The Romance Fantasy Novel MC is Only Into Me

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— Imperial Year 821, March 8th. Weather: Clear and sunny.
— On the early spring plains where winter has just retreated, Marigold finally set off on her long journey. What awaits at the end of this path?
※ Marigold feels her heart swell with excitement at traveling with her fiancé. Charm, elegance, stamina, and sex appeal UP! Morality and faith DOWN.
“Why is that going down?”

Ransell wiped a bead of sweat as he read the phrase appearing before his eyes, but Marigold’s expression was brighter than ever.
There was no trace of worry or concern on her face.
“Hehe.”

The endless grassland stretched before them, and Marigold’s hood was blown off by the wind, her hair flowing freely through the air.
Holding a notebook, she was quietly chuckling to herself.
“What are you writing?”
“Ah, nothing. It’s nothing.”

She hurriedly hid the notebook behind her back, her attempt to act casual clumsy at best.
“That’s suspicious.”
When Ransell narrowed his eyes, Marigold fumbled and pulled out a map from her bosom.
“Well, um, first we’ll cross this plain and then head to Porland.”

She was stalling.
“This is the famous homeland of Porland ale beer. I heard there’s a beer festival right now, so travelers gather here. At inns during this time, if you order food, you get beer for free.”
“Hmm.”
Ransell came closer and looked at the map.

“The destination is the Capital, but why are there so many towns to pass through?”
The travel route was long again.
It was purely a route Marigold had planned by herself. Ransell did not utter a single word.

He couldn’t help it.
When she showed it to him, it was already finished, and he had no clue what this ‘road to find the Demon King’ even meant, so there was no point in pointing it out.
Ransell decided to follow this strange travel route Marigold had laid out for now.

“Since she said it’s a route she researched over the past few years, maybe there’s some reason behind it... right?”
Thinking that, he glanced up at Marigold.
“Uhehehe. Uh, hot!”

Hmm.
Watching her smirk mischievously made his trust in her plummet to rock bottom, but what could he do now?
He had already promised to entrust this °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° life to her. Once he decided to trust, he would trust thoroughly. That was all there was to it.

“Just trust me, Ransell. When we arrive at Porland, the first thing I’ll do is visit the Mercenary Guild to gather information.”
“Oh, and then?”
“That’s where we’ll look for clues about the Demon King.”
“That’s quite a brilliant plan.”
If, by some miracle, the Mercenary Guild happened to have a clue about the Demon King.
.
.
.
“Did you come here to catch the Demon King too?”
“...?”

At the Porland Mercenary Guild, many who had gathered to kill the Demon King were bustling about.
 
“That feeling of longing, haah.”
Marigold closed her eyes tightly as she felt the lively atmosphere of the Mercenary Guild. She seemed to be recalling some memory.

“The very place where the master shared sweet and intense love...”
It seemed her memory was somewhat fabricated.
“Here it is. A request about the Demon King.”

The guild receptionist soon appeared holding a sheet of paper.
Ransell and Marigold leaned in simultaneously to look at the request.
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— Bandit Leader of the Fork Mountains, aka the Demon King.
— Large birthmark in the center of the forehead, from the central continent, dark-skinned, hooked nose, leader of a large bandit group of about 20 members.
— Reward: 15 gold coins plus all spoils. => From March, reward increased to 30 gold coins. Additional reward if the Baron of Porland’s son is rescued safely.

“He’s just a bandit, isn’t he?”
“Yeah, pretty ordinary.”
“Then what did you expect?”
The receptionist woman responded coldly.
Ransell and Marigold had nothing to say.

“Something dark, villainous... that kind of thing...”
“Mary, quiet.”
No point in explaining at length and looking like weirdos.
“Dark villain. That’s right. Killing people, kidnapping, raping, selling as slaves in those gloomy mountains.”

The receptionist retorted with a sulky face.
‘That’s true.’

Now that they heard it, he was indeed a dark villain. Just a bit too blatant for their taste.

“Recently, the Baron of Porland doubled the reward. The mercenaries who came for the festival are drooling over the juicy pay.”
“His son was captured?”
“Yes. That idiot and his lackey foolishly tried to hunt the Demon King, and last week one finger was sent cut off. Next time, they said they’d send his head, so pay up 200 gold coins quietly.”
“That’s terrible...”
“If you want to join, come to the guild by tomorrow morning.”
Ransell glanced sideways at Marigold.
“Should we catch him first?”
“Shall we?”

She nodded and continued.
“Maybe he really is the Demon King, and even if we share the 30 gold coins with the mercenaries, it’d be good for travel expenses.”
“I don’t think he’s the real Demon King...”
“But you never know.”
“Hmm.”
A hooked-nose Demon King with a large birthmark in the middle of his forehead.

No matter how broken his sister’s sense of aesthetics was, she probably wouldn’t have made such a montage the main villain.
Probably.
“Could you please arrange accommodation?”
“Ah! One room, please.”

The receptionist frowned while watching Marigold cling tightly to Ransell.
“Tch.”
Clicking her tongue, the receptionist watched even more closely as Marigold leaned on Ransell with a sly smile at the corner of her lips.

“Hmph.”
What is she doing?
“Your wife, you say?”
“Yes.”

That evening.
The mercenaries gathered around Marigold and cast bewildered glances toward Ransell.
“Traveling with your wife and even joining the raid on the bandits together, what the hell is this...?”
“I’ve never seen anything like it...”

They regarded them with strange eyes. It seemed like they thought the couple was risking their lives together.
“Wouldn’t be surprised if only one of you is left alive within a year.”
Ransell drank his beer and let the mercenaries’ reactions slide in one ear and out the other.

“Think carefully, wife. Following a puny husband like that, you’ll be a widow soon enough.”
“A man has to be strong in body. Strong enough to survive war. Like me.”
“It’s not too late. Why don’t you join us? We’ll treat you well.”
Even when some hot-blooded mercenaries proudly showed off their muscles and approached, she barely cared.
“Outside.”

Before he could respond, Marigold stood up abruptly.
She dragged the mercenaries outside, and not long after, a series of sharp screams pierced the air.
Soon Marigold returned looking relieved and sat back down next to Ransell.

“How did you handle that?”
Ransell handed her the beer glass and asked.
“I just persuaded them well and sent them away.”

In that short time, the mercenaries’ gazes toward the two had changed.
 
“Blonde hair, greenish eyes... If we try to take all of them, it would never end.”
Leo Dante nodded at the reaction of the knights gathered in the salon.

No matter how limited the region, if you hear someone is taking all blond-haired, green-eyed women, anyone would react like that.
“Isn’t this a numbers game? This isn’t something we can do.”
“I agree. We can’t just snatch up women like some vulgar mercenary gang.”
The knights in the salon slumped with disinterest.

Even the famous Budnia Knights had only about thirty members left. With that number, there was no chance of winning.
But Leo Dante’s thoughts were different.
“So we must skillfully wield the power of knights and nobles.”
“...?”

Leo Dante spread a map wide across the table.
“We spread a rumor in this area.”
“A rumor? What kind of rumor...?”
“Just spread it openly and honestly: The Prince is searching for blond-haired, green-eyed women.”
“...What?”
They were taken aback.

“Of course, that alone wouldn’t mean much. Add just one more thing. For example...”
His eyes curved with a sly smile.
“The Prince has decided to give one of the blond-haired, green-eyed women a one-night opportunity.”

The knights’ eyes widened in shock.
“Of course, that’s not the rumor we actually spread, but rumors always get exaggerated and distorted, right?”

“D-Does that really work?”
“Making it work is our job, gentlemen. So that women will seek out the Prince themselves, even if they don’t want to, and so many will push them to go.”
Leo Dante shrugged.

“Imagine a father who has a blond, green-eyed daughter right in front of him. If he’s a poor commoner starving, what choice would he make?”
“...So you mean we send one just in case.”
“If successful, she might receive the Prince’s grace and nurture such vain dreams.”
“But Captain?”
“Yes?”
A knight suddenly raised his hand with a question.
“What if one of the women fooled by the rumor actually turns out to be the one the Prince was searching for? How do we prove that she’s the one we found? Isn’t it a secret that we spread the rumor?”
“Hahaha!”

Leo Dante burst out laughing loudly.
“You still don’t understand the Prince’s intentions.”
“...?”
The knights exchanged confused looks.

“Do you think the Prince actually visited this distant frontier because he couldn’t find a naive woman who would come looking for him, fooled by a rumor?”
“Eh?”
“The woman the Prince is looking for is the opposite.”
Leo Dante’s eyes shimmered under the chandelier’s light.
“A woman who hears the rumor and, shocked, hides even deeper and refuses to come out. That’s the woman we’ll seek.”
“...!”
“Among the few such women, the correct one will be there.”

Saying that, Leo Dante crossed his legs and sat back.
“We’re not the ones who’ll waste time clinging to women who come on their own. That’s the job of our dumb competitors.”
He raised his glass.

“A hero of the empire... Kyle, Ransell. This brother will carry the royal banner and return to our homeland, so wait for us.”
What kind of woman is the one the Prince is searching for?
Leo Dante briefly imagined that mysterious figure in his mind.

A commoner? Knight? Noble? Fallen family? Or something else...
.
.
.
“Is that a person or a monkey?”

The mercenaries all stared up the tree in horror.
This was a hunting party gathered to slay the bandit called the Demon King.
Having entered the mountainous region, they were all captivated by one woman moving through the trees like it was her own home.

Marigold.
She moved freely across the treetops as if she had lived in this land for a long time.
“Ugh!”

With her cloak fluttering and blonde hair flying, she climbed once more to the very top of a tree.
Her body was so light it gave the illusion she was flying.
“Can you see?”

Ransell shouted from below, and soon a reply came back.
“I see! They’re coming this way.”
“What?”
“Bandits.”
“What?”
The mercenaries blinked in confusion.

“They said twenty, but I think it’s sixty... seventy. Mercenaries, shouldn’t you run? They’re at least three times our number.”
“...Huh?”
It was too late by the time they hastily drew their swords.
Dozens of arrows flew, showering the mercenaries.

Pababak-!
“Ugh!”
“Am-ambush! It’s an ambush!”
The bandits charged into the chaos.

“Khahaha! The Baron of Porland still hasn’t come to his senses! Guys, wipe them all out! I, the Demon King, will punish you with divine retribution!”
The booming voice of the bandit leader echoed down the mountainside.
“Kill them!”

Bandits wielding swords, spears, and axes leapt high and struck down at the mercenaries.
“Eek!”
“Ahhh!”
Blood and flesh sprayed incessantly. Screams and roars blended into one as the battlefield turned into a total mess.

“Khahaha! Kill! Kill them all!”
Midway up the mountain, now a battlefield in chaos, Ransell stared at the bandit leader, the so-called ‘Demon King’.
“No matter how you look at it, he’s not the Demon King I’m looking for.”

He was just a middle-aged bandit leader with lots of hair. The ‘mark’ in the center of his forehead was more like a protrusion than a spot.
“Khahahaha!”
A terrifying visage, indeed.

“...Let’s just make money, Mary.”
“Leave it to me, Ransell.”
For some reason, Marigold looked happy.