My name was Mikel. I was an ordinary man of the Korin religion. Truly, I was a perfectly average man—as unfortunate as that may be.
Alfred, however, was exceptionally popular. It was easy to see why. First, there were his looks; he was quite handsome. Then there was his age—at thirteen, he was even younger than I was.
As for his combat prowess, he was likely the strongest person in the entire Reiwight Kingdom. He could trade blows with Lord O'Brien and weave high-level magic with ease. I suspected that as long as he didn’t strike those bizarre... excuse me, secret poses in the middle of a fight, no one could best him.
Then there was his wealth. I didn’t know the exact figures, but my mother had told me his family was rich. Judging by how freely he handled money, that was certainly the truth.
His social standing was a bit harder to define. Should I have called him the King of the Island? He referred to himself as a Village Head, but even if I stretched the definition, wouldn't "Island Head" have been more appropriate? Then again, perhaps that was a title that couldn't be made public.
When it came to his official status within the kingdom, was there anything at all? Was he a guest of the Korin religion? Or perhaps a guest of the Reiwight Kingdom? If he held some rank back at his home, he likely would have used it, but whenever I asked my mother about his family, she would fix me with a look of mysterious pressure. "Do you really want to know about his home?" she would ask, essentially warning me to drop the subject. Even when I asked Alfred directly, he merely claimed to be "a man who has achieved nothing."
And yet, he was practically on a first-name basis with the King, the princes, and the prime ministers. Even within the Korin religion, he only had to wait a short while after requesting a meeting before high-ranking officials would see him. Usually, such an application would take years to process. It never ceased to amaze me, no matter how many times I witnessed it, to see him chatting casually with dignitaries I had never even met. Though, more often than not, they were discussing wooden statues of God or musical instruments.
Regardless of his titles, the women wouldn't leave him alone. If I were an unmarried woman, I would have begged my mother to help me secure him.
Speaking of which, I was still single. I didn't even have a fiancé. When I tried to discuss the matter with my mother, her face became a mask of intense inner conflict. It was the look of a woman who didn't want to let her son go, yet desperately wanted to see her grandchildren. It seemed I would have to find a partner on my own.
To get back to the point, Alfred was a man with many attractive qualities, and naturally, many women were targeting him. To explain the marriage circumstances in the Reiwight Kingdom, while customs varied slightly between royalty, nobility, and commoners, men generally married around the age of twenty. Some married earlier if they came from powerful families, but the general standard was to wait until one could earn a living. That was why I wasn't in any particular rush.
Alfred, however, came from a powerful background, so it wouldn't have been strange for him to marry young. Women married much earlier than men, usually between the ages of thirteen and eighteen. If a woman wasn't married by twenty at the latest, it became increasingly difficult for her to find a match. That said, marrying just any scoundrel out of desperation would only lead to a lifetime of suffering. Life continued after the wedding, after all.
Because of this, women looked at men with a discerning, even harsh, eye from a young age. Their circles were constantly buzzing with information. From a man's perspective, it might have seemed like they were just gossiping about romance, but in reality, these women were engaged in a high-stakes battle where they bet their entire lives.
How did Alfred look to such women? Like a prime catch—pardon me, like an exquisite partner. That was why they used every trick in the book to invite him to tea parties, hoping for any kind of opening.
I accompanied him during this "tea party offensive." My mother had given me strict orders never to let Alfred go alone. While I thought he would be fine, there was always the possibility that a desperate woman might set a trap. Caution was necessary. After all, Alfred was only thirteen; I assumed he would be clueless about the nuances of romance, let alone how to handle women.
Or so I thought.
"My beautiful young ladies," he greeted them smoothly.
He was conversing with the women without a hint of awkwardness. I was stunned. When I asked him how he was so composed, he explained that he had been strictly trained by his older and younger sisters. Apparently, his tutors at home had also been primarily older women. Furthermore, at the Academy he attended, he had frequently interacted with upperclasswomen.
I see. In that case, was he already thinking about his own marriage?
"Eh? You have a fiancé?" I blurted out. "Your sister? Wait, what does that mean? Ah, your stepsister. I see."
I was taken aback by the next revelation. "Wait, she's stronger than you? You're kidding. No, I just can't wrap my head around that."
Alfred explained that in the village where he grew up, there were many people stronger than him. I simply couldn't imagine it. Even his younger brothers and sisters were supposedly stronger than him, which was why he felt he had to keep training so hard.
"Wait a moment," I said, thinking of the local nobility. "In a situation like that... do you plan to take multiple wives? It's common for men with power or wealth to marry several people. What do you think?"
He told me he couldn't even consider it right now. I understood. People from all over had been hounding me for information, so I decided I would simply tell them that Alfred already had a fiancé.
"Just to confirm," I asked one last thing, "regarding your fiancé... would she be the type to accept a duel if someone challenged her? Ah, she loves them? Not just one-on-one, but one-versus-many? I see."
If anyone asked, I would certainly pass that warning along.