14-1 Opening

Man, all sorts of events piled up at once, and it was really rough.

But the preparations and practice for the school performance are perfect.

I safely secured all the people who would come as honored guests too.

Today, the townspeople have come as well.

Since there are so many participants, I asked the Adros Adventurers’ Guild to handle security, and reinforcements also came from the Royal Capital Adventurers’ Guild.

One of the people in the guest seats is Guildmaster Armon, who came all the way here despite surely being terribly busy.

Kenny, the Guildmaster of the Adros Adventurers’ Guild, is right beside him too.

Aoi-chan is doing the commentary, and Erin is doing the live announcing, and the broadcasting equipment is all set too.

A lot of things happened, with the Empire and all that, but Headmaster had been working hard on all sorts of preparations too.

Headmaster’s role was to stay at the announcers’ table while providing all kinds of support.

From the royal family, the two younger princesses, His Highness Prince Emilio, and moreover Lady Velvet, the duke’s daughter, are coming.

And of course, along with their maids and Old Man Ruba.

With this lineup, the Kingdom’s Knight Order had come as guards.

Their number was roughly fifty, I would say.

There are enough of them here to hold a sports festival all by themselves.

Though no one would be able to keep up with how hard-core it would be.

For today, just behave yourselves and focus on security.

At the bazaar, all sorts of food are being sold at reasonable prices.

But too many of the little ones are getting distracted by that.

That was a miscalculation.

One way or another, the number of children at the garden has reached fifty.

Among the new additions, there are some who heard the rumors and made their way to the safe house on their own, but for the most part Mari seems to have diligently collected them.

The programs have been handed out, and the guests are all very interested.

Apparently, in this other world, things like this are not often seen.

Eri is chatting while standing with the princesses in the guest section.

The knights also let that girl through without question under the category of being a friend of the princesses.

Eri herself seems to have absolutely no awareness of just how incredible that is.

“Hehe. Today, I’m going to do my best as the person in charge of the meals and snacks. After all, the sports festival is the very first event of its kind in this world~”

“My, that sounds fun.”

“Eri-chan, do your best.”

Eri is all fired up today too, since she is the overall person in charge of the bazaar.

She completely has even the support staff who came from the Adros Commercial Guild under her control.

With the success of the royal palace wedding as well, her fame is rising further once again.

Because the diplomats invited to Antonio’s wedding reported it, her renown is beginning to echo through the various nations as well.

However, those reports also added that Eri is the little sister figure of that Spirit Demon King of Explosive Flames.

“An individual requiring the utmost caution. Under no circumstances must anyone lay a hand on her. The moment that happens, our nation will be abandoned by all the spirits.”

That would truly be a straight path to destruction.

Before that even happened, that demon king would surely come and destroy everything.

And it was also written that she is very close with the members of the Albatross royal family.

Completely unaware that things had turned out like that, one certain person was happily blossoming into girls’ talk, or rather children’s talk, with the princesses.

Well, I have no intention of informing her of such trivial matters.

While pretending to act casual, I have raised the alertness of my magic PC and skills to the maximum.

The Empire has not been destroyed yet, after all.

I checked the markers just in case, and both the Emperor and the Crown Prince are still alive.

The Emperor’s condition is poor, and according to the royal family’s information, they estimate he will not survive the turn of the year.

The Empire will probably launch a blitzkrieg before winter.

In the not-so-distant corridor of time, the smell of war is rising with an ominous stench.

But in the current situation, I am apparently being called the Spirit Demon King.

If that Crown Prince is the one pulling the strings, then he absolutely will not attack.

Rather, he would deepen friendly relations with me and expand territory in the opposite direction.

On the side of the Empire opposite the Albatross Kingdom lies a grassland nation, and naturally its defenses are weak.

Apparently they are a brave horse-riding people, and since they do not settle permanently in any one place, they have somehow managed to stay safe until now.

If they had fixed a capital in place, it might have been burned to the ground long ago.

Or rather, perhaps it is precisely because of that situation that they deliberately do not settle down.

But if the Albatross Kingdom and the Bernstein Empire were to come to terms, there would be no saving that country.

For the time being, the Empire’s spearpoint would simply advance westward, toward that side.

It would be a severe problem for the Empire to expand its domain, but for us, we would gain temporary peace.

It is a mixed blessing.

Such maneuvering was only possible because that country’s Crown Prince was at the head of the Empire.

That foolish Second Prince probably has no move other than brute force.

In his mind, only he himself is the center of the world.

This is why people who mistakenly think they are important are such a pain.

Not unlike that Bighton, royalty who do not properly fulfill their duties are nothing but a hindrance to the nation.

A useless prince like that is bound to be removed someday.

Guys like that usually get stabbed in the back by their own sons, but this time I will get rid of him myself.

Be grateful.

The imperial citizens would probably be delighted too.

I will not let my guard down anymore.

The Empire still has Flash-God Nielsen and the S-rank Balan.

There may also be others like that detection-nullifying operative from before.

At the very least, it is some comfort that we managed to dispose of the publicly known teleportation-magic user.

But the atrocities and outrages the Empire has committed up to now will not leave my mind.

Even if it was within the Empire, what happened during Antonio’s A-rank exam left me disgusted.

So long as the two nations have not openly started the war, it would obviously be improper for me, who am neither the kingdom’s army nor the knight order nor even an official noble, to interfere.

On the contrary, if I did interfere, I myself would become the cause of an international conflict.

Even if I tried to do it covertly, if I really went that far, it would immediately be obvious that I did it.

Because I use methods that are anything but ordinary, my name would be raised first as the prime suspect.

Nations really are troublesome in all sorts of ways.

Since I do not know when they might start meddling here too, I am watching constantly with the radar under strict search conditions.

By now, that has become part of my daily routine.

That said, this is an event even I had really been looking forward to.

I will absolutely make this sports festival a success.

I will not let invaders interfere!

And then the program started.

It was the entrance march.

“Cha-cha, cha-cha-cha-chan-chan-chaaaan, cha-cha, cha-cha-cha, chan-chan-chaaan…”

A marching theme familiar enough to Japanese people from sports festivals played, and the children came marching in a line.

At that point, sounds of admiration rose from the audience seats.

This world has neither kindergartens nor compulsory education.

The very fact that small children who normally receive no education at all could carry out such an orderly and splendid march is itself a miracle.

All the more so because the ones doing it are former stray beastfolk children who would not normally even be taken into an ordinary orphanage.

Depending on the person, that was enough to inspire profound astonishment.

It is a secret that I mostly got them to do it by luring them with bait—snacks.

That was the most effective method, after all.

And then they lined up.

Yeah, you did it well.

Next, arms straight out in front.

Oooh, voices of admiration rose from the knight order.

Now, a shorter arms-straight-out-in-front.

Sharp and crisp.

And then all at once the rows shrank to half their length.

Once again, impressed voices rose up.

And then came the pledge.

I left that to Touya-kun.

“Teacherrr. We will fight fair and square and do our very best in the big sports festival!”

Thunderous applause broke out, and my face loosened before I knew it.

Particularly strong applause was given from the guest seats and the knight order.

“Splendid. It does not fall short of our knight order at all. No, considering their upbringing…”

Knight Commander Keynes muttered that to himself.

And then at last it was this old man’s turn.

Come to think of it, I have never done anything like this in Japan.

“Well then, everyone did very well. That was a wonderful march. The pledge was also full of spirit and wonderful. Our honored guests and the people of the town have all come to cheer everyone on. Let us all do our very best. Everyone, please give the children lots of cheers and applause.”

Then a great burst of applause arose, and the audience waved their hands.

The children waved back at them.

And so began what was probably the first kindergarten sports festival in this world, a truly commemorative occasion.