Epilogue

“Phew.” We're an hour away from the hamlet, and I can't but sigh about every other second. My whole view on marriage, a vital and everyday part of the culture I've grown up, was crushed. This is really, really heavy.

A child from marriage is blessed. Even if it started out handicapped, it would become healthy during pregnancy, it's common knowledge in this world. In fact, one of ten human children outside of marriage are born handicapped, such a high rate. It may be because of the lack of hygiene or the fact, that mana or other strange energies are flowing around, but for the moment, I treat it as a fact until I'm convinced otherwise. One of ten children from human parents. The quota for alfar is much lower, one of two-hundred.

So of course, marriage is treated as divine, it takes a ceremony performed by a priest or other user of [Divine Magic], but it gives a 100% rate of healthy children, even if the mother is suffering from malnutrition. It's also almost impossible to lose the child, as long as the mother is alive.

This is a real miracle. If any deity in Japan offered that, there would be no doubt that gods are real. In this world, the gods indeed provided something great for their followers.

The bad side is, a child born from adultery will undoubtedly have a birth defect, it's like a stigma, though people tend to blame the parents rather than the child. The same with the woman of the hamlet, who had a husband, had an affair with an also married man, and the result is this child.

Heavy. The feeling I experience is emotional heaviness. Same goes for Kyou, who looks as shocked as I. We'll need time to digest it.

Another thought is tormenting me: Is this why marriage to more than one person is a divine sin? Because it makes the whole process more complicated? Or maybe, because the marriage is supposed to be so sacred?

In medieval Japan, it was common for nobles to have multiple wives, because of the whole heir business. Not only a baby, a healthy one, one that survives its childhood. With a marriage like the one of the fantasy world, it wouldn't be needed.

Maybe marriage even counters infertility? I mean, at this point, anything is possible. Up to now, I just considered marriage as something like a promise, something which is easily given and broken, but if marriage in this world is like that...

“Phew.” Ah, what a headache! It's bothering me so much!

“Do you still think about it?” Ara-san asks me out of curiosity. Oh god, another complicated matter incarnated, the ear-plugging is still fresh in my mind. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“Sh-” I'm about to tell her to shut up, but considering that Ara-san and I are kinda friends, I shouldn't. “No.” So I change answers.

“Then let me ask you: Why does it matter?”

… …

… … … … …

… …

She's right! It doesn't matter at all, I don't plan to get married in this world, and while the curse is considered to be a marriage, I'm trying to break it. Child-bearing? What has this to do with me? It's not like I want to even stay in this world, and while I do feel the physical desire to have some hot action with the girls surrounding me, my brain is still in charge of my body, not my nether god.

I have the habit of overthinking stuff, that must be why I even was that disturbed. Now that Ara-san brings this point up, I can feel how all my anxiety is just plain stupid. “Thanks.” I really mean it. Even the ear-plugging-incident seems less... awkward. Not, that I will get over this that easily, but I feel like I will soon. “Just thanks.” It's good to have a friend like you.

“You're welcome.”

“Now let's plan what we will do when we're at Ohlbrücken. If our intel is right, the Crusaders will be there as well, so I'll rely on you.”

“Ahem.” Ara-san lifts her chin and sets back her ears close to the head, the alfr expression of pride. I'll let her have that, she really helped me out in a way, nobody else could. Most likely, because she doesn't think about marriage much, as alfar don't do it usually. Well, as only one of two-hundred children are subjected to birth defects, and the alfr longevity and mating habits, it's no wonder. Emotional attachment to people isn't their strong suit either.

“By the way, what do you alfr do about the handicapped children?”

“They're usually stillborn, so we treat them like all the dead. Make them to fertilizer to feed our houses.”

...alfr houses may be living trees, but... well, we usually burn our corpses in Japan, and put the ashes into urns to keep often enough, so who am I to judge? “What about the rest?”

“Actually, I don't know, I've never asked. In Aroahenn weren't any handicapped people, just the stillborn, so maybe they'll also be made into fertilizer?” ...OK, this I can judge, right? If this is true, it's sick and wrong!

“Phew, then let's change topics and look at what's before us.” In the end, everything in the fantasy world that's not directly affecting us is nothing but a distraction. Time to change gears and do our best again to escape this crazy, unfair, and hateworthy fantasy world!

―○●○―

King Heinrich von Stolzherz puts his sword back into its sheath. While his schedule is busy, he tries not to neglect his daily training though he knows that he won't ever come back to his peak condition. In times like these, he misses Sir Gottfried who would sometimes spar with him even if it was always humiliating. Nonetheless, it kept Heinrich aware of his faults.

Well, his other instructor, Werner, is also good at both, instructing and humbling, it's just that these days it's harder to match the time-schedules. “Fatha!” A small girl runs into the king who catches the small whirlwind and spins with it in the air several times. “Ahahaha!” Her blond hair and her fiery eyes are much like his.

“My dear Innozenz! Have you've been well.”

“The tutors stink!”

“They sure do. Let's see...” He looks at the dress his youngest child is wearing, it's a blue one made out of cotton. While the color gives a sense of royalty, its cut and cotton remind much more of what the common people wear. “What color is your dress?”

“Green!” She answers in a smile that reminds Heinrich so much of his oldest daughter.

“I think it's rather blue, but who am I to judge?”

“You are the king!”

“Yes, you're right. And you're a princess.”

“Hehe.”

While carrying his youngest child on his arm, he looks who is currently taking care of her. “How are you, Yvonne?” His second-oldest daughter and the third oldest child begins rolling her eyes. “Could you ask Mother to let the governess take care of Inno instead of me?”

“You're old enough to take care of your sibling.” Yvonne is almost thirteen years old.

“You pay Ulrike for that!”

“It's not about her, it's about you.” Then Heinrich smiles at his youngest: “And you, of course, Innozenz.”

Yvonne stomps once: “Father, I want you to take me seriously! Kati has never taken care of Inno or Karl! The only reason why you ask me to is that I'm not the crown-princess!”

“Exactly. You have the luxury of time before you'll take in governmental duties. So play with your siblings!”

“Oh, you're impossible!” She turns around and leaves through the door.

“Where are you going?”

“To Uncle! He understands me at least!”

Heinrich's little brother, Ludolf, certainly knows a lot. He's cunning and knows how to seize every opportunity. These traits make him one of the most annoying siblings while one of Heinrich's most trusted subjects. “He's at the border right now.” As a masterful strategist and military commander, he's trying to figure out how to master the logistics into the demon realm, a land so barren and murderous, that conquering seems nigh impossible.

“Oh great!” Without another word, she's running off.

Heinrich sighs a bit but then looks at the child in his arms. “Innozenz, make sure to stay like you are.”

“I won't! I want to become Fatha's wife!”

“I see.” Yvonne and Teresia, his third daughter, said the same when they were younger. Only his oldest daughter had different thoughts: “When I'm older, I'll become a knight, overthrow you, and free the country from your tyranny!” … This quotation is from after he had to drag her out of Gottfried's tutoring as she skipped her other lessons.

Pain pierces through Heinrich's heart as he remembers Katarine and her antics. Heinrich hopes that she's alright.

“Fatha, are you OK?”

“It's 'alright', Innozenz. Also 'father'.” Correcting his daughters' errors in speaking calms Heinrich somewhat. “Innozenz, how about going into the kitchen and grab a snack?”

“Yes!”

With his child on his arm, Heinrich walks through the corridors, only to have his chancellor waiting right outside the kitchen. Ralf smiles at him while saying: “You're always going into the kitchen after training. We have a messenger from Flammenkreis.”

Flammenkreis is right beyond the Mauerfelsen, the mountain-site which is also the western border. Technically, Flammenkreis is a city of the Wildlands though this city-state is a vassal state of Feuerberg. Therefore most people consider it as part of the kingdom. “Is it from Sir Gottfried?” Of course, whenever Heinrich hears about the west, he also thinks about his daughter who went missing after her encounter with Inoue-dono's party in the Mauerfelsen. As Sir Gottfried is trusted with her retrieval, it makes sense to think that the message is from him.

“No, it's from Lady Tiferia Alchenain from the Crusaders.”

“Ah, that hag.”

“Hag, hag, hag!” Innozenz mimics her father who said something he shouldn't have.

He never met the woman personally, but they exchanged several letters concerning the war with the demons. The Crusaders want to join it, something Heinrich is not against, yet this is a rather delicate topic for several reasons. Moreso as this woman writes with a sharp tongue. “What is it this time?”

“She reported that she has almost gathered all the troops and asks for permission to have her son and some troops enter the country for negotiations.”

“Her son?”

“Yes, she writes that she needs to clean some 'kind of mess' to guarantee smooth logistics.”

Sending her son is either a sign of respect or because he's the one who messed up and therefore has to redeem himself. He sure hopes it's the former as having another fool after Taniguchi-dono might turn everything into diplomatic chaos, something nobody wants who is at war.

Heinrich asks: “Do you see any reason to deny their request at this point, Ralf?”

“No, the earlier we begin negotiations, the better.”

“Fatha, what're negotiations?” Innozenz is a witness of actual government business.

“Well, we will get help for the war, pumpkin. But they won't come as my servants, so we need to think about some rules and now they want to visit us so we can make them.”

“Ah.”

It would be so easy if the Crusaders would only desire funding and donations. Yet it's foreseeable that they won't be satisfied with just that. On the other hand, the quality and quantity they'll bring into the war will relieve the citizens under his wing from some of the suffering to come.

So Heinrich is willing to talk, yet he will also bring his sword on this negotiating table.

―○●○―

The Lady is inside her palace. Her eyes are like moons on a black sky, she never blinks, only the shape of the moon-irises change depending on her mood. She has almost no nose, owl-feathers come out of her head, and her hair is midnight blue and mirrors the night sky including the twinkling stars and a shade of nebula.

She just learned about the exploits of her heroes, how they fought the undead army once again, this time side by side with the ooaks. The new allies turned the tide, enough to make the undead general retreat, still, the battle claimed its share of victims.

Still, the infestation of undead that plaques her necropolis has now an antidote which becomes stronger the more it fights. The Lady doesn't care about the undead themselves. They're of no value or meaning, allowed to dwell inside her realm because they were so negligible. Now they are worthy enough as a stepping stone for the Lady's heroes.

The crucial parts of her plans aren't here inside this place, they're out in the world. Her agents, her ambitions, her everything. She's a goddess, after all, the undead know better than to challenge her and face demise, those poor fools who needed a place to stay after they have failed their attempt to overthrow their country, hoping to scratch enough dead together to start anew. Now all their hopes will be crushed under the feet of her newest worshipers.

The Lady's irises turn dark like a new moon as a small smile creeps up her face, as her thoughts wander to a much larger picture than mere mortals can even imagine. A big part of the difference lies in perspective, like the difference between an ant and an owl, one crawling at the bottom, part of a mass that works for the survival of the entire anthill, the other majestically flying above the land-bound, having a bigger picture.

There are different deities, all with different goals and agendas. The world is changing, a new age may start soon, and the Lady won't have the other gods have their way.

Soon, every mortal will praise her name in admiration.