Meeting the in-laws?

Meeting the in-laws?

I continued speaking, thinking there’s nothing more arduous than explaining a strangely distorted excuse.

“It’s a misunderstanding.”

“… A misunderstanding?”

Not knowing where to begin explaining, I took a deep breath and slowly opened my mouth.

“Yes. These are rumors that have been distorted from the beginning…”

In the middle of speaking, I couldn’t help but be momentarily speechless.

There were several reasons for my loss of words.

The biggest part of it was the question, ‘Do I really have to say this with my own mouth?’

‘How can I possibly explain that on top of other women barking, the rumor arose because Rumi asked to be impregnated?’

In the former case, Sien bears some responsibility as well.

But in the latter case, it’s truly embarrassing to speak about something Sien has never heard of or seen.

As I was pressing my forehead, wondering if it was right to explain this to my fiancée, Sien leaned in close and said.

“What’s wrong? Is there a problem?”

Suddenly, Sien’s characteristic sweet scent wafted over.

Feeling Sien’s soft hair touch the back of my hand, I shook my head.

“It’s not that.”

“Is that so? Then that’s a relief.”

Sien smiled brightly when I said I was fine and moved away a little.

Looking at Sien like that, I concluded that I had no idea what to say.

Inevitably, I decided to try avoiding the subject.

“By the way, how have you been doing lately?”

Sien stared at me intently, seemingly not understanding why I had abruptly changed the subject.

However, she seemed quite pleased that I had asked about her recent situation, and soon smiled brightly as she began to tell me about it.

“As always, I’m balancing my sword training with my duties as the student council president.”

“Is there nothing else?”

“No. If I had to add something, lately I’ve been incorporating thoughts of Lord Deren into my daily routine.”

“……”

As I was thinking about how to respond to that, keeping my mouth shut,

Sien gazed at me for a moment before asking in a voice full of shyness.

“… Lord Deren. Do you think of me?”

Despite being too shy to make proper eye contact, her sparkling eyes showed how much she was anticipating my answer.

Looking at Sien like this, I slowly nodded my head and said,

“I do.”

I had no choice but to say so.

Even if I didn’t want to think about her, I was involved with Sien far too often.

However, I didn’t feel the need to elaborate further, so I left it at that. Sien seemed quite satisfied with my response and said,

“… Is that so? I’m glad.”

Then, with a gentle smile, she carefully embraced me before speaking to me in a calm voice.

“Well then, I’ll be taking my leave now. As much as I’d like to… steal a kiss from Lord Deren, I fear if I did, I’d end up doing only that all day long, so I’ll restrain myself and go.”

With those final words, Sien bowed to me and immediately left the room.

I let out a small laugh at Sien’s somewhat whirlwind-like behavior and closed my eyes.

* * *

The next day, after returning to my room from the Academy, I noticed Espin waiting for me.

It seems she came to discuss the assassination of Delphian, the head of the Magic Society, which I had mentioned earlier.

As I approached Espin, she began to speak.

“I’ve gathered all the information about Delphian and put it in there for your reference.”

I nodded while picking up the Magic Book.

Espin slowly continued to speak.

“Assassinating Delphian… To be honest, it’s not a method I’d recommend. It’s difficult to carry out, and above all, the aftermath of the assassination could be too severe.”

I nodded at her words and continued.

“I know.”

“Then why are you trying to do it? There are other ways to bring down the Heaven God Cult, aren’t there?”

To that question, I looked into Espin’s eyes and reminded her of a fact she seemed to have forgotten.

“Since the essence of the Heaven God Cult is a gathering of demons aiming to summon the Devil God, this method is correct.”

“… Ah.”

If they were a group of ordinary humans, I might have used a different approach.

After all, if they were human, it would likely be a situation divided by self-interest rather than simple concepts of good and evil.

‘But demons.’

Their goal itself is along the lines of ‘world domination, human extermination,’ so there’s no need to keep them alive.

‘No, it would be more correct to say they shouldn’t be kept alive.’

So, I turned my gaze away, thinking that completely eradicating those associated with them would have a positive impact on the world Rumi will live in.

“Do you have any other questions?”

“Not really… I kind of understand it roughly.”

I nodded appropriately to Espin’s words and slowly moved my feet.

“Then we need to discuss the date of the operation and the method of assassination. Do you have any plans?”

“I’ve roughly outlined something just in case.”

I nodded with some satisfaction at Espin’s incredibly competent behavior.

Espin, seeing me like that, smiled awkwardly and continued speaking.

“To be recognized as an official religion, you need official permission from the council. Among the conditions for approval, the consent of commoners, including nobles, is also required.”

“… Citizens?”

I looked at Espin with a puzzled expression as something unexpected came up.

Given that this world itself is an extreme class society, I thought they wouldn’t listen to the opinions of commoners at all.

It was surprising to hear that they actually do.

“Ah, of course, that’s just how it’s said. In reality, it’s an element created by the powerful nobles to make their own voice stronger. You can just think of it as the nobles deciding among themselves.”

It seems that the ‘commoners’ mentioned there are just puppets that directly convey the opinions of the nobles.

To put it another way, it’s like creating an alt account to cast two votes when voting.

“Of course, the criteria for commoners who can give their opinions are quite strict. Not just anyone can do it… But anyway, what’s important now is that the nobles are deciding this matter among themselves.”

I nodded at those words.

Espin, looking at me, pointed to the magic book.

“That’s why Delian is running around trying to recruit high-ranking nobles who will take his side. One of them is the Per family.”

The Per family.

The family to which Sien belongs, a knight family that values strict discipline.

I nodded as I recalled this, and Espin continued speaking while looking at me.

“Anyway, according to the information, Delian has been running around in various ways trying to recruit the Per family recently, but as you know, that family is quite old-fashioned, so it’s not working well.”

Thinking that I could get a sense of what it might be like just by looking at Sien’s personality, I nodded.

‘I’m not sure what Sien’s father is like.’

Thinking that he’s likely to be a person who gives off a rigid impression, not unlike Sien, I looked at Espin.

Espin smiled at me.

“Then here’s a question. Why is the Heaven God Cult trying to persuade the old-fashioned Per family, which is your fiancée’s family? There’s one answer to this question.”

“If they can persuade the Per family, everything will be resolved.”

“That’s right. So there’s a high probability that they’re trying to persuade them.”

If the Per family gives in, then official recognition will be complete…

As I nodded at those words and pondered what to do,

Espin smiled at me and said,

“And if we reverse this… it means that if the Per family doesn’t give in, nothing will be recognized. So how about we try to use this?”

“Use it?”

“Well, for example, like informing the Per family about the true nature of the Heaven God Cult?”

Espin slowly approached me, took my hand, and fiddled with it before continuing slowly.

“If we reveal their identity to the Per family, the Per family, which has been maintaining balance until now, will realize that they are demon-kind and start to take action.”

“That means it will put tremendous pressure on the Heaven God Cult.”

“Yes, exactly.”

“That sounds interesting.”

However, since it would be somewhat disappointing to end it here, I added one more thing to Espin.

“In addition to that, how about asking the Per family to take out a bishop-level figure on their side?”

Espin nodded, seeming to think it was a good idea.

Seeing this, I continued speaking.

“Then it would be good to meet with the head of the Per family tomorrow and discuss this.”

I decided to ask Sien to arrange the meeting, and ended the strategy meeting.

*

As it was decided to do so.

I immediately went to find Sien and told her I wanted to meet the ‘head of the Per family’.

Sien, with the brightest expression I’ve seen so far, said to me.

“So that means… you want to have a formal meeting with the parents!”

I covered my forehead, realizing that Sien had seriously misunderstood something.