Operation Panties by the Great River

♪ Adagio (present) ♪

Tonight’s inn had separate men’s and women’s rooms too. I was really a man, so there was no need to be so considerate.

A light rain was falling outside. A wistful ballad would have suited a night like this.

What was waiting for us at the end of this journey? Even if fate had toyed with us like this, our names probably wouldn’t be written in the history books.

At most, there would be a passing mention of technological innovation and the wars that came with it. Even if something tremendous happened, we were nothing but grains of sand in the great river of history.

Maybe I’d go up to the observation deck for a change of pace. I climbed the stairs to the rooftop.

I was pretty sure you could look out over the great river from up there. I scanned the distance, and found it.

The Gihon River. This great river had made agriculture possible and supported the economy of this region.

No matter how all-powerful magic might be in this world, a city without an industrial foundation could never truly flourish. It might be arrogant for people like us, enjoying prosperity atop the social infrastructure built by those who came before us, to think we could change history.

Besides, what we were trying to change was only the political situation. The history of individuals. Compared to the history of technology, culture, or civilization, individual human beings hardly changed the fate of the world at all.

Come to think of it, if you followed this river upstream, it was said to connect to the royal capital we were heading toward.

Historically, the royal capital had long suffered from flooding. Embankments and irrigation projects had always been among the chief concerns of its rulers.

Even in Otherworld Earth, behind the great ancient civilizations—Mesopotamia, the Indus, Egypt, the Yellow River—there was always a river.

In either world, whoever controlled the river could control prosperity.

In recent years, however, there had been no major problems, thanks both to music magic and to embankment technology using concrete introduced from the other world. Technological progress had brought peaceful days to those who lived by the river.

Just as I was about to go back inside, I heard voices.

“If we stay here, we can see her panties.”

“If we do that, Adagio will hate us!”

“You’re too serious, that’s your problem.”

Poet and Growl. They didn’t know dragonfolk had very sharp hearing.

“She’s coming.”

“We shouldn’t do this after all.”

I see. So they were planning to hide behind the stairs and peek under my skirt. Hah. Since I was really a man, it wasn’t actually embarrassing if they saw, was it?

Maybe human beings really didn’t live on such a grand scale after all.

A mischievous thought welled up inside me.

Those two didn’t get along. And yet apparently they were trying to deepen their friendship through Operation Panties.

If I just scolded them outright, what good would that do? On the contrary—if this could become a chance for them to unite their hearts, wouldn’t that even improve their success rate with choral magic?

I deliberately stopped halfway up the stairs and straightened my back. Then I spread my feet just a little.

“Fwaaah… I’m getting sleepy.”

“D-did you see?”

“She’ll notice if you talk!”

Even though I already knew. I tilted my head on purpose, pretending not to understand anything.

“Ughh. She’s cute.”

You two are the cute ones.

Still pretending I hadn’t noticed a thing, I headed back to the room at a leisurely pace.

W-w-what do I do? All of a sudden I got embarrassed afterward. Waaah. I’m a pervert woman.

The door to the men’s room was slightly open. They’d forgotten to shut it in a hurry.

I decided to step inside just a little.

The two boys were sitting formally on their knees with bloodshot eyes. That was kind of cute too.

“What’s wrong?”

“N-n-nothing! Naaah!”

“Y-yeah.”

How obvious. Well then, maybe I’d act obvious too.

“Really?”

I tilted my head again with a puzzled look, trying very hard not to grin.

The two of them looked at each other with a visible jolt. I pretended not to notice and left the room.

“Looks like she didn’t notice.”

“Thank goodness…”

Apparently, male friendship had just blossomed.

I was a very bad person. I was playing two men like fiddles and enjoying it.

☆　☆　☆

In a quiet café filled with gentle sunlight, I was drinking milk tea.

I was waiting to meet someone. Who was it?

Right. This was a dream. I was dreaming. I was someone who, by rights, should never be able to exist in a place this peaceful.

“Sorry to keep you waiting.”

The one who appeared, his tap shoes ringing with each step, was Allegro.

“It’s been a while.”

“Yeah. I wondered how you were doing, so I decided to intrude on your dream.”

“You can do that…? That’s the dragonfolk for you.”

I tried forcing a compliment, but Allegro only gave a faint, tired smile. It seemed he was worn out. Well, escaping from prison while doing all sorts of other things must be exhausting.

“I’m planning to join the rebel army tomorrow. I broke with them at first, but I changed my mind.”

So that was what he had been doing behind the scenes, while no one knew where he was.

Somehow, the pupils in Allegro’s eyes looked as if they had opened vertically, like those of a predator.

“Don’t,” was all I could say.

“If you want to stop me, then defeat me. If I die, the people I cursed will come back to life. After I split from you, I placed a death curse on three more people.”

“You’re wrong. Other people matter too, but first, you need to value yourself. I can’t bear to watch you get hurt any more than this.”

“My life is as good as over. I don’t have the carefree luxury of going on a romantic journey with two men like you.”

“Wha… You knew what I was doing?”

“Of course I know everything my other self does.”

His words sounded detached, yet his face was filled with hatred. What could I do to open his heart?

As my worries only deepened, my consciousness slipped away.

♪ Serpan (present) ♪

“Flood the Gihon River?”

“The Noah Society’s name isn’t just for show. We will sink the capital itself. The Rabbit Kingdom will vanish without a trace. It will be spoken of only as a country that once existed in history. The surviving rabbitfolk will become a wandering people.”

In Rabbit Castle at night, lit by moonlight, the Captain said something outrageous, and my eyes widened.

“Surely that would be unacceptable.”

“Hah hah hah. It’s only a final measure, for if we are truly driven into a disadvantageous position. I’m not saying we will absolutely do it.”

“B-but what of the people? We elites are not the only ones living out our days here.”

“If we, the chosen people, perish, what meaning can the world after us possibly have? Our death would be the nation’s death as well.”

Had their chosen-people ideology really gone this far…? Surely even the Rabbit Kingdom’s own people would never stand for a plan like this. At the very least, it must not become known.

“Who’s there!?”

The Captain shouted, and I saw the shadow of someone trying to flee on all fours. That was…

“Is that not Masahide, Prince Sonnet’s butler?”

“Whoever it is, we cannot let them live after they’ve heard this. Kill him, no matter what.”

At the Captain’s order, his subordinates gave chase after Masahide.

“You mean to kill the butler!?”

If we strayed this far from the path of human decency, we would lose any justification for continuing to rule…

“We need only erase the evidence. The world does not move on pretty ideals alone. Even a political thinker from Otherworld Italy said that ruling requires the courage of a lion and the cunning of a fox.”

“B-but…”

“There is no turning back for us now. It became our fate the moment we drove the songstress to her death.”

Feeling sick, all color drained from my face as I made my way down the stairs. Someone was coming up from below. That was…

“Lord Sonnet…”

“Old man… have you seen Masahide?”

“No. I have seen nothing…”

My chest felt as though it were burning with guilt.

“I see. By the way, I hear rumors that I am to be turned into the Garnet Prince. Is that true?”

His eyes were grave. He was still so young. It was too cruel.

“It is true…”

“And I heard Serenade died because of it…”

When had the sky turned into a thunderstorm? A flash lit everything up, followed by a roaring crash of thunder.