"Lord of the Golden Land ZIPANG! The Hero King of Mankind's Middle Ages! Toyotomi Gil-kichi!"
—Gil-kichi?!
"Tea sets, gold, and all the treasures of this world belong to Me, don'tcha know! Dagya!"
—Dagya?! (Nagoya dialect)
Ea's face morphed into a shocked, Gudaguda-style caricature. This was wrong! The Hero King shouldn't be bursting with this much "Gudaguda energy"...!
『The pillar of our household has finally lost his mind...』
"Doctor! Your accent!"
『Wait, what?! That's weird! I thought I quarantined myself! Da Vinci-chan, the vaccine! The vaccine!』
Confusion ripped through the group. No matter how absurd he looked, the radiance he emitted was undeniably the real thing.
"Stepping on visible landmines and falling into pit-traps more spectacularly than anyone else—that is indeed My royal way. When you look at it from that perspective, this isn't strange at all."
"Don't get it twisted, Gorgeous Me! Dirt of this level cannot shake My existence by a single speck of dust! I am here on 'other business'!"
—Other business?
Did the Hero King... no, did Lord Gil-kichi have something he was pursuing as well?
"It's you! Saber! Through the boundaries of time, I have finally found you, my Queen! Now, come! Leap into My arms!"
He pointed a finger directly at Uesugi Artoria. He was specifically calling out the girl who had done nothing but eat takoyaki like a background prop.
"Me?"
"Yes! No matter how many ten-rolls I do, neither the White nor the Black versions appear! It was painful, so very painful! But I have finally seized this chance! I would disgrace the name of King if I let it slip! Come! Do so, and I shall promise you every pleasure imaginable in My name!"
"I refuse."
It was instantaneous. Uesugi Artoria, still munching on takoyaki, spoke with iron resolve.
"I am always an ally to those with deep pockets and a good diet. I have no interest in a Hero King who is gaudily decorated yet seems stingy with his funds."
"Nuu! I expected you wouldn't say yes so easily, but that is some biting criticism!"
"Besides," Artoria added loftily, "there is no way this Gorgeous King would ever let a treasure like me go."
She shot a glance at the Gorgeous King. Responding to that look, he grabbed her by the scruff of her neck.
"If you want her, you can have her. It'll save me a fortune in food expenses."
He tossed her toward Gil-kichi like a sack of potatoes.
"Eeeeh?! No! Gorgeous King! Why—?!"
"Why? It's only natural. You don't belong to my Chaldea, and you haven't exactly been useful. I was just looking for a way to get rid of you. You two disappointments can go frolic together."
The Gorgeous King's judgment was cold and pragmatic. Gil-kichi began to laugh in high spirits.
"Fuhahahahahahaha!! You truly understand, Gorgeous Me! Come, Uesugi! Let us begin our great invasion together!"
"You betrayed me, Gorgeous! I believed in you! I believed in your deep pockets!"
"Now, Saber! Be dyed in My colors alone!!"
"No! You're creepy! Let me go!"
Artoria flailed and resisted with every fiber of her being. Her physiological disgust was palpable.
"She's serious. That's a 'get-away-from-me-creep' level of rejection!"
"Yes... I truly feel that our Chaldea's Hero King is a miracle of a person by comparison..."
"He looks just like him, yet he's a different person... Character assassination... Agartha... Uugh, my head..."
"What are you sensing, Nobbu?!"
"Berserk Mash... Creeper-nerd Guda... Uuugh!"
"Berserk Mash?! What is that?! I don't get that angry...!"
"I'm not a creeper-nerd! I'm a seeker of the truth! I don't ruin serious scenes with jokes!"
Ignoring the bickering of the Gudaguda members, the Gorgeous King turned to Ea.
"In any case, he is a wall that must be demolished if I am to reclaim my Treasury. —Ea. You understand the meaning of my actions, I assume."
—Yes!
Gil-kichi was obsessed with Uesugi Artoria; she was right in his hands. He was underestimating the group, his stance full of openings. He was mentally satisfied with his "prize."
This was the moment. The only moment they had a "winning chance" to strike him down.
—It's time to use the anti-Hero King tactics I learned in London!
"Indeed. To further entice his arrogance and carelessness, you shall be the one to finish this. We are about to witness a truly irredeemable disgrace."
Ea nodded. Simultaneously, the King snapped his fingers. Amidst a rainbow-colored wind and a platinum radiance...
"—To return the King's Treasure, all of it, to its rightful place."
The newest Heroic Princess of mankind. The one who stood beside the one and only King across all dimensions.
"Toyotomi Gil-kichi! With this humble body, I shall put an end to your tyranny!"
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