Reunion with the Genius Scholar (2)
“M-marriage? What? Marriage?! You said marriage just now──?!”
The prodigy scholar (department head), who would soon be hitting the dreaded 29 in her twenties next year, shouted with wide, startled rabbit eyes at my marriage coming-out.
─Thud! Grabbed by the shoulders by the purple curly-haired girl shorter than me, I swayed back and forth as I answered.
“Y-yeah. I, I, I got married.”
“You?! When?! Where?! Married?! How?! Why?!”
Don’t hit me with the full six Ws like that. And stop shaking me already. I’m getting dizzy as hell.
“It’s only been a month!! Just one month!! Not one or two years, but a measly month! Thirty days──!!! And you’re telling me you didn’t just roast beans in a lightning strike, but actually succeeded as an adventurer in that short time and even got married with matching rings?!”
Dana shook me in disbelief. Even if I wanted to answer whether it made sense or not, with her shaking me like that I was too busy spinning like a dashboard bobblehead to get a word out.
“Well, uh. I haven’t been here long, and we met after I arrived. She’s an adventurer, someone I formed a party with. Her name’s Francesca, a half-dwarf. She’s a good person. Kind and all.”
“She must be a saint to marry a bastard like you!!”
Hey, hold up. I literally took a bone hit shielding Franc just now.
“…Really? You really got married…?”
Once Dana stopped shaking me, my brain—liquefied by the facts and physical disco-pounding—finally managed to regain some clarity.
“Three years…… thirty days? ……Huh? How many times the difference is that……?”
While I clutched my ringing head, I heard Dana mutter in a daze. It was like her soul had left her body—or rather, like another soul had barged in and was fighting for control of the flesh. Dana, who had been standing there blankly, suddenly raised her eyebrows in fury, as if a dam had burst. Naturally, the target of that rage was me.
“You! If you were going to have a wedding, couldn’t you at least have sent me an invitation?! You didn’t send a single letter for a whole month, and now you got married without even telling me?!”
“No, wait, sorry. I misspoke. We haven’t actually had the ceremony yet.”
“What?”
Dana echoed blankly, like her brain had blue-screened. I thought the monitor had been badly repaired at the service center. I tried to soothe the utterly wronged-looking Dana.
“We just exchanged rings and confessed last night. If I hadn’t gotten your letter, we were planning to register our marriage starting today.”
“Last…… night?”
“Yeah. We’ve been dating for a little while. Still, since we get along, we wanted to properly get married and live together…… Wait, why am I even explaining this much?”
Once I regained my composure while explaining, I suddenly felt incredibly embarrassed. Dana stared at me with her mouth forming a perfect circle, then slowly backed away.
“I see…… Yeah. Right, of course.”
Perching on the edge of the table, Dana lowered her head as if exhausted and waved her hand limply.
─Whoosh whoosh. It was like the gesture of a listless puppy’s tail.
“Got it. You don’t have to say any more. I’ll…… hear the rest over drinks next time. With that wife of yours, too.”
“Uh, yeah……. Dana, you okay?”
I’d never seen Dana this deflated before. At the sight of her hanging head, all sorts of thoughts swirled in my own mind. So I ended up blurting out a completely pointless, thoughtless question. Dana didn’t answer for a moment, then muttered,
“Yeah. I’m fine, of course. I was just surprised for a second. So…… just leave me alone for a bit.”
It was practically an order to leave. I realized staying here wouldn’t help anyone.
“……Alright. If you don’t come find me within the week, I’ll come see you.”
With that, I left the office. Sargadis, with the harvest season winding down, had a bitterly cold wind.
***
When I returned to the inn, Tirsi and Franc were studying at a table on the first floor.
“Ah. Nord. You’re back.”
“Huh? Oh, welcome back!”
Tirsi noticed my return before Franc, who was still buried in her book, and spoke up. At her words, Franc struggled with the book for a moment before spotting me and waving. Then her expression tightened.
“……Did something happen?”
“Yeah……. It’s kind of a long story.”
My face must have given a lot away. Tirsi glanced between us and asked me,
“Should I give you two some space?”
“You can stay. This is something you should hear up to a certain point too, Tirsi. Franc? Where’s Larilura?”
“She hasn’t come back yet. Want to wait until she does?”
“Nah. I can tell her later.”
I sat down in a chair. Tirsi looked like she was debating whether to stand, then decided to stay. Franc neatly stacked the magic books on the table and looked at me.
“Will you tell us now? What happened that’s got you like this?”
“Well, this morning a letter arrived for me from the archaeology research institute, and──”
Organizing my thoughts as I went, I began to explain.
─How I received the letter from the archaeology research institute this morning.
─How it mentioned traces of a black mage and ruins, so I rushed over.
─How I ran into a female friend from my university days there.
─How she wanted to hire our party as escorts for exploring the ruins.
─How after a friendly conversation and consultation, just as I was about to leave, I mentioned I was married and she was deeply shocked.
I relayed it all as objectively as possible, leaving out personal feelings.
“I, I see.”
Tirsi had been listening fine up to the middle, but as the story progressed she looked increasingly like she regretted staying and kept glancing at Franc. Even Tirsi, accustomed to polygamy, knew how heavy it was for the first wife to accept a “second.” The third or fourth would be easier. The first time was the hardest; after that, permission was practically already granted by the “first.” And whether the man or woman held the upper hand, if the marital hierarchy was clearly defined, it would be simpler. Edlyn and other noblemen held an overwhelmingly dominant “superior” position in marriage. A subordinate husband or wife would find it difficult to reject a new family member or think poorly of their partner. Subordinates follow their superiors, after all.
‘But what about us?’
Franc and I were equals. And that equality had only just been established last night when I proposed. On the very day I confessed, after passionately making love and while my wife was passed out, I went to meet another woman? A woman I’d known far longer than my wife, who clearly didn’t want to remain just ordinary friends with the husband? Even in a world where “a husband or wife might have several partners,” this was── no, this was seriously, massively NG.
“That didn’t sound like the reaction of a close friend who just found out her friend was getting married without telling her, did it?”
Franc, who had listened with her usual expression, spoke up. Her tone was perfectly even.
“Uh, yeah.”
Even so, I stiffened like a criminal walking past a police station.
“I see.”
Franc fell silent, lost in thought. For several minutes that felt like hours, time crawled. Then she broke the silence.
“Tirsi. I’m really sorry, but could you wait here for about thirty minutes? If you get hungry, I’ll pay, so feel free to eat.”
“Y-yes.”
At Franc’s words, Tirsi answered nervously. Our wife, who had just sidelined her with a few sentences, then turned to me.
“Nord? Let’s go upstairs for a bit.”
“S-sure.”
Maybe she was planning to strangle me in the room. I could endure it right up until five seconds before death. If I actually died, Franc would probably hang herself right beside me.
─Creak. The stairs seemed especially ominous today!
I followed behind Franc feeling like I was being led to the gallows.
─Click. Once we entered the room, Franc locked the door. My tension spiked past its limit. Franc, standing by the door, slowly turned to face me.
“Asking what you want to do would probably be a bit cruel.”
There was no anger or sadness on Franc’s cute face. I didn’t know how to interpret that, so I at least tried not to avoid her gaze. Franc took my hand and sat me on the bed.
“You know, Nord, do you know why I fell for you?”
“……No. Sorry. I don’t really know.”
I’d never thought about it. Or maybe I’d deliberately avoided thinking about it. If Franc’s reason for liking me was based on some fantasy far removed from reality, the day I couldn’t live up to it would be the day our relationship headed for disaster.
“Idiot. Why are you so tense? I’m not mad.”
Franc gently hugged me as my lips dried out. Her body temperature was higher than most people’s. Being held by her was always warm.
“You see, before I met you, I didn’t have any dreams.”
Franc, nestled in my arms, pulled my head to her chest and stroked it.
“Even the things I had when I lived with Mother, I forgot them all. I just lived day by day. Even when I thought about the future, I felt like I was wandering through a forest without knowing where to go.”
“……That’s what you said back at Beynya’s inn too, right?”
“Yeah. That’s why I found you fascinating. I mean, there’s no reason to fall for someone, but there is a reason to become interested in them.”
Fascinating? Franc smiled as if she knew what I was wondering.
“The Nord I saw always acted without hesitation, and before I knew it, he had people around him following him. I thought that was fascinating, enviable, and cool.”
I felt a twinge of guilt at Franc’s complete lack of doubt. None of it made any sense to me.
“That was just coincidence. It only happened because things lined up that way. I’m not that great of a guy.”
“Nord. Coincidence doesn’t repeat itself over and over like that.”
Franc succinctly rejected my self-deprecation.
“In the sewers when we first met, you were the one who came up with a proper plan. Even while guarding the ruins, you naturally took on the leader role.”
Then she began recounting stories from our time together and the daily tales I’d told her in bed.
“When we went to catch the bandit group with Tirsi, when we took Larilura and exposed the circus troupe’s misdeeds, during the black mage countermeasures alliance, and even when we actually fought the black mage.”
Franc started listing all the things I’d done in Sargadis so far, whether she was present or not. Hearing it like that, it did seem like I’d played an important role at the center of those events and guided the flow—whether intentionally or not. Though that might just be the rose-colored glasses talking.
“Actually, hehe. I was even considering keeping this hidden for the rest of my life.”
Franc, who had been seriously recounting my deeds, suddenly laughed as if holding it back.
“You see, even until Nord came to the inn I was staying at, I never dreamed I’d fall for you. But then you had to go and talk so well. It felt like you whispered right into my ear why I was wandering aimlessly in a place so far from home.”
Franc spoke softly, like singing a lullaby. She looked like a girl confessing an embarrassing mistake.
“Do you know how I felt then? Nord just casually stamped his footprint right on my heart and left.”
“……Hearing it like that makes me feel like I did something really awful.”
“It was awful. Up until then, it definitely was. You reached right into someone else’s chest and snatched away a first love that had never been given to anyone. Really, I don’t know who the thief is here. You’re terrible.”
“Uh, well…… sorry.”
“Hehe. Why are you apologizing? I’ve never once regretted falling for you, Nord.”
Franc released me from her embrace and kissed my cheek. It was a kiss full of affection.
“Ever since I fell in love with Nord, there hasn’t been a single day I liked you less than the day before. When I felt you trying to match me by my side, I was truly happy. ──But you know? I think the coolest thing about Nord is that you always live with a goal.”
A goal, huh. Franc pressed her forehead against mine. We looked into each other’s eyes without anywhere to turn away.
“People with a firm purpose attract those who live only for today, like a buoy floating on the sea. That’s the kind of person you were—the one who made me fall for you every single day. No matter where you are or who you’re with, you always find your place. So I’m sure Nord will become someone who helps people who’ve lost their way and are wandering. Of course, when you act like an idiot and push yourself too hard, I’ll stop you, but…… if my existence becomes Nord’s anchor…… I’d be truly sad. So it’s okay. Even if several people fall for Nord, I know better than anyone the heart with which you like me.”
Franc interlaced her fingers with mine. On our right hands, the mithril rings we wore on each other’s left hands touched. The vow of love we’d exchanged last night.
“After all, they say the one who falls in love first loses. How could ‘the Nord I like’ not be cooler than ‘the Nord who likes me’? I guess I was fated to never be able to match you from the very beginning.”
Franc laughed with our foreheads pressed together, as if embarrassed. Our black hair became indistinguishable as they mingled.
“Just stay the Nord I like. I’ll chase after you so you never have to look back, and whenever I stop, you lead me forward. That’s enough for me.”
I burned away the guilt that had settled heavily in my chest. The mental burden that had weighed me down turned into a warm flame and circled through my body.
“I promise, Franc.”
Carrying that warmth, I made my vow.
“I’ll always stay the me that you like.”
“Then show me. Nord, show me the end of your dream.”
Franc shot back without yielding an inch, smiling the same way she had when we spoke casually under the moonlight.
“It’s okay to hesitate. If it’s hard, you can rest. You can give up, or fight to the end—it doesn’t matter. When you think this is enough, just hug me beside you with all your strength. If you do that, I’ll be able to follow you forever.”
“Haha. I already gave that answer before.”
When I first told Franc about my past, in that bathhouse, I’d already answered the same request. I pressed my forehead to hers and squeezed her hand tightly.
“Of course I will. It’s too late to regret it now. Franc, until you start hating me, I can’t run away even if I die?”
“Hehe. Then I guess I’ll live forever?”
So she says. I just got one-upped.
“Oh no. Since when did my wife get so sharp-tongued?”
“Hmph~ I was just being well-behaved because I was matching you until now~.”
“Good grief. I had no idea.”
When I shook my head, saying I couldn’t win, Franc laughed delightedly.
“My answer is ‘if it’s someone Nord brought, then it’s fine,’ so as a thief who stole someone’s heart, our Nord must take responsibility! Got it?”
Of course. I hugged Franc and thanked her earnestly.
“I will. Thank you always, and I love you, Franc.”
As expected, meeting Franc was the greatest stroke of luck in my life. Seeing Franc smiling affectionately in my arms, I felt it deeply. A lot had happened, but I really was on the lucky side after all.
Thus, I, Nord, carried a new promise in my heart. To my first wife I met in this other world── I would show her the end of the path I walked. Making that ending a happy one would be the greatest repayment I could give to Franc, who had sacrificed so much for me.