Chapter 37: That’s Fake Love
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 37: That’s Fake Love
“...”
“Um. Young Lady?”
I tried speaking to her, but the Young Lady remained turned away, staring at the wall as if she were still throwing a tantrum.
Just what was making her act so incredibly offended?
Could it be because of Yuria?
No, but aren't the Young Lady and I in a strictly employer-employee relationship?
Sure, we got a bit entangled while filming a survival movie of sorts in the Labyrinth, but if you asked if there was room for our relationship to develop beyond that... well. I’m pretty sure I drew a clear line.
Of course, that might just be my own perspective.
Just like how I had tried my best to ignore the fact that Yuria liked me.
“Young Lady.”
“...What.”
“What do you mean, ‘what’? You told me to come report that I was alive. I’m just here to say hello.”
“Right...”
“Hey. Young Lady. Lady Leah.”
“Mmm..?”
“If you have a grievance, please just say it. If you keep moping like this, I won't be able to go into the Labyrinth with you.”
Only then did the Young Lady meet my eyes.
Her gaze was filled with a sense of being wronged.
What was she so upset about?
I couldn't perfectly understand her heart.
I couldn't tell if the feelings she harbored for me were affection or a sense of possession.
I shouldn't jump to conclusions about anything until we've had a sincere conversation.
“Porter...”
“Yes.”
“Did you... really... get a girlfriend?”
“Yes. A friend named Yuria.”
“I know. The Guild Master’s daughter. A famous beauty even in the Labyrinth City. Talented, too. Someone skilled enough to earn a Gold Badge soon. I know.”
“That’s right. That’s her.”
I admitted it calmly.
It seemed she already knew.
However, as if my answer didn't sit well with her, the Young Lady began to interrogate me.
“Why?”
“Pardon?”
“Why are you dating her?”
“Young Lady, what do you mean by that?”
“You said it yourself. You said you didn't like anyone who wasn't a slave. That you had no intention of dating an adventurer. So why are you dating that woman, who is famous even among adventurers? You said you were going to marry a slave. You didn't even give me a chance. Why?”
“...”
A cold sweat broke out.
It was because the Young Lady was looking at me with such resentment.
“In the end, you just wanted power. You realized that a noble from outside the Labyrinth City has no power inside this city. Didn't you seduce that woman just to get a connection with someone powerful here? Or is she going to become your slave? No. There’s no way a noble woman like her would do that. Porter, I’m disappointed. If... if I were more capable... I could have been the one chosen...”
“Uh... well. About that.”
What was I supposed to say to this?
I mean, Yuria...
She said she would become my slave.
It felt like a misunderstanding had occurred.
Right now, the Young Lady was thinking that.
She believed that she might have been chosen, but I chose the more capable Yuria instead.
It seemed like she was sulking because of an inferiority complex mixed with various other emotions.
Furthermore, hearing her say she was disappointed in me made it clear she thought I had taken Yuria just to gain power.
That wasn't it.
It wasn't that the Young Lady had lost me to Yuria, nor was it that she liked me first and missed her chance.
Yuria was, quite literally, a pure-hearted soul.
She had been making moves on me for months.
And when we were alone, she even promised to willingly become my slave.
She even said she would consider letting me buy an actual slave to some extent.
Yuria was the person who ended up with me because of all these complex factors piling up.
But explaining this to the Young Lady was incredibly difficult.
I mean, really.
I couldn't exactly say, ‘Yuria decided to be my slave when it’s just the two of us.’
It wasn't something I had agreed upon with Yuria beforehand.
To impulsively tell the Young Lady this fact would require considering Yuria’s position as well.
“First of all, Young Lady. I think you’re misunderstanding something.”
“Misunderstanding? What misunderstanding?”
“First, I’m not really interested in power. In the first place, I was already on friendly terms with the Guild Master without having to go through the trouble of seducing his daughter.”
“...Really?”
“Yes. And I don’t know how much you’ve looked into it, but... Yuria and I have had a connection for several months now.”
“I knew that much...”
“You knew?”
“..Yes.”
“Then this will be faster. I originally intended to only date slaves, too. But as things turned out... it just happened. You understand, right? There’s no such thing as ‘never’ in life.”
“Right. There’s no such thing as ‘never.’ Right?”
“Pardon? Yes. Right.”
“Yes. There is no ‘never.’ That means there’s no such thing as you ‘never’ dating me, either. Because there’s no law saying it’s absolutely impossible.”
“What?”
“You said there’s no such thing as ‘never.’ There’s also no law saying someone has to have a monopoly on you all by themselves.”
The Young Lady’s eyes shimmered with desire.
Wait, what? Why was she doing this to me?
She wasn't even a minor noble.
A story where a true, blue-blooded noble lady falls for a mere porter.
Where did the plausibility go?
This wasn't right.
The Young Lady seemed to be mistaken about her own feelings right now.
No. It had to be a mistake.
I felt the need to correct this quickly.
“W-Wait a moment, Young Lady. You’re just, what do you call it... right. You’re just mistaking the ‘suspension bridge effect’ for actual feelings for me.”
Yes, no matter how I looked at it, it was a mistake.
The Young Lady said she had been raised sheltered, never even properly holding a man’s hand, let alone dating.
That’s why she developed an unusually strong liking for me, the first person she encountered closely.
It seemed the Young Lady was still a frog in a well, which is why she had developed such deep feelings for me.
The world is wide. If she met someone more successful or cooler than me, she would soon realize that this was fake love.
“Suspension bridge effect?”
“Yes. It’s when you develop feelings for the person you were with during a moment of crisis. That sort of thing. From what I see, your feelings right now aren't love... they’re probably closer to comradeship.”
“Comradeship. Hmm.”
“Exactly. Comradeship. You know, that deep friendship that forms between comrades who have survived the same battlefield together.”
“These feelings... are just simple friendship?”
“Yes. It’s friendship. Comradeship. It’s definitely not love.”
It must not be love.
Because she isn't a slave?
Because she’s an adventurer?
No, it wasn't for those reasons.
I had already set those two reasons aside to some extent the moment I decided to date Yuria.
The real problem was something else.
‘Her family, her doting father... and her brother, who is almost certainly a siscon.’
I was afraid of the men in that family.
The probability of them trying to kill me was 99.9 percent.
They might release assassins into the Labyrinth City to kill me inside the Labyrinth without anyone knowing.
Of course, I knew that was an extreme scenario, but nobles were naturally prone to extremes.
‘I’m scared.’
To be honest, if such a beautiful person said she liked me, of course I’d be happy.
Putting everything else aside, the Young Lady was beautiful.
She had the will to grow and plenty of money.
However, those things weren't more precious or important than my life.
“A mistake. This is my mistake?”
“That’s right. There are many people in the Labyrinth City who are more successful and cooler than me. If you interact with various people, you’ll eventually find true love, Young Lady.”
“True love. Hmm. Is that so?”
“Yes! That’s how it is.”
“And if it’s not?”
“Huh?”
“What if it’s not a mistake? What if it’s not something like friendship or comradeship? What if there’s no man who can make my heart race more than you?”
“T-That’s...”
The Young Lady smiled.
It was the first smile she had shown since we started talking today.
A smile like a chess player who had seen the end of the game.
Why did that smile, which seemed so certain of victory, make me so uneasy?
I felt like I had fallen into a trap.
“Look here, Porter.”
“Yes, Young Lady.”
“Shall we make a bet?”
“A bet?”
“Yes. A bet. You’re trying to keep pushing me away right now for some reason.”
“....”
“I don’t care if it’s because of that Yuria woman or whatever. I’ll play along. However, if I continue to like you, then you lose. If my feelings cool down, then you win. How about it?”
It wasn't a bet in the sense of ‘try hard to win my love.’
It was literally a way to find out if the feelings she was experiencing now were real or not.
“If these feelings are a mistake, just as you say. If it’s fake love. Then I’ll cleanly let go of my obsession with you. But.”
Gulp.
“If I continue to like you in the future. If I become certain that these feelings are real. Then you’ll have to accept me, too.”
“I-I already have someone...”
“Practice polygamy.”
“Pardon?”
“I believe that if a man is truly attractive, it’s fine for him to have about three wives.”
What kind of open-minded thinking was this?
This Young Lady was quite far removed from typical noble values.
I could already tell how open-minded a noble she was just by seeing her positively accept the Resurrection Spell, which is considered a social death.
But to think it was to this extent.
Wait, was it actually a thought she could have because she was a noble?
“Even if I were to practice polygamy, the difference in status between the Young Lady and me is too great.”
“Earn a Platinum Badge.”
“What? A Platinum Badge?”
“Yes. If you earn a Platinum Badge, who could say anything to you? It means you’re a powerhouse on a national level. You’re quick-witted, so surely you haven't failed to notice why the Empire or the Kingdom hasn't invaded this small Labyrinth City yet.”
The biggest reason why the world powers left the Labyrinth City alone.
The existence of Platinum Badges.
A Platinum Badge was no different from being called a one-man army.
Even reaching a Gold Badge was considered stepping into the realm of superhumans.
A Platinum Badge, which was above Gold, was quite literally a monster.
They could be seen as a living war deterrent.
While it might be easy to bring a large army and wipe out the Labyrinth City...
Preventing an assassination attempt on the leadership by a rampaging Platinum Badge was a different matter entirely.
“Even a Gold Badge is fine. It’s proof that you can be recognized even outside the Labyrinth City, regardless of whether you’re a noble or not.”
The Young Lady was telling me to at least earn a Gold Badge if a Platinum Badge was impossible.
“No, that’s not exactly an easy th— Whoa!”
“Hey, look me straight in the eye.”
When I kept trying to refuse, the Young Lady grabbed my face.
We became close enough for our breaths to touch. Her eyes drew near.
The Young Lady’s lips brushed past mine.
“Are you going to let me go? You’ll regret it if you do. I’ll handle persuading Yuria myself, so you just focus on growing your strength.”
“...”
“Buy slaves, too. I won't interfere. However, for the next six months... if my feelings haven't changed, you must accept me no matter what.”
“May I ask... why it has to be six months specifically?”
“Because it probably took that Yuria woman six months to conquer you. I’ll confirm my feelings within the same amount of time. Well? Will you accept obediently? It won't be fun if you keep refusing.”
Was this the pressure of a noble?
I could see the noble stubbornness and obsession that sought to possess whatever it desired, no matter the means.
“If I don’t accept the bet...”
“I’ll blackmail you. I’ll go around spreading rumors so that everyone in the world knows I like you. I’ll make sure it reaches the ears of my father and brother.”
“W-What kind of madness is this!”
I was being blackmailed by the Young Lady.
A threat that she would self-destruct if I didn't accept the bet.
“You’ll definitely find someone else.”
“We’ll have to see about that. Hehehe.”
I couldn't refuse the bet.
Within the next six months, I had to get rid of the Young Lady’s feelings for me.