Seven days later.
In the residence of the Count of Valentia stood a personality superior to Zenjirou.
There was currently only one person in the Carpa Kingdom with an higher status than the Prince Consort, naly Queen Aura.
Initially, it had been arranged that Zenjirou would return to the Capital in the prepared dragon carriages with all the others, but apparently even Queen Aura had been astonished by the detailed report of the “Pack Dragon Subjugation” delivered by the Small Flying Dragon in advance.
To such an extent that she was even willing to use up all three possible applications of the “Teleport Magic” for one day.
Having leapt to Valentia with that Teleport Magic, Queen Aura was first greeted by Raffaelo Márguez.
“My, my, Your Majesty. This is a rather sudden visit.”
The forr husband candidate of the Queen seed to have anticipated this developnt to so extent as he simply widened his eyes a bit in surprise, but showed no further surprise, when he greeted the Queen with a smile.
“I am here for unofficial business. After taking my husband, I shall leave again at once, so do not waste your breath.”
“Yes, very well. Then allow to walk you to Master Zenjirou.”
Saying this, Raffaelo imdiately went off to lead Aura.
“Good.”
The pair advanced along the floor of the residence of the Count of Valentia with a slightly faster pace than normal.
Before long, they arrived in front of Zenjirou’s room, where a middle-aged waiting maid wearing carmine red maid clothes graciously seized her skirt and did a curtsy.
“Welco, Your Majesty Aura. Master Zenjirou is waiting inside.”
“Good. I heard you ‘helped out’ my husband quite a bit. You have my thanks.”
“It was a pleasure.”
As Ines and Aura exchanged a hushed greeting, Raffaelo bowed once with the words “I will excuse myself now” after he had Aura guided so far, and left the place.
“Wait, Raffaelo. You seem to have done great as well, so thank you, too.”
“You are giving too much credit. The ’wise judgnt’ from Master Zenjirou has aided the whole ti.”
With these words, Raffaelo disappeared from the view of Aura.
“…Tch.”
Her face distorted sowhat displeased, when Raffaelo called Zenjirou “wise”, but there was no ti to concern herself with that right now, so she faced the door of her husband’s room anew.
Aura winked at Ines, whereupon the maid replied with “understood” and ably knocked the door twice, calling in.
“Master Zenjirou. Your ‘escort’ is here. May I let her in?”
A slightly doubtful voice answered from beyond the door.
“My escort? Who could it be? Oh well, yeah, let her in.”
Upon his reply, Ines slowly opened the door and Aura entered the room at the sa ti.
The royal couple t face-to-face. In order not to bother them, Ines closed the door from the outside.
“Eh, no way. Aura!? Why!?”
Zenjirou uttered in surprise.
“Ines just told you. I am here to pick you up. I do not have much ti, so I am going to ‘leap’ you right away.”
Right after her declaration, a boisterous clattering could be heard.
“Eh? Leap ? Now? Wait a sec. I haven’t packed my stuff yet.”
“Just take what is absolutely necessary. The rest will be transported to the Capital in the carriages with Ines and the others.”
“O- Okay. Just a mont. Uhm, my change of clothes, my flashlight… Huh? Where’s my pocket knife?”
“You ready? Good. I am going to leap you. ‘Send my chosen person to…’”
“Wha– Already? I’m not ready yet!”
Soon the voices had vanished from the room.
Once the room had fell completely silent, Ines waited for a bit longer, then knocked the door lightly and opened the door a tiny crack, peeking inside.
“Master Zenjirou? Your Majesty?”
Although she called out to them, there was no reply.
The scent and warmth of a person still lingered inside the room as if to emphasise that soone had lived in there until a mont ago, but its inhabitant had suddenly vanished.
“It seems they have returned without a hitch.”
Ines walked into the room that had suddenly beco deserted and said that with a soft smile.
* * *
The return was just as sudden as the arrival. He could not fathom the distance between the Capital and Valentia like that.
Practically abducted by his wife, Zenjirou had returned to the Capital, but apparently Aura had spoken the truth, when she said that she had no ti, since she headed to the Royal Palace as soon as she had leapt Zenjirou into the Inner Palace. As a result, they could only have a proper eting once the sun had completely set.
“Puh, it goes without saying, but ho sweet ho!”
Enjoying a al and bath in the Inner Palace after a long ti, Zenjirou slovenly sat down in the couch in the living room while wearing a comfortable pyjama.
The six LED floor lamps bathed the living room into a bright white light.
Even at night, he drank a cold fruit drink from the refrigerator inside the bright room.
Since he had been separated from this room for a while, the convenience of an electrical powered room really captured his heart.
Having said this, it was not the ti for relaxation only. His beloved wife— Queen Aura said across him and they needed to have a talk.
Seeing her after a long ti, his wife was still as charming as ever.
When he looked at his wife in her negligee-like red nightgown from close up, he wanted to toss away the troubleso discussion and head straight to the bedroom, but the bitter fate of royalty did not allow for that.
He should just get over with the botherso stuff in a jiff and buy ti for so happy, embarrassing and fun quality ti between them.
Resolved like that, Zenjirou corrected his slovenly sitting posture by straightening his back and faced Aura across him at eye-level.
“Okay, let’s get started.”
“Yes. First off, explain yourself. Just what has happened? What prompted you to leave the city walls and lead the army yourself? Please tell the details.”
As she accused him like that, her expression was stern and looked like she was suppressing a strong emotion.
This matter could not be laughed off with a joke. Zenjirou had never intended to do that anyway, but in face of that very reality, he, too, put on an unprecedented stern expression and started to talk.
“Well, where do I start? The matter with Princess Freya and the Pack Dragon Subjugation are basically two different things, but they do overlap each other a little bit. Well, at the beginning…”
Like that, he initiated the quite long explanation.
“…Although it were only corpses, I finally realized what danger I had put myself in, when I saw them. So, I think that covers everything.”
One and a half hour had passed by the ti Zenjirou finished talking about all his experiences in Valentia.
“I see.”
At first, Aura had listened to him with a sowhat accusing look, but over ti, her expression had gradually changed and when she heard that he had already put Raffaelo Márguez “in charge of the Pack Dragon Subjugation” by the ti she sent Xavier Guzzle to Valentia, she had turned completely pale in the face.
Nevertheless, she regained her composure after a bit of ti and calmly listened to the end, as it was expected of a Queen.
“Yeah, that’s the gist of it. Back then, I was the fully authorized representative while you temporarily lost your authority as the Countess of Valentia, right? So I thought it would be bad, if I just followed your instructions blindly. Don’t tell I was overthinking it?”
Zenjirou asked timidly, whereupon Aura shook her head with an inexpressive look.
“No, you did the right thing without doubt. If you had done like I said, naly dismissing Raffaelo Márguez and appointed Xavier Guzzle instead, I would have definitely been put through the at grinder by the feudal lords later on.”
“I see. Good to know.”
Zenjirou smiled a bit happily, when Aura told him that his own decision ca more or less in her favour.
“But I’m just the Prince Consort while you’re the Queen, so I thought it would be bad, too, to ignore your instructions in its entirety. The only thing I could co up with after I took your orders and Raffaelo’s prior appointnt into consideration as much as possible, was that I had to be the top dog.
I’m sorry that I did sothing so stupid and caused you trouble.”
When her husband lowered his head ahead of ti, Aura shook her head wordlessly.
“No… I should be the one to apologize. You sacrificed yourself to make up for a mistake of mine.”
In fact, the matter would have definitely escalated into sothing even more troubleso, if he had chosen anything else but putting himself at the top.
If he had put Xavier in charge like Aura had wanted, the feudal lords would not have stayed quiet about it like she had ntioned earlier. And if he had completely ignored her instructions instead and left Raffaelo in charge, Aura would have ended up breaking her promise with Xavier. Since Marquis Guzzle was backing Xavier, there was no way he would simply accept that and depending on the circumstances, Aura would have had to punish Zenjirou in so kind of way.
Of course the counterasure from Zenjirou was not completely flawless, but it was still a lot less harmful than the previous ntioned instances.
It was definitely a masterstroke from Zenjirou.
But Aura spoke to her husband with a serious expression, despite acknowledging that.
“Still, listen up. Never do sothing like this again. Yes, you did the right thing this ti. You achieved the best conceivable outco. I do thank you for that.
But if you expose yourself to danger in the progress, it would still be more acceptable that I admit having made a mistake or that a political unrest takes place in the country.”
She was definitely not saying that from just a sentintal point of view. At the present ti, Zenjirou was the only grown-up male that had inherited the bloodline magic, so his life was truly this important.
A political blunder could always be corrected later on and even if the lords were causing so ruckus, they would calm down in ti. But if Zenjirou were to die, the Carpa Kingdom would fall at least one generation behind its great goal of expanding the royal family.
The practical reason aside, Zenjirou beca painfully aware of the fact how much his wife cared about his wellbeing, so he had no choice but to obediently nod in agreent.
“Okay, I get it. I’ll never do it again.”
“Good. I hope so.”
“…”
“…”
For a while, silence prevailed.
It was up to Zenjirou to break that silence.
“On a different note, the trade negotiations with Princess Freya went well, or should I say acceptable?”
Thinking back on it now, Zenjirou had originally gone to Valentia to deal with the princess that had co over from the North Continent. Overshadowed by the ruckus with the Pack Dragons in the latter half, that purpose had faded a bit into the background, but unlike the resolved dragon incident, the negotiations with the princess would only start for real from now on.
“Hmm, an intercontinental trade treaty with a country from the Northern Continent that has no connections to any other countries on the South Continent. That sounds indeed promising. And I take it that you also managed to get involved with the repair of the ship, like we had planned?
I need to consult an expert about it first, but if everything goes well, we might even be able to already start building large sailing ships by ourselves in my regency.”
Saying that, Aura completely changed the prior look in her eyes to an ambitions one.
“Well, this is just my impression, but I think that Princess Freya is no ordinary princess, so better be careful. I get the feeling she’ll pull us over the barrel, if we get careless.”
Zenjirou did not miss out on warning her like that.
On the surface, Princess Freya certainly appeared like the typical elegant and friendly princess. But considering that she had set out on an intercontinental travel by her own choice, she definitely was anything but normal.
She herself had claid that she wanted to enrich her holand through the intercontinental trade, but it remained to be seen if that was really her only motivation. They had no ans to tell if she had any ulterior motives like exploiting them for the sake of her own country.
“Hmm, okay. I will be careful. Still, she gave you so livestock called ‘goats’ in celebration of Carlos’ birth, right? I will have to thank her for that, if I ever et her.”
“Yes. That’s my biggest achievent this ti. Ah, but I left them in Valentia. I need to get them to the Capital sohow.
And I need to find soone to look after them. We don’t have any people in the country that know how to take care of mammals, do we?”
He had heard that it was relatively easy to farm goats, but it surely was not sothing a complete novice could handle.
As Zenjirou wrecked his brain, Aura answered him with a smile.
“Then I just have to send so people to Princess Freya and have them learn how to take care of them. It is the first ti you ever wanted sothing. I will be glad to lend you a hand.”
“Thanks, Aura!”
She was not lying, when she said she would gladly lend a hand. As a matter of fact, her husband had desired sothing in particular for the first ti, since they had gotten married. As long as it was feasible, Aura wanted to comply with his wish.
“I also made so silica sand and slaked li from the coast sand and seashells in Valentia. Ines and the others will bring it over, so use it for the glass manufacture, if you want.”
Having said this, the slaked li had generously been used to erase the scent of the Pack Dragons, so there might not be any left. Aura smiled happily, when Zenjirou told her that.
“Oh, a ’souvenir from Valentia’, if you will so. Great, I am looking forward to it.”
A souvenir from Valentia. These words triggered sothing within Zenjirou.
“Yeah, do… that… Mh? It feels like I have forgotten sothing?”
It was the disturbing feeling you got, when you only rembered the fact that you had forgotten sothing, but not what exactly.
Plagued by that feeling, Zenjirou tilted his head puzzled and tried to rember what he had forgotten.
“Forgotten sothing? Really? Was it important?”
“Hmm, I wonder? I forgot about that as well. The souvenir you ntioned just seed to have rung a bell.”
“The souvenir? Do you have soone besides , whom you are going to give a souvenir to?”
Aura then joked around by saying that having an affair was not allowed and that he should rather take a concubine before cheating on her, but Zenjirou was no longer listening to that part.
“I rember now…”
A pale Zenjirou mumbled with a dry voice.
“The pearl and coral souvenirs for Prince Francesco and Princess Bona!”
Yes. Before his departure, he had promised the prince and princess from the Sharrow Royal Family to bring back so jewellery materials from the port town as souvenirs.
But he had completely forgotten about it once he was there.
“Oh damn. What do I do? It was a promise between royalty! Sorry, Aura, but can you leap back once more tomorrow?”
“Calm down. You can buy pearls and corals in the Capital, too.”
When Aura comforted him, Zenjirou shot back.
“No way! That would be like buying overseas souvenirs at the Narita Airport! That defeats the purpose of souvenirs!”
“Hey, keep calm. I have no idea what you are talking about. Then just ask Ines or Raffaelo with a Small Flying Dragon to buy them, as they are still there. I cannot use the ‘Teleport Magic’ for sothing so trivial!”
“Oh god! Even though souvenirs are ant to be bought by the giver at the destination! Forgive , Prince Francesco, Princess Bona!”
Turning a deaf ear to the perplexed Aura, who tried to reassure him nevertheless, Zenjirou continued to indulge himself in regret and repentance.
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