Chapter 14: 13

Vol. 1 Chapter 13

~Enjoying eating rice for the first time in a while~

Translated by Raizu
Edited by Mirp

 

That night after finishing the audience with the King.
Marl and I were relaxing in the bedroom prepared for guests.
Luckily, this room had a bath, so I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Purification magic certainly cleansed the body, but it was far inferior to the comfort of a bath that warmed the body from the inside out.

Of course, in the bath, I washed myself to my heart’s content and flirted to my heart’s content.
The bath was good, in fact it’s really good.

Marl put her hair down instead of her usual ponytail and carefully wiped her wet hair with a towel.
I liked Marl with a ponytail, but I also loved Marl with semi-long hair. Her wet hair after taking a bath was sexy.
Luckily I’m in sage mode right now, so it’s just a feast for the eyes.

[Taichi-san, aren’t you listening to me?]

[Hmmー? Your real name or your identity as a princess or something like that?]

Marl stopped wiping her hair and asked with a mysterious expression.
I had already decided on the answer.

[To me, Marl is just Marl.]

[Eh?]

[My most important person right now.]

Marl jumped at me after making an amused expression.
I hugged Marl and stroked her still slightly damp head.

[I’m a bad woman who forced my own convenience onto Taichi-san with lies and got you involved in bad things.]

[Right. But it’s okay, Marl is fine. If you weren’t there, I wouldn’t be who I am.]

I remembered that night when I cried in Marl’s breast.
I think I was able to stay myself because Marl accepted everything that night.

[I want to accept you too. Princess and all.]

After crying for a while, Marl began to talk about everything.
She was the first princess of the Mischronia Kingdom and had the second claim to the throne.
When she was about to be forced into a political marriage with Melqis, the Prince of the neighboring Geppel Kingdom, she escaped through a secret passage in the treasure hall of the Mischronia Kingdom.
At that time, she inadvertently broke a magic tool called an oracle jewel that was in the treasure hall, and accidentally saw a prophecy.

[Oracle Jewel?]

[Yes, it’s a magic tool that gives the user an oracle in hopes of a good future.]

It’s neither a magic tool like a portable stove, nor something like the protective ring.

A product that could be called a genuine artifact given to humans by the Gods. They called it a magic tool.
Although the effect of the oracle orb was known, it didn’t do anything when someone held it in one’s hand and prayed to it.
No one would have thought that destroying it would be the way to use it.

[So, what did it do?]

[I heard voices.]

[Voices?]

[Yes, it’s a voice that resonated directly in my head.]

I didn’t like the sound of that.
Felt like I knew whose voice it was.

[…what did the voices say?]

[That a black-haired, black-eyed man named Taichi would appear at the adventurer’s guild in the city of Crossroads in the Karendil, and I was told to seduce you.]

[What, did Marl believe that?]

[No way, I doubted it at first. But I had nowhere else to go, and that voice helped me many times to reach Crossroads. And then…]

[And then what?]

[When I saw Taichi-san, I fell in love at first sight…]

Marl blushed and buried her face in my chest.
What a darling. But, I had to make sure.
I opened the menu and pressed the option that I’ve been ignoring until now.

『Oho? So you finally called me? I thought you forgot』

The voice still echoed in my head like it did the first time.
It’s a voice I haven’t heard in a long time. Though I didn’t think it was over a month yet.

『That’s right, it’s been about twenty days』

You were the one who introduced Marl to me.

『Umu, she’s a good girl. I had a hard time convincing her』

Did you have anything to do with Marl falling for me?

『It’s simply her tastes. If I were to borrow your words, it would be called a straight ball strike. I swear I didn’t mess with anything. I’m a god myself, so I’m also at a loss』

I see, but you still played Cupid.

『Not really. But I haven’t touched anything since then』

Oh, that’s right, you fucking toothless turtle.

I was annoyed, so I one-sidedly cut the God Call off.
It seemed to be true that Marl was guided by that indescribable existence.
I didn’t like it. I felt like the meeting between me and Marl had been tainted by that mysterious voice.
But, he said he didn’t tamper with Marl’s or my actions and feelings. I don’t know if it’s worth believing, but I had to believe.

[Taichi-san…]

Marl looked at my face with wet eyes. It seems that she was turned on by the prolonged hug.
Then, she licked my neck with her tongue.

I don’t care anymore! Marl, you’re so cute, Marl!

=====

[Nuah! I lost again!]

[Fufufu, this is my fourth win in a row!]

It’s been a week since I stayed at the Royal Palace.
A week spent ignoring the nobles’ daughters who tried to butter up with me, the gazes of the maids directed at me every time they passed by me in the corridor, and the imperial guards who asked for mock battles.
It’s so bad that I’d been shutting myself up in my room with Marl for the past few days.
It’s a world with little entertainment, so when it comes to things to do when I’m shutting myself in, it’s all about that, but with the eyes of the maids watching over, I couldn’t flirt with Marl while there’s still daylight.
As they were stretching out, Marl ordered the maid to bring something like a board game.
It’s an intellectual game like so-called chess or shogi. It’s called Blitz. After all, there was the concept of magic, so the way the game played was also slightly different.
I’m not good at this type of game, I was aware of that.
But Marl was strong. Too strong. I was nothing but a powerless baby against her.

[Damn… I’ll beat you someday.]

[Fufu, I am looking forward to it.]

Marl carefully put the blitz pieces back into the case and returned them to the maid.
These pieces also seemed to be quite expensive, so I was a little nervous to touch them at first.
Everything seemed to be made from the fangs of high-grade monsters.

[That single piece can be sold for 10 gold coins.]

[Well that’s scary.]

It’s the same price as the mithril short sword I gave to Marl. Luxury goods of the upper class were truly amazing in many ways.
Now then, we still needed things to spend our time on. What to do.

[I’m bored, I’m not in need of anything, but I don’t have enough stimulation.]

[How about playing a prank on the maid!]

[Gehehehe, that might be good too.]

Saying that, Marl and I looked at the maid waiting by the reception room door.
The maid was desperately pretending to be expressionless, but since me and Marl were laughing and looking over, she must’ve been dripping with sweat.

[We’re just kidding, sorry.]

[No, please don’t mind me.]

Even though the maid’s expression remained the same, she gave off a somewhat relieved atmosphere.
No, it’s not the time to bully the maid.
But, I didn’t want to go to the training grounds.
Most of the guards were training, and as soon as they found me, they’d rush to apply for a mock battle.
It’s an honor to cross swords with a Hero or something like that.
I don’t know if they liked the fact that they crossed swords with me, or if they resented it, but they ended up fighting until they were exhausted.
I can spend time doing that, but unfortunately I’m not a super-masochist, so I don’t want to do it too often. I already did it yesterday too.

But, what do we do now? We were able to kill some time with Blitz, but it’s not even noon yet.
That’s right, I came up with a good idea.

[Marl, I have a favor to ask you.]

[What is it?]

[I need you to teach me about various things.]

=====

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An hour later, Marl and I went to King Karendil’s National Magic School.
Of course, we didn’t leave the Royal Castle alone. We were escorted by the royal guards.
The magic school was attended by children of great nobles, so security was very strict. It was decided that as long as we stayed inside the school, we should be safe.

[If you want to study, just go to school!]

[Hm, yeah.]

A week ago, I thought I wouldn’t be able to visit here. But what happens in this world can be really unexpected.
We were walking around the grounds of the magic school, accompanied by an old man dressed like a magician who was the vice-principal of this magic school.
The school building was a three-story stone building.
The road leading from the gate to the school building was also paved with cobblestones, and lined with beautifully maintained lawns and flowerbeds.
The road forked at some point and at the other end of the fork was a vast vacant lot that had been beautifully leveled.
Boys and girls who seem to be students of the magic school were running there, practicing magic.
Even though it looked hectic and flashy, they’re only using level 1 magics. There didn’t seem to be a pink haired heroine who exploded out of nowhere.

[This is the large library. Please tell the librarian if you intend to leave.]

[Yes, thank you very much.]

When I bowed my head, the old man nodded in satisfaction and left.

[That’s an amazing amount of books.]

[That’s right. Let’s ask Mister Librarian about the location of the textbooks and start right away!]

Saying that, Marl triumphantly walked to the counter where the librarian was sitting.
I left Marl to her own device and looked around the inside of the library again.
Books, books, books, books everywhere.
It’s a tremendous amount of books that not even the libraries in the world where I used to live could beat such a collection.
When I was spending time at Crossroads, I once visited a bookstore while shopping.
Even if the price of the book was cheap, it still cost two silver coins.
Perhaps there was still no letterpress printing technology in this world. I could make a suggestion, but I don’t think I’d go out of my way to intervene because it should naturally occur.
First of all, if I did that, I felt like I’m going to lose the feeling of another world, or something like that.
At least for now, I want to enjoy this world as it is.

[Taichi-san? What’s wrong?]

When I was thinking about that, Marl was looking at me with a puzzled look while holding several books.

[No, it’s nothing. Rather than that, let’s start the class, Marl-sensei.]

[Alright, Taichi-kun.]

We bantered a bit in good jest and laughed.
Fuck that noise. I’m going to live freely in this world.

=====

The contents of the class were wide-ranging.
First, a simple geography. It seems that the name of this world is Eriard.
It is said that civilizations have risen and fallen many times in the past, and this has happened repeatedly.
Now it’s November 3, 2203 in the new divine calendar. There are 365 days in a year and 24 hours in a day. This area was strangely the same as the original world. There was not much otherworldly feeling.
It is said that 2,203 years have passed since the new Gods were entrusted with ruling the world by the old Gods.

[Eh? They exist?]

[Eh? Of course they do?]

Is God real? Faced with such a question, Marl replied with an expression as if it’s common sense, that I unintentionally blurted out.

[Yes. They occasionally descend to give oracles, cause miracles, and give magic tools. If I remember correctly, at the end of last year, the Sake God Melonel descended to the provincial city of the Sunreis Empire on the Second Continent and asked for a drink. I heard that they partied for the entire day.]

What a community-based God.
It seems that the religions of this world had Gods who did exist and directly guided the believers through oracles.

[Hmm? Then, what kind of God gave the oracle with the jewel?]

[Well, according to legend, the oracle jewel was given by the old God.]

[What happened to that old God?]

[It is said that he left the new Gods to govern the world and fell asleep. Some said that he died because he tore his own existence apart to give birth to the new Gods.]

He’s in great shape alright, yep.
Since I’ve derailed, I’m going back to studying geography.
The name of this continent, where Karendil Kingdom—where we were now, and Mischronia Kingdom—Marl’s hometown, were situated was called the Pete Continent. Also known as the First Continent.
The climate was known to be generally warm and mild, and that it was a continent that was easy to live in with an abundance of food.
For that reason, monster breeding was prosperous, and there were still many undeveloped regions.
The Karendil Kingdom was a traditional kingdom located in the center of the Pete continent, blessed with vast flatlands and forests.
The plains were well developed and boasted a food production volume that was said to be the food storehouse of the Pete Continent. The main industry was, of course, agriculture.
Although it was basically a rich country, it had no choice but to rely on imports for salt because it did not share borders with the sea and thus couldn’t obtain rock salt on its own.
Also, although there are many forests, many of them are ruled by monsters, so it seems that the development of forest resources has not progressed much.

Next was the Mischronia Kingdom, Marl’s homeland.
It’s a kingdom located in the southeastern part of the Pete continent, rich in water resources such as lakes and rivers. It was also blessed with marine products because it was in contact with the sea.
It traded not only with the Pete Continent, but also with the countries of the Plum Continent, also known as the Second Continent. It was said that all kinds of goods from all over the world gathered in its Royal Capital, Reverse.
It was also called a country where travelers gathered because there were many ships that went to various countries.
However, there were many aquatic monsters lurking in lakes and rivers, so while there were many benefits of water, there were also many dangers.
Rice farming (!) was thriving as an agricultural product, and unlike the Karendil Kingdom, where bread was the staple food, rice seemed to be the staple food in Mischronia.
It was said that Michronia was a supplier of the salt imported by the Karendil Kingdom, and in terms of power, Mischronia was also said to be superior as well.

[That is why they did not dare to raise their head against us.]

[So that’s why the King’s face turned pale.]

After that, Geppel Kingdom, to where Marl was supposed to be married to.
It’s a country located in the eastern prairie of the continent, where cotton production and the farming of livestock like horses, cattle, and sheep were actively practiced.
Also, compared to other regions, the number of monsters living there was extremely small. It was the country with the fewest monsters on the Pete Continent.
Agriculture also thrived, and since it faced the sea, it was famous for its cuisine that used a wide variety of ingredients.
However, they had been skirmishing with a tribe of demi humans; the half-horse demi-human centaurs who lived in the grasslands for many years. And even though there were few monsters, public order was not very good.

There are two more countries on the Pete continent.
The first was the dwarf kingdom of Mountbath, located in the northwestern mountainous region.
It seemed that they survived through the abundant metal mined from the mountainous area, which was then processed into weapons and accessories and exported.
All the works made by the dwarves were of high quality, so they were quite useful.
Regarding food, they imported mostly from the Karendil Kingdom, but they did flatten parts of the mountains, creating terraced rice fields to produce crops.
Also, most of the tea distributed on the Pete Continent comes from this Mountbath.
However, the mountainous areas were notoriously difficult to live in except for dwarves, as there were many strong monsters such as wyverns and griffons on top of the extreme temperature difference. Even dragons appeared on rare occasions.

It’s a little difficult to govern within the framework of the country for the last one.
A large forest spread across the northern part of the Pete Continent.
Various settlements of demi-humans and elves were scattered here, and each tribe lived with mutual respect.
It was said that there were many ruins of the old Gods and ancient civilizations that went back in time even farther scattered around there, but very few people ever returned after setting foot in the depths of the Sea of Trees where there were powerful monsters abound.
It seemed that each tribe in the Sea of Trees made a living by trading the forest’s bounty, items excavated from the scattered ruins, and timber thinned out to maintain the forest.

[Well, this is how the simple geography and countries of the Pete Continent look like! Did you find any countries that sparked your interest?]

[Mischronia Kingdom.]

[Eh?]

[Mischronia Kingdom.]

[Hoo, are you sure!?]

[I’m serious, I’m really serious, that I can’t be anymore serious.]

I can finally eat rice again if I go to Mischronia Kingdom.
No, eating bread isn’t bad at all, but I still want to eat rice.

I also like meat, I like it! I want to eat a meal with salted grilled fish on silver rice!

[Umm, may I ask why?]

[You know it.]

[As expected of Taichi-san, I get it.]

I held Marl’s hands.
Needless to say, a new bond was born between me and Marl.
By the way, when I entered the magic school, I did see the students casting magic on the playground. If there happened to be another time, let me take a closer look.

=====

Meals in the Royal Castle were basically brought to the room.
Only on the first day, I ate with the King, Queen, Prince and Princess in a ridiculously huge dining room with a ridiculously huge table, but somehow I didn’t feel like eating because it was too elegant.
I don’t know much about table manners after all, yep.
So, from the next day onwards, I begged the butler to bring my food to the reception room to let me eat with Marl.
After all, I was an adventurer who didn’t know etiquette, and since I was a humble ordinary person in my previous world, I couldn’t stand that kind of atmosphere.
Yes, the food is delicious. But, I wanted to eat freely without having to watch my manners. I guess that’s what mattered.

[Hum! Nom, nom!!]

[Taichi-san, you are so rude.]

Marl smiled wryly.
It can’t be helped, it’s been about a month since I’ve had white rice. It’s silver rice.
When I made the request to the maid, it turned out to be a big hit.
Apparently they’ve prepared rice with Marl in mind. How smart of them.

It’s a bit disappointing that the side dish was steak instead of salted saury, but it’s still white rice.
But I want chopsticks. This isn’t something you can eat with a knife and fork. Yes, let’s do it next time, let’s do it.

I ate innocently. No, the word eat is underplaying it.

[So, you really like rice…]

[Yeah, I grew up eating rice all my life.]

[What kind of place was Taichi-san’s hometown?]

I stopped my hand upon hearing Marl’s words and thought for a moment.
Is it okay to tell her? Even if I tell her, there will be a lot of parts that she might not believe.
Leaks about political forms and technology may accidentally affect this world.
I swallowed what’s in my mouth, took a sip of water, and then opened my mouth.

[Hmm, as I said before, it was a peaceful place. There were no monsters and no wars. It was hard to make a living by earning money, but there was no shortage of food. You could eat as much as you liked, whenever you liked.]

There was no such thing as a 24-hour convenience store in Eriard.
Ah, perhaps it’s like if the Adventurers’ Guild was open 24 hours a day.

[Hee…it almost sounds like a dream.]

[Well, I wonder about that. It’s also a country where nearly 30,000 people commit suicide every year due to stress and living hardships. I don’t think it’s a dreamlike place at all.]

[Th, thirty thousand!?]

Marl’s face distorted in surprise. Don’t pull me to pull your cheeks.

[With so many suicides every years…won’t the country fall to ruin?]

[I think the total population of my country was about 120 million people, so I guess it’s a negligible number compared to the total number.]

[I cannot even…the numbers are entirely different.]

If I remember correctly, the total population of this Royal Capital was about 100,000.
With 100,000 people in the Royal Capital, which was the most populated place, the total population wouldn’t exceed 1 million at most.

[It’s a country with a long history. Rice farming has flourished for a long time, and rice was a staple food. It was probably only around 60 years ago that bread became popular. But, I think rice still remains a staple food.]

I chose topics that seemed as innocuous as possible and proceeded with my meal.
I was very satisfied with the white rice I hadn’t had in a long time. It seemed that Marl was also satisfied with the taste of her hometown after not having it for a long time.

[Well, I ate it. I wonder if there’s a restaurant that serves white rice in a city this big.]

[Yes! Let’s go look for it together when we can move around!]

If there wasn’t any, we could just get some rice and cook for ourselves.
If it’s produced in a neighboring country, it should be possible to find and buy it in the market.

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