I'm Done Being Your Best Friend

“Kya!”

Heidi, who followed, screamed in surprise upon witnessing the chaos. At that, Percy quickly took Heidi in one arm.

Are they the knights of the Grint Duchy? It was three times the number of people Logan had brought.

As if to prove my point, the central figure broke away from the group and greeted Percy.

“I’m here to get you two.”

“Tell my father. I’m not going.”

Percy growled. The knight put on a puzzled look and told Percy his business.

“His Excellency does not want to see blood shed. Please go back quietly with us.”

“Percy…”

Heidi hugged Percy tighter.

The few knights of the Harrison Duchy, who came with the sole purpose of escorting Logan, versus the knight troop of the Grint Duchy, who were determined to take Percy back. With such a difference in numbers, could they possibly survive? Logan’s expression was not very good either.

Percy must have thought the same as I did, as he lowered his head after a while of contemplation.

“Damn it…!”

***

In the end, the knights took Percy and Heidi straight back to Duke Grint’s residence.

Me and Logan, who were there, also headed there together. In the hall of Duke Grint’s mansion, even the Baron and Baroness of Coventry were seated.

Duke Grint seemed disinterested in why Logan and I were there. While I was greeting the astonished Chloe, Duke Grint approached Percy.

“This is such a dishonour…!”

He looked like he was going to hit Percy at any moment, but fortunately he didn’t raise his hand at the young lord. He said to Percy, holding back his anger.

“How could you do this?! When knowing how high the expectations we have of you are!”

It wasn’t loud, but I could guess how angry he was from the tone of his voice.

But Percy didn’t seem to care much.

“When did I tell you to expect such things?”

Percy was further enraging the Duke.

If he provokes him like that now…! My mouth fell loose. I wasn’t the only one shocked. It was the same with Duke Grint.

“You are out of your mind!”

“No matter what, we cannot break up. We are already engaged.”

“Engaged?!!”

Asked the Baron of Coventry, widening his eyes.

Percy pulled out a rolled-up paper envelope from his coat. Percy held up the engagement pledge for their families to see. Promptly, he pointed to me and Logan.

“Heidi and I are already engaged. Those two were there as witnesses.”

The hall of the duke’s residence was enveloped in a suffocating atmosphere. The Duchess grabbed her throbbing head, vaguely mouthing the words ‘my dear God’. The Baroness held onto Baron Coventry’s shoulder as her strength waned.

It went without saying that nobles’ engagements were not something that could be broken lightly. It didn’t matter for them to break it if it was just between marriage talks, but one had to be more cautious to not arrange an engagement too soon. It’s because that would mean the relationship had reached a certain point that was enough to promise marriage.

Triggered upon seeing the document, Duke Grint shouted.

“I shall not approve it! Engagement without parental consent is invalid!”

“We signed it and even had an engagement ceremony in front of witnesses. You on your own cannot do anything about it, father.”

“You…!”

Duke Grint, who burst into anger for a moment, turned to the servants standing on the side.

“Lock Percy in his room. He’ll come to his senses if he is locked away for a while.”

At his command, the servants immediately approached Percy. Frightened, Heidi held onto Percy tighter, and Percy glared at the servants hostilely.

It’s the worst. Could there be anything worse than this?

Logan, who could not bare to watch, said to Duke Grint.

“Is it really impossible for you to acknowledge the relationship between the two of them?”

“How can you say that? Do you think this is possible?

The look on Duke Grint’s face seemed to say what Logan had just said was obviously absurd. To which Logan responded with a puzzled expression.

“I don’t think it’s that impossible. Wouldn’t it all end if the duke just allow it?”

“It’s not a matter of permission!”

“Is Heidi that disqualified? Is she not good enough?”

Then, Percy cut in with a fit of rage.

Duke Grint turned to Heidi, who looked like she was about to cry, and lowered his voice.

“That is not the problem. Heidi is a good child. But marriage is a different matter. The Baron of Coventry also agreed with me.”

In the end, the family title was the problem. However, were they to break up like this, both families would suffer greatly afterward. All the more so when the duo had dreamt of a happy future when they got engaged.

It shouldn’t be like this. I thought as I caught sight of Heidi with her head down with tears in her eyes. They would never be happy if they were forced to separate and marry someone else.

Having kept silent the whole time, I finally came to open my mouth.

“Your Grace, I think a little differently.”

“What do you mean?”

All eyes in the hall were on me. Now that I have spoken up, let’s state my point clearly. I continued calmly.

“I don’t think there’s any reason to insist on a family with a title higher than a ‘county’ as of the young lord’s marriage partner. Since the Grint Duchy is already stronger than any other noble family.”

Be it a county or a marquis, in the end, the Grint was a duchy. Even though their bloodline might not be that distinct anymore after many generations, isn’t its origin still from the first king? Its symbolism was something that no family could reach or surpass.

“And as the Duke knows, love marriages are not common among nobles. If the Duke acknowledges the relationship between lord Grint and lady Coventry, the people of the kingdom will look up to you. They would say that Your Grace has a sense of inclusion regardless of the family’s title and ranking.”

“…”

“Also, why don’t you reconsider the relationship between the two for your son, lord Grint?”

“For my son?”

I nodded at his question.

“Yes. You are against the young lord’s doings now, but…If you forcibly separate them, who are already engaged, would he be happy?”

No answer came back from Duke Grint. I added.

“The duke is the head of the family, but you are also the young lord’s father. It is a love great enough that he abandons his family, and yet, if you still oppose it to the very end, lord Grint certainly will not be happy, even when he becomes a great head of the household.”

I said while thinking of Percy in the past.

I wondered if touching fatherhood was a little too much.

But Duke Grint did not immediately object to my words. He seemed to want to say something, but it didn’t seem well organised.

I spoke to him again in the softest possible tone.

“Hence, could you please reconsider the relationship between the two of them?”

“That’s…”

“Father, please.”

It was then that Percy fell to his knees. He, who had shown a rebellious appearance until just now, was earnestly pleading in front of the man he called father.