Frau: Beezel's daughter and the coordinator for the Civil Official Girls in the Village of the Great Tree.
Yuri: The Demon King's daughter.
Mettora: A member of the Post-Age of Gods Dragon Race. She was sent to the Demon Kingdom Academy as a caretaker for Alfred and the others.
Asa: A member of the Mercury Race from the Sun Castle. He was sent to the academy as a caretaker for Alfred and the others.
Earth: A Soil Doll who gained muscle mass and a human appearance through the use of magical soil. He was sent to the academy as a caretaker for Alfred and the others.
Randan: One of the Four Heavenly Kings of the Demon Kingdom, in charge of internal affairs.
Kuro suddenly remembered his diet.
It was likely because Fracia had been petting his belly the previous night. He was full of motivation from the moment he woke up. Furthermore, as if reflecting on his past failures, he even turned down my offer to accompany him. I could see just how serious he was this time.
I wished him luck.
However, I wondered if he realized that if his diet actually succeeded, Fracia might stop coming by to pet him. Was he really okay with that? No, I decided not to say anything that might shake his resolve. I would simply cheer him on from the sidelines.
"And you lot," I muttered to Kuro's Children, "stop running a betting pool behind my back."
Worse yet, it was rude to bet on how many days he would last rather than whether he would succeed or fail. Kuro was the kind of dog who—no, that wasn't right. Kuro was an Inferno Wolf who got things done when he set his mind to it.
It was disheartening to see that the most popular bet was for him to give up after a single day.
The Mountain Elves spent some time interacting with Box No. 4051 and developed a specialized table for the boxes. The mechanism was designed so that when the lid opened, a table stored inside would slide out in front of the box. When the lid closed, the table automatically retracted.
Until now, one had to peer inside the boxes to communicate through the script, but this table eliminated that necessity. It also significantly improved the exchange of items, which had been somewhat difficult due to the boxes' dimensions. While there was the minor disadvantage of a slight reduction in storage capacity to accommodate the table, the invention was hailed as a brilliant piece of engineering.
At the request of the High Ogre Maids, these tables were provided to the four boxes stationed in the kitchen with the highest priority. Greater convenience was always a welcome change.
A few days later, it was discovered that the characters formed using wood shavings on the moving tables were too easily disturbed. Consequently, the shavings were replaced with polished pebbles.
Frau and the others finally returned from the Demon Kingdom Royal Capital. Everyone was smiling, looking quite refreshed from their trip.
Yuri wasn't with them, however. Apparently, she had to stay in the Royal Capital a bit longer for work. That sounded like a difficult task.
I asked how the Royal Capital Festival had been. They told me that the participation of the Noble Academy had made the event much more extravagant than usual. I supposed I should make an effort to go see it for myself at least once.
When I asked how Urza, Alfred, and the others were faring, the response was that things were "full of problems."
I wondered if they had caused some sort of trouble, but that wasn't it. The issue was that their faction management was substandard. Urza and the others had formed the Largest Faction at the academy, and while their internal discipline was nearly perfect, their treatment of the Hostile Faction and the Neutral Faction left much to be desired.
"Even if they're your enemies, you have to maintain a point of contact," Frau explained. "Otherwise, your flow of information will be completely severed."
That made sense. One needed diplomatic channels specifically because they were enemies. Without them, any misunderstanding or disagreement could escalate into an immediate war because no one was in a position to point out the mistake.
"I thought I had taught them that much while they were here in the village," Frau sighed. "But it seems they've been leaving all of that to Tiselle."
It seemed Urza and Alfred had forgotten those lessons in their eagerness to strengthen their own faction. While it was problematic that they hadn't put their education into practice, they were still just children. It was probably fine as long as they learned the ropes while still at the academy.
I asked if I was being too indulgent.
"You are," Frau replied bluntly. "However, the hostile and neutral factions were in the same state. Yuri-sama took the lead and organized an exchange meeting, so we've managed to establish a temporary point of contact for now. Now it's just a matter of maintaining it... I've already asked Mettora-san for her assistance."
Mettora? I wondered why she hadn't asked Asa or Earth.
"Because Mettora-san was the only one available."
I was confused. Where had the others gone? And for that matter, where was Tiselle? Based on the conversation, she wasn't even at the academy.
"Tiselle has been amusing herself by meddling with the companies in the Royal Capital," Frau said. "Her handling of her own forces, the opposition, and the neutrals was absolutely perfect. She's far more skilled at it than I am."
I didn't quite know how to react to that.
"Asa-san and Earth-san have been drafted to help her," Frau continued. "To be precise, Asa-san is acting as Tiselle's Butler. Earth-san is managing an Information Gathering Unit while running a cafe. Apparently, they're working in coordination with the unit managed by Randan-sama."
I see. I decided to take it as a sign that they were all healthy and energetic.
I filled Frau and the others in on what had happened during their absence. The existence of the boxes was the biggest news. They were surprised to a degree, but their reaction was somewhat muted—perhaps because they were already familiar with things like the Flying Carpet. Beezel used one, after all. There were likely other sentient tools in the Demon Kingdom as well.
They were delighted by the numerous crystals containing ancient stories. However, when we tried to play one, the language turned out to be so archaic that Frau and the rest couldn't understand a word of it, even though I found it enjoyable. It seemed that if we wanted to enjoy the stories together, we would need to translate them and provide a live narration. I made a mental note to look for stories with a smaller cast of characters to start with.
That night, Frau and her group joined the Observation Session with the Astronomical Telescope. We had been doing it almost every day, so the number of participants had dwindled, though some children still attended faithfully. I wondered if they would become astronomers one day.
Frau and the others peered through the telescope and voiced their admiration, but their thoughts quickly turned elsewhere.
"Wouldn't this be more useful for observing things far away on the ground rather than the stars?" one asked.
"Indeed," another agreed. "If we installed these in military fortifications, we could monitor enemy movements with ease."
"The design is straightforward enough," a third added. "As long as we can source the lenses, we could likely mass-produce these."
I told them to stop coming up with such ominous ideas while looking at the stars.
Fracia was also participating in the session, but she wasn't looking through the telescope. I wondered if she had already grown bored of it. She told me that the stars looked more beautiful when you saw them with your own eyes.
I felt like she was more of an adult than I was.
When we returned to the mansion after the session, we found Kuro sound asleep and smelling of alcohol. It seemed the combination of being tired from exercise and feeling refreshed from a bath had made the temptation of the sake brought to him impossible to resist.
I supposed that was just the way he was.
Fracia went over and started petting his belly. Kuro's diet would have to start over again.
Well, I hoped he would try his best again tomorrow.