Chapter 5

“Angelica… I… have married Lateia.”

The girl Hero, Angelica, froze.

She was so still I honestly wondered if she’d been hit with a Petrification spell.

I suppose this was the result of her rational mind flatly refusing to process what I’d just said.

If I started firing off more words, it would probably only cause further confusion, so I decided to remain silent for a moment.

“Phew…” Angelica let out a long, heavy sigh.

Oh? That was a calmer reaction than I expected. I suppose that’s the composure of a Hero for you.

But then, Angelica grabbed her own cheek and gave it a violent twist!

“Dammit! Why won’t I wake up?! Wake up already! I don’t want to see an ominous nightmare like this!”

So she wasn’t calm after all… Though, I suppose one could call this a perfectly natural reaction.

“Calm down! This is no dream! It is a fact! Listen to me!”

“She’s right, Angelica. It’s true. Mama has decided to get remarried~”

Lateia’s voice was airy and gentle, completely at odds with the tension in the room. To keep her cool even in such a bizarre situation—she really is the woman who gave birth to a Hero. To put it mildly, she’s incredible. Lateia is truly precious.

“Mama, are you being controlled…? Or are you being threatened…? Tell me the truth!”

She stopped pinching her cheek, but there was no doubt that I wasn’t trusted in the slightest.

“I was drawn to Garto’s straightforward attitude. Plus, he’s quite the gentleman.”

“Gentleman?! He’s the Demon King! There’s no way! He probably spends every day killing innocent people and slurping up their lifeblood!”

“I do no such thing. That is prejudice. I am not a vampire. Besides, I believe there are even human tribes that use animal blood as a cooking ingredient.”

“Demon King, shut up!”

She told me to shut up. Well, she is at the age for a rebellious phase…

“Come to think of it, Angelica is just about at that age, isn’t she? The age where she’d get cranky if, say, her laundry was washed together with her papa’s.”

“Indeed. As expected, Lateia is very knowledgeable.”

“Mama, do not equate hating the Demon King with a rebellious phase! And you, Demon King, seriously—shut up!”

Remaining silent was easy enough, but it didn’t seem like staying quiet was going to solve the problem…

Whether the girl Hero accepted it or not, I needed her to grasp the facts, or we wouldn’t be able to move on to the next step.

Lateia walked slowly over to the girl Hero and pulled her into a hug, gently patting her back.

“Calm down. No one is lying to you. Mama has decided to get remarried.”

The power of a mother is a grand thing. The girl Hero’s expression finally softened.

“Even if I concede a hundred steps and accept the remarriage… why the Demon King…?”

“He brought you home with the utmost care. After that, we spoke for a bit, and I knew right away that he was a sincere person.”

“You’re just being tricked—”

“Mama has a lot of confidence in her ability to judge a person’s eyes.”

When Lateia said that, the girl Hero fell silent.

“I know this is absurd,” I added. “But I fell in love with Lateia at first sight. My feelings are genuine. That is why I took the plunge and… proposed…”

Angelica pulled away from Lateia’s embrace and stared at me intensely, as if scrutinizing my very soul.

Then, she abruptly turned her back to me.

“Mama is the one who decides who she marries, so I guess there’s nothing I can do about that. But…! I will never recognize that guy as my father!”

With that, she stormed out of the room.

“W-Wait… H-Hero!”

“Why would a Hero listen to anything a Demon King says?! Leave me alone for a while!”

The girl Hero retreated into her room and slammed the door shut.

If I tried to force it open now, our relationship would only become even more strained.

As I stood there staring at the door, Lateia gave me a few gentle pats on the back.

“Well~ I suppose that was within the realm of expectations~ It’s enough to give anyone a shock, not just her~”

“True… It’s only natural for her to think it’s a bad joke.”

“Let’s look at the bright side. See? She did say she wouldn’t complain about who I chose to marry.”

“Ah, I suppose so…”

Though I still haven’t been recognized as a father.

“In other words, she isn’t mentally prepared to accept you as a father yet, but she won’t oppose the marriage. She’s saying she’ll at least acknowledge you becoming her legal father.”

I suppose it could be interpreted that way.

“Don’t you think that’s much better than her saying she won’t recognize the marriage at all? We can just take our time breaking down those walls eventually.”

“Lateia, thank you…”

“Now, now, there’s no need for you to feel down, Garto. Let’s finish our meal. You can’t come up with good ideas on an empty stomach~”

Lateia and I resumed our dinner.

I found myself sitting with slightly better posture than before.

I have to live my life in a way that doesn’t earn the contempt of a girl that age. If she thinks I’m a slob, I’ll lose her trust for good.

Since she’s a Hero, perhaps if I show her that I’m living earnestly, she’ll open her heart to me someday.

“By the way, Garto, is this your first marriage? Or is it a remarriage?” Lateia asked casually.

Certainly, it wouldn’t be good to remain silent about it.

I should tell her sooner rather than later. After all, she is my wife. There should be no secrets between us.

“It’s a bit of a somber story, if that’s alright?”

I spoke slowly about my previous wife, Sasaya.

For the first time during our conversation, a look of sadness crossed Lateia’s face. She is a person with the kindness and strength to empathize with the suffering of others.

“That must have been a painful experience. And compared to humans, you’ve had to endure it for a much, much longer time…”

“Yes. However—and this might sound too convenient—when I met you, Lateia, I felt as though my late wife was giving me a push forward.”

—Telling me to stop worrying about her and find happiness.

“Of course she would. I wouldn’t want the person I loved to live in loneliness forever, either.”

Lateia looked as though she were imagining Sasaya’s expression.

“My apologies for talking about another woman.”

“No, it’s fine. Besides, I think about my previous husband, too. It would be strange if I didn’t, and you wouldn’t fall for a woman who could just completely forget her first husband, right, Garto?”

Exactly. It would be stranger not to remember.

“Um, I’m not sure if it’s okay to ask, but why haven’t you remarried until now, Lateia?”

“It’s quite simple,” Lateia said with a soft chuckle. “When my husband passed away, that girl—Angelica—was still very young. I was so desperate to raise her that I didn’t have the luxury of falling in love again.”

Ah, Lateia and I were similar, yet completely different.

Sasaya and I never had children. Therefore, I had never experienced a relationship with a child.

Which meant I was a complete novice at parenting.

Now that I suddenly have a teenage daughter, will I really be able to make this work…?