Yuri, the daughter of the Demon King.

She works as an administrator of the Demon King’s Kingdom based in Village Five and is traveling to various places.

Administrators of the Demon King’s Kingdom are responsible for managing towns and villages that don’t have lords or direct representatives of the Demon King.

So, they move around constantly.

When she’s in Village Five, she often visits Big Tree Village for meals and such.

But when she’s away, she might not come to the village for half a year or more.

[I’m sorry I couldn’t help with the harvest]

No, no, you have your own work to do.

Don’t worry about it.

The kitchen carriage is a smaller, cheaper version of the camping coach.

It was introduced to the Demon King’s Kingdom’s army based on Yuri’s suggestion.

I heard it was for the patrol units…

Apparently, the patrol units also serve as escorts for administrators like Yuri, and they travel together.

I see.

[Once you get used to the meals in Village Five and in Shashaato City, eating anywhere else becomes difficult…]

Sounds about right.

Alfred said the same thing.

[I see. Oh, and I ran into Ursa-san while I was out]

Ursa?

Was she doing okay?

[She was doing well]

I see.

That’s good, though I still worry…

Did she cause any trouble or anything?

[………………]

Why are you smiling silently?

[Ehto… has Ursa-san sent any messages or anything?]

No, nothing.

[I see. Then perhaps it’s best if you wait for that message…]

If you know something, I’d like you to tell me.

I want to be mentally prepared.

[Ehto… she captured a castle]

…….

[She captured a castle]

I-I heard you.

Eh?

A castle?

What?

[Ah, it was a ruined castle. Ruined. Not some state-of-the-art fortress or anything]

I see.

Yeah, that makes more sense.

A ruined castle means it barely functions as a fortress, right?

[No… it still functions as a proper castle. It just wasn’t under anyone’s control]

…….

[If places like that get taken over by bandits, it becomes a real problem, so the patrol units regularly check on them…But it seems they got caught off guard this time.]

So bandits occupied it.

[I’m ashamed to say so.]

And Ursa’s group took care of those bandits, is that right?

[That’s right]

I see, I see.

So it was a bandit extermination.

That’s a pretty dangerous job.

I need to scold her for that.

Even if it helps people, I still think dangerous tasks like that should be left to specialists.

…areh?

But if it was just dealing with bandits, that’s not exactly causing trouble, is it?

Did she maybe hit someone she wasn’t supposed to?

[No, nothing like that… but as I said earlier, she captured a castle…]

Right, the bandits were occupying it illegally, so she drove them out, right?

[That’s how it ended, yes.]

…?

There seems to be a difference in understanding between me and Yuri.

Let’s see…

[There were about a thousand bandits]

……

[Ursa-san and the others set fire to the west side of the castle, then charged in from the east and captured it]

So they launched an assault on a castle where a thousand bandits had holed up.

[That’s correct. It was a ruined castle with no official overseer, but that doesn’t mean it’s okay to burn it down… However, since it was occupied by enough bandits to be considered a small army, we’re going with a policy of placing all the blame on the bandits and letting the rest slide. Once things are settled, I believe Ursa-san will send a report]

…………………….

[Shall we change the topic?]

Yeah, that sounds good.

Let’s wait for Ursa’s detailed report.

Oh, by the way, Ursa and the others weren’t injured, right?

[No injuries at all]

That’s good to hear.

Alright, let’s move on.

[Oh, yes. About Count Pugyaru, he was amazing]

Amazing how?

[When I stopped by the royal capital, he appeared before me by leaping out from a room about three stories high. In midair, he spun around multiple times… Then, the moment he landed, he bowed to me and handed over a letter of delegation. The impact of it all left me speechless, and I accepted it without asking why.]

I-I see.

I remember Prada and Hermes said that when Count Pugyaru fought against Beton-san, he fought like a martial artist.

He must be really physically capable.

And apparently good at his job, too.

His daughter, Crakasse, who’s one of the civil servant girls, doesn’t seem to think very highly of him though…

Maybe he acts differently at work and at home.

I should ask Crakasse about Count Pugyaru in more detail next time.

-0-

Oh, right. The Multipurpose Humanoid Mobile Heavy Machine (Arti Horse).

I heard it doesn’t operate well when there’s too much magic power?

[Yes. Old machines like that tend to have that issue]

Why is that?

[There seem to be a few reasons… but it does look powerful, doesn’t it]

Yeah, it definitely looks powerful.

[Wouldn’t it be a problem if something that strong were controlled by magic power from the outside?]

Yeah, that would be bad.

[Exactly. That’s why they say it was designed not to accept external magical input]

I see.

So it would be dangerous if someone with ill intent tried to control it remotely.

[Like someone trying to control dozens of them at once]

Ah…

[And because of those countermeasures against external magic, it seems they ended up becoming highly sensitive to internal magic instead. In the case of the Arti Horse, that would be the pilot’s magic power.]

What happens when it’s affected?

[They say it might develop self-awareness or go berserk. I’m not too sure on the details though]

Ah, right.

Self-awareness through magic power…

Like the Intelligence Boxes or the Flying Carpet.

And the Universal Ship too, I guess.

That reminds me of when a cat caused a child’s toy to go berserk recently.

[So apparently there’s a safety feature that prevents it from operating if the pilot’s magic power is too high]

That’s the reason then.

So that’s why it won’t move with too much magic power.

And that pilot suit is designed to let high-magic power users operate it.

You sure know a lot about this.

It must be from a really old era, right?

Like a thousand or two thousand years ago.

[It comes up a lot in the classics]

The classics… I see.

You really study a lot.

[Not really. It just became a hobby]

And how did you know how to operate the Arti Horse?

[That’s also in the classics. It’s written in detail]

The classics… shouldn’t be underestimated.

[There’s much to learn from the old ways]

Y-yeah, that’s true.

[So, the classics also describe battles between Arti Horses. Would you like to try it in Five Village? I’ll be the pilot]

I’m kind of curious to see that…

But first we need to investigate the Arti Horse itself.

We also have to look into the related parts.

[That’s fine. We can wait until that’s done. But let’s do it]

Alright, alright.

I’ll talk it over with Youko.

We can probably run it once.

Whether we do it a second time depends on how it goes and what people think.

Should we go retrieve the pilot suits early?

Loo and Tier seemed interested in the suits’ magic-suppressing functions too.

But they also said they wanted to study how to slow the degradation of feather magic crystals.

There’s just so much new stuff going on… it’s hard to keep up.

-0-

Village Chief: [The Boxes, the Flying Carpets. And the Universal Ship too, I guess]

Ghost Sorceress Sword: [The sentient sword, the Intelligence Sword Quentan! Have you forgotten Quentan!]