Trapped in Another World With No Magic

Chapter 142: Not Just a Small Town Girl

“Piwo… Piwo… Piwo…”

This is the mantra Zuzia has been grumbling as she walks through a flax field to avoid entering town. The next town she encounters will be the one she'll go into. Now that she remembers being transported to another world, it's less about “kidnapping” and more about the embarrassment and fear she feels with how she had to fight to escape. If any of the fancily-dressed men was a noble or king, she could very well have signed her death warrant.

“Potrzebuję piwa!” snaps the Polish woman as she reaches the end of her patience.

It seemed like a great idea at the time to come to this world. Amalaskae asked nicely, she gave Zuzia immense magical powers to protect herself, and she even was able to bring her camping equipment. Her phone also still manages to work to give her GPS maps, even though this world seems to be mostly medieval. Amalaskae really gave her an advantage in this world, since she was able to escape a castle with mages and knights with relative ease in an alien world. She also managed to save a few lives without realizing her own strength, which is another point of embarrassment.

If she had even given a little thought about her situation, she might’ve realized it was too good to be a kidnapping. It was magic.

“Piwoooo…” grumbles the Polish woman one more time before calling out in Polish, “Amalaskae? Are you there?”

Finally, a person appears beside her in a flash of light, jogging into step with the young woman who is trying to keep forward momentum. “Y-Yes! I’m here, Zuzanna. I’m sorry. I… I was dealing with something else.”

“Another hero?” asks Zuzia, curious enough to ask, but it's a low priority.

“Oh, no! Not at all. You’re my o-... Ahem, I was speaking to a colleague.”

Zuzia is becoming more and more suspicious that Amalaskae isn’t exactly an upstanding and illustrious angel among her peers, but she has granted the young woman enough strength to defend herself, so she isn’t completely useless.

“I see. Um… I seem to have made a mess of things.”

Amalaskae looks down, fidgeting with her hands, which makes the young Polish woman wary. 

“You know why I had amnesia upon arriving.”

The angel flinches, blushing in embarrassment as she avoids eye contact. “U-U-Um… That’s… well, you see…”

“Tell me, please. Why did it happen?”

The young-looking ethereal being hesitates just a moment longer. “I-It’s because… I gave you too many abilities and powers.”

Zuzia cocks her head. “Just because of that?”

“Y-Yes… You see, your body, mind, and soul have to adjust to the new powers, and your short-term memory is the primary thing sacrificed in the process. I-If I… limited how much strength I gave you, you would have been able to recall within seconds. B-B-But…”

“I’m basically a super-hero here,” murmurs Zuzia aloud.

“Y-Yes, essentially… Your immunity to magic nullification, particularly, was a heavy burden on you. I-It’s… I gave you enough to make sure that only a go-erm, an angel like me or God can take away your powers.”

“Yes, that makes sense. Did… you have to take away some of my powers? It’s only been a couple of days.”

“Certainly not! You’re exactly as we discussed. You should be able to take on some of the most powerful beings in this world with ease, and if you gather allies, you’ll have no trouble.”

“Alright. Then, a couple of things we missed.”

“Eep!” squeaks the strange angel as she flinches. “M-M-Missed?”

Zuzia nods calmly. She’s not angry at Amalaskae, even though she’s the one that arranged all of this. It really would be her responsibility that such things were overlooked.

“The first is; I can’t understand anyone here.”

“Ah! That’s because they all speak different languages than Earth.”

The Polish woman narrows her beer-brown eyes. Amalaskae panics and adds, “I-I-I know you know that! But,... Oh… Y-Yes… I see…”

“I don’t speak any of these languages,” declares Zuzia a little coldly and sarcastically.

“O-Of course. Th-th-that’s my mistake. Um… Right, so, which language would you like?”

“Can’t you just give me automatic translation or something?”

The angel hesitates, fidgeting with her hands, prompting Zuzia to sigh. “Right. I’d suffer amnesia all over again, wouldn’t I?”

“F-For a bit…”

“How long?”

“W-Well… B-because your soul is still a little unstable… each language will extend it a long time. P-P-Probably. The best idea will be to pick a language, and when you stabilize, I can try to give you another one. A-Also, there are magic spells here that can give you language comprehension for a language at a time. Th-Though…”

Zuzia can’t help but put a palm on her forehead. Every second that goes by, the more certain she is; this angel is completely new at this. “Magic resistance…”

“Y-Yes…”

“Alright, then what’s the most common language here? Can you give me automatic translation for that language?”

“Y-Yes. In the world, there are a few contenders, but I think Eastern Imperial Trade will be most useful to you.”

“What, like Japanese? Is there a colony of Japanese descendants here?”

“N-No, nothing like that! I’m sure that heroes of the past do have descendants, but their influence is usually rather little.”

Zuzia isn’t sure how she feels about that. She has read a couple of novels and mangas, in addition to having watched a few animes. Some have a solo ‘hero’ on an adventure to defeat some demon lord or something, and their overall influence on the world is minimized because they keep all of their modern technology to themselves. Or, the world is a weird amalgamation of technology and magic, and doesn’t always make the most sense for how it continues to function without some kind of implosion of society.

But, the former part brings her to her next question. “So, who is ‘Daniel’, and what was I summoned for?”

The color drains from Amalaskae’s face. She stammers as her expression goes dizzy. She trips and falls flat on her face, and a startling event occurs.

The ground cracks open in a massive fissure in front of the angel, startling Zuzia into a backwards leap that clears five meters, which also surprises her amidst the chaos around her.

The fissure rapidly snakes its way to the town, widening into a massive gap into the ground as Amalaskae panics in terror. 

Adrenaline kicks in for Zuzia, and she glances between Amalaskae and the town. The answers to her questions are meaningless now. Her instincts are to run away, but the villagers are completely innocent. 

And now, they are in danger.

Without thinking, Zuzia sprints at full speed, cratering the ground behind her as her footing slides in the dirt upon her take off, and each foot fall indents the soil. She is processing it well thanks to her rush, just as when she was fleeing the soldiers and didn’t realize she was running far faster than even a horse.

She has to overtake the fissure. She’s not entirely sure what she can do about it, but her instincts are to try to help, especially because she’s partly to blame, if only a little. She called upon Amalaskae, and continued to walk while talking. There was no evidence that Amalaskae was destructive or clumsy, since she’s supposed to be an angel of God, but there’s nothing to be done about that now.

Thinking fast, Zuzia sprints ahead of the fissure as it snakes its way past one of the houses of the town, already disrupting its foundation. She slides to a stop, which is an impressive feat for her, considering it’s regular dirt she’s sliding on in an effort to stop her huge momentum.

Without time to consider the consequences, Zuzia spins on her heel, stepping towards the leading crack of the fissure, and she throws her entire weight and strength behind a punch towards the ground. She’s praying that her strength and durability are enough to handle what she’s about to do, since she doesn’t have a strong base of how to use her magic yet.

Her fist strikes the ground, piercing into the soil. For her, it feels relatively slow, but her balled up hand sinks into the seemingly-soft ground as if it were nothing more than cotton.

However, she can feel compression under her knuckles, and a supersonic crack rumbles around her fist.

And then, the ground explodes in a massive crater almost 20 meters across, throwing dirt and rock in every direction. Zuzia shields her face as she drops down and back a couple of meters and stumbles further away from the epicenter, caught off guard by the small eruption of sediment. She regains her senses and composure a few steps away, looking at her handiwork with shock and awe.

Dirt and rock are still raining down in a fountain-like pattern, spreading across the town and pelting the rooftops and roads, as well as any people and beasts of burden that are present. People scream and yell, and the ‘rain’ of debris sounds like hail amidst the echoing boom of the explosion.

Most importantly, though, the fissure has been stopped in its tracks about three meters into the teardrop-shaped crater formed by a small town girl’s punch.

I guess I’m not just a small town girl, huh? thinks the young blonde to herself.

Someone screams nearby, startling her out of her thoughts. One of the houses is collapsing into the fissure. Part of the wall is already separated, and a woman is trapped inside as she clings to the table.

The fissure is too wide where the house is collapsing for Zuzia to try to straddle it or anything obvious like that, not to mention the ground is already collapsing in on the fissure, which is even wider closer to where Amalaskae tripped. Thankfully, there isn’t any lava or water coming out of the fissure, nor a demon horde to start the apocalypse, but it’s very much an issue right now.

Zuzia bolts without thinking too hard about it. She dives through the window of the collapsing house, rolling to her feet. For as much as she’s taking a beating, she doesn’t seem to be hurt easily anymore, which is rather inspiring for her endeavors as a hero of another world.

Now inside the house, she has seconds to react. She darts to the woman, who is cradling a baby, and she hugs them both close, using her free left hand to launch the table as hard as she can towards the collapsing wall. The wall and table explode together into shrapnel and debris, all of which ruptures outwards and plummets into the chasm. 

As the floor starts to buckle and warp, Zuzia scoops mother and child into her arms in a princess carry, and she sprints towards the open wall, leaping with them both across the chasm to minimize the debris that is likely to hit them if she tries to charge through another wall.

The woman screams while the baby cries, and Zuzia watches a pitch-black void lurk beneath her as she braces for their landing.

She stumbles upon her feet hitting the ground and falls to a slide on her knees, still protectively cradling the young mother and her infant.

The sounds of beams cracking and stones breaking denote the collapse of a sizable portion of the house as the ground gives way underneath, swallowing all of it into the inky black depths of the fissure caused by a clumsy angel. 

Zuzia exhales in relief. The crisis is averted for now, since no one is in further danger, but the chaos has only just begun. She immediately notices the gathering crowd of people who are staring at the destruction, as well as the strange foreign woman still cradling a mother and her child as the frightened woman remains frozen in terror, clinging to her baby. Many of the villagers, numbering somewhere in the range of 50-100, are covered in dirt, and some of them have cuts and fresh bruises from the debris raining down. 

Zuzia didn’t get a chance to get that new language from Amalaskae, and she certainly has no idea how to communicate with these people otherwise.

She gingerly sets the mother down, who whimpers and tries to scoot away from the strange woman in alien clothes.

The honey-blonde Polish woman keeps one hand up to try to ease everyone’s concerns while quickly patting herself down. She still has her remaining bear spray canister, her water bottle, her backpack, and her camping knife. She’s pretty sure she didn’t lose anything in any of her stunts.

“Right, so, uh… I know you probably don’t understand me, but… there was an angel… or something. And… uh…”

A couple of the men talk, one to the woman with the baby, and another seemingly directed at those standing near him while his eyes stay focused on Zuzia.

One of the younger men nods and takes off, having just received instructions to do something.

“Yep… That’s definitely my cue, isn’t it?”

She came from the southeast in general, though she entered the town from the northeast, given the path she was trying to avoid it. The young man ran southwest. She doesn’t want to run in the direction of the boy who is likely going to retrieve the knights, but she also needs to keep making her way northwest, since that’s the direction her phone is telling her to go.

“Muszę iść! Cześć! [I should go! Bye!]”

The honey-blonde backpacker bolts to her feet into a run, startling everyone. They begin shouting, but she quickly leaves earshot as she sprints towards the hills northwest of town. She keeps running for as long as she can, losing the daylight a couple hours later.

She takes a break against a tree that has fruit on it, seemingly similar to an apple tree. She’s not exhausted, thankfully, but she does breathe heavily to try to calm herself down.

“A-fff-A-Amalaskae!”

“H-here…” whimpers the goddess as she nervously peeks around the tree. “I-... I’m so sorry!”

“Sorry!? What was that!? Are you some kind of demon!?”

“N-No! I’m just a caretaker of this world! I… I…”

“Obviously, you’re taking really good care of it!” snaps Zuzia, frustrated and upset by everything that just happened. People could have gotten even more seriously hurt, and not only that, she doesn’t have any idea how to control her own powers. In addition to that, it almost certainly would look like she’s the one who caused the fissure, just as she created the crater to stop it, as if stopping her own mistake.

The angel claps her hands together and bows her head, saying desperately gratefully, “Y-You really helped me out! That was entirely my fault! I’m so sorry! Thank you so much for covering for me, Zuzanna!”

Zuzia groans in exasperation, pacing around in a small circle as she tries to let go of her anger. When she faces Amalaskae again, she goes on full attack to keep the angel from getting her bearings.

“Alright! Enough games. Tell me the truth! What happened? Why does it seem like I’m being tricked?”

“Th-Th-There’s no trick!” whines the angel urgently. “I-I-I…” She slumps, admitting softly, “I’m… extremely clumsy.”

Yeah, no duh, thinks the Polish woman to herself.

“Th-That’s why I was so excited when my first summoning was happening, s-s-so, I acted quickly. B-But… If I’m being honest…”

Zuzia narrows her gaze, piecing together what she has assumed with what she now knows.

“There was no specific threat on this world needing a hero, was there?”

“Well, not exactly… Some races on some worlds will summon heroes every chance they get, but this one… Um… Well, the threat that caused another hero to be summoned has already been defeated. And yet, he summoned you. I… I’m not entirely sure why, but… um, my colleague before me… She thinks the hero is afraid of someone who came to this world with him.”

Trying to make sense of it, the blonde shakes her head. “Wait, you mean there are two other people from Earth here? Are they Polish as well?”

“N-No! The hero is Japanese, while the other one is an American. B-But, rumors say he was sent here accidentally.”

Remembering her phone, Zuzia pulls it out to look at her map. Daniel is a fairly common name of Biblical descent on Earth, having spread quite far across the world, including Poland.

The only information on her map is the name itself, so she has no way of knowing for sure that it’s an American named Daniel, but she is fairly confident that it’s not the Japanese hero summoned to this world. “Is the American… Daniel?”

“Yes.”

“Then, my phone… Is it guiding me to Daniel?”

“Mmm…” Amalaskae looks, and she perks up. “Oh! Yes! I linked your phones so you’ll be able to find each other.”

“Didn’t you say the heroes are afraid of each other, though? Who’s the bad guy?”

The angel goes quiet as it becomes clear that such concerns never crossed her mind.

“Ugh…” groans Zuzia in disgust. “Then, what am I supposed to do here?”

“W-Well… Um,... You could try to stop the conflict between Daniel and Rikuto. I think my colleague said it’s growing into a larger conflict, s-so, if you can stop them… Maybe that will be enough?”

“Enough to what? Can’t I just go home?”

Amalaskae gives her a pleading expression, and she asks, “What? Are you going to be killed if I abandon this world? Just summon another…”

Tears start to form in the angel’s eyes. All of her hopes are apparently pinned on Zuzia.

Great… No pressure.

She sighs, asking a little coldly, “This is your first and only chance in your new position, isn’t it?”

Amalaskae nods vigorously, trying to fight back tears.

“Gaaahhh… Ojej!” groans the Polish woman as she paces in a circle again, this time clutching her head and raking her hands through her messy hair. She storms over to Amalaskae, who puts her hands up in immediate surrender. Still, Zuzia pokes her chest, saying sternly, “First, you’ll give me that… Japanese language or whatever it was called. Second, you’ll ask your colleague to come talk to me so I can get some solid answers. And third, I want two wishes when I complete my task, instead of the one you promised me.”

Amalaskae nods nervously like a scared puppy, but she quickly flinches. “I… Well, I can do the first one easily. A-And, I-I’ll ask her… but I can’t make promises for her. We’re really supposed to minimize interference with each other, but this is a special case.  A-As for the wishes…” Amalaskae swallows a lump in her throat. “Um… I… I’ll try to find a way. I-If you can end the major war on this world, I’ll do everything in my power to get you a second wish. I swear it.”

Zuzia sighs again, this time more in acceptance than in exasperation.

“That’s probably the best I’ll get, right? I agree. I’ll try to live up to your expectations.”

“Ooooh! Thank you Zuzanna! Thank you!” Amalaskae hugs her, and for the first time since coming to this world, Zuzia feels actual pain. This clumsy angel nearly destroyed a village simply from falling over, which was very un-divine to begin with, so she’s probably one of the only ones who can overpower Zuzia now. Zuzanna frantically pats her back calling out, “Fine! Fine! Go easy on me!”

Amalaskae releases her with rosy cheeks. “S-Sorry… I… Well, you know…”

Ugh… Yes, I’m figuring it out, you clumsy angel…

Still, Zuzanna can’t stay mad at her with such a gentle and caring expression. Come what may, Amalaskae is her clumsy angel watching over her.

“And, from now on, feel free to call me Zuzia. A-As long as it’s alright to consider us friends.”

Amalaskae happily smiles. “Oooo! Yes, of course, Zuzia!” She dances in place giddily, adding, “I-I’m not really supposed to be ‘friends’ with my chosen hero, but I think it’s okay. Ryukana is friends with one of her heroes, after all…”

You’re going to get us both in humongous trouble, aren’t you? thinks the blonde to herself, though she can’t help but smile. 

“Alright. Then, give me this world’s Japanese language, and I’ll keep working my way towards Daniel. I just hope those guys don’t catch up to me…”

“It’s not Japanese!” whines Amalaskae rather un-angel-like. “I recommend Eastern Imperial Trade, but if you’d like another language…”

“I thought you said it was the same as Japanese…”

“No! It’s very different!”

Zuzia laughs, and the angel fumes impotently before using her powers to bestow the language on the Polish woman. As warned, she can feel a surge in what feels like her entire body, as well as a throbbing headache, but she is able to remember everything still, thankfully. With a few parting words of encouragement, Amalaskae vanishes with a promise to continue watching over her first and ‘favorite’ summon. 

It looks like, even though it’s her choice of what direction to go, Zuzia is going to have her work cut out for her in this new world.

***

Daniel approaches the final boss of his adventure so far. She is the most dangerous and potentially unstable enemy he has challenged to date. Having absorbed the magical power of titanic foes, her deceptively small package hides what she truly is.

Amber eyes tilt away from the game the small demon-kin is playing, and large, triangular ears perk upright in excitement.

“Daniel! There you are. A-Are you… alright to be walking around?”

Yes. She is the final boss, and she is potentially the most dangerous enemy Daniel will ever face.

But, she jogs to his side to make sure he is alright.

After all, she is Hekate, the young feldrok girl whose life he saved from the brink of defeat and starvation, and in turn, she became one of his most loyal and loving companions.

“Hekate, thank you, but I’m alright. Do you have a minute to talk?”

She cocks her head to the side, with her big ears flopping with the movement of her head. “Sure, of course. I-Is… everything alright?”

“Mm-hmm. I’ll explain. I just wanted to do it with just the two of us.”

“Alright. Um, Bunni?”

Bunnrimae, the second youngest daughter of Aramellianna, smiles and bows her head. “Please don’t mind me, Hekate. Daniel. Desti? Do you want to take over for Hekate?”

“Sure!” calls out the youngest daughter. She trots over and takes up Hekate’s side of the chess board, studying the remaining pieces and their positions as her elder sister refreshes her memory on the gameplay.

Hekate takes Daniel’s hand and leads him to a private area. She asks playfully, “Is today the day you break your rules, Daniel? Heeheehee! Just kidding.”

“Yes,... in a way…” murmurs the mechanic.

The young empress halts and looks at him in surprise. “W-W-What?”

Daniel sighs and takes a seat. He pulls her onto his lap so he can hold her gently, since he’s not afraid of her response, whatever it might be. She could destroy the world if she reacts negatively, but he has faith that his little companion will hear him out at least. “Hekate,... I want to lead with this; I love you. I really do care about you, and nothing and no one will ever take your place away.”

“Th-Thank you, Daniel.” Her rosy cheeks accentuate a sheepish smile, but she points out nervously, “Y-You’re never this direct, though. D-Did something happen? I-I-If you’re worried about the curse, I-I’m not happy about it, but I won’t leave you. I-I already forgive you.”

“I know, Sweetpea. But,... I’m going to need your forgiveness again here in a moment… Whether you give it to me is up to you.”

The feldrok girl goes silent as her ears droop. She knows she’s not going to like what she’s going to hear, but she trusts and cares for Daniel as well. She grips his hand with both of hers, saying softly, “I love you Daniel. As long as you remain by my side,... Then you can tell me.”

Daniel hugs her, hesitating for a long time. He made a promise, and the one he made that pledge to has the best interests of him in mind as well as herself and even Hekate.

“Please hear me out to the end.”

Hekate nods softly, sensing the moment approaching. She squeezes his hands for comfort, bracing herself.

“I’m going to marry Ryuogriar.”

The ravenette tenses with a single, solid flinch. She is locked in place for a long moment, and Daniel adds softly, “It was her demand to receive her forgiveness, as well as… a reason for me to keep my promises…”

This finally prompts the young girl to look up into his eyes, staring at him with a needful expression. She desires answers, but her brain can’t seem to keep up with the questions as they form in her brain.

Daniel tries to pet her head, but she smacks his hand away, and he slumps a little. A wide array of emotions pass across the young teen’s face as she processes her feelings, trying to make sense of what she just heard. Part of her wishes she had thought of that, another part wishes to object, another wants to run away, and still a part of her wants to cry.

He adds softly, “I don’t want to lose any of you, and Ryuo is right. I have been afraid to act like a part of this family, because I don’t feel like a part of this world. I haven’t been able to convince myself to fall backwards into anyone’s arms. She’s willful enough to speak her mind when I’m wrong, and mature enough to know how to keep things under control. But, that’s not to say, well… I…”

“...th me…” mumbles the feldrok girl.

“What did you say?” asks Daniel gently, trying not to ignore her.

She suddenly springs off of his lap and grips his collar, screaming, “Then do it with me! Marry me instead! Why is it Ryuo!? Why!?” Tears burst forth from her eyes, and she continues to scream for answers, “Why does it have to be this way!? You promised me first! You… I don’t have anything without you! Ryuo is still a dragon! She has lots of things! So make her leave!”

“Hekate! Hekate! Calm down!” Daniel tries to hug her, but she squirms away from him, crying out in objection. He tries to speak over her so she hears him, “I’m not making anyone go away!”

“I don’t want to be your daughter! I want to be your wife! That’s all I want! I don’t care about anything else!” She throws her steel crown across the room, yelling, “I don’t care about any of it! I just want you!” She loses herself to her sobs, finally allowing herself to be held, and she instinctively grips him, though she continues to squirm as if she’s fighting herself.

Daniel holds her close and pets her head, trying to calm her down. 

He doesn’t know if there’s a circle of hell being made just for him, since he certainly isn’t walking the path of a particularly godly man, but he decides he can’t put it off any longer. “Listen, Hekate, I… know I’ve danced around the topic. S-So…”

As she continues to cry into his chest, he digs in his magic bag for a specific object. “It’s not perfect, since I was still working on it, but… Here.” He slides her onto the bed of the room to kneel in front of her. “Hekate, I… I know this doesn’t seem fair, but… Please, accept this as a promise…” He shows her a ring with an amber-colored stone. “I want to hold to my principles, but I’ll give this to you now as an official promise. The day -the very moment- you turn eighteen… If you will still have me, I would like to marry you.”

She whimpers, looking at him as she sniffles. “But…”

“Ryuo is forcing me to make a commitment now, and she’s already old enough. But, I promised you that I would never leave you. I also tacitly went along with the plan that you would be first, but…”

Hekate looks to the side for a moment, hiding her gaze. She grumbles, “Y-... You never… promised…”

He takes a breath and exhales. “To my shame, I’ve broken promises already, all with the weak excuse that I’m protecting everyone else. That’s why I don’t want to marry you until you’re an adult. I wouldn’t even mind waiting longer, but at least when you’re an adult, you’ll have gotten to be a kid for at least a little while.”

“B-But, I’m not a kid,” whines the young feldrok, her ears flattening back in irritation.

“No, but you’re not quite an adult yet, either. So please, accept this promise, and I swear I won’t break it. You’ll remain the Empress of the Fievegal, and I’ll step down to a rank of Prince Consort or something if that really matters.”

She sucks her teeth, retorting with a hint of disgust, “I told you, I don’t care about that. I don’t care about the Fievegal if you’re not with me. I only play along as Empress because you want me to.”

The human chuckles softly. “Yes, well, you’re right. You do dislike it more than I do.”

She finally cracks a small smile, but she’s far from happy yet. She looks at the ring again, asking softly, “Why can’t Ryuo wait, then?”

“We had a discussion about that. We’re hoping it’ll curb my reckless tendencies, because I’ll officially have a lot more to lose than ever. And, it’ll make Ryuo happy.”

“Hmph!” The ravenette crosses her arms and looks away. “I hope you have a plan to explain it to all of your other mistresses.”

The mechanic sighs. “I hate that I can’t deny it anymore…” He cups her cheek gently, pulling her face to look at him again as he leans on her lap. “Sweetpea, before anyone else, I owe you my life. You were the first one to really give me a reason to live in this world, even if you were just a munchkin to me.”

“Hey!”

He takes her hands and holds them gently. “This is probably dirty of me to say, but whoever will have me, I would like to marry them. And, I’d like you not to kill them.”

She huffs again, looking away. “I haven’t done anything bad to anyone. Even if they’re sucessfully stealing you away from me.”

“If you can convince Ryuo of a better plan, we’ll go with that one. After all, you are the First Empress.”

Hekate pouts her lip, scowling at him with frustration. “So, you want me to solve your problem for you?”

“Honestly… I want all of you to speak your minds even more freely. I’m just some guy, not some hero. If being married officially will make Ryuo stop hesitating to speak to me about her concerns or to scold me before I do something foolish, I don’t mind. I actually… like the idea a bit. That’s why I made that ring already, even if my original plan was to wait for you…”

Hekate’s ears finally perk up, and she looks at the ring again. It’s then that she realizes what he’s saying.

Even as early as it is, he was making a ring to propose to her with, so that he would have it perfect when the time came. She sniffles. Daniel does care about her more than anyone, as do the other Empress consorts.

She wipes her cheeks, throwing her arms over his shoulders and wrapping her legs around his waist. She grumbles, “You’re a butt, Daniel. A big stinky butt…”

He chuckles warmly. “Yes, yes. And, where would any of us be without our stinky butts?”

She scoffs and whines, “You dummy!” She lays her chin on his shoulder, and he continues to hold her, patting her back. She murmurs, “Carry me…”

“Carry you? Where do you want to go?”

“I don’t care. Just carry me for a while.”

“Alright.”

Daniel stands up without objection and walks with Hekate clinging to his chest. After a little while, she mumbles, “Daniel… I don’t want you to think of me or treat me like your daughter… Ryuo’s a dumb-dumb, so I can’t stop her, but… I’m going to be your wife, too. S-So don’t try to back out of it.”

Daniel chuckles as he carries the little feldrok girl. “Sure, sure, Sweetpea. As you wish.”

***