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"So this is the Holy Land. It really does not compare to the Jura-Tempest Federation."
Kaito looked out at the Holy Land, vast and enclosed on all sides by sheer cliffs, and his expression was one of polite disappointment.
"Master, this is a school. Is it really fair to measure it against the Jura-Tempest Federation?"
Sakuya stood at his side with an amused smile.
"Ha, fair point. Still, it is not much to look at. And everyone here is either royalty or nobility. Ordinary people get pushed around in places like this." He shrugged. "I prefer Academy City, honestly."
"Hm? What were you two talking about just now? Did I hear something about a Federation?"
Lashara, walking a few steps ahead, turned her head with a puzzled expression.
"The Jura-Tempest Federation. The country we came from."
Kaito said it plainly, without any attempt to obscure it.
"Jura-Tempest Federation." Chiaia turned the name over with a slight frown. It did not sound like a small country.
Lashara's eyes had already sharpened. She had been quietly reassessing Kaito since she took him on, and this only deepened her suspicion that his position back home was not a simple one. A person's attendants said a great deal about them, and Sakuya alone was enough to speak volumes.
"You would not happen to be a high-ranking noble from this Federation, would you?"
Kaito shook his head.
"High-ranking noble? No. To be precise, there are no true nobles in the Jura-Tempest Federation."
Lashara and Chiaia both stared at him.
"Then who runs the country?!"
"An Emperor. The supreme ruler of the Jura-Tempest Federation."
"Then there are still nobles. The Emperor is a noble!"
Lashara looked pleased with herself for spotting the flaw.
"Hmm. How to explain this." Kaito glanced to the side. "Kenshi, you know what a constitutional monarchy is, right?"
Kenshi, walking alongside them in his servant attire, looked up.
"Oh, yes. My grandfather explained it to me once. The monarch has no real authority, everything is handled by a council. The monarch exists as a symbolic figurehead for the country."
Kaito nodded with satisfaction, then turned back to Lashara.
"There you have it. The actual situation in the Jura-Tempest Federation is a little more complex than that, but the practical reality is not so different."
If one were to describe the Federation's system of governance, it sat somewhere between an absolute monarchy and a constitutional one. Kaito's own term for it was an offline monarchy.
The monarch held real power in theory, but was perpetually absent from official business, leaving everything to subordinates. In any other country, this would have led to a coup inside a generation. In the Jura-Tempest Federation, it worked because the loyalty running from the top to the very bottom of the nation was complete.
"A country where the ruler has no real power. Is she not afraid of being overthrown?"
Lashara, raised from birth on traditional royal doctrine, asked this with a genuinely baffled expression.
"Let me ask you something."
"What?"
"Everyone in the country already knows the ruler has no real power. So what exactly would you be overthrowing them for?"
"For... for the..."
Lashara thought about it. And kept thinking.
For the title? Anyone capable of staging a coup hardly needed the name.
For money? The ruler might not even be the wealthiest person in the country.
For power? That was the joke.
"I see it."
She said it quietly, and her expression had changed.
"I never imagined a country could work that way."
"There is quite a lot you do not know yet, little girl. Plenty of time to learn."
Lashara increasingly felt, with each exchange, that Kaito's position in the Jura-Tempest Federation was nothing small.
"Hmph! You have told me everything except what you actually do there!"
Kaito drew himself up with a proud expression and announced to all present:
"I am a kept man!"
"A kept man!"
"Kept man!"
"Man!"
The echo faded. Lashara and Chiaia's faces had both gone flat.
"Do not joke about things like that!"
"I am not joking. My official position is kept man."
"You—"
Just as Lashara was about to push further, two figures approaching from ahead made her close her mouth.
The newcomers dropped to one knee before her.
"I was deeply concerned when I heard Swan had been attacked. Seeing you safe and well is a great relief."
Lashara composed her expression and smiled.
"Thank you for coming to meet me, Dagmyer."
"Please also convey my safety to your esteemed father, Babalun-sama. I am sure he has been worried."
Dagmyer Mesut's smile did not quite reach his eyes.
"Of course. I will do so at the earliest opportunity."
"I am glad to hear it."
With that, Lashara walked past him, Chiaia and the others falling in behind her. Chiaia glanced back at Dagmyer, something unspoken hovering at the edge of her expression, then thought better of it and kept moving.
"Heh. The little girl has some real patience. I would not bet on the odds of a comeback, though."
Kaito fell into step beside Lashara and said it quietly.
"Hmph. I will reclaim what is mine through my own efforts."
"Honestly, I cannot fathom what drives you people." Kaito shook his head. "Isn't it better to just travel around freely? Reclaiming real power only means drowning in paperwork. Anyone who tried to hand me government responsibilities would be out the door before they finished the sentence."
Behind them, Dagmyer's gaze settled on Kenshi with a cold, evaluating look. He turned to the maid at his side.
"Has anything been found out about that one? He seems to move quite freely around Lashara."
"He appears to be her newly appointed Senior Personal Advisor. His background has not yet been fully investigated."
"I see." Dagmyer's interest faded immediately. An advisor. A minor figure. Nothing that warranted his attention.
Kaito, as if catching something on the edge of his awareness, turned his head slightly and looked back at Dagmyer. A quiet smile touched the corner of his mouth.
"This is enormous. Is this the arena?"
Kenshi stared down at the circular fighting ground below, its floor dense with stone pillars, and his eyes were wide.
Seeing his expression, Lashara explained with a faint note of pride.
"Precisely. Fighting through those stone pillars and water channels is extraordinarily demanding. Claiming victory here is the highest honour a Seikishi can earn."
Kenshi looked at the arena for another moment, then rubbed the back of his head.
"Is it? I mean... is it really that difficult?"
Chiaia turned on him immediately.
"You... you..."
"I have to agree with Kenshi," Kaito said, cutting across her smoothly. "Is it genuinely that difficult? Or is everyone else just... not very good? Surely not. No, no..."