History Lesson (2)

Lyuka's history classroom in the breaks between special training — today was the second session.

It had become something the whole party listened in on during our rests, and it was thriving.

"Well then, Augusta won the World Tournaments held in years thirty and forty as well, through the same orchestrated collusion.

"Tournaments decided by collusion, before or since, total only these three."

"Oh, so year fifty was different, then."

"Yes. Augusta's reign was a stable one. Tiari's attacks were a near-daily occurrence, but the people had grown used to them being settled with little damage thanks to the S-Class Masters.

"Even so, plenty of people still wanted to become S-Class Masters in pursuit of authority and respect, so it wasn't a problem.

"So we skip ahead to year fifty.

"A little before year fifty, someone appeared who raised doubts about Augusta's reign.

"… His name was Kaiser. The second Legendary Master, later known as Conqueror Kaiser.

"At the time he was only a sixteen-year-old boy.

"As for what doubts there could be about Augusta, who had reigned for nearly fifty years and kept the world stable…

"What Kaiser took issue with was a certain Garumon in Augusta's possession.

"Not Prophecy Princess Himika — the other one.

"I skipped this last time, but when Lasty won the first World Tournament, it's said that a single Garumon descended from the heavens to bless his victory.

"… Her name was Arianrhod.

"Her race was Hero. The very first Hero in this world.

"She blessed Lasty's victory, presented him her sword, and swore that from then on she would be the sword of the Garumon Master.

"From year 0 to around year 10, the 'race' field on a status was just that — a race. Beastkin meant Nekomata or Inugami. Humans meant Swordsman or Mage, and so on.

"As for class, Top-Tier job was the ceiling.

"In that era, the Ultimate Job 'Hero' suddenly descended. She was an absolute presence, set apart from every other Garumon.

"… It's said the only reason Lasty could even challenge Tiari Belzebute was because she was with him. In the world at the time, she was unparalleled — the supreme, strongest Garumon.

"Even so, Arianrhod was defeated by Tiari Belzebute, and her Master Lasty was killed.

"Even the Ultimate Job Hero couldn't compare to the Legendary Job Demon God — you could leave it at that, but…

"Arianrhod, having lost her master, became a special Garumon inherited by each generation's Garumon Master.

"Until Augusta became the Garumon Master, she spent her days masterless, and once Augusta took the title, she served as his sword."

"… Mn, wait a moment."

I pulled out the Garumon Yearbook.

A soft-featured, fluffy-curled beautiful girl who called to mind a female Hero from a game… Extraordinarily beautiful, dignified, charming.

"Arianrhod — this girl?"

"Yes, that's right. She is still alive and active. By tradition, S-Class number 1 Satoru holds her.

"Even taking 'descended from the heavens' literally, at 290 years old she is the world's oldest Garumon, alongside Prophecy Princess Himika.

"At present she has been promoted from the Ultimate Job 'Hero' to the Legendary Job 'Great Hero.'

"Alongside Goddess Mercheada, she is one of only two Garumon in the world with a value of 10,000.

"… Chronologically, it would be more accurate to say Mercheada stands as Arianrhod's equal."

"… Has Suzanne ever met Arianrhod…?"

"Yes, I have… A very strong, kind, beautiful Garumon she was.

"… That one is someone Onii-sama must take back, no matter what it takes."

Suzanne kindled her fighting spirit as she said it.

… In other words, she was flatly telling me to become world number 1.

… Well, that was the plan anyway.

"Thanks. Please continue."

I spread the Garumon Yearbook's pages and listened.

Lyuka nodded and continued.

"Kaiser's question was this: it was strange for Augusta — a Master who didn't fight — to possess Arianrhod, the world's strongest Garumon."

"… That sounds reasonable."

"Yes. The young Kaiser boasted that if he wielded Arianrhod himself, he would defeat Tiari Belzebute, and confronted Augusta.

"The S-Class and A-Class Masters who revered Augusta refused to engage Kaiser, dismissing him on the grounds that Augusta was sacred and inviolable.

"… It was around that time, in year fifty, that the fifth World Tournament was held.

"People around the world continued to respect Augusta and cooperated to let him win.

"… Against that, Kaiser raised his banner of revolt.

"If only the Garumon Master could possess Arianrhod, then he would become the Garumon Master himself."

"Oh, now that's heated."

"What would you do in such a situation, Naoto-san?"

Another question.

"Mn — you gather wins from 80% of the world's population, right? If the class hierarchy was firmly established by then, the mechanism would have been to gather wins through E-Class, D-Class, C-Class… up to the S-Class Masters, who consolidated them for Augusta.

"If you took down the five S-Class Masters and seized their wins, Augusta couldn't win unless he beat Kaiser.

"… Well, in the end, you'd just have to take down every S-Class Master."

"Exactly. Correct.

"Kaiser attacked the S-Class Masters who had collected the votes, and defeated them.

"If I had to pick a defining trait of Kaiser as a Master, it would simply be that he was overwhelmingly strong.

"In terms of pure combat power, today's Masters might be stronger than Kaiser was.

"At the time, after all, Arianrhod aside, Top-Tier was the highest job available.

"But in terms of how far he stood apart from his era, no Master surpasses Kaiser — with one exception, it's said none ever has.

"He wasn't even an S-Class Master at the time, yet he's said to have defeated every single S-Class Master who attacked him in Augusta's defense.

"In the end, he defeated even Augusta — who held Arianrhod — and won the fifth World Tournament.

"He became the third Garumon Master."

"Beating twenty-four people in a row. That's something."

Under current rules, the S-Class Tournament caps at twenty-three wins. There's no way to break Kaiser's record.

… Not without changing the rules themselves.

"… And then, Kaiser greeted his first Tiari attack as Garumon Master.

"Having also taken Prophecy Princess Himika, he detected it in advance and made the most thorough preparations…

"For the first time since Lasty, Kaiser brought Arianrhod and went out as Garumon Master in person to repel Demon God Tiari."

"Oh, and what was the result?"

"… He didn't lose. That's the result.

"Kaiser fought Tiari Belzebute and survived.

"Unable to win, he held on and held on, and at last drove Tiari into retreat.

"… Even that much — until Kaiser, no one had managed it.

"By then Tiari was a natural disaster in the form of a beautiful girl. Encounter her, and you die. Nothing more… such was the absolute symbol of death she was thought to be.

"By overcoming that death and proving it could be done, all the pushback against Kaiser flipped overnight, and he drew fanatical praise from the people.

"And so, Kaiser was acknowledged by the people.

"… In the midst of all this, quietly… the great Augusta died in battle."

"My, my. Don't tell me… Kaiser had him assassinated?"

"Such suspicions did exist, but he was attacked by Demonkin who served Tiari Belzebute.

"That part is beyond question.

"However, with Prophecy Princess Himika and Hero Arianrhod taken from him, he couldn't protect himself.

"Some even criticized that it was Kaiser who, in effect, drove Augusta to his death.

"But beyond that, the achievement of giving people hope was enormous. With Augusta's death, the leading role on the world stage shifted entirely from Augusta to Kaiser.

"That said, Kaiser never wholly denied Augusta's legacy.

"He honored Augusta's achievements with a state funeral.

"And even today, his name remains as a Legendary Master, the great Augusta."

"I see… thank you for the lesson.

"If Augusta hadn't been weak himself, he'd surely have fought on his own."

"Indeed… For someone weak at Garumon Battles to achieve such great things was magnificent.

"That said, in his later years Augusta forced people to revere him as a god and the like — his character was developing problems little by little. So it's also said he died at a good time, before he could tarnish his legacy.

"It was Augusta himself who refused to hear Kaiser out and had his S-Class Master attendants drive him off. The leading theory is that he never let go of Arianrhod because he was indulging in sex with her."

"… My, my."

So even heroes had their darker sides…

"And so the era of Kaiser began.

"That said, his policies were basically inherited from the Augusta era, so what's mainly worth recounting is the anti-Demon God battles.

"… Tiari Belzebute also stopped solo-attacking over and over, and began having her subordinate Demonkin attack multiple sites at once.

"Because of that, damage was gradually rising in the late Augusta era.

"In that sense, an era Augusta couldn't handle was already arriving.

"It was a well-timed generational changeover.

"… Demonkin were far inferior to Tiari, but even so, in the Augusta era it was the norm for S-Class Masters to die unable to win.

"Against Tiari, ten to twenty would die. Against Demonkin, one or two.

"That was the situation in the late Augusta era.

"As for how Kaiser stood against the Demon God and Demonkin… put simply, Kaiser himself was overwhelmingly strong.

"Kaiser became the first Master to fight Tiari Belzebute and not die, and then…

"He became the world's first Master to defeat a Demonkin single-handedly.

"… Against the Demon God his approach was apparently 'set a five-turn limit and survive those five turns,' but at any rate, he was able to wear Tiari down and send her back.

"Without dispute, he was a Master in a class of his own, the world's strongest.

"Led by him, the other Masters also kept leveling up.

"In the first ten years: against Tiari, five to ten dead; against Demonkin, zero to one.

"In the next ten: against Tiari, one to five. Against Demonkin, only rarely.

"In the next ten: against Tiari, around zero to three. Repelling her without losses succeeded several times.

"With Kaiser at the head, humanity had entered an era in which it could stand against Demon Gods.

"The population gradually began to rise, and they were able to slowly push the borders outward.

"That was a major step for humanity.

"It was in Kaiser's era that F-Class was added to the rank ladder as well."

"Ohh…"

"And so Kaiser's reign comprises about fifty years. The Tournament was once a decade back then; he won five in a row, an utterly overwhelming feat."

"Five straight in a ten-year cycle — in modern terms that would be twelve straight."

"That's right. Because Kaiser achieved a five-peat, a five-peat has become a benchmark in this world's Tournaments.

"However, the weight of one win differs between a ten-year-cycle era and a four-year-cycle one.

"For that reason, many hold the view that Kaiser is the strongest Master of all time."

"I see…"

"Kaiser's personality, by the way, wasn't very pleasant. Cold and cruel. Hard on himself but harder on others — that sort of person.

"Even when he was disliked, no one could complain because of his overwhelming strength. That was the sort of presence he had."

"… Haa…"

That was a problem. I wanted Legendary Masters to be people I could respect…

"Even so, what Kaiser did wasn't fundamentally bad.

"As for politics — impassive, you might say. He didn't push through any strange policies, and handled things competently.

"What's more noteworthy is his military side.

"He couldn't defeat Demon God Tiari, but he repelled her with few losses, brought down many of her subordinate Demonkin and Demon Generals, and even Masters other than Kaiser grew steadily.

"Besides Kaiser, Masters who survived battles with Tiari started to appear.

"S-Class Masters were no longer constantly side by side with death, and tenures of ten or twenty years began to appear.

"Among the non-Kaiser Masters of this era, Gaius and Sirius were famous.

"They held strength rivaling Kaiser's and competed for the second and third spots.

"As a rule, Sirius held second and Gaius third.

"… And Kaiser's reign comes to a close right around year 100.

"In year 100, the centennial commemorative ceremony was held.

"And during that ceremony, it was decided that the large-scale World Tournaments would be wrapped up, and the once-every-four-years S-Class Tournament would be inaugurated.

"… It was decided that the first such tournament would be held at the end of that year.

"But it was in the midst of that very ceremony that the incident called Kaiser's Madness occurred."

"Kaiser's Madness. That doesn't sound peaceful."

"Around the time of this ceremony, the Winland Castle Mass Transition Incident occurred.

"A small castle came over along with a large number of otherworld Garumon — a treasure-hunt-style event, as I understand it.

"Huge quantities of otherworld crops, livestock, and animals flowed in, contributing enormously to this world's cultural development.

"Kaiser didn't participate, but many S-Class Masters did, led by Sirius.

"And then… Princess Charlotte. The Master who obtained her was Sirius.

"Sirius entered Princess Charlotte into the beauty contest held at the centennial ceremony.

"She captivated the crowd with overwhelming beauty, was not just beautiful but a top-class Garumon in ability too, and the assessment that 'she's a Garumon worth all the wealth in the world' was established right there. She won.

"And the one who wanted Princess Charlotte most desperately of all was Kaiser.

"By that time, contesting over Garumon between S-Class Masters had already been prohibited.

"It had been decided at the S-Class Conference. With Kaiser and several others now acquiring the combat strength to face Tiari Belzebute, recklessly fighting over Garumon would only diminish that strength.

"Kaiser too had agreed to the ban.

"… But unable to give up Charlotte no matter what, Kaiser eventually killed Sirius and seized her."

"… Killing to take her… unmistakable madness…"

"… At the time the Sub-Master system didn't exist yet, so even S-Class Masters could only hold up to eight Garumon. He banished Arianrhod, who had defied his orders to try to restrain him, and took Charlotte.

"This act of Kaiser's was, of course, widely criticized…

"As if to brush it all off, Kaiser declared he was going to monster territory to subjugate Demon Gods, and vanished into it.

"That he left Prophecy Princess Himika behind was perhaps his last show of conscience.

"Just like that, Kaiser's seven Garumon — Charlotte included — and Kaiser himself: their whereabouts are utterly unknown.

"Perhaps he and they are still alive somewhere in monster territory even now."

Goodness. Was that the kind of end a hero met…?

"In the chaos at the time, the S-Class Tournament that was supposed to be held at the end of that year fizzled out.

"Gaius, who had been third, smoothly inherited the position of Garumon Master, obtained Arianrhod and Prophecy Princess Himika, and steadied the situation.

"That's why, in spite of the hero's absence, the chaos was kept to a minimum.

"The year 100 tournament was cancelled, and the first S-Class Tournament started fresh four years later, so next year's year-300 S-Class Tournament will be the fiftieth."

"I see…"

"Though he did tarnish his later years, Kaiser's achievement of proving humanity could fight Demon Gods cannot be denied, and even now he's called Legendary."

There, it seemed we'd reached a stopping point.

"I see…"

Today, again, had been fascinating.

"By the way, is there any record of what kind of Garumon Charlotte was?"

"… Let's see. If she's still alive somewhere, Naoto-san, someday you may yet be able to obtain her.

"Unfortunately, no detailed records remain. There were no photographs back then, after all…

"It's already been established that the Mass Transition Incidents are caused by the bloodline of Eclair Feradria.

"Which is to say, Charlotte's real name is likely Charlotte Feradria, or some other name she was using at the time."

"So it'd be better to ask Eclair about that, then."

"… Her appearance, too, is surely similar, wouldn't you think?"

"I see… well, if she was as beautiful as Eclair, it's hardly surprising people would fight and kill over her.

"Yeah, that could be."

"What kind of fighter was Kaiser, I wonder?"

"No records remain.

"The idea that 'records of Garumon battles ought to be kept' is what led to the Garumon Battle Weekly Report being published, and that was for the S-Class Tournament four years after this point.

"So the Garumon Battle Weekly Report has about 200 years of history. From that point on, fairly detailed records remain.

"The oldest record of a Garumon Battle is from the year-104 S-Class Tournament.

"… As for Kaiser's fighting style and the Garumon he held, no detailed records remain.

"Aside from Hero Arianrhod, Prophecy Princess Himika, and Charlotte, nothing is known.

"Only that he led the strongest Garumon.

"There's a highly credible account that Ultimate Job Garumon didn't yet exist in this period, and that's become the established view, but in the Garumon Battle Weekly Report published afterward, several Ultimate Job Garumon do appear.

"So Kaiser's Garumon may well have been Ultimate Job."

I listened all the way through such asides too.