Rosaria spoke with an excited tone, and Dolores waved her hand.
"That's not a new mom yet. We're just engaged for now. Since I don't have a surname, I'm borrowing it for the time being."
"Th-then, you're saying that being engaged means getting ma-married?"
"Um? Well... yes?"
Dolores scratched the back of her neck.
It was just stating an ordinary fact, but it felt uncomfortable.
"My most admired teacher..."
Her first love was connected.
For Yuria, it was like a world collapsing.
It felt like a meteor had struck her heart and another one was falling again.
Her heart was already in shambles.
It felt like her soul was being burned white and was escaping.
Dolores was at a loss for what to do.
She already knew that Yuria liked Reed.
Having become the bad woman who stole her crush, the problem was how to get through this predicament.
"Cheer up. Most first loves don't usually work out."
"How many relationships has Teacher had?"
"…The first."
For Dolores, who had no interaction with her peers, Reed was everything.
Even when she broke up with Reed, her feelings remained in the form of affection, so she had never thought about anyone else even once.
Whether it was comforting or pacifying, Dolores found her own words puzzling.
Yuria wiped her eyes with her clothes.
With reddened eyes, she looked up at Dolores and spoke with a determined face.
"I...! I will become an even stronger magician than Teacher!"
"Th-That's the spirit."
Dolores didn't ask why she suddenly had such thoughts.
A magician just needs to become stronger.
Motivation tends to disappear like water flowing.
"But, how did you come to like Dad?"
"I'm curious about that too!"
Yuria joined Rosaria's question.
"Isn't it better to move on with the lesson? It's not such a great story."
"We can always move on with the lesson, but we don't have many opportunities to hear about our respected teacher's life."
"Yeah, yeah. It's a rare opportunity!"
"Ugh…"
She couldn't beat this cheeky girl.
Normally, Yuria would be insisting on having a lesson, but now she claimed that life experience was more important.
Realizing that it wasn't the right flow for a lesson, Dolores reluctantly closed the book.
"Do you really want to know?"
"Yes!"
"Yes, I want to know!"
Stories of first love only encountered in books.
For the curious child, the adults' stories were like a romance novel.
"Back in the day, I was..."
Yuria, who had been jealous of Dolores, also listened to her story with sparkling eyes.
The girlish story ripened.
***
Meanwhile, when the news of the engagement reached the magicians, Reed received an invitation.
Thinking it was an engagement celebration party, he accepted the invitation and dressed neatly before heading to the party venue.
"Silence Tower Master, Reed Adele..."
His greeting stopped abruptly.
He had been expecting a lively atmosphere at the celebration party, but upon entering, the atmosphere was as solemn as a funeral.
Reed checked his location once more, wondering if he had come to the wrong place, and checked the invitation again.
The person who invited him was the master of the Radiant Tower.
At the dinner table were magicians from the workshop and merchant alliance.
"Are you here?"
"I am here, but why are you all so gloomy?"
"Sit down."
Reed sat in the middle of the long table, guided by the tower master.
It was clear that he was the protagonist of this party.
'Why are there so many magicians from the workshops and merchant alliances?'
He thought that if the Radiant Tower Master invited him, other male tower masters would gather.
However, magicians of various affiliations had gathered.
And all of them had a gloomy face.
"You."
The middle-aged magician sitting next to him spoke.
He was the chief magician of the empire's workshop and the man who contributed the most to the empire's security.
"I heard you got married to Dolores, the former master of Wallin Tower."
"It's not a marriage, it's an engagement. We're still"
"Don't you have the intention to get married anyway? Isn't that right?"
"That's correct."
"Then you're no different from a married man."
The chief magician put his hand on Reed's shoulder.
He had a face like that of an old man looking at his son going off to hunt monsters.
"Think about it. Marriage is a crazy thing."
"Huh?"
"You're still young. Your blood is still vigorous."
"Being 36 isn't that young, though..."
"You still have plenty of women left. Do you need to be tied to just one?"
"Yes, that's right."
"At this time, you're still young. It's the age to love other women."
"What's with that..."
Before he could call it nonsense, Reed realized one thing.
The merchant alliance, tower magicians, workshop magicians.
He saw a commonality among these people with different affiliations.
That's right.
They were all married men.
"You said your partner was the former master of Wallin Tower?"
"Yes."
"Then she'll try to shake and control you even more. If you have no power, she'll slowly eat away at you, and if you do, what will happen?"
"I'm not sure about that. Dolores doesn't seem like that kind of woman..."
"I was deceived too. The idea that love solves everything is nonsense."
At those words, everyone nodded in silence.
"Women, after getting married, reveal their true nature."
"They show their wicked faces, put a bridle on you, and hold you tightly." [T/N: bridle is the headgear used to control a horse, to which the reins are attached]
"Then they slowly take control of your finances."
"And eventually, they pull you back and make you surrender!"
Seeing them pouring out as if they had all been treated the same by one woman, Reed couldn't help but be amazed.
Just by listening, it sounded like the work of an evil force invading a country, not a wife or a mother.
Only then did Reed understand.
That it was not an engagement celebration party, but a gathering of marriage scam victims.
He realized that these were experts who would explain why he should not go through with this marriage, gritting their teeth.
'Insane...'
He was torn between whether to continue or end this gloomy men's gathering.
"Aria! That woman used to be so pretty! I was completely fooled by her face."
"Me too... I should have just run away when I succeeded. Why did I go back to my hometown and suffer?"
Like old men in a small room, they drank heavily and began to compete in a contest of how miserable their lives were.
Eventually, Reed felt that he was no longer the focus of their attention, and he quietly slipped away from the party venue.
