Chapter 34
Chapter 34
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 34
Chapter Title: 3 Weeks of Vacation-4
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“Ha... so, to sum it up simply...”
“...right?”
“Yeah. Everyone in the village thinks that now.”
Thinking back, even a year ago, their words had been a bit strange. Dean and the village chief smirking oddly must have been because of that.
The misunderstanding with Ariasfil was decent gossip fodder, but returning to the village after leaving for over a few years was an even bigger side dish—enough to chew on for at least ten years.
And since he'd only been in the village for about two hours, there hadn't been much time to catch up.
“Say something to the lady too. It's troublesome for her as well.”
Ariasfil had always lived with a blank expression as her default. After her return, she smiled more often, but without any particular joy, her lips wouldn't twitch.
“Huh? What... to say? Heh...”
But right now, she was smiling too much. Her words were interspersed with puffing sounds from her lips.
The expression that her smile reached her ears was probably invented for Ariasfil at this moment.
She was exceedingly beautiful, but the disconnect from her previous life made goosebumps unavoidable.
I couldn't understand why the sage was sighing exasperatedly when I was the embarrassed one.
Now I couldn't tell if the world had gone mad or if I had.
“...Anyway, we need to go correct that properly.”
We had to inform them of the truth before it got any later.
“But you're not really dating?”
“I told you no. More than that, how could I date a lady of the Hero Family?”
Leo's status was commoner.
Not even from well-off farmers—he was barely a knight risen from a mere mercenary.
For such a person to be lovers with Ariasfil, the lady of the Hero Family? No way the Family Head, Marken, or anyone in the world would leave him be.
“True enough. We had no idea the lady you serve was from the Hero Family.”
As even Dean nodded in agreement, Ariasfil's giggling face abruptly darkened.
Even the sage, who had seen much of the world, had never witnessed such clear emotional swings visible to the naked eye.
The two utterly oblivious brothers didn't notice, of course.
“But what do we do... If the chief hears that, won't he take to his bed again?”
“...Take to his bed again? Wasn't it just a cold?”
Dean scratched his furry cheek with sharp claws.
“Well... it was like that on the day he wrote the letter, but the next day, due to the drought, he overdid it begging Nimbus for a rain ritual... and got on Innis's bad side, so lightning struck.”
“Sigh... that sentimental old lady—told her to rest when she catches a cold. So now?”
“She was wheezing away, but jumped up when we said you were coming. Still whining a bit, though.”
“Typical of the chief.”
Ariasfil could only blink repeatedly in shock. Not because he'd brushed off being struck by lightning so casually.
She'd only just met Dean, and now unfamiliar names like Nimbus and Innis were coming up one after another.
And all of them...
‘...all women's names...’
‘Nimbus’ or ‘Innis’—no man would use names like that. Especially not in a rural village like Doron; such open culture seemed unlikely.
“...So, who are these ‘women’ Nimbus and Innis?”
She deliberately emphasized ‘women’. If wrong, they'd laugh and correct that they were men.
“Women? Leo, should we even call them women?”
“Well... they look pretty, but they act like they're slapping orc cheeks... Does it even matter to them? Bro?”
“Exactly.”
It was just idle gossip, bordering on backbiting.
The point was that their looks didn't match their behavior at all.
Boom
In that instant, a heavy thud echoed as something landed.
Neither the oblivious Leo, nor Dean, nor even the sage noticed the explosive sound.
Only Ariasfil heard it. Though she herself didn't realize it was an explosion in her mind.
‘...Well... they look pretty, but...’
‘...they look pretty, but...'
‘...look pretty, but...’
‘Pretty, but’ echoed like thunder with the boom. Life drained from her eyes, and for some reason, her hand drifted toward the black hilt.
“We've arrived.”
As her killing intent began leaking out menacingly, village figures appeared between the trees.
“Long time no see. This place too.”
The familiar grassy scent and vibrating curses, no matter when he visited.
A hometown revisited after so long.
“Kids!! Leo's here!! Come out quick!!”
At the thick dialect shout, people burst out from their houses.
They looked almost like refugees fleeing a warzone.
“Leonardo!!”
No, correction was needed.
Calling that refugee-like momentum was far too understated. Their sky-piercing vigor rivaled an elite militia.
“Why so late?!”
The burly-faced man gripped an axe. The bloodstained blade dripped, looking quite intimidating.
“Had some circumstances. Uncle Jeff.”
But Leo had seen Jeff in this excited state more than once or twice. This was actually a rather friendly reaction.
“Food's all cold now! Huh!? Gotta eat it hot!!”
From the start, there was no reason to fear anger over something like that.
“Dear, the kid came all this way with hardship—be nicer.”
Jeff's wife, Suja—the butcher and cook—cooed to soothe her rough husband while flashing a bright smile.
“Good to see you. Leo. A whole year, right?”
“Yes, meant to come more often, but work kept me busy, so I came late.”
“No need for that between us~ More importantly, the goods you prepared?”
“Of course I have them. Ma'am.”
Leo rummaged through his bag like a black market kingpin making a shady deal.
“...Huh? Where'd it go?”
But soon, the shady merchant's face turned dumbfounded.
“Leo?”
“...Did I leave the chocolate set on the train...?”
He'd definitely packed it when leaving home for vacation. But in his rush to get off the train, it seemed he'd left the prepared chocolate set behind.
“Dear~ it's fine to go back in.”
Shing
At his beloved wife's request, Jeff raised the bloodied butcher's knife. In that tense moment, Leo's hand seized something.
“Found it! Tucked it in the inner pocket!”
A luxuriously wrapped black box emerged proudly from the bag. Naturally, the blade lowered.
“But what was that? Words that hurt deeply...”
“No~ our Leo~! You even thought of Auntie! Such a good boy!!”
Suja withdrew her order and welcomed him warmly. Worried Leo might probe about the command, she grabbed his cheeks with vigorous cheer.
“Where's the chief?”
“Chief's at the meeting hall now. Seems he's still a bit ill... he's not exactly the honest type.”
“He's just gruff.”
As they exchanged greetings missed over the year, the eyes of some villagers who'd finished theirs turned to the stunning girl.
“That kid...”
“Let me introduce. She's the lady I serve...”
“Leo's girlfriend!!”
Leo's grand plan to correct the misunderstanding during the introduction went awry from the very first button.
At ‘girlfriend’, all the villagers bundled Ariasfil and Leo in one gaze.
“There's a misunderstanding...”
“Right! Leo's girlfriend!!”
“Exactly like in the letter!?”
“Wonderful!! Jeff! Catch another chicken quick!!”
Leo's words were as meaningless as reciting sutras to a cow's ear. Like meddlesome relatives, the villagers spun their own tale as they pleased.
“That's not it..!!”
“This won't do! Take her to the chief quick!!”
“Yeah!! Let's!!”
Correction or no, the villagers had already seized Leo and Ariasfil indiscriminately and started running toward the village meeting hall.
In their heads, the formula of Leo and Ariasfil as lovers was etched in as immutable truth.
“So...! Listen to what people say...!”
There wasn't even a chance to interject.
The already-confirmed couple of knight and lady were shoved into the village meeting hall. The villagers decided to wait outside quietly, meaning for them to talk with the chief.
Such consideration, utterly unwanted, left Leo seething.
The sage, always critiquing his hometown folk, somehow looked like a fairy now. Probably the same principle as finding cockroaches or mice a bit cute.
“Leo...?”
In the somewhat dim interior of the meeting hall, an old woman sat at the round table. Flaunting her thick gray messy hair, the village chief asked in a raspy voice.
“Your voice sounds much raspier. Village Chief Anus.”
Anus spat out coughs repeatedly while glaring at the long-returned Leo.
“Ignoring my question with unrelated talk confirms it's you, Leo.”
“Cursing right after I worried means you're healthy enough.”
Warm insults flew back and forth as the chief and Leo confirmed each other's presence.
Probably thanks in large part to the chief, he didn't lose arguments even against a sage over 300 years old.
“This old bat got struck by lightning—of course I'm healthy.”
“Where has Innis done that just once or twice? Rest when you're sick.”
At the name Innis, Ariasfil's eyes grew menacing again. Sensing the aura, Village Chief Anus pointed at Ariasfil and asked.
“So? Is that girl the pitiful lady who took an idiot like you as her lover?”
“That's what I've been trying to say...! It's...”
“Leo is not an idiot.”
This time, Ariasfil cut Leo off.
Unaware of that fact, she glared down at the chief with a firm tone. It was undoubtedly rude to an elder—and the village chief at that.
But apparently taken with her spirit, the village's old woman slyly narrowed her eyes and glared back at Ariasfil.
“Hah... What's a greenhouse flower from the Hero Family's reason for thinking that?”
Ariasfil's eyes wavered slightly. He hadn't mentioned the capital, yet she'd been pegged as Hero Family right away.
“Leo trains in magic and swordsmanship every day. He's the strongest among the family knights, and now he's got a mid-level magic permit from the Magic Tower...”
“Ultimately, all he knows is fighting. Magic was just a lucky break.”
At those words, the sage nodded beside her. If he could, he'd have slapped that head right off.
“And he teaches me all sorts of things...”
“Knowledge from a mercenary is unreliable. At best, sunk in his own experiences.”
Poison gradually filled Ariasfil's eyes. She wanted to refute the old woman somehow.
“That much I know too. Probably more than you.”
She had no rebuttal for that.
The total time the chief had spent with Leo overwhelmingly surpassed hers.
“So I'll ask. What is Leonardo to you?”
“...That... is...”
Ariasfil couldn't open her mouth right away.
Even she wasn't certain.
Too close to call him her exclusive knight,
Too distant publicly to call him a friend,
No conviction in her own heart or Leo's to call him a lover.
“See? Even as lovers, an immature little lady just needs some nostalgic trinket or whatever. If you're really going to marry...”
But she couldn't keep silent at that insult.
“We'll get married!!”
There wasn't even a moment's silence.
“We'll marry right at twenty!! We'll have two kids, a son and a daughter!! We've even decided on names!!”
Her train delusions were already charging full speed into newlywed life.