Risou no Himo Seikatsu - Volume 14 - Chapter 4

Chapter 4 — The Next Steps

That afternoon, Aura was on an island owned by the Capuan royal family. Alone.

She had purposefully chosen the hottest period of the day—despite it still being the blazing season—for the same reason that she was alone. That reason was to keep her actions here as secret as possible.

The island itself was one of the largest that the royal family personally owned, but the ocean currents made it unsuitable for both fishing and trade. It had therefore remained uninhabited. The Capuan royal family used it instead for magic experiments that they wanted to keep secret.

While the royals themselves usually used it, there were occasions when other mages would get permission as well. Espiridion—the head of the country’s mages—and his wife, Pasquala, were regulars here. A particularly rare group was when Carlos II—who had been a skilled mage and researcher—would come here each time he thought up a new spell, accompanied by a trusted maid.

The queen was standing on this rather storied island with a small marble in her hand. It was gripped between her index finger, her middle finger, and her thumb, and formed the basis of the flameburst magic tool she had commissioned from Francesco in secret. The marble was caged within a metal frame, and one of its eight vertices was colored red.

Aura carefully positioned the frame with its red corner facing out, making sure there was no way it was even close to pointing at her. She found herself slipping into the calm usually associated with casting magic and purposefully shook that off. Instead, she focused her thoughts on other matters as far from magic as she could before speaking the activation word.

“Conflagrate.”

A beat later, her vision was swallowed by red. As the incantation suggested, the air on the island was filled with roaring flames of crimson. Aura only maintained her cool due to already being proficient with the spell. She had cast it under her own power before without the assistance of a magic tool. Therefore, the sight itself was no shock to her. It was also only active for a scarce few instants. Once its effects ran their course, the only signs of it were a slightly warmer area and a few scorch marks on the ground.

Flameburst was a spell that Aura had used on many occasions, so she was familiar with both its effects and force. She had cast it in an open space and relatively high into the air so that the flames didn’t catch on any of the plants in the area.

Ideally, she would cast it on some form of physical target like trees or rocks to see exactly how destructive it was, but she was confident on that front. The trees on the Southern Continent had a rather high water content and wouldn’t catch alight easily, but the risk was still present. Aura would find it rather difficult to extinguish any such fire on her own.

Either way, the test itself had been a success. Still, Aura’s expression remained completely placid.

“I thought of things that were wholly unrelated and simply pronounced the activation word correctly. I did not even need to regulate the mana flow because it was a magic tool, it seems. It is on a completely different level of convenience than casting the spell under my own power.”

Capua possessed several magic tools like the healing stones or the carpet she had lent Zenjirou, but none of them had been offensive in nature before now. As far as Aura was aware, at least, this object was the first of its kind that Capua owned.

Her impression of it could simply be summed up as “a threat.” To cast magic, one needed the correct pronunciation, the correct amount of mana, and the correct visualization. Therefore, it required an inhumanly strong force of will to cast magic on the battlefield. Even people who could cast large-scale spells from the relatively safe rear lines were rather rare. As far as people who could cast spells while in the midst of active combat, Aura was only aware of three in total, including Skaji from Uppasala. That was just how difficult casting in battle was.

And yet, with a magic tool, one only needed the first of the three normal prerequisites: the pronunciation. While it was not so simple that literally anyone could do it, any soldier trained in their use would certainly be capable.

“While few in number, these can be produced in larger amounts over a month.”

Aura shivered where she stood in the mix of the residual heat from the flameburst as well as the season.

“The battlefield will be unrecognizable,” she muttered to herself with surety. Even so, she could think of several upsides. “Actually using it in its current form on the battlefield is dangerous, though.”

The marble was simply held in a metal frame, which made it small and easy to carry. However, to use it, one had to make sure the red corner was facing in the right direction, which made things slightly more difficult. While it was practically a nonissue when you could use it calmly, the battlefield was not known for being somewhere to patiently take your time with aiming. Anyone could see that in its current form, it would cause accidents.

There were two ways to solve this. The first was to add a targeting effect into the magic tool itself. Rather than the orientation of the tool dictating where the spell went, it was relatively simple to make a magic tool use the person’s eyeline or visualization to decide how the spell was targeted. In fact, the healing stones were made in that way. If not, the potential of a miscast would lead to potential tragedy.

Doing this caused two problems. One of them was that extra complications in the enchantment made the tool cost more. Francesco had created this one in a single day, but adding in a dependence on eyeline or visualization would have taken at least three, even with the marble. For just one or two of them, a difference of two days wasn’t much, but when you were making a limited number, it added up.

The second issue was that making it reliant on the user’s visualization added more of a burden to the user. Aura had experienced how much the battlefield caused tunnel vision and slowing of thought for herself. To make it as widely usable as possible meant making it rely as little as possible on its users’ capabilities.

The other solution was even more simple. You could simply fix it at the end of a short staff. Doing that would mean the fire would always come from the staff’s tip. The issue here was also plain to see. Short though it might have been, it would be a staff and so inevitably bulkier.

The vision that Aura had for the mass-produced tools was currently a collection of single-use magic tools. That meant that the more that could be carried at once, the better.

A framed marble meant that a single person could carry dozens of them. Putting them on a staff, though, would significantly curtail that number, however small the staves were made. Considering they would be carried around on the battlefield, a soldier likely couldn’t even carry ten of them. Carrying them in the carriages in the same way as arrows for archers changed things, though.

“With the only enchanters belonging to other countries, perhaps we should develop things using our own techniques for now,” she mused.

With that conclusion made, Aura looked up at the sun where it hung, still high in the sky. The sunlight at noon during the blazing season was enough of a threat for even those born and raised on the Southern Continent. With the years spent with the air conditioning in her bedroom, it was even harder for Aura to endure.

“Time to return, I suppose,” she said before casting the teleportation spell and rendering the island completely deserted yet again.

◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆

While Aura was conducting private magic experiments, Zenjirou was in a gazebo in the palace gardens. There were no walls, just a thin ceiling. A breeze was also constantly going over a nearby fountain into the area, so it was relatively bearable even in the middle of the blazing season. He and Lucretia Broglie—of the noble family of the same name from the Twin Kingdoms—were taking lunch there.

“One of the things I learned on our journey was that being able to simply sit and drink water like this is something to be thankful for,” Lucretia murmured earnestly as she took a polite sip of her drink.

Zenjirou’s lips quirked as he agreed. “Quite right. I wager you and I were roughly on par for the number of times we spilled water on ourselves.”

Drinking liquids while the sea at large was raging was something that required focus to do. While the ship having several people who could cast water purification—and a magic tool to do the same—made it a funny joke, normally even guests would be punished for wasting as much water as the two of them had done.

“The one silver lining was the lack of seasickness,” he added.

“Agreed.”

Flora, the maid standing behind Lucretia, cleared her throat softly at that. At the same time, the knight behind Zenjirou—Natalio—looked away guiltily. The two of them had also been part of the voyage on the Glasir’s Leaf. Unfortunately, they also both belonged to the group of people who had gotten seasick. While they were here as an attendant and guard, respectively, and therefore not supposed to offer personal remarks, that strictness had relaxed significantly during the voyage.

Of course, Zenjirou and Lucretia were also closer than they had been at the start of the trip, which might prove to be a good thing in the future. The situation they were in was like a castle with its moat almost filled in.

Zenjirou couldn’t remove his dislike of the situation, considering he already had a wife in Aura and had just recently obtained a second wife in Freya, but the situation didn’t permit those feelings. In that respect, the increased closeness between the two of them could be considered a positive. Even if it did feel to Zenjirou like enemy after enemy were charging over his filled-in moat.

“However, the main thing I remember of the voyage has to be the views of the countries on the Northern Continent,” Zenjirou commented.

“Indeed. The commonwealth had a real impact,” Lucretia agreed.

The commonwealth, or as it was officially known, The Noble’s Commonwealth of Złota Wolność... Zenjirou almost jumped as he heard the name come from Lucretia’s lips, but he somehow managed to rein in his reaction. The Twin Kingdoms of Sharou-Gilbelle were descendants of the White Empire and potential enemies of the Noble’s Commonwealth of Złota Wolność. Zenjirou and the others only knew that because Lucretia had told them of it.

Lucretia’s impressions of the commonwealth were almost certainly going to have hidden elements to them. Still, where a knight and maid could overhear was not the place to talk about such matters.

“The town we saw certainly did draw the eye. I am a complete outsider when it comes to architecture but even I could tell it was constructed differently than here.”

“It was a very pretty town, yes.”

The majority of the time the two of them had spent together was on their trip to the Northern Continent. Therefore, much of what they could share a conversation over was inevitably to do with the time spent on the ship or on the continent itself.

Such conversation flowing so well could be considered progress for Zenjirou, and a conquest for Lucretia. However, the change in the political climate was unfortunately rather quicker than this. Therefore, the conversation needed to be pushed along, even if it was something of a strain.

“I believe Princess Margarita has arrived recently,” Zenjirou said, bringing up someone who “just happened” to be related to Lucretia. He was somewhat nervous about what kind of reaction he would get, but her response was calmer than he had expected.

“Indeed. I have met her once and offered my greetings.”

“I see.” His surprise at the lack of real reaction must have shown because the blonde girl smiled slightly.

“It was thanks to Princess Margarita that these situations have gone well, so I wanted to at least convey my gratitude,” she added, directing her blue eyes very blatantly towards Zenjirou’s right wrist. Wrapped around the joint was a rough bracelet made of dull gray metal. It was a strong magic tool with a name: The Windhammer. This gift from Margarita had been a real boon to Zenjirou.

As repayment for the gift, she had asked that he accept three of Lucretia’s requests. Considering her statement, the girl herself must have known the particulars. By blood, Lucretia and Margarita were sisters, but on paper, they were complete strangers. Emotionally, though, it seemed that they saw each other as sisters. Therefore he could understand why Lucretia would have wanted to convey her gratitude. However, he could not see how that connected to seeing her once and offering greetings.

Lucretia gave a reluctant smile at his question and explained. “Princess Margarita is here due to her desire to apprentice under Sir Völundr. The best way to show how grateful I am is to impinge as little on the time she has with him as possible.”

“Ah, I see,” Zenjirou answered in realization.

Indeed, she was spoken of similarly to Francesco within the Sharou family as one of the best young enchanters. There were also rumors that her exploits were on the same level as his.

Speaking of rumors, Zenjirou had something else to ask about. “Now that I think about it, I have heard that you have been present at more lunches and dinners than before. Is that perhaps part of your thanks?”

She offered a bashful look. “It is. As part of my gratitude, I am attending in her place for the invitations where that is possible.”

“That cannot be easy,” he remarked, honestly impressed.

While she may have married down into a branch family, Margarita was still a respected royal famed for her skill in enchanting. The burden on Lucretia—who was nothing more than a noble girl from an influential family—was clearly different. The disappointment of inviting a member of a royal family only to be met by a normal noble would be palpable even if they tried to hide it. There was a strong possibility of any such meetings becoming rather awkward.

However, there had been no reports of Lucretia causing issues at lunches or banquets. In other words, she had managed to safely navigate the role of unwanted substitute. She was clearly exceptionally happy with his praise as she straightened.

“Well, such things are my specialty,” she answered.

That was entirely the truth. While she wasn’t as adept as a diplomat, Lucretia excelled in making sure that whoever was holding an event enjoyed it. Of course, her rather blatant flattery of men in the Twin Kingdoms had led to her being relatively unpopular with women. Fortunately, though, she wasn’t seen in that way in Capua, so she was well-liked by both men and women alike.

“It is impressive,” Zenjirou insisted. “It is honestly something I rather struggle with.”

The complaint slipped from his lips. He had accompanied Lucretia as her partner several times in both the Twin Kingdoms and the commonwealth, so she was likely well aware of his struggles in such situations. Still, her response wasn’t quite what he had expected.

“Is that so? As far as I can recall, you have always comported yourself as well as you should. If you’ll pardon me, is it perhaps not that you ‘struggle’ with it, but that you ‘dislike’ it?”

The uncharacteristically sharp comment from her prompted a wry look of amusement to flit over Zenjirou’s face.

“That is rather hard to dispute,” he admitted.

While it was something he personally felt that he did struggle with, if he had to pick which description suited him best, he would have to agree that it was the latter.

With the conversation in full flow and a sense of camaraderie established, Zenjirou turned not to Lucretia, but to the maid and knight who were also present, telling them that he had something important to discuss with Lucretia.

Both of them had already assumed that was the purpose of the meeting, so they merely offered bows before leaving them. Flora was Lucretia’s confidante, and Natalio was both Zenjirou’s knight and the leader of his knights who came with his position as Duke Bilbo. Because of that, it was perhaps a rather pointless formality, but the niceties had to be observed.

When he was sure the two of them had gone, Zenjirou straightened again and spoke quietly. “I want you to answer me truthfully, Lucy. Do you still wish to become my concubine?”

Lucretia answered in kind, her voice barely audible. “Yes. Of course.”

Whatever else might be the case, Lucretia had spent a rather large amount of time with Zenjirou, so she could tell that he was not particularly welcoming of concubines. She could therefore feel the situation developing, with him being willing to open up like this between the two of them.

She seemed to feel it was a do-or-die moment and leaned swiftly over the table to plead her case. “It is my greatest wish and I will do anything I can to make it a reality.”

Her enthusiasm was honest, but the words themselves were not. Therefore, even as he nodded along, Zenjirou pointed out the discrepancy.

“I would assume that your actual greatest wish is to return to the Sharou family. Becoming my concubine is simply a means to an end.”

Lucretia was born into the family, but due to a lack of their lineal magic, she was transferred to the Broglie family soon after birth. Looking at the country’s history as a whole, this was not without precedent. That precedent also defined the single method by which the adopted offspring could be considered part of their birth family again: marrying into royalty.

In such a case, it was not that the person was considered royalty again by dint of their marriage; rather, they were transferred back to the family rolls of their birth family before the actual marriage. The main reason for this was to prevent a noble family from having excessive influence over the royal family, but that renaming was Lucretia’s only true desire.

Ordinarily, the royal family in question would need to be the Sharou family. On the Southern Continent, being part of a royal family meant you maintained its lineal magic, so marrying a foreign royal was taboo. Zenjirou was an exception to that, however. He was a descendant of a prince of the Capua family as well as a princess of the Sharou family, so it was not a risk at this point.

The Sharou family lusted for the Capua family’s space-time magic, while the Capua family lusted for the Sharou family’s enchantment. There was a secret contract between the two families, which essentially allowed Zenjirou to have a concubine who possessed that lineage. In fact, it was less that it “allowed” it and more that it “endorsed” it.

That was why Lucretia wished to become Zenjirou’s concubine. It was—fundamentally—just a means to an end.

“If a man from the Sharou family made you an offer, I assume you would not particularly object, would you?”

That prompted Lucretia to flounder. If his expression was one of discomfort, it would be a relief for her. It would imply he had some form of attachment to her. However, there was not an iota of discomfort or jealousy. Instead, it was an earnest expression, as if he was honestly considering her goals, which in turn meant that he had no real desire to take her as his concubine. That was why she floundered.

“Well, I am of course a noble family’s daughter. If my adoptive father or His Majesty brought such a suggestion to me, I would not refuse it. However, if I had the privilege to choose for myself, I would still prefer to marry you.”

That was a considerable shock to Zenjirou. He did not particularly look down on himself. Of course, he was not arrogant about his charms as a man, but he knew that his position alone would have people seeing him as a “good match.” His appearance and skills aside, he did not think of himself as a bad catch, and even if he didn’t consider himself a good husband, he would do his best to be an accommodating one.

However, the assumptions were different for Lucretia. She held lingering desires to be with her birth family. Becoming Zenjirou’s concubine would see her being officially part of that family again, but physically they would be split between both the western and central regions of the Southern Continent.

Conversely, if she married someone from the Sharou family, she would both be returned to her original family and able to live with easy access to them by being in the same city. Zenjirou was sure that the latter would be a far more attractive prospect to her.

“You would?” he asked. “Surely your goals would be achieved with someone from the Sharou family?”

“I believe I have investigated all of the potential prospects from the Sharou family. When I compare all of the prospects I have, I would choose you.”

As she spoke, Lucretia offered the most charming smile she had, one she had spent many an occasion practicing. Her words were not a lie, but nor were they the truth.

With the amount of time she had spent with him, Lucretia did have some level of affection for Zenjirou. It was more affection than she had for any of the men from the Sharou family. In that respect, what she had said was not a lie. However, Zenjirou’s comments perfectly hit on the issue with that. Lucretia’s main goal was her birth family. With that taken into account, any affection for either him or the men of the Sharou family was practically a rounding error.

Still, the reason she so desperately wanted to become Zenjirou’s concubine was exceptionally simple. With things having progressed as far as they had, she had no real prospects with anyone else. It was the former and current kings who had decided to offer someone with the Sharou bloodline to Zenjirou. Lucretia had offered herself up as a piece in that game and couldn’t just pull out now. If she were to fail to win him over, she would likely be married off to some other noble at the royal family’s convenience. She had bet it all on Zenjirou.

While he was not aware of the exact details, her zeal was clearly conveyed to him.

“I see. It is an honor,” he remarked. Now that he had obtained confirmation that she was still aiming to become his concubine, Zenjirou continued the conversation.

“Do you have any thoughts as to how you wish your life to go after you are married?”

It had taken quite the amount of courage for Zenjirou to verbalize the question. After all, asking it suggested that he was considering having her as a concubine.

As expected, Lucretia took those words in the most positive way possible and answered briskly as she leaned forward.

“I would take things as they are given.”

In other words, it would all be up to Zenjirou. That was likely the answer any normal royal or noble from this world would want to hear. Unfortunately, though, all that did was pile on even more pressure for Zenjirou.

“Does that mean that you have no clear desires for how your life would be after your marriage?” he asked.

“Marriage itself would be offering myself up, so I would simply behave as my husband wished,” she answered, dashing his hopes of a refusal and solidifying his premonition.

So she just wants to leave it all to me...

If he could, he’d have dropped his head into his hands there. Frankly, Lucretia had done nothing wrong here. Men from this world would have appreciated her statements as “a woman who knew her place.” If anything, her behavior would be taken as too good to be true and they’d be expecting her to be plotting something for after the marriage.

However, Zenjirou was fundamentally different from the norm in that sense. Both he and the men of this world wanted a happy marriage of some kind if they had to be married regardless. The difference was what made “a happy marriage” for them.

For the men of this world, they would be the ones to decide what a happy marriage was. It was simply seen as a natural right for them. No, in fact, it was just seen as the way things were, not even requiring any thought or verbalization.

Therefore, they would appreciate someone like Lucretia leaving all of those decisions to them because it would mean that they could continue to act as they pleased even after marriage.

Conversely, a happy marriage for Zenjirou was something built together by both husband and wife, so it required dialogue and understanding between both parties. Therefore, Lucretia’s behavior of not voicing any of her own desires was just an extra burden for him. It was like the difference between a guy who, when his date told him that she didn’t mind wherever they went, thought, “Hell yeah, I get to go where I like and have some fun with the food I want” and a guy whose thoughts were more like, “Ack, I need to choose somewhere that’ll make her happy without any hints. This is kinda tough.”

With Zenjirou’s primary focus being ensuring the happiness of the woman who would be his wife, having everything be up to him was just a burden. Although Lucretia couldn’t necessarily understand the completely alien thinking, she could tell that what she was saying wasn’t having a good effect.

“Um, Your Majesty?” she asked worriedly.

Zenjirou pasted a smile onto his face. “It’s nothing. This is just for reference, so I don’t want you to think too hard about it. How would you see your ideal marriage going, Lucy?”

Her big blue eyes blinked at hearing the question again before she thought about it somewhat more seriously than before. “I cannot really think of anything particularly special,” she told him.

“That is fine. It needn’t be special, just as specific as you can.”

“Very well. Then, hmm, I suppose I would want to live peacefully in the inner palace in general.”

Zenjirou was already dreading what was to come, but he kept up a faint hope and listened regardless. “Hm, and what else?” he pressed.

Lucretia continued, completely innocently. “If I could ask for whatever I wished, then I would wish to spend time with whomever I married several times a year. Otherwise, I would just fulfill my duties as a noble wife.”

It was the most nonspecific and safest answer a noblewoman would give for her married life.

“I see. Thank you. That was helpful,” Zenjirou managed to answer. Her answer had made things clear to him.

So, the marriage itself is Lucy’s only real goal. She has no plans for anything after that. She’s just decided that she will be happy after the marriage, he thought to himself.

Lucretia was—for Zenjirou, with his general disposition of wanting whoever he married to be as happy as possible—the hardest type of person to create a happy marriage with.

◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆

The next day, in the early afternoon, Zenjirou was in the living room of the inner palace. Aura was there too, and so were the maids assigned to the main building, waiting in the background. So far, none of that was unusual. If anything, it was entirely the norm.

What departed from the norm was that Freya and Skaji were both also present.

“What is this called?” Freya asked, her short silver hair swishing this way and that as her gaze darted around the room. At her side, Skaji wasn’t showing her emotions quite as clearly. However, she was inspecting the room full of unfamiliar appliances with a warrior’s calm wariness.

Aura chuckled. “I suppose much of it would be unfamiliar to you. They are all my husband’s personal effects. Get an explanation from him later. For now, though, would you take a seat?” she offered, gesturing at a sofa.

“Of course, pardon me,” Freya replied, tearing her curious gaze from the electrical goods and sitting down on the leather sofa.

“My apologies, Lady Skaji, but I would ask you to leave,” Aura continued.

“Very well. Excuse me,” the warrior replied before moving to the exit.

The conversation that was about to take place was for royals and the members of the household. Even Skaji—despite being treated generally the same as the maids—was not allowed to hear everything. The decision of whether she would be informed later would rest with Freya.

Skaji offered a bow before stepping out of the room. Aura watched her leave, then sat down on the same sofa as Freya, and Zenjirou sat right on the middle of the opposite sofa, opposite them on his own.

The blazing season was still not over, so he would have rather been shut up in the bedroom with its air conditioning than in the living room with just the fan and ice, but that would be excessive. While Zenjirou had a relationship that saw him sharing a bed with both women, it was too soon to be inviting both of them to his bedroom at the same time.

One of the maids placed iced fruit juice in metal chalices for each of them. Ordinarily, Zenjirou and Aura would use the two faceted glasses of different colors. There were only the two of those, though, so they went unused this time. Zenjirou and Aura using matching glasses while Freya alone had to use a normal metal chalice would have been immensely rude considering her position.

Once the two women facing him had sipped their drinks, Zenjirou started the conversation off.

“Ah, well, I’ve already mentioned, but I’d like us to have periodic discussions here from now on. They’ll be to discuss opinions, information, and how we are feeling. They’ll also be as sincere as possible.”

His two wives had already been informed of this, but they offered smiling nods regardless.

“Understood, Zenjirou,” Aura said.

“I understand, Sir Zenjirou.”

This meeting was a trial for adding Freya to the periodic discussions that Zenjirou and Aura had held for quite some time in the inner palace’s living room. With Freya now being a concubine of his, it was practically inevitable that the two-way conversations would become three-way. However, his addition of the “as possible” qualifier was because they would never be as frank as the two-person discussions had been.

While Freya was now his concubine and therefore part of the Capuan royal family, her history as part of the Uppasalan royal family had by no means been erased. The difference in position between the three meant that there would have to be things that were held back.

Regardless, it was Zenjirou who spoke first. “I met Lucretia yesterday. She’s still just as set on her path and wanting to become my concubine.”

That report had prompted this specific meeting. It had only been a month since he had married Freya and he was meeting—in private—with someone wanting to be his next concubine. His first wife, Aura, had moved things forward on that front, and Freya had given her approval. But despite that, Zenjirou couldn’t avoid the awkward feelings of guilt over discussing a rendezvous with someone else seeking such a relationship. Remaining silent would have made him feel even more guilty, however, so he explained everything with no dissembling at all.

“And that’s the sum of it,” he finished up. “She even went as far to say she’d rather become my concubine than marry someone from the Sharou family. I don’t know what’s given her such a good impression, though.”

His redheaded wife and silver-haired concubine shared a guilty look over their drinks.

“Uh, what’s that about?” Zenjirou asked, noticing it.

After a brief nonverbal debate fought with looks, it was Aura who spoke up in resignation.

“Ah, well, to put it rather bluntly...I assume that she has no chance of actually doing so—marrying someone from the Sharou family, that is.”

“Huh?”

The queen kept her voice matter-of-fact as she continued. “Offering you a concubine from the Sharou bloodline was at the behest of both the prior and present kings. As the queen of Capua, I accepted it, and Lucretia offered herself up as a candidate with permission from both of the relevant Sharou family members. If she does not become your concubine, then having failed at a marriage spearheaded by the king, she will almost certainly not be granted permission to marry any of the Sharou family.”

“Ah...” Zenjirou understood as Aura’s dispassionate explanation concluded.

“Um, Sir Zenjirou? Did you really not think of that?” Freya asked hesitantly.

Zenjirou remained silent, his cheeks flushing with embarrassment as he merely nodded. Thinking about it calmly, it was a simple conclusion to reach. There were many reasons that his thoughts hadn’t drifted in that direction, but the biggest was that he actually felt pleasantly disposed to Lucretia now. He felt like he’d been frequenting the red-light district and gotten himself convinced one of the workers had real feelings for him. Having his wife point it out just made it hurt all the more.

Perhaps seeing his struggle as he sat silently on the sofa, Freya decided not to touch on the issue any further and moved the discussion along. “Then in that case, should we assume that Lucretia becoming your concubine is just a matter of time?” she asked.

There was a pause.

“Aura?” Zenjirou asked with a pained look, directing the question to the queen for a final decision.

“Truthfully, things have progressed far enough that it would be an issue if you do not,” she replied. “A close relationship with the Twin Kingdoms is one of the major precepts of our national strategy over the coming years. However, harmony in the inner palace is even more important. In that respect, it depends more upon you.”

“Ah, Your Majesty? That is rather unilateral,” Freya ventured.

The way Aura had phrased it was essentially an order or a threat. Adding the claim that it was up to him right at the end just made it in even poorer taste. Freya had worded things as neutrally as possible in her mild rebuke to the queen.

“I suppose it is,” Aura admitted.

Zenjirou, though, accepted it. “Thank you, Freya, but leave it there for this conversation. The whole point of this is to make our own feelings, hopes, and desires as clear as possible, then take each other’s statements to reconcile and decide how to proceed from there. In that vein, I’ll be frank. I’ve gotten at least somewhat closer to Lucy and wouldn’t hate having her as a concubine. Still, I want to avoid it just as much as I did before. Of course, I’ll accept it if not doing so would cause too much of an issue for the country or the royal family as a whole.”

Zenjirou saw Lucretia as a female friend whom he’d originally struggled to interact with, but now somewhat enjoyed spending time with. The issue was that what she’d said she saw their marriage as being was a great weight on him.

“A weight?” Aura asked after he explained that. “What do you mean?”

“Can you explain in some more detail, Sir Zenjirou?”

Zenjirou fell silent as he considered how to articulate what he meant, then started with a somewhat meandering explanation.

“Uh, how do I put it? She’s got no plans for the marriage itself. Unlike the two of you. She also said that anything after she married would be up to whoever she married. You can see how that feels like having to take responsibility for her whole life after that, right? Having that responsibility would have to weigh heavily on you.”

“Hm?”

“Um...”

Zenjirou had thought it was a relatively concrete explanation, but neither of the two women seemed to understand. They understood the actual words he’d said, but not the nuance behind them.

“Sir Zenjirou, I assume you do not mean that her claims are too good to be true and you can’t believe them?” Freya asked. The conversation meant that she was fairly sure that was not the case, but she truly couldn’t understand why that would make him want to avoid the duty.

“Yeah, that’s not what I meant at all. Her saying that it’d all be up to me is probably an exaggeration, but it still feels like it’s just dumping everything on me. It makes it sound like building a life after the actual marriage and figuring out what works would all be on me, which sounds exhausting.”

“I would say... Actually, let me think for a moment.” Aura offered her own surrender of trying to follow along as is. Indeed, she closed her eyes and began to think.

The disparity in their understanding was due to their fundamental viewpoints being dramatically different. Zenjirou thought that doing his utmost to make sure his partner was happy was an inherent part of marriage. Actually, it wasn’t even that he thought it. That was just what marriage meant to him on a basic level.

However, that way of thinking was completely alien to the royalty and nobility of this world. It made sense when you thought about it. The norm in this world was for a man to have multiple wives. Extensive mutual support between husband and wife only worked when there was one of each. A single man “supporting” several wives would inevitably lead to the man being crushed under the figurative weight of all those women. The only people who would be able to cope were the superhumans who were far removed from normal people in both mental fortitude and ability.

Unfortunately, Zenjirou was a normal human, not a superhuman in any way, shape, or form. Indeed, the majority of men from royal and noble families were not superhuman. How were they able to maintain those polygamous marriages despite that? The reason was simple: most men who married multiple women didn’t feel as responsible for the women they married as Zenjirou did. Those men would appreciate Lucretia’s lack of demands and willingness to defer to their preferences. However, they would take it literally, rather than reading into it.

“I suppose it could be how I often feel about you?” Aura suggested after a long period of thought. “You do not ask for anything, so dealing with you can be an issue.” She sounded far from certain of her conclusion, though.

It was Zenjirou’s turn to fall into thought now. “Well...it might be similar, yeah. Actually, thinking about it like that makes me realize I’ve put quite a burden on you. Sorry.”

Looking back on his behavior prompted the apology to come instinctively. Every time Aura had asked if he wanted something, Zenjirou had answered in the negative, but reversing their positions, he could see how much of an issue it could be for her. Aura wanted him to suggest something, no matter what it was.

However, there was a big difference between that and the relationship between Zenjirou and Lucretia. The reason Zenjirou hadn’t been able to really say anything however many times Aura asked was because he was satisfied with the marriage as it stood. It was all due to the current state of things.

Meanwhile, a marriage with Lucretia would be in the future. It hadn’t started yet, so there was no way she would be satisfied with it “as it stood.” Having no signs for how she wanted it to develop was always going to make him worry.

Regardless, the conflict of viewpoints was caused by a mismatch of values, so fixing the discrepancy was all but impossible.

“Her Majesty wants to have Lucretia as your concubine from a strategic perspective, and you want to avoid it but will accept it if the cost of not doing so is too great. If we were to combine everything you have both said, could we sum it up as you not being enthusiastic about the prospect, but that you’re indeed willing to marry her?” Freya asked, bluntly summarizing everything that had been said thus far.

“Yeah, I guess,” Zenjirou replied, unable to hide an awkward smile. “Overall I’ve got a much better impression of her now than I did at first.”

If there was as much independence in this case as with Aura and Freya, he may have been surprisingly willing to accept it. Freya rested a hand on her chin as she considered things.

“Freya?” Zenjirou asked, prompting her to look up. However, she didn’t look up at him, but at Aura who was sitting at her side.

“Your Majesty, does Lucretia’s wedding need to happen urgently?”

Aura was slightly taken aback by the sudden question but answered regardless. “Well, the sooner it happens the better. It is not something we are hiding from you, but Capua and the Twin Kingdoms are attempting to form an alliance against the Northern Continent as a whole. Lucretia becoming Zenjirou’s concubine will strengthen that. Additionally, such an alliance takes time, and solidifying it after it is formed takes even longer. Taking that period into account means that the marriage happening sooner would be for the best.”

“I understand, but I am asking if there is any possibility for a postponement at all. I believe that Sir Zenjirou’s concerns can be solved in no small part with some time.”

There was a thread of logic to her statement. The relationship between Zenjirou and Lucretia had been far worse at first than it was now. Lucretia had been trying in vain to get closer to him and he had clearly not been able to deal with it properly. They were closer now, though, and could spend time together and at least somewhat enjoy it. That was due to effort on both of their parts, but it also showed that time could fix the issues in the relationship between the two of them.

“That seems logical, but surely it could also happen after the marriage?” Aura asked, playing devil’s advocate despite understanding the thrust of the suggestion.

Zenjirou was the one to respond to her question. “That’d be pretty different. I’d try and meet her halfway after the marriage as well, but it’d force us closer to begin with. Having the marriage happen after those uncertainties are dealt with would be a big thing.”

His statement was not solely based on wanting to postpone what he didn’t want to happen for as long as possible. He wouldn’t deny that was part of it, but marrying would mean that they had to live with each other in some respects. He already spent his nights switching between Aura and Freya, but marrying Lucretia would add a third member to that rotation. Forcing the physical side of things before they were emotionally closer made things far more likely to end in conflict.

The queen nodded several times in understanding before offering her own misgivings. “That is certainly valid. However, I want some sort of reason to give the Twin Kingdoms as to why we are hastening our alliance while delaying the marriage.”

“Could I not be the reason?” Freya suggested. “If doing so personally would cause more issues, then my father or older brother...well, perhaps not. Could my younger brother show dissatisfaction with the prospect to get the Twin Kingdoms’s agreement?”

“That would be viable. It would cause less dissent to have it based on your relatives’ feelings rather than your own,” Aura agreed.

It made perfect sense that rushing into taking a second concubine after barely marrying the first would make that first concubine unhappy. However, if Freya herself demonstrated that, it would disrupt the inner palace in the future and lead to small but repeated murmurings of disagreements between Freya and Lucretia. Additionally, if Freya herself didn’t have some public impetus to “forgive” her, then she would need to keep up a facade of dissatisfaction with Lucretia.

Instead, having her father—King Gustav—or her younger brother, Yngvi, voicing their dissatisfaction from Uppasala would have the correct diplomatic effect without obstructing things in the inner palace as much.

“The problem then, though, is that there would need to be diplomatic ties between Uppasala and the Twin Kingdoms,” Freya commented.

They needed to show a public position of opposition to Lucretia while privately making sure those involved knew it was just that, their public position. For that to happen, there needed to be a firm connection between Uppasala and the Twin Kingdoms.

The mention of diplomatic ties between those two countries made both Zenjirou and Aura fall silent.

“Sir Zenjirou? Your Majesty?” she asked, noticing the unnatural quiet.

The queen cleared her throat. “Indeed. There are things you must know if there are going to be official relations between Uppasala and the Twin Kingdoms.”

“Aura?” Zenjirou spoke up, his eyes asking her if she was really going to say it.

“There is little point in hiding it now. I know it is likely too much to ask, but I want you to listen as calmly as possible. The Twin Kingdoms of Sharou-Gilbelle are descendants of the White Empire.”

“Pardon?” Freya asked rather flatly, not seeming to fully take in the sudden declaration.

Aura and Zenjirou then explained everything they knew about the relationship between the Twin Kingdoms and the White Empire. Zenjirou only knew what they had heard from Lucretia, but Aura had additional information from her private meeting with the former king, Bruno.

Once they had finished, Freya didn’t seem to quite believe what she had heard and shook her head several times as if to clear it. “I do not think either of you would lie in a situation like this, but that is honestly hard to believe. If it is true, then it is serious. Very serious.” Her face was even paler than usual.

The White Empire was seen as a sworn enemy by the biggest country in the west of the Northern Continent, Złota Wolność, and spoken of as a tyrannical nation that had once ruled over the continent through the church. As far as Freya was aware, it was all just legend and myth, and she had never met someone who truly believed it. Additionally, because of how they were spoken of on the Northern Continent, they would instinctively judge any descendants of the White Empire as enemies.

“Whatever the truth is, I will need to return and speak with my father. He will probably—no, definitely—be furious.”

There was a faint smile of grim resolve on her face as she spoke.

Freya had accepted the Lulled Sea as a gift from the Twin Kingdoms, and it had actually been an heirloom from the White Empire. If that was true and the church saw the magic tool, there would be no way of explaining it to them but Uppasala being allied with the remnants of the White Empire.

While she could say she hadn’t known, Freya had still gratefully accepted the Lulled Sea, so it would be hard to fully refute the charge of carelessness on her part.

“Generally, we would welcome a close relationship between Uppasala and the Twin Kingdoms. Of course, I cannot truly leave Capua, but I would appreciate it if you discussed this with King Gustav,” Aura told her.

“Things are a bit too extreme, so I don’t think they will see it as possible to make a decision based solely on secondhand information from me. I believe you should make sure you can discuss things in person with someone given full authority by the king. Either my father himself or my younger brother, I would assume.”

The first prince, Eric, was already part of a neighboring country, so Yngvi was being treated as the crown prince in all but name. In other words, as things stood now, he would be the next king.

Additionally, there was currently only a single simple method for the king or prince of Uppasala—who resided in the far north of the Northern Continent—to communicate with those of the Twin Kingdoms—who lived in the very center of the Southern Continent. The one saving grace was that the conduit for that communication was one of the few people aware of the highly secret information.

Inevitably, that burden would fall on the person in question.

“Zenjirou.”

“Sir Zenjirou.”

The prince consort lifted his hands in surrender at the two women. “Right, got it. I’ll take on the diplomacy mission with Uppasala, so you can relax there. My other duties will suffer, though, so I could do with your support on that front.”

Teleportation was an extremely convenient spell, but it could be too convenient and cause problems for its caster. Since he had learned the spell, Zenjirou had become one of the busiest people in the country.

“Apologies.”

“I apologize for the extra burden.”

Zenjirou waved off his wives’ apologies. With the difficult political conversations over for now, Aura and Freya exchanged meaningful looks before standing in unison.

“Uh, Aura? Freya?”

While Zenjirou watched in confusion, the two women circled around the table and arrived on either side of him.

“Her Majesty told me that serious conversations are held facing each other here, but more relaxed conversations are next to each other, no? May I sit next to you?” Freya asked.

“Aura?” Zenjirou asked, turning the question to his other wife.

“Well, that is the state of things. Can I sit next to you?” she laughed.

It seemed the two of them had already discussed this, so Zenjirou refusing would just make things more complicated.

“Go ahead,” he said instead.

With his permission, they sat on either side of him. To his right was the curtain of red hair covering Aura’s head, while to his left was the shorter curtain of silver covering Freya’s. Neither of them pressed themselves right into him, but they sat quite close to him. Honestly, it was rather bad for his heart to have them both so close that he could feel the warmth coming from them.

When he was with Aura, sitting with her like this was when Zenjirou was at his happiest. He was also quite happy to sit at Freya’s side when he was with her. But having one of them on either side at the same time just seemed to be a weight on his shoulders.

Aura seemed to pick up on his feelings, since she shifted slightly along the sofa, opening up some space between them. Freya followed suit on his opposite side, keeping the same distance from him that Aura was. That let Zenjirou relax, at least.

Aura offered a small chuckle. “Apologies, I suppose we played too much with that. However, there will be more instances where we are sitting like this, so I hope you can get used to it.”

The inner palace was a place where all three of them could relax. If there were no future opportunities to sit like this, that would be bad in and of itself. Zenjirou had thought the seating arrangement had been intended specially for Aura and him to have one-on-one conversations.

“Uh, that’s going to carry on with the three of us? If there’s even one more then it’s going to end up physically impossible for everyone to sit next to me.”

“In that case, I suppose someone will just have to sit in your lap,” Freya suggested.

“Freya?!” Zenjirou yelped.

His silver-haired wife fell back onto the sofa in laughter. “It was a joke. That’s for when we’re alone.”

“Freya,” he repeated, in a lower tone this time.

“Right, sorry,” she apologized.

As Zenjirou let out a sigh, the two women exchanged looks of understanding with each other. The situation they were currently in was putting more pressure on him than they had first assumed.

“Still, we will be living in the same area. We do need to ensure that we continue the sharing of information and concerns,” Aura said, making sure Freya’s joke passed without bothering Zenjirou any further under the guise of getting the conversation back on track.

“You’re right there,” Zenjirou agreed, very much on board with what she was saying.

“Then let us discuss the current situation as frankly as we can,” Aura continued. “The conversation will let us find the discrepancies in how we are seeing things.”

“Right, we found a lot of differences between the two of us in our day-to-day lives.”

“We did indeed. The differences between your and Freya’s values will come up while living together. After all, you will spend every other day in each other’s company. The issue is the differences between myself and her. I would like to discuss those.”

“I see. Then may I ask a somewhat rude question?” Freya interjected.

Zenjirou and Aura straightened in their seats at that.

“What is it?” Aura prompted her.

“What?” Zenjirou asked at the same time.

“Could you tell me about all of the strange items in this room?” As she spoke, Freya cast her gaze around the room, indicating several of the appliances.

“Ah, of course,” Aura responded.

“We should explain,” Zenjirou followed up after exchanging looks with the queen.

The two of them managed to explain the appliances after that. Of course, understanding it based on a verbal explanation was impossible, but Freya was able to understand that they were from Zenjirou’s homeland and that said homeland was far enough away that space-time magic was required to get there, and therefore the culture was completely different to both the Northern and Southern Continents.

“I see. I certainly can’t sense any mana from them. I’m rather surprised this isn’t a magic tool,” she said, crouching in front of one of the appliances as she spoke earnestly.

“Freya, can you close the door instead of just pretending to be impressed so you can keep your face there?” Zenjirou asked, reluctantly amused.

Freya had her face right up against the inside of the freezer and looked like a dog getting its ears scratched. While it wouldn’t have any effect on the electricity bill, leaving the door open had made the fan at its back grow noisy, and leaving it open for much longer would see things start to thaw.

“Come on, Freya,” he added.

“Would you move?” Aura followed up.

“No, just a little longerrrr,” she mewled as Aura pulled her back far enough for Zenjirou to close the door.

Aura tried to get the conversation back on track, but Freya was inching her way towards the fridge-freezer again even now.

“You don’t know when to give in,” Aura commented.

“Just a few more minutes.”

While she was acting and speaking jokingly, the strength she was putting into getting closer was definitely not a joke. Although she had managed to survive the climate so far, the chill from the freezer had apparently wiped away any resistance she’d had.

Aura was stronger and had more stamina, so she could pull her back, but the moment she let go, Freya would launch back towards the appliance, so it was pointless.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, it was Aura who ran out of patience first. She sighed.

“Fine, let us move our conversation elsewhere,” she said, looking towards the door into the bedroom.

“Are you sure?” asked Zenjirou after a beat, surprised.

Aura shrugged. “It makes little difference at this point. We have shown and explained all of the appliances in this room, so hiding one of them is rather pointless.”

“Ah, that wasn’t what I...” Zenjirou started, scratching his head awkwardly.

Aura had assumed he was asking if she was sure they should show the air conditioner in the bedroom to Freya, but he was really asking if they should have her in the bedroom at all. A bedroom was the most private area for a husband and wife. Inviting another woman with whom her husband had a relationship into that room—even if the other woman was officially married to him as well—felt rather immoral to Zenjirou.

That aside, it went without question that the air-conditioned room was the best place to spend the blazing season. In fact, Zenjirou and Aura both ate in the bedroom during that time—if they were eating in the inner palace, of course—so there were a table and chairs in the room as well as a bed.

“I suppose it’s fine,” he decided after a few moments. “Come on, Freya. Don’t worry, it’s just as cool as sitting in front of the freezer.”

As he spoke, Zenjirou stood up and opened the door into the bedroom.

The air-conditioned room was like a whole other world. The wooden shutters were tightly closed to keep the cool air in, so the LED lamps were lighting the space. In this room, and this room alone, it was like the active season rather than the blazing season, along with it being nighttime rather than daytime.

It was the first time Freya had been in such a room, and she was taking deep breaths, almost as if trying to let the cold air sink into her core.

“Sir Zenjirou, I brought a chair,” a maid informed him.

“Ah, thanks. Put it over there,” he responded with a gesture.

Zenjirou and Aura already had chairs of their own, so an extra one meant they could all sit to talk. The chairs in the bedroom were typical of Capua: wicker chairs of wood. They were naturally much less comfortable than the sofas in the living room, but the room as a whole was several times more comfortable than anywhere else as far as Zenjirou was concerned.

Around ninety percent of the reason for that was the cooling from the air conditioning, but the rest was that he didn’t have to sit with both of them right at his side. While they were both his wives, Zenjirou didn’t have the nerve to find sitting between two women comfortable.

“Haaah...”

There was an expression of utter ecstasy on Freya’s face as she sat down. The annex she lived in had magic tools that dispensed a cooling mist, but there was no comparison to an air-conditioned room. Finally being able to sit in a place that wasn’t hot led to her practically drifting off in comfort. Not that Zenjirou couldn’t understand that.

“I’ll move here,” she said eventually.

“That is hardly likely,” Aura replied with an exasperated look.

The room was her and Zenjirou’s bedroom. Normally, Freya wouldn’t be welcome here in the first place. Despite that, the three of them would be able to relax as they talked in the cooler area.

“I enjoy mulled wine, but I hadn’t thought I would get the chance to have any on the Southern Continent. I think it would work in this room, though.”

It was like someone enjoying a hearty stew in the middle of summer because of the room itself being chilled with air conditioning. Or from the other side, like enjoying an ice cream in the depths of winter because you were bundled up warm.

Zenjirou couldn’t fault her—and was in fact rather impressed—at someone so new to the concept immediately jumping to an “advanced” way of enjoying the extra cooling.

Meanwhile, having been born and raised on the Southern Continent, Aura couldn’t see the appeal of purposefully heating up alcohol before drinking it.

“Hm, I personally prefer drinking chilled alcohol. The brandy Zenjirou gave me was wonderful.”

“Well, it was a particularly expensive one,” Zenjirou explained. “It cost about ten times as much as the whiskey I brought for myself.”

“Brandy and whiskey? You have those in your homeland, Sir Zenjirou?”

The Northern Continent already had distillation for similar kinds of drinks. However, it hadn’t even been a century since they had come up with them, so they were a relatively new type of drink. That meant there was still a lot of trial and error, so while some of the products were decent, many of them were rather unappetizing.

“Wine would be my choice,” Freya decided. “I like mead too, but production levels are fairly low, so I only have it on special occasions.”

“Right, the drink from the wedding. It was a rather strange one. It wasn’t unpleasant, but it almost felt like a trick when I drank it.”

His impressions were understandable. The mead Uppasala favored was a deep golden color and smelled of honey, but it wasn’t particularly sweet. It wasn’t a bad flavor, but the first sight and sniff of it had you expecting a sweet honey taste, so the sharpness on the tongue disconcerted him before he could enjoy the taste itself.

“Well, scent and appearance are a big part of drinks,” Aura commented. “Speaking of appearances, the drink you brought back with you looks particularly intriguing.”

Zenjirou knocked a fist into his palm in remembrance at Aura’s statement. “Oh yeah, the one with gold in it from Marquis Pomorskie. It definitely is sort of interesting. The herbal scent and the flavor make it a bit of an acquired taste, though.”

As far as Zenjirou was concerned, the gold-imbued alcohol was something he might occasionally fancy, but not something he’d drink on the regular.

“It’s really rare,” Freya added. “If you served it on the Northern Continent, it’d start the conversation all on its own.”

Zenjirou laughed. “King Gustav said as much,” he replied, remembering the king’s response to it while he was in Uppasala.

“That’s right, you spoke with my father alone. Did he...perhaps say anything about me?”

There was no woman who wouldn’t be curious about such a conversation between her husband and father. Zenjirou thought back on the meeting before shaking his head.

“Hm...well, he had a few things to say, but nothing I can repeat here.”

The private discussion between the two of them had taken place with the understanding that anything they spoke of was not to be repeated elsewhere. That was all he’d really meant, but the phrasing and timing were awful.

“Father made comments?!”

Her reaction was hardly a surprise. Said reaction also served to make Zenjirou realize just how meaningfully his remark had been taken, but it was too late now.

“Ah, no, I didn’t mean anything like that,” he said hurriedly. “We just agreed to keep what we talked about to ourselves. That’s really all it was, nothing major.” At this point, though, he was just digging himself deeper.

“It’s a misunderstanding. I was somewhat of a handful when I was younger, but I’m much better now!” Freya cried. There were a rather large number of things that she could see her father telling Zenjirou about her.

She had never exactly been the ideal princess, not for as long as she could remember. She was well aware of the number of hardships she’d put her parents through. She also didn’t regret her past, but accepting her husband being told about it was a completely different matter.

“Yeah, it’s fine, honestly.”

Indeed, nothing that Gustav had said during that meeting about her was particularly objectionable. The closest thing would have been him asking Zenjirou if he really wanted to marry Freya.

“Okay...”

While she had let it go, the look in her eyes said that the misunderstanding was definitely still in place. Zenjirou might not be the most observant of people, but even he could see that. Regardless, he knew continuing the topic was just going to cause more issues, so he purposefully changed course.

“Incidentally, you use the sauna quite a bit. I guess you prefer it to a warm bath?”

The subject change was as subtle as a brick, and Freya didn’t hide the unhappy look on her face even as she allowed it.

“I do. I don’t dislike baths, but I’m more used to using a sauna, and I prefer them, particularly given how hot it is at present. Cooling off completely in the water before warming up in the sauna is wonderful.”

At her suggestion, the water in the cold bath had been set up to constantly flow, making it even cooler. Freya sometimes made use of it during the day when the mist tools weren’t doing enough for her.

“This room is even better, though,” she added, a blatantly pleading look on her face.

“Not happening,” Aura replied curtly, utterly unmoved.

The queen saw Freya as someone she wanted to be on good terms with—both in a political and a familial sense—but not good enough to share a bedroom with. Her willingness to temporarily allow Freya access when she was flagging particularly hard in the heat was extremely open-minded, considering they had married the same man.

“A shame,” Freya replied with a shrug.

A conversation involving only the three of them—husband, legitimate wife, and concubine—alone was normally unheard of. Aura and Freya were both logical enough in general to make it possible, but if they weren’t careful, it could cause problems in the future. Zenjirou was constantly warning himself about that, which made it seem like he was being rather too serious about these things from the women’s perspectives.

“I don’t dislike the sauna, but I’d have to say the normal baths are the best. That was the thing I missed most after my own bed while we were on the ship,” Zenjirou admitted.

“That voyage was blessed. The purification tool and static flame meant that we could clean off fairly regularly. I can agree about the bed, though. I couldn’t believe it.”

Even Freya, who had traveled by sea before, had found the sleeping situation a hardship. Talking about the ship made Zenjirou remember one of his thoughts on the trip.

“What about a hammock, then? You use rope and fabric like this to make a bed,” he said, gesturing as he spoke. “They used them in my world to sleep at sea in the past.”

Every time he’d bashed his head on the cots, Zenjirou had thought that a hammock would be better. Once he’d arrived, though, his return trip being by magic meant that he’d completely forgotten to suggest it. He was no exception to the saying “out of sight, out of mind.”

On the other hand, it would certainly be something Freya would have to contend with in the future. Once her positions in the Capuan palaces were secure, she was eager to get back out to sea.

“I see...you have the fabric hanging from the ceiling to absorb the ship’s swaying. It holds you in place as well while making it less likely you’ll hit things like the cots. I have to admit the strength of the rope, fabric, and where they’re fixed would be a concern.”

It went without saying, but if a hammock that was in use broke, the person using it could get hurt. If it happened frequently, sticking with the cots would be much better.

“It sounds like a lot to consider,” Aura commented, being unfamiliar with the specifics of sailing.

“Well, why not test it out once the Glasir’s Leaf arrives in Valentia?”

The comment was just meant to just carry the conversation along, but he very much hadn’t expected how Freya would respond.

“Well...I suppose that could work. Right,” she said, almost pained.

“Is there a problem?” Zenjirou asked in concern.

It wasn’t something she was going to hide, so she answered honestly. “The Glasir’s Leaf is a ship of Uppasala. Now that I have married you, I am a Capuan.”

“Ah, right.”

It made sense now she told him. The four-masted ship belonged to the country, not to Freya personally.

“Their precious first princess got married,” Aura remarked jokingly. “The least they could do is offer a ship and sailors for your newlywed life.”

Aura knew how ridiculous the comment was, but Freya frowned as she responded.

“Don’t be absurd. Unlike Capua, Uppasala is a poor nation. The Glasir’s Leaf is the only ship they have that can freely cross the continents.”

They technically had another, Naglfar, which also had four masts, but that was their flagship. It was a symbol of the crown, not something they could just send off into the waves. It went without saying how valuable the Glasir’s Leaf was as they moved towards intercontinental trade with Capua.

“I get it,” Zenjirou said before pausing for a moment. “Wait, you said you wanted to head out to sea again, right? What are you doing for a ship and crew?”

It was a natural question, and Freya leaped at the chance.

“Exactly! So...” That was as far as she got before she turned completely to face Aura. “Give me a ship please?”

She was almost like a child begging for a snack.

“Hm? That mostly falls to you,” Aura replied. “We cannot make intercontinental ships. The majority of those with the skills to do so are currently on precisely that ship en route here. Half of the ships are being gifted to Uppasala to pay for those techniques, so perhaps you could borrow one of them.”

Freya didn’t hide her annoyance with the feigned ignorance. “I just said, I’m already part of Capua. Fath— King Gustav will not hand over one of his precious ships, and I won’t misdirect my requests like that.”

“Well, I will certainly admit you do not have a lack of direction,” Aura replied with a meaningful look at Zenjirou.

He was purposefully looking away—with a reluctant smile—as if to insist it had nothing to do with him. Aura purposefully didn’t explain any further. Doing so would possibly counteract Freya’s consideration.

Freya asking Aura for a ship—whether as a joke or as part of an actual negotiation—was no real problem, but involving Zenjirou would make things more complicated. If he was stuck between his wife and concubine, who were discussing things with the amount of money and influence involved in intercontinental trade, Zenjirou would need to disagree with one of them.

Once she knew Zenjirou wasn’t going to comment, Aura continued slightly more seriously. “Well, I understand how much ships mean to you. Therefore, I am willing to give you one of the ships that will be made in Valentia.”

“Really?!” Freya asked, almost jumping out of her seat, her hands on the table.

Aura’s voice, though, was much calmer. “Really. However, all I can offer you is the ship itself. There are already prior agreements, so it will be the third ship at the earliest. Additionally, I want you to arrange the sailors yourself. Honestly, I would rather rely on you for personnel.”

Uppasala was offering a number of people for training and general use, but that number was limited. There were not enough of them that Aura could offer any of them to Freya.

“Personnel? The only connections I have personally are the sailors from the Glasir’s Leaf. However, they will know many others. They might be able to point me in the right direction.”

She likely wouldn’t be able to take on the people she knew personally, but they might be able to introduce her to others. It wasn’t a bad suggestion, but there were some questions about it.

“Do you need to get the sailors themselves to introduce you? Couldn’t we just ask King Gustav or someone from their navy instead?”

Aura responded before Freya. “That method would be a discussion between the two countries. If Princess Freya suggests it, it would be outside of that, no?”

Freya nodded. “Exactly. My goal isn’t necessarily to get sailors from Uppasala. There are sailors from many countries that either have no citizenship, or have no real patriotism. In particular, I want to aim for skilled sailors who have lost their ships. I would most like someone who is on the level of a captain.”

Her explanation was reasonable but somewhat lacking. Normally, in sea travel—particularly intercontinental sea travel—the ship was a sailor’s life. If the ship sank, so did they. However, there were exceptions where the ship might sink but the sailors survived. If a ship was passing by the area where another sank, if the escape boats were able to reach land, or if the ship sank in port were all situations where a sailor might survive.

However, surviving was not necessarily a blessing. The ship sinking meant the voyage was a failure, and also that they had lost all of their cargo. A captain who outright owned the ship and cargo would not be overly harmed, but such a situation was a rarity. In most cases, the ships were bought with a loan, or else the cargo was entrusted to them by some trading company. With the ship and cargo lying on the seabed, all that would be left was their debts.

“There must be at least a small number of captains or officers who have the skills and experience but have lost their ships and are in debt. Unfortunately, Uppasala has only just begun intercontinental trade, so as odd as it sounds to say it, they haven’t had anyone fail like that. We will need to look in other nations’ ports to find people. Those of Złota Wolność are promising.”

Sailors, particularly those who went on long trips between different countries were often not very aware of national borders. Some of them would be willing to work on another nation’s ships if they were asked. Many of them would probably get cold feet when they found out the Southern Continent was the destination, but she thought some of them would accept.

“Are you sure about this?” Zenjirou asked. “Some of them were probably just unlucky, but it sounds like others would just not have the skill.”

As far as he was concerned, there was no issue with the former, but he’d hesitate to recruit the latter, and that was why he’d asked. However, this was another point where their perspectives differed fundamentally.

“Of course. An unskilled sailor can be trained, but I’d honestly rather avoid unlucky captains. Still, this isn’t the kind of situation where I can afford to be picky with.”

“Huh?”

Freya looked back in question at the sound of Zenjirou’s surprise, making one of her own when he didn’t seem to be on the same wavelength.

“Uh, the unlucky ones are worse? I’d have thought that since it wasn’t a failure of their skills, you’d prefer them.”

“Well, there’s no way to improve luck, so I’d have thought it would be better to go for the less skilled, since they can theoretically improve.”

It was simply a matter of how much they trusted in “luck.” Zenjirou didn’t see how lucky someone was as being intrinsic to their character. Of course, he knew that there were people who had been exceptionally lucky or unlucky in the end, but it was just that—a symptom.

Meanwhile, Freya saw luck as something people either had or didn’t. There were people who were lucky and others who were unlucky, and that amount of luck could not be changed as easily as their abilities or knowledge.

Therefore Zenjirou had no concern about sailors whose ships had been lost due to bad luck because they weren’t responsible. Whether they’d been unlucky before, whether that would continue, was just as likely for them as it was anyone else. However, Freya did have those concerns because she saw it as an intrinsic part of who they were, which could not be improved.

The two of them knew they had different views and ways of thinking, but the way they reacted to it was different for both of them.

“Ah, I get it. I can see how you could think about it like that. Guess that’s just one of those differences we hadn’t thought about,” was Zenjirou’s simple response.

“Um, you’d ignore luck? I couldn’t really...” was Freya’s, showing some reluctance towards his thinking. Or rather, she considered it outright unthinkable rather than feeling reluctant about it.

Freya was a logical person, but she had also sailed in what was essentially the age of sailing. Superstitions would inevitably take hold, and that was no surprise. A wooden ship was very little in the face of the open ocean. Even the Glasir’s Leaf, the pinnacle of the Northern Continent’s engineering, was not all that different. The seas were too strong, and there wasn’t much that a human could do against them. That made differences in luck more important to sailors than slight differences in skill.

Assuming that luck was intrinsic, Freya’s opinion was correct. She believed that luck itself did exist like that, so she couldn’t understand Zenjirou’s opinion in the slightest.

“Uh, well it’s not so much that I’m ignoring it as just considering it superstition,” he said. Getting her understanding on this would probably be difficult, so he just conceded. “Well, they’ll be your sailors, so I guess you should pick what makes the most sense to you.”

Regardless of his belief in luck, he knew how important superstitions were. It could influence the morale of sailors who believed in such things.

“Well, the problem is the budget...” Freya began, looking towards Aura. It was the right choice; for any member of the royal family, the purse strings really were in the hands of the family head— in this case, Aura.

The queen gave an exaggerated shrug before replying. “The Alcott duchy’s budget should fund it. You will need to consider whether to prioritize the development of the land or your ship,” she offered unconcernedly.

Freya couldn’t help but pout in response. “Come on; you could offer an extra allowance for it,” she pressed. “It will definitely help the country.”

Upon marrying Zenjirou, she had become Freya Alcott Capua, simultaneously part of the Capuan royal family and Duchess Alcott. Alcott was the name of a coastal area of Capua, and was the territory she had been granted after becoming Zenjirou’s concubine. At present, it was an unoccupied region of coast, but it had the potential to be a good port. Capua—by way of its queen, Aura—had allowed its development, assigning both funds and personnel to it.

Freya wanted to make Alcott into the national port. Incidentally, although Aura was an investor, she wanted to make the already established Valentia the national port and have Alcott effectively be a huge shipyard instead.

Aura was both queen of the country and the Duchess of Valentia, while Freya was both a former princess of Uppasala and the Duchess of Alcott, so while both of them benefiting was certainly possible, it was also inevitable that they would clash on occasion.

While this was just a joking argument here, an official agreement between the two of them could alter the national budget by several percentage points, so an onlooker would see it as an intense discussion.

“My apologies, but our own budget is limited as well. We need to save where we can.”

“That’s untrue; even your personal funds are probably a few years of Uppasala’s budget. Between the three of us, Alcott’s yearly budget alone is far more than the Uppasalan Navy’s.”

Freya had had an intuitive sense of it before, but now that she was Zenjirou’s concubine, she got to see the numbers and knew the truth of the matter. Of course, Aura was perpetually worried about the budget. As far as Freya was concerned, though, that was a luxury, if anything.

“Yeah, guess that’s the difference in country size,” Zenjirou remarked to himself as he watched Freya bemoan it.

It didn’t seem all that strange to him. He didn’t know the details, but he remembered that even on Earth, the richest people in the world could have the same kinds of budgets as small and medium countries.

On top of that, the laws in Capua meant that the separation between the state, the royal family, and the monarch was vague at best, so it would make sense that the money Aura could personally spend would outstrip a smaller nation’s budget.

Despite that understanding, he cocked his head in thought. “That said, I thought Capua’s budget wasn’t in the best state right now?”

He had seen at least some of the economic reports. Using them, he could see that the damage of the war had yet to be repaired. The lack of adult men the period of strife had caused was not easy to fix.

Aura admitted it as well. “That is true. Naval exports and our mines are producing much the same as before the war, and even land-based exports are getting better, but we still have a labor shortage in farming, and rebuilding the population is not simple.”

That was why she was ensuring that orphans were as protected as possible and gave preferential treatment to families who had lost the man of the house. As long as there were enough children, the workforce should recover within five to ten years. That was in the near future, though, not the present. If anything, the money going into that policy was itself a burden on the treasury.

“Oh, I see. Recovery is still ongoing,” Freya commented somewhat flatly. “I am glad for you.”

She had most definitely had enough of the topic, seeing just how vast the gulf between their two countries was. There was no getting around it, though. Capua was—in terms of land, population, and output—completely beyond Uppasala. To put it more directly, Capua had been blessed with the land and water needed for vast amounts of food and had grown in accordance with that, while Uppasala had eked out its survival in more barren, harsher regions and had therefore quickly plateaued in terms of population.

“Freya, if King Gustav’s plans for direct trade go well, Uppasala will become richer as well,” Zenjirou consoled her.

However, Aura added a comment of her own. “That will mean that things are going well here too, so the gap between us will not close.”

Freya made a noise and gave a look rather like a puppy that had just had its toy taken away. Aura patted her on the back with a rueful smile.

“I understand how you feel, and I will not insist you change your thoughts immediately, but you are not a princess of Uppasala any longer. You are part of the Capuan royal family, so do not focus solely on improving things for Uppasala.”

“Ah, right. My apologies,” Freya answered immediately. It was a difficult situation, though. Even in the modern day, if you changed citizenship via marriage, many people would still support their original country in the Olympics or the World Cup rather than their current home.

Although the degree was different, it could be similar to changing between prefectures. Assuming you lived in a rural area until after high school before going off to Tokyo for university and settling down to have kids, you were probably more likely to support your hometown than Tokyo in high school baseball games. For the common folk, you could just write it off as “how people were,” but when you were a royal controlling national government and spending, it was not so easy to dismiss. At the least, any decisions had to be “somewhat partial” to Uppasala at most.

“As harsh as it may sound, I would like you not to disclose those feelings even to those close to you,” Aura said.

Though her words were somewhat harsh, they were not false. It went without saying that the people closest to Freya right now were the maids she had brought with her from Uppasala. If she continued to behave as an Uppasalan princess in conversation with people from the same country, only they would end up united, and in a bad way.

Freya was aware of this as well. “Ah, of course. But with just the two of you, surely it’s fine? I’d like to let things out a little on occasions like this.”

The statement was proof of her trust in them, and Aura’s mouth quirked up into a smile at that.

“If no one but Zenjirou, Lady Skaji, or I are with you, then do as you wish.” Aura nodded. It was better for her and Zenjirou to know how Freya felt, and Skaji was too close to the princess. If she couldn’t express herself freely at least around Skaji then it would start to wear on her mentally.

“Thank you.”

Zenjirou felt rather overwhelmed seeing the two royals discussing the limitations of what one could say even in private.

“International marriage for royals sure is something,” he commented. “I thought it was much less serious.”

Freya laughed at his impressed statement. “For countries like Uppasala with no lineal magic, these marriages are common. There are even some countries that have lineal magic—like the Kingdom of Graz—that practice such marriages regardless.”

Due to that, there was the odd caster who could use the Graz family’s lineal magic—expansion magic—across many different royal families.

“Because of that, female royals like us are brought up under the assumption that we will someday marry into another country. The men are usually kept within their own lands, though there are exceptions, like Eric.”

There was therefore some degree of tolerance when it came to becoming royalty of another country. There were good and bad sides to that. One benefit was that their citizens were prepared for it and able to act as part of another country’s royal family. One disadvantage, however, was that unless the educators in the country were particularly honest, there would be a rooted sense of belonging to Uppasala.

Zenjirou and Aura had both noticed that. While they trusted Freya’s logic and honesty, they knew that they could not trust her wholeheartedly.

“Hm, that is rather different than the Southern Continent, where we do all we can to keep lineal magic within the nation. Can we assume that the palace in Uppasala is therefore somewhere that foreigners can easily integrate into?” Aura asked, a hand on her chin.

Freya purposefully frowned slightly before shaking her head. “Normally, that would be the case, but I would have to say that the answer is likely not in the sense that you are asking, unfortunately. While marriage into other royal families is common, it is within the same cultural sphere. For Uppasala, that would be the five animistic countries in the north—though Utgard is somewhat of an exception—and not really any other nations. Royal families with strong influence from the church are similar in that they only marry into other families with the same tendencies, although, as I mentioned, there are exceptions like the Kingdom of Graz, whose royals marry into all countries. Ofus is another kingdom that is part of the five nations in the north but where around twenty percent of its citizens are members of the church. Capua, being from the Southern Continent, has a different cultural sense than all of them, so I cannot say that it would be easy for someone to integrate. Was that what you wanted to ask?”

The queen gave the silver-haired princess a brief nod at her question. That was exactly what she had wished to ask. One of her major concerns was whether someone from Capua would be accepted if they married into the northern kingdom. With the answer being “no,” the frequency of international marriages within the northern countries was essentially irrelevant.

“Oh, are you talking about Prince Yngvi?” Zenjirou asked, coming to an understanding.

The prince was Freya’s twin brother and likely to be the next king. There were also rumors that he was interested in taking a concubine from Capua.

Of course, those rumors had been purposefully spread by diplomats from Uppasala. The rumors themselves were meant to see how Capua would react. Naturally, they had reached both Aura and Zenjirou.

“Indeed. It is not an awful suggestion for the Capuan royal family. However, that relies on the safety of whoever we send.”

Her reddish-brown eyes were directed to Freya, questioning. The princess took a slight breath before answering.

“I imagine that it will certainly be difficult. Someone from the Southern Continent will stand out due to their skin color, their hair color, and even their eye color. Additionally, as you know, Sir Zenjirou, the Northern Continent has a tendency to look down on those from the Southern Continent,” she said plainly.

Zenjirou had visited both the commonwealth and Uppasala, so he had somewhat experienced that. Of course, in his case, he had been vouched for by a member of a Northern Continent’s royal family, so he was treated as such in general. Even so, there was a minority who had shown hints of disdain towards him. This disparagement was not on concrete grounds like Eric’s judgment of his aptitude. It was people seeing those from the Northern Continent as inherently superior to those from the Southern Continent.

“Yeah, there were a fair few people looking down their noses. I was officially considered royalty and only there for a while, but they were still there, so a girl from some noble family would probably see less of a welcome.”

Zenjirou was rather concerned about it with his fundamentally being a normal person from modern Earth. While he understood intellectually how important the politics were, he couldn’t ignore the emotional burden on either member of such a marriage.

Somewhat surprisingly to him, Aura felt the same way. But while Zenjirou’s resilience was due to his emotional reaction, Aura’s was due to knowing from experience that forcing a political marriage would do more harm than good.

“Hm, then we will have to be cautious. I have already heard some from Zenjirou, but I would like to hear your thoughts, Princess Freya. What kind of person is Prince Yngvi?” Aura asked, before allowing silence to persist as Freya considered the matter.

Freya maintained the silence for a few moments after the question.

“Well, while this includes some of my familiar biases, I consider Yngvi someone you can trust. Though I will admit that he is somewhat strange for a member of a royal family.”

“‘Strange’ like yourself?” Aura asked.

“Not in the same way. But, well, to the same extent at least.”

“So simply trusting him without question is risky.”

“That’s rather rude!” Freya protested with a hurt look. However, Zenjirou didn’t entirely disagree and therefore kept silent.

Meanwhile, Aura dealt with Freya’s protest. “It is a fair assessment. It makes finalizing a decision rather difficult, though. If Prince Yngvi were as uninhibited as yourself, I would fear sending any concubine.”

If a noble married Yngvi, her most reliable ally would be the prince in question. If said prince was as flighty as Freya, it would increase the danger level for any concubine all the more.

However, Freya dismissed those concerns entirely. “Oh. That wouldn’t be an issue. That isn’t what makes him off. His interests lie in the direction of the kingdom itself. He desires to further the country such that it can lead the way. Therefore, while a concubine from Capua will strengthen the country, he will treat her in good faith.”

Aura tilted her head in question. What Freya was saying would be considered cold calculation for a common person, but still good faith for a royal.

“Hm? What is strange about that?” she asked. Aura was a royal born and raised, so nothing Freya had said sounded off to her. All she could imagine was a completely normal royal.

However, Freya’s brow furrowed slightly. “Well...it certainly sounds like that... How to put it? Yngvi...goes somewhat beyond the pale. The very act of wishing for a concubine from the Southern Continent would be utterly unthinkable by the norms of royalty on the Northern Continent.”

“Hmm...” Aura mused. “In other words, he would be an ambitious soul who goes too far?” As she spoke, the visage of her own marshal floated up in her mind. If Yngvi was of a similar ilk, she would need to pick any concubine with great care.

“I don’t think I’d call it ambition. It’s simpler and childishly straightforward. That’s what makes it a problem.”

“Ah, I see. I can certainly agree that he sounds somewhat like you, albeit in a different way.”

“Must you be so rude?”

“It is a fair assessment.”

Zenjirou watched the surprisingly friendly conversation between his wife and concubine, a reluctant smile on his face.

“Still, we need to know more about the prince before this progresses any further,” he said, joining the conversation. “Maybe I should be spending more time there?”

He would be there one way or another already. Due to the information regarding the Twin Kingdoms and the White Empire, finishing up the trade agreements and gathering more information about the continent as a whole was important. He could use those occasions to actively seek Yngvi out and get some idea of the kind of person he was.

The queen considered the suggestion for a while before offering one of her own. “I would appreciate that. However, if I could, I would prefer to take his measure directly.”

“Then we could have him here for a while like Prince Eric. Of course, that relies on their permission.”

Freya clapped at that. “That would be good. Yngvi would jump at the chance. A husband or wife temporarily visiting their partner’s country is somewhat common for international marriages on the Northern Continent.”

It was a custom resulting from marriages among royalty and nobility across borders being a relatively established practice in the North. Of course, that was on the continent. A royal—the next in line to the throne, no less—would normally only be so concerned about his first wife. For that reason, Yngvi visiting the Southern Continent even briefly for a concubine would normally be far from realistic. However, Yngvi was, according to Freya, odd enough that he would happily leave any common sense or norms behind to further his goals.

“Aura?” Zenjirou asked just in case.

She nodded. “Indeed. Move things towards having Prince Yngvi visit here once. We shall prepare for it if he accepts.”

“If you’re preparing, then make sure he has a mist generator in his first room. Uppasalans need a lifeline against the blazing season here,” Freya said quickly.

Aura gave another small nod. “I understand.”

Normally, a magic tool was not so easily arranged. They would need to provide Francesco or Bona with a marble, but they could not reveal that in front of Freya. While Freya might be part of Capua now, that didn’t mean they would—or could—reveal the latest developments in Capuan technology or a secret that the Twin Kingdoms had kept for decades.

“While I cannot guarantee it will be ready in time, I will attempt to make the arrangements.”

Even as she offered the proviso, Aura planned to have Yngvi spend at least a single night without the relief of the mist generator. The “winter” that Uppasala had was completely incomprehensibly harsh to someone from Capua. While they were complete opposites in specifics, assuming the blazing season was just as harsh for someone from Uppasala, having Yngvi experience it would go a long way towards future understanding.

Besides, unlike Freya and the ambassador, who would both be in Capua for years to come, they could simply wait to invite Yngvi until the active season if they wanted to avoid the problem.

Aura purposely avoided any such suggestion. Slightly unfair though it may be, she was perfectly willing to use some low-risk methods to increase their chances.