—The middle of the 12th month, 1,546th year, Continental Calendar
The royal capital was thoroughly wrapped in a wintery atmosphere, and there
had been enough cold days in a row that it felt like the snow might start to fall soon.
It was a morning where I didn't really want to get out from under a warm blanket.
"I have some important business to attend to in the castle town today..." I said,
bringing up the topic while eating breakfast with my four fiancées, as usual. "It'd
help to have a woman come along. Would one of you mind?"
"Is that for work? It doesn't sound like you're heading out to play." Liscia asked as
a representative of the group, to which I nodded with a wry smile.
"Sadly, it is. It's an important matter this time, so I have to head out personally."
"I see... I can go. How about everyone else?" Liscia asked, turning the topic to the
other three. It felt like she already had the dignity of the first queen, bringing all of
the others together under her.
Roroa was the first to raise her arms above her head in an X. "I'm afraid you're
gonna have to count me out, sadly. Darlin's already asked me to negotiate with the
merchant's guild."
"About making the slave traders public servants, you mean?" Liscia asked.
"That's right. Darlin's already made the used metal dealers into public servants
and has them workin' in the recyclin' industry, or somethin' like that, but this time
it's not gonna go so easily. The used metal dealers were like trash pickers, so they
weren't part of a guild. Slave traders, on the other hand, while they may be looked
down on, they're proper, registered members of a guild. If we're takin' them away
from the guild and puttin' them under the control of the state, that's effectively
creatin' a monopoly on slaves."
Roroa picked up the salt shaker as she said this, then continued.
"If it were metal or salt, there'd be some precedent, but I ain't never heard of
anyone creatin' a monopoly on slaves before. Slaves aren't somethin' you produce
locally for local consumption. Naturally, they come in from other countries, too. If
we're nationalizin' the slave trade, we'll also need to stop those flows from other
countries. As public servants, their wages'll be stable, but they'll never make money
hand over fist. That's why the slave traders who want to make the big bucks will go
to other countries. There'll be some pushback, too."
"I'm ready to accept some pushback on this," I said.
I was fine with convict slaves being sentenced to hard labor, but I wanted to put
an end to the era where women and children were sold off so there would be fewer
mouths to feed, and where it was taken as a given that the child of a slave was also a
slave. That wasn't only from a humanitarian point of view, it was also to make this
country more prosperous as a whole.
However, Roroa, who had been tasked with the negotiations, had a grim look on
her face. "I'm sure your aim is to downsize the system of slavery, Darlin'... but I'm not
sure there're enough convict slaves and economic slaves in this country alone to
meet demand. It's a real problem."
"Is it going to be too difficult?" I asked.
Roroa shook her head. "I'll do it. I want to see this world after slavery that you've
been tellin' me about, after all. One where everyone earns money, everyone uses
money, and everyone makes the economy turn... That's the world I want to see."
I had told the clever Roroa a bit about the economic history of my world. I had
told her about that era of technological revolution where goods had begun to be
mass-produced. There had been a demand for markets to sell those goods to, and so
there had been a movement toward freeing the slaves who'd held no assets in order
to create that market.
Naturally, I knew there were people who had fought under the ideology that all
people should have equal rights. I couldn't deny the hard work of the slaves who'd
fought to win their own freedom, or the efforts of those who'd wished for them to be
free. However, with any system, it always came down to whether or not that system
was suitable for the time it existed in.
The war between the North and South United States had been called a war of
emancipation, but it was more that the North had held up the ideal of freeing the
slaves in order to gather support against the forces of the South, which had included
many plantation owners. What had once been considered an impractical ideal was
accomplished the moment it aligned with the facts of the situation.
Conversely, no matter how wonderful an ideal is, if it's not in line with the times,
it will be trampled underfoot.
In the end, it's a matter of the times in which we live. I mean, even when slavery
ended, we would have conflict between the capitalist class and the laborers waiting
for us in the next era. However, in the story I told her, Roroa seemed to see a new
frontier.
"It may take bein' a little heavy handed, but if we move together with the Empire,
it can be done," she said. "If half of the territory ruled by mankind on this continent
is movin' to reduce slavery, it'll be hard to push back against us. Then, when there's
a shortage of labor, though this is reversin' the cause and effect from your story,
Darlin', technology'll have to advance to fill the gap."
"Yeah," I said. "I've got a path toward that. You can leave it to me."
"I'm countin' on that. Because I'll be doin' what I can myself."
I nodded. "I'm relying on you."
"Mwahaha. Say it again."
Roroa and I locked arms firmly. I really was counting on Roroa to handle the
economic front.
Now, if Roroa couldn't make it today, what about Aisha or Juna?
"I am sorry to have to say this, but I have a meeting for our next music program,
so I won't be able to accompany you," said Juna.
"I-I was asked to join the new recruits for training..." said Aisha. "Of course, if you
insist on it, sire, I will cast aside my prior engagement to be with you."
"No, I'm not going to insist," I said. "Hm... But, well..."
I don't really want to bring that large of an entourage this time. If I had a lot of
people with me, I would put the other party on guard. Though, that said, I didn't feel
entirely safe going without bodyguards. I mean, Liscia was going to be with me, too,
after all.
Although Liscia does have more combat prowess than the average guard.
The Black Cats were currently dealing with clandestine operations in many other
countries, so they likely couldn't spare the people to serve as guards. If possible, I
had wanted either Aisha, who had the greatest individual combat strength, or Juna,
who could also gather intelligence, to accompany us. As I was thinking about that...
"Your Majesty, might I offer a suggestion?" The head maid Serina, who was
standing ready by the wall, gave an elegant bow.
"Serina? Did you have an opinion on this?" I asked.
"Yes. If you are looking for a guard, there is an individual I might like to
recommend."
"Who might that be?" I asked.
"Your Majesty's personal trainer, Sir Owen."
"Urgh... Old Man Owen, huh..."
She was referring to the old general and head of the House of Jabana, Owen
Jabana. He was a hearty old man whose personality was serious and honest to the
point of being excessively passionate. I had liked his willingness to express an
opinion and had taken him on as my sounding board and educator.
True, he's a capable warrior, and given his post, he wouldn't have much to do while
I'm gone. He's always noisy, and I don't think he's suited for going out discreetly,
though.
While I was considering the idea, Serina continued. "You should also take Carla
from the Maid Corps with you."
"Huh?! Me?!" Carla, who was standing beside Serina, cried out in surprise.
"Carla is enlisted with the Maid Corps, but she is Your Majesty's slave," said
Serina. "At times like this, you really must use her as your meat— work her like a
horse."
"Were you about to say meat shield?!" Carla protested. "Wait, even now that
you've corrected it to horse, that's still pretty bad!"
Serina whipped out her maid training crop.
"Ah! Yes, ma'am! I will serve with sincerity and devotion!" Carla hurriedly
saluted.
She's been completely broken in, huh...
"Anyway, Carla, I'll be counting on you," I said.
"U-Understood, master," she said.
So for now, it was decided that four people of Liscia, Owen, Carla, and I would be
going to the castle town together.
I already felt exhausted just from having come to that decision.
And so, we came to the castle town of Parnam.
Liscia, Owen, Carla, and I were walking down the shopping street in the middle of
the day. Because we were here in secret, we were traveling on foot and not by
carriage.
"Gahaha!" Owen laughed. "I am pleased that you would choose me as your
bodyguard, Your—"
"Shh! Owen... How many times do I have to tell you not to call me Your Majesty in
the middle of town like this?" I hissed.
"Oh, my apologies."
The way Owen laughed it off without looking the least bit guilty made my head
hurt. Owen seemed to be in a good mood over being chosen as my bodyguard, so he
was even more high-strung than usual.
"We're here in secret this time... so, please, I'm begging you," I said.
"But of course, I am aware of that," boomed Owen.
Was he really? For a group that was trying to be discreet, we stood out to a
strange degree.
There was me wearing the Kitakaze Kozou-esque traveler's clothes that had
become my go-to outfit when undercover; Liscia wearing the same student's
uniform she'd worn when we'd first gone into the castle town together; Carla the
dragonewt in a maid uniform; and an old, macho man in light adventurers' armor.
All of us were walking together. What was with this completely mismatched
ensemble? I couldn't blame passersby for turning their heads to take a second look
at us.
"Even a hastily assembled adventuring party would look more like a unified
group than we do..." I murmured.
"If you had just worn a student uniform like last time, wouldn't that have been
fine?" asked Liscia. "It's not like Sir Owen couldn't pass for a teacher in his outfit."
"By the same token, if you had dressed like an adventurer, we might have looked
like an adventuring party," I said.
While we argued back and forth, we both looked back at the dragon maid behind
us.
"Wh-What?! Why are you both looking at me?" Carla cried.
"Either way, Carla was going to stand out, huh," Liscia nodded.
"I mean, yeah, she's wearing that highly revealing maid dress, after all," I said.
"She'd be out of place no matter how we dressed."
"Aren't you being awfully mean when I don't even wear this by choice?!" Carla
protested loudly, but... I mean, it was a maid dress.
Of course, we had proposed that she change into something else, but Serina
hadn't been willing to hear of it. Carla's maid uniform wasn't the classic type with a
long skirt; it was a frilly dress type (or, to take it a bit further, a maid cafe type).
Serina was a total sadist to make her walk around town in it. Carla had been bright
red with shame for a while now...
"By the way, Your... Sir Kazuya, is this really the road you want to take?" Owen
asked somewhat confusedly.
"Hm? Yeah, it is... Why?" I asked.
"No, it is just that, if I recall, this way leads to..."
"Ah! ...That's right." Liscia seemed to have realized something, too, but didn't
seem to want to say it. "If we continue down this road..."
...Oh, so that's what it is, I realized. "If we keep going, we'll hit the old slums, huh?"
"Indeed," said Owen. "It is not a place I would want to take the two of you."
Even in the royal capital Parnam, there was a dark side. Because of the large
population, there were those who succeeded in business, those who earned a
middling profit, and those who failed outright. The slums were a place where those
who had failed, but who hadn't fallen far enough to become slaves, would drift to
and work for their daily wages.