While Rest and Yuri had moved to the eastern side of the plains, in the frontier village on the western side, the remaining Viola and Primula were meeting with a certain person.
"It's been a while, my dear daughters."
"...I-It's been a while. I'm glad to see you're doing well."
"...When did you arrive here, Mother?"
The one who had come to the cottage where the Rosemary sisters lived was their mother, Irish Rosemary.
With a youthful appearance that belied being the mother of two daughters, Irish sat with her legs crossed in a chair and smiled at the daughters she hadn't seen in months.
"I'm relieved to see you both looking so well. By the way... where has our son-in-law gotten off to?"
"Son-in-law," of course, referred to Rest.
Viola answered her mother's question.
"If you mean Rest, he's gone to the eastern side of the plains. He was commissioned by the daughter of House Lavender to take care of some monsters."
"Is that so... Our son-in-law is on good terms with House Lavender as well. I suppose that's to be expected of the man our family has chosen?"
Irish smiled proudly.
The straightforward, strength-loving Irish held the powerful mage Rest in very high regard.
While that was something the smitten Viola and Primula were happy to hear, it also stoked a flicker of anxiety.
"So... Mother, what brings you here today?"
"For you to come here personally... Is something the matter?"
"Oh, that's right. I almost forgot."
Irish tossed a bundle of papers onto the table.
"This is...?"
"I've finalized the list of candidate concubines for your husband, so I brought it over. For now... I've picked out about twenty or so."
"Wh—a concubine!?"
Viola and Primula cried out in unison.
What kind of thing was she saying to her own daughters?
"You understand what that word means, don't you? A mistress."
Irish said matter-of-factly, then flipped through the bundle of papers.
On them were the names and detailed backgrounds of daughters from cadet branches and subsidiary noble houses of House Rosemary.
The eldest was a widow in her thirties. The youngest was a young girl who had only just passed ten years old.
"I was thinking of showing this to your husband right away, but what a shame he's not home. Well, managing his concubines is the wife's duty as well, so you two had better read through this carefully."
"............"
Viola and Primula were rendered speechless by the sheer nonchalance with which those words had been delivered.
Where would you ever find a mother who recommended concubines to her own son-in-law? Right here, apparently.
Both daughters knew all too well that Irish was the kind of person who didn't bat an eye at such things.
"Let me make one thing clear... Neither you two nor your husband have the right to refuse. If anything, it's even more necessary now that he's been given such an enormous domain as head of a count's house."
Irish went on to explain.
Rest had been granted a vast domain in the northern reaches of the Sabnock Plains. In terms of sheer area alone, it surpassed even House Rosemary.
It was not fitting for the head of a count's house to hold so much land.
Concentrating that much power in a single noble was not something the royal family would welcome.
(Which was why concubines were given. The children born to those concubines would be granted portions of the land. By dispersing the concentrated territory and concentrated power, he would be demonstrating that he held no intent of rebellion against the royal family.)
After several generations of mixing blood with the royal family and the central nobility... ultimately, they would be raised as a separate noble house serving the royal family. That's what he had in mind, wasn't it.
Viola and Primula were both daughters of noble houses.
She understood the reasoning, and she had steeled herself to accept it, however reluctantly.
Even without territory... a powerful mage was national strength in its own right.
Increasing the number of Rest's children was necessary to counter the increasingly unstable Eastern Empire and the Northern foreign tribes, who had been adversaries for generations.
And yet... emotionally, she could only be exasperated that her father had actually gone through with telling his daughters such a thing.
"So then... why did Father marry Mother, I wonder?"
"Viola, what's this all of a sudden?"
"I just... was wondering whether he'd suggested Father take a concubine too. Mother's long-held belief is that talented mages should leave behind as many children as possible, isn't it?"
The sisters' father, Albert Rosemary, was the chief court magician.
In the generation above, he was said to be the most talented mage of them all.
If he was going to bring up Mother's pet theory, then surely Albert should have had a concubine as well.
"Ah, well, about that... Albert is physically unable to have children."
"Wh—what?"
"A little while after you two were born, he came down with a fever. It seems some foul illness latched onto him during a subjugation of the Northern foreign tribes. He can still... perform the act, but he lost the ability to sire children."
Irish folded her arms, and in a rare display, pursed her lips in displeasure.
"Otherwise, I'd have planned on seven or eight more children. What a waste, truly."
"I-Is that so..."
"That explains..."
The two sisters made strained faces, yet wore expressions of reluctant understanding.
Albert and Irish.
Their personalities and ways of thinking were polar opposites, yet the two were a happily married couple.
It was puzzling that Irish, who held the philosophy of wanting lots of children, hadn't had any children beyond Viola and Primula.
"I even thought about getting involved with another man and raising the child as Albert's... but he started crying, so I decided against it."
"I think that was the right call... Mother."
"It's a good thing we don't have a half-sibling with a different father..."
The two exchanged strained looks, glanced at each other, and nodded in agreement.
—————————— I also post other works.
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I'm just a mob priest, but I realized this world is an otome game, so I'm going to raise the heroine.
I followed my little sister's advice in battle and ended up becoming king. The princess I forced into being my wife is super pissed off at me, though—what do I do?
I was summoned to another world and abandoned, but nobody knows I'm the Demon God... probably.
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