PMZ 036 – The day the N-rank assignment ended

AN note: Vulgar times…Sorry.

Dawn.

I woke up leaning on Hayato’s shoulder and jumped away with a muffled scream.

Looking back on my vague memory, I remember falling asleep and saying, “I’ll only sleep for 10 minutes” while dozing off.

Apparently, I fell asleep on the couch while talking, and then he fell asleep too.

What a surprise.

It’s true that I had a hard time leaving him, but I really didn’t have to expose my sleeping face like this.

Hayato too, he didn’t have to sleep with me. Your body is going to be sore.

I reach out and gently stroke his hair, which is already back to its original color. When I look at his beautiful, doll-like sleeping face, slowly the events of last night came back to me, and my cheeks were hot with the realization that I’m going to marry this person.

As I do so, he also wakes up and squeezes my hand with a hazy expression on his face.

“…… good morning …… Alice.”

“Good morning. I fell asleep before I knew it last night. Aren’t you feeling sore? You should go back to your room now and get some rest…….”

“I’m okay. How about Alice? Want to sleep some more?”

“I’m fine too,”

“I see. Come on. Want to cuddle a little? And let’s properly woke up after.”

I nodded and squirmed into his bosom, his face still looking lazy.

He kissed me on the forehead, so I kissed him on the cheek as well.

I couldn’t help but blush and press my forehead against his shoulder. The hand that stroked the back of my head smoothly went down to the nape of my neck and touched me affectionately.

Time flew by quickly as we spent it like this, and it was only after the morning sun had just risen that we finally got up.

“I’m going to take a break from hunting today and go to Alice’s parents’ house after I stop by the guild.”

“Yes, that’s true. we have to report it properly, don’t we?”

I will continue living as Alice the commoner, but looking back, Hayato and my family have been supporting me from the beginning until now.

It’s only natural to go and report our engagement.

I’ve brought my communication device with me, so I used it to contact my father beforehand to let him know I would be visiting today.

The communication magic tool is shaped like radio and enables communication by incorporating individual identification symbols into the magic formula.

In other words, you can only communicate with the person who is registered in the magic formula, which is too inconvenient for me, who has a memory of the previous life.

If we want to, mass production is possible (similar to creating a guild ID, there is a method to embed it on the material while hiding the technique), but the communication magic tool itself is expensive, and since it is not very easy to use for the common populace, it is not widely used in ordinary households; usually, it is placed in the house of wealthy aristocrats, guilds, and large companies.

The fact that it hasn’t evolved at all since my grandfather released the first device also means that there is plenty of room for improvement, but since my father is not very good at tinkering with the magic tools, and my brother is not interested in communication tools (because he is terrible at speaking), it’s development is stagnated at the moment.

Let’s see what the next generation of my brother can do.

Anyway, we decided to take a break from hunting today.

I’m wear only (standard) swordsman’s outfit these days, but if I’m going to go to my parents’ house, I’d rather be in a dress.

“I’m going to go change.”

“Me too. See you later.”

 “Yes.”

We returned to our rooms, prepared ourselves, and rejoined.

Hayato looks somewhat relieved to see me in a one-piece dress for the first time in a long time.

“Alice is more suitable with that look after all, it’s give you a calm and comforting look.”

“But I can’t move much with it. It’s just too fluttery.”

“Yeah, I know.”

I opened the door and walked out while talking.

He stuck out his elbow a little unnaturally. The first thing that came to my mind is “Oh, you’re asking me to put my arms around you, aren’t you?”. and I gently put my hand on his elbow.

I couldn’t help but laugh as he nodded with a delighted look on his face, and he smiled shyly as well.

It wasn’t a far walk to the guild, and we soon arrived. This time the guild leader himself greets us.

“Good morning, Alice-sama. I heard that your N-rank period ended yesterday, so I would like to give it to you today personally…”

As he speaks, Pete’s gaze travels back and forth between Hayato and me.

“…… um, why are you so close?”

“We got engaged.”

To Hayato’s immediate response, Pete said, “What? Seriously!” A few seconds later, several nearby female receptionists collapsed.

“E-en-eng-engaged!? How? When? Did the Duke know? I-I can’t help you with that no matter much I wanted to, you know!”

“Don’t worry about it. I think the Duke intended it from the start.”

“…… Seriously?”

“Yeah.”

Pete sighed, in his back we could see the scene of the receptionists being carried to the back room. Pete sigh again, tiredly.

“…I knew from the beginning that you were out of the ordinary, but I didn’t expect you to go this far.

I still think that you’re too young to get married, but if Duke allows it, so be it.

And since you don’t have any record of being unfaithful, I will support your decision.

Hayato, if you ever need an adult’s help with anything, just… let me know. I’ll help you.”

“Yes. Thanks.”

Mr. Pete sets the magic tool in a somewhat slovenly manner and then prompts me to put my card down, “Here.”

He seemed momentarily upset that my card came out of Hayato’s “pocket,” but he quickly regained his composure and put on a business smile.

When I put the card on it, the magic tool glowed, and the words appeared.

“It’s a…B…… rank.”

“Really?”

I yelled out.

There was a groan from the surroundings.

Amid everyone’s surprise, Hayato was the only one nodding with satisfaction.

“It’s not surprising, right? I told you beforehand that it would go pretty high.”

“No, no, no, no, this is totally a surprise! Suddenly jump to B may not seems special to only you.”

“I know. That’s why I told you first in the beginning that Alice is talented. And I’m the one who personally coaches her, so it’s only natural.”

“This idiot! Don’t tell me you planned it! So you trained her! …. It’s a big deal. A monster duo has been born from our guild…”

“monster?”

“ack… sorry about that. T-then ‘Monstrous combi’ how about that?”

“It not much different.”

Pete is getting ruder and ruder, but that’s okay, I thought to myself, at first I feel like I’m late to the party, but the joy of being late is slowly filling me up.

I filled out the form again and watched excitedly as my name was imprinted on the brand new gold tag through the magic registration tool.

“So, …what should the party name be?”

“[Chimney], please.”

“…I see. Well, I’ll register as such.”

[Chimney] was the name I decided on when I heard that Hayato’s father was a chimney sweep.

From my point of view, I mixed the double meaning of its connection to “Chim Chim Cherry” song and suggested “Cherry”, but after an unbelievable look at me, I was strongly opposed to doing it, so we decided on “Chimney”.

That’s not a song from this world, so I couldn’t get him to understand how the Chimney led to the cherries. My bad.

Next time I have a chance, I’ll say, “That’s a song from a play I saw a long time ago,” and I’ll try to sing it.

I receive the completed tag and hang it around Hayato’s neck.

The tag with the word “Alice” written on it glows gold around Hayato’s neck.

It’s like, “This person is mine!” I feel a little embarrassed because I feel like I was so bold.

That’s what I whispered to him, but…

“Isn’t it too late? I’ve been feeling that way for three months now.”

Such words come out.

Tl notes:

That’s so mild!

And I will need to watch Marry Poppins; this author seems to base her writing using that movie as a reference.

and comment section is broken again huh… I will fix it… later…..