Chapter 24

Yuichiro was in the middle of eating when Goat entered the room.

“Good morning, Captain Ogami.”

“Good morning.”

He responded calmly after swallowing a whitish-like bread. As usual, Goat was wearing that unfathomable smile of his and entered the room, followed by an uninvited guest. Instead of the golden armor, Kiehland was now wearing the same white linen clothes that Yuichiro and the others were wearing while standing next to Goat.

“I don’t recall inviting you over here,” Yuichiro chimed snarkily in between his chews, causing Kiehland’s brows to twitch.

“If you’re going to discuss future plans, I thought you’d need my presence.”

“Didn’t you tell me, the goddess to live somewhere safe, in peace?”

“Even if I tell you to do so, seems like Goat and the rest of the hot-blooded platoon commanders will try moving on their own. I don’t want you to do whatever you want without my acknowledgment,” Kiehland indifferently remarked to Yuichiro’s incessant sarcasm. Apparently, Kiehland had decided that it was better to keep watch of the goddess and the group under his supervision rather than leaving them alone.

“Then, it should be fine for us to request immediate cooperation from the regular army.”

“That’ll depend on the strategy. If it’s a reckless operation, we will not cooperate.”

Yuichiro looked at Kiehland’s expressionless face and realized he was a stubborn old man after all. Observing Kiehland’s expressionless visage, Yuichiro’s thin lips diffused into a smile. At the same time, the bedding draped around his waist rustled and began to move. Noah, half-awakened, peered out from underneath the bedding. With his arms lazily around Yuichiro’s waist, he had carefreely fallen asleep twice. As soon as Kiehland saw this scene, his expression suddenly collapsed.

“Noah-sama, what are you doing in such a place?”

“Mnn… that, good morning Seph,” Noah replied in a half-awaken voice to Kiehland’s flustered state. Although he had sobered, Noah was still clinging to Yuichiro’s waist.

“Come on now, get up. It’s getting hot,” Yuichiro said, kicking Noah’s toes lightly with the soles of his feet. In return, Noah frowned, still stuck to Yuichiro, refusing to leave.

“It’s not hot.”

“Even if it’s not hot, you’re in my way. Why the heck do I have to be stuck with a burr-like brat like you? ”

“Burr?” Noah cocked his head.

Kiehland, who had been standing dumbfoundedly, shrieked in a high-pitched voice that did not match his appearance after witnessing the situation firsthand.

“Noah-sama! Stay away from that man!”

Finally, Yuichiro appeared to have transitioned from being a ‘goddess’ to being referred to as ‘that man’ in Kiehland’s mind. At the resounding voice, Noah’s eyes blinked flutteringly.

“Why?”

“For a man of unknown origin to be in the same bed as you, it’s utterly shameful!”

Perhaps because he was upset, Kiehland’s brusque tone made his lips twitch involuntarily. Next to the old man, Goat covered his mouth with one hand, shaking his shoulders up and down. Even though Goat’s mouth was closed, Yuichiro could tell he was laughing by the look in his eyes.

Noah tilted his head at Kiehland’s remark. Just like that, he murmured puzzlingly, “Is it so shameful to be in bed with your own wife?”

Hearing this, Yuichiro almost spouted out the boiled beans he had in his mouth. An unbearable laughter soon erupted from Goat’s mouth. Goat, clutched his stomach with both hands, bursting into laughter that didn’t seem to stop any soon.

“Wife?”

“Wife!”

To Yuichiro’s chagrin, Kiehland’s hysterical screams drowned out his voice. Yuichiro became even more dumbfounded when Noah just nodded in reply.

“Yeah, Yuichiro is my wife, right?”

“Don’t make that kind of joke.”

“I’m not joking. Because Yuichiro will give birth to my child, therefore you’re my wife.”

Eventually, Yuichiro got a headache. When he remained silent, pressing his brow down, Goat, who had been grinning with delight, asked, “How many children you’re planning to have?” in a tone that completely poked at him. However, failing to discern Goat’s ridiculous banter, Noah responded cheerfully, “Six!”

“You! Are you planning to make a volleyball team?!” Yuichiro’s commentary voice overflowed reflexively.

“What’s a bo-rey-bo-ru team?”

Later, Yuichiro felt completely exhausted after listening to Noah’s inquisitive questions about its meaning. He sighed deeply and leaned back against the pillows.

“Don’t screw with me, anyone over the age of thirty-five is like an old woman giving birth.”

‘Did he think people are like cats or mice?’

Yuichiro reasoned internally that if he had six children, his stomach would not have time to rest. First and foremost, he despised the prospect of doing this alone. It was certainly impossible for him to have more than one child.

“I’m telling you this, I’m going to return to my own world after I finished my work here,” Yuichiro declared, albeit Noah’s indifferent reaction. With a somewhat confident expression, the young man looked at him.

“Yuichiro will not be returning back.”

“Huh?”

“Yuichiro will always be here.”

[What gave him the right to say that?]

While staring at Yuichiro, Noah exclaimed, “After all, Yuichiro will surely fall in love with me.”

Yuichiro widened his eyes in surprise. Before he could yell, Goat burst into laughter for the second time. It took quite a while for Goat to stop laughing. Although his laughter had subsided, his eyes brimmed with tears from laughing so hard.

Yuichiro moved to a round table in the room, a sour expression on his face as he looked down at the map spread out on the table. Noah, meanwhile, still clung to Yuichiro’s waist, with a few tears in his eyes.

‘This kid has guts, huh,’ Yuichiro thought after seeing Noah still refusing to leave him— even though he had given the young man his fist earlier due to shocking remarks he had made. Furthermore, Yuichiro couldn’t help but think he had mistaken the source of Noah’s bravery.

“Get away, you lil’ shit.”

“No.”

“Do you want to get hit again?!”

“Uh-uh.”

Noah grumbled, his grip on Yuichiro even tighter than before. It was as if Noah was saying he would never leave his side, no matter what. Yuichiro eventually sighed for the nth time and pointed his index finger at the map on the round table.

“General Kiehland, are you sure this is the direction from which the enemy attacked the royal capital?”

“I’m certain,” Kiehland replied solemnly. His dissatisfied gaze fell onto Noah who was hugging Yuichiro by the waist. In fact, it was such a disturbing look, as if claiming that his precious grandson had been duped by a man with a bad disposition.

Yuichiro averted his eyes from Kiehland who glared at him accusingly, and continued to ask Goat, “Why didn’t the scouts notice the enemy forces advancing?”

[There was no point in dispatching scouts if they didn’t notice such a large-scale march…]

Goat gently stroked his own lower jaw and tapped his fingertips twice on the map.

“There’s only one possibility,” Goat’s finger slid across the map.

As Yuichiro followed Goat’s moving hand, the man’s fingertips came to a halt at a specific point. “Am Yisu,” Noah, who was still clinging to him, said.

“Am Yisu?”

Temeraire entered the room with a tray after Yuichiro gave Noah a suspicious look. Temeraire then proceeded to place glasses of hot water in front of each of them one by one. When he asked for an explanation regarding Am Yisu, Temeraire glanced down at the map with the tray under one arm.

“Am Yisu is a deep forest where people of Yellow Tribe reside.

“People of Yellow Tribe?”

“Yes. While the current Jeweld is now ruled by a king from the White Tribe, this country’s sovereign was originally divided into five tribes. One of these tribes is the Yellow Tribe, which has its roots in Am Yisu. These people live deep in the forest and rarely come to the surface.”

Goat then added continuing Temeraire’s words, “Am Yisu is kind of a neutral zone.”

“A neutral zone?”

“In other words, if a place that is not their own land is destroyed, or if people other than themselves are massacred—they will not intervene in any way.”

“Even though their own country is in the grip of civil war and on the verge of being invaded by another?”

“Whether the king or the country itself changes, it didn’t matter to them. Their stance still remains the same.”

Yuichiro was stunned, unable to say anything.

[This country had never existed.]

“So, this country was never a monolith to begin with,” he muttered bitterly.

Goat lightly nodded, continuing to speak, “Unfortunately, that’s what it is. However, Am Yisu was not supposed to lend a hand to this country or sell this country to the enemy. That is why we left them out of the previous scout’s destinations. However, given the recent assault, it is entirely possible that Am Yisu has sided with the enemy.” Yuichiro’s head hurt again after Goat’s casual explanation. The phrase ‘internal collapse’ circled around his mind.

[Is this country crumbling through its core?”

However, during this moment, Yuichiro heard a suspicious voice coming from Temeraire.

“Wait. It’s hard to imagine Am Yisu taking sides with the enemy.”

“What makes you think that?”

“It’s true that the people Yellow Tribe who live in Am Yisu don’t have a strong sense of patriotism. But since the 2nd goddess spent the rest of her life in Am Yisu, the women’s faith in the goddess in that place should’ve been stronger than any other tribes.”

“Wait, women?”

Temeraire let out a small exclamation of ‘Ah,’ after noticing the source of Yuichiro’s bewilderment.

“Yes. The people of Yellow Tribe that live in Am Yisu are exclusively female.”

Translator’s Notes

Yuri-verse? Hmmmm sounds interesting

p/s: Advanced chapters available on my Ko-fi page!