Jambavan exclaimed with the biggest gasp of his millennia-old life, vibrating all the nearby trees. Ruru's antlers glowed with a deep oceanic blue like never before—either from excitement or shock. To my surprise, the person I thought would overreact the most, Vyaghra, immediately accepted it and bowed his head first to Ume, then to me, as he shouted, "Congratulations on the marriage!"

Yeah, this idiot had already assumed that we were married. Why? Because he believed that if his Queen wished it, then how could it not be fulfilled?

"Moron, at least take my opinion on the matter," I snapped.

Among all these reactions, there was one that still outperformed them all. Yeah, Nymeria el Snowbane, who had been processing Ume's announcement in her brain a hundred times over the past fifteen seconds, finally comprehended what it meant as she shouted,

"WHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAATTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!??????????????????????????????????????????????????"

It didn't end with just a scream. She unknowingly erupted a sea of ice outward in all directions, engulfing more than fifty poor innocent trees within it.

Everyone there, including me, knew there was a freak who would protect Ume with his life, so we all ran toward her, the moment Nymeria blasted.

---

"Pr-pretty lady, calm down for a moment," I pleaded from Ume's arms in a princess carry.

Jambavan and Ruru were standing behind Ume, taking cover, while the freak, Vyaghra, took the fall as he stood in front of us, completely frozen, protecting his Queen as her royal knight.

Nymeria gasped, realizing what she had done. "Oh no, please forgive me. Is everyone alright?"

"Yeah, thanks to my buddy here—sniff... sniff—who protected me with his life," I said, wiping a fake tear from my eye.

"This kid is really shameless," Jambavan clicked his tongue, while Ruru nodded along with him.

"Look who's talking," I snapped. "At least come out from behind her before accusing me of being shameless."

"Raj, I don't have much experience in these things, but shouldn't it be a man who carries his woman, not the other way around?" Ume asked. "However, I'm fine with it as long as you're happy."

Her melodious voice, combined with her ethereal beauty from such a close distance, turned my face into a rosebud. For a moment, I actually wondered if we were really getting married, but that ridiculous thought soon came to an end as I sensed Death Energy looming over me, coming directly from Nymeria's stares.

"Raj, why don't you come down from there," Nymeria ordered as her aura fluctuated again.

I wrapped my arms around Ume's neck even tighter as I blurted, "N-not until you calm down."

Her glare intensified again, but then Jambavan grabbed me by the pants and threw me toward Nymeria.

"Don't endanger our damn life, ya brat."

"You monstrous bastard! How could you betray me?" I shouted mid-air before landing at Nymeria's feet.

I gulped as I looked up at the unstable Nymeria. "Let's talk calmly, we are all civilised people here, right?"

---

"I feel embarrassed about how I acted. Please forgive that moment," Nymeria apologized.

"It's alright, sister. Any woman would react the same way if she learned her man was marrying someone else," Ume replied from across the bonfire where we all sat surrounding it.

"Huh? H-he is not my man!"

"Then why did you react that way, sister?" Ume countered. "You don't need to worry. I won't snatch him from you. Didn't I already accept you as my sister?"

"So that's why you offered me to call you sister?" Nymeria gasped. "But you're misunderstanding something. Raj and I are not in that kind of relationship," she denied with a puffed face.

"But you two were so intimate with each other in the pond," Ume said, but then seeing the denying look on Nymeria's face, sighed before clapping her hands as she spoke further, "That means you don't have any problem with our marriage."

"Th-that... I... still..." Nymeria mumbled.

"Ume, do you like me?" I asked straightforwardly joining in the conversation.

"H-how c...c-could you a-ask Her M-Majesty s-such an e..e-embarrassing question?" Vyaghra chattered through his teeth, still feeling the aftereffects of Nymeria's attack. He could easily stabilize his body temperature with his Soulforce but decided not to, as he wanted to train his physical body.

"No, I don't," Ume replied plainly, sending a wave of gasps through the group.

"As I thought," I said. "Nobody falls in love with a person that quickly to the point of wanting to marry them."

"But does that really matter? Love will come on its own once we are married."

"Why do you want to marry me, Ume?"

"Are you really asking that after what you did that night?" she murmured, sending another, stronger wave of gasps through the group.

"Oy, brat! Ya told us ya did nothin'!" Jambavan shouted. "Ya got guts, kid, eyin' our Queen."

"Raj, I hope you didn't do anything worthy of dying," Vyaghra muttered, glaring at me.

"It-it was an accident," I explained. "Pretty lady, why don't you tell them?"

"Raj, if I have to be honest, what I witnessed when I woke up didn't look like an accident at all," Nymeria said.

"H-how could you—" I mumbled in disbelief before getting struck by another verbal attack.

"Is that what you meant, Ruru, when you said men will always run away when it comes to taking responsibility?" Ume said in a low voice, hugging Ruru.

"Ruru, at least you believe me, right?" I pleaded.

What I got in response was a cold "hmph" from her as she aggressively turned her face away.

"Ruru... you too..."

"It's fine. I understand that it was a mistake on my part that I unconsciously embraced you in fox form while healing," Ume stated.

"Yeah, right, right," I exclaimed. "I wasn't completely at fault."

"However..." she spoke again.

"Why is her 'However' giving me goosebumps?" I gulped.

"Y-you also grabbed both my ears," she whispered, her face blushing in embarrassment.

"Oh, that? I did grab your fluffy ears—"

"YOU DID WHAT!!!!??????" Both Jambavan and Vyaghra shouted, their eyes ready to pop out in dumbfoundment.

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