The Method for Everyone to Be Happy
We galloped hard for two full days after crossing the Salme Ridge. The horses had to be exhausted. I tied them securely, left plenty of feed and water, and watched them devour it all with satisfied crunches. The sight brought back memories of my own starving days. Back then I had come here as Seria’s benefactor too. I lifted my head, taking in the majestic mansion beneath a clear blue sky. It was a beautiful view I hadn’t seen in far too long.
“I wonder if Vidar and Candel are around?” The last time I visited, the place had been empty except for the servants, Seria, and Isabel.
“Ughhh…”
How long had it been since I dismounted? The stiffness was creeping in. My back ached. A sharp tingling ran through the muscles along my spine.
“Aigoo, every bone in my body hurts…”
“Hero. You really should exercise more. All of these symptoms stem from a lack of physical activity.”
The scolding had a distinctly motherly ring to it. While I groaned, Isabel—who looked perfectly fine—hummed a cheerful tune and went to help Seria. I offered my hand, steadying her as she slid down from the saddle.
“Careful, my lady.”
“Thank you, Isabel.”
“I am merely doing my duty.”
Seria answered Isabel with a smile that perfectly fit the image of a refined noble daughter. Still, I couldn’t help wondering where that monstrous jealousy and terror of abandonment had come from. Thinking about it now wouldn’t give me any answers. I’d find out eventually. More importantly, what kind of trash had set those two against each other in the first place?
Oh. Right. It was me.
…But it’s not really my fault, is it?
After securing the horses in the stable and starting toward the mansion, I spotted a familiar face among the cluster of maids. An elderly man with snow-white hair and a neat side part—Seria’s father and former head of House Lionblood, Candel.
Whoa, fuck. It’s so good to see you. Has it really been a year?
“Waaaaah!”
“Oh…!”
I cheered. Candel spread his arms wide. He came running. I ran too. My long-lost drinking buddy welcomed me—
“Come here, my daughter!”
…God damn it. I’d forgotten just how much of a daughter-obsessed fool Candel was.
“I have returned, Father.”
Seria gave an elegant bow, delicately lifting the hem of her blue dress. Candel required no such formalities. A hug was enough. He rubbed his scratchy beard against her cheek. I could tell Seria hated it, but apparently that didn’t matter to him.
I had no intention of interrupting their touching father-daughter reunion. But… but…!
I had opened my own arms in welcome. So who the hell was supposed to hug me? I needed comfort. It felt like being betrayed by a friend. A truly strange, hollow feeling.
“Pfft!”
Isabel couldn’t hold back her laughter. She covered her mouth, shoulders shaking.
“Hero. It’s all right. That’s simply how life works.”
“Sniff… Isabel.”
Please stop. You’re only making me feel more pathetic. I needed a healer. A healer to mend my broken heart.
That settled it. My next companion would definitely be a saintess.
I slowly folded my outstretched arms and hugged myself. It was warm. Today, once again, my own arms carried a gentle heat. Why were tears flowing…? Aah… friends really were meaningless. Yeah, the only one who truly understood me was myself…
Watching me kneel and embrace myself, Isabel let out a soft chuckle. Then she whispered quietly.
“…If it’s all right with you, I can be the one to comfort you.”
She was light. Isabel was the light that could embrace my disappointed heart!
“I-it’s not like I wanted to do this! It’s just… the hero looked so terribly lonely that I…”
Whispering while fighting back embarrassment—wasn’t she the real powerhouse here?
I wasn’t idiot enough to ignore goodwill offered so sincerely. There were already ridiculous rumors on the streets claiming I was two-timing anyway. Was Isabel actually a goddess?
“Oh, Goddess…”
“W-what are you saying…! That’s blasphemy!”
“It’s fine. Everything is meaningless anyway.”
Friends, lovers, comrades. Even gods.
“If someone can bring peace to my heart, then that person is a god to me.”
“…Ugh.”
Yes. Freya. Freya had descended! The goddess of mercy and love had incarnated within Isabel!
Are you watching, Odin? If you don’t want to lose me, you’d better behave.
And so I cried in Isabel’s arms over the friend I had lost…
“…Hmph!”
“Ugh. That idiot, getting sulky over something so small!”
“Candel, eat this.”
A crude, vulgar gesture. It was sign language for “mountain” and could also represent someone’s dickhead. I proudly raised my middle finger and whipped my head away.
“Don’t act like a child, you brat.”
“Puhuhu. Aren’t you the one treating your fully grown daughter like a baby? How pathetic.”
“W-what…!”
Ahem! He cleared his throat and looked at me with a benevolent expression. Candel muttered.
“…What’s with those eyes?”
“A motherless solo who can’t even have children wouldn’t understand.”
Whoa. That crossed the line.
“Y-you! What did you just say?!”
“Khhkh. They say excessive truth can be violence to some people.”
I spat out the wine I’d been sipping. My heart pounded wildly. Berserk switch: ON.
In the past my mother and father had also pestered me about when I would get married. He was hitting that exact nerve.
I smirked and shouted at the teasing old man.
“D-did you really say that?! You spoke the taboo that must never be spoken to me?!”
“To still be unmarried at thirty. I married at eighteen.”
“Isn’t that a ‘click-click’ situation? Your wife is three years older than you!”
“I don’t know what ‘click-click’ means, but I do know you’re a pitiful virgin wizard.”
“Aaaaaagh!”
It was a total defeat. It always had been. I had never once won a verbal battle against Candel. Still, I had missed this atmosphere.
It was completely different from the days I couldn’t escape Helheim, where blood and chaos filled every moment. Adding Ragner, Lunaris, and Fina into that mix had turned it into true hell.
With a calmer heart, I clinked my glass against the wine Candel offered. The liquid made a slightly murky sound.
“Don’t sulk too much. You’ll be leaving solo status soon anyway.”
“…What the hell are you talking about?”
Candel, who had been slicing meat and bringing it to his mouth, froze. Isabel and Seria flinched as well.
Isabel had no right to speak here. No matter how close she was to Seria or how casual she was with me, in this house she was nothing more than a endlessly weak maid of slave origin.
Candel glanced at Seria. After reading their expressions he smirked.
“Taesik. It’s about time you started thinking about an heir.”
“…Not interested.”
Having a child was a good thing. It meant gaining a family and becoming a true head of household. But it simply couldn’t happen here. Marriage in this world would become a shackle that restricted my every action. That shackle would block the space between the worlds that connected them. It would bind my arms and legs, trap me with the word “family,” and prevent me from returning home. It would become heavy, unbreakable chains.
Even though I wanted to accept Isabel’s and Seria’s hearts, I had no choice but to refuse. I wasn’t the kind of trash who would marry another woman without accepting their feelings. If it came to that choice, I would rather stay in this world with Isabel and Seria.
They already occupied that much space in my heart—without me even realizing it. So I clearly expressed my refusal.
“I won’t.”
“I didn’t even ask yet.”
“You were going to tell me to get engaged to someone, right?”
“…Sigh. You really do know me too well.”
“That’s why I’m saying no.”
Seria’s expression brightened. Isabel’s face didn’t change dramatically, but the slight twitch at the corner of her mouth told me she was happy. It was obvious she didn’t want me marrying anyone else.
Candel let out a long sigh.
“This impotent bastard…! Just listen to the end before you answer.”
“Wha—what? Impotent?”
“If you don’t want to hear that word, listen properly.”
“Ugh…”
No choice. I’d listen and then refuse.
“I’ll say it plainly. Marry my daughter.”
“Glug…”
The wine I’d been swallowing reversed course and sprayed back into the cup. He hadn’t been talking about some other woman—he meant Seria?
I slowly turned to look at her. She must have been just as shocked; her cheeks were burning crimson.
…This was bad. She would definitely accept this proposal. Even though I had rejected her confession once, her affection offensive had only grown stronger afterward. I often woke up to find kiss marks on my neck. I had let them slide quietly, but that excessive love and obsession would bind me. This was pure intuition—insanely accurate intuition.
As the second daughter of a ducal house, Seria’s power wasn’t much of a threat to me. I held the initiative because she didn’t want to be hated by me and therefore obeyed meekly. But if the head of the ducal house added his own pressure, the story would change. What was a duke? Only one step below the king. Even though we were drinking buddies now, he held more influence than I did, moving on the king’s orders.
“…Huh.”
“Why are you silent? You can refuse if you want.”
I already refused once before.
“…I-I like it.”
See? In the end she would bind me.
Even if I asked Odin, the “fate” he showed me looked the same. Somewhere, beyond a pure white wedding dress, a woman stood waiting. I didn’t know whether it was Seria or Isabel. It could be both. But one thing was certain—the fate I had seen involved someone standing beside me.
“I’m not forcing anything.”
We had an agreement with the world to call exactly that “forcing.”
There was a brief hesitation. Why? My mouth should have immediately spat out a refusal, yet the words caught in my throat.
But if it was for the sake of returning to my family’s arms…
…With a bitter feeling in my chest, I answered.
“I’m fighting to return to my hometown. Candel, you already know that, don’t you?”
“…Does our daughter not appeal to you?”
Come on, no way. Seria already occupied a huge place in my heart.
“Then why?”
To that question I could only answer like this.
“As expected of a daughter-obsessed fool. That’s one hell of a scary expression.”
“…Ugh.”
“You’re exactly the same.”
It was a simple, clear answer.
“Candel. Just as you waited for Seria to come home, my parents must be waiting for me too.”
On Earth, had I been declared missing? Processed as dead? Had it made the news? I had thought about it countless times. The more I did, the more my parents’ faces rose in my mind. Right now I didn’t feel an urgent desire to see them—I had been too busy just trying to survive. But every time I looked up at the night sky, the same thought came:
Why can’t we see the same sky?
That was why I could only give this firm answer.
“I like Seria too. This feeling and this fluttering in my chest are definitely the same.”
“H-Hero…”
Seria’s cheeks flushed deeper. Isabel wore a slightly pitying expression. I really wished she wouldn’t look at me like that. There’s a Korean saying that you should listen until the end.
“At the same time, I like Isabel too.”
Hey, Candel. Don’t look at me with those eyes. I already feel like trash, okay?!
“Trash bastard.”
“What’s wrong with that? Polygamy isn’t a crime.”
“…So what exactly are you saying?”
Candel’s question demanded a clear decision. Would I confirm our mutual love and become lovers, or would I return to my hometown? I had agonized over the answer for days and nights. And now—however absurd and impossible it might sound—I had decided.
“I will return to my hometown.”
“…Ah.”
Isabel let out a soft sigh, then quickly covered her mouth as if to hide her emotions.
I gave a small smile and continued.
“And I will get married.”
The light vanished from Seria’s eyes. Isabel bit her lip hard, fighting back tears.
“Listen until the end.”
I spoke to both women. They looked ready to cry, but there was no need for tears.
“I will marry both of you.”
“…What?”
“W-what does that mean?”
“It means I accept.”
I only wished they would stop fighting each other somehow.
Candel let out a dumbfounded sigh. Even Riana, who had been quietly eating meat, stopped with her fork in midair.
“The king promised in Odin’s name.”
He would grant my wish. Since he had sworn on a god’s name, he had to take responsibility to the end.
“The wish I will make—”
Why had I forgotten? I just needed to slightly alter the wish that would let me return home.
“—is to be able to travel freely between the two worlds.”
The path where everyone could be happy. The road I would walk once everything was over. It was the completion of a “path” that would bring happiness to both women and let me reunite with my parents.