Prologue

First break of the day.

“Kenta, I want to learn a new [Class]! One that makes me smarter!” Rine asks me while looking directly into my black eyes with her ember-like ones.

A class that makes her smart? So she wants a class with a high [Intelligence]-attribute? “Erm...” Frankly, I don't believe that a high [Intelligence]-value will actually make you smarter.

It is similar to a computer: No matter how high the specs of a computer are, its actual performance is dependent on the user. If you have someone who is hardly able to turn on the power switch, then don't expect much decent work.

“...” Rine pushes her underlip forward, showing her pouting face. “If you won't kiss me, I want to talk with you at least!”

Where is this coming from?

“Rine... I'm still not over the fact that you ear-plugged me while I was defenseless!” Being in the [Worn-out]-condition without any means to notice it... The only reason I even learned about it was because of what happened between Ara-san and me.

Ear-plugging... I thought of it as the way for alfar to kiss, except it wound up being way more intimate... at least it is when Ara-san and I do it. Nothing unusual happened when Rine and I were ear-plugging.

It's the cursed ring’s fault, it cast a curse, which 'married' me to these three girls:

Rine, the beautiful blonde princess of Feuerberg, who also happens to be a dynamic, and overly cheerful yet ruthless machine of massacre. To make it worse, she has a crush on me, and I'm somewhat afraid of her.

Ara-san, the exotic and studious white-haired alfr girl with a penchant for mischief. Alfar and humans are not supposed to be attracted to each other biologically, but the curse did something to us so that now we're both dealing with strange instincts every day.

Kyou-san, a Japanese beauty and former classmate of mine. Before our class was transported into this fantasy world as heroes to kill the demon king, we hardly got along, now, even after all the time we've been stuck together, we can still barely stand each other.

Three wives, three pains in the ass! I can't get rid of them!

Rine replies to my comment about her ear-plugging me. “We are married, we don't need to ask permission for some ear-plugging.” Yes, we do. “And it wasn't recognized...” Yep, the WP-system didn't give us an announcement, even after Rine more or less forced herself onto me. “...so why don't you kiss me instead?” What has one to do with the other!?

“Rine... I'm waiting for the perfect opportunity.”

“Oh, is that so?” Rine begins to smile and giggle. I'm sure she's lost in one of her delusions.

She's so simple. You know, Rine, the ‘perfect opportunity’ would be 'never.'

Don't get me wrong, Rine is a fine girl. She's kind-hearted, she's hard-working, her looks are way above the average pretty, and most of her shortcomings can be dismissed as cute.

For me, though, she's just clingy, since she forces her feelings on me, and terrifying, since she does stuff that makes her scary as hell. Also, I have the feeling that the moment I give in to her even a little, she'll just take the rest while in a state of pure euphoria.

I don't plan to take lightly the feelings of a girl who is capable of putting me through so much physical pain that I might commit suicide just to escape it.

Plus, I don't like being forced into anything, in general.

“If you’d like to have another class,” Ara-san chimes in, “Then I can teach you. I intended to teach Momo about [Arcana] as well, and now would be a good time.”

[Arcana]? It's the [Ability] that can influence [Magic] itself, so more or less support for other kinds of magic, like [Spirit Magic] or [Elemental Magic]?

Well, Kyou-san's [Priest]-class certainly has [Arcana], but it's still locked. Given how Kyou-san struggled to unlock the [Herbalist]-class-up, it's no wonder that there was no time to unlock the [Arcana]-ability of an entirely unrelated [Class] while we were in Aroahenn as well.

“Really! Thanks, Ara!” Rine hugs Ara-san passionately, while the girl in question looks unsure on how to deal with it.

I don't like being hugged, at least. There are just some lines I have concerning physical contact. Holding hands, no problem. Linking arms... well, I’m starting to get used to it...

If there were just more ways to grind those WP we get due to the wedding curse without the need to touch each other that much.

Yet this thought reminds me of something else. “By the way, there is something I'd like to ask you two.”

“Nn? Kenta has a question for me?” Rine cocks her head, Ara-san just nods.

“What exactly is a 'wedding'?”

“...Kenta-kun, I don't think I understand your question.”

“What a wedding is? It's a wedding, of course.”

“...phew... it's just that with those Crusaders and such, I did some thinking... and while I know what a wedding is in my own world, the real question is: What is a wedding in this world?”

“...I'll be frank here, Kenta-kun: In Alfarheim there was no concept of ‘wedding’, and even in this world, alfar rarely are wed, because there are too few capable of performing the ceremony.”

...so there is an actual ceremony involved?

“Oh, is that so?” Rine asks Ara. “...actually, I’ve never seen any kind of [Divine Magic]-user in Aroahenn.”

So [Divine Magic] is used to make the ceremony?

“Because there are none. Those people were at the root of the conflict between alfar and humans in the past, so there are mixed feelings whenever a hero of ours attains [Divine Magic].”

So there was a conflict between humans and alfar in the past?

I get the feeling that I seriously lack a lot of background information...

Nonetheless, I need to stay on topic. “Erm, Rine, Ara-san. Marriage.”

“Oh, right. I think that Katarine-san is more knowledgeable about marriage. I know a few things, but I don't want to give you half-knowledge and confuse you with it.”

“OK, Rine. Tell me everything about marriage!”

“Everything?”

“Everything!” I change to [Student] so that I can use [Fast Learner] to cram all of this stuff into my head. “Kyou-san, switch to [Student] and learn with us!”

“... *hssssss*” While I can't hear an answer, she makes a strange sound behind her cover of bushes.

It clearly shows how pissed she is that I called out to her while she was taking her bathroom break.

“Rine, I want to know everything about marriage. The definition, the procedure, the benefits, the reasons, anything you can think of.”

It would take a while before I’d realize that I should have phrased that better.