My Desertion Would Be Faster Than Heros' Obsession-Chapter 62Vol 2. .1

Still, since we would be living next door from now on, I thought it would be best to at least get familiar with each other. So, I decided to be friendly with him.

Fortunately, he didn’t seem to be someone who disliked Arkons, as he returned my greeting in a friendly voice.

“Yes, it’s truly a pleasure to meet you.”

It seemed he wasn’t done with just a greeting, as he looked at me with curious eyes and asked,

“What were you doing?”

“Oh, I was just sweeping up the fallen leaves.”

“I see, haha. Now that I think about it, do you live alone?”

I was about to answer his question without much thought, but then I caught the subtle emotion in his gaze and closed my mouth.

‘What is this?’

No matter how I looked at it, that wasn’t just goodwill. And more than that, he was obviously trying to continue the conversation with me. In other words...

‘He’s showing interest in me.’

Honestly, this wasn’t anything new. As the heroine of a romance fantasy novel, I had an extraordinary beauty, so it wasn’t uncommon for strangers to throw flirtatious glances at me even on the streets.

Of course, I knew exactly how to handle situations like this.

“No, I live with my husband.”

“Oh... I see, so you’re married.”

“Yes, I’m marri—wait.”

“Huh?”

“Now that I think about it, we’re not married yet, are we?”

I mumbled absentmindedly, pausing mid-conversation.

Now that I thought about it, we hadn’t even had a wedding, yet we had been acting so naturally as if we were already married!

“Or are we? Did we get married?”

“U-um, excuse me? Are you saying you’ve already held a wedding ceremony?”

“No? The wedding hasn’t happened yet.”

“Then... you’re not married yet...?”

“But we agreed that we’d consider ourselves married even before the ceremony. Doesn’t that mean we’re already married? In the first place, who even gets to define what counts as marriage?”

“Haha... I-I think I should be going now.”

The man looked at me strangely and began stepping backward.

Just then, an arm suddenly draped over my shoulder.

“Aquila!”

It was Aquila, carrying a load of groceries in one hand from the market.

“What were you doing, Salvia?”

He spoke as he shot a wary glare at the man in front of me. His gaze was sharp enough to make anyone flinch.

“Oh, no? I wasn’t doing anything.”

Leaving those words behind, the man hurriedly retreated into his house, leaving only the two of us standing in the yard.

“Haa...”

Aquila sighed tiredly and then said something that shocked me.

“You’re too pretty, Salvia.”

“T-that, I already know...”

“That’s why you keep attracting weird guys.”

“Hmm... That’s why I was telling him I was married. But that made me start wondering, Aquila.”

I looked at him seriously and asked,

“Are we married or not?”

“What? Of course, we are.”

“But judging by that guy’s reaction earlier, it feels like we might not be normal... Ah, should we ask someone else whether we’re really married?”

“...No, there’s no need for that.”

This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.

With a face as if trying to pacify me, Aquila hugged me and led me inside the house.

“We’ll be holding the wedding soon anyway. Right, Salvia?”

“Hmm, that’s true...”

We sat down together on the sofa, and soon, Aquila spoke with a resolute expression.

“This won’t do.”

“What won’t?”

“We need to hold the wedding as soon as possible. As soon as ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) we can.”

“What? Well, it is about time, but why so suddenly?”

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“Because too many strange men keep swarming around you.”

Hearing his words, which sounded straight out of a romance novel, I almost blushed and squealed—but then I quickly snapped out of it.

“But how? There’s not even a proper dress shop here...”

When I pointed out that we hadn’t prepared anything for the wedding, Aquila hesitated for a moment before speaking again.

“We’ll have to go to the capital.”

“Huh?”

“We already picked out what we needed for the wedding in the capital’s shopping district. We need to go get them.”

That list of necessary items probably included Aquila’s suit and my dress. But to go all the way back to the capital just for that?

...Then again, there wasn’t much choice. The northern region wasn’t developed enough in distribution to have the same variety of ceremonial items as the capital.

“Should I come with you?”

“You can stay here, Salvia. From what I’ve heard, the leadership here still needs help stabilizing things. You’d be useful to them.”

“Well, that’s true.”

Even now, the high-ranking officers of the Border Defense Army occasionally sought my advice in organizing the new command structure. After all, I had played a central role in leading the revolution.

It seemed inevitable that Aquila would be leaving for the capital while I remained here.

Knock, knock, knock—

Just then, I heard someone knocking at the door.

But from the strength of the knocks alone, I already knew who it was.

“Come in, Karon.”

Karon soon burst into the house with an excited face, practically bouncing inside.

“Salvia! Salvia!”

“Is something wrong?”

“No, I just wanted to see you!”

“...I see.”

As I had already grown accustomed to Karon’s boundless energy, I responded without much thought. But then, Aquila called out to Karon in a serious tone.

“Karon?”

“Yes?”

“I have to leave for the capital for a while.”

“Oh, is that so?”

“Yes. So, in the meantime, I want to entrust Salvia to you—”

Aquila suddenly stopped mid-sentence. A confused expression took over his face, and he muttered to himself.

“Entrust... her?”

“Huh?”

“I’m entrusting Salvia? To you? Something about this feels off...”

“Why? Hehe! You can trust me! I’ll take great care of Salvia!”

“No, something’s wrong here... Then should I entrust you to Salvia? That sounds weird too. Leaving a kid in the care of another kid?”

“Aquila, you know how well I’ve taken care of Karon all this time!”

I protested, but Aquila still looked deeply troubled.

“Who’s taking care of whom? Ah, I need Lady Ishina...”

“No! Lady Ishina has been nagging nonstop lately!”

“Exactly, that’s why she’s perfect for this...”

Leaving behind those words, Aquila looked at me and Karon as if he were leaving two toddlers unattended in a room full of breakable items.

“While I’m away in the capital, please—just stay safe. Okay?”

“Yes, of course! I’ll be perfectly fine!”

“What do you take me for? Nothing’s going to happen.”

“...Just don’t cause any trouble...”

There was something oddly desperate about the way Aquila said that, but I pretended not to notice. I didn’t think I had caused that much trouble... well, probably.

***

The next day, Aquila really did set off for the capital.

Feeling a bit lonely, I was lying around on the wooden floor, absentmindedly solving a puzzle, when a visitor arrived at my house.

It was Ishina.

“Salvia, Aquila asked me to keep an eye on you.”

“...What do you take me for?”

“You could burn the house down while you’re alone.”

“Hey, I’m not Karon...”

I grumbled but, truthfully, I was glad she had come. It was boring being alone.

I ended up chatting with Ishina about the current state of affairs in the city.

First, part of the Border Defense Army had been stationed at the border for the time being. That was because there were still monsters lingering beyond the borders.

To deal with them, the soldiers were using the dark magic artifacts crafted by Victim to lure the monsters toward the border and then eliminating them as they approached.

Since no new monsters were appearing, this cleanup operation would eventually come to an end.

Meanwhile, the leadership of the autonomous city was being assembled smoothly. Some departments were struggling due to a lack of personnel, but well, that wasn’t really my problem. I planned to live an ordinary life from now on.

Just then, I heard the sound of someone running toward my house at full speed. Moments later, Karon—predictably—came charging inside.

“Karon, are you here because you’re bored?”

“Aquila told me to protect you while he’s gone!”

“...Who’s protecting whom? Sigh...”

No matter how I thought about it, that was the most ridiculous statement I had ever heard. I had practically raised this boy with my own hands.

Then, my gaze fell on Karon’s clothes, and I let out a sigh.

Despite being old enough to take care of himself, he was still running around getting dirt all over his clothes.

“Karon, turn around.”

“Huh?”

Looking puzzled, Karon turned his back to me, and I took a closer look at his dirt-covered clothes.

“These need to be washed... wait a second.”

At that moment, I noticed something strange.

The dirt on Karon’s clothes wasn’t just randomly smeared from being in a dirty place. It was concentrated in oddly round patches.

‘Did he bump into something covered in dirt?’

I narrowed my eyes and examined his clothes, but I couldn’t tell just from the shape how the dirt had gotten there.

“Karon, where did this dirt come from?”

“Oh, I got hit by a rock that some kids were throwing on the street.”

“Pfft—cough, cough!”