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Chapter 11 Part 2

「Ah, let me help you.」

「No, such a thing is… Ahh!」

She was holding the books up while pinning them down with her chest, so as he took them from the book on the far side, he could feel a soft, squishy sensation on the back of his hand.

He was actually aiming for it. He wondered what kind of reactions she would make.

However, it was when Yuu’s left hand touched her right hand, which was supporting the books from the bottom, that she reacted more sensitively.

「Hyah!」

「Watch out!」

As the librarian was shaken, the piled-up books lost balance and were about to fall, so Yuu leaned in closer without hesitation.

With his right hand holding the corner of the book, he pressed her ample breasts with the back of his hand and held her hand on which it was overlapping.

They ended up in the position of facing each other and sandwiching the four books with their respective chest and belly, their faces were so close to each other that they could feel each other’s breath.

Perhaps not used to being approached by men, her vivid lips, covered with a pink rouge, were trembling.

「I, I am sorry!」

「No at all, it’s me who is sorry. After all, it happened because I forcefully tried to take the books from you.」

「Hah… No such….」

Should it happen in Yuu’s original world, it was an act that would totally count as a sexual harassment, but the librarian apologized to him as if it was her who had done something bad on the contrary.

Yuu shook his head lightly and said that he was at fault as well, which put her mind at ease.

With only that much, the librarian seemed to have been captivated by Yuu and looked at him feverishly.

In the calm part inside of Yuu, he thought how easy she was.

「Shall we take two books each and put them on the table?」

「Y, yes.」

The librarian, whose face was still bright red, showed a regretful look as her body had ended up separating with his, but she followed Yuu’s lead and put the books on the table.

「In, in case… y-y, you h, have any more order… P, please call on me.」

She seemed to have fumbled her words while trying to speak quickly.

For some reason, gentleness rose within Yuu, and he floated a calm smile on his face.

「Yes. If I want to read some more, I’ll be in your care.」

The librarian took her leave while repeatedly bowing her head slightly.

「Lucky sukebe. How enviable.」

Touko seemed to mutter softly behind him, but it fell on deaf ears as Yuu began to open the book immediately.

Brought to him were books about Japanese history and world history, two books each.

One was a large handbook with lots of color photos and illustrations.

The other was a history document collection composed of detailed information to a certain extent, like those used in high school classes, with a chronological table at the end of the book.

Yuu once again felt gratitude for the librarian for having prepared two types of books for him like this, in spite of his sloppy request.

「I don’t know how long it will take, but I’ll go on and read these for a while. I’m sorry, but can I ask you to wait for me?」

「Please do not mind us. After all, this is our job. And even if vile-minded people were to come to disturb you, Yuu-sama, we will get rid of them all, so please read it with peace of mind, Yuu-sama.」

Kanako puffed out her magnificent chest.

Suddenly, Yuu was close to harboring an evil thought of wanting to ascertain whose were bigger, the librarian from earlier and Kanako in front of him, by comparing them in the flesh with the eye, but he switched gears and tried to concentrate on the book in front of him first.

◇ ◇ ◇

Both world history and Japanese history were no different from the history of the original world that Yuu knew until the Middle Ages.

The famous historical figures, such as royalty, nobility, and cultural figures, were just like the names in his memory.

What served as a trigger was the Age of Discovery in the 15th century.

A Portuguese party returning from an expedition to the inner regions of Africa wound up bringing back an unknown infectious disease.

The disease, which had a long incubation period and was spread through airborne infection, quickly swept Europe, the North African coast, and the Middle East.

It was a terrifying disease in which the infected would lose their lives in about a week after developing red spots on their faces and then through their whole bodies, overcome by high fever at the same time.

Strangely enough, however, only men were affected and women were not.

Once infected, it led to the death of about half of men as a whole, but the mortality rate being particularly high among young men in their teens to thirties was its special trait.

The number of deaths in the first 10 years after the disease landed in Europe did not reach one million, but the fact that only young men were falling one after another caused a panic among everyone from royalty and nobility to the general population.

For the royalty and nobility, the loss of their heirs was a threat to the survival of the family, and for the general population, the loss of their main breadwinners.

When those who survived the fever had children, for some reason all that were born were girls.

Through research on a later date, it was revealed that the pathogen targeted the testes and affected their genes.

Even after that period of time, the disease, named the Red Death (or Male Death) after the Black Death (Plague) that raged in Europe in the 14th century, continued to spread intermittently until a cure was established at the end of the 19th century, which drastically reduced the mortality rate, but even in the 20th century, the disease was not completely eradicated.

As an infectious disease, the impact on subsequent events was greater than the number of direct deaths itself, and the world had no choice but to change from the 16th century onward.

By the end of the 16th century, it had become common practice for queens and empresses to be appointed as heads of state, and for the nobility to appoint girls as heirs.

Even in historical fact, this was the period when syphilis and other endemic diseases crossed over the continents and spread, and Japan was also swept by the waves of colony acquisitions led by the missionaries.

Past the Azuchi-Momoyama period until the Toyotomi clan was destroyed by Tokugawa Ieyasu was pretty much in line with historical fact, but due to the influx of missionaries and other foreigners, the Red Death disease was widespread in Japan as well.

As men began to fall one after another, the leader of the shogunate, which had just achieved peace under heaven after much trouble, was distressed.

When the Shogunate learned that the same disease was also prevalent in Goa and Malaya, where the western Europeans were based, they issued the national isolation policy. This was about 10 years earlier than the historical fact known to Yuu.

However, it was already too late. The red death disease did not stop in Japan, and from the time of the fourth shogun, Tokugawa Ietsuna, women began to rule the shogunate under male names.

Looking at world history from the early modern period to the modern period, the major difference from historical fact was that men were also included among the various resources for the purpose of acquiring colonies.

In other words, as the number of men, who had the role of producing offspring, decreased, European countries with severe population decline went around to regions where the Red Death had not yet spread and forcibly took out men and assigned them to their territories.

The Industrial Revolution that began in the mid-18th century also seemed to be triggered by the desire to improve technology for more efficient production, as women who had taken up the roles of laborers in places of men would cease to be able to work during pregnancy and child rearing and were lagging behind in terms of strength.

In addition, as a result of the fierce competition among the powerful nations to acquire men reaching an extreme level, a world war broke out at the beginning of the 20th century.

Looking at the photographs in the archives, it seemed that at this time, women were already playing the leading roles in the military, and men were assigned only to safe rear duty.

However, technological advancements encouraged the emergence of weapons that could kill in greater numbers and more effectively, such as machine guns, aircraft, mines, and tanks, and the leader of each nation, horrified by the growing number of deaths, concluded peace agreements within three years.

Thereafter, the League of Nations was formed, led by the victorious nations of the world war.

Five years after the world war, two princesses of the permanent member countries started fighting over one nobleman, which eventually evolved from a struggle between the royal families to a confrontation between the countries.

It was on the verge of breaking into a war, dragging in the other countries that tried to mediate, but in the end, it became all muddy as the man, the eye of the storm, fled to the United States.

As such, unlike the history that Yuu knew, the world war occurred only once, but even so, conflicts between countries with conflicting interests were still going on all over the world.

For example, the wars of the Southeast Asian countries, from resistance movements against the major powers that plundered their resources, including men, to gaining independence, spread throughout Asia and the Pacific and continued on from the 1940s to the 1960s.

After the Ryūsei Restoration (equivalent to the Meiji Restoration as known by Yuu), Japan joined the ranks of major powers after the military campaign in mainland China, and instead of fighting the major powers head-on, they seemed to support the Asian countries by exporting various machinery and weapons and dispatching volunteer troops while pretending to remain neutral.

Although Japan managed to become a member of the major powers, they were late in the colonial race and lacking in national strength, and compared to the historical Japan, which became a hundred million of fireball and went down the road of destruction, they seemed to carry themselves in a more ingenious manner and enjoyed prosperity while maintaining friendly relations with independent Asian countries, despite European countries insinuating them as Sly Japan (Wicked Jap).

Furthermore, after violent civil wars continued on until the middle of 20th century, in the end mainland China was mainly divided into four states that governed their respective territory.

As for Japan’s diplomatic relations with them, they had established a strong relationship with the Republic of China (the Nanjing Nationalist Government), which governed the southeastern part of the mainland and Taiwan, from the time of the founding of the Republic of China, and even now, the two nations still maintained a strong alliance.

For the other three states, they had been repeatedly in conflict and dialogue depending on the situation at the time, but had yet to establish formal diplomatic relations.

As for the Korean Peninsula, where a long, muddy civil war over the opening of the country to the outside world had been raging for years, due to their support for anti-government forces (national opening faction) and their cold relationship with the government, Japan had not established diplomatic relations with the Korean government (the Great Republic of Korean).

It seemed that small skirmishes over fishing rights and resource extraction in the Sea of Japan had occurred.

In any case, as Japanese diplomacy had long maintained a delicate balance, it seemed to not reach the point of conflict.