I Think My Fiancé Has Regressed

Chapter 17: When she became a young lady (1)

When Ariana and I were both just over ten years old, and a few months after my engagement to her was made official.

“Hey, Alex!”

Ariana still hasn’t been able to shed her girlishness, or, if we’re being honest, her boyishness. Every time she visited the palace, she would call me with these rude remarks, not caring about what other people thought.

Ariana’s parents and servants seem to have gotten used to it, not given up on it, but it has become almost routine for the apprentice servants to be puzzled and surprised whenever they see it.

It’s a miracle that she hasn’t been spotted by any outside guests before now.

House Anastasia’s handmaiden and Arianna’s capable personal maid, it was assumed, had been keeping things under control.

“I’ve said it before, but I think it’s a little strange to hear the Duchess speak in such a manner.”

“What? You said I could call you Alex the other day.”

“It’s not a question of titles, it’s a question of basic courtesy. It’s a little strange to hear an aristocratic lady say ‘hey’ so loudly.”

The more I got to know Ariana, the more I realized that she was quite restrained, even in the way she presented herself to me at our first meeting.

Moreover, the nickname Alex, which I, her fiancé had invented for her because she found it difficult to call my name, had already spread to those around me and had become a title she referred to me by in private.

“You sound like a handmaiden again.”

“I’m used to it, so it doesn’t matter, but you’re going to be my wife in the future, so it might be poisonous to be so disrespectful in front of so many people.”

“I’m trying to fix it, but it’s not easy after a decade of being a child. When I use respectful language, it brings up old traumas and….”

“What?”

“Huh? Oh, no, I’m just talking to myself, nothing.”

Ariana sometimes said things that didn’t make sense, but surprisingly, I didn’t particularly dislike her irregular personality or behavior.

In fact, I enjoyed being with her much more than I did with the other youngsters, who seemed to have the same stereotypical reactions to me. It felt like I was dealing with a real person.

…though I still wished she would cut down on her sometimes erratic behavior.

“So, what did you call about?”

“Oh, right, this is a book I found in the Royal Library yesterday, and I was reading it and wanted to show you something!”

When in the world had she been to the Royal Library without my knowledge.

Putting aside my questions, I read the cover of the book she thrust in front of me.

“Autobiography of Leonidas Leavrov.”

It was an autobiography written by my great-grandfather, the third king of the kingdom of Leavrov.

“This is my great-grandfather’s autobiography. Do you have any questions about its contents?”

“It’s not really a question, but I was reading it and I came across this passage.”

“Let me see it.”

Ariana’s finger flicked through the pages, stopping on a page about my great-grandfather’s first wife, great-grandmother Christina.

[My first wife, Christina, was a woman of many dreams and aspirations. Even her position as the wife of a king in charge of a country was not enough to fulfill the magnitude of her dreams and aspirations.

When she was eight months pregnant with my child, she wrapped her arms around her full belly and looked me in the eye. She said there was something she had to tell me, and then, as if on cue, she delivered a proposal that was like a celestial force.

If the child in her womb is a boy, she will return to the tower and devote the rest of her life to the study of magic.

I, who loved her, felt like the sky was falling as soon as I heard those words. Although it was her vast knowledge and the way she strives to fulfill her dreams that first made me fall in love with her, once she became my wife, I wanted her to always be by my side, for whatever reason.

But she shook her head firmly against my objections. She said that she hadn’t realized that life in the palace would be so uncomfortable and restrictive as she had thought it would be, and that she found it hard to be given any personal time to study magic.

I, desperate to keep her by my side at all costs, was constantly bombarding her with offers to make as many concessions as possible in order to satisfy her complaints.

I would eliminate all the events and official functions she had to attend, and make sure she had plenty of private time for herself. Instead of returning to the tower, which is too far away from the palace, I will create a study for her within the palace.

I was even willing to make her promise not to take a second wife or concubine, if she would not leave.

But Christina was stubborn. Already uncomfortable with the stares she felt in the palace and the restrictions of space, she was adamant that she wanted to return to an establishment where she would have the freedom she deserved.

I also asked her if she didn’t love me, but she said it wasn’t that much. She simply replied that she had her own priorities, more important than wasting time in love.

Still, she said, she would fulfill her duties as my first wife, at least as far as producing a male child who would be the next in line.

I could no longer break her will, unless I were to completely ignore her feelings and force her into a cage. A method I had not contemplated.

That is why I prayed fervently in my heart. That the child in her womb now, would be a girl, not a boy.

And that she would remain by my side for all time to come, true to her promise not to leave until she had given birth to my heir.

Two months later, Christina returned to the tower with a letter. In it she thanked me for her love and asked me to forget her and live happily ever after with another wife.

With my son sobbing in my maid’s hands, I wiped the stream of water under my breath, too.]

At Ariana’s request, I read the words in silence for a while, but of course I already knew them.

I even remember hearing it from my great-grandfather himself, when he was still alive, and how much he missed my great-grandmother Christina.

“What do you think?”

I thought she was asking me what I thought of the book.

She’s a little eccentric for her age, but she’s a girl in her prime.

When she reads a history book, she is moved by a sad love story and wants to show it to her fiancé to share her feelings.

“It’s a sad and touching story, the love story of my great-grandmother Christina, who chose her dreams among many values, and my great-grandfather Leonidas, who chose his love, which made me feel sad and shed a few tears when I first heard it. The story was even made into a play with royal permission, and it still touches many people in the theater….”

“I wasn’t really asking for your impressions.”

“…….”

I took it as a sign that she wanted me to sympathize with the emotions she felt after reading it, but it seemed that what she wanted was far from that kind of answer.

“…What is it then?”

“I will use Christina, the magic tower lord who appears here, as my example!”

“…….”

It would have been much better to act like a normal young lady.

“I’m going to be such a great wizard that no one can argue with me, not even Alex, and as soon as I give birth to his heir, I’m going to enter the tower and study magic!”

“And you have the audacity to say that in front of me, your fiancée?”

“That’s why I wanted to ask your permission in advance!”

Seeing her already thinking about escaping from the palace when we weren’t even married yet, I realized that if I made a mistake, a second Great-Grandmother Christina might be born in my generation.

“Ariana. Great-Grandmother Christina was a master magus before she met my great-grandfather, and her behavior was only possible because she was a capable person to begin with. It’s not an exaggeration to say that the magic she created in her lifetime is what makes Leavrov the wealthy country it is today, and her theories of magic are not without merit.”

“Uh, yeah….”

“The position of king’s consort is not one to be given away so easily, and although the engagement is made by the interests of both houses, I ask that you do your best to fulfill that duty now that you are my fiancée.”

“Oh, yeah. I’m sorry….”

“Good to know.”

Kingdom or family interests aside, it wasn’t as if I didn’t have feelings for Arianna.

If I had to have someone as my wife, it was better in many ways to have her by my side, as I never tired of looking at her.

“Well, do you want to divorce her now? Being a queen is a bit much for me, to say the least….”

“We’re not in a relationship where you can break up just because you want to, and it doesn’t make sense politically, so don’t say anything weird.”

“Alex is getting another fiancée, and I am the second wife….”

“What kind of prince has two fiancées!?”

“Don’t be angry….”

“If you understand, don’t ever bring this up again.”

“Ugh, yeah….”

It was one of those days when I could see how much trouble the Handmaiden of House Anastasia must have had to discipline this immature young lady.

However, several months later she came to the palace with a new magic that she claimed to have developed.