Suddenly, an angry shout rang out through the shop.
Frowning, Rest turned toward the noise… and there he saw two men grabbing each other by the collar.
A woman stood beside them, weeping softly.
"Mariana is my woman! How dare you lay a hand on her!"
"Don't be ridiculous! Mariana is my fiancée!"
"Ngh, ngh… Both of you, please don't fight over me…"
"…A lovers' quarrel, huh."
It was the kind of lovers' quarrel where a brief exchange was all you needed to piece together what was going on.
It seemed two men were fighting over one woman… and Rest's eyes weren't fooled for a second.
The woman caught in the middle of the dispute… she was pretending to cry, but there was a smug little grin on her lips.
She was clearly drunk on the thrill of having men fight over her.
"Hey, Rest. What do you suppose those people are doing?"
"Yeah… fighting over a woman, probably. It happens."
"'It happens'… Isn't courtship supposed to be arranged between families? So isn't it strange for them to fight like that?"
Viola's eyes went wide with disbelief.
For nobles, courtship was an agreement settled between parents, between families.
Among the lower nobility, love marriages weren't unheard of… but among royalty and the high nobility, getting to choose your own marriage partner for yourself was exceedingly rare.
"Strategic marriages between commoners are incredibly rare. Commoners don't worry about interests or family advancement — they simply marry the person they've fallen in love with."
"Is that so… I'd heard stories, but the idea that you can marry anyone just because you've fallen in love — how wonderful that must be."
"…I'm not so sure."
Freedom of love sounded nice enough in theory, but judging by what he'd witnessed over there, he couldn't honestly agree.
"Whether it's a love match or an arranged marriage, I think you can be happy as long as you both respect each other."
In truth, Rest had found happiness after getting engaged to the Rosemary sisters.
The reason he'd been chosen as their partner was his talent in magic.
For the development of House Rosemary, a prestigious family of mages, he'd been selected as a live-in son-in-law.
If Rest hadn't possessed talent in magic… even if the sisters had fallen for him, the marquis and his wife would never have approved the engagement.
"That's true… I feel the same way."
Viola smiled and gently took Rest's hand across the table.
Even love marriages ended in divorce or broken engagements, and even marriages born of politics or matchmaking could lead to happiness.
What was truly necessary for an engagement or marriage was the feeling of caring for one another. Rest felt this deeply, down to his soul.
In the noisy tavern filled with shouting, the two of them had created a warm little pocket of calm — but that lovely atmosphere was shattered in an instant.
"You bastard… die!"
At last, the arguing men had escalated to outright violence.
One of them hurled a wine bottle from the table while the other scrambled out of the way.
"Look out!"
"Eek…!"
The bottle, its aim off, went sailing straight toward the table where Rest and Viola were sitting.
Rest shot to his feet and caught the bottle with his free hand, the one not holding Viola's.
"That was close..."
"Thank you. You saved me."
"...Yeah, just wait here for a moment."
Rest let go of Viola's hand.
Then he turned his gaze toward the table where the men were bickering.
"You little... You bastard!"
"Ggh... Take this!"
The men didn't so much as glance Rest's way. They were too busy wrestling with each other.
Another second and that bottle would have hit Viola square in the back. They hadn't even noticed.
"...Did your parents never teach you how to apologize?"
If not, then he'd just have to teach them in their stead.
Rest picked up the bottle and walked over toward them, ready to deliver a scolding on behalf of their parents.