Gossip: The Three Heroes ~We’re Getting Married~

“Hey, you guys ready?”

“Wait a second.”

Kanon and Rio were looking at the house we’d been renting, filled with emotion.

“We’ve lived here together for almost three months......”

“Yeah. And now that it’s time to leave, I kind of don’t want to let it go......”

I knew that feeling. We had been renting this place ever since we came to this country, and still were even when we finally got to a point where we could live comfortably, too.

It’s not like I don’t get how you guys feel, but we’re still going to be together from now on. That’s exactly why we’re leaving, too.

“Then do you want to just not go to the capital?” I said, and the two of them turned around forcefully.

“What do you think you’re saying?! There’s no way we can just not go!”

“Yeah! It’s for our precious wedding ceremony!”

“Haha! I was joking! I’ve been looking forward to having you two officially become my wives too, you know?”

Once I said that, Kanon and Rio went red in the face.

“Kaito, you idiot......”

“You say some really embarrassing things with a straight face sometimes, Kaito......”

“What the heck? It’s true, so what’s wrong with it?”

I didn’t really get what was wrong, but the two of them got even redder.

“Geez!”

“No, don’t Kanon. Kaito just totally doesn’t get it.”

“You guys are making no sense. Anyway, come on, we need to leave.”

After I said that, Kanon grabbed onto my right arm, and Rio grabbed onto my left.

So this is what they mean by flowers in both hands.

The two of them grinned as they looked at me. Seeing their smiles, I felt happy as well.

After all, it was only a little while before calm smiles like this become unthinkable.

In order to protect the smiles of Kanon and Rio, who were to be my wives, I felt that I needed to become even stronger. With that thought in mind, we set out for the capital.

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

Nothing really big happened to kick off our romance that led to marriage. It was inevitable that men and women would start becoming conscious of each other as members of the opposite sex if they were living under the same roof, right? Especially if they’d fought through some hard times together. Still, I was really worried about it at first.

While we were living together, I realized that I wasn’t just full of myself, and that Kanon and Rio actually liked me. I liked Kanon and Rio too, so I was honestly happy, but I couldn’t pick one over the other...... I’d never fallen in love with two people at the same time before, so I was really troubled over it.

I never expected to fall in love with two people at once, either. I had always thought that that was just being unfaithful, and I had sworn I’d never do it. But now that I was faced with that situation, I realized that I couldn’t do anything about it — I was already in love with both of them. And given that both Kanon and Rio liked me as well, I just couldn’t pick one of them over the other.

However, Kanon and Rio came to an answer before I, who was wallowing in indecisiveness, did.

One night, after having dinner, the two of them spoke up.

“It looks like you’re worrying about who to choose between Rio and I, but you don’t really have to.”

“Yeah. You don’t have to choose one of us.”

“......Wha?”

I couldn’t understand what Kanon and Rio were getting at. As if I could date the two of them at once. Something like that was unforgivable.

“He really doesn’t understand, Rio.”

“Yeah. He hasn’t realized at all, Kanon.”

Kanon and Rio looked at each other as they talked.

“Kaito, this is another world. Common sense from Japan doesn’t apply here.”

“Kanon’s right. This isn’t Japan.”

Then, the two of them explained themselves. What they told me that day was a shocking truth that peeled back the scales from my eyes.

Shockingly, this world didn’t care about monogamy. Polygamy was A-okay.

Of course, you had to have the economic ability to support your wives, but it wasn’t rare to see men who were well off with multiple wives.

In fact, it wasn’t unheard of for nobles to have four or five wives. And there were even some with about ten wives on the top end.

While I was busy being indecisive, it seemed that Kanon and Rio had an idea and looked it up.

“Even though this stuff is easy to figure out if you just look into it a little.”

“Really. But Kaito always just worries about stuff by himself.”

I was still ensnared by Japan’s common sense, so I was thinking that dating the two of them at once was not only unfaithful but something like a betrayal to my partners.

“So that’s that. You don’t have to choose between us. Of course, I wouldn’t want to share you with someone who wasn’t Rio, though.”

“Yeah, me too. I think I’m fine with sharing you because I’m doing it with Kanon.”

“Kanon, Rio......”

I’ve been indecisive and weak, haven’t I?

“Kanon, Rio, will you two be my girlfriends?”

“Of course.”

“Yeah!”

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

That was how we had started dating each other. And after some research, I found that we were just at the age where marriage was acceptable.

Surprisingly, I learned that people might get married as early as age 14 or 15; on the other hand, when a woman passes 20, it was said to be too late for her.

So I put a lot of thought into the idea.

The deciding factor for me was the fact that Kanon and Rio were popular among other adventurers. Even in the Adventurer’s guild, whenever I got even a little far away there was no end of men who would come and try to hit on them. It was understandable — Kanon and Rio were so beautiful — but I really didn’t like it.

But not even adventurer guys would try to lay their hands on someone else’s wife, so I couldn’t wish for anything better than being married to both Kanon and Rio.

That was why I proposed to the two of them. I gave them engagement rings and everything. There was no tradition of exchanging rings in this world, but I felt like a proposal really needed rings anyway. I used up all the money I’d saved since I had become an adventurer here and bought them: an emerald ring for Kanon, who was born in May, and a ruby ring for Rio, who was born in July.

I didn’t have too much in the way of savings, so the stones were small, but the two of them were very happy.

And of course, the two of them said yes to my proposal.

In this world, since there was no such thing as a family register or anything like that, as long as you pledged to each other in front of a priest in a church, it was official.

Normally you would go to a church dedicated to the god you believed in, but it seemed any church was fine for those who didn’t worship any gods in particular. It looked like people were really accommodating in that aspect (although that was only true in this country).

As for other countries that guaranteed freedom of religion, it seemed that there were only the countries of Erman and Leonhardt to the east, and the newly founded Quine Republic that was formed out of a group of small countries to the south. When I heard that, it really impressed on me how lucky we were to have run away to this place.

I was considering which church to go to, since we had a lot of different options in this town, when Kanon and Rio stopped me.

“This is an important once-in-a-lifetime thing, and since we’re doing this either way, I want to have the ceremony in a church in the capital. A while back, I heard that the churches in the capital are really big and pretty.”

“I want to have the ceremony in the capital too. Apparently, it’s really recommended to use the Goddess of Earth’s church. I heard that she has a lot of believers because this place has really strong agriculture, and so it’s the prettiest among the churches.”

It seemed that Kanon and Rio had really done some digging.

“I heard about the Goddess of Earth’s church too! I heard that the Goddess of Earth symbolizes abundant harvest, but that also means being blessed with children and having a happy marriage. So that’s why her church is the most popular for marriages.”

“Yeah! It’s still a bit too early for children, but I wanna be happily married forever!”

It seemed that both Kanon and Rio were set on having the wedding ceremony at the Goddess of Earth’s church in the capital.

But marriage ceremonies are really simple; all you’re doing is pledging your vows in front of a priest...... Well, it’s a man’s job to grant the wishes of his wives anyway, right?

“All right then, let’s go to the capital.”

““Yeah!””

Just like that, our trip to the capital was confirmed. We had talked about traveling to a bunch of different towns before too, so I was already looking forward to seeing the capital.