Risou no Himo Seikatsu - Volume 11 - Chapter 3.2

That night, once they had eaten and bathed, Aura and Zenjirou discussed the events of the day as they always did. With his upcoming trip to the Northern Continent, they had commissioned the magic tools from Francesco in order to lower the risk to him to as close to zero as possible. Simultaneously, they had managed to successfully produce six marbles suitable for enchantment out of a set of ten. There was obviously a lot of room for improvement in terms of their transparency compared to the ones he had brought from Japan, though.

“We shall have to give the glass workers a reward. Extra pay is a given, but they are also close to burning through another furnace, so perhaps a longer break,” Aura mused contentedly.

Zenjirou then voiced a concern. “The money aside, are you sure about the break? In terms of the secret and their safety, I mean.”

The glassworkers were monumentally important now that they had succeeded. If the Twin Kingdoms could tempt—or take—one of them, it would have a massive impact on Capua. Zenjirou’s concerns were entirely expected.

Aura had far more of a sense of things on that front, though, and felt that the risks and rewards balanced well enough to allow them the extra freedom. “I understand your perspective. However, shutting people away and making them work will not lead to results. Particularly for skilled jobs. The guards are watching every exit and entrance to the city and the business quarter is also under surveillance. The craftsmen will at least be ordered to keep their silence as well.”

The phrasing of her final statement and the way she said it certainly left some doubts. After all, the craftsmen were not particularly well-drilled; they were normal people. Now that they’d completed a grand undertaking they’d surely drink to celebrate. Then some woman at the bar could ask what they’d been doing, and in all likelihood, the reply would be something like “This is just between us, but...”

It was practically inevitable. It would vary from person to person, but it was fairly long odds that only one of them would slip.

“And you’re okay with that?”

Aura gave an unfriendly smile at his worrying. “Rather than being ‘okay’ or not, it is more of a matter of when it will happen. I hope that the specific method can remain hidden for our and Carlos’s generations but there will be no hiding our success.”

Even if they only traded with the Sharou family and drew up a contract between their two nations, sooner or later, that contract would be contravened. After all, the Sharou family’s purchases would allow for an increase in production speed the likes of which had never been known. Hiding it would be impossible. In fact, some sharp-eyed nobles from each country might have already noticed the change despite most of the marbles being supplied by Zenjirou and used by Francesco.

“I want to maintain secrecy, but I also want to maintain our personnel. Shutting the glassworkers away and denying their freedom will make it an unattractive craft, so maintaining our workforce in the future will be more difficult.” Her shoulders—slightly bared by her nightwear—lifted in a shrug as she spoke.

Crafting was greatly affected by the crafter’s motivation. Simply producing something that already existed was one thing, but creating a whole new industry was quite another. Without that motivation, it would be all but impossible.

She was aware that using the sovereign’s rights to gather and conscript the people would not have the effect she wanted, in which case, all she could do was allow the earning potential of this new profession to spread among the crafters and draw interested parties that way.

“At any rate, it is a matter for the future,” she summarized.

“I see.”

While he understood the surface level of what she was saying, he couldn’t fathom the specific way one would need to go about it. He’d just have to leave it to her.

“All right, then. I probably can’t help with that. On another note, you’ve ended up responsible for all the casting for the magic tools. Is that going to be okay?”

The negotiations had left Aura assisting with at least three magic tools—a barrier to sell to Talajeh, a tool for Zenjirou, and a teleportation aid for him as well.

Aura merely shook her head in response. “In both terms of the burden on my body and time, there should be no issue. I will simply visit Princess Bona or Prince Francesco when necessary and use the spell several times. Although the barrier aside, teleportation requires a significant amount of mana, so I will need to be wary on that front.”

A day spent making the teleportation tool would mean using the same amount of mana as casting the spell once. While she had far more mana than Zenjirou, she could still only use the spell three times a day. Any usage needed to be planned.

“Hmm, got it. If the schedule doesn’t work out, then let me know. It might be a bit inconvenient for him, but I’m not incapable of doing it. Worst case, he said the teleportation tool will be done within a single cast, so I can do that. On that front, though, how much should I come clean to Princess Freya?”

The magic tools they’d just commissioned were things Zenjirou would be taking with him on the intercontinental trip. Freya was the captain of the ship he’d be traveling on, so they needed to decide how much to show of both the tools and their effects.

Aura’s answer was immediate. “For the time being, keep the teleportation tool’s existence a secret. It is too dangerous to reveal it, and there is no point regardless.”

“Well, that’s true.”

He could only agree there. It was a trump card, a last resort, something he could use while abandoning everything else. It couldn’t be allowed to fall into someone else’s hands and there was no benefit to anyone else knowing about it. Aura’s opinion on its secrecy there was practically inevitable.

“Conversely, you should most definitely show and explain the static flame tool to her. In fact, it may be best to have her use it for a while and give her permission to do so.”

“Yeah, it does need that much caretaking.”

He didn’t have any objections to that either. It was a source of fire he’d be bringing and using aboard while at sea. Even assuming Francesco completed it exactly to his specifications, Zenjirou was completely unfamiliar with sailing, so it would be dangerous for him to assume it was safe. If he was wrong, it could set the ship ablaze. He’d need to explain and demonstrate it to the ship’s owner and have her be familiar and happy with its use before he brought it on board.

If Freya or her vice-captain said it was not acceptable, he might even have to give up on it. Fortunately, it was not necessary for his survival.

Keep the teleportation secret, but tell her about the flame. Their opinions were as one up until that point. The issue was with the last item.

“There is no need to tell her about the barrier either. It is to protect you while ashore. Additionally, keeping its existence hidden makes it more valuable for protection should the need arise.”

While she phrased it somewhat ambiguously, Aura was concerned that some of Freya’s subordinates might have loyalties to king and country more than to Freya herself. It was a remote possibility, but if the negotiations failed, things could devolve to force. In that case, the Northerners’ knowledge—or lack thereof—of the barrier would change things significantly.

While Zenjirou understood that, he could see another use for it. “Hmm, I’d rather tell her. I think that at the same time as the spell cuts off the interior from the exterior, it also fixes that interior in three dimensional space. If it does, then it could serve as an ultra strong anchor if things came to it.”

“The barrier serving as an anchor? What do you mean?” she asked, pressing for an explanation to supplement her lacking knowledge.

“Uh, well the spell cuts off a space and stops outside interference, right? So the cut off space is probably fixed in place as well. If not, you could dig under it and make it move.”

“I understand your point, now,” she said. Despite that, there was an issue. If his hypothesis was correct, then would it not be left behind in the planet’s orbit and rotation?

Despite that thought, he decided not to consider it for now. If that was the case then trying to use teleportation at different times of year could put you at a different point in the planet’s orbit. The convenience and absurdity of magic was beyond his ability to understand in full.

“So I thought that using it aboard the ship might fix the ship as a whole in space.”

“I see. Which would make it an anchor,” she said, clapping in full understanding of his point.

If part of the ship was fixed in space, that would inevitably mean the rest of it was also fixed. It was certainly worthy of the moniker of “anchor.”

“What would the point be, though? Would it be better than a normal anchor?”

Zenjirou scratched at his head with a concerned expression. “It probably wouldn’t be much different when you’d normally use an anchor. It wouldn’t work in most cases, but if the Glasir’s Leaf were strong enough, it’d be a light in the darkness for the sailors, especially those who got seasick.”

A normal anchor kept a ship in position, but it did not stop its rocking completely. Additionally, in deep enough seas, it was completely ineffective.

This would be different, though. It fixed space itself in place, so it would be effective anywhere, and the ship would be just as stable as if it were on land. It would be a blessing beyond compare to those who got seasick and even veteran sailors would benefit from the ship being completely still when they had to perform any number of risky, complex jobs. In that respect, it could be said to be even better than the Lulled Sea.

“Hm. But you think that it would not work in most instances?” she asked, looking at him with interest.

Zenjirou nodded. “Yeah. It’s kinda hard to explain, so I’ll use an example.”

He rose from the sofa and fetched a sheet of paper. He then placed the fresh sheet of paper down on the table.

“Pretend this sheet of paper is the boat. Normally, the waves and current make it move like this,” he said, putting a hand on each end of the paper and sliding it up and down the table. “If you cast the spell, then it forces a part of it to remain stationary. Press down on it in the middle with your finger?”

“What? Oh, I see.”

Aura understood what he was trying to explain but still followed his request. She stood up and pressed down on almost the very center of the sheet with her finger. Zenjirou didn’t stop his sliding motion. The paper started to warp and crease.

“Right. This is what happens when you use the spell on a single part of the ship. The whole ship is subject to the waves, but only part of it is held still, so the whole thing starts getting damaged immediately. If it was in the middle of a rough storm, then...”

He then made bigger, faster movements than he had been. Before long, there was a quiet tearing noise from under Aura’s finger as it broke.

“It’ll probably break like this.”

“So surely it is unusable?” Aura asked, an unhappy look on her face.

However helpful the sailors would find it, damaging the ship made it completely unusable. However, Zenjirou shook his head seriously.

“No, there is a use for it. It’d be best if it’s never needed, but it would come into its own if the Glasir’s Leaf was about to sink.”

If the ship was going to sink regardless, it didn’t matter if using the tool would damage the ship as a whole. Then, if Zenjirou’s assumptions about its capabilities were correct, the tool would hold back its sinking temporarily. It wouldn’t matter if there was a massive hole in the side of the ship and it was taking on water. It would be like an invisible crane was holding the vessel up from a single point.

“I don’t know the full details, so I’m not sure, but usually there’s very little time to evacuate the ship before it sinks. Plus the swaying and panicking make it harder. So even if it wouldn’t stop the ship from sinking, it could give a temporary reprieve and hold the ship still until it was evacuated. I think it would be really valuable.”

Aura seemed overwhelmed by his explanation and was lost for words. She believed she understood and her decision was made with the balance of both her feelings as his wife and what benefit it would be to the country. She didn’t think that decision was wrong, but she was now painfully aware that she had been far more optimistic than her husband—the man it would affect.

He had accepted the journey with thoughts of the ship sinking or going off course. With that understanding, the queen felt a simultaneous heat and pain in her chest. She hadn’t realized that her hand had come up to rest on her chest until she made a decision.

“Very well. I leave the matter to you. If you believe it would be better to inform Princess Freya, then do so.”

“Mm, got it.”

Despite the matter of the tools he was taking being finished, the conversation about the preparations themselves was not.

“Speaking of, she should be in Valentia by now, right? Have we heard anything?”

“We have.” Aura nodded. “There was a dwarf wyvern from the governor yesterday evening. The princess’s party—including Lucretia—along with the Lulled Sea arrived safely in Valentia last night.”

“Right. I didn’t think there’d be any issues since it’s in the same country, but it’s still good to hear,” he said with a relieved look.

Aura added some more information. “The princess also spoke to her vice-captain and included some information. It seems we can send around ten people. They have provided two rooms for us to use. There is another free room near the bottom of the ship, but apparently, it is not a room suitable for a person to stay in. It can be used to take what we wish to Uppasala.”

“Ten people and two rooms,” Zenjirou mused looking up at the ceiling.

That meant that not even he would be getting a room to himself. The maids attending to him would be women, while the soldiers and knights for his protection would be men. The two rooms would probably end up inevitably being split by that method. With how poorly he dealt with not having private space and communal living in general, it would be a somewhat stressful journey for him.

“So, how are we picking who’s going? I guess the first two are me and Natalio?”

“Yes, along with Ines and—though she is usually my maid—Margarette. Having someone who can blend in will make things easier while you are there.”

Margarette was blonde, green-eyed, and pale-skinned. It was an exceedingly rare set of features on the Southern Continent, but that was quite the opposite on the Northern Continent. She would blend in better than the darker-skinned native Capuans.

“Got it. So that’s four of us decided, six left. What’s the minimum number of maids and guards, then?”

Aura put her hand on her chin and thought. “With the length of the journey, they will need some form of shift system. For the guards, four—including Natalio. As for the maids, including Ines and Margarette, at least three. In that case, we need to appoint someone to lead while Natalio is resting. In other words, a knight rather than a soldier.”

“I’ll leave picking the guards to Natalio like always. I need at least one more maid, then. Who’s best?”

“I believe you would be best served by leaving that to Ines.” People knew their jobs, so getting the specialists to pick would be best.

“So that’s me, four guards, and three maids. That’s eight of us in total. Should we take anyone else?” he asked.

Aura folded her arms. “A skilled diplomat would be my first thought. Naturally, you would be the official envoy while they would be your deputy to ensure the smaller matters go smoothly.”

“So a specialist in diplomacy. Like Rafaello Márquez perhaps?”

She nodded. “He would be perfect in terms of his abilities. There are two problems that would still remain with taking a diplomat,” she replied with a frown.

“Problems?”

“Indeed. The first would be them taking you lightly—or more bluntly, as a figurehead. However skilled your deputy is, an official envoy like you has authority far outstripping them, particularly in this instance where you are asking for Princess Freya’s hand. A subordinate who was your superior in ability could complicate matters.”

While it was somewhat brazen, if the two of them were to join hands and declare they were getting married, it would—to a certain extent—make their relationship the main focus. If they brought a skilled diplomat and said that person would determine the details, it would strengthen the political overtones.

While Princess Freya was an important political tool, she was also the king’s lovely daughter. Until they met, it would be impossible to see whether the cold-blooded calculation of a ruler or a father’s love for his daughter would take priority. However much the marriage would benefit both countries, if half of that marriage didn’t even come to the negotiating table while asking for her hand—instead leaving it to someone else to make the agreement—there was a strong possibility the man could simply refuse to allow it.

“In that case, I can see that it might be better if I’m the only one negotiating. You said there were two problems, though. What’s the second?”

The journey would be tough, but the negotiations once they arrived could be even tougher. With that now weighing heavily on his mind, he’d had to ask the question.

“The other problem is simple. There will only be two rooms, no? Unfortunately, all of our skilled diplomats are men.”

The realization struck him as soon as she finished speaking.

“Ah, the balance!”

With two rooms and ten people, the rooms would need to be split into men and women. However, there were already five men when Zenjirou and his four guards were counted. If they only had men who could serve as diplomats, that would add another. A man of high enough caliber to do so would also have his own guards. Those people were usually the same gender as their lord or lady. Which meant that would be yet another man. In total, three women and seven men.

He’d much rather not spend nearly a hundred days crammed into a room with six other men. Honestly, even four others were pushing it.

“So we’d be better off having the last two be women? Who do we have who would be useful?”

Aura offered a slight shrug.

“Well, we need not necessarily fill all ten spaces. If you insist, perhaps another two maids? After all, they are grouped by threes outside of the head maids.”

The maids they had already decided on were Ines—who was in charge of the cleaning of the inner palace—and Margarette—who was usually Aura’s personal maid. Aura’s advice was that he should take one more in terms of the amount of work, but taking three would cause no problems.

“That could work. Well, we’ve still got some time, so let’s put those last two slots on hold. If we don’t think of anything, we can fill them with the maids.”

“That works to a degree, but you should decide at least a month before you leave. The people you choose will need to make preparations, but so will those who remain behind.”

“Ah, right.”

With that, they could draw a line under the intercontinental trip for the time being. Zenjirou came back to the first problem.

“The marbles are finally complete.”

“Thanks to you. Each round burns the furnace out and our success rate is around six in a hundred, but the fact remains that we have succeeded. That is significant in and of itself.”

There were two batches that Francesco had been shown. The first consisted of four and the second of ten. However, there were a large number of marbles that were visibly failures even without his judgment. With those taken into account, Aura’s statement was more or less correct.

That said, the scary thing was that their value for enchanting should still put them well within the black, even if the success rate remained the same.

“There’s no stopping it now, is there?”

“No. There is not,” Aura agreed.

Mass production of the transparent spheres could shorten what would ordinarily take years to a matter of days. With the enchanters themselves—the Sharou family—already being aware of their success, there was no stopping it. There would be a magic-industrial revolution on the Southern Continent.

It would not be caused solely by the mass production of marbles, though.

“Knowing the prince, he will certainly be using one of those three marbles to make his enchanting magic tool.”

A magic tool that could create other magic tools. While Francesco’s idea was somewhat tepid, it was very much a spark that would ignite an inferno from Zenjirou’s perspective.

Even worse—or perhaps better, depending on your view—was the combination of the mass production of marbles and a tool that created more tools. It was a powerful synergy.

The marbles alone would do nothing to solve the limited number of Sharou family members who could create new magic tools. The tool to create magic tools alone would do nothing for the years that each tool would take to create. However, the combination of the two meant fewer limits in parallelization and far shorter time periods to finish each one.

The queen offered a daring smile as he shuddered. “He just might, yes. He may even use up all three for his own curiosity.”

This time, the marbles were very specifically given to Francesco as thanks for creating the space-time magic tools. Given how strongly the teleportation tool had been avoided until this point, they had sworn the prince to secrecy.

Frankly, the queen had originally had little confidence that he would keep that secrecy, but by a quirk of fate, it seemed like he may well do so. After all, the creation of the tool was a secret. The prince could—assuming he did not report it—slip the payment into his pocket without his father and grandfather finding out. With Francesco’s defiant nature, there was a strong possibility he would act as an accomplice without them saying anything.

“Yeah, that definitely seems likely. Man, this is going to be crazy,” Zenjirou said before suddenly remembering something. “Right, speaking of crazy. Have you seen Espiridion since that last meeting?”

She looked taken aback for a second but then nodded. “Oh, the other matter you brought up. Fiqriya of the Animeeum family wants to become his apprentice and rediscover the traditional magics of the four dukes.”

She would technically not be an official apprentice, just temporarily acting as one. Still, that was mostly correct.

“Yeah, summoning jinnia. It’s a pretty crazy spell as well, I think. It doesn’t stay active long enough to be anything more than a trick or surprise, but making it into a magic tool and letting it persist for longer would make an incredible spell.” His wariness was completely clear as he offered that warning.

However, the queen—despite appreciating that concern—dismissed his worries. “It would certainly be a significant threat were they to do so. It would even be worth it to consider canceling the marbles. However, it is unlikely that such fears will be realized—at least at present, and as long as we live, I would say. In fact, we should perhaps be more concerned that it could even cause a civil war within the Twin Kingdoms if it were to come to fruition.”

“What do you mean?” Zenjirou managed after a moment. He’d been completely thrown for a loop by the conversation taking the turn it had.

The queen’s expression grew slightly more serious as she explained. “It is simple. As far as I have heard, Lady Fiqriya is considered something of a heretic within the four families. The majority of them also believe that the jinnia both existed and are their forebears, no?”

Jinnia were spirits with both free will and a physical body. It was a legend only heard within the very center of the Southern Continent, in the desert regions.

“Something like that. The four tribes that existed before the ducal houses each made a contract with jinnia of the four elements, and their descendants are the four families today. That’s what most of them believe, at least.”

Fiqriya, having figured out that it was all just the families talking themselves up along with a sham spell to give themselves more credibility—the spell actually being a combination of creation, manipulation, and animation—was an exception among exceptions. Once Zenjirou had explained all of that, Aura gave a satisfied nod.

“That is how things are. Even should Lady Fiqriya succeed with a magnificent reproduction of the jinnia summoning, it will have no more use than a parlor trick. If she were able to bring it to the Sharou family and create a magic tool of the spell, then it would indeed be a show of awe-inspiring power when coupled with the marbles to mass-produce the tool. However, think it through more logically. The spell is jinnia summoning, and the other people of the four families truly believe in the legend of the jinnia. How would such a tool appear to them?”

“Huh? Oh! If you assume the jinnia exist, it’d be like sealing them inside the magic tool and forcing them to obey you,” he said, understanding what had gone unsaid.

It was an inevitable conclusion, frankly. The four families saw the jinnia as their ancestors—holy, inviolable existences. If they were sealed into magic tools and put to work, then Aura was right; it could easily cause a civil war.

“From what you and Espiridion have said, Lady Fiqriya is an intelligent individual, is she not? She must understand as much. In fact, it is because she understands how heretical such research would be that she sought assistance all the way in Capua rather than in her homeland.”

“Hmm? Are you sure?”

His impression was more that she prioritized her research of the language. He would, of course, agree that she seemed intelligent and unlikely to do anything foolish. Still, he felt the main reason she had come all this way was that Espiridion was simply that much more knowledgeable about the language of magic and she wanted his assistance.

“Still, I get what you mean. As long as she’s not an idiot, she wouldn’t ask for a magic tool for it. Even if she did, it would probably cause a civil war and just lower their country’s strength.”

“So you understand. Lady Fiqriya and the Twin Kingdoms will not be a problem. If anything, the problem will be old Espiridion. He was able to use her simplified jinnia summoning instantly, was he not? It would not surprise me in the least if he were to develop and present it before she did.”

This time, it was Zenjirou’s turn to give an askance look at his partner’s concerns. “That shouldn’t be too much of a problem, should it? Even if he can use the spell, he can’t create a magic tool from it.”

He couldn’t even consider the man requesting such a thing from Francesco or Bona. Aura, however, gave a shake of her head with a vexed look on her face.

“The problems start before that. While Lady Fiqriya was adopted into the Animeeum family, she was—by birth—a member of a branch family. Combined with the public legend, there would be no contradiction with her succeeding in the spell. He, however, is a Capuan through and through.”

“Ah, right. If the legend were true, Espiridion wouldn’t be able to use it in the first place.”

While he wasn’t sure how firm the belief was, the four families referred to themselves as being descended from the jinnia and claimed the lost jinnia summoning spell as their lineal magic. If Espiridion—with no links to any of the families at all—succeeded, then “problem” would be the kindest way of describing it.

“We should probably give him a warning, right?”

“Well, I find it unlikely he would make such a mistake. However, I find it equally unlikely that he would stop his research despite being aware of the danger. The more he researches, the greater the chance someone will see it.”

Espiridion was an extremely gifted mage and a calm, rational person besides. But age had not dulled his curiosity in the slightest, and he researched magic with a fervor. With unknown magic dangling before him, there would be no reigning in his curiosity.

“I shall tell him that even once he has finished his research, he is not to cast the spell before others. That should be enough to ensure there are no issues.”

Head Mage Espiridion was, in her estimation, someone she could put the utmost trust in, both in terms of personality and skill. Repeatedly stressing the same things to him was not how their relationship worked.

With the topic finished, silence fell for a while in the living room. Usually, when serious matters were finished, they would change their seating arrangement and have a more relaxed discussion. Today, however, neither moved from their seat as the silence dragged on. Both of them had the sense that the serious discussions were not yet over.

After a while, Zenjirou broke the silence. “Say, Aura?”

“Hm? What is it?”

He took a deep breath and hesitated for a moment. However well the pregnancy was going, was what he was about to bring up truly something he should ask his pregnant wife?

She sensed his hesitation and nodded with a dignified smile. “Go ahead.”

He cleared his throat and, once he was ready, spoke. “You’re allowing the marbles to carry on. Plus you’ve given Prince Francesco tacit approval for his own magic tool. Is that because you’re concerned about the suspicions you mentioned a while ago?”

As far as questions went, it was entirely rhetorical. She—as he had expected—nodded in assent.

“It is. The way the Twin Kingdoms behaved was clearly unnatural. They simply accepted all of our demands without even a perfunctory attempt at negotiation. They were also abnormally welcoming of Princess Freya and, from what I heard after the fact, highly focused on any information on the Northern Continent. Whatever the truth of the matter, the Twin Kingdoms—or at the very least King Bruno and Crown Prince Josep—are expecting and preparing for great strife. When you also take into account their attempt to maintain good ties with us, one could assume that they expect it to be beyond even their means to deal with. Something that involves the whole of the Southern Continent, perhaps.”

Thus her decision as queen was to send even the prince consort on a perilous voyage to the Northern Continent to get information as quickly as possible.

Zenjirou nodded in understanding. “Yeah, I think that’s fine. Honestly, I’m not as politically savvy as you, so I can’t quite see why you’re so wary, but I can understand how you’re responding to it. There’s a strong possibility that whatever’s coming will mean that all of the countries on the Southern Continent will have to let bygones be bygones and cooperate. I can understand why we’re accommodating the Twin Kingdoms because of that, but I doubt that’s where your thoughts end, right?”

There was an oddly suspicious look in his eyes, a real rarity for him, especially towards his wife and queen. Aura’s own response to that was equally as unusual. She looked away from him for the briefest of moments.

“What do you mean?” she asked.

“We’re making marbles and selling them to the Twin Kingdoms. We’re aiding Prince Francesco with making a magic tool to produce magic tools. That will be good for the continent as a whole, yes. Selling those marbles, though, seems to benefit Capua as a single country even more. That’s not quite right, though, is it? On its own, all that would do is make the Twin Kingdoms stronger. It is worth more in their hands as enchanting materials than as simply an object of value in ours. It will put them in a stronger position, widening any gap between us. You, in your position as the queen, won’t have overlooked that, and I doubt you’d just sit and watch the situation unfold, would you?”

She remained silent for a few moments at his questioning. Eventually, she let out a sigh of defeat and capitulated with an almost relieved expression. “You are quite right. If the combination of our production of marbles and Prince Francesco’s new magic tool continues on its current trajectory, the Twin Kingdoms will become much stronger, though the other members of the Sharou family seem to see such a tool as a threat to their income. I do not know whether it will be implemented, but even the acceleration from the marbles will turn the Twin Kingdoms into a pillar of the continent.”

“Yeah, I think so too. Obviously, providing the marbles would make us into a supplementary pillar, but I can’t see you aiming for that. Unfortunately, the only way I can see out of this is both really simple...and something I’d rather not do.”

There was a slight bite to his words, and Aura nodded with a firm expression.

“Indeed. The method you have thought of and the method I am likely to implement are most probably one and the same. It will depend on the conditions, but I believe we would be best served by your second concubine being from the Twin Kingdoms.”

He couldn’t hold back the crease on his brow at that. He understood it as a royal decree, but hearing it from his wife a little less than two months before she gave birth hurt quite a bit.

“Who, specifically?”

“Either Princess Bona or Lucretia.”

Zenjirou looked up at the ceiling upon hearing the names he expected. “Yeah, figures,” he said, letting out a long sigh.

They could not send someone too close to the main royal family as his second concubine. In that respect, either Bona—who had been born as a lower noble but awoken to enchanting—or Lucretia—who was the second prince’s daughter but could not use enchantment magic—was perfect.

“Princess Bona would be best, but they will likely want to use Lucretia. That will be the biggest impediment in negotiations.”

For Capua, an enchanter in her own right would be preferable. However, the Twin Kingdoms would want to use Lucretia, who had relatively little value to them. Zenjirou was still lost for words as the queen carried on her explanation.

“Of course, we need as much information as possible before negotiating. The marbles aside, this is all predicated on the necessity of the marbles and the suspicion I have. The combination of the Sharou family’s statements, your statements when you return, and how true my suspicions turn out to be all need to paint such a picture that our countries must align to deal with the issues.” She paused briefly before giving a final command. “At that point, Zenjirou, you will wed one member of the Sharou family as a sign of our alliance.”

This was not a request from his wife, but a decree from the queen. He had no right to refuse.

“Understood,” he said heavily.