Chapter 728: Family Planning (Part One)
Loman frowned at the intense look in his father’s eyes, wishing the aging Marquis would worry more about his health and less about the romantic affairs of his children. The way his father reacted when he palpated his old wounds was deeply disturbing and at the moment, Loman wanted nothing more than to perform additional tests so he could determine how he should treat his father.
Yet, no matter how much he wanted to continue the examination, he knew better than to press his luck with the aging Marquis. Loman had already learned a few things from the impromptu exam that he’d insisted on. He would just have to wait for his father to give him another opportunity to continue. And in the meantime, he’d entertain Bors’s insistence on discussing possible marriage partners.
Loman had resigned himself to some form of arranged marriage when he told his father that he intended to contend for the right to inherit the throne. Even though he’d spent most of his adult life assuming that his only partner in life would be the Church, he had resigned himself to renouncing many of his vows in order to inherit the throne, and that included his vow to give all of his love in this life to the Holy Lord of Light.
While Loman had no illusions that he would find true love in the span of time he would be left with if he was going to inherit, he hoped that he could find a partner with whom he could build an enduring love in the many years they would share after the wedding. After all, his father’s marriage had been arranged, and he had found great happiness with Loman’s mother, even if they had been little more than strangers on the day of their wedding.
Still, it was one thing to accept that he would need to find a marriage partner within the next year or so and another thing entirely to have his father playing matchmaker at every available opportunity! And the women he’d met so far had some questionable characteristics to say the least.
"I thought young lady Adala Leufroy was pleasant company," Loman said politely as he helped his father to move to a more comfortable, overstuffed armchair next to a window that overlooked Lothian City. Loman took a seat in the opposite, matching chair, gazing out the window at the rain rather than looking into his father’s intense gaze as he gave his honest opinion of the young lady he’d just met.
"Her ideas are a bit... strange," Loman admitted, shifting uncomfortably in his chair as he recalled some of the questions Lady Adala had asked about the possibility of capturing demons in the upcoming war. "You said that she spent several years in the old countries, attending one of the finishing schools there?"
"After the last war," Bors said in acknowledgement. "Baron Leufroy used a sizable portion of his spoils from raiding Airgead Mountain to finance his children’s education abroad in the hopes that they could raise their stations or make valuable connections from across the sea. If I remember correctly, Lady Adala and her siblings were educated in the Kingdom of Iron," Bors acknowledged, frowning as he guessed at the topic his son had seized on.
Most of the conversation between his son and the young lady had been little more than pleasantries, or polite comments about hobbies and interests. When the topic had moved to school and her experiences abroad however, the ideas she expressed after spending several years overseas were the ones that could be considered almost heretical in the Kingdom of Gaal.
"I understand that the use of slave labor is common in the Kingdom of Iron," Bors said, trying to smooth over the potential pitfalls of the topic by reminding his son that the Church hadn’t rooted the practice out of the Kingdom of Iron, even after hundreds of years, and it was practiced to this day. "In fact, the kingdom’s wealth is built on the backs of men who wear the iron collars of bondage."
"The Church teaches that a life spent in chains is penance for a life filled with refusal to meet one’s struggle," Loman acknowledged with a nod, even though the doctrine had seen little use on this side of the sea. "It is considered a method of cleansing the soul of great sins and preparing to return to the struggle to reach the Heavenly Shores after turning away from Holy Light."