Chapter Text
If I were on Earth, summer vacation would have started now.
“Ahh, it’s so hot~” It’s the kind of weather perfect for playing baseball in, which is why summer is also the Koshien season. If I were on Earth and playing on the high school team, I would be playing in the preliminaries now.
“Is the heat getting to you, Your Majesty? In that case, please allow your humble servant, Günter to cool down your shoes for you by putting them near my beating chest—”
That would only make them warmer. And in this case, would it be too spoiled of me to ask for pretty young ladies in summer-appropriate clothes cooling me down with large fans?
If I asked, Günter would surely volunteer to strip down and act as the fan himself. In order to save myself from that sight—No, I meant, in order to save my reputation as a maou who does not indulge in material pleasures, I must resist the heat.
But rather than the heat, what’s bothering me more is the restlessness. As expected, summer is the season to be running around, and here I am, sitting behind my desk with a mountain of documents.
“Oh? You’re still here?”
Wolfram walks in, looking so genuinely surprised it ticks me off.
“What do you mean by that? Are you implying that I don’t take my work seriously?”
“Oh, you definitely take your work seriously. It’s just that you’re not the type to sit still, that’s all.”
I… can’t argue with that. Sinking down lower behind my documents, I mutter, “You’re still here, so where could I go?”
“Hmm, as long as you didn’t sneak off with another man behind my back again.” So he says, but both of us know he doesn’t really mean it. After all, unforeseen circumstances aside, he’s always the one following me on my crazy schemes, with Conrad indulging both of us at the sides.
“By the way, where is Conrad?”
Wolfram looks a bit put-out. “Out in the courtyard training the soldiers, if you’re that interested to know.”
“In this heat!?”
The look he gives me makes me turn red to the roots of my ears. “Of course. Do you think soldiers get to choose what weather they fight under?”
“Well, on Earth we have something called summer vacations, for when it gets too hot to study…”
Günter’s expression lights up – he always seems so excited to learn more about Earth—but Wolf looks suspicious. “So you’re saying that when the weather gets hot, people just stop working? That just sounds lazy to me.”
Uh-oh, that’s a major miscommunication right there. Still, to hear Japanese people called lazy… I never thought I’d see the day.
“No, no, adults keep on working. Too much, in fact…” I furrow my brow, thinking hard. “Wolf, when was the last time Conrad had a vacation?”
“Huh? Lord Weller doesn’t need such a thing.”
“What?” I think I just heard something that goes against human rights—even though we’re not human. “He doesn’t have holidays at all?”
“Why would he need any?”
“And what are his working hours?”
“He’s your personal guard, Yuuri. Do you think he has working hours?”
“That’s not right!” I stand up abruptly, slamming my hand onto the table. “We have to give him his basic labor rights!”
“You just want to go on a proper vacation with him…” Wolfram reads my thoughts out loud, and then shrugs. “Whatever, as long as I’m coming along.”
The thing is, we’ve been around a lot, but most of it involved world-ending, life-threatening or at the very least, diplomatic-ties-ruining crises. What we really need, I figure, is an actual, relaxing vacation.
“No.”
This part isn’t relaxing, though.
“I’m not going to help you,” Wolfram says, crossing his arms as he leans on the wall. I give him a withering look, and turn back to Gwen. It takes quite a bit of force of will, actually.
Gwendal’s expression right now, is what comes to everybody’s mind when I say ‘Demon King’.
“If you want to take a break and be known a lazy monarch, that’s up to you. After all, I’m more than used to doing all the work you’re supposed to. But if you come in here and demand that soldiers get holidays—” Lord von Voltaire takes a deep breath, looking as though he might burst a blood vessel. “I politely suggest that you might be out of your mind, Your Majesty. What happens if an enemy decides to attack when our men are on their ‘summer vacation’?”
I find myself at a loss for words. After all, even in Japan, the government is still trying to get people to take days off. It seems like I have a long way ahead of me to instill a healthy work culture here in Shin Makoku.
“Come to think of it, Brother, when’s the last time you had a day off?” Wolfram interrupts suddenly, his tone deceptively light. “Could it be that you’re just jealous Yuuri wants to give Conrad a holiday when you don’t get one? Or maybe you just want a holiday yourself?”
“W-what are you saying!? Of course—” But he doesn’t complete the sentence.
“Gwen, when’s the last time you—”
“Never.”
“Huh?”
“I never had a holiday.”
“Never!?”
“Being nobility is a full time job,” Wolfram pitches in. “Especially being the leader of a territory. Even when you’re off duty, you have to act the part, and be ready to meet any emergencies that might arise.”
That’s like being a doctor on-call 24/7. I can’t help but look at Gwendal under a new light. And this time, I can practically see ‘death from overwork’ written onto his forehead.
“Besides,” Wolfram continues casually, looking at the ceiling, “no one can stop the maou from taking a holiday. In that case, as his personal guard, Lord Weller will have to follow, and cannot disobey if His Majesty ‘orders’ him to relax.”
Gwendal grits his teeth. “So I cannot stop you. Why then come ask me?”
I look at Wolfram again, but this time he avoids my gaze. Well, he did say he wouldn’t help me—I chuckle to myself. So much for not helping.
“We were wondering if you wanted to come along, Gwen.”
The first son opens his mouth, then closes it again. He blinks, then puts his hand on his temple and just sighs.
“Uh… is that a no?”
“Your Majesty, please understand that I—”
The doors to Lord von Voltaire’s office suddenly fly open, and the self-proclaimed Everyone’s Favorite Spy saunters in.
“Boss, just a heads-up, but word on the grapevine is that Anissina-chan has finally come out of her lab, cackling like kotsuhizoku in ice. Makes you wonder what kind of prototype she spent three months on, doesn’t it?”
“—would be very much honored to take you up on your offer. May I know when we depart?”
Gwendal’s eyes are screaming to me, ‘Please say now’.
The next morning, we take off to the von Karbelnikoff lands.
Why Karbelnikoff?
“It has the best tourism in the country,” Gwendal says testily. “Your Majesty should remember at least this much about your own kingdom.”
“Also, it’s where Anissina-chan is coming from,” Josak sounds cheerful. “His Excellency is hoping we’ll secretly pass her by on the way, then she’ll reach Blood Pledge Castle and take longer to discover where we went.”
“But most importantly,” Conrad sighs, “is that the territory is coastal, and famous for its beaches.”
“Can we swim?” Greta asks excitedly.
“No looking at other men!” Wolfram, of course.
“Have fun, Your Majesty!” There’s Dacascos, waving us off because no one wants to bring a spotlight to a beach.
Hmm? Why does it feel like we’re forgetting someone?
“Your Majesty… Don’t leave me…”
“Ah!” How could I forget!
“Your Majesty…! You noticed me!”
“Has anyone seen Murata?” I look around for that familiar black hair amidst the crowd. Wait, what’s that quivering mass in the corner over there…
“Yoo-hoo, Shibuya! Over here!”
I turn around, only to see that somehow, Murata is already in the carriage and decked out in full beach gear.
“Murata… We won’t reach the beach for at least a day…”
“Who cares, this is to ward off the heat!” He spins around in his Hawaiian print shorts and pulls down his sunglasses. Can you even see with those? “Before you ask, Shibuya, these are custom-made sunglasses that have the same power as my regular glasses.”
“When did you even prepare those!? We only decided to go to the beach yesterday, and I forgot to tell you!”
“We Meganezu must always be prepared, and by the way, I’m hurt that you forgot me. I know I spend a lot of time at the Mausoleum, but to think that Shibuya is one of those people that believe in ‘out of sight, out of mind’…”
“Yuuri, what does that mean? Do you not think of me when we’re apart?”
“How could you, Shibuya? I’m so disappointed in you.”
“That’s it! Yuuri, I’m never leaving your sight again!”
“Wolf, calm down,” I keep my raging fiancé’s claws away from my face, pleading with my best friend, “I’m sorry I forgot you, it was all my fault, please don’t say such misleading things ever again…”
Murata looks at me for just a fraction of a second longer, and then pushes his sunglasses back up, hiding his eyes and turning to face the front of the carriage. “Well, at least it’s better than being forgotten while in plain sight.”
“Eh?”
“Your Majesty…”
Summer is also the season of ghost stories, but I never expected one to come out during the day.
“Uwaa!”
“Your Majesty… Are you going to leave me behind again…”
“G-Günter!?” I yelp, feeling his cold clammy breath on the back of my neck. “O-of course not! Of course you can come!”
“Really!?” And just like that he’s back to normal, sparkling in the summer sun and threatening to pour.
Gwendal holds his head. “Your Majesty, someone has to stay back—”
“Don’t you dare, Gwendal! It’s my turn to go on a trip with His Majesty!”
“There, there,” I stand in between my two most senior advisors, wondering where on earth this went wrong.
“Father, behave yourself!” A voice strikes out like a crack of the whip, and quickly becomes the angel’s horn, saving us all. “In any case, I shall stay behind.”
“Oh, Gisela, thank ymph—”
“I get it, I get it. Just get those juices away from me.”
Greta is watching them with bright eyes, then she turns to me in all seriousness, “Yuuri, one day I will do that for you as well.”
What, push me away with your palm and stomp on my foot?
*
When the entourage finally takes off, the one most relieved is actually Gisela. Finally, some peace and quiet.
“Geez, these boys…”
She stares for a while at the mountain of papers, then resigns herself to sitting behind the desk. She can’t sign anything official, but for now she can go through the documents and sort them out.
Actually, it’s been a while since the castle was this quiet. At one point she puts down her pen and allows herself to space out.
Think of it as her version of a holiday.
Come to think of it, it’s almost that day again—Now that she is alone, it’s okay to think of that, right?
The summer sky is so blue… just like those person’s eyes were.
She closes her eyes. The time to mourn has long passed, but sometimes she rather thinks she deserves a break.
A minute passes in relative silence, and then a bunch of rowdy soldiers walks past the room, unaware that she is inside, reveling in the freedom of not having Lord von Voltaire or Lord Weller presiding over them.
Gisela opens her eyes. Her break is over.
And as much as she likes the silence, she is much more used to… the tortured howls of disobedient soldiers.