How to Get My Husband on My Side

In a strange and twisted way, it had actually been the merchants running the street stalls in Elendale that had actualized Cardinal Valentino’s plans. The distribution of mana stones throughout the entire capital of Britannia would not have been possible if it hadn’t been for the city’s most popular souvenir. Elendaleians loved selling artificial mana stones to foreigners visiting, and foreigners visiting loved having the experience of owning the famed magical artifact from a monster core, albeit a fake one.

Every shop in Elendale, whether it be a tailor shop, a mercer’s shop, a bakery, a butchery, a millinery, goldsmiths, blacksmiths, carpenters, or even a bookstore—all of them had small ceramic bowls filled with ersatz stones. It was an easy way to bring in copper coins for merchants, after all.

Real mana stones were only illegally available to the common people on the black market, the price of one stone tantamount to a royal treasury. The only institutions allowed to lawfully own mana stones were Temples, since those magical artifacts were exclusively produced in the Vatican. Even then, it was only a limited amount they were permitted to have, barely enough to turn the capital city of Britannia into ashes.

So it was no surprise that any native to Elendale seeing a small pebble rolling on cobblestone pavements would undoubtedly believe that it was just a fake trinket dropped by a tourist. Supplying the Elendaleian merchants with fake stones mixed with real ones had been too easy.

The plan was foolproof.

Pietro, having overseen the process of the distribution of the mana stones, architecting the chaos, and putting the plan into motion, was hiding near the Port of Elmos and waiting on his master.

He was a man that had never failed to perform a single command. He was loyal to a fault and never questioned the orders he was given. He followed and executed them meticulously and carefully, always heeding his master’s words and making sure to spare no effort.

So what followed next was, on all counts, completely unforeseen.

As soon as he had confirmed that the pandemonium had begun and arrived at the docks, a dragon with the color of the midnight sky blocked off the light of the moon as it flew past him, heading in the direction of the inner city.

The man was a bloodthirsty assassin and a monster himself, but never before had he seen a dragon, let alone so many different kinds of demons engaging in the slaughter of humans and ripping them apart. The few that existed in the southern countries were kept as entertainment for the elusive elite that partook in the highly sinful act of associating and colliding with devils. The majority of Southerners, be it commoners or nobles, would never encounter a monster in their entire lifetime.

Pietro’s master was a cardinal but not once had he believed in the existence of angels and demons, in the existence of God and the Devil.

All those he had fought during his time of living, had been human beings like himself.

The sight of the devil known to be Satan’s greatest servant soaring high through the heavens left him paralyzed, a strange shiver crawling up his spine and twisting around his neck like a noose. The vague realization of the existence of beings far superior, far greater than him had his blood run cold.

It was only for a moment, but he was unable to move a single inch. Not until the dragon vanished into the distance and not until he was unable to see the beast anymore. The sound of his heart pounding in his ears diminished and when he managed to wake from his stupor, he became angry with himself.

A dragon was a dragon, a mere beast that could die just like how any human could. What was there to be afraid of?

Shaking his head and arriving at the place he was supposed to rendezvous, he saw neither Cardinal Valentino nor the ship he had prepared for him in advance.

Did his master get caught? No, that was impossible.

Then, what was wrong? Where was he? Where was his sister? There was no way they hadn’t gotten out of the palace yet. It appeared to be that the dragon was also heading that way, so they had no time to dillydally.

But then, where was the ship? Had they already left?

Something ominous wormed up its way in his chest.

It looked like he had some more work to do and would be stuck in this annoying backwater of a city for a while longer. He had no choice, since he had to wait for his master’s orders in order to move.

However, the current situation was not in his favor.

There seemed to be no end to the monsters terrorizing Elendale and the Paladins running rampant looked too agitated to be confident. It didn’t seem like there would be many survivors in the end.

had received a rosary from his master imbued with protective divinity, but he wasn’t quite

was

be best to escape with

a move on, he searched his

“Where did Master go?”

couldn’t he find him anywhere? He had to have arrived at the docks already, but there were no signs of him. Pietro was tasked with protecting and defending his master, but the mob of terrified people going ballistic in this chaos made it too difficult to focus on finding

his teeth in frustration, the assassin emerged from the shadows of the tree he had been

his view came a

reminiscent of a crazed bear. Under short red hair, a set

man several times

of executioner rather than a Paladin. Scanning him from head to toe, Pietro

taking a deep breath to focus on the air around him, the assassin from the South pulled out

***

“Ivan!”

had no time to acknowledge his fellow knights as they arrived on

stone floor before

and fractured, the previously smooth ground now in smithereens. Dust and rocks and condensed

only concerned about one person. “You f**king b*st*rd! Hey, Izek! Are you

“Shut up.”

landed on a pile of crushed boulders and glanced his

to think of it, the white-haired captain of the Knights of Longinus should not

bit the inside of his cheek and

not kill it, but to incapacitate it. But holding oneself back in a fight against a damn dragon was

that was not what Izek was doing. The only way to subdue that big b*st*rd was to hit maximum levels and enter the zone, but it was not easy for Ivan to watch his friend, who had already exhausted all of his energy in the past few days, push himself to the absolute max in this

only Izek would stop being stubborn and give the permission

all of the Paladins present could enter the zone as well, they’d be able to subjugate the beast, consequences of pushing the physical limit be damned. The Frost Dragon would stand no

really, really did want to

to the zone, there’d be no one to pull the worst one of the bunch out of it. Izek fought like there was no tomorrow. His recklessness made Ivan

blond knight had half a mind to put an end to his friend’s resolve with his own two hands.

“Ivan! We gotta regroup!”

talking about?! We don’t know if reinforcements are coming, so go wild and just finish it already! Did you

truly take in the unexpected verbal abuse, purely because

out, slamming into all the walls surrounding it and

beast breathed ice and snow and the harsh winter wind razed through the air, knocking the knights back and slamming against

Tower was wholly encased

the holy shield before jumping into the air and landing on the

The man

wife said she wanted to stay alongside

still for a few seconds, maybe because of the man hammering its face with the pommel of his sword, shouting strange words that it didn’t understand, or maybe because the landing on its forehead