Chapter 348 - It’s Just English

After being forcefully dragged to the mansion, Lucia and Serilla sat him down in the living room.

"Sheesh, I wasn't done talking yet! How dare that little...calling me a pervert...I'll show her!" Cecil grumbled.

"You won't be showing her anything, Cel!"

"Darling, you should honestly start watching the way you speak. The way you put your words earlier made it sound like you wanted to marry her..."

"What? I didn't say anything like that! I only said I was interested in her!"

"Yeah, that's all you said... and that's the problem!" Lucia quipped.

"How's that the problem? I'm only interested in her magic, that's all!" Cecil countered in his defense.

"Well, you didn't explain any of that did you darling?"

"...well, no, but—"

"And that's why that girl started flaring out on you! You could do well in being more specific with your words, darling~"

"Ugh...it's such a pain to explain things though..."

"Really? Then how come you were so eager to explain things back at the school?" Lucia asked.

"That's different. Those are just students so it's only natural I explain stuff to them."

"Hmmm..."

"Who cares about all that? Most, importantly, darling, welcome home~" Serilla smilingly said while pulling him into her embrace.

"O-oh? Y-yeah, I'm home, Seri..."

"Seri, what about me?!" Lucia whined.

"Hehe, you as well, Lulu, welcome home~"

"I'm gonna go take a bath, Cel, you should take one too!"

"Oh, sure, let's go then..."

Cecil and Lucia stood up and headed towards the bathroom, but unbeknownst to them, the other Silvaria family members along with Katya had just walked into the house and saw their exchange.

"P-p-pervert!" Katya yelled.

"Huh? Ah, it's you, you stupid hag! What're you doing in my house?!" Cecil pointed.

"Huh? You're the one who wanted me here!"

"Tch, whatever..."

Cecil clicked his tongue and turned away. He went towards the second floor to take a bath together with his wife.

After their bath, the couple went back down to the family's dining hall. Unfortunately for Cecil, Katya was now there with them. Her luggage had already been transported to the mansion and the family had already allocated a room for her.

Kaiser had already returned back to the mansion after he escorted the Goldenia family back to their lodgings within the city. Of course, he assigned some extra protection for them since they were 'esteemed' guests of their kingdom.

Once dinner started, Kaiser and Anastasia began having a casual conversation with Katya. They wanted her to feel at ease while inside the mansion and right now, she was far from feeling at ease.

She still had a nervous expression and her actions while eating were a little stiff and awkward. Well, she was basically forced to live here after Cecil put in his request. She was honestly glad that Cecil was at first averse to marrying her but now that she was in this situation, she only thought of him as a pervert.

She kept on glaring at him during the entire dinner session and by the time everyone was almost finished eating, Cecil could no longer bear with the glaring.

"Hey, what's that look for huh?!"

"...I'm just glaring at a pervert, that's all..." Katya mumbled.

"You keep calling me that! Listen here, I'm no pervert, you got that?"

"Hmph, sure you're not... In the grand hall you were going on and on about not wanting to marry me but look now, you've requested me to come live with you... you're just another fickle and debaucherous man!"

Lucia and Serilla obviously weren't going to take that lying down.

"Hey, you take that back!" Lucia demanded. While Serilla darkly said, "Hmph, you better watch your mouth, little girl. My husband isn't a fickle or a debaucherous person..."

Katya didn't back down from the confrontation and replied, "I won't take that back! And so what if I said he's a fickle guy?! It's the truth anyway! He was staring at me lewdly even when we were fighting! Well, prove me wrong!"

Lucia immediately glared at her and said, "Just so you know, there's no way my Cel would even look at you that way. During battle, all he was doing was looking at you with his Mana Eyes. All he was doing was analyzing your technique, nothing more, nothing less."

"My husband was only interested in your spellcasting technique, don't get over your head and think that he's interested in you as a woman. He's too dense for that," Serilla added.

"D-dense?" Katya puzzlingly let out.

"Hey! What's that supposed to mean?"

"Cel, be quiet. For once, your denseness is helping you!"

"..."

Cecil's other family members only took in the exchange the 4 people were having and decided to remain quiet and talk about other things amongst themselves. It was better for them to set things straight now and stop any further misunderstandings.

"You two are saying he's only interested in my spellcasting method and decided to keep me by his side just so that he could learn more?"

"Yeah, I'll have you know. Our Cel is like a curious puppy who's interested in just about anything that he's never seen or heard of before! Since your spellcasting is something we've never seen before, it's only natural that he'll be curious about it!"

"Hey, I'm not a pup—"

"Darling, shut up," Serilla quickly said.

"..."

"Hmmm..."

While Katya remained silent in thought, Lucia and Serilla returned back to eating their meal after seeing that their point had gotten through to the girl.

Cecil had already finished his third plate of food and was feeling a little bored. He did want to talk to Katya about her spellcasting method and he couldn't wait to do so. So, like a stupid person, he stupidly opened his mouth and asked Katya, "Hey!"

"Hm?"

"I'll show you mine if you show me yours!"

"HAH?!"

Everyone in the dining hall, including the servants, turned to look at Cecil incredulously. Lucia and Serilla were just about to pound Cecil on the head and Katya was about to yell at him but they stopped because Cecil began drawing a spell formation in the air in front of him.

His fingers were moving rapidly and he swiftly completed the magic circle for Water Ball. The magic quickly invoked and soon a ball of water was floating right on top of Cecil's hand.

"Pretty neat, huh? Well, your turn?"

"...Hmph, I don't want to!"

"Hah? Aw, come on! I saw that you were curious about my method during the battle! Since I'm letting you see it now, shouldn't you do the same for me?!"

"...tsk, so pushy..."

"Well, that's because I'm curious! Come on, show me!"

"...fine..."

Katya was just about to cast spell but before that, Cecil immediately activated his Mana Eyes and waited for her to begin. Katya saw the change in Cecil's pupils and she couldn't help but stare back at him.

"Huh? What's wrong? Aren't you going to do it?"

"...Do you normally do that when looking at people?"

"Do what?"

"You know...change the color of your eyes?"

"...no, I don't. I only use it when I'm fighting and when I need to analyze a magical sequence. Why? Do you feel bothered that I'm trying to analyze you?"

"...It feels weird..."

"Huh... you're the first person to say that. You must be pretty sensitive to mana if you're able to feel bothered by me looking at you with my Mana Eyes."

"It's like you're trying to strip away my clothes when you look at me like that. And frankly, I find that disturbing...not to mention perverted!"

"...what the hell..."

"Better be careful, if you keep staring at me like that I might get the wrong idea, y'know~"

"Huh?"

"And I'm not sure if your wives will like that~" Katya added playfully.

After observing them for a while, Katya had figured out Cecil's weakness and that was his wives. And just like she thought, Lucia and Serilla were immediately glaring at Cecil from both sides of him.

"...Lulu, Seri, I'm only looking at her normally. I can't help it if she finds that my Mana Eyes are a little bit...invading..."

"..."

"..."

"Hihihi~ well, whatever. Anyway here, I'll show you. Genero—Aqua," Katya chanted and a small blob of water materialized right in front of her.

"Hmm..." Cecil stared seriously at the blob of water floating in front of Katya for a while. Everyone else grew curious and turned their attention at the 2. They didn't understand what Cecil was looking for as he seriously stared at the blob of water.

A few minutes of this silent exchange, Katya was starting to feel a little puzzled and so was everyone else, at least until Cecil started counting down for some reason.

"5... 4... 3... 2... 1... poof?"

Right after he finished counting down, the blob of water floating in front of Katya immediately dispersed into the air, returning back into mana.

"Ah! I knew it!"

"Hm?"

"Your mana only attracts the surrounding mana for a time until it naturally disperses back into the air. Your mana is the anchor that allows your spells to materialize temporarily. It's unlike the natives of this world who use their own mana to create something that'll last indefinitely. Of course, this only applies to some spells."

"So there's that much of a difference? Hm, it doesn't matter though. As long as the purpose of my spells is completed, it doesn't matter if they last indefinitely or not."

"What kind of magic language are you using?"

When Katya, Cecil's parents, siblings, and the family's servants all heard Cecil's question, they turned to look at him weirdly all of a sudden.

"Huh? What magic language? I'm using English, our mother language... hey, are you stupid or something?"

"Wait... what?"

"Big brother, seriously, you didn't realize that?" Angelia called out in amused surprise. She then started teasing him. "Hahaha~ big brother, are you an alien who doesn't know English?"

"...You were using English? H-How, I mean..." Cecil closed his eyes and replayed his fight with Katya all over in his head before realizing it. "Argh... It wasn't some kind of magic language...it was just English! I haven't used that language in such a long time that I nearly forgot about it!"

This was true, and even now, he's been using Alterna's common language ever since he returned to his family. His parents and family were already adept at it so he didn't think twice about using it and only felt that it was natural.

He had been using the language for so long that he nearly forgot about his mother tongue. Well, who could blame him? He had spent 6 years in this world without ever hearing a single English word and when he finally found his family, they had been using Alterna's common language with him from day 1.

Well, this was mostly influenced by the fact that they had been using it due to Lucia and Serilla who they thought didn't know the language. Lucia knew a little bit of English while Serilla only knew a few words, and most of them were just food and cooking related words.

"Ahhh, no wonder I found it so familiar...it was my own language! God, I am an idiot..."