Chapter 56
“Where are you going?”
“I’m going to greet the neighbors. The ones next door.”
“Ah, right. This is shared housing.”
In other words, there are other people living above, below, and next door.
The most fearsome enemy in shared housing: noise between floors.
Especially with a huge barbarian like me stomping around, a confrontation would be unavoidable if the downstairs resident happened to be even a little irritable.
Besides, this was faculty housing, so making a bad impression could hinder our academy life from here on out.
And I even had Kara, a walking human weapon, living right beside me.
If we ever had a marital spat....
‘Good grief, we’ve never even had one, but it sounds noisy just imagining it. I’d better grease their palms in advance.’
“It feels wrong to go empty-handed....”
I rummaged through the storage room and pulled out a gift-wrapped set of dried herbal tea.
It was one of the items Eisen had prepared for us.
‘Not too likely to be disliked, practical, and just right.’
“I’ll be right back. Get some rest.”
“No, let’s go together.”
So we went downstairs with the herbal tea set.
Right below our place—Room 101.
Knock knock.
I knocked on the door.
After a moment, irritated footsteps sounded from inside.
“Who is it? I’m right in the middle of research...!”
Bang.
The door flew open, and a gaunt man burst out.
His hair was disheveled, thick goggles covered his eyes, and his apron was smeared with a great deal of unidentifiable grease.
He had the stereotypical look of a research professor.
Of course, whoever he was, he flinched and stumbled backward the moment he saw my size.
“A-giant?!”
The man’s eyes stopped at my chest, then traveled upward for quite some time before reaching my face.
‘Ah, right. I learned this from Eisen for moments like this. The contrast strategy.’
I quickly put on the polished, businesslike smile Eisen had taught me.
“Good day. My name is Varg von Wintersword, and I moved into Room 201 upstairs today.”
I bowed with as soft and gentle a voice as I could manage.
“I’m rather large, so I came to ask your understanding in advance in case my footsteps unintentionally echo.”
“Ah...?”
The man looked dumbfounded by my fluent Imperial tongue and polite manner.
I discreetly held out the herbal tea set.
“It’s a modest housewarming gift. It’s herbal tea from the North, and I hear it helps improve concentration.”
At the word concentration, the man’s eyes flashed.
“Oh... herbal tea... As it happens, I’d just run out of tea, and I’d been getting sleepy every night....”
He accepted the box with trembling hands.
The bribe had worked.
The man’s wariness melted away like snow, and he removed his goggles with a sigh of relief.
“Ah... So you’re Sir Wintersword. I’ve heard the rumors. That you’re a student couple from the North. I’m Daedalus of the Department of Magitech.”
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Professor.”
“Actually... I was more worried about this myself.”
Professor Daedalus gave an awkward smile.
“The machines can get rather noisy when I work through the night. You may even hear an explosion now and then... I was worried the people upstairs would file complaints about the noise, but thank goodness someone so understanding has moved in.”
“Ha ha, don’t worry. Once my wife and I fall asleep, we wouldn’t notice if someone carried us away. We’ll take explosions as lullabies.”
“Oh...! You’re refreshingly easygoing. I like it!”
Daedalus grabbed my hand and shook it.
It was a success.
Eisen’s contrast strategy had worked perfectly.
* * *
Next came storing the ingredients.
There was no refrigerator in our quarters’ kitchen.
Instead, there was a communal icehouse behind the building for all the residents to use.
Kara and I gathered the ingredients that needed to be kept cold and headed for the icehouse.
“Is this the place?”
When we opened the icehouse door and went inside, a refreshing chill greeted us.
A woman was already inside.
She had a sturdy build and short-cropped hair.
At a glance, she looked like someone accustomed to handling weapons.
The unusual thing was that a baby was being carried on her back.
“Oh my?”
She widened her eyes in surprise when she saw us.
“You must be the new residents? You have quite a lot of luggage.”
Kara approached her first and greeted her.
“Hello. We moved into Room 201 in Building 2 today. I’m Kara. Please feel free to call me that.”
“Nice to meet you! We’re in Building 2 as well. I’m Artenie from Room 301. I’m an instructor in the Department of Swordsmanship.”
‘Artenie?’
I quickly skimmed through my knowledge of the original story.
But the name was unfamiliar.
If she was an instructor in the academy’s Department of Swordsmanship, her name should have come up at least once through her connection to Kairen or Elysia, yet I didn’t remember it.
“I’m on parental leave at the moment, though.”
But her next words resolved my confusion.
‘Ah, that’s why I didn’t know her.’
She hadn’t appeared because, when the original story’s timeline began, she was on parental leave.
In any case, since she was a current swordsmanship instructor, she seemed likely to get along well with Kara.
Kara’s gaze fixed on the baby strapped to Artenie’s back.
“Your baby... is so beautiful.”
“Ho ho, thank you. Terni, say hello to your big sister.”
When Artenie soothed the baby on her back, the baby let out a delighted giggle.
As she watched, Artenie’s eyes fell on Kara’s belly.
Kara was unconsciously covering her belly with one hand.
“But... are you pregnant? The way you’re holding your belly so carefully....”
“Ah, yes.”
Kara smiled shyly.
“I’m six weeks along.”
“Oh my! Goodness!”
Artenie clapped her hands.
An invisible bond formed in the icehouse in an instant.
Pregnancy and childcare.
A shared language unique to mothers began to fill the air.
“Congratulations! You’ll have to be careful since it’s still early. How is the morning sickness?”
“It was a little severe, but I’m fine now.”
“That’s a relief. This icehouse is divided into sections, and the back section over there is colder, so put meat there. Vegetables are better near the entrance.”
Artenie’s eyes shone as she began pouring out information in a rapid-fire stream.
Everything from the best spots in the icehouse to where to get ingredients near the academy, and even recommendations for capable obstetricians at the infirmary.
“And if your morning sickness gets bad, come to Room 301, where I live. My wife is a professor of herbology, so we have more calming herbal tea than we know what to do with. When you’re irritable because you don’t want to eat anything but have to get something down, tea is just the thing.”
“Wow... thank you so much.”
Kara thanked her sincerely.
I nodded beside her as well.
This place was more livable than I had expected.
Even the eccentric professor.
Even the instructor raising a child.
It was a place where ordinary people lived ordinary lives, full of human warmth.
Eisengard had been like that too.
So had the Winterclaw Tribe, where Kara and I had spent the winter together.
By the time we finished our greetings and headed back to our quarters, the sun had completely set, and a red sunset covered the academy grounds.
We walked slowly, holding hands.
“Everyone seems like good people. Like the people in Eisengard.”
Kara spoke softly.
“You’re right. It’s just a place where people live. I thought it would be bleak.”
We suddenly remembered our last day in Eisengard.
“When we were leaving... Alina clung to my leg and cried, telling me not to go... It was hard to leave her.”
“I felt the same.”
The count had seemed quite reluctant to see us go as well.
Just before we departed, the wrinkles in the hand that had clutched mine tightly through the carriage window were each marked with regret.
『Sir Varg. If you need anything, please send word to Eisengard—truly, anytime. And I’ll send regular letters in my own name with news of the Winterclaw Tribe.』
At some point, he had stopped calling me Varg and begun addressing me as Sir Varg.
I gathered that Eisen had finally steeled himself to truly send his student couple to the academy.
Eisen had been a teacher, a dependable patron, and something like another father to us.
『It was a short month... but you did splendidly. May blessings accompany you among the many more connections you will make in the future.』
His final words of advice lingered in my ears.
‘I’ll miss him.’
The thought that we wouldn’t see him until vacation filled me with a pang of sadness.
But I couldn’t just remain sad.
The intelligence and social graces Eisen had taught me had now become my greatest weapons and would protect our family here at the academy.
“Let’s go, Kara. I’ll make you something delicious when we get home.”
“Yeah! I’m hungry!”
We smiled at each other.
* * *
That night.
After finishing unpacking and showering, we lay in bed feeling refreshed and set the mood.
“......”
“......”
The gentle moonlight.
The scent of Kara’s skin.
And...
Our first night in an unfamiliar place.
Everything was perfect.
Just as I was leaning toward Kara.
Knock knock.
The sound of knocking on the front door shattered the silence.
“......?”
Kara and I both froze.
“Who could it be at this hour?”
“Huh? We haven’t even made any noise for the downstairs neighbor. Is it the professor downstairs? Did something explode during his research and he’s warning us to evacuate?”
I sat up, puzzled.
It was a shame that the mood had been ruined, but if it was a complaint from a neighbor, we had to resolve it quickly.
I put on a robe and went to the front door.
Bang.
When I opened the door, I found myself face-to-face with an unexpected visitor.
“......Huh?”
Red hair and golden eyes.
And a girl hugging a pillow as large as her torso.
It was Princess Elysia.
Why was she here when she was supposed to be staying with Radiance in the luxurious family quarters in the faculty building?
“...Your Highness? What brings you here so late?”
I asked, barely managing to keep a frown from forming.
Please.
Please, just go home.
It was our first night after moving in.
Don’t interrupt our private time as a married couple.
But Elysia looked up at me with a tearful expression.
“It’s just... sob... it’s getting late... and it’s my first time living alone with my brother... I’m so scared....”
“......What?”
The princess who had stood fearlessly before kidnappers was afraid to be alone with her brother?
What had that terminal case of a sis-con, Radiance, done?
“Um... Sir Varg... could I sleep here just for tonight? Just tonight?”
“......”
This is driving me crazy.
I turned around with an awkward expression.
The small room’s door stood open in the living room.
“As you can see, these are ordinary married quarters. The spare room has already become a storage room. It’s packed with luggage, so there isn’t even room to put your feet.”
I showed her the packed storage room and put up an impenetrable wall.
“And the bed that was originally there... we joined it to our bed, so it’s gone. There’s nowhere for you to sleep.”
“It’s fine!”
Elysia nodded vigorously.
“I’ve slept in the imperial palace’s storage room before, you know. I can sleep just fine on top of luggage boxes! This is comfortable enough!”
“No, even so, it could cause problems under academy regulations for a student from another dormitory to sleep here....”
In truth, since both places were in the faculty housing district, it wouldn’t be a major problem.
I simply wanted to send her back.
Please, heroine, read the room.
“Come on, we haven’t even had the entrance ceremony yet, right? We’re not students, so it’s fine! Right? Right?”
She smiled brightly and tried to force her way inside.
Just as I sighed and was about to argue further.
Tap.
Kara grabbed my arm from behind.
“Darling.”
Kara called to me in a gentle voice.
“Let’s give in for one night. She says she’s scared. You know how she feels, don’t you?”
“But, Kara....”
Kara pressed her lips to my ear and whispered in a tiny voice.
“...If it were a month from now... I would have absolutely opposed it too.”
“......!”
A month from now.
At twelve weeks pregnant.
The safe period we had promised would be when we got the most passionate.
By then, she would have chased out the princess or anyone else, but since we couldn’t do anything now anyway, it didn’t matter.
‘Ah... right. As long as it isn’t then.’
I was persuaded in an instant.
With Kara’s cool-headed approval, I shrugged.
“...Haa. All right. Come in.”
“Yay! Thank you! Love you, Mr. and Mrs. Wintersword!”
Elysia cheered and slipped inside.
But then.
Perhaps quick to pick up on things, Elysia had sensed the strange current between us, because her face suddenly turned bright red.
She seemed to have noticed something from Kara’s whisper and my reaction just now.
“I-I, um! I’ll impose on you just for today...! I-I really mean it! Tomorrow I’ll definitely confront my brother!”
Then she hurriedly bowed her head and slipped into the storage room as if fleeing.
Tap.
The door closed.
Only the two of us remained in the living room again.
“...Honestly, she’s impossible.”
I gave a hollow laugh and hugged Kara.
“It can’t be helped. Shall we tidy the storage room a little? It would be awful if the pile of luggage collapsed and buried her.”
“Yes. We should at least put in a blanket.”
We went into the small room, pushed the luggage boxes to one side, and made a place for Elysia to lie down.
Though the sweet dream of our newlywed life had been slightly shattered.
The academy’s first night, made more crowded and noisy—and all the more full of the warmth of ordinary life—was drawing to a close.