Ezra went back to the castle along with his mother and father. Voxis explained to Ezra that he inadvertently humiliated his sister when he demonstrated that he had actually been listening. Upon arriving at the castle Voxis departed to his room while his father went to his study to continue his lordly duties.
Ezra and his mother had a talk.
"Mother, I don"t get it, I just told the truth." Ezra pouted.
"Well, girls are complicated," Aerwyna laughed. "You should just try and understand her"
"But I was right wasn"t I? I did pay attention," Ezra was still unhappy because of the tantrum Hestia did. The tour that he planned was postponed because Hestia said she was ill.
"She"s probably sulking, ugh. I know how resilient n.o.ble"s bodies are, ever since I reincarnated I have yet to suffer a cold. Hmm, that is probably most n.o.bles are indifferent about illness among commoners, they probably never have experienced I themselves."
"You know, next time you should learn to keep appearances," Aerwyna replied with a gentle smile she knew that her son had trouble grasping social concepts sometimes.
"You mean to accept that I"m wrong even though I clearly am in the right?" Ezra could not help feeling outraged as he recalled a famous sitcom in earth called Friends where Ross Geller, was adamant that he was on the right when he slept with a waitress because he broke up with his girlfriend. He didn"t watch T.V shows but he got distracted once when he was at a coffee shop.
Being a man of science it was hard for him to accept nothing except cold hard facts and if a situation arose that he would concede because of he knew he was right, he would not yield. Convincing him to do otherwise was hard. He knew that sometimes he should be secretive on some matters but for him, this incident was not one he should hide.
"You could have accepted it in public but then prove it to her in private. You should understand, being a princess she is accustomed to ordering others around and never being proved wrong."
Ezra looked thoughtful. "Maybe I should just concede after all she is a child,"
"You should understand in that situation, I too would be embarra.s.sed. Girls don"t like being proved they are wrong you know, haha"
"Girls are complicated, " answered Ezra with his furrowed brows.
"I"m glad you are beginning to understand," chuckled Aerwyna.
"I just told you I didn"t understand. What?" said a bewildered Ezra.
"Well, the first step to understand girls is that girls don"t even understand themselves. Sometimes we do the opposite of what we say. For example, I married your father even though I hated his guts before."
"What? That doesn"t make sense."
"Hmm, I guess I think that girls are emotional creatures maybe because of our monthly cycles, we are p.r.o.ne to jump from one emotion to another. It"s not to say that there are some girls who are straightforward, it is just most girls are fickle minded. But remember once a girl decides on what she does, no man can stop her from doing it."
Ezra wished that he had read more books on female psychology and social interactions, but it was never an interesting topic for him on earth.
"Hmm, okay then mother. I"ll just concede and keep this in mind."
His father then barged into his room.
"The envoy gave me a letter from the Rex himself," Reitz bellowed.
"What?" Aerwyna asked.
"He asked us to take care of his daughter this coming five years. There is also a transport of gold from the empire for her stay. He wants her lodging built in the residential district near the castle,"
"That"s a bit much isn"t it," Ezra said.
"Well considering she is a princess, her lodgings must be separate from the castle, it"s not proper for her to stay here for five years. The Rex wants it done as soon as possible. He also told me that we should drill some character in her."
"That"s a crazy impossible task." Ezra pouted.
Aerwyna and Reitz chuckled.
"Anyway the Rex is giving us one hundred thousand gold as down payment for her lodging,"
"But five thousand can already give her a decent sized one," Ezra answered.
"This is the princess we are talking about, Hestia is no normal n.o.ble," Aerwyna told Ezra.
"She has plenty of other siblings."
"Yes but Hestia is the last born of the emperor from the empress she is his favourite daughter. Besides, it is common for the Rex to flex a little muscle, that gold is just a tiny part of Regaladeus" wealth. It"s also a way to intimidate us in some sense."
"I guess there is no way but to let her have her way. Ugh five years, how can I bear this?" Ezra looked out through the window, sorrowful.
His father and mother were a bit guilty since they were the main cause of Ezra"s anxiety. They glanced at each other with guilt-ridden looks.
"Don"t worry Ezra you might actually get to like her," Reitz said in a cheery voice, "Besides she is young, she will definitely change her att.i.tude in the future and if you still don"t like her we can break the engagement."
"I will try my best to like her, it will beneficial for Bren, it is my duty as your heir to provide the best possible life for Fulmen"s citizens," Ezra had come to like their domain, he had a sense of responsibility toward the fiefdom now. Because his mother and father sought the wellbeing of their domain he felt obligated to them.
Of course, he did not forget his promise to the memory of Evan to change the system for the better but in the meantime that it was so it was his commitment to seek the best political outcome for Bren.
He already set some wheels in motion and a slow pace was best for the people to accept changes. His goal right now was to strengthen the backbone of Fulmen toward revolutionary policies and technology. Even if they got to an industrial age without proper education and financial backbones, chaos would ensue.
He remembered that during the American industrialization a lot of workers went on riots and some even killed factory owners, he blamed this on the lack of laws and policies that seek to protect both workers and owners, it was a good thing that they had sovereignty in their own territory. This was one of the reasons why Ezra decided to push forward with the bank, he never did lack capital since he had the executive and legislative powers at his side.
"Nonsense Ezra, if you don"t like her then don"t marry her. We will not force the marriage against your will," Reitz said.
"Don"t worry she is in our territory and we can do some things to change her att.i.tude. That is a good thing," Aerwyna added.
"Just promise us one thing."
"What is it?"
"Don"t treat it like a business deal and genuinely try to get to know her, Okay?" Reitz asked.
"Those are two things," Ezra said cheekily.
"Ezra! You know what I mean," Reitz glowered.
"Yes, yes father, I promise"