by Dojyomaru
While she was young, and the previous emperor was still alive, she had been in a crowd with her family, watching a Jewel Voice Broadcast where His Imperial Majesty and the imperial family appeared.
Sandria had thought Jeanne was a pretty girl even back then, but she was shocked to see she’d grown to be so beautiful and dignified.
Jeanne looked at Sandria as she said, “In place of my busy sister, I will be the one handling things on our side this time. Now then, Madam Sandria...”
“Ye... Yes.” Sandria was awestruck at having been addressed by name. “What is it?”
Jeanne bowed her head deeply. “In place of my sister who could not be here, I wish to apologize to you.”
“Huh...?”
“I have heard the story of your fall into slavery. I am told your father was deceived, forced to shoulder a debt, and sold you to defend his family and business.”
Jeanne was speaking about her circumstances. Why did Jeanne, the younger sister of the empress, know anything about her?
Then, with a flash of realization, she looked at Ginger, who nodded seriously.
Jeanne bowed her head again. “I am told that the con man was connected to influential nobles in the region, and his victims were forced to simply accept their losses. In having allowed this oppression to occur, we have failed as those responsible for this empire. The fact that our mismanagement caused trouble for you and others pains my sister. We are truly sorry.”
“N-No... There’s no need for you or Lady Maria to apologize...” It confused Sandria that Jeanne was bowing her head to her.
She wanted someone to explain what exactly was going on here. She’d already accepted her situation, but now she was getting an apology. From the younger sister of the empress, someone far above her station, too.
Jeanne told the confused Sandria, “I know this is late in coming, but we have taken the con man and the nobles he was attached to into custody and are investigating their other crimes. These villains will be dealt with harshly under our laws.”
“R-Right...”
“The nobles will have their family names terminated and their assets seized. These seized assets will be used to compensate the victims, at least in part.”
Those who had caused her to be sold as a slave were being brought to justice. It felt like something happening in some far-off world to Sandria.
She resented those who’d done this to her. She was sad her family had sold her into slavery. However, she hadn’t thought about that for a long time now. Because...
While Sandria was looking at the screen, Ginger’s passionate eyes were on her.
Because I met Lord Ginger...
Having been sold off into the kingdom, she had been taken in by Ginger’s grandfather, who’d sympathized with her plight and taken good care of her.
Then, after his death, Sandria had been able to meet Ginger.
From there, it had been a quick succession of wonderful events.
Ginger was a kind man, and he took good care of everyone.
Ginger was now the head of the newly established Ginger’s Training Facility by King Souma. And he had set Sandria free, saying he wanted to be with her forever. Because of that, they’d remained close, and they continued to run the training facility together to this day.
It might have been bad luck that she’d fallen into slavery. But Sandria felt more than fortunate enough now. Her heart was full and satisfied with her feelings for Ginger.
Having received the apology from Jeanne, Sandria ran through all that in her mind, and confirmed it all for herself again.
“Also... there’s someone who wants to see you.” Jeanne invited someone in.
It was a middle-aged beastman with the same raccoon ears and tail as Sandria.
Looking at the man who stood on screen with a pained look on his face, Sandria’s eyes went wide as she whispered, “Dad...”
“Sandria...”
They both fell silent for a while.
The father was subdued into silence by his guilt over selling his daughter into slavery, and the daughter was unsure what to say to her father.
The two just stood there, staring at one another without words.
As if forcing the frozen time to move, Ginger put a hand on Sandria’s lower back and gave her a push.
“Lord Ginger?”
“You should just tell him exactly what you feel,” Ginger said. “That’s what we arranged this time for.”
She was silent for a moment. Then, with Ginger’s urging, Sandria made up her mind and stepped forward.
“Um... Is everyone else doing well? Mom and my brothers and sisters?”
“Ah! Y-Yes, they’re doing well. The business, too. Thanks to you, we held on by the skin of our teeth. Because of that, I’m sure you went through a lot of trouble... I’m sorry...”
Her father didn’t bow his head as he apologized, but looked straight up. That was because if he looked down, the tears were bound to fall. He felt that, after what he put his daughter through, crying and begging for forgiveness would be unfair.
Sandria understood that, and tears streamed down her cheeks.
“I’m so... sorry...!” her father burst out.
“...I know. It wasn’t just our family you had to protect; you had your employees and their families to think about, too. If you hadn’t sold me, I’m sure someone else would have been sold instead.”
Then Sandria smiled though her tears.
“I’m happy to have come to this country and met Lord Ginger. I think I’ll only get happier from here on. So don’t blame yourself anymore.”
She was happy. Whether she had been a slave or not didn’t matter. Here and now, being able to be at Ginger’s side was happiness. She wanted her father, so far away, to see that.
“Sandria...” her father whispered.
He turned away, rubbing his eyes, then bowed his head deeply to Ginger.
“Sir Ginger, after having sacrificed my own daughter, I am well aware that I have no right to speak. However, let me endure the shame as I say this: Please... make my daughter happy.”
“...Yes. Of course I will, Father.”
Ginger gave him a firm nod. Then bringing one hand to Sandria’s cheek, he used his other to wipe away her tears.
“San, I told you we’d get even happier, didn’t I?”
“...Yes,” she whispered.
“I’m more than happy enough. If I were to get any happier, it would have to be by marrying you, having children, and building a family. How about it?”
Sandria giggled nervously. “...Well, I think if that happened, I’d be much happier.”
“Will you accept my proposal?” Ginger asked.
Sandria’s heart was full of love for the man who had used his connections to do all this for her. Ginger hadn’t only wiped away her tears, he’d wiped away all her sadness.
Sandria was no longer chained down by the feelings of inferiority caused by having been a slave.
She practically leaped into the air as she hugged Ginger. “Yes, darling! Please make me even happier!”
Those words expressed her feelings more honestly than anything.
Chapter 3: Falling
“Wh-What is this?” I exclaimed.
My name was Naden Delal. I was a ryuu from the Star Dragon Mountain Range, and the candidate to be Souma’s second secondary queen.
That said, I was probably more famous as the weather girl who told the people of the kingdom the weather forecast.
Today, I was gathered in a room in the castle with the other fiancées: Liscia, Aisha, Juna, and Roroa. There was a raised platform and a podium in the center of the room, and five desks placed facing it.
On the black board behind the podium, these words were written in blocky letters.
“Second Lecture — Bridal Training Course.”
...What? What was a bridal training course supposed to be?
Since all the fiancées were gathered here, it was presumably a lecture we
were all about to take, but what exactly were they going to make us do?
Not to mention...
Second lecture?! Did they have a first without me noticing?!
Since when had these lectures started? Maybe it had been before I came to this country?
While I was standing there befuddled, someone put their hand down on my shoulder.
“Whoa...! Wait, Roroa?”
When I turned back, Roroa, who looked the closest to me age-wise, was standing there with a blank look on her face.
“What’re ya doin’, Nadie?” she asked. “Just standin’ here like this?”
“No, I just couldn’t figure out what’s going on here...”
“What’s goin’ on...? Ohh, that’s right, this’s your first time, isn’t it, Nadie?” Roroa nodded to herself knowingly.
From what I’d heard, Roroa had joined after the other three fiancées, but from the way she spoke, had she been there for the first lecture?
Roroa put on a mischievous smile. “Mweheheh, be ready. This lecture can be pretty shocking.”
“Sh-Shocking?”
“You’ll be learnin’ a lot. Like all sorts of things about Darlin’.”
“About Souma?”
What exactly was I going to find out about Souma in this course?
From the naughty look on Roroa’s face, I felt like the “material” was going to be pretty risque.
I... I was kind of interested... and I was about to ask Roroa for more details, a silly grin on my face, when...
“Nyahaha...” (Bop!) Roroa took a sudden karate chop to the head. “Ouch!”
Behind Roroa stood Liscia with a look of exasperation on her face.
It hadn’t sounded painful, but as Roroa clutched her head and overreacted for comedic effect, Liscia sighed and said, “What nonsense are you putting into Naden’s head when it’s her first time?”
“No, no, Big Sis Cia,” Roroa protested. “Where’s the lie in what I said?”
“It’s not what you said, it’s the tone. What’re you making it sound sleazy for?”
“She’s right, you know, Roroa,” Juna said with a wry smile. She was already seated, “I can understand why you’d want to put it that way, though.”
Even when she wore a wry smile, she was beautiful. It just wasn’t fair. Juna was mature, her gestures were so very feminine, and she was busty. In my human form, I was the exact opposite. Fourteen, unpolished, and with no curves to speak of. It was giving me a bit of a complex.
Lately, I’d been feeling a gap opening between me and Ruby in terms of our figures, too.
Oh, God. Why were there such gaps between those who are blessed with great abundance (particularly in the chest area) and those without...?
Wait, in my case, “God” would be Lady Tiamat. To our holy “mother,” differences in figure might have meant little.
“Ah! It seems she has arrived,” said the other busty one... erm, I meant Aisha.
Liscia and Roroa had sat down already, so I took the empty seat on the far left.
The door opened, and a blue-haired beauty with a tail like mine entered.
That beauty, who was for some reason wearing a professor’s hat today, was Excel Walter, the commander-in-chief of the National Defense Force, who had also fought alongside us in the Kingdom of Lastania.
This woman had a beautiful face that looked to be in her mid-twenties despite having been alive for over five hundred years, and she was busty, too.
Honestly, I couldn’t stand her.
I remembered her flirting with Souma on my back (even if she’d just been teasing him), so I did not have a good impression of her. Knowing she was involved, my guard naturally went up.
Excel stood on the teacher’s platform, placing her things on the podium before looking around to each of us.
“I see everyone’s here. Now, let’s start the second lecture of our Bridal Training Course.”
Excel glanced over at me with a grin.
“To start us off, as this is Naden’s first time, I’d like to review the general outline of this course. This course exists to teach all of you, who will be marrying the present king of this county, His Majesty King Souma, the secrets to marital and familial happiness. You will learn everything from the spiritual aspects of what it means to be a wife, male psychology, and how to make your husband look good, to how to perform your ‘duties’ at night in a way which will keep your marriage happy.”
“Oh, so that’s what this is... Wait, our ‘duties’ at night?!” I exclaimed.
Does she mean...? I-I guess she does.
Dragons formed contracts with knights to produce and provide for their offspring. So as a result, I did have a certain amount of knowledge in that field, but... we were going to learn about that here, all together?! What to do when we “did it” with Souma?!
“Huh? We’re really doing this?” I cried.
I thought she might be pulling my leg, so I looked around to the others, but Liscia and the rest were looking downwards, awkward smiles on their faces...
Apparently we really were going to be studying that stuff.
With a serious expression, Excel told me, “The creation of heirs is a matter of great importance to the nation. If there were some misstep, and it led a gap to form between husband and wife, there might be those who sought to take advantage of that. That’s why, embarrassing as it may be, you must take this course.”
“Urkh... Okay...”
Her logical argument left no room for rebuttal. I was going to marry a king, so I had to be prepared to do this much, at least.
Excel giggled. “Hee hee! Well, you don’t have to worry too much. You can think of it as studying ways to deepen your love with His Majesty. Right, Princess Liscia?”
“Huh?! Me?!” Liscia cried out in surprise when the conversation suddenly turned to her.
“Princess Liscia has become one with His Majesty before the rest of you, and given birth to little Cian and Kazuha. That’s done something to help with this country’s shortage of royals. Okay, everyone, give Liscia a big round of applause.”
Clap, clap, clap, clap... The applause was full of jubilation and envy.
Liscia turned a bright shade of red. “Hold on! That’s embarrassing! Stop it!”
She must have felt like she was being put on display.
By the way, as for Cian and Kazuha, whom Excel had just brought up, Souma and Carla were looking after them today.
Excel turned to Liscia, who was covering her face, and said, “Now then, Princess Liscia? When you engaged in intercourse with His Majesty, did the things you learned in the course help?”
“I think... they did. A lot.”
So Liscia acknowledged the efficacy of the lessons. Th-They were useful, huh?
I wondered how they’d been useful, but I doubted she was going to be giving us those details, even if all the other four fiancées piled on and started asking.
With a satisfied smile, Excel clapped her hands. “I think you can see the utility of this lesson now, then. Please study hard, and put what you learn into practice. Okay, now before we begin the lesson... Naden.”
“Y-Yes?” I yelped.
Excel pulled a white notebook from out of her belongings and handed it to me. The cover suspiciously had words like, “Top Secret” and “Not to be Taken Outside.”
While I looked dubiously at it, Excel smiled and said, “This notebook contains His Majesty’s true opinions about all of you, which I extracted from him after getting him drunk. That includes you, too, of course, Naden.”
“Wha?!” I stared hard at the note.
This thing had how Souma felt about me written in it?!
And hold on, she’d said it like it was nothing, but getting him drunk and then questioning him was pretty scummy, wasn’t it?
When I looked around, everyone nodded knowingly.
“W-Well, this is for Souma and the country,” Liscia seemed to be saying.
“If not for resorting to this,
we never would have heard His Majesty’s true feelings,” Aisha’s eyes suggested.
“We do know this is improper, but...” said Juna’s resigned look.
“Well, what’s done is done, they say,” Roroa’s shrug implied.
...What was this? I felt like I could hear the voices (excuses) in all of their heads.
“Oh, my, you don’t want the notebook, Naden?” Excel asked archly.
“...I do.”
If she asked whether I wanted it or not... I did, of course. I was concerned by what Souma thought of me, too, after all.
So... Sorry, Souma.
Once I took the white notebook Excel had prepared for me, she continued.
“The evaluations written in here are unchanged from last time, but I’ve newly added his opinion of Naden. It’s very important to know what your partner thinks of you in a married relationship, after all. Now, let me announce His Majesty’s opinion of Naden.”
“Whah?! You’re reading it out here?”
“Everyone else has already gone through this. You can read his opinions of Liscia and the others later.”
“...F-Fine.”
If everyone else had already had theirs read out, I’d have to put up with it. It was embarrassing to have mine made public, but I was interested in what Souma had to say about the others.
Excel began reading what was in the notebook.
“Now, on to Naden’s evaluation. According to His Majesty, ‘Naden looks small, but she’s a girl who really has it together. I mean, she was there to scold me when I was freaking out over Liscia giving birth. I find I’m relying on her as a partner not just in battle, but in our personal lives, too. Naden’s a ryuu, so I know she could live on her own if she wanted, and go wherever she wants. That freedom and independence reminds me of the women in my old world. It’s a nostalgic feeling.’”
“Ohhhhh...” I murmured.
This... this was embarrassing, yeah. Hearing Souma’s praise for me in front of everyone else, I was happy, but I thought my face was going to burst into flames.
Liscia and Juna smiled, while Aisha and Roroa looked at me with a bit of envy.
Excel continued. “Now, when I asked him if there was anything that he had on his mind about Naden, this is how he answered. ‘I wish she’d stop jumping on me in the morning to wake me up. It’s cute, but it makes me want to pull her under the covers and go back to sleep while cuddling her.’”