Chapter 14.2

The Grand Plan to Get Married: Cermiane’s Point of View (2)

By repeating these achievements, I will be able to become a viscount. However, my goal is not to become a viscount, but to make the Marquis Caliente believe that Cermiane would become a viscount in the near future. Moreover, as a high-ranking knight with the status of a viscount, he would have many opportunities to make achievements, and his status as a viscount would rise rapidly. If I take Ralphine, a marquise, in marriage, there would even be a possibility of making me a higher-ranking nobleman. It will be worth it to give Ralphine to me. The Marquis would not pass up the opportunity to increase the number of high-ranking nobles under his strong influence.

At the same time, I visited the Marquis of Caliente’s mansion frequently. Almost every day.

Most of the time it was near evening because it was after the knights had finished their work, but sometimes I would go in the morning on my days off. I would bring flowers, tea cakes, and local delicacies if I went on an expedition. The cost was high because I had to prepare items appropriate for the marquise’s family, but it was also a way of showing the marquis that I had the resources to bring them gifts every day.

A knight would not normally be able to meet the marquis even if he went to the marquis’s mansion without warning. It was a matter of course. So, at first, I would just leave a souvenir and tell the butler what to do.

However, I got to know the gatekeepers, soldiers, servants, gardeners, and maids while attending, and I spoke to them kindly and brought them souvenirs. Since knights were somewhat like commoners, I soon became friends with the staff at the duke’s residence. While continuing to hang out with them by chatting and helping out with work after leaving the souvenirs to the butler, it seems that rumors about me reached the Marchioness. One day, I visited her and she met me. Of course, as planned.

I told her about my marriage proposal to Ralphine, but more than that, I told her about Her Majesty the Queen. I told her about my youth, my hobbies of gardening, my taste for jewelry, and so on. The Marchioness seemed to wonder why I knew so much about the affairs of the Emperor and Empress, but she listened to my story as valuable information, as she often came to the Imperial Palace as a Marchioness. In this way, I became friends with her, and I also made acquaintances with the sisters of Ralphine, whom I saw from time to time, and gave them gifts.

I was apparently seen as beautiful by the ladies. Normally, I thought nothing of it, but it is an effective weapon to seduce women. I dressed neatly, put on makeup, and smiled at the ladies of the marquis’s residence. In particular, the eldest daughter of the Marquise’s legitimate son was very fond of me, and I brought her special gifts and we took walks together in the garden.

Having this gained the Marchioness’s trust, I finally launched a full-fledged courting campaign to win Ralphine. First, I told the Marchioness how much I loved Ralphine and how much I wanted to marry her. She asked me why I had fallen so in love with Ralphine, whom I had only met once, and I told her of the impact I felt at the debutante ball.

At the same time, I talked about the benefits of marrying me. I am a promising knight who is being looked up to by the Commander of the Order of Knights and the Crown Prince, and I have already begun to make some achievements, and I intend to work even harder to become a viscount. Ralphine is too good for a commoner. Shouldn’t she at least be married to me, who had a good chance of becoming a viscount? I strongly insisted that she should at least marry me, as I had a high chance of becoming a viscount. At this stage, I could see from the Marchioness’s attitude that she thought it would be a shame to let Ralphine marry a commoner, but that it would be difficult for her to marry into the nobility since she had no manners. I told her that even if I could become a viscount, it would be some time before I could do so it would be fine to learn from the old maid who is in the mansion I have after getting married, and that the social life of the lower nobility was not so complicated in terms of manners. At the same time, I meticulously demonstrated that my manners were at a level befitting a high-ranking nobleman. I was confident in this aspect because my mother taught it to me strictly.

As a result of my efforts to win over the Marchioness from various directions, she even said to me, “Let’s talk to my husband about your marriage proposal between you and Ralphine”. Although it is the father who decides who to marry, the value of the mother’s opinion is not small. If the meeting with the Marquis himself could be arranged, all that remained was to persuade him. The odds were in my favor. I went to the Marquis’s mansion hoping that the meeting with the Marquis would come true at the same time I was diligently performing my duties as a knight.

However, something unexpected happened. I discovered that Ralphine had received proposals of marriage from several lower nobles.