From what Olivia told me, Second Prince Charles was a tinkerer and inventor, and also a lover of novel inventions of others. To hear her tell it, thanks to his ideas, many strenuous jobs had become much easier, allowing people more time to enjoy life. Beyond his time inventing, he excelled both in politics and in the military arts, with no lack of heroic tales to tell. Rumors said that he’d defeated a member of the imperial guard bare-handed in a tournament at the tender age of fourteen.
The tournament was supposed to be for swordfighting, and he’d been told in no uncertain terms to take up a weapon, but he responded, “If I use a weapon, I’ll have to hold back. I’ll kill them by accident for sure!” The moment they heard that, the rest of the imperial guard ran away in fear, they say.
Rumors also claim that he challenged the crown prince to combat, whereupon he knocked him out with a knee to the face, grinning all the while. Apparently it was all the girls would talk about for a whole year.
The second prince had only just come of age, so his many awe-inspiring feats more than served to name him a prodigy. The previous Margrave was more than happy to hand over the reins.
In our letterbox was a note from that very prodigy stating that he would
come to our home—though it didn’t feel real yet, considering we had only moved in a day before—to visit. The letter had probably arrived that morning. Either I’d been too focused on making love to my wife, or the guy delivering the letter may not have bothered calling for us. Oh well.
The scent of sex still lingered in our bedroom, so I was reading the letter while lying down (my head in Olivia’s lap, of course) on the sofa in our breakfast room. I looked up at Olivia and asked Olivia, “So, if he’s going to be my master or my employer or whatever, do you think I should do something to welcome him? He’s coming at noon, so maybe we should host a lunch for him.”
“In a situation like this, where someone of his status is meeting you—a man with no title, despite your status as a hero—lunching him would be ill-advised. I suggest leaving it at tea.”
I guess when you’re that big of a deal, you shouldn’t eat a meal made by a stranger without having someone test for poison first. But apparently tea is okay?
Since taking meals with others was part of his job, he wouldn’t be able to turn me down if I asked, so I’d be putting him too much on the spot to offer lunch.
I didn’t think Prince Charles likely to be too offended, though. He seemed an unpretentious, friendly fellow. Still, it wouldn’t do to embarrass my wife through my gauche actions, so I had to be careful.
“Receiving noble guests is a job for your wife.”
I really had no clue how to deal with this sort of thing, so hearing that took a load off my shoulders. To show my gratitude, I would have liked to pull Olivia into a hug and kiss. However, that seemed inordinately difficult to do with my head in her lap, so I elected to grope her buttocks instead.
“Eeyah! Mmh…”
Her rear was as soft and pleasant as I recalled. As retribution for my grabbing her buttcheeks, she pinched my face and tugged to the side playfully. We continued to do battle until we grew tired.
“How about we go to the city and look at silverware and furniture for our guest, then?”
She switched from pinching my cheeks to rubbing them as I proposed a date, with some difficulty.
“Won’t there be a clamor if we walk the city streets?”
“Worry not.”
Making an illusion to trick simple passersby would be a snap for me. I sat up and selected some adventurer clothes for myself and for Olivia from my inventory. Dressed as a pair of adventurers, we were unlikely to attract attention. The frontier was rife with monsters, leaving much reclamation and development to be done. Thus, the city was crawling with adventurers who wanted to make it big. You couldn’t swing a dead cat without hitting a would-be hero.
“We should be fine if we just change our clothes and hair. Honestly, I’d love to dress you up and take you out, but I’m sure you’d be stressed if too many people looked at you.”
“Yes. When I pay attention to gentlemen’s gazes, I find myself so afraid.”
That was no surprise, given the amount of abuse she’d suffered since childhood. Likely thinking of her past, she hung her head, quivering.
“Don’t worry. I’ll be with you.”
“Of course, dearest.”
I gently pulled Olivia into a hug and kissed her. One minute, two minutes… At length, her lips, entwined with mine, ceased their trembling.
“Hello there, Miss. How would you like to go on a date with me?”
“Oh, I’d be delighted to.”
I took Olivia’s hand and tried a pick-up line from a book I read, to which she replied with a smile. Hand-in-hand, we opened the door and stepped outside.
“Ahem!”
And immediately we saw Head Priest Trabant, alighting from a carriage.
He seemed to think it a great stroke of luck; no doubt he’d been intending to drag us off somewhere the moment we emerged.
“Oh. Good morning, Trabant.”
“I believe you mean ‘Good afternoon,’ great hero. I trust you and your young wife are enjoying yourselves?”
He asked peevishly, consternation writ across his glowering face. Okay, yes, we did start bumping uglies the moment we woke, but that’s no call to look at us like we’re degenerates.
“My word. It’s a good thing I delayed my morning visit.”
It seemed he had an inkling of what we’d been doing all morning. He
wasn’t the head priest for nothing—he had a good head on his shoulders. Or perhaps I was just too easy to read.
“I’m here with the servants we discussed yesterday. They are all individuals of excellent breeding, but they are not experts by any means.”
Second Prince Charles had put out a public notice stating that people should hire locally. Apparently, there were a lot of people whose jobs were streamlined so much that they were left with too much free time. Taking into account Olivia’s fear of men, Trabant had hired only married women who lived nearby.
They would perform maid work while their husbands were out at their own jobs. But if they were found guilty of messing something up, they would be ostracized from the community, so they would be more reliable than others.
The servants Trabant introduced us to were all wives of tradesmen who lived very close to our mansion. Not the cream of the crop, to be sure, but they were kind-hearted women one and all.
“Greetings, great hero. I’m Marthe. You might know my husband, Alain the tailor.”
Marthe, a youthful fifty-five and apparently the leader of the group, introduced each of the maids, after which I introduced myself in return. It wouldn’t do to have a bunch of people in my house calling me “great hero,”
after all.
“Nice to meet you. My name is Christophe, and this is my wife, Olivia.
The whole ‘great hero’ thing has me a little uncomfortable, so I’d rather you just called me plain old Chris.”
“Yes, of course, Lord Chris. And Lady Olivia, it’s a pleasure.”
I probably should’ve known I couldn’t avoid getting lorded by them. In retrospect, as wives of tradesmen, they likely dealt with customers on a regular basis including at times nobility. However, times were changing. Due to the recent economic boom, apprenticeship had become a common practice, leading to many household chores going to apprentices. Drawing water, cleaning the shop, and so forth often became the apprentice’s duties. As a result, the tradesmen’s wives likely found themselves with a surplus of free time, leading to them taking jobs such as this.
To help them learn the layout of the house, I decided to start them off with simple cleaning. I gave Marthe the necessary funds to procure supplies,
which I felt somewhat bad about, but I decided it was better that than fret over it myself.
My wife and I then set out on our date, telling them that we would be back when the sun set. It was to be my first time shopping and eating in the city, so I was excited.
We disguised ourselves as adventurers and used my magic to put on false faces, in order to avoid being noticed and surrounded by townspeople. Then we walked, hand in hand, toward the city that we would now call our home.