Breaking the Engagement (Part 2)
Until the word "settlement" fell from Eric's lips, Amber had clung to a fragile thread of hope.
She hadn't expected him to be warm. Nor had she expected him to feel sympathy at the sight of her haggard, exhausted face. Throughout their entire engagement, Eric had been a thoroughly detached, off-putting man.
"There's really no need for you to visit so often, Amber. It's not like we have anything to talk about anyway, do we?"
"Why are you so curious about whether I'm High Expert or Peak Expert...? Ah, never mind, I can guess without you telling me. But the tiers within the Expert realm aren't so neatly divided. It's hard to explain, so just let it go."
"Wouldn't you rather be at a salon than stuck here with me?"
Eric's dry, sarcastic tone remained vivid in her memory even now. Granted, she had brought every bit of it upon herself.
Yet he hadn't been cold from the very beginning. Before the price of Kodana coins skyrocketed, she had actually felt they got along quite well. Mapping out their future careers together had even been somewhat fun. His attitude had turned icy only after the price of Kodana took off—and only after Amber, far too late, began making an "effort" to get close to him.
When she dressed up in pretty clothes, asked for the kinds of dates ordinary lovers went on, and hinted that she might allow him into her bed, Eric had merely sneered, as if reading her shallow intentions like an open book. And the more he withdrew, the more frantic Amber had become.
If only I had stayed true to how I was in the beginning.
Could they have avoided this catastrophic rupture? That was the thought running through Amber's mind as she stared blankly at Eric, who was thrusting a claim for damages right in front of them.
Regardless of her inner turmoil, Eric merely looked back and forth between father and daughter, pressing them for an answer.
"Take a look. It's a sum calculated on entirely rational grounds."
A man wealthy enough to buy a castle if he felt like it, demanding settlement money for a broken engagement. Her father, who had served as a prosecutor for over two decades, was so taken aback that he could only open and close his mouth in stunned silence. Amber was the one who barely managed to hold onto her wits.
"Eric, what on earth is this... nonsense? The one who disciplined you was the Commander."
"I plan to reach a separate compromise with him. And I'm not demanding this out of thin air, Miss Amber. I don't know if you recall, but early in our engagement, we talked quite a lot about my career path. Had our engagement held, that might have become 'our' path forward. Though that ship sailed long ago."
"Wait, Eric... you've been using formal speech with me this whole time."
She tried to force a smile and steer the conversation elsewhere, but Eric didn't even pretend to listen. Wearing a faint, polite smile, he simply began reciting the basis for the settlement.
"I am twenty-five years old. Of course, reaching this stage at a young age doesn't guarantee I will become a Master. There are plenty of knights who spend ten, fifteen years stuck at Peak Expert, never breaking through their shell before old age catches up with them."
"..."
"But what if I had kept my post as a knight and smoothly ascended to Master? The position of Commander would have been practically guaranteed. Naturally, I would have received a title of nobility as well. Not merely an honorary title either, but an enfeoffed estate where I could collect taxes."
"Um, Eric? If you reach the realm of Master later on, couldn't that still—"
"Do you think that's easy? When I'll have no opportunities to spar with knights of comparable skill, and no chance to build real combat experience? The world doesn't conveniently twist itself to suit your delusions, Miss Amber. 'Master' isn't some stray dog's name you can just whistle for."
A stray dog. And he had stared right through the two of them as he spat out the crude comparison.
"So... you're telling us to pay you damages?"
"Yes. If not for the disciplinary recommendation from the esteemed High Prosecutor beside you, I wouldn't have had to leave the order, nor would I be rendered a has-been in the prime of my youth. Compensating me for some portion of the damage I've suffered strikes me as the only fair course of action."
"...Haah."
Having finally gathered his wits in the meantime, Amber's father picked up the document detailing the settlement calculations with trembling hands. Amber, too, read over the contents with a dazed stare. Looking at the paper seemed marginally less painful than meeting Eric's eyes.
Yet contrary to her hopes, the final figure seemed to twist a knife straight into her chest. Because the sum was exorbitantly high? No, that wasn't it. He hadn't demanded decades' worth of a knight's salary, nor had he sought compensation for the emotional trauma of losing the chance to rise from a commoner to Commander of the Imperial Royal Guard. What Eric had demanded was a subtly, cruelly realistic figure.
"Fifty million. Give me that, and I'll step away cleanly."
More than twice the annual salary her father received as a High Prosecutor. They certainly didn't have that much sitting around in cash, but if they scraped and scrambled like hell, it was an amount they could somehow cobble together. The document even laid out the specific grounds for the calculation in meticulous detail—clearly drawn up with professional legal assistance. The factors used to calculate the damages, such as age and engagement ceremony expenses, appeared relatively reasonable even to Amber's untrained eyes.
Could Father find a way to dispute this...?
She looked back at her father with a glimmer of hope, but to her dismay, his face was pale with dismay. In his twenty years as a prosecutor, he must have witnessed every filthy scenario imaginable. Yet even for him, Eric's demand was evidently difficult to refuse. If they fought this to the bitter end, it would inevitably drag in the Commander of the Imperial Royal Guard, a man standing at the pinnacle of imperial power. That Eric harbored no fear of such an outcome meant he had already run the numbers and made his preparations.
After agonizing over it for what felt like an eternity, the emotion that finally settled over Gregory's face was sheer resignation.
"What do you say, Prosecutor?"
"...I understand. You're saying that if we don't quietly agree to call off the engagement, you'll sue for this settlement."
His spirit already broken, Gregory replied in a voice that dwindled to a crawl. He had interrogated countless criminals over his career, but right now, he looked less like a prosecutor and more like a pathetic suspect caught in a trap. Eric clicked his tongue as if in sympathy, but there was no mercy in his eyes.
"You seem to misunderstand. Breaking the engagement is one thing; the settlement is entirely separate. There is no correlation between the two."
"..."
"And listening to you, your phrasing sounds a bit... odd. 'Quietly agree to call off the engagement'? Did you honestly think there was any possibility of this engagement continuing? You get your daughter's fiancé fired and still expect the wedding to proceed as planned? That's preposterous."
"No, I simply thought... that I should first beg for your forgiveness and offer an explanation—"
"I'll take the apology, but I'll pass on the explanation. It's obvious enough what excuses you'd offer anyway. All I need from you is a decision."
What will it be?
At Eric's ultimatum demanding a resolution, father and daughter exchanged blank stares as if they had rehearsed it in advance. Neither resorted to undignified bickering. Opening their mouths now would produce nothing but pathetic whines anyway. Besides, just looking into her father's wavering eyes was enough for Amber to know what he wanted to say.
Know your place.
I don't have the power to protect you.
The words her father used to repeat like a mantra rang in her ears. Know your place. Know your means. Know your station. Whenever Amber had begged to attend social salons with highborn ladies, or pleaded to enroll in the Imperial Academy, her father had always admonished her with variations of those very words. Unable to accept them, Amber had rebelled every single time.
Yet this time, Amber found herself quietly yielding to his wisdom. As loath as she was to admit it, her relationship with Eric was already thoroughly ruined. One look at that unyielding expression made it crystal clear that he had zero intention of showing leniency. Even if she burst into tears and begged on her knees right here, he wouldn't bat an eye.
"Eric."
Amber forced herself to speak on behalf of her thoroughly drained father. In truth, her heart had crumbled long ago. She was desperately swallowing back the tears threatening to spill over even now. In fact, her eyes were already wet; it was only through some inexplicable surge of willpower that she kept the tears from trailing down her cheeks.
Even so... I can't let Father be destroyed too.
Amber resolved to take the most humiliating role upon herself.
In the end, it was Amber who raised the white flag.
Biting her lip as she fought back tears—she most likely fancied herself making some grand, noble sacrifice for her father's sake. It wasn't that I possessed some uncanny knack for reading minds; that was simply how girls like her were wired to think.
Considering the trouble she had already caused her father—and the endless grief she would cause him in the years to come—bowing her head once was nothing. Not that it was any of my business, but Amber had already passed her prime in the marriage market. She was a few years younger than me, still in her early twenties, but that wasn't exactly young either.
Of course, elite graduates from the Imperial Academy often found partners in their mid-to-late twenties, but Amber had only graduated from a civic school and was now an unemployed layabout living at home. She was exceptionally good-looking, so she wouldn't fail to find a match entirely, but finding a suitor who met her lofty standards would be next to impossible. Unless, of course, she was prepared to become someone's concubine.
She'll probably spend the rest of her days bleeding her father dry.
When weighed against that future, ducking her head to me this once was practically free.
"...Eric. I'll break the engagement."
"A wise decision."
"Since you don't want an apology from me, I won't offer one. ...I just have one final request. You can consider it childish whining if you like. May I... say it?"
"Speak. Though I can't guarantee I'll grant it."
"Please... if possible, adjust the settlement amount. It might be pocket change to you, but... we simply don't have that kind of money."
Her voice broke on every word, tears pooling in her eyes. On her lap, her tightly clenched fists were trembling violently. How long had she hesitated just to spit those few words out? Knowing Amber's temperament, she had probably fought an entire war inside her head.
I decided to show exceptional generosity and grant Amber one final mercy. If I refused even this, father and daughter might cling to me like leeches. I had more than enough money to spend; having an ex-fiancée and her family loitering around would be a nuisance.
"All right. I'll give you a discount."
Magnanimously, I agreed to knock off a whopping fifteen million.
However, I had two conditions. First, they had to report the dissolution of the engagement to the municipal office today. Second, they had to state publicly that Amber's family had requested the annulment first. It wouldn't do to have rumors circulating that I dumped my fiancée the second I struck it rich. They had to give me at least that much if they wanted my mercy.
"...Yes. I accept."
At her reply, I gave a satisfied nod and rose to my feet.
"You can discuss the remaining details with my lawyer."
With our business concluded, there was no reason to let the pair occupy my chairs any longer. Shoulders slumped in defeat, Amber and her father trudged out of my mansion. Amber looked back in my direction a couple of times, but I kept my gaze firmly turned away.