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Chapter 3: Falling
“Wh-What is this?” I exclaimed.
My name was Naden Delal. I was a ryuu from the Star Dragon Mountain Range, and the candidate to be Souma’s second secondary queen.
That said, I was probably more famous as the weather girl who told the people of the kingdom the weather forecast.
Today, I was gathered in a room in the castle with the other fiancées: Liscia, Aisha, Juna, and Roroa. There was a raised platform and a podium in the center of the room, and five desks placed facing it.
On the black board behind the podium, these words were written in blocky letters.
“Second Lecture — Bridal Training Course.”
...What? What was a bridal training course supposed to be?
Since all the fiancées were gathered here, it was presumably a lecture we were all about to take, but what exactly were they going to make us do?
Not to mention...
Second lecture?! Did they have a first without me noticing?!
Since when had these lectures started? Maybe it had been before I came to this country?
While I was standing there befuddled, someone put their hand down on my shoulder.
“Whoa...! Wait, Roroa?”
When I turned back, Roroa, who looked the closest to me age-wise, was standing there with a blank look on her face.
“What’re ya doin’, Nadie?” she asked. “Just standin’ here like this?”
“No, I just couldn’t figure out what’s going on here...”
“What’s goin’ on...? Ohh, that’s right, this’s your first time, isn’t it, Nadie?” Roroa nodded to herself knowingly.
From what I’d heard, Roroa had joined after the other three fiancĂ©es, but from the way she spoke, had she been there for the first lecture?
Roroa put on a mischievous smile. “Mweheheh, be ready. This lecture can be pretty shocking.”
“Sh-Shocking?”
“You’ll be learnin’ a lot. Like all sorts of things about Darlin’.”
“About Souma?”
What exactly was I going to find out about Souma in this course?
From the naughty look on Roroa’s face, I felt like the “material” was going to be pretty risque.
I... I was kind of interested... and I was about to ask Roroa for more details, a silly grin on my face, when...
“Nyahaha...” (Bop!) Roroa took a sudden karate chop to the head. “Ouch!”
Behind Roroa stood Liscia with a look of exasperation on her face.
It hadn’t sounded painful, but as Roroa clutched her head and overreacted for comedic effect, Liscia sighed and said, “What nonsense are you putting into Naden’s head when it’s her first time?”
“No, no, Big Sis Cia,” Roroa protested. “Where’s the lie in what I said?”
“It’s not what you said, it’s the tone. What’re you making it sound sleazy for?”
“She’s right, you know, Roroa,” Juna said with a wry smile. She was already seated, “I can understand why you’d want to put it that way, though.”
Even when she wore a wry smile, she was beautiful. It just wasn’t fair. Juna was mature, her gestures were so very feminine, and she was busty. In my human form, I was the exact opposite. Fourteen, unpolished, and with no curves to speak of. It was giving me a bit of a complex.
Lately, I’d been feeling a gap opening between me and Ruby in terms of our figures, too.
Oh, God. Why were there such gaps between those who are blessed with great abundance (particularly in the chest area) and those without...?
Wait, in my case, “God” would be Lady Tiamat. To our holy “mother,” differences in figure might have meant little.
“Ah! It seems she has arrived,” said the other busty one... erm, I meant Aisha.
Liscia and Roroa had sat down already, so I took the empty seat on the far left.
The door opened, and a blue-haired beauty with a tail like mine entered.
That beauty, who was for some reason wearing a professor’s hat today, was Excel Walter, the commander-in-chief of the National Defense Force, who had also fought alongside us in the Kingdom of Lastania.
This woman had a beautiful face that looked to be in her mid-twenties despite having been alive for over five hundred years, and she was busty, too.
Honestly, I couldn’t stand her.
I remembered her flirting with Souma on my back (even if she’d just been teasing him), so I did not have a good impression of her. Knowing she was involved, my guard naturally went up.
Excel stood on the teacher’s platform, placing her things on the podium before looking around to each of us.
“I see everyone’s here. Now, let’s start the second lecture of our Bridal Training Course.”
Excel glanced over at me with a grin.
“To start us off, as this is Naden’s first time, I’d like to review the general outline of this course. This course exists to teach all of you, who will be marrying the present king of this county, His Majesty King Souma, the secrets to marital and familial happiness. You will learn everything from the spiritual aspects of what it means to be a wife, male psychology, and how to make your husband look good, to how to perform your ‘duties’ at night in a way which will keep your marriage happy.”
“Oh, so that’s what this is... Wait, our ‘duties’ at night?!” I exclaimed.
Does she mean...? I-I guess she does.
Dragons formed contracts with knights to produce and provide for their offspring. So as a result, I did have a certain amount of knowledge in that field, but... we were going to learn about that here, all together?! What to do when we “did it” with Souma?!
“Huh? We’re really doing this?” I cried.
I thought she might be pulling my leg, so I looked around to the others, but Liscia and the rest were looking downwards, awkward smiles on their faces...
Apparently we really were going to be studying that stuff.
With a serious expression, Excel told me, “The creation of heirs is a matter of great importance to the nation. If there were some misstep, and it led a gap to form between husband and wife, there might be those who sought to take advantage of that. That’s why, embarrassing as it may be, you must take this course.”
“Urkh... Okay...”
Her logical argument left no room for rebuttal. I was going to marry a king, so I had to be prepared to do this much, at least.
Excel giggled. “Hee hee! Well, you don’t have to worry too much. You can think of it as studying ways to deepen your love with His Majesty. Right, Princess Liscia?”
“Huh?! Me?!” Liscia cried out in surprise when the conversation suddenly turned to her.
“Princess Liscia has become one with His Majesty before the rest of you, and given birth to little Cian and Kazuha. That’s done something to help with this country’s shortage of royals. Okay, everyone, give Liscia a big round of applause.”
Clap, clap, clap, clap... The applause was full of jubilation and envy.
Liscia turned a bright shade of red. “Hold on! That’s embarrassing! Stop it!”
She must have felt like she was being put on display.
By the way, as for Cian and Kazuha, whom Excel had just brought up, Souma and Carla were looking after them today.
Excel turned to Liscia, who was covering her face, and said, “Now then, Princess Liscia? When you engaged in intercourse with His Majesty, did the things you learned in the course help?”
“I think... they did. A lot.”
So Liscia acknowledged the efficacy of the lessons. Th-They were useful, huh?
I wondered how they’d been useful, but I doubted she was going to be giving us those details, even if all the other four fiancĂ©es piled on and started asking.
With a satisfied smile, Excel clapped her hands. “I think you can see the utility of this lesson now, then. Please study hard, and put what you learn into practice. Okay, now before we begin the lesson... Naden.”
“Y-Yes?” I yelped.
Excel pulled a white notebook from out of her belongings and handed it to me. The cover suspiciously had words like, “Top Secret” and “Not to be Taken Outside.”
While I looked dubiously at it, Excel smiled and said, “This notebook contains His Majesty’s true opinions about all of you, which I extracted from him after getting him drunk. That includes you, too, of course, Naden.”
“Wha?!” I stared hard at the note.
This thing had how Souma felt about me written in it?!
And hold on, she’d said it like it was nothing, but getting him drunk and then questioning him was pretty scummy, wasn’t it?
When I looked around, everyone nodded knowingly.
“W-Well, this is for Souma and the country,” Liscia seemed to be saying.
“If not for resorting to this, we never would have heard His Majesty’s true feelings,” Aisha’s eyes suggested.
“We do know this is improper, but...” said Juna’s resigned look.
“Well, what’s done is done, they say,” Roroa’s shrug implied.
...What was this? I felt like I could hear the voices (excuses) in all of their heads.
“Oh, my, you don’t want the notebook, Naden?” Excel asked archly.
“...I do.”
If she asked whether I wanted it or not... I did, of course. I was concerned by what Souma thought of me, too, after all.
So... Sorry, Souma.
Once I took the white notebook Excel had prepared for me, she continued.
“The evaluations written in here are unchanged from last time, but I’ve newly added his opinion of Naden. It’s very important to know what your partner thinks of you in a married relationship, after all. Now, let me announce His Majesty’s opinion of Naden.”
“Whah?! You’re reading it out here?”
“Everyone else has already gone through this. You can read his opinions of Liscia and the others later.”
“...F-Fine.”
If everyone else had already had theirs read out, I’d have to put up with it. It was embarrassing to have mine made public, but I was interested in what Souma had to say about the others.
Excel began reading what was in the notebook.
“Now, on to Naden’s evaluation. According to His Majesty, ‘Naden looks small, but she’s a girl who really has it together. I mean, she was there to scold me when I was freaking out over Liscia giving birth. I find I’m relying on her as a partner not just in battle, but in our personal lives, too. Naden’s a ryuu, so I know she could live on her own if she wanted, and go wherever she wants. That freedom and independence reminds me of the women in my old world. It’s a nostalgic feeling.’”
“Ohhhhh...” I murmured.
This... this was embarrassing, yeah. Hearing Souma’s praise for me in front of everyone else, I was happy, but I thought my face was going to burst into flames.
Liscia and Juna smiled, while Aisha and Roroa looked at me with a bit of envy.
Excel continued. “Now, when I asked him if there was anything that he had on his mind about Naden, this is how he answered. ‘I wish she’d stop jumping on me in the morning to wake me up. It’s cute, but it makes me want to pull her under the covers and go back to sleep while cuddling her.’”
“It’s his fault for not just getting up!” I exclaimed. “...And if he wants to pull me under the covers, I don’t really mumble mumble.”
I nearly said something embarrassing, but ended up trailing off.
Seeing my response, Roroa said, “That’s good,” leaning back in her chair. “I wanna try gettin’ on top of him to wake him up, too. I figure it oughta be fine for someone lightweight, right?”
“W-Would you happen to be implying the rest of us are h-heavy?” Aisha said, sounding panicked.
Well, looking at her, since Aisha was tall, had a good amount of muscle on her, and had an impressive figure that she kept hidden... she must have been the heaviest here. But it wasn’t that she was in any way fat.
Roroa stuck her tongue out. “For the first time, I think we’ve got an advantage on our bustier competition. Right, Nadie?”
“...I can’t deny it.”
There were things we could do because we were small. There were things we wouldn’t be able to do unless we were bigger, too, of course, but there was no helping that.
Seeing Liscia, Aisha, and Juna looking at us jealously, I felt a little more confident in myself for the first time.
Then Excel clapped her hands. “Okay, that’s enough. We’re in class now, you know.”
“““““Yes, ma’am.”””””
“No need to get jealous. His Majesty sees all of you for your own merits. I want you to keep that firmly in mind. Now that we’ve finished announcing Naden’s evaluation, I’d like to begin a lecture on the things a husband and wife can get up to.”
From there, Excel’s Bridal Training Course began.
The content was... often risque enough I’d be hesitant to talk about it, but, well... it was highly educational, I think.
When I heard about the black notebook, which contained all of the [censored] things Souma wanted to do with us, and which we would be given afterwards, my interest in the lecture grew.
...There was just one thing that bothered me. This part of Excel’s lecture.
“For a husband and wife, kisses are an important way of checking the bond between them. They feel less special if you kiss all the time, but be sure to kiss when it really counts. Learn how to encourage him to do it.”
My innocent heart was racing as I listened, but the others...
“Ever since the children were born, it’s come naturally to us,” Liscia put in.
“If I act like I want to, he’ll do it,” said Aisha.
“With me... he can’t do it without the help of alcohol,” Juna sighed.
“I end up kissin’ him myself,” Roroa grinned.
They were accepting what she’d said with surprising ease.
Hang on! Just a minute! I was shocked. No way?! Am I the only one who hasn’t kissed Souma yet?!
With Excel’s class over, and having received the aforementioned black notebook, I decided to ask the other fiancĂ©es for details.
When, as a part of that, I told them I still hadn’t kissed Souma, they were all visibly surprised.
“Whaa?! Ya haven’t kissed him yet, Nadie?!” Roroa’s eyes went wide.
I was the one who really felt this was unbelievable. “For me, it’s weirder that you’re all acting so normal about it. I know Liscia’s already had his children, but when did the rest of you kiss him?”
“For me, it was in the town near the border with the Star Dragon Mountain Range where we met up with you,” Aisha said. “With Lady Liscia’s consideration, I was allowed to sleep by his side for one night... Hee hee.” Perhaps remembering what had happened then, Aisha’s face broke into a silly grin.
Ohh... That time...
It was after Lady Tiamat had torn them apart, when Liscia had arranged for the exhausted Aisha to be with Souma.
I had been told they hadn’t done anything, out of consideration for Liscia, but it seemed they’d sneakily been having a little fun, after all. I’d underestimated her.
“For me... it was in the Republic of Turgis,” said Juna. “When I was caring for His Majesty, after he passed out at a hot springs inn in Noblebeppu... um... he was so vulnerable, I couldn’t help myself...”
Juna squirmed bashfully as she spoke.
I had a racial weakness to the cold, so I hadn’t been able to join them on the trip to the Republic of Turgis. To think an event like that happened there, in secret... It was a bit frustrating.
Maybe I should have bundled up and gone with them.
“It was the Memorial Festival in Van for me,” Roroa grinned. “When he said, ‘I will protect Princess Roroa for the rest of my life’ during his speech, I got so emotional, I ended up kissin’ him hard.”
She puffed her chest up with pride as she said that.
...Hard?
“Isn’t that a weird way to say it? Isn’t a kiss soft?” I asked.
“Nah, I got so carried away, I ended up smashin’ teeth with him.” Roroa was laughing about it.
Even that memory of failure was already, at worst, a bittersweet memory for Roroa. I was super jealous.
Then Liscia gave me an apologetic look. “I’m sorry, Naden. I never realized. Normally, as the first primary queen, it would be my job to manage things and make sure that none of us was being treated unfairly.”
“It’s not your fault, Liscia...” I said uncomfortably. “It’s just that Souma hasn’t kissed me even once.”
“I think the fact you’ve never done it before is the cause of that,” Juna said with a pensive look.
What did she mean?
“For a woman, her first kiss is something that stays with her. His Majesty knows that, so he’s being careful,” she explained.
“Ohh!” Aisha broke in. “Yeah, once we’d done it once, he was a lot less hesitant. Though he doesn’t ignore the people around us, doing it anywhere and everywhere.”
So, Souma was trying to be considerate, by assuming my first kiss was important to me, and while looking for a good time to do it, he’d kept missing chances? Hmm... I was happy he cared, but that was kind of vexing.
Roroa and Liscia were nodding, too.
“Darlin’ can be pretty shy,” Roroa added.
“He can. Even after we had been engaged for a while, he didn’t try to lay a hand on me,” Liscia agreed. “If the saint from the Lunarian Orthodox Papal State hadn’t shaken him up, he might not have done anything until we were married. The children might not have come until later.”
“Oh, ya think? Well, praise be to the saint, then!” Roroa said jokingly, and everyone smiled wryly.
If the Orthodox Papal State’s sending a saint to the kingdom to try and put themselves in a more advantageous position had made Souma and Liscia cross the line, and thus indirectly helped produce an heir, that was ironic...
Wait, that wasn’t important right now.
“Ohh... What can I do?” I moaned.
“This may not be the best way to say it, but you’re his means of transportation, aren’t you?” Aisha asked. “Don’t you have a lot of time alone, like when you’re predicting the weather?”
I could only shake my head. “During those times, I have Souma on my back and I’m in ryuu form, you know? If I were to try to turn my head around and kiss him, there’s too much of a size difference, so we could only touch noses at best.”
“I... guess so.”
“W-Well, I think the next time you’re alone together, you should try doing it at your own pace, Naden,” Liscia said. “I highly doubt Souma would refuse you.”
Trying to be supportive, Liscia was giving her permission.
...Okay. If Souma wasn’t willing to do it because he was being considerate, I’d have to do it myself! My prey wouldn’t come to me on its own. I’d have to hunt.
“I’ll give it my best!” I declared.
While I stood there feeling like I had back when I was hunting in the Star Dragon Mountain Range, everyone looked a little taken aback.
I apparently had the eyes of a large, carnivorous beast.
I didn’t want to weird Souma out, so I’d have to hold back a little.
Some days later, my chance finally came.
Today I was going to be flying around with Souma to see what the weather would be like for the week.
“Okay, let’s go, Naden,” he told me.
“Roger that!”
Having changed into my ryuu form, I had Souma get on my back, and I swam up into the sky.
Then, hanging in the sky in predetermined places, I predicted the weather using my ryuu whiskers, and Souma wrote the results down on paper.
During that routine work, I kept thinking furiously about where I would try to kiss Souma.
Should we stand on top of a mountain? Or beside a pretty lake? Or maybe set down on a little island...?
While watching the terrain flow by beneath me, I agonized over what to do.
I must have been pretty out of it, because Souma got suspicious. “What’s wrong? Your head’s in the clouds today.”
“...We are in the sky, after all.”
“Oh! Hey, that was clever.” Souma let out an impressed laugh.
It looked like I’d dodged the issue.
I refocused, got back to work, and we were at the final stop.
“It’s going to be clear six days from now, and seven days from now, too,” I said.
“Okay, and done. That’s everything, huh...? Whew!”
Having finished taking down everything I told him about next week’s weather, Souma let out a tired yawn, and held his forehead, probably because of his tired eyes.
“You okay? You look even more tired than usual.”
“Yeah... Cian goes to sleep easily, but Kazuha’s always crying at night. I’ve been taking turns checking on them with Liscia and Carla, so I’m a bit short on sleep.”
“You’re the king. Couldn’t you leave this to the maids? If you collapse, the country’s going to be in serious trouble, you know.”
“I know, but... Liscia wants to watch after them herself, without leaving it to a wet nurse. I can’t make her go through all the trouble alone, and, as a father, I want to take part in raising my own children. It’s tiring, but... Well, I’m just happy to be able to see the children’s faces.”
Seeing Souma smile like that, I felt a frustration building up deep inside my chest, and it was hard to be there.
Happy just to see the children’s faces... I think that was the right way for a parent to feel. But, just as Souma was Cian and Kazuha’s father, he was my knight, my king, and my life partner. I didn’t want him to be satisfied with just the happiness he got from Liscia and their family.
...I know. I was being jealous.
I wanted him not to just look at Cian and Kazuha, but at me, too. Normally, it might be a virtue to keep that feeling bottled up inside my chest and never speak about it. But even if that was a virtue... I felt like I just couldn’t do that.
If I did, it would have bad consequences.
I didn’t want to think badly of Liscia and her children.
I didn’t want to start acting unlike myself, losing the me that Souma loved.
That was why I needed Souma to face my feelings head on.
“I know Cian and Kazuha are cute, but it feels lonely when all you look at is the children,” I burst out.
“Huh?” Souma got a blank look on his face, and I brought my face around close to his.
“Look at me, too, okay?”
“Oh...! Sorry. I didn’t mean not to...” Souma seemed to recognize my jealousy and apologized. He stroked my snout. “You’re right. I feel like the children are more important than my own life, but that doesn’t mean I can neglect my time with you. No, not just you, Naden. Liscia, Aisha, Juna, and Roroa, too.”
“That’s right. It’s your responsibility to make every member of the family happy. If you make anyone cry...”
“If I do, then what?”
“Hee hee, this.”
I changed into human form. Even though we were still high in the sky. Seeing me rapidly shrink, Souma cried out in surprise.
“Whoa, hold on, Naden?! If you transform here...!”
“It’s dangerous, so don’t let go, Souma.”
I held Souma’s hand tight with my now-human hands.
Now that I was fully human, we were being pulled downward by gravity. Souma’s back was toward the ground, and I was falling with him, his right hand held in mine. We were gradually accelerating, and I could feel the air rushing by us.
This height and speed was nothing to me, but it looked like it was an incredible experience for Souma.
“%$&@#!” Souma shouted incoherently, slapping my hand with the hand I wasn’t holding. That was probably his way of saying, “I give, I give!”
I took his hand in mine, brought my face close, and shouted loud enough he could hear me over the wind. “It’s okay! I’m with you!”
“There’s nothing okay about suddenly making me go skydiving!”
“You make Halbert and his people do it all the time!”
“Sorry, Hal! I swear, I’ll tell them to raise the Dratroopers’ pay!”
It seemed Souma had managed to adapt to the situation. No, maybe I should say he’d stopped caring.
It seemed, holding hands with mine so that our arms formed a ring, he’d developed the composure to be able to look at the ground.
“It’s scary what you can get used to,” he said. “I’m starting to have fun now.”
“Well, you’re always flying through the sky on my back, after all.”
“Just please, turn back before we hit the ground.”
“Got it. But, now, let’s do something we can only do in human form.”
When I pulled Souma in close, our bodies turned so the scenery was upside down.
We accelerated, pitching headlong towards the ground.
And then...
I brought myself close to Souma’s flustered face, and locked lips with him.
We couldn’t stay close for long with our bodies like this, of course, so it was only a light kiss, but Souma turned bright red and his eyes went wide.
“I-Is now the time?!”
“Well, I heard I was the only one you hadn’t done it with yet.”
“But still... Mmph!”
I pulled him in and kissed him again. While repeating that process, the ground got close, so I turned into my ryuu form and got Souma on my back.
Finally released from free fall, and with an exhausted look on his face, I stifled a laugh as I asked Souma, “Well, how was it? Your first kiss with me.”
“...I’d rather have my feet firmly on the ground when I kiss someone,” Souma joked with a serious look on his face. “In more ways than one.”
“Ahahaha!” I burst out laughing. “Hee hee! If you don’t want another kiss in the air, make sure you kiss me regularly from now on, okay?”
“...I’ll remember that.”
With this, I was sure we’d made a memory we’d never forget.
Hee hee! I wonder what kind of face Liscia and the others would make if I told them about it!
I hummed to myself in ryuu form as I danced up into the sky.