“It’s nothing special, I’m just quite capable.”

Erika paused with her fork halfway to her mouth.

She thought he was about to whisper some remarkable secret, but in the end, it was just self-praise.

“As far as I know, I’m more capable than you, and I don’t think I could get a reservation here so easily.”

“You’re only capable when it comes to fighting. I’m capable in many areas.”

Erika’s intention to be nice to Ion because he seemed dejected in front of Gerick yesterday completely vanished.

Right, this guy was originally this annoying person who lived for his own self-satisfaction.

“Didn’t you say you wanted to get along well with me? Because it feels like you’re trying to pick a fight with me right now.”

Hahahahaha—

Ion burst into loud laughter.

Erika’s face scrunched up even more.

“What are you trying to do with me right now?”

“Sorry. Since we’re about to become husband and wife, I shouldn’t keep secrets from you, right?”

“Secrets?”

“Yes. You shared your secret with me too.”

At this sudden tangent, Erika put down her fork completely and stared at Ion.

“This place is mine.”

“What?”

“I mean this restaurant is mine. Yesterday’s restaurant too. I was planning to tell you about myself one by one until the wedding, starting with the most expensive restaurants, but I missed the timing because of Gerick……”

“Really? It’s really yours?”

Erika wondered if she had been mistaken about Ion all along.

To Erika, Ion had just been a pitiful prince who survived by struggling without any backing.

But to think he was the owner of such famous restaurants.

Despite Erika’s suspicious gaze, Ion continued to smile firmly as he spoke.

“As you know, I have no backing. How do you think I’ve managed to hold on until now? You might not realize, but everything costs money. Hiring knights, providing armor and weap*ns, lodging, training grounds—everything. It all costs money. Where do you think all that money came from?”

“You’ve been running businesses like this behind the scenes?”

Ion shrugged his shoulders as if it were nothing.

“I also had some luck. A few years ago when I went monster hunting, I caught quite a few. Among them was an S-class Tiger monster. A mutated Tiger at that. It was really difficult to catch, but it was worth it.”

“……You caught a Tiger? A mutated one at that?”

S-class Tiger.

A frustrating monster with a head resembling a mix between a lion and tiger, with wings that enable attacks both on ground and in air.

The mutated version also has two dragon-like heads on the back of its neck that spit poison like saliva, making it difficult to even approach.

And Ion claims he caught that. Even though he wasn’t even a Sword Master yet.

“Are you perhaps hiding your skills? Like, are you actually a Sword Master but spreading rumors that you’re only a Sword Expert……”

“That’s not it. I just had a good strategy. My subordinates fought well according to the plan without getting scared.”

“But where did you sell it that nobody knows you caught a Tiger?”

Ion scratched his head and then whispered quietly to Erika.

“Cas.”

“Are you insane? How are we supposed to defend ourselves if they make weap*ns from the Tiger and attack us? You sold it to them?”

Armor made from Tiger skin is difficult to penetrate. Only aura users must lead the vanguard against it.

A sword made from Tiger claws will destroy even expensive shields if you try to block it.

The Tiger’s core is rumored to have such immense magical power that it can make casting mages almost omnipotent. The only fortunate thing is that it’s consumable.

“I had no choice back then. I had to hide how much potential strength I had.”

Well, it did seem strange that someone with nowhere to turn for help had survived so long. Wait.

Erika moved closer to Ion.

“So you invested that money in restaurants like this, merchant guilds, things like that? Then, are you rich now?”

Ion nodded shyly.

“Well, I have enough to develop the territory into a fairly livable city. Even if I spend all my savings, I have sources of continued income.”

“Wow. Talk about trading a clunker for a Benz.”

“Huh?”

Though it wasn’t necessarily Erika’s nature to worry in advance, Ion’s granted land was large but quite worthless.

It was unsuitable for farming from the start, with mostly tall mountains that might yield one or two ore veins if extremely lucky.

The only fortunate(?) thing was that it had many monsters.

And that those monsters, while a disaster for ordinary people, were all money to Erika?

She had thought that even without taxpaying residents, they could get by just fine if she and Ion caught and sold monsters together.

Erika had been thinking it had its pros and cons and wasn’t a big deal, but Ion turned out to be a man who prepared for the future better than she expected.

“I’m impressed by you.”

“Well. I’m just letting you know so you won’t worry. Your Grace must be concerned about having to go to a land with nothing.”

The Duke and Hermes weren’t worried at all.

Being from a family that feared nothing in this world, they weren’t exactly familiar with “concern.”

“Right…… Father will be pleased……”

After finishing their meal, Ion took Erika to the restaurant’s garden.

At the back of the garden was a sheer cliff, and right in front of it were benches decorated with flowers and magical lights placed here and there, which was quite impressive.

“Wow! It feels like I’m floating in the sky.”

When Erika expressed her admiration after sitting on a bench, Ion smiled contentedly.

As if he knew she would like it.

“I have a favor to ask.”

“A favor?”

Ion fidgeted with his hands and uncharacteristically looked at Erika nervously.

It was quite different from his usual fearless appearance.

“……As you know, I don’t have a family, right?”

“……”

“When I marry you, you’ll become my only family.”

Strictly speaking, it wasn’t that Ion had no family.

It was just that he couldn’t call the Emperor, his father, “Father,” and couldn’t call his half-siblings “siblings,” so they couldn’t be considered true family.

‘He really doesn’t have anyone he could call family……’

Blood ties alone don’t make a family.

The Emperor had pitted the half-siblings against each other, and the half-siblings were desperate to kill one another.

Ion, who lost his mother at birth, was raised by a wet nurse and maid sent by the Emperor as if doing him a favor.

Whether they embraced and raised Ion well or not is unknown, but the Ion that Erika had seen so far always had a shadow over him.

There was a stark difference in attire between him and Gerick, and unlike the always confident Gerick, Ion seemed to be struggling to mask his inferiority complex with arrogance.

Even his attempt to become Crown Prince was a struggle to be recognized as a member of the imperial family.

“……I’ve always envied people who talk about their families and lineage.”

“……Really?”

“Yes. Pointing at pictures of ancestors, portraits of grandfathers and grandmothers, telling how their family began, what their relatives were like—I envied that so much.”

Ion took something out of a magically expanded spatial pocket and fiddled with it.

“This is a photographica. You’ve probably seen one before.”

Erika nodded slowly as she looked at the photographica, the magical image recorder that Ion showed her.

An instinctive aversion washed over her.

Haena, who had hated taking pictures due to her complex about her appearance, was still stirring inside her.

Erika felt like she knew what Ion was going to say next without hearing it, and she couldn’t help but sigh.

“I want to record our story with the photographica so that someday we can share memories together.”

“……You want to do that even though we’ll only be together for a year?”

“A political marriage is created by two people. And if you’re going to do something, you should do it properly.”

“Ah~ Practice like it’s real, and the real thing like practice?”

Ion hadn’t expected Erika to be this insensitive.

Though he tasted the despair of his dream shattering, he didn’t give up.

He just nodded that Erika was right and pulled up the corners of his mouth.

At that moment, Erika, unaware of Ion’s true feelings, was lost in her own thoughts.

‘I was planning a revenge romance, but he’s planning a wholesome family story……’

Even though it was just a political marriage that would last only a year, their perspectives were vastly different.

Erika simply thought that if she also went through with the political marriage that Gerick was so insistent on, she could expose Gerick’s lies.

But she hadn’t thought about why Ion had accepted this marriage.

‘Come to think of it, why did he accept this marriage?’

Honestly, Erika didn’t really fit the cute picture Ion was trying to paint.

She could help him settle in his territory.

No matter how monster-infested the place was, it wouldn’t be a problem for Erika.

She also thought her role would be significant in establishing a new family.

Although Erika was far from a typical noble lady, she was still the lady of the Sparta ducal family and a Sword Master.

With Erika behind him, no one would dare disrespect Ion anymore.

‘My credentials must be pretty good.’

Erika had no doubt that her mere existence would be of great help to Ion.

That alone was sufficient reason for him to accept this marriage.

If there was one more reason, perhaps he wanted to experience having a “family”?

Having survived alone and struggled to reach the position of Grand Duke, starting alone and lonely would be worse.

Besides, Erika was strong enough that Ion wouldn’t need to protect her.

Erika reached her own conclusion.

She wasn’t forcibly holding Ion back just for her own benefit.

As he said, it was a political marriage they were creating together.

That’s not to say she didn’t feel sorry at all.

After all, she had dragged someone who was trying to shake off an unhappy past and start a new life back into the mud.

Might as well do this for him.

Although she hated photos, he said it was practice.

Practice in creating family stories.

“……What do I need to do?”

Ion’s face immediately brightened at Erika’s positive response.

He quickly continued his explanation while showing the photographica closer to Erika.

Like someone afraid Erika might change her mind.

“You just need to place your finger here along with mine to register as users.”

“Register?”

“Yes. Then this photographica will follow us around and record on its own.”

“……So this thing will follow us around constantly?”

Erika’s brow furrowed slightly.

Even though she had developed a sense of obligation toward Ion, the idea of having her activities recorded in real-time like CCTV wasn’t appealing.

“Not constantly, just for short periods when we meet. About 30 minutes? And it has an invisibility function so you won’t even notice it.”

“Alright. Do as you please.”

“Really? Then put your thumb here.”

Ion placed his thumb in the photographica’s slot and nodded.

His nod directed her to another slot next to it.

Erika sighed and placed her thumb next to Ion’s.

After a moment, a soft light emerged from the photographica and enveloped their fingers.

[Please state your names.]

“Ion Kaiser.”

“Erika de Sparta.”

[User registration complete. Beginning recording.]

When they removed their fingers, the photographica floated up into the air by itself and began circling around Ion and Erika.

Ion quickly moved to sit right next to her.