This Time, My Brother-in-Law Proposed - Chapter 2.4

He looked around, at a loss for where to look, and answered.

“I thank you too. Lady Irene is also, uh, charming…….”

“Let’s stop here. You’ll be heading home now, right?”

I cut him off.

Surely not, but this man who will soon gain notoriety as a battle-maniac couldn’t possibly.

It would be troublesome if we got attached to each other exchanging compliments like this.……So don’t look at me with that expression like a lost puppy!

No matter how nicely Aiden acts, I don’t want to get attached to anyone from the Freier family.

I took a step back and said.

“I truly enjoyed today. Then, I hope you have a pleasant time with your family during your leave.”

“……Yes.”

“Do you have something to say?”

He clearly looks like he has something to say.

After agonizing, Aiden spoke.

“Actually. I almost suggested we have tea together. I thought it was only natural since you helped me.”

“Pardon?”

“But it’s obvious that someone who has broken off relations with my brother would feel uncomfortable having tea with me. I only realized that now. Please just accept my intentions.”

“Thank…… you?”

I appreciate the sentiment, but.

You didn’t need to be so honest about something you thought about then canceled, you unnecessarily honest man!

I gave a polite farewell and turned around.

But the last glimpse of Aiden’s gaze was so intense. It felt like his regret about the tea was dripping from his eyes.

Surely not. That upright and boring soldier wouldn’t enjoy tea. It must just be that my silver-haired back view looks like an interesting hunting target, like a winter silver fox.

Now, this truly is the end of my encounter with Aiden. I will never be involved with the Freier family again.

I walked ahead with a slightly buoyant step.

I planned to look around the shops in the bustling district.……However, the world doesn’t move the way I want it to.

How long had I been walking alone?

Screams rang out from somewhere.

“Ahhh!”

“It’s a monster! Run!…… Aaaah!”

A monster?

Impossible. This is the middle of the capital.

But just as I rounded the corner.

What was rampaging in the small plaza in front of the shopping district was unmistakably a monster.

With a catfish-like appearance, a foul smell emanates from its scales. Its body seems two or three times the height of an average man, long.

It has no legs or teeth, but just thrashing with that heavy mass―.

“Oh, no……!”

The storefront was destroyed in an instant.

A woman who seemed to be the shop owner reached out futilely, but could stop nothing.

Blood spread beneath the shattered door panel. A staff member who couldn’t get out seemed to have been crushed by the debris.

I covered my mouth.

Guards soon arrived, but they too looked troubled.

“Can a spear even penetrate those scales……?”

“Just stab it!”

“You stab it first!”

What reliable people you are.

I looked at the monster. Still reeling from the impact of crashing into the shop, it wobbled while stuck in place.

But…… beneath it, the hand of the clerk I saw earlier was moving.

She’s alive!

The shop owner seemed to realize that too, and screamed again in a cracking voice.

“Get that monster out of the way quickly, I need to get my granddaughter out!”

“Sir, please calm down! Once reinforcements arrive―Aaaah, don’t look this way, you monster! Get away!”

“Hurry!”

The shop owner tried to run to the shop even by herself. The guards blocked her. They seemed to think stopping the owner was more important than catching the monster.

The longer they delayed, the more the clerk crushed under the shop would die.

Unable to bear watching the scene any longer, I turned and started running.

Not to flee.

Just a little further and there’s a back alley. The place where I used to hide and cry in a corner whenever I had a hard time in my previous life.

A narrow, cramped space where no one ever came to comfort me.

There, I cleared my throat.

I need to start singing.

“Ah, ah.”

Only one song comes to mind right away.

I don’t want to sing something like this, but it’s an emergency, so I can’t help it!

I opened my mouth.

“There’s nothing to life, you see♪ If you open your eyes after being born and see lace, that’s a successful life♪”

……Ah, how embarrassing. The lyrics are embarrassing, and even my voice is cracking.

But I didn’t stop singing.

So the monster can hear.

From a distance, the guards screamed.

“Aah, the monster is moving!”

“Run! Don’t block the way!”

The monster seemed to have pulled itself out of the shop. The sound of its massive body crashing into things grew closer.

My fists became damp with cold sweat. Still, I didn’t stop singing.

The guards shouted.

“The monster is heading somewhere! Where on earth is it going?”

Right here.……My singing draws monsters.

I don’t know the reason. It was a fact I had to hide, so I couldn’t consult anyone about it.

Eight years ago, after losing my father in an accident involving monsters. My mother told me.

My singing is cursed.

So, don’t sing.

I lived largely as a daughter who obeyed my mother’s words.

But on my execution day, as the gallows rope descended, I decided to become a ‘truly’ bad child.

Hoping that everyone who mocked me would die, I sang with all my might to summon the monsters that might be hiding somewhere in the city, and then I was hanged.……I’m sorry for having a daughter like this, Mom.

But now, I’ll sing to save someone.

I don’t want to see anyone else lose their family to monsters.