Risou no Himo Seikatsu Vol 2 Chapter 1

Chapter 01: Debut into Higher Society

A night banquet arranged by the royal palace.

On a bit tactless note, it took a tremendous amount of money as it was held at night.

“Beeswax” was fabricated in the Carpa Kingdom, too, but they hadn’t succeeded in cultivating honeybees like on Earth, so the harvest of the raw materials was commissioned and importing “plant wax” from countries in the east added transport costs, thus it became fairly expensive at any rate.

Moreover, the red carpet covering the entire room was an unique item, woven by experts over three generations. And the tall tables, well-stocked with food and drinks, were extravagance pieces, each carved from a single trunk by a skilled carpenter.

In fact, the nobles of the lower class would be excited for the whole next day, just from having “participated in the party in the large banquet hall of the palace last night”.
Zenjirou was setting foot into this kind of banquet hall for the first time ever and he desperately dealt with the greeting flood from the nobles with an affected smile under the light of the chandeliers.

“Let me introduce him to you, Zenjirou. This man is Baron Pantoja. In the previous war, he served as a commander for the knights and now he is providing his services as a feudal lord.”

“It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Zenjirou-sama. Her Highness was too good to me in granting me the title of a Baron. My name is Thomas Pantoja.”

“My pleasure.”

Aura, wearing an orange dress without sleeves, corrected the big flower arrangement on the left side of her chest while Baron Pantoja retreated from in front of the Queen and her husband.

(This is tiring…)

Fortunately, the nobles of this country weren’t so shameless as to greet him continuously without letting him catch his breath, so he somehow managed for now, but if he were to pace himself wrongly, he could end up making a fatal mistake.

Appropriate for the Carpa Kingdom, a southern country, the formal wardrobe wasn’t all too stifling hot, but the decorative bronze sword at his waist was heavy and the perfumed oil steadying his hair was not only smelly, but itchy, too.

During the regardful breathing pause, he memorized the appearance and demeanour of the just introduced person in the corner of his brain.

His expression was maintaining a smile while he exclaimed that in his thoughts.

In comparison, today a dozen of nobles would get introduced to him. Moreover, there was no custom of “exchanging business cards” like in modern Japan.

The fashion culture in the Carpa Kingdom could generally be divided into two groups. The “traditional native dress” that was passed down in the Carpa Kingdom from time immemorial and something like “western clothes” that had swept over from the northern continent in the recent years.

Likewise appropriate for a southern country, the colours were often colourful ones close to the primary colours for both men and women.

Judging by Aura’s behaviour as she stood next to him, Zenjirou seemed to act without any problems so far. To begin with, a banquet like this required no specific techniques like a dance party, nor did he have to follow a great number of rules like during a public event.

While such thoughts crossed his minds, Aura quietly left his side, took a silver goblet from the table and returned to him.

“Oh, thanks, Aura.”

The goblet was filled with a local wine. It had a low alcohol content, a harsh taste and above all, it was lukewarm, which wasn’t really to Zenjirou’s liking, but it was enough to refresh his throat that was dry from the sweltering atmosphere.

“Yeah, thanks.”

As Aura had waited for this moment, where a bit of his nervousness was washed away by the refreshment, she called out to the nobles, who stood at a fair distance.

Zenjirou was already familiar with the woman. There was only one woman besides his wife Aura and the waiting maids of the inner palace, whom he got acquainted with, since he had shut himself into the inner palace the whole time after coming into this world.

In that case, the plump middle-aged man next to her must be Count Manuel Márguez.

Zenjirou observed him, as careful as possible that his gaze wasn’t noticed.

Aura suddenly squeezed his right arm stronger when his thoughts wandered into an insolent territory.

“It is a pleasure to see you again, Your Highness Aura. And I am delighted to make your acquaintance, Zenjirou-sama.”

The couple with the age gap politely lowered their heads, whereat Aura responded with her usual appealing smile and introduced the two of them to Zenjirou.

“I’ve heard only good things about you, Count Márguez. Your wife has taken good care of me.”

“It gladdens me that my wife is serving you so well.”

At some point, the nearby other nobles had become interested, too, and were looking their way.

Aura had no intention to embarrass her husband in the public eye as he wasn’t used to such occasions, so she took the lead while still linking arms with him.

“We are hardly worth of your generous words. Thank you very much.”

Zenjirou generally relinquished the conversation to Aura and only gave agreeable responses like “Oho, I see.” or “Yes, indeed.” when the attention shifted towards him.

Thus Zenjirou’s debut into higher society made a good start.

However, there was no guarantee that everything would end well even if the banquet got off a good start.

For that reason, she couldn’t keep covering for him with a hold on his arm forever.

Therefore they had agreed upon beforehand that they would go their separate ways for a while after they were done with the greetings.

Separated from Aura, Zenjirou slowly walked around the hall. Many people gave him curious gazes, but no one dared to approach the royal man.

Feudal lords, cabinet ministers or generals were about the only ones that could approach him without impinging the etiquette. But as these people shouldered heavy responsibilities, they excelled at common sense and reading the atmosphere, so almost no one risked to approach a royalty “on their own accord”.

(Oh well, guess I’ll have to talk to someone)

In search for a person he could safely call out to as a royalty, he let his gaze slowly wander around the hall. At that time.

“Excuse me, Zenjirou-sama. May I have a bit of your time?”

A well-built man in the prime of his life came up to him from the side and called out to him like that while kneeling down on one knee.

(Eh… EHH? No way, someone approached me? Who’s this guy!?)

Zenjirou encountered a situation said to be “technically impossible” in his manner lessons and fell into an inward panic. Even so, he reflexively tensed up his expression and slowly turned to the kneeing man.

Upon turning around, there kneeled a man down on one knee on top of the carpet.

Judging by the numerous tassels on his left arm, this giant seemed to occupy a top-ranking position in the current military.

And not the kind of “knight” that appeared in a fairytale as a fledgling prince, but the kind of “knight” that fiercely protected his country and found his raison d’être in braveries on the battlefield while knowing a bare minimum of manners.

The only ones, who were barely allowed to call out to him, were important feudal lords, palace authorities like cabinet ministers or military officers with the rank of a general.

Or otherwise an overly ambitious man, who assertively sought a connection to the Prince Consort even on the risk of falling into disgrace with him.

“Oh, Sir Puyol. What is it?”
Zenjirou cleared his throat once, then spoke out the name of the man.

General Puyol Guillén.

He had heard this name numerous times before.

“Yes, I have this small gift that I would very much like to offer to you, Zenjirou-sama. For that very reason, I have called out to you, fully aware it was against etiquette. It is but a humble present, but it would be a great honour for me if you were to accept it.”
General Puyol Guillén, the commander of the dragonback archery knights of the Carpa Kingdom, looked straight up to the Prince Consort standing in front of him as he said that while still kneeling on top of the red carpet.

A prominent general of the country kneeled before the Prince Consort and directly talked to him.

(Aw, damn it. I didn’t expect this. I’ve to improvise everything now? Give me a break…)

People like that were often somewhat weak to “unexpected” situations like this one, where they had to improvise everything.

(Ehm, this a banquet, so it‘s somewhat lax, I think? And I’m royalty while this guy’s a general…)

Although Zenjirou knew that it wasn’t admirable to think bad of someone he met for the first time, he wasn’t so honourable that he could be neutral to the former husband candidate of his beloved wife.

“General, there’s no need to kneel in such a place.”

General Puyol smoothly stood up on Zenjirou’s words.

He was huge. One head taller than Zenjirou, who was 1,72m tall, so his height must actually surpass 1,80m. It was most likely somewhere around 1,85m or at worse, something close to 2m.

“Then go ahead. You said something about a present?”

He was taught in advance about the possibility that someone comes up with a present to him in this place. It seemed that this world shared the moral concept of gaining someone’s favour through presents.

If he were to look too overjoyed, the other party would expect a compensation concurrent with that “joy” and if he were to look disappointed, he would embarrass the other party in public.

General Puyol was ignorant to Zenjirou’s inner turmoil and lowered his head once more with “Yes”, then signalized a young knight, apparently his subordinate, behind him with his eyes.

Seeing that, Zenjirou forgot his affected and inexpressive look and widened his eyes a bit.

Zenjirou had been told that the usual procedure of giving something to someone in such a place was to first hand over a certificate here and then send the actual item to the residence at a later date. After all, it concerned presents from nobility or royalty. It was not all that unusual to give away a well-bred “raptorial dragon” or a summer residence.

Because it saved one the embarrassment if the brought item was rejected on the spot.

While Zenjirou’s eyes were still widened in surprise, General Puyol unwrapped the cloth in an accustomed manner and revealed the object under it.

Zenjirou was puzzled upon seeing the object. It was a rustic stick that was curved elaborately. To him, it only looked like a practical “bow” without any ornaments.

“This is a ‘dragon bow’, made by a prominent craftsman in our country.”

Apparently this so-called “dragon bow” was something so impressive that even the nobles raised admired voices.

As it was to be brought into the palace, the holes at each end for the bowstring were filled with something like ochroid clay onto which the royal emblem was engraved and its entirety was only half as large as a Japanese bow for archery. In the eyes of an amateur, it appeared extremely undependable.

He eloquently started to explain with a low voice.

As you can see, it has only half the size of the longbow for the archery troops, but it exceeds the longbow in both power and range.

A bow made by combining not-run-of-the-mill materials. The kind that was commonly known as a composite bow.

“However, only a small handful of knight can call a dragon bow their own. The reason is that only the flexible tendons and bones from still growing, young ‘raptorial dragons’ can be used for the bow, so the materials are extremely valuable. Likewise, it takes a lot of time and effort to manufacture a single one.”

Zenjirou was enlightened about the “dragon bow” through General Puyol’s explanation and his cheeks twitched.

And also about that fact that breeders at the stables were still going to great lengths every day as to replenish the required count of raptorial dragons, which had greatly declined in the previous war, for the military.

Zenjirou didn’t know the exact number of bows that could be made from a single dragon, but it couldn’t be all that many, considering the nuance in General Puyol’s words.

General Puyol called his name wondering, as he noticed that he behaved strangely, whereat Zenjirou asked with a voice as flat as possible.

General Puyol answered honestly without perceiving the intention of his question.

Zenjirou was about to sigh towards the expected answer, but withheld it.

However, it seemed to be have an appropriate “status” for offering it to a royalty, judging by the reaction of the others. How could he turn it down while keeping a commotion to a minimum?

“I really appreciate your thoughtfulness in offering me something so valuable, General. However, as an experienced general it should strike you that I’m a powerless man, who wouldn’t even add to the fighting strength on the battlefield.”

His body was clad in the unceremonious native attire and an experienced soldier should at least be able to tell that he was no soldier-material from a glance at his small hands or neck that shoot out of the cuffs.

General Puyol tried to say something, but Zenjirou interrupted him as he continued.

General Puyol, I presume you’ve some knights under you, who have yet to obtain a ‘dragon bow’. So could you pass that ‘dragon bow’ to your knight, who is the most able with the bow and the most loyal to the royal family amongst them?

For a while, a hushed silence hung over the hall.

After a long silence, General Puyol deeply bowed his head while still holding the “dragon bow” with both hands.

Queen Aura had watched the fuss from a distance and made a sigh of relief in response to the neat resolving of the situation.

If he had accepted the bow right there, it would have become extremely troublesome.

And then it would become extremely difficult to turn down an invitation from General Puyol for practice or a hunting outing next time.

Although it made him a slight disappointment as a man, the situation was resolved without embarrassing or offending anyone.

In the worst case, she had been prepared to step in by herself and salvage the situation imperious. Doing so would have undoubtedly promoted the rumour that “the Queen was henpecking her husband” instead.

Standing next to her, Count Márguez called out to her smiling.

Aura corrected the flower decoration on the left side of her chest with her hand and faced Count Márguez, who wouldn’t leave her side for a while now, again.

“No worries. You are newlywed, so it is only natural that your eyes unintentionally chase Zenjirou-sama. I am glad to see that you are two are happy together.”

“Thank you for your kind words.”

She returned her gaze to Zenjirou and General Puyol right away.

They seemed to have a relatively harmless conversation from then on as Zenjirou, too, talked with a calm expression and without problems.

Aura pricked up her ears to the General’s words from afar.

And while we are on the subject, in the event of conceiving a child with Her Highness Aura that inherits the royal blood, you would need a ‘concubine’ next to give birth to a heir for your very own name, in my humble opinion.”

General Puyol couldn’t even see Aura and openly sharpened his offensive towards Zenjirou with a dignified bearing.

Today, I have brought my little sister with me and on this occasion, I would very much like to introduce her to you, Zenjirou-sama.”

His promotion was so straight to the point that one might say that even the selling of a prostitute had more introductory remarks.

This wasn’t good. Her husband was far more familiar with the social intercourse than she had anticipated, but she didn’t think that Zenjirou, who only just made his debut into higher society, could go against General Puyol’s direct attack that bordered on a breach of rules.

The determined Aura was about to step forward when Count Márguez, who had watched the whole scene with a smile, called out to her with a calm voice from the side.

“!?”

She didn’t know what the count was after, but his offer was a real lifesaver for her.

(What are you scheming, Count? Are you trying to gain favour with me?)

She had no time to waste.

Making a prompt decision, Aura accepted the helping hand from Count Márguez without argument.

The higher society parties often held in the palace were called a “battlefield without swords”, but that was a slightly exaggerated expression.

This graceful playground for the nobles was primarily a party and very few of all the nobles perceived it as a “battlefield without swords”.

At present, General Puyol Guillén, who had boldly called out to him, and his little sister Fatima stood in front of him.

Lastly, Queen Aura stood besides Zenjirou with her hand on his arm as she had come over under the pretext of accompanying Count Márguez for the greeting.
The people that had gathered around him were all of the rare kind that treated this social gathering as a “battlefield without swords”.

“Well then, let me introduce her. This is my little sister Fatima.”

On General Puyol’s introduction, the young girl with her long, black hair tied in a ponytail lowered her head in perfect line with etiquette.

(Oh, what a beauty)

From his position, Fatima’s head was above his. Not by the result of her overbearingly standing on higher grounds, but simply from the fact that she was taller than Zenjirou.

Her height easily surpassed 1,80m with long legs that comprised nearly half of that height. The volume of her breasts and bottom was meagre, but her waist was even tighter. In Zenjirou’s world, her figure and features would pass her as a fashion model.

“Yes, I am often told that.”

Being told “you resemble your brother” by Zenjirou made her nervousness go away and she smiled happily. If that expression of hers wasn’t feigned, then “resembling her brother” was a pleasant evaluation for her.

“Zenjirou-sama, speaking of the young lady of the Guillén Family, Lady Fatima is known throughout the country for her beauty and intelligence. Come to think of it, it feels like it has been a while since I met you face-to-face, Fatima-dono, even though I frequently attend social gatherings. You have become even more beautiful.”

“Thank you very much, Count Márguez. The reason for that is that I learned good manners by serving at the residence of Marquis Pernia until recently.”

As Fatima wanted to appeal to Zenjirou now, Count Márguez was nothing but a “hindrance” to her, no matter how much he showered her with praise. Her originally almond-shaped eyes smoothly assumed a stern look.

“Haha, Fatima, do not make a face like that. The Count is not the type of man, who would make a pass at you. After all, he already has the perfect wife at his side.”

“D- Dear Brother…!”

“I- Indeed. Next to Octavia-sama, even I feel like losing confidence.”

Fatima played along with her brother’s joke and said that while showing a forced smile, whereas Octavia blushed her cheeks a little bit.

As one of these few, Fatima kept her impression of her, namely “Geh, this granny is playing the good girl”, to herself

and only replied with that and a smile.

General Puyol had smoothed over his sister’s reckless attitude as a funny story and thus continued to promote her undaunted.

His words were obviously directed at Zenjirou, but the one replying to them at once wasn’t him, but the brave and reliable woman at his side, ever since she had regrouped with him earlier.

“…Yes, please regard her with favour then, Your Highness Aura.”

It wasn’t all that profitable even when his sister served as Aura’s chambermaid. Serving under Zenjirou’s was worth it, since there was a high chance of developing an intimate relationship.

Zenjirou listened to the exchange between Aura and General Puyol from the sidelines and sighed inwardly for the nth times.

He could somehow catch his breath thanks to Aura coming to his aid, but a cold sweat that wasn’t due to the sultry night was spreading extensively under this formal dress.

Zenjirou might have let slip some kind of promise by now to bring this situation to an end if Aura hadn’t come to his help midway.

Contrary to his words, the topic didn’t change at all again. General Puyol attacked head-on. Only his approach had changed, but the topic itself hadn’t changed a bit.

Zenjirou barely resisted the urge to check for Aura’s reaction. If he were to look at her now, it would spread rumours that “Zenjirou-sama was consulting Her Highness Aura about how to answer”.

“Mm, I never spared it a thought so far.”

“Hahaha. My wife had already told me about the close relationship between Her Highness and Zenjirou-sama, but it seems that the rumours were an understatement, rather than an exaggeration. Zenjirou-sama is quite delighted with Her Highness and does not even pay attention to any other woman.”

“Stop bantering with me, Count. Well, I can’t deny it, though.”

“Dear me! I guess the Carpa bloodline is secured then. Now that is wonderful.”

“…..”

Aura stood reserved next to her husband and remained quiet for now, but she, too, would surely go on the counterattack for her husband if the advances on him got too fierce. In other words, General Puyol was on his own here.

When word got around that “General Puyol was at loggerheads with Queen Aura and Count Márguez”, it was likely that foreign countries would start plotting something.

It was time to pull back now. A quick judgement, namely knowing when to stop, saved one’s life. That held true for both the battlefield and the royal court.

General Puyol clapped his sister twice on the back, a sign for “appeal time over”, and adopted the new topic from Count Márguez by agreeing to it.

Aura sensed from General Puyol’s attitude that he was laying down the arms for now, and laughed like that with a slightly mellow voice.

“No, Count. You better not get too conceited. I am afraid that the ‘fortune’ Her Highness speaks of is mainly referring to Zenjirou-sama. Our strength is insignificant to it.”

Afterwards they fired bitter remarks at each other and spent a relatively peaceful time together without anyone going on the offence or defence.

“It’s over…!”

The living room was illuminated by the LED floor lamps like always. Matching with his return, the waiting maids had prepared the ice fan and its breeze cooled down his hot body. He really felt “at home” by sitting on the familiar couch.

“Sorry to have put you through all that trouble, Zenjirou. But it was worth it.

Responding like that, Aura, too, sat down on the couch somewhat exhausted while still wearing her orange dress.

Unlike Zenjirou, who had his hands full with himself, Aura had been vigilant from beginning to end as to support her husband in one situation after another. It was a though role that wouldn’t even compare to Zenjirou’s.

“I see. That’s good. Then I can leisurely shut myself in again for some time. At any rate… my eyes still feel weird.”

Most likely, his eyes had been hurt from the unfamiliar light of the chandeliers.

A lacking amount of light, numerous rocking light sources and furthermore, reflectors out of silver hanging down from the chandeliers to spread out the sparse light even a bit. Of course all this had a bad influence on the eyes.

“Argh, my vision’s still kind of blurry.”

Since the Carpa Kingdom had a climate of high temperatures and humidity that exceeded modern Japan, their culture allowed for being barefooted indoors, but banquets or dance parties were self-evidently a different matter.

“So refreshing…”

Although the climate was different, it astonished him that his legs were worn out just from walking around the palace for a few hours in linen-shoes, even though he had worn solid shoes and business socks for more than fifteen hours a day during his salaryman days a mere month ago.

While such thoughts crossed his mind, the barefooted Zenjirou next cast off his vest and opened up his overlapping shirt.

The cold breeze from the ice fan blew onto his liberated chest and he closed his eyes pleased.

“Well, I’ll get in the bath soon anyway…”

“Mm, let me get comfortable as well.”

As it was royal custom, she had previously been helped by waiting maids to change her clothes, but ever since she shared her bedroom with Zenjirou, she often refrained from having the waiting maids help her take off her clothes in the light of Zenjirou’s dislike about others entering the room.

“Oh…”

Aura showed a small smile of satisfaction as her self-respect was stimulated by her husband’s look, and confidently walked through the living room to the refrigerator in the corner, still half-naked.

In a perfectly accustomed manner, she took two chilled towel from the refrigerator and threw one at Zenjirou.

Sweat and dirt aside, a steaming hot towel would have been better to wipe the perfumed oil in their hair or around their neck than a chilled towel, but they couldn’t stand for wiping their current hot bodies with a steaming towel.

“Well then, I know you are tired, but let me ask you while your memories is still fresh. So, did anyone of the nobles you met at the banquet leave a particular impression on you?”

“Left an impression on me… Hmm, I think there were some, but the Guillén siblings took the spotlight in the end. To be honest, I don’t really remember anyone but them.”

“I figured as much. These siblings certainly are imposing. Then let me hear about the brother, General Puyol first. What was your first impression of that man?”

As his wife looked at him from the side, Zenjirou averted his gaze with an awkward expression.

Nonetheless, it didn’t appear like he could bluff it out, seeing how his wife kept her gaze fixated on him.

“Ah… Uhm… Well, what can I say, I’m a man, too, so in all honesty, I can’t deny that I hold some prejudice against him and Raffaello Márguez. I haven’t even met Raffaello Márgeuz yet, but I already don’t have a favourable impression of him…”

Aura unconsciously widened her eyes on the words of her husband that were a repentance in a way.

She stifled her emerging smile of happiness from his confession.

Aura felt her husband’s jealousy in his words of “holding a prejudice” against these two and realized that a not so tasteful “emotion of delight” emerged from inside her chest.

For a moment, Aura was driven by the urge to embrace her husband, but she remembered that he rather dislike the smell of the “perfumed oil” and gave up at the last second.

Aura kept an appropriate distance, smiled at Zenjirou sitting next to her and pressed for a continuation of the topic.

Apparently he really couldn’t avoid it. Zenjirou resigned himself to it, turned to Aura sitting next to him and started to speak slightly beside the purpose.

“Hmm, only enemies or allies, huh.”

“What do you mean by that?”

How should I say? He’s not afraid to make enemies as long as it achieves his goals. But he seems quite charismatic, so he should’ve a lot of allies, too.

“I see… I understand what you are getting at.”

It was a bit rude to her husband, but his evaluation was more spot-on than she had expected.

However, the evaluation of “not afraid to make enemies” was kind of undue. General Puyol was a soldier and at the same time, a noble from a prestigious family. He wasn’t so heedless as to recklessly make enemies at the royal court.

Zenjirou’s “prejudice” must have come into play here. He unconsciously perceived the man, who had formerly been a candidate for becoming his wife’s husband, as a rival, searched for a weakness in him and exaggerated his story.

As his wife, Aura would’ve just to warn him if he stretched a point.

“Then what do you think of Fatima Guillén, the little sister? Let me hear your honest opinion. Were my eyes playing a trick on me or were you a bit fascinated by her, mh?”

“Eh? W- Wait a sec. Aura?”
Zenjirou sensed the jealousy hidden behind his wife’s roguish smile and unconsciously backed off on the couch in a timid manner.

Chapter end