Debra
The Crown Prince finally left, unable to hide his disappointment to the very end. He kept casting longing glances back at the massage chair, smacking his lips all the way back to the imperial palace.
Only then did she relax.
'No way—absolutely no way—am I letting them take it from me!'
She had voluntarily limited her own usage time out of fear of becoming dependent, but there was a world of difference between restraining yourself by choice and having the thing snatched away entirely.
"..."
While she was at it, she sank into the massage chair to calm her rattled nerves.
Whirr whirr— rattle rattle— whirr whirr—
"Hngh... ah..."
She was practically a workaholic, so the effect was truly spectacular. The Crown Prince must have been much the same—that had to be why he'd been so reluctant to leave.
"..."
When the thirty-minute massage ended, she swallowed her disappointment and climbed off the chair. She had no idea that her expression was barely any different from the one the Crown Prince had worn on his way out.
'Only two days left...'
That dastardly Juddak!
I-if he was going to be generous in the first place, shouldn't he have let her use it for a whole month?! Th-that's the only way to properly judge whether it's the real deal or not!
But what could she do? Two days left meant... she'd simply have to make the most of them.
Her work efficiency had doubled in recent days, after all.
"That said, though..."
Her face hardened. What the Crown Prince had said was weighing on her mind.
-Before long, that man will start moving in earnest.
-By "that man," I mean...
-You know perfectly well who. The one attached to the Second Prince.
His words had plunged her into seriousness as well. Truthfully, she had no interest whatsoever in the imperial succession struggle and wanted nothing to do with it—but there was a reason she had joined hands with the Crown Prince.
The man the Crown Prince mentioned was simply too dangerous. So dangerous that she, who had always kept politics at arm's length, had been forced into an alliance.
She bit at her thumbnail, her eyes flickering with unease.
Would joining hands with the Juddak really be enough to deal with that man?
The continent was currently suffering grievously from mana contamination. As magic engineering advanced, reckless development had spawned calamities of every kind in every corner of the land.
And into that situation, he had appeared like a savior.
Blue-skinned, with pitch-black eyes that had no whites at all.
A so-called Celestial—one who claimed to have descended from the heavens.
Faced with a species no one had ever seen before, the upper echelons of the empire took a deep interest.
-I'm sure you're aware, but the continent has already paid a heavy price for its indiscriminate use of mana. The contamination is substantial. If this continues, the magic empire itself is finished.
-Then couldn't we somehow manage it if we halt the advancement of magic engineering starting now?
-How naive. Did you think progress could be stopped simply by deciding to stop it? And the contamination has already reached critical levels. The train has left the station—it cannot be halted now.
-Th-then what are we supposed to do?
Beyond the sky, he said, lay his homeland.
-Pardon?
-We of 'Debra' never turn our backs on the hardships of others.
The officials of the magic empire were dumbfounded when they heard his proposal—because it was utterly absurd.
-I intend to send a request for aid to my homeland, Debra.
He had two arms and two legs like a human, and took the shape of a human—but nothing about him allowed anyone to think of him as one.
-Cooperate fully, and I'll accept you as members and bestow upon you Debra's blessing as well.
-A bless...ing?
-No trivial trinkets, mind you. I can extend your lifespans by at least double.
At first, no one believed him. Debra—his homeland, supposedly existing somewhere out in the cosmos beyond the sky.
She herself was not entirely ignorant of the universe thanks to the Interdimensional Integrated Community, but the continent as a whole had only just begun to show any curiosity about it.
Not a single noble was fool enough to be swayed by a man who appeared out of nowhere, claiming he would guide them up into the cosmos above.
But then the mana contamination spread until no one could see a future anymore, and one problem after another erupted—and people began to pay attention.
And more than that.
-Ooooh! Truly a Celestial! Thanks to you, my ailing body feels as though it's been washed clean!
-Aaah...! Will my daughter be all right now?
-You'll e-extend our lifespans?
-My legs... my legs that wouldn't move!
As though he truly were a savior, he began to take the entire empire into his grasp.
And then.
-KWAAAAAGH!!
-So this is all an 8th Circle mage amounts to. To dare oppose a Celestial.
An 8th-Circle mage who picked a fight with him was dispatched with insulting ease.
A pillar of light slammed down from beyond the sky, and the 8th-Circle mage was reduced to ash without so much as lifting a finger.
In the present age, when the 9th Circle no longer appeared due to the mana contamination, that feat could only be called the absolute pinnacle of power.
-We of Debra have already conquered what lies beyond the sky. So if your cooperation is assured, I'll report to my superiors and guarantee your standing.
-I myself am merely a castaway with my own circumstances, but once communications are connected, something like that will be trivial to arrange.
From then on, he attached himself to the Second Prince, receiving every manner of support while he began researching something. He drew upon the continent's resources and started raising structures.
Presumably, he had sided with the Second Prince because the Crown Prince belonged to the hardline faction demanding that magic engineering be halted immediately for the continent's sake.
That was around when the Crown Prince came to her.
He said something was going terribly wrong.
And when they pooled their strength to investigate, they confirmed it: the continent's mana contamination levels were rising at an alarming rate.
By her calculations... in less than a hundred years, the land would become unlivable.
It was no longer just the empire at stake—the very survival of the continent hung in the balance.
So it was little wonder she was so impatient.
"I doubt even the Juddak can solve a problem like this... but still."
There was nowhere else worth pinning her hopes on.
Even if all she got was a clue toward resolving the contamination, or enough leverage through magic engineering to check that man...
In a way, the Juddak was also some kind of cosmic being—something like that man—so perhaps he knew something about him.
"And yet..."
It would be hard.
It felt like grasping at straws. How much of the Juddak's word was she supposed to trust, and how far was she supposed to follow it?
Could even the Juddak really handle that man—a Debran? Even if his word was true, weren't the Debrans likewise beings who strutted about the cosmos?
The pillar of light the Debran had unleashed was still vivid in her memory.
When that colossal beam of light had come crashing down from the very edge of the heavens, she had nearly found herself praying to a god she didn't believe in.
It had looked for all the world like divine punishment.
"..."
Besides, the internal problems could not be ignored either. The Crown Prince had been working himself to the bone, running this way and that, but the results were hardly encouraging.
That man's support base was already far too solid.
Things might be different if the Emperor himself moved, but the Emperor continued to maintain his silence on the matter.
"So stifling."
Sigh after sigh escaped her. These days, at least, the massage chair kept her stress in check.
That was when it happened.
-Hm? What's got you so worked up?
She jumped out of her skin.
It couldn't be—but...!
"D-don't tell me... you've been watching me? You could hear what I was saying?"
-Ah... well.
"!!"
-lol.
"KYAAAAAAAH!!"
She retraced everything that had happened over the past few days and let out a scream.
"H-how could you, you shameless...!"
-Hmm. I was planning to keep it a secret because I figured you'd react exactly like this, but since you found out, oh well. So? How was the massage chair? lol.
She felt like her eyes were about to roll back into her skull. That "lol" at the very end nearly sent her over the edge entirely.
There was just one saving grace...!
She was profoundly, deeply grateful to her past self for restraining from using [Saintess Mode].
"How... how could you...! Y-you—! Peeping tom! Pervert! Shameless fiend!"
-Ah, no need to worry about any of that. I've got a capable friend who... censors anything too spicy for the viewers with a mosaic. Tsk.
"A mo-mosaic?"
She had no idea what the word meant, but the sky felt like it was turning yellow all the same.
The way she'd sniffed at her blanket and giggled to herself before bed. The way she sang and danced in the shower. The way she occasionally worked off stress by pummeling her enormous stuffed doll with her fists.
He'd seen ALL of that?!
-Shh. This is a secret (wink)
"..."
What secret?! And did he really think a little wink was going to smooth this over?!
She was struck speechless. She couldn't even figure out where to begin listing his offenses.
-In return, extended your massage chair period haha
"..."
Grrrr—
F-fine. That's not the important thing right now anyway.
Truthfully, even if she'd wanted to block him, she had no idea how she'd go about it—and she couldn't have blocked him regardless.
Look at the Juddak, not blinking so much as once even while getting absolutely roasted across the Interdimensional Integrated Community—this was hardly a man who'd listen to her telling him to stop.
"If... if you've been watching me all this time, then surely you understand the situation I'm in?"
Honestly, she didn't expect the Juddak to actually do anything about it, but she had to try saying it.
And if he'd truly been watching over her all this while, then...!
-Uh... sorry. I'm not nearly that free haha
"...!"
Every single one of his turns of phrase made her blood boil.
She gritted her teeth and endured.
"Forget the massage chair extension—!"
Not that the extension wasn't a matter of the gravest, gravest, GRAVEST importance...!
She swallowed her tears and held back. She was a woman who knew how to suppress her petty desires for the greater good!
"I need your help with something else."
-Help?
"It's an extremely serious matter!"
-lol.
"..."
She trembled with fury at the Juddak's message—but then it dawned on her.
"I... I'm begging you. Please, just hear me out."
That she was in no position to demand anything—only to grovel for his mercy.
That he was not the kind of Juddak who'd grant a favor just because she asked nicely.
"P-please!"