For a while after Raito’s Ability Fever incident, peaceful and uneventful days continued.

Raito grew steadily and not long ago he finally managed to stand up on his own, of course without any support from Kurato.

He had also started to speak.

From his first word, “nii-ni,” he progressed to stringing two words together, saying things like “nii-ni, shuki.” He had yet to say “shuki” to anyone other than Kurato after “mama,” which let Kurato bask in a small sense of superiority and at that moment, their mother looked straight at Kurato for the first time in a long while.

She looked slightly—no, quite—frustrated.

Putting that aside, Raito had also begun responding to Kurato’s words.

“Raito. Don’t eat the carpet. If your gums are itchy, chew on these blocks instead. These are made so it’s okay to put them in your mouth.”

“Ai!”

Like that.

As an aside, Kurato’s own speech had become quite solid.

The “s” sounds were still shaky, but aside from that, he could speak slowly but clearly. It might have been because he talked so much with Raito. Raito himself also seemed to be benefiting from it.

Their mother, however, was the same as ever—or rather, recently her doting on, or dependence on, Raito had worsened even further.

Kurato often saw her spending money to have Raito’s body examined and hiring famous instructors to give him lessons. That behavior had become especially noticeable after the Ability Fever incident.

Every time Raito returned to the children’s room, he happily reported what had happened that day, so Kurato could roughly tell what he had learned. He couldn’t grasp the details, though, because Raito’s reports were things like, “Big water go boom!” which were hard to decipher.

Raito was always in a great mood when he came back, but the opposite when he was taken out of the room. He fussed and sometimes even cried. It seemed he didn’t like the lessons very much. Or perhaps he was simply at an age where he disliked being restrained.

Maybe because of that, lately Raito would fuss even when their mother held him. In contrast, he was always trying to hold Kurato’s hand or make physical contact with him.

Their mother’s attitude toward Kurato hadn’t changed. For Kurato, that was actually quite convenient, since she left him completely free.

That said, it meant that the butler, Yanagi, had started paying him more attention.

“Lord Kurato, what would you like to wear when you go out?”

“I’ll leabe it to you!”

Each time, Kurato would answer awkwardly in toddler talk.

“Your second birthday is coming up. Is there anything you would like?”

“Ask the pers—cough, cough—I'll leabe it to you!”

Like this, she kept checking with him about everything. With Raito, she used baby talk like, “It’s nap time,” so the difference was obvious.

Was that gaze he had felt really hers? If so, maybe there was no need to keep speaking like a toddler.

* * *

As he spent his days thinking about such things, Kurato eventually passed his second birthday. Inside the house, it was already the season where the maids were running around saying they needed to start preparing for the end of the year.

Then one day—

“Yanagi, it looks like Raito caught a cold.”

Out of nowhere, their mother said that.

It was so sudden that she lifted Raito, who had been playing with Kurato and declared it like that, in a very flat, scripted tone.

Of course, Raito was bursting with energy. He clearly wanted to keep playing with Kurato and kept trying to escape her arms, stretching his body straight in resistance.

‘Hang in there, Raito.’

As Kurato cheered his brother on internally, he heard the sound of a sigh being released above them.

It was Yanagi.

“Madam. Are you truly expecting such a lie to work just because you don’t want to go to the main house?”

“It’s not a lie. It could be Ability Fever again. Look how much he’s arching his back.”

‘That’s just him rejecting you.’

Unaware of Kurato’s exasperated look, their mother continued her overacted performance.

“With this, going to the main house for the New Year is impossible. I’m sure Hisame-sama would say the same.”

“However, you haven’t shown your face there for two years now. The year before last and last year could be excused since Lord Raito and Lord Kurato had just been born, but this year, skipping a greeting will be difficult.”

“But I’m basically estranged from the main house…”

“They even sent servants to you. That excuse won’t hold.”

Scolded by Yanagi, their mother puckered her lips like a child.

Kurato looked up at her in complete disbelief.

Words like “haven’t shown your face for two years” and “estranged” sounded ominous. Was this woman really okay? Maybe she had issues with her family, but he thought at least a greeting should be made.

As he was thinking that, their eyes met.

And then, as if she had just thought of something, her face suddenly lit up.

Oh no. This is bad.

As Kurato twisted his face in dread, their mother raised her voice cheerfully.

“Then Kurato can go in our place.”

“What are you saying!?”

Oops. He had reacted without thinking.

“Huh? Just now… did this child speak?”

Even she froze in shock.

This is bad.

“Ai?”

Kurato tilted his head cutely as a last-ditch effort.

“Madam!? How would Lord Kurato greet them by himself?”

Oh, Yanagi was stepping in to muddle things along. Good job!

“Of course, Kurato won’t go alone. Yanagi, you’ll go with him.”

“W-what… a servant going to give greetings!?”

After that, Yanagi couldn’t say another word.

* * *

Some time passed and the new year began.

That day, Kurato was riding in a car with Yanagi.

Kurato was in the passenger seat and Yanagi was driving.

Surprisingly, cars in this world seemed to be standardized as electric vehicles. You hardly ever saw gasoline cars.

Of course, buses and large trucks were mostly electric too. There were no gas stations to be seen—only charging stations and at prices that were practically free.

Because of that, accompanied by a very quiet driving sound, they left the sparse residential area and entered the expressway.

The scenery outside gradually shifted, with greenery decreasing and clusters of buildings becoming more prominent.

They were probably heading from the suburbs toward the city center. Their starting point had been around southern Ibaraki Prefecture and now they were entering Tokyo.

At that moment, a massive structure blocked the road ahead on the expressway.

Rather than a gate, it was more like a wall.

It resembled the enormous outer walls that protected a royal capital in another world overrun by monsters.

The expressway continued through a section of the wall and where the road converged, a checkpoint had been set up. As they drew closer, the heavy security became clear. Several fully armed soldiers stood guard and further back, armored vehicles and even something resembling gigantic bipedal robots were stationed.

“Passport.”

After waiting through about thirty minutes of checkpoint congestion, a soldier approached their car.

When Yanagi rolled down the window, the soldier mechanically extended a hand.

The helmet hid their face completely, but from the voice, Kurato could tell the soldier was female.

As instructed, Yanagi handed over three booklets and a small slip of paper. An A4 document in a file, passports and… a maternal health handbook? The small paper was about the size of a business card, but Kurato couldn’t see what it was from his seat.

The soldier flipped through the documents, glanced at the card and then asked more questions in the same mechanical tone.

“Purpose of visit.”

“Sightseeing.”

“Planned duration of stay.”

“About two days.”

After Yanagi answered concisely, the soldier returned the three booklets through the window. Yanagi took them immediately. The card… the soldier slipped it into a pocket. Yanagi was already preparing to drive off.

“No issues. Depart within one week. Have a good day.”

“Thank you.”

After that emotionless exchange, the soldier moved on to the next car, as if it were routine.

Yanagi started the car again and drove inside the wall.

“That was a checkpoint for a Special Zone, Lord Kurato.”

Yanagi explained to Kurato, who was looking back at the receding checkpoint.

A Special Zone. He had read about them in books. Specially managed districts where only high-rank individuals lived.

That was what Kurato had imagined, but it seemed different. According to Yanagi, there were Special Zones all across Japan and this was one of them—the Tokyo Special Zone. Its size was large enough to encompass the entire area of the historical Tokyo twenty-three wards.

There were also the Osaka Special Zone, the Fukuoka Special Zone and in prefectures without Special Zones, there were places called Special Regions.

In other words, the very center of Japan was a Special Zone, meaning high-rank ability users ruled the country.

‘Just how far was this nation willing to favor high-rank ability users?’

Feeling fed up, Kurato turned his gaze to the scenery outside.

Just by looking out the window, the difference between the Tokyo Kurato knew and the Tokyo Special Zone before him was obvious.

Simply put, there was a lot more greenery. They were probably around Adachi Ward, but there were no cramped downtown areas—only clean upscale residential neighborhoods, well-maintained roads and evenly spaced street trees.

Around Shinjuku, high-rise buildings did stand out, but parks were everywhere and there were few crowds. Kurato had expected to see nothing but salarymen in suits, but instead, what stood out were women in colorful clothes and with various hair colors walking gracefully.

Kurato opened the car window and took a deep breath.

Yeah. This definitely wasn’t the Tokyo he knew. Just replacing gasoline cars with electric ones—could that really make the air this clean?

“How is the air in the Special Zone?”

At Yanagi’s question, Kurato smiled and answered.

“Yummy!”

After a while, they exited the expressway, drove slowly through an upscale residential area and arrived at a single grand estate.

According to Yanagi, this was their destination: the Makishima Main House. It was an impressive Japanese residence. Even after passing through the massive gate, the main building was still far away.

Yanagi parked the car at the far edge of the parking area.

Several luxury cars were already parked near the entrance, occupying spots as if they owned the place.

There were still plenty of empty spaces, but they parked at the edge anyway. Was that Yanagi being considerate, or pressure from the main house?

Carried in Yanagi’s arms, Kurato proceeded along a long stone path. He suggested walking on his own, but she unusually refused. According to her, if he did that, there would be no point in her accompanying him.

‘So that’s how it is.’

Sensing that this greeting would be very different from what he had imagined, Kurato gave a wry smile.

After walking for several minutes, they saw two men and a beautiful woman in a kimono standing in front of the main building’s gate.

There, Kurato was set down and Yanagi stepped back half a pace.

‘Yeah. Just as I thought.’

As Kurato slumped his shoulders, realizing things were unfolding exactly as he expected, the woman in the kimono approached him.

“Welcome. May I have your name?”

Yanagi, standing behind him, didn’t even try to step forward.

In other words, that was how it was.

Kurato looked up at the woman, who had her bright wine-red hair tied back and raised his voice.

“I came as a proxy for Makishima Makiko. I’m Kurato. I’m two years old.”

In other words, Yanagi was merely a servant here. Kurato alone was responsible for the greetings.

Kurato, who had assumed Yanagi would handle them, imagined his mother placing this burden on a two-year-old and couldn’t help but sneer internally.

As a kind of petty retaliation and with the excuse of being a two-year-old, he had deliberately included his age.

But that turned out to be effective in an unexpected way.

At Kurato’s words, the corners of the three gatekeepers’ eyes drooped as far as they could and the woman crouched down to meet Kurato’s gaze, her smile overflowing.

“We have been expecting you, Lord Kurato. I am Makishima Karan, the chief butler of the main house. Today, we will do everything in our power to serve you, so please feel free to ask for anything.”

After saying that, Karan stood and stepped back. In her place, a man who had been waiting in the hallway knelt formally and bowed his head.

“I will guide you to your room. Please, this way.”

As Kurato tried to enter the house, he was lifted up by Yanagi again. Ah, she had only set him down for the greeting.

As he was thinking that, Yanagi pulled him close and whispered.

“To render even Lady Karan completely charmed… as expected of you, Lord Kurato.”

When he looked up at Yanagi after she pulled away, she was smiling.

‘Was Yanagi testing me?’

Kurato raised an eyebrow and returned her smile with a wry grin.

* * *

Memo

The protagonist turned two years old.

In this world electric vehicles are the mainstream ← technological progress is distorted relative to the era.

Special Zones are protected by massive walls and powerful security systems.

Colorful clothing and… hair color? ← point requiring consideration.