CH 118

He wonders what happened to her, staring at the dishes on his desk. It wasn’t supposed to be like this. He had expected her to be more obedient and gentle, to forgive him for everything.

But when he opened the door, he saw that she was not intimidated or afraid. Instead, she was determined to confront him head on.

The schedule was strictly organized: meal etiquette in the morning, La Veil Radd etiquette during the day, church etiquette, understanding the Pope’s job description, joining the Pope after lunch to revise the new Bible, and meal etiquette again in the evening.

Goutani, unable to put a slave collar on Cielo because she would be his wife, and under the pushy pressure of being absolutely necessary for the marriage, managed to remember…

“Look, it’s different again. That one is still wrong.”

“Ugh…Miko, sama? Huh!”

“Goutani-sama, our marriage ceremony will be the grand occasion of the world’s representative Hero and me, a Miko. Naturally, all the countries will pay attention to it. But if Goutani-sama is a sama, we will not be able to hold even a proper marriage ceremony. The marriage is not the end of the story. Cardinal McGuire is probably preparing the wedding venue, but what are your plans for me?”

“What about…?”

“You are going to be my husband, you are going to be the next Pope. Of course, you have to memorize the entire Bible, and you have to think about your daily words for the people. You can’t neglect a single part of your job, and you will continue to do so until the day you die. That is the responsibility of the one who will be in the position of [Pope]. Are you really ready for that?”

Goutani grunted involuntarily. He didn’t have the slightest bit of such resolve. He had thought that he would let someone else do all the work, that he would leave everything else to the Cardinal, and that he would spend every day with Cielo in the sweet life. Naturally, he was not prepared for anything.

Cielo was stunned by Goutani’s inability to say anything.

“Do you really want to marry me? I am ready to take a husband as my groom in a few years, and the candidates before were all sincere and ready to commit their lives to this world. My Divine Eye skill can discern this, so I have no doubt about it.”

The humiliation of being compared to other men almost made Goutani lose his temper, but he was not about to let his feelings get the better of him. He replied in his own way.

“It’s true that I may be ruder than those guys, but… My feelings for Cielo are real! Don’t doubt me! Besides… A wife should listen to her husband!”

“It is also a wife’s role to support her husband. If it is the person I am going to marry, I must say it even more so. Otherwise, people will not be satisfied. If you make one mistake, the whole nation will laugh at you. Since you are going to be the face of the country, you must try to be perfect in every way. It is an inevitable part of your marriage to me. If you refuse, I will have to refuse as well.”

“What do I care what happens to this country? I’ll destroy the Pope if I have to!”

“Then what will you do?”

“…Eh?”

Cielo’s expression did not change. No anger, no pity, just a blank expression and a nonchalant, straightforward statement of the facts.

“If you kill the Pope, I will be sad. My pillow will be wet with tears. But that is the end. No matter how hard I try, I am a [Miko]. Nothing I do will change. It is my mission now to be the foundation for the next generation. What I need is someone who will share it with me. …Thoughts alone are not enough, love alone is not enough, Goutani-sama.”

“Ugh…Kuh!!!”

Stuck with those words, Goutani violently kicked the door of the room open and walked out. The door shattered, and the wreckage spread throughout the hallway. Cielo, however, only sighed and quietly resumed eating her meal again.

“What the…what the heck is that woman!! Damn!!! Damn!!!!”

“Hey, hey, don’t come to the Pope’s room for anything just because you were beaten in an argument. You’re interrupting my work, okay?”

“Shut up!”

Unable to come up with any response, Goutani could only run away. He broke into the Pope’s room and clutched his knees in the corner of the room.

Hinomoto saw a different Goutani and chuckled. Goutani, annoyed by this, yelled at her and threw a nearby chair at Hinomoto with all his might.

“Oops!”

Just before it would hit, the chair was shredded in midair and fell to the ground. The pope was surprised that he did not even see her draw her sword, but her body turned to the desk on its own, and she solemnly resumed her work.

“How can you be a good husband to Miko-san if you keep throwing tantrums? I thought you would have been ready for this position by now, since you wanted it. It’s a tough road to walk with her, so tough that it would be impossible for me, or perhaps even Asahina, who is a Hero among Heroes.”

He glared at Hinomoto for saying such a thing now, but in the last three days, just three days, Goutani had been minutely recognized. It may have been simply because Cielo was like a Spartan trainer, but the upper level of La Veil Radd was not originally a place for the public.

“What are you going to do? We can still stop it now, and I think we can start over peacefully, you know?”

“…Don’t be silly, there’s also the execution to consider. Besides, the people are on my side. She’s going to marry me no matter how hard she tries…so it’s okay if I hurt her a little, right? It’s the husband’s role to discipline his wife…kuhi.”

“…you know that kind of thing is not allowed in our world, right?”

——

“Are you okay? Does it hurt?”

“Yes, no problem. The magic made it completely painless.”

“I didn’t think you’d resort to violence…”

When Goutani returned at night, he hit Cielo as a form of discipline. Of course, he took it easy on her, but hitting a beautiful girl, he finally crossed a line he shouldn’t have. I can cover it up to the extent that it wouldn’t be uncomfortable, though, since I mitigated the impact with [Fairy Magic] from my alter body.

Or rather, hurting a beautiful girl. What were you doing with the greatest treasure of mankind? The right thing to do would be to attack her with love.

“But still, Cielo, you’re being quite hard on him, aren’t you?”

“I have to crush everything except for the last path. I know it’s bad, but I can’t lose either. In the end, I have to make a connection with the [Fairy Cult].”

“That also means… you haven’t given up yet.”

“Of course!”

Nice smile… well, if I could see the look on her face like that, all the better. Now, it was already night, and the day after tomorrow would be the marriage ceremony.

Time to leave the cathedral and to get my act together. The destination is the castle tower where the [Holy Armor] is locked.

“Dark~So Dark~?”

“I wonder if this is really a characteristic of a Holy Sword~ this is…”

I tried to go inside like I did with Mika and the others, but the ground was covered with [Curse]. Looking closely with my [Fairy Eyes], I saw that the entire floor surface was completely black. The walls were black in places, too, and even the handrails were fully covered with it. That was truly relentless.

But, we are fairies. We could get through all this if we just flew. We climbed up smoothly and quickly arrived at the front of the room. Well then, this is where we start. There were a lot of [Curses] placed on the door, too. It could not be opened normally by hand.

“That’s where Fairy Magic comes in.”

“Yes!”

The two of us activated our Fairy Magic like we were using telekinetic powers and opened the locks and doors with our hands, saying “Move… move… move… move… move… move… move…”. By the way, Arena, who was doing it next to me, was copying me. That was so cute.

Finally, we found Mika’s [Holy Armor].

The shape of the armor seemed to fit Mika’s body. Hmmm… the chest part seemed indecent, didn’t it? It revealed her cleavage. How indecent. We have to get her to change as soon as we bring it home. And I should save it on my recording crystal.

The Holy Armor was kept in the jail on a stand. The jail was also filled with [Curse], so I telekinetically moved it around…

“So it’s on the Holy Armor too…hmmm…what should I do?”

“Holy Sword?”

“Ah, do you want to try that?”

At Arena’s suggestion, I activated the Holy Sword and tried cutting. Oh, only the [Curse] was cut and dissipated. I then removed all the [Curse] attached to the armor, and her original pure white armor appeared.

All right, now I should stow it away and Mission Complete.

“Now then, let’s go home and give it to her.”

“Present~♪”

—–

Mika was so impressed that she held up the Holy Armor to the sky. Her face had a somewhat bad expression.

“Oh~~~ my Holy Armor, it’s back!”

“Don’t lose it again, okay?”

“I didn’t lose it!”

Mika immediately put on her armor and returned to her original heroic form. She seemed to be checking on her condition, but then looked doubtful, as if something was wrong.

“What’s wrong?”

“No… something’s different. I’m not sure if it’s lighter than before…or what? Maybe it’s just my imagination. I mean, my skills are normal [Holy Armor] and all.”

“Maybe it’s because Mika is stronger? Unlike before, your status is also much higher.”

“I don’t know. Oh well. Thanks Aidle, now I could finally fight properly. Specifically, I can beat up Goutani.”

“Oh, about that, can I have a word?”

“What?”

I showed Mika the video of Goutani so far. I showed Mika all the footage of Goutani in his madness, his interactions with Cielo, and all the scenes of violence.

“Oh, my goodness…is Cielo okay with that?”

“She was rather motivated. She said she’s going to block most of the escape routes.”

“Wow…hey, we’re fighting on the day of the marriage ceremony, right?”

“Yeah, but what?”

“What’s your plan, Aidle?”

“Eh… well, we will deal with whatever happens.”

I told Mika about my plan, which I had not yet told anyone. The basics were similar to what we had done at the martial arts tournament, but with a different ending this time, per Cielo’s request.

“…”

When she finished, Mika silently clenched her fists. I didn’t know what emotions were mixed in there, but I could tell they were difficult to accept.

“…Haah, Aidle is always a bundle of chaos, you know. I get it, I will work that way too. But go easy on him a bit, okay?”

“I’ll think about it.”

“Just think about it and get it over with!!!!”

I’m also Japanese, after all. It is a country with a culture of “Perception”. But more importantly, did they beat the Aidles?

The second batch was magic-based, so I guess neither of them could win in the end.

“Yes, I guess so. The limit is tomorrow night, do you want me to do it until the last minute?”

“Yes, definitely. It probably won’t take that long.”

“…Yeah. Then here’s your dinner. Sleep tight and keep warm at night, okay?”

“Yes, thank you.”

And so I returned to the inn. La Veil and Arena, still tiny, were cackling in bed, so I jumped in there to add my oohs and ahhs.

“Oh, Quad, what have you been up to today?”

“I was out eating with La Veil.”

“Quad was awesome, Master. Every restaurant we went to was excellent!”

“It’s business as usual…”

_______________________________________

“Hero buckwheat, Hero buns, Hero pizza, Hero meat!”

“Wait, that last one’s not right.”