Chapter 10: The Escape Journey with a Stalker Companion, Part 3
“So, you’ve finally come, have you? Let’s go, Dad.”
Xiao An showed no sign of wavering, as if she had expected someone to disrupt the wedding from the start. She immediately made a decision for the next course of action.
Xiao An took my hand, and I took Lianbing’s hand. The three of us walked out of the airship again.
Various explosions echoed from the sky.
No, they were really exploding!
Looking up at the sky, several airships were firing, and a small plane was weaving through them. That definitely had to be Lianbing’s plane.
Wow, what was going on! They’d even started an aerial battle. Was it really going to be this dramatic!
“Tch, what a troublesome bunch. They can’t even stop them with the Aerial Guard? We’re running out of time, let’s go! Dad!”
“Huh? Where are we going?”
“Of course, to complete the wedding ceremony! There’s a shrine near the foot of the mountain where we can finish the final ritual and the wedding will be complete!”
“Eh? It’s that simple?”
“All those messy modern processes were added later! The original marriage was this simple!”
That made sense. It was said that marriage was called “marriage” because when humans were primitive, if a man knocked out a woman he fancied and took her home, it was considered a marriage.
There were no rituals, no procedures, it was just that barbaric.
But times have changed, and humans have become more civilized, so the form of marriage naturally changed as well.
Uh, why was I even reflecting on this.
“But what do you mean by the final ritual?”
“Honestly, Dad! Do you have to make me say it so clearly? What is the ultimate purpose of marriage?”
The purpose…
To procreate?
Uh, that means…
“A lot of the dishes served at tonight’s banquet were aphrodisiacs!”
“Ah?!”
Damn it, no wonder I felt a surge of blood and had endless energy. It turned out to be because of those wedding banquet dishes!
Ugh, I should have known not to eat so much…
“This is too unreasonable! They even drugged us!”
“Hehe, this is the eternal truth. Compared to vows and promises, it can’t beat the reality of ‘a cooked egg.’ It’s best to just make it a fait accompli!”
How has Xiao An become so shameless too!
In this situation, they were going to sneak down to the shrine at the foot of the mountain and then… in the shrine?
Hey, hey, something felt wrong about this. Although I knew they were just merging the pre-ceremony prayer and vows with consummation, it still felt strange.
Didn’t this just turn into… under the gods?
What should have been a sacred wedding ceremony suddenly felt like some kind of cult ritual.
“Honestly, Dad, you’re probably thinking about trivial matters again. Don’t nitpick about useless things at a time like this, we’re short on time!”
Because Xiao An was wearing a twelve-layered robe, moving was extremely inconvenient. Walking on the mountain path would be even more troublesome, so I picked her up.
On the other hand, Lianbing was also wearing a white kimono, and she should have been similarly inconvenient to move in, so I prepared to pick her up as well.
However, when I turned around and looked at Lianbing, I froze.
At this moment, I didn’t know if it was the effects kicking in, but her cheeks were flushed with a beautiful color, and she was breathing rapidly.
What on earth did you feed us!
Calm down. It’s just Lianbing. Think more about her silly, image-ruining moments from before. If I get swayed now, there’s no turning back.
Counting prime numbers in my mind, I also embraced Lianbing.
She was hot and soft. Lianbing completely surrendered to my embrace, resting her cheek on my chest, acting like a tiny bird clinging to a perch.
I had an immediate urge to rush down to the shrine at the foot of the mountain with Lianbing.
But… no! I must resist! I can’t follow Xiao An’s plan here!
With my will hardened, I started walking in another direction, with one girl in each arm.
Xiao An sensed something was wrong and immediately grabbed my collar, shouting.
“Dad?! The shrine is at the foot of the mountain!”
“How could I possibly go to the shrine!”
“Why!”
“Why the heck! I’ve been following your rhythm all along, and I almost fell for it!”
First the game, then the delicious food. When my mind relaxed, I developed the thought of ‘I don’t want to go anymore.’ This was Xiao An’s trap!
No, that’s not right. Her attitude towards me was so casual before. When she was with me, she was always casual. But after we met again, she started calling me Dad, deliberately trying to please me in various ways, and finally resorted to this.
Why?
“You just want me to stay here, don’t you!”
“…”
It seemed I had guessed correctly. Xiao An froze.
“Xiao An, you’re afraid you can’t leave this island, so you’re using this method to keep me here!”
“How could you know…”
“I can figure out what you’re thinking with my toes!”
It was just as I suspected. Xiao An knew she was immortal and that this island was isolated, so she was afraid of being isolated too and unable to leave the island…
No, she probably already confirmed it.
With Xiao An’s personality, even with no games or TV on this island, she had no desire to leave and continued to be a queen.
Impossible, she definitely doesn’t ‘not want to leave’, it’s that she ‘can’t leave’.
Xiao An, whose truth had been discovered, panicked immediately. She averted her eyes as if to escape and said in a flustered manner.
“I… I can’t help it either. Because I can’t leave this… so I had to ask Dad to stay…”
As Xiao An spoke, tears began to stream down her face.
“I’m sorry… I was so casual with you before because Dad was always by my side… so I took Dad for granted. But this time, you weren’t by my side…”
And then I couldn’t leave this island… I kept thinking, if, if Dad could never find me, or just gave up looking for me… I don’t want to be alone anymore.
“Idiot! How could I possibly abandon you alone! I’ll find you even if I have to search the whole world!”
“Stop messing around. If this continues, Lianbing and the others will catch us.”
“Are you still leaving?”
“Yes. Although it feels like it wouldn’t be bad to stay here, I still have things to do. Besides Xiao An, Xue Qing and Xuan’er haven’t been found yet.”
Upon hearing news of Xuan’er and Xue Qing, Xiao An immediately looked up and asked.
“Xue and Xuan? They’re not with you?”
“Ah, they’re not with me, just like you. I suspect they were scattered to other places. What do you think I’ve been doing all this time? I’ve been searching for information about you all.”
“…If only I could also leave…”
Xiao An bit her lip in frustration.
She definitely wanted to help find Xue Qing and Xuan’er.
The three of them were close friends. After all, the only people Xiao An knew who were around her age… no, it should be said, around her size, were these two.
“So, I will make it so that you can leave.”
“Huh? Let me leave here? Dad, do you have a way?”
“No, I don’t.”
Besides being unable to die, I’m just an ordinary person. Of course, I don’t have any of those fancy skills.
But even if I don’t—.
“Someone among them will.”
I pointed upwards.
As if to confirm my words, a plane was hit by an airship and plunged down, trailing smoke.
But they would definitely be alright. I came to this ‘place’ to prepare a ‘buffer’ for them.
After picking up Xiao An and Lianbing, I didn’t run down the mountain but instead headed here, which naturally was the hot spring.
As expected, several figures jumped out of the plane and all landed in the hot spring.
Here they come, here they come. Well then… get ready to start the game!
