Risou no Himo Seikatsu Vol 5 Chapter 2

Chapter 02: Princess Freya of the Sea

“Wow. I was really teleported…”

This was the residence for the Duke of Valentia, sort of the centre of the seaport city.

The opened window let in the dazzling sunlight and the salty breeze typical for a seaport city.

Most of the stones used in the harbour were white, so it beautifully contrasted with the blue of the sea.

The colours blue, white and red reminded him of the soccer team he had been a fan of in Japan, so he unconsciously mumbled to himself while narrowing his eyes to slits to the reflection of the sun on the water surface.

“Master Zenjirou, may I have a bit of your time?”

When he permitted it reflexively, an acquainted woman entered as expected.

The woman was middle-aged and wore carmine red maid clothes.

Amongst the older waiting maids in the Inner Palace, she was exceptional slender and graceful.

She was qualified enough to lead all the waiting maids in the Inner Palace in place of Supervisory Maid Amanda without any problems, if she ever felt like it.

“Sir Raffaelo Márguez requests an audience with you. What may I tell him?”

He was about to ask her what he should do, but quickly swallowed down these words.

Self-reflecting, Zenjirou quickly mused on his own.

As far as he was concerned, he would have liked to have some time to get accustomed to the climate and customs here, but this was not a vacation.

(The question is if I’m risking to be ‘looked down on’ when I accept his request right away.)

In that case, he had to make a decision for himself.

“Okay. I’ll meet him. Prepare a room.”

“Yes, as you wish.”
The middle-aged maid lowered her head respectfully upon the instructions of her master.

Approximately one hour later.

“It is a pleasure to meet you, Master Zenjirou. I am Raffaelo, the eldest son of Manuel, the current head of the Márguez Family.

Smoothly delivering his greeting, the man bowed elegantly. Zenjirou remained seated in his chair as he watched him.

He was probably in his early thirties and had an average height and build. His looks were personable, but not distinct enough to call him beautiful.

“It’s okay. I wanted to talk to you, too. For now, sit down.”

His dislike for the former husband candidate of his wife made his sharp tongue and condescending manner appear more natural.

Raffaelo sat down in a chair across from Zenjirou with a large rectangle table in-between them.

“Speak up, Sir Raffaelo. Did you already meet with the girl, who claims to be a ‘princess from the North Continent’?”

“Yes. We only exchanged pleasantries for a bit, though, because I was only ‘sent’ here by Her Majesty three days ago as well.”

And it goes without saying, since there was no way to hide the giant four-master anchoring in the harbour.

“Hmm, her name is Freya Uppsala and she is a girl of seventeen or eighteen years. According to herself, she is the crown princess of the Uppsala Kingdom, which lies on the North Continent.”

Raffaelo answered the short question from Zenjirou without missing a beat, as if he had prepared his reply beforehand.

In this case, her youth actually gave her more credibility.

“I see.”

Aura had said that they could assume that she was indeed the real deal, because she had a large ship with four masts, and she seemed to be right. Needless to say being a real princess did not rule out the possibility that she was trickster.

If you underestimated her for being a young girl, you were at risk of losing everything.

“No. I have not inquired about that so far. But she mentioned it was more or less a coincidence that they ended up here. They were indeed heading for the South Continent, but apparently got into a storm on the open sea and veered off course.”

Zenjirou could not hide his surprise towards the report from Raffaelo, and widened his eyes a bit.

Anyway, as long as it was within Aura’s expectations, he had already been instructed on how to act, so Zenjirou did not have to pause for a decision.

“Yes, very well. I will act upon it immediately.”

(Immediately, eh. Guess he’s exactly the guy Aura said he would be.)

Aura had described the man known as Raffaelo Márguez as a “civil servant, who was extremely capable, but also passive beyond help”.

If anything, that type of man was rare in the Carpa Kingdom, where ambitious men were in the majority.

“Nevertheless, the craftsmen in Valentia do have their own jobs during the day. Of course I will try to make them cooperate as much as possible, but it remains questionable if they alone can repair such a big ship.

Raffaelo Márguez kept a straight face without so much as batting an eye as he proposed that with a calm voice.

“Aha. And by ‘outside’, you mean craftsmen from the County of Márguez?”

“Yes. I regret to say that I, despite my advanced age, have hardly ever left my home domain so far, so I am afraid that have rather few connections to others. Fortunately enough, the County of Márguez is not that far away from Valentia.”

“I would be delighted to get your approval.”

“Please rest assured. My Father and Her Majesty have already come to an understanding in the Capital. Here is the relevant document.”

Zenjirou glanced at Ines, who stood at attention next to him. The middle-aged maid recognized the cue, smoothly moved over to the table, picked up the parchment and handed it to Zenjirou.

Zenjirou skimmed over the opened parchment, but much to his sorrow, he could not even read half of it. He did studied a bit every night, but so far he could only understand the language used in the Carpa Kingdom as good as a Japanese middle school student understood English.

She took it and set it down on the table in such a way that Zenjirou could see it as well. Then she read it out aloud with a clear voice.

During his appointment as the assistant of Zenjirou Carpa, Raffaelo Márguez is given free rein in regards to…”

In short, it registered the right for Raffaelo Márguez to call in more personnel from outside during the current affair, when there was a shortage of manpower to resolve any circumstances.

(I see. In other words, the Márguez get a piece of the cake, too. In exchange, Raffaelo will play the faithful subordinator here and the Márguez cover a part of the expenses, too.)

The reason that Aura had not told Zenjirou about it directly was that it was part of the advertisement to the Márguez Family that “Zenjirou was merely a figurehead and Raffaelo in charge”.

“Fine. You seem to be saying the truth. When Her Majesty has given you permission, I can’t object. Do what’s necessary.”
Zenjirou spoke with a callous tone, as if he had stopped caring.

“Damn, I hardly slept at all.”

Amidst the faint sunlight that crept in through the gaps of the tightly closed wooden shutters, he stretched himself abundantly on the bed to vitalize his sleepy body.

Technically, his night had lasted longer than usual, but he still felt sleep-deprived.

The hottest season was already over, but the nights in the Carpa Kingdom were still sultry. And now his body could not adopt to the sultriness, because he had set up the air conditioning in his bedroom at home.

His cell phone could be charged through that crank-powered flashlight, so he had brought it with him as a clock, but his game consoles were all left at home. Zenjirou was regretting his choice a bit now.

Thinking back, the reason why he recently no longer played games at night was that he spent his time either discussing things with Aura or training his magic.

Admittedly, he could practice his control over the magical output, even without such a playback device, but Zenjirou was not blessed with enough patience to just keep staring at his own hands for hours while increasing and decreasing the emission of magical power, respectively.

“Man, I was a bit too naïve. I’ve got to try harder to acclimatize here.”

For his pyjama as well as his leisure wear and underwear he had brought along the clothes from Earth.

Even in his familiar pyjama he had slept badly. If he had worn the traditional nightwear, he might have not gotten a wink of sleep.

While saying that, he fumbled around to open the wooden shutters.

When the morning sun flooded the room, Zenjirou narrowed his eyes to slits.

Like always, he wanted to respond with “Yes, come in” at once, but swallowed down these words in the nick of time.

Normally it would not be well-received when he interacted casually with the waiting maids as royalty. Not only would it damage his own reputation, it could possibly have a bad influence on Aura as well for taking such a man as her husband.

Zenjirou varnished his way of speaking and expression for public appearance, then spoke to beyond the door.

As expected, an unfamiliar voice of a nervous young waiting maid resounded from the other side of the door.

Although Zenjirou was a bit fed up with having to use a stage phrasing in his own room as well, he bluntly gave his permission.

The door opened with these words and three young waiting maids entered the room.

Their demeanour indicated sophistication as servants beyond their years, but the tanned faces of the girls were pitifully ravaged by nervousness.

Foolish nobility that punished their servants for fun was a minority in the Carpa Kingdom, no doubt, but at this point, the girls did not even know enough about Zenjirou to judge whether he belonged to that minority or not.

The three young maids bowed towards him, whereupon Zenjirou tried his best not to sound friendly in his reply.

He put forth an effort to appear calm and understanding in order to ease the unfounded nervousness of the girls while maintaining a dignity, so he would not be called a failure as royalty.

From his point of view, it was rather embarrassing to have young girls help him get changed, but he still could not put on the “third formal attire” by himself, because of its complicated dressing method and tieing strings.

So he had spread his arms resigned and expressionless. Thereupon the three waiting maids skilfully took off his pyjama and dressed him in the third formal attire.

“Actually, where’s Ines?”

“Mrs. Ines has gone to the kitchen to issue instructions. Afterwards, she wanted to arrange today’s schedule with Sir Raffaelo and Sir Damian.”

After the waiting maids finished dressing him, Zenjirou briefly looked at himself in the big glass mirror from the Inner Palace and then checked with the maids.

“The cooking staff is preparing breakfast right now. As soon as it is done, someone will come for you, so please wait here until then.”

“I see. Fine. You’re dismissed until then.”

If anything, it was the custom to have at least one servant around for the purpose of issuing demands at any time.

Even if it seemed dubious, he had to insist on this selfishness.

“Y- Yes.”

“Please call for us if you need anything.”
When he gave them the order again, the waiting maids obediently complied, albeit perplexed.

Too unsettled to savour the breakfast he took together with the Governor of Valentia and Raffaelo Márguez, Zenjirou was then going to meet with the “self-proclaimed princess” at last.

It did not have an elevated throne like the audience chamber in the Royal Palace, but they had prepared a chair in the back of the room that visualized the authority of the Duke of Valentia.

The governor was always staying in his own residence next door for government affairs in Valentia, and it surely would not be tolerated that Zenjirou sat down in that chair, either, even if he was vested with a special authority.

Acting as dignified as possible, Zenjirou prevented his legs from shaking from nervousness with all his might while he sat on the chair in question. On his right stood Raffaelo Márguez and on his left Ines, the maid.

As they stood there, the door was pushed open before long and the awaited person entered.

(So that’s the ‘self-proclaimed princess’? She definitely got the aura of a royalty, just like Raffaelo said. But she doesn’t have a lot of magical power. And is that a female bodyguard behind her? Looks like she almost got the same amount of magical power as the princess. Maybe the princess is limiting her magical power deliberately?)

In accordance with the report from Raffaelo, the one walking in front must be the “self-proclaimed crown princess of the Uppsala Kingdom”: Freya Uppsala.

The first thing that caught his eye when he saw Princess Freya was her hairstyle.

Whatever the case may be on the North Continent, but a woman with short hair was extremely rare on the South Continent. There was one girl with short hair in the Inner Palace, but she had no other choice but to keep it short, because its strong tendency to frizz when letting it grow made it impossible to comb into place.

(Maybe a short haircut is nothing special on the North Continent?)

Simply put, Princess Freya was wearing “clothes for a captain”. The bottom half consisted of white trousers and overknee boots, whereas the upper half was made up of something like a white shirt and a blazer-like jacket above it, which was held together by a leather belt.

(She cut her hair short and wears men’s clothing. Is she ‘cross-dressing’? But she definitely called herself a ‘princess’, so she’s not really thorough in her disguise.)

Her chest, covered by a blue scarf around her neck, was by no means bountiful, but still showcased soft bulges that made it impossible to personate a man. And the tightly strapped belt around her waist actually highlighted the womanly curves from her hips to her bottom.

“Please stop right there. Excuse us, but we are going to venture to subject you to a body search now.”

“What insolence! Who do you think you are dealing here with!”

But that was not the fault of either side. If anything, both side were in the right.

From the point of view of the governor on the other hand, it had only been his duty to clear up any doubts before letting an unverified “self-proclaimed princess” near one of only three royalty of his own country.

“Then you should have done so while we waited in the other room! Why do you need to put the princess to shame here!”

Even if she had been subjected to a body search in the next room and nothing had been found, it could not be ruled out that she somehow obtained some kind of weapon on her way here. That was what the governor must have wanted to say, but to Zenjirou it sounded a bit like hair-splitting.

Inferring like that, Zenjirou glanced at Raffaelo Márguez standing next to him, but his temporary assistant kept a composed expression and made no signs to intervene.

The Princess Freya in question remained silent while her bodyguard continued her critique.

Saying that, the tall female soldier clenched her fist, which was exceptional large for a woman. At that moment,

Ines stepped forward from her position next to Zenjirou before the female soldier was at daggers drawn, and lowered her head deeply.

In spite of the exaggerated outburst of the bodyguard, Ines kept her head lowered as she explained.

Ines looked to the side, where four waiting maids were waiting with a piece of cloth in their hands that looked like a large blackout curtain.

Although it was a body search, she would not have to get completely naked. They would strip her to her underwear at best and then frisk her for hidden weapons, but even if it was done by a woman and away from the eyes of others, it was still quite humiliating.

As the female soldier still did not give in, she now was reprimanded by Princess Freya, who had been silent so far.

“But, Milady!”

“I am standing here without any actual credentials to who I am. Their wariness is by no means mistaken.”

On their ship, the “Yellow Leaves”, they had things like a treasured sword with the family crest of the Uppsala Kingdom, or a tiara with a blue sapphire that was only bestowed to female royalty. But the people of the Carpa Kingdom neither knew the family crest of the Uppsala Kingdom, nor their customs, so they would only tilt their heads puzzled, even if they were shown these things.

“Much obliged, Your Highness. Excuse us then. Girls.”

Upon the order from Ines, the four waiting maids took the large blackout curtain and concealed Ines, Princess Freya and the female soldier.

Unexpectedly, everyone outside the curtain kept quiet.

Before long, Ines said “okay, we are done. Thank you every much for your cooperation” and the waiting maids quickly withdrew the curtain.

“Please forgive my discourtesy. Nothing did state a problem.”

“I beg your pardon, Princess Freya. Please come forward now.”

Keeping a dignified facial expression, Princess Freya told him that without breaking eye contact, then gracefully stepped forward.

He was a Prince Consort, whereas Princess Freya was a crown princess. In normal circumstances, his status did not require him to stand up from his chair, even if her claim to be a crown princess was legit. Likewise, it did not really cause a problem when he stood up, because they were nearly on the same level, but by doing so without having the need to, he wanted to express an apology he was not allowed to put into words.

“I am Zenjirou Carpa, the husband of Her Majesty Aura, the Queen of the Capra Kingdom. By rights, Her Majesty would be here as the Duchess of Valentia, but she cannot leave the capital at the moment. Thus, I am here as her representative. A pleasure meeting you.”

“I am Captain Freya of the ‘Yellow Leaves’, the eight ship in the fleet of the Uppsala Kingdom.

Also, as the crown princess and second child of Gustav V, the current king of the Uppsala Kingdom, I do wish that this meeting will be a good opportunity for our two countries to grow closer to each other.”

While giving an appropriate response, Zenjirou went through the greeting of Princess Freya in his head once more.

As he was bad at improvising, he certainly did not approve of this unexpected turn of events.

Coming to that conclusion, Zenjirou shifted his gaze to the female soldier standing behind Princess Freya.

Of course that was nothing but a bluff. Zenjirou was definitely not able to judge the skills of a soldier from just a glance.

Furthermore, he was told that a Sea Dragon had really thick skin and a high vitality, so it was technically impossible to kill it with one hit, even if you hit a vital spot by chance, unless you threw the spear with quite the force.

Princess Freya smiled proudly and looked at her retainer standing behind her at an angle, then spoke.

Victoria Kronkvist. A proud warrior of our country and my bodyguard.”

Being introduced, the female soldier bowed her head stiffly without saying a word.

While saying that, he looked at the female soldier— at Victoria Kronkvist again.

However, none of these colours caught the eye of any beholder first.

Zenjirou unwittingly looked up to the face of the female soldier.

(She’s even taller than Fatima, not just Aura. And she isn’t as delicate as Fatima, at that.)

Moreover, her body was so well-trained that you could tell even through the leather armour she was wearing. Because she had more or less sloping shoulders, which were also relative small for her height, she did not have such an imposing physique as Aura, but her arms, tights and bottom were definitely those of a versed soldier.

(Still, she doesn’t stand out despite this. When she’s just standing there, Princess Freya is actually attracting more attention.)

Anyway, Zenjirou addressed a point that had bothered him in the introduction just now.

When faced with his question, Princess Freya showed a proud expression as if to say “I am glad you ask”, while she answered.

‘Skathi’ was the name of a female soldier, who has made a name for herself as a valiant and excellent sorceress in the olden days.”

The practice of bestowing a special name as a title to outstanding warriors was not a rare event on Earth, either.

“…..”

Determining that, Zenjirou shifted his gaze again, this time from the female soldier back to the cross-dressing princess.

We prepared a guest house for you, so you can move in there today. And of course your ship is allowed to stay in the harbour.

Consult my assistant for the details. Raffaelo.”

“Yes, very well. Princess Freya, from now on I will be at your disposal for anything, so please feel free to call upon me anytime.”

Raffaelo bowed his head deeply, whereas Princess Freya spoke in a polite tone without lowering her head. If anything, she was jutting her chin forward a bit when she responded.

“Fuh…”

“Are you alright, Master Zenjirou? If you are feeling uncomfortable, you may take off some clothes. I can help you put them on again by myself.”

Unable to resist the temptation, he ruthlessly loosened the sash and strings of his trousers and slumped into the couch.

Except for the period before retiring to bed, Zenjirou was hardly ever alone during the day. Ines was quite busy as the temporary Supervisory Maid, but she tried to stay with him as much as possible, so he was really grateful to her.

“Mh. I gotta thank Sir Raffaelo later. Are we doing everything to make the princess feel comfortable?”

“Wait. Not?”

And he had all reason to be surprised. He had acknowledged Princess Freya as “royalty from the North Continent” and she and her group were honoured guests now. It would be bad if they were not doing everything for their well-being. At least they should be obliged to do as much as possible.

Leaning forward on the couch, Zenjirou asked her, and Ines replied with a little wry smile.

“O- Oh… That’s nothing we can fix, though.”

“Espaldion said they’re coming from the far north of the North Continent after all. In terms of Earth that would mean they’re coming from somewhere around Northern Europe or Greenland. Hm, and we’re something like Africa near the equator or South India?”

Actually, his knowledge about it was only half-baked. In reality, some cities in Northern Europe did experience a summer with temperatures over thirty degree Celsius, but luckily for him, the “Uppsala Kingdom” of this world was really a cold region that rarely ever saw days with temperatures over twenty degrees even during summer.

Although the hottest season had already passed, the maximum temperature around here still often went beyond thirty-five degree at noon.

“At least see to it that they have enough water. And listen to their requests for food as much as possible, too.”

“Very well. I will instruct them to refill the water drums as often as possible. If feasible, I would like to get more personnel for that, so I will consult with Sir Damian later on.”

There were a couple of wells around the guest house as well, but still too few, considering the size of the residence, so water drums were placed at places too far away from the wells, where they then could scoop water.

“Mh, good. I’m sure it’ll be a stiff piece of work, but do your best, so that they have it as comfortable as possible. Or at least, I want them to see we’re in earnest.”

It was still unknown how the negotiations with Princess Freya would turn out from now on, but Zenjirou wanted to put her into a good mood first, since they already had put her to shame through that “body check” earlier on.

“Thanks. By the way, what does my schedule say for later?”

“As scheduled, they will be talking of actual business for a while now, discussing demands and compensations, so you will not meet with Princess Freya directly anymore.

Although he did have the final say in matters, they were not expecting him to probe the partner and strike a deal profitable for both sides.

“Damn. I should’ve bought a game console to kill time after all.”

“Boredom” was a troublesome condition that became more painful the longer it lasted, so he should quickly think of a way to kill time without bothering others.

“Say, there are lot of ‘mussel dishes’ here, right? Do you know what they do with the shells?”

“I would say they are tossing them away, because there is no real use for them.”

“Good. Can you get the shells for me? I also want an hammer, a stone mortar and some people that know how to use them. Oh, I want some coast sand, too. If possible, the sparkling white one.”

The slaked lime and silica sand that had been used for the glass production experiments so far, had been made from freshwater lake shells and inland sand. They never tried any shells or sand from Valentia.

“Understood. I will prepare it at once.

Zenjirou completely agreed with her idea.

For Ines, it was a welcome development as well. There were enough waiting maids here to manage any manual labour, but Zenjirou could not interact as honest with any of them as he did with the waiting maids of the Inner Palace.

“Well then, I will write up a letter for the Small Flying Dragon. Please sign it later.”

Still slumping into the couch, Zenjirou gave a short nod to Ines when she uttered that.

Around the same time in the guest house of the residence of the Duke of Valentia, Princess Freya was talking with her trusted retainer, the female soldier, in a large room after things had settled down a bit.

Saying that, Princess Freya ungraciously dangled her feet while sitting on the couch. She was no longer “cross-dressing” and wore a light-blue long dress now.

The tall female soldier on the other hand frowned in light of the assertion of her master.

Milady, may I switch to my leather shoes? I will even wipe the soles properly.”

“You must not, Skathi. When on land, do as the landsmen do. When on the sea, do as the seamen do. Do not cause ripples here.”

The female Soldier— Skathi replied affirming with “yes”, albeit reluctantly.

“How is it? Think you can fight?”

“Yes. It is not as disturbing as I thought it would be. Presumable because it has a leathern sole. I think this will work somehow.”

The scabbard was made of leather and was reinforced by iron at the top and bottom. The corresponding sword was plain without any decorations, but it was definitely sharper and more durable than any sword forged in the Carpa Kingdom.

“Really? Glad to hear. I doubt that they will do anything rash, considering their earlier behaviour, but better safe than sorry. I am counting on you if needed, Skathi.”

The tall female soldier kept her left hand attached to the sword on her waist and proudly threw out her chest.

After she showed her trusted retained a wry smile, Princess Freya broached a serious subject with a stern expression.

“Yes. I am not well-versed about ships, either, but the damage we suffered during that storm seems to be grave. Our own shipwrights say that repairs are possible, but it is going to take quite a lot of time and manpower.”

The “Yellow Leaves” had overcome a long journey from the northern part of the North Continent to the central part of the South Continent. The accumulated wear and tear of such a long trip plus the latest damage of the storm might not be recognizable by an amateur, but the practiced eye of an expert could tell at a glance that the ship was badly affected.

Princess Freya could unwind around her retainer, so she heaved a deep sigh.

“A truly transparent offer.”

Needless to say, the transparency applied to the intention of Raffaelo Márguez or rather the Carpa Kingdom.

But, just like Princess Freya had said, she and her group did not even have the option to turn down the helping hand from the Carpa Kingdom, even though they knew about their ulterior motive.

Instead of doing that, it was wiser to just cooperate with the Carpa Kingdom, even if a bit of their technology was stolen in the progress.

When her master put a hand on her chin and muttered bold plans for the future, the female soldier turned pale.

“Of course I have no intention of proposing something like that of my own accord. I am merely saying that such an outcome would still be tolerable depending on the circumstances.

Princess Freya lightly bit her lip and said this cautionary with a stern expression.

The charcoal used for iron manufacture came from trees, the firewood used to drive away the cold came from trees and the main building materials for ships were trees as well.

By the time the royalty noticed the decrease in forest area and issued a verdict, it was almost too late.

However, it was obviously questionable whether these protected trees were enough resources until the reforestation got positive results.

“I guess it really is impossible to transport the timber for the ships itself?”

“Yes, impossible. There were more Sea Dragons on the way than we thought. Transporting such large wooden beams will greatly impair the balance and speed of the ship, regardless of whether you drag them along behind the ship or stack them on the deck.

The Uppsala Kingdom was in dire need of long and thick timber that they could use as the backbone aka. keel of the huge sailing ships. Accordingly, the beams were nearly as long as the ship itself. It would be absolutely crazy to travel the rough open sea for more than hundred days while pulling these or stacking them onto the deck.

But Princess Freya did not let the frustration show on her face and declared to her trusted retainer with a composed pronunciation.

“Trading relations with the South Continent, you mean? The safest way would be ‘sugar’ and ‘spices’, I guess?”

“You are right. Also, dragon leather and bones. I am glad that our freight did not get damaged.”

The North Continent almost had no large dragons, whereas the South Continent on the other hand had almost no large mammals. Due to that, the bones and leather from dragons fetched a high price on the North Continent, whereas wool fabrics and furs were in great demand on the South Continent.

“Maybe there will be something unique from this country that is otherwise hard to obtain through normal intercontinental trade, but for now, that is all.

“Of course, my life is yours to command.”
The utterance from the princess prompted the female soldier to attach her left hand to the sword at her waist again as she stood at attention and swore solemnly.

Chapter end