"Huh? Huuuuh?!"
When Duke Sanga announced my engagement to Primera, the one who was most startled and let out the loudest cry was Amy. She quickly realized she had raised her voice and looked embarrassed, but since she was standing near Caesar-sama and the others, no one said anything to reprimand her. Besides, Primera at my side and Eliza a short distance away were both watching Amy with amused smiles, so the hosts wouldn't have said anything either.
"Now that the announcement from our household is concluded, everyone, please enjoy the New Year's party hosted by the Duke Sanga household."
The MC switched from Duke Sanga to Albert, and the party was officially declared open. But—
"Everyone's just standing around staring at us from a distance, and nobody's coming over..."
"That can't be helped. After all, there is an order to these things when it comes to approaching someone."
"That's right. Even if they're shocked and flustered, there's no one here who would dare speak to me before I speak to them. Well, if there were exceptions, it would be people who are particularly close to the two of them... but among those attending this party, the number of people especially close to both of them is limited."
As I was discussing Primera and the situation around us, Caesar-sama and the others approached. The fact that some time had passed since the party started was probably because they had spoken to Albert and Eliza first.
"Rather than that—congratulations to you both. I was surprised when I heard about the sudden engagement, but thinking it over, it's a perfectly natural match."
"That's right. For Tenma, she's the first noblewoman he ever met, and I hear it was a memorable encounter. And for Primera, he's someone her family has been close to and who has helped them."
Most of that was accurate, but when I said the first noblewoman I actually met was Chris, they both said:
"That shouldn't count."
The Chris at that time was merely a "former noble daughter" who happened to have the authority of a viscount. Plus, they said it was more romantic to claim Primera was first. Apparently, framing it that way was better for public appeal—especially with women—and it was also easier to win allies.
"Even so, Amy didn't know either. I was sure Tida had told her..."
"If you want to say that, couldn't Tenma have told her as well? The fact that he didn't was considering Amy's safety and the Duke household's situation."
That was certainly true, but I had assumed Tida might have extracted a promise of secrecy and then secretly told her anyway.
"Well, if this were an ordinary secret, that might have been praiseworthy. But if telling her could put Amy in danger, Tida wouldn't tell her no matter what. He's a child capable of that kind of thinking."
If Amy had learned about the engagement and let it slip somehow, noble houses that didn't think favorably of her could attack with things like "Someone who can't even keep a family secret isn't fit to be queen." That's how precarious Amy's position was. But if the secret was kept until the end, there would be no leak, and judging from the reactions to the announcement, people would only sympathize with her as "the poor girl who wasn't told anything." Even if someone said "You weren't trusted enough to be let in on the secret," all I had to do was say "I couldn't share another family's secret with someone who might take it outside." And if the Duke Sanga household agreed, then even the royal family couldn't share information with the future queen candidate.
"By the way, does Luna know about my engagement?"
When I asked, both of them looked away.
"Well, you see... I'm sure Luna would rush in the moment she learns about Tenma's engagement, but... try to manage somehow. Give her a snack or something, and she'll settle down. In the worst case, you can just blame Father for keeping quiet."
"Luna is so easy to handle... I mean, she's a straightforward child, so she'll be fine. The real problem is Chris. Chris is going to make a huge fuss... She was always hanging around at Tenma's place, so how did she not know?"
Honestly, I wanted to know that too. Despite the huge commotion everyone said was made when my engagement to Primera was decided, Chris was the only one who slept through the whole thing. After that, she conveniently never came by when the engagement was being discussed, and when she did come, she fell asleep.
"If Chris won't quiet down, you can say it was Father's—no, Mother's orders. Normally, no matter how much Chris complains, she's not part of the Ōtori or Duke Sanga households, so she shouldn't have grounds to object... but she claims to be Tenma's 'big sister,' so she gets emotional about it. Combined with her own lack of luck in romance..."
In the end, I came to the same conclusion as Caesar-sama and stayed silent. But I doubted that appealing to reason would convince Chris after being kept in the dark for roughly four months (it wasn't deliberate, but still). Well, since I was told I could rely on Lady Maria, there was only one course of action.
"Caesar-sama, please tell Lady Maria she's welcome to visit anytime. When she comes, if possible, have Chris as her guard and bring Aina along as well..."
I would simply have to rely on Lady Maria. Asking Aina alone would work too, but with only Aina, she might behave in the moment only for the effect to wear off by the next time.
"Indeed, I shall pass along that message. Now then, Isabella and I will go mingle with the others."
I felt a bit awkward asking Caesar-sama to relay messages, but this should take care of Chris. As for Luna, she was a straightforward child as Lady Isabella said, so a proper explanation should be enough to calm her down.
"Tenma-san, Lady Primera, congratulations on your engagement."
"Teacher, Lady Primera, congratulations."
As Caesar-sama and the others departed, Tida and Amy came over. Both offered their congratulations, but Amy seemed somewhat dissatisfied while Tida looked unsettled.
"By the way, Teacher! Why didn't you tell me about the engagement?!"
Amy's dissatisfaction was, as expected, rooted in the exclusion of not being told about the engagement.
"Amy, this matter wasn't something that could be shared easily. I'm sorry for keeping it secret, but you're currently adopted into the Shirufirudo family. The Shirufirudo family is on good terms with the Ōtori family and the Duke Sanga household, and among them, the Sanga household is particularly close—close enough that their eldest son and eldest daughter are engaged."
Amy seemed to understand that much, as she paused, took stock, and nodded.
"However, they're still a different noble house. And while the Ōtori family may be respected by the nobility, we're commoners, whereas the Duke Sanga household is one of the greatest noble families in the country. So there are certainly nobles who resent the connection between two families of different status. If any of them thought to interfere with my and Primera's engagement, the first target would be Amy. To prevent that, this was a decision made by me, Duke Sanga, and the King and Lady Maria—with Tida's input."
I casually let slip that Tida had also considered Amy's safety in all this, and she seemed to feel somewhat better about it. And Tida, standing next to Amy, clearly looked relieved.
"Come to think of it, Amy will be my stepsister, won't she?"
"That's right. I look forward to our relationship from here on out, Lady Primera—my big sister!"
When Primera changed the subject to lighten the mood, Amy latched onto it. And then—
"Primera, Amy's number one big sister is me, you know!"
Eliza, who had been watching from the side, came over having abandoned Albert. As for Albert, left behind by Eliza, he was dealing with three women. There was nothing flirtatious about the scene though—if anything, Albert looked like he wanted to escape.
After watching for a while, Albert seemed to sense my gaze and suddenly turned toward me.
"Primera, do you know the women talking to Albert?"
I asked because I figured that if they were acquaintances of Albert, Primera would know them too, but—
"Tenma-san, what are you saying? Those three are Duke Sanga's wives. In other words, they're Primera's mothers."
Eliza, who had been talking with Amy, told me with a stunned expression—well, rather than telling me, it was more like scolding me. I had no excuse for this one. I didn't even know who my future mothers-in-law were.
"...Primera, I'd like to greet your mothers. Could you introduce me?"
"Yes, let's go. But be prepared—they might tease you quite a bit. If it gets too rough, just offer up my brother as a sacrifice, and you can get through most of it."
I'd keep in mind that Albert was a reliable man to call on after the fact and thank him later.
"Even so, why is it that on the very day of the engagement announcement, we're meeting the other party's mothers? Normally this would happen much earlier... right after the engagement is decided, or even before. You'd think at least one visit would have been made beforehand."
Eliza grumbled behind me as we started walking, but I had no right to argue at this point, so I ignored her... Eliza also apparently had business with the mothers, as she followed along behind Primera and me, still grumbling.
"Mother, do you have a moment?"
When Primera addressed them, all three turned toward us. It was impossible to tell who was Primera's actual mother, but Eliza quickly explained: "In the Duke Sanga household, there's no distinction between the main wife and the concubines—all three are called 'Mother.'"
"Mother, this is the man who has become my fiancé, Tenma Ōtori."
"How do you do. My name is Tenma Ōtori. I should have come to pay my respects as soon as the engagement was decided, but I failed to do so until today. Please forgive this breach of etiquette."
Along with my greeting, I apologized and bowed my head, but I found myself thinking that this kind of formal phrasing wasn't really my forte. After a brief pause following my apology:
"Your husband already told us the reason, so please raise your head."
came the response. From her tone, she didn't seem angry about the missed visit. However—
"Your husband said, 'Tenma-kun is quite busy and probably forgot about formalities—why don't you go visit him?' But we were busy too and couldn't come to the Royal Capital, so it goes both ways."
They even knew that I had forgotten the reason, which made me quite embarrassed.
"Well then, to introduce myself properly—I'm Olivia, Primera's 'birth mother' and 'one of the three who raised her.'"
"I'm Camilla, 'one of the three who raised her.'"
"Oh my, I've been beaten to the number two... I'm Grace, 'one of the three who raised her.'"
"I look forward to our relationship from here on. ...By the way, Primera, what does that 'one, two, three' mean?"
There were parts of the three introductions I didn't understand, so I asked Primera, but she dodged the question with a wry smile. So—
"You there, trying to sneak away—Albert! What does that 'one, two, three' mean?"
I spotted Albert trying to quietly slip away from the scene, so I stopped him before he could escape. Well, if I was going to say it loudly enough for everyone to hear, I might as well have asked the three of them directly... but since I couldn't let Albert have all the fun, I deliberately raised my voice.
"Wait, Tenma! I mean, Tenma-san? Come over here for a second... damn it! I can't pull him!"
Albert tried to drag me toward a corner in a panic, but I braced myself and resisted. After all, there was no reason to follow Albert, and I figured it would be better for me to stay put rather than leave the range of the women's gaze.
"Hmm... fine. As for what Mother and the others mean by 'parents who raised her—number one, two, and three'—it's exactly what it sounds like. They raised Primera together, as three people. Well, my older sisters and I were all raised by the three of them too, so that's normal in the Duke Sanga household."
The main wife and concubines of a noble house are partners who must work together to support their shared household, but at the same time, they're also rivals... or rather, in the popular imagination, it's more common to think of them as having a messier relationship than simple rivalry. There were numerous stories of succession disputes that erupted when, for example, the main wife bore the second son and a concubine bore the firstborn, dragging both families into it. Even short of that, hearing that relations had deteriorated was commonplace.
"Camilla was the first to have a child, then came Grace, and then Olivia gave birth. That was me. And finally, Olivia had Primera, and..."
"I'll take it from here. First of all, we were childhood friends—we met before our husband did. In our view, he was the one who came along later and joined our group. So when our families' negotiations resulted in me becoming his fiancée, I actually requested that Camilla and Grace be made concubines as well."
I had heard that a main wife could have a say in welcoming concubines, but recommending concubines before even getting married was something I'd never heard of and quite unusual.
"Because of that, when Camilla had Rachel, and when Grace had Angela, it felt like the children came without any pain."
"I feel the same way."
"Indeed. Being able to take turns watching over them as three people, it didn't feel particularly difficult."
They had also hired several nannies, so it was apparently easier mentally as well.
"I came a bit after the other two, but I also had a baby. When it turned out to be the long-awaited boy of the Duke Sanga household, all three of us got really enthusiastic about his education. Father had to rein us in frequently."
"Yes. After a string of girls, having a boy—we were a bit thrown at first. But things worked out well because Olivia, as the main wife, had produced the heir, so both Camilla and I were relieved."
"Yes. If it had just been girls, that would have been its own problem, and if Camilla or I had produced a boy first, people around us might have raised a fuss."
With all that in mind, expectations for Albert among the three were very high, and they had apparently tried to begin gifted education as soon as he was born, only to be stopped by Duke Sanga. Perhaps because of that, Albert's education was primarily managed by Duke Sanga himself.
For Primera, born about three years later, they applied the lessons learned from Albert's experience and kept their involvement in her education limited, leaving it mostly to private tutors. However, when it came to doting on her, the reverse reaction from Albert's era—Albert was properly loved too, but the portion they couldn't give him during his education as heir was redirected to Primera—meant that Primera ended up being the most pampered of the four. Furthermore, since there were no more children after Primera, the period of doting was even longer.
"As a result, Primera became a somewhat naive, sheltered girl..."
"That's right. But isn't that part of what makes her cute?"
When she put it that way, I couldn't really argue, so I just nodded silently. Pleased with my reaction, the three of them started recounting stories of Primera's past without even being asked.
"Mothers, shouldn't we be heading over to greet Caesar-sama and Lady Isabella soon?"
When a red-faced Primera said this, the three hurriedly excused themselves and departed. Primera's intensity had even caused Albert to attempt an escape, but before he could slip away, a man approached us.
"Lady Primera, Lord Albert, congratulations."
"Thank you, Viscount Abyss."
"Thank you, Viscount Abyss. ...By the way, did you mention Primera's name first on purpose?"
"Not at all, nothing of the sort. Tenma-sama, allow me to once again congratulate you on this engagement."
"Thank you. Viscount Abyss—I know this may not be the place to ask, but how is Falman doing after the wedding in Gunjou City?"
I knew Falman was performing community service under Viscount Abyss's supervision, but I had no further information, so I was curious.
"Yes, he's been working quite hard. At this rate, his freedom may come sooner than expected. Recently, a certain young woman showed up at Falman's place unannounced. They're apparently living together quite happily."
I wondered whether it was alright for him to live with someone while under surveillance, but apparently, when Falman had to relocate to the city under Viscount Abyss's jurisdiction, he explained the situation to her and they broke up. However, she wasn't satisfied with the breakup and showed up at his doorstep one day with just a single bag, without any warning.
"She must be a passionate woman."
At Primera's remark, Viscount Abyss nodded vigorously. He told us that those who knew about the situation initially had reservations about the cohabitation, but they came to accept it after seeing Falman's dedication to his community service.
"Hey, Albert... It seems Viscount Abyss can no longer see me."
"I've been pretty much invisible from the start, so you're actually better off, Tenma."
Viscount Abyss had apparently lost sight of us entirely and was only talking with Primera.
"I can't really move away from here either... Come to think of it, Albert, is there anything you'd like as a wedding gift?"
I couldn't leave Primera's side, and just standing there felt silly, so I struck up a conversation with Albert. Part of the motivation was also to prevent him from escaping toward where Eliza and Amy (plus Tida) had gone.
"Hmm, let me see... I'd like a golem, but Lady Maria gave me a stern talking-to about that before..."
I thought that for a gift, Lady Maria probably wouldn't object even if it was a golem, but it would probably be safer to go with something else.
After thinking about it for a while, Albert said:
"A carriage would be nice. It doesn't have to be as elaborate as yours—a slightly smaller box carriage on the outside, but big enough inside for two or three people to lie down. And a toilet and bath... that might be too much to ask, but at least some space to change clothes?"
He'd apparently be traveling between the Royal Capital and Duke Sanga's territory even more going forward, and wanted to make those trips more comfortable. He also wanted the carriage drawn not by a golem like Raiden, but by regular horses, and to make it slightly smaller than normal to reduce the burden on the horses and increase travel speed.
"Well, that's not too difficult to make. At least simpler than the golem I'm working on now."
Essentially, it was a scaled-down version of the carriage I currently used, so using that as a reference shouldn't be too hard.
"But if I gift that carriage to Albert, others will want one too. At the very least, Cain and Lion definitely will."
"True. But giving them to both without a reason wouldn't sit right with me."
Well, the reason I was giving one to Albert was the wedding gift, so giving them to the others without reason wouldn't be ideal. However—
"For Cain, if you want to give him one at the time of his marriage to Sierra, that's under the same conditions as mine, so I won't object. But Lion doesn't have a partner... well, he has candidates, but at this rate, it'll be years before anything materializes."
As Albert said, Cain was likely to marry soon, so giving it then would be fine, and no one would have grounds to complain.
"All right, let's do that. But in that case, would it be two carriages, including Eliza's share?"
"Since it would be framed as a wedding gift for both me and Eliza, it would be one carriage. Well, if you want to give two, I won't complain, but that would make your return gifts more difficult... I think it should be one per couple, or one gifted to the Duke Sanga household as a whole."
It might seem odd to ask the recipient, but since I had no experience with this kind of thing, I couldn't help it. If I thought of it as getting advice from my future brother-in-law for future reference, it wasn't that strange.
"If word gets out that Eliza and I received a carriage, people will start asking for one too."
If I gifted Albert a custom carriage, word would naturally spread that I had made it myself. Then people would come asking for one, saying they'd pay. But—
"About that—I'm actually thinking of giving a similar one to Tida in the future. Of course, that would be if he successfully gets engaged or married to Amy, and I'd need permission from the King and the others. But that way, it would only go to someone with a close relationship to me AND a sufficient reason—wouldn't that work?"
It didn't have to be Tida specifically—if someone in the royal family had a sufficient reason, I could gift one then. But a reason like marriage or engagement was more specific and easier to understand.
"That's certainly a good idea, but Tida-sama and Amy's marriage is probably quite far off... It might be better to use Cain's engagement. Say the carriage is being gifted ahead of the wedding for Lady Sierra's safety or something. The reason might be a bit thin, but you could build the image that these are gifts for people close to you."
I'd need to discuss this with Cain later too... While I was thinking that—
"Tenma-sama, I know this may be impolite to ask so soon after your engagement, but do you intend to take a concubine in the future?"
Viscount Abyss had apparently been waiting for my conversation with Albert to end before asking this.
"Viscount Abyss! That's going too far, isn't it?!"
Albert was angry at Viscount Abyss's remark, but what concerned me was that Primera, standing beside me, said nothing.
"Lord Albert, matters like this are best settled as soon as possible. Even if Lady Primera is leaving the noble register, Tenma-sama will be deeply involved in the world of the nobility. When that happens, all manner of nobles will approach with such proposals, and if each one is to be an unpleasant experience, it would be better to make the matter clear here and now."
Viscount Abyss's straightforward declaration, combined with Albert's rebuke, suddenly drew the attention of the entire hall to us.
"Viscount Abyss, I—"
"Regarding that matter, Viscount Abyss—I have my own thoughts on concubines."
Just as I was about to answer that I didn't need a concubine, Primera cut me off.