“The Sevensworth family?!” my older sister and mother exclaimed simultaneously.
During our postdinner tea, my father began speaking about an arranged marriage for me. The fact that it was with the daughter of the premier duke despite us being a poor viscount family was such a mismatch that no one could hold back their surprise.
This was the reason I’d been called back so suddenly. Father had been completely caught off guard by marriage talks with a hugely powerful noble family.
My oldest brother, my father’s heir, wasn’t present. He was busy reviewing the territory’s security forces and organizing an emergency summons to clear out monsters. It was all in preparation for our country’s only premier noble visiting. As a result, our territory had been thrown into a panic.
“That’s right. We just received a letter expressing their interest in a marriage deal. Your partner will be the lady Anastasia Sevensworth. She’s their only daughter and the apple of their eye.”
“W-Wait! This doesn’t make any sense! Why is Gino getting a marriage proposal from an incredible family that’s completely out of his league?!” my older sister demanded, slamming the table, her reddish-brown eyes widening.
A typical daughter of a noble family wouldn’t talk like this, nor would they slam the table, but this was completely on-brand for my sister. She wasn’t exactly very ladylike to begin with.
“They’re a premier ducal family, and they only have one daughter, so if they’re having someone marry into their family, they want to be sure that person is not only brilliant, but also someone they can trust to take the reins. Gino is famous in high society for his great success with his merchant company and his wisdom in running a territory. He’s also the same age as their daughter. He’s the perfect candidate for her.”
Having proved my worth with my success as a merchant, I’d been asked for my opinions on running the territory. After following my suggestions for improvements, the territory was on the mend despite having been on the verge of collapse. This world was very behind in terms of technology compared to Japan. Even the knowledge I’d vaguely gleaned from reading the newspapers in Japan was enough to be revolutionary in this world.
“But you said Gino’s allowed to pick his own wife since he has no choice but to become a commoner!” my sister practically snapped at my father.
“I did. However, this is a request from the premier duke. It goes without saying that he has no right to refuse. I do feel bad for this turning into a situation where we can’t respect Gino’s will, though,” he replied with a grim expression.
I feel bad about how angry my sister’s gotten and how sorry my father feels, but honestly, I’m perfectly okay accepting this sudden change to my life plan. I’d been subjected to all kinds of unfair treatment in my previous life. After all that, I had no inclination at all to fight against the unreasonableness of someone in power anymore. I’d already learned that it was wise to accept their will and make the best of the situation from there.
“But even so, he has to marry the Goblin Maiden?!”
Suddenly, I was met with this unfamiliar term that came out of my sister’s mouth, so I turned to my father to inquire.
“Oh, you don’t know, do you, Gino?” he replied. “I suppose you were set on becoming a commoner, so you’ve had no interest in any high society gossip,” he muttered before launching into an explanation without letting me get a single word in.
According to him, the epithet had come about because her appearance resembled a goblin’s. Her looks were apparently famously appalling in high society, which made it difficult for her family to find a marriage partner. Evidently, the Sevensworths had been sending marriage proposals to every exceptional, well-known young man in order from highest status to lowest, and now they’d reached our family.
It all finally made sense. No matter how much I was praised for being a prodigy, never in my wildest dreams would I think that a premier duke would want his daughter to marry the fourth son of a viscount. I’d been thinking there had to be a reason he’d want to ignore the difference in our statuses.
He who married the daughter of the Sevensworth family would eventually become their family head. The ultimate responsibility that came with being the head of a powerful family demanded high capability.
There were those exceptional enough to take over as heads of great houses, but they were few in number and and high in demand. Thus, they were easily able to secure decent social standing and beautiful wives on their own merits.
Were one of them to wed the Sevensworth daughter, it would mean marrying a hideous woman despite potentially inheriting a dukedom, and marrying into the family would make extramarital affairs risky. For these reasons, no exceptional candidates had even entertained marriage talks. But this kind of thinking didn’t really make too much sense to me, so I decided to press my father further.
“I told you she’s the same age as you, right?” he answered. “That means the prospective husbands that her family has been trying to set her up with are also young like you—teenagers. At your age, it’s normal to think that it’s better to have a beautiful woman by your side while you’re young rather than to marry into a family early in order to inherit the highest possible status when you’re middle-aged. I know that’s how I felt when I was young, and I’m sure you can echo that sentiment too, right?”
Well, no, actually, but I’m not going to try and argue. Of course, there were some people who’d prioritize obtaining the ducal status over the looks of their spouse. But those kinds of people who plotted to ascend the ranks through marriage were always lacking the qualities that would enable them to obtain status any other way. In those cases, such schemers wouldn’t be able to slip past the scrutiny of the Sevensworth family.
They were a pillar of this country and a powerful family that supported many citizens and industries in this vast territory. They couldn’t afford to have a successor who was anything less than exceptional.
“Listen carefully. Keep comments about their daughter’s appearance to yourself. Let me repeat that—you absolutely cannot show even the tiniest hint of disapproval of her appearance on your face. Keep your mouth shut. If you upset her in any way, it’ll be child’s play for them to wipe out our family.” Father impressed these points upon me.
If he’s repeating himself, he must be very on edge.
“Hey, Gino, are you sure this is okay with you? You do know that if you marry into their family, you absolutely can’t cheat on her, right? If you accept, you won’t be allowed to fall in love with anyone except the Goblin Maiden for the rest of your life.”
“That’s fine. Appearances don’t matter to me.”
I couldn’t care less about someone’s looks. The reason behind this was simple: I’d been repulsive in my last life. During our school dances, none of the girls ever took my hand. Whenever I picked up something that a girl had dropped, she’d cry like I’d burned it to bits and then throw it into the trash can.
“I hear there’s a really disgusting guy at your school.”
“Oh yeah, totally. Over there.”
I’d been able to hear their conversation, but lacked the courage to turn to face them. There’d also been girls with gaudy makeup that made them look tan who would point and laugh at me.
“Whoa, that’s freaky!”
“Oh, holy crap! What is that?! Ew! It looked at me!”
One day I went to a brothel, thinking that maybe that way I could at least have an experience with a woman, but the girl I’d asked for suddenly fell ill and canceled on me. That shattered my heart and I never attempted to enter a brothel ever again.
That’s why I didn’t care about appearances. I’d been discriminated against because of my appearance until my dying breath. It was precisely because I understood this hardship that I couldn’t treat anyone differently because of their looks, nor did I want to.
But I hadn’t always been like that. Despite how I was now, at first, when I’d still been young in my previous life, I used to find my eyes drawn to beautiful girls. Every time I caught myself doing that, I fell into a state of self-loathing.
By only looking at attractive women, I was changing the way I treated people based on their appearances. I was the same as those people who’d shown contempt for me while going gaga over handsome guys. Somewhere along the way of rinsing and repeating this self-loathing for decades, I found that I didn’t care about looks at all anymore.
Even as I was now, I could understand when someone was objectively beautiful and should be categorized as such. That being said, their beauty didn’t make me feel any extra emotions toward them. This was the result of my changing myself over the course of a few decades. I wouldn’t let myself be like those who ridiculed me. I used that conviction to press forward and become who I am today.