GRANDPAAAA!

"All right, all right, let"s just say my question has been answered, for now."

Swish, swish. My mother-in-law Sastina lightly brushed her hands together, each hand going in opposite directions, up and down. I believe this was some kind of human gesture indicating resolution?

"For better or worse, mister demon lord seems to be a good fellow; even if I got a new grandchild, I guess I can trust that he"ll handle things properly."

I thought the phrase "for better or worse" was usually used in a negative situation, but here it seemed to mean that the situation was too good. However, if I had been a bad person, then Laetia never would have gotten remarried, so she should have been glad it turned out like this.

Anyway, I"ve now cleared the huge hurdle of obtaining her parents" permission. But, as a consequence, the idea of making love to Laetia now kept coming to mind. We probably had to wait until Angelica wasn"t around; I wonder when that would be? Since she was an adventurer, maybe when she had to spend a couple days in a dungeon? Let"s aim for that. We could also go on a vacation and leave her at home, but… using my holidays with that as a goal felt way too embarra.s.sing…

"Demon lord, you"re thinking about something lewd, aren"t you……" Angelica stared at me, her eyes squinting in suspicion.

"Wha—! On what basis are you making such an accusation! The desires I hold in my heart are as p-pure as can be!"

"That"s definitely a lie. It"s so easy to tell what men are thinking. Also, is it really OK for the demon lord to have a pure heart?"

"A demon lord must possess a progressive and open mind… It"s not a matter of whether it"s acceptable or not…"

For that matter, how would this girl know how men think? Oh, that"s right, there actually was a boy in the hero"s party, wasn"t there… His impression was so weak that I don"t really remember, though.

"Well, simply having another grandchild would make me very happy. I hope you do your best!"

"All right, Mother, I"ll try hard!"

Laetia jumped on board too, in her usual warm and fluffy manner. I guess I"ll have to come to a decision as well.

"Grandma, Mama, don"t talk about stuff like this in front of me! It"s kinda really uncomfortable!"

Angelica was starting to get upset. Objectively speaking, this family really was really shameless with their talks. However, I"ll refrain from commenting how every household had different rules on acceptable conversation topics. I had just had a huge weight lifted off my shoulders, after all, so I couldn"t really be bothered with something as trivial as this. It was the same feeling I got whenever one of my budget proposals pa.s.ses.

But! There was still one foe remaining.

"Demon lord, I have only one thing to say."

My father-in-law, who had remained silent throughout the entire discussion, finally opened his mouth. Umm, what was his name again? Ahh, right, Bynedee. His hair may be turning white, but his eyes still gleamed ferociously.

"Yes, what is it you wish to say?"

I haven"t spoken in a humble way in such a long time, but I"ll just slowly pick it back up, over time.

"Duel me."

Duel? Him?! Was this his condition for recognizing our marriage?!

"Heh. You don"t need to worry. I"ll be using a wooden sword. We"ll go at it in the yard."

"Uhh… shouldn"t we do something more… friendly? Whatever concerns you have, I"m sure we can talk them out…"

"Sharrup! When a man asks for a duel, then you duel! Get outside!"

With those parting words, Bynedee left the room. Well, this sure turned horrible very quickly… This is where my mother-in-law, Sastina, would put a stop to things…… or maybe not. She just sipped her tea looking like this had nothing to do with her. Laetia as well just said, "Oh my, not again, Father" in an unconcerned kind of way.

I looked around somewhat aimlessly, then happened to meet Angelica"s gaze.

"Demon lord, you look nervous, but you don"t really need to worry about it that much."

"Even if you tell me that, I"m still going to worry. To me, this is a much more dire situation than even when you attacked me."

In response to that, I heard a very audible "tch!"

"Well, I"ll just consider this a trial. One of those "you must fight to win the hand of the princess" kind of deals."

I felt like I just was about to get a "Is that really the kind of thing a demon lord would do?" retort from her, so I got up and headed out to face my trial. I was welcomed to the sight of my father-in-law with a wooden sword held tightly in his hands. I squared off with him, empty-handed. Most of the time, I carried a sword with me, but this wasn"t supposed to be a trip where I needed to fight anything! Plus, all he had was that wooden sword anyway.

"Prepare yourself, demon lord! Here I come!"

Spit flew everywhere as he yelled. It was super gross, but I had to just ignore it.

"Nuuoooooooh!"

Mister Bynedee charged at me. As expected of the hero"s grandfather, his moves were sharp—or really, that was just a bald-faced lie. Perhaps due to his age, his feet flapped around wildly as he ran. There was absolutely no beauty in it at all. I sidestepped the sword and pushed on his chest. My opponent landed on the ground on his b.u.t.t. Good, he shouldn"t have suffered any wounds from just that.

"All right, I believe that settles the match."

"No, not yet! The duel ain"t over yet! I"ve still got a whole lotta fight left in me!"

My opponent stood back up. d.a.m.n! He was the type to never give up! Of course he could still fight! That"s because I carefully attacked him in a way that wouldn"t cause any injuries! Obviously I couldn"t just blow him away—that might seriously hurt him!

The group of three women were watching the duel from the sidelines. Laetia was cheering for us with lines like "Fight hard, you two~" I was happy, of course, but, if I fought hard, I"d end up killing my father-in-law, so I absolutely could not fight hard at all. All I could do was do my best not to fight.

Once again, I lightly pushed my opponent, who was wildly waving his sword around. He had many openings; or rather, the only thing he had openings. Once again, he fell down.

"This should be sufficient, right? I"ve now scored two points off—"

"h.e.l.l no, I"m still fit as a fiddle here!"

And he stood up again! This was starting to become a huge pain!

Hmmm…… I couldn"t very well break his legs, so what else could I do? Oh, I know! As long as I kept winning, this might never end! So it should be fine if I lose! I"ll just randomly take a blow then pretend to double over in pain!

Now, if someone asked me what happened to my pride as a demon lord, I would just reply that many things in life were more important than pride. Of course, I wasn"t trying to deny those who valued pride above all else, but, personally, it wasn"t that important to me. Or rather, because I did have a lot of pride, if I had to throw it away for any reason, wouldn"t it be better to do it without hesitation?!

I cleverly moved so that I would take a hit from his sword to my stomach.

"Guhah! You got me! What fearsome strength!" Heh, he should be satisfied with this.

However, instead, my opponent"s face flushed red. The way he got angry resembled a boiled octopus.

"Don"t… don"t give me that s.h.i.t…! You throwing the fight doesn"t make me happy at all! Now you"ve hurt my pride!"

Seriously?! So, w-what am I supposed to do!

Right when I had finally run out of ideas—

"Jeez, just give it up, grandpa," Angelica called out.

 —  — Chapter 20