Risou no Himo Seikatsu Vol 1 Chapter 1

Chapter 01: Temporary Return

The next day, Zenjirou woke up in the guest room of the palace.

He shivered his body briefly on the unfamiliar sight, but after a while he remembered where he had gone to bed last night and relaxed his shoulders.

Zenjirou got out of the bed that seemed bigger than his 10m² room and lowered his feet onto the carpet on the floor.

“Argh, it itches all over. Guess the bugs got me. Yesterday I accepted the marriage on the spur of the moment, but I might have been a been hasty…”

Just by being here all day yesterday, he realized how inconvenient this world was compared to modern Japan.

Zenjirou’s taste buds were so poor that he couldn’t tell the difference between normal beer and low-malt beer, but like a proper Japanese, his motto was “Low-malt beer has to be ice-cold”.

Speaking of warmth, the climate itself was a problem. The impression he got from Aura’s conversation yesterday was that this Carpa Kingdom had a rather hot climate, even compared to the Kantou area of Japan.

Zenjirou recalled with a somewhat displeased face how he heard about a similar countermeasure for Indian summers.

Needless to say, this world didn’t know about air conditioning either. For Zenjirou, who only ever spent summers with air conditions in Japan, this heat was hell.

That said, not only the heat disturbed his sleep. The other factor interfering with his pleasant rest was “bugs”.

Technically the curtain of the bed functioned as a mosquito net, but it couldn’t shut out all of the bugs.

However, even facing all these inconveniences, what annoyed him instead was the restriction of the night.

During his meal with Aura, a large chandelier with big candles had illuminated the place sufficiently, but when he walked down the hallway, he could only rely on the oil pan carried by the waiting maid that escorted him.

If he were to try reading a book with that kind of light, he would ruin his eyes for sure.

Zenjirou changed his clothes while inadvertently mumbling some complaints.

His current attire was loose trousers with a sash around the waist and a baggy top like a negligee that reached till his knees.

Having said that, Zenjirou was a special guest, the Prince consort, albeit unofficial at this point. Clothes, food and residence, everything provided to him surely were of the greatest quality, but it was a matter of fact that these goods couldn’t satisfy Zenjirou, a commoner of modern Japan.

After he changed from the borrowed clothes into his own familiar clothes, Zenjirou sat down on the edge of the bed and waited for the waiting maid to get him.

He had gone through warm alcohol, an uncomfortable bed and a dark night, but what captured him enough to make an informal engagement yesterday was Aura Carpa’s charm.

Completely smitten by her Highness’ daring and alluring figure, Zenjirou had let his gaze wander over the cleavage of Aura’s voluminous breasts, her dress slit and thighs in a natural way (or at least Zenjirou thought so himself) the whole time.

“Oh, right. I brought my bicycle with me here. That means, when I come back in a month, I can take some luggage with me, doesn’t it. Great, I’ll make a list for marriage-portion once I’m home!”

“Yes!”

Zenjirou replied to the familiar voice of the waiting maid from the other side of the door with a loud voice.

Standing up from the bed, he swiftly rushed over to the door.

It was a fact that Yamai Zenjirou was a special guest in the Carpa Kingdom, but his existence was currently only known to Queen Aura and her close retainers.

To express it with Zenjirou’s lacking vocabulary, the culture of Carpa felt like “a mixture of a typical fantasy set in mediaeval Europe and an uncivilized southern country”.

Zenjirou couldn’t even imagine how old that tree had been. To manufacture such a long log in one piece must cost way more than one out of marble.

Zenjirou relished the foreign food while chit-chatting with Aura.

Wiping the bottom of the soup plate with a piece of bread, Aura put it into her mouth and after she chewed it carefully and swallowed it, she reported the current situation to Zenjirou with her usual calm voice.

“Thank you, Aura-san. I am fine with returning any time. I only have one question: How much luggage can I take along between the worlds during the summoning or return?”

Aura appreciated Zenjirou’s attempt at remembering the table manners now and swallowed her words of “You can eat as you want without minding about manners”, giving him a smile instead.

Zenjirou inadvertently dropped his shoulders on Aura’s answer, which was greatly different from his expectation.

“Zenjirou-dono? Has something caught your eyes in the inner palace?”

“Ah, no. I didn’t mean for my return, but for the next summoning in one month. If possible, I would’ve liked to bring over some tools and stuff from my world…”

Aura came to an understanding upon Zenjirou’s answer.

“Certainly, considering your position, you would want to do something about that. Let’s see…”

“….Oh, I know. We might be able to use that.”

“Is there some kind of way, Aura-san?”

“Yes. We have a magic carpet with barrier magic weaved into it, which is the foundation for the ‘Space-Time Magic’.

In the end, it is just a single carpet. It most likely cannot store all of your fortunes, but at least you will be able to bring more than with your bare hands.”

Zenjirou’s joyful look changed into a disappointed one. Aura gave him a “No worry” smile and explained.

On Aura’s reply, Zenjirou’s joyful look returned at once.

“Oh please, compared what you are doing for me, this is insignificant, so your gratitude is unnecessary.”

Zenjirou didn’t know the value of a magical tool, so he accepted Aura’s good will without questions, but if he had known of its value beforehand, he might have realized for a bit just how sincere Aura’s interaction with him had been.

Just like the “Space-Time Magic” from the royal Carpa Family, the “Bestowal Magic” could only be used by members of a certain royal family too. It was commonly known as “Bloodline Magic”. Needless to say, magical tools created with “Bestowal Magic” were extremely rare and had skyrocketing prices.

At this point, Aura casually added as she suddenly realized something.

Aura, who had finished her breakfast at some point, appeased her thirst after the meal with some citrus water and softly called out to Zenjirou.

“Well, not that I can think of any… Oh, wait. Betrothed. Yes, we are going to marry. In that case, Aura-san, do you have a ring for your ’left ring finger’? If so, I want you to lend me one.”

But as this world had no custom of “wedding rings” or “engagement rings”, Aura didn’t understand Zenjirou’s intentions and tilted her head puzzled.

“That’s, well, uhm… Something to look forward to in a month.”

However, she could easily deduce from joining the two statements “Lend me a ring of your size” and “Look forward to it in a month” together that her betrothed tried to present her a ring upon his return, even if there was no custom such as “wedding rings”.

“I understand. I will do so then. I take that you will tell me what kind of meaning a ‘ring for your left ring finger’ holds in your world in a month?”

Zenjirou realized that she already had seen through his plan more or less. Along with a bitter smile, he replied with these words.

The first transfer had ended before he knew it, but the second one left Zenjirou with a kind of drunkenness.

He staggered on his first step, shook his head to shake off the sensation that warped his vision and let his eyes wander around.

The familiar scenery and the smell of fumes really made Zenjirou feel “at home”.

Moreover, he wore the golden ring he got from Aura on his left little finger.

“Actually, it felt like everything happened in succession, but actually a whole day went by…didn’t it?”

It could still be Saturday for all he knew. In the worst case, numerous days could have even passed here.

“Damn, first I need to confirm my situation.”
Zenjirou’s imagination treaded into dangerous waters and he shivered. Then he swiftly headed towards his apartment while firmly holding onto the carpet.

“Good. There doesn’t seem to be much of a time gap.”

His wristband watch he brought with him into the other world and the digital alarm clock in his apartment both showed the same time.

After all, the arrangement to re-summon him had been “30 days later in the other world”. If the time flow had been different, he would have to live with the suspense of getting summoned at any time.

Anyway, Zenjirou knew that most anxieties were nothing but groundless fears, so he sat down in front of his computer, which was set up in the corner of his room, with a bright expression and turned it on.

Zenjirou slapped his cheeks with his hands to regain some spirit.

Still sitting on the chair at the computer desk, he took the control of the air conditioning and lowered the set temperature down to 20°C.

The artificial cold and unhealthy breeze blew down onto the chair, where he sat on. Zenjirou sighed and wiped the sweat from his palms on his pants, then put his right hand onto the computer mouse.

Before you noticed it, the time passed in a blink of an eye while you arranged an appointment with your business partner, allotted time and prepared the necessary materials for a presentation.
As to not even waste a single second, Zenjirou first opened an online search site and entered all the keywords he could think of.

“…Aw, damn! Guess it’s no good.”

One of the few advantages of the small one room apartment was that the temperature went down satisfactory in a short period of time. He raised the air conditioning back to 25°C.

“Mhm, even if something so unrealistic like a different world takes place, reality won’t be so easy…”

So what Zenjirou first looked for was a small power generator for domestic use. However, a convenient generator that kept providing electricity for years and could be taken to the other world didn’t exist.

This kind of generator, which was sold for camping, could easily provide electricity without any special set-up, but naturally it needed a fuel like petrol or diesel oil.

Roughly speaking, bio-diesel fuel consisted of three components: vegetable oil, methanol (methyl alcohol) and caustic soda.

Of course he could just buy ethanol and caustic soda in great quantities at a pharmacy and take it to the other world, but if he did that, it would be faster to just go to a filling station, fill a plastic container with diesel oil and take this along. However, to begin with, the amount of fuel he could fit on a single carpet wouldn’t even last for a month. Same applied if he were to bring methanol and caustic acid.

Wind power was pretty realistic. The wind blew in the other world too. But what worried him was the fickle output. Since it literally “depended on the wind”, it would be useless at a calm, sultry night.

Electricity that could only be used during the day wasn’t appealing at all. He could buy a solar power generator with an integrated large battery for night use, but batteries were “consumable goods” with an extremely short life span. It was unreliable as a long-term power source.

Zenjirou poured some tea from the pet bottle into his cup, then returned his hand to the mouse.

If he could trust that slogan, even Zenjirou should be able to set it up by himself in the other world.

“A hydropower generator for domestic use, huh. Even something like that exists…”

It wasn’t applicable as often as wind or solar power since it depended on location, but at present even the waves of a small power generator for domestic could be applied as hydropower.

According to what Zenjirou looked up, hydropower generators that produced less than 10kW were classified for “general usage” and with suitable conditions regarding location, even a single household could relatively easily purchase one.

Needless to say, the charming points of the hydropower generator were the 24/7 runtime and the overwhelming output that distinguished itself from the others.

In other words, Zenjirou could use all the electronics here, like the air conditioning, refrigerator and computer, simultaneous without a problem even in the other world.

“Are there even any rivers or canals near the palace?”

Going by the common sense of this world, it was unthinkable to not have water near the palace, where hundreds of people lived, but it concerned a world where magic existed after all.

The possibility of being told that wasn’t zero.

Working in a somewhat exploiting company, where at least the overtime was paid properly, for years, Zenjirou had saved up 3 million yen.

The hybrid generator on his list costs around 500.000 yen. The hydropower one costs actually 1,5 million yen.

Adding Aura’s “wedding ring” to it, he couldn’t afford to spent two-third of his savings only on the generators.

“Aww, guess I’ll have to choose one in the end. A safe low output against a high output with the risk of being futile. Mhm…”

“Mh? To begin with, will they even sell me one if I tell them I just want the goods to set it up by myself?”

He researched on the internet for a while, whereupon he found some rather troubling information as expected.

Zenjirou made an exhausted sigh in front of his computer.

It seemed the hydropower generator wasn’t something to buy with ordinary methods.

Zenjirou mumbled that and was reminded about the old village he was born in right away.

The village was already in the middle of nowhere and the hut stood deserted even farther into the mountain. If his memory didn’t prove him wrong, the land around there should belong to the Yamai family.

Luckily enough, that hut was just a small storage shed without any electricity. It shouldn’t raise any suspicion if he told them that he wanted to set up the small generator in the nearby river for electricity in the hut.

Zenjirou dialled the number of a company for micro hydropower generators that was written on their homepage and called them immediately.

“Hello, you have reached the sales and executive department of Technotics. We are currently unavailable to take your call. Please leave your name, phone number, and…”

Zenjirou clicked his tongue as he hung up.

He faced the computer again and started to type a mail with the topic “buying desire” to purchase a hydropower generator from the company.

On the next day, Zenjirou waited meekly in front of his superior, who solemnly looked at the “letter of resignation” before him with his arms crossed.

His superior asked grumpy, whereas Zenjirou lowered his head commendable.

In fact it was a company with harsh working conditions. People quitting wasn’t all that unusual, but in Zenjirou’s case, he had managed his work for years and finally became a part of the “working force”, only to quit now.

As the perfect model for a middle-age man with his wrinkles, balding and drooping belly, his superior glared up at the standing Zenjirou from his seat.

Reading the made-up excuse for quitting in the resignation letter, his superior looked grim and tilted his head.

“Well, yes. What can I say, I kind of had a change of heart…”

“Mhm… Well, even if I force you to stay, you wouldn’t do your job properly anymore. Fine.”

But as to spoil his delight, the middle-aged superior raised his voice.

Ah, another thing, write up some guidelines for the next newcomers. I won’t go as far as telling you to write up something that makes you an expert just from reading it, but at least something that lets the newcomers differentiate left from right. Okay?”

But he wouldn’t feel comfortable when he declined and left a bad impression behind. And if he opposed carelessly and was questioned thoroughly, leading to the exposure of his lie, then things would become way more troublesome.

In the end, Zenjirou had no choice but to play safe and work hard until his resignation.

Some of his work might have been taken over, but since he had to write up guidelines, he had even fewer time left than he thought.

“Let’s see, this ring would be around the size of 14 or 15. Your own size would be 17.”

It was his first time coming to a jeweller, so even when she told him that, he had no idea what these sizes meant.

Zenjirou couldn’t tell that this wasn’t an all too high-class shop for a jeweller, so he felt extremely out of place with his suit reeking of beef bowl.

The shop clerk could immediately tell that it was all Greek to Zenjirou from his behaviour and casually explained it while she went on.

Zenjirou replied a bit stammering to the shop clerk’s kind explanation.

“Oh, I understand. Though you are by no means short yourself. A somewhat wider ring would surely suit such a tall person better. Please wait a moment.”

“Ah, yes.”

A tall and sexy body, clear facial features shining with strong emotions, flaming red and long hair that represented her personality and light brown skin, which was fundamentally different from a tan.

However, Zenjirou was mistaken on one thing. Aura was not taller than him.

Zenjirour reckoned Aura to be somewhere between 1,75 and 1,80, but that was nothing more than optical illusion caused by the aura emitted from her entire body.

One by one, the shop clerk put various rings on a tray and brought it over to Zenjirou.

Even while he said that, he first checked the price of each ring.

“I recommend choosing the metal for the socket first if you are undecided. Here in Japan the most common is platinum, but going by your skin colour, I would say that gold looks better on your finger. If yellow gold is too imposing for you, we have rings in pink gold like this one as well.

In general, platinum or silver were for people with pale skin and gold for those with dark skin.

Let alone Aura, who was 100% from the other world. Her skin had a natural and pretty light brown.

“In that case I really recommend the yellow gold. As for the ornate stone, a colourful ruby or sapphire might be more favourable than a colourless diamond. Excuse the question, but can it be that your partner is a foreigner?”

He certainly couldn’t answer “My fiancé is the Queen from another world”, so he brushed it off with a vague answer.

“O- Okay, I see.”
Zenjirou wasn’t used to be exposed to this kind of situation for long, so he was overwhelmed by the shop clerk’s sale arts and just nodded to her words.

What awaited Zenjirou after his hectic lunch break with lunch and the jeweller, was an even more hectic afternoon with work.

Zenjirou’s company had followed the recent cool biz campaign too and allowed them to come to work in casual clothes during summer, but the small company it was, it unfortunately couldn’t be applied to all departments.

For that reason, it was silently accepted that he loosened his attire unsightly like this to work a bit more relaxed when he had no work to do outside the office like today.

“Better than playing tough and getting athlete’s foot.”

Zenjirou couldn’t be so open. He put the 500ml pet bottle with tea that he bought during his lunch break behind his mouse pad and woke his computer from the sleep mode that he had placed on it before the break.

“Okay, go for it.”

There was no easy job that could be learned just through reading a document in this world, but his superior had told him to write something like a “helper for troubled times” for the newcomers.

Stopping his hands from typing on the keyboard, Zenjirou said that isolated.

Still, work was work. To resign without any troubles, he had no choice but to finish his work satisfactory.

He just finished writing down a sketchy structure, so he withdrew his hands from the keyboard and took a sip from the tea in the pet bottle.

However, for the documents that weren’t on his computer or in his file case, he had to go over to a co-worker.

“Excuse me, Yoshihi-san. Do you have the documents from the contract with the Yamaguchi Company from two years ago?”

Zenjirou called out to a skinny man in his thirties. The man stopped his work and turned only his head towards him from atop his chair.

“Mmh? Ah, that one. Wait. I’m busy right now, so I’ll send it per mail when I find it. Will be by today enough?”

“Reminds me, the chief just told me. You’re quitting, Yamai-kun?”

He hadn’t hidden it in particular, but it went around already.

“I see. You’re quitting. You’ve been doing a lot of projects lately. I just hope they won’t be shifted over to me.”

This time he felt really sorry and he lowered his head in a servile manner.

Zenjirou realized that his real reason for quitting wasn’t all too admirable, so he felt really sorry about it.

Chapter end