Chapter 05: The Intention Falls Into Place
Following this, Prince Francesco immediately left the Inner Palace.
Their aim was unfortunately not to embrace their healed child, but to bound the confined physician, wet nurse and waiting maid to secrecy once more.
“Of course.”
“Good. Keep it in mind.”
This should probably take care of it.
As for the blonde waiting maid… There was no need to especially point it out to Margret.
If she couldn’t be trusted to keep a secret, then surely no one under Aura’s command could be trusted.
Considering all that, Aura had concluded that the secret would be safe unless something drastic happened.
“Fuh…”
Having moved from Carlos’ room to the living room, Zenjirou and Aura threw themselves onto the couches and slumped into it like a wet sack without saying anything for a while.
“…..”
Carlos had fallen ill.
Then he had confined them his secret and revealed the secret of Carlos.
The sunlight, coming in from the windows, was still illuminating the room brightly, but Aura and Zenjirou had no longer the energy to even turn their heads.
She knew very well that she eventually would be overwhelmed from too much work if she kept pressing on at such a time.
“…Kuh.”
“Do you need more rest, Zenjirou?”
Called upon, Zenjirou just turned his head towards his across-sitting wife without getting up.
“Mm… Okay.”
Answering like that with sleepy, half-closed eyes, he, too, sat up straight.
“Now then, where do we start?”
“Mh? Can I ask then what I found strange first?”
OK’d by her, Zenjirou spoke up hesitantly as he was collecting his thoughts.
“Yes, no doubt. You must have seen it, too. The magical power back then really came from Prince Francesco’s body and showered down on Carlos. That was his magic beyond question.
Saying so, Aura placed the white stone redundant with magical power on the table.
“Huh? He left it with us?
“But didn’t he say that Princess Bona would be angry if he used it?”
“Oh no… That sounds like Prince Francesco has a hard time, but when you think about it, it’s Princess Bona, who has a hard time.”
“Anyhow, the prince wasn’t an idiot after all. Then the story that the king himself appointed Princess Bona as his chaperon…”
“How pitiful…”
Seriously pitying Princess Bona now, Zenjirou moved on to the next topic in order to shake off that feeling.
Aura shook her head to his question with a slightly bitter expression.
Think about it. Do you actually believe it is possible to learn the correct intonation, magical power input and perception for the ‘Bestowal Magic’ without a teacher?”
Zenjirou was convinced, whereas Aura nodded displeased.
“Uwah, that’s long…”
“So, in other words, Prince Francesco’s going to ask for something in exchange for teaching Zenkichi any time soon?”
“That is more than likely. Still, it is hard to believe that Prince Francesco is acting on his own on this. The revealed information is just too grave for that.
“Something entirely different?”
“Yes. There is no real benefit for the Sharrow Family when Carlos can use ‘Bestowal Magic’. But who do you think will profit when it becomes publicly known that Carlos is a practitioner of the ‘Bestowal Magic’?”
“Indeed. Leaving his political standing aside, he has an incredible talent.
“Right. The amount of magical power’s generally inherited from the parents after all, with a few exceptions.”
Yet Prince Francesco, in possession of tremendous magical power, was forbidden to make children by reason of their secret agreement. From a certain point of view that was certainly a waste.
“Well, yes, but that is just my personal deduction. The Twin Kingdom would practically bring about a revolution if they actually were to do that, so I doubt that they will go so far.”
His somewhat hopeful remark was merciless dismissed by the Queen.
And when that happens, the next question will be: ‘How did Prince Carlos get the disposition for the Bestowal Magic?’
“Oh god…”
“Sorry. In the end, I am always breaking my promises to you, even though you have never broken any to me…”
“Nah, don’t worry about it so much. You didn’t break your promise to me, the circumstances of my ancestors are just a little bit too special.”
Things were just developing into an unpleasant direction for him, but as the Queen, Aura had no choice but to burden him with it, since the country would suffer too much otherwise.
To be perfectly honest with you, the Royal Palace would sink into total chaos right now, if I really were to have you ‘do nothing’.”
“Hmm, but I never really thought that I would get to do nothing. And I did have my share of free time for a few month after the wedding.
He certainly had chosen his words in order to comfort Aura, but they weren’t a lie either.
He had nothing serious to complain about in his current lifestyle.
Of course he would need to find his inner peace with it when, in the worst case, he could no longer avoid it, but he once again vowed to himself that he would at least “not take a concubine” until the time he ran out of options.
Zenjirou was already used to his wife’s question as she asked it for the nth time, and mused for a moment, then gave a slightly different answer than usually.
His response was completely different from what Aura had expected, but it was undoubtedly his greatest wish right now.
His beloved son was supposed to be healed, but he wanted to hold him with his own hands and feel his warmth in order to erase all doubts within him as soon as possible.
Even Aura could only make a wry smile in response.
“You are right. His illness is already cured, so Doctor Michelle surely will not fuss anymore. Let us go pay him a visit in the near future.”
Just as he had said, his eyes were bursting with strength again as he leaned forward on the couch and rolled his shoulders.
“Oh, come on! I’ve been studying like crazy lately. My pronunciation has gotten better, too, so I wish you would let me say something else than ‘it’s me, papa’ now.”
“Harsh words…”
The following chit-chat continued happily, replacing the gloomy atmosphere from before.
“Prince Francesco, you are being too careless! I cannot believe you demanded to be allowed into the Inner Palace. One wrong step and it would have caused a huge scandal!”
With the hottest season of the year out of the way, the room should have a rather pleasant temperature, since it was cooled by a magic tool called “Fog Genesis”, but Princess Bona’s flushed face was drenched in sweat while she was raising her voice.
“My bad. But don’t you feel sorry for Prince Carlos? He isn’t even two years old yet and had an illness that might have killed him.”
In this way the “excuse” from Prince Francesco had had cogency, but not enough to convince the diligent Princess Bona.
What are you going to do when you yourself catch an illness now! We are not in the Twin Kingdom here. There are no healers around!”
Having said that, there was a possibility that he would be unable to use “Healing Magic“, because he lacked the concentration when his illness suddenly worsened or he suffered an unavoidable wound. Likewise might he be unable to pronounce the incantation properly when he got a hoarse voice in the worst case. Consider that, it really had been careless to give away his one and only “Imbued Stone of Cure”.
“Y- You even used the ‘Burning Pair Parchment’!?”
The ‘Burning Pair Parchment’ was a magic tool.
It hardly needs mentioning that its rate of transmission and secrecy was outstanding, considering that the fastest means of communication in this world was usually the “Small Flying Dragon”.
On a related note, magic tools such as the “Sand Pair Box”, which tried to generate the same effect with Earth Magic instead, or the “Water Pair Parchment”, which used water instead of ink, were developed, too, but never found practical application.
Yet Prince Francesco had used his so readily, so Princess Bona was at a loss for words about his carefreeness.
That thought crossed her mind for a moment as she was well aware that she had a parsimonious spirit.
“Really? Thank you very much! That has been troubling me. I know I should not be saying this, but the engraving techniques in this country leave a lot to be desired, and the same goes for their tools.”
“You noticed it as well? That is indeed the case. How do I put it? It does not properly fixate the metal and every time you apply the graver, it slips slightly out of position. The craftsmen here do not seem to mind it, though, so I cannot bring myself to mention it… Wait a moment, we are getting off-topic!”
“Let’s say I acknowledge your fellow feeling for Prince Carlos. Could you not have handed the ‘Imbued Stone of Cure’ to Her Majesty Aura or His Majesty Zenjirou?
“The Carpa Kingdom has its own stock of ‘Imbued Stones of Cure’, you know? But they didn’t use one this time. So I couldn’t be sure whether Her Majesty Aura would use mine, even when I handed her it.”
“Uhm… Prince Francesco? I do not think it is possible, but I would like to ask just in case: You did not say something similar to Her Majesty Aura, correct…?”
“…..”
“Don’t worry. Her Majesty prefers a direct approach and is frank with you about small matters.”
“I- I personally have to apologize to Her Majesty Aura… No, she must be rather busy, so I should discuss it with His Majesty Zenjirou first…”
After behaving like that for a short while, she raised her head, as she had seemingly made a resolve, and spoke.
Do you understand? If you have to go out, you absolutely have to tell me, okay? I do not need any weird consideration.
Once she had rattled away, she quickly left the room.
Her exit was signalized by the quiet clattering of the closing door.
“Puh…”
He yawned shamelessly, then folded his arms behind his head and looked up to the ceiling while showing the usual smile on his face.
In fact, he had never met a woman before that tired him as little as Princess Bona did.
Stretching his hands out towards the ceiling, he stared at the magical power emitting from these hands.
Due to that, his body had control over the bloodline magic of two royalties without suppressing one. The fact that he could use two bloodline magic didn’t mean that he had two kind of magical powers, but just for fun, he was using his right hand for the “Bestowal Magic” and his left for the “Healing Magic”.
“It’s a bit of a shame that I can’t get married, but I still like my carefree position. Or at least I don’t really want to be part of the political world with a claim on the throne.”
“I wish my father or grandfather would think more like me…”
“The ‘Uniting Faction’…”
“Uniting Faction”. Simply put, it was a political group that deemed the current dual system of the Twin Kingdom with the Sharrow and Jilbell Families ruling one country as “unstable”, and aimed at uniting both families.
One minority group amongst that “Uniting Faction” was called the “Absolute Uniting Faction”.
In their opinion, the king ought to be someone, who can use both bloodline magic, to serve as a symbol for the united royal family.
“It’s not like I can’t relate to their ideal, but I wish they would keep me out of it.”
In simplified terms: It only sounded like they wanted to cause turmoil in peaceful times.
For that reason, Prince Francesco stopped thinking any further.
Saying so, he sat up with a jerk and his face showed his usual innocent smile again.
A few days later.
Queen Aura and Prince Consort Zenjirou represented the Carpa Kingdom, whereas Prince Francesco and Princess Bona represented the Twin Kingdom of Sharrow and Jilbell.
The official pronouncement entailed an apology for the forceful entrance of Prince Francesco into the Inner Palace and an expression of thanks for his treatment, respectively. That wasn’t the real agenda, though.
To begin with, the diligent Princess Bona had more or less worked out a conciliation for the incident beforehand through correspondence and Aura had no intention to aggravate the situation, since she knew about the secret circumstances regarding Prince Francesco.
“Are we done now? We are, right? Good, then onto my business next.
Saying that, Prince Francesco took a small gold work out of his pocket and placed it onto the table.
“Wow, amazing.”
It was barely big enough to balance it on two fingers. To describe it more detailed: A light blue marble, provided by Zenjirou, was only enclosed by a metal frame in form of a regular octahedron.
The design was simple, but well done. At least to Zenjirou it looked like the thickness of the frame was coherent. And all eight holes, showing the marble inside, appeared to be regular triangles of the same size, too.
The admiration from Queen Aura and Zenjirou made the satisfied Prince Francesco figuratively give himself a pat on the back while he carried out his exposition of the ornament.
Spherical magic tools will lose their functionality from the slightest crack, so it was designed with a sturdy framework.
“Yes, I understand.”
“Oh, so small.”
Magic tools are generally classified into three types: ‘Disposable‘, ‘Self-charging’ and ‘Manual Charging‘, so if anything, this one is a ´‘Manual Charging’ type.
And like you have requested, it also is possible to ‘Replenish’ it. So when you apply a day worth of magical power today and again after a week or so, you will have two days worth of magical power at your disposal.
I am afraid, though, that it was not possible to make it ‘release only a part of the magical power’ like you had requested. So when you chant ‘I invoke you’, it will release its whole pool of stored magical power, whether it is worth just one day or a whole year, so please keep that in mind.”
“Impressive. Seeing such a potent magic tool with such a perfect shape confirms all the rumours about you being a first-rate ‘craftsman’ and ‘practitioner of Bestowal Magic’.”
“Please! You’re putting me on the spot. But it was worth working so hard.”
“Yes, it is a wonderful piece. Let me thank you once again, Prince Francesco.”
The significance of this magic tool was enormous.
Its only shortcoming was that the stored magical power couldn’t be used bit by bit. If it were able to do that, she could have used “Teleport”, the best and most frequently used magic amongst the Space-Time Magic, in all conscience, but life wasn’t always a bowl of cherries.
Needless to say, the practitioners of Bestowal Magic from the Twin Kingdom would hardly agree to a “mass production” of magic tools for the Carpa Kingdom.
The blood from the Carpa Family would be too dominant in a child from Aura, so it was pretty unlikely that it would awaken to the Bestowal Magic.
As a matter of fact, Aura only knew of one more person that had a magical power on par with Carlos, namely the blonde prince in front of her.
Considering all that, it was rather foolish to expect her next children to have equal or greater magical power than Carlos.
At the same time, she should raise practitioners of “Bestowal Magic” and “Space-Time Magic” by letting Zenjirou take a couple of concubines to make as much bastards as possible to a feasible extent.
It hardly needed mentioning that it wasn’t that simple. Various factors needed to be considered, such as diplomatic issues with the Twin Kingdom for practically stealing their bloodline magic or authority claims from other families when Zenjirou took a concubine.
In the moment Aura drew a conclusion that caused a sharp pain to run through her chest,
the door was knocked and a familiar middle-aged man with a slender face entered: Secretary Fabio.
“Already this late? Fine. Prince Francesco, Princess Bona, I will excuse myself now.
Saying so, Aura stood up from her chair, whereat Zenjirou also stood up.
“Thank you for allocating some time for us out of your busy schedule, Your Majesty Aura.”
“Yes, I will, Your Highness.”
Seen off by the respectful words of her husband, which she would never hear in the Inner Palace, Aura left the room.
Letting Zenjirou take care of the rest and leaving early, Aura then headed to the room she was most familiar with in the Royal Palace: The office of the Queen.
After she had sat down in her usual chair, a gloomy sigh left her mouth reflexively.
“Is something the matter, Your Highness? For you to sigh unbefitting like that…”
“Oh, well, it turns out that I will have to burden my husband once again. So, to be honest, I am feeling a bit depressed.”
Her secretary, known for his usual indifferent mask, perked his eyebrows up in reaction to her whining, and said in a teasing tone.
Aura narrowed her eyes displeased from his obviously ridiculing words, and spit out her answer.
“Who knows? People say that rational people like him are beyond control once their emotions gain the upper hand, though.”
“No, no. It is nothing that simple.
Suppose that I angered Manuel Márguez. In that case it does not matter whether I or him are in the right. It will still affect the state affairs terribly when Count Márguez is in a bad mood. What would you do in my position to lift his mood?”
“Lift his mood, you say? Let me see, assuming it has to be resolved quickly at all costs, I believe the fastest method would be to temporarily exempt him from the taxes to the royal family. Because, for the better or worse, Count Márguez reaches his decisions based on profit.”
“Well then, what would you do for Puyol Guillén under the same prerequisites? Unless you fix the relationship with General Puyol as fast as possible, the country will suffer. How would you act in that case?”
That reply was apparently satisfying as well. A grinning Aura asked him a last question.
The situation is the same as before. How would you improve the mood of my husband if you had to fix the relationship as quickly as possible?”
Secretary Fabio remained silent for a while.
But no matter how hard he pondered, he apparently couldn’t find an answer to that question.
Shrugging his slender shoulders, he admitted defeat.
“See. You have no clue, right? You cannot think of anything, right? Same goes for me. Now you should know why I am so scared to make my husband angry.
“Indeed. I have never met a person, who is so not attached to anything in particular, before.”
Zenjirou wasn’t after money, nor did he show any ambition towards status. Neither was he some kind of collector that got passionate over a certain something. Although he wasn’t completely indifferent about women, he didn’t ogle any other women but his wife Aura, and even rejected concubines with all his might.
“No. Forgive me, my remark was out of line.”
The secretary honestly apologized to the glaring Queen.
“Well then, what is on the agenda today? It strikes me that I ought to reply to a petition from the eastern nobles?”
“Not quite. That was originally planned, but a ‘Small Flying Dragon’ arrived this morning from General Puyol, who is on the way to subjugate the Pack Dragons on the Salt Road. Please look through it first.”
The messages of the “Small Flying Dragons” were usually all the same, but she still had to read them just in case.
Aura clicked her tongue reflexively and took one of the envelopes with a gloomy face. Once she had opened it, she read through it.
As a result, she screw up her face sullen.
She heaved a sigh in reaction to his question.
Puyol Guillén failed to subjugate the Pack Dragons. Or more precisely, they fought a battle and he concluded that they are undermanned for the task, so he is requesting reinforcements.”
When the secretary was clued in on it, he narrowed his eyes to slits and was astounded on a very rare occasion.
Puyol Guillén was leading the elite troops “Dragonback Archery Knights”. And to think they failed to subjugate mere carnivore dragons. Any resident of this country would doubt his ears when hearing that.
“If it is true what is written here, then it is not his fault. I would have requested reinforcements under these circumstances, too.”
“Yes. Prepare them for a large-scale hunt. Anyone with experience will do, but prioritize numbers. Still, we cannot afford to lose a single soldier right now.
“That will costs us dearly.”
Secretary Fabio kept quiet for a moment upon her answer, but before long, he accepted.
“You said it. The phrase ’wishful thinking’ has never been so right on the money as now. What a harsh world we live in.”
Saying so, Aura heaved a sigh as if she was exhaling deeply.