I Became the Hero's Bride! Chapter 8

IBHB 8
I Became the Hero's Bride - Chapter 8 - Take good care of her, son-in-law

TL: Eevee
Ed: Hungry_Panda

"Make way for the queen-!!"

At the same time the herald's voice rang out, the servants opened the doors, and holding an elegant feather fan, the queen walked in with graceful steps. Her appearance was so similar to Clarice's that you could instantly tell the two were mother and s-no, mother and daughter. As for other traits, the sleek and glossy hair, kindly features, and abundant b.r.e.a.s.t.s that seemed to be filled with a mother's love.

Right behind the queen's grand appearance the a.s.sorted advisors filed in. No matter how large Clarice's room was, since more people filled the already chaotic s.p.a.ce, it felt like it was hard to breathe in there. As the a.s.sorted advisors looked at Clarice's shocking genderbent appearance they exchanged loud mutterings with each other.

"Oh my G.o.d. He really did become a woman…"

"Then is she really getting engaged to the hero?"
"Hwaaaa someone do something about this problem generator king"

Most of them weren't exactly pleasant words. Clarice's face started to darken, and just as Minwoo as about to howl b.l.o.o.d.y murder at the advisors, the queen snapped! her feather fan shut and solemnly said.

"Quiet."

The a.s.sorted advisors immediately fell silent. The gaze of the queen that silenced them all with a single word swept across the chaos-swept room, and narrowed on seeing the scissors in Clarice's hands.

"Prince. What are those scissors."

"Th, these?"

Clarice hid the scissors behind his back with an awkward expression on his face.

"Nothing at all. Mother."
"Hm. is that so? And here I thought-"

The queen said as if she was throwing out a pa.s.sing remark.

"I thought that our kind prince was trying to harm His Majesty's body."
"S, surely. Noooot…."

Sweating bullets Clarice forced out a smile. I'm sorry. I was trying. I was going to turn him into a eunuch.

Whether she'd accepted Clarice's explanation, or pretended to accept it, the queen's gaze slyly slid over to the king who was still clutching his crotch.

"Your Majesty."
"Wh, what is it, my queen?"

The queen fixed a gaze identical to Clarice, yet far harsher, onto the king.

"It seems you have created quite a dramatic incident while your wife was away at her parents'."

It was a chilling voice that you would never imagine from the queen who normally spoke to her lord with honey-saturated words.

"Are you out of your mind?"

A plan to entrap the hero by turning his son into a woman and marrying the two. How flabbergasted she was when she had first heard the news while she was peacefully spending time with her parents. To the point where she'd nearly flogged the poor messenger for daring to use the royal family as the subject for such a poor joke.

"I, I'm sorry. My queen."
"Your apologies shouldn't be directed at me but our poor prince. A man turning into a woman. Imagine what would happen of word of this got out to the people. Think of the reputation of the royal family, what sort of disgrace is this?"

Minwoo had just been watching the show when his eyes narrowed. Disgrace?

"I'm sorry. Clarice."

The restless king apologised to Clarice only to be met with a narrow-eyed glare identical to the queen's. indeed, like mother like s- no, daughter, even their expressions were the same.

"……I'm alright. Father."

Although no matter who or where you saw this, Clarice was only barely holding in her temper with clenched teeth.

'That's….'

The queen's inspecting eyes had roamed over her genderbent son before they widened on a particular discovery. Her gaze was fixated on Clarice's b.r.e.a.s.t.s. Like mother like daughter indeed. As if they'd burst through the seams (even though her clothes should definitely be bigger on her due to her shrunken size as a woman) those greatly-increased shapes couldn't help but be noticeable.

'Ha…. I didn't realise since I only had sons. I'd hoped that any daughters I had at least wouldn't take after these monstrous b.r.e.a.s.t.s…'

The queen's chest that she unconsciously supported with her folded arms, were lifted up and bounced appealingly. The gazes of all the males present were drawn to that destructive power.

's.h.i.t son. Them t.i.tties.'

Naturally, the - quote Clarice - 'n.o.ble-minded hero' was not an exception. Let's not forget. He was 18 years old. An age deep with desire.

"Ow! What are you doing!"
"Hmph. Pervert."

Senyun tightly yanked Minwoo's ears and leered at him with narrow eyes. The queen turned to the two that had started bickering again and lowered her head.

"I'm sorry. Hero, and mage. This lowly wife will apologise instead of His Majesty for sweeping you into his foolish antics. For that too, is a fault of the wife in not supporting her husband as well as she could."

So the queen declared(1) while holding her dress with immaculate elegance to Minwoo who was fl.u.s.tered and had no idea how to respond.

"Hero. It seems that after turning our prince to a woman, it seemed that His Majesty was bent on engaging you to the prince like a snake sneaking through a gap. Having been about to be in the absurd situation of having to take a man as your wife, I will apologise in his stead."

And next to Senyun who was grateful and had no idea how to respond.

"Mage. I heard how much you followed our prince. To turn your idol who you had been following so pa.s.sionately into a woman with your own hands… Huuu, as a fellow woman I can only apologise."

Having finished with her absolutely flawless apologies, the queen glanced over to Clarice who had been sneakily putting the scissors away.

"Prince. Come here."
"Yes!"

As Clarice hurried to her side, for some reason the queen's elegant lips curled into a grimace.

"Looking at you like this, you seem no different to me in my younger days. I do not like it."
"Eh?"

Clarice replied blankly. When her normally odd but gentle mother looked at her and said she didn't like it, it felt strange rather than sorrowful.

"Fu, it is nothing. You have had a hard time. Prince."
"No. Your son, your son is alright."

Hearing himself say 'your son' with his decisively feminine voice, for a split second Clarice was genuinely hesitant on whether he should call himself 'your daughter.'

"The hero may leave now. The royal family will deal with Clarice on our own."

The queen said to Minwoo, who was simply standing there. It seemed like Senyun was staying since she was in the royal palace's employ. But something about the queen's words stopped Minwoo from taking his hands off the problem.

'On our own.'

Minwoo's eyes narrowed.

"Just what do you mean, 'on your own?'"

Having only seen the queen from afar up till now, having come face to face with her today, she seemed as proud as she was virtuous. It felt odd that she still felt like a gentle person despite whipping up an icy storm.

Minwoo had been eyeing the queen's behaviour. Disgrace, don't like it. These were not words that one should be saying to a son that was forcibly turned into a woman. Despite being her mother, the gaze that she had fixed on her son Clarice was not by any means pleasant.

A person like that just said she'd deal with Clarice on her own, he simply could not kick back and leave it to them.

"Oh dear. It appears that there has been a misunderstanding of this wife's intentions. I shall elaborate."

The queen smiled apologetically having read Minwoo's discomfort. The queen's smile disappeared and she coldly announced.

"To protect the royal family's honour and safety we shall place Fifth Prince Clarice under imprisonment inside the royal villa."

Boom. Thunder boomed in a clear sky. Aside from the queen, everyone else wondered if they'd misheard. It was so absurd that no one could find anything to say.

"Eh? Eh? M, mother? That, what are you saying?"

Of course the person most shocked at this moment was Clarice who had first been genderbent and now double-hit with the imprisonment announcement. Her(?) luck in being pelted with one disaster after another.

"'Tis as you heard. Prince. I am sorry, but for the sake of the royal family you shall have to live in hiding from now on. As someone who was raised as a prince surely you can do at least this mu…"
"Don't make me laugh."

The queen's head turned at the frigid words that dared to cut her off. It was Minwoo. As if the queen found the figure of the person seething like a dragon touched on the reverse scale amusing, she fixed her eyes on him.

"What did you just say?"
"I said don't make me laugh. You lot decided to marry him off and turned him into a woman and now you're locking him away? Are you all actually insane?"

In response to Minwoo's coa.r.s.e accusations the queen clicked her teeth and scowled.

"Says the one who flaps his mouth while knowing nothing."

"…..You are curious as to why the prince is being imprisoned?"

Stuck amidst the sparks flying between the two, Clarice could only look between them helplessly. As she looked around with eyes pleading for help, Senyun was waving both her hands around cheering for Minwoo, and the king was happily watching on while munching away on popcorn procured from somewhere. Clarice clutched her head and let out a noiseless whine. Both of them were of absolutely no help at all.

The queen elegantly flicked her fan open, covered her mouth and murmured in a low voice.

"Curiosity killed the cat."

Minwoo could only let out a scoff at the ridiculous warning.

"Hero. You should know. That the people's voices of dissent against the Crown are only getting louder by the day."

That time before. It was all good that they called the hero Minwoo to solve the demon king incident, but since Minwoo at the time was no more than a hopeless immature brat, they threw him away as a dead hand. The proof was that was in how they threw him out of the palace with nothing more than a wooden sword. But ironically, that Minwoo solved the demon king incident and returned as a true hero.

What was more, he helped numerous troubled people in the process (quote Senyun, quests were a minion's work). And he officially received the holy sword from the Holy Maiden and was acknowledged by the clergy as the true hero. You could not blame the people for distrusting the Crown that had been simply sucking their thumbs during the demon king crisis.

"Not only that, imagine if it became known that the king who should be leading the country turned his son into a woman to ensnare the hero. Even worse, that person was the one popular enough to be called the Kingdom's Treasure, Prince Clarice."

As if something p.r.i.c.ked at her, Senyun shuddered. If news of this reached the general populace that definitely had some feelings of resentment for the royal family… Uuurrrgh she didn't even want to think about it. As a dedicated CLC member she could see it. The figures of the CLC destroying the royal palace in all sorts of different ways.

"In other words, you're locking him up to cover your own a.s.ses."
"That is so. …..And I believe that our filial prince can gladly sacrifice his own person for the Crown."

The queen coquettishly smiled at stroked Clarice's head.

"Surely you could do that for us?"

"I, I-"

Clarice gripped the hem of her clothes and lowered her head. She didn't like this foreign side of her mother she'd never seen before, and she didn't want to be imprisoned unfairly like this either.

"That's… Ah!"
"Says who."

Minwoo pulled Clarice towards him. Clarice was dragged powerlessly into Minwoo's embrace. Clarice's eyes widened and looked up at Minwoo. Minwoo was staring down the queen with a serious face. Clarice had seen Minwoo like this before. There was no way she could forget. It was still clear as day in her mind even now.

It was when he had come to rescue her from the demon king's castle.

"I do not understand."

The queen waved her fan and leered at them.

"There is no way you would not know that your actions right now are making you an enemy of the kingdom. No matter whether or not you are the hero, to make an enemy out of a kingdom for the sake of a single person, I would say is a foolish decision."

The queen asked as if she was genuinely curious.

"Does Clarice have that much value to you?"
"Value? I think you're mistaken."

Minwoo tightly hugged Clarice as if to declare he would never lose her.

"I don't want to lose my important person a second time."

The queen's eyes opened wide.

"Ho, important person?"

"Oi. Hold on a second."
"Minwoo. Ohhhhh…!"

The peanut gallery got noisy for some reason, but the queen's next words drew his attention off them.

"That sounds like you would take Clarice in if we were to give her away."

"No matter that Clarice is the kingdom's treasure or no, she is not someone that can be measured with the hero that is a match for a hundred."

Clarice's face turned sheet white. She simply didn't understand why her mother was saying such cruel things. Minwoo looked at Clarice's fear and clenched his teeth in anger.

"Minwoo, will you have and hold Clarice?"

The queen had started calling him Minwoo instead of the hero. But Minwoo didn't notice this and only defiantly replied back.

"Yes."
"Ho, and will you love and cherish her for the rest of your days?"

Love? Cherish?? Rest of your days???

That was out of left field but he wasn't in a place to be questioning this so he confidently answered.

"That's what I was hoping for."

He said as if to resolve himself.

"I will have, hold and cherish her for the rest of my life."

Snap!

"Attaboy."

The queen closed her fan cheerfully. Amazingly, her lips had curved into a smile. At the same time, her frigid demeanor had vanished and was replaced with warmth. Her abrupt change and her next words threw Minwoo into chaos.

"Please take good care of Clarice from now on. Son-in-law."

Minwoo raised a bunch of question marks.

"Son-in-law?"

The king clapped his hands and cheered.

"That's my queen. As expected, only you!"
"Naturally. Isn't having the back of her husband a wife's duty?"

The queen smiled like a young girl and played cute for her husband. What on earth just happened… Then Senyun's narrowed eyes opened and she yelled at Minwoo.

"You, you idiot!"

"Hero-nim…"

Clarice's face turned bright red as she whispered.

"Um, what you said just now was…."

Her embarra.s.sed whispers were drowned out by the voices of the nearby advisors.

"Oh my. To think he'd confess that pa.s.sionately."

"So she's really getting engaged to the hero."
"Hwaaaaa hero-nim's spirit so amaziiiiiiinnng"

All words that he couldn't understand. To the confused Minwoo, the queen smiled like a mother and asked.

"Son-in-law. When should we hold the wedding?"
"Wedding?!"

Minwoo asked, horrified.

"As a man, what else could it mean when you tell a marriageable woman that you'll have, hold and cherish her for the rest of your life?"

Then the queen's eyes harshly narrowed.

"Or was it a lie?"
"…….."

Minwoo blanched. The words that he'd so pa.s.sionately yelled were ringing around his head. Now he realised just what kind of show he had put on, that 'again' he had been fooled like an idiot, he finally realised.

The queen had been one with the king from the very beginning.

In hindsight it was odd. The queen putting Clarice down, her mannerisms as if she was taunting him, declaring imprisonment as a queen, not even as the king, the presence of advisors that practically begged to scream everything to the high heavens despite doing hosting this fracas to keep this incident in secret, all of it that he'd ignored due to his losing his temper-

'Curiosity killed the cat.'

d.a.m.n it. He'd been baited.

Author's Note

Surprise, another chapter! And the queen's shooting a historical drama on her own;;
I'm going on a trip with my friends for a couple of days so have another chapter!

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TLN: Do you ever know what you're going to catch when you toss out your fishing line? The queen just tossed out bait and the hero just took it hook line and sinker.

To clarify: by the looks of things, Minwoo does have some semblance of (reciprocated) feelings for Clarice, but was baited into the 'trap' known as an 'engagement' by the queen and king, most likely much sooner and unexpectedly than either of them would have wanted. Plus, there are now witnesses to what was effectively a wedding vow, so no backing out now~ And it wasn't like Clarice said 'no,' either, did she~

Also, this is the last chapter in my pre-translated reserves. Releases will be fairly erratic from now on. But always remember: translators, like authors, love likes and comments. (Preferably comments tho)

(1) Panting SFX
(2) In raws, it was '가라사대' which is, effectively, an INSANELY formal way to say 'said.' Any suggestions?