“We were looking for you because you were supposed to marry into our province, obviously,” Akanagi spat angrily.
Directly after he spoke, Arai thrust his sword at Akanagi. There was no time at all between the sound of him drawing the blade and the steel finding the boy’s neck. The Miya Province men were both warriors, but it happened so fast that neither of them had time to respond.
“An enemy of Yae’s is an enemy of mine. That’s more than enough chatter out of you,” Arai said coldly. He had taken Akanagi’s words as mockery. He was backing up his earlier claim that an insult against her was an insult against him. If not for the pinch of gloominess she felt when she looked at him, she might’ve fallen for him right there.
“…You can probably kill me, but Hoodori will kill you right afterward,” Akanagi said. He was young, but he was a Wild Nature. He read the situation calmly without minding the sharp touch of the blade and spoke to keep Arai in check. There was no sign of his earlier immaturity.
“I have no intention to fight here. Lower your sword,” Hoodori said to calm both Arai and Akanagi. “The chief of Kaki Province asked us to at least find your body. The women we brought home were also angry we left you behind.”
Yae was truly surprised to hear that. “It wasn’t just Oshiro and the other women? Chief Kadaru demanded that Miya Province search for me, too?” she asked, and this time, Hoodori looked surprised.
“They are concerned for their friend. I also heard that you are the chief’s adopted daughter… Is it so surprising that he would be worried about you?”
“Well, no, but…” She had felt disbelief before anything else. Yae’s own reaction was like a shot through her heart. I wanted to be liked and accepted, but I didn’t trust Chief Kadaru and the others one bit. I was so sure they would act only for their own duty and profit…
Before suspiciously fishing for the ulterior motives of those around her, she should have just said what she wanted—to return home—and acted on her wish. Yae ended up isolating herself because she couldn’t even do something so simple. I’ve been an idiot. The biggest idiot in the world.
“That’s why it was decided I would marry you.”
Akanagi’s unexpected remark jolted her attention back to them.
“…What was that?” Arai said threateningly. Yae took the sword and scabbard from his hands to stop him. She returned the blade to the scabbard, held it in her arms, and looked to Akanagi and Hoodori for explanation. Akanagi let out a sigh of relief. It must have been nerve-racking having that blade pointed at him.
“We thought you were long dead. But no matter how much we searched the mountain, we didn’t even find a single bone. Then after a few days, one of the elders unfortunately contracted deformation,” he explained.
“…Deformation?” Yae responded, confused. She didn’t like where this was going.
“The elder is a Blessed Nature, and he has divine power. As soon as he lost control of that power, a number of strange events began to occur.”
“And…?” Yae honestly wondered what, if anything, that had to do with her.
“You’re Natureless, but you’ve always worked as a medium, right?”
“Huh? …Yes.”
A medium was a person who served the gods and conveyed their will to the people. It was the truth that she had served as the envoy for the ceremonies in Kaki Province for a long time.
“The Miya Province elders place great value on the might of the gods. The others began to make a fuss about how leaving a medium to die must have caused the elder’s deformation,” Akanagi explained, grimacing as if he had a headache. He clicked his tongue. “The women who married into our province joined in, and even the chief of Kaki Province began demanding that we search for you…”
Yae felt herself start to smile but held it in. She was sure Kadaru had celebrated internally at such perfect timing. She could hear him threatening Miya Province now: Yae can perform Appellation, and she served as our medium for many years, so she has a pure soul. She may be Natureless, but I thought she would be of help to your land, and I let go of her with a heavy heart. It’s no wonder you are suffering disasters if you left a girl like her to die…
“While searching for your body, we heard something strange from a peddler passing through the mountain. He said a young man and woman had begun living in a ‘silent land.’ We checked it out in disbelief, and here you are, the dead girl we were supposed to be looking for.”
“Are people really calling this a ‘silent land’? That sounds ominous,” Yae said with an expression of displeasure, and Akanagi glared at her. He looked like he wanted to say that was hardly the issue. Arai looked at her reproachfully as well, upset over having his sword stolen.
“The elder who caught deformation is a member of my family. That’s why they decided I would marry you.”
Oh, that’s how it happened, Yae thought, everything clicking into place with Akanagi’s explanation. The role of Yae’s husband was shifted from Hoodori to Akanagi to appease the elders’ fears, calm Oshiro and the women, and show sincerity to Kaki Province. Akanagi must have been hoping I was dead. She resisted the urge to sigh. As a Wild Nature, having to marry a Natureless woman he felt no attraction to had to be painful.
No, wait a second.
“If the elder is a Blessed Nature, does that mean you are, too?” she asked.
“No. My mother was a Wild Nature, and I inherited that from her,” Akanagi answered.
“…Oh.” If he had been anything other than a Wild Nature, he wouldn’t have been so disappointed to have a Natureless woman as his wife. She had thought there might be a little room for him to accept her in that case, but things were never that easy.
“Why do I have to marry such a…?” Akanagi muttered, sounding as if he wished she would just lie down and die. Yae stiffened.
“You have it backward, kid,” Arai objected coldly. “The question is why does Yae have to marry a pathetic wimp like you? As if I’d let you have her.”
Confusion drove the pain in Yae’s chest out of her mind. Arai was acting very possessive of her, but that was only because she had been the one to release him. After being reborn in this world, he had also come to possess a Wild Nature, and he didn’t show any sign of attraction to the Natureless Yae. That enabled her to live in peace with him and his brother, but it made her feel a little empty as well.
“…I understand that this is a selfish request, but I ask that you come with us to our province. It would be a great help if you could simply tell the elders that you have nothing to do with the disasters. After that, we will do as you like,” Hoodori said, forcing the conversation ahead as if trying to prevent Arai and Akanagi from coming to blows. “If you can’t forgive Miya Province—if you can’t forgive me who was to be your husband—I gladly offer you my life.”
Hoodori suddenly knelt on the spot.
“Huh?! No, I don’t need that. I understand the situation!” Yae shouted, startled by Hoodori’s sudden invitation for her chop off his head. Arai clicked his tongue.
“Go ahead and chop it off,” he said.
“I’m not doing that. Stand up, Hoodori. I don’t want you to pay with your life,” she said, hurriedly pulling Hoodori up. She never would have imagined that he had come with that kind of resolve.
“I can’t ask you to trust us right away after we abandoned you. But if you are able to swallow your anger and marry into our province as per the original agreement, we would of course welcome you.” Hoodori glanced at the sulking Akanagi. “He may appear rude, but he is not used to women, so please forgive him. Despite his behavior here, he is a kindhearted young man.”
“…Huh?! What’s that? Why the hell do I have to clean up the mess you all made?!” Akanagi shouted with flushed cheeks, his white hair swaying as he turned to look at Yae.