Prologue

Some time after the trouble with the House of Lotze's debts, we had gone through the arbitration process and sent our thanks to everyone who helped out. With all of that sorted, we were able to get back to our peaceful lives.

The slaying of the salamander had made my heart race a little, but at the end of the day, I had a little cash and some rare materials left over, so maybe it was a positive in the end?

We did succeed in our primary goal of saving Iris-san, after all.

And no longer burdened with repaying the family debt, Iris-san and Kate-san...

"Sarasa, we're back."

"We're home now, Shopkeeper-san."

"Welcome home, both of you. I'm glad to see you're all right."

...were living in my house, as before, and continuing their activities as gatherers.

I had told them they could pay me back over time from the domain's tax revenues, but according to Iris-san, "repaying the debt of gratitude we owe you is separate from paying you back the money."

In all honesty, I'd have felt lonely if Iris-san left, so I had been kind of thrilled to hear her say that.

Apparently, even Adelbert-sama had started saying things like, "I'll become a gatherer too, and repay the debt..." But obviously his wife had stopped him, and he'd reluctantly given up.

He probably had the skills for it, but it was pretty obvious he couldn't be allowed to. He was the lord of a domain, even if it was just a small one. He might be useless at his duties (as Iris-san attested), but that didn't mean he could spend all his time away from home.

If there was one thing that caught my attention, though...

"Iris-san, are you going to go on calling me by name like that?" I asked.

There was a pause before she replied, "Can I not?"

"Well, it's not that you can't, but..."

I didn't know if it was all in jest, but the other day, they had brought up the idea of Iris-san marrying me, and she'd addressed me this way since then. If it was tied to the marriage thing, I wanted to put my foot down and say no, but when Iris-san looked at me with those sad eyes...

"I don't object to you calling me 'Sarasa,' but I have no intention of marrying you, okay? And it's not that you hate men, or prefer to be with a woman either, right?"

"Well, no. But when I think about that scumbag, maybe I have started to hate men a little."

Iris-san shook her head as she let out a deep sigh.

I never asked her for details, but she'd apparently had a really bad time when she went back to the family home. There hadn't even been a hint of levity on Kate-san's face when she'd said, "If it weren't for the money, we wouldn't have let him walk out of there alive," so even if she was just saying that, it still must have been pretty bad.

"If that's the alternative, marrying you would be a hundred times less awful- No, it's rude to say it that way. I'd be a hundred times happier... I guess that's not right either. One hundred times a negative is still a negative. Hrmmm."

Having dwelt on it for a while, Iris clapped her hands and looked straight at me.

"Yeah, I want to marry Sarasa. Let's go with that!"

"Wh-When you're so direct like that, it gets me all flustered..."

The way Iris-san looked at me, completely serious-damn, was she handsome.

Thank goodness she was a woman.

If she had been a man, I'd have fallen for her right there. Yep.

"I-Iris-san, it's not that I hate you or anything, but listen, I'm just an innocent maiden hoping that a wonderful man will appear for me one day."

I won't get greedy and wish for a cool prince or anything.

"Murgh. Do you suppose you could compromise, and settle for a 'wonderful individual' instead?"

"Even if I did, Iris-san...you come up short! Just a little!"

"How so?!"

"Uh, well, normally, you are a wonderful individual, but..."

Her appearance...was good. She was cute, and at times could be cool in a masculine way.

But her weaknesses showed occasionally, and when you averaged all the positives and negatives out, she landed at slightly positive. That was not exactly the stuff dreams were made of.

In terms of her social status, she was of noble lineage, no matter how minor. The fact that, if I married her, I would get that as part of the bargain did make it a significant perk for me as a merchant.

As for my relationship with the parents... Adelbert-sama was an earnest knight, and seemed easy to get along with, and I heard it was her mother who'd dropped the hint about "if she married me," so I wasn't likely to see any opposition from her either.

Yeah, she's a winner all right. If I just ignore her sex, that is.

If I just ignore her sex, that is!

That was the most important thing, though.

The annoying complication was that I had ways of doing something about it.

"Well, setting aside the issue of gender, I could accept a woman as my partner, assuming there was no marriage involved, but then I'd want someone who could support me both in my public and private life."

In my line of work, there were a lot of women who never married. You could make a lot of money as an alchemist, even as a woman, and it was common to spend all of your marriageable years slaving away in someone else's shop, so they often missed their chance-or so I had heard. It was sad, really.

"What sort of support would it take for you to accept me?" Iris-san asked hesitantly. "I think I could handle gathering materials."

"It's not a bad offer, but if I'm going to all the trouble, I'd want someone who complements the areas I'm weak at."

I could gather materials myself if I felt like it, so that wasn't a weakness of mine. The time it would take was an issue, yes, but I could also just buy them-actually, for ordinary alchemists, that was the main way they got their materials. If there was something I wanted in a partner...

"Someone who can make delicious food, maybe...? And if they did the cleaning, laundry, and other household chores as well, even better. That would let me focus on my alchemy."

"C-Cooking, huh? I'm not so good at that." Iris-san's eyes wandered as she considered my request, then, putting a hand on Kate-san's shoulder, she pushed her forward. "Could we perhaps leave that to Kate, who'd be part of the package? Kate could handle the household chores too, you know?"

Kate-san blinked, unsure how to react, then turned to look at Iris-san.

"Huh? You were serious about that, Iris?"

"Kate-san, huh? She's not bad, but Lorea-chan doesn't just cook; she also minds the shop, so she's sort of a two-for-one there."

Iris-san and I carried on with this silly argument, ignoring both of the other people involved.

"M-Me?" Lorea-chan recoiled slightly. "Um, Sarasa-san. I appreciate your feelings, but I don't swing that way either..."

"I-I'm just kidding, of course? I'm strictly talking about you as a partner. It's true that you're a big help, though," I hurriedly explained.

Things had gotten so much easier since Lorea-chan turned up, so while I wasn't running the risk as badly as Leonora-san, I needed to be careful, or I was scared I really would miss out on my chance to get married.

"Iris, if you did marry Shopkeeper-san, that would make her a member of the house, so I would obviously do all I could to support her both in public and in private. But maybe I'm not so happy that I'm being treated like just an added bonus," Kate-san objected with a slightly troubled look on her face.

Hearing this, Iris-san thought for a moment, then nodded with understanding. "Then let me be the added bonus. Although, in light of my position, I cannot give up on the position of head wife."

"That is not the problem! Oh, for goodness' sake. Shopkeeper-san isn't even interested."

Yeah, you tell her, Kate-san.

"First, you need to get her in the mood, don't you?" she went on.

Oh...? I'm not liking where this is going.

"Hmm. That's a sound argument. I suppose it was presumptuous, trying to sway her with talk of an added bonus."

"Yes, that's right," Kate-san agreed. "First, you need to improve your own appeal."

"N-No, that's not the issue..." I protested.

You sound like you're encouraging her, but are you serious, Kate-san? Isn't it your duty as a retainer to discourage her here?

Though, maybe her being in debt to me makes it so it's not that simple.

"Hmm..." Iris-san murmured. "It seems I've hurried this a little too much. For now, I will go back to addressing you as I did before, Shopkeeper-dono."

"Uh, no, that's not the core of the-"

"I will better myself as a potential bride, so that you might choose me, Shopkeeper-dono. Please, look forward to it!" Iris-san said.

"E-Erm... G-Good luck...?"

Even...