Alright then, with that said, today was Kawagon Day.
It was my day for cooking duty—a duty that had somehow been instituted without any official approval... or rather, one I'd just kept doing without listening to what anyone had to say.
While grilling commercial-grade steamed noodles and frankfurters on an iron plate, I was also making yakitori next to them.
A drinking party in the Palace courtyard, at the level of a university student circle gathering.
The expensive booze belonged to the old men.
We were satisfied with sweet sours. Beer at most.
I'd also invited people from the business world... just kidding.
I'd called up Ha-san and my old Nagaya friends for a party night.
Ha-san had gotten a little thinner.
She'd been getting regular check-ups at the hospital, and it seemed her blood values were trending downward.
When I asked if she was okay—
"When you become an old hag, you gradually lose weight without doing anything!"
She laughed.
"I've got to look after the kids! I can't kick the bucket yet!"
She let out a hearty, booming laugh.
Ha-san was now a company president with shops in the deli sections of shopping centers all over the place.
She poured most of her earnings into orphanages for children who had lost their parents in the war.
She was also doing Pruon Nation protection activities and employment support.
The Chronos Religion treated her as a saint, handing out certificates and Medals and praising her to high heaven.
In short, it was Propaganda.
Chronos had gone through terrible things because of the war, but it had great people.
The children raised by those great people were doing well.
The state would take care of their employment too.
It was the whole "Chronos doesn't abandon anyone" message.
In reality, if you fell to becoming a criminal, we abandoned you with everything we had.
If you got into a fight and injured someone, it was the "Join the military. We'll beat some backbone into you" course.
Robbers and the like got truly cast aside.
That was the kind of society Chronos was.
I genuinely felt bad about using Ha-san so thoroughly for Propaganda for the sake of Chronos's reconstruction.
But Ha-san was all smiles.
"They call the King a Diable, but he's really a kind person. Now then, make the children's meals too. They're looking forward to it."
"Yessum."
I made the kids' meals.
In the meantime, One-O-One and Tatiana looked after the children for me.
Wifey, accompanied by Claire, was talking with the women from the Officer Academy Group who had become mothers first.
The mothers from the Nagaya had joined them too, and they were really getting into it.
That bastard Isono and Nakajima looked like they had nothing to do, so I made them grill yakitori.
Saijo-kun and Eddy too!
You guys get on the cooking side as well.
"Hey, Idiot Boys! Is it true you're training?"
It started off sounding like a sketchy girls' talk.
"Yeah. Can't afford to lose to you."
"That's right, Your Majesty."
Saijo-kun, wearing a Taisho Romantic Japanese-style maid outfit, agreed.
Then Kyoko and Fairy-san, who had been working inside a terminal, arrived.
"It might be a realm that can't be reached through training, you know."
"Hah? What do you mean?"
I had the same thought as Isono. What did she mean?
We all looked at the terminal.
I called over Leonidas-kun, who was with Big Sister Uta a short distance away.
"What is it, Your Majesty?"
"She wants to show us the verification results of the enemy's attack from the other day."
Kyoko explained it for us.
"I ran a simulation, and no matter how many hundreds of times we do it, we die. In the first place, it's impossible for a Humanoid Fighter to deflect an attack of that scale."
"We deflected it at an angle, properly."
"No matter the angle, do you think a fly could parry a flyswatter?"
What overwhelming persuasiveness.
"That's the scale we're talking about!?"
"In the first place, it wasn't even a flyswatter—it was an attack with higher output than a burner's flame. With a Humanoid Fighter, you should die from the shock just from getting close. But in reality, the Latarnia Ship fleet was merely rendered unable to navigate. That's impossible, right!"
"So what does that mean, Kyoko?"
Eddy seemed curious too.
"That would be a different energy."
"Jester's Ability?"
"Even if it's ESP, the output is too massive. Even Alissa wouldn't be able to manage it."
That meant there was a difference from the rest of us.
...The Prototype Machine, huh.
"In other words... the Prototype Machine exerted some kind of influence."
"It's no longer in the realm of science. But probably."
I didn't get it at all.
Or so I thought, while handing chocolate to the Zashiki-warashi, who had appeared before I knew it.
It was the kind where small chocolates were individually wrapped in a ring shape that kids would probably like.
"Thank you~!"
Seeing this exchange, everyone sighed.
Even Leonidas-kun sighed.
Hey, you were an accomplice, you know!
"That's exactly the kind of thing he'd do."
"That's exactly the kind of thing he'd do."
It seemed a conclusion had been reached somewhere without my knowledge.
Then One-O-One and the kids appeared.
"I sensed the presence of snacks, sir!"
I took out a variety pack of snacks from the counter.
"One-O-One. This is an important mission."
"Y-Yes, sir!"
"Distribute the snacks to the kids."
"Understood, sir! Yaaay!"
Heh... victory.
The Zashiki-warashi also went off toward One-O-One and the children, who were having fun.
"That's exactly the kind of thing he'd do."
"That's exactly the kind of thing he'd do."
For some reason, the Idiot Boys were nodding in understanding.
Big Sister-in-Law Uta was watching them and cracking up laughing.
"Captain Leonidas. You need to get better at handling kids too, Captain!"
She was slapping him on the back, bang bang.
"Handling, you say... why do I have to..."
Even as he said that, he gave grilled corn to the Zashiki-warashi, who was supposed to have gone over to where One-O-One was.
Yep, corn duty secured.
What's this? "I came over here because it seemed like he'd give me something."
I see....
"Hey, kids! He's gonna grill corn for you! This big brother Leonidas right here!"
"H-Hey, wait—!"
"Gyahahahahahahaha! Captain Leonidas is way too funny! I'll help out too!"
After pushing the kids onto Leonidas-kun, I asked Kyoko a direct question.
"So, what do we do?"
"Develop a new machine. We don't understand the theory, but we can reproduce it."
It was a very Japanese-style approach.
"I'm counting on you~. With that said, hey Idiot Boys~! Go pilot the new machine~!"
"You've gotta be kidding me..."
"You guys are Ace Pilots, right!? Show some guts! I'll work hard too!"
We just had to push through with passionate, jock-like logic.
"It's a new field where no one knows how to do it. You guys love that kind of thing, right?"
I provoked them on purpose.
"Y-YOOOOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!"
Isono trembled violently.
"You know exactly what we're thinking, you bastard!"
Everyone loved that kind of thing, after all.
Like clearing an Impossible Game simulator.