Ma Hon, Special Short Story Replay 7-13
There are a few spots here where someone says something in English and it’s important/interesting that it’s a different language so I’ve underlined those words.
It’s kind of weird reading 3rd person POV stories with Yuuri in it. Not because it’s usually his POV, but because in some of them his name shows up in the narration written properly in kanji (有利) as opposed to the katakana used in the dialogue (ユーリ). My guess is it’s written that way because the people saying it don’t speak Japanese and thus pronounce it strangely or they’re saying the word in their language for July which is what Yuuri’s name is supposed to be or a combination of both. Just calling attention to this because I’m pretty sure I haven’t mentioned it and I haven’t seen this mentioned elsewhere and I think it’s interesting info~ Not entirely sure why some stories use the kanji and some don’t, though…
I put stories with spoilers behind spoilers~ Not so minor this time around, but not huge. If you watched the anime then you kind of already know the spoilers, but it seems like things go down a little different in the novels
Conrad x Yuuri
“It isn’t very impressive to just bring in events from Earth,” Yuuri shrugged his shoulders in place of any preamble. “But I figured it would be okay as long as I left the religion out. Sorry for making you carry stuff. Oh, I’ll carry that bag.”
He grabbed the beautifully decorated bag at the top of the stack of boxes that Lord Weller was carrying. The boxes are all wrapped in Christmas-like wrapping according to the orders of the earthling.
“I got the novel everyone is talking about for Günter… I don’t know what it’s about, though.”
“Ah, it’s signed, the book.”
“As for Wolf… here, this! A little swan! He wanted a toy for the bath even though he’s an adult but I thought a ducky was too much.”
“He’ll be happy while also angry.”
“For Gwen I got a new winter knitting set.”
“He’ll definitely be overjoyed after the wrinkles between his eyebrows deepen.”
“I got a baby chick-shaped pillow for Miss Anissina. Isn’t it cute?”
“Yes. Although you can’t ask her to imagine what it will turn into when it gets bigger.”
“The problem is Greta’s present.” Turning his gaze to the dusky sky, Yuuri let out a long sigh. “What should I get? There’s no way an unpopular high school student would know what a girl hitting puberty would want.”
When he talked about girls, Yuuri always got a troubled and embarrassed look on his face. Thinking that Yuuri was actually the one being spoiled as he was trying to spoil the daughter that he had gotten through strange circumstances, Conrad smiled.
“She’ll be happy with anything as long as she knows that Your Majesty chose it.”
“‘I want the moon!’ What do I do if she says that?”
“That seems like it’s something you’ve done.”
Skillfully sidestepping that with a ‘well…’ he returned his gaze to his neighbor.
“Do you want anything?”
“Me?” Caught off guard, Conrad failed to come up with a good answer. “I’m not unselfish enough to be able to say no without a moment’s pause, but… is that something you ask the person directly?”
“That’s how it is in Japan. Children write letters to Santa and the parents read it and leave a present by their child’s pillow during the night.”
“Hm, that’s efficient.”
“Don’t use such a harsh word. I’m talking about parents loving their children and wanting to see them happy. So? What do you want?”
“What does Your Majesty want? Oh,wait,” Conrad asked, sidestepping Yuuri’s question. “Just for now you can’t ask for world peace. Or if it’s something you don’t want to say to me, you can secretly write it in a letter.”
“It’s not about whether it’s a secret or not,” Yuuri said with a serious look as he stopped walking. “I don’t need anything. I’m playing Santa Claus. Santa Claus doesn’t get presents, right? The only ones who can make requests are the people receiving presents. So, Conrad, this is the perfect chance so say it.”
Lord Weller held his tongue and lowered his head, pretending to think for a little while. And then, his expression brightened and he spoke as if he had just thought of something.
“Maybe turf.”
“Huh?”
“I was thinking that I wanted turf for the outfield in the ballpark. There is a type that is strong against the cold, but it’s cultivated in a faraway place and the shipping expenses pile up. I thought it was wasteful so I haven’t been able to say anything, but since it’s Christmas I…”
“Turf!? Conrad, wait a mi-”
“Please give it to me.” Lord Weller emphasized his request with a compelling smile. “That would be okay.”
It wasn’t even a question.
A few days later, bright green turf was spread out across the entire outfield at The Great Demon Kingdom National Baseball Stadium. No one was concerned with its name, but for some reason Yuuri was the only one who wanted to call it something embarrassing like Conrad Green or Lord Weller Field.
Conrad x Yuuri x Wolfram
After Yuuri and Wolfram entered the room, the two of them talked quietly to each other about something and, before the eyes of Conrad who was lying on the couch, they suddenly broke out into a conversation that resembled some sort of theatrical play.
“Um… Now I say hot tea is scaaary… Yuuri, why is hot tea scary? Is it because it’s too hot and it burns your tongue?”
“No uh, that’s not it. It’s like asking for a cup after a meal, kind of.”
Well it seems that they’ve memorized the lines but haven’t quite grasped the content yet.
“And then? Your Majesty, Wolf, will you be performing that play at the year-end party or the New Year’s party?”
“This is for the hidden talent competition… so don’t look, Conrad. Hearing spoilers before the performance will make it boring, won’t it?”
“Understood. Then I’ll look the other way. I’m reading a book anyway. Is this alright?”
They must have been satisfied because they started their practice again.
“I heard that walls have been built around the neighboring castle~.”
“Woow, Coool.”
“Don’t read ahead. And Wolf, the line isn’t ‘coool,’ it’s ‘whoa! A wall!’ Wall.”
“What’s a wall?”
“… A wall,” Conrad interrupted and was met with harsh warnings.
“I told you not to look, Conrad! This is a secret.”
“That’s right, Conrart. This is private!”
“I wasn’t looking.”
“You can’t listen either. Cover your ears too.”
“Okay, okay.”
He covered his face with the book and lightly placed his hands over his ears. Even so, he didn’t even think about leaving the room. Even through his hands, he could still hear their voices.
Shouri + His Friend
[Spoiler (click to open)]
Hey, good evening.
This is the eldest son of the Shibuya family, Shouri Shibuya.
I was born on Good Couple Day, November 22nd. Sagittarius. Blood-type A. Lately I’ve started to be asked questions like ‘Big Brother, are you a demon too?’ but… (1)
What are you talking about?
My hobbies are reading and collecting figurines. Oh, don’t misunderstand. I say figurines but I’m not talking about those figurines of pretty girls or anything like that. I collect pets of the world and rare creature series and such. I just can’t quit until I get all of the Ocean Temple Demon Series. I was late to start collecting them and now they’re treated like antiques. But, I won’t stop until I get ‘Otoroshi.’ (2)
My talent is, well, it can’t be helped if you think that it’s studying since I’ve been accepted into a national university, but I can’t really remember ever struggling with studying for tests. Well, in the end I’m just thankful to my parents for giving birth to me with a high IQ.
Actually, my father is the most successful amongst his colleagues at a foreign bank and my mother is an alumnus of Ferris. I myself am currently enrolled in a first-rate university and speaking of that first-rate university, Shintarou Ishihara is among my seniors so I also wish to become someone who will govern over the Tokyo Metropolitan area-no, I must become that person.
You’re a citizen of Saitama, though.
Siblings? Ah, now that you mention it, I have one younger brother. One of them is more than enough. He’s a stupid younger brother. All he reads are things like Baseball Weekly and Grass-lot Baseball Friends and he’s a muscle-for-brains who only looks at the sports page of the newspaper and as an older brother I’m ashamed and disappointed when I think about how I’m related by blood to him.
He needs to stop ignoring reality and figure out that he can’t make a living off of just loving baseball.
Sundays while he was in elementary school were filled with rounding up people to cheer him on during matches. His position was primarily catcher, but he just never got picked as a regular and he was used mostly for pinch-hitting at the end of the game or as an outfielder. Honestly, just what was the coach thinking? That guy drew out absolutely none his potential… anyway, who cares about siblings. As for myself and sports… I went skiing when I was a kid.
Like in Canada?
That was from before my little brother was born. But, since I’ve managed to join a club, I’d like to try snowboarding as well. What else? I want to master golf while I’m still in school. After all, no matter what job I choose, golf will be a part of work.
That’s my general self-introduction.
“Shibuya, your introduction is just a liiiittle annoying. It’s kind of, intolerable? You’ll never get a date like that no matter how many parties you go to. You’ll absolutely never get one by Christmas.”
“What? What!? What part!? What part was annoying!? Hey, tell me. Was it the part about my brother? Do girls not like it when you have a bad relationship with your brother?”
“Your family is… is that what you think a bad relationship with your brother is like?”
“Yeah, it’s bad. I really hate my little brother. I hate him so much he’s the light in my eyes. We have such a bad relationship I figured I’d tease him by getting him a figurine of a Red Sox version of Matsuzaka… Hey, that’s really teasing, you know!? I think he’ll really hate tha-…” (3)
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(1) Good Couple Day is a mnemonic for November 22nd. 11/22 -> 1122 -> ichi ichi fu fu -> ii fuufu -> Good Couple (as in husband and wife). It’s one of those sort-of holidays where restaurants and shops have sales for couples.
(2) Otoroshi are demons who hang around the gates at shrines and kill/eat people who enter and don’t respect the shrine or are just evil and mucking up the holiness of the place.
(3) Daisuke Matsuzaka was a player on Yuuri’s favorite team, the Seibu Lions. He left the Lions to play for the Red Sox.
Greta x Cecilie + α
“Day one! After I got through that military meeting called dinner and got back to my room, there was this really pritty girl waiting on my bed! I got confused and rushed out to call for Conrad!
“According to Conrad, that pritty girl was a ‘high-class prosstitoot’ and someone who kept rich men company for a living. I’m not very popular, so everyone in the castle got together and called her for me! But sadly I don’t have enough guts to sleep with a ‘prosstitoot’ so I had her go home for the night!
“Day seven! I got dragged out by Josak who just got back to the kingdom for the first time in a while and I ended up being taken out for a night on the town! Josak, who is used to playing around at night, brought me to a place like a bar where a lot of pretty ladies were!
“I can’t drink alcohol so I watched the show while drinking juice then the ladies said I was cute and started to touch me! It was then that I finally realized it: the ladies were all guys! Shooock! They thought that since I didn’t sleep with the ‘prostitoot’ I liked guys so Josak took me to this place!
“I absolutely do not like guys!
“Day eight! Yesterday Conrad was suuuper angry! He said that ‘Your Majesty is a healthy sixteen year old so everyone was just doing their best to take care of you!’ But, when I said it wasn’t necessary, he said ‘That’s right, huh?’ and got a little bit less angry!
“I’m a baseball brat that channels ‘sekshual desire’ into sports so I spent the whole day playing catch with Conrad! And then, Günter came after having heard about it all from somewhere and yelled ‘Let me be the one to dispel Your Majesty’s ‘sekshual desires!’’ and threw a ball at me!
“Before I knew it, a bunch of soldiers from all over the castle came running yelling ‘We need to help with dispelling His Majesty’s ‘sekshual desires’!’ and started playing baseball! Next year they’re apparently going to have the very first ‘Sekshual Desire Dispelling Cup!’
“… I kind of feel like locking myself up somewhere…”
“Wonderful! Wonderful! You’re really good at reading, Greta. The parts with His Majesty’s feelings were so like him my heart sped up! Ah, but a father’s diary always brings smiles no matter what age. When I was young, I read my father’s diary in front of my mother. Ahaha, during the part where my father wrote a poem to his lover, my mother was so moved she cried. But, it turns out that that was the reason that the two of them separated two years later.”
“Hey Wolf, have you seen my diary? I’ve been looking for it since yesterday, but I can’t find it anywhere.”
“Which diary did you lose? 1: the gold diary. 2: the worldly desires diary. 3: the everyone-can-do-it diary with the bear cub stamp. 4: the diary of the seven robbed guys and big brother.”
“N-number three. Three.”
“Greta had that one. She was going to use it for her general reading practice. Just a while ago she went to go read it to Mothe-… Hey, what’s wrong, Yuuri? They’re just reading your diary. In the first place diaries are meant to be written with the expectation that people are going to read them, aren’t they?”
Yuuri x Wolfram x Conrad x Günter
Life is a grab bag of luck, Yuu-chan. You don’t know what’s inside, what colors are inside, or whether it will look good on you until you open it. Lately there are some stores who let you look inside before you buy it, but Mama thinks that’s heresy. It’s not right for grab bags. Is the not-knowing what’s inside that makes grab bags so exciting? Even if a scarf in an unflattering color comes out of it? Even if a dreadful miniskirt comes out? Even if…
“… that’s what my mom said. She was acting like she was on the set of Forrest Gump with her ‘life’s like a box of chocolates,’ but in reality she had just lost the New Year’s lucky grab bag war and ended up with a bad bag… Hey now, why is there a sign on this room saying ‘Lucky Bag Assembly In Progress Do Not Enter’? Demons have lucky grab bags too…?”
“We’ve had them for quite a while, lucky bags. We absolutely can’t let uninvolved people see them being made so the process is generally not exposed much,” Conrad explained.
“Ah, that’s part of the system my mother supports about the inside of the bag being a mystery, huh? Well I guess that’s true. If you find out what’s inside you won’t be as interested in buying it.”
“What are you talking about, Yuuri? Lucky bags are things you excitedly open and immerse yourself in nostalgia, not something that’s bought and sold in a store,” Wolfram said.
“Huh? Then where do you get them? In the mail?”
“You don’t know how lucky bags are made!? This is why they say box-separating sons without common sense are useless.”
“Box separating… what am I, a package getting shipped around?”
“Stop, Wolfram. His Majesty grew up in a different environment than we did. It’s not unreasonable for him to not know. Your Majesty, lucky bags in The Great Demon Kingdom are containers that you put important things into and secretly bury in the ground in the middle of the night,” Günter said.
“If you… bury it does something good happen? Does it sprout up into a flower with magic or something?”
“There’s no way that a phenomenon that disregarded botany like that would happen. If any kind of flower blooms it would be when everyone gets together a hundred years later to open the lid. They say that a lot, don’t they? That flowers grow from memories?”
“Wait, Wolf. That sounds a bit different than a lucky bag…”
“That reminds me, I feel like it’s almost the time to open the lucky bag that Gwendal buried when he was a child,” Günter said.
“Yeah, I heard that Anissina had already gone and opened it on her own. Josak said she was disappointed because it was filled with dog and cat collars for some reason.”
“Hey yeah, that’s not a lucky bag…”
“What!? She opened Brother’s keepsakes in front of Gurrier!?”
“Um, like I said, isn’t that just a normal time capsule… Wh-whatever! Time capsule, lucky bag, whatever! That aside, this room is where you’re making lucky bags? What did everyone put in theirs? Let’s see, Wolf’s is… Huh? It’s empty.”
“That’s because what’s important to me is love and friendship. They aren’t things you can stuff into a box or a bag.”
“Wow, you said something kind of cool. You said something that’s only okay because you’re an orthodox pretty boy! C-Conrad, what are you going to put in yours? A cold joke to calm down the place?”
“A cold joke? Of course not. Hot, cool and witty conversation isn’t something you leave behind written down. The spur-of-the-moment part is important.”
“… Wow. So those jokes were overflowing with wit. Oh, but yours is empty too. Are you the type who thinks memories can’t be left behind in a physical form, too?”
“In my case, what’s most important to me is to step aside and watch over growth and to admire.”
“Ah, then you can’t bury that in the ground. You have to get a potted plant that you can keep in your room.”
“A potted plant…”
“What about Günter? What did you put in your lucky bag?”
“Unlike everyone else, I put in a lot of things. So much there was too much to choose from. Look, Your Majesty’s small portrait, Your Majesty’s personal scrawlings, Your Majesty’s drooled upon pillow, and then there’s Your Majesty’s hair, Your Majesty’s hand mirror with fingerprints, Your Majesty’s used hand towel and toothbrush. Ah, this is the piece of slate that Your Majesty scraped your knee on and blood happened to get on…”
“It’s kind of turning into a bag of evidence from a crime scene…”
Anissina x Gwendal
“Alright, Gwendal. On this day heading straight to the height of winter, I have reached a new level in magic-powered inventions and did a little research into the annual event called ‘Balentine’ from the land where His Majesty was raised.”
“What is that ‘Balentine’ thing? The name of a temple?” (1)
“Of course not. The proper name is ‘Don’t say that, it’s Balentines Day.’ His Majesty calls this ‘cocao.’”
“… Cocao…”
“They take the powder from berries from a shrub called a ‘caco’ plant and turn it into a granulated confection…” (2)
“Food… ugh, it’s bitter. Is it poison!? Have I been poisoned again!?”
“How rude. As if Poison Lady Anissina would use such a humdrum poison that you would instantly realize what it was the moment you put it into your mouth. It is not something bad for your body. That bitterness is the Balentine flavor. Well wait, even though it is food, this is not the way to use it. Balentine personal trophy, come on!”
“… Personal trophy… Hey, hey hey wait wait. That animal horn - or thorn, those hooves, those round eyes, is that the beast that shows up in girl’s dreams? A unicorn?”
“Yes, it is an uni. For all intents and purposes, they have multiplied too much and they are pests that lay waste to plantations.”
“This is the first time I’ve seen a real one. It really has a lot of thorns… horns.”
“Because it is an uni.” (3)
“It looks like there’s a lot of brain matter inside.”
“Because it is an uni. Now step back, Gwendal! This is not the time to be entranced. Now we need to throw these granulated ‘caco’ beans at the uni for the Balentine ceremony! And mercilessly at that!”
“What!? There’s really a ceremony like that!? Wait! Wait, Anissina!”
“Gweeendaaal, what are you doing in the corner?”
“*rustlerustle*… I-I will not forgive any evil person who would torment small creatures! Um, *rustlerustle*… I-I’m the strict, middle-aged warrior, Gwe Dal!”
“… Oh my. Gwendal, you really are just like your mother. But anyway, I have always thought you were incredibly slow at changing, but to have this much difficulty in putting on those scant clothes, what sort of horrible skil-." (to be continued)
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(1) Balentine here is written in kanji (馬連太院) which is a mashup for the pronunciation of Valentine to show that Anissina doesn’t really know what it is and is pronouncing it wrong. The reason why Gwendal asked if it was the name of a temple is because the kanji mean ‘rubbing pad grand temple.’
(2) In the original Japanese, Anissina had mishead cocoa as ‘edokko’ which is a person who was born and raised in Edo, the old name for Tokyo. She misheard the plant name as ‘okaka’ which is a type of chopped up fish.
(3) Uni are sea urchins.
Murata x Yuuri
[Spoiler (click to open)]
“How about Las Vegas?”
“Huh?” Shibuya answered with bloodshot eyes and a gloomy voice as he took one of my french fries. He quickly dips it into the onion dip. All while saying he doesn’t eat french fries after I asked him ‘what about the sauce?’
“Okay, okay, you’re in a bad mood because you didn’t get enough sleep.”
“That’s not it.”
The reason he was in a bad mood wasn’t only because he didn’t get enough sleep. He was disappointed in his test scores.
As soon as the last of the final exams was over, Shibuya called me. From a friend’s cellphone.
When he couldn’t get to a payphone, he sometimes did that sort of thing. Thanks to that, the email and phone number of that classmate could always be found in my phone’s call history without fail. In other words, my phone number was also in the other phone’s call history several times.
“This is bad! If things go like this I’ll be held back a year!” he yelled in a panic. I had brought him out to the station to have an intervention by telling him that there was something in this world called a make-up exam system to resurrect the defeated.
Coincidentally, my academic year had mostly ended last week. Compared to public schools, the schedule at private schools is faster.
“You can’t blame me. I tutored you properly before the exams and even offered my room to you yesterday because you said your brother kept on butting in at home and you couldn’t study. Despite that, what exactly did you do all night?”
“… Well your room is… too jam-packed with things.”
“To think that you were so weak against temptation.”
Shibuya groaned while lying prostrate on the table. He had spent all night entrenched in a new game console.
“You weren’t like that before, right? Wasn’t your room more suitable for studying for exams before?”
“I got a little bothered by that and tried rearranging. I cleared my mind, too.”
“Even so.”
“Anyway, what about Las Vegas?”
“What are you talking about? And what’s up with you? Why are you saying carefree things like ‘how’s Vegas?’ with all of these Rurubu and Mapple travel pamphlets piled up in front of you!?” (1)
“The graduation trip.”
As soon as he heard those three words, Shibuya suddenly picked up his head. I can no longer see the whorl of hair on his head that was in plain view a moment ago.
“Huh!? The graduation trip!?”
“You don’t need to freak out so much. Don’t you have a passport? You can have Elvis sing you Love Me Tender in Vegas, you know. He’ll be an impersonator, though.”
“Wait a minute, Murata. Your school has a graduation trip at the end of the first year!? You don’t go through second and third year before that or take any exams or do any job hunting!? Or are you forming travel plans for a trip two years from now?”
Planning events is the most fun part. Having my fun get rained on, my voice turned a little disgruntled.
“Alright then, the end of the year trip is okay too.”
“Like I was saying, I don’t even know if I can even pass this grade!”
“It’s alright.”
‘How!?’ he mouthed.
It seems like he’s trying to say that my response sounded so irresponsible it took his voice away.
“Because you always have low self-esteem. But anyway, there are Bengal tigers there. You can see them 24 hours a day.”
“I don’t care about tigers. Forgetting that, how can you say that so decisively. It’s a test I took.”
Ignoring the picture in the guidebook, Shibuya leaned forward on the table. Right now, he might start asking God for an explanation even just for drawing a lucky fortune at a temple lottery.”
“Whatever you say, you’ll still pass. It’s just that you’re only focusing on the questions you couldn’t answer so you don’t realize how many you just got right. You at least got enough to scrape together a passing grade.”
“R-really?”
“That’s what I think. Okay, so assuming I have airfare, I can just earn hotel fare and money for souvenirs over there. I’ll definitely win at blackjack. That game is all about probability, after all.”
“Aren’t minors not allowed to gamble?”
“Oh, that’s right. Shame. Then it’s Switzerland. You and I were the only ones who didn’t get to go last time. Ah, it’s okay even if you don’t get a part-time job. For the time being, I’ll handle travel expenses.”
“Wait!” Shibuya slapped his hand down on the table so hard the iced coffee almost bounced in the air. “Why are you talking about travelling all of a sudden? Because it’s spring? Because it’s the season? Or because you saw it on TV? You, did you write down overseas travel as a hobby!?”
I went too far. These emotions are hard to handle. If you don’t know them then you won’t want or yearn for them, but once you do, you can never let them go. Your biggest fear becomes being alone again. Friendship is like the drugs that that woman drowned in after losing everything trying to grab a hold of her dreams.
“… Was that too much?”
For the slightest moment, he almost asked what I meant. But, he immediately returned to his usual, honest expression.
“That’s not it. It’s really too much for you to take care of the travel expenses.”
And then, after finally seeming to have calmed down, he spoke while taking a printout of the exam questions out of his bag and spread it out in between the guidebooks.
“Okay, let’s go. Let’s go somewhere. However, the schedule and departure are going to be after the make-up exams. And, our destination should be Izu or Hakone or somewhere a little easier for a first-year in high school to get to.”
“Huh? I won’t say anything bad about Izu or Hakone, but aren’t places like that better for when you’re older? We should go to Switzerland. Switzerland. Look, the Lion of Lucerne. And look, Matterhorn. It’ll help you get a passing mark on your history make-up.” I tap the bundle of pamphlets with my finger and try saying something like from a commercial. “Isn’t it faster to just go see?”
“… You know, Murata,” Yuuri says after taking the cap off of his red pen and putting it back on again in a meaningless gesture and sinking down into the prostrate position on the table he started out in. “What I’m worried about is math.”
I wonder if I bought a guidebook for Greece.
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(1) Rurubu and Mapple are travel agencies.
... Two of these stories were really kind of scandalous XD Anyway, there are four more pages of these. The third to last story is one with Adalbert and Maxine so I'm really interested in that one. Also, still haven't heard from Lrenne so I'm going to just start on chapter 3~
It’s kind of weird reading 3rd person POV stories with Yuuri in it. Not because it’s usually his POV, but because in some of them his name shows up in the narration written properly in kanji (有利) as opposed to the katakana used in the dialogue (ユーリ). My guess is it’s written that way because the people saying it don’t speak Japanese and thus pronounce it strangely or they’re saying the word in their language for July which is what Yuuri’s name is supposed to be or a combination of both. Just calling attention to this because I’m pretty sure I haven’t mentioned it and I haven’t seen this mentioned elsewhere and I think it’s interesting info~ Not entirely sure why some stories use the kanji and some don’t, though…
I put stories with spoilers behind spoilers~ Not so minor this time around, but not huge. If you watched the anime then you kind of already know the spoilers, but it seems like things go down a little different in the novels
Conrad x Yuuri
“It isn’t very impressive to just bring in events from Earth,” Yuuri shrugged his shoulders in place of any preamble. “But I figured it would be okay as long as I left the religion out. Sorry for making you carry stuff. Oh, I’ll carry that bag.”
He grabbed the beautifully decorated bag at the top of the stack of boxes that Lord Weller was carrying. The boxes are all wrapped in Christmas-like wrapping according to the orders of the earthling.
“I got the novel everyone is talking about for Günter… I don’t know what it’s about, though.”
“Ah, it’s signed, the book.”
“As for Wolf… here, this! A little swan! He wanted a toy for the bath even though he’s an adult but I thought a ducky was too much.”
“He’ll be happy while also angry.”
“For Gwen I got a new winter knitting set.”
“He’ll definitely be overjoyed after the wrinkles between his eyebrows deepen.”
“I got a baby chick-shaped pillow for Miss Anissina. Isn’t it cute?”
“Yes. Although you can’t ask her to imagine what it will turn into when it gets bigger.”
“The problem is Greta’s present.” Turning his gaze to the dusky sky, Yuuri let out a long sigh. “What should I get? There’s no way an unpopular high school student would know what a girl hitting puberty would want.”
When he talked about girls, Yuuri always got a troubled and embarrassed look on his face. Thinking that Yuuri was actually the one being spoiled as he was trying to spoil the daughter that he had gotten through strange circumstances, Conrad smiled.
“She’ll be happy with anything as long as she knows that Your Majesty chose it.”
“‘I want the moon!’ What do I do if she says that?”
“That seems like it’s something you’ve done.”
Skillfully sidestepping that with a ‘well…’ he returned his gaze to his neighbor.
“Do you want anything?”
“Me?” Caught off guard, Conrad failed to come up with a good answer. “I’m not unselfish enough to be able to say no without a moment’s pause, but… is that something you ask the person directly?”
“That’s how it is in Japan. Children write letters to Santa and the parents read it and leave a present by their child’s pillow during the night.”
“Hm, that’s efficient.”
“Don’t use such a harsh word. I’m talking about parents loving their children and wanting to see them happy. So? What do you want?”
“What does Your Majesty want? Oh,wait,” Conrad asked, sidestepping Yuuri’s question. “Just for now you can’t ask for world peace. Or if it’s something you don’t want to say to me, you can secretly write it in a letter.”
“It’s not about whether it’s a secret or not,” Yuuri said with a serious look as he stopped walking. “I don’t need anything. I’m playing Santa Claus. Santa Claus doesn’t get presents, right? The only ones who can make requests are the people receiving presents. So, Conrad, this is the perfect chance so say it.”
Lord Weller held his tongue and lowered his head, pretending to think for a little while. And then, his expression brightened and he spoke as if he had just thought of something.
“Maybe turf.”
“Huh?”
“I was thinking that I wanted turf for the outfield in the ballpark. There is a type that is strong against the cold, but it’s cultivated in a faraway place and the shipping expenses pile up. I thought it was wasteful so I haven’t been able to say anything, but since it’s Christmas I…”
“Turf!? Conrad, wait a mi-”
“Please give it to me.” Lord Weller emphasized his request with a compelling smile. “That would be okay.”
It wasn’t even a question.
A few days later, bright green turf was spread out across the entire outfield at The Great Demon Kingdom National Baseball Stadium. No one was concerned with its name, but for some reason Yuuri was the only one who wanted to call it something embarrassing like Conrad Green or Lord Weller Field.
Conrad x Yuuri x Wolfram
After Yuuri and Wolfram entered the room, the two of them talked quietly to each other about something and, before the eyes of Conrad who was lying on the couch, they suddenly broke out into a conversation that resembled some sort of theatrical play.
“Um… Now I say hot tea is scaaary… Yuuri, why is hot tea scary? Is it because it’s too hot and it burns your tongue?”
“No uh, that’s not it. It’s like asking for a cup after a meal, kind of.”
Well it seems that they’ve memorized the lines but haven’t quite grasped the content yet.
“And then? Your Majesty, Wolf, will you be performing that play at the year-end party or the New Year’s party?”
“This is for the hidden talent competition… so don’t look, Conrad. Hearing spoilers before the performance will make it boring, won’t it?”
“Understood. Then I’ll look the other way. I’m reading a book anyway. Is this alright?”
They must have been satisfied because they started their practice again.
“I heard that walls have been built around the neighboring castle~.”
“Woow, Coool.”
“Don’t read ahead. And Wolf, the line isn’t ‘coool,’ it’s ‘whoa! A wall!’ Wall.”
“What’s a wall?”
“… A wall,” Conrad interrupted and was met with harsh warnings.
“I told you not to look, Conrad! This is a secret.”
“That’s right, Conrart. This is private!”
“I wasn’t looking.”
“You can’t listen either. Cover your ears too.”
“Okay, okay.”
He covered his face with the book and lightly placed his hands over his ears. Even so, he didn’t even think about leaving the room. Even through his hands, he could still hear their voices.
Shouri + His Friend
[Spoiler (click to open)]
Hey, good evening.
This is the eldest son of the Shibuya family, Shouri Shibuya.
I was born on Good Couple Day, November 22nd. Sagittarius. Blood-type A. Lately I’ve started to be asked questions like ‘Big Brother, are you a demon too?’ but… (1)
What are you talking about?
My hobbies are reading and collecting figurines. Oh, don’t misunderstand. I say figurines but I’m not talking about those figurines of pretty girls or anything like that. I collect pets of the world and rare creature series and such. I just can’t quit until I get all of the Ocean Temple Demon Series. I was late to start collecting them and now they’re treated like antiques. But, I won’t stop until I get ‘Otoroshi.’ (2)
My talent is, well, it can’t be helped if you think that it’s studying since I’ve been accepted into a national university, but I can’t really remember ever struggling with studying for tests. Well, in the end I’m just thankful to my parents for giving birth to me with a high IQ.
Actually, my father is the most successful amongst his colleagues at a foreign bank and my mother is an alumnus of Ferris. I myself am currently enrolled in a first-rate university and speaking of that first-rate university, Shintarou Ishihara is among my seniors so I also wish to become someone who will govern over the Tokyo Metropolitan area-no, I must become that person.
You’re a citizen of Saitama, though.
Siblings? Ah, now that you mention it, I have one younger brother. One of them is more than enough. He’s a stupid younger brother. All he reads are things like Baseball Weekly and Grass-lot Baseball Friends and he’s a muscle-for-brains who only looks at the sports page of the newspaper and as an older brother I’m ashamed and disappointed when I think about how I’m related by blood to him.
He needs to stop ignoring reality and figure out that he can’t make a living off of just loving baseball.
Sundays while he was in elementary school were filled with rounding up people to cheer him on during matches. His position was primarily catcher, but he just never got picked as a regular and he was used mostly for pinch-hitting at the end of the game or as an outfielder. Honestly, just what was the coach thinking? That guy drew out absolutely none his potential… anyway, who cares about siblings. As for myself and sports… I went skiing when I was a kid.
Like in Canada?
That was from before my little brother was born. But, since I’ve managed to join a club, I’d like to try snowboarding as well. What else? I want to master golf while I’m still in school. After all, no matter what job I choose, golf will be a part of work.
That’s my general self-introduction.
“Shibuya, your introduction is just a liiiittle annoying. It’s kind of, intolerable? You’ll never get a date like that no matter how many parties you go to. You’ll absolutely never get one by Christmas.”
“What? What!? What part!? What part was annoying!? Hey, tell me. Was it the part about my brother? Do girls not like it when you have a bad relationship with your brother?”
“Your family is… is that what you think a bad relationship with your brother is like?”
“Yeah, it’s bad. I really hate my little brother. I hate him so much he’s the light in my eyes. We have such a bad relationship I figured I’d tease him by getting him a figurine of a Red Sox version of Matsuzaka… Hey, that’s really teasing, you know!? I think he’ll really hate tha-…” (3)
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(1) Good Couple Day is a mnemonic for November 22nd. 11/22 -> 1122 -> ichi ichi fu fu -> ii fuufu -> Good Couple (as in husband and wife). It’s one of those sort-of holidays where restaurants and shops have sales for couples.
(2) Otoroshi are demons who hang around the gates at shrines and kill/eat people who enter and don’t respect the shrine or are just evil and mucking up the holiness of the place.
(3) Daisuke Matsuzaka was a player on Yuuri’s favorite team, the Seibu Lions. He left the Lions to play for the Red Sox.
Greta x Cecilie + α
“Day one! After I got through that military meeting called dinner and got back to my room, there was this really pritty girl waiting on my bed! I got confused and rushed out to call for Conrad!
“According to Conrad, that pritty girl was a ‘high-class prosstitoot’ and someone who kept rich men company for a living. I’m not very popular, so everyone in the castle got together and called her for me! But sadly I don’t have enough guts to sleep with a ‘prosstitoot’ so I had her go home for the night!
“Day seven! I got dragged out by Josak who just got back to the kingdom for the first time in a while and I ended up being taken out for a night on the town! Josak, who is used to playing around at night, brought me to a place like a bar where a lot of pretty ladies were!
“I can’t drink alcohol so I watched the show while drinking juice then the ladies said I was cute and started to touch me! It was then that I finally realized it: the ladies were all guys! Shooock! They thought that since I didn’t sleep with the ‘prostitoot’ I liked guys so Josak took me to this place!
“I absolutely do not like guys!
“Day eight! Yesterday Conrad was suuuper angry! He said that ‘Your Majesty is a healthy sixteen year old so everyone was just doing their best to take care of you!’ But, when I said it wasn’t necessary, he said ‘That’s right, huh?’ and got a little bit less angry!
“I’m a baseball brat that channels ‘sekshual desire’ into sports so I spent the whole day playing catch with Conrad! And then, Günter came after having heard about it all from somewhere and yelled ‘Let me be the one to dispel Your Majesty’s ‘sekshual desires!’’ and threw a ball at me!
“Before I knew it, a bunch of soldiers from all over the castle came running yelling ‘We need to help with dispelling His Majesty’s ‘sekshual desires’!’ and started playing baseball! Next year they’re apparently going to have the very first ‘Sekshual Desire Dispelling Cup!’
“… I kind of feel like locking myself up somewhere…”
“Wonderful! Wonderful! You’re really good at reading, Greta. The parts with His Majesty’s feelings were so like him my heart sped up! Ah, but a father’s diary always brings smiles no matter what age. When I was young, I read my father’s diary in front of my mother. Ahaha, during the part where my father wrote a poem to his lover, my mother was so moved she cried. But, it turns out that that was the reason that the two of them separated two years later.”
“Hey Wolf, have you seen my diary? I’ve been looking for it since yesterday, but I can’t find it anywhere.”
“Which diary did you lose? 1: the gold diary. 2: the worldly desires diary. 3: the everyone-can-do-it diary with the bear cub stamp. 4: the diary of the seven robbed guys and big brother.”
“N-number three. Three.”
“Greta had that one. She was going to use it for her general reading practice. Just a while ago she went to go read it to Mothe-… Hey, what’s wrong, Yuuri? They’re just reading your diary. In the first place diaries are meant to be written with the expectation that people are going to read them, aren’t they?”
Yuuri x Wolfram x Conrad x Günter
Life is a grab bag of luck, Yuu-chan. You don’t know what’s inside, what colors are inside, or whether it will look good on you until you open it. Lately there are some stores who let you look inside before you buy it, but Mama thinks that’s heresy. It’s not right for grab bags. Is the not-knowing what’s inside that makes grab bags so exciting? Even if a scarf in an unflattering color comes out of it? Even if a dreadful miniskirt comes out? Even if…
“… that’s what my mom said. She was acting like she was on the set of Forrest Gump with her ‘life’s like a box of chocolates,’ but in reality she had just lost the New Year’s lucky grab bag war and ended up with a bad bag… Hey now, why is there a sign on this room saying ‘Lucky Bag Assembly In Progress Do Not Enter’? Demons have lucky grab bags too…?”
“We’ve had them for quite a while, lucky bags. We absolutely can’t let uninvolved people see them being made so the process is generally not exposed much,” Conrad explained.
“Ah, that’s part of the system my mother supports about the inside of the bag being a mystery, huh? Well I guess that’s true. If you find out what’s inside you won’t be as interested in buying it.”
“What are you talking about, Yuuri? Lucky bags are things you excitedly open and immerse yourself in nostalgia, not something that’s bought and sold in a store,” Wolfram said.
“Huh? Then where do you get them? In the mail?”
“You don’t know how lucky bags are made!? This is why they say box-separating sons without common sense are useless.”
“Box separating… what am I, a package getting shipped around?”
“Stop, Wolfram. His Majesty grew up in a different environment than we did. It’s not unreasonable for him to not know. Your Majesty, lucky bags in The Great Demon Kingdom are containers that you put important things into and secretly bury in the ground in the middle of the night,” Günter said.
“If you… bury it does something good happen? Does it sprout up into a flower with magic or something?”
“There’s no way that a phenomenon that disregarded botany like that would happen. If any kind of flower blooms it would be when everyone gets together a hundred years later to open the lid. They say that a lot, don’t they? That flowers grow from memories?”
“Wait, Wolf. That sounds a bit different than a lucky bag…”
“That reminds me, I feel like it’s almost the time to open the lucky bag that Gwendal buried when he was a child,” Günter said.
“Yeah, I heard that Anissina had already gone and opened it on her own. Josak said she was disappointed because it was filled with dog and cat collars for some reason.”
“Hey yeah, that’s not a lucky bag…”
“What!? She opened Brother’s keepsakes in front of Gurrier!?”
“Um, like I said, isn’t that just a normal time capsule… Wh-whatever! Time capsule, lucky bag, whatever! That aside, this room is where you’re making lucky bags? What did everyone put in theirs? Let’s see, Wolf’s is… Huh? It’s empty.”
“That’s because what’s important to me is love and friendship. They aren’t things you can stuff into a box or a bag.”
“Wow, you said something kind of cool. You said something that’s only okay because you’re an orthodox pretty boy! C-Conrad, what are you going to put in yours? A cold joke to calm down the place?”
“A cold joke? Of course not. Hot, cool and witty conversation isn’t something you leave behind written down. The spur-of-the-moment part is important.”
“… Wow. So those jokes were overflowing with wit. Oh, but yours is empty too. Are you the type who thinks memories can’t be left behind in a physical form, too?”
“In my case, what’s most important to me is to step aside and watch over growth and to admire.”
“Ah, then you can’t bury that in the ground. You have to get a potted plant that you can keep in your room.”
“A potted plant…”
“What about Günter? What did you put in your lucky bag?”
“Unlike everyone else, I put in a lot of things. So much there was too much to choose from. Look, Your Majesty’s small portrait, Your Majesty’s personal scrawlings, Your Majesty’s drooled upon pillow, and then there’s Your Majesty’s hair, Your Majesty’s hand mirror with fingerprints, Your Majesty’s used hand towel and toothbrush. Ah, this is the piece of slate that Your Majesty scraped your knee on and blood happened to get on…”
“It’s kind of turning into a bag of evidence from a crime scene…”
Anissina x Gwendal
“Alright, Gwendal. On this day heading straight to the height of winter, I have reached a new level in magic-powered inventions and did a little research into the annual event called ‘Balentine’ from the land where His Majesty was raised.”
“What is that ‘Balentine’ thing? The name of a temple?” (1)
“Of course not. The proper name is ‘Don’t say that, it’s Balentines Day.’ His Majesty calls this ‘cocao.’”
“… Cocao…”
“They take the powder from berries from a shrub called a ‘caco’ plant and turn it into a granulated confection…” (2)
“Food… ugh, it’s bitter. Is it poison!? Have I been poisoned again!?”
“How rude. As if Poison Lady Anissina would use such a humdrum poison that you would instantly realize what it was the moment you put it into your mouth. It is not something bad for your body. That bitterness is the Balentine flavor. Well wait, even though it is food, this is not the way to use it. Balentine personal trophy, come on!”
“… Personal trophy… Hey, hey hey wait wait. That animal horn - or thorn, those hooves, those round eyes, is that the beast that shows up in girl’s dreams? A unicorn?”
“Yes, it is an uni. For all intents and purposes, they have multiplied too much and they are pests that lay waste to plantations.”
“This is the first time I’ve seen a real one. It really has a lot of thorns… horns.”
“Because it is an uni.” (3)
“It looks like there’s a lot of brain matter inside.”
“Because it is an uni. Now step back, Gwendal! This is not the time to be entranced. Now we need to throw these granulated ‘caco’ beans at the uni for the Balentine ceremony! And mercilessly at that!”
“What!? There’s really a ceremony like that!? Wait! Wait, Anissina!”
“Gweeendaaal, what are you doing in the corner?”
“*rustlerustle*… I-I will not forgive any evil person who would torment small creatures! Um, *rustlerustle*… I-I’m the strict, middle-aged warrior, Gwe Dal!”
“… Oh my. Gwendal, you really are just like your mother. But anyway, I have always thought you were incredibly slow at changing, but to have this much difficulty in putting on those scant clothes, what sort of horrible skil-." (to be continued)
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(1) Balentine here is written in kanji (馬連太院) which is a mashup for the pronunciation of Valentine to show that Anissina doesn’t really know what it is and is pronouncing it wrong. The reason why Gwendal asked if it was the name of a temple is because the kanji mean ‘rubbing pad grand temple.’
(2) In the original Japanese, Anissina had mishead cocoa as ‘edokko’ which is a person who was born and raised in Edo, the old name for Tokyo. She misheard the plant name as ‘okaka’ which is a type of chopped up fish.
(3) Uni are sea urchins.
Murata x Yuuri
[Spoiler (click to open)]
“How about Las Vegas?”
“Huh?” Shibuya answered with bloodshot eyes and a gloomy voice as he took one of my french fries. He quickly dips it into the onion dip. All while saying he doesn’t eat french fries after I asked him ‘what about the sauce?’
“Okay, okay, you’re in a bad mood because you didn’t get enough sleep.”
“That’s not it.”
The reason he was in a bad mood wasn’t only because he didn’t get enough sleep. He was disappointed in his test scores.
As soon as the last of the final exams was over, Shibuya called me. From a friend’s cellphone.
When he couldn’t get to a payphone, he sometimes did that sort of thing. Thanks to that, the email and phone number of that classmate could always be found in my phone’s call history without fail. In other words, my phone number was also in the other phone’s call history several times.
“This is bad! If things go like this I’ll be held back a year!” he yelled in a panic. I had brought him out to the station to have an intervention by telling him that there was something in this world called a make-up exam system to resurrect the defeated.
Coincidentally, my academic year had mostly ended last week. Compared to public schools, the schedule at private schools is faster.
“You can’t blame me. I tutored you properly before the exams and even offered my room to you yesterday because you said your brother kept on butting in at home and you couldn’t study. Despite that, what exactly did you do all night?”
“… Well your room is… too jam-packed with things.”
“To think that you were so weak against temptation.”
Shibuya groaned while lying prostrate on the table. He had spent all night entrenched in a new game console.
“You weren’t like that before, right? Wasn’t your room more suitable for studying for exams before?”
“I got a little bothered by that and tried rearranging. I cleared my mind, too.”
“Even so.”
“Anyway, what about Las Vegas?”
“What are you talking about? And what’s up with you? Why are you saying carefree things like ‘how’s Vegas?’ with all of these Rurubu and Mapple travel pamphlets piled up in front of you!?” (1)
“The graduation trip.”
As soon as he heard those three words, Shibuya suddenly picked up his head. I can no longer see the whorl of hair on his head that was in plain view a moment ago.
“Huh!? The graduation trip!?”
“You don’t need to freak out so much. Don’t you have a passport? You can have Elvis sing you Love Me Tender in Vegas, you know. He’ll be an impersonator, though.”
“Wait a minute, Murata. Your school has a graduation trip at the end of the first year!? You don’t go through second and third year before that or take any exams or do any job hunting!? Or are you forming travel plans for a trip two years from now?”
Planning events is the most fun part. Having my fun get rained on, my voice turned a little disgruntled.
“Alright then, the end of the year trip is okay too.”
“Like I was saying, I don’t even know if I can even pass this grade!”
“It’s alright.”
‘How!?’ he mouthed.
It seems like he’s trying to say that my response sounded so irresponsible it took his voice away.
“Because you always have low self-esteem. But anyway, there are Bengal tigers there. You can see them 24 hours a day.”
“I don’t care about tigers. Forgetting that, how can you say that so decisively. It’s a test I took.”
Ignoring the picture in the guidebook, Shibuya leaned forward on the table. Right now, he might start asking God for an explanation even just for drawing a lucky fortune at a temple lottery.”
“Whatever you say, you’ll still pass. It’s just that you’re only focusing on the questions you couldn’t answer so you don’t realize how many you just got right. You at least got enough to scrape together a passing grade.”
“R-really?”
“That’s what I think. Okay, so assuming I have airfare, I can just earn hotel fare and money for souvenirs over there. I’ll definitely win at blackjack. That game is all about probability, after all.”
“Aren’t minors not allowed to gamble?”
“Oh, that’s right. Shame. Then it’s Switzerland. You and I were the only ones who didn’t get to go last time. Ah, it’s okay even if you don’t get a part-time job. For the time being, I’ll handle travel expenses.”
“Wait!” Shibuya slapped his hand down on the table so hard the iced coffee almost bounced in the air. “Why are you talking about travelling all of a sudden? Because it’s spring? Because it’s the season? Or because you saw it on TV? You, did you write down overseas travel as a hobby!?”
I went too far. These emotions are hard to handle. If you don’t know them then you won’t want or yearn for them, but once you do, you can never let them go. Your biggest fear becomes being alone again. Friendship is like the drugs that that woman drowned in after losing everything trying to grab a hold of her dreams.
“… Was that too much?”
For the slightest moment, he almost asked what I meant. But, he immediately returned to his usual, honest expression.
“That’s not it. It’s really too much for you to take care of the travel expenses.”
And then, after finally seeming to have calmed down, he spoke while taking a printout of the exam questions out of his bag and spread it out in between the guidebooks.
“Okay, let’s go. Let’s go somewhere. However, the schedule and departure are going to be after the make-up exams. And, our destination should be Izu or Hakone or somewhere a little easier for a first-year in high school to get to.”
“Huh? I won’t say anything bad about Izu or Hakone, but aren’t places like that better for when you’re older? We should go to Switzerland. Switzerland. Look, the Lion of Lucerne. And look, Matterhorn. It’ll help you get a passing mark on your history make-up.” I tap the bundle of pamphlets with my finger and try saying something like from a commercial. “Isn’t it faster to just go see?”
“… You know, Murata,” Yuuri says after taking the cap off of his red pen and putting it back on again in a meaningless gesture and sinking down into the prostrate position on the table he started out in. “What I’m worried about is math.”
I wonder if I bought a guidebook for Greece.
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(1) Rurubu and Mapple are travel agencies.
... Two of these stories were really kind of scandalous XD Anyway, there are four more pages of these. The third to last story is one with Adalbert and Maxine so I'm really interested in that one. Also, still haven't heard from Lrenne so I'm going to just start on chapter 3~