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Ruler Vol 6 Chapter 18

Author: Anit666

Editor: Weasalopes

【Sam’s POV】

Boyfriend.

A boyfriend is defined as a male friend or acquaintance, often specifying a regular male companion with whom a person is romantically or sexually involved.

That is the role I have been given today by Phiria. Of course, I cannot be sexually involved with her, but other than that, I do plan to fulfil that role to my best; I wasn’t called a man of focus, commitment, and sheer will for nothing.

…Let’s hope I don’t get sued for plagiarism.

Anyway.

The sun was on its way to hide behind the horizon, while the breeze was gentle and slightly chilly. It was a nice evening for a date.

The main market of this city, where we would find various ways to enjoy ourselves, was a bit away from the mansion. Usually, I would have liked to walk there, but we were a bit short on time right now, so we decided to teleport.

However, I had no way of teleporting; my proficiency in mana wasn’t enough, while Gamma One Six didn’t have any skills related to that. So, I had to rely on my trusted subordinate, Faultier.

He sent us to just outside the market, in a secluded alley. Thankfully, there was no one there to witness us appearing out of thin air.

And so, we entered the market.

“So, what are we going to do now?” Phiria smirked.

I guess she doesn’t expect much from someone who has never gone on a date before. And frankly speaking, neither do I.

“Let’s start with skewers, I guess.”

There was a stall on our left, the aroma from which smelled delicious.

“I knew you were going to do that.” She giggled.

Oof.

“Welcome, welcome!” The shopkeeper, an old lady, greeted us.

“Two skewers, please.”

“Coming right up!” She took two of them from the grill and started pouring some type of sauce over them. “Are you on a date with your wife, mister?”

Oh? Do we look like husband and wife? Hmm, I wouldn’t be surprised if that was how Phiria was making us look in the name of hiding our appearance.

Phiria looked up at me, while I looked down at her. We gazed into each other’s eyes for some moments, then I decided to reply to the shopkeeper.

“Yes.”

Phiria raised her eyebrow as she stared at me. Seems like she didn’t expect me to agree so easily.

“Ah, how thoughtful of you!” She wrapped the skewers into a big leaf and handed them to us.

“Thoughtful?” I handed her the money.

“Most of the husbands here don’t make an effort to keep their love alive, you see. So it’s always refreshing to see those who do, just like you.”

“I see.”

Well, that makes sense, I guess. Most probably, those husbands don’t feel the need to do that because they’re married. They consider marriage to be the portrayal of the highest form of love. Because they believe that they’ve reached the peak, they don’t even think of doing anything further.

What they don’t realise is that marriage is just another form of relationship, which requires effort to be kept alive; occasionally, love can fade away over time.

“Enjoy your date!” The shopkeeper bade us goodbye as we left.

I opened the leaf and took out a skewer.

“Do we really look like a married couple?” Phiria tilted her head while clinging to my arm.

Playing innocent, are we?

“Maybe? Here.” I pushed the skewer to her mouth; a gesture to feed her.

“Thank you-” She took a bite, then turned her head towards me with a sharp jerk. “Wait, you’re feeding me?!”

Heh, look how surprised she is. All according to my keikaku.

“You don’t want me to?” I acted sullen.

“Noooo, I never said that!” She hastily took another bite. “Here, let me feed you as well.”

Huh, if I remember correctly, the last time I was fed by someone was when I was 10 months old. My brother accidentally shoved hot food in my month and burned my tongue, so from thereon I lost all trust in others and decided to have food by myself.

But right now, I’m strong enough to eat lava (jk), so I guess it would be alright to let her feed me.

And so, I took a bite out of the skewer she was holding.

“Woah.” Her eyes sparkled as she looked at my bite mark. “Wooooaaaahhhh…”

“Please use words.”

Instead, she took the skewer she had just fed me, and took a bite out of the place I had taken one from.

“Hehe, that was an indirect kiss.” She giggled, her blushed cheeks beautifully mixing in with the lights that the shops cast on us.

Damn, she’s cute. If I was a harem protagonist, my heart would have exploded (metaphorically speaking, that is) and I would have asked her to marry me on the spot.

Thankfully, I’m not a harem MC.

⟦Phiria, Chloe, Susan, Cornellia, Cecile- I’m sceptical about that one- and probably a bunch of other women as well.⟧

Yup, not at all.

Oh, wait… huehuehuehuehue.

“Ah!” Phiria yelped as I took ate the part she had taken a bite from. “Hnnnnnnngggggghhhh! Ah, marry me!”

What the hell? Don’t tell me that she’s the harem protagonist? Am I just the side-character?

“Let’s go now.”

“Hey, wait for me!” She clung to my arm again.

We got some dessert, then started window shopping. There were clothes, jewellery, some weird mask thingies, fortune tellers, food and…… yeah, pretty much just that. Soon enough, our date turned… stale. Our useless conversations had become more amusing. Some time passed just like that, and our date was on the verge of being turned into a normal errand.

Even with my practically zero boyfriend experience, I had expected this situation.

And since I had expected it, I had prepared for it.

“So…… where are we going?” Phiria asked as she followed me into a secluded alleyway.

Her voice wasn’t as cheerful as before. Perhaps she expected too much out of me and was disappointed when this turned out to be the most I could do. She was probably expecting me to turn this date into work.

Maybe he’s going to use me as bait again. Maybe we’re going to crush another organisation. Sigh. She might be thinking along those lines.

Phiria is really proficient at reading my mind; I’ll have to admit that. But there are things she can’t predict. Just like this case, the reasons for which number two; first, she has no previous data to work on. There are no known instances of me going on a date with a living creature.

Second, she’s missing a vital piece of information about our relationship.

Within a few minutes, we were in a narrow alley that contained no one but us. The force clinging on my arm had lessened; she was probably getting ready to shift into her battle mode, prepared to annihilate swine who had dared to look at her with lust filled eyes.

Of course, she wasn’t going to need to do that today; I had already taken care of them (I am the boyfriend after all). Their corpses should have begun stiffening by now.

But that is beside the point right now.

We reached a fragile looking door with cracks running across its surface, swaying and creaking due to the slight breeze blowing across the street. Phiria eyed it with suspicion, trying to identify the evil organisation that was lurking behind that door, waiting for us to destroy them.

I freed my arm and opened the door.

“After you, my lady.”

Phiria silently nodded and entered, while I quietly followed. It was dark inside, with just a point of light in the distance. We quietly walked towards it.

“There is a distortion in space. Be careful.” She warned me.

Well, of course there is.

We reached that point of light much earlier than one would have expected. As we stepped through it, light filled our vision, causing me to squint.

When the light faded, what entered my eyes was a clear, black sky, with countless stars twinkling behind the moon.

We were currently in some sort of floating balcony, high up in the sky and right above the market we had just been in.

“This is…” Phiria muttered in disbelief as she looked at the city below us, discernible only by several blinking dots.

“What? Did you think that I’ll make you fight or something?”

“Honestly speaking, yes.” She sighed without looking back at me.

“Ouch, I’m hurt. Even I’m not that boorish.” I sighed.

I mean, I especially deployed Gier and Neid to covertly take care of any pests that might try to hinder us tonight. And turns out, there was one such group; some thugs who were looking to have some fun with girls. They saw me alone with Phiria and decided on her as their target (even though she’s supposed to be an average looking countryside girl), so my loyal knights permanently took them out.

“Seems like it.” I could imagine her smirking.

I walked up to her and gently embraced her from behind.

“Sam…” She touched my hand. “I must admit, you had me completely fooled.” Even though she was admitting defeat, her voice was tinged with joy. “How did you even hide this side of yours? If I knew you could be this romantic on a date, I would have gone on one with you a long time ago.”

Well, that’s exactly why I hid it.

“I gave you my word, after all.”

Not to mention that she deserves this. In fact, considering all that she has done for me till now, I wanted to do much, much more for her, but had to settle for something as measly as this after taking the upcoming events into account.

Besides, I also like doing this.

“…Thank you.” She clutched my arms gently and leaned back into me.

“Well, enjoy it while it lasts.”

“I wish we could do this every day.”

“Don’t be too greedy now, okay?”

There is a reason why greed is categorised as one of the deadly sins. And, isn’t she like, already physically assaulting me every day?

“I…” She paused for some moments. “Don’t worry, I’m already satisfied with this.”

Damnit, Phiria.