Risou no Himo Seikatsu Vol 2 Prologue

Prologue: Their respective opinions

A few days after Zenjirou’s debut into high society was decided. Octavia returned to the Márguez Residence in the capital quite near the palace after a long time.

The main residence was located extremely close to the palace and existed just as long as the palace. Of course it didn’t belong to any average noble.

“Please halt the carriage here. I wish to walk for a bit.”

“Very well.”

“Please watch your steps, Octavia-sama.”

Octavia got off the carriage by taking the hand of a young waiting maid.

Artificial ponds were situated all over the garden and the trees were planted so that a breeze would blow over the water surface towards the residence.

She took it for granted that she was surrounded on all sides by guards with short spears and accompanied by a waiting maid while she quietly walked the short path from the gate to the main entrance of the residence.

The Carpa Kingdom had a manifold of brilliant colours, not just limited to the nature.

Before long, Octavia reached the front entrance of the residence and the large double door swung open inwards.

“Welcome home, Octavia-sama.”

“Good to be home, Serlio. My usual room?”

The faithful butler respectfully nodded to the mistress’ words.

“Yes, very well.”

Octavia smiled softly as to thank him for his respectful bow, then disappeared into the residence with light steps and her waiting maid in tow.

Approximately half an hour later. Octavia met face-to-face with her husband, Count Manuel Márguez, in a room of the residence for the first time in half a month.

“Welcome back, Octavia.”

Count Márguez stood up from the couch, which showed traces of aging, spread his arms and greeted his second wife that was more than thirty years younger than him.

Probably in his fifties?

“It has been a while, Dear.”

“…..”

After the corpulent husband and the slender wife embraced each other for a while, they sat down opposite of each other on the seats in the corner of the room.

Count Márguez flushed the cold tea served by a waiting maid down his throat, then began to talk with a slightly serious face.

“No, it is quite the honour for me to serve such a respectable person as a teacher.”

Count Márguez couldn’t keep himself from making a wry smile to his wife’s response, which had not a single shred of ill intent as always.

The Count would surely get a serious distrust of women if the entire conduct she was showing were to be an act.

Lady Octavia frankly replied to the question of her husband with an eloquent tone.

“Mhm, I see.”

Apart from evaluating them “too kindly“, her judgement of people could be trusted most of the time. When he exaggerated the bad points tenfold and deducted the good points to a tenth based on what she told him, then he could imagine the person’s character more or less.

To be honest, not really the kind of convenient person for gaining a foothold into the royal family.

That said, Zenjirou was actually the only male in the royal family. An existence far too precious to ignore just because it was difficult to meddle with him.

“Octavia, what kind of woman would you choose if you had to assign a concubine to Zenjirou-sama?”

“I… would not assign anyone for a little while longer. While I only saw Her Highness and Zenjirou-sama together a handful of times, it does seem that the two of them are rather intimate from what I have heard from the waiting maids working in the inner palace or from Zenjirou-sama’s daily conduct itself.

Needless to say, an ordinary concubine had an overwhelming lower standing than the legal wife. And even much less in the current pairing of “Queen”, “Prince Consort” and “Concubine” instead of “King”, “Queen Consort” and “Concubine”.

Normally, a concubine was often of poorer birth and lower standing than the legal wife, so the affection of the King was the only point in which she could win against the legal wife.

“Hmm, is that so…”

Count Márguez tilted his head in contemplation as he still couldn’t assent with the frank words of his wife.

In compliance with his values, he found it somewhat hard to imagine that there was a man, who could love that “Queen Aura” to such an extent.

Namely a woman, who silently followed her man respectfully without speaking out of line. That was the criterion for a “good woman”.

In Count Márguez’s eyes, the human called Aura Carpa was a “virago too good to be a woman” as a Ruler, but not very attractive as a single woman. Of course that impression acknowledged that Aura was a beauty with a glamorous body.

“Are you saying that Zenjirou-sama loves Her Highness Aura with all of his heart?”

“Yes, without a doubt.

To be precise, Zenjirou had two reasons to accept the marriage with Aura. One was his love for her, the other was his urge to quit the company that kind of exploited him. But only Zenjirou himself knew this.

The Carpa Kingdom was a large country that ruled over the western part of the southern continent, but Aura was the only one of her kind. Or at least, the Count didn’t know of anyone else. Thus it was impossible for him to curry favour with Zenjirou through the most typical approach of sending a woman of his liking to the inner palace.

“Hmm… In that case, it would be better to take the approach of supporting their relationship for now.”

The Márguez Family was already a distinguished family with plenty of influence in the current politics. It was a kind of instinct for high class nobles to make intrigues as to enlarge their sphere of influence or family prosperity, but his position wasn’t one, where he needed to make any risky bets.

As a matter of fact, the birth of a child between the Queen and her husband took priority over spreading the royal blood by the means of concubines for the husband, from the viewpoint of an important figure supporting the kingdom.

Octavia smiled happily from the bottom of her heart and nodded to the deduction of her husband.

But on an emotional level, she wanted a loving couple to build a happy family without any obstacles, even in light of such a reality.

“Still, I just don’t get Zenjirou-sama’s taste in women…”
That utterance could have been lese majesty if Aura had heard it, but that statement came from the bottom of his heart.

Around the same time, Queen Aura visited the training ground of the royal army outside the capital in a long time.

Nothing of the sorts of clearing of weeds was done here, yet a scenery of plain, red earth stretched as far as you could see.

A kind of giant reptile called the raptorial dragon was the most popular animal to ride here in on the southern continent.

As poikilotherms, they had the fatal weakness of becoming less active as soon as the temperature dropped below a certain point, but that weakness rarely was an issue here in on the southern continent.

Accompanied by General Puyol Guillén, Aura let her eyes wander over the knight mustered before her.

But even this “unfashionable” uniform gave off a whole different impression when Aura wore it.

Her relatively straitened waist ended up emphasizing the volume of her breasts and bottom.

Needless to say, the knights of the kingdom would never leer at the Queen during a manoeuvre.

“…..”

It was no simple matter to assemble over a hundred raptorial dragon in one place, keep them from neighing excitedly and have not a single one break the formation.

“Begin.”

General Puyol, standing next to Aura, forwarded her order to the knights with a loud voice matching his imposing stature.

The knights raised a voice like a bellow, then spurred their raptorial dragons with their whips, ready to show of the results of their daily training.

Then they vigorously displayed the fruit of their practice in front of the Queen and General.

Aura was not the slightest bit concerned about her face or hair getting dirty from stirred dust and called out to General Puyol beside her.

The ambitious general lowered his head faithfully on the Queen’s appraisal.

“Replenished up to 80% in five years, huh. Well done, General.”

It had been the knights, the main pillar of the army, who took the most damage in the previous great war.

It was indeed a meritorious deed to replenish the original count within five to six years. That said, the replenished troops only consisted of young knights without any real battle experiences. Even if the troops were complete again, they didn’t even come near the fighting capacity prior to the war.

“Please direct these words at the breeders of the dragon stables. This achievement is mainly thanks to them.”

“You are right. I will do so.”

The raptorial dragons were raised as riding animals and their greatest inferiority to horses were their lifespan.

While a horse could technically be used as a warhorse four or five years after its birth, the raptorial dragon needed at least ten years.

It had been an extraordinary effort on the breeders’ part as they managed to raise and feed the dragons, which ate even more than horses, during the ongoing war, where the budget had been cut drastically, without any casualties.

“Come to think of it, it seems like we will be able to increase the military budget for a bit next year. I will let you know the exact number later, so make plans how to use it.”

As a result of a full discussion with the feudal lords over the past few days, Aura managed to increase the national budgeting to a reasonable extent and decreed that the majority of it was to be contributed to the military budget.

Originally, the feudal lords had set aside that money for their own military. It would simply result in a decline of national military strength if that kind of money were to be used for something else than the military budget.

General Puyol smiled for the first time today from hearing Aura’s words.

“Yes, do that.”

“Understood. Luckily, most of the prominent military brass will be in the capital for the banquet in two days. I presume it will not take all too much time for me to hand in a report.”

General Puyol’s utterance made Aura twitch her right hand holding the whip.

She had anticipated it of course, but this ambitious general actively sought a connection to the Prince Consort.

Her husband had not the slightest bit of ambition while the general was practically a mass of it. On a glance they appeared incompatible like water and oil, but the interesting part about humans was that people like them could become best friends forever.

Aura could only stand on the sidelines, but the fact that she wasn’t all too worried about it, showed how she had started to trust Zenjirou.

“I see. Then I will tell my husband accordingly.”
General Puyol displayed his ambition as open as ever, whereat Aura responded with these word in a calm tone without any agitation.

Chapter end