Vol 2 Chapter 4 – The Honeymoon Continuation Came with a Bonus

The war had ended, and Yumeba and I finally had time to spare.

“Hey. Can’t you use your magic to find that gold-plated muscle daruma?”

Yumeba still hadn’t given up on beating down that mercenary company leader.

“Magic that targets specific individuals requires marking them beforehand. I had no interest in that guy, so I didn’t mark him.”

“Mmm…”

Incidentally, the only person I’d marked so far was Yumeba.

So no matter where Yumeba went, I could know her location through World Map, and I could teleport to her side anytime.

Was it okay for personal information to leak like that?

I’d properly gotten Yumeba’s permission, and more than that, Yumeba was happy to be bound by me.

Rather than calling it binding, it seemed she was happy thinking that just as she wanted to monopolize me, I also wanted to monopolize her.

“More importantly, wasn’t mithril a rare metal? That mercenary company seemed to have quite a lot of it.”

“There’s probably a mithril mine somewhere in the Kingdom of Rotoria. I doubt that poor country could afford to hire an entire mercenary company, so they must have paid with mined mithril.”

“…Couldn’t they have just sold the mithril normally?”

“When they can’t even process the metal properly?”

“Ah.”

From what I’d researched, that mercenary company had coated themselves in mithril using techniques they’d developed independently, but ordinary nations lacked the means to process mithril.

In other words, even if you could mine mithril, buyers weren’t easy to find.

“Is mithril really that hard to process?”

“Does it help to know that the entire Empire only had one craftsman who could work with it?”

“Wow…”

Though the Empire’s territory had been halved now, it used to span one-sixth of the continent. Having only one person in such an empire was incredibly rare.

“Plus, processing it takes an incredible amount of time. If you wanted to make a sword from mithril, it would take years.”

“Could it be…”

I imagined the holy sword stored in Yumeba’s bracelet, though she wasn’t wearing it now.

“The holy sword isn’t made of mithril.”

“Oh, it’s not?”

“It’s made of orichalcum, the legendary metal.”

“…That’s beyond what I imagined.”

Orichalcum was a metal that could be called the complete superior of mithril, with incomparably better hardness and magical resistance.

Truly a legendary-grade metal, said to be impossible to mine, refine, or process with modern technology.

“If we’re only considering hardness, adamantite is an option too, but that’s way too heavy.”

“Its specific gravity is abnormal.”

Adamantite was also considered a rare metal, but its characteristic was having hardness surpassing mithril while lacking magical resistance.

So it was a metal that could be processed using magic, but the problem was its specific gravity.

Even on Earth, gold was known as a heavy metal, but adamantite was over 30 times heavier than gold.

Even if you had an adamantite sword, normal people couldn’t even lift it.

And since it had low magical resistance, while it could be processed with magic, conversely that meant adamantite armor couldn’t defend against magical attacks at all.

Someone wearing adamantite armor would be too heavy to move and would just become a target for magic.

“So that’s why legendary weapons can’t be created easily.”

“…Hey, Lio.”

“Hmm?”

“I think this katana is plenty legendary-level.”

“…”

Ah, right. If you use magic, creating legendary-level weapons is easy.

Though I’d never use inscription magic on anyone else’s weapon besides Yumeba’s, so it was effectively exclusive to her.

“Anyway, the war’s over, so let’s continue our honeymoon!”

“…Once the war footing is lifted.”

The war had ended, but that only meant direct combat had ended. The war footing wouldn’t be lifted until post-war negotiations with the Kingdom of Rotoria concluded.

Naturally, the Saionji Duke family wouldn’t get permission to leave the capital.

“…I hate war.”

“I think people who like it are in the minority.”

Probably only those who purely enjoyed fighting or thought war was profitable liked it.

“Hmm. It doesn’t really concern us, but the Kingdom of Rotoria, having broken the treaty and gotten thoroughly defeated, will probably have to pay massive reparations to the Empire…”

“That country has no money, so what they could pay instead would be… mithril, I guess?”

“Right.”

Even though it was supposedly hard to find buyers, it was still a rare metal that traded at high prices, so mithril would likely be offered as reparations.

“So the Empire’s treasury stays empty.”

“If you want to use it, Lio, the Saionji Duke family will buy it.”

“…I’m not confident I could process mithril.”

Using magic wouldn’t make it impossible, but conversely, that didn’t mean it was possible either. Even if I could process it, whether I could make a proper product was highly questionable.

So I didn’t particularly want mithril.

◇◇◇

I hadn’t wanted mithril, but…

“How did it come to this?”

“Well, the Saionji Duke family’s achievements this time were tremendous. The Emperor needed to give rewards, so he probably thought this was perfect.”

After post-war negotiations, as expected, the mithril transferred from the Kingdom of Rotoria as reparations flowed entirely to the Saionji Duke family.

With an empty treasury, the Empire gave the high-priced but unsellable mithril to the Saionji Duke family as a reward, treating it like inventory disposal.

“Couldn’t we take it to that one blacksmith in the Empire who can process mithril?”

“That person died in battle during the war with the Alliance.”

“…Excuse me?”

“Seems he was a stubborn person, like a blacksmith should be, and lived far from the capital. He got caught up in it when the Alliance invaded.”

“…They should’ve evacuated him.”

“Normally he’d be an important national figure evacuated first, but… that war was a surprise attack from the Empire’s perspective.”

“Ahh…”

While we’d known the situation beforehand, from the Empire’s view it was a complete surprise attack, so they probably didn’t have time to evacuate important figures living on the Empire’s periphery.

“Actually, they were so panicked about being attacked that they only remembered him after the war.”

“…Poor man.”

Someone important enough that the Empire should have protected him as top priority.

“So that’s why mithril is now just expensive baggage taking up space for the Empire. We wouldn’t have taken it either if you weren’t here, Lio.”

“Fine, fine. I’ll put it in my Item Box.”

The mithril the Kingdom of Rotoria had stockpiled was a considerable amount—without my Item Box, it would’ve overflowed from the Saionji Duke family’s warehouses.

I didn’t even feel like checking how many tons there were.

It’s wasteful to just let it gather dust in Item Box. Maybe I should develop processing magic.

Though even if I could create processing magic, who knows how many years—how many decades—it would take to use all of this.

◇◇◇

The war footing was finally lifted.

The processing magic wasn’t complete yet, but more importantly…

“Let’s continue our honeymoon!”

We could finally go on the continuation of our honeymoon, interrupted by an inconsiderate volcano and then postponed by an oblivious country’s invasion.

“That’s fine, but where should we go next?”

“Let’s see…”

We’d planned to relax in the countryside with abundant nature next, but we hadn’t decided on a specific destination yet.

So Yumeba and I were about to enjoy planning again, but…

“I’m coming with you this time too♪”

“…”

We were forced to pause by the world’s strongest creature suddenly barging into the conversation.

“Um. Taking the head of the Saionji Duke family outside the capital without permission is…”

“This time! I’m! Coming! With you!”

“…”

What should I do? Someone help me.

During the previous honeymoon, from what Yumeba told me through the telepathic device—while she’d apparently been lovey-dovey with her husband at home, she was still envious.

So if there was a next opportunity, she’d absolutely come along. She showed no signs of yielding to my persuasion.

Actually, she was smiling sweetly while completely ignoring my persuasion.

This wasn’t going to work.

I asked Yumeba for help, but…

“Just take her along since it’s too much trouble.”

“…”

She’d already entered resignation mode.

“…As long as we don’t get caught, right?”

Yeah. I decided to give up too.

That said, we needed to prepare for emergencies in the capital, so we’d have to leave a telepathic device with personnel remaining in the capital to contact us if something happened.

Of course, leaving a telepathic device meant choosing trustworthy personnel.

The most trustworthy person in the capital would be Serina, emotionally speaking, but…

“That girl is out of the question.”

“Yeah…”

Yumeba-san rejected her outright, as expected.

Even if she’d truly broken free of the brainwashing on her own and regained memories with us, Serina was currently still connected to Yunix’s faction. Beyond that, Yumeba wouldn’t permit carelessly involving Serina.

After carefully selecting candidates…

“Me?”

We ended up asking a familiar female staff member at the Adventurer’s Guild.

Since we’d come to the Adventurer’s Guild, I was naturally transformed as Alisa, and this time Yumeba had come along too.

“You already know my true identity, and you wouldn’t disassemble and examine the telepathic device to the point of making enemies of me or the Saionji Duke family, right?”

“…That’s correct.”

My telepathic devices were made based on magic, so even the most skilled mage couldn’t easily analyze them. Still, having them carelessly disassembled or fall into a power holder’s hands would be troublesome.

So I tried asking the Adventurer’s Guild female staff member as an extremely personal acquaintance, but…

“I know you understand, but that’s equipment I’m lending you, not a gift, okay?”

“Eek! I-I understand! I understand, so please stop that bloodlust! My instincts won’t stop trembling!”

When I handed over the telepathic device—a set of earrings and necklace—Yumeba-san was fully intimidating the female staff member.

I felt bad for the teary-eyed staff member seeking my help, but all I could do was look away.

“Now that I think about it, I’ve never even heard your name.”

I at least tried to appeal that I didn’t know the staff member’s name.

“Ah. I’m Sarya, serving as Alisa-san’s dedicated receptionist.”

“…Why would you answer?”

“Eek!”

I’d gone to the trouble of appealing that my relationship with her was thin, but her self-introduction only intensified Yumeba-san’s bloodlust.

Sarya seemed bad at reading the atmosphere.

Calming Yumeba down and taking her home was rough.

When I’m Alisa, I can’t hug her and whisper love in her ear like when I’m Emilio—actually, it has less effect—so I wish she wouldn’t provoke so carelessly.

◇◇◇

And so we were finally about to depart on our honeymoon…

“Hmm. I really think this one is better.”

“But I think this one is hard to give up too.”

“Like I said earlier, that one is…”

“I understand that, but still…”

…Not.

The discussion between Yumeba and Yukina-san about the honeymoon destination showed no signs of ending.

They weren’t arguing or having a dispute, but there were too many options and their opinions kept wandering without reaching any conclusion.

“If you’re having this much trouble deciding, why not draw lots with no hard feelings?”

“…”

When I offered a compromise, the two looked at each other silently—then silently started making lots.

Apparently it was adopted.

“Then I’ll draw.”

“Wait. As the family head, it’s appropriate for me to draw.”

“…It’s our honeymoon, so it makes sense for me to draw.”

“…Since we’re coming along, we have the right to draw.”

“…”

Why did these two lack the concept of yielding or stepping aside?

“Here goes.”

This was too troublesome, so I decided to draw the lot myself.

“Ahh!”

As a result, I got complaints from both of them, but the destination was decided.

◇◇◇

This trip’s destination was a small town by a giant lake in the middle of a forest.

As planned, it was countryside with abundant nature featuring forest and lake.

Incidentally, this forest had once been monster territory, but S-rank adventurers had already annihilated the monsters and defeated the territory’s guardian, so no monsters remained.

It was a good choice for us to relax.

Plus, this place was famous as a villa resort, so if you paid money, you could rent villas built near the lake.

Of course, we had money to spare, so we rented a villa and…

“Then for four guests…”

“No. We’d like two villas for two people each!”

“…We’ll prepare two for two guests each.”

We ended up forcing the villa management company to let us rent two buildings.

Neither Yumeba nor Yukina-san had any choice but couples-only time.

So Yumeba and I were checking the facilities inside the villa we’d been guided to.

“Since this isn’t far from town, we can have anything we need delivered if we order it. Not a bad place.”

“Mmm. Right next to Mom and Dad’s villa…”

Apparently there weren’t many customers renting villas this season, and perhaps prioritizing ease of management, our villa and Yukina-san’s were adjacent, which Yumeba didn’t like.

Though they’re called adjacent, they were nearly 100 meters apart, so I didn’t see the problem.

Even if we were loud at night, surely it wouldn’t reach that far.

“…”

I secretly checked the bedroom, and while there were windows and a balcony, I think we’re fine.

Yeah. Even Yumeba would have trouble making her voice carry to next door from here.

It’s fine, it’s fine.

“Ah. Lio’s making a naughty face♪”

“…No I’m Not.”

But I’m looking forward to tonight.

From the villa, you could see the large lake, and during the day it sparkled beautifully reflecting the sunlight.

Yumeba and I sat cuddled together on deck chairs provided on the villa’s veranda, drinking beverages while leisurely gazing at it.

“Beautiful.”

“…Yumeba’s more beautiful.”

“~♡”

We were being so lovey-dovey that if the reincarnation god were peeking, they’d probably vomit sugar.

For this honeymoon too, we planned to take walks in the forest or by the lake when we felt like it, but basically spend our time flirting together without rushing to sightsee.

I glanced next door—toward the villa where Yukina-san’s group was staying—and somehow it looked like pink ♡ marks were overflowing from the villa.

Yeah. Let’s not go near there.

I might lose confidence seeing a level of flirting that differs from ours by years of experience.

◇◇◇

I found no faults with the villa’s facilities.

There wasn’t a hot spring, but there was a spacious bath big enough for two, so at night we could flirt together while bathing as usual.

For dinner, they said we could have delivery from town if we ordered, but we had various things in my Item Box and Yumeba’s bracelet, so we didn’t need to order anything and stayed alone together.

Yukina-san’s group apparently ordered delivery, as I saw the delivery person staggering home after being hit by their lovey-dovey aura.

He looked like he was seriously about to vomit sugar.

We’re flirting quite a bit ourselves, but we can’t compete with that couple in various ways.

Is this what they call the wisdom of age?

“Eek…!”

An unimaginable chill flew from somewhere and I reflexively shuddered and clung to Yumeba.

“Wh-What’s wrong?”

“…I’m cold, so please warm me up.”

“Oh my♡ It can’t be helped♡”

I decided to have my wife warm me with love to counter the chill sent by the world’s strongest creature.

Yeah. Let’s not think careless thoughts.