A Summons One Day

Author: Iwashi-zukushi
Raw: https://ncode.syosetu.com/n3388fm/37/
Translator: Lilia v4
Editor: Yuriko AYA

Some time after the public bathing facilities were installed.
I was spending busy days again, turning through examinations and dodging Nasti’s spiteful teasing, when a messenger came from the Demon King.

“That I am to present myself.”
“Yes. Lady Grace has at last found time, and she wishes it most particularly.”

The messenger explained so.
Incidentally, this person was a winged demonfolk called a featherfolk.
A form like a human with wings grown, and honestly one could not say they did not look like an angel.
In fact they are a being close to the monsters called harpies, or Harpyiai.

They look slender, and their arm strength is not that great, as they look. Magic varies by individual, but it is said to be far stronger than a human’s.
And they can actually fly with the wings on their backs, so they would be a perfect fit for messengers like this.

Now then. That aside, the reason for the summons was a so it has finally come.
I, too, had wanted to meet her once, and there were various things I wanted to ask.

“As you will. I shall present myself in accordance with the summons.”

I bowed my head, respectfully.

And as specified, I headed for the Demon King’s castle from the afternoon.
…Calling it the Demon King’s castle gives a different image, to be honest.

Incidentally, Kira was posted at the soap factory in the afternoons, and Gerda was running around helping with that and adjusting things here and there.
I, too, would ordinarily have gone to the soap factory or shown my face at Nora’s, but today, as one would expect, it could not be helped.
And so I presented myself at the Demon King’s castle alone.

And I was shown not to the audience chamber… but to the small room I had been hauled into before.
No, small room though I say, it was plenty large. A reception room, perhaps one should call it.
I see: this is not official, so no stiff pretenses, speak without reserve?

I was thinking that when there was a knock, and Dorothea came in first.

“Asha. Her Majesty has arrived.”
“Ah, yes!”

I rose smoothly from the chair and bowed my head, waiting for the Demon King to enter.
And, without much interval, a delivery of someone entering.

“Yes. You have done well, Asha.
You may raise your face.”
“Yes. If I may.”

I bowed my head once as if nodding at the Demon King’s words, then raised it.

And I lost my words.

The beauty standing beside the Demon King.
Around thirty in years, she should have been. And yet. In fact she was a beauty with a grown dignity to match, and yet.
She was also adorable, somehow, like a pure maiden, and different charms existed in a balance that did not contradict.
Adorned with long, softly waving gold hair, a slender body, and yet with the places that should come out coming out, wrapped in a simple dress of white and blue.

Such a princess as if from a picture was standing beside the Demon King, a perfect charismatic beauty.
And they stood together as if it were a matter of course, naturally, looking as if they belonged.

At the sheer shock, the sheer beauty, I seriously forgot to breathe.

“Here, why are you struck dumb. Compose yourself.”
“Hah!? I-I beg your pardon.”

I could hardly say I had been staring, so I only bowed my head.
But the Demon King had seen through it… or perhaps she had only wanted to say it.
Grinning, she put on that face a charismatic beauty must not make again.

“What, think nothing of it. It cannot be helped that one would become so before Grace.
My Grace, you see, is a beauty without peer in this world.
And not only beautiful…”

Ah, I slipped. It is starting again.
But there was no stopping the Demon King as she began to talk, already looking like she was enjoying it.
I would have to keep her company through another long doting… no, I don’t dislike it, I was thinking.

“Your Majesty.”

Lady Grace opened her mouth.
The voice that spilled from her lips was truly beautiful… and cold as ice.
Enough that that Demon King stopped dead.

“W-what is it, Grace.”
“Your Majesty. I told you, did I not?
That Asha is busy and giving us her time, so you were not to talk idly.
And what is this, beginning your specialty doting all of a sudden.”
“N-no, this is, you see, not doting but a mere explanation—”
“Excuses will not do. However you may think of it, what just now was nothing if not doting.
How many times must I tell you to refrain before you understand?”

At the scene suddenly unfolding before me I was struck dumb in a different sense from before.
That Demon King was faltering.
Lady Grace never raised her voice.
In a calm voice, steadily, logically, and without mercy.
And at that lack of mercy the Demon King was being pressed hard.

Eh, surely the Demon King wasn’t henpecked!?

Too surprised, I found myself asking Dorothea with my eyes, and a wry smile came back.
I-I see, so that’s how it is… I was shown something shocking all of a sudden.

“I-I have been holding back, even so—”
“Is that so.
By the way, Asha. How much do you know about me?”

I had thought she would keep pressing the Demon King as she was, and she suddenly tossed the talk to me.
I started and hunched my shoulders. Then I turned the question over in my head.

“Um, e-er…”
“I do not mind. Please answer honestly.”

I glanced at the Demon King, wondering if I was allowed to say it, and Lady Grace prompted me with a calm smile.
My intuition told me that in this place it was better not to go against Lady Grace.

“Y-yes, then… First, that Lady Grace was a princess of a country on the continent called Kirschbaum.”

This, honestly, I could only accept. However you looked at her, she was existence that embodied the word princess.
Her full name was Grace Adela von Kirschbaum, I had been told.
In other words, the Demon King’s wife had been a human princess.
As for why such a princess was in a place like this.

“That you volunteered yourself as a sacrifice in your people’s stead, and came to this island.”

Yes. On the day she came of age she had volunteered herself as a sacrifice, and come to this island intending to have the Demon King agree that no more sacrifices would be sent thereafter.
Regrettably, or fortunately, the Demon King had never needed sacrifices to begin with, and agreed readily.
She sent a letter to the effect that they were unnecessary from then on, and as a result, no sacrifices have been sent from Kirschbaum since.

At first things went so smoothly that Lady Grace had even worried whether her devotion had been meaningless, but afterward, seeing how other countries kept sending even after being told they were not needed, she had revised her thinking: it had not been wasted.
Perhaps it was precisely because they had paid the sacrifice of Lady Grace that Kirschbaum could accept that sacrifices were unnecessary.
Humans, especially humans of a world of nobles and the like, thick with intrigue, may not believe a story that is too convenient.
Other countries are still sending sacrifices…
And, as one might expect, women of the noble class and above have not been sent either.
No other country seems to have thought of following Kirschbaum and reducing the sacrifice of commoners.
Which is exactly why Lady Grace’s devotion shines.

“Yes. That is not wrong.
But when that story was told, what manner of expression did Her Majesty use?”
“Eh, e-er, that is…”

I could not say it. In front of Lady Grace herself, repeating those flowery phrases was, somehow, something I resisted.
That devoted action of hers, and her firm attitude before the Demon King, had been doted on to the utmost—but I had a feeling saying so would be bad.
Perhaps sensing something from my manner, Lady Grace nodded, small.

“I shall change the question. From my name to a simple history. How much time had passed?”
“Eh. Eh, e-er…”

I faltered at the question. That quite a bit of time had passed was certain, but I did not remember exactly.
Or rather, was I even allowed to say it; even a rough about this much would have been a sufficiently guilty amount of time.

“Th-there, Asha was only listening, so she does not remember the time.”
“That is, true.”

The Demon King cut in as if this were the moment.
And it was the fact, so I nodded.

But. Lady Grace put on a small, bright smile.

“I see. That is so as well.”

At those words the Demon King looked openly relieved—but.

“Then, Dorothea.”
“Yes. Approximately forty-seven minutes and thirty-two seconds.”

At Lady Grace’s question, an accurate figure that was not approximate at all came back, readily.
In an instant the Demon King’s expression went blank with shock.
Yes. This had probably been a trap.
Or perhaps a last mercy. If she had confessed honestly, perhaps…
But reality is merciless.

“Dorotheaaaa!? You, would you betray me!”
“I am sorry, Your Majesty. In this situation I cannot go against Lady Grace.”
“I-I had believed in you at least!?”

What is this. Um, what is this.
That Demon King, the Demon King overflowing with charisma, is gone without a trace.
Rather, in this place.

“Your Majesty. We will speak later.”

Lady Grace, showing a small, graceful smile, was.
Without mistake, the one who ruled this place.

“I am sorry, I was in the wrong!”

What do I do. I just saw the Demon King prostrate herself to Lady Grace.
Will I be silenced later.
Worrying such a skewed worry, I watched the married-couple comedy… no, the wife-and-wife comedy, in a daze.