Volume 4 Prologue (1/2)

TN: Sorry for the wait, here you go…

AN: Last chapter ended at the year’s end, but let’s rewind the time one and a half months back.

It happened a little while after the Amidonia Merger had concluded. That morning, I was woken up by the loud BANG of the door being slammed shut, and as I stirred with my head still half-asleep, my forehad touched something soft that went fyoing. At the same time,

“Nnnh♪”

I heard a weird moan. … something’s not right. As my head started to wake up, I began to notice the position I was in. Firstly, my head was being clamped tight. It seems like I someone was hugging me, and because of that, my forehead was being pressed into that person’s chest. Which means the soft feeling was …

Fl.u.s.tered, I used my strength to release myself from the person’s hold. What came into my eyes when I did was the face of Roroa who was cozily sleeping (slightly drooling, but let’s forget I saw that).

(Eh, what? This is, why is Roroa sleeping next to me!?)

The room … was the Government Office at the Capital, Parnam. I didn’t get the wrong bed, so how come Roroa was sharing a bed with me? Clothes … yes, they’re still on. Rather, the two of us weren’t wearing sleepwear, but still in our casual garb. Eh … what happened yesterday? I frantically racked my brains and tried to remember.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

The frosty voice came from overhead. I turned to the side, creaking like a robot lacking oil in its joints, and saw Liscia standing there, smiling with the aura of a Hannya. Behind her stood Aisha, for some reason with tears in her eyes.

“… morning Liscia, Aisha”

“Don’t you good morning me!”

As Liscia said that she pulled the blanket that was over me away. Roroa curled herself into a fetal position from the cold but didn’t seem like she was going to wake up. I wish you’d please explain what’s going on already.

“We’re the ones who’d like an explanation! I was wondering what happened when Aisha came into my room crying, and she said ‘I went to wake His Highness up and found him sleeping with Roroa!’ you know!”

“Why are you laying your hands on Roroa before Princess or me! I can’t accept this!”

Aisha yelled with teared-up eyes. Please, I beg of you, don’t yell something like that so loud. Everyone working at the castle’s going to hear it and are going to gossip about shuraba and stuff! Selina’s going to spread it because she thinks it’s going to be amusing!

“Calm down Aisha. Both Roroa and I are wearing clothes, right. I’m sure it’s nothing like what you two are imagining … I think”

“And why can’t you say for sure!?”

“Well, I can’t really remember what happened when I fell asleep … or even why the two of us are sleeping on the same bed in our casuals”

“… why don’t you try remembering what happened last night?”

I tried remembering the sequence of things that happened last night like Liscia said. If I’m not mistaken, I was having a meeting late into the night with Roroa and Colbert and government officials from both countries in order to make adjustments on the taxation scheme (Amidonia had less people than the Kingdom, so each person seemed to have been taxed higher) to finish off the Amidonia merger. The meeting was a continuation from the day before, and was pretty much settled. It’s the kind of thing that goes on and on with breaks in between. In the end, the goal was somewhat reached after the date had rolled over, about three AM this morning.

Then Colbert and the officials disbanded, and I went to the goverment office and dived into my bed there in the clothes I was in. I dived into a deep sleep right away. So, about the current situation … Roroa might have pa.s.sed up going back to her room and just slept here. Then I shook Roroa, who was still sleeping deeply, in the shoulder.

“Oy, Roroa. Get up”

“Mmmm … whut? Darling … I’m still sleepy”

Rubbing the sleep off her eyes, Roroa sat herself up.

“Don’t whut me. Why are you sleeping here, Roroa?”

“Loosen up, will ye. I was sleepy last night after the meeting. Dinnae have the strength to go back to my room, let myself in to Darling’s bed”

Roroa said so with a huge yawn, she then got up off the bed on wobbly legs. Her eyes were still half-open.

“Crivens. I’m still sleepy. I’ll get back to my room and sleep~!”

“Hold on! Sheesh … Aisha, can you please take her back to her room”

Liscia couldn’t just let her off on her own and asked the dazed Aisha to go with her.

“Yes! Understood, Princess”

“And didn’t I tell you to stop calling me Princess already?”

“U, understood, Pri … Liscia”

Ah, looks like Liscia’s been telling Aisha to call her by name instead of ‘Princess’ since she’s become the second queen consort and their positions have turned closer. Though, she still gets it wrong sometimes. She left the goverment office propping up the sleepy, wobbly Roroa. After watching the two go, I timidly turned to face Liscia.

“Um … so that’s what happened, can you let me off this time?”

“Honestly …”

Said Liscia as she sat down hard on the bed.

“This happened because there’s a bed here, should I break it?”

“But where should I sleep then?”

“You had a room built for yourself right? Or do you want to sleep in our beds? Take turns for each day?”

“Nah, I’ll pa.s.s. Looks like I wouldn’t get any sleep that way …”

“Marx has been hounding us to ‘please produce an heir!’ though?”

“Uuuh … Give me some time. I still have stuff to think about”

“Stuff to think about?”

I picked myself up off the bed and grandly stretched.

“I barely managed to get the Kingdom administered, and since our power increased because of the Amidonia merger, it doesn’t look we’ll be having foreign enemies soon. Well, the Demon King Territory is a whole nother thing, though”

“Yeah …”

“And then as for me … I can finally justify my becoming King to myself”

“I wish you’d just call it determined instead”

“Determination … well, I suppose I am resolved”

“I don’t really get the difference … but whatever”

“There’s nothing in the way ahead of me, therefore …”

Br.i.m.m.i.n.g with confidence, I puffed my chest and said,

“I’m going to quit holding back Liscia!”

As I spouted the line like the baddie of a certain manga, Liscia looked at me with cold eyes.

“You were holding back?”

“Of course I was! I’ve been choosing policies that are least likely to cause an uprising, and even during the fighting, I tried to make do with what I had, didn’t I?”

“Were you now?”

Hm … well, I did go overboard with the Royal Broadcast and all, but I was careful to never do anything that shook society’s core like suddenly declaring ‘Slavery is now illegal!’ or developing new weaponry.

“But from now on, I’ll have you let me do things the way I like it”

“Well, sure, but … what does that have to do with not touching us?”

Ugh, she noticed. I thought I could s.h.i.+ft the topic. Let me put this out there, I don’t have anything against doing that stuff with Liscia and the other girls, in fact, I want to go be all lovey-dovey with them. This situation is actually leaving me half-dead in several ways … . But before that, there are things I must do. This is all for their sakes, too.