Chapter 04: A Number of Arrangements

　　On a certain day, several days after the informal negotiations had occurred under the pretext of giving Aura and Zenjirou the goats.

　　“Fuah…”

　　As always, Aura was attending to her duties in the office of the Royal Palace, when she stretched herself on top of her chair in order to shake off her tiredness.

　　“Uh, Guh…!”

　　It was still noon right now and extremely unusual for Aura to be this tired while the sun was high up.

　　“I have not seen you this tired in a long time, Your Majesty.”

　　So unusual in fact that Secretary Fabio, standing at attention besides her, had to address it with a doubtful tone.

　　Aura was pretty strict about her health. Proper sleep as well as nutrition were the two keystones for good health. She might have neglected these on the battlefield during the great war, but now in times of peace, it was odd beyond doubt that she ended up sleep-deprived.

　　Proud of his outstanding memory, the slender-faced Secretary recalled the schedule of his Master for the past few days, but could not pinpoint a reason for it in particular.

　　“Is anything preventing you from getting enough sleep?”

　　The Queen answered the question of her trusted retainer with a wry smile and half-opened eyes.

　　“Hmm, well, yeah.”

　　“Is something weighing on your mind?”

　　“No, it is more of a practical problem.”

　　“You mean, you are going to bed too late?”

　　“Not quite. If anything, I spent more time in the bedroom now. Just not ‘sleeping’ though.”

　　“…Oh, I see. Speaking of, it [e]is[/e] the right time for a second one.”

　　The middle-aged Secretary was convinced now.

　　There was only one reason why an intimate married couple would lack sleep, even though they were spending more time in the bedroom.

　　It certainly was pleasant to see that Aura and Zenjirou still got along as well as always despite the relations.h.i.+p drama encompa.s.sing Zenjirou at the moment. And just like Secretary Fabio had said, the point in time was not unfavourable to make the second royal child.

　　The Queen seemed to have somehow shaken off her tiredness by stretching herself on her chair and took a deep breath before getting back on topic.

　　“Anyway, it has been decided for good that Princess Freya will accompany Zenjirou to the marriage ceremony of General Puyol.

　　I somehow managed to reach an understanding with the n.o.bility, who pushed for a partner for Zenjirou, in the past few days. Fortunately enough, the most troublesome and unyielding opponent could not take action this time around.”

　　It goes without saying that the most troublesome and unyielding opponent referred to General Puyol, the main figure of this marriage ceremony himself. Knowing him, he would have a.s.sertively tried to install his little sister Fatima Guillén as the partner for Zenjirou without doubt, if this had been any other marriage ceremony.

　　However, he was kind of forced to take a backseat just this once. Too busy with all the preparations for his own wedding, the General himself could not take action himself and his little sister Fatima had to attend the ceremony as part of the bridegroom’s party anyway.

　　Much to his regret, General Puyol thus had no choice but to stand on the sidelines as a result, even though he usually stopped at nothing to expand his influence and position.

　　“Princess Freya as his partner, hmm? Then I can a.s.sume she will be accepted as a concubine for Master Zenjirou in the future?”

　　Her trusted retainer narrowed his eyes to slits and inquired with a monotone voice, whereupon Aura nodded shortly.

　　“Yes. At this point, she has only been appointed as his partner for the marriage ceremony, but you can basically start preparing with that in mind.

　　Of course the finalization of the intercontinental trade agreement with the Uppsala Kingdom takes priority and depending on its outcome, the matter may end up being called off, though.”

　　The conditions for accepting Princess Freya as a concubine were the benefits from an intercontinental trade agreement and the promised know-how for the iron manufacture as well as for the s.h.i.+pbuilding. If they simply wanted to increase their pract.i.tioners for the “Bestowal Magic” through a concubine, there were more appropriate women within the kingdom than a c.u.mbersome princess from a different country.

　　The Uppsala Kingdom was an admittedly technology advanced country, but was trailing behind, when it came to magic, so Princess Freya was not really blessed with a remarkable amount of magical power according to the norm of the Carpa Kingdom.

　　A not so insignificant amount of the local n.o.bility was against the unprecedented case of taking foreign royalty as a concubine. Without a dowry in form of an intercontinental trade agreement, Aura was determined to break off the talks at any moment.

　　Catching on these circ.u.mstances, the slender-faced Secretary pondered for a while, then answered.

　　“Understood. I shall make preparations accordingly. Having said this, I can only provide the necessary doc.u.ments and physical materials at best.

　　Your Majesty will have to take care of the emotional element. I hope that will not pose a problem?”

　　The emotional element, in other words: he was asking whether she could convince Zenjirou of this matter properly.

　　Getting the hardest nut to crack by her Secretary, the Queen showed a wry smile and looked up to the ceiling.

　　“As always, he fully consents to it from a logical point of view. Even if he were to take Princess Freya as a concubine now, he would not cause any problems on the surface.

　　The problematic part is his frame of mind, though. I am doing my utmost right now to appease him… It did come at the cost of my well-earned sleep in the past few days, though.”

　　“I see. Well, it is an important task only you can accomplish, Your Majesty.”

　　The Queen spoke relatively open about the night activities, whereas her Secretary draped himself in apathy as he acknowledged it.

　　At this point of time, the current night activities of the royal couple had undoubtedly the main purpose of making a second child, but they served as a way to comfort the heart and soul of Zenjirou all the same.

　　To begin with, the main reason he had accepted his fate of being summoned to a different world, was because he fell in love with Queen Aura at first sight. Moreover, his love for Aura only grew during the following newlywed lifestyle and its charm had not broken even once up till now.

　　Therefore s.e.xual intercourse with Aura was the best medicine for Zenjirou’s anxious state of mind. But he had been living in “abstinence” for more than half a year, so his s.e.x drive turned out to be greater than Aura had expected and she had a hard time keeping up.

　　“At least he seems to have enough stamina in this field for when a concubine is added. The question is, though, whether he will see another woman beside me as a partner at all.”

　　The Queen voiced her misgivings like that while she frowned and looked glum, but a closer look revealed the glint of triumph s.h.i.+ning through her reddish brown pupils.

　　As the Queen, she had to keep the prosperity of the kingdom in mind, so Zenjirou’s monogamy posed a problem, but as a woman, as his wife, she could not help but rejoice at the fact that he only loved her alone and paid no attention to other women.

　　“You are the only one capable of persuading him in that regard, so I am counting on you, Your Majesty.

　　Either way, I definitely approve the making of a second child right now. It would be a bit risky to welcome a concubine into the royal family while Prince Carlos is the only legal successor.”

　　If the concubine were to give birth to a child that inherited the bloodline magic, it could happen that this child was acknowledged as a successor, even if only temporarily, in case something happened to the sole legal successor.

　　The only way to avoid that risk was to make more children with the legal wife. If it had not been the Queen and her Prince Consort, but the King and his Queen Consort, they would get ready to make a second child as soon as the Queen Consort had recovered enough from the previous delivery.

　　“I know that. But I never would have guessed that it would be this strenuous to reign conscientiously and take care of the next generation at the same time.”

　　“And a concubine is meant to take a part of that burden off your shoulders.”

　　When the Queen complained, her Secretary presented the fact in an indifferent tone.

　　“Right. In consideration of the continuity of the royal family and the prosperity of the kingdom, a concubine is indispensable for my husband after all.”

　　The Queen nodded, whereupon her Secretary brought up another problematic matter.

　　“But it also could cause some problems, if you were to have a second child at this point in time. Let us a.s.sume you conceive right away like before, then it should take about two or three months for your pregnancy to become apparent. But the intercontinental trade agreement is unlikely to have reached a conclusion by that time. In other words, there will be no arrangements yet to accept Princess Freya as a concubine.

　　In that case, it will be more than likely that the local n.o.bility will push for a different concubine to ‘bridge that vacant period of time’ first.”

　　“…I can already see the mood of my husband worsening even further.”

　　* * *

　　While the Queen pursued her duties in the office of the Royal Palace, the husband of the Queen alias Zenjirou was playing a video game in the living room of the Inner Palace, still dressed in his pyjama.

　　After a pa.s.sionate night with his wife in the bedroom, he had gone back to sleep as soon as he had seen her off to work, and when he woke up again, he started to play games in his pyjama.

　　It was a slovenly way of life that practically epitomized depravity.

　　“Here I… GO!”

　　With the controller in hand, Zenjirou imitated a pitching motion by swinging his arm down with all his might. In line with this, the pitcher character displayed on the screen threw a ball.

　　Thrown with a fictional speed of one-hundred and fifty-one km/h, the fastball headed for the high inside of the strike zone of the batter standing in the right batter’s box, but the batter casually swung his bat and mercilessly shot the full-power fastball from Zenjirou’s character into the left stands.

　　A homerun.

　　“Aw, d.a.m.n it.”

　　This result made Zenjirou abruptly lose his motivation, so he turned off the console with the point of the toe without bothering to bend over and tossed the controller onto the carpet.

　　Then he unmannerly flopped himself onto the black leather couch, where he heaved a deep sigh.

　　“…Man, it’s no use. I can’t concentrate at all.”

　　Ever since Princess Freya had been chosen as his partner for the coming marriage ceremony, Zenjirou had lost some of his inner tranquillity, so Aura had given him a special vacation for today out of consideration for him, but unfortunately, he did not know what to do with all this free time.

　　“Hmm, I know I‘m not supposed to, but maybe I can distract myself, when I play a game against the waiting maids.”

　　Still sitting on the couch, Zenjirou looked down on the game controller lying on the carpet and muttered that to himself, but as expected, he had no intention to put that idea into practice.

　　He was lending the portable game console to some of the waiting maids, but he had never played a game together with them.

　　Because it would appear like he was giving preference to these maids, when the “master happily spent time with them”, even if it was something peculiar like a video game.

　　Zenjirou truly wanted to have a good relations.h.i.+p with the waiting maids of the Inner Palace, but not even once had he considered the intimate kind of relations.h.i.+p between a man and a woman with them. The last thing he wanted was for the situation to turn awkward, because he raised such expectations by mistake or made them be on guard against him.

　　“So I finally get a day off, but I’ve no idea what to do…”

　　Grumbling like that, he exchanged his blue-striped pyjama for a T-s.h.i.+rt and cotton pants all too late.

　　Since he only ever left the Inner Palace for work, it meant that a vacation equalled to spending the whole day in the Inner Palace.

　　During his university days, he had mainly went out with friends, when he had too much time on his hands, and he no longer had any real free time as a working adult, so he was not really familiar with killing time indoors by himself.

　　Right after transferring into this world, Zenjirou had been eager to watch his pile of DVDs or play his still sealed games, but he was not all that fixated on them anymore lately.

　　Some of the games still awaited their completion and numerous DVDs were still unwatched, but his initial pa.s.sionate dedication to them was long gone.

　　Above all, he just could not enjoy them anymore, even if he wanted to, because the serious issue at hand weighed on his mind.

　　“Argh. I feel bad for Aura, ‘cause she went out of her way to give me a day off, but I might as well tackle the matter head-on in order to free my mind.”

　　After his quick change of clothes, Zenjirou took paper and a three-coloured ball pen from the desk with his computer in the corner of the room and once again sat down on the black leather couch.

　　“Hmm, one thing at a time. First of all: General Puyol will held his marriage ceremony in the March of Guzzle.

　　I’m going to attend this ceremony as a representative for Aura. But the etiquette more or less dictates you to attend it with a partner. And the public generally thinks you have a thing for each other, when you and your partner are unmarried.

　　Lastly, it’s been decided that I’ll take Princess Freya to the ceremony as my partner.”

　　When Zenjirou wrote “attend ceremony together with Princess Freya” down on the paper, he vented an heavy sigh.

　　Strictly speaking, he was already married to Queen Aura, but it was normal for male royalty to have multiple wives. Even more so in his case, where he and Aura were the only adult royalty of the Carpa Kingdom. You could even go so far as to say that everyone in the country was hoping he would take more wives.

　　So when he took a “young, unmarried woman to a marriage ceremony”, that woman was automatically seen has a favourable candidate for the position of his concubine.

　　And worst of all, the person in question, Princess Freya herself, was the most eager about becoming his concubine.

　　“Above all, she’ll definitely become my official second wife, if our country establishes an ‘intercontinental trade’ with her homeland, the Uppsala Kingdom, later on.”

　　The following sigh was even heavier than the first.

　　“Well, I was always told that this would happen, so it just means that the inevitable has finally come, but to be honest, I could have really done without it.”

　　With a distant look in his eyes, Zenjirou viewed the wide garden beyond the opened wooden door.

　　He was an extremely average person with rather conservative moral values and not the kind of adventurous guy that gladly hooked himself another woman while he already had a child and intimate relations.h.i.+p with his beloved wife.

　　“I’m glad I had that heart to heart talk with Aura before, because I wouldn’t have been sure about her feelings for me otherwise.”

　　Back then, when they both had laid bare their complains and wishes, Aura had said: “As a woman, I want to monopolize you as well.”

　　In other words, the reason she actively pushed for a concubine for him was solely because of her obligations as the Queen. It did contradict her feelings as a woman.

　　Zenjirou told himself that he had to keep that in mind.

　　“If it’s true, Aura should be taking the worst hit from it, even with her different moral values in this polygamy culture. If she really l- loves me, that is.”

　　From his point of view, it was worrisome and troublesome at the same time to have to take a second wife, even though he already had one he loved very much.

　　But it was whole different matter for Aura. Her beloved husband was going to marry another woman. It would come as no surprise if she were to act irrational, because of jealousy.

　　“If I were in her shoes…”

　　Zenjirou imagined such a scenario.

　　What if Aura were to get herself another man?

　　For example, what if she suddenly said something like this: “We already have a child together. So it is time I spread our bloodline by making a child with General Puyol or Sir Raffaelo as well. Oh, do not worry. It will only be physical. You will always be the only one I love.”

　　His wild fantasy was definitely unthinkable in the patriarchic society of the Carpa Kingdom, but it was easily conceivable from a purely practical point of view for pa.s.sing on the bloodline magic.

　　Aura sleeping with someone else than him.

　　“Just imagining it drives me crazy…”

　　He muttered with a flat voice.

　　Was Aura feeling like this right now? Was she suppressing her own feelings and fulfilling her duty as the Queen by giving his husband a concubine?

　　Once again, Zenjirou was reminded of his impotence and the admirability of his wife.

　　Needless to say, it was pointless to range their mindsets on the same level, since Zenjirou only had monogamous moral values, whereas Aura was born and raised in an polygamous environment. But it definitely held true that the mental pressure from taking a concubine weighed more on the wife than the husband from a sensible point of view.

　　“Guess I can only make the best of it, since it can’t be avoided…”

　　Somewhat becalmed, Zenjirou s.h.i.+fted his attention to something else in order to make effective use of his day off.

　　“Well, it’s not all bad news with Princess Freya. I mean, the dishes did increase.”

　　Standing up from the couch with these words, he moved to the five-door refrigerator in the corner of the room.

　　The silver jug he took out from it contained goat milk, freshly milked this morning.

　　Every day, just like Nicolai, the young caretaker detached by Princess Freya, had instructed them to, they heated the milk once without boiling it, then let it cool down a bit before putting it in the refrigerator.

　　The leftovers were disposed of on the next day. It was a bit of a waste, but the only ones consuming the goat milk in the Carpa Kingdom were currently Zenjirou and the baby goats, so unless they disposed of it regularly, the refrigerator would overspill with goat milk in no time.

　　Pouring the milk from the jug into a gla.s.s, Zenjirou took a sip of the white fluid and swallowed it with a sour face.

　　“Yeah… it stinks quite a bit.”

　　He had only ever known of pasteurized milk, so he could not help but consider this goat milk as smelly. Kind of smelling of animal and gra.s.s alike, the scent was difficult to put into words and because of it, Zenjirou still could not recommend the milk to others in good conscience.

　　He had the impression that the people of the South Continent would become negatively biased towards the goat milk for life, if they were to taste it with this scent for the first time, since they had never drunken milk from livestock here before.

　　“Nicolai said the scent can be improved with a better environment and food, so there’s still hope.”

　　Nicolai had wanted to put off the improvement of the taste and scent for the time being, because the goats still had not settled in their new environment and their health came first.

　　Fortunately enough, the young man did not only know how to raise the goats, he apparently also knew how to make b.u.t.ter, raw cream and even cheese from their milk.

　　It would seem that the man called Nicolai could be trusted with everything related to the goats. The report said that almost every day, he was sleeping together with the goats in the stable or grazing ground in the courtyard of the Royal Palace, and pa.s.sionately took care of them as though as they were his lovers.

　　Once they could make dairy products, the dishes would go beyond just the milk itself, enriching Zenjirou’s eating habits.

　　He had a pile of sweet recipes he could not rely on so far, because there had been no b.u.t.ter or raw cream. Besides, he had gotten better at reading and writing the language of the western part of the South Continent lately, so he wanted to translate as many recipes as possible and share them with Vanessa, the head of the cooking department in the Inner Palace.

　　Her talent spoke for itself. For example, even if she could not reproduce something according to the recipe, she arranged it herself and made it into something great. Moreover, she had gotten an idea of his tastes these days, so she was indispensable in the Inner Palace now.

　　“Hmm, I feel bad for Nicolai, but I guess, the goat milk will only be used for sampling for now.”

　　With these words, Zenjirou emptied his gla.s.s into the wooden bucket standing next to the refrigerator. After that he took out the cold water mixed with fruit juice, poured it into a new gla.s.s and drank it.

　　Without cleaning them up, he put the two used gla.s.ses and the bucket with the disposed goat milk back onto the shelf next to the refrigerator.

　　Zenjirou was still not used to it, but the common sense of this world deemed it scandalous for male royalty to “do the dishes”, so he had no choice but to leave it to the waiting maids.

　　“Oh, reminds me, the shampoo’s almost used up. Well, I did finish a test product, so I guess I’ll let the maids be my guinea pigs, even if I feel bad about it.”

　　Leaving the refrigerator behind, his feet carried him to another corner of the room, where he was storing all of his inventions.

　　It mainly encompa.s.sed numerous handiworks Zenjirou had tried his hands at in order to enrich his lifestyle.

　　An electromagnet made from a silver wire coil and a rechargeable dry battery, or a very weak static magnet based on the aforementioned, among other things.

　　From this collection, Zenjirou picked up a wooden box with several hand-sized silver jars in it.

　　These jars were filled with the experimental shampoo and rinse he had made. The soap shampoo was created by dissolving the self-made soap.

　　With the help of the downloaded instructions for self-made shampoo from the internet, Zenjirou was mixing it with varying amounts of beeswax, citrus juice, wheat flour or fragrance oil in order to come up with a cleansing shampoo that did not damage the hair and scalp.

　　“I think I’ll let Aura have the rest of the real shampoo and use the self-made one for myself once it’s pa.s.sable.”

　　As a man with short hair, it would not bother him, if his hair were to become a little bit brittle. On the contrary, it would infuriate him, if the beautiful straight red hair of his wife would lose its glamour.

　　“Now that I think about it, her hair was already beautiful, when I first came here. And other women also have beautiful hair. If my soap shampoo and rinse won’t work out, we might as well go back to the traditional hair care of the Carpa Kingdom.”

　　He suddenly thought of that, but if possible, he only wanted to use it as a last resort. To begin with, the people of the Carpa Kingdom did not take baths as often as the people of Modern j.a.pan, so they obviously did not wash their hair every day, either.

　　A neat person would wash its hair once every three days, everyone else once a week. The perfumed oil had been invented for that very reason, as it masked the bad smell of the hair and let it keep its glamour. But Zenjirou would rather not sleep together with a woman, who treated her hair with perfumed oil instead of was.h.i.+ng it.

　　“The fluid soap with perfumed oil is already safe to use on the body, so when I get the shampoo and rinse done, I only need cleansing foam.

　　Well, I’m fine with a diluted version of the fluid soap, though.”

　　Zenjirou had never encountered any problems with rough skin due to sunburns or cleansers back in j.a.pan. His skin was not all that sensitive, so there was no real need for him to fuss about the soap to such an extent.

　　“Maybe I can just leave it to the merchants as soon as I complete the shampoo and rinse? I already did that with the fluid soap and there were no problems, but I guess I better ask Aura before.”

　　The fluid soap Zenjirou managed to make with perfumed oil was being sold as a proper product by now, because he had pa.s.sed on the recipe to the merchant frequenting the Inner Palace.

　　Needless to say, the business-minded merchant had not been satisfied with selling such a rare and useful item at the Inner Palace alone, so he apparently had gotten the permission from Queen Aura to sell it to the public as well.

　　It did not sell outstanding numbers, because warm baths were more or less a luxury for the upper cla.s.s, but with the word-of-mouth recommendations from those, who already used it, and the seal of quality from the “purveyor to the court”, it was steadily gaining popularity, especially with the n.o.ble women.

　　If the shampoo and rinse were to circulate in the same way, even the n.o.bles in the Royal Palace might a.s.sume the habit of taking a bath every day?

　　“Nah, that would be too much of a good thing.”

　　Zenjirou denied his own dreamery.

　　Living in the Inner Palace, he tended to forget it, but a warm bath was considered an extremely pricey luxury in terms of facility and maintenance expenses in this world.

　　Even during the Vibrant Season, the season with the lowest temperatures, the Carpa Kingdom was still warm enough to bath with cold water without problems, so those, who spent a lot of money to prepare a warm bath, were a minority, even in the upper-cla.s.s circles.

　　Having said this, ambitious n.o.bles with daughters at a marriageable age might suddenly start to adopt warm baths, if word were to get around that Prince Consort Zenjirou was “urging Queen Aura, whom he spent the bed with, and the waiting maids, whom he lived together with in the Inner Palace, to clean themselves up every day in a warm bath”.

　　“Now that I think about it, Ancient Rome sure was advanced with their public thermal baths all around. It was just an elaborated sauna for warming yourself up, though.

　　Wait? Sauna?”

　　Zenjirou suddenly thought of something.

　　“That reminds me of the sauna culture in Northern Europe on Earth. Maybe the home country from Princess Freya has the same culture?”

　　In that case, it might be better to consider building a sauna in the Inner Palace, too.

　　The persuasion from Aura in the past few days must have yielded fruits. Zenjirou was unknowingly accepting the possible future of marrying Princess Freya down the road as he held that fleeting thought in the mind.