I Don't Want to Break off my Engagement... Translation

42. Subjugation (1)

“Did you calm down a bit?”

“Luka.”

Luka gently listened while laughing.

Perhaps my anxiety is apparent?

…I touched my cheek.

When I was the duke’s daughter, I had to wear a façade all the time, therefore my facial expression remained unchanging.

Since coming here, I was the Duchess Merfan or the fiancée of the first prince of Haulfa no longer. Therefore, I was able to laugh as I pleased.

But was my face just now stiff to the point it was obvious to the eye?

Luka felt unnatural as he took his eyes off me and mumbled—

“—what?”

“Shut up.”

“Haa?”

“Are you ready to order?”

When he tried to complain about the rant I suddenly spat out, a woman from the cafeteria came to take our order.

It was a great help.

I stopped staring at Luka and placed an order.

“Speaking of which, I wonder how much money I’ll gain from that quest tomorrow.”

“500 dallies for those with the most contribution, 300 for medium contribution, and 50 for participants.”

“Huh!?”

I suddenly said out loud.

500 dallies for people with most contribution and 300 dallies for medium contributors!

That… if I received that sum, I would be able to return to Haulfa immediately!

The commotion I was making garnered the attention of my surroundings. Luka also appeared shocked.

“You, you’re that poor?”

Luka said so after a long silence.

I so wanted to splash this guy with water! Thank god I managed to endure. I still pitied Luka, who made me laugh a while ago.

I thought glaring at him would settle the score. My responce to Luka’s previous statement was a sharp glance.

“You keep calling people poor and poor, you’ll regret it someday, you know!”

“How would that happen, exactly?”

“I’m going to become rich enough to be able to order you to marry me on spot!”

Such was an easy feat once I returned to Haulfa, but in my current predicament, unless I found a new oil source, that threat of mine could easily be shrugged off.

While I was escaping reality, Luka laughed boisterously.

I wondered if I should just stomp on his feet. Such a thought became more and more pleasing.

It was about time for my order to arrive. I caught a glimpse of the clock and was startled at how much time had passed. Return from the guild later than this would be bad for me! My disguise applied magic would dissolve! I finished eating in a hurry, said goodbye to Luka, and ran away to my room.

Sure enough, after I got into my room, my hair color returned to silver starting from the tips.

“…Almost got me there…” I sat down and leaned against the wall.

Luka, who was left in the dining room, said some words that wouldn’t be able to reach me—

“—is she in debt?”

If I knew Luka had such a disgraceful misunderstanding about me, I would’ve corrected him immediately.

Next day.

The Aliuster Subjugation Operation started with a small briefing. Then, we departed from the guild as scheduled. The atmosphere was truly heavy, and everyone was causing quite an uproar.

I saw the pair from the cafeteria yesterday—they both had a stern look.

The only calm one was Luka. As usual, he was easygoing.

At such times, I admired Luka.

I thought Luka was really amazing. I was still nervous.

Aliuster were said to be mythical creatures that hadn’t appeared in the last few hundred years.

However, for it to appear now, of all the times…

I followed everyone with a heavy sigh.

“Fern.”

“What, Luka?”

“If it’s Fern, what would you do if it turned out that the Aliuster has an ally?”

“Huh…?”

Luka talked in his usual tone, but his voice was fainter.

I wondered if that guy knew we were going to subjugate an Aliuster soon.

“What do you mean?”

“What if it’s more than one Aliuster? You managed to seize one, but you’re still in deep water.”

“You keep on blabbering nonsense…”

It was an ominous talk.

I thought with my hand on my chin.

I didn’t know what Luka was thinking, but if he asked, then I had to think of the answer.

If it was a joke, it would be in bad taste, but if it really happened…

“Spare it…?”

“That Aliuster? Isn’t that asking for the impossible?”

“Why? Because it’s strong?”

“Indeed. If we were going harboring the intent to merely capture it instead of killing it, there would be a lot of casualties.”

“That’s true… but, doesn’t that monster’s strength increase each time it’s hit? Ganet advised me to kill it in one hit.”

“That’s not what I’m talking about… well, yeah, I guess there’s no other way.”

Luka bitterly said so.

That creature became more active in warm temperature.

I hadn’t met the creature yet, but I wondered if Luka was also intimidated by it.

Back in Haulfa, I had never heard about that creature because our climate was colder than Talia’s.

Of course, I, as the daughter of a duke, should never been able to see one.

However, if I admitted such, my noble stature and also the fact that I wasn’t even from here would be exposed.

I had to convince people that I was born in Talia.

While conversing with Luka, we arrived at the mountain.

The anxiousness of the people reached my ears.

I could also hear someone gulping.

The leader stepped into the mountain while everyone followed him. Of course, Luka and I did the same.

But, along the way, there were those who abandoned the quest.

I could hear a scream coming from behind me—a slender man was sitting down.

“Hyyiii…! As I thought, I’m going home!” Fear could be heard clearly from his voice.

Luka just stared at him while everyone else anxiously gazed off somewhere.

The leader seemed ashamed, but he spoke in a firm voice.

“I understand, you can go home, then.”

“Y, yes!”

The man made a pitiful voice as he returned while still crawling on the floor.

If all he wanted to do was demoralize the other party members, he shouldn’t have come since the start…

I glanced at Luka while pondering so, and he had a fearless smile. What was he thinking about?

“Well, the amount of people who might receive 500 dallies has gone down.”

I heard him remarking casually.


***T/N:

“I’m going to become rich enough to be able to order you to marry me on spot!”

Look straight into my eyes and tell me this bitch ain’t playing the role of those dense af, loves to send mixed signals to every men ever, heroine lead in a generic shoujo manga. She’s super fucking presumptuous and upholding etiquettes before, now you expect me to believe she’s dense enough to not know the meaning of her words and how her actions and words might be perceived by others?

You don’t want to completely become an adventurer and leave your old life behind, you also don’t want to completely break off your engagement, and now you’re stringing along man… Is this your definition of being outgoing, Tia? A bitch?

“Huh!?”

I suddenly said out loud.

Stop overreacting at every little thing possible and act human for once, it’s getting fucking old and no you are not being cute at all you cheap excuse of a generic, “”””cute””””, utterly fucking dumb heroine.

If all he wanted to do was demoralize the other party members, he shouldn’t have come since the start…

I’m sorry, who the fuck is she again? Who give her the right to look down on other people like this? Isn’t the author trying to make us believe she’s a people-person? Then, to keep her being in character, shouldn’t she be empathising instead of being a judgey ass bitch? I fucking read your thought bitch, you acted like you know everything about Aliuster when you’re just nodding along because the most important shit to you is keeping up your facade, and not keeping up with the monster you’re about to fight. You think you’re all high and mighty now, just because you tag along as a useless sack of potato?

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