This light, my love for women that illuminated my heart, was brought about by her. It was Catalina who taught me what true love was.
“The only problem now is where I should go from here,” I murmured.
Even if I’d found a woman of another nation whom I loved, I didn’t want to betray Anhalt. In the past, the kingdom had wronged me; I didn’t think my love for Catalina was an act of betrayal. Ah, that reminds me… Anhalt still hasn’t provided me with an official fiancée.
“Yes, this isn’t an act of betrayal,” I justified. “Ultimately, the fact that Anhalt has failed to produce a suitable fiancée is a slight against me. It’s clear as day.”
I continued to reassure myself that I wasn’t betraying anyone. My Catalina said so before.
“How could the hero of a kingdom not be provided with a wife with a good head on her shoulders?” she’d asked. “In fact, the nobles and citizens dare to give the cold shoulder to a hero? Anhalt’s social mores truly boggle the mind.”
She was right. Ultimately, Anhalt had no fiancée to give me. Of course, I didn’t think that Queen Liesenlotte had just sat back and twiddled her thumbs; she wasn’t the type to do so. I was quite certain that she’d done her best to find a lady willing to become engaged to me. But no woman of Anhalt wished to marry a man over two meters tall and three hundred pounds, packed with muscles. I was seen as a hideous knight. In fact, the higher the rank of the Anhalt noble, the more likely she was to refuse a union with me.
I already knew why. People were hesitant to form ties with House Polidoro lest they beckon misfortune into their households. If a woman were to become engaged with me, she would inevitably be dragged into my mess. She would have to become lord of my poverty-ridden fief of three hundred citizens as well. While that alone might not have been enough to shoo away potential fiancée candidates, that wasn’t all. We were currently in the middle of a truce, but the situation was unstable; my potential wife would have to act as the mediator between Anhalt and Villendorf while consulting Catalina as well. In addition, my wife would also need to head to battle should Queen Liesenlotte or Crown Princess Anastasia call upon her, as a display of House Polidoro’s unwavering loyalty toward Anhalt.
In a nutshell, my wife would be saddled with a life of poverty while being forced to play for both sides. To top it all off, she’d marry a hideous man like me. I was an amalgam of the worst marriage conditions in Anhalt noble society; divorce was practically unthinkable once we married, and her entire family would be dragged into my mess by relation.
A marriage between nobles wasn’t a simple relationship born out of love between a man and a woman. An engagement arranged by none other than Queen Liesenlotte herself didn’t allow any cancellations. My wife’s entire household and her subordinates would have to offer their assistance. This was no small task. There was no room for silly drivel like allowing someone to marry me simply out of love.
Parents, relatives, and anyone with ties to my prospective fiancée would certainly have a say; even servants and gardeners would be allowed to speak their minds, no matter how insignificant their power was. If this marriage earned the ire of the royal family, they wouldn’t stop at just destroying my wife’s household—even servants and subordinates would be slaughtered mercilessly by the royals.
If any woman went to the engagement stage and saw me, only to claim that she couldn’t marry an ugly man like me and wished for the engagement to be nullified, that would be a slap in the face to the Anhaltish royal family. If the royals allowed such insolent behavior, they’d offend House Polidoro. If a potential fiancée disparaged my name by claiming that I was unsuitable for her household, I’d have to kill her to protect my noble honor. Someone would die.
Even if we were lucky and neither of us was really on board with the marriage, we’d still have our honor to protect, and a small skirmish would break out, which would result in the deaths of a few people. Hence, no noble in Anhalt was willing to push their daughter into marrying me. And if that’s the case…
Silence filled the room. I was grateful to Queen Liesenlotte. She’d praised me to bits and showered me with compliments until the very end. She even jokingly proposed that she remarry and choose me as her husband—that she didn’t mind becoming my wife. The queen managed to crack a joke as she earned Princess Anastasia’s anger, and the two began a brawl as they insulted and punched each other. How could I hate a queen like that? She went out of her way to offer words of comfort.
Thus, I had no intention of betraying her and nullifying my contract with Anhalt. But even so…
“Ultimately, Anhalt couldn’t find a bride for me,” I concluded. “The fact remains that Queen Liesenlotte failed to find a suitable woman for House Polidoro.”
Could I be blamed for leaning toward Villendorf after all this time? I had ample reason to turn toward Villendorf, and Queen Liesenlotte had to agree. I’m not looking forward to this… But I have to do what I have to do.
I steeled my resolve to officially become Ina-Catalina Maria Villendorf’s prince consort.