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The capital. If you were to hear that word, what would you imagine?

Chances are, since it was called the capital, one would most likely imagine a giant castle or a palace surrounded by buildings.

Laevateinn, Svalinn and Gjallarhorn. Up until this point, although the shapes of those three countries were different, there was this common feature.

The capital of Blutgang itself was a giant castle, thus it might have been an exception amongst the exceptions. However, I think the capital cities of the RPG game worlds were fundamentally the image of the western medieval kingdoms and cities.

Putting it simply, it was that, you know? Fantasy RPGs are fundamentally based on Western society.

Once in a while, you get Eastern-styled games. But those games have a distinct setting right from the very start and often the enemies were not magical beasts but youkai and oni instead. Things usually went like that.

At the very least, if the magical beasts, magic, swords, heroes and the Demon Kings were to come out, that RPG world would give off a Western feeling.

Well, in essence, it’s that, you know? After being told, “Now, wake up, hero!” and grabbing a sword, the outside turns out to have Edo-period aesthetics….. Well, you know, wouldn’t you feel a bit off? You’d feel that something’s just off.

After you received the request to defeat the Demon King and were about to storm into his castle, the castle turned out to be an Osaka-jo (TLN: Osaka Castle) with the presiding Demon King having a chonmage and wearing a kimono. How would you feel?

And while I’m at it, what if the hero also had a chonmage and wore a kimono and said, “Sessha shall now journey to subjugate the disordered one, titled the Demon King-degozaru,” now what would you feel?

And the Demon King, being the Demon King, said, “Why dost thou struggle and close off a country? Exchange of culture is what I find the most joy in. Westernisation is what is most beautiful. Now be swallowed up by my culture and modernise.”… wouldn’t you be turned off?

It’s way too weird. At the very least, I wouldn’t play a game like that.

Anyways, with all that, I haven’t seen an eastern-styled city lately.

For some reason in RPGs, if you go towards the East, a player would often end up finding a Japanese-styled country and sometimes it might even be called Jipangu. However, it seemed there was nothing like that in this world.

Having said that, since this world somehow has a thing called a katana, it’s possible there was a country like that in the past.

As a matter of fact, back in the game, out of all the countries founded by the players, there was a country with purely Japanese style.

Though… I actually waged war and destroyed it, but whatever.

Anyways, the conversation had derailed.

What I wanted to say was that if one were to imagine a “capital”, they would imagine a western-style medieval city.

However, what was in front of me currently was a far cry from a western-style city.

Or rather… was this even really a capital? To begin with, was this even a city?

The place that we were at… if it was to be summarised in one word, it would be “grassland”.

Although it had been overly stepped over, it was, without a doubt, a real plain grassland. There were not even roads laid out to make things easier for people to walk on.

Then, there were tent-like buildings lined up next to each other.

So what was that thing again…. Something… like the nomads of Mongolia might use.

If I recalled correctly, yurt. Though I wasn’t confident about that.

Additionally, there was a forest just nearby. It seemed there were also beastkins living within that.

“I wonder what this capital thing is supposed to be about.”

“If the king is residing there, then it’s the capital. Though, in regards to Draupnir, rather than a king, they have an emperor. So technically, rather than a kingdom, it’s an empire.”

“Hmmm (hou)? To take the title of the emperor, they really put themselves on the pedestal.”

“There are many types of beastkins. Taking flugels for example, at most there are only two different types, ‘white-winged’ and ‘the rest’, but the beastkins are not like that. There are felines-types, dog-types, horse-types, cow-types and so many countless other types like elephants and rabbits that it would be pointless to list them all. Not to mention, even within the same species like feline-type, there are many different subspecies like cats, tigers, lions, leopards, cheetahs and other finer ones.”

“I see, I see. So you’re telling me, even though they’re all bunched up together under the umbrella of ‘beastkins’ due to their appearances, in actuality, they’re just many different finely split species, huh?”

To Dina’s explanation, I bobbed my head in a nod.

Although it was a common understanding that the world of Midgard was split into seven different races, the reality was that it only worked out that way because all the beastkins were forcibly categorised as one.

Well, of course it was. Even if they’re the same beastkins, there was no way the lion-based beastkin and rabbit-based beastkin were of the same species.

There were even those animals like tigers and bears who lived within the forest.

However, if we were to count all of those different species, there would be well over a hundred different humanoid races it would create a strange situation where majority would be some sort of beastkin. I assume that was why it was all bunched up as one.

“The ruler who commands over all the different beastkins. Hence, that is not a position of ‘king’, but the emperor. At least, it seems that is the logic to their claim.”

“The ruler who stands above the kings of many different races, hence he is the emperor, huh. I see.”

“To think there’s someone that disregards Ruphas-sama and claims the position above the king, how irritating….. Such an obsolete country, maybe I’ll drown it in poison right this instant.”

Although I was fairly satisfied with the reasoning from Dina’s explanation, it seemed Scorpius was not pleased with it at all.

I quickly grabbed and put her under control as she said some dangerous thing and took on a battle posture.

“Cease now, Scorpius. It’s a fact that the current me is not a king. It matters not to me that a random person decides to call themselves an emperor, sovereign or monarch.”

“Aaaannn, as expected of Ruphas-sama! How so merciful and benevolenttt!”

As soon as I stopped her, she very readily retracted her insane aura and returned to sticking onto my arm.

And that… It was only because of my specifications that I did not feel anything. If it was someone ordinary, their arms would be feeling quite numb.

Anyways, you can stop clinging onto me now, there was a slight fear of not knowing what she would do if I said something like that.

…. Maybe I was too hasty in adding her back as a companion?

“However, what Scorpius is saying also makes sense. The title of an emperor who stands above kings is only suitable to someone like Ruphas-sama who had ruled every country. What do you think, Ruphas-sama? Once you retrieve all of the 12 Heavenly Stars, you can once again rule the world and at that time call youself the Emperor!”

“For a crab, that was a good suggestion. In that case, how about we rename the Tyrannical Way 12 Heavenly Stars as Imperial Way 12 Heavenly Stars when that happens?”

“Aah, that sounds cool!”

In the back, whilst ignoring the person in question, the crab, the goat and the sheep were getting heated up.

Haven’t I been saying that I’m not interested in dominating the world anymore!? Why should I repeat the same mistake!?

If I did something like that, I’m going to become the last boss route again and be beaten by the Hero-san.

To be ganged up on by the Hero, the Demon King and the Goddess at the same time is just an impossible game, ya know.

The Hero-san’s still weak right now, but his class selection is really busted so… just by becoming a level 1000, he would become the same strength as me! These hax-tier cheap cheats should be limited to a reasonable degree!

Ah, there are also Benet and Leon so… I’ll get hacked five ways. Yeah… definitely not happening.

“Well, those things don’t really matter. More importantly, can you figure out where the reception for the hunting festival’s registration is?”

“I think it’ll be fine if we head where the people are flowing into.”

“Then we’ll do that.”

I decided to accept Dina’s suggestion and tag along with the wave of people.

It’s really an irrelevant thing, but my get-up this time was a full-body cover, so I was in suspicious person mode.

After all, in this place, there were also elves and flugels. I could not say for certain that there would not be anyone who remembered what I looked like.

Fortunately, because there were adventurers and travellers from all over the place, I did not stand out too much.

Amongst the other adventurers, there were some very eccentric ones that they might even have been able to say, “So what?” There were some really eccentric appearances. Compared to those people, what I was wearing was far better.

If I were to get specific, there was even an idiotic man who was wearing bikini armour.

You… even if the effects are just that good, I still question whether….

I get that this isn’t a game and you can technically equip female-only equipment as a male if you really wanted to, but…..

“Ruphas-sama, that person….”

“Don’t look at him.”

Virgo was pointing her finger at the bikini armour and was trying to say something, however, I covered her eyes and turned her forward.

It was fine that such perverts do not enter into your vision. It was poison for the eyes.

“Anyways, the beastkins are really quite diverse. That guy, Dubhe, did really well in unifying all these people.”

As I looked around, I was really made to feel how diverse and numerous the number of species categorised as beastkins were.

The more I looked around, the more I felt there were a lot of them.

Starting from the ever-standard cat and dog species, there were even lizardman-looking reptilian species.

Considering those were also under the beastkin umbrella, it was quite surprising.

Additionally, I was able to confirm half-humans when I saw humans with animal ears and tails.

Well… if I had to point out something, it would be that especially for the half-breeds, their appearances looked a little like sakayaki, and I thought it did not match them well at all.[11]

Who was going to benefit from the rabbit-eared middle-aged man with a beard? Were they going to start flying as they said mama mia in the air?

“If I may say something, those no-brain beasts would never have been able to achieve such a difficult feat. I would like to state that they merely stole the governance that Ruphas-sama built up.”

I was honestly impressed with Dubhe, however, Libra cut in from the side with harsh words.

You really are merciless against every one of the 7 Heroes except Mizar.

“Ah, I can see something resembling a line. Look, everyone’s lining up.”

“Looks like that’s our destination.”

When we followed where the people were going, we found a line formed by various travellers.

At the end of the line was what looked to be a reception, thus it seemed like there was no mistake in assuming that this was the right place.

We put ourselves at the end of the line and decided to wait until it was our turn.

*

“Yes, with this, the registration is complete. The hunting festival will happen tomorrow so please take things easy tonight.”

After deciding to register for the hunting festival, Sei received a number plate from the receptionist and nervously stored it into his pocket.

After leaving Svalinn, the Hero’s group came to Draupnir in search of information.

It just happened that at this place, there was a hunting festival which gathered many travellers, adventurers and merchants precisely at the right time.

They had decided to change their destination to this place in the hope of finding someone that had information on Ruphas’s whereabouts and at the same time, to test Sei’s ability.

Additionally, this place also happened to be the birthplace of their party’s strongest member, the Sword Saint Friedrich.

After Sei told Friedrich he wanted to talk to Ruphas before deciding anything, Friedrich became very meek like a cat that was borrowed from a neighbour. The party’s decision matched up when it was decided that part of the reason for coming to this place was to cheer Friedrich up.

“There’s quite a lot of different types of people.”

Sei looked at all of the travellers that were in that place with great interest.

Brawny warriors with heavy armour. A woman who wore things that a dancer or performer might wear.

A rabbit-eared, bearded man. A fullbody jet-black swordsman who perhaps believed himself to be really cool.

And lastly, a perverted, very muscular and buffed up person, who despite being a man wore female-exclusive bikini armour.

“…… Yeah, really. There’s a whole variety of people. Are all the adventurers like that?”

“Well no. That’s definitely an unique case. So please don’t put us in the same category as that thing.”

To Sei who was saying something with awe, Jean became flustered and quickly reeled him back to reality.

Subsequently, Sei’s party split into two groups to move around.

The first group consisted of four individuals: Jean, Nick, Shu and Sei. The purpose of this group was to protect Sei while registering him into the hunting festival.

The members of the second group were Gants, the party’s vice captain who had recently grown two more nose hairs, the tiger, Cruz and Ricardo. This group was currently running around gathering information.

The Rangers’ squad who are always sneakily moving around in the shadows had quickly gone to make reservations at the inns.

“Oi, look, Sei. That group has so many beauties. I’m so envious of the guy that’s with them.”

As if to change the topic, Jean pointed at one party of people that were in the line.

He was pointing to a group which consisted of a very suspicious person enveloped by a full red mantle and a hazardously well-proportioned lady who was clinging onto that mantled person. A cute white-winged young girl and another cute girl with rainbow-coloured hair.

An elderly gentleman who had a monocle on and a handsome man with a red vest.

Lastly, a blue-haired beauty and a maid with brown hair who gave off a stiff feeling and stood quietly by.

…. What is this? What’s up with this party that looks like it has no common point?

Ah! When I thought the handsome man wearing a red vest got close to the person with the red mantle, he got punched by the maid.

“They look like a bunch of weird ones, but they’re probably very high-levelled. That sexy lady’s intense look is very arousing.”

“Ye, yeah, it’s definitely a gathering of beauties.”

“Right? Anyways Sei, which one’s your type?”

“Eh?! Well, no, I don’t have something like a type…”

“Don’t hide it, don’t hide it. Let me say what I think. Your type is either the white-winged girl or the girl with the rainbow-coloured hair. Hey, you actually like the ones who give off the quiet and shy feeling, don’t you?”

Jean had Sei locked under his arm and was coercing Sei whilst saying, “Now, reveal everything!”

At this time, Sei thought that although Jean was typically very nice and sociable, he was a troubling person at times like this.

However, at this moment, Jean suddenly released Sei and made a “hmmm” sound as if to ponder on something.

“Wh, what happened?”

“Mmm? Well, I have this feeling as though I’ve seen them somewhere before. But I don’t think I’ll forget them if I ever saw a beauty like that before. ……. Maybe it’s just my imagination?”

Jean tilted his head as if it was something strange, however, Sei was thinking he was just imagining things.

Having said that, Jean was definitely not someone in possession of a good memory.

Jean was the type of man who had even forgotten how he recently got his hands on the items he had.

As such, Sei believed this time was also just because of his forgetfulness.

“It’s probably just your imagination. Anyways, we should get going.”

“No wayyy… I’m sure I’ve definitely met them before…. I wonder where it was…..”

Sei held and dragged Jean to the inn where they were staying for the night as Jean continued to look behind him even at that point.

Even though the distance between them was ever so close, it was yet to be the time for them to meet each other.