Prologue: Zenjirou Returns

　　Prologue: Zenjirou Returns

　　A large carriage drawn by eight dragons advanced over the main street of the Royal Capital.

　　Of course a magnificent carriage like that was not travelling alone. The front and back were tightly protected by knights and soldiers. A relative smaller carriage trailed behind it, but it was still large enough to make it obvious that it belonged to n.o.bility.

　　That were Zenjirou and his company coming back from the March of Guzzle.

　　Normally, the sides of the road would be br.i.m.m.i.n.g with cheering citizens, when a Royal Carriage pa.s.sed through, but this time, it was relatively quiet.

　　Nevertheless, the main road was currently closed off and there were some curious bystanders or nosey kids running along on the sidewalk, but the atmosphere of a "royal procession" did not really come to be.

　　It was hardly surprising. The leading characters of the preceding marriage ceremony were the groom General Puyol and the bride Lucinda after all.

　　Even if Zenjirou was Royalty, he could hardly afford to stand out more than the important newly-wed couple.

　　As a matter of fact, when General Puyol and Lucinda had returned to the capital a few days prior, they had ridden an open carriage in their wedding dresses (the groom was wearing his full dress uniform, though) and waved their hands with a smile on their faces while they proceeded along the main road.

　　And although some days had already pa.s.sed, it was expected that Zenjirou made a less flashy return, since he had been nothing but a guest to the wedding ceremony.

　　In a way, Zenjirou was quite happy about that.

　　He might have gotten a bit used to it, but riding a carriage without suspension over the hardly paved "Salt Road" had actually been quite tiring for him.

　　So he was grateful that he could lean back inside the carriage without having to wave to the citizens with a smile.

　　"Fuh…"

　　"Are you alright, Your Majesty Zenjirou?"

　　When Zenjirou unconsciously heaved a sigh, the first princess of the Uppsala Kingdom on the North Continent, Freya Uppsala, called out worriedly from beside him.

　　The young woman shook her short silver hair as she checked his complexion, so Zenjirou answered her with a smile.

　　"Thank you for your concern, Princess Freya. But I am alright. I was just relieved to be back in the Capital."

　　He was not putting up a brave front. Sure, Zenjirou was a bit hara.s.sed from the long ride in the shaking dragon carriage, but not so much as to call it exhaustion.

　　Simply put, he was just "really tired".

　　More importantly, he was bewildered by the fact that he did not mind having Princess Freya sit next to him so close that their legs were almost touching.

　　"I see. Once we let Her Majesty Aura in the Palace know about our return, we can finally relax, so please hang in there a bit longer."

　　"Hahaha. You sure seem full of energy for all that, Princess Freya. I guess you are not the captain of an intercontinental voyage for show."

　　"Fufu, thank you."

　　His smile revealed not the slightest hint of wariness while he chit-chatted with her.

　　To begin with, Zenjirou had been nothing but a commoner in j.a.pan not long ago and ascended into Royalty out of nowhere, so his mentality was not toughened to the point, where he could sustain scepticism while a woman in the same carriage approached him with affability or rather affection day in and day out.

　　On the other hand, Princess Freya was full-fledged Royalty, albeit a young one, so it was understandable she would get the better of him.

　　But even then, the current situation was not entirely going according to her expectations.

　　"It was quite strenuous at times, but it certainly was fun, was it not, Your Majesty Zenjirou?"

　　"Yes, for sure."

　　When Princess Freya spoke about their mutual experience at the March of Guzzle, Zenjirou did confirm it with a smile, but immediately cast his eyes to something else.

　　He was looking at the Royal Palace.

　　His mind was already filled with the Royal Palace, or more precisely with his home, the Inner Palace.

　　Although Princess Freya sat so close to him that he could feel her body temperature, Zenjirou was captivated by the thought of reuniting with the still faraway Queen Aura.

　　"Hah…"

　　Realizing she was not even in his field of vision, Princess Freya heaved a sigh as if to say "This is going to be a stiff piece of work".

　　* * *

　　The first destination after arriving in the Capital was obviously the Royal Palace.

　　Only after "Prince Consort" Zenjirou reported his safe return to "Queen" Aura in the audience room and was complimented for his work by the "Queen", his expedition officially came to an end.

　　A marriage ceremony between high-ranking n.o.bility was pretty much a state ceremony already. And when Royalty attended it on top of it, it became an official event completely without doubt.

　　Hence it was necessary to report the return from such an official event, even if it was quite troublesome.

　　Needless to say, neither Zenjirou, nor Aura could call it a "warm welcome", when they were exchanging stiff words at such a formal occasion.

　　So Zenjirou only experienced a "home coming" in the true sense of the word, when he returned to the Inner Palace after finis.h.i.+ng the formal greeting in the Royal Palace.

　　"I'm home, Aura."

　　Back in the living room of the Inner Palace, Zenjirou gave his welcoming wife a genuine greeting with a tired expression.

　　"Welcome back, Zenjirou."

　　Gone to the Inner Palace a bit ahead of him, Queen Aura smiled a gentle welcome to her returning husband.

　　It was still before afternoon. Normally, Queen Aura would still be busy with her duties, but since her husband was returning home today, she had taken time off by rearranging her schedule a few days ago.

　　Zenjirou could never hope to imitate her in that. He took the definition of diligence a bit too serious, so he avoided pus.h.i.+ng his work onto others at all times.

　　Closing the door behind him, Zenjirou pulled his wife standing in front of him into an embrace with both arms.

　　"I'm back."

　　"Welcome back."

　　The married couple was almost equally tall, so they placed their chins on the other's shoulder, rubbing cheek on cheek, while repeating the greeting one more time.

　　"Fuuuh…"

　　Wrapping his right arm around her back and his left arm around her waist, Zenjirou tightly caressed his beloved wife while breathing a relaxed sigh.

　　Holding the tender body of his lovely wife in his arms in the only room with electricity in this world, Zenjirou finally felt "at home".

　　At the same time, his whole body was a.s.saulted by fatigue and sleepiness as though the threads of tension that kept him going had suddenly been cut.

　　Although Aura had no way to see his face in their embrace, she seemed to sense his state by touch.

　　"Are you okay? Why do you not sit down on the couch for now?"

　　With these words, she lent him a shoulder and led him to the couch.

　　Even though Zenjirou was propping half of his bodyweight against her, Aura showed not the slightest shakiness in her steps or in the arm holding him.

　　If their position were to be reversed, it might not be impossible for Zenjirou, but it would still take all his strength to pull it off.

　　Like always, he did consider himself a bit pathetic for it, but obediently indulged in the goodwill of his wife and leaned back into the couch.

　　"Fuh…"

　　When he slouched on the familiar couch, the sleepiness was about to overwhelm him.

　　"You might as well go to bed. I do not mind, you know?"

　　Standing next to the couch, Aura called out to him gently, but Zenjirou shut his eyes tightly, shook his head a few times and refused.

　　"No, it's too early for that. And it's been a while for us, so I'll endure it."

　　He was actually the type of person to struggle with correcting his inner clock once it went wrong.

　　It was still afternoon right now. If he were to go to sleep now and wake up in the middle of the night, he would end up being sluggish for a few days until his daily rhythm was fixed again.

　　Before it came to that, he might as well bear with it for today.

　　Hearing his resolve, the Queen nodded an "Okay" and took the silver jug out of the refrigerator, bringing it over along with the red and blue Kiriko gla.s.ses.

　　"Alcohol will only make you more sleepy, so I suppose fruit juice will be better. It should clear your sleepiness a bit."

　　"Th- Thanks."

　　When the Queen eagerly poured him some fruit juice, Zenjirou took the gla.s.s with a happy smile. They c.h.i.n.ked gla.s.ses, Zenjirou with his blue one, Aura with her red one, and downed it in one gulp.

　　"Mm…"

　　The cold water mixed with black sugar and the juice of a citrus fruit certainly swept away the sleepiness for a moment.

　　"Fuh, it's been a while since I drunk something cold. You can't get your hands on it outside, no matter what."

　　"All thanks to you. Anyway, we still have some time until dinner, so how about we review our current situations for a bit?"

　　Zenjirou wrinkled his brow, when his wife suggested this with a smile.

　　"Hmm, that would certainly be an effective way to spend the time, but to be honest, I don't think I'm in any shape to hold a meaningful conversation right now."

　　The fruit juice refreshed him a bit, but his brain was still only working at half its capacity. Even if they were to exchange information now, he doubted he would report it accurately or remember what she might say.

　　But the Queen removed his doubts by shaking her head.

　　"No problem. We will hold a proper meeting tomorrow, when you cleared your head after a good night's sleep. I have already made time for it. For now, you can just give me a rough outline of things. To begin with, I do not want to use time effectively, but keep you awake through it."

　　"I see."

　　Zenjirou was convinced by the words of his wife.

　　It definitely was a good idea to battle his sleepiness with talking. Of course it was no cure for the sleepiness itself, but it should distract him to some extent.

　　Although he was in no state to "exchange information" meaningfully, he could at least make some bantering chat.

　　"Okay. Who's going to start? You said our situations, so I take it you have something to report?"

　　"Yeah, I kind of do. The fine details in the proper order can wait until tomorrow, so let us just present the important bits for now.

　　Zenjirou, I am sure you have noticed it already, but Nilda Guzzle currently does not have her name recorded on the 'Roll of Names'."

　　"Ah, I knew it. Good. Then I most likely took the right course of action. Well done, if I may say so myself."

　　"So you did noticed it. Did something happen?"

　　Instead of an exchange of information, Zenjirou and Aura continued more of a relaxed conversation about their recent circ.u.mstances from then on.