Risou no Himo Seikatsu Vol 5 Chapter 3

Chapter 03: The Boundary Between Goodwill and Ulterior Motives

Noon of a certain day.

A few days had passed since the initial greeting. His temporary assistant Raffaelo Márguez had already inquired about the concerns of the princess.

Of course Zenjirou had no intention to make the efforts of Raffaelo and Princess Freya so far go down the drain, but he did have the authority to annul everything, if he felt like it. Because of that, everyone present was quite nervous in their seats, even if they were showing smiles on their faces.

Zenjirou nodded commendatory while using his fork and knife to eat his meal, sliced raw fish with a citric dressing.

“Thank you very much, Your Majesty. But I merely did what I wanted to, and in all honesty, that is not really all that commendable. In fact, my dear father and brother are always criticising me for it.”

From the point of view of her family, she was a problem child without doubt.

Having said this, she definitely did not convey that impression when she smiled charmingly in her light blue dress.

“Yes, I certainly hope so. When we got into that storm at sea, my heart was in my mouth, but now I do think it was the grace of God that we drifted here.”

“Certainly. Both our countries could not wish for a better outcome than establishing trade relations with each other.”

Situated in the far north of the North Continent, the Uppsala Kingdom had not conducted any intercontinental trade by themselves so far. Their intercontinental trade was only done through an intermediary country in the southern part of the North Continent.

It would be of incalculable value if the Carpa Kingdom and Uppsala Kingdom were to establish a direct trading relation with each other.

Despite this, Zenjirou dared to point that out with a serious expression, whereupon Princess Freya titled her head a bit puzzled and disagreed.

“…..”

Zenjirou and Princess Freya paused eating and gazed at each other wordlessly.

Frankly speaking, his envisioned “obstacle” was the distance between the Carpa Kingdom and Uppsala Kingdom.

A vast ocean that was larger than half of the South Continent itself expanded between the North and South Continent. Moreover, the northern part of the South Continent was a large desert, so the shortest route, meaning from the southernmost part of the North Continent to the northernmost part of the South Continent, was of no use, either.

The seaway between the south of the North Continent and the north of the South Continent was already dangerous as it is. Its danger would only multiply if they were going to extend that seaway by the range from the Uppsala Kingdom in the north of the North Continent to the Carpa Kingdom in the central area of the South Continent.

“Yes, we certainly will have hardly anything stand in our way as long as we can resolve the simplest, yet most troublesome problems first.”

“I am glad you understand.”

For the Carpa Kingdom it would be much shorter to work together with a country in the south of the North Continent instead of going all the way to the Uppsala Kingdom in the north of the North Continent. Likewise, a country in the north of South Continent was a bit shorter to the Uppsala Kingdom than the Carpa Kingdom in the central area of the South Continent.

If the Carpa Kingdom or Uppsala Kingdom wanted to participate in that as well now, they would inevitably compete over the pre-existing shares.

But if they were to pass over these trading countries and establish direct trading relations with each other, they could reduce the troublesome foreign affairs of trade friction to a minimum.

The only problem was, just like Zenjirou had mentioned, whether an actual trade route would be achieved.

“Yes, I cannot thank you enough for your kindness, Your Majesty.”

It had already been decided in the previous negotiations with Raffaelo that the Carpa Kingdom would repair the “Yellow Leaves”.

It was practically a given already that the Carpa Kingdom would figure out the technology for the huge ship with several masts.

“It was nothing. In any case, should your cargo really remain stowed on the ship, now that the repair of the ship has been decided?”

Incidentally, the “sliced raw fish soaking in citric dressing” was a delicacy in Port Valentia, but not highly regarded by people from out-of-town, so Zenjirou was the only one eating it right now.

“You are right. Leaving the physical transfer of the goods aside for now, it should be alright to go ahead with a transfer on paper.”

His inquiry was met with a nod from Princess Freya.

Amongst the exports from the North Continent, the wool fabric fetched a rather high price on the South Continent.

On the other hand, it was not impossible to obtain iron goods on the South Continent, too, as long as quality did not matter, because the only advantage the North Continent had was its superior technology for it. Considering the permissible maximal weight of the cargo, the wool fabric had the better profit margin.

“We will buy up your whole cargo. If you want to exchange it for sugar or spices, we will give you a better exchange rate than on the market.”

Just in case, Zenjirou had let Damian, the governor of Valentia, show him the prices for sugar and spices in Port Valentia from the last three years, and the difference had not been all that great.

In light of that secondary object, the price was more than warrantable.

Completely oblivious to his mindset, the princess from the North Continent showed a soft smile on her snow-white face and bowed briefly so that her short silver-blue hair fluttered.

Of course I will take the sugar and spices, but if possible, I hope you can provide some dragon leather and bones as well.”

Although he already knew about it, Zenjirou looked slightly bewildered about her statement.

On the South Continent, the dragon leather and bones were used for a lot of things, starting with armour, but there had been a bizarrely low demand for them on the intercontinental market so far.

What was the difference between her and everyone else on the North Continent? Raffaelo had suggested that they should not make an explicit promise as long as they did not know the answer to that question, and Zenjirou had agreed to it.

“Is that so. That is a real pity.”

“…..”

For a while, only the faint clinking of the silverware could be heard. Lady Octavia had done her best so that Zenjirou learned the vital necessity about royal etiquette, but he still lacked the composure to fully savour his food in such a situation.

Zenjirou decided that it would be bad to stay silent as the host, so he broached an harmless food topic.

“Yes. Everything is a new experience for me and very delicious.”

Her answer was not a lie.

Even if the food posed no problem so far, she would start to miss the cooking of her home country when she had to eat the food here for a long time. It belonged to human nature.

When Zenjirou asked that, Princess Freya slightly shrugged her white shoulders that peeked out from her light-blue dress.

The ship held goats and chicken.

“You have goats and chicken on board? I mean, living ones?”

“Yes, they are alive, of course. I am afraid, though, that these goats cannot be sheared for wool. The species we take along to the South Continent has poor growth of hair and is unsuited for wool fabrics.”

If they managed to breed them in their countries, they could produce wool fabrics by themselves. It was only natural to hit on that idea.

Goats were originally living in cold highlands, but they had the strongest ability to adapt to their environment amongst herbivores and were not even picky about their food.

The goats they crammed into the ship and took along to the South Continent were from a species, whose fur was practically worthless.

“I do not mind. The milk is what I am after.”

In the old days, he had seen a mail order company sell butter made from goat milk on the internet, so it should be possible to make milk products from goat milk.

But contrary to his delight, the princess looked somewhat wary for a moment.

Confronted with that question, Zenjirou had the creeping horrors, because he thought that his desire had been irresponsibly, but it was too late to take back his words. Fortunately enough, this was only an unofficial meeting for lunch.

“Yes. Could it be that it is not common to drink the milk from goats in your country?”

For the people of the Uppsala Kingdom it was only natural to consume goat milk. Princess Freya had been surprised, because Zenjirou, an inhabitant from the South Continent, had said it.

In addition to it, the majority of people even repudiated the meat of goats with claims like “it stinks” or “not to my liking”.

(This reminds me of his background…)

(I should probe into it a bit more.)

“Livestock is a lifeline for seafarers, but if you insist, I am not averse to relinquish a few to Your Majesty.”

“I believe that can be arranged. We do have enough specimens of both.”

Their weakness on the other hand was a short lifespan. Normally a short lifespan and hence faster growth would be more of an advantage for livestock, but it made it somewhat troublesome for livestock in milk.

It was also the timeframe for ablactation and meant that the dam stopped producing milk after half a year.

To prevent that from happening, they took along some males for procreation, too, and periodically let them breed. The newborn kid was raised into a next dam or breeding goat if the situation allowed for it, or alas, killed for its meat if the situation did not allow for it.

Fortunately enough, Zenjirou had priorly received a budget at his own disposal from Aura in order to buy something for himself that might catch his eye.

In retrospect, accepting the budget had been the right thing to do, so Zenjirou heaved a sigh of relief at heart.

Although they were only talking about animals, their conversation contained graphic words such as “mating” or “breeding”, but despite her petite appearance, Princess Freya was not averse to the topic and showed no signs of disgust or shame. She kept remarking unconcerned with a smile.

Zenjirou realized that the conversation gradually slipped into a territory unsuited for a lady, so he cleared his throat with an affected cough and tried to come up with a way to change the topic nonchalantly, but before he could think of anything, Princess Freya continued happily.

“M- Milady…!”

Now even Princess Freya realized what unladylike things she had uttered. Her cheeks turned red and she ducked her head embarrassed.

Lucky under the circumstances, the problematic of her utterance was not understood, because no one but Princess Freya and her female bodyguard knew about the true identify of “Nicolai”.

“I cannot make any grand promises to you, since this is a personal request, so I would like to pay for the livestock with silver coins. I am aware that it is a bit crude. Please do tell if you are taking issue with it.”

Princess Freya easily picked the new topic up, but Zenjirou had to shake his head with a smile.

After that he noted resolutely like that.

Still smiling, Princess Freya simply left his statement hang in the air with her response, but the female soldier sitting next to her darted an obvious scornful look at him for a second.

Coming from the husband of the Queen and male royalty with a bloodline magic, it truly was a pathetic statement.

“Speaking of Her Majesty Aura, I have heard that you two have a child?”

“Oh my. My congratulations! Did he have his first birthday yet?”

“In that case, allow me to present you the goats as a belated celebration of his birth. In our country it is a custom to give away livestock when a child is born. Right, Skathi?”

Suddenly drawn into the conversation, the female soldier was a bit surprised, but still affirmed the words of her master without a hitch.

Anyway, it would be rude now to reject it, since it was a “celebration gift”.

When Zenjirou said this with a smile, Princess Freya brightened her smile a bit and replied.

Do you happen to have a preferred weapon, Your Majesty?”

“No. As shameful as it is, I am not really a fighter. I have no experience with any weapon.”

The atmosphere was about to turn awkward for a moment, but Princess Freya spoke on before that happened.

Anyway, did you know that surprisingly many soldiers in our country have a partiality for knitting? Many of them are fishers on the side, but there are a lot of days during the winter, where the ships cannot set sail, so they inevitably engage in things they can do at home as a hobby.”

“I see. That sounds interesting. I take it that the ships are unable to set sail in winter, because the harbours are frozen over?”

“No. Thankfully the harbours do not freeze over. So the trade ships commute as always even during the winter, but it does not change the fact that it is extremely cold. Because of that no one goes out fishing in winter unless the sea is really calm.”

“I guess you have such reliable soldiers, because they can withstand these harsh forces of nature.”

“Certainly. I was not here yet during that time, so I only know about it from hearsay, too, but they are truly valiant soldiers.”

I wish I could do something for them.”

Both Princess Freya and Zenjirou kept smiling and elegantly ate their lunch while they chatted happily.

“Not at all. I am really touched by your empathy. Still, Her Majesty has decreed that the country will take full care of every subject without exception and nothing will change that decision. Please do understand.”

And then, an harmonious atmosphere filled the room until the end of the lunch.

After the lunch meeting, Princess Freya immediately went into the bath as soon as the returned to the guest house, and took a cold bath.

Ever since she had moved into the guest house, she had started to refresh herself in the bath three times a day. If she still had the long hair till her waist, it would have not been so easy to take a bath.

She just wore a plain one-piece dress with no sleeves over her underwear and left her feet shoeless.

“This country really feels like a sauna. Now I understand why they walk around barefooted or with cloth sandals indoors.”

“Thanks, Skathi.”

“Fuh…”

“For the time being, the repairs of our ship and the basis for trading have been provided.”

When the princess started to talk about the meeting at dinner, the female soldier sat down on the couch across from her.

Having said this, their statuses were too different, so even if they sat together like this, it was to inappropriate say that they were on an equal footing.

“Sugar and spices are luxury goods on the North Continent after all, and so are wool fabrics on the South Continent.”

Princess Freya crossed her legs as she sat on the couch in her short one-piece dress.

“Indeed. Who would have thought that the damn influence of the ‘Church’ was reaching this far. It has nothing to do with our country, though.”

“That makes no difference to the people on the South Continent. I could have cleared up the misunderstanding through explaining it in detail, but it is a topic I would rather not spread around.”

The doctrine of the “Church” said that the current dragons were the descendants of the ancient dragons and thus divine beings. Due to that, very few soldiers in countries under the influence of the Church got permission from them to wield weapons or armours made from dragon leather and bones.

Either way, it was without any reason, but for some reason, it was a rather popular belief on the North Continent, to the point that the Church had even more authority than the king in some countries.

“Yes, it would certainly take a long time and negotiations to make them understand our situation.”

The reasoning of the princess took the tall female soldier by surprise and she looked baffled.

She must have expected the question from her trusted retainer. Princess Freya smiled a bit and rectified her error with a meaningful tone.

Looking at the suggestive smile of her master, it was already obvious that she was not regarding him as such, but there was no need to mince words now, because they were all alone.

The female soldier declared bluntly.

Receiving the answer she had expected, Princess Freya slowly shook her head.

“What do you mean?”

“The origin of His Majesty Zenjirou is not a normal one. I am sure you have heard the rumour as well, namely that he does not hail from the Carpa Kingdom.”

Looking at the ceiling, the female soldier recalled the rumour to mind and answered.

Due to that, Zenjirou was more or less perceived as a “man that had been summoned with magic from a place so faraway that it could not be reached within a lifetime”.

He certainly comes from a country with a different culture than the South Continent. The best proof for it is his desire for goats in order to drink their milk.”

The explanation from Princess Freya seemed to have convinced Skathi now, seeing as she agreed.

The livestock on the South Continent consisted of dragons, meaning large reptiles, without exception. Because of that, the people on the South Continent were not used to ingest the milk of livestock. Needless to say, that applied to dairy products as well.

“And I have more proof. Do you remember the conversation about his child? I asked him whether his child had its first birthday yet, and he cheerfully replied that it was yet to come because it had not even been half a year since his birth.”

When Princess Freya pointed that out, Skathi was completely taken by surprise now and exclaimed flustered.

“In addition to it, no one here should know about the number ‘zero’. However, His Majesty was of the opinion that he was not one-year old yet, because not even half a year had passed so far.”

On the South Continent, the year of birth was generally added to the age. You were one-year old at birth and with every year that passed, you added one more year to it.

Princess Freya placed a hand against her chin and mused.

In the Carpa Kingdom it was practically summer all year long, but there were some really tall mountains inland, so the concept of “snow” and “ice” was not unknown to them. Still, it only applied to mountains high enough to get altitude illness, and the idea of “harbours freezing over” was not something a person from the Carpa Kingdom would ever think of. Even in the southern part of the North Continent, many people did not know that harbours could freeze over.

Even while the female soldier said that, the look in her eyes did not indicate that she was viewing him in an altogether different light now. Apparently not even a little bit of education improved the evaluation of a man that was neither brave, nor ambitious.

“Of course there is more. His Majesty Zenjirou is definitely the most important figure during these negotiations. He has the final say in everything after all.”

“That I do know, but that is nothing more than a formality, is it not? In the earlier meeting he merely acknowledged what you have negotiated with Sir Raffaelo priory. The deal with the livestock may be an exception, but not even that did strike me as all that clever.”

“Yes, I do admit that His Majesty does not seem to have a remarkable wit.

In reality, neither the evaluation from Skathi, nor the one from Princess Freya were entirely accurate in regards to Zenjirou. But at the same time, they were both scratching the surface of the truth.

Zenjirou himself had decided to be the “spokesman for Queen Aura”. His words were the words of Aura. His will was the will of Aura.

That approach of his was abnormal on the South Continent as well as on the North Continent. Of course Princess Freya and Skathi could not understand it, since they had only met with him a couple of times yet.

“His Majesty inherently has a fine judgment. I say this, because he accepted my offer when I declined his payment for the livestock and made it a present instead.

Nevertheless, he immediately accepted my offer like it was nothing. I believe he did that after estimating the advantages and disadvantages of accepting or declining such a ‘present’.”

Princess Frey did not deny the still doubtful words of her trusted retainer.

It would be best to estimate your counterpart accurately without over- or underestimating him, but that was a very difficult thing to do. Thus, Princess Freya generally preferred to overrate her opposite until she was certain of his competence.

The female soldier consented for now with these words.

If they were too greedy, they might end up in a desperate plight, unable to go anywhere.

“Besides, he properly delivered a blow to me as well. In light of his repartee, I am certain that His Majesty is anything but a mere figurehead.”

During that chitchat, the princess had implied that the Uppsala Kingdom was ready to take in the war orphans or displaced people from the previous great war, but Zenjirou had quickly discerned her motive and declined it as plain as it can be.

Princess Freya heaved a regretful sigh from the bottom of her heart.

A lot of theories tried to explain the reason for it, but Princess Freya was of the opinion that it was be attributed to the shift of opinion from the people that magic was less important now that their technology had progressed.

For that reason, magicians were in great demand on the South Continent and all doors were open to excellent magicians. There marriage was already worthwhile when each partner had an high amount of magical power.

Commoners had valued character and reliability, soldiers had valued courage and physique and royalty had valued pedigree and sociality rather than the amount of magical power for marriages over decades. As a result, their average amount of magical power was greatly lagging behind the one on the South Continent, where the amount of magical power was prioritized. Or at least that was the opinion of Princess Freya.

“In view of his reaction, they will surely sever all ties with us already if we were to try to take some of their people back home. What a shame.”

It was most unfortunate. On the bright side, they had packed enough food for the long journey to cope with the home trip, even without their livestock, as a matter of prudence.

And if they were to return with the cargo area loaded with as much people as possible instead of the livestock, the voyage would have been more than profitable from just that. Then Princess Freya would surely get praised by even her father and brother, who had been reluctant to let her go.

She grumbled still regretfully precisely because she firmly believed in that.

Around the same time, Zenjirou was having a meeting with his temporary assistant Raffaelo Márguez in the office of the residence of the Duke of Valentia after lunch.

There were three people in the office: Zenjirou, Raffaelo and Ines the maid.

He sipped the cold tea Ines had poured and slowly began to speak.

Raffaelo immediately answered his question with a soft smile as always.

When Raffaelo bowed politely, Zenjirou heaved a sigh of relief at heart while he replied to him without changing his facial expression.

If they could not do that, all their plans would go down the drain. That applied to their main objective of learning the blueprints for the huge sailing ship as well as the future prospect of joining the intercontinental trade.

“Everything is okay. The shipwrights of the ‘Yellow Leaves’ have already briefly discussed the matter with our shipwrights. They said it will be possible to repair the ship in the docks of Valentia. It will most likely hazard three regular repair docks, though.”

“Would you like to take a look at the ship before the repairs start?”

It was a wooden ship that had sailed between continents. Of course it was intriguing.

This opinion arose from the awareness of his own position.

But Raffaelo dismissed his concern with a smile and shake of his head.

The shipwrights will be at the dock for sure, but as long as you do not interrupt them, the schedule will not be affected.”

Zenjirou could no longer suppress his curiosity when he received that explanation.

“Yes, very well.”

Either way, there was no point in worrying about such trivia. Zenjirou immediately shook off the thought and moved on to the next topic.

The instruction note from Aura had not listed the blueprints for the “furnace” as a must, but as desirable if feasible.

It was a well-known fact that the North Continent had an overall better technology than the South Continent. Moreover, the Uppsala Kingdom was the brand leader for iron production on the North Continent, if the words of Princess Freya could be trusted.

However, Raffaelo Márguez heaved a small sigh with regret and shook his head.

Besides, even if they had one, he would surely specialize in forging iron goods instead of smelting iron ore or building a smelting furnace.”

Amongst the thousands of craftsmen, some eager foremen coordinated the construction of the furnace themselves, smelted the ore under their watch and forged the tools with their own hands, but needless to say, they were so rare that they could be called a national treasure.

“In the future, when the intercontinental trade is initiated, there is a chance that it can be achieved, but for now, please consider it impossible.”

“I see.”

“Then put the negotiations for the furnace on hold for now. It’s not a question of a day or two anyway. I’ll personally consult with Her Majesty Aura later and come to a decision.”

When Raffaelo responded briskly, Zenjirou looked at him and thought to himself.

After all, he easily produced results in a short time when you ordered him with stuff like “negotiate about this and that” or “find out about this and that”.

But in such a case, Raffaelo always provided an accurate forecast, such as “the other party has no intention to cave in any further” or “I am afraid that they will realize what we are up to when I probe into it any further“, and asked for further instructions.

The only thing he had to do was to pick the choice that complied to Aura ‘s wishes the most.

(He doesn’t look like it, but he got the negotiation skills, keen wit and fine judgement. The problem is, he lacks determination. No, not quite. It’s more like he’s desperately trying not to take responsibility?)

An “extremely capable civil officer”, if you will.

“Anything else? No? Then immediately report to me when something unforeseen happens. I personally will get in touch with Her Majesty in the Capital for further instructions.”

They had prepared carefully in the Capital beforehand and Zenjirou was capable of making prompt decisions on his own for anything that was written on his memo.

“Yes… As you wish.”
Whether he knew about these secret circumstances between the Queen and the Prince Consort or not, Raffaelo was still smiling softly and politely bowed once.

Chapter end