“If you’re building up suspense to arouse curiosity, I want to say that’s enough now.”

Cain leaned his body toward Vivian and urged the story.

“The two of them secretly met at night for the past two days.”

“……What? What did you just say? Met secretly at night?”

“Yes. But why are you angry?”

“How could I not be angry? An unmarried man and woman first sharing intimacy? And she confessed that to you without any hesitation?”

“……First sharing intimacy? They just met by chance at night and talked a lot about the Empire and Kartran. And her worries about Kartran decreased a lot too. He was so kind and wonderful that she thought she’d just remember him in her heart, but at the banquet hall she learned he was Kartran’s heir.”

Cain’s face instantly turned red upon hearing the truth of the incident. Because he’d been rejecting the subtle proposals of ladies who asked to meet him at ‘night’ every time, he’d somehow come to think of a man and woman meeting at ‘night’ as ‘sharing intimacy.’

“I was a shameless b*stard.”

He muttered while covering his face with both hands.

“Ahaha!”

Vivian burst into laughter again watching Cain unable to recover his face that had turned bright red from embarrassment. And Cain’s gaze lingered long on her laughing face.

“It’s fortunate everything worked out well, but what on earth were you thinking saying you’d marry into Kartran in her place?”

Cain’s appearance asking with a neat and serious face seemed similar to usual yet somehow different, but Vivian didn’t notice that difference.

“They’re too valuable an opponent to let slip. For the Empire, for His Highness the Crown Prince, for the Raine household. Moreover, I hated seeing Her Highness Elizabeth, who’s lived suffering mentally until now, have an unwanted marriage.”

“What about yourself? Would you be fine marrying a complete stranger like that?”

“How many among imperial nobles marry without considering family interests? In a woman’s case, it’s either being sold off or being fortunate. I was lucky since I could make a choice. Moreover, I don’t particularly expect anything from marriage.”

“……That’s truly a sad story. Anyway, does that mean you don’t care anymore if it’s not someone who’ll enter your family as a son-in-law?”

Vivian somewhat regretted having publicly declared ‘A husband candidate must absolutely be someone who can enter the Raine household as a son-in-law husband.’ She hadn’t expected everyone she met would bring this up.

Human affairs couldn’t be predicted even one step ahead, yet why had she been so certain of the future back then? Perhaps because her thinking had become more flexible after regressing, she’d become able to think more broadly about the family’s future and the scope of utilizing her own marriage.

The Empire recognized title succession across generations, so even if she married into Kartran, she just needed to have one of the children she bore inherit the Raine household. Though marrying into Kartran wouldn’t happen now, anyway, she no longer thought she necessarily had to bring in a son-in-law.

“Yes, well, that’s right. Though they’d have to agree to the condition that one of the children I bear must inherit the Raine household.”

Vivian answered as if it was nothing, but Cain felt one corner of his heart suddenly brighten considerably. That rapid emotional change bewildered even him, but he thought it was just because he found Vivian, like a younger sister, cute.

“Ahem! Hmm! As an older brother sending off his younger sister, I’ll say this—try to choose a man who loves you as much as possible for a spouse. Of course, there won’t be just one or two men who love you, but among them, choose the one with the best conditions. It’d be better if his title is high, but anyway, I hope you meet someone who’ll love and cherish you for a lifetime.”

“Mm. First, finding a man who likes me seems quite difficult, I don’t think families better than the Raine household would particularly want me, and I’m not confident I can give or receive love for a lifetime either.”

“……No, why?”

Cain looked with surprised eyes at Vivian spitting out negative words indifferently. They weren’t words that should come from Vivian’s mouth, who always seemed confident and self-assured.

Moreover, quite a few male students at the Academy were already interested in Vivian. Even that Luciel Evanhart was smitten with her.

“I’m actually someone with accurate self-objectification. I’m not a beauty. Nor am I the gentle, obedient type men like. Rather, I’ve only treated male students as rivals until now, so quite a few must be fed up with me. And honestly, being the daughter of a comital family without male siblings might seem to have no benefit at all to other families. So even from men’s parents’ perspective, I’d only be attractive as a place to dispose of their worthless son. As for loving for a lifetime…… well. Looking at my parents, I just think they’re amazing. Passion doesn’t last long anyway. Yet to cherish each other for such a long time…… it’s probably impossible for someone selfish like me.”

Vivian Raine disparaging herself in a calm voice was refreshingly unfamiliar.

“Accurate self-objectification……? Miss Vivian Raine. You seem to need to know yourself more accurately. To advise, while being lenient only with yourself is something to guard against, conversely, being excessively strict only with yourself is also something to guard against.”

Cain rose slowly from his seat with a hollow smile, grasped Vivian’s hand as she made a puzzled expression, and lifted it.

“Miss Raine is very beautiful and lovely. Moreover, you’re smart and wise. I wonder who the lucky person will be to welcome you as a wife?”

Then he lightly kissed the back of her hand.

“Your Highness……?”

“I should gradually return to the banquet hall now. Though it’s summer, if you’re exposed to night air too long, you’ll catch a cold. Don’t stay outside too long.”

Cain’s face held a gentle smile as always, but Vivian couldn’t understand the meaning of that smile.

After parting with Cain, Vivian’s mood became somewhat gloomy.

So she gave up on advancing under the banquet hall’s bright chandelier light and chose to sip champagne in a shadowy corner. In her current mood, she didn’t have confidence to join a place where everyone seemed happy and arrange her expression.

Each time the sweet champagne with bursting bubbles went down her throat, her mood seemed to improve very slightly. Of course, no matter how much champagne she drank, she probably wouldn’t become as happy as Elizabeth, who kept making sparkling smiles from far away.

‘Her Highness Elizabeth seems truly happy. I’ve never seen her smile like that until now……’

It was regrettable and sad that the friend she’d only just thought she’d made would leave far away, but separately from that, it was joyful and enviable that Elizabeth, who’d endured in a ruthless world until now, had found her own love. It wasn’t that she hadn’t seen people talking about love in her past life either, but seeing and hearing a love story of someone she regarded as a ‘friend’ right beside her, that warm and cozy feeling was felt directly, making her think she was envious.

‘Love……’

Prince Cain had said embarrassing things like she was beautiful or lovely as if it was nothing, but Vivian didn’t think even a fingernail’s worth that those were his true feelings. Because she too had eyes, and it wasn’t like there were no mirrors at home.

Vivian always thought of herself as like a ‘pink pig.’ Because her cheeks had been plump and rosy since childhood. Moreover, her nose tip seemed slightly upturned too. She quite liked her eyes with deep double eyelids and deep green irises, but besides that, there was nothing special.

Even if she didn’t hope for eye-catching blonde or silver hair, if she’d at least had attractive red or black hair, it would have been distinctive, but common brown hair…… Moreover, though she was already eighteen, her height always seemed to stay in place.

Noble society had many young ladies rumored to be beauties. Each family deliberately packaged and spread such rumors, but anyway, they all seemed attractive.

Whether appearing more mature than their age, pure like fairies, or exuding seductive energy with curvaceous figures—their characteristics varied, but there wasn’t a style Vivian could even similarly imitate.

‘Because men like such women.’

Usually in society, such young ladies received passionate courtship, so for Vivian, who hadn’t conversed much with other people, she couldn’t help but think that way.

And two emotions came with such thoughts. Rebelliousness against society that seemed to force only external beauty on women, and self-loathing that someone like her would never hear words like ‘I love you.’

It felt frustrating as if being subjugated to mainstream society, so she deliberately tried to be more confident, but when topics about love or marriage hit close to home like now, she inevitably gave herself harsh scores.

‘It’s fine. There are many couples who live well and peacefully even in marriages without love. Moreover, there are many couples who become worse than politically arranged marriage couples once love’s passion cools. So I’m fine. Sure.’