Chapter 5 - Volume 1 (1/2)

Finishing our luxurious, but moderate meal for dinner, the adults began drinking liquor. My father has been in high spirits since the events this afternoon.(1)

Father is the type of person who normally doesn’t drink alcohol at home, though I would say he doesn’t like drinking it too much either, but well – there are probably those times you just feel like drinking.

Wanting to talk with Wolf a bit more, I decided to invite him to go to the mansion’s library and had him guide me there.

I had just the right topic I wanted to talk to him about.

—

Magical lights illuminated the library at night.

For a place that was highly flammable, magical lights were the best. There weren’t any worries of anything catching fire, and it could be sustained for a long period of time without oil. Furthermore, since it was unlike the unstable flickering flames, it was easier for me to follow the words in a book with my eyes.

Although it is a high-class item, it is a frequently used light fixture. Light is produced by exposing a palm sized orb inside the glass container to morning sunlight. During the night, this light is constantly used. It was simple to imagine it as rechargeable solar power.

The only problem with it is that unlike an electric light, you can’t turn it off with a switch. Since we lacked that flexibility, we would turn off the lights by covering them with thick blackout-like cloths.

Under those magical lights, we talked about each of our recommended books. Having said that, we actually did as we pleased – straying off to any topic that sparked our interest.

Although our freewheeling discussion was senseless, and any adult who listens in might call it nonsense, it was fun for me. Perhaps, it was fun for Wolf as well.

—

No one would have found fault with it, but somehow, we were both speaking softly. This excusable『night activity』of a child probably wouldn’t do any harm.

But for children like us, once the adults find out, they would try to put an end to it. If the adults noticed that we were doing something in the middle of the night, we would be told『children should go to sleep』, and then they would take away that precious time.

Those whispered conversations were soon cut short. At that moment, I directed the discussion to an important topic.

「Hey, Wolf… About our engagement…」

Caught off guard from my sudden words, Wolf could only respond 「Eh?!」while raising his voice.

「It’s about the engagement our fathers were talking about. It’ll be problematic in a lot of ways – I’m not sure if our fathers are serious about it, but in any case, I want to clearly declare my intentions」

Since I thought that I had built a fairly good relationship with Wolf, I wanted to be as open as I could with him.

When the part of『problematic in a lot of ways』was said, Wolf demanded to know what it was about.

My engagement with Wolf was, in truth, a slightly dangerous gamble for the Dukedom of Lilia. In the carriage, I hurled the question to my father and found out about his speculation.

That question was of course, whether it was right to get the Duke of Lilia’s only daughter – me – to marry into the other family.

Even though I couldn’t inherit my father’s court rank, my relatives could choose a husband for me – meaning to say, it would likely be a safer option.

Not accepting that reasoning, my father said『a capable person that could make such a judgment doesn’t exist』.

And then, my father asked whether he could use my youth as a gamble. Hoping for me to marry Wolf – the current minister’s son who had a good family, wit and his approval(2) – my father considered having the child of that matrimony, that is, his grandson, to inherit the title of Duke of Lilia.

In other words, I would have to have at least two children to succeed both lines of the Dukedom of Lilia and the Dukedom of Ranuncula; furthermore, he was betting on the possibility that I would be able to give birth to two sons.’

By announcing my engagement with Wolf, the number of people knowing about my father’s speculation would increase. Not only would there be opposition if two of the powerful families within the five Dukedoms were to bind together through this marriage, but even within my own family – my relatives would think that their own sons would be more appropriate as the next Duke of Lilia.

Personally, I also don’t feel satisfied with this explanation. After all, this isn’t my will.

But even so, I was grateful that my father explained the various circumstances to me. That was my father’s sincerity to me, and I must show that same sincerity to him. Meaning that, at the very least, I needed to oppose my father head on, in order for me to convince him.

Initially, Wolf’s personality would be difficult, thus, I prepared this evidence as a reason, but…

「Why don’t we cooperate?」

「Cooperate?」

「Yes. Because this talk about engagement, frankly speaking, you oppose it too, right?」

「…Eh?」

Was he aware that he’s only been either repeating my words or pronouncing the syllable「Eh」since a while ago?

「I mean – I understand there are various circumstances regarding the lineage and the duke’s title, but they completely ignored our feelings in this. We’re only children. We don’t know who we’ll meet in the future」

Or to be specific, once Wolf begins school at the age of twelve, he was destined to meet with the soft golden-haired, emerald-eyed young girl. However, they would only meet six years later — because it will happen at the peak of our school life, this will be a talk for a later time.

「That’s why, I don’t think we have to follow through our parent’s arrangement to marry. But if we just turned down this engagement, wouldn’t our families just bring forward new proposal arrangements?」

「…」

「Hear me out on this. All we have to do is stop pretending that we are both satisfied with an engagement; I want you to bear in mind that if you ever want to marry someone else, I am willing to help you」

‘So please don’t stab me to death, okay?’, is what I didn’t say.

With utmost sincerity, I brought up the talk about coping with our engagement and consider the conclusions.

Wolf was better than how I imagined him to be – no, he was originally imaginary to begin with – therefore, he was an exceptionally good human that could rationally comprehend the conversation and understand the compromise.

「And, how about you…?」