[Karendoll POV]

“We’ve arrived, Karen.” (Karendoll’s nickname)

“Ohh, mother… So this is the store where you bought the underwear that seduced my father that you have been talking about since I was little?”

“Yes, it is. Once you see the real thing, you’ll know how improper the underwear sold here is at a glance. It would be quicker to see it than to explain, so let’s get in there quickly.”

With that being said, I stepped into a lingerie shop, a place I had never thought I’d be able to relate to in my entire life, as she guided me by the hand.

This lingerie store seems to be a very famous and long-established business. Its exterior has an architectural style that shows its long history (The equivalent of renaissance architecture, as we call it on Earth), which indicates that it has been in business for at least three generations.

“However, I never would’ve thought that the day would come when you’d come and ask me to take you to the ‘lingerie store where I bought the lingerie that made your father fall in love with me’ because you wanted to buy lingerie that would make a man fall in love with you as well. I have always been worried about you because you were tomboyish by nature and have always refused to go on blind dates or get engaged, so I was about to resign myself to the fact that, at worst, you’d be late or never get married, you know?”

I was happy to see my mother smiling while saying that, while at the same time, I was a little bit embarrassed.

My parents always said they wanted me to marry someone from the opposite s*x I like as much as possible. But since I had rejected every engagement and matchmaking proposal my parents brought to my attention, they had begun to give up on my marriage. However, now that I know, I wish I had met Kaisar-sama earlier than Sufia.

I can easily imagine that even if I met Kaisar-sama earlier, I would have hated him just as much as I had one-sidedly, only looking at his public image and never trying to see his inner self.

I feel ashamed of myself, thinking about how I used to say that people who were beautiful on the outside are always good. I now realize how shallow my way of thinking was. 

“Even so, when I asked to get engaged to Kaisar-sama, whom you have heard nothing but bad rumours about even though we owe him a debt of gratitude as he saved brother, how could both mother and father give their permission?”

“That’s true. But he’s the man you wanted to marry, Karen. That alone is enough for your father and me to decide that Kaisar is someone we can trust. That’s how credible your word is to us compared to a hundred bad rumours.”