Can Someone Please Explain This Situation [The conclusion of the negotiations][ch2]

Translated by : pewpew

---

The Conclusion of the negotiations

Several days after accepting the marriage proposal from the Physalis duke family¹, somehow now the Lord Duke himself personally appeared at our home. Together with numerous engagement gifts.

Extravagant yet delicate dresses and dazzling jewels that I only have seen at a distance so far. In addition, there was this and that en masse.

It is a secret that the whole family pulled back, not to speak of getting restless, towards the presents carrying personnel that kept coming in one after the other.

「The debt would disappear just by selling off all of these….」

「Oi! Viola!! Don’t say that!!」

Absentmindedly muttering those remarks, I recovered from my whole faced smile after father's immediate denial while emitting a dark aura.

The eyes of my younger siblings too, turned into dots after seeing these luxurious and dazzling gifts for the first time.

In front of that dumbfounded Euphorbia family, the gallant Lord Duke appeared.

「Pleased to make your acquaintance, Lady Viola. I am Duke Sashis Chinensis Physalis. For consenting to the marriage proposal, I am grateful and happy. 」

Saying that, he floated a captivating and beautiful smile during the reverent greeting.

In contrast to me who, for the first time saw the Lord Duke’s beautiful form and style live, was standing dumbfounded in a daze. Beautiful! Handsome! I have heard rumors like that, but the real deal outshines his fame. A tall and slender figure with a firm body. Typical for knights, his thick black hair was short and neatly arranged in a refreshing look. His eyes with the same black color, were stern and manly. A straight nasal bridge, lips that right now form a tender and bright smile, no matter which part you take, it's flawless. Even putting everything together brings out a beautiful form that is in perfect harmony! Because that sort of sparkling gentleman is in front of my eyes, expecting me not to get nervous is absurd right?

「P-Pleased to meet you, I am Viola.」

I fumbled over my words.

But instead of retorting to the unsightly me, the Lord Duke smiled widely and said,

「Quite according to the rumors, you seem to be a cute lady. Earl-dono², I still have a few things to discuss with Viola, would that be fine? 」

In a heartbeat my hand was taken and facing my father he expressed his request to have an informal talk with me.

「Yes, yes, by all means. If it is alright with you, we can prepare seats in the garden. 」

Father said that while nodding his head like a bobble head figure.

「Thank you very much.」

Immediately then, together with the Lord Duke we headed towards the garden.

Reaching the in the afternoon sunshine gleaming modest garden, and as soon as it was just the Lord Duke and me.

「I need decoy wife!」

Was the first thing he declared with a smile.

Ee? What is this person getting at now??

「A decoy...?」

For a moment I couldn’t believe my own ears over what the Lord Duke said. That is not something you declare with such an extraordinary smile, right?

...ahem, I lost my composure. Because of the annoying chirping of the little birds in the garden, I thought I misheard it.

「Yes, a decoy. To tell you the truth, I have been dating my sweetheart for about 6 years now. I do love her, but it can’t be helped that she is a former wandering dancer.  Let alone being a commoner, if the origin is unclear the surrounding will oppose it no matter what, marriage would not be possible. 」

I’m confused since this doesn’t concern me at all. The Lord Duke is still floating that beautiful smile, while telling me this incredible matter quite cheerfully.

「Haa….」

「However, lately the people around me are nagging me to get married and make a successor. 」

「Haa.」

「But as I said before the marriage would not be recognized. And I don’t want to be separated from her. Therefor I need someone to be my decoy wife and pretend to live a regular married life. 」

「....haa? 」

I have been told something rather crazy, but I couldn’t help but give halfhearted answers. I did more or less change the intonation though.

Frankly speaking, for me and my marriage partner (in other words the Lord Duke) it is already too late since he already has a girlfriend. So if I were to become the legal wife, I would be mistress No. 2, right? That said, mistress No.2 is below, right? Since it has been decided that I won’t be loved. Wait, what? Wait a minute, I’m confused. Talking about a lover and mistress No.2, that is normal³. Well, then what am I as the legal wife? Aaa, I can’t come to understand this. Enough.

Oh well, what can I say, there is always a catch in good things like these. If there wasn’t it would be suspicious, right? Leaving that point aside, I can consent to this⁴.

I spaced out and thought in circles over and over again while staring at the Lord Duke’s dreadful smile, he continued.

「Oh, it is no problem if you do as you please. It would be troubling if you were to be too flashy, but it is fine if you find a lover too. I promise to take care of your daily necessities and any inconveniences. 」

Smiled the Lord Duke sweetly.

While smiling he gave that savage statement, I almost carelessly tripped over somewhere! Waiiit, waiiit!! There is a savage here!!

With a wide open mouth, I was staring in astonishment.

… let’s calm down a bit, me. And start by closing my mouth that stands open stupidly.

Although a normal noble daughter would flip out by now, my situation is a bit complicated. In the end my family's debt is entangled in this marriage proposal after all. If I don’t deal with the debt, father, mother and my younger siblings⁵ will have to go through hardship. If I flip out over these conditions and cancel the engagement, my family will continue headlong down the road of poverty. No, we are already at the very bottom・the bottom of the nabe pot, right?⁶ We are also regarded as the black sheep by the superior members of high society⁷. Prestigious aristocratic family disgraced by declining nobles! ….. actually that sounds a bit co~ol☆

no no no no no, if it is only me, enduring it is a good thing.

I talked about this the other day already, but a happy love life is distant for me, who since birth to the age of 18 didn’t have a gentleman on her mind 『I’m poor and have to help out the family, being single for life is great too~☆』. Instead of thinking about those gloomy future prospects, I should be grateful to be able to live a life without any inconveniences. Not having to worry about old ages is good!

While having these thoughts inside my head,

「Understood. If the debt is being taken care of, I don’t have any problems⁸. 」

A splendidly composed answer.

Well, even so, I still don’t think I can of making a lover.

Perhaps since I replied indifferently without anger, the Lord Duke made a slightly surprised expression, but immediately returned to his usual smile.

「Since it is a matter of course, I will happily oblige. I look forward to working with you from now on. 」

He gave me his right hand. Might this be the 『Conclusion of the negotiations☆』 handshake?

I took that hand with my own without a moment of hesitation.

With this the former political marriage between the Physalis duke family and the Euphorbia Earl family changed and concluded to a marriage by contract.

---

¹ 公爵家: For the lack of a better vocabulary I translated this literal here. Dukes house of Physalis? Dunno, sounds like physalis is a place rather than a familyname.

² I have no idea how to translate 殿 (dono) without making it sound weird. 殿 as a suffix, similar to 様 (sama) is used to respectfully address someone, usually equals afaik.

³ she doesn’t mind him having a mistress or two. Or regards it as normal that he would have mistresses.

⁴ その点においてはみょーに納得しましたけどね: Absolutely no idea what みょーに is suppose to mean, a quick google search brought be some weird half bald dude and I’m too short on time to research this further. sorry.

⁵ 幼い (osanai): means very young. It implies that her younger siblings are still children.

⁶ nabe pot and the dot: While I’m pretty sure you know what that is, here plus the dot, she is making a joke similar how you’d make a pun. A dad joke basically. This is the first time I see it used like this, so the middle dot probably has more uses.

⁷ その上社交界からも爪はじき決定です: made no sense at all to me, so I guess 爪はじき actually means爪弾き, the first being claw gun(I think?) and the latter “black sheep” or being ostracized.

⁸ She literally says to protect the debt here

Can Someone Please Explain This Situation [A negotiation called marriage proposal][ch1]

Translated by : pewpew

---

Can Someone Please Explain This Situation

誰かこの状況を説明してください

Suddenly the poor aristocrat Viola received an unexpected marriage proposal from the prestigious noble household of duke Physalis. A mediocre noble daughter and the handsome duke. Although just about everything is mismatched and puzzling, there were the duke’s personal reasons. Each one having their own circumstances, an agreement to a political marriage with ulterior motives. Will this path lead to happiness or sorrow?

---

A negotiation called marriage proposal

Di~ing-dong, the temple bell – known as the bell of happiness – resounded.

This is the royal capital of Rojia¹ of the Fleur kingdom.

The royal palace is built on top of a small hill with an unobstructed view of the royal capital, the most sacred place. In the state church’s sanctuary, a wedding ceremony took place.

Right now, I’m standing in that temples entrance and drew the gazes of all the attending guests. That’s because I’m today’s bride.

The esteemed priest stood on the far side of the altar and across that stood the beautiful groom. The standing figure of Fleur kingdoms knights, dressed in their formal clothes, is honestly pointlessly sparkly and bright. Is that what they call being blessed by god? How should I put it, is this gentleman really going to be my husband?? No matter how much you sugarcoat it, I’m a plain jane. A groom that is more beautiful than the bride, what a heartrending fact…

No no no, now is not the time to escape reality.

In fact, the wedding ceremony has already begun!

My, Viola Manjurika Euphorbia’s² and Sashis Chinensis Physalis³ wedding ceremony.

 
By father, count Euphorbia, I was slowly escorted to duke Physalis on the scarlet carpet.

The duke gave me a sweet smile and extended his hand towards me, taking my hand from father.

Each guest had their own opinion on this marriage.

Oh my, is there no other way than to let it run its course?
There were looks of resignation and obstination.

Hidden under the mask of smiles, I took the dukes hand.

This marriage is purely a political marriage to begin with anyway. There is not a margin of doubt for that. I, Viola Manjurika Euphorbia may come from a noble house, but I’m a poor highborn daughter. Errr, soon I won’t be poor anymore actually. Also, originally our family isn’t the type to greed towards improving our station and despite that, up until now we lived on with the motto of being honorably poor.⁴ We neither indulged in luxuries nor were wasteful. Thus, we might be part of the high society, but didn’t even have the minimum amount of socializing. Nevertheless, our family of 5 with father, mother, I, my little brother and little sister had a peaceful and happy livelihood.

However, three years ago our territory experienced a historically severe famine and father took up a huge debt in order to save the people of the fief.

This debt is the cause for everything!

Until now I led a more than modest, or rather better than poverty lifestyle.

I worked and worked…... stared at nothing but my hands.

Still, as a family we worked hard and did our best together.

I worked as a maid, a gardener and at one time even as a chef. I filled many roles by myself.

Since before I liked working and spending time together with the servants, rather than with nobles. Not one bit did I suffer.

It was at that time, that the head of the Physalis household unexpectedly came with a marriage proposal.
That was a bit over a year ago.

「Duke Physalis Sashis and I are getting married? 」
Just when I was wondering why father called me to his study, I was told this unbelievable story.
I thought that my sapphire blue eyes, which went completely round, would fall out of their sockets. It was that much of a shock. It was not just me who was shocked.

「That is right. Moreover, the other side is completely aware of our financial situation. They said they would take over the debt, in exchange they ask for your hand in marriage Voila. 」

Father had a confused look on his face.

Certainly this is sudden, isn’t it. This sure came out of the blue.

But suddenly doubt welled up.

「Am I per chance acquainted with the lord duke?」

I tilted my head thinking about it, but I can’t remember having ever met him at all.

「Yeah~ indeed. Of course you are not, right? Because immediately after Viola made her debut in high society, the life of the poor began, so you didn’t attend many evening parties? 」

Father tilted his head just like me.

「Right? Besides, I don’t have much in the way of flowery words? Were there even any rumors of me in high society?⁵ And yet, why? If it is the lord duke, he should be popular. 」

Like a mirror image of each other, father and I fold our arms at the same time and thought deeply about this while going ‘hmm-hmm ‘. Even so, nothing comes to mind.
The youthful 24 years old duke, who usually is on knight duty in the royal palace. Also, we are talking about Mr. Elite who became commander of that special division at such a young age. His looks are lovely too, the toned and flexible body in the knight order’s uniform is a sight for sore eyes, countless swooning noble daughters and many other things. Ah, I have never met him, those are just hearsay and rumors.

So why would such a duke (read as: super superior property)⁶, marry an in debt covered, mediocre and plain (saying that myself is depressiiing⁷) noble daughter? I don’t understand the reason at all.

「Well, since there is no reason to refuse here, or rather I’d be happy to accept it, but how about you Viola? If you don’t like it, I will refuse. 」

My gentle father wants to respect my opinion by saying that, but I can’t refuse here, now can I. As if a count family could do something as absurd as refusing a marriage proposal from a prestigious duke family. Besides, this isn’t the place for an in debt covered unmarried girl to refuse and better candidates aren’t coming either.

Also because thinking『Being single might be great☆』on my own is depressing.

If by this the household is saved, wouldn’t you gladly hand out one or two of me?!

「No, father. If it is for the sake of the family, I will gladly accept. 」

He showed a wholeheartedly smile and nodded in agreement.

---

1ロージア: is there a flower that has a name close to rojia? Rose is rozu afaik.

2Apparently a genus of plants Euphorbia

3This chinensis and physalis.

4They were poor but lived a humble life with dignity.

5社交界の噂どころか口の端にも上ったことのない私ですよ？: For the lack of better words, I had to wing this one. Suggestions are welcome. I think the sentence wants to convey, that she is so unimportant/unknown that the other nobles don’t take much notice of her. Much less having rumors floating around.

6In Japanese sometimes furigana’s are written above a kanji to indicate how they are read and thus interpreted. Here the words ちょうゆうりょうぶっけん (Chō yūryō bukken) are written above the kanji for duke, indicating that marrying him is like investing in your dream home or a really good property to invest in.

7へこむわぁ(hekomu wa~a)

---

Aria :
I found a flower called ロージア・スーパーバ (rojia . supaba) from google, seems to be a type of camellia