Chapter 119
Viscount Visconti stamped the last document he had to process today.
At other times, he would have happily pondered what to do to relax after finishing work.
But Alfred sighed with a heavy heart.
"When marrying off my sons, I was only busy the week before the wedding and didn't really care other times. But I don't know why I'm so anxious about Erica getting married. It's not even the actual wedding yet, we're just going through the procedures to finalize the marriage."
Heads of noble families tend to favor daughters more than sons.
The reason is that sons must be raised strictly to live as heads of families in this harsh world.
But daughters only need to properly play the role of mistress of a family, so there's no need to apply such strict standards.
More strictly speaking, they don't even need to be able to play the role of mistress.
If they can't handle the most important job of a mistress, managing the territory, they can just leave it to the family's head butler, and delegate household matters to the head maid.
As long as they properly give birth to children, don't get jealous of concubines, and regularly attend balls, they're doing the minimum required.
Of course, this is just doing the bare minimum necessary, so they'd be treated as half-transparent people in the family.
'As long as our ducal family is fine, who would disrespect Erica even if she just does this much?'
To begin with, the Viscount never raised Erica to be a woman with nothing going for her except her family and pretty face.
He was having really unnecessary thoughts now that it was time to marry off his daughter.
"For nobles, marrying off sons is several times more important than marrying off Erica. I guess it's because I'm a father too."
The Viscount muttered that and took out a bottle of wine he had carefully stored on the shelf in his office.
Then he started drinking alone.
It was an extremely expensive wine, but now he couldn't taste the unique aroma or acidity of wine, only bitterness.
"It's not for me as a viscount to say, but marriage is an unhappy thing for women, really."
Alfred had taken the daughter of the Duke of Burgundy from the Kingdom of Lyon as his wife through a political marriage.
Before the marriage, he had expected that a beautiful woman would come, but when he actually faced her, she was quite ugly.
They couldn't communicate well, and she had a very strong personality.
Things were rocky from the newlywed days, but he could just meet other women to relieve himself.
"Still, that bastard Fabio will treat his wife well. If only because he doesn't want to die by my hand."
Couples can't always get along well, so he doesn't intend to give severe punishment for a few marital fights.
He'll just stick him in the knight order to make him repent his wrongdoings and realize, no, realize the preciousness of his wife.
In the midst of all sorts of stray thoughts, his daughter's voice was heard from outside the door.
"I have something I'd like to tell you, may I come in?"
"Come in."
As always, Erica entered her father's office and sat in the chair brought by the butler.
Outwardly, she seemed to show no emotional fluctuations, but looking closely, her hands and feet were trembling slightly.
"You seem nervous thinking about meeting your fiancé."
"Yes, Father."
"I was like that too when meeting your mother before marriage. Your mother must have been the same."
Regardless of gender, it's basic for nobles to choose partners and marry according to family interests, not love.
They are educated from birth that it will be so, prepare, and live until marriage.
No one refutes this fact, and all conform and live.
However, being tied to an unknown partner is still difficult to accept even if you've prepared your heart for life.
"You must be curious about what kind of guy your fiancé Fabio is. Then I'll tell you one by one what kind of person this Fabio de Rothschild I've seen is."
Erica felt her father's warm consideration in these words.
Being a young lady of a noble family means, in good terms, someone who will become the mistress of a family.
In reality, it's a position like a tool sold permanently in exchange for an alliance.
So he could have told her to leave if she was going to say useless things, but he's trying to resolve her anxieties one by one even if it's troublesome.
"His status is far too low for you to marry. So even the family's retainers and those in our faction strongly oppose it. You must have heard this through your maids too, Erica."
"Yes, the maids disliked this marriage too."
When a high-status woman marries a low-status man, her 'dignity as a noble' falls.
That means the treatment of the maids serving Erica could worsen too.
"That's knowing one but not knowing two. I declare, there won't be a better groom than Fabio."
Erica carefully observed her father's face as he said those words.
It was to judge whether it was empty words her father was saying to reassure her, or if he was speaking sincerely.
Looking closely, her father seemed to have strong conviction.
"That guy's a man too, so it's not that he doesn't keep women around. But a maid who was a serf is voluntarily studying to be of even a little help to her master."
This was hard to understand with Erica's common sense.
Usually, no, girls who were serfs are forced to build walls against studying for life.
So whether they become maids, or even if they're lucky enough to become a noble's concubine, they almost never study separately.
Because it's hard and troublesome.
Rather than that, they only try to exercise or put effort into managing their appearance to be loved even one more day as a concubine.
Even her maids only go to read books or watch plays to maintain noble qualities, they gave up true studying long ago.
Yet she continues difficult work to keep being helpful to her master?
'What kind of person must the master be, to be loved this much?'
Curiosity about this person called Fabio had already arisen in her heart.
Just like when Viscount Alfred first met Fabio.
"And this is a secret among secrets of our family, but I'll tell you since you're essentially going to become the mistress of the Rothschild family now."
Since they haven't officially held the wedding ceremony, she can't be called the mistress yet.
But now, unless either Fabio or Erica dies young, this marriage will definitely happen.
So the Viscount judged it was okay to tell her secrets related to the Rothschild family.
"The special ironworks of our ducal family was also made by Fabio. When he was the second son of the Medici baron family, he suddenly came to your grandfather and proposed that if we use this method, steel will be reproduced."
As a result, the Visconti ducal family has now established itself as the family producing the highest quality steel in the entire Tuscan Empire, no, the entire Albania continent.
"And there's the war between the Kingdom of Granada and the Sultanate that's making a stir in high society, isn't there?"
"Yes, Father."
"They say that it was all led by Fabio too. He sold gunpowder and matchlock guns to the Nador governor and indigenous tribes in western Ifriqiya to escalate the war, and framed the 'Kingdom of Granada' for selling gunpowder and matchlock guns to western Ifriqiya."
The official wife of a noble family must be well-versed in politics as the family's mistress.
That's so she can provide advice and information on which families her husband should connect with or cut ties with.
The knowledge she had accumulated so far told her:
'To be able to commit such acts without being caught by anyone.'
"Nobles your age are honestly considered capable if they can just do what their parents order. But that guy achieves feats that even I, no, even your grandfather can't do, as easily as breathing."
Erica's heart pounded hearing those words.
Of course, she didn't fall in love just hearing that his achievements and character were good.
But if she's going to marry anyway, it's better to watch a capable man by her side than to be frustrated looking at an incompetent man.
'I wonder what kind of person he is?'
"How else do you think the first thing your grandfather ordered me to do after I retired was to observe Fabio and report back?"
The Viscount stood up and stroked his daughter's head as he said:
"I don't know how you'll feel, Erica, but I think I've arranged the best match. There's still over half a year left until the wedding ceremony, but see and judge for yourself."
And the next day, Fabio set out fully prepared to meet Erica.