Epilogue:
A New World for the Women
THE REST OF OUR TIME in Museburg passed without incident.
Okay, actually, things did happen. Just nothing major.
Viscount Travis had already heard from Madame Zamil all about the massacre of the pioneer group. He immediately began arranging for the recovery of the bodies and holding a memorial service for the dead, taking personal responsibility for overseeing their funeral.
When it was over, Viscount Travis met directly with the survivors since they had been his subjects, technically speaking. It wasn’t realistic to expect him to have known there were more than fifty bandits—remnants of the Holy Kingdom’s forces—lurking in the region. Even so, the fact remained that the security he’d arranged for the pioneers had failed to protect them. The women had lost their friends and families, and now carried deep scars on their hearts.
Viscount Travis offered his apologies and gave them a small bag of silver coins. It wasn’t the kind of problem money could fix, but at least it could do a lot to help them survive and rebuild. He told them this was the best way he could atone for his failure. And while it was true that no amount of money could undo what happened, I understood what he meant. I had already told him one-sidedly that I would take the survivors under my protection, so this was probably all he could do on his end.
Of course, before apologizing to the women, Viscount Travis offered his deepest apologies to me. After all, the king consort had personally come all this way to build new villages, and yet a pioneer group had been massacred by bandits on his watch. For a lord tasked with maintaining order and developing this region, it was a grave failure.
But as far as killing the bandits was concerned, I’d acted entirely on my own. The natural course of action after finding the massacre would’ve been to contact Viscount Travis and let him handle the matter. Instead, I went over his head and acted on impulse, unlawfully even.
Since I’d made that call without considering what it would mean for him politically, I told him there was no need to apologize to me. And once all that formal nonsense was over, it was finally time to head home.
Instead of using the usual airboards, I quickly constructed a large soldier transport airboard and modified it for a much more comfortable ride. Everyone could ride together in this one, which meant the harpies wouldn’t have to work as hard keeping watch from the sky like when we had two separate airboards. Plus, the ceiling—well, the roof—was much larger, so they could use it as a landing deck. Now they could take off, touch down, and rest whenever they needed.
“This is quite nice.”
“It might be cool to design an airboard specifically for the harpies,” I wondered out loud. “Something they can take off and land on, and even load up with their bombing gear.”
Almost like a land-bound aircraft carrier.
When equipped with their bombing gear, the harpies’ flight range dropped dramatically, and the payload they could carry was limited. Their aerial bombs were heavy and awkward, so it was hard to use them effectively in large-scale assaults compared to defensive battles. But if we had a mobile base that could carry extra bombs and provide an on-site launch point, the harpies could really go all out on the front lines.
“This is wicked nice! The driver’s seat is higher, and the view’s way better! Real refreshin’!”
Bela, sitting at the helm, was excitedly driving the vehicle and completely ignoring the serious discussion Egret and I were having beside her. Since this thing was much bigger than the standard airboard, I’d positioned the driver’s seat higher up to improve visibility. Bela loved it, and she’d been in a fantastic mood ever since we set off.
“Zzz…”
Grande, meanwhile, was fast asleep, buried in a mountain of cushions. Meme, the rabbit beastman, and Fei, the weasel beastman, were braiding her beautiful golden hair, but the dragon girl showed no signs of stirring. Once Grande fell asleep, waking her up was next to impossible.
The dog beastman twins, Luna and Lana, watched them with soft smiles, while Shen, the horse beastman, was chatting quietly with Shemel. The mouse beastman, Mito, was clinging tightly to Shen’s side as usual.
By the way, the fox beastman Byaku and the goat beastman Olivia were sitting beside me and Egret—well, mostly beside me—sewing as they listened to our conversation. They were adjusting the clothes I’d given them to fit beastmen, and Tozume was helping out.
Despite appearances, Tozume was surprisingly skilled with her hands. She was always sewing, fixing, or crafting something.
“Drive carefully, okay? If you panic and get into an accident, we’ll be getting home late,” I warned, playfully.
“Aye, aye!” Bela replied with a grin.
And just like that, my little work trip was finally coming to an end.
Maybe I’ll relax in Merinesburg for a while.