My Happy Marriage (LN) - Volume 3 - Chapter Ep

  EPILOGUE  

The Special Anti-Grotesquerie Unit had been split into multiple groups and issued separate missions.

Thanks to the information they’d gleaned from Commander Kiyoka during his field mission, the unit had advanced their investigation into the “Nameless Order”—the Gifted Communion—which had caused the government much concern over the past few days.

Then, because of this, the Special Anti-Grotesquerie Unit, normally tasked with taking on said Grotesqueries, received another order:

“Immediately neutralize Communion follower activity in the appointed location.”

To make matters worse, the coordinates turned out to be the site of an exceptionally powerful stronghold, where several of the Communion’s followers were all but confirmed to be operating.

In other words, they would be sending Gifted pawns into battle against Gifted opponents.

Still feeling somewhat unsatisfied by the explanation, Yoshito Godou had brought his subordinates to an abandoned temple on the outskirts of the capital.

“Everyone to their stations!”

At Godou’s instructions, four of the group members encircled the temple on all sides.

Right as Godou gave the signal, he and the remaining two men brandished their sabers and rushed inside the temple hall, just as they had previously gone over.

“It’s the Imperial Army…! Wait.”

Feeling let down, Godou frowned.

The inside of the dilapidated temple hall was completely deserted. According to their information, there should have been several people here during the day at this time, but there wasn’t a soul in sight.

They had obviously checked the surrounding area before barging in, but there were no signs that they had sensed Godou’s team coming and tried to hide, either.

“Looks like the info was off, Godou… Maybe they just happen to be out?”

“C’mooon, there’s no way. I mean, the brass would definitely collect a whole lotta evidence by the time they pass us the information, right? For now, just keep your guard up.”

While he answered the subordinate’s question, Godou scanned the inside of the hall again, staying alert.

The first thing that drew his attention was the large emblem of the Communion drawn on the wall. This proved that people involved with the religious group had been there, but…

“Could it be…a trap, maybe? But then what kind of trap?”

He mumbled to himself, thinking hard.

But they had already checked for both physical and supernatural traps.

“Godou. We swept the place again but still didn’t find anything.”

This raised the possibility that their information had been wrong. There was no way their superiors would overlook that mistake in a time of crisis like this.

But hang on a sec… Maybe there’s still something we’re not seeing here.

At almost the exact moment the thought crossed Godou’s mind, he heard a sizzling sound, like something being roasted over fire.

Godou caught a glimpse of something he was positive hadn’t been there before—a large, bomb-like object.

“Uh?”

It was a simple device, packed gunpowder fixed with a fuse. One look at its construction, however, was enough to tell him its explosion wasn’t going to be small.

And worst of all, the tip of the extended fuse was light orange and swiftly closing in on the bomb itself.

Godou went pale in an instant, then yelled automatically.

“Everyone, barriers up!”

One second later.

With a terrible thundering boom, the abandoned temple was enveloped in an enormous conflagration.

They had been away for only a few days, yet the bustling noise of the capital that hit them the moment they stepped off the train felt a bit nostalgic.

After being tossed around in their train car for a spell, the three travelers safely disembarked onto the train platform in the imperial capital’s central station.

“Peaceful country towns and farming villages are nice, but it feels good to be back in the capital, doesn’t it?”

“It does.”

Miyo nodded at Arata, whose voice contained a clear note of relief.

Kiyoka, on the other hand, looked at him with suspicion.

“You work for a trading firm, and you’re saying that?”

“Hah-hah-hah. It’s true I often end up going from place to place, but my base of operations is still here, you know.”

The messy, bustling capital and friendly conversation. Miyo felt the tension she’d built up over the trip slowly melt away.

However, Kiyoka and Arata’s banter suddenly sank into silence, and a serious look came over them both.

“Things are going to get busy.”

“Indeed.”

The Gifted Communion. Naoshi Usui. As well as the Usuba family’s situation. Problem after problem was piling up.

Surely the days would become hectic from here on out.

Miyo’s expression naturally tightened up, too.

Though her capabilities were limited, she wanted to support them as much as she could. To do that, she couldn’t let herself ignore the matters at hand.

She needed to put even more effort into her Gift training.

As the three made their way through the station crowd, they discussed what they would do from here on out.

“I need to go give my report to Prince Takaihito. But I’m not in much of a rush, so I can see Miyo back home.”

“Okay. Thank you.”

“Yeah, that’d be good if you could. I need to go to the station first and hear from Godou—”

Kiyoka paused unnaturally.

Arata stopped walking, and Miyo also halted to look at the two of them.

She had barely opened her mouth to ask what was wrong when a horrible shiver ran down her spine. She felt goose bumps spread across her skin.

Wh-what’s going on…?

She didn’t understand it at all, but something was strange.

The crowd of people, the hustle and bustle, were getting farther and farther away. Almost as if the three of them were being isolated from the rest of the world.

Then, the next thing she felt was an unsettling and overpowering sense of dread.

“Is this?”

“Indeed. I’m sensing the Usuba family’s Gift.”

Although she was relieved to hear the two men’s composed voices for the time being, Miyo gagged from the instinctual terror that assailed her.

What in the world was happening? The answer quickly showed itself.

Within the strange space, as if the world had left the three of them behind, a single figure emerged out of thin air to approach them.

“I believe this is the first time I have the pleasure of meeting you. Head of the Kudou family, heir of the Usuba family, as well as…”

—my dear daughter.

Misfortune in human form had appeared before the three of them.