Chapter 4 — The Mysteries of the Soul of Language

The electronic tones playing from the side of Zenjirou’s pillow woke him from his slumber.

“N...ngh?”

Still half-dreaming, he reached out and groped around for his phone, shutting off the alarm before bringing it to his face and checking the time.

5:30 AM.

It was rather early for an office worker in modern Japan but relatively late for a person of this world. In a civilization with only natural flames for illumination for the most part, daylight hours were precious. It was the norm for locals to rise with the sun at just past four in the morning, and sleeping in until this hour was certainly a sign of luxury.

For Zenjirou, though, there was no need to set his alarm for such an early hour. He had lamps to light up the night with and no pressing work to do during the day. There was only one reason he used his alarm to wake up even earlier than when he had been an office worker. It was so that he didn’t miss his wife, Aura, in the mornings. After all, going to bed together but waking up after she had already left for work would have been a little lonely.

He put his phone back and slid over to the left of the bed where Aura’s defenseless form lay, sleeping peacefully. It was the tenth day since they had consummated their marriage.

Their habit was to go to sleep just as they were once they’d finished devoting themselves to their marital duties and wiping themselves off with a damp towel, so the two of them were currently without a stitch of clothing. Technically, they had a thin blanket covering them, but even the insubstantial cloth felt heavy given how hot the Capuan nights were.

He curled his arm around the queen half-unconsciously, lightly brushing his hand against her back. The sensation of her breath on his chest and the warmth from her body on his hand brought their actions from each night to mind.

“Aura...”

He had slept with this woman. That reality had quickly formed a sense of affection for her. He held her to him, her naked breasts pressing against his own chest as he lovingly ran a hand through his beloved wife’s long red hair.

Of course, that inevitably led to her waking up.

“Ng... ah...? Zenjirou?”

Having awoken, she let herself relax into his arms, closing in on his body and rubbing her head against his neck, purring like a cat being stroked.

Actually, it’s more like I managed to win over a lioness or tigress rather than a cat.

Zenjirou closed his eyes in delight at the pleasant, ticklish sensation on his neck, tightening his grip around her. People often likened women to cats, but Aura’s forcefulness didn’t mesh with a comparison to such a gentle creature. Even a leopard wasn’t a good enough reference. She was an apex predator ruling over all she surveyed.

The two of them reveled in each other’s warmth for a while before Aura slipped from his arms and left the bed. Baring her nude form liberally, a body ripe where it should be, and likewise taut, she took a towel from a pail of water by the bed and wiped down her body.

“Phew...”

While they did dry themselves off once they finished the act each night, the blazing temperatures meant that a man and woman sharing a bed would continue to sweat unpleasantly.

“Once you’re done, pass it here, I need to clean off too,” Zenjirou noted, climbing from the bed, still naked, and approaching her. He was rather paler than his wife.

“Very well. Shall I wipe you off myself, Husband?”

Zenjirou was about to give in to the teasing offer, but shook his head. “That’s really tempting, but it’s too tempting and I don’t think I’d be able to stop halfway through. Although if we could go all the way this morning, I’d leap at the chance.”

“A shame. Unfortunately, I have work lined up, so I lack the time for that. My apologies, but we must wait until tonight.”

While she had been rather at his mercy on their first night, she’d quickly adapted to sex in the ten days since and could now comfortably banter with him. She finished wiping off and dunked the towel in the water before wringing it out and tossing it over.

“Got it. I’ll be looking forward to it all day. Actually, what are we doing today? Food-wise?” he asked as he dried himself off.

“Well, it seems I won’t have the time to come to the inner palace for breakfast or lunch. If things go well then I may be able to take dinner here. If you wish to eat together, it would be possible for you to come out to the palace,” she said as she dressed, looking searchingly at him.

If I did that, I might well bump into a noble other than Aura. I haven’t got a clue right now, and if I talked to them carelessly, I might cause some real problems for her, he thought rapidly in response to her gaze.

Her strong, confident personality made it easy to forget, but given the society’s patriarchal nature, her rule was by no means absolute. Even if it was unlikely, Zenjirou accidentally saying something that could be seen as criticism or dissatisfaction with his wife would be a rather large impediment for her.

I might be overthinking it, but better safe than sorry.

“Nah, it’s too much hassle to go all that way. I’ll just laze around here. Oh, I would like to at least learn enough to avoid any cultural embarrassment soon. I won’t necessarily be able to stay inside all the time.” That was his way of telling her that he’d do as much as he could to avoid hindering her.

“I see,” she said, reading his intentions perfectly and giving him a loving smile. “In that case, I shall do my utmost to finish all of my business before the evening meal. You may feel lonely being on your own until tonight, but bear with it. As far as manners and the like go, I would be happy to teach you myself if I only had the time. Very well, I shall arrange for someone suitable to assist you,” she assured him.

“My bad, sorry to be such a bother.”

“Worry not, the inconveniences are of my own making.”

Aura finally finished dressing, and the two of them approached each other as one.

“I shall see you later, Husband.”

“Yeah, have a good day.”

This was a real role reversal, he thought, and those thoughts made their way to his face in a wry grin as the couple exchanged a brief kiss. Then Zenjirou watched his wife head out to take on her queenly duties with a smile.

“Now then, what to do today?”

Having seen her off, Zenjirou was wearing a T-shirt and boxers from his old world, and a pair of baggy white pants that were common in this world as he relaxed on the sofa. He’d been rather busy up until then, what with the wedding and getting the generator set up, so his full-blown ‘do-nothing lifestyle’ finally began now. He might eventually find himself with too much free time on his hands, but for the moment at least, he had a mountain of things that he wanted to do.

As an office worker, he had merely amassed DVDs, never having found the time to watch any of them, and the same went for games, most of which he had never even unwrapped.

He’d continued to buy digital albums by his favorite bands and singers more out of habit than anything since university, but he only listened to music during his commute. There were still lots of tracks he’d never gotten around to hearing.

“I guess I’ll start with the TV shows. Ah, but if I start now, I’ll be interrupted by breakfast.”

Once breakfast arrived, a maid assigned to the inner palace would come and inform him. He was the lord of this palace now, so he could alter the morning schedule if the fancy took him, but he knew he shouldn’t throw his weight around carelessly. After all, this world didn’t even have gas stoves or running water, let alone electrical appliances. Having breakfast ahead of schedule would mean that the servants needed to gather the necessary water in less time. Delaying it would mean they’d need to start over to make everything fresh for the new serving time. You couldn’t just nuke premade meals in the microwave like you could in Japan.

“And anyway, I’ve just married into this... getting a bad rep with the workers is way too risky. How much have I got left from what I brought?”

Somewhat peckish, he opened up the fridge and peered inside. Thankfully, the huge machine was working just fine with the power it was pulling from the micro-generator.

The contents currently consisted of fruit and alcohol from this world, and the little bit of food that he’d brought from back home. Of course, the majority of his remaining food was the chocolate, hardtack, beef jerky, biscuits, and so on that he’d stuffed into his rucksack in case something unforeseen happened during the summoning, so there was no real point in keeping it in the fridge.

Other than that, he had the dried plums his aunt made for him to ‘take abroad’ (as she believed he was doing), the Shinshuu Soba noodles that his uncle had recommended, and the dipping sauce for them as well.

“The chocolate would be a bit of a waste. From what Aura said, they don’t even know the cacao plant, so I’ll probably never be able to have it again. At least they have plenty of sugar, but it looks like it’s pretty unrefined dark stuff.”

The substance was probably what they extracted and filtered from sugarcane or another similar plant with high sugar content. It tasted peculiar to Zenjirou, who was used to standard granulated sugar. He’d saved recipes for cakes, cookies, crème caramel, and so on to his computer, but with the types of sugar and flour available here, he doubted he’d be able to make anything decent.

He hadn’t brought a mixer or microwave either, so he wouldn’t be able to make sweets as easily as back home. If he were to try, he’d pretty much have to call up the person responsible for the kitchens, explain the general method and leave them to it.

He’d meant to gather as much as he possibly could during his month of preparations, but as he now began his new life in this world, there were a multitude of things he lamented not bringing. Chief among them was glass for the windows.

Zenjirou threw open the shutters, letting the hot outside air blow in mercilessly. He looked over at the corner of the room where his air conditioner was sitting and groaned.

“I completely missed that. You’ve always got rooms with closed windows in Japan, so I never even thought...”

With no glass in the windows, even if he did install the unit, it probably wouldn’t be able to maintain the pleasant temperature he desired. With the windows open, an air conditioner was less than half as effective at best.

Unfortunately, shutting them all, blocking out the light and relying on the lamps alone was a tad unhealthy, and even if he did that, the wooden shutters weren’t as airtight as glass windows built to modern standards. The room was also huge, so he wondered how much the domestic air conditioner would even be able to lower the temperature.

“I’d probably fail at installing it anyway, so I guess I’ll just give up on it,” he decided with a sigh, putting the problems of glass and air conditioning out of his mind for the time being.

Fortunately, placing a mass of ice in front of a fan ended up working much better than he’d expected for cooling.

“Well, whatever. Complaining isn’t gonna help, so I’ll just have fun in spite of it.”

His decision made, Zenjirou pulled a storage bag of DVDs out from under the TV and started choosing what he’d like to watch.

“Hmm, how far did I get with this? I think I saw until Solar Car got to the island with the bullfights? And it was the third VS 100 Detective Chase I watched last?”

◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆

While Zenjirou was lolling about watching TV in front of a fan and a hunk of ice, his wife was in the office performing her work as a queen.

Being a head of state, most of that work revolved around meetings and audiences. Heading both the government and army, as no one was currently filling the role of Prime Minister or Marshall, her days were quite busy.

The free time she had between each meeting and audience was used to read reports she’d been given. As she inspected the sheaf of drake parchment (parchment made from treated dash drake hides), Fabio spoke from where he was standing at her side.

“Your Majesty, it is almost time.”

Aura looked up from the parchment at the monotonous report from the slender-faced man. “Hm? Ah, already. Who is next?”

Time was measured much more loosely in this world than in modern Japan considering their lack of timepieces, but matters in the palace were divided into quarters of an hour, or fifteen minutes. As the majority of her work needed to be finished while the sun was up, the queen was as busy as the average politician in Japan during the day.

“Your next appointment is with Commander Pujol Guillén of the Knights.”

Hearing that name, an unmistakable grimace made its way across her face. He’d been one of the two candidates for her husband before Zenjirou was summoned. He was indeed a capable soldier, with many successes under his belt in the recent war despite his youth. But in Aura’s estimation he was far too ambitious, and so was unsuited to be her partner.

Just what would the man who had the position of ‘The Queen’s Husband’ within his grasp, only to have it torn from him by someone from another world, have to say to her now? Her imagination alone was enough to make her sigh.

“Your Majesty, those who hold the rank of commander or cabinet minister have a right to request a direct audience with the monarch. Lord Pujol is merely exercising a legitimate right of his.”

Aura’s irritation grew at the calmness of his voice, but logically, she knew that Fabio was correct. “I am aware. Fine, send him in,” she ordered in her usual voice and with a dignified expression, having taken a deep breath to ease her anger.

“Aura, Your Majesty. First, allow me to offer my congratulations on your marriage.”

“My thanks, Sir Pujol. It heartens me to hear that from you. Though we are not to be together as man and wife, I hope to maintain our relationship as sovereign and retainer well into the future.”

“Your praise honors me, ma’am.”

This beginning to their conversation was blatant lip service.

Pujol Guillén could be described as a stereotypical military man. He stood a head taller than Aura, who was already tall for a woman. He had a chiseled, fearless face and the parts of his arms visible below his half-sleeves were littered with scars. The palms of his huge, glove-like hands also had visible calluses from wielding a sword.

If you were to ask someone who was more suitable to be Aura’s spouse based on looks, every single person would be likely to say it was Pujol. He fit better with her visually, his black hair and dark skin complementing with her own red hair and tawny complexion. His height was better suited to her as well, taller than average for a man in the same way she was tall compared to most women.

He was a skilled soldier and a capable commander, a war hero with many victories to boast of. But this hero had lost the chance to marry the queen.

He now looked at his liege and spoke bluntly. “Your Majesty, I believe you are aware, but I have a younger sister. She is weakly connected, much like myself, but she does have the blood of royalty in her veins, significant mana, and the grace and decorum to conduct herself in public. What would your thoughts be on having her become Sir Zenjirou’s concubine to restore the blood of the royal family?”

Aura desperately suppressed the urge to hold her head in her hands in the face of this ambitious man’s sudden and obvious proposal. This was the reason. This all-too-clear ambition was why he was extremely unsuited to be her husband, regardless of his military exploits.

Aura didn’t have a personality that lent itself well to settling, so if they had married, there was a strong possibility that the Capua Kingdom would have been split into factions supporting each of them, and it would have created a rift.

Even regardless of that, bringing up concubines to a newly-married woman showed an absolute lack of consideration.

“Hmm, intriguing. And what of your sister’s thoughts?” she asked without breaking her composure.

Pujol looked at Aura strangely. “I am the head of the Guillén family.”

He wasn’t wrong, of course. Marriages for women were decided by the head of their families. He was merely making a call in accordance with the country’s traditions.

If anything, it was Aura who had strayed from those traditions by having maintained her queenly disposition. Then again, most family heads did take their daughter’s and sister’s feelings into account to a certain extent when making such decisions. But it appeared that Pujol was taking only his own circumstances into account.

Realizing that the conversation was going in the wrong direction, Aura smiled impassively and moved to change course. “I see. But my husband has only just arrived in this world. He still needs to adjust, both mentally and physically. He is at his limit with me alone.”

Pujol narrowed his eyes sharply at her flat rejection. “And is that something Sir Zenjirou has said himself?”

Aura answered rather more haughtily than necessary at her subordinate’s rudeness, annoyed that he would question his queen. “Of course. Do you doubt my words?”

“Not at all. Excuse me. However, I do wish to offer my greetings directly to Sir Zenjirou, as one titled noble to another. Would you convey that to him clearly?”

“Very well. I shall convey each and every word to my husband.”

“Please do,” he said, giving a knight’s salute with his right fist to his left shoulder before withdrawing from the office.

Once she was sure the ambitious commander had left, Aura let out a deep sigh.

“Honestly. His own marriage attempt failed and now he sends out his sister. His attitude is as brazen as ever. How refreshing.” Her tone belied her words as she practically spat her “praise.”

Fabio spoke up, having remained as still as a statue until then. “Sir Pujol’s bluntness does serve us in elucidating the overall feelings of the nobility. There is likely to be a flood of similar proposals in the coming days. Should you continue refusing them in such a way, there will inevitably be rumors that you are restricting your husband’s freedoms to maintain your own power.”

Aura frowned at her secretary’s usual candor and offered her objections. “His shutting himself in the inner palace is nothing but his own choice. I have given him no commands.”

“I am aware. He is wise, and currently outwardly cooperative to the extreme. However, the interaction between the two of you is confined to the inner palace; none of it is visible to the nobles in the palace proper.”

Each and every word he said was true, and Aura couldn’t help but sigh. “So, I shall need to have my husband make his presence known within the palace to some extent. That way, he can demonstrate to them directly that our relationship is going well. It feels much as if I am prevailing upon him, though.”

She was hesitant to push additional hardships onto him after he’d shown her nothing but love. It made her feel like she was doing exactly what the rumors would imply: restricting his freedoms to maintain her own power.

Her secretary, however, paid her melancholy tone no heed and continued speaking with a face that might as well have been carved from granite. “It is unavoidable. Commander Pujol’s suggestion that Sir Zenjirou take a concubine is a sound one when viewed from the perspective of maintaining the royal bloodline.”

“Well, I suppose so...” Aura admitted, unable to disagree. However passionate they were, there was a limit to the number of children they could have if Zenjirou were to remain monogamous. Aura had the weight of her rule to consider as well, and she couldn’t constantly be bearing children.

“What do you truly think?” she asked suddenly. “Do you believe I should accept Commander Pujol’s suggestion?”

The middle-aged man’s objective point of view, focusing only on the results, was a useful point of reference.

He gave a slight shrug and answered, “My personal perspective could well be taken as an insult to the royal family. I am unable to decide if it is fit for your ears.” He bowed his head.

Aura waved her hand unconcernedly, bidding him continue. “Irrelevant. Besides, superficial courtesy is what you thrive on. Even if it angers me, you will not be punished. Speak freely.”

The secretary bowed again at being granted permission and began. “First of all, in terms of the overall conclusion, I am against Sir Zenjirou taking Commander Pujol’s sister as a concubine.”

“Oh?” She leaned forward with interest, surprised by his answer.

“A noble concubine with rare ties to the royal family may seem like it is guaranteeing the next generation of royals, but is actually short-sighted once you consider subsequent generations. After all, if all those with strong ties are Sir Zenjirou’s children, even with different women, they will still be half-siblings.”

“Ah, I see,” she nodded in understanding.

Such an arrangement would certainly increase the number of those with royal blood, but if they had a single father and were half-siblings, it would be exceedingly difficult to find suitable partners for all of them.

Marriages between half-siblings were not forbidden by law in the Capua Kingdom, but neither were they endorsed. They knew from history that children between those too closely related could have difficulties with the mind and body.

“So, thinking simply of the continuation of the royal bloodline, it would be best for Commander Pujol’s sister to marry the other candidate for your hand, Lord Raffaello of the Márquez family. At the same time, if Sir Zenjirou were to take a gifted mage or suitable noblewoman as his concubine and produce a branch family, then nothing ill would be said. Sir Zenjirou has strong enough relations that we might expect such a child to even inherit space-time magic. Of course, this is all predicated on the two of you producing an heir.”

Aura’s lips twisted into a sardonic smile as she listened to her secretary’s speech. “So, as far as you are concerned, marriages between royalty and nobles are much the same as breeding dash drakes.”

The slender secretary remained unmoved by her cynicism. “Hence my warning that my view would seem rude. Besides, this is merely in consideration of how to increase the number of people with space-time magic. Marriage is entwined with the heart, and carelessly matching members of the Guillén and Márquez households for marriage would lead to the creation of a family with far too much influence and could lead to rebellion.”

“I know, and I must take those consequences into account before making a final decision. But that means that my husband will at some point need to formally face the nobility, or even more distrust will be brought to bear against me.”

Aura rested her chin on her hand and thought for a while before suddenly looking up at the official.

“Fabio, how long can he stay shut up within the inner palace while keeping the nobility’s distrust manageable?”

“I would suggest a month at least, and six at the longest. Should it continue much beyond that, whatever he says will be discarded as you having made him say it,” he answered smoothly, as if he’d expected the sudden question.

“One month... Well, I suppose so. Right, fortunately, he has asked to learn the customs and norms of this world. Let us find a tutor for him.”

“A tutor? Even though men are forbidden in the inner palace?”

Aura smiled meaningfully in response to his probing. “Of course, the tutor will be a woman. I would also like him to be taught the basics of magic at the same time, so it will have to be someone more skilled than average as a mage.”

A skilled female mage to tutor him... If people heard that, it could be interpreted as Aura officially looking for concubine candidates. So she added a warning.

“If there are no suitable candidates, I shall ask the old woman. I only pray that no one too bold presents themselves for the position.”

The “old woman” referred to the head mage’s wife, Pasquala. If people still recommended young, unmarried women after hearing that a married mage in her seventies was being considered, it would mean they were either too stupid to realize what Aura wanted, or so ambitious that they prioritized a gain in influence over their queen’s request.

The man beside her gave a slight, troubled shrug and offered some final advice. “Your Majesty, if you test your subordinates so bluntly, you will lose the hearts of the people. Take care.”

“I know. I am not ignoring your suggestion for my husband to take a concubine and create a branch family. But I must first uncover the more troublesome candidates.”

It was indeed something that Aura was loath to consider with their newly-married life going so well, so a little displeasure was understandable. She understood the need for royalty to marry for political convenience, but even royals wanted to keep love for themselves.

“Truly, there is no harm in enjoying our new marriage alone for a while,” she said unhappily with a shrug.

◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆

That night, after having dinner, Aura and Zenjirou were cuddling together on the sofa, relaxing.

“Hmm, the danger of the late hour aside, spending the nights like this becomes far more pleasant with such bright illumination,” Aura noted in appreciation, looking over at the six lamps lighting the room.

“Haha, you’re right. I’m pretty used to it, though, so it doesn’t feel that special to me,” he replied.

Aura had seen to her duties during the day, but once the sun set, she was relatively free. Of course, there were one or two balls a week that she had to attend, so there was no guarantee that she was free to do as she pleased on any given night. When Zenjirou compared it to his time as an office worker, though, the end of her workday still ended up being quite early as far as he was concerned.

Thanks to that, he and Aura were able to spend the evening alone as husband and wife. That said, being the queen’s husband, it was impossible to escape the political bent that conversations ended up taking, even if they were relaxing while they spoke.

“So, you’ve put out an appeal for a tutor to teach me the customs and norms here?” he confirmed after hearing the details of her decision that afternoon, not particularly surprised.

“Indeed,” his wife answered with a distinguished expression. “It will take some time for a decision to be made. In the interim, I shall teach you whenever I am free. I would have preferred to teach you everything myself, but as I said, I lack the time. My apologies.”

“It’s fine, seriously. I know you’re busy. But... it’ll be okay, right? I can’t promise I won’t say something weird to them.”

Worrying about using the right tone and so on with someone who was there to teach you manners and cultural norms might be putting the cart before the horse, but it was a valid concern. A person chosen to be the prince consort’s tutor would have a certain amount of status of their own, so it was possible that interacting carelessly could lead to him falling into ill repute within the palace.

Aura shook her head at those worries with a smile. “No, your usual speech will be sufficient to begin with. I shall be drilling you with the bare minimum of etiquette until your tutor is decided,” she said brightly to assuage his worries.

“Ahaha, go easy on me,” he replied with a strained laugh, just as a knock came from the door.

“Yes?” Zenjirou answered automatically.

“Excuse me, the bath is ready,” called a familiar maid’s voice.

“Huh? Oh, yeah, it’s about that time. Got it, I’ll be there soon,” he returned, standing from the sofa and picking up a lamp from the shelf.

Zenjirou had been shocked by the depth of the darkness when going to bathe for the first time, so he’d bought the lantern from a local home center during his brief trip home. It would usually require four D cells, but he was using spacers that let his rechargeable AAs work in their place. It was far too dangerous for an amateur to install electricity in a room full of water, so this was all he had to rely on for his baths.

Regardless, the lantern had twenty-eight mini LEDs and managed to light up the room so that it was “still gloomy, but bearable,” as far as he was concerned.

The maids and Aura, however, found it unbelievably bright.

“Right, it’s fine, looks like it doesn’t need charging yet,” he confirmed after switching it on to check. He picked it up and headed for the door.

“Let us go then, Zenjirou,” Aura said, taking the arm of his that was not occupied with the lantern and holding it to her chest.

“Umm, so you mean... we’re bathing together?” Despite sharing a bed, they had yet to share a bath.

Aura smiled bewitchingly at her husband, as flustered by her daring suggestion as he was. “Assuming you do not object, yes.”

“I couldn’t object to that, it’s way too attractive to refuse,” he declared, a lecherous look on his face as he practically floated towards the bath chamber, his arm still happily in Aura’s hands.

◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆

Once the two of them had fully enjoyed their bath, they each poured a glass of their favorite booze and soothed their flushed bodies in front of the improvised cooler. Zenjirou had a can of low-malt beer that you’d buy by the case, and Aura had the remnants of the white wine from the night before. Both drinks had been chilled by the fridge and nicely soothed their dry throats.

“I could get used to this,” Aura said, sighing happily, her eyes closing in pleasure at the sensation of the cold wine in the glass and the cool wind from the fan on her body.

She was clad in thin nightclothes, luxuriating in a cold breeze from an electric fan, and drinking cold wine in the ever-oppressive nights of Capua. It was a luxury not even the nobility would normally have. Although she was used to the climate here, it didn’t mean that Aura wasn’t uncomfortable in the sweltering heat.

“This is bad... I need to stay strong or I shall eventually shut myself up here as well.”

“Go right ahead. Or at least, that’s what I’d like to say, but a queen can’t do that. Well, come back whenever you have the time; I’ll always be here to welcome you,” he replied to her joke.

“Very well, I shall take my lunch here as often as I am able, so please do,” she answered, deciding to increase the amount of time she spent here, as if it had not entirely been said in jest.

“Got it, I’ll make sure there’s some ice for lunchtime then,” he assured her with a smile.

However big the fridge was, it couldn’t provide enough ice to leave in front of the fan twenty-four seven. He would have to economize to a certain extent so that he didn’t end up having no ice if she came back to see him. Temperatures soared to over 37°C at midday. And once the air got above body temperature, the fan on its own just blew hot wind around and didn’t cool very well.

It would be at least a little better with a container of water, even if he didn’t have enough ice, but it wouldn’t cool anywhere near as well that way. He seriously wanted an AC.

With the flush from the bath as well as her parched throat finally dealt with, Aura turned to Zenjirou with a slightly tense expression. “I regret needing to say this despite telling you that you would have no responsibilities here, but let us start the lecture now. First, we shall cover the general responses of royalty.”

“Uh... huh? We’re starting tonight?” Zenjirou asked in surprise.

“Of course,” she answered with a placid smile. “We have such brilliant lighting, so we should put the night to good use.”

With those words, she turned to peer into his eyes where he sat next to her. For his part, Zenjirou looked up at the ceiling with a bitter expression.

“Maann, the precious free time I get to spend with you is being used for studying.”

Aura’s expression was embarrassed for a brief moment at his frank response, but it returned to normal before Zenjirou’s gaze left the ceiling as she answered, “I am glad to hear that you enjoy our time together, but we have a deadline. Worry not, though, I shall not allow it to intrude on our time in the bedroom.”

“Well, I guess there’s no choice. Although I’d like to use the time you’re not here to study... Oh? Wait a minute...”

Once he put his nonsensical wish into words, Zenjirou seemed to remember something and stood up. He walked towards a corner of the room where he had collected the things he had brought from Japan.

“I’m sure I brought it. It’s small, so it must have fallen onto the carpet...”

“Zenjirou?”

“Great, there it is, it’s this,” he said, finding the object and returning to the sofa with a silver cuboid in his hand.

“What is that?” Aura asked with a confused look.

“It’s a digicam. That’s short for ‘digital camera.’ It’s to take photographs, originally... still images, I mean, but it does video as well, with sound too,” he said, lifting the device.

Aura just tilted her head, uncomprehending. “Photographs? Still images? Video? With sound? What do you mean?”

He considered how to explain it for a moment but couldn’t find the words to do so. Explaining such technology to someone who had no concept of it was surprisingly difficult.

“How can I put it? It takes a really detailed picture of something in an instant, and saves voices and moving pictures to create a recording.”

“A recording? Saves how?”

Even the simplified explanation didn’t mesh with her existing knowledge, so he figured he wouldn’t easily be able to put it into words.

“I guess I’ll just show you. Would you start explaining the manners and such you were talking about a second ago?” he asked, turning the camera on and pointing it at her.

“Hmm...” she murmured, looking dubiously at the strange tool, but decided to trust him as she stood up and began to speak. “I do not fully understand, but very well. I shall begin with the basics, then.

“Normally, it is rare for a member of the royal family to come into contact with someone of higher standing in public. With that in mind, I wish to teach you how to interact with those of lower and equal rank. Fundamentally, the first one to speak should be the subordinate. Generally, they will...”

Aura went on with her instruction of how manners in Capua worked, gesturing as she spoke, while Zenjirou kept the camera rolling. He’d bought it during his first year of work, so he’d used it a fair bit, but he’d only taken a few videos out of curiosity early on.

He didn’t know whether it was recording properly, or whether it could pick up her voice from this distance. There were several things that concerned him, but he didn’t need to think too deeply about it. If it failed, he’d deal with it then. Not capturing a perfect recording didn’t mean it would be of no use whatsoever.

He kept the camera on his wife as she described the basics of local etiquette.

“And that should be sufficient to start with. Did you take all that in, Zenjirou?”

As Aura stopped her explanation, Zenjirou did the same with his recording. “Right, thanks, Aura. Now I just need to see if it worked. Sorry, it’s hard to put it into words, so wait just a second,” he told her before moving over to the desk where his computer sat.

He quickly woke it up and took the SD card out of the camera, sliding it into the slot.

“Hmm, it still is not clear to me, but I assume this is another tool from your world?” Aura asked, coming to stand behind him as he fiddled with the machine.

“Yeah, it is. Erm, I guess I’ll check that it actually recorded before I copy it off the card,” he answered, opening the file directly from the SD card.

Several seconds passed, then the display showed a familiar room with a tawny-skinned woman with red hair speaking animatedly in the middle of the frame.

“Oh, how surprising! This is me. The words are exactly what I said as well. How does this device work? I do not think I have seen such an item even in the Twin Kingdoms!” she exclaimed in wonder, but Zenjirou couldn’t answer her.

He was currently even more surprised than Aura, who was seeing a video for the first time in her life.

“Normalmente, es raro que un miembro de la familia real entre en contacto con alguien de mayor rango en público. Como consecuencia, deseo enseñarte las interacciones con personas de rango inferior e igual...”

“What on Earth...?”

The words coming from the screen were in a language he couldn’t make heads or tails of.

◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆

Unable to understand Aura’s words as the recording was playing back, he admitted as much to his wife, and she looked back at him curiously.

“So, though this tool takes in the sound, it cannot absorb the soul of the language? I cannot feel any mana coming from it, after all.”

“Huh? The soul of the language?” he parroted in response to the unfamiliar term, his expression completely befuddled.

She looked strangely at his expression for a while before realizing that there seemed to be a fundamental issue with his understanding of the situation. “Wait, Zenjirou, let us talk this through in order. First, what is it that has you surprised?”

He couldn’t hide his confusion. “It’s because I couldn’t understand you at all from the camera, even though I normally can... come to think of it, I guess this is another world, so being able to communicate in Japanese this whole time was weird.”

He hadn’t questioned it at all until then, despite the month and a half he’d spent there since the transition.

“Right, that is where our knowledge clashes. Zenjirou, is it possible that people using different languages in your own world cannot converse?”

It seemed so obvious that he wanted to reply with exactly that, but he kept the exclamation silent. “Yeah, I thought that was obvious, but from the way you said it, I guess it’s different here?”

“Indeed. This world has countries and races with many different languages. Even here on the Southern Continent, there are very different languages in the North, South, East, and West, but they are no obstacle to holding a conversation. That is because sounds that people have the same awareness of contain the ‘soul’ of the language.

“This is perhaps one of the most common pieces of knowledge in this world, so I felt no need to explain it before, but it would seem that you require such a clarification. This may take some time, so let us have a seat.”

She directed Zenjirou to the sofa to begin a more detailed explanation of an everyday fact of her world: “the soul of language.”

Having retaken his seat and listened to Aura’s lengthy description, he went through it mentally and summarized what he’d learned to make sure that he understood.

“So, words in this world have a ‘soul,’ which means that even people using different languages have no impediment to understanding each other?”

“Indeed. This world has essentially no instances of ‘communication difficulties,’” she nodded.

Zenjirou had some questions that he couldn’t resolve on his own, and fired them off. “Uh, then if things are so convenient here, isn’t learning language itself unnecessary? You know, you could just kinda grunt and get the meaning across.”

The question was blunt, but Aura shook her head. “No, you would not. The soul is something that is based on ‘cognizance of the correct meaning of a word held by many people.’ A newborn may cry and have the meaning of ‘breasts’ within its cry, but it is a meaning held only by the child, so the soul does nothing. Something on the order of a thousand people would need to recognize the cry as meaning ‘breasts.’”

“Huh. Wait, so if a mean adult taught a small child that a ‘desk’ was called a ‘chair,’ and vice versa, if that child spoke to someone that had a different language, they’d only hear ‘chair’ even if they meant a desk?”

“Indeed. The soul that dwells within the words is simply ‘what the shared cognizance of the word means.’ It has nothing to do with what the speaker believes.”

“I see... Then why couldn’t I understand the recording? It reproduced the sounds correctly, didn’t it?”

Aura nodded at his natural question and offered her own hypothesis. “I believe that to be because the tool lacks mana. We are unaware of it during our day-to-day-life, but the soul of language that allows us to come to an understanding uses small amounts of mana. Sounds without mana have no soul active within them, even if they are correct.”

Her explanation was easy enough to understand. He nodded repeatedly, clarifying further. “I see, right... So, are there not many people here who can speak multiple languages? You only need one language and you get the translation from that, so learning a second language must be difficult.”

By the methods of this world, if an American said “apple,” a Japanese person would automatically hear “ringo.” That would make it practically impossible for a Japanese person to later learn English.

Aura seemed to pick up on his thoughts and nodded deeply. “Indeed, because of this, the only people who learn multiple languages are a few mages. An experienced mage can consciously stop the emission of their mana, like this: Te quiero, cariño.”

Just like with the earlier words played from his computer, Zenjirou could no longer understand her.

“You need to be taught by a foreign mage who can control their mana this way. Conversely, if you yourself can control your mana and halt its flow, the soul no longer functions. It requires both the speaker and the listener to have mana. Also, there are places where the invocation of mana itself is inhibited. The soul of language does not work in those locations.”

If Aura was correct, then the entirety of Earth was one of those places, or Earthlings were simply a race with almost no mana at all. Either way, his ancestors a century and a half before had likely faced significant difficulties. They were people for whom the very concept of communication difficulties was non-existent, thrust into a world where they could communicate with no one. It was a miracle they had been able to survive to have children.

“Huh, so learning other languages here is pretty tough and doesn’t really offer much. But there are still mages who go out of their way to do so? Why? It doesn’t seem like you need it.”

Aura nodded again, answering with a smile. “It is more to learn the characters than the words. The characters are representations of pronunciations. Learning the characters without being able to speak is difficult. The characters have no soul if you do not learn them. For instance, you would be unable to read texts from other countries.”

“Ah, right. Actually, I’ve not seen any writing in this world yet. Could you show me some?” he asked, taking the opportunity to pass her a sheet of paper and a ballpoint pen.

“Hmm, this is particularly thin and white parchment. The pen has a strange shape too. Where is the inkpot?”

“Oh, no. This is made from wood, not animal hide. The pen is called a ballpoint and you can write just by pressing it down. The ink is already inside it.”

She was confused at first, handling modern writing implements for the first time, but a ballpoint wasn’t particularly difficult to use compared to a dip pen, so she soon got used to it and responded with admiration.

“Oh, this is most convenient! Not needing to constantly dip the pen into ink is a great help, but even more importantly, it moves so smoothly over even this thin parchment, I can write without catching my pen and tearing it.”

“The paper aside, I’ve got dozens of ballpoints. Why not take a few? I’ve got other colors too, like red and blue.”

“I would greatly appreciate that. I shall take you up on it. All right, I am done. These are the thirty characters that are used within the Western region of the Southern Continent centering on this country.”

She showed him a set of unfamiliar symbols written on the paper.

“Huh, I expected it, but they really are phonetic. There are thirty, so I wonder if they’re close to the Latin alphabet? Hey, Aura, try writing ‘a,’ ‘i,’ ‘u,’ ‘e,’ and ‘o,’ then ‘a,’ ‘ka,’ ‘sa,’ ‘ta,’ and ‘na.’”

“Hm, what? Sorry, but would you repeat that?”

“Yeah, we’ll go one at a time. First was ‘a...’”

Fortunately, the short sounds with no meaning were conveyed to Aura as he said them. While she wrote them down, he could tell that they were mostly similar to the alphabet in his original world. There was no clear linguistic division between vowels and consonants, but they formed diphthongs with several characters for a single sound that accomplished the same. However, there was no distinction between R and L (there was no character that corresponded to L), there were several characters that corresponded with M, and various other differences. However, the majority of the characters could be represented with the alphabet.

The other clear difference was probably the lack of an upper and lower case. It made recording slight nuances more difficult, but it was probably easier to learn fewer characters.

“It looks like learning these thirty characters should be simple enough. Though learning how sentences are constructed is more complicated. Maybe it’d be more helpful to start with numbers? Aura, while you’re at it, could you teach me the numbers from this world?” he asked casually as he added pronunciation guides for himself to each of the thirty symbols.

However, the queen’s reaction startled him. “Numbers? You want to know what numbers look like when they are written? I do think that learning all of the numbers at once would be rather difficult...” As she spoke, she took another piece of paper and began writing. “This is ‘one,’ this is ‘two,’ and this is ‘three.’ I think it would be better to limit ourselves to ten to begin with. Merchants and military personnel aside, it is far from rare to see people who don’t recognize a million or billion.”

Zenjirou fell silent and looked at the paper. There were several characters corresponding to each number she had mentioned, making it look like she had written entire words. Almost like writing “one,” “two,” and “three” in English instead of the numerals themselves.

“Does this world not have numerals?” He wanted to say it was impossible, but it wasn’t all that unlikely.

In Japan, before they learned Arabic numerals, they would use the Chinese characters for numbers, counting rods, or abaci for more complicated calculations. They had early simultaneous equations like tsurukamezan, which used the sum of the number of legs to find the number of cranes and tortoises, or Pythagoras’s theorem to calculate the depth of a body of water by the distance a floating plant tethered to the bottom could be moved. Apparently, it wasn’t unheard of to find far more complex calculations than expected if you inspected documents from stock manifests belonging to merchants and daimyo.

With that in mind, it wasn’t that a lack of numerals was automatically equated to a lack of mathematics. After all, it was unlikely that such a huge palace had been created with no higher mathematics at all. If, against all likelihood, the palace had just been built by way of experience, then that was even more absurd. It would be true magic.

However, the existence, or lack thereof, of Arabic numerals would have a clear influence on the mathematical abilities of the lower class. To raise the base level of proficiency with calculations, the ten digits including zero were indispensable.

“So, by numerals you mean characters that explicitly denote the numbers? Intriguing. What advantages do they have?” Aura asked interestedly, prompting a passionate explanation from Zenjirou on the invaluable nature of numerals.

“Right, the first thing is that they are easy to learn. With the decimal system, if you learn ten numbers, including zero, you can write down any number. If you add four symbols for addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division then most people can learn basic arithmetic in two or three years.”

“Yes, yes...” she nodded along.

Zenjirou had completely forgotten his self-imposed resolution to avoid making waves here as much as possible as he explained Earth’s number system to the queen.