67 Chapter 67: Waifu Wars

At first I thought Alicia Clarence was trembling out of fear upon seeing Lilith Scarlet, but I was shocked when she brightened up and strode over excitedly.

"I see…I see! So that's why! You must be the first wife!"

"…first wife…?"

Even the dignified Lilith was completely taken aback by Alicia's response. She glanced at me and I shook my head with a shrug.

Sorry, but I had no idea what was going on either.

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But Alicia was grasping the stunned Lilith's hands and gushing over her, pretty happily.

"As expected of Tanaka's first wife…you're really gorgeous and amazing! You have this noble, regal air to you…let me guess, you're a Countess's daughter? A duchess? Amazing…you look really mature and composed…"

"Uh…thanks, I guess?"

Lilith was still confused over Alicia's attitude, but she wasn't able to shake her off. Alicia beamed at her, her eyes shining in admiration.

"Please! I would like to ask you for your approval! Don't worry, I won't take away your position as the first wife! I'll be happy enough with just being a concubine! If you don't want your future husband to take any concubines, that's fine too. Please allow me to be his mistress! We'll work hard to keep the affair a secret! All I ask is for your blessings, approval and understanding!"

Lilith had a complicated expression on her face, but she eventually shook her head.

"I'm sorry. That's not up to me. I mean, I'm happy that my fiancé is being faithful and I really hope that he will stick to a monogamous relationship with me, but in the end the decision to take a concubine or whatever is entirely up to him."

"I am an advocate of monogamy and I absolutely hate harems," I declared automatically. Lilith smiled and shrugged.

"That's what he says."

"Oh…" Alicia looked crestfallen for a few seconds, but she then steeled herself in determination. "That's fine. But I won't give up! I'll work toward changing your mind one day!"

"Bad luck with that," I replied, causing Alicia to pout.

"Oh, you're such a tsundere!"

Both Lilith and Alicia stared at me blankly, their jaws dropping as I rambled on and on. I took a deep breath and smiled apologetically.

"Sorry. You probably have no idea what I'm talking about. Anyway, the answer is and will always be no. Harems are stupid. Being infidel and sleeping around with multiple partners is stupid. At least in my opinion, anyway. I don't care if you want to be a harem or whatever, that's your prerogative. But I'll hold still to my values and be loyal to whoever I marry."

"…I think we get the message."

Lilith looked uncomfortable, probably because she knew that ours was a fake engagement, and I really didn't have any obligation to be faithful to her. Nah, I was just using this opportunity to rant over the ridiculous comments I saw on every manga forum unfairly criticizing male protagonists for being "beta males" when they were just being realistic. Furthermore, a relationship was an important and long-term thing. Obviously guys would need some time to make their decision in who they want to spend the important years of their life with. Rushing into a decision and randomly picking whatever girl who threw herself at him would be a disaster.

But young, inexperienced and horny manga readers just didn't understand that.

"Ahem…"

Rebecca, who was being quiet all this while, finally cleared her throat and drew our attention to her. I suddenly realized how foolish I was to ramble about such popular culture stuff without realizing I had an audience.

Whoops…I so wanted to die from embarrassment. But at least I let it all out of my chest, so I was also feeling a lot better.

"Ojou-sama, regardless of your…uh, romantic situation, for tonight we should just return home. Please…"

Rebecca bowed and beckoned for Alicia to enter the gates. Alicia sulked and gave me one last glance before she complied. The maid then bowed to me gratefully before she followed her mistress through the black iron gates, which shut with an ominous click.

Wow…

Even though it was invisible, I could sense the shimmering defensive wards that enchanted the gates. It would be difficult for anybody, especially the assassins, to break into the Clarence manor. There was a formidable barrier that enfolded the manor under a protective umbrella, saturating the interior with magic.

One wrong move and…boom!

"Well, I guess that's that."

I cocked my head to the sight and turned away from the closed gate. Glancing at Lilith, I hesitated despite the huge number of questions I had.

Lilith seemed to have read my intentions, for she smiled and stepped to my side before we left the Clarence Manor.

"I disguised myself as a human and traveled to Havia to look for you. I heard from Demon Lord Regis that you ended up being transported here somehow, so I decided to meet up with you here, just in case you need assistance."

"Eh? What about Haemorage and your vampire armies?"

"They're fine. I left them to far more competent commanders than myself." Lilith looked a little down. "I told you before, didn't I? I'm not cut out to be a leader, or for command. The only reason why I have this title is because I'm the strongest vampire in Hameorage. Even then, the title is just a figurehead. I'm meant to be a pawn in the elders' game for political marriages and alliances. They were starting to pressure me, so I told them I would go off and bring my fiancé back." She grinned. "That should keep them off my back for a while."

"Uh…okay."

I wasn't sure if that was a good idea. To have the strongest warrior in the army be away from the frontlines and idling around in enemy territory was not exactly a conducive way of conducting a war. I was surprised that the elders or Regis let Lilith do whatever she liked. Then again, it was precisely because she was the strongest demon that they probably couldn't stop her.

Then again, Regis was among the strongest of demons. Especially when I saw how he singlehandedly overwhelmed Asakura Akane, I knew that he was the real deal. He might be even stronger than Lilith.

However, he was stuck in Helsfort, which was quite a distance away from Haemorage. Moreover, as the current Demon Lord, he was probably too busy to go around micromanaging his subordinates and forcing them in line.

Seeing my dismay, Lilith quickly added.

"Well, you're trying to secure an alliance with a rebel group of Evelyn's Chosen, which might swing the whole war in our favor and force the human kingdoms and the primary group of Evelyn's Chosen to accept peace, so this mission is regarded as highly important. That's why Emperor Regis approved of my assistance. He also considered the possibility that this might be a trap, and if so, we can slay a few Evelyn's Chosen if they turn on us."

"Always the pessimist, huh?"

"More like optimist." Lilith smiled. "Emperor Regis seems to think it's more likely that one of the other Evelyn's Chosen might attack the rebels, and if we help them fight them off, we might be able to solidify our alliance."

"Now that's wishful thinking. Still, best to be prepared for all kinds of scenarios, huh?"

I was impressed by Regis's ability to think so far ahead. That thought hadn't occurred to me at all. But if Regis's reasoning was true, then Lilith was definitely the best ally to have.

"I appreciate it."

"Heh. Don't worry, it's not without conditions. Of course there's a catch."

Lilith wagged a finger at me. I gulped, having a bad feeling about this. That mischievous look in her eyes, particularly, didn't seem very promising.

"After this mission is settled, you're to follow me back to Haemorage. I need you to act as my fiancé in front of the elders, as we promised earlier."

Oh, that was it?

"Sure." I couldn't help but sigh in relief. "I guess you can count on me for that."

"I'll be relying on you then. Well then, so what do we do now? Have you found the rebel group of Evelyn's Chosen?"

"Well, actually…I was about to go meet her now." I paused for a moment and then nodded. "Do you mind coming along?"

"That's what I'm here for."

"Great." I felt heartened by Lilith's enthusiastic but cool response. I didn't want to pull any unwanted surprises on Nagano Nanaka when I suddenly brought Lilith along out of nowhere. "Then I'll introduce you to her."

With that, the both of us proceeded in the direction of the academy, with Lilith following my lead and humming happily to herself for some reason.

*

"…"

Nagano Nanaka didn't seem enthused when I brought a girl to her office.

"You…" she began, and then shook her head. "No wonder you have absolutely no interest in a beauty like Alicia Clarence."

"Beauty isn't everything," I automatically replied. Nagano snorted at that.

"Hard to take you seriously when this new girl you bring home is even more beautiful than Clarence."

Huh, I wondered about that. For one thing, while Lilith was more gorgeous and had a sexier figure, Alicia won in terms of beauty and facial prettiness. Not that I intended to compare one against the other, but whatever.

And what did Nagano mean by "bring home"? This sure as hell wasn't my home.

"Can we get to the point?"

Lilith was folding her arms and impatiently glaring at Nagano. Nagano smiled apologetically, not at all offended. Come to think of it, she seemed to be taking the revelation that Lilith was actually a demon from Morten pretty well in stride.

"Ah, sorry. But it's not unusual for people from other world to get married and settle down here, you know? Some of the guys in class have already taken wives…from the nobility. I suspect the parents wanted relations or descendants to possess the bloodline of heroes, and arranged for those marriages. I think the girls also received proposals. Hikaru-chan is going to get married in a month."

"…I see."

I honestly wasn't interested and my engagement with Lilith was a sham to begin with anyway, so I couldn't care less about the others.

"That aside, what are we going to do? We're still supposed to meet up with Takeda and the other Iron Knights, right?"

"Indeed. That is the plan for now."

Nagano nodded. Lilith frowned.

"So how do we do it? And when?"

"We depart tomorrow." Nagano gave me a knowing grin. "My airship is repaired, and we can take it again. We'll be meeting them in Morten, near the frontlines. The same place where Aoyama-kun accidentally teleported you away from."

"I hope you've already informed him that I'm not an intruder…" I muttered under my breath, recalling his weird magic. That guy could easily bypass my defenses and wreak all sorts of havoc. Witch Doctors were terrifying.

"Of course, of course. He's very sorry for what he did. Didn't he apologize to you the other day?"

"Yeah. He and Hoshizaki contacted me to apologize."

In a way, Nagano was correct. I didn't have anything to worry about, especially since Aoyama had already personally apologized to me and acknowledged his mistake. He wouldn't repeat the same error again.

At least I hope he wouldn't…

"By airship, huh?"

Lilith was musing to herself, intrigued. Having overheard her, Nagano turned toward the redhead with a brilliant smile.

"Yeah! I was the one who designed the airship! Pretty cool, right? And if we travel by air, we only need a day or two to reach our destination."

Lilith looked a little astonished.

"One or two days? I had to spend almost a week getting here by carriage."

"I know, right? My airships are going to revolutionize the way the people of Restia travel! Speaking of which, we should make deals. I'm thinking of mass-producing them and selling the schematics and blueprints to Morten too."

"Heh…" Lilith smiled at that. "When the time comes, Haemorage will certainly buy one of your schematics. I look forward to it."

"We need to achieve peace for that to happen," I reminded them. Nagano nodded solemnly in agreement.

"And to do that, we have to first defeat Kobayashi-kun. That's why…we need your help, Tanaka-kun. You and the demons."

Lilith raised an eyebrow at that. "You sure you can trust us? Forgive me if I sound rude, but it sounds like you're betraying the humans and the other Evelyn's Chosen by conspiring with us. It's almost like you're committing a coup d'état."

"We are…sort of."

Nagano smiled ruefully, and then glanced out of her office window.

"I won't try to hide it or sweeten it, but we don't have a choice. At the rate Kobayashi-kun is going, we'll end up in a quagmire of war that will drag on for decades as each side tries to exterminate the other. There will be countless deaths and needless bloodshed…all for what? All because the so-called heroes think this is a game and want an ego boost by getting achievements?"

"They think this is a game?" Lilith gritted her teeth and clenched her fists. "While we're fighting for survival, they're attacking us because they think this whole thing is a game?"

For my part, I was relieved that there were at least a few people in my class who were sensible enough to differentiate reality from games, and were actually defying Kobayashi. I wondered why they never helped me before. Probably because their newfound heroic powers and special abilities gave them confidence that they could resist Kobayashi, and he no longer had his grandfather or family to back him. Come to think of it, in this world, everyone was of the same hierarchy, regardless of our status back on Earth.

That made it all the more mystifying that people such as Yamada and Kijima still blindly followed and obeyed Kobayashi, and Tsukishima and the others tried to kill me for no reason other than they were afraid of me taking revenge on them. Well, there was no point trying to understand them. The more I thought about it, the less it made sense.

"Anyway, get some rest. Especially you, Scarlet-san." Nagano nodded toward Lilith. "After traveling such a long way, I'm sure you must be exhausted. We'll be traveling again tomorrow, so make sure you're fresh!"

"Understood."

I was about to excuse us when Nagano's communication device rang. She frowned and answered it.

"Hello? Nanaka here." she paused and listened for a moment, and then turned pale. "What? Okay, I understand. I'll be there."

She hung up and then turned to us, her complexion looking ashen.

"Kobayashi-kun and the others have returned."

"…what?"

"Yeah. I'm going to meet them for now." She rose from her seat. The three of us left the office, Lilith and I waiting as she locked her door. As we proceeded down the corridor, Nagano continued to brief us. "The plan remains unchanged. Meet me in the port tomorrow morning, at 10am."

"Okay."

At the gate, we went our separate ways, with Nagano heading toward the imperial palace and Lilith and I returning to the Blue Moon Inn. As we made our way back, I caught sight of a huge parade in the distance.

"That's…"

I magnified the view in my glasses and focused on the parade. As I suspected, it was a military parade, with a huge line of cavalry and knights on horseback marching through the streets of Havia. A great deal of fanfare and color billowed about them, with a myriad of flags, banners and heraldry flapping in the air. Trumpets blared as a military band enthusiastically welcomed the army back with loud, uplifting music.

I focused my view on the knight in front. It was none other than Kobayashi Kenji, flanked by Yamada Yuji and Kishimoto Hikaru. The number of heroes had diminished slightly, what with a significant number of them falling in battle and almost one-third of the class defecting. But the remaining heroes were still as resplendent as ever, dressed in full splendor and color.

I turned away, switching off the magnification and speaking to Lilith.

"Let's go before they see us."

Lilith nodded and the two of us headed back to the inn.

*

The next day, I was awoken abruptly by a banging on the door.

"Tanaka-kun! Tanaka-kun! Wake up!"

"Yeah, yeah…I'm awake, I'm awake."

I slowly sat up, rubbing my bleary eyes and still dazed from sleep. The light outside was still somewhat dim, and I frowned. Reaching for my smartphone, I saw that it was only 6am in the morning.

"What the fuck?! It's only 6am?!"

"Tanaka-kun! Are you in there?!"

Nagano's voice was insistent as she banged on the door. I groggily got to my feet and put on my glasses before staggering to the door.

"What's up? Why are you making such a ruckus so early in the morning?"

Opening the door, I glared at her, only to be taken aback by how flushed, panicked and flustered she was.

"Nagano-san? What's wrong?"

"We have to leave…now!"

"Eh? But it's only 6am. I thought you said we should leave around 10am?"

"Change of plans," Nagano replied urgently. "There has been a coup d'état."

"Huh?" that brought me to full wakefulness. "What do you mean?"

Before I could reply, Lilith emerged from the room next door, rubbing her eyes and stifling a yawn. She frowned when she caught sight of Nagano.

"You're here really early. And what's this about the coup d'état? Have you guys already made your move?"

"No." Nagano shook her head vehemently. "It's not us!"

"Huh? Then who…?"

As Lilith asked her question, a horrific understanding dawned on me.

"Don't tell me…" I whispered.

"Don't tell you what?" Lilith asked, puzzled, and then she blinked. It seemed that she had suddenly come to the same realization. "Oh."

"Yeah…" Nagano nodded sadly. "Yesterday, Kobayashi-kun and the returning heroes pulled off a coup d'état."

"Huh? Why?"

Nagano looked at me, her eyes bitter with resentment.

"This was always their plan from their start."

"I mean why now? Why now of all moments?"

"That's…"

Nagano swallowed and then slowly considered.

"They returned to Havia originally because Princess Merly was kidnapped by the dragon. They originally intended to save her. But we already did that, if you remember."

"Yeah."

"And then we were invited to the palace. Remember your discussion with King Leric?"

"Yeah, I remember." How could I forget? That was quite the tense and embarrassing event. I had never felt more embarrassed.

"You asked for world peace and succeeded in convincing King Leric to take the peaceful route and negotiate a truce with the demonic domains of Morten."

"You did that?" Lilith asked, amazed. I shrugged.

"Well…I tried."

"That's the thing." Nagano looked horrified. "When King Leric informed Kobayashi-kun of his intentions to gather the human kingdoms together to negotiate a peace settlement with the demons…"

"…"

"Kobayashi-kun killed him. He then usurped the royal family and named himself the new ruler of Legnica, imprisoning the royal family for treason and forcibly taking Princess Merly as his wife. I heard all his plans. He was bragging to the rest of the class, telling us how he intended to kill all the other human kings and become the sole ruler of the continent. And he'll make the rest of the class nobles with power second only to him."

"What the fuck?!"

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Trying to wrap my head over what I had just heard, I uttered a single question.

"Has Kobayashi gone insane or something?"

"He's gone mad with power…his ambition has gotten out of control. I was the only one who protested, but…Kobayashi-kun…he…he gave me this look. And then, in the middle of the night, I was attacked. He...he suspects that I have links to Takeda-kun. There will be more assassins sent after me, and if they fail, I know Kobayashi-kun will take matters into his own hands and kill me himself."

"He certainly has no qualms using us and then killing us," I muttered, remembering how he tried to murder me and then sacrificing Samejima so that he could steal the glory of defeating the Demon Lord. He was a bastard through and through.

"That's why we have to leave immediately. Havia is no longer safe."

"You got that right. Let me pack up and get changed, and we'll leave immediately."

"Me too."

Lilith and I disappeared into our respective rooms and then rushed out after getting dressed and packing up everything.

Before the sun could fully rise, the three of us had used the cover of darkness to make our way to the port and escape Havia before Kobayashi even knew what was happening.