Chapter 56

Formal military duties are set to begin on the 1st of the Month of the Low Moon (February). Since we’re scheduled to be sent back to Japan tonight and things are about to get hectic, we decided to visit a real estate agent during the day. While a storefront is still a long-term goal, I wanted to secure a personal hideout first.

However, for some reason, Clara-sama just wouldn’t get out of bed this morning. I suppose she’s still preoccupied with what happened last night. Just as I was considering going to call her, she finally made an appearance.

“Good morning.”

“G-good… morning…”

Clara-sama, your voice is so small I can barely hear you. You’re turning red and looking at the floor—if you act like that, everyone is going to suspect something happened between us! In fact, Emma is giving us an incredibly suspicious look, and Fiene is staring back and forth between us with an expression of pure excitement. Yoshioka, could you please wipe that smug grin off your face?

Seriously, absolutely nothing happened. I just gave a tired Clara-sama a massage…

Up until Level 2, she had let out a few somewhat suggestive sighs, but it was just a normal massage. But the moment it hit Level 3, all that built-up tension snapped, and… well, I received an incredibly earnest confession of love.

The kicker is that before I could even respond, Clara-sama—either because the massage felt too good or because she felt a weight lift after finally saying what was in her heart—fell fast asleep! Thanks to that, we’re both stuck in this awkward limbo.

I need to find a time to talk to her properly, but for now, we have to look for rooms.

The four of us—master and servants—headed out and rented two apartments in the low town outside the city walls. One for me, and one for Yoshioka. These will serve as secret residences; private spaces where we can hide a portion of our assets and personal items brought from Japan. Living in the barracks means privacy is non-existent. My luggage is currently crammed into the Spatial Storage, but anything that doesn’t fit has to be kept in Clara-sama’s room. She says she doesn’t mind, but I feel like I’m imposing on her, so I wanted to move my things out as soon as possible. Besides, for us, having grown up in modern Japan, the lack of a room where we can be alone is suffocating.

The layout is a 2L (two rooms plus a living area) with a small pantry, so it’s quite spacious. However, there are no individual kitchens; instead, there’s a shared cooking area for the building. Despite being outside the walls, it’s close to the bustling downtown and clearly aimed at the wealthy. The rent is 30,000 Marques a month, which is quite high for this world. There’s a doorman at the entrance, and the windows—incredibly—are actually fitted with glass. It’s the kind of place a second son of a noble or a high-ranking manager of a large merchant guild might rent.

“Amazing… I’ve always dreamed of living alone,” Fiene whispered with an envious sigh.

In the Kingdom of Saxens, living alone is a luxury reserved for the truly wealthy. Most people in Dresden share rooms—it’s perfectly normal for three or four people to live in a single six-mat room. For Fiene, who grew up sharing a room with parents and siblings, private space is a dream beyond dreams.

TL/N: Fienne’s POV

Looking at the spacious room, I couldn’t help but sigh. This was a space that had absolutely nothing to do with the life I had lived until now. I never dreamed I’d even step foot in such a luxurious room in the Royal Capital. To think that someone I actually know is renting this place is shocking. My life has changed so dramatically this past month that it hardly feels real. I can only describe it as the guidance of the God of Space-Time.

Still, I wonder why Mr. Kota and Mr. Akito are renting separate rooms. They could easily live together since there are three rooms.

“Privacy”? I don’t really get what they mean by that.

But I have a hunch. I bet Mr. Kota plans to use this as a secret trysting room for him and Lady Clara. I’ve heard that young noble lords and ladies sometimes rent rooms like this as secret love nests for their paramours. That would explain why Mr. Akito is renting a different room. No matter how you look at them, those two are clearly in love.

Especially this morning, Lady Clara’s behavior was strange.

Gasp! Could it be that last night, those two…?

Oh my, even I’m starting to get flustered just thinking about it.

Once the rooms for the two of them were settled, it was decided that we would go shopping for supplies. They don’t plan on living there permanently, but they wanted to stock up on the bare essentials of food, clothing, and shelter so they could drop by whenever they liked.

Our first stop was a shop that handled firewood. Since Clara-sama was on foot today, she walked side-by-side with Mr. Kota.

“It really was a lovely room. Having a second house like that seems like it would make life much easier,” she said.

“Clara-sama, would you mind choosing the interior decor, like the curtains? I’m not very good at that sort of thing.”

“I-I’m not exactly an expert myself…”

Wow. This is straight-up lover talk. I can almost hear someone in the background shouting, “Just get a room already!” Lady Clara looked so happy, blushing all the while—those two are definitely getting close fast.

After arranging for the firewood delivery, we stopped by a furniture store and several other shops. At every turn, the two of them were mistaken for newlyweds, and they denied it with such happy expressions.

But I wonder… Lady Clara and Mr. Kota are of different social standings. Is it even possible for them to marry? I’ve heard many stories of nobles in loveless marriages keeping separate lovers, but if they’re going to be together, I want it to be more than that…

Regardless, I just want them to be happy. But I’m sure it’ll be fine. After all, Mr. Kota is an apostle of the God of Space-Time!

When I returned from the small room in the gap to Japan, I was in my own apartment, and Yoshioka was gone. It seems we each return to the exact spot we were summoned from. A quick phone call confirmed that Yoshioka was indeed back in his own room.

Tomorrow, I have to finish work as early as possible so we can go out and source new inventory. Until now, we’ve focused on high-end tableware, but the item we’ve set our sights on this time is watches.

In Saxens, there’s a current craze among lords for building clock towers. Nobles pay eye-watering prices for pocket watches, but wristwatches don’t exist yet. So, we decided to start selling hand-wound mechanical watches. They don’t take up much space, which makes them easy to transport. I figured classical designs decorated with jewels would be a hit with the Saxens nobility. I planned to buy several pieces in the 200,000 to 1,000,000 yen range and see how it goes.

The next day, I went into the office, made an appointment with my immediate supervisor, the Section Manager, and told him during my lunch break that I wanted to quit. As expected, he mistakenly assumed I was moving back to my hometown because of the divorce. He gave the usual professional attempt to talk me out of it, but when he misinterpreted my feelings and said, “It must have been hard on you,” with tears in his eyes, my heart stung a little.

I’m so sorry for deceiving you.

Fortunately, since it was still December in Japan, we agreed on a resignation date while coordinating for the end-of-year rush. With that, I felt immensely relieved.

However, I was in for a shock that afternoon when a loud voice erupted from the Manager’s desk.

“WHAT!? YOU TOO!?”

There was Yoshioka, standing before the Manager with his head bowed.

We are truly, truly sorry.

In the other world, a day is also 24 hours, so our watches can be used as practical tools. However, when it came time to actually choose the watches, we realized one major problem.

The numbers.

Watch faces are marked with either Arabic or Roman numerals. In other words, they are different from the script used in Saxens. Brands like Rolex often have designs that don’t use numbers at all, while Franck Muller is famous for its distinct Arabic numerals, and Cartier uses a lot of Roman numerals. Personally, I thought a Patek Philippe pocket watch would be exquisite, but the price tag makes me a bit nervous about the possibility of it not selling…

“Should we stick to designs without numbers?”

“Or we could just make Arabic and Roman numerals the next big trend over there,” Yoshioka suggested.

I think Roman numerals, in particular, are an intuitive enough notation system to understand.

“For now, shall we buy about 10 million yen’s worth?”

“Yeah. Let’s go with about five men’s and five women’s watches in a few different styles.”

Our sense of money is getting seriously warped, but there’s no helping it. More than that, I was nervous about buying such high-priced items with cash. Even the shop clerk looked a bit taken-mouthed…

I swear, it’s not a crime.

I made the payment while repeating excuses to myself in my head over and over again.