Lord of Disease (JP-GL) 496

496: EX21. The Manager in the Off-Season

In the depths of winter, it was the off-season for Lital Hot Springs.

As for whether it was possible to come and go, it was not impossible. The legs of a Liverit sheep were strong.

But the reason the Lital Mountains had functioned as a border was because it was a mountain so steep that it would have refused a large army, even in the summer.

The risk of an accident was not zero. The fact that there had been no accidents yet was because they had selected a climbing route and had also considered canceling the ‘service’ in case of bad weather.

And in connection with that, the village at the foot of the mountain was gradually growing. Because a place to stay was needed, to catch one’s breath, or to wait for a rescheduled service, when the service to the summit was canceled.

Someday, the village below might also be called ‘Lital Hot Springs’—just like the famous hot spring resorts on Earth.

Liz and I had also descended the mountain.

On the mountain, only the maintenance personnel were left… or so I wanted to say, but quite a few were left.

They were people who had no freedom of movement, or who had no home, or who could not even pay for a room—or did not want to. But for the employees of Lital Hot Springs, it was rather normal to have such circumstances.

There was one rule. ‘Do not ask too many personal questions.’

If you wanted to talk, then you could, but I had told them that I would not allow them to probe or to use it. Since everyone had their own circumstances, it seemed to be well-observed.

The first place I had headed to, after descending the mountain, was my home.

I had returned from time to time, in between gathering employees, but since I had been away for a long time, the air was stagnant, and it was a little dusty.

So, I opened the windows with Liz, and we cleaned, and we greeted the neighbors… and as I was working, I felt as if I were at work, even though it was my day off. I wanted to hire a maid.

I, when I returned to Lital Hot Springs, was a maid in the name of a manager, and as for Liz, she was still in her maid uniform, so if we were to do that, it would probably be a strange sight.

As night fell, we closed the windows we had opened and returned to the living room.

“For now, we’re done.”

“Yes.”

I took a breath, while drinking the tea Liz had made. The Barghest, which had been hiding while we were cleaning, tumbled out from the shadows of my robe and nuzzled my knee, and I reached out and stroked it.

“Shall we have dinner? We have stew.”

“…Huh? When did your maid skills evolve?”

“What do you mean, evolve?” Liz’s expression was one of exasperation.

“No, but… you didn’t have time to make a stew, did you? We weren’t together all the time… but I saw you cleaning… and…” My confidence was waning.

“Wait… A hallucination…? Was I alone, and there was no maid… and the marriage was just a dream…?”

For a moment, the boundary between reality and illusion wavered. I looked at my hand, and it was faintly translucent. Ah, perhaps there was nothing that I had grasped in this hand—

“Please come back. It’s reality.”

I nodded at Liz’s call. The fact that it was translucent had been so for a long time.

“…Yes. It’s alright. I just get a little anxious sometimes.”

“Are you really alright?” Liz, with a sidelong glance.

“Because, you know? To have a bride who is so cute and so well-made is hard to believe.”

“N-no, I’m just normal.”

Liz deliberately drank her tea and, while hiding her relaxed lips with her cup, her scarf twitched busily.

“If you say that… I, too, sometimes think that. Because I was serving a supreme commander as a vice-commander, and I was proposed to.”

“It’s a Cinderella story.”

“Cinderella?” Liz, who was bewildered.

“…Don’t worry about it. It’s a fairy tale from my homeland. About a poor girl who is found by a prince and rises in the world.”

My homeland was a distant Earth. I didn’t know what kind of a conversion had been made, but since there were many proverbs and sayings that were understood, I tended to forget. This was not my birthplace.

I muttered.

“…I feel like I’ve married into a distant place.”

“It’s a little complicated, to have two wives.”

“In terms of surname, I’m the ‘wife.’”

The name I was using was Daisy ‘Finis.’ It still didn’t feel like my own, but it was a name that had become much more familiar than right after we had gotten married. The surname… was a gift from her.

“So, Liz, what kind of a magic was it? Did you succeed in developing a [Create Stew] spell and carve your name in the history of magic?”

“That would be the Lord of Disease. To have drawn out the lethal power and the versatility of [Create Ooze] to its limit—or something like that.”

“What’s that?”

“Both to use and to be used, it has become something that must be anticipated. It is a required history for a soldier. Right, Lord of Ooze?”

“A nostalgic joke.”

It was a joke I had told Liz, after enough time had passed since Itria, for it to be a joke.

“The rumor is that it leaves a poisonous slime in its wake.”

“A slug or a snail?”

The damage to my reputation was immense. The Lord of Disease was no more. But as the person inside, it was complicated.

“…Since the one who knows the reality is the one who is telling the story in a humorous way, there are all sorts of embellishments.”

“Humorous… huh? That was the policy I had raised, but I wonder if that’s alright.” I rested my cheek on my hand.

To not have your true identity revealed, it was better for the rumors to be far from the reality. To tell it in a humorous way was probably a consideration. But… it was still a little complicated.

“Yes. To enjoy soaking in a slimy ooze, to sleep as if buried in the fur of a pack of Black Hound Barghests, and to always have an assassin by your side.”

“That’s all true.”

…A little… no, quite complicated. It was more accurate than I had thought. A typical ‘I haven’t lied’ theory.

I had always said that to tell the truth and to convey the truth in an easy-to-understand way were two different things—and I had told them to make their reports and their communications as easy to understand as possible. Especially Samarkand. Since he would take any opportunity to excessively embellish the words that described me.

—I was deeply moved, that everyone had grown so much.

“So, the stew is a delivery. From a nearby… you know, that rabbit shop.”

“Ah, the one with the cute sign.”

The signs in Listrea were often iconic. Sometimes they would draw a picture, and sometimes they would express a motif by bending and welding an iron rod, or by cutting out a piece of wood. A fork and a knife were a common motif for a restaurant. The shop in question had a black iron sign with a rabbit, along with a fork and a knife.

“Since you’ve been away for a long time, it’s a pain to cook, isn’t it?”

“A shrewd businessman.”

“I gave them a stockpot and had them put in enough for dinner. They said they would also deliver breakfast tomorrow.”

“I should probably learn from their business efforts…”

Their grasp of the needs was truly accurate. Liz laughed.

“You can forget about work now. —Manager?”

“Yes, general manager.” We chuckled.

I stood up and followed Liz, who was heading for the kitchen, with the Barghest.

“Let’s take a bath together later. It’s been a while since we’ve been alone, hasn’t it?”

“Yes. …I’ve asked for a late breakfast delivery.”

That meant…

Liz stopped, and as I stopped, at a position where we were about to bump into each other, she leaned her back against me. As she turned, she looked at me.

“…Because we’re alone.”

“…Yes.”

I wrapped my arms around Liz’s stomach and hugged her. As I savored the happiness of having Liz in my arms, I gently pressed my lips to hers, who had closed her eyes.