Ch 212
Kaldia’s Budding Spring – Part Eight
“Uuuh… Right, that’s it. Gunther, there’s something I wanted to ask you…”
With both hands around the now moving snow snake that had sprung from the bag, I decided to resume the conversation.
He would probably want to understand the bizarreness of the situation as soon as he could. Gunther responded in the positive, with a small ‘Sure’ and a nod. Wishing to avoid beating around the bush any further, I decided to cut straight to the point.
“Thing is, someone handed in a marriage certificate with your name and Nadje’s inside.”
“…What?”
At that moment, Gunther’s voice and tone had gone soft and low. I could see both Nadje and the village chief twitch back a bit as they restlessly peeked over to Gunther.
Just as I was about to warn him that it was best not to make expressions that dangerous, Rashiok’s head – its owner still fixated on the snow snake – grazed against my side, and my back became recipient to the thrashings of a rather long tail. It eased the atmosphere a bit, admittedly.
“… Yes, I thought this was more of a one-person ordeal, but I really can’t have falsified documents stamped with the seal of approval, can I? I had it looked in to.”
Gunther did not give a single response, and instead let the bag slung over his back ungraciously drop to the floor. A heavy silence took over the house. Gunther was giving off oddly intimidating vibes.
The space between his eyebrows wrinkled as he fell into a deep silence, and Nadje could only barely open and close her mouth, again and again.
“… Exactly what do you mean by ‘falsified’?”
“In the Kaldia area, it’s necessary for both the man and woman meant to marry to be willing. The very thing that shows that willingness is their combined signature. Nadje, on the other hand, doesn’t know about the certificate and is therefore unwilling. I mean that we have a document with a forged signature on our hands.”
“I see… Look here, boss… You think I could talk this over with Nadje for a little bit?”
Gunther was madly scratching away at his scalp, almost as if his head itself was in pain. The oppressing air dispersed, and the others let out a breath of relief.
Possibly due to the dissipation of tension, Rashiok’s head began shoving against me repeatedly and forcefully, almost as if to tell me that we’d done enough here. Nose pressing against the snake that drooped from the palm of my hand, the thrashing against my back became even more violent
This chapter upload first at NovelBin.Com