episode_0325

Married man, or woman? Anyway. Married life is truly arduous.

Of course, we haven’t officially had a wedding ceremony or registered our marriage yet. However, we’ve been showing off to the whole neighborhood, so there’s no one who doesn’t know. We’ve also made an official announcement.

I have five prospective brides. A multi-talented maid, a powerful grand master mage, a high-level knowledge spirit, a loyal knight commander, and a popular saintess.

And this time, the new addition is she, a former Empress of Ubiet, an ordinary adventurer. She’s pretty, sexy, has exceptional physical abilities, outstanding magical skills, and an ordinary superhuman who has perseveringly endured eons of time.

Eve’s appearance wasn’t exactly meteoric. In this life, at least, I met her before Nix, even before my reunion with Aspina Tier.

However, our relationship remained stagnant for a long time. Even though we loved each other since long ago, we couldn’t convey our feelings and parted ways, and when we reunited, we didn’t recognize each other.

We were each looking in different directions. Eve even rejected my confession once. To anyone watching, it was hard to imagine our relationship progressing.

Except for me, perhaps only Yuri foresaw Eve’s future.

“Cough-”

So… so it’s clear that everyone is trying to separate Eve and me right now.

Eve, who never forgot me for a thousand years, and I, who found my lost memories myself. Aren’t they jealous of this strong bond?

They’re probably concerned about something like hierarchy. As I said, even if I love everyone equally, someone else’s cake always looks tastier.

Only Yuri has transcended such selfish desires. Having entered this mindset quite a while ago… she already loves everyone in the Narita Harem.

She’s the type to immediately lift her skirt if I tell her to compete with someone else. She’s impossible to underestimate. Sometimes, she’s even scary.

Rustle—

Anyway, with my tiny brain and stubborn mindset, this is the only answer I can come up with. They definitely feel threatened by Eve and my love and have issued a restraining order.

According to what the other maids said, a scream came from the bathroom. I don’t necessarily distrust them, but I can’t help but worry.

“Ugh… I’m cold.”

So this is why I’ve been banished outside the castle.

I went to check on Eve’s condition and got scolded quite badly. I, in my pajamas, was banished…and the king ended up lying down on a wooden board and newspapers.

After being warned that they would cut off my manhood if I was caught sneaking around again, I had no choice but to cling to my crotch and run away to this place.

I lay down, hands clasped under my head. It wasn’t my first time sleeping rough, but I’d never slept in such a cold, hard, and lonely place. Tears well up.

If a newlywed man asks for my advice, I want to strongly advise him. Position, honor, wealth, power, wisdom. Above all of those things is a wife’s anger.

The first rule for surviving married life: listen to your wife. The second rule: no matter what, uphold rule number one.

.

.

.

Because my sleeping arrangements were terrible, my dreams were awful too. Did I get my eyes violated by Medusa all night or something? My body made a crunching sound every time I moved.

I wiped my saliva with the back of my hand and got up shakily. People were bustling about from early morning, and the noise made me open my eyes naturally.

“Should… I go now?”

Yuri explicitly said not to come back until tomorrow morning. A day has passed, so it’s this morning.

But I felt that statement was like saying that more than a day isn’t needed for settling the hierarchy. For some reason, I feel hesitant to go back.

My steps were as if under a spell, slowing down the closer I got to the castle. My stride gradually narrowed, finally converging to zero.

Thud-

I stopped in the middle of the castle town.

It was a complex street with countless footprints overlapping and intertwining with each other. If I let my guard down even a little, I would be swept away like a pebble on the riverbed.

People going to work, people coming home from work. There were more people than air. So many that my breathing felt constricted.

But nothing caught my eye. My senses were all adrift, flying somewhere.

And only one person was visible.

A white blouse with lace trim. A brown pleated skirt embroidered with checks. And, like a continuation of the azure sky, pale-colored hair flowing down.

A straight nose like a firm will, lake-colored eyes looking around as if searching for someone. On her makeup-free, fair face, rosy cheeks were clearly visible.

“Ah… There.”

She looks at me. The world itself is looking at me. She approaches with a joyful, quick step, then stops as if she’s remembered something. She fixes her hair and clothes, then smiles awkwardly at me.

I pinched my cheek. Because I’d had this dream countless times.

Squeeze-

It hurts. It hurts like hell. Moreover, as my consciousness was faint and my pain sensors were undefended, tears even welled up.

“Did… did you sleep well?”

“Uh, uh… Yes. I slept well.”

“That’s good… I was really worried you might be shivering alone outside.”

Worry… is it? Worry… yes, it is possible to worry. Since I was actually shivering alone outside, her worry can truly be called a worry-like worry.

In my muddled mind, Eve’s pupils reflected a drooling idiot.

“Wa… wait, time out.”

“Uhn…?”

I slapped my own cheeks. Slap. My whole face felt numb, and I was suddenly wide awake. I quickly ran into a nearby alley to hide.

I created an etheric barrier within my body and pushed all the waste out. It felt like I was shedding my skin just from not showering for a day.

I shoved my dirty pajamas into subspace and enveloped my entire body in a spherical etheric barrier. Once completely sealed, I filled it with water and blasted a 30-meter-per-second wind to spin it like a drum washing machine.

“Ugh- Ah- Ah- Ah-”

I periodically caused explosions until the water boiled, and once it boiled, I froze it again to adjust the temperature.

After about a minute of express laundry, I went outside. My head was spinning, but I couldn’t just lie down. I quickly blasted hot air to dry my hair.

I truly boiled and scrubbed like laundry, and my hair was a mess. I had to use the etheric barrier like a veil to hold down my fluffy hair.

Yuri usually chooses my clothes, but this time I had no choice but to pick something out. It was a navy blue one-piece dress.

Makeup? What’s that? The only makeup I know is burning things.

After finishing my best effort at beautification, I cautiously went out of the alley. Eve was standing at the edge of the castle town, adjusting her bangs while looking at her reflection in the glass window of a nearby shop.

“Sorry, I kept you waiting.”

“Oh…”

Eve’s eyes widened. Her cheeks are slightly flushed. She’s staring at me as if lost in thought.

This time, reflected in Eve’s pupils was a slightly less than perfect version of me. Perhaps it was because I lowered my expectations in advance. I just dressed up a little, but my appearance had changed.

“No… no, it was only about three minutes.”

“Really? That’s good. You look really pretty today.”

Even after regaining my composure, this unassuming Eve makes me want to fall for her again and again.

Her original self, the closest to her roots. The little country girl grew up to be so pretty.

Through this, I realized that Eve has grown another level. She doesn’t shy away from the pain of losing her parents, but faces it directly and suffers, and doesn’t hide her longing for those days, expressing them openly.

That’s her current appearance.

“Uh… Ugh…”

Eve’s pupils dart around like a mountain hare. The loss of immunity to praise is also because she has finally come to see herself clearly.

Much time has passed. Eve wandered the world for tens of thousands of years, and during that time, I gained five wives.

But we’re going back. We’re cutting off the causality that was filled only with black leaves and returning to the day of our last date.

We will start over again from the beginning, that date ruined by blood and death.

I reached out my hand. Eve, who had been bowing her head, slowly raised her blushing face.

And she takes my hand. She pushes her fingers into the space between my fingers, intertwining our fingers tightly.

I felt gazes from somewhere. They were hidden among ordinary people, but I couldn’t possibly miss these five strong and intense scents.

And I realized.

‘Thank you, everyone.’

They helped me repaint the sadness of that day with new memories for Eve. It seems everyone helped.

And I’m the one who will complete that memory.

“Come on.”

“Uh-”

I pulled Eve’s hand. At first, she was surprised and was pulled along by me, but soon she adjusted her pace and began to follow behind me.

“I’ll give you the best day ever.”

“Yes…!”

We walked in opposite directions, but after circling the world, we returned to each other.