Risou no Himo Seikatsu - Volume 11 - Chapter 5.3

The next night, Zenjirou was back in the inner palace of Capua. While the majority of the continent’s denizens would find an overnight trip between the far west and the center of the continent to be absurd, teleportation made it easy. He could use the spell twice a day, so he had sent Lucretia first and then followed himself.

He had only ever been and gone to the Twin Kingdoms using the spell, so the magnitude of the journey wasn’t really apparent to him. Lucretia, however, had spent the month taking the land route, so she was almost angry at the ease of the journey.

Regardless, he was now in the living room speaking with his wife. Originally, it had only been a place for the queen to exchange information with her husband. Now that he had the position of Duke Bilbo, though, it was something like an informal supreme council.

“Good work, Zenjirou. I will send Lucretia to Valentia three days hence. Once you are ready, head there under your own power whenever it is convenient.”

“Well, it’s just coming and going with teleportation, so it doesn’t really count as ‘work.’ Fortunately, they’ve got their hands full with the succession, so I didn’t have to bother with all the greetings.”

Aura looked marginally conflicted at that. “So the Sharou family headship and throne has passed from King Bruno to Prince Josep. I knew it would be soon, but this is sooner than I expected. Almost shockingly so.”

While the speed was beyond her estimation, the actual succession was much as she had predicted. The surprise was that it had taken place while Prince Francesco was not in the country.

With both the former and current kings being part of the Total Unity Faction, they would want to install Francesco as the next crown prince due to him embodying their ideals. Holding the abdication and coronation while he was not present was proof positive of a large paradigm shift.

While the next crown prince could be selected later, the son being completely absent from his father’s enthronement would completely remove him from the running as far as most nobility was concerned. There was no chance that either of the men involved had failed to realize that.

It therefore meant that they had either given up on putting him on the throne or prioritized the transfer of power despite it lowering the possibility of the other.

“Hmm, well, Prince Francesco renounced his right to the throne as far as the public’s concerned, so putting him in that position would definitely cause some chaos. They might not think they can afford it for a while.”

Zenjirou saw both men as logical statesmen. If Aura’s estimation of their panic was correct, he could see them surrendering their own goals to deal with it.

Aura nodded in agreement. “That is eminently possible. It makes me want to know all the more urgently what has them so spooked.”

“Yeah. If you’re right and they’re wary of the Northern Continent, we should probably be careful too.”

“Please do so.”

With their course set for dealing with the two Sharous, the couple moved on to the next topic.

“Nine days until I go, then. It almost feels like time’s been going quicker lately. Maybe it’s my age.”

That earned a slightly concerning glare from his wife. She was older than him.

Sensing he might have stirred up a hornet’s nest, he hurriedly continued. “Right, so, about the trip. The people and things are all in Valentia now? Other than Lucretia and me.”

It was a painfully blatant attempt at glossing over the issue, but she wasn’t really angry, so she just smirked and let it pass.

“Indeed. The dwarf wyvern has arrived saying that everything has been loaded onto the Glasir’s Leaf. As for the passengers, Natalio and his men arrived some time ago, and I have sent the three maids.”

There were two cabins assigned to them. One for the men and one for the women. They had also been allocated some space in the ship’s hold. Turning up empty-handed to ask for another country’s princess was unthinkable, practically the stuff of a heroic epic.

Therefore, that space had been taken up by riches bearing the country’s dignity. They had also taken Freya’s advice and included drake skin and bone along with logs sliced into thin discs. The last items may have been the most valuable gifts. With their source of lumber drying up, Uppasala would see it as a sales pitch for the sheer amount of such trees they could grow.

There was no diplomat accompanying them, so Zenjirou would need to carry out the initial negotiations.

“Princess Freya’s marriage aside, I just need to lay the groundwork for the trade deal and ask for a real diplomat to deal with the rest, right?” he asked nervously.

Fortunately, she agreed. “Indeed. You need only attain permission for such negotiations. In fact, forgive my bluntness, but if they bring up specifics, do not get involved.”

Aura loved him and trusted him beyond most others. However, that trust did not extend to his abilities. If she was unable to make those harsh judgments, she would have been unfit to be queen.

“I know. I’ll just feign ignorance for the lot on that front,” he answered ruefully—but without taking offense—all too aware of his shortcomings.

“Please do.”

“Anyway, I need to get permission to use teleportation, and I’ll need a room to use for a base.”

The only reason they could so casually discuss sending more people somewhere over a hundred days away was because after Zenjirou had been there once, he could send one or two people easily via teleportation.

“Yes. You need not worry too much, though. If you accomplish your goal, it should practically be an inevitable allowance.”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“There is no one who would allow you and Princess Freya to marry but not allow you to use teleportation. Either as a father or as a king,” she explained frankly.

“Ah, right.”

That made sense now that she explained it. If it was allowed, then Freya would inevitably move to Capua on the Southern Continent and trade would flow between the two countries. A father allowing his daughter to marry and move a hundred days away by ship would not object to her being theoretically able to visit every day. Meanwhile, a king would have the foresight to know that a direct line to his trade partner would be vastly beneficial.

“So I don’t need to prepare much in the way of arguments for that either.”

“Indeed. You need only put your efforts into marrying Princess Freya.”

“That just makes me wish we could have found some reason to turn Lucretia down...” he complained in disappointment.

It was completely understandable. Visiting a foreign country to take its princess as a concubine while being accompanied by another concubine candidate would inevitably be a detriment.

“I apologize for the hardship,” she said guiltily. “She wants an audience with me before you leave. I shall stress things to her there. Until Princess Freya becoming your first concubine is a settled matter, there will be no progress on a second, so she is not to make it public that she is aiming for that.”

“I appreciate it, but that phrasing definitely feels like the second will be on its way once the first is sorted.”

Aura made no response.

“Say something, wife of mine.”

“I will look comprehensively at the situation and try to meet your requests as best as possible.”

“How transparent, Your Majesty.”

Still, he understood that her position didn’t allow her to prioritize her husband’s selfishness over the good of the country, and he left things at that for his own mental health as well.

The serious matters were done with now, and Zenjirou looked at the clock. “Whoops, it’s already that late? I’ll go check on Zenkichi and Yoshino while I can.”

His joy was clear in his expression as he stood up. “Yoshino” was the name he had given to his second child, the result of several days of thought.

“Indeed. There is a good chance both Carlos and Juana will be up at this time. We may even be able to hold them.”

Capua’s first prince, Carlos Zenkichi Capua, and first princess, Juana Yoshino Capua. They would one day carry the weight of the country on their shoulders.

For their parents, though, they were simply their adorable children. And Zenjirou would not be able to see them for months on end, so he could not miss his opportunity over the next few days.

“Let’s go. I’m gonna hug ’em, hold ’em, and even carry ’em.”

“Please refrain from holding them for so long that they start to cry again. I do not want to face Cassandra’s or Esmerelda’s anger,” Aura said with an exaggerated shudder at the two wet nurses’ names.