Vol 1 Chapter 9 – Summons

“Ahhh, I screwed up.”

After taking the pregnant Reine to the government office and returning home satisfied, I’m now alone in my shop, holding my head in my hands.

“I completely forgot what I was supposed to do.”

What was the reason I went out in the first place? To buy food to replenish what had run low at home.

I completely forgot about it. I came back without doing anything.

“This is the worst… I don’t have any vegetables for today’s dinner. I’m done for. It’s over.”

Healthy living every day.

I make it a point to go to bed early and wake up early, eating three meals a day. As someone who strives for a well-balanced diet, not having salad for dinner hits pretty hard.

It’s already late, so the shops are closed. I can’t go buy anything now… hmm, maybe if I went, they’d open up for me? No, I think they would. But on top of that, uhhh… I’d probably get various requests.

“Why are you holding your head?”

As I’m sitting in the shop mulling this over, Ryshia—who somehow entered without me noticing—calls out to me.

“Oh, you’re here. Welcome. The reason I was holding my head isn’t a big deal, so don’t worry about it.”

“Oh? Is that so? Well, fine then… Anyway, I have a message for you.”

“A message? From where?”

“From your family home.”

“…Ugh.”

Hearing it’s from my family home, I grimace.

My family home. I can’t exactly be happy hearing that. It’s natural, I suppose, but my family doesn’t accept the way I’m living now.

“You’re being summoned. They said to return home as soon as possible. Make sure you go back, all right?”

“…Haah, fine. I got it.”

I can’t refuse.

Even someone like me has a position to uphold. Annoying as it is, I can’t completely ignore my parents’ words.

“…Ah.”

“Hm? What is it?”

“No, actually…”

I was thinking about how much I didn’t want to go… but thinking about it calmly, if I go to my family home now, I can eat dinner there. The lavish noble fare they serve at home.

“All right. Then I’ll head back. Right now.”

I have to go anyway.

I want to go with a reason that makes me actually want to go.

“What?! Right now?!”

“Yeah, right now. I thought it might be nice to have dinner at my family home for the first time in a while.”

“Huh…?”

“Well then, let’s go.”

Strike while the iron is hot.

The faster you act, the better.

I immediately began preparing to depart.

Vol 1 Chapter 10 – House of Count Reesroy

Though this is a crazy world with a male-to-female ratio of 1 to 10,000, it still has a framework of nations.

The country I was born in is called the Kingdom of Lore—a centralized aristocratic state.

It’s not quite an absolute monarchy, but the monarch holds strong power, and there’s a good balance between the king’s authority and the power of nobles across the land. It’s a country that’s been living peacefully for the past hundred years without major conflicts.

I was born into a noble family serving this nation—House of Count Reesroy—as a male child. Noah Reesroy.

“…I never imagined we’d actually travel from the royal capital to the Reesroy estate on the same day. Seriously, I’m exhausted.”

“Hmm… it’s been a while since I’ve been here.”

I left home when I got a bit older and opened a shop in the royal capital, so the Reesroy territory—my birthplace—isn’t a place I have many memories of spending time in. Still, coming back fills me with nostalgia.

While leisurely thinking such things, I was flying through the skies of Reesroy territory.

“…Whoa?”

Was it bad that I was being so carefree?

I suddenly detected the start of a magic spell aimed at me and hurriedly erected a barrier.

“Ooh, pretty magic.”

“What’s happening?!”

My barrier going up and a fireball flying from somewhere collided almost simultaneously.

If I’d been even slightly slower with the barrier… no. Even if I was feeling nostalgic, I shouldn’t have let my guard down. When I was really little, I once let my guard down and got captured by some weirdos… yeah, I need to stay alert at all times.

“Wh-what idiot is attacking us?! Before we even reach your family home, I’m going to make those fools pay for this!”

“You don’t need to get that angry, Ryshia.”

“Wh-what are you saying?! We were attacked with magic! Of course I’m angry! This is absolutely unforgivable! They must pay the price!”

“Oh really? Even if the person who cast that spell was my mother?”

“Huh…?”

Ryshia makes quite the idiotic sound at my words.

“There we go. That was quite the welcome, wasn’t it?”

With Ryshia in tow, I use transfer magic to instantly move to the Reesroy estate that was visible in my field of vision.

“…As always, you use quite the magic. Transfer magic… that’s supposed to be lost magic, isn’t it? When did you manage to recreate it? Good grief… you seem quite well, at least. Noah.”

“It’s been a while, hasn’t it, Mother? Still, that was quite the rough greeting. You surprised me.”

“I sensed something getting sloppy.”

A woman who doesn’t look anywhere near her forties and could be called a beautiful mature woman—my mother, Lady Reesroy. I give her my first greeting in a long while.