“We are not dating. I and Madarame are strictly in a sovereign-and-subordinate relationship.”
Hearing this, Hana-chan’s face turns bright red.
“So you’re all lovey-dovey… but not dating? Like, no emotional connection… just a physical…?”
“That’s the part you latched onto?!”
“That means it’s a mature relationship, right!? Madarame-senpai, you’re way too indecent!!”
“Hana-chan, you’re an honors student, but your brain’s full of pink thoughts!?”
I try to explain my relationship with Her Majesty to her—but yeah, in modern Japan, “sovereign and subordinate” isn’t exactly a thing. Unless you’re at a butler café, you won’t find guys pouring tea and serving people.
“Senpai, to everyone else, you just look like a deadbeat who skipped school to simp for a pretty older girl at your part-time job…”
was Hana-chan’s conclusion.
“You really should go to school, you know.”
“I mean… you’re not wrong, but I’m a wanted criminal now.”
I skipped school to work, got tangled in some incident, and now I’m nationally wanted as a terrorist. Seriously, where do I even belong? Feels like I’m screwed. The only penalty for my charges is the death penalty—if I’m caught, it’s over. My only option is to run.
But how? Plastic surgery? Money? Hide forever?
“All I wanted was to live freely… so how did things go this off the rails?”
As I clutch my head, Her Majesty casually drops a bombshell:
“You’re not entirely wrong, though.”
“Huh? How?”
“Building a nation with me means overthrowing the Japanese government.”
“Our activities are local! Cute! Nothing for the government to fuss over!!”
“If they’ve already taken notice, we should occupy the Diet building sooner rather than later.”
Her Majesty pulls out a massive paper route map from his breast pocket and starts plotting the way to the Diet. I decide to ignore her for now.
“Uh… sorry,”
Hana-chan apologizes to me.
“This all happened because I asked you to retrieve that keychain…”
Right. Last night, I was at the Metropolitan Government Building to get a keychain—her keychain.
How We Got Here:
A few days ago, Hana-chan was on the train when a man with a Tokyo Metropolitan Government ID hanging from his neck stole a keychain from her bag. She didn’t see him take it, but she did see him slip it into his pocket.
She confronted him on the spot, but the guy played dumb and bolted.
The keychain was a gift from her dad, who lives far away.
Naturally, she went to the police first.
But the police don’t care about a keychain. Worse, they started doubting her story—”Why would a respectable government employee steal a keychain?”
The cop taking her statement noticed the character on the keychain and, more importantly, that Hana-chan’s bag was covered in merch of the same character.
The character was Kuromari-chan—a cute, stubby mascot with black as its signature color.
Kuromari-chan was explosively popular among girls, especially the type with… volatile emotional swings.
“Huh? Are you implying I’m some kind of landmine girl?!”
Hana-chan, with her pristine appearance and manners, raised her voice at the officer’s gaze.
“Just because I own merch of a character popular with unstable girls, you assume I’m some attention-seeking high schooler making up crimes?! Is that how you’re looking at me right now?!”
Her voice fluctuated wildly as she protested.
“That’s prejudice! There’s nothing wrong with a serious, wholesome girl liking Kuromari-chan!!”
The stolen keychain was a Kuromari-chan plush charm.
The police wouldn’t take her seriously, so Hana-chan, hearing rumors that a high school senior of hers had dropped out and was working as a shady handyman in town, clung to that faint hope and visited “British Shop”.
In British Shop’s office, as we listened to Hana-chan’s story together with Her Majesty, I said:
“Huh? You snapped at a cop? That’s some premium ‘land mine’ behavior—”
I was immediately silenced by a sharp glare.
Anyway, as usual, Her Majesty accepted Hana-chan’s request—on the condition that she become one of her “subjects.”
Thanks to Her Majesty’s network of citizens (a cleaning lady at the Metropolitan Government Office who was her tea buddy), we learned the keychain was inside the man’s desk, and I infiltrated the place.
Normally, this is where I’d retrieve the keychain, Her Majesty would proudly declare, “Another citizen has joined my ranks!” and I’d retort, “No, you just made another friend.” And so, our bumbling daily life would continue.
But this time, the Metropolitan Government Office exploded, and now I’m a wanted man.
READ THE ORIGINAL TRANSLATION AT gadgetizedpanda.net
Back to the Chinese restaurant, where we’re sitting around a large round table, during dessert time—
“I’m really sorry,”
Hana-chan mumbled, popping a sesame dumpling into her mouth.
“Because of me, Madarame-senpai got labeled as a terrorist…”
“It’s not your fault, Hana-chan,”
I said, pouring her some tea.
“You just wanted your keychain back.”
“Right?”
Hana-chan lifted her face.
“It’s not my fault, right?”
“Uh, yeah. You bounce back quick, huh?”
“Actually, if anything, it’s senpai’s fault.”
“Huh? Mine?”
“You were messing around too much! I mean, look—”
Hana-chan turned her phone toward me. On the news site, a video played—evidence that I was the culprit behind the Metropolitan Government Office bombing. It was security footage from last night.
And in that footage…
I was dancing.
Facing the camera with a double peace sign, completely hyped up like some prankster high schooler, doing an impromptu dance.
According to the caption, this was right before the explosion.
“Senpai, you kept saying you didn’t do it, but… you did, didn’t you? Actually, no—this clearly shows you doing it!”
“I didn’t!”
“Now that you mention it—”
Her Majesty chimed in.
“Madarame once said his hobby was freestyle dancing.”
“I only do that alone at home!”
More importantly, I raised my voice at Her Majesty.
“No dodging the question this time! That wasn’t me, right?! You know something, don’t you?!”
Of course, I wasn’t dancing in the government office.
So then, what was that “me” in the footage? Her Majesty had to know.
The “me” in the video looked… off, somehow.
Most people probably wouldn’t notice anything strange.
But I knew.
The cat-eyed waitress at the Chinese restaurant. The people with pitch-black eyes. And Her Majesty, who doesn’t die even with glass stabbed through her neck and can force commands onto others.
The world is full of strange beings I don’t know about.
And among them, there must be ones that can copy other people’s appearances.
“C’mon, stop playing dumb. This time, you’re telling me.”
I grabbed Her Majesty’s shoulders and shook her head back and forth.
“What is that thing disguised as me in the video? It’s one of those ‘mysterious beings’ like you, right? Using some kind of power, yeah?”
After a good shake, I let go.
Her Majesty sighed, then uttered the term that encompassed herself and all the other supernatural beings in the world:
“The Immortals.”
Apparently, things like vampires and werewolves do exist.
Monsters, creatures, demons, spirits—there are many names, but they all share one trait: they live far longer than humans, and something as trivial as glass through the neck won’t kill them.
Beings that deny death.
Hence, Immortals.
Her Majesty only gave me the name—the actual explanation came from the proprietress of the tailor shop. Her Majesty calls her “Rabbi.”
Rabbi was a short, androgynously beautiful woman with silver-framed glasses. She always had fabric in her hands, studying it intently. When customers entered, she’d circle them, observing with an artisan’s sharp eye before picking out designs that suited them.
The actual measuring and sewing were handled by Friday, a quiet girl dressed like a maid who always followed Rabbi around.
Rabbi’s tailor shop, “Charles & Retriever,” specialized in high-end custom suits. Its clientele consisted mostly of executives and corporate managers who made the trip all the way to the shopping district of Yomisaka Town.
Even Her Majesty had her shirts tailored there.
An established, long-standing shop in Yomisaka.
But apparently, Charles & Retriever had another face beyond just being a tailor.
Also check out my friend Localizermeerkat for more LN translations!
BUY THE SOURCE MATERIAL TO SUPPORT THE AUTHOR !!!
Kindly click on the green button above and contribute to filling the green bar if you’re interested in having another LN from the request page translated. Also, every donation is being used to purchase the source material and to fund more English translations.
Please consider joining my Ko-Fi membership. By becoming a member, you’ll also gain access to 2-10 additional chapters of all of the novels from this site translated into English. Last but not least your support will also assist me in upholding the translation quality and speed. For more information, please follow the link.
Donation for faster release is always welcome
Additionally, I am now accepting translation requests.
