By Zephyria 
This is bad.
I couldn’t believe the letter laid out before my eyes, so I read it again. And then again.
No, you crazy—does this even make sense? How could you do this, Sienna Eldos! You said you’d be good at being a Baroness. You said you’d never go on trade trips again, that you’d live comfortably tending to your Greenhouse in a picturesque house. That you’d spend the rest of your life comfortably with a handsome noble husband!
How could you possibly do this to me? Knowing how important this marriage is to me, no, to our family.
I couldn’t believe it. The carpet, trampled by my boots, swallowed the noise softly. This carpet, brought from the vast pastures of the Duke Valentia Family, was quite precious. The shoes I wore, the clothes I wore, were all the result of wealth passed down through generations.
And now, I was about to lose it all in an instant.
All thanks to my cute and terrible younger sister, who ran off in search of love.
In the Sierran Empire where I live, territorial citizens without titles were not granted the right to move between territories. This was a means to control population, collect taxes, and make the country prosperous.
Most territorial citizens never left the territory they were born in and died there.
Merchant guilds were professions that built wealth by traveling between territories and countries. Therefore, most merchant guilds were owned by noble families. With their vast capital, they bought and sold enormous quantities of essential goods for the country, such as food, weapons, and Artifacts.
So how did those without titles acquire wealth?
Merchant classes like our Eldos Merchant Guild struggled to form marital alliances with nobles who had honor but no money. Because once they somehow acquired a title, they could move between territories and buy and sell goods. Fortunately, my great-grandfather’s great-grandfather’s great-grandfather succeeded in that endeavor.
Of course, it wasn’t easy to pass down through generations.
The Sierran Empire was a stable country. Most nobles were wealthy enough to take care of themselves, so they were reluctant to marry commoners.
Only those with limited titles, who were fortunate enough to obtain a Single Ascent Title, or whose titles ended with their generation, would marry into the merchant class and have children. Yes, people like my mother, who passed away just a month ago, made such marriages.
Of course, I loved my mother dearly. She cherished my father, who was twenty years her junior, and she loved me and my sister, born from her womb, very much. But time is cruel. My mother passed away exactly four years after the average lifespan in Sierran.
My mother’s Single Ascent Title ended with her. According to Imperial Law, if the owner of a Single Ascent Title does not marry someone with a title within three months of their death, the territorial movement rights, which were only conditionally allowed to their direct blood kin, are revoked.
Then it was over for me, who knew nothing but buying and selling goods.
Even when I unfolded the crumpled letter again, the content written inside did not change. As soon as my father learned that Sienna Eldos had disappeared, he began crawling across the floor, wiping it with his whole body, and grabbed the hem of my pants.
“What… are we going to do?”
“…What indeed?”
“What are we going to do now!”
“…What indeed.”
What good would it do to hold me and talk? I wasn’t the one who ran away.
However, I couldn’t kick my father, who had gained five strands of white hair and a few wrinkles around his eyes in just two hours. I rubbed my face with both hands and slapped my cheeks until they made a squeaking sound. Yes, focus. I need to focus.
“First, Father should start by inquiring about Sienna’s whereabouts.”
“And you?”
“I… well.”
I unfolded the letter in my hand once more and examined it.
“To my one and only brother, Eric, who is incredibly kind and gentle.
I’m sorry, Eric. I thought I could have a perfect married life too.
But that man, he’s too scary, I can’t stand it!
So I’m leaving to meet a man I can love.
Anyway, you’ll inherit the merchant guild, right? Why don’t you just marry that man instead?
I’ll give you my name in return. Goodbye! Live well!
Sienna, who is off to find happiness.”
I squeezed my eyes shut and opened them again.
“I… if I can’t find Sienna after three days…”
“If you can’t find her?”
“Then I’ll have to marry him.”
“…Huh?”
There was truly no other way.
In the Sierran Empire, same-sex marriage was not allowed. If one absolutely had to get married, they had to switch identities with a full sibling of the opposite sex, with whom they could exchange property and titles equally. This was because a legal marriage was possible as long as only one of the two had their gender registered as the opposite sex.
Sienna offering me her name meant exactly that.
Frankly, for our Eldos Merchant Guild, a man named Ivan Holmes was a god-sent opportunity.
As the fourth son of the Viscount Holmos family, he had a baronial succession title he would receive immediately upon marriage. Even if the name of the Baron had long since become unremarkable, it was a succession title, not a Single Ascent Title. With this one marriage, the Eldos Merchant Guild could acquire territorial movement rights that would not disappear even when generations changed.
Moreover, Ivan Holmes was said to be handsome, of a suitable age, and possessed positive and progressive thoughts about marrying commoners. He was even a soon-to-be graduate of Shierun Academy!
Shierun Academy was the highest educational institution in the Sierran Empire, attended by renowned geniuses or those who possessed commensurate wealth. He was even in the Management Department! This was an invaluable person and talent that the merchant guild absolutely could not miss.
Therefore, the Eldos Merchant Guild offered a substantial dowry and obtained the chance to marry him.
This marriage was a contract. If this marriage were to be broken for such a reason, the Eldos Merchant Guild, being at fault, would have to pay a penalty. After paying the penalty, there would absolutely be no dowry left sufficient to marry someone with a Single Ascent Title. I had to make this marriage a success.
Within two months.
Three days passed.
Sienna did not return, and I sent a message to Ivan Holmes, including a brief explanation of the situation, requesting a meeting. His reply, written in neat handwriting, contained nothing but a simple greeting and permission for the meeting place and time.
As I dressed, I felt not even a sliver of confidence.
Would it have been better if I were a man of smaller stature and a more delicate appearance? The furniture, made to my height, had mirrors that reached the ceiling. My height was 202cm. With shoes, it became 205cm. A stern-looking man with a tanned face laughed emptily in the mirror.
Fuck, even I wouldn’t marry myself.
If it were about seducing a woman, I could at least take off my shirt and somehow act like a slave. If there was nothing else, I could boast of my strength. But in front of a handsome noble man, I had no idea what I could do to avoid the engagement being broken.
First, I decided I should kneel as soon as I met him. If I bowed my head in apology, wouldn’t a normal person help me up? Then I could convey how sorry I was… and make sure to say that it was okay for him to have a lover… and then, I would pledge to be faithful to the household…
Pledge? To be faithful to the household? I needed a household to be faithful to in the first place.
I entered the private reception room of the cafeteria, designated as the meeting place, an hour earlier than the appointed time and waited. Every second, every minute, my breath caught in my throat. Then, as soon as I heard two knocks from outside the door, I knelt towards the door.
“I will enter.”
“Yes.”
Following a cold, neat voice, the sound of the door opening was heard.
My forehead was pressed to the floor. I counted numbers in my head. One, two, three… I believed that at least before I counted to fifteen, the other person would help me up by my shoulder.
However, there was no reaction.
I subtly raised my gaze and our eyes met. His cool gaze was calm, as if he had read my inner thoughts.
His pale face, devoid of any surprise, was beautiful, quiet, and… ‘noble’.
“…Um.”
“… .”
It was a maddening situation to suddenly have to marry a man. I felt the same way.
Ivan Holmes’s reaction was not good at all. Was he expecting a refusal from the start? My heart felt like it had shrunk by half. Gritting my teeth, I lowered my head again to try and beg, but a cold voice fell from above me.
“Kneeling won’t solve anything… Let’s go to the sofa. I’ll listen to the explanation first.”
“Still…”
“Explanation first.”
“…Yes.”
I got up slowly.
Even so, I hunched my shoulders as much as possible. Ivan Holmes… was he 185? 187? He was a full head shorter than me. To avoid him having to look up at me, I quickly sat on the sofa. It was only later that I realized it was proper etiquette to offer him the seat first. While I was flustered, Ivan sat on his share of the sofa as if nothing had happened.
His back was straight, and his knees were spread just enough to fit two fists. Just by sitting down, his shoulder line was perfectly straight. Although he had only been an adult for three years, it was clear he was a well-refined noble gentleman.
Feeling intimidated, I swallowed hard, and his gaze slowly swept from the top of my head to my feet. I was screwed. His face, which I had thought was composed, showed no change in expression and looked only resolute. Sienna was right. He was a man with a cold appearance. My insides burned.
When I couldn’t open my mouth, he spoke first.
“My fiancée… ran away.”
“Yes. So, that… I am truly sorry. None of our family knew, but my younger sister apparently had someone she had been secretly in love with for a very long time. But it turned out they loved each other, and when he heard about my sister’s impending marriage, he was so heartbroken that he refused to eat… My sister, startled, ran away with him. Yes, they ran away.”
“…Hmm.”
It was a hastily concocted excuse.
I had heard that nobles were generally proud. So, I intended to argue that she didn’t run away because she disliked him, but because she already had another love, a love that neither our family nor Sienna herself knew about.
Ivan Holmes, after hearing the excuse I had pondered for three days, asked again without a hint of agitation.
“And so.”
“So, I… I…”
“Yes.”
“Could you… marry me instead?”
I squeezed my eyes shut tight. He would say no. Then, like my father, I would have to cling to his pant legs. No, what if he recoiled at such a vulgar act? I should let him reject me about three times. Tell him to marry me for a settlement fee. Beg him. Squeeze him dry.
While I was agonizing over this, his lips parted.
“…It might be possible…”
“What?”
What did he say?