Volume 4 - CH 4

Chapter 4: The Museum in the Royal Capital 

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. 

“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. 

They must have drawn Aisha’s interest as a warrior herself, because she was looking at them in admiration. “They are old, but when you have so many lined up, it makes for quite the spectacle, doesn’t it?” 

“Hold on, Darlin’, what is a museum anyway?” Roroa asked. 

“Huh? Even that part wasn’t clear to you?” I asked. 

Come to think of it, when I’d first established the Royal Parnam Museum, Hakuya had said, “I hadn’t heard the idea before, but that is an interesting facility. I’d very much like to go look through it myself,” hadn’t he? 

In other words, this was the first museum to be built in our kingdom, and it was only natural that Roroa and the others wouldn’t know what one was. Were there museums in the Empire, maybe? 

“To put it in the simplest terms, a museum is a facility that gathers various things, has academics study them, and allows the general public to see them in the form of exhibits,” I said. “The goal of the institution is to deepen the understanding of those who come to see their collection, but it’s just fun to see all the novel things on display. People went on dates there in the world I came from.” 

“And I’m here to set up the security system Big Brother Luu asked me to install,” Genia put in. “There’re places where I have spells set to go off if you get close to them, so don’t try to go anywhere you shouldn’t.” 

“Now that’s scary...” I said. 

The overscientist Genia’s security system... The scary part was I couldn’t predict what might happen. I was imagining something like one of the complex contraptions you’d see on P*thagoraSwitch. One that ultimately chucked the offenders out the front door. 

“By the way, are you on a date here, sire?” Ludwin asked. 

“We sure are,” Roroa jumped in, wrapping herself around my arm. “It’s the three of us — Darlin’, Big Sister Ai, and me.” 

Ludwin looked confused. “Three of you? But... Ah! I-I see. Well, have fun.” 

With that said, Ludwin took Genia and left immediately. 

It seemed like he almost said something... Was it just my imagination? I wondered. 

“Anyway, shall we go?” I suggested to the other two and we moved on. 

Along the way Aisha stopped and looked back a number of times. Was something bothering her? 

“Aisha?” I asked. 

“...No, it’s nothing.” Aisha rushed over and wrapped herself around my arm. 

It couldn’t have been that one of the suits of armor had actually started to move, and Aisha had noticed and been scared... or anything like that, right? I got worried and was about to ask, when Roroa tugged on my sleeve. 

“Hey, hey, Darlin’. Why’re there nothin’ but bones on display here?” 

When Roroa asked me that in a somewhat bothered tone, I looked in front of me to see a glass case filled with the reassembled skeletons of various creatures. From a modern person’s perspective, this was a common sight at museums of natural history, but for the people of this world, it might seem wrong. 

“It’s like some bizarre ritual’s gonna start up at any moment,” she complained. 

“Ha ha ha! That’s not it,” I said. “This museum collects and exhibits historical items, books, and the skeletons and preserved specimens of living creatures, along with other items of interest to the field of natural science. What we have here are the bones we happened to excavate while trying to build sedimentation pools. The ones they’ve finished researching go on display like this. It’s not just animal skeletons; there are monsters, too.” 

“Monster skeletons... Is that okay? There’re monsters that’re nothin’ but bones, ya know?” Roroa said. 

“Well... from what the researchers tell me, those sort of skeleton monsters need magic in their bones, and once the magic is all gone, they’re just ordinary bones,” I said. “I don’t really get it myself, though.” 

They had been certified as safe by a professional mage, so I figured they were fine. 

...Probably. 

“Still, there sure are a lot of bones,” Aisha commented. “Is this a giant deer?” She sighed in admiration at the fossil that looked like an even more massive version of the Irish elk. “I have never seen such a massive deer before, not even in the God-Protected Forest. It’s surprising to hear a creature like this once lived near the capital.” 

“Yeah,” I said. “The way they stir up the imagination like that is one of the best parts about museums.” 

“Yeah, the appeal of that’s not totally lost on me,” Roroa said, staring at the fossilized remains of a massive water buffalo-like creature. “I wonder what the goin’ price for a creature like this’d be. You could get a lot of meat out of it, but it wouldn’t have much flavor... Though, at this size, they ain’t gonna be much use for farming, I’m sure. I guess meat really is the best use for them...”