The banquet hall of Count Parmas's mansion. The Count held a banquet to praise the nobles who had responded to his summons. Splendid dishes filled the tables, melodies played by musicians flowed through the space, and well-dressed servants attended to the nobles, ensuring the wine in their hands never ran dry.
Amidst it all, the nobles gathered in small groups, conversing.
"I hear my daughter has taken up horseback riding recently."
"I've heard the rumors as well. They say horseback riding is all the rage among the ladies in the capital these days."
"Tsk tsk, for noble ladies to be wearing riding breeches. How shameful..."
"Hahaha. It's just a phase."
"Ah, speaking of which, didn't your son enter the academy, Viscount?"
"Hahaha, that's right. He was accepted into the Department of Public Administration."
"How splendid. I am truly envious."
"He'll become a high-ranking official in the central government one day, won't he?"
"Please, share with us your secret to raising such a fine child."
"Hahaha. What did I do? It was all the result of his own effort."
Among the nobles, who feigned casual conversation while boasting about their children and fiefs, Baron Schneider and Patrick stood off to the side, all alone. Dressed in formal suits for the party, they stood awkwardly near a food table with wine glasses in hand.
Patrick thought.
'Ah... this isn't the kind of banquet I had in mind.' There were many delicious-looking dishes, but no one touched them for the sake of decorum. They were just for decoration.
Servants constantly refilled the glasses in the nobles' hands, but they did not serve Patrick, who was still fifteen. 'I wouldn't have come if I knew it would be like this.' Patrick sighed, sipping only the grape juice in his hand.
Having never attended a noble's banquet before, he had held some expectations, but his disappointment was immense. And most of all…
"Father."
"What is it?"
"Father, are you an outcast?"
"Cough..."
Baron Schneider choked on the wine he was drinking at his son's words. He, who had nearly spewed wine through his nose, wiped his mouth with a handkerchief and spoke.
"What nonsense are you suddenly spouting?"
"Well, everyone else around us is talking, but you're just standing here alone, sipping your drink, aren't you? So, if I make a reasonable inference…"
"It is merely that our fief has little interaction with the surrounding fiefs, so there is no one I know."
"Father."
"What?"
"Isn't that what an outcast is?"
“…”
Baron Schneider wanted to cry. He wanted to ditch the banquet and everything else and go home to rest, but Count Parmas had not yet appeared. Since it would be rude to leave before the host of the banquet had even shown up, he had no choice but to remain.
"The arrival of Count Parmas!"
Fortunately, the Count Parmas that Baron Schneider had been waiting for appeared not long after. With the servant's announcement, the host of the banquet, Count Parmas, entered through the main doors of the hall. However, the true star of this banquet was not Count Parmas.
It was the young, blonde-haired lady whom the count himself escorted. The Count's eyes, as he looked at her, were overflowing with an unconcealable affection, and his hand, escorting her, was filled with tenderness. As she appeared, the gazes of all the younger men gathered in the banquet hall changed.
"Oh, Lady Parmas has arrived."
"To think she came all this way, while still attending the academy."
"She has become even more beautiful."
Marianne Parmas.
The only daughter of the House of Count Parmas was the true protagonist of this banquet. If you were to ask the nobles of the east, 'Who is the most coveted bride?', one name would emerge without a moment's hesitation. That name was Marianne Parmas.
First of all, she was the only daughter, lavished with the affection of Count Parmas. Count Parmas had been widowed and had no other sons, meaning his daughter was, for all intents and purposes, the next heir to the House of Parmas. Marrying her meant the House of Count Parmas came with her.
This alone made her the best bridal candidate, but that was not all. Even judging her purely on her own merits, without her background, she was remarkable. She was a talented woman who had entered the academy at the age of fourteen and was currently attending with excellent grades.
With her dazzling blonde hair, blue eyes, and slender figure, anyone who saw her even once did not hesitate to call her the greatest beauty in the east. She was a woman who possessed both beauty and talent, and her background was also splendid. Every young noble in the east desperately wanted her.
Indeed, as the Count appeared with her, the young men drew toward her as if pulled by a magnet.
"It has been a long time. Do you remember me?"
"My name is Terrin of the House of Viscount Romero. You have become dazzlingly beautiful."
"I have composed a song for you, my lady. Would you please do me the honor of listening to it?"
It was like watching ants swarm over spilled sugar on the floor. The Count stood by his daughter's side, subtly warding off the young nobles, while looking around with a proud and satisfied expression.
'Hehehe.
As expected of my daughter. Search the entire east, no, the entire Atronia Kingdom, and would there be another woman with beauty to rival my daughter's?' They say one well-raised daughter is better than ten sons, and the Count was immensely proud of this moment when his daughter captivated the banquet hall with her mere presence.
Was not every person in the banquet hall focused on his proud daughter at this moment? Except for two people who were staring with indifferent expressions.
'Hmm?
What are those two doing?' What caught the Count's eye was the presence of a father and son, standing far away with nonchalant faces.
"Aren't you going to go?"
"No thanks. I'm just going to eat."
"Tsk tsk tsk, it is the brave who win the fair maiden."
"Munch munch... In the first place, she's not a fair maiden, is she?"
"At her level, she's a beauty."
"Think about Mom or April."
"... Ah."
This, he could understand. He could tell at a glance that Marianne Parmas was a considerable beauty. But the Baron hadn't felt much excitement, and now he knew why.
'It's because my wife is ten times more beautiful.' He had married such a wife and lived with her, body to body, for decades; there was no way a young lady like that would catch his eye.
However...
"It's one thing for me, a married man, but do you really not feel anything at all?"
"Not at all. Oh, this is delicious. What is this stuff on top of the bread made of?"
"Shark eggs."
"Shark eggs? You can eat those?"
"Yes. You didn't know?"
"I've never eaten it, so how would I know? Why haven't we eaten it? It's quite tasty."
"Because it's expensive."
"Then I'd better eat a lot now."
Watching his son begin to meticulously stack rye bread topped with caviar on his plate, Baron Schneider let out a sigh. What an embarrassing child of mine. Still, he came to a banquet; was it alright for a young man to just stuff his face like this?
"Think carefully. Still, Lady Marianne is renowned as the greatest beauty in the east."
"Nah, that's just because of her family."
"No, what does family have to do with beauty?"
"It does have something to do with it. Of course it does. When a somewhat pretty girl is born into a prominent family, she tends to receive an exceptional amount of praise from a young age."
"Is that so?"
"It is. There's a bit of flattery involved, and if people keep hearing such things, they start to wonder if it's true and get swayed… Anyway, that's how it is."
In his past life, Patrick's wife was the number one beauty of Sichuan. But thinking back now, the number one beauty of Sichuan always came from either the Tang Clan or the Emei Sect.
The number one beauty of Anhui was almost always from the Namgung Clan, and if you talked about the number one beauty of Hubei, seven out of ten times it was someone from the Jegal Clan. 'Wow, now that I think about it, there was a serious problem with the standards for choosing beauties in the martial world.
How many beauties must have been unjustly overlooked?' It was an unfair aspect of the martial world he only now realized.
In any case, having been married to the number one beauty of Sichuan in his past life, and in this life, having a mother of kingdom-toppling beauty and a personal maid who surpassed even that mother, Patrick's objective assessment of Marianne was...
"Well, she's just alright."
It was a comment that, had Count Parmas heard it, would have made him say, 'Off with that punk's head.' 'Let's just eat. Eating is what… huh?'
It was then. A strange glint flashed across Patrick's eyes.
"What is it?"
Baron Schneider asked cautiously. It was because his son was making an expression he had never seen before. But Patrick could not answer Baron Schneider.
He stared intently at one spot and muttered.
"... Why is something like that here?"
Compliments are ceaselessly showered upon the one who receives the attention and focus of the people at a banquet. Just like right now.
"Hahaha. As expected, you are truly amazing. To have never been held back a year at the academy. It is something I could never dream of."
'Yes, I know. You're a blockhead.'
"I bought a new carriage recently. It is a handmade carriage crafted by an artisan from the Magellan Kingdom."
'So what?
You little bastard.'
"My lady, do you happen to believe in fate?"
'Do your parents know you live like this?'
Marianne smiled.
She just smiled sweetly. The surroundings were crawling with men whose intentions were obvious, and her father, keeping her by his side, was drunk on the superiority of "How about it? Isn't my daughter pretty."
She was enduring it with the genuine heart of a filial daughter, but if she had her way, she wanted to shout at the guys who kept glancing at the décolletage of her dress, 'Stop staring, it's obvious.
You perverts.'
In fact, if she put herself in their shoes, it wasn't that she couldn't understand. Family background, check.
Face, pretty. Figure, good. Mind, smart.
'Even if I were a man, I'd probably want to marry myself.' So, she could understand the desperate actions of these men. She could, but...
'Still, annoying is annoying, isn't it?' From the ones who sent overly blatant gazes to the ones who made a move as if to poke the fruit they couldn't have, she didn't like a single one of them. In reality, everything they were doing was in vain.
She had no intention of finding a husband from the east in the first place. 'A person has to play in the big leagues. I can't just be a frog in a well within the east forever.'
She was a woman with ambition. Even the House of Count Parmas was nothing more than a count's family ruling over the most barren and dangerous land in the small Atronia Kingdom in the east. From her perspective, having encountered a larger world while studying at the academy, even the position they so desperately craved was a small thing.
That was why, if she were to marry, she intended to marry a noble from the central region if possible. Or a noble from a foreign country. To be a bit more ambitious, someone who could give her the opportunity to actively display her abilities.
A husband who would permit her to run a business utilizing the knowledge she learned while studying at the academy's Department of Public Administration and the connections she actively made in the capital's social circles. Even better, a husband who would not be jealous but would be genuinely happy if she brought home a great deal of money.
In that sense, the men of the east were a lost cause. The east was a land that men had pioneered with blood and sweat on barren soil. As such, their sense of patriarchal authority was strong, and many would look unfavorably upon her, a woman, engaging in external activities.
The very people acting as if they would pluck the stars from the night sky for her now would completely change their attitude after marriage. It was obvious they would restrict her to managing the family's internal affairs and the children's education, forbidding her from touching the family's external businesses. 'So everything you're doing right now is in vain.
Give up.
And seriously, stop staring at my chest.
You guys.'
She was gradually getting tired. Marianne let out a small sigh and said.
"Father, I'm feeling a bit tired. If it's possible, may I go in first and rest?"
"Hmm, are you not feeling well?"
"I'm a bit weary from the long carriage ride."
"Alright. Your health is the most important thing. Go in and rest."
"Thank you, Father."
And before leaving, she placed a small kiss on her father's cheek. It was a slightly embarrassing display of affection for a grown daughter to make, but...
"Hahahahahahahahaha..."
Seeing how much he enjoyed it, she had no choice. She chuckled and was about to return to her room to rest. And the moment she separated from the Count's embrace and moved alone...