With his emotional mood completely spoiled, Noah returned back from his introspection to the present, where Maery and Levi were awaiting his reaction with bated breaths.

Noah’s shocked expression slowly shifted into something… odd. It made sense that the two wanted the outside world to think that they got along well. This arranged marriage was of great importance and would influence the stability of the two cities. But…

“Sister, I am not an outsider. So why did you keep the truth a secret from me all this time?”

Maery sheepishly smiled and scratched her head, “We didn’t just keep it from you. We didn’t tell our parents either. We didn’t want you guys to worry. If you thought that Levi and I had a harmonious relationship, then you could rest your heart at ease regarding this arranged marriage.” She sighed, “Otherwise, how would our parents feel knowing that their children were sacrificing the best years of their life for politics and a loveless marriage? Dad would feel estranged when dealing with Levi’s family. Mom would develop gastritis from guilt and worry. And when the time to say our vows came, the entire family would burst out in tears as if it wasn’t a marriage but a funeral…”

Noah, (°△°|||) “…” ‘Wow. That order of events is… impressively accurate! Sis has a remarkable talent in fortunetelling!’

Blackie, (◞‸ლ) ‘The things you choose to focus on never cease to amaze me…’

“Since you’ve already kept this secret for 6 years, then…” Noah’s round eyes suddenly narrowed, “…why choose to spill the beans now?”

Maery took a sip of water to wet her throat, “Since Levi and I won’t be getting married anymore, there is no longer any need to keep our lack of relationship a secret.”

Noah quickly caught on to the key point, “What happened? Why won’t you be getting married anymore? What about the marriage agreement? Did you guys discuss this change with our parents?”

“Of course they know and approve,” Maery waved off Noah’s worries very confidently. “Initially, Levi and I had a deal. We’d marry, produce an heir, and in the following years, perfectly accomplish our duties as a married couple so that no one can spot anything to badmouth us about. And then, when the heir became old enough to take over, we’d cleanly divorce and go our separate ways. However, in lieu of recent events, Levi and I had a long and serious talk with both of our parents, and we reached a unanimous conclusion that the marriage between Levi and me is not the best course of action for any of the parties involved. ”

Blackie, who had witnessed this “long” and “serious” talk with “parents” (as in plural, more than one), of both sides, “…”

In lieu of recent events? What events? Noah’s eyebrows shot up, but he chose not to interrupt his sister’s explanation.

Maery eyed her relatively calm brother and thought that before dropping the bomb, she should further convince her brother that this marriage between Levi and her was a horrible, horrible idea. Thus her tone turned even more persuasive as she continued, “Brother, don’t you also think this arranged marriage is a bad idea? Even if we put the whole freedom of love and marriage matter aside, the whole purpose of this arrangement is to produce a qualified heir to govern both cities, but how could a loveless, forced marriage produce such a high-quality offspring?”

Maery smacked her hand on the table in agitation, “Children need love and security! How could they grow up into happy dumplings if their parents have no affection between them and avoid each other like the plague, counting the days until their divorce?”

Noah, (ﾟдﾟ；) “…” ‘That indeed does sound horrible…’

Levi, “…” ‘Wow. She is really good at this.’ (・―・)

Levi’s hand sneaked its way towards his communicator, ‘Gotta record this for future reference.’

Maery continued very spiritedly, “That kind of foul environment is no good for raising a child! The child would even feel unloved, like their whole purpose of existence was due to politics! A pitiful lab-bottle baby!”

Seeing how her moving speech nearly brought tears to Noah’s eyes, Maery felt like she had been injected with a stimulant and brought it up a notch. “And do you know what the worst thing about it is? In reality, the child probably wouldn’t just THINK they were unloved, but they might even actually BE unloved! Did you not hear how, oftentimes, parents in a failed marriage see their ex-spouses' worst traits in their children, causing them to feel aversion towards this offspring that serves as a constant reminder of their past mistakes? They even vent out their accumulated resentment on the innocent children!”

Maery swished her hand, pointing her index finger towards Levi as if accusing a murderer among the gathered crowd. “Ah, ah! I can already see a tragedy in the making! This brute of a husband has so many shortcomings that he can potentially transfer to my pitiful, pitiful offspring! Insensitive, selfish, shameless, boring, workaholic, too lazy to talk or socialize–” Maery’s rant devolved into a sharp intake of breath because one outraged Levi delivered her legs a vicious kick underneath the table.

If eyes could kill, Levi’s two smoldering embers would have long melted Maery into puss, ‘Fuck you!!! How dare you badmouth me in front of my baby?!? What if my baby doesn’t want to marry me anymore because of your poisonous words?!?’

A vein popped out on Maery’s forehead, and she squeezed through her gritted teeth, “…also doesn’t know how to cherish the fairer sex…” Maery wanted to squeeze in some more admonishments as revenge for that kick but had to swallow them down upon seeing Noah’s one-third flabbergasted, one-third chastising, and one-third-outraged expression.

Her baby brother was clearly displeased that she was badmouthing his precious hubby! And was even puffing up with clear ‘how could you say such a thing in front of brother-in-law?! And what are you even talking about? Brother-in-law is not like that!’ expression!!!

If she continued to talk shit about Levi, her baby brother would angrily jump out to refute, and this entire moving speech would have been in vain! And to make matters worse, this dog, Astar Levi, upon seeing her brother’s outrage, even put on an ‘I am so wronged! So sad~’ expression of a kicked puppy!!! The nerve of him!!

‘I’m the one who got kicked, ok?!?!’

(ノ꒪Д꒪)ノ︵ ┻━┻

‘And I’m not badmouthing him! Just stating the truth!’

Yet this wronged sister could do nothing else but switch topics in great haste, “Ahem, what I meant to say was… uh… we are not each other’s type… and the alliance between our two families would rely on the strength of our relationship! It would rely on our mutual trust and good feelings! But there are none! What if, after a few years, Levi and I got so fed up with each other, we couldn’t take it anymore and ended up causing a feud between our two families?! We would have wasted all that time and effort only to end up causing a war!”

Chills crawled up Noah’s spine at this horror story, and he felt that their parents must have been dead drunk when they came up with this entire arranged marriage matter. With all his hair standing on their ends, he kept nodding his head like a chicken pecking rice. “You are right! Bad idea! I’m so glad you managed to get out of it!”

A coy gleam of victory flashed through Maery’s eyes, and she decided to take a brief pause to let this entire speech fully sink in. Also, she needed a drink; this entire word barrage ended up making her throat parched.

“Eat while it’s hot,” Maery motioned for her brother to pick up his long-forgotten chicken drumstick. “Marriage between Levi and myself is a terrible idea, so we figured out a way to make the alliance proceed more smoothly without this marriage.”