A few days later at noon.

　　“Knight Otario, I hereby appoint you as my personal knight. I expect much of your bravery and loyalty.”

　　In a room deep inside the palace, Zenjirou stood in front of the kneeling young knight and called out to him with a voice as dignified as possible.

　　Otario Maldonado.

　　The name of the knight that was kneeling before Zenjirou.

　　He was probably in his mid-twenties, close in age to Zenjirou. Dark brown hair, grey eyes and brown skin. The man had the typical colour hues of the Carpa Kingdom and was on his knee with a faithful expression.

　　His braced features gave the impression that he was honest and serious, but hardly anyone would be brave enough to relax his features during an oath ceremony in front of a direct royalty. It would be dangerous to judge his character from the first impression alone.

　　Zenjirou smoothly drew the sword he had taken from Otario out of its scabbard.

　　The well-forged iron blade reflected the sunlight s.h.i.+ning in from the windows, and sparkled.

　　The blade was about fifty to sixty centimetre long. It seemed to be a one-hand sword, judging by the length of the hilt, but he didn’t think that one could swing its heavy weight with one hand so easily.

　　Zenjirou patted the shoulders of the kneeing Otario one after another with the flat surface of the drawn sword, then slowly sheathed it again.

　　Next up, Otario respectfully took the sheathed sword offered to him by Zenjirou, with both hands while still kneeling on the floor on one knee, and answered.

　　“I hereby swear to be yours to command, to put my life on the line, to never defy your orders, to never stray from the righteous path and to never be afraid of a distress.”

　　Thus, the oath ceremony of Knight Otario ended without a hitch.

　　After Knight Otario left the room of the palace, Zenjirou made a sigh of relief, so small that no one near could hear it. He somehow managed to get over it without committing any mistakes.

　　“Thank you for your hard work, Zenjirou-sama.”

　　Zenjirou s.h.i.+vered his body reflexively when the middle-aged man with a slender face— Secretary Fabio, standing in attendance behind him, called out to him.

　　Based on their social standings, the middle-aged man was a subordinate lent to him from Aura, but if Zenjirou’s eyes weren’t playing a trick on him, then the secretary showed not the slightest bit of such an acknowledgment in his eyes directed at him.

　　For Zenjirou, they rather seemed to show something on the lines of “I’m keeping a close watch on every single movement of the stallion, who came out unwanted, so he doesn’t do anything stupid”.

　　(He wouldn’t use something like “thank you for your hard work” to begin with, if he acknowledged my superiority…. Wait, not good. That’s not quite right. The words are translated smoothly thanks to the “soul of words”, so I forgot about it, but this is a different world after all)

　　From their first meeting until now, the middle-aged man had only taken an att.i.tude that could never be misunderstood as favourable, so Zenjirou, too, unconsciously ended up harbouring negative feelings more than necessary.

　　Words of appreciation were directed from a superior to an subordinate and the opposite was considered to be rude. At least that was common sense in the j.a.panese society. It certainly went too far to suspect a spite behind the words “thank you for your hard work”.

　　Zenjirou opened his mouth while he recalled the proper response as a royalty that he had learned in his lessons with Octavia, in his mind.

　　“No, it was nothing. I did it alright, didn’t I?”

　　He turned about and asked that, whereat Secretary Fabio a.s.serted while keeping his stony mask as always.

　　“Yes. From now on, Knight Otario will be a direct henchman to you, Zenjirou-sama, while at the same time he serves for the Dragonback Archery Knights. The salary for a royal henchman accounts for twenty large silver coins per year, so it surely will be a great a.s.set for the Maldonado Family.

　　Her Highness Aura will actually be paying him, but nominally you are doing the payments, so please keep it in mind.”

　　“Oh, he gets an extra salary?”

　　Zenjirou raised a slightly surprised voice, whereupon Secretary Fabio affirmed it without so much as twitching a muscle on his face.

　　“Yes. A knight’s loyalty is bought with money after all.”

　　These dreamless and uninspiring words didn’t match the idea of a different world in a fantasy setting.

　　Zenjirou tilted his a bit puzzled and inquired further.

　　“Is that so?”

　　“Of course it does not come from money alone. The words of the master strengthen the loyalty and the actions of the master maintain it. However, the foundation is kept up through money to the bitter end. Loyalty will not be established without the base of money.”

　　The frank words of Secretary Fabio were extremely pragmatic, but easily understandable for Zenjirou because of that.

　　It was disillusioning, but the knights without an own piece of land, only lived from the salary they received from the country. Bravery and loyalty were literally for sale and needed to fetch a price as high as possible.

　　“I see.”

　　With his inexpressive mask, Secretary Fabio watched Zenjirou as he nod convinced, and called out to him with a verbal expression of suddenly recalling something.

　　“Oh, that reminds me, do you have any plans to take a peerage or domain, Zenjirou-sama?”

　　Zenjirou s.h.i.+vered inside again upon the sudden topic chance while he replied without letting it show on his face or in his tone.

　　“Peerage or domain? What do you mean?”

　　“Yes. Our Carpa Kingdom has scattered landholdings under the direct control of the royalty, besides the capital and its outskirts. The lord of these lands is Her Highness Aura at the present time and governors are installed there, but as royalty, you have the right to take them over, Zenjirou-sama. Though your accession of them would only last for your lifetime.”

　　It wasn’t all that unusual that the king or royalty owned another peerage and land of their own besides the crown or right of succession to the throne. On the contrary, kings without a domain of their own were a minority. There were even some complicated cases, where the king of one country owned a peerage of a different country.

　　“It will be redundant when you stay inside the inner palace like you have so far, but when you increase your activities outside from now on, you would certainly need your own t.i.tle and a capital you can spent freely. Not to mention, an independent source of funds will be essential should you desire to add more henchman like Knight Otario.”

　　Secretary Fabio brought his explanation to a finish like that.

　　Zenjirou was immersed in his thoughts.

　　(I see now. He got a point there, but…)

　　Considering that he was the “loyal retainer of the Queen”, it was obviously weird, even if he had a point.

　　When Zenjirou, the husband of the Queen, gained a t.i.tle or domain, even if only nominal, and obtained an independent income, it meant that Aura would lose the control over him. To begin with, sharing even a part of the earnings from the scattered landholdings currently unified under Aura, simply meant that she had less money to spent freely, too.

　　The Prince Consort had a status and income of his own, levying an army of his own with that income.

　　That was obviously not something the close adviser of the Queen would suggest.

　　(Is he suspicious of me? No, it’s too obvious, even if that’s the case. If anything, he’s giving me a warning, I guess, in a roundabout manner)

　　“…..”

　　While he pondered like that, the secretary stood at attention and suspiciously watched his every movement with his strict eyes.

　　This man would definitely not miss an suspicious att.i.tude from Zenjirou.

　　As he had sworn loyalty to Aura, he was trustworthy, but when he gave him a cold glare of suspicion like this, Zenjirou felt uncomfortable and fearful.

　　When Zenjirou was on Aura’s side, the answer to this offer could only be “no”.

　　Zenjirou knew at least that this wasn’t the place to be obstinate and give an uncooperative answer, so he cleared his throat once with an affected cough, then honestly denied it.

　　“That won’t be necessary. The centralization of finances and power is essential for the restoration of the ‘royal family’.”

　　“However, I thought you had made up your mind to leave the inner palace to be of use to Her Highness Aura? Excuse me for saying this, but even when you are Her Highness’s consort and acknowledged as a direct royalty, your repertoire of what you can accomplish is rather limited without a t.i.tle.”

　　Provoking words from an inexpressive face with a flat tone. Zenjirou let his inner irritation boil up, temporarily softened his fear and wariness towards the man standing in front of him through anger and replied somewhat emotional.

　　“…Even if that’s the case, it’s a problem to be discussed between my wife and I. You’ve no right to propose it to me over her head.”

　　After he said that, Zenjirou immediately regretted it with “d.a.m.n, I went too far”, but it was too late. However, surprisingly enough, the biting words and irritation uncloaked in his answer were satisfying for Secretary Fabio.

　　“…Yes, please forgive me for speaking out of line.”

　　His inexpressive mask crumbled for a tiny bit and revealed a smile as he deeply lowered his head towards Zenjirou.