Episode 160
“Just like last time, what are you doing right now?”
The “last time” mentioned here referred to the period before they divorced.
Arcian, recalling the past, slightly muffled his voice.
“……What about me.”
“If you have something to say, say it straight. Don’t be sarcastic.”
“I have nothing to say.”
“Then don’t worry about whether I get married or start dating. Aren’t we past the point of having those kinds of conversations?”
“I don’t think the conclusion was much different even when we were in a position to have those conversations.”
“Ha……. So what exactly is it that you want to say?”
“I told you, nothing.”
Briana fell silent at a situation that was obviously a lie to anyone watching.
Since she didn’t speak, Arcian naturally maintained his silence as well.
In between them, Asil looked back and forth between her mom and dad, feeling extremely tense.
These were two beast-people who usually growled whenever they met, but today was uniquely different.
Dad was catching her words and dragging them out to an excessive degree.
Feeling Asil’s gaze, Briana let out a sigh and turned her back.
“Fine, what are you doing in front of Asil.”
“…….”
“I thought for a moment we were getting along. It seems you just find the sight of me unpleasant, but since I’ll be returning to the forest soon and we won’t have to see each other again, just bear with it a little longer. If you want, I’ll leave right now.”
“……Whatever.”
Arcian, who muttered almost inaudibly, clenched his fists tightly.
He had an expression as if he regretted everything he had said so far and wanted to take it back, but Briana, who had her back turned, did not see it.
Thud.
The office door closed right in Arcian’s face.
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Back when Asil was still a newborn baby.
It was a time when Arcian had just come out into the human world, and Briana only had two husbands.
Briana decided to take three more husbands for the sake of multiplying the descendants.
Since the beast-people’s values regarding marriage were open and having many spouses was considered a virtue of a great beast-person, no one raised an objection.
Some even worried that it was too few, considering there were Kings with dozens of spouses.
This was no different for Briana’s second husband, Winter.
While Winter agreed with Briana’s decision, he even told her to let him know anytime if there was anything he could do to help.
However, the first husband, Arcian, was different.
— Is that so? ……Didn’t you say it was bothersome to get married and care about others?
Arcian had shown an unwelcoming reaction when she married Winter as well, and not long after, he had left for the human world.
It was as if he hated seeing Briana being with another husband.
“Even if it’s bothersome, I have to do it. It’s also true that for a King, I have too few spouses.”
— ……Among the past Kings, there were some who had only one spouse…….
“And eventually, they were deposed because of discord between the tribes. Although it’s bothersome, it definitely seems better to have many spouses than few.”
— ……You said when we were young that I was the only one who could handle your temper.
“Hmm? What did you say?”
— Nothing. It can’t be helped then…….
At that time, Arcian certainly looked pouting, but Briana didn’t bother to soothe him.
She thought he would naturally get over it as time passed.
But as she took in up to her fifth husband, Arcian’s grumbling grew worse day by day.
Whatever she did, he would give her a rebuff, be sarcastic, and react negatively to everything.
— Can’t you even understand something like this at once? For someone in the position of King.
“It’s because I didn’t sleep well last night. My brain isn’t working properly.”
— Well, I’m sure you’re very busy. Where would you have time to sleep? While someone is out there running around until their bones ache, someone else is—
“You know you’re speaking very unpleasantly right now, right? Why are you like this?”
— What about me.
Gradually, the number of fights increased.
Since there was a physical distance, it wasn’t easy to reconcile.
In a situation where only wounds accumulated for each other, small misunderstandings overlapped and overlapped to create a massive discord.
“I absolutely cannot live with you like this. Let’s just end it here!”
— ……Fine, let’s end it.
The two beast-people eventually divorced.
And they lived hard in their respective positions, completely forgetting each other.
That was why, when he first learned that Asil was the daughter of Briana and himself, Arcian received a shock beyond imagination.
To think we had such a cute daughter.
……Is Briana, who raised such a lovely daughter so well, doing okay?
He thought things like this.
“I should have said I was sorry back then.”
Arcian, who was reminiscing about his painful past under the brilliant sunlight, muttered.
He should have apologized when he contacted Briana for the first time in years to confirm that Asil was his biological daughter.
He looked up at the sun.
His eyes hurt as if they were being pricked, but it didn’t hurt more than his heart. He was simply depressed, as if he had fallen into a deep quagmire.
Chewing over the words he had spat out one by one, he let out a sigh.
“This isn’t how it’s supposed to be.”
—
Since that day, the atmosphere of the Erzébet mansion has become rapidly heavy.
The two beast-people, Briana and Arcian, didn’t even pretend to see each other.
Naturally, they didn’t even speak to each other, and they even threw their wedding rings, which they always wore, into the trash can.
If Asil and Snowa hadn’t secretly picked them up, they would have been lost forever.
Snowa grumbled as he looked at the two rings full of scratches.
“They’re going to wear them again anyway.”
“What if things between Mom and Dad never get better?”
Unlike the nonchalant Snowa, Asil was stomping her feet in anxiety.
What if they do that thing called ‘divorce’ that she had only heard about? Doesn’t that mean she can’t see either Mom or Dad forever?
Since Asil didn’t know the two beast-people had divorced long ago, she was naturally bound to be anxious.
“It’s okay. They’ll make up soon.”
“But, they look like they’re on really bad terms.”
Until now, the two on the worst terms Asil knew were Edenber and his father.
However, even those two didn’t fight by raising their voices that much. So she couldn’t help but worry.
“Kyuu! Kyu! Kyuu!”
Todori made a gesture of drawing his front paw over water, saying that a lovers’ quarrel is like cutting water with a knife.
“Ggureuk!”
Baembaemi also comforted Asil, saying that it had seen Mom and Dad fight a lot, but they eventually reconciled well.
Thanks to that, as her gloomy mood improved even a little, Asil wiped away the tears that had gathered in the corners of her eyes.
“Thanks, everyone. But—”
“Hmm?”
“Kyu?”
“Ggureuk?”
“Is it that bad to get married multiple times? Dad seemed angry because of that.”
Asil remembered clearly Arcian’s expression when Briana said she was getting married again.
It seemed sad, it seemed despondent, and in a way, it seemed hurt—
Anyway, he was definitely not happy.
“Ggureuk…….”
Baembaemi rolled its eyes with an expression of not really knowing.
Since its mother was also the King of Basilisks, it was natural to have several fathers.
“Didn’t you see it wrong? There’s no way Father would be angry because of that.”
Snowa, who was born and raised in the beastmen’s forest where polygamy is natural, also asked back as if it was difficult to understand.
On the other hand, Todori was different.
“Kyukyukyu, kyu kyuu. Kyukyukyu.”
“It’s not bad to do it several times, but you think Dad could sufficiently dislike it?”
“Why? If Mother marries many times, doesn’t it mean Father also married such a wonderful beast-person, so isn’t it better for him?”
“Kyuuuuuu.”
Todori shook his head.
Then he asked Asil how she would feel if Edenber married another woman.
“I think I’d be proud.”
“Kyuu!”
“Am I not supposed to be proud?”
“Kyu…….”
He wanted to explain, but when he tried to put it into words, he didn’t really know what to say.
So he decided to pass the baton to someone else.
“Kyuu!”
“You want me to ask Edenber?”
Puzzled, Asil tilted her head.
Could Edenber know what we don’t even know—why Dad is angry?
But since there was nothing to lose, Asil decided to visit the Monlepe ducal house immediately.
—
Snowa, Todori, and Baembaemi also headed to the Monlepe ducal house with Asil.
Snowa went to protect Asil from Edenber’s schemes, and the others went to find out the reason why Arcian was acting that way.
Edenber was having tea time in a quiet garden.
Incredibly, together with Rune and Ikart.
Asil’s picnic proposal was truly successful.
“Kyang!”
Rune, who recognized Asil first among the three, came running while wagging her tail.
Asil also ran toward her in delight.
“Mother!”
And then, she blurted out the main point without preamble.
“How would you feel if I married ten people?!”
Rune, whose foot slipped, went rolling away just like that.
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