Spoiler Money makes the (Other) World Go Round: The Corporate S*ave Dragged into the Saint Summoning

Discussion in 'Spoilers' started by Shizun, Sep 4, 2020.

  1. twistingfeelings

    twistingfeelings Well-Known Member

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  2. RAGA

    RAGA Well-Known Member

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    Hey all! Since Watashi wa Sugoi Desu is finishing up the translations for volume 1 of the series (I highly recommend reading their translations over any of my stuff), I thought I'd go ahead and post part 1 of the spoilers for the 3rd volume, The Affairs of Another World Depends on the Corporate Slave 3: The Normalization of Magic Diplomacy Project.

    Raws: https://novel18.syosetu.com/n6681gw/

    As always, support the author when you can.

    I think I'll keep this in the same format as I did the spoilers for the 2nd volume. But there’s a bit of a difference in how I’ll be approaching this, as this will be the first time I’ll be doing the spoilers before the story is completed instead of after. I’m not sure how that’ll go bc chances are higher that I might inadvertently miss smt (again, I do not know Japanese) since I won’t know the full plot beforehand and will be writing the summary of the chapter as I read.

    Edit: It seems that the author revises a lot (either that or I missed a lot), so expect some change in information with earlier chapters--it's been small things, like names, so far though. I have a feeling I might need to go back and reread after the last revision for this volume is made.

    And bc I don’t know what information from the prior volumes will be relevant for the plot in this volume, I’ll skip making my own summary and just give a list of characters (but I did give the author’s summary in my last post!) who were prominent in the 2nd and 1st volume and who may be likely to make an appearance in this one. I did change some of the titles/names up but kept the main ones the same, so it shouldn't be too different from my previous spoilers.

    And pls feel free to give feedback!

    Royal Accounting Department
    Seiichirou Kondou – MC (30yo); Deputy Director of the Royal Accounting Department; workaholic and finally in an established relationship with the ML

    Norbert Baranek – Sei’s friend and co-worker (18yo) in the Royal Accounting Department; adopted son of Count Baranek and the not-so-secret secret illegitimate son of the king

    Helmuth Somalia – Director (42yo) of the Royal Accounting Department; nice but a yes-man

    Royal Knight’s Order
    Aresh Indrak – ML; youngest son (23yo) of a marquis and Captain of the 3rd Knight’s Order, which deals with magic and fighting beasts in the Forest of Magic

    Orzif Rowder – Vice Captain of 3rd Knight’s Order; Aresh’s older cousin (27yo)

    Radim Makovsky – Captain of the 2nd Knight’s Order, which primarily act as personal bodyguards for the royal family and other important dignitaries (like the saint)

    Royal Court’s Magic Department
    Isto – genius mage (30yo); Deputy Director of the Magic Department; really scatterbrained but obsessed with magic

    Zoltan Barre – mage (40-50yo); Director of the Magic Department and Isto’s (unofficial) caretaker

    Sigma – former child vendor (11yo); now working for the Magic Department while attending school

    Royal Health Department
    Cielo Querbes – Head Healer of the Royal Healing Department

    Royal Legal Department
    Kamil Calvada – Prime Minister; on good terms with Sei (he and Sei are birds of a feather) but not much known about his bg

    Royals/Saint
    Yua Shiraishi – saint summoned from another world (16yo); naive but has a good heart; really wants to go home

    Julius Romani Kasl – dumb*ss crown prince (20yo) but apparently actually good at the job; huge crush on Yua

    Nobles
    Baranek – former viscount, now count; adopted father of Norbert and presumed to be close to the king

    Aresh’s residence
    Waldem – butler (around 60yo); an excellent masseur; formerly served Aresh in the main Indrak household

    Myran – maid (around 50yo); also takes care of the garden when the gardener isn’t around; has a son and daughter

    Pavel – cook; young disciple of the main Indrak household’s former chef; has made it a personal mission to improve Seiichirou’s health

    Church
    Siegward Öhrwall (formally) – a very devout priest of the Church of Abrahan (in his 20s); oldest son to the wealthy Öhrwall family but forwent his surname after joining the church

    Celio – apprentice of the Church (14/15yo); tsundere

    Seiichirou (Sei) started off the story by describing his daily morning routine back in Japan (wake up, eat breakfast—he only does so bc it’s said that skipping breakfast is bad, but he generally doesn’t have an appetite in the morning--, catch an earlier train bc crowds, arrive at work early, work, then punch in for work when work is supposed to start—ugh, going to work early just to do unpaid work? No, thank you :sick:).

    Scene cut to Sei and Aresh, sitting at a table. It’s been 8mo since Sei and Yua arrived in the kingdom of Romani. And now, Sei and Aresh established their relationship as lovers. But Aresh would get concerned with Sei’s health and obsession with working, while Sei would sometimes be troubled by Aresh’s overprotectiveness and would get caught off-guard by Aresh’s childish side (such as unnecessarily taking smt small to heart—Aresh is still bothered by Sei’s prior statement of not being into younger ppl :X3:).

    Aresh asked Sei what’s he dissatisfied with and Sei tried to deny anything was the matter. But Aresh knew him too well. After some cajoling, Sei expressed that he wished Aresh stop sleeping with his arms around Sei (Sei thinks this is a small matter and wasn’t going to bring it up if Aresh didn’t push for him to speak).

    Since they’ve established their relationship, Sei and Aresh had begun sleeping in the same bed. Aresh wanted to sleep with Sei every day and Sei was fine with it, as being in contact with Aresh helped his constitution (tho they’ve reached an agreement to only have sex 2x a week :blobamused:). However, being in someone’s arm made it hard to sleep.

    Aresh was fine with it, but Sei’s problem was that Aresh’s muscles on his arm were too hard, which made his sleeping position uncomfortable as he, a 30yr man, preferred sleeping on soft pillows. Plus, bedding was designed for a comfortable night’s sleep; arms were not. Sei also believed that a physically fit 20yr man was not going to understand this discomfort, but Sei’s neck and shoulders were in trouble!

    Then, it’s time for work and Sei declined the usual attempts of healing and acclimatization magic. Sei preferred that Aresh not use magic for anything other than life-threatening situations, but this was another matter concerning their differences in values, as a person who’s lived without magic all his life vs one who’s lived with magic.

    They end up not settling the matter about the arm pillow and would most likely return to the subject when they get back home.

    Quick break to explain about Sei’s commuting schedule:

    Aresh’s mansion was located in the aristocratic district, which wasn’t far from the castle, but it’s not within reasonable walking distance either (unlike the dorms for officials Sei previously was in), but very few in this district actually walk (walking is for commoners:blob_coffee:).

    Instead, ppl used horse-drawn carriages, including Sei. Sei would also sometimes travel with Aresh to work when their commute times aligned (doesn’t happen often bc of their different work schedules, which Sei is happy about bc Aresh makes Sei stand out too much) though they always tend to go home together.

    When Sei got to the carriage drop off point at the castle, Captain Radim was there to greet him. Ever since meeting Sei after the assault incident in the first volume, Radim had paid Sei a lot of attention.

    He noticed that Sei looked unhealthy and asked after him. Sei responded that it was only from sleeping wrong (Sei’s health has gotten better after living with Aresh and being taken care of by the house staff—Sei can now eat normal meals too).

    Radim then informed Sei that Crown Prince Julius requested his presence to discuss matters concerning the new private school at the church. But Sei refused, stating he already had plans to visit the Magic Department, and asked to see him the next day or later :p. Radim is flabbergasted at Sei’s attitude towards the prince but relented that Sei does seem to be in a hurry and agreed to inform the prince. Sei told him to contact he Accounting Department to set up a meeting.

    Sei finally arrived at the Accounting Department and he’s the first there, as usual. While Sei had improved in delegating tasks, he still couldn’t break his habit of working extra. For Sei, working in the morning before anyone else arrived was the best time to calm down and get work done.

    With all of the modifications Sei had implemented within the department, the place had become busier and there are more personnel. But the department had also garnered more importance placed on it too.

    Like this, Sei passed his days in this other world peacefully.
    Chapter started with an overview of what’d been happening in the plot—Romani kingdom had a miasma tree that overflows every 100yrs until a saint purifies it. Yua was the saint for this generation and she’d already completed the purification process. Sei had implemented a plan to seal the entire tree.

    Attempts at destroying the tree previously proved futile, as the tree was unharmed by physical attacks and emitted more miasma when stimulated. So, Sei’s plan was to ward and monitor the tree instead, which required a lot of manpower from ppl with specialized skills.

    At the same time, Sei was also responsible for promoting the kingdom’s magic progress in order to advance the research on summoning/return magic, as well as arranging the matters concerning the church's private school in order to develop human resources for the kingdom and to fulfil Yua’s wish to expand education to the poor.

    In short, Sei was busy. But he defended, to a certain overprotective Knight Captain, that all this was necessary for Sei’s benefit.

    Scene cut:

    Norbert, who’s also tutoring at the new private school, also complained about how much work there was. Sei retorted that he’s sure Norbert already hoisted a lot of his responsibilities onto other ppl. Norbert deflected, saying that there’s still 3x more work than normal, and Sei noted that eavesdroppers in the department were agreeing with Norbert.

    However, Sei thought this much is basically nothing bc he’s still about to go home on time and had been afforded full days off, which he told Norbert. Norbert argued that Sei came into work on his days off and that the dark circles under Sei’s eyes were still prominent. Sei wanted to reply that those were due to age, but his pride stopped him from saying anything :ROFLMAO:.

    But for this workaholic, with all these jobs, he’s satisfied with his work life.

    Another scene cut:

    Kamil called Sei to his office unexpectedly again for the first time in a long time (he usually schedules meetings—his last unscheduled meeting was for Sei’s church transfer in the prequel). Sei had a bad feeling, which Kamil noticed amusingly.

    Kamil explained that an envoy from another country, Egorova, would be arriving to extend diplomatic relations. Sei knew that Egorova was a cold northern country that possessed a lot of mines filled with magic stones, which made a lot of magic tools.

    Romani, on the other hand, was a blessed country, and was a good place to live, but had nothing really going for it that other countries would be interested in, except being blessed by god and having saints. Romani was blessed with fair weather year-round, except for its mountain regions, while Egorova snowed nearly year-round. The ppl there used magic tools to deal with the cold.

    Sei, as someone who disliked cold, was thankful to not have been summoned to a place like that. However, Egorova was very closed-off with the secrets of their magic and culture and didn’t share them with other countries. For them to have an interest in sharing relations with a kingdom like Romani would mean…

    Kamil confirmed Sei’s suspicions that Egorova was interested in the summoning/return magic research, implying that Sei would be set to deal with them.

    Thanks to Sei’s contributions (the anti-saint plan, with the new barrier, the emphasis on magical research, particularly the summoning/return magic), Romani was developing a reputation as a magically technological advanced country. Kamil stated that Sei, being the ringleader of all this, would be a person of interest, especially as Count Baranek, whom the plan is officially accredited to, was away on another assignment.

    Kamil then informed Sei that the envoy would come in 5dys, meaning that it would be too late to change the itinerary and Sei’s participation was a done deal. Sei complained that he wished Kamil told him sooner and Kamil explained that this was the only time he could, without his black watchdog around.

    Aresh was reluctant at leaving Sei out of his sight, especially as Sei tended to overwork himself with his normal duties and bc of his vulnerabilities during the church incident. Sei couldn’t just leave his work bc he’s a grown man doing his job, but as he’s been saved so often, Sei didn’t feel right just ignoring his lover’s concerns. This left Sei with the unfortunate task of figuring out how to persuade Aresh about Sei’s newest assignment.

    Kamil, looking at Sei with thoughtful amusement, glanced towards the door and assured him that he won’t be alone this time, as Kamil assigned a qualified expert and an escort to Sei as well. A knock sounded and an attendant reported that a visitor came.

    At Kamil’s allowance, Zoltan Barre entered (author describes Zoltan as having an imposing gait, brown hair tightly parted in the middle and a full beard, as well as a middle-age belly).
    Romani division color scheme:

    White = Royalty
    Blue = Legal Dpt., headed by Kamil
    Black = 3rd Knight’s Order, led by Aresh
    Red = 1st Knight’s Order
    Green = 2nd Knight’s Order, led by Radim
    Brown = Accounting Dpt., headed by Helmuth (where Sei is too)
    Purple = Magic Dpt., headed by Zoltan

    The head of their respective division wore a long cloak of their division’s color off both shoulders, while the 2nd in charge (like Sei) wore a short cloak of their division’s color off one shoulder.

    Sei and Zoltan had met several times at public events, but Sei’s connection to the Magic Department was generally through Isto, and in informal settings. Zoltan didn’t like that Sei, an otherworlder, held a managerial position and that he interacted with Isto without going through him, the head of the department.

    After greeting Kamil, Zoltan turned to Sei with a crinkled look, as if asking why Sei was there. Kamil explained that Zoltan was there to accompany Sei and Kamil as a guide when the Egorova envoy arrived. Zoltan accepted, but had an uncomfortable look in his eyes, as he murmured that he wasn’t told that he’d be accompanied by anyone else before his voice mumbled off to inaudible levels (Sei believed he was quietly voicing his complaints that Sei, an otherworlder with no real allegiance to Romani, was to be part of the group that would meet with an envoy for diplomatic relations).

    Kamil ignored his mutterings and conveyed that the other side most likely wanted to learn about Romani’s magic technology and the system the created it. But mostly, the emphasis was on the magical tech, which was a subject best left to Zoltan.

    While Zoltan gave an outburst in agreement, Sei caught on to the underlying meaning behind Kamil’s words and the enormous amount of work that laid before him. Not only would they need to inspect the summoning/return magic and the wards, they also needed to budget and publicize the facilities around both, which would mean going through the Accounting Department, as well as the departments that handled construction and public relations, in order to gather and compile the necessary materials.

    And all within 5dys.

    The majority of the work and calculations would need to be done by Sei, but he’d have to leave any specialized parts to the ppl in charge.

    While Sei was planning all the necessary arrangements, he was brought back to the conversation when Zoltan questioned who the envoy would be. As Zoltan was clearly informed about the envoy before this meeting and there’d be no way the Kamil would forget to mention this matter, either Zoltan wasn’t paying attention or Kamil purposefully didn’t say it. Noting the smile on Kamil’s face, Sei figured this was done on purpose.

    Kamil answered that this would be a delegation of emissaries led by Egorova’s 3rd prince.

    Scene cut again.

    Right after they left Kamil’s office, Zoltan complained again about being teamed up with someone from another world. Sei considered Zoltan, a pompous man who obtained his position through his family rather than through skill, and thought that his reaction to Sei was expected. However, Sei didn’t dislike Zoltan and even respected him. Because he’s Isto’s boss :LOL:.

    Ask anyone in the palace and they’d tell you that pink/orange haired, green-eyed Isto was the most knowledgeable and best mage in the kingdom. His passion for magic was unrivaled and he possessed a lot of magic power and control.

    However, he wasn’t able to do anything else and rarely listened to others. He also didn’t follow rules, or perhaps was never aware of them at all. And when speaking on any topic besides magic, Isto’s responses tended to be very vague.

    He’s a wonderful mage and researcher. He’s a genius who was able to invent an accurate magical detection device in just 3dys. Isto was given his position bc he couldn’t be left alone, but his title did little to change him.

    Sei knew, from firsthand experience, that most mages in the department were like Isto. It’s a research job, so it was to be expected, but such personalities from the personnel were why the department had a difficult time reporting results and budgeting. It was also why the department, which should have been a flowering one, was given last priority and a tiny budget.

    Inevitably, all of pressures for administering the department fell onto Zoltan. Which was why Sei noticed, while looking over the accounting reports, that the Magic Department’s budget was able to rise in the last few years because of Zoltan taking over as the department head. While Zoltan possessed little magic, he was a born noble and upwardly mobile, so these matters were more suited for him to preside over.

    Meanwhile, Sei was getting hungry, so he took Zoltan’s complaints in stride and offered a courtesy answer, asking Zoltan to take care of him. Zoltan harrumphed, proclaiming that just because Sei was the Prime Minister’s favorite, the mission was still Zoltan’s. Sei’s despondent eyes took on a shine at this line :blobthinkingsmirk:.

    Sei agreed profusely that, as someone with little to no knowledge of magic, he would naturally leave everything to Zoltan, as the head of the Magic Department (aww, look at him, shirking, I mean, “delegating” his work :aww:). Before giving Zoltan a chance to catch his bearings at that, Sei immediately announced that he’d be working with the ppl in charge of construction, public relations, and logistics, so Zoltan should be in charge of preparing everything related to the warding and summoning/return magic.

    Bulldozing over Zoltan’s attempt at a response, Sei emphasized that Sei had no experience with magic and that Zoltan, head of the Magic Department and familiar with noble etiquette (being a noble and all), was best suited to take charge in preparing the documents needed to be given to the delegation. Sei also cajoled him into reviewing (aka preparing) Sei’s documents under the guise of ensuring that they met the standards of etiquette, as to not disrespect the ppl of Egorova. Then Sei quickly scheduled to give Zoltan his materials in 3dys time.

    While Sei was unsure of how much knowledge Zoltan already had of everything, he was certain that Zoltan’s character would ensure that he’d have all of the materials ready by the time the delegation arrived. For Sei, it was easy to deal with someone who’s objectives were easy to understand (this schemer).

    Then Sei hurried back to the Accounting Department. Sei had a lot of work to prepare, including having others take over his normal duties while he was away. But the most important task remained: persuading a certain person whose objectives weren’t so easy to understand.
    Sei somehow managed to complete his requests to the other departments and report to the Accounting Department. He was also able to leave preparing material to Norbert, who volunteered to collect them. Then Sei picked up his materials to take home.

    Sei completed dealing with his normal tasks for the next 5dys and planned to put together the labor, maintenance, and construction costs for warding the Demon Tree. While the delegation would most likely be more interested in the summoning/return magic, the documents for the warding were much easier to prepare at the moment bc they were already prepared for the government when the plan was first implemented. The other matters required approval from other departments, so it was easier to summarize everything for now.

    Sei’s method of dealing with a large list of tasks was to complete the easiest ones first to reduce the list. Even if there were priorities in the tasks, concrete figures were easier to deal with and having a sense of accomplishment was important too.

    Plus, when it came to the summoning/return magic, it dealt with information on the saint, which was a tricky subject. So, Sei had a lot of work left, even when he got home. But at home, there was still one big obstacle keeping him from completing his tasks.

    Scene cut:

    It felt like springtime, evident by the blooming flowers in the garden, when Sei returned to the mansion. The days were warming up and Sei preferred the warmer weather. As soon as Sei entered the mansion, Waldem was there to greet him.

    Sei was perplex at how Waldem always seemed to know when Sei returned. He greeted Waldem’s bow with one of his own, a courtesy ingrained into him as a regular Japanese person. While Waldem and the staff were determined to treat Sei, being Aresh’s lover, in the same manner as Aresh, Sei couldn’t quite get used to it and still addressed everyone in a formal manner.

    Before Sei could ask about Aresh, Waldem informed him that Aresh was told of Sei’s return and that he was in the study. Aresh, who doesn’t like when Sei worked late, apparently had Sei’s return reported to him even while on vacation.

    Sei would prefer to talk to Aresh about this matter after dinner, when they can settle down, but he also wants to work after dinner too (this workaholic). And since they had some awkwardness from their spat that morning, Sei opted to speak with Aresh immediately to resolve things and went to the study.

    Sei knocked on the door to the study, greeting Aresh inside. Aresh returned his greeting without any hint that they’d had an altercation earlier that morning. Sei felt a bit awkward, as he didn’t often voice his thoughts, but since he decided to speak, he went through with it.

    Sei held out his hand towards Aresh to grab hold of and asked him about the morning. Aresh, who was sitting on the chair, pulled Sei closer into his arms, allowing Sei’s other hand to be placed on Aresh’s shoulder.

    Sei noted that the height difference was interesting, as he’s usually looking up at Aresh. There was a novelty at Aresh being the one to look up at him instead. On a whim, Sei poked at the top of Aresh’s head, and in response, a strong arm tugged at Sei’s waist to stop him, putting him into a kneeling position on top of Aresh on the chair.

    Sei asked if it was fine to not use Aresh’s arm as an arm pillow again and Aresh agreed. Apparently, this was a matter Sei had been contemplating over most of the day, even at work. Sei affirmed that he didn’t dislike sleeping with Aresh, but he was still worried over this nobleman called the black beast.

    Sei’s chest tightened at Aresh’s response and he kissed Aresh’s temple with an air of astonishment. When their eyes met, Aresh pulled Sei closer and brought their lips together. Aresh’s hand begun unfastening Sei’s belt and Sei struggled to tell him to stop as they were in a precarious position, with Sei kneeling on the chair. Aresh, being more familiar with the clothing of this world, was able to quickly diverge Sei of his complicated belt and knee length jacket.

    Sei questioned if they were going to do this here and when Sei had just returned from work. Sei had yet to take a bath and didn’t know when Waldem or Myran would call them for dinner. Then a strong force caused Sei to slip and seat fully on Aresh’s lap. It was a position Sei felt most uncomfortable with.

    Sei hurriedly tried to stand up, but Aresh firmly held him in place, preventing Sei from being able to move. Additionally, Aresh placed his lips to Sei’s ear, assuring Sei that the staff know not to interrupt. Aresh’s low voice sent a shiver down Sei’s spine.

    Sei, embarrassed, had been trying his best to not let Aresh realize that his voice turned Sei on. Instead, Aresh was under the impression that Sei’s ears were his weak point and so, kissed the edges and then nibbled on his earlobe, as well as inserted his tongue inside :blobmelt:. Sei felt Aresh’s breath directly on his skin, which caused his shoulders to jolt and tremble.

    Sei moaned as Aresh lifted his shirt up to cover Sei’s back with his large hands. Sei went weak, with hips shaking and unable to stand, and he pressed down against Aresh, whose vigour could be felt through his clothes. Sei’s legs gave out, pushing him fully onto Aresh’s knees. He wrapped his arms around Aresh’s neck, bringing his mouth towards Aresh’s ear in return.

    Sei reminded that he had to work the next day, so Aresh needed to practice moderation. Aresh responded that he’ll cast a healing spell for Sei and pressed their lips together to immerse themselves into the act (and yes, it ends there :blobpopcorn_two:).

    When Sei awoke, he was properly placed in bed. His body felt clean and he didn’t feel any pain or discomfort, only a slight dizziness, which meant that Aresh must have casted a healing spell. Then Sei noticed what he was lying on. True to his words, Aresh did not proffer his muscular arms as a pillow, but instead let Sei lie on his muscular shoulder :giggle:.

    Sei turned to see that Aresh had also awakened. Illuminated by the pale lighting of the room, Aresh, naked and disheveled from sleep, was more radiant than when he donned on his black clothes, hardened and armed. He also seemed more innocent this way too. Sei suspected this was the real Aresh. And this was a privilege only to be enjoyed by Sei.

    Sei scolded Aresh for not practicing moderation and Aresh responded that he placed a healing spell on him. To Sei, that was hardly the same thing. Aresh then asked if Sei was hungry or if he wanted anything. Sei glanced at the clock in the room, realizing that it was 3hrs before his usual time to get up. He denied Aresh's offer, not feeling hungry and, more to the point, not wanting to inconvenience Myran or Pavel at such an early hour.

    Sei felt that Aresh’s shoulder and chest was more comfortable to sleep on than his arms, probably bc the muscles had more mass and were less tense. Sei rubbed against Aresh’s shoulder and Aresh, in a good mood, turned to kiss Sei’s hair. Sei then figured it best to now break the news of his new Egorovian duties to Aresh, including that he’d be late coming home for awhile bc of them (of course:facepalm:).

    Aresh was left shocked speechless, and Sei privately thought that cotton pillows were better.
    Aresh stormed into Kamil’s office unannounced, bypassing all of the guards and flustering the staff with his sudden arrival. Kamil, cool as a cucumber, smiled and inquired what Aresh’s business with him was. Aresh, not amused, called Kamil out, but Kamil focused on Sei, who came in, indifferently, apologizing behind Aresh.

    Kamil pointed that Sei needed to keep a tight grip on the reins, and then he exasperatedly stood up. An attendant supplied seats for Aresh and Sei. Sei offered the excuse that he tried to convince him. To that, Kamil praised Sei for being so seemingly modest yet so clever, wondering what flattering approach he tried to convince Aresh and if he could show Kamil :blobwink:.

    Taking note of the amused yet charged aura Kamil was directing towards Sei, Aresh pursed his lips and pushed Sei back. Kamil, shoulders shaking with laughter, offered them a seat. They sat down reluctantly and the tea was brought out.

    Aresh held back Sei’s hand from reaching for the tea and inspected it first. Kamil commented that Aresh seemed to think that Kamil was trying to poison them. He was told about the time where Sei got sick after drinking tea treated with mana (back in the 1st volume). Sei brushed it aside as an old incident (he’s built up a tolerance with most things except for tobacco and alcohol, which contain high levels of mana).

    Then Kamil warned him to not act in this manner in front of the guests, as it could cause a diplomatic issue. This stirred Aresh up and he questioned the personnel Kamil picked out that he needed to bring in a magically vulnerable person on a mission centered around magic. Kamil remarked that Aresh, usually blunt and curt, had become more sarcastic after spending time with Sei.

    So, Aresh bluntly asked what kind of ppl Kamil was bringing in on this task. Sei pondered that Aresh’s tone didn’t sound right for someone talking to the prime minister. But then he remembered that since the government and military were independent, the two must be in equal positions in terms of status.

    Kamil countered with a question over whether Aresh understood Sei’s work. Sei was the one at the center of all of the kingdom’s changes in regards to the summoning/return magic and warding and budgeting. There was no one more qualified than him to represent these aspects. From this standpoint, Sei was in agreement with Kamil.

    Aresh also had to reluctantly concede these points and glanced over at Sei. Sei understood that he wasn’t trying to undermine Sei or belittle his work and gave a reassuring nod. Aresh showed a somewhat relieved expression at that.

    However, this still didn’t negate Aresh’s concerns. Sei was still incredibly vulnerable to magic/mana. Further, it was also strange that an otherworlder, who also had no status in the kingdom beyond being in a middle management position in an accounting department, would be tasked with handling a foreign prince. There was an unbalance of power between the 2 sides.

    Kamil provided that Sei would have a full escort this time, which was news to even Sei, who thought that he’d be joined only by Zoltan and a few others from the Magic Department. This was also troubling to him as this would mean the involvement of the 2nd Knight’s Order (the ones in charge of protecting royals/saints/other VIPs) and Sei didn’t have a good track record with them (both from the assault in the 1st volume and bc Radim keeps pestering Sei into helping matchmake the prince and saint, which Sei wants nothing to do with:blobrofl:).

    Of course, this led Aresh to volunteer his services as Sei’s escort. Sei turned visibly stunned at Aresh’s declaration. Aresh was not only a member of the 3rd Knight’s Order, which held a different jurisdiction, which was mostly outside the palace, but was also the one in command of it. In terms of official standing, it made little sense for him to be placed on escort duty for a mere official.

    Kamil, being of similar mind to Sei, also questioned Aresh’s statement with a roll of his eyes. Aresh insisted that it was an important matter for the sake of the country’s future (:hmm:). Kamil emphasized the standing of the 3rd Knight’s Order, including that they had no jurisdiction over palace matters, to which Aresh again stressed the importance of this matter and why he should be involved. Bc as the Captain of the 3rd Knight’s Order, matters concerning the kingdom’s future should also involve the Order.

    At this, Kamil pointedly asked Aresh if he was saying that he’d be guaranteeing the full cooperation of the 3rd Knight’s Order. Sei, catching onto Kamil’s schemes, moved to grab Aresh to stop him from answering, but too late. Aresh agreed wholeheartedly (……:facepalm:).

    Sei silently sighed as he watched the corners of Kamil’s mouth upturn to a smirk. They’d been set up (omg, this sneak!:blobcatcop:).

    Scene cut:

    A frustrated Aresh slammed his fist onto his desk. Sei sighed, understanding that they’d been played by Kamil since the beginning. Kamil knew that Aresh was going to get himself involved no matter what, regarding where Sei was concerned, and he also knew that Sei’s participation would be non-negotiable. Nevertheless, having let Aresh know about the matter last-minute made it easier to trick him into agreeing to hand over full use of a separate, independent magical military division that had no say on what went on in the palace court, which was where Kamil’s jurisdiction laid :eek:.

    However, the most upsetting part of all this was that it was not Aresh who was set to be Sei’s escort. The Egorova task was officially assigned to Orzif, the Vice Captain of the 3rd Knight’s Order and Aresh’s cousin (y):LOL::ROFLMAO:.
    It was the first Sei had been in Aresh’s office. Sei looked around and observed that the office was a small but well-furnished one, but its owner currently had his head in clenched fists, looking down silently. The only person with his gaze forward was Orzif, who was asking about his new assignment.

    Sei gave the official order on behalf of the still somber Aresh: the Prime Minister commanded Orzif to serve as guide for the delegation from Egorova. Orzif, slightly confused, inquired why he wouldn’t be serving as the escort but instead as the guide, which he was told was Sei’s job.

    Sei offered the presupposition that his status would not be suitable for being a guide to a foreign prince. Orzif, on the other hand, was a noble from a count’s family and the magic elite Vice Captain of the 3rd Knight’s Order, and so, held a more appropriate status for interactions with a prince than a normal official.

    Instead, Sei would officially be recognized as the “explainer” but would informally work as the guide. Orzif understood that this change meant that he was actually tasked to not only being a bodyguard, as an informal escort, but also taking on the brunt of the responsibilities of the mission as the official guide (ouch, poor guy, no wonder he doesn’t want to do it). Like this, 1) Sei could be used to his fullest potential, 2) one of the two largest magical organizations in Romani was secured for this matter, and 3) it wouldn’t be disrespectful to Egorova’s prince.

    But Orzif still questioned why he, and not Aresh, was put on this detail, especially as he heard Zoltan, the head of the Magic Department, would be involved. Aresh lifted his head as if in agreement but was rebuked by Sei, who reminded him that he was told why. Aresh wrinkled his brow and turned his head away at this (so childish~:blobsip:).

    After a pause, Sei replied that Kamil stated that he and Aresh were too close. In fact, this was the very reason why Sei took on the church inspection job before. Thinking back to his and Aresh’s conversation with Kamil, Sei recalled their discussion.

    ~Flashback~

    They talked on how there was a worry that Sei’s actions could be seen as politically biased bc of his relationship with Aresh. This would create unnecessary misunderstanding and interfere with Sei’s work, which as someone who valued efficiency, Sei would want to avoid. For Kamil, he was hoping to work on future diplomacy with other countries and didn’t want to reveal any weaknesses in their precious asset.

    Both Sei and Aresh hesitantly accepted this, while each believing Kamil was speaking of the other. Kamil made an indescribable face at their acquiescence, correctly reading their thoughts:blobsweat_2:. * But then, they both turned stiff after Kamil advised them to get married as soon as possible, so their relationship could have the legal support, if they wanted to clear up any misunderstandings.

    * Here, it says Kamil felt he could “get kicked by a horse” [馬に蹴られ] when he figured out Sei’s and Aresh’s thought process.

    The phrase [馬に蹴られ] comes from an old Edo period poem/dodoitsu by unknown author, [人の恋路を邪魔するやつは馬に蹴られて死んでしまえ], which translates as “people who meddle in others’ pathway to love get kicked by a horse and die.”

    It’s usually describing when someone, whether intentionally or accidentally, intrudes on the love lives of others.

    I couldn’t find much on the analysis of the poem outside of blogposts, but I’ve read multiple mentions that the poem indicated that it is believed to be the height of tactlessness for outsiders to meddle in other ppl’s path to romance. Therefore, any interlopers, even accidental ones, ought to be kicked by both the couple and the horse when they intrude on someone else’s love life:sushi_dead:.

    There are other variants of this too, like “eaten by a dog” [犬に食われて] or “stricken by a viper” [蝮に当たって] and a more modern one is “hit by a car” [車にひかれて], and a lot of anime have used their own versions of it too.

    The correlation to all of these is that they are all dangerous things you might encounter while on a road, which connects to “pathway to love” [恋路]/ “koiji” in the poem above.


    ~End flashback~

    Both looked away in silence after giving Orzif that short answer. Yet, it was enough for Orzif to grasp the situation. He was aware that aristocratic society often searched for faults in others, and there were many who’d drag others down with gossip and rumors.

    And he’s certain that among those who’d want to target Aresh, who was stubborn and had no weaknesses, they’d try to attack Sei, who was vulnerable in both constitution and position (as an otherworlder with no prominent status) and whom Aresh was so wrapped up in. Although it wasn’t a secret that the 2 ate lunch together and ppl even knew they lived together, it’d be a different story if they were also together in official public settings.

    In order to dispel the awkward atmosphere, Sei raised his voice to lead Orzif to another location so Sei can go over more detailed information with him. Aresh had a stronger reaction to this and insisted that they hold their meeting where they were, in Aresh’s office.

    Sei tried to reject his offer, saying Aresh has his own business to attend to, but Aresh asserted that it was fine and Sei should stay. Sei countered that he didn’t have the necessary documents on him and so they’d need to go to the Accounting Department.

    A rookie knight would’ve wilted under Aresh’s quiet intensity, but Sei only turned to face Orzif to lead him away. Orzif wasn’t happy about having Aresh’s glare directed at him bc of Sei and tried to persuade Sei to have their meeting in the office. But Sei dismissed him, stating that they’d be a disturbance if they stayed so they should move.

    Orzif sensed that, for all intent and purposes, while Sei seemed to speak about himself being a bother, he was actually referring to Aresh in these excuses. It was the first for him to see Aresh be treated with such disrespect that it made Orzif perplexed:blobxd:.

    Sei went on to explain that he had less than 4dys to gather all of his material for Zoltan and he’d have to give Orzif an overview of everything, including any possible hindrances. It would be an embarrassment if Orzif couldn’t even answer any basic questions the delegation may have. Therefore, Sei needed to concentrate on his work when there was so little time left.

    They left Aresh, who still had a grumpy look on his face. While walking to the Accounting Department, Orzif took a moment to assess the man beside him. To Orzif, Sei looked ordinary but frail, with an air of fatigue surrounding him. His outward appearance did not fit with a man elected to be a national representative to stand against major nations.

    Sei explained his planned schedule to Orzif and requested that he be present during Sei’s meeting with Zoltan. He went on, stating that he’d be giving Orzif all the materials by the day before that meeting and that at the moment, he’ll only be getting the summarized documents of the effectiveness of the summoning/return magic, as well as the research and labor costs. Orzif was speechless, but he knew firsthand that Sei was good at his job.

    Sei, responding to his silence, queried if Orzif was dissatisfied with being his escort. His tone was so casual, as if the question was of no concern to him, that Orzif’s heart stopped for a moment. While he denied any problems, he asked Sei what he’d have done if there was one, as Aresh couldn’t replace him.

    Sei reasoned that all they needed was someone who had a good family background (a noble), who was familiar with magic, and who was able to protect Sei. Orzif mentioned that there were few who qualified with those criteria. But to his consternation, Sei emotionlessly pointing out that there were plenty in the 3rd Knight’s Order who fit the bill, naming 2 in particular (the knights who attacked Sei in the 1st volume).

    Orzif couldn’t believe Sei’s nerves, that he’d be willing to bring in the ones who attacked him as his bodyguards, even though it was bc of Sei that the two were still able to remain as knights. He told Sei as much and Sei only replied that he thought Orzif was the best fit bc he seemed to listen to Sei better than the others in the Order.

    To that, Orzif commiserated his future week of hardships that would come from working with this man. He let out his opinion that Sei had a deceptively bad personality for someone who looked so meek. Sei only gave an impassive courtesy response in return.
    Orzif and Zoltan met formally for the first time at the meeting Sei set up. Zoltan, who favored the upper class, spoke in flattering tones to Orzif, whom Zoltan believed to be the one heading the group as the official guide instead of Sei. Sei didn’t bother to correct his misconception, as dealing with Zoltan’s elitism would be too troublesome.

    Instead, he turned to speak to the last member included in their meeting, Zoltan’s assistant, Kuster Lane (his last name is actually revealed in a later chapter). A man in his mid-30s, Kuster displayed a calm and collected demeaner. Given Zoltan’s preferences and Kuster’s mannerisms, Sei surmised that he came from an aristocratic background. Sei had run into him a few times before, during his trips to the Magic Department in the past.

    Kuster informed Sei that he’d been researching on the magic stone Sei gave him and had found a new way to use it. While Sei and Kuster conversed, Orzif, who was watching them, asked Zoltan why Kuster was there. Zoltan, with a frown, replied that Kuster was his “Deputy Director” (???:confused:).

    Orzif, who’d heard of and seen Isto before, though he had never interacted with him, knew Kuster was not the Deputy Director of the Magic Department. And as both Sei and Orzif were 2nd in charge in their respective departments, it would make sense for Isto, the 2nd in charge of the Magic Department, to be Zoltan’s assistant. But as he pointed this out to Zoltan, he was met by fervent refusals from both Magic Department officials.

    Orzif, bemused by their adamancy, looked to Sei for his thoughts. Sei agreed that bringing Isto would probably, at worst, cause a diplomatic issue. Sei took on a more somber tone at this, and Orzif decided not to pursue the matter further. He also pretended to not hear Sei assure the others that he’d give Isto smt to eat and work on to keep him busy for the duration of the delegation’s visit :blobokhand:.

    During the rest of the meeting, the group outlined the material they’d reveal to the envoys and divided their role: Zoltan and Orzif would head as guides and Kuster and Sei would assist with detailing explanations. It was certain that the dignitaries would want a tour, but they agreed to focus on the location of the Magic Department and the tower where the saint summoning took place.

    By that time, they would ensure that a certain genius mage would be holed up deep into his research nest.

    The schedule was also planned out, with the welcome banquet being on the first day. As the other side was a prince, Romani’s crown prince, Julius, would be the host of the banquet. Hearing that, Sei accidently let out a confused exclamation. Zoltan responded that it was natural that the royal family hosted a banquet when another royal visited.

    Sei had a sudden realization that he’d lost sight to the fact that this visit was not going to be like a presentation meeting between two companies like in Japan. He hesitantly asked if this meant his attendance was required for the banquet too. And of course, it was.

    Scene cut:

    Sei returned home after the day was over. After conversing with Myran, he went to his room and sat on his bed to think, still reeling from the news of his required participation in the upcoming banquet. While it made sense that royalty from far away wouldn’t just drop by to be dragged around, Sei didn’t expect there to be a banquet involved. Sei’s sensibilities as a modern Japanese office worker didn’t even have the option of “party” in his dictionary (Wait. Really? Doesn’t Japan do a lot of business/office-drinking parties? I’ve heard those are pretty essential as part of the work environment. Someone let me know if that changed.) *

    * To clarify, Sei is using “party” [パーティ], which (I’m told) is the modern term for social gatherings, when he’s saying that “party” isn’t in his dictionary.

    But when the story is talking about the banquet, it’s actually called “dinner party” [晩餐会], which is a super formal banquet.


    Sei expected that he’ll have to rewrite his presentation and then started to worry on what to prepare for the banquet (dress-code, etiquette, attending by himself). He wondered if he’d need to rely on Norbert again but doubted that there was enough time. Just as he was contemplating and dismissing the idea of wearing his work uniform, Aresh came in through the door connecting their bedrooms.

    Sei absent-mindedly greeted him with “-sama” and Aresh reminded him to use, “-san”. He’d been very particular about this change in address and also wanted Sei to speak more informally. However, Sei only used “-san” in their home bc of their status and told Aresh that switching to informal speaking would need more time.

    Aresh, taking note of Sei’s condition, asked if there was a problem and Sei mentioned about the upcoming banquet. Before he was able to fully explain, Aresh remarked that he already had his clothes and accessories prepared for Sei to wear. Sei’s eyes widened in shock and Aresh’s smiled slightly as this unexpected childish expression :blobuwu:.

    Aresh continued that he’d figured Sei to be busy up until the banquet, so Aresh went ahead and made all the arrangements. Reeling from how far ahead Aresh was able to predict his moves, Sei thanked Aresh for his help.

    Sei then asked how Aresh knew about the banquet. Aresh replied that a banquet for a visiting royal guest from another country was a natural conclusion (he said 'common sense, of course' :blob_grin:). This put Sei at a loss for words.

    Then Aresh switched gears and brought a hand to cup Sei’s cheek, kissing Sei spontaneously. Sei called out in question and Aresh deepened the kiss. Lips overlapped and changed angles as Aresh stroke Sei’s back :blobpopcorn:.

    After a time, Aresh finally spoke, stating that since the delegation would arrive the day after the next, they should put up wards on Sei. Sei, on the other hand, had planned to request this be done the next day since there were 2dys left and told Aresh as much. Aresh cooled down and his gaze darkened.

    He explained that the wards would be elaborate and gave Sei the choice between taking a full day of being heavily embraced and being wrecked or taking 2dys for smooth/easy acclimation :blob_blush:. Sei chose the latter after taking in the rest of his work and time into account (and deprived us for it :blob_pout:). He gave Aresh a wry grin, to which Aresh responded with a smirk :bloblove:.
    At the banquet, Sei was feeling uncomfortable in such a lavish setting, far more than the one held for the purification expedition. The banquet back then was a standing-room type that allowed guests to move around freely. And unlike at this banquet, Sei was able to wear his uniform, making the event seem like an extension of his work, which gave him some bearings even when he had no on to converse with.

    This banquet, however, was catered towards entertaining royals from another nation, so it had a different set-up.

    First, guests had to wait in a luxurious waiting room until time was called to enter the banquet hall for dinner. The Egorovian guests of honor and the Romani’s royal family were not present, however, as they were to wait in a separate room and would enter once everyone else was seated. Seating was arranged beforehand.

    The ones in the waiting room were also far more dressed up and amid the crowd were many Sei didn’t recognize. It was in this sea of strangers that a voice called Sei’s name, throwing Sei a line towards a familiar face to Sei’s relief.

    Kamil, too, was dressed far more elegantly than his usual attire. The change extended to even his hairstyle, from typically pulled back to partly down, giving himself a different impression. Kamil, on the other hand, felt Sei embodied this sentiment.

    Sei’s feature, by themselves, were not bad, but his general aura, rather than his face, exuded fatigue from work. At the previous banquet, Norbert had Sei work with a team of beauticians to diminish his tired appearance. This time, Myran took over instructing him on everything from bathing to massaging. With her efforts, Sei’s skin looked 2x as good as normal.

    Plus, being so tenderly doted on for the last 3dys, along with the wards and healing magic, even if Sei was mentally exhausted, his skin was still glossy. Truly, Sei never expected to be so loved and cared for at the age of 30 (y).

    The outfit Aresh prepared for Sei was not too flashy and erred more on simplicity, with the distinctiveness coming from the texture and fabric. Additionally, the cuffs were discreet but of high-quality jewels. And an ornamental lapel pin with a purple gem embedded in the center of a silver flower attached to the fold of his collar.

    Kamil, catching sight of the pin, gave an exasperated sigh. Sei, unfamiliar with the common sense of the world, especially in regards to the dress code, didn’t understand Kamil’s reaction. He questioned if there was something he needed to fix before the party, but Kamil shook his head. Kamil responded that Sei should allow this much otherwise Aresh would want to come to the banquet himself.

    From that statement, Sei figured that Kamil must have seen some indication of Aresh on him. His clothes were designed to close tightly up to the collar, so the mark must be somewhere on the outfit he wore and not on his skin.

    Sei left the outfit all to Aresh, as he had more knowledge in this area than Sei, but he planned to check over the clothes himself when he returned from the banquet. But before then, the reveal came from Norbert, the next person Sei spoke with. He caught sight of Sei’s outfit and burst into laughter.

    In Romani, a lapel pin on a man’s chest meant the man had a partner. Further, the silver flower was the Miass flower, which represented “eternity” and was a symbol for marriage or promise of marriage. Additionally, the flower ornament was of high value and the purple gem in the middle was basically an indicator for Aresh (it matched his eyes, which were a rare color in the kingdom).

    Norbert eyes trailed to Sei’s cufflinks, which were also purple. He gave Sei a carefree smile and called Aresh thorough. In other words, Sei’s outfit seemed to say that Sei had a rich, possessive spouse or fiancé associated with the color purple.

    Sei recalled how much guilt he felt over leaving this task of preparing his outfit to Aresh. Embarrassment, jumbled with other various emotions, caused him to tremble. He decided a discussion was definitely needed when he got home.

    It wasn’t like it would be hard to figure out who Sei’s “spouse/fiancé” could be. There weren’t that many ppl in the kingdom that possessed wealth, were associated with the color purple, and were acquainted with Sei. However, the whole point of Aresh not being on this mission was to not reveal how close they actually were to the public. Sei couldn’t follow Aresh’s train of thought at that.

    Norbert exclaimed that Sei was so loved! Sei deliberately ignored Norbert’s teasing and changed the subject to why Norbert was present. Norbert reminded him of his status, which often led to invitations to gatherings like this. Plus, his adopted father wasn’t available, so Norbert was filling in. Sei inquired about the whereabouts of the count’s other children, and Norbert replied that the number of attendees was limited so only Norbert came.

    For the banquet, only about 20ppl were invited. Since this was the first time a foreign power extended the offer of diplomacy by sending a delegation, there were no shortage of the number of nobles who wished to attend. However, it seemed the event was limited to prevent it from becoming a flashy affair.

    Unbiddenly, the idea that Norbert came as insurance came to mind but Sei kept such thoughts to himself. In his past 8 months in this world, it was clear to him that Julius was set to become the next king, while Norbert had been raised as if he were the true son of Count Baranek. Therefore, Sei’s thoughts were needless extra speculations.

    Talking to Norbert left Sei less tense by the time he met with Zoltan and Orzif. Orzif let out a surprised sound at seeing Sei, but Sei deigned not to question him after seeing his frown. Instead, he greeted Zoltan with a blank face.

    Zoltan usually dressed extravagantly, but as expected, his outfit was even more ornate and frilly. While Sei knew ruffles were normal for formal wear among the nobles, he still couldn’t get over the image of seeing so much on a bearded, overweight man in his 50’s (for some reason, I’m picturing King Henry VIII here…).

    Zoltan, surprised by Sei’s appearance, wondered at him having a fiancé, while declaring that some ppl had weird tastes (hey! :mad:). Sei’s eyes involuntarily took on a deadened look at this but the real blow came from Kuster, who was beside Zoltan.

    Kuster congratulated Sei for finally getting engaged to Aresh. Sei suffered internally at how natural Kuster’s felicitations were and that he knew the other party was Aresh. But he tracked back, admitting to himself that he wasn’t trying to hide their relationship to begin with.

    Indeed, it was common knowledge in the palace that Aresh was taking care of Sei and that they started living together when Aresh bought a residence. Sei also surmised from the reactions of the household staff back then, but this reinforced to him the idea that homosexuality seemed to be tolerated in this world.

    In aristocratic society, such situations would be considered common-law marriages. Of course, heirs were expected to marry a woman to continue the line, but there was also a customary option for couples to adopt a child within the family.

    No, what really bothered Sei was Kuster’s use of “finally” and he silently speculated if his relationship might be common knowledge within the Magic Department. Then, Kuster revealed that Sei was always covered in a certain person’s magic.

    To Sei’s further embarrassment, Kuster explained that anyone with high level of magical perception and expertise would be able to tell that the magic wasn’t just from healing and warding spells too. So, anyone from the Magic Department would be able to tell this level of magic went beyond protecting an otherworlder. This fact, added to how Aresh’s overprotectiveness had grown infamous, made Sei feel weak in the knees.

    Sei internally promised that he’d avoid the Magic Department on days after he’d “acclimate” himself to magic :blob_patpat:.

    At this time, the doors to the waiting room opened and Julius Romani-Kasl, the first prince and first in line to the Romani throne, entered (so, Julius’s full name is [ユーリウス=ロマーニ=カスロヴァー], which translates directly to “Julius Romani Kaslová”—at least, directly for the last name. However, I’m pretty sure—correct me if I’m wrong, though— that “Kaslová” would only be used by women bc of its ending, so I changed it to its masculine form, “Kasl).
    Bearing the demeanor of royalty, Julius stood before the aristocrats in the room. Surrounding him were his escorting knights and squires, including Captain Radim Makovsky of the 2nd Knight’s Order. Sei felt impressed by Julius’s regal stance and then felt a burning gaze come from Julius. A bad feeling grew inside Sei, but the ppl around him seemed to not notice or care.

    Julius addressed the crowd, impressing on them the importance of the purpose of the Egorovian prince’s visit and stressing that they should behave themselves during the banquet. At Julius’s speech, the eyes of the listening nobles filled with a sense of resolution.

    The doors to the hall opened to a room even more luxurious and brilliant than the one Sei had been waiting in. The intricately designed chandeliers lent to the glow in the room. A long, long table was covered in a pure white cloth with a pale gold cloth running through the middle.

    On top the table were beautifully decorated candlesticks and flowers. Napkins and cutlery prepared for each place setting, and servants led way for the attendees to take their respective seats. Sei was seated at the end of the table, farthest from the guest of honor and from even Orzif and Zoltan. Kuster sat diagonally in front of him.

    Surprisingly, Norbert was ushered next to Sei, but he was even more shocked to see Sei. Norbert believed that as the guide, Sei’s position should be higher than Norbert’s, so he should be seated nearer to the guest of honor in order to do his job.

    Sei supposed that nobility took precedence as his job as a (unofficial) guide didn’t technically start until the next day. Norbert was unhappy with that logic but Sei felt that it was stranger for someone of royalty to be seated near the end of the table so far from the head. He reasoned that it may have been purposefully done to accentuate Nprbert's standing as a vassal first. Norbert didn’t seem to mind, but as a businessman from a democratic society, Sei perceived the gap between their worlds.

    Once everyone took their seats, Julius made eye contact with his attendants and raised his voice again to announce for the delegation party to enter. He indicated a different door from the one Sei entered from and 3 attendants slowly opened it.

    In the front was a tall man with silver hair. He had slitted green eyes, pale skin, and a face like a doll. His presence radiated an ambiance that denoted a person of high standing. Sei was certain this must be the 3rd prince of Egorova, Prince Lars Erik Egorov (changed the name again bc “Egorova” is used by women, so the male version of the name should be “Egorov).

    Following him were 2 knights and 2 other men who seemed like civil servants, one in his 30s and the other in his 50s. All were tall, which made it hard to notice the small shadow, a head or 2 shorter than the rest. Though Sei was seated a distance from the guests, he could tell the person was quite young.

    As they sat, side by side, near the head of the table, the littlest one was seated next to Lars, indicating his rank was higher than the civil servants accompanying them.

    Lars and Julius shook hands and Julius gave his official introduction to the table. Then Lars gave his speech, highlighting the purpose of his visit (to expand each other’s magical knowledge for future development of both countries). He gave praise to the Romani kingdom while speaking in self-depreciative and mocking tones of his own, but Sei was impressed at how skillfully he’d hidden his pride for his country, which was never lost in his speech.

    Sei noted that Lars looked like a bisque doll, a bit too well put together that he looked artificial and a little creepy, even when he smiled. Aresh also had an orderly appearance, but he also tended to wear a dour expression and he certainly wasn’t doll-like.

    Lars then introduced his companions, the officials and the young boy. The stout man in his 50s was their magic engineer, Georgii Repkin, and the man in his 30s, who had a neurotic look to him, was their mage, Donato Abayev (by the by, the author sometimes switches Donato’s name between [ドナー] and [ドナー], and since they can both be translated to Donato, I chose this name to use). The boy, Russano Delydov, was introduced as the prince’s relative, who was well-versed in both magic and magic technology.

    Sei could see the resemblance between Russano and Lars when they were side by side. Russano had short, cropped black hair but similar green eyes. And they were both pale and had well-defined noses. But the thing most similar between them was their atmosphere. So much so that Sei inferred that Russano, a relative of the royal family, must also be a son of a high ranking noble. Age-wise, Russano seemed to be around Sigma’s, which was 12yo.

    Sei noticed Russano’s eyes moving to observe each of the attendees and Sei averted his gaze, thinking they’d greet each other the next day anyways.

    Soon, meal was served and conversations arose around the table. Of course, everyone spoke to whomever was around them, as moving seats around was not done. Therefore, Sei was very glad that Norbert’s and Kuster’s seats were near his.

    His only issue was that he wasn’t sure if he could eat the food served. Through the efforts of Aresh and the household staff, Sei had developed a higher resistance to the mana in more of the food, but court cuisine is a different matter.

    First, food that contained a high concentration of mana are the types that are cultivated with mana from growth and throughout the cooking process. In other words, these would be rare delicacies and high-quality ingredients, which are common-place in the royal kitchen. Second, the royal kitchen would be greatly reliant on magical technology as well.

    These 2 things, combined, formed a deadly meal for Sei. Though Norbert, privy to Sei’s constitution, offered to eat whatever Sei couldn’t:blobicecreamlove:. Sei pondered aloud if it was bad manners to leave food on his plate. And as Norbert was reassuring him that it was fine, Norbert became distracted by the strange appearance of the food.

    He noted that Sei’s plate looked different from his own. Sei, giving his meal attention for the first time, saw what confused Norbert. While both his and Norbert’s plates were arranged the same, along with having the same vegetables, the green sauce accompaniment for both looked different.

    Sei then turned and caught sight of the server who passed him the plate and to his astonishment, found a familiar abundance of rippling muscles under a black serving uniform. The server glanced back at Sei and gave him a thumbs up, along with a refreshing smile, before leaving. It was Pavel :sneaky:.

    Sei felt weak in the knees again that night, but luckily, he was already sitting down, so it didn’t matter. He wasn’t sure how Pavel was able to sneak in with the staff, but at least dinner would be safe to eat.
    Generally, after a banquet was over, the norm would be to allow everyone to move to an adjoining common room/saloon for small talk and networking. However, considering the long travel the Egorovian emissaries took, it was decided to not force such formalities upon them. Even so, the prince and his mage lingered as if to prepare for this stage.

    In fact, many of the guests seemed eager for this part of the night, but Sei felt it unnecessary for himself, as he’d meet with the group of foreigners for his work the next day. Norbert asked if he was all right with leaving, but Sei deduced that, as the person designated to the last seat, there’s little chance he’d be invited to converse with anyone new.

    Not just Sei, but Kuster, too, rose to leave. Kuster, impressed, commented on Sei’s diligence after learning Sei decided to leave to prepare for the next day. Norbert remarked that Sei shouldn’t work himself too hard. Sei mentally ran over his checklist and found that he had everything, except speaking with Aresh about the lapel pin, completed with. He assured Norbert that his work wouldn’t take long.

    But when he turned to Norbert to give his farewells, a small person, who should have been located at the head of the table, moved to stop right behind Norbert. Norbert, confused at Sei’s abrupt pause, gave a small yelp of surprise after spotting the person Sei was looking at, and who was standing right behind him.

    Kuster, the highest ranking of their group of 3, spoke to the person, Russano, to find why he’d come over. Seeing him up close, Sei thought Russano also looked like a doll. At the church in the capital, there was the beautiful Celio, with his well-defined face, but Russano also possessed a touch of elegance about him. Perhaps it was genetic to the Egorova royal family.

    But despite his elegance, Russano glared at Kuster in a truly arrogant manner. He confronted Kuster with questions about him being their guide. Kuster introduced himself and stated that he would be showing them around tomorrow. In the face of such haughtiness, Kuster maintained a mellow demeanor. However, Russano’s brow wrinkled further in response.

    Before Russano could question Kuster further, one of the Egorovian knights arrived and gently pushed Russano back, indicating that it was time to go. Although, the boy seemed dissatisfied, he complied and left the room. Sei wondered what just happened, but Kuster, as if he seemed to reach an understanding on smt, just shook his head with a bitter smile.

    Scene cut:

    Later that night, in another part of the castle, Lars received a surprise when he came back to his quarters from the banquet. Russano was there, awake, to greet him. He had already changed to loungewear and was relaxing on a sofa in the single-occupancy room assigned to Lars.

    Lars lightly scolded Russano, stating that for his first time traveling long distance, he should get his rest. Russano responded that he was fine and that he had more important matters to deal with, like the fact that their guide for the visit was a common mage. Lars guessed that Russano must have found out in the hall outside the saloon and Russano confirmed it.

    Russano gave a description of Kuster, stating that his seat was at the end of the table. Hearing that, Lars questioned if Russano saw a certain person. Russano, who wanted to complain about having a common mage as a guide, dropped the matter once he noticed Lars’s interest in this other person. He inquired to whom Lars meant.

    Lars asked if he remembered seeing a young man with blond hair and blue eyes at the end of the table. As most of the guest were nobles of high rank, there were few younger ppl at the event. Russano, therefore, could remember one such young man.

    Lars revealed that he was told the young man was part of the Romani royal family and Russano’s eyes widened. He couldn’t understand why someone from the royal family would be placed in the seats for those with the lowest status. Lars found Russano’s changing expressions amusing and uncovered that he heard the person was a bastard son who had been adopted by a vassal, and so, was working as a vassal for the palace.

    Russano scoffed at the foolishness of it, as he believed talent, and not origin, should be what is valued for leading a country. He was disgusted at the poor taste of inviting such a person to this banquet and then exposing his story at the end of it.

    Lars went on to say that there didn’t seem to be any inner clashes for the throne, as Prince Julius appeared to be set as the de facto choice for next in line. Russano thought back to Julius and said that he didn’t seem problematic, but believed his lack of any competition from the start was an issue.

    Lars laughed at Russano’s obvious displeasure and commented that he has a strong fighting instinct. Russano adamently retorted that it’s just natural that only the best should be the ones to rise to the top! He ranted on that his brother, Lars, should be the next king (talking about the Egorovian throne here).

    With a superficial smile, Lars reprimanded him for talking loudly and warned Russano to watch how he addressed him. Russano held himself back with an apology and tried to explain himself, but Lars stopped him, stating he understood.

    He then stroked Russano on the head and kissed the top of it. Then he told him to go to bed and get ready for the next day. Realizing that Lars didn’t want to talk anymore and that he was actually tired from the trip, Russano agreed.

    Right before he left the room, Russano recalled smt and turned back. He asked that if the blond-haired man was royalty, would the man he was next to be the same? He described a man with dark hair and dark eyes and was rather lackluster in demeanor, sitting at the end of the table.

    Lars didn’t pay that much attention and wasn’t sure which job in the palace would allow for such a person to achieve a high enough status in to join the banquet. A mage, perhaps? Russano tilted his head and remembered that he seemed close with Kuster, who was a court mage. But Lars honestly couldn’t picture the man, as he didn’t stand out and they remained at quite a distance from each other throughout the banquet.

    So, Lars told him he’ll keep the person in mind and then bid him good night, calling him Rufi. * Russano responded by calling him brother and left Lars alone with the information he obtained from that night.

    * Yes, the characters for his name(?) is [ル・フ・ィ・], which are the same characters for One Piece’s Monkey D. “Luffy” [ルフィ], which was basically the only name to come up in searches.

    Since I’m not familiar with the language, included whether the space distinction would change anything about the translation of the name, I came to a happy medium and went with “Lufi” for the translations.

    Of course, I’m also not sure if this even is Russano’s real name or if it’s a nickname or what, either. They revealed a lot in the chapter, yet still not enough.

    Edit: I just realized that the first character for "Russano" and "Lufi" are both [], so it's possible that Russano should actually be "Lussano" instead. I'm going to keep the name as is for now, but only bc I'm hoping that this is a complete pseudonym and the character interpretation won't matter later so I won't have to go back and change his name everywhere. :blobscream::oops::sweating_profusely:

    Edit: Changing the name to "Rufi" instead.
    When Sei returned, it was still early in the evening. As soon as Sei walked in, Waldem was there to give his greeting, along with Aresh’s whereabouts, as usual, but Sei walked past without an acknowledgment. Waldem’s eyes narrowed, but Sei couldn’t bring himself to speak to Waldem about his troubles and headed straight to Aresh’s private quarters.

    While both Aresh’s and Sei’s bedrooms are connected by a door, but only Aresh had the keys to enter his private quarters beyond the bedroom. Although only Aresh owned the master key to the house, Sei never saw that as unfair as he considered the place to belong to Aresh’s.

    Sei thought about changing first but decided that it’d be quicker to talk things out and knocked on Aresh’s door. No one replied, so Sei opened the door and walked in. He found Aresh sleeping spread out on a sofa that was small for his size.

    Sei, who was prepared to use his mortification from the banquet to confront Aresh, lost his nerve at the sight of Aresh like this. Instead, he decided to turn around to go change, but then felt a strong pull from behind. Before he knew it, he was settled underneath Aresh’s body on the sofa.

    Aresh, still sleep-dazed, asked if Sei return. Sei, whose mouth slackened at the sight of a newly woken Aresh, responded that he was back. However, Sei felt his current position wasn’t good.

    He asked Aresh to move back because his fancy clothes would wrinkle. Aresh countered that he didn’t care if they were wrinkled. And Sei argued that wasn’t a good way to treat expensive clothing, especially for Sei, as he couldn’t compensate for them.

    With the salary from Sei’s position as 2nd in charge of the Accounting Department, plus the government’s support fees (which is given to Waldem to be used as rent and payment for living expenses), Sei isn’t poor by any means in this world. But his sense of money greatly differed from an aristocrat’s. Unlike Aresh, Sei couldn’t just purchase a house on a whim or immediately have a full-suited outfit prepared for a banquet. Thinking of this, Sei recalled the reason he came over to the room.

    Aresh, responding to Sei’s prior statement, assured Sei that the clothes were given to Sei to do as he saw fit. At this, Sei pushed himself halfway up. He replied that this was the purpose of him coming over and requested that Aresh get up. Sei tried to sit up but Aresh didn’t move.

    Sei stated that the matter was important to him. Instead of getting up, Aresh told him to speak. Sei let Aresh remain as he was and went straight to discussing his concern. He pointed at the lapel pin, lifting it for Aresh to see. Aresh didn’t say anything and waited for Sei to continue.

    Sei revealed that he found out what the pin meant, while blaming himself for wearing it without understanding the meaning. Before Sei could go further, Aresh interrupted and asked if Sei would wear the pin if he knew the meaning beforehand.

    Sei, momentarily dumbfounded at the question, internally shook his head, reminding himself that wasn’t the issue. Sei’s issue was that Aresh allowed Sei to wear smt that represented an engagement to a public event without telling Sei beforehand. Whether or not Sei would’ve chosen to wear it was another matter (oooh, I can see where this is going :sweating_profusely:).

    He tried to explain to Aresh that wasn’t what he was talking about. However, Aresh interjected that the event was attended by ppl from other countries, so the pin was to keep any “strange insects” away. Sei was flummoxed at Aresh’s worries, as he made no kind of contact with anyone from Egorova (what about Russano?).

    Sei stressed that the pin wasn’t the problem, but the deceitful manner in making him wear it was. Plus, the whole thing caused him a lot of embarrassment with his co-workers. But Aresh repeated that Sei wouldn’t have worn it if he knew beforehand.

    Sei felt frustrated that they were going in circles.

    Sei took a deep breath, reminding himself that he needed to handle this like an adult. Sei found Aresh’s egotistical youthful nature appropriate for his age. Sei usually even thought of his childishness as cute. But this was a separate issue.

    Sei didn’t want to mix his public and private lives. He explained fully that the lapel pin wasn’t the issue, but that he unknowingly wore smt of meaning to a public event and made an unintended statement. His co-workers in the Magic Department misunderstood and thought he was engaged.

    To Sei’s befuddlement, Aresh reached the conclusion that Sei must not want to be with him :facepalm::notlikeblob:.

    Sei held his tongue from making any quick replies when he saw Aresh looked quite serious rather than just sulky after making that assumption. While it wasn’t the issue at hand, he couldn’t dismiss it either.

    The question of whether he wanted to remain with Aresh floated through his head, but the words that came out of Sei’s mouth were to remind him that they’ve been dating for only a month. Also, they’ve only known each other for 8mo, so this step seemed a bit hasty (errr, yeah, Aresh might be moving a little fast there).

    But things obviously were different for Aresh. He held Sei by the shoulders and pushed him back down on the sofa. He claimed that if he gave Sei time, it’d be too late bc Sei would return to Japan. Aresh then removed his hands from Sei’s shoulders and clasped at nothing beside him, so as to not hurt Sei.

    While it was true that Sei’s goal was to return to Japan, Sei couldn’t ignore Aresh’s advances. It wasn’t like he wasn’t seriously considering their relationship, but he thought that he’d still have a lot of time to ruminate on it, as the summoning/return magic research would take awhile. But it wasn’t the same case for Aresh.

    Aresh hid his face in Sei’s shoulders, as if to hide the intensity in his eyes. He admitted that his thoughts of not going to let Sei go and wanted to tie Sei down, if possible, by the time the summoning/return magic was completed (in this, Aresh could both mean tying Sei down via legalities, like marriage, or literally tying him down).

    Sei couldn’t say anything.

    After a few moments in their positions, Aresh asked Sei to leave the room and Sei complied without a word. He wasn’t even able to express his gratitude for Pavel's help.

    After that day, the doors to Aresh’s bedroom remained locked.
    Sei slept lightly that night, even though he was alone and on a proper pillow. He didn’t hear any noise coming from the next bedroom during his morning routine. Even when he went down to the dining room, there was no sign of Aresh. Myran was there to greet him and told him that Aresh left early for work when Sei asked.

    Sei suspected that Aresh was still mad and sat down to eat his breakfast. Though it was food made to Sei’s liking, the flavor seemed to be lacking that day.

    Sei believed that Aresh’s rash behavior stemmed from his fear of their eventual separation when the summoning/return magic was completed. In fact, it was an issue Sei should have thought of and discussed with Aresh early in their relationship.

    But it would still be a difficult choice to make between his family/friends/home he’d been with for 29yrs. Furthermore, Sei felt that marriage after only a month of dating was strange. Sei started to get agitated while eating. He angrily recalled that they still never properly addressed the matter of deception from the night before either.

    Sei felt that he owed Aresh a lot and that he loved him, but this and that were two separate matters. To Sei, developing a relationship based on trust was more important than just being lovers. He also thought Aresh was behaving childishly by avoiding Sei and locking their door.

    He decided to hold off on this matter until Aresh came to him first (er…:blobunsure:).

    Besides, Sei had the delegation from Egorova to contend with and he couldn’t afford to make mistakes there. It was not time to be indulging in love. He scarfed down the rest of his breakfast with that in mind.

    Scene cut:

    Of course, things were easier said than done. The moment Sei arrived at the castle, the 2nd Order knights “escorted” him (ambushed and forcefully lead him) to see Julius to help with his new matter of proposing to the saint. Sei held a deadpanned expression while listening to Julius’s ramblings.

    Radim, who was present, caught this and lightly commented for Sei to mend his expression. Sei replied that trying to look attentive was useless so why bother. He just didn’t have it in him to appear interested in the prince’s prattle over his plans to propose to the saint:blobjoy:.

    He also remarked that he was supposed to be preparing to act as guide that day for the envoys, essentially accusing Julius of interfering with Sei’s work. Julius, who finally took notice of their conversation, heard that part and assured Sei that since the some of the visitors were still tired, they changed the schedule to start later in the afternoon (at 2pm). It was originally supposed to start in the late morning (at 11am), two hours from then (now, 9am).

    Sei took that as an opportunity to excuse himself to do work at the Accounting Department and tried to leave. Of course, Radim stopped him. And as the previous night showed, it’s not like Sei can go up against a knight captain, much to his consternation.

    And unfortunately, his opponent was the crown prince, who was quite bullheaded. Julius stated that Sei would be of help to him as he and Yua were in similar situations. Sei wondered if he meant they were both otherworlders being on the receiving end of a proposal from a person in this world.

    But Sei disagreed with that his and the saint’s positions were comparable. Because while Yua had a good impression of Julius, Sei believed it was only limited to that. But to verify, Sei inquired if Julius had begun a relationship with Yua. The question caused both Julius and Radim to freeze up.

    Sei was in even greater disbelief that Julius was already planning an engagement before the parties have even started dating (same o_O). Radim covertly tried to signal to Sei about how bad Sei’s expression was. Julius defended that though there wasn’t a confirmation yet, he was sure Yua felt the same about him, which was why Julius was seeking Sei’s advice on the engagement gift (……).

    Sei couldn’t help but blurt out that was too extreme. Julius’s eyes widened and Radim snapped that Sei went too far. Sei apologized for being honest, causing Radim to shout at him for giving such a non-apology. And Julius griped at how disrespectful Sei was being, though Sei privately thought that any chance of respect was lost the moment he was kidnapped before an important business meeting just for a love consultation:blobrofl:.

    Sei wondered which was worse: between a proposal from Julius when he wasn’t even dating, or his situation with Aresh, who advertised their relationship as an engagement without actually conveying those intentions to Sei in the first place. Sei considered whether Julius’s situation was better bc at least, it was just confirming his intentions.

    But back to addressing Julius, Sei explained that for women in Japan, 16yo was too young to marry. While she’d be legally old enough by law, a typical 16yo was a high school student. Most students stayed in high school until 18yo, and those who were financially well-off or strived for higher education will study as students until the age of 20-22.

    Yua, who sounded like she came from a wealthy family, probably had the intention of going to university. And many ppl got married after they’ve started working and were able to settle down. There was also a recent trend for women to marry later in life, but Sei left that part out.

    Sei considered Julius’s age (20yo) and the Romani society, which was akin to medieval Europe, and concluded that it was common practice for nobles to marry early. When he thought of Yua, a modern Japanese high schooler, he believed that it’d be difficult for her to accept an immediate engagement.

    Radim chimed in that the prince and the saint can’t start a relationship lightly. Both Julius and Yua were of marriageable ages in this country and their status would make things hard on them. And Sei then tried to dismiss it as smt Julius should keep in mind and work on himself (i.e. don’t involve Sei).

    But Julius cracked through Sei’s attempt at escape by asking if Sei’s agreement to Aresh’s proposal was bc of his age. Sei, after a long, looong pause, responded that he didn’t recall receiving any proposals. From that, Radim seemed to come at a realization but Julius tilted his head in confusion.

    He stated that what Sei said didn’t make sense. Didn’t he clearly come to a banquet, which foreign guest were present, with a token of his engagement on full display? After another pause, Sei agreed that did happen but that he also never received a proposal, making Julius even more perplexed.

    But only for a short while. After a thought, he seemed to draw a conclusion with a huff and looked to Radim for confirmation. After receiving a nod, Julius returned his attention to Sei, accompanied with a pitying look.

    He asked if Sei was unaware and then took Sei's answering prolonged silence as an affirmation. Julius guessed that though Sei was mature, he’d been in this world for barely even a year, so it was understandable that Sei wouldn’t have known all the world’s customs. However, he can’t help but understand what Aresh was thinking.

    Sei, suspicious, asked what Julius meant, and Julius told him not to look so grim towards him, as Julius was the crown prince. He explained that since Sei and Yua were otherworlders, there’d be a fear present that they could disappear if they weren’t tied down as soon as possible. Sei’s struck speechless by his words.

    Julius went on to explain that it was clear Sei intended to return home, as he not only made those intentions known, but also propelled the movement to progress the research of the summoning/return magic. Sei agreed that his aim was to go home and that aim was what he was currently working towards.

    He wasn’t prepared to abandon his home so easily, and Julius shared that he understood and apologized for Sei’s circumstances (wow, is that character growth??). Sei eyes widened, as it was the first time someone in charge actually apologized to him for his abduction.

    Julius told him not be that surprised since Julius was aware of what he did wrong, even if not at the beginning. Nevertheless, he did what he did to save his country, so he had no regrets.

    In saying this, it was certain that the man before Sei would be the next king (well, I can finally see why Radim supports him as the next king; I don’t agree on a lot about him and he’s still a long way off from my favorite characters list, but I can give him a bit more respect, I think, for acknowledging that he wronged others instead of deluding himself that he was in the right or that his actions were good).

    Julius continued that though Yua’s and Sei’s situation was the country’s fault, the two had managed to make connections in this country. Both Aresh and Julius were afraid of them losing those connection, and thus, losing the two. Sei remembered Aresh’s words of his willingness to do anything to tie him down as soon as possible.

    Julius remarked that it may seem unreasonable, but it was a sign of how desperate Aresh was, and Julius could appreciate that as he felt the same desperation. So, he hoped Sei could understand that sentiment.

    In front of a prince of a country, and a man in love, Sei couldn’t figure out an appropriate reply to give and stayed silent.
    Unfortunately, Julius didn’t let Sei go and made him eat lunch with the prince to consult further about Julius’s proposal plans for Yua. Sei ended up being the last of his group to arrive at the meeting and received a scolding from Zoltan for being late.

    Since he couldn’t say that he’d been abducted by the crown prince to advise him on his love life, Sei could only apologize to everyone without explaining. While Zoltan was still upset, Kuster took Sei’s apology in stride. Sei looked towards Orzif to give him an apology as well but noticed that he seemed tired already.

    Sei wondered if he’d stayed late at the banquet and asked how he was instead. But he received a glare and a blaming reproach, which Sei couldn’t understand the reason for. But the only thing they really had a connection with was Aresh, so it most likely had smt to do with him.

    Orzif requested to meet with Sei later and Sei agreed despite being behind on his work schedule. He wanted to know how Aresh was doing.

    Shortly after, the Egorovian delegation, ushered in by Zoltan, arrived. The Romani group allowed them to take their seats before sitting down and starting the meeting. While Zoltan engaged Lars with some small talk, the other Egorovians looked off, disinterested in such frivolities and seemingly keener to get into the topic of the magic research.

    Then the meeting started with Lars reintroducing himself and urging his companions to do the same. Zoltan and Orzif also reintroduced themselves and Zoltan formally introduced Kuster, as his subordinate and a mage. He then reluctantly introduced Sei, using only his surname, as an official from the Accounting Department who’d assist with miscellaneous tasks/chores.

    Kuster adopted a troubled expression at that description, while Orzif looked to Sei to check his reaction. Sei calmly met their gazes, imagining that this was Zoltan’s way of airing his grievances at Kamil’s direct appointment of Sei (tho Sei supposes that doing 80% of the paperwork in preparation for the visit was a chore, technically).

    Donato asked if Sei didn’t have a family name. “Kondou” was Sei’s family name, but by using only this name for his introduction, Sei was perceived a commoner, as someone with only one name. But rather than clarifying, Sei went along with it.

    The news of the otherworld saint was known by other countries but that there was an extra otherworlder was not. There was disproval for the essential kidnapping of a stranger for the benefits of a kingdom, much less 2, which was why Sei’s presence was kept secret.

    Yet, Sei’s own self-driven work initiatives and the progress he’d made caught the attention of Kamil, who in turn, gave him more responsibilities. However, even Kamil was still conscientious of the scrutiny from other kingdoms, so maintaining the secret of Sei’s origins should be a matter of utmost concern for him.

    This was especially true when dealing with foreign visitors interested in inspecting the kingdom’s transfer magic. So, Zoltan’s method worked well to this end. * This perception, however, caused Donato’s attitude towards Sei to change into one of disdain, while Lars and Russano looked at him with interest.

    * Here, it says that Zoltan's efforts were a “GJ matter” [GJ案件], but I'm not sure what this is really supposed to mean.

    From searches, all I got was that “GJ” is slang for “good job”. So, going by context clues, I think that bc Sei’s origins are supposed to be top secret yet his first name is obviously foreign, I’m choosing to believe it also stands for “good job” here and am guessing it to mean that Zoltan’s way of in introducing Sei by only his last name worked well in keeping his origins a secret, even if it did invoke classism.

    But pls let me know if this is right!


    Lars asked if it was a norm in Romani to allow commoners the chance to hold positions of power. Zoltan almost denied this until he remembered that a certain Deputy Director in his department was of common birth (Isto came from a merchant family).

    Lars remarked how impressed he was at that. Of the Egorovians, only Donato displayed any negative emotion to this. In fact, Georgii, their magic engineer, conveyed complete indifference to the conversation. Sei wondered if the reactions from the majority meant that Egorova didn’t hold true to the dogma of a pure aristocracy or if it was just smt with this group.

    Either way, Sei thought it best to understand the other parties’ intentions in order for this visit to proceed as smoothly as possible. If this visit goes well, hopefully it could set up the basis for further diplomacy and stable importation of magic stones.

    Then they continued with the meeting. In order to hold a session for questions and answers, Kuster and Sei prepared documents for potential questions. But, before they’d gone through even half of the documents, Georgii grew impatient and thumped hard on the desk with his fingers. He declared that going through papers was unproductive and demanded to see things firsthand.

    While the visit was only scheduled for a short stay of 6dys, Sei felt it too early for him to be losing his patience now. However, the others, with Russano and Donato being particularly vocal, were also in agreement.

    Lars tried to calm them down but he was overridden by the clamoring of the others. The rest of the group found just reading numbers to be boring and that learning magic should be done through observation and experience. They then demanded to be shown to the Magic Department.

    This was not good. Sei, Zoltan, and Kuster shared the same thoughts as the 3 of them glanced at each other at the same time. They all reached the same agreement.

    Zoltan put on a calm façade and offered to show the delegation to the Magic Department and both Sei and Kuster made excuses to head to the location first to attend to some tasks. However, Kuster was stopped by Russano, so Sei rose to leave by himself.

    Before he could leave, Donato suggested that they have a servant attend to their respective tasks, causing the 3 men to freeze. It was natural that visitors would need to keep close to their guides when they visited locations with highly classified materials, especially if they didn’t want to be the cause of any international incidents. But this was inconvenient to the men’s plan.

    So, Sei had to lie and claim he’d forgotten documents he needed to give them. The delegation bought this, as they’d seen the bundle of papers he’d carried into the meeting. At the same time, they also labeled Sei as incompetent because of this excuse.

    Orzif, being Sei’s bodyguard, played along with this excuse and offered to follow Sei to help. Sei thanked him and they left. Sei thought that it was good Orzif came bc if need be, they could now use force to hide a certain Deputy Director from the incoming visitors.
    Sei rushed over to the Magic Department in record time and checked with the staff to see where Isto was. The mages, at first surprised by the sudden new face, regained their composure after seeing it was only Sei, who frequented the department. One called out to ask what was up and why Sei wasn’t with the Egorovian group.

    Isto, however, wasn’t among the crowd. Again, Sei asked the other where Isto was, and someone piped up that he was in a laboratory room in the back. Sei turned and saw it was Sigma who answered.

    Sigma, 12yo now, attended the church’s private school and was set to become the first recipient for a royal scholarship for commoners to obtain formal education in the future. Meanwhile, he’d become close with Isto due to his interest in magic technology. Because of that, he had been specially allowed to go in and out of the Magic Department.

    Sei confirmed with Sigma again that Isto was in the back room at the far end corner, where it was ideal to prevent any contamination in the lab from affecting the other areas of the department. It was also a good place to be in for focus/concentration bc it was far away from the rest of the surrounding sections.

    To Sigma’s bewilderment, Sei declared that he’d block off the lab. Confusing everyone, Sei started pushing a large desk in front of the lab. Sei called for Orzif, who’d followed Sei and was the only one who understood Sei’s plans, to help bring more desks over and stack them on top of each other.

    Sigma, bemused, worried that Isto was going to be trapped, but Sei admitted that was the point :blobowoevil_horns:. Sei thought it’d be best to lock him up quietly, while he wasn’t aware.

    Truthfully, Isto could always use magic to blast the door open if he wanted to, but Sei counted on him not trying that without knowing why the door was blocked in the first place. But he also wouldn’t be trying to leave if he didn’t know anything of interest was going on outside the door.

    And the emissaries would only be visiting the department for a short while, so this wouldn’t last long. Sei also informed the others that the Egorovians were on their way to visit, therefore, everyone would need to hustle to secure any confidential materials and to clean up their surroundings. At those words, the mages jumped in alarm.

    Everyone was in a panic, as the delegation was scheduled to arrive the day after the next. But while they shouted questions and concerns, they hurried to gather and move their materials. Sei continued giving orders, reminding the others that part of the group coming had an engineer so they needed to lock away everything. Orzif continued to build a barricade in front of the lab while also astounded at how intense Sei acted.

    Everything was somehow in order by the time Zoltan and the rest of the group arrived. The barricade was magically secured for safe measure, but only partly. Otherwise, the magic would be transmitted to Isto’s side and would catch his attention. Kuster glanced around in relief and met Sei’s gaze, both nodding to each other.

    The guests remarked how small the department seemed, and indeed, although the department grew some, it had very few ppl before Sei took a hand in it. Sei mentally tasked himself to submit a plan in the future to add more personnel and expand the number of rooms.

    Kuster took over, explaining that there were a number of rooms attached to the main building to act as labs. Sei, who had no idea about magic or the equipment used, thought his part was over and tried to leave. But then one of the visitors asked about one of the other rooms, which they were informed was set up by Sei. So, Kuster called for him to come back.

    It was a rest area. Those research-obsessed mages gave praises to Sei for how helpful having an area to rest had been. They all made comments on how it was convenient to have a place to nap while waiting for experiments to finish or how it saved the hassle of returning home when they were absorbed in their research (omg, these are Sei’s ppl~:blobtongue:).

    Lars inquired why a person from the Accounting Department would be involved with the Magic Department’s facilities. Sei, unsure at how to address this, answered honestly. He had visited the place often and had seen mages sleep on the floor, but he thought that it’d be more effective for their work efficiency to rest on a bedding, as it was less stressful on the body.

    This was based off Sei’s own experiences from working in Japan. He tried sleeping at a floor or at his desk, but it was hard on his body. He even tried sleeping in the bathroom and putting 2-3 chairs side by side (disclaimer: pls don’t do this; it doesn’t work). He also ended feeling more tired since the quality of his sleep was poor. Sei often wished for a rest area, but the company never complied with those wishes.

    But here was different. When Sei saw the mages sleeping on the floor, he felt nostalgic. So, when he increased the spending to buy work desks and other items, he also received permission to include bedding (tho, he was the one who approved the budget proposal for it in the first place). With this, he was finally able to achieve his longtime dream for a rest area.

    And the mages’ praises didn’t stop there. They also displayed the food corner Sei set up, which was regularly replenished, and the automatic magic cleaning technology he'd installed, as well as many other things. The mages looked on at Sei with sparkles in their eyes.

    Zoltan and Orzif, however, looked on over at Sei with a frown on their faces, which was a more normal reaction. Sei pretended not to hear Orzif’s mutterings on how Sei was using this to enable workers to keeping working without breaks (EXACTLY!!!:blobhyperthink:).

    Sei chose to look at this as his assistance in making the Magic Department a more comfortable working environment to promote research on the summoning/return magic. Plus, this was his opportunity to fulfill a former dream of his. It had all the amenities for a dream workplace where anyone can work as much as they wanted (just…wow).

    Of course, only a workaholic like Sei would truly appreciate these undertakings. Luckily for Sei, these research-obsessed mages held the same sickness as him, so they much appreciated the change. And one such mage, who heard Orzif, defended Sei by singling Sei out as being the reason for the increase of the budget in the department.

    Donato, Egorova’s research-obsessed mage, contended that Sei was only an accountant with no special powers, so he didn’t understand why the Romani mages praised him so excessively. The others with Donato were in agreement. In Egorova, it appeared that the mages and magic engineers were given priority, as their works that assisted in combating the severe cold marked them with reverence.

    The Romani mage countered that research was expensive, so it was only by the grace of whoever ran the budgeting (in this case, Sei) that the mages had the funds to be able to continue their research. The Magic Department, who received the lowest allocation of funds, were able to get the budgeting they needed for research thank to Sei. Therefore, they credited the progress of the transference magic to Sei.

    Donato rebutted that the progress of magic came from research. Sei also stopped the other mage from arguing further and agreed that the mage’s statement was an exaggeration, which caused the other mages to thank him again. Sei didn’t see Lars smiling at him from behind, or that the Egorovian mage and engineer looked on disapprovingly.
    Russano spotted Sigma, the only one without a uniform, and inquired about him, spooking Sigma with the sudden attention. Sigma had on a nice white shirt and beige shorts. Although Sigma didn’t have a uniform, he had to dress up for going in and out of the palace, so Sei provided a set of clothes for him to wear. And of course, Sei wrote it off as a necessary expense through the royal treasury.

    Sei believed that such expenses were far more legitimate than the exorbitant amount that some stupid prince would use to pay for a bunch of dresses and accessories for a saint :giggle:. Fortunately, the amount was returned to the treasury immediately after Yua requested to return the items.

    Sigma turned to Sei for help. While Sigma was usually self-assured, he bore a stiff demeanor when interacting with nobles. Sei explained that he was a budding and talented engineer, who’d been given special access to the Magic Department to aid in researching magic technology and for his own learning.

    Georgii excitedly clapped his hands at finding that Sigma was a magic technician in training, while Donato frowned. Donato raised a critique that Sigma was a commoner child and was outraged that the palace would allow a commoner child free access to the palace’s research facilities.

    While Donato didn’t say it, his expression said he held issue that potential theft (of whether materials/technology/information) could likely occur (wow:blobawkward:this mf:blobthumbsdown:). Unfortunately, Sigma was clear on Donato’s hidden meaning and bowed his head. Sei privately thought Donato’s side better suited those suspicions, as they were the ones who deviated from schedule and demanded to come to the department without warning. But since they were honored guests, he kept that to himself.

    Zoltan tried to smooth things over by claiming that Sigma’s presence was just a special occurrence and that he was only there to observe. However, Zoltan’s brownnosing left the other Romani mages feeling bitter, especially as Zoltan rarely ventured into the department whereas Sigma visited regularly enough to be considered one of them. * Additionally, Sigma was considered a valuable member of the department, as he held a lot of promise and was one of the few who could effectively communicate with Isto.

    * This part says that the other mages were bitter at the way Zoltan was “goma o suru” [ゴマをする], which translates directly to “grinding sesame seeds”.

    It has the same meaning as brownnosing/apple polishing: basically, to behave in a way to make a good impression by either lifting others up, flattering them, or using sycophancy to suit those who are of higher in rank.

    “Goma” [ゴマ] means “sesame seed” and “suru” [する] means “to grind” or “to rub”. When grinding sesame seeds with a mortar and pestle, the crushed seeds will stick to everywhere in the mortar, which apparently gives off the vibe of how a flatterer will try to stick to everyone and try to please them.

    The phrase was made popular from the Edo period poem [ごまをする]. This led to the action of mimicking the grinding of sesame seeds by rubbing your hands together to becoming the symbolic gesture for indicating that someone’s a flatterer (but with negative connotations), and this action later gained further popularity when the pose was used in theater.


    Sei was heartened to see that the department mages patted Sigma’s shoulders in comfort and that Sigma was able to give a smile, albeit a small one.

    On the other hand, it seemed that Donato was the only one among the delegates to value status, as both Georgii and Russano looked on at Sigma with interest. Georgii exclaimed loudly that Sigma must be really adept with magic technology and magic manipulation if the palace is giving him, a commoner, access to the facilities.

    Sigma clarified that he actually didn’t have much magic powers for manipulation, causing Georgii to raise his voice even higher in shock and bewilderment at the country’s allowance for someone who can’t use magic to be involved with magic technology. Georgii’s loud voice and accusatory tones made Sigma shrink into himself. The other Romani mages, who were quite timid in nature, couldn’t figure out what to say/do. If Isto was there, he’d be able to act tactlessly and make a rebuttal but he was absent since Sei locked him up.

    Instead, Sei stepped up. He retorted that being able to use magic wasn’t a necessary requirement for magic technicians/engineers. While his words were met with disbelief, Sei didn’t want to agitate the other side, who held decades of experience as magic technicians and were honored guests. So, Sei chose his words mindfully.

    He explained his job as a royal accountant dealt with preparing and allocating funds to the Magic Department to advance their research. This further confused the guests, so Sei simplified his point as finding the right ppl for the right jobs (aka division of labor).

    Sei continued to explain in flattering tones (he’s “grinding sesame seeds” here). He claimed that Romani was not as magically skilled or knowledgeable about magic technology as Egorova, a magically technological advanced country and so, naturally, had many craftsmen skilled in both magic and magic tools. At this, the other delegates seemed appeased but not completely satisfied. ** Only Lars directed the same smile he’d been keeping at Sei.

    ** Here, the word used to describe their faces is “manzarade mo nai” [満更でもない], which is an expression used to describe when someone isn’t as annoyed/dissatisfied as they would appear to be or as much as one would expect them to be.

    Sei elaborated that Romani’s approach to their magic tech was to use ppl who were engineers along with ppl who were mages to complement each other’s work and research for progress in both. He also added that the lack of human resources was problematic.

    This was smt strange about Egorova. One’s ability to use magic could generally not be achieved other than through natural talents. In that case, this factor should limit the number of ppl who were able to both use magic and develop technological skills. But Egorova had many skilled, magical craftsmen.

    Then, Sei recalled learning that Egorova had a large number of mines that held magic stones, which could be used as a source of magic power. In Sei’s situation, as someone with no magic, he was able to slowly build up a natural resistance to magic after months of exposure. Therefore, he wondered if the presence of the stones had an effect on increasing the magical powers of Egorovians.

    An idea suddenly came to mind. If the theory of artificially increasing one’s magical powers was correct, wouldn’t that solve Romani’s issue in a lack of mages? Sei wanted to immediately confirm this with Isto but remembered that Isto was currently being detained, so he benched the idea. He pondered if he should wait until the envoys leave to speak with Isto but then wondered if it’d be better to speak with Cielo since this was an issue about a person’s body.

    While Sei was lost to his own musings, Sigma was being questioned by Georgii again. Georgii asked how much magic would an engineer need and Sigma offered to use the magic thermometer he’d made to measure the amounts. This distracted Georgii, who marveled at the device, perplexing Sigma by his change of tone and excited reaction. He and Sigma fell into a discussion over the construct of the device. Not even Donato could contain his interest in learning more about magic technology and he joined in on the discussion, along with and excited Russano.

    They conversed on how the device was made using Quersil and how the color change made it easy to decipher/understand the measurements, which the other side attributed as a commoner’s way of thinking. Sigma agreed that it was important that things were easy to understand and that was one of his goals in making the device.

    Russano mentioned that Egorova also had a magical measuring device but that it was completely different in structure. He proceeded to take out a device that looked like a pocket watch to show Sigma. He explained that the watch used a refined magic ore and Sigma admired how advanced the technology was.

    Gradually, the other mages were also drawn into the conversation as well, much to Sei’s satisfaction (he wants the Egorovians to show off more of their tech to the Romani mages). Without realizing it, his expression conveyed these emotions, which did not go unnoticed by Orzif, who warned Sei about it. *** Orzif became incredulous to hear Sei not deny these feelings, but Sei only responded with a fake smile.

    *** Orzif says that Sei’s expression is saying “shime shime” [しめしめ], which is an interjection from the abbreviation of “shimeta” [しめた], which is an inflection (as well as the past tense form) of “shimeru” [しめる].

    “Shimeru” [しめる] or [占める] means “to occupy/hold” or “to account for/comprise.”

    “Shimeta” [しめた] or [占めた], as an inflection, is an expression to use when you’re happy bc things went exactly as you expected or hoped (usually used when you’ve mastered smt or figured smt out or if you bested sm1).

    “Shime shime” [しめしめ] also carries the same meaning as “shimeta” [占めた] above, but its usage is more self-contained as smt you say to yourself bc you don’t want anyone else to find out.


    Orzif let it go and switched the subject over to rescheduling his meeting with Sei since they were getting off later than expected. Sei, expecting that the prior schedule with the Egorovians would be completely thrown out the window, agreed to meet him in the morning instead.

    Scene cut:

    It’s after dinner and the Egorovians were holding a private meeting in their common room to discuss what they thought of the tour. Georgii and Donato remarked that while Romani’s technology wasn’t as advanced as Egorova, it was interesting to see the different ideas the country came up with that differed from Egorovian methods. They also mentioned about whether or not involving commoners in the palace would be beneficial.

    Lars raised the corners of his lips at the two older men, whose confidence in the superiority of their own country remained unshaken and turned his attention towards Russano/Rufi to ask his thoughts. Russano pouted. He admitted that there was much to learn, but he was surprised at how Sigma, a child who possessed little magic and wasn’t a mage, was able to access the palace’s laboratories.

    Lars reminded Russano that he too was around Sigma’s age but was taking part in being a foreign envoy. Russano started doubting his own capabilities, but Lars assured him that he was a good mage. Georgii and Donato also assured him that he would be a mage that would lead Egorova in the future and there wasn’t a need to compare himself to others, especially as Sigma wasn’t trying to be a mage but a magic engineer.

    And it was true that Russano was a prodigy. He had the highest level of magic among his siblings and was passionate about learning magic and had the aptitude for it. When he learned about the delegation going to Romani, no one could stop him from joining.

    However, his excellence was limited to among his peers. In front of Sigma, a child who gained his position through his own merits and actually generated real contributions to the field, Russano’s confidence must have been shaken. Lars advised that if Russano was really that bothered by Sigma, he should use this chance to learn as much as he can in Romani to further his own growth. Russano nodded.

    Donato steered the conversation to Lars and asked if he found anything of interest. Lars smiled and confessed that he was curious about the accountant, causing the other men to frown. They couldn’t understand Lars’s interest in a commoner, who self-admitted was only an accountant.

    Lars continued without breaking his smile. He mentioned that the documents Sei passed out showed how he was highly capable, as they were well organized and easy to understand. The others argued that Sei couldn’t use magic at all and that Zoltan had stated Sei’s job was to prepare the documents.

    Lars sighed, correctly guessing that the others hadn’t even read the documents. With how singularly focused the other 3 were about learning magic, it was no surprise that Lars, who lacked such passion in the subject, was the leader of the party. For Lars, the summoning/return magic was just a side project. While he first thought being given the task as heading a delegation to be troublesome, he was able to find a different priority in this task.

    He revealed to the others that the intelligence they had infiltrated earlier informed him Sei was actually summoned to meet that crown prince in his private chambers before meeting with them and ended up having lunch with him there. This news shocked the others and Lars smiled in understanding. He admitted that he wasn’t fully aware of the nature of Sei’s visit but it did seem like he was close to the first prince.

    Russano piped up that he was sure Sei was one of the guests at the banquet. Lars smiled at him and took a moment to assemble the pieces.

    - The research results on the transference magic.

    - The saint’s purification.

    - A commoner who was close to both the crown prince and the illegitimate prince.

    Lars concluded that he was glad to have come to Romani.
    Even though Sei came back late, Aresh remained in his room and didn’t show his face. Sei had a day off the next day and hoped to see him in the morning. But Myran informed him at breakfast that Aresh had left early. And Sei was certain of his destination.

    Scene cut:

    Sei caused a buzz among the knights of the 3rd Order by banging open the door to the knight’s quarters and calling for Orzif. Some of the knights adopted a murderous aura at his presence, but Sei ignored them, narrowing in only on Orzif and pulling him straight into the Knight Captain’s office. *

    * Okay, so I’m not 100% on this. The idiom used here is “nieyu wo nomasareta” [煮え湯を飲まされた] which translates to “made someone drink boiling water.”

    The idiom is originally used to describe when someone you trusted betrayed you (comes from the scenario of a friend giving you water to drink without warning you that it was boiling hot).

    But recently the phrase is also being used to describe unexpectedly experiencing something terrible (such as a scenario of unknowingly drinking boiling water when you didn’t expect it to be hot).

    Here, it says smt like “some of the knight, who thought Sei made them drink boiling water, turned murderous towards him…” But I’m unsure of which aspect of the idiom would apply.


    Sei directly asked Orzif if he knows anything about Aresh returning to his parents’ place. Orzif, reeling from Sei unexpected early arrival outside of their arranged meeting place and from being pulled into the captain's office, took a moment to collect himself. He answered that this was the first he’d heard of it, but he was surprised to see how worked up Sei seemed to be.

    After hearing that, Sei was embarrassed to realize he’d been acting overly emotional, especially in public, and apologized. Sei averted his gaze, shamed that he’d been acting so unlike himself, but Orzif was relieved to see that Aresh’s feelings weren’t so one-sided. Orzif verified with Sei that he was in an actual romantic relationship with Aresh, which Sei seemed already prepared to confirm.

    In retrospect, Orzif thought that Aresh’s behavior towards Sei was outside the norm from the beginning. At the start, another person had been assigned to monitor Sei, but Aresh pushed the person out of the way and had taken it upon himself to bring Sei under his care. Plus, this was the same guy who’d been living with his parents all this time bc he found moving out to be too troublesome; yet, he suddenly bought an estate out of nowhere and started living with this otherworlder.

    Additionally, he’d been part of every policy implemented by Sei and had even volunteered to take on the task of clearing the infected beasts from the forest. And it was all for the sake of one man. Orzif just wished he wasn’t forced to go along with Aresh’s whims.

    Orzif was more disappointed in himself though, for taking so long to find out about their relationship. Back when Aresh asked Orzif for love advice, Sei was the only one around him who fit the descriptions of “older,” “worked at the palace,” and “passionate about work.” Orzif was usually very perceptive about ppl’s emotions and relationships, so he blamed this oversight on the fact that Sei gave off no hint of being involved with anything other than work.

    He had thought that Aresh’s feelings were one-sided too, until he saw Sei wearing that lapel pin at the banquet. So, he was pleased to find his uncertainties laid to rest. However, he still couldn’t quite forget about the forced combat marches Aresh made the Order take against the infected beasts from the purification expedition and figured that it was okay to still hold a grudge:blobokhand:.

    He reminded himself that he wasn’t here to tease them. Because from the looks of things, they were progressing much further than expected.

    He told Sei that although he hadn’t heard about Aresh visiting his family but he could imagine why. At Sei’s confusion, Orzif pointed out that the matter of wearing the lapel pin at the banquet the other night made it clear. As most of the guests were of nobility, and were of the greatest esteem and influence, none would be unaware of the implications of the pin nor of whom the pin represented (considering the worth and color, only 1 person would come to mind).

    So, it would be inevitable that Aresh’s family, the House of Indrak, would catch wind of things (hoo boy:sweating_profusely:).

    Sei shocked, now understood that Aresh didn’t just go back to his parents; he must have been summoned back to discuss the matter of his relationship with Sei.

    Yes, it was on Aresh that Sei even wore the lapel pin. Sei also protested against it. Still, Sei was more upset that smt involving him winded up burdening Aresh too. It’s why Sei wanted to be cautious about furthering their relationship, but Aresh went on ahead of him.

    Furthermore, this was a matter involving Sei, so he should have been told first instead of finding out about it like this. Aresh should have discussed these matters with Sei upfront. Perhaps Sei might be out of his element, since this involved the aristocracy, but Sei thought that if Aresh came to him from the get-go, Sei could’ve researched and prepared for any issues that could arise.

    Orzif interpreted from Sei questioning him that Aresh hadn’t spoken to Sei regarding this matter. He sighed when Sei averted his gaze, not wanting to nod honestly. Then he recalled that the two were having trouble before this, which was why he wanted to meet with and complain to Sei in the first place.

    Orzif explained that before the banquet, Aresh had taken on training the knights, something he usually didn’t do, and the results were terrible.

    Aresh usually trained on his own, away from his subordinates, and didn’t instruct them. So, the other knights were at first delighted to receive instruction from him but soon regretted it. The reason being that Aresh’s method of training was way too harsh for ordinary ppl. And after the session, his usual stern face turned 30% worse; Orzif could practically see a black aura surrounding him.

    And Aresh seemed to have something to say to Orzif but always stopped himself several times, so Orzif felt his spirit nearly gone after the morning session from stress. But it was clear that smt was bothering Aresh even if he didn’t say anything, and Orzif had a good suspicion of what it was. But he asked Sei anyways.

    Sei obediently answered, as Orzif had been so inconvenienced by them yet still was willing to give Sei information.

    A few minutes later, Orzif was still in Aresh’s office and leaning on his desk for support. He was reeling from what Sei had said. He couldn’t believe that Aresh announced his engagement without his partner’s consent and thought that Aresh had gone out of control being in the midst of his first love:blobjoy:. The Aresh he remembered from childhood was the type of kid who’d even run expressionlessly.

    Then, in a move that flustered Sei, Orzif gave him a deep bow and apologized for his relative causing so much trouble. Sei tried assuring Orzif that it wasn’t any trouble, but he couldn’t quite say so bc it actually was very troublesome :blob_patpat:.

    Orzif told him Sei didn’t have to strain himself in assuring him, but Sei wanted to clarify that Aresh’s feelings for Sei, by itself, wasn’t the problem. The problem was Aresh acting on his own without consulting with Sei or even giving Sei a heads up. Nevertheless, Sei didn’t reject Aresh’s feelings.

    Orzif was relieved to hear it. He had feared that Aresh was acting all on his own one-sided feelings and forcing everything onto Sei. He was glad to see he was wrong about that and that there wasn’t a criminal in his familyblob_crime.

    Sei, however, was touched at Orzif’s reaction. He’d begun to doubt his own common sense after listening to Julius and others talk. They made it sound like Aresh’s proposal was a natural course of action that Sei’s non-acceptance evoked pity for. It made Sei feel that he was the one in the wrong and the disconnect of common sense caused him to feel the same loneliness he felt when he first arrived to this world.

    He’d prepared for Orzif, a member of Aresh’s family, to blame him, so he didn’t expect to receive an apology. Even though Sei heard Orzif and Aresh didn’t share close blood-ties, being the ones in charge of the 3rd Knight’s Order reasonably concluded that Orzif was one of Aresh’s closest confidants. So, Sei was pleased to find Orzif taking Sei’s side.

    Orzif was still happy to see that Aresh, someone described as one who’d left his emotions behind in his mother’s belly, was able to find someone he could love so passionately. Sei felt his “passion” was the most difficult thing to deal with.
    Bc of time constraint, Sei and Orzif continued their talk while Orzif changed his clothes. Sei asked Orzif’s opinion on Aresh’s family’s stance on their relationship. Orzif admitted that he wasn’t that close to the family to know.

    Orzif and Aresh were cousins on their mothers’ side. Their mothers were half-sisters, with Aresh’s mother being the daughter of the 1st wife and Orzif’s being the daughter of the 2nd. So, Orzif and Aresh didn’t have a close relationship until they were both in the Order.

    Sei knew that while the marquis had property in the capital, their family estate was located in a region near the sea. The house had only 1 wife, and Aresh had 3 older siblings (2 brothers and a sister).

    Orzif stated that all of Aresh’s siblings were married, but since Aresh never had an affair before, Orzif wasn’t sure that they’d outright oppose his one with Sei. Personally, Orzif thought that their main reaction would be shock over Aresh dating at all.

    But Sei pondered over that he was still a man from another world. Even if society was more accepting of same-sex relationships, there were still other concerns. First, it wasn’t good to announce the engagement without taking prior steps, like introducing himself to the parents…

    Sei caught his train of thought and despairingly questioned why he was mentally going over marriage procedure prerequisites. He couldn’t help but plan out the most efficient way for Aresh and Sei to get married, but he wasn’t trying to get married in the first place! He blamed Aresh for poisoning his mindblobmelt_thumbs.

    Not that he didn’t want to be with Aresh, of course. And he did want to be accepted by Aresh’s parents…

    He decided to forgo this matter and focus on work instead, which was still an issue either way. Sei then threw Orzif off kilter by asking Orzif’s opinion on the Egorovian emissaries. Sei wasn’t trying to escape from the previous topic, of course not (at least, that’s what he told himself).

    Orzif, a little off balance, stated he didn’t mind them. Even though the mage was a noble, he and the engineer held a strong inclination towards research. Sei agreed and encouraged him to continue. Orzif concluded that the knights were well-skilled too, but the real mystery was the other 2. Sei, who was thinking of Prince Lars, was surprised that Orzif also mentioned Russano.

    Orzif agreed that Lars had a lot of rumors surrounding him, including that there was a faction in Egorova that wanted him to be the next king even though he was a son of a concubine. This was the first Sei had heard of this. While he had information about the delegates, it was all superficial.

    Orzif remarked that there wasn’t anything wrong with the other princes, but just that Lars was exceptionally excellent. While he wasn’t outwardly aiming for the throne, his involvement in charities, inspections, and countryside improvement had led to him being a part of an important excavation project of the magic stones.

    And certainly, he got along very well with his accompanying mage and engineer, as if they had a long relationship, even with the other two appearing deferential towards the prince. Orzif commented that magic tools were essential for mining magic stones, so if Lars was able to form close relations to ppl in charge of creating those tools, he’d be the most natural choice for the Egorovian crown prince if anything were to happen to the current one.

    That cinched it for Sei. Lars appeared to be doing well for himself then. From Sei’s assessment, he seemed like a steady and clever politician, as he focused on laying the groundwork to seize a hold over such essential ppl, like the engineers. It was probably for the same reason that Lars joined this delegation.

    Sei recalled how Lars carefully looked over the documents Sei handed him in the meeting, as well as how he was ever vigilant of all the ongoings in his surroundings. Lars never lost his polite smile, tolerant even when the other emissaries were running amok. Ppl like him were the type to be in charge.

    Sei started considering whether the key to deepening diplomatic relations would be to focus on Lars but also worried whether that would cause a stir among the other Egorovian factions. But after a moment’s thought, Sei stopped himself from pondering further, deciding that the future of Romani’s diplomatic relationships was not his job. Kamil, who’d have the understanding and resources, was better suited to deal with this matter. Sei’s only job was to guide and ensure good relations with the delegation during their visit.

    But while Sei held a clear understanding of Lars, the mystery of Russano was still at hand. Sei had thought of him as just a relative of the royal family who tagged along bc of his interest in learning more about different magic. He’s a little boy, after all.

    Not only in looks, but Russano’s entire demeanor was that of a child with a genuine interest in learning magic. His interactions with the Romani mages the other day supported that. Orzif countered that Russano acted too conscientiously. Plus, he believed to have seen Russano somewhere before.

    Sei wondered if that was just bc Russano was part of the royal family and tilted his head at Orzif. Orzif gave him a dumbfounded look and declared that Sei to be pretty useless. Sei replied that the matter was out of his scope and that he’d leave it to Orzif to figure out. After all, Sei’s motto was the right person for the right place.

    Orzif countered that Sei wouldn’t be able to say smt like that with Aresh, reminding Sei that they’d not gotten anywhere with his Aresh problem.

    Scene cut:

    Whether they were satisfied with their visit to the Magic Department or had been reprimanded by Lars, the delegates were much more well-behaved at the next meeting. At least, they seriously looked over the documents Sei handed out this time.

    They remained quiet, with only Lars asking questions. Kuster and Sei did most of the answering to the point that Zoltan felt his presence was almost needless, since Kuster would be able to explain anything involving the Magic Department.

    All was going smoothing until lunch. They were eating in a guest dining hall when Russano brought up the topic of Sigma, and Lars took over the conversation. He’d heard about teaching commoners at the church’s new private school. Even though Sei was the one carrying out this project, since it was a national matter, he let Orzif take over the explanations and stayed silent.

    Orzif credited Julius for the idea of giving commoners a basic education, which Donato expressed wonderment at. Orzif explained that the idea was that the school would help to nurture future generations and give more opportunities to the common ppl.

    The others questioned if it made sense to do this for commoners, but were reminded of Sigma, a commoner with little magic abilities, who had a bright future as an engineer. Both Georgii and Russano were particularly interested in Sigma, but Lars had a different focus of interest.

    He cut into his dish (another made-up food called, "gallegas" [ガレガス], which is a filling of some sortit’s smt he’s eating wrapped in a pie crust—fyi, this also the Japanese characters used for the Spanish wine brand, Bodegas Gallegas) and remarked that he’d heard the founder of the school was the current saint. From that, Sei started suspecting where Lars’s true aim laid.

    Since this was a diplomatic exchange between kingdoms, and one which still held an uncertain future, no one on the Romani side wanted to get the saint involved. But because Sei also had first-hand experience with the summoning magic, perhaps it was thought that Sei was a better alternative with the mission.

    Orzif confirmed that Yua was working with Julius in establishing the school. Lars pressed that he’d heard that the current saint was very proactive, and Orzif agreed that she was hard-working and kind but still had more to learn about both magic and the ways of high society.

    Lars inquired whether she’d mastered basic etiquette. But Zoltan jumped in to dissuade Lars’s probing, exclaiming that she still wasn’t ready to be presented to other countries, much less foreign royalty. Sei guessed that either Kamil or Julius ordered him to prevent the Egorovians from meeting Yua. Sei was grateful for the assist, but Lars wasn’t finished.

    He switched targets and asked to be shown the private school. At this, everyone from Romani collectively turned to look at Sei. Trying to seem unperturbed, Sei quietly stood up and declared that the school wouldn’t be ready for a sudden visit from foreign royal dignitaries, so Sei would need to speak with the church first. He bowed and quickly left the dining hall.

    Sei planned out when to schedule a tour of the school and had to check that it wouldn’t be on a day Yua and Julius visited. He also needed to give the church a heads-up too. Sei’s stomach was churning.

    It had been 3dys since the delegation arrived and yet, not a single day went as planned.
    Sei was able to figure out Julius’ and Yua’s schedule from the 2nd Knights Order and requested that they keep the 2 away from the church. He also sent a message to the church as well. As a result, he was able to keep the ppl who needed to be separated, separated, and timely prepared a carriage for a tour of the school.

    The carriage for the Egorovians was luxurious and spacious on the inside. Donato, seating himself on the comfortable sofa, asked Lars about his interest in visiting the school. He thought the talk they had the other day meant Lars wanted them to pay more attention to the guides’ discussions that day.

    Lars responded that he had smt on his mind. Donato wondered if he was talking about the current saint, whose summoning was a hot topic in Egorova. Lars conceded that he was interested in the saint’s summoning and her purification magic but it seemed that Romani had no intention of letting them meet her.

    Donato reasoned that Lars must be trying to go to where she frequented instead, but Lars denied it with a laugh, saying that he wouldn’t be so deceitful. Then he became confused at everyone in the carriage looking away from him after saying that.

    But Lars stated to let the matter of the saint go bc they were only going to be in the country for 7 days. The saint had yet to be seen by any other countries. Lars suspected that the kingdom was planning smt big for her first introduction and he didn’t want to spoil that.

    Instead, he offered that he was just curious in seeing the learning facility established to educate the common ppl. But he relented to Russano’s probing. He confessed that he was also interested in a rumor about a certain illegitimate royal prince volunteering as a teacher in the school.

    The news stunned everyone. Lars elaborated that his intelligence revealed that Norbert taught math classes but mainly worked in the Royal Accounting Department. Lars laughed at Donato’s frowning in bafflement, as Donato remarked that the royals of the kingdom seemed rather serious about educating the commoners.

    Lars commented that it’s possible that Norbert had a different agenda for infiltrating a school the first prince presided over. As the school was started by the saint and the crown prince, it was likely going to be implemented throughout the rest of the nation. So, it would be beneficial to be involved in it.

    Lars couldn’t help but wonder if Norbert held ulterior motives for being involved or if there was a push from some unknown support to involve him.

    Then Lars was asked if the Royal Accounting Department was the same as the one Sei worked at, and he affirmed it, stating he was intrigued by Sei as well. He expressed his appreciation for how meticulously the documents were prepared and the ease of which they could be understood. Lars speculated that a lot of time and effort went into putting them together.

    But more than that, Lars held suspicion that Sei was actually the one in charge among the guides. Whenever their side made an unpredictable move, that man was the first to react and handle everything. Russano was doubtful that Sei was nothing more than the others’ errand boy, but Lars contested that even so, Sei was very perceptive and worked fast. Lars thought that such a person would be useful to have around.

    Lars smiled, remarking that he’d come to learn about the summoning/return magic but ended up making an unexpected find. Donato and Georgii, who were familiar with how obstinate Lars could be, shared a sympathetic look for Sei’s future.

    But Russano remembered that Sei had a companion in Romani and declared that Lars couldn’t do anything about Sei in that case. Lars expressed some surprise at that, as he never got the notion the Sei was in a relationship throughout their interactions, but Russano nodded.

    He informed Lars that at the banquet Sei was wearing a lapel pin with the Miass flower, which must symbolize an engagement or marriage. Plus, he had cufflinks made of spinel, a rare and expensive gem. Such expenses denoted a rather passionate and well-off partner, associated with the color purple.

    Lars considered that it’d be difficult to snipe a subordinate with a partner like that. And forget reeling in the partner too. With the money the purple person was throwing around, he’d likely be an aristocrat, and the kingdom wouldn’t let someone like that just leave. Lars wondered what kind of person Sei’s partner was.

    Scene cut:

    The priest, Siegward, welcomed them upon their arrival.

    He was the eldest son of Marquis Öhrwall, from one of the most powerful noble houses in Romani. He’d been taken to the church as a child in order to control his magic and had winded up becoming a devoted follower of Abrahan. Unfortunately, he developed a weird image of Sei as an apostle sent by Abrahan.

    And this came into play when Sei greeted him and Siegward returned the greeting by almost titling Sei as “Apostle” but switching to use “-dono” with Sei’s name. Sei turned to introduce the Egorovian delegates and found their eyes widened and assessing between Siegward and Sei.

    Sei, not understanding their reactions, introduced Prince Lars to Priest Siegward. Lars quickly came back to his senses, put on a smile as he shook Siegward’s hand.

    Standing side-by-side, Siegward and Lars made quite a picture, both being tall and attractive in different ways. If Yua were to see this, she’d be kicking up a fuss in delight. While she had calmed down a lot, she still had a habit of getting excited over a beautiful face.

    Siegward welcomed them to visit the school and gave notice that the children were taught only the bare minimum of etiquette. He requested that they let him know if they experience any disrespect. Lars responded that he was the one being disrespectful for forcibly asking to tour the school, so they shouldn’t worry about their behavior.

    Sei was relieved to hear Lars say that. The children, who are still learning etiquette, were sure to not know the right manners in dealing with foreign royalty. And Sei was also thankful that Siegward brought this point up early.

    When Zoltan took the lead to guide the guests to the school area, Sei stayed behind to thank Siegward. The two took a moment to catch up.

    Sei verified with Siegward that everything on his end was going according to schedule, and Siegward assured him that things were. They came just in time for the next class to start. Sei recalled that it was the one taught by Norbert and decided that it was also the perfect time to do a surprise evaluation too (poor Norbert :cry:).

    But Sei didn’t notice the Egorovian eyes following him during his conversation with Siegward and noticing that Siegward’s were purple…

    (Wow, first, the thing with Norbert and now, Siegward. The misunderstandings here are just immaculate :blobok::blobpopcorn_cool:)

    Looks like I've reached the character limit for this post. :bloborz: Please check out the continuation of the volume 3 spoilers in the next post. :blobflag::blob_pompom:
     
    Last edited: Mar 7, 2022
    Vdingg, Rockergirl, Esmerid and 12 others like this.
  3. RAGA

    RAGA Well-Known Member

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    Part 2 spoilers for the 3rd volume, The Affairs of Another World Depends on the Corporate Slave 3: The Normalization of Magic Diplomacy Project.

    Siegward asked after Sei’s health, as he knew of Sei’s weak constitution against magic/mana and the church had a high concentration of magic because of the Sacred Object (quick recap: Sacred Object stores magic and is usually shielded by a strong ward, so there’s a lot a magic always present). Sei reassured him that Sei was okay bc he had a warding and he wasn’t planning on going into the prayer room.

    It had only been 3-4dys since Aresh applied the wards though, but it should be fine gone longer without reapplication and the wards held. Although Sei and Aresh have been separated longer before, Sei felt that since they’d been living together, Aresh’s absence seemed to feel longer.

    In the past, Sei often went weeks without seeing his partner bc of how busy he was with work. Of course, that was also part of the cause for his break-ups, but Sei would soon forget the matter bc he’d be busy with work again (…umm:blobneutral:). Perhaps it was better to say that work occupied his mind to the point that these matters never entered into his consciousness. For better or worse, Sei's work ethics left no room for romance.

    But Sei had to remind himself he was at his job right now. It was strange for Sei to be so preoccupied with thoughts of Aresh, but he forced himself to focus on his work.

    At the mention of the wards, Siegward blushed slightly and averted his eyes :blob_blush:. While Siegward had a lot of power, his sensitivity towards magic wasn’t as strong. He hadn’t noticed the warding until it was revealed last time. But he also recalled Isto’s explanation (and demonstration) and now understood the process of setting the wards up.

    Sei, unaware of this, moved to enter the classroom before allowing the delegation in. He also didn’t notice the Egorovian observing the exchange between Siegward and him.

    The math class was just finishing up at that time. The children were divided into groups of around 20, with a mix of children from the public and orphans from the church. Since many of the children couldn’t afford writing utensils, they scratched their work on bark paper with inkless pens, both provided to them via donations from the woodworking factory and metal factory.

    The whole city came together to assist in giving the children free education. This caused an influx of visitors to the church, making it livelier than before.

    Orzif and Russano commented on how the children were taking the class seriously and that there was a mixture of age ranges in one class. Sei nodded at them and stated that it was a rare opportunity that most parents were encouraging their children to take for their future. As for the ages, since this was basic information, the children’s ages weren’t taken into account when dividing them up.

    Sei was asked if that division would work with the difference in learning comprehension among age groups, but as the school just started, they were still working on that. Sei planned to divide based on learning comprehension, not age, in the future.

    Sei didn’t consider the private school like an escalator school to prepare the kids to go into higher education. This was a place to foster a learning environment so children who wanted to learn could do so easily. Though, Sei thought of planning to create a special class for those among these children who could be promoted into furthering their education, like Sigma.

    Lars, who was listening in, commented that Sei’s focus seemed solely on ability. Sei agreed, stating that the school wasn’t a charity program but a government sanctioned human resource development program.

    Scene cut:

    Norbert was not exactly ecstatic to see Sei visiting his classroom and complained as much when he greeted Sei at the end of his class session. Norbert knew that the foreign dignitaries were coming, but wasn’t told that Sei would be with them. Sei only retorted that Norbert should try using his head more since he already knew Sei was their guide (...:blobnobully:).

    As all their back-and-forth was in front of the delegates, Zoltan signaled a warning to Norbert. He worried that Norbert implied that he held greater trepidation with meeting with Sei than he did meeting with foreign royalty. Hurriedly, Zoltan began the formal introductions.

    Norbert introduced himself to Lars, who returned the greeting in the same manner, extending his hand to shake. Norbert, Zoltan, and Orzif were baffled at this, as Lars’s greeting was treating Norbert as an equal, despite Norbert being, publicly, a mere court official, even though he was the son of a count.

    Norbert looked to Sei for wordless advice, but Sei had no idea what it meant. Still, one couldn’t refuse the offer of a prince, so he wordlessly prompted for Norbert to shake his hand. Norbert did so gingerly.

    Scene cut:

    Norbert expressed how nervous he felt and how surprising it was to find Lars to be much friendlier than what’s rumored. Lars and his company had left with Zoltan and some other church members to view the church’s flower garden, leaving Norbert, Sei, and Orzif behind.

    Sei wasn’t so certain of Lars’s friendliness. Orzif mentioned that his interactions with the court mages and engineers seemed to support the claim, but his words reminded Sei of their discussion that morning. Orzif stated that Lars’s got along well with ppl, and Sei connected that his targets for amicability seemed to be the sort who held future value.

    Sei couldn’t quite figure out how Lars based his sense of values though or how Norbert fitted into them. Then Sei remembered that Norbert was a member of the royal family. It was smt he often forgot bc of his daily interactions with Norbert. But Norbert’s true origins were a secret, so he wasn’t sure how Lars found out or if he even did.

    But Sei’s thoughts were interrupted by Norbert exclaiming how Sei’s sudden visit gave him a freight. This reminded Sei. He told Norbert that he evaluated him and graded him 65pnts. Norbert was distraught to learn Sei had secretly evaluated him but also wasn’t surprise to find that he did.

    Sei ignored him and continued his assessment that Norbert spoke too fast for the lecture. He advised Norbert to consider his speaking speed to be actually 1.5x faster than he expected. In other words, speak much slower. And much to Norbert’s chagrin, Sei wasn’t done there. He also judged Norbert’s lesson structure to be too lax and demanded to see his lesson plans for the future (...:blobnobully::blob_plusone:).

    While Norbert bemoaned his fate, Orzif commented that the 2 seemed to have a close relationship. It was the first Orzif heard Sei use informal tones. He was worried about a certain someone getting jealous if he ever heard the 2 converse with each other.

    While Sei was lecturing(bullying) Norbert, he felt a strong tug on his cloak. He turned and saw Celio behind him. Celio demanded to know why Sei visited the school without showing up at the church. Sei, who knew Celio wasn’t part of the school group that day, thought he must have heard about his visit from someone else and rushed over.

    Sei explained that he didn’t have business at the church and Celio cursed that he still should’ve popped by, but added that he wasn’t forcing Sei to go inside the church. Sei was a bit moved by Celio’s care over his constitution, as Celio was aware of Sei’s weakness to magic/mana.

    Sei conceded that he’ll drop by next time soon but wasn’t sure of an exact time. Celio asked him to a promise on his words to Abrahan. Sei didn’t want to swear on a god that was the cause of Sei’s and Yua’s kidnapping but he nodded nonetheless.

    Norbert complained that he didn’t pay attention for a minute, and now, there’d be more work to do. Sei didn’t have a chance to deny this bc the delegation returned.

    Lars asked after Sei’s influence at the school and Sei responded that he was a lecturer for the math courses in the beginning. Lars returned with a noncommittal reply and changed his focus to ask about Sei being called “Sei” instead of “Kondou” (I didn’t really highlight this aspect in the spoilers, but Sei’s been going by “Kondou” in front of the Egorovians this whole time).

    Sei, caught off guard, knew that trying to keep the façade would only bring trouble down the line, so he decided to be honest. He explained that “Kondou” was his family name and “Seiichirou” was his first name. Lars tried, and failed, to correctly pronounce Sei’s first name, and Sei wondered if Japanese names were hard to speak throughout this world and not just in Romani.

    Lars said he’d remember the name and gave a beauteous smile. Even Sei, who’d had some immunity to beautiful faces bc of Aresh, had to squint his eyes from the sheer brightness of Lars’s smile. He determined that a beautiful face was hazardous.

    Then Lars struck an even greater blow. He remarked that Sei’s partner must be extremely possessive to restrict Sei from revealing his first name.
    Sei somehow escaped Celio’s pestering about what Lars meant by Sei’s partner and made it home. Norbert didn’t help at all and stuck to the sidelines laughing. Sei connived to give Norbert some extra new work the next time he goes by the Accounting Department.

    Because Sei’s visit to the church was around noon, he was able to get back home earlier. Sei wondered if Aresh would also be home by then too. His bubble burst when Waldem greeted him at the door and informed him that Aresh still wasn’t back. Sei was embarrassed that his anxiety was so obvious to Waldem, but he decided to consult with Waldem since he should be most knowledgeable of Aresh’s business.

    Waldem told Sei that he received a message from Aresh that his stay at his parents’ would be extended. Sei was shocked that Aresh could act so childishly by refusing to come back after a fight. It was extra maddening bc Sei couldn’t stop thinking about Aresh even while working (tho Sei reminds himself that was his issue, not Aresh’s and he’s just taking it out on him).

    Sei took a deep breath to calm himself. In a normal situation, he’d go to the parents’ home to apologize. However, it was unprecedented for Sei, a commoner, to go to a marquis home for the first time suddenly and without being invited. Furthermore, Aresh was a grown man, so Sei is certain that he was acting unreasonable just to get Sei’s attention.

    Even if Aresh was a bit very childish at times.

    But Aresh was still aware of Sei’s position in aristocratic society and of Sei’s mindfulness to it. Sei was confident in that. So, there was only one thing for him to do. He told Waldem to let him know when Aresh returned and went off to prepare for the tour around the Magic Department scheduled for the next day. He had a place to visit beforehand.

    Nevertheless, the work was overflowing, enough to not let Sei pay attention to anything else.

    Scene cut:

    The next morning, he arrived at the palace 2hrs ahead of his meeting time with the Egorovian delegates. Rather than heading to the Accounting Department, Sei went to visit a place he’d previously either been dragged to or been brought to unconscious: the Royal Health Department.

    He was guided to Cielo’s private study by the staff upon request and greeted by a flustered Cielo. Cielo blurted out that the medicine potion wasn’t ready, which involved Aresh, but Sei had no clue what the doctor was talking about.

    Sei’s purpose was to confirm his hypothesis over whether the presence of high levels of mana (like the magic stone mines) can increase one’s powers. But it seemed there was a secret he needed to uncover and inquired about it instead.

    Cielo realized his mistake and lamented a little that Aresh would be mad. But he didn’t seem that fearful of Aresh’s wrath bc Cielo simply told Sei everything when asked further. Aresh had asked Cielo to develop a cure for Sei’s mana/magic sickness.

    Normally, the ppl of the world had a natural resistance to mana/magic, so there was no need for a potion treatment for either. Sei even developed enough resistance to be able to function in a normal environment, as long as he stayed away from areas/objects of high mana/magic concentration. But the warding Aresh placed on Sei allowed him to be in contact with those places/objects, such as when visiting the church.

    However, Aresh’s duties as the captain of the 3rd Knight’s Order meant that he would be assigned with missions to deal with facing beasts in the Forest of Magic. And most of the more dangerous monsters are found deeper in the forest, further away from the capital. So, plenty of his assignments may take longer to complete.

    This wasn’t an issue earlier on in their acquaintanceship, bc the Saint Purification took precedent and their roles kept them together. But with the completion of the purification, things would be different. And as the weather warmed, the monsters would grow more restless, meaning an increase in the number of expeditions for the 3rd Knight’s Order was likely to occur.

    Always, before Sei headed to such places like the church, Aresh would put up wards for Sei. He would also usually request to put up wards once a week, taking advantage of this to force Sei to stay in bed for a full day. In truth, Sei thought this was excessive bc unless he needed to go to a place with high concentration of magic/mana, he didn’t need to do anything extra as long as he was careful (yeah, bc he has such a great track record of that :cautious:).

    Aresh always nagged Sei to take care of himself and work less, but Aresh had never mentioned that Sei quit working. He understood that work was Sei’s way of establishing himself and respected that.

    Sei also internally criticized Aresh, at his nagging, childishness, doing things on his own without consulting with others…

    He then turned and coughed to hide the flush rising in his cheeks :love:.
    Sei somehow managed to keep his blush at bay and presented his magic environment enhancer theory to Cielo. Cielo admitted that this wasn’t smt he thought of before and they both sat down on the sofa to discuss it further.

    Cielo informed that the level of magic was initially thought to be inherited through bloodlines, which is a big part of nobility. There’s a kind of social status related to the ability to use magic, bc it required a special know-how to learn to control it and that kind of training/learning was only available among the nobility.

    Though, even among the nobles, there were some with abnormal levels of magic, like Siegward (so, he can’t use the normal methods of training to control his magic even though as a noble, he'd have a magic training environment available to him). This lack of availability of a magic training environment was why most commoners left children who have high levels of magic to the church.

    Sei confirmed with Cielo that those with related bloodlines also grow up in the same environment. Then he requested that Cielo help him with an experiment to test his theory, which if successful, could increase the country’s number of mages.

    Cielo was excited to learn that this could mean he wouldn’t need to deal with the church over ppl over healing magic. The ability to use healing magic required that one both had a high level of magic and was able to control their magic (such as someone like Yua, a well-trained saint).

    Bc it was such a rare talent, the church and palace, the nation’s 2 major magic factions, butted heads every day to procure such ppl. And when it came to healers among the common ppl, the level of healing was only simple healing magic, using a mix of folk remedies.

    Sei added that if they were able to expand their pool of ppl with high levels of magic, Sei would like to open another kind of school that would focus on magic control (smt not available in the regular schools). And since this was a plan involving the country’s human development, Sei wanted to bring Kamil, the Prime Minister, on board. He requested Cielo be his support with that, to which Cielo agreed.

    Sei also added that since they didn’t know how a sudden artificial growth of magical energy would affect the human body, as well as what sort of human rights would be involved, they needed to proceed on the plan with caution. Cielo, acknowledging the need to monitor the health of ppl, queried over Sei’s regards to human rights.

    Sei suggested that increasing magic in ppl meant that there was more they could work with, but this may also lead to ppl being forced into doing things that could be unreasonable. For example, families with little resources may force their children to go to dangerous places just to increase their magic powers or the knowledge might lead to the establishment of a shady business industry based around increasing magic.

    Cielo understood Sei’s concern but felt that those were personal matters that should affect their own plans. Cielo’s reaction demonstrated to Sei that their values were different. Sei, who came from a country that was sensitive to human rights, wondered if Cielo’s values were the norm in this country. Perhaps Sei was the naive one, but he still refused to be dissuaded from this matter.

    Sei disagreed, stating that human resources were finite and they couldn’t afford to give up potential resources by not practicing caution. And bc it was to be set up as a government-sponsored program, they shouldn’t allow it to be linked to some shady private business. A nation was built on the trust of its ppl.

    Sei’s own country had plenty of incidents in the past where ppl died bc of sloppy mismanagement. It would be better to prevent tragedies from occurring if they can be avoided. Cielo complimented Sei’s way of thinking but worried that he was taking on too much. Aresh had told him to watch out for Sei’s health.

    Sei understood Cielo’s concerns, but he was too proud to allow himself to slow down. Sei mentioned that he didn’t have much to do anyways. He only needed to take the Egorovians to the Magic Department to have fun with the other research fanatics. And there was no need to worry about Isto bc he was accompanying the 1st Knight’s Order into town.

    But there was a time when Sei had the same thoughts as Cielo.

    Scene cut:

    Sei was in the middle of speaking with Orzif and Lars while they were watching the research fanatics mess around. Suddenly a loud, young voice cried out. Lars rushed over to peel Russano away from Sigma, asking what happened, but Russano was too emotional to speak properly.

    Sei went to Sigma’s side to ask the same. Sei saw the Sigma was pale-faced and upset, no doubt not sure of what to do, especially considering Russano’s and Sigma’s statuses. Sei assures him that it’s okay bc he believed Sigma isn’t one to make a mistake that can’t be resolved.

    Sigma hesitantly opened his mouth, saying that he was showing Russano the thermometer from the other day. Then Russano got mad after Sigma explained to him that he worked on the device with Isto. Sei started suspecting that this was smt about Isto but before he could form his thoughts, Russano burst out.

    He angrily demanded to know how someone like Sigma (using insults in addressing Sigma too, btw:blobangery:) got to work with Isto, confirming Sei’s suspicions. Sei couldn’t help but remark his disbelief aloud, but quietly enough that only Sigma could hear. Sei somehow managed to calm Russano down and the group left the Magic Department to go to a lounge area.

    Zoltan asked to clarify Isto’s celebrity status in Egorova. Donato countered that it shouldn’t be surprising that Isto’s accomplishments (discovering new magic, reviving ancient magic, and simplifying traditional magic) would raise his renown, so he questioned how their side didn’t realize it. This time, Sei managed to hold in his disbelief.

    It was obvious Isto was an excellent mage, otherwise, he wouldn’t be 2nd in charge of the Magic Department despite being born into a merchant family. However, from his coworkers’ POV, Isto was a bit much, in both his words and actions. It was better to say his position was given to him just to prevent him from going out of control.

    This was largely bc Romani neglected its magic research, except for its offensive and warding magic. However, the utilization of those areas of magic were dominated by the 3rd Knight’s Order to protect the kingdom. It’s another reason why the Order was so celebrated while the Magic Department was so overlooked. The neglect was also why magic wasn’t as widely spread to the commoners of society either.

    Nevertheless, even with the limits of his position, Isto still had enough freedom to make various achievements, despite the small budget in the department. Sei, who was not an expert at magic, didn’t expect this either. Had he known earlier, he could have figured out a way to profit from it :blobhyperthink::blobjoy:.

    Zoltan, trembling, muttered that Isto never reported to him about his accomplishments, but Donato rebuffed that any mage would have known even without a report. Zoltan, who rarely showed up at the department and was satisfied enough that Isto had results, couldn’t say anything to Donato about that. Though Sei rudely wondered if Isto could even write up a report :derpyblob::blobrofl:.

    The Egorovians were really looking forward to seeing Isto’s work too. In particular, Lars stated that Russano was a big fan of Isto and the opportunity to meet and work with him was why he joined the mission. Russano, red-faced, sputtered that Lars didn’t need to say all that.

    But Russano conceded that someone like Isto must be extremely busy to just meet up with anybody like that. Sei privately refuted that the real reason was bc Sei locked him up though :blobangel:. Russano then apologized for letting his emotions get the better of him too.

    Zoltan and Orzif hurried to deal with Russano’s apology, but Kuster and Sei traded glances, wondering what to do. Lars spoke up and requested if they could let Russano meet with Isto, and Sei wasn’t sure how to decline a direct request from royalty.

    Sei hesitantly stated Isto wasn’t in the palace that day, silently thinking that he was locked up in the back room during their last visit. Lars then asked if he would be back during their visit, putting Sei on the spot because Isto was due to return the next day.

    However, Sei couldn’t straight up lie to royalty, especially on smt that could be so easily found out, which could cause an international problem. On the other hand, Isto himself could cause an international problem.

    Instead of saying anything, Sei decided to turn the decision over to Zoltan, since the boss should be responsible for his subordinates :blobhighfive:. It was then decided that a roundtable discussion with Isto would happen the day after the next.

    Scene cut:

    Surprising even himself, Sei let out that he was tired for the first time in a long time. He had given the Egorovians a lot of lip service, trying to portray Isto as an oddball so they’d forgive him for any rudeness. Hopefully, this would cover Isto to some degree, but even Sei doesn’t think Isto would act out too much.

    Sei opened the doors to the mansion, considering the idea to grasp at the Egorovians’ weakness, just in case. He called out his normal greeting, but strangely, neither Waldem nor Myran were there to greet him. Sei contemplated whether to look for them to let them know he was back or to just go to his room when he spotted a woman on the staircase leading into the entrance hall.

    It wasn’t anyone he recognized. The woman was gracefully walking in heeled shoes, her hair a lustrous mixture of black and indigo. Her upturned eyes were a deep indigo blue and contrasted sharply with alabaster skin, lending her a valiant visage. And those eyes were framed against long dark lashes. In short, she was beautiful.

    She wore a neat and simple dress, but the material was clearly of high quality, indicating that this was a woman of the upper class. This woman, while descending the stairs, looked down at Sei and opened red lips to say that he was late.

    Since this was Aresh’s mansion, if Aresh had been present, Sei would’ve thought she was his guest. But Aresh hadn’t been home. Sei was certain that either Waldem or Myran would’ve informed her of that, so the fact that she’s still on the premise meant that she held a position of being able to be there even without Aresh’s presence.

    Waldem appeared from behind the lady and quickly, without a sound, went down to Sei’s side to lean into his ear and introduced Aresh’s sister, Lady Elene (oooh :blobmelon:).
    Russano was in a particularly good mood when their group went back to their quarters that Lars had to tease him about it. He knew Russano was happy that he could finally get to meet his idol, though Russano tried to deny it. But his face was showing a delighted expression more appropriate for his age, instead of the usual prim look. The change pleased Lars, as his brother.

    Russano shot back that Lars couldn’t stop talking about that accountant either, which Lars had to laugh at, conceding the point. He enjoyed conversing with a person of competence. But he reminded Russano that this wasn’t Egorova, so Russano still needed to watch after himself out there.

    This sobered Russano’s high spirits. He and Lars agreed that even in Egorova, they couldn’t relax, especially as they were part of the royal family. Although both Lars and Russano were farther down the line of succession, they still had targets on them for being prominent figures. This is what led Lars to agree to Russano’s request to join him on this mission. He wanted to give the boy room to breathe.

    Lars also reminded Russano that the next day was particularly important bc that was the day that they were scheduled to be without a guide. Donato and the others were going to go into town, but Lars had plans to complete a special task with this opportunity.

    It was more accurate to say that this was the real reason Lars came to Romani, under the guise of fostering cultural exchange. In truth, Lars held more interest in other ventures entirely, like learning more about the illegitimate royal prince. He told Russano that it was important for a brother to meet his sister’s fiancé, and Russano agreed.

    Scene cut:

    Sei and Elene were having dinner together at Aresh’s mansion. The room was quiet except for the clinking of dinnerware. Sei was grateful to Waldem and the others for pushing dinner so soon after the two were introduced bc it allowed him an excuse for a lack of conversation. Sei used the time to mull over and get a handle on the situation.

    Meanwhile, Elene complimented Pavel, whom she called over, on the dinner. Their rapport seemed friendly. This signaled to Sei that Elene was probably close to Aresh if she had a good relationship with his staff. He became interested in her past of growing up with Aresh.

    Unexpectedly, she started talking to Sei, commented that he didn’t eat much. Sei nearly dropped his knife and answered with a short affirmative. While Sei can eat more now, he still retained a small appetite due to his weak stomach and ate the same amount as Elene. Sei surmised that she probably was surprise by the gap between his amount and someone like Aresh, who was young and a knight so would eat much more.

    Sei surreptitiously glanced over at Elene again, noting that she and Aresh looked somewhat alike. However, their eye colors were different, with Aresh possessing a rare color. She seemed to be younger than Sei, though she wore her make-up in a way that made her look older.

    According to Aresh, she would be the family’s 3rd oldest child, with only Aresh being younger, so it was possible that the two were close. Sei guessed that she was in her mid-twenties. He recalled hearing that she was married too.

    But Sei felt troubled in considering how to approach her, because he lacked experience in dealing with nobles. Furthermore, it was a person from Aresh’s family. And while dinner allowed him an excuse to stay silent, dinner didn’t last forever. Once the after-meal tea was served, Elene started speaking.

    She questioned if Sei was not scheduled to be a guide the next day. Sei, unsure of why she brought this up, nodded, believing the matter was not confidential and that she had connections as a noblewoman to be well-informed.

    He replied that he would be using that time to meet with the other guides and to discuss their next steps instead. Sei may have brought this up to preemptively prevent attempts from Elene to disrupt his schedule with her own plans, but it wasn’t a lie. He was going to meet up with Kuster to figure out how to keep Isto’s unorthodox behavior under control. Then, he planned a meeting with Kamil after about the artificial magic enhancement proposal, so he wanted to get his materials in order.

    Upon hearing this, Elene frowned in displeasure in a way that was reminiscent of Aresh when he was in a bad mood. She eventually accepted that and switched the topic to Aresh being called back by their parents and asked if Sei knew the reason why. He admitted to having an idea of it, with a certain lapel pin coming to mind.

    She confessed that she had recently returned to the estate as well, as her husband was away long term for work. She also admitted that they knew of Aresh’s living situation with Sei, smt Sei could understand couldn’t be hidden, especially with Aresh leaving home and acquiring his own to live in. Elene’s disclosure trailed off after mentioning there were rumors that she’d heard as well.

    She looked over at Sei with a look of assessment, which Sei took as a cue and straightened up. While he hadn’t thought of marriage, he and Aresh were at the suitable age for it and were living together. By all accounts, it was natural that he’d be meeting Aresh’s relatives eventually (tho he’d rather it not be while he was in the middle of working, especially work that involved foreign diplomatic relations).

    Sei apologized for the delay in their meeting and formally introduced himself. He gave a bow but didn’t receive a response from Elene. Nevertheless, Sei continued and divulged that he and Aresh were dating.

    Sei looked up to see an unreadable expression on Elene’s face. While Aresh also wore a stiff expression, Sei could usually tell what he was thinking, but Elene’s expression left him unable to glean her reaction. Still, he carried on.

    He expressed his thoughts of greeting Aresh’s parents and explained that it would have to be later bc of his job as a guide was not over. Although Sei said this, he knew that he couldn’t just go to a marquis’s home just because Aresh was there, so his declaration was just to show his willingness to go.

    Sei thought he saw Elene’s expression twitch as she drank her tea. To his confusion, she retorted that Sei didn’t know anything. She wondered if he knew what the purpose of the Egorovian delegation’s visit was for. Sei answered that it was to begin diplomatic ties through the field of magic. Elene snapped that forming diplomatic ties wouldn’t just be exchanging technologies and that there was more basic method.

    Though she said so, Sei was only an accountant and didn’t usually have anything to do with diplomacy. For him, the most basic method he could think of would be those historical ones of marriages between nobles and royalty… he paused.

    Seeing Sei’s expression, Elene went on to ask if Sei knew the Egorovians’ plans for the next day. Sei still couldn’t fully believe his suppositions, but he answered that the members of the delegation were meeting with Romani nobles. Elene confirmed that they were coming to meet the Marquis of Indrak to discuss the engagement to Egorova’s 4th princess. That’s why Aresh hadn’t returned.

    Her impassive voice rang through Sei’s head.
    Kuster worriedly called out Sei’s name to get his attention. Sei looked up, remembering that they were currently holding a meeting to discuss what to do the remaining 2dys of the Egorovian mission. Sei apologized and checked his documents to see what else they had to complete.

    Kuster suggested that they take a break and called for tea. While Kuster seemed down-to-earth, he still bore the dignity of a nobleman. He asked Sei if there was smt he was concerned about, besides Isto, of course.

    Sei chuckled at that add-on and felt more relaxed. However, his concerns were of a private nature and he couldn’t discuss them with his business partner. Nevertheless, Sei felt tempted to seek advice from someone who was a noble.

    He opened by inquiring about Kuster’s marriage status. Kuster responded self-mockingly that he was a newlywed. His reaction was understandable; Kuster was in his mid-30s, a late age to marry for a noble. He told Sei about his wife, a daughter of a family far higher in class than him, the 3rd son of a count.

    Sei started to realize how relationships were in aristocratic society and despaired over his own situation with Aresh. Sei was an otherworlder, with no status or title, so wasn’t their relationship already doomed at the start? True, he wasn’t thinking of getting married, but still.

    Sei asked if it was normal for nobles to have an arranged partner from a young age. Kuster affirmed that heirs are likely to have that but since he was the 3rd son and had been immersed in magic research from a young age, it’s not smt he was familiar with. He laughed at his past belief that he’d remain single for missing the chance at marriage.

    Sei was certain that Aresh never had a fiancé beforehand. There’d been no word of any past relationships and had he one, he wouldn’t have so readily moved in with Sei. However, Aresh was definitely a popular choice for a marriage candidate. He had looks, status, and family background, despite being the 3rd son. From a political stance, as well as a woman’s, Aresh was perfect.

    As a son of a wealthy marquis, Aresh would’ve had the ability to refuse most proposals, but the other party was royalty. It’s easy to see that he wouldn’t be able to so easily refuse in this case.

    Scene cut:

    Sei was in the familiar office of Kamil’s and gave a progress report of the mission. This was particularly necessary, given the deviation from the original schedule to accommodate the Egorovian’s requests. Kamil went over the documents.

    He noticed that Lars seemed rather interested in the nation’s politics and Sei concurred that while the others were interested in the magic research, Lars’s attention was more centered around the state affairs of the nation. He seemed to approve of the fact that ppl didn’t regard status as highly in terms of employment, though Donato did not.

    As the prime minister, Kamil would be invested in the political situation in Egorova, but Sei, who had little involvement in politics, only commented on what he’d observed from the visitors. He could not give any opinions on the matter and only gave his impressions. Sei could only really handle things related to accounting.

    Kamil then asked what Sei really wanted to speak to him about. For a moment, Sei lost his composure due to the sudden address but quickly regained himself to give Kamil the documents about his magic enhancement idea. He explained that his idea was based on his observations of the Egorovian and the children at the church. He also mentioned his promised assistance from Cielo.

    Kamil couldn’t help but let out a sigh as he looked over the documents with a dumbfounded expression. Sei, still learning the common sense of the world, wondered if his approach was too abrupt. But Sei got the green light from Cielo.

    The lack of human resources available, even with the new private school, made the plan worth looking into. From now on, Romani was set to handle the Forest of Magic on its own without the help of a saint. And with the diplomatic relations going underway, it was necessary to have as much ppl with as much magic as possible.

    An innate source of magic wasn’t enough to help with these aims. If it turned out that training and changing the living environment could increase magic levels, then it would be worth it to try.

    Sei started explaining his findings of a discrepancy in the levels of magic when considering the birthplaces of children with the highest levels of magic in the church, as well as the mages in the Magic Department. Further, nobles in these certain areas also held higher levels of magic.

    A low voice interrupted him, asking if Sei was saying that it was region, and not bloodline, that determined a person’s levels of magic. At this, Sei momentarily paused.

    Magic was a basis for status in this world, with the economy and social classes being based around it. And those with good family backgrounds were typically noble with the highest levels of magic. So, a suggestion that could disrupt this sense of logic would probably go over better by being handled in a well-prepared manner.

    But such research would need time. Thus, Sei could only lower his head and confess that he was anxious to work on this plan as soon as possible. He apologized for overstepping his bounds as an outsider.

    However, Kamil only commented that Sei came up with many interesting ideas. Sei, surprised, looked up to see Kamil choking back his laughter in a way that was oddly familiar. Kamil chortled that the nobles would be in an uproar if Sei’s theory actually turned out to be true.

    That’s when Sei recalled that Kamil was essentially a maverick, with the ability, ambition, and influence to be a force to be reckoned with among the nobility:blobowoevil_horns:.

    Kamil was concerned that places with high concentration of mana might cause physical ailments, so suggested sending in prisoners to test the theory out, but Sei strongly disagreed. Sei somewhat expected this suggestion so he’d prepared a defense that they shouldn’t use prisoners or the weak bc they would be disposable and inefficient. Instead, he proposed that Kamil be the one to take charge of this, with proper precautions of course.

    At Kamil’s prodding, Sei elaborated that since magic was so important to status, then after the idea was put into practical use, there might arise already powerful aristocrats who could try to monopolize this, as it wasn’t possible for everyone to attempt this at the same time. So, with Kamil taking reign from the start, he could curb such monopolies and prevent a further polarization of the aristocracy.

    Furthermore, areas with high concentration of mana usually had a lot of infected monsters, so it’d be a good idea for the government to offer financial support to those local lords who were willing to cooperate with this project.

    Not to mention, that ppl in those areas were likely to have high levels of magic and could benefit being taught how to control their magic to prevent magical outbursts at the same time. And they could gather local assistance, preferably separated by age groups, to determine the rate of growth of magic levels.

    Kamil pointed out that nobles would hardly be willing to let them use their family’s children so easily, but Sei countered that they may be convinced to if Kamil used his influence to highlight the benefits of this plan.

    This time Kamil really couldn’t hold back his laughter, especially when Sei gave him a particularly villainous smile (Sei’s smile is described as “aku daikan-sama koso” [悪代官様こそ], with “aku daikan” [悪代官] being a term for a “evil”/“aku” [悪] “Edo-period magistrate”/“daikan” [代官]).

    Later, the two had refilled their tea and Kamil brought up another topic. Kamil thought Sei was bringing up that matter when he set up a meeting between them and revealed that he knew about Aresh’s engagement proposal. It was natural, as the prime minister, to know about a foreign royalty coming to propose to a noble in his country.

    Sei privately wondered why Kamil never told him but figured that Kamil probably thought it was not necessary for him to. At Sei’s lack of any obvious interest, Kamil questioned if Sei wanted Kamil to disclose anything further about it. But Sei rejected the offer, silently stating that he’d already learned the details from another.

    Kamil left it at that and proposed that they get together with Cielo and Zoltan to implement Sei’s plan. Sei accepted this with a thanks and got up to leave. As Sei headed home, he wondered if Elene was still at the mansion.
    Elene was still there when Sei returned and he held back his urge to sigh. Elene commented on his reaction anyways, but Sei turned away, unwilling to deal with her, and asked Waldem about Aresh. Aresh still wasn’t back either.

    Sei took to the stairs to go up to his room instead of staying down for dinner. Elene was still there, staring at him, but Sei didn’t feel like engaging with her and tried to walk past without speaking. He lacked the energy for anything else and needed to conserve some for the next day when they’d introduce Isto to the delegation.

    But he couldn’t ignore her when she spoke up again. He stopped and waited impatiently for her to say what she wanted, but she paused before asking him about his day. He flatly told her that he wasn’t going to say anything bc it was confidential information involving royalty from another country.

    Since she seemed to know of his work from their talks the other day, he refused to play into her faux guilelessness. Her brow wrinkled tightly and she seemed to be in a bad mood. When she curtly dismissed him, Sei responded with superficial courtesy and a bow and proceeded to his room.

    He took a moment to catch his bearings upon entering his room until Myran brought him a change of clothes. She remarked on how tired he seemed and Sei couldn’t deny it.

    Ever since coming to this world, only Aresh had gone out of his way to take care of Sei. Yet after coming to live in the mansion, Pavel, Myran, and Waldem had gone above and beyond to put him into their consideration that he felt a sense of familial warmth with them. Sei didn’t want to brush off their concern with his usual dismissals and tried to be honest with them.

    He inquired what Elene was doing in the mansion and Myran responded that she heard that Elene wanted to pass the time here while her husband was busy with his work. Sei questioned why she decided to do so in her brother’s home while he was away. Myran believed that she chose to stay at this mansion bc her husband worked in the palace, so she wanted to be nearby.

    But Sei knew Elene went to her parent’s estate first, so she must have known Aresh wouldn’t be at his when she arrived here. A thought sprang that maybe she came to inform Sei about the engagement and to keep him in check, but that didn’t feel quite right either. There was no way that the staff would allow Sei to move out while Aresh was absent, and Elene had not told Sei to leave either.

    Then Sei considered her position as the only daughter in an aristocratic household and as the 3rd child of 4 siblings in a family from which she was not the designated heir for. He looked to Myran for more information. Myran, who had worked for the Indrak family before she retired due to pregnancy (she agreed to come out of retirement to work for Aresh later after she was done child-rearing), was familiar with Aresh’s and Elene’s childhood.

    She told Sei that Elene was hard-working and beautiful, but she had an extremely talented and distinguished brother, 4yrs younger than her (author says she’s 26, so I guess Aresh hadn’t turned 23 yet even though the volume summary says he's 23). Aresh was gifted in both magic and combat, so he was placed into his studies immediately. As a woman, Elene was told that she didn’t need to know combat, so she dedicated herself to her studies, so as to not lose out on this aspect to her brother.

    However, bc she was lacking in magic, she was not able to pursue her dreams of researching magic. Meanwhile, Aresh became the youngest knight captain to the esteemed 3rd Knight’s Order. Sei wondered if the two siblings were actually on bad terms, but Myran claimed that not to be the case.

    Aresh was Elene’s only younger brother, so she held a lot of protectiveness towards him. Elene and Aresh were similar in that they were both very kind, but a tad awkward. Sei could picture a young Aresh being annoyed by his sister’s attention.

    The next day, Sei got up earlier to avoid bumping into Elene and went to join Orzif in heading to the Magic Department. Orzif wanted to make sure that the genius the Egorovians wanted to meet was actually the same person that their side found so worrisome. Sei responded yes (actually, he gives, what I think, is a sarcastic remark, but he essentially agrees that Isto is a worrisome genius).

    Orzif asked what he’d need to watch out for. Being initially a 3rd party, he’d been bombarded by so much information about Romani and Egorova that facts on specific ppl were getting blurred. So, Sei summarized key points.

    Isto doesn’t listen to ppl well, so anything Orzif would want him to understand may need repeating. Isto usually would get lost in his own head, so he often needs time to process outside information. But, if the topic is smt he’s interested in, he’d talk non-stop and would forgo honorifics when excited. Sei described Isto as basically a 5yo child, which perplexed Orzif.

    But Sei firmly thought this, as Isto was someone with no life skills, who often spilled things and made messes that he’d just leave as is. He reminded Sei of his cousin’s child back in Japan.

    Sei stressed that Isto’s pretty weak and had pretty low will-power, but he was able to exert a tremendous amount of force if he found smt of interest. Sei stated that Orzif’s job would be to use force to restrain him, if need be, to which Orzif gave a noncommittal response to :giggle:.

    Orzif then commented that Sei looked pale. Sei replied that he’d always been pale, but Orzif retorted that Sei was lacking his usual enthusiasm. Sei wondered if Orzif was trying to pick a fight:blob_grin:. But Orzif clarified that Sei was entrusted into his care, so Orzif feared that Aresh would blame him if anything happened to Sei. So, he hoped that Sei would stay well.

    After a pause, Sei remarked that he’d try.

    The two soon came across the others, including the Egorovians, and Sei greeted them in the Romani fashion. Lars greeted him back by name and a gave a smile, but Russano, Sei was surprised to see, did not look happy even though he was about to meet his idol.

    Orzif noticed as well and inquired about it, but Russano looked over to Lars in hesitation. Lars faltered in responding and suggested that they go to Sei for the answer. Sei had no idea what he meant, and Lars elaborated that Sei had a fiancé in the Romani nobility and when he went to visit one of the nobles to propose a marriage, he was turned down.

    Zoltan, outraged, questioned which family would turn down an Egorovian royal, and Lars answered that it was the son of Marquis Indrak.

    That made everyone pause. The only unmarried son of Indrak was Aresh. Sei could feel Orzif and Kuster gazes, but he remained unresponsive.

    Lars divulged that he’d heard Aresh was recently engaged too, so he wanted Sei’s advice, as a fiancé to a Romani nobleman, who appeared deeply in love with Sei. Lars asked Sei for tips on how to get Aresh to change his mind about their proposal.

    Sei, in return, tried very, very hard to pretend that he wasn’t there, disregarding the numerous eyes on him.
    Sei was tired.

    Flashback:

    Sei somehow muddled through Lars’s questioning, giving a vague “it depends” and making Zoltan angry at his address to royalty. Luckily, Kuster and Orzif managed to intervene. But for Sei, the stares from those 2 were more troubling than dealing with Lars or Zoltan bc they were filled with concern for him.

    Orzif redirected Lars’s attention with a question on the propriety of marrying an Egorovian royal to a Romani noble, which drew in Zoltan’s interest as well. Lars responded that bc he wanted to ensure a long relationship with Romani, he was considering marrying off Egorova’s 4th princess.

    Zoltan exclaimed that an engagement to her was a great honor and offered to introduce other eligible nobles. It would be considered a huge diplomatic achievement to marry a royal into a foreign country, so Zoltan’s enthusiasm was to be expected. For one to achieve such a feat would give the person a prolonged duty as a matchmaker.

    However, Russano doused that enthusiasm by stating that it wouldn’t be easy to find someone better than Aresh. It seemed both Lars and Russano were dead set on Aresh, who seemed too good to be true. Kuster and Orzif couldn’t help but glance over at Sei, and Sei was starting to get weary of the conversation.

    Fortunately for Sei, the group reached the Magic Department, halting any continuation of the conversation. Bc they were notified of the visit beforehand, unlike last time, the mages and the department were more presentable when the group entered, much to Zoltan’s and Sei’s relief.

    Russano excitedly looked around for Isto, but Lars reminded him that he still needed to apologize to Sigma for his tantrum the other day. Zoltan tried to wave his need to apologize off, but Russano truly felt remorse for his behavior and firmly requested the chance to.

    However, neither Sigma nor Isto seemed to be inside the department. As Sigma was not an official worker in the Department, he was able to come and go on his own time. Plus, with the fiasco from the other day, it was likely that he was either avoiding or was told to avoid coming back during the Egorovians’ stay.

    Observing Zoltan impatiently speak with his subordinate, Sei felt that the latter was probably the reason for Sigma’s absence. It was that, or maybe, his attitude was bc no one could find Isto. From listening to their discussion, it seemed that Isto was told about this meeting, but Sei felt the problem was that this was Isto. He rarely listened.

    And while Zoltan was usually good at handling Isto, bc he was tied with his responsibilities as a guide, he seemed to have left Isto to others’ care. Sei believed they should’ve restrained Isto and chained him in the department beforehand (of course he did :rolleyes:).

    Then all of the sudden, the doors opened with a loud bang. The Egorovian guards placed themselves at the ready for the oncoming threat, but the man going through spotted Sei and headed straight towards him, calling out Sei’s name and without a hint of professionalism. Pulling abruptly up to Sei, Isto demanded money, to which Sei reflectively responded with a firm no (déjà vu).

    In front of a dumbfounded audience, Isto’s half-lidded eyes blinked in puzzlement, as if he never expected to be rejected. However, this wasn’t the first time he’d made this request and Sei had never given him a yes. So, Sei was more bemused by Isto’s befuddlement.

    But more importantly, this was not one of Sei’s usual visits. Behind Isto, Sigma scolded him for being late and forgetting that he was there to meet important ppl from Egorova. Zoltan also started scolding him and stepped forward, as if to give Isto a lecture, but decided against it and pushed Isto back for introductions. Sei thought this was a good move, as there was no point in lecturing Isto.

    Unfortunately for Zoltan’s stress levels, Isto’s greetings were perfunctory and a bit absent-minded. However, the Egorovians didn’t seem uncomfortable with it and introduced themselves. Russano’s eyes were sparkling at him until a nudge from Lars directed his attention to Sigma, who was behind Isto.

    Quickly, Isto dismissed the need to continue pleasantries and demanded money from Sei again, and again, received a swift refusal. Zoltan grew outraged at Isto’s behavior and clenched his fists to keep from falling to his usual exchange with Isto while the guests were there.

    Isto tried to reason that since he finally got to see Sei, he needed to use the chance to ask for money bc he wasn’t sure how much he’d need. Sei retorted that Isto was already told multiple times of the procedure for requesting funds, which required knowing the exact amount he’d need and for what.

    Yet, Sei sensed that the intention behind his request wasn’t as usual and seemed to hold a different purpose, so he excused himself from the group to approach Isto. When Isto was in this sort of state, there was no dealing with him until he resolved his issue, so Sei thought it’d be better to deal with him first.

    Isto explained that he found some magic tools from his inspection when he went into town and wanted to buy them. When Sei questioned about the tools, Isto stated that they could be used for the summoning/return magic.

    A hush fell and Sei didn’t even have to check to know that the Egorovians focused onto their conversation. He tried to dissuade Isto from speaking more but Isto went on rambling at how they can use the tools to substitute an ancient magic medium to cross dimensions and allow Sei to return back to his own.

    Sei regretted that he didn’t take Isto into another room to talk, bc the cat was out of the bag. While Sei’s mind was racing, Lars spoke up and asked if Sei was from another dimension.

    Sei wasn’t sure what to say. As this subject was related to the diplomacy between the nations, Sei couldn’t just use discretion to give an answer. But on the other hand, Sei held no loyalty to keep his mouth shut, especially for his essential kidnappers. But then again, if Sei spilled the truth, it would likely be on him to handle the fallout.

    But none of Sei’s dilemma mattered bc a totally unconcerned troublemaking genius frankly answered that Sei was an otherworlder who came with the saint :bloboh:. Plus, Sei had a lot of interesting ideas.

    All in all, Isto’s bombshells may have been inevitable, but Sei and his group thought it was still better to prepare for him nonetheless.
    Sei couldn’t shake off feeling somewhat like a villain who’d just been caught. But to say that he was a part of the saint’s summoning was too much. It was an accident, as far as he could tell. And even though the government offered to cover his expenses, he came to work as an official under his own autonomy. So, he wasn’t too fazed by the onslaught of questions from the Egorovians after this revelation.

    Simply, he saved himself from answering (and without losing any professionalism) by deflecting all of their questions as being smt he, a government official, couldn’t answer by himself; therefore, they’d need to ask permission from someone in a higher position. Furthermore, this was their last day, so even if an application for disclosure was filed, it wouldn’t go through in time anyways.

    Additionally, there was someone else they were interested in, whom they had current access to, to distract them. That’s how Sei was successfully able to direct their focus back to Isto. Isto happily switched over to speaking with Russano and Donato. Sei suspected that Isto mistakenly believed his request was being agreed to but didn’t want attention back on him, so he left him at that.

    Only Lars stayed by Sei’s side to inquire about his origins. Orzif stepped over to stand between them and requested that Lars keep quiet about what he’d heard. From that, Lars was able to deduce the true reason why Orzif, the 2nd in command of the 3rd Knight’s Order, was placed as an escort. Orzif just smiled, neither confirming nor denying, and Lars agreed to drop the matter.

    However, his interest didn’t die down, especially considering how Sei, an otherworlder with no connections, was able to become a palace official and even a guide for foreign royalty. Sei downplayed these aspects, stating that letting Sei work in the palace would allow him to be under easier surveillance than if he was outside, and his promotion and additional responsibilities were bc of the Prime Minister’s notice of Sei doing his job.

    In fact, bc he held Kamil’s and Aresh’s favor and his work environment didn’t have rigid restrictions like in Japan, Sei thought it was easier for him to work here than in Japan. * Sei was able to utilize his ideas here and the two actually listened to his plans. If only he didn’t have to worry about magic and mana.

    * Here, Sei says Japan’s work environment tends to have “shiragami” [しがらみ].

    “Shiragami” [しがらみ] initially meant a fence made of twigs and bamboo tied together, then it later took on the meaning of smt that clings or blocks. Now, it generally means stockade/enclosure, but it also holds a meaning in a work environment of smt like a system of practices (aka work culture) which results in ties/fetters/shackles of obligations. Sei uses this latter meaning.

    In regards to a business, it’s used to describe a company’s culture that clings to outdated or pointless ritualistic procedures, which hinders the company’s progress. It’s basically any business practice that restricts its members’ actions or thoughts. Examples of company having “shiragami” would be smt like it having a strict hierarchy system that doesn’t support the company’s objectives and may even stifle innovations and waste resources or smt like promotion practices based on age and relationship (like nepotism) instead of experiences and abilities.


    Lars believed there was more to Sei than just that bc he was very impressed by how Sei prepared the documents for him to go over, which Lars found innovative. This appreciation made Sei genuinely pleased. Sei thought that regardless of the rumors surrounding Lars, he was obviously very adept and able to handle ppl well.

    Lars went on and admired Sei for his talents, calling him attractive, and his ability to find the spouse he did and so quickly as well. Lars’s words brought Sei to a freeze, his senses seemed to shatter to a point he almost thought he heard cracking. Orzif became flustered at Sei’s reaction.

    Sei stiltedly denied having a spouse, which Lars took to mean he was yet to be married, since he knew Sei wore a lapel pin during the banquet. While Sei wondered how Lars found out about the pin, Lars complimented Sei’s “fiancé” and how fortunate Lars felt to have the chance to meet him.

    Sei felt smt off. Did Lars know about Sei’s relationship before meeting with Aresh? Or did he realize after? And why didn’t Lars cancel the proposal with the Egorovian princess once he found out? But Lars also praised Sei and his engagement? That didn’t make sense.

    Before Sei could ask, Kuster called Sei over to help him. There was only one reason Kuster would shout for Sei like that, and sure enough, when Sei reached Kuster’s side, everyone was gathered in a circle around Isto. However, he also spotted that the Romani mages wore pale expressions and a red-faced Zoltan was holding a hand over Isto’s mouth.

    On the other hand, the eyes of the Egorovian mages were shining. Or, to be more exact, they too wore pale expressions, but their eyes were also shining.

    Sei wasted no time and ordered Orzif to restrain Isto. Orzif, momentarily disarrayed, recalled their earlier talks and rushed to action. He instantly grabbed Isto and covered his mouth. Russano cried in alarm, but Sei was positive that whatever occurred must have been caused by Isto.

    Sei turned to Zoltan for an explanation and after some reluctance, Zoltan gave in when he saw Sei was probably the only one who could control the situation. Sei was told that Isto was revealing the secrets about the summoning/return magic. However, despite Isto disregard for confidentiality, Sei knew he wasn’t the type to just tell ppl about his work out of nowhere either.

    Sei suspected that the Egorovians prompted Isto into revealing these secrets. Although he addressed his suspicions to the delegations, Isto managed to jerk his head away from Orzif’s hand and responded instead.

    Sei allowed Orzif to let Isto speak and Isto described his wonderment of how helpful the Egorovian mages were. Isto was troubled about the basic structure of summoning/return magic bc in order to transfer a living being, they’d need protection for more than just the physical state.

    For ancient summoning magic, a medium was used. But as there was only one, Isto needed a substitute. After listening to feedback from the Egorovian mages, Isto figured out that warding magic could also be used as a defense protection for a living soul/spirit.

    Sei cut off Isto’s rambling by ordering Orzif to cover his mouth again. He then focused on Isto and spoke severely that ancient summoning magic and summoning/return magic were Romani State secrets and were not to be discussed. He even repeated his words to get Isto to understand.

    Sei looked back towards the Egorovian mages after getting a nod from Isto. They didn’t agree with Sei at all and protested against the ban from sharing magical knowledge and for the favor of magical progression.

    Sei didn’t bother addressing them and turned to Lars, who let out a laugh with a troubled expression on his face. Lars proclaimed that the magical diplomacy between the countries for a magical/cultural exchange wouldn’t be decided until after the mission, to which Sei and the Romani mages nodded in acknowledgment.

    But then, Lars declared he’d be using his authority to promise Egorova’s acceptance of a magical/cultural exchange in order to conduct a joint research on summoning/return magic. That caused a stir of excitement among all of the magic research fanatics, both Egorovian and Romani.

    Sei, however, did not want to be the one responsible for how out of hand things were going, so he meekly stated that he’d check with the higher ups first. It really was all he could do at that point.

    Scene cut:

    The day ended with Zoltan reporting to Kamil. It seemed the higher ups would have an emergency meeting. Since Isto and the Egorovian delegation couldn’t be left alone together, and Sei couldn’t lock Isto up again (lol), the Egorovians left to explore the city again. Orzif and some in the 2nd Knight’s Order were assigned as guards and accompanied them.

    Sei, not feeling like doing work for once, went back home instead. He arrived back at the mansion and bumped into the gardener, who came to tend the gardens once a week. He was an elderly man, who worked in gardens for several families.

    This was Sei’s 3rd time meeting him, but Sei couldn’t stick around for small talk and excused himself. The gardener nodded, without pursuing it, and remarked that it was just as well, as Aresh had returned (whaaa-!? The prodigal son has returned!).
    It’d been 4dys since Sei last saw Aresh. After greeting Waldem, who confirmed that Aresh returned and was in his room, Sei went straight upstairs to the bedrooms, not even checking to see if Elene was still in the mansion. He arrived at Aresh’s room but paused before knocking. He realized he was still in his uniform and decided to go to his room to change first, but then the door opened.

    There was Aresh, in his loungewear, surprised to see Sei home so early. He moved his body to not block the door, but Sei stood frozen until Aresh invited him in with a huff at Sei’s hesitance. He quietly closed the door behind Sei and encircled Sei in his arm. Sei could feel Aresh’s breath against his neck.

    Aresh grumbled when Sei started squirming, trying to turn around, but he released Sei after realizing it and embraced Sei again once Sei was facing him. They hugged for some time, with Sei familiarizing himself with Aresh’s scent while Aresh held him tightly. When Aresh finally loosened his arms enough for Sei to move again, Sei looked up to see those beautiful amethyst eyes.

    Lars, whom Sei saw nearly everyday for the past week, was also beautiful, but Aresh gave off a wilder sense of beauty, or rather, he also had the roughness of a knight. Sei pondered if it was his affections for Aresh that made him find this roughness attractive :bloblove:. Those thoughts ran through his mind as Aresh drew in closer and they shared a kiss for the first time in 5dys.

    After they parted, Aresh mentioned that he’d check the wardings, though they seemed to be intact. That brought Sei back to his senses. He was glad to see Aresh after so long and to see that their fight before didn’t cause a rift between them. But didn’t Aresh have smt he should say?

    He asked Aresh that but received a puzzled expression in return. Sei took on a more direct line of question, implying he knew Aresh had smt he needed to tell Sei, but Aresh kept a look as if he didn’t understand. So, Sei directly stated that he knew about the engagement proposal.

    Even thought he knew that Aresh’s side turned it down, the matter still involved Sei, so he wanted to ask Aresh to get a proper report of the situation. But Aresh’s reply was not what Sei expected.

    “It’s not for you to be concerned with.” (uh-oh:blobfrowning::bloboh:)

    Aresh disclosed that he would be leaving for business the next day, so he thought reestablishing the wards was a more important issue at hand. He reached and pulled Sei over, leaning his head down to Sei’s lips. But he pulled back quickly, blood blooming on his lips. Sei had bitten him.

    In that moment, Sei twisted out of Aresh’s arms and took a step or two back. Aresh called his name in confusion. His shocked expression made him seem surprisingly young to Sei, but he didn’t let that distract him.

    He spoke out with formal honorifics to grab Aresh’s full attention. Aresh always encouraged Sei to speak informally with him, and while Sei never dropped the honorifics, his way of address was more casual. Thus, his use formal speech put Aresh on notice.

    Sei announced that he wouldn’t be at the mansion the next day either and he excused himself, stating that he needed to cool down. His declaration had thrown Aresh off-kilter, so he wasn’t able to stop Sei from leaving. Sei ran off as fast as he could before Aresh could come to his sense and chase after him.

    He was glad that he ended up not changing his clothes after all.

    Scene cut:

    It’s Sigma’s POV and it went into how his days are. He would wake up, do chores, and either go to the woodworking shop, the school, or the palace. Sigma’s side about meeting the delegation was revealed: he thought they were friendly, except for that one mishap with Russano. Later, Sigma was told that had been resolved, and he was urged to go to the palace shortly after to help deal with Isto.

    Sigma heard Isto was eccentric and hard to communicate with, but Sigma didn’t think so. He thought Isto was fun and talented, with a lot of great ideas, even if he did go on tangents sometimes and randomly did things in the spur of the moment. However, Sigma believed the official who was actually strange was Sei.

    Sigma arrived at the Magic Department early enough that none of the other mages were present. Bc of the visitors, the mages were ordered to keep the department and themselves clean and tidy, so they were forced to go home at the end of the day. Yet, there was one familiar, yet unexpected, brown cloak.

    Sei greeted Sigma, who’d thought he was alone, and he yelped in shock. Sei emerged from the department’s rest area with a sleepy face, bed-head, and a wrinkled uniform.

    Sigma asked if Sei spent the night there and Sei replied with an affirmative. He also lamented that the rest area wasn’t as perfect as he’d hoped bc it lacked shower rooms. Sigma stated that the mages used cleaning magic. This was smt Sei knew about and the reason why he struck off the need for building one when he proposed the changes to the department.

    But the lack meant that this was yet to be the ideal work environment of Sei’s dreams he’d hoped to achieve, which was disappointing.

    Sigma asked Sei if there was smt wrong. But Sei suddenly had an idea after staring at Sigma and asked after his job at the woodworking shop. When Sigma confirmed it, Sei spoke to Sigma at length, giving him a task to do. Sigma agreed and Sei gave him a small gold coin.

    Just as Sigma was putting away the money, the doors to the department slammed open. It was Norbert, who’s hair was in complete disarray, and he was frantically looking for Sei.
    Sei remarked on Norbert’s messy appearance and Norbert blamed Sei for it. Norbert complained that he’d been looking for Sei ever since Sei had ran away from home.

    Sei asked if Norbert had become Aresh’s dog, and Norbert wailed over Sei being too harsh and over Sigma’s look of disdain. He cried that Sei and Aresh were the real bad ones for involving others in their lovers’ quarrel (protect this pup!:blobhero::blobdog:).

    Sigma was confused but Sei couldn’t bring himself to say anything in front of those innocent eyes. He tried to deny it, but Norbert interrupted with a firm assertion that it was a lovers’ quarrel and that he’d heard all about it.

    At Sei’s inquiry, Norbert exclaimed that it would be too terrible to just be used without even being told the situation. So, he knew that Sei ran out of the estate while angry and the conversation between Aresh and Sei right before that. And while Aresh wanted to come himself, he knew things would get worse if he did.

    Sei retorted that he wasn’t at fault, and Norbert agreed but added that it was still awful to run away from home and make Aresh worry over his health. Sei corrected that he wasn’t running away from home but was finding a place to cool down. When Norbert asked why he didn’t go to another room, Sei answered that he couldn’t stay in the mansion bc Aresh held the master key. Plus, their bedrooms were connected.

    Sei paused when he sensed a subtle change in the atmosphere. Sigma was fidgeting, red-faced and clearly uncomfortable. This wasn’t a discussion to have in front of a child.

    Norbert believed that Sei was worried over the stability of his own engagement, but thought that things were fine bc Aresh declined the proposal, but Sei disagreed and stated that wasn’t the point. In the first place, Sei wasn’t the type to become anxious or overly emotional. * Norbert, understanding that his initial assessment was wrong, asked why Sei was angry.

    * Norbert states that Sei’s mind is made of mental Orichalcum.

    While Orichalcum is described in Plato’s Critias as a type of metal mined in Atlantis, based on various ancient texts, it’s believed to be either another name for platinum or some type of bronze/brass/other unknown combination of metal alloy. Its use was believed to be for currency or decorative material.

    However, in Japanese manga/anime/novels, it gained another attribute as being the strongest mythical metal granted by the gods. It’s often found in fictional weapons and armor, even though this use isn’t supported by historical findings.


    Sei responded that Aresh didn’t do proper reporting, communicating, and consulting. Norbert didn’t expect to hear those terms outside of work. Those were words he was familiar with bc Sei would say the same to him whenever he made a mistake on the job.

    Sei reiterated that everything needed to be properly communicated and discussed (hear hear! :blob_pompom:). Norbert suggested that Aresh probably didn’t want to worry Sei. Yet, Sei rebutted that if the refusal was difficult enough to cause worry, then Aresh should’ve told Sei about it so they could figure out how to resolve any of the potential fallout together.

    To Norbert, Sei’s logic seemed correct, but there was still smt that didn’t sit right with him. He tried to reason that since it was Aresh’s problem, Aresh probably wanted to solve it himself. But Norbert felt that his reasoning seemed to follow a circular logic. Sei looked at him with disapproval but didn’t argue further, thinking that doing so would be useless.

    Instead, he muttered that it seemed everyone was looking down on him, which Norbert quickly tried to deny. But Sei still held a displeased expression and stood up, signaling that the conversation was over.

    But as someone who was harassed earlier that morning bc of Sei, Norbert felt it wasn’t right to end here. He commented that Aresh might not say enough, but Sei’s attitude wasn’t helping his situation either. He imagined that having a cold-headed lover like Sei would make one doubt if one was even loved, so in that sense, Norbert thought Aresh must have a strong spirit.

    Sei told him to shut it and flicked Norbert on the forehead for his troubles.

    Scene cut:

    Later that day, the Romani guides and Egorovian delegation, as well as the prime minister and the crown prince, gathered in a room for a conference. Isto was left in a lab. This was a meeting to formally agree on the Romani-Egorova joint research venture on transfer magic that Lars proposed.

    While the Egorovians were happy, the Romani side had complicated expressions. Ultimately, this undertaking covered the goal of connecting the two nations via magic diplomacy, even if the results came about quicker than expected. But there was a problem in who would be leading this project.

    Had the Egorovians returned first and renewed their offer of diplomacy afterwards, Romani would have had a grace period to figure out how to handle the offer. But this ended up being an immediate joint project on magic, for which the Romani side currently had little on hand to counter the power balance, which favored Egorova, a magically advance nation.

    If Egorova should take the lead on the project, then all of the Romani research on transfer magic, including ancient magic, would be handed over to them. And if the Romani side wasn’t careful, Egorova would certainly take control of these magics, with Romani being reduced as being only support.

    This was why Kamil, Julius, and Zoltan were working hard to persuade the delegation to return first. In the end, the delegation did agree to go back to their nation to report on the new venture and get permission from the kingdom to go forward with the project. Even better, though they were scheduled to leave the next day, they arranged to leave now to get permission as soon as possible.

    Kamil stopped Sei after the meeting was over. Since he wasn’t sure how things were going to go, he requested that Sei work out the details of his plan they discussed earlier just in case he needed it. Sei nodded in response.

    His magic enhancement plan required a location with a lot of mana, for which Egorova’s cooperation would be most useful. And to offer the chance for the Egorovian to join in this side project may give their side the negotiation power to get Egorova to concede on certain conditions with the transfer magic project.

    Once Kamil left, Lars, who finished speaking with Julius, approached Sei for a private conversation. They moved to the terrace to talk. Lars commented his surprise on Sei being an otheroworlder and his past hope to recruit Sei for his talents as an official. Of course, now that he knew the truth, he realized that his hope was impossible. Sei imagined Lars’s understanding that no country would give up an otherworlder who’d been summoned along with a saint.

    Sei could only express appreciation for his regards. Though Lars smiled, Sei still couldn’t read him. He thought this prince seemed more like Kamil than his fellow prince, Julius.

    Then Lars inquired if Sei was trying to return to his world, since he played a role in researching summoning/return magic. Sei gulped at this and carefully admitted to it, as it was one of the main reasons why the research was being conducted.

    Lars questioned if he was leaving even though he had a companion in this world. Sei felt a chill inside and stiffly replied that he wouldn’t answer personal questions like that. Lars, noticing Sei’s change in demeanor, apologized. He stated his question was from sincere curiosity, while chuckling. But Sei wasn’t fond of being probed about private matter just bc of someone’s sincere curiosity.

    Lars speculated that Sei must have planned to leave so gaining companion must have been unplanned. He professed that he didn’t understand how one can’t control the emotion of love by reason alone. When Sei looked at him closer, he saw a trace of sadness on Lars’s doll-like face. Lars continued that he only knew what was good for his position, so he believed that even his marriage would end up being primarily a means to an end.

    Jade eyes met black and Lars confessed. He thought that he and Sei were of a kind, so he wanted to know more of how Sei managed to fall in love, even when it deviated from his plans (awww).

    Around noon, the Egorovians left with escorts, among them were Romani knights, including Aresh:blobastonished:.
    It took 6dys to reach Egorova and 3dys have passed since the delegation, and Aresh, left. Meanwhile, Sei was working overtime for his neglected work in the Accounting Department. His overly intense dedication distracted the rest of the department and Norbert went over to check on Sei. But Sei didn’t stop and only responded to Norbert distractedly that he didn’t know what Norbert meant.

    Sei’s relationship with Aresh wasn’t a secret to anyone close to Sei, especially after the lapel pin. But Aresh had suddenly left to escort the Egorovians back to their country. Normally, he’d only be tasked with sending them off to the borders, but some knew that Aresh volunteered himself (what:blobunamused:), under the guise that he was best suited for establishing diplomatic relations as the leader of the 3rd Knight’s Order and the best knight in the kingdom.

    Nonetheless, it was a matter of course for someone in such a superior political position to be chosen as the target of an engagement by the Egorovian royal family.

    Back in the mansion, the staff were trying to ensure that Sei stayed and even Elene stopped by after her husband’s work concluded to offer that Aresh was hopeless with his words. However, Sei pretended not to notice their concerns and simply nodded, while continuing his work.

    Norbert forced Sei to leave for lunch, knowing he’d worked through lunchtime if he wasn’t cajoled away, especially if Aresh wasn’t around to stop him. They encountered Orzif in the dining area and he picked up a tray to join them. Even though their work relationship ended when the Egorovians left, Sei felt that Orzif was trying to look after him since Aresh was away.

    Sei put up with him since Orzif was easy to get along with. Furthermore, he also had good common sense, being the one to apologize for the actions of his family (the lapel pin incident). Although Norbert was a little nervous with Orzif being there, like that, the group of 3 sat down to eat together.

    Orzif joked that Aresh left the Order in such a mess with his sudden leave. His tone suggested he was trying to lift Sei’s spirits, but he wasn’t lying either. Aresh’s job as an escort knight started as soon as Orzif’s job as a guide ended, leaving them no time to talk. However, Aresh barely did any of the menial tasks before Sei came, so Orzif was able to manage things without him.

    Sei, on the other hand, maintained a blank face and spoke in defense of Aresh, stating that it couldn’t be helped since the Egorovians rushed their schedule. Orzif, expecting Sei to be either depressed or angry but not sensing either emotion from Sei, turned to Norbert, whom he wasn’t all that familiar with.

    Before, Orzif thought Sei lacked emotions after witnessing his handling of his assault. Later, while working with Sei as a guide, Orzif thought he was wrong and Sei was pretty normal. Now, Orzif’s opinion on Sei reverted back to his initial impression.

    As they ate, there was a buzz in the dining hall. Yua had entered and pointed out to Sei when she spotted him, charging over to his table. Sei scolded her for pointing and she quickly apologized before resuming her previous momentum, slamming the table and loudly questioning the matter of Aresh’s engagement to a princess in Egorova (oh honey, I appreciate the enthusiasm but TPO).

    This caught everyone’s attention and Sei could hear their murmuring gossip behind him. He calmly denied it, but Yua declared that Julius had told her that the Egorovians proposed an engagement to Aresh and that Aresh left with them. Sei could only be super annoyed at the prince for being so lax with Yua (he even calls Julius that “f*cking prince”/“kuso oji” [クソ王子] :blob_grin:).

    Norbert and Orzif, seeing how angry Sei was, hurried to explain that there was no way Aresh would be engaged. Undeterred, Yua repeated her question and this time, Sei confirmed that it seemed that way. Anxious, Norbert and Orzif tried to deny it but were pushed aside by an incensed Yua. She couldn’t believe Sei would be okay that bc she thought that he was Aresh’s lover.

    She asked Sei this, sparking another round of buzzing from their onlookers, though milder as most were aware of Sei’s and Aresh’s closeness. Sei simply looked back at Yua, neither confirming nor denying her words. Then, Yua insisted that they go to Egorova to get Aresh back, dumbfounding Norbert and Orzif with her resolution (omg, I love her :aww:). *

    * Here, it describes Yua as having a “crisp”/“kiriri” [キリリ] expression, which Norbert and Orzif were shocked by, having not seen her like that before.

    I’m finding that the “kiriri” is mostly used in regards to taste in the same way “crisp” is used to describe taste, but I had a harder time finding its meaning for describing a person’s facial expression.

    I think “kiriri” is almost, but not quite, the same as “crisp” when used to describe appearances (however, I think there are nuances to the meaning of “kiriri” that aren’t present in “crisp”—plus, I believe “crisp” generally isn’t used to describe a person’s facial expressions and is more often used to describe a person’s clothes or speech or movement).

    So, while I’m finding words like “firm”, “sharp”, “clean”, “dignified”, and “neat” associated with “kiriri” that is also associated with “crisp” for appearances, I’m also seeing words like “tense” and “enthusiastic” and “fearless” associated with “kiriri”. And I think the latter associated words fit more with the context about Yua, so I thought using “resolution” to better highlight those aspects to her expression.

    But let me know if any thoughts on this!


    When asked how, Yua declared if she went with them, they could say this was a visitation from the saint, so the country wouldn’t be able to refuse them entry. She persisted that they should go as soon as possible, today even!

    Norbert and Orzif weakly protested, with Norbert believing such a bold and passionate move would be way out of character for Sei. But when Norbert turned around, Sei had already put away his dishes and risen to his feet.

    Sei stated that it was earlier than he planned but agreed with Yua to go ahead with the trip. Sei had spent the past 3dys finishing off and transferring his work, so he’d be ready to go once the transfers were completed. His announcement elicited varying degrees of astonishment from the others, ranging from delighted (Yua) to shocked (Norbert and Orzif).
    Sei and Yua were quick to make preparations to leave. Sei finished up his work and Yua scheduled a meeting with Julius to plan out the journey. They sat down with Kamil and Sei, as well as Norbert and Orzif, who didn’t really know why they were included. Julius received the request of the [Saint’s Excursion to Egorova] with a bitter look on his face and Kamil seemed somewhat amused by everything.

    Yua, fired up, proclaimed that this method would make it impossible for Egorova to turn them away. Sei provided support for Yua’s claim with an explanation that the recent success of diplomatic relations with Egorova would naturally make them the first outside country to formally meet the saint.

    Julius tried arguing that there’s a process, but Yua cut him off by stating that this was okay to forgo all that bc this “saint’s excursion” would all be pretext anyways. Julius haltingly told Yua she shouldn’t be so upfront about that.

    Normally, Julius wouldn’t go against Yua, but this time was a rare instance where he had objections. However, Yua refused to back down (you go, girl!:blob_pompom:).

    She declared that they couldn’t let Aresh get married to the princess bc he might never return. And while it’s true that the country wouldn’t be willing to lose Aresh, Julius accused that Yua was acting out of concern for Sei.

    Sei, who knew of Yua’s crush on Aresh, had thought that was her motivation for trying to get him to return. But she seemed to also have a clear understanding of Sei’s relationship with Aresh and was trying to help Sei get to him.

    Yua retorted that in her country, anyone who got in the way of a person’s love life would get kicked by a horse and die (oooh, call back). While Julius was struggling to find his words, Kamil leaned over to Sei and whispered about certain rumors he heard from other aristocrats. Sei wondered if this meant that Julius had already proposed to Yua. From the way Yua was speaking to him, Sei also speculated over Yua’s feelings for the prince.

    The other two’s conversation ended, with Yua stating that she had a lot to think about and asking Julius to wait for an answer. As expected, Julius backed down after that. Now, all that was left was for Kamil, the one with the real political power, to give his permission.

    Sei started negotiations by offering to tilt the control over the transfer magic project towards Romani’s side with this trip. He didn’t realize that Kamil hadn’t moved from where he was whispering into Sei’s ear earlier. When Sei turned and saw how close their faces were, he took a startled step back.

    Kamil, amused, took out a hand to steady him. He murmured in a low voice about missing an opportunity, while his hand glided softly across Sei’s cheek :bloboh:. Before Sei could get a word out, Orzif and Norbert jumped in between the two to separate them :D.

    Kamil let out a chuckle at their blatant interference and commented on the increase of Sei’s guardian knights. Sei clarified that they were just on Aresh’s side. Norbert twitched at that but Sei ignored him, not forgetting how Norbert acted on Aresh’s orders in forcing Sei to eat and searching for Sei’s location when he left the mansion.

    Kamil, sending Sei a flirtatious glance, responded that he’ll be on Sei’s side in that case (ooooh~ this smooth talker). In a sultry voice, he asked Sei if there was anything he wanted Kamil to do for him. During this scene, Sei noticed that Yua was no longer paying attention to Julius but was avidly watching them with hearts in her eyes:blobmelon::X3:.

    Sei responded for Kamil to sign the documents Sei gave him :ROFLMAO:.

    Scene cut:

    They couldn’t head off that day, as Yua wanted, but were prepped to set off the next morning. There were 2 carriages and a 5-knight escort guard, 4 being from the 2nd Knight’s Order. The last was the ever-worrying Vice-Captain Orzif of the 3rd Knight’s Order. Orzif was trepid about how the 3rd Knight’s Order would fare, now missing both the captain and vice-captain, and especially with such short notice.

    Next to Orzif was Isto, excited to be going on and having the chance to find new materials on magic. Isto, more than less, forced Sei to take him along when he found out about the journey. Beside him was bemused Sigma, wondering why he was being brought along too after being dragged out by Isto. Sei was fine with it, as he was thankful that there was someone to babysit Isto.

    Beside Sei was another bemused soul, who’d been ordered to accompany them by his brother, the crown prince. Sei suspected that Norbert was sent along with them bc of smt to do with the royal family, but as that didn’t concern him, Sei didn’t bother with it. Norbert complained at Sei’s indifference but was soothed by Sei’s off-handed remark that he was treating Norbert “as a friend” (Norbert nooo, don’t be fooled~).

    Norbert then pointed to ask Sei about what he was wearing. Sei had on a mask made of a thin black cloth that covered his face from his eyes down. The cloth was made from rahuketu ([ラフケト] is the Japanese translation for the character, Rahuketu, in the Hindi animated film, Return of Hanuman). It was a plant found in the southern country of Plusus ([プラサス] is also a Japanese folic acid supplement brand), a country with low levels of mana. Apparently, rahuketu had mana purifying effects, so the mask was supposed to help Sei from inhaling mana.

    Norbert wondered if Sei would be okay bc Egorova possessed higher levels of mana than Romani. Sei assured him that he took countermeasures for that: not just the mask, but Sei also had the prototype for the medicine potion that Aresh had Cielo work on to help with magic/mana sickness. Cielo was reluctant to hand it over bc the prototype wasn’t very effective, but Sei convinced him that it was better than nothing.

    Further, although the country possessed higher levels of mana, their destination, the royal capital, did not have a collapsible level of mana. Norbert, still worried, warned Sei to not be reckless and to tell him if he felt sick.

    Sei brushed off Norbert’s mother-henning when Yua and her maidservant finally arrived, along with another familiar face. Elene had requested to come along the night before, stating that it would be better if another noble was part of the saint’s entourage. It was Yua’s first time meeting Elene and they seemed to hit it off well.

    So, like that, the party divided into 2 groups: Yua, Elene, Orzif, and Yua’s maidservant in one carriage; and Sei, Norbert, Isto, and Sigma in the other (guessing the other 4 knights rode horseback, or maybe were the drivers?).
    The border between Romani and Egorova was a mountain range but the countries were connected by a tunnel, so there was no need to traverse the mountains to reach the other country. The journey one-way generally took 6dys, and Sei, being a modern Japanese man, was still not used to traveling long distances by carriage. And considering the large party and the need to allow the horses to have breaks, especially as there were no towns along the way to change out horses, their trip would likely take longer than 6dys.

    However, Yua eagerly declared that they could cut down on travel time by using her healing magic on the horses. Sei flinched at Yua’s suggested (slave-driving) tactics, but the others expressed interest in such an innovative way to use healing magic. Isto was particularly enthused at this new way to use magic and offered to assist Yua in healing the horses as well.

    Elene cattily offered Orzif’s help, as he should know some magic too. Orzif strongly rejected, stating that he wasn’t an expert in healing and was only there as a knight escort. Elene proclaimed him useless and the two cousins continued their bickering.

    Sei also wanted to reach their destination faster. Looking at the lively bunch of magic users, he suggested that they figure out other ways to make the trip go quicker besides just healing the horses. So, Yua used her healing and purification magic on the horses to help them breathe. Orzif used earth magic to make the roads smoother. Isto made the carriages lighter and reinforced the horses’ legs.

    Scene cut:

    There was still some worry about the party arriving at Egorova so quickly after they left. Even though they sent notice before they left, there was still a chance that their group would be met with suspicion, as they arrived in less than 2dys after. Indeed, when they announced themselves to the gatekeeper, he looked like he received a shock and ran off in a panic.

    The group was made to wait in a small waiting room for the time being. Usually, nobles would send notices in advance and a special room would be set aside for them to wait in, but their speedy arrival stirred everything into confusion and they were sent to wait in the same room as the traders who did regular business with the castle. It created an awkward atmosphere.

    While waiting, Sigma pulled out a small, purple box from his bag and handed it to Sei. It was an item Sei requested previously, but Sigma hadn’t a chance to hand it over until then. Norbert asked what the item was but Sei replied that it was a secret, causing Norbert to whine at him.

    Soon after, a group of knights ran towards them, along with an out-of-breath Donato, who confirmed their identities. He was bewildered at how they were able to come so quickly. Sei, noting that the confirmation didn’t lessen the chaos, was stuck trying to figure out how to settle the situation. He also thought that it was a waste of time to explain things there.

    Elene stood up and introduced herself, urging Donato’s group to move things along, as they were holding up the saint, who was tired from a long journey. Those words of authority provoked Donato into action to properly guide the Romani party into the palace.

    This was the sort of scene that required a noble to get under control. This thought went through Sei’s mind as he looked over at Norbert, who was supposed to be the son of a count :blobnobully::blob_plusone::blob_plusone:.

    They were led to a luxurious parlor, a stark contrast to the room they were in before. The ceiling and furniture were decorated in gold and the chandeliers were of an intrinsically beautiful design. From the unnatural way their lights glowed, Sei suspected that they operated on magic.

    Unlike Romani’s castle, Egorova’s was made of stone, giving off a rough impression. Yet, inside the palace glittered, with a lot of fine embroidery and detailed patterns, similar to the designs of Lars’ and his group’s clothes when they had visited. It suggested that the country developed its handcrafted goods alongside its magic technology.

    A few minutes after tea was served to them, a butler opened the doors for Lars to enter. He was dressed in finer and more ethnic clothing than the ones he wore during his visit to Romani. And he was followed by a young girl, whose dark hair was swept back and neatly arranged and whose eyes were the same jade color as Lars’.

    Sigma exclaimed in surprise at the sight of her. His eyes widened largely at recognizing the girl as Russano, the “boy” who had visited as part of the Egorovian delegation.

    Lars chuckled at Sigma’s reaction and apologized to the room for the delay. It was his first time meeting both Yua and Elene, so he introduced himself as the 3rd prince of Egorova and turned to push “Russano” forward for her introduction.

    She gave a graceful bow and introduced herself as Rufina Kjeltyka Egorova, the 3rd princess of Egorova (since her name, [ルフィナ], can either be “Rufina” or “Lufina”, I decided to stick with “Rufina” bc it makes it easier for me to do changes in the spoilers ^^; so I’ll be changing “Lufi” to “Rufi” instead of “Russano” to “Lussano”—fun note: “Rufina” is the female equivalent of the name, Rufus, which means “red-haired” but Rufina’s hair is black. As for the part of her name that I translated to “Kjeltyka” [クジェルティカ], I couldn’t find a proper translation anywhere, so I just broke down the first part of the name [クジェル], which can be translated to “Kjel” and added it to the last part, “tyka” [ティカ]. If anyone has a better translation, pls share!).

    While Sigma stook in petrification, Sei wasn’t particularly shaken by the reveal. It was quite easy for a girl her age to disguise herself as a boy, after all. The rest of the group were only a bit surprised but were also understanding. Yua was the only one to hold no surprise, as this was her first introduction to Rufina.

    Orzif commented that he knew he’d seen her before and was reprimanded by Elene for not recognizing a member of royalty when meeting face-to-face. Apparently, as a son of a marquis, he should have learned to recognize the portraits of members from other country’s royal families and their family structure.

    Hearing that, Sei stared at Norbert, a member of the Romani royal family and the adopted son of a count. Norbert turned aside at his gaze, as if in admittance that he should’ve known and also didn’t notice :blobnobully::blob_plusone::blob_plusone::blob_plusone:.

    Lars continued speaking, voicing his doubts at their untimely arrival and the saint’s presence in her first visit outside of Romani. They gave excuses that the visit was to foster cooperation and trust in the countries’ joint venture. Lars observed the Romani group, his eyes stopping at Norbert and again at Sei with his mask on.

    Lars then suggested that they should take it easy and rest up after a long trip. He proclaimed that they’d be introduced to the king and the others later, as they wanted to meet the saint. Sei’s certain that the staff in the palace was currently frantically running about in preparations to formally receive their group. But he, likewise, felt he had to hurry.

    Before Lars could leave, Elene stopped him, requesting to meet with the knight escort sent earlier. Lars looked over at Rufina and turned back to Elene. He responded that Aresh was currently with their sister, the 4th princess of Egorova (wait, if Rufina, a girl around Sigma’s age (12), is the 3rd princess, then how old is the 4th princess? I wonder about Egorova’s royal family dynamic if she ends up being near Aresh’s age, but ahhh… squick if she’s properly younger than Rufina).

    It seemed the arranged meeting had already taken place.
    When she learned of Aresh’s whereabouts, Elene didn’t back down but insisted that she be included in his visit, as his sister to meet her potential in-law. Norbert and Orzif casted a worried glance at Sei, but the cat was already out of the bag. Lars was reluctant but Yua joined in on insisting to come as well. As she was a saint and honored guest, no one could refuse Yua’s request.

    Rufina tried explaining that her sister was poor in health, so her actions might be considered rude, but Yua barreled on that since it was her request, she wouldn’t be concerned about that. In the end, Lars led the group away.

    Orzif and Lars exchanged a few loaded words, with Orzif’s being disguised as apologies, along the way. In his apology, Orzif implicitly sought out whether Egorova’s side had anything to do with Aresh’s assignment as a knight escort. Lars should be aware of the purpose of Yua’s visit, as the saint from Romani, and how it skipped a few steps in terms of proper diplomacy. Orzif’s words held a hidden meaning of reminding Lars to not go over the line.

    Lars acknowledged that the rush on his side required the need for a knight escort, but it was Aresh who took the initiative to be that escort. Norbert let out a surprise exclamation, but he held a vague notion that this would be the case, as Aresh wasn’t one to move at someone else’s orders.

    Lars then turned to Sei and stated that he was slightly surprised to see him, and remarked that it must be bc Sei was an excellent official and negotiator. They came to a stop at a door, which opened after Rufina’s attendant made a request to enter. As the entered, Sei responded that he was there to get his man back:blobtaco:, causing Lars to turn speechless.

    Scene cut:

    Inside the room, Aresh and the 4th princess (Sofia) were seated in a simple but high-class room. Sofia rose first to greet her sister and Aresh turned around. He noted the group in shock and bypassed the royal siblings, as well as Elene, to approach Sei and asked why he was there.

    Aresh grasped Sei’s shoulders and cried that Sei’s coming there was dangerous bc his warding had already stopped working. Sei retorted that he came bc someone left without even telling him, so Sei decided to come up with his own countermeasures. When Aresh asked, Sei mentioned the potion that Cielo had come up with, as well as the mask.

    Aresh didn’t seem appeased at all, but before he could continue, a hand came up from behind him. Elene scolded Aresh for completely ignoring his older sister, and Aresh went from concerned-mode to annoyed-mode. Elene returned the stance.

    Aresh questioned why she was there and Elene countered by asking who he thought would be able to let the 2 meet so quickly. They both wore stubborn expressions, looking quite similar to each other.

    Orzif, used to his cousins’ bickering, focused on Sofia. He stared at her in bafflement, as he suspected she, being the 4th princess, would be younger than the 12yo 3rd princess, Rufina. It was common for royals to have their children get engaged early to protect the royal bloodline, so an age gap was common. But this...

    Norbert asked how old Sofia was and Lars answered that she would be 4yo this year:blobfrowning:. Orzif spluttered and tried to cover it up in a panic by turning it into a cough. He then started to laugh at the absurdity of the picture that pairing would make until Aresh shifted his attention from Elene to glare at Orzif. Aresh stated that he’d talk to Orzif more about this but was silenced by Sei interjecting that speaking with Sei about the situation should come first.

    Rufina, who’d been watching their exchange, looked over to her sister. Startled, she called out to Sofia and hurried over to the sofa her sister was on and Lars rushed to join them. Sofia was a beautiful little girl with porcelain skin, silver hair, similar to Lars’s. Her wide, bluish violet eyes closed shut. And she turned very pale, with a sickly demeanor, having a shortening of breath.

    Lars explained that his sister had a weak physique and probably wasn’t prepared to meet new ppl. He then instructed his chamberlain to get a magic healer. Yua offered that she knew healing magic but Sei stopped her, noticing that Sofia’s symptoms seemed familiar.

    He shared a look with Aresh, who then realized that Sofia’s conditions were similar to Sei’s when he’d been exposed to too much mana. To be certain, Sei asked Lars if Sofia was weak to mana, but Lars was confused by Sei’s question.

    Sei thought to give Lars the potion Cielo created but decided to hand over his spare rahuketu mask instead. He explained its anti-mana/magic properties to the bewildered prince. Then Sei went over to Yua and requested that she purify the room instead of using healing magic. As Yua folded her hands and performed her spell, the room became cleansed from any traces of mana/magic, and to her sibling’s amazement, Sofia’s breathing grew more stable.

    Sei tried to explain his actions but had a dizzy spell. Aresh supported Sei as he staggered from the feeling the purification magic. Sei continued to tell Lars and Rufina that Sofia must be weak towards mana.
    Sofia calmed down and was taken to her room to rest. The rest of the group went back to the parlor to listen to Lars’s and Rufina’s story. Yua and Elene sat closest to the siblings, while Aresh forced Sei to sit with him further away.

    They shared that Sofia was born with little magic and was frail and often tired. In Egorova, magic was essential to its way of life, so having a lot of magic was a status symbol, especially for the royal family, who was known to have a lot.

    Rufina hesitantly revealed that Sofia was an illegitimate child, whose mother was a foreign dancer. Norbert reacted to that. For an illegitimate child to have a weak body and little magic, even if considered a member of the royal family, the child’s position was precarious. Bc of Sofia’s situation, it’d been suggested that she marry a local lord or a wealthy merchant, someone useful to the royal family. Lars would never forgive the one who suggested that.

    But with the cultural exchange between Romani-Egorova, Lars saw the opportunity to help Sofia. Lars, while less magically able than his brothers, was the most versed in politics and economics of the Egorovian princes, so he was able to head the mission to Romani.

    Of course, his service was also to build his own rep for his future, but he likewise wanted to give Rufina the opportunity to study and work with the mage she admired. And both wanted to help Sofia. Lars’s mother was from a family with low noble status and Rufina’s mother was also from a local lord’s family, which possessed a large magic stone mine. With their poor backgrounds, the siblings held a strong sense of kinship towards each other and Sofia.

    Lars knew that Sofia would be used as a political pawn eventually and may be sent to a remote location, where her life couldn’t be guaranteed. So, he and Rufina sought to arrange a marriage to Aresh, who was a promising knight captain of high noble rank and was unmarried. Plus, Romani, unlike Egorova, had a milder climate. So, with the relationship between Romani and Egorova getting better, it’d be less likely that Sofia would be treated badly if she married Aresh.

    Lars apologized for pushing the matter bc he was told Aresh wasn’t attached to anyone. He glanced at the close proximity of Aresh and Sei and confessed that he thought Sei’s partner was Siegward. Hearing that, Aresh’s eyes darkened.

    Aresh started to interrogate Sei about what he was doing that could cause someone to think that. Sei responded that he only took the delegation to the private school and spoke with Siegward there, but only for a little bit. Aresh pressed about how that limited interactions could be construed as them being partners, and Sei hotly retorted that he had no idea and that Aresh should just ask Lars since he’s right there.

    Elene, fed up with the pair of them, snapped at them to stop being rude in airing their lover’s quarrel to the public. Aresh scowled at his sister but remained quiet, and Sei, not wanted to create more of a spectacle of himself, also stayed silent.

    Lars shared that his side misunderstood bc they connected Sei’s lapel pin from the banquet to Siegward. From that, Sei concluded that Aresh was the source of the misunderstanding, which led to the couple to begin bickering about the lapel pin again but Elene quickly shut them up. Lars and Rufina apologized again and stated that they’d retract their proposal. Elene took over with smoothing things out now that the misunderstandings were out of the way.

    Then the royal Egorovian siblings asked about Sei’s treatment method for Sofia. Lars wondered if a saint could cure Sofia, since Yua used purification. But Yua responded that purification only eliminated mana, but that wasn’t the same as curing Sofia.

    Aresh explained that he believed Sofia had a natural weak resistance to mana, which caused her to be poisoned by being overexposed to it. But the two Egorovians were still perplexed. Sei could understand, especially as mana was so heavily concentrated in practically every aspect in the country. It’d be similar to a person being allergic to oxygen or nitrogen back in his world.

    And it wasn’t the same as a physical illness, which could be easily fixed with magic. Ppl with naturally low tolerance and a weak physique would be susceptible to strong concentration levels of mana that the vast majority of ppl weren’t affected by. And as such ppl weren’t of the majority, they would be treated as an unexplained anomaly, and their cases could be easily dismissed.

    Aresh let Sei take over to tell his story of being an otherworlder with no resistance to magic/mana. Since Romani doesn’t have a lot of heavy concentrations of mana, Sei was mostly fine until he imbibed a supplement with a lot of mana. Luckily, he was able to recover bc of Aresh.

    Sei suspected the same was happening to Sofia, and worse bc she was so young and physically frail. So, Sei offered a suggestion. This made some of the others groan, as they were familiar with the usual eccentricities in Sei’s suggestions and at how Sei bulldozes his way through with them.

    Sei revealed that Romani was working on research to improve magic/mana resistance and amplify magic powers. He used himself as an example of the feasibility of the notion, as Sei, with the help of a few instruments, was able to remain fine while in Egorova, smt he wouldn’t have been able to achieve when he was first summoned. Sei offered that Sofia come to Romani to try to increase her resistance.

    Unexpectedly, he was questioned about the amplification aspect, but Sei carried on, explaining that there was reason to believe a person’s level of magic could be artificially influenced. So, Sei suggested they use the excuse of the Romani-Egorova cultural exchange to bring the 4th princess to Romani for magic research.

    It was exactly was Lars wanted: Sofia would be in a land much more suitable for her constitution, she could possibly increase her resistance to mana, she wouldn’t be in a remote location, and bonus that if her magic powers increase, her status as a royal would too.

    For Sei, his aim was to gather a large variety of test subjects for this research. Plus, he could use this to make Lars and his ppl owe Sei a favor and as an excuse to keep the research in Romani. Further, Sei essentially gained a hostage with Sofia. No matter how poorly she was viewed in the family, a princess was a princess and wouldn’t be abandoned so easily (ummm, :blobwoah: wow…to all of this :bloborz:).

    Of course, in handling with the care of royalty, certain protocols must be met. Fortunately, Elene stood up and offered to take responsibility for Sophia and requested to be part of this project. Sei wasn’t sure what Elene’s motives were but agreed, as he was sure more ppl would want to be involved in a national project in the future.

    Rufina was still concerned about sending Sofia alone, but Norbert cheerfully assured her that it’d be fine bc he had a family that loved him so much. Norbert, a bastard prince who was adopted by the king’s vassal and promised to serve the royal family, stated this clearly and with a sunny smile (uhhh, well now, it seems like a rather loaded statement, ngl).
    Lars thanked them and got up. He invited them to rest in their rooms as Egorova prepare a banquet for the saint’s visit, but Aresh announced that “we” wouldn’t be at there. Since he didn’t say “I”, everyone in the room turned towards Sei. Aresh reminded Lars that Sei had a weak body and low resistance to mana, so Aresh will need to reapply his wards on Sei. Additionally, Sei was feeling slightly feverish from Yua’s purification spell.

    Aresh’s attitude didn’t allow Lars to question or offer a healer, so Lars nodded and left.

    Then Isto demanded on seeing Egorova’s Magic Department and was led away by Rufina, with Sigma following them. Sei felt bad about Isto being such a willful and inconsiderate guest, but as the Egorovians did the same thing to Sei before in Romani, he didn’t bother to stop him.

    Next, Elene suggested that she and Yua get ready for the banquet. Yua wasn’t expecting one, so she hadn’t packed any dresses, but Elene assured her that she had an outfit prepared for Yua. Elene then ordered Orzif to be her escort, heavily hinting that he should be leaving the room (and essentially calling him a dummy for being too slow on the uptake when he took too long to agree). Orzif, long used to Elene’s treatment, reluctantly got up and left with the two women.

    Norbert quickly got with the program and made his excuses to leave too, while averting his eyes from Aresh. He didn’t want to be kicked to death by a horse (ngl, didn’t expect this phrase to be used so often).

    Scene cut:

    The moment they entered the room Aresh had been given, Aresh hugged Sei from behind, murmuring his relief that Sei was safe. Sei almost relaxed at the sound of Aresh’s voice but snapped out of it when he recalled that they still had a problem to address. He pushed Aresh, saying they needed to talk, and Aresh loosened his hold.

    However, Aresh suggested that he heal Sei first since Sei was still feverish from Yua’s magic. But Sei was determined to have this conversation first. He also wondered if he should go as far as withhold his own treatment as a way to force this discussion (plus, he knew that if they did the healing first, Sei’s plan to talk would end up collapsing). Further, Sei was certain that this level of discomfort was tolerable, as he’d never missed work just from a slight fever (er, that’s not good? o_O).

    Seeing how adamant Sei was, Aresh acquiesce to his demand and led them to a sofa to sit down. It seemed to be easier for him to talk when they weren’t face-to-face. He started by clarifying that he turned down the offer straight away.

    According to Aresh, he’d been summoned by his family to address Sei’s position in his life. Aresh had declared that Sei was the only one for him. Later, he was informed about the proposal from the Egorovian prince and decided to meet with him first, as he couldn’t just avoid a member of royalty.

    However, according to Lars, the proposal was done abruptly, so the initial summons by Aresh’s family wasn’t related to it.

    Aresh believed that since it was an issue with his family, and bc he didn’t plan on accepting any engagements, he didn’t think he needed to tell Sei. He looked at Sei and in an awkward manner, muttered an apology. He understood what had upset Sei.

    Then they addressed the reason why he arbitrarily went to Egorova. Unexpectedly, Aresh confessed that he was trying to help Sei return to Japan. Sei unconsciously let out his doubt of whether Aresh wanted him to stay and Aresh quickly denied it.

    He still didn’t want Sei to leave but realized that his actions towards that was him being selfish. He knew it wasn’t fair to Sei to keep him here when he was taken from his home and sent to a place where even the air was dangerous for him to breathe.

    Aresh also understood that Sei would eventually be able to return to his world. As an adept magic user, Aresh could tell that the research on the summoning/return magic was nearly complete. So, Sei’s parting would eventually come, especially as Sei also wanted to go back.

    So, Aresh decided to go to Egorova to find a way to travel to and from Sei’s world :bloboh::blobcat_hyper:. Sei was in shock but Aresh continued. Since Sei wasn’t a saint, Aresh thought it was unlikely that Sei could be summoned back, so Aresh went to research more about the ancient summoning process.

    Romani’s literature consisted mainly of topics concerning the saint and purification or offensive magic and fighting monsters. And while magic diplomacy between Romani and Egorova was finally starting, it wasn’t an easy thing. So, Aresh decided to just go the country that specializes in different magics to find any clues through his own efforts.

    Sei was struggling to put his thoughts in order after receiving all this information and could only manage to ask if Egorova’s side knew of Aresh’s motives. Aresh admitted that they didn’t, but since he didn’t have many opportunities to come to Egorova, he’d take advantage of meeting with the 4th princess as an excuse to stick around. And if he needed to stay longer, Aresh planned to come up with another excuse then. It’d be easier to stay in a country that has diplomatic relations with his own as long as he had a purpose to.

    Sei then asked why Aresh didn’t let him know beforehand and Aresh awkwardly averted his gaze. He responded that he didn’t want to say anything until he had a clue to what he was searching for.

    Sei bit his lips and took out the small, purple box that was in his pocket. He handed it over for Aresh to open. Aresh was slightly bemused but opened the box when requested. Inside were 2 silver rings, seemingly unadorned with any embellishments :blobscream::aww::blobgift::justabotheart:.

    When he asked about them, Sei wore an offended expression. He explained that like the lapel pin, his country also had a sign of engagement. Rings with the couple’s names on the inside would be worn on the left ring-finger. Sure enough, when Aresh inspected the rings, their names were engravened on the insides of them.

    Sei then says that everyone was looking down on him. * Aresh looked up to see that Sei was suddenly much closer, still wearing that offended expression. Sei pressed his entire body down on Aresh :blob_blush:.

    * Sei uses slang that directly translates to everyone was licking (“to lick”/“name” [舐め], also “name” [なめ]), him too much, but it also means “to look down on.”

    Yeah, this was a hard one to figure out (not the slang’s meaning, but the reason why a word that means “to lick” would also mean “to look down on”).

    From what I’ve found, it’s stemmed from the word, “nameshi” [なめし] (it also means “tanning”), which is apparently an old form of the word “rude” (the more modern term for “rude/disrespectful” is “bureishi” [無礼し]).

    So, that somehow ties into “name” [なめ] having connotations of disrespect. But pls, someone let me know more if you can.


    Sei iterated again for Aresh to not look down on him bc he didn’t want Aresh to think Sei was the type to be swept away just bc he fell in love. With a sense of disbelief, Aresh accepted the lips that descended on him.
    (First part of the chapter is a rather lengthy smex scene, so highlights:)

    Started with aggressive kissing until Aresh mentioned needing to put up the warding, but Sei bit his ear, startling Aresh, and told Aresh he couldn’t wait. This sparked Aresh to lift Sei up and drop him on the bed. He climbed on soon after, taking off his shirt. He wasted no time once he reached Sei to remove Sei’s own shirt and jacket to touch Sei’s bare skin.

    Between ragged breaths, Aresh complained that Sei lost weight again, though Sei replied that it wasn’t that much different. Aresh caressed and kissed Sei all over, causing Sei to moan and his body to jolt up. Aresh moved to lick Sei’s ear, gently biting on it while stroking his body, and Sei lifted his knee to rub at Aresh’s groin.

    Sei chuckled at Aresh’s reaction but was met with a biting kiss in return. Aresh turned Sei to his side, while continuing his caresses down Sei’s body and violently kissed Sei. Sei didn’t want Aresh to take the lead this time, but he was overwhelmed by Aresh’s touches and a feeling of magic coming over him.

    He tried to protest for Aresh to hold off on the magic, but Aresh argued that at the condition Sei was in, he would soon pass out if Aresh didn’t use magic. Aresh removed all of Sei’s clothing, while Sei felt frustrated bc he wanted to remain fully aware throughout the whole act (but he conceded that there was a chance he’d pass out without the magic).

    But then a song-like spell from Aresh’s beautiful voice filled the room with magic and Sei melted. Part of Sei wondered if his reaction was from a synergistic effect bc the spell saved Sei’s live before, like a suspension bridge effect or imprinting. But it still all comes down to it being all Aresh.

    Aresh was the one who saved Sei. He’s the one who worried over Sei’s health and nagged to him about Sei’s life choices. He also does his best to respect Sei’s decisions. But he’s also one to go off on his own and his communication skills sucked. Plus, he’s prone to sulking and pouting.

    All that was Aresh. Sei didn’t love Aresh just bc Aresh liked Sei.

    It was more than that.

    Sei couldn’t help but find this dexterous, yet clumsy, man adorable (uwu:blobmelt:).

    (Then it’s basically just a long, R18 sex scene fufu~:blobnosebleed:)

    Scene cut:

    Sei was looking out at the mostly gray scenery through the room’s window. He was still in bed, feeling lethargic after overworking his body into the morning. Aresh entered the room after getting Sei water and asked if Sei was still zoned out. To himself, Sei sarcastically noted that there was a difference in physiques between a Knight Captain and a corporate slave that not even magic can overcome.

    Aresh had cleaned the sheets and Sei’s body with magic as well. A good thing, Sei thought, as Sei felt that it’d be too awkward to take a bath in a foreign country after what they did.

    Sei asked for Aresh to hand over the drink and was a little abashed when he spotted the silver ring on Aresh’s finger. He commented that the size wasn’t right and stated that they should get it adjusted when they returned to Romani. It was a bit loose on Aresh’s finger, so it could potentially fall off. Sei mentioned that he commissioned a craftsman Sigma knew to make the rings, so they should be able to get the size adjusted through him.

    Then Sei worried whether a ring would get in the way of Aresh’s knightly duties, particularly when using a sword. However, Aresh’s wrinkled his brow in annoyance. He declared that he didn’t want to take the ring off, so Sei cautioned for him to be careful to not lose it. Aresh flared up that he wasn’t going to lose it.

    Since Aresh responded so quickly and honestly, the atmosphere held a bit of an embarrassed air. But when Aresh leaned closer to Sei’s face, Sei turned towards him and closed his eyes.

    But the mood was shattered with a loud knock at their door. Sei let out an exclamation and almost dropped his water at the sound of the banging and Isto’s voice calling his name (ofc, it’s Isto). Isto, after hearing Sei’s voice, tried to barge in but the room remained locked, giving Sei time to take his overworked body over to put on some clothes.

    A few minutes later, Sei opened the door and apologized for the wait. Isto was there with a bunch of papers in hand and in the same clothes he wore the day before. Beside him were Sigma, Rufina, and Rufina’s knight and an attendant.

    The knight and attendant couldn’t quite keep their faces undistorted when Isto agreed that Sei kept him waiting, although he was the one rudely barging into someone’s chambers so early in the morning. But Sei was used to Isto’s eccentricities.

    Isto strolled in and made himself at home, unfolding the bundle of papers. Aresh was grumpy at his presence but his demeanor shifted once he noticed the magic circle on the papers.

    Isto explained that he was researching through Egorova’s Magic Department when he spotted that the way they drew magic circles was different from the way it was done in Romani. Isto usually wrote the spells outside the circle while some of Egorova’s magic circles had spells written inside the circles. Isto excitedly showed an example to Sei, who was unable to fathom why it was so astounding.

    Isto started rambling the effects of the different placement of the spells but Sei stopped him and asked what Isto was trying to report to Sei. Thanks to Sei’s method of helping Isto file reports (where Isto talks about his research to Sei and Sei sorts it all out for a proper report), Isto developed a habit of just reporting everything to Sei.

    With an innocent smile, Isto unloaded a bomb. He revealed that applying this new method to the things he’d done with the summoning/return magic would allow Sei to return to his world.
    Everything Sei had done after his arrival in this world had been working up to this, yet he still froze after hearing such unexpected news. Isto took no notice of Sei’s state and continued on.

    According to the Romani text on ancient magic, ancient magic was used as a “search” for the power of a saint. However, in the Egorovian text, the positional relationship of a magic circle indicated that the magic circle used in the ancient magic was not used as a “search—". Isto was cut off by Aresh, who covered Isto’s mouth with his hand, before he could go off on a rambling tangent.

    As Sei expected, having a knight was useful when dealing with Isto. Sei’s head was reeling from the news and technobabble, and he wasn’t quite recovered from the night before. Furthermore, information about ancient magic was still a Romani state-secret and Isto shouldn’t be running his mouth off to reveal anything.

    When asked if he said anything that shouldn’t be said, Sigma assured them that Isto had only memorized the magic formations and didn’t reveal anything. After hearing that, Aresh loosened his grip and Isto slipped out to go back to rambling about his findings about the magic circles.

    While it went over Sei’s head, Aresh turned out to be able to follow along pretty well. Rufina asked if it was normal for ppl in Romani to memorize the formations of different magic circles, even if seen just once; her disbelief was evident in her tone of voice. But Sei shook his head and told her it was bc those two were just special. Sei admitted that he was only good at remembering the numbers involved.

    Hearing that, Sigma and Rufina observed him in shock. They were both promising, young talents in their respective kingdoms, but both felt the reality of how commonplace talents like them were in the face of yet another genius in front of them.

    Sei then asked if the 2 were with Isto the whole time but was told that wasn’t the case.

    Once Isto went to the Magic Department, he immersed himself in the reading materials he found and got stuck in his own world of research in the laboratory there. Rufina, as a princess, had to leave to attend the banquet and left with Donato and Georgii, who had to attend as delegations from the first visit.

    Only Sigma stayed behind to monitor Isto. When Rufina went back to the department in the morning, she was met with an exuberant Isto, who rushed out of the department to find Sei. So, she followed him.

    Sei apologized for Isto’s behavior but Rufina refused it, stating that her country’s mages also benefited from observing Isto’s method of research. She then asked if this meant that the research for the transfer magic was completed and Aresh answered that theoretically, it was.

    He elaborated that originally, transfer magic was able to send inorganic substances based on the deployment, with the keys of development being the locations of where the object was being to and from. So, the main focus of change was initially in the location and the object.

    The object would need triple protection for its body, core, and essence to be maintained. * But it was impossible to draw up the necessary formations for those protections inside a magic circle when smt required a lot of information in order to be transferred. But Isto believed it was possible if they combined the 2 nations methods of utilizing magic circles.

    * Woo boy, was this a fun one, and by fun I meant that I had to do a lot of extra reading about Japanese language and culture just to get the basic gist of these concepts. I’m 210% grateful to The Language Quest for breaking the words down to make them more understandable for ppl unfamiliar with the Japanese language/culture.

    In the story, Aresh states with transfer magic, a protection is cast to protect the “body” [体], “essense” [魂], “core” [精神]. And while the meaning of “body” or “karada” [体] is pretty straight-forward to the western understanding (it’s talking about what is essentially the tangible body of an object), the last 2 words are not. So, let’s break it down:

    “Tamashii” [魂] more typically translates to “soul” or “spirit” but there’s more nuance to it. Essentially, “tamashii” refers to the fundamental energy source that smt has to exist as it is. This term applies to anything, regardless of it being tangible object or a living one. It is a very strong term to refer to the entirety of the spirit of a thing, including the unique energies/life force that sustains it, that makes the thing what it is.

    Since the story was referring to inorganic matter at this point, I decided to use “essence” to better convey this meaning.

    “Seishin” [精神] also translates to “soul” or “spirit” but is a bit harder to explain in English terms. While “tamashii” [魂] is broader in scope, “seishin” [精神] tends to mostly refer to the object’s heart/mentality/fundamental significance. For ppl, it’s often used to talk about the psyche or character of a person.

    To better understand, we can break the word down into “sei” [精] and “shin” [神].

    “Sei” [精] means refined, ghost, fairy, energy, vitality, semen, excellence, purity, or skill. But most often, it’s talking about smt refined in “seishin” [精神].

    “Shin” [神] means god, mind, or soul.

    So, “seishin” [精神] is smt like the refined state of the mind/soul.

    Since the story was referring to an inorganic object at this point, I decided to use “core” to better convey this meaning.

    Just to note, when these terms were referring to a living being in the story, it’s basically saying the protections would be to maintain a person’s body, soul, and mind.

    Honestly, I’m still not 100% on my interpretation, so if anyone wants to explain the nuances, pls feel free to.


    The quickest way to do this would be to break down the ancient magics’ magic circle in reverse order. Isto had initially thought of this method but dismissed it bc he was worried that any mistakes/misinterpretations would cause complete annihilation to a person’s body, soul, or mind. But with the Egorovian team, Isto believed that wouldn’t be a concern anymore.

    Sei was very glad Isto wasn’t some mad scientist type and seemed to have some sense of conscience. He suspected it might be due to Zoltan’s influence and planned to thank the man when they returned.

    However, transfer magic and summoning/return magic were different, and Sei asked Isto about that. Isto explained that the basics of the 2 were essentially the same. If their theory about transfer magic was successful, then they could just use the blood of the saint and the magic stone medium to fix the coordinates. And since the tridimensional formation was nearly solved, they should be successful in using the summoning/return magic soon.

    However, Sei thought that the medium was shattered during the last summons, smt Isto and Aresh should have been aware of as they were present then. For summoning Yua, the blood of the previous saint, as well as her purification magic stone, was used. But while Yua could provide the blood and purification magic to open a portal to her home, they didn’t have a stone to hold her magic.

    Purification magic was special and no ordinary magic stone could be used to store it. The stone from the previous saint was given to her by the gods, with its origin unknown.

    But Isto reminded Sei that this was why he requested money before to buy a tool in town (back in ch. 24). He had thought that the tool could be used as a replacement. Isto had found a communication device that operated with an unusual, rare ore that originated from the town. He believed this ore could be used as a substitute for the broken medium.

    Isto provided the name of the town, Aguilar, which caused someone to give a small yelp of surprise. Sei looked over to the source and saw Norbert standing at the door, with Orzif behind him. After being prompted, Norbert explained that Aguilar was the location his father, Count Baranek, was visiting.

    Aguilar, despite being part of Romani, was a place where the royal held little control. The count had gone to ‘inspect the land’ by orders of the king and held talks with the family governing there. He’s also been assigned to govern the land. In the end, Aguilar family, who didn’t want to go against country, had come to a cooperative agreement with the count over the land’s governance, thereby allowing the Aguilars to keep their rule while the count would only have to provide aid during times of emergency.

    Hearing that, Sei thought these results were to be expected from a man so trusted as to look after the king’s son. The count was very good at diplomacy too.

    Isto, on the other hand, was excited to find that this meant it was likely that they could obtain the ore he wanted. Sei suggested that they write up a contract first in order to buy legitimately from a local supplier. That way, the royal family wouldn’t have any room to complain either.

    If all goes well, they could establish a steady supply of research materials and develop a deeper relationship with Aguilar.

    Orzif, dumbfounded, commented that Sei really didn’t let any opportunity to take advantage of a situation slip by him. Sei snickered at that and agreed bc he was a greedy person.

    Scene cut:

    Though they were invited to stay longer, Sei needed to return to report the discoveries made to the Romani authorities. He’d planned to speak with Kamil and Julius before revealing the news to Yua.

    Lars saw them off and expressed his wishes to see Sei again in the future. Sei, who was an accountant and wouldn’t be part of the Romani-Egorova diplomatic relations after this, didn’t think that would be likely. But Lars seemed to think differently.

    He held onto Sei’s hand longer and gave him an ambiguous smile during their polite exchange. He admitted that he wasn’t able to understand romance, but he was impressed at Sei, a man whom Lars believed to be similar with in terms of rationality, and his willingness to head into danger for the sake of love.

    Lars’s face was faintly red as turned his face towards Sei. His eyes glistened as he drew closer to Sei, and he expressed his hope to one day meet someone with that kind of passion. Like Sei… (pffftt, Norbert was so right about how Sei keeps attracting men:blobamused:).

    Suddenly, a black wall appeared in front of Sei. Aresh slapped Lars’s hand away, taking no notice of his rudeness. Rufina also came and scolded her brother, since Sei had a companion who loved him, body and soul. Locking eyes with Sei, Rufina turned a bright red.

    Sei then recalled a piece of information he learned about mages with strong magic sensing abilities (back in ch. 7) …and he’d just had his wards reestablished the night before…

    Sei vowed to be more careful around any mages with strong magic-sensing abilities in the future.

    Scene cut:

    Thanks to Isto’s and Aresh’s magic, the trip to return took only 3dys. Sei slept most of the time, still tired from his acclimation of magic. And Norbert, in the same carriage as Sei, was quiet the whole trip back, seemingly caught in a state of listlessness.

    Upon their return, Sei, Aresh, and Orzif requested a meeting with Kamil and Julius. The meeting was immediately held and reports were made. The next day, Sei was summoned, along with a puzzled Yua, to meet with Kamil, and they entered into the room where Julius, Zoltan, Aresh, and Kamil were already seated.

    Woah~ :blobdizzy: Looks like I've reached the max characters for this post, so please go to Part 3 for the spoilers to the last chapters of The Affairs of Another World Depends on the Corporate Slave 3: The Normalization of Magic Diplomacy Project. :sushi_bye:
     
    Last edited: Sep 6, 2021
  4. Yukonno

    Yukonno Member

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    Ah did yua and sei go home???
     
  5. RAGA

    RAGA Well-Known Member

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    I'm still finishing up mtling and summarizing the last 3 chapters of the 3rd volume so...
    Bc I only skimmed these bits: They aren't able to get back until the end of the 3rd volume.

    Yua returns bc she wants to finish graduating high school and (I think) also to experience some time as an adult in Japan, so she gives a promise to come back.

    Sei stays behind but gives Yua a letter to send to his parents.

    Speculations: I believe they're also trying to research a way for ppl to travel between worlds too, so maybe Sei and Aresh might go to Sei's world in the future? As for Yua, bc she's the saint, they already have the ability to summon her back (the magic they use for saint summoning specifically targets saints, so Yua, being the only saint of this generation, can be easily tracked and summoned back whenever). But they aren't able to do the same with Sei bc he isn't a saint.
     
  6. RAGA

    RAGA Well-Known Member

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    Here is Part 3 spoilers (and final spoiler post) for The Affairs of Another World Depends on the Corporate Slave 3: The Normalization of Magic Diplomacy Project.

    Yua was stunned at the news of being able to return to her world. At her question of the validity of this, Aresh replied that they wouldn’t be able to go back right away. Zoltan elaborated that they were still in the middle of research and needed to experiment a bit more, but that the possibility to return would come soon.

    Yua asked when soon was, and Kamil answered that it’d most likely take a year. Sei thought that length wasn’t so long; they’d already had been in Romani for nearly a year.

    Julius provided that whether or not to return would be left to Sei and Yua. At that, Yua’s head shot up towards him, her eyes pinning in on him in accusation. Julius admitted that he personally didn’t want them to go back, but as they were brought without their consent and they still saved the country, no one had the right to tie them down to the country (btw, I believe Julius is speaking in a way that can be interpreted with that ambiguous “you”, so while his words can be addressed to both Sei and Yua, I’m pretty sure he’s directing them more towards Yua).

    Julius promised to do everything he can to help them go home (ah, growth (y)). At this promise, Yua fell silent, her eyes watering. Her expression looked both happy and sad.

    Scene cut:

    Yua called out to Sei the moment they left the meeting room. Sei expected this and signaled for Aresh to go on ahead. He and Yua went out to sit on the terrace overlooking the city. A maid prepared tea for them.

    Yua began by asking what Sei was planning to do, especially since he was with Aresh. Sei curtly replied that he already made up his mind and that Yua will need to decide what she wanted to do herself. His terse tone almost made Yua feel like crying, but she ended up clasping her hands together and looking down in contemplation.

    She came to the realization that whatever she does was all up for her to decide. Sei agreed and offered that, although it’s not 100% guaranteed, there’s a possibility of coming back to Romani even if she decided to return to Japan.

    It wasn’t guaranteed bc crossing between worlds was dangerous and expensive. It needed a lot of both manpower and magic to work. Just the cost of the rare ores Isto requested to use as a medium was enough to make Sei’s head hurt. Plus, safety required more training and improving on the technique.

    Sei likened the experience to space travel. The government was willing to pay for a one-way ticket to send them back but it wouldn’t be easy to travel back and forth. In actuality, the one-way ticket would cost 1/10th of the country’s tax revenue, which was almost 3x more compared to the cost of space travel (2 billion yen) in Japan. Sei was hoping to reduce those expenditures in the next year.

    Yua declared that she needed to talk with Julius, which Sei thought was appropriate, as this was really a matter between them.

    Scene cut:

    As Sei left the castle, he ran into Elene, whom he hadn’t seen since they came back from Egorova. Elene was both a marchioness and a countess, but she didn’t serve in the Royal Court. Sei asked if she’d made any progress concerning the matter with Egorova, but she brushed it aside as if it were a matter not of concern.

    She stated that she was participating in the magic amplification research and had been granted access to the Magic Department’s resources. It seemed that she was taking this project seriously; however, the project was still in the planning stages, so she should have no reason to be going in and out of the department currently.

    But Sei would suddenly come to a realization once he witnessed Elene’s change in demeanor at the person coming from behind Sei. Using a cutesy voice, she called out to her husband. * To Sei’s astonishment, Kuster walked up to them and answered back, with Elene encircling his arm. Thinking back, Sei had heard that Elene’s title was Countess Lane (Kuster’s family name).

    * Elene calls out “danna-sama~a” [旦那様ぁ], in which “danna-sama” [旦那様] is an endearing yet deferential way to say “husband” but adding that “~a” [ぁ] gives it a cutesy tone.

    Note: There are 3 main ways to say “husband” and it’s a lot more complicated than I thought.

    1) “Danna-sama” [旦那様], when used in the archaic way to say “husband”, denotes a more formal and special tone.

    However, nowadays, “danna-sama” [旦那様] (or danna-san [旦那さん]) is used by friends (or at least, ppl who are able to speak casually with each other) to refer to another’s husband in a casual setting. “Danna” [旦那], by itself, for the same setting, is also used by the woman in reference to her own husband.

    2) But the more commonly used term for “husband” would be “shujin” [主人], which is semi-formal and used when speaking about one’s own husband between non-close acquaintances, as well as friends in a non-casual setting. Meanwhile, when speaking of another’s husband in the same setting, one would use “goshujin” [ご主人].

    The terms “danna” [旦那] and “shujin” [主人] can also have some problematic connotations as these words originate from a time when hierarchy existed as a norm within marriages.

    “Danna” [旦那] refers to someone who patrons or donates (it was used by geishas to her patron and even used by ppl in temples to their donators). So, its usage in reference to spouses does indicate that the husband has a higher position than his wife. But it’s also a term of endearment as well (but based on male chauvinism).

    “Shujin” [主人] is also another word for “master” or “owner” (in fact, it was also used in reference to a boss by an employee too), and it does imply that the husband is in charge of the household and that the wife respects the husband more than herself.

    3) Lastly, the more modern term is “otto” [夫], which is formal in tone.

    While “otto” [夫] is less used, it lacks hierarchal connotations as it simply means “husband” and is the counterpart to “tsuma” [妻] or “wife”. So, the term implies equality between the spouses (these terms are most often used in legal documents).

    However, bc of how marriages and family are traditionally interconnected throughout Japanese history, the term can also lack a type of familial respect towards the in-laws that exists as a part of Japanese marriage culture that the other terms carry.

    Disclaimer: As someone not Japanese, what I wrote is just based on what I looked up. I’ve read articles and comments both stating that the terms are and are not problematic, and I’m quite sure that there are a lot of societal/cultural/historical nuances related to these terms that could not be fully appreciated by this small blurb on them. So, I hope if anyone’s interested in the subject, they will do their own research and come up with their own conclusions instead of treating what I wrote as the definitive summation of these terms.


    Kuster gave a courtesy apology for any trouble his wife may have caused and Sei gave a courtesy reply, stating she was a big help. Elene encouraged Sei to continue singing her praises to her husband. In actuality, Elene’s somewhat forceful aristocratic power moves did help Sei a lot, so he didn’t hold back on his gratitude.

    Elene was happy that she now had an excuse to help out with her husband whenever she wanted. Kuster informed Sei that while Elene didn’t have high levels of magic, she knew enough of the job to be an excellent assistant.

    Sei finally understood Elene’s motivation for joining this project. He recalled Myran telling him that Elene was dedicated in her magic studies.

    But with all the work that needed to be done, Sei welcomed ppl with low/no magic, like Elene and Sigma. There was enough work to do even for ppl without magic. He figured that this way, they could spin this as a type of social advancement for noblewomen, in order to utilizing untapped talents, which could also contribute as part of the solution to the lack of human resources.

    Elene couldn’t believe that Sei would help her make her dreams come true and apologized for how unkind she’d been. Sei wasn’t quite sure what she meant by her being unkind, but apparently, she was addressing the things she had stated back during Aresh’s absence.

    Her marriage to Kuster was met with a lot of opposition, but when Aresh came to declare his intentions, their parents were very welcoming to it, which affected her. Sei, however, didn’t think she actually did anything truly unkind though. While her attitude and expression came off as severe, she was overall good-natured and mostly informative with him.

    But this was the first time he’d learned Aresh’s parents were open to their relationship. He suppressed the flush on his face and quickly gave his goodbyes to the couple as he hurried to leave.

    As he neared the exit, he spotted Aresh waiting for him. They both entered the carriage to make their way home.

    They started discussing about their future. They had spoken a lot the night before, but Aresh maintained a watchful eye on Sei. He wanted to make sure that this was what Sei wanted, and Sei offered to continue talking everything out until they were satisfied. He laid his hand on top Aresh’s, their silver rings clinking at the contact.

    They were born in different worlds, with different values that neither might fully understand. But they were still able to talk and share with each other. So, they should face each other and discuss and think things through together.

    At Sei’s smile, Aresh squinted his eyes, as if he were looking at smt dazzling, and hugged him :bloblove::love:.

    Scene cut:

    Sei entrusted Yua in sending a letter to his parents. They’re standing in the ceremonial room, with Yua was wearing the school uniform she wore when she arrived in this world. She had elected to return to her world, but only for the time being.

    Then she turned to Julius, who called out to her. He was in his white ceremonial robes, garbs appropriate to return the saint back to her world. Yua, with a bright expression, squeezed his hand and promised to return once she grew up. She asked that he wait for her until then.

    Yua’s decision involved growing into adulthood in Japan and having the chance to say goodbye to those around her before coming back to Romani. It was a selfish and convenient choice, but as she was brought there as a kidnapped minor, Sei thought she was owed some concessions on their part.

    The age of reaching adulthood in Japan was 20yo (the story says that is 2yrs away for Yua, so this indicates that Yua’s already 18yo and approximately 2yrs have gone by since she was summoned). But as Yua left as a high schooler with no real-world experience, she seemed to be aware of this, so she didn’t give a definite timeframe of when she’d become an adult.

    Julius, however, was already 22yo and would be 24yo if Yua returned in 2yrs. For Romani, that would be considered a late marriage, and Sei wasn’t sure if that would be acceptable for a crown prince to remain unmarried for that long. However, that was an issue between the couple that they’d need to figure out. Sei hoped the best for them.

    But if Radim ever came to Sei for advice in thwarting off prospective noblewomen from the prince, Sei would only tell him the best solution is to get married:blobcheeky:.

    Scene cut:

    Since the summoning/return spell took a lot of magic, the Magic Department, the 3rd Knight’s Order, and officials from the Church were all present. Additionally, there were a few mages from Egorova who Sei trusted to be used in the project for future purposes. Sei was also able to cut some costs with the magic stones he’d saved over the year too.

    One of the Egorovian mages was Rufina, who was going to study at the same school as Sigma that year.

    As things were starting, Aresh ordered Sei to stand back, to which Sei complied. Even though he was warded, it wouldn’t be effective against a large amount of magic. Aresh placed his hand on Sei’s shoulder and wore an unhappy expression.

    Sei asked if he was worried. They had discussed this matter, fighting and making up time and time again, and Aresh stated he’d send Sei back. At this, Sei mentioned that time will still be a long way off and offered that when it comes, they both go and visit Sei’s hometown.

    Aresh displayed such a shock reaction that Sei couldn’t hold back questioning on it. Sei had already been to Aresh’s family’s estate and greeted his parents, so of course, Aresh should do the same with Sei’s. Aresh responded that it wasn’t that simple before trailing off, but Sei assured that he wouldn’t need to worry about the cost bc Sei would handle it. Sei already had plans to reduce the expenses for performing the spells. To this, Aresh smiled and commented that he already knew that.

    Though this trip would still be a long time to come and may be difficult to achieve, Sei believed that one day, he and Aresh would come to the place Sei was born and raised in.

    Meanwhile, the affairs of the other world, and the affairs of this world, would depend on the corporate slave.

    T/N: Bc it’s not fully elaborated on in the story, there are 2 parts that I’m not 100% on:

    1) Yua stated that she was going to give a signal, and

    2) Sei indicated that it’d be a while before he could come and go (bc it was expensive to perform the summoning/return spell), but he’d give in, as he was an adult.

    These lines were in separate parts near the end of the chapter and weren’t really connected, in terms of the story’s structure. But I think, based on context, that bc the summoning spell is already able to locate the saint, Yua’s return will act as a beacon to find the world from which she was summoned from.

    My belief is that her being a signal will lead to them being able to lock onto that world for future developments with travelling to and from worlds. That way, Sei could also go back to his world and return to Romani as well.

    But this won’t happen anytime soon bc of how expensive performing the spells are. So, I think, it’s probably more expensive to send 2 ppl safely at the same, which may be why he gave in for her to go back first, rather than using extra resources to send them both back.
    It was the season when the flowers bloomed most in Romani, and Sei was dressed in formal attire, while struggling to fix his silver pin.

    Aresh called out that he was entering his room, and asked if Sei was ready. Sei was a little surprised at his entrance (and lack of knocking) but just complained that he couldn’t get the pin on. Sei didn’t want to put holes in his fine clothes, so Aresh offered to do so instead. He deftly situated the lapel pin and kissed a pouting Sei.

    Sei thanked him and they held hands, a silver ring adorning both their left ring finger. Sei mused on whether he should’ve embedded a jewel into the rings as well. Sei explained that as a rule of thumb, an engagement ring was supposed to be worth 3 months of a man’s salary. This was bc if anything were to happen to the man, the man could still prove his worthiness by providing for his partner the money to survive from selling the ring.

    Aresh stated this was worst reasoning. Since Aresh didn’t have a full understanding of the whole engagement ring culture, especially as it was largely intended between a man and woman, Aresh’s ire was directed at Sei explaining “if anything were to happen to him.”

    Sei replied that a man would want to show his worth to his partner, so he’d get a pair of rings and those rings were essentially wedding bands. Sei had heard it was recently becoming more common to use engagement rings as wedding rings. However, this “recent” knowledge would be 4yrs old by now.

    Scene cut:

    They arrived at the royal palace, where everyone was wearing formal wear and the palace was decked out. Siegward, in his priest uniform, came up to Sei, followed by a now taller Celio, who was also in priest’s attire.

    Sei and Siegward exchanged greetings, with Sei thanking Siegward for his services. Sei inquired if Celio was there to help and Celio, ears red and turning his head away, tartly replied that he’d do his job perfectly without Sei asking. Even though Celio grew taller in the past 2yrs, he hadn’t changed much on the inside.

    Then Norbert, more well-groomed than usual, approached Sei, along with Lars and Rufina in their stately Egorovian garments, as well as a dressed-up Sigma. Lars thanked Sei for the invitation, shaking hands with Sei. He smiled and mentioned that it was a shame they couldn’t see each other more often since they were both so busy. He didn’t let go of Sei’s hand.

    Sei had heard that since Lars took the lead on the Egorovian’s side for the research on the magic amplification project, he’d been entrusted with more duties involving foreign diplomacy with other countries too. Lars thought that he was better suited as an envoy than a ruler. He seemed happy at the prospect, but Sei believed that with his flashy looks and behavior, he was likely to be nominated as a candidate for the next king soon.

    Rufina chided her brother into letting go of Sei’s hand. It was good timing, as the man behind Sei was emitting a murderous aura the longer their hands were linked. Rufina rebuked him of trying to start an illicit affair and called him shameful, and Lars teased that Rufina used to harbor feelings for Isto but now kept talking about Sigma. Both Rufina and Sigma were left blushing and Sei suspected that smt may develop soon.

    Speaking of Isto, apparently, he was holed up in his lab with research. Sei thought it for the best, as he wasn’t suited to such an event.

    Even after Lars and the rest left, Aresh still wasn’t in a good mood, which caused the rest of the guest to steer clear of them. Sei told him to he should improve his mood for the occasion, but Aresh complained that Sei was too familiar with too many ppl. Sei replied that it was better to network and offered to get him his favorite wine.

    Then Aresh accused Sei of treating him like a child, but Sei rebutted that he wouldn’t offer wine to a child. He stated Aresh should have some to improve his mood. Before Sei could go to where the wine was being kept, Kamil walked over.

    Before Sei could fully greet Kamil, Aresh stepped in between them (Sei had learned that the only reason Aresh didn’t do the same with Lars was bc he was a foreign prince). Kamil remarked that Sei’s beast was behaving so threateningly for such an auspicious occasion. Sei replied that he had no idea why, causing Kamil to laugh in that peculiar way of his and Aresh to glare.

    Kamil congratulated Sei on getting closer to his goal, which Sei corrected as being Romani’s goal. They grabbed a cup of wine from a passing attendant to toast. Kamil requested to join Sei when he temporarily returned to his world; he’d cover his own costs, of course. Glancing over at Aresh, Sei responded with a smile that Kamil should pls refrain from coming along on their honeymoon.

    Later, Elene and Kuster found the pair. Elene rushed them along, as the event was about to start. Then the palace musicians lined in two rows and started playing their instruments, while peach-colored flower petals flew in the sky. On the other side, Yua and Julius stood in pure white, ceremonial garbs.

    Yua had kept her promise.

    After 2yrs since Yua’s return, a sign of Abrahan appeared to those of the former saint’s bloodline. After the summoning magic, which had been prepared, was performed, Yua descended upon the land again. At 20yo, a much calmer Yua jumped into Julius’s arms, and now, the kingdom is celebrating the late wedding of the prince and the saint.

    Sei complimented Yua on her appearance. She, in her royal white wedding dress, wearing matching rings with Julius, was a moving sight. Even Sei, who wasn’t related to her, couldn’t help but be touched. He thought her family must want to see her like this.

    He asked if Aresh had a magic tool to record portraits and Aresh affirmed that a portrait of the bride and groom would be done after the ceremony. Sei requested to get a copy to send to Yua’s family. Aresh started to offer that if Sei wanted a ceremony too, but Sei cut him off, stating that it wasn’t his sort of thing.

    Aresh had the habit of always protecting and providing for Sei, and Sei doesn’t mean to deny him every time. Sei admitted that he was greedy. He entwined their hands, in a place unseen to those around them, causing Aresh to twitch.

    Sei confessed that he wanted Aresh so badly that he wanted to have Aresh all to himself.

    As everyone looked onto the smiling face of the bride saint, Aresh only had eyes for Sei.

    The End
    :justabotheart::blob_pompom::blobparty::bloblove::aww::blobtaco::blobhighfive::sushi_thankyou:

    And that's it! The series is done, as far as I can tell. I've checked the author's page and couldn't find any hint of anything extra (but that doesn't necessarily mean there won't be anything). Nonetheless, the main plot has been resolved and it seems to be over.

    I really like this story and I heard that Watashi wa Sugoi Desu has planned to completely translate everything, so I hope everyone gives them a lot of love (as well as to the author, if you're able).

    For those who are reading these spoilers, thanks so much for sticking with me! I hope this satisfied you guys while waiting for the translations.
     
    Last edited: Oct 18, 2021
  7. RAGA

    RAGA Well-Known Member

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    Thank you for this! :aww: You're so sweet~ :bloblove: I had fun looking up and learning about a lot of the phrases and words but I was never really sure if I understood everything or conveyed the meanings properly (and ngl, I'm still pretty sure I missed things too :blobsweat_2:).

    And yes, I quite enjoyed how realistic the majority of the characters, their interactions with each other, and the plot were all portrayed too. It's part of why I went so in-depth with the spoilers (and bc of how well it seemed to have been planned out).

    I agree with you that Yua should've had more time growing up too. Tbh, I wasn't a big fan of her romance with Julius, or at least, I wasn't a fan in how their relationship progressed, bc Julius gave off the vibe that he was into the idea of Yua (as a saint) rather than being into Yua, herself (that and I wasn't a fan at how Yua was just a kid who barely had a chance to experience life before tying the knot). I would've rather the conclusion to their relationship be open ended.

    I also would've liked to have seen what happened after Yua came back. Since she, a high school student from an affluent family (maybe?), was missing for around 2yrs, I imagine there should've been a bit of an uproar on her disappearance and subsequent return. And it also seems like she was able to use her powers in her world too, so I was interested to see a bit on how that played out into her development.

    That sounds rough. Hearing how the work culture is in Japan and how it's portrayed in the story makes me wonder if the author might buy into this idea of "work is life." But now, I can't truly tell if the author paired this ideal about work with the notion that health is also valuable or if the notion is that health if valuable towards the aspect of having a successful work life.

    For me, I see Sei as a flawed individual, whose attitude towards work was probably a learned mentality that wasn't going to go away easily. It's a shame that Aresh, who seemed to have been set up as a sort of antithesis to Sei's "work is life" agenda, was absence for a lot of the series (he barely showed up in the last 2 volumes compared to his presence in the first volume). And I wish we got to see Sei take his vacation to the sea. I was hoping that we would've seen him loosen up a lot more bc of it, but that probably wouldn't fit in with the story's pacing unless the author added more chapters or another volume (which, I mean, wouldn't be opposed to--the time skips at the end does leave a lot a space for the author to work with to change Sei's thinking on the values of working for work's sake).

    But maybe the author will write some more on this series in the future.
     
  8. donaiseiyuu

    donaiseiyuu Well-Known Member

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    I totally agree. I didn't like Julius until the end. He really objectified her (not in a sexual way, but her status and symbol) and never seemed to care about what her opinions were.

    > And it also seems like she was able to use her powers in her world too, so I was interested to see a bit on how that played out into her development.

    Wow, I totally missed that bit! Interesting to know that. But yea it would have been great to see how she coped back in the "home world". I feel she had some of the best character development in the story.

    > Hearing how the work culture is in Japan and how it's portrayed in the story makes me wonder if the author might buy into this idea of "work is life." But now, I can't truly tell if the author paired this ideal about work with the notion that health is also valuable or if the notion is that health if valuable towards the aspect of having a successful work life.

    The author definitely buys into it and it's definitely the latter, although in a subtle way. Although they do attempt to make some counter-commentary and counterbalancing, in the end, the main character is Sei and we are meant to empathize with his thinking. Also, as you rightfully pointed out, Aresh doesn't appear that much and when he does he alleviates all the legitimate consequences of overwork (removing tiredness etc) so you don't really get to see Sei realise the real negative side effects of such a horrid work life balance. In fact, he's rewarded for it in many ways. Maybe there will be side stories of a more relaxed life but...

    Anyways, thanks for having this discussion with me. I always think those who didn't grow in Japan always have a more objective and interesting perspective to novels like this.
     
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  9. ayiyin

    ayiyin Well-Known Member

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    oh thank you for this!
     
  10. JinYanagi

    JinYanagi Well-Known Member

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    Thank you so much for the spoilers! Lowkey I abandoned the series after the translations were made private which I understand of course the translation team had every right. I actually thought it was dropped initially lmao. But the manga updated recently so I thought of going back to the novel again, I’m really thankful for your summary spoilers! They’re really helpful and I didn’t think the series would end in just 3 volumes!

    ngl vol3 felt a little rushed for me but nevertheless it tied up loose ends at least, I’m still not over the fact that the 4th princess was a child LMAO

    Everything was kinda crazy, vol 1 took its time to explain all the world building but vol3 really dropped bomb after bomb. Volume 2 was also really good, siegward is honestly such a fun character. This was such a good series, can’t wait for the manga to hopefully adapt all of the volumes .
     
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  11. RAGA

    RAGA Well-Known Member

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    I'm so glad you found these helpful and I definitely agree that this could've gone on longer (esp as I had expected to see Sei's seaside vacation and his introduction to Aresh's parents)~ :justabotheart:

    And yes, the reveal abt the 4th princess was pretty wild. While reading, I had pictured an older woman at first and the implications didn't actually click until at the end of the chapter with the 3rd princess reveal.

    I like Siegward too and ngl, I thought he would play a bigger role than he did in volume 3 (or at least, I thought his family was going to have more of a presence). I'd also would've liked to have explore a bit more about Norbert's background too.

    I'm hoping that the author will drop some extras if nothing else, but there hasn't been an update yet. Of course, there could be extras on the official light novel release (I believe there was one for the 1st volume, but I'm not able to get access to it :blob_teary: Hopefully, the manga will cover the LN).
     
  12. Marwa_lay

    Marwa_lay Well-Known Member

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    Ok but do people stop treating the mc like trash and start respecting him ?
     
  13. CreativeCriticalThinker

    CreativeCriticalThinker Well-Known Member

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    I also want to thank you for giving us the spoilers ^^
    Despite having some problematic aspects, it is probably the most mature and grounded Fantasy BL Isekai Story I ve ever read :)
    And let's never forget this is the very first time that a Seme (Aresh) ask the Uke (Sei) for real sexual consent and still being very considerated!!!

    It's is very very hard to find a non toxic little problematic BL plot that isn't full of sexual assault or rape and features a healthy love relationship... Like a needle in a haystack.:confused:

    FUN FACT: The MC in The Saint's Magic Ability is Omnipotent also is called Sei :LOL:
     
    Last edited: Aug 31, 2022
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  14. CreativeCriticalThinker

    CreativeCriticalThinker Well-Known Member

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    Last edited: Oct 4, 2023