Chapter 111 - Investigation Interlude: The Proposal

As Gren returned to the FMC HQ after fixing up the homes, he was greeted by a stagecoach with a familiar symbol on it in the alley. Seeing soldiers standing in his way, Gren prepared his automatic rifle. "The Adiers again? Did Jessica send out that letter yet?"

"No, she told me that she would only be sending it after we're done cleaning up the other guilds. We don't really have time to be setting up meetings right now. I have no idea why they're here but we should be careful." Annie had her left hand ready to pull out her dagger. "I don't think that we should trust them just because they're related to three of your wives." The way that Annie mentioned his wives made Gren wonder if she had a problem with that but it was difficult to tell with the casual tone that her voice was in.

The two of them approached the soldiers guarding the entrance but stopped a distance away so that they didn't start any trouble. "Red hair. You must be Annie. In that case, the other one would be Gren." An older soldier sized the two of them up. "Green eyes. The two of you can come through." It felt weird being told that he could go into his own home but Gren didn't want to start a fight if he didn't have to.

The kitchen still had the table in it but the magic devices were removed and transferred to the underground so it looked bare. Sitting at the table was Jade and a broad-shouldered man with blonde hair. Gren couldn't see what the man looked like since his back was turned but he recognized the elderly man; it was the same man that was part of the supposed rescue squad. "Your Grace, the man you have been waiting for has arrived." The elderly man announced Gren's presence and let the others know that he was there. It seemed that the man with his back turned to Gren was this 'Grace'.

"Gren!" Jade ran up and hugged Gren when she noticed him. "Daddy, this is the man I was talking about. My husband, Gren." Gren thought it was odd that Jade referred to her father that way but was too worried about what the Duke was here for. If it was anybody else from the Adier family then he'd be less worried but, in Gren's eyes, the Duke and his soldiers were currently an enemy that weren't able to be defeated.

As Jade held on to him, Gren watched as the Duke stood up and turned around. Unlike his sons, the Duke had a thick jaw and chin that made him look tough. He even had a thick moustache covering his upper lip that completed his masculine look. "We finally meet in person. I've learned so much about you that it feels like I've known you a long time." Gren didn't like the sound of that; he would prefer it if the Duke knew little about him.

"I wish I could say the same. I know almost nothing about you, Duke Adier." Gren didn't even know the Duke's first name. On Earth there was a quote from Sun Tzu that would be appropriate here but Gren couldn't remember the exact quote. Gren still didn't understand his own self and the Duke was a mystery to him so it'd be unlikely that he'd win. There was always the option of just shooting him like what Gren did to Susan but that would only make his situation much worse.

"You should address him as Your Grace. Only those who are close in rank to him can address him by his title." The elderly man seemed to care more about the title than the Duke did since the Duke just shrugged it off.

"It's fine, Sebastian. In a way, his rank is greater than my own." The Duke had on a serious face ever since Gren first saw him. It was impossible to tell what he was thinking. "I've heard that you refused to heal my daughter, Henrietta. Can you tell me why?"

Gren wasn't sure if telling him the truth was a good idea but a lie wouldn't be convincing. "Trying to heal your daughter is how I got locked up by your sons. I don't know if she was in on it but I don't want to risk the same thing happening again." There was a bit more to the story but omitting some parts of the story wasn't technically a lie. "I hope you understand that I can't risk my freedom. I've got children of my own and I don't want to leave them without a father."

"It seems that there has been a misunderstanding. It was only one of my sons that was involved in your wrongful capture. Raymond and Henrietta had nothing to do with Robert's schemes." It was hard to tell if the Duke was telling the truth; it was possible that he was lying just to get Gren to heal Henrietta and place some trust in Raymond.

"I'm sorry if this offends you but I can't just take your word as the truth. You say that only one of your sons was acting against me but I find it too coincidental. He was the only one who wasn't there when I was captured and his goal was to take over where your father left off. Your father's actions would have helped your family if he succeeded so it's not like your children don't have a motive to help him." There was one way for him to gain trust in them but it was a process that he didn't expect them to agree to.

Jade didn't like seeing her father and husband arguing. Especially when the fate of the little sister she hadn't met yet was the topic of their argument. "Why can't you just help her? It doesn't cost you anything and if you don't help her then she might die." It was tough for Gren to say no to his new wife. Jade's large eyes and thick lips made her pouting face more effective. "I've always wanted to meet my little sister and I might not get a chance if you don't heal her."

Gren didn't want to disappoint his new wife so, after a bit of consideration, he gave in; like usual. "Alright, I'll heal her. However, I do have one condition. She comes in alone and her guards stay outside. I don't want a repeat of what happened last time." After Gren gave his approval, Jade hugged him tightly before raising her face like she wanted a kiss. It would be awkward to kiss her in front of her father so Gren squeezed her nose instead.

"I can agree to allowing my daughter to meet with you alone but it will make things difficult for her. You've already groped her in public even though it was by accident. Nobody will believe that she's a virgin if she's alone with you." Gren wasn't sure where the Duke was going with this. From what he had seen since coming to this world, virginity wasn't important to the people. "I don't want my daughter becoming a secondary wife to some lower noble."

"Why would she need to become a secondary wife to a lower noble if they thought that she lost her virginity?" Gren didn't even know what a secondary wife was. "Nobody I know of seems to care if someone's a virgin. Even you have been with Jade's mother."

"I didn't take Scarlett as my wife. No noble would even though she's a beautiful woman." Gren didn't expect to find out the name of Jade's mother but it was staring him in the face this entire time. "The primary wife is the only one that can give birth to heirs and heiresses. The lower nobles won't risk taking a primary wife that has slept around since they want their successor to be from their bloodline. The higher nobles like myself don't take secondary wives since it has been a bad idea, historically." Although Gren wanted to know about the historical reasons, it wasn't necessary to the discussion at hand.

Gren was beginning to understand what the Duke was talking about but didn't know what to do about it. The Duke, however, already had something in mind. "Of course, there is one solution that will not only solve the problem of her being unable to find a husband but it will solve problems that both of us are currently facing. You can't trust my family and I don't have a successor that I can rely on. Robert is too much like his grandfathers and Raymond only cares about the army. Henrietta is a smart girl but she gets too distracted by magic to be able to take over for me and she has no children."

Gren was sure that he knew what the Duke was about to propose but he had to ask anyways. "So, you want me to become Henrietta's husband?" It was the conclusion that anybody would come to considering everything that the Duke had said.

"Yes. You and my daughter would gain complete control of the family when I retire. There would be no need to worry about my family acting against your family when they become one." The Duke did bring up a good point but something felt off about this situation.

Gren couldn't quite figure out what that strange feeling he got was so he chose to postpone his decision. "I'll need to discuss this with Henrietta. I don't want to marry a woman that is unwilling to be my wife." It was the only excuse that Gren could think of that was actually true. "I'll still heal her but we can change the location if she can't be alone with me. I'll talk to the head priestess about borrowing a room in the cathedral after I'm done with my business."

"That will be acceptable. With my daughter's matters settled for now, we can move on to other things while waiting for Jessica." Gren didn't even know that the Duke was waiting for Jessica. "It has been long overdue but I would like to formally apologize to you about what my father did to your mother. I wish that she were here so that I could apologize to her in person. If there's anything I can do to make up for my father's actions then let me know."

Gren couldn't think of anything that the Adiers could offer him personally. The Duke had already offered up his daughter and title to Gren. He already had two massive stockpiles of treasure so money was useless to him right now. "You should give that offer to my mother. I can't think of anything that you can offer me that I don't already have."

"Even if you can't think of anything now, things may change in the future. My offer shall remain extended to you and, should I ever have the pleasure of meeting your mother, I will make the same offer to her." Gren would need to be very protective of his mother if she still didn't have her powers when she woke up so that meeting might never happen. "It seems that Jessica is taking longer than expected. Do you mind if we talk about your inventions? Jade has mentioned that you make interesting things but wouldn't elaborate."

Talking about the everyday items he created would be fine but it would be stupid to tell him about weapons and vehicles. "I've recently made this..." Gren pulled out one of the pens he was using. "...a pen. It has the ink inside of the cylinder..."

"I've seen that before." The Duke's expression finally changed with his brows creasing. "I bought one in the capital a few months ago." Gren wasn't expecting that answer. "I even brought it with me." The pen that the Duke brought out was closer to a marker with its thick felt tip. Gren's pen was unmistakably the better product but someone out there made it before him. "This came from someone in the Republic of Doga."

"I didn't know that someone else made a felt tip pen already. I guess that I'll need to make the ballpoint or fountain pens. No, they'd still just seem like innovations rather than an invention." Gren was trying to figure out how to salvage the situation since he wanted to open up a store that sold things that only he could produce. "What about bikes? I've never seen those."

"Sorry about Gren. He has been thinking out loud lately." Annie tried to explain Gren's actions even though she didn't quite understand it either. The answer was one that would be impossible to guess for them; Gren didn't ask himself questions relating to the system internally since it would cause the system to respond to him.

"Have you seen one of these yet?" Gren made a painting of a bike and showed it to the Duke. "The design isn't important, just the wheels being moved with the pedals here." The idea of pedals wasn't exactly a new thing with some magic devices using them like a magic forge that Gren had seen but he hadn't seen any mechanical ones before.

"No, I've never seen anything like that. I've never seen such a realistic painting before either." The Duke already knew about Gren's abilities so seeing an object appear out of thin air didn't surprise him but his intel didn't include anything about the paintings. "Did you make this? Not even the Royal Family's exclusive artist is capable of this."

"It'd be complicated to explain it but, yes, in a way it was made by me." Gren didn't mean to steal the credit from the system but he wanted to keep it secret. "I've got a few more interesting ones but if you've never seen a bicycle before then it should be fine to make them. I don't know what I'll do about teaching people to ride them yet but if I teach a couple of people then they could probably be in charge of teaching others at a shop. We'd need a store that has a backyard large enough to allow people to practice riding them in a safe place."

"Ahem. Jessica is coming up the stairs, you two." Jade alerted the rest of the group and cut off Gren from continuing his external monologue. Gren looked towards the stairs and saw his wife carrying their child that they had together. Little Clarissa was wearing a cute frilly dress that Gren had made for her in his spare time.

"There's my little girl. What are you doing up here?" Gren didn't expect Clarissa to respond since she was just a baby. The question was more for Jessica. "Why does mommy have you all dressed up? You don't like dresses." Gren tried to put Clarissa in a dress before but she seemed to be angry about it so he didn't continue.

"She's up here to meet her uncle for the first time so she needs to be dressed up. I had to wait for her to take a nap before I could get the dress on her but it looks nice on her, doesn't it?" Gren had to agree that it looked nice on her but Clarissa's face was scrunched up. His poor little baby girl clearly didn't like the dress.

Gren didn't like seeing his little girl being uncomfortable like that. "She looks nice but she's clearly uncomfortable. Just look at her face. It's alright, Claire Bear, you don't have to stay in that stuffy dress for long." Gren couldn't help himself and squeezed her cheeks since they were a bit puffed up.

"She'll have to stay in it longer if you don't get out of the way." Gren didn't want to keep his baby waiting so he stepped aside and ignored her outstretched arms, even though he really wanted to pick her up. "Sorry for that delay, Gerald. Meet your niece, Clarissa. Clarissa, wave at your Uncle Gerald." Although Clarissa didn't wave on her own, Jessica moved Clarissa's hand for her.

"She's adorable. Is it okay if I hold her?" The Duke, Gerald, slowly reached out to hold Clarissa as Jessica gently placed her into his arms. "I remember when my girls were this size. Both of my sons ended up having sons of their own so I haven't been able to spoil my grandchildren and I've never met any of my nieces and nephews until now." It was odd watching the Duke have a large grin on his face while holding Clarissa. Gren expected Gerald to be an enemy but he was surprisingly getting along with the family.

After a couple minutes of small chat and Gerald playing with the baby, his expression went back to being more serious. "I don't want to let her go but I've got to get back to my own business. The last thing I have to talk to you about is the request you took to clear out the fort. I just got word that the king himself wants to meet with Jessica." Gren's group seemed surprised while Sebastian still stood there on standby. "I don't know exactly what he wants but I'm sure that it's about the ownership of the fort itself. Nobody wants it since it's inconvenient and the Flours used to be baronets a couple of generations ago. It'd be convenient for them to restore your family's nobility and pass it off to you so expect a messenger to arrive in the coming weeks."

Gerald passed Clarissa back to Jessica with a smile appearing back on his face when Clarissa held his thumb. "I'll be returning in a couple weeks with my daughter, Henrietta. I hope you make a decision about what you'll be doing at that time. Once my daughter's health has improved then she can start looking for a husband and I don't want to waste her time." Gerald straightened out his fancy clothes and signaled for Sebastian to go out to the stagecoach. "Don't worry too much if something goes wrong with your little plan. I've given the order to the commanders in my army to ignore your actions against the other guilds. Just tell them that you're working for me and show the commander your identification with your organization's name on it." The Duke's exit was as surprising as his sudden appearance was. Gren's plans were clearly known by him but it didn't sound like he'd be interfering in any way.

After asking his wives, it seemed that neither of them talked to him about their plan so it was confusing how the Duke figured it out. It's not like they were doing their best to keep it quiet but it shouldn't be something that was already known to other groups. If the Duke did manage to keep his word and Gren's actions would be ignored by the authorities then Gren would need to rethink whether or not the Duke was truly an enemy. The good things that he had heard about the Duke seemed true by his actions and Gren's preconceived idea that the Duke would be like his father or son didn't have any real evidence to back it up.