The Loser (?) Speaks

Author: Iwashi-zukushi
Raw: https://ncode.syosetu.com/n3388fm/8/
Translator: Lilia v4
Editor: Yuriko AYA

“Now then… where to begin, and how to tell it…”

Having resigned myself to talking, I groped for words.
What I was being asked was where my way of thinking came from.
And that, one could say, was a product of the school education I had received.
If I explained from the beginning, there would be no end to it…
After turning it over, I decided to dump a fair amount of it out.

“First, I swear I will tell you the truth.
It is considerably absurd, so I do not know if you will believe me.”
“It is fine, it is fine. How to judge it, truth included, is our problem.
You, first, should say what you think ought to be said.”

The Demon King was still in high spirits.
To be honest, what I feared most was telling a clumsy lie, being seen through, and souring her mood.
And, well… I also did not much want to sadden her by lying.

“The truth is. I have memories from before I was born—from a previous life.”
“Hoh.”
“The me of that previous life was, I believe, not even in my original country, nor in this world at all, but in a completely different one.”
“Ho hoh?”
“In that world there was no magic. In its place, learning and clockwork devices had advanced.
Thanks to that, even those without special powers could enjoy all sorts of blessings.
For example, a stove would light at a touch of the fingertips, and one could keep a light on all day.”
“Hoh hoh.”
“All of those blessings were supported by learning.
And so a great deal of effort was put into education.
Moreover, it was not only a matter of receiving teaching and memorizing it; there was also training of thought, to become a power that could create new things.
The matters Your Majesty pointed out are, I believe, products of that.”
“Hoh hoh hoh. I see. Most interesting.
The contents of that education in detail… no, that would be better with Grace present.”

The Demon King had been giving a response at every turn, and she had been listening with real enjoyment.
The aide and Gerda, too, looked interested.
I watched the three of them for a while. Then, timidly, I opened my mouth.

“That is the gist of it, more or less… um, you don’t find it strange?”
“No, no. It is absurd, to be sure, but given your words and deeds, it is also convincing.
Is it not, Dorothea?”

The Demon King, rubbing her hands together in restless delight, called to the aide standing beside her.
The aide… Dorothea looked at me without breaking her perfectly upright posture, and spoke.

“Yes, that is so.
Moreover, there is no disturbance in her pulse or expression, so there is no mistake that she is not lying.”
“Yes. And you, Gerda?”

Excuse me, did she just say something incredible, very casually?
She can tell that without even touching me?
Is Dorothea a living lie detector?
But that ability was apparently a matter of course to the Demon King; she nodded, satisfied, and then tossed the talk to Gerda.

“Yes. It also explains Asha’s words and deeds on the way here.”
“And what words and deeds on the way would those be?”
“Yes. In fact, on the way, there was this…”

And Gerda began to recount the matter of my talking about the castle’s functions.
Aaaah, I wanted a hole to open up so I could be buried in it… so embarrassing…

“Hmh.
Say, Asha. If you are an apothecary, then in that previous life of yours you studied herbalism, did you not?
And yet why have you also studied such things as the functions of a fortress?”

Having heard Gerda out, the Demon King turned to me, looking puzzled.
Yes, that would be puzzling, wouldn’t it. It is strange, isn’t it.
Now then, where to begin explaining this as well.

“Er… first, what I studied was not herbalism, but what is called medicine.”

I started there, for now.
Originally, medicine had not developed in this world.
Or rather, as far as I knew, it did not exist.
Because healing magic could cure most illnesses.

The catch was that only a portion of the rich, the nobility, received that blessing.
The nobles found that sufficient, and so they had never had methods of treatment other than magic researched.
As a result, ordinary commoners had been left to rely on folk remedies of dubious effect, or on the few apothecaries… and with that decree, even those had begun to be lost.

“We did study medicines as well, but more than that, we studied the structure, functions, and nature of the human body, and then how each illness affected it, and therefore how to treat it.
So one point is that I studied a wide range of things besides herbalism.”

The fundamental difference from an apothecary’s treatment, I thought, was whether it was a matter of rules of thumb or of science.
Another difference, one could say, was that other means besides medicine were used if needed. Though that was only a matter of means.

“The other is… in the world I came from, introductory knowledge of whatever you wanted to learn was easy to obtain.
As easily as taking a book from a shelf, you could touch knowledge that sat far away.
So it was possible to look a little further into something that had come up in a story, and so on.”

The three of them listened quietly through my rather long account.
Gerda and Dorothea, as if impressed.
The Demon King… still looking puzzled, as expected.
I was wondering if I had said something odd, when she spoke.

“Say, Asha. I have understood the tale, and I am convinced as to why you have knowledge.
What I do not understand is why you are able to take an interest in this and that.
Still more, even if it is easy, why you would think to spend time looking into it.”
“Eh, that is… now that you mention it, why would that be?”

Prompted by the Demon King, I tilted my head as well.
Now that she mentioned it, indeed.
In the mountain village, the other villagers had taken no interest in anything beyond daily life.
Being run ragged by the life in front of them was part of it, I supposed.
But I had a feeling that was not all.

“Hmh. As I thought, I ought to have Grace sit in as well, and speak with you at leisure.
The way your mind works is most interesting, and if possible I would have the people of this nation acquire it.
Whether it is something you learned, or something you were born with—to judge that, as well.
She is busy, so finding the time will not be easy, but…”

The Demon King put a hand to her chin, looking thoughtful.
I felt bad interrupting that thought, but there was something I had to ask.

“U-um, Your Majesty… may I ask a question?”
“Hm? What is it? Speak.”

She lifted her face at once at my question.
She looked serious, but she did not seem offended; I was relieved.

“Um, this Lady Grace whose name has come up several times—what sort of person is she?”

At that question, the Demon King’s face went slack with a smug, delighted look.
To her left and right, Dorothea and Gerda had the faces of people thinking, oh dear.
Eh. Eh. Had I stepped on a landmine? The kind that made the talk run long?

“Hoh hoh, you are curious? Of course you are curious.
As expected of my Grace, to draw a person’s interest by her name alone.
But you must not, you know? Grace is mine!”
“Eh, eh?? U-um… I’m sorry, Lady Grace is… a woman, isn’t she, from the name?”

The Demon King had suddenly started doting. Dorothea covered her face with one hand as if enduring something, and Gerda was staring at the ceiling.
Surely this wasn’t.

“Yes. She is my wife. ‘Talented and beautiful’ is a phrase that exists precisely for her, I should think.”

Watching a charismatic beauty launch into full-scale doting with a soppy smile she absolutely should not have been making—
A yuri tower incoming!?
I was shouting it, alone, inside my head.