Chapter 194

194 Get back on your feet, please! part Ryu brought Athela to back to his house on the goblin village and the first thing he did after opening the door was shout Mia’s name. She knew this was going to happen eventually, but didn’t expect it to be so soon.

“What in the world were you thinking?”

“Master Ryu, it’s not what you think, you know”

“Did you not tell Athela to convince the goblins that she was my wife so they let her stay in the village?”

“Then it is exactly what you’re thinking”

She pouted.

“Tell me now, why did you do something as reckless as that?”

“Because she was pitiful, they wanted to kick her out. They even let her maid stay, why did they want to kick her so bad?”

“Uh, maybe because she killed goblin children!?”

.....

“But she didn’t know them at the time, if you were on her shoes you might have done the same thing!”

“Of course not! why would I kill children? I don’t care the species, that’s just evil!”

“I was fighting for my life! I couldn’t even recognize their children at the time, they all looked the same”

Athela tried to defend herself, but Ryu ignored her. He never considered Athela as part of her close ones, from the first time he saw her he realized she would be nothing but trouble.

A noblewoman who pretended to be her maid’s servant, only because she was completely incompetent as a merchant and didn’t even have the basic skills for it. She was a musclehead that only relied on her status as a noble, and yet she held big dreams of reinstating her family as the rightful rulers of Celarent.

“Mia, I know you have trouble understanding things sometimes, but this is very important so pay attention. I told Bardun Athela wasn’t my wife, so either you’re lying and they’ll kick you out or I’m lying and it will cause Bardun a lot of trouble”

“There’s another solution. You can always marry me and make it intro the truth”

Athela stepped in with another idiotic plan

“Why would I marry you?”

“Wealth, status, nobility, strength and I’ll give you many strong children”

“How can you say stuff like that with a straight face crazy woman!?”

Sera almost threw herself at Athela’s neck, she was losing her patience. It had been days since she confessed to Ryu, but they were yet to talk things over.

Anne, who couldn’t keep herself from joining the fray, also started arguing and pointing out she was the one who knew Ryu for the longest period.

Mia, who didn’t yet understand why everyone was fighting, but wanted to participate anyway started saying random facts that were completely unrelated to what they were fighting over.

Ryu stayed for a couple minutes attempting to calm the girls down, but it was like herding cats, but then he went out of the house to cool down. With all the fuss inside he wasn’t able to even listen to his own thoughts.

He took a stroll around the goblin village, noticing the clean houses, the lack of piles of items in the way, the newly decorated houses and the guards patrolling the streets. It all looked so different from his past visit, he really wanted to know the reason behind so many changes, but he had many things to think about.

He spent a long while on the wilderness with his pets and had became accustomed to it, dealing with people now was difficult for him.

He knew about Sera’s feelings, about Athela’s intention to marry him, about Anne’s deep feelings that she dragged for a long time and about Mia’s dependence towards him, but he didn’t know how he felt about any of them.

He told Sera he loved her and they kissed after, but it made things so awkward Sera wouldn’t speak to him for days. She was beautiful, had a nice figure and was blindly loyal to him. The problem with Sera was something he had suspected for a while now, she had a terrible personality. She was kind and caring towards him, but she was completely apathic and merciless towards others, in fact, it seemed like she actually enjoyed inflicting pain to others.

Athela was a perfect candidate for marriage that any sane man wouldn’t refuse, she did offer a great deal, but Ryu didn’t know why was she interested in him in the first place. He also knew she wasn’t too bright and didn’t feel a thing for her, if he was to pick her it would be for convenience and would have nothing to do with love.

That actually made things easy for him, he didn’t have any memories from his past, but if he knew one thing it would be that he would only marry the girl he loved.

Then was Anne, the stunningly beautiful and strong silver goddes from ironwoods. She was also a summoned hero and he knew her for the longest time. She was actually the first person he remember seeing. She was as beautiful as Sera and as strong as Athela, but she said she had a boyfriend now and Ryu couldn’t understand why was she even arguing with the others.

The thing with Mia was something completely different. It could be said that she was the one he loved the most out of the rest, even more than Anne. He had spent a long time with her on the goblin village and they got to know each other a lot better. Not only that, but her presence soothed him and they shared an inexplicable bond that could actually be felt. But their relationship was that of a master and a pet.

It actually took Ryu a long time to get accustomed to the idea of having a person as a pet, but after a while he finally understood that adopting a pet wasn’t something as casual as picking up a stray cat and giving it a name. It was an actual mystical bond, created from the intention of two creatures, where one was subordinated to the other, it could be said it’s a contract of servitude.

Ryu’s orders were absolute for Mia, she couldn’t refuse or disobey him, and in return, Ryu would have to take care of her. If he failed to do that, her loyalty would decrease and she would again be able to act freely.

Pondering about these things, Ryu sat in a rock and looked at the goblins give their all working. Now they knew how to cook and tan leather, they were better dressed. They also had better gear than the last time he saw them, everyone had at least one short knife carved out of a creature’s fang.

Goblins who passed him, all said hi and showed great respect towards him. He was the first human to ever be recognized as a goblin citizen, so every single inhabitant knew about him.

Of course Ryu got distracted from his thoughts, he distractedly checked on his soulbound card where a single message changed his mood completely and helped him gather the resolve he needed to get back on his feet.

The last page, where she was able to get messages from an unknown entity had a short line that read:

>They’re alive