Episode 84: True Colors
“Here are your tea and sweets.”
“Ah, thank you very much.”
“Looks like you’re having a hard time~. …This is delicious! This is really good, Dru!”
Kaede and Shio, relaxing with the tea and sweets they got from my slave, Tris.
Why are these two still here…?
Well, this will be your house in the future anyway, so I don’t really mind…
“Wow! Where did you get tea like this, aru ka?!”
“And it’s such good quality, aru ne. Even at my family home, we don’t often get tea this good, aru yo…? So, are you making a lot of money? How’s the ‘Lord’s Work’ going…?”
Here it comes…
Mingsha just subtly stabbed me there.
Is she trying to probe me?
“Mingsha, I’ve said this before, but could you please stop with these kinds of gambits? It’s stressful…”
“Muu, to reject it when you have the intelligence to recognize it as a ‘gambit’…, what a waste, aru ne.”
That’s why I always say, I can’t do politics, and even if I could, I don’t want to.
My political skills are just a result of my high intelligence and good upbringing, which allows me to read the room. It’s nothing compared to the politicians who make a living doing this… the royalty and nobility of this world.
Besides, I just went through a lot of trouble because of that the other day. The princess is supposed to come next year… I really don’t want her to come…! I wonder if she could get caught up in some kind of accident?
…No, if that happened, Count Missgancia’s position would be in danger. Inevitably, I’d have to step in to help. I’m already somewhat caught up in the political framework. My trump card, “Run away!” is difficult to use…
“I don’t talk about politics with my friends. Are you a ‘friend’?”
“…I apologize, aru. I am your ‘friend’, Sensei, ne.”
As expected, even if she’s from a large organization, I’m stronger than a foreign mafia, at least in terms of position. Well, I could probably beat this woman in a fight too, though it would be quite difficult.
“Fine. So? What business do you have with me, Mingsha-san?”
“I just came to greet my sister’s future husband, aru yo? In the ‘Continent’… Dahfa, family is very important, ne.”
Ah, I see.
Of course, I heard and understand that she’s using Xiaolin as an excuse to get closer to me.
But the pretext isn’t a lie either.
In the culture of the ‘Continent’, families live together and form a party.
Unlike this country, they have a well-established bureaucratic organization, but internally, it’s completely corrupt.
For example, if a family member becomes a politician and rises in rank, that family member will distribute as many positions as possible to their relatives. It’s pretty terrible.
It’s like, if you send your sister to the Emperor’s harem, a butcher can become a general!
However, in such a corrupt country, it’s important to note that you can only trust your relatives (Community Notes).
And what’s funny is that even those relatives will betray you if given the chance, which isn’t funny at all.
Well, even so, this world is still medieval, even if my surroundings are locally rich and peaceful. The value of human life and kindness is trampled on, and it’s full of lies and mud. Let’s live a tough life…
“Let me tell you, this isn’t about getting married and having a wedding right away… It’s just that it would be pitiful for Xiaolin to live and die as a Strider, so I’m just saying that we’ll take her in at the end, that’s all.”
“Ara? Then, wouldn’t I be good enough, aru ka?”
Mingsha laughs, covering her mouth with a fan decorated with feathers.
Whether she heard that one line or not…
At that moment, Xiaolin raised her voice in a shout.
“My husband, my happiness! I won’t let you have him! Even if you are my older sister, I won’t forgive you!!!!”
In her native language.
I can understand most of what she’s saying, but more than that, it’s rare for the always nonchalant Xiaolin to get this angry.
She’s already drawn her Seiryuto and is gripping it so hard that blood is seeping out. Her anger is extraordinary.
“X-Xiaolin? N-Nothing to get so…”
“Always! Always! You… Mingsha! You always steal what I want from the side! But this, this is the one thing I won’t give you!”
“C-Calm down… I only meant it as a joke…”
“This is mine! Only mine! I won’t give it to anyone!!!!”
Whoa… she’s really gone off the deep end…
So, she was that fond of me?
Well, to be sure, my good looks are otherworldly, with an APP of around 24.
No, it’s not just my face.
Xiaolin, on the surface, has been acting nonchalantly as one of my mistresses, but in her heart, she’s completely fallen for me.
All I’ve done is treat Xiaolin when she was dying from illness or injury, recreate food from her hometown and feed it to her, and be gentle during sex, that’s all.
All of that is just common morality and ethics in modern Japan… but doing that to a low-status foreign woman in a medieval world seems to bring about an incredible increase in favorability.
To Xiaolin, I was more important than I thought.
“I-I understand! I understand! I won’t take him! I won’t take him, so!”
Perhaps she was flustered, as Mingsha raised both hands in surrender.
“My, my! A woman’s deep affection is scary, aru ne?!”
She tries to gloss over it to me, but she can’t hide that she was a little scared by Xiaolin’s genuine anger.
In terms of face, if this had happened in public, Mingsha would have had no choice but to fight Xiaolin to the death… But when face is damaged in a private setting like this, Dahfa people tend to pretend it didn’t happen…
“Fuuu…! Uuuu…!”
And Xiaolin, like a small, cute creature cornered, was growling and clinging to me.
“I’m not exactly Xiaolin’s property… but even so, Xiaolin needs to think that I love her.”
I answer while stroking her.
“Sensei… is it okay? With a woman like that…”
“I like her? She’s quite a troublesome woman, but she’s surprisingly domestic.”
That’s right.
Xiaolin is actually the type of woman who could get along well with mothers.
Deep affection and heavy love are a problem, but she has a domestic atmosphere and abilities.
She’s the opposite of the heroines in the Mobile Suit Robot Anime series. Is her family Yashima Heavy Industries? At least she’s a more reliable girl than the daughter of the Deputy Undersecretary of the Federation Government, who is a failed Pinky Momo, who is a failed Indian woman.
I actually like women who “accept and guide me, but don’t understand everything and are a little inferior,” like a funny, big sunglasses, sleeveless uncle. Well, I wouldn’t ask her to be a mother, though.
Speaking of which, around me, there’s Shio, who abandoned her tribe’s rules to match me, Margot, who abandoned the Elf country, Mirei, a simple commoner woman with no value, Rosalinde, who even said she would abandon her noble status, and Kaede, who is loyal to her country but is no longer thinking of returning…
There are women who follow me, who match my ways… who accept me.
There’s nothing more pleasing than that.
“I’m not troublesome~!!!!”
Xiaolin starts crying when she hears my words. Hehe, how cute.
Xiaolin, in particular, is a fairly good girl from the ‘Continent’ who was taught that “women should serve men.”
If we got married, she would probably follow me around from morning to night and take care of everything.
She’s from a cultural sphere where “serving her husband is natural,” let alone “matching my ways.” What a bargain!
“Alright, alright… Well, that’s why, try not to mess with Xiaolin.”
“O-Okay, aru yo…”