Information (4)
Information (4)
"Why? Is something bothering you?"
After Bella left, Alice saw the look on my face and asked me that.
Of course plenty of things bothered me.
I wasn't worried about the Cathedral Knights. Whether the goddess existed or not split opinion among the game's fans in all sorts of ways, but even if she did exist, the very fact that a being like me was tolerated suggested there wasn't a major problem.
If anything, she probably took my side. If she didn't, there was no way a being like me would have been left alone like this for ten years.
If she didn't even know I was here, or lacked the ability to stop me, then there was no need to worry either.
If she didn't know I was having such irreverent thoughts, then that settled the matter. If she did know and was still letting me be, that also settled it. Besides, the ones in the Holy State were just people who wanted to seize power by brandishing the goddess's name, so if she favored the Holy State, I simply wouldn't consider her a goddess at all.
So I didn't much care about whichever enemies might be over there.
The problem was the outfit I'd have to wear there.
"...... Your Imperial Highness."
"......I told you to call me Alice......."
But seeing how serious I was, Alice couldn't put much force behind those words.
I looked at Alice with a grave expression and spoke.
"Even if it's a legally operated establishment, in the end it's a gambling house. The people who go in and out of there, and the people who run it, can never be righteous people."
"I know that."
Hearing what I was saying, Alice looked a little relieved, as if she'd thought, 'That's what this was about?'
But I shook my head at her.
"...... It may be a far more sordid place than Your Imperial Highness imagines."
Naturally, none of the bunny girls there were 'of noble birth.' There might be the daughter of a fallen noble, perhaps, but anyone like that would be in a situation barely better than a commoner's.
However, the people who could stride openly into a casino were mostly those with money. And the overwhelming majority of those with money were nobles, or people connected to nobles.
New forces such as capitalism and nationalism were taking hold, but this was still a world where social rank remained firmly entrenched.
It wouldn't be strange at all for a noble to lay hands on a pretty bunny girl put there as eye candy.
There weren't many men who could look at beautiful women openly revealing half their chest or more, plus nearly their entire backs, and not react.
In most parts of the Empire, brothels were illegal.
But that didn't mean free love could be prevented. If a noble who visited the casino and a woman working there as a server happened to catch each other's eye and simply had a 'brief romance,' the Empire didn't go out of its way to call it a crime.
As for the tip, well, you just said you'd received it as a server.
Strictly speaking, illegal was illegal. Everyone simply knew it and let it pass in a mutually agreeable way.
"......."
I didn't imagine that Alice already knew every one of those details. But since Alice could read my expression, she would know how seriously I meant this.
"If it's that kind of place, then I can't let you go alone all the more."
"......."
Well, I mean, the sentiment was certainly admirable. Having Alice along would definitely help. Honestly, I only looked like a good fighter because I could turn back time, grasp the whole situation, and launch preemptive strikes. If we fought in close quarters without knowing anything, Alice would be far stronger.
"What would you do if I said I wasn't going?"
So this time I asked that.
"If I defied His Majesty's order and didn't go?"
"Is that your own will?"
Of course it was my own will.
My will not to wear a bunny girl costume.
"And not because you want me not to go?"
Uh.......
It was my own will, right?
A strong will not to wear a bunny girl costume.
"...... Even if you said you wouldn't go, I couldn't just leave that place alone. Father personally assigned you the mission, and what's more, Bella came in person and gave us the information."
Well, yes, I suppose from the Empire's perspective that was true.
"Who was it who said she would be the next emperor?"
"...... That is naturally Your Imperial Highness."
"In that case, as the next emperor of the Empire, I have a duty to know as much as possible about everything that happens behind the scenes. And,"
Alice spoke with an expression that looked ready to shoot sparks from her eyes.
"It might be unavoidable after I become emperor. The Empire is vast and an emperor has many duties, so of course I wouldn't be able to roam around collecting information in person. But, put another way, it's precisely because I haven't yet ascended to the throne that I can do such things without hesitation, isn't it?"
"Your Imperial Highness is someone who will become the next emperor—"
"What, bringing that up now."
Alice spoke with absolute confidence.
"I attend the academy and talk with commoners as equals, train alongside them, do field exercises together. When we hunt beasts, I risk my life just the same. Obviously."
Alice pointed a finger at me.
"You,"
and then she turned that finger toward herself,
"I'm your equal here too. We're all students. So at least while we're wearing the same uniform, stop calling me Your Imperial Highness. I'm not even the Crown Princess yet, so there's no need to talk about the next emperor or anything like that."
"......."
"If you don't like calling me by name, you could call me 'elder sister.'"
"I'll call you Alice."
"...... So even if I ordered you to call me elder sister, you wouldn't obey, would you?"
"It was you, Alice, who said that we are of equal standing here."
When I answered flatly, Alice's face looked as if she might burst out laughing at any moment.
*
I had entertained a certain hope.
Namely, that in this world, when 'game-style permissiveness' clashed with 'reality,' wouldn't 'reality' carry more weight?
No matter how brilliant a swordsman was, he couldn't slice an incoming bullet with his sword, and if a beast bit you, you got hurt. Even a beast that took dozens of sword slashes and dozens of gunshots to put down would still bleed when cut by a blade carrying sword aura, and it would die when shot.
It was an absurd world mixing steampunk and fantasy, but it did have its own realistic aspects.
So, based on the fact that real-world casinos rarely actually had bunny girls, I'd entertained the vain hope that this world might likewise lack such sex-appeal outfits.
"......."
But, as anyone could tell from seeing Leo's face turn bright red in front of the casino like this, my vain hope had been far too easily smashed.
"Unnecessarily garish."
Alice frowned and muttered.
As Alice said, the casino building had a far more clamorous atmosphere than I'd expected. Though, even so, it was much more old-fashioned than the garishness I knew from the 21st century.
When you watched American films or dramas set in 1950s or '60s New York or Las Vegas, you often saw buildings that were, by the standards of the time, extremely flashy and bright, studded with light bulbs on their signs. This place was exactly like that.
Of course, this world didn't have light bulbs, so instead the place was studded with lights that used Mana Stones of similar colors, but that was the extent of it.
The buildings in the imperial capital were comparatively flashy compared to other regions, but there were hardly any places as flashy as this one.
"......I think I understand why the instructor didn't want to come here with us."
At Alice's remark, Claire nodded in agreement. Unlike Alice, though, Claire's gaze was directed a little elsewhere.
While Alice was taking in the building's overall atmosphere, Claire was looking at the same thing Leo was looking at.
The building's entrance.
At the entrance, pretty women with good figures were standing holding advertising boards. Most of them displayed promotional advertisements for the casino. Some wore sashes printed with promotional phrases, and others were advertising a hotel run by the same operator as the casino.
A few nobles, mostly older, portly-looking nobles, were pestering those women, and some were already heading somewhere with a hand resting on a woman's waist or shoulder.
Literally a city of pleasure.
If Las Vegas was a paradise built in the middle of a desert, this was like a pleasure villa hidden deep in the forest.
It was a place utterly removed from the diligent, innocent image of Carolyn, and I remembered being dumbfounded when I first saw it.
...... Exactly the same as my memory.
"...... Vulgar,"
Charlotte murmured in alarm.
Charlotte's gaze was fixed on one bunny girl with somewhat dark skin and perilously exposed large breasts, who was cackling in conversation with a large-framed noble.
For reference, that bunny girl's hair was silver. Honestly, if not for that attitude, she even had a mysterious enough aura that you might think she was a tragic heroine forced to work in a place like this.
.......
She was enjoying that, wasn't she?