“A…a marriage interview? What in the world?!”
Just after supper, I was in my dad’s office, and the mistress, Zola Fia Bartfort, revealed her intent to marry me off. My dad sat in his usual chair, grimacing.
I gaped at the personal information sheet he’d just given me. It listed the details of my potential marriage partner, complete with a portrait of her.
“Zola prepared the engagement.” My dad looked uneasy as he glanced between the mistress and me. “The woman is an acquaintance of hers, looking for a new husband.”
Zola sipped at her tea, the highest quality our house stocked. “Hmmph. Cheap tea leaves simply don’t suit my taste,” she muttered.
“No.” I would not concede on this. “This is ridiculous!”
The woman in question was horrendous. According to the information sheet, she was the daughter of a baron in name only (she had no house to inherit), she had been married seven times now (a big red flag!), and she was over fifty. All of her children were older than me.
Zola slammed her cup down and pinned me with a glare. “She has always looked after me with utmost care and diligence. Furthermore, she’s a young lady of a noble family of the court, one that has faithfully served the crown for many years. What could you possibly be dissatisfied with?”
What could I possibly be dissatisfied with?! Maybe Zola really was a moron. Anyway, what part of fifty years old meant young lady?
“I haven’t even enrolled in the academy yet,” I argued, “so why is marriage even coming up?”
Nobles generally married right after they graduated. If anyone tried to get married during school—or forewent it altogether—they were seen as juvenile and immature. The only exceptions were political marriages or weddings that, for whatever reason, had to be sped up. Still, most people didn’t move past engagement until after graduation.
“I can accept enrolling a second son in the academy, but there’s no point in doing that for a third!” Zola hissed furiously. “Even if you stay here, you’d end up costing us money.”
I sneered at her.
“I feel bad it’s come to this,” my dad began apologetically, “but she’s right that our house is low on funds. Still, you could always marry after enrollment.” He sneaked a glance at her, but I knew she wouldn’t listen to him no matter what he said.
Zola leaned back in her seat. “I’m sure he wouldn’t get any notable work even if he did happen to graduate. It’s only right for you to marry for the sake of your family. You should be grateful I’ve set you up with a partner. I even worked it out so you’ll have a job in the military. You’d best put in some effort.”
That was when I realized…
She intends for me to die in battle.
A pension was paid out to the families of men who fell in combat. For commoners, that came in the form of a lump sum, but for nobles it went a bit different. They earned honors for defending their country, and their family received a yearly compensation. On her information sheet, Zola’s friend proudly listed all seven of her previous husbands as having died an Honorable Death in the Line of Duty.
This engagement was a setup for me to die in the military so she could earn more glory and keep up a steady flow of cash.
“No way,” I said. “I refuse.”
Zola slapped her hand on the table and stood. “Enough! A lowly brat like you has no right to mouth off to me! If you’re truly a man, work for your family!”
This from a woman who spent most of her days in a manor my dad had set up for her in the royal capital, complete with a hefty allowance. She hailed from one of the noble families that worked in the palace and didn’t want to leave the capital. That’s right. Even though things were tight at home financially, my dad still sent her money, and she had the audacity to act like this. It would damage my dad’s reputation if he were to cut her off, however. He couldn’t divorce her even if he wanted to.
I racked my brain for a way to get out of this.
Come on, remember? I’ve got extra knowledge about this world! I was always beat after a day’s work and so never really tried to use my knowledge of the game to affect my life, but it was clearly time for that to change.
“So as long as I have money,” I began slowly, “you have no complaints?”
Zola snorted. “Oh? That’s an awfully arrogant attitude for a parasite who’s never earned a coin in his life.”
I wanted to shake her. A woman who leeched off Bartfort House while she lived the high life in the capital had no right to call me a parasite.
“We can’t refuse,” Zola went on, “it would offend her. If you think earning enough to cover your academy enrollment fees will cover it, you’re being naive.”
My dad looked unsure. An engagement you couldn’t refuse was out of the ordinary, even for a matriarchal society. Still, he couldn’t be too assertive with Zola. “Leon is still young. There’s no reason to rush—”
“I don’t want to hear any more! No one is going to want him once he’s older than twenty. You should be thanking me for finding him a partner while he’s still young. Instead, you want to whine and quibble over details.” Zola turned to me. “This is exactly why I hate countryside brats like you!”
Come now, the countryside didn’t do anything to you.
I tried to protest, but my dad intervened. “Try to think of this from Leon’s perspective. No one would want their first wife to be over fifty. That’s an almost forty-year age gap.” He breathed a sigh. “If he’s able to get the money, will you agree to drop this engagement?”
Zola sank back down into her seat, crossed her legs, and shot me a mocking look. “Oh? You never told me he was resourceful enough to make that kind of money. If that’s the case, I’d love for you to increase the allowance you send me.”
I won’t say I’m convinced all the women in this world are like her, but man, does she try a person’s patience.
My image of the women in this world, particularly the noblewomen, was absolutely horrible.
My dad scrubbed his face with his hand. He looked down at the ground and seemed to squeeze out the words. “Give us a little bit of time. We’ll get the money.”
I felt guilty he was overextending himself on my account. He was so miserable.
This world truly was despicable.
✦ ✦ ✦
After Zola left the room, it was just my dad and me. And I exploded.
“She made us send a ship to fetch her for something as stupid as this? How long does she think it took us to make all the preparations for her to stay here?” A regular service airship ran back and forth between our island and the capital, but for her to visit, we had to arrange her meals and accommodations and pay her travel fees. “Dad, why did you marry that…thing?”
He was too timid. Although there was a reason for that.
“Don’t get mad. I had to. The other nobles wouldn’t treat us with the proper respect otherwise, and that’s not something to take lightly.”
From my dad’s point of view, it was incredible that Zola had even agreed to marry into a house on the fringes of the kingdom—on an outlying island, no less. Noble ladies born on the outer edge usually found spouses in the capital they so yearned to live in. A few women weren’t quite so picky, but men tended to quarrel over who got their hand. Thus, just as Zola thought herself gracious for being willing to marry my dad, my dad likewise felt grateful for her generosity.
That just went to show the importance of a marriage partner. If a baron couldn’t snag a high-status wife, he as good as declared his house socially impotent. Other noblemen would look down on him, and some might even start a war with his house. Everyone would treat him as if he were undeserving of his rank. He would be ostracized.
“Dad… Do we really not have the money for the academy?” I asked.
The answer seemed obvious when my dad pulled a face. “It’ll be rough. We have debts to pay, too. Trying to squeeze out any more will put us further in the hole. But why did she bring this up all of a sudden?” Dad seemed as puzzled as me.
“Yeah…why didn’t she didn’t bring it up with Nicks?”
My dad tilted his head, considering. “Well, both you and Nicks have far too much of an age gap with Zola’s friend regardless…but it is still strange. It’s almost like she doesn’t want you to go to the academy at all.”
The whole thing bothered me, so I wrote up a letter to my brother to check with him and see if he knew anything. Basically, There’s all this engagement talk here at home, are things all right there?
His answer was a surprise I could never have anticipated.