Chapter 18: About to Be Forced into Marriage
"Here, take it, eat it."
Jeanne Alter's face was slightly red, holding out the chocolate with both hands.
Although she tried to act indifferent, the way she kept glancing toward him was unexpectedly serious.
Frankly speaking, no matter how one looked at it, this seemed like her Special Chocolate for him!
"Is that so…"
Seeing Jeanne Alter with such an embarrassed yet serious expression, Eikou felt awkward in return.
He lightly touched his face, instinctively looking aside:
"Ah… um, thank you…"
"Why are you stammering like that, acting as if I'm doing something weird!" Jeanne Alter explained in a fluster, "It's just that there were leftover ingredients, so I casually made one, got it? It's practically just scrap use."
Eikou nodded, receiving the heart-shaped chocolate.
"Umu… then I'll accept it, yeah,"
He blinked with a smile, raising the chocolate before his face,
"Jeanne Alter, you still owe me a date, so let this be the interest. Even if it's just an appetizer, I'll eat it with gratitude and appreciation."
"How impressive, you even remember that, I'd forgotten already."
Jeanne Alter deliberately used a careless tone to speak.
However, the corners of her lips faintly curved into a subtle smile.
Eikou then turned to look at the classroom's wall clock.
The exam time was almost over, if he didn't submit a finished chocolate to the judge, he would be failed.
Without hesitating any longer, he quickly returned to his own class.
...
"Sir Eikou, how did you do?"
As soon as Tristan saw Eikou come back, he impatiently asked.
"Relax, brother…"
Without hesitation, Eikou proudly raised the chocolate he had made – "Special Chocolate dedicated to the Fairy of the Lake," and declared with confidence:
"I've made the most perfect chocolate, this time the champion's spot definitely belongs to us!"
As he spoke, he even deliberately glanced around.
But Oberon was nowhere to be seen, no idea where he had run off to.
Still, Eikou had no energy left to care, he seized the moment before the class bell rang and quickly walked to Morgan's judge's desk.
"Judge Morgan, this is the chocolate I made with my own hands, please taste it!"
With full confidence, he offered the nearly flawless chocolate.
This chocolate combined both flavor and aroma, moreover it had an ambiguous heart shape, and carried the recipe from Protection of the Lake, with buff effects fully stacked.
It would definitely suit Morgan's taste.
"My husband, do you think a few sweets can placate me?"
Yet the queen of the Fairy Kingdom pressed her lips together, her perfectly cold face now radiating a dark, chilling aura.
Sensing that something was wrong, Eikou slowly withdrew his smile.
"Morgan, could it be… you don't like sweets…?"
"Not exactly," the queen's icy blue eyes swept over his pocket, "But compared to me, it seems you prefer the sweets given by others more —— in your pocket there's still the Special Chocolate another girl gave you, isn't there?"
"Ah…"
Eikou's heart skipped a beat.
By instinct he covered the pocket holding Jeanne Alter's chocolate, only now realizing his slip.
It's over—he nearly forgot Morgan still had "Fairy Eyes"!
Just now there had only been one wall between them, but how could that barrier hide anything from Fairy Eyes' vision?
So the scene of him receiving the heart-shaped chocolate from Jeanne Alter just now… no, the entire process, Morgan must have seen it all crystal clear?
"..."
A chill ran down Eikou's spine, cold sweat threatening to pour from him.
Come to think of it… if Morgan wanted to peek, why didn't she use that ability to monitor Melusine instead? Clearly that girl is a hundred times more dangerous than Jeanne Alter!
"Do you have anything to say in your defense?"
Morgan asked flatly.
Her tone was like a snowstorm sweeping across his face—never loud, yet the cold was sharp as a blade.
"I…"
Inwardly Eikou told himself: Stay calm, Mochizuki Eikou, one wrong choice or word here and you're done for!
Without time to think, he activated High-Speed Divine Words.
He prayed it wouldn't fail this time!
[You have activated "High-Speed Divine Words".]
[Result: D – check successful.]
[With skillful and flexible speech, you have soothed Morgan's emotions; her anger gradually subsides.]
[Your words have led her to form reasonable logic on her own, the situation is not as dire as you feared.]
As the success notice appeared, Morgan's mood immediately stabilized, she returned to the dignified bearing of a queen and regarded him.
"My husband, then I can understand it this way,"
she said softly,
"If your qualities attract the attention of the girls at school, that is only natural, for those are the very things that captivate me. It is normal that those young, inexperienced girls would be drawn to your charm."
Although… no matter how it sounded, it felt like she herself was the one most hopelessly infatuated; who was really the young girl here?
"However ——"
Morgan's icy blue eyes suddenly sharpened.
She stared at the chocolate Eikou presented, not taking it, instead she directly grasped his wrist.
The proud, overwhelming queen of the Fairy Kingdom pulled him close to her.
"However, I absolutely cannot stand by and watch them 'steal bites' of you. That is utterly forbidden. I have no intention of sharing you, nor can I allow you to be ambiguous with other women."
"Morgan, you mean…"
Catching the sweet, alluring scent from her, Eikou couldn't help flushing and feeling his heart race.
"Of course I want to monopolize you, my husband," Morgan whispered in his ear, "I want to affirm before everyone my ownership of you."
"Ownership? How do you intend to prove that?"
Eikou asked in confusion.
"The proof is simple: tomorrow we marry." The queen of the Fairy Kingdom declared firmly, "As long as you are a man with a wife, those women around you will naturally keep their distance. Anyone who still wants to flirt after you're married—I will show no mercy."
What kind of logic is that, proving it that way is anything but simple!
This High-Speed Divine Words skill must have delivered a great failure, why is the situation getting even more chaotic and dangerous?
If he truly marries Morgan, then what about Baobhan Sith's route?
Even after the Holy Grail War of Love, Eikou had hardly spent any time with that Blood Fairy Princess.
But that didn't mean he had given up, he just hadn't found the chance yet.
And now, before completing Baobhan Sith's route, before obtaining her Noble Phantasm, he already has to marry her mother?!