

Prologue: The first two consecutive holidays after half a year, at a different world

Intermission 1: The Queen’s confidential Meeting

Chapter 01: Temporary Return

Chapter 02: Preparations and Transfer

Chapter 03: Marriage, followed by the Life of Newly-weds

Chapter 04: The Mysterious Soul of Words

Chapter 05: Peaceful Passing of Time

Extra Stories about the Waiting Maids and their Master: The Game Competition





Prologue: The first two consecutive holidays after half a year, at a different world

“I welcome you, my future husband. First off, I offer you my apologies for my impolite behaviour of bringing you here into this world, into this palace of mine without any notice. I ask you to forgive me.”

The captivating beautiful woman with red hair and light brown skin called out to him with a sweet smile.

“…….Huh?”

The man the woman called out to— Yamai Zenjirou raised a dumbfounded voice without comprehending the situation at all.

Just what was going on?

If Zenjirou’s memory proved him right, today should be Saturday, the first holiday after half a year, where he didn’t have to work.

Since he could rarely enjoy two consecutive holidays after becoming a working adult, he knowingly woke up at the same time like during the week and took a drive with his bicycle to the nearby convenience store to fetch some breakfast. He properly remembered it up to this point.

And as a matter of fact, Zenjirou’s bottom was placed on the saddle of the bicycle even now and his hands were holding the handle.

Stuffed into the front basket were the heated up “Fried Chicken Lunchbox” and a 500ml pet bottle with green tea.

“…”

To confirm his sanity, Zenjirou, still sitting on the bicycle, reached out his right hand and tried touching the lunch box and tea in the basket.

The lunch box was warm and the tea cold. This actual sensation made this unlikely to be a dream. While on the topic, the lunch box hadn’t cooled down and the tea hadn’t become lukewarm, so it was unlikely too that he lost consciousness and was taken somewhere far away without knowing it.

However, if that was the case, then why did he have to be smiled at by a stunning beauty in a dim and stony room like this when he was pedalling his bicycle through the Kantou area in Japan just a moment ago?

Zenjirou inadvertently peered hard at the beautiful woman standing in front of him.

She must be the in the middle of her 20s? Though for that she showed an unusual appeal and composure, so she might be a bit older than that. At least she didn’t look younger than the twenty-four old Zenjirou.

She wore a slinky red dress with a V-neck around her chest, but her figure was in no way inferior to this elegant dress.

The cleavage peeking out from the V-neck prided itself with a size that was worth being called enormous, one size above huge, and her slender waist was inversely proportional to it. A long skirt covered the line down from her waist, so he couldn’t see it, but at this rate there was much to anticipate.

Her figure with broad and somewhat square shoulders would turn off some men with certain tastes, but at least to Zenjirou, she had plenty of womanly charm.

In fact, her beauty was so perfect for Zenjirou’s liking that he would scream “I have loved you ever since I was born!” if he had the assurance that the current situation was a dream.

“Your Highness, we do not have much time. The ‘summoning’ succeeded, so you should start explaining as soon as possible.”

While Zenjirou was captivated by the red-haired beauty, a young man in a leather armour standing to the right of the woman, advised her so with a monotone voice.

On this remark, Zenjirou realized for the first time that other people were in this stony room besides him and the beautiful woman.

When he hastily looked around, he could see a total of four men that held spears and were clad in the same leather armour like the man, who spoke, standing still around him at all sides.

Moreover, on the woman’s left stood an old man in a purple robe with a long staff.

The reason Zenjirou didn’t notice these people around him wasn’t because he was particularly short-sighted.

The red-haired beauty in front of him had just that much of a presence. On a closer look, the armed guards had an impressive physique and their features were rather dignified as well, but next to the beautiful woman, they just looked like “extras to the Queen”, even when regarded with favour.

Guess they called this “charisma”? While Zenjirou thought about that, the woman nodded short and looked straight into his eyes, beginning to talk.

“I know. Well then, my future husband. I am sure you have no idea why you are here. May I explain and warrant the chain of events?”

“Eh? Ah, y- yes.”

Zenjirou shook his head vertically, overwhelmed by her smile rather than comprehending her words.

On his obedient reply, the woman brightened her smile.

“Good. Now then, we cannot have a leisurely talk in this dim place, so we should move on. Please follow me.”

The woman said so, then turned around with her red hair flattering greatly and walked away.

“We will take care of this vehicle of yours.”

“Ah, o- okay. Thanks.”

Without having the slightest clue, Zenjirou got off his bicycle and somewhat habitual flipped down the kickstand, locking the bicycle with the key from his trousers. Then he quickly went after the woman, who looked back at him at the entrance.

* * *

Passing through a long hallway with stony walls and floor, Zenjirou was guided to a broad room into which the bright sun rays shone. Two long leather couches were set up across each other with a big wooden table in-between.

Prompted by the woman, Zenjirou sat down on the couch.

After waiting for him to sit down, the woman sat down across of him and slowly opened her mouth.

“Let us start with a self-introduction. My name is Aura Carpa. I want you to call me Aura.”

“Ah, okay, Aura-san it is. I’m, no, my name is Yamai Zenjirou. Yamai is my last name and Zenjirou my first name.”

“Okay. Then my I call you Zenjirou-dono?”

“Yes, by all means.”

Hearing his affirmation, the woman— Aura smiled happily.

“Thank you, Zenjirou-dono. Well then, I will now simply explain the chain of events of what happened to you. To you it might sound like an absurd action that you cannot agree with, but do know that is not impossible to undo the current situation.

Should it go against your will, I will make everything like before. That I promise you. So could you please listen to my whole story in silence for now?”

Aura made a rather unsettling prologue with a sudden serious expression, whereupon Zenjirou got a bad feeling, but after pondering for a bit, he nodded in the end.

At any rate, he had no clue in what kind of situation he was right now anyway. Altogether, before showing any anger like Aura had mentioned, he could not get angry over a situation he didn’t understand.

One filed a complaint after hearing the whole standpoint from the other party.

“I understand. Please let me hear it.”

On Zenjirou’s answer, Aura made a sigh of relief and after a deep breath, she started to talk.

“Thank you. Then I will start explaining from the fundamentally question of what this place is. We are in the Carpa Kingdom, which is located in the west of the Landlion continent— also known as the ‘South Continent’. And this is a room in the palace, which is the center of the capital of Carpa. I am sure all these names do not mean anything to you.

Well, naturally, since this is a different world from the one you were born and lived in. A so called ‘Parallel Universe’.”

“…Huh? Parallel universe…?”

Still not comprehending the situation, Zenjirou tilted his head, whereas Aura gave him a wry look and continued to explain.

Aura’s explanation went on for a long time. Or more precisely he couldn’t tell at all, but when he looked at his wristwatch midway once, it was half past seven and right now with the explanation all done with, the needle of the clock had turned to the eight.

Somehow gleaning Aura’s explanation that had lasted for at least thirty minutes, but more likely one hour, into his head, Zenjirou said in a dazed tone.

“Ehm… In other words, this is a country called the Carpa Kingdom in a different world and you, Aura-sama, are the Queen of it, correct? Furthermore, magic exists in this world and you used a ‘Space-time magic’ that’s only practicable by the royal family, to summon me into this world.”

“Yes, that is correct. It seems you finally understand. Ah, also, you do not need to use respective speech with me. Just casually call me Aura.

Certainly, I am the Queen of this country, but you are not a citizen of my country. Or rather, I dragged you into this world without any notice, so you are nothing but a victim. At the present time there stands no reason for you to accord me your courtesy.”

Saying so, Aura remorsefully lowered her head a bit.

“O- Okay, I understand, Aura…-san.”

Zenjirou hastily averted his eyes from Aura’s voluminous cleavage he got a deep insight on due to her bow.

The reason that this simple explanation took nearly one hour was that Zenjirou hadn’t really tried to understand her words.

Well, understandable. There was no way that a typical Japanese from the modern age would take a strange occurrence like “being summoned to a different world” as reality.

Aura persistently kept explaining to Zenjirou, who was quite doubtful about this being a different world, without getting irritated. As a result, Zenjirou finally admitted the fact that he was in a different world right now.

The deciding factor was the “Raptorial Dragon” ridden by a “Knight” that came to the window on Aura’s order.

This ridiculously large lizard with twice the size of a horse, had stuck his long neck through the window from the garden and licked Zenjirou’s cheek.

That lukewarm and real sensation ridded Zenjirou of any possibilities that this was a dream or some large-scaled prank.

Zenjirou spoke out a question while wiping the “Raptorial Dragon’s” grass-stinking saliva from his wet cheek with the sleeve of his T-shirt.

“What I don’t get is why you would summon something like me.”

Zenjirou had no special skills and was just your average Japanese male. At least he didn’t consider himself valuable enough to purposefully be summoned by a Queen to a different world through magic.

“You’re going to make me do something, right? Not to brag about it, but I can’t swing a sword, nor can I use any magic.”

To discourage her from it, Zenjirou said so with a timid tone, whereas Aura smiled sweetly and shook her head.

“No, I have not the slightest intentions to make you do something so dangerous. This western part of the South Continent was engulfed in a long war for generations, but now it has relatively calmed down. What I want to ask of you is just one thing: To become my ’spouse’.”

“Spouse?”

Zenjirou didn’t understand the meaning behind Aura’s words right away, so he tilted his head and asked back.

“Yes, my spouse. Or husband, if you prefer it that way. I am asking you to marry me.”

Spouse, husband, marry. After being told that much, even Zenjirou’s currently slow brain comprehended it.

“Ueeeh!? M- Ma- Marry!? Why!?”

Understanding Aura’s request, Zenjirou jumped up from the couch.

As she predicted his reaction to some extent, Aura laughed a bit, then continued to explain with a calm voice.

“This will take a while, but please hear me out first. Like I said before, my country fought a long war. Fortunately our country managed to be on the winning side in this war, but the price was high.

We lost citizens, the aristocrats were displeased and the royal family died out, except for me.

Blessedly there is hope for rehabilitation in some way thanks to the support the citizens and aristocrats gave the country afterwards, but the problem is the royal family. With me as the last member of the royal family, our bloodline could end any time, so you could call my marriage an absolute duty.

However, the ‘Carpa’ lineage inherits the unique ‘Space-time’ magic in it’s blood. Not just anyone will do for a marriage partner. To bequeath the magic onto the next generation, a companion that inherited the same Carpa blood would be most desirable.”

“Hah, I see…”

Not quite comprehending it, Zenjirou gave an agreeable response on reflex.

The custom of taking a partner with a blood-relation as close as possible to keep the royal lineage pure-blooded was often practised on earth in the past too.

All the more was it natural to value a pure-bred in this world, where it came with the practical benefit of an inherited “bloodline magic”.

However, he understood the current situation even less then.

“But if that’s the case, why me? I’m just an earthling that doesn’t even know the runes for magic.”

Aura smiled meaningful upon Zenjirou’s frank question and answered.

“The reason is quite simple: Because you clearly inherited the blood of the ‘Carpa’ family.”

“…….Huh?”

This time for sure Zenjirou didn’t understand the meaning behind Aura’s words for a while. “You inherited the blood of the Carpa family.” It took him more than ten seconds to comprehend the meaning behind these words. Zenjirou flapped his hand in front of his face like a broken doll and denied Aura’s words.

“No, no. What’s up with that!? Not possible, never!”

Zenjirou denied it with all his might, but Aura continued her speech without paying mind to it.

“It dates back to five generations before me, roughly 150 years ago.

It was erased from the royal documents, so I am not so sure myself, but I heard that it all started with the first prince of our country at that time, who fell in love with a woman that he originally should not marry.

It is both said that this woman was just a commoner or the princess of a rival country, but the truth is unknown.

Anyway, the prince fell in love with a person that he would never be allowed to marry since he was in line to succeed the throne and he did not even listened to his parents, the King and Queen.

Since they were not allowed to be together in ’this world’, the two lovers decided to go into a ’different world’ and be together there. Quite romantic.”

Being told that much, Zenjirou could guess what Aura wanted to say.

“Do you want to say that… I’m their descendent?”

“Exactly.”

Zenjirou asked back dumbfounded, whereas Aura affirmed it without breaking her smile.

“I did not used the summoning magic just like that. I specified it, so that it inevitable would summon a man that inherited the blood of the Carpa family. As a result, you appeared, Zenjirou-dono.

Thus there is no doubt that you are their descendent.”

Even while Zenjirou affirmed Aura’s definitely stated words in a part of his brain, he still put out another objection.

“That can’t be. No, even if it’s true, it’s five generations ago, you know!? That means he would be my, ehm… great-great-great-grandfather? So I inherited just a tiny bit?”

Aura nodded shortly to these words from Zenjirou once, then answered with a firm tone.

“Yes and to be honest, I was prepared for that too. However, to my surprise, you have inherited it quite strongly. It is not as strong as a direct descendent, but on the level of a branch family‘s head and so much that we can hope for you to use the ‘Space-time magic’ yourself with some training.”

“Y- You can even tell that?”

Aura declared with a serious expression, whereas Zenjirou inquired while relocating his seating position backwards wincing.

“I can. I might not be able to say if you inherited the ‘royal’ blood or not, but I can confirm the latent magic power in someone on sight. Zenjirou-dono, your magic power is a semi-royal class.

The fact that my summoning magic reacted to you means that you have the blood of the ’Carpa Family’ without doubt, and judging by your magic power, I conjecture that your inherited blood is quite strong too. This must be what they call a lucky surprise.

It is as if they purposefully repeated consanguineous marriages in the other world to preserve the bloodline.”

On Aura’s words, Zenjirou suddenly recalled a certain fact.

“Oh, right! Now that I think about it, it’s related… I guess?”

“Zenjirou-dono? Do you have something in mind?”

Aura asked with her head tilted, whereas Zenjirou answered while pondering a bit.

“Ah, yes. Actually, I come from an isolated rural village with a long history. From way back, only one or two people per generation married someone from outside the village.”

Zenjirou had been tired of the isolated and thus unchanging country side, so he enrolled in an university in the Kantou area, found a job there and started his life in the city.

Come to think of it, most people of the village, starting with his parents, who died in a traffic accident when he was in middle school, had rather dark skin and reddish hair for a Japanese.

As a matter of fact, for a Japanese man, Zenjirou too had rather darkish skin and reddish-brown to black hair.

On his words, Aura placed her hand onto her chin and nodded as to consent.

“Indeed. So as a result, that isolated village prevented the royal blood from thinning down in the other world.”

“Yes, if you take it as that, it fits the story.”

(Seriously? Actually I’m not a genuine Japanese, but are partly a person from a different world? I never heard anything about this!?)

Yes, it fit the story. It matched. Zenjirou mentally fell into a abysmally panic while showing a stiff smile on the surface.

Unexpectedly getting to know his ancestor’s secret, he turned pale, whereas Aura showed a happy smile and drew closer.

“You are indeed the companion I seek. What do you say, Zenjirou-dono? You must be confused by the sudden story, but would you seriously consider choosing the path of marrying me and living in this world?”

Aura put on a serious expression and broached like that, whereas Zenjirou pondered with a wee bit composed expression.

Marrying the woman in front of him. That in itself was by no means a bad thing. As described earlier, Aura’s appearance was a perfect match to Zenjirou’s taste and judging by their conversation, her nature didn’t seem bad either.

That said, she was a Queen and conducting herself accordingly, so he mustn’t forget that it was dangerous to extrapolate her nature from just her behaviour so far.

However, the more pressing problem was that it wasn’t “Aura marrying into his family”, but “him marrying into her family”.

The moment he accepted this proposal, Zenjirou would say good-bye to earth. No matter how much of the ideal woman she was to him, when he had to give up everything like his work, friends or amusements and cuisines, which could only be enjoyed on earth, in exchange for it, then he just couldn’t make a decision.

Also, with his brain slowed down by the thought of “Is this a dream?“, Zenjirou couldn’t reply to this matter right away.

After pondering about all that, he suddenly realized that he left out an important matter.

“Uh- Uhm, I’m already here and all, but what if, and I mean just hypothetically, what happens if I turn down your proposal?”

It was obvious at a first glance what he feared by seeing his face colour while he timidly asked so.

To reassure the pale man in front of her, Aura answered with a diligent smile.

“In that case, I will naturally take responsibility and return you to your own world with the ‘Deport Magic’. I told you at the beginning, remember? ‘Should it go against your will, I will make everything like before.’

As things stand, I already dragged you into this world without any notice. I have the discretion to reverse everything in case that you decline. Please be at ease and come up with an answer as your heart dictates you.”

“Ah, i- is that so…”

On Aura’s answers, Zenjirou made a deflated sigh of relief.

When he leaned back into the sofa, his T-shirt stuck to his back nastily. Apparently his back had become drenched by a cold sweat without his notice.

In a lot of cases of “summoning to a different world” in novels or manga, you could be summoned, but not returned, so the summoned person was forced to live in the different world against his will, but seemingly the reality Zenjirou confronted here wasn’t that unreasonable.

At any rate, it was fortunate that he could be returned. Upon hearing that, Zenjirou, who was about to blow up, regained a bit of his composure.

“At any rate, I plan to return you to your world once too if you should accept my offer. When you are going to part with your original world, I am sure you have people you want to say farewell to. The usage of the summoning and deport magic depends on the constellation of the stars, so I cannot use it freely, but much to our luck, the current constellation will last till tomorrow.

Moreover, the stars will be in position for a summoning again in one month’s time.

In other words, if you decline my offer, I will send you back home and everything will be over. If you accept it, I will let you return temporarily tomorrow and summon you again in month.”

“Hoh, it can be used that frequently?”

Zenjirou made an easy-going observation, whereas Aura shook her head with a wry smile.

“No, we are just blessed with a special star constellation. In fact, if we let the chance next month go by, we will have to wait thirty years for the next. There is no need to be overly worried, but we cannot take it too optimistic.”

“Geh, no way, thirty years?”

On Aura’s answer, Zenjirou inadvertently forgot his respective speech and leaked his natural voice.

Thirty years was certainly too long. If he were to accept this marriage proposal, he would have to say good-bye to earth for good without doubt.

But knowing that he would be returned to his world tomorrow if he declined, Zenjirou’s mental condition made a considerable change for the better compared to before.

A person’s mentality was a mysterious thing, since it thought “I want to go home at all cost” if told “You can never go back”, yet when told “You can go back if you want”, it thought “I don’t really need to go back, do I?”.

(If everything Aura-san says is actually true, then it’s quite the attractive story. To begin with, I don’t have started an own family, nor do I have a lover. As for my job… Well, I was doing fine in it, but I’m not really attached to a job with around 150 work hours plus overtime on a monthly average.)

Thinking back on it, today was his first day off on a Saturday after half a year.

Coming home after midnight on a weekday was the norm. Saturday was in principle a workday. He even worked on three Sundays per month. It was a salvation that he was at least compensated the exact hours of overtime without deception, but he had no free time in his days to spend that money.

Even when he came home, he had not even the energy left to cook himself and his dinner on a weekday was always either a lunchbox from the convenience store or a meal at a restaurant. Now that he was thinking about it, hadn’t it been half a year, since he talked to a woman outside of work or shopping?

(After some thought, I’m really not attached to my life on earth…)

His original world. No lover and every day full of work.

This world. Marriage with a hot babe.

When he compared it over again, wasn’t this proposal a so-called “godsend” for Zenjirou?

He thought about that for a moment, but his mentality, out of control from his original timidity, put a stop to it.

(No, no, wait. Even if everything so far is true, I still haven’t heard about one factor. Aura-san’s a Queen, right? There’s no way I would get to sit back and do nothing after marrying a Queen.)

The royal family members were born to be politicians. In novel or manga, Princes often lived a rosy life, but they were nothing but an exception and those that took their royal obligations serious were so busy all the time that you pitied them.

Instead of such a lifestyle, it would be easier to be a black suit salary man in his original world.

Zenjirou took a few short deep breathes covertly, calming down his own heart that hastened to a conclusion.

“Ehm, then let’s assume for now I accept, what kind of obligations would I have in this world? The husband of the Queen is part of the royal family too, right?”

Aura smiled gently on Zenjirou’s question, as she took it as a positive sign.

“There are no arrangements for that. I am the 32rd person to ascend the throne in our country, but I am only the third woman to do so in the history of Carpa.

Moreover, my two antecessors remained single and either adopted a child from a branch family with a strong kinship as her successor or let the younger brother, who was still a baby at the time of her enthronement, take the throne.

In other words, you are the first one to become a Queen’s husband here in Carpa, Zenjirou-dono.”

Aura spoke as if it was already decided that he would become her “husband”, but Zenjirou couldn’t afford to concern himself with that, because in her sentence was a part that drew all his attention.

“P- Please wait a moment! Do you mean that this country does not legally fix the rights and obligations for the prince consort?”

Prince consort was referring to the Queen’s husband. Since no Queen married in this country so far, this term might not actually exist.

The Queen nodded calmly to the flustered Zenjirou.

“Yes, document-wise that is the case. However, be at ease, Zenjirou-dono. As you can see from our history with three female rulers amongst thirty-two, our society is patriarchic. Naturally at business, but the head of the family is also always a man too. It is a women’s virtue to be compliant.

I promise that once we marry, I will do everything in my might to meet your wishes, whatever it might be”

She uttered incredible sweet words like that.

“Uh-oh…”

The conversation had totally gone over Zenjirou’s head and he answered with a silly reply and a blank facial expression.

If he could trust all of Aura’s story, then he would have no special obligations to fulfil when marrying her, and she even would be compliant, trying her best to please him.

…That sounded way too convenient. Not even Zenjirou, whose brain gears were still working slowly, could accept this so easily. It was obviously too good to be true.

(Wait, just think about it. There has to be something behind it.)

Faced with conditions so good that he inadvertently wanted to swallow them without judging too strictly, Zenjirou desperately wracked his brain.

(To begin with, what does Aura-san gain from this marriage? Preserving the royal blood line? Just that?)

Zenjirou strongly inherited the royal blood, so his existence was incredible appealing for sure, considering that the royal family died out except for Aura.

However, would one offer such sweet conditions just for that? A husband that did nothing but making a child. The world called them “spongers”.

(Going so far as to make her husband a sponger, maybe Aura-san has a high craving for good-for-nothings? Can’t be…)

If that wasn’t the case, there should be some huge merit for her somewhere. Otherwise she wouldn’t have offered such “sweet conditions” to begin with, no matter how suitable to the lineage Zenjirou was.

(It’s no use. I don’t know enough.)

“Push through a deal without reading the small print and it’ll come back to haunt you later.” Zenjirou recalled the bitter words of his senior at work and asked Aura a question afterwards.

“Excuse me. Getting back on topic, what will you do when I reject your offer, Aura-san? You will still have to marry, right?”

“Yes. In that case, I will most likely have to accept an aristocrat with relatively strong royal blood from within the country as my husband. Though while I say strong, it is not all that noteworthy.

That is precisely the reason I went through all the trouble to call you here, Zenjirou-dono, albeit knowing what troubles it causes you.”

Aura showed a self-deprecating smile.

(I see. She technically has groom candidates in the country too. Well, figures. …Mh? Wait, could it be… I’ll try a leading question.)

Zenjirou suddenly came up with a certain possibility, swallowed his saliva unknown to Aura, then asked the next question with a voice that feigned composure as much as possible

“I take that these candidates had their great-grandfather or great-grandmother in the royal family?”

Aura, not seeing through his leading question, shook her head with a wry smile.

“Not at all. There is no one left with such thick kinship. They are people, whose great-grandfather’s grandfather or at best, great-grandfather’s mother was part of the royal family.”

(! I knew it. Bingo!)

Zenjirou hid his inner surprise on Aura’s answer and somehow kept a poker face.

His superior at work once said: “In business let your reason control your expression, not your emotion.” That teaching came to be useful in a different world.

Aura’s answer just now was obviously strange. To express it in numbers, the aforementioned were people with royal blood in the fifth generation in case of the great-grandfather’s grandfather or in the fourth generation in case of the great-grandfather’s mother.

In turn, Zenjirou’s ancestor that came to earth, lived five generations ago. If there were people around with blood in the fourth generation like Aura said, then there was no reason to summon Zenjirou, whose blood was only in the fifth generation.

Zenjirou had a rather thick kinship due to the isolated rural village he was raised in, but Aura shouldn’t have known about that until she summoned him. In fact, she called it a “lucky surprise”.

In other words, the very explanation about summoning a groom from a different world to have a child with someone that strongly inherited the royal blood, was a lie.

(Then why did she summon me? Maybe even the stuff about marrying me was a lie? No, don’t go there. If I doubt that, there’s no end to it.)

Zenjirou himself had basically no way to return home by his own strength. Going by that, Aura had no need to deceive him with an appealing offer, because she could just lie to him with “There is no way to return you to your original world”.

Most likely Aura was trying to have a discussion as sincere as possible.

(So it should be safe to assume that both her desire to marry me and the favourable conditions are true. And it makes more sense that way. But then why? Why did Aura-san dare to summon a descendent, whose kinship was weaker than the aristocrats in this country, from the royal family that fled to a different world and even give such favourable conditions?)

“Zenjirou-dono? What is the matter?”

“Ah, nothing. Sorry. I was a bit preoccupied in thoughts. So, when I marry you, what do you expect me to do? And I don’t mean on the official front, but your personal aspiration.”

Aura shrugged her shoulders a bit on Zenjirou’s question, then answered pleasantly straightforward.

“Nothing in particular. If you accept my proposal, it means that you will throw away everything, your home, your family and your life so far for my sake. I am not so shameless to ask anything more of you.

I just would like to have your cooperation in making a child for preserving the royal bloodline.”

Apparently his only obligation would really be to make a child with the hot babe in front of him. At least it to his eyes it looked like Aura was saying that in good earnest.

“I see…”

Aura’s answer was still the sweet temptation that drove a man crazy, but Zenjirou had anticipated that answer this time.

(Maybe my assumption is actually true? These conditions aren’t favourable “to me”, but right from the beginning, they were the most desirable ones “to Aura-san”?)

Zenjirou arranged the information he had gained so far inside his head.

・The Carpa Kingdom had people with a thicker kinship than the descendant from the royal family that fled into a different world.

・Yet, Aura dared to summon that descendant (Zenjirou) as her husband.

・Zenjirou happened to have strongly inherited the royal blood, but that was just a „lucky surprise“.

・Aura told him that he had nothing to do, except making a child.

・This country‘s society was fundamentally patriarchic and the existence of a Queen was rare.

・By the culture of this country, the head of the family was always the husband while the wife had the virtue to be compliant.

・The Queens so far had been single and in the history of this county, this would be the first time a „Prince Consort“ existed.

Going by their conversation so far and the overwhelming charisma coming from her whole body, Aura had more than enough talent as a Queen.

Zenjirou kept asking questions to prove if his assumption was correct.

“Allow me two more questions please. Where would I live if I were to stay here?”

“In the Inner Palace, most likely. Usually the King of our country would take various wives as his Queen or concubines. It is a bit of an irregularity, but the Inner Palace would become the home to our married life.”

As expected. There was nearly no doubt now.

“Then one last question.

How would you take it if I were to shut in myself in the Inner Palace, avoid contact with the outside as much as possible, concern myself only with you and just spent my days by hanging around sloppily after I married you?”

Aura reflexively replied to Zenjirou’s hypothetical question with today’s brightest smile, as she couldn’t hold it back anymore.

“That would be fantastic!”

Zenjirou confirmed that his assumption was completely correct upon that utterance.

(Okay, the puzzle is solved. There’s no doubt. The condition “No need to do anything” isn’t a bait for me, but she genuinely wants a “husband that does nothing”.)

Her first choice of a man was a sponger, in the truest sense of the word.

If you thought about it, it wasn’t actually all that strange.

His days swamped with work in a kind of sweatshop, Zenjirou had tried to measure things with his own values, but that was his mistake.

Since he was tired from work, getting a lifestyle without work and all necessities provided + a beautiful bride was rather appealing to him, but that wasn’t the general value concept in this world.

For the one that became “Prince Consort”, working meant nothing else but exerting the political power.

Surely only a minority of men found it unappealing to make use of a mighty political power.

In this country, a “Prince Consort” could gain a respectable political power, even if his authority wasn’t legally fixed.

After all, the country’s culture itself was modelled around a patriarchic society and the head of a “family” would always be a man, even if he married into the family.

And the woman, who became his wife, was expected to be as compliant as possible to the man she married. So in an extreme case, the “Prince Consort” might even be able to “order around” the “Queen” through the “family” instance.

At least, the “Queen” wouldn’t be able to ignore the “Prince Consort’s” opinion in public.

(Right. A groom from the aristocrats would probably strive for power and if such a person became the “Prince Consort”, Aura-san might get all of her power snatched away from her. Well, even if he doesn’t go that far, he would work out a profit for his parental home for sure.)

A dual power system of a Queen and a Prince Consort. It wouldn’t be strange if it caused a civil war in the worst case.

(Indeed, if you think about it like that, it’s understandable that she wants to specially call a groom from a different world. There is no proof that a groom from a different world has no political ambitions, but at least he won’t pull any strings for his own family. Although it just prevents the groom’s family from abusing their power as the consort clan, it’s a reasonable action.)

Throughout the history of all countries alike, there are quite a lot of cases, where the family of the ruler’s partner— the “Consort Clan” were the reason for the country’s ruin.

Aura had curiously watched over Zenjirou, who had pondered a lot and asked question after question, and opened her mouth once she saw that he had calmed down.

“I am well aware that it is absurd to have you make such a life-changing decision on the spot. However, as I mentioned before, the summoning magic is dependent on the star constellation, so we do not have much time.

You do not need to give me an answer right here, but I would like you to make up your mind until tomorrow morning at the latest.

I am one-sidedly pushing my circumstances onto you. It will cause you no harm if you were to reject it, and if you were to accept it, I promise you that I will conduct myself as your wife as faithfully as possible.

What do you say, Zenjirou-dono?”

Aura explained it to Zenjirou like that with a soft smile and an earnest look. No, “persuaded” might be more appropriate for this.

“Yeah, well…”

Zenjirou simply closed his eyes on the Queen’s persuasion and pondered.

If the assumption he came up with earlier was correct, then this was a sweet deal.

However, to say it again, the price for it was his whole life that he spent on earth so far.

Somehow, the man called Yamai Zenjirou had lived up to this very day by supporting himself, adjusting himself and cultivating himself as a single human.

Certainly, his job was tough and he was always considering to quit, but he took pride in managing an independent lifestyle.

It must be called a “man’s pride”.

Accepting Aura’s proposal meant to throw away that “pride” and accept a lifestyle where he depended on a woman.

Now, was that acceptable? Was Yamai Zenjirou’s “pride” something so trivial that it could be thrown away so easily?

(If I think about it a bit calmly, it’s nothing to be troubled over.”

It wasn’t a matter to idly delay until tomorrow morning. Because he had already come to a conclusion.



When Zenjirou opened his eyes with his mind made up, he looked straight into Aura’s reddish brown eyes, leaned over the table and said flatly.

“Let’s get married, Aura-san!”

Yamai Zenjirou’s “pride as a man” counted indeed for nothing.





Intermission 1: The Queen’s confidential Meeting

In the night of the day Yamai Zenjirou was summoned, Carpa’s Queen Aura the First assembled several of her trusted retainers in her private chamber and had an informal meeting.

The flames from the candleholder on the table bathed the broad room in a feeble light.

Aura sat on a chair that was woven from southern vines with her legs crossed, looked at the retainers assembled before her and opened her mouth.

“So, what about my future husband?”

She first spoke to a young waiting maid with long blonde hair, who stood at the very back.

“Very well. It appears he has turned in for the night a short while ago.”

The blonde waiting maid reported plainly with a high and clear voice.

“I see, good. Still, it seems he is quite the night person. We might have to prepare an extra budget for illumination in the Inner Palace from now on.”

Absorbed in thoughts, Aura rested her chin on one palm of her crossed arms and muttered.

If Zenjirou had heard that, he surely would have been disinclined about that evaluation. The current time was around ten at night at best. Zenjirou was used to return home around midnight on a weekday, so this was probably an early retire for him.

Even though he hadn’t been all that sleepy, he willingly had erased the lights and gone to bed in consideration to the waiting maids, who had to stay on duty until he went to sleep.

Calling that “Staying up late” or “Night person” would leave him in a bind.

Well, no surprise. In modern Japan he could have plenty of light through electricity all day long if he wanted to, whereas in this world the only light source was generally “fire” itself, used on torches, candles or lamps. The perception of a night’s timeframe was fundamentally different.

There were very few shops in this world that had opened during the night. Even the extremely busy mainstay of the Palace truthfully perceived “the night as the time to sleep”.

A middle-aged man with a slender face, who stood at the front and seemed to be a civil officer, remarked upon hearing Aura’s words.

“At any rate, congratulation on obtaining a groom, Your Highness. Now, as what kind of person did Zenjirou-dono appear to you?”

That middle-aged man— Fabio Debache was Aura’s private secretary.

Originally the private secretary was a position without much authority, but at the present time, Aura hadn’t appointed a Prime Minister, nor an Admiral, and lead the government and army by herself. So his authority has the “Queen’s right hand” was unimaginable vast.

The Queen lightly shrugged her shoulders on the question of her trusted retainer, then

“He is far more keen than I had imagined. Moreover, he possesses a coolly judgement and a fair amount of audacity. I say it is an ‘unlucky surprise’.”

she answered flatly.

Determining her evaluation, which only sounded like a praise, as an “unlucky surprise” was proof that the Queen wasn’t seeking a capable husband.

The ideal husband for Aura was a man that drowned himself in the offered luxury, was satisfied by simply having practical desires like money, woman and delicacies fulfilled and showed not the slightest interest in political power.

“Especially that last question from him. Zenjirou-dono most likely realized my intentions. And he still accepted my marriage proposal.”

Aura remembered the conversation from during the day and snickered. After all, he went as far as asking “How would you take it if I were to shut in myself in the Inner Palace, avoid contact with the outside as much as possible, concern myself only with you and just spent my days by hanging around sloppily after I married you?” outright.

It was quite apparent that he fully understood what she wanted from her husband, or to be more precise “what she didn’t want”.

“At first I assumed that he was of humble upbringing, but judging by his intelligence, he might belong to an aristocrat class in the other world.”

“That cannot be ruled out.”

“His behaviour and manners leave a bit to be desired, but it is a fact that it would be somewhat strange to consider him an uneducated commoner.”

All of the assembled retainers nodded in agreement to Aura’s failed expectations.

At this point, Aura and the others unwittingly ended up applying the common sense of their own world to the other world. In their world only the royal family, the aristocrats and a few rich families had the right for education.

For the better or worse, the great majority of the commoners were nothing but illiterate and unrefined people to them. Taking the whole south continent into consideration, there were education institutes open even for commoners, but a country like modern Japan, where every citizen went through a mandatory education of nine years was completely unfathomable for Aura and the others.

“However, if that is the case, it is not unthinkable that Zenjirou-sama has some kind of ulterior motive for accepting this marriage. If you wish to annul the engagement with him, we can give up on re-summoning him a month later.”

The man, who said that, was the elder in the purple robe that had stood on the left of Aura when Zenjirou came to this world.

In reply to the words of Carpa’s royal archmage Espiridión, Aura turned up her nose at him and shook her hand vehemently.

“Stop jesting, old geezer. Are you suggesting I should take the ‘Insatiable Wolf’ of the Guillén Family or the ‘Marionette’ of the Márquez Family as my groom? If I were to do that, Carpa would fall to ruin from civil strife after we finally lived through the war.”

The old mage showed a wry smile in response to the Queen’s curt words, stroked his long grey beard, then picked up on the groom candidates that the Queen had criticised.

“Your Highness, you are being too harsh. Sir Puyol Guillén is a brilliant general and Sir Raffaello Márquez is an excellent civil official.”

“I am aware of that even without you telling me, old geezer. I myself put them into these positions. However, I am saying that no matter how capable they are, an overly ambitious man or a youngling that does not dare to oppose his parents are not suited to be my husband.”

Aura’s evaluation of them was harsh, but by no means wrong, so the aged magician couldn’t say anything back anymore.

“Then you are going to take Zenjirou-dono as your husband after all?”

The middle-aged man with the slender face— Fabio got back on topic, to which Aura simply nodded in response.

“Yes. I am a bit concerned that he is more intelligent than I expected, but I approve of his personality. At least he is better than the ‘Insatiable Wolf’ and the ‘Parent’s Marionette’. His royal blood is strong as well, so we can hope that he himself will be able to use the ‘Space-Time Magic’ with some training, instead of simply passing on the disposition for it onto our child.

Then not even the aristocrats will be able to complain in public.”

Marriage for the sake of passing on the “Space-Time Magic”, the royal bloodline magic onto the next generation with certainty was a more than enough of a just cause in this world, where the country’s strength was adequate to the number of people that could use the “Space-Time Magic”.

In the not so distant future, when Zenjirou himself learned to use the “Space-Time Magic”, no one would be able to openly oppose their marriage.

“However, not only has he a different social standing, but he is also from a different world. I believe there will be many problems to building a family even after you get married.”

In response to the elder mage, who worried about the future, Aura replied with a meaningful smile.

“Well, these are problems that arise regardless of whom I marry. It is just a matter of my sincerity and effort now. I already told my future husband this noon, this marriage purely arises from my one-sided circumstances. I will grant his wishes as long as they do not interfere with our government.”

The good faith Aura had shown Zenjirou this noon was by no means a farce.

Aura herself had a mental burden of debt towards Zenjirou for dragging him into her circumstances and even rational considered, it was natural to meet your future husband with sincerity.

A husband was not a subordinator, but a family member. If everything went well, he was a close companion she would live with for years until their death, sharing the bed numerous times.

Having a feud would only be exhausting.

“I understand. That is a ‘family’ matter, so we will leave that up to you, Your Highness. However, it is a state matter whether you will have a child or not. In the unlikely case that you are incompatible for the ‘night duties‘, please report to us at once.

Fortunately for us, Zenjirou-sama has inherited the royal blood strong enough that we can hope that he will learn the ’Space-Time magic’. And there are a lot of ‘women’ in our country that have inherited the royal blood as strong as Puyol-dono or Raffaelo-dono.”

It was secretary Fabio, who spoke so extremely frank and blatant.

Indeed. The situation had changed from before, now that a man with strong royal blood in form of Zenjirou had appeared.

Until now, only Aura had been able to use the “Space-Time Magic”, so it had been the utmost priority that Aura gives birth to a child, but now Zenjirou, a man with latent royal blood on a level where he should be able to use the “Space-Time Magic”, had appeared, which set the priorities somewhat anew.

In an extreme case it was also possible that Aura ruled as an unpaired Queen like the other precedents and the child between Zenjirou and a woman with royal blood would succeed her.

To begin with, the marriage of a Queen was a contradiction between the law, “absolute authority of the ruler”, and the culture, “the head of a family is always a man”.

It was more than likely that the aristocrat women with royal blood would use that contradiction as an excuse to call off the Queen’s marriage and aim to marry Zenjirou themselves once his existence became known.

In a way, Zenjirou was a golden egg, but also a landmine at the same time.

However, Queen Aura showed no signs of anger over her retainer’s blatant words and recrossed her legs while sitting on the chair, giving a profound answer.

“Yes, that will be a matter for later, but I have already thought of a way to deal with it. However, I believe your concern is unnecessary. I will properly make a child with my future husband.”

“Hoo? May I inquire where this confidence comes from?”

The elder mage asked curiously, whereas Aura replied with a sweet smile.

“Oh, it is quite simple. Sitting across from him, I had dinner with my future husband tonight and his gaze was painfully fixated on my chest. He himself thought I would not notice, but it was without a doubt a lustful gaze.

It appears my body is stimulating enough for his sexual desire.”

Saying so, Aura threw out her extra-large chest proudly.

What men considered to be just a glance was as good as staring for women.

Somehow or other, Zenjirou’s wicked thoughts were completely exposed to the Queen.





Chapter 01: Temporary Return

The next day, Zenjirou woke up in the guest room of the palace.

What leaped into Zenjirou’s freshly opened eyes was the curtain of a luxury bed.

He shivered his body briefly on the unfamiliar sight, but after a while he remembered where he had gone to bed last night and relaxed his shoulders.

“…Ah, right. I’m in another world.”

Zenjirou got out of the bed that seemed bigger than his 10m² room and lowered his feet onto the carpet on the floor.

He put on the slippers that were prepared for him next to his feet and walked down the broad room whereupon he noticed that he was unconsciously scratching his stomach with his right hand.

“Argh, it itches all over. Guess the bugs got me. Yesterday I accepted the marriage on the spur of the moment, but I might have been a been hasty…”

Zenjirou mumbled all too late.

Just by being here all day yesterday, he realized how inconvenient this world was compared to modern Japan.

All of the food that had been served for lunch and dinner was deliciously seasoned, but the water and alcohol to it were oddly lukewarm.

Zenjirou’s taste buds were so poor that he couldn’t tell the difference between normal beer and low-malt beer, but like a proper Japanese, his motto was “Low-malt beer has to be ice-cold”.

So for him, the warmth of the wine served for dinner was disgusting, not even taking the taste into consideration.

Speaking of warmth, the climate itself was a problem. The impression he got from Aura’s conversation yesterday was that this Carpa Kingdom had a rather hot climate, even compared to the Kantou area of Japan.

Even at the coldest season, rarely anyone would wear long sleeves outside and during the hottest season, people would “refresh” themselves by sticking close to each other in confined spaces as much as possible, since the outside temperature would raise above the one of the body.

Zenjirou recalled with a somewhat displeased face how he heard about a similar countermeasure for Indian summers.

Things like thermometers didn’t exist in this world, so he couldn’t be sure, but he better prepared himself for winters with a minimum temperature of 20°C and summers with over 40°C.

Needless to say, this world didn’t know about air conditioning either. For Zenjirou, who only ever spent summers with air conditions in Japan, this heat was hell.

As a matter of fact, he had a hard time sleeping last night because of it. Although it wasn’t the peak of the summer yet, it took him more than an hour to fall asleep while he continued to turn around on top of the king-sized bed.

That said, not only the heat disturbed his sleep. The other factor interfering with his pleasant rest was “bugs”.

Apparently this world had no glass windows. Due to that, the windows all had wooden shutters, which were kept open during the day to let the light in. Naturally, the bugs had a carte blanche to enter.

Technically the curtain of the bed functioned as a mosquito net, but it couldn’t shut out all of the bugs.

As a result, Zenjirou had been bitten by bugs all over his body by the time he woke up.

However, even facing all these inconveniences, what annoyed him instead was the restriction of the night.

To be honest, he had never thought that a night without electrical light would be so troubling.

During his meal with Aura, a large chandelier with big candles had illuminated the place sufficiently, but when he walked down the hallway, he could only rely on the oil pan carried by the waiting maid that escorted him.

And even his room had only a single oil pan prepared on the table as a light source.

If he were to try reading a book with that kind of light, he would ruin his eyes for sure.

“I had heard that people went to bed early and woke up early in the past, but now I can relate. I mean, you can’t do anything but sleep during the night like this.”

Zenjirou changed his clothes while inadvertently mumbling some complaints.

Yesterday, he had already turned down the “help with changing clothes”, which was a custom for royals and aristocrats, from the waiting maid.

His current attire was loose trousers with a sash around the waist and a baggy top like a negligee that reached till his knees.

These were the typical night clothes for the upper class, but after one night of wearing them, Zenjirou got the impression that he would rather sleep in trunks and a T-shirt instead. To begin with, he got entangled in the negligee he was wearing, since he turned around numerous times due to his bad sleeping posture.

Having said that, Zenjirou was a special guest, the Prince consort, albeit unofficial at this point. Clothes, food and residence, everything provided to him surely were of the greatest quality, but it was a matter of fact that these goods couldn’t satisfy Zenjirou, a commoner of modern Japan.

The era and degree of culture was significantly different.

After he changed from the borrowed clothes into his own familiar clothes, Zenjirou sat down on the edge of the bed and waited for the waiting maid to get him.

“Now that I think about it, Japan sure is blessed. Nearly all houses have a refrigerator and air conditioning. In comparison, this place doesn’t even have electricity. But I don’t have to work here. Not to mention, Aura-san is super pretty.”

He had gone through warm alcohol, an uncomfortable bed and a dark night, but what captured him enough to make an informal engagement yesterday was Aura Carpa’s charm.

Aura had appeared in a red evening dress with a bold slit in front of Zenjirou at yesterday’s dinner and fascinated her fiancé from the other world again with her charming smile and sexy body.

Completely smitten by her Highness’ daring and alluring figure, Zenjirou had let his gaze wander over the cleavage of Aura’s voluminous breasts, her dress slit and thighs in a natural way (or at least Zenjirou thought so himself) the whole time.

Thinking back on it now, that ass, breasts and thighs were worth enough to throw away the life in modern Japan.

“Oh, right. I brought my bicycle with me here. That means, when I come back in a month, I can take some luggage with me, doesn’t it. Great, I’ll make a list for marriage-portion once I’m home!”

Saying so, Zenjirou clapped his hands together and at the same time, the door was knocked.

“Yes!”

“Excuse me. The breakfast is served.”

Zenjirou replied to the familiar voice of the waiting maid from the other side of the door with a loud voice.

“Yes, I’m coming!”

Standing up from the bed, he swiftly rushed over to the door.

* * *

It was a fact that Yamai Zenjirou was a special guest in the Carpa Kingdom, but his existence was currently only known to Queen Aura and her close retainers.

Due to that, the only one that sat with Zenjirou at the dining table for this world’s third meal, this morning’s breakfast was Aura, just like during yesterday’s lunch and dinner.

To express it with Zenjirou’s lacking vocabulary, the culture of Carpa felt like “a mixture of a typical fantasy set in mediaeval Europe and an uncivilized southern country”.

The long table, at which easily around 30 people could dine at the same time, surprisingly was one log split into two and with the surface polished up smoothly.

Zenjirou couldn’t even imagine how old that tree had been. To manufacture such a long log in one piece must cost way more than one out of marble.

On top of this large wooden table were soup in silver plates and round bread in basket lined up.

Zenjirou relished the foreign food while chit-chatting with Aura.

“We have already made preparations for your return. The constellations are favourable during forenoon today too, so it simply depends on you, Zenjirou-dono, when you will return. Just tell us when you are ready.”

Wiping the bottom of the soup plate with a piece of bread, Aura put it into her mouth and after she chewed it carefully and swallowed it, she reported the current situation to Zenjirou with her usual calm voice.

On the other hand, Zenjirou, ignorant of this world’s table manners, tilted the soup plate with his left hand while he tried to remember how Aura took her meal. He spooned the amber-coloured liquid with his silver spoon and timidly lead it towards his mouth.

“Thank you, Aura-san. I am fine with returning any time. I only have one question: How much luggage can I take along between the worlds during the summoning or return?”

Aura wasn’t the type of person, who would fuss over table manners during a private meal, but Zenjirou would definitely attend public dinners as the Prince’s consort from now on.

Aura appreciated Zenjirou’s attempt at remembering the table manners now and swallowed her words of “You can eat as you want without minding about manners”, giving him a smile instead.

“Mhm, the summoning magic summons a person, so it principally should only be able to bring over things that you wear on your body. That mysterious vehicle you brought with you by chance surely is the limit.”

Zenjirou inadvertently dropped his shoulders on Aura’s answer, which was greatly different from his expectation.

“Uwa, seriously? That’s bad. Then I can’t take anything fancy…”

“Zenjirou-dono? Has something caught your eyes in the inner palace?”

Aura tilted her head, whereas Zenjirou shook his hand in front of his head, correcting her misunderstanding.

“Ah, no. I didn’t mean for my return, but for the next summoning in one month. If possible, I would’ve liked to bring over some tools and stuff from my world…”

“Oh, I see.”

Aura came to an understanding upon Zenjirou’s answer.

Come to think of it, her future husband should be in possession of some properties for living in the other world. If Zenjirou was an aristocrat or nobility in the other word, just like the retainers had speculated with Aura last night, it wouldn’t be strange that he owned an immense fortune that he doesn’t want to let go.

“Certainly, considering your position, you would want to do something about that. Let’s see…”

The Queen wanted to fulfil his demands as best as possible all along, so she pondered what to do.

“….Oh, I know. We might be able to use that.”

After going through various possibilities inside her head, Aura found an useable one and clapped her hands together.

“Is there some kind of way, Aura-san?”

Zenjirou sat on the edge of his chair with a joyful look, whereas Aura nodded once.

“Yes. We have a magic carpet with barrier magic weaved into it, which is the foundation for the ‘Space-Time Magic’.

We will give you the carpet for your return to the other world and if you activate it’s barrier when we summon you again in a month time, it should bring over everything inside that barrier.

In the end, it is just a single carpet. It most likely cannot store all of your fortunes, but at least you will be able to bring more than with your bare hands.”

“Ohh, sound like I can bring a lot of stuff then! Ah, but my potential aside, I cannot use magic at the moment…”

Zenjirou’s joyful look changed into a disappointed one. Aura gave him a “No worry” smile and explained.

“Rest assured. A magical tool activates just by pouring mana into it. If in the worst case, you cannot even do that, just drip some blood onto the carpet. Your blood is rich on mana.”

On Aura’s reply, Zenjirou’s joyful look returned at once.

“Ah, now that is something even I can do. Thank you for everything, Aura-san.”

“Oh please, compared what you are doing for me, this is insignificant, so your gratitude is unnecessary.”

Saying so, Aura gave him a composed smile.

Zenjirou didn’t know the value of a magical tool, so he accepted Aura’s good will without questions, but if he had known of its value beforehand, he might have realized for a bit just how sincere Aura’s interaction with him had been.

Magical tools were created with a magic called “Bestowal Magic”.

Just like the “Space-Time Magic” from the royal Carpa Family, the “Bestowal Magic” could only be used by members of a certain royal family too. It was commonly known as “Bloodline Magic”. Needless to say, magical tools created with “Bestowal Magic” were extremely rare and had skyrocketing prices.

Not to mention, the magic weaved into carpet in question was “Space-Time Magic”, although just the basic of basics. In other words, it was a gem that combined the secret techniques of two royal families. It could also be called the proof of good relations between these two families. It was without a doubt a national treasure.

At this point, Aura casually added as she suddenly realized something.

“Anyway, I am glad that you are pleased, Zenjirou-dono. Is there anything else you need? You are my betrothed, so there is no need for restraint now.”

Aura, who had finished her breakfast at some point, appeased her thirst after the meal with some citrus water and softly called out to Zenjirou.

Tasting the same drink from a silver cup, Zenjirou appraised it’s sweet-and-sour, but refreshing flavour (which would be even better when cold from ice cubes) as sumptuous while he pondered for a while. Then he replied.

“Well, not that I can think of any… Oh, wait. Betrothed. Yes, we are going to marry. In that case, Aura-san, do you have a ring for your ’left ring finger’? If so, I want you to lend me one.”

Being reminded about “wedding rings” from the words betrothed and marry, Zenjirou asked that.

But as this world had no custom of “wedding rings” or “engagement rings”, Aura didn’t understand Zenjirou’s intentions and tilted her head puzzled.

“Mhm, I think I will find one when I look, but what are you going to use it for?”

“That’s, well, uhm… Something to look forward to in a month.”

Zenjirou smiled vaguely on Aura’s question and gave an ambiguous answer. Since she didn’t know about “wedding rings”, he wanted to hide it’s existence until he handed it to her as a surprise.

However, she could easily deduce from joining the two statements “Lend me a ring of your size” and “Look forward to it in a month” together that her betrothed tried to present her a ring upon his return, even if there was no custom such as “wedding rings”.

Aura showed a mysterious smile that was very charming, yet not flirtatious and looked straight into Zenjirou’s eyes, nodding once.

“I understand. I will do so then. I take that you will tell me what kind of meaning a ‘ring for your left ring finger’ holds in your world in a month?”

“Ah… Yes, I’ll definitely do so then.”

Zenjirou realized that she already had seen through his plan more or less. Along with a bitter smile, he replied with these words.

* * *

The first transfer had ended before he knew it, but the second one left Zenjirou with a kind of drunkenness.

“…Whoops.”

He staggered on his first step, shook his head to shake off the sensation that warped his vision and let his eyes wander around.

An asphalt street. Countless cars driving on it. And on each side of the street stood miscellaneous concrete buildings lined up next to each other.

The familiar scenery and the smell of fumes really made Zenjirou feel “at home”.

Nothing had really changed here, so he wondered if his trip to that world had only been a daydream, but the fact that he was now on foot without his bicycle he went out with, was proof against it. Instead he was now carrying a rolled up carpet in his hands.

Moreover, he wore the golden ring he got from Aura on his left little finger.

This physical proof convinced him that yesterday had not been a dream.

“Actually, it felt like everything happened in succession, but actually a whole day went by…didn’t it?”

Mumbling to himself, Zenjirou suddenly lost confidence in his own senses. He had spent a whole day in the other world, so he simply thought that today was Sunday, but there was no guarantee that the same amount of time had passed on earth.

It could still be Saturday for all he knew. In the worst case, numerous days could have even passed here.

Well, there were no major changes in the surroundings, nor in the temperature or the angle of the sun, so he thought everything was alright for now, but he couldn’t be sure.

“Damn, first I need to confirm my situation.”

Zenjirou’s imagination treaded into dangerous waters and he shivered. Then he swiftly headed towards his apartment while firmly holding onto the carpet.

“Good. There doesn’t seem to be much of a time gap.”

Returning to his single apartment, he confirmed today’s date and time on his digital alarm clock and made a sigh of relief.

His wristband watch he brought with him into the other world and the digital alarm clock in his apartment both showed the same time.

It seemed that the time flow of the other world was nearly synchronic to this one. That was fortunate. Or so he carelessly thought, but if there had been a difference in time flow between the worlds, his plan to live in the other world would have been fundamentally gone awry.

After all, the arrangement to re-summon him had been “30 days later in the other world”. If the time flow had been different, he would have to live with the suspense of getting summoned at any time.

Needless to say, bringing over any dowry would be a dream within a dream then.

Anyway, Zenjirou knew that most anxieties were nothing but groundless fears, so he sat down in front of his computer, which was set up in the corner of his room, with a bright expression and turned it on.

“Okay, I don’t have much time, so I better hurry.”

Zenjirou slapped his cheeks with his hands to regain some spirit.

Right now it was a bit past ten o’clock in the morning. The room he had left alone for a whole day had saved up the early summer heat and had become really humid.

Still sitting on the chair at the computer desk, he took the control of the air conditioning and lowered the set temperature down to 20°C.

“Fuuh… This is heaven.”

The artificial cold and unhealthy breeze blew down onto the chair, where he sat on. Zenjirou sighed and wiped the sweat from his palms on his pants, then put his right hand onto the computer mouse.

The time span of one month seemed long, but was short.

Before you noticed it, the time passed in a blink of an eye while you arranged an appointment with your business partner, allotted time and prepared the necessary materials for a presentation.

As to not even waste a single second, Zenjirou first opened an online search site and entered all the keywords he could think of.

“…Aw, damn! Guess it’s no good.”

After a couple of minutes. Zenjirou tore his hair in front of the various tabs of searching sites.

One of the few advantages of the small one room apartment was that the temperature went down satisfactory in a short period of time. He raised the air conditioning back to 25°C.

In this artificially controlled temperature, Zenjirou rocked the chair as if he was tormenting the cheap carpet on the floor and mumbled to himself.

“Mhm, even if something so unrealistic like a different world takes place, reality won’t be so easy…”

What Zenjirou missed badly during his two-days-one-night stay in the other world was mainly electric tools like air conditioning, a refrigerator or light. None of these worked without a constant supply of electricity.

So what Zenjirou first looked for was a small power generator for domestic use. However, a convenient generator that kept providing electricity for years and could be taken to the other world didn’t exist.

“The most simple would be a diesel or petrol generator. But the fuel…”

This kind of generator, which was sold for camping, could easily provide electricity without any special set-up, but naturally it needed a fuel like petrol or diesel oil.

He had heard about someone making bio-diesel on his own before, so he had looked into it, but as an amateur, Zenjirou had no hope to do that in the other world.

Roughly speaking, bio-diesel fuel consisted of three components: vegetable oil, methanol (methyl alcohol) and caustic soda.

Of these only vegetable oil could be obtained in the other world. Zenjirou had no choice but to make the methanol and caustic soda on his own. Methanol could be gained from distilling pyroligneous acid during charcoal production, whereas caustic soda could be produced from electrified salt water in two water tanks connected with an ion exchange membrane. That was what he looked up, but it was obviously beyond his powers.

Of course he could just buy ethanol and caustic soda in great quantities at a pharmacy and take it to the other world, but if he did that, it would be faster to just go to a filling station, fill a plastic container with diesel oil and take this along. However, to begin with, the amount of fuel he could fit on a single carpet wouldn’t even last for a month. Same applied if he were to bring methanol and caustic acid.

“Steaming power’s no good. Then next is wind or solar power?”

Wind power was pretty realistic. The wind blew in the other world too. But what worried him was the fickle output. Since it literally “depended on the wind”, it would be useless at a calm, sultry night.

Solar power was totally out of question. Zenjirou needed electricity for “light at night” above all.

Electricity that could only be used during the day wasn’t appealing at all. He could buy a solar power generator with an integrated large battery for night use, but batteries were “consumable goods” with an extremely short life span. It was unreliable as a long-term power source.

“That only leaves the wind/solar hybrid power generator that’s the current fad. That one doesn’t seem bad.”

Zenjirou poured some tea from the pet bottle into his cup, then returned his hand to the mouse.

Consequentially the hybrid generator was the safest choice. According to the producer it was “Easy to set-up within half a day and operable on the same day”.

If he could trust that slogan, even Zenjirou should be able to set it up by himself in the other world.

However, Zenjirou was conflicted over one more power generator he coincidentally stumbled upon, even when he reached that conclusion.

“A hydropower generator for domestic use, huh. Even something like that exists…”

Zenjirou muttered, seized by its charm.

It wasn’t applicable as often as wind or solar power since it depended on location, but at present even the waves of a small power generator for domestic could be applied as hydropower.

The “small hydropower generator for domestic use” he had his eyes on came in two versions, one with 0.5kW, the other with 1.0kW, and operated through the use of the gravitational force of falling water.

According to what Zenjirou looked up, hydropower generators that produced less than 10kW were classified for “general usage” and with suitable conditions regarding location, even a single household could relatively easily purchase one.

That said, there were troublesome formalities like the “river law” involved starting with the purchase through to the set-up, so it wasn’t simple on sale at the nearby do-it-yourself store like the fuel based power generators.

Needless to say, the charming points of the hydropower generator were the 24/7 runtime and the overwhelming output that distinguished itself from the others.

With wind or solar power it was difficult to provide the necessary electricity for one household, even with favourable wind and sun, but not for hydropower. If the specifications in the producer’s catalogue could be trusted, the output of even a small one matched the power consumption for a single household.

In other words, Zenjirou could use all the electronics here, like the air conditioning, refrigerator and computer, simultaneous without a problem even in the other world.

But as good as it sounded, there was a problem as well.

“Are there even any rivers or canals near the palace?”

He didn’t get a chance to step outside the palace during his stay. Not knowing if there was enough water near the palace to operate the generator was a fundamental problem.

Going by the common sense of this world, it was unthinkable to not have water near the palace, where hundreds of people lived, but it concerned a world where magic existed after all.

“Yes, we have a mage specializing in water magic that makes us water every morning.”

The possibility of being told that wasn’t zero.

So he considered for a moment to buy both the hydropower and hybrid generator, but that raised a problem with his budget.

Working in a somewhat exploiting company, where at least the overtime was paid properly, for years, Zenjirou had saved up 3 million yen.

That was plentiful, considering that he was in his early 20s, but in light of his objective it was hardly enough.

The hybrid generator on his list costs around 500.000 yen. The hydropower one costs actually 1,5 million yen.

Besides the generator, there were a few other things like a big air conditioning, a refrigerator, lamps or a new computer on which he wanted to spent his budget. And when he also bought stuff like underwear, toothbrushes, soap, towels, bath towels and gauze handkerchiefs in place of tissues, the sum would be by no means negligible.

Adding Aura’s “wedding ring” to it, he couldn’t afford to spent two-third of his savings only on the generators.

However, as long as there was no solution for the generator, he couldn’t settle on the electronics to take along.

“Aww, guess I’ll have to choose one in the end. A safe low output against a high output with the risk of being futile. Mhm…”

The matter was too delicate for a prompt decision, but he didn’t got all too much time. It was different from buying meat or vegetables at a near supermarket. Delivery would take a few days too once he ordered it, and he needed a bit of time to learn how to set it up and operate it.

“Mh? To begin with, will they even sell me one if I tell them I just want the goods to set it up by myself?”

Zenjirou suddenly noticed a fundamental problem and sighed. According to the homepage he just read, the responsibility for safety wasn’t with the buyer, but with the trader that set it up. So the chance that they sold only the goods was rather low?

He researched on the internet for a while, whereupon he found some rather troubling information as expected.

“…Yeah, figures. Every company has a mandatory ‘consultation’, ‘local examination’ and ‘estimate for set-up’ before the purchase.”

Zenjirou made an exhausted sigh in front of his computer.

It required a consultation and a local examination and on top, he hadn’t decided on a place yet, so it would be safe to assume that they wouldn’t sell him a generator.

It seemed the hydropower generator wasn’t something to buy with ordinary methods.

“In that case, would it be okay when I let them set it up at some river here, learn the course of action from watching and secretly dissembled it later to take it with me to the other world?”

Zenjirou mumbled that and was reminded about the old village he was born in right away.

“I think there was a tattered hut on the mountain near the village and close to it should be a small river with a rather fast stream. The land rights there should still belong to me, I think?”

The village was already in the middle of nowhere and the hut stood deserted even farther into the mountain. If his memory didn’t prove him wrong, the land around there should belong to the Yamai family.

When Zenjirou graduated from university and found employment in the city, he had transferred the main house and fields to his uncle and his wife, as they had taken care of him. But the hut and land around it were still under his name.

Luckily enough, that hut was just a small storage shed without any electricity. It shouldn’t raise any suspicion if he told them that he wanted to set up the small generator in the nearby river for electricity in the hut.

Make hay while the sun shines. Right now he was pressed for time above all.

Zenjirou dialled the number of a company for micro hydropower generators that was written on their homepage and called them immediately.

After three call signs, the phone was picked up. However, what answered him was a recorded mechanical voice.

“Hello, you have reached the sales and executive department of Technotics. We are currently unavailable to take your call. Please leave your name, phone number, and…”

“Ah, right. Today’s Sunday, of course they’re not doing business.”

Zenjirou clicked his tongue as he hung up.

“Oh well. For now, I’ll send a mail and add both my email addresses for my computer and cell phone.”

He faced the computer again and started to type a mail with the topic “buying desire” to purchase a hydropower generator from the company.

* * *

On the next day, Zenjirou waited meekly in front of his superior, who solemnly looked at the “letter of resignation” before him with his arms crossed.

“You’re quitting…?”

His superior asked grumpy, whereas Zenjirou lowered his head commendable.

“Yes, I am sorry.”

In fact it was a company with harsh working conditions. People quitting wasn’t all that unusual, but in Zenjirou’s case, he had managed his work for years and finally became a part of the “working force”, only to quit now.

His superior couldn’t just tell him “Fine, just get out here” like with the newcomers.

As the perfect model for a middle-age man with his wrinkles, balding and drooping belly, his superior glared up at the standing Zenjirou from his seat.

“Going home to succeed the family, huh. Didn’t you take this job because you hated that?”

Reading the made-up excuse for quitting in the resignation letter, his superior looked grim and tilted his head.

Zenjirou had written the resignation letter, which his superior was looking at right now, with all his might last night, so he could quit smoothly.

“Well, yes. What can I say, I kind of had a change of heart…”

Since he couldn’t write that he was going to be a sponger by marrying the queen of another world, he had no choice but to lie for the reason. Breaking out in a cold sweat mentally, Zenjirou made a meek face.

“Mhm… Well, even if I force you to stay, you wouldn’t do your job properly anymore. Fine.”

These words came out of the mouth of his superior after a long glare. Hearing that, Zenjirou inadvertently made a sigh of relief.

But as to spoil his delight, the middle-aged superior raised his voice.

“However! At least finish all your projects that are due soon properly. Of course I’ll assign your long-term projects to someone else.

Ah, another thing, write up some guidelines for the next newcomers. I won’t go as far as telling you to write up something that makes you an expert just from reading it, but at least something that lets the newcomers differentiate left from right. Okay?”

If he had the right to choose, he would say not okay. To be honest, he couldn’t waste a single second right now, as he was preparing for his trip to the other world.

But he wouldn’t feel comfortable when he declined and left a bad impression behind. And if he opposed carelessly and was questioned thoroughly, leading to the exposure of his lie, then things would become way more troublesome.

“I understand. Excuse me then.”

In the end, Zenjirou had no choice but to play safe and work hard until his resignation.

Some of his work might have been taken over, but since he had to write up guidelines, he had even fewer time left than he thought.

As Zenjirou couldn’t waste even a single second, he quickly finished his lunch at a nearby beef bowl shop, then hurried over to a nearby jeweller.

“Let’s see, this ring would be around the size of 14 or 15. Your own size would be 17.”

The female shop clerk finished evaluating the ring and Zenjirou’s left ringer finger and said that without breaking her business smile.

It was his first time coming to a jeweller, so even when she told him that, he had no idea what these sizes meant.

A fancy chandelier, a carpet, neatly polished like the new products, and show glasses, displaying the numerous jewellery.

Zenjirou couldn’t tell that this wasn’t an all too high-class shop for a jeweller, so he felt extremely out of place with his suit reeking of beef bowl.

“Oh, is that so.”

The shop clerk could immediately tell that it was all Greek to Zenjirou from his behaviour and casually explained it while she went on.

“For a woman, it is a slightly big size. We only have a few rings at hand here that fit this size.”

Zenjirou replied a bit stammering to the shop clerk’s kind explanation.

“Yes, well, going by height, she is taller than me.”

“Oh, I understand. Though you are by no means short yourself. A somewhat wider ring would surely suit such a tall person better. Please wait a moment.”

The shop clerk vanished into the back to fetch some samples.

“Ah, yes.”

Left behind, Zenjirou naturally remembered Aura’s appearance.

A tall and sexy body, clear facial features shining with strong emotions, flaming red and long hair that represented her personality and light brown skin, which was fundamentally different from a tan.

What kind of ring would suit her the best? Zenjirou didn’t understand anything about jewellery, but like the shop clerk had said, a slim ring might not suit her.

However, Zenjirou was mistaken on one thing. Aura was not taller than him.

In fact, Zenjirou was taller, even if only by a finger length. He was 1,72m tall, so Aura’s height was probably around 1,70m.

Zenjirour reckoned Aura to be somewhere between 1,75 and 1,80, but that was nothing more than optical illusion caused by the aura emitted from her entire body.

“I beg your pardon for the wait. These are the rings that can be modified for you in a few days.”

One by one, the shop clerk put various rings on a tray and brought it over to Zenjirou.

“Ohh, there’s quite the variety.”

Even while he said that, he first checked the price of each ring.

Although he knew that he was being stingy, the bills leaving his wallet weighted on his mind above all as he knew nothing about the quality of the rings.

“I recommend choosing the metal for the socket first if you are undecided. Here in Japan the most common is platinum, but going by your skin colour, I would say that gold looks better on your finger. If yellow gold is too imposing for you, we have rings in pink gold like this one as well.

Of course the poise with your fiancé is the most important factor.”

In general, platinum or silver were for people with pale skin and gold for those with dark skin.

As Zenjirou had inherited the blood from the other world, his skin colour was rather dark for a Japanese.

Let alone Aura, who was 100% from the other world. Her skin had a natural and pretty light brown.

“Yes, my partner has even darker skin than me. Kind of light brown…”

“In that case I really recommend the yellow gold. As for the ornate stone, a colourful ruby or sapphire might be more favourable than a colourless diamond. Excuse the question, but can it be that your partner is a foreigner?”

“Ah, yes. That’s right, she isn’t Japanese.”

He certainly couldn’t answer “My fiancé is the Queen from another world”, so he brushed it off with a vague answer.

“Since she is a foreigner, it is also possible to choose the stone matching with her eye or hair colour. That way, it is congenial to her and it also holds the image that you are paying attention to her.”

“O- Okay, I see.”

Zenjirou wasn’t used to be exposed to this kind of situation for long, so he was overwhelmed by the shop clerk’s sale arts and just nodded to her words.

* * *

What awaited Zenjirou after his hectic lunch break with lunch and the jeweller, was an even more hectic afternoon with work.

He hung his suit jacket on the coat rack in the corner of the office, immediately loosened his necktie by a fist length and unbuttoned the top button on his half-sleeved white T-shirt. In that loose fashion, he sat down at his desk.

Zenjirou’s company had followed the recent cool biz campaign too and allowed them to come to work in casual clothes during summer, but the small company it was, it unfortunately couldn’t be applied to all departments.

Belonging to the “service department”, Zenjirou had his main work in the office, so there should be no problem coming in casual clothes, but in reality there was a high chance that he went outside to make rounds, so he actually had no choice but to come to work in a business suit.

For that reason, it was silently accepted that he loosened his attire unsightly like this to work a bit more relaxed when he had no work to do outside the office like today.

That said, Zenjirou only loosened his necktie and one button, which was still harmless. His direct superior, the middle-aged section chief usually took off his necktie, shoes and even socks inside the office and walked around barefooted in sandals.

“Better than playing tough and getting athlete’s foot.”

His excuse was rather blunt.

Zenjirou couldn’t be so open. He put the 500ml pet bottle with tea that he bought during his lunch break behind his mouse pad and woke his computer from the sleep mode that he had placed on it before the break.

The nowadays antique CRT display lighted up.

“Okay, go for it.”

He was currently working on the guidelines his boss asked him for during his resignation this morning.

There was no easy job that could be learned just through reading a document in this world, but his superior had told him to write something like a “helper for troubled times” for the newcomers.

“…Well, I didn’t have one when I started, though.”

Stopping his hands from typing on the keyboard, Zenjirou said that isolated.

He wouldn’t go as far as to say nasty stuff like “other people’s misery tastes like honey”, but it seemed somewhat unreasonable to him that the next newcomers would have less trouble than what he went through as a newcomer. Even more so when the very item to save them trouble was created in hard work by him, who practically resigned already.

Still, work was work. To resign without any troubles, he had no choice but to finish his work satisfactory.

“Mhm, guess this will do as a general outline. Next is…”

He just finished writing down a sketchy structure, so he withdrew his hands from the keyboard and took a sip from the tea in the pet bottle.

For detailed examples or what he couldn’t remember, he consulted old documents. He basically wrote a summary of his projects during his three years here, so most of the documents were saved on his computer.

However, for the documents that weren’t on his computer or in his file case, he had to go over to a co-worker.

After he looking for the necessary documents on his computer’s hard drive for nearly an hour and not finding it, he stood up from his chair and headed towards his working senior co-worker.

“Excuse me, Yoshihi-san. Do you have the documents from the contract with the Yamaguchi Company from two years ago?”

“Mh? Yamaguchi two years ago?”

Zenjirou called out to a skinny man in his thirties. The man stopped his work and turned only his head towards him from atop his chair.

“Yes, you know, the project you were in charge of and I helped you with two years ago.”

“Mmh? Ah, that one. Wait. I’m busy right now, so I’ll send it per mail when I find it. Will be by today enough?”

“Yes, thank you.”

“Reminds me, the chief just told me. You’re quitting, Yamai-kun?”

Yoshihi called out to Zenjirou, who was about to leave at once.

He hadn’t hidden it in particular, but it went around already.

While smiling vaguely with slightly guilty feelings, Zenjirou replied with “Well, yes”.

“I see. You’re quitting. You’ve been doing a lot of projects lately. I just hope they won’t be shifted over to me.”

“Ah, I am sorry. I will try to finish as much as possible.”

This time he felt really sorry and he lowered his head in a servile manner.

Zenjirou’s resignation was different from a fresh newcomer as he worked there for three years. He was part of the current working force and his leave meant that his share of the work would have to be covered by someone else.

Zenjirou realized that his real reason for quitting wasn’t all too admirable, so he felt really sorry about it.





Chapter 02: Preparations and Transfer

After doing overtime till the last train, Zenjirou managed to arrive home safely. Entering his one-room apartment, he went straight for the computer and sat down before it.

He deliberately ignored the exhaustion and sleepiness that was in every fibre of his body, placed the lunch box and tea pet bottle that he bought at the convenience store on the way home, on the left side of his computer desk and checked his inbox for new mails.

“Uhh… Three years. 1,5 million yen for only three years.”

Reading the mail, Zenjirou buried his head into his hands in front of the computer and leaked a groan from his mouth.

He had groaned because of the reply from the company that sold hydropower generators for domestic use.

In short, Zenjirou inquired about three things in his mail yesterday: “Can I set up the generators you sell by myself?”, “Can I maintenance it by myself?” and “And if I do, how long can you guarantee functionality on self-maintenance?”.

The company responded to that with “You cannot. You need an electrician license. The responsibly for set-up and maintenance is with the technician, not the buyer, so we ask you to leave the set-up to our company”, “It is possible to do perfunctory maintenance like removing pebbles from the water tanks or cleaning away moss when you read the manual, but we cannot guarantee anything then. If possible, we ask you to leave the maintenance to us too.” and “The guaranteed runtime is three years.”, which heartlessly smashed Zenjirou’s hopes.

Zenjirou had anticipated the set-up and maintenance matters, so the shock from it was relatively low, but the guaranteed runtime of three years at the end gave him an immeasurable shock.

“Three years, only three years…”

Zenjirou mumbled with empty eyes.

He was prepared for it to a certain extent. To begin with, even if a dream-like generator existed that functioned until his death without any maintenance, the important electrical appliances— The air conditioning or refrigerator itself had a limited lifespan.

Their service life was about ten years at best.

Either way, we would be plunged into the lifestyle of the other world without any cultural conveniences after some time.

Therefore Zenjirou considered the electrical appliances he would bring with him as kind of “training wheels” for him to get used to the new culture.

“My body will surely acclimate oneself in ten years and if necessary, I can wilfully ask Aura-san to rebuild my room to have water running down the walls like in the old palace of the Maharaja!”

Zenjirou took his hand off the mouse and stretched both his arms upwards towards the ceiling.

This information originated from the internet as well. Back in the old days when luxury goods like air conditions didn’t exist yet, one of the Maharaja in India used his enormous fortune to build a primitive, but large system, where water streamed down the walls and was drained outside through gutters in the ground, to cool the place.

Principle-wise it was the same as the “water sprinkling” custom in old Japan. The endothermic reaction from the evaporation of the water lowered the temperature in the room.

Such a structure seemed possible in the other world too, but even though Zenjirou knew nothing about architecture, he could at least imagine that it would require a large sum of money.

Aura had told him that the country just made it through a long war and was still recovering.

Would she allow him, a mere stallion by the name of Prince Consort, to waste such a large fortune and manpower during such a time?

At any rate, it would be impossible any time soon. But ten years later, when the country stabilized, a certain degree of selfishness might be allowed. Or so he thought.

“Three years just isn’t enough. The problem is the battery.”

Zenjirou faced his computer and pondered.

The consumable parts of the hydropower generator were the bearing (from the rotating propeller) and the battery.

Thinking rationally, it was kind of obvious that a battery was included in any generator to guarantee a stable output.

The battery had a lifespan of three years. Luckily enough, even a greenhorn could change the battery by the help of the manual, since it was a consumable part to begin with, but that didn’t mean he could just go and buy a lot of spare batteries.

Of course the maker sold them separately.

To begin with, a hydropower generator was hard to use in cities due to the terrain requirement, so the majority of customers lived in the country side, where mending wasn’t easily practicable by the maker.

Due to that, it was quite natural to buy a spare battery along with the generator for unforeseen accidents, but the problem was that a spare battery was in the end, just a spare.

A battery that wasn’t used certainly lived longer than one that was in use 24/7 throughout the year, but even then, it wouldn’t be as good as new anymore after three years with unprofessional storage.

Maybe it’s easier to understand with rough example: Would you expect a battery to work exactly like the maker guarantees even after five or ten years?

“Well, I guess I can bridge some time when I buy three spare batteries? I somehow want to have enough for ten years. The bearing is good for ten years and difficult to change, so I won’t need a spare. Ah, but since most of the electrical appliances only have a life span of ten years anyway, I might as well try to do some repairs by myself then.”

Zenjirou didn’t want to abandon his plan to take electricity with him, even if it became useless after some comfortable years in the beginning.

As a student, he had watched a lot of TV and DVDs, but after becoming a working adult, he just recorded the shows and had no time to watch them, slowly amassing DVDs with the recordings from his hard disk.

He had only seen the results for the World Cup in Africa on the news too and didn’t watch a single game of his favourite junior league team or the European Football Championship in the last few years.

Ever since Zenjirou was in middle school, he had recorded and watched two to three famous drama series from the internet per year. He also never missed an episode of the one hour idol group show airing on Sunday evening. However, these recorded shows too only added to his pile of unwatched DVDs after he starting working.

Spending time leisurely without working, only satisfying basic needs and watching recorded shows.

That was a rather unproductive lifestyle, but it was more appealing than anything to Zenjirou as he was currently worn out from work.

Right now, it was so appealing that he even ignored the voice in the back of his head that asked “Won’t you eventually grow tired of such a life and don’t know what to do with yourself anymore?”.

“Either way, I can only bring with me as much as fits on the carpet and my money would be useless over there. Okay, let’s spend it all!”

With a renewed spirit, Zenjirou started collecting information about the electrical appliances he would take with him.

“Mhm, I should be able to set up the air conditioning by myself if I try hard… Wait, how do I lay the ventilation pipe outside? The walls in the palace were out of thick marble… To begin with, can a normal AC even cool down that damn broad and tall room? Will a model designed for 30m² be enough…?”

On a second thought, there were many obstacles on his way to a life with electricity in the other world.

Nevertheless, Zenjirou immersed himself in his internet research to prolong his brighter future by even just one second while washing down the slightly cooled off meat bun with the tea from the pet bottle.

* * *

On busy days time flies.

Previously when he was buried in work, time seemed to pass in a flash and Zenjirou felt impatient and lost over it, but after announcing his resignation, he now accepted it gratefully.

Leaving his house early in the morning, he went to the company while reading manga on the packed train.

As there were no morning assemblies in his company, he clocked in with his time card and headed for his desk.

His job now consisted mainly of coordinating his projects with those who would take it over after he resigned.

Rewriting documents that he understood by himself so far, in a way that others could understand them as well.

And lastly, informing the trade partners he was in charge of, about the coming change by going there with his successor and lowering his head while saying “Due to personal circumstances, I will be resigning from my position. Mr. XY will take over from now on, so please treat him well as you have me…”.

In between these tasks, he wrote the guidelines for the newcomers.

Even when he worked until shortly before the last train, there just wasn’t enough time, so Zenjirou later did extra hours in the morning, but never spent the night in the office. It was all for the sake of getting some more funds for his trip to the other world.

In the case he missed the last train, he would sleep at a business hotel near the company, but he had to pay the hotel fee by himself for now.

If he handed the accounter a receipt, taken in the name of the company, he would get the money back on his pay check the following month, so it usually wasn’t a problem, but as of now, it was a huge problem.

After all, Zenjirou would leave for the other world before he received his last pay check. Even if the hotel expenses were added to it, it was completely in vain.

To avoid this, Zenjirou worked overtime late into the night, leaving with the last train, and extra hours in the morning, coming with the first train.

For all that, it was worth the effort.

It had been three weeks, since he had handed his superior his resignation.

As of today, thanks to immersing himself in overtime with only a little bit more than four hours of sleep at average, Yamai Zenjirou resigned peacefully and without any problems from the company he had worked at for three years.

“Well then, Chief, thanks for everything. Good-bye.”

“Yeah, stay well.”

The section chief with middle-aged spread only replied shortly with that when Zenjirou paid him a last visit before leaving.

Moreover, after standing up, he looked at him for only a few seconds, then sat down again and got back to work like nothing had happened.

His attitude went beyond indifferent and could have made one feel hated, but Zenjirou knew how stressed the section chief was, so he sympathized with him instead of holding an ill will.

Just like in any small company, the section chief in this company wasn’t just a “management” position either. Supervising the work of his subordinators and having to do his own share of work on top of it, he was a full-fledged working member.

Moreover, he got a bonus for being a section chief, but unfortunately didn‘t 