Chapter 4 – Not even in your dreams

TL: Eevee

Ed: Hungry Panda

“I’m so sorry! Hero-nim! I’ll apologise in place of my father!”

When Minwoo headed over to Rien Palace and told Clarice that the king had tried to set up an engagement, Clarice’s face turned blue and he bowed deeply.

Father is mad but he is well and truly off his rockers. He wouldn’t even have dreamed that he would have said something so ridiculous to not only him, but the hero as well.

“I’m so sorry. I definitely refused Father, but I didn’t think that he’d say that to you as well!”

“No, I refused as well. Don’t be so sorry. You don’t really have to apologise like that….”

“Of course not! The hero of the kingdom, saviour to the kidnapped boys, and my own benefactor… to think he’d try to marry you to someone like me of all people…”

Feeling deeply ashamed, Clarice couldn’t speak any more and hung his head. Minwoo scratched the back of his head and comforted Clarice.

“It’s alright. And don’t call yourself ‘someone like me.’ What’s wrong with you?”

“But I’m a man. An engagement with a man. It’s so disrespectful to you that I can’t look at you in the eyes.”

Clarice looked like he was about to burst into tears at any moment.

“Clarice.”

“……”

Minwoo said with a hard voice.

“Look at me.”

As Clarice lifted his head, his eyes snapped open, surprised by the hero’s face so close to his. Minwoo smirked and kindly said,

“I’m alright. I was more worried that you’d be more troubled by this?”

“M, me?”

“Nn.”

Minwoo cheerfully replied.

In the past. When the light novel-like ‘otherworldly transmigration’ actually occurred to him, there was a period where he was drunk on chuunibyou and created all sorts of dark history in the palace.

Just remembering it caused him to shudder and at the time he was immature and pathetic to the point of kicking his blankets high into the sky,(1) even the people who looked positively on him as the hero turned away.

And to him who became alone in another world, there was only one boy who offered his hand and smiled.

That was the boy in front of him now.

“In my case, I was wondering whether you were hurt getting paired up with someone like me, so I came looking for you to see if you were alright.”

“Someone like me. Aren’t you the strong and brilliant person who defeated the demon king and saved me?”

Minwoo sighed internally, and faced Clarice’s clear blue eyes that were clearer than the blue sky and as pure as this boy’s inherent nature.

“The one who made this hero as strong and brilliant as he is, was you. Clarice.”

If you hadn’t offered your hand to me back then, then the hero of now wouldn’t exist. He was too shy to say those words, but instead Minwoo ruffled Clarice’s fine brown hair as if he was stroking it.

“You flatter me.”

Clarice’s cheeks flushed as he carefully set his hair right.

‘Whew. That was dangerous.’

Minwoo wiped the sweat off his forehead and sighed in relief. Somehow the uncomfortable rose bush had come right in front of his nose without him realizing it. Just a step further and he would have stepped on the BL route then and there.

When he saw Clarice up close, Minwoo’s heart was shaken for a inestimably small period of time. Fine eyelashes. Eyes like gemstones. An elegant nose. Living up to his name as the treasure of the kingdom, Minwoo very briefly entertained the ludicrous thought ‘this engagement would be alright?’

No matter how much you could mistake Clarice for a girl (when he first saw him ‘it’s a princess heroine!!’ and had jumped for joy.) and although he was beautiful, as a man….. Not yet.

And the ‘prerequisites’ to allow the engagement were way too outlandish to begin with.

“And just how on earth did that old snake come up with the idea of turning you to a woman and marrying you off to me.”

“I know, right. If Mother were to find out who knows what would happen.”

Clarice had a kind personality but thinking about what catastrophes could unfold if his mother, who had nothing except flowers in her head when it came to her husband, came to know of this, he shuddered.

A thought came to Clarice’s mind, and he propped his chin with his hands and said,

“The reason why he’s trying to get hero-nim and I engaged, might it have something to do with you, Hero-nim?”

“Me?”

“Ah! I’m not blaming you Hero-nim, what I was trying to say is-”

Aren’t you strong enough to defeat the demon king? Perhaps being wary of your strength Father might be trying to set up an engagement between us. In that case, having tied you to the royal family it would be easier to put you on a leash, and if a c-ch, child was born then well… wouldn’t that be an easy hostage? Considering Hero-nim’s noble personality there’d be no way you’d abandon your child.

“Th, that’s possible. To think he’d use his own child as chains, that’s a bit too much. That old snake…”

“I can’t really say anything against that… we, well since we both refused it doesn’t seem like he’ll go any further…”

“…….”

“…….”

A silence fell. The two people couldn’t look each other in the eye. Although there was no way that would happen, the thought of marrying and having a child that was as majestic as the hero/beautiful like Clarice couldn’t help but arouse odd feelings in both of them.

Minwoo couldn’t stand the awkward atmosphere and changed the subject.

“Th, that reminds me. Clarice. You kept on going Hero-nim Hero-nim from a while ago, don’t call me that. I’m no longer a hero.”

It was what he had said to the king as well. Having understood what he meant, Clarice hesitated before answering.

“But, Hero-nim is my benefactor. To casually call my benefactor by name, it’s…”

“I said I’m alright with it. Don’t you want to call me by my name Clarice?”

“No, it’s not that…. It’s….”

Clarice fidgeted with his fingers and murmured.

“It’s embarrassing…”

“Ah.”

“……..”

“……..”

And silence fell once again. Minwoo rubbed his cheeks and frantically calmed his heated face. Damn it. Why is this kid so cute even though he’s a man. On the other hand, Clarice felt like he was an idiot for turning shy as soon as he stood in front of his idol. It was because he was so weak-kneed and timid that Father had started spouting nonsense to begin with.

Clarice couldn’t stand the awkward atmosphere and changed the subject.

“Th, that reminds me. Hero-nim. Didn’t you tell me earlier that you were training the soldiers in swordsmanship earlier at the training grounds?”

“Yep. I was? Why ask?”

Clarice scratched his cheek to try and hide his embarrassment.

“Um, c, could you teach me swordsmanship as well?”

“Swordsmanship?”

Clarice quickly added on,

“Ah! It’s not like you have to teach me! It’s just…”

“Just?”

Minwoo playfully bit at the tail of his words.

“…I want to be as strong as Hero-nim.”

Clarice’s eyes were filled with the determination to be as strong as the hero he admired. Minwoo, embarrassed turned his gaze outside the window. Clouds were drifting in the blue skies, and servants were moving to and fro in the elegant garden. It was a peaceful sight.

Minwoo remembered the scenes at the demon king’s castle. Red skies. Black clouds. And the BDSM plays that were occurring everywhere. Oww. Just remembering that caused his buttcheeks to clench. Minwoo had beaten down the boys in bondage suits that had been conquered by the demon king, charged into the demon king’s room, where a horrifying spectacle awaited him.

Clarice had been wearing a frilly see-through wedding dress that left nothing to the imagination, and an orc had been threatening his chrysanthemum. It was a shocking sight that nearly made him drop the holy sword. Thankfully he saved Clarice before disaster could strike and thoroughly reeducated the demon king…

Hm, definitely. Having gone through an ordeal like that it was only natural that he’d want to get stronger to protect himself.

“Oi, I’m pretty strict, you know? I’m not going to take it easy. Will you be alright?”

Minwoo playfully smiled.

“Of course. On the contrary that was exactly what I wanted.”

“What? You… was that your fetish?”

“What are you saying!”

At Clarice’s shocked outburst Minwoo couldn’t help but laugh. Cajoling Clarice’s faux-angry eyes back to his cheerful self was a matter of course. Having completely forgotten the matter of the engagement the two spent their time going over schedules for sword lessons.

At that time. Neither of them could even have dreamed that the king had gone to the royal mage to ask them to make a gender-changing potion…

Author’s Note

Next time, the long-anticipated new character and heroine(?) the royal mage appears!

Translator’s Note

Holy shit the borderline danmei is real. Thank god for tags.

(1) As in, lying in bed. Recalling dark history. Cringe. Cringe so hard you flail around and kick your blankets and squirm in bed as you relive your days of cringe.

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