Risou no Himo Seikatsu

“Wow, what a surprise. The northern Princess sure is assertive.”

“Yes, you can say that again. I suppose the North Continent handles things differently after all?”

Although she usually was no fan of gossip, Princess Bona also seemed interested this time as she responded to Prince Francesco with a glittering sparkle of curiosity in her purple eyes.

She was born into a low-ranking noble family and still focussed more on her Bestowal Magic and engraving techniques, even after she had become royalty, so she had only internalized the bare minimum of royal etiquette and attitude, making her moral values slightly different from the typical member of the royal family.

“I would never even dream of having the courage to make a proposal of my own accord in public. Actually, will she be alright? The marriage between royalty is pretty much a taboo, is it not?”

Her worried interjection revealed how trivial her level of knowledge actually was.

Prince Francesco on the other hand only looked like a carefree idiot on a glance and was an idiot in actual fact, but was a true-born royalty, so he at least knew more about these kind of things than Princess Bona.

“Not quite. Most royalty on the North Continent don’t have a bloodline magic, so marriages between royalty aren’t a taboo there. If anything, they are endorsed.

Going by our standards, it would be more like a marriage between influential nobles in the same country.”

“Oh, I see. So something like a feudal lord moving up the ladder and gaining independence?”

Princess Bona had never been the stupid type, so she was quick on the uptake.

“Yeah, more or less. Therefore a political marriage with another country is pretty common for Princess Freya. If anything, His Majesty Zenjirou and Her Majesty Aura should be the most shocked by it. The Carpa Kingdom is a major power here after all.”

“Yes, you are right. Then I assume it is quite likely that Princess will be turned down?”

Her expression as she asked this worriedly looked like she was genuinely concerned about Princess Freya.

“Hmm? I wonder. They currently do have a dangerous shortage of practitioners for their bloodline magic due to the previous war, so it would be wise to have His Majesty Zenjirou take a concubine. Princess Freya may not hold a bloodline magic herself, but her magical power is by no means low.

The matter might actually work out easier than expected.”

Considering the secret pact between the Carpa Royal Family and the Sharrow Royal Family, it should actually be a problem, if it worked out, but Prince Francesco was not bothered by it in the slightest and mentioned this unconcerned.

Technically also a part of the Sharrow Royal Family, Princess Bona did not know of these circumstances, though, so she nodded admiringly.

“I see. Then His Majesty Zenjirou will probably be ‘made’ to take more concubines in the future. I feel for him.”

She expressed her sympathy for Zenjirou like that. Her moral values were almost identical to his, so in a way, she understood him better than anyone else.

Only wealthy merchants or higher nobility perceived multiple wives at the same time as a blessing. Monogamy was the norm for commoners or lower nobility and taking a second or third wife would only cause unnecessary trouble.

Princess Bona understood that by nature, since she was born as a low-ranking noble.

And it was probably something a true-born royalty like Prince Francesco could never relate to.

“Hmm? Her Majesty Aura is a woman of character and Princess Freya is a fine lady as well. His Majesty Zenjirou is actually in an enviable position.

But well, if you’re that worried about him, why not run for a concubine position yourself?”

As always, Prince Francesco wore his childish smile without the slightest shred of malice as he proposed the crucial question.

However, Princess Bona had no way to know about the inner workings of the Sharrow Royal Family, so her reaction turned out to be rather boring.

“Oh please. You are always so quick to speak in jest, Prince Francesco. Even if we are by ourselves here, you may not tell such an heedless joke.”

When she scolded the older prince like a child that had done something bad, her expression revealed neither shame, nor surprise.

It was the expression of someone, who literally never had considered becoming a concubine for Zenjirou, not even as a joke.

This was not even a matter of being attracted to him or not. She was just not envisioning this kind of development to begin with.

Princess Bona was profoundly convinced that she was going back to the Twin Kingdom of Sharrow and Jilbell soon. And Zenjirou was the Prince Consort of a different country.

So before their social standing or the taboo for marriages between royal families with bloodline magic even came up for discussion, she did not see him as a potential marriage candidate in the first place, since they were going to live their lives too far from each other from now on.

But the blonde Prince said suggestively with a smirk as if to spur her on unnecessarily.

“But Bona, you saw the pair rings of Her Majesty Aura and His Majesty Zenjirou, right? I mean those pretty rings with three diamonds. Apparently they are called ‘wedding rings’ and are something that men give their future wives in the world of His Majesty Zenjirou.”

“I- In other words, I would get a fantastic ring like that, if I were to marry him?”

Swallowing her saliva with a gulp, Princess Bona completely changed her expression into a dead serious one.

“Yes. But right now, he can’t interact with his world anymore, so any wedding ring for a concubine would have to be from this world.”

When Prince Francesco pointed out this fact, which would have been obvious after a bit of thinking, Princess Bona trembled with realisation.

“P- Prince Francesco! Please refrain from making vicious allusions. I was almost tricked, you know!”

“Oh come on, don’t be tricked by a joke like that. It makes me feel bad for telling it.”

Scratching his head with a troubled look, Prince Francesco averted his eyes from the angry glare of Princess Bona and kept it to himself that he was thinking how “naïve this girl got as soon as it concerned jewellery”.

* * *

At night of the same day.

Prince Francesco was sitting all by himself at the desk on a rare occasion and working on something.

The candlestick-shaped magic tool on top of the desk had the “Flame Ball Creation” magic worked into it.

Maintaining a spherical form through magical power, its flame was quite unlike a natural one. It did not flicker and evenly enlightened the surroundings, so it was extremely convenient as a light source. Needless to say, the flame was still fire, so it did not only provide light, but also warmth.

Prince Francesco held the tip of his peculiar stylus, which used white natural stone for the handle and iron for the point, into the round flame, then wrote letters on the dragonskin parchment lying before him on the desk with the heated pen.

“I don‘t really want to be the bearer of bad news, but I can’t really lie to Father, either. So, how do I do this?”

His Majesty Zenjirou was proposed to by Princess Freya of the North Continent. Our little Bona and His Majesty Zenjirou are getting along well, but neither side seems to be harbouring romantic feelings.

“Guess this will do.”

He inscribed burnt marks in form of words into the dragonskin parchment with the hot stylus.

That dragonskin parchment was actually a magic tool called “Burning Pair Parchment”. Two of them formed a pair and they had the feature that when you burnt one of them, the other would show the exact same kind of burn.

Originally, it had been invented to light up a fire from a safe distance, but someone noticed the trick with the burns and came up with the idea to “write letters through burn marks”. Ever since, the parchments were used to communicate over long distances like in this case.

“Well, it’s a matter of opinion, though. I guess it’s good news for the Sharrow Family that His Majesty Zenjirou, royalty from another country, is taking a concubine. According to the secret contract, any child between His Majesty Zenjirou and his concubine will have to study abroad in the Twin Kingdom after all.

Oh, but I wonder if my father and grandfather will use this as an opportunity to push a princess of the Sharrow Family onto His Majesty Zenjirou as a concubine, too.”

The first candidate would be no one else but Princess Bona. She was an extremely convenient “pawn” for the Sharrow Family.

Born as a low-ranking noble, she just had enough magical power to activate the bloodline magic.

But she had a docile personality and her appearance, although plain, was by no means bad-looking. Except for jewellery, which was her occupation, hobby and raison d’être all at the same time, she practically had no attachment to desires. And the complicated circumstances relating to her upbringing had earned her a personality that was so exploitable it was almost laughable.

In other words, she had internalized to obey the orders from royalty by birth, because she was a low-ranking noble, and later took her obligations as a member of the royal family for granted, because she had been raised as one.

Although she had a strong sense of responsibility for her position as royalty, she readily accepted orders from higher ranking royalty. Moreover, she could naturally interact with people from any social class without putting them off, since she had received an education for low-ranking nobility as well as royalty.

Accordingly, Princess Bona should be able to naturally charm Zenjirou, no matter his personality. Or at least it was quite unlikely that she would be hated.

The Sharrow Royal Family was partly right and partly wrong with that speculation.

“Well, His Majesty Zenjirou and Bona do get along well, but a bit too well, I would say. Or more precisely, they’re ‘birds of a feather’.”

Prince Francesco remembered how relaxed Zenjirou and Bona were always talking with each other, and grinned.

It certainly was impressive to have grown that close within a mere three months, but their intimacy was obviously not the sexual kind.

“Hmm, they’re more like two peaceful herbivores snuggling together in the sun.”

The way of love could be classified into “active” and “passive” and love would not blossom unless one side was aggressive to some extent.

Amongst two passive herbivores, neither side would go for the kill, namely begin courtship. Zenjirou was by no means oblivious to love, but he generally remained passive.

He would be responsive, when approached by the other side such as Aura’s action on their first meeting or Princess Freya’s action a few days ago, but he would almost never initiate an approach by himself.

The same applied to Princess Bona. Both of them were the type to wait for an approach to which they could react. As a result, the status quo was dragging on endlessly.

“As I see it, the two of them would still just happily chat with each other after a hundred years.”

Even though he was of that view, Prince Francesco had no intention to write it down on the “Burning Pair Parchment”.

He did not want to get in the way of his father and grandfather, but he did not want to help them, either.

The socializing was going well for both Prince Francesco and Princess Bona right now. He could do without any trouble that arose by creating unnecessary stir.

He once again put the stylus into the flame of the magic tool, as it had cooled down during his monologue, and continued to write.

Princess Freya hails from the Uppsala Kingdom. It is one of the few countries on the North Continent that are not under the influence of the ‘Church’. I believe it would cause no problem to make contact with them. Please give your permission.

Since he stayed out of politics back home, Prince Francesco did not know all the details, but the Twin Kingdom of Sharrow and Jilbell generally forbid negotiations with the North Continent or more precisely: with the “Church”.

Just to be safe, they ought to have nothing to do with Princess Freya as well.

But Prince Francesco was a curious soul and enthusiastic craftsman, albeit not as much as Princess Bona, so he really wanted a connection to the Uppsala Kingdom, which was said to be a prominent technology developed country on the North Continent.

“Their high level of technology is obvious at a glance, when you look at the armours and weapons of the guards. Most of them are crafted rather crudely, though, so it might not be all that worthwhile for jewellery.

Ah, but the ornaments on the spear from Miss Skathi were splendid. I’m sure I could learn a thing or two from that.

Man, our country technically stems from the North Continent, too, so how did this difference come to be?”

His mumbling faded into oblivion without being heard by anyone.