Chapter 182 Targeted Honorary Count
Edited by: Kanaa-senpai
Today, Ayumu had come to the Imperial Court in the afternoon to request Emperor Rai’s permission to start selling juice.
Of course, the part where he was secretly thinking, (Honestly… having to get the Emperor’s personal approval just to sell some juice? Feudalism is such a pain), was something he had no plans of saying out loud.
* * *
”Hmm… this ‘ramune’ you call it is quite good.”
The Emperor spoke with a look of impressed surprise, having just taken a sip of the nostalgic lemony soda from old Nippon—ramune, as it was known. Then, his sharp eyes drifted to the dark-colored drink sitting beside it.
”And this one? What do you call it, Sanai?”
”It is called ‘cola,’ Your Majesty,” Ayumu replied, straightening. “It is made by blending carbonated water infused with E150 caramel and the carbon dioxide produced by microorganisms, then sweetened with sugar. A few percent of citrus oil and fruit juice are added as flavoring, so I hope it might also serve as a preventative measure against scurvy caused by vitamin C deficiency, Your Majesty.”
Naturally, Emperor Rai sampled the cola, and after a long, quiet sip, his eyes lit up. “Ooh… what a refreshing taste!” he declared. “I like this drink you call ‘cola’ very much!” And just like that, he granted permission for the juice to be sold—on the condition that a portion of it would be delivered regularly to the royal household as part of the tax tribute.
They were already being squeezed to offer all sorts of tributes, but… if cheap ingredients could make cola that raised the Emperor’s opinion of him, it was a small price to pay. More than anything, offending Emperor Rai now by refusing—just because he was tired of endless tributes—would be the mark of a fool.
”Yes, Your Majesty… as you command,” Ayumu said with a deferential bow, deciding it was far wiser to just play the obedient vassal for now.
Perhaps the Emperor found his attitude pleasing, because his eyes softened as they drifted back to the array of bottles.
”Still… so many colors of drink. A shame I am not thirsty enough to try them all… What about that purple one, and the yellow one, Sanai?”
Whether it was flattery or genuine curiosity, Ayumu couldn’t tell, but he kept his smile in place and continued.
”The purple is grape flavor, and the yellow is orange juice, Your Majesty.”
”I see… come to think of it, your orchards… were they not recently cultivating those brand-name fruits you bred through selective growing? Are you using your real grapes and oranges for these?”
Ayumu cleared his throat, lowering his voice. “No, Your Majesty.”
He explained, “These are made to be affordable for the common folk. They’re simply sugar water with fruit aroma added for flavoring, and contain no actual juice.”
”No juice?” the Emperor murmured. “I see… Though they are for the lower classes, would that not invite complaints that they do not taste like real fruit?”
But Ayumu didn’t falter. He held his calm smile like a shield and said, “There is no cause for concern, Your Majesty. Because no such complaints will ever reach you.”
”Interestingly,” he continued, “the organ called the brain will actually trick people—if you scent plain sugar water with fruit aroma, the brain fills in the missing information and convinces them they are drinking real fruit juice.”
”And they will be sold for only ten Keldan copper coins, an extremely cheap price. So even if they learn they contain no fruit, they will not complain. Once mass production begins, they will be even cheaper, and for the common folk it means they can enjoy a sweet drink that tastes like fruit—something they rarely taste at all—every single day.”
Then he added lightly, “If Your Majesty has taken a liking to them, I will leave the entire stock I brought today here. That way, if you get thirsty later, you may drink them at any time. Besides… carrying them all back would be troublesome.”
”How generous of you,” Emperor Rai said warmly.
Ayumu gave a small bow and gestured to the colorful lineup. “By the way, the blue-green one is melon soda flavor.”
”Oh… that sounds like something Rona would enjoy.”
”…Huh? You mean, Ronafermia Second Princess, Your Highness?” The words slipped from him before he could stop them—earning him an immediate death glare from the nearby palace knights. Terrifying.
”Yes. Rona is fond of the high-class melons from the swamps of the Lukurusa Theocracy.”
Ayumu appreciated the answer, but honestly, the knights’ stares were so sharp he could hardly breathe. “I—I see… W-well then, if I may… the explanation is finished, so I shall take my leave!!” he blurted, and fled the throne room like a rabbit before they could impale him with their eyes.
Behind him, Emperor Rai’s voice echoed faintly across the empty space: “Hmph… such a restless fellow…”
* * *
After that, having escaped from the throne room just as planned—or maybe exactly as they had planned—he was, of course, intercepted.
He found himself invited to coffee by Marie the wet nurse. Again. Was she a stalker or what?! And this time, she wasn’t alone. There were already guests.
After giving the polite standard greeting as he sat down—”How do you do, Lady Cecelia, Lady Oreana”—he resigned himself to chatting with the other victims until the coffee arrived.
”Good day to you, Count of Keldan.”
”Oh? Good day, Count of Keldan. Were you invited by Marie as well?”
The blonde, sharp-eyed marquis’ daughter Lady Cecelia offered the expected response, and Ayumu smiled faintly. “Yes… the smell of the coffee lured me, you see,” he lied smoothly through his teeth, every inch the proper gentleman.
”Oh, speaking of which—how is Yomi doing at your domain, Count?”
”…Yomi?”
He had no idea who that was, until she added, “Knight Yoluminette, Count.” Only then did it click—ah, it was her nickname.
Of course, the real question was why this marquis’ daughter knew anything about his subordinate at all. “Ah… she’s doing very well in the Domain Army. But… do you know her personally?” he asked, genuinely curious.
”Yes, when we were children living in Elandric, our families’ positions meant we often played together,” Cecelia said with a nostalgic smile.
Then she just kept talking, and talking, offering details he hadn’t even asked for.
Apparently… Yoluminette had originally been the daughter of a Count family in Elandric.
”Ehhh? A Count’s daughter?! That’s upper nobility!!”
He had always thought, (She does act super refined, huh…), but still—”Then why is she risking her life as a knight?!”
The answer was… painfully typical. Cecelia explained that Yoluminette’s parents, afraid she would remain unmarried too long, had started seeking marriage candidates early—but thanks to the Count family’s high status, they only considered bloodlines and wealth and all that. Which meant…
…all her arranged suitors were old geezers.
Naturally, Yoluminette hated the idea of marrying any of them.
She fought bitterly with her parents, cut ties, left home—and became a knight instead. That was the whole story.
Since it was secondhand gossip, he couldn’t be sure how much was true, but the only thing that really stuck in his mind was—
(So she’s been through a lot too, huh…)
As that thought drifted through his head, the door to the sitting room opened—and in walked Empress Sarendra, followed by a train of maids. He shot to his feet at once.
”This is… Your Majesty the Empress! I never imagined Your Majesty would grace us personally…” he said, bowing deeply in greeting.
The two maids trailing behind Empress Sarendra were apparently Lady Eclea and Lady Rieana. They moved with crisp, efficient precision, pulling out her chair and setting everything up with practiced grace, the soft rustle of their skirts like whispers on the polished marble floor.
It seemed they too had been conscripted into this coffee gathering. Poor souls. Before long, the hostess herself—Marie the wet nurse—joined the group, and Ayumu found himself swept up into the flow of idle chatter whether he liked it or not.
”Honestly! Sally, yesterday was such chaos!”
”Lady Rona actually climbed a tree. A tree. She’s truly such a tomboy…”
”My, my… goodness! Still, Rona has grown into such a mischievous thing… I do wonder who she takes after!”
He hadn’t been paying much attention at first, letting their words slide past like background music, but it became clear they had all slipped into old memories. As Empress Sarendra sighed in exasperation, Marie’s voice slid slyly in, “Why, Your Majesty, when you were still in Rostic, you were the one climbing trees all the time… She takes after you, Sally.”
Sally, he realized vaguely, must have been the Empress’s name back when she was still a princess of the Rostic Kingdom, before she married into Yugan. She had apparently taken baptism under the Aria faith and changed her name upon becoming Empress Sarendra.
Of course, when he’d first heard that story, his brain had nearly short-circuited. (Ehhhhh?! Even if she *had* been a beautiful girl back then, there’s no trace of that now!! That kind of soft, cutesy name… for *the Empress*?! Sarendra-samaaaaaa—aaAAAaaa?!!) It had been an extremely rude thought—one that would probably have gotten him beheaded on the spot—so he’d buried it very, very deep.
”Ah… I used to be such a lovely young girl, just like Rona, back in those days… how I miss them,” the Empress murmured, gazing somewhere far beyond the tea tray.
Rona… as in Princess Ronafermia, Second Princess of Yugan? He had only met her twice at most, and she had always seemed so poised, so dignified, practically dripping with noble elegance. Honestly, it was impossible to picture *that* refined lady climbing trees of all things.
(Probably some other Rona entirely,) he decided, dropping the thought before it tangled any further.
As a side note—apparently she had simply wanted someone to listen to her old stories, because what followed was a long, drawn-out account of her days traveling from the Rostic Kingdom as a lady-in-waiting before her marriage. By the end of it, Ayumu’s soul felt halfway wrung out from polite nodding alone.
* * *
And then—just as Marie finally seemed to be running out of steam and he was starting to believe the tea party might actually end—
Empress Sarendra suddenly said, “Come to think of it, Sanai… You’re of a good age now. Don’t you think it’s time you started considering a bride? After all, there are four maids here who would suit your rank and standing quite well…”
There was a sharp sparkle—*kiraan☆*—as the eyes of Cecelia, Eclea, Oreana, and Rieana all seemed to flash at once.
Not good. Not good at all. Had he… had he just become the hottest eligible noble around without realizing it?! Was it because he’d been making money lately like a shooting star knocking birds out of the sky?! Because looking around, there really weren’t many other young nobles left with both rank *and* fortune.
Wait. Wait wait wait—was Lady Cecelia’s earlier story actually a setup? A flag?! That would explain everything. That sly—!!
Absolutely not!! He refused. He did *not* get summoned to another world just to be treated like an ATM!!!
…Though, thinking about it… now that he really thought about it… hadn’t Sasami and the others been treating him like an ATM this whole time, too?
So in the end—was he just the girls’ wallet? A walking purse?! Was that what he was?!
What followed, of course, needed no explanation.
For the sake of Crown Prince Aare’s future, the Empress clearly wanted to chain Ayumu down to Yugan through marriage—and across the table, those four noble ladies weren’t even bothering to hide their glittering eyes, their smiles just a little too polished as if they could already smell the weight of his coffers.
And so, in the echoing quiet of that over-decorated salon, a silent war began—her graceful insistence slipping in between sips of coffee, their demure laughter ringing like soft bells, and his own forced smile holding like a fragile shield while he fended them off with the calm precision of a man cornered by predators in silk gloves.
No one spoke of it aloud. They didn’t need to.
Notes:
• Cecelia – Blonde sharp-tongued marquis daughter, socially slick and used to court games. Childhood friend of Yoluminette. First appear in chapter 182.
• Oreana – Highborn and calculating, one of Sarendra’s favored ladies-in-waiting. Keen observer in social settings. First appear in chapter 182.
• Yoluminette – Elandric warrior from Keldan, tall and sharp-eyed; first in Ch.146; master swordswoman using Ten-Man Slash; no family known; fought and slew bandits before Ayumu arrived, then joined his forces; stoic yet prideful, often escalates fights over petty things like cream puffs. takes “senpai” pride very seriously
• Empress Sarendra – Aare’s mother who expresses quiet resentment towards Aare’s existence.
• Rieana – Quiet and watchful lady-in-waiting, tends to blend into the background but misses nothing. First appear in chapter 182.
• Eclea – Efficient, no-nonsense attendant to Empress Sarendra. All business, little small talk. First appear in chapter 182.
• Sasami – Birene girl, small and sharp-eyed with messy brown hair | First in Ch.126 | Servant maid from the slums, does chores with chaotic energy | Has many starving siblings she secretly sends wages to | Bonds with Cocoa as her junior but constantly drags her into trouble | Meets Ayumu as part of the first servant group, wakes him with flying tackles and endless pranks | Unique note: loudmouthed gremlin who hides deep loyalty and homesickness behind mischief
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Edited by Kanaa-senpai.
Thanks for reading.
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