Chapter 99: The Hero of the North (1)

After finishing the meeting with Grace, during dinner time, I kept my promise with Elaine through our exchanged glances and joined her.

I had planned to discuss how to deal with the bomb she had thrown during the duel.

Of course, since we were not inside the city but at the camp, we couldn’t have a private meal together.

“Miss Sophia, there are still vegetables left in your stew. Is there something you don’t eat?”

“No, it’s just a usual picky eating habit.”

“Usual… picky eating?”

“In that case, Mr. Regret, as a great noble, you seem to eat well. Are you perhaps suited for a soldier’s constitution?”

“I don’t really have any food restrictions. This kind of meal is new to me, so it feels different.”

The heroes of the duel.

The four members of the captain’s direct escort team also joined the meal.

Regret and Sophia, who didn’t know each other before, had become quite close now.

Both were sociable (though one was undercover), and especially Sophia hated formalities with people close to her, so she made the forms of address casual from the day they met.

Regret, too, seemed pleased to have the chance to make friendly ties with the prospective elder of Snowflake Tower.

Since they would be working together on big tasks in the future, it was better to get along well rather than stay awkward or stiff.

“If you’re not allergic or anything, you shouldn’t leave food. Agriculture isn’t developed in the North, so it’s wasteful to leave food behind.”

“Actually, when I was young, I had a hard time eating potatoes once. It’s almost like I can’t eat them.”

“Oh, is that so? Sorry, I didn’t know you had such a reason… What happened?”

“I was so absorbed in magic research that I didn’t eat for three days, so I went to Sarah No’s farm, who researches crops. I dug up and ate potatoes there, but I got a stomachache.”

“…What?”

“Since it was grown by an elder-level nature mage, I thought I could just eat it. But it was tasteless, hard, and the texture was bad. After that, I came to hate potatoes.”

“Uh, um… Miss Sophia.”

“?”

“I think it’s your own fault for picking up and eating just anything. Don’t be picky for weird reasons, just eat it.”

“No thanks. Also, I’m adopted, so I’m originally someone who used to pick up whatever I could from the streets.”

“What does that have to do with anything?”

Is this really a conversation between grown adults?

They were stuck together to get along, but what childish nonsense were they doing?

Now that I think about it, these two were similar in disposition.

One was a talented prodigy mage recognized as elder-level at a young age but hid unusual tastes and eccentricities.

The other was a noble ideal without privilege consciousness, kind and peaceful with everyone, but hid severe inferiority complexes and emotional deficiencies.

Both hid their true selves from others and lived pretending to be ordinary people.

Maybe that’s why they became friends quickly.

Because they strangely smelled the same to each other.

They both wanted peers they could be comfortable with despite their high status.

No matter how much “good is good,”

The conversation between the two, becoming friends so fast it made my head spin, was too much for me, so I turned my head to avoid it.

“……”

While the two argued childishly over picky eating, Elaine quietly focused on her meal.

If this were during a mission, she would have given a warning as a captain, but since this was rest time, she didn’t try to stop them.

“Hm?”

Elaine noticed my gaze, looked up, and our eyes met.

I conveyed my intention with my eyes.

‘About the marriage story you mentioned during the last duel.’

“Is there something you want to say, Luke?”

I failed.

It doesn’t always work.

Maybe it’s a technique only used under certain situations or conditions.

I glanced sideways.

They were still arguing about picky eating. Judging by their looks, it wasn’t ending anytime soon.

I used their conversation as a shield and spoke in a low voice.

“About what the captain said during the last duel.”

“I didn’t hear what you said.”

Ugh.

Was it because they were chatting right next to me that my words got drowned out?

I had no choice but to speak a little louder.

“While I was sleeping, other people came to the captain and asked about what was said during the duel. How did you answer them?”

“What? Oh, that.”

Just as Elaine, who finally understood, stopped stirring her food—

“?”

I got a creepy feeling and rolled my eyes to the side, only to find Sophia and Regret had stopped arguing and were looking this way.

Damn it.

These things only help when it comes to their real jobs. They fight well, then stop at the most inconvenient timing.

“That’s right, I was curious about that too! Captain, what did you mean when you said Luke—or rather, the lieutenant’s wife?”

“……”

Regret, who had been curious since the duel, opened his eyes wide, and Sophia, who had previously heard from me about our relationship, had a calm expression but seemed interested and attentive.

Seeing their gazes, Elaine wore a calmer expression than Sophia and said,

“To clear up any misunderstandings, I am not Lord Luke’s wife. I only pretended to be to fool the orcs because family members can’t participate in duels.”

“Ah, so that’s what it was.”

Watching Regret’s relieved expression, I shrugged.

Well, Elaine wasn’t wrong. She wasn’t actually my wife.

“Then, did you explain the same to the others yesterday?”

“Yes.”

Elaine confirmed in response to my question.

Seeing that, I felt a quiet relief.

Even though we switched to an open relationship policy, we haven’t even proposed yet, so being treated like a newlywed couple already felt premature.

Unlike Regret, whose expression relaxed at Elaine’s answer, Sophia frowned slightly, confused.

She had clearly heard from me that we were dating with marriage in mind, but Elaine said it was a tactic, so she seemed to be trying to understand what that meant.

“Ha ha, I was really surprised. If it had been someone else, I would have naturally thought it was just a tactic. But the two of you are usually so close, and you look good together, so even the allies were mistaken.”

“A misunderstanding then. We’re not married yet, but Luke and I are dating.”

“?”

Regret suddenly froze mid-laugh at this unexpected statement.

Meanwhile, Sophia’s expression changed to a calm ‘Oh, I see.’

“Hmm?”

Regret was caught in a rollercoaster of emotions—surprise, relief, surprise again—and looked at me awkwardly.

“It’s true. We’re not married yet, but we are dating.”

Realizing Elaine’s plan for handling this situation, I matched her tone and brought Regret back to reality.

Regret blinked several times, glancing back and forth between us.

“So… Captain, you’re not the lieutenant’s wife, but you are his partner?”

“That’s right.”

“And when you say you’re not married yet, that means you’re seriously dating?”

“Mm.”

“And His Excellency asking when the wedding will be held wasn’t just a simple joke?”

“You got it right. Perfect score.”

I nodded approvingly as Regret summarized everything correctly.

Regret, looking flustered, then turned his head to the side.

“Sophia, aren’t you surprised? You knew about this, didn’t you?”

“I heard it from Luke last time.”

“Am I the only one who didn’t know?”

“I didn’t ask, so I wasn’t told. Now that I asked, I’m being told.”

“Haah…”

Regret sighed deeply, his shoulders slumping.

“No wonder I thought the two of you were very close. So that was the reason.”

“Sorry, I hope you’re not upset?”

Since Regret has some depression symptoms, I asked carefully to check on his mental state.

“Oh, no. The fact that you two are dating isn’t something to be told around. I’m just thankful you told me this way.”

Maybe since joining the escort team, his mental health had improved a lot.

Regret’s expression returned to normal, with no shadow of gloom. It meant he wasn’t upset.

“Ah! So that’s why you danced together as partners at the party. I thought it was a very beautiful dance, like a passionate couple. Now it makes sense.”

“Huh? The captain danced at the party?”

Regret had reached a realization and calmed down, while Sophia’s eyes widened.

Watching them this whole time was surprisingly entertaining.

Two people with similar dispositions reacting completely differently to the same thing was like a comedy show.

Sofia, who wasn’t at the scene back then, looked at us in surprise as if hearing it for the first time.
She had already given up on me and Elaine’s relationship after hearing about it, but she still seemed curious about Elaine’s dance.

“Oh, Sofia, you weren’t there at the time? I guess I didn’t see you either.”
“No, I’m fine. But really, did you two actually dance together?”
“Yes. It was our first dance, though.”
“Our first dance?!”

Sofia sighed deeply, clearly disappointed she missed Elaine’s first dance.
Elaine and Regret looked puzzled, wondering why she was so upset, but knowing the truth, I couldn’t help but hold back a laugh inside.

Pulling herself together, Sofia grabbed us and began to ask what the dance had been like, and the more we described it, the more her pupils dilated.

“It felt like there was some kind of time-rewinding magic or something…”

The genius magician muttered softly, and I felt a chill, but thankfully, that didn’t happen.
Although time magic is mentioned in some novels, it’s firmly established as an impossible magic.

After that, the four of us spent the meal chatting and laughing, the conversation having started by chance.

Maybe because we had just completed a big mission together.
Even though we were officially a team under the escort captain, aside from Elaine and me, each of us came from different backgrounds, and the team was formed purely by ability without much backstory.
There had been no real opportunity for bonding, so while we were friendly individually, there wasn’t much sense of unity or community as a team.

Because of that, the escort captain’s team was more like a well-organized group project, gathering four individuals skilled at solo play.
But this time, it seemed our relationships had deepened as teammates rather than just individuals.

‘Anyway…’

Even as I chatted with them, one thought kept lingering in my mind.

‘Wife…’

Elaine’s claim that she was lying about being my wife was just a cover, but surely there were others like Regret who suspected something.

Just like how I had been misunderstood as a hero in front of Grace.
Being assigned as lieutenant and always going around together, taking vacation days that always overlapped, dancing together at parties, and now the clear “wife” declaration—
There were plenty of reasons for people to suspect and let their imagination run wild. Well, unlike before, this one wasn’t a misunderstanding.

We had now switched to an open relationship instead of a secret one, and marriage had briefly come up last time.
It was probably time to stop delaying and face it seriously.

But there was one important problem.

‘How do I propose?’

With my novel knowledge and past life experience, I had done a lot so far.
Those two were my greatest weapons, helping me perform better than others and solving many crises.
If my novel knowledge was a sword that eliminated future disasters,
my past life experience was a strong shield that let me live a stable “second life” in everyday life and escort team duties.

But there were two things I lacked experience in from my past life.
Marriage and raising children.

Childcare could be put off for a long time, but
in my head, proposals only existed as scenes from dramas or romance comics.

‘Haah… This might be harder than subjugating orcs.’

I was a man with pride and desires.
I didn’t want a lame proposal.
If I was going to do it, even if not the best, I wanted it to be a memory that would stay warmly with both of us for life.

Watching Elaine smile faintly at the chatter of the escort captain’s direct team across from me,
I stepped into this new battlefield.