Risou no Himo Seikatsu Vol 2 Chapter 7

Chapter 07: The Secret Contract is signed

One month later.

The season had now changed into what would be fall in Japan.

Downpours on the level of small typhoons went on endlessly, which made the rainy season of Japan with its drizzling rain look adorable instead.

And today, too, the rain poured down heavily since the morning, true to this season.

Due to that, the interior of the room was so dark that he would have trouble seeing the keyboard at his hands without any lamps, even though it was still noon. Needless to say, the six floor lamps were turned on right now, spending sufficient light, but it facilitated the illusion that it was already night.

Sitting on the couch dressed in red maternity clothes, Aura called out to her husband with that after she had read from the dragonskin parchment in her hands.

“…No, it’s okay. I got all of it, I think. Just in case, I’ll read it out loud again, so can you check if anything’s wrong?”

Hearing his wife’s response from behind, Zenjirou corrected his posture on his chair and read the text he had typed just now, from the computer display.

1) Zenjioru Carpa [henceforth Z] will not make a child with anyone except Aura Carpa [henceforth A] from now on.

3) When the Carpa Kingdom breaks term 1), namely [Z] makes a child with someone else than [A], the Twin Kingdom has the right to examine the child [henceforth C] about its bloodline aptitude.

5) When the Twin Kingdom forces [C] to emigrate during the study stay, the Carpa Kingdom can send [C] home to their country ahead of schedule.

7) [C] has the right to spread the knowledge it learned in the Twin Kingdom only amongst the Carpa Royal Family after returning home.

Zenjirou smoothly read out aloud the Japanese text shown on the display.

From what he could tell on a glance, Aura seemed to have worked very hard to force through these details.

In fact, most of the conditions concerned the treatment of “a child, born between Zenjirou and a woman besides Aura, that could use ‘Bestowal Magic’”.

However, that didn’t mean he had no doubts. Zenjirou was used to the detailed contracts of the modern age, so this secret contract with only a good dozen of terms seemed rather sketchy to him.

“Mh? What is the matter, Zenjirou? Did anything bother you?”

(Okay, Aura and the Twin Kingdom must have purposefully left in some room for “convenient interpretations”)

He came to such a conclusion of his own accord, but he was actually giving the royalty in the different world a little bit too much credit.

His line of thought, accustomed to considering all future possibilities and apprehending any inconveniences for the own side, was basically unorthodox.

“Hmm, give me a sec. There’s something I would like to speak about a bit more.”

“Oof.”

As her stomach was growing bigger, Aura was forbidden to lean forward.

“Look here. That’s the first thing that bothered me. When 2) becomes inconsistent with 3) in the future…”

“Mhm. Then 2) will obviously…”

“But since it hasn’t clearly been written there, they could insist…”

Then the two of them huddled together and continued to discuss the contents of the secret contract until one of the waiting maids came to announce that the dinner was ready.

Early afternoon of the next day.

He wore cloth shoes with a leather sole from a hulking dragon, yet he was unsteady on his feet for a while now, just as if walking on sponges.

Aura must have grasped the mental state of her husband. She encouraged him by periodically returning the tight squeeze on her hand. He was grateful for it, but at the same time, he felt a bit pathetic.

Zenjirou unconsciously made such an excuse at heart.

He would gladly take a deep breath now to ease his nervousness, if he could.

Even if it was inside the palace, the Queen and the Prince Consort were walking around together.

The soldiers’ armament consisted of a white leather armour and a splendid short spear, which seemed to be more fit for a ceremony if anything, but the defence of the armour and the sharpness of the short spear were the real deal.

In his head he knew that they were his guards, but he felt uncomfortable to be surrounded by people, who were armed with tools to kill a person.

If Zenjirou were to operate “outside” instead of the far interior of the palace like here, then at least ten times as much guards ought to accompany him. In fact, more than five times as much guards had protected him when he attended an official event in the palace in Aura’s stead.

The soldiers took position to both sides of the door, standing at attention and holding their spears vertically. Aura and Zenjirou, too, stopped in front of the door.

“…..”

“Open it.”

Upon his order, one soldier slowly opened the door.
Zenjirou took a short, deep breath, so that no one around noticed it, and passed through the door with deliberate slow steps.

“It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Zenjirou-sama. My name is Moreno Militello, a diplomat from the Twin Kingdom of Sharrow and Jilbell. I am terrible honoured to be granted the chance to meet you in person.”

“I’m Zenjirou, the husband of Her Highness Aura, the Queen of the Carpa Kingdom.”

Whether the diplomat sitting across him understood his aim or not, he lowered his head once more with a respectful expression, saying “very well”.

The one to broach the topic was Aura, sitting next to Zenjirou.

“Yes, very well.”

“Mhm, okay then, which matter do you want to start with, the official one or the real one?”

“Yes, please allow me to settle the simple, official matter first. The ‘rings’ you have requested, have arrived.”

It were pair rings with three brilliant diamonds embedded in a golden socket.

To the “normal eye”, they looked completely unchanged, but Zenjirou had awakened his ability to detect magical power through the continuous lessons with Lady Octavia in the past one year or so, thus he now saw the radiance of magical power emitting from the rings.

The delivery of their wedding rings, which they had requested to be turned into magic tools. That was the “official” matter for which the diplomat of the Twin Kingdom was granted an audience with both Aura and Zenjirou. Zenjirou usually only left the inner palace to “substitute for Aura”, so an official reason like this was necessary for him to accompany Aura here without raising suspicion.

“The ring of Her Highness Aura has the magic ‘Ignition’ and the ring of Zenjirou-sama has the magic ‘Spring of Water’ worked into it. The Ignition is the beautiful handicraft of ‘Prince Francesco’ while the Spring of Water is the delicate handwork of ‘Princess Margarita’.”

“Oho, it is quite an honour to have Prince Francesco and Princess Margarita deal with it. I will prepare a letter of gratitude later on, so please pass it on to them.”

“Yes, I will make sure to deliver them.”

Now the real issue at hand followed.

Saying so, the diplomat spread a light green dragonskin parchment on the table.

Although it was a secret contract, the official document was still written on surprisingly exquisite parchment. Black letters on light green parchment, which was close to white in colour.

Confronted with the document of the treaty, Aura spoke first.

“Oh, right. Forgive me. Allow me to read it then.”

“I will begin now.

2) The Twin Kingdom will never meddle with the direct offspring of [A].

Zenjirou pricked up his ears as not to miss anything while keeping an inexpressive face with all his might, but so far, nothing seemed off in the contents.

“…will have to pay three thousand gold coins as punishment.”

After a moment of silence, the diplomat let his cheek twitch and read the following line while pointing at it.

That paragraph was proposed by Zenjirou to Aura last night.

According to term 2), the Twin Kingdom had no right to meddle with that child, since it would have descended in a direct line from Aura. However, according to term 3), the Twin Kingdom had the right to meddle, since that child also descended in a line from a concubine, which was a breach of the contract.

Zenjirou glanced surprised at Aura, whereat she smiled at bit and nodded slightly.

(Did she add the paragraph in a meeting prior in the morning? …I just can’t hold a candle to my wife)

In compliance with common sense, it was only normal that term 2) would take priority over term 3). However, it was possible that they reasoned against it when it wasn’t put down in writing, just like Zenjirou had feared last night.

To exaggerate it: Zenjirou nipped a future threat to the Carpa Kingdom in the bud with his suggestion. This actually might be an incredible achievement.

(Thus, at least I will keep his achievement that stilled the fears for the future of our country, in mind)
Aura put her name under the secret contract with the dragon bone dip pen after she dipped it into the ink pot while she vowed that in her heart.

Zenjirou and Aura returned to the inner palace by late evening after signing the secret contract without problems.

“Allow me to give you a hand.”

As one might expect in her current state, Aura let the waiting maids help her with nearly all of her change of clothes.

“Fuh…”

Even she was exhausted today. In the morning she had done the final adjustments to the secret contract and in the evening she had signed it.

On the other hand, Zenjirou changed into a T-Shirt and jeans by himself in the bedroom, since he still felt uncomfortable to change in front of the waiting maids, then returned into the living room.

Zenjirou put the freshly prepared hot cocoa he had made by pouring hot water from the water boiler into a mug with two tablespoons of cocoa powder, in front of Aura.

Although he often drank his black tea straight, he just craved for some super sweet and sour tea when he was exhausted like today.

Taking the mug with the cocoa, Aura sipped the foaming sweet liquid and sighed relieved.

At the same time, the waiting maids, who had stood at attention on the side so far, bowed and left all together.

“For now, the trouble with the Twin Kingdom has settled down, I guess?”

“Yeah. Now they should no longer be able to say anything, at least as long as you do not take a concubine.”

“Okay. I’ve been thinking about this since I read the secret contract, but is my concubine matter still prevailing?”

Aura smiled a bit at the spiritless Zenjirou and shook her head.

Saying so, she lovingly caressed her big belly.

Determined, Zenjirou started to say something, but Aura shook her head once again before that.

Sure, under normal circumstances, you could have stopped worrying about the future once you have three or four children with me. However, the current royal family only consists of you and me, as you know.

A royalty in this world was automatically a practitioner of a bloodline magic. The smaller the royal family, the lower the national strength. Simple as that. Her personal feelings aside, Aura, too, fully agreed with the viewpoint of the nobles, who deemed it necessary to expand the royal family, on a rational level.

“Ehm, then… we two should give our best?”

“Do you want to kill me!? How many children do you want me to bear while I manage a kingdom?”

“…Was she really human? Maybe she had some blood of the ancient dragon race in her?”

As expected, the anecdote of Austria’s sovereign Maria Theresa only sounded unrealistic to Queen Aura.

Zenjirou’s knowledge about Europe’s history was limited to what he had learned in history classes in high school, so he couldn’t explain it any further and the topic died.

“…..”

“Oh, right. Hey, Aura, can you hold out your left hand?”

“Mh? Okay, but give me your ring first. If we are going to do it, we might as well repeat ‘that’.”

“Yeah, okay.”

“Ah, you can remain seated.”

“That will not work. My fingers are swollen right now. Take my little finger.”

During her pregnancy, her whole hands had become swollen, increasing the size of her fingers by one. The ring was actually a perfect match for her ring finger, but now it was unlikely to fit.

“Oh, you are not going to say anything? And here I was hoping you would say the words of that night again.”

“That” night was referring to their first night together. After the marriage ceremony during the day, they had carried out their bridal night, then he had presented her that ring in the bedroom.

“Zenjirou…?”

Aura snorted a bit with laughter towards her bashful and flustered husband and threw him an affected sorrowful look.

“….Aw, geez. Fine!”

“Hah… Fuh…”
He took a deep breath and after temporarily blowing out his shame, he started to recite with a voice as dignified as possible.

“I promise to love and respect, to comfort and help you in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health, in wealth and in poverty, until death do us part. I take this oath on this ring.”

“…..”

The wide, yellow golden ring with the embedded three diamonds slipped onto her little finger.

For a while, Aura kept looking at the wedding ring on the little finger of her left hand and smiled sweetly, but before long, she faced her husband kneeing in front of her again and said in a small voice.

“Eh?”

“O- Okay.”

This time Aura was looking up to Zenjirou.
Still sitting on the couch, she softly took the left hand of her husband in front of her, then repeated the vow.

“I promise to love and respect, to comfort and help you in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health, in wealth and in poverty, until death do us part. I take this oath on this ring.”

After reciting this, she put the ring, which was a pair with the one around her finger, on his left ring finger.

Surprised, Zenjirou looked dumbfounded at his wife, who was looking up to him.

On their first night, Aura hadn’t returned the vow when she had received the ring. Zenjirou had believed that she couldn’t respond due to surprise of experiencing that custom for the first time, but the actual reason was something different. Instead of being unable to respond, she chose not to response.

She had endeavoured to deal with him sincerely. She had been prepared to develop love. And she had been prepared to grant her husband’s wishes as much as possible. However, the country, the royal family had always taken priority.

(That is no longer possible. At least I will not be able to abandon him as long as he stays as he is now)

Of course that didn’t apply, when Zenjirou lost himself in power or status and became an entirely different person, but as long as that wasn’t the case, Aura was convinced that she wouldn’t make a “cold-hearted and lawful decision”.

Discerning her intention, Zenjirou slowly brought down his body, so that he was leaning on his wife, sitting on the couch, from above.

“…Mm.”

Although the kiss lasted a bit too long to be called a wedding kiss.

Chapter end