Vol 1 Chapter 9 – My Too-Sharp Childhood Friend (Now Wife) Sees Through My Disguise【Vol 1 – When Written in Kanji, It’s Saionji Yumeba】

My wedding to Yumeba was conducted discreetly, yet swiftly.

When I reported to His Majesty the Emperor—a man I’d never once called “Father”—that Yumeba and I were now married, his face twitched. But perhaps out of consideration for House Saionji, he quickly approved and granted permission for the marriage.

Well, whatever happened before, from now on nobody would be able to scorn or harass me if it meant making an enemy of House Saionji.

Unlike before, the current Yumeba would instantly fly into a rage and retaliate if some idiot tried messing with me.

Though when we’re alone together in our room, she spoils me so thoroughly I wonder if she thinks her mission in life is to pamper me.

“Congratulations, brother.”

At the small chapel wedding attended only by family, His Majesty the Emperor and all my siblings who could attend were present. Naturally, that included Yunix, who offered his congratulations, but…

“Now you can leave the succession struggle behind and enjoy your newlywed life.”

He said something unnecessary, as if it were obvious.

“I never wanted to become Emperor in the first place, and I had no intention of participating in the succession struggle.”

“Ahaha. Is that so?”

Yunix’s eyes silently conveyed, ‘You mean you couldn’t become Emperor, not that you didn’t want to,’ but—that was a bad move on his part.

“Yunix. If you plan to mess with Lio going forward… I’ll crush you.”

“…I’ll be careful.”

My wife—Yumeba, dressed in a pure white wedding gown—intimidated Yunix while maintaining her smile.

My wife is super beautiful, but also super scary.

Until now she’d only focused on swordsmanship and been ignorant of politics, but filtered through me, she’d become sharp enough to seem like a psychic. Yunix shouldn’t have said unnecessary things in front of her.

Using Yunix’s blunder as an example, the other attendees safely congratulated me without incident.

If there was one exception, it was a single person.

“???”

Serina, attending our wedding as Yunix’s fiancée, kept alternating her gaze between me and Yunix with a confused expression.

Even if Yumeba and I told her the truth, Serina had a stubborn side and wouldn’t believe us easily. Still, after witnessing my wedding to Yumeba and comparing me with Yunix, she must have felt something.

She remained thoroughly confused, her gaze wandering back and forth between me and Yunix.

And so, I transformed from Emilio = Orteando = Alcian to Emilio = Geio = Saionji.

◇◇◇

Newlywed life was going smoothly.

Our residence was the familiar House Saionji, and I already knew Lady Yukina-san and her husband well enough that there was no need for awkwardness or tension at this point.

If there was a problem, it was Yumeba—who’d become strangely stronger since our marriage. Or rather, since we’d become intimate.

According to Yukina-san, when a daughter of House Saionji identifies and bonds with her life partner, she rapidly grows and becomes stronger to protect her bonded male.

What came before was the chrysalis stage; what comes now is the true emergence.

No joke, even if I went all-out as Alisa, I might not be able to win anymore.

But since Yumeba is a member of the Imperial Guard, she basically goes to the castle during the day to participate in training, so I have free time during those hours.

“If you ever think about cheating, you won’t be killed, but… I’m not joking when I say it’ll get cut off, so be careful.”

“What?!”

When I thought about going out to the capital to kill time, Yukina-san gave me an ominous warning that made me tremble.

I-It’ll be fine, right?

I’m not going to cheat anyway.

Besides, it seems the bottomless love of House Saionji isn’t bound by physical relations alone.

If I cheated, they’d cut off the offending member and still be satisfied just staying by my side and nurturing our love together.

In that case, children would become impossible and House Saionji would meet its end, but the fact they could execute this without hesitation is probably why their love is called “bottomless.”

I headed out to the capital and, after a while, transformed into Alisa and made my way to the Adventurers Guild.

(I think I’m still a super beautiful girl, but after seeing Yumeba lately, I can’t convince myself I’m winning anymore.)

Yumeba had been a beautiful girl rivaling me from the start, but recently her chest has been growing steadily larger, eliminating the areas where I could claim certain victory.

If we competed in magic alone, I think I’d still win, but in terms of overall strength, the gap has widened to the point where there’s no contest.

“Oh my.”

As I walked toward the Adventurers Guild, I happened to run into Yumeba.

(Come to think of it, it’s around lunchtime. Did she come out to the capital to eat during her lunch break?)

While analyzing this, I observed Yumeba from Alisa’s perspective, but…

(She’s already at a level where even multiple S-class adventurers working together might not win. This is… I can’t beat her.)

As expected, she’d already pulled so far ahead that even standing on my head wouldn’t help me win.

“It’s been a while.”

“…”

I greeted her while running various analyses in my head, but Yumeba just stared at me without returning the greeting.

“What’s wro—”

“Lio. What are you doing here?”

“!”

Her tone was definitive, and I couldn’t come up with any words to deflect. Worse, my face reflexively twitched.

“Wh-wh-wh-what are you say—”

“How strange. I wonder why I never noticed until now? I don’t know how you’re disguising yourself, but it’s obvious at a glance.”

“…”

This is bad.

If it were speculation or a bluff, that’d be one thing, but Yumeba was certain of my identity.

“…How did you figure it out?”

“Rather, why did you think I wouldn’t figure it out?”

“…”

Yeah. This was my carelessness.

I knew Yumeba displayed psychic-level sharpness when it came to matters involving me, yet I appeared before her as Alisa without taking any countermeasures.

“But I see. Lio was Alisa all along. I see, I see! ♪”

And for some reason, Yumeba seemed delighted to have seen through my identity.

“Um, so…”

“Anyway, you’re going to tell me everything.”

“…Yes.”

And so I was taken away by Yumeba.

I spilled everything.

I’d already released my transformation into Alisa, and I told her that my magic had likely reached a level infinitely close to true magic, that I’d developed various magical arts including Metamorphose—the transformation magic I used to become Alisa, and even that I’d been poisoned at age six and remembered my past life, giving me an advantage.

“Poisoned?”

But Yumeba’s expression changed when I mentioned being poisoned and nearly dying at age six.

“…Yunix.”

And she easily identified the culprit.

Is this person really the Yumeba-san I know?

While thinking this, I prayed for the repose of Yunix, who’d committed such foolishness in his youth.

“But a lot of things make sense now. Thinking back, Alisa provoked me plenty but avoided any real hostility, and always took my side in emergencies.”

“…I’m humbled.”

Yumeba grinned and stared at me.

Having discovered that the woman she thought was her rival was actually her husband all along, she apparently felt a sense of superiority.

The Saionji blood, monopolistic to the very end.

“B-By the way, shouldn’t you return to Imperial Guard training?”

Honestly, I needed time to sort through my thoughts.

“It’s fine. Lately when I train with the Imperial Guard, I just end up instructing them—there’s nothing for me to gain. And if I train seriously, even the Imperial Guard can’t keep up, so I can’t even have mock battles.”

“…I see.”

At this point, even dozens of Imperial Guards together probably couldn’t match her.

“So, you know? Let’s go on a date. I want to go on a date with Lio.”

“…Okay.”

“Yay! ♡”

I had no plans anyway and was killing time by heading to the Adventurers Guild, so if I could go on a date with Yumeba, there was no need to waste time.

Black-haired, black-eyed, all-black Alisa stood out, but separately, black-haired heterochromatic me also stood out in the capital.

The rumors of the discarded prince were famous, so that was natural, but…

“~♪”

Right now I was walking arm-in-arm with a delighted Yumeba, so we stood out tremendously.

Well, I’m not so timid as to worry about others’ stares at this point, and since Yumeba seems happy, spoiling the mood would be tasteless.

If there was a problem, it was that when trouble actually arose, I couldn’t show off by protecting Yumeba.

I’d lived hiding my power as a prince—my magic—but the current Yumeba possessed strength clearly surpassing even Alisa.

At this rate, not only protecting Yumeba, but even fighting alongside her as equals would be impossible.

(Thinking about it that way, I need to refine my magic more.)

I’d been working hard since then, but flight magic still wasn’t complete.

(Fighting alongside her is one thing, but if possible, I’d like to take a romantic walk through the sky with Yumeba.)

“Lio. Thinking about something?”

While I was mulling things over, Yumeba noticed.

“I was thinking that the capital isn’t bad, but wondering if we could date somewhere more romantic.”

“If it’s Lio, you can go anywhere on the continent, right?”

Since she already knew I was the same person as Alisa, she knew I could go anywhere on the continent using teleportation magic and teleportation gates.

“Considering urban development, there might be places comparable to the capital, but I don’t know anywhere better.”

“Then I want to see the ocean!”

“That sounds nice too.”

Me and Yumeba walking along the beach.

Of course, Yumeba in a swimsuit, splashing water at each other with squeals and giggles…

“Lio. You’re making a naughty face.”

“…No I’m not.”

Well, walks through the sky aside, I’d like to go to various places with just the two of us.

◇◇◇

The other day, Yumeba saw through my identity as Alisa, so…

“Good, good! Look this way!”

“L-Like this?”

We were holding a secret photo shoot in my room at House Saionji.

Yeah. I’d developed camera magic to photograph the super beautiful girl Alisa-chan, but since I couldn’t transform into Alisa in my castle room, and couldn’t photograph during adventurer work, the magic had been shelved. Now it was finally getting use.

Frankly, I was photographing Yumeba in sexy underwear I’d created using clothing magic—or rather, with a camera imbued with camera magic effects.

My personal preference was mainly white, black, and pink underwear, but since Yumeba had red hair and crimson eyes, I tried making red underwear too.

This is a very personal opinion, but I didn’t really like red underwear because it looked vulgar…

“Perfect! Super sexy!”

“Ehehe ♪”

Yumeba-san wearing red underwear is incredibly seductive.

I was just being picky without trying it.

Incidentally, until I had the opportunity to undress Yumeba when we first became intimate the other day, I’d had no way of knowing the underwear situation for women in this world, but…

“This underwear is really naughty, but revolutionary!”

Apparently, women’s underwear was basically just drawers.

Yeah. Those baggy underwear-like things.

Moreover, only upper-class women generally wore them; most commoners wore long skirts with nothing underneath.

Are they okay on windy days?

Well, anyway, I had Yumeba wear a full set of underwear—bra, panties, garter belt, and stockings—and was thoroughly photographing her with the camera.

Yumeba’s breasts had initially been too large to even squeeze, let alone pinch, but they were growing daily as I wished, and were already big enough that you’d believe me if I said a small apple was hidden inside. And I alone knew they were beautiful.

She complained that readjusting her balance during training was troublesome and her shoulders got stiff, but seeing how she ostentatiously rubbed her shoulders to show off their size, she didn’t seem entirely displeased as a woman.

“Next, let’s try some more provocative poses!”

“L-Like this?”

“Perfect! My wife is the best in the world!”

“~♪”

Yeah. Every time I praised her, Yumeba blushed with pleasure, and she never refused any pose I requested, making her the perfect subject.

This means when summer comes, I absolutely must secure a private beach for a photo shoot.

And so I photographed hundreds of images of Yumeba…

We’d gotten so mutually excited by the provocative poses that before I realized it, we were entwined on the bed.

I buried my face in Yumeba’s chest as she lay on the bed in her underwear, imagining and devouring the beautiful breasts hidden within.

“Tee-hee. Lio, you’re like a baby.”

Even while saying this, she didn’t seem to mind—Yumeba wrapped both arms around my head, seeking even closer contact.

Yumeba—women of House Saionji—will comply with most requests from the man they’ve chosen.

Of course, I have no intention of making unreasonable demands, and excessive requests would be reprimanded, but as husband and wife, even slightly extreme requests are accepted with immediate approval.

Like when I requested to bury my face in my wife’s breasts while she wore sexy underwear—it was approved as if it were obvious.

Well, this is something we do every night, but the point is that Yumeba is sweet enough on me that she’d accept requests based on modern Japanese sexual knowledge.

Yeah. Sexual knowledge in this world seems considerably behind modern Japan—or rather, Japan is too advanced, so even things I requested as if they were normal surprised her at first.

Now she knows I have knowledge from my previous life—knowledge cultivated in modern Japan—so there’s no problem, but initially she’d been suspicious about where I’d acquired such knowledge.

She’d even interrogated me about whether I’d frequented questionable adult establishments when I was single.

“Hey, Lio. It’s about time… ♡”

And so, having both reached our limit of arousal and patience—we began the main event.

I’m satisfied.

Even though we’re engaging in the decadent act of fooling around naked in bed during daylight hours, feeling a decadent sense of immorality, this is the first time in both my past and current lives that I’ve drowned in love, and I’m fulfilled from the bottom of my heart.

Yumeba is also positive about fooling around with me, and the deeper our love grows—the more her strength increases as a woman of House Saionji. It’s an unreasonable constitution.

Well, readjusting her combat balance every time she gets stronger seems difficult, but as a genius, Yumeba doesn’t seem too bothered by it.

Actually…

“I wonder where all that power comes from in such a slender body.”

While actually touching various parts of naked Yumeba’s body, I genuinely wondered where that unreasonable power emerged from within this womanly soft body.

“Relying on muscles for power means you’re still second-rate.”

“I-I see.”

Yumeba’s answer was incomprehensible to me.

◇◇◇

I got scolded.

Well, since we were newlyweds, we’d been fooling around at home with Yumeba every day, so naturally Yukina-san scolded us.

“I understand how you feel—as a woman of House Saionji, I understand your feelings extremely well! But even so, you can’t earn the right to privileges without fulfilling your duties as the next head of House Saionji.”

“We’re sorry.”

Since we were self-aware of being too selfish, Yumeba and I apologized honestly.

“You know what?! I want to throw away my work as the head of a ducal house, troublesome socializing, and everything else to just fool around with Darling all the time too!”

“…”

“But if I did that, I’d lose my place in the Empire, so I have to endure… endure and fulfill my duties to protect my rights!”

“Y-Yes.”

Yukina-san’s true feelings aside, daughters of House Saionji do possess excessively powerful strength, so normally they should be viewed as dangerous and driven from their positions.

In exchange for wielding that power as guardians of the Empire, House Saionji secures strong influence and authority within the Empire.

Thinking about it that way, trying to abandon duty while claiming rights was indeed presumptuous.

“But I really do understand how you feel. I mean, you’re newlyweds! You want to fool around endlessly in the perfect environment like you’re the only two people in the world, right?”

“Yes, yes. As expected, Mother understands!”

“…”

Maybe it’s not my place to say, but this is truly the blood of House Saionji.

Their love for the man they’ve chosen is too intense.

I suppose I’ve jumped into the well called the bottomless love of Saionji women and am endlessly falling.

This well truly has no bottom, and the deeper you fall, the deeper the love becomes—it’s a trap of love.

And this well has a capacity of one, with the opening firmly sealed shut, never to open again.

In the end, Yumeba ended up rejoining Imperial Guard training starting tomorrow morning.

Normally I’d be assigned various jobs too, but having been listed as the discarded prince, work was never distributed to me in the first place.

So until Yumeba returns, I’ll either work as an adventurer as Alisa, or hole up in my room and devote myself to refining my magic.

(The capital’s Adventurers Guild doesn’t seem to have work, so I’ll focus on magical refinement.)

And so I decided my schedule starting tomorrow…