It was an hour later when Wataru returned to the forest to find Aria and Résistance having a gay old time playing Word Chain.
“Panda.”
“† Apple of Darkness, the Fruit of the Hellfire Orchard †.”
“Will you stop making up goofy ways to say ‘apple’ after everything I say?”
“That’s not what I’m doing at all!””
“Heyyyyyyyy! You twooooooo!!” Wataru called out to them and waved. Both of them immediately turned to face him. It looked as though Résistance had been completely healed, and as she watched him approach from her seat against the tree, she seemed full of energy and vigor.
“Oh, Wataru, you’re back... Hold on, what the hell happened with your hair!? Lemme come take a look,” she said standing up to get closer. Résistance was, quite understandably, completely shocked by its new length. He’d only been gone for a few hours after all, and now his hair stretched down to his waist.
Wataru folded his arms as he answered most unhelpfully: “Huh? Oh, this? It, uh, just kinda happened!!”
Aria just smiled when she heard this. “Ha! Well, I suppose our dear Wataru is quite capable of growing his hair out like that whenever he wants to!”
“Well, yeah!!!”
“As if he can just ‘want’ to have it grow out that much, all at once...”
Exasperated with Aria’s and Wataru’s typical antics, Résistance just shook her head and moved onto a more serious subject.
“So, what happened with the dragon? Did you defeat him?”
Wataru looked back and forth between Aria and Résistance before nodding.
“Yeah!! Of course I did!!”
Both of the young women let out a deep sigh of relief upon hearing Wataru’s confident reply.
“I knew you’d be able to pull it off.”
“Excellent, job well done, Wataru! Now we can get a whole lot more reward money from the King of the Sky Kingdom! I want to install a golden toilet inside my house with that money!!”
“Why would you ever want—!!”
Wataru paused, confused by what his senses were telling him.
At that very moment, Résistance happened to glance up at the sky to see a shadow—of someone. “Hey, take a look at that.” She pointed up into the air. Wataru and Aria looked to see what she was pointing at, and saw something most surprising. The dark figure was getting larger and larger as it approached where the three of them were standing.
“Hey, watch out! It’s coming this way!!”
—and in the very next instant!
KA-BOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!
A roaring quake shook our three adventurers as they opened their eyes to see a Great Man was standing before them!!
Yes, just as you expected! It was Elphabill of the House of Evil! Riding on his shoulder was none other than his daughter Elphabelle!!
“Y-You two...!”
Wataru blinked rapidly in surprise at their sudden appearance! Elphabelle leapt off her father’s shoulder and landed without a sound!!
“Hey hey, Darling! You defeated the dragon just fine!!” Elphabelle was practically bouncing up and down as she greeted Wataru with a wink! Adorable!
“Don’t call me ‘Darling’! Wait, were you watching me fight the dragon!?!?”
It was her father, Elphabill, who answered this question!
“Heheh. As assassins, we are quite good at spying on our targets!! You were truly something in that fight!!”
“Yeah, yeah! You looked super cool! And that new hairstyle’s awesome!”
Elphabelle sounded truly pleased as she pointed at Wataru’s long, tousled mane! Adorable!!
Wataru, a Hot-Blooded Fighting Teen from Japan, had absolutely no experience with women, so of course he blushed beet-red at this compliment!
“D-Don’t try to change the subject! ...Wh-What do you want, anyways!?”
“Oh, Darling, you know that! We gotta decide when we’re gonna have our wedding ceremony, don’t we!”
Résistance exploded with rage when she heard this!!
“Wh-Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaat!! Quit your bullshit!! As if anyone would let Wataru marry into a shady family of bastards like yours!! I will not, I shall not allow you to marry Elphabelle, Wataru—!!”
Wataru was of course confused by how indignant Résistance was getting over the subject!
“Re-Résistance... That sounds like something my father would say!”
“...Ah! I’ve said too—My apologies Wataru, I got ahead of myself there.”
“Well, anyway, I don’t plan on marrying anyone right now!!”
Wataru put his hands on his hips and thrust out his chest, as he proclaimed this for all to hear! In Wataru’s mind, he was already in a relationship! With muscle training and his adventures!!
Aria nodded her head in complete agreement! “Why, of course you feel that way! If you do change your mind, though, and want to get married, please be sure to let me know! I’ll have to get ready for the move.”
Elphabelle frowned at these most unwelcome words from Aria! “I tooooooooooooold you before! Why’re you acting like you’re gonna come live in my house!?”
“Why, obviously I’d like to try living in a mansion too, of course.”
“And so that means you have to come live in our house!? That’s absurd!”
“Why’ve you gotta be so stingy with all that space you have!? You live in the biggest house on the continent!””
“The size of my house has nothing to do with it!!”
Elphabill laughed high and loud as the Devil himself as he watched the two of them argue! “MUAHAHAHAHA!!”
“Indeed, most amusing...!! Wataru, your friends truly are quite interesting characters!!”
Wataru smiled happily when he heard this. “Yes, they really are! I’m quite proud of my friends!”
“Just to be clear, you... don’t have any intention of marrying my daughter?”
Wataru shook his head firmly!
“Nope! I have absolutely no intention of getting involved in any love affairs right now! I need to get stronger, a lot stronger!!”
Wataru said this with clear eyes and clear words! Just what we’d expect from a Hot-Blooded Fighting Teen from Japan! There were no falsehoods in what he said whatsoever!