by Dojyomaru
“Yuriga...”
Though Yuriga called it a weird country, Tomoe felt like it was a compliment.
This country has a set of values not present in Malmkhitan, and it felt like Yuriga was recognizing that. Tomoe grinned at the thought of it.
“What’re you smiling for, you little kid?” Yuriga grumbled as she pinched her cheeks (for real this time).
“Ow, ow, ow.”
As they were jostling about, it happened.
“Huh, Tomoe? What’re you doing here?”
“““““Whoa!”””””
There was a sudden voice from the direction of the window, and all five of them shuddered. The first to realize who it came from was Tomoe.
“Wait, huh? Naden?”
Sitting on the balcony railing was King Souma’s second secondary queen, Naden Delal Souma. For some reason, she was carrying a basket full of vegetables on her back.
The sudden appearance of the second secondary queen made Velza and Lucy, as citizens of the kingdom, stand and salute. Being so startled by the queen they couldn’t speak was seen as rude to them.
““Excuse us, Lady Naden!””
“I don’t really mind. You don’t need to salute, either.” Naden waved her hand and gestured for them to sit down. “I noticed you while I was running, so I decided to call out.”
“Um, Lady Naden, this is the second floor, you know... Did you climb up here?”
“I was running along the roofs, so I climbed down, actually.”
“D-Did ya now?” Lucy said, blinking. The way she started out talking more formally but was slipping back into merchant slang showed her confusion.
“Is this a tea party on your way home from school? It looks like you’re having fun.”
“Y-Yes. Something like that,” Tomoe replied. “What about you, Naden? Are those vegetables...”
“Ohh, when Souma’s cooped up in his office, or when there’s no weather forecast, I have nothing to do. So I’ve been told I can do whatever I like inside the capital. When I’m talking to the ladies in town... I get asked to do all sorts of things. I’m delivering vegetables right now.”
“We have a queen acting as the town’s errand girl?! Does Big Brother know?!”
“I’ve got his permission. Souma sort of laughed about it, but told me, ‘It’ll probably help earn you support among the people, so I think it’s fine.’ Besides, he’s always super happy when he sees the fresh fruits and vegetables they give me as ‘thanks.’”
“They even pay you in product?! Is this why I see Big Brother gleefully standing in the kitchen more often lately?!”
Naden and Tomoe were having a conversation no one would have expected between a queen and the (adopted) royal sister.
As Yuriga stood beside them, watching, she whispered, “Yeah... This country is weird.”
◇ ◇ ◇
That night, Yuriga, who had returned to Parnam Castle with Tomoe, was visiting the kitchen that was near the Souma family’s section of the castle.
This was a simple kitchen, prepared for Souma, who said he still wanted to cook for himself. The question of how long the king should continue borrowing the kitchen that was attached to the cafeteria had apparently become an issue. To sum it up, he had been quarantined.
Now with it decided they would be building him his own personal kitchen, Souma had Genia and the others develop cooking equipment for him. Thanks to that, though it was a narrow space, the room had quite similar functionality to kitchens back in the world he had come from. He obviously couldn’t get a microwave, but he did manage to make a pseudo-hotplate using an ore that absorbed heat.
The door to the kitchen had been removed in the interest of making it easy to bring serving trays in and out, as well as due to ventilation concerns, so when Yuriga simply said, “Excuse me,” and entered without knocking...
“Aisha. Say ahh.”
“Ahh. Hamph... Munch, munch.”
“Souma. Me, too. Me, too.”
In front of a bubbling pot, Souma was feeding Aisha with chopsticks. They were probably taste-testing the food, or something.
Having been fed, Aisha’s face broke into a contented smile.
Naden, who was standing behind Souma, may have been jealous, because she was pulling on the hem of his shirt and making her presence known.
“Here. You, too, Naden.”
“Ahh... Chomp. Munch, munch.”
“...Um, what are you doing?” Yuriga said, exasperated by the syrupy-sweet scene she had witnessed the moment she stepped into the room.
““Guh...! Cough, cough.”” Perhaps startled by the sudden voice, Aisha and Naden choked in unison. When he realized Yuriga had seen him making his wives say, “Ahh,” Souma got a little embarrassed, and he scratched his cheek as he asked, “What’s up? Why are you here?”
“I was looking for you, Sir Souma. I went to the government affairs office, but Mr. Hakuya was the only one there. I asked him, and he said, ‘His Majesty has finished work for the day. I believe he is in the kitchen. He looked giddy, carrying the daikon Naden brought home for him when he left.’”
“Was I that obvious...?”
“So, really, what were you doing?” Yuriga asked again.
Souma pointed at the bubbling pot and said, “It’s just like Hakuya predicted. Naden brought home an amazing daikon, after all. I just had some octopus delivered, too, so I was thinking I’d make oden for the first time in a while.”
“O-Oden?”
“It’s a sort of soup... no, a hot pot dish from my old world. I can’t get any boiled fish-paste products, so it’s just daikon, octopus, boiled egg, and then konbu for the soup base. ...If I were to tie together some gelin udon, would that work in place of shirataki noodles? Hmm, the texture is similar to konjac jam, so it shouldn’t taste bad, but it would take it further away from being oden...”
“...The one thing I understood from all that is that you’re up to nonsense as usual.” Yuriga gave an exasperated shrug. She had begun to get used to the weird atmosphere in this country... or rather, the bizarre actions of the people around Souma.
Why was the king of a nation so happy to get a daikon?
Why was the king cooking it himself?
Why were the queens saying, “Ahh”?
If Yuriga looked at this through the lens of common sense, there were any number of things she could call them out on, but that effort would surely be in vain. She had figured out this much already.
“So, you came because you needed me for something?” Souma asked.
“That’s right,” Yuriga replied, having remembered her reason for coming. “I want to send a letter to my brother about recent events in my time here... I was hoping to get permission. May I?”
Having said that, Yuriga pulled a letter from the tool bag at her waist, and showed the front and back of it to Souma. It had apparently not been sealed yet.
Looking seemingly uninterested, Souma turned back to the pot and said, “Hmm? If it’s about mail, you can hand it to the relevant official. I’m sure they’ll take care of it. There’s no need to come out of your way to report to me.”
“Huh?! You’re not going to check the contents?!” Yuriga’s eyes went wide.
Being treated as a transfer student from Malmkhitan, she belonged to a foreign country, and was trying to contact another person in a foreign country. Shouldn’t he have been concerned she would leak national secrets?
If Yuriga were in Souma’s position, she would have been. That was why she had assumed this letter would definitely be read by Souma and his people. Even if it was only an update on her current situation, why wouldn’t they still search it for anything resembling a coded message?
However, Souma said there was no need.
“...I’m not the one who needs to tell you this, but shouldn’t you be more cautious? What if I were leaking this country’s secrets to my brother?”
“Oh, I’m fully aware of the danger,” said Souma with a laugh. “If
someone from another country goes anywhere where they might come in contact with secret information, I have covert agents who will let me know. I just haven’t gotten any such report yet. I don’t think there’s anything you could have put in that letter that would cause me trouble.”
The lack of tension in his voice left Yuriga bewildered.
“That’s... true, yes, but I’m not quite convinced. Okay, what would you do if I tried to find that secret information?”
“In that case, I’d use that fact to send you back to Fuuga. If we judged you under our own laws, it might give him a strange excuse to do something, so you’ll be going home in one piece. I need to treat you respectfully as a transfer student, but I don’t think I need to be so concerned about the feelings of a spy.”
“That you can handle it with such disinterest is... actually more scary in some ways.”
He had absolute confidence in his covert agents, and believed beyond a doubt that Yuriga could never leak his secrets.
In the way he handled her with disinterest as he fussed over how well-boiled the contents of his pot were, Yuriga felt she had seen the image of a king who would not be disturbed easily. It made a chill run down her spine.
Incidentally, around when he got to the, “If you try to leak our secrets...” part, the looks Aisha and Naden were giving her got noticeably sharper.
This country... is frightening. The king and queens, too.
“Obviously, I have no intention of leaking any secrets.” Yuriga put her hands up, unable to bear the way the queens were looking at her any longer. “This really is just an update on my situation. This country has been taking care of me, after all. There’s a lot I want to learn, so I’d rather not be thrown out yet.”
“That makes things easier on me. I wouldn’t want to throw one of Tomoe’s few friends out like that.”
“I-I don’t particularly think of myself as her friend...”
Yuriga was trying to play tough, but she and everyone else already knew she was friends with Tomoe and Ichiha. Her poor attempt to deny it was met with a smirk from Souma.
“Oh, right. Back to the oden, would you like to join us, Yuriga? I was so excited to eat it again after so long, I made too much. I was going to call Tomoe, and Ichiha, too.”
“...Can I?”
The scent of soy sauce and soup broth had hung in the air for a while, and it had Yuriga interested.
She was uncomfortable about joining the king and his queens at the dinner table, but if Tomoe and Ichiha were there, she’d probably be fine. In fact, if they got to eat something tasty, and she was left out, that would have bothered her.
“...If those two are coming, I will join you, too.” Yuriga said with a blush.
That evening, dinner was very lively.
◇ ◇ ◇
— Roughly a week later —
“Hahaha, looks like she’s having fun.”
Far to the north, Fuuga Haan, the King of Malmkhitan, grinned as he read Yuriga’s letter.
“What are you reading, Darling?” Mutsumi asked as she came into the room.
Fuuga handed her the letter he had been given and replied, “It’s a letter from Yuriga. It sounds like she’s having fun in the Kingdom of Friedonia.”
“Oh, it’s from Yuriga?” Then, looking through the letter from her sister-in-law, Mutsumi cocked her head to the side. “Hmm? It seems to be a report on recent happenings in her life. The writing style is fun, though...”
“Does something about it bother you?”
“Oh, no, I thought she might be made to write a letter like this. I wondered if we should really take the pleasant tone at face value...”
“You’re saying Souma might’ve forced Yuriga to write this? Not a chance.”
Fuuga blew off Mutsumi’s concerns with a hearty laugh.
“This is unmistakably Yuriga’s handwriting. Besides, if Yuriga is forced to write letters against her will, she’s been taught to deform her writing in a certain way. Well, knowing how overly cautious Souma is, he wouldn’t do anything so silly as to harm his relationship with me. There may be some censorship, but I’m sure what’s written in there is how Yuriga really feels.”
“Her true feelings... Then the thing she wrote at the end is how she really feels, too?”
“Yeah, it means that’s how she felt.” Fuuga grinned.
This is what was written at the end of Yuriga’s letter:
“Brother,
Friedonia is a weird country.
It is fun living here, but I feel something other than just enjoyment from it. My preconceptions are breaking down, and the values inside me that I thought were absolute are colliding with a set of values that are different from them... It’s hard to put into words. I haven’t sorted it out myself yet, either.
You have been cautious of King Souma since the beginning, so I doubt you will let your guard down, but let me say it regardless. By no means should you underestimate him.
Sincerely, Yuriga.”
“Yuriga believes in me more than anyone, and even she’s saying that. He’s one hell of a guy, huh?”
“...You are enjoying this,” Mutsumi said, sounding exasperated.
There was a ferocious sparkle in Fuuga’s eyes.
“We’ve only accomplished one so far. From here on, I don’t know who, or what, will stand in my way. Not being able to see that excites me. This era’s gonna get so hot it makes my blood boil!”
Then, resting his feet on the walls of a city he had reclaimed from the monsters, he roared towards the sun which hung high in the northern sky.
In the northern lands, a tiger was about to take flight.
Chapter 2: The East and West Real Song Battle
“...Ngh.”
When I woke up, the person who should have been sleeping next to me was gone.
Not yet fully awake, I touched the space where she had slept, and found it still slightly warm. That meant she hadn’t been gone long. I felt a certain loneliness that the white softness that had been seared into my mind was not there.
I rolled over on to my back, and stared idly up at the ceiling as I reviewed my current situation. I was naked from the waist up, but I was still wearing pants. Then...
“You’re awake now, my darling?”
The voice came from the opposite direction of where I was looking, and when I turned around Juna was waiting with tea prepared. I slowly sat up.
“...Morning, Juna.”
“Hee hee, good morning.”
When I greeted her, Juna responded with a smile.
I could be more casual with her now because... well, we were married. I had promised to try to be less formal when we were alone together, and I was trying to follow through with that.
While pouring hot water into the teapot, Juna said, “I’ve prepared things. Would you like a cup to start the day?”
“Yeah, I would. But before that...”
I got out of bed, and embraced Juna from behind as she put a lid on the teapot to allow it to steam. “Gosh...” she said, with a slightly troubled chuckle. “It’s dangerous when you hug me so suddenly.”
“Sorry. But you’re half to blame here, Juna.”
“Oh, my.”
I was the one who got turned on, but Juna was the one who had provoked me.
Her current attire had more than sufficient power to blow away any reason I might have had. That’s because all she was wearing over top of her underwear was the white shirt I had cast off.
The sleeves were a bit long, but the chest was bursting at the seams. With one look, I was on the verge of losing all control, and I couldn’t resist holding her.
“Darling...” Juna turned just her head around, and reached out to put her hand on my cheek. “I never knew you were so passionate.”
“I mean, now that we’re husband and wife, I don’t have to hold back anymore.”
“You were holding back?”
“Well, you’re attractive, and your occasional coquettish gestures ti
ckled me just right as a man. It was a long battle between my self-restraint and the temptation to give in.”
“Hee hee... That explains why last night was so intense...” Juna smiled, tracing her fingers gently along the arms that embraced her. “It may not be long before we have children at this rate.”
“If we do, Cian and Kazuha will be their big brother and sister, huh? Cian is a gentle boy, so I’m sure he’ll be fine, but Kazuha is too energetic, so I’m a little worried there.”
“Hee hee, I’m sure it will be fine. If she’s inherited Lady Liscia’s personality, I’m sure she’ll make a good, caring older sister.”
“...Yeah. You may be right.”
We laughed, and then flirted with one another until the maid came to inform us breakfast was ready. It’s a good thing we lived in the castle.
If it were just the two of us living together, I suspect Juna’s charms might have turned me into a useless person... Though, it’s still a bit of a shame we didn’t.
◇ ◇ ◇
— 6th month, 1548th year, Continental Calendar —
It was an afternoon with clear skies. I was in the governmental affairs office looking over some documents that Hakuya had handed to me. As I read them... I couldn’t help but let out a sigh.
“...He’s finally taken one.”
“Yes. It will be vital to pay attention to the situation from now on.”
“What’s goin’ on, Darlin’? Why the frowny face?”
“Did something happen?”
Because Hakuya and I had difficult expressions on our faces, Roroa and Juna got worried.
Roroa was here to handle financial documents, and Juna was here because, though their heads were more stable and they could sit now, Liscia was still fully occupied by dealing with Cian and Kazuha, so Juna was taking her place as my assistant.