LIGHTNOVELSTORY Chapter 219: War for Korin, their Son-in-Law (1)
༺ War for Korin, their Son-in-Law (1)༻
“Young man. Do you wanna meet my granddaughter?”
“Ehew. Sir, what are you talking about in the middle of an exercise?”
I tended to receive a lot of positive remarks from elderly people.
“It just makes me sad. How can someone so kind and hard-working like you have not held hands with a girl until now?”
“Hahaha. I know right? I’m just not popular.”
“It’s all because of those foxes around you.”
“Huh? Who?”
“You need to be careful of women, but also be careful of men. These guys here; there’s something up with their gazes.”“Hahahaha…! Come on, sir. Looks like you have the room to joke around. Let’s do another set!”
“Mark my words! You have the face of someone with issues with both genders! You must remove that mole under your eye to escape your fate!”
“I do understand you are a veteran physiognomist, but sorry, I don’t believe in that.”
“I am telling you, you will definitely be in trouble because of both men and women! You have an overflow of Yang energy, and you need a large amount of Yin to control it!”
“And is that why you want to introduce me to your shaman granddaughter? Kuhahaha…!”
There were a few people that wanted to introduce me to some girls but… for some reason, none of them really went through.
Now that I think about it, that old physiognomist told me I had a great fortune with romance…
I knew it, you just can’t believe what they say.
Anyway, that tendency of being liked by the elderly continued even in Arhan.
“Young man. Go embrace Lunia.”
For some reason, the Sword Emperor, that old man, also took a liking to me. But that was probably slightly different; it was most likely because he saw potential in my development as a martial artist.
“I am the Count of Rollan. Sir Korin. Would you care to meet my daughter?”
Even the old count that I met at a banquet…
“I have a younger sister at home who is at a marriageable age. You are the only one I can trust.”
Even Senior Beazeker, one of the members of my previous male-only party…
“You can marry my children. You have the right to.”
“Yo. Do you want to sleep with my 27th descendant? I can make a free weapon for ya.”
And even that lady from the North and the little dwarves…
For some reason, I was loved by adults as a son-in-law material. It seemed that I was getting some returns for living a good life!
“Actually, just take them both. Just be the next king.”
But even then… this is a bit…
“Your Majesty… Please refrain from such jokes.”
“I am not joking, Baron Lork. Actually, now that you’re a Unique Grade guardian, I suppose we should raise your peerage. Count? That sounds good. If you don’t mind taking over some land, you can become a marquis as well.”
“…”
You can’t give away peerages like that, Your Majesty!
Well, actually, I guess Park Sihu did become a marquis in the last iteration as well…
In any case, although there were many who asked me to marry their daughter, I wasn’t expecting King David to be like this.
I had to make a lot of preparations before asking for Princess Miruam’s hand in marriage, so why was he suddenly telling me to marry both of them?
“Your Majesty. As unfortunate as this is…”
“Come on. My dear Son-in-law. What is with this stiff etiquette? Just call me Father.”
Hello? Your Majesty? It’s our second time seeing each other face to face, okay?!
“But, Your Majesty… Normally, wouldn’t it be more natural to marry just one of the princesses?”
“I pondered greatly to myself regarding that matter.”
What was there to even ponder about? Like, what kind of father would give two of his daughters to a single man?
“Estelle seemed to like you a lot more than I realized. Recently, she came home and declared that she wouldn’t marry anyone apart from you.”
“Umm…”
It’s… possible for Estelle-noona to be like that. Considering her straight-forward personality—
“Most importantly, she seemed to have received a ‘revelation from the lord’ that she must marry Korin Lork.”
“Kuhup…!”
She’s using it as she pleases! She’s no different from a leader of a cult!
“If that is the will of the lord, it can’t be helped.”
Umm, Father…? Do you really believe that? Aren’t you way too religious? Your daughter right now is at the pinnacle of a non-believer, and she’s even trying to create her own religion now!
“So why not just Saintess Estelle…”
“It was a long hatred.”
“…”
King David looked distressed as he changed the topic.
“For the national interest of the Kingdom, I had to turn a blind eye to my daughter’s rage; her hatred, and ended up making all this happen.”
He didn’t get angry nor be shocked or reprimand Miruam about her plans and her hatred. Instead, he simply confessed his failure as a father.
“She’s a pitiful child who poured all of her attempts into politics, magic… and even social events all for her purpose and hatred of demi-humans. I couldn’t untangle her… life-long fury.
In the middle of his words, the King turned his eyes over to me.
“It was you. You were the one who untangled the knot. You stopped her before she crossed the line.”
He descended from the throne, bent his back, and held my hands with his.
“Who would possibly stand against an army, and duel against those countless warriors? Who would protect the innocent in spite of earning the fury of the royal family?
“How could I possibly turn a blind eye to your devotion; your courage? How could I pay you back for it?
“Since you were the one who changed that girl… I can entrust you with her. No; I should say you’re the only one I can entrust her to.”
He was serious. It wasn’t a joke, and he sincerely wanted me to take care of both of his daughters.
“Sir Korin. This is the only thing I can do for my daughter as a failure of a father. Will you please accept it?”
“…Sorry, Your Majesty.”
I had to turn him down, as King David asked back with a look of sorrow.
“Why is that? Even though you can accept both princesses of the Kingdom as your wives?”
“That’s…”
I was about to reveal my circumstances, but the King frowned before I could.
“Is it because of those potato farmers in the South? Those fools that use potatoes instead of coins?”
“Your Majesty?”
“No, it must be the sword fanatics of the East! Please don’t think about going to that land of barbarians. They’re gangsters that rely on swords before words!”
Umm, Your Majesty…? You just talked smack about two of your greatest allies, didn’t you?
“What misfortune! To think my son-in-law was bewitched by those wicked humans…!”
“I’m not your son-in-la—”
“Think about it, my son-in-law. Authority is much better than both money and power. Think about all the troops you can move from the throne. No. No. No. You have to experience this yourself. Come up. Try sitting on the throne! It feels good! It feels refreshing! It feels great to sit high up there!!”
Your Majesty! Please mind your etiquette!!
***
“Good news! Good news! His Majesty has proposed to Baron Korin Lork a royal marriage!”
“Both the Saintess and the 2nd Princess at that! God dang it! I’m dying from jealousy!”
The walls have ears, as they say.
The offer I heard from King David was placed on the front page of the morning newspaper the following day.
Unlike the news articles of the 21st century, there was not a single filter in the news. I squeezed the sides of the newspaper with my shivering hands.
“H, how did this…”
A royal marriage isn’t some childsplay, is it? How can it be on the news just like this?
“Congratulations, President! I mean, Prince Consort…!”
Redic, who was next to me talking about the Association, suddenly said with a bow.
“Wait, it’s a misunderstanding.”
“Sorry? Do you mean that’s false…?”
“I, it’s not but…”
“Prince Consort! This Redic Georgio!!! Swears loyalty to Prince Consort!”
“…This is driving me insane.”
It didn’t take long for the news to spread through the capital… and the entire continent. And… this ended up provoking people that I wasn’t even thinking about.
***
The Dunareff Mansion located at the center of the South boasted some of the wealthiest and most luxurious land in the world.
The front garden was as big as a village. It took 10 minutes by carriage to reach the entrance of the mansion and then one had to climb 4,378 stairs if they wished to go to the rooftop without using the automatic elevator.
The highlight of the Dunareff Mansion was the greenhouse the size of a football field that bloomed with flowers regardless of the season. This greenhouse, which had an exclusive mage and gardeners was Duchess Elencia’s favorite place for a morning tea.
That morning, the duchess was having a cold corn tea with a few chunks of ice while elegantly eating some boiled potatoes. She was joyously reading through the newspapers of each region, which was no different from what she did every other day.
It was a fine day until she read that news article put on the first page of the paper.
– Grit!
The morning newspaper crumbled in her grip. The maids attending to her needs were frightened by her sudden show of anger and lowered their heads.
“I, I wonder… if my eyes are playing with me right now?”
She couldn’t believe what her eyes were telling her. The duchess realized something had gone very wrong, and was boiling with fury regardless of the truth behind this news.
“H, honey… Did something happen?”
Duke Marde, who had been spending quality time with his family in the greenhouse, saw her sudden fit of anger and carefully raised a question.
“You! What have you been doing outside this whole time!”
Slam!
The crumbled newspaper in the shape of a ball struck Duke Marde with a noise that shouldn’t be made from scrunched paper.
This was his first time seeing his wife this angry in his 20 years of marriage, so Duke Marde carefully opened the newspaper in fear.
“Mhmm? Isn’t this yesterday’s newspaper from the capital?”
Duke Marde’s eyes widened into circles after reading the first headline of the paper.
[His Majesty. Proposing a royal marriage to Sir Korin. Both princesses at that!]
He didn’t even have to read anything beyond the headline. It seemed that King David was trying to send both princesses to marry Korin Lork.
“Like, what has this world come to…”
Although polygamy was legally accepted in this world, the common consensus was still just to have one husband and one wife.
“That’s not all! Look at this newspaper from the East!”
This time, the duchess threw an evening newspaper from the East. That too had a shocking headline on the front page.
[Sword Emperor Garrand Arden, “Korin is for my granddaughters. The King shouldn’t think about snatching him away.”]
Sword Emperor? Did Garrand Arden say this?
“Has that old man gone senile?”
“He truly must have gone mad!”
Duchess Elencia crushed the cup of corn tea in her hands. The cup shattered into countless fragments, but they couldn’t create a single scratch on the body of the former high-ranked knight.
“This is all because of you!” she shouted.
“Ehk? M, me?” the duke replied in a stupor.
“It’s because you keep abusing and mistreating my son-in-law! Korin is looking elsewhere because of you!”
“H, how is this my fault? Isn’t it that guy’s fault for wagging his tail everywhere?!”
“If only you were nicer and officially proclaimed that he was our son-in-law! Then these people wouldn’t have dared to covet my son-in-law!”
The duchess yelled out loud with her lips shivering in great fury.
“They’re looking down on us, Dunareff. The King and the Sword Emperor. They can’t possibly do this unless they’re looking down on us!”
In the eyes of Duchess Elencia, they were wicked people who were trying to steal the son-in-law her oldest daughter had already decided on. They were unforgivable.
What? Am I the weird one here?
King David was out there trying to marry both princesses to a single person; the Sword Emperor was warning the King, saying that he was going to marry both of his granddaughters to that same person.
Plus, there was also his wife, who was infuriated by the juncture of having her son-in-law (no marriage nor engagement) snatched away.
Am I the only one who doesn’t like him? Am I the only normal father here? Or am I the weird one? Huh!?’
This was weird. Something was definitely wrong here.
“Dear!”
“Y, yes…! Honey! What is it?”
“Go and get my son-in-law back from them right now! I am not losing my son-in-law!”
“Uhh…?”
He couldn’t even utter a single word of rebuttal.
Like that, the duke was forced onto the Hresvelgr which was headed to the royal capital.
What he found even more strange were the attitudes of the ones that were coming with him to the capital.
“To think they would dare eye the consort of Lady Marie! We cannot let this slip!”
I have never once acknowledged him as Marie’s husband!
Captain Berg of the Dunareff Wyvern Riders, was full of fighting spirit and…
“Oh dear. Looks like there are some puppies that don’t know how scary potatoes are. I’ve given the order to the spies hidden inside the capital. One word, and we can reveal the embarrassing weaknesses of all the nobles in the royalty faction.”
We’re also in the royalty faction okay? Actually, we are the royalty faction!
Butler Paul was in the middle of coming up with self-destructive schemes…
“Let’s carry out an economic attack on the capital city and the East using the money we have stored for Baron Korin. Let’s start off slow with a million gold coins. That might not suffice to show the dignity of the Dunareff but…”
W, when did we store that much money for him?
Baron Bolton, the branch manager of Merkarva Dunareff, started talking about finances that Duke Marde had no idea about.
“Y, you guys… Calm down for now. This might all just be a misunderstanding.”
“Ah…! That is true. My apologies, Your Highness. We have crossed the line!”
“Yes! We should have let Your Highness carry out your esteemed plans. There is no way you would sit back and watch this happen after all.”
“I am sure you will save Young Master Korin from their evil hands, Your Highness!”
The duke was greatly confused.
His wife he could understand but…
Since when were these guys so fond of him? Something… something iss wrong.
Do I really have to accept him as my son-in-law at this rate?
The duke felt like crying.