Side Story - Family Reunion

A new day of a new week began for the Bradford family.

After the war, they gained fame and popularity thanks to their armed units and first class ships.

Walt, was getting out of bed as usual. His wife was not at his side; indicating that she must have already gone downstairs.

He changed clothes, then went to the bathroom and finally went downstairs for breakfast.

The maids working in the newly built mansion greeted him.

Arriving in the dining room she found her family, minus a certain son, having breakfast without him.

He greeted them and was preparing to eat when a servant girl brought him a letter that had arrived a while ago.

He opened it, read its contents while biting into a loaf of bread with jam.

She spat it unintentionally in Lyle's face, his daughter was already going to scream at him until her father gave them all terrible news.

"Duke Bismarck wants to have a dinner with us! And not just any dinner, a family dinner!"

It was only two days ago that Rudel had become engaged to Alisa, the daughter of a duke.

Bradford Household was now part of the Bismarck faction.

After the traitors and the Marquis Balzac, Alisa's family took severe measures to prevent this from happening again.

Allies were few, but now, they would increase as the Bradford barony were members of their faction.

This fact meant to many that the Bismarck´s would have many benefits as that family had the best quality of mobile knights and ship repair. Not to mention that the Hero of the Realm was a young man who created his own family branch, being the youngest minister in history and being the one who killed the most wanted and dangerous man in the world.

With this achievement, envy and need will invade both families.

◇◇◇

Rudel's family had arrived the next day in the Bismarck Duchy. It was evening, they did not even have to answer the letter as it was sent by the daughter of the family, that is, Alisa herself asked them to come to have a dinner.

The five family members were standing in front of the door.

They had new clothes that they bought.

Before entering the property they had to pass a security gate. The guards saw them in the carriage and before they asked who they were. The rider driving the carriage told them that they were the family of Rudel, the future husband of the lady of this house.

The guards were frightened and showed their respects.

The garden was huge, to get to the mansion after crossing the gate, they had to be in the carriage at least ten minutes more.

Lyle, was amazed with his mouth open that the road still continued after entering the property.

After getting out of the carriage, a maid greeted them and asked them to wait a moment.

The family was worried as something like this was unthinkable to them.

Bram, trembled as he watched the magical beacons illuminate the place so immense to any human being.

The door finally opened and, they were amazed to see what awaited them inside.

"Good evening to all. Welcome to Bismarck Manor, Bradford family."

A large line of servants; both men, women and cooks greeted them with respect.

At home the greeting was respectful in its own way, but what they saw was a humiliation to those servants.

They entered with a little fear, except for Pola who saw everything with stars.

An old but stout butler greeted them and showed them the way.

After several long steps they arrived at the dining room.

The dining room was a large room with a long table covered with a beautiful white tablecloth.

Seated conversing were the head of the house and his future heir.

They were dressed too formally for a family dinner.

In contrast, the Bradford family felt embarrassed as their clothes were too plain for them, they thought.

Siegwald and his son noticed their presence and rose to greet them.

"Good evening everyone, was there trouble on your journey?"

Vayne was the first to greet with his smile and shake everyone's hands, except the women's, to them he greeted with a kiss on the cheek.

The head of the house did the same, his attitude was calm and relaxed. He would tell the one of the family that came to his house, they were nervous.

They all sat down since they were waiting for certain people to arrive.

"Wahh~ I'm very sleepy."

"Rudel, we slept a lot until recently."

"It's just that I'm really tired.... And this!?"

Rudel and the girls were arriving and found their families in the dining room.

He was wearing long sleep pants and a button down shirt, plus he was wearing sandals.

The girls were dressed in more decent clothes, but for the current situation it was disrespectful.

"Everyone's here already!!!? Oh no, we should go change as soon as possible!"

Alisa was saying until her father stopped her and told her it was okay like this.

She reluctantly agreed, then was glad to see her future husband's family.

She and Airi went to greet them, while Rudel went with a panicked face to greet his future brother-in-law and father-in-law.

"G-good evening..."

"Rudel-kun, I'm glad to see that you and the girls are having a good time. Have there been any developments in your relationship?"

"I'd like to know too." Siegwald said, as he sipped his glass of wine.

"O-Our relationship has improved as I am now more open to them."

"I understand. And, how is the future heir going?"

Rudel blushed and averted his face when Vayne asked him that.

"I- I told them both that it would be better to wait until we are married. And since I'll be going abroad, it would be troublesome to have you both waiting with my children here alone."

"Really?" Siegwald said. "If it's because of something like concern about them being alone, don't go study abroad, don't you think?"

At that moment, Rudel answered him in his mind.

(It's because the kingdom and they will be in danger useless old man!)

But, out of his own mouth he said.

"I want to get to know the foreigner. And studying at Aster is a once in a lifetime opportunity as they are very selective it seems. I had to send a lot of donations to be accepted, so, the money spent would be wasted."

Siegwald saw him as he talked about money, he stood up from his chair and secretly told him something that made Rudel wince.

"Y-You're not kidding?"

"Of course not. Only if you follow through I guarantee it."

"Very well..."

Rudel was weirded out by whatever Siegwald told him.

Meanwhile the girls.

"Good evening. Although I am not yet married to your son, please allow me to call you from before, mother and father."

The head of the Bradford family and his wife were in shock to hear a duke's daughter call them parents.

"Alisa, aren't we supposed to call them mother-in-law and father-in-law?"

Alisa lifted her face to look at her.

"Normally it's like that, but in the high nobility it's normal to call your husband's family as if they were your family. You can call them that too since you are my concubine."

Airi was glad to hear that.

"Please allow me to also call you mother and father!"

For them to have Airi call them that would be no problem. That was since Rudel's mother was a commoner, the palace recognized Walt's children as nobles due to lack of research, but thanks to the war, she was declared a noble so there is no problem.

The problem is that Alisa, the daughter of an important man asks them to treat her as his daughter.

Sonia said, "Alicelotte-sama." But Alisa stopped her.

"Right, please call me Alisa."

That only made them more scared.

In the end, they heeded her as her smiling face made them very terrified of disappointing him.

"W-we're fine with it. Alisa-chan... and Airi-chan."

The girls upon hearing that they were accepted smiled and thanked.

"Thank you, dear father and mother."

They turned now to their boyfriend's older siblings.

"Good evening, dear brothers. Please treat us as your little sisters from today on."

Bram, sweating said "sure," while Lyle froze.

His head lowered to say "very well." For otherwise he would never have said anything.

Finally, they both walked over to the youngest daughter.

Without even asking, she called out to them.

"May I tell you, Alisa-onee-chan and Airi-onee-chan?"

They both gave a slight jump as they were accepted by the whole family, grabbed their shoulders and with bright eyes shouted.

"Of course!"

And so, the first family reunion between the Bismarck and Bradford Households was established.

◇◇◇

The dishes they served after a while were all unique.

Rudel and the girls sat at the middle end of the long table so as not to be separated.

Rudel ate as if it was just another day at home, his family trying to use the cutlery correctly as they heard their relative being scolded.

"Rudel, that cutlery is for meat, the one in your hand is for soup and, no, put that one down it's not for scratching your back!"

Alisa was yelling at Rudel that this was not the way to use the silverware.

They watched angrily as he, made them look embarrassed.

While Siegwald asked Walt.

"How's business?"

"Huh? Umm, pretty good. In fact, I closed a deal with the palace yesterday. They ordered 100 battleships since Rudel's ship was listed as one."

"Oh? I see, I can tell your family has achieved great accomplishments for the palace and financially for you."

"And, Mr. Walt, may I order some ships for us?"

"Of course! If the duke so desires."

"No. I speak as a client, we will be family, but that doesn't mean I can get things for free."

"Umm, ok. I'll place an order for you tomorrow."

"Okay. And Mr. Walt, call me Sieg, please. From head of Household to another."

"S-Sure."

Conversations continued on various topics, including Vayne asking Lyle if he had gotten a partner yet. The conversation ended awkwardly.

It did until Pola asked a certain question.

"This one, Alisa-onee-chan, where's your mom, I don't see her here."

The whole Bismarck family froze when they heard that.

The Bradford family, on the other hand, stared at them with strange faces.

Alisa was the one who spoke in response.

"My mother... she's resting in a special place."

Rudel dropped his spoon when he heard that. His family too, everyone but Pola understood what those words meant.

Rudel tried to change the atmosphere by telling a joke, but he only made it worse.

The one who really changed the situation was Siegwald himself who said that his wife was not a matter that should be of interest to them for now.

They all went back to eating quietly.

◇◇◇

It was Saturday night.

Rudel's family stayed at the Bismarck house until today.

A few hours ago they left.

The girls had just come out of the bathroom. They asked Rudel if he wanted to go in with them, but he refused.

Although a while later he bit the sheet after seeing the semi-naked bodies of the girls entering the bathroom.

After entering their room, they found a letter telling them to go to the courtyard.

They wondered what he wanted to have summoned them there.

◇◇◇

It was a while before they reached the courtyard, everything was dark, but suddenly the lights came on.

Music began to play from servants playing the violin, cello and flute.

Rudel was in the middle in a suit, the girls were in casual clothes.

They were embarrassed to see that their boyfriend had prepared a surprise dinner for them.

The girls wanted to go back inside to change, but Rudel stopped them.

Alisa and Airi cried at the sight of this romantic dinner, but there was one more surprise they didn't know about.

"Servants."

Rudel said that, Ixion and Bell descended with a box strapped to them.

"I'm your servant, but don't treat me like a slave."

"Yeah, yeah."

Ixion stood in front of Alisa and Bell in front of Airi.

They opened the boxes covered their mouths in surprise.

"This is my gift to you."

Inside the boxes, there were two beautiful silver rings with a diamond in the center.

Rudel pulled out the one on top of Ixion.

"Alisa, raise your left hand."

She did. Rudel took her ring finger and placed the ring on.

Alisa shed tears as she looked at that gift.

"Airi, your hand."

Airi did too, Rudel put a ring on her finger.

They both cried at the sight of that ring.

Before asking what this was, Rudel told them.

"In my homeland, this is what you do when someone gets engaged. When you get married a totally different one comes."

Rudel blushed as he told them something that did not exist in this world, if not from his previous life.

"Me, I love you both. This is one of many tests to show my love for you."

They cried when they heard that.

"Let's not waste any more time, dinner will get cold. Girls, let's enjoy our last night together before going back to the academy tomorrow."

The three of them sat down, held hands and enjoyed that night they won't forget.