Fluffy Paradise Volume 6, page 9
6 - Apparently, a Lot Is Going on Below the Surface
“I’M back.”
Paul had returned from the errand I’d sent him on.
“Welcome back. …How did it go?”
“He honored me with a flat-out refusal.”
O-Oh, I see… But, Paul… He’s of a much higher status, so we’re in no position to be angry with him. Put your anger away! Down, boy!
I’d sent Paul to invite Daux to play with me, but apparently, he’d slammed the door in Paul’s face without even listening to what he had to say.
Up to this point, the only way I’d successfully gotten him to come out of his room was by passing the invitation through the emperor.
I’ve finally found a playmate, but I still can’t play with him as much as I’d like! But Daux also has his own things going on, so I wanted to compare our schedules to find some time to play…
Currently, I couldn’t get anywhere near Daux on my own.
Marie was a total loss as well.
Seeing no other option, I decided to spend the day exploring the imperial palace. Shinki would be my bodyguard, and Seigo and Rikusei would be my guides.
As we walked down the halls, the excited kobolds kept pointing out things like “There’s a concealed door here!” and “There’s a hidden room behind this wall!”
Is this important information that I need to make a point of committing to memory?
…Nah, I’m sure Paul is reviewing all the information they collect, so there’s no need for me to remember everything.
It was unexpected that, unlike in my own country, the walls and pillars in the imperial palace were sparsely decorated. However, I was curious about the mysterious pattern engraved in multiple places along our route.
Is it some kind of written magic?
As we wandered the halls, the servants we encountered were very polite, but all the nobles seemed wary of us.
If what Karna had said the other day was true, this was probably because many people believed Karna would likely marry into a high-ranking family here in the Linus Empire.
In short, none of the aristocrats with daughters of marriageable age could relax as long as we were around.
I wanted to tell them they were wrong. I was fairly certain Papa would never allow such a thing to happen. He was so doting on Karna that he seemed not to want to allow her to get married at all, but even if he did, her husband would probably have to be from our own country at the very least.
I’d heard she was a potential candidate for the role of Will’s fiancée, but based on how vehemently opposed to the idea she was, I wasn’t sure what would happen with that.
I was sure about one thing, though—if Karna and Louis continued getting closer and she married him, I would cry my eyes out.
I don’t want to live so far away from Karna! Well, I suppose there’s no use worrying about the future when no one knows how things will turn out.
But the world of women certainly is tricky to navigate, huh?
“What are you doing here?”
“Today, only those close to His Imperial Highness Prince Aisent were invited, don’t you know?”
Just then, I happened upon a scene of three young noblewomen berating another young noblewoman with her back pressed up against a wall.
Why are they doing such a thing in a place like this? It’s unseemly to have a confrontation where anyone might wander by!
“I’m simply accompanying my older brother…”
“Your older brother may be on good terms with the prince, but you should be a bit more aware of your place!”
What should I do?
Back in my own country, just saying, “Excuse me, please let me by” would be enough to stop it, but this is a foreign country.
This is also a type of internal power struggle, so I’m not sure if it’s appropriate for me to get involved… Hmm…
While I was worrying about what to do, Seigo and Rikusei cluelessly bounded ahead.
When the antagonistic young noblewomen caught sight of the adorable “dogs” barking energetically, their expressions softened.
“Oh, are these the adorable guests I’ve been hearing about?”
“They really are cute!”
The two of them were more popular than I would’ve imagined. They obediently stopped and let the young women pet them.
In any case, the young noblewomen were successfully diverted from their bullying, so I considered it a job well done on Seigo and Rikusei’s part!
Now, it’s probably safe for me to make an appearance.
“Seigo, Rikusei, where are you?” I called, pretending to be looking for them as I stepped out where the young ladies could see me.
The kobolds barked back at me.
“Seigo and Rikusei, you know I worry when you run off like that!”
I actually wanted to praise them for what they’d done and planned to do just that later when we were alone. I was doubly impressed by how quickly they caught on to my act and immediately played along.
“Please allow me to apologize for any inconvenience my pets have caused you,” I said to the young ladies. They seemed to know who I was because their smiles transformed instantly from the genuine broad smiles they’d been giving Seigo and Rikusei to brittle fake smiles when they looked at me.
“It was no trouble at all. It soothes the heart to see such sweet animals.”
“If you will excuse us…”
In a move that would’ve made the proverbial hare in the saying “quick as a hare” proud, the young ladies made to dash off somewhere, but their plans were foiled by someone who appeared on the other side of them, sandwiching the girls between himself and me.
“Arianna, Shawn was looking for you.”
“Huh? Oh… Excuse me. I’ll return immediately.”
The young lady, who’d been the object of the other three’s ire and whose name was apparently Arianna, seemed flustered by the fact that the imperial prince had come to look for her in person.
“Why don’t you ladies all head back now, too? Everyone’s feeling sad and lonely that the most beautiful flowers have disappeared, you know.”
Huuuuh? Was the playboy always this kind of person? I mean, he still sounds like a stereotypical playboy, but I could’ve sworn everything he’s said up to this point just sounded sleazy.
Whereas normally, he seems to spout whatever cheap pickup lines come to mind, right now, he’s practically reciting poetry!
I was examining the playboy closely when suddenly our eyes met.
“Oh, it’s the adorable little lady! Are you alone today?” he asked.
Eeek, I’ve got goosebumps! But I’m a duke’s daughter. I have to be able to tolerate things like this!
Feeling like I was heading out onto the battlefield, I faced off against the playboy.
“Good day, Prince Aisent. I was just in the middle of exploring the imperial palace.”
“I heard you and Daux have been playing together a lot lately, so I figured you would be together today, too.”
On the surface, it was a perfectly appropriate response for a prince, but I sensed thorns attached to his words. Perhaps the playboy didn’t have a high opinion of Daux.
“While it’s true that Daux and I have become friends, it seems he wasn’t available to play today…”
“You’ve become such good friends that you now call him by his nickname, I see. …Hm, then why don’t you join my social? I’d be happy to have you.”
A social was an event similar to a small, intimate tea party with one’s closest friends. Their purpose was to deepen the bonds of friendship regardless of gender and social rank, and here in the Linus Empire, they were all the rage among teenagers.
Socials were an event based on the history and traditions of the Linus Empire, so we didn’t have them in my country.
It sounded interesting, but I wasn’t particularly interested in attending a social hosted by someone I wasn’t close with. And yet, I also couldn’t very well reject an invitation from the imperial prince of the country currently hosting us so generously.
And so, I was forced to reluctantly accept.
“Wouldn’t it be a terrible imposition for me to join without warning?”
“Not at all. I’m certain everyone is dying for the chance to make friends with an adorable little princess.”
When did I level up from a lady to a princess?! But you know, if he’s like this at around the same age as Karna, just imagine how intolerable he’ll be when he’s an adult!
And so, that’s how I ended up unexpectedly attending a social!
We were led to a room in one corner of the imperial palace that looked out over a beautiful garden. An assortment of young men and women around the playboy’s age occupied the room, all chatting happily amongst themselves.
Just like the banquet, this social also had separate rooms for socializing and eating.
“Welcome back, Your Highness. Hm? Isn’t that…?”
“Yes, I ran into her while I was looking for Arianna. This is one of our guests from the Kingdom of Gaché, Lady Nefertima.”
I bowed in the manner of the Linus Empire and politely introduced myself, and before I knew it, I was surrounded by people.
“You’re the daughter of His Grace, the famously astute and capable prime minister?”
“The system of occupational tax he implemented to great success in such a sparsely populated region was genius. We’re attempting to replicate it in my province.”
“The Original Technology Law was a stroke of genius as well. I’d love to see a similar law passed here in the Linus Empire!”
For some reason, it seemed Papa was extremely popular here.
If people wanted to know about my home country, I could answer to a certain extent. But when it came to national politics and the governance of a province, I would be hard-pressed to answer any questions beyond my own meager level of understanding.
How do they all know so much about the governance of another country, anyway?!
Even I didn’t know much about our province’s system of occupational tax beyond the fact that there was one.
“I’m afraid I’m not terribly familiar with all the details, but our country features a large diversity of climates and natural resources depending on the region, so I believe it was the best solution to suit the citizens living in each area,” I responded.
It was a fitting strategy for a country like ours, where each province boasted wildly different climates and resources. It also didn’t hurt that the system left the provincial lords a considerable amount of leeway to exercise their own judgment within the territory under their jurisdiction.
That was because if a provincial lord wanted to implement something within their province, they could easily present it to the king and other cabinet ministers, who make up the crux of our national government, for consideration.
From what I’d learned in my studies, the Linus Empire’s system of government was more similar to that of feudal Japan.
In this metaphor, the imperial family were the shogunate, and they assigned territories to the titled nobles to be ruled like domains.
Of course, each domain was required to offer taxes in the form of an annual tribute to the central government, but the method of taxation within each domain was left up to the noble families.
However, the nobles were prohibited from setting tax rates over the limit determined by the central government and from lining their own pockets with the citizens’ taxes. That would be viewed as treason and would result in a swift execution, making it a very severe crime indeed.
In conclusion, it was probably accurate to say that the nobles in the Linus Empire had a higher degree of freedom when it came to ruling their provinces. The lesser nobles serving as proxy lords in the Kingdom of Gaché didn’t have much, if any, decision-making rights.
On the other hand, the Linus Empire might’ve been stricter in terms of government monitoring. I’d heard the Linus Empire had special investigators for that exact purpose.
The investigators in our country were government officials of a sort, so I pictured them as undercover magistrates traveling around in secret dealing out justice, but here, they were more like a combination of spies and agents of the central government. They answered directly to the emperor and were in charge of monitoring the nobles. When wrongdoings were discovered, the investigators were authorized to mete out justice at their own discretion.
A special crest was bestowed upon the emperor’s private investigators along with a stamped imperial edict in his own handwriting.
With all this going on, anyone with a brain in their head would pray they never had any reason to cross paths with any of the investigators!
“I was wondering… Do the Armanos really exist?”
Armanos was a word in Celestian that meant something like “bring secrets into the light.” It had been adopted to refer to the Linus Empire’s investigators. I was so overcome with curiosity that I couldn’t help but ask.
“Why would you bring up such a frightening topic…?”
“Lady Nefertima, that is a forbidden word amongst the nobility.”
And so, no one would tell me anything.
But I can’t help but be even more curious now! If you’re not doing anything bad, you shouldn’t have any reason to fear the investigators. If it’s just that they’re worried about being falsely accused due to the investigators’ considerable authority, I suppose that’s understandable, but…
If it really is a case of false accusation, they can always request that another investigator look into the matter.
While I was puzzling over that, I heard girlish shrieks. I turned to see what was going on and spotted a group of young ladies gathered around something…
That “something” was Shinki.
I was a little concerned, so I quickly excused myself and headed over to the cluster of young ladies.
“Has my servant done something to give offense?” I asked.
I thought that as Shinki’s “master,” I would have to apologize if he’d done something rude.
“Not at all! He was just telling us the most wonderful story!”
The young ladies all had red cheeks and were gazing at Shinki with stars in their eyes.
“This gentleman was telling us about how he met you, Lady Nefertima.”
“It’s just like the story of a heroic knight from some epic tale…!”
The young ladies jumped in one after another, adding to the explanation, but I was having trouble following.
Our first meeting? A heroic knight?
Ohhh, they must be referring to the cover story Mama came up with! I’d totally forgotten about that. Thank goodness Shinki has a better memory than me!
“I’ve never heard of the Beak Tribe before…” one of the girls commented, and I hurried to assure her that wasn’t something to be ashamed of.
“They’re a very rare tribe. I also hadn’t heard of them until Shinki told me about them.”
In reality, Mama, not Shinki, told me about the Beak Tribe, but it is true I’d never heard of them before that.
“I think that’s all the better. If he were a commonplace beastperson, it would make him less remarkable,” another of the ladies argued, but her argument didn’t sit quite right with me. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but it almost felt like I had something caught in my throat.
“This gentleman is dignified and cool, but I also wouldn’t mind being saved by a beautiful man like the feliance beastperson in the imperial army, Mr. Fouge!”
I suppose girls this age love pretty boys. In that case, they should visit my country. There’s an absurdly high rate of handsome men there!
The girls began an animated discussion about which gentlemen of their acquaintance were the coolest, the most beautiful, etc. I didn’t know any of the people they were talking about, so the only contribution I could make to the conversation was nodding and smiling.
However, there was one topic that particularly drew my interest.
One of the types of beastperson the girls mentioned finding decidedly unattractive was the Lizard Tribe! That’s right; there was apparently a tribe of beastpeople similar to the dragonewts from RPGs!
A lizard beastperson?! Heck yeah!
Maybe “lizard” doesn’t sound very strong, but if you phrase it as a “sub-species of dragon,” that sounds a bit cooler.
In any case, that’s what they were.
They weren’t dragons but lizards who were at least as strong as giant worms—another distant relative of dragons.
I guess you could say their closest Earth counterpart is the Komodo dragon?
With that kind of evolutionary background, the Lizard Tribe was known for being some of the most highly skilled fighters among the beastperson tribes.
I’m looking forward to seeing what they can do!
To my surprise, I ended up enjoying the social very much.
Seigo and Rikusei were doted on and played with by all the attendees who loved animals, and Shinki consumed a frankly astounding amount of food.
After the social concluded, the playboy announced he would escort me back to my room. I tried to decline his offer since Seigo and Rikusei knew the way, and we could easily make it back on our own, but Aisent just smiled and ignored my protests.
“Lady Nefertima, you mustn’t forget: all those people are enemies.”
“…Enemies? …Whose?”
Despite his shocking statement, Aisent refused to say another word.
You can’t just say something like that and then refuse to elaborate! Now I’m super curious what you mean!
“Are you saying that they’re your enemies, Prince Aisent?” I needled in an attempt to wear him down, but Aisent only narrowed his eyes and scoffed at me.
That expression reminds me of Mama.
It was the same undefeatable expression Mama wore when trying to corner someone.
I was still befuddled when we arrived at my room, where the playboy waved casually and said, “See ya!” before walking off.
Paul opened the door, and Karna called out, “Welcome back!”
