Rio Kodama, the girl summoned by the god on-site, had been given the powers to rule over the monsters. Overwhelming magic, demonic charisma, the knowledge of military strategies, incredible physicality, etc., etc.
“It seems that even a god can’t change the deepest part of one’s heart.”
Tiamat sighed. The Demon Lord Leon was weak against direct violence. Even if being blown away by a dragon’s tail might have been fatal for a human, it apparently wouldn’t have done enough damage to the Demon Lord. I mean, I didn’t think too many Demon Lords out there would perish at the whack of a tail. Still, while said attack barely dealt any physical damage, Leon was left cowering.
“The actual damage output doesn’t matter,” Tiamat added.
What mattered was the flashback she endured. One of the typical symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. The tail attack must have revived her memories of being beaten. An attack with a sword or spell might have been different enough from her memories for her not to have a flashback.
“You knew that much before you attacked?”
“Just a deduction with no other way to prove it. When you’re in my business...” the dragon princess trailed off.
She’d seen it many times before, I’m sure. I gave a little nod. There wasn’t much I could do to mend the heart of Leon the Demon Lord. I wasn’t an expert.
“The problem is the god on-site.”
I changed the subject. What was the purpose of this sinister casting? Tiamat had said that Leon’s motivation wasn’t as simple as taking revenge upon humanity. That’s why things were complicated. A girl enacting a plan to end humanity without a shred of emotion. I felt something cold on my spine, and shook my head.
“With time, I don’t think it’s impossible to make peace with Leon. The real problem comes after that,” Tiamat said.
“Right...”
The god on-site had already tried to reignite the war between humans and monsters. I doubted that the god would give up so easily even if this particular attempt were to fail. Besides, this world was still plagued by our original problem: beriberi.
We weren’t even close to figuring out how to save this world. Burdening the food supply through war was actually a rather realistic approach. Beriberi drastically decreased in Japan during WWII as well. But that was the one option I could not accept. There is no way that a world can be saved by war.
“Mm. Then we only have one option.” Tiamat nodded, without mocking my personal dogma.
“We have to convince the Demon Lord to stop the war and explore how to save the world together.”
“If coexisting is impossible, what will we do?” Tiamat asked.
“Segregation, of course.”
My answer wasn’t creative or unique, but humans are only meant to coexist with other humans, at least if we’re talking about equal standpoints. Could any of us coexist with an uncaged lion or tiger? The lion can claim all it wants that it won’t eat the human, but the human won’t believe it. That’s why we cage our predators. We don’t coexist with them. They are our pets.
The same logic applied for monsters and humans in this world. Our values were too different not to start a war. Because of that, our most efficient solution at this point was to keep our territories separate from one another. The monsters would build their kingdom somewhere far away from where the humans lived.
While it was very possible that both sides would clash again once transportation methods evolved, that would have to be dealt with down the road. I didn’t have the skills to construct a plan that will last a hundred or a thousand years.
“And what specific plan are we enacting, Lord Eiji?” Hieronymus asked, waving his tail to and fro.
What I had just declared was a slogan and not a solution. If there wasn’t enough land, an attempt at segregation would turn into fighting over that land. It was out of the question for the monsters to take any land occupied by humans. Starting off with a grudge was not going to be good, anyway.
“Tia. Are there any bountiful lands around that aren’t inhabited by humans?” I asked Lady Tiamat, the omniscient tour guide.
“There is a plot of land that no man has touched that’s about the size of Ishikari plains.”
“That’s a huge plot of land, isn’t it?!”
About 3,800 square kilometers. It might be difficult to picture its size with just that number, but that was large enough to cover ten cities, including Sappporo, Ebetsu, and Iwamizawa. All of that land left untouched? It seemed like there was plenty of land to go around.
“Earth is vast, but not to humans. Neither is the expansive universe, in fact.”
Tiamat chuckled. While her explanation might be a little ambiguous, she meant that it didn’t matter to humans how vast a space was if they weren’t using it. Outer space was a realm reserved for highly trained professionals. For most, outer space might as well not exist. The most us commoners could hope for is imagining what could be up there among the stars.
“Then, all the monsters will immigrate there?”
“All monsters who wish to do so, Lord Hieronymus.”
It didn’t seem quite possible to move the entire monster population in a caravan. I expected a good number of them to refuse to leave their homeland, too.
“We might grow our strength in our newfound home in preparation to destroy humanity, Lord Eiji.”
Of course, it was Miss Cielz that interjected, teasingly. Ruey flashed a frown.
“That may become a reality. But not in the next fifty or a hundred years, I’m willing to bet.”
The challenge of humans and monsters coexisting was not a dire issue that required immediate resolution. That required a long process of trial and error, I figured, until they could see each other as anything other than beasts to be hunted down and mere prey.
“I only need to buy enough time for that to happen.”
“...You’re an idealist.”
“I can’t argue with that. Still, I believe that war is never the better option over peace. That is definitely one of the few truths in this world that the Dragon Realm has learned over the past seventy years.”
I am part of a generation that knows nothing but the peaceful and prosperous Japan. Of course, I know very well that my beloved homeland is far from a utopia. There’s a large class divide, and no one sees a difference in the supposedly improving economy. Crime is ever rampant, and the number of suicides grows every year. Political corruption is reported almost every day... Every news story only adds stress to our days. But still.
“I think it’s a million times better than being at war.”
I knew I sounded naïve, and that war did most likely drive the progression of our society throughout history.
“You solved the monster problem. Now you’ll ignore the danger this world is facing?”
Suddenly, a girl’s voice interrupted us. I turned to the entrance, a little surprised, to find Leon astride Baze. She was up... and apparently really liked the Fenrir. This Demon Lord couldn’t have used her own feet, at least within her castle?! Poor Baze was sulking, his snout down into the ground.
“I can’t ignore that. We plan to find effective foods in Noura, too.”
I shrugged, trying to avoid looking at Baze. In our journey so far, we had discovered that wild rice was effective at keeping beriberi at bay, and we had met people whose diets didn’t revolve around white rice. These were insights I hadn’t expected to gain. Now we were going to research seafood and bran, as planned.
“It’s always about food with you, isn’t it?”
“Well, our lives revolve around eating and sleeping. We can’t do anything if we don’t have a good foundation for those things,” I answered seriously.
These were serious matters. A brain surgeon acquaintance of mine had said that no illness can be cured without food and sleep.
“...Weirdo.”
Who’s weird, again?
“He is my betrothed, after all.”
Alas, I couldn’t even get a word of defense from Tiamat. Now the Demon Lord was nodding in agreement. There would be tears for this! ...My tears.