The early afternoon on a certain day.

　　An unusual atmosphere hung over the “audience room”, which could be considered the centre of the royal palace of the Carpa Kingdom.

　　Queen Aura sat on her throne and various officials, in charge of the civil and military affairs in the Carpa Kingdom, stood at the lower end, showing a mixed expression of nervousness and curiosity.

　　You could very well call this an abnormal situation. All the present n.o.bles were above a certain rank, namely important mainstays of the county.

　　It was extremely rare that these n.o.blemen, up to all the dodges, would reveal their “nervousness” and even rarer that they couldn’t hide their “curiosity”.

　　However, it would be a bit unfair to call them “careless” for it. After all, they currently faced a situation that was compelling “nervousness” and stimulating “curiosity”.

　　A prince and a princess from the Twin Kingdom of Sharrow and Jilbell were visiting.

　　That fact was significant enough to make the n.o.bles of the Carpa Kingdom, a major power, lose their composure.

　　Just as the Carpa Kingdom was the leader of the western part on South Continent, the Twin Kingdom of Sharrow and Jilbell was ruling supreme over the central area of the South Continent.

　　Moreover, Prince Francesco and Princess Bona were members of the “Sharrow Royal Family”. Unlike the members of the Jilbell Royal Family, who frequently visited other countries in demand of their “Healing Magic”, the Sharrow Royal Family, pract.i.tioners of the “Bestowal Magic”, basically never left their country.

　　At the very least, they hadn’t made any official visits abroad in the last century. So it was no wonder that the n.o.blemen, usually experts at controlling their expressions and ways of speaking, would be unable to hide their curiosity when the royalty wrapped in such mysteries suddenly came over for a visit.

　　As they stood below the throne, the n.o.blemen faithfully kept their facial expression in check, but even then, they couldn’t suppress the tint of curiosity from showing in their eyes while they gazed upon the still closed double door.

　　(I have heard rumours, but to think that they would really come…)

　　(It’s quite the surprise. I wonder what their aim is?)

　　(Who knows. Officially it is labelled as a “friendly visit”.)

　　(That’s obviously just an excuse. But either way…)

　　(Yes, there will be a stir for a while.)

　　If their whispered words as they stood faithfully at attention, were to reach Aura’s ears, she would probably heave a sigh of relief.

　　As a matter of fact, the “gossip” of the n.o.blemen didn’t include any information that paid attention to the true aim of the visit from Prince Francesco and Princess Bona, such as Zenjirou inheriting the Sharrow blood or his gla.s.s marbles having a high chance at being a medium for the “Bestowal Magic”.

　　For now, the censors.h.i.+p was working as expected.

　　In the meantime, the double door was pushed open with a deep tone and a pair of a man and a women entered the audience room.

　　(Oho, so they are…)

　　(Prince Francesco and Princess Bona…)

　　With all the eyes of the n.o.bles set on them from left and right, the young prince and princess of the Sharrow Royal Family, dressed in the formal purple garbs, advanced gracefully on the red carpet.

　　Behind them followed numerous knights clad in leather armour and a long sword at their waist.

　　Main armaments like bows or spears, let alone magic tools for combat, weren’t allowed in here, but judging by their natural, yet cautious manner of walking, it was apparent that they could execute deadly precision even with a single word.

　　They weren’t the Imperial Guards from the Twin Kingdom of Sharrow and Jilbell, the ruler of the central area on the South Continent, for show. The delegation of the Twin Kingdom made their way to in front of the throne and halted there while the military officers gave them looks of admiration and alertness.

　　“…..”

　　Sitting on her throne, Aura silently looked at the prince and princess from the foreign country standing below her.

　　(Now, they are the prince and princess from the Twin Kingdom, huh? Their magical power certainly is royal cla.s.s.)

　　She watched the magical power rising from the bodies of Prince Francesco and Princess Bona, and muttered that to herself.

　　Princess Bona’s magical power was slightly inferior to Aura’s husband Zenjirou, who was sitting almost next to her, but Prince Francesco had almost twice as much as him.

　　Amongst the royalty of a major power that was an extraordinary amount. He even had far more than Aura, who prided herself on having a top cla.s.s magical power for a royalty.

　　(Hmm, this proves that Prince Francesco is the legitimate grandson of the current king and Princess Bona an atavistic royalty. But that makes it even less comprehensible. Why does a direct royal descendant have no claim on the throne when he got this much magical power…?)

　　The eldest son of the crown prince had come of age, was in perfect health judging by appearance and possessed an extraordinary amount of magical power for a royalty.

　　It was extremely unnatural that he hadn’t gotten a claim on the throne with these conditions.

　　(I guess there has to be some kind of issue with his personality?)

　　Wary once again, Aura spoke with a clear voice from her throne without voicing any of her inner thoughts.

　　“I am Queen Aura of the Carpa Kingdom. You have come a long way. I hereby welcome you in my palace. Please make yourself at home.”

　　The spoken words and a.s.sumed conduct were more or less predetermined for this kind of official event. But Prince Francesco’s behaviour betrayed Aura’s expectations for a bit.

　　“My name is Francesco. I am the first son of Giuseppe, the crown prince of the Sharrow Family. You have my deepest grat.i.tude for your hospitality.”

　　Prince Francesco phoned in the predetermined words with a smooth tone and deeply “lowered his head” in a flowing motion.

　　It was one thing when an average member of the royal family did so, but a crown prince, who was destined to a.s.sume the throne next up, or his eldest son would be “kings in the future”, so they would never lower their heads, not even to the ruler of a foreign country.

　　In the exchange between a Queen and a Prince, some humility in his way of speaking and so on, was obviously in order, but “lowering his head” was definitely out of the question.

　　In fact, the n.o.blemen, filling the room to capacity, showed surprise by whispering secretly.

　　On the other hand, each and every knight from the Twin Kingdom, standing at attention behind Prince Francesco, kept a straight face without even batting an eye.

　　(I see. His behaviour is nothing unusual to them. For now, that means it was no random line of action for him.)

　　Put another way, it meant that everyone in the Twin Kingdom of Sharrow and Jilbell knew that “Prince Francesco would not accede to the throne”.

　　“My name is Bona, likewise from the Sharrow Family. It is a great honour to be given the opportunity to meet your Gracious Highness…”

　　Thereafter, Princess Bona, standing next to Prince Francesco, lowered her head even deeper than him and spoke words in accordance with etiquette with a tense voice, but Aura was only listening with half an ear and was rather thinking about Prince Francesco.

　　(Just what keeps him from getting a claim on the throne? His personality after all? But he has at least enough prudence to make it through a formal verbal exchange….)

　　On the surface, Aura kept a straight face, but behind the mask, she was wracking her brains about possible occurrences in the future.

　　* * *

　　It was an unwritten rule that the higher your status, the later you appeared at an evening party, usually held in the royal palace.

　　As the “host” of the evening party, you were allowed to put on airs for a bit, but when the host happened to be from the royal family, you no longer had a choice but to appear as the very last.

　　Needles to say, the royalty couldn’t be punished for going against it, as it was no fixed offence, but they would incur the enmity of the n.o.bles, who attended later than them, in the end, so they should avoid doing so unless there was a solid ground.

　　And the “welcome party for Prince Francesco and Princess Bona” in the royal palace this evening was hosted by the Royal Carpa Family.

　　Consequently, Queen Aura and her Prince Consort Zenjirou, both members of the royal family, had to show up last, because they were the hosts.

　　However, this world had no “accurate mechanical clocks” like modern Earth. During the day, they could rely on a sundial, but at night, everyone had to rely on its own biological clock alone.

　　As a result, Aura and Zenjirou had to waste time in the waiting room next to the ballroom until all antic.i.p.ated guest for tonight had arrived.

　　“Puh… So boring.”

　　Zenjirou sat on the cus.h.i.+oned couch in the dimly lit waiting room as he inadvertently spoke his mind openly.

　　At the beginning, when he had entered the waiting room, he had been a nervous wreck due to the fact that he would have to speak with the prince and princess of the Twin Kingdom, but after more than one hour, not even that nervousness could last.

　　“ Phew…. Oh, whoops, I nearly crumpled my clothes.”

　　As the tension left his body, he unconsciously was about to slump into the couch, but recalled his attire and corrected his sitting position.

　　Tonight, he was flamboyantly dressed in the red native dress of the Carpa Kingdom. The third formal dress, which he wore at the moment, was more likeable than his first formal dress, which he had worn at the “welcome ceremony” a few days ago, but it was far from being comfortable, either.

　　“Zenjirou, you can take off some clothes if you are uncomfortable. I think it will still take some time until it is our turn.”

　　Sitting across from him, Aura said that, but his personality was a bit too diligent to take her up on the offer.

　　The third formal dress, clothing his body right now, consisted of a garment that overlapped at the front like j.a.panese clothes, and was held together with a strap around the waist. Over it he wore something like a vest.

　　As pathetic it may sound, Zenjirou had no confidence that he would be able to put back on his clothes properly if he were to take some off now, and he would feel guilty to trouble the busy waiting maids at the last minute.

　　“Nah, I’ll do without it. We might be called on any minute now anyway.”

　　Therefore, he shook his head with these words.

　　It definitely was boring to wait in silence, but he could do without creating an unnecessary panic for doing something rash. As he was bad at improvising to begin with, Zenjirou wanted to avoid unexpected situation as much as possible.

　　“Still, I’ve got to say it’s quite dark here…”

　　Commenting about that only now, he glared at the oil pan standing tall next to the table while he remained seated in a well-mannered position.

　　The ballroom was relatively well illuminated by a good many of candles on magnificent chandeliers, but that wasn’t the case for this waiting room.

　　The light of the four oil pans standing around the two couches facing each other, couldn’t be called bright even as a compliment. He could only make out the silhouette of his wife sitting on the other couch, her facial features were completely in the dark.

　　At that moment, Aura’s face was suddenly lit up from below.

　　When he noticed that Aura was fiddling with something in her hands on her lap as she sat on the couch, Zenjirou immediately knew where the light was coming from.

　　“Oh? You brought it with you even here?”

　　She skilfully handled the “portable music player” in her hands. Originally, Zenjirou had used it to distract himself when he commuted between home and work on the train.

　　Nowadays music players had so many functions that there were called “smart phones without a call function”, but the one in Zenjirou’s possession was nothing so high-tech. It was a small device with limited functions. Despite its small size, it still had somewhat of a display, so it wasn’t impossible to watch videos per se, but in practice, it was rather exclusive to music.

　　“Yes, to kill some time. Do you want to listen as well?”

　　In the past year, she had become perfectly accustomed to it, so she operated the music player with practised hand movements, then she removed one earphone and patted on the couch beside her with her hand.

　　“Mm, why not.”

　　As he had too much time on his hands anyway, he had no reason to decline, so he obediently sat down on the right side of his wife and plugged the earphone in his left ear.

　　The portable music player had loud speakers, too, so they would be able to listen to the music without sitting next to each other when they just unplugged the earphones, but the two of them basically refrained from using his brought tools openly outside the inner palace.

　　Besides, sitting shoulder to shoulder and sharing one earphone to enjoy the same music wasn’t all too bad.

　　A bright piano melody came from the earphone in his left ear.

　　“Ugh, a cla.s.sical piano track.”

　　Zenjirou moaned somewhat disappointed.

　　The song Aura was playing was cla.s.sical music, which Zenjirou had bought in a batch during a sale of “hundred yen for everything you can stuff into one bag” at a CD shop at one time.

　　He vaguely remembered that the covers were saying something like “Pollini’s Full Collection” or “Chopin Nocturnes”, but wasn’t too sure anymore, since he had thrown away the CDs right after copying them onto his computer.

　　Now it was a bit saddening that his wife preferred this kind of melody that he had no attachment to, over his favourite pop music.

　　“Hmm, my country has music as well, and there are a lot of first-rate musician employed in the royal palace, but there is nothing that comes close to this so-called piano instrument. It has a really pleasant tone.”

　　Out of the diverse music collection that Zenijirou had brought with him, Aura liked the track with the cla.s.sical piano solo the best, and she showed a smile while she said that.

　　The traditional instruments of the Carpa Kingdom princ.i.p.ally belonged to three types: percussion, stringed or wind.

　　The lack of know-how made it impossible to build a piano, of course, but “keyboard percussion instruments” such as the xylophone or metallophone didn’t exist here, either. Due to that, a piano recital must have sounded novel to her.

　　In contrast, the songs from Zenjirou’s favourite band seemingly went beyond a novel feeling and Aura couldn’t keep up with it, so she didn’t really like them. Though it might have been a more simple issue, namely preferring a simple instrumental recital over a song with incomprehensible lyrics from another world.

　　Anyway, even the music of a genre he didn’t really like, was good enough to relieve his boredom while he waited.

　　“You sure love your piano songs, Aura. Reminds me, Zenkichi seems to be in a better mood, too, when cla.s.sical music is running in his room.”

　　The Queen somehow or other caught the mumbled words of her husband with her earphone-less right ear and grinned triumphantly.

　　“Yes. It seems Carlos has gotten his taste from me. Fufufu.”

　　Saying so, she gave her husband, sitting next to her, a provocative look.

　　Even the usually intimate royal couple would turn against each other when it came to their child.

　　“Grr… N- No, it’s okay. I still have a lot of good songs on my computer. The jury is still out. Not to forget, I got some ballads, too.”

　　Zenjirou, still seated next to Aura, clenched his fists irmly in his lap.

　　“Oho, now that sounds interesting. I would like to see you try. Well, you will not get Carlos to listen to the songs of your homeland until he has learned the language anyway.”

　　“Oh yeah, that’s right! B- But I can still turn the tables afterwards. I’ll definitely get even with you.”

　　“Ahahha, just go and try it, Papa. Remember though that Carlos will leave the inner palace in five years.”

　　Even a direct royalty was no exception to the ban of males in the inner palace. The only exceptions were the King, the master of the inner palace, (though in Zenjirou’s case, he was the Prince Consort and not the King) and an infant under five years, because it was treated as genderless.

　　“Ugg…”

　　An array of challenging words and a response putting up a fight. Contrary to the content however, their voices and expressions revealed that they were enjoying their little argument.

　　“Ehm, the increased tempo seems to be the problem, so I should focus on ballads as they’re close to a cappella. No, wait. I think I’ve got a few instrumental bands, too? These I could play even now….”

　　“Even though you know that you stand no chance, you still thrown down the gauntlet. I like that.”

　　Sitting shoulder to shoulder and sharing an earphone to hear music, the married couple continued their casual exchange until the waiting maid of the royal palace came to get them.

　　* * *

　　“Now entering, Her Majesty Queen Aura and Zenjirou-sama!”

　　While their names were called out loudly and everyone’s attention s.h.i.+fted towards them, Zenjirou took the hand of his beloved wife and advanced unhurried.

　　The ballroom for the evening party was illuminated by the flames of the candles burning on the tall candle holders standing in an orderly line, and the numerous chandeliers hanging from the ceiling.

　　Seen individually, they weren’t much of a light source, but all of them together lighted up the ballroom to a level that deserved to be called “bright”.

　　Naturally, that brightness didn’t come close to the one in the living room of the inner palace, where the LED floors lamps were at work, but compared to the waiting room they had been inside until now, it was almost dazzling.

　　As he squinted to the sparkling of the chandeliers, made out of silver and crystal, Zenjirou wryly smiled to himself, since he wasn’t as disturbed as all the eyes set on him ought to make him.

　　(Guess I’ve gotten a bit used to it after the nth time.)

　　More than one year had already pa.s.sed, since he had married Aura, so he had made plenty of appearances at such events.

　　At first, he had a hard time even walking straight, but right now, he merely registered their glances at the back of his mind.

　　“Getting used” to something too much could lead to “carelessness”, so it was not necessarily a good thing, but it was fair to say that he had improved his first appearance, where he was too nervous and needed to lean on his wife to walk.

　　(Let’s see, I’ve to call out to the main guests first.)

　　While feeling Aura’s warm touch on his right arm, Zenjirou looked around the hall in search for his first targets to greet.

　　(Oh, there they are.)

　　He spotted his targets effortless. If anything, they were coming his way for a greeting, since the entrance of the Queen and Zenjirou had been announced with a loud voice.

　　Aura and Zenjirou stopped on the red carpet and awaited the quickly approaching pair.

　　The man with blonde hair seemed to be the same age as Zenjirou, whereas the girl with auburn hair looked not older than twenty.

　　The men and women, standing in the hall, made way for the guests of honour to pa.s.s.

　　Before long, the pair arrived in front of them and the blonde man spoke first as their representative.

　　“Your Majesty Aura, Your Majesty Zenjirou, let me express my deepest grat.i.tude for arranging such a splendid welcome for us tonight.”

　　After saying that, the man with blonde hair made such an exaggerated bow that it looked pompous.

　　“You have my deepmost grat.i.tude as well, Your Majesty Aura, Your Majesty Zenjirou.”

　　Following, the girl with the auburn hair, standing at an angle behind the man, expressed her grat.i.tude and politely lowered her head, too.

　　Strictly speaking, it wasn’t their “first encounter”, since they had met in the audience room a few days ago, but because Zenjirou had simply watched the welcome ceremony from his personal throne in silence, this was pretty much a “first encounter” for him.

　　Being called “your majesty” made Zenjirou flinch unintentionally, but when he saw that Aura next to him made no move to say something, he decided to leave it be.

　　Since he was the very first Prince Consort in the history of the Carpa Kingdom, it hadn’t been decided yet whether his t.i.tle would be “majesty” or “highness”. For that reason, the n.o.bles of the Carpa Kingdom always just added a “sama” to his name at formal or informal occasions, but you couldn’t expect the two foreigners, who had only arrived in this country a few days ago, to understand that nuance.

　　“Yes, enjoy it to the fullest.”

　　“As one of the organizers, it fills me with pride when you enjoy the party, Prince Francesco, Princess Bona.”

　　While repeating after Aura, Zenjirou observed the two young royalty, standing before him, with great care.

　　“Of course I am enjoying it. It shames me to admit it, but this is my first visit abroad in spite of my age, so everything I come across is new to me. I have never tasted any of the food or drinks here before.”

　　Prince Francesco, replying cheerfully, was a young man with a clear voice and finely chiselled features beaming a generous expression.

　　He was taller than Zenjirou, but still more or less at eye level with him, so his height was probably around 175 centimetre. But unlike Zenjirou, he had rather long arms, legs and neck as well as well-proportioned flesh on his bones, so his figure was quite eye-catching.

　　The dark purple, formal attire of the Sharrow Family, a combination of a military uniform and a tuxedo, suited him accordingly well.

　　If Zenjirou were to wear it, he would undoubtedly only look like a courageous, but misguided cosplayer, whereas it looked like a well-suited outfit when worn by the Mr. Handsome with blonde hair and green eyes.

　　(Hmm, how shall I put it? He’s sociable— or frivolous.)

　　That was the first expression he got from the prince of a foreign country. Zenjirou let his wife Aura handle the conversation and s.h.i.+fted his attention to the girl on the side: Princess Bona.

　　The impression he got from her was, in one word and somewhat rude: “plain”.

　　“Yes, it is a major honour to be able to see the renowned prosperity of the Carpa Kingdom with my own eyes.”

　　In the course of replying with a clear enunciation, Princess Bona kept her spine straightened well-conducted and her hands casually crossed over her abdomen, showing an forced smile strained by tension.

　　Her dress had a fainter purple colour than the outfit of Prince Francesco.

　　Their royalty might express a “rank” with the shades of purple, but in Princess Bona’s case, the faint purple was quite becoming.

　　With her slender figure and somewhat plain features, she would be overshadowed by a dark purple dress.

　　Compared to Prince Francesco, her appearance left a weak impression, and if anything, her hair was the most striking feature.

　　It had an auburn colour and extended to half-way between her shoulders and waist. That in itself wasn’t worth mentioning, but as she herself seemed to dislike its plain colour, she had apparently sprinkled silver dust over her hair, which was now sparkling brilliantly as the light of the chandeliers fell onto it.

　　Her hairstyle was rather peculiar, too. Originally it must have been straight, but the long hair turned quite wavy from the midway through. It wasn’t as neat as a perm from Earth, but the fas.h.i.+on of deliberately messing about with one’s hair was known to this world as well.

　　Princess Bona’s hairstyle was a variation of that, but no other women in the hall even had a similar hairdo. Together with the s.h.i.+ny effect from the silver dust, she was drawing plenty of attention from the other ladies. There was a relatively large number of favourable glances, so some of them might imitate it the future.

　　And whilst Zenjirou was observing Prince Francesco and Princess Bona, Aura continued the conversation with affable small talk.

　　“Aha, then you both have come to my country at your own desire?”

　　“Yes. As you may know, our Sharrow Family rarely has the chance to leave the country, so I allowed myself to take advantage of this occasion. A real bonanza, so to speak. Ahaha.”

　　“Prince Francesco, you are in the presence of Her Majesty, so please be a bit more careful about your choice of words.

　　My apologies, Your Majesty. Nonetheless, the prince is speaking the truth when he says that he came at his own desire and was looking forward to the visit. The same goes for me as well.”

　　The blonde prince obviously enjoyed the light-hearted talk without showing the slightest tension, and the auburn princess was performing damage control the whole time while the actions and words of the prince kept her on tenterhooks.

　　Aura took care of the conversation for the most part, but since Zenjirou was attending the party, he couldn’t be an onlooker forever.

　　“Indeed. I actually have a good reason for why I wanted to meet His Majesty Zenjirou. It may be one-sided, but you see, I find something congenial in you.”

　　“You flatter me, Prince Francesco. I am also pleased to have the opportunity to speak with you.”

　　Zenjirou responded to the blonde prince, whose friendly interaction was definitely overfamiliar, with a forced smile.