Black Iron Magician

「Fumu. Prince Dias, no, you are a king now. With this, the throne has been transferred to you in writing. I am very happy with the birth of a new king.」

Joseph immediately made such a remark. Oh my, look at how he changed even though he’s in front of his former employer. I can only say, that’s Joseph for you. Normally, the abdication would not have been this easy. It’s all thanks to the necessary arrangements we made beforehand. The top officials of the civil and military departments agreed to it, and most of the nobles are part of Nell and Joseph’s factions, so there’s no problem. If there’s a problem, it would be the announcement to the people and the relationship with the surrounding countries. Well, that problem is nothing new, and I’m sure Gramps Joseph will do something. And for the sake of his granddaughter too.

「Phew. In the first place, I’m not fit to be a king, but I didn’t think that I’ll step down from the throne in this way…」

The former king Claude muttered so with a big sigh. He seems to have had a lot of trouble so far, and the wrinkles on his face are carved very deeply.

「… Tell me one thing. Dad, why did you leave to the Norland family when I was a baby?」

Dias began to ask Claude who’s in front of him. What? Are they going to talk about something serious?

「You still call me your parent, huh… Well, it was because I was powerless. I don’t have the ability to rule like my father, the former king, and I don’t have the ability to handle my subordinates well. Rather, I was the one who was being used. It was not as bad as it is now, but it was remarkable after I took over the throne. During this time, I heard from my wife that you had been born. Ahh, that was the most joyous moment for me. It was like a ray of light shining in the darkness, and it was so emotional.」

「Then――」

「――But, I didn’t announce this. I had no intention of telling anyone about your existence other than to the current head of the Norland family, someone who has been with me since I was a child and someone who I can call my only best friend.」

If it’s going to be long, can I go home? Eh, I can’t?

「As I said before, I’m not the kind of person who should be in this position. At best, I’m probably suited for a position where I’m in charge of a few subordinates. That’s why, Dias. I didn’t want you to have to bear the same burden. If I had announced your existence at that moment, the people around you would have surely used you. At worst, there might have been those who wanted to kill me, made the young you as the king, and made you as their puppet.

「…… Dad.」

Hey, Gramps, he’s talking about you. Eh, me? I won’t do something like that, you know?

「But, it seems that it was a needless worry. You put the reins on our country’s strongest knight leader Nell and the unpredictable mage prime minister Joseph, and came to my place. In addition, your academy friends are going to take the next post. I’m sure you have the power that I don’t have. Then, I’ll gladly step down from my position. Please take care of this country, Dias.」

「… I will.」

Alright, epilogue. Thus, Prince Dias became the new king, and the country was changed on a large scale. Joseph nominated his granddaughter, Weerel, to be the next mage prime minister, and he would retire after a certain period of time. As for the crime of kidnapping Haru, Chinatsu, and the others, he was asked to agree to some conditions, and in return, he was asked to atone for it in the form of a house arrest after stepping down, which is very light. But well, he had to accept a lot of things.

Furthermore, Akira and the others who had been monopolizing one floor of the castle were also being cleaned up. As soon as Joseph’s resignation was decided, Akira and the others lost their position as his guests and were forced to leave the castle. However, they are, more or less, victims of kidnapping, so the country didn’t just leave them alone. It seems that there’s no way to return, so they can’t go back to their original world. Therefore, Dias gave them enough money and let them choose whether they will officially serve the country, work in the town, work as adventurers just like Haru and Touko, or leave the country. Of the 14 people, half of them chose to leave the country. Well, they are mostly related to Akira. I was expecting them to complain, but strangely enough, they obediently obeyed while trembling. I wonder why, it sure is mysterious.

As for the hero selection, it was decided later through discussion, and Weerel was decided to be the hero. As for the party, it will be the hero Weerel and her companions Haru, Chinatsu, and Therese. I thanked Karua and Dry for going along with the farce and decided to give them the right to have a match with Haru later. Dry was happy, but for some reason, one side of Karua’s face was twitching. It can’t be helped, I’ll give her a suitable scroll from my collection. I can’t use wind magic anyway, and I think it’s a good way to thank her.

After that, hmm… I feel like I forgot about someone… well, whatever. Just like that, the hero selection and the throne inheritance ended successfully.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Late at night when everyone was asleep. On the west coast of the neighboring country of Tazarnia, on the continent of Jiba. The coast was lit by moonlight, and the waves reflected a slight amount of the light. However, what swaying there were not only the waves, but something different. At first, they were around the horizon, but gradually, they approached the beach unnoticed, and they finally came ashore one after another.

They have the face and lower body of a fish, but the upper body below the neck is very muscular and human-like, giving the impression of imbalance. They are monsters of a race called 『Merman』, which are somewhere between humans and fish. In their hands are long iron harpoons that fishermen would use for fishing. A human body could easily be skewered by such a powerfully built monster.

In general, a merman is set as a level 3 subjugation monster. However, this is only when fighting on land. After they come to land from the sea, they will look for a suitable place to build a nest. Once they have access to water, the merman’s subjugation level will be raised a rank, or two in some cases.

「Gi, action, start. Action, start.」

「Gi, gigii, forward, forward.」

Crawling like snakes along the sandy beach, the mermen made their way deeper and deeper into Tazarnia’s territory. They were looking for signs of life and the sound of flowing water in order to secure food and shelter. That was the role of the lower ranks, and their instinct as a race.

―――― Shaa.

And then, a monster with a particularly large body appeared from the surface of the sea. The strong-looking bodies of the mermen seem weak compared to this monster’s body. The arm alone is as big as a woman’s waist, and the neck is bursting with muscle and looks like a huge tree. In his hand was not an iron harpoon, but a trident.

「Now, it’s time to overrun.」