Chapter 16: Companion or Marriage
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 16: Companion or Marriage
Soft and cozy.
That was the sensation I felt the moment I regained consciousness.
It was a softness I had never experienced in my life, and I think a smile naturally spread across my face.
Wanting to feel more of that softness, I buried my face deeper into it.
Wow, this is seriously cozy.
It smells good, too.
If I could, I’d stay like this and sleep all day.
“Mmm…”
A faint sound of breathing reached my ears.
Even the voice was lovely.
Even the breath, like a gentle sigh tickling my forehead, felt wonderful.
…Wait.
A voice?
A sigh?
“Wait, what?!”
The moment I snapped my eyes open, I saw something white.
My brain, which I managed to force into a state of calm, deduced that this was someone’s shirt or top.
Oh, I see.
These are someone’s clothes.
Judging by the significant swell at the chest, it must be a woman.
Oh, is that all?
I thought it was something serious.
“…No, wait, what the hell is this?!”
My cooled-down brain suddenly panicked, and a loud shout burst from my lips.
I scrambled away in a hurry, but my back immediately hit the wall.
There was nowhere to run.
And right before my eyes…
“…Whoa.”
An incredible beauty was lying there, asleep!
Her deep silver hair and long eyelashes cast shadows in the morning sunlight.
I stared at her beauty, mesmerized, before quickly slapping myself across the cheek.
Get a grip!
This is a crisis!
“Mmm…”
Her fine brows furrowed as her arm reached out, fumbling.
As her arm caught my body, a faint smile played on her lips, and I was pulled back into her embrace.
My face and her chest were reunited after a mere few minutes.
This isn’t a dream, is it?
A woman is actually hugging me first.
Is this… heaven?
“As if!”
I quickly broke free of her restraint and backed away.
I hit the wall with a thud again, but since I couldn’t bring myself to push her away, I just stood there, stammering.
“Mmm-gh!”
As her arms became empty, the woman frowned again.
I watched her, tense.
“Mmm-nnnn-gh…!”
Finally, the woman stretched, letting out a cute groan, and as she opened her eyes with a yawn, I locked eyes with a pair of amber pupils.
“…?”
“Uh… hello?”
“Who are you?”
“I’m… I’m Alto.”
“I see. Alto. I want to sleep a bit more, so leave me alone.”
And her eyes closed again.
I was at a loss, but then I realized this was actually an opportunity.
I just needed to get out of the bed before she fully woke up.
If possible, I could escape the room entirely and act like nothing happened—or I could confess everything to the old man, the Marquis, and resolve the debt on my conscience by asking him what to do.
Alright, I’ve decided!
I’ll act right now—
“Wait!”
I’m screwed.
The amber eyes were now staring at me in shock.
Her beautiful pupils, consumed by bewilderment and horror, had shrunk to their smallest point.
“Who are you, and why are you in my room?!”
“T-this is your room?”
How was I supposed to know whose room it was?
I only remember falling asleep at the table last night.
“Eek…!”
The woman, finally putting some distance between us, looked down at her loose attire, and her face gradually filled with horror.
“Wait a second! This is all a misunderstanding. A misunderstanding!”
Actually, I didn’t know if it was a misunderstanding or not!
I just blurted it out!
“Kyaa…!”
Oh, I’m doomed!
“KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH—!!!!!!!”
Early in the morning, a woman’s scream echoed through the Dakuren Lord’s Castle.
The defendant, Alto. No surname.
Guilty by circumstance.
* * *
“Young Lady, allow me to introduce him. This is Alto, the first man to migrate from Lukart to Hus!”
“I don’t care if he’s Alto or whoever! That man entered my room without permission and shared a bed with me!”
You can guess what happened after the scream, right?
Before long, everyone in the castle, including the Old Man and the Countess, came rushing in.
The Countess, who came in to check the situation, flinched for a moment before dismissing everyone else and bringing only the Old Man into the room.
Then, the Old Man calmly introduced me.
“To dare intrude into the room of a noble’s daughter! He must be punished for a grave crime!”
“Young Lady.”
“Mother, you say something too! No matter how rare men have become in this world, how dare he…!”
“Young Lady? Please calm down.”
“Mother, how am I supposed to be calm right now! My virtue was threatened!”
“Young Lady, first of all, this is not your room.”
“…Huh?”
At the Countess’s point, Lady Airune finally looked around.
I looked around with her, and judging by the colorless decor and the lack of a single piece of lace, it certainly didn’t look like the room of a noble’s daughter.
“This is a guest room.”
“Uh…?”
“What were you doing in the guest room, Young Lady? I recall you telling me yesterday that you were going to sleep and then heading toward your own room.”
The Countess is scary.
Scary, but I’m grateful.
Seeing her grasp the situation in an instant and turn the interrogation back on Lady Airune, I could see why the Old Man was henpecked.
“That’s… because I was doing a quest in the wetlands yesterday… I didn’t want to get my room dirty with the mud, so I intentionally went to the guest room…”
“Then it was you, Young Lady, who entered the bed where Mr. Alto was already resting and slept beside him?”
“No, I…!”
“Young Lady, what will you do if rumors spread that the daughter of Marquis Dakuren assaulted a strange man? The servants likely already have an inkling.”
“Ugh… ah…”
The Countess drove the final nail into the coffin for the speechless young lady.
“Since it’s come to this, the two of you should just get married.”
“Mother?!”
“What?!”
Both the young lady and I stared at the Countess in horror, but her stance was firm.
“We just need to make the rumor a reality, don’t we? Conveniently, both Mr. Alto and the Young Lady are of marriageable age, so there’s no problem.”
“O-o-o-o-old man! Stop her, quickly. This isn’t how things are supposed to go!”
“Hmm, it’s true that doing so would resolve all issues. An excellent judgment, my dear.”
“Old maaaan!”
I even clung to you! How could you do this to me!
Me! To you!
To this old geezer!
“Right? Dear, let’s announce this immediately and prepare for the ceremony…”
“Mother! How can you proceed with a marriage so simply! This is my wedding, of all things. Does my opinion not matter at all?”
Protesting loudly, the young lady pointed at me.
“I admit I was in the wrong! But to suddenly marry a man I don’t even know, that’s… that’s…!”
“This is Mr. Alto, the first man to migrate from Lukart to Hus. Isn’t that enough?”
“Mother, why are you acting so unlike yourself, really!”
I agree.
I didn’t know why the Countess, who had been so cool-headed and calm yesterday, was trying to rush this through like she was roasting beans over a lightning strike.
And this was the daughter of the Dakuren family!
The daughter of the General I once served!
Wrong is wrong.
I gathered my courage and decided to intervene in this chaos.
“Excuse me, but…”
“Yes, Mr. Alto.”
I raised my hand and drew everyone’s attention.
The Countess looked at me with a testing gaze.
The Old Man was smirking slyly behind her.
That villainous old man!
“This was strictly a situation born from a mutual misunderstanding…”
“It was a mistake made solely by the Young Lady. She must take responsibility.”
“No, putting that aside! Marriage! Marriage is something that should be decided by the two parties after they get to know each other and confirm their feelings. If you and the Marquis try to settle this arbitrarily with marriage, both the Young Lady and I will be bewildered. There’s no reason for us to accept it!”
“Oh my.”
Even though I spoke passionately, the Countess just looked back at her husband.
“He’s more of a romanticist than I thought.”
“It’s not about being a romanticist, it’s just common sense!”
“T-that’s right. I also agree with Alto…-ssi? With Mr. Alto’s opinion, Mother.”
Fortunately, Lady Airune had come to her senses and started to back me up.
Good, let’s join forces and overcome this hurdle.
“Right? Lady Dakuren. We were simply exhausted from the night and fell into a deep sleep. It’s certain that nothing happened!”
“Hmm.”
However, the Countess and the Old Man were resting their chins on their hands, deep in thought.
“It’s troublesome to underestimate rumors. Especially for a noble, their honor is determined by those rumors.”
“I’m… not a noble. Now, let’s not do that and use our heads since we’re all gathered here. Let’s create a story that makes this situation somewhat acceptable. Yes! She entered the room by mistake and just slept in the same bed. That’ll be hard to believe. Then! Let’s do this. Lady Dakuren came early in the morning to check on me, the first migrant man, and just then, a huge bug appeared! Seeing that, the Young Lady screamed, and that’s how things ended up like this!”
Snap.
I opened my palm and pointed at the young lady.
Understanding the signal, Lady Airune nodded vigorously.
“That’s good! Yes, it’s plausible. Let’s go with that. Adopted!”
“You’re quite good at thinking on your feet, Mr. Alto. Very well.”
Good, it worked.
The young lady and I let out a sigh of relief at the same time.
“Then, to add credibility to the rumor, let’s fire the maid in charge of the guest rooms. Since she failed to perform her assigned duties properly, she must naturally pay the price.”
“That’s not right! Why should an innocent person suffer?”
“She is not innocent.”
The Countess leisurely picked up a teacup.
Where did that teacup even come from?
And she’s standing up, too.
“Since you want to make the rumor a reality, it must naturally become the truth, and there must be a maid who failed to manage the rooms properly.”
“Mother, do you really have to go that far?”
“Young Lady, you must choose. Marriage, or firing a maid to hush this up.”
No…
Frustrated, I looked at the Old Man, who was still holding back a laugh, and suddenly realized.
The real snake wasn’t the Old Man; it was the Countess.
“Countess, please be honest with me. What is it that you truly want?”
“Whatever do you mean?”
“Marriage or firing a maid—those are far too extreme. I can tell from the wisdom you showed yesterday that you aren’t the type to make such unreasonable decisions.”
A glint appeared in the Old Man’s eyes.
Dammit, this was actually a rhetorical tactic the Old Man had taught me once.
Start by gently pointing out the flaws in the opponent’s attitude or words, then praise them. Take a stance as if you’re trying to stop them, saying, “Why would a wonderful person like you do such a thing?”
“If that’s the case, I’m sure you’ll withdraw these extreme proposals and offer another one that contains your true intention. My dull brain can only take me this far.”
“Fufu.”
For some reason, the Countess’s gaze was fixed on the young lady.
The young lady remained silent for the moment.
“Very well. I will tell you what I want.”
“Yes, please.”
In the end, the Countess was the most ‘noble’ person here.
Seriously, I’m getting sick of nobles.
I need to get my settlement subsidy quickly and go hide in some countryside.
“Actually, the Young Lady is currently active as an adventurer to observe the people’s lives under the guise of successor training. However, she is still acting alone. That is far too dangerous for a noble lady and the successor of Dakuren.”
But I felt something ominous in the Countess’s calm voice.
Surely not.
“Coincidentally, Mr. Alto, you are a man who was active as an adventurer in Lukart, the largest dungeon city.”
Surely it’s not what I think?
The Countess ruthlessly crushed my futile hopes.
“My husband and I wish for Mr. Alto to become our daughter’s adventurer companion and travel throughout the Hus region to look after the people’s welfare.”
“Mother!”
“It’s better than marriage, isn’t it?”
She was right.
It was better than marriage.
But it was in direct conflict with my wish to never get involved with nobles again.
“Besides, this is also for your benefit, Mr. Alto.”
“In what way?”
“Well, obviously…”
The Countess slowly raised her teacup.
I really want to smash that teacup.
“Because you need to travel a bit to decide which part of Hus you want to settle in.”
That’s true, but…!
“Or, the choice to settle in Dakuren by getting married right now is actually the best option for us as a couple.”
Trickle.
As the Countess lowered her teacup, the Old Man appeared out of nowhere with a teapot and refilled it.
He hadn’t said a single word, but I don’t know why that old man felt so detestable.
While I was stuck between a rock and a hard place, Lady Airune stepped forward.
“I understand. Let’s do that.”
“Lady Dakuren?”
“Mr. Alto, I’m sorry. This happened because of my blunder, so I should take responsibility. This seems to be the most peaceful way.”
Lady Airune bowed her head and apologized to me.
“I sincerely apologize for being forced to compel your companionship.”
“No, it was an accidental mishap after all. Please, raise your head!”
As I hurriedly tried to stop her, the young lady slowly straightened her back.
“Thank you for accepting my apology.”
That beaming smile.
“I look forward to working with you for the time being.”
It was the first smile I, an ugly man, had ever received from a woman.
Whether it was a facade or not.