Extra Story: Roland’s Melancholy

What can I do...?

One day, Francette had suddenly come to the royal palace and said that she would follow Kaoru, and that she wanted to cancel our engagement. Surprised, I had asked her what it was about, and she had informed me of the earth-shaking news that Kaoru was departing from the kingdom! Actually, that she wanted to cancel our engagement was an even greater incident! I had asked her for details in a panic, and I found out that Kaoru’s reason for her journey was to find herself a partner! If that happened, Kaoru would stay wherever she found her partner, and our kingdom would lose the protection of the Goddess.

Not only that, but there were sure to be rumors about our kingdom driving away the Goddess, or that we had been abandoned by the Goddess, and those would quickly get out of hand.

Plus, Francette would likely follow Kaoru and stay wherever she ended up! That’s just how she was! This meant our nation would not only lose our Goddess, but we would lose Francette, who was known as our ‘great hero,’ the ‘guardian of the kingdom,’ and, of course, ‘Fearsome Fran.’

...And I would lose my fiancee. I, a man of the royal family, would be one-sidedly abandoned by my betrothed.

Gyaaaaaaaaa!!! I-I can’t let that happen! I-I must prevent that, no matter what!

But I couldn’t use my station or physical force to stop Kaoru.

Wh-What should I do...?

I know!!!

“I will go with you!”

“Huh...?” Francette looked at me, wide eyed, but I didn’t care!

There’s no escape! I won’t let you or Kaoru get away, Francette!!!

...And so, here we are.

As Kaoru’s companion, Francette and I were on an eventful journey with two kids and a younger child.

Emile is sixteen, so he’s not a kid anymore? Sixteen is still a little brat! Definitely a kid!

Francette was now sleeping next to me.

...In the bed next to mine! She said we wouldn’t share a bed until we were married, but I knew what she was really thinking. If she got pregnant, she wouldn’t be able to continue traveling with Kaoru.

I mean, unlike commoners, nobles and royals sought purity and celibacy from their marriage partners, so she wasn’t wrong to hold out until marriage. Bloodline was everything to nobles and royals.

But we were engaged, so how about a little, you know...

Damn it!

Then when would Kaoru’s journey end so we could return to the kingdom and get married? And if Kaoru decided to live somewhere else, would Francette come back to the kingdom? And would Kaoru, who didn’t look any different after all these years and could have been tens of thousands of years old but still hadn’t found a marriage partner, be able to find someone to marry in the next ten or twenty years? Would her marriage partner even be human? If she was looking for a god roaming the human realm like herself, maybe it was going to take hundreds, if not thousands, of years.

...Francette and I wouldn’t be alive that long! Wait, I’d known Francette for over four years now, but it didn’t seem like she’d aged since... No no no, I was concerned about that before and asked Kaoru about it behind Francette’s back once.

She told me, “I don’t think I added an anti-aging effect to that potion...”

That’s what she said, anyway. Her questionable phrasing made me a bit anxious, but I chose to believe it didn’t have any such effects...

Anyway, this was a troubling situation. Pretty bad, in fact.

The way Kaoru was looking to other countries for procreation, how Francette always followed Kaoru around, the way I always got brushed aside, everything! All I could do was sabotage things from behind the scenes to prevent Kaoru from hooking up with someone from another country, but Francette stuck her head out from the alley to watch over Kaoru’s shop every day. From morning to night... No, even through the night...

Francette seemed to have limitless energy, but I felt like she was looking a little tired as of late... Wait, when did she sleep, anyway? Oh no. Come to think of it, the situation may have been worse than I imagined.

If Francette fell ill... well, I guess we had Kaoru’s potions. If Francette made a mistake due to fatigue and lack of sleep, getting injured as a result... well, I guess we had Kaoru’s potions. I mean, even if she did slip up from being so tired, she’d probably get away with a minor scrape. It was hard to imagine Fearsome Fran would sustain an injury from an enemy force of less than a thousand men.

Those who aren’t from our kingdom seem to think that that’s some story we made up to make her seem like a hero, but Francette would actually pull it off. She’d take on one or two thousand with relative ease...

She hadn’t gotten her nickname for nothing.

Anyway, this was bad! No matter what anyone said, this was a dire situation! Francette and I had been training Emile to get stronger, but he had a long way to go. He could probably take on five or six common thugs at once. If we were dealing with trained soldiers, or Rank C hunters or higher, maybe two or three opponents at once would be the best he could hope for.

Belle? She may have managed to take out one person in exchange for her own life, or stop a knife by being a human shield, but that would be it. Kaoru would never let that happen, though. Realistically, all Belle could do was watch over Layette.

Anyway, there’s no need for Francette to be so worried about Kaoru in the first place. Francette has seen what Kaoru is capable of, many times, with her own eyes. Those who have tried to harm Kaoru have had their heads blown up, have dropped to the floor spitting out blood, and been struck with lightning. We’ve even seen her run through the chest with a blade and still be fine...

I tried to convince Francette not to be so extreme with her attempts to protect Kaoru, primarily by arguing that Kaoru would be saddened if something happened to her from overworking herself, but she responded, “What if something unexpected happened to her?!” and “What if Lady Kaoru abandoned humankind because we upset her, and she ascended to heaven?!”, firming up her resolve even further...

Ahhh, what was I supposed to do...?

It had been problem after problem, lately, and the only good thing that had happened recently was Kaoru gifting me a sword...

I had been trying to convince her to do that every single day, and she finally granted me the divine sword Exhovud upon declaring, “Aaagh! Shaddap! Fine! Just leave me alone already!”

It may have been inferior to Francette’s Exgram, but was comparable to the swords bestowed to the four royal guards, the Exhrotti. Unbreaking, unbending, easy to maintain because it repelled blood, and it never lost its sharpness. Truly a weapon made for the lazy. Its ease of maintenance was one thing, but the fact that it never broke despite how rough it was treated gave it a great sense of reliability.

Kaoru had indicated many times that the fact that a member of the royal line had received a divine sword must be kept a complete secret, but that much was obvious. Even an idiot would know it would be bad if word got out that a member of the royal family had received a divine sword from a goddess. Some would scheme to take advantage of it, and the religious factions like the Temple of the Goddess would start making political moves, and most of all, my brother Serge’s claim to the throne would be in danger.

It was very unfortunate that I couldn’t brag about my sword, but this was one secret I had to keep. The fact that I had a divine sword still remained, so I had no reason to complain.

A divine sword...

The weapon I had always wanted, granted only to heroes chosen by divinity!

Ahh! Ahhh! Aaaaaahhh!!! Haah... Haah... Whew, I got a little excited...

＊　　　＊

Soon, we were going to arrive at Beliscas, the town where we planned on staying next.

“Kaoru, I wanted to ask you for a favor...”

Hm? Francette’s asking Kaoru for something.

“What is it?”

“I want to be someone who can live with you in your next ‘backstory.’ It’s a bit too difficult to keep watch over you at all times when we live in separate residences...”

“Of course it would be difficult! What did... Wait, why were you watching me at all times in the first place?!”

Was she crazy?! I couldn’t believe she was planning on watching over Kaoru all day while living separately. Anyone other than Francette would have fallen unconscious from fatigue by now.

But now, Kaoru would likely accommodate Francette’s request in her backstory. It would all be fine now... Wait. Wait a second! What did Francette just say?

“I want to be someone who can live with you...”

“I want to be someone who...”

“I want to...”

“I...” “I...” “I...”

Why “I” and not “we”? What about me? What about meeeeee!!!