I thought I knew Emily well. After all, because she seemed so emotionless, her actions had always felt straightforward and easy to understand.
But once she started showing affection toward me, she became harder to read. Or at least, that’s what I thought.
Looking back now, maybe even that was arrogance.
Because…
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for things to turn out like this. Sob… I just didn’t know what I was supposed to do anymore…”
The Emily crying her eyes out in front of me now was someone I had never seen before in my life. Even the version of her I thought I understood must have been just another mask.
Good grief, was she really a girl this expressive with her emotions? I was genuinely shocked.
“Johan, is this story true?”
“Well… if you ask me like that, I can only say yes.”
Starting from the very first time we met, Emily explained everything in detail.
There were exaggerations, but no lies.
But why was it that by the end of the story, I had somehow turned into a complete piece of trash who exploited her goodwill to steal all kinds of technology?
Was I really like that?
No, to be fair, I did receive a lot of help from Emily.
And in return… I’d barely given her anything.
“Ahem… Still, Lady Emily, as unfortunate as this is, this boy already has a fiancée. So while I sympathize with your feelings…”
At least Father was still keeping a cool head. Emily’s sad circumstances were one thing, but reality was another matter entirely. Truly my father. Cold-blooded to the core.
“Of course, I’m not suggesting we settle this with mere words. I understand your pain and sorrow, so allow us to compensate your efforts financially, at the very least.”
He even tried to buy her off with money.
Good heavens. Ever since he started getting money from the Duchy, he’d become unbelievably ruthless.
That’s my father for you. I should use him as a cautionary example and live my life properly.
“Financially…?”
“My apologies, but I can’t think of any other way to compensate you.”
Utterly merciless.
“If not that, is there perhaps some other compensation you would prefer? We’ll respect your wishes as much as possible.”
“…All right.”
Maybe Emily hadn’t expected my father to be this much of a scumbag beyond imagination either, because in the end, she backed down.
“No, but why the hell have you been looking at your father like that this whole time, you little brat?”
“What did I do?”
“And don’t you dare talk back like you’ve done nothing wrong! Stop causing trouble already!”
“Yes…”
I quietly shut my mouth.
Maybe it was because he’d already gone through something like this once before, but Father actually handled the situation pretty firmly.
“…Then this is the invoice for all the items I made for Oppa Johan over the years.”
“……”
Father’s expression stiffened as he looked at the receipt Emily had written while sniffling.
“……”
And after secretly glancing at it from beside him, I couldn’t help but freeze up too.
“I-Is this… real?”
We got played.
Father offering financial compensation had obviously been well within Emily’s expectations.
Otherwise, there was no way she would’ve already calculated the exact prices of everything I’d ever asked her to make for me.
“Johan. Is this actually real?”
“……”
I felt utterly miserable. I was already suffocating just from the very first line.
A magic engineering cartridge and revolver set.
That single item alone was worth half a year’s income for our territory.
To begin with, revolvers were expensive items. Not because of the technology itself, but because they were controlled by the Empire.
Even among noble families, only counts or higher usually possessed them, and while we technically were a count’s family, our standing didn’t really match our title, so in practice it was basically impossible for us to own one.
And on top of that, this one even had rechargeable cartridges attached to it. Naturally, the price was beyond imagination.
“Th-That one was because I… No, never mind.”
The first few entries at least had proper compensation behind them. More specifically, they were payment for saving her master, Koran Rekias.
But everything after the artificial heart had been purely her goodwill.
I had supported her research using the funds from Andvaranaut, sure, but that was separate from the value of the items themselves.
And after that? I had no excuse.
She had even told me before that she’d put it all on my tab as debt.
If all of this had been laying the groundwork for today…
Then I could never beat Emily.
“Ahem… Lady Emily, perhaps it would still be better to compensate you through means other than money. After all, human relationships are built on affection, and money alone can’t…”
Father immediately started backpedaling.
I really hate this. It makes me painfully aware of how much I resemble this man.
At this point, I can’t deny it no matter how hard I try.
“R-Right. If we borrow money from Andvaranaut…”
“…That won’t work.”
That realization made me feel truly hopeless.
Andvaranaut would never help us.
In fact, there was a high chance borrowing money itself would be impossible. If it were Cattleya, she probably wouldn’t lend us even a single gold coin.
“Ahem……”
Father’s silence stretched on.
A very long silence. It seemed he couldn’t think of any immediate solution.
Same here. Since she was binding me down with exact monetary value rather than emotions or vague obligations, there was no way to escape.
An approach even more forceful than Ariel’s.
And what made it even scarier was the fact that behind Emily stood Andvaranaut, one of the great merchant guilds.
A great merchant guild powerful enough to ruin a small territory more effectively than even a duchy.
“P-Please give us a little time.”
“I’ll give you three days.”
“C-Couldn’t you give us just a bit longer, Lady Emily?”
“I’ll give you four.”
“Th-Thank you.”
At some point, Emily had returned to her usual expressionless face, but now there was even a strange pressure emanating from her.
As expected of someone sharing Cattleya’s bloodline.
This kind of charisma could only be innate.
“Come with me, Johan.”
“Goodbye, Oppa Johan. I’ll see you in four days.”
Emily waved as she sent me off. There was a different kind of affection in her eyes now than before. It seemed she no longer had any intention of hiding it.
Faced with those blatantly obvious feelings, all I could do was awkwardly wave back.
***
“Father.”
“What are you planning to do?”
“I… can’t think of anything.”
“That amount… is it actually credible?”
Now that Emily wasn’t around, Father was asking if she might’ve been scamming us.
Unfortunately, I had no choice but to crush that hope.
“…If anything, she calculated it cheaply.”
“You lunatic! How could you spend money so recklessly?!”
“I didn’t really have a choice if I wanted to survive.”
“Good grief! And I can’t even strike this brat from the family registry!”
“Father…”
Even after hearing I’d accumulated this much debt, he still couldn’t bring himself to disown me.
Touching, really.
“If you hadn’t gotten involved with the duchy and the Magic Tower, I would’ve thrown you out ages ago.”
“Good thing I got engaged! If I go down, I’m definitely not dying alone!”
“You little bastard!”
It seemed my engagements to those two weren’t just chains tightening around me but also bridges tying me to the family.
Thanks to that, at least I’d never end up stripped of my status and thrown out onto the streets.
“Haah… First, I’ll have to meet with those two ladies. At this point, it’s probably better to be honest and share the situation.”
“Won’t you get killed?”
“That’s not my problem.”
“Father, you think you’ll be safe?”
“Safer than you?”
Well, that was true.
Since I’m the one at fault here, even if anyone gets yelled at, I’ll definitely get the worst of it.
More importantly, I have to go explain this whole situation to Olga Hermod and Tronios Ether?
Just imagining it is horrifying.
But if I try to avoid that horrifying reality, an even deeper hell is obviously waiting for me.
“Ha……”
I’m dead.
***
The meeting with Olga Hermod took place at the Magic Tower.
She was a busy person to begin with, and meeting someone privately at an educational institution like the Cradle probably wouldn’t look very good either.
Honestly, even arranging a meeting with her was difficult, but since our families were tied together through the engagement, she still made time for us.
And yet the thing we had to discuss in return was utterly disastrous.
After we explained the current situation to Olga Hermod—
She quietly took a sip of tea before speaking.
“Then wouldn’t it be fine for you to get engaged to her as well? It sounds like that’s what the other party wants anyway.”
“…Huh?”
What was that supposed to mean?
A completely unexpected response came out of nowhere.
I knew Olga Hermod was broad-minded, but was she seriously this magnanimous?
Her daughter’s fiancé went around accumulating debts and effectively mortgaging his life to another woman, and her response was simply, “Then marry her too”?
This went beyond being broad-minded.
Either she had no interest in me whatsoever, or she actively disliked me.
But that didn’t fully make sense either.
Olga Hermod treated Yuna almost like a real daughter. And yet she would casually accept something Yuna would obviously hate?
Something was strange. It didn’t add up.
“M-Mother-in-law… perhaps—”
“Oh my, thank you so much! Hahaha! Johan, what are you doing? Show some respect!”
“No, Father, wait a—”
“Will you shut it? Where else would you ever find such generosity? She’s overlooking all the terrible things you’ve done, so what exactly are you complaining about?”
“No…!”
I’m telling you, something feels off! Father just doesn’t know Olga Hermod well enough!
“Ah, it’s already gotten this late. My apologies, but I’ll have to excuse myself now. Work is quite busy.”
“Ah, of course, completely understandable. Please, go ahead, Tower Master. We should be leaving as well.”
And then she even drove us out before I could voice any more suspicions.
Something is happening.
“Father, something’s wrong. I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”
“What do you mean bad feeling? She just forgave you that generously! Now all we have to do is persuade Duke Ether, so stop overthinking useless things and use that head of yours properly.”
Was this really a good outcome?
No matter what, I couldn’t shake off the anxiety born from experience.
“Now then, I suppose we should send word to the Ether Duchy. We’ll need to meet them and explain all the things you’ve done.”
“When you say ‘the things I’ve done,’ doesn’t it sound like I actively caused all this on purpose?”
“At this point, calling it your fault isn’t even wrong. Maybe you shouldn’t have handed out promises you couldn’t keep.”
“……”
No, I’m telling you, it was supposed to be free!
“Come on, let’s hurry. Four days isn’t much time. I hear Duke Ether is even busier than the Tower Master, so shouldn’t we secure an appointment as soon as possible?”
“…That’s true, but still.”
I had no idea what Olga Hermod was plotting. Still, Father was right that we were working under a time limit.
Right now, I needed to meet Tronius Ether and explain the situation. I might even have to get on my knees and beg.
Even so, I couldn’t just keep avoiding the situation forever.
I immediately sent a request to visit the Ether Duchy. Since my engagement to Ariel wasn’t an official arrangement, the process ended up being fairly complicated.
And then…
“We’re not getting a response, Father.”
“……”
No reply came back, as if something had blocked it midway.
***
While Johan was anxiously pacing around, Yuna was meeting with Ariel. Unlike Johan, she effectively had a free pass thanks to the authority of the Magic Tower behind her.
“What exactly are you plotting, Miss Yuna?”
“Come on, plotting? Isn’t it a little cold to say something like that the moment you see me?”
“So then? You’re not exactly someone who visits me without a reason, so what brings you here today?”
“I could’ve come with a message from Johan, you know.”
At those words, Ariel’s rabbit ears perked up. Whatever the case, she really was honest with her feelings. Unfortunately, Yuna merely grinned without passing along any message at all.
“I said I could have, not that I actually did. Were you hoping I had?”
“……”
Ariel immediately reached for the bell on the table. She was probably planning to throw the unwelcome guest out.
“Hey now, don’t do that.”
Yuna placed her hand over Ariel’s to stop her and flashed a sly grin.
“How about you and I have a little chat?”
At this point, Yuna had no intention of hiding her scheming nature anymore.
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