Cæ simply stared at her like she had lost her mind.
He had expected several things from her. Perhaps some kind of contractual agreement with him for his future as a mage after he graduated from the Elendir Institute of Magic. Perhaps a special consideration as a mage for the Nelnmont Family in the future as long as they took the role of his patron.
He even considered the possibility that they simply wanted to invest in him for returns in the future.
What he didn't expect was the family, through the girl before him representing them, offering him a marriage proposal.
She didn't seem even the slightest bit flustered by the proposal of marriage, either. She faced him head-on with dead seriousness. She gently shifted a tuft of her black hair behind her ear, never once taking her intense gaze off of him.
Cæ simply stared at her with a speechless expression before eventually heaving a sigh.
He had half a mind to get up and leave then and there.
And yet, he knew that that probably was not a good idea when the other party was so powerful.
"…May I ask why?"
Melia nodded seriously. "We have made this proposition to you after carefully considering each other's stances as win-wins for each of us. You are in a lacking financial condition to engage in ventures that are taxing. We have money to offer you, and in return…"
For the first time, a hint of embarrassment appeared on her face. "…We seek to introduce your magical talent into our bloodline."
Cæ narrowed his eyes.
He had suspected as much.
Although he truly didn't expect them to go as far as to propose marriage, he could understand the underlying reason in hindsight, having done some research on the Nelmont Family ahead of time.
There was a magical drought in the family.
A once-promising magical bloodline had fizzled out in the magical talent it had to offer and has caused the family to become entirely deprived of magical talent in its progeny. The family had experienced a slow fall in its prestige, and it failed to produce any mages in many generations.
With Melia's magical talent and getting accepted into the Elendir Institute of Magic, there was finally an ember of hope within the family. Eager and anxious to preserve this hope, he figured that they were surely desperate to introduce talented blood into the family.
They basically hoped that should Cæ agree to their proposal. Their children would inherit the talent for magic from their parents.
His attention returned to the adolescent before him.
Upon closer attention, he could tell that she was hiding her discomfort.
She was doing it well.
Like she had been trained for it and had been groomed to wed a man of worthy magical talent eventually.
Despite that, she was deeply uncomfortable with it.
He heaved a sigh.
"I refuse."
Her expression crumpled with surprise. "…What?"
"I said…" he replied, "I refuse. I do not wish to marry you."
"But—"
"That's enough."
His tone had a sharp edge to it, making her flinch.
"I have refused you plenty of times by now," his tone was icy. "I do not intend to get married and certainly not to a stranger on the basis of some perceived value in what I offer to your bloodline."
There was a time when marriage was all he could think of.
He imagined a life with Lilia.
A life where they started a family together.
And now that that dream had been burned down to ash, he didn't particularly have the desire to start a family anymore.
The mission that he had dedicated his life to was something that he had dedicated his life to.
It wasn't something that he could do if he had a family to worry about.
Not only was what he was trying to do dangerous to him, but it was also dangerous to any family he might have. Additionally, he was going to be so consumed by the mission that he simply would not be able to give any family that he would have the love that they deserved.
He didn't intend to have a family for power.
"…I see," Melia murmured with visible worry and a small hint of relief.
"However, that doesn't mean I'm against cultivating a relationship with the Nelnmont Family in general," Cæ remarked. "Marriage is too far for me. But I'm not opposed to becoming your friend. I'm not opposed to forging a working relationship with the Nelnmont Family."
She was taken aback by his suggestion to cultivate a working relationship with the Nelnmont Family despite his bold and unhesitating rejection of her formal marriage proposal.
"…That is permissible," she replied thoughtfully. "I'm sure that our family would be willing to cultivate a relationship with you. I will see to it that we can come to some sort of working arrangement to satisfy our mutual interests."
He highly doubted she could do that.
For one, he was highly skeptical whether she had the authority to dictate such matters within her matter. At most, she would relay the matter to her parents, who would surely not be pleased with his rejection of their marriage proposal.
What family would give any significant authority to a girl who was merely eighteen years old? From their point of view, they had probably only entrusted her with trying to get married to him.
In fact, considering that she was just trying to get a date with him in the beginning, he suspected that that was all he was entrusted with. Cultivating a romantic relationship with him was all that she had been instructed, most likely. Perhaps they expected to handle it with more tact, but he suspected that she didn't expect him to refuse her so cleanly.
Regardless, while he found it a little distasteful, he was not averse to trying to cultivate a friendship with the Nelnmont Family and the girl before him.
He buried his hatred for these powerful families that did everything in their power to enforce the existing world order that favored them so much.
For now, he could use their power.
He knew that these families competed for powerful mages to have on retainer, which gave him some leverage because he was shaping up to be a powerful mage by all estimates. Even if it was very early to make a deal with him until it was entirely confirmed, the Nelnmont Family was clearly desperate for magical power if they had resorted to getting a man from the slums to marry the heir of their esteemed family.
"For now, please convey this message to your family," Cæ began with a solemn tone. "I am willing to sign certain semi-exclusive agreements with your family if they are willing to sponsor me and my ventures now. We can discuss the details in person if they are interested. As for us… I do not mind a friendship."
She nodded slowly. "Understood."
And thus, their little 'date' ended abruptly as they swiftly came to a tentative agreement. There was nothing she could tell him or confirm until she conveyed his offer to her parents.
And after she returned home in a private limousine, she did just that.
"He… he refused?"
The cold voice of the patriarch of the Nelmont Family spread across the extravagant living room of the enormous mansion. The architecture and the decor still retained the vestiges of a style from before the Magindustrial Revolution.
The intricate crystal chandeliers.
The long, gaudy flowing curtains.
A myriad of expensive, old oil painting art and hand-sculpted vases neatly decorated the entirety of the house, making it feel more like a museum than a place one could feel at home.
An ostentatious and showy decor that hadn't changed as much from the age of aristocracy in the Democratic Republic of Elendir.
Relics of a grand past.
All of it screamed old money.
"Tsk, that slum mongrel should be grateful that we are allowing his filthy blood to enter a bloodline," the patriarch's expression crumpled with anger. "He dares to reject after we offer the flower of our family? Tsk, I should have him killed right now."
The man's fat face grew reddened with anger as his veins began popping out of his forehead. Steepled his fingers with a furious expression as he considered his options. It was not an exaggeration to say that the Nelnmont Family was truly desperate for a good mage to enter the family and marry off their daughter, too.
He had pushed his disgust down when he thought about Cæ's background but ultimately told himself it was worth the benefits.
Normally, it would be impossible for the Nelnmont Family to get their hands on a rank two candidate who would definitely have the merits to enter one of the ten great families. However, with Cæ, his background was definitely off-limits for their pure-bred magical bloodlines.
Melia flinched at her father's words. "F-Father, I don't think his blood is filthy… but I don't want to marry him either—"
"Melia."
This time, it was the stern voice of a woman who cut her off as she glared at her daughter disapprovingly. "What have we told you before?"
"…Family comes above all."
Melia's tone was solemn.
Defeated.
"Correct," her mother gazed down at the teenage girl with harsh, disapproving eyes that bore down on her heavily. "That is why you failed. You do not have the will to see this through to the end."
Meilia's expression crumpled. "But…"
"Did you throw yourself at him like I instructed you to?"
Melia froze.
"…As I thought," her mother's cruel voice. "You were unable to do something even this basic. It would have been effortless to trap him into a marriage with social pressure. But instead, you let the truth out, did you not?"
Melia began to protest. "But—"
SLAP
Her mother's hand had struck before she could even react.
Her cheek was already stinging painfully before she even realized what had happened.
"I don't want to hear any excuses."
Her mother's tone was chilling.
It inspired raw terror in the eighteen-year-old girl before her.
It didn't matter if her mother was devoid of magic and Meilia was more powerful than both her parents with the power of magic.
The immense psychological hold that both of them held over her was immense.
They were her only family and her greatest fear.
"From now on, I want you to cultivate a relationship with him," her mother remarked with a cold tone. "You have already blown the easy and quick method. You will have to do it slowly. He offered to become your friend? Then accept that. Spend more time with him. Show interest in what he does. Develop a good friendship with him and then…"
Her eyes sharpened, "…eventually, cultivate a romantic relationship with him. Understood?"
"…"
"Is that clear?"
"…"
A glint of anger flared in her mother's eyes. "Melia."
The girl flinched. "Yes, mother…"
"Good."
The day soon passed as the adolescent girl returned to the magicademy campus within school hours.
Her eyes were listless.
Her body was limp.
She returned to her dorm room quietly, not responding to any of her friends who called out to her.
The next day arrived quicker than it ever had before.
She found herself walking out of her room, having donned her uniform.
"Ah, there you are, Melia!"
"What's the matter? You seem sick?"
"Did you even take a warm bath? Tsk tsk, you have to maintain your skin or else—"
STEP
She walked past her friends like they didn't even exist, leaving them surprised.
Surprised and displeased.
"Tsk, did he really just give us the cold shoulder?"
"Getting so uppity just because she comes from old money… our families are just as rich!"
"Not to mention…" A sneer appeared on another girl's face. "Our blood isn't devoid of magic."
They giggled cruelly.
And yet, Melia's listless eyes and body language didn't so much as stir at the horrible insults uttered loud enough for her to hear every word. She simply walked and walked across the extensive campus of the magicademy until she happened upon him.
He walked as he studied several documents in his hand, accompanied by Seliphaz, who explained the data that she had collected from their recent prototype testing. They headed towards the magicademy from the dormitory wing of the campus. She expounded on which of the three prototypical paths looked to be most promising empirically and which was most cost-effective for fulfilling the conditions and constraints that Cæ had laid out.
"And so I was thinking that for ES-1—"
"Mr. Cæ."
Melia's voice was impassive.
"Hm?" Cæ turned to his side to glance at her.
For a moment, she simply gazed at him before a smile appeared on her face.
A smile that didn't reach her listless eyes.
"Good morning, Mr. Cæ. I hope… I hope that we can spend some time together."
Her tone was eerily lost.
-