After seeing that day’s newspaper headline, thirty minutes later…
“…I can explain everything.”
“Go ahead.”
The judges had arrived.
Ariel looked at me with an angry expression, Yuna wore a gentle smile, and Emily, as always, remained expressionless.
Just seeing that lineup was enough to make it hard to breathe.
The fact that there was one more person than before made my vision swim.
Still, it was fine. This time, I was the perfect victim.
It was a little bitter that I had to be interrogated despite being the innocent party, but it shouldn’t take long to prove my innocence.
“It’s all because Princess Lapis isn’t in her right mind.”
***
Bang!
At the same time, Lobelia slammed her desk in her office.
“What the hell is wrong with this woman?”
“Your Majesty, please maintain your dignity.”
“……..”
Bang!
To preserve her dignity, Lobelia chose to pound the desk instead of speaking.
Fortunately, enough reason remained that she didn’t actually break it.
The desk in her office was quite valuable, after all.
Now that she was Emperor, replacing it wouldn’t have been a financial burden, but what she hated more than the cost was having to draft the budget request for a new one.
Lobelia simply wanted to reduce her workload by even a little.
“Y-Your Majesty… If this displeases you that much, shall we pressure the newspaper?”
“So you want them to advertise that I’m exactly like the late Emperor?”
“.……”
The official fell silent instead of answering.
He did think she wasn’t all that different from the late Emperor.
Even so, he also knew Lobelia was making a genuine effort not to follow in her predecessor’s footsteps.
That alone might make the world just a little better.
“The excitement will die down with time anyway. I’ll be far too busy focusing on state affairs for the foreseeable future, so there’s no need to be swayed by idle rumors.”
“Understood. Then we’ll take no action.”
“However, bring the First Princess Lapis to me. I have a few words for her.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
Lobelia pressed a hand to her throbbing head and buried herself in paperwork.
After the official left to summon Lapis, she worked through a few more documents before suddenly pausing.
“If I have a daughter someday… what would she call my sister?”
Lapis still officially held the title of First Princess.
But if Lobelia, now the Emperor, were to have a daughter in the future, the title of First Princess would naturally pass to that child.
So what would Lapis be called then?
“…….”
For a brief moment, Lobelia imagined Lapis disguised as her own daughter.
The image sent a chill down her spine, and she quickly shook her head to banish the nightmare.
“Should I grant her the rank of Grand Duchess instead?”
Lobelia considered the matter in earnest.
Then she suddenly froze.
The fact that she had been seriously entertaining such a thought startled even her.
“A child? Ha… Honestly, what am I even saying?”
Looking out the window at the sunlight pouring in, Lobelia quietly murmured,
“That’ll never happen.”
The words sounded almost like a reminder to herself.
***
Fortunately, the three of them understood that I was the wronged party.
They remembered how I’d nearly died, so they understood that getting tangled up with the “End” wasn’t exactly something I could have avoided.
Right. It didn’t matter if Lapis went around telling everyone that we were family now.
As long as the people close to me understood the truth, that was enough.
It wasn’t as if people talking behind my back was anything new.
I’d long since stopped being weak enough to get hurt by that sort of thing.
More accurately, I’d become stronger.
“Big brother.”
“Yeah, Emily. Is there still something you don’t understand?”
“My parents want to see you.”
“…….”
Now this was going to be rough.
I had to meet my future father-in-law with a scandal like this making the rounds?
“When?”
“Tomorrow.”
“Uh… I think I’m going to be pretty busy tomorrow.”
“Should I tell them that?”
“…No. I was just saying.”
If I postponed the meeting now, things would spiral completely out of control.
My first impression was already ruined. If I let that “mature” any further, there was no telling what kind of disaster it would become.
Just look at Stan.
That lunatic pulled the trigger first and thought later whenever he lost his temper.
And Stan’s parents?
Damn it. I’d be lucky if I didn’t get sniped walking down the street.
After everything that had happened recently, I’d learned one important lesson.
“So… where am I supposed to go tomorrow?”
It’s better to get the beating over with sooner rather than later.
***
The moment Piers Robinhood, Emily and Stan’s father, saw me, he smiled warmly—
Then he promptly threw the tea from his teacup straight at me.
Sssssss!!
The old me probably wouldn’t have been able to dodge it.
It wasn’t even hot tea. It was just lukewarm….but even so, there was no way I could meekly let it hit me when this was how I was being greeted at our very first meeting.
“.0000..”
Drawing ever so slightly on Laevateinn’s power was enough to vaporize the splash of tea before it reached me.
The surrounding temperature instantly rose by two or three degrees, but that couldn’t be helped.
The weather had started getting chilly lately anyway, so it probably wasn’t a bad thing.
If anything, the café owner ought to be thanking me for warming the place up.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Father-in-law.”
“You wretched bastard! How dare you!”
“……”
Piers Robinhood bellowed with veins bulging in his neck.
Well, I understood.
When his precious daughter announced she wanted to marry a scoundrel who already had two fiancées, he’d probably cried tears of blood.
Then, on top of that, rumors linking me to the Imperial Family started circulating.
Honestly, I was lucky all he threw at me was tea. Some people would’ve opened with a bullet.
“Ahem. Let me introduce myself first. My name is Count Johan D. Gospel. Today, I—”
“So you’re trying to use your title to intimidate me, you despicable villain!”
That wasn’t what I was doing at all…
Besides, could we not start talking about throwing titles around? We were both counts.
If I remembered correctly, House Robinhood had just been elevated to a count’s house as well.
Did he simply not like me?
Well… I couldn’t exactly blame him for that.
“Father, please calm down. Count Johan, please have a seat. Allow me to apologize on Father’s behalf.”
“…….”
Stan’s courteous demeanor felt strangely out of place.
The man who usually charged at me first with veins popping out of his neck was acting remarkably composed.
Then again, after charging at me that many times, maybe he’d finally gotten it out of his system.
This was closer to Stan’s true nature.
Serious, levelheaded, and polite…
For some reason, he just lost his mind whenever he was dealing with me. Otherwise, he was perfectly capable of telling right from wrong.
“…Very well. Thank you.”
Thanks to Stan’s intervention, I was finally able to sit down.
I never imagined taking a seat would be this difficult.
“I-It’s… It’s a pleasure to m-meet you, Count Johan D. Gospel…!”
Piers Robinhood greeted me through gritted teeth.
Did he really hate me that much? Anyone watching would think I’d forced him to his knees.
“…It’s a pleasure to meet you, Count Piers Robinhood. And please, speak freely, Father-in-law.”
“Why would I ever be your father-in—! Hah… Hah… V-Very well.”
I knew meetings like this were naturally awkward and stressful.
But the pressure I was feeling today was a little different.
It wasn’t the anxiety of meeting my fiancée’s parents.
It was the anxiety of wondering every second when Count Robinhood might decide to draw the gun at his waist.
I hated that this was even something I had to worry about.
“Father-in-law, regarding the rumors that have been circulating recently, I’d like to explain that they’re based on false information.”
“Then is the information that you already have two fiancées also false?”
“…No, that part is true.”
“Then what exactly is false? There’s only one thing that’s wrong here. This engagement! This engagement is the mistake!”
“Please calm down, Father.”
Stan grabbed Piers Robinhood by the shoulder just as he was about to leap to his feet and eased him back into his chair.
Was I really going to have to stay on edge like this the entire day?
This was torture.
Not that I’d lose in a fight anymore, but this was my future father-in-law.
After waiting a while for Piers Robinhood to calm down, he finally spoke again.
“…Why Emily?”
“…Huh?”
“Why did you choose Emily of all people, Count Gospel?”
“……”
I didn’t choose her, though.
I was always the one being chosen.
First things first. I had to clear up that misunderstanding.
It was a little embarrassing, but I needed him to know I hadn’t pressured Emily into anything.
Misunderstandings like this only grew worse the longer they were left alone.
“…Well… your daughter was the one who said she liked me.”
“Hahahahahahahahaha!!”
Piers Robinhood burst into laughter.
But there wasn’t the slightest trace of amusement in it.
With every decibel his laughter grew louder; it felt as though the pressure bearing down on me increased right along with it.
“My daughter?”
A single question.
And one that was impossible to refute.
It certainly was rare to picture Emily making a choice of her own.
She’d always been so quiet and unassertive that anyone would have a hard time believing this situation.
“You must have manipulated that poor girl with your underhanded tricks! I knew I didn’t like you the moment I saw you! I could tell just by that gray hair of yours! You look like the type to stir up trouble wherever you go! You can’t fool me!”
“…….”
Damn it.
The worst part was… he wasn’t entirely wrong, so it was hard to argue.
“F-Father, please calm down.”
“I’m not your father!”
At last, Piers Robinhood’s hand moved toward the gun at his waist.
Oh, come on. Don’t do this.
If this turned into violence, you’d actually end up getting yourself killed.
For all appearances, I was still the man who had beaten the Emperor.
Violence against me?
Even if I held back, would Mephi and the Demon King inside me do the same?
“I would.”
You stay out of this and keep your mouth shut, would you?
“Today, I’ll kill—!”
Bang!
A single gunshot echoed through the café.
Everyone who had been pretending not to look or stealing glances our way flinched in shock.
I turned toward the person who had fired the gun.
“…Stan.”
“Count Johan D. Gospel, please forgive him. My father simply treasures Emily that much.”
“I’ll let it slide for your sake, but you do realize there’s no defending what just happened, right?”
“I do.”
“Good. As long as you know.”
Your family’s your problem.
I’ll leave you to sort it out yourselves.
“Father, get up. It was only a rubber bullet.”
“A rubber bullet still hurts when you’re hit from that distance, my son. Besides, if it had been a real bullet, I wouldn’t be getting up ever again. Why are you even making that distinction?”
“Have you calmed down?”
“No… I just can’t raise my voice because it hurts.”
“That may actually be for the best.”
This family wasn’t exactly normal either.
How was it that every noble in the Empire seemed completely insane?
The most well-adjusted adults around me were the two Archmages with PTSD.
That realization was honestly depressing.
“Father, please stand up. What exactly are you crying about? It’s not as though you did anything praiseworthy.”
“I told you, it hurts!”
“And you’re hardly in any position to criticize Count Johan. Have you settled things with that woman yet?”
“Urgh…”
Come to think of it, that was right.
Hadn’t Piers Robinhood been caught cheating by Emily?
“You couldn’t even argue back when Emily confronted you over that. Making a scene here will only make you look more pathetic.”
So that was probably why Emily had been able to propose our engagement in the first place.
Honestly, I had no idea where this snowball had started rolling.
“Please, have a seat, Count Johan.”
“What more do you expect me to sit here and listen to, Stan Robinhood?”
Couldn’t I just leave?
I was seriously starting to suffocate.
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