CH 117

The marriage ceremony was only three days away. As for me, I’ve been half-heartedly letting my alternate record the situation with the problem child, the Pope, Cielo and Goutani.

But things have changed a lot in the past two days. For the better? …I’d say, probably for the better.

For example, today, when Goutani barged into Cielo’s room. I saw it too.

It was a strange way to start the morning.

“Goutani-sama, being a hero, one must live a life of discipline. Always knock when you enter a lady’s room, isn’t that how a gentleman should act?”

“Eh, huh? Ah, yes! Cielo-chan, you seem different from yesterday? Huh? Goutani-sama?”

“You should not call a woman who is still unmarried by such a name lightly. Normally, you should be discouraged from even entering the room of a woman before marriage. It is only because of your achievements as a hero that you are allowed to do so. Now, with that in mind, let’s consider your and my position again and call it.”

“…Um…Cie…”not by name” Mi, Miko-sama!”

“Yes, what can I do for you?”

After pointing out the problem child’s way of treating her, this smile appeared on her face. I thought Cielo was going to be more gentle with him… but he has become very flustered. Maybe he’s just being himself?

“Well…I came here to decide on a wedding dress for you today, but…”

“In that case, I’ve already decided on it. You had a good night’s sleep last night, didn’t you? I’ve already made the arrangements, so Goutani-sama will be training as a righteous leader from today. If you are a superior, you must know manners, or you will not survive. If you don’t even know what etiquette is, I will include it in the training. Isn’t that good?”

“Yes, ah, about that “it will be alright, won’t it?” …Yes.”

I’ll call him Goutani, instead of Problem Child. Perhaps it’s because he wasn’t immune to women, that’s why he talked like that. Well, that’s okay, because Cielo is so energetic. Shall we go see the other one, Arena?

[chuckles]

“…Kuku…kukuku…”

[He seems to be having fun…]

[He seems to be enjoying this…well, He’s certainly smiling, but…]

What we arrived to, was a room in the castle, the cardinal’s private room. The cardinal actually has a separate house outside the castle, but it seems that he lives here for fear of being attacked by people from the Pope’s and Cielo’s faction, which he himself revolted against and eliminated.

[I gave a barrel of honey wine to my informant, Almani-san.]

[Wonderful…]

Well, the Cardinal, he looks… well, he’s fat anyway. In a nutshell, his body shape is like a daruma doll with wrists and ankles. I think his thick eyebrows are a charm. It’s supposed to be winter now, but he’s sweating indoors, he should get some exercise.

His name is Rand McGale…. It’s amazing that he’s built like that, but his stats are lower than the Forna of the early days…

What’s he doing now? I don’t know. I recorded the video from above as he was giggling while looking at some stuff like that. Thank you for the hard work. Good job, me.

And when we looked at it too, we saw that there were a lot of embezzlement that happened. It seems that they are using the government’s money to build rare magic tools and villas near tourist spots. They have been doing this for a while now.

Well, I guess that’s the least of our problems. I’m going to expose the underground authorities, but I’m sure Almani-san will take care of that.

[We’ll look at this guy some more and then move on. Maybe he’ll show us something else.]

[Treasure?]

[No stealing, ok?]

[Afuuu]

Yes, let me press those puffy cheeks.

“Quad, where is La Veil?”

You’re still asleep.

“La~Veil~”

Back in the inn room, Quad kept an eye on the sleeping La Veil, who hadn’t woken up since yesterday. Mika said that the body of La Veil had shrunk to the size of a pea, so who am I to argue with La Veil’s stupidity?

“I’m going to have to give her a lecture when she wakes up, aren’t I, Arena?”

“Puuuuh!”

Hmm? You want me to push your cheeks again? Okay, Quad, and I’ll give you one on the other side.

I was wondering about Mika too, but she finally beat one of the alters. It’s great that she got our input on the plan and went ahead with it. But is that what you want, as a hero? It was probably okay, because it was Mika.

“Is Quad sightseeing?”

“No, I’ve finished my tour. I think I’d like to spend the day watching La Veil. What will the two of you be doing?”

“I think we’ll spend the day practicing fairy magic, since we’re going to go get Mika’s holy armor in two days. We’ll do all the preparations the day before.”

“I see, so you’ll be in your room?”

“I plan to. Come on, Arena, let’s start your training.”

“Aye sir!”

We lay down on the bed, held each other’s hands and closed our eyes. As I said, what we’re going to do now is train in fairy magic.

However, we will not use magic directly. We’ll just use [Multiple Thoughts] and play a game with [Synchronized] Arena and all her thoughts.

All in a different kind of game.

“Well then.”

“Please!”

[Black, I’ll take Top Right Corner]

[Center]

[2-6 steps]

[5-2 flying]

[Candy]

[Monster]

[Concentration]

[Dogeza~]

[I’ll take the last one]

[All right, all right]

[Right hand blue]

[Left foot red]

[Pawn in d to d5]

[Pawn on f to f3]

Now I had six parallel thoughts, each with Go, Shogi, Shiritori, Jenga, Twister game, and Chess. Anyway, it’s working hard. The only chance I had of beating Arena was…sorry, there was none. I have never, ever beaten Arena in any of those games.

Call it an INT difference, but the simple fact is that Arena played more games than I did and knew more about them than anyone else in this world. What was even worse was that she had sublimated all of this to the extreme, and had probably read the game to a point that even Quad couldn’t break into it.

In any case, if I make one move, it will be handed back to me in no time. Though I would try to think of a wise move, the move would be returned as if she had waited for me, and she would lead me to a loss.

Quietly and surely, never allowing even a single counterattack.

I lost, though. It was frustrating, but fun. This was a method of training that I had done several times, but I found myself most at ease during this time.

When I use everything I have to throw myself into my opponent’s thoughts, I feel like I am in a world where I am alone with Arena, in a lukewarm place forever.

I feel like I’m connected to her in a very deep way.

“But I’m not going to lose…”

“I won…”

Yes, I’ve lost a total of 3,499 games. No, I couldn’t, I couldn’t win. No matter how good it feels to be connected, Arena was not so naive that I could win with just that. Her sweet attitude is so gentle that it makes my brain melt.

“Mmm~~~!!!”

In addition, while we are linked up, Arena can feel all the good feelings, and when we are finished, she will hug me with her cheeks dyed red. She would give me a cheek-to-cheek hug. There was no way I could win, right?

(No, no, I have to endure it! Even if I were to die with love gushing out of my body, I’d have to win at least one game to make an example of myself in many ways.)

However, in reality, the current me will not be able to win against Arena by doing a somersault from standing on my head. In any case, I couldn’t win even if I used all my INT and [fairy magic]. Doesn’t the status difference matter?

~~~~~~… Let’s try it, the forbidden way.

“Arena, I’m going to change my character a little, but please give me one last shot.”

“Sure!”

“Okay, then, fairy magic…HAPPY!”

My consciousness was cut off there.

—-

…Ha!

“What’s going on?”

We were lying on the bed, naked and hugging each other. What? What happened? We were playing a game, right? What did I do?

“Well, it looks like you’ve finally regained consciousness, Aidle-sama. Why don’t you put some clothes on for now?”

Quad said, holding out our clothes. What? Why do you have them? Eh? I took off my clothes and gave them to Arena? What was I doing? Seriously, what did I do? !

“Aidori~~”

“Arena! Are you okay?

“Heehee~”

I’m not sure if her lips are a little puffy or not, but she speaks in a slurred voice. She is naked, her eyes moist, her cheeks red and puffy, and she is standing next to me. …Okay, I’ve calmed down a bit.

To sum up the situation briefly, it seems that we were hugging each other in the nude and playing the same game as before. It seemed to be a very close game, and we played until midnight, well into the evening. The game chosen was Shogi. The winner was… me, they said.

So that’s what happened, huh? If that’s the case, this can be used as a real last resort. However, my ego will be missing, and I’ll blow the whole process out of proportion to the result. If possible, I’d like to think that this one was only for Arena…I’m sure La Veil would have been willing to engage, but no matter what, La Veil would.

“Um, I’m really sorry, Arena, were you scared?”

“Not at all…it felt so good…I want to do it again…no?”

“…”

“…Oops, Miss Arena, Miss Aidle fainted…”

“Oh no.”

La Veil woke up a few hours later and said, “Why am I sleeping while you were still awake, Master?” I didn’t wake up.

_________________________________

Next day.

“Today, too, is another morning where Arena is sticking to me. About thirty percent more than usual.”

” Well… yeah, I wonder why. Haha…”