[R18] King's Domination

"Then I will teach Lord Marie what a bow is!"

Agnes stood from her seat and declared it. The talk changed with no warning at all.

"Nn? Is something wrong? Lord Marie, is this all right?"

Agnes looked puzzled at how thin my reaction was. This person was a classic wonder-girl. In my last life the sales assistant girl in the next seat had been the same. She would be talking about something and then change the subject all at once. In her own head she had already been thinking about the new talk during the old one, so the switch felt natural to her, and everyone around jumped. She also dropped subjects and verbs and said one word, and no one knew how to react. Then she herself could not understand why no one moved. That girl was young and cute, so people laughed and let it go. If it were a fairly old auntie with a harsh way of talking, it would be rough.

Agnes’s attendants seemed used to her wonder, and at once they took two bows out of a mana bag. See! This person uses a mana bag like it is normal! I do not think I am the only one who should be warned.

Agnes noticed I was looking at the mana bag.

"Amazing, right! This one has a mana bag! His mana bag holds so much. It is a treasure!"

She said it proudly, and the other man told her,

"Young miss, Lord Marie also has a mana bag. He has one even larger than ours."

Her eyes went wide. The air in the room felt a little worse, so I said,

"Shall we go out to the garden?"

Agnes looked happy.

"Yes! Let us do that!"

She swung the bow she had been handed around and around. That is dangerous! You do not swing that indoors!!

Once we were outside she swung the bow even more! Agnes, glad to be out. She held a bow out to me.

"Now. Take a stance."

I took the bow and set myself. Then,

"Lord Marie has never learned the bow, have you?"

Agnes said it with a fed-up face.

"You can tell well. I have done it by watching and copying until now."

"Is that so? Frightening. To shoot that well without being taught properly by anyone."

"That well?"

"You know. At the Kirchhoff count’s residence. You shot arrows to pin down that strange mage, yes? That. That."

"Ah. That? I was desperate then. It became raw strength."

"Heeh. Raw strength, and that? Watching from the roof I thought it was odd. A sense that something was off. So that was why. Fine. I will teach you thoroughly from the base! Take out the bow you used then!!"

When Agnes said that, Lily held it out.

"This? You were using this? No good! It does not even have balance as a bow! No matter how much training you pile on with this, you will not get better! There is no way! Here, Esalidge. Look."

She passed the bow to the man behind her. He swung it, checked the balance, and said,

"This is terrible. I will repair it later. Lord Marie, I will return it at the next lesson. Please use this today."

He gave me one of the bows they had taken out earlier. Lily, whose bow had been put down, looked a little sour. But I think the sense for bows is different between people close to amateur, like us, and someone at master class.

"Thank you."

I took the offered bow as I was told. When it sat in my hand, something was different. The man called Esalidge smiled.

"You can tell?"

So I said,

"I do not know what is different, but I can tell that something is different."

Kukuku. The three of them laughed at me.

"Take a stance."

I did as Agnes said, and,

"Wrong! The feet..."

Stance, grip, posture, and all the rest were corrected. Was I this bad? The fixes went into every small place. Agnes crouched to correct how I opened my feet, so the inside of that flat chest was fully visible. You could see straight through to the stomach. With nothing in the way, the view opens this much! I thought. Nipples flickered in and out too. Not inverted. Because there is no swell, maybe? Worthless thoughts.

"Hey! Focus! Focus!"

I got scolded by Agnes. If there is a small bud sitting alone on a perfectly flat place, the thing that stands will stand! It had been a while since I saw an unadorned chest. Looking like this was probably the right way. Seeing her naked would feel too disappointing.

After that Agnes went behind me, pressed close, and corrected the stance. She took my arm and adjusted the height of the elbow. But the common event where Agnes’s chest hits my back and a blessed moment arrives... did not happen.

If I am taught by this person, I think my bow will improve without extra doubts. I think I will also get used to what flickers at her chest.

—-

A few days after Eisleben came, and it had nothing to do with Eisleben, I was called by the Duchess again. This time Her Majesty and Marchioness Schult were there as well. Everyone had good color and was smiling. And today Lily and Rudolf had been called besides me. So of course it was the play.

After they had taken the medicine, the Duchess said lightly,

"About turning it into a stage. It seems it is set for three days from now."

"Hah? Three days from now is?"

My! The three ladies laughed as if fed up.

"The opening day, of course. Here. This is an invitation. There are three, so the three of you come."

An envelope came out.

"May I open it?"

"It is fine. Open it and check."

I had permission, so I looked inside. Not a ticket. Only one sheet of paper. On it was written only,

"Invitation for Ambassador Robin Marie and party."

When I lifted my face, Her Majesty said,

"You will go on opening day, will you not, Lord Robin?"

Before I knew it she was calling me by my first name even in front of people. That aside,

"Yes. If I have been given an invitation I would like to see it, but is it all right?"

"All right about what?"

"Besides we three, I would like to bring the steward’s wife."

"Eh!?"

Rudolf made a sound. It was unexpected, I think, but she would want to see it too. Her husband is the model.

"I think it is fine. Noble invitation seats are boxes. If you pack them you should fit about ten."

Marchioness Schult seemed to know as well, and told me.

"Thank you. Then we can go without holding back."

"Then I will tell Linoa you are going on opening day. I had already said Lord Robin would likely go on opening day, but now it is fixed."

"We three will go as well, but the boxes are different, so it is a little disappointing. Ufufu."

No, no, no. Watching together with Her Majesty and the Duchess, I would be too tense to see it!

"But is turning it into a stage something this fast? I do not think ten days have passed since Linoa told us before."

In my sense you cannot do anything in about ten days. From concept, half a year or a year is normal, is it not?

"Ten days is plenty."

That was the Duchess.

"Yes. Once the script is done, five days of practice and you meet opening day."

That was Her Majesty.

"What kind of thing is Lord Marie thinking of? Does theater in the Marie Kingdom take more time?"

Marchioness Schult tilted her head.

"I do not know well myself, but you spend thirty or forty days making the script, prepare sets and costumes, then spend sixty days in practice and meet opening day? If you do not, you can only offer the audience something with low finish?"

"That is not so. Ten days is enough to meet opening day. Linoa said that when the mood took her she wrote the script in one night."

Her Majesty said that, but is that all right?

"That is right. You meet opening day, watch the audience’s reaction, and change the script and change the stage as you go."