Chapter 2 — Envoy From the Twin Kingdoms

Several months had passed since Zenjirou’s societal debut at the buffet. Even a kingdom like Capua couldn’t sustain temperatures of over forty degrees Celsius during the day and over thirty-five degrees at night for an extended period of time, and the highs had finally dropped to just over thirty during the day, and under twenty-five at night.

The recent change had made the days much more bearable, so the fan alone was enough even before night fell, and he could sleep well without taking extensive measures against the heat.

The Capuan kingdom didn’t have four distinct seasons like Japan did, but the view from the inner palace windows showed various changes with the passing of time. When Zenjirou first arrived, the flowerbeds were filled with huge red and yellow flowers, but they were now covered in delicate blues and violets, and the shadows were ever so slightly longer. The insects he had been repelling by placing mosquito coils in the windows were noticeably less in number, and the variety of birdsongs that he heard in the twilight hours had changed.

These changes weren’t dramatic enough to create the sense of a whole new “season,” but you could safely call it something of a seasonal cycle. Whatever the case, the climate was certainly more comfortable now than when he had first arrived.

But he couldn’t currently enjoy the nicer weather. He had been shut up in his darkened room since noon, curled up in the fetal position on his bed as he rested. His breath came in short gasps, his cheeks were flushed, and there was sweat pouring from his forehead and neck. Although the heat had abated, the temperature was still in the mid-thirties, yet he was wrapped in a down quilt up to his chin and shuddering violently like he was trying to ward off a chill.

A sound foreign to this world rang out from beneath the covers—an electronic beeping.

“Ugh...” he groaned, barely conscious as he shifted around to pull the thermometer from under his arm and bring it up to his face.

38.3 °C was displayed on the digital screen... two degrees higher than his usual temperature.

◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆

Zenjirou was in bed with a fever.

The first thing Aura did upon receiving the report shortly before lunch was to instruct everyone working in the inner palace to remain there, and to check her own condition. She was worried about her husband, but she was also the monarch, and as such had to prioritize avoiding illness herself rather than helping her spouse.

She halted her work and immediately called for the royal physician, retiring to a private room within the palace.

Soon after, Aura sat in a wicker chair with her mouth open to allow an aging doctor to peer at her throat.

“Very well, that’s enough,” he said, and she closed her mouth.

“Your verdict?”

“You are healthy, or at least you currently show no symptoms of illness, Your Majesty,” he answered with a gentle smile.

“I see; my thanks.” Her face maintained its austere expression as she let out a sigh of relief. Although medical science in this world hadn’t developed anywhere near the level of Earth’s, and the doctor’s judgment was by no means absolute, his tone implied that she could relax for the moment.

With the state of her health confirmed, she could now speak as a wife rather than as a monarch. “Please examine my husband next. He is currently resting in the inner palace.”

One of the few types of men allowed in the inner palace, which was usually off-limits to males, were medical personnel. The kingdom was patriarchal, so there were essentially no female doctors. Therefore, physicians needed to be an exception or residents would be unable to receive consultations or treatments.

“I shall do my utmost for him,” he answered, a gentle smile on his face as he left with her dismissal.

Almost as if it were an exchange, Aura’s secretary, Fabio Deubashe, entered the room as the doctor left.

“Excuse me, Your Majesty. How are you faring?”

“Quite well. I have no problems myself,” Aura replied, smiling at the slender-faced secretary. “Doctor Michel will be examining my husband now. Depending on his illness, I would rather like to use a healing jewel. I would hear your opinion first, however.”

Fabio’s eyebrow twitched at the words “healing jewel,” and he nodded in agreement. “I see. I can make no firm declaration until I hear Doctor Michel’s diagnosis, but if Sir Zenjirou’s disease is potentially fatal, it hardly needs consideration. Our country can ill afford to lose him.”

Healing jewels were items created by a large country at the center of the continent, the Twin Kingdoms of Sharou-Gilbelle. The Sharou family’s enchantment magic and the Gilbelle papacy’s healing magic were used to form items that could be considered the crystallization of the two families’ techniques. They could not restore what had already been lost, or repair the senses, but there were very few people who had not survived an injury or ailment when the jewel had been used.

This world had medical knowledge equivalent to that of the Islamic countries during the Middle Ages, but the jewels were something that even those on the cutting edge of twenty-first century science would call a “panacea.” And with the people who were capable of producing such treasures numbering around a dozen, it was little wonder that a single jewel could almost bankrupt a small country.

The Kingdom of Capua reigned supreme over the western part of the continent, and had relatively friendly ties with the Twin Kingdoms, but even they boasted only three such jewels in their possession. These were treasures so great that even if you amassed the incredible riches necessary to buy one, there was no guarantee you would actually be able to obtain it.

“Hearing that from you puts me at ease.” A hint of relief made its way onto her face. Truthfully, she had immediately considered the option upon hearing of his collapse, but even she was unsure if that was an emotional reaction as his wife or a logical one as the queen.

Considering the situation with a cooler head, it was fair to say that Zenjirou’s death would upend the country, leaving her without an heir, and any noble would understand her decision to employ one of those magical items to prevent it. Her inability to calmly consider that before was a sign of just how shaken she was, failing to make such an obvious judgment.

Knowing that she could indeed use the jewel if it came to it, Aura regained her usual level head. She placed her right elbow upon the arm of the chair and propped her chin in her hand.

“He seemed as he ever does when we awoke. I can’t help but wonder just what ails him.”

“For you to avoid it despite sharing his bed, there is a strong possibility that it is an illness you have suffered before; one that you can only acquire once.”

Aura remained with her head in her hand, thinking. An illness that once caught wasn’t caught again... In the past, Aura had suffered several illnesses of that type.

“An illness I have had, that you can only get once. One where you may be bright-eyed in the morning yet bedridden shortly after... could it be...?”

Adding that final consideration to Fabio’s thoughts, there was only a single illness that she could think of.

Fabio was calmer than she, having arrived at the same conclusion first. “I believe you are correct, Your Majesty,” he answered with his usual mask-like expression.

Aura felt the tension drain from her body at that. If she was right, all of her anxiety had been in vain. It wasn’t a fatal illness; far from it, in fact. It was more of a benefit.

Before long, her assumptions were confirmed by a report from Doctor Michel as he returned.

“Sir Zenjirou has received The Blessing of the Forest.”

The name of the condition he had uttered was a sickness with a near-zero mortality rate. She resisted the urge to look up at the ceiling in relief and kept her face hard as she replied.

“I see. Good work.”

Her secretary, sharp eyes spotting her consternation, lifted one side of his mouth in a sly smile.

◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆

“Aura, what’s The Blessing of the Forest?” Zenjirou asked, still holed up in his blankets as he looked towards Aura, moving only his eyes.

She had finished up her business at the palace early in order to return and care for him. The evening was just beginning, but as he’d had the shutters closed all day, he didn’t know what was going on outside. Only one of the lamps was lit to make it easier for him to rest, and even that was covered by a thick cloth and umbrella to dim the brightness.

Aura was sitting in the gloomy room, in a chair next to the bed, wiping the sweat from him assiduously.

“To put it simply,” she answered, “it is a long-standing disease endemic to the area. It is less than virulent, and even those infected, excluding infants and the elderly, seldom perish. Further, not only does one gain immunity after contracting it, but those who do become immune also inexplicably experience less severe symptoms should they become afflicted with another type of disease, so it came to be known as The Blessing of the Forest.”

Zenjirou managed to parse her words, despite his brain not working quite right due to the fever, and he couldn’t help but muse, “Whoa... if I went back to Earth with these antibodies, I wonder if I’d get the Nobel Prize...”

There were similar diseases on Earth, like measles and chickenpox, which you would only get once in your life, but creating antibodies that had such dramatic effects on other pathogens was an utter fantasy. Above all else, the best news to Zenjirou was that “people seldom perished.” He had been wracked with fear over this otherworldly disease, and his face now relaxed as he managed to forget the pain in his joints.

“Right, then I just need to rest and heal up... how long?”

“The fastest recovery takes three days, although it may take as long as seven.”

So, it would probably be around five days before he would fully recover. It wasn’t that he couldn’t force himself to get up and move, but thinking of spending the better part of a week in this state was galling. Because of the ache in his joints, he couldn’t find a comfortable position to lie in, and the fever had him dripping with sweat, but his throat was so swollen that even drinking water was painful. Sleeping made it easier, but the discomfort and pain meant that sleep was slow to come. He felt like he had a severe cold.

Do people really “seldom die” when they’re in this state? It seems like the level of development here would result in many people dying from it, he thought through the seething fever.

The reason that most people in Japan wouldn’t die from having a thirty-eight degree fever for several days was because of doctors and medicine, and a nourishing diet being the norm. Zenjirou felt that his current state would be plenty fatal to a malnourished lower-class citizen.

And that impression was no mistake. The reason this “blessing” was spoken of so lightly was because it was far less severe if it was caught while one was young. If someone nearby were to exhibit symptoms of the disease, parents with young children would purposely take them to “receive their blessing.”

Unfortunately, there were boys and girls who did indeed succumb to it and lost their lives, but that was unavoidable, and anyone who did so wouldn’t have made it to adulthood regardless... or so the parents told themselves.

Of course, Zenjirou was rather removed from the circumstances of the lower classes at the moment.

“Speaking of your illness, the maids are worried. Will you not consider allowing them entry while you are indisposed? That would set me at ease as well,” Aura said, almost in remembrance.

Zenjirou curled up further at that, a rare unhappy expression on his face. “Ah, well, I’d rather not. To be honest, I have a feeling I wouldn’t get better with people around...”

For her part, Aura was bewildered by his answer, but continued to try to persuade him. “But, being in this condition, taking care of your meals and other needs will be difficult, no? You need care.”

She had made time to help for the moment, but she had a country to run and this was not a duty befitting of her status. Normally, the care of royalty was not administered by other royals, but by the help.

“Yeah... right...” Zenjirou prevaricated, seeming strangely reluctant to accept her suggestion.

“Zenjirou?” she prompted him.

“You see,” he managed, straining his throat to murmur, “I’m pretty tetchy when I’m ill. I get nasty and selfish if I don’t keep my guard up. And I don’t wanna have to do that... so I don’t want people around...”

People’s personalities changing while they were ill wasn’t unusual. A weakened body had some sort of effect on the mind, and many who were normally timid would tend to want company while unwell.

In Zenjirou’s case, it made him more aggressive. He would kvetch about anything and everything—that his soup was too hot, or the towels someone was wiping him with were too warm. Even the fact that there were healthy people in existence while he was feeling so awful became a source of irritation. He’d caused a lot of problems for his parents each time he’d gotten a fever as a child.

Of course, as a grown man now, he wasn’t so weak-willed that he would bring that aggression to bear on his surroundings constantly, regardless of his suffering body and mind. Even so, constantly worrying about repressing that aggression was tiring. So he preferred to have no one around at all, even if things were a bit more difficult for him that way. He didn’t even want Aura there, not for the moment, at least. Being so childish and selfish towards his lovely wife... it would make his mental recovery take significantly longer than his physical one.

“I’ll be fine... I can at least change my clothes on my own, and I’ll ring the bell if I need to use the toilet...” he managed in a weak voice.

“Mgh, but...” Aura was conflicted. She wanted to say that dealing with their master’s displeasure was simply part of the servants’ jobs. However, over the last few months, she had managed to understand a large part of his moral code. Zenjirou was a man who felt that it was utterly inexcusable to cause unreasonable trouble to anyone. And the status of the people in question was irrelevant.

Nobles were one thing, Aura felt, but he was the same even with the lowliest of servants. Considering that, she could see that if he let loose on the maids now, it would cause him distress later.

“Very well. I shall tell them to keep their visitations to a minimum,” she allowed after a brief period of thought.

“Mm... thanks.”

Her continuation was half-unconscious. “It will soon be time for dinner. Is there anything you wish to eat?” she asked casually.

Zenjirou, his mind still hazy, reflexively let his actual desires slip out. “Okayu... I want okayu with dried plums or eggs and soy sauce.” Okayu was a porridge for when you were ill, a well-known association for anyone in Japan. However, the dish did not exist here in Capua.

“Ohkayu? What is that? And the dried plooms also? I know of eggs, but what is soi sauce?”

Aura’s puzzlement made it obvious even to Zenjirou’s fever-riddled brain. He hadn’t gotten through to her. From her reaction, he could see that the automatic translation through the soul of language hadn’t worked, and at the very least there was no matching equivalent of dried plums and soy sauce here.

He smiled weakly at her. “Mm, I don’t feel up to explaining it now... later. Whatever you bring’s fine; I’ll eat anything.”

He remembered that his aunt’s homemade dried plums were in the fridge, but they would be pointless on their own. They had wheat in Capua, but not the custom of making it into porridge, so even if he had the kitchens concoct a wheat porridge specially for him, and added the plums, there was no guarantee it would taste right. It would be better to wait until he was well before he started trying to invent new foods.

Guess I should get a bit more serious about all that once I’m better...

“Very well,” Aura answered, standing lithely from the chair, “I shall have the staff prepare something light on your stomach.”

“Mm, I’ll look forward to it...”

Before she left, she wiped off his forehead once more as they spoke. Then the door closed with a thump and Zenjirou was left alone in the gloom.

“Ugh...”

He fumbled around off the side of the bed, grabbing a bottle of water that had been boiled and allowed to cool, and raised it to his mouth.

“Guh...”

Just swallowing the lukewarm liquid made his throat twinge, but he had to replenish what he’d lost through sweating. He knew how dangerous dehydration would be, so he bore with the discomfort and swallowed.

“Phew...”

He had consumed about half the bottle by the time he re-capped it and put it back on the side table. The bottle was part of the survival rations he had prepared for his second summoning. In Japan, it would have gone out with the recyclable trash long ago, but the small container was a treasure here. It was light, and there was no risk of it breaking if you dropped it. It was exceedingly easy to use and without it, even drinking water would have been more of a chore. He regularly washed it out but wasn’t sure how hygienic that was, so he doubted it was something he could use forever. Still, it was very handy for these kinds of situations.

Having quenched his thirst in exchange for the pain, Zenjirou collapsed back into the pillow, burying his face in it as he once more became aware of the sweat soaking him.

Ugh, what am I on about, asking for okayu in another world, seriously? Am I five?!

He was glad that Aura was insightful and understanding. If she was still there, he’d probably be asking for canned peaches next. While Zenjirou didn’t rate himself particularly highly, he never thought he would be so lacking in self-restraint that he would let his selfishness emerge like that, and all joking aside, his self-loathing was reaching critical levels.

Ugh, damn it all; I need to get better quickly or I’m gonna die mentally...

Still face-down on the pillow, he lamented his earlier slip of the tongue. However, there was perhaps a silver lining—that self-hatred distracted him enough that he almost forgot about the fever and pain in his joints. And before he knew it, he’d fallen asleep.

Meanwhile, Aura was in the living room, and her face currently carried an equal amount of self-reproach.

“Honestly, how much mind have I even paid my husband before now?”

Deep creases formed around her flared nostrils as she collapsed into the sofa with a soft thud.

She let out a sigh, her anger abating as she settled into the cushions, and this time she spoke with a much sadder expression.

“Ohkayu and plooms, and soi sauce? The soul of language does not function with those words, so I suppose I cannot even search for them.”

She couldn’t prepare the food that her husband actually wanted to eat while he was ill. Furthermore, she didn’t even know what kind of food he preferred, and her self-reproach grew at the thought.

“An unfamiliar land, strange clothes, and food that is foreign to him...”

Once more imagining the situation he was in, her heart grew heavier. During the war, Aura herself had been part of the expeditionary force, so she knew those feelings well. She knew just what kind of influence being unable to eat food that suited a person’s palette could have. That influence was even stronger when one was wounded or weakened. The words on the lips of soldiers on the verge of death, after those of their families, were of their favorite foods. Any officer knew that.

“So, all in all, I am simply heaping discomfort upon my husband.”

Her self-blame was so strong that the complaints just fell from her lips, despite knowing that they were untrue. She had no recollection of coercing him, and every choice had been made by Zenjirou himself.

Thinking back with a clearer mind, she knew that Zenjirou had shown no real displeasure with his life in the inner palace, or regrets about his decision. As far as she knew, he was truly enjoying himself... particularly when they lay with each other. On those nights, he had an expression of utter joy and fulfillment. That much she could say with certainty.

Aura leaned back into the sofa, as if to shake off her melancholy. “He is certainly not unhappy. I am merely letting my thoughts run in a bad direction. Still...”

As she trailed off, she considered her actions again, from a slightly different perspective.

“Perhaps I should aim to grant some of his wishes as best I can. Should he long too much to return home, he may draw away and shatter the kingdom’s peace.”

She skillfully put her emotions as his wife into the terms of her duties as queen as she went over everything carefully in her head.

◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆

On this continent, there were creatures called dwarf wyverns. As the name implied, they were the smallest among the soar drakes (a general name for flying lizards). These drakes, roughly the same size as crows, were the only ones capable of flight among the four types of drakes that humanity had domesticated.

The other three types were dash drakes, burden drakes, and food drakes. Each of them supported different aspects of life and were all important animals that the locals couldn’t do without. Specifically, dash drakes were used for transport, burden drakes were for labor, and food drakes were for eating. Comparing them to Earth animals, dash drakes would be like horses, burden drakes like cows, and food drakes like pigs, more or less.

So, these dwarf wyverns were of use in another way: carrying information. Compared to the normal movement of information, which was generally performed by a courier carrying a message by way of dash drake, there was a much higher risk of some accident preventing its arrival, but the advantage of the dwarf wyvern was in its overwhelming speed. What would take a series of couriers working in a relay without rest for five days wouldn’t take half a day for a dwarf wyvern.

At noon that day, one such creature was sent from the eastern border to the royal palace.

“A report from the eastern border?” Aura asked, looking up curiously at Fabio from where she sat in her office.

“Indeed; a dwarf wyvern has just arrived. Here.” He placed three wooden tubes each the size of a finger onto the table before her. The contents of each tube were likely identical, as it was common to send multiple wyverns with the same message in case one was lost or preyed upon by bigger lizards.

Aura picked one up and removed its cap. There was a thin sheet of drake parchment inside. The general at the border had felt the need to send their valuable dwarf wyverns, so there must have been some urgency to it.

With a sense of foreboding, she scanned the letter before letting out a sigh.

“Your Majesty?”

She simply held out the parchment in silence. Dwarf wyverns held a greater risk of being intercepted in exchange for their overwhelming speed, so even in an emergency, they were usually restricted to carrying information that was not top secret. There was nothing abnormal about Fabio, her confidant, taking the letter and reading it himself.

“Excuse me,” he said as he took the scrap, a muscle jumping in his cheek as his eyes flickered over the text.

“At dawn, Princess Isabella of the Twin Kingdoms and her entourage arrived at the Eastern Fort with three-hundred escorts. They sought entry to the country under the terms of the treaty, and were permitted on condition that they disarm in the city. Further, three-hundred cavalry are accompanying their party as escorts.”

The date and the general’s signature were below. As Fabio read the message several times over, Aura checked the other two containers just in case, but they were indeed identical.

After making sure that he hadn’t missed anything, her secretary spoke flatly. “A visit from Princess Isabella? Perhaps one of the neighboring countries’ royals or nobles has someone gravely ill in need of her services?”

“That is likely. A direct visit from her would require an astounding amount of money,” Aura nodded.

Isabella Gilbelle. As her name indicated, she was from one of the royal families of the Twin Kingdoms at the center of the continent; the princess of the Gilbelle Papacy.

Although she was a princess, the current head of the family had held the position for over sixty years. Isabella herself was in her forties and had three children, but the thing most worthy of mention was that she was one of only five users of healing magic in the papacy.

There were many people who visited the Twin Kingdoms simply because the Gilbelle papacy was blessed with healing magic. However, as one might expect, very few on the brink of death would make it as far as the capital. Therefore, when someone of note was immobile due to illness, a member of the papacy was sent for in exchange for an amount of money that would make the treasurers weep.

“And only three hundred with her as an escort,” she continued. “They must have a large number of magic tools with them.”

“That is likely true. We do not know which country they are making for, but we shall remain on the lookout.”

“Investigate it at once; there may have been a change in government in one of our neighboring countries.”

“Understood, Your Majesty.”

It was not unusual for the Gilbelles to have an immense number of guards when visiting patients in other kingdoms. The distance involved and the current state of their relations with their neighbors would determine their exact numbers, but the minimum was usually a thousand-strong unit of elites.

The seemingly excessive guard was a logical choice, if one considered the facts. The family were the only users of healing magic in the world, so of course there was a risk that another royal or noble would want to keep them close at hand once they had been plucked from the abyss. There had actually been instances where the healer who had come to perform the magic had been confined with an excuse such as “They wish to seek refuge in my country” being sent back to their home country.

The kingdoms had learned from those experiences, and now whenever the Gilbelles went abroad, they brought sufficient manpower to inflict no small amount of damage if the country they were in betrayed them. The soldiers were always armed and their presence was required for any trip a member of the royal family took. The travel and lodging expenses incurred by such a crowd were also the responsibility of the country that had summoned them.

However, the larger a military group was, the slower it would travel as well, and there were cases where the person they were meant to save had become too far gone during their long march. The compromise in such situations were the knights carrying the magic tools that Aura had mentioned.

The other royal family in the Twin Kingdoms, the Sharous, had the ability to create magic items, which were used to arm the knights, making them equal to thousands of normal men without. This led to a huge reduction in the size of the accompanying guard, and a commensurate increase in their speed, which in turn allowed someone to surmise that the patient they were on the way to see must be in critical condition.

“Regardless,” Fabio said, “it would seem that the treatment has been completed and she is now returning home. Shall I adjust your schedule so that you may cast space-time magic?”

“Yes, please do,” she answered with a slight sigh, prompting him to nod.

The reason for Isabella’s visit to the kingdom was clear—she wished for Aura to use her teleportation magic to return them to the Twin Kingdoms immediately. Teleportation would save them the travel time for the return trip, and would also remove the risk of a journey on foot. The spell was a grand working of magic requiring a long chant and an astonishing amount of power, so it wasn’t easily used, but Aura couldn’t refuse if the princess had personally requested it.

Still, it was an opportunity to have the healer owe her a favor, and ordinarily, she would have welcomed it.

“The problem is my husband,” she murmured, resting her chin in her hand thoughtfully. With Zenjirou having contracted the Blessing of the Forest, he was going to be bedridden for several days. “If she is at the eastern fortress, it should be about five days before she arrives, correct?”

“Approximately, yes. Depending on how long the illness ails him, Sir Zenjirou may not recover in time.”

Recovery from the disease usually took between three and seven days, and Zenjirou had relatively heavy symptoms, so he might well still be in bed by the time Isabella arrived.

A scowl made its way onto her face. “Curses. I would rather no one from outside the country enters his room. We should prepare another room, perhaps, and have him stay there during her visit, if worst comes to worst.”

The room that he usually resided in was filled with the electronics he had brought from his own world. It was unlikely that there would be any immediate repercussions if those devices were discovered, but she wanted to keep them as secret as possible.

The simplest method would be to have Zenjirou move to another room for the duration of Isabella’s stay. The inner palace had originally been constructed to house several women, but the only people living there at present were her husband and herself, so there were several empty bedchambers.

“That would be sufficient. There is no need to refuse an audience with her entirely,” Fabio agreed.

The disease was not fatal, and it was better to let it pass naturally as it strengthened the body against other diseases in the process. However, there were simpler healing magics such as stamina restoration and mental recovery that would ease his suffering in the meantime. If Princess Isabella were to express an interest in treating him, there was no reason to turn her down.

“This would mean he could be meeting her whilst suffering from fever...”

Zenjirou had admitted himself that, while unwell, he grew more sharp-tongued, and his normally astonishing logic and self-restraint were certainly not at their usual levels just now. While Isabella may have looked like a slightly attractive middle-aged woman, she had worked as a healer for close to thirty years, and was a full member of the papal family. She wouldn’t take the rudeness of a patient personally, but at the same time, she wouldn’t pass up the opportunity to use it to gather information.

“I do hope that nothing too troublesome occurs,” Aura muttered to herself, resigned to the fact that an issue of some kind was likely inevitable.

◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆

Six days later, Aura had arranged for Princess Isabella to be shown to a room within the palace, where they could have a private discussion.

Isabella’s party had arrived the evening prior. Their public greetings had been dealt with during the noon audience earlier, but neither of them could speak freely in public.

“It has been some time, Queen Aura,” Isabella opened with. “I wish to first offer my congratulations on your marriage.”

The slightly plump middle-aged woman was sitting on a leather sofa with her knees together as she gave a refined bow of her head. During the official audience, they had both been confined by their extravagant formal wear, but they were now wearing light, relatively plain dresses. Aura’s was a crimson, sleeveless affair, and Isabella’s was a white, comparatively airy gown with short sleeves.

In Capua, white dresses were the purview of girls and brides. They were items that women of a certain age normally refrained from wearing, but in the Twin Kingdoms, white was emblematic of the Gilbelle family. Outside of extenuating circumstances, the papal family’s outfits were all based on the color.

The whole shape of the outfit differed significantly from Capuan examples as well. Here, long dresses with slits or long wrap-skirts were the norm, whereas Isabella’s dress flared out and had a small opening in the chest, contrasting with the Capuan fashion of having an open neck that put the wearer’s cleavage on display.

“Indeed, it was completed with no notable incidents. The celebratory gifts from the Twin Kingdoms were greatly appreciated,” Aura answered. Rather than bowing her head, she straightened and threw her chest out.

Isabella was over a decade her senior, but given her position as head of state, Aura was overwhelmingly higher in status. Compared to her, Isabella was merely one of countless lesser royals.

The princess lifted a hand to her lips and giggled elegantly. It made her look like more of a high-class merchant than royalty.

“As long as you appreciated them, Your Majesty. Ordinarily, I would have liked to come and offer my felicitations in person, but there was an urgent matter that came to light and prevented me. I shall endeavor to atone for that in the future.”

“And there would there be no possibility of such ‘atonement’ taking the form of information on this urgent matter, I presume?”

“There would not,” she answered without a sign of hesitation at the provocation. “I’m afraid it falls under the Healer’s Confidence, so I beg your pardon on the matter.” The words were a firm denial wrapped in a soft smile and gentle tone.

It was only to be expected. When, who, where, what... these questions on the illnesses that the family cured were not open topics of discussion. If the healers were to make such details publicly available, no one would be likely to request their services. There wasn’t a single upper-class family in this world that had a closet free of skeletons, after all.

It was perhaps a less strictly defined concept, but the Gilbelle family had morals similar to the modern rules of doctor-patient confidentiality. Aura had known from the beginning that there was no chance of the princess agreeing, so she quickly moved on.

“A shame. Ah, I have an item that I wish you to examine.” With an expression of suddenly having remembered something, she rang a bell on the table.

Fabio immediately appeared, likely having been waiting directly outside. “You called, Your Majesty?”

“I did. Bring the rings, along with the rest.”

“At once.”

“Rings?” Isabella asked.

“Indeed,” Aura smiled meaningfully back at her. “My husband’s country has a custom where the man offers a matching ring to his wife as a wedding gift. I have the ring, so I wish to make it into some type of magic tool.”

“My, how wonderful. I shall make it a personal responsibility and offer my own endorsement.”

“Please do.”

As the conversation progressed, a knock came at the door, and Fabio returned with a silver tray in his right hand.

“Excuse me, I have brought the items,” he said.

“Wonderful. Leave them there.”

“Of course.” He placed the tray on the table between the two women before offering a bow and leaving.

Atop the tray were two rings and two cloth bags. Isabella looked curiously at the pouches, but her eyes widened in shock at the rings.

“These...” she murmured with genuine surprise.

“Feel free to handle them. I wish to hear your candid opinion.”

Taking the queen at her word, Isabella took one of the rings and held it up to the sunlight streaming in from the window. The otherworldly gold and diamonds sparkled as they were bathed in the golden beams.

The ring she had chosen was the one Zenjirou had given to Aura. The band was wide with jewels embedded within. There were three small diamonds cut into a brilliant pattern and set into the yellow gold.

Zenjirou had actually wanted to follow the clerk’s recommendation to use the stronger-colored pink diamonds to suit Aura’s hair and eyes, but they were exceedingly expensive. He could have afforded some with a reddish tinge but had decided to go with the standard colorless diamonds if he was already compromising on the look.

“Magnificent... are these crystals?”

“No, I am told they are diamonds.”

“Diamonds?! Fashioned in this way?”

Isabella’s impropriety was only natural. Diamonds existed in this world, but the techniques used to shape them did not. Any diamonds they had nowadays had been cut with magic by a great earth mage in the past. And that was to say nothing of the fact that even if said mage were resurrected, it would be impossible for them to calculate the angles of incidence and refraction needed to cut the gems into such brilliantly shining polyhedrons.

Back on Earth, gem cutting had progressed as precision engineering did. Even borrowing the rule-breaking nature of magic, it would be impossible to replicate the process here. The same could be said for the ring itself.

“How were these lines carved so finely?”

The rings, highly fashionable, were simple but had regular lines carved into the body, like cross-hatching in drawings. Isabella’s country was the preeminent expert on jewelry, but would be unlikely to have anyone who could reproduce such craftsmanship.

From an artistic standpoint, the jewelry of this world was as good as Earth’s, but in terms of pure technique, the rings were irreplicable. It was like telling the world’s best calligrapher to produce more uniform characters than a computer.

Isabella’s reaction was completely in line with Aura’s expectations, and she breathed a mental sigh of relief. A discerning eye inevitably finds itself lighting up at the sight of these gifts.

Aura’s own reaction had been much the same when she had first seen the rings the morning after the wedding. The manufacturing was too precise, and the three stones shone from every angle.

Aura had persuaded Zenjirou not to wear them as a rule. They shone too brightly, and if she wore hers, sharp-eyed nobles would notice and ask after its provenance, which would undoubtedly lead to unwanted attention coming to rest upon her husband. At the time, such excessive attention might have forced them to move up his debut before he was ready.

Aura had felt at the time that she may have been overthinking things, but seeing Isabella’s reaction confirmed that her concerns had not been too far off.

The princess finally noticed Aura’s expression and laughed off her initial reaction, putting the ring back onto the tray. “Ah... excuse me, Your Majesty, I was taken in.”

“Do not concern yourself; they are indeed magnificent. It is those two items that I wish to have made into magic tools.”

“Yes, with such wonderful jewels, I do believe the Sharou family will be more than willing to work on them.”

The objects most frequently made into magic tools were weapons and jewelry. That relationship meant the wielders of enchantment magic, the Sharou family, had a good eye for such things. There was little doubt their reactions would be even stronger than Isabella’s.

“I have made no firm determinations of the variety of magic I would like to have them imbued with. Do you have any suggestions?” Aura asked.

Isabella rested her round chin in her hand and thought. “Well, then. However wondrous they are, they are small, so it would be advisable to refrain from any great workings. Perhaps something basic such as a flame dart, fire resistance, or possibly an option to conjure water?” she suggested.

“I would not dare to hope for a spell on the level of greater regeneration, but would a form of health recovery be possible?”

“If you were willing to allow the ring to crumble after only five uses, it would be.”

“Hm...”

They spoke for a while longer, but there was nothing that seemed to fit just right. Still, Isabella would be staying in Capua for a time, so there was no need to decide then and there.

The conversation plateaued, and Isabella’s eyes were drawn to the pouches on the tray. “That reminds me, Your Majesty, what is within these bags?”

Aura picked up the larger of the two and replied with a smile. “Ah, these are also my husband’s. I thought I would ask you to appraise them while you are here. Your Highness, would you spare a few words to evaluate some jewels?”

“Well, I am more knowledgeable than average considering my position in the Twin Kingdoms, but I am not as well-informed as the Sharou family,” she admitted. Despite her answer, her gaze was intrigued as Aura proffered the bag.

As the princess had inferred from Aura, the contents consisted of other jewels... ones from the same country those wondrous rings had come from, which made them all the more interesting.

Feeling the other’s gaze on her fingers, Aura opened the bag and fished a single item out, placing it onto the tray with a clack.

It was a marble. Clear glass confined a strand of colored glass—the simplest, most common type. It rolled across the tray.

The sparkling orb caught Isabella’s eyes, which widened even more than when she had seen the rings. If her surprise at the wedding gifts had been something she hadn’t felt the need to hide, the expression she wore now was one that she couldn’t have hidden if she’d tried. A look of chagrin appeared on her face for a split second, before she quickly covered it with her usual mild smile.

“Ahem... excuse me, this is rather a surprise. What is it?” she asked in astonishment, her gaze still fixed on the marble atop the tray. This “astonishment” was not the same naked wonder as when she had first beheld it a moment before; it was now a facade of surprise.

Quietly wondering about Isabella’s initial reaction, which had far surpassed her expectations, Aura carefully concealed her thoughts. “They are truly a shock, are they not? These too are items that my husband brought with him. They are, of course, neither crystal nor diamond. They are apparently something called glass, considerably more fragile than crystals and easier to break.”

As the word “fragile” passed the queen’s lips, Isabella jolted back from where she had reached for the marble, prompting a slight smile.

“Ah, their fragility is more along the lines of a drop from a greater height onto a hard surface being able to break them. There is no fear of damaging them during normal handling, and the carpet here removes much of the risk from falls,” she explained.

“I see. May I pick it up?”

“Please do. Take your time to look it over.”

With Aura’s permission, Isabella gently gripped the marble between three fingers, holding it up to the light in the same way she had done with the ring. She let out a breath of wonder. “Superb...”

“I ask you this frankly, Princess Isabella. If this were to be on the market, what value would you attach to a single piece?”

The fact that Aura had some ulterior motive was surprisingly clear as Isabella brought her eyes back to focus on the queen. She temporized with a clearing of her throat before answering with a question in turn. “Are you saying that you intend to sell these jewels?”

“I am not; they are my husband’s, after all,” she answered the deadly serious question with a shake of her head, “I could never simply sell them off. However, these have never existed in our world, so he has granted several of them to me to ascertain their value.”

“Ah, I understand,” the princess nodded.

Things like jewelry, which had no day-to-day life or militaristic value, had no fixed worth, and that was particularly true of items like these glass orbs, which had never been seen in this world. Even if Aura and Zenjirou had considered them priceless, if they couldn’t obtain some type of external appraisal, the objects would have no true value here.

With that in mind, Aura’s idea to let one or two out into the wider world and establish their value was not a strange decision. Nor was Isabella a poor choice to receive such an opinion from. Even so, the princess seemed unable to believe her ears.

“I see. Assuming I were able to purchase one... I would pay thirty gold coins.”

Thirty gold coins. Aura was aghast at hearing such an unexpected amount, but refused to show it on her face. “Is that right?”

A short silence fell before Isabella shrugged in slight resignation. “Very well. Fifty gold coins, then. I do not believe anyone would pay a greater amount.”

At some point, Isabella’s tone had shifted from a hypothetical discussion to a business negotiation, and she had added twenty extra coins to the value. This time, it was Aura who couldn’t hide her surprise. She had thought the offer of thirty coins excessive, and her innocent questioning had led to a further increase in the price.

Had Isabella taken it as her trying to drive a hard bargain? She looked searchingly at her companion, the latter’s elegant features staring back at her with a soft smile.

Aura’s thoughts solidified at that smile. No, I find it impossible to believe the princess would misread such a blatant tone of doubt. So, the increase was purposeful. What could her intentions be in putting such an absurd price on a single item?

Fifty gold coins was extraordinary. As a reference, a low-class dash drake would cost a mere three coins, whereas one that had been trained for combat and cavalry use would be ten, and so on. A lower noble’s estate—one who held no additional territory—would sell for between fifty and one hundred gold coins. No matter how rare and wonderful the marbles were, such a valuation was simply absurd.

Of course, jewels commanding such a value were not entirely rare. There were even items out there that were an order of magnitude more expensive. However, Aura hadn’t viewed these marbles as being on that level. Something was certainly strange about the offer.

She moved to gather more information, taking several beads from the other pouch and placing them onto the tray. “And these? I believe they are rather interesting also.”

The new beads were vivid reds, blues, and greens, their crisp colors offering plenty to draw the eye. And yet Isabella’s reaction was much less dramatic this time.

“My, these are wonderful as well. They are all the same shape and even have a small hole in the middle. I’m sure there are multiple interesting uses for them.” Her praise and the enraptured look on her face were not false, but there was no sign of the same shock in her eyes as with the marbles.

“Yes, they are beautiful, are they not? Intriguing too, I could have a thread run through them to use as a necklace. What value would you see as appropriate for these?”

“Let me see; they are clearly of high quality, and considering their size... I would say ten silvers each,” she concluded, her rounded chin in hand.

The value this time was not too far from Aura’s own estimations. While exact rates were bound to vary based on location and time period, a single gold piece was generally worth about one hundred silvers, so a single marble at fifty gold coins would be equivalent to five thousand silvers. On the other hand, the beads would be ten apiece. In other words, Isabella felt that the marbles were five hundred times more valuable than the beads.

There was certainly a difference in the weight of the items, but Aura couldn’t help but feel the value given for the marbles was extreme. The beads being in accordance with her pricing expectations while the marbles were suggested to be far more valuable made the contrast all the more conspicuous.

And yet, her unflinching valuations would imply this is a clear indication of her intentions... perhaps a sort of test?

“I see. That will be a very useful reference. I would like to offer you one for your troubles, Princess. Feel free to pick whichever one you like,” Aura told her, deliberately picking up the bag of marbles and tipping them onto the tray. Dozens rolled across the metal surface.

“Oh my!”

Her gaze firmly upon Isabella’s startled face as the latter put her hands to her mouth in surprise, Aura grinned. “Go ahead. You need not restrain yourself; inspect them as you wish and choose any one that you prefer.”

The marbles crowding the tray ranged from the standard orbs containing colored glass to those with frosted surfaces, those with pretty marbling across the surface, and even one with a simple map of the Earth fashioned into it.

Piled together in that way, they were such a sight that it was no exaggeration to call them jewels. Isabella seemed to realize that Aura’s eyes were upon her, and after a period of silence she shrugged lightly and plucked one from the group.

“I shall take you at your word, then, and have this one.” The marble in her hand was plain and nearly transparent. “And,” she continued, “concerning the remainder?”

“I understand,” Aura answered. “It all depends on my husband’s decision, but if he chooses to relinquish them, you shall be the first I inform.”

“My thanks.” Isabella seemed satisfied with the assurance as she bowed politely. She then glanced towards the light streaming in from the windows, and with an expression of realization, continued. “Ah, forgive my rudeness, Your Majesty, I grew too invested in our discussion. As thanks for this treasure, would you permit me to examine His Majesty? I believe I may be able to aid him.”

“Of course. I would welcome it, in fact. I cannot imagine anyone on the continent refusing a visit from the Gilbelle family. As soon as the preparations have been completed, I shall have you guided to the inner palace. Until then, please wait in the neighboring room.”

“Very well. Until then.”

The conversation concluded with a pleased look on Isabella’s face as she stood elegantly, gave another small bow, and retired to the offered room.

◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆

“So, Princess Isabella valued the larger, round jewels at fifty gold coins and the small ones with holes at ten silvers each. I would hear your thoughts,” Aura said, finishing her account of the conversation to Fabio, who had taken the princess’s place.

“Fifty gold? I feel that may be a tad high,” the secretary remarked, an eyebrow rising.

“Fabio,” answered the queen, unable to hide her displeasure, “be direct with me. Do you truly think fifty gold is an amount where the phrase ‘a tad’ is appropriate?”

“Excuse me; allow me to correct myself. That offer is far beyond my wildest expectations,” he apologized, not showing a hint of fear at his superior’s mood, although he gave a slight bow with his correction.

Aura herself seemed to have no intention of quibbling over semantics. A calm expression soon made its way back onto her face as she looked up at the stoic secretary from where she sat on the sofa and continued, “It was strange. In fact, she had a much stronger reaction to them than even the rings.”

The wedding rings were finely crafted, with diamonds cut using techniques that didn’t exist in this world. Anyone could see at a glance how beautiful they were. Surely even those with no knowledge of jewels would place more value on the rings than the marbles.

“Her candidness is quite baffling,” he agreed.

If Aura had to judge one way or another, she would say that Isabella was a good person, but the princess had spent over forty years as a member of one of the largest country’s royal families, navigating the choppy waters of court life. Such blatant greed would have seen her taken advantage of, and she would have been well aware of that. Yet she had still offered the ridiculous sum of fifty gold.

“The princess is not known for flights of whimsy, nor is she known for spending freely. Therefore, the valuation must be a fair estimate,” Aura mused.

“Perhaps she was expecting competition. I could understand her actions should she be aware of someone who would pay just as much, or possibly even more, if they knew of these jewels.”

“Regardless, she does not appear to see them as simple jewels,” Aura emphasized, garnering a nod of confirmation from the secretary.

“That is certain. I could not begin to fathom her intentions, but we should consider the items to have some exceedingly useful utility.”

“Hmm...” the queen murmured, folding her arms and recalling Isabella’s response.

When Aura had spread the marbles across the tray, Isabella’s gaze had been focused on the transparent, colorless one from the beginning. If it was no coincidence or misdirection, there may well be some value to its particular appearance. Although in that case, surely standard crystals would be equally usable.

“Curse it all; we have insufficient information. This is nothing more than guesswork. I suppose we shall have to ask the old man’s thoughts.”

“That would be wise. Lord Espiridion may well have knowledge that we lack.”

Espiridion was the head court mage, and in addition to being the foremost expert on magic within the kingdom, he was also an erudite sage. A man of his years would likely have some inkling of what was going on.

“Convey this to him, and inform him that we wish to borrow his knowledge tonight.”

“It shall be done.”

“Still, fifty gold for a single jewel. If they are all of the same value then my husband has close to two thousand five hundred gold in assets.”

Such a fortune could fund the construction of a small fort. Even from a royal’s perspective, it was a significant sum.

“Indeed. There is a danger in liquidating them before we understand what value Her Highness sees in them, but should they cause us no harm, I believe it would be best to allow Sir Zenjirou to do as he wishes.”

“Certainly, and I would like to secure the Twin Kingdoms as a business partner. After all, they pay in newly minted coins.”

“If you would permit me the slight discourtesy, I would like Sir Zenjirou to exchange those gold coins for the many silvers in our coffers.”

“That would be rather too frank,” Aura said with a sharp smile at the secretary’s comment.

Currently, there were only two countries on the Southern Continent that were minting gold coins. One was the Twin Kingdoms of Sharou-Gilbelle. Unfortunately, The Kingdom of Capua was not the other. The country had no gold mines, and they could only gather what was possible through panning for gold from the rivers. It wasn’t enough to regularly mint new coins.

Instead, they had the largest collection of and highest quality silver mines on the continent, so they carried out business with their neighbors using “greater silver coins” of higher purity and twenty-five times the value of normal silver. Yet they still only had a quarter of the value of the Twin Kingdom’s gold. Therefore, the majority of the currency circulating within the country was not their own. They needed their treasury to accumulate as many gold coins from the Twin Kingdoms as possible. Having just gotten through a war, however, their treasury was much-diminished.

Buying the coins was actually on the agenda for the worst-case scenario, so even two thousand was a rather attractive prospect. That said, continued discussion wouldn’t serve them here.

“Very well, we shall table the discussion until tonight when the old man arrives. We should not make Princess Isabella wait any longer. I shall escort her. Have the preparations been made?”

“They have. You may bring her whenever it is convenient.”

With a nod of understanding, Aura stood. Isabella was a guest of honor, and from a public standpoint, her visit to Zenjirou was being done out of the kindness of her heart. Making her wait too long would be impolite.

“I will be on my way,” she stated, moving to knock on the door so that she could guide the princess to her husband.

◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆

It was Zenjirou’s sixth day of suffering from the Blessing of the Forest. He had been moved to a different room with some alacrity the night before and was currently cocooned in the new bed, sweating.

His fever had dropped to around thirty-seven degrees and the swelling of his throat had abated along with the return of his appetite. Until the day before yesterday, he’d barely been able to slurp up plain minced chicken and vegetable soup, but this morning he’d managed to eat something along the lines of mashed potato with a sweet and sour filling added to it. In spite of its similarity to potatoes, it was actually boiled and mashed banana. It seemed closer to home cooking than royal cuisine, but it was relatively easy on the stomach and nutritious, so it was ideal for someone who was ill.

The doctor’s diagnosis was that he would recover in the next couple of days. For his part, Zenjirou felt like he was far more comfortable at this point. However, he had been moved out of his normal room to a single bed that was completely unfamiliar, and the new room did not have a single electrical appliance, so he wasn’t feeling particularly comfortable.

Regardless, the fight against the illness meant that his body demanded rest. The weather was easier on him than before, but the temperatures were still over thirty degrees, and as he dozed off in the heat, something pulled him back to consciousness... the sensation of a soft hand on his forehead and the sound of an unfamiliar voice.

“His fever has abated to a fair degree. He should be able to return to his normal routine in a day, possibly two.”

“Wha?” he mumbled, still half-asleep, opening heavy eyelids to see an elegant middle-aged woman with her hand on his head, “Who’re you?”

Her hair was as straight as an arrow, long and chestnut-colored. Kind wrinkles were arrayed around her eyes, which were a dark brown. Her skin was tanned by the sun, although compared to Aura and her countrymen, who shared a skin tone somewhere between olive and brown, this woman had more Western features and coloring. She was clearly not Capuan, and while he wasn’t particularly confident in his memory, he was sure he’d remember seeing someone so distinctive.

The foreigner, Princess Isabella, took her hand from his head and stood, lifting her dress into a curtsy. “It is a great pleasure to make your acquaintance, Sir Zenjirou. I am the third child of the eighteenth pope of the Twin Kingdoms of Sharou-Gilbelle, Johannes IV. My name is Isabella.”

“M-My thanks for your polite greeting. I...” Zenjirou began, trying to haul himself up in a panic over meeting a state guest of her standing, but Isabella gently held him down with practiced movements.

“Remain as you are; your body has yet to recover,” she said, urging him to relax.

Only with her words did he notice the change within himself. “Eh? Huh? But I feel so much better...”

His long convalescence meant that he still felt somewhat sluggish, but the bone-deep fatigue that had pervaded his body before his last slumber had now disappeared along with the haze of pain filling his mind. He suddenly felt like he could get up without issue.

Isabella’s smile remained as her hand on his shoulder pushed him back towards the bed. “Sir Zenjirou, please stay where you are. The greater ease you are feeling is a result of the health recovery and fatigue reduction I cast upon you. I could have used a rapid recovery spell instead, but this is the Blessing of the Forest, and you will not gain the benefits without recovering from it naturally.”

“H-Hahh... I see.” Although he felt like he had more energy, his skin was still flushed, so he hadn’t fully recovered.

Oh, yeah, Aura mentioned the visit from the Twin Kingdoms when she was here yesterday, and that’s why I was moved.

He’d been informed of the circumstances the day before, but he’d had a fever of over thirty-eight degrees, so he couldn’t be expected to recall the details.

Uh, I’m definitely the social superior, but she’s here for healing purposes, so I can be a bit immodest, right? He kicked his drowsy mind into action in an effort to recall the etiquette he had learned for interacting with other royals.

He cast his eyes around the room and noticed his wife watching over him from behind Isabella. Meeting his gaze, she gave a slight nod.

Does that mean I don’t have to worry too much about my manners? Zenjirou calmed slightly at her signal and leaned back against the headboard, sitting up slightly and redirecting his gaze towards the princess.

“My thanks, Your Highness. I feel much better now.”

“Not at all, it was a minor affair. If you rest and recover, I believe you should be able to return to normal tomorrow.”

“Right, I underst—ngh.”

Sitting up and talking despite his still-present fever was perhaps the reason the end of his sentence was swallowed by a coughing fit.

“Zenjirou, here, water,” Aura offered, immediately picking up a metal pot and moving it to his mouth.

“Ah, my bad,” he mumbled. He had gotten used to her care over the last few days, so he felt no shame as Aura served him the drink. He could feel the sweat coating his body, but if anything, it was a pleasant sensation at the moment.

“Phew...”

“Is that enough?”

“Yeah, I feel much better. Thanks.”

Witnessing the natural intimacy between the two of them, Isabella brought a hand to her mouth and chuckled. “I had heard the rumors, but you truly do have a good relationship,” she opined.

“Ah... pardon me,” Zenjirou was a bit embarrassed about being observed by an outsider.

In contrast, Aura smiled, thrusting out her chest as she spoke. “Well, it is far better than the alternative, no?”

Zenjirou was a man from who knew where, while she was considered a woman of valor. Aura was half-convinced there were various disgraceful rumors spreading throughout the neighboring countries and had no intention of allowing an opportunity to promote the strength of their relationship to slip between her fingers.

“You are quite right,” Isabella answered with a trilling laugh.

While the world at large was likely to misunderstand, even in the higher echelons of society, good relationships were by no means rare. A royal’s marriage was often more for the sake of connections between families than for the emotions of the two involved, but that itself meant that both would do their utmost to ensure things went smoothly. They held a great responsibility for their countries and families. If both were prepared to not allow their interests to clash to an excessive degree, and if they could work together, it was far from impossible for love to bloom even some time after marriage. However, it was certainly rare to see a couple that fit together so well after merely half a year.

Are they truly that compatible? Isabella wondered, watching them with a sharp eye hidden behind her pleasant expression.

“That reminds me. Sir Zenjirou, you came from another world to marry Her Majesty, did you not? I suppose you could put it as ‘a love that transcends worlds’?”

“Eh? Ah, yeah, you could,” he answered, a bit startled by her having noted that he’d come from another world.

The lineal magic of the Capuan royal family was widely known to be space-time magic, and the surrounding countries would have had their eyes peeled as they watched closely for how Aura, the only royal in the kingdom at the time, would handle her marriage. From that perspective, it would have been stranger if his history wasn’t known to some extent.

Was it because of that understanding? Or perhaps due to his mind still being sluggish from the fever? Regardless, Zenjirou opened his mouth without much thought.

“It’s because my ancestors were royals from here who went to my world a hundred and fifty years ago, so I came back to marry her. It’s pretty romantic if you look at it like that.”

It was more information than he should have given another country’s representative, and Aura’s face contorted in consternation, but it was too late.

“I see... so, that was something that happened long ago,” Isabella murmured, apparently moved, but her eyes had flashed for a brief moment.

“It is a rumor, all told,” Aura interjected. “It is a fact that a direct descendant disappeared from our records around that time, but there is no evidence that they left for another world, or that Zenjirou is their descendant.” She emphasized her words, laying doubt upon his statement even as her tone remained calm.

While Zenjirou may have still been woolly-headed from the illness, Isabella was well-versed in diplomacy and there was no chance she would miss what Aura was trying to say.

“Of course; please excuse me, I was merely caught up in the romanticism and forgot myself. Your treatment aside, I should not have allowed the conversation to become so protracted given your illness. Your Majesties, I shall take my leave, if I may.” Understanding the implications of Aura’s words, she rose from her chair.

“Very well. My thanks for your exertion on my husband’s behalf, Princess Isabella.”

“Not at all, Your Majesty.”

Aura moved to guide her from the temporary bedroom. While both women were, in their own ways, deeply concerned, the fact that it showed on neither of their faces was without a doubt a result of their being royals by birth.

“Thank you again, Princess Isabella,” Zenjirou said casually from where he lay, the only one ignorant of the loaded undercurrent in the room. “I feel considerably better now.”

◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆

That night, Aura summoned Fabio and Espiridion to a private room in the palace for a clandestine discussion. The chamber was a small one, lit by the flickering flames of candles.

Under the glowing illumination, Aura crossed her legs where she sat on a decorated chair and directed the conversation to Fabio, who stood before her.

“I would hear your report,” she instructed.

“At once,” the secretary acknowledged, stepping forward. “We have confirmed the identity of Princess Isabella’s ‘client.’ It was the previous king of Coblago, Louis II.”

A doubtful expression made its way onto the queen’s face at this information. “Their previous king? Strange... calling Princess Isabella to attend their current king would be one thing, but their prior monarch? I have my doubts that they possess the capital to do so.”

The Kingdom of Coblago was a neighboring country, with lands and a population no more than a fifth of Capua’s. Financially speaking, they would most certainly be inferior. It was a small country that happened to be well-placed, and so had survived the war, but calling Isabella for a king who had already abdicated didn’t ring true.

“They would be able to afford Prince Roberto or Tomaso, or possibly His Holiness Matteo if they stretched themselves, correct?” she asked.

Each member of the Gilbelle family that Aura had named was one or two steps below Isabella in healing, and therefore cheaper.

Fabio promptly refuted her, his mask-like expression not budging an inch. “Those you mentioned are all men and would be unable to enter the inner palace.”

Aura looked askance at his unrelated reply. “What does the inner palace matter? The patient was their former king, no?”

“Indeed. Therefore, Coblago’s inner palace is not the issue; it is our own.”

Aura finally understood what Fabio was getting at and straightened quickly in her chair. “What! You mean to tell me we were her goal from the beginning?”

Fabio nodded shortly. “Yes, the investigation is still ongoing, but as you have surmised, Coblago commissioned Prince Roberto. The Twin Kingdoms stated that they would send Princess Isabella instead, with no additional fees.”

“Unbelievable! You are saying they were already aware that Zenjirou was suffering the Blessing of the Forest?”

“No, that was a simple coincidence. If they had been aware of it, there would have been no need to dispatch her.”

The Gilbelle healers were far above normal doctors. If they were seeing a patient, even a male would be permitted entry to the inner palace in spite of his sex. If they had known that Zenjirou fell under the category of a potential patient, they would not have needed to concern themselves with sending a female.

“I see. So, the Twin Kingdoms dispatched Princess Isabella at a discount simply to meet my husband?”

“Your husband appeared out of nowhere to marry you. The curiosity is far from unnatural considering the circumstances, is it not?”

“Hmm...” Aura remained seated, her legs still crossed as she rested her chin on her hand.

Fabio was correct, of course; Zenjirou was fully aware of Aura’s intentions and refrained from taking center stage out of respect for her. Foreign countries would be unaware of their dynamic, however, and would see it as the kingdom gaining another leader.

If he had been particularly ambitious, there was a real chance Zenjirou could have plunged the continent back into chaos. From that point of view, there was more than enough reason to send someone of Isabella’s caliber to investigate.

“We assumed it was over after presenting him to the country. Now we must present him to other kingdoms, I suppose.”

“The debut was restricted to our own citizens in order to avoid any potential gaffes,” Fabio answered as his liege sighed and stared up at the darkened ceiling.

The last few months had seen a general increase in understanding among the Capuans regarding Zenjirou’s intention to stay out of state politics as much as he could. This was at its heart a domestic matter, though, and it would take more time and effort to achieve the same results abroad. Further, the longer this kind of information had to spread across the continent, the easier it was to distort the facts. It might be best to give up on a hope of international understanding from the start.

“Very well, let us move on to other topics,” Aura relented. Her gaze fell on the purple-robed elderly man at her right. “Now, old man, are you listening?”

With the conversation suddenly turning to him, the robed man, Head Court Mage Espiridion, replied leisurely, “Hmm, you wish to discuss Sir Zenjirou’s possessions... those jewels, yes? Fifty gold from the Twin Kingdoms for a single one is extraordinary.”

The topic moved from Princess Isabella’s behavior concerning Zenjirou to her extreme valuation of the marbles. As Espiridion agreed with Fabio, the queen nodded in satisfaction.

“I find it hard to believe she would ascribe them so great a value without cause. Do you have any thoughts?”

“Hmm,” the mage murmured, stroking his long beard. After a period of silence, he prefaced his statement with a disclaimer. “Your Majesty, this is a rather flimsy connection, but to what extent are you aware of the Gupta Kingdom’s Thunderwall Staff?”

Aura raised an eyebrow at the question but answered nonetheless. “The one involved in the Miracle of Barang Pass? It was a single magic tool that stalled the enemy’s forces, fifty thousand men, for half a year.”

“Quite right,” Espiridion acknowledged. “The neighboring countries of Kushal and Waltanna fought them. ’Twas in the early days of the great war.”

The country had been invaded from both sides, and standing on the brink of destruction, had protected one of their borders with the Thunderwall Staff while fighting off the forces at the other border simultaneously, successfully protecting the country.

The item was likely the most famous magic tool on the Southern Continent. “Thunder” was the Gupta family’s lineal magic, so the Thunderwall Staff was a magical item made through the collaboration of the Guptas’ powers and the Sharou family’s enchantment abilities. The Gupta Kingdom was located close to a vassal state of the Twin Kingdoms of Sharou-Gilbelle, so the creation of the item itself was not unusual.

“The crux of the issue is the time devoted to its construction,” Espiridion continued. “Disregarding the minor details, the staff was without a doubt constructed within the capital of the Twin Kingdoms.”

“Naturally. Unlike the Gilbelles, the Sharous leave the capital as rarely as they can,” Aura agreed.

Espiridion nodded deeply and continued “Which would imply that a member of the Gupta family went to the capital, remained there for a long enough time to create the staff, and returned to their own kingdom, weapon in hand. However, there was not enough time for that.”

“I have heard this too,” Fabio interjected with a tone of realization. “Even considering the swiftest dash drakes, their stay could not have been ten days.”

“I believe it was nine,” Espiridion confirmed, “yet that is assuming ideal conditions throughout the journey. Realistically, the length of their stay would have been around three days.”

As she listened to her confidants’ conversation, Aura searched her own memories. During the early days of the great war, she hadn’t even been born, so it was unsurprising that she didn’t know all the details. Even so, she understood the oddity here.

Normally, a magic tool was said to take at least a month to create, even for the simplest trifles. An opus like the Thunderwall Staff should have taken years. Even the Barrier Carpet she had lent to Zenjirou had taken close to two years during which a Capuan had remained in the Twin Kingdom’s capital, according to their records. If a simple item took around a month, and a national treasure took two years, it was preposterous that the Thunderwall Staff could have taken a mere few days.

Even with the knowledgeable Espiridion as the source, Aura couldn’t take that without question and expressed her doubts. “Might they not have simply sent one of their people in secret to have it created earlier on?”

The old mage took no offense at her suggestion and nodded. “That was what the countries officially announced. The theory is generally accepted across the continent. Even so, there remains a contrary theory, that the Sharou family possesses a ‘trick’ to shorten the time required if it comes to it.”

“I see,” Aura hummed, feeling the heart of the topic approach. These rumors of hidden tricks and magic that the royal families held never died away.

For example, there were those who claimed the Härkänen family’s soul searching magic had a spell that could turn a person into a puppet forevermore, while others claimed the northern desert had been created by the Dernburg family’s evergreen magic running amok. Still others insisted the region had been formed by the Makarov family’s creation magic, and so on.

There were such rumors concerning Aura’s own space-time magic that had drawn sarcastic laughs from her in the past. Allegedly, there existed spells based on her magic that would allow one to revive the dead.

If I had such powers, I would have revived one of my brothers before causing pain for my husband in his world.

It was ridiculous, yet Aura could not laugh it off. She was aware there was often a kernel of truth to such rumors.

Revival is technically possible if the dead are things like bugs or shellfish.

There was indeed a space-time magic spell that could wind back the clock. Of course, there were strict requirements to go along with it, such as the target of the spell having no magic of its own, the caster having witnessed the target at the time they wished to return them to, and being able to directly lay hands on them, so there were few practical uses for it.

Excluding basic life forms like insects and shellfish, the vast majority of living things possessed some mana. Therefore, it was effectively impossible to resurrect anyone using space-time magic. It was also impossible to repair broken magic tools. A broken sword or furniture that had no magic within it was doable, but at that point, it would be less effort to simply buy the item anew rather than using the abilities of the royal family to restore it.

Regardless, there was arguably some form of magic that could manage a resurrection, if only of insects. With that in mind, it was possible that other rumors held some similar grains of truth.

Aura ran her tongue over her lips before replying. “What is this trick you speak of, old man?”

“One is that the Sharou family can sacrifice one of their own to drastically reduce the time required to make such a tool. Coincidentally, a member of the family did die of illness around the time the staff was created.”

Aura cut through the suggestion at once. “Impossible. The Gupta Kingdom may well be close to the Twin Kingdoms and protect their northern border, but the Sharous would hardly allow one of their own to die for them.”

“I quite agree. So I believe that to be a simple coincidence. There is another rumor that has come to light, however. If the items to be enchanted fulfill very particular conditions, the time and labor required decrease dramatically.”

This finally felt like the answer to the question, after all the twists and turns. There was a short silence before Aura spoke in a low voice. “So, what form did this Thunderwall Staff take?”

“The item is a secret tool of their royal family, so this is, of course, simply hearsay. But I have heard the staff was constructed from a straight staff of wood... topped with a large, round crystal of distinct clarity.”

“I see. An intriguing rumor indeed.”

A wide grin appeared on Aura’s face in the candlelight... much like a feline baring its fangs.