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Risou no Himo Seikatsu - Volume 6 - Chapter 1

Published at 17th of April 2017 09:30:04 AM


Chapter 1

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Chapter 01: The Marriage of the General

The “Vibrant Season” was the equivalent to Fall and Winter in Japan. This season covered half of the year and like its name implied, it was the most vibrant season of the year.
During this season, the people on the South Continent worked busily as if to make up for the lost time they had spent quietly inside the house during the “Hottest Season”, where just standing in the sunlight could make you faint, or the “Rainy Season”, where it rained at least once per three days.
The previous war had also mainly been waged during the six months of the “Vibrant Season”. There had been a few skirmishes in the “Hottest Season” and “Rainy Season”, but otherwise it had generally been a ceasefire during these two seasons.
The same applied for the peaceful times.
Of course some merchants considered it a good opportunity to do business, when everyone else was not working, and natural disasters or dragon attacks paid no mind to the circumstances of humans, so the activities during the “Hottest Season” and “Rainy Season” never really came to a dead stop.
But it was only natural to wait with any activities that could be postponed due to these circumstances, until the Vibrant Season.
The best example for such an activity was a “Marriage Ceremony”.
It goes without saying that a “Marriage Ceremony” was a major event for the wedding couple, but for their families it was just the same.
Especially for weddings, where the family business was inherited, be it nobility or commoners. All related parties gathered from all over the country, celebrated the marriage and familiarized themselves with the new family members.
That involved a long travel, so it was practically a matter of course to hold the ceremony during the comfortable “Vibrant Season”.
Going by that logic, the marriage of Zenjirou and Aura had been an exception, since it had been held during the “Hottest Season”.
Due to these circumstances, there were a lot of marriage ceremonies during the Vibrant Season.
And it was not really irrelevant to Queen Aura, when a marriage ceremony was held.
After all, the law in the kingdom stated that the tieing between high ranking nobility required the permission of the Monarch.
In most cases, her secretary prepared the necessary documents and Aura just put her sign on it, but even that could get tedious, when there were a lot of documents to sign. Moreover, she personally had to write up something like a “Wedding Wish” for when it concerned important nobles.
Sometimes the Royal Family was even expected to give money as a Wedding Gift. It could turn out to be a worrying task to set an amount for that, because lavishness was not an option, but at the same time, it had to be enough so as not to shame the Royal Family.
Nevertheless, that minutely treatment was still better than the worst case, whereof two existed.
The first being a marriage between nobles so high ranking that Royalty themselves had to attend the ceremony.
The other being a marriage between nobility so influential that it could not be permitted so easily.
And right now, Aura was looking at the worst possible request for a marriage that combined both of the above mentioned conditions.

The request concerned Puyol Guillén, the current head of the Guillén Family, and the eldest daughter of the Guzzle Family.
Queen Aura sat on the couch in her office with that document in hand and looked at the two men sitting on the couch across from her.
The men in question were Puyol Guillén and Xavier Guzzle.
Even seated, the giant General was as tall as a standing petite woman and the young successor to the March was somewhat small for a man.
That height difference was not the only contrast between them. General Puyol was assuming an air of confidence to the point of calling him “brazen”, whereas Xavier next to him was straining every nerve, so that his tension was recognizable at a glance.
The Queen smiled at heart, when she saw the fledgling noble so flustered, but showed not the slightest hint of it on the surface while she deliberately spoke with a voice free from emotion.
“Welcome, General Puyol, Sir Xavier. Let us get straight to the point.
I am holding the marriage request for Lady Lucinda and you here, General. Is that in compliance with both families?”
“Yes.”
“That is correct. I, Xavier Guzzle, testify that on behalf on my father, the head of the Guzzle Family.”
The general answered Aura with a composed tone. Following that, Xavier also answered, but with a tone that did not conceal all of his tension.
Aura nodded a bit affected, then continued.
“Okay. Very well.
So you are getting married, General. It definitely is desirable for the kingdom as well, when the head of the Guillén Family gets married.”
“Thank you for your understanding, Your Majesty.”
It was perfectly in accordance with the etiquette, when General Puyol put his clenched right hand against his left shoulder and lowered his head while seated.
But even so, the giant soldier only gave off the impression that he was “brazen”.
It must surely be in his nature. Aura once again gave the appearance of being inexpressive in order to conceal her dissatisfaction and inquired further.
“And your partner will be Lady Lucinda from the Guzzle Family. Seeing as Sir Xavier is here, I guess it is related to the earlier Pack Dragon Subjugation?”
General Puyol displayed a brazen smile and Xavier shivered nervously in reaction to the words from the Queen.
“Indeed. During this incident, I had the chance to acquaint myself with Sir Xavier here. Since he went to the Capital for a report later on, I took it upon myself to bring his men home to the March of Guzzle.”
“Right. The General has been a big help back then!”
After General Puyol explained so without ruffle or excitement, Xavier expressed his gratitude to him with a tone so vivid it could be called ingenious.
The Pack Dragon Subjugation took place on the Salt Road of the Carpa Kingdom last year. In the end, the incident was resolved at the seaport city Valentia, far away from the Salt Road.
Xavier Guzzle had originally been put in charge, but due to turns and twists, he had to leave his troops for a different mission, so General Puyol took it upon himself to lead the troops from Xavier back to the March of Guzzle.
A general of the Royal Army had been entrusted with the soldiers from a feudal lord, so it was unthinkable that he would leave right after bringing the men back to the border of the domain.
His responsibilities entailed that he led them all the way to the mansion of the feudal lord (in case of the border region, it was more like a fortress than a mansion), consigned the command to the person in charge there and waited for the troops of the domain to disarm.
It was perfectly normal that General Puyol would get acquainted with Lucinda Guzzle on that occasion.
Aura equally looked at both men sitting across from her while she once more recalled the information about Lucinda Guzzle she had looked into beforehand, in her head.
(Lucinda Guzzle is the oldest daughter of the Guzzle Family. She made a name for herself as a warrioress, when she assumed the role of the proxy lord in place of her elder brother during the previous war while her father was away, and took care of the domain and her baby brother.
But in exchange, she wasted her prime time and is still unmarried. I can relate a bit.)
The most suitable age for a woman to get married in this world was from around fifteen to twenty years old. Going by the standards of a modern Japanese like Zenjirou, it meant that a girl at the age of thirteen to fourteen would be “nubile” and a girl at the age of nineteen to twenty would be “past her prime of life”,
since they were calculating the age differently here.
Yet Lucinda Guzzle had wasted that important time span to protect her family from the turmoil of war.
She was already twenty-five years old, so she had long passed her golden age and counted as a middle-aged woman. Her age made it almost impossible to find a suitable family to marry into, even with the powerful backing of her family.
“Have you discussed it with Marquis Guzzle already?”
So just in case, Aura asked that, but she more or less knew what they were going to say.
“Yes, the Marquis has fortunately given us his blessings, too. Sir Xavier is even jumping the gun and calling me ‘Brother-in-law’ already.”
“B- Brother-in-law! You are not supposed to mention that in front of Her Majesty!”
General Puyol replied as expected and Xavier Guzzle exclaimed in panic.
Aura heaved a sigh at heart in response to that.
It was not difficult to imagine how great of a worrisome topic the marriage of his eldest daughter was for Marquis Guzzle.
After all, his daughter missed out on her chance to marry, because he went to war and abandoned his domain. Her younger brother Xavier must have felt guilty, too, since she had assume the mother role during that time.
And now, General Puyol had proposed to her.
Xavier was still too young and innocent to understand it, but Marquis Guzzle should be well aware of the intentions the general had.
When the Guillén and Guzzle Families were to be tied together through this marriage, General Puyol might get to incorporate the fortune and military strength of the Guzzle Family into his own. That ulterior motive was more than obvious, but every noble had more or less that kind of ambition.
No marriage would ever be achieved, if every single ambition like that was cut off.
Besides, it was by no means such a bad deal for the Guzzle Family to team up with the Guillén Family. As prominent nobles of the border region, the Guzzle Family was known for its fortune and military strength, but they had few connections to the heartland. The Guillén Family on the other hand had a lot of authority in the heartland.
(For that reason, I would normally never allow such a marriage, though.)
The nobility of the heartland with a lot of influence in politics and the nobility of the border region with a self-governing domain would team up by the means of marriage. It goes without saying how much of a threat to the Royal Family it was.
In the future, that marriage might bring out an even more influential power within the Kingdom than the Royal Family.
Having said all this, it proved to be very difficult to stop the marriage this time. Aware of that, Aura smiled to the best of her ability as she answered.
“Hahaha, now that is what I call rushing your fences. But Lady Lucinda was raised in the borderland. She might not be able to accustom to the life in the Capital.”
“No worries about that. She has told me that she would go anywhere as long as she is with me. The men in our country must be blind, when a woman like her can stay unmarried for so long.”
“Bro— I mean, General Puyol, you honour the efforts of my sister so far by saying this.”
Xavier was plainly speaking from joy, but the words from General Puyol were a declaration that even the bride herself had given her consent.
The Queen kept smiling, but her cheek twitched.
“Oho? Lovestruck already? That will not do. We cannot have the important general of our Royal Army getting his teeth out of him. Guess I will have to make a heartless decision here for the general welfare.”
It was nothing but a playful “pickoff attempt”, but a certain young man was too tense in body and soul to catch that obvious nuance.

“Y- Your Majesty! Please take my latest achievement as the price for your permission then!”

In response to the reckless utterance from the overhasty young man, the giant general displayed a bitter expression that seemed to say “Oh no” for a moment. It goes without saying that it was quite difficult to talk your way out of something you had claimed in front of the Queen.
Even more so, when the Queen herself would not give you such a chance to begin with.
For the first time today, the Queen registered a weak spot and intensified her smile a bit.
“Oh? I hope you do realize what you just said?”
She followed up on it with a threatening remark.
“Y- Yes.”
Xavier agreed knee-jerk, but her question could not really be denied now anyway.
Paying for the marriage permission with a military achievement. Taken by itself, it was nothing uncommon.
The problem this time round was that it meant that the supposed reward for his military achievement would not have to be paid.
For the Pack Dragon Subjugation Xavier Guzzle himself had led an army from the March of Guzzle. The soldiers received a wage, the food for the soldiers and dragons did cost money and so did the depleted arrows and broken equipment. And although they were only a handful of them, the families of the fallen soldiers needed to be reimbursed as well.
Normally all these expenses could be added on to the “reward” paid by the Royal Family.
But in this case, where the “achievement was used as the price for the marriage permission”, they were obviously not paid a single coin.
That kind of money admittedly meant no financial ruin for a wealthy family like the Guzzle Family, but it was still a burden, when they had to pay the whole sum all at once.
(There is no way the successor to the family name can make a decision about the reward money all by himself. That means, Marquis Guzzle must have already given his approval. So they are that desperate to marry Lucinda off, eh.)
If she were to forcefully crush this marriage, she would not only get on bad terms with General Puyol, but also with the Guzzle Family.
Reasoning like that, Aura realized that there was no way to prevent this marriage.
In that case, she ought to make the best of allowing this marriage for the Royal Family. After Aura had asked him again, she heaved an affected sigh with a stern face, then proclaimed to the giant general and young successor to the March.
“…Fine. If you are willing to go that far, I shall not be an heartless monster, either.
In light of Sir Xavier’s consideration for his sister, I will allow the marriage between Puyol Guillén and Lucinda Guzzle by way of exemption.”
“Th- Thank you very much, Your Majesty!”
Xavier almost jumped off the couch in his effusive delight, whereupon Aura gave him a blank look for a moment, but then she shifted her gaze back to General Puyol.
“Well, it is also my fault that you have stayed single until today. I am complying with your wish as an exception to the exception here, but it also allows me to finally clear my conscience towards you, when you have found a partner.”
She casually added that.
General Puyol was the current head of the famous Guillén Family, but even after more than thirty years, he was still single. The only reason for that was that he had been a marriage candidate for the Queen. Due to that, Aura had been in a bad position to refuse his marriage request to begin with.
By emphasizing on the fact that it was an exception to the exception, she was indirectly saying that she “compensated him for leaving him in abeyance all these years, by allowing this marriage, and that they were even with each other now“.
She was going to push the financial burden of the Pack Dragon Subjugation onto the Guzzle Family and clear off the debt to the Guillén Family for restricting General Puyol all this time.
By doing so, she could squeeze at least a little profit for the Royal Family from the marriage between two prominent families, since it was difficult to prevent it altogether.
Aura had racked her brain over this and while the young Xavier might accept it, General Puyol was not the kind of man to surrender this without a fight.
“Yes, I am most grateful for your exceeding kindness, Your Majesty. Following this, I would like to issue the invitation to our marriage ceremony in the March of Guzzle.
I know you are busy, so I will not go as far as to ask you to come in person, but there would be no greater honour, if you could favour us with your congratulations on the special day.”
Aura raised an eyebrow in response to the words of General Puyol.
“Oh? …You are holding the ceremony in the March?”
Xavier failed to noticed the subtle change in Aura and burst out happily.
“My father and sister said the Capital would be just fine, but General Puyol insisted on holding the ceremony in our domain. Thanks to him, my sister will make a final nice memory at home!”
In the Carpa Kingdom, it was the custom to hold the marriage ceremony at the home area of the family the marriage partner effectively left. Meaning: At the home of the wife, when she married into the man’s family, or at the home of the husband, when he married into the woman’s family.
Since marrying into a different family meant that “you cut all ties with your birthplace and became a member of the other family”, the custom signified that you get to have one final memory in your home.
Having said this, it was nothing but a general principle and there were plenty of exceptions.
Especially in cases like this one, where one partner hailed from the Capital, it was not all that unusual to choose the Capital for the ceremony regardless of the family situation.
On second thought, the Capital was certainly a better place to accommodate the guests than a domain in the borderland, and the Guzzle Family could use the ceremony as an excuse to go sight-seeing in the Capital, so it would be by no means a bad idea.
Despite that, General Puyol was going to hold the ceremony in the March of Guzzle instead of his birthplace, the Capital. Needless to say, there was a reason behind it.
And Aura immediately discerned his reasoning.
(In my position, I cannot afford to leave it at mere congratulations for his marriage ceremony. I would at least have to send a representative, or worse, attend it myself.)
General Puyol was a former marriage candidate for Aura. If she were to respond to the marriage of her former marriage candidate with only the bare necessities, it was more than likely that a rumour would spread, saying that she was still “emotionally attached” to him.
That would definitely be bad news. When a man took an interest in other women than his wife, he was called “authentic”, but when a woman was making eyes at other men than her husband, she was called an “adulterer” and there was no greater scandal than that.
Aura knew that and General Puyol knew that, too, of course, so he had chosen the March for the marriage ceremony.
(In other words, I have no other choice but to either attend it myself or ask my husband to go in my stead.)
It made no difference whether Aura herself went there and gave them her blessing or she sent Zenjirou there to give the blessing in her stead, when she wanted to avoid a scandal. In short, they just needed to give the appearance that Aura and Zenjirou congratulated the general on his marriage from the bottom of their hearts. Either royalty would go all the way to the borderland especially for his marriage ceremony. That fact gave General Puyol the perfect “prestige”.
And that was surely what he was after.
Aura had two choices. But in effect, she could not afford to leave the Capital for long as the Queen. So she basically only had one choice left.
(I will have to impose on my husband yet again.)
She grew desperate at heart, because she kept breaking her promises to him lately, but replied to General Puyol in order to squeeze even the tiniest bit of profit from this matter.
“I see. You are quite the virtuous man, General. Of course Royalty cannot be absent at the marriage ceremony of the general we entrust the safety of our country to.
Unfortunately, both my husband and I are extremely busy. As you may know, we are currently hosting three members of the Royal Families from two countries in our Kingdom.”
Prince Francesco and Princess Bona from the Twin Kingdom were obviously already here, but Princess Freya from the Uppsala Kingdom would come to the Capital soon, too.
Aura had wanted to keep her in Valentia and finalize the intercontinental trade negotiations for just the Royal Family, but that turned out to be impossible. After all, the female warrior under the command of Princess Freya had defeated the leading Huge Pack Dragon in the earlier Pack Dragon Subjugation.
Moreover, her achievement had already gotten around to the point that even the Capital was singing the praise of it.
With so much publicity, Aura could not afford not to invite them to the Capital for a reward in her role as the Queen of the Carpa Kingdom.
According to the schedule, Princess Freya would arrive with her retainers in the Capital in the next few days. Rumours were saying that they were going to enter the Capital with the skull of the Huge Pack Dragon on display, so the castle town was coming level with a festival.
“For that reason, we both have no time to spare. It would be a different matter, though, if the next ‘budget meeting’ comes to an end early.”
“I see…”
This time it was General Puyol’s turn to fall silent with a stern expression.
Her intention was not that difficult to understand.
She was saying that he ought to “approve her budget proposal in the next meeting, when he wanted either royalty to attend his weeding”.
The next budget meeting was dealing with the question, wherefrom they should compensate the accrued cost for the recent Pack Dragon Subjugation.
The finances of the Carpa Kingdom were hardly in any shape to have something to spare, even less when you took the previous war into consideration. So whenever unexpected expenses arose, one department would have to absorb the losses and that very department would strongly object to it.
When Aura enforced a decision, the affected department would obviously be angry at Aura, but if General Puyol were to stand up for her, that anger would mainly be directed at him.
To put it bluntly: She proposed that General Puyol should take the blame she was originally supposed to take.
However, it was not a bad deal for General Puyol, either.
He never really concealed his strong ambitions, so he had a lot of enemies. It would make no real difference, when he earned a bit of resentment on top of it now. On the contrary, he might actually rise in the esteem of the military, if word got around that he was willing to “earn the resentment from other nobles in order to secure the budget for the Royal Army”.
Once General Puyol quickly finished calculating the pros and cons in his head,
“Understood. If that is the case, I am more than willing to lend a hand.”
he gave his consent.

* * *

After Puyol Guillén and Xavier Guzzle had left her office, the Queen called out to her trusted retainer, who had silently stood at attention behind her so far.
“Fabio. You saw what happened. Tell me your opinion without reserve.”
The middle-aged secretary put his right hand against his small chin and spoke to the Queen after a moment of thinking.
“Okay. Long story short, you are going to send Master Zenjirou as your representative to the marriage ceremony between General Puyol and Lady Lucinda. In exchange for that prestige, General Puyol will wholly support you in the upcoming meeting.”
“Exactly.”
Narrowing his eyes to slits as if laughing with just his eyes, the middle-aged secretary nodded short and replied.
“Seems alright to me. It was pretty much a given that General Puyol would get his way in one way or another, since the Royal Family was at a clear disadvantage in regards to his marriage to begin with. Taking that into consideration, you still managed to clear the debt to General Puyol and averted the outstanding reward for the Guzzle Family from the previous Pack Dragon Subjugation, by allowing the marriage.
I would say the profit from the deal is satisfactory for the Royal Family.”
“I see.”
The Queen relaxed her shoulders in light of his assessment. But her secretary continued snappish as if to throw cold water on her hope.
“Well, Master Zenjirou is coming out on the short end, though. But that should prove to be no problem, either. He would never refuse such a well thought out deal.
He requires no wage and listens to everything you tell him. And above all, he would never dare to betray you. I doubt you could find a more faithful ‘pawn’ than him. You made quite the catch there, Your Majesty.”
“!?”
On the receiving end of his irony, Aura almost lost control, when she slammed her right hand onto the table while bending over, but she pulled herself together in the next moment.
“…Are you saying I am treating my husband like a convenient chess piece?”
Aura placed her bottom back onto the chair with a sigh and asked her retainer in a somewhat feeble tone.
“If I may be frank: Yes, I cannot see it any other way, when I look at your recent treatment of him.”
“I see…”
Aura heaved another deep sigh in response to the words from Secretary Fabio.
“…..”
Leaning back in her chair, Aura shut her eyes tightly and shook her head unruly a few times.
The reason she lost her temper and even sung small afterwards was precisely because it had rang a bell with her.
Lately, she had taken it for granted that she could entrust trivial matters to Zenjirou without a problem.
The Queen shuddered all too late in light of her altered train of thought, which “naturally” assumed that her husband was going to obey her unconditionally.
But the slender-faced secretary added indifferently, when he saw his master like this.
“Is something the matter? If I may say so, Master Zenjirou is not really offended by your one-sided distribution of work. So you are just feeling guilty on your own and that is not only meaningless, but also ridiculous.”
“You are as blunt as ever…”
The Queen gave her subordinate secretary a mixed look of anger and bitterness, but did not feel like forbidding him to speak.
To begin with, this man was her trusted retainer precisely because he could give tongue to painful fact like this.
Still, Aura did not take his whole statement at face value.
After rolling shoulders extensively and taking a deep breath, the Queen objected with a resolute face.
“You do have a point, but it is a fact that I am relying on my husband. And unless I admit to it, the reliance will only go out of hand.”
“A praiseworthy mindset, indeed. But you two are a married couple. I dare to say it is also unnatural, when the wife does not rely on her husband at all. Right now, you are constricting yourself a bit too much, which makes the whole situation unnatural instead.”
“Hmm…”
Being told that, Aura was at a loss for words. It certainly was not good for the relationship of a married couple, when they only made allowances for each other all the time.
As a matter of fact, Aura was somewhat annoyed by the lack of desire in Zenjirou. It admittedly was quite laudable to not cause trouble for others to the best of your ability, but when it started to concern people of your family, it gave off the impression of being “distant”.
The middle-aged secretary kept an inexpressive mask on his slender face while he warned the pondering Queen.
“Having said this, your worry that Master Zenjirou might get upset, might not necessarily be unfounded this time round.
After all he will need to take a different partner, when he attends the marriage ceremony without you.”
“Y- Yeah. You are right.”
The Queen contorted her face, when the pointer of her retainer hit the bullseye.
In the Carpa Kingdom it was common practice for an adult to attend a wedding ceremony with a partner of the other sex.
A married man would just take his wife with him and all was well, and when his wife was tied up with matters, he would ask a female relative. On the other hand, it was generally considered a confession of love, when an unmarried man asked someone to be his partner for the wedding ceremony.
Zenjirou was married alright, but he was going as the “representative of Aura” this time, so his wife could not accompany him as his partner.
As a consequence, Zenjirou needed to ask a different woman to be his partner. The chosen woman would then be seen as the leading candidate for a concubine without doubt.
The other matters aside for now, Aura was certainly reluctant to tell Zenjirou about this particularity, seeing as he was taking an obvious adverse stance on accepting a concubine.
“Oh well. I will be pushing my luck, but I guess I will ask Beldam Pascuala to accompany him.”
Pascuala was the wife of the Royal Archmage Espaldion and an old woman at the age of almost seventy years.
If an married old woman were to be his partner, she would hardly been seen as a future concubine candidate.
“Will the other nobles really put up with that? I mean, it is the perfect opportunity for them.”
“Probably not. We will have to push it through with some kind of specious story. And if that should fail… he really will get a concubine this time round. I just hope my husband will somehow accept it.”
Aura heaved a gloomy sigh.
The slender-faced secretary spoke a bit amused, when he saw his master depressed.
“Your Majesty really turns into a coward, when it comes to your husband. I have known you for a long time, so this is a refreshing sight.”
“Silence!”
Aura raised her voice as expected and glared at her trusted retainer.
But as a matter of fact, she herself acknowledged that she acted like a coward, when it involved Zenjirou. He was giving her a pure and completely untarnished love, so she unconsciously felt a strong aversion to taint that love even a little bit.
Sitting in her chair, Aura closed her eyes and tapped the surface of her desk with the index finger of her right hand resting on the table while she mused.
“…Still, I have no other option, but to send my husband as my representative. I guess I will have to have a heart to heart talk with him.”
“I believe that is the right decision. Even in the unlikely event that Master Zenjirou will be offended by it, he fortunately will receive something that lifts his spirits in a few days.”
“Oh, right.”
Suddenly, Aura’s facial expression took a change for the better.
That something to lift his spirits was nothing else but the ‘goats’ from Princess Freya.
The goats itself had been a present from Princess Freya for the birth celebration of Prince Carlos, but they would obviously occasion expenditure.
After all, they were the first mammal livestock in the Carpa Kingdom.
The goats needed an enclosure in the Royal Palace, the greenstuff needed to be cultivated for their food and people needed to be trained to take care of the goats.
All of this required a not insignificant amount of money.
Since the goats were not all that picky about the food and had a sturdy build, it was relatively easy to take care of them, but the people of the Carpa Kingdom had no experience with mammals down to the present day, so it was hardly a simple task.
By way of comparison: It was like asking a Modern Japanese milk farmer to raise iguanas now.
There was no other way but to rely on the subordinates of Princess Freya for everything in the beginning. And her subordinates would surely not lend a hand for free, either.
It was a troublesome undertaking that took time and money. Moreover, it was actually superfluous. Frankly speaking, Zenjirou was “having his way” with this project.
“It is kind of troublesome that the reception of Princess Freya coincides with the reception of the triumphal female warrior, who defeated the Huge Pack Dragon, but it is not really unfeasible. It will be a bit bothersome, but it is for the sake of my husband after all.”
Mentioning how much of a pain all this was, Aura was showing an unbefitting smile despite all that. After all, her husband had been selfish for the first time after never breathing a wish all this time. She could not help but feel extremely happy about granting him that wish.
Her secretary said a bit sarcastic, when he saw his master like that.

“You look like an overly doting grandmother that gets all excited about choosing a present for her first grandchild.”

“…Can you not say mother at least?”
The reproachful voice of the Queen lacked the usual edge, maybe because she was thinking the same.
“A mother would be a little bit stricter with her love.”
“Muh…”
The brusque objection from her secretary rendered the Queen speechless and she puckered her lips.

* * *

At night of the same day.
In the living room of the Inner Palace, the royal couple sat next to each other on the couch after coming out of the bath and was touching glasses.
The four LED floor lamps, positioned in a circle around the two couches with a wooden table in-between, glittery illuminated the red and blue Kiriko glasses from Zenjirou and Aura.
The glasses were filled with an almost transparent alcohol. It was the long-known “distilled liquor”, but it was not made by Zenjirou himself this time.
The construction of a distiller was not all that complicated and the craftsmen of the Carpa Kingdom had been able to reproduce it, since they were relative adept at crafting copper ware.
Keeping the appropriate temperature had been a problem, but by trial and error, they apparently found a more or less accurate solution. Of course it was far more inefficient than the distiller from Zenjirou, which had an electronic hotplate that could heat up accurate to a degree, but for now, it was a working alternative.
That very distilled liquor from the distiller that the people of this world had built, was filling the glasses of Aura and Zenjirou right now.
Zenjirou swallowed the experimental alcohol after savouring it slowly and nodded curtly.
“Yep, tastes nice. It’s as good as mine. Well, that doesn’t mean much coming from me, though. To begin with, I don’t know if I should call the taste ’nice’, when it tastes just like my amateurish try.”
Likewise holding a glass, the Queen gave a smile to the words of her husband.
“Yes, I liked it as well. Good. Looks like we can proceed with a large-scale production.”
“Hmm, you sure? If we really want to mass produce it, we would need to make bigger distillers and it’s more than likely that unforeseen problems arise with a larger version.”
Zenjirou claimed that from a rather negative viewpoint, but Aura kept her smile up.
“We cross that bridge when we get to it. Trail-and-error is an integral part of starting a new business. Besides, I cannot allocate that much personnel to it for now anyway. We will just pay particular attention.”
The Carpa Kingdom was still recovering from the previous great war at the present moment. There was a lack of personnel everywhere, so it would be quite difficult to reallocate people for a new business, even for the Monarch.
But the distilled liquor had already been well received, when it was served to the nobles at the night banquet in the Royal Palace. Aura was of the opinion that it was only a matter of time until the initial investment was compensated for, as soon as they had a superstructure for the mass production ready.
“Well, it is no use discussing the distilled liquor any further now. Instead, Zenjirou.”
“Mh?”
Zenjirou felt a cold shiver run down his spine, when his wife wiped the smile off her face and looked him straight into his eyes from beside him, and tilted his head puzzled.
“I want to discuss something slightly… no, something rather serious now. Okay?”
“Okay.”
He gave his short okay and in order to underline his words, he put the blue Kiriko glass with the distilled liquor back onto the table and stood up from the couch to sit down on the other couch across from the Queen.

“First off, I have to tell you that Puyol Guillén and Lucinda Guzzle, the eldest daughter of the Guzzle Family, will soon get married.
As such, I would like you to attend their marriage ceremony as my representative. The ceremony will be held in the March of Guzzle.”
“Mm, okay.”
When the Queen told him that with a stern face, Zenjirou nodded acknowledging with a likewise stern face.
“….Eh? That is all you have to say?”
In light of her exaggerated preamble, Zenjirou had steeled himself for the worse, but he now cocked his head disappointed, since the matter did not sound all that grave to him.
Aura on the other hand heaved a small sigh at the sight of the poor reaction of her husband, and assumed a bitter smiling expression.
“I hate to admit it, but it seems that Fabio was right. Do you see nothing wrong with this?”
“Wrong?”
When Zenjirou still cocked his head perplexed, Aura eased her tension and explained carefully.
“Be it the matter of sending you to Valentia before or the matter of sending you to the March of Guzzle now, I am always deciding on matters without consulting with you in advance. Fabio said I am treating you like a ’convenient pawn’. And to be honest, I cannot deny it.”
“Oh, I see.”
Seeing his wife look down dejected, Zenjirou clapped his hands together as he finally understood.
He recalled how he had given his wife a small rebuke, when she one-sidedly had decided on his trip to Valentia. But this and that were two different matters.
“Now that you mention it, that really seems to happen a lot lately. But I know that politics sometimes call for a prompt decision, so I’m fine as long as you give me a convincing explanation afterwards.”
Aura had expected that answer from him. Or to be precise, Secretary Fabio had expected and told her about it at noon.
‘Master Zenjirou is not really offended by your one-sided distribution of work.’
These words of his had been the truth.
Zenjirou was not the least bit offended, even when she claimed to “treat him like a pawn”.
“You never get angry. Are you fine with being ‘treated like a pawn’?”
Aura bluntly asked him that.
Of course the Carpa Kingdom also had some people, who did not protest about being “treated like a pawn“. For example, the knights sworn to Aura actually took pride in being the “pawns of the Queen”.
But if they were to be “treated like a pawn” by their peers, they would surely be up in arms against it, too. The reason Aura could treat them like pawns without a problem was because of the clear hierarchy between the Queen and the Knights.
So it would make sense, when Zenjirou mentally “subordinated” himself to Queen Aura, but when they sat across each other like this, it was obvious at a glance that his attitude was at the same level as hers.
His wife was being honest with him, but her husband from a different world kept his head cocked to the somewhat vague question from her. Still, he answered to the best of his abilities.
“Ehm, I guess everything’s fine for now? But I would like to know now, why I’m being sent to the marriage ceremony, of course, and I’ll certainly get angry, if your explanation doesn’t sit well with me.”
In his mind, he was not really seeing Aura treating him like a “pawn”. On the contrary, he often cursed his own inability to help his wife, who was having a hard time with her duties.
“Hmm…”
Still not convinced by the answer of her husband, Aura breathed an anxious sound.
“Besides, you’re the Ruler here and I’m just your husband, so I think it’s only natural that you decide some things for me?”
Zenjirou simply considered it “situation-dependent” to “obey the orders from a peer”.
In middle and high school, he had obeyed a junior in regards to his position during the matches of the soccer club, and as a working adult, he had witnessed a couple of meetings, where the project members obeyed the instructions of their even-aged project leader. Needless to say, the situation could go into reverse on the next project, when someone else became the project leader.
Zenjirou only knew the Japanese way of thinking and amidst that, the moral concept that everyone was equal was not contradictory to the fact that there needed to be two kind of people, namely one giving orders and one following orders, in order to effectively and smoothly run an organisation.
Aura on the other hand was raised in a world with the moral concept that the hierarchy also constituted the line of command par for par, except for a few exceptions, so she might have trouble understanding it.
“…I see. Well, as long as you are fine with it. But we have already diverged from initially promised outlook quite a bit by now. Thus, I deemed it necessary to have a proper talk with you.”
“The initially promised outlook?”
“Yes. When I summoned you, I told you that I would ask you for nothing but your cooperation in making a child, right?”
“Oh, that.”
Zenjirou clasped his hand understanding in response to the reply from Aura.
“Well, you don’t have to worry about that. I never expected you to keep that promise anyway.”
“Huh!?”

For the first time since they had met, the Queen looked hurt from the bottom of her heart, so her husband quickly corrected himself.
“Ah, no! That’s… that’s not what I meant, Aura! It’s not like I don’t trust you. I just wanted to say that the conditions were too good to be true and I never expected to be a full-time sponger, because the Prince Consort is still royalty after all. Nothing more than that!”
As the fruit of his earnest explanation, Aura’s expression took a change for the better.
Seeing that, Zenjirou heaved a sigh of relief while he continued.
“So I might be late in saying this, but I completely agree with your idea to discuss everything in honesty. We should forget all about ‘what is currently right’ and about being ’considerate’ or ’reserved’. Let’s just lay bare our genuine wishes.”
“Yes, I guess we have to start from there.”
With her intent finally coming across, the Queen leaned forward while remaining seated on the couch, in response to the answer from Zenjirou.
“Then let me hear your wish first of all. What do you want to do, Zenjirou? How do you want to live your life from now on?”
The serious question from his wife prompted a slightly overwhelmed Zenjirou to clear his throat affected once before he slowly framed an answer.
“Hmm, okay. Then I’ll just list my wishes as I think of them. It might sound a bit inconsistent, though.
Here I go: I want more time with you. I want to live together with Zenkichi. I want all three of us to sleep together in the same bed. But sometimes it would be good, when it’s just us two in the bed. We wouldn’t be sleeping then, though.
On the other hand, I don’t want any woman beside you. The Inner Palace is my home, my family, so I don’t want anyone from outside the family in it.
What else… Oh right, I’m starting to miss the food from Japan. And I want to do something about the shampoo that’s almost used up.
I’m curious about how the soccer team I supported is doing. I want to play some soccer, even if it’s just on a sandlot. I want to listen to the new songs from my favourite band. I want to access the internet on my computer.
And I’m bored to death in the afternoon, so I want to do something productive. Making the distilled liquor was fun, for instance.
But I don’t want to shoulder any heavy responsibilities like foreign policies. And I absolutely hate to attend parties, where countless nobles try to push concubines onto me at all times.”
As expected, even Zenjirou had some pent-up frustrations. In the beginning, he had made some petty demands, but over time, his wishes started to get more and more selfish, finally escalating into voicing his grievance.
Hearing that gush of words, Aura kept a composed expression on the surface, but heaved a sigh of relief at heart.
(I was right to bring up the subject. It seems he really has bottled up quite the frustration without knowing it.)
Zenjirou was an understanding man with a high tolerance limit. Even if there was something he would like to do, he would soft-pedal, when there was a legit reason not to do it. And he would do something against his will, when the situation called for it.
Because of his nature, Zenjirou himself tended to misunderstand it, but he in fact piled up the dissatisfaction about not doing what he wanted to do, and the frustration about being made to do something against his will.
His mind comprehended the fact that he could not avoid doing it, but his heart had trouble keeping up with that reasoning. Without even realizing it themselves, people would thus store a pool of negative emotions and become more irritated towards trivial things, answering with sarcasm.
Fortunately enough, Zenjirou was relatively broad-minded, so these symptoms had not surfaced yet, but listening to him made it clear how much frustration he had built up.
“Well, I know I’m just being selfish here, but that’s it.”
Zenjirou went red in the face, as he became embarrassed about having thrown a demanding tantrum like a child, but he also looked somewhat relieved.
Her husband had uttered his desires outright for the first time. Of course Aura held an opinion about it.
But for now, she showed no reaction in particular to his words and voiced her own wishes like they had agreed on in advance.
“My wishes can be arranged in two categories: What I wish for as your wife and what I wish for as the Queen of this Kingdom.
The first category is unproblematic. As a woman, I want to monopolize you as well. Likewise, I want us to spend more time with Carlos. In that point, our wishes coincide.
So I want you to understand that the wishes I am going to tell you now are only from my standpoint as the Queen.”
“Mm, okay.”
Listening to his wife, Zenjirou understood in his mind that he should take it serious now, but he just could not help but smile.
He could put himself in Aura’s shoes for a bit now, since she always tried to make him say embarrassing stuff like “I love you”. Even if you could be sure of the feelings of your partner, it was still something special, when it was put it into words like this. His whole body was stricken by a pleasantly prickling bashfulness.
The Queen softened her gaze for a second, when she saw him raising the corners of his mouth, but immediately put on a serious expression again and continued.
“As the Queen, the first thing I want you do is take a concubine.
It is becoming more and more difficult to shut up the nobles of our country. And when you take one, the Twin Kingdom will not ignore it, because of the secret agreement we have. So I want you to take another concubine from their side as well.
The power balance on the continent will shift, when we manage to make magical tools with the glass pearls in the future. And for that, I would like to establish a new court noble family without its own territory that inherits the ’Bestowal Magic’ in our Kingdom.
In accordance, I would like to advance the glass production thoroughly and I need your help in that. I will gladly take any ideas that increase the fortune of the Royal Family like the waterwheel improvements or the distilled liquor, too.
Needless to say, I want you to continue your work as my representative, because we two are the only grown-up royalties in our country.
A lot of negotiations call for a royalty to be present and it will ease the burden on me, when you attend any proforma events in my stead.”
“Oh god…”
Zenjirou obviously made a face at the blunt demands from Queen Aura and croaked out a genuinely repulsed voice.
It was as expected, but the wishes from Zenjirou and the wishes from Queen Aura beautifully contradicted each other. They only barely agreed on the manufacture stuff like glass or liquor, but everything else was something Queen Aura wanted him to do as much as Zenjirou wanted to avoid it.
Aura kept her mask as the Queen and continued.
“But the thing I am most afraid of is that we seriously will grow apart. So you have nothing to worry about, nor do you need to be reserved. I will generally prioritize your feelings over the wishes I just mentioned.
Nevertheless, tell me all of your dissatisfaction only in the ‘Inner Palace’. I want you to refrain from criticizing me in the Royal Palace. It would be the most fatal wound for me.”
Zenjirou could not conceal his surprise towards the words from the Queen.
“I would never criticize you. Wait, is this country really that male-dominated?”
The Queen shook her head with a stern face in response to his question.
“No, it was not really a problem at first. No matter how patriarchal our culture may be, the Crown has enough power to overturn it.
Besides, I have quite the strong powerbase, if I may say so myself, because I led the country to victory in the previous war, where everything was in chaos from having lost four rulers, my uncle, my father, my little and older brothers, in succession.
Just like I had originally foreseen, it was no real problem while you just stayed in the Inner Palace and only helped with making a child.
However, that no longer applies to you. For better or worse, you are intelligent enough to handle foreign negotiations and have an extremely understanding personality. Everyone knows that now.”
“Oops. Did I get ahead of myself?”
Zenjirou screwed up his face all too late, but Aura shook her head.
“No, you have done well. It is entirely my fault. In the beginning, I had only wanted you to attend the bare minimum of events or parties, but you proved to be more ‘useful’ than I had expected, so I ended up relying on you more and more without realizing it.”
The reason for that must have been her pregnancy.
Before it, Zenjirou certainly only had the bare minimum of duties to fulfil. But when Aura got pregnant and felt worse than expected, she could no longer undertake her duties as the Queen like before.
The only one with enough status to act as her representative was Zenjirou and he was competent enough to accomplish the duties as her representative appropriately. In a way, it was an unfortunate combination.
Even while Aura was still recovering from having given birth, Zenjirou continued to support his wife as her representative. Queen Aura ended up getting used to it and without knowing it, she took it for granted that her husband would work as her representative, even after she had fully recovered.
The decisive blow had been the earlier ruckus with the Pack Dragons attacking Valentia.
Strictly speaking, it had been Xavier Guzzle, Raffaelo Márguez and Skathi aka. Victoria Kronkvist, the female warrior from the Uppsala Kingdom, who achieved the subjugation, but on the paper, Zenjirou had been in charge of the final battle with the Pack Dragons.
In other words, he proved that he was more than capable to hold his own in the court and showed everyone that he was ready to stand on the battlefield himself, when it called for it.
It would be no exaggeration to say that Zenjirou already had enough influence to start up his own faction in the Royal Palace, if he felt like it.
Hearing that explanation from his wife, Zenjirou was a bit troubled over the unnecessarily high evaluation he got, but he understood the situation he was in and nodded with a serious expression.
“Okay. I was already mindful about it before, but from now on, I’ll be even more careful about my actions outside the Inner Palace. These kind of malicious rumours usually spread without consideration for the concerned party after all.”
“Yes, please do.”
Aura was about to heave a sigh of relief in response to the usual understanding reply of her husband, when she suddenly realized something.
(Not good. I was supposed to listen to his wishes today, but at some point, I started to push my conveniences onto him again. If I am not careful, the bad habit to rely on the patience of my husband gets out again.)
The Queen strongly reprimanded herself, pulled herself together and faced her husband anew.
“Well, I can only ask for your understanding in that matter, but for everything else, I intend to grant as many of your wishes as possible.
We both do have an interest in producing things such as the distilled liquor, so please focus on that.”
“Yeah, I want to complete a magnet first of all. Once the goats arrive here, I want to make cheese and butter, but I heard the Uppsala Kingdom has these, too, so instead of trying on my own, it might be faster to ask Princess Freya for help.”
“Oh, right. I have not told you about it yet. Princess Freya and her group have already left Valentia. That goes for your goats as well, of course. They should arrive in the Capital in a few days.”
“Oh, I can’t wait.”
Zenjirou revealed a grin in light of her notice. With dairy goods like cheese, butter or cream, he would be able to try out all the confectionary that had been impossible to reproduce so far. Having more semiluxury food you meant having a richer life.
The mood started to relax from the merry topic, but Aura addressed another complicated matter.
“Let us move on. You are reluctant to get involved with foreign affairs and higher society. If possible, you would like to abstain from doing it. Correct?”
“To be honest, yes. But I know it’s part of my job as royalty, so I’ll do it with gritted teeth, even if I don’t like it.”
Leaning back into the couch, Zenjirou glared at the ceiling and was immersed in his thoughts for a bit before he answered like that.
It was his job or his obligation as royalty, to be precise.
“In other words, you would prefer it, when you do not have to do the things that can be avoided?”
When the Queen asked him that, Zenjirou brooded over it, then shook his head.
“…Not quite. It’s a bit complicated. I can’t seem to settle down, when I do nothing, although I know there’s work to do.
Of course it would be great, if there’s no work to begin with, but when there’s work to do, I don’t really want to run away from it.”
“Mh? Could you elaborate a bit more? It is a bit hard to understand.”
The Queen cocked her head puzzled, whereupon Zenjirou pondered for a moment and then explained it while cocking his head thoughtfully as well.
“Ehm, how shall I put it? The work in foreign affairs or higher society certainly is a pain. But it’s even more painful for me to turn a blind eye on my obligations as royalty.”
Put another way: It was the same difference as between “playing truant” and “having a day off school” for a student.
Going to school every day was real a bother, so you were extremely grateful, when the school closed for a day. But the illegal act of “playing truant” left you with a guilty conscience. Instead of going through that, it was so much easier just to attend school every day, even if it was a bother.
A reasonable amount of diligence, a reasonable amount of seriousness and a reasonable amount of reluctance. That kind of mentality was not all that rare for a Modern Japanese.
His careful, but clumsy explanation let Aura still more or less understand what he wanted to say, since she was quick in the uptake.
“I see. You mean that you would feel guilty about abandoning your obligations, even if you hate them. And that it would be a lesser burden on your mind, when you reluctantly do your work, instead of experiencing that guilty conscience.”
“Yeah, pretty much. Ah, but my patience has its limits, too, of course! It’s still quite alright for now, but my workload keeps growing lately, right? If it goes on like that, I’ll be at the end of my patience soon enough.”
“Hmm, you are right. Forgive me. I will be more careful from now on.”
The Queen apologized in a laudable manner to her husband, who preached caution.
“Yeah, please. Ah, but you don’t have to worry about emergencies like the wedding now or the trip to Valentia before that.”
“I see.”
Aura summarized the conclusion they had reached just now inside her head.
(In short, I can allocate work for him like before, if it is an emergency, but I better reduce his general workload for foreign affairs or higher society as much as possible.)
Foreign affairs could involve people like Prince Francesco and Princess Bona or the soon arriving Princess Freya, whom Zenjirou had to entertain at all costs, but everyone else like foreign diplomats or national nobles did not necessarily require the hospitality from a royalty. It just meant that things would proceed more smoothly, when a royalty was present.
“Okay, I shall limit your work for foreign affairs and higher society to an acceptable level from now on.”
It was kind of unfortunate that she could only make minimum use of her pawn known as the Prince Consort now, but the Queen concluded that it was her turn to give ground here.
“You also mentioned all kind of things you wanted. Since I did not really understand it, I take it that these are things from your world. Would it be possible to get your hands on these on this world? Ah, you do not have to worry about money or such. Just tell me if it is possible or not.”
When Aura told him that money and effort were not an issue, Zenjirou cast his gaze to the ceiling and mused.
“Hmm… It’s definitely impossible to watch a match of the junior league here. Soccer by itself is technically possible here. You just need to gather some people and teach them the rules, but I would rather not do that, since it only complicates my connections further.
Listening to any new songs is impossible, too. Or at least I can’t think of how it would be possible.
But the food from Japan will be possible once I get the goats. Well, it’ll mainly be confectionary, though.
As for the shampoo, I already started to work on a replacement. I was ready to make the bath supplies here from the very beginning, so I put some instructions on my computer.
For stuff like soap shampoo or hair rinse from mixing kelp ash with citrus juice.”
“Indeed. The soap shampoo does concern me as well. It should be no problem to acquire the ingredients for it at least.”
The Queen let on about her standpoint as his wife for a bit, when Zenjirou answered like that, and nodded in agreement.
She was using the same soap shampoo as him. After all, they were usually sleeping in the same bed. There would be no point if only Zenjirou cleaned himself up, but Aura refrained from doing so.
Considering that, she was already quite accommodating to her husband.
The Carpa Kingdom had a climate of high temperatures and high humidity, so the custom of taking baths was relatively widespread, but not even royalty or nobility took one every day. Moreover, it was common practice to apply a lot of perfumed oil to erase the smell on the body or hair, but Zenjirou hated the scent and sensation of the perfumed oil to no end, so Aura refrained from using it inside the Inner Palace out of consideration for him.
Needless to say, it was sort of common sense for aristocracy in the Carpa Kingdom that the perfumed oil was indispensable, when she pursued her duties as the Queen of the Carpa Kingdom in the Royal Palace.
Thus Aura was thoroughly washing off the perfumed oil she had applied to her hair and skin in the Royal Palace every day in the Inner Palace, sometimes repeating that pattern numerous times a day.
She changed herself to suit the preferences of her husband. That was a praiseworthy approach, but in a way, she was no exception to the model of femininity in the male-dominated Carpa Kingdom.
Whether he knew about the devotion of his wife or not, Zenjirou nodded with a smile.
“Good, please do that. To be honest, I’m rather obstinate, when it comes to hygiene. Well, I can bear with it, when I only sweat a bit like right now, but I just have to take a bath, when it’s so humid during the Rainy Season or I sweat all over during the Hottest Season.”
He said that was a slightly troubled expression, since he realized that he was being selfish.
“Hmm, I can understand the Rainy Season, but I fail to comprehend how you can take a hot bath instead of a cold one during the oppressive heat of the Hottest Season. Still, if it is that important to you, I will comply with you.”
The Queen was the most important figure in the Kingdom, but she was adjusting her lifestyle to his.
Speaking of, it was also selfish of Zenjirou how he usually did not allow any waiting maids into the living room. Aura was born and raised as royalty, so she should take it for granted that she was surrounded by waiting maids all the time.
Despite that, Aura adopted herself to Zenjirou’s common sense and kept the waiting maids out of their private space as much as possible. That meant that she had to fetch anything in the room by herself and change simple sets of clothing by herself. There was no way that it left her unaffected.
“Thanks, Aura.”
Zenjirou gave thanks to her from the bottom of his heart, when the devoted love of his wife was brought to his mind once again.
Because she had taken him, a man with moral values different from her world, as her Prince Consort, Aura had to muster up a tolerance she would originally never need.
(I need to remember that at all times. Otherwise, I might get the illusion that I’m the only one that has to soft-pedal. And that would be arrogant.)
Zenjirou told himself that once more.
“You are welcome. It was not worth mentioning, though. So, anything else?”
Zenjirou cracked a wry smile, when his wife brushed it off manly, and continued.
“The internet, I guess. You told me it’s impossible before, but I think it would be feasible with some specialized magical tools to connect to the internet in this world.
The ‘Summoning Magic’ is dependant on the star constellation. So if we bring a small space in line with the correct constellation through ‘Time Reversal’ or ‘Time Acceleration’, it would make that space eligible for the ‘Summoning Magic’, wouldn’t it?
When we use the ‘Summoning Magic’ then, I say it’s possible to link our worlds for a bit.”
His aim was to create an environment, where his computer could access the internet, by linking it to a space with a nearby WiFi hotspot.
To achieve that, Aura did not need to make a human-sized connection between the worlds like she did, when she summoned Zenjirou here. Simply put, it sufficed to have a hole with the size of an eye of a needle, as long as the wireless signal could get through.
But Aura shook her head regretful after hearing the detailed plan from her husband.
“No, like I told you before, that is impossible.
First of all, ‘Time Reversal’ can only be cast onto a specific object, not some kind of space. Even if you wanted to cast it on an area, you would need to adjust the incantation first. And when you do that, the required amount of magical power will chance as well. You would basically create a completely new kind of spell.”
“A new spell? Can you actually do that, Aura?”
Aura answered with a laugh to the surprised Zenjirou.
“Of course. I may not be as good as the seasoned court mages, but I can improve already existing spells. The bloodline magic is a secret skill, so royalty has no choice but to fiddle with it themselves.”
If anything, Aura specialized in politics and warfare. She was not really passionate about advancing magic. But as royalty, she knew about her obligation to pass the bloodline magic onto the next generation, so she had acquired the essential knowledge and skills for it.
In fact, Aura had modified the ‘Summoning Magic’ that she had used to bring Zenjirou into this world.
The original “Summoning Magic’ was restrictive, since it could only summon someone you clearly envisioned in your mind. With the condition “a man with a disposition for Space-Time Magic living in a different world”, she had modified it in such a way that she could bring an unknown person into this world.
Having said this, the previous King Carlos II, well-known for his magic research, had devised the majority of that modification and Aura had only given it the final touch.
She then threw more cold water on Zenjirou’s hopes.
“Besides, the ’Summoning Magic’ itself is a problem. All it can do is instantly summon a person or object from a different world. But you want to link both worlds for the longer term, correct? That would require a completely different magic.
Maybe something like a ’World Link’ spell? But even if you take an already existing spell, it would already take more ore less a year to adjust. And I honestly have no idea how long it would take to create a new spell from scratch.”
“Grml…”
When the problematic points were practically slapped into his face, Zenjirou screwed up his face and fell silent.
He still knew relatively little about magic, but even so, he could somehow tell that it was extremely difficult to devise a new spell such as “World Link” while adjusting the “Time Reversal” magic at the same time.
In the worst-case scenario, it might turn out to be quicker, when he studied magic with all his might and devised the magic himself instead of Aura, since she was always busy with something, whereas he had relative much free time on his hands.
Although he understood all that, Zenjirou still could not let go of the idea and questioned his wife further.
“Okay, I understand that it’s impossible in practice for now. But in theory? Let’s say we can adjust ‘Time Reversal’ to be cast on an area and create a new ‘World Link’ magic. Would it be possible to do it then?
Is it even realistic to adjust ‘Time Reversal’ and create a ‘World Link’ magic?”
The question from her husband prompted the Queen to cross her arms under her breasts and ponder for a moment before she replied.
“Hmm, I am not that knowledgeable about magic to call myself an expert, so I cannot say for sure, but it should technically be possible. Both magic are a kind of Space-Time magic after all.
But to be honest, I am not sure whether that alone will suffice to achieve what you want to do.
Shifting an area into the past with an adjusted ‘Time Reversal’ and continuously connecting our worlds with ‘World Link’ would require an enormous amount of non-stop magical power. It will be impossible to maintain, unless you draw the magical power from ‘Future Compensation’.”
This implied that they needed a double deployment of “Future Compensation”. If the worst came to the worst, they would have to pay with several month worth of magical power from Aura for a couple of minutes to access the internet.
“Uwah, it takes that much? Ah, but you can store your magical power from time to time in the magical tool Prince Francesco is going to make, right? If we use that…”
Her husband beamed with joy as though he had found a solution, but the Queen shook her head inexpressively.
“No, I cannot permit that. I already decided how to use that tool. You told me that the things you brought with you have a lifespan, right? I will use the stored magical power to cast ‘Time Reversal’ on them from time to time.”
The things she spoke of mainly referred to his electrical appliances.
The LED floor lamps, the refrigerator, the air conditioner, the television, the computer, etcetera. All of them had a guaranteed lifespan of five to ten years from the manufacturer. Even the domestic hydropower generator, which was the foundation for everything else, only had a lifespan of fifteen to twenty years. Moreover, they were not in Japan here. This world had higher temperatures than Japan, so it would not be strange, if the electrical appliances were to break before the guarantee of the manufacture expired.
“Oh, right. That definitely has more priority than accessing the internet. Nothing beats having a long-living refrigerator or aircon after all.”
Zenjirou clapped his hands convinced. Originally, he had brought along the home devices as some kind of “support wheels” until he got used to his new life in the Carpa Kingdom, but why pass on the opportunity, when a cheat-like magic like “Time Reversal” could prolong their lifespan.
Especially the afore-mentioned refrigerator and air-conditioner were a real treasure on the overwhelmingly hot South Continent.
Fascinated by their appeal, the Queen started to agree with her husband for a moment, but then shook her head as if to shake off the temptation.
“Yes, you are right… No, wait. I want to preserve them, too, if possible, but I primary want to use it on something else, namely that so-called computer of yours. It got the highest priority.”
In light of her unexpected answer, Zenjirou cocked his head baffled.
“My computer? You can’t use it, can you? So why?”
Needless to say, the operating system and programs on his computer were mainly in Japanese. It was completely useless to Aura, since she did not know Japanese or English.
But she replied with a confident look.
“Because I want you to keep using it for the ‘tax check-up’. The yearly tax report is heavily influenced by it.”
So far, Zenjirou had input the written tax reports given to Aura by the feudal lords every year into the calculation software on his computer and double-checked them.
On the basis of that calculation, Aura reprimanded the feudal lords about their taxes, squeezing profit from it for the treasury.
It was an advantage beyond description that Zenjirou, someone she had absolute faith in, was doing the whole final tax check by himself. Thanks to him, the news that you could not dodge the taxes on paper from the Royal Family, spread like wildfire.
Of course forging the tax documents was not the only way to dodge the taxes. There were plenty of other methods such as changing the size of the delivery carriages carrying the goods, specifying the population or farmland in the domain lesser than it actually was or obtaining tax exemptions due to made-up catastrophes.
Accordingly, the calculation software only covered a small portion of the tax evasion as a whole, but the fact that the forgery of the documents was seen through, put a lot of pressure on the feudal lords.
Although Zenjirou was convinced by her explanation, he put forth his next doubt.
“Hmm, I understand the value of the computer now, but is it wise to entrust a government system to a machine only I can use? Or do you plan to learn how to use it?”
The Queen shook her head with an earnest expression in response to his question.
“Well, I would like to, if I had the time, but I will leave it to our daughter.”
That reply came out of the blue.
“‘Daughter’? Huh? What do you mean?”
Needless to say, the only child they had right now was Prince Carlos Zenkichi and like his title implied, he was a boy.
Aura then explained it carefully to the puzzled Zenjirou.
“You see, I have been thinking about it for some time now. We have a monopole on this method thanks to that computer tool of yours and it would be a shame to discontinue it after our generation.
In other words, we just have to pass it onto the next generation. A child between you and me will be able to use ‘Space-Time Magic’ more likely than not. And if it is a girl, she can stay in the Inner Palace until she is grown-up. It should not be all that difficult to teach her how to use it, when you have all the time in the world.
Of course we will teach her ’Space-Time Magic’ as well. Once she can use ’Future Compensation’ and ’Time Reversal’ and only uses it on your ’heritage’, it will be possible to keep the system running for a long time.”
“Y- Yeah, I see now…”
Zenjirou reacted with a frown to the words of his wife.
She wanted to raise her future daughter into a maintenance worker and user of all the electrical appliances. Her idea was certainly promising, if you only took the profit for the Royal Family as a whole in consideration.
But Zenjirou was raised in a normal Japanese household, so to be honest, he was fiercely against deciding the role of his own daughter in life before her birth without consent and treating her almost like some “repair tool for the electrical appliances”.
The same could technically be said about the First Prince Carlos Zenkichi, since it was set in stone the moment he was born that he would be the next King, so Zenjirou might just have to accept it as the fate of Royalty.
“In the future, I would like to establish a matrilineal branch family, whose matriarchs will undertake the same responsibility generation after generation.
There is always the risk that the branch family may be taking over, when you give them special privileges, so we would to have to be careful about it, but in my opinion, it is not such a bad idea, if we can work together as a unified ’Royal Family’. What do you think?”
The Queen had guessed from his expression that he was not really fond of her idea, so she gave a more elaborated explanation in order to convince him.
“Hmm, yeah…”
For a moment, Zenjirou was going to say that he left the decision up to Aura like always, but then he remembered that they wanted to have an open conversation without reservation today.
He put both feet on the ground and leaned a bit forward on the couch for some reason before he nervously spoke his mind.
“Ehm, I wonder if our daughter can become happy, when we enforce only one way of living on her the moment she’s born?”
As the Ruler of a major power, Aura could not really relate to his honest opinion.
“Mh? The fact that she will be born as royalty means that her way of living is already decided. Whether she will be happy or not depends on the love we give her as her family, the ease and comfort from the wet nurse and her own effort most of all. Am I wrong?”
In this world it was only natural to be born into a certain class and take over the business of the family as a rule. According to its moral concept it was by no means an unfortunate thing to have your “way of living decided upon birth”.
If anything, the younger siblings even envied that secure future, because they were in a position, where they could not follow in the steps of their parents.
Zenjirou understood that in his head, but his heart could not quite keep up with it after all.
Based on the premise that your future was already outlined for you, you pursued your own happiness as appropriate in this world, whereas in Modern Japan you principally had the all the freedom to choose your job. These two set of values had very few in common.
At a loss what to do with his sympathetic reasoning and unsympathetic emotions, Zenjirou scratched his head irritated on a rare occasion.
“Ah, yeah, you’re right. Well, you are, but… I think it’s scary to have everything decided already upon birth. You can’t rule out the possibility, either, that she can’t keep up with the lesson for the calculation software, not to mention the other devices.”
In Modern Japan, almost anyone could master the calculation software with enough time.
But the circumstances were entirely different here in the Carpa Kingdom. Since their daughter would be born as royalty of the Carpa Kingdom, she would learn the language of the western part of the South Continent as her mother tongue. Learning the writing of that language took priority as well, of course.
It should be extremely difficult for such a person to master the calculation software, since it displayed literally everything, even the help screen, only in Japanese or English. Moreover, Zenjirou was by no means an “expert” in regards to the computer or the calculation software, so he did not really qualify as a teacher.
Even so, he might be able to teach her the essential operations, but just like he had mentioned just now, its success was not absolutely certain.
“Hmm, maybe I should write a manual about the stuff for posterity?”
“Yes, that sounds good. Knowledge tends to distort every time you pass it on only by word of mouth. It would be extremely helpful, when you leave behind a written manual.”
It would take a bit of effort to put his knowledge into a book, but it was actually not all that difficult to accomplish. After all, this world had the automatic translator known as “Soul of Words”.
All they had to do was having Zenjirou dictate it to Aura while she wrote it down in the language of the western part of the South Continent. It was not an easy job as a whole, but it would not be such a huge burden, when they did it bit by bit every evening.
“Yeah, it doesn’t hurt to have a manual either way. By the way.”
“Yes?”
Her husband suddenly looked around restlessly and wore a hinted smile, whereupon the Queen cocked her head a bit wondering.
“Well, we keep talking this and that about our ‘daughter’, but we still don’t have one, right?”
They conversation resolved around the premise that they would get a daughter in the future. Did that meant that the ban on the recently neglected “act to make children” was lifted? Seeing as her husband was brimming over with that desire, the Queen gave him the answer he was waiting for with a grin.
“Oh, that. Yes, you guessed right.
Carlos is growing up well and you have taken quite some work off my shoulders as my representative. My condition is fine as well, so I think the time has come to make a second child.”
“…Oho.”
Zenjirou answered with a low voice while his pupils dilated and the corners of his mouth twitched upwards past comparison.
“You look lecherous.”
His expression displayed his lust so straightforward that even the steadfast Aura reflexively felt like backing off while she gave him a wry smile.
“…Ohoho.”
Moreover, Zenjirou raised both his hands to his head and erratically moved his ten fingers in a gripping manner.
“You are acting lecherous as well.”
Aura quickly embraced herself in an attempt to hide her cleavage with her arms, since she sensed danger. But no amount of arms could ever hope to conceal her voluptuous body in the thin nightgown she was wearing.
If anything, she actually emphasised her cleavage by hugging herself, giving rise to a sensational sight.
“Hah, Hah, Hah…”
Still looking lecherous and moving his hands lecherously, Zenjirou raised from the couch in a stooping position and approached her slowly.
“Wait, what are you going to do with these hands?”
Practically gluing herself to the back of the couch, Aura took her distance from him.
“Hoh, Hoh, Hoh…”
Zenjirou put his right foot on the wooden table between the two couches without hesitation and slowly drew closer to his wife in a straight line.
“Hey, calm down. Your lust has gotten the better of you.”
“You told me to be open about ‘my desires without holding back’ today.”
“I did not mean it like that! I wanted you to speak your mind and said nothing about taking action on the spot!”
Seeing as she did not move from the couch despite her protest, Aura must have been willing, too. Besides, they were as different as a little kitten and a tiger in regards to physical strength. If Aura seriously wanted to resist, Zenjirou would have no chance against her.
After he slowly climbed over the table, Zenjirou leaned over the couch his wife was sitting on.
“Uhihihi…”
“Wait. Let us go to the bedroom at least.”
“Too far.”
“It is not! It is right over there!”
“Right now, it‘s an insurmountable distance for me.”
It was pretty rare for Zenjirou to oppose Aura that much. He had probably “hungered” for this situation that bad.
It was useless. There was no way to stop him.
“Jeez…”
Realizing that, the Queen showed a faint wry smile and spread her arms resigned, accepting her husband, who was crowding her from above.
“Gehehe…!”
“Oh please, at least speak normal.”
Nevertheless, she did not miss out on giving her husband a light smack on the back part of his head while he buried his face into her breasts.





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