-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Vine
Chapter: 44
Chapter Title: The White Tiger Translator
-----------------------------------------------------------------
***
A commotion erupted.
Hearing Jusielia's tremendous scream, Uni, Xaviet, and Sophie had mobilized all their supernatural abilities and senses to find her.
“Princess?!”
“Princess!”
“Priiinceeesss!”
The scene that greeted the three loyal retainers, who had rushed in with drawn swords and bloodshot eyes, was completely different from what they had expected.
“Kuaaaang!!!” (How dare you! To trim the claws of the great Lady Jusielia!!!)
“It's all over now.”
“Princess?”
“Your, Your Majesty?”
The hair of the Rilberg Emperor, who was with the princess, was a mess.
His face and arms were also covered in scratches, likely from Jusielia.
The three who had rushed to the engine room looked up at the Rilberg Emperor and the princess bickering while perched on a pipe installed on the ceiling, and whispered amongst themselves.
“When did they get so close?”
“That's how it is with children.”
“She scratched the face of a foreign emperor like that. Is that really okay?”
“What does it matter? Our princess is adorable.”
“True.”
They decided to pretend they hadn't seen anything and quietly slipped back out of the engine room.
***
The next day, in the evening.
Jusielia was on the spacious observation deck of the magic airship, which was cruising toward the Rilberg Empire, watching the twinkling stars.
Then, just as promised, Ekiel appeared, climbing the stairs. When he offered her a slight smile, Jusielia just wrinkled her nose.
Back then, as Ekiel took her trimmed claws, he had said.
“Meet me tomorrow after dinner on the observation deck, Jusielia.”
“Krrrrng?” (You cut my claws, and now this? Why?)
“You'll see when you get here. I'll work hard to prepare.”
Seeing Ekiel wave with a gentle smile, Jusielia had been overcome with a strange feeling.
She felt sorry for hitting and scratching Ekiel for no reason, but also somewhat relieved.
“You're here, Princess?”
“Kyang.”
Feeling inexplicably awkward, Jusielia gave a cursory reply to Ekiel's greeting.
Ekiel just shrugged, as if he understood why Jusielia was acting that way.
Just then, the Archmage Noah, who had accompanied him, bowed to Jusielia.
“Greetings, a pleasant evening to you, Your Highness.”
“Kyang.” (Yes.)
Jusielia did respond to the greeting from the Archmage Noah, who had come up with Ekiel.
At that, he grinned foolishly and said.
“I'd like to have you wear it right away, but I need to do one last check with His Majesty. Hehe. Please wait here for just a moment.”
“Kyahang.” (Take your time.)
Noah, who wore his lemon-colored hair tied to one side, was smiling despite his obvious exhaustion.
‘He looks a little pitiful.’
Jusielia knew how Noah had ended up looking so tired.
She looked at his boss, who was much younger than Noah, and shook her head.
Ekiel had given him an overwhelming amount of work.
‘How harsh.’
What could he do? If the emperor commands it, you have to obey. Rank and status are king, aren't they?
But Jusielia couldn't comfort Noah.
After all, this was all happening because of her.
‘Honestly.’
While she waited, Jusielia lifted her left front paw and snorted.
Her claws, already short, had grown a bit longer thanks to her supernatural ability, but Ekiel had cut them.
‘I mean, I could have given them to him if he needed them! But why did he have to cut them by force and make the atmosphere so strange?’
Jusielia had instinctively resisted.
Recalling how she had pulled Ekiel's hair and covered him in scratches, she wanted to find a hole to crawl into.
Ekiel had only needed her claws to make ‘something.’
‘Hmph.’
She felt her face flush, as if she had acted like a cat resisting a nail trim.
She was embarrassed all over again.
This body! The great Lady Jusielia! The great White Tiger!
No matter how she thought about it, Jusielia concluded that Ekiel wasn't normal either.
Why didn't he explain?
Of course, it wasn't exactly normal for a mere human like him to declare he would cut the claws of the great Lady Jusielia Tiger, anyway.
Jusielia nodded to herself in agreement, then examined Ekiel's face and arms where she had scratched him.
Fortunately, he must have used healing magic quickly, as there were no scars left; his skin was clear.
‘Right. A scar on that priceless face. Next time(?) we fight, I should avoid the face.’
While Jusielia was making this strange resolution, Ekiel, who had finished a few more checks on an object with Archmage Noah, looked up.
“Princess, it is now ready. Would you like to try it on?”
‘Ah.’
Snapping back to her senses, Jusielia met his gaze and tapped her tail on the floor.
Since they weren't alone, he had reverted to the polite and formal speech of an emperor.
Still, he was much more natural and gentle than before, so Jusielia nodded and slowly walked toward them.
As Jusielia approached, Noah, his eyes full of dark circles, grinned, his eyes shining.
“Your Highness. You seem to sparkle even more at night.”
“Kyahang.” (Hello.)
“I believe you just greeted me. Contextually speaking!”
“Kuhang.” (That's right.)
As Noah spoke with a silly grin and Jusielia chirped back brightly, Ekiel's mood began to sour.
Since when were those two so close, acting so friendly?
Ekiel had to clench his fists to suppress the urge to pull them apart.
“……This is Archmage Noah Silkyria. He is skilled at creating practical magical devices. He holds 1,853 patents and is a genius, particularly specialized in the field of language.”
As Ekiel introduced him, Jusielia looked at Noah with interest.
‘Aha. So that's why he was so curious about whether I could understand speech when I first boarded the magic airship.’
Jusielia could finally understand what went on inside this peculiar archmage's head.
Are all mages like this?
‘What are Ekiel's special interests?’
Jusielia nodded while stealing a glance at Ekiel.
“Therefore, you can trust the magical device made by this archmage.”
Ekiel seemed to misunderstand her gaze and reassured her.
Noah, who had been watching Jusielia's reactions with continued fascination, tilted his head and muttered.
“Analyzing the princess's sample was truly fascinating. You are quite remarkable. But no matter how intelligent you are, or that you're the highest-ranking predator among beastmen… will this translator truly work? I've never translated the speech of an animal before.”
“If it fails, we simply do it again, Noah.”
“Ugh! N-no, sir! It will succeed on the first try!”
Noah recoiled when Ekiel spoke so calmly.
How many times had they failed in just one day? His Majesty was ruthless in this regard; he would genuinely make them keep at it until they succeeded!
Yesterday, Ekiel, battered and bruised, had rushed to Noah carefully holding Jusielia's claws and immediately plunged them into research together.
He had ordered Noah to modify his translation device to work between a human and a beast.
At first, Noah had been horrified and refused.
The vocal sounds themselves were different, and there were so few sample words to translate. How was he supposed to make it work?
But Ekiel was adamant.
Noah felt like he was going crazy, but he had no choice but to lock himself in the laboratory for a day with the young, yet terribly stubborn, emperor.
Surprisingly, the young emperor's judgments were always correct.
The Penterin tiger beastman was a far more advanced life form than Noah had anticipated, not just some ordinary tiger.
The more they analyzed, the more astonishing it was.
Moreover, because Ekiel had deliberately provoked Jusielia while cutting her claws, the clippings contained various samples of her voice.
Throughout the night, various magic circles designed to segment Jusielia's sounds and imbue them with meaning appeared and vanished repeatedly.
It was imbued with the full effort of Noah, the genius Archmage of language, and Ekiel, the finest of mages.
And so, the world's one and only White Tiger Translation Device, exclusively for Jusielia, was born.
“Well then, would you like to try it on now, Your Highness?”
Noah, with dark smudges under his eyes, pointed to the magical device Ekiel was holding and giggled.
‘Sigh. You poor thing.’
Feeling sorry for him, Jusielia approached, intending to touch the area around his eyes.
But in that moment, Noah's eyes gleamed strangely.
“Before that, if you could just slap my cheek with your front paw once! Ack!”
Ekiel instantly shoved Noah away rather roughly.
“I will do it for you.”
And then, Ekiel opened the box and placed the necklace around Jusielia's neck.
