Risou no Himo Seikatsu - Volume 14 - Chapter 1

Chapter 1 — Concubine Debut

Zenjirou and Freya’s wedding had taken place in Uppasala, and there would not be another in Capua. Instead, there would be an evening event led by the two of them to allow Freya to debut in her new position.

The event was held within the palace’s main hall. Chandeliers hanging from the tall ceiling, along with the regularly spaced candles, pushed back the darkness of the night from the area Zenjirou and Freya walked through, arm in arm.

Zenjirou often wore the third uniform—a traditional outfit for the Capuan royal family—for his appearances. Today, however, he was wearing something akin to a tuxedo. It was for no other reason than to match his partner, Freya.

The princess, for her part, was wearing a red dress—the emblematic color of the Capuan royal family. Zenjirou’s tuxedo was also red-themed.

She had worn a red dress before when her becoming a concubine was all but assured, but this was the first time she’d been in public as a member of the royal family wearing red. While it was an event held by the royal family, it was also practically a marriage ceremony, so even those of inferior standing could strike up a conversation with the two of them as long as it was to offer their congratulations on the wedding.

The nobles actively formed a line in order to meet with the royal family.

“Sir Zenjirou, Lady Freya, I offer my congratulations on your wedding.”

“Thank you, Lord Tomas.”

“Indeed, thank you.”

Zenjirou and Freya replied in turn, still with their arms linked and smiles on their faces. Zenjirou was paying more attention to his words and expressions than he had done since working in Japan. While he was somewhat used to his duties as royalty, Freya was still a step or two ahead in that respect. His current smile could not match a true, natural smile from him, but Freya’s was even more charming than her real smiles. That in itself was likely due to the practice required on a regular basis to put forth a charming persona.

While he was also more used to this kind of event than before, there was still a certain factor he had to keep in mind: his partner tonight was Freya, not Aura.

Queen Aura and Prince Consort Zenjirou had to manage the fine line of an “equal” relationship, but with Freya, Zenjirou had to act as her superior. While it was less difficult, behaving differently than normal meant a different mindset. If he didn’t keep reminding himself, he’d start acting like her equal just like with Aura. He had learned how to act as a royal over the past few years, but he was still a commoner at his core. If he didn’t keep his mind focused, that would be on full display.

Still, he managed to make it through the various congratulations to a break in the deluge. His eyes then stopped on another person. It was a man wearing blue clothing, with pale brown hair, gray eyes, and pale white skin. The lighter coloration made him stand out against the darker-skinned-and-haired Capuans.

Zenjirou indicated the man to Freya with a glance, and they set off towards him.

“Lord Frederic, my apologies for the delayed greeting.”

“Not at all,” the blue-clad man—Frederic Aslund—replied with a smile. “Thank you for your invitation to this auspicious event, Your Majesty.”

The man was a diplomat from Uppasala. Zenjirou had brought him to the country a little after Freya to serve as a conduit to the other kingdom. He was a well-trusted subordinate of the current king, Gustav V. His residence in Capua meant that he could be said to have the alliance itself resting on him.

In truth, Zenjirou was the method by which the diplomat could move between his homeland and Capua. Additionally, Zenjirou had been back to Uppasala on several occasions for “forgotten items” at Freya’s and her head maid’s requests, so he was the most frequent traveler between both nations by far.

Taken to the extreme, if a request or question exceeded what Aslund could deal with and he had to answer, “I will contact my homeland,” it would be faster for Zenjirou to teleport to Uppasala and directly request an audience with Gustav than to have Aslund do the same. In the latter case, Zenjirou would still have to go to bring him back, so it would just add another step to the process.

It was the blazing season on the Southern Continent and summer on the Northern Continent. Despite being technically in the same season, Capua could easily break forty degrees while Uppasala could feasibly drop below ten. Zenjirou was therefore repeatedly going between the two extremes and finding it quite the burden. The one silver lining was that despite the large difference in latitude, the longitudinal difference was not so extreme. Adding a huge time zone difference to the temperature difference would doubtlessly see him collapsing.

Of course, in that respect it would potentially be an even bigger problem for both countries’ diplomats, who had been placed on completely different continents for the first time in their lives.

“Have you found any difficulties with living here?” Zenjirou asked. “If you have then I urge you to say so. While I cannot guarantee we can solve everything, we will do what we can.”

“Thank you, Your Majesty. To be blunt, the heat astounded me at first. However, thanks to the magic tool you provided, we are coping at present,” the man from the far north replied, sounding almost like he was whining.

The mist-generating magic tools lessened the oppression of the heat. In the same way that several of them had been bought for Freya and her maids, Capua had bought another to provide the diplomat with. If not, the blazing season, which saw nighttime temperatures over thirty-five degrees, would be unbearable for those from the Northern Continent.

Zenjirou then had the man write a letter in his own words that could be used for negotiating with the upper echelons of Uppasala. Effectively, he used it to say that in the same way Uppasalans could not make it through the blazing season of Capua, the Capuans would not make it through the winter of Uppasala—at least not without help in both cases.

Adding the diplomat’s “complaints” to underscore this point meant that Gustav could well understand the severity of what was being said. Zenjirou had been born in a village near a famous ski resort, so he had some resistance to both the winter’s chill and the snow. Even so, spring in Uppasala had felt like the depths of winter to him. For someone from Capua, who was utterly unaware of both, the Uppasalan winter would break them very literally, in both a physical and mental sense.

The conversation between him and the diplomat went well after that, and suddenly Zenjirou found himself remembering a discussion from Uppasala.

“Now that I think about it, how did it progress? I had heard there was an unexpected addition to the Glasir’s Leaf.”

A shadow passed over the other man’s face.

“Indeed. While I cannot say for certain yet, I have to conclude that the possibility is high. Therefore when the ship arrives, we would like to arrange for you to send said person back.”

Things had started around when the Glasir’s Leaf had headed back out to sea. However, it had taken another five days for things to become clear.

A professor in the capital’s university had vanished. They were an authority on natural science and extremely proactive, often disappearing for fieldwork without a word to anyone else. Therefore, people had just assumed it was the same as always. After a full five days, though, unease began to creep in.

Just in case, the university had sent someone after the professor, who had obtained confirmation that the professor had been seen boarding the ferry to the Glasir’s Leaf with the other sailors on the Mater Lake.

Despite their fear, they had reported it to the palace and sent the palace into an uproar. At this point, several things came to mind. Freya had shown some of the plant samples from Capua to one of the professors who was a particular authority on botany. They had exclaimed that it was impossible and their knowledge could not explain the plants’ growth. They had even mentioned desperately wanting to see where they grew, and despite how long it had been, the king had found that coming back to mind.

With that, it was easy to assume what had happened. Professors at the university had their positions assured by the king—rather elevated positions, at that. The professor in question was well-known for their penchant for fieldwork. They had frequently joined seal-fishing expeditions and reindeer hunts, which had been primarily recognized by the country. Gustav could easily see the Glasir’s Leaf’s captain and other sailors accepting such a request.

Zenjirou—who traveled between both continents frequently via teleportation—had also heard this sequence of events.

“From what I understand, they are quite the important figure. Neither I nor Her Majesty would refuse a request to teleport them back.”

Naturally, it would not be free, but Uppasala was neither so tight with their money nor unintelligent as to realize that. However, it was not the diplomat who responded to his statement, but the woman with her arm through his.

“Sir Zenjirou, that is impossible. There are a limited number of people from our country who know of the existence of the spell.”

“Ah, I see,” Zenjirou said in immediate realization.

While in Capua it was a widely known fact that he could cast teleportation, the same was not true in Uppasala. They were not specifically hiding it, but they were also not actively spreading the truth of the matter, so most of the country was unaware.

“Well then, we shall pray that the ship safely arrives in Valentia, along with that professor. Ah, what was their name?”

Zenjirou could not immediately name the professor and stalled. The diplomat picked up the conversation with a smile.

“Petr. Professor Petr Rinne, Your Majesty. I hope you can help despite the efforts it will likely take.”

◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆

With the debut over without incident, Zenjirou and Freya returned to the inner palace.

Heading back after finishing work in the royal palace was normal for him; however, this was not the familiar main building, but an annex.

He was currently in its living room. Instead of LED floor lamps, static balls of flame lit the room. Instead of ice and a fan, mist generators kept the temperature down. While it was unquestionably a step removed in comfort compared to the main building, the feeling of liberation from the event still let Zenjirou relax on the sofa.

After getting back, he’d changed out of the tuxedo-like clothing into a T-shirt and loose pants. He was not wearing shoes, or even socks, and yet the lesser sense of relaxation was because it didn’t yet feel like home to him.

“Thank you for tonight,” he said to Freya. “Are you tired yet?”

While there was more than enough consideration in his question, there was still a sense of distance. It was not how he would interact by default, as he would if he was talking to Aura.

“Thank you, Sir Zenjirou. I am still fine. I have trained as both a soldier and a captain to work at night, so I have stamina to spare,” she said with a smile.

“I see. I should expect nothing else.”

“Although, speaking of, I notice you do not seem tired either, despite the late hour. And, well, I apologize for the rudeness but you also don’t seem like you have had the same kind of training,” she commented somewhat awkwardly.

“I haven’t. Rather than training, it came from practical experience,” he said, huffing a laugh at the memories of that “practical experience.”

It was barely past nine at night. Whether he compared it to his time at work where he was lucky to make the last train home, or when his friends kept him hanging out all night before heading to their lectures, or when school forced him into studying through the night, it was still too early to head to bed.

“Is that so? I would like to hear about that if the opportunity arises. I do have to say that with the debut over, I feel rather relieved.”

“You’re right. We can finally relax somewhat.” As the word “relax” left his mouth, Zenjirou noticed his own tone. “I mean, yeah, we can chill,” he rephrased somewhat guiltily.

Freya’s smile took on a teasing edge. “Thank you,” she giggled. “I’ve finally been able to hear how you would normally speak.”

Zenjirou had promised her that he’d speak as naturally as possible while in the inner palace, but he had not kept that promise particularly well. He found himself usually slipping into his more formal mannerisms. While he really did intend to follow through, he was not adaptable enough that he could immediately break this habit of over a year.

“Sorry, it’s kinda hard to switch immediately. Anyway, speaking of tonight, do you know what kind of person this Professor Rinne is?”

Freya considered the question for a moment before shaking her head. “Unfortunately not. I have at least heard his name as an exceptionally distinguished natural scientist, though.”

“I see. That’s a shame.”

“Oh, though if you wish to know more, Völundr should have information.”

“He should?” Zenjirou asked in surprise, not expecting that name to come up.

“Völundr” was the name given to a distinguished smith in Uppasala. It was hard to imagine the man having links to a professor from the university.

Freya probably saw where his thoughts were going. “The professor specializes in natural sciences. While his specific specialism is in botany, mineralogy also falls within the natural sciences. So much so that the general view of things is that if you are looking for a rare mineral, you should ask him. I have heard that when Völundr wants more special minerals, he sends an apprentice with the professor on his fieldwork.”

“I see. Then perhaps I’ll ask him if he has the time.”

The smith had immediately set about working with the craftsman’s garden on his arrival. In place of any greeting, he had used the tools and materials Capua possessed to forge a splendid sword.

While craftsmen could be somewhat exclusionary, skill could speak louder than anything, and Völundr’s overwhelming skill had immediately forged his place among the other craftsmen.

Of course, despite the Capuan craftsmen’s reactions, the man who held the title of Völundr was not happy with the blade he had formed. Unfortunately, the furnaces Capua had were inferior to Uppasala’s and the ingots they smelted were not good enough for him. While there was abundant firewood, the charcoal made from it was not of particularly high quality.

More important than any of that, though, was that the temperature and humidity were too different. That meant that using the furnaces in the same way he would in Uppasala would not offer the same results. It would take some trial and error to tweak the process.

Völundr had offered a fierce grin in regard to that and seen the entire endeavor as worthwhile.

“I’m finding my expectations climbing for Uppasala’s craftsmen,” Zenjirou commented.

“Völundr will likely live up to them,” Freya answered proudly before adding a warning as well. “However, expecting the same of the others will see you disappointed.”

The majority of craftsmen were aboard the Glasir’s Leaf, but a few who were called “master” or seen as leading individuals had been transported to Capua by way of Zenjirou’s spell and were already in the palace. They were people who drew up plans for ports, or could lead the construction of ships akin to the Glasir’s Leaf, or knew how to build furnaces. Each of them were skilled in their own right, but none stood head and shoulders above the rest in their field like Völundr.

Different specializations aside, expecting the same kind of output from them would be too harsh.

“Huh, so Völundr is special, then.”

“Indeed, hence being Völundr.” Freya was extremely proud as she answered.

Still, in terms of their importance, none of the other craftsmen were inferior to him. With Freya and Zenjirou’s marriage being a political one, Capua’s greatest expectations centered on economic stimulus from intercontinental trade. In that respect, people who could lead the construction of ships and ports were perhaps even more important than Völundr.

“Speaking of, you’re negotiating with Aura about the port and shipyard, right? How’s that going?” Zenjirou asked lightly.

Freya’s reaction was considerably worse than he had expected. “Slowly...”

Her pleasant expression vanished into a sigh as she voiced her grievances.

“Well...”

With negotiations between the two of them, Zenjirou was obviously in a position where he could not really support either of them, so he couldn’t just wish her luck. Apparently understanding that, Freya didn’t wait for him to formulate an answer and just continued venting.

“Her Majesty is the monarch of a large country. It might therefore make sense for me to not be her equal at the negotiating table, but she truly, truly is making things difficult. I have to agree that prioritizing a dock to repair the Glasir’s Leaf is more important, but ensuring that it can also construct a similar ship or situating it in Valentia will end up with all of the trade focusing there. At this rate, Alcott will just be a fishing village for the foreseeable future.”

She then slumped where she sat. In addition to being his concubine, Freya also had the title of Duchess Alcott, as their initial negotiations had decided. It was the same rank that Zenjirou had as Duke Bilbo, but unlike his position, it also came with land.

The Alcott duchy was currently uninhabited, but it was well suited to becoming a decent port. Freya had already had her own specialists confirm that. However, even a country of Capua’s stature would find it a burden on their treasury to immediately build a port town, particularly when it was internal to the royal family, so it was, strictly speaking, not a national project.

With that in mind, Alcott would only be developed once the preexisting port in Valentia could be used to discharge their contractual obligations in providing sister ships for the Glasir’s Leaf.

“If things go poorly, Alcott will be completely postponed until Valentia has already constructed a ship...” she murmured, respect for Aura making its way into her voice.

“Well, I don’t know what to tell you. Yeah, I actually can’t say anything in my position, but you’ve got my sympathy,” Zenjirou said, doing his best to console her even as he picked his words.

With Freya and Aura having their goals at odds, Zenjirou was on Aura’s side both politically and emotionally, so even this neutrality was actually quite the concession to Freya.

While they spoke, a pale maid with a dignified air informed them that the sauna was ready.

“Shall we, then?” Zenjirou asked, rising first.

“Indeed,” Freya replied, taking his offered hand as he escorted her towards the sauna.

Usually with saunas, one would alternate between it and a cold bath. You would use the sauna itself to heat yourself and work up a sweat along with flushing out any toxins, then you would cool yourself back down with cold water. However, the circumstances were a little different during the blazing season in Capua. After all, day or night, the climate was on the same level as a sauna—albeit a somewhat anemic one. It ended up feeling like you were spending the whole day in a sauna.

Therefore, with towels wrapped around their naked bodies, Zenjirou and Freya dipped themselves into the cold bath first.

“Phew...”

“Hah...”

The cool water was so pleasant that both of them couldn’t help but let out sighs of satisfaction.

Initially, it had just been set up to be filled with cold water, but Freya’s advice had led to it being adjusted so the water supply and drain were both slightly open to create a constant flow. The running water also dropped the temperature a little, but the most important thing was that it would simply take the heat from your body and then carry it away. So subjectively, it felt even cooler.

In Capua—and indeed in Uppasala itself—there was no cloth that really worked as a towel, so they were just wrapped in relatively thick cloths, which clung to their bodies with the cold water. Freya’s pale skin was cast in a red glow from the static flame.

With Aura, Zenjirou was fairly used to sharing a bath even completely nude, but with Freya, he was still somewhat unsure exactly where he should look. He definitely felt like he shouldn’t outright stare, but being at least technically married, he also felt awkward looking away entirely. Therefore, Zenjirou kept his gaze mostly on her face rather than her body as he talked to her.

“You have lived here for a reasonable time now, so have you found any problems with the lifestyle?”

The question was clearly to fill the silence, but Freya answered it properly.

“Well, while I am at least somewhat used to things now, of course, I must admit to there still being differences that are hard to get used to. The biggest thing would have to be the lack of dairy products.”

While in Capua, dairy products practically didn’t exist, it was rarer for there to be a day when one didn’t have a dairy product in Uppasala. Before she had married Zenjirou, Freya had lived in Capua for over a year, but she had also had access to the goats on the Glasir’s Leaf at that point, so she could access—an admittedly limited supply of—dairy products. Furthermore, despite the length of time, she had still felt like she was a guest and was only there temporarily, so restraining her desires had been less of an issue.

Now that she was officially wedded to Zenjirou, though, the realization that her current lifestyle would fundamentally be how she spent the rest of her life made that tolerance harder. The lack of dairy products was the most obvious example of such things.

“Hmm, Nicolai is working hard at it, so there’s more than there was,” Zenjirou replied. “We’ve got access to cream as well as just cheese and yogurt now.”

Nicolai was the name of a former sailor on the Glasir’s Leaf who had been assigned to the care of the goats Freya had given Zenjirou. His skills were impressive. Not only had he lost very few of the goats to the very different climate and vegetation of the Southern Continent, he’d also succeeded in breeding them and getting relatively palatable dairy products from them.

However, that was still not enough for a stable supply according to Zenjirou and Freya. While the flavor was there, they were still evaluating how to rear and feed the livestock in Capua, while prioritizing increasing their numbers more than anything. The milk was mainly going to the kids rather than the humans, so there was certainly not a glut of dairy products available.

“I am still visiting Uppasala roughly once a month, so perhaps I should purchase some goats there?” Zenjirou suggested.

Freya’s face shone with temptation for a moment at the alluring suggestion before her calmness prevailed and she shook her head. “I appreciate the thought, but that won’t work. The goats we brought with us were from more southern countries rather than Uppasala.”

While goats were remarkably resilient to differences in environment and diet, there were still limits. The ones on board the ship were those who had lived in the southernmost regions of the Northern Continent. That was why they were managing to adapt to Capua. Expecting the same of goats from Uppasala would be excessive.

“Ah, that would be difficult. The only place I can get to on the continent is Uppasala, after all.”

While the continent was not distant in the usual sense since Zenjirou could teleport, he could not teleport just anywhere. He still had the crutch of his camera, so he could only visit places he had photographed. There was also the issue of safety, so the only place he could practically teleport was the Capuan embassy in Uppasala.

“While I’d love to add more places to the list, the first ones would have to be the commonwealth or Bohevia,” he muttered.

The Noble’s Commonwealth of Złota Wolność—commonly known as simply “the commonwealth”—was the biggest and strongest state in the west of the Northern Continent, and a country they had to be the most wary of due to its links to the White Empire. Bohevia, however, was home to the glass workshop he had received a letter of introduction to from Priest Yan.

Those were the places he should be prioritizing when widening the locations he could teleport to. Of course, Zenjirou was the prince consort of Capua, so using teleportation to enter the other country without permission could cause far greater problems down the line, and it was essentially forbidden.

“What about everything else? Have you gotten used to the heat?”

Freya hesitated for a moment before deciding that it would be better to openly admit to things than to try and bluff. “Skaji and I are fine with the heat. After all, we have spent more than a year here and we can shut ourselves away with the magic tools when we have no business outside. The issue is the maids we brought with us. They are all doing their best but are honestly flagging a fair amount.”

The maids’ sleeping quarters similarly had a magic tool to create a cooling mist. However, they could obviously not spend all their time there, and there were no such luxuries while they were on duty. Freya was assigning them to the living room—which did have such a tool—as much as she could, but to do so excessively would be blatant favoritism. A slightly more favorable treatment for the maids from her homeland was one thing, but treating them and the Capuan maids differently would mean Freya would never truly be the annex’s lady. To put things in extreme terms, Freya was currently building her own “stronghold” within Capua’s inner palace. She could not afford dissent in her ranks.

“I guess I get that. Honestly, I’m not entirely used to it either. Maybe we could add more maids from Uppasala as a relief force?”

The suggestion was once more only possible due to Zenjirou’s teleportation ability, but Freya again shook her head.

“I appreciate the offer, but that would be tricky for the time being. There are many female royals and nobles of at least comparable rank, so maids who can serve them are in high demand. Additionally, there would be...conditions...on any that I could bring here.”

Her tone darkened as she finished her statement. First of the conditions would be—naturally—that they had firm loyalty to either Freya or Uppasala. The second would be that they were able to withstand the fiendish temperature of the Southern Continent. Finally, that they not look down on the people of the Southern Continent.

The darkening of Freya’s tone was due to that third condition. The people of the Northern Continent had a strong tendency to regard those of the Southern Continent as inferior. While that was less the case in the animistic countries of the north, it was still there. The people who didn’t have such a tendency—or could at least keep it from their words and actions—were rather limited in number.

“Then I guess they’ll just have to do their best to get used to things as they are. If they start to really struggle then we can let them return temporarily to Uppasala in turn. Your people should be able to cover for at least one person at a time for a short period, right?”

“Indeed, that is not a problem. The maids that Her Majesty provided from Capua are extremely skilled. I would prefer to avoid those measures needing to be taken, though.”

Her statement was out of consideration for the maids. If they were unable to fulfill their duties in full and instead needed to return home temporarily, their careers would suffer greatly. Of course, that was preferable to them collapsing, but she would rather not harm their futures if possible.

“That makes sense. The only other thing I can think of is changing their clothes, I guess.”

“Their clothes?” Freya asked, blue eyes blinking in surprise.

Zenjirou offered his new wife a nod. “Yeah. While we were in the commonwealth, the maids bought several types of cloth, so using them to make uniforms might make things different.”

Considering their quality, the amount sold, and the prices, it seemed that the Northern Continent was unfortunately a literal cut above the Southern Continent in terms of textiles and clothing.

There was a huge variety in color and pattern, as well as in the base cloths themselves. Among them were fabrics that felt cool to the touch. It would be a minor improvement at best, but using one to make uniforms might help a little.

“Uppasala has such cloth as well, to a certain extent, at least. I imagine our tailors are more familiar with using it, so perhaps we could have Uppasala handle that?”

“Your tailors might be more used to the cloth, but it’ll be for maid uniforms, so I feel like ours would be more used to that?” Zenjirou half-asked, immersed in the water up to his neck.

“That is true, but if they are made in Uppasala, then the maids will be able to go back temporarily as well,” Freya answered.

Returning to their homeland with a reason wouldn’t blemish their careers, while also being a welcome break to the maids suffering through the heat. Zenjirou could see where she was coming from.

“Ah, I get you. That’s worth considering, then. It would mean needing to cast the spell for each of them, so it’ll get postponed for a while. It might not even be possible before the season hits its peak.”

If it was just taking the cloth, then Zenjirou could go round trip himself. If he had to send the maids and have the cloth tailored, he would have to stay for the same number of days as there were maids. Zenjirou could only use the spell twice a day, and at present, he simply didn’t have that much free time.

Freya’s face screwed up in a self-recriminating scowl as she slowly sank into the water.

“Freya?” Zenjirou said worriedly as her silvery-blue hair drifted in the water above her head. Fortunately, though, his worry didn’t last for long.

“Phwah!”

“F-Freya?”

Once she’d stood from the water, arcing through the air like a breaching dolphin, Freya wiped the water from her face with her hands before brushing the hair out of her eyes and taking her original seat.

“Phew, I have cooled off a little now,” she said before looking directly at him. “Sir Zenjirou?”

“Yes?” he replied, reflexively straightening as she did the same.

“My apologies,” she said. While she didn’t bow her head, her gaze dropped slightly, making the earnestness of her apology apparent.

Zenjirou couldn’t hide his confusion. What had happened that had made his second wife need to apologize?

“Uh...”

Freya’s eyes drifted slightly closed as if looking at something bright. “Have you not realized? My suggestion was immensely rude. It would have restricted you for several days. As your concubine, it was an extreme request. One might even say excessively so.”

“Oh, right.”

That made sense now. Zenjirou was the prince consort. And even if he wasn’t, he was the only one who could teleport himself to other places. Although Aura could send people, she could not really go herself since she needed to remain in Capua. Freya requesting several days of Zenjirou’s time for the task was beyond what a concubine should request while sharing a bed—or bath, in this case.

“Sorry, that wasn’t something I could really promise on my own,” he said, scratching his head in apology.

And he was indeed apologetic. This kind of conversation would have been okay with Aura. A discussion between the two of them was akin to an informal supreme council with a bare minimum of people. Either one could propose whatever they liked, and if the other accepted it, no one else would truly be able to object.

That was not the case with Freya, though. She was nothing more than Zenjirou’s concubine. Even if he was willing to accept her suggestion, the final decision would fall to Aura, and even more importantly, continuing to make decisions based on his concubine’s requests would lead to pressure from other nobles.

“Not at all. It was my mistake. I should have considered it more carefully,” Freya said.

“Yeah, well, let’s say it’s on both of us. Now that I think about it, though, why did you even make a suggestion like that?”

The question was warranted. She had voluntarily admitted to the attempted trickery, and far too quickly to call it a careless mistake. She looked away awkwardly.

“I’m sorry. It is a habit to start with a suggestion that won’t be accepted,” she admitted quietly.

Until now, her suggestions and requests had generally been refused. In that respect, she was both the victim and perpetrator, and her parents were equally victims—if not more so. “I want to learn swordplay,” “I want to row a boat,” “I want to hunt a boar,” or “I want to go fishing.” All the things she wanted to do or have were repeatedly refused.

However, she wasn’t deterred and instead repeatedly kept it up. When she was young, she’d cry to get her way. As she grew older, she started to just slip out and do what she wanted. When she came of age, she kept up whatever negotiations she had to until her desires were fulfilled.

Although it would have been hard for Freya, it was likely even harder for her parents. Regardless, Freya knew that was what her negotiation with her family was. It had therefore led to the habit of opening up with a completely ridiculous request she never thought would be accepted.

Once she finished explaining all of that, Zenjirou found himself laughing.

“Yeah, that doesn’t really work with me.”

“So it seems,” she said, following suit.

Zenjirou generally tried to grant the requests from those close to him as much as he could. Of course, he wouldn’t accept things that were completely impossible or excessively selfish, but that didn’t change his fundamental stance.

It resulted in Freya asking for the most she could, even if it was ludicrous, while Zenjirou tried to do all that he could to make it a reality. Although Freya would gain in the short term, it was clear that it would just lead to ruin in the long term.

Aura was not so generous that she would allow a concubine to remain in the inner palace if said concubine repeatedly overstepped her bounds to ask for favors.

“We’ll have to think about it all seriously,” Zenjirou commented.

“We will. First of all, I need to change how I consider things.”

Negotiating with Zenjirou wasn’t necessary. Instead, she would need to discuss things with him. These events had made that very clear to her.

“Yeah, I’ll be careful too. I’m getting pretty cold now, though. Let’s head to the sauna,” he said, standing up and holding his hand out.

“Let’s.”

Freya took his hand and stood with him. They were clad only in a single swath of fabric apiece as Zenjirou led the way. As their wet feet left wet prints on the stone floor, Freya suddenly remembered some of the earlier conversation.

“Sir Zenjirou? You said it would be postponed, so do you already have plans?”

“Oh, yeah. In the Twin Kingdoms. It could take quite a while,” he answered.

For once, his displeasure was clearly visible on his face.

◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆

Meanwhile, Aura was spending the night alone in her bedroom in the main building. She lay silently on the large bed, wearing thin nightclothes. The AC was running. It was the blazing season, and what should have been comfortable felt almost cold to her. She rolled over on the bed and curled up lying almost like a child. Still, she soon rolled back again.

It wasn’t rare for her to sleep alone. She spent a lot of time alone when Zenjirou was in Valentia, the Gaziel March, the Twin Kingdoms, or even traveling to the Northern Continent. None of them had felt like this night did, though. Zenjirou was here, a few minutes’ walk away, if that. With another woman.

The queen put her right hand over her face as she lay on her back, letting out a sigh.

“This is...depressing.”

She couldn’t sleep. If she didn’t do anything, she’d simply start thinking about him.

“I thought I was a more decisive person than this,” she mused wryly to herself as she switched the lights on. In the white light from the LEDs, the queen stood and picked up several sheets of drake parchment from the desk and took them back to her bed. Since she couldn’t sleep, she decided to get some work done instead. It was rather disgraceful behavior in some ways that she would never show her husband.

The drake parchment held recent and important information in her own hand. With her legs stretched out over the wide bed and her back supported somewhat by pillows, she perused the document. It contained information on the current conditions on the Northern Continent along with photos from the camera. There were also notes on Lucretia’s revelations about the White Empire and the Twin Kingdoms’s connection to it, along with plans for secret meetings with the former king.

Additionally—and perhaps conveniently—there was an official request from Margarita to visit after she had heard of Völundr’s arrival in Capua. There was also, naturally, a request to use Zenjirou’s teleportation for both legs of the journey.

She had said it was urgent and that if she could not pay in money, she was willing to create a magic tool in exchange, so she was clearly deadly serious.

Zenjirou would teleport to the Twin Kingdoms and send Margarita from there. However, even a princess could not travel alone, despite her personally saying that she would do so if necessary. That meant that Zenjirou would be in the Twin Kingdoms for several days, sending a single person each day. Bruno would be included in their number. Doing things that way would minimize the number of people in both countries who were aware of it.

This would inevitably lead to the princess becoming aware of the secret meetings, but it shouldn’t be hard to obtain her silence. Margarita was uninterested in politics to begin with, entirely focused on the royal family’s craft. She was also tight-lipped. With the Northern Continent blacksmith dangling in front of her, her originally lacking interest in politics was practically nonexistent.

Aura spoke aloud to gather her thoughts. “We are producing a small number of marbles now. With Sir Völundr’s assistance, we may be able to prevent the furnaces from burning out, which would increase the quantity. If we can get someone from the Northern Continent who works with glass, we can likely improve the quality.”

The queen closed her eyes in thought.

The marbles’ value was solely in their suitability as a medium for enchanting. Therefore, they could not keep their production a secret from the Twin Kingdoms—or more accurately, from the Sharou family. They were the only ones capable of enchanting, and therefore the only ones capable of making use of the marbles. Hiding their existence from the family would just make them a waste of resources. While Capua should also focus on creating enchanters of their own from Zenjirou’s bloodline, that was not relevant now. At the earliest—if everything went perfectly—it would be the next generation.

Of course, the method for their creation would have to be kept secret, and she had no intention of revealing their capacity for production either.

“In which case, giving Princess Margarita one or several will not be an issue. At the very least, it should not become a problem.”

The princess was an enchanter on the same elevated level as Francesco. Having someone of her skill create a magic tool would be worth far more than mere money.

“Of course, that point of view may well change before long,” she commented to herself before shuddering.

Francesco had recently reported the magic tool for enchanting water-creating magic tools was complete. While she had not seen the tool itself, Francesco had seemed over the moon, so it was likely the truth.

A magic tool that created other magic tools, and the creation of marbles, which drastically increased the speed of creation... Incomplete or not, both of them now existing could quite possibly lead to magic tools no longer being a treasure far out of her grasp. Magic tools would be mass-producible. That would, in turn, lead to a drastic change on the Southern Continent. If she spoke in only emotional terms, she was scared of that acceleration. She would prefer that the expansion moved slowly while seeing how people reacted.

While many misunderstood, Aura was conservative at heart. She didn’t like sudden, drastic change. However, a conservative politician clinging stubbornly to the status quo was pointless. Other changes that allowed her to maintain the status quo would be permitted. For Aura, as a queen, the highest priorities would be Capua’s position as the leading power in the western region of the Southern Continent, and the royal family’s position as the true rulers of that country.

Size and influence of a country were relative things. If her country focused on maintaining its current circumstances while its neighbors built up their power, they would go from powerful to average, and then slip from average to weak.

To prevent that from happening, they had to continue with things that would strengthen the country.

Ordinarily, that could be accomplished steadily with smaller changes such as an increase in population or farmland. However, there were times when that was not enough. Aura was currently staring down just one of those times, possibly in the very near future.

“We cannot overlook this,” she said as her eyes fell on a single sheet of paper mixed in with the parchment.

Some of the scarce leftover ink had been used to print images from the camera on the sheet. One was a shot of the biggest port of Złota Wolność, their pride and joy: Pomorskie. The photo was from an elevated location. White walls and red roofs lined the streets of the town. The people walking through the town were wearing refined clothes, and the port itself was absolutely massive and clearly well maintained.

The Southern Continent didn’t have the like of it. A port of this size was more than enough to prompt wariness from her. Even Valentia, Capua’s pride and joy was only slightly comparable in size, but that was due to the king who had ordered its construction over-preparing for the future.

Parts of it were not used at all, and the larger area the soldiers needed to patrol simply made portions of it a burden. The deeply excavated areas not used for ships to moor could attract dangerous sea drakes as well. However, that made it relatively simple to create a shipyard suitable for ships of the Glasir’s Leaf’s size, so the former king’s decision had likely been the correct one.

However, it was still a fact that its size was more than Capua could currently keep in service. In comparison, Pomorskie had an even bigger port and was host to so many ships that it seemed small in comparison.

“Technology was a given, but it would seem we fall far behind economically as well. Considering the war, perhaps in population too?” Aura mused.

According to what Zenjirou had heard from Freya, the commonwealth had at least five ships on the same level as the Glasir’s Leaf. The commonwealth, as well as the other powerful countries on the continent, were developing their naval trade. Aura would not be surprised in the slightest if in the not-too-distant future, two ships of the same class as the Glasir’s Leaf showed up on the Southern Continent for trade.

“In which case, somewhat risky or not, we will have to hasten our own growth. The increase of marbles and therefore magic tools is the quickest way to do so.”

Of course, the risks were great. While only the Sharou family could create magic tools, anyone could make marbles if they knew how. In the worst case, once the Twin Kingdoms knew how to create them, they could just start sweeping across the continent without even waiting for the Northern Continent’s invasion. However, it was impossible to avoid all risks when running a country. As its queen, Aura had decided to accept those risks.

While her thoughts as the country’s monarch ran through her head, she found herself assailed by an intense fatigue. If she didn’t sleep now, she’d find her thoughts drawn to her husband in the annex again.

“To bed, then,” Aura said, all too aware of that. She put the parchment and paper on her bedside table and turned off the lights before closing her eyes.