The morning of July 4 was blessed with clear skies as well.
Breakfast was served at 8:00 AM.
Morning rice porridge, miso soup with tofu and shalot, umeboshi, sweet tamagoyaki, and oshinko.
"Ah, what a wonderfully soothing flavor."
Having developed a genuine appreciation for Japanese food, Empress Emerita Hilde thoroughly enjoyed the spread before her.
Flora, her attendant, was just as taken with it.
"The food here is truly delicious, isn't it?"
"Thank you very much."
Jin was the only one dining with them, as Elsa was eating breakfast with the twins in another room.
"What are your plans for today?"
"Well, I would love for you to show me around the village."
"Understood."
Jin mentally mapped out the day's schedule.
(...First, I'll send Butler B to the village chief to let him know some nobles from the Shouro Empire are visiting...)
In reality, she was part of the Shouro Imperial Family, but revealing that outright would only stir up chaos, so describing her as a noble would be best.
(Hanna will definitely see right through it, though, so I should send Butler C to explain things to her and Martha-san beforehand.)
"...As it happens, we also have a pleasure boat running on the Erme River."
It had been in operation for less than a month.
"My, that sounds lovely."
"I commissioned a shipwright from the Kingdom of Elias to build it."
"A friend of yours, Jin-kun?"
"Yes, pretty much....Her name is Marcia."
"Oh, I've heard of her. That's the workshop that won the Golem Boat Race multiple times, isn't it?"
"Yes, exactly."
"Then I truly look forward to it."
Jin paused for a moment, wondering which vessel Empress Emerita Hilde might prefer: the flat-bottomed Anatra, designed purely for sightseeing, or the Halcyon, a high-speed trimaran.
"Please try this straw hat and sunscreen."
Before setting out, Jin offered a straw hat and sunscreen to Empress Emerita Hilde and Flora.
"My, how delightfully cool this looks."
She seemed to have seen straw hats before but had never worn one, accepting it with obvious delight.
"It suits you very well."
"Do you think so? It looks lovely on you as well."
Empress Emerita Hilde and Flora exchanged warm compliments.
Next came the sunscreen.
This lotion-type formula had been recently developed by Elsa.
While standard recovery medicine was made by infusing healing magic into a drug base, this sunscreen did not use healing magic; instead, it applied a barrier effect designed to block and reflect ultraviolet rays.
Commercially sold formulas contained fine particles of 64 light silver (titanium oxide), giving them a whitish tint, but this version was completely clear.
"My, can this truly protect against the sun?"
"Yes. It should last for about half a day."
"How wonderful....Go on, Flora, you should apply some too."
"Yes, Lady Hilde."
Targeting the exposed areas of skin, they smoothed the lotion over their arms, the backs of their hands, their necks, and behind their ears.
Both wore wide-brimmed straw hats, so their foreheads were likely safe, but...
"I recommend applying some to your nose as well," Jin suggested.
"Oh, is that so?"
"Indeed, it is."
Empress Emerita Hilde had never really noticed since she usually had an attendant holding a parasol over her whenever she went outdoors, but Flora knew all too well.
"The tip of the nose tends to burn surprisingly easily."
"My, really?"
"Yes....Jin-dono, will this sunscreen ever be sold to the public?"
Flora noted that it would be a true blessing of a cosmetic for women who worked outside.
"They're currently looking into ways to mass-produce it."
For now, research was underway to find a viable substitute for the drug base.
A proper drug base required true serum—obtained by centrifuging mana-bearing blood at subsonic speeds—processed inside a free ether box.
Because all such blood had to be harvested from magical beasts, mass production remained difficult.
The hope was that once they identified which specific components in the true serum were necessary for the drug base, they could synthesize it from scratch.
Saki was lending her expertise to the project as well.
"If Elsa is leading the research, then my expectations are high indeed."
Empress Emerita Hilde placed deep faith in her abilities.
By 9:30 AM, figuring the word of "visiting nobles from the Shouro Empire" had circulated throughout the village, Jin led Empress Emerita Hilde and Flora out of Jin Castle. Reiko was their sole escort.
Even so, Kaina Village was constantly patrolled by the twenty-six Land units, A through Z, and monitored by the magi-brain Koushin, ensuring complete safety.
On top of that, Laojun was undoubtedly keeping an eye on things from above using the Peeper telescope.
Jin's first stop was to guide the two down toward the Erme River.
"Aaha, this is marvelous!"
Empress Emerita Hilde let out a lively cheer, positively beaming with excitement.
She was aboard the flat-bottomed pleasure boat, the Anatra, with Sailor 2 at the helm.
Flora had adamantly objected to using the high-speed Halcyon out of caution, which was why they had settled on this craft, but Empress Emerita Hilde was enjoying the ride far more than anticipated.
Naturally, she had been firmly fitted with a life jacket beforehand.
(Her Maj... Lady Hilde lived such a rigid, high-pressure life for so long. Spending her days like this must be a breath of fresh air...)
Watching from the riverbank, Jin murmured softly to himself.
A handful of children were gathered on the pebble beach along the Erme River, and among them stood Hanna.
"Hey, Onii-chan, isn't that the former Emperor?"
"Yeah. You recognized her, huh..."
After all, she had helped welcome Empress Emerita Hilde back when she visited the Loizart estate as the reigning Empress.
"She looks like she's having so much fun..."
"Yeah... It really was the right decision for her to abdicate."
Seeing that vibrant smile brought a fond warmth to Jin's chest.
If asked whom he respected most in this world, he would name Empress Emerita Hilde without a second thought—that was how profoundly he admired her.
"To be honest, I wish she could have joined the Jin Family."
"That was never going to happen with imperial royalty, though."
"Yeah, I know..."
Even in retirement, the title of "Empress Emerita" was singular and unmatched in the Shouro Empire. She remained an irreplaceable figure.
Even today, her political influence was immense—though the woman herself showed not the slightest interest in wielding it.
"The current Emperor is still young, too, so she's been helping him in all sorts of ways behind the scenes."
"Sounds like hard work..."
"Yeah. It must come with burdens commoners couldn't even begin to fathom."
"Though I'm pretty sure you don't count as a commoner anymore, Onii-chan..."
Jin could only manage a wry smile at Hanna's parting shot.