Risou no Himo Seikatsu Vol 5 Chapter 4

Chapter 04: The Path of the Vicious Circle

“Wow. This is quite impressive…”

The name of the harbouring large ship was “Yellow Leaves”. Although it was called a large sailing ship, it merely conformed to the standards of this world. In reality, it was only half as large as the ferry Zenjirou had boarded during his field trip in elementary school. Still, it definitely had an overwhelming appearance with its four imposing long masts.

His enunciation must have let on his admiration for it.

Princess Freya, standing next to him, threw out her chest and bragged about her ship without concealing the proud smile on her face.

“It is quite striking. Does it have fore-and-aft sails and square sails by twos?

Keeping their eyes on the “Yellow Leaves”, Zenjirou and Princess Freya conversed with each other.

“Exactly. Although it is possible to change the sails on sea, it does require time and manpower. And above all, the work carries a great risk, so two sails of each kind usually stay in place, unless you are absolutely sure that the wind direction will not change any time soon.”

At this point, Zenjirou finally took his eyes off the ship and looked at Princess Freya standing next to him.

Right now, she was dressed as a “man” like she had when they met for the first time.

Although she did was dressed like a man, it merely applied to her choice of clothes. The clothes in question did by no means conceal her womanly curves and on a closer look, you could see that she was wearing make-up, too. The “cross-dressing” was as half-baked as before.

“Truth be told, my country has the custom to consider a ship as female. Because the ’captain’ is practically the partner for the ship, only males are allowed into that position.

“Now I understand. That is quite the strange custom. Oh, please do not misunderstand. I did not mean to make fun of your country.”

Princess Freya chuckled a bit, probably amused by his panicked attitude.

“Yes, you are right. And sometimes you are better off keeping them up, if the crew believes it. Otherwise they might make mistakes they usually do not commit, because of uneasiness.”

His remark prompted the princess to nod extensively as if to say that he had a point.

“M- MILADY!?”

Even as her trusted retainer, she broke the rules by disrupting a conversation between royalty, but she must have concluded that the harm would be even greater if she let her master finish that sentence.

Princess Freya also blushed all too late.

Zenjirou cast a glance at the crew of the “Yellow Leaves” standing behind Princess Freya and was convinced at heart.

Most of them were taller than Skathi, who was already exceptional tall for a woman. The colours of their hair and eyes were light, as it was common for people from the northern part of the North Continent, but all of them had their skin tanned blackish-brown. Their hair was not really tidy either and their beards were left to themselves, too. All that, coupled with their clear-cut eyes that were more hollow than those of the people from the South Continent, gave the men a vigorous appearance that practically spelled “bad guy”.

(In her case, though, I would say she never really was the ‘sheltered lady’ to begin with.)

That was not something a normal princess under twenty years old could accomplish.

DONG, DONG, DONG. The loud and shrill sound of a bell penetrated his ears as it resounded all over Valentia.

“Damian! What’s that sound!?”

The middle-aged noble stepped forward at once when the Prince Consort called out to him, and said with a slightly pale expression.

Valentia was a seaport in the western part of the South Continent. The sea was to the west, but in the east there was a mountain, or more precisely an elevated thick forest. When the bell was rung from that side, some kind of emergency must have happened on the mountain.

This incident completely came out of the blue. Still, Zenjirou did not hesitate to make a quick decision at a time like this, even if there was not much he could actually do.

In other words, he was saying that he was going to hide in the residence, so they are to take care of things and protect him with all their might.

In fact, Governor Damian looked obviously relieved, when he heard the declaration from Zenjirou.

Leaving these words behind, the governor quickly went away.

Thereupon even Raffaelo wiped the usual calm smile off his face and followed after the governor of Valentia with a stern expression.

Left behind, Zenjirou watched the two men going away with swift steps for a while and then faced Princess Freya.

“Yes, I understand.”
Princess Freya answered him with a composed voice.

At evening of the same day.

“Please pardon my delay, Master Zenjirou.”

Even though he straightened his back on his chair to assume an air of importance as much as possible, Zenjirou had long reached the end of his patience inwardly.

Voices had shouted “Say what!?” or “That can’t be!?” and scraps of conversations had sounded like “We are moving the injured!” or “How many died?”. Only an idiot would have failed to realize that something dangerous had attacked the city of Valentia.

To be honest, Zenjirou already considered it a great achievement that he did not press the panic button and screamed like a little girl.

The fact alone that the always smiling Raffaelo had put on a solemn face now, displayed how grave the situation must be.

As expected, the report from Raffaelo really did not bode well.

Consequently, there were numerous farms in the vicinity of Valentia.

“The collateral damage?”

The human causalities were grievous, of course, but in a way, it was more shocking that the entire livestock had been wiped out. A farm could not function without livestock. At this rate, even the surviving farmers would die from hunger and poverty.

(Hmm? Could it be that I have that power right now?)

The current situation had not calmed down enough yet to already speak of compensations for the victims.

Raffaelo agreed with him.

In other words, the Pack Dragons had hidden in the forest after their attack on the farm. Meaning that nothing had been resolved yet.

“…..”

Before long, he asked in a verifying tone.

“Yes?”

“Yes. Marquis Guzzle had brought it up. I have heard that his son Sir Xavier was in charge at first, but General Puyol was dispatched with his army later on.

Apparently Raffaelo Márguez knew as much as Zenjirou about the matter. Zenjirou questioned him further.

Do you think it’s related to our incident?”

“A whole hundred?”

Counting the exact numbers on a glance could be considered a proper special skill and was not something a common farmer was able to do while he was running for his life.

“The pack from the Salt Road apparently had a considerable size as well. Instead of assuming that two different packs of such a size appeared in two different places at the same time, I believe it is more likely that the pack from the Salt Road came over here.

Even on a straight course, they would need to cross over two or three mountains. If you ask me, I really doubt that they would undertake such a far journey.”

On the “Salt Road”, General Puyol and Xavier had already taken measures to report that “the Pack Dragons had retreated deeper into the forest as a result of their hunt and that all dragons in the forest might now be fighting a large strife over territories”, but that information had not reached the Capital yet.

Before the great war, the Carpa Kingdom did have an information network effectively superior to the ones of modern science, namely an emergency network consisting of numerous practitioners of the “Teleport” magic, but unfortunately, Queen Aura was currently the only one left that could use the “Teleport” magic.

“Yes, certainly. Still, the situation calls for a quick decision. I am afraid it would be dangerous to wait for an answer from Her Majesty Aura.”

Zenjirou understood what Raffaelo was getting at and agreed with him while he hid his nervousness behind an inexpressive mask.

“Yes, that is correct. Normally, Sir Damian would have the authority to command the troops of Valentia as its governor, but right now, you temporarily have taken over the full authority as the representative of the Duchess of Valentia.”

Sir Damian occupied the position of a “governor”, whereas Zenjirou currently was appointed as a “fully authorized representative”. These two posts were worlds apart.

Put simply: As the legitimate Duchess of Valentia, Queen Aura could immediately overrule an order issued by the “governor”, if she was against it, but that was impossible when it was issued by the “fully authorized representative”.

It was a bit complicated, but the current jurisdiction was like this: Aura, the Duchess of Valentia, had temporarily conferred all the authority of the Duchess upon Zenjirou, who in turn was appointing Sir Damian as the governor of Valentia.

Zenjirou pondered while fighting the stomach caused by the responsibilities.

Princess Freya and her group would soon get to know that Pack Dragons were causing a ruckus near by. And then she would obviously request that her people were allowed to wear weapons.

It was pretty unlikely that she would obediently put up with it, when they told her that they would take care of it and she should sit back and do nothing.

Since Princess Freya was acknowledged as royalty, her guards had been allowed to carry weapons for “self-defence”, but permitting full-fledged equipment for “battle” was a different matter altogether.

Having thought of a compromise for now, Zenjirou checked with his temporary assistant, who stood at attention before him.

“Yes?”

“Yes, I believe so as well.”

“But from our point of view, we cannot allow a foreign group to arm itself within a royal domain, even if they are from a friendly nation. It would require a valid reason to allow that.”

“Let me be frank, Raffaelo: Would it cause trouble to allow the guards of Princess Freya to participate in the Pack Dragon Subjugation?”

“To be perfectly honest, yes, it would cause immense troubles. The warriors of the North Continent are admittedly sturdy, but they do not have any experience fighting dragons.

Even if he turned him down like this, Raffaelo then proposed the compromise Zenjirou wanted to hear.

Needless to say, these “guides” would also “keep an eye” on them.

“I see. That sounds practicable. Raffaelo, I know you’re busy, but report the current situation to Princess Freya, too.

“Understood. I will arrange everything accordingly.”
Raffaelo politely bowed in response to the order from Zenjirou.

Late at night of the same day. In the same room, where he had listened to Raffaelo at evening, Zenjirou was now meeting with Princess Freya.

Ever since he arrived in Valentia more than one month ago, Zenjirou had been separated from his life with electronic appliances in the Inner Palace, so it was his first “bright night” after a long time. He had bought the crank-powered LED flashlight with him to Valentia just in case, but it had poor coverage, even if its light was bright. The white light was perfect to illuminate a spot around your hands or feet, but was unsuited to brighten up a whole room.

Amidst that glow, Zenjirou looked at the girl in a blue dress sitting mannerly across him on the couch, and opened his mouth.

“Yes. He explained that a pack of medium-sized dragons called ‘Pack Dragons’ has attacked.”

Well, she did sail off on a voyage of unknown length and no guarantee for survival. It would be foolish to compare her courage to the one of a normal girl.

In order to stimulate the conversation, Zenjirou inserted some small talk, whereupon the girl with short silver-blue hair adopted at once.

Speaking of, the Church, which was worshipping the Ancient Dragons as gods, claimed the land, where these dragons were living, as “Sacred Ground”, so it was difficult for people to go there.

“Is that so. Anyway, Valentia will be under emergency rule for a while, because of these circumstances.

Princess Freya had already heard the details from Raffaelo and understood the reason for adjustments. She was not so stupid to be selfish now.

Considering how smoothly she offered her help, she obviously must have prepared that answer in advance.

“I am glad to hear that. There is nothing more reassuring than having your courageous seafaring men as support.

“Yes, that will be quite alright. Nevertheless, they are not legendary warriors immune to fatigue, so I would like to replace the group with the other half of my soldiers in due time. Will that be alright with you?”

The Prince Consort and Princess smiled at each other, happily sealing the deal.

Half of her guards would be sent to the frontlines. The remaining half of her soldiers would continue to guard the princess, but they were supposed to “relieve the other half” on the frontlines, so they would already wear their full-fledged “battle equipment” during the guard duty.

On the other hand, Zenjirou did not need to be in fear of his life, because his remaining guards in the residence of the Duke of Valentia could easily oppress even the heavily armed guards of the princess, if necessary, since their numbers had been halved. Likewise, they had an excuse to allow soldiers of a non-allied nation to fully arm themselves in the royal domain, when they assigned them as reserves for the Pack Dragon Subjugation.

The destroyed farm was not the only farm outside the walls of Valentia.

Having reached a conclusion, Princess Freya looked at the female warrior standing at attention behind her and gave her simple instructions.

The order seemed to take the female warrior by surprise for a bit.

“Milady, I—”

“No worries. I will be a good girl here, so you go and show them what you are made of.”

“…Very well.”
The female soldier pulled herself together and obediently accepted the mission.

In spite of what Princess Freya had said to her, the guards were going to be sent to the frontlines in two groups, so for today, Skathi still kept her duty as the bodyguard of Princess Freya and stayed in the same room in the residence of the Duke of Valentia as her master in order to protect her at night, together with her beloved spear.

Both of them were dressed in a way that they could leave at any moment in an emergency. Apparently they intended to sleep in that outfit until the situation was resolved.

The faint glow of the flame revealed the princess relaxing on her bed and gave her silver-blue hair a slightly reddish tinge.

But the words leaving the mouth of that fairytale beauty were down-to-earth to the core.

Of course she was counting her chickens before they hatched, but that kind of anticipation was actually a given in her position.

Asked by her master like that, the female warrior squeezed her spear

and replied in a calm tone.

“Yes.”

In the negotiations so far, Freya had more or less figured out that Zenjirou or rather Aura, the mastermind behind him, wanted to close the negotiations in Valentia and monopolize the external relations to the royal family.

She would be able to beat down the price, when there was a competition between numerous suppliers, and some feudal lords of the Carpa Kingdom might be able to get their hands on products that the royal family had trouble obtaining.

“Well, establishing the trade route is my first priority for now. If I am too greedy, I might lose out on everything in the end.”

The northern princess widened her eyes, when her trusted retainer evaluated Zenjirou different than before, and asked surprised.

The question from her master had a somewhat teasing undertone, but the female soldier nodded affirmative without being bothered by it.

So I thought it would be bad to still speak ill of him.”

It had been inevitable that he left all the precise details to others, when the alarm bell rang in the harbour or when he met the princess later at night, but he had definitely been the first one to give out orders to everyone during that emergency.

But Zenjirou had taken charge of the situation, commanded Governor Damian to take care of the matter and declared his return to the residence by himself.

Princess Freya nodded satisfied, since she had never thought poorly of him to begin with.

Zenjirou was only thinking of finishing his given role acceptable. He neither wanted to betray the expectation from Aura, nor did he want to make a name for himself and damage his relationship with Aura.

If they felt like it, the Carpa Kingdom could take the damaged “Yellow Leaves” by force and constrict her freedom.

“Certainly. Anyway, please go to bed now, Milady. Rest assured. I will definitely protect you, whether it be from a southern dragon, a foreign soldier or whatsoever.”

“Thanks, Skathi. I trust you.”

Chapter end