CHAPTER 612: THE KING’S ARRANGED MARRIAGE 3

TL: Rui88

“Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?”

Paul stared dumbfoundedly at Hansel and his father, Count Pearson Abbott, who were sitting in front of him.

His eyes were wide and round with disbelief, and his face showed a level of surprise that Hansel had never seen on Paul before.

It took a long while for Paul to come to his senses!

“I’m sorry, I might have misheard just now, Count Abbott. Could you please say that again?”

“Ahem!”

Count Abbott cleared his throat.

“His Majesty our King, Rodney XVIII, wishes for the royal family and the Grayman family to become in-laws. He wants to marry his sister, that is, the daughter of his uncle…the former King Rodney XVII…Princess Catherine, to you!”

Count Abbott’s unequivocal answer completely stunned Paul!

…

As Paul gradually grew up, Butler Philip began to arrange for his lifelong union. Paul was the only direct descendant left in the Grayman family, so procreating was a very important task.

The old butler would have him look at portraits from time to time, to choose a wife who satisfied him.

Most of these portraits were of the unmarried daughters from various noble families in the Northwest Bay, but Paul was never satisfied.

Don’t get the wrong idea. Paul was not like other transmigrators who, even if the other party was an impeccable beauty, would clamor about free love, marital autonomy, and hating an arranged life.

If the family had really arranged a marriage partner that satisfied him, Paul would have been drooling with laughter long ago.

Paul had once had beautiful fantasies about his other half.

However, his beautiful fantasies were not about interesting souls or anything of the sort.

In this respect, Paul was just a common man. His fantasy of beauty was a beautiful appearance.

But a beautiful appearance needed to be nurtured by a certain environment. A life of abundance, coupled with the passage of time, “bred” it over generations.

And the Northwest Bay, well! Everyone knew what kind of place it used to be.

The Northwest Bay was no longer poor, but it still lacked the precipitation of time.

In his previous life, Paul had been bombarded by all sorts of beauties on the internet.

This led to him being a bit unable to… unable to make a move on the girls of the Northwest Bay.

The two beauties from outside who had come to his side, Betty Dias and Ladi Sertia, did fit Paul’s definition of a “beautiful appearance.”

But Betty had a somewhat proud and delicate temper. When Paul interacted with her, he always felt a sense of condescension from her, and Betty later left the Northwest Bay.

As for Ladi Sertia…

A beautiful appearance, mysterious magic, a calm mind…such a character would be very popular in any game or film.

There was indeed some ambiguity between Paul and this witch.

Facing Ladi Sertia, Paul had more than once experienced one of the three great illusions of life.

Especially when he was drawing grand blueprints for industry or technology, and when he was scientifically explaining certain natural phenomena, Ladi, as a scholar, would always look at Paul with a certain kind of worship.

Ladi had risked her life to protect him more than once.

Ladi had also expressed more than once that she would be loyal to Paul and Paul’s cause, but Paul was not sure if this was akin to a knight’s allegiance to a monarch or if it had a different meaning.

When Paul began to test the waters, or tried to transform their relationship from ambiguous to something else, he encountered resistance.

The first resistance came from the old butler, Philip. Philip knew Ladi’s identity as a witch. When he discovered that Paul might harbor some fantasies about this beautiful lady, he immediately warned his master.

“If Lady Sertia becomes your partner, once her identity is leaked, it will bring you immense trouble, even… a tragedy!”

Paul asked in surprise, “A tragedy?”

Philip replied, “Yes. If your relationship with her is merely that of a lord and a subordinate, it would be fine. If her identity is exposed, you can still protect yourself, or your prestige and power might be strong enough to subdue the masses or even oppose the Church.”

“But if you become husband and wife, it’s different. Your wife will share your power and become the mistress of the domain. Your people might be able to accept their lord having a witch as a subordinate because she is also under your rule, but they may not be able to accept being ruled by a witch. They will have doubts and fears, and eventually, the doubts and fears will spread to you, her other half.”

“At that time, you will have emotional and familial bonds, and even the greater bond of having children. I know, Lord Grayman, like your father, you are a person who values these things very much.”

“At that time, you, and your witch wife, will inevitably face some very bad choices. For you, and especially for your children, it will be a huge tragedy.”

“Children? Philip, you’re thinking too far ahead!” Paul found it a bit amusing.

“No! Not far at all!”

Paul remembered very clearly that Philip had looked at him with a pitying gaze at that time, as if the tragedy had already occurred.

In short, Butler Philip, whom Paul regarded as an elder, was opposed, or at least disapproved.

The second layer of resistance came from Ladi, or rather, from Paul himself.

Ladi Sertia was a woman with a personality as calm as water. She was not the type of ice queen who kept people at a distance, but she could not be called enthusiastic either.

Every time some ambiguity ignited between Paul and her, this woman would always stop just short of going further.

Paul even once suspected that she was deliberately stringing him along, just like the “green tea” women from his previous life.

But through years of getting along, especially after she had risked her life to protect him several times, this suspicion was completely dispelled.

Paul had also tried to ask her indirectly about spellcasters’ attitudes towards marriage.

“A witch will bring disaster to her man,” Ladi had replied with a straight face at the time, even with a hint of warning.

This coincided with what the old butler had said.

Paul also wanted to take the initiative to develop their relationship, but he also had a certain worry.

What if Ladi’s heart was resistant, and he ended up driving her away?

She was a witch, not an ordinary person. Paul lacked the strong restraint of a lord over a commoner that he had with ordinary people when it came to Ladi.

If she wanted to leave, could he stop her?

Putting aside Ladi’s beauty, her magic had also been of immeasurable value to him, saving his life several times, and this was something Paul did not want to lose.

And Paul quite enjoyed the occasional ambiguity between the two of them.

Various reasons made Paul unwilling to let Ladi leave.

This also prevented him from taking the initiative to change the status quo.