Sometime after the announcement about the marriage between me and Ricolette, the death of the emperor was made public. During the mourning period of one year, all fancy gatherings were suspended. Officially.

Actually, the matter of the marriage wasn’t announced immediately.

When I came to my mansion, there was a need to make the personal space for Ricolette. With a push of His Majesty Hito, my mansion was expanded. It took about half a year to complete, meanwhile, Ricolette stopped by from time to time.

We ate together when I was taking a lunch break in the store, and, sometimes, we went shopping. Of course, Merias was often present during those times. I was slightly worried about the relationship between the two, but it seems that there was no reason to worry. The two readily made fun of me when I did a poor job.

During the day offs, she has been coming directly to my mansion. There, I was worried about her compatibility with Peris, but it was quickly dispelled as she was immediately captivated by her cooking. After that, she strived to learn cooking from me and Peris and considerably raised her skills in this half a year. Something like tempura became easy for her.

As for me, my store was still operating. There was still a great demand across the adventurers, merchants, and soldiers. Although I think that revealing my face isn’t a big deal, following Gon’s advice I changed it with a barrier, while I’m at it, I also change my face when I’m going around with Ricolette.

And after about two months since she started to visit my mansion, I told her the mansion’s secret. [¹]

I was ready to see her panic or run away, but she was way calmer than I expected. With Gon and Peris, she expressed her desire to maintain their relationship, and with Jeneha, she properly introduced herself and asked Jeneha to treat her well from now on. What I didn’t expect was the fact that when she saw Irimo’s true form, she started crying.

I knew about the abuse she received from the idiotic prince but, apparently, it wasn’t a secret from Ricolette either. He didn’t listen when she asked him to stop and even directed his sword at her once. Ricolette’s bad reputation in the capital in a certain sense rubbed off from the idiotic prince.

She didn’t talk much about her own life, but she mentioned that her life in the palace is rather stifling as of late. All of her subordinates were replaced by the new people. Of course, they were there to watch over Ricolette. She didn’t like it and took every chance to snuck out and come over here to play. Of course, those people also observe me, but since they didn’t do anything malicious, I let them be. On the contrary, once I bribed them with something like ohagi, they have been telling me the movements inside the imperial palace instead. They too are the people working for benefits.

One way or another, the construction was obstructed by the heavy snow, and the original period of half a year was extended by three months. They finished only close to spring.

The new rooms were added to the back of the mansion. The first floor was allocated for Merias’ workshop and the archives, the second floor was reserved for our rooms, a bath, and a toilet. The construction of the bath was filled with hurdles, causing the workers to nearly pull out their hair in frustration. It was all worth it, a wonderful bath was successfully completed. I was greatly satisfied with that.

When the baggage was carried inside and all that was left was to wait for the bride to move in, Ricolette told us an outrageous thing.

「By all means, make Merias your wife too」

Merias was staring at the floor with her face scarlet.

「What a nice idea」

Gon and the other residents of this mansion were in favor of this.

「I don’t really mind but…….are you truly fine with it? 」

「Merias likes you from the bottom of her heart. I was moved by her pure heart. By all means, please do it」

「I didn’t expect to hear something like that from Rico」

「It is fine since it is Merias. The other women are no good」

「What about you, Merias? Will you marry me? 」

「……Yes」

With even her ears bright red, she barely produced an answer. Dangerous, this cuteness is not to be underestimated……

「I’m a slave. That’s why, Ricolette-sama will be the legal wife, while I’m fine with being a side dish…」

I do not permit this! Or so Merias and Rico argued with each other for a while.  I’m still the honorary marquis so Gon advised me to make Rico a legal wife to for appearance’s sake. In the end, it was decided that Rico would be the legal wife, while Merias would be a concubine. Of course, I do not plan to treat them differently, I won’t cheat on them with the other girls either, I probably won’t, even if I do, I’m going to take the responsibility. Still, I never expected to have two wives by the age of 17. Compared to the previous life, I’m much more accomplished here.

I only lament that I wasn’t able to host a grand wedding ceremony, but even still, His Highness Viras and His Highness Hito acted as our witnesses before the high priest. Rico became a bit too emotional and kept crying during the whole ceremony. That being said, the ceremony was rather short, it ended after we recited a short prayer and the high priest confirmed our intentions.

「Yeah, I didn’t perform the ceremony with Merias」

「That is enough for me. I was content with just being able to live after I became a crime slave, but I even managed to marry the man I love. If I still wish for more, I would be struck by lightning」

I hugged Merias without thinking.

One way or another, Rico’s baggage was brought inside and she finally settled down in my mansion. This was a start of our new life.

When we started living together, I discovered some things I didn’t expect.

I was surprised the most at the fact that Rico and Merias seemed like completely different people during the day and during the night. She shows her strong character and intelligence during the daytime, but once we are alone, she becomes extremely obedient. She turns passive and never leaves my side due to her loneliness. She looks incredibly happy when I hug or kiss her. That being said, she is quite sensitive and I end up working hard before I know it. On the other hand, Merias behaves modestly during the day, but when we are alone, she tries to discover the best ways for us to make each other feel good. I don’t know if it was her researcher’s blood going wild, but compared to Rico she was much more aggressive. [²]

I have absolutely no complaints about my wives. The two could always make me relax, and since they recognized each other, there were no family quarrels as of now. It’s just, recently Rico started sneaking inside when I was alone with Merias making me embarrassed. We slept together as they used my arms as pillows. It was a bit hard on my arms, but since it is a rather luxurious problem, I decided to not bring it up. [³]

Gon, Peris, Irimo, Jeneha, and the harpies. Everyone lives in harmony. Including me, everyone felt that they finally reached the peaceful times.

However, shortly afterwards I came to know about the shocking truth and ended up entangled in another problem.