NOVEL WEB Chapter 16 - Drunken Talk
✦ Chapter 16 – Drunken Talk ✦
「Translator – Creator」
Click, creak—
As I opened the small door and entered, I noticed someone lying face down on a large bed.
Stretched out legs in a white nightgown-like dress were tapping the bed rhythmically while reading a book. Realizing someone had entered the room, a disgruntled voice spoke—
“Gremory, I told you not to disturb me while I’m reading.”
“I’m not Gremory.”
“Eek!”
Only then did the woman tremble as if she had been greatly surprised.
She flapped around like a tuna dragged ashore and pulled the covers over herself, which was so ridiculous that I couldn’t help but laugh.
“Daniel! This… this is…!”
“The loose hair looks good on you.”
With her hair now loose instead of tied back like a young nobleman’s, Del had transformed into a truly beautiful woman. However, her face was as red as a tomato and as amusing as a clown’s.
“Eek! Ack! Why? This is… Daniel! The situation is…!”
“There’s no point in beating around the bush. Actually, I thought it was strange from the beginning. You see, noble ladies on the continent carry daggers to protect their chastity, don’t they? You’ve had one since the first time we met.”
A man wearing a chastity dagger around his waist like a noblewoman. And to top it all off, the dagger didn’t even chip or break in the fight with Imseti Paimon — there were few people in this world who could afford such an expensive item. That’s how I easily deduced her true identity.
“I’ll return the knife you dropped.”
“Daniel.”
Del, who had been clutching the blanket in embarrassment, received the dagger from me and sighed as if having made a decision; her expression quickly composed itself, becoming as hard and cold as a steel helmet.
“…Daniel, I’m so sorry for deceiving you. But you’ve lied to me too. About your identity.”
A lie about my identity? Could she have figured out that I was Emperor Bael? I wondered how she could have discovered my secret.
“You weren’t a mage who could manipulate mana. You were the adopted son of Nimrod Dantalian, once known as one of the continent’s Five Swords, and a mana insensitive.”
Oh, so that’s what she meant.
I had told Del that I was a mage. But in truth, I couldn’t even sense mana, let alone use magic. It seemed the real Lady Somnia had recently investigated me and uncovered the truth behind my lie.
“Since we’ve both lied, could we consider it even and move past this?”
Somnia’s tone was as hard and firm as ice. If so, what was the meaning behind the attitude she had shown me as ‘Del’ until recently?
I suddenly became curious.
“Why did you go to all that trouble? Creating a fake person. Participating in the hunting competition under a false name and identity. Did you really have to do that?”
“Daniel, are you aware that the Emperor courted me?”
“I know.”
“He was practically begging.”
“That, I didn’t know.”
“Have you heard about how the Emperor refused meals for three days after I rejected his marriage proposal?”
“I’m really hearing this for the first time.”
Even though I had arranged a political marriage, it was only a matter of exchanging letters between the family and the imperial family. It seems the story of the Emperor begging Somnia and getting rejected had already become famous across the continent.
“As long as I remain unmarried, the emperor will never give up his ambition to unite the North under him by using me. That’s why I held the hunting competition.”
“To find a marriage partner?”
“Yes. And I also participated as a secret judge. And if it didn’t work out…I thought I could make Del the winner and promote the marriage of Del and Lady Somnia.”
“So you were going to pretend to be married to someone you made up.”
It was quite a clever idea. Well thought out.
Rustle, click, jingle—
Somnia put on the helmet placed at the head of the bed and donned the wolf cloak; the shy girl from before had vanished, and now the Lady of the North stood before me in a private audience.
“You must have heard the story from Gremory, my substitute. The winner has the right and duty to take over everything in Paimon. You have to marry me.”
“I don’t like it.”
“…What?”
⋆༺𓆩☠︎︎𓆪༻⋆
In the midst of the stagnant conversation, I decided to express my opinion clearly.
“I said I don’t like it. You’re still lying.”
“What lie are you accusing me of?”
Somnia bristled. To me, it seemed as if I could clearly see the face of the North’s most beautiful woman that everyone was so curious about, despite her helmet. Surely, it would be the face of a liar.
“Names like Somnia or Del don’t matter. The person by my side these past few days was undoubtedly the real you. You weren’t wearing any flimsy mask.”
“…What do you mean?”
“Isn’t it suffocating? That helmet and cloak.”
“Well, yes, it is. It’s especially inconvenient when eating. Though it became a bit more comfortable after I modified it to remove the mouth part.”
“That’s not what I meant. You became Del because you were bored, dull, and suffocated to the point of wanting to become someone else, right? Actually, you wanted to run away, right?”
“Run away? What would I be running away from? I am the Ruler of the North. I don’t need to run away from anything. On the contrary, my enemies should be running away from me.”
“That’s precisely why. You just wanted to run away irresponsibly from the duties and responsibilities that weigh you down and live like someone else, didn’t you? I know people like you well, so you must be right.”
“That’s…”
“I’ll be honest. I’m not particularly interested in everything the Paimon family has to offer. It sounds boring and tedious. What I wish for is something a little simpler and more material.”
“How dare you call Paimon tedious. How rude!”
Somnia, who had been silent, flared up.
She soon clenched her fists and shouted.
“It’s more precious to me than I deserve! But I still have a long way to go. Compared to my father, I’m still just a greenhorn. I may not be able to protect the North or the legacy of my ancestors.”
“So you ran away?”
“I didn’t run away. But… to be honest, I felt like I was taking a vacation. I may have needed a little rest because I had so many worries that I couldn’t sleep every night.”
I recalled that Del suffered from severe insomnia. When she reached her limits due to sleeplessness, Del became “The Claw of Silence.”
She herself was unaware of this.
“Also, people around me always get hurt for unknown reasons. Even Gremory was severely injured while I was asleep. This has happened several times already.”
“So you became afraid of sleeping?”
“If someone marries me and becomes my family, they too would end up getting hurt. That’s why my partner needs to be stronger than me.”
It occurred to me that Somnia might instinctively know that she was like a dangerous time bomb.
Perhaps that’s why she had been waiting for a man strong enough to subdue her.
“Then why didn’t you just marry the Emperor? He might have been able to protect you.”
“The Emperor is my father’s enemy. On that day, when he climbed the demon realm of the snow-capped mountain alone and attacked Avalam, my father was killed by him.”
“You can’t be certain yet. He could simply be missing.”
“Of course, only those involved know the truth. But my father is not the kind of man who would irresponsibly abandon his family and the North for years. If he were alive, he would have come back. So…”
“……………”
“I cannot share a bed with the enemy of my family. If I were to marry him, it would be to stab him in the throat while he’s asleep.”
…No, that’s a bit too much.
However, I could tell from the recent conversation that Somnia was quite messed up and under a lot of pressure. I thought of Phoebe, who had struggled to protect Dantalian alone since Nimrod left.
Five years of war had claimed many men’s lives. Women who had lost brothers, fathers, and husbands were now struggling to fill their roles in various places.
Perhaps that’s why there were so many female tavern owners in this world. Could they all be like this?
I reached out my hand and removed the helmet covering Lady Somnia’s face.
Somnia, with dark circles under her eyes, looked at me with a face resembling a panda’s.
“Oh, geez. Marriage is definitely out of the question.”
“Is there perhaps another woman you fancy?”
“…No, not particularly. I just don’t take life lightly enough to rush into marriage with someone I’ve only known briefly. But what about you? Are you okay with it?”
“Me?”
“You barely know me either. Until recently, you even mistook me for a mage. Can you really marry someone you hardly know?”
“I know you well enough, Daniel. You’re strong enough to survive a fight with Imseti Paimon, and you’re a kind person who can’t ignore those in danger. You’re also wise enough to see through my stand-in and true identity when no one else could.”
“If that’s how you see me, then you don’t know me at all. I may not be the person you think I am. You may regret your choice later.”
“No. Although I’m lacking in many ways, I’m confident in my judgment. Daniel, you’re more than strong and capable enough to be my match.”
Somnia grasped my collar.
“I didn’t just propose marriage to you out of a sense of duty. Daniel, you and I were destined to meet. You also entered the competition aiming for marriage with me, didn’t you?”
“No, I just had something I wanted from the Paimon family…”
“If you marry me, everything Paimon has will be yours.”
Somnia’s resolve was firm, typical of the stubborn Northerners. Even if I asked for the ‘Sunflower’ and ‘Moonlight Stone,’ she’d likely say, ‘Marry me and take them.’
At this rate, I might really have to marry her. The problem was that my true identity was Emperor Bael, Somnia’s enemy.
We were surely destined for a terrible married life.
“Everything Paimon has!”
Koooow—!
Somnia’s grip on my collar tightened. I thought Somnia’s eyes resembled those of a drunken person.
“We’ll have three sons and two daughters. Two sons will learn magic and swordsmanship, and we’ll send the third to the moon. We’ll marry off the daughters to the underworld—”
In fact, Somnia was babbling nonsense like a drunk person’s rant.
“Somnia, take a breath and think about it. You’re exhausted from not sleeping for a long time, aren’t you? You can’t judge the situation well in that state. Honestly, you’re not in your right mind right now.”
“But I’m perfectly clear-headed?”
“No, you’re not. Even your way of speaking is odd. You keep talking so formally.”
“…Is my speech awkward?”
“No, it fits you well, honestly.”
“Daniel, you know me as Del, but in fact, I’m the pride of the North, strict with others and with myself. Formality and strictness must start with the tone of voice.”
Hehehe…
Somnia laughed awkwardly like the day we first met. Soon, she yawned and let out a big one, “No matter how much I want to sleep, I can’t. I’ve tried all sorts of remedies and efforts, but I just can’t sleep. I’m also afraid of sleeping…”
“Shall I massage your shoulders? When my parents couldn’t sleep due to illness, I used to massage their shoulders.”
“Daniel, I’ve already tried shoulder massages. It won’t—”
Rustle.
Snore…
One minute after I started massaging her shoulders, Somnia lay down on the bed and fell into a deep sleep. As I had thought when I first met her, she truly was an amusing woman.
— End of Chapter —
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Translator’s Notes :-
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