Risou no Himo Seikatsu Vol 4 Chapter 1

Chapter 01: The Queen, the Prince Consort, the Prince and the Princess

The early afternoon on a certain day.

An unusual atmosphere hung over the “audience room”, which could be considered the centre of the royal palace of the Carpa Kingdom.

You could very well call this an abnormal situation. All the present nobles were above a certain rank, namely important mainstays of the county.

However, it would be a bit unfair to call them “careless” for it. After all, they currently faced a situation that was compelling “nervousness” and stimulating “curiosity”.

That fact was significant enough to make the nobles of the Carpa Kingdom, a major power, lose their composure.

Moreover, Prince Francesco and Princess Bona were members of the “Sharrow Royal Family”. Unlike the members of the Jilbell Royal Family, who frequently visited other countries in demand of their “Healing Magic”, the Sharrow Royal Family, practitioners of the “Bestowal Magic”, basically never left their country.

As they stood below the throne, the noblemen faithfully kept their facial expression in check, but even then, they couldn’t suppress the tint of curiosity from showing in their eyes while they gazed upon the still closed double door.

(It’s quite the surprise. I wonder what their aim is?)

(That’s obviously just an excuse. But either way…)

If their whispered words as they stood faithfully at attention, were to reach Aura’s ears, she would probably heave a sigh of relief.

For now, the censorship was working as expected.

(Oho, so they are…)

With all the eyes of the nobles set on them from left and right, the young prince and princess of the Sharrow Royal Family, dressed in the formal purple garbs, advanced gracefully on the red carpet.

Main armaments like bows or spears, let alone magic tools for combat, weren’t allowed in here, but judging by their natural, yet cautious manner of walking, it was apparent that they could execute deadly precision even with a single word.

“…..”

(Now, they are the prince and princess from the Twin Kingdom, huh? Their magical power certainly is royal class.)

Princess Bona’s magical power was slightly inferior to Aura’s husband Zenjirou, who was sitting almost next to her, but Prince Francesco had almost twice as much as him.

(Hmm, this proves that Prince Francesco is the legitimate grandson of the current king and Princess Bona an atavistic royalty. But that makes it even less comprehensible. Why does a direct royal descendant have no claim on the throne when he got this much magical power…?)

It was extremely unnatural that he hadn’t gotten a claim on the throne with these conditions.

Wary once again, Aura spoke with a clear voice from her throne without voicing any of her inner thoughts.

The spoken words and assumed conduct were more or less predetermined for this kind of official event. But Prince Francesco’s behaviour betrayed Aura’s expectations for a bit.

Prince Francesco phoned in the predetermined words with a smooth tone and deeply “lowered his head” in a flowing motion.

In the exchange between a Queen and a Prince, some humility in his way of speaking and so on, was obviously in order, but “lowering his head” was definitely out of the question.

On the other hand, each and every knight from the Twin Kingdom, standing at attention behind Prince Francesco, kept a straight face without even batting an eye.

Put another way, it meant that everyone in the Twin Kingdom of Sharrow and Jilbell knew that “Prince Francesco would not accede to the throne”.

Thereafter, Princess Bona, standing next to Prince Francesco, lowered her head even deeper than him and spoke words in accordance with etiquette with a tense voice, but Aura was only listening with half an ear and was rather thinking about Prince Francesco.

On the surface, Aura kept a straight face, but behind the mask, she was wracking her brains about possible occurrences in the future.

It was an unwritten rule that the higher your status, the later you appeared at an evening party, usually held in the royal palace.

Needles to say, the royalty couldn’t be punished for going against it, as it was no fixed offence, but they would incur the enmity of the nobles, who attended later than them, in the end, so they should avoid doing so unless there was a solid ground.

Consequently, Queen Aura and her Prince Consort Zenjirou, both members of the royal family, had to show up last, because they were the hosts.

As a result, Aura and Zenjirou had to waste time in the waiting room next to the ballroom until all anticipated guest for tonight had arrived.

Zenjirou sat on the cushioned couch in the dimly lit waiting room as he inadvertently spoke his mind openly.

“ Phew…. Oh, whoops, I nearly crumpled my clothes.”

Tonight, he was flamboyantly dressed in the red native dress of the Carpa Kingdom. The third formal dress, which he wore at the moment, was more likeable than his first formal dress, which he had worn at the “welcome ceremony” a few days ago, but it was far from being comfortable, either.

Sitting across from him, Aura said that, but his personality was a bit too diligent to take her up on the offer.

As pathetic it may sound, Zenjirou had no confidence that he would be able to put back on his clothes properly if he were to take some off now, and he would feel guilty to trouble the busy waiting maids at the last minute.

Therefore, he shook his head with these words.

“Still, I’ve got to say it’s quite dark here…”

The ballroom was relatively well illuminated by a good many of candles on magnificent chandeliers, but that wasn’t the case for this waiting room.

At that moment, Aura’s face was suddenly lit up from below.

“Oh? You brought it with you even here?”

Nowadays music players had so many functions that there were called “smart phones without a call function”, but the one in Zenjirou’s possession was nothing so high-tech. It was a small device with limited functions. Despite its small size, it still had somewhat of a display, so it wasn’t impossible to watch videos per se, but in practice, it was rather exclusive to music.

In the past year, she had become perfectly accustomed to it, so she operated the music player with practised hand movements, then she removed one earphone and patted on the couch beside her with her hand.

As he had too much time on his hands anyway, he had no reason to decline, so he obediently sat down on the right side of his wife and plugged the earphone in his left ear.

The portable music player had loud speakers, too, so they would be able to listen to the music without sitting next to each other when they just unplugged the earphones, but the two of them basically refrained from using his brought tools openly outside the inner palace.

A bright piano melody came from the earphone in his left ear.

Zenjirou moaned somewhat disappointed.

He vaguely remembered that the covers were saying something like “Pollini’s Full Collection” or “Chopin Nocturnes”, but wasn’t too sure anymore, since he had thrown away the CDs right after copying them onto his computer.

“Hmm, my country has music as well, and there are a lot of first-rate musician employed in the royal palace, but there is nothing that comes close to this so-called piano instrument. It has a really pleasant tone.”

The traditional instruments of the Carpa Kingdom principally belonged to three types: percussion, stringed or wind.

In contrast, the songs from Zenjirou’s favourite band seemingly went beyond a novel feeling and Aura couldn’t keep up with it, so she didn’t really like them. Though it might have been a more simple issue, namely preferring a simple instrumental recital over a song with incomprehensible lyrics from another world.

“You sure love your piano songs, Aura. Reminds me, Zenkichi seems to be in a better mood, too, when classical music is running in his room.”

“Yes. It seems Carlos has gotten his taste from me. Fufufu.”

Even the usually intimate royal couple would turn against each other when it came to their child.

Zenjirou, still seated next to Aura, clenched his fists irmly in his lap.

“Oh yeah, that’s right! B- But I can still turn the tables afterwards. I’ll definitely get even with you.”

Even a direct royalty was no exception to the ban of males in the inner palace. The only exceptions were the King, the master of the inner palace, (though in Zenjirou’s case, he was the Prince Consort and not the King) and an infant under five years, because it was treated as genderless.

An array of challenging words and a response putting up a fight. Contrary to the content however, their voices and expressions revealed that they were enjoying their little argument.

“Even though you know that you stand no chance, you still thrown down the gauntlet. I like that.”
Sitting shoulder to shoulder and sharing an earphone to hear music, the married couple continued their casual exchange until the waiting maid of the royal palace came to get them.

“Now entering, Her Majesty Queen Aura and Zenjirou-sama!”

The ballroom for the evening party was illuminated by the flames of the candles burning on the tall candle holders standing in an orderly line, and the numerous chandeliers hanging from the ceiling.

Naturally, that brightness didn’t come close to the one in the living room of the inner palace, where the LED floors lamps were at work, but compared to the waiting room they had been inside until now, it was almost dazzling.

(Guess I’ve gotten a bit used to it after the nth time.)

At first, he had a hard time even walking straight, but right now, he merely registered their glances at the back of his mind.

(Let’s see, I’ve to call out to the main guests first.)

(Oh, there they are.)

Aura and Zenjirou stopped on the red carpet and awaited the quickly approaching pair.

The men and women, standing in the hall, made way for the guests of honour to pass.

“Your Majesty Aura, Your Majesty Zenjirou, let me express my deepest gratitude for arranging such a splendid welcome for us tonight.”

“You have my deepmost gratitude as well, Your Majesty Aura, Your Majesty Zenjirou.”

Strictly speaking, it wasn’t their “first encounter”, since they had met in the audience room a few days ago, but because Zenjirou had simply watched the welcome ceremony from his personal throne in silence, this was pretty much a “first encounter” for him.

Since he was the very first Prince Consort in the history of the Carpa Kingdom, it hadn’t been decided yet whether his title would be “majesty” or “highness”. For that reason, the nobles of the Carpa Kingdom always just added a “sama” to his name at formal or informal occasions, but you couldn’t expect the two foreigners, who had only arrived in this country a few days ago, to understand that nuance.

“As one of the organizers, it fills me with pride when you enjoy the party, Prince Francesco, Princess Bona.”

“Of course I am enjoying it. It shames me to admit it, but this is my first visit abroad in spite of my age, so everything I come across is new to me. I have never tasted any of the food or drinks here before.”

He was taller than Zenjirou, but still more or less at eye level with him, so his height was probably around 175 centimetre. But unlike Zenjirou, he had rather long arms, legs and neck as well as well-proportioned flesh on his bones, so his figure was quite eye-catching.

If Zenjirou were to wear it, he would undoubtedly only look like a courageous, but misguided cosplayer, whereas it looked like a well-suited outfit when worn by the Mr. Handsome with blonde hair and green eyes.

That was the first expression he got from the prince of a foreign country. Zenjirou let his wife Aura handle the conversation and shifted his attention to the girl on the side: Princess Bona.

“Yes, it is a major honour to be able to see the renowned prosperity of the Carpa Kingdom with my own eyes.”

Her dress had a fainter purple colour than the outfit of Prince Francesco.

With her slender figure and somewhat plain features, she would be overshadowed by a dark purple dress.

It had an auburn colour and extended to half-way between her shoulders and waist. That in itself wasn’t worth mentioning, but as she herself seemed to dislike its plain colour, she had apparently sprinkled silver dust over her hair, which was now sparkling brilliantly as the light of the chandeliers fell onto it.

Princess Bona’s hairstyle was a variation of that, but no other women in the hall even had a similar hairdo. Together with the shiny effect from the silver dust, she was drawing plenty of attention from the other ladies. There was a relatively large number of favourable glances, so some of them might imitate it the future.

“Aha, then you both have come to my country at your own desire?”

“Prince Francesco, you are in the presence of Her Majesty, so please be a bit more careful about your choice of words.

The blonde prince obviously enjoyed the light-hearted talk without showing the slightest tension, and the auburn princess was performing damage control the whole time while the actions and words of the prince kept her on tenterhooks.

“Indeed. I actually have a good reason for why I wanted to meet His Majesty Zenjirou. It may be one-sided, but you see, I find something congenial in you.”

Zenjirou responded to the blonde prince, whose friendly interaction was definitely overfamiliar, with a forced smile.

Roughly one hour later.

“Ohhh, living is so wonderfuuul! Sing to this golden seeeea!”

Singing, along with dancing and playing an instrument, was pretty much said to be the accomplishments of nobles, but it almost never happened that someone volunteered a sonorous song at an average evening party like this one.

By doing so, he saw how the escorting knights were throwing their hands up in despair or stifling a bitter smile under their beard.

“My apologies. He means no harm…”

“No, please do not worry too much about it. He is not really inconveniencing anyone.”

Although Zenjirou replied like that with a forced smile, he couldn’t help but feel guilty in his heart.

That had happened, because he had lavishly emptied the fruit cocktails, which were mixed with Zenjirou’s self-made “liquor”.

(Well, I did warn him about the strong alcohol level. But I guess there’s no way he could have imagined the strength of a liquor he sees for the first time.)

At any rate, he was truly enjoying himself at singing. Seeing him sing so refreshingly made Zenjirou somehow misapprehend that he did something good. Although he did feel bad for Princess Bona, who was trembling uncontrollably.

Moreover, you could hear some musical accompaniment to his singing at some point.

Zenjirou reflexively turned his head towards the origin of the music, where he saw a group of men and women, all dressed in the charming native dress of the Carpa Kingdom of old times, playing stringed instruments and cross flutes.

Now he remembered how Aura had called for an attendant and given her some kind of order when Prince Francesco had started to sing with a loud voice.

Of course that didn’t change the fact that the prince had gotten carried away by his own enthusiasm to sing, but as the host of this evening party, Aura officially authorized his song by making the musicians accompany him with music.

“Prince Francesco truly has an outgoing personality, has he not?”

It was painfully obvious that Zenjirou picked the words for his evaluation very carefully, whereupon Princess Bona heaved a sigh of relief, but still showed an apologetic and troubled expression.

Aura’s eyes told him that she would go around patching up things for Prince Francesco.

Telling her in return with his eyes that he would manage, Zenjirou watched the back his beloved wife as she left with smooth movements, then he faced the foreign princess anew.

With these words, he beckoned a waiting maid over, who was available with a silver tray near by.

“Ah, yes, thank you very much. I will have some.”

The goblet contained a mild fruit wine that was common in the Carpa Kingdom. Zenjirou certainly wasn’t so thoughtless as to offer the princess the distilled liquor cocktail on their first meeting.

“Fuh…”

“Ohhh this beautiful capitaaal! The pearl of the desert, its name iiiis!”

For Princess Bona it was a painful experience, since she had been appointed as a “chaperone” by the current and next king of her country, but she could no longer interfere, now that Queen Aura had provided the “stage”.

Anyway, she realized that it would be no use to worry about Prince Francesco any further at this point as it would only tire her out mentally, so she completely took her eyes off him for the first time this evening.

“Your Majesty Zenjirou, that ring…!”

“Oh, this? Yes, you guessed right. It is the ring I had turned into a ‘magic tool’ by your family before.”

Anyone, who had awakened the ability to see magical power, could see it. The ring by itself emitted a magical power different than the one raising from his hand.

Prince Francesco himself had applied magic to that ring, so it would be rude not to wear it today. Having said that, it might have been an unnecessary concern, considering the free spirit of the prince.

“If I remember correctly, Prince Francesco himself bestowed magic onto this ring?”

Princess Bona kind of laughed at herself after she said that. The magical power coming from her body was certainly too low for a royalty.

Apparently it was true that those, who inherited a “bloodline magic” atavistically, would have a minimum of its power.

Zenjirou gave the blonde prince, who was happily singing his third song in the middle of the ballroom, a casual glance.

Queen Aura also had a magical power worthy of a ruler of a major power, but Prince Francesco’s was so prominent that you could tell at a glance that it was superiors to Aura’s.

(Wow. Perhaps he’s even as much as Zenkichi?)

“Interesting. So crafting is your specialty, Princess Bona? Reminds me, I have been told that the Twin Kingdom makes the finest jewellery on the South Continent.”

Saying so, the Princess nodded briefly and her face showed more confidence than she had admitted.

At least it was obvious that her interest and passion towards jewellery was outstanding.

It didn’t really go against the etiquette, but Princess Bona did cast a glance so passionate on his left ringer finger that Zenjirou inadvertently felt himself in danger.

Zenjirou winced innerly upon the unexpected passionate gaze, but managed to keep a smile on his face.

He simply explained the wedding rings like that. But Princess Bona didn’t seem interested in the story behind the wedding rings and paid him no mind. She was only focussing her attention on the “ring” itself.

“Y- Yes. Well, they weren’t exactly cheap, but you may do call them common.”

That the words poured out of her now even though she had been all restrained earlier, symbolized her enthusiasm for the “jewellery craftsmanship”. Although the alcohol had a finger in the pie for a bit as well.

“No? Not even a little bit? Any trivial information would be fine.”

“I do not mind. Please, something could be of use.”

(Uwah, she did a total 180. Did she put on an act? Nah, I didn’t mistake her character. It seems more like she only becomes a different person when it comes to jewellery.)

“…Okay. On some future occasion then.”

In the end, Zenjirou caved in and made an utterance that could very well be understood as a “promise”.

After they had attended the evening party as hosts in sound condition, Aura and Zenjirou washed themselves clean from the sweat and perfumed oil in the bath, then spent the short while before going to bed in the air-conditioned bedroom.

“Fufu, do not say that. You know very well that it would trouble the wet nurse and maids when you visit Carlos this late at night, because they are obliged to wake up when we come by.”

Even while he agreed with his wife, Zenjirou sounded regretful and heaved a deep sigh as he leaned back into the chair.

One day after the air conditioning had been set up in the bedroom, Aura had already decreed that a small, round table (though small was relative in royal standards) and two, wooden chairs were brought into the bedroom. And one of the two LED floor lamps of the bedroom was moved from near the bed to the table in accordance with it.

And these circumstances would surely continue until the hottest season was over.

Zenjirou washed the ice water in his glass cup down his throat in one gulp and placed the empty cup back onto the table.

Previously he had always drunken the low-malt beer from Japan after a bath, but as one would expect, his stock had run out by now. At first, he had carefully savoured it one by one, but near the expiration date, the flavour clearly had started to change, so he had quickly drunk the rest before it went bad.

“Well then, shall we begin? We have to get up early again tomorrow, so we cannot waste any time.

“Okay. Let’s see, hmm…”

“I’ll start with my impression of Prince Francesco.

“True that…”

The behaviour Prince Francesco had shown at the evening party could only be described as “stupid”.

If that really had been no act, then it was explainable how Prince Francesco hadn’t gotten a claim on the throne despite being in his twenties.

“But if that’s the case, I think his behaviour was too uncoerced. I mean, if that was his true character, then wouldn’t he like have an unselfconscious and guileless personality that allows him to act so stupid?”

“When you think about it, the Prince must have been shunned by the royal palace from a young age on, because he betrayed their expectation about his position as the legal son of the crown prince, if that carelessness and stupidity really happen to be his true character.

Zenjirou believed that the environment during childhood had an enormous influence on the development of one’s personality, and Aura didn’t object to that either, but that view was too one-sided to have her agree generally.

Apparently her argument was worth agreeing with for him, too.

Having a principle like ‘I’ll keep up my chin for this at least’ plays an important role. So it wouldn’t be weird for this behaviour to be his true colours. For an act, it seemed too natural.”

“But that still raises an issue.

“Hmm, maybe they do not regard this trip as important as we do? So they just sent a prince, who is as good as disinherited, and a princess, who is royalty only in name.”

His reaction was as she had expected. He shook his head immediately.

Yes, his conclusion wasn’t all that different from Aura’s.

For now, Aura had confirmed that her husband was on the same page as her and raised a happy smile. Although the circumstances were annoying, it was pleasant to see that there were at least no problems in the communication with her husband.

“That’s right.”

In any case, tonight had been their first real encounter. Zenjirou didn’t believe that his insight was so excellent as to correctly evaluate a person he had only met once and spoken to for a little bit.

“Good. Then we will wait and see how things turn out with Prince Francesco for now.”

“Now, what is your opinion about Princess Bona?”

He didn’t mention it, because Aura would probably not understand it, but a more accurate description would be a “timid and earnest class president”.

“Yes, you are right. She was nervous and seemed to pay attention to Prince Francesco all the time. However, it looked to me like you two were talking quite livelily?”

But as soon as the topic switched to my ring, she couldn’t hold her tongue anymore.”

“I was under the impression that she’s dedicating her whole life to it. She got so into it that I was a bit scared.”

Aura was able to relate at once, which seemed to surprise Zenjirou a bit.

He asked.

“Yes, because the branch families of the Sharrow family establish themselves as magic tool makers. Men commonly set up an armament business while the women usually set up a jewellery business.

She said with a short shrug of her shoulders.

Not to mention an authority on the subject like Princess Bona, who could perceive that it was impossible to recreate the uniformity of the diamonds or the detailed craftsmanship in this world no matter how hard one might try.

Zenjirou scratched his head after saying this, whereupon Aura knitted her eyebrows for the very first time this night and adopted a stern tone.

Being scolded by his wife on a rare occasion, Zenjirou ducked his head with an earnest expression.

What now? I would say I can just brush it off when the time comes, because I didn’t make a concrete promise.”

As he asked, Aura put a hand against her chin and pondered for a moment.

The problem is that it is the first time that my husband made such a careless remark.)

The scary part was that it might be a matter of “affinity to Princess Bona”.

She might be overthinking it, but to her it appeared like Zenjirou and Princess Bona were a bit too close for their first meeting.

In comparison, Princess Bona had educed a promise to meet again at a later time from him on their first meeting, albeit in the form of just a vague verbal agreement.

Down the road, Aura realized that she wasn’t all that pleased about another woman getting closer to her husband. She couldn’t confidently say that her judgement wasn’t dulled by jealousy.

“Fine. She hardly seems to be the hard-hearted type, so just be more careful from now on.

Hearing her words, Zenjirou checked the time on his cell phone laying on the table, stood up from his chair and moved over to Aura sitting on the other side.

Her husband naturally held out his hand to her.

His wife took his hand and stood up.

“Mh? What is the matter?”

“Well, nothing of note. I was just thinking how cool it would be if I were to carry you to the bed like a princess now.”

“Like a princess??”

“Oho.”

“Mhm, you can count on me. I am feeling a bit dull lately, so it might not be possible right now, but with a bit of training, I am sure that I can carry you ’like a princess’.”

In the middle of his sentence, he noticed the evil smirk of his wife and artificially flew off the handle.

However, Aura had learned in the past year that her husband wasn’t the kind of narrow-minded man, who would seriously feel offended by this kind of joke, so she ended up teasing him on the spur of the moment.

“Let’s hit the sack already.”

“Ow. Fufu, okay.”

“…..”

With their two bodies so close that they cast a single shadow, they went towards their shared bed.

Intermission 1: The Hero and the Youngster

Around the same time.

Inside the fortress with its thick stone walls and small dormer windows, it was gloomy even at day, but in exchange chillier than in an average house.

(He’s the hero of the previous war, General Puyol…!)

Based on Xavier’s eye level of 160cm, the almost two metre tall General Puyol was truly a giant that he literally looked up to.

In the presence of this man, who was overwhelming superior in social standing, combat strength and military tactics, Xavier had advanced his opinion.

“I see. So you are saying that you wish to follow the ‘Pack Dragon Subjugation’ mission through on your own instead of letting me take over, Sir Xavier?”

“Not at all, General Puyol. I do know my place! From the moment on I requested help from the capital, my ‘Pack Dragon Subjugation’ ended up as a failure.

“I see…”

“Hmm.”

“Sir Xavier, I believe that this expedition will likely take up a lot of time.

“Ah, yes. I believe so as well.”

And he was saying it in earnest.

In that case, they would have to scour that large and dense forest for them.

“But then the emergency stock of salt in the March becomes a problem. If I recall correctly, your stocks last for around three months at best?”

“Yes. It would be enough for half a year if we were to ration it, but it would worry the citizen and have a bad effect on the price. If possible, I would like to refrain from doing so.”

“To prevent that, I have brought large quantities of salt with me from the capital.

But the addition of your men will change my plans a bit.

Naturally, I will count on your troops to be on the front line during the military offensive afterwards, if we are not fortunate enough to encounter and wipe out the Pack Dragons on the way there. What do you say?”

In other words, General Puyol was willing to bring them along as long as they occupied themselves with the transport and guard of the salt.

Furthermore, as the successor to the March, he ought to welcome the proposal of quickly delivering the salt to the domain with open arms.

“Understood. Please let us do it, General Puyol.

“Do not mention it. I am just doing my part.”

Chapter end