Chapter 29 - I Want to Get to Say “Marriage Is Life’s Graveyard” (I’m Single)
Chapter 29: I Want to Get to Say “Marriage Is Life’s Graveyard” (I’m Single)
“Wilhelmina! I void my engagement with you!”
During the part of the afternoon right after lunch when everyone is feeling drowsy, this phrase that has been heard frequently as of late once again comes out of the mouth of the young noble teenage boy with gorgeous blond hair.
…… From the middle of the Diet hall.
“…… Wait a—, where is this place?!”
“Welcome to Japan. I am the one serving as the Prime Minister, going by the name of Adachi.”
The boy looks completely confused, which cuts a sharp contrast to Adachi-kun’s calm and practiced coping. By no means is he seizing the initiative in the conversation to elude (naozari) explaining everything because it’s a pain.
Incidentally, ‘naozari’ and ‘ozanari’ might seem similar, but are actually subtly different. As for what the specific difference is, it’s a pain to explain, so go look it up in a dictionary yourself. 1
“Actually blah blah blah.”
“…… I, I see. So I was reverse-summoned to Miina’s home place. I am the son of Duke Denken of the Fitzgald Empire. My name is Roman.”
The teenager aka Roman-san conveys his understanding after the thorough explanation by Adachi-kun. It seems that the Japanese who was summoned to an otherworld this time is in the midst of building a reverse harem. My dear readers, if you plan to create one yourself, please take measures to prevent yourself from being stabbed in the back.
“That thing you said just now about voiding your engagement, that sounds pretty serious. You appear to be of noble birth, but can engagements be voided that easily?”
It is the so-called political marriage. However, in a medieval-era society, it is actually the commoners who have the least amount of freedom in regards to marriage partners.
In the first place, situations like “wait there’s only 1 person of the other gender around my age living in the area!!” was not that rare, so there weren’t any options in the first place, never mind the freedom of choice.
It is said that there is a high probability of childhood friends marrying each other, but this is a situation where the childhood friend is the only viable marriage partner. And people cannot freely move house either because of social stratification, so there’s nowhere to escape to. Rather than all that about life’s graveyard, the birthplace of many people was literally their graveyard as well.
“Th-, that is indeed true, but Wilhelmina was saying bad things about Miina……”
“When her fiancé is sending inappropriate looks towards another woman, is that reaction not only normal?”
“……”
Roman-san attempted to defend himself even while beginning to get unsettled, but Adachi-kun’s follow up tsukkomi renders him speechless.
“Th-, there was other harassment also……”
“Sounds like merely the seeds you sowed. In the first place, do you have hard, solid evidence that Wilhelmina-san was the culprit?”
“E-, everyone was saying that it was Wilhelmina……”
“Was that ‘everyone’ only composed of you and the people close to Miina-san?”
“……”
Every time Roman-san voices another excuse, he is met with another tsukkomi from Adachi-kun. Now Roman-san has fallen completely silent.
Apparently he had been plunging forward without any evidence. As they say, love is blind indeed.
“Sh-, shut up! Shut up, shut up, shut up! How dare a mere commoner speak back to me!?”
He got defensive. What a totally classic example of someone defensively getting mad.
In the momentum of his anger, Roman-san grabs at Adachi-kun, but his opponent is the Chief Commander of the JSDF, someone who has beaten down even buff knights.
At this rate, Roman-san is the one who’s going to be in danger.
“Hou? Despite knowing him to be the Prime Minister of a country, to grab at him and call him a mere commoner? You can consider me impressed! You sure have turned into a bigshot for Denken’s brat.”
“And who do YOU think you ar— Emperor Graios Your Imperial Majesty?!”
The person who suddenly came in between the two of them is the Graios-san who has lately gotten hooked on Annals of the Three Kingdoms and been muttering about wanting a subordinate like Zhao Yun. 2
Incidentally, perhaps some readers have already forgotten this, but the country that Graios-san used to be the emperor of was Fitzgald.
In other words, he used to be Roman-san’s country’s emperor.
“Above all, this Adachi is a friend that I’ve acknowledged. Are you committing your violence with the understanding that pointing your sword at him is equal to pointing your sword at me?”
“Heh? Um, no. Never would I dare to oppose Graios-sama……”
“Is that so? That’s a relief to hear. But I’m glad to see a familiar face. Come, hang out with me for a bit in a practice spar.”
“Heua?! Wa-, Your Imperial Highness?! I was planning to join the scholar stream, so my sword isn’t really——?!”
Graios-san is emitting an incredible aura of pressure while dragging off the desperately struggling Roman-san.
“…… Well then, let’s return to the previous discussion of the budget for that facility.”
Then Adachi-kun resumes the proceedings as if nothing had happened.
Today, too, Japan is at peace.
1 If you’ve clicked on this footnote, I’ll assume you want to know because you are learning Japanese, so this is to save you the Googling. Firstly, naozari (なおざり) means not taking a problem/task seriously, perhaps disregarding or just neglecting it altogether. Ozanari(おざなり) is similar in the sense that the problem/task is not being resolved properly, but implies that some effort has been made to at least put up an appearance. Here’s the full article for the kanji and example sentences.
2 In the highly dramatized version Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Zhao Yun is portrayed as an almost perfect warrior, possessing powerful military strength, unwavering loyalty, tremendous courage, keen intelligence, and serene charisma. Wikipedia
