It was just after noon on the day I had unexpectedly discovered Ginger Camus.
Having finished recruiting him and having left his shop, Aisha, Roroa, and I
decided to wander around the castle town of Parnam. Roroa was calling it a date. I
was walking through the streets with a pretty girl on each arm.
"Though, even though it's a date, we're not really dressed up for the occasion,"
Roroa said, sounding dissatisfied.
I was dressed in my usual outfit for when I went out in secret, Nine-Headed
Dragon Archipelago Union traveler's fashion (Kitakaze Kozou style), and today the
two of them were wearing hooded robes over the top of their regular outfits. Our
faces were all well known to the public, so we were dressed this way to keep from
making a scene.
"It would seem unavoidable," Aisha said. "If we are discovered, we would not be
able to have our date."
Roroa stuck out her tongue. "True that. Considerin' my position, I really can't
show my face. I'm sure some folks here are none too fond of Amidonia, after all."
Roroa said that jokingly, but I was pretty sure she was right. While our two
countries had been peacefully united in a way that served the interests of both, the
Elfrieden Kingdom and Principality of Amidonia had been enemies for a long time.
That fact wasn't going to go away so easily.
I was overcome by a feeling I couldn't quite describe, but Roroa put on a bold
smile. "Well, I'm a real lovable gal, it's only a matter of time before I grab the people
of the kingdom by the heartstrings. I'm more worried about you, Darlin'. If you don't
learn to be more sociable, the people of the principality'll hate your guts."
"...I suppose you're right," I murmured. I thought Roroa's ability to blast away
negativity like this was wonderful. "I can't act like you do, Roroa, so I'll slowly but
surely protect the people of the principality's lives and property, then get them to
recognize me as their king."
"Hee hee," Roroa giggled, hugging me. "Also, if you're seen actin' all lovey-dovey
with li'l ol' me, don't ya think that'd put the folks from the principality at ease, too?"
Aisha pulled her off of me. "W-We are in the middle of a public street. What you
are doing is enviably scandalous!"
"Hmph, what's the matter with it? We're on a date, ain't we?" Roroa demanded.
"How's about you get all lovey-dovey with him too, Big Sister Ai?"
"I would love nothing more than to do so, but... out of consideration for the First
Primary Queen, Liscia, who allowed us to go on this date, perhaps we should not get
too carried away?" Aisha pointed out.
Aisha was the Second Primary Queen, while Roroa was the Third Primary Queen.
In this country where polygamy was commonly practiced by the nobility, knightly
class, and wealthy merchants (polyandry, while less common, existed as well), it
seemed that respecting this sort of pecking order among the queens or wives was
key to preventing later troubles in the home.
Roroa seemed dissatisfied. "Y'say that, but Darlin' and Big Sister Liscia've been
betrothed for, like, half a year, ain't they? They may not've gotten down to baby
makin' yet, but they've gotta have kissed, at least, right?"
Roroa looked in my direction, forcing me to blatantly avert my gaze. If I were to
list the romantic things I had done with Liscia, there was resting my head in her lap,
a kiss on the cheek, sleeping next to each other, and that was about it.
Having discerned that from my demeanor, Roroa looked at me coldly. "...Darlin'.
You ain't gonna tell me you haven't even done that, are you?"
"No, you see... I've been very busy, and..."
"Don't ya feel bad for Big Sister Cia, doin' that to her?" Roroa snapped.
"So you think that, too, Roroa!" Even Aisha jumped in to agree. "I know you were
hesitant at first, sire, because the betrothal was something decided on without either
your or Lady Liscia's permission. However, now, it's plain for all to see that you love
one another. Given our position, we cannot receive your love and affection before
Lady Liscia has, so, please, flirt with her more."
There was nothing I could say in response. Aisha had watched my relationship
with Liscia develop from a fairly early stage, after all.
Roroa had her arms crossed and was nodding and grunting in agreement. "Yeah,
yeah. Then ya can give us just as much of your love when you're done."
"...I understand," I said. "When the time comes, I'll take care of doing that with
you 'properly.'"
"Yep, that's a promise. Ya better," Roroa said condescendingly.
Here I was, being chided for my behavior by a girl three years my junior... I felt a
little pathetic, but Roroa laughed and waved her hand.
"But, well, here we are, on a date already, so we've gotta have fun."
"Indeed," Aisha said, nodding. "Lady Liscia did say to enjoy ourselves today, after
all."
They had a point.
"Well, it is a rare day off," I said. "Was there anywhere the two of you wanted to
go?"
Aisha said, "In that case, I would..."
"Also, no food until later."
"Shot down before I could even speak?! Wh-Why is that?" Aisha cried with eyes
like a chihuahua that had been forced to wait for a treat.
"When I eat with you, I'm always stuffed full by the time we're done, and that
makes it hard to move around," I said. "I promise we'll stop somewhere for food
later, so let's go somewhere else first."
"Ah, okay. If that's why..."
"That said, it ain't been that long since I first came to the capital," Roroa said,
tilting her head in thought. "I dunno what's here yet. Is there anywhere you'd
recommend as a date spot, Darlin'?"
"A date spot, huh..." I murmured.
In my former world, the theater, the amusement park, the zoo, the aquarium,
karaoke, and the arcade would all have been options, but not in this world. It was
that lack of leisure facilities that had made the entertainment programs over the
Jewel Voice Broadcast such a hit.
Well, if I was looking for a date spot other than a place for entertainment... Ah.
"That place might be good," I said.
"What, what? Did ya come up with somethin' good?" Roroa asked eagerly.
"It's a facility we opened just the other day, actually, and I think there should be
plenty of interesting things to see if we go there," I said. "Though it's more of an
educational institution than a leisure facility."
"Learnin', even though we're on a date? What kinda place is that?" Roroa asked,
tilting her head to the side.
"The Royal Parnam Museum," I said. "Not that the name's terribly inventive."
"So huge?!" Roroa cried out in surprise when we came up to the entrance of the
Royal Parnam Museum and she saw what was on display there. If we'd been talking
about a massive display in front of the National Museum of Nature and Science in
Ueno, it would have been the blue whale, but the Royal Parnam Museum had a
massive skeletal specimen measuring more than 10 meters long out in front of it.
"What're these bones from? Looks like a lizard or somethin'..."
"That's the giant salamander that was lurking in the area beneath the royal
capital," I explained.
"Salamanders get that big? The ones livin' in Amidonia grew to maybe two
meters at most, but... Wait, this thing was under the royal capital?!"
"Yeah. Talk about a surprise, huh?" I said.
This salamander had been discovered when I'd commissioned the adventurers'
guild to exterminate the wild creatures living in the labyrinth of escape tunnels
under the capital so that they could be repurposed as a sewer system. Or rather, the
ones to find it had been Dece, Juno, and their party. I had even been there to witness
it, albeit through my Little Musashibo doll.
Neither the country nor the guild had anticipated anything so big living under the
capital, so there hadn't been sufficient warning given, and I'd ended up putting Juno
and her group in danger. It was good that they'd managed to retreat somehow, but
when I thought about how things might have taken a turn for the worst, there was a
lot I had to reflect on.
Now, about that salamander: as soon as I'd received the report from Juno and her
party, I'd dispatched a unit from the Forbidden Army to kill it. Juno and her party
had struggled against the salamander because they hadn't had a mage who could use
the ice-elemental water-type magic that it was weak against. When we'd deployed a
group focused heavily around those who could use that sort of magic, the thing had
gone down easily. The slain salamander had then been dissected, then turned into a
skeletal specimen.
"Well, this is just a replica based on the original bones," I added as I touched the
skeletal specimen all over. We'd have had to worry about thieves making off with it
if we displayed the real thing outside, after all. There was a sign next to it that read:
"This is a 1/1 scale replica, so please try touching it to experience the size for
yourself."
"This sort of thing... How should I say it? It tickles my sense of adventure," Aisha
said, her eyes sparkling. "I think young boys would enjoy seeing it."
"Hrm..." I said. "I thought it might be a good educational experience that helped
stimulate their creativity, so I tried showing the real bones that we keep at the castle
to Rou" (Tomoe's real little brother) "and the other children at the daycare, but they
bawled their eyes out... I got chewed out by Liscia pretty badly after that one."
"What were you even doing?" Roroa asked, looking appalled.
Yeah, it'd have been important to consider their age first, huh.
"That said, while we have been preoccupied with the skeletal specimen, the
building itself is also quite large and impressive. Almost like a noble's manor," Aisha
said, looking at the building.
That was a sharp observation. "No, not 'almost like,'" I said. "We actually
remodeled a noble's manor."
"Is that right?" Aisha asked.
"Yeah. I executed those influential nobles who were colluding with Amidonia and
manipulating the corrupt nobles in the war, remember? This building used to belong
to one of them."
It really was... one massive house.
The main building was as big as the school building of a university with a lot of
history behind it, and then there were two annexes that were also quite big in and of
themselves. There was a well-maintained garden, too, and I had to be impressed
with the wealth this noble had managed to amass while the kingdom was in financial
trouble. According to Hakuya's investigation, they had been taking a cut of the
money that the corrupt nobles had embezzled.
Regardless, when this mansion had become vacant after the noble who owned it
was executed, it had been remodeled as the Royal Parnam Museum. Since it was this
big and impressive a building, letting any of my retainers live in it would have
provoked needless jealousy, and it would also have cost a lot of money to dismantle
it. This had worked out as a perfect solution.
"Oh, when ya put it like that, it sounds like it's probably filled with the grudge of
the nobles and I don't like it..." Roroa said with the corner of her mouth twitching.
"Ah... ah ha ha..." I laughed. "Yeah, well, it looks like there are already rumors.
Like that the armor on display gets up and walks around on its own at night."
"Of course," said Roroa.
"But, you know, using anyone and anything we can is one of those things our
country does, after all."
"Here's hopin' you don't have to use it as a haunted house someday..."
Uh, yeah, I thought. I'd really rather not.
"Anyway, let's go in. It's pretty amazing on the inside, too," I suggested, and we
went inside.
If I had spoken to the person in charge, they would have just let us in, but in
order to slip in with the regular visitors, we paid admission for three people at the
entrance.
The first thing to greet us inside was a lineup of armor. These were the suits of
armor that had been worn by the past commanders of the Royal Guard. They were
no longer used and were gathering dust, so I'd taken this opportunity to drag them
out of storage and donate them to the museum.