“No need to worry about that,” Trash responded. “Melty is quite capable of carrying a child.” So she was quite an early bloomer . . . Trash, hold on!

“Why do you know that?!” I retorted.

“There was much about Melty written in my wife’s diaries,” he explained. He almost made it sound like a good thing, whimsical and sweet. The queen had known about Witch’s virginity, after all, so I guess she would know about Melty too.

That was some serious surveillance, in any case. Also, it’s not something she should really be leaving in her diary.

“What I mean is, I’d like to push such matters a little further into the future, in consideration of Melty’s health. She is the queen of an entire nation now. Safety first. More than anything, to me she is still just a snotty little kid,” I finally responded, as tactfully as I was able. What I really wanted to do was keep this whole thing as vague as possible and then get back to my own world, putting an end to it all.

“Snotty kid?!” Melty raged. “I’m quite the mature woman, thank you very much!”

“Dummy! Shut up!” I hissed back through my teeth. Trash was nodding though, a smile on his face.

“Then there is no problem,” he said. “With the holding of this ceremony today, Queen Melty is now considered a woman. Therefore, Hero Iwatani, please take good care of her. I want to see the faces of my grandchildren sooner rather than later.”

“Someone, please, take me away from here!” After she stepped on the landmine herself, Melty now begged for aid from some unknown quarter.

“Do you want to run away, Mel-chan?” Filo asked. The oblivious filolial was the only one her pleas for aid reached, however.

Chapter One: Talk of Love

Once Melty’s coronation was completed, we returned to the village.

I still had quite a lot going on. Quite aside from anything else, we were preparing to set out on an expedition to another world. The familiar surroundings of the village really helped calm me down.

Then I saw Ren leading Eclair along. I thought it had been decided that Eclair would be transferred to the castle, where she would continue to guard Melty.

“How’s it going with you?” I asked them.

“Not bad,” Ren replied. “I hope this makes raising levels go a bit more smoothly.”

Then I looked at Eclair.

“You said all that stuff about beating your knowledge into Ren, but you’re the one getting schooled now. You should be grateful for this class-up over 100,” I told her.

“Why are you acting all high and mighty, Hero Iwatani?” she retorted.

“I’m an archduke now. So I actually am high and mighty. That’s what I wanted to tell you,” I said.

“What! Archduke?!” Eclair exclaimed.

“You’ve gone up in the world? You don’t seem very happy about it,” Ren said.

“I’m not. It wasn’t exactly my idea,” I replied. Seriously, how did things end up like this? “Eclair, you just worry about protecting Melty.”