Prologue

“Ugh… ngh… it’s… hard to breathe…”

An overwhelming pressure, so strong that it felt like all the Sand Boar meat I had eaten today might come back up.

Perhaps sensing the danger to my life from how difficult it was to sleep, my consciousness rapidly awakened.

I tried to sit up, putting strength into my waist… but I couldn’t move at all.

The reason was a single girl who was clinging tightly to my body and refusing to let go.

“Mnngh… h-heavy…”

“Munya… what do you mean heavy? To begin with, the single eye of a cyclops is…”

The one having a conversation with me that seemed to match up yet completely didn’t was my former… no, current fiancée, Nadja.

While breathing softly in her sleep, she was holding me firmly like I was a body pillow or something.

I tried desperately to resist, but her strength—belonging to someone with the Sword Saint aptitude—was tremendous, and there was no way I could compete with it.

Giving up on sitting up and adjusting my sleeping position, I lowered my slightly raised hips back down.

Apparently satisfied, Nadja mumbled sleepily and pressed her face against my chest.

When I gently stroked her head with my free right hand, Nadja’s cheeks relaxed.

“Munya… suu… suu…”

It seemed Nadja had fallen back into a deep sleep.

I somehow freed my left arm, which had started screaming in pain, from her grip as she began to breathe quietly.

Escaping from Nadja’s arms, which had loosened once she fell asleep, I turned over.

Sleeping with someone else had its pros and cons.

When you first fell asleep or woke up suddenly, the reassurance of someone beside you was something hard to replace.

But on the other hand, having someone else in what should normally be a space for one person made your sleep shallower.

Nadja seemed completely unaffected by such disadvantages… but she was probably the minority, and people like me were the majority.

“…”

When I rolled over and faced the other side, I saw Aira—not in her usual maid uniform, but wearing pajamas.

At the beginning, she often wore her maid uniform even when sleeping, but recently she had started wearing pajamas more often.

Stretching out a wrinkled maid uniform after sleeping in it would obviously be a hassle, and besides, maid uniforms didn’t look comfortable to sleep in, so personally I was glad.

Aira always wore her maid uniform.

Recently, as the number of civil and military officials gradually increased and we gained more room to breathe, I had begun giving her days off—but even on her days off, she still wore her maid uniform.

If this was just my own conceit, it would be embarrassing… but she probably didn’t want to change the relationship we had now.

Though honestly, she didn’t need to worry about something like that.

Aira was stubborn in strange ways.

“…suu… suu…”

Usually Aira gave off a somewhat strict impression, but when she was sleeping, her face looked as adorable as a newborn baby.

Perhaps because the sharp corners of her eyes had relaxed, she had a gentle charm.

Being able to see that might be something of a privilege.

As I stared at her, she somehow began to look even younger.

Normally I wouldn’t do something like this, but thinking of a baby, I absentmindedly poked Aira’s cheek.

And then… Aira suddenly opened her eyes!

“—Wah!?”

“Good morning, Woody-sama.”

“Y-You were awake?”

“A maid wakes whenever there is something unusual.”

“I-Is that how it works…?”

Maids sure are mysterious…

While I was feeling guilty for waking her up, Aira seemed to read my thoughts and shook her head slightly.

“There is no problem. I was about to wake up in about five minutes anyway.”

As she said that, she pointed toward where the sunlight had begun invading the night sky.

“T-That’s an amazing internal clock…”

“I am a maid.”

“I-Is that how it works…?”

When Aira said it like that, I started to think maybe it really was.

Maids could do anything—an all-purpose existence… which meant everyone should become maids…? No, my thoughts were going in a strange direction this early in the morning…

“Woody-sama, please rest a little longer. I will wake you again once everything is prepared.”

“Thanks, then I’ll rest a little more…”

I closed my eyes and let my body drift back into drowsiness.

When I slowly opened my eyes at the sound of something being set down, Aira had already taken off her pajamas and changed into her usual maid uniform.

“Please sleep well, Woody-sama…”

After seeing Aira give me a small bow, I closed my eyes again and let myself sink back into comfortable sleep.

My name, the name of the person she served, was Woody—my full name was Woody Adastria.

I was the former heir of House Conrad, the current head of House Adastria as a viscount, and the lord who ruled Wenti.

As for why I stood in such a complicated position… simply put, it was the result of a family problem that had grown out of control.

My father, the current Duke Conrad, possessed the Great Magus aptitude.

House Conrad had expanded and protected its territory using this Great Magus aptitude.

That was why in the ducal territory, what mattered most was military power—first military power, second military power, third and fourth military power, and fifth military power.

Naturally, as the heir, I had been expected to inherit the Great Magus aptitude and had been drilled with all sorts of education since childhood… but on the day of the Rite of Blessing, when I received my aptitude, what I obtained was Tree Planting—the ability to plant trees.

In House Conrad, where combat aptitudes were valued, production aptitudes that created things had no importance at all. I lost my position as heir, and my younger brother Ashid took my place.

And then he ordered me to green the desert, and before I could make any real preparations, I was thrown out into the desert as a lord.

After that, all sorts of things happened… Nadja followed me to the desert after breaking off her engagement, and she even brought along a Divine Beast.

Just when I thought I had managed to green the territory by cleverly using the Sanctuary, the Dark Elves and elves arrived and caused a commotion.

Then I ran around protecting the people of the territory and eventually became independent and founded my own house, and it was revealed that my Tree Planting wasn’t merely an aptitude but a skill that surpassed aptitudes—a particularly powerful superior skill at that.

And I drove back the furious Ashid when he came after me… actually, when I think back on it like this, didn’t way too many things happen?

…Well, anyway, all those problems were settled for now, and these days I was living a fairly relaxed life like this.

Nadja had officially become my fiancée, and Aira was set to become my concubine.

And if you asked whether anything had changed because of that… it didn’t feel all that different from before.

Just like before, Aira, Nadja, and I were lying together in one bed.

Unlike at the beginning, it no longer made my heart race just from touching slightly or feeling someone’s breath.

But instead, there was a sense of peace I had never felt before.

It was hard to say which was better… but since I was happy now, there was no need to rank them.

Nadja and Aira still argued quite often… but every household had its own shape.

And somehow, the three of us were managing just fine.

While thinking about such things, I quickly fell asleep—