A strange silence fell between the room. Lora looked at my mother with a calm gaze, while Grace quickly earned back her poker face. She, being the duchess, quickly gained herself back as she gazed at Lora for a moment after which she turned to look at me, the surprise on my face mirroring her first one.
“Um…what do you think about this, son?”
My mother asked her question resounding in the room, bringing everyone’s eyes to me. Both Nora and Elda looked at me with frowns on their faces, Olivia with a slightly narrowed gaze, my mother stoic, and Lora with her calm gaze.
‘Wow, now this is a powerful battlefield.’
I mused as I took in the gaze of everyone in the room, meeting the eyes of each and every one until my gaze finally landed on Lora, fixing itself there as I started to speak.
“Well, this is all very surprising to me. I mean, I-I didn’t expect this sudden engagement at all…”
As I said this, a sly smile came up on both Lora and Olivia. Disregarding it, I continued.
“I mean, I am very happy that you have recommended the engagement to me, but I haven’t seen Olivia in a romantic regard. She is like family to me…”
As I spoke this, Olivia kept a calm face, showing nothing, while Lora frowned, her eyes seemingly asking me what the hell I was saying. Although these words seemingly started to improve the mood of my family.
“Though I am flattered by this request, I wish to take some time to think over this. After all, there isn’t anything I hate about Olivia, and taking Olivia as my wife doesn’t sound like a bad idea.”
At the end of my words, the atmosphere in the room became chilling, Elda and my mother seemingly holding themselves in quite well, but the look on Nora’s face ain’t good at all.
‘Sigh, she really needs to get some better poker face.’
To anyone with good emotional value, it would be easy to understand that the current look of subtle anger and jealousy shouldn’t exist on a sister’s face at all. Heck, even Olivia is giving me some suspicious looks while alternating between me and Nora.
Thankfully, Nora quickly picked up on it as her face turned emotionless. Meanwhile, Lora, being the Empress she is, kept her calm face while she nodded her head, her words filling the room as she spoke.
“That’s good enough for me. Well, there is no need to rush for the engagement. We can have Olivia and Austin spend some more time together. Perhaps love can naturally bloom between the two of them.”
‘The wording is good, but that’s just escalating the situation.’
I thought as I gazed at the room that was getting messier and messier with feelings. Thankfully, my mother had very good control over her feelings, taking control of the situation as she turned to look towards Olivia, her question ringing in the room.
“What about you, Olivia? What do you think about the engagement?”
This question brought all the attention to Olivia, who stayed quiet and calm throughout all the conversations. Her expression betrayed nothing, but at this question, a light blush filled her face as she soon spoke with a light smile with her eyes on me.
“I actually don’t mind having to marry Austin. You seem like a very good husband candidate. Well, I am sure that there is no girl out there that will say no to being engaged to Austin~”
The ending of her words was fun and teasing, but the damage was already done. Her word tone and body language gave a suggestion pointing towards her attraction towards me, something not taken well by any of the women in this room.
‘Sigh… she went against the plan…..’
I lamented to myself. Both I and Olivia already had a plan for how the meeting would go. After a few days of my speech, declarations, and proof of how dangerous it would be for an engagement between the two of us due to my ‘destiny’ and ‘hero’ status, after all, it’s very easy to play with the heart of a girl in love.
Any girl would want their man to be excellent, and in this case, the records of my status as a ‘hero’ only brought pride and worry to Olivia. But she did relent on the fact to play with the script I had created for the meeting, one enough not to cause too much problem within the dynamics that I had created.
And Olivia was happy to go along with it. After all, I am doing this to keep her ‘safe,’ but now things have gone to shit. The plan was to create a quite lackluster reaction from Olivia, one of disinterest or interest, someone just willing to go with the flow, but Olivia has thrown all of that into shit.
‘Well, not like I didn’t expect it.’
I thought. The one thing to do when dealing with crazy girls in love is to always plan for failures, and in this case, this might be due to Olivia’s experience when she went through with this along with Nora’s reaction quickly putting Olivia in defense mode.
‘Marlene and Catherine might also have some role in this sudden change.’
Overall, things didn’t go as I planned them to go, bringing in suppression and conflict from my family and even Lora?
‘Why the hell are you angry? Isn’t this your idea?’
I inwardly shook my head at this stupidity, but then again, perhaps Lora might have been expecting a lack of interest from Olivia, mostly her dream of Olivia spending too much time ruling the Empire far from me while Lora took the time to indulge herself on me.
‘Well, that was a plan with a lot of loopholes in it.’
As I got lost in my thoughts with the atmosphere down, the talk between us quickly went nil, leading to Lora standing up as she spoke.
“Why don’t you all think about this, while Olivia and Austin try to get closer?”
“That sounds like a good idea.”
My mother replied, her expression remaining calm as Lora spoke.
“Good, then we will set out for now, for I am still a bit lagged from the earlier teleportation.”
“Sure, get enough rest.”
As my mother replied, Olivia joined Lora, and the two of them set out from the room, the guards quickly sticking to Lora like glue. Just as the coast was clear, Nora unleashed herself.
“What do you mean by you are okay with the engagement?!”
Her scream filled the room as I let out a sigh, my words being heard out.
“What else was I to say? From any normal point of view, the engagement sounds like a good idea.”
That wording of mine only flared Nora up.
“Does that mean you want her?!”
Nora’s voice choked up, along with the small tears in her eyes that started to shine. Seeing this, my mother unleashed her aura, filling the room with her presence as she spoke, looking at Nora with a frown.
“Calm down, Nora. Don’t act up like this. I had already told you before you started this relationship with Austin that things wouldn’t be easy. You won’t be able to defend him like other women, nor will you be able to say he is yours in public.”
My mother’s voice lay calm, but I, who had spent a lot of time with her, actually understood that a storm was lying within her words. The sheer jealousy she’s feeling is somehow being held back by her maturity, but it seems that won’t last for long.
Though the words she spoke quickly cooled down Nora, she held back her words while biting her lips. Clearly, she is facing the consequences of her love for the first time. While Nora held herself back, my eyes turned towards Elda. She came forward to stand in front of me as she raised her hands high.
I smiled at her action as I hugged her body tight, her arms wrapping around my neck, while she jumped and wrapped her legs around my waist, holding me tight. Her intimate actions quickly caught the attention of the other two women as I asked.
“You have nothing to say?”
“Nope, I know my big brother only loves us and wants us and will never cheat on us.”
Though the words she said were loving, the chill and emotionless emotion behind it were quite chilling.
‘Guess she is broken too…..’
