Chapter 92: My Husband! (3)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 92: My Husband! (3)
In hindsight, it was a relief that humanity emerged victorious, but the Final War was by no means an easy struggle.
Because the Kingdom and the Duchy were too busy squabbling over their own interests to form a proper alliance, the demons had advanced with irresistible force, marching right up to the gates of the royal capital, Pasto.
Only when the fire was literally at their heels did the Kingdom—and the Duchy, realizing they were next—finally scramble to form an allied force. They poured every ounce of their strength into conscription and talent recruitment from all corners of the land.
The most famous of the armies formed during that time was the Bertrand Unit, led by Marquis Vanguardier Dakuren.
There were also heroes who distinguished themselves on various fronts: the Mad Magician Bisharen Diberuper, the rake Regeros, and the cultist priest Mirachi Bichante.
Since all three were notorious in their own right, they had kept their daughters’ surnames or their very existence hidden.
Yarismal had been entrusted to a church in Pasto for the same reason, but from a young age, she was constantly teased for her tall stature and sturdy build.
“Hey, giant!”
The boys had been taken away by the Kingdom to be pampered from the start, leaving a surplus of girls to be sheltered in the church, which had plenty of space.
“The giant is looking at flowers!”
Even then, the gender ratio was already collapsing. Men were becoming increasingly arrogant, while women focused more on being “feminine” to ensure they would be chosen.
“Eww~ What’s a giant doing looking at flowers? Gross!”
“Take that! The giant is bullying the flowers! Get her!”
The girls, spotting Yarismal sitting in the middle of a flower bed, began throwing things at her with pure, childish malice.
Some of those things were stones.
Thwack!
“Ow! You brats!”
“Kyaaaaah! The giant is picking on us!”
“Pastor! Pastor!!”
When a furious Yarismal jumped to her feet after being struck in the forehead by a stone, the children ran away, framing her as the villain.
If she ran now, she could reach the pastor much faster than them and tell her the truth, but she knew her words wouldn’t be believed anyway.
The pastor also feared Yarismal and tried to avoid involvement with her as much as possible.
Even at that age, Yarismal was aware that she was essentially a hostage the Kingdom held against Mirachi Bichante. Furthermore, the other girls being sheltered at the church were the daughters of noble families, even if they weren’t boys.
Flop. The tall girl sat back down, wanting to bury herself among the flowers. The emotions she had been bottling up finally burst, and she began to sob.
She missed her father.
He used a stiff, strange way of speaking, but he always praised her, calling her the most beautiful daughter in the world.
“Muehehehe… Little girl. Why are you crying?”
A squat shadow fell over Yarismal.
Looking up, she saw a short man with a messy beard and overgrown nose hair.
“Heh. Dark skin but pink hair? What an imbalance. Doesn’t stir my desires at all.”
“Who… are you?”
“Your voice is deep, too. My desires aren’t stirring in the slightest. I don’t even feel like killing you.”
The man’s expression soured the moment he saw Yarismal’s face, and he waved his hand dismissively as if she were a nuisance.
“Where are your friends?”
“I… don’t have any friends…”
“Hmph, human children are no different from demons, I see. Then where are the other kids your age?”
“Why are you asking?”
“To protect them, of course. The demons will be swarming this place soon, so I have to protect them.”
Then what about me?
Yarismal felt a surge of resentment, remembering the insults he had just hurled at her, but thinking that all adults were the same anyway, she silently pointed toward the church.
“Good girl. Now, you just go on and do whatever.”
As expected, he had no interest in her.
Yarismal, used to not being treated like a girl because of her height, also lost interest in him.
Until he spoke his next words as he walked away.
“Muehehe… Noble girls… I wonder how long I’ll have to wait to raise them and eat them up.”
“…?!”
Though it was a faint whisper, Yarismal heard it clearly thanks to her innate senses.
Chills ran down her spine. She hurriedly turned back to where he had been, but the space was empty, as if he had never been there at all.
She realized instinctively.
That man was a demon.
Yarismal practically bolted from the flower bed. She ran toward the church at a speed unbelievable for a child.
But by the time she arrived, the pastor’s chest was already being slashed open by the man’s hand.
Splat!
“I told you, I have no interest in grown women!”
“Guh…!”
“Kyaaaaaah!”
The pastor collapsed helplessly, and the young girls could do nothing but scream.
Even though she disliked them, Yarismal couldn’t stand by and watch them be slaughtered. She reached the man in an instant and swung her fist.
“Stop bullying them!”
However, her fist was easily caught.
“Whoa, that actually stung a bit. Divine power in a mere brat? How arrogant.”
The man’s hand, shrouded in darkness and sharp as a blade, swiped toward Yarismal’s face.
“You’re a dangerous possibility. I’ll nip you in the bud before you become a formidable enemy.”
“Hic!”
She closed her eyes in terror.
I’m going to die like this.
I wanted to hear someone call me pretty at least once in my life.
Crunch!
“…Huh?”
There was no pain.
But there was the smell of blood.
Opening her eyes slightly, she saw another hand right in front of her, gripping the man’s hand-blade.
Following that arm, she saw a boy smiling confidently.
“Oh? When did you show up? To think there was a young human strong enough to escape my notice.”
“Really? This isn’t my first time seeing your kind, though.”
Creak, groan.
The boy began to crush the demon-energy-infused blade using nothing but the strength of his grip.
“Aaaaaagh!”
The man retreated, howling in pain as he was overpowered by pure strength.
“Who the hell are you?!”
“I know you, but you don’t know me?”
“Stop playing word games!”
“Does this look like a game to you?”
Flinch.
The man recoiled at the sheer bloodlust radiating from the boy and hurriedly increased the distance between them.
Mocking the man, the boy spoke kindly to Yarismal.
“My pretty lady, it’s dangerous here. Could you go to the back and look after the pastor for me?”
Thump.
An honest smile and a compliment calling her pretty.
Combined with his masculine strength, Yarismal’s heart hammered against her ribs.
“…Yes.”
“Good girl.”
After patting her head with his clean hand, the boy drew two heavy daggers with a metallic clang.
As he leaned back and stared down the man with ease, Yarismal called out urgently.
“U-Um!”
“Yeah?”
“What’s your name?”
“Hmm.”
After a moment’s thought, the boy answered casually.
“Alto. I’m Alto from the Bertrand Unit.”
“Please don’t get hurt. Okay?”
“Ha, of course.”
“You’ll come back after you defeat that man, right?”
“If I get the chance.”
Since the unit’s operational range was so vast, it was hard to give a definitive answer.
“Please come back. If you do… if you do… I’ll stay by your side!”
At the time, Alto simply thought the child was speaking in her own way.
“Haha! Right. I’ll try my best to come back.”
“It’s a promise!”
“Yeah, it’s a promise. Yarismal.”
Yarismal’s eyes widened.
Alto already knew who she was. Part of this mission included putting Mirachi Bichante in his debt.
As he let out a hearty laugh and ruffled her hair, the man, feeling ignored, flew into a rage.
“How dare you act so relaxed in front of me!”
“In front of who? Liras of Greed?”
“…?!”
“I remember you perfectly.”
Cold sweat broke out on the man’s brow at the boy’s smirk.
He had heard rumors lately—that there was a crazy human who slaughtered demons with a smile on his face.
Just like Vulcanus.
“Now.”
The boy’s muscles swelled.
“It’s hunting time!”
Alto lunged forward with a roar, and Liras lunged back to meet him.
Later, this battle would not only make the names of Alto Bertrand and the Bertrand Unit famous worldwide for defeating Liras, but it would also send shockwaves through the Kingdom with the revelation that one of the Demon King’s Four Heavenly Kings had infiltrated the capital, leading to a massive expansion of the front lines.
* * *
“From that day on, I awakened my divine power. I healed the pastor, caught the church’s eye, and was raised as a priest. Every day was a hardship, but with the sole determination to become strong and wealthy enough to welcome my husband, I became the youngest to be ordained as an Exhorter. Using my father’s influence, I even became the bridge to the Adventurer Guild headquarters.”
Inside the moving carriage, Yarismal finished her explanation while gazing off into the distance.
Narupa asked her a question.
“At what point exactly did you two make a vow of eternal marriage?”
“Huh? You still don’t get it?”
“Not at all.”
“You claim to be my husband’s woman, yet you have no sense of romance. My poor husband…”
“Stop trying to piss me off and just answer.”
“I suppose I have no choice.”
Yarismal puffed out her chest with a smug, annoying smile.
“I told him I would stay by his side if he returned. Is that not the desperate proposal of a maiden seeking a marriage engagement?”
“You couldn’t even use that as a line in a poem! What the hell is that?!”
“As expected of a businesswoman who only cares about money—no romance. Don’t you see? A sinful husband rescues a pitiful, bullied girl in her moment of absolute peril and charms her with a smile. That is more than enough reason to fall in love. Since that day, for over ten years, I haven’t forgotten him for a single moment.”
“You couldn’t even find where he was until just now. Besides, the condition was ‘if he returned,’ wasn’t it?”
“If I make him return to my side, then it’s settled.”
“You’re completely delusional.”
Narupa was exasperated, but Rune remained unusually silent. She just stared intently at Yarismal.
“We’ve arrived!”
“Finally!”
As the driver announced their arrival, Yarismal hurried out of the carriage.
The place was none other than the house where I lived.
Though I hadn’t lived there for very long.
“This is definitely where my husband lives, right? I suspect you two alley cats might be up to something.”
Only then did Rune speak up with a scoff.
“Why don’t you go inside? Then you’ll know for sure.”
“Fine.”
After receiving the key, Yarismal opened the door and stepped inside.
Wait, why is she going into my house first?
“Sniff… Haaaaah…”
Yarismal took a deep breath and looked dazed, like someone high on drugs.
“I can smell Lord Alto’s scent everywhere. Is this the heaven the Lord spoke of in the scriptures?”
Man, she’s scary.
Just as I was becoming as appalled as Narupa, Rune took action.
“Narupa, close the carriage door!”
“Huh?”
“Hurry!”
“O-Okay!”
Before Narupa could close the door in her confusion, I saw Yarismal reaching out a panicked hand through the gap.
“Cast a speed buff! Maximum power!”
The orders were executed in rapid succession.
While Narupa, overwhelmed by Rune’s momentum, cast the spell, Rune shouted to the driver again.
“To Eris’s house, now!”
“Understood!”
I wondered why she was being so quiet; she was aiming for this all along.
“Our darling made a promise he couldn’t keep when he was a kid, didn’t he?”
“I wouldn’t exactly call that a promise…”
“No talking back.”
I’m in trouble.
Rune is being consumed by jealousy.
“You’re staying at Eris’s house for a while. Narupa and I will deal with that woman.”
“Rune?”
“In the meantime, make sure to give Eris plenty of love.”
Rune grabbed my chin and forced a deep, passionate kiss on me.
“When this is all over, we’re having a celebration party for Eris, got it?”
“…Got it.”
“Hehe, so cute… Wait, Narupa, what are you doing! Why are you pulling down his pants!”
“Shut up, mwah…!”
Yeah.
It’s a total mess in every sense of the word.
For the record, because we suddenly barged in, Diane was unceremoniously kicked out of Eris’s house and sent to an inn.
When Diane stopped by the next day while working, she congratulated Eris, but for some reason, her eyes were incredibly swollen. I tried not to pay it much mind.