kscans

Chapter 72 - The Truth of the All-Purpose Dagger and the Unrequited Love

Leonhard had to admit it.

I've been influenced by Mireille quite a bit.

When Kyle and the others asked what he was going to do, he unhesitatingly rang the Monster-Repelling Bell, instructed everyone to extract the magic cores from all the monster carcasses, and to separate the hides, meat, eyeballs, blood, and bones, and then began the work in silence.

Like a craftsman. Just a short while ago, he wouldn't have been able to do such a thing, nor would he have even thought of it.

They decided to bring back only the frozen crab-like creature as it was. Tonight's dinner was crab.

"You know, watching you now, Leonhard... it's like watching my younger self."

As he said this, Darius took out a dagger that looked exactly like the one he had given Mireille and began to butcher a monster. His skill was so impressive that Leonhard found himself staring.

Is this what I'm going to be like in the future?

"Hey, Darius. Don't you think it's a bit much to give a dagger to Mireille, who has zero combat experience? In the end, without an attribute, she couldn't even defeat a single slime."

When I said this with a glare, Darius's mouth fell open.

"Huh? Of course. Why would Mireille use a dagger for combat?"

Leonhard's face also showed his confusion.

"Well, how is she supposed to live?"

"That's why I assigned you to her, right? That dagger is an all-purpose daily life tool."

"An all-purpose... tool?"

"That's right. For butchering, of course, but with the water attribute, it's a shower. Stab it into something with ice, and it's a freezer. With wind, it's a fan, or if you make it stronger, a refrigerator. With fire, it's a cooking utensil. It's an incredibly convenient single tool."

"What?"

No way, I had no idea!

"When Ariel made it, she explained it to me and said, 'If something happens, give this to Mireille,' so I just assumed you knew how to use it."

"..."

"So, how were you living?"

"She washed herself at the nearby waterside, cooked over an unfamiliar campfire, and once we realized we could travel back and forth to her townhouse with that thing, we used things from her house."

It was hard enough to admit they were alone in a room for two, there was no way he could say he'd put her in the bath. He fudged the details a bit.

Silence. Darius also had a dumbfounded look on his face.

In the next moment, the surrounding squad members burst into laughter.

"No way! You went that far and you're still at the 'wishing to be her fiancé' level? You're way too shy!"

"A campfire. You'd make her do that in the Tree Sea?"

"Alone for a week, with a dress-up session included, right?"

"Guh..." Every laugh gouged out a piece of his heart.

"Well, you are quite shy. Your relationship with Mireille is still like that, right?" Darius grinned.

Damn it... what kind of situation is this, being called "shy" by the man who's like her father.

"So what about you, Darius? Are you going to marry the former captain after this?" The question popped into my head, and he laughed sadly.

"Ah... I'd like to. But if my father becomes king... it's probably impossible."

"Eh?"

The laughter around them died down instantly.

"She is dearer to me than anyone. That's why I'm going to save Ariel, even if it means throwing away my own life, and my desire to be with her, to marry her. But this time, I've borrowed too much power from the nobles. So I don't think there's a future where we can be together anymore."

"Are you serious?" I asked, and Darius nodded.

"I'm serious. It was already difficult being a duke and a commoner. But this time, if the coup d'état succeeds, my family will be the royal family. The people around us wouldn't accept it. We can't create a new source of conflict. If there's a marriage proposal from a powerful noble, I probably wouldn't be able to refuse."

Darius paused for a moment and looked up at the sky with a pained expression.

"Besides, Ariel had been telling me over and over even before this happened. 'Once Mireille can stand on her own, you should leave a commoner like me.' The truth is, she says she doesn't understand the feeling of love, so no matter how much I love her, it's meaningless."

"That's..." someone muttered softly.

The hands that had been dismantling monsters stopped, and the squad members fell silent. Some were even tearing up.

It was famous that Darius doted on Ariel of the Moonshadow Teahouse. And now, he was staging a coup d'état for her sake. And yet, what awaited him at the end of it all was an unrequited love?