True Prologue - Predesignated Mariage

Week 15 post Fait Accompli
Erisen, Remia's Mansion Bridechamber

One boy and one girl are together in this one room, as the maid Cloche serves a fruit dish that is large enough for both of them.

The girl, Kaori Shirasaki is a charming maiden in love. Though she is not of nobility or royal blood, she is a maiden of great beauty, enough to be hailed as a goddess by many, and drew upon the ire from the Greek goddesses of eld. [1]
She is so beautiful, in fact, that if she were arranged to be married into royalty, she would bring a huge boost in morale to the kingdom with her presence alone. In a way, she seemed to be the reincarnation of the most beautiful Divine Princess [2] to-be in this world.

And sitting right in front of her was her charming prince. However he was not of royalty or noble blood, neither is he a handsome or gallant knight of Diarmuid's [3] renown. He was not the beast to Kaori's beauty either, as he was just an ordinary boy who happened to accidentally stole her love at first sight. It is precisely because of this however, why many certainly would regard him as such, not to mention the several occasions where they had known each other together.

"Nee, Hajime-kun. Can you spoonfeed me?"
"You're surprisingly spoiled, aren't you? Okay. Aaaahn."

The boy is Hajime Nagumo, the boy who had charmed her two years in a fateful encounter. Though that fateful encounter was the one that the boy had forgotten until the next, Shirasaki did nevertheless pursued him with unyielding persistence for the past two years. And in the short two weeks after being spirited away to the realm of Tortus, their relationships have bloomed at breakneck speed. In just one week, they've already went to B after a confession, and in the next... well... they've already at stage C and beyond [4].

After Hajime spoonfeed her, Kaori proceeded to does the same to him in return, using the exact same spoon. Though in all fairness, there is only one spoon to begin with, and Kaori insisted on sharing it with him now that they're betrothed.

"Now that we've done that, it had felt like we had done an indirect kiss..."
"It's okay, isn't it? We had shared much more than this. Especially our first night... Ufufu."
"I suppose. Though I would appreciate it if you don't phrase it this way in front of others..."

The couple are already lovers set to be joined in a holy matrimony for quite some time, if four month counts as that. Though for Hajime, it was somewhat of a forceful one. Especially because of the love affair that had plunged them down to this staged elopement.

"There's a part of me who had wished to be just be the two of us for a little longer. But I don't regret it. The baby that is growing inside me is yours after all. Even now, I can't forget our passionate first night together turned me into the mother of our beloved child."

She spoken that statement as she put her hand right at her womb.

Though Kaori had referred to her unborn child with utmost warmth of maternal affection, that child had been conceived out of wedlock. And the love affair that started it all was when Kaori had decided to drink one of Jasmine's finest aphrodisiac during the night before Great Orcus Labyrinth's expedition, and Kaori had interpreted his premature ejaculation as his desire to breed with her, considering how shy he had been with her until then. In a way, it was his accidental proposal to Kaori, which she would never allow him to recant.

And that irrevocable fait accompli is the reason for the hastily patched matrimony to come, for Kaori is now pregnant with Hajime's child within her, conceived together in a stroke of accidental pregnancy from their very first night together (albeit a drugged one). Though, since it had been three months and three weeks since the conception, the bump wasn't very noticeable right now.

"That is precisely why you're such a troublesome lover. I ended up getting beaten half to death by Kouki and the others when they found out about our affair. You had been causing me heaps of trouble way back in Japan and had swore not to force my right to love during the theatrical confession [5], only to went ahead and unilaterally decided to ravish me. You're quite a dangerous yandere, aren't you?"

"Ugh... Th-that was just the one time I had to act that way to keep you safe. Besides, it was your fault for making me want to bear your child."

He wanted to retort by saying it was her fault for drinking that absurdly potent aphrodisiac that he was unable to escape from, but knowing just how dangerous it would be to displease her, as Hiyama would attest as she had brutally cut him down and rejected him in the harshest manner possible, he had decided to keep his words to himself.

And by keeping him safe, she had meant to imprison him until they managed to find a way back to Japan. Of course, that imprisonment was thwarted by Shizuku and their sensei Aiko Hatayama who had the master key almost immediately.

"Besides, I had a feeling that, if you went into the Orcus dungeon on that day, you would go into someplace you'll never return from [6]. Raising a new life is a small price to pay if it would keep you safe."

What angel compelled her to do all of those things was not known to him until later, but it had been something such as his destined lover wasn't Kaori and she wanted to be with him for a while longer. Whether the reason was justifiable was up for debate, but the truth remains that all of this had led to an irrevocable fait accompli.

"You say that now, but with a children in tow, the path of life from here onward would simply get much harder, wouldn't it?"

"Indeed it would. But we are not alone in this matrimony. There are plenty of people supporting us. Jasmine, Saffron, Remia, Shizuku and even Liliana expressed their support for us. And we're pretty strong ourselves too."

Indeed, for all of the trouble they went through, they were far from helpless. Kaori herself was already a black-ranked adventurer, while Hajime attained the same rank due to his connections to hero's party and Kaori, much to his chagrin as he was weaker than most adventurers of irs rank.

Though she is pregnant, Kaori was far from helpless in battle. In fact, she is now actually much stronger than ever before, both physically and mentally. She is currently at Level 60, though since her stats had already been at cheat-level, her magical aptitude is already stronger than most of the priests back in Holy Church. Combined with her mastery of her rapier that enables her to cast two spells in one chant, she is exceedingly agile priestess in both melee and magical combat [7] who had bested even Kouki in a trial combat. Short of a duel against the best fighters from Hoelscher or the demonkind, she is virtually unmatched in combat. Of course, that'll change further down the line as her swelling belly takes a toll upon her, but she's undoubtedly a strong combatant until then.

As for Hajime, he's still the same old and weak Synergist as he had always been, though not for the lack of trying, as he had learnt to make improvised sticks and (mostly) traps to make up for his incredibly low stats. Kaori had insisted on keeping him in the backline while she acts as his vanguard despite being pregnant, as she insisted to protect him for as long as she could.

"You still had lingering affection for Jasmine [8], don't you?"
"N-Not really. Besides, Hiyama-san is currently courting her. Though I doubt he'll stood a chance, considering all her complaints over him being a spoiled brat and all."
"Not to mention that she had threatened to defame me if I leave you all alone."

If Shizuku was a last boss, then Jasmine would be the bonus boss on par with Tyrant Overlord Baal[9]. Due to her long career in matchmaking, she had built up a sizable network of people. Though she is very forgiving to a fault, it make her all the more scarier when she collects the deeds from those who didn't held their end of their bargain.

"Well, it's not like I have any other choice but to go along with this wedding. Shizuku and others would kill me a thousand times over if I don't. And it's not like I can just leave you all alone."

"Thank you, for staying with me after all the trouble I had forced upon you. Then I'll be relying on you form this day onward too. Daddy."

The child was conceived out of wedlock, but the couple are planning to rectify that. Or rather, Jasmine had forced them to. There's a saying that some brides brought their first child faster than the rest. When counting from their date of marriage, that is. It was a hastily-patched matrimony, but Jasmine was so adamant to keep them bound to that matrimony for at least half a decade that her acquaintances noted that she was never been that furious before.

It was such a huge uproar that the whole expedition to the Great Orcus Labyrinth was cancelled over this incident. Though it was not because Kaori's pregnancy was unveiled at that time.

Rather, it was because Kaori had ran away from Horaud with Hajime in tow on top of a white horse by somehow convincing them that Hajime had fallen ill with a rather flimsy excuse. She had rode her way all the way back to the capital and kept him imprisoned in his personal guestroom until Jasmine called her out for the imprisonment, though she eventually agreed to enforce the shotgun marriage upon Kaori's insistence to give birth to this child (because it was Hajime's) and refused to gave it away for adoption. It was such an epic elopement that the tale had been the talk of the Heiligh Kingdom for quite some time.

And thus was the tale of how Hajime got dragged into Kaori's elopement to Erisen. Truth be told he had considered setting himself off to a journey had things didn't get any headway, but fate has other plans... and decided to string him up with the girl who was so hopelessly in love with him.

And Kaori wasn't the only women he had to deal with, since the house lady was quite a teaser to the newlyweds. Though at least the maid Cloche was wise enough to stay away from Kaori and the girls she argue with whenever she gets moody.

"Papa. Let's play with Myu."

Even in this timeline, Hajime was still Myu's father, albeit for a different reason.
The reason being, Jasmine had arranged for the couple to reside in Myu and Remia's house in Erisen as part of her newlywed family training session. That being said, that was only half the reason, as Jasmine wanted to gave the couple an aid in childrearing, as well as testing the fortitude of their hastily patched matrimony. It was also a way of getting back at Remia for suggesting that Saffron was really her husband in a homosexual relationship.

At least Kaori didn't have to deal with that rabbit girl under the sakura tree[10] yet though. Had Hajime discovered her, she would've likely had to contend with an even more audacious rival than Remia. Rabbit girls are among the biggest fetishes among the otakus like her beloved Hajime, so if he ever encountered that girl, she would have an uphill battle even with the obligatory betrothal.

"Then I can marry Papa when I grew up, right?"
"No way, Hajime-kun has already promised to marry me. A man can only take only one wife, and no more."
"You said that, but Papa was given the right to choose his family when he was granted the right of cohabitation. Yours or mine or both, we are all family to Hajime-kun. Though I cannot agree to giving Myu to Papa, I can offer my hand of marriage in her stead if he wish to stay as her father forever."

Myu, as if she had finally getting the hint, said innocently:

"I want to eat Oyakodon together with Papa and Mama" [11]
"Myuu, where in the world did you heard of this dish?"

The moment Myu said that, the table shook with a thud as Hajime's head felled at the table.

It was a donburi where chicken and egg are among the ingredients that had been simmered together into a soup and then served on top of a rice bowl. Incidentally, Saffron had fed her with precisely this as her first dish after her rescue and suggested to share it when Remia got remarried to her new father. Combined with his rather clingy fiancee in elopement, he's got a rather precarious scale to keep in balance.

And like this, the difficult life of Hajime's family continues.

Prologue End

Afterwords

Hi, It's Nachthimmel here.

It's been a while since I've written a fanfic, and I've gotten a much more solid inspiration this time. I had known about Arifureta some time ago when someone offhandedly remarked that Arifureta's author had specifically chosen Takayaki to illustrate his light novel artworks, but it wasn't until last year that I had the time to spare to read this light novel and found out that Kaori-chan had to put a lot more effort than most girls illustrated by Takayaki to get her beloved person, so I decided that she deserved her own route, complete with her own H-scenes (which I regrettably cannot publish in this website). And now that I have more source material to draw my inspiration from, I have already gotten the core plot mostly figured out.

Sadly, even though I'm pretty good at English since I used it on regular basis in Internet, I still had to struggle to find the words and motivations to write all the little details down. I also had to work for a living too, and writing fanfics that is heavily intertwined with original source material only pays in satisfaction, so I'm not exactly motivated to complete this fanfic in a hurry either. And even though I'm a hikiNEET right now, I still weren't able to maintain a steady sleep schedule due to all the games I indulged in. Living in Information Age certainly is a curse in that regard. That being said, I'm looking forward to further work on this fanfic soon, though that'll likely to be years down the road.

Glossary/Additional Notes

1. The Greek goddesses are notorious for punishing maidens who challenged their divine beauty. Just look up Helen, Psyche and Princess Andromeda to see how well that ends.

2. Divine Priestesses are the direct recipients of Ehitorujue's revelations, and are highly influential figure within the Holy Church in Tortus. One of the most beautiful one was a vampire princess from over 300 years ago.

3. Diarmuid Ua Duibhne had a love spot that had enchanted Gráinne, the fiance of his leader Fionn mac Cumhaill, and was forced to elope together with her by her geis. The Fionn in Kaori's case is Kouki Amanogawa, her childhood friend. Except that they were never betrothed, among other things...

4. There is the ABC step of relationship. A is kiss. B is fondling. C is sex. B's meaning varies, but A and C are pretty much the same to any version. They certainly grew up... fast.

5. The theretical confession happened in Heiligh Kingdom's royal palace. Originally, she was content with Hajime taking his sweet time to muster his courage to accept her, but...

6. She had somehow known about the canonical events that had caused Hajime to fell into the abyss and met Yue within its depths, and so decided to renege on her promise.

7. Kaori's combat skills are supplanted with Red Mage's skillsets in Final Fantasy XIV, as well as Asuna Yuuki's combat skills from Sword Art Online, reflecting her more assertive role in this fanfic.

8. Jasmine is an original character to this fanfiction, and a supporting character with playing the fairy godmother role to pair Kaori with Hajime before the Orcus Expedition. Though it seems she was a little too good at the job...

9. A recurring superboss in Disgaea series. It's often one of the most powerful boss too.

10. That rabbit girl in question was Shea Haulia, daughter of the chieftain of the Haulia Tribe. She's the type of girl who pre-Orcus Hajime would like to have, and had been featured in the final phase of the Trial of the Roses that she undertook to win Hajime's heart.

11. Oyakodon usually refers to a rice dish with chicken and egg, but it's also slang for sleeping with a mother and her daughter.