Ch.145Aria and Leona – 1

Diana made very good use of the healing mage I brought.

When Andre’s spirit was broken, he spilled everything he knew and didn’t know. When Diana discovered that the real reason for attacking the merchant guild was because she had rejected his date request, her fury was the natural next step.

In her anger, Diana kept her word. She mobilized all her connections and launched a tax investigation on Kingdom of Heaven. Since it was a place straddling the line between legal and illegal, it was naturally destroyed.

I heard that the woman who had received management rights of Kingdom of Heaven on the spot when Andre was taken away was dragged off as the supposed representative, but as is often the case, it was merely the fate of someone who missed their timing to seize power.

And the ownership of Kingdom of Heaven, now empty at the top, slithered over to my younger sister, Trisha Crate, like a snake crossing a wall.

“It seems she’s found her true calling.”

“Life is certainly full of surprises.”

“…Little brother, don’t you think it’s a bit much for you to say that to your big sister who’s eight years older than you?”

Surprisingly, Trisha displayed genius in an unexpected area. She managed to stabilize the chaos and reopen the gambling den in just two days.

Diana couldn’t close her mouth, wondering how this parasite could possess such talent. From what she said, it seems she wanted to run the gambling den herself and rushed to finish the job, but only she knows the truth.

“Employer… thank you… thank you so much…”

Io was formally employed as Diana’s bodyguard. The oldest of the siblings I brought was also hired as an accounting assistant, and Diana was all smiles saying he was surprisingly clever.

It’s the same girl who peeked through the secret door, made eye contact with me, and screamed.

“I will never forget this kindness… I will repay it even if it costs me my life. Definitely.”

Io bowed her head before us, tears streaming down her face, not only because her siblings could live in a building owned by the Crate merchant guild but also because all their debts were forgiven.

The reason for forgiving the debts was simple. They weren’t debts owed to us anyway, and they weren’t legitimately created debts. There was no loss in forgiving them.

Despite my attempts to stop her, Io spent almost the entire day bowing outside my room before leaving, and the next day, not knowing what she had done, all her siblings came in a group to thank me one by one.

Especially the woman who started working as Diana’s accounting assistant insisted on bowing her head all day like her sister, showing such strange stubbornness that I had to work hard to stop her.

“Hey, oppa. What’s your ideal type of woman?”

“Well, it’s not you, little one.”

“Tch, little one? I’m only two years younger than you.”

Her strange question also earned me suspicious glances from my older sister.

After dealing with Andre and his gang, it was truly a time to rest. I spent peaceful days being attended to by Beatrice and Nika.

Beatrice seemed very satisfied to be able to take care of me all day. Thanks to that, only Nika had to anxiously try to request spiritual energy from me while avoiding her gaze.

Perhaps because of this, a small incident occurred. While receiving spiritual energy with pleasure-filled moans, my lower body weakened, and I accidentally leaked a bit of the Queen’s power.

Since I immediately succeeded in purifying it and the only person nearby was Beatrice, the matter didn’t escalate, but that night I had to sleep tightly embraced by Beatrice, who had somehow lost her self-control.

“I-I’m sorry, Master. Because of me…”

“It’s okay. It was nothing compared to the Chairman.”

“…What?”

I don’t know what she imagined, but Nika’s face turned pale blue as she trembled.

“…So you’re leaving now.”

“I’ve been saying it for days. Don’t make such a face.”

Beatrice’s eyes welled up with tears, looking like a mother seeing off her son being dragged to the battlefield. My actual mother in this world is separate, and we had just finished eating together.

“A week is plenty of rest. I made promises with the others too. I should get going.”

I met Laura and Priscilla once during this time. Both of them have psychological states that are unpredictable if we’re apart for too long.

Priscilla was holding up much better than I expected, but she clung to me more intensely than usual. She even did so in her underwear, saying she wanted to feel me better. Originally she tried to get completely naked, but I stopped her, so that’s as far as it went.

Laura, on the other hand, snatched my outer clothes as soon as she saw me, put them on herself, and had no intention of returning them. In the end, I had to spend the whole day repeatedly putting on new clothes only to have them taken.

Elisier was living comfortably in the academy dormitory. I was thankful that at least Elisier was close to normal. Her tendencies were a bit twisted at times, but that’s still within the range of perfectly normal.

Rosaria was apparently serving as a totem in the newly established order. She should suffer a bit that way since she’s been resting so much normally.

“Yes, please contact me anytime if you need anything, young master. This Beatrice will come to serve you whenever and wherever.”

“Thanks, I appreciate it.”

After saying goodbye to Beatrice and meeting briefly with Nika to supply her with spiritual energy, I headed to the place where I had promised to meet Leona.

Even though I left about 10 minutes early, Leona and Aria were already waiting, and they waved and approached me as soon as they saw me.

Leona was wearing a tight-fitting off-shoulder crop top that revealed her shoulders and navel, along with short leather pants that didn’t even reach the middle of her thighs. Aria was wearing a flowing sky-blue dress that reached her ankles.

Aria gave off a pure and lovely impression no matter what she wore, perhaps because she was the protagonist of a romance fantasy novel, but it was quite unexpected to see Leona dressed like that.

“Both of you look good.”

“H-huh?! I didn’t ask for your evaluation yet!”

“Thank you, Mira. It was worth wearing this.”

It was unexpected, but when I gave my honest opinion that they looked good, Leona’s face turned bright red and she turned her head away. Aria gave me a bright smile.

“What do you want to do? Go straight to your village? Or since we’re already in the city, should we have some fun here first?”

“Let’s have fun here first! There’s not much to do in the village anyway. You’d be bored to death in a couple of days.”

“I agree with Leona. I’ve been helping my mother with her work… but being in the countryside, it’s still boring.”

As I’ve felt before, the relationship between Aria and Leona has really changed. In the original story, they supposedly created such a romantic atmosphere together that there was no room for boredom.

“Then let’s stay here and take a carriage to the village at night. I’ll pay for it.”

“Great! Let’s go!”

Leona clung to my right arm with a big smile, and Aria clung to my left arm with a bright smile. I could feel the piercing gazes of men passing by, but neither of them seemed to care at all.

“By the way, what about the holy sword?”

I felt like something was missing, and then I realized that the holy sword she always carried wasn’t visible. Leona lowered her gaze slightly.

“I left it at home.”

“Really? Why?”

“…You said it yourself, Mira. I’m Leona Brunhild before I’m a hero. Today I just wanted to be by your side as Leona.”

Clap, clap, clap. I turned to the side at the sound of applause. Aria was watching us with a bright smile.

“We’re here! This is it!”

After giving the carriage driver triple the usual fare for having to come to this mountain valley late at night and sending him back, we walked for about 10 minutes with our gifts until wooden houses began to appear in the distance.

As Leona had said, the village was located in a quite deep mountain valley, but on the other hand, the terrain was perfect.

Though it was clearly a basin surrounded by mountains, the flat area was incredibly spacious, and there was only one proper road, making it difficult to approach unless you crossed the mountain range multiple times.

Of course, there were valleys and rivers nearby, as well as three large lakes, so water resources were abundant. I wondered if Laura had put so much effort into describing the protagonist’s home.

“It’s a nice place.”

“Everyone says that at first. But after living here for ten years, the scenery all looks the same and you stop being impressed.”

“Honestly, I agree.”

The two of them laughed lightly.

We walked a bit further into the village. Perhaps because it was so late at night, almost no houses had lights on. From beside me, I heard someone say, “Did we play too late?” with an awkward smile.

“Your parents must be asleep?”

“Probably. Let’s go to your house first.”

“Sure. I needed to intro… duce you to my parents anyway. You know I don’t mean anything weird by that, right, Mira?”

Having been thoroughly grilled by four possessed individuals the last time she chose her words poorly, Leona hurriedly explained herself. I didn’t think anything of it, so I just went along with her.

Relieved, Leona took the lead, with Aria and me following behind. Watching Leona’s back as she hummed a tune, clearly in a good mood, Aria whispered softly to me.

“Despite what she says, she’s really looking forward to it. She’s been practicing and worrying about how to make a good first impression on her parents.”

“Really?”

“I did not!”

Perhaps because she was a hero with good hearing, Leona answered instead of Aria, her face completely red. Even in the darkness of the night, her embarrassed expression was clearly visible.

“Ahem. H-here we are.”

We stopped in front of a three-story house. It was the largest building in the area.

Leona’s parents hadn’t been too keen on it, but the villagers had actively insisted that the hero’s parents shouldn’t live in a shabby house and built this large one for them.

“Mom! Dad! I’m home! Aria and Mira are with me!”

“Welcome home. Just a moment, please.”

Soon, a woman who appeared to be Leona’s mother walked out.

Like mother, like daughter—they looked exactly alike. It gave the impression that this is what Leona would look like when she matured with age.

I wondered where the father’s genes had gone. It was so striking that I could almost believe she had given birth to her daughter by herself.

“Here’s a gift. Where’s Dad?”

“Out hunting. You know how it is.”

“Again? I thought it ended when I helped last time?”

“We thought so too, but apparently not.”

The mother and daughter exchanged greetings with worried faces, then turned their attention to me. The concern that had clouded their faces disappeared, perhaps not wanting to show a negative impression to an outsider.

“Welcome. I’ve heard a lot about you from my daughter. I’m Silvia Brunhild.”

“I’m Mira Crate.”

Silvia looked me up and down, then smiled contentedly.

“Hmm, you’re even more handsome than I heard. My daughter praised you so much that I thought she was wearing rose-colored glasses, but it was the opposite.”

“M-Mom!”

“Oh my, was I not supposed to say that? Then what about the love advice I gave you last time—”

“It’sLateWeShouldUnpackAndTalkSittingDownStandingOnlyMakesOurLegsTired—”

Leona covered her mother’s lips with hero-like speed and rattled off words like a machine gun. Judging by the way her mother’s eyes crinkled with amusement despite having her lips covered, she had no intention of keeping her daughter’s secrets.

I could now see where Leona’s playful nature came from.