Chapter 4: Home Purchase
With their meal finished, Ruri promised the people of the diner that she would stop by again. Then the party of three all headed for their next destination, the royal capital. They could’ve easily made it there in a few minutes if they took dragon form, but they decided to go back by road to burn off their meal. As such, it only took a little over an hour to get to the gates of the royal capital.
When they arrived, Finn, who should’ve been by Jade’s side, was standing right there, much to their surprise. As soon as Ewan saw him, a gigantic smile spread across his face. If he were a dog demi-human, then he probably would’ve been wagging his tail clean off his rear right now.
“Brother!” Ewan shouted in glee.
“Why is Finn-san here? Joshua, did you know?” asked Ruri.
“Nope. Wonder if something’s up?”
Feeling doubtful, they walked up to Finn.
“Ewan, have you been carrying out your duty?” Finn asked.
“Of course! No one suspicious will be getting to Ruri so long as I’m around.”
“That’s reassuring to hear,” Finn said with a kind, brotherly smile, which brought an even bigger smile to Ewan’s face. “I’m relieved to see you’re getting along with Ruri, too.”
There was a period where Ruri and Ewan’s relationship was at an all-time low. If Ewan’s relationship with the nation’s Beloved got any worse, they debated sending him away from the royal capital. Since word of that had spread among the king and the aides of the castle, Finn was relieved to see them getting along so well. So well, in fact, it would make Jade jealous.
“So, why are you here, Brother?”
“Ah, yes. I’m here to guard Ruri.”
Ruri was confused. She already had two fine bodyguards in Joshua and Ewan. If Finn was going to guard her, he should have come from the very start.
Finn continued, “After you’ve purchased your house, I’d like you to take off your wig and walk around the royal capital as the Beloved. Also, I’d like you to take the spirits along with you as you do.”
“But won’t it cause a huge commotion if I do that?” Even in the town that Ruri went to with Chelsie, which was by far smaller than the capital, it caused a huge commotion at first. It was obvious what kind of massive uproar would come about from a Beloved parading around the capital with no forewarning.
“That is why I’m here to guard you. I have other men posted throughout the capital as well, so you needn’t worry.”
“If you’re going through all that trouble, I can just go back to the castle...” Ruri suggested. The thought of sending out that many people just to protect her made her feel awkward. Even though she was a “Beloved” in this world, on her own, she was just a regular person. She’d never had any experience with people “protecting her.”
“No, we’d like you to walk around the capital, Ruri.”
“And why is that?”
“For the prestige of the Nation of the Dragon King. The Beloveds of the Nations of the Beast King and Spirit King frequently walk the streets of the city, so the fact that the Beloved of our nation doesn’t show herself is being construed by some as us lacking the power to protect her. Also, there is no shortage of people skeptical whether there is Beloved here at all, so I’d like to finally squash their skepticism.”
“Who?” Joshua asked. “The inept nobles of the Imperial Nation? The only thing those guys have in spades is pride. They’re the only one out of the entire Alliance of Four Nations that doesn’t have a Beloved, so they’re just jealous. All that talk about us ‘lacking the power to protect our Beloved’ is just a bunch of venom they’re spewing,” he said, voicing his hunch aloud. He was no stranger to talking to Imperial Nation nobles. His hunch seemed to be right, however, because Finn made an awkward expression in response.
“Hmm, well, I don’t mind, I suppose...” Although Ruri wasn’t very privy to political matters, she wasn’t going to refuse lending a hand if she could be of help.
“In that case, before you walk around the capital, let’s go looking for a house,” Finn suggested, even though the decision had already been made.
Finn showed Ruri two houses in a district filled with dragonkin households under the premise of not letting the family of their Beloved live somewhere in disrepair. True to the nation’s name, many dragonkin held jobs pertaining to the nation itself, and there were many dragonkin soldiers living throughout the district they were currently visiting. Even if they weren’t soldiers, dragonkin were great fighters regardless. Few dared to be foolish enough to commit a crime here. At worst, there was some drunken commotion from time to time—all in all, this was the safest district in the royal capital.
The first place Finn introduced Ruri to in this district was a house close to the castle. The second was a house close to where Claus lived. Both of them, however, were too big for just her and three other people—her parents and her grandfather. They were meant for stereotypical millionaire-types instead. Ruri hated the thought of her mother making her father and grandfather clean this huge place because she was horrendously inept at household chores. Plus, knowing her grandfather’s personality, he would likely push all the work onto her father.
Ruri hummed and hawed to herself until Ewan noticed and asked, “What are you pondering over?”
“Well, I was thinking it’s a little too big for just me and my family. Cleaning it seems like a lot of work and so does maintenance...”
“No need to worry about that. We’ll be dispatching servants and security detail from the castle to maintain the house,” Finn assured in a matter-of-fact tone.
“Huh?!” Ruri cried in shock. “I couldn’t let you go through that much trouble. If the house was just a little smaller, we could all get by even without help.”
“No. These are necessary measures for the nation. It is possible your mother and grandfather are also Beloveds, isn’t it?”
“Yes, from what the spirits told me, at least,” Ruri said, recalling that her mother had asked the spirits not to lend any help until she could see them.
Since their behavior was directly tied to their emotions, spirits wouldn’t consider anyone’s requests unless they gained something from it. However, presenting the benefits to them, with their radically different way of life compared to humans, was a difficult task. Given that, the only people who the spirits complied with were Beloveds. Even Rin and Kotaro had told her that they saw a slew of spirits around her mother and grandfather during their trip to the other world, so it was probably certain that both of them were Beloveds.
“Beloveds are supposed to be protected by the state. Normally, we would want them to live in the castle, but from what you’ve explained, they are averse to a cramped lifestyle. In which case, it is a request of the state to allow us to at least provide security detail and servants so that they live in comfort.”
Ruri felt obliged to take care of her parents since they were coming to live here, but from Finn’s explanation, it seemed her idea didn’t mesh with the Nation of the Dragon King’s top brass.
“I understand what you’re saying,” Ruri said, “but knowing my mother and grandfather’s personalities, they would be very much opposed to living in a castle, so please don’t.”
“Would they dislike living in the castle that much? You know, we usually don’t try to restrict a Beloved’s conduct,” Joshua said, confused as to why anyone would be opposed to a life of being waited on hand and foot with all the amenities.
“How do I put this? My mother and grandfather are kind of... free-spirited. I feel like they’d be thrilled at first, but they would probably get bored quickly and want to live in town. You said you guys don’t put restrictions on conduct, but you would put a stop to any conduct that would endanger others or was unbecoming of a Beloved, right?” Ruri recalled how Jade had tried to stop her when he learned she was working at the diner.
After pausing a moment, Ruri continued. “Well, you’re not wrong. I can just picture those two feeling tied down and running off. They’re just free-spirited individuals, and I don’t think they’d listen if you told them to stay put.” She pictured her mother and grandfather running amok, not listening to reason, and her poor father clutching his stomach, unable to contain their rampage.
Ruri also didn’t like living a constrained lifestyle, but seeing as how she went to Chelsie’s house on occasion, or went out to town in disguise, she didn’t feel all that restricted. The others would interject from time to time, like when she worked at the diner, but it still wasn’t that big of a deal to her. However, she assumed that her grandfather and mother would feel hampered by living in the castle with people nagging over their every move.
“In which case, it might be better for Finn-san and the others if they lived outside the castle from the start...” Ruri trailed off, her eyes drifting toward Finn.
If they were Beloveds, naturally spirits would cling to wherever they were. Things would go by much smoother if they treated her mother and grandfather as if they would go berserk right off the bat rather than just suddenly out of nowhere.
“Very well. I will have a house prepared, and I will at least try to negotiate with them about living in the castle. Will that do?”
“Yes, I will leave that to you.”
With that settled, Ruri ended up picking the house close to Claus’s, figuring it would be better being closer to someone she knew.
Transfer of the house was quick, and Finn passed the keys over to Ruri. She was worried that the money Euclase would give her for those old coins wouldn’t be enough for such a big house, but she seemed to have more than enough to cover the cost. Those coins were apparently valuable as cultural assets and raw materials, so just thinking about the amount she had stored in her pocket space made her shiver with fear. The price of the house would be deducted after Euclase exchanged the coins for cash, so Ruri walked into the new house and started setting up living accommodations. While she did, Finn and the others inspected the house for damage.
She was cleaning so that the house could be used right away, but they were in a world with magic. She collected the trash not with brooms or washcloths but with wind magic instead. Then she burned it with fire magic as she cleaned the windows and flushed the watering hole with water magic.
“Cleaning, cleaning~”
“I’m gonna collect the garbage~”
“Then I will burn it away~”
“Lastly, I’ll use water to make it sparkle!”
The spirits that Ruri called upon left the large, multi-room house spotless in the blink of an eye. As a final touch, Ruri furnished the rooms with pieces of furniture out of her massive pocket space collection. Overall, cleaning took just a little over an hour, which made her appreciate the convenience of magic... or rather, the capabilities of her spirit friends.
“Thank you, guys.”
“No problem!”
Ruri thanked the spirits by imparting mana to them, which made them all huddle delightedly around her. This was something Rin and Kotaro had taught her when she asked them for advice on how to give back to the spirits that always helped her out.
One normally presented mana in compensation whenever utilizing a spirit’s magic, but that wasn’t necessary whenever the spirits acted on their own volition. Of course, in the case of more complicated spells that reflected one’s mental image, like Ruri’s bathhouse at Chelsie’s, mana was required if it involved Ruri herself. However, the spirits used their power on their own this time simply out of good will. Although she wanted to thank them for it, she couldn’t very well give the spirits sweets like Rin, Kotaro, and Lydia since they lacked physical bodies. In which case, she learned that giving them mana would work.
Normally, when a person used spirit magic, their mana was mostly consumed by the magic in question. It would only provide the spirits with a small drop of mana, which wasn’t very beneficial to them, but even that small drop was almost like a “luxury item” to them. That was the reason spirits lent their services to those with mana that suited their palate and wouldn’t to people with mana they disliked. It was the same principle as people who wouldn’t spend money on something they didn’t enjoy. By that consideration, it meant that something like Ewan’s mana was detestable. On the other hand, Ruri’s mana, which gave them comfort just by being by her side, was a regular feast to them.
Even though the spirits didn’t quite consume this “luxury item” as a human would, from the looks on their faces, they seemed to be in bliss. Ruri smiled in satisfaction, glad that her token of thanks was appreciated. She then took her wig off and headed toward the center of the royal capital with her spirit entourage in tow.
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