Vol 1 Chapter 11 – King Odile

“Are you sure? There are plenty of spare rooms.”

“That’s right, Utaki-sama. If I could live under the same roof as Utaki-sama — oh, just imagine — I could assist with your dressing every morning, and your meals, and your bathing, and your cleaning, every single day, every single day, every single day, every corner, every—”

“Yeah, that’s terrifying. I’ll pass. Thank you, Your Majesty.”

“But whyyyyyyy— Utaki-samaaaa—!“

I was used to it by now. I hadn’t wanted to get used to it, but I was.

Princess Odette was the screaming-breakdown variety of yandere. Titania was the type who came at you with the intent to kill. I was going to cry.

The King’s generous offer was to lend me an empty room in the palace — but I had no intention of dying this early in the game.

“Utaki, when you begin your training, I will spar with you whenever you wish. You need only ask.”

“Thank you, Ashthal-san.”

He was the only consistently decent person in that building from start to finish. Without him and Elena, I’d have given up on several things already. The rest of the royal household operated on frequencies I simply couldn’t receive.

“There’s a good inn in the lower city. I’ve already put the word in — if they ask for a number, tell them 0039-0038.”

“Does that number mean something specific?”

“It’s mine — well, the Crown’s identifier. I have a separate personal one. Don’t go spreading it around, alright~?”

Apparently, I could stay as long as I liked or move on whenever something else caught my interest. I’d need to level up and earn some income either way, but being given a starting point instead of getting thrown into the void was vastly preferable. Thank you, convenient plot assistance. Thank you, kind world.

“Elena will walk you over!”

“Unfair, unfair, unfair, unfair, unfair—“

“Hmph. Get out, you spineless excuse for a man.”

Terrifying on both ends.

Elena wore a dry smile. Honestly, all she’d done was be good at her job — and now she was caught up in this. I felt bad for her.

“The inn is called Enju — a pair of twins, Clara and Cleo, run it. Their mother’s been bedridden for a while now. Hardworking pair.”

“You know a lot about them.”

“? I’m the King — I have to know what’s happening with my people, don’t I?”

For all the chaos surrounding him, the man handled genuinely difficult things with complete ease. Whether it was extraordinary effort or natural charisma, I couldn’t tell — but something told me I’d be relying on him more than I expected going forward.

“Thanks, Your Majesty. I’ll pay you back by defeating the Demon Lord.”

“Counting on you, Utaki—!”

My one lingering concern: those twins were definitely girls. Probably going to die.

Later — after Utaki had left.

“Your Majesty — are you quite all right?”

“Hm? With what?”

“Utaki appears to carry a route that draws in every woman he encounters…”

“Heheh — well, sure. But unlike Odette or Titania, I intend to take my time filling in the perimeter. Sooner or later, Utaki won’t be able to live in this world without me. No… by the time I’m done, going back will be completely out of the question.”

“……”

Ashthal let out a long, deep sigh. Of course. Nothing was all right at all.

“Utaki’s world just needs me in it, doesn’t it…” she murmured, and laughed.

The 42nd holder of succession rights, Odile, was required by custom to present as male until coming of age, studying warfare and statecraft as a prince, both for military education and practical convenience.

“Once I come of age, I’ll make Utaki my consort.”

She was a woman.

Vol 1 Chapter 12 – The Twins: One Flat, One Not

Inns held more significance here than just a place to sleep.

They were vital hubs for information — along with taverns, the kind of places where adults gathered and knowledge flowed. People with experience knew things, and wherever experienced people congregated, information pooled. The accuracy of that information was a separate question, of course. Same as the internet.

“My, my — Elena-san, what a pleasant surprise.”

“Well, well — Elena-san, what a pleasant surprise.”

“It’s been a while, Clara, Cleo.”

Identical faces. Twins. Identical dresses in identical colors. The only distinguishing mark was which side their beauty spots fell on — without those, I’d have no chance of telling them apart.

Actually — no, sorry, that was a lie. There was a much easier way to tell them apart. One was flat. The other was not.

Remarkable. Same face, but full coverage of both ends of the market. The developers knew what they were doing. My mobile game brain had no more sophisticated observation to offer. For what it’s worth, I’m a leg man personally, so both options registered as positive regardless.

“And this is — ?”

“Well, well, Clara — let’s bring them in and put the kettle on first.”

“My, my — of course, how thoughtless of me. Please, come in.”

I hadn’t paid much attention to it yet, but those two clearly had verbal tics: my, my for Clara; well, well for Cleo. Clara was the one with more to offer up top.

They showed us into the sitting room and brought tea. The glass teapot was filled with blue tea, a many-petalled flower floating inside. The scent was unmistakably black tea, but the taste was something I’d never encountered before.

“Our mother is the proprietor here, but her health keeps her from working. I’m the elder — Clara.”

“And I’m Cleo.”

“Hey, I’m Utaki.”

“An otherworlder-sama?”

“An otherworlder-sama, perhaps?”

“Yeah, more or less, something like that.”

“Coming in with Elena-san — this would be on His Majesty’s orders, I imagine.”

We hadn’t explained a thing, and they’d already pieced it together. Impressive.

The two of them laughed softly — a warm, pleasant atmosphere that made it easy to understand why the inn did good business. They were part of the appeal.

“Well, well — which room shall we put you in?”

“How about the room on the third floor, next to ours?”

“Wait — you two live in the inn?”

“It was our father’s house originally.”

The short version: the family home had been converted into an inn. Their father was himself an otherworlder who’d settled here as a pharmacist, earned enough to buy the property, and built a life. The twins were half — born of this world and another. Now that I looked, there was something vaguely Japanese-passing about their features. So that was a thing that happened here — otherworlders putting down roots and starting families.

“Father had the same black hair as Utaki-san.”

“My, my — though he’s gone white-silver now with age.”

“Your dad is… where exactly?”

“Calselm, now. A town to the north.”

“They have no doctor there.”

“It’s been three years.”

“But he visits when he can.”

He sounded like a good man. If he was Japanese, I genuinely wanted to meet him someday. Probably a doctor or pharmacist back home.

“Fufu — shall we say that room, then?”

“Ah — yes, please. Thank you.”

I came back to myself.

Come to think of it — these two hadn’t made any kind of move on me yet.