Chapter 3 — Zenjirou’s Blunder

Princess Bona was here as Francesco’s minder. While Francesco was above her in terms of bloodline and age, and that made him their official representative, his intense personality had become well-known in the three days since he had reached the kingdom. Before long, no one would bring any actual business to him.

Inevitably, this meant that the difficult work fell on the young princess’s shoulders. Of course, it was not like the prince had shut himself away and stayed quiet. He did things like mistaking guests’ names at lunch, going to a ball and stepping on the hems of women’s dresses, and so on. Fortunately, his oddly innocent personality meant that nothing went too far, but apologies and even occasional compensation to maintain his reputation were necessary from time to time.

All that together meant that Bona didn’t have any spare time to enjoy the country’s culture around jewelry as she had been looking forward to doing, dogged by her duties as she was.

Someone was concerned about her circumstances, and that was none other than Queen Aura.

“So, what?” Zenjirou asked his wife, checking that he had understood her suggestion. “It looks like Princess Bona’s getting to the end of her tether, so you want to show her some kindness?”

He was already in his blue pajamas that night, lying on the bed.

“Indeed. It certainly appears that way. It is unfortunate, but Prince Francesco is too difficult to deal with. If the princess were to end up bedridden with the stress, our contact with their delegation would be closed.”

Aura was also wearing her nightclothes, sitting on the side of the bed. Her expression was slightly dull as she spoke. Half a month had passed since the Sharous’ arrival, and while Aura hadn’t interacted with them as much as Zenjirou, she had come to understand just how pointless it was to try to deal with Francesco directly. And it had nothing to do with whether his conduct was feigned or not; he was just difficult to come to terms with.

Unfortunately, Zenjirou wholeheartedly agreed. He had borne the brunt of their interactions with Francesco, so he knew that however bright and innocent the young man appeared, he was also a problem child down to his bones.

“Well, things are at an important juncture right now. I think you said the decision was finally made for the first tool?” he asked, lifting his head slightly from the bed.

“It was. We went with future compensation in the end. It should be rather impressive when it is done. Prince Francesco implied that adding to it would also be possible, although using only part of it will be impossible, of course. It should make it easier to use my mana much more efficiently,” she answered, turning to look at him.

Future compensation was, as the name implied, a spell that allowed someone to make up for insufficient mana by using their own from the future. It was generally a last resort, since to cast the upper tiers of space-time magic took ridiculous levels of mana, but creating a magic tool from it would allow for a completely new use. For example, Aura could use it and impart the next three days of her mana into it. For three days, she would then be entirely incapable of magic. That scenario was no different from the spell’s use up until now.

However, with the mana being stored inside a magic tool, Aura could choose exactly when to use it. On top of that, being able to add to it meant that she could imbue it with her mana on days where she had no plans to use magic, and then after a year, she would be able to invoke vast workings.

There were many restrictions, of course, like the minimum amount of mana being her daily allotment, so there would be days she could use no mana—only the imbuer would be able to use the mana, and a single use would see all of it consumed.

Regardless, the sheer utility of it was astounding. They had already given a marble to both of the royals to create it.

As he was lying down, Zenjirou propped himself up to speak. “So, with Prince Francesco starting on the tool, he’ll have some limits on his actions for a while?”

“Yes. For the next few days, Princess Bona will be released from her supervisory role. Fortunately, as far as I have heard, even the prince has immense pride in his creations, so he will go about it with extreme diligence and honesty. Therefore, I would like to enlist your aid in relaxing the princess.”

“What? I am another country’s royal, though. Won’t she get overwhelmed by that and it’ll have the opposite effect?”

Aura nodded at the obvious question. “True. However, she has barely begun her stay, and having nothing to do will likely see her sleeping the time away.”

“I think that’s a good way of using time off. Honestly, I’m jealous since I’ve had more work recently.”

“Liar. Such a person would never have voluntarily prepared a schedule and list of potential answers on the day before their duties.”

“Mrgh...” he grumbled, falling silent at his wife’s teasing.

Although he couldn’t really refute it, Zenjirou was somewhat aware of how grating he’d found it to spend days doing absolutely nothing after first arriving in this world.

“So, you will speak with Princess Bona on the first day and show her things from your world; your wedding ring and such.” Aura brought the conversation back on track after its slight diversion. “You may even allow her to borrow them for a time. I’m sure that she will spend the rest of her free time cheerfully honing her jewelry techniques. It seems to be her purpose in life, after all.”

“Ah, I get it.”

He could agree with her approach. Some of his coworkers back home had actually been similar. They would spend their precious few days off each month on their hobbies, and then show up for work with bloodshot eyes declaring themselves recharged.

Zenjirou couldn’t quite fathom it, not having any hobbies he was that invested in, but he couldn’t deny that it had seemed to help them. While it wasn’t as pronounced with Bona, if he considered her to be similar in personality, he could see where Aura was coming from.

“So, can I take my ring, some currency from home, and maybe a marble?”

“You would choose those items? I will leave the exact selection to you.”

“Got it; let’s get to sleep, then,” he said, judging the conversation to be over and deciding to play a little trick on her, moving across the bed to get behind her.

“Zenjirou?”

“Take this!”

He grabbed hold of her, wrapping his arms around her chest, and his legs around her waist, just like a koala holding onto a tree. He then rolled back, pulling her into the bed.

“One, two, go!”

“Ah, come on!”

Despite her apparent protest, there was a smile on her face. If she had been against it, he would have found it difficult to move her. Aura was stronger than him, and although she would never say it out loud, had not finished losing the extra weight from her pregnancy, so she was currently heavier than he was.

“Mmhh...”

Whether he was aware of this truth or not, Zenjirou nuzzled his face in the crook of her neck to feel even a little bit closer to her as he held her atop the bed.

“Honestly, what has gotten into you?” Aura asked, craning her neck to look at him as he held on.

“I mean, I’ve been pretty busy and getting back late, right?” he said with a smile. “I’ve barely been able to hold Zenkichi. It’s pretty lonely.”

“Oh, am I a substitute for Carlos?” she asked, adding a pout.

He smiled lovingly back at her as he answered. “I’d never be that rude. Besides, you’re completely different from him. You’re bigger, heavier—” he had intended to finish off with “softer,” but she interrupted him.

Aura had put up with things so far like a patient pet, but now she turned it around in an instant, breaking his hold and straddling him. Apparently, the topic of “weight” was somewhat taboo for her, what with her not having lost the extra pounds from the pregnancy.

“Aura...” he began, looking dazedly up at his smiling wife.

She gave a joking laugh. “All right. I’ll stand in for Carlos tonight. Papa, give me a hug.”

“Uh, I said you weren’t—”

She refused to listen and pitched forward onto his chest, putting her arms between him and the bed and holding on tight. Realizing that she was playing around, he laughed and decided to play along with the prank.

“Aha ha, come on, I don’t remember having such a big daughter,” he chuckled, wanting to get his arms back around her to stroke her hair or pat her back, but she had hers trapping his.

“Papa, I love youuu.”

“Thanks, I love you too, but could you ease up a bit? You’re holding on kind of tight...”

“Papaaa,” she repeated. She had to have heard him, but she showed no sign of relaxing her grip.

“Come on, Aura. Hey, let go a bit. It’s pretty tight here.”

Her huge, soft breasts pressed into him, and her legs wrapped tenderly around him as she kissed at his neck like a spoiled child. It should have been a bit of fun, his wife acting adorable like this. But for some reason...

“Aura, it’s actually starting to get painful now. Come on, let go a bit? I give, I give! My arms are going numb.”

“Hugs, Papa, hugs. I love youuu.”

Zenjirou had an ominous image of a tigress preying upon him that just wouldn’t leave his mind.

◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆

Several days later, Zenjirou was visiting the second of the southern buildings—the one that Bona was making use of. He had with him his ring, the wallet he had used in Japan, and a pouch with beads inside it.

I just can’t get used to the lax schedule here, he thought vacantly as he sipped at the tea he had been provided with after being told to wait.

Appointments in this world, considering the lack of mechanical clocks, were awfully laissez-faire with their actual start time, which was a shock for anyone coming from present-day Earth. Even aiming to arrive on time would result in a wait, and the person keeping you waiting would not consider it rude in the slightest. With the lack of accurate timekeeping, there was nothing to outright state whose sense of time was correct, so it was to be expected.

That said, there were limits.

This feels a little too late, he thought, discreetly lifting his sleeve to check the watch wound around his left wrist. 10:18 a.m.

It had been a little past nine when he had been shown to the room, so he had been waiting for over an hour now. Zenjirou was an aristocrat, the prince consort, no less. Even with the leeway allowed by this world’s standards, he had never been kept waiting for this long.

Hmm, I’d honestly have said that Princess Bona would be the type to hate keeping people waiting. Did I misjudge her? Or has something happened?

The normal practice in this sort of situation was to provide some kind of company to ensure that the guest wasn’t bored, but Zenjirou had declined at first because of the bother. Just as he began to regret that decision after having so much time on his hands, there was a knock at the door.

“Excuse me, Your Majesty; Princess Bona is ready for you now. I will guide you,” came the voice of the messenger, indicating that the meeting was finally about to start.

“I-I apologize for keeping you waiting. I cannot express my thanks enough for you going to the effort of visiting me.”

Zenjirou was lost for words at the sight of the girl bowing before him.

“Umm...Princess Bona, correct?” he asked, just to make sure.

“Y-Yes, I...am...” she said tremulously, hunching in on herself.

“Ah, well, what to say...” Zenjirou murmured, looking the girl up and down, aware of how rude he was being.

She was relatively slight, wearing a fairly plain light purple dress. She had a well-structured face, but one with no distinguishing characteristics. All of that was fine, and exactly as Bona had been every other time they had interacted.

The problem was farther up. All of her hair had been pulled back and tied up. If he absolutely had to describe it, he’d have called it a very low-tied ponytail, perhaps, although it was far from anything worth being called a hairstyle. It had just been pulled back and tied out of the way.

A closer inspection revealed that the tie wasn’t anything as refined as a ribbon. Rather, it was a thin hemp cord. Not everything had been contained either, and strands of her hair were sticking out at random all over her head. Frankly, it was shameful. Even though this was an unofficial visit and involved no one else, it was nowhere near suitable for the greeting of a foreign royal.

If she had only been slightly untidy, he would have pretended not to notice, but he couldn’t let it stand without comment.

“Um...could I hear the details?”

“You can,” the princess answered eventually with a resigned nod.

Once they had sat down across from one another, she explained the sequence of events, her pale skin flushing red right to her neck from the shame.

“I see,” Zenjirou said when she had finished.

Bona remained silent, her hands gripping each other atop her lap as she shook. He gave her a sympathetic look as he summarized the situation and asked to make sure he had understood everything.

“So, you prepared to greet me early this morning?”

“I did.”

“But then I was later than you thought I would be, so you had too much free time.”

“R-Right.”

“So you told yourself you would use just a little of your time to carry on with the engraving of a brooch that you had been working on last night.”

“I did,” she answered after a pause.

“Doing that made you think your hair was in the way, and your ribbon was too far, so you just used the string from around your tools to tie it up.”

“That was a mistake...”

“After that, you got engrossed in your engraving and carried on until the maid told you I had arrived.”

“I-I am truly so sorry.”

“You panicked and tried to do something about your hair, but you couldn’t get the cord out, and even the maids helping just made it worse. Time was running out and you were left with the choice of keeping me waiting even longer or just coming as you were. And finally, here we are.”

“I am deeply sorry!”

As the girl bowed in front of him, a thought came to Zenjirou.

I see what she’s like. There were lots of girls like this in the science department at college. Those kinda ditzy chicks who got wrapped up in their hobbies.

He remembered lots of people like Bona back home. Younger women often spent their limited time and money on fashion and hanging out with friends. A small portion who had specific hobbies would prioritize those hobbies over the rest. There were similar men, but they were much more common than women because of a definite difference between male and female hobbyists.

That difference lay in the image they presented to the world. Men could be unconcerned with fashion without much pushback as long as they maintained a certain level of hygiene, but society was far tougher on women who didn’t keep up with fashion trends. So much so that there was a saying that they were only allowed in public without makeup until they were twenty.

Therefore, to avoid the judgment of society, female hobbyists “had” to dedicate at least a portion of themselves to fashion and such. As a result, female hobbyists crafted a facade of normalcy that didn’t allow their true selves to shine through in short meetings. The girl in front of him now was one of those hobbyists without her camouflage.

What do I even do here? he asked himself, tempted to pretend not to see her shaking and just return to the inner palace. This was work, though, under the guise of an informal meeting, so he couldn’t choose to flee.

“Hmm, well I can hardly say it’s of no concern, but I certainly accept your apology. As long as you endeavor not to let it happen again, it’s fine.”

“Th-Thank you so much,” the girl bowed deeply once more, almost like a poor village girl being given leniency by the prefectural magistrate.

◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆

Still, thought Zenjirou to himself as he watched the princess’s eyes sparkle at his ring, the beads, and the Japanese coins in front of her, she apologized straight up rather than feigning illness or something, so I figured she’s too honest or stubborn for her own good. Maybe she’s actually way too into her hobbies.

He’d expected her to follow up with a formal apology and ask to defer the meeting. Instead, she had looked up at him through her eyelashes and spoken with a red face, saying, “So, if you would grant your forgiveness, would it be acceptable to have our conversation now?”

“Huh? Ah, yes, we can.”

Zenjirou’s answer was, he had to admit, one given half reflexively before he’d been able to parse the reversal of his expectations.

Her appearance was a real source of dissonance; everything below her neck was fine, the light and sleeveless dress covering her nicely, but her hair was a mess as she perused the rings and beads on the table.

“Amazing. These transparent grains are almost exactly the same size. The hole in the middle is so tiny as well...”

The look in her eyes was different from the usual sparkle a woman would get when looking at jewelry. She studied the beads with a craftsman’s eye, and Zenjirou observed wordlessly. Bona had her neck craned over the table, so he was left looking at the crown of her head.

Hmm, her hair’s a mess, but it’s still sparkling with silver dust. I guess it figures... She had gotten ready to meet me before getting distracted... Huh?

He suddenly noticed pieces of metal too big to be called dust in her hair. They were longer and spiraled, almost like the shavings from using a chisel on wood.

Chisel shavings? She was just doing some engraving, right? Maybe...

His thoughts flowed one after another upon noticing that. Bona’s hair was always sparkling with the silver dust and was straight for about half its length before breaking out into a wave. Was it his imagination that that seemed to be where her hair had been pulled out of the way?

Maybe her “silvered half wave” style is to disguise the kinks in her hair from tying it all up, and to hide the scraps of metal?

It was likely not quite as bad as he imagined, but there was a fair chance that the style had come about to make sure she didn’t need to deal with the metal and twisted hair if it came down to it.

She’d had the same hairstyle every time he remembered seeing her—the partially straight, partially wavy combination with silver dust shining in her locks. It wasn’t strange that she would have kept her hair in the same style, but it was more common for women her age to change their style based on the type of event they were attending and the dress they were wearing. That thought certainly lent some credence to his idea.

“Incredible. The coins are all the same size and shape. Your Majesty, could I request the details?” she eventually asked, looking at the objects no longer as she met his gaze.

“Very well. The details I know, at least. As I said before, such things are far from my specialty, so I do not think I can tell you as much as you hope.”

“Not at all; thank you. Even the smallest amount of information could be an inspiration.”

Well, trying to figure out her hairstyle won’t do either of us any good, he decided, choosing to look away and continue the conversation. Now that he was no longer focused on finding clues about her hairstyle, their discussion went more smoothly.

“I see... Using diamonds to shape the diamonds? It is extremely simple, but I had never thought of it. There are still the issues of powdering the diamonds and then applying that powder to a file, but it may be possible to work with diamonds without magic.”

You could practically hear the excitement and happiness in her smile, prompting Zenjirou to smile back.

“I hope it proves to be helpful, but can you not use magic to work diamonds? I had heard that skilled earth mages could do so.”

“I cannot,” she answered his ignorant question with a troubled smile. “I have confidence in my precision with earth magic, but I am far from having enough mana to affect diamonds with my spells. Conversely, those who possess the mana to do so often lack precise control, so only the true geniuses of magic who can overcome that paradox are able to refine diamonds that way. While he has not actually done so, I believe Prince Francesco would be capable of it.”

“Oh, now that is impressive,” Zenjirou said, not acting, truly surprised by her high estimation of his skills. As far as he knew, the only people in Capua who could beat Bona in terms of mana capacity were Aura and the head mage, Espiridion.

This was all ignoring baby Carlos Zenkichi, of course.

Aura was also one of those typically powerful mages who had difficulty with precision and so would be unable to put it into practice. Espiridion boasted more mana than the average royal, but he still had considerably less than Aura, so he may not have had sufficient mana for such a task. That implied just how skilled a mage Francesco was.

Bona continued, unable to contain her mixed feelings. “As you may be aware, he certainly has his...well, problems. But he is a first-rate mage, without a doubt. While I believe I would be slightly superior in my fine control, it would be no contest in terms of mana capacity. In truth, it is rather astounding that someone with such vast reserves would only be slightly less precise than me with its application,” she said praisingly.

Although she may not have been aware of it herself, the same praise could have been applied to her, if not quite to the same extent. By the metrics of bloodline mages, Bona had a meager portion of mana amongst royals, but it was still a large amount compared to normal mages.

Despite that, she claimed precision to be her forte, so she had significant skill herself. Her self-evaluation was either unreasonably low or she was trying to avoid coming across as overly prideful. Either way, she changed the topic and picked the beads up from the table.

“These are intriguing. Joining them on a thread would make something special. The same kind of concept exists in the traditional crafts of my home, but the practice uses colored stones with holes, so the shapes do not match, and no two of the same color exist. There are none so small as these either, so they can only be used for rather bulky bracelets and necklaces. In comparison, there are many of the same size and shape here, so it would make an extremely beautiful item.”

“Indeed, experts make many such things, rings, brooches, and bracelets, for example. There are many different items you can create, so why not attempt it yourself?”

The most common use for them recently was making phone straps, but that would be hard to explain, so he refrained.

“I can?! Thank you!”

The conversation continued peacefully, both of them unconsciously growing closer.

◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆

It had been Aura’s concern before, but Zenjirou and Bona were certainly compatible.

Zenjirou had been born as a normal person in modern Japan and risen to the rank of prince consort somehow, while Bona had been born as a lowly noble and been made a royal by awakening their bloodline magic.

Beyond that, both were fundamentally diligent people and had the intelligence to understand their position and the logic to act appropriately. Essentially, they could feel sympathy for one another because—regardless of any slight differences—they had both taken higher positions than they had been born into and suffered for it.

“Huh? So you lived with your parents until you were ten?” he asked her.

“I did; that was when I was recognized as royalty. Until then, I had just been an ordinary lower noble’s eldest daughter. My parents had had high hopes for me due to the amount of mana I possessed, though.”

“I see. I imagine it must have been quite a surprise when it happened.”

“Like you wouldn’t believe. It took days before it felt real. For my family and me.”

From what he had heard, if a child of a high-ranking family exhibited mana to rival royalty, they were investigated for any sign of bloodline magic, but Bona’s family had been too low-ranked for that. Therefore, she had remained undiscovered until she was ten. Her appearance had prompted a faint hope among the middle-class nobles that their child might be similar, but unfortunately, it seemed that lightning would only strike once.

“Does that mean that you learned enchantment within six years? I suppose jewelling as well?”

Bona answered his impressed question with an embarrassed smile containing a mix of humility and pride.

“I did. It was rather difficult, but learning the required etiquette was far more so. I might have been a low-ranking noble, but the etiquette for royalty is very different.”

“I get what you mean,” Zenjirou agreed reflexively and wholeheartedly.

“In comparison, while learning enchantment and jewelcrafting was difficult, it was still interesting and fulfilling. Of course, I have a long way to go yet.”

She had been studying since she was ten and was now sixteen, so in six years she had learned enough to be one of the foremost craftswomen, which was worth significant praise. The Sharou branch families had younger skilled enchanters, jewelers, and smiths, but they had been trained their entire lives and had a head start over Bona.

At that thought, an oddity came to mind for Zenjirou.

“So, what of Prince Francesco?”

“He was seen as a first-class enchanter at twenty. He is skilled with jewelling and weaponsmithing also, so he is definitely a preeminent talent in those fields.”

Her smile had a slight tinge of jealousy, but Zenjirou wasn’t in a state to notice.

I was right! That means Prince Francesco was taught as a branch member from the beginning.

Unlike the branch members, royals in the direct line were trained heavily in enchanting but were not required to learn jewelry or weapon crafting. Learning magic was hardly an overnight process, but it took even more time to learn how to make jewelry and weapons. They were skills you developed over years of working with silver and steel.

Direct members of the royal family would be taking on responsibility for the country, so they couldn’t spare the time for that; there were more important things to be learning with their time. However, Francesco was young and not only a skilled enchanter but an accomplished jeweler and weaponsmith. Therefore, unless he was an utter genius, it would have required all his time to master those skills.

That means that he had no claim on the throne since he could speak, right? So it can’t be because he’s an idiot.

If people gave up on a child that had just come into its own as “unintelligent,” it would be those very people who the adjective truly applied to. There was almost certainly some secret related to his birth.

I’ll report it to Aura later.

“It sounds like Prince Francesco has superlative skills,” he deflected while noting that to himself. He sounded rather distracted, with his concentration mostly on his own thoughts, but fortunately, Bona didn’t seem to notice.

“Indeed, his skill level is certainly my goal as an enchanter. Still, this ring absolutely refuses to be ignored. The more I look, the more astounding it appears. The three completely identical diamonds are naturally worthy of note, but the fine details in the setting are on another level. Just how was such a fine pattern created?”

Zenjirou gratefully took advantage of her attention moving back to the rings.

“That mesh pattern actually repeats the same number of times,” he told her, simply parroting what the salesclerk had told him, but her surprise was obvious.

“Really? One, two, three...”

She held the ring up to her face with the first two fingers of her right hand and began doing her best to count the lines in the pattern around the setting, though the pattern was too fine for one to do so with the naked eye. Watching her try regardless prompted an unnecessary kindness in Zenjirou. It was a blessing for Bona that he had included coins with the things he had brought, and also a curse for himself.

Ah, right, he thought, his usual wariness having waned enough that he simply put his ideas into practice without any further consideration. “Excuse me,” he said as he used his left hand to pluck a five yen coin from the table at the same time as he put a droplet of water on his right pinky finger, moving it to the hole in the coin.

“Hm, no good, it ended up concave. One more... Great, that should work.”

After a few false starts, things went according to plan, and the hole in the coin became home to a small convex lens bulging from its center.

“Mm, right, that’s done. Princess Bona, use this; it should be slightly easier to see with. Take it gently and look through the hole at what you want to view.”

“Huh, okay.”

She had been straining her eyes to count the lines and now followed Zenjirou’s guidance and looked through the coin at the ring. Her reaction was dramatic.

“Huh? What?! What is this?!” she cried out in surprise at her first glimpse of the world through a convex lens.

He had expected that kind of reaction, and it was possible his happiness at it made him get carried away.

“It’s a water lens. It uses refraction to make things look bigger. The riverbed looks warped when you see it through the water, right? It’s the same thing.”

“Huh? Simply looking through water makes things this big?”

“It isn’t just water. The shape is important. It’s this disc shape, where it bulges out in the middle, then gets thinner as you move to the edges.”

Bona listened hungrily to his explanation and then put her index finger into the water and began incanting as her breath grew slightly harsh with excitement.

“Hmmm...perhaps like this? I command the water in this container to gather at my finger and take the form I desire. As compensation, I present 156 offerings of mana to the spirits of water.”

“Ah?!”

This time, it was Zenjirou’s turn to cry out.

The water in the jug writhed like slime, and then part of it immediately gathered together in a magnifying glass shape atop her finger.

“Ah, it worked. This is incredible, truly, Your Majesty!” she cried out innocently, forgetting her manners as she saw the simple water lens she had made with her own magic.

For his part, Zenjirou couldn’t muster a response.

Damn, I really screwed up this time! he finally realized, feeling a chill run down his back too late.

Bona didn’t notice the look on his face as she excitedly peered at the enlarged wood grain of the table. As she did so, however, the magic ran out.

“Ah!” she cried as the spell ran its course and the lens lost its form and fell upon the table with a splash.

“My apologies for the rudeness. I suppose normal magic lacks the duration to be effective for this. Besides, the freeform manipulation of water requires too much mana. If I could make it into some kind of magic tool... Your Majesty, thank you so much!”

As one would expect, the princess’s thoughts went in exactly the direction he had feared without any further prompting: to create a spell for forming lenses, then make it into a magic tool. This would lead to The Twin Kingdoms having a monopoly on the momentous discovery of lenses.

Damn, this is a real fuckup. I’ll need to confess to Aura and come up with some kind of contingency plan.

“Not at all; I just hope it was useful,” was all he could manage in the face of his unprecedented blunder.

◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆

That night, once he had returned to the inner palace, he revealed the entire sequence of events that had taken place during their meeting, a meek expression on his face as he delivered his report.

He had felt that their room under the AC was not a suitable venue for such a serious discussion, so they were once again sitting on opposing sofas in the living room.

“Hmm. I think you did well to report on Princess Bona’s surprising appearance and the secret involved in Prince Francesco’s birth, but what are you so concerned about? Would it truly be so much of a problem if the Twin Kingdoms were to develop these water lenses?” Aura asked in puzzlement, crossing her legs after listening to her husband’s repentant report.

This reaction was something Zenjirou had more or less expected. Certainly, a single convex lens could only be used as a magnifying glass, so it didn’t seem to be such a threat. The worst the development would be was a “convenience” for people like Bona who worked with small and delicate objects.

Currently, despite her enthusiastic reaction, Bona herself seemed to have no suspicions of the possibilities being anything more, appearing to see it as nothing strange, taught to her freely through his generosity.

But the possibilities lenses offered were not so benign—something Zenjirou was all too aware of. His regret was due to leaking that information, despite knowing the implications, to someone he should not have in a position of influence.

He picked up a five-yen coin and began his explanation again.

“Right, take a close look: this is what I showed Princess Bona. A convex lens. It bulges at the middle and gets thinner towards the edge.”

“Hmm, I see. It does indeed make things on the other side bigger. Convenient,” Aura nodded after doing as he’d asked, but she remained unconcerned.

Zenjirou then flicked out the water and replaced it with a smaller amount.

“And this is a concave lens. It’s the opposite; the middle is the thinnest part and it gets thicker at the edges. Things look smaller through it as well, right?”

“They certainly do, but what use is this?”

Zenjirou asked her to wait in response to her doubtful expression before standing and heading for a corner of the room. There was a box there that was filled with things he had brought from Earth but didn’t use on a daily basis.

“I’m sure it was around here... Right, here we go!”

After rummaging around, he pulled something out that was wrapped in a gaudy cloth of three colors: blue, white, and red.

“This takes me back,” he reminisced. “They were for matches at university. I got rid of the replica uniform and phone strap when I started work, but I kept the scarf and opera glasses.”

Technically, only the scarf was university branded, and the opera glasses were just common for watching the matches, but that wasn’t something that needed bringing up. He unwrapped the terry-cloth scarf with “YOKOHAMA” written on it in the Latin alphabet and put it back in the box before carrying the folding binoculars to his waiting wife.

“Zenjirou?”

“Here, look through these. They use both concave and convex lenses. Well, just the two types of lens won’t make something this clear; the image would be inverted, but I’m sure this will show you how serious it is.”

He unfolded them and passed them to Aura after adjusting the focus. The late hour meant that they couldn’t look outside, but the room was huge, and the glasses only magnified things by about three times. The room was sufficient to show their efficacy.

“What?! What is this?!” Aura exclaimed after following his instructions, as surprised as he had expected.

“Those only magnify things by three times, but I’m sure you can get greater magnification depending on the lenses you use. Princess Bona only knows about convex lenses now, and I doubt she would immediately think of combining the two types, but it is technically possible for her to do so right now.”

Indeed, there had been a considerable delay on Earth between the discovery of lenses and their combination into microscopes and telescopes. With that in mind, they perhaps need not be so panicked, but optimism could be dangerous.

Aura looked through the binoculars several times, thinking silently. This was a piece of equipment that could be used to magnify distant places. The core of the device was the set of lenses, and if they managed to create a magic tool that produced them, the Twin Kingdoms would have a monopoly on the device.

Finally coming to a conclusion, his wife’s expression shifted to the harshest he had seen from her yet.

“A blunder indeed.”

“Yeah, sorry.”

She shook out her red hair and sighed at her sincerely remorseful husband.

“It may be too much to simply write off. Realistically, it puts our response as negotiating for preferential access to whatever magic tool they develop. At best, we could have the enchantment magic in your blood and also establish Capua as a manufacturer.”

While he had expected it, Zenjirou was reluctant for the conversation to move in that direction and offered his own suggestion.

“We could also focus more efforts on glass manufacturing. These binoculars are made from strengthened plastic, but lenses are made mainly from glass in my world. So if we can establish an industry to work with glass, we could also train craftsmen to produce lenses and work their magic tool into just a high-class item.”

He had been considering how to deal with this problem since he had made the mistake, so his suggestion was delivered fluently.

“I see. I can understand the core of the suggestion. Before anything else, however, we need to deal with you,” she declared. “You are awfully lacking in caution where Princess Bona is concerned; are you aware of this?”

Zenjirou clammed up at the sharp query. It was an accusation of being negligent with a specific woman, coming from his wife, so he felt immensely guilty even without having done anything to be guilty of. Being aware that the accusation was a fact made him feel even more so.

His voice wasn’t particularly steady, but he held her gaze as he answered. “Uhh, well, I guess, yeah, I am, maybe? I don’t know how to put it; she’s just really easy to speak with. We’re sort of on the same wavelength... I guess kind of well-matched...”

“Hmm...”

The queen rested her chin in her hand at her husband’s confession. His awareness of it was the silver lining here. Because of his acknowledgment, her warning would not be mistaken as being driven by jealousy.

At that point, she herself realized that she was afraid of making him hate her, and she gave herself a mocking smile in the privacy of her mind. Of course, no queen would allow such thoughts to show on her face.

“If you are aware of it, that makes things much simpler. I apologize, Zenjirou, but from now on, you are not to meet with Princess Bona on your own. Such errors cannot be allowed to happen again unintentionally, even if there is no such intent on your part or malice on hers, understood?” she asked, maintaining her grave expression.

The judgment was not one that weighed particularly heavily on Zenjirou. There were certainly times where he felt they got along well, and he enjoyed their conversations, but that national interest came first.

“Sure, got it. I’ll keep our interactions to circumstances where she is acting as Prince Francesco’s minder.”

“I am sorry, Zenjirou, but please do. I have to apologize for changing my tune so drastically when I was the one who set up the meeting in the first place.”

“It’s fine; don’t worry about it,” he told her. “It might have ended up like this now, but there were no red flags when you first made the decision, and most of it was because I let my guard down. Honestly, I should be the one apologizing.”

“Hm, very well.”

The queen let out the tiniest sigh of relief at how calmly he took it.

◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆

Late that night, once she was sure her husband was sleeping soundly beside her, Aura quietly slipped from their bed and moved next door to the living room. She fumbled in the dark until she found the switch for the lamp. Clicking it on, she grunted slightly at the harsh white light dazzling her night-adjusted eyes. She blinked several times to let her eyes grow accustomed, then a knock came quietly at the door.

“Oh, you are here. Enter,” she answered.

“Thank you, excuse me,” came the answer, as her visitor stepped into the room. It was a maid with striking blonde hair, the likes of which were rarely seen in Capua. Officially, she was nothing more than one of the maids of the inner palace, but in truth, she was an important part of the information network between the maids of the inner and royal palaces. She was one of Aura’s most trusted subordinates, on the same level as Fabio and Espiridion.

Still clad in her light nightclothes, Aura sat on the leather-covered sofa and spoke casually.

“Give your report.”

“At once. According to the maids assigned to Princess Bona, she showed no sign of attempting seduction.”

“I see,” answered Aura, resting her chin in a cupped hand and thinking. “So does that mean she truly has no personal ulterior motive?”

They were resigned to the fact that the Sharou family would be aiming for Zenjirou’s bloodline. She had been concerned that while their first choice would be to go after Zenjirou when he was visiting the Twin Kingdoms after learning teleportation magic, they might have Bona move on him while she was here as well. But there had been no reports of that thus far.

Aura had a particular touch of worry that Bona might have done so when faced with the temptation of having her target alone in her temporary residence, and yet no such thing had been reported.

“However, my husband is awfully familiar with her, despite that. Is this just a coincidence? Surely the distant Twin Kingdoms cannot be aware of his preferences...”

In truth, even many of the nobles trying to push a concubine on Zenjirou didn’t seem to understand his type either. The one thing they were certain of was that he was very close with Aura, but she and Bona had nothing in common.

Every conclusion seemed unlikely. However, while she didn’t want to claim anything illogical like “women’s intuition,” she was concerned about how close Bona and Zenjirou were. Her husband had never been so open with Octavia, famed as the flower of the court, or with Fatima Guillén, who was full of youth and confidence, or even any of the maids he interacted with on a daily basis.

If she were to admit it, she was aware that underneath her wariness were the ugly emotions of a jealous wife. Fortunately, her position as queen also made it acceptable to place limits on the relationship between her husband and a foreign princess. While it was impossible to prevent him from taking a concubine in the future, she should definitely avoid the first such woman being a foreign princess.

“Very well,” she decided eventually, “tell the maids to report any major changes. However, alerting the guests and putting them on guard is the biggest risk, so nothing outside of the regular reports is necessary. Fundamentally, they are to behave as loyal maids and listen to what Princess Bona says,” she instructed, telling herself that this was the correct course of action even while being aware that her feelings were the main reason for them.

The maid smiled for a moment at the queen’s unusually womanly behavior but smoothed her expression before she was noticed.

“I shall do so,” she said, her bow sending her long blonde hair swaying before she quietly withdrew.