Chapter 119: What Hus Needs
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 119: What Hus Needs
“Phew~.”
Seriously, I could soak in this hot spring several times a day and never get tired of it.
By the time I’ve stayed in long enough for my hands and feet to prune up, it’s already mealtime.
“Master Alto, it is time for dinner.”
See? Right on cue, Eris has come to fetch me.
She’s actually here on vacation with us, having received special approval from Branch Manager Karen at the Adventurer Guild.
The food here is delicious—simple, home-cooked style, and perfectly seasoned. Rune, in particular, polishes off several bowls of rice every single meal.
I’m pretty sure she had three bowls just for lunch yesterday.
Maybe that’s why her stomach has been looking so round lately.
Unlike the rest of us, who eat slowly while chatting with the other wives, Rune just keeps ordering more side dishes and stuffing her face.
When our eyes met, she gave me a bashful smile. She’s naturally beautiful, so it was cute, but still.
When we slept together last night, her belly was undeniably round.
It seems a bit serious.
Does she really have that much of an appetite?
Even so, she’s showing signs of overeating and even binging. I’ll have to tell her to start eating in moderation from now on.
“……”
…Hmm.
“Master Alto, everyone is waiting.”
Eris stood there demurely, holding a towel.
I turned to my woman—no, my youngest wife—and asked.
“Eris.”
“Yes, Master Alto?”
“How many months has it been for Rune?”
I heard a faint, sharp intake of breath.
I wondered why she and Yarismal were being so attentive to Rune’s body lately.
“It has been eight months.”
“She’s full-term?! Why did you hide it until now?”
She must have gotten pregnant almost immediately after we became a couple.
It makes sense. We were doing it every chance we got, day and night.
Besides, everyone around us had been encouraging me to work hard and have children, whether it was with Rune or anyone else.
“Because if you found out about the pregnancy, everyone from Count Dakuus to you, Master Alto, would have forced Lady Rune to stay confined within the Lord’s Castle.”
“Of course we would, for the sake of the baby and the mother! No, wait…!”
Startled, I jumped up from the middle of the hot spring.
Eris unconsciously licked her lips.
Where are you looking?
“She went into dungeons and fought in battles while pregnant?!”
“……”
“Eris, answer me.”
“That is…”
Even Eris couldn’t bring herself to answer readily.
She realized she had prioritized Rune’s feelings over my wishes and had committed a grave error.
And Rune is something else, too.
How could she openly demand sex from me with that swollen belly?
She wasn’t worried about getting caught at all.
“Eris.”
“Yes, Master Alto?”
“From now on, call me ‘Husband.’”
“…!”
As I stepped out of the open-air bath, Eris naturally unfolded the towel and began to dry every corner of my body.
“I am very, very displeased, but I am enduring this out of my love for you all.”
“I am sorry, Husband.”
“How long has it been since we arrived here?”
“About a month and a half…”
“Go and bring me paper and a pen.”
When I intentionally cut her off and made no effort to hide my discomfort, my youngest wife’s face immediately crumpled as if she were about to cry.
My heart softened seeing that, but I had to do what needed to be done.
“I’m going to write a letter to the old man. Tell him the time has come.”
“Yes, I understand.”
“Oh, and one more thing.”
I raised my index finger toward Eris as she was about to leave.
“Tell everyone, starting with Rune, to come here.”
“Yes.”
“Tell them to be prepared for a lecture.”
I saw Eris’s face turn pale.
What?
I finally sound like a real male?
Shut up. Don’t meddle in other people’s family affairs.
* * *
Hus, Dakuren.
In the Lord’s Castle of Dakuren, two haggard-looking men were eating bread and water in the drawing room.
Despite the moist texture of the bread embedded with melted chocolate chips, they didn’t have the luxury to appreciate it.
They were too busy devouring it and washing it down their throats with water.
The Countess watched them, appalled. Who would have guessed that these men, looking like beggars, were the famous war veterans of the Duchy, Levantello and Donovan?
She also resented her husband, who hadn’t shown his face since morning, even though it was now past noon.
Until Count Dakuus appeared, she was the one stuck dealing with these two.
“Um, excuse me… if it wouldn’t be a bother…”
“Of course. Someone, bring more bread!”
“The… this one…”
“Bring more Choco Water Bread!”
When Donovan held up the bland bread he had been eating, the Countess shouted toward the door once more.
Levantello nudged Donovan in the ribs with his elbow, as if to say, See?
However, as soon as Aslet arrived with the Choco Water Bread, Levantello was the first to reach out and grab two for himself.
“Hahaha! Look who we have here! Faces I’ve missed, yet never wanted to see again!”
“Count Dakuus!”
Count Dakuus entered the drawing room behind Aslet.
Today, the light reflected particularly well off his monocle.
“To keep guests waiting… my wife has suffered all the trouble alone.”
“It’s quite insulting to hear that from the very people who caused my wife such trouble.”
“I’m glad it’s only your feelings that are insulted. Someone else’s homeland has been completely ruined.”
“Ah~. That land?”
Count Dakuus laughed, twirling one end of his well-oiled mustache.
“Which land was that? Surely you don’t mean the land where those scoundrels took the veterans who risked their lives to survive and shoved them into the middle of nowhere, then turned a blind eye?”
“…Do not insult my motherland.”
“Even though that nation has mocked and insulted you countless times?”
“It is also the reason we risked our lives to fight.”
“Is that so? Is it really?”
Count Dakuus opened the drawing room door and made an exaggerated gesture with his arm.
“If you don’t like this old man’s words, you are free to leave at any time. I shall give you the chance to storm out like men.”
“Old man!”
“There is only one person allowed to call me ‘old man,’ Levantello.”
“I have here a decree from the Archduke! It is a formal request for the clearing of the Duchy’s dungeons and for salvation!”
“A decree?”
“Indeed!”
Count Dakuus glanced down at the letter Levantello held out, snorted, and walked over to his wife’s side.
When the Count didn’t even give it a second look, Levantello, flustered, chewed on his Choco Water Bread and looked at Donovan.
“If it’s a request, you should have gone to the Royal Palace. Why did you come to Hus, Levantello?”
“Because Alto Bertrand and his adventurer party are in Hus! Surely you aren’t going to play dumb? The whole world knows that Hus has taken Alto in.”
“Hus is territory belonging to the Kingdom. The Dakuren branch of the Adventurer Guild also moves at the request of the Royal Palace. Your request and reporting procedures are incorrect, are they not?”
“Old man!”
“This is your last warning, Levantello. Only that brat can call me ‘old man.’”
“Hah…?”
The monocle flashed ominously.
Levantello tilted his head, contemplating whether to pick up his lance.
The situation was on a knife-edge.
Just before Count Dakuus’s smile could turn even more grotesque, Donovan swallowed his Choco Water Bread and spoke.
“Please forgive our rudeness, Count.”
“Donovan! You were there? I didn’t realize you had come along!”
“Yes, well… since it wouldn’t be strange for me to die at any moment, there’s not much difference whether I’m here or not.”
“Why say such cold things? Between us.”
Ignoring the Count’s banter, Donovan gave a simple smile.
“But surely, Count, you wouldn’t want to talk to a speaking corpse? It would be quite embarrassing if word got out to the Kingdom or the Duchy that two corpses of war veterans were wandering around Dakuren, the heart of Hus…”
“Did you come here because you want to become corpses?”
“We came because we want to be resurrected.”
“You still talk like absolute shit.”
“I’ll give you a warning, Count.”
Donovan grinned, revealing the chocolate stuck in his teeth.
“The only one who can tell me I talk like shit is that brat.”
“……”
“……”
“I heard you went into seclusion due to panic disorders, but I guess that wasn’t the case.”
“I had to.”
“Why?”
“Because it’s terrifying.”
“What is?”
“……”
Donovan suddenly pulled his hood low and bowed his head.
Seeing this, Levantello grew angry.
“Did we commit a crime? Why do you hang your head!”
“Because if I don’t, they’ll cut it off.”
“Who would dare!”
“Have you forgotten Yobeste?”
“Ahem…!”
“He said that when he returned home, his friend had taken his wife, and his daughter called that friend ‘Father.’ He asked me for help. I tried to help him. I went to the nobles and requested an audience with the Archduke. But that ‘friend’ of his had a lot of money. And money is very useful.”
Donovan wiped his face with his dry hands and let out a sigh.
“And… and… right after the Demons were gone, we were of no use at all.”
What followed was exactly what both Donovan and Levantello knew.
“My comrade, driven to despair, sliced open his friend’s belly while he was still alive in front of the villagers, showed them his entrails, and beheaded him. Then, he took the pouch of money he had received as war veteran compensation and threw the Duchy’s gold coins at his wife one by one. People said they had never seen such a lavish corpse.”
And then, he supposedly told his daughter:
This is the inheritance your mother left for you.
Having gone mad like that, Yobeste had crawled into the Lukart borderlands to find a use for himself.
“The Duchy is afraid of the war veterans.”
“Before that, they treated us like leftover food scraps,” Levantello added.
The two middle-aged men and the one old man confessed in turn.
The glory of having risked their lives to fight and win was nowhere to be found.
“The Archduke’s decree is real. We need Alto Bertrand.”
“Levantello, you are shameless. After the Four Heroes and Young Master Janks became fallen stars, Alto Bertrand is the strongest weapon and hunting dog left to humanity. And he is also the one who was treated the worst among us. How can both the Duchy and the Kingdom be so selfish?”
Donovan pleaded.
“I hate the nobles and the royals, but the common people have done nothing wrong.”
“It is because they have done nothing wrong that they must be taught and awakened. We cannot leave those who are swayed by agitation and cry out for profit instead of justice.”
“Only Alto Bertrand can face the Four Heavenly Kings alone. You know this, don’t you? If it wasn’t for Young Master Janks and Alto, no one could stand against the Four Heavenly Kings. Only the Bloodhound—the hunting dog created by those very Demons—can carve through the masses of ordinary Demons.”
“I know. The only reason the front lines could even be maintained was thanks to your command and my defense. And the only reason we could move forward was because the two thoroughbreds of the Bertrand Unit charged through, slaughtering the Demons.”
It wasn’t for nothing that ninety percent of the men who fought in the war died.
Excluding the Four Heroes, Janks, and Alto, no one knew how much sacrifice was required for others to kill a Demon.
And the leaders of each nation truly didn’t know, which was why they were mistreating these men.
“Sigh…”
Donovan gave up.
He accepted that a logical argument based on their own position wouldn’t work.
In that case.
“I suppose you don’t care whether the Duchy needs Alto Bertrand or not.”
“Correct.”
He had no choice but to present an argument from the other side’s perspective.
“But Count, you will surely need the Duchy for the grand design you intend to leave for future generations.”
Finally, the eyes behind the Count’s monocle turned cold and still.
“You can’t tell me you have no intention of adding the Duchy’s lands to the Hus Kingdom territory of Alto Bertrand and Airune Dakuren. Once you clear out that night air, the land is quite fertile.”
Donovan took a huge bite of the Choco Water Bread and smirked again.
“Bread made from wheat grown in the Duchy’s soil will taste even better.”