Chapter 03: Zenjirou’s Mistake
Princess Bona was the chaperone for Prince Francesco.
As a result of this, the young Princess Bona had to shoulder the troublesome work by herself.
Much as his simple-hearted character was excessive for his age, it fortunately prevented things from going out of hand, but incidents that had to be solved with a written apology or sometimes even with a little present, accumulated to no end.
But one person had sympathy for her circumstances. It was none other than the Queen of the Carpa Kingdom: Aura I.
“Ehm, did I hear right? You’re saying Princess Bona’s reaching her limit and I should solace her a bit?”
“Yes. This is generally true. To our regret, Prince Francesco is too difficult to deal with. If Princess Bona were to collapse, we would lose our point of contact with the delegation from the Twin Kingdom.”
Her expression looked a bit sullen.
The question whether the conduct of the prince was false or honest, didn’t matter on this occasion. You simply couldn’t come to grips with him.
He was the one, who was in the line of fire from Prince Francesco, so he knew all too well how cheerful and simple-minded the prince was, but also what a problematic case he represented.
“Yes. In the end, I settled on the ‘Future Compensation’. It seems we can expect something really outstanding. According to Prince Francesco, it will even be possible to ‘replenish’ it. Though it will definitely be impossible to use it in instalments.
Zenjirou asked her by only lifting his head from the bed, whereas Aura turned around and answered him as she still sat on the edge of the bed.
This desperate measure had been invented in order to activate the high-class “Space-Time Magic”, which required ridiculous amounts of magical power to begin with, but if it could be embedded into a standalone magic tool, a completely new mode of use became accessible.
From the next day on, she will be unable to utilize any magical power for three days. That by itself was no different from the usual application of “Future Compensation”.
Moreover, the “replenish” function allows her to occasionally store the magical power of days, on which she doesn’t need to use magic, and use it to active a large magic one year later.
Prince Francesco and Princess Bona were already given one marble each for the creation of a magic tool.
“So, Prince Francesco will be occupied with the making of that ‘magic tool’ for a while?”
From what I have heard, Prince Francesco also seems to pride himself quite a bit on the creation of magic tools, so he will carry on his job extremely diligent and sincerely.
“Mh? But in her eyes, I’m part of a foreign royalty, ain’t I? Wouldn’t it wear her out instead when I impose on her?”
“Yes, you are right. But Princess Bona has not been in our country for long. I fear that she would just rest in her own room, even if she gets some spare time.”
“Do not lie to me! Someone, who says that, would not have the self-discipline to voluntarily prepare a timetable and a list of answers to possible questions on the day before the task.”
His wife talked him down with a playful tone, so he lapsed into silence somewhat disgruntled.
Anyway, Aura continued to get the derailing topic back on track.
If necessary, you may even let her borrow them for some time.
“Oh, I see.”
Speaking of, some of his co-workers at his previous company had been like that, too. The type of person, who dedicated their valuable holiday, which they only had once or twice per month, for their hobby and came to work on Monday with red eyes, but a “refreshed aura”.
And Aura’s proposal made sense, considering that Princess Bona also belonged to that category, if not necessarily to such an extreme extent.
“Yes, sounds fine. I will leave the precise selection to you.”
Ending the conversation at his own discretion, Zenjirou hit upon a little prank and moved over the bed to behind his wife sitting on the edge of the bed.
“Hehe!”
After that, he rolled over and dragged his wife with him onto the bed.
“Ah, hey?”
She was stronger than him and also heavier, since she hadn’t lost all the extra kilos from her pregnancy yet, although she would never admit that out loud.
Whether he was aware of that or not, Zenjirou embraced his beloved wife on top of the bed and put his face against her neck to get even more intimate with her.
As she was being held from behind, Aura only turned around her head to look at him, whereupon Zenjirou smiled cagey.
“Oh, I am just a substitute for Carlos?”
And Zenjirou showed her an affectionate smile.
and softness, was how he had wanted to finish his sentence, but his words were cut off in the middle.
Apparently “weight” had been a taboo topic for his wife, since she hadn’t lost her additional weight from the pregnancy yet.
Looking up to his wife, who was sitting on his abdomen with a smile, Zenjirou blinked with surprise.
“Okay, I get it. Tonight I will be your replacement for Carlos. Give me a hug, Papa.”
But Aura didn’t listen to him and flopped onto his chest just like that. Then she quickly pushed her arms beneath his back and hugged him tightly.
“Ahaha, I don’t remember having such a big daughter.”
“Papa, I love you~”
“Papa~”
“Hey, Aura? Please release me, it hurts.”
It was supposed a cute prank of his beloved wife as she fawned on him.
“Aura, I’m really feeling some pain here. Hey, let me go already. I give up. My arms are starting to get numb.”
the ominous image of “being preyed on by a tigress” vividly floated in the back of his mind and wouldn’t leave him alone anymore.
A few days later.
He carried a small bag that contained the wedding rings, the wallet he had used in Japan and the pouch with beads.
After being brought into a room with the words “please wait here”, he was sipping on the prepared cold tea while thinking to himself.
Even if you arrived right on time according to your senses, it was common that you had to wait and the waiting person wasn’t even considering that as rude. No surprise, since there was no criteria for whose measurement of time was correct, considering the lack of a definite clock.
(It feels rather long today.)
Zenjirou rolled up his sleeve and looked down on the wristwatch around his left arm.
10:18 AM
He had been brought into this waiting room around nine o’clock, so he was actually waiting for more than an hour already.
(Hmm, if anything, I would have said that Princess Bona’s the type that doesn’t make others wait. Was I wrong? Or did something happen?)
Around the time he started to feel so bored that he regretted that decision a bit, the door was knocked.
A messenger finally appeared to inform him about his reception.
“M- My deepest apologizes for making you wait for so long. I am most honoured that you have went out of your way to visit me today.”
Guided to another room, Zenjirou was suddenly at a loss for words in front of a girl, who had deeply lowered her head.
“Y- Yes…”
“Well, how should I put it…”
Her slender body was clad in light purple, one-piece dress with few ornaments.
So far, so good. All of that was nothing to new to the Princess Bona, whom he had met numerous times already. The issue was located higher up.
On a closer look, the tied hair wasn’t held together by a fancy ribbon, but rather a small hemp cord. Furthermore, strands of hair escaped from the bundle here and there.
Kindness dictated that you overlooked some minor flaws, but not saying anything in this case would make it awkward instead.
“…Yes.”
For now, they sat down opposite each other on the couches and Zenjirou listened to the full explanation from Princess Bona, whose white skin had turned bright red up to her throat due to shame.
“…..”
“In other words, you had prepared yourself for my visit, early in the morning.”
“But I arrived later than you had thought, so you had free time on your hands.”
“And then you told yourself ‘just for a little bit’ and started to work on the gravure of the brooch from last night.”
“On that occasion, you wanted to tie up your hair, since it was in the way, but your usual ribbon was nowhere to be seen, so you just used the hemp cord that was binding your tools.”
“After that, you became engrossed in your work and continued until the moment the waiting maid told you about my arrival.”
“Then you tried to untie your hair in a hurry, but your hair got entangled and the cord would not come off. Even the help of the waiting maids only made it worse. In the meantime, you were running low on time.
“…I have nothing to say in my defence.”
(Oh, I see. She’s one of them. The type of girl I saw in the science and engineering department of my university: ‘a hopeless girl who has nothing but her hobby on her mind’.)
As a general rule, young females favoured to use their limited resources of time and money on fashion or socialisation with their friends. However, a small fraction of women with a particular hobby ranked their hobby above fashion or socialisation.
Namely: Female hobbyists still placed importance on outward appearance in their own way, unlike male hobbyists.
It even goes as far as saying that women were only allowed to go out in public without make-up up until the age of twenty.
As a result, these women “mimicked” an ordinary person so well that you couldn’t see through them when you only kept them company for a little while.
“…..”
Zenjirou got the urge to just return to the inner palace, pretending he never saw the girl trembling in silence, but escape was not an option, since this “informal meeting” counted as “work”.
It will be alright as long as you are careful that something like this will not occur again in the future.”
Princess Bona bowed down before Zenjirou like a village girl, who was shown mercy by the magistrate.
(Man, instead of faking an illness, she decide to apologize to me directly, so I thought she’s honest to a fault or obstinate, but maybe she’s just more ‘crazy about her hobby’ than I thought?)
After her explanation, he had expected to hear her say: “I know it is selfish of me, but I ask you to postpone today’s meeting because of this”, but instead, Princess Bona had said “May I ask you then what brings you here today, seeing as you are willing to forgive me?” with upturned eyes, although she did turn bright red and hung her head in shame.
Truth be told, the answer left his mouth more out of reflex than out of comprehension of her unexpected utterance.
“Amazing. These transparent grains have almost the same size and shape. And there is even such a small hole in the very middle…”
Since she was looking down on the table, he was thus looking at the parting of her hair.
Amidst all the sparkling silver dust in her hair, he spotted a mass of silver that was too big to be called dust. It was slim and long, coiled like a chip of wood made by a woodcarving knife.
Aside from the silver dust, a silver scrap similar to a splint from carving stuck to her hair.
Come to think of it, Princess Bona usually had her hair covered with silver dust. Moreover, her peculiar hairdo was straight halfway down, then turned wavy.
(Maybe her ‘half-straight, half-wavy hair covered with silver dust’ is actually just ‘unruly hair, due to tying her hair back tightly, covered with silver scraps’?)
Thinking back on it now, Princess Bona always had the same hairdo: silver dust sprinkled over partly straight and party wavy hair.
Following that line of thought, Zenjirou’s idea gained credibility.
Apparently it was not enough for her to just evaluate it with her eyes. At some point, Princess Bona lifted her head and pleaded while looking him directly into the eyes.
“Not at all. I am grateful to you. Any trivia might spark an idea.”
Discerning that, Zenjirou deliberately turned a blind eye to anything related to her hairdo and went along with the subject as he sees fit.
The following conversation went smoothly as long as he averted his eyes from her hairdo.
There are various problems unsolved, though. How would you pulverize the diamonds and how would you apply that powder to make a file? But once that is done, I might be able to process diamonds without relying on magic.”
“I am glad that I could help. That said, are you unable to process diamonds with magic? I have heard that proficient earth magicians can cut diamonds with their magic.”
“That is out of the question. I may be confident in my precise practice of earth magic, but my magical power is nowhere near enough to meddle with diamonds by means of magic.
As far as I know Prince Francesco has not actually done it, but he should be able to.”
Zenjirou met the unexpected high evaluation of Prince Francesco with genuine surprise.
Having said that, Aura was a typical example for a magician that had a large amount of magical power, but lacked precise control over it, so she was out of the picture for now. As for Espaldion, he prided himself with a magical power that was greater than the average for royalty, but compared to Aura, that amount was probably still lacking.
Princess Bona was unable to contain her mixed feelings while
If anything, it is little short of a miracle that his control over such an enormous amount of magical power is only slightly inferior to mine.”
Although she herself wasn’t aware of it, the same could be said about her, albeit lowering the sights a bit.
On top of that, she had declared that her forte was the precise control over it, so her talent was more than outstanding.
“I have to say, these beads are truly a fascinating thing. The folk art in my country also includes handiwork, where small stones are chained together with a string, but they used coloured stones with holes for that. Naturally, none of the stones share the same shape or colour. Moreover, they are bigger than these most of the time, so they can only be used for bulky bracelets or necklaces.
“Yes, with enough practice, you are able to make all kind of things with it, such as rings, broaches or bracelets. I have a few templates, so would you like to try your hand at it, Princess Bona?”
“May I!? Thank you very much!!”
The conversation proceeded harmonious while they unconsciously grew closer to each other.
Aura had been worried about it before and with justification: Zenjirou and Princess Bona had a good chemistry.
On top of that, both were diligent in nature, smart enough to understand their own standing and even had a rationality that made them act appropriate to their status.
“Eh? Then you lived with your parents until you were ten years old?”
Though I do admit that my parents had high expectations of me, since I had an exceptional magical power despite being the daughter of a lower noble.”
“And how! It took several days to recognize it as reality, for me as well as for my family.”
Due to that, her aptitude wasn’t discovered until her tenth year of age.
“So you learned the ’Bestowal Magic’ within six years? And the jewellery workmanship, too?”
“Yes, I had a tough row to hoe. Though I would say that it was more difficult to learn manners and speech. The royal etiquette is completely different after all, even if I was born into lower nobility.”
Zenjirou inadvertently expressed his genuine consent.
Right now she was sixteen years old. She had started to study when she was ten. It was quite praiseworthy that she had obtained a full-fledged skill within six years.
Engrossed in thoughts like that, Zenjirou noticed something strange.
“Yes, he was acknowledged as a full-fledged practitioner of the Bestowal Magic at the age of twelve. In addition, he also has mastered the crafts of jewellery and armaments, so he definitely is an authority on these fields of expertise.”
(I knew it! That means he received the education of the branch family from the very beginning, even though he’s a direct descendant.)
Of course the magic wasn’t learned in a day or two either, but the years of study for the jewellery and armaments craftsmanship were several times of it.
There was no way that a direct descendant, a key element of the country, could spare all that time for it. There were many other things he ought to learn if he had free time on his hands.
(In other words, he already got stripped of his right to ascend the throne in the future when he was practically still a baby. And then it doesn’t make sense to blame his ‘stupidity’ for depriving him of that right.)
There was no doubt that the birth of Prince Francesco was shrouded in some kind of mystery.
“Sounds like Prince Francesco sure is blessed with an excellent talent.”
His reply had been little short of half-hearted, because he was woolgathering, but mercifully, Princess Bona didn’t seem to suspect anything.
Anyway, this ring is truly the most eye-catching item. The more I look at it, the more fascinated I get by its perfect handiwork… This obviously applies to the three uniform diamonds, but also to the well-elaborated socket. Just how did they manage to make such a detailed pattern?”
“Believe it or not, but the total number of this repeating, reticulated pattern is exactly the same for both rings.”
“Really!? One, two, three…”
Having said that, the reticulated pattern on the ring was not something that could be counted with the naked eye.
Much to his chagrin and much to her joy, the “coins” were laying on the table within sight at that time.
His usual wariness and tension had dropped considerable, so he put the idea he just thought of, into action without any hesitation.
With a short utterance, he picked up a five yen coin from the table with his left hand, then scooped a drop of water from the refreshing drink with the fingertip of the little finger of his right hand and carefully dribbled that drop into the hole of the five yen coin.
After a few failures, the drop of water completely filled the hole of the coin, like he had intended to, and formed a little convex lens.
“Eh? Okay.”
Her following reaction was sweeping.
She exclaimed in surprise when she saw the world through a convex lens for the first time.
“It’s a water lens. It makes things appear bigger by making use of the light refraction effect. You know how the riverbed looks distorted when you look at it from above through the clear surface? It’s the same principle.”
“Not quite. It’s not only the water. Its shape is important, namely a disc shape, where the middle is inflated and gradually flattens towards the edge.”
“Mhm… Maybe like this? ‘O, water in the vessel, gather at my fingertip and take he shape I desire for a short while. As compensation, I make one-hundred and fifty-six offerings of magical power to the water spirit.'”
This time it was Zenjirou, who exclaimed in surprise.
“Oh, wow. This is really amazing, Your Majesty Zenjirou!”
“…..”
(Oh shit. Now I’ve done it…!)
He noticed his mistake all too late and broke out in a cold sweat all over his back way after the fact.
“Aw.”
“My apologies. That was impolite of me.
Your Majesty Zenjirou, thank you very much!”
Developing a magic that shaped water into a lens and embedding that very magic into a magic tool meant that the Twin Kingdom was going to monopolize the important technology called lens.
“No problem. I am glad that I could help.”
Zenjirou was shaken at his unprecedented mistake and it took all of his willpower to at least reply as a formality.
At night of the same day, Zenjirou had returned to the inner palace and reported the incident during his meeting with Princess Bona to Aura at full length with a meek expression.
“Hmm, I would say you did quite well in getting Princess Bona to show her true colours and obtaining some information on the mystery behind the birth of Prince Francesco, but why are you so crestfallen? Does it really pose such a big problem when the Twin Kingdom realized that so-called lens?”
Zenjirou had anticipated her reaction to some degree.
As a matter of fact, Princess Bona had admittedly been impressed on a large scale, but hadn’t shown doubt in the least. In other words, she had recognized it as something trivial not worth a suspicion, even when he generously had told her about it for free.
Although he had been aware of it, he had carelessly spilled the knowledge to a most dangerous person of influence, so he regretted his own action all the more.
“Okay, look here. First off, this is the convex lens I showed to Princess Bona. You see how it’s inflated in the middle and gradually flattens towards the edge?”
Aura peeked through the five yen coin lens held out by him, and nodded impressed once again, but wasn’t really worried about it after all.
“And this is a concave lens. Now it’s the other way round: The middle is the thinnest part and the edge is thick. Everything looks smaller now, right?”
She asked him a question, but Zenjirou told her “wait a sec” with a side glance and stood up from the couch, moving into a corner of the living room.
“Ehm, where did I put it… Ah, there it is.”
“The good ol’ fan merchandise from my university. I got rid of my fan tricot and cell phone strap when I joined my old company, but I’m glad I kept at least the terrycloth scarf and binocular.”
Zenjirou put the terrycloth scarf, which had written “YOKOHAMA” in Latin letters on it, back into the box and returned to the couch, where his wife was waiting, with only the collapsible binocular in hand.
“Here, look at this. It’s the result of combining a convex and concave lens. Well, just putting them together won’t get you a clear vision like this, instead everything would look mirror-inverted and bottom up, but it brings its consequences home to you at any rate.”
Seeing as it was night right now, she couldn’t look outside, but the living room was large enough and the binoculars only had a triple magnification, so its function could be experienced well here, too.
When Aura had looked through the binocular like Zenjirou had told her, she exclaimed in surprise as expected.
At this point in time, Princess Bona only knows about the convex lens and I don’t think she’ll hit upon the idea to combine the convex and concave lens any time soon, but at a practical level, it’s possible to make it happen at once.”
Considering that, it might be overhasty to panic about it, but excessive optimism was risky.
A device that allowed you to see faraway things enlarged. If the main component of it, aka the “lens”, could only be applied through magic tools, then the Twin Kingdom would obviously have a monopoly on it.
“You are right. You did make a ‘mistake’.”
As her husband apologized honestly, Aura shook her head a bit, whereby her long red hair swung back and forth, and sighed.
We have more or less two ways to cope with it: The first method would be to negotiate with them to ultimately get our own magic tool for the water lens, but the better alternative would be to establish the same manufacture process in our Carpa Kingdom by utilizing the ‘Bestowal Magic’ laying dormant in your blood.”
“Or else we can give the glass manufacture greater attention. This binocular may be made out of something else, namely hard plastic, but lenses in my world are principally made out of glass.
Apparently had he thought about countermeasures from the time of his “mistake” until now, seeing as he fluently presented his own plan.
This incident finally convinced me. Zenjirou, you are being imprudent around Princess Bona, abnormally so at that. Are you aware of that?”
She had said that he was being careless around a certain woman. That piece of information wasn’t meant reproaching, but stimulated a guilty consciousness within him. Even more so, since he admitted the truth behind in.
“Yes, that’s, well, right. I’m aware… of it, I guess? What can I say… She’s really easy to talk to. We’re kinda on the same wavelength and get along well…”
As her husband was vindicating himself, Aura put a hand against her chin and mused. At least he was aware of it himself, so he wouldn’t mistake it as jealousy when she pressed him hard.
The Queen never had been a person, who let her thoughts show on her face.
This incident might as well repeat itself otherwise, even if you do not intend for it and she may have no hidden motive.”
Personally, Zenjirou didn’t need to be reminded about it.
“Yeah, okay. From now on, I’ll only meet with Princess Bona when she’s acting as the ‘chaperone for Prince Francesco’.”
“Nah, don’t worry. It might’ve turned out like this now, but your decision was right back then. The biggest problem is my weakness, so I should be apologizing, not you.”
The calm response of her husband prompted the red-haired Queen to heave a small sigh of relief to herself.
Deep in the night. Once Queen Aura had confirmed that her husband was sound asleep in the same bed, she quietly slipped out of the bedroom and went to the living room next door.
“!”
“Good. Come in.”
The one, who entered with her permission, was a waiting maid with unusual blonde hair for a citizen of the Carpa Kingdom.
Aura sat down on the black leather couch in her thin nightgown, then spoke in a rough tone.
“Yes. According to the waiting maids we dispatched to Princess Bona, Princess Bona has shown no attempts to seduce Zenjirou-sama.”
Hearing the report, Aura mused in the thinker’s pose.
Even if the best time for it would be his visit to the royal palace of the Twin Kingdom as soon as he learned the “Teleport” magic, she had been on the watch, thinking Princess Bona was going to make some kind of move while she staying here, but nothing of the sort had been reported so far.
“Still, my husband hits if off with Princess Bona very well. Is it just a coincidence? But the Twin Kingdom is faraway on the central part of the southern continent, so they should not know about his type of woman…”
All her thoughts didn’t get her anywhere. Still, she couldn’t help but feel worried about the close association between Zenjirou and Princess Bona, although she wasn’t going to use the illogical concept of a “woman’s intuition” to justify that worry.
To be honest, Aura was well aware that her caution was fuelled by the green-eyed sentiment of a woman.
Even if she was unable to prevent him from taking concubines one day, the first one definitely shouldn’t be a princess from a foreign country.
They are primary to act like faithful waiting maids, who listen to her.”
The blonde waiting maid, standing in front of her, showed a brief smile, as she noticed the unusual feminine reaction of the Queen.
But before Aura saw anything, the maid smoothed her facial features again and quietly left the room after she had bowed once, so that her long blonde hair shifted.