“Eh……… um, hero Ivanov is someone that came from this world?”
“That’s right! That name, those words from before, there’s no mistaking he’s person from my country!”
A certain country’s agents were excited about Mitsuha’s words.
“T, then, the 3 legendary sacred treasures it’s said that the hero had, Avtomat-Kalashnikov 47, Tokarev, and the thunder of God, ru pi ji 7, they were…….”
“Eh, eh, eh!”The men were on the verge of weeping.
“This is must be a meeting brought about by our ancestors and your country’s hero! Let’s us make a friendship treaty with your country!”(これも、御先祖様と我が国の英雄のお引き合わせ！)
“… ….can I bud in?”
The man leaning on the table and moving to grasp Mitsuha’s hands was stopped by a new man’s voice.
The certain country’s agent looks behind him and scowls at the man who poured water on their precious momentum.
Apparently, it seems another team wanted to interfere with the previous one after feeling a sense of crisis from their sudden excitement.
“Princess, we would like to join in by all means…”Mitsuha smiled and answered the man who cut in.
“Yes, please do! It would be troublesome to have the same conversation many times if it can be done all at once…”
The previous men grind their teeth.
Seeing that, the other groups stood in unison.
Then, they surround the people around Mitsuha.
A large number of suspicious men are cornering a girl, naturally unable to overlook this, the people here and there in the store use their cell phones and smartphones simultaneously. To report to the authorities of course.
There were women at some seats tightly gripping their cake knives and forks ready to help the girl if push comes to shove.
As the agents from many countries are all focusing on Mitsuha and those on the table, and they did not notice the movements behind them.
“Most civilians don’t want to get involved in anything unrelated to themselves so they pretend not to see most things. Besides, we aren’t doing anything suspicious or illegal either.”
For those whom such ideas have sunk in, they forgot what kind of customers this shop serves and how they will appear when they crowd around someone.
That a large number of men are surrounding a girl aged 11 to 12 was plenty suspicious and an incident worth reporting.
“Ah~, this is a bit too many people… It seems it would be better if we talk at a later date after picking another place.
Then, everyone, I will contact you again later, so can you give me your contact information?”
At Mitsuha’s words, the agents from different countries handed over addresses written on memos, business cards, and other preparations in a hurry.
Despite still making irritated faces, the agents from a certain country believed in their superiority and thought, “Not yet, we can get her to agree on a secret rendezvous to continue our conversation again after getting rid of these extras, agreeing to change the location is a step towards that.” After all, they are the homeland of the hero who aided her ancestors.
And then, as those men hand over their contact information along with people from other countries think that, they came.
“Is this the stop where the calls were coming from?!”
Yes, 12 police officers were rushing in because of the numerous reports.
Many calls came at the same time reporting that a girl is surrounded by a large number of men and several patrol cars came to the site as a result.
As they look inside the shop, the policemen were calm.
“You guys, don’t move! Missy, do you know who these people are?”
Mitsuha responded brightly to the police officer’s words.
“No, I don’t know them. I was called out by them a little while ago because they want to talk, they said they’ll treat me to a meal and asked me to get in their car, but I had a bad feeling so I asked could we go to this shop instead…”
There was no lie. It was honesty itself.
“Ohh”, and the callers were impressed with the little girl’s cleverness and pleased that their actions were spot on.
Ehhh~, the agents from different countries were surprised.
And the policemen glare at the men with scary eyes.
Agents were taken by the police officers, Mitsuha was released after a brief on-site questioning and was treated to a parfait after being preached to not to go out alone by the older ladies who reported.
The agents from various countries caught by the police were questioned in various ways, had their identities were examined, fingerprints taken and were meet with harsh shares. (散々な目に遭った)
They managed somehow to get released by continuing to insist on the story that only the first country’s agents called out to Mitsuha and the others only happened to see and followed them out of worry, but because they were blatantly suspicious, public security was contacted.
Public security jumped out of joy. An agent’s value drastically deteriorated when the country’s public security take notice of them.
Well, while unable to tell the truth, they were still better off compared to a certain country’s agents who were severely immobilize over the attempted kidnapping of a little girl.
One day, an email invite to an informal conference was delivered to the agents.
(Princess, you were serious……)
The agents that thought she was clearly buying time until the police came were surprised.
Certainly, the explanation that the princess told the police officers wasn’t a lie. It seems that the princess wasn’t the one who called the police but the other customers.
(Maybe, she was just obediently answering the police officer’s question without any ill will?)
……Of course, there was no such a thing.
The agents from a certain country were thinking almost the same thing.
The fact that the princess talked to the police officer is just that.
“She wasn’t aware of what that’ll bring us, because she is ignorant about this world.
After all, our country is the home of their great hero,” they didn’t doubt their superiority.
“In 3 days, at that mercenary group’s base…….”
And 3 days after the delivery of the email invitations.
Mercenary Group Wolf Fang’s base, strategy conference room.
In that room, which was large enough for all their members to gather, almost all the seats were filled. Most of them are the agents from different countries and the mercenary group members that were guarding Mitsuha. In addition to the countries that gathered at that sweet specialty shop, e-mails with an invitation and explanation of the previous events have been sent to several countries selected by Mitsuha, and these countries were also participating.
Because it’s an urgent and also unofficial negotiation, there wasn’t much room for ministers holding important officials in a country to participate so for many countries the top of their information divisions along with their inner circle took part. Of course, with considerable discretion. The time for foreign bureaucracy is still ahead.
“Everyone, thank you for coming a long way this day. We have gathered here to have an informal conference with everyone who requested diplomatic relations with my territory”
The meeting started with Mitsuha taking responsibility.
“First of all, as written in the invitation letters, the matter of the tribute”
Originally, a tribute is something that a poorer country gives a richer country and the richer country will give back in return something worth several times as what they were given. But Mitsuha changed it to something more convenient for her.
The representatives from the different countries who wish to have negotiations for themselves competed in their tributes. Wherein Mitsuha receives them all and presents a return gift only to those who brought what she liked the most. There’s little monetary value in the return gift so it’s also something of an honor to be chosen, It’s at the level of a so-called “commemorative gift”. Furthermore, it won’t give them any advantage at the negotiations.
……To put it frankly, it was a scam.
However, each country was brimming with motivation to win this gift contest to get the princess’s favor.
Jewelry. Dresses. Honorary ranks. Various gifts follow.
The national representatives leaked snickers when a certain country came with a smug face carrying a 3 set of AK – 47 Assault Rifle, Tokarev automatic handgun, and RPG – 7. In addition to all being obsolete old weapons, they cost a negligible amount of money. But that country’s representatives were confident.
However, there was no sign of the princess being moved by any tribute.
And then came a small developing country’s turn.
“The deeds for 2 used human paddled wooden ships, 13 meters in length and 3 meters in width.”
Snickers leaked from among the people present once again. However.
“Eeeh!”
Representatives were surprised by the fierce reaction of the princess.
“I, is that true?! How, how did you know…”
“Yes, our country has neither money or special products, so we hoped to bring you at the very least a little delight and heard that you once said that you wanted a wooden ship when we ask the mercenary group various things……. ”
“Un, un, I want! I wanted it! Ah, now we can start using dragnets, it’ll be a stopgap until we can construct a new type of ship on our own for fishing with nets…….”
Mitsuha’s biting made the representative of a large country panic and shout “We will also provide a large ship from our country!” but the topic was closed and discarded with how getting a powered ship that her people can’t maintain or repair wouldn’t be very useful and it won’t help her people build one as a reference.
In the end, the small country that presented the wooden ships were chosen for the return gift, they were awarded a pair of live rabbits with horn on their heads, ornaments that aren’t like anything seen on Earth made of a strange metal, and 2 another world travel tickets for 2 nights and 3 days.
For Mitsuha it was as good as nothing, but delegates from each country were staring at the gifts with the eyes that said: “we’ll steal them even if we have to kill!”
They finally realized that they were fundamentally wrong in choosing jewelry and dresses for their gifts, but it was too late.
However, it wasn’t like Mitsuha wasn’t pleased to get more jewelry. They are useful simply as cash items. Just, for now, she was more happy at those that have directly contributed to the development of her territory rather than anyone giving her cash.
And thus the ceremony was over and, the negotiations finally began.
