119 - 【Interlude】 Previous Heads + Their Wives
※ This is an interlude. It is unrelated to the main story. I have prepared this separately from the daily updates of the main story.
I am writing here the reason why the "wives of the previous heads" do not appear.
※ On a separate matter, I would like to apologize for a race that appeared in the story. Although I was unaware, I used a race for which Ho〇t holds the copyright. I deeply reflect on this. I have changed Ho〇t to Gnome. Thank you very much for pointing this out in the comments section. Also, I apologize for the commotion.
―Chapter One―
―The Encounter with the Previous Heads Inside the Orb Arc―
Having decided to stay at an inn in the post town, I stepped outside my room following the voice coming from the Orb.
Looking around, I saw a chair placed in the hallway.
I decided to sit there and kill some time for a while.
(Somehow, I've been feeling terribly exhausted lately.)
I lost to my younger sister, Celes, and was kicked out of my family home, the Walt family. Currently, I am being helped by my former fiancée, Novem.
(I'm so sleepy...)
Sitting in the poorly made chair that rattled and shook, I simply closed my eyes.
『Wake up, you brat!』
"Eh, ah, eh!?"
Waking up to the sound of a shouting voice, I looked around my surroundings.
There was a round table with a large, blue, round stone embedded in the center. Fourteen chairs were arranged around it at equal intervals, and men and women were sitting side by side.
Only in my case, I was sitting alone, and no chair had been prepared next to me.
A man who looked like a barbarian by any stretch of the imagination, wearing animal furs over his head, sat in front of me and glared at me as he spoke.
『You've got eyes like a dead fish! Watching you, it's all whimpering, moping... Are you even a man of the Walt family! Listen, the Walt family's selling point is its wildness—Oof!』
A woman in her late twenties silenced the man in his thirties who had started shouting by bringing a fist down on him.
The people around them watched the struck man with an indescribable expression.
Holding his head, the man looked at the woman.
『L-Listen, this was to instill some spirit in my descendant. It's not like I was actually angry or anything. ...Not at all.』
The woman, who had wavy brown hair tied in a ponytail, grabbed the man by the collar and silenced him by landing a hard blow to his body.
(...Eh, what is this?)
Then, the woman next to me stood up and hugged me.
『You've grown so big... Lariel, do you remember me?』
Looking at the woman, I was surprised. She looked strikingly like my grandmother. However, her age appeared to be in her late twenties.
Besides, my grandmother had passed away.
"Eh, but... that's impossible."
As I flustered about, the ponytail woman looked at me and laughed.
『Hahaha, aren't you quite cute? I never imagined my descendant would be such a handsome man. I wonder how a child like you was even born into the Walt family.』
Then, the grandmother who was hugging me glared at that woman.
『...Wait a moment. Lariel carries my blood. In other words, he is of the legitimate lineage connected to the royal family. You're acting so high and mighty, but what is a lady of a mere Knight's rank doing?』
The ponytail woman retorted, a vein popping on her forehead.
『Huh? You're quite cheeky for someone younger. In the first place, do you realize that without me, the members here wouldn't have gathered? Come on, you guys say something too.』
Then, the ponytail woman turned the conversation toward the people next to her who looked like couples. Looking closely, everyone seemed to be in a couple relationship.
The man dressed as a hunter spoke.
『No, well... Mother, let's calm down. Look, our descendant Lariel is troubled too.』
But the woman was different.
『I've been wanting to say this for a long time—』
Touching her straight, long green hair, the woman next to the hunter-dressed man spoke.
『—Mother-in-law's soup is definitely too salty, isn't it?』
...What is she talking about?
Not only was the conversation disconnected, but the green-haired woman had a refreshed expression as if she had said something she wanted to get off her chest.
The hunter-dressed man tried to follow up.
『Hey, that's not it. We're not here to listen to that kind of thing!』
『What! I couldn't say it until the end, so let me say it at least here! You're also at fault for not saying it tastes bad, claiming it's the "Walt family taste"!』
The ponytail woman snapped her fingers and glared at the hunter-dressed man and the woman next to him.
『Hoh... so that's what you were thinking. How sad. Crassel, tell that woman who makes watery soup the truth.』
Apparently, the ponytail woman was the mother of the hunter-dressed man. Since the hunter-dressed man looked slightly older, it was a strange sight.
The grandmother hugging me explained to me.
『It must have been hard, Lariel. But it's okay. Those here are the ancestors of the Walt family... I don't think they'll be very helpful, but since they are skill-holders, they should be of help to Lariel.』
Then, my grandfather in his youth stood up and spoke to grandmother.
『H-Hey! Don't say things like that! Many of the previous generations were well-versed in martial arts. If you put it that way...』
The one who disagreed with grandmother was a woman sitting next to a man who was maintaining an air of indifference.
Standing up next to the small man, she looked toward us.
『Even if we say the royal family, the original cause was you, wasn't it? Listen, Lariel-kun. The Orb that person brought when she married in is the cause of everything.』
The indifferent man also nodded slightly beside her.
『...That's true. I mean, the royal family thing is a bit much.』
Not understanding anything, I looked around.
(Um, I don't understand.)
An aloof man was mediating between the ponytail woman and the green-haired woman.
『Grandmother, Mother, that's enough. Please? It's my request.』
When the two reluctantly backed down after hearing that, his wife spoke.
『Always handling things so smoothly... you really are resourceful. Even though Marks suffered because of you. Right, Marks? Just because he took such a strong-willed shrimp for a wife, Fredricks became twisted...』
The man wearing glasses was flustered, breaking into a cold sweat. The small woman slammed both hands onto the round table and stood up.
『Shut up! As a daughter of a Viscount's house, I worked hard in various ways! What do you mean my Fredricks is twisted!』
The man who had been pretending to be indifferent spoke flusteredly.
『M-Mother, please stop. Hey, Father!』
He was aggressive toward his father, but the man called Father with glasses replied.
『What do you want me to do! I can't go against either of you, so you settle things smoothly like your grandfather did!』
『Don't screw with me, you damn old man!』
As they began to fight, the similarly small woman also started a catfight, grappling with the aggressive woman.
I turned my gaze toward a man who looked wild at first glance with his large body.
However, he had made his large body small, sitting in the chair and worrying about the woman next to him.
The beautiful woman with blonde hair and blue eyes, dressed in a gown, gave off a somewhat cold impression.
『How noisy. Honestly, this is why I hated frontier country nobles.』
『No, I let you live a decent life. That way of speaking is—』
When the wild-looking man said that, the woman glared at him.
『Shut up, you liar! What do you mean you fell for me! Keeping women other than me... basically, you just kept women because your father-in-law told you to... you have no initiative!』
The wild-looking man sent a pleading look for help to the small man.
『...No, I did tell you to take concubines, but that was for the case where you couldn't produce an heir. There was no need to force yourself to keep so many, yet you...』
As the wild-looking man looked down, my grandfather spoke to that woman.
『Mother, why don't we stop here. Lariel is watching too.』
The woman looked at me.
I straightened my back nervously.
『Well, looking closely, you really are cute. I'm sure you'll be a womanizer different from this man. A word of advice, Lariel... don't become like this person, okay?』
Being stared at by eyes with the highlights gone and told that, I nodded repeatedly.
The grandmother hugging me spoke.
『More importantly, Lariel, about Novem.』
"Eh, yes?"
『Isn't that girl a bit suspicious? Somehow... a woman's intuition is whispering to me.』
"Um, but you see. She came with me. Besides, I haven't decided what I should do from here on..."
『Then it's fine!』
Grandmother let go of me and spread her arms.
『The fourteen people here! Combining their skills and the skills that are applications of them, a total of 【Forty-Two Skills】 belong to Lariel! If you want, why not try some country-stealing? I hate the current royal family, so I'll lend my full support. Right, dear?』
When grandmother looked at grandfather, grandfather looked down.
『U-Um... I think taking one or two countries would be easy... but there's the history so far, and the justification.』
To my grandfather who was muttering in a small voice, grandmother put her hands on her hips and opened her favorite folding fan, which she had produced from somewhere.
『What is this? With the men of the Walt family here, you can't even steal one country? Haa, how pathetic. To think the previous generations of the Walt family, hailed as the strongest in Banseime, are only this much.』
Then, the barbarian-style man stood up, clutching his stomach.
『W-Wait a minute. Listen, right now he doesn't have a single soldier, so how are we supposed to do country-stealing...』
Just as I thought he was making a surprisingly logical point, the men were passive.
『True. I hate having the same opinion as my father, but picking a fight with a country is a bit...』
『I think it's a hassle, so let's just flee somewhere and start new cultivation.』
『Ah, I'm good at making money.』
『Let's raise animals, animals!』
『No, I was wrong, so please forgive me already.』
『I was in the position of an advisor to the royal family, you know?』
One person was apologizing profusely to his wife and seemed uninterested in country-stealing. However, the wives of the men had different opinions.
They were bellicose.
『Sounds good! My blood will defeat Banseime and take the royal family... I'm in!』
『If we use the skills of everyone here, it'll be surprisingly fast.』
『Since we rose from a Knight's rank to a Count's house, skipping a bit to the royal family is fine. I mean, the royal family should just disappear. The fact that my husband died is absolutely that bastard's responsibility... So what if he introduced a bride? He just pushed the subsequent trouble onto us...』
『Sounds great! I'll show those descendants of that unpleasant royal child!』
『How much my husband had to endure... I cannot forgive Celes for ruining such a Walt family! Besides, I have not a shred of loyalty to a royal family that neglected the surrounding nobles! You, let's do our best.』
『...I suppose it'll be just right for stress relief. We're doing it, right, dear?』
『There are some houses we have reasonable dealings with. There are many nobles dissatisfied with the royal family. Don't worry, we'll present the throne to Lariel as a gift.』
Even though they said they'd give it to me, before I could even think about wanting it...
"U-Um... I can't even beat Celes."
Then, the barbarian-style man spoke.
『That's why you're pathet—Bugh!』
After being punched away and silenced by the ponytail woman, the women began persuading their husbands.
Through coaxing, sometimes threats, and persistently saying sarcastic remarks, they obtained the permission of the men.
I could do nothing but watch that scene—.
Grandmother spoke.
『Now, Lariel... shall we begin the country-stealing?』
"U-Um—"
Just then, I heard Novem's voice.
"Lariel-sama, you'll catch a cold if you sleep in a place like this."
Novem, who had washed her hair and wiped her body in the room, looked at me worriedly.
With tears in my eyes, I hugged Novem.
"W-What's wrong, Lariel-sama!"
To the panicked Novem, I spoke.
"What should I do, Novem... it's been decided that I'm going to do some country-stealing."
"...Huh?"
Even Novem was stunned by my words.
How was it?
The story won't progress. Fourteen people inside the Orb. If there are that many, the main story won't progress at all! Besides, I can't handle forty-two skills. From the start, Lariel would be in a "Lariel-san" state! (T/N: likely referring to a state of being overwhelmed or a specific meme/reference to the character's name being used in a certain way).
Maybe I'll write a wives-only version in an interlude someday.