Talking At The End Of The Day

It was late at night, and I was in the bedroom. Shia, who shared the room with me, was there as well.

Apparently, it was normal for a married couple to share the same bedroom and the same bed, but I still couldn’t get used to being in that situation with someone as extraordinarily cute as Shia.

Even now, I could barely bring myself to look directly at her in her black nightclothes.

“Here we go…”

I said that to distract myself from my nerves and climbed into bed.

Shia got in as well, and we ended up facing each other beneath the covers.

The custom-made bed was quite large, with more than enough room even for the two of us together.

“Good work today. Did you enjoy yourself?”

“Yeah. The research institute in the Royal Capital surprised me, and afterward Aurora-chan showed me around. Everyone in House Ark Gate was nice too, so I had a good time.”

The slight tension I had been feeling gradually faded away.

Talking with her at the end of the day was already becoming something of a daily routine.

Since we rarely spent much time together during the day, we had started telling each other at night about what had happened to us.

“What about you, Shia? You seemed busy.”

“I went to the Royal Castle, after all. They asked me about various preparations for the upcoming negotiations with the Colle Lake Empire. Since it also concerns our territory, it inevitably took quite a while.”

“I see… Then you really have to think everything through carefully.”

With the war over, diplomatic relations with the northern Colle Lake Empire had begun to open up.

There was apparently still a great deal to handle, such as the movement of people and goods and further improving relations between the two countries.

The royal family was taking the lead, but because Shia had personally ended the war and her territory lay close to the empire, meaning it would be heavily affected, there were apparently many occasions when her opinion was sought.

“Are you okay? You’re not tired or anything?”

“I’m fine, you know? I actually have quite a lot of stamina.”

Shia giggled.

Looking at her small frame, I wouldn’t have guessed it, but lately I had realized that making slightly joking remarks like that was one of her habits.

I needed to keep an eye on her so she wouldn’t push herself too hard.

Well, I saw her every night and she never seemed tired, but maybe she was simply very good at hiding it.

“Come to think of it, apparently the prototype of the Gate device will be ready in about a week. They want you to test that prototype, Nova-san, and if there are no problems, they’ll move ahead with completing it.”

“They can make it that quickly? Nata-san really is amazing.”

“Yuti had already established the theory, so Natasha said all she had to do was turn it into a physical device.”

“Ah, Yuti-san told me about that. She said they develop devices together.”

Shia nodded once.

“Natasha will contact me, so when she does, I’ll put you in touch with her, Nova-san.”

“Yeah. I’ll help anytime.”

Just thinking about being able to use that Gate magic by myself made it impossible to contain my excitement.

“By the way… Natasha’s family, House Wilder, is the family of Zeroad-oniisama’s fiancée, correct? Do you have much contact with them, Nova-san?”

“Ah, you mean Cecilia-san? I greeted her once a long time ago. Maybe once or twice, that’s all.”

Back when I lived at Father’s manor, Zeroad-aniue and Cecilia-san had already been engaged.

Compared to House Fols, House Wilder, the family Cecilia-san and Nata-san belonged to, ranked a little lower in status, but in terms of achievements, it was an equally distinguished noble house.

“Apparently, Father and the head of House Wilder arranged the engagement between the two of them. Basically, it’s the usual kind of betrothal decided by the families. I barely ever spoke with Cecilia-san, but she gave me the impression of being a proud young noblewoman.”

I was somewhat uncomfortable around Rose-san, Kairas-aniue’s wife, but I had never felt that way about Cecilia-san.

“Have they been engaged for quite a long time?”

“Ah, that’s more because of Zeroad-aniue’s wishes… This is just between us, but I don’t think Zeroad-aniue likes Cecilia-san very much. Cecilia-san hates anything improper, and apparently she speaks her mind even to Zeroad-aniue, so he used to get irritated with her a lot.”

Their family standing was almost the same, but while Zeroad-aniue was rather unserious, Cecilia-san was strict and earnest.

In other words, their compatibility was decisively terrible.

Maybe it would have worked better if she had been paired with Kairas-aniue.

…No, that might have ended up being unbearably stiff in its own way.

“So I’m guessing Zeroad-aniue doesn’t plan to officially marry her until he becomes head of House Fols. I’ve never actually asked either of them, though, so I can’t say for sure.”

“That is… quite a story.”

“Even as someone from the family, I completely agree.”

Zeroad-aniue really was troublesome.

“It’s difficult for both of us, having problematic relatives.”

“Huh?”

I didn’t understand what she meant by that sudden comment, so I asked, and Shia lowered the corners of her eyes with a troubled expression.

“Nova-san, thank you very much for what you did for Aura.”

“…………”

For a moment, I wondered what she meant, but then I realized she was talking about what had happened during the day.

“Ah, I’m not sure what you mean…”

“If House Ark Gate’s mana collides within the Royal Capital, of course I notice. And Aura’s mana was unusually agitated. Since the other person was Tiara, I can more or less imagine what happened.”

“Shia, you really are amazing… Aurora-chan asked me to keep it a secret, but you can figure out anything, huh?”

All I could do was smile awkwardly.

Sorry, Aurora-chan. I tried to hide it, but your sister (my wife) is just too incredible, I apologized inwardly before beginning to explain what had happened that afternoon.

“I happened to run into Tiara. We got into a bit of an argument. At first, Aurora-chan objected when Tiara said that because I was a man of House Ark Gate, I should devote myself to the family. But then the conversation turned into something I didn’t really understand, and Aurora-chan got scared. …I think it was probably because someone so much older than her was saying those things.”

At the time, Tiara had definitely brought up Shia and Aurora-chan’s mother. But for some reason, I felt reluctant to repeat that part directly, so I chose to explain it a little more vaguely.

“Then I couldn’t just stand there and watch anymore, so I stepped in. After that, Aurora-chan seemed to get her spirit back… something like that.”

“So that really was what happened…”

With a serious expression, Shia looked straight at me.

“Nova-san, I apologize for Tiara’s rudeness. Please don’t pay any attention to anything she said. You are not a man of House Ark Gate. You are my husband.”

She took my hand and wrapped both of hers around it.

“Yeah, I know. I know what she said was completely off the mark. I told her so properly. I’m not with everyone because I’m a man of House Ark Gate. I’m with Shia because you’re Shia, Yuti-san because she’s Yuti-san, and Aurora-chan because she’s Aurora-chan.”

“Nova-san…”

For just a moment, Shia’s grip on my hand tightened.

Then the strength eased, and a smile appeared on her face.

“Thank you… Hehe. Still, I suppose I’ll have to reward Aura. It was admirable of her to stand up so boldly for you, Nova-san.”

“Aurora-chan really is an amazing girl.”

“But she has her vulnerable side too. You may have sensed that this afternoon.”

“Yeah, I did… So I’ll make sure to look out for her. Though I was already doing that before, of course.”

I remembered Aurora-chan trembling that afternoon.

I thought part of the reason something inside me had snapped was because an adult like Tiara was bullying such a small child, but more than that, the sight of her had overlapped in my mind with the person I loved most when she herself had been little.

“…Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

We smiled at each other. After that, we continued talking about all sorts of trivial things.

And once we had talked ourselves out, we held hands and surrendered ourselves to a pleasant drowsiness.

After saying good night, with happiness still filling us, neither of us knowing who drifted off first, our consciousness gradually sank into the world of sleep.