Chapter 2

The Conclusion of the negotiations

Several days after accepting the marriage proposal from the Physalis duke family1, somehow now the Lord Duke himself personally appeared at our home . Together with numerous engagement gifts .

Extravagant yet delicate dresses and dazzling jewels that I only have seen at a distance so far . In addition, there was this and that en masse . It is a secret that the whole family pulled back, not to speak of getting restless, towards the presents carrying personnel that kept coming in one after the other . 「The debt would disappear just by selling off all of these... . 」 「Oi! Viola!! Don’t say that!!」 Absentmindedly muttering those remarks, I recovered from my whole faced smile after father’s immediate denial while emitting a dark aura . The eyes of my younger siblings too, turned into dots after seeing these luxurious and dazzling gifts for the first time .

In front of that dumbfounded Euphorbia family, the gallant Lord Duke appeared .

「Pleased to make your acquaintance, Lady Viola . I am Duke Sashis Chinensis Physalis . For consenting to the marriage proposal, I am grateful and happy . 」

Saying that, he floated a captivating and beautiful smile during the reverent greeting .

In contrast to me who, for the first time saw the Lord Duke’s beautiful form and style live, was standing dumbfounded in a daze . Beautiful! Handsome! I have heard rumors like that, but the real deal outshines his fame . A tall and slender figure with a firm body . Typical for knights, his thick black hair was short and neatly arranged in a refreshing look . His eyes with the same black color, were stern and manly . A straight nasal bridge, lips that right now form a tender and bright smile, no matter which part you take, it’s flawless . Even putting everything together brings out a beautiful form that is in perfect harmony! Because that sort of sparkling gentleman is in front of my eyes, expecting me not to get nervous is absurd right? 「P-Pleased to meet you, I am Viola . 」 I fumbled over my words . But instead of retorting to the unsightly me, the Lord Duke smiled widely and said, 「Quite according to the rumors, you seem to be a cute lady . Earl-dono2, I still have a few things to discuss with Viola, would that be fine? 」

In a heartbeat my hand was taken and facing my father he expressed his request to have an informal talk with me . 「Yes, yes, by all means . If it is alright with you, we can prepare seats in the garden . 」Father said that while nodding his head like a bobble head figure . 「Thank you very much . 」Immediately then, together with the Lord Duke we headed towards the garden .

Reaching the in the afternoon sunshine gleaming modest garden, and as soon as it was just the Lord Duke and me . 「I need decoy wife!」

Was the first thing he declared with a smile . Ee? What is this person getting at now??

「A decoy . . . ?」 For a moment I couldn’t believe my own ears over what the Lord Duke said . That is not something you declare with such an extraordinary smile, right? . . . ahem, I lost my composure . Because of the annoying chirping of the little birds in the garden, I thought I misheard it . 「Yes, a decoy . To tell you the truth, I have been dating my sweetheart for about 6 years now . I do love her, but it can’t be helped that she is a former wandering dancer . Let alone being a commoner, if the origin is unclear the surrounding will oppose it no matter what, marriage would not be possible . 」 I’m confused since this doesn’t concern me at all . The Lord Duke is still floating that beautiful smile, while telling me this incredible matter quite cheerfully . 「Haa... . 」 「However, lately the people around me are nagging me to get married and make a successor . 」 「Haa . 」 「But as I said before the marriage would not be recognized . And I don’t want to be separated from her . Therefor I need someone to be my decoy wife and pretend to live a regular married life . 」 「 . . . . haa? 」 I have been told something rather crazy, but I couldn’t help but give halfhearted answers . I did more or less change the intonation though .

Frankly speaking, for me and my marriage partner (in other words the Lord Duke) it is already too late since he already has a girlfriend . So if I were to become the legal wife, I would be mistress No . 2, right? That said, mistress No . 2 is below, right? Since it has been decided that I won’t be loved . Wait, what? Wait a minute, I’m confused . Talking about a lover and mistress No . 2, that is normal3 . Well, then what am I as the legal wife? Aaa, I can’t come to understand this . Enough . Oh well, what can I say, there is always a catch in good things like these . If there wasn’t it would be suspicious, right? Leaving that point aside, I can consent to this4 .

I spaced out and thought in circles over and over again while staring at the Lord Duke’s dreadful smile, he continued .

「Oh, it is no problem if you do as you please . It would be troubling if you were to be too flashy, but it is fine if you find a lover too . I promise to take care of your daily necessities and any inconveniences . 」

Smiled the Lord Duke sweetly .

While smiling he gave that savage statement, I almost carelessly tripped over somewhere! Waiiit, waiiit!! There is a savage here!!

With a wide open mouth, I was staring in astonishment .

... let’s calm down a bit, me . And start by closing my mouth that stands open stupidly . Although a normal noble daughter would flip out by now, my situation is a bit complicated . In the end my family’s debt is entangled in this marriage proposal after all . If I don’t deal with the debt, father, mother and my younger siblings5 will have to go through hardship . If I flip out over these conditions and cancel the engagement, my family will continue headlong down the road of poverty . No, we are already at the very bottom・the bottom of the nabe pot, right?6 We are also regarded as the black sheep by the superior members of high society7 . Prestigious aristocratic family disgraced by declining nobles! ... . . actually that sounds a bit co~ol☆

no no no no no, if it is only me, enduring it is a good thing .

I talked about this the other day already, but a happy love life is distant for me, who since birth to the age of 18 didn’t have a gentleman on her mind 『I’m poor and have to help out the family, being single for life is great too~☆』 . Instead of thinking about those gloomy future prospects, I should be grateful to be able to live a life without any inconveniences . Not having to worry about old ages is good! While having these thoughts inside my head,

「Understood . If the debt is being taken care of, I don’t have any problems8 . 」 A splendidly composed answer . Well, even so, I still don’t think I can of making a lover .

Perhaps since I replied indifferently without anger, the Lord Duke made a slightly surprised expression, but immediately returned to his usual smile . 「Since it is a matter of course, I will happily oblige . I look forward to working with you from now on . 」 He gave me his right hand . Might this be the 『Conclusion of the negotiations☆』handshake?I took that hand with my own without a moment of hesitation . With this the former political marriage between the Physalis duke family and the Euphorbia Earl family changed and concluded to a marriage by contract . 1 公爵家: For the lack of a better vocabulary I translated this literal here . Dukes house of Physalis? Dunno, sounds like physalis is a place rather than a familyname . 2 I have no idea how to translate 殿 (dono) without making it sound weird . 殿 as a suffix, similar to 様 (sama) is used to respectfully address someone, usually equals afaik . 3 she doesn’t mind him having a mistress or two . Or regards it as normal that he would have mistresses . 4 その点においてはみょーに納得しましたけどね: Absolutely no idea what みょーに is suppose to mean, a quick google search brought be some weird half bald dude and I’m too short on time to research this further . sorry . 5 幼い (osanai): means very young . It implies that her younger siblings are still children . 6 nabe pot and the dot: While I’m pretty sure you know what that is, here plus the dot, she is making a joke similar how you’d make a pun . A dad joke basically . This is the first time I see it used like this, so the middle dot probably has more uses . 7 その上社交界からも爪はじき決定です: made no sense at all to me, so I guess 爪はじき actually means爪弾き, the first being claw gun(I think?) and the latter “black sheep” or being ostracized . 8 She literally says to protect the debt here