Chapter 28 - Volume 2 (1/2)

A crying voice was heard.

Pitch black, in the midst of darkness so dark that one couldn’t see oneself. That crying voice first raised its voice, yelling loudly. As soon as it did, it burst into heaving sobs at times, and at other times it would cry and shout without holding back. Then it would desperately try to hold back its crying only to fail, before repeating itself, spending its days in tears all the more. That’s what it was like.

Well, just whose voice really was that? It wasn’t the simple and pure way an innocent child cried. It was full of a more complex sorrow and grief, filled with despair, and it kept crying. For some reason, I felt like I certainly knew that voice. But despite that, I still didn’t know who the owner of that voice was.

I wanted it to just stop and pardon me already. I wasn’t supposed to have the decency to keep obediently listening to that crying, from someone I didn’t even know. But despite that, I couldn’t bring myself to just throw it away. Why?

It was rather complicated to be just pestering. Just what kind of torturer was a newcomer going through? Aah, no more, this really is such an, amazing——……

「……Nightmare.」

I opened my closed eyes as I murmured that, only to see the ceiling I had finally just gotten used to, right in front of my vision. In the dark, the light-colored flower-patterned wallpaper dimly stood out. It seemed to be to the tastes of the previous owner of this room, but I myself was pleased with it, and I took pride in it.

Well then, excuse me for being so sudden. I hope you are all in high spirits, the ones who are meeting me for the first time and the ones who are not. Hello, it’s me.

It has already been years since I was reincarnated into this world of swords and sorcery, from the country of Japan, said to be going through an employment ice age. The 『me』 of the 『past』 would laugh at what a joke it is. But anyway, the ancient demon king that made his return after five hundred years has been finally destroyed by the party of heroes.

There are still demon survivors in various places in the country; it seems there are still requests to destroy them going to knights, the country’s wizards, self-protection groups, and mercenary guilds. But compared to the time when the demon king sat in his demon city, it seems like it’s become considerably better. They say the demons have inevitably grown weaker since the demon king was destroyed, so there isn’t as much damage being done as before.

The congested, stagnant atmosphere in the country had been beautifully wiped away. The people used to tremble with anxiety and fear, but now smiles returned to their faces. Time, which seemed like it had stopped, started moving.

If I had to say, I know I’m not very religious. But certainly, it made me remember. The moment when the light fell from the heavens, changing our kingdom, and then the world. The light that came when the hero’s holy sword pierced the demon king. It was so beautiful it made one dizzy to look at it.

It was more dazzling than the sun, which we had not seen for a long time. And yet it didn’t hurt to look at that light. At that moment, everyone more or less believed that the hero had succeeded.

But that light didn’t cleanse the dark mud lying in my heart.

At that moment, I closed my eyes to cut off my vision, which was wrapped with tears. Seared into my eyelids was not the light from the heavens, but the light of the sunset, with orange and purple mixed together. It was the light of my fiance’s eyes, who I thought I’d never see again.

If the country’s head wizard and my fiance, one of the party of heroes, had not come back as if to say 「Oops, I was actually alive all along!」 no doubt I would’ve turned into a living corpse, an actual one.

Yes, if my fiance——if that man had not come back alive for me.

Back then, I meant to understand that was a perfectly probable possibility, considering the dangers that came with the duty of defeating the demon king. I thought I didn’t have the right to interfere, so just those two words, 「Don’t go,」 were beyond the limit for me. The best I could do was to request him, 「Please be safe.」

But now, I think. Even though I knew that it was helpless, he couldn’t disobey an order from His Majesty, despite all that, I should have at least cried, shouted, and clung to him. Even though the scars on my back had made us feel obligated to each other, I should have used more of my actions and words at him.

The reason I didn’t do that was because of my stubbornness, my pride…… No, it wasn’t anything strong like stubbornness or pride. It was a bluff, a weakness. Since I continued to give in to that weakness, I ended up considerably going about things in a roundabout way.

I’ll introduce myself once again.

My name is——was Filmina Veer Adina, now it is Filmina Von Lancent.

I am the wife of one of the party of heroes, our country’s head wizard, Agedilus Von Lancent.

It is generally accepted that I’m rather plain and ordinary. The proof of whether I really am in such a position is obvious if you look at the situation I’m in. Taking light breaths beside me, that vision which is all the more beautiful while sleeping, is more proof than anything else.

Despite how I’m clearly different from other noblewomen in a situation like this in a mental age sense, I never did things like sharing a bed with someone from the opposite gender who wasn’t my husband. In other words, it’s like that.

Defeating the demon king. That time felt overwhelmingly long for me, who couldn’t do anything but wait. But in reality, it wasn’t that long. And it wasn’t that long ago that this man returned from the trip and we finally got married.

Getting married to one of the saviors of the world, whose name was more famous to the world now than ever before, was a huge pain, to put it bluntly. Though, the one who really received the trouble was not me but this man.

This man didn’t try to tell me that, but I know it. I know that the people who had completely avoided him before did a 180 degree turn, now approaching him and recommending him their relatives who were young ladies to marry. God, he really is a man that belongs to those cliches high fantasy tropes.

I did think ‘if he cancels his engagement with me and marries some girl I don’t know from somewhere, this time I really will get mad and slap that white cheek of his.’ But that didn’t happen. This man completely threw away all those marriage proposals from noblewomen who were favorable in all ways, and went ahead with our marriage ceremony.

It was a marriage ceremony improper for a hero that saved the world, as if avoiding the public eye.