Ludger looked up at the sky for a moment.
Blue above. Good weather. Stable road. A few drifting clouds. All of it considerably less troublesome than the conversation.
Then he said, “Good question.”
That answer was honest. Because the truth was that he had never spent much time thinking about it.
He had thought about guild structure. Trade leverage. Team growth. Defensive layouts. Class progression. Resource bottlenecks. Political risk. The effects of different magic types against different enemies. The viability of branch expansion. Even whether a monster’s strange dying behavior might imply a hidden path to another world behind a guardian chamber.
He had not thought very much about girls. Or his type. That probably said something unfortunate about the shape of his life, but Ludger was not especially bothered by it. He was too busy. In his previous life, any girl that was nice to him felt like his type.
Beside him, Arslan made a low sound that was half amusement and half disbelief.
“That’s not a good sign.”
“It’s not a bad one either.”
Arslan chuckled softly and leaned back against the seat, clearly deciding he could work with this conversation for a while longer. Ludger, meanwhile, already regretted giving him the opening.
Arslan rested his head back against the seat and said, far too confidently, “If you don’t find one sooner, your mother will.”
Ludger looked at him with immediate suspicion. Arslan went on as if he had not just said something deeply troubling.
“We aren’t nobles, sure, but that won’t matter much. She shouldn’t have a hard time finding suitors for the vice guildmaster of Lionsguard.”
That sounded exactly like the sort of thing Elaine might do while smiling pleasantly enough to make escape impossible.
Ludger’s expression flattened. He could already imagine it.
Not because he thought it was likely to happen tomorrow. But because if Elaine ever decided something counted as “for his own good,” then the world around her had a bad habit of reorganizing itself very quickly.
Unfortunately, Arslan was not done. In fact, he looked like he was just getting started.
“I recommend you test all the types until you find yours.”
Ludger frowned. There it was.
His father had somehow managed to say that with the same tone a man might use when giving advice about food stalls at a festival. Like girls were just different flavors of ice cream and the important thing was trying enough of them before settling on a favorite.
Ludger stared at him in complete silence for a moment. The more things changed, the more they stayed the same.
Arslan had matured. That much was true. He had become more responsible. More dependable. More worthy of being called a guildmaster, a husband, and a father. Ludger knew that. He respected that.
And yet, somehow, buried under all that growth, there was still the same hopelessly shallow instinct waiting to surface whenever the conversation turned in this direction.
Remarkable. Truly remarkable.
Ludger finally said, “That is one of the worst pieces of advice I’ve heard in a while.”
Arslan looked offended.
“It’s practical advice.”
“It is not.”
“It is.”
“It’s the sort of logic used by men who die early and deserve it.”
That made Arslan snort.
“You’re too harsh.”
“I’m accurate.”
Arslan folded his arms and looked out at the road for a second before glancing back again, still clearly unconvinced.
“You can’t figure out your preferences without experience.”
Ludger’s eyes narrowed slightly.
“My preferences currently include not becoming a problem for my mother.”
Arslan laughed at that, which was irritating because it suggested he understood the point and simply refused to let it save him. Ludger looked out at the passing road and decided, not for the first time, that his father’s continued survival was proof that the world often tolerated levels of foolishness it should have crushed on principle.
Ludger looked out at the road and let the conversation fade for a moment, though unfortunately not far enough.
This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.
Because the more he thought about it, the more he had to admit something unpleasant. This was a scary world. Not because of labyrinths. Not because of monsters, wars, politics, noble schemes, or all the other things that regularly tried to make life inconvenient.
No.
This was a different kind of threat. Arranged marriages were common here. Not just among nobles either.
Even ordinary families did it. Merchants did it. Guild families did it. Anyone with enough sense to think in terms of stability, alliances, labor, bloodlines, or future security considered it normal. Having children before turning twenty was not some unusual thing people whispered about.
It was the norm. Not the exception. In that sense, the world really did resemble the Middle Ages from Earth more than he liked to admit. Ludger sighed. He truly had not expected that after being reborn, he would one day have to seriously consider this kind of thing.
Magic? Fine. Labyrinths? Annoying, but manageable. Political manipulation? Expected. Building a guild, stabilizing a frontier, and beating old monsters to death? Difficult, but straightforward. Marriage prospects?
That felt far more sinister than it should have. Indeed, a scary world.
And what made it worse was that, for someone as methodical as he was, this seemed to be the only aspect of his life he had left almost entirely to chance.
He planned battles. He planned roads. He planned trade routes, product lines, team composition, resource extraction, and political fallout. But this? Nothing. No framework.
No clear decision. No category. No strategy beyond hoping the problem would stay politely far away while he handled more important matters. That was unlike him. Deeply unlike him. Which probably meant his father’s nonsense had managed to hit something inconveniently close to the truth.
Ludger disliked that possibility enough to frown at the road ahead. Beside him, Arslan noticed the expression and smiled a little too knowingly for someone who should have been keeping quiet.
Ludger ignored him on principle. Still, the thought remained. For all the things he controlled, calculated, or forced into shape through sheer stubborn effort, this one part of life had been left untouched, not because it lacked importance, but because he had simply not wanted to deal with it.
That was dangerous. Not immediately. But eventually, yes. Because in a world like this, leaving such matters to chance was often just another way of letting someone else decide them for you.
They got back home the next day.
Not because the trip itself had required that much time, but because Arslan had suggested they spend a night camping on the way back. Supposedly to “enjoy the road a little.”
In practice, it had mostly given him more time to keep talking about girls. Ludger had said very little during most of that. Not because he lacked responses.
Mostly because Arslan was digging his own grave so efficiently that there was no need to interrupt the process. Every extra opinion his father offered on romance, preferences, and women in general was another log added neatly to the pyre Elaine would eventually light if she ever heard the full conversation.
Ludger had simply let him continue.
Once they arrived home, the familiar sight of the estate settled some of the lingering irritation in his mood. The road dust, the long return, the endless nonsense from Arslan, it all felt more tolerable the moment he stepped back onto ground that actually belonged to them.
He decided to take a short break at the house before heading anywhere else.
That was when he saw the twins sparring in the yard with wooden swords. For a moment, Ludger just stood there and watched.
They were still small, obviously, and their stances were rough in the way children’s stances always were, but there was real effort in it. Real focus too. They were not wildly swinging at each other for fun. They were actually trying to apply what had been shown to them, stepping in and out, correcting their balance, striking, retreating, then trying again.
For a change, they did not run over to hug him the instant they noticed he was back. In fact, they more or less ignored him. That alone was enough to make Ludger raise an eyebrow.
Apparently the training session mattered more than greeting him right away, because both of them stayed focused until they finished properly instead of breaking form halfway through.
That was... good, actually. Disciplined. Surprising, but good.
Unfortunately, Silva had no such discipline.
The direwolf spotted him almost immediately and charged over with the same shameless enthusiasm as always. A second later, Ludger was knocked back and forced to brace himself as Silva shoved him down and began licking his face with complete disregard for dignity, authority, or personal space.
Ludger frowned under the assault of affection and fur.
The direwolf, clearly, had no intention of changing.
Nearby, the twins finally stopped and looked over, and Arslan stepped in long enough to correct a few parts of their form, adjusting grip, angle, and foot placement with the natural ease of someone who had done this countless times before. Once that was done, he straightened up and said he was heading back out to return the runic carriage to the guild.
Ludger let him go without comment. Eventually, the door to the house opened, and Elaine stepped outside.
The moment she saw Ludger, her expression softened in that subtle way hers sometimes did, the one that made it obvious he was welcome home long before she said a word.
“Welcome back,” she said.
Ludger gave a small nod.
Elaine came a little closer and asked, “How was the trip?”
Ludger thought about the road, the negotiations, the labyrinth, the guardian, the drinking, his father’s endless commentary, and the rest of the nonsense packed into the last several days.
Then he said, “It was all right.”
Elaine watched him for a beat.
“A bit tiresome,” Ludger added, “but all right.”
That made the corner of her mouth twitch slightly, as if she suspected that answer had buried a mountain under a blanket. And, as usual, she was probably right.
Elaine clearly wanted more details.
Ludger could tell from the way her eyes lingered on him, calm but attentive, the kind of look that said she already knew his “all right” covered far more than it revealed. Still, she did not press immediately.
She would hear the full story at the right time.
Instead, she said, “Amelia recalled something. Aronia is waiting for you.”
Ludger blinked once.
“Who?”
Elaine gave him a look.
“Amelia,” she said. “The dryad girl you rescued last month.”
That made him raise his eyebrows slightly.
Right.
He had, in fact, forgotten to ask her name.
Mainly because at the time, the girl had been so terrified of him that introducing herself had seemed very low on the list of priorities.
Ludger gave a small nod.
Then he pushed Silva away again as the direwolf tried to resume crowding him with shameless loyalty and zero restraint. Once he was finally free of fur, slobber, and excessive affection, he straightened and turned toward the road leading back to the guild.
Enough resting.
Enough wandering thoughts.
If Amelia had remembered something and Aronia was waiting, then this was the next step.
So Ludger headed for the guild to continue moving forward on his path.