Reincarnated Hero System

“Why don’t we get married?”

“Pfft!—cough! cough cough!!”

Eliza nearly choked, coughing violently as she processed what Evan had just said. The boy set down the radio and then held up a napkin to help her clean her lips.

She took a deep breath, scanning her memories of the past ten seconds to see if her mind wasn’t playing tricks on her when Evan repeated his earlier words.

“What do you say? Why don’t we get married?”

“…so, I didn’t mishear you the first time.”

“Nope. You didn’t.”

Eliza turned to look at Evan and he met her gaze serenely. This staring contest quickly ended as Eliza looked away and placed her glass on the counter, before turning back to him and asking.

“Okay, Evan. What brought this up?”

For a moment, she remembered the little encounter with a certain someone in the afternoon and the words he had spoken.

“Is this because of what ‘that guy’ said?”

“Huh? What guy?”

Evan looked genuinely confused upon her question and when she reminded him of the incident in the Rose Garden, the light of remembrance flashed through his eyes as he spoke.

“Oh! True, that did happen.”

It seemed like he had truly forgotten about it already, which was surprising considering how pissed he had gotten then.

“But no, it’s not because of him. I get why you might see it that way though.”

Considering the coincidental timing, Evan figured Eliza might have seen this as a hasty decision influenced by Christopher’s words.

‘Tsk…I should beat him up tomorrow. He ruined this for me.’

Thanks to Christopher, Eliza did not have the kind of reaction that Evan wanted to see so he was pissed. However, he put that aside to reassure her that the other Duke’s son had nothing to do with this.

“To be honest, this has been on my mind for quite a while.”

“It has?”

“Yep.”

When Evan replied, Eliza felt something off about his words, and she narrowed her eyes and asked about it.

“May I ask how long this has been on your mind?”

“In seven days, it’d be exactly one year.”

“…”

That wasn’t ‘quite a while’!

Eliza was speechless at the revelation that Evan had been considering this—marrying her—since last year!

“I gave it a lot of thought, eventually coming to a positive conclusion.”

“…”

‘Well, you may have given it a lot of thought, but it hasn’t even crossed my mind at all! I was honestly satisfied with how things were and I was seeing marriage as some sort of endgame content in this game of love…’

Maybe due to Evan’s presence and his constant game references, but Eliza’s thoughts sometimes resembled his, with her considering Marriage to be an ‘endgame’.

“Granted, I don’t mean for it to happen now.”

Evan raised his hand and counted with his fingers as he spoke.

“We’ve got the False gods to handle, then there’s Tarse’s situation coming right up afterwards, so there’s no time for a ceremony.

I’d like for us to take our time to plan things out and that cannot happen while there’s a constant Demonic Hand Disaster threat looming above our heads.”

Eliza saw as Evan’s expression turned sour right before he continued.

“Well, even after I’m done with Tarse, I’d still be 16 so we gotta wait for a year and some months more.”

“Huh? Wait? Why would we wait?”

The young woman did not notice how dismayed she acted at the thought of them having to wait longer, but Evan noticed this and smiled lightly as it showed she wasn’t opposed to the idea.

“Currently, you’re 18, and I’d be 18 as well…in two years.

Only then would I legally be eligible to file for marriage and the like.”

“Oh…that.

Yeah…GWE law prohibits marriages under 18 years.”

Eliza’s eyes flashed with the light of remembrance as she recalled this little detail. A part of her questioned why Evan who always did whatever he wanted was fussing about following the law now, but she figured he had his reasons.

“So, while the actual marriage would happen in two years, I’m asking you now.

Oh, did I mention that it’s non-negotiable?”

“…is this something meant to be negotiable in the first place?”

“You haven’t heard of contract marriages before?

But that doesn’t apply to us. I’d like to present you with options.”

With his fingers raised for each one, Evan listed out the three ‘options’.

“Yes, Of Course, or Gladly.

Make your pick.”

“…”

Those options were just the kind of thing that Eliza had expected Evan to pull so she wasn’t even surprised or shocked when she heard them.

‘Classic Evan…’

As for the whole idea of marriage, it wasn’t that she was opposed to it, just that she hadn’t considered it yet at this juncture.

For her, Evan had brought it up out of nowhere.

‘He said he’s been thinking about it for a year and I didn’t notice a thing. He was actively making efforts to conceal those thoughts from me…’

Nevertheless, she did not delude herself into thinking she wasn’t happy that Evan had thought of this.

“I wouldn’t deny that I truly want it to happen right this instant, but the Age constraint would be a problem if we want to permanently shut up the Duke’s vassals and not have them bug our lives.

I don’t wanna get pissed and smack someone’s father to death.”

Evan spoke with a shrug of his shoulders and Eliza nodded in understanding as she also didn’t want anyone disturbing them and trying to mess up their marriage because of legal constraints.

She sighed and sat down on her chair, her head lying face down on the table while Evan reached out and held both her hands.

Their fingers naturally intertwined with one another and Eliza felt her grip on Evan’s hand slowly tightening as she spoke.

“To be honest, this is sooo sudden that I don’t even know how to react.”

“But are you against i-?”

“No.”

Eliza’s reply came before Evan even finished asking the question, and even she was surprised at how fast she replied.

“Well, in that case, I was right to get this.”

“Get what?”

Hearing Evan’s words, Eliza raised her head and he moved her left hand in front of her face so she could see it.

Naturally, there was no way that Eliza’s eyes would miss the sudden presence of a certain heart shaped diamond ring on her fourth finger.

Its silver band had a grey heart-shaped diamond as the centre stone, while the side stones were all sapphires. There were three small accent stones on each side and they were all greyish-blue diamonds.

“…”

Silence enveloped the kitchen, save for the distant melody from the radio while Eliza’s eyes remained fixed on the ring.

‘The colour of those sapphires, it’s familiar…’

It didn’t take even a split second for her to realise why that was the case.

‘It’s the same colour I see in my eyes through the mirror every day, so of course, it’s familiar.’

Interrupting her reverie was Evan’s voice as he noticed her focus on the sapphires.

“It was kinda hard to find stones with the exact same shade as your eyes, so Countess Sofia had to go abroad to get them and I was only able to receive the rings during the party.”

“?!”

Eliza’s eyes widened in surprise as she recalled the flashily dressed Countess Evan had spoken with earlier that night. Understanding dawned on why Evan had used magic to prevent her from hearing the contents of their conversation.

‘He didn’t want me to find out about the ring beforehand… I wonder how long ago he ordered them…’

Undeterred by her prolonged silence, Evan continued.

“Last time I checked, before marriage, there’s supposed to be this period of time called an engagement and most of the time it usually involves a ring.”

“…”

Eliza’s gaze finally left the ring and moved to Evan, remaining fixed on him for a full minute with countless thoughts whirling through her mind.

Finally, her peach-like light pink lips parted to call out a set of familiar words.

“Yes, Of Course, and Gladly.”

“huh?”

Evan let out a confused noise and just as he realised that she had simply repeated the ‘options’ he gave her earlier, Eliza reached out and grabbed him by the collar.

She abruptly pulled him closer to her, so close that their breaths mingled as she whispered.

“I chose all three options.”

And with those words, she smashed her lips into his, initiating a deep kiss filled with a thousand unspoken feelings and emotions.

It took a full minute for them to pull away, their hearts pounding in sync and their breaths mingling in the warm kitchen air.

Evan’s gaze fell to Eliza’s lips, tracing the translucent line of saliva that connected them.

‘Fuck…having good self-control can be unnecessary sometimes…’

With that thought, Evan seized Eliza’s lips again, this kiss fleeting but leaving her yearning for more. He moved his hands to grip her under her arms, lifting her effortlessly and carrying her over the table.

Lowering himself back into his seat, he positioned her to straddle him, her legs draped over his hips. Wrapping his arms securely around her waist, he nestled his head against her chest, feeling the rhythmic beat of her heart.

“Hey, Liz…”

“Mhmm?”

“We’d take a trip to your hometown after Tarse. I’d like to meet your parents at least officially.”

“Ah…my idiot of a father would definitely make noise.”

Eliza rolled her eyes as she recalled how her father used to say ‘No one could marry his daughter without defeating him first’ and guessed his reaction if he heard about them getting married.

“How fast can you become a Living Legend, Evan? Can you do so before you turn 18?”