Chapter 18

A few days after Zenjiro was told about the existence of 'Kotodama' by Aura, the temperature in the Kingdom of Carpia continued to rise day by day, and the hottest season of the year was about to begin.

The exact temperature was unknown. The thermometer he had brought in had recorded temperatures over forty degrees, but for mental health reasons, it had been turned upside down so it couldn't be seen.

It felt as if the temperature had risen even higher than the days when it had exceeded forty degrees, but Zenjiro lacked the courage to turn over the hanging thermometer to check.

In recent days, it was no longer a matter of saying it was 'unhealthy'; Zenjiro had closed all the wooden doors of the harem and spent his days with the LED stand lights on from midday.

However, such melting heat was not entirely bad for Zenjiro.

During this period of potentially lethal temperatures, the royal palace had a rest period from noon for about three hours.

Thanks to this, Zenjiro had been able to spend time with his wife, Aura, in the harem not only at night but also during the day for the past few days.

"Phew, it's hot. Compared to the office, this place is heaven."

When Aura entered one of the harem's rooms with all the wooden doors closed, she first headed straight for the refrigerator without hesitation.

"Oh, Aura. Good work."

As Aura rummaged through the refrigerator, Zenjiro, lying on the sofa, called out to her while playing a mobile game.

"Uh-huh."

Aura replied briefly without turning to face Zenjiro, and skillfully took out ice from the ice-making room, putting it into the shaved ice machine next to the refrigerator.

She turned the handle of the shaved ice machine, creating a mountain of shaved ice in a glass, and then poured strawberry syrup from a chilled red bottle into it without any restraint.

Zenjiro, who had been watching this from the corner of his eye while playing the game, protested in a flustered voice.

"Hey, Aura! That's too much!"

However, Aura was completely unfazed.

"Don't be so stingy. It's not like it's going to run out."

Saying this, she put the cap back on the strawberry syrup bottle and returned it to the refrigerator, then walked over to the sofa where Zenjiro was lying, holding the glass of shaved ice.

"It will run out! It will run out more clearly than anything else!"

While protesting, Zenjiro closed his mobile game, sat up from his lying position on the sofa, and made space for Aura to sit.

Even though there was another large sofa opposite, the fact that he sat up to sit on the same sofa seemed to indicate that, despite any complaints, their relationship as a couple was going well.

Aura scooped up the shaved ice, now red from the strawberry syrup, with a long silver spoon and brought it to her mouth.

"Don't worry. I'm having the castle's chefs make something similar using fruit juices and brown sugar."

Hearing this from Aura, who said it with confidence, Zenjiro asked with interest,

"Really? Is it good?"

"...So, I'm taking this strawberry syrup. You use the special fruit sugar juice that the castle's chefs have made with care."

"Hey, is it good?"

"...Yeah, it made my head tingle. I can't get enough of that tingle."

"Come on, it's not going well, is it..."

Perhaps feeling a bit guilty under her husband's reproachful gaze, the queen averted her eyes and confessed.

"Yes... The food culture of your world is truly excellent. It seems difficult to recreate exactly the same thing."

Zenjiro sighed at the queen's honest confession. He hadn't really expected much, but he was a bit disappointed.

"Hmm... Well, don't worry about it. I brought all these things because I wanted to use them myself, and I was prepared to learn the customs and culture of the country if I was going to settle down in a place different from where I grew up."

On the other hand, Zenjiro's words were also true. Even if Aura had promised that he didn't have to do anything, he had always known that a life of just eating, playing, and sleeping like a lapdog wasn't a realistic possibility.

Looking at the history of Earth, even a king's concubine, who lived in the shadows, was often called upon for public events. Considering this, it was inevitable that he would be required to learn enough about the country's customs and history to avoid embarrassing the royal family.

Moreover, in a world where work hours were determined by sunset, the 'job' in this world was nothing compared to Zenjiro's salaryman life, where he felt like he had come home early if he could return before the day changed.

Aura, who couldn't understand these circumstances, put the towel she had used to wipe her sweat on the table and asked, as if to confirm.

"Hey, Zenjiro. Is there anything you're lacking? I understand that you are consciously avoiding contact with others, knowing my position. It's true that I benefit from this, but I feel bad that I can't give you anything in return for restricting your freedom."

It had been about a month since Zenjiro had moved in as a son-in-law. Aura had finally realized that his behavior, which didn't cause any trouble or inconvenience, was a result of his understanding of her and her wife's position and his self-restraint to avoid causing trouble.

Additionally, the reputation of Zenjiro among the servants in the harem, such as maids and personal chefs, was currently very good.

He was easy to take care of, didn't make demands, and didn't act in a domineering manner. For those in service, there couldn't be a more comfortable master.

After conducting a survey, Aura had even warned the head of the kitchen and the head maid not to take the current situation for granted.

Humans are creatures of habit. It's a common occurrence for a servant who has become accustomed to an easy master to be unable to handle the master's sudden demands.

To Aura, it seemed that this son-in-law from another world was overly concerned with others and tended to suppress his own desires.

However, Zenjiro, when asked, didn't have any specific requests.

Indeed, he had a desire to go outside the harem, but considering the trouble it would cause, it wasn't something he felt strongly enough to insist on. His complaints about the heat and food were also things that even Aura, as a queen, couldn't easily resolve.

This self-contained 'understanding' frustrated Aura, but Zenjiro, who had grown up as a commoner, had a sense of shame about expressing his whims freely.

"Well, I'm satisfied for now, yeah. I'll let you know if I have any complaints."

"I don't want you to tell me complaints, but rather your wishes. Anyway, don't be shy. I want to repay your dedication in some way."

Smiling gently, Aura's words made Zenjiro feel both affection and a bit of mischief.

Glancing at the clock to confirm that there was still plenty of time left in the lunch break, Zenjiro approached the sofa where Aura was sitting and playfully jumped on her.

"Alright, I get it. If you say so... pay with your body!"

The queen, instantly understanding her husband's playful intention, opened her arms to accept his actions.

She firmly caught and embraced her husband, who was hugging her.

"Alright. ...Mmm."

Then, she wrapped her arms tightly around Zenjiro's back and kissed him passionately.

"..."

However, her husband's reaction was unexpected. Every night, when they embraced, he would kiss her passionately and touch her body, but this time, he was as stiff as a doll, his body rigid.

"...What's wrong? Zenjiro?"

"..."

Zenjiro silently moved away from Aura, went to the corner of the room, and crouched down.

"W-What's wrong, Zenjiro? Why are you sitting in the corner of the room, poking the carpet with your fingers and looking so gloomy?"

Aura, unable to follow her husband's sudden change in mood after a passionate embrace, asked in confusion.

In response to her voice, Zenjiro, huddled in the corner, wrote a 'の' (no) on the floor and answered in a voice mixed with sobs.

"...Well, I wasn't at full strength either? I didn't really charge at you. But, you know, I tried to push you onto the sofa, and you caught me head-on, and you didn't even realize I was trying to push you down..."

Zenjiro wasn't the type to take pride in physical strength, but as a man, it was a bit sad to be stopped by his wife.

"Ah..."

Aura's face visibly tensed at Zenjiro's words.

(Oh no. I thought he was hugging me so passionately, but he was trying to push me down.)

Although not as strong as the palace knights, Aura's body, trained through years of combat, was more than capable of handling a charge from an amateur like Zenjiro.

However, in this world, which was even more male-dominated than modern Japan and valued physical strength, the husband's frustration at being stopped by his wife was taken more seriously by Aura than by Zenjiro.

What should she do? The queen, who had unintentionally embarrassed her husband, thought for a moment. Then,

"Kyaa!"

In a desperate attempt, Aura let out a theatrical scream and deliberately fell onto the sofa.

"Too late! I didn't use any special time-delay tackle, you know!?"

"...Kyaa"

Despite Zenjiro's protests, Aura continued to let out theatrical screams while lying on the sofa.

"But..."

"...Kyaa"

"..."

As Aura writhed on the sofa, her deep slit skirt rode up, revealing her tanned legs up to mid-thigh.

It was a familiar sight from their nightly encounters, but it was still a good one.

"...Uryah!"

"Kyaa!?"

Overcome by desire, Zenjiro, deciding to pretend that the time-delay tackle had worked, pounced on his wife lying on the sofa.

◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆

About an hour later, Zenjiro and Aura, who had worked up a good sweat on the sofa, were half-naked, wiping their bodies with cold towels taken from the refrigerator, and began their study session.

Zenjiro sat in front of a computer, and Aura stood diagonally behind him.

Next to the computer where Zenjiro sat was a stack of dragon skin paper that Aura had brought in.

The content written on the dragon skin paper was the tax collection status by region for the previous year.

According to Aura, tax documents, which are basically composed of 'place names,' 'personal names,' and 'numbers,' were ideal for learning the world's writing and pronunciation.

While Zenjiro didn't entirely agree with this, he diligently pointed to and read the words written on the paper, which Aura recorded in a video with a digital camera, and then entered the content written on the dragon skin paper into a spreadsheet on the computer.

The thirty characters of this world had already been registered as 'user-defined characters' a few days ago, and were assigned to the keyboard.

Although it was very inefficient to have to convert each character, this method allowed Zenjiro to input the world's writing on the computer.

Using this method, Zenjiro had entered the tax collection documents he received from Aura, creating a study material with the world's writing, katakana, and Arabic numerals side by side to learn the pronunciation of the characters on his own.

While it seemed that Aura had other intentions in using last year's tax documents, the official reason was as stated.

"So, Zenjiro, is the document complete?"

"Yeah, I finished entering it yesterday. I'll print it out now."

Zenjiro printed out the data he had entered into the spreadsheet over the past few days. The printer was something he had brought along because it would be a waste to throw it away. While copy paper was one thing, the ink cartridges, of which he had only three spares of each color, were precious, but if he didn't use them, they would clog and become useless.

Zenjiro, who had no intention of being stingy with the printer, cheerfully printed out the data he had entered the night before.

Aura, who had been watching the machine spit out paper with interest, eventually confirmed that the printing was finished, took the stack of paper, and quickly scanned through it.

"Alright, let's check if the readings are correct. Zenjiro, start reading from the first page."

"Got it, I'll start. First, the Aubeinis Earl's territory, tax collection is one thousand dragon skins. Two thousand bags of wheat. Wood is..."

While Aura, who was looking at the printed paper, nodded and listened, she pointed out any errors in pronunciation or numbers along the way.

"Ah, that's not 'Bonijya Viscount' but 'Boniiya Viscount.'"

"Got it, not 'Ja' but 'Ya.'"

Indeed, place names and family names, being proper nouns, were not affected by 'Kotodama,' so anyone could pronounce them correctly, making it a good way to get familiar with the writing. Additionally, learning the names of prestigious noble families whose names appeared in the royal tax documents was a bonus.

Considering this, using 'tax documents' to learn the basic pronunciation of characters might not be a bad approach.

Once you learn a hundred or two hundred words, you can usually figure out the pronunciation of unknown words.

After all, this world didn't have a 'Japanese Language Textbook for First Graders' or any other book optimized for beginners to learn writing.

When the character reading lesson using the tax documents was successfully completed, Aura finally asked a question that had been on her mind.

"Hey, Zenjiro. There are some numbers marked in 'red' or 'blue.' What are these?"

In response to Aura's question, Zenjiro answered with a rare, knowing smile.

"Oh, those are the places where the actual numbers and the numbers calculated by the spreadsheet differ, color-coded for clarity. Red means the actual number is lower, and blue means it's higher."

"Hmm..."

Aura, with a blank expression, let out a small voice in response to Zenjiro's answer.

Generally, while the tax documents submitted to the royal family were supposed to be accurate, the palace did not recheck all the numbers.

After all, the numbers were numerous, and rechecking everything would be impractical, wasting both dragon skin paper and manpower.

Typically, they would give a quick once-over, identify any obviously incorrect numbers, and then randomly select a few sheets for rechecking.

Strangely, the random selections rarely included the territories of the country's major nobles or those close to the inspectors.

However, for Zenjiro, who was skilled with spreadsheet software, this level of calculation was no problem at all. After all, it was just a matter of creating a basic format and entering the numbers correctly, something anyone with some office experience could do.

"Zenjiro, can I borrow this for a bit?"

Zenjiro, who had fully anticipated this request, put on his most innocent smile and replied.

"Sure, go ahead. Just don't go overboard. Though, I shouldn't be the one saying that."

"I understand."

The queen responded with a wry smile to her husband's words.