Vol 1 Chapter 15 – On the Engagement【Vol 1 — A Happy Childhood】

“Um… well… Blum-san? I… didn’t quite understand what you just said…”

A flustered Sophia asked Blum again, her face filled with confusion.

No, I couldn’t quite understand what he’d said either.
If I hadn’t misheard, I could have sworn I heard the word “marriage”…

“Ah, perhaps I phrased it poorly. It was a bit sudden.”

Blum brushed back his long bangs in an affected manner.

“Just now, our engagement was decided. Ah, Sophia. You are more beautiful than any woman I have ever met… To think I can marry someone like you, I am certain of my own happiness.”

…What is this guy talking about?

Blum was delivering a heated speech right in front of Sophia.
As I was giving him an icy stare, Elena tilted her head in my arms.

“…Mawwiage?”

Elena looked at us with curious eyes.
But sorry, Elena, I didn’t have time for her right now.

“Um, Blum-san. I apologize, but I don’t quite follow… What do you mean, your engagement was decided?”

It was extremely rare to see Sophia using polite speech.
Probably because this Blum guy was older than her and didn’t have much contact with her.

So why were words like “marriage” and “engagement” coming out of nowhere?

That’s when a single word floated into my head.

Political marriage.

It was probably a coincidence that I thought of that term. Sophia was a noble daughter despite appearances, so some part of my brain must have already accepted that possibility.

But that possibility—

“Sophia. It is an engagement formally decided upon by your father and mine. Objections won’t be accepted. In other words—”

Apparently, it was reality.

◯

Regen Blum.
That was the name of the guy spouting all this nonsense about being engaged to Sophia.
He was the only son of Bennett Alal Blum, the lord who ruled the Medical City of Medisia.

Even a country bumpkin like me, holed up in a village, knew the name of the Medical City of Medisia.
It was a major city next to Romul, the town ruled by Sophia’s father.

Numerous large facilities researching medical magic were established there, and as the name suggested, medicine was highly developed.
In this world, while magic exists, there’s no convenient super-healing magic that fixes everything.
Recovery magic exists, but handling it requires considerable knowledge.

By the way, mages who possess that knowledge and hold certain qualifications are called magic doctors.

To put it simply, the city of Medisia was crawling with skilled magic doctors.

Enter the epidemic incident that occurred in Romul, ruled by Sophia’s father, several years ago.
The epidemic raged beyond the power of Sophia’s father, the lord, to contain.
So apparently, Sophia’s father asked the neighboring domain—the one with the Medical City—for help.

And in doing so, he incurred a debt? A liability? I don’t really understand those complicated matters—but he created a massive debt.
A really huge one.
One large enough to have a non-negligible impact on governing the territory.

—And thus, the engagement between Sophia and that detestable Regen Blum.
Creating a connection with the Blum family and canceling out the debt. Strictly speaking, creating a situation of joint liability.

…To be clear, I’m pretty pissed right now.
Seriously pissed.

Since coming to this world—no, including my previous life—this might be the angriest I’ve ever been.

Of course, the target of that anger wasn’t that smug guy Regen Blum.
It was Sophia’s father.

I don’t care how tough a noble lord’s job is, how dare he use his own daughter as a convenient solution to his problems.
And in the irreversible form of marriage, no less.

That’s when I made up my mind.
I would do everything I could for Sophia, who had always looked after useless me.

Now then, first… let’s go meet Sophia’s father, shall we?

◯

The epidemic damage that had occurred in Romul had mostly subsided now and was beginning to settle down.
Until about a year ago, strict inspections and permits had been required just to enter or leave the town, but now that had mostly become a formality, so essentially, people could come and go freely.

Sophia’s father, the lord, had been visiting our house almost daily to see Sophia since around that time.

But recently, I hadn’t seen him much.
The reason was obvious.

The day after meeting Regen Blum.
Unable to bear seeing Sophia shut up in her room without going to school, I decided to go meet her father.

This is ridiculous!
Why would you proceed with such talks without even confirming Sophia’s wishes!

Fuming with anger, I was walking to catch the shared carriage at the edge of the village to go to town.
I was worried about a child looking like me going to town alone, but there was no other choice.

I could have asked my mother Alicia or my father Lucas for help, but something told me that wasn’t a good idea.
See, it had to do with the connection between our house and Sophia’s house.
My father Lucas, the pillar of our household, was a mage who also held a managerial role in the village.

To put it simply, he used his power as a mage to protect the village from monsters (barriers and such) and settled disputes in the village from above.
Like a lord but on a smaller scale?

Because he did such important work, our family was relatively wealthy and lived comfortably.

That’s why I felt it was better not to rely too much on my parents.

While walking along with those thoughts swirling in my head—

—Lo and behold, I spotted Sophia’s father walking from the opposite direction.

◯

“…”

An uncomfortable atmosphere hung in the air.

Sophia’s father walked beside me with a guilty look on his face. The butler who always accompanied him wasn’t there today.

And our destination was my house.

“So, Fullo-san.”

Fullo. That was Sophia’s father’s name.

“Y-yes, Will Role-kun…”

Fullo looked at me at my anger-suppressed voice.

“Is it true that Sophia-neesan is engaged to the Blum family’s son?”
“—!”

Surprise mixed in Fullo’s eyes as he looked at me.

Seeing that reaction, I was certain.
What Regen Blum had said wasn’t a lie.

“H-how do you know about that…?”
“Yesterday, the young master of the Blum family came to pay his respects.”

My voice came out colder than I expected.
My eyes looking at him were probably just as cold.
This wasn’t something a seven-year-old should be doing.

But I didn’t have time to worry about that right now.

“What is the meaning of this? I know it’s not my place to say as someone outside Fullo-san’s household, but isn’t this too sudden? Sophia-neesan didn’t seem to know anything either.”

Why did you decide something so important on your own without confirming Sophia’s wishes?
I asked, implying that thought with my words.

Strength naturally gathered in my eyes as I looked at Fullo.

“…I-it’s not…”

Hearing that strained voice, which sounded almost sorrowful, my irritation grew.
How shameless.
I almost said “What do you mean it’s not?” in an accusing tone, but I ended up swallowing those words.

Seeing him trembling slightly, clenching his fists tightly, and hanging his head, I suddenly regained some calm.

That’s right.
Sophia’s father did love Sophia.
He had deeply regretted being unable to stay with young Sophia during the epidemic incident.
To make up for it, he had been visiting Sophia whenever he could find time in his busy schedule for about a year now.

There was no way such a man would do something like this without hearing Sophia’s wishes, no matter how desperate the situation.

“…Um, would you tell me what happened?”

When I realized it, those words had already left my mouth.