Taming The Villainesses-Chapter 413: Marriage Blue (4)

The closer I got, the more the light streaming from the window wrapped around my body with vivid intensity.

When I finally reached it and looked outside, the familiar sight beyond that glass window made my mind feel like it was waking up.

Yes, I know this place.

This was the place I was originally supposed to be. The old swing creaking in the playground. The children playing in the dirt and the teachers watching over them.

Especially that reddish sunset in the distance—it looked pretty amazing even to me. Yes, this window showed the sunset more beautifully than any place I knew.

That’s why I would always bring over a chair at sunset and sit in front of this window to watch it.

No—no, that’s not quite right.

I told everyone it was to watch the sunset, but honestly, I never cared much about the sunset itself.

My eyes were always fixed on the fence, the rusted front gate, and that corner far beyond.

I was waiting for the person who had left me here to one day return around that corner. I waited every day for that familiar figure to appear from there and wave at me.

“Yeah... I was always watching that window.”

One by one, memories came back. Memories of waiting for someone. But I couldn’t remember a single thing about their face or what they looked like.

Who was I even waiting for?

Then a voice echoed in my ear.

━Go to them yourself. Beyond the window. Just as you originally wished to do.

Beyond the window. Yes, I remember now. At some point, I stopped sitting by the window. But I was always ready to go past it.

I wanted to go search myself.

For the mother who left me behind.

Not just waiting—I had tried to find her myself. I asked around, searched here and there, and thought I had finally narrowed down her location—

Then one day, my whole world changed.

Back then, I might’ve believed there was no cause-and-effect between the two, that I’d just gotten caught in someone’s twisted prank. But now, I think I understand a little more.

“No matter the time or place, the person I was waiting for... was always just one.”

I was told to go beyond the window.

I wanted to reach that faraway corner. So I reached out to unlock the window and open it, but perhaps because it had rusted over, it wouldn’t open easily.

While I was struggling with the creaking frame, something cold touched my face. As I slowly opened my eyes, a figure flickered faintly in my blurred vision.

Something cold and wet pressed to my forehead—was it a damp towel?

“Mom...?”

“Why the hell would I be your mom.”

The gruff voice jolted me awake. As my eyes opened wider, the blur sharpened, and I finally recognized the person in front of me.

“Lady Elga.”

“Yeah. You coming to your senses now?”

“What... happened?”

“Hell if I know. One moment there was that floating feeling, and the next thing I knew, we were in your office. Then you just collapsed and wouldn’t wake up.”

So that’s what happened.

Was that just a dream, then?

While I was still halfway dazed, Elga slapped the cold towel straight onto my forehead. Maybe it had been sitting in ice water—my head cleared in an instant.

“Hhhiieek...!”

“Hhhiieek my ass. That’s why I said don’t step on an incomplete magic circle. And it wasn’t my opinion—it was Leonoa in my belly who said not to.”

“Leonoa did?”

“Yeah. This little rascal kicks me whenever she thinks something bad’s about to happen.”

Kicking her belly? Could she already feel fetal movement? It seemed a bit early for that. Or maybe Elga was just saying that.

Still, it was true that I had lost consciousness because of the incomplete magic circle.

There must’ve been an unknown flaw in the spatial teleportation spell, and the resulting mana backlash must’ve overloaded my brain—causing me to black out like a power outage.

If I’d stayed conscious, the overloaded mana might’ve burned out a few of my neural mana circuits. I’d be suffering from serious headaches right now.

So then—

Was that window just a dream? It felt too vivid to be just a dream.

I asked,

“How long... was I out?”

“Dunno. About an hour, maybe?”

Not that long.

I sat up.

Elga caught my shoulder.

“Hey, just stay lying down a bit longer.”

“I’m fine. It’s just a little sleep deprivation. Nothing serious.”

Shff.

I slipped my feet into warm, fuzzy slippers and slowly approached the window. Thanks to the pouring rain outside, it was hard to tell whether it was night or day.

Elga said,

“It’s raining like there’s a hole in the sky. I wonder if we can even go through with the wedding like this. Shouldn’t we delay it?”

Her words made me recall something—wasn’t there that saying? That only one day would be perfectly clear and peaceful after heavy rain.

So I slowly shook my head.

“It’ll clear up.”

***

━Yip yip!

Something tickled my face, and I slowly opened my eyes. My eyelids lifted so lightly, even I was surprised.

“What the...”

I sat up in bed and twisted my body this way and that. My body was in the best shape it had ever been.

“Nice.”

━Yip yip!

“You feel good too, huh?”

I poured a bowl full of almonds and walnuts for the chipmunk Kongkong, then drew back the heavy curtains I hadn’t touched in a while.

Shff.

The brilliant morning sunlight flooded the room. The damp, musty air from days of rain felt instantly refreshed.

“Beautiful weather.”

On impulse, I threw open the window. Cool breeze, the scent of wet earth, and the dewy aroma of morning hit my nose.

Just as Basago said, on the tenth day, the rain had cleared.

Maybe because it had rained so long, the world outside now seemed more ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) vivid and alive than ever.

Birds that had been hiding poked their heads out, and Kongkong’s girlfriends scurried through the open window.

Seeing them, Kongkong stuffed his cheeks with pine nuts and peanuts and dashed outside with them.

“What the—so you just wanted the window open to see your girls? No loyalty at all.”

Kongkong’s girlfriends were wild chipmunks.

Their names were Mirno, Normi, Elsa, Airi, and Stelly. It wasn’t a coincidence that their names resembled people I knew.

Kongkong reminded me of myself in some ways, so I gave his girlfriends names similar to the people I knew.

What’s strange is that when I call their names, sometimes they come over and dig through my pockets. Maybe they actually recognize the names.

I had tried to tame them like Kongkong, but it didn’t work out too well, so I let them come and go as they pleased.

So they weren’t Kongkong’s wives, just his girlfriends.

To me, a wife is someone who lives under the same roof, and a girlfriend is someone who lives separately. Probably the same for Kongkong. Though I do hope he gets married someday.

Knock knock.

Someone knocked on the door.

━Lord Teo, a-are you awake?

It was Professor Balan’s voice.

━Um, today is the wedding day, so... you should get up early and prepare...

Right.

Of course.

“I’m up.”

I was getting married today.

All dressed up, I’d walk that crimson carpet and become family with the most difficult—and simultaneously the most beautiful—wives in the world.

How did time pass so quickly? The past few rainy days flew by with all the preparations and conversations.

Thinking that I’d be standing before everyone today as the groom of five brides—it was, how should I say...

It made me both incredibly happy and feel like my heart was melting softly like sorbet—cold and sweet inside my warm chest.

Yeah.

I know the metaphor’s weird.

If Elga heard that, she’d probably smack my head and say, “Say something I can actually understand!”

But that was the best way I could describe my current state. A strange feeling. Was this the so-called “marriage blue” before a wedding?

I wondered how the others were feeling.

I thought of the ladies, who must be getting up one by one somewhere in the mansion.

They said the groom wasn’t supposed to see the brides until they stepped onto the crimson carpet.

Wondering how each of them would look as they appeared before me, I opened the door.

“Good morning, Professor Balan.”

“Y-yes! Just as that Basago guy said, the weather really did clear up. Since Lord Teo’s getting married today, it’s the perfect time to claim dominance over the five l—ladies.”

“Indeed.”

Smiling lightly, I followed Balan to the groom’s preparation room.

There, the imp assistants were already waiting with various brushes and cosmetics, and began applying them to my face.

“I, Purupuru, even as an ink imp, shall work diligently! We shall make our comrade Teonoa more radiant than any imp or nymph in existence...!”

Before I knew it, unfamiliar cosmetics were being applied to my face.

“This scar...”

Purupuru seemed to hesitate at the long scar running down over my right eye. Watching from the mirror, I said casually,

“Just leave it. I’ve come to like that scar. Honestly, I owe a lot of today’s wedding to that scar.”

“...?”

The imps, who knew nothing of what had happened between me and Elga, just tilted their heads. That’s when Marmar showed up and presented several outfits. All were magnificent tuxedos.

“For the groom, black is best! Imp black! It’s a color loved by little demons...!”

Marmar held the tux up to my body. Now that I noticed, her delicate palms were a bit cracked and chapped.

“Marmar, your hands...?”

In my place, the imp chief Tartar answered.

“Comrade Marmar personally mended and tailored the tuxedo! Of course, we shareholders of the Black Angmar Company each helped with one stitch...!”

That Marmar and the imps had made the suit themselves—who knew they had such skill? Then again, Marmar had been sewing those Marumaru dolls for a while.

“Thanks, Marmar. And all of you.”

The imps trembled their tails with delight. Then, as if they were the ones getting married, they redoubled their efforts.

They combed my hair back and plastered it with some unknown wax. By the time I looked in the mirror, I was no longer the old me—I was a proper noble young man, fit to be shown anywhere.

Honestly, I’d always thought this face was fairly good-looking. I just never knew how to groom myself and didn’t have the leisure to care.

Seeing myself now really drove it home.

If I’d grown up normally with this face, I probably would’ve broken some hearts.

“Comrade Teonoa looks like a real prince...!”

“If we’re being technical, he is a prince...!”

Ignoring the excited chatter of the imps, I stepped out of the preparation room. Apparently the groom had to make a few appearances and performances before the ceremony.

I’d practiced a lot over the past few days, but now that the moment had come, I was feeling nervous.

Creak.

I finally opened the door.

And I stepped into the world.

“Behold, O world—Angmar’s Teo Gospel, the star of today, is here!”