Chapter 196
Charlotte would marry me.
Not only Charlotte was shocked by that outrageous statement, but the same was also true for me.
“Hey, what the hell? What nonsense are you spouting all of a sudden?”
At my words, Dettomolian looked at me intently.
“I… was just telling you what I saw…”
“N-no, I mean. How does this even make any sense?”
“W-well… Yeah, he’s right. I-I don’t want to put it like this, but… I’m, erm, part of the Imperial Family, right?”
Charlotte’s face turned white as she spoke, and the corners of her mouth were twitching. She didn’t want to say something like, “I’m part of the Imperial Family and Reinhardt is just a commoner, so how could we ever get married?”, because we were in Temple, but she couldn’t help it because he had predicted something so ridiculous.
“People don’t know… how things might happen…”
Yeah, that made sense. No one would know when, where, what, and how things might happen.
But I still had goosebumps running up my back.
I wasn’t really sure, but did that mean that Charlotte would find out later that I was Valier? So was he telling me that after that I would end up marrying Charlotte or whatever because things turned out well between us?
No. Before that…
Wouldn’t that actually make Charlotte suspect that I was Valier? If Charlotte began harboring such doubts, her discovery of my true identity wouldn’t be too far off in the future.
That would be a big problem.
Things would get really complicated if Charlotte came to strange conclusions after simply trying to get her fortune read.
“As I just told you… I only told you what I saw…”
“Yeah! Then you interpreted it wrong! A-ahaha. Well, I’m not doubting your ability. though. It just doesn’t make sense, right? Just how huge is the difference in our status? Yeah. That would be a big problem. S-setting our difference in status apart, it’s something that could never happen! Of course!”
“Tha-that’s… That’s true, right? Yes.”
Charlotte nodded with a bewildered expression on her face.
“That’s right. Something so nonsensical could never happen.”
I had to cut things off before Charlotte started to misunderstand iy in a weird way. Dettomolian did say that there was a possibility for his readings to be wrong.
“Indeed! Me… Me marrying Reinhardt? Ha, th-that’s preposterous! It’s impossible!”
“I-I mean, how could something like that even happen? Yeah, there’s no way, right?”
Charlotte and I made eye contact as we were both denying that something like that would happen in the future.
“…”
“…”
Somehow…
We ended up not being able to properly look at each other anymore.
* * *
After returning to Royal Class’ dormitory, Charlotte took off her uniform and washed herself in the shower.
She had just asked him to read her fortune for fun, but she was shocked that he found out that she had a secret she couldn’t tell anyone. At that time, her spine had turned numb.
He didn’t know what kind of secret it was, but she did guess that she held one such secret. Sorcery was something to be feared; it was such a strange power—that was what she thought.
“Hah. No way.”
However, the words that followed were ridiculous.
Reinhardt and herself were to be married. As soon as she heard that, she was completely dumbfounded, not sure what he was even talking about anymore. Her brain stopped functioning for a second and she didn’t know what she should say to that.
Marrying Reinhardt…
If she had to give an example for something with a 0% possibility, that would be it.
Since there was a huge gap in their status, they would obviously face opposition from the Imperial Family, and that would be the end of it. Even most of the great nobles couldn’t even be considered to be candidates for the position of her husband. But a beggar, not even a commoner, who was even part of a criminal organization, even if he managed to get into Temple, becoming her husband?
That was ridiculous.
Charlotte never thought of Reinhardt as more than a friend to begin with.
She wasn’t so sure if it was that boy. If it was him, she might do whatever it took, even going against the Imperial Family’s opposition.
Even if she had to leave the Imperial Family. If that was the case, she wasn’t so sure.
But Reinhardt?
Dettomolian simply answered that people wouldn’t know what might happen. Charlotte knew that as well. No one could tell what someone might end up doing.
Just like she was one day suddenly kidnapped by the Demon King after living a blissful life in the Imperial Family where everything got provided to her, it was just what a human’s life was like.
So…
The only one who knew the whereabouts of that boy was the wizard named Elena.
And Reinhardt was something like a link between her and the boy.
What if something ended up happening to him in the future?
Reinhardt was the only one Charlotte could consult regarding the boy.
If she ended up leaning on him too much, ending up becoming dependent on him…
Was it really so impossible then?
No one knew what might happen.
It might not be as impossible as she thought. Could she be sure that it was impossible for her to end up falling in love with Reinhardt?
“What… What am I even thinking…?”
When she was working on a task she would always think about the worst-case scenario first, so she was the same thing right that moment. She was thinking about what might happen if something happened to the boy that she might seek solace in Reinhardt.
That was just too rude to the boy and Reinhardt.
It was impossible. She wasn’t doubting Dettomolian’s abilities, but there was no reason for her to get swayed by his words. Didn’t he say that he might interpret things wrong himself?
And while it was true that she thought that way, what about Reinhardt?
His reaction also showed that he thought it was something absolutely impossible.
He vehemently denied it. With great intensity as well.
“…”
No.
Charlotte felt quite strange when she thought about it.
No, what did he say again?
‘…What nonsense are you sprouting?’
He was right, it was nonsense. He had been denying it so vehemently, even seeming a little angry.
Did he have to go that far?
What was there to be dissatisfied about?
Although they were living irrespective of their actual status as Temple status, she was a noble Princess only second to the Emperor on the continent.
She was quite proud to say that she wasn’t lacking in intellect, financial power, or ability.
Her character… was quite good, if she had to say so herself.
But who did that lowly guy think he was?
That type of guy whom she wouldn’t even spare a glance usually even if he went to his knees and begged?
What did he dare to say?
He had the personality of a filthy scumbag, was of low status, and had a lot of bad rumors about his private life floating around the campus. The only good thing about him was his face.
It was just crazy.
Her marrying that kind of guy?
How ridiculous.
However, if she seriously thought about it, he wasn’t necessarily like that.
It was true that he had quite a dirty personality and that he acted quite violently, but in the end, he helped her keep her secret as well as he did. He might have been close to Bertus, but he didn’t hesitate to be friendly with her as well.
She knew that the rumors about his private life were just people’s misunderstandings and simple gossip.
He was courageous, bold, and quite skilled. Rather than just being skilled, there weren’t many people in their classes who could compare to him.
If she thought about it…
If she thought about it really, really hard…
His status put aside, he could be evaluated as a great guy.
“…”
As she thought about it, Charlotte had to admit it.
It was true that he was only paying attention to him because of the boy and that she didn’t think much else of Reinhardt.
However, Dettomolian’s sudden remarks led Charlotte to constantly think about Reinhardt out of the blue, making her feel a little strange.
“…Ridiculous.”
However, in the end, Charlotte got mad because Reinhardt denied her so intensely that she ended up punching her shower’s wall.
-Thump! Thump!
Of course, she wasn’t able to produce loud sounds with her weak-ass body, so Charlotte just lightly punched out.
Even if she gave herself to him, he wouldn’t have her.
Even if she actually liked him, she would get rejected by him. What? How could that even happen?
Right then, there was nothing she was able to do, but if she became Empress, there would be no one, not even the Imperial Family, that would be able to object to her decisions or something.
But what did he dislike about her? Wasn’t he too much?
Charlotte was upset as she looked in her mirror while she was getting drenched by the shower’s water.
She saw herself in the mirror.
“…”
Charlotte angrily glared at the mirror, thinking of the only reason why he might dislike her so much.
‘Am I… not attractive?’
She was just blankly staring at her own reflection.
That was when Charlotte suddenly realized that she wouldn’t be able to view herself in an objective light.
* * *
Translator – KonnoAren
* * *
With no time to organize my thoughts, I briefly left on Monday night.
I felt like it was necessary to tell my people about the thing with the Holy Sword Tiamata.
But seriously, I was still quite confused by Dettomolian’s words.
Charlotte and I would get married?
Of course, it was also quite possible that he had interpreted it wrong, so it didn’t necessarily mean that it would absolutely happen.
However, if it was true, why would something like that happen?
She would find out that I was Valier and forgive me for how I acted in the end. Was that how it would happen?
Still, my status was basically completely incompatible with the Imperial Family. My standing was only possible because I was a Temple student. Assuming Charlotte would become Empress, there was a good chance that wouldn’t want to marry me. Of course, it would be a different story if Charlotte made use of her imperial power to force a wedding despite objections being voiced.
Or Charlotte might lose in the fight for the throne, run away somewhere, and would marry me anyway—it might turn out like that as well.
Of course, if what he saw would really happen, although the process was unknown, there was only one result…
Charlotte and I would safely survive through the Gate incident. It meant that I would reach a certain ending, in other words, marriage.
If Dettomolian’s words were true, the important part wasn’t the possible marriage, but the fact that we would survive.
All those lofty thoughts made my mind feel rather complicated.
And…
It felt rather strange to suddenly think why it would happen if it actually took place and what the outcome would be, aside from some kind of personal hope.
I didn’t even think about whether I liked her or not.
As I walked out of Temple and down the street, a sudden thought occurred to me.
—I was so obsessed with that baseless causal inference that I felt like something important within me was gradually disappearing.
* * *
“Is it here?”
“Yes, my Lord.”
I had just arrived at Eleris’ new residence.
It was near Aligar’s shopping district. Eleris had bought a semi-basement, as she had dreamed of, and immediately moved there.
Her expression showed just how fond she was of it.
…It was damp and humid, but Eleris seemed to like it. That vampire who used the pain caused by the morning sun as an alarm before had certainly looked more than pitiful. That certainly wouldn’t happen there.
She seemed to have found a good apartment.
There were no annoying neighbors, and because the upper floor was a shopping mall and not a residential area, it would be empty of all people at night. Eleris’s preparations were meticulous, so she managed to get a room in a place that was eerie and pretty much unpopulated, so it was okay for me to visit from time to time.
Seeing Eleris that happy with her new apartment made me feel slightly happy as well.
However, under normal circumstances, that place wasn’t where people usually wanted to live.
First of all, I didn’t know if it was because there were just too few household items in there, but it felt like a haunted house.
“It needs some cleaning up, but I’ll do that little by little. I also want to have some decor this time.”
The atmosphere of that damp and gloomy apartment and Eleris, who was contemplating how she should decorate her new house, were quite the mismatch.
‘…She’d use normal decorations, right? She wasn’t going to put a coffin in there, right?’
“By the way, what brings you here?”
“Ah, about that.”
It was dangerous to visit her often just because I felt bored, so I wouldn’t go for no reason unless it was to deliver Charlotte’s letters or something.
“Do you remember the sword from the Darklands?”
“…Yeah, did Temple find out what it was?”
“Well, yeah… though it wasn’t really Temple who found out.”
It was rather hard to show her.
“It turned out to be the Holy Sword Tiamata.”
“…What?”
Eleris, obviously, couldn’t understand what I was telling her.
