Outaishihi ni Nante Naritakunai!! 458

She and the Trip Story 2

“Certainly. Please summon me when you need me again.”

After pouring us another serving of coffee, Carla withdrew, taking the other court ladies with her.
When it was just the two of us, my mother-in-law hesitantly began, “Um…”
Her cheeks were just a bit red. I wondered what had happened… Intuitively, I felt that perhaps when I’d been away, she’d made some progress with the King.

“Mother-in-law?”

Spontaneously I directed a gaze full of expectations at her. My mother-in-law looked perplexed by the obvious change in the tone of my voice.

“It’s not anything that important.”
“Is that so? Excuse me if it’s something different, but I’ve been hoping to perhaps hear about what happened with His Majesty.”
“Tha… That’s…”

She flushed up to her ears, looked down, and fidgeted out of embarrassment. She was so lovely that my heart seriously throbbed.

— W-What? Mother-in-law, aren’t you too cute!?

I found my pure and innocent mother-in-law, who turned red just from talking about her beloved (husband), incredibly adorable.
And I recalled that completely opposite to my mother-in-law, I was ravaged by my husband every night. That difference made me stare into the distance… I think.

— I’m happy, so it’s fine…

I couldn’t experience the same happiness of sleeping with Freed from just clinging to him. I wanted to experience that ecstasy, so I had let him embrace me.
I had absolutely zero doubts.
Nevertheless, my mother-in-law’s purity was so radiant to me that I felt like I was burning up in sunlight while screaming.
Strange. Why was this innocence coming from my mother-in-law when she has already had a child?
Anyway, the lovely, shy state of my mother-in-law completely gripped my heart to the point where I wanted to scream, “How precious!” but I managed to contain it. I straightened my posture and asked for more details.

“As I expected. It’s about His Majesty, isn’t it? Mother-in-law, can I ask what happened?”

I had intended to speak quietly, but I felt like my voice still ended up pointlessly enthusiastic.
I couldn’t help it.
My mother-in-law’s love stories (limited to the King only)! As somebody who knew their past together, I was very interested in hearing if there’d been any progress.
When I asked my mother-in-law that question, I was also desperately hiding my excitement. In response, for some reason, she put hands on her cheeks and looked upwards.
She must’ve been embarrassed.
I sympathized with her, but my mother-in-law was too cute. The absolute cutest.
Wasn’t I a little too lucky to witness such a cute mother-in-law’s appearance right after I returned to Wilhelm?

“Mother-in-law?”

I again addressed my mother-in-law since she wasn’t responding. She blinked her eyes and appeared unable to calm down.

“Er, err… Um, after thinking about it carefully, I believe that it’s not something worthy of discussion…”

Perhaps her embarrassment had reached its limit, as my mother-in-law began to speak hesitantly.
That wasn’t good.
If she decided to say, “It’s nothing, after all,” after getting so worked up, I was afraid I’d explode.
In my desire to avoid that outcome, I tried reassuring my mother-in-law.

“Of course it’s worth it. Please, you must tell me.”

I pressed on with a dazzling look.
My brain naturally retorted, “You just want to hear it, right?” but I simply responded with, “Absolutely – what’s wrong with that?”
I prayed from the depths of my heart that the relationship between my mother-in-law and the King progressed without any complications.
I confess, I was the president of the “Watching Over Mother-in-Law’s Love Club.” Freed was the vice-president (I just arbitrarily decided this).
As the club’s president, I absolutely wanted to hear about it from my mother-in-law. As I was staring at her with those feelings, she started talking with resignation.
Yay! I had won.

“As a matter of fact… It happened just recently.”

Recently! Then it was truly breaking news.
I endured my need to lean forward and pretended to be calm instead, but I still concentrated on not missing a single word.

“A short while ago, His Majesty came to my room. He… invited me to come welcome you.”
“I see.”

I only gave a short answer to not interrupt her. I took a deep breath to overcome the desire to ask, “And then!?”

“At that time… Um… I was asked if I would like to go a little further.”
“Hohou… I mean, so that’s what happened.”

Unconsciously, I almost leaned forward.
I couldn’t. I had to stay calm.

“Then what happened? Mother-in-law, how did you reply?”
“… I couldn’t answer His Majesty.”
“… Is that so?”

When I heard the sad voice, I realized it was unavoidable.
My mother-in-law had suffered for years. She wasn’t such a strong woman that she could say, “It’s alright,” immediately after being told, “It was a misunderstanding.”
Her mind must’ve still been recovering from the shock.

“I’m sure His Majesty understands.”
“… So do I, but I still feel guilty.”
“?”

Did she say guilty? Huh? Until now, my mother-in-law had never felt apologetic in response to the King’s approaches.
Her heart hadn’t yet reached that stage. The best she could do was grasp the current situation, and nothing beyond that.
And now she felt guilty?
It was definitely a big step forward.
I stared at my mother-in-law. She was fidgeting bashfully and said in a very thin voice.

“At the time, I was wondering if there was something I could do… so I held his hand.”

— Hallelujah!!

Inside my heart, I fell to my knees and raised my hands to the sky.
Jeez, the inside of my brain was hectic.
The mini-mes in there that previously only appeared during the Military Uniform Festival now were coming out to shake hands with each other in celebration.
Some were so delighted by my mother-in-law’s growth that they were shedding tears.
The way things are going, shouldn’t I just hold a special festival?
Mother-in-Law Festival… I’m declaring a Mother-in-Law Festival right here and now.
Unlike the Military Uniform Festival, the Mother-in-Law Festival is very pure, so I wouldn’t go wild with it.
What if we used a festival palanquin that was more refined than usual? No, since it’s celebrating my mother-in-law, that might be too much. How about keeping it down to a simpler palanquin like what was used in Bon Odori…?

“Lidi?”

Perhaps because she was worried at my lack of response, my mother-in-law called out to me, who was having an incomprehensible meeting inside my brain.
Flustered, I answered.

“Yes. I’m sorry. Mother-in-law… I was so surprised by your courage that I was slow to answer.”

I didn’t want to make my mother-in-law uneasy. If I finished the conversation there, the mini-mes inside my brain that had already started preparing the festival would certainly riot.
By the way, some were preparing the festival palanquin, and some were preparing the simpler one.
Apparently, my brain was very confused.
I understood why. Since even the original big me was in this state, it couldn’t be helped that the mini-mes were moving about in confusion.

“Mother-in-law, you did what you could…”

I tried to forget about the mini-mes inside my brain, and focused on my mother-in-law.
However, I was incredibly surprised that my mother-in-law worked as hard as she did to manage to join hands with the King.

“Um… Were you alright?”

From my mother-in-law’s point of view, it must’ve been like jumping into the deep end.
I was worried, but my mother-in-law nodded slightly with her red face.

— Excuse me! Mother-in-law, you’re extremely cute!

What is this lovely creature?
For some time now my chest had been throbbing.
I’m certain that it made the King delighted, too. I was also happy that their relationship seemed to be progressing faster than I had expected.

---

Editor: Alexis

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