Maydare Volume 3 Other Side - Ulysses, This is a Beautiful but Morbid Utopia.

 Ulysses infodump time~~

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My name is Yuri Ulysses Le Ruschia.

I am the second prince of the Kingdom of Ruschia.

I took off my magician’s robes in my room, sat down in my favorite chair and sipped on a cup of warm herb tea as I turned the pages of a book.

It was the diary of the past me.

“Hoo. Your Highness, how ill-natured you are.”

The owl spirit Phantrome, who was perched on my shoulder, suddenly spoke.

I turned only my gaze towards him.

“Whatever are you talking about, Phantrome?”

“You did not tell Miss Makia the most important thing. Hoo.”

“You’re right. However, that was what I promised Lady Alicia.”

——Seven years ago.

Before her illness worsened, High Consort Alicia summoned me and told me a certain thing.

Something very important about the future.

“In the future, the person who will become king of this country is Frey…huh.”

I whispered to myself.

We didn’t know if this future vision of Lady Alicia’s would be correct or not. But, because of the possibility of the future she saw, we had to keep Frey alive at all costs. Lady Alicia was truly a splendid high consort.

The fact that Frey, the fifth prince, became king meant that the other princes either had circumstances that made it impossible for them to become king, or they all died.

Normally, as the mother of the third prince, she wouldn’t be able to remain calm.

However, for the future of the Kingdom of Ruschia, she thought of a way to keep Frey alive above all.

The surest way to keep the young Frey alive was to first block his authority as a prince and withdraw him from the court. Don’t let him do anything.

This was to make everyone around him think that he was an incompetent prince.

“Lady Alicia told only me about the future she had discerned. She thought I was the only one who could believe her. She had good intuition, or perhaps, she knew my true identity…”

Now then, let’s reconfirm one thing here.

Who exactly am I?

Yes. Since I was a child, I have had memories of my previous life.

My memories as the〈White Sage〉who established spirit magic in this world five hundred years ago.

The world in which souls that have attained the rank of great magician went around and around this world according to a certain law–Maydare.

Apparently, the recalling and awakening of the memories of one’s previous life was called “the return” in this vicinity.

〇 

My “return” occurred when I was five years old.

When my father was enthroned as king, I was taken to Vabel, the location of the Holy Land, where I stood before the World Tree Vabilophos, which was said to govern everything in the world.

I came to this feeling as I looked up at that giant tree from its very roots, so overwhelming that it seemed to pierce the heavens.

——I’ve been here before.

I heard a click within me, the switch of my memories being flipped.

Yes. Whether I wanted to or not, I remembered everything.

I remembered myself from long, long ago, when I was called the〈White Sage〉. 

The White Sage. The great sage of the spirit magic world.

One of the three great magicians from five hundred years ago.

The one who was the teacher of the〈Savior of Fraxinus〉, the world’s most famous savior.

And…the man who was the husband of the〈Green Priestess〉of that age.

I remembered.

I remembered all of it!

My personality at that point was overwritten 180 degrees by the〈White Sage〉of my previous life.

Until that point, I was a restless five-year-old, naughty and selfish as appropriate for my age.

And yet, after that, it was as though I had been possessed by an old man who had attained enlightenment.

I became a child with a mature expression who preferred reading, herb tea, and a little bit of candy.

I’m sure I made the people around tilt their heads in confusion many times. In a certain sense, the me who was childlike and adorable had died. 

Only a gray-haired child the same age as me who lived in the Vabel Holy State understood this phenomenon of mine. A child named Eska, who was destined to become a future archbishop.

He told me this in a rough manner of speech.

“I see. So yer one of the ten. Well, fulfill your duty until yer next death at least. And then, die for this world again.”

At that time, I didn’t have any clue what the boy named Eska meant.

That was true even with the memories of the〈White Sage〉. 

And what the number “ten” meant in Maydare.

As soon as I recalled my memories of my previous life, I summoned the spirits I had contracted with during my days as the White Sage and called them back to me using the magic circle at Ruschia Palace. They were my dear friends, after all.

At only five years of age, I had three great spirits and twelve other spirits.

They were all of the spirits that were used by the White Sage, with the exception of the spirits that protected Lune Ruschia Magic School.

Everyone in the palace made a huge fuss over it.

I was a prodigy. The second coming of the White Sage.

The second prince, Prince Ulysses, had the outstanding talent to become a great magician.

In the first place, it was uncommon to summon and use so many spirits all at once, and yet being able to do so without a hitch was extraordinary.

That was because I was equipped with the magical power from my days as the White Sage, invoked the spirits I had contracted back then, and recalled all the magic I had learned. I was nowhere near a prodigy.

It was unfair and underhanded, to say the least.

What should have been acquired through hard work was instead acquired by a five-year-old child simply because he recalled his previous life.

But because of that, my life was no longer in danger.

Although things have mostly calmed down in the Ruschian court, when we princes were still young, they tended to be caught up in the self-serving factional and power struggles among adults, regardless of their own wishes or those of the king and consorts.

I, too, was almost assassinated many times because I was the second prince, but after I recalled my previous life, the poisoning, strangulation, stabbing, and shooting all became so pointless and meaningless to me.

Poison didn’t work on me. My healing magic worked automatically on the wounds I received.

I didn’t show any openings in the first place. It was easy to gain control of people’s hearts and minds.

Even if I was attacked from a distance, there were multiple spirits protecting me in every possible way.

It seemed that I was considered closer to the throne than anyone else in the sense that I was a prince who couldn’t die, but I accepted the marriage proposal that surfaced when the new〈Green Priestess〉of the Vabel Holy State was born and quickly withdrew from the competition for the throne.

Well, be at ease, I have no interest in the throne.

My interests, my obsessions, were on a different dimension.

“Since I was reborn, those two must be reincarnated somewhere in this world as well. They should have been reborn in the same way…”

As soon as I regained my memories, I made a wish.

The〈Black Demon King〉and〈Scarlet Witch〉who were spoken of in the same breath as the〈White Sage〉in the modern-day Maydare.

The great magicians of five hundred years ago.

I wished to meet those two once more.

History said that we three great magicians bickered, competed, and didn’t get along.

But I remember very well that it was never just that.

After all, a being blessed with such power was destined to walk the path of loneliness, without being understood by anyone. It was like that for me, him, and her.

However, we couldn’t help but consider it a miracle and be grateful that we were able to meet someone who was powerful enough to stand on the same stage and compete with us.

We certainly did wanted to know the limits of our power and competed against each other.

By competing against each other, we learned each other’s depths, got in touch with our inner selves, and mastered our respective magics. 

We never hated each other.

We should have understood each other. Our loneliness. Our pain. Our suffering.

After all, we were the only ones who could understand each other.

Yes. Until five hundred years ago, when the〈Savior〉from another world appeared——

〇 

“...Oh? How rare it is for you to be in my room.”

While I was lost in thought, the sweet scent of honey wafted over my nose, and I looked up.

Before I knew it, black and purple butterflies were fluttering around the room.

The butterflies were tinged with light and flew all around in countless numbers before gathering again at a single point, taking on the shape of a human and appearing before my eyes.

It was the queen of the Frezier Empire, Queen Shatoma. She wasn’t dressed in her usual military uniform, but in a loose negligee, as if she was about to go to bed.

She looked down at me sitting in my chair with her amber eyes and smiled innocently as she held out a chess board. 

“Kanon has gone out, so he cannot be my opponent. Play a game with me.”

Normally, she had such a strong presence and dignity, but now she was talking like a child.

Apparently, she was in her princess mode, not her queen mode.

It was only during times like these when if I didn’t call her “princess” instead of “queen,” she would get angry. She was a woman with a strong on-off switch.

“Very well. You seem to be bored out of your mind, princess. Nothing much has happened recently, after all.”

I invited the princess to sit on the sofa across from me and used levitation magic to bring a new tea set over to us, and then made her a cup of herbal tea.

A small ladybug was crawling on the princess’s cheek as she sat on the sofa.

There was no doubt that it was a spirit. I also felt the presence of bee, moth, and beetle spirits.

She was the Insect-Clad Princess.

“Boredom is not so bad. My physical body in the empire has no time for sleep. The peaceful days here are a rest for my spirit. Above all, the Kingdom of Ruschia is abundant in sweet fruits and tea cakes.”

“Then, I shall have something sweet brought to you.”

“If you please. I’d like some peach wine with nectar. Butterflies live on sweet nectar.”

“Of course. As you please, Wisteria Princess.”

I resummoned Phantrome, the owl spirit on my shoulder, into a doll. He took the form of my butler and went to prepare Lady Shatoma’s evening meal.

Shatoma was hugging a cushion on the sofa and staring at the chessboard in front of her.

“By the way, Ulysses, have your plans been successfully put in place?”

“Goodness, what are you talking about?”

“Playing the fool. You’re quite wicked yourself, you know.”

We both chuckled.

Shatoma Mireya Frezier,  the young queen of Frezier.

Although she was only eighteen years old, she was responsible for the fate of that great nation.

But by no means would she have any hesitation or doubts in shouldering that country.

After all, she was also a being in the same “category” as me.

Although she lived in a different era than the White Sage, she was the reincarnation of the great magician of three hundred years ago,〈Wisteria Princess〉. She had regained her memories a long time ago, and she was born with the beauty and dignity of a princess, the qualities of a king, and the experience of ruling a country. Above all, she still retained the charisma that had made her famous throughout history, and she enjoyed the deep trust of her people.

The good fortune of the Frezier Empire would be that she was reigning during this time.

However, it would appear that there were still people in that empire who were still trying to take the throne because they were annoyed that a young girl took it away from them… 

“Princess! Princess Shatoma!”

I was happily playing chess with the princess for a while when the noisy one arrived.

The person who trespassed from my balcony was Bishop Eska of the Vabel Holy State. This room was on the top floor of the palace.

Shaking his white and clean bishop’s robes, he came before Princess Shatoma, knelt before her on the sofa, and cautioned her like a nagging old man.

“How could you visit this black-hearted man in such an unladylike state! And lounging around in complete relaxation mode~~!”

“Don’t be so tedious, Your Eminence. I cannot sleep well at night without sweet confections and sweet wine.”

“Princess! I or that guy can prepare those things for you!”

“No, no, no! The sweets you prepare are always plain and tasteless!”

“...”

Bishop Eska spun around and pointed his finger at me, looking like he was on the verge of blowing up.

“It’s your fault, you black-hearted shitty prince! You had the nerve to have a secret meeting with the Wisteria Princess in the middle of the night while keeping the Priestess of the Holy Land waiting for a long time!”

“What do you think I am? I am only playing chess with the princess.”

I was spoken to awfully by him, but I also made Bishop Eska a cup of herbal tea.

His Eminence, Bishop Eska. Eska was apparently his baptismal name, and even I didn’t know his real name, but he was a reincarnator who had memories of his previous life, just like me and Shatoma.

He might not look it, but he was the great man who was called the〈Archbishop of Holy Ash〉three hundred years ago and established the Vabel Holy State. 

He was a saint among saints.

Also, the 〈Archbishop of Holy Ash〉and 〈Wisteria Princess〉were great magicians who lived in the same era. 

During that time, they worked together to solve the national crisis, and their relationship of mutual trust was still strong today, even after their reincarnation. Rather, their relationship of grandfather and granddaughter from that time was also passed down.

According to Shatoma, three hundred years ago, Bishop Eska had a more saintly, gentle, and virtuous character. How and why he became the violent and incomprehensible Bishop Eska of today was a complete mystery. Did a screw come loose somewhere?

“So, you black-hearted shitty prince. When are they returning? There’s been no sign of that at all.”

Bishop Eska sat down with a thunk in an empty chair, drank his herbal tea in one gulp, and asked me that question.

“Thor Bigreitz. Makia O’Drielle. If you’re right and those two are really〈Black〉and 〈Scarlet〉, then it’s time for them to return, even if I have to beat their heads in.”

“How brutish. It isn’t the same as amnesia.”

However.

Yes, that’s right.

I was already sure of it.

Those two weren’t aware of it, but there was no way I could have mistaken them.

My impression of them at first sight, the scent of their magic, and above all their eyes, were all the same.

Only their personalities were a little different from what they used to be, largely due to the environments they were raised in. Yet, I sometimes felt shadows.

The shadows of the〈Black Demon King〉and 〈Scarlet Witch〉.

“I didn’t expect it either, but…those two had a much more complicated reincarnation than we did. It seems that their souls had passed through another world. That may be the reason why it is more difficult for their memories to return, unlike ours.”

Both Princess Shatoma’s and Bishop Eska’s eyes suddenly changed color. Their magical energy became taut.

“Ho. Going through another world, you say?”

“...Tch. That damned collector, doing something annoying like that.”

Oh? It seemed that even these two, who were the closest to that man, didn’t know about this.

When I heard Miss Makia’s story, it all became clear to me. She must have been intentionally made to reincarnate in Maydare via that other world. 

The world over there was called “Earth,” where the Savior who was summoned to Maydare originally lived. What was that blond man’s reason for deliberately doing so…? 

This world was Maydare.

It was a beautiful but morbid utopia bound by various laws.

In principle, this was a world where great magicians with memories of their previous lives used those memories and their nonstandard power to advance the needle of history.

At the moment that needle was about to advance drastically, a Savior was summoned from another world. The Savior legend was, in the end, just one of this world’s measures to cleanse itself.

But right now, the needle of history was about to move forward in a big way.

I didn’t know how many years it would be before a full-scale war broke out, but it was an unavoidable future.

The terrifying aspect about the war that was about to begin was that it was a “game” in which the reincarnations of the great magicians and the chess pieces they had discovered were competing for world supremacy on the chessboard called Maydare, regardless of their countries’ state of affairs.

Even though the Kingdom of Ruschia was allied with the Frezier Empire, the “return” of Mr. Thor and Miss Makia was absolutely essential for the Kingdom of Ruschia to avoid major damage.

“Do not worry, guests from the Empire. The pieces of the Kingdom of Ruschia are already in place.”

Then, I moved the chess piece I was playing with Princess Shatoma into checkmate.

“I will absolutely make those two remember everything.”

I have a reason, similar to a wish, for desperately wanting those two to return.

So I will never give up hope that we will meet again.

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