By Zephyria 
I have no idea how these rumors about me started.
I did meet hundreds of Trolls. But all I did was fight my way through them and survive. I did cut a Sandworm… with a single blow. The realization I gained that day has been useful many times since. But it wasn’t as easy as it sounds.
I did cut the waves Nereid poured down with my sword. But how long can one hold back water cut by a blade? It was thanks to the Spirits’ power that the Golden Turtle was pulled onto land; I didn’t drag the beast by its scruff.
And the Black Dragon was merely an illusion, and Gano Paquin did not kneel. I did fly through the sky riding a Wyvern, but…
They mixed truth and falsehood so absurdly that I was simply dumbfounded. I sat there, dumbfounded, letting out a hollow laugh, and they seemed to find it amusing too, all of them chuckling aloud.
“Who on earth is spreading such stories?”
“Who? Who else? In the Duchy of Grimesbane, it was a knight guarding the ramparts who spread the tale. When you returned from the desert, one of the mercenaries who accompanied you started the rumor, and Yulan is making a huge fuss about it. Anyone who doesn’t know you seems to not be from Yulan.”
“Well… half of that is true, and half is false. It wasn’t quite to that extent.”
“I can hardly imagine it. That our little one has become a Grand Sword Master.”
As if they had finished their meal, Aizen beckoned a servant with his hand, ordering the food cleared and desserts brought out. Seeing the plates that soon followed in succession, I finally let out a hearty laugh myself.
The table was filled with cakes, puddings, cookies, and the like, served on nearly as many plates as the main course. The way they were beautifully decorated in various colors was almost blinding.
As soon as the desserts were on the table, Aizen leaned forward.
“Now, let’s hear your story. So, how much of it is true? How did you, who were supposed to go to the Yuil Mountains, suddenly head west saying you were going on a pilgrimage, then emerge from Yulan and enter the Duchy of Grimesbane? Where on earth have you been all this time?”
“That…”
It would be a very long story if I were to recount it all.
If I were my past self, I would have brushed it off with a simple, “That’s what happened.” But I had received so much, and from so many, that I didn’t want to do that. I only regretted that I had no one to speak on my behalf. I didn’t know how much I could tell in a single night. I swallowed some tea and cleared my throat.
“It started with catching monsters around Dunmel Canyon. And then…”
I recounted the events as I remembered them, one by one. It began with discovering traces of a Black magician near Dunmel Canyon, then sneaking in disguised as Owen, coincidentally meeting an Oasis Cultist and heading into the desert, and finally walking to the Sanctuary of the Sun after hearing the Sun God’s call…
I understood now why such outlandish rumors had spread. In my desire not to worry my blood relatives, I had made thrilling battles sound easy and described dangerous situations humorously.
I spent a lot of time talking about the Spiritual Medicine the Sun God had given me, and how beautiful and enchanting the underwater world had been with the help of the Spirits.
In front of my blood relatives, who were laughing and applauding, I felt a pang of regret, thinking how much my younger siblings would have enjoyed hearing this story from my own lips. It’s alright. If I return, I can add more details and tell them then. That will be enough.
Just as I was about to talk about deciding to cross over to the Yuil Mountains on a Wyvern, Hendel, with a voice still full of laughter, casually asked,
“Before you rode the Wyvern, you supposedly kissed the Second Prince. That’s a false rumor, right?”
“Khelk.”
…I choked, so surprised.
As I couldn’t utter a word, the smiles on my cousins’ faces, which had been beaming, slowly faded. The awkwardness of not knowing what to ask made me unable to look anywhere. I scooped up half of a slice of cake placed before me and shoved it into my mouth.
I was so flustered that I didn’t even know if the cream I had just put in my mouth was sweet or salty.
Seeing that I couldn’t answer, Aizen poked the cake in front of him repeatedly with his fork. How could he play with food without eating it? But I was in no position to scold him, so I remained quiet.
“Is what Aunt and Uncle said true…? No, but that bastard is currently…”
“N-no, we… my parents said something about it.”
“You proposed to the Second Prince during the first Hunting Festival, didn’t you? Since you were both young, the answer was deferred, but afterward, the Second Prince became incredibly attentive to Aunt and Ernhardt’s family. He sent gifts, wrote letters.”
“…Mm.”
“We thought you had promised him your life by following him to the Yuil Mountains, but seeing how he tolerated Yeldidus’s nonsense, they were convinced he treated you like a disposable hand warmer. And, from our perspective, you were the main reason we decided to align with the Second Prince’s faction.”
“Treated like a hand warmer…?”
“Used only for one season when he needed you, then discarded.”
“Ughhhhhhmmm…”
“Constantly sending Ranunculus could be done for both Valentia and Yeldidus, couldn’t it? So, no matter how much he acted like the apple of your eye, we couldn’t believe it. But then Young Master Bill Brown vehemently insisted that you had no interest in the Second Prince…”
“…What? Who?”
“Young Master Bill Brown. Don’t you remember? The one with the gentle face who’s always smiling.”
“No, I remember… I do remember.”
What nonsense was he spreading without even knowing me? I was utterly dumbfounded. I cleared the plate in front of me and downed my tea in one gulp.
Yes, I should explain things properly to my family, just in case something happens to me. If I explain things well to them, the story will reach my parents, I thought, my back stiffening with tension.
“The kiss… th-that incident is true.”
“What?”
Hendel, who had slammed his hand on the table and stood up, was impossible to look at. My shocked Uncle Oscar hastily covered his mouth with a handkerchief. I squeezed my eyes shut and opened them again.
My friends, who knew me well, had taken my side with familiarity, but telling my blood relatives was unbearably embarrassing.
“It’s also true that we both felt for each other. However, th-Young Lady Yeldidus and the Second Prince are not in that kind of relationship. It was a strategic alliance… something like that…”
“No, how can we believe that?”
“I was introduced… I’m not very good at social events…”
I tried to speak clearly and properly, but my words grew fainter, and I found myself stammering. I rubbed my dry hands over my face, composed my expression, and looked down at the table.
“Looking at him kindly, the Second Prince really acts like he looks. That bastard is a complete player!”
“It’s really, really not like that! Young Lady Yeldidus is interested not in Ruben, but…”
“Not in?”
…Should I say it like this? But my mouth, having fallen into a pit, wouldn’t stop.
“Young Lady Kiadris…”
A chilling silence fell.
Hendel, who had been standing, slowly sat back down. Aizen scooped a large spoonful of the mashed cake into his mouth. Oscar folded the handkerchief he had used to cover his mouth neatly and put it in his pocket, then poured himself more tea.
Resting his elbows on the table, an act that defied etiquette, Hendel leaned his forehead on his clasped hands, breathing in short gasps. He wanted to say something, but it was clear he didn’t know where to begin.
I wished I could cut my tongue in half.
Should I say that Hestia Yeldidus’s interest in Poplar Kiadris was not of that nature? But simply saying that one woman affectionately bullies another wouldn’t stop her from trying to pair Hestia and Rubel.
While I hesitated, Hendel spoke calmly, in a very slow tone.
“No wonder they kept stirring things up about the same-sex marriage law…”
Aizen, who had been chewing and swallowing the mashed cake, wiped his mouth with a napkin and added to his words.
“I thought my aunt… had misunderstood something. So, can we just agree to it then?”
“Still, it might not work out yet. Ah, that, the regional academy? That too, surely…”
“Ah, surely not. Even if the Second Prince had lost his mind, it would be too much to adopt a policy of expanding the noble class with something like that. The issue of revenue is the biggest…-”
Aizen, whose eyes met mine, smiled kindly.
“…It’s not.”
I couldn’t imagine what kind of expression I had on my face.
Still, there was something I absolutely had to say. I pressed my eyes with one hand, took a deep breath, and calmed my racing heart. I spoke steadily.
“B-but… if, by any chance, I were to have an accident.”
I paused for a moment. Then I continued.
“I hope Ruben meets a good person, even if it’s not me. It doesn’t have to be Young Lady Yeldidus, it can be anyone. And elder brother, elder sister, I hope you don’t get upset over that matter…”
The smiles on their faces froze simultaneously.
“What do you mean by that? Do you know something else?”
“Are you talking about this expedition? Is there a trap set by Floyd?”
“…No. No, it’s not that…”
Words, the more you think about them and refine them, the rounder their edges become.
When I first came to the capital and saw Ruben, my heart was sharp and fierce, but now, it has been smoothed and polished, allowing me to speak in a calm tone.
My face was still burning with embarrassment, and my chest fluttered with awkwardness.
Yet, I could say it with a smile.
“I have received Ruben’s heart sufficiently until now, but neither he nor I have done anything that goes against propriety. And if, by any chance… Ruben were to give up his feelings for me, I don’t think I would come to dislike him.”
“…”
“Therefore, I do not want the people I love to dislike each other.”
If the unthinkable were to happen, these words would be my last testament to my blood relatives.