Volume 1 Chapter 5 Marriage Affairs
Edited by: Kanaa-senpai
While I stood in line in the entryway with my sisters-in-law, my uncle, Count Klaus, entered. He looked as irritable as ever, draped in a thin grey cloak and wearing a black hat adorned with the gold ornaments of his rank within the Viscount’s house. He was dressed precisely as a vassal should be.
Following closely behind him was a portly older man, his thick frame enveloped in a loose, beige dalmatica¹. He waddled along, his head bearing only a few wisps of white hair that looked like peach fuzz.
Behind these two came a woman in a saffron-colored dress – she was shorter than me – and a man who was no longer young, wearing tight leggings and a short sword strapped to his hip.
”Welcome. You must be exhausted after such a long journey.”
There was no reply to my sister-in-law’s polite greeting. My uncle simply stopped once he had crossed the threshold, and the rest of the party halted a moment later.
A strange tension filled the air.
My uncle kept his face pointed forward, moving only his eyes to scan the room until they landed on us.
”What happened to Hans?” he asked, his voice sharp with a hint of suppressed rage.
My sister-in-law didn’t offer an excuse. She simply bowed her head and said, “I am terribly sorry.” Nika and I followed her lead, bending at the waist in a deep bow.
”I am going to the Elder’s Tower.”
Klaus didn’t seem to care about Hans at all. Having said his piece, he started walking again. My sister-in-law moved quickly to take the lead, guiding the party deeper into the house. Because the first floor had few partitions, the servant girls in the kitchen had seen everything. As soon as the party was out of sight, they all burst back into motion, but the air remained thick with tension; the usual lively chatter was gone.
Nika hurried to the kitchen and began pouring hot water into the tea set she had prepared.
”Who’s the fat old guy?” I whispered.
”The Village Head of Mauer Village. He was at the funeral, and he’s been here before. Honestly, Larry, don’t be a nuisance while I’m busy. More importantly, go take some ale out to the coachman.”
That jogged my memory. The fat man was “Somebody-or-other” from the Rosen family. I hadn’t recognized him in those clothes, but I remembered him now – not just from weddings and funerals, but from the time he came barging in, screaming his head off about Brother Hans’sr**apescandal.
Everything clicked. I poured a wooden mug full of ale from the barrel and headed out to the courtyard. A two-horse carriage was parked there, and Tommy was busy watering the horses. He was Uncle Klaus’s servant, the same age as Brother Hans, and the only person in this party I could actually talk to.
”Good work today,” I said, handing him the ale.
”Oh, man, I appreciate this!”
Tommy took the mug and downed half of it in one go.
”Ah, that’s the stuff! Your ale here is brewed differently, but I think it’s the water that really makes it. Look at the horses – even they’re drinking it up like it’s a treat.”
I didn’t really get it. To me, this was just the water we used every day.
”The horses are happy? Really?”
”I’ve been with them for years. I can tell exactly what’s on their minds.”
He patted the horses affectionately. He had started as a servant at my uncle’s house at age seven and had been the stable hand ever since. He had been promoted to coachman about two years ago, which was when he started coming to our house. Usually, he was the one telling me stories about life outside the village, but today he only told me that the Viscount’s third daughter had gone to a school in the Royal Capital – information that was utterly useless to me.
Since he didn’t have much to say, I told him about the goblin that had appeared in the village and the fact that I was almost of age. He listened happily, taking occasional sips from his mug.
”Heh, so Larry’s becoming an adult, huh? That means marriage is next.”
”No way. I haven’t heard a single word about that. Even Brother Hans hasn’t mentioned a ‘m’ of marriage.”
”Still, for the son of a Village Head, I bet it’ll be soon.”
Tommy’s eyes twinkled, clearly enjoying how flustered I was getting.
”Hey, Tommy… what did you do for your ‘passage rite’²?”
I tried to force a change of subject, picking the one topic I was actually desperate to know about.
”Passage rite? Oh, you mean getting laid?”
He was so direct about it that I turned beet-red and looked at the ground.
”Curious, are you?”
”A guy my age was taken by his father to the river district in Oberbach.”
”Heh, doing his passage rite with a prostitute? Must be nice to be rich.”
He gave me a leering grin before draining the rest of his ale.
”I’m just a servant, so I did it with one of the maids at the manor. Apparently, they decided who would do it by drawing lots. Pretty cold, don’t you think?”
”Wait, really? My uncle is so strict, I thought things would be tough at your place.”
”Oh, the Master doesn’t pay any attention to us, so the servants and maids do whatever they want. It’s the Mistress who’s the nag, so we just make sure she doesn’t catch us.”
(Wait, what kind of ‘whatever they want’ are we talking about? I wanted to ask, but the words were stuck in my throat.)
”Ah, you’re misunderstanding me. When I say ‘whatever we want,’ I mean work! Just kidding. The Mistress is a pain, but keep that between us. As long as the ‘rhythmic movements’³ don’t affect our chores, it’s fine. Given how things are these days, they’ve even started encouraging servants to marry each other. I’ll probably be getting married soon, too.”
”Whoa, you have someone?”
”Sort of. She’s an apprentice housemaid. She’s the one who comes to call me when it’s time to bring the carriage around. She’s a good girl.”
”I see. So, things are going well?”
”I went ‘night-visiting’⁴ the other night.”
My jaw nearly hit the floor. The classic, old-fashioned world of adults I’d only heard rumors about.
”She seemed to be waiting for me. We’ve been doing it every night since. We’re a good match. If I talk to the Mistress and get permission to marry, we’ll get our own room in the house.”
(That sounded… actually kind of nice. If it were me, I’d night-visit my sister-in-law… If I ignored the wall, her bed was only a few meters away from mine in a straight line. No, no. Absolutely, definitely impossible. And Nika is right there, too.)
Wait a second.
”Where do the maids sleep?”
”In a room with bunk beds, just like yours.”
”And ‘night-visiting’ means… you sneak into the place where the women are sleeping?”
”That’s right.”
(That’s right? According to Tim – who already graduated from his V-card – the rhythmic movement of using your hips makes noise even on a sturdy bed. If you’re night-visiting and doing it right there, wouldn’t everyone in the room find out?)
”Something wrong?”
”Don’t the other people notice?”
”Of course they notice. Well, at first, since it was her first time, I took her out to the fodder shed. But doing it outside is freezing in the winter and full of bugs in the summer. During the nice seasons, the good spots are always taken, so in the end, you just have to do it in their room.”
(If that happened in the room I shared with my brothers, I don’t think I’d ever be able to sleep again. The women apparently get all hyped up talking about who went to whose bed, who’s big or small, who’s good or bad… so it’s fine, isn’t it? What the hell? Rhythmic movements are a topic of conversation among the women? That goes beyond embarrassing and straight into ‘I’m never talking to a girl again’ territory.)
”Well, I think you’ll understand once you ‘know a woman’ and get a wife of your own, Larry.”
(Is that how it is? Does doing rhythmic movements with a woman really change your perspective that much? Is the ‘Virgin Wall’ really such a powerful barrier? If so, maybe I need to hurry up and get my passage rite over with.)
”Yeah. Thinking logically, your partner would be Nika-san, right?”
Tommy suddenly dropped a bombshell. That girl with the twisted personality, Nika? My partner? For my passage rite?
”Oh, wait, we were talking about the passage rite, not a marriage partner. In that case, I don’t know. It could be one of the maids, or if you have the money, old woman Ferris’s daughter would be the quickest way. I wonder which it’ll be?”
”Wait, wait. Are we talking about my marriage partner now?”
”Well, yeah. In the normal order of things, Hans would marry Teressa-san, right? Since she has children, she probably won’t be the primary wife, which naturally makes Nika Larry’s wife. Since she doesn’t have kids, I guess she’d be the primary? Regardless of whether you stay in this house or go independent.”
When a brother dies, the surviving brothers take care of his wife and children. That was common sense here.
My eldest brother, Iffens, had died in battle. So, it was logical for Hans to take his wife – my sister-in-law Teressa – and look after her and her two children, my nieces Lyrica and Maria.
Of course, that was assuming Hans would inherit the house, but I put that thought aside for now.
(Why would Nika become my wife? I looked at Tommy, pleading for an answer.)
”Wait, you didn’t know? Nika-san’s role?”
”What do you mean?”
”She came to this house for the purpose of receiving the ‘seed’⁵ and getting pregnant if Teressa-san couldn’t have children. So, while she’s officially a lady’s maid, it’s the same as if she’d been married off into the family.”
(I’d never heard that. She’d come here with that kind of resolve? I’d always thought of her as an unpleasant girl my own age, but suddenly, Nika seemed like an adult to me.)
”So, Hans will marry the widowed Teressa-san along with the kids, and you, Larry, will take care of the second wife, Nika. You’ll make her your wife. Lucky you! She’s Teressa-san’s cousin, so she’s a beauty, and she’s damn good at looking after us. She’s a perfect bride.”
(Well, maybe on paper. But no, no, no, no. There’s the issue of her personality, and above all… the ‘compatibility.’ I can’t imagine doing rhythmic movements with her every night.)
”Larry!”
Nika’s voice barked out like a drill sergeant.
The timing was so perfect my heart nearly stopped. I turned around to see her glaring at me, leaning half her body out of the back door. Tommy handed me the empty mug and said, “Thanks for the ale.” I took it and ran toward her, but I couldn’t bring myself to look her in the eye.
”What is it?”
”Huh?”
”Hurry up and give me that mug.”
I still couldn’t raise my head as she snatched the mug from my hand.
”Listen, they’ve called an emergency Elder’s Council. Larry, go to the Kessler house over by the pond and tell them. I’ll make the rounds to the neighbors.”
Before I could even finish saying “Okay,” Nika turned on her heel and went back into the main house. I looked back, and for some reason, Tommy was grinning, pumping his fist in the air like he was cheering me on.
”Seriously, give me a break…”
Tommy’s behavior – clearly not understanding the weight of my situation – was starting to get on my nerves.
Come to think of it, I remember someone telling me that when my late grandmother was young, she was a beautiful, strong-willed, jealous woman, and my philandering grandfather could never stand up to her. I couldn’t remember who told me that.
Marriage with Nika? If that happened, and I ended up like my grandfather – doing “things” with another woman – Nika would probably kill me. I’m almost certain of it.
Well, I take after my father, who was a stiff, serious man, so that probably won’t happen anyway. With those heavy thoughts in my head, I ran toward the stable.
—
Summary:
Uncle Klaus and the Village Head of Mauer arrive at Larry’s home for an emergency meeting, creating a tense atmosphere. Larry retreats to the stables to provide ale to the coachman Tommy, leading to a frank discussion about adult customs. The chapter concludes with the startling revelation that Larry is socially expected to marry Nika as a ‘spare’ wife for the family line.
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Trivia:
- Uncle Klaus is a nervous-looking man who wears a black hat with gold ornaments signifying his rank.
- Tommy has been a servant since he was 7 years old.
- Larry’s grandfather was a known philanderer whose wife was famously jealous.
- In this world, if a brother dies, his wife and children are absorbed into the surviving brother’s household.
- Nika’s actual role in the house was as a fertility backup for Teressa
—
Character Insight:
Larry experiences significant culture shock as the theoretical ‘broken morals’ of the world become a tangible reality for his own future. Nika is shown to have had a pragmatic, adult resolve about her role that Larry completely lacked.
—
Lore And Worldbuilding Context:
The author focuses heavily on the ‘levirate marriage’ system common in ancient societies but adds a ‘concubinage’ twist through Nika’s role.
—
Glossary:
Notes:
• Klaus – Larry’s maternal uncle, head of the Thalbach family and a vassal to Viscount Bizan. He dislikes Larry and Hans. He is described as a thin, grumpy-looking man, wears a light grey cloak and a black hat with gold ornaments signifying his rank in a Viscount’s house.
• Hans – Second son of the Fee family, known as Mad Dog of Strock Village, a rugged, violent delinquent and chronic alcoholic with a history of assault, extortion and other crimes.
• Nika – A fourteen-year-old personal maid to Teressa. Freckled, has wavy bronze hair, flat chest, and prone to mocking Larry. Lady’s maid and cousin to Terese. Educated free person with a prickly personality. Terese’s lady’s maid and cousin. Known for being sharp-tongued toward Larry.
• Larry – Thirteen‑year‑old third son of the Strock headman, with reddish‑white skin, bronze eyes and curly bronze hair, holds faint Showa‑era memories and minor fire magic. He hides a crush on his sister‑in‑law, does chores despite quasi‑noble status, and is also the third son of the Fee family.
• Mauer – A stout man from the Rosen family with thin, downy white hair. He wears a beige dalmatica.
• Tommy – A coachman and servant to Uncle Klaus. He is the same age as Hans and has worked with horses since he was seven.
• Tim – A 14‑year‑old village youth, the eldest son of the Dvorak family, has just ‘graduated’ into adulthood. With short dark hair, a lean build and thoughtful eyes, he recently traveled to the riverside town of Obernbach accompanied by his father.
• Teressa – The widow of Iffens and Larry’s sister-in-law. Currently serving as the deputy village head. Larry’s sister-in-law and widow of the deceased eldest brother. She has an infant daughter. Has blonde short hair and big chests, and big sister/motherly aura. Wears a wool jacket over her blouse, which its button almost split.
• Lyrica – A toddler under three years old with an innocent but devastatingly honest way of speaking. She repeats scandalous things she hears adults say.
• Iffens – The deceased eldest son of Fee family.
• Maria – The three-month-old second daughter of Ifens and Therese.
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Edited by Kanaa-senpai.
Thanks for reading.
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