Chapter 100
Brother-in-law.
The title a younger sister uses to call her older sister’s husband.
If his memory was correct, it definitely had that meaning.
Therefore, Yuri-ah’s calling him brother-in-law was no different from calling him Yuna’s husband.
“How on earth am I supposed to take this…”
When Marcel called him brother-in-law, it at least carried the underlying meaning of wanting a ride in the carriage, but Yuri-ah said the word brother-in-law completely out of nowhere.
Franz was so flustered that he couldn’t say anything and just stared blankly into the air.
It was then.
Yuna spoke.
“Franz, wait just a moment. I need to talk to Yuri-ah.”
Saying that, Yuna strode over to Yuri-ah.
Then she grabbed her wrist and went into the room.
Haa-.
The door closed firmly, and Yuna let out a long sigh.
Because Yuna looked angry, Yuri-ah fidgeted and said.
“S-sister, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to do that. It’s just that I kept thinking about it in my room…”
“I know. I wasn’t going to scold you or anything, so don’t worry.”
“Then why did we come into the room…?”
At Yuri-ah’s question, Yuna covered her face with both hands and answered.
“How can I show this face…”
Her face was undoubtedly burning red, and she simply couldn’t bear to show that to Franz.
Blushing over a mere word like brother-in-law was just too unsightly.
Seeing Yuna like that, Yuri-ah pondered for a moment before speaking.
“Shouldn’t you be showing him that side of you instead?”
“Show him…?”
“No, I mean, you were super cute just now. I bet the Magic Tower master would think so too, right?”
“N-no way… He’ll definitely think it’s unsightly…”
Yuri-ah received a fresh shock at Yuna’s unconfident voice. It was the first time her sister, who never fell behind anyone when it came to confidence, had shown such a side. Love was truly a mysterious thing.
“Whatever, let’s just go out!”
Saying that, Yuri-ah forcefully pushed Yuna out.
Bewildered, Yuna was pushed out and immediately faced Franz. Then, her face, which had seemed to be calming down, flared up hot once again. It was because the word brother-in-law was still lingering in her mind.
Of course, Franz, who had no way of knowing her feelings, was only puzzled.
“Yuna, are you okay?”
“Ah, yeah. I’m okay.”
“Alright, I’ll get going then.”
Franz was about to head back just like that. His business was done, so there was no reason to stay any longer.
It was the moment Franz, having come out of Yuna’s house, was about to use teleport.
“W-wait a minute!”
Yuna shouted as she rushed outside in a flurry.
At that, Franz stopped using teleport. The light faded from the magic circle glowing beneath his feet.
“Why? Is something wrong?”
“W-well, you see…? W, w, wait…”
Can we talk for a moment?
Yuna couldn’t spit out that single phrase.
Now that she had started to realize she liked Franz, an unwarranted wave of embarrassment washed over her.
It was truly funny that she couldn’t spit out a single phrase like this when they had seen all sorts of sides of each other while traveling together.
‘Ah, seriously, what’s wrong with me…’
She had thought before that marrying someone like Franz wouldn’t be bad. But that was a slightly different feeling from liking him. It was an emotion stemming from the vague thought that she should start a family.
But this feeling right now…
“Could we talk for a moment…?”
In the end, Yuna squeezed out her courage. Spitting out this single phrase was harder than subjugating the Demon Lord.
“Sure.”
Franz answered lightly and approached her.
Soon, the two began to converse as they walked along the secluded countryside road.
“Ah, right. Come to think of it, I wanted to ask you something. Did I happen to do something to Yuri-ah? Her reaction today was a bit strange.”
“Huh? I don’t think you ever did. She was probably just nervous. I treat you comfortably, but your position seems incredibly high to commoners like us.”
It was just for a reason like that?
Franz felt a bit wronged for having thought so deeply about it. As expected, a person needs to know how to just let things slide.
‘Come to think of it, it’s been a really long time since I walked a road like this.’
Because he was always going around the Magic Tower, the Imperial Palace, and cities, this countryside atmosphere was truly a first in a long time. The blowing breeze and the swaying weeds all gave off a good feeling.
It was when Franz was appreciating the surrounding scenery like that.
“Franz, you can forget what Yuri-ah said earlier.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah, no matter what, you being a commoner’s husband makes no sense. There must be plenty of better and more wonderful people. I already gave Yuri-ah a piece of my mind, so don’t worry about it.”
He understood up to the part about forgetting the word brother-in-law. It was a completely absurd remark from the start, after all.
But he simply couldn’t say he understood the words she added after that.
“Why does it make no sense for me to be a commoner’s husband? Honestly, as long as our hearts connect, it doesn’t matter who it is. commoner or noble, who cares?”
“I see… Yeah, okay. A commoner is fine too…”
Yuna, who spoke as if muttering to herself, soon burst into laughter. Hehehe-.
Franz, who had known her for quite a long time, could tell. That smile was one Yuna only made when she was in the best of moods. He had only occasionally seen it when she was eating very delicious food.
However, he had no idea what was making her laugh like that right now.
Today, as always, Franz had thrown his tact to the dogs.
* * *
After having a moderate conversation with Yuna, Franz returned to the Magic Tower.
“Magic Tower master, you’ve arri…”
Arian, who met him in front of the Magic Tower master’s office, was offering a bright smile and a greeting when she suddenly frowned. Then she strode over and began to sniff. Sniff, sniff.
“W-what are you doing?”
Franz stepped back in a panic, but Arian didn’t care and followed him, sniffing.
“Has she finally gone crazy?”
Unless she was crazy, there was no way she would be smelling a person’s body odor.
If not that, maybe the recent trend in high society was smelling the scents of close acquaintances.
Nobles were so eccentric that it somehow seemed plausible.
But Franz’s prediction missed the mark spectacularly.
Arian narrowed her brow as much as possible and said.
“You said you were going to meet Your Majesty the emperor.”
“Yeah, I met him and came back?”
“Then why do you smell like a woman?”
Franz was stunned by Arian’s words. It was because she had guessed it exactly right, as if she’d seen it. It was even more surprising because she had figured it out just from the smell.
Are you some kind of puppy or what…
“I went to see Yuna for a bit. I had something to talk about.”
“Hmm… Is that so?”
Arian narrowed her eyes and let out a nasal sound. It seemed something was definitely not to her liking.
“Why?”
“It’s nothing. The Magic Tower master wants to, well, skip work and play around with a woman, so what could I possibly say?”
I didn’t exactly go to play around, though.
Franz wanted to say that, but he swallowed his words. It would only be adding fuel to the fire, after all.
“More importantly, the day I receive the duke’s title has been decided.”
Franz skillfully changed the subject. He hadn’t spent just a day or two with Arian; by now, he could do this much freely.
“When is it?”
“In three days, His Majesty said he wants to hold a banquet.”
Saying that, Franz naturally entered the Magic Tower master’s office and continued speaking as he took off his robe.
“Arian, you’re going with me, right?”
“…I suppose I have no choice. I’ll go for the sake of the lonely Magic Tower master.”
Arian answered in a blunt tone and took the robe from Franz’s hands.
Her expression, unlike her tone, held a smile.
* * *
In the late evening, when most of the mages of the Magic Tower had gotten off work, the lights were still on in the Magic Tower master’s office.
Franz had distanced himself from night shifts thanks to the clerks, but because a certain goddess had given him work somewhere, he had become friends with night shifts once again.
‘Let’s see…’
Franz looked at a map of the entire continent. The code the cultist guy had given him included the keywords “west of the continent” and 'lake', so he was to look for those.
But it wasn’t such an easy task. There were dozens of lakes just in the western part of the continent, and he had absolutely no idea which one it was pointing to.
“Do I have no choice but to go to the site and ask directly this time too?”
Still, it wouldn’t take particularly long. As long as he knew the location, he could go there with teleport anyway. It was just a matter of enduring a little annoyance.
Having organized his thoughts like that, Franz closed the map and leaned back in his chair.
“Come to think of it…”
Suddenly recalling a fact he had forgotten, Franz immediately waved his hand in the air. Then, something popped up in the empty space.
“Save the world from the villainesses who will lead the world to ruin!”
hero Yuna (90.00%)
saintess Yusti-ah (88.00%)
elf archer Hera (91.00%)
If you fail, the world will be ruined!”
It was a status window he was seeing for the first time in a really long time. Just thinking about how this thing had tormented him makes his head throb even now.
“But when did it go up this much…?”
A lot of things had happened while he wasn’t paying attention, but even so, it was a strange rate of growth. At this speed, they would all reach 100 percent before long.
There were still many things he didn’t know about the status window. What those percentages represented, what would happen when they fully reached 100 percent, and so on…
“Who cares.”
But he decided not to care about it. It wouldn’t be a bad thing, at least.
Anyway, since he was done checking, Franz waved his hand in the air to wrap up his encounter with the status window.
However, who could have known.
That a new status window would appear.
At the very least, Franz didn’t know.