The Main Character is the Villain Chapter 149: Mermaid Bride (3)

"Blindly suspecting everyone isn't good."

Elsi said, clutching the Church of Love necklace. This was because the Church of Love's image was quite good in the Eastern Plains Region. Even within the Marimba Tribe to which Elsi belonged, many children had left, saying they would help the Church of Love and save their other comrades. Elsi pressed on.

"It doesn't make sense for the Church of Love to be strange. It's been quite a while since the Church of Love appeared, so how could they hide it for so long? If the Church of Love also subjected people to a slave life, it's only normal that they would have been found out by now."

Even in the heavily guarded slave markets, beastfolk would escape whenever they saw an opening. Their physical ability was that difficult for ordinary humans to handle. Slave rchants would even resort to all sorts of thods like torture and threats to break the beastfolks' spirits.

Eve frowned. Ann, seeing Elsi's murderous expression, darted her eyes around and spoke.

"Ah, no. I'm not saying the entire Church of Love is like that. That's right! They could be people impersonating the Church of Love, couldn't they? Anyone could make a necklace like this, and they could be mages trying to use the Church of Love's na to do bad things to !"

That was also a possibility. Elsi said.

"I knew it."

"Do you believe in the Church of Love too?"

Eve asked. Elsi shook her head.

"The Church of Love was prohibited from entering the territory I lived in, so I've only heard its na. When I was in the plains region, I saw them often, and they even talked about joining forces to rescue the children who were taken as prisoners."

"To whom? To you?"

"No. To our chieftain. As for how the chieftain decided, I was captured not long after that conversation, so I don't know."

Elsi explained. Eve frowned. The more she heard the story, the more suspicious it sounded. Cooperating with beastfolk to liberate slaves? Eve asked again.

"Hey, you said you were from a slave market."

"That's right."

"Then why didn't they attack that place? I read the papers regularly, you know? I've never heard any stories about a slave market being attacked."

"The slave market is legal, isn't it? If they touched it, they wouldn't be able to exist as a religious group, so attacking the slave market itself doesn't make sense. They probably attacked and captured slave hunters. For that kind of thing, they just need to shut the hunters' mouths."

Cellu countered Eve's words. Eve nodded. But it still felt unsettling. It was because the na 'Church of Love' itself gave off a vaguely unpleasant feeling.

"Suspicious..."

"It's not good to be overly suspicious."

"You need to be a little more suspicious."

"Still, the Church of Love liberated many beastfolk in my hotown. A few of my tribe's friends also returned thanks to the Church of Love."

"Returned thanks to the Church of Love?"

Eve beca interested in those words. If they were really guys who went around freeing beastfolk in the Eastern Plains Region, they might unexpectedly be good guys. Of course, from the perspective of the humans who were in conflict with the beastfolk in the Eastern Plains Region, they were traitors unparalleled in the world.

But from the perspective of Eve and Cellu, who believed the world was better off the less the slavery system existed, the motto of the Church of Love itself wasn't so bad. As Eve showed interest in the Church of Love story, Elsi began her explanation again.

"That's right. They returned thanks to the Church of Love. Every child who ca back praised the Church of Love to no end, so there was no one in our tribe who didn't know about it. The chieftain also heard those praises and decided to et the leader of the Church of Love. I heard the leader of the Church of Love was originally a very high-ranking person."

"A very high-ranking person?"

"A very high-ranking person. He was a sothing of so religion... they said it was a very high position..."

"A high priest?"

Eve called out the most familiar official title she knew. Elsi nodded at her words and said.

"That's right! A high priest! They said he was a high-ranking person among the high priests! rmaid. You know a lot."

Eve sotis found this kind of reaction from Elsi frustrating and annoying. Frowning slightly, Eve spoke.

"Hey, fuck, our husband is a high priest too. What's so smart about that, huh?"

"A cleric. Do you call them high priests? Then is a cleric the leader of the Church of Love?"

"No."

"I see. Anyway, she said he was a high priest of so religion."

"What is this? An Archdeity Church high priest is running the Church of Love?"

Eve was lost in thought. No matter how much she thought about it, she couldn't get a feel for this religious organization called the Church of Love. Everything they did was shady, but when she tried to object, there was nothing to object to. Eve pointed at Ann and said.

"For now, you. Let's wait until our husband gets here. I think we need to talk with him about this Church of Love business."

"Right, you an 'our' husband?"

Ann didn't miss Eve's slip of the tongue and asked. Eve scratched her head and reacted irritably.

"No, fuck, 'my' husband. Got it? Huh? I said my husband! Huh?"

"Ah, I'll be in your care, First Wife. I'll do my best as the second wife, so..."

"Why are you the second wife? There's already a second wife, so forget it."

"Ah, then... is Lady Cellu the second wife?"

"I'm the mother-in-law."

Cellu said, shaking her head. This ti, Ann looked at Elsi and asked.

"Ah, then is this beastfolk lady? My husband has a wide range of tastes."

At those words, Elsi scratched her cheek, swished her tail, and then hung her head low. Eve saw this, snorted in derision, and said to Ann.

"No, she's just a human."

"Ah..."

Ann nodded, a slightly disappointed expression on her face at the word 'human'. Eve didn't like that expression and pressed her again.

"Hey. What the hell are you disappointed about? Let's hear the reason."

"No, just... because his taste is more ordinary than I thought."

"...Isn't that a good thing?"

"But! Having a unique taste makes it feel so much more like he's my fated partner! You know? A sexual desire that's only aroused by scaly bodies! A sexual desire for won with no legs! I naturally thought he'd be that kind of person!"

"What nonsense, fuck. Don't make my husband out to be a sexual deviant."

"But it's true."

"It is."

Ann and Cellu nodded at the sa ti. Eve was about to refute it imdiately, but she couldn't find the words. He'd fucked a woman who changed from a man, an elf, a rmaid, and a beastfolk, so if that wasn't a sexual deviant, then what the hell was he? Eve clutched her head and muttered.

"...Fuck. I should be refuting this, but I have nothing to say."

"Normally, people don't fuck rmaids or beastfolk. Heh."

"No, Mom, if you say things like that, what does that make us?"

"Heuk."

As if angered, Eve grabbed Cellu's cheeks and shook them. Shaken back and forth by Eve's hand, Cellu let out a moaning sound and grabbed Eve's hand. Ann carefully tried to stop Eve.

Eve pinched Cellu's cheeks hard before speaking to the rest of the group.

"Anyway, since there's this Church of Love issue, let's wait until my husband gets here for now. You. Don't go around calling my hus... no, my husband, 'husband' or whatever. Got it?"

"Then where should I stay?"

"You can stay in the swimming pool with my mom."

Cellu grinned. Ann looked at Cellu with a very uncomfortable expression. Cellu patted Ann's shoulder and asked.

"Why. You don't want to be with ?"

"N-No! Lady Cellu! Of course, I'd love to be with you, Lady Cellu... hahaha..."

Cellu poked the cheeks of a cold-sweating Ann. Then she asked Eve.

"So when is he coming?"

"Well. If we assu the ball is over now, maybe he'll co in about a week."

"A-A week?"

Ann looked a little surprised at the ntion of a week. The idea of having to live with her leader for a week seed to be too much of a burden for her. Eve said.

"Sorry, but it's either there or the bathtub in the bathroom. Even so, it's a bit much for to give you the bathtub my husband uses as your living space, don't you think? Or do you want to stay in the public bath for the employees here?"

"I-I'll just stay with Lady Cellu. I like Lady Cellu! Right? I like you a lot, Lady Cellu, right?"

Ann forced a cutesy charm and clung to Cellu with a smack. Cellu gently pushed Ann away and said.

"Yes. Yes, yes."

The rain was letting up. Eve went back up to her office and started working. Ann's presence didn't change the daily life of the mansion. It was just that they had one more extra mouth to feed. Because Ann stayed so quiet and was escorted on a rainy day when people weren't out and about, almost no additional rumors spread.

Ann asked Eve every day when Lusius would arrive. Eve gave noncommittal answers, but she too was growing anxious at his unexpectedly late return ho. She had beco much more accustod to her duties as a lord, but there were still various duties piling up that she couldn't handle on her own.

For instance, there were issues like tax calculation and territory budget allocation. These were problems that could only be solved with Sieri present. This was because Lusius had ordered that Aira couldn't handle the budget duties by herself. Eve couldn't understand why Aira couldn't handle the budget issues alone, but since they were Lusius's words, she followed them for the ti being.

Ann did her hair every day and waited for Lusius. She chattered away next to Cellu, talking about how wonderful Lusius was and how well he had treated her. For the first day or two, Cellu would listen with a decent smile, but her expression progressively soured, and in a few days, her face had beco slightly gaunt.

"So, about how wonderful my husband is. I was a really penniless rmaid, you see? I didn't have a single coin, and you don't even know what talents I have, right? But, to save , my husband appeared in the middle of the arena, thwack! and said this, you know?"

"He said, 'Stop!', right?"

"Yes, yes! After saying 'Stop!', he..."

"Did he say he'd pay your ransom?"

"Yes! Yes! He paid my ransom and set free! Isn't that amazing just by itself? He proposed to by buying !"

"Heh, if I hear that story one more ti, it'll be the 34th ti."

"Really? Have I already talked about it that much? Oh my, how did I not know? That I've talked about my husband so much. Lady Cellu. Then, the first ti my husband and I were in the alley... Aya! It hurts! It huuurts! Ayayaya!"

Finally unable to take it anymore, Cellu started pinching Ann's cheeks.

"Ayayayaya! Ith huth! Ith weally huth!!"

Ann's screams echoed high into the sky. anwhile, sowhere on the continent, a carriage carrying Lusius and Sieri was approaching the territory.