Title: Hell Hath No Fury
Summary: Like a scorned woman. So what about five?
My friends and I stared down Angelica after displaying our devotion to Marie. I had finally found the light of my life, and I refused to surrender it to go back to the gilded cage. My only lament was that my love life had been aired out so publicly.
As I stared at my fiancée's face, I could feel the silence stretch out. Why wasn't she responding yet? Had she been cowed by our display? Regardless of the fact that she was the daughter of a duke, she was insignificant in the face of all five of the founding families. It would be reasonable if she backed off.
Except backing off would tarnish her family's name. There was no way she would simply take this lying down. The publicity of it all ensured that. It was only a matter of time and the manner in which she would act that concerned me.
I truly wished we could've aired our grievances in private. At least then she would be less likely to do anything drastic.
After some time, I saw her expression shift from shock and disbelief to disgust. I was expecting anger.
"So much like your father... No, even he would have enough self respect not to play second... fifth fiddle in whatever you are having."
"Huh?"
"Good luck raising your friends' spawn, or whoever's spawn your whore deigns to lay with. I'll not sully my family by tying myself to you," she said before calmly leaving the banquet alone.
What just happened? She just walked away? But that didn't make sense. I never thought she would have simply let go.
I carefully read the letter from Mother. Angelica and her family had broken the engagement citing that my public declaration of love for Marie had been a breach in conduct. While the letter was scathing, I did not care. I was free.
The only caveat was that because I had violated the terms set forth by our engagement, my family had to pay quite a hefty sum of money, but it did not matter to me. Angelica had, in her own way, given me what I wanted without a fight. I could not even begrudge her for the manner in which she did so since I knew she didn't do it out of spite so much as to protect her family's interests and reputation.
I needed to tell the others and Marie the good news.
"Jilk, what happened?" I asked worriedly.
I had been notified that my foster brother had to be treated for a severe injury as I was on my way to talk to Marie. Could Angelica have... No. If she was involved, I would have been the target.
"Julius, I'm sorry for worrying you," Jilk greeted me calmly, but sweat tinged his brow.
Scanning him, I noticed his left hand was bandaged. Otherwise, he looked just fine. I looked at him with a confused expression.
"Ah, this?" Jilk said while lifting his injured hand.
I just nodded in response.
"Let's just say that when I cut ties with Clarice, she was far less forgiving than Angelica."
"What did she do?"
"Nothing."
"Jilk."
He sighed and then said, "She wanted to test my resolve by having me give her something symbolic of what we were supposed to have."
I gulped and asked, "What did she want?"
"My ring finger."
I was stunned into silence. Clarice had demanded his finger? That didn't make sense. I met the girl, and she was as sweet as could be. Was this the heavy love Jilk spoke off?
Jilk chuckled as he gazed at his hand with a wry smile.
"I doubt she thought I would take it so far when she handed me the chisel. Her expression when I started hammering away certainly gave that fact away. I suppose this is a fitting punishment. I denied her the marriage she so desired in favor of something that can't be considered one. A cheap price if you ask me. If anything, I think I gained more than I lost."
"But you mutilated yourself. How can you consider such a deal as anything but horrid?"
"And now I can be with Marie as well, and she won't care about such a small thing. As I see it, I've lost nothing of value."
"You shouldn't have had to do it in the first place."
"No, I did. I know Clarice. She wouldn't have let go as easily as Angelica did. She truly loved me... or at least the me I presented to her. My only regret in the matter was that I could not spare her feelings, or inspire her to be as repulsed by me as to how Angelica was to you during the banquet."
"You regret not sparing her feelings? How can you feel sorry for her?"
"Because I never hated her. I always pitied her. She... was never cruel. She wasn't even cruel with her demands, just desperate. It didn't go as any of us expected, but I wanted to at least give her some sense of closure. Hopefully, she'll have understood my resolve and be able to move on."
"Do you think she will?" I asked softly.
"... I truly hope so," he said weakly.
Opening my door, I found Greg standing outside with a bag slung over his shoulder and a bitter expression plastered on his face.
"Greg, what's the matter?"
"Pa didn't take too kindly to me breaking off my engagement. He disowned me and signed me up to serve in the army... thinks they can make a real man out of me."
"But what about the Academy? He can't simply pull you out. As a noble, you are required to attend. It would be a scandal even before considering your bloodline."
"Like I said. I was disowned, so I'm not a noble anymore. Pa also said having me continue here would be far more embarrassing considering I spent more time... cavorting with whores than being a good heir. Our public acknowledgment of our shared relationship with Marie was the last straw."
I was stunned to silence from that. I knew that Greg did not get along with his family. The Sebergs were the poorest of the five founding families and had been banking on Greg to turn their fortunes around. For the most part, Greg met their standards, but they found his demeanor unacceptable when considering how it could make making alliances difficult.
It was a point of contention between Greg and his family. The only reason why Greg had been able to say things unfiltered was because of his success as an adventurer. His success in Holfort's most sacred tradition had been enough to convince people that he had the right to speak his mind freely.
His crassness had been seen as a sign of his experience, but now, it must have been seen base behavior.
"I just wanted to say bye to you before I go on my way," Greg said in discomfort.
I just watched as he walked out the gate forlornly.
After I saw him go, I walked back to my room to draft a letter to Mother to fix the situation.
I frowned deeply as I read the missive from Mother. She explicitly stated that nothing could be done about Greg's assignment. She also snidely wrote how my tarnished reputation and the ruined political alliances made any acts of favoritism impossible. The most she could do was inform me of the situation. It was an additional punishment to remind me how precarious my friends' and my situation was due to our actions.
The only solace I could take was that Greg had been assigned to Brad's territory. He would be safe, since the Black Knight's retirement, and we would be able to meet up for the break soon.
The only creeping feeling that crawled up my neck was that Brad's and Greg's ex-fiancées had put forward the recommendation for the particular assignment. With how things had been going on lately, I did not feel they had made that decision with Greg's interest in mind.
I could only hope that this was meant to be a petty means to prevent Greg from earning accolades to earn his position back.
The Fields territory had fallen.
AN
1) Incomplete since I lost interest trying to figure out punishments. The idea feels like it has potential plot elements I might try to implement in other fics since the concept revolves around fitting punishments. It's just that making an entire fic around such concepts just leaves a very shitty after feeling.
2) Elements not noted are that Stephanie's power base ironically grows since she is able to get Chris's and Greg's fiancées under her wing. Marie wasn't mentioned much since this fic was revolving around the punishments for the boys. Chris's punishment probably would have been a training accident robbing him of most of his sword skills.
3) As for why the kingdom is willing to let the heirs fall, it is more that specific groups are fine with it. You will notice that Angelica and Clarice's punishment don't seek to get rid of the heirs so much as take their pound of flesh and leave.
4) I'm surprised Fanoss did not attack the Fields territory in canon since Brad mentions his engagement to Stephanie was specifically done to ward off the Principality.
Review Response
LuxEterna1: Continuing the discussion for 1b), I do agree that if you know where to look, Leon's wealth is evident. The problem is three fold. Most of the information isn't readily available, could be misinterpreted to be his family's property instead of his and none of the students know where to look. There are also a few details that make it so that even if someone assumed it was his to waive it off as standard.
For example, his flying airship. Unless you have access to the port's logbooks or if Leon specifically tells you, you would have no reason to assume that the ship belongs to him instead of being the family's ship. Having a family ship isn't even that noteworthy if the Marie Route is taken into consideration (the rural nobles spared like 3 and several armors for a woman with no assets). Additionally, the ship was noted to be disguised to match the standard ship and is of relatively small size given how everyone looks down on it. As for selling it, no one is going to give more money for a worse ship.
As for the tea thing, only Olivia, Angelica, and his friends know about his obsession since no one interacts with him. In fact, the only interaction we get from other people regarding his hobby is to spend more. While the girls aren't necessarily a good metric on reasonable spending, it does suggests high spending on tea and snacks is commonplace enough that a boy spending exorbitant amounts on such things as nothing noteworthy for girls.
Also something else to keep in mind is that Leon does not flaunt any of his resources publicly until after he ruined his reputation. No one even thought he had an armor despite accepting an armor duel. Angelica wasn't even sure.
Essentially, the information was not readily available to other people, and what knowledge is available is obfuscated enough by intention or circumstances that a more reasonable assumption can be made, which inevitably makes Leon look like less of a catch. By the time anyone realized he was rich, he burned a lot of bridges.
On another note regarding the Master Route, the weirdness is the point. It wasn't going to be a Lucas/Olivia route, but Leon/Marie/the five don't know that. Each reacts weirdly because to the reincarnators, Olivia is the protagonist who will follow a route. To the five, they are jealous of everyone and assume everyone is trying to steal Olivia from them... which the Master is kind of doing platonically.
Kian Xki: I did mention I was short on time when I wrote the previous chapter. It was more meant to be a prologue. I'm debating posting another chapter to detail the ripple effects.
