Star-Tree Country

Lemuse Kingdom — for all the country in decline talk Merea had heard up front — was, to the eye, rich.

〈Star-Tree Country〉.

That was Lemuse's by-name.

Reaching this small eastern kingdom took a day after the heavy engagement.

"In the old days the by-name didn't shame us. Now — slightly wilted."

Merea was riding through Lemuse's western gate.

Hasim, alongside.

For the record, the black-scaled land dragon Noel was minding the outside today. Hasim said he'd handle the paperwork later, but, all things considered, walking a dragon into the streets without prep would visibly rattle the citizens.

Merea, at first, felt bad about leaving Noel out and turned in the saddle to apologise in dragon-tongue —

— Wasted the consideration.

Noel himself, drool sliding off his jaw, was being towed in by the heap of feed Lemuse's stable hands had hoisted in both arms. The Demon Lords' apologetic faces — not on his radar.

Noel walked straight into a hastily-built temporary dragon-shed outside the kingdom and, head swinging to take the place in, set into the feed at a frankly violent pace.

— Cast-iron, this one. Mentally, possibly the toughest of all of us.

Merea, thinking that, let out a long sigh.

After a little while, a large mass of Lemusans came out from below to receive him.

Pushed back by their heat as he did his best to answer it, Merea asked Hasim about the by-name.

"The tree part I get — what's the star part?"

Tree. True — Lemuse's streets had fresh trees and plants visible everywhere.

White-stone civilised streetscape, in harmony with that nature.

"Civilisation and nature in balance — at night the stars come through clean."

"That's it?"

"— And, at the centre of Lemuse's royal capital, there is a great tree. We call it 〈Great Star-Tree (Daiseiju)〉. There — see it?"

Hasim pointed from horseback, and there, in the indicated direction, stood a strange great tree, sending up rising particles of blue-and-green light.

Visible clearly even from the gate, the tree was, by size, no exaggeration to call itself a castle.

"The natural cover inside the city wilted under the previous king. We — the citizens and I — held that one, at minimum, intact."

It was beautiful.

That blue-and-green shine — where, precisely, was it leaking from.

"In season, gold-coloured grains join in too."

"By what mechanism?"

"Who knows. A spirit-tree that's stood there since ancient times. Probably draws ground-power-element from underground, or, given that height, draws sky-power-element down from the heavens — but the full picture, we don't have."

"A tree using formulae?"

"A formula is, at root, the world's phenomena set down in expression — to a form humans can read. Then, a spirit-tree like that, which one might fairly call the very incarnation of nature, using what we would call a formula — is hardly strange."

"— True."

Merea was caught up in the Great Star-Tree's shine.

"In due course I'll restore all of the city's nature. I'm only just king. Foreign affairs aside, I'll have to push the internal side too."

"Sounds busy."

"I'll have you sit in with me from time to time. With, of course, a fair trade attached."

"Figured."

Merea shrugged and laughed.

"Outside of that, run as you like on your end. You've things of your own, no?"

"— Yes."

"We'll co-ordinate around the edges. — Now. Even so. First — without a place to live, nothing moves. Given the size of your contribution in this engagement, let me settle that account immediately. From the start, you produced results past anything I'd predicted; my treasury is, in fact, getting nervous."

"Force majeure."

"Truly…"

Hasim put a hand to his forehead and let a theatrical sigh out. As time accumulated since the engagement, Hasim's face was getting back its colour-range too.

Merea was watching that with visible enjoyment.

"In fact — beside the Great Star-Tree, there is a large residence."

"Oh?"

"That, I'm giving you."

"Generous."

"There are twenty-two of you. At minimum it has to scale to that, no?"

"Incidentally — that's likely to grow."

"— I see."

Hasim caught the meaning under Merea's line.

A large nod.

"Fine. Plenty of room left."

"How big is this residence?"

"You'll see."

So saying, Hasim spurred his horse on.

Lemusans were closing in around them, so a measure of care was needed — but it was a fast pace nonetheless.

Receiving Long live the Lemuse King! and Welcome to Lemuse from all sides, Merea, the Demon Lord party, and Hasim moved through the streets of the star-tree city.

---

Drawn up to the foot of the Great Star-Tree, all of them, freshly, took the size of it.

And, immediately, the large residence Hasim had mentioned — they identified.

It was unmissable.

"…"

Merea, briefly, lost speech, and then turned a flat reproach-eye on Hasim.

"This — what part of this — is a residence?"

"Once one lives in it, residence isn't a wrong description, is it?"

A castle. Indisputably, a castle.

And — fairly large.

A tumbledown shack would've been easier to react to.

The reproach this time was —

"Y-you've overdone it…"

— a reproach delivered in the positive direction, a prediction over-shot the good way.

Merea pulled his eyes off Hasim and looked the castle up again.

His gaze drifted to the far side and caught, on the opposite axis with the Great Star-Tree as the centre, another large castle. Visible through the gaps in the Great Star-Tree's branches — branches large enough to be a tree apiece — was, indeed, a great castle.

"That one is Lemuse Castle."

"…I see."

So that one, apparently, was Lemuse's royal castle.

"…I no longer know where to start the retort."

"At any rate, this castle is currently in nobody's use. Long ago, briefly, someone did use it, apparently."

Hasim, smile in place, looked the castle up.

The castle's full picture was, as fitted a building set beside the Great Star-Tree, a beautiful one — in harmony with nature, and at the same time, lit into a strange light-driven dreamlike quality.

White stone as the centre material, with green-and-blue luminescent stones set in here and there; those caught the Great Star-Tree's light and threw it back in sparkles.

Some upper levels had the Great Star-Tree's own great branches looping clean around them; in places, plants very similar to the Great Star-Tree, light-emitting, grew out from the structure.

"Asking once more — is this where we are going to live?"

Merea, head tilted, asked again.

Beside him, Shaw, looking up at the castle straight-faced — "How much would this go for, if we sold it?" — and the surrounding Demon Lords held in He's actually going to sell it with effort, while waiting for Hasim's answer.

"Yes. Well — I dressed it up. This is, in fact, a building put up for your sake. — Once you're inside, you'll see."

Leaving that loaded line, Hasim turned on his heel.

A small wobble in his frame — Merea did not miss.

Then, as if remembering, Hasim turned back to Merea and added —

"I'll send a runner tomorrow. The detail-talk we'll handle from tomorrow on. The interior is reasonably set up; use it as you like. From today, that thing is yours. — I'm a little tired."

Bright-brown hair lifting, Hasim withdrew.

A black-clad woman, from somewhere at his side, came up at once and supported his shoulder.

He really was tired, it seemed.

"All very well to say that…"

"At, any rate — shall we… go in?"

Aiz, in small steps, came up alongside, head tilted small-animal-style, looking up at Merea.

"We're all near our fatigue ceiling too. Sleeping outside isn't great either, so, before anything — let's go in."

Elma, from the other side, said it.

"That's true."

Merea, with a shrug, nodded —

"All right. Let's go take a look."

— and, finally, took his step in.

---

They passed through the imposing castle gate and walked the inner court.

The inner court had been kept; for a place said to have been unused for many years, it was strikingly clean.

"Hey — Merea."

To Merea, who was running an observing gaze over the court, came a familiar voice's owner.

"Mn?"

Out of the loose line the Demon Lord party had formed behind Merea, with a light step, came Salman to the front.

Salman drew up alongside, hands clasped behind his head, easy-faced, and continued —

"I more or less get what you're about to do. But you haven't said it in actual words yet. — Not that I'm planning to push back. Just — figured I'd ask, while we're here."

"Right."

Merea moved his eyes off Salman and back to the castle.

A thoughtful expression briefly came up; after a beat, Merea said it —

"— I plan to gather Demon Lords."

"Knew it."

A small laugh from Salman.

"If somewhere there's someone slapped with the Demon Lord label and unreasonably trodden down — that Demon Lord, I want to save. To do it, I have to know how many Demon Lords this age has, and what they're carrying. Of course, not every Demon Lord's going to be with me on this. Some might be hiding behind the Demon Lord tag's complicated double-face and doing as they like — like the wicked Demon Lords of the old age."

"Right."

"But — to judge even that, without seeing with my own eyes, I can't judge."

Receiving Merea's line, Salman let a small breath out. From the same thoughtful face, an equally weighed-down breath.

"On paper, reasonable. But also — idealistic. It's going to take ridiculous effort."

"I know. But, in this age in particular — we know exactly how useless labels stuck on by other people are. — Effort? …However much it takes. That is what I came this far for."

"…Right. Then — count me in. You saved me, and even after saying that — I personally agree with the line you're taking. Just figured this side of the argument needed to be on the table too."

Salman's intent — Merea read.

So — small smile, and a hand on Salman's shoulder.

"Asking a lot, sorry."

"Don't worry about it. Said it then too — I have no plan to be the one only getting saved. Whatever I can do, I'll do."

Salman, laughing easy, clapped Merea's shoulder back.

In tune with that, several other Demon Lords walked up too, throwing in over-acted sarcasm and over-acted agreement, slapping Merea's back and shoulder.

"Even so — how many Demon Lords does this world hold, now, I wonder."

Merea, watching the women up ahead, walking forward in their bright voices, let the line out.

"Who knows. Not just this eastern continent — Demon Lords are likely on every other continent too. Some hiding, some fighting, some bent the knee — probably, all sorts."

"…Right."

And on top of that, more would likely be added with time.

The whole world felt as if it had drawn itself up in front of Merea.

Even so —

"I'll reach my hand out. As far as it goes. To wherever this hand reaches — wherever these feet reach — wherever this voice reaches. — What I'm trying to do is very precarious. I cannot afford to compromise."

Merea knew well that what he was about to do was synonymous with crossing a frighteningly thin rope.

To some — hero.

To some — Demon Lord.

A balance that, by feel, will never level.

Total harmony — possibly, not on offer.

Even so —

"I won't give up. Even if everyone else does — at least I won't. However thin the rope, to the very end I'll keep thinking. — That is what I have decided."

Merea goes that road.

Always feeling out the road he can believe is right, he keeps walking.

In that one respect — Merea was, perhaps, as stubborn as Flander.

"Take it easy though. If you go wrong, beside you and behind you — we're there. If you fix on it too hard and lose your head, we'll knock it off you and bring you back. When you feel you're falling, lean on us — don't worry about it. We'll prop you up, however much. So — please — don't fall forward, yeah?"

Salman, laughing again.

The other Demon Lords, laughing too.

"Yeah, I know."

Merea returned the same smile to them, and finally, stepped through the castle's threshold.

That step-over carried, on it, the premonition of the start of a new road.