I continued to spend the afternoon with my brothers, practicing the hanon with them in the drawing room. I could afford to forget about my side jobs for a day and have some fun. It had been a while since I’d been able to leisurely spend time with my angels, but I couldn’t bring myself to fully enjoy it.
I feel like I’m forgetting something... Oh, there’s those proposals from Albert and Percival. Will they just go away if I ignore them? Wait, no, it would be worse if our families discussed things without me. I’ll have to talk to my father about this after dinner. Right now, I’m busy playing with the angels!
By then, we had moved to the children’s room, where we were all playing a game. I should sell this game through the Burns Trading Company!
I had a bad habit of leaving important tasks for later whenever I was with my angels. As a shotacon, I couldn’t help it. I’d let myself off the hook for it, but unfortunately, I couldn’t escape reality. Wyatt came to the children’s room to get me. Whatever he needed, it had to be urgent, since he never usually came here.
“A plethora of documents have arrived for you, sent from the Burns Trading Company, my lady,” Wyatt informed me. “These require your attention urgently, do they not?”
The paperwork was for the washing machine, freezer, fridge, cool air fan, ice cream maker, clothes iron, hair iron, bicycle, slime-filled seat cushions, and fabric glue. The alchemy club had submitted patents for everything but the fabric glue, for which President Caesar had insisted that I personally submit a patent. I’d argued against taking off the club members’ names, since they had helped come up with the ratio of ingredients, but Caesar wouldn’t budge. He’d laughed and insisted it was fine because he didn’t think the alchemy club would have been able to even think of ingredients they would need for a home ec item on their own.
The royalties from patents owned by the alchemy club were split four ways: ten percent to the club’s funds; thirty percent to the originator of the idea; thirty percent to the person who made the magic circle; and the remaining thirty percent to a pool which was equally split among club members. President Caesar had created most of the magic circles used in these inventions, but Arthur and Benjamin had contributed to a couple as well.
“I shall have the documents delivered to your father’s study,” Wyatt said.
Can’t we just take care of this after dinner? I’m busy playing reversi with the angels... Looks like the answer is no. I can tell from the smile on his face that he’s not leaving without me.
I followed Wyatt to my father’s study, where I proceeded to sign the assorted documents. They were various contracts, and there was a mountain of them, so it was a lot of work to read through them all. Wyatt looked through each one before handing them to me, but I also read through them, just to be safe. After all, since it was my name on them, I would be responsible for handling any issues.
“You’ve created so many magical instruments, Patience,” my father remarked. He’d also read through the contracts prior to signing them, so he knew about all of the inventions.
“Well, I simply suggested items that I thought would be convenient to have,” I replied. “The actual magic circles used in them were created by President Caesar and Benjamin.”
I really need to learn about magic circles ASAP. I’m leaving all the hard work to everyone else.
“That doesn’t apply to some of these, which aren’t magical instruments, like the bicycle and the fabric glue.”
“That is true. Those do not require a magic stone to be used. Since magic stones are so expensive in Lawrence, I want to make tools that don’t need them, if possible.”
Our signatures were now on all of the paperwork, so I was free to leave his study, but I still had to speak to my father about the proposals. If he wasn’t looped in, my father could receive an offer of marriage from the Laforets and accept it without knowing any details. On the surface, it would be a great deal for our family, since I would be marrying into quite a wealthy family.
“Um, could I have a moment of your time?” I asked.
It’s times like this that I wish my mother was alive. It would’ve been easier to talk to her about this stuff!
“Sure, what’s this about?”
I was having trouble bringing the topic up. Since I was a coward, I decided to start by discussing my societal debut, which the queen had likely told him about via letter. My plan was to use this topic as a jumping off point to eventually discuss marriage.
“Her Majesty informed me that Princess Margaret will be making her debut into society during the fall of next year,” I shared. “Her Majesty said I was also to make my debut at that time.” As I’d suspected, my father seemed to have heard about this already. He nodded, urging me to continue. “Well...you may be receiving a proposal addressed to me from the president of the music club, Albert Laforet, because Duke Laforet has taken a liking to my musical skills. I was also asked by Sir Percival to be his partner in the diplomatic service. He said he would be asking Aunt Amalia to handle discussions between our families.”
My father seemed pretty surprised. He seemed deep in thought for a while before he finally spoke up.
“What do you want to do, Patience?”
Wait, you’re letting me decide? I don’t want to be forced into a marriage with Albert, but I also don’t know if I’m allowed to decline.
“While I enjoy music, I’m not sure I want to be limited to it being my only pursuit... As for Sir Percival, he is very handsome, and I do not have the courage to be at his side.”
I’d given sincere answers, only to be laughed at by my father. How rude!
“It’s too soon for you to be discussing marriage,” my father said.
I agree, but I think the bigger issue is whether we can say no to the Laforets. Are we allowed to decline an offer from them?
“Sir Percival said he would be happy to be used as a shield to help me with rejecting the Laforets’ offer,” I shared. “He said that while I am at Romano University and thinking about my future, he would like me to consider becoming the wife of a diplomat as one of my options.”
My father nodded along, satisfied with Percival’s request, since it followed his desire for me to take the time to think about my future while attending university.
“Do you have feelings for Percival?” he asked.
Don’t ask me that. I don’t dislike him. I guess I like him, but I don’t know if I want to marry him. In that sense, I feel the same way about Albert—he’s a music-obsessed weirdo, but I don’t actively dislike him. I just don’t want to marry him! If this were a race, I guess Percival is half a step ahead of Albert. I bet if the girls crushing on him knew what I was thinking, they’d rip me to shreds. That’s also one of my concerns.
“I am fond of him, but I’m not sure if it is a ‘wanting to marry him’ sort of fondness.”
My father just nodded silently. Don’t you have any advice for me? I’m disappointed.
It was Sunday, and the riding instructor would be coming in the afternoon. Samuel came to visit, and I asked him about his finals. I figured he’d probably done fine, but I was still a bit worried.
“I’m pretty sure I passed language arts and magic theory,” he informed me. “I think I did all right on classical literature, history, and math too. I already got a certificate of completion for music, and I passed magic practicum, art, and dance. I thought I did better than the passing students in PE, but I still didn’t pass. I think Mr. Cuthbert has something against the riding club. Even Daniel, who is the best at athletics in our class, didn’t pass.”