Chapter 70: Distrust of women from past experiences

　The workshop was scheduled for a full day, but it ended in the morning because high level recovery magic can completely cure with a single treatment.

　The dying King’s friend has recovered completely, and he will return to the field as soon as his physical strength recovers.

“I left the rest to the Pope, so it was all over in the morning.”

“The Pope and the Saint were both happy to take care of it.
Even so, Luke was very cool today!”

　I’m currently returning to school with Iris in a carriage.
Then, Iris, whose cheeks were flushed in the opposite seat, praised me as “cool”, while a bit shy.

“We finished ahead of schedule, so I wanted to get everyone and go straight to the Duke’s house.”

“It can’t be helped….the King would want to make Luke’s position clear in order to keep other countries in check.”

“I understand that.
I’m too urgent to catch up with my feelings … huh …”

　I sighed while looking out from the carriage.

.

Actually, when I told Zeno-san that I was going to the Duke’s house as it was, he said “Wait”.

“I want you, Luke, to attend the closing event of the ‘Summoning Ceremony’.
If it’s okay with you, I’d like to introduce you as Mifa’s fiancé there….what do you think?”

That’s what he said…

　In short, a divine beast and a Black Emperor Dragon have been summoned in the Kingdom of Forrell, and since the summoner is the fiancé to the Second Princess of the Kingdom of Forrell, he intends to officially announce at the closing ceremony that no one should touch her.

“♪ Master, what do you intend to do? You only talked about having a relationship with Mifa, but when the royal family officially announces the engagement, the marriage will be confirmed.
“

“That’s right….we’re still shallow as friends, so it’s too early to get married.”

* * *

　When I returned to my room at school, Mifa and the others were already there waiting.
It was just lunchtime at school.
I declined the lunch invitation from the King and came here to discuss it with Mifa and Emilia.

“Luke-sama, welcome home.
There was a call from my father earlier and I heard about the engagement announcement….”

“I’m home.
Yeah, let’s talk about that now…Iris and Natalie please prepare lunch.”

“I’ve already prepared lunch for you.
Just reheat it and it’s ready to serve.”

Apparently Natalie has already prepared it.

“Then, I’ll be eating…”

I got to my usual seat and started eating, but the air was heavy…

“I’m sorry, Luke.
I was going to say we should start by getting to know each other, but the people around me keep pushing the story towards engagement…”

“That’s right…you want to marry me, right?”

“Yes.
Rather, I can’t think of anything else other than Luke-sama….I’m sorry for my selfishness.”

“No, that’s fine.
So it all depends on my feelings….”

“Luke-sama, would you still prefer not to marry someone with a special unique skill like mine?”

“That’s not the case.
To be clear, we haven’t really known each other as friends yet, have we? I know that the royal family’s view of marriage is like this, but as I said earlier, if possible, I’d like to marry someone who I share a deep and mutual connection with.”

“I’m longing for you, but do you mean that you don’t feel the same way about me…”

Ugh, when she says it that way it definitely sounds like it’s the case?

I messed up… I couldn’t bear it if she starts crying.

“To be honest, I haven’t been able to organize my feelings yet because I was separated from my fiancee, Lulutier….
I’ve also been worried about Iris recently.”

“So that’s the case….I knew about Iris.
It seems that she’s also interested in you…Isn’t it?”

Mifa asked Iris a question.

“No, I’m…..Yes, I like him.”

If she lied, she would be hated by Mifa….Iris confessed after a short while.

It’s all in shambles–

“Navi, what do you think I should do? 』

“♪ Why are you asking me! I can only say that it depends on your feelings master! 』

“That’s right ~”

For me, I’m not ready to get married, and killing the evil gods is my top priority.
{TN: Sorry, at this point I’m not sure if it’s one god or many god’s but I’ll be leaving it as ‘god’s’ from now on}

I can’t get married until I’ve raised my level and dealt with the evil gods.

“♪ Then, here’s some advice from Navi.
If you dare to rank women according to Master’s standard preferences, there are very few women in this world as good as Mifa.
Both Iris and Emilia are good enough to be ranked high.
By the way, Erica and Natalie are also in the top rank.
If you say something indecisive, such as after getting rid of the evil god, all the good women by Master’s standards would have been married by then.
Don’t forget that marriage season in this world is early.
By the way, Iris and Emilia have three years to spare.”

“I forgot that the marriageable age was early.
A woman who reaches my standards huh? “

“I’ve been thinking about it for a while and I think Iris is the ideal image of a bride.
She cooks well, does perfect housework, and likes to keep her surroundings clean.
She’s intelligent, a good conversationalist as a healer, and has good taste..”

Iris looks happy, but Mifa becomes sad when she hears that.

“But, there is something good about Mifa.”

“What’s good about me? Is it my breasts?”

“Breasts? Ah, that’s one of the attractions, but in that part Iris and Emilia haven’t lost, right? It’s not the appearance of the chest, but the fact that you can’t lie is one thing for me.
That’s your most attractive point.”

“You like my unique skills that everyone avoids and hates?”

“Yeah.
It’s not your ability to detect lies, but your inability to tell lies.
For example, do you like me?”

“Yes, I love you.”

“See, I’m very happy right now, and I feel relieved knowing that you’re not lying.
If I ask Iris this same question, I can’t fully believe her, even if I get the same answer, word for word.”

“It’s not a lie…those are your true feelings.
I never thought that anyone would really like this characteristic of mine.”

　I’ve been with three women in my previous life.
Thanks to the first two, I have a slight distrust of women.

　My first relationship was in the summer of my second year of high school.
My partner was a childhood friend, a classmate of mine and we belonged to the same club.
She was the second prettiest girl in our class at the time…but at a level that is not much different from the current Emilia who is disguising her appearance.

　We dated for a little over two years, but she eventually cheated on me and dumped me.
The hard part is that I can’t say “I have no fault” as the cause of that affair.

After high school, we planned to enter the same national university, and she studied hard.
We both passed the entrance exam, but I betrayed her right before I started school and got a job at my uncle’s company.

　Having a long-distance relationship and having nothing but a high school diploma in my final education, she thought about her future and ran to the next senior who confessed his love for her after joining the college circle.

.　About half a year after joining the company, the number of calls and emails from her gradually decreased.
I thought it was strange, so I consulted a mutual friend who told me that my girlfriend had been having an affair for the past two months and I put an end to it.

　When we broke up, I had some thoughts about her, like, “Why didn’t you just break up and go out with him? She had been cheating on me for two months, and yet she would call me on the phone and say, “I love you”.
She kept lying to me on the phone, saying she loved me and wanted to see me.

　By the time I reincarnated in this world, I had become a highly paid employee, and a mutual friend of ours was hoping we would get back together, but of course I didn’t care.
Her cheating boyfriend, who graduated from the national university, got a job at a good company, but quit after three months, and when he got another job, it didn’t last long.
He eventually gave up and broke up with her.

　The next person I went out with was a woman I had worked with on an overseas business trip to learn English during my second year at the company.
She joined the company the same year I did, but she was four years older than me because she graduated from the university.
I thought she was cute.

　We went to England for language study, but we were taken to a nursery school.
The nursery was free of charge, and my uncle’s company was paying our salaries.
In other words, they threw us in as volunteer maids without any qualifications as maids.

　I’m good at caring for children because of my experience here.
I learned origami and how to play the piano for young children while I was studying abroad.

　This study abroad program at a preschool was surprisingly good for learning languages, as the 3 to 5 year olds themselves were learning languages every day.
It was impossible not to learn with them.

　Since she was the only person I knew who could speak Japanese, we quickly became friends and had a relationship.
However, when I returned to Japan, I found out that she had multiple boyfriends…….
I was being four-timed.
I knew that she was a carnivorous person with a bit of a high sex drive, but…..
I was used for her sexual treatment in the field.

Of course, I broke up immediately…I didn’t need the ‘friendship’.

It took me a long time to get along with the third person.

　It was a pretty girl, three years younger than me, a receptionist at a business partner.
But to be honest, she’s still a wonder girl that I don’t really understand.

　The first time we started dating was when I confessed my feelings to her, but it was a bit of a special kind of relationship.
The managing director of my business partner made me confess to her as a joke when he signed a contract with me.

I had offered the executive director some very favorable terms for the contract, but he laughed and said, “You can confess to our receptionist now, and if you get the OK to go out with her, you can have these terms.
I knew he was joking, but I thought I could get a laugh out of him even if she rejected my confession, so I went to the reception desk and asked the younger of the two receptionists to go out with me.

I said, “If you go out with me, you can get me a five-year contract on pretty good terms.
It’s just a joke from the executive director of your company, but would you be willing to go out with me for a little while just as a trial?”

I made my request as frankly as I could.
She knew that there were no romantic feelings there.
After staring at me for quite a while, she replied:

“I understand.
Please invite me to a meal tonight.”

　It was a very clerical kind of OK……I think I had the opposite look of annoyance on my face, because we had no romantic feelings for each other at all.
When I went to tell the executive director that we were going out…

“What? All the guys in our company who confessed were turned down, but…Wait a minute…”

　He confirmed with her at the reception, but of course the answer did not change, and the managing director gave me the contact with good terms as promised.

I was with that girl for about half a year…but I died in the plane accident.

　I went on many business trips overseas and only saw her a couple of times a month.
I’m not sure if I’d been able to get along with her, to be honest, because she was a person of few expressions and few words.
But when we were together, my heart was always at peace.
Even if we didn’t talk, we could spend hours in the same room without any trouble.

I wonder how she’s doing?

“♪Are you curious? 』

“That’s right…I didn’t know what she was thinking, but she said that I was the first person she was going out with…maybe it was a lie.”

Navi then told me about her current situation and feelings at that time via the divine system.

“♪ She entered a women’s junior college in escalator style from a girls’ school, so she didn’t have a chance to get to know men at all.
She was confessed to almost every day since she joined the current company, and when she was confessed to by Master, she seemed to have a little fear of men.
“

“Huh? How could she say yes to my confession under such circumstances? What do you mean 』

“♪ The other men were calling out to her in a familiar manner, saying she was cute, asking her to exchange social media contacts, and so on, even though she hadn’t even spoken to any of them.
It was the same kind of thing that happened at the company’s drinking parties, so the fact that Master asked her to go out with him just for the sake of the contract was new to her and hit the spot.
“I wonder how he’ll react if I just say yes?” That’s what triggered it.”

“For that reason? After all that girl was strange.
What did she think of me in the end? 』

“♪ You went to an expensive dinner the same night she said yes to your confession, right? 』

“Yes, I did……It was a way to apologize for the trouble I caused, so I splurged.』

“♪ Didn’t you play the piano to match the atmosphere of the store? 』

“I did…… She saw the piano in the store and said she had learned it as a child…….』

“♪ After that, you took her home in a cab without touching her at all, right? 』

“Yes, you’re right.
I don’t do anything sexually the day I confess my feelings.
Maybe that was a good thing, because she asked me when I wanted to go on another date.
She said, “When will you ask me out again.”

“♪ You had sex on the third date…..That’s fine.
Her first time was then, and she had been looking at Master as a marriage partner ever since.
Like Master, she felt that you were easy to be with and that your interests were compatible with hers.
She found out about Master’s death on the news.
She was so sad that she had to take a leave of absence from work, but now she’s calm.”

“Well, I wasn’t sure if it was because of her lack of expression, but I guess she really liked me.
I’m sorry that I suddenly died and disappeared…..”

This is something that can’t be helped, but I’m worried that the people left with only good memories won’t be able to move on…

“♪ She’s a popular girl, so I’m sure time will tell.”

“I don’t want her to fall in love with another man…but, I want her to be happy ~”

“♪ Think of what you’re going to do about Mifa, instead of dwelling on the past? 』

“Thanks Navi, I’ve made up my mind.”

I’ve decided to become officially engaged to Mifa.