Another Audience

I returned to the royal capital with my family, Akira—the Japanese man who had sought asylum from the Empire—and his family.

The princess immediately returned to the castle to report what had happened along the way.

She also had to persuade the other members of the royal family to accept her use of the royal power.

With nothing else to do, we stored the car in my Item Box.

In its place, we brought out and set up the house. There was a well here, and the hand pump I had installed on it was still there.

"Akira, there's another hand pump over there."

"Really? Have they become widespread here too?"

"They only just came in from the Empire, but it'll only be a matter of time before the Kingdom starts making copies. Primula's family was studying one they had ordered from the Empire too."

"There are no patents here, so people can copy anything they want."

"But some things aren't easy to make."

I took a clothespin, one of the Marlowe Trading Company's standard products, out of my Item Box.

"See? This clothespin looks simple, but it's actually difficult to make."

"Huh... I see. If you had to make these by hand one at a time, there'd be no way to sell them."

Once we had finished setting up the house, we began preparing dinner.

"Kenichi, can you just provide the ingredients? We'll handle the cooking ourselves. I feel bad having you feed us all the time."

"Okaaay! But it wouldn't be a problem if you paid me."

"No, no. It would put Primula-san through too much trouble if the quantity increased."

Akira took tables, dishes, and cooking utensils out of his own Item Box.

I provided vegetables and lesser-dragon meat.

"Huh? Vegetables from Japan?"

"Yeah."

"You even have something like this?"

"We were growing crops where we lived too. I gave some corn seeds to a nearby viscount, so if they grow properly, they might spread."

"Wow, that's incredible. But hearing that makes me want some corn."

"I think I had some of what I picked before in my Item Box..."

I brought out a yellow ear of corn in front of Akira.

"Eek!"

However, the female knight flinched when she saw it.

"Awesome! This is really corn! Can I eat it?"

"Of course."

Akira brought out his magical stove and began roasting the corn.

"Akira, what are you doing?! Don't tell me you're planning to eat that mysterious thing!"

"Shut up, Clementina! It's a grain, for crying out loud!"

"There is no such grain!"

I handed Akira some soy sauce in a plastic container advertised as preventing oxidation.

"Oh! Soy sauce! Do you happen to have miso too?"

"Of course I do."

I handed him some miso as well. Miso could also go bad over time, but keeping it in my Item Box prevented that.

I left Akira and the others to their cooking and began preparing our own meal.

I took a large pressure cooker out of my Item Box.

"Hey, what's that?! That's a pressure cooker! Sell it to me!"

"Sure. Fifty thousand yen. But once the gasket gives out, there's a good chance you won't be able to get replacement parts."

"Then I can just buy another one from you, right?"

"I don't mind, but are you planning to live near our house?"

"Obviously it would be more convenient to live near you! I can get things like this there."

Akira pointed at the miso and soy sauce.

I didn't think it would be impossible to make fermented foods using beans from this world, but it would involve an incredible amount of effort.

Reiran-san and Annerose-san were peeling this world's tubers with peelers.

They weren't potatoes, but tubers from this world.

They didn't burst like potatoes and were somewhat sticky. They might have been similar to taro.

That made them delicious in stews or soups.

Akira began eating the roasted corn.

"Mmm, delicious! Want to try some too, Annerose?"

"Yes!"

Akira broke off a piece of corn and offered it to her. She picked off the yellow kernels with her fingers and brought them to her mouth.

As expected of a former noble, she was elegant. She showed no sign of biting straight into the cob.

"This is sweet and delicious!"

"Annerose, believe it or not, this is a kind of wheat."

"Is that really so?"

"Hold it upright and it looks like a head of wheat, doesn't it? Just think of it as wheat with larger grains."

"Well, now that you mention it..."

However, the female knight was fidgeting as she watched.

"Akira, could I have some too...?"

"What, Clementina? You called it disgusting, didn't you?! The female knight who lost to my dick can go eat grass or something!"

"What did you say?! Why am I always the one you pick on...?"

Akira panicked when the female knight became genuinely dejected.

"All right, all right, you're annoying! Kenichi, sorry, but do you have any more corn?"

"Yeah."

At Akira's request, I added three more ears. Reiran-san had been silently peeling tubers with a serious expression, but apparently she intended to eat with us too.

When we returned to the lake, we might want to increase the area under cultivation.

Corn had many uses and was nutritious as well.

"This is sweet and delicious! Is it a fruit?!"

The female knight happily stuffed corn into her mouth.

"Good grief. The crying crow is already laughing."

"What is this crow you speak of?! I am not a crow!"

Akira's family was always so lively.

"Kenichi, I want some of that too."

Anemone pointed at the yellow grain Akira and the others were eating.

"Corn?"

"Yeah."

However, if I planned to use it in cooking, canned corn would be better than fresh corn.

I bought canned corn from Shangri-La. A three-can pack cost about 300 yen, so each can was 100 yen.

I bought six cans and had everyone open the pull-tabs. I put half into a pot to make corn soup, and stir-fried the other half with butter in a frying pan to make buttered corn...

Carbohydrates and butter—a combination that was terrible for your health, but it fit the rule that the worse something was for you, the tastier it was.

Smoke rose from the buttered corn, filling the area with a savory aroma.

"Ahh, that smell is killing me..."

Nyamena was drooling, but as we cooked, the sun began to sink and shadows covered the castle's rear courtyard.

Once the food was ready, everyone ate dinner together.

"Mnyaa! This yellow stuff is sweet and delicious!"

"This stir-fried stuff is the perfect snack with booze too!"

Nyamena was drinking shochu while snacking on buttered corn. Carbohydrates, butter, and alcohol—it was definitely bad for the body.

"The soup is sweet and delicious!"

"If this grain grows successfully in the viscount's territory, everyone will be able to eat food like this."

Primula was right. This world produced a great deal of wheat, but disease or a poor harvest could lead to famine.

We should diversify the crops we cultivated and reduce the risk.

When I gave the corn seeds to the viscount, I hadn't thought there was anything in it for me, but if everyone around us were facing starvation, we couldn't exactly sit back and live in comfort thanks to Shangri-La's blessings.

"Kenichi! Sell me some of that canned corn!"

Akira came over from behind while we were eating.

"This? Are you going to make buttered corn?"

"Yeah. Seeing it made me want some."

"Then why don't you make it for everyone? Do you have butter?"

"Heh heh. As a matter of fact, I do!"

Apparently, Akira and Reiran-san had been making their own butter together.

"Do you make it with magic?"

"Not exactly. We use magic to rotate milk in a container and centrifuge it."

"Huh. You can do that?"

Come to think of it, it was possible to move a lump of earth with magic and turn it into a golem.

Rotating a container might be possible too.

"Have you ever made ice cream?"

"Oh, yeah. I made some milk ice cream too. You can do it with cooling magic."

He seemed to be trying all sorts of things. Akira opened a can over a frying pan and began making buttered corn.

However, despite the wonderful smell wafting through the air, the princess didn't come over.

They must have been having a serious dispute. Besides, I could occasionally see what looked like people watching us.

"Akira, we're being watched."

"Yeah. But don't worry about it. We have two grand archmages, two people with blessings and cheat abilities. If they make a foolish move, this country will be destroyed."

"Well, since we did save the country, I assume they'll show us a reasonable amount of courtesy..."

Contrary to my expectations, there was no reaction at all for heroes who had saved the country.

It was easy to imagine everyone inside the castle arguing because they couldn't praise our achievement without reservation.

In the end, the princess never came, and we all took a bath.

If the princess had been here, we probably could have used the castle's baths, but there was nothing we could do.

Afterward, Reiran-san set up a barrier, and we went to bed.

The women were in my house, while the beastfolk slept with Akira and me in the large tent. Anemone and Bell slept with me.

When Anemone crawled into her sleeping bag, she stuck her head inside my shirt and wriggled around on my stomach, trying to push her head out through the collar.

"Hey! Stop that! You'll stretch my shirt!"

Cotton shirts would stretch, but the shirts in this world were made of linen.

"Hee hee."

She insisted she was an adult, but seeing her act like that made it clear she still seemed like a child.

Akira watched us, while Myaa, a beastfolk, was in his sleeping bag with him too.

"Are you always like this?"

"She's at that mischievous age."

"What do you do when you're with another woman?"

"I set up a tent a little farther away, or I used to do it in the tree house I built at our base."

"Having a lot of women around sure is a lot of work, huh?"

"Yeah."

"I do it when Sensei isn't around too, haha. But Sensei's the only one who complains. Myaa used to be a prostitute, so she doesn't care at all, and Clementina's a pervert, so anything goes with her."

Akira stroked Myaa's head as she slept beside him.

"What about Annerose-san?"

"She's probably fine. It's normal for nobles to have concubines and mistresses."

"I don't care what you do, Akira, but don't do it there, okay?"

"Haha, don't worry."

While we continued that idiotic conversation, the night wore on.

------◇◇◇------

――The next day.

I prepared a portion of breakfast for the princess too, but she didn't come.

Could she be under house arrest or something?

As we ate breakfast divided into my family and Akira's family, just as we had the previous evening, a messenger came from the castle.

It was Mairen-san, the head maid. She said the king would hold an audience in the afternoon.

I was worried about the princess, so I asked how she was doing.

"Mairen-san, what happened to Princess Lilith?"

"Her Highness argued fiercely with the other members of the royal family until late into the night. She is exhausted and still asleep."

"Oh dear... I knew it."

"Please take good care of Her Highness."

Mairen-san bowed deeply and returned to the castle.

Well, an audience... Who knew what might happen? Our opponent was that queen. I should make some preparations, just in case.

I took out the beastfolk's armor, which I had bought at the dwarves' shop in Sobana.

"Myaree, Nyamena, put on your armor."

"Heh heh. Are we going to fight, boss?"

"That depends on them. We don't know what the royals are thinking. If the princess were here, they could take her hostage."

"Maybe that's why the princess hasn't come back, nya."

"I don't want to think they'd go that far, but..."

The beastfolk took the armor from me and began adjusting the fit.

"I wanted to give you time to break it in."

Nyamena checked how the black armor felt.

"We don't have time. I'll give you your weapons and large shields when the time comes."

I also took out the weapons I had bought at the dwarves' shop and checked them.

"Kenichi, does this look bad?"

Akira came over while we were preparing.

"Haha, hopefully this is just me worrying over nothing and we can receive our reward and leave without incident. The only thing I'm worried about is that queen. I have no idea what she's thinking—and she's a martial arts expert with an Item Box too."

"So she's someone with abilities on par with us cheaters..."

"Exactly."

I bought some useful things from Shangri-La. Perhaps bear spray, like the kind I had used when we were attacked at the inn in the Empire.

It could incapacitate someone without injuring them. And then... a stun gun.

I bought the most powerful one for about 20,000 yen. It was apparently one million volts, but the strength of an electric shock depended on current rather than voltage, right?

Even with low voltage, a high current could cause serious damage.

Car batteries were 12 volts, but because they supplied a large current, an electric shock from one was quite intense.

As we waited quietly in the rear courtyard, noon arrived.

At that moment, our escort appeared from behind a pillar. He was the same young man in a dark green robe who had led us to the previous audience.

We lined up and entered the castle, walking behind our guide.

I asked the guide a question.

"Have repairs begun on the bridge to Ibelis?"

"Yes. Numerous nobles are devoting all their efforts to constructing a temporary bridge."

It wasn't the main bridge, but merely a temporary one. Even so, it would take several months.

The highway was the vital artery that kept the royal capital alive. Every moment mattered in reopening it.

Even though we had reopened the pass through Veronica Gorge—another vital artery—at an impossible speed for this world, we were still being treated rather poorly.

Well, I had acquired various things along the way and gained some valuable experience, so it hadn't been a waste.

I just wanted to receive my reward quickly and go home.

Would they grant me something, as Princess Lilith had suggested?

It felt as though there were important people who opposed the unbelievable notion of a commoner rising to become a noble—and then a Holy Knight.

As before, we walked in a line down a long, somewhat dim stone corridor covered with a red carpet.

Last time it had been only my family, but today Akira and his family were with us too. There were quite a lot of us.

Bell accompanied me at my side without making a sound.

"Well, I wonder whether we'll find demons or snakes. This should be fun."

Akira was laughing behind me, but it wasn't much of a joke.

"I just want this to end with them saying, 'You did a good job.'"

Everyone was tense because there had been an actual shootout in the audience chamber before.

To be fully prepared, I gave Anemone an aluminum ornament, but noncombatants like Primula and Annerose-san were with us too.

"If anything happens, I'll bring out my summoned beasts. Primula and Annerose-san, get inside one of them."

Hiding inside the vehicle would protect them from some attacks.

"Yes, understood."

Primula sounded tense too, but I was nervous as well. I had no idea what to expect.

If they intended to welcome us, they would have greeted us with open arms from the beginning.

The long corridor ended, and when the large double doors opened before us once more, a vast hall with a high ceiling appeared before our eyes.

"Wow! It isn't as magnificent as the Empire's White Palace, but it's impressive."

Akira looked around the audience chamber.

The main difference from before was that the red carpet I had torn apart while driving heavy machinery had been removed.

The smooth floor stones damaged at that time had not been replaced, however.

Unlike last time, the nobles were not lined up. Instead, a group of men ranging from middle-aged to elderly stood there wearing colorful robes resembling ceremonial vestments.

They hadn't been there before, but judging by their appearance, they seemed to be this country's ministers and chancellors.

A step behind the important officials stood the knights, lined up along the sides. The black-uniformed royal guards and heavily armored knights made the scene even more intimidating.

At the back, on the left, sat His Majesty the King on the throne, while Her Majesty the Queen stood to the right.

Beside her stood Her Highness the Princess, once again wearing her white dress.

I had worried that she might have been placed under house arrest, but apparently that had been needless concern.

"That's the Dragon Slayer from the Empire..." "The woman in the black dress must be Night Crow Reiran." "What incredible breasts..."

The hall was silent, so I could hear the whispers. It seemed Reiran-san's enormous breasts were more popular than the Empire's Dragon Slayer.

Men will be men, I suppose.

Akira came over to me.

"Hey, Kenichi. Is that the queen?"

"Yeah."

"She's a fine woman."

"Well, as far as looks go."

An old man with a long beard, dressed in white robes resembling ceremonial vestments, stepped out from the right-hand line.

"Silence, everyone. His Majesty has words for you."

My family and Akira knelt on one knee and bowed their heads to the floor.

"Mage Kenichi, as king, I offer my profound thanks for the great deed you accomplished during the Kingdom's crisis, using miraculous power to overcome the difficulties before us."

"Your Majesty is too kind! To receive these words directly from the king is the greatest honor. I am deeply humbled!"

When I finished speaking, the queen rose from her throne and approached us.

Her white dress flowed around her, her golden hair shone brightly, and she had a beauty mark beneath her left eye.

When she approached, the atmosphere changed completely. An aura befitting royalty seemed to spread through the room.

"So you are the Dragon Slayer and his family, who fled the Empire?"

"Your Majesty, I am Akira, a royal mage of the Empire."

The introductions of Akira's family continued, but I could hear complaints from the sidelines.

"If the Empire learns that we granted asylum to such an important figure, it could create a new source of conflict..."

"Worse, Sobana might use it as a reason to invade us..."

I could hear them discussing it, so they must have been arguing over the same matter last night.

I interrupted the discussion by answering them.

"If I may be so bold, we also had Her Highness the Princess's permission in this matter."

"Decisions on such an important matter should not have been made without consulting us..."

The princess, who had heard those words from farther back, shouted.

"Then are you saying you could have recruited the Dragon Slayer yourselves?!"

"Your Highness, of course that would have been impossible. We merely mean that you should at least have consulted us."

"A battlefield always demands flexibility! If I had stopped to consult you about every little thing, we would have let this opportunity slip away! Results are what matter, not endless debate!"

"Indeed... The Empire's Dragon Slayer and Night Crow Reiran are both grand archmages whose names resound across the continent. There is no question that they would be a great asset to the Kingdom..."

The queen produced a fan from somewhere and snapped it open.

"And what's more, you have trampled on the pride of the Imperial Emperor! Has anyone from the Kingdom ever accomplished such a thing before?"

"That is precisely why we may provoke the Emperor's wrath..."

"Are you dogs wagging your tails at the Empire?!"

"Even if you are Her Highness the Princess, such insulting words are unacceptable."

"Hmph!"

The queen silenced the princess.

Akira raised his hand and asked the queen for permission to speak.

"Um... If I may say something..."

"Dragon Slayer, speak your mind."

"The new Emperor Brünnhild is currently focused on consolidating her position, so she doesn't have the resources to invade the Kingdom. Besides, although we're famous, we're disposable pawns to the Emperor."

"Oh? A grand archmage of your caliber calls himself a disposable pawn...?"

"Yes. The Empire has countless powerful mages, so I doubt the Emperor would become furious merely because we were recruited away."

The ministers began murmuring again after hearing Akira's words.

"The difference in military strength between us and the Empire really is overwhelming..." "If Sobana falls, the Kingdom is finished..."

"What do you think, Kenichi?"

"Me? Well... Weren't we told that the Republic was more dangerous than the Empire?"

"Ugh!"

The ministers all fell silent at once.

"In that case, I think the more military strength we have, the better."

"Exactly!"

The princess shouted in agreement with me.

"However..."

A heated argument broke out between the princess and the ministers.

"Silence!"

The queen's shout silenced the entire hall.

"Whatever the circumstances, the Kingdom must reward the great deed of saving our country through transcendent power, and even rescuing members of the royal family from wyverns. Now then, Kenichi—what reward do you desire?"

As she said this, the queen wore a suspicious, sly smile.

What the hell? Instead of proposing a reward herself, she wanted me to choose one?

Regardless of the reward, nobody had mentioned the Holy Knight at all. The chancellor and ministers probably knew about it, but perhaps they didn't want the lower-ranking knights to learn of it.

The royal family's miraculous blessing also seemed to be completely unknown to the public.

I thought for a while. In truth, I had been considering what to ask for in exchange all along.

At first, I had planned to choose something safe and reasonable, but seeing the queen's face changed my mind.

I suddenly wanted to be a little malicious and cause trouble for the arrogant royals.

I wanted to see everyone here panic and flounder.

And so I chose a reward that could only be called an unreasonable demand.

"Then I would like to have Her Highness the Princess."

The hall erupted in uproar at my words.