--I'm in trouble. Right now I'm in a lot of trouble, Jirei thought to himself.
"--So, we're thinking of holding the wedding at the biggest ceremony hall in the kingdom! I'm sure the citizens will be happy, and Father will also give his blessing! Ah, but don't worry! I'm sure you're worried about living in the unfamiliar royal palace, so I'll always be by your side! And the rest of our days..."
A whole day had passed since the skeletons of the Four Heavenly Kings of the Demon King's army were annihilated.
After that, Jirei forcefully peeled off Rafine, who for some reason had latched onto him and refused to let go, and used the excuse of carrying a collapsed male adventurer to Etal's medical center to calm the surrounding adventurers for the time being.
He rushed the man into the intensive care unit, then did his best to shake off the adventurers bombarding him with questions and holed himself up in the inn so he wouldn't be found. With no money, he got down on his knees and begged; the kind owner took pity and let him stay.
...No, seriously, he was exhausted from the endless questions—if he hadn't escaped, they probably would have pestered him forever. For some reason, Wedd kept calling him "brother" in an overbearing way, and Cain begged to become his apprentice, which Jirei naturally refused.
Letty clung to him, declaring "I won't let go until we get to the party!", while Eve glared with blank, downcast eyes, but why?
He also tried to trace the caster of the "Crimson" flames that targeted Rafine, but all magical traces were erased, making it impossible to track. But... the culprit was probably Lina; she came from an assassin family, had acted strange since learning Rafine was a princess, and had vanished without a trace. ...Well, that didn't matter right now—more than that...
"--So, how many children should we have? Personally, I think we need to have lots of them for an heir! So, about 10 boys and 10 girls--" The real problem was the girl clinging to his right arm and rattling on like a machine gun, this girl Rafine. Everything was fine when he shook off Wedd and the others, holed up in the inn, and slept soundly in a real bed for the first time in ages.
In the morning, he woke up, opened the window, and basked in the sunlight, thinking, "What a lovely morning," when he heard rustling in the bed. He immediately dropped into a fighting stance and cautiously looked over, there she was, Rafine was sleeping soundly, drooling. He was seriously shocked; she was in the same bed he had just left, wearing a sensual negligee that nearly stopped his heart, it was horrifying.
Thinking back to last night, he couldn't recall anything wrong because he didn't drink alcohol, he had no experience with it, busy with training and preferring sleep. A while ago, a strange woman chased him, demanding responsibility for seeing him half-naked, which was a real pain, so he avoided such situations since. He was the complete victim. Anyway, he woke Rafine, who slept with a happy face, and had her change into proper clothes, leading to the present.
There were so many things he wanted to ask, like why she snuck into his bed and how she found him. But more curiously, why was a country's princess following a D-class adventurer like him, so he asked. Rafine looked puzzled, like "Huh? Why are you asking me that?"
"But aren't Jirei-sama and I destined to be married?" she said with absolute certainty. Hearing that, Jirei froze for a good five minutes—he had no idea what she was talking about; marriage? Fate? As he listened to Rafine's story, he gradually understood: her "soulmate" was him.
However, it couldn't be helped that he didn't remember. Back then, he had deliberately blocked his vision with a mask-like magical tool while training in Magic Detection, Heat Detection, and Presence Detection, he could make out outlines but not faces. In the first place, he hadn't saved her for noble reasons; he just helped people thinking, "Maybe if I help a lot, I'll get a holy seal," and assisted so many he didn't remember each one.
He thought that was when he heard of an incredibly strong monster in the forest near the Kingdom of Uniwelcia and challenged it eagerly. Unable to find it, he vented by hunting monsters and rested when tired—a cheeky child appeared. When he tried chasing her away, she cried, so thinking "Making a child cry loses bravery points," he made up a story to stop her.
For some reason, she took a liking and came every day, so he spent breaks with her, wondering if she had friends. Finally finding the monster, he fought to the death—it was stronger than expected, and though he won, he nearly died; circumstances prevented healing magic, and he thought he was done for. After rehabilitating at the child's luxurious mansion, he recovered quickly and remembered something.
Come to think of it, the day after tomorrow was the 56th Annual Rare Magical Item Auction. Remembering, he immediately ran to the venue. But thinking it inappropriate for an aspiring hero to leave without a word, he said something just in case; she wanted to come too, but he thought she couldn't handle the fierce battlefield, so he gave her the Protean Ring and told her to be patient.
By the way, he lost the bid for the magic tool at the end to an arrogant woman—he'd never forgive her. ...So, he never promised to marry Rafine, only helped out of self-interest, and it was all her misunderstanding—he wasn't like storybook princes; he only thought about himself. "Ji, Jirey-sama. When you stare at me like that... I get embarrassed. No, it's not that I dislike it, it's just that I feel embarrassed when you look at me with that cool face...! Seriously! On our wedding night, we show each other our naked bodies, okay?"
The girl spouting nonsense was mistaken—this was bad; he needed to clear the misunderstanding immediately. "...For now, could you please leave me alone? Also, could you please stop using '-sama' for a moment-" When he said that, "Ah! I'm so sorry! I understand! Well then ...!" 旦那様... "No, no, that's not it. Seriously, that's not it."
Rafine's face turned red as if misunderstanding, fidgeting while calling him husband—her eyes heart-shaped, which was scary; what should he do? ...However, it was his fault things turned out this way—even without those feelings, he did something leading to misunderstanding; he needed to clear it properly and refuse. …But asking directly out of the blue wasn't good, so he'd throw warm-up jabs—yeah, let's do that.
"...I just want to ask you something. If I told you that I never promised to marry you and that I only helped you out of self-interest, what would you do?" When he asked, Rafine smiled and said, "I'm going to die." "Oh, death... Huh? Huh?? You mean die...?"
"I'll bite off my tongue and die." Did she really just say that ?"...I can't imagine a world without Jirei-sama. Also, it's no good of you to fall for any other woman besides me. Please only look at me." Rafine clung tighter.
Cold sweat poured out; her breathing had been unstable for a while, what should she do? "After all, Jirei-sama and I are destined to be married, right?" Rafine's eyes were those of a completely crazy, dangerous person—"There's no other way and I won't accept it." This was bad—what should he do?
Huh? If he said, "Actually, it was a lie—the prank was a huge success," would she bite her tongue and commit suicide? It was a lie, right? Please say it's a lie. As she shook upset, "Jirei-sama? Why won't you answer me? Is it possible that there is another woman? That can't be right?" Rafine approached with dark, lightless eyes.
"Ah, ah, ah... That's obvious. That's not possible." I interjected. "...That's right! There's no way that the pure and innocent Jirei-sama would do something like that! Ah, but you shouldn't make a mistress either, you know? I'll make sure you're completely satisfied! But if you do make one... you understand, don't you?" Startled, he replied in broken words; Rafine's face lit up, then turned red, highlights vanishing—bad.
...What should he do? He didn't want her dying because of him, and marriage led straight to kingship with hard work—he absolutely didn't want that; he wanted to laze until old age and death. "...a!" Then it hit him, this was the only option.
"Raffine, I have a small favor to ask of you..." "Yes! Whatever!" Lafine replied with genuine joy—ugh, his heart ached. "Um... about the Protean Ring I gave you before... could you please give it back?"
"...Why? This is my engagement ring with Jirei-sama, a keepsake... Why? Perhaps you want to give it to another woman--" "N-no, that's not it! That's not it!" He hurriedly stopped Rafine, whose eyes were losing light. ...He honestly didn't want to do this, but--
"...Ah." He pushed Rafine down onto the bed. "Because... we'll be together forever from now on, right? So this kind of thing, there's no need for it anymore." In his mind, Rafine thought: He assumed a pose like leaning over for a wall-bang and said that in a really cool voice—it was crazy; she got goosebumps just saying it.
"Y-yes... that's right..." Lafine's face was bright red, eyes rolling—okay, he got her word. "Then I'll give it back," he said, removing the Protean Ring from her left index finger—good. "Well, I'm going to the bathroom for a bit--"
"Yes... Ah, wait! I'll join you!" For some reason, Rafine tried following. "N-no, that's a bit much..." "B-But...! From now on, we'll be showing each other everything...!" "...Th-Let's do that gradually, okay?"
Desperately keeping up, he stopped her; Rafine laughed, "Hehe, that's right. From now on, we'll be together forever." Damn. "Oh, that's right! I'll be off then!" he said, opening the door and quickly closing it.
"...Okay, let's run." He decided to flee. After all, marriage and kingship were no joke.
There were massive misunderstandings, and he didn't want her dying because of him—he was sure her passion would cool with time; that must be it—he hoped so. But—where to run? Nearby countries were out.
Granjelo... no good because of him. He rejected Estudiosso, fearing involvement with that pervert. Then, that's right, over there.
He just received a letter asking what he thought of the sweets, so he'd stay with them for months or years. If annoying, he could say, "I'll tell the Knights I was almost attacked in the past. Is that okay?" Yeah, let's do that. Using "High-Speed Calculation," he concluded in a second.
"--Jirei-sama? Have you returned home already? Ah! Perhaps you still don't want to be separated from me even for a moment... If that's the case, you should have said so--" "--Oh no!" Only a second passed, but I imagined Rafine saying that. God, it was too early.
I immediately used the Transfiguration Ring to change my black hair to red and bolted down the inn's corridor. To Magikosmaia, the country where Shar was, at full speed.