◇ ◇ ◇
The last day of the 3rd month, 1,547th year, Continental Calendar — Day of the
Spring Announcement Festival
On this day, I brought Aisha and Tomoe down to the castle town with me. The
town was crowded with people there for the festival. I was wearing my usual outfit
for when I went incognito, the traveler's outfit from the Nine-headed Dragon
Archipelago Union, but with the number of people there, maybe I needn't have
bothered with a disguise.
"I-I've come with spring blessings..." Tomoe stuttered. "Okay!"
In all that hustle and bustle, Tomoe, who was wearing a white mage's robe with
feathers sewn into it, was offering a flower to an old lady at a street stall.
The old lady smiled and said, "Oh, dearie me, what an adorable little fairy,"
accepting Tomoe's flower with a soft smile and giving her a bag full of candy.
Once she had accepted the candy, Tome bobbed her head up and down, thanking
the lady before she rushed back in my direction with her little steps and showed me
her candy bag.
"Big Brother, look what I got!"
"Yeah, I saw. Good for you."
"Yeah!"
When I patted her on the head, Tomoe's tail happily wagged back and forth.
Seeing Tomoe like that, Aisha, who was disguised in a school uniform, had a silly grin
on her face.
"Ohhh," Aisha said. "Madam Tomoe is so adorable."
"Here. You have some, too, Aisha," Tomoe offered.
"Can I?! I love you, Madam Tomoe!"
"Eek!"
Aisha picked Tomoe up and rubbed their cheeks together. Like always, it felt like
I could see an invisible tail wagging back and forth on Aisha's rear, too.
...And hold on, what was she doing, letting an eleven-year-old tame her with
food?
While I was watching Aisha with some exasperation...
"Hey, if it isn't the king himself," someone suddenly called out to me.
When I looked in the direction the voice came from, Souji was there, sitting in
one of the patio seats in front of a bar and drinking wine. He had a wooden mug in
hand, and already looked pretty plastered. Was this man drinking in broad daylight
really a member of the clergy? There was what looked to be a woman sitting across
from Souji, and this one was sipping away at her drink a little at a time.
"...It's still only noon, you realize, clergyman," I said. "Is this Merula?"
"Hello, King Souma," the hooded Merula waved to me cheerily.
It was Merula, right? It would be a problem if people found out she was a high elf,
so she was probably trying to keep a low profile.
Souji knocked back his drink, and said with glazed eyes, "Whew... It sure is a
festival. Don't be such a stiff. Aren't you out on the town with Aisha and Tomoe?
You've got a beautiful flower on each arm, don't you?"
"Well, yeah... Have to spend time with the family, you know."
The reason I was heading out in secret today was to survey the castle town, but
also to have a date with Aisha.
Though I had... um... developed my relationship with Liscia, I hadn't laid a hand
on any of my other fiancées yet. That was to prevent a troublesome birth order of
the children, in order to prevent it developing into a succession issue. Especially
with Roroa, who was in the dicey position of being the sovereign princess of a
former enemy state; for her sake, and the sake of the child who would eventually be
born, I couldn't go laying a hand on her yet.
It probably wouldn't be an issue if I laid a hand on my secondary queen, Juna,
whose children wouldn't have the right to inherit, or on Aisha, who was from a longlived race and would have trouble conceiving to begin with, but they were holding
back out of consideration for Roroa.
Honestly... they were all such lovely women.
Well, the result was that Liscia now had my other fiancées asking her to, "Hurry
up with the heir already," and she'd complained to me, "I swear, the pressure is
making my stomach hurt."
...I kind of felt bad for her.
Ahem... Anyway, even if I couldn't lay my hands on them, it was important that I
still do other things with Aisha and the others.
When I explained that to Souji, he said, "Hmm. Must be tough having to be a
family man when you're so young," as if it was none of his problem, and then he
knocked back his mug and polished off the rest of his wine as if rubbing it in my face.
"Pwah!"
"Don't you think you've had more than enough?" I asked.
"In Lunarian Orthodoxy, wine is sacred. In other words, by pouring this liquid
into my body, I'm accumulating virtue."
"That absolutely sounds like the excuse of a drunkard," I informed him. "You
really are irresponsible."
"But it's convenient for your people that I'm so irresponsible, right?" Souji
grinned.
...Honestly, this octopus-headed old man.
I shrugged my shoulders. "Well, yeah. I mean, Hakuya's plan is to use you to sever
the believers from the homeland."
"Well, you scratch my back, I scratch yours, Your Majesty. I'll slack off with
everything I've got."
"I'm counting on you," I said. "Now then, I should get back to Aisha and Tomoe."
"Sure. May God's protection and peace be upon you and your family."
Hearing the delinquent bishop's prayer behind me, which it was hard to know
how serious he was about, I headed back to where Aisha and Tomoe were.