you know. I'm not related to ancient king-san okay."
"Aye, understood."
No, that's the look of someone who doesn't understand.
It must be the look of someone who thinks that Nanashi is the reincarnation of Yamato-san or something.
Dang, that's right, it's the hair. It's said that violet hair is the proof of a reincarnated person, and there are a lot of reincarnated people. I think it's unbecoming of a king and a prime minister of a kingdom to hastily jump to conclusion just from the hair and face though....
Well, whatever. Correcting it is annoying, I'll leave them misunderstand.
For now, I made sure to tell them not to treat me as the ancient king Yamato.
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"And, about the business, like, I want to sell magic tools in Shiga Kingdom see, would you give me the right to do commerce please?"
"Fumu, very well, I will prepare it."
An immediate permission. As expected of monarchy. It's nice for this kind of thing to be done fast.
"The commercial right is not a problem. Nanashi-dono, what kind of items are you intending to sell?"
"Un, I'm thinking, like, magic equipments and tools, and also things related to medicines. I've prepared airships as the featured product."
"Airships?!"
Asked by the prime minister-san, I roughly outlined the goods' genre but the king exclaimed at the word [Airship].
"Un, I was thinking of selling large transport ships, and smaller carriage-sized ships for private use. The one besides the transport ship has to use the aerodynamic engine though, so it'll start selling a bit later see."
The transport ship has the same performance as the airship that I've caught a sight of in the duchy capital. The cruising speed and maximum altitude are about the same, and it's 40% larger. I've designed it to have big load capacity.
I want to make the private airships popular among the nobles in order for it not to be unusual when I have one myself during our travel between cities.
"Private use?! Using the precious aerodynamic engines for private use pleasantry is it?"
What an exaggeration.
"It'll be convenient for viceroys if they can freely come and go to the royal capital right?"
"It is true that it's convenient, but do you have such abundant amount of aerodynamic engines?"
"Un, relatively see."
Back then with Lulu, we got a lot of it when we were over fishing tunas and narwhals. At that time, shark-shaped monsters were coming to attack the tunas from the sky. I quickly disposed of them, but their identity turned out to be the famous monstrous fish of which the aerodynamic engine are taken from.
I got a bit too much of the aerodynamic engine's parts since I had obliterated every bad monsters who were coming for the tunas around the vicinity of the ocean area. The tunas and the narwhals had parts that could be used for aerodynamic engine too but they could not output as much power as the shark's parts. Moreover, since it seems that only the shark type ones attacks the towns around the coast, only materials from this type are known to people.
"How many can you concretely prepare."
"Five large transport ships, and 20 small private ships, I think."
The prime minister inquired with slightly flustered tone due to my vague answer, so I revealed them the concrete number.
By the way, the large ship has 30 times the output power of the small ship.
Rather than that, the problem is whether they give the permissions or not, the king and minister-san look pensive.
Doing illicit trade is bad, right.
"Nanashi, due to the national defense concern, freely selling airships will be troubling."
"I intend to only sell it to Shiga Kingdom Nobles at present, no good?"
I asked in disgustingly cute way.
Ah, my life is decreasing...
"U, umu, then---"
"Please give the royal family the preferential right."
The prime minister-san set a condition as if covering the king's words who was seemingly going to give his permission. Interrupting the king sounds like a lese majeste.
"When you're selling airships, please negotiate with the royal family or the royal army first."
"Okkey."
"Okkey? I don't know that word, what does that mean?"
"Ah, sorry sorry. It's, like, affirmative."
After such exchanges, I was able to get the commercial right to sell magic tools in the kingdom.
I gave one among the five large transport ships as a sample, and was granted the commercial right and a medallion due to that achievement. This medallion that minister-san has arranged is the proof of the royal purveyor merchant, it allows me to have business transactions with nobles in equal standing.
The price of the large transport ships couldn't be set without looking at the real things, so it was for another day. For now, I'm told that I should present the ships to the airport that's used for presentation on the edge of the royal capital three days later.
As for other samples, I also give some magic sword, magic spear, and several kinds of magic medicines. As for the magic weapons, it's established that a magic sword is worth 150 gold coins, and a magic spear is 200 gold coins with excessive profit, but I sell my magic sword for 100 gold coins and magic spear for 200 gold coins.
These magic weapons aren't like the one from the duchy capital that use only bronze, they have mithril and brass alloy membrane covering the bronze base to make them look good. Their power as weapons are about the same since they're both casted magic swords, but thanks to the membrane, it won't become rusty or decayed, it's easy to maintain.
The medicines line-up are the same as from the duchy capital, in addition I've added nutrient and nourishment tonics. I present large quantity of nourishment tonics to the king and the prime minister-san under the pretext of being samples.
Please fight for 24 hours.
Ah, that means you can sleep for four hours huh. How enviable.
The payment will be in three days later since the goods will be delivered with the airships delivery.
Obtaining the commercial right this time is for the sake of the auction later.
Even though my power of money is unparalleled, I'm thinking of reducing the assets of people who are likely to become my rivals.
Now then, the preparation for the auction is going well.
As an extra, I gave Sir Sokel to prime minister-san when I was visiting the royal capital for the goods delivery. The man should be able to make good use of Sir Sokel's testimony.
The fact that the real identity of the guy called His Majesty is still a mystery makes me feel uneasy, but I'm expecting the kingdom's authorities and spies to uncover it.