Chapter 376: Alden’s Reluctant Bride Has Trust Issues.

As soon as Reynold muttered those words, Aemirya immediately started coughing.

"Cough... What the hell are you talking about? Do you have a death wish or something? Me? Marrying this pathetic bastard? As if that could ever happen."

Aemirya started muttering rapidly, her face slightly flushed red from embarrassment or so Alden assumed.

Though he did find her reaction quite funny.

Even he himself couldn’t understand what getting married had to do with solving their background and identification problem.

"What do you mean?!"

He asked calmly.

Reynold looked slightly nervous, especially after Aemirya’s outburst.

"I don’t mean that you have to get married for real. It would be more like a fake marriage for the sake of your mission, Sir Damien."

He continued.

"As I was saying, the Kingdom of Rosarco was founded because of true love or so the legends claim. Because of that, love and marriage have always been held quite dearly here."

"Not to mention, the kingdom has always needed competent soldiers capable of fighting for it. So, according to the law, if an adventurer gets married and registers that marriage within the kingdom, both partners can receive citizenship almost immediately."

"Along with it, they also receive countless other benefits. Like free schooling for their first child and exemption from taxes."

Reynold paused briefly before continuing.

"If the two of you could simply pretend to be married and work as adventurers for a month or two, not only would your identity problems be solved but you would also have a much higher chance of entering the academy as a professor."

"Those with families are generally trusted more than lone adventurers in this kingdom."

Hmm, that definitely did make sense.

"Could you give the two of us some time to discuss it?"

Alden asked.

Reynold immediately got up from his chair and left after giving a slight bow, almost as if that was exactly what he had wanted to do anyway.

Left alone in the dining room with Aemirya, Alden thought over the proposal as his gaze shifted toward her.

Her face was still slightly flushed as she gave him a cold stare.

"What? Why are you looking at me like that? Don’t tell me you’re actually considering that crazy proposal?"

Alden was starting to get kind of annoyed by her reaction.

He was a perfectly normal, sane, handsome, and even slightly talented guy. So pretending to be happily married to him shouldn’t have been that big of a deal.

And yet she was acting as if someone had just asked her to kill herself in the most brutal way possible.

She had done the same thing yesterday when Reynold had decided to put them in the same room.

She acted like she hated the very idea of it and now she was doing the same thing again.

Seriously...

Was I really that bad?

Or was there something wrong with her eyes?

It had to be the second option, right?

"Well, we don’t actually have to be married for real. It’s just signing some official documents and getting it over with. Nobody would give a fuck about any of it after we disappear anyway."

He continued.

"Also, I am definitely not some horrible guy for you to react this strongly, you know. We can stay exactly the same as we are now. It’s just that, on some documents belonging to some tiny kingdom in this vast-as-fuck world, we’d technically be married."

Aemirya didn’t look even slightly convinced. If anything, her eyes narrowed as she pulled her hands closer to herself defensively.

"I don’t trust you."

"Sorry, what?"

"I don’t trust you."

She repeated herself.

"I heard you the first time. What I meant was, even after everything we have gone through, you still don’t trust me? You know, I am almost hurt."

He wasn’t lying.

Although the time they had spent together might have only been a few months, he felt like they had gotten along quite well.

He felt there was some kind of bond between them. Hell, he genuinely considered her his friend but it turned out this ungrateful woman didn’t even trust him. Especially after he had made an entire race his enemy for her.

"...Ahh, such is the life of a kind guy."

He muttered overdramatically as Aemirya sighed.

"Stop being so dramatic when you know exactly what I mean."

Alden was genuinely lost as to what she was trying to say at this point.

"I seriously don’t know what you mean."

She stared at him for a few moments as if making sure he wasn’t joking, and only then did she open her mouth to speak.

"Naturally, I trust you with my life and in battle and although it might be embarrassing to admit, I may even consider you the first friend I have ever made... but..."

"But what?!"

"I don’t trust you in other regards."

And there she lost me again.

Why the hell were women so damn complicated?

She was saying she trusted him and then saying she didn’t. What the hell was she even trying to say?

Alden had perhaps the most stupefied expression he had ever worn and as if realizing that he still hadn’t understood a damn thing, Aemirya continued.

"Although I might not have much experience with boys, I have read my fair share of books, and I know what they are like."

She leaned back in her chair, her crimson eyes blinking with an innocence Alden hadn’t expected from her.

A gentle breeze drifting through the room made her hair flutter slightly as her serious gaze focused on him once again.

"I read some human books about how those bastards first lure poor, innocent women into marriage with sweet words... and..."

Her voice stuttered slightly at the last few words.

"...and then they use them. And once they are done, they discard them afterward. I still remember what they are called..."

Alden already had a pretty good guess about what she was going to say because right now, she reminded him eerily of someone else, someone who had once accused him of the exact same crime.

Nyx.

And just as he expected, Aemirya spoke.

"They’re called Playboys."

Listening to her words, Alden had only one thought.

I swear, if those bastards who wrote those books ever fall into my hands, I’m not leaving them alive. Once was understandable, but these bastards were somehow screwing me over even in a completely different timeline.