Waaah!”
I turned to Olivia, hoping for a little help, but she just pouted at me.
“Awwww. How come you didn’t propose to me all romantically like
that?”
Olivia was adorable when she sulked. However, what I needed from her right now was not adorable pouting, but help getting Diane to stop crying!
And I certainly did not need her pinching my arm either, not that it especially hurt.
Eventually I calmed Olivia down and stopped Diane’s tears. Incidentally, we were still naked through all this melodrama, which was a little weird, but we eventually got out of bed, wiped ourselves down, and changed clothes.
Our maids had just finished making food when we left my bedchamber, so we enjoyed a late breakfast, pretending not to notice their judgemental looks.
Rumors of the events at my mansion—the most shocking being that I had blessed, and therefore married, Diane myself—spread so fast and were embellished so heavily that they’d made a trip all the way around the city within a day and returned with a vengeance. Saying the rumors spread like wildfire would be selling the situation short; they spread like a plague borne on rats made of wildfire.
“So. When it was just me and Olivia, a girl chased out of her family home, I figured I could take it easy and enjoy the newlywed life for a while.
However, now that I’ve married the daughter of a count without even a family name of my own, the public’s probably going to start wondering whether I really earned any of this.”
So far, I’d been riding the coattails of the title granted to me by the goddess. I did still have plenty of assets I’d earned from hunting monsters, so I didn’t have to worry much about money. However, marrying some commoner, so-called hero or no, would reflect poorly on Diane.
“All right, I’m off to do something big. I plan to be back around sundown, but if it looks like I’ll be late, I’ll send a familiar.”
★ Charles ★
The day after my pleasant meeting with the hero and his generously uniting me and Jeanne in marriage, I was busy as usual.
Specifically, I was swamped with paperwork from early in the morning until noon. Left with no time for lunch, I hurried to my meeting with some high-ranking adventurers and the leaders of large mercenary guilds to discuss measures against the powerful monsters that were preventing our territory
reclamation and development. They all wanted the moon and offered little, so we were left negotiating until the western sky blushed red. Ugh, and I still have my afternoon paperwork to deal with.
“You look tired, dear.”
When I exited the conference room, Desiderata was there to greet me.
Oh, my love, all I need is your smile, and I can survive any trial. Well, and food. I really need food.
“I left some sandwiches and a few snacks in your office for you. Also, please, do let me help with the paperwork.”
“No, Desiderata, we’ve discussed this. You have your health to think about. Compared to the undertaking that is birthing a child, my job is nothing.”
Desiderata was gravid now, her stomach curved like a bow. Worried for her as I was, I wished she would just stay home and relax, rather than coming to see me so late at night.
“But dear…”
I put my hand on Desiderata’s cheek, stiff with concern, and I leaned in for a kiss.
“Red aleeeeeert! We’ve got to get to the monster materials market, sir!”
And then Jeanne just had to go and ruin it with her yelling!
“What in blazes is going on, Jeanne? Is there some high-ranking fool kicking up a fuss? Or maybe some of those idiots with muscles where their brains ought to be starting a fight?”
If Jeanne was coming to get me specifically, then whatever was going on, it was beyond her control. Who dared add to my work while I was already fatigued? If they didn’t have a good reason for this, I was ready to burn my whole stress bar on a max-strength uppercut and send them flying right over my three-story mansion!
I asked Jeanne for an explanation, but as usual, she was incomprehensible. All I got from it was that the monster dismantlement area was all gummed up, thanks to some abnormal new arrival.
The monster materials market was a newly established facility built to cope with the incredible amount of materials flowing in daily from fresh monster kills. The adventurer guilds in this relatively small frontier had proven unable to handle the flood.
At least it was located conveniently enough: right on the premises of the
estate. We’d brought in a number of monster-dismantling professionals, and we’d had a number of enchanted storehouses built nearby. And of course, there were always adventurers around.
When I stepped into the market, I could hardly believe my eyes. There’s a mountain. Why is there a mountain? Despite the throngs of adventurers that had gathered, so deep you could hardly see beyond your nose, towering up above it all was that strange mountain.
“Hey, clear a path, guys! We got Lord Charles coming through!”
The adventurers parted way to let us through. As I approached the mountain, I realized that it was in fact a monster’s corpse. Not a mountain of corpses, mind you—just the corpse of a single, titanic wolf.
“Is that… the titan of the moonlight wolves who prowl the eastern prairies? The Wolf King Courtaud?”
Titans were unique monsters who appeared only once in hundreds of years among a monster herd. Disaster incarnate, they would lead the charge of their fellows, carving out more territory and eventually leading to an explosion in the size of their herd.
Until about fifty years ago, the moonlight wolves had been a prolific but mostly harmless race of monsters, generally content to prowl their territory, hardly ever attacking humans or livestock unless goaded. But since the birth of the titan Courtaud, the rich prairies had fallen into their hands.
Since the appearance of the Wolf King, the increasingly-violent flock had become unstoppable. It was all people could do to flee in terror before their onslaught. Many nations had ceded territory to the ever-growing herd of moonlight wolves.
I had long since adjudged Courtaud to be the single greatest danger to the first stage of my development plan, and we had toiled ceaselessly over elaborate schemes to defeat him, all in vain. Yet now here he was, lying dead before me. I think I’m getting dizzy.
“You don’t look so good, Your Highness. Guess I really should’ve sent some advance warning before dragging the big guy here, huh?”
The man who clearly misunderstood my shock was the hero I had met just the day before. Advance warning? Yeah, maybe, but that’s not exactly why you caused all this uproar.
“Lord Charles’s schedule is booked solid from sunrise to sundown. Trust me—I’m his bodyguard. I know what’s up. He looks ill because he’s not getting enough rest!”
And the woman who somehow misunderstood me even more was the knight I had married just the day before. No, Jeanne, I don’t look out of sorts because I’m tired.
“Hmm. Well, I killed a bunch of the big guy’s buddies, too, so I was really hoping I could get them dismantled after the people here finished with this one. But I don’t want to cause any more trouble than I already have.
Really sorry for taking up so much space by myself.”
Give me a break, Sir Chris. Maybe you could direct some of that sympathy toward me ? Admittedly, I was the one who promised a reward for defeating larger monsters, but did you really have to start with a titan ? I was thinking something more modest, like the leader of a modest herd.
The dizziness was getting worse. Ugh, and it’s barely sunset. Oh no, I do believe I’m blacking out.
Snap!
Ooh! Suddenly, I feel so much more alive. My mind is clear, like a fog has been lifted from my brain.
“I used my magic to restore your vitality and calm your nerves. How do you feel now, Prince Charles?”
“See, you were totally exhausted! Please, you’ve got to stop pushing yourself.”
Jeanne, please. Your concern is misplaced.
“Sir Chris, I’d like you to come to my office. But first, having this mountain of a monster in the dismantling area is a bit of an issue, so would you be so kind as to move it to a storehouse?”
He probably brought all of those corpses here using his inventory magic, but it had snarled traffic quite badly. This sort of thing was best handled via one of the storehouses.