Chapter 15 - Volume 1 (1/2)

Side Story 1 – Part 2

——What’s this all of a sudden?」

「I-I-I-I-I’m sorry my tongue just slipped it’s nothing!」

Agedilus spat out those words, his sunrise-colored eyes carrying a penetratingly cold light, his voice low enough to crawl over the ground.

Widnichol furiously shook his head. But the sharpness of Agedilus’s gaze didn’t change. A cold sweat trickled down his back. ‘Crap, he really is enraged.’

Now that he thought about it…… No, he didn’t even have to think about it. He knew that talking about ‘her’ would certainly enrage him, so why did his mouth carelessly ask a question like that? Alas, his teacher’s gaze on him really did hurt.

Since their return to the capital, men and women of all ages, no matter their social status, would prick their ears upon a certain subject. That subject that followed Agedilus around, and then Widnichol too, since he was attached to him.

Namely, it was about Agedilus Von Lancent’s marriage.

And then, the answer to that had been decided recently. Agedilus Von Lancent had gotten married to his former fiancée, Filmina Veer Adina, just a month ago. But there were still only a few people who actually knew that for sure.

Widnichol had met that Miss Filmina Veer Adina a few times until now. One was his first meeting with her, when his teacher took him along when visiting the Adina Estate. And then, the next time was at her and Agedilus’ wedding.

His teacher’s childhood friend, she wasn’t beautiful like his teacher or the princess. But she was a woman that wore a gentle smile and had a calm atmosphere about her. She knew Widnichol was an ex-merchant but her polite behavior was still the same, she was the kind of person that would make tea from medicinal plants for him herself.

When Agedilus talked with his sharp tongue to even his fiancée, she still smiled gently and brushed it off. Widnichol hadn’t even thought that there could be someone who could accomplish the feat of becoming the partner of his teacher.

And to him, she had softly whispered into his ear, 「Edi seems to have taken a liking to you, so please try not to abandon him if you can, okay?」 He really had no idea what to do then.

He’d told her that couldn’t be, and she laughed, 「If Edi really didn’t like you, he would have dismissed you long ago.」 And that was the first time he realized, that although his teacher told him things like 「Do that」 or 「Do this」 he had never unreasonably yelled at him like his classmates at the Academy of Magic.

It was none other than her who’d taught him that Agedilus was more than just a scary person.

If she and his teacher lined up together, his teacher was the one who was far more beautiful like usual – sorry to say. But they strangely looked picturesque together. The atmosphere between them was somehow calm.

Agedilus and Filmina’s wedding was very plain, considering he was one of the heroes who saved world. It was a small ceremony, with no attendants except for both families’ relatives and a few of his companions on the journey, including Widnichol. The two of them had wanted that. But there was a small problem with that.

If one of the heroes of the country got married, it was supposed to be a special event for everyone in the country. The kingdom hadn’t had a special event since the triumphal return parade after they defeated the demon king. It wasn’t strange that this would turn into a festival exciting the people, but the one that vehemently rejected that was the man himself. As he said, 「I can’t stand having a bigger spectacle than this!」

Thanks to that, there were a lot of people that still didn’t know Agedilus had gotten married. That’s why there were endless people who kept saying things like, ‘now we’ll make our daughter his bride!’ or ‘she’s been yearning for him for so long!’

Agedilus’s sharp tongue was well known in the royal palace, so once again, perhaps it was out of fear towards the Black-Haired One with such a spirit that there was no one brave enough to ask the person himself directly. Because of that, that question constantly flooded his disciple, Widnichol.

That was why Lord Dainan had stopped him before he came to this room. With a powerful person like that talking to him as if he was about to say, 「Of course he wants to be married so why don’t I be an intermediary for him?」 Widnichol almost spilled the beans, although he somehow managed to exhaust his words and excuse himself from there.

It seemed his teacher knew that his disciple was worried about it, but he was very inconsiderate, closing the book in his hands with a thud and glaring at Widnichol with those sunrise-colored eyes. He was used to this, but a scary thing is always going to be scary.

「Either way, it’s not something you should care about.」

「I’m sorry, my tongue just slipped…! But even so, there really are a lot of people lately asking if you’ve gotten married, or if you have a fiancée.」

「Ha, these are the same people that treated me just like a monster until now. Just think of these flies as annoying and leave it.”

In other words, he meant ‘don’t say unnecessary things.’ It was an awful way to put it, but thinking back on his treatment before the war, it wasn’t unreasonable for Agedilus to say that.

Even though Widnichol didn’t have hair as pure black as Agedilus’s, the looks he received from people around him certainly weren’t kind.

He didn’t even have to think about how cruel the words or looks Agedilus must have gotten, with his pure black hair, not mixed with a single other color.

Widnichol had gotten a taste of what thoughtless actions these people were capable of.

That’s why Widnichol wanted to do as much as he could, even if it was just a little, to be the breakwater defending Agedilus from the harsh ocean waves.

Although he did want to, the other person was rather obstinate. He didn’t know if his teacher just got angry because he didn’t speak much, but either way, he was obstinate. Whenever those eyes would press him further, 「Answer me clearly,」 showing him the flickering appetite within them, Widnichol would be at his wits’ end and want to run away. Celebrities were scary. His teacher was scary.

As Widnichol trembled, Agedilus leaned his elbow on his desk, letting out a sigh without even hiding how displeased he was. That sigh was not towards Widnichol, but to the people that had feared and despised him until now.

「They don’t want to be my wife, they just want to be the wife of a hero. Even talking to them is nothing but a waste of time.」

「That’s…」

He was about to say, ‘That might be true,’ but he held himself back for some reason. Of course he hesitated to say that. But it seemed that even if he didn’t say it, his teacher understood precisely what he wanted to say. Agedilus furrowed his neat eyebrows as if to say, ‘look here’.

「I think from now on, you’re not just going to be followed around with unnecessary stories about me but also about yourself too. If you don’t want to have painful experiences, just ignore them.」

「……Um, Master?」

「What?」

Tilting his head, Widnichol asked his teacher a question just as he’d finished the conversation and was about to open his book.

「Why do you not want to make your marriage with Miss Filmina known to the public?」

If he did that, then all these ‘unnecessary things’ would stop happening too. When Widnichol asked that, his sky-blue eyes blinking, a sour expression came on Agedilus’s beautiful face. It was an expression that said he’d touched a topic that Agedilus didn’t want to touch.

Widnichol instinctively drew back in fear that he’d enraged his teacher again. His teacher looked at him, and then reluctantly opened his mouth in a serious way.

「……She’s my wife.」

「Huh?」

「Although she understands herself what that means, there still isn’t a need to especially provoke unnecessary sparks, right? Since there’s always idiots thinking stupid things everywhere.」

Without thinking, Widnichol stared at his face at the unexpected answer, meeting the gaze of those sunrise-colored eyes. And then, his teacher averted his gaze, very uncharacteristically.

Widnichol tilted his neck in confusion. In other words, he meant.

「Umm, in other words, it’s because you want to protect Miss Filmina, right?」