"Sorry to drag you into this, especially when you're supposed to be on vacation."
After the unicorn commotion, once we'd safely arrived at the ducal estate in Lindau, Duke Sanga summoned me to his private room and bowed his head in apology.
The root of the unicorn incident was that several merchants who'd been apprehended by guards had teamed up with a few adventurers to capture a unicorn foal. There was no rule against hunting or capturing unicorns, so the act itself wasn't illegal.
The problem was that, in a village not far from where they'd caught the foal, they dismembered it, then fled before the day turned over with the stench of blood still clinging to them — and apparently did the same thing in two more villages while on the run.
As a result, unicorns driven into a rage by their fury rampaged through all three villages, devastating them and causing numerous deaths and serious injuries in a catastrophic disaster.
When word reached the adventurers' guild that unicorns were on the rampage and villages had been reduced to ruins, the place was in an uproar. We brought in the bodies of the merchants and their companions — believed to be the cause — and were held up for two days while they conducted their investigation and looked into our connection with the merchants (we were quickly cleared of any involvement in that regard).
"Combined across all three villages, deaths and serious injuries together exceed a hundred, with over three hundred lightly wounded. However, when it comes to the two villages on the duchy's side, the damage in each was limited to about a third or less."
And what troubled Duke Sanga the most was that this incident hadn't occurred solely within his own territory.
The unicorn had been captured and dismembered in the neighboring viscount's territory. The rampaging unicorn was defeated and the merchants were caught in the duchy's territory — by me, the duke's son-in-law.
The viscount's side had one village with heavy damage, but the duchy's side had two villages affected. On top of that, there were the power dynamics between the viscount's house and the duchy, and as the biggest issue of all —
"Those merchants were apparently retainers of the viscount's house. Well, they say the viscount's house wasn't involved in this incident."
The root cause was merchants retained by the viscount's house.
The information that the retained merchants (whose identities were initially unknown) were being chased by unicorns was apparently rushed to us at breakneck speed from the viscount's house while we were being held up at the guild. Having heard that the unicorn had rampaged through his own territory and was heading toward the duchy, the viscount had scrambled to send word.
As it turned out, the information hadn't reached the duke before the unicorn attacked the duchy's villages. But to me, the timing was almost too neat, and I couldn't help suspecting it might be a fabricated story meant to cover things up.
However, Duke Sanga — who knew the viscount well — judged that unlikely.
Still, for someone like me who didn't know the viscount, it would naturally seem suspicious, and all the more so for the victims.
"The viscount immediately seized all of the merchants' assets and is putting them toward compensation for the victims. The viscount's house plans to contribute as well, but... it probably won't be enough to satisfy the victims."
Since the duchy could also be considered a victim in this incident, the viscount's house had offered to compensate them as well. Of course, Duke Sanga reportedly said, "If you have the funds to spare, redirect them to those who actually suffered real harm," and intended to decline — but on top of that, the duchy would also be sending consolation money.
"The Ootori family will also send consolation money to the victims of this incident."
"That would be most appreciated."
The Ootori family
had defeated the unicorn and
captured the merchant,
but even though the merchant had approached them first, they had still been attacked, so they were the victims in this situation. However, since I had defeated the unicorn on my own, I had claimed all of its materials, giving the impression that I had won everything by myself.
If we alone profited from this, the anger and suspicion that had initially been directed at the viscount's house would undoubtedly be turned toward the Ootori family as well.
So as the Ootori family, we needed to offer consolation money in order to deflect such criticism. Duke Sanga knew full well that this was a possibility, which was probably why he said nothing about the consolation money. However, he did instruct us not to pay the consolation money from the profits of selling the unicorn. If we did, records of the unicorn's sale would remain, and then criticism would arise saying, "You could have given more!"
He said that if we absolutely wanted to sell the unicorn, the duchy would secretly buy it from us... but the unicorn's materials were valuable and could be used for many things, so we intended to keep all of them for the Ootori family. Our finances had far more surplus than minor nobles could compare to, so we could easily handle unexpected expenses.
When I relayed this, Duke Sanga looked disappointed. Materials like a unicorn's were difficult for even the duchy to obtain, so he probably wanted to buy some whenever the opportunity arose.
We couldn't part with the hide, bones, or magic core, but we had originally planned to give some of the meat as a souvenir, so we offered to add a bit more than the original amount and hoped he would be satisfied with that.
"Tenma. Are you done talking with the Duke?"
After finishing my conversation with Duke Sanga and being led to the guest room, I found Grandpa inside, drinking tea and reading a book by himself.
"I wish you had come along too, Grandpa... By the way, where are Primera and the others?"
Grandpa could have come to help explain things, but he had simply said "What a pain!" and promptly retreated to the guest room.
"Primera went out with Jeanne and the others. Amour wanted to take a quick look at what shops the town had, so they're probably just scouting around today and will be back soon... But now that I think about it, while you and Primera are out shopping, I might end up with nothing to do. If I had known, I should have had Albert come here."
"No, Albert just got married and has work to do. It wouldn't be right to call him here just to keep you company. Besides, not many people here would recognize your face, so why not disguise yourself a bit and take a stroll around town?"
Calling Albert over just to be Grandpa's companion was too much, no matter how you looked at it. Well, Duke Sanga might have done it with a laugh, but seeing the duchy's heir being put to work on his own territory might upset his mother... or maybe not. If anything, they might co-sign a summons together with Duke Sanga. From the mothers' perspective, they could pawn off the task of entertaining their ever-thoughtful father-in-law onto Albert, and in the meantime, he could spend time with Eliza. Perhaps I should have spoken to Eliza before leaving the Royal Capital.
"Well, my face is far too well-known in the Royal Capital. I can't exactly go around drinking freely..."
I thought it might be good for his health, but having to worry about others' eyes when you wanted to let loose was stressful, so I decided not to bring it up during the trip.
"Oh, and one more thing — apparently, monster activity has been picking up lately, so be very careful when traveling between towns. Well, a unicorn is an A-rank or higher monster, and this is apparently the first time one has shown up, but there have been many reports this year of orcs and goblins moving in packs, so they're asking us to crush them if we encounter any."
" Well, if it's goblins or orcs, as long as there aren't dozens of them, we could handle it with one hand. But if we could choose, I'd rather take on a pack of orcs than goblins. At least you can eat the meat."
Compared to goblins, orc packs tend to cause greater damage, so while Grandpa's comment was a bit reckless, when you thought about the aftermath, orcs did indeed offer more desirable loot.
"It's not exactly a request, but as a relative of the Duke Sanga house, it would reflect poorly to turn a blind eye while my duchy is in danger. I intend to help as much as I can, though. Well, as long as I don't get in the way of the other adventurers or knights."
Ignoring it was out of the question, but getting too involved also had its problems. For low-risk areas, they could report it to the local guild and then decide; for high-risk situations, immediate action was the way to go.
"Tenma, do you have a moment? Oh, Merlin is here too, my apologies."
After finishing his conversation with Grandpa, I was killing time reading until Primera and the others returned when Duke Sanga entered the guest room. The Duke seemed to think Grandpa had also gone out and was apologizing for not noticing his absence.
"Has something come up?"
I thought he might have forgotten something regarding the unicorn incident, but...
"The report that just came in says a new species of Monster is reportedly swimming in the lake..."
"With a probability of more than ninety percent, it's Namitarou. If it's causing trouble, I can go hunt it down."
Namitarou was the creature that had jumped out saying "Time for a little swim!" when we passed by the lake near Lindo. Since I'd brought an acquaintance of mine all the way here, I felt responsible for dealing with any problems it might be causing. I started to stand up along with Grandpa, but...
"No, quite the opposite actually. It seems to be hunting down multiple dangerous Monsters that had taken up residence in the lake, and the fishermen and related parties are delighted. Though, I heard it did cause quite a stir by piling up the defeated Monsters on the shore."
Because it piled them up near the highway, passersby were surprised and confused. There was even an adventurer who assumed the piled Monsters were discarded and tried to steal one, only to be dealt with by Namitarou. It was apparently quite noisy for a while. However, since the fishermen who were grateful to Namitarou started keeping watch over the piles, no one has tried to touch the Monsters, and the confusion is said to be subsiding.
"By now, the Duke's knights should have arrived, and the Monster collection should be finished, don't you think?"
That's what Duke Sanga said, but since Namitarou also has a Magic Bag, there must be some reason it bothered to pile them up. When I conveyed that thought, Duke Sanga nodded in agreement.
"I think I really should go to Namitarou's place. If we go by Rai Den, it shouldn't take too much time either."
As I said that and headed for the entrance, Grandpa also nodded and started walking. Behind us, Duke Sanga followed. At first, I thought he was just seeing us off, but it seemed he intended to accompany us all the way to the lake.
"I don't know what Namitarou's motives are, but it undoubtedly thinned out the Monsters in the lake. I want to thank it personally... and besides, I'm free."
The only urgent job was the unicorn incident, and even that was apparently awaiting a reply from the Viscount's side, so he happened to have free time. Therefore, under the pretext of inspecting the town and its surroundings, he wanted to go check on Namitarou's situation.
Personally, I was planning to travel by the carriage pulled by Rai Den (if it were just Grandpa and me, flying would be faster both ways, but unlike in the Royal Capital or with Seigen, flying around Lindo could cause a commotion), so having more people join wasn't an issue, so I agreed. But immediately after, Mother and the others noticed Duke Sanga leaving through the front door, came out, and joined us as well.
"Still, there were more people gathered than I expected. It was like a popular tourist attraction!"
Recovering the Namitarou at the Lake
On the way back to the Duke's estate after recovering the Namitarou and his group at the lake, Duke Sanga was in a wonderful mood. The reason was partly because the Namitarou had been surrounded like a tourist attraction, but the biggest reason was that many of the Monsters the Namitarou had defeated now belonged to the Duke's household. Well, technically, they had been transferred on the condition of "supporting the fishermen working at the Lake of Lindo and their associates," but this ultimately came back to benefit the Duke Sanga household, so he was in high spirits. Incidentally, the Monsters handed over were all rather tasteless, and their materials weren't particularly valuable by Namitarou's (or my) standards, so Namitarou had parted with them without a second thought. In return, Duke Sanga had the fishermen and the guild instructed to leave the Namitarou alone and help it whenever it was spotted or caught in a trap within his territory. He agreed at once, reasoning that while it would be troublesome, it wouldn't cost him anything.
Additionally, the Ootori family was able to benefit from the spoils as well. They received the delicious Monsters that Namitarou hadn't given to Duke Sanga, along with the lake delicacies Namitarou had gathered between monster hunts. This was arranged as an exchange for preserved sweets, and while a large quantity of sweets had been handed over, it still didn't quite balance out. When he pointed this out, he was told, "Consider the difference as payment for travel expenses this time!" so he accepted without restraint.
"Still, Tenma and Duke Sanga... why are you sitting in the driver's seat?"
Currently, Duke Sanga and I were sitting in the driver's seat with Grandpa between us. The driver's seat of this carriage had been built to be spacious, but three men were still a bit tight.
"Well, you see... Mother and the others teased me endlessly on the way here, and now Primera is with us too. If the two of us were there together, imagine how much we'd be teased..."
"So, Tenma, you abandoned your bride and ran away. And Duke Sanga...?"
"I don't think I would be teased, but being in such a confined space surrounded entirely by women is rather daunting. So I thought this would be a good opportunity for the men to deepen their camaraderie..."
"In other words, Duke Sanga ran away too."
Grandpa was exactly right, so both Duke Sanga and I fell silent, unable to retort...
"You're one to talk, Merlin. You fled from the women just the same and were the first to claim the driver's seat. And for the record, I'm up on the roof because it's my designated spot, not because I ran away. I don't need to run."
Having been called out by the Namitarou, who had been listening from atop the roof, even Grandpa fell silent.
In contrast to the somber atmosphere in the driver's seat, cheerful voices from inside the carriage drifted over to us. The loudest of them all belonged to Primera, which meant Mother and the others were indeed giving her a hard time.
"See, my judgment wasn't wrong after all..."
"No, Tenma. That was pretty much the worst thing you could do."
My muttering must have reached the Namitarou's ears, as I received a sharp rebuke in a completely serious tone. What's more, Primera sulked after we returned to the Duke's estate, and it took considerable effort to put her in a good mood again.
Incidentally, the sight of me trying to make it up to Primera was observed with great amusement by Duke Sanga, Mother and the others, and Grandpa alike.
"Tenma. First, I'd like to go to a shop on the main street, if that's alright?"
"Sure. I don't know what shops are where, so I'll leave the destination to you, Primera. If I spot something interesting along the way, I'll let you know."
To smooth things over with Primera... or rather, true to our plan for a newlywed trip, we left the Duke's estate for a date in Lindau, and Primera immediately suggested where to go. Since I didn't know the city of Lindau at all, though, I decided to leave it entirely up to her. I figured that if I didn't say anything at all, Primera might feel overly cautious about it, so I intended to speak up if anything caught my eye along the way — but from what I'd seen yesterday from the carriage, nothing had. If there were any such places, they'd be in backstreets or somewhere far from the Duke's estate. This wasn't because Lindau lacked noteworthy shops, but rather because I personally tend to favor the kind of places you find tucked away in back alleys. That wasn't exactly proof of anything, but when I shop alone in other cities too, I overwhelmingly end up visiting shops in the backstreets.
For today's date, we'd focus on the places Primera wanted to visit, and anything we couldn't get to would be penciled in for tomorrow or later. Lindau was the city where Primera had grown up, and the Duke's estate was here too, so there would be plenty of opportunities to come back in the future. Plus, during our stay we planned to move around as a couple for the most part, so there was no need to rush through everything — we could take several days and enjoy ourselves at a leisurely pace.
And when we returned from our first day of dating for dinner... for some reason, I was asked to make the Ototori family's famous seafood rice bowl. Apparently, it had been requested by my mothers-in-law.
The source of the seafood bowl idea was Amour, who had somehow become close with my mothers-in-law. Duke Sanga had apparently tried to put a stop to it, but was berated for not mentioning that he'd eaten it before in the Royal Capital, and was then told by the Duke to ask me as well.
As far as I was concerned, I didn't mind making it, but some ingredients were sold out or in short supply, so I warned them it would turn out a bit different from the usual. My mothers-in-law said that was fine, though. So this time I skipped the rock-paper-scissors showdown entirely and decided to portion out the ingredients onto individual small plates from the start. Rock-paper-scissors was by far the most exciting part, but there was always the risk that the loser would end up with a plate full of ingredients they didn't like. Since my mothers-in-law had barely ever eaten raw fish, this method might have been better for them at first. Also, just in case they couldn't handle raw fish, I'd prepared grilled and flaked trout that Namitarou had caught, river shrimp and river fish tempura, and the like — but my mothers-in-law ate the raw fish just fine, so next time maybe I could do it the normal way.
**Duke Sanga's Side**
"This time's seafood rice bowl was delicious too. Still, I never expected flaked grilled trout to go that well with rice."
After finishing dinner and chatting a bit with Tenma and the others, I returned to my room and relaxed with my wives. The main topic of conversation, as always, was Tenma.
Unlike the husbands of my two elder daughters, Tenma had no obligations as a nobleman, so there was no need for probing or political maneuvering — which made things much more relaxed. Even if he occasionally said something a little forward, he didn't have to worry about the aristocratic ledger of "debts and favors." Of course, push him too far and he wouldn't be happy about it either — but by observing Albert and the other two, I had a reasonable sense of where Tenma's threshold for anger lay. Keep that in mind when dealing with him, and things wouldn't turn ugly. That said, avoiding anything truly bad didn't mean a little payback wasn't occasionally in order — but it always felt like playful banter between close acquaintances, so it never really bothered me. At worst, the rank of tea or snacks would drop a notch or two.
"Come to think of it, you three ate raw fish without any trouble, didn't you? I thought you'd barely ever had it before?"
It wasn't that they'd never eaten raw fish at all — you occasionally spotted restaurants that served it as southern cuisine — but in the Duke's territory and the Royal Capital, fish basically meant river fish, and you were told not to eat river fish raw unless it was properly cooked. So unless something extraordinary came up, raw fish simply wasn't on the menu around here. That was why I'd been a little surprised to see the three of them put it in their mouths without hesitation.
"I wouldn't say there was no resistance at all, but since we were the ones who requested it, it would have been rude to show any reluctance."
"And it wasn't just raw fish — about half the ingredients were cooked. Plus, Albert and Primera have eaten it many times before, so I figured it would be fine unless something truly unusual happened."
"There were also herbs and spices to cut the smell, so even raw, it was easy to eat. Honestly, I was a bit scared because the southern cuisine I'd tried before had a strong fishy taste, but it was a world of difference from what I'd had in the past."
Indeed, you could safely say it was nothing like what ordinary restaurants claiming to serve southern cuisine put out. Then again, Amour — a southerner herself — apparently said that "the southern cuisine at those places is just a poor imitation that tastes terrible," so that wasn't much of a reference point. And Tenma's cooking was extremely delicious, but subtly different from authentic southern food, so you could call it "Tenma's original dishes inspired by southern cuisine."
"The cooking was wonderful, but Tenma, I'm truly grateful you dealt with the unicorns as well. If you and the others hadn't encountered them, who knows how many villages would have suffered... The damage would have exceeded even twice what the viscount's territory took, easily."
"That's right. As frustrating as it is to admit, even if the Duke's knights had been dispatched, three unicorns would have been extremely difficult to defeat. They'd have been lucky just to drive them off, I imagine."
Despite her words, Olivia showed no visible sign of frustration, and Camilla and Grace nodded in agreement.
True, powerful as unicorns may be as Monsters, it's hard to imagine the Duke Sanga family's knight order would fall behind so easily. Of course, that's only assuming there was a single unicorn.
If it were just one, sending roughly a hundred knights would result in some damage, but they should be able to subdue it. With a hundred knights fighting one unicorn at a time across three consecutive battles, the losses would be heavy, but it wouldn't be impossible to win. However, three unicorns at once was an entirely different story. To take on all three simultaneously, they'd need to send at least five hundred. If they could split the three up, three hundred — a hundred for each — would theoretically be enough to bring them down, but the more enemies involved, the less likely things would go according to plan, and the chances of them escaping would increase. Five hundred was still necessary.
"If you increase the number of knights, the march takes longer; if you cut the numbers, defeat is certain... Olivia, Camilla, Grace — I'll say this in advance. If it ever came down to placing the Salsormo Viscount family, the Cagliostro Viscount family, and the Ootori family on the scales and having to choose one as an ally while making enemies of the rest, I would choose the Ootori family. Even if it meant putting my own daughter and grandchildren's lives in danger."
An enemy that five hundred of the Duke family's knights might not be able to defeat — and Tenma defeated him alone. Moreover, he demonstrated an overwhelming difference in power. And the Ootori family also had Merlin, who could fight on par with Tenma, as well as Amur, the young lady from a southern viscount family who possessed top-class combat strength even within the kingdom. As a parent, he would want to save at least his daughter, but considering the Duke family as a whole, he had to avoid making an enemy of Tenma at all costs.
"I understand that the Ootori family, despite having few people to protect, possesses fighting power comparable to the Duke family even in small numbers, and we can't afford to make them our enemy. Plus there's the southern situation to consider, so I understand sacrificing the viscount family for the Duke family's sake... but if it came to that, I would act on behalf of the Salsormo Viscount family on my own. And if that meant I couldn't save Rachel and my grandchild, then I would want to be by my daughters' side."
"I feel the same as Camilla."
Although Camilla and Grace understood my reasoning, they answered that if the worst came to pass, they were prepared to leave the Duke family. While the two of them gave their answers, Olivia remained silent the entire time. She likely understood that
the Duke family's heir
and
the Ootori family's legal wife
would never be abandoned, and therefore judged that she had no right to speak.
For a while, a dark and heavy atmosphere hung between us, but —
"Shall we stop deliberately putting on this heavy air soon?"
"Yes, indeed. If you put too much tension into your faces, you'll end up with wrinkles."
"Right. If we overdo it, we'll just build up stress, so it's about time to call it off."
"For now, I don't think anything like that will actually happen, and if it looks like it might, let's have Albert work hard for us."
When I said this in a cheerful voice, as if scattering the dark mood, the three of them began speaking in brighter tones as well.
We sometimes did this half as a joke, but half was serious talk, so occasionally — like today — the atmosphere genuinely turned foul.
When that happened, someone would give a signal and they'd reset the mood. Well, on those nights the wives would get clingy, which made things quite demanding in its own way... Come to think of it, it seemed like it had been a similar kind of day when Albert was conceived...
As these thoughts drifted through my mind, I glanced at Olivia, and she was looking back at me with a smile. Well, these days we only slept beside each other, so a fifth child was probably out of the question. Probably...
Duke Sanga's Side — End