I Took The Head Of My Archrival's House As My Wife

Travis Fols, Zeroad Fols, Kairas Fols.

The three fools lined up before me.

When I glanced over, Nova-san boldly glared back at Zeroad, the greatest fool among them.

After officially marrying Nova-san, we visited the manor to report our marriage to House Fols, but they glared at Nova-san, looked at me with wary eyes, and truly were beyond saving.

If they were going to be wary of me like Kairas, they should at least make sure I didn’t notice, and openly glaring at someone like Zeroad did was completely out of the question.

In the first place, if I weren’t deliberately suppressing my mana, they wouldn’t even be able to remain standing here.

“…Congratulations, Nova.”

“…This is certainly cause for celebration, Nova.”

Following Travis’s earlier words of congratulations, Zeroad and Kairas offered their own, but their expressions were far from celebratory.

I truly wondered how Nova-san had managed to endure living in such a terrible environment.

Frankly, I was growing tired of maintaining this false smile.

It was all so utterly ridiculous, and none of it mattered in the slightest.

Travis bullied those beneath him while fawning over those above him, Zeroad took pleasure in trampling the weak, and Kairas was so overly cautious that there was nothing interesting about him at all. Every last one of them looked down on Nova-san.

But for now, they could laugh at him in contempt. They could keep thinking he was insignificant.

Someday, without fail, Nova-san would obtain the peaceful world that lay beyond the continuation of this current peace.

The position of head of House Fols, House Ark Gate—everything would belong to Nova-san.

Because I, of all people, would make it so.

“Even so, meeting again with a girl you encountered in childhood and then ending up together with her really does feel like fate.”

“Tanya, you really like that sort of thing, don’t you?”

“When someone experiences a romance straight out of a romance novel, it is enjoyable even for those watching from the sidelines.”

As Tanya brewed coffee for me in the study of my manor, we chatted casually about such things.

Though I called it a study, the amount of work I had was still so small that I could count it on one hand, and I spent far more time simply sitting around. In short, I was bored.

“Leticia-sama… no, Madam has helped me in many ways. I was especially always fed up with Zeroad’s remarks.”

After Shia and I officially married, Tanya had started calling Shia “Madam.”

Incidentally, she had also changed how she addressed me from “Nova-sama” to “Master.”

I told her she could keep calling me Nova like before, but she absolutely refused to listen.

“No, this is something that must be handled properly… no, something I want to handle properly!” she had insisted so strongly that I couldn’t bring myself to refuse.

Even so, despite changing how she addressed me, Tanya was already calling me “Master” as naturally as if she’d always done so by the very next day.

Only the form of address had changed, while our relationship remained the same, so I figured either was fine.

“Right, Shia kind of became your backing, didn’t she? I really can’t thank her enough… Though it’s fine when it’s just me, be careful when you’re in front of Brother Zeroad.”

Seeing Tanya mutter that with genuine disgust reminded me of when we’d encountered Brother Zeroad in the courtyard of my family home.

Part of it was because he’d hurt me under the guise of training, but Tanya had been completely unapproachable back then.

Compared to how things had been before, I thought this was a good change.

“He should be grateful I’m even willing to call him by name. I absolutely despise that monkey—excuse me, Zeroad.”

“You’re really saying it outright now…”

She’d finally stopped recognizing him as a human being, but perhaps it was a good thing that she could at least speak honestly in front of me now. In the past, she hadn’t even been able to do that.

When I thought about it that way, I had nothing but gratitude for Shia.

“Really… Shia is such a wonderful person that she’s almost too good for me…”

“…Well, it goes without saying that she is an extraordinary person.”

“Exactly… She’s so lovely and delicate…”

Her black hair was like the night itself, she was short, and her body was so slender she looked as though she might snap.

Just picturing her was enough to make affection well up inside me.

“Lovely… and delicate?”

“She’s kind, too, and smart.”

I remembered the way she’d smiled at the children in Saria, the way she spoke with Aurora-chan, and how she was always thinking about me in so many different ways. I truly thought she had a kind personality.

And it went without saying that she was smart.

She probably knew far more about all sorts of things than I did.

“I understand smart… but kind?”

She was flawless, both in appearance and personality.

Then I remembered what had happened in that back alley, and I couldn’t help smiling with happiness.

“She’s cute, too… Basically, she’s the best wife I could ever ask for.”

From the bottom of my heart, I thought I’d married someone far too good for me.

“…………”

But Tanya fell silent.

When I looked over at her, she pressed her lips tightly together and stared at me as though she wanted to say something.

“Master… Madam is only like that toward you.”

“No, that’s not true.”

It seemed my personal attendant had gotten the wrong idea about Shia.

But Shia would be living in this manor too, so she and Tanya would naturally have more opportunities to interact.

I figured it was only a matter of time before Tanya realized her misunderstanding.