After wrapping up the regular meeting, Rest headed back to one of the cottages.
He used to stay in a tent, but it had been a month since frontier development began.
He'd been given one of the newly constructed cottages, and it had become his new base of operations.
"I'm home."
"Oh, welcome back, Rest."
Greeting him as he stepped through the door was a young girl in a white apron.
It was Primula Rosemary, Rest's fiancée.
A kitchen knife was in Primula's hand, making it clear she had been preparing dinner.
"It'll be ready in just a little bit."
"Yeah, sorry to always put you through this."
"Not at all — this is my job. It's no trouble at all."
Since the frontier development began, Primula had essentially been stationed here on a permanent basis. Her older sister Viola was with her as well.
One might wonder whether a marquis's young lady should really be doing this… but of course, magicians from House Rosemary were stationed nearby in unseen locations as guards.
"Where's Viola? Is she in her room?"
"No… she went out with Yuri. Apparently a new merchant caravan arrived, so they went shopping."
"Oh, really? Couldn't you have gone along too, Primula?"
"I had dinner to prepare, so I politely declined."
She was the ideal wife.
Really… Rest found himself thinking once more that she was a woman far out of his league.
Recently, cooking had become entirely Primula's responsibility.
Viola and Yuri helped out sometimes, but... at the very least, Yuri wasn't allowed to stand in the kitchen on her own.
"Dinner will be ready soon, but... if you'd like, would you care for some tea?"
"Ah, sorry about that."
"No, please just wait a moment."
Primula glanced at the pot away from the stove, then went on to prepare tea.
Rest settled into a chair at the dining table and brought the warm black tea to his lips.
"Hmm..."
A pleasant sweetness amid just the right amount of bitterness.
It seemed milk and a teaspoon of sugar had been stirred in.
It was exactly how Rest liked it. That comforting taste washed away the tension from the meeting, as if it were all draining out of him.
"How was today's meeting?"
"Nothing much, really... I get the sense the early stages of the frontier development are just about wrapping up?"
Rest answered vaguely, letting his thoughts drift back to the meeting in response to Primula's question.
The most grueling part of the demon realm's frontier development was the subjugation of monsters.
However, Sabnock, the lord of the demon realm, had already been subdued, and the vast majority of his Corrosion Beast minions had been dealt with as well.
The other groups seemed to be hunting monsters without a hitch, with nothing that could really be called an obstacle.
"When things are this smooth... it's the behind-the-scenes work that gets tough — resupplying provisions, securing manpower. Sounds like I might get to take it easy for a while."
"I'm glad to hear that. I received word from Father, though... it seems the northern plains' development is going well too?"
The northern plains were slated to become Rest's territory — the domain of House Clover.
The development of that area was to be led by House Rosemary, with the neighboring House Cattleya providing support.
It was Rest's territory in name, but Rest was House Rosemary's son-in-law.
In practice, it amounted to an expansion of House Rosemary's domain.
House Cattleya was to be compensated handsomely, and that side didn't seem to present any real problems either.
"...Well, it sounds like the Marquis of Cattleya has been asking Yuri all sorts of questions, and Father's been grumbling about it."
"Haha... That poor man, Father-in-law's got his hands full, hasn't he..."
It had inevitably come out that Yuri was staying with House Rosemary and participating in the frontier development alongside Rest.
The Marquis of Cattleya apparently wanted to bring her back, but... Yuri had been assigned to survey the center of the plains together with Rest, and forcibly recalling her would constitute obstruction of the development effort.
It would have been a disrespectful act toward the Second Prince, Andrew, and toward the king who had ordered the development in the first place.
No matter how much the Marquis of Cattleya doted on his daughter... it simply wasn't something he could do.
*(Could it be... Your Highness Andrew. Did you assign Yuri to me with that in mind?)* It might be overthinking things... but perhaps Andrew had his own intentions behind it.
"I'm home! We're back!"
"Is dinner ready yet?"
While Rest was lost in thought, Viola and Yuri appeared from the entrance.
Both of them were carrying burlap sacks stuffed to the brim.
"Oh, Rest. You're already back?"
"Yeah, welcome ho— wait?"
Rest moved to greet the two of them, but... behind them stood a third person, someone else entirely.
"I apologize for the late hour. Count Clover."
"Miss... Celestine?"
The one who had appeared was Celestine Crocus.
The daughter of the prime minister—and a young lady of a ducal house—had shown herself here.