I’ll Use a Reverse-Edged Sword

“I assume you must be Wydro Luna. It’s nice to meet you. I am Castillo Eden.”
“Did you not hear what I just said? It’s unpleasant that you come here on your own without any appointment.”
“There seems to be a misunderstanding. I sent a letter requesting permission to visit a few days ago, and only came here after receiving a reply yesterday.”
“What… what! I didn’t hear anything about this”
“…It seems you don’t communicate much with your father. Let’s sit down for now.”

Although it was the Wydro family’s building, I offered her a seat as if I were the host.
The fluttering silk dress, high heels, and the jewelry dangling from her neck and ears looked quite pretty, but I thought they must be quite uncomfortable.

As she sat down, those maids came in again and placed refreshments in front of her as well.

“So, what’s the reason for your sudden visit?”
She got straight to the point without even glancing at the refreshments.
Thanks to that, I had to hurriedly chew and swallow the refreshment I had put in my mouth and answer without even having time to wet my throat.

“Actually, I came today intending to meet with Lord Wydro and discuss the details of our engagement. Ah, have you heard about the talk of our marriage?”
I confirmed her awareness, worried about the lack of communication between father and daughter.

“Tch. Of course I know about such an important matter”
She answered while bringing tea to her lips and looking out the window.
Since that brief eye contact earlier, she hadn’t even glanced my way.
Even though we hadn’t exchanged many words yet, she already seemed to dislike me.
It’s not easy to be disliked this quickly, but I guess I might have a talent for being disliked.

“Still, I think it’s fortunate that we can talk face to face like this, Miss Luna. In fact, although they say marriage is between families, isn’t the most important thing the thoughts of us two who are directly involved?”

“I have no intention of continuing this marriage to the end.”

Boom
She launched a preemptive strike while I was off guard.
After mulling over her words in my head two or three times, I finally realized that the situation was flowing as I wanted, and smiled as I answered.

“By saying you don’t want to continue to the end… can I understand that to mean you want to just get engaged, take the strategic benefits between the families, and then break off the marriage?”

She was dumbfounded for a while with an expression that seemed to say “I can’t believe this”.
When she finally looked at my face again, it happened to be when I couldn’t hide my smile…
Her expression twisted quite unpleasantly.

“Shouldn’t you ask for the reason first? What’s with that pleased expression?”
“Ahem… ahem, no… nothing. Yes, may I ask why?”
“You’re begging for praise.”

Ah, she’s so picky.
Given that this was an important matter related to the family’s finances, and thinking that I might be able to get exactly the best result I wanted, I decided to try to accommodate her a bit more.

“No matter how much it’s a matter between families, isn’t the position of those directly involved the most important thing in marriage? As it happens, I was also skeptical about continuing this marriage to the end, so I’m glad that our opinions align, Miss Luna.”

“What? Are you saying you wanted to break off this marriage too?”

Oh oh…
Seeing her face suddenly turning red, I found myself feeling flustered for some reason.

“Well… for now, yes, that’s right.”
“What’s your reason?”
“The reason… didn’t I ask you first, Miss Luna?”
“Are you going to be this childish?”

Thinking that the situation could turn quite serious, I resolved to wrap things up appropriately.

“Haha. I apologize. You can forget about me asking for the reason. I know best what my reputation, Eden Castillo’s, is like within the territory. There’s no other reason you’d be reluctant about the marriage. Then let me tell you my reason for wanting to break off the marriage. I don’t want to have a political marriage with someone I don’t have feelings for, for the sake of family interests. That’s not something a novel protagonist would do… I mean, I want to say that it doesn’t align with my beliefs as a person.”

“……”

I wonder if she realizes that she’s now staring intently into my eyes?
After sitting down, she had been throwing her gaze out the window and just spitting out words, but now she was silently staring into my eyes, making me feel somewhat uncomfortable.

“In any case, do you agree to proceed with the engagement without any problems?”
“Th-that… yes!”

Her face, which was inexplicably continuing to redden, made me worry that it might burst if left like that.
I put down the refreshment I was eating and stood up.

“For the engagement, how about we just exchange rings lightly, without any unnecessary formalities? It seems better not to make things too big for the moment when we break off the marriage later.”

“……Do… do as you please- hup!”

She started to gasp as she saw me take out a ring box from my pocket.

“Wh-what! This… this suddenly”

What is it?
Why is she so surprised?
Does she think I’m trying to propose to her right now?
I just said let’s exchange rings, and she agreed, right?
Seeing her face about to burst, I couldn’t help but express words of concern.

“Miss Luna… your complexion is terrible. You’re as red as a radish… I mean, like an apple, are you alright?”

Only then did she start to cover her face with both hands.
Did she realize her condition from the heat transmitted to her hands?

She shouted while bowing her head deeply as if trying not to show her face to me at all.

“I… I’m not mentally prepared yet!”
“……Didn’t you just agree to only exchange rings?”
“I’m feeling very unwell! I’d appreciate it if you’d leave now!”
“Ah, yes, I understand. I’ll leave the ring… here. Take care of yourself then”

I was already about to end the meeting and get up, remembering the coachman who didn’t seem like he would wait long.
I placed the ring with its case on the table and left, guided by a maid.

On the way out, I turned back to check her condition, but she was still unable to move an inch from that posture of bowing her head and covering her face, perhaps because she really wasn’t feeling well.

I left the Wydro residence and returned home, wishing for her health to recover.

“Father!! Father!!”
Wydro Hanson, who was reading a book in his study, was startled and dropped his book when Luna roughly opened the door as if she was about to smash it.

“Father!!”
“My ears are going to fall off. Your father isn’t deaf, kid.”
Hanson finally noticed that Luna’s face was not like usual and asked her.

“Why does your face look like that? Has the trendy makeup style changed recently?”
Luna’s cheeks, which were too red, were beyond Hanson’s understanding.

“Father! Why didn’t you tell me that Castillo Eden was coming today! Do you know how much trouble I went through because of that!”

“Trouble? Did that guy do something to you? I’ll immediately-“
“That’s not it!! Ah, it’s so frustrating!”

“Your father knows that you don’t want this marriage, you’ve always been waiting for that fateful encounter like in those novels you love to read. But… this marriage is unavoidable for the survival of our family. So, I thought to make the first meeting a bit of a surprise-“

“It was the worst choice! The worst! The worst, Father!”

Luna berated Hanson loudly again and again.
Hanson couldn’t gauge just how much Luna disliked this marriage.

In fact,
Even though they’re just barons, the Castillo family is a noble family.
It’s not a common opportunity for a merchant’s daughter to be able to marry into a noble family.
Yet, Luna really seemed to dislike this marriage.

“Look at this! When I heard that person had arrived at the reception room, I was so surprised that I matched my dress and shoes terribly. The earrings and necklace are excessively flashy… if he thinks I usually enjoy this style…”

Hanson couldn’t understand what Luna was angry about at all.

“Why didn’t you ever tell me about that person’s appearance? I mean, why wasn’t there any talk about his looks in the rumors circulating in the territory about him!”

“That… that… why are you questioning me about that? I’ve never seen that friend either…”

“I don’t like it… I don’t like any of it!!!!”

Watching Luna shout and leave with her face reddening again, Hanson was thinking that pushing for this engagement might have been too big a mistake.

But… that’s dislike… right?
Hanson’s head kept tilting in confusion.