ITK C281: Friendship Plan

We need to get Ritheseus and Eryngear to get along better.
Though only one of them hates the other.

Eryngear’s a prideful demoness.
She never doubts that her race is the best. That’s why she can’t forgive Ritheseus, who’s like the personification of genius to her.

The situation’s still pretty stable right now, but her hatred will eventually reach a critical point and explode.
If that happens, this project to train the youth from the three main races will surely fail.
We need to do something somehow…

“What to do…”

I ask my wife, Platy, who’s close by.
She’s also worried about the tension between the two of them and shares her idea with me.

“Why don’t you make them participate in a match?”

The shounen trope of two people becoming buddies after a one-on-one fight?
Platy’s muscle-brain side sure shows itself from time to time.

“But they already did that on the first day…”
“Yeah…”

And they still haven’t gotten along at all.

“How about we make them fight not as enemies but as allies?”
“As allies?”

The Buddy Law. Giving them the same hardship and having them work together to overcome it. That way, friendship will blossom between them.
It might be worth a try.

“Let’s do that! So, what kind of mission should we give them?”
“How about throwing them into a dungeon? Seems pretty appropriate to me.”
“We could just make them get out of it like normal or set some kind of quest. The more difficult it is, the deeper their bond will be!”

Those are my personal thoughts.

“Alrighty, let’s throw the two of them into a dungeon right away! Will it be Sensei’s or Veil’s dungeon?”

We need to find them first.
I wonder where they are?

Just as I was about to start looking for them, I heard a scream.
An ear-piercing maiden scream.

“H-Huh? What’s going on?!”

I rush toward the direction of the scream and find Ritheseus and Eryngear. Together.

What are they doing?
Has Eryngear already put into action her plan to obliterate Ritheseus?!

…or so I thought.
Eryngear is on top of Ritheseus, who was knocked down…

And steals a kiss.

“Mmmmmbphhhh!!!” distressingly groans Ritheseus.

When their lips part…

“L-Lord Saint! He… Help me! Mmbph!”

He got kissed again.
Is he the one who screamed like a maiden earlier?!

“Mmmmmmmmmmmmbh! Mmmmmmmmmmbh!!!”

Er, even if you groan for help like that…
Okay, so, Ritheseus is being assaulted by Eryngear.
I had always feared this possibility, but what’s actually happening is slightly different from what I anticipated.

I wasn’t expecting it to be a sexual form of assault.
Moreover, isn’t the victim and the assaulter the opposite of the standard?

A girl is attacking a boy.
Hmm, I guess that’s not particularly strange nowadays…
…Anyway, I can’t leave this situation be.

“…Hey.”
“Mwah! ♡ Mm ♡ Smooooooooch ♡♡♡”
“Hey! Eryngear!!!”
“Huh?!”

After calling out to her loudly, Eryngear finally got herself together.
She was in a different world until earlier.

“Huh? What? Lord Saint?! Why are you here?!”
“That’s my line!”

What are you doing in broad daylight? You’re corrupting this farm’s public morals!

“You’ve got it all wrong, Lord Saint! I was attacking Ritheseus!”
“What difference does it make?”
“No, it was meant to take this cheeky human’s life away! That’s what I meant when I attacked him!”

You’re just making it worse.

“And why are you so peachy?”
“You’re really asking that to a young lady? You’re so shameless, Lord Saint!”

Huh? That makes no sense.

“A-Anyway, you!”
“Yes?!”

Eryngear directs her vague passions at Ritheseus once again.

“Surely, you’re willing to take responsibility for humiliating me, right?!”
“If anything, I feel like I’ve been humiliated!”
“The trivial stuff doesn’t matter!!!”

I’ve never seen such irrationality be overlooked in my entire life.

“Now that it’s come to this, you’ll have to marry me in the future! …Then, I’ll rein the human race’s heroes!!!”

And so…
Before I knew what was going on, Ritheseus and Eryngear started dating.

---

“Do you love me, darling?”
“U-Um…”
“Do you?”
“Yes, I love you…!”
“I love you too.”

Then, they started flirting with no regard for their surroundings.
As expected, many of the people around them were taken aback by the bizarre scene.

“That demoness… D-Didn’t she hate Ritheseus to his very core?!”
“You’re too naïve. That’s what people call a tsundere.”
“That?!”
“But to be able to boldly flip her tsun side to a dere one… She’s not to be messed with!”

Even their classmates gasped.
Eryngear’s explanation? This:

“You’re all so naïve. Can’t you see that this is a cleverly timed move on my part?”

And which part exactly?

“Ritheseus is the greatest hero of the human race. You should be impressed by my determination to use a woman’s charm to win him over. This way, Ritheseus won’t be able to act hostile toward the demon race because he loves me, and my value will also increase in the army for having a hero as a husband.”
“Husband?!”

Ritheseus was dumbfounded by how fast things escalated.
He’s trapped.

“Hey, darling, how many children do you want?”
“Isn’t it a bit early to be asking that?”
“I want to have about 20.”
“That’s a lot!”

Hrm… Well, Ritheseus is pretty darn brilliant and wise, so having a troublesome wife like Eryngear should balance things out in his life.
But just as I was thinking that, he kissed Eryngear.

“All right! Let’s make twenty and be the happiest family in the world!”
“Ahn, you’re so dreamy, dear!”

He gives in to reality.
By enjoying the current situation to the fullest, he has won the game of life.
Truly a brilliant decision by the witty Ritheseus.

And so, a sweet and soppy couple was born.
The plan to throw them in the dungeon to increase their bond just before this event was, of course, abandoned.

One of the purposes of this project was to deepen the bond between the various races, anyway. But while the birth of the couple fulfilled that purpose, it has gone beyond my expectations.

Is this what youth is like nowadays?

They sure are full of energy…

---

if you want to know what eryngear looks like, this is her on one of the colored front illustrations of volume 8 (so its not really a spoiler)
very tsundere.

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