>>6099446You nod, his answer now more acceptable, “And on the topic of my father, have you heard anything about the Inquisition’s traditionalists getting closer to him through leaking information or…” Your eyes suddenly find that the couch’s corner is quite fascinating to look at, “Marriage and the like?”
“Uh, no?” Asher’s answer is more confused than anything.
“Ah well,” You purse your lips, “Father seems to be thinking of marrying me off to some geriatric noble or sending me far to the frontier at a border post, or maybe just disinheriting me and disowning me next time, and I also wanted to inform you two of that,” Ah, for some reason your face is heating up, and the floor is entrapping your eyes with its beauty, “The two of you have been rather… accommodating and if I can suddenly no longer contact you I wish to inform you as to why before that can happen.”
As you look up, you find the tiny house to be rather blurry for some strange reason you can’t tell. Asher himself looks rather distressed as he keeps looking to a still Alyssa as if for help. You don’t know why. That is all before you find yourself in the warm embrace of Marie for some unknown reason. It lasts for a bit. “We could always run away together,” She says as he lets go of you.
“H-huh?” Your voice catches for a moment; you can’t tell why.
“I mean, it’s not like I have any attachment here, and if your family kicks you out, you’d be free to do what you want, no?”
“What do you mean?”
“We’re both skilled enough to make it as adventurers, too. We’d be real manga heroes. I’m sure it’d be difficult, but so is being an Inquisitor.”
“Please don’t talk about deserting right in front of me,” Asher groans but is ignored.
“Marie, what are you saying? Even still, I have a duty to my family and kingdom-”
“Yeah, we’d probably have to leave the country, but that shouldn’t be too hard,” She adopts a faux thinking pose with one finger on her chin, “I’m sure with the two of us, maybe even three or four, we’d have no trouble carving out a life for ourselves. Maybe we could even find this world’s Japan, and I could be the one to tell you about cultural norms for once.”
“Marie, please,” You stress, “Be serious right now. I’m trying to tell you-”
“Something stupid, right? Since we’re going to solve the case tomorrow or maybe the day after, you’re going to return home a triumphant hero who saved the country, the Inquisition is going to promote us both, and we’re going to be really cool as we do all of that, right?”
“That sounds a bit daydreamy,” You say, but it does sound pretty nice.
“Even if that doesn’t happen you still have plenty of options, you don’t need to be so defeatist, Lorina, it doesn’t suit you all that well. And should the worst come, we can also run away together, couldn’t we?”
“I-isn’t that something someone should just say so certainly? Especially since there’s the connotations…”
