The cold, electronic buzzing from his cell phone next to his pillow slowly woke up Zenjirou’s consciousness from its slumber.

　　“Mm… Mh?”

　　Still half-asleep, Zenjirou reached out his right hand routinely, searched for his cell phone and turned off its morning alarm. Then he brought the cell phone close to his face and looked at the time.

　　5:30 AM

　　Compared to the time a salary man woke up in modern j.a.pan it was rather early, but in this world it was already considered late.

　　In a culture, where nearly no other sources of light but natural fire existed, the daytime was a very precious period.

　　It was common in this world to raise after the sun came out at four in the morning and sleeping in until late was a sign of luxury.

　　However, there was actually no need for Zenjirou to wake up at this hour by specifically setting an alarm.

　　He had the LED floor lamps to illuminate the night and nothing special to do during the day.

　　There was but one reason that Zenjirou used the alarm function of his cell phone, the loyal partner of his salary man days, to wake up this early.

　　His wife— Because he didn’t want to miss out on Aura.

　　It was a rather lonely experience to see that your wife had already gone to work when you woke up after going to bed together.

　　Zenjirou put the cell phone back to where it was before and turned his body to the left on the bed. There was Aura, exposing an innocent sleeping face while making peaceful sleeping sounds.

　　Today it had been ten days since their bridal night.

　　After their marriage, Zenjirou and Aura had spent their nights together here in the chamber of the inner palace.

　　Even yesterday, they satisfactorily completely their conjugal duty, then fell asleep right after wiping their bodies with a wet towel, so both of them were stark-naked right now.

　　Technically a thin blanket made of something similar to towelling covered them, but the nights in the Carpa Kingdom were so hot that even that thin blanket seemed oppressive.

　　“…..”

　　Still not fully awake, Zenjirou twined his arm around his wife’s back.

　　Embracing her with his right arm around her back while still resting sideways, Zenjirou caressing patted Aura’s back with his palm.

　　Her heartbeat he felt on his chest and the feeling of her skin on his palm made him remember the act that was conducted nearly every night in the last ten days.

　　“Aura…”

　　He had slept with this woman.

　　This feeling of reality had quickly fostered his love for Aura. Zenjirou had embraced Aura so closely that her bare nipples were pressing on his chest and he caressed the back or red hair of his beloved wife numerous times with a lot of affection.

　　It was inevitable that Aura would wake up from that.

　　“Mm… Ah…? Zenjirou?”

　　Having woken up, Aura indulged herself in Zenjirou’s arms and docilely stuck her naked body onto his. Then she nuzzled her head against his neck like a spoilt cat and purred.

　　(Ah, rather than a cat, I feel like I tamed a large feline carnivore like a “lioness” or “tigress”)

　　Squinting from the tickling, but comfortable feeling around his neck, Zenjirou squeezed Aura tighter while such a thought crossed his mind.

　　People often matched women with cats, but such an adorable animal didn’t do Aura’s appeal justice.

　　Even a pantheress was no match for her. She displayed the aura of a supreme ruler pretty much like a tiger or lion, carnivores at the top of the food chain.

　　For a while then, they remained embraced naked for a while to savour the other’s body temperature, but before long, Aura slipped out of Zenjirou’s arms and got off the bed.

　　While freely exposing her charming body that was filled out or firm only at the places it was supposed to be, Aura wetted the towel in the pail of water that was prepared next to the bed and wiped her body.

　　“Fuh…”

　　After the act, they technically wiped their bodies before going to bed, but even then they sweated unsavoury with their embracing amidst the sultry night.

　　“Ah, when you’re done, give it to me. I want to wipe my body too.”

　　Zenjirou, who was rather pale compared to Aura, said that and got off the bed naked, then approached his wife, who was cleaning herself.

　　“Yes, of course. If you want, I can even do it for you? My dear Husband.”

　　His new wife replied with a prankish smile and Zenjirou was about to give in to the temptation for a moment, but he shook his head and answered.

　　“That sounds really attractive, but it’s too attractive and I don’t think I can stop midway then. Though when you tend to it from beginning to end, then I’m all in.”

　　“Too bad. I am afraid I have work lined up, so I do not have the time for that. Forgive me, you have to wait until tonight.”

　　On their first night, Zenjirou one-sidedly had his way with Aura, but in the last ten days, she quickly adapted to the night duties. And now, she had improved so much that she could respond with such frivolous talk.

　　After wiping her body quickly, Aura soaked the towel in the pail and wrung it out, then she tossed that towel to Zenjirou.

　　“Okay. Can’t wait for it. Speaking of, how’s today going to be? I mean, for meals.”

　　While wiping his body with the caught towel, Zenjirou asked this to Aura as he suddenly remembered.

　　While getting dressed, Aura

　　“Yeah, seems like I will not have the time to get back here for breakfast or lunch. But I might make it in time for dinner if everything goes well. Though you could also come to the palace yourself, Zenjirou, if you wish to dine together with me.”

　　said so and gave Zenjirou a probing glance.

　　Zenjirou, at the end of that glance, racked his brain at once.

　　(It seems likely that I’ll run into other n.o.bility when I eat together with Aura in the palace. As clueless as I’m right now, I might cause trouble for her in an unexpected way when I talk to them carelessly.)

　　From her all too imposing behaviour one might forget about it, but Aura’s authority as the Queen in this patriarchic Kingdom was by no means unshakeable.

　　If Zenjirou should ever utter anything from his mouth that could be interpreted as criticism or complain towards Aura, she would receive plenty of detriment from just that.

　　(I might be overthinking, but better safe than sorry.)

　　“No, it’s troublesome to go all the way to the palace. I’ll rather laze around here. Ah, but I sure would like to learn about the manners and common sense of this country to an extent that it wouldn’t embarra.s.s you soon. We can’t completely rule out that I’ll have to appear outside, too.”

　　That was Zenjirou’s way of saying “I’ll try not to cause you any trouble as much as possible”.

　　Aura understood the meaning behind his words and replied with an affectionate smile,

　　“I see. Then I will try to finish my work by dinner at all costs. I am sure you will be lonely all by yourself until night, but bear with it. As for manners and common sense, I could teach you about it personally, but I do not really have the time for that… Okay, I will find you a suited teacher.”

　　a.s.suring him like that.

　　“Sorry for all the trouble.”

　　“Pay it no mind. I am forcing these inconveniences on you.”

　　Before long, Aura finished dressing and they approached each other nearly simultaneous.

　　“Well then, see you later.”

　　“Yes, see you.”

　　The roles as man and woman were really reversed. While smiling wry in his heart, Zenjirou exchanged a short kiss with Aura and sent off his wife with a smile as she was going to pursue her duties as a Queen.

　　“Now then, what do I do today?”

　　After sending off Aura, Zenjirou was lazing around on the couch in the living room, dressed in a T-s.h.i.+rt from his world and loose, white trousers without a tuck from this world over his trunks.

　　Ever since he came here, he had been busy with things like the marriage ceremony or setting up the generator.

　　His real “lifestyle of doing nothing but lazing around” only started today.

　　In time he might not know what to do with his free time, but at least for today, he had a mountain of things he wanted to do.

　　During his salary man days, he had recorded as much as he could on DVD, but never watched any of it, and bought as much games as he could without ever opening them.

　　He had also continued to buy the songs of the bands or singers he liked during his university days at legal download portals, more out of habit than anything, but the only time he listened to them was during commuting between home and work. There were still a lot of songs he hadn’t listened to even once.

　　“Guess first comes my backlog of TV series. Ah, but if I start now, it’ll coincide with breakfast.”

　　When it was time for breakfast, the waiting maids of the inner palace would appear.

　　Practically, Zenjirou was the master of the inner palace, so he could change the time for breakfast on a whim if he wanted to, but it wasn’t something to be mentioned casually.

　　After all, this world didn’t even know of gas stoves or water pipes, let alone microwaves. Preponing breakfast meant that the attendants had to scoop water faster and postponing meant that it had to be redone at a later time.

　　It wasn’t as simple as in modern j.a.pan, where one could just reheat a prepared meal in the microwave.

　　“In the end, I merely married into the family. I don’t want to get on the attendants’ bad side. Let’s see, how much is left of the food I brought with me?”

　　Zenjirou felt a little bit hungry, so he peeked into the refrigerator.

　　The five-door refrigerator powered by the hydropower generator thankfully operated without problems so far.

　　At present, the refrigerator was filled with fruits and alcohol from this world and the rations Zenjirou brought with him from j.a.pan.

　　That said, most of these rations were chocolate, dry bread, beef jerky, biscuits and the like. He had packed all these dry foods into his backpack for emergencies and there was no real meaning in putting them into the refrigerator.

　　The remaining rations were forced onto him by his aunt as she believed his lie about “transferring overseas”: Handmade dried plums together with some dried and buckwheat noodles from s.h.i.+nshu Soba on the recommendation of his uncle.

　　“The chocolate are too good to eat. From what Aura told me, they don’t even know of cocoa here. It’s pretty much hopeless to make any. Luckily, they seem to have no shortage of sugar, but it’s crude brown sugar.”

　　Most likely, it was just a subst.i.tute product they got by wringing out and filtering the essence of sugarcane or a plant with just as much sugar content. The sugar of this world had a peculiar flavour to Zenjirou’s tongue as it was used to the first-rate sugar from j.a.pan.

　　Technically he had the receipts for cakes, cookies or pudding on his computer, downloaded from a homepage with pictures to the explanations, but it was a little doubtful if he could properly make them with the sugar and wheat flour from this world.

　　To begin with, Zenjirou didn’t bring any hand mixer or microwave with him, so it was impossible to make sweets as easily as in modern j.a.pan.

　　If he were to do it, he had no choice but to call for the waiting maid in charge of cooking and teach her the rough method.

　　Zenjirou had thought he had gathered the essential things as best as he could during the one month of preparation, but now that he started his life in the different world, he often found himself regretting “Why didn’t I bring that with me!”.

　　His greatest regret was “window gla.s.s”.

　　Zenjirou looked at the window, which mercilessly let the outside air through the opened wooden shutters, and all the parts of the air conditioning in the corner of the room, raising an empty voice.

　　“Quite the blunder. The interior in j.a.pan’s buildings is naturally enclosed by windows, so it totally slipped my mind…”

　　Even if he were to a.s.semble the air conditioning in this room without window gla.s.s, he wouldn’t get the comfortable temperature he sought. The air conditioning wouldn’t even reach half its effectiveness with the windows gaping wide open.

　　On the other hand, closing the shutters in the middle of the noon, cutting of the sunlight and living with just the LED lamps was certainly a bit too unhealthy. Even if he were to do that, he couldn’t hope for the architecture of this world to be as airtight as an average building in modern j.a.pan.

　　All the same, it was doubtful how much the domestic air conditioning could cool down the living room, since it exceeded a size of sixty-six square metres.

　　“Well, it’s more likely I’ll screw up the a.s.sembling anyway, so I might as well resign myself to never having one to begin with. Hah…”

　　Zenjirou sighed and decided to put the matter with the air conditioning and window gla.s.s on hold for now. As a sop for his dilemma, he had figured out that when he put a block of ice, made in the refrigerator, in front of the fan, it gave a chilling in a local area more than he had expected.

　　“Oh well. It’s no use lamenting. I have to live with the inconveniences.”

　　Adopting this clear-cut att.i.tude, Zenjirou took out a bag stuffed with DVDs from the TV stand and started to pick a show to watch for today.

　　“Mhm, up to where did I watch this show? I remember Solar Car going to an island where they held bullfights. I think Game of Tag vs. 100 Detectives Part 3 was the last I watched?”

　　* * *

　　While refres.h.i.+ng himself with the ice fan, Zenjirou enjoyed watching DVDs by himself. Meanwhile, his wife Aura pursued her duties as the Queen in her office.

　　Most of her duties as the leader of the country were councils and meetings.

　　Since the Carpa Kingdom currently had no prime minister in charge of politics and no admiral in charge of the army, Aura was extremely pressed with work as the Queen.

　　The little free time between councils and meetings elapsed just from looking through some submitted reports.

　　Aura was going through the bundle of dragonskin parchments (made from skinned hide of raptorial dragons) helter-skelter when Secretary Fabio, standing next to her, called out to her.

　　“Your Highness, it is time.”

　　Aura raised her eyes from the dragonskin parchment to the monotone voice of the middle-aged man with a slender face.

　　“Mh? Ahh, already time, huh. Who is next?”

　　As there was no precise way to measure time like in modern j.a.pan, this world was rather loose with time. Even so, official business in the palace had an accurate take on time by measuring quarters of an hour, namely fifteens minutes.

　　The majority of her work had to be taken care of while the sun was out, so the Queen was as busy as a politician in modern j.a.pan during the day.

　　“Yes, the next meeting is with the General of the Knights, Sir Puyol Guillén.”

　　Aura obviously grimaced upon hearing her secretary mentioning that name.

　　It was the name from one of the two candidates that were deemed to be most suited to be her husband before Zenjirou was summoned.

　　There was no doubt that he was a competent soldier that often distinguished himself in the previous great war at a young age, but regretfully, he was too ambitious, so Aura deemed him unfit to be her husband.

　　Now what would that ambitious person have to say after his position as the “Queen’s Husband” within his reach had been s.n.a.t.c.hed away by someone mysterious from a different world at the last minute?

　　Just from imagining it, Aura inadvertently spilled a sigh.

　　“Your Highness, a soldier with the rank of a general and a civil officers with the rank of a cabinet member have the right to request a direct meeting with the Ruler. Sir Puyol is merely availing himself of his legitimate privilege.”

　　Aura’s irritation only grew stronger from the all too composed words of her secretary. Even so, Secretary Fabio was making a sound argument, which Aura thoroughly understood.

　　“I know. Fine, bring him inside.”

　　After a deep breath to blow away the irritation, she ordered with her usual dignified voice.

　　“Your Highness Aura, first of all, let me congratulate you again. I wish you all the very best for your marriage.”

　　“Thank you, Sir Puyol. It makes me feel better to hear this. We were not meant to be bound as a man and a woman, but I would like to keep our bond as ruler and subject important from now on, too.”

　　“…Yes, you honour me.”

　　The exchange between Queen Aura and General Puyol Guillén, sitting opposite one another in the office, started with obvious pleasantries.

　　To put in a nutsh.e.l.l, the man called Puyol Guillén was a stereotypical soldier.

　　He was one head taller than Aura, who was already tall for a woman, and had a keen and fearless face. His arm, appearing from the half-sleeves, were cluttered with scars and the palms of his big hands showed firm and big calluses from handling a sword.

　　Most likely a hundred people out of hundred would choose Puyol when asked who between Zenjirou and Puyol was a suitable Prince Consort for Aura based on appearance.

　　It even looked impressive when Aura with her red hair and light brown skin stood next to Puyol with his black hair and brown skin. And even height-wise, Puyol was taller than the average man, so he made a good balance to Aura, who was also taller than the average woman.

　　A skilled soldier, a competent commander and the young hero of the previous war with numerous deeds of arms.

　　The Hero had failed to become the Prince consort, but he faced the subject of his loyalty, the Queen and declared without beating about the bush.

　　“Your Highness, I believe you know already, but I have a younger sister. She inherited the royal blood, too, albeit as shallow as myself, and has high magical power. Her personality just like her education, will not embarra.s.s her in public.

　　What do you say? I suggest to make her Zenjirou-sama’s concubine, to spread the royal blood of course.”

　　“…..”

　　Upon Mr. Ambitious sudden and frank proposal, Aura desperately suppressed her urge to facepalm right away.

　　That was the very reason. Because he was so obvious ambitious, he was extremely unsuited to be the Prince Consort, no matter how capable he was as a soldier.

　　Since Aura herself would never content herself with being a puppet to her husband, the Carpa Kingdom would have split into Queen and Prince Consort Factions for sure if Aura had wed Puyol, causing a national split.

　　Anyway, suggesting a concubine to a wife, who had only just wed, was outrageously ruthless.

　　Aura didn’t break her composed expression and asked back.

　　“Mhm, that sounds intriguing. What is your sister’s say on that matter?”

　　“? I am the head of the Guillén Family.”

　　Puyol tilted his head puzzled on Aura’s question. Practically, he was not mistaken.

　　The family head decided on the marriage partner for the woman. Puyol was merely making a sensible decision according to the tradition of this country.

　　Instead, Aura was the one against common sense, since she had lived so far by upkeeping a stereotypical turn of mind as the Queen.

　　That said, most family heads made allowance for their daughters or sisters’ own will when they decided their marriage partner, but Puyol apparently wanted to marry off his sister solely for his own conveniences. And he unwavering believed that it was his legitimate right to do so.

　　Aura realized that she had steered the topic in the wrong direction and strived to adjust it while keeping a composed smile.

　　“Certainly. However, my husband only came to this world recently and has not settled in yet, both emotionally and physically. As of now, he has his hands full with just me.”

　　Puyol squinted his sharp eyes on Aura’s clear refusal.

　　“…Has Zenjirou-sama truly expressed that himself?”

　　The question of the subject, doubting the Queen’s words, could very well be seen as disrespectful, whereat Aura threw out her chest more than necessary.

　　“Of course. You do not mean to say that you doubt my words?”

　　“Never. Excuse me. However, as one of the n.o.bility, it is my honest desire to ‘personally’ greet my new lord Zenjirou-sama.

　　Can I ask you to pa.s.s that on to him ‘unaltered’?”

　　“…Fine. I will definitely forward it to my husband, ‘word for word’.”

　　“Thank you.”

　　At the end, Puyol saluted like a knight by bringing his right fist to his left shoulder and left the Queen’s office.