Risou no Himo Seikatsu - Volume 11 - Chapter Ep

Epilogue — The Queen, Prince, and Backroom Deals

While Zenjirou was heading out to sea, Aura had already resumed her normal duties in the capital.

With the newly filled positions of prime minister and marshal in effect, her main duties were checking their work, so she had much more leeway with her time than before. She looked over the reports from both of them and—to guard against corruption—pulled several of the sub-documents out and checked those to make sure they agreed with what had been sent to her.

In the midst of those duties, she stretched out in her chair. “Hmm. I believe that will be it for today. Appointing them has truly decreased the workload that falls on me.”

The queen rolled her shoulders in something approaching dissatisfaction. However, her thin-faced aide interjected. “Conversely, one could say that the work which does fall to you is much more important, as neither prime minister nor marshal can make those decisions without your agreement.”

“I know. I am prepared for that. I have no further plans today, do I?” she asked, shifting back and forth in her seat. She was just waiting for Fabio to say no so that she could rush back to the inner palace.

Carlos was still young enough to be called an infant—and so, of course, was Juana, her newly born daughter. It was obvious that she would want to return to the inner palace where they were waiting.

Unfortunately, Fabio’s answer betrayed her expectations. “Originally, you did not. However, Prince Francesco has requested a last-minute audience. Are you willing?”

There was no way she could refuse the request. It was at least to be prioritized over going to fawn over her children.

“Show him in,” she replied after a pause, slumping back.

“Hey, Your Majesty,” was Francesco’s greeting once he arrived. “My apologies for the sudden request, and my thanks for accepting it.”

He wore the relaxed grin that he always seemed to have. Despite her irritation, Aura replied to him as normal.

“Think nothing of it. Such requests from you are something I have resigned myself to.”

The rather direct and harsh remark was almost a necessary thing when speaking with Francesco. As expected, the man showed no signs of displeasure at that.

“Thank you for your understanding.” He chuckled. “After all, much of our discussions need to be away from Bona’s eyes, so I can hardly plan these meetings ahead of time.”

“I am well aware,” the queen replied with a sigh, acknowledging the validity of his statement. “Which means we have little time. State your business.”

The blond prince pulled out a sheet of drake parchment from his pocket. “Well, before I forget the most important thing, my grandfather requested that I deliver this to you.”

There was a clear layer of mana around the drake parchment. It went without saying that mana-coated parchment was dual burn parchment. Two sheets were linked together, allowing for the exchange of information by burning letters into either of them.

Aura was more than savvy enough to intuit why she was being given only one of the pair. “Who holds the other? King Bruno or King Josep?”

“The former. Neither grandfather nor father were expecting His Majesty to board the Glasir’s Leaf, so they have responded like this.”

From what Aura had heard, much of the reason Bruno had passed the throne to his son was to free himself up. It was a big ask for either the reigning king or crown prince to independently visit another country.

A former king, having abdicated the throne, however, could just about personally visit Capua. It would seem that he intended to almost immediately visit and speak directly with Aura about future national policy.

“This was under the assumption that His Majesty Zenjirou would be free. My grandfather cannot come all the way to Capua by land with over seventy years under his belt.”

Francesco didn’t seem particularly worried, merely scratching his head gently as he spoke. All of these plans had been made with the assumption that Zenjirou would be present. In terms of both time and physicality, without Zenjirou to provide transport from the Twin Kingdoms, Bruno could not come to Capua.

Aura nodded in understanding. “I see. Hence the dual burn parchment?”

“Correct. He wants to exchange at least some information with you.”

While the foreign king had wanted to speak in person, doing so was impossible now that Zenjirou was heading to the Northern Continent. Therefore, he had provided at least some form of personal contact in the form of dual burn parchment.

“Well, it is better than nothing,” Aura replied, taking the document and flicking it sharply.

Despite her harsh phrasing, Francesco had to agree. “I suppose so.”

There was a distinct difference in the amount and quality of information that one could attain from letters on dual burn parchment and a face-to-face conversation. Taken to an extreme, Aura only had Francesco’s word that Bruno held the other sheet, but it could very well have been in the possession of someone else entirely. There could be no speaking one’s mind with such doubts lurking. There was also a strict limit to the amount of information that could be conveyed on a single sheet.

“Ultimately, I believe my grandfather will come here. Of course, that will be after His Majesty returns from the Northern Continent.”

“My husband and I are as one. Instead of the previous king coming all this way, surely my husband could speak with him in the Twin Kingdoms?” Aura sniped, well aware of the bad blood between Zenjirou and the prior and current holders of the throne.

Her comment might have garnered a response from one of the two men involved, but Francesco was completely divorced from the situation.

“Quite right,” he chuckled. “Unfortunately, it seems both my father and grandfather find His Majesty somewhat difficult to deal with.”

“Hmm.”

Aura said nothing of sympathy or reaping what one sowed. It truly was difficult to deal with Zenjirou. His values were just too unique, and he had exceedingly few desires. There were limited ways to win his favor back once it was lost.

Truthfully, it was not a problem that she was unfamiliar with herself. Freya’s concubine agreement, his trip to the Northern Continent, and the possibility of another concubine from the Twin Kingdoms were all examples of this. Each of them were things he had been clearly against but that Aura had forced onto him for the sake of the country.

She had not managed to change his mind so that he was happy to do these things. Nor had she offered him some benefit in exchange for the displeasure. He had simply accepted her explanations and was bearing with the situation. Endurance of that kind had its limits for everyone.

Hm, in that respect, you could say that the three of us are in the same boat, she thought.

Bruno and Josep had erred and wanted to fix their relationship with Zenjirou. Aura, on the other hand, had pushed significant struggles his way and knew that she would continue to do so in the future, but she had found no way to earn back his favor. If Bruno and Josep managed to fix things with Zenjirou, it could actually prove to be a useful example for her to follow.

“Well, no matter. While it may be after my husband returns, I will happily welcome the former king should he decide to visit.”

“Thank you. I hope you can inform him of words to that effect,” Francesco said with a glance at the parchment in her hands.

She nodded slightly. “Very well. Was that all?”

The blond prince hurriedly started talking as she moved to end the conversation. “No, I have a request of my own.”

“Speak it,” she said after a pause, swallowing a sigh. Despite knowing that it would likely be nothing good, she still had to hear him out.

With no way of knowing her thoughts, the prince fulfilled her expectations with a broad grin. “You can produce those jewels at will now, no? Please sell me some.”

“I seem to recall providing you with three already.”

“They all broke,” he answered casually.

Aura couldn’t hide her emotions and her right hand made its way to cover her face.

“I tried making a magical tool for enchantment. The theory seemed sound, but it appears there were some things I missed.”

“A failed enchantment destroys the medium?” Aura asked.

Ordinarily, a failed spell simply had no effect. If Francesco was telling the truth, it would seem that enchanting was a rather unusual type of magic.

However, he shook his head. “Well, strictly speaking, they didn’t just break. I broke them. Magic tools that do not function as intended are dangerous and need to be disposed of,” he explained.

“I see. That makes sense,” she replied.

Say, for instance, that a magic tool was meant to light a fire. The maker could have intended for the tool to create a small flame on its upper portion, but when actually used, the flame appeared at random. Technically, it was a successful enchantment and would light fires. However, the danger it posed would mean that it wasn’t actually usable. The Sharou family had strict rules about disposing of such tools.

“That’s why they’re all broken and I need more. I wouldn’t ask for them for free, though. If you provided four, I would use one of them to create a magic tool of your choosing.”

It was almost impressive to her how willing he was to ignore any agreements between their countries and suggest backroom deals instead.

“We have yet to reach an agreement with the Sharou family,” Aura reminded him.

“That’s why I want to buy them as an individual while I still can.”

Aura gave an exaggerated sigh at the clear premeditation in his words. Still, it was not a bad deal for her. Above all else, there was something she wanted to try at least once.

She feigned concern and put on a reluctant look as she gave her answer. “Very well, then. However, this will be the last time. Any further requests need to be with the Sharou family’s permission. The items will be delivered to you. As before, separate the good and the bad and note what specifically makes the bad so. Choose four of the good ones for our agreement.”

“Understood,” he replied cheerily.

“I wish to request a flameburst. Is that possible?”

Francesco seemed somewhat taken aback and the smile dropped from his lips. “Flameburst?” he asked. “Unfortunately, I never learned that spell.”

“I know it. I shall assist as I did for the last two items.”

“Then it is possible. How do you want it to perform, though? Flameburst may not fall under anyone’s lineal magic, but it is an impressive spell in its own right. Even one of those jewels does not make it a simple undertaking.”

“A single-use disposable tool is fine.”

“Then it should only take a day.”

Her goal was halfway fulfilled as soon as she heard that. Repressing the cold shudder, she kept her voice even.

“I see. Then we have an accord.”

“Indeed. Thank you, Your Majesty. In that case, I shall excuse myself.”

Having accomplished his own goals, he all but skipped away as the queen watched with a dignified expression. But once the door had closed and she had counted slowly to ten, she let it slip from her face as she stared up at the ceiling.

“So it is possible. A flameburst in a day.”

She felt like she could finally see some of what Zenjirou was worried about. Single-use magic tools were so valuable that outside of extremely worthwhile instances like healing stones, there were almost no examples of them. It normally took years to produce them and they weighed heavily on a country’s coffers. With the single use that they represented, only healing stones were generally worth the price. That was why all other tools had been made to be reusable.

As far as combat utility went, there were things like spears that could be wreathed in fire or mantles that produced winds to protect their wearers. These were treated as heirlooms, passed down through the generations.

The mass production of the jewels—of marbles—turned those values on their head. Things could take a day to make and cost what was effectively pocket change for royals and nobles. At that point, the price to performance was favorable even for single-use items.

“Ammunition for ballistae and siege engines can be imbued with flameburst or the like for a dozen, or perhaps even fewer, times the price.”

Scenes from the battlefield during the war played out before her eyes. Catapults launched massive boulders and ballistae sent arrows that were bigger than spears flying downrange.

Then, she envisioned a similar type of ammunition enchanted with flameburst or boulder creation.

“It will change the battlefield...and that is putting it lightly.” She shuddered. “The jewels alone would not be so much of an issue, though.”

Mass production of the marbles was one thing, but there was still a bottleneck in terms of the number of enchanters. Those politically inclined like the new king hardly had the time to create magic tools to begin with. Even those like Francesco, who focused on their craft, had their duties as royalty, limiting their time to create. They had to spend time thinking about their new tools.

Things would be different if Francesco succeeded in creating a magic tool which itself created magic tools. As long as there was a supply of marbles, they could create magic tools automatically. Even if each tool could only create a single new item per day, that was still over three hundred within a year. If a country without that manufacturing power faced off against one with it...

“There is no chance of victory,” she said with a sigh as she came to a conclusion.

Until now, every time the mass production of magic tools had been mentioned, Aura had envisioned simply more of what already existed. However, assuming both mass production and mass consumption, the tools produced would be different.

“While keeping the technique secret for even a year is a necessity, we cannot keep it secret forever.”

Hiding production methods indefinitely was, in the long run, close to impossible. She could no longer take Zenjirou’s worries about the Sharou family ruling the world with marbles to be an exaggeration. There was only one way around it.

“There will be no avoiding a concubine from the Sharou family,” she mused.

Her conclusion circled back around to where she had begun and she let out a full-chested sigh.

To be continued in The Ideal Sponger Life 12.