READ NOVEL ONLINE The Duke Visconti’s young baron stamped the last document that needed to be processed today.
At any other time, he would have been happily pondering what to do and how to relax after finishing work.
Alfred let out a sigh filled with complicated emotions.
“When it came time for my sons to marry, everything was hectic only a week before the wedding; other than that, I didn’t pay much attention. But now that Erika is going to get married, I can’t shake this feeling of unease. We’re not even holding the real wedding yet; we’re just going through the steps to finalize the marriage.”
Heads of noble families tend to favor their daughters over their sons.
The reason being that sons need to be strictly raised to survive as the head of a family in this treacherous world.
Daughters, on the other hand, only need to fulfill their role as the lady of the house, making it unnecessary to apply such stringent standards.
To be more precise, they don’t even need to perform that role perfectly.
If a lady fails at her primary duty, which is to manage the territory, she can just hand it over to the family’s steward, and delegate household matters to the head maid.
As long as they give birth to children correctly and don’t harbor jealousy towards the concubines, showing up consistently at balls is the bare minimum.
Of course, doing only the bare essentials would render them half invisible in the family.
‘As long as our ducal family remains intact, who would dare to look down on Erika?’
The young baron had never raised Erika with anything other than the family’s reputation and her beauty in mind.
It was about time for her to marry off, and yet he found himself lost in these pointless thoughts.
“For a noble, marrying off my sons is several times more important than sending Erika away. I suppose that’s what it means to be a father.”
Muttering to himself, the young baron pulled out a bottle of wine that he had kept on a shelf in his office.
Then he began to drink alone.
It was an extremely expensive wine, but right now, all he could taste was bitterness, completely devoid of the wine’s unique aroma or acidity.
“It’s not something I should say as the young baron, but married life is unfortunate for women, indeed.”
Alfred had married the daughter of the Duke of Burgundy from the Lion Kingdom in a political marriage.
Before the wedding, he had been looking forward to meeting a beautiful woman, but upon facing her, he found her quite unattractive.
They barely shared a language, and her personality was rather fiery.
From the very beginning of their married life, there were creaks and groans, and he could just meet and resolve things with a woman who wasn’t her.
“Still, that brat Fabio will treat his wife well, at least. He wouldn’t want to die otherwise.”
Married couples can’t always have a good relationship, so he didn’t plan to mete out severe punishments for a few arguments.
He just had to leave it to the knights to make him repent for his mistakes and come to appreciate the value of his, no, his wife’s importance.
While he was lost in thoughts, a voice from outside called out to him.
“I have something to tell you. May I come in?”
“Come in.”
As always, Erika entered her father’s office and sat down on the chair brought in by the butler.
On the surface, she seemed to have no emotional turmoil, but upon closer inspection, her hands and feet were trembling slightly.
“Are you trembling at the thought of meeting your fiancé?”
“Yes, Father.”
“I felt the same when I met your mother before our wedding. I suspect your mother felt the same way.”
Nobles, regardless of gender, typically choose their partners based on the family’s benefit rather than love.
They’ve been taught from birth to prepare for it, getting ready and living that way until their wedding.
No one disputes this fact, and everyone complies.
However, forming a bond with an unknown partner is still hard to accept, even if you’ve been mentally prepared for a lifetime.
“You’re curious about what kind of man your fiancé Fabio is. I’ll tell you all about Fabio de Rothschild, based on what I’ve seen.”
Erika felt her father’s warm consideration in those words.
Being the daughter of a noble family means being regarded as the future lady of a family, but in reality, she was like a tool sold into a permanent alliance.
So he could have easily told her to leave if she were going to prattle on unnecessarily, yet he took the trouble to ease her anxieties one by one.
“You’re at a level that makes your status utterly low for marriage. So even allies and supporters of our family speak out against it. You’ve probably heard about this from the maids too.”
“Yes, the maids also disliked this marriage.”
When a high-status woman marries a low-status man, it lowers her ‘nobility’.
This means that the treatment of the maids serving Erika could also worsen.
“That’s a case of knowing one thing, but not the other. I can assure you, there’s no better match than Fabio.”
Erika closely observed her father’s face as he said that.
She was trying to ascertain whether he was speaking to reassure her with empty words or if he truly meant it.
Upon closer inspection, her father seemed to possess a strong conviction.
“He’s not entirely devoid of feminine company. A former serf maid is voluntarily studying, hoping to be of some help to her master.”
This was something Erika found difficult to comprehend.
Typically, former peasant girls shunned the idea of studying and live their lives devoid of education.
Therefore, whether they became a maid or, with luck, a nobleman’s concubine, the chances of them receiving an education were slim to none.
Simply because it’s hard and tiresome.
If that’s the case, they would rather work on their physique to earn affection as a concubine or put effort into their appearance.
Even her own maids, to maintain noble refinement, only read or went to see plays, having abandoned true education long ago.
And yet, continuing to engage in difficult endeavors to assist her master?
‘What kind of person must her master be to earn such love?’
Before she knew it, curiosity towards this person named Fabio had sprouted in her heart, just as it did when young baron Alfred first met Fabio.
“And this is the deepest of our family’s secrets, but since you’re effectively becoming the lady of the Rothschild family, you should know.”
Officially, they hadn’t held a wedding, so one couldn’t say she had become a lady yet.
However, as long as neither Fabio nor Erika passed away unexpectedly, the marriage would surely be finalized.
Therefore, the young baron felt it was acceptable to divulge secrets related to the Rothschild family.
“Our ducal family’s special steel factory was founded by Fabio. Back when he was the second son of the Medici baron family, he suddenly visited your grandfather and proposed a method that would create copies of steel.”
As a result, the Visconti ducal family established itself as the producer of the finest steel across not just the Toscan Empire but the entirety of the Albania Continent.
“And there’s the war that recently stirred up the social circles between the Kingdom of Granada and the Sultanate, isn’t there?”
“Yes, Father.”
“That was all led by Fabio, they say. He sold gunpowder and matchlocks to the governor of Nador and to the indigenous tribes in the West of Ifriqiya to escalate the conflict, while framing them with the title of ‘Kingdom of Granada’.”
As the legal wife of a noble family, the legitimate mistress must be well-versed in politics.
This is necessary to provide advice and information on which family her husband should align with or sever ties.
The knowledge she had amassed over time whispered to her.
‘To pull off such actions without anyone catching on.’
“Nobles of your age, to be honest, can be considered competent if they can just follow their parents’ orders. But that brat accomplishes feats that neither I nor your grandfather could dream of as if he were breathing.”
Upon hearing that, Erika’s heart raced.
She certainly hadn’t fallen for him just because of his achievements and good character.
However, if she was to get married anyway, she’d prefer to observe a capable man rather than a useless one.
‘What kind of person could he be?’
“How could your grandfather have ordered me to keep an eye on Fabio as the first thing once I returned from my service?”
The young baron stood up and stroked his daughter’s head as he spoke.
“I don’t know how you feel about this, but I believe I’ve provided you with the best match. Although there’s still over half a year left to the wedding. You should see for yourself and judge.”
The next day, Fabio made all the preparations to meet Erika.