The Northern Lord's Ceremony Begins
The grounds of Reinhardt Mansion were packed with ornate carriages that had rushed in from every corner of the northern territories. The atmosphere of the nobles stepping out of those carriages was incomparably rough compared to the aristocrats I had encountered at the Academy. It seemed twice as difficult to find someone with a clean face than to find someone without a scar. That was only natural. Every single person crossing the mansion’s massive threshold was essentially a commander on the front lines against the barbarian tribes and monsters constantly eyeing the Empire’s lands. There were more than a few battle-hardened veterans among them. All the lords who ruled the North—the region considered the most dangerous in the Empire—had gathered in one place. The single common reason was to celebrate the birth of the new head of the Reinhardt family.
Of course, not many had come with purely celebratory intentions like children at a birthday party. In fact, there might not have been a single one. This occasion was also an evaluation for the wounded pride of the northern nobles after the crushing defeat of the subjugation force—whether the son of the defeated had the qualifications to stand as the new Lord of the North. Sophia had repeatedly emphasized that if I failed to win the recognition of those gathered here, the North would lose its unity and become nothing more than a land of losers clinging to the great nobles of other regions.
I agreed with my younger sister’s opinion, so I had stayed up all night memorizing the names, family crests, relationships, and physical characteristics of every visitor to the mansion. And now that effort was finally paying off.
“Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule, Sir Chad, especially when the orcs in the Peril Mountains are running wild.”
“Not at all. My father asked me to convey his deepest apologies for being unable to greet you in person.”
“It’s quite all right. For the sake of the North’s future, I pray that Lord Luke recovers as quickly as possible. Please enjoy the evening with your wife.”
A well-built man in a formal uniform decorated with splendid epaulets gave a slight bow. Beside Chad’s thick forearm—thick enough to strangle a wild boar—his beautiful wife in an extravagant dress clung tightly to him, wine glass in hand. This was Chad Denver, eldest son of the Denver family, currently suffering headaches over orcs crossing their farmland borders. Father: Luke. Has a younger wife. Exactly as Sophia had explained in exhaustive detail.
With Chad as the last guest, I finished greeting every attendee in the main hall. The only person still missing from the invitation list was Isabel’s uncle from the Valeri family—Gosek.
At that moment, Sophia, who had been watching from a distance to see if her brother was doing well, gave me a satisfied smile. It seemed my hospitality had just barely cleared her strict younger sister’s standards.
Sophia herself was wearing a stunning dress that rivaled those of the lords’ wives in attendance. Around her—renowned for her swordsmanship—stood men radiating the heavy aura of warriors. Not only Sophia, but Isabel and Cordelia were also drawing every eye in the room. The three of them strutted through the main hall filled with nobles like proud, beautiful birds proudly displaying their alluring plumage. The men swarmed around my mother and sisters like rats drawn to the sound of a piper.
Whenever Isabel and Cordelia’s heels clicked and their soft, voluptuous bodies swayed with each step, the men stared at them with starved, hungry gazes—as if they had awakened some ability to see through dresses. Among them were those so fixated they didn’t even notice the discomfort radiating from the other women, desperately trying to strike up a conversation with Isabel or Cordelia.
As I approached the two of them, I saw the men’s flushed faces clearly.
“Ahem… It’s been a long time, Lady Isabel. Even after all these years, your beauty shows no signs of fading.”
“I am Velosi Huber. If Lady Cordelia doesn’t mind, after this event, perhaps we could discuss the works of the painters currently popular in the Imperial Capital…”
A pot-bellied old man whose balls had probably turned white with age, leering at Isabel. A young man with buck teeth like a beaver, unable to tear his eyes from Cordelia’s chest. Their appearances and ages were different, but their intentions were undoubtedly the same. They wanted to embrace these two seductive women whose dresses were so revealing they might as well have been wearing beach bikinis.
I could understand their thirst. Isabel and Cordelia possessed a charm that made men want to challenge the highest cliffs, even knowing they could never truly possess such flowers. Unfortunately for the challengers, however, the two women had no intention of letting anyone but me taste their bodies.
“I’m sorry, Sir Darius, but I have decided to devote both my body and heart entirely to my lord, Arwen.”
“Same here, Mr. Velosi. I’m sorry, but I have no interest in any man other than my brother.”
With smiles that looked one step away from drying up completely, Isabel and Cordelia cleanly rejected the two men’s advances. Leaving behind the men who stood there chewing their lips in disappointment and despair, Isabel and Cordelia slowly walked toward me after spotting me.
With everyone’s eyes focused on our group bearing the Reinhardt name, Isabel slipped her arm through mine and clung tightly to my side.
“Have you finished greeting all the guests, Arwen?” she asked, pressed right up against her son.
Feeling the soft pressure of her breasts wrapping around my arm, I nodded.
“Yes, Mother. Thankfully, everyone except Uncle has arrived.”
“Hehe, Gosek has been scolded by Father since childhood for always being late. Don’t worry. No matter how careless he is, he wouldn’t commit such a breach of etiquette by not showing up without any message.”
Isabel gave a playful wink and rubbed her son’s arm deeper into her cleavage. Her already insufficient dress was now on the verge of slipping off my arm, and the men’s gazes locked onto her breasts with raw envy. When the sound of them swallowing their saliva became blatantly obvious, I quickly adjusted Isabel’s clothing.
But contrary to my intention to calm the mood, the moment my hand brushed against her nipple, the men’s murmuring only grew louder.
“Mother, please don’t do this in front of the guests. Hold back until tonight.”
“Hehe, understood, Arwen.”
Isabel lightly stroked her son’s thigh once before obediently stepping back from my arm. A few men wore disappointed expressions, as if they had missed a good show. But the calm lasted only a moment. The nobles’ whispers about the relationship between me and Isabel—which far exceeded normal family boundaries—began to fill the main hall.
“So Lady Isabel and Lord Arwen really have that kind of relationship?”
“From what Lady Cordelia said earlier, it sounded like she also admires Lord Arwen…”
The nobles’ murmuring spread as quickly as water spilled on the floor. Sophia must have sensed something was off, because she was walking toward me.
The situation had grown strange thanks to Isabel and Cordelia’s sudden behavior, but…
Actually, this might be for the best.
Rather than trying to hide our relationship and letting strange rumors spread, it might be better to announce it honestly here and now, while so many people were gathered.
I cleared my throat loudly to quiet the noisy room.
“Ahem. Everyone, please look this way.”
The murmuring died down, and for a moment, all eyes—including Isabel’s and Cordelia’s—focused on me. I licked my lips once to ease the tension in my tongue, then continued.
“I would like to say something to all of you on this occasion.”
A middle-aged man with a striking scar over his left eye, named Valek, spoke up.
“Does this concern Lady Isabel and Lady Cordelia?”
“That’s correct. It also concerns Sophia.”
When I paused briefly, the sound of our family’s names rising and falling from the crowd could be heard. I raised my hand, and the murmuring quieted once more.
“As you all know, the Reinhardt family fell into decline after the crushing defeat of the subjugation force. My father and all the pillars of the family—our close relatives—perished. Now, there are only four people left who bear the Reinhardt name, including myself.”
The moment the topic of the subjugation force left my mouth, the atmosphere among the northern nobles sank to the floor like dust soaked in water. Some furrowed their brows, looking ready to burst out in anger. Most of the people here had lost fathers, uncles, or brothers in that campaign.
Even in that heavy atmosphere, I continued my announcement.
“But now things are different. Just as the frozen winter earth thaws and new sprouts emerge, new life has come to the Reinhardts.”
“New life?”
“No way…”
At my words, the crowd’s gazes split—half toward Cordelia, half toward Sophia. Even as my two younger sisters looked flustered, I felt the veins in my neck bulging as I declared boldly:
“My younger sisters Cordelia and Sophia are currently pregnant with my children. And I do not intend to stop there. I plan to give my sisters and my mother as many children as possible.”
The faces of the crowd overflowed with shock. It was one thing to impregnate my younger sisters, but to declare I would also impregnate my stepmother? Thanks to the Family Affection trait, I could avoid social criticism for incest, but proudly announcing that I had impregnated two women at once was hardly a common occurrence.
But I didn’t stop there.
“Here and now, I promise you all this. I will devote every effort to rebuilding the glory of the North, just as I will fill the Reinhardt family with new life.”
I continued the speech, meeting the eyes of everyone around me one by one.
“I believe in the strength of the North. Nobles from other regions may look down on us as crude country bumpkins who only know how to till barren soil, but we have the pride of standing firm in this most desolate land of the Empire for His Majesty the Emperor’s glory. We are not the kind of people who would abandon our homeland after just one or two defeats!”
“That’s right! We are the Empire’s shield!”
“Well said! We cannot abandon the land our children will live in!”
Starting with shouts that seemed to come from nowhere, the heated voices of the nobles representing the North began to echo throughout the mansion. It would have been nice if I had awakened some talent for instantly creating moving speeches that captured the masses… but unfortunately, I had simply recited a speech I had memorized in advance. Of course, smoothly inserting the unplanned pregnancy announcement into the original speech was entirely my own skill.
Sophia, who had looked like she had a lot to say about her brother’s sudden behavior, now wore a surprised expression at the crowd’s reaction, which was better than expected.
But just as everyone’s mood was heating up, a grating, unpleasant voice that felt like nails on a chalkboard rang through the main hall.
“Making such a fuss over nothing. Ha! Who exactly is supposed to be carrying whose child?”
At the sudden discord, all eyes turned toward the entrance of the main hall. There stood a fat middle-aged man with yellow hair that perfectly matched Isabel’s color, accompanied by a woman whose beauty was far too precious to be wasted on a man like him.