Chapter 4: The Museum in the Royal Capital (part 1)

It was just after noon on the day I had unexpectedly discovered Ginger Camus.

Having finished recruiting him and having left his shop, Aisha, Roroa, and I

decided to wander around the castle town of Parnam. Roroa was calling it a date. I

was walking through the streets with a pretty girl on each arm.

"Though, even though it's a date, we're not really dressed up for the occasion,"

Roroa said, sounding dissatisfied.

I was dressed in my usual outfit for when I went out in secret, Nine-Headed

Dragon Archipelago Union traveler's fashion (Kitakaze Kozou style), and today the

two of them were wearing hooded robes over the top of their regular outfits. Our

faces were all well known to the public, so we were dressed this way to keep from

making a scene.

"It would seem unavoidable," Aisha said. "If we are discovered, we would not be

able to have our date."

Roroa stuck out her tongue. "True that. Considerin' my position, I really can't

show my face. I'm sure some folks here are none too fond of Amidonia, after all."

Roroa said that jokingly, but I was pretty sure she was right. While our two

countries had been peacefully united in a way that served the interests of both, the

Elfrieden Kingdom and Principality of Amidonia had been enemies for a long time.

That fact wasn't going to go away so easily.

I was overcome by a feeling I couldn't quite describe, but Roroa put on a bold

smile. "Well, I'm a real lovable gal, it's only a matter of time before I grab the people

of the kingdom by the heartstrings. I'm more worried about you, Darlin'. If you don't

learn to be more sociable, the people of the principality'll hate your guts."

"...I suppose you're right," I murmured. I thought Roroa's ability to blast away

negativity like this was wonderful. "I can't act like you do, Roroa, so I'll slowly but

surely protect the people of the principality's lives and property, then get them to

recognize me as their king."

"Hee hee," Roroa giggled, hugging me. "Also, if you're seen actin' all lovey-dovey

with li'l ol' me, don't ya think that'd put the folks from the principality at ease, too?"

Aisha pulled her off of me. "W-We are in the middle of a public street. What you

are doing is enviably scandalous!"

"Hmph, what's the matter with it? We're on a date, ain't we?" Roroa demanded.

"How's about you get all lovey-dovey with him too, Big Sister Ai?"

"I would love nothing more than to do so, but... out of consideration for the First

Primary Queen, Liscia, who allowed us to go on this date, perhaps we should not get

too carried away?" Aisha pointed out.

Aisha was the Second Primary Queen, while Roroa was the Third Primary Queen.

In this country where polygamy was commonly practiced by the nobility, knightly

class, and wealthy merchants (polyandry, while less common, existed as well), it

seemed that respecting this sort of pecking order among the queens or wives was

key to preventing later troubles in the home.

Roroa seemed dissatisfied. "Y'say that, but Darlin' and Big Sister Liscia've been

betrothed for, like, half a year, ain't they? They may not've gotten down to baby

makin' yet, but they've gotta have kissed, at least, right?"

Roroa looked in my direction, forcing me to blatantly avert my gaze. If I were to

list the romantic things I had done with Liscia, there was resting my head in her lap,

a kiss on the cheek, sleeping next to each other, and that was about it.

Having discerned that from my demeanor, Roroa looked at me coldly. "...Darlin'.

You ain't gonna tell me you haven't even done that, are you?"

"No, you see... I've been very busy, and..."

"Don't ya feel bad for Big Sister Cia, doin' that to her?" Roroa snapped.

"So you think that, too, Roroa!" Even Aisha jumped in to agree. "I know you were

hesitant at first, sire, because the betrothal was something decided on without either

your or Lady Liscia's permission. However, now, it's plain for all to see that you love

one another. Given our position, we cannot receive your love and affection before

Lady Liscia has, so, please, flirt with her more."

There was nothing I could say in response. Aisha had watched my relationship

with Liscia develop from a fairly early stage, after all.

Roroa had her arms crossed and was nodding and grunting in agreement. "Yeah,

yeah. Then ya can give us just as much of your love when you're done."

"...I understand," I said. "When the time comes, I'll take care of doing that with

you 'properly.'"

"Yep, that's a promise. Ya better," Roroa said condescendingly.

Here I was, being chided for my behavior by a girl three years my junior... I felt a

little pathetic, but Roroa laughed and waved her hand.

"But, well, here we are, on a date already, so we've gotta have fun."

"Indeed," Aisha said, nodding. "Lady Liscia did say to enjoy ourselves today, after

all."

They had a point.

"Well, it is a rare day off," I said. "Was there anywhere the two of you wanted to

go?"

Aisha said, "In that case, I would..."

"Also, no food until later."

"Shot down before I could even speak?! Wh-Why is that?" Aisha cried with eyes

like a chihuahua that had been forced to wait for a treat.

"When I eat with you, I'm always stuffed full by the time we're done, and that

makes it hard to move around," I said. "I promise we'll stop somewhere for food

later, so let's go somewhere else first."

"Ah, okay. If that's why..."

"That said, it ain't been that long since I first came to the capital," Roroa said,

tilting her head in thought. "I dunno what's here yet. Is there anywhere you'd

recommend as a date spot, Darlin'?"

"A date spot, huh..." I murmured.

In my former world, the theater, the amusement park, the zoo, the aquarium,

karaoke, and the arcade would all have been options, but not in this world. It was

that lack of leisure facilities that had made the entertainment programs over the

Jewel Voice Broadcast such a hit.

Well, if I was looking for a date spot other than a place for entertainment... Ah.

"That place might be good," I said.

"What, what? Did ya come up with somethin' good?" Roroa asked eagerly.

"It's a facility we opened just the other day, actually, and I think there should be

plenty of interesting things to see if we go there," I said. "Though it's more of an

educational institution than a leisure facility."

"Learnin', even though we're on a date? What kinda place is that?" Roroa asked,

tilting her head to the side.

"The Royal Parnam Museum," I said. "Not that the name's terribly inventive."

"So huge?!" Roroa cried out in surprise when we came up to the entrance of the

Royal Parnam Museum and she saw what was on display there. If we'd been talking

about a massive display in front of the National Museum of Nature and Science in

Ueno, it would have been the blue whale, but the Royal Parnam Museum had a

massive skeletal specimen measuring more than 10 meters long out in front of it.

"What're these bones from? Looks like a lizard or somethin'..."

"That's the giant salamander that was lurking in the area beneath the royal

capital," I explained.

"Salamanders get that big? The ones livin' in Amidonia grew to maybe two

meters at most, but... Wait, this thing was under the royal capital?!"

"Yeah. Talk about a surprise, huh?" I said.

This salamander had been discovered when I'd commissioned the adventurers'

guild to exterminate the wild creatures living in the labyrinth of escape tunnels

under the capital so that they could be repurposed as a sewer system. Or rather, the

ones to find it had been Dece, Juno, and their party. I had even been there to witness

it, albeit through my Little Musashibo doll.

Neither the country nor the guild had anticipated anything so big living under the

capital, so there hadn't been sufficient warning given, and I'd ended up putting Juno

and her group in danger. It was good that they'd managed to retreat somehow, but

when I thought about how things might have taken a turn for the worst, there was a

lot I had to reflect on.

Now, about that salamander: as soon as I'd received the report from Juno and her

party, I'd dispatched a unit from the Forbidden Army to kill it. Juno and her party

had struggled against the salamander because they hadn't had a mage who could use

the ice-elemental water-type magic that it was weak against. When we'd deployed a

group focused heavily around those who could use that sort of magic, the thing had

gone down easily. The slain salamander had then been dissected, then turned into a

skeletal specimen.

"Well, this is just a replica based on the original bones," I added as I touched the

skeletal specimen all over. We'd have had to worry about thieves making off with it

if we displayed the real thing outside, after all. There was a sign next to it that read:

"This is a 1/1 scale replica, so please try touching it to experience the size for

yourself."

"This sort of thing... How should I say it? It tickles my sense of adventure," Aisha

said, her eyes sparkling. "I think young boys would enjoy seeing it."

"Hrm..." I said. "I thought it might be a good educational experience that helped

stimulate their creativity, so I tried showing the real bones that we keep at the castle

to Rou" (Tomoe's real little brother) "and the other children at the daycare, but they

bawled their eyes out... I got chewed out by Liscia pretty badly after that one."

"What were you even doing?" Roroa asked, looking appalled.

Yeah, it'd have been important to consider their age first, huh.

"That said, while we have been preoccupied with the skeletal specimen, the

building itself is also quite large and impressive. Almost like a noble's manor," Aisha

said, looking at the building.

That was a sharp observation. "No, not 'almost like,'" I said. "We actually

remodeled a noble's manor."

"Is that right?" Aisha asked.

"Yeah. I executed those influential nobles who were colluding with Amidonia and

manipulating the corrupt nobles in the war, remember? This building used to belong

to one of them."

It really was... one massive house.

The main building was as big as the school building of a university with a lot of

history behind it, and then there were two annexes that were also quite big in and of

themselves. There was a well-maintained garden, too, and I had to be impressed

with the wealth this noble had managed to amass while the kingdom was in financial

trouble. According to Hakuya's investigation, they had been taking a cut of the

money that the corrupt nobles had embezzled.

Regardless, when this mansion had become vacant after the noble who owned it

was executed, it had been remodeled as the Royal Parnam Museum. Since it was this

big and impressive a building, letting any of my retainers live in it would have

provoked needless jealousy, and it would also have cost a lot of money to dismantle

it. This had worked out as a perfect solution.

"Oh, when ya put it like that, it sounds like it's probably filled with the grudge of

the nobles and I don't like it..." Roroa said with the corner of her mouth twitching.

"Ah... ah ha ha..." I laughed. "Yeah, well, it looks like there are already rumors.

Like that the armor on display gets up and walks around on its own at night."

"Of course," said Roroa.

"But, you know, using anyone and anything we can is one of those things our

country does, after all."

"Here's hopin' you don't have to use it as a haunted house someday..."

Uh, yeah, I thought. I'd really rather not.

"Anyway, let's go in. It's pretty amazing on the inside, too," I suggested, and we

went inside.

If I had spoken to the person in charge, they would have just let us in, but in

order to slip in with the regular visitors, we paid admission for three people at the

entrance.

The first thing to greet us inside was a lineup of armor. These were the suits of

armor that had been worn by the past commanders of the Royal Guard. They were

no longer used and were gathering dust, so I'd taken this opportunity to drag them

out of storage and donate them to the museum.