On Being Engaged to the Enemy’s Family
***
Leonidas Ferdinand and Kaon Ferdinand were siblings who didn’t have much reason to fight.
The firstborn Leonidas was not the type to treat her younger brother carelessly. Kaon in turn deeply respected and followed his sister. The five-year age gap between them also contributed to their close relationship. On top of that, the siblings lost their parents three years ago. Naturally, they didn’t have the time to fight each other and throw tantrums for trivial reasons. Even when they sometimes argued, the siblings would consider each other’s feelings and just let it go. They had no one else to trust in the world but each other, so they couldn’t afford to get angry over trivial matters.
However, today was the one day they couldn’t just let it go.
“Leo, have you gone crazy?” Kaon asked his sister after thinking about what he had heard ten times over. For sure now, something was either wrong with his ears or his sister’s mind.
“It would be easier if I was, but alas, I am sane.”
“You’re telling me to marry an Ingelos girl?”
“I said to get engaged first. If you want to marry her right away, I won’t stop you. But of course, you’ll have to wait until you’re of age.”
“Leo!” Kaon shouted. Engagement and marriage were the same thing. He wasn’t in the mood to play word games.
“Are you done yelling?”
“Oh, come on! Are you kidding me?”
But his sister, who had put him in this ridiculous situation, remained calm. She was carefully inspecting the documents throughout this conversation in such a nonchalant way that it made Kaon wonder for a moment if he was talking to a wall instead of his sister.
His mind wandered back, replaying the chain of events that led him to his current predicament.
***
It was a leisurely spring day, no different from any other. The midday sun was warmer than usual, and Kaon, who finished his morning training early, was resting comfortably on his bed.
“Young Master, Lady Leo is looking for you.”
“My sister?”
“Yes. She is waiting in the study.”
Their household butler, Bronson, came to find him. Kaon didn’t think much about it. His sister’s summons usually had a purpose. It was either a lecture or advice.
Kaon guessed that this time he was going to be reprimanded. One week ago, he pretended to be sick as an excuse to be dismissed from the marching training, so today was a good day to get scolded.
‘Well, I got to rest for a day thanks to that, so even if I get scolded a little…’
He humbly decided to accept his fate.
However, Leonidas didn’t say anything upon his arrival. She just stared at her paperwork, even though her brother was waiting there, ready to be scolded.
‘What is this, a new way to discipline?’ Kaon thought so, but he kept silent. It was somewhat boring to just stand there without saying anything, but he had no choice because of his wrongdoing.
By the time Kaon counted the number of file folders stacked on the desk to thirty-three, Leonidas finally spoke.
“Get engaged to the second daughter of the Ingelos family.” Then she was silent again as if that was the only reason she had summoned Kaon.
***
That’s why Kaon was now concerned about the sanity of his sister, whom he respected so much.
“What do you mean, ‘get engaged to the Ingelos family’? If our parents knew about this, they’d be so angry that they’d roll in their graves!”
“Then I’ll go and tell them. If I had known such a brilliant method earlier, I wouldn’t have let them stay in their graves for three years.”
“That’s not what I mean!” Kaon shouted in frustration. It was driving him insane.
The Ingelos family had been the enemy of the Ferdinands for generations, a bitter legacy etched in blood. In the kingdom of Gaios, their rivalry was a living legend. Forget about “cats and dogs”, people used “Ingelos and Ferdinand” as a metaphor to describe a long-lasting grudge.
As a descendant of the venerable house of knights, Kaon had grown up listening to rumors about the Ingelos until his ears tore off.
They were a cowardly, selfish clan of mages; cold-blooded bastards who valued the lives of knights life less than insects, and social misfits who didn’t have the slightest bit of loyalty.
Just thinking about the name made him angry. And now he was being told to marry the daughter of that family. It was beyond Kaon’s comprehension.
Instead of explaining the situation, Leonidas picked up one of the stacked file folders and hurled it in Kaon’s direction. He caught it easily and frowned as he flipped to the first page. He hated paper and words, but he had no choice but to read since his sister didn’t seem to be in the mood to talk.
The documents were a request for demands and an agreement sent from the Magic Tower.
The Ferdinand estate’s fertile land and mild climate made it a good place to live, but unfortunately, it was also home to the largest monster-infested forest in the kingdom. As a founding contributor, the Ferdinand family had been subduing monsters for hundreds of years.
As much as he hated to admit it, mages were an essential force when dealing with monsters. This was especially true since monsters are tricky opponents in close combat. When it came to ranged firepower, the mages were untouchable.
However, mages were rare in any era. Although they were more common than swordmasters, it was meaningless to compare them considering that there weren’t even five swordmasters in the entire continent within a generation.
A person simply could not become a mage if they desired to, they had to be born with mana. Even if they were to be born with it, there was no guarantee that they could harness that power within them.
The Ferdinands, despite their long lineage of knights, had never before seen a mage come from the bloodline. This made the proposition of marrying into a mage family all the more unexpected. However, there was a problem: there were no mages in the land, so the Ferdinands had to recruit a mage from the Magic Tower.
“What’s this? They’re asking for thirty percent more? Isn’t this just robbery at this point?” Kaon complained after reading through the letter. The document, which requested an increased wage coupled with better treatment, might as well have been a demand served with a knife in hand.
“And they also want to set up a branch in our territory! On the eastern land of all places! Have they gone insane? They’re basically demanding to gain control over someone else’s territory!”
Whether he was a Ferdinand or not, his outrage was reasonable. Objectively speaking, these demands were quite excessive. Moreover, the Ferdinand family had already fulfilled their demands last year and the year before. They had even increased bonuses several times.
These shameless guys!
“Just keep reading.” Leonidas urged on, shaking her head as she watched her infuriated brother.
Although Kaon was still in disbelief, he continued to examine the letter as instructed. As he kept reading through the paper, his jaw tightened, and his eyes grew colder.
“If we allow the royal knights to station in Ferdinand, they will provide support to the royal mages? Plus we have to split the mana stones equally?”
This document was a proposal sent directly by the king.
It praised the Ferdinand family’s efforts in protecting the kingdom from monsters and recommended that they accept support. It seemed benevolent at first glance, but the reality was far from that. Letting the Royal Knights into Ferdinand’s territory would be tantamount to officially allowing royal interference. It would be no different from inviting a spy to live inside.
As if that wasn’t enough to worry about, they would also have to give them an equal share of the mana stones.
Mana stones are jewels containing mana that can be obtained from the corpses of monsters with an extremely low probability, and they fetch a high value. The Magic Tower was already providing them the assistance of a high-ranking mage in exchange for those mana stones, and even then, they didn’t ask for an equal split of the loot.
“Well, this is…”
There was an uproar over their family between the Magic Tower and the royal house. Leonidas has been struggling to fill the void that their parents left since their passing three years ago, and there were many who took advantage of that.
Kaon felt exasperated as he combed a hand through his hair. He set down the letter and spoke, “Why does it have to be someone from Ingelos? They’re not the only mage family out there.”
“That’s because they are going through the same thing as we are.”
Kaon began to understand why Leonidas had made such a risky move. She needed a magical power that she could use without being controlled, a group of mages that would not be swayed. If the Ingelos family were going through the same hardships, their best choice would be to propose an alliance with them.
He didn’t have the full picture yet, but this was starting to make some sense.
“This is our only option? Are there no other ways?” Kaon asked. Deep inside, he understood the circumstances, but that didn’t mean he liked the idea of marrying someone from that family, let alone a mage.
It’s not like he dreamt about falling in love and marrying, but choosing someone he hates to spend the rest of his life with didn’t seem like an ideal option.
“There could be, but I doubt it.”
“Good then! We can–”
“Raise your sword, Kaon.”
The pair of hazel eyes that resembled their father’s were staring at him intently. There was no humor in those eyes. “You can overthrow me and take my place. That’s what our uncle wants too, so I doubt he will object.”
“Leo…”
“Or maybe I could marry their third son instead. He’s turning nine this year, right? A twelve-year age gap is not too bad. I can wait ten years.”
That statement was even more ridiculous. While arranged marriages were common, it was very unusual for couples to have such a significant age gap.
“Well in that case, I will have to step down. Our uncle will take care of things as your deputy until you come of age. He’ll be happy about it since it’s what he wanted anyway.”
His sister looked exhausted. That was enough to silence him.
He knew very well that their uncle had been trying to take over the lordship for the estate, and how hard his sister had been working to stop it. She had faced continuous opposition from the elders of the family despite taking charge for three years now. They could not accept the idea of a woman being in the highest position of such a prestigious knight family.
Still, Kaon believed that his sister was far more suited and more capable than anyone else, even more fit than himself. In terms of responsibility, dedication, broad vision, and decisiveness, no one could be more fitting as Ferdinand’s successor than his sister. Kaon had neither the desire nor the ability to be the successor.
“What am I supposed to do…”
A jumble of thoughts swirled through his mind, and then suddenly, everything became clear. After a long sigh, he made a decision.
🍉🍉🍉
