Chapter 125
So I suppose that makes Amaranthus a former queen now? She has begun living with us.
Though they are not related by blood, her daughter Lilith is with us too.
Apparently, their names have already been removed from the royal register, and they are no longer royalty. That was fast.
We all eat breakfast. With Primula absent, the soup is instant.
Making soup is a hassle, but sometimes you want to try a different flavor, don't you?
The soup Primula makes is sometimes sold, and it often serves as the base for other dishes, so it is basically salt-seasoned.
Today, I decided to try something a little different: Chinese-style soup.
We are eating together, but Akira is still making a fuss about stealing other men's wives and whatnot.
"She's no longer royalty—and in Japan, she'd be in the clear because her divorce had already been finalized."
"Well, what can you do? Stealing another man's wife is a man's romantic ideal. Oh, you mean those things in chestnut buns, right? That's marron, you idiot!"
Akira is playing both sides of a comedy routine by himself.
"What kind of romantic ideal is that? I'm not doing it for romance."
"Hmm... Then maybe I'll make a move too."
With that, he took the hand of a maid who had come over to the table.
"Hey, hey, cute little maid. Why don't you come play with an older man? I'm pretty amazing, you know."
"Aah!"
At Akira's words, the maid went limp and fell on her bottom. He had the same power of Blessing that I did.
"See? Feels good, doesn't it? Why don't you let this old man show you something even better?"
He was the very picture of a dirty old man. Then again, he really was an old man, so perhaps it could not be helped.
Akira was about to approach the maid when a black shadow appeared behind him.
"Well, well, Akira. You seem remarkably energetic. If you have that much energy to spare, why don't you spend it on me?"
Akira quietly looked over his shoulder to see who had spoken.
"Gaaah!? Sensei! When did you get here?!"
Standing behind him was Reiran-san, her enormous breasts swaying beneath a raven-colored dress.
"I was just beginning to tire of the luxurious room and fine food, so this is perfect."
"Wait, Sensei! I'm sorry! I was only joking! Just joking!"
Akira's excuses were in vain. Reiran-san seized him by the back of his collar and dragged him away.
Despite being a mage, she had considerable strength.
"Nyaa! Akira, are you doing it?! I want to do it too, nyaa!"
Myaaree, one of the beastfolk, hopped around Akira as he was dragged away.
"Aaaaaaaah!"
"Namu... Do your best."
After this, he would become what one might call a perpetual-motion device—a se○○ machine.
I pressed my palms together as Akira was dragged away.
Leaving Akira to his fate, once we finished eating, the two former royals began preparing to move out.
I bought several large wooden pallets from Shangri-La and laid them out on the ground.
"Put everything you want to take here. Then I can put it all into my Item Box at once. You can't bring large pieces of furniture, though."
"I know that already."
Lilith and Amaranthus both said so, but would they really be all right?
They were rather removed from the lives of ordinary people, after all.
If they began their new life and said, "I can't stand living like this anymore!" there would be no going back.
I thought they understood that too.
I left the moving preparations to the two of them. I had something else to do.
I had to copy the books in the castle library.
Books themselves were precious in this world, and the books in the castle library were all priceless volumes kept from outsiders.
There was no way I could let this opportunity pass. I had to copy them properly.
For the copying, I decided to use the document scanner I had used before, so I bought another one just like it.
I also added another laptop and brought out a large-capacity portable battery since I would be using them for a long time.
These scanners were originally meant for what was called self-scanning: digitizing books one already owned.
People who did it seriously apparently cut the books apart before scanning them, but I could not do that to books owned by the royal family.
Once we finished today's work, we would know how much we could digitize in a day.
If the calculations showed we would not finish in time, I would have to come up with another plan.
The library lay deep inside the castle—a long, narrow room with old, priceless books piled high.
When Anemone and I entered the library and looked up, the bookshelves were packed completely full, rising several stories high.
Could we scan all these books in a week? Common sense from my original world got in the way of my thinking, but books in this world had thick pages and relatively few of them for their size.
Some parchment books were thick, yet contained only a few dozen pages in a handsome binding nearly a centimeter thick.
I had wanted Akira, who was used to operating PCs and the like, to help us, but permission had not been granted to him.
I suppose they still did not trust him one hundred percent.
Besides Anemone and me, one other person would be entering the library with us.
She was one of the maids who had watched me the last time I came here.
The girl with short black hair served as both the manager and librarian here, and apparently remembered the location of every book.
"Please take care of us for the next week or so."
"Um... I heard you were going to duplicate the books, but how exactly will you do that...?"
She looked a little sleepy, but apparently that was simply how she normally looked. She was not actually tired.
"Don't worry. I won't damage the books, so you don't need to be concerned."
Telling her that would only confuse her. Seeing was believing, so I took a table, a laptop, and a scanner from my Item Box and set them up.
"What is that...?"
"You've never seen one before, but it is a magic tool for scanning books."
I brought over a suitable book, set it in place, pressed the Return key on the laptop, and showed her how the first page was scanned.
"This is how I can put it inside this tablet."
"Does that mean we will be able to read the books whenever we want?"
"Exactly."
"If what you say is true, then as long as I remain near you, Lord Kenichi, I will be able to read all the duplicated books I want..."
"Of course, since they are all valuable books, access will be limited to certain people, just as it is here."
Few people in this world could read, so the number of people with access would naturally be restricted.
Books about magic and the secrets of the royal family would be out of the question, but perhaps ordinary history books could be made available.
"And not just the books we copy. You can read books from foreign countries that no one here has ever heard of."
The maid reacted to Anemone's words.
"Is that really true?"
Although Anemone had said it, for some reason the maid sidled up to me.
I showed her a book on trapping that I had taken from my Item Box. I had bought it from Shangri-La for Myaaree and Nyamena.
The book was, of course, written in Japanese. The maid picked it up and flipped through the pages.
"This is wonderful. It is written on such thin, fine paper! And the letters are so beautiful..."
It was printed, of course, but explaining that would be difficult.
I had taught the Marlowe Trading Company and Viscount Eupatorium the technology for mimeograph printing, but even that required the original manuscript to be handwritten.
You scratched the wax paper with a stylus, scraping away at it.
"Move away from him!"
Anemone stepped between me and the maid and pushed her aside.
"..."
The maid stood frozen, apparently lost in thought, but we began working.
Just as we had when scanning books here before, Anemone set up each page and turned it while I pressed the Return key.
As we experimented to find the most efficient way to use two scanners, the maid suddenly shouted.
"I've decided!"
The maid had suddenly raised her voice, so Anemone and I both looked at her.
"What have you decided?"
"Mairen-sama was recruiting a suicide squad to accompany the royals into the remote frontier. I've decided to apply."
A suicide squad, huh? It might sound a little dramatic, but the people in the castle apparently recognized it as something that difficult.
To the people living in the royal capital, the provinces were treated as uncharted wilderness.
"So you intend to follow us into the unexplored frontier just because of the books?"
"Yes!"
"I'm warning you, it won't be a comfortable life like the one in the castle."
"I understand. Besides, I was born in the slums. I'm used to poverty."
Apparently, Mairen-san had happened to meet her in the slums, recruited her, and hired her at the castle.
She had apparently learned to read and write from her parents.
"You're not coming because you owe Mairen-san, then?"
"Well... I am grateful that the head maid saved me, and I think she is a wonderful boss, but... that filthy..."
Ah, I understood. She must have witnessed the forbidden games between the princess and the head maid late at night.
It really was enough to make anyone recoil.
I had found it rather enjoyable and had nearly joined in myself, but I was a man, so it could not be helped.
The forbidden punishment play performed by the princess and the bespectacled head maid—ah, the romantic ideal of men.
Well, that was beside the point.
Her resolve seemed firm even after I heard her out, so I decided to have her help with the scanning.
When the two of them opened and set the pages in place, I would press the Return key.
We could scan a two-page spread about once every two seconds—thirty pages a minute. That worked out to 1,800 pages an hour.
With two people, we could scan 3,600 pages an hour. That was a pretty good pace, wasn't it?
Of course, we also had to account for the time needed to fetch and set up the books.
Even after including that, we found we could reliably scan around 2,000 to 2,500 pages.
In the end, the three of us managed to scan just under two hundred books in a single day with two scanners.
There were apparently a little over a thousand books here, so a week would be more than enough time.
Good. We could manage this.
When we finished scanning for the day, I returned to the others.
Bell came running over and rubbed her large body all around my legs.
Everyone seemed bored, with nothing to occupy them. The beastfolk in particular had nothing to do because they could not go hunting.
At most, they could catch birds in the castle's rear courtyard.
Besides, even if they had games, they could not remember complicated rules.
Bell was bored too. She spent all day sleeping in the shade and letting out huge yawns.
I felt bad for dragging Akira and the others into this mess.
According to Akira, after Reiran-san had dragged him away—
"Don't worry about it. We're enjoying peaceful days without having to worry about pursuers. Sensei even says she wants to stay a little longer."
Besides, they could bathe as much as they wanted, and apparently they were given massages and body scrubs fit for royalty.
On top of that, Primula had brought shampoo and conditioner.
For women, it must have been a paradise where every need was attended to.
Primula, who was staying with them, was selling the products I had given her to royalty and nobility.
She was mainly selling shampoo and conditioner. Since there were no alternatives, she could sell them even at somewhat high prices.
It might have made more money to sell them cheaply to commoners in large quantities, but I could not constantly buy and ship huge amounts of shampoo and conditioner from Shangri-La.
That would make me look like a factory machine that spat out shampoo.
To avoid that, we planned to sell only small quantities, exclusively to royalty and nobles.
A business that relied one hundred percent on Shangri-La would obviously collapse overnight if something happened to me.
Primula must have understood that too.
We ate, bathed, and went to sleep.
I took a large tent out of my Item Box, and we held a little gathering outside it.
"Since the house is empty, why don't you sleep there? You can even sleep in your own bedroom at the castle, you know."
"I want to be with Kenichi!"
Lilith was one thing, but what about Amaranthus?
"I am a slave, so I shall remain at Holy Knight-sama's side."
For starters, what kind of slave calls herself "I" like that?
"Once I become a margrave, Lilith will be my principal wife, I suppose. But what will you do, Amaranthus? Or will Amaranthus be my principal wife?"
"I am a slave, am I not? There is no way a slave could become the principal wife. Nor could she be a secondary wife."
"If you put it that way, Lilith was removed from the royal register too. Isn't she a commoner as well?"
"I have been completely cast aside, but Lilith still has a path back into the royal family."
"Hmm. So there is still a chance the Round Table Conference will contact her because there is still room to use her as a pawn?"
"Exactly."
As if I would let that happen.
In the end, everyone was sleeping outside, so no one was staying in the house.
"Myaaree, Nyamena, you can sleep in the beds in the house, you know."
"Huh? Our husband is sleeping outside. How could we sleep inside?" "That's right, nya."
I did not think they needed to worry about that...
"Then I suppose we can sleep inside..."
"I shall sleep outside."
Amaranthus said she would sleep outside so she could devote herself to being a slave, but...
"Amaranthus, sleep inside too."
Since I had told her to, Amaranthus could not disobey while bound by the slave contract.
We all went into the dark house, turned on the lights, and prepared the beds. Two double beds should do it.
The head maid, Mairen-san, came in with us too.
"Yay, it's so spacious!"
Anemone was jumping on the bed, though—
"If you want a large bed, Anemone, you could sleep in the house by yourself..."
"I don't want to unless I'm with Kenichi!"
"Neither do I!"
Anemone and Lilith both hugged me.
"What do you think, Amaranthus? It's cramped, isn't it?"
"It is certainly cramped—but if I think of it as staying in a tent, it is nothing to worry about."
"Well, once we return to our domain, I intend to build a large mansion. The house should be more spacious then."
"Are you going to build a big house?"
Anemone's eyes sparkled.
"There will be more people, and apparently about ten maids will be coming with us, so we need to prepare rooms for them too."
"There are going to be so many more women..."
Anemone looked a little displeased at hearing that more women would be joining us.
"Of course, I'll build a library too. We'll collect lots of books."
"Yay!"
"But we can't build a mansion as extravagantly luxurious as one fit for former royalty, all right?"
I checked with Lilith as well. Amaranthus did not say anything.
"I know!"
Since we would be sleeping in beds, I had them change into sleepwear.
"All right, all right. Everyone, change into your pajamas."
"Okay!" "I understand."
When I took out pajamas for the three of them, they all undressed right in front of me.
Lilith's beautiful, wavy golden hair, her white skin, and her cute, slightly rounded breasts.
Mairen-san helped Lilith put on her clothes, while Amaranthus simply bared herself and changed alone.
I had absolutely no idea what she was thinking.
"Oh, dear. I've finally seen Lilith naked... I can't go back now."
"Of course not! There is no problem with showing my body to the man who will become my husband, is there?"
"I suppose that's true, but..."
"You aren't planning to run away now, are you? Not after coming this far?"
"I've told you over and over, but I have no intention of doing that."
When I pulled the naked Lilith into my arms, Anemone hugged me too.
"Me too!"
"You're already an adult, so stop hugging me like that."
"No! When I hug Kenichi, lots of happy and fun things come rushing up from inside my tummy."
I still had no idea what she meant even after hearing her explanation.
While Mairen-san helped Lilith change, I asked her about accompanying us.
"Mairen-san, I hear you're forming a volunteer corps of about ten people to accompany us into the frontier?"
"I intend to serve Her Highness to the ends of the earth, so of course I am."
"You aren't going to serve Amaranthus?"
"Ah, um... I will, but..."
Amaranthus sulked when she heard that.
"Of course everyone hates me!"
"Amaranthus—come here."
I opened my arms, and she flew into my chest.
"There, there... I understand that you willingly took on the role of the hated one for the kingdom and its people."
"Holy Knight-sama..."
"There, there."
As I sat on the edge of the bed and stroked Amaranthus's golden hair while she buried her face in my chest, I heard the sound of someone scraping at the door from outside.
"That's Bell. Mairen, open the door for her."
"Yes—and since you'll be our master as well, you may simply call me Mairen."
"All right. Mairen, open the door for her."
"Understood."
When the door opened a little, glossy black fur slipped through. Bell came straight to me and jumped onto the bed.
She rubbed her body against my back as I sat there.
"Me too!"
"Me too!"
"All right, all right... Then I suppose we'd better go to sleep."
"Before that! Kenichi, when are you going to make a move on me?"
"Er, um... eventually..."
"You! Do you even intend to do it?"
"I do. Eventually, all right?"
As I stroked Lilith's head and lay down, Bell climbed onto my stomach.
"Mom, you're heavy..."
"Nyaa."
She purred as though ignoring my words.
"Is it just me, or do I seem to rank lower than a forest cat...?"
I ignored Lilith's complaints.
"Yay!"
Anemone climbed onto Bell's back while Bell was lying on me.
"Ugh, you're a little heavy."
Mairen seemed to have finished her business and was about to leave, so I stopped her.
"What are you going to do, Mairen?"
"I shall stand watch outside."
"Huh? That's fine while we're in the castle, but what will you do when we're camping out in the wasteland?"
"Of course, I shall do the same..."
She said that, but it would not do. I would have to think of something.
"You can sleep with us, you know."
"That would not be proper..."
She had already seen the princess's forbidden punishment games, so I did not think she needed to be shy anymore... Was that not the issue?
For now, I put a bed in the small building next to the main house and made it the maid's quarters.
I installed a battery-powered wireless intercom from Shangri-La in both places.
I taught Mairen how to use it and had her use it to contact us.
The intercom was a white panel with a single button, with a microphone and speaker on top; the two-unit set cost 8,000 yen.
"Lilith, when you need a maid, press this button and speak into it."
"This one? Mairen! Can you hear me?"
'Yes, I can hear you, Princess.'
"What a convenient magic tool! Is it similar to the one you used in the summoning beast that carried us?"
"This one is much simpler and can only be used between these two rooms, though."
"Hmm..."
Lilith folded her arms and began thinking about something.
It might have been something troublesome, so I decided not to ask.
Three people and one cat slept in one double bed. Amaranthus slept alone in the other double bed.
There was no reason for her to force herself to sleep alone, but she stubbornly refused to remove the slave contract.
She might get tired of it eventually, so I decided to leave things as they were.
------◇◇◇------
――The next day.
Primula returned early in the morning.
When I asked her what had happened, she said Akira's family's group sex had been so intense that she could not sleep.
"Was it really that bad?"
"...Yes."
Primula's face was bright red. What sort of play had they been doing? Now I was curious.
She explained shyly that they had been making a huge commotion, shouting things like, "Kuh... kill me! Kuh... kill me! I'm going to die!"
Apparently, the castle maids' faces had been bright red too, not just Primula's.
The noise was one thing, but she also said she was beginning to tire of the luxurious food and lavish hospitality.
"...And..."
She turned her face away. Was she in a bad mood because there were more women in the family?
I had thought business might have made her forget about it, but apparently not.
I pulled her close and whispered in her ear.
"Then today is Primula's day, right?"
"...Yes."
"If it bothers you, should we all do it together, like Akira's family?"
"N-no! I absolutely couldn't do something like that!"
Primula's face turned bright red all the way to her ears.
Setting that subject aside, once she had returned, I had her prepare our usual soup.
The bread was also freshly baked by Anemone. I suppose this was the taste of home after all.
While we were eating together, Akira returned too.
"Hey! Kenichi, sorry, but could you spare me some breakfast?"
"Sure, but what happened to your family? Primula has lodged a complaint about how outrageously indecent and promiscuous you all were..."
"Ah, sorry, sorry. Hahaha. It had been a while, so Sensei was pretty pent up. She wouldn't let me go. Man, what a disaster—next-door shrine."
"You kept it up the whole time?"
"Yaaawn... Pretty much all day. I barely slept. Here I go—Yokkoisho!"
Akira sat down and let out a huge yawn, but in the end, he had used his ability to knock Reiran-san out.
"She won't be able to move for half a day."
"Only half a day?"
"Sensei can use Heal on herself, after all."
"Blessing Heal versus Magic Heal. A true perpetual-motion device..."
No matter how well she could use Heal, she would still get hungry, so she would eventually run out of energy.
After breakfast, we resumed scanning books in the castle library.
After five days of concerted work, we finished digitizing everything.
Lilith and Amaranthus had also made progress with their preparations, and I had already stored five pallets' worth of belongings from each of them in my Item Box.
We would store their remaining assets last, but land and buildings could not be disposed of in such a short time, so they remained in their names.
It was unclear whether the assets of the women who were no longer members of the royal family would truly be protected.
Still, unless they truly became commoners and slaves and were cast out altogether, they were entering my protection as a margrave, so the royals in the castle probably would not act too recklessly.
The kingdom might not be able to count on our cooperation in a national crisis, after all.
As I sorted the scanned data in the rear courtyard, the castle's chef, Sanbak-san, appeared.