When the water magician finally returned to the state guesthouse, Shoken was the first to spot him.
“Ryo!” he shouted, drawing everyone’s attention.
“Phew, I’m finally back.”
Then the incredibly seductive beauty accompanying Ryo caught their eye.
“Duchess Alba...” murmured one of Knightley’s civil servants. His quiet words carried surprisingly far, reaching not only the rest of the delegation but also the others farther back in the dining room.
Shinso stood up and approached the pair. “Ah, so you’re here as well, Agnes.”
Agnes’s eyes widened in surprise. “L-Lord Shinso?!” She quickly regained her senses and curtsied, holding the hem of her skirt.
Duchess Alba’s power surpassed even that of the archduke in Twilight, yet here she was bowing to this mysterious man. The Kingdom’s civil servants, with absolutely no information on this man, wondered if he was a king or emperor of another country.
“Why are you here, my lord?”
“Well, I felt the need to intervene a bit in the ‘civil war.’ And I also wanted to meet Ryo over here.”
“Huh? Me?” Ryo blinked in confusion.
He hadn’t met anyone like this shockingly handsome man before him, but he did finally understand something.
It all makes sense now...
In vampire lore, the term “shinso” refers to the person considered to be the pinnacle of vampiric power. In some cases, this individual is the ancestor of all vampires. Though this man looked no older than twenty, he was certainly not that young.
Shinso turned to Ryo and smiled. “‘The world is out of joint,’” he began.
“‘O cursed spite...’” Ryo continued after a pause.
“‘...that ever I was born to set it right!’” Shinso finished.
“How do you know Hamlet?”
Did Shakespeare exist in this world too? Impossible.
“Well, only someone of Nojima Hidekatsu’s caliber could translate the original so beautifully.”
Ryo was too stunned to speak.
Indeed, the original text is... “The time is out of joint, O cursed spite, That ever I was born to set it right.” Translating the first part as “The world is out of joint” is the mark of a genius. And recognizing such an unusual rendering proves you’re Japanese...
“That means you’re—”
“Yes, I’m like you, Ryo.”
At that moment, Ryo met the second reincarnate he’d found since arriving on Phi.
✦ ✦ ✦
“I had a feeling,” Ryo muttered later on as he and Abel sat on a sofa across from Shinso and Agnes in the dining room.
Apparently uninterested in their conversation, Agnes leaned happily against Shinso.
“Did you?” Shinso said.
“Yes. I mean, to re-create ramen so perfectly is...well, it’s impossible unless you truly love tonkotsu ramen and have eaten hundreds, maybe thousands, of bowls.”
“Hm. You ate it at Agnes’s, I take it? Her personal chef is one of the best in Twilight. He did an excellent job with the recipe I gave him. Wouldn’t you agree?” Shinso smiled and nodded enthusiastically.
“I would. An absolutely exquisite bowl.”
Ryo had eaten two, in fact.
“Is it really that good?” Abel muttered.
“Yes, it is. I’d love to introduce ramen to the Kingdom, but...” Ryo trailed off.
“That is likely impossible.” Shinso shook his head sadly, continuing, “It was quite a struggle to re-create here.”
“The problem is the noodles, isn’t it? Specifically, the kansui...” Ryo said.
Shinso inclined his head in agreement. “I’m not surprised you understand. It is a must for ramen noodles, but it’s difficult to obtain. Hence why you can’t re-create it in the Kingdom.”
“I don’t understand, Lord Shinso. I assumed you succeeded in synthesizing it chemically. Is that not the case?”
“It is not. You see, I discovered natural kansui.”
Ramen is said to have originated 1,700 years ago on Earth, when people discovered that wheat flour kneaded with salty lake water in Mongolia produced noodles with remarkable elasticity and texture. The word “kansui” itself comes from these salt lakes, sharing the same character for “salt.” This means the alkaline water used in ramen was once a naturally occurring substance—though in Japan, the use of natural kansui was prohibited by law until fairly recently.
“It can’t be produced in the Kingdom because there is no natural source of kansui there,” Shinso explained.
Ryo was immediately devastated.
“The truth is, I founded Twilight to get my hands on the supply here.”
Ryo wasn’t the only one surprised by his revelation now. Agnes also looked shocked.
“Make sure you keep this a secret from the others, Agnes,” Shinso warned her.
“Yes, of course, my lord!”
She seemed delighted to be her beloved Shinso’s confidant.
I can’t believe he built an entire country just for ramen... In this case, food is the literal foundation of an entire nation...
Ryo knew he was biased, but that didn’t stop his emotions from welling up and making him speak from the bottom of his heart.
“Lord Shinso... I’m genuinely impressed.”
Shinso flushed a bit with embarrassment.
Ryo had managed to solve the mystery of ramen, and although everything else would no doubt pale in comparison, he still felt compelled to ask, “Um, there are a few other things I’d like to ask you...”
“Anything, provided I have an answer. We come from the same place, after all.”
“Is that right?” Abel muttered thoughtfully.
Ryo pretended not to hear him. “Well, it isn’t nearly as important as ramen, but I was curious about why the government was overthrown... Or, to be more precise, why did a civil war break out?”
Abel was flabbergasted.
“Ramen” is more pressing for these two than political unrest?
Still, the swordsman was smart enough to keep his face from betraying his confusion. He knew better than to anger people like Ryo or Shinso. For some reason, he had a feeling making fun of ramen would definitely rile them up...
“Right. I suspect it’s simply a pastime.”
“Huh?” Ryo asked, surprised. He’d said the same thing to Abel, so the fact that Shinso had just confirmed it must have meant it was true.
“Isn’t that right, Agnes?” Shinso asked.
She started, not expecting to be drawn into the conversation. Then she opened her mouth, her gaze bouncing around.
“Um... Well...”
“I thought as much.” Shinso sighed softly. “It’s been a hundred years since this country was founded, and I think we vampires grew tired of peace. We are immortal and practically impossible to kill. As a race, we’ve struggled to increase our numbers, but we rarely lose one of our own. For those with lives as long as ours, finding ways to pass the time is crucial. Our lifespans are different from mankind’s, and that makes it difficult for others to understand our plight.”
Then he sighed again, more deeply this time. Ryo had a sudden inkling that maybe Shinso had grown tired of managing his own kind.
“Before arriving here, I repeated a cycle of founding countries, fighting with other races, and everything in between. So while I’m happy to be in Twilight because of the kansui, which allowed me to perfect my long-held dream of making ramen, sometimes I do wonder...”
“I envy your immortality. It means you can create civilizations in real life, right?”
“Create civilizations?”
Ryo had loved simulation games during his life on Earth. He’d been obsessed with the likes of Nobunaga’s Ambition, Three Kingdoms, SUPER Mini Strategy, as well as a certain Mr. Meier’s Civilization—all games where you create a civilization from scratch and develop it over the course of thousands of years... If you were immortal, you could actually accomplish that.
Ryo explained all this enthusiastically.
“That brings back memories...” Shinso said, looking longingly into the distance. “I used to play those games too.”
For him, those memories went back thousands, or perhaps tens of thousands of years...
“You’re right...” he murmured with a smile. “Only the vampire race can do such things.”
Of course, Ryo merely thought he’d realized something about his country.
After that, as they continued to chat about this and that, Ryo remembered something.
“Shinso, about the magic nullification system you built into the duchess’s mansion...”
What the hell?! Artificial magic nullification?!
To Abel, this was the most shocking bit of news so far. If magic nullification became widespread, society would change drastically... But...
“Oh, that’s a misunderstanding. It’s just something I found.”
“Something you found?”
“Agnes, I can tell by the look on your face that you didn’t explain it properly to him. Fine, no matter. I found it in an ancient ruin while out on a stroll. It must have been before I moved to the Central Provinces. All I did was set it up, weaken it a touch since it was far too powerful, and adjust it so that she could control it. Now, it effectively turns her property into a magic-neutral space... Well, worst-case scenario, I’m certain she’s found a way to manage.”
“My lord!”
Agnes hugged Shinso even tighter.
“The fact of the matter is, not even I can nullify magic.”
Abel was relieved to hear those words, whereas Ryo was a bit disappointed.
“However, when it comes to magic itself, I’m confident I possess a deeper understanding of it than most. After all, I was the one who spread incantation magic to the Central Provinces.”
“Huh?” Ryo and Abel gasped in unison.
“Of course, I had quite a difficult time discovering the ‘incantation’ that influenced the laws of this world. But thanks to that, half the population can now use magic.”
So it was you! Ryo shouted in the depths of his heart.
Right after being reincarnated on Phi, Ryo had felt smug about being one of the elite “twenty percent of people” who could use magic, so he was disappointed to learn that many more people could. But Shinso had acted to help others, meaning his actions weren’t necessarily bad...
“Though I won’t deny that it’s more convenient for us in Twilightland if those in neighboring countries can only use weaker magics. We prefer that, in fact.”
All right, so maybe it wasn’t just about helping people.
“Then...is it the same deal for Combat Skills?” Abel asked.
“Yes,” Shinso said with a nod, looking at him. “The knights and soldiers who protect Twilight are human, after all. I wondered if there was some sort of magic they could use to make themselves stronger... I’d been experimenting with it long before arriving in the Central Provinces. A hundred years ago, I finally managed to construct a standard form.”
“That means Twilight’s soldiers—”
“Yes, most of them can use Combat Skills. The nobles’ knights in particular can also use Sword Skills, Spear Skills, and/or Dual Sword Skills, depending on their training.”
This was shocking. While not exactly invincible, this meant that Twilight’s soldiers were incredibly powerful compared to the Kingdom’s knights.
“By no means are we a large nation, and I never intended it to be. So I’m quite satisfied with our small but elite force.”
Shinso grinned at him.
But to Abel, that smile was eerie.