Negotiations with Dad

 ☆

 
 Evening that day.
 I paid Dad’s office a visit.
 
 ”Letty, is your body alright?”
 
 Dad asked, squinting his eyes.
 I nod as I sit down on the stool Anna prepared for me.
 
 ”Yeah. It’s still difficult to walk by myself, but I thought I should make sure to move my body little by little. Sorry for worrying you, Papa.”
 
 ”No, it’s fine. It’s my fault, I took you to the royal castle and suddenly had you have an audience with His Majesty and His Highness without considering your feelings or telling you anything. To make matters worse, to have my recuperating daughter worry about me… I’m a failure as a father.”
 
 My father let out a small sigh.
 Apparently he felt responsible for me collapsing at the castle.
 
 In truth, the cause for me collapsing was that seeing Alvin’s face brought back [Memories of the Future], so Dad doesn’t need to feel responsible.
 
 But now, it’s better that he feels guilty.
 
 ”By any chance, expressly coming all the way out here, was there something you wanted to talk about?”
 
 ”Yeah. Plus it’s related, I guess.”
 
 I felt a pang of pain deep in my chest.
 
 If I say this, Dad will probably suffer even more.
 But if the engagement is accepted as things are, what’s waiting for us in the near future is ruin.
 
 That’s the one thing we must absolutely avoid.
 
 I lifted my face, and looked straight at Dad.
 And then I told him,
 
 ”Otou-sama^[1]. Please let me succeed Ainsworth.”
 
 Dad’s eyes widened in astonishment.
 
 
 
 ”You want, to succeed the House^[2]?”
 
 ”Yes.”
 
 Taking Dad’s gaze head-on, I nodded.
 
 I absolutely can’t not avoid getting engaged to the prince.
 However, before the king, you can’t refuse.
 Then, what’s the best way to avoid the engagement without refusing?
 
 The answer is [Succession of the House].
 
 If you succeeded the House, you naturally can’t marry into a different House. Even the royal family will find it difficult to force an engagement then.
 At least, it’ll probably become an excuse to not get married.
 
 I wonder what Dad thinks?
 
 ”………”
 
 Dad looked down at his desk, and pondered with a difficult expression.
 A short while later, he lifted his gaze.
 
 ”Certainly, the engagement talks would likely die out. However, for you to succeed the House is likely not going to be simple.”
 
 ”What might be the problem?”
 
 To my question, Dad hesitated to reply, going “uh, um”.
 
 ”There are various problems. However, the number one obstacle is that the kingdom’s peerage succession laws don’t accept women’s succession. In our country, it is fundamentally impossible for women to succeed as the heir, you see.”
 
 Dad told me so with a bitter face.
 He’s certainly putting into words something that’s difficult to talk about.
 
 However, just because he says that doesn’t mean we can give up here. Our lives and futures depend on this.
 
 ——— we need to move on with the conversation.
 
 
 
 ”Anna, that book from a little while ago”
 
 ”Yes, Ojou-sama.”
 
 At my words, Anna, who’d been waiting beside me, came and presented a bulky book to me.
 
 ”Thanks.”
 
 I accepted the book, and opened up to the page with a bookmark in it.
 
 ”And that book is?”
 
 ”A collection of Acts regarding the laws of nobility, regarding our Heilland Kingdom. I asked the butler Brandon and borrowed it from the mansion’s library.”
 
 ”A collection of Acts? Why would you need such a thing???”
 
 ”As father mentioned earlier, if we’re going to leave out the laws, we won’t be able to continue the conversation. Therefore we’ll refer to the actual text while——”
 
 ”No no no, wait a bit.”
 
 Dad held me back with his hand.
 
 ”You, can you actually read such an abstruse^[3] thing?! Legal texts that are so full of technical terms, that even the royal palace’s civil officials spend years of trouble just getting familiar with it?”
 
 Dad looked at me with a face that said [I can’t believe it].
 
 ”That is all thanks to Otou-sama. I’ve heard that normally, there are many Houses where noblemen’s daughters take lessons in etiquette, dance, and such and that’s all. But Otou-sama gave me excellent teachers so that I may study everything I was interested in, including magic tool designing and manufacturing. Thanks to that, even a book like this, I’m able to skim through to some extent.”
 
 This is half true, and half false.
 
 I was given private tutors in every field, and I’m thankful to Dad for that.
 
 But the reason the current me knows the law in such detail is in fact thanks to the bridal training I got in my dream of the future. In order to marry into royalty, my education those days were spent thoroughly teaching me the country’s laws in general.
 
 ”……”
 
 Dad, who had been listening to my words with a blank face, soon came back and laughed self-deprecatingly.
 
 ”I wonder when you grew up so big. To me, I thought you were still just a child, but… I’ve got no choice but to change that perception.”
 
 ”I’m twelve, so I’m still a child, you know?”
 
 ”But that’s not what I meant. Well, whatever. Please continue from where we left off.”
 
 ”Yes. Otou-sama.”
 
 
 
 With Dad urging me on, I lowered my eyes to the book at hand.
 
 ”I believe Otou-sama was referring to Article 2, Clause 1 of [Laws of Peerage Succession]. [The succession of peerage of the Heilland Kingdom’s nobility shall, as a general rule, be carried out by a male of the male’s lineage who is the first-born of legitimate direct lineage].”
 
 ”Exactly.”
 
 ”Clause 2 of the same Article stipulates that the eldest child has priority, so if we think of applying this to Otou-sama’s [Count Owleyes], then the eldest son, Graham-nii-sama, would inherit the title.”
 
 ”Right.”
 
 Dad nodded deeply.
 
 Normally, the conversation would end here.
 As a woman, I couldn’t succeed peerage. Therefore I couldn’t use succession as a shield to escape from getting engaged to the prince.
 However…
 
 ”Otou-sama, have you ever read Article 8 of this law?”
 
 I’m sure I’ve skimmed over it, but I don’t remember the specific details… what was it about?”
 
 Dad urges me to go on.
 I put the book on my knee, and look down.
 
 ”Then I’ll read it. [Articles 1 till 7 applies, as a general rule, to all Heilland Kingdom nobles.However———”
 
 I lift my face, and face Dad.
 
 ”Peerage established as Special Wartime Conferment shall be subject to provisions of the royal charter at the time of enactment.]”
 
 ”The exceptions provided for wartime-peerage!”
 
 Dad exclaimed in surprise.
 
 
 
 Wartime-peerage… Special Wartime Conferment is a system allowing the king to directly confer peerage during wartime without waiting on the deliberation of the Senate.
 
 In the case of a conferrement or promotion of peerage is hastily required for wartime troop formation, operation or the likes, the king can issue a royal certificate for conferrement not exceeding that of a viscount, with the condition that the Senate gives its approval afterwards.
 
 The peerage conferred under this system is also called wartime-peerage.
 
 ”And so, how is wartime-peerage related to the conversation this time around? The Owleyes Count rank which our House has isn’t a wartime-peerage, but a title that was conferred after prior deliberation by the Senate.”
 
 ”Yes. For Owleyes, that’s true.”
 
 At my words, Dad’s expression turned suspicious.
 However…
 
 ”Letty, wait a minute. Did you say [For Owleyes] just now?”
 
 ”Yes. I did.”
 
 Dad stood up with a startled face, briskly walked before the cabinet and began turning the dials on the safe stored there.
 
 
 
 I waited for a while.
 
 Dad took out a single wooden box from the safe, and placed it upon the desk.
 
 ”…”
 
 He put on gloves, and carefully lifted the lid.
 
 Inside were several old letters.
 Dad took a one of them out, and intently fixed his eyes upon it.
 
 ”[Royal Certificate —— The undersigned is conferred the Ainsworth Barony as per Special Wartime Conferment… In addition, regarding succession, the peerage holder may nominate a candidate for succession within three degrees of kinship, and can be succeeded at their discretion during their lifetime or promptly after death].”
 
 Dad looked up from the document, and looked at me with surprise and confusion.
 
 ”Letty. You said earlier that you [want to succeed Ainsworth].”
 
 ”I did.”
 
 ”So in other words, you mean you [want to inherit the Ainsworth Barony]?”
 
 ”It is as you say.”
 
 Nodding my head, Dad was speechless once more.
 

TL Notes:

[1]highly respectful version of father ↩

[2]I’m using “House” with a capital “H” to differentiate between the noble house and the building ↩

[3]I just loooove it when the dictionary gives me abstruse translations for words 🙂 ↩