Chapter 3: The Fiancées’ Bridal Course (1)

One day in the 3rd month, 1,547th year, Continental Calendar

Hello, I'm the candidate to become Souma's first primary queen, Liscia Elfrieden.

On this day with the end of winter drawing near, and the coming spring

beginning to make itself felt, all of Souma's fiancées were gathered in a certain room

in Parnam Castle. I, Liscia was one of them. The rest were Aisha the kochiji, Juna the

lorelei, and Roroa, the former princess of Amidonia.

There was no sign of Souma here, and even the maids who were always waiting

in the corner of the room had been asked to leave today. On top of that... this room

was weird. There was a blackboard, desks, and four desks and chairs. The desks

were lined up in a row, making it look almost like one of the classrooms at the

Officers' Academy.

"Hey, Big Sister Cia?" Roroa asked. "What'd we all get called in here for today?"

"I couldn't tell you," I said. "If anyone here would know..."

I looked over at Juna. However, Juna only looked down and shook her head.

"I'm sorry. Lately, even I'm not sure what goes through that lady's head."

"If Madam Juna doesn't know, then the rest of us don't stand a chance of figuring

it out." Aisha rested her hands on the back of a chair, tilting her head to the side in

puzzlement.

It was a fair assessment. That lady was completely unpredictable. Just what was

she thinking this time?

Then the door to the room opened, and the one who had gathered us here

arrived.

"I see everyone's here."

It was the blue-haired sea serpent beauty, Excel Walter.

In addition to being the commander-in-chief of the National Defense Force, she

was a beautiful woman who looked to be around twenty-five. With her blue tresses,

from which tiny horns sprouted, trailing behind her as she walked, she had always

been a picturesque beauty. But this time, she was carrying something in her hands,

too: two bundles that were as thick as dictionaries. One was wrapped in white, the

other in black.

Excel left the bundles on the lectern, then pulled out and donned a pair of

spectacles and a square academic cap. "Now then, let's have you all take your seats."

"U-Um... Grandmother?" Juna hesitantly raised her hand and asked.

"What is it?"

"Um... I thought you had good vision?"

"Oh, these spectacles? They're just ordinary glass, not corrective lenses."

"Then why are you wearing them?"

"It gets me in the mood."

Her mood?! That was the issue?! Wait, what was she about to start?!

In the end, we were each ushered into our seats by Excel with no clue what was

going on. From Excel's perspective at the lectern, going from left to right, we were

seated Aisha, Roroa, me, and Juna.

Excel started to write something on the blackboard. When I read it, it said:

"First Lecture — Bridal Training Course"

Yeah, I wasn't even sure where to start.

For one thing, by "first," did she mean there were going to be several of these

gatherings?! What was a bridal training lecture even supposed to be?! Then Excel

tapped lightly on the lectern.

"Now, all of you will be becoming Souma's brides this year."

""""...""""

We all got very quiet. We were ready for it, of course, and we even wanted it now,

but having someone else point that fact out to us still felt a little embarrassing.

Excel told us, "Though some of you will be primaries and some of you

secondaries, the fundamental nature of things will be the same for all of you. There

is a husband and a wife, they build a household, eventually children are born, and

they become a family. If the family is harmonious, then they will be happy; if it is not,

they will become unhappy. The problem is that if there is discord in the royal family,

that leads directly to discord within the kingdom. Princess Liscia."

"Y-Yes!" I responded and stood up without meaning to. It was just like being back

in officers' school.

Excel gave me a serious look and asked, "Princess Liscia, you have no relatives

outside of your father and mother, yes?"

"Uh... Yes. That's what I've been told."

"Why is that?"

"When my mother's father... that is to say, the king before the last one died, there

was a succession crisis, and nearly every member of the royal family but my mother

was wiped out."

"Yes. That was a painful time," Excel said with a truly pained look on her face.

"The three dukes and I distanced ourselves from that conflict. If our military forces

had gotten involved, it would have turned into a civil war, after all. We were all

desperate to keep our forces in check. Instead, there were bitter struggles within the

royal house that set even the closest relatives against one another."

"Um... was the problem in that conflict ultimately about who would take the

throne?" Aisha raised her hand and asked.

Excel shook her head. "We think that was only a secondary factor. The first and

foremost cause must have been the former king's policy of rapid expansion."

"His expansionism?" Aisha asked.

"Yes. In the time of the king before the last one, our country launched a number

of foreign wars that greatly expanded our territory. Meanwhile, the expanded

territory sowed the seeds of conflict within the country. The occupier and the

occupied; the conquerors and the conquered; the killers and the relatives of those

killed... It gave birth to a lot of confrontational relationships like that. There were

interventions by other countries that had lost land, too."

"...Well, my old man had it out for you all pretty bad," Roroa, the former Princess

of Amidonia, said with a shrug.

It was a bit of a relief that she said that like it had nothing to do with her. The

Principality of Amidonia had used corrupt nobles to interfere in our affairs a number

of times. What they'd done had caused a lot of trouble for me, but it was really just

reaping what we had sown.

I was grateful that Roroa, as an Amidonian princess, was taking the stance that it

didn't matter to her. If Roroa, who looked up to me as her "big sister," ended up

resenting me because of a dispute between our countries... I'd be sad about that.

Excel nodded and continued. "Those seeds of discord need to be slowly removed,

but the rapid expansion didn't allow for that."

Eventually, the old king had died, and the lingering seeds of discord had

germinated into the succession crisis. If the people they hated supported one royal,

people would back another opposing horse in the race. That was how the dispute

over the succession had turned into a proxy war for all of the discord in the

kingdom.

"That was why it turned into such a quagmire." Excel sighed sadly then looked

straight at us. "Fortunately, His Majesty Souma's reign is not so dangerous as that of

that predecessor of his. The reason that the country is unshaken even after

absorbing Amidonia is that he has worked diligently to create a solid enough base to

prevent that. He is not as glamorous as the first king, but rated on the stability of his

reign alone, he is the best king this country has ever had. That's why, even once His

Majesty Souma is no longer on the throne, there won't be an ugly succession war like

that one."

That was Excel's appraisal of Souma's reign. Yeah. I agreed with her.

I might think the way he reigned was too roundabout at times, but he was

carefully and cautiously moving this country forward. If you considered that he'd

been summoned as a hero, I didn't think there'd ever been such a plain and ordinary

hero before. Even so, Souma made me feel secure. Though he himself was weak, he

made me feel like I was being protected by something big.

Excel banged on the blackboard. "That said, we mustn't get complacent! It must

never be forgotten that if there are cracks between king and queen, or even between

queen and queen, there will be those who appear to take advantage of them. For the

sake of the country, you must build a harmonious relationship between husband and

wife, and a harmonious household. To help you do that, I will have you take my

'Bridal Training Course.'"

I could more or less accept what she was forcefully saying. But what was this

"Bridal Training Course" that she kept on leading up to?

"Um... why are you the one lecturing us anyway, Duchess Walter?" I asked.

Excel giggled and gave me a confident smile. "I don't look it, but I've been alive

for five hundred years. I've fallen for my share of gentlemen in that time, but death

has always been the only thing that could separate us. I've always made sure to have

at least one child with each of them, too."

That was... Okay, yeah, that might be kind of amazing. Now that she mentioned it,

Excel only looked like she was in her mid-twenties, but she was a woman who had

experienced childbirth. She even had granddaughters like Juna, after all.

Excel puffed up her ample bosom with pride. "I will teach all of you how, as

queens... no, as women... to stay with the man you love until death do you part. How

you should act as a wife; the way gentlemen think; and everything from how to

support your husband, to ways to perform your nightly 'duties' in the bedroom in a

way that makes your marital relations go more smoothly."

N-Nightly duties...

The moment we heard those words come up, we all gave pretty blatant reactions.

We all must have imagined times we'd be in that sort of situation with Souma.

Roroa was blushing with a wry smile, while Juna's cheeks turned pink and she

covered her mouth with her hand, her eyes wandering. Aisha, meanwhile, had a

goofy, happy look on her face, so it was obvious what she was thinking about.

...I could feel my own cheeks burning, too.

When she saw our reactions, Excel coughed politely. "I believe I will have you all

start learning about such things now. I already have His Majesty Souma taking

individual lessons with me, after all."

The moment she said that, Juna looked as shocked as I felt.

Some weeks ago, Souma had taken Juna with him and left the royal capital. That

was when Excel had drugged Juna, and when she was alone with Souma, she had...

well... she had given him some lessons on what men and women get up to at night. I

was the only one Juna had told about that. I'd been keeping it a secret from Aisha

and Roroa. That was because if they found out, they were bound to cause a scene.

Juna had asked me, as the one who had been with Souma the longest, to subtly

ask him what had happened during the time they were together.