Ch.181Side Story 2. The Story After, Prologue

# Aftermath, Prologue

Esmeralda fell from grace due to a momentary mistake.

“Hmm, hmm… Why is everyone looking at me like that?”

“No, we’re just worried your heroic madness might flare up again.”

“It’s Creepmeralda, after all.”

“Your criminal record is quite impressive, isn’t it?”

Strictly speaking, it wasn’t just a momentary mistake. If she had honestly expressed her feelings from the beginning, she might have received less criticism, but her stubbornness only made the situation worse.

That’s why Esmeralda couldn’t do anything after experiencing the joyful event of marriage.

No, to be precise, it wasn’t just her.

‘Not just the hero.’

‘The others are just the same kind of woman.’

‘I have a feeling. I just know it. They’re waiting for the slightest opening to snatch him away.’

Everyone was suspicious and keeping each other in check. Because of this, they couldn’t make any moves right away.

Was that all?

‘What are they even doing?’

‘Uh, well…’

That vigilance was also directed at Garnet and Lilith, who had been relatively quiet.

The two who had no intention of doing anything suddenly found themselves under the full scrutiny of the hero’s party.

It couldn’t be helped.

Hadn’t Esmeralda personally demonstrated the truth that the quiet cat is the first to climb onto the stove?

As the cause of this whole situation, Esmeralda might have found it suffocating, but the title of hero wasn’t something she carried just for show.

Esmeralda acted shamelessly.

She shamelessly began to join in the vigilance that others were practicing.

She had no conscience whatsoever.

And that vigilance continued longer than expected.

***

Lug was working day and night to stabilize the demon realm, which had undergone too many changes.

But it was fine. Even though he hadn’t been this busy before, he had experience as the king of a country.

However, what was truly difficult was…

“Lug, do you have time today? I have something I’d like to talk about.”

“Lug, could you handle this urgently? Please resolve it as quickly as possible.”

“…”

The situation itself was a failure.

Eirene Saintess sitting casually on the desk and placing her fingers on the back of his hand was seduction itself.

They were already married, so there was no reason to hesitate anymore. Just as he was about to give in to that temptation, Millia appeared and interfered. And he couldn’t refuse her request because she had brought truly important matters.

“…We should arrange accommodations for the mages to stay.”

Mages from the Magic Tower had begun flocking to the demon realm for investigation.

However, the demon realm had never really been a place suitable for human habitation, so there were no proper accommodations.

But could he ignore them?

He couldn’t just abandon such valuable human resources as mages.

“Thank you, Lug. When you finish that task, I’ll give you a reward.”

This time, Millia slightly pulled at her clothing, revealing the violent weapon hidden beneath.

Naturally, his gaze was drawn there, and all sorts of imaginations appeared and disappeared in his mind.

“My, how vulgar. What are you doing, Lady Millia? You’re one of the queens of a nation now; shouldn’t you maintain some dignity?”

“Eirene, so you can see after all?”

“I don’t know what you mean. Oh! I slipped. Are you alright, Lug? Thank you for catching me.”

“No, it’s nothing.”

Even Lug could tell.

This was a ploy to divert his attention from Millia to herself.

It was Eirene’s scheme to convey warmth and softness through direct physical contact rather than just showing.

Of course, this was good for Lug.

It was good… but.

“Unfortunately, Lug won’t be able to accept Lady Millia’s proposal. He has other tasks to do after this. Here, Lug. Please take care of this.”

The more the two competed, the more work Lug had to handle.

“What are you two doing here?”

To make matters worse, Tina showed up too.

She seemed to understand the situation from the atmosphere between Eirene and Millia, and she pulled out a document she had been carefully hiding in her bosom and waved it as she entered.

“…”

It was the same pattern.

She intended to physically prevent the other two from monopolizing Lug. After this had been repeated for several days, even Lug got goosebumps.

Now he feared the amount of work that would pile up more than the seduction that would follow.

They were married, but their relationship seemed to have deteriorated instead.

At this point, he was starting to wonder if they were conspiring to train him by giving him work.

‘I’ve never doubted love before, but now I’m not so sure.’

Could it be that his wives didn’t actually love him but only pretended to in order to dump work on him?

Even Lug, who easily trusted people, began to doubt their goodwill.

It couldn’t be helped.

In the past, there was at least physical affection, but these days it required an overwhelming price: 10% skinship and 90% work.

At this point, it was a reasonable suspicion.

“Your Majesty, there’s an urgent matter that needs your attention…”

Then came Lilith, who only brought real work without any seduction.

Lug’s vision went dark.

Yes, that was why.

That was why Lug decided to escape.

***

Lug had run away.

Even the women who were busy keeping each other in check couldn’t help but know what the root cause was.

“This is troublesome. It’s all because of you all.”

“Eirene, you’re not one to talk.”

“It’s because everyone kept interfering with me.”

“…Weren’t you all just being too overwhelming from the start?”

“Hero.”

“Creepmeralda.”

“Esmeralda.”

The silent gaze that told her to shut up. Esmeralda, who had betrayed everyone, still had no right to speak.

Only after Esmeralda quietly retreated to a corner did the rest of the group sigh.

There was a feeling that they had been so busy keeping each other in check that they had neglected Lug.

No, in their own way, they had tried to take care of Lug, but all their efforts had been blocked by each other’s vigilance.

There was no sweet newlywed life, only work and a hostile atmosphere.

At this point, it was understandable that he would run away.

Of course, if they were the kind of people who could understand that, they wouldn’t have been interfering with each other in the first place.

Moreover, each of them had imagined and tried to implement their own version of a rosy honeymoon with Lug.

It was others who had interfered, so each of them considered themselves the victim.

Naturally, they had erased their own actions from their minds.

“Perhaps I was wrong to assign him too much work.”

And only Lilith, who had the smallest share in this, was turning pale.

In her own way, she had only assigned work without any skinship at all.

Unfortunately, she hadn’t realized that teasing someone by almost giving but then withholding makes them more miserable.

“Well, won’t he come back when the time comes? In the past, his life was at stake, but now there’s no purpose, and it’s just a temporary escape, right?”

Esmeralda’s reasonable opinion.

Indeed, even though it was an escape, the situation was different from before.

Lug had no purpose that he absolutely had to fulfill, and the circumstances were the opposite of before.

Back then, he had to escape from the hero’s party, which was constantly followed by the threat of death, in order to survive. But now, conversely, he could die if he escaped from the safe Demon King’s castle.

Although the demonic energy had disappeared and the land had begun to become fertile, the environment hadn’t completely changed yet.

It was gradually improving, but the current demon realm could hardly be called a land flowing with milk and honey.

Moreover, Lug’s body couldn’t even use simple magic now.

If he wandered carelessly, he could be killed by wild monsters.

So he would return when the time came.

“That’s uncertain.”

However, there was someone who denied Esmeralda’s assumption.

It was the ghost of the past who had watched over Lug for a long time.

“Tanha? What do you mean?”

“His surroundings don’t matter to him. He’s someone who set out on a path of asceticism after abandoning everything in the first place.”

Lug had escaped even when he was happier than now, more affluent than now, and had more authority than now.

There was no reason for him not to escape now when dissatisfaction had accumulated.

“…”

An uncomfortable silence began to flow among the group.

And the one who broke that silence was Tanha, who explained that Lug’s escape wasn’t just a momentary flight.

Tanha began to leave the place at an incredible speed. And following her were Esmeralda and the rest of the hero’s party.

At this moment, what they had to do had become a kind of competition.

The first person to find him could spend intimate time with Lug.

That was the calculation that had emerged.

After everyone had left.

Garnet sighed as if annoyed and left, while Lilith headed alone to the office to handle the work that Lug was supposed to process.

And then…

“Uh, well…”

“…Your Majesty?”

Lilith was able to encounter Lug, who was practicing “the darkest place is under the lamp” by accurately understanding the psychology of the hero’s party through his long experience of escape.

“I didn’t expect to be caught like this.”

Lug’s brief escape was over…

“I’ll pretend I didn’t see you.”

…or perhaps not.