An Arranged Marriage with an Enemy

Leonida and Kaon Ferdinand were a pair of siblings who had little to fight about.

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First of all, Leonida was not the kind of person who treated her younger brother carelessly.
Kaon also respected and followed his sister.
The considerable five-year age difference also played a part.

In addition, the siblings had lost their parents three years ago.
Naturally, they could not afford to fight and complain for childish reasons.

Although the occasional quarrel happened, the two consciously tried to understand and put up with each other because they knew there was no one else in the world they could trust with private—even embarrassing—matters.

“Leo, have you gone crazy?” Kaon finally asked after replaying his sister’s words for the tenth time in his head.

He couldn’t just let it go this time.
For sure, the problem was either within his ears or within her mind.

“I’d honestly rather be crazy, but that’s regrettably not the case.”

“You want me to marry an Ingelos girl?”

“I told you to get engaged.
Though if you want to get married right away, I won’t stop you.
Oh, but of course, you’ll still have to wait until you officially come of age.”

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“Leo!” Kaon wasn’t in the mood for semantics.

Wasn’t timing the only difference between an engagement and a marriage?

“Are you done with your tantrum?”

“Oh, come on! Are you kidding me?”

His sister, the one who said something absurd first, was still at ease.
In fact, she had been busy looking at documents throughout their conversation, so calm that he debated whether the person he was talking to was really a person and not a wall.

He thought of the events that led up to his current dilemma.

***

It was a normal, leisurely spring day.
The midday sun felt hotter than usual, and Kaon, done with morning training, was pleasantly lounging on his bed.

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“Young Master Kaon, Lady Leo is looking for you.”

“My sister?”

“Yes, she’s waiting in her office.”

‘I wonder what for; she always has a set reason for calling me.’

Kaon stood briskly, guessing that it was probably to admonish him for having faked sickness last week to get out of march training.
Today was probably the right day for a scolding.

‘Well, I managed to get some rest for a day, so even if I get in trouble…’

He humbly accepted his fate.

However, Leonida remained silent despite his arrival, staring at paperwork and leaving her brother to agonize over his impending punishment.

Perhaps it was a new sort of discipline?

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Many thoughts running through his head, Kaon elected to also remain silent.
It was painfully boring, yes, but it seemed only fair that he endured as much for his wrongdoing.

Leonida finally looked up by the time he had counted thirty-three folders stacked on the desk.

“Get engaged to the Ingelos family’s second child,” she said bluntly, then turned back to her work as if that was the only thing she had to say.

***

So that was why Kaon was now doubting the mental state of his highly respected sister.

“Get engaged with an Ingelos? Why are you suggesting something that would make our parents roll in their graves if they knew?”

“If I had known of such a marvelous method earlier, I wouldn’t have let them stay in their graves for three years.”

“That’s not what I meant!” he retorted hotly.

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The feud between the two families was engraved into their bloodlines.
In the Gaius Kingdom, their relationship was so infamous that it was more common to use it as a metaphor as opposed to something like “cats and dogs”.

As a descendant of Ferdinand, renowned for producing knights, Kaon had grown up listening to gossip about the mages of Ingelos.

They were allegedly cowardly, selfish bastards who callously regarded knights as worth less than insects.
Social misfits who had no loyalty…

Merely thinking about their name sent curse words bubbling up his throat.
To marry one of them was incomprehensible to him.

Instead of explaining the situation, Leonida picked up one of the folders from the stacks and threw it at Kaon.

He caught it easily, scowling as he scanned the first page of the document inside.
He wasn’t fond of papers and letters, but his sister didn’t look like she would open her mouth anytime soon, so he was more or less forced to read it himself.

While the Ferdinand estate was a good place to live in with its fertile land and mild climate, its forests held the largest population of monsters in the entire kingdom.
The family itself had a long history, being one of the founders of Gaius, and it had been subduing monsters for hundreds of years.

And as much as Kaon hated to admit it, mages were essential, all the more so because monsters were difficult opponents in close combat.
Long-distance firepower was undeniably useful in dealing with that particular problem.