Izo makes her way inside of a fancy restaurant which has real trees growing inside of the glass dome restaurant. Izo asks the seater for the Lee table as the server rather elegantly leads Izo to a six-person table.

Her parents were rather quiet as they drank their wine and an equally handsome tawny-haired couple sits across from them being rather tight-lipped. Izo furrows her brows and mutters to herself, “Dolores didn’t mention anyone joining us. Huh, well, no matter I’m starving.” Izo wasn’t one to be bothered by details when she was hungry.

Izo smiles at her parents and nods to the couple. “Sorry, I’m late, Mom and Dad. And it is a pleasure to meet both of you,” Izo said.

Mrs. Lee drily smiles and replies, “Have a seat sweetheart, we have yet to order.”

Izo happily takes a seat at the table, while Mr. Lee flatly says, “Izo this is Mr. and Mrs. Duke. They have kindly joined us for lunch today.”

Izo fails to pick up on her father’s tone of voice as she intently studies the restaurant menu before her. After some minutes, Mr. Duke interrupts Izo’s serious thoughts and says, “Ah, James is finally here.”

Izo turns to glance at the empty seat beside her and shrugs before glancing back at her lunch menu. A crisp male voice from behind Izo says, “Pardon me for my lateness, I had to wash up after destroying an S-class dungeon,” before taking the empty seat next to Izo.

Izo almost chokes at those words as she thinks about her own dungeon. Warily turning to glance at the man sitting next to her, Izo pales in recognition. Chocolate colored hair, hazel eyes, and fine features, the twenty-three-year-old man was utterly gorgeous.

However, that wasn’t what made Izo pale it was because Izo recognized the man from the guild member registry. James Duke was one of the more well renown S-Class adventurer’s in the business. If the job was dangerous and no one else would dare do it, that when you called James Duke in. And there happened to be brand new dungeon just outside of Emerald city. It couldn’t be a complete coincidence James Duke was in Emerald City!

Izo suddenly reevaluates her decision, maybe she should add a couple more floors to her dungeon. Pale, Izo swiftly turns to glance at her forgotten restaurant menu with narrow eyes. Suddenly, she didn’t feel very hungry at all.

Mrs. Lee calmly says, “Why don’t we order now?” The Duke couple nods in reply as Izo wonder’s just what she can say to run away as fast as possible.

After a minute, Izo says, “I’m sorry, but I just remembered I have a meeting with Mr. Moore and the rest of my associates. I hope that we can reschedule tomorrow, I’ll be off now.”

Izo climbs to her feet when Mr. Lee says, “Alright, then just stay for a couple of more minutes and then you can leave. You need to be present for about what is to be discussed, it concerns you.”

Izo sits back down as Mr. Lee glances at Mr. Duke who nods his head in reply. “We might as well stop going about in circles. I’m rather certain that both of you have never met, so allow me to introduce my family. I am Luther Duke, and this is my wife, Serena Duke. The seated young man at your side is James Duke, my son,” Mr. Duke said, before glancing at Mr. Lee that it was his turn.

Mr. Lee then says, “I am Warren Lee, and this is my wife, Juliet Lee. I used to have twin daughters, but one of my daughters is dead. This is the eldest of the two, my daughter Izo Reed.”

Izo keeps a poker face as a trickle of understanding creeps in. Where had she seen this type of scene before? Enemies meeting each other at a table it was something like out of Romeo and Juliet. Izo shivers and suddenly has the uneasy feeling that she wasn’t wrong in her guess.

Luther Duke takes a sip of his wine before saying, “The Lee and Duke family have been allies but mostly rivals in the business world. Both sides have won and lost with the passing of tides. Our father’s a generation ago decided to change that and decided that a daughter and a son in the next generation were to marry to join the two powerhouses together. However, the both of them only had a single male child and so that promise was passed down to the next generation, which is you two.”

Izo shivers at having guessed right. She shouldn’t have ever left the house today. She should have stayed in bed with Pucca!

James Duke flatly says, “Are you telling me that we have to get married?!”

Both parents glance at each other as Mr. Lee answers, “Technically no. Though our fathers wanted a marriage merging the two families together, they realistically understood that may not be possible. Both of you just need to be engaged for the period of one year and seriously date each other. If at the end of that period, either of you is unhappy with the proposal, the engagement will be called off and the each of you may go your separate ways.”

“That’s not so bad,” Izo thought to herself. For a moment, there she was thought she was going to have to get married for real, phew. Besides pretending to date, each other wasn’t so bad.

James Duke climbs to his feet and flatly replies, “I refuse!”

Luther Duke roars, “Sit back down, we’re not done yet.” Both men glare at each other across the table as Izo takes of her water glass. Times like this made her glad she was born a girl. Testosterone must be such a curse.

James Duke unhappily sits back down as Luther Duke continues, “If one of the children does not comply with the decision, the family of that child will lose half of everything to the other family.”

James Duke calmly analyzes the situation in understanding and says, “So we just need to date each other for one year, is that all?”

“Yes,” the two couples nodded in reply.

James snorts and coldly gazes at Izo. “I’ll see you later tonight, I’ll be picking you up at ten till eight,” James matter-of-factly stated.

Izo’s face twitches at the callous voice tone that was ordering Izo around so easily without even asking her opinion on the subject. Now Izo, didn’t think dating for one year was that bad as the two of them didn’t have to get married in the end. But dating such a little brat, well, Izo just had to draw the line somewhere.

Izo calmly climbs to her feet and flatly says, “I don’t date assholes.” Turning to her parents, Izo politely says, “Please just let me know the entire amount of your business losses, I will recompose the entire losses by the end of tomorrow.”

Izo storms away leaving the five-people seated behind. Even if Izo had to turn God Coin’s into mortal money, she would do so to cover the debt. Because like hell, she was dating such a little brat for even a single second!