Risou no Himo Seikatsu - Volume 15 - Chapter 1.4

Intermission — Private Discussion Between King and Prince

Several days after what could justifiably be called a historic conversation between Zenjirou, Yngvi, and Representative Rök in Utgard, Yngvi was in a room in Uppasala’s royal palace, Valaskjálf. He was joined by King Gustav and no one else. It was a top secret meeting between the two.

“That sums it up, father,” Yngvi said, now finished relaying the events of the meeting. “Both we and Capua have assigned space in the city, and my brother-in-law obtained permission to use teleportation to and from it. Utgard is now far closer.”

The king remained silent, shutting his eyes as he mulled over everything that had happened. Then he shook his head to clear it. “I hardly know what to say. I may have been calling this an era of change and revolution, but this is drastic...” He couldn’t contain the soft complaint.

“If you find yourself not keeping up, then you can hand over the throne at any moment. You have a reliable successor right here.”

“I intend to do so as soon as I have made my successor reliable,” Gustav answered curtly as his son pointed at himself with a grin.

Yngvi’s face dropped into a very put-on look of disappointment before he shrugged. “Very well, I will continue my efforts. On that note, I will be going to Capua. I can, can I not, father?” Yngvi’s trip there as the next king of Uppasala was to fulfill his claim of taking a bride from Capua.

“Very well. Even disregarding a connection with Utgard—or even if we focus solely on that—a link with the Capuan royal family and their space-time magic is indispensable. Remember that your first wife must be from within Uppasala, or at least the royal families of the Northern Continent.”

With that rather obvious reminder from his father, the prince considered for a moment and then sought confirmation. “Taking the woman from Capua as my first bride is not an option, then, is it?”

“Of course not. If you did, your reign would be pulling Uppasala away from both the influence of the church and the northern five. If the woman was a direct member of the Capuan royal family, you may be able to sway their views, but you cannot wait until Princess Juana is of age.”

There were currently only two female royals belonging to Capua. Aura—being both married and the nation’s monarch—was naturally out of the question. The only other one was Juana, who was still a baby. That meant that the highest-ranked woman that Yngvi could marry would be a member of the high nobility at best. Taking into account their precautions against lineal magic leaving the nation meant that even they may not be an option.

The Northern Continent tended to look down on the Southern Continent. If Uppasala had a noble from there as their first queen with the second and third being from their own nobility, you could practically guarantee no one else would send their nobility there. Indeed, even domestic prospects for a second and third wife could be rather slim in that case.

The young prince ought to have been well aware of that. Despite that knowledge, however, his desire to strengthen his country was such that he had been considering a first wife from Capua. Gustav was by no means enough of a fool to miss the implications.

“Speak. How much value do you see in Capua? Enough to make clear enemies of the church? Enough to risk parting from the rest of the five?”

Yngvi remained silent in the face of the harsh rebuke for a few moments. Eventually, he shook his head, sending his hair—long for a man—swishing from side to side. “No, not that much value. Very well, father. Whoever I wed from Capua will be at most my second or third wife. I will search for a woman who will be able to fulfill that role.” There was the extra implication that if he could not find such a woman, he would give up. Yngvi then continued, “I leave the choice of my first wife from here to you, father. However, my conditions are the same as the second wife from Capua.”

“Of course,” the king agreed.

The conditions being the same did not mean that they would be equal. Instead, it meant that just as his second wife from Capua must be able to abide by her position as his second wife, the first wife must act in a manner befitting his first. In other words, she must not treat his second wife as inferior solely for being from the Southern Continent.

Indeed, as Gustav had said, it was a natural condition. Their first princess, Freya, had married into the Capuan royal family as a concubine, and Yngvi taking a second wife from Capua showed just how Uppasala viewed that nation at a glance. If, despite that, his first wife did not treat the marriage with his second wife as legitimate solely due to her origin, it was quite right to consider it a failure to uphold her position.

“Still,” Gustav murmured, his brow creasing, “a first wife willing to accept a second from Capua? That will be no mean feat.”

It was hardly a surprise. The disdain for the Southern Continent was practically ingrained. Of course, most royals and nobles would be able to treat a temporary guest well, but a fellow wife would require a much longer and closer relationship. It would be necessary for someone to hide their feelings for decades no matter how they truly felt—a rarity, to be sure—or someone who truly did not have negative feelings about the Southern Continent—even more of a rarity.

“Maybe we should look to Graz as well?”

The Kingdom of Graz was a nation that, despite its position within the church’s sphere of influence, proactively pursued marriages with even the animistic countries of the Northern Continent.

“Do not even joke about it. Our country will become a second Ofus,” the king rebuked him lowly.

While around twenty percent of Ofus’s population followed the dragon faith, Uppasala was almost entirely animistic, so the royal family inviting someone from the church’s religion would invite significant backlash from the populace. The next king taking someone from the dragon faith as his first wife and someone from the Southern Continent as his second would never be accepted.

Yngvi himself knew that. He let out a deep sigh but still agreed. “So it’s definitely not an option, then. I really wish it was. They’re the only country willing to let their lineal magic spread.”

Graz’s royal family had lineal magic but made no effort to keep it within their borders. Instead, they proactively sought out international marriages for their royals.

“This is all your greed coming to the fore. You think too highly of yourself. Learn the difference between what you can do and what you can definitely do. If the possibility of an unrecoverable error is there, you should only wager on the latter,” the king scolded him harshly.

“Right, father.” Yngvi ducked his head slightly and reflected. Although he definitely wanted to rally against the reprimand, he also remembered a vast array of incidents where his father’s remonstrations had been valid. He therefore restrained himself and accepted what the king had to say before shifting topics. “Then our aim is to get all the benefits we can from Capua. Actually, depending on the circumstances, that could be from Zenjirou directly.”

“Indeed, I can see the country’s importance. Even just with what Eric and Freya have said, they are most certainly a powerful nation. This incident with Utgard also guarantees that they will have a massive impact on the five nations. Their teleportation is a huge consideration. In that respect, I can see the importance you are placing upon Sir Zenjirou as the only person capable of practically using it. That is not the only thing you are implying, though, is it?”

Yngvi’s lips curled up into a crescent at that. “Indeed it is not. I relayed how we flew in the sleigh Utgard provided, but he also spoke of aerial combat. He considered the most important factors to be altitude, speed, and turning circle. He referred to it as common knowledge.” Yngvi began to chuckle.

“Common knowledge? Aerial combat?” The king’s eyes narrowed.

“That’s right. I didn’t notice it until much later, but it’s also not just theoretical knowledge. He has flown before.”

His reaction would have been otherwise inexplicable. The whole interior had initially been a uniform gray, with the panel deactivated. Despite that, Zenjirou had said with certainty that they were flying.

With the benefit of hindsight, Yngvi could understand the claim. When the sleigh had started moving, the force he’d felt had been diagonal. When you moved horizontally, the force matched it, so with the direction to the floor having changed, the motion itself would be diagonally up. In other words, flight. That was only in hindsight, though.

“The takeoff, landing, and even the flight itself were so smooth. Honestly, until he mentioned it, I hadn’t even realized we were moving, let alone flying. He also used the magic writing in the center of the sleigh to dim the lights and make the walls transparent. He was clearly used to manipulating them, or something similar at the very least.”

“So he is familiar with flight? Do you believe it possible to attain flight ourselves with his knowledge?”

The prince shook his head in slight surprise at the question. “Hardly. That would be almost too convenient. I also doubt it is something possible with just his knowledge. After all, Capua would have already developed such options if it were.”

It made sense after considering it. Yngvi himself had, as a royal, learned how to control a carriage or ship, and even how to perform simple maintenance or repairs on them. However, if you asked him to build one from scratch, he’d have to raise his hands in defeat. Flying vehicles would require just as much specialized skill, if not more, by his reckoning.

“I do not want something so direct from him. It’s something much more vague. He has a huge amount of cultural knowledge, skills, and biases that are utterly different from both the Northern Continent’s technology and the Southern Continent’s magic. The majority of it will not be things we can put to immediate use, but I believe that among it all might be the key to advancing our own skills.”

For better or worse, Yngvi was a pragmatic person. However great the unknown knowledge might be, if it wouldn’t directly strengthen the nation, he would show no interest. Conversely, if it could help them, he would be voracious and flexible.

Gustav was a wise king and saw it as both a boon and a potential curse. The prince’s willingness to utterly spurn tradition and the past for the sake of his country would be a great aid to steering the nation through the unrest facing the Northern Continent. But there was also a concern that focusing too directly on strengthening the nation would lead to him overlooking or outright ignoring other factors.

He thought little of the military zeal of the country’s warriors and would demand to hear what benefits the research at the university would provide. For a leader, that showed a lack of development. Things that seemed meaningless at first glance could form the foundation of the future, and the younger man hadn’t yet realized that ignoring such options could stifle the country in the much longer term. That was exactly why his current position was all the more remarkable.

“You mentioned that he laid the groundwork for an exclusive trade deal with Utgard. The five nations may be excluded from it, but do you see it as acceptable?”

The sharp question beneath the words of whether they truly had to surrender so much to Zenjirou was heard by the prince.

“Honestly, rather than see it as acceptable, I had to accept it. Although I could have likely interjected, it would have damaged our relationship significantly. I made the judgment that it was not so dire that I needed to take the risk.”

“Significant damage? Did you not remark that he was far more mild-mannered and tolerant than usual for nobility? I do agree with you on that, though.”

Yngvi’s blue eyes closed slightly as he nodded. “I did say that, and my opinion has not changed. If anything, joining him on this trip made me utterly certain of that opinion. I believed it possible for interference to pose a problem even so. Enough that it would cause issues with our agreements with them.”

“You believe he wishes to monopolize trade with Utgard to that extent?”

This time, Yngvi paused to think before shaking his head. “No. This is fundamentally just my opinion, but rather than trying to land a huge gain, it felt more like he was trying to avoid a huge loss. After all, once he included us as exceptions, it opened up gaps in that exclusivity. With him accepting that and still forming a rough agreement, it makes me wonder if there is perhaps a third country he wishes to block from trade with them.”

“Hmm, a third country...” While Gustav had his misgivings about Yngvi, he still recognized him as his successor. Above anything else, he had proved his insight into people, at least in the short term. If with that experience Yngvi was still so insistent, Gustav felt he had to put some stock into it, even if there was no proof to back it up. “Jumping to conclusions is dangerous, but perhaps we ought to investigate.”

“That was my intention,” Yngvi agreed, a smile on his face thanks to getting his way.

Of course, his main plans were to build friendly relations with Capua and Zenjirou. Therefore, even if his suspicions turned out to be well-founded, he wasn’t intending to act against Zenjirou’s desire to block a third country from Utgard. Despite that, making a point of doing so intentionally should win him some extra goodwill. Considering Zenjirou’s temperament, showing good faith would only serve them well.

Such were the plans percolating in the young prince’s head at that moment.