Chapter 19
"Don't blame Assarun for anything. This whole mess started because of me. He just had a kind heart and agreed to help, and then things spiraled out like this."
The house felt like a battlefield when we got back.
Levina sat motionless, her eyes empty as broken windows. Truno tilted his head, confused as a lost pup. Mother Agnes stared at me with the kind of look that could strip flesh from bone. I stood there like a fool, not knowing how to explain myself.
So Asuka spoke for me.
"What?! You mean you started this whole thing?"
Mother's eyes went wide. She let out a long breath.
"Good grief. My son really is a complete chicken. How can you let the girl take the lead in something like this? Sorry about that, dear. Must be hard dealing with my son being too much of a coward to make the first move."
"What the hell is going through your head?! I didn't marry her because I did something to Asuka or because she did something to me!"
My sharp comeback made Mother, who'd been putting on her stern face this whole time, burst into laughter.
"Ha ha ha..."
Asuka, I know this is hard for someone who laughs as easily as you. But please, just bear with it.
When these two get together, there's going to be plenty more comedy to come.
Levina made a disgusted face and sighed. Truno turned red like he was embarrassed by the stranger in our house.
"This family just gets more ridiculous every day. Never takes anything seriously. Something this big happens and you're still cracking jokes." Levina's voice was flat as stone.
Sorry, little sister. But I think our family's beyond saving at this point. Just accept it.
"Oh really? If it didn't go that far, then why did you have to marry her to take responsibility?" Mother asked.
Now that's a tough question.
If I told her it was an accident or just coincidence, Asuka would lose face badly. She might think she was being played with, emotionally speaking. Could break her heart so bad she'd turn to the dark side.
But I wouldn't make up some lie either. I've got this thing about lying, especially to family. Can't stand it.
Don't want to lie, but can't exactly tell the truth either.
So I had to use this line to save myself:
"What I did came from the heart."
"Oh really? How did you feel after you did it?" Mother asked.
"Like I was fourteen again."
"Fourteen what? When you were that age, all you did was play marbles and card games."
"Come on, Mom, play along a little. I almost had it raining at the window there."
"Never heard that joke before. That's enough of that." Mother said.
True enough. But why can this game character mother of mine riff with Sek Loso jokes just like I do?
Weird.
The fact that we can crack Sek Loso song jokes like this...
Does that mean we're really Thai deep down?
"Ha ha! Ha ha ha!! Cough cough cough!" Asuka laughed so hard she choked.
"Hey, Asuka, take it easy there."
After we joked around enough to break the tension, things got serious.
"Asuka, dear, you're from another country, right? Suddenly marrying my son like this – won't that cause problems? And what about your parents and family? Do they know about this yet?" Mother asked.
"Personally, I don't have any problem marrying Assarun. But if my father and mother find out, there'll definitely be trouble."
The moment she started talking about her past, Asuka's face turned sorrowful.
"The reason I ran away from the royal palace... ran away from the kingdom... was because I didn't want to follow my parents' orders. Didn't want to be married off."
"Royal palace? Kingdom? Married off? Don't tell me you're..."
"Yes. The truth is, I'm Princess Himura Asuka of the Tsubame Kingdom."
Asuka's words left everyone stunned speechless.
Including me.
Sure, I knew she was a demon, a character from the demon lord's side. But I had no idea about this princess and kingdom business.
Then Asuka launched into the dramatic story of her life for about an hour. Mother and my sister broke into tears, sobbing their hearts out. Truno, being an innocent, gentle kid, cried even harder.
Here's the gist of her story:
Asuka was a princess of the Tsubame Kingdom.
Her childhood wasn't exactly happy like normal people's because she was born with abnormally high NEX power. So they made her train football almost all day long. She barely even saw her own sister.
The kingdoms in that region were at war with each other constantly. The Tsubame Kingdom wasn't strong enough to stand on its own, and eventually got swallowed up by an empire called 'Saikyo.'
Everyone in the Tsubame Kingdom became slaves.
No exceptions. Even the royal family had to suffer the same fate. But the new king that the Saikyo Empire sent to rule the city in their place had a thing for pure maidens. So he made a secret offer: if they sent one of the princesses to marry him as a concubine, he'd spare the other royal family members from slavery.
Her parents and the royal family decided to send Asuka without hesitation.
Asuka agreed to sacrifice herself for her sister. But then she discovered some truths.
Asuka learned that she didn't even have royal blood. She was just an ordinary commoner's child who'd been taken to the palace, raised, and made into a fake princess because of her NEX power talent.
They made her a princess to possess Asuka's gifted bloodline. They made her play football all day because they saw her as a weapon for battle. They kept her away from her sister because they looked down on her for being a commoner's child.
Even knowing the whole truth, Asuka still wanted to sacrifice herself for her fake sister. Because she believed her sister was a good kid who didn't deserve the contempt of those royal family members.
She hadn't done anything wrong and deserved protection.
Then suddenly, Asuka's sister got kidnapped by forces opposing the Saikyo Empire. This meant Asuka had no reason to marry or stay with people who saw her as just a tool anymore.
Asuka decided to run away and went looking for her sister too. Eventually she wandered to this Anti Meta city.
Hearing all this, I felt tears welling up too. But something felt off about it. The story didn't seem quite complete. Probably because Asuka couldn't tell the parts about demons or demon lords.
So I still wondered how much of what she told us was true. How much got cut out. Whether she added any spin to it.
But either way, I figured what she told us was probably the best version she could give.
I hoped so, anyway.
Mother sighed. "I see. So when you learned about this, you proposed marriage yourself. Even if she gets tracked down someday, Asuka being already married means she's been tainted, so she'd escape being married off. Sigh. What were you thinking, my son? Your problem-solving is really extreme."
"Like I said, it came from the heart," I said.
Sharp thinking there, Mom. But whatever, if that's how you understand it, it makes things easier.
"Wait a minute."
Levina cut in. Her eyes sharpened like she'd found something suspicious.
"I understand why my brother proposed to Asuka. But why did you agree, Asuka? And weren't you planning to search for your sister? Why are you staying in this city? Why did you enroll in our school? Why aren't you still out there looking for your sister?"
Oh damn. Here comes the full interrogation.
Shit. Can Asuka handle this?