Mushoku Tensei Redundancy (LN) - Volume 1 - Chapter 5.3

Chapter 3:

Isolde and Dohga

“HOW MANY IS IT NOW?” Isolde had left the training hall and was at home, sitting across from her brother in the living room.

“Twenty-six,” she muttered, not looking up. Tantris tried to catch her eye, but Isolde kept hers averted.

“A little bird told me it was you who turned them down.”

“Yeah.”

“Why?” 

Isolde pressed her lips together. “It’s just, I don’t know… They’re all fine men. Good-natured, gentle… But…”

“But?”

“Maybe they’re too good. It makes their flaws stand out.” They were royalty, introduced to her through Ariel. 

They were young and pleasant, and their conversations had been lovely. But…they didn’t hold back. Maybe Ariel had said something to them, because they even told her about their fetishes. 

There was Atole Orpheus Asura, who was good-looking and kind and said he would devote himself to her after they were married.

There was Basil Venti Asura, who was good-looking and strong and had a deep understanding of Water God Style.

There was Carlos Siodos Asura, who was good-looking and elegant and said he could support Water God Style from a financial perspective after they were married.

There was Daniel Lapis Asura, who was good-looking and funny and made her laugh all through their conversation.

There was Elliot Skiron Asura, who was good-looking and sweet and made her instinctively want to protect him. 

But they told her everything. They told her what they wanted to do to her in bed and outside of it and the little outfits they’d like to see her in. It was more than Isolde, with her limited experience, could keep up with. They seemed more than a little strange in the head; it honestly made her ill. Before she knew it, she’d cut them off. 

Isolde had developed a bit of a distrust of men. She knew not all men were as awful as these, but no small number of men out there wanted to do those sorts of things. She almost wanted to give up on marriage altogether.

“Flaws? Such as?”

“I can’t tell you. Things I can’t speak of.”

“Ah… Well, they are Asuran royalty.” Asuran aristocrats were infamous for their perversions. The higher echelons of the nobility were too spoiled for normal tastes.

“That puts you in a tough spot, though. I didn’t think you would turn them all down.”

“Not all of them… I mean, there are still a few more.”

“Be that as it may, it isn’t looking promising, is it?” Tantris said. 

Whenever she got to choose something herself, Isolde had always had a tendency to be too selective—I don’t like that one, not that one either… In the meantime, the best options were snatched up by someone else, and she had to take whatever was left. Marriage was no different.

“All right,” Tantris said at last. “This is what we’ll do.” With due consideration of his sister’s personality, Tantris made up his mind. “You will marry the next one.”

“But I can’t just…”

“I am sure he will not meet your standards. You get hung up on their failings because you are in a position to be selective. Once you are married and living together, such flaws may come to seem trivial. You may grow to appreciate him.”

Tantris didn’t like this sort of strong-arm logic. He thought Isolde needed time to choose, to get to know the other person to their core. But Ariel arranging this made him think that this forceful approach could work out. If Ariel had introduced her to these men, surely she couldn’t go too far astray.

He gave her too much credit.

After a long silence, Isolde made up her mind. “All right.” It was true, she was being too picky. She’d always been like that and probably would be all her life. That part of her personality was well-suited to Water God Style, and she was on the verge of becoming Water God herself. But when it came to marriage, it was a problem. At this rate, she’d end up spending her whole life alone. 

The position of Water God was esteemed. The people who knew her would give her admiration, praise, and commendations. She would smile back at them, talk to them, then when she was feeling good, she would go home to an empty room to eat a meal for one, get ready for bed, and sleep alone.

That sounded so empty.

You didn’t become Water God to win praise. Inside, there was another Isolde, separate from the swordswoman. She was always lonely, and that was why she felt empty. She didn’t know if a husband and children would comfort the other Isolde, but if she had all the praise in the world, she wanted to come home to someone and say how proud she was of herself.

And then, after she was done boasting, her pervert husband would ask her to do something rotten.

But she had made up her mind.

“So where and when are you meeting the next candidate?”

“Today. I’m told he’s coming to get me in a carriage.”

“Royalty is coming to…pick you up?”

“Yes.”

There were three candidates left. Isolde was unaware of this, but after hearing that she had rejected five suitors out of hand, the rest had gotten serious. They decided the order in which they would meet her through a stringent lottery. They were ready to mount their attacks.

“Huh?” Just then, something caught Isolde’s attention. “There’s some sort of commotion over in the training hall.”

The training hall adjoined the Cluel house, but this place was the headquarters of Water God Style, so it had quiet flooring to match. Usually, you couldn’t hear anything from where they were, but Isolde was a Water Emperor. She could hear the violence.

“Could he be here already?”

“It’s still too early, but I might have mistaken the time. I’d better go. I can’t run the risk of offending royalty.”

“That’s true. Best hurry.” Isolde and Tantris shared a nod, then set off for the training hall.

The hall was in a tumult. The disciples in their training gear stood gathered around a man, heaping angry shouts and taunts at him.

“Master! A challenger has come from a rival school! He showed up out of nowhere and demanded to see you!” 

The blood drained from Isolde and Tantris’s faces. If their students had subjected a member of the royal family to such treatment, the whole training hall might be torn down. Had he not given his name?

“Stop that!” Isolde shouted. The hall fell silent. “Clear the way! That man is my guest!”

“But… But he’s—”

“All of you, on your knees at the edge of the hall!” At Isolde’s order, the students scattered like baby spiders and sat down in lines. The students had been trained to do that from way back in her grandmother’s time. 

But that wasn’t important. Right now, she needed to apologize. With the students out of the way, Isolde looked over at the man.

Huh? She found herself looking at an enormous man. He was more than two meters tall, and his shoulders had to be close to a meter across. He was built like a boulder. Isolde knew that boulder.

“Dohga?”

“Mm.” He turned around when she called out to him. It was him—none other than Dohga, the Royal Gatekeeper, one of the Seven Knights of Asura. He looked out of place, almost shrinking back in fear. But when he saw Isolde, a relieved smile broke over his face.

“I just saved your lives,” Isolde told her students. “This man is North Emperor Dohga. If he wanted to, he could take all of you out with one…”

That was as far as she got before she realized what Dohga was wearing. That was a knight’s ceremonial uniform. Isolde had never seen him in it before. He only ever wore his golden armor or his gray armor. Ariel never said anything about it. In addition to his unusually tight outfit, he had a bouquet in his hand. In the vastness of Dohga’s fist, the bouquet looked small, but it was, in fact, enormous.

“Why are you here? Did something happen to Her Majesty? Is it an emergency?” Isolde asked, furrowing her brow. In response, Dohga moved slowly toward her, then held out the bouquet in his hand. 

Could it be? 

He was in a formal uniform and holding a bouquet.

Of course she also thought, It can’t be! But her first thought won out.

“I…Isolde Cluel… I… I love you! Please…m-marry me!”

Could it be that Dohga was a member of the Asuran royal family?

She was struck by a thought. Dohga was the only man entrusted with guarding Ariel in her private chambers. Luke was a special case, but even Sandor wasn’t allowed to bring a weapon near those rooms. He even stood outside her door in the middle of the night. As far as Isolde knew, he wasn’t a eunuch. People said he was safe and harmless, but he was still a man. With his enormous size and the martial skill of a North Emperor, breaking into Ariel’s room as she slept would be easy for him. Isolde had always wondered why Ariel had chosen a man like him. If he was Ariel’s relative, if they had known each other well since they were children…

She had heard that Dohga had come from a tiny village on the outskirts of the kingdom, but royalty came from everywhere. Just as Ariel had once fled to a faraway land, Dohga might have been in hiding during his childhood.

“Isolde.” At Tantris’s voice, Isolde emerged from the ocean of her thoughts.

She might have just avoided a nasty situation. Perhaps Dohga was a dark secret of the Asura Kingdom. If she’d been careless, even she might have found herself erased.

“What’s wrong?” Tantris asked.

She had to face reality. “Nothing…” she said, then looked at Dohga again.

He had just said, “Please marry me.” There was no mistaking that. Isolde had once been desperate to hear those words. She couldn’t have misheard. Dohga radiated confidence. He had confidently strode in through the front gate, handed her a bouquet, then proposed to her.

Isolde had imagined something more romantic, but in the right light, maybe this was romantic. Holding out a bouquet before proposing in front of a crowd of people was on Isolde’s list of romantic proposals, though obviously in front of a beautiful fountain or at a fancy party, not in a training hall suffused with the stink of sweat… 

No, she’d put that out of mind. That, and many other things too.

“It’s perfect timing, isn’t it?” Tantris said tentatively. “He’s another of the glorious Seven Knights of Asura. You’d make a well-matched pair.”

“Yes… But… I don’t…” Isolde realized there were eyes on her—the eyes of her students.

“Let’s speak in private. Dohga, please follow me.”

“Mm.”

Isolde turned to go. When she didn’t take the bouquet, Dohga looked sad for a moment, but he followed close after.

That was how Dohga was invited into Isolde’s home. Now, he sat frozen on the couch, trying to make himself look as small as possible. The bouquet was laid over his knees. Isolde sat directly opposite him, her posture regal. Her face gave nothing away; it seemed almost as if she didn’t have a thought in the world. Tantris was nowhere to be seen. He had left the pair in the reception room and gone to make tea.

Isolde examined Dohga’s face. Under her inspection, he assumed a serious expression, but the way his cheeks trembled made it clear how nervous he was.

However, Isolde wasn’t concerned with that. She was interested in his face. It was a plain, open face. Not her type. She could close her eyes to all sorts of things, but at the end of the day, she didn’t like what she didn’t like.

Part of her longed for a chance to reconsider the last five proposals. If their specs were otherwise more or less the same, then those five, by virtue of being nice to look at, were more appealing. But the next member of the royal family to show up might be even less appealing than Dohga. All that aside, there was the matter of her agreement with her brother. She had to decide things here.

She let out a breath, then said, “You know, it was a surprise to find out that you’re royalty.” 

Dohga gaped at her. “Me? Not…royalty.”

Isolde hesitated. “Huh? So you were adopted in or something like that?” she asked, attempting to obliquely figure out what he was trying to hide.

“I…born in little village. In Donati. Always been gatekeeper. Dad was village soldier…”

All she got from Dohga was the story of how a totally unexceptional soldier had risen in the world. Well, perhaps not unexceptional. Isolde listened, trying to glean something from what he said. When he got to the part about crying when his little sister had gotten married, she was so invested, she felt the tears well up.

“Then I…hear that you, Isolde, get married. Before that, I wanted to at least say how I feel.”

Isolde was silent. He wasn’t connected to any of this. He wasn’t one of the royals Ariel wanted to introduce her to. In that case, Isolde decided, she would refuse him. It was too bad, but she couldn’t snub Ariel.

Hm? Why did I think “too bad”?

The answer came at once. Dohga was honest, hardworking, and devoted. Judging from his words, he didn’t have any awful bedroom preferences. He was skilled enough to become a North Emperor, and he was one of the Seven Knights of Asura. He had a stable income. He enjoyed drinking, but he wasn’t a violent drunk, and he didn’t have any extravagant vices. The only thing wrong with him was his face, and it wasn’t that bad. He just wasn’t quite Isolde’s type.

“Uh…um…!” In response to Isolde’s frown, Dohga, with what looked like a great effort of will, spoke. “Ev… Ever since I first…see you, I think…Isolde is pretty as…these flowers. I… I always love you!” With that, he held the bouquet out to her again.

“Did you? From the first time you saw me?” Isolde’s field of view was all flowers. They were a deep blue color. She didn’t know their name, but they were beautiful. A little spark ignited in her heart.

“Mm.”

If Isolde remembered correctly, her first encounter with Dohga had been a fight. She had fought him over a matter of Ariel’s security. He had felt this way all this time? Thinking back, Dohga had been a little soft with Isolde. He had always trusted her. He hadn’t confiscated her weapon when she went into Ariel’s chambers. The fact that they were both in the Seven Knights of Asura had to be part of it, but perhaps that wasn’t the whole story.

As she thought this, Dohga watched on with an earnest face—a face that now seemed about 20 percent more attractive. Not so bad. Striking from the right angle, even. Besides, he usually wore a helmet, so you couldn’t even see his face most of the time.

“Wait, wait…!” Isolde shook her head. “I’m very sorry, but I will be marrying a member of the royal family introduced to me by Queen Ariel.”

If she were to take up with Dohga now, she could end up bringing shame on Ariel. Isolde was a knight. She hadn’t sworn absolute loyalty, but she had sworn loyalty. She couldn’t shame her liege just to suit her whims.

“You are one of Her Majesty’s knights,” she went on. “You can’t go against her wishes either, can you?”

Dohga looked a little troubled, but said, “Mm.” Just like Isolde, Dohga, too, was a knight. He was also diligent. Even if he wasn’t royalty, it was this that had won him Ariel’s trust and allowed him to become her gatekeeper. He would not betray Ariel either.

“You may go home now,” Isolde said.

“Mm.”

She’d thought he would protest a little, but Dohga stood up at once, then turned away from Isolde. Just like that. He even seemed to be in good spirits. It was as though he’d known he would be turned down from the start and was satisfied just to have said it. Isolde was a little disappointed by this.

She sighed, then looked at the table. One blue petal lay there. The bouquet was gone. He must have taken it home with him.

“I wish I’d at least taken the flowers…” she murmured, picking up the petal.

Isolde refused the next royal suitor who came that day.

***

The next day, Isolde was at the parade grounds instructing. As she went through the forms, she ruminated on the previous day.

Her royal suitor had been Fraser Caecius Asura. His perversions had been awful, just like the others, though he wasn’t a bad person. Compared to Dohga, however, he struck her as insincere. Still, if she had at least deferred her decision rather than refusing him, she could have avoided offending him.

In any case, there were two left. Only two left. She had to judge them both carefully and choose one, she thought. Just then, a messenger came up to her.

“Miss Isolde! Her Majesty urgently wishes to discuss an apology!” From that, Isolde guessed that Ariel was going to tell her off for refusing one suitor after another. She’d take her licks. She owed Ariel an apology. 

“Very well,” she said, then left the parade ground. She went into the knights’ private room at the exit and brushed the dust off herself. She ought to have washed with water, but given it was urgent, she could get away with not doing so. She set off for the royal chambers at a brisk pace.

“Hm?” As she drew near to the innermost reaches of the palace, she felt something was off. It was noisier than usual. Usually, there were no soldiers or knights here, just empty corridors stretching on and on. But she could see agitated soldiers moving about. Did something happen? she wondered. No, the queen’s summons took priority. Without pausing to ask them any questions, she hurried to the royal chambers. 

Isolde frowned. Someone who ought to have been at the door was absent—an enormous man built like a boulder and clad in golden armor, Asura’s mightiest gatekeeper never left this palace so long as Ariel was in her chambers—Dohga. He was nowhere to be seen. 

As though to make up for his absence, knights stationed at the palace stood in rows around the royal chambers. They all had weapons at their belts. What a fuss! Every one of them was a veteran as well. There were even knights hailing from low- and middle-ranking noble stock who would never usually have been allowed to venture this far in. That would be Sylvester’s leadership. He never considered the repercussions of his decisions.

“Lord Ifrit!” Isolde said, spotting a familiar figure. It was chief of the palace guard Sylvester Ifrit, the Royal Fortress.

“Miss Isolde, you arrived quickly.”

“What in the world is going on?” she asked. Sylvester grimaced as though he were trying to think of where to start.

A few seconds passed, then he shrugged and said, “Her Majesty wishes to apologize.”

He might as well have said Go in there and ask. Giving up on getting an explanation here, Isolde knocked on the door.

“Isolde Cluel to see Her Majesty!”

“Please, come in.” Ariel sounded the same as ever. In contrast to the uproar, her voice was perfectly serene.

“Excuse me,” Isolde said as she opened the door and entered.

A strange scene met her. Ariel sat at her desk. Beside her were Luke, his arms folded and his face exhausted, and her bodyguards, who glared at her with their weapons drawn, ready to fight. Then there was Dohga. Dohga hardly ever left his post, but there he was. He held his golden helmet under one arm and a slightly sad-looking bouquet in his hand.

“Welcome, Isolde. You were quick.”

“I was just in the parade grounds… Your Majesty, what is all this?”

“Dohga tells me he means to resign as my knight,” Ariel replied casually.

“He what?!” Isolde looked at Dohga. His face was serious. So this wasn’t some sort of prank. “He… You mean… Why would he do that?”

“By all means, ask Dohga…” Ariel said, then added, “Dohga, please repeat your reasons.”

Dohga’s gaze moved to Ariel, then he nodded. “Isolde…said Queen Ariel’s knight…can’t marry her.”

Eh?! With those brief words from Dohga, Isolde guessed why she had been summoned.

“No! I only said, ‘You can’t go against her wishes either, can you?’ Because I didn’t want to bring shame on Her—”

“Isolde, be still and let him finish,” Ariel said softly. Isolde fell quiet, but inside, she felt anything but peaceful. If the conversation went the wrong way, it might look as though she had incited Dohga to betray Ariel. In fact, judging from the fuss outside, everyone already saw it that way.

“Dohga.” 

At Ariel’s prompting, he started to speak haltingly. “I…think a lot. I…promise Dad to protect my sister. Lady Ariel said protecting the kingdom means protecting my sister. Lady Ariel’s queen, so protecting her means protecting the kingdom. But my sister tells me, she says I’ve protected her enough. She has no troubles, so now I protect who I love. I…love Lady Ariel. I love this…kingdom. But my love for Isolde…more special. So I resign…as Lady Ariel’s knight. Then…I protect Isolde.” He set his helmet down on the desk with a clang. Then he turned and held the bouquet out to Isolde.

Isolde looked at the blue flowers in front of her, their petals slightly wilted. It was the same bouquet from yesterday.

“So that is what Dohga has to say…but what do you say, Isolde?”

“Huh?”

Faced with this sudden profession of love, Isolde blinked hard.

“I do not know what terms you have set, but apparently, he chooses you over the Seven Knights of Asura. The moment all women yearn for, hm? What do you say?” 

Ariel wasn’t going to accuse her of inciting betrayal. On top of that, she was asking Isolde to answer Dohga. 

“B-but all the men Your Majesty introduced me to…”

“Oh, them. Never mind them,” Ariel said. 

Isolde’s heart rattled in her chest even harder than it had when she faced down the Fighting God in the Biheiril Kingdom. She felt like she was going to collapse.

“I… I…” All of a sudden, she remembered the legend of the first Water God and the princess who had thrown away everything to be his wife. Based on what he had told her yesterday, Dohga was a man with almost nothing. He had his size, his strength, a few relatives, and his post in the Seven Knights of Asura. That was all.

He had chosen Isolde.

Even if it meant leaving his family and his post. It’d only been a day. He said he had thought a lot, but his decision had been all but immediate. Dohga had told her that he valued her above anything else. He wasn’t like the other nobles or the royal suitors Ariel had sent her. None of them would have pursued Isolde to the point of casting aside the greatest of their possessions, just like the princess who married the first Water God. Dohga might be the only person in the world who would love Isolde this much.

What more could she possibly want? Who cared about how he looked?

Before she knew it, Isolde had taken the bouquet, that enormous bunch of blue flowers. They were just a little past their prime. Dohga would still love and keep the flowers, even if they withered. In the end, youth and beauty didn’t last.

“I’m yours, if you’ll have me,” Isolde said.

“Mm!” Dohga beamed at her as applause broke out from around them.

***

The story of the proposal in the royal chambers was on everyone’s lips after that, trickling down to even the lowest ranks of soldiers. Dohga’s former comrades cried with joy, and all of Isolde’s admirers cried into their pillows. Dohga resigned from the Seven Knights of Asura to become Isolde’s husband. Instead of Dohga of the Seven Knights, he was now Dohga the househusband…or that was the plan. 

“You say you mean to resign as a knight. Isolde is a knight of this kingdom too. She is very strong, but if I died and the kingdom became unstable, she could be murdered. You will protect her, of course, but even then… Of course, that won’t happen so long as I do not die. What say you, Dohga? While you protect Isolde, could you protect me as well?”

Taken in by Ariel’s honeyed words, Dohga remained a knight. Ariel was greedy. She wasn’t going to let North Emperor Dohga slip through her fingers. She told him off for creating a scene in the royal chambers and assigned him labor as punishment, but it was nothing very arduous.

It was thus that both Isolde and Dohga were able to put down roots. The Seven Knights of Asura became more tight-knit, which was a great success for Ariel. She owed favors to the royals she had solicited, but that was nothing. However, because of his marriage, Dohga’s time for guarding the royal chambers plummeted. He went home on time every night, and when Isolde went away, he accompanied her without fail. As a result, Isolde ended up shifting into a role of something like Ariel’s personal guard.

Isolde, however awkwardly, had agreed to marry Dohga. She imposed a dating period before they got married, so it was a year until the happy occasion took place. Because of the delay, even after they were married, rumors went around that it was all one-sided affection on Dohga’s part, and Isolde didn’t care for him much at all. Her attitude toward him in the palace stayed as chilly as ever. The rumors quickly fizzled out after an incident where Isolde accidentally called Dohga “darling” in front of the soldiers, before turning bright red and trying to correct herself. People speculated she warmed up when they were alone together.

And that is how Dohga and Isolde became husband and wife.