episode_0095

“But after meeting you, I realized that the letters my daughter sent me all this time didn’t describe you at all.”

Marquis Luciolas stops walking as he looks at the large fountain erected in the center of the street.

“I mean, I wanted to say thank you for taking in my daughter. As you know, Lulu is wild. She’s arrogant as hell, rude to men, and has a lot of fits.”

“It’s just like my childhood,” the Marquis said with a hearty laugh.

“Lulu is a good female for me.”

“That’s why I’m thankful. Aren’t you the only male who says that to his daughter since she started growing hair?”

To be honest, what Marquis Luciolas said was true. This is not proven by history… but I have heard enough stories from my close male seniors.

When I was in a group, surprisingly, the main issue that my friendly male friends had was not the study group for miscellaneous books. They were accepted as my ‘taste’.

However, what they were most worried about was Lulu’s existence.

She is not unbeautiful, comes from a good family, and is very capable. However, she has bad manners and tends to view males as inferior to her.

In fact, the reason why they appear to have bad manners is because they don’t know how to approach males, and the reason why they tend to view males as inferior is because they have strong pride due to their outstanding abilities.

“Of course, what do you think? If she loves me and I love her, then there’s no problem, right?”

“Of course, son-in-law. That’s something I’m really thankful for.”

The Marquis Luciola buys coffee and gives it to me and Hella. A sweet caramel macchiato for me and a bitter Americano for Hella, just like the Marquis. Well, there’s nothing like America here.

“This friend’s existence is also interesting. Isn’t he basically a group of females?”

“I didn’t know my mother-in-law would say that. But, wasn’t Hela and I’s first meeting a good one?”

When Marquis Lucio looks at her, Hela makes a ‘Who, me?’ expression.

“Well, it’s common for males to bring females into the group as slaves.”

As the Marquis said, there are cases where males, especially those from noble families, who have secret tastes that cannot be revealed to the females of their group, sometimes bring in female slaves like Hela to express those tastes. I am half-interested in it, but…

“Still, the Bloodstone Binding is quite a difficult thing to handle. Aren’t you curious as to why Duke Moratium has one?”

“Um… That’s right. The Duke and Lord Shizu didn’t really have any contact with that kind of thing.”

“That’s something he got from wiping out an illegal slave market a while back. At the time, he said, “The jewels are pretty,” but it looks like he didn’t want to bother selling them, so he just threw them away somewhere. That was over 10 years ago.”

Meanwhile, Marquis Lucio asks if the restraints still have their restraining function in use.

“If you use it too often, this guy might break.”

“Of course not. It’s been a while since I released that.”

At my words, Hela made a ‘??????’ expression and slowly pulled at the bloodstone restraint around her neck, which she now acknowledged as a part of her body.

Click, the restraints are removed with a sound. Hela looks at the restraints in her hands as if she is dumbfounded… and then puts them back around her neck with her own hands. Why on earth??

The Marquis Lucio laughed out loud at her actions.

“No, why?”

“I am the slave of my master.”

“You let me go?”

“You often told me, ‘If you do that, then that’s what it’s like.’ I said that’s what it is.”

Even after saying that, Hela’s face turned red like a jewel on the restraint around her neck, perhaps because she was embarrassed, but she ended up not taking the restraint off.

“Some females find peace of mind in the fact that they are bound to a male. Well, Marquis Jude, for example…”

At the Marquis’s words, I could easily picture the Marquis Jude bowing earnestly to Sir Nicholas.

“Well, if that’s what she wants, then that’s fine.”

Sighing, she pulled Hela’s restraints and turned the switch, and the bloodstone restraints that she had finally released reactivated. It was really incomprehensible, but only then did Hela look satisfied.

“This is really not funny.”

“Please consider this as my loyalty to my master.”

I can’t even remember where I put the switch that activates her restraints, but I’m satisfied with it…

“Doesn’t your Majesty care that Hela is a hyena?”

“I mean, I don’t care. Of course, hyenas, sharks, and crocodiles nest on our territory and cause headaches. But you’re the master.”

Marquis Lucio answered nonchalantly, looking at the people moving busily along the street.

“The more important thing is that you love our daughter, not that guy is a hyena.”

At her cheerful remark, both Hela and I nodded without thinking.

“Spending time with my mother-in-law is just as enjoyable as spending time with the other females.”

“Haha, let me see. Kino could burn my magic to death… and Lulu could do it. And besides…”

Marquis Luciola really is, no matter how much I think about it, Lulu’s older sister, who is at most three or four years older than me, and she winks and makes high-level jokes with such a pretty face that I would believe her.

“I think it would be too hard to get pregnant again at this age. I’ve gotten really old.”

“Ahahaha…”

I tried to laugh at her joke. This is a problem when you have a casual conversation with mothers-in-law, but since all the females in the group are pretty, it feels strange that the mothers are naturally pretty too.

Even when I think about my original age, I sometimes feel like their mothers are more suitable for me in terms of age and mindset than the females in the group. Of course, I can’t do anything about it, but I can’t help feeling that way. (I might get stabbed by my father-in-law.)

When I told him my thoughts as a joke, Marquis Lucio, who I thought would dismiss them with a ‘don’t talk nonsense’, said something unexpected.

“Oh, right. I forgot what Lulu said about you, ‘You lack common sense about gender.’”

“Uh… right?”

“Among the families I am close with, there was a family that was originally a son-in-law and mother-in-law, but it is no longer a family.”

“… … …Yes?”

I barely understood what the Marquis Lucio said, so after a while I asked him again, and he finally explained the absurd facts to me.

“The mistress of the Bamboo Breeze Countess was originally a sickly male. Not long after her daughter brought the male home, he passed away from an illness.”

The suffering of Count Bamboo Breeze, who lost her husband, did not end there. Before he could even raise a brood, the Count’s only daughter, who had gone out to subdue monsters, died in battle while leaving her son-in-law, who had no other female than her daughter, behind.

“The only thing left was the count who lost his male and the son-in-law who lost his female. The two comforted each other’s pain and soon became the new Count and Countess of Bamboo Breeze. This is a pretty famous story, but the son-in-law didn’t know?”

I nodded heavily at Marquis Lucio’s words.

“Even if he is a son-in-law, if he has the permission of his father-in-law or if his father-in-law is sick, it is common for him to give his seed to his mother-in-law for the sake of the next generation. I am a hyena, so it is common in my area, and even if you are not a hyena, it is quite common.”

When Hela tells him the heavy truth that he had never known before, Marquis Lucio also nods as if it were a common occurrence. The world view is heavy…

“That’s just the case. Well, I don’t think there’s anyone among us who would ask that of their son-in-law. I don’t know about Marquis Jude or Countess Miho. They’re young, and their husbands tend to have more female relatives. But they all have only daughters.”

Oh my, there is no such thing as a family that is like this. To be honest, if my mother-in-law were to ask for something like that, I wouldn’t have the confidence to refuse.

Come to think of it, just like Marquis Lucio said, all the females in my group are only children. For a noble family that has to continue the family line, that’s a strangely small number, whether it’s a daughter or a son. It’s a small number for a noble family that usually considers three children as a marriage, regardless of gender.

I have a creepy feeling, but since I can’t see the future, I can’t tell what this creepy feeling means right now…

“By the way, the arcade game that your son-in-law is making is quite interesting. Didn’t Marquis Jude and Sir Nicholas say they’ve already invested in it?”

Fortunately, the topic of conversation changed from “How Much Money Can a Household Make?” to “Arcade Games.” Thank you, God.

I feel like I can see the Creator X, with a transparency of about 30%, laughing from afar as I answer Marquis Lucio’s question.

“Yes, the idea came to me when I went to the casino in the zodiac with a group of females last time.”

“It’s clear evidence that Marquis Jude smelled money. I’ll invest too.”

“It might not work out well…”

Marquis Lucio smiled at my uncertain words.

“Looking at the way it looks, it looks like it’ll be a big hit. Don’t worry about supply. I heard from Marquis Jude, but I think it’s quite possible.”

Marquis Luciola pats him on the shoulder, telling him not to worry about supplying casinos within the territory and to just make them work well.

“I know it’s weird to say this, but it’s definitely going to be fun.”

“If it’s more fun than pinball at the casino, don’t worry about failing. Do you know how much money the pinball machines at your casino make?”

She giggles and disses the pinball machines. The Marquis says that everything about the casino is fun, but pinball is a total bore.

Afterwards we had lunch with Marquis Lucio at a fancy and expensive looking restaurant and were able to return to Anastasia’s mansion.