Return (3)
"Oh, welcome! We’ve been waiting for you ever since we heard you’d be visiting our domain!"
The one who greeted the delegation was a handsome middle-aged man with blue hair.
Marquis Propylene.
If Serenia had made the greatest contribution on the offensive side, then Marquis Propylene had achieved the most on the defensive. While the Hero’s party and the Continental Alliance Army carved a path toward the Demon King’s castle, the marquis had defended the kingdom with astonishing military genius.
And there was his swordsmanship.
He had received a few pointers from the Hero Pedro, and from that alone had reached a staggering level of accomplishment—good enough to be counted among the kingdom’s finest with one hand.
Thanks to that, the Propylene family, once merely a count’s house, had been elevated to a marquisate and granted even wider lands.
"Haha, I can’t remember the last time I saw the princesses."
"Isn’t that because you hardly ever leave your estate, Marquis?"
"Well, once a man gets old, there’s no place like home."
The marquis smiled as he tossed out lighthearted jokes.
But Mercede and Mari couldn’t laugh.
Their eyes drifted to the marquis’s right leg and left eye.
A leg that looked natural enough at a glance, yet somehow still felt unnatural; and an eye covered by a stylish black eyepatch. They were the price he had paid for the merits that had won his family promotion to a marquisate. Of course, a wound like that would never erase swordsmanship of such lofty caliber, but it was enough to narrow his range of movement.
Reading the emotions in the princesses’ eyes, the marquis turned with a gentle smile.
"Oh, my daughters! It’s been so long since the Martial Tournament day!"
"M-Marquis, please, have some dignity…."
"Hahaha!! You should visit home more often; I’ve been a little hurt by how rarely you come back!"
Once the princesses realized that the marquis was putting on such an exaggerated show for their sake, they soon let out small smiles of their own. If he was going this far for them, there was no reason to stay gloomy.
"Oh? Looking at how nicely your muscles have settled, I take it you’ve been diligent with your training."
"Aah! M-Marquis… N-No, Father! Stop it already!"
"……."
That said, whether his behavior was truly just an act remained open to question.
From a little distance away, Valdes watched the reunion between father and daughters with the expression of someone staring at something bizarre.
Awkward as hell.
Albetz Propylene, now Marquis Propylene. Of course Valdes knew him well. They had enough of a connection that he had even taught the man a few sword techniques, and the marquis had admired Hero Pedro and followed him faithfully.
That was why the sight before him felt so strange.
The young man who, back then, had seemed so earnest and lively for a noble’s son had somehow become a father—and the head of a house. Valdes had seen many people change over the eighteen years that had passed, but the gap in Marquis Propylene felt particularly severe.
And I even went and got to his daughter too….
Valdes’s gaze settled on Ethylene.
She looked unlike the cold, sharp knight she usually was, and unlike the woman who loved him to the point of obsession. Right now, she had the face of a daughter with one of those ridiculous, doting fathers.
Something he had briefly forgotten began settling into Valdes’s mind.
Ethylene was the daughter of an old comrade and follower. Unlike Mercede, he had never seen Ethylene when she was a child. If he had, he suspected it would have been much harder to lay hands on her so easily. Every time he looked at Ethylene, he would have remembered a child’s face.
...No, maybe not. If that were really the case, I probably couldn’t have laid hands on Mercede either.
Come to think of it, if that had been true, Mercede would have been untouchable too.
Still, one thing was certain: after seeing the father and daughter’s affectionate reunion, he couldn’t help feeling a little guilty.
After savoring the joy of reuniting with his daughter, Marquis Propylene finished greeting them and looked over the delegation. It was as though he were searching for someone. After scanning the group for a while, he found Valdes and allowed the corners of his mouth to lift slightly. He had been looking for Valdes from the start, but he hadn’t expected the boy to be this close and had searched from farther away first.
The marquis soon strode over to the boy and offered his greeting.
"Good to see you, Lord Valdes. So you’re the famous boy hero."
"...It’s an honor to meet you, Marquis Propylene. You flatter me."
"Haha. And just how famous are you, really? Setting aside the feats you accomplished in Ventorino, you’re Lady Serenia’s disciple, aren’t you?"
The marquis’s eyes sharpened as he examined him.
Those eyes, filled with interest yet still piercing, swept over his whole body.
He had been slower than Serenia, but Marquis Propylene was also a Sword Master. Without even pressing his mana down, his mere presence seemed capable of overwhelming an ordinary knight outright. Valdes almost reacted on instinct, but he barely managed to suppress it.
"Indeed... astonishing. From the mana built into you to the body you’ve trained... I’d never believe you were that age."
"You’re too kind."
"No, I’m not exaggerating. Lady Serenia would be more than justified in taking you as her disciple. If possible, I’d even like to build a connection with you somehow."
With a playful glint in his eye, he looked toward his daughter, Ethylene.
Then Ethylene startled as though she’d been caught doing something improper, blushing deeply. She pressed her lips together and deliberately looked away, trying to act as if nothing had happened.
The one taken aback by her reaction was the marquis.
"Hm?"
There was no fool who could watch such an obvious reaction and fail to notice.
"...Lord Valdes?"
"...Yes?"
"Is there something I should know?"
"I’m afraid I don’t know."
"......"
Once again, that sharp gaze swept over him. And once again, Valdes bore it with the same calm expression as before, letting the marquis’s pressure slide off him as though he knew nothing at all.
After a long and silent standoff, the one who gave up first was Marquis Propylene. He let out a sigh and rubbed a hand over his head.
"Haah, I’ve kept my guest too long."
The moment he said that, servants came forward to guide the delegation to their lodgings.
"I’m afraid I have work to return to for now. Everyone... see you at dinner."
"Understood, Marquis."
After Mercede and the others replied, the marquis shot Valdes a glare that seemed to demand a response. The former was clearly speaking to the princesses, but the latter, while apparently addressed to the delegation as a whole, was unmistakably aimed at him.
In the end, Valdes had no choice but to answer as well.
"I... understand, Marquis."
With an expression of disapproval, Marquis Propylene turned on his heel and returned to his study.
As the delegation scattered with the servants to various parts of the estate, Ethylene ran over to Valdes.
"M-M-Master... about that, I mean...."
"Forget it. That much is nothing. I can deal with it."
"Ah...."
To Ethylene, who looked terribly apologetic, Valdes replied in a way that said it truly didn’t matter.
It wasn’t as if she had done it on purpose. She had simply been caught off guard by her father’s sudden teasing. And likely, Marquis Propylene himself hadn’t expected such a light joke to hook such a big fish. It would have been strange, after all, for a father to have no interest in his grown daughter.
"And watch your words. This is your family estate, remember? You never know who might be listening."
"Yes, of course!"
Unfortunately, she had reacted that way while servants were all around, and even the dullest of them would have figured out what Ethylene was feeling. Their eyes were already sharp enough to cut, and there was no benefit in letting the relationship be exposed for no reason.
"Feels a bit like meeting my father-in-law, doesn’t it? ...Wait. Is it not just a feeling, but actually true?"
Valdes murmured to himself as he followed another servant toward the bedroom assigned to him.
When he thought about it, it wasn’t all that wrong. After all, he intended to take Ethylene as one of his wives. He hadn’t decided yet whether she would be a legitimate wife or a concubine, but he had no intention of making much distinction in how she was treated. At least not when it came to authority.
Father-in-law... my father-in-law.
He almost laughed.
It was a feeling he had never experienced before in his life.
After all, among the women he had taken so far—especially those he intended to make his future wives—there had been very few who actually had something that could reasonably be called parents.
Even the Demon King, who could be called his principal wife, and Irena had no parents. Among ordinary demons, it was common for parent and child to have a rather detached relationship, and more often than not they didn’t even raise their own offspring. The age gaps were often so large that when the eldest child grew up, the youngest were frequently left in that eldest child’s care.
And as for the three women of Ulsro, since mother and daughters were all his women, Beatris didn’t particularly feel like a mother-in-law. Occasionally, when he called her Mother-in-law, it was only during a bit of roleplay; most of the time, he simply called her by name.
The same went for the others.
"...Interesting."
Lost in thought, Valdes headed toward his room.
Ethylene, meanwhile, stared after the man she served and loved. The knight who had been making apologetic faces and speaking to him a moment earlier was now wearing a satisfied smile.
Seeing that faintly raised corner of her lips, Mari, who had been standing a little farther away, tapped her sister with her elbow.
"Wow, sis. Look at her. She’s no ordinary woman, huh?"
"Yeah... she’s definitely on another level."
Valdes hadn’t noticed it, but the royal sisters were certain of one thing.
What Ethylene had shown just now had been an act. Of course, when it came to this sort of thing, they understood Ethylene better than Valdes did. Even aside from that, they had simply spent far more time with her than he had—especially Mercede and Mari.
They could vaguely sense that Ethylene, even while outwardly appearing obedient and unconcerned with whatever situation she was in, was hiding some wicked little scheme beneath the surface. And now that her heart had finally arrived in her own backyard, it seemed to be showing itself just a little.
"What do you think, sis?"
"Me? I think...."
Mercede quickly fell into thought.
Ethylene seemed to be plotting something; that much was clear, even if the exact details weren’t. Should they just leave her alone? The hesitation didn’t last long.
"Well, I guess it’s fine, isn’t it?"
"Really? If you say so, sis, then I don’t mind either."
In the end, the two of them decided not to bother with Ethylene.
They had already tasted and understood her loyalty enough by now. As long as Ethylene wasn’t aiming for their place, it was fine to let her have a little more freedom. Right now there might not be many rivals in the struggle for Valdes, but as he continued his revenge and conquered the continent, countless women would appear.
Among them, there was no guarantee that not a single one would be exactly the kind of woman who could steal Valdes’s heart—or at least come close to his ideal type. So even now, there was a need for the women already gathered around him to cooperate and deepen their bonds. If Ethylene won Valdes’s favor as well, that would surely help.
"Yeah. Ethylene deserves to be loved a little more, and to feel happy too."
"That’s true."
After a suitably short conversation, the sisters headed to the lodging assigned to them.
Once the delegation had unpacked in their respective rooms and shaken off the fatigue of travel, time passed quickly, and evening came.
The one seated at the head of the long table in the dining hall was, naturally, Marquis Propylene, the master of the marquisate. To ensure the authority of a noble—more precisely, of a domain lord—even if a king or queen visited, the seat of highest honor in that territory belonged to the lord of the house.
Immediately after him came the two royal sisters.
And after that, surprisingly enough, came the seats assigned to Ethylene and Valdes.
In other words, the two of them ended up sitting opposite each other.
"......"
Valdes found the arrangement strangely uncomfortable, but for the moment he brushed it off. Probably, because of what had happened earlier, they had seated him here since he hadn’t even been formally appointed as a knight yet.
Ethylene, for her part, was making her guilt painfully obvious as she quietly ate in silence and kept glancing apologetically at Valdes. Her behavior was so blatant that Valdes realized there was something going on. Of course, that didn’t mean he suddenly flipped the table or anything, but the uneasy feeling gnawing at him couldn’t be helped.
And then, in the middle of that table where cheerful conversation and awkward tension coexisted side by side, the marquis suddenly tossed out a question.
"So, Lord Valdes’s match is which one of you?"
"?!"