Chapter 121
Chapter 121
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 121
Chapter Title: A Date in The Demon World? Are you in Your Right Mind?
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Looking at the two dating courses Victoria had written down, I felt a darkness closing in on my vision.
Just what kind of thought process led her to believe a plan like this could actually help with a real relationship?
"...Both are rejected. With this method, far from helping their love life, they'll just drift further apart."
I let out a deep sigh and looked at the two Victorias before me.
If Victoria hadn't had her clumsy side when it came to love, she wouldn't have resorted to insults or degrading treatment in the first place.
"Is there something wrong with it? Love is usually about deepening the relationship by repeatedly overcoming crises together."
The memory-lost Victoria looked at me with a gaze that seemed to say she didn't understand.
Her plan was to take them to a dangerous location not far from here, deliberately strand Anima and Taryon, and then create time for just the two of them.
"...I heard our relationship was the same. We faced countless crises and conflicts, but by pooling our strength to overcome them, we fell in love."
The memory-lost Victoria looked up at me slightly as she spoke. If you removed all emotional aspects and approached it purely theoretically, she wasn't wrong.
Over the past year, we had embarked on a journey to defeat the Demon King, overcoming innumerable adversities together and nurturing feelings of love.
"...Victoria, even so, you shouldn't set up an artificial scenario like this. Faking a crisis and overcoming it is different from the real thing."
However, the plan Victoria was talking about now was dangerously reckless, and feelings of love shouldn't be artificially fabricated.
"Besides, Anima and Taryon are already dating. There's no need to forcefully close the distance like this."
I was subtly hinting to the memory-lost Victoria what she'd done wrong, but...
"...Didn't we also grow closer through a contract relationship? What's wrong with staging a fake scenario like this?"
She instead retorted as if I were the strange one, arguing that even in a fabricated situation, the emotions that bloom are real.
p>The Victoria I was talking to now had lost the memories of the past year, so she couldn't show delicacy in this aspect.
"I believe with your magic, you could keep our companions safe no matter how dangerous the location. With the skill to defeat two of the Demon King's Four Heavenly Kings..."
"No, I'm just a woefully inadequate human flailing about. Don't the countless scars and marks on my body tell you that?"
"......"
The memory-lost Victoria finally realized her verbal slip and fell silent.
⚙ INNER THOUGHTS ⚙ Since they said they were dating in the Demon Realm full of dangerous enemies and traps, I thought we should utilize this environment to the maximum.... The Victoria I was conversing with now had no memories of love, so she was trying to understand emotions rationally.
"Of course I understand your thinking. You probably wonder what kind of lunatics gather to defeat the Demon King and then engage in romance."
"That's why I chose the most efficient method. We need to find and deal with Memoria as quickly as possible, within a day if we can, and recover our memories."
After I spoke, having read Victoria's inner thoughts, she nodded vigorously in strong agreement.
"However, I don't think we should deliberately put people in dangerous situations just for the sake of love."
I explained to the memory-lost Victoria why I rejected this plan.
The reason we entered a contract relationship wasn't to endanger someone, but to deal with the Four Heavenly King, Bellamora.
"And love is an emotion without a fixed form, like water flowing naturally in one direction. If you artificially stage a situation, it can lead to bad results."
Then, the other Victoria offered advice to her identical-looking self.
"Victoria..."
"This is something I learned through you, Astal. No matter how much I wore revealing clothes or tried to seduce you with degrading treatment, feelings of love didn't arise."
The other Victoria stuck out her tongue slightly as she said this, deliberately letting her clothes slip to show me her bare shoulder.
"...And knowing that, you came up with this kind of dating plan for Anima and Taryon?"
Looking at the other Victoria's behavior, I raised my voice in disbelief.
"Oh my, what's wrong with that plan? Ultimately, the fruit of love is returning to our primal forms and joining bodies.... I just thought we could skip the previous process for that reason."
The other Victoria gave a slightly sinister smile and shrugged her shoulders as if asking what the problem was.
"...Do you really think it makes sense to kidnap and imprison each other in an inn room with just a bed and water? That's a matter of personal privacy."
Looking at the other Victoria, I felt a persistent headache coming on.
Perhaps it was because she only had memories from the past year? The Victoria who had lost her saintly era was showing a vulgar and frivolous side that would make anyone click their tongue.
"Doesn't it not matter? When we shared love, we also made sure our other companions could hear by being loud..."
"No matter what, some things just aren't acceptable. What Anima and Taryon need is ordinary time spent with their lover."
I shook my head at the other Victoria's opinion, expressing my disagreement.
No matter what, locking them up with just water and a bed was too coercive.
"You know that 'ordinary' is actually the most precious and valuable word of all, don't you?"
I looked at the other Victoria with gentle eyes as I spoke.
As someone chosen as a Saint from childhood and forced to use miracles for others, she should understand what I meant.
"...Well, that's true. The moments when you treated me as an ordinary woman, not a Saint, are something I'll never forget until I die."
An ordinary family, an ordinary home, an ordinary meal.... These modified words were endlessly luxurious for us who had gathered to defeat the Demon King.
Our hero party had all had our ordinary daily lives stolen by the Demon King Ergosum.
"If all the ordinary memories—the food I ate with you, the music we listened to together, and the time we spent—disappeared... I would be no different from a dead person."
As the other Victoria said now, the past year spent with her was deeply meaningful to me too.
I quit the daily alcohol and cigarettes I used due to stress, and learned how happy it is to spend time with other people.
I, who had been trapped in self-loathing, living day by day with guilt over failing to save my parents and hometown people, changed after meeting Victoria.
"...Whenever you say things like that, I really do wonder what happened over the past year. Hearing about it and actually experiencing it are different."
The memory-lost Victoria looked curiously at the other her, who wore a smile brighter than anyone's as she reminisced.
One year is a time that can be called short if you say it's short, and long if you say it's long.
Even I, if I lost my memories of Victoria like when I transformed, would probably act like a different person.
"Want to know? Then maybe we should meet privately later, just the two of us, to talk."
"Th-that's absolutely not allowed! Who wouldn't know you're plotting to devour my memories when Astal isn't around!"
The memory-lost Victoria, still wary of the being identical to herself, hurriedly hid behind me, looking terrified.
"Oh my, so you want me to describe all the lewd and vulgar acts I did with Astal here without filtering anything? What base thoughts and feelings I had when I saw Astal's naked body..."
"...Stop it! I am a Saint! I absolutely do not have base thoughts or feelings when seeing a man's naked body!"
"Really? Really, you don't have the thought of wanting to be pinned under that sturdy body and letting out voices you don't even recognize yourself─"
Seeing this, the other Victoria grinned slyly and spoke as if reading her inner thoughts.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ Only after several minutes passed was I barely able to stop the Victorias from fighting.
They were so stubborn, even trying to use the dragon hybrid's characteristic strong physical strength, that persuasion took a long time.
"Anyway, let's go with my plan. We'll give Taryon and Anima the most ordinary day possible."
I nodded at the two Victorias. No matter how I thought about it, what lovers need isn't grand dates or events.
I thought it would be enough to help them cherish every moment they could spend with their lover.
Just like Victoria and I had.