Volume 4 - CH 9.2

It took less than half a day by carriage from Proto Asta to the royal city of Asta.

It was so close that Ifa was a little out of tune.

I didn’t even know why the capital was relocated, but I’m sure there were various reasons, such as, location, expandability, and ease of laying the Imperial Highway.

The royal city of Asta was a sophisticated city.

The roads and buildings are rationally laid out, as the history is new and the area was built in a planned manner.

It wasn’t as big as the imperial capital, but it was big enough for Ifa.

However, she did not come for sightseeing.

Without much time to take in the view of the city, Rize and Ifa headed straight for the palace harem.

The palace harem was built as a separate building in a section of the interior of the Astilia Royal Castle.

It is much larger than Ifa had imagined.

How many women live in this?

With that in mind, Ifa followed Rize into the building and —-.

“……that”

“what”

Ifa asks Rize, who returns shortly.

“This is the palace harem……, isn’t it?”

“of course”

“Then, what are you guys doing now?”

“It’s as you see.”

Rize says, as a matter of course.

“They’re taking a lecture”

A room in the palace harem.

It was like a school auditorium.

The tiered desks are attended by well-dressed girls.

A lecture podium was set up in front of the room, and a female faculty member was explaining in a clear voice while writing mathematical formulas on a black board with a lime stick.

The content of the lecture was apparently statistics.

When Astilia was an independent country, this was an ordinary palace harem. In other words, it was a women’s garden where the king’s wives and mistresses resided, a place of love, hate, and intrigue.

Ifa looks up at Rize, who begins to speak quietly.

“But that changed after we became a vassal state of the empire. The reason, simply put, is that the problem of succession was solved. Women and adopted sons are now recognized as heirs to the throne.”

“……Did you not have queens in the past?”

“Oh, there weren’t, because it wasn’t recognized by the royal code. Women were not even allowed to inherit property in the first place.”

“I didn’t realize that……”

“But it was different in the empire. In the days when the empire was in fierce conflict with the demon tribe long ago, there were so many families that were facing the crisis of being cut off because of too few men, so they allowed women to have the right to inherit. And in making Astilia a vassal state, the empire did not tolerate this discrepancy. Perhaps they saw it as an obstacle to expanding their economic sphere. Imperial law prevailed, and women’s inheritance rights were recognized in our country.”

Rize continues.

“And so it went with the succession to the throne. The queen could now reign. Later, the Imperial Household Law allowed adopted sons to succeed to the throne, and this completely eliminated the problem of heirs. At the same time, there was no longer any need for the palace harem.”

“Oh … I see.”

Ifa also understood the meaning.

If only boys could succeed to the throne, the royal family would be severed when no prince was born. To avoid this at all costs, the palace harem with a large number of women would be necessary.

But unless the Queen is recognized. Simply, the odds of a heir being born are doubled.

Besides, if they can adopt a child, they no longer have to worry about an heir.

Inevitably, there would be no need for the palace harem.

“But … why is that so?”

“It is customary for queens of Astiria to be deeply involved in government affairs from generation to generation. The royal court had always had a large number of highly qualified teachers to serve as educators. After the first queen took the reigns, there was a succession of influential people who wanted to bring their daughters into the palace for the purpose of education. It is likely that, as the inheritance of property became possible, more and more people wanted to entrust their houses to their excellent daughters when the time came.”

Rize continues.

“And here we are. Now the palace harem is like a girls’ academy. Many of them will later be involved in national politics, so you could say it’s an institution for training female bureaucrats.”

“So, …… His Highness Cecilio didn’t have any, you know, special feelings for me?”

“No”

Rize laughs and says.

“Most of the queens have come from here. In that sense, this is still a harem. Some even come in for it. …… You were definitely discovered by a young man.”

“Oh, I see. ……”

That being said, I am still puzzled.

……but.

I felt the place was brighter, more open, and —- better than I had expected.

“—- Yes, well, enough preamble, let’s get you all used to the idea of statistics first.”

I looked back, and saw a calm female faculty member holding up a dice.

“Here’s the problem. I rolled this dice, and it rolled six, ten times in a row!　Now, what is the probability of getting a six next time?　Let’s see: …… Cornelia.”

“yes”

A bright blonde girl with a noble air stands up and answers with dignity.

“It’s one-sixth.”

“Thank you”

The female teacher smiles and says.

“Is there anyone else with an answer?　No? ……?　Well, you, who came to see us today.”

The eyes in the auditorium turn to her, and Ifa is surprised and raises her voice.

“Eh, eh? Me …?”

“Yes, please tell us your thoughts.”

I looked at Rize and she just smiled amusedly.

Having no choice, Ifa replies with a downcast look on her face.

“… I think there will be six next time.”

Immediately, a loud laugh escaped from the entire auditorium.

“You shouldn’t be gambling.”

A girl called Cornelia raises her voice teasingly.

“Have you ever heard of event independence?　Whatever outcome you have seen in the past has nothing to do with the next outcome that comes up.”

When told, Ifa was a bit miffed and retorted.

“The probability of getting six …… ten times in a row is approximately one in sixty million.”

“……eh?”

“Rather, why do you think that would happen naturally?”

Ifa looks at the female faculty member and says.

“Those dice you’re holding, the weights are skewed ……, they’re all sixes, aren’t they?”

“Wonderful!  A great answer!”

The female faculty member sounded remarkably happy.

She then passed the dice she was holding around to the students, starting from the seats at the end of the room.

It’s hard to see clearly from here, but judging from the roll of the student’s eyes ass he held it in her hand, it was probably a six-eyed cheating dice after all.

“If this were an arithmetic lecture, Cornelia’s answer would be correct. But this lecture is about statistics, exploring probabilities that no one knows. We don’t consider bias as just a coincidence, but as such a tendency. It puts aside preconceived notions and calculates probabilities based on actual results. That’s what —-”

*****

When the lecture ended, a crowd gathered around Ifa.

“Hey, where are you from?” “Are you really from a magic school?” “Can you use magic?” “What kind of place is the empire?” “Did you meet His Royal Highness Cecilio?” Come on? My room is vacant for one person now! “

“Um…”

In the face of the questions, Ifa was in a panic.

“……Our guest is feeling troubled.”

A stunned voice echoed, and the crowd quieted.

The crowd of people naturally breaks up.

Standing there was the blonde girl from earlier.

The girl speaks to the gaping Ifa.

“I have one question for you.”

“What, ha…, yes. What is it, ……?”

“…… You don’t have to be so formal. You just calculated the power of six squared to the tenth power. How did you do that?”

“Um … I didn’t calculate it properly.”

Ifa explains pensively.

“Multiply six three times and you get 216, so let’s consider this as 200 for now, and multiply it three times for a total of 800,000 Now you have multiplied six nine times, so multiply it by six one more time, and you get 48,000,000. I think there should really be a little more, so …… probably means about 60,000,000. I wasn’t too sure, but ……”

The crowd was noisy.

The blonde girl says with a sigh.

“I just did the math and it’s almost right. You have a great mind …… What is your name?”

“Ifa …”

“No family name, huh?”

The girl with the noble air, however, continues without scorn.

“’The fact that you are here in spite of your low status suggests that you must be very good at what you do. From the empire, how did you come to be in the palace harem of Astillia?”

“That’s … I got a call from His Royal Highness, Prince Cecilio …”

Loud cheers rose from the crowd.

The blonde girl says, a little surprised.

“A candidate for queen: ……. No wonder, you’re so talented and have such a pretty face.”

So the girl quickly held out her hand.

“Cornelia Est Latosa.”

Then she smiles and says.

“I look forward to the day when I can compete with you here.., even though our goals are different, mine as heir to the family throne.”

“Yes, thank you …”

Ifa squeezed her hand back.

A little bit, with a sense of guilt.

*****

“It would have been an interesting place.”

On the way to the inn where I plan to stay.

Rize, walking next to me, said this unexpectedly.

“At least, it doesn’t look like a palace harem at all.”

“……yes”

Ifa, too, had an honestly good impression of the place.

Somehow, the atmosphere is similar to that of a magic academy.

However, I felt that they were more serious than the students at the school, as if they were all looking firmly toward their own future.

“Because there is such a place, there is a tendency in this country that women should be civil officers. That is why the Prince did not wish to engage you in a conflict”

Rize says with a sigh.

“I used to think the same way when I was a student there. I would still be thinking that way today if my grades hadn’t hit rock bottom and I had no choice but to turn into a royal magician.”

“… Ah, what’s with that?”

Ifa gave a small laugh.

Then Rize begins to speak slowly.

“Her Majesty the Queen, the mother of the current King of Astiria,……, is an excellent monarch. She is wise, decisive, and loved by her people. She is an outstanding person. The succession to the throne is still a long way off, but the …… young Prince must be feeling uneasy. Can he really match up  to that queen.”

“……”

“That’s why he’s so impatient with the dragon thing. If he can’t solve this, he may even think he doesn’t deserve to be king. And …… he is probably the same in his search for a queen. He seems to be in a hurry to find a suitable one.”

Rize says.

“ He’s immature. But he’s not abad man…….  I’ve known him since he was an infant, and I can vouch for that.”

“…..”

“Will you support the young Prince from your side?”

“……that’s ……”

In the past, I would have immediately refused the request.

But now… the words are stuck in something, and they didn’t come out at all.