Breaking Out of the Egg
But now came the terrifying hour of reckoning.
She had saved tens of millions of American citizens—and, through them, the hundreds of millions of Americans bound to them. What economic value did that generate? And what, exactly, was the price tag America would have to pay?
Even a crude calculation put the worth at hundreds of billions of dollars. Possibly trillions. Considering that last year's U.S. GDP had been thirty-two trillion, she had, in a single morning, boosted the American economy by dozens of percentage points.
How on earth was one supposed to compensate for that—and with what?
So fretted Ronald… until he received her answer.
"Hmm? Compensation? No need for that."
"…What do you mean by that?"
"It wasn't that great a feat."
The reply only made him tremble with deeper dread. She had been strange from the first meeting—not merely in appearance, but in her thinking and her principles of action. She stood utterly apart from ordinary common sense.
Equating a human life with a single meal had already been one thing. Now look at her: she had rescued tens of millions of addicts and the hundreds of millions of family members who depended on them, yet she treated it as nothing. To Ronald she was an incomprehensible being.
And what one cannot understand, one comes to fear. Right now Ronald was thoroughly terrified of the woman before him. She might be playing the part of a merciful absolute today, but there was no telling when her heart might change.
Like a child who discovers an anthill and, for the moment, seems ready to give the ants everything—even the liver from his own body—only to pour boiling water over them the instant the novelty wears off.
However sweet things were now, the moment she turned against them, humanity would simply…
"I see. In that case, I shall prepare something on my own."
"There's really no need."
"It is the way of us humans to return what we have received. Of course, what we received this time is so vast that preparing a proper repayment will take quite a while."
As he spoke, Ronald was already calculating the government's finances. Even if it meant printing brand-new dollars, this debt would have to be paid.
Of course, that would mean dealing with the money-mad bastards on Wall Street. But handling people who worshipped money like a god would still be easier than handling a woman whose next move no one could predict.
Having sorted his thoughts, Ronald looked at Astria once more and rose from his seat.
"I have said it many times already—America will never forget your kindness."
He still feared her. He feared becoming intoxicated by the miracles she offered. He feared growing dependent on her. He feared the day she might reverse herself and turn hostile toward humanity.
And yet—
"Thank you, Miss Astria."
"Mm."
—none of that was reason enough to slight America's benefactor. Bowing deeply in gratitude, Ronald could only pray that she never lost interest in humanity, never grew thoroughly sick of them.
Of course, as far as today's events were concerned…
Should I have vanilla for dessert… or chocolate…?
—to Astria herself they had already been shoved aside by the far more pressing question of which dessert to choose, and forgotten in an instant as something utterly trivial.
Astria.
From the moment I took as my destiny a name that meant Dragon King of As, I had been both king and lord of that world. And a lord who rules a domain is one who bears the duty of protecting the people who live within it.
There was a reason the nobles and royals of the French Revolution, stuffing themselves with cake at endless parties, were all dragged to the guillotine and executed. They had failed to fulfill their obligations. Their subjects no longer needed to uphold their rights.
I was no different. Granted, the relationship between myself and those under me was closer to that of god and worshipper—or master and pet—than king and subject. Even if I abandoned my duties, the chance of them rising up and tearing me apart was vanishingly small…
Still. Keeping a duty even when there is no reason one must—that is what responsibility is. And I considered myself a reasonably responsible monarch.
"Ah! G-Great One, we greet you!"
"We greet the Great One!"
"Mm."
And so, having returned to As after a long absence, I was making a circuit of the territory under my rule, fretting over whether any problems had arisen while its lord and guardian had been away.
There were Transcendents who could stand against even me, forever eyeing this land with greedy intent. I could not afford to leave my seat vacant for too long.
"Where is Eruel?"
"The chieftain is out hunting with her warriors…"
"Tell her I will wait."
"I-I shall summon her at once!"
The elf who heard me went deathly pale. Someone who had already received word of my appearance sprinted off in panic. Within minutes, Eruel came racing from the distance, barefoot and pouring sweat.
"G-Great One, we greet you!"
She postponed even catching her breath, dropping to her knees and bowing her head at once. Looking down at her, I frowned slightly.
It was not because she had abandoned her role as my sole point of contact and gone wandering outside the village. A chieftain need not stay glued to the settlement twenty-four hours a day. Especially not when I had left As entirely for Earth.
I had no intention of forcing pointless waiting under those circumstances—nor any need to. What made me frown was not her behavior, but…
"Eruel."
"Yes, Great One…"
"You've put on weight."
"Y-Yes?"
…the soft flesh she had gained. Enough that anyone could see it at a glance. Only then did I cast a casual look around.
Elves who should all have been virtually identical—height, weight, even bust circumference differing by mere millimeters or the length of their hair—now looked distinctly different from one another.
Some were downright fat. Others were not quite that far gone, yet clearly showed a change in weight. In short, every last elf had grown plump overall.
Ah. Of course…
Only then did I understand why Eruel had left her post to go hunting. The goods she had been receiving through her trade with America were the problem. In exchange for mandrakes and magical knowledge from As, the United States had paid a considerable price—
—and that price had mostly taken the form of luxury goods. Flour, chocolate, desserts of every kind that were nearly impossible to obtain in As.
To a hunting people like the elves, these were things they had never tasted, things they had never even imagined could exist. And the quantities America had sent were far too large for a tribe of only a few thousand—on the scale of relief supplies meant for a wartime nation of millions.
For elves who had always hunted and gathered only what they needed and lived on precisely that much food, an excess so great it would have to be thrown away (and so delicious they wanted more even after they were full) was something they simply could not leave alone.
All those surplus calories had turned straight into fat. Eruel, waiting in her corner for my call, had packed on layer after layer of soft flesh. And to work it off…
"From now on I'll reduce the luxuries I se—"
"N-No—!"
"…?"
Receiving too many luxuries was clearly the issue. Even for elves, gaining weight only raised the risk of adult-onset diseases and every other ailment, not to mention looking needlessly unappealing. That was what I was muttering when—
—to my astonishment, one of the elves overheard my murmuring and pushed back. It was something unimaginable in the past, and even now it was hardly different: every elf nearby, especially Chieftain Eruel, began glaring at the speaker as if ready to kill her on the spot.
The elf who had blurted the words without thinking clamped both hands over her mouth and shook violently. Cold sweat poured down her until she looked as though she were bathing in it.
When I merely looked at her in silence, Eruel—interpreting that gaze however she liked—hurriedly opened her mouth.
"I-I beg your pardon, Great One. We shall deal with that wretch ourselves. So please, if you would only calm your wrath…"
"—You. What is your name?"
"C-Ciel…"
Looking down at the elf trembling before me, I smiled with genuine delight. Head bowed and shaking so hard, she could see neither me nor any of the other elves.
But I was thoroughly pleased. No one else in the world could have welcomed this moment as much as I did.
From the mouths of elves who had practically worshipped me as a god, words opposing my instruction had slipped out? This was the very thing I had hoped for—yearned for—across thousands of years.
It was almost painful that only now, after the connection to Earth, had such a thing finally appeared.
No… rather, it is precisely because of the connection to Earth…
I closed my eyes for a moment and looked into her inner self. Something minute that had never existed before now stirred and flickered within her. I knew exactly what it was.
What I possessed and they had not. What they lacked and the people of Earth had.
A soul.
"Very well, Ciel."
"I-I have committed a crime worthy of death…"
"You've put on weight too. It's bad for your health, so cut back on the snacks."
"Y-Yes…?"
"And exercise."
With those words I left the place. The other elves still glared at her as though they meant to murder her, yet with me offering no further comment, none of them stepped forward to do anything.
The elves believed that if they committed any irreverence I would rain down heavenly punishment, but I had never once done so. Their failure to respect me did not diminish my authority or my station in the slightest.
My authority and rank flowed solely from my power. And that power had nothing to do with their respect. Until now they had simply been too much like soulless machines to notice.
And today, having encountered beings from another world, the elves at last shattered the shell that had enclosed them and hatched.
For that alone, helping humanity had been worth it.
Perhaps the others will turn out the same way.
Hoping that As would advance still further through its meeting with Earth, I hurried my steps to meet the rest of those under my command.