“Of course I will. I will take my notes from Queen Melty’s own capacity for rule and learn the ways of politics for myself!” Eclair stated enthusiastically. She could fight but wasn’t all that skilled when it came to regional management. If she didn’t get on top of her game, even village-newcomer Ruft would start to show her up.

“Eclair has such a positive attitude. I could learn a lot from her,” Ren said, heaping more praise on her. Ren had respect for Eclair, that was for sure, and also paid careful attention to Wyndia. None of that was going to change.

Wyndia didn’t seem very happy about it, however.

I signaled to Ren and moved close to his face.

“You ever going to confess your love for her?” I whispered in his ear.

“That’s not what this is!” Ren protested.

“Oh? You prefer them young, do you?” I asked.

“Hey, that’s more—” Ren started to say something and then stopped. He’d been about to say, “That’s more your style.” Sorry, buddy. That’s not the case.

Or was it?

I was now basically engaged to Melty. That might look like a Lolita complex from the outside. There were lots of women around me with adult bodies but who were actually quite young too—Raphtalia, Filo, Shildina, Keel, even Atla. From that perspective, it did start to make me feel a bit strange.

“Of course, Naofumi, you’re . . . Ah, it’s nothing,” Ren started, then stopped himself again.

“Sounds like you’ve got something to say. Go ahead, finish that sentence,” I prompted him.

“I just mean . . . you know.” Now Ren was looking over at where Fohl was lecturing the slaves training in the village. Why Fohl?

“What the hell kind of misunderstanding is this?” I inquired with an edge to my voice.

“What? I mean, Naofumi, don’t you play for both—” Ren started.

“That’s enough. Say no more!” I cut him off. I really needed to nip this in the bud. It was true I tried to sleep with Fohl—just once—but there were all sorts of context to that encounter. Still, he had an ugly mug, but his skin had felt pretty smooth. He had kinda smelled like Atla too.

“W-what do you want?!” As soon as I had that thought, Fohl turned and looked around, perhaps sensing something from my direction.

He was so sensitive to this kind of thing, seriously!

“Love is free, man. Don’t you know that? I learned it recently,” I said. It wasn’t just what Atla had told me. I’d learned that love was required in order to keep you from having regrets.

I’d never dreamed that I’d come to regret doing nothing.

“Ren,” I said.

“What?” he replied.

“Once the world is at peace, what do you want to do?” I asked.

“Yeah . . . good question,” he replied. Perhaps reading what I was trying to say, he looked around the village. As it turned out, the spirits of the holy weapons would let us choose to either remain in this world or return home. I was planning on going back, but for Ren, remaining here might be a good choice.