In the middle of that relaxed atmosphere, Excel suddenly put down her teacup and asked, “Now that I think of it, sire, you have no plans after this, do you?”
It was so sudden, Juna cocked her head to the side and looked at her quizzically. “Grandmother?”
I was puzzled, too. What could she want, all of a sudden?
“Yeah…” I said. “When I get back to the castle, I’m sure there’ll be work for me, but I haven’t brought anything with me.”
“I see. You have time right now, then?” The moment she said that, there was an unsettling glint in Excel’s eye.
I shuddered, feeling a chill run down my spine. I got goosebumps, my every instinct warning me. I sensed… danger? I almost jumped up from the sofa despite myself, when…
Thump!
“Juna?!”
Juna, who was sitting next to me, fell to the side. She was slumped over the arm of the sofa, already asleep.
Even asleep, she sure is charming… Wait, I didn’t have time to think that! I looked over to Excel, who was smiling, a tiny bottle in hand.
“No need to worry. I’m just having her take a little nap.”
“Sleeping drugs?! You drugged your own granddaughter?!”
“It seemed like she would get in the way if she was awake, after all.” Excel put a hand to her own cheek and let out a sigh.
No, no, no, no! She was giving me that, “Oh, goodness, she’s such a handful,” look, but what she’d just done to Juna was pretty nasty!
“I couldn’t help it,” Excel said. “I received a request from the chamberlain to give you some lessons.”
“From Marx?! You can’t mean…”
“What you might call ‘sexual education,’” she smiled. “As an older woman, he wanted me to teach you some things, sire.”
“You’re more than just ‘older’!”
“Oh my, how rude. My body is still full of youth, you know.”
“Not your heart, though!” I shouted.
Excel rose from her seat, slowly closing in on me. “Creating an heir is a serious matter for the country. Especially considering the shortage of royals. Even though your betrothals are essentially already being seen as a marriage, and even though those around you have been encouraging you to hurry up and produce an heir, you’ve yet to lay a hand on the princess, or Juna, or Aisha. It’s little wonder the chamberlain is so worried.”
“N-No… I was hoping to wait until I was a little more ready… you know.”
“That leaves us worried,” Excel said. “It might be forgiven as a youthful indiscretion now, but once you are formally man and wife, if you are awkward and inept when you get down to ‘business,’ it could have an effect on your relationship. That sort of discord between a royal couple can lead to future strife within the house.”
Excel sat down on the back of the sofa, wrapping her arm around my neck. What was this?! I was like a deer caught in headlights, unable to move!
“That’s why the chamberlain asked an experienced woman like myself to give you some direction. Now, sire, let’s move to the bedroom. Until dawn comes, I will be giving you thorough lessons on how to handle a woman. First, let’s start with some classroom lectures.”
Lectures?! I was going to be taking health and physical education classes at my age?! I’d graduated from high school… Wait, I guess they didn’t go into quite that much detail in health and physical education classes.
“Wait, hold on! You just said ‘first,’ didn’t you?!” I shouted.
“Hee hee! In any field of study, it’s best to learn through experience, don’t you think? If you want to, I wouldn’t mind keeping it a secret from Juna and the others, you know? We can consider it a one night indiscretion, and I’ll give you some hands-on training.”
I don’t want it, okay?! I cried out in my mind.
Excel smiled, putting her hands on my shoulders and leaning in close to peer at my face. Yeah, she was definitely having fun seeing my reaction.
I turned to Castor, who was sitting there drinking tea as if nothing was happening, for help. “Castor! You recognized me as your lord, right? Your lord is in a tight spot! Help me, would you!”
“…I did indeed swear loyalty to you, my lord,” Castor set down his tea and said with an all-too-serious look on his face. “However, I would like nothing more than to see the lord I’ve devoted myself to leave behind descendants who will prosper. I cannot get in Duchess Excel’s way. I can only bite back tears as I ignore my lord’s request for aid.”
“You say that, but you just don’t want to get caught up in this!” I shouted.
He pretty blatantly averted his eyes.
I hit the nail on the head, didn’t I, you jerk?!
“Now, sire, shall we be going?” Excel took a firm hold of the back of my neck, then began dragging me towards the door of the parlor.
I was bracing myself to run for it, but I couldn’t even put up the slightest resistance. Even factoring in my own weakness, her strength was incredible. Where did that slim body of hers have that kind of strength?
“No, wait, please, Excel, come on,” I begged.
“Yes, yes. You can just leave everything to this big girl here. I’ll teach you real good.”
“No, I mean… Okay, I’ll take your lessons! Just the lessons! None of that hands-on stuff, okay?!” I screamed.
“…Good grief, I suppose it can’t be helped. But if you find yourself wanting to get physical with me, do tell, okay?”
“As if I would!”
In the end, I was subjected to Excel’s lengthy lectures.
Having to take health and physical education classes from Excel, who looked so much like Juna, was so embarrassing that I thought I might die.
Intermission 2: Researching a Certain Line of Research
The research institute in the former slums of Parnam, the royal capital of the Kingdom of Friedonia.
Ginger’s Training Facility, which had been opened with King Souma’s sponsorship as one means of securing talented personnel and making it so that slavery became a thing that existed in name only, now had a great many subjects which could be studied at it.
With more land being given to the facility, it had come to be called Ginger’s Vocational School. While retaining the elementary school, they had also established schools dedicated to various specialized subjects. If a field of study achieved results here, there would be schools dedicated to it established in other cities.
There were already a number of fields of study that had gone independent, and specialized schools for them were being built in other cities; but the schools of farming and medicine were still here. This was because the appropriate teachers were here: the Minister of Agriculture and Forestry, Poncho Panacotta, as well as doctors like Hilde Norg and Brad Joker. It also showed that Souma, who knew that, historically, the production of food and knowledge of medicine were directly linked to the maintenance and growth of the population, placed great importance on those fields.
Now, there were two man-and-woman pairs facing one another across the threshold at Ginger’s Vocational School’s main gate. The first pair consisted of a rotund man who was almost thirty years old, and an intellectual beauty who was elegant in everything including her appearance. The other pair consisted of a young man whose face was so gentle in appearance that he might be mistaken for a girl, and a beautiful raccoon girl who had an unyielding look in her eyes that left a lasting impression.
The strange thing was, the woman in each of these pairs was wearing a classical maid uniform with a long skirt.