*Terrasin deVon Almistraus*

  Terrasin could not believe she had missed this, though to be fair, things had gone wrong since the very start, and that was before summoning Lucas! Afterwards, she had barely had a chance to catch her breath, or really understand the man in front of her. She should have seen this coming, and now Terrasin felt she had a responsibility to think of a way out. Clearly, Prince Treslux did not actually want to attack, which was something, but Terrasin was wary of him regardless. The Prince was rumored to be cunning, with a personality bordering on cruel- at least some of the rumors said that anyway, many others attested to him being compassionate and naive, but Terrasin never believed rumors like that.

  This was not a situation that could be resolved easily, the perception of power was often power in and of itself. It did not matter that Lucas barely cared about the existence of nobility or the Church, only that it appeared that he supported the Church. The people would side with the Church, not that it mattered much where they sided, but more importantly, lesser nobles would see this as a chance to climb the social ladder- even if doing so put the Church at the top of that ladder instead of nobles.

  Obviously, not everyone would go along with this, many would resist this change and it would likely result in a civil war. A civil war where nobles who were true believers, or at least wished to appear that way, would be forced to join on the side of the Church- even if they were not Francinea nobles at all. In that way, other countries would be dragged in, possibly costing troops from the front lines.

  This one Duchy could trigger the total collapse of the human forces!

  In a flash, an idea came to her- an idea Terrasin didn’t like for her own reasons, but then that was the nature of politics.

  Interrupting Lucas’s and the Prince’s discussion, Terrasin said, “Lucas, you need to marry Lady Versi.”

  *Lucas Jaeger*

  Lucas took great pride in his mind. Decades of education and intellectual stimulation of all sorts, coupled with good genetics no doubt, left him in the top five percent of his world’s population. And that was the modest estimate, he might be in the top one percent, or even a fraction of a percent, but he did not really care to find out. He was proud of his mind, but he was wary of hubris, his pride did not need to be validated to such a degree- he would rather just prove it by his works.

  This mind, a product of modern education and good genetics, that was thinking at its top capacity- even if he had no talent for politics, Lucas still gave this his all- ground to a halt like a truck hitting a cement barrier. He opened his mouth to speak, but he had no idea how to respond to this- it was simply ridiculous, and for that matter he was not sure how it would even solve the issue!

  Terrasin clearly knew that he needed an additional explanation, and provided one. “The issue is not so much that Lucas has ties to the Church, but rather that he has no ties anywhere else. The Are family is related to Lady Archi deVon Versi, and their authority comes from their blood, not the Church. This would become an internal issue to the family and not one related to the Church itself.”

  To Lucas’s horror, Prince Treslux latched onto the idea immediately. “That would work, I had not even considered that route, but it would work. I would still need to placate the nobles somehow, but if the things you are developing are as you say, the benefit to our crops alone will be enough to silence them.”

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  “Now hold on here,” Lucas needed to shut this down now. “I will not marry Archi, I absolutely refuse!”

  He was over twenty years older than that slip of a girl- who wasn’t even here to take part in this discussion- he had no feelings for her, and though he had never bothered to precisely do the math and convert this world’s years to his own, he was willing to be she was not even eighteen! Lucas had some issues regarding occasional sociopathic tendencies and was also a bit of a rude bastard, but there were lines he was not willing to cross. And this was not so much a line as a wall topped with barbed wire behind a moat filled with carnivorous fish that came after a minefield- not happening.

  “Why not?” Treslux frowned, “This solves all of our problems, and from what I recall she is not bad too look at- quite decent in politics as well, and from a very good family.”

  “I do not want to get married, I do not know her or her family well enough even if I did, I do not like her enough- though she is a fine enough person, that isn’t enough to tie my life to her- and above all, she is far too young!” Lucas ticked off his issues on his fingers and ended with, “This is non-negotiable, I would let this war happen first and let the consequences be damned!”

  The other two were taken aback by Lucas’s strong words, probably because between their stage of civilization and the constant threat of death from demons, marriageable age was probably pretty damn low. Lucas, however, had a different point of view. Humans were, as far as Lucas had seen in his years of work and study, some of the slowest developing creatures on the planet, if not the slowest. His country said that the age of consent was eighteen years old, the same age someone could smoke and join the military. Three years later, at the age of twenty-one, you could legally drink.

  If Lucas had the power to do so, he would change all of those age requirements to twenty-five, and that was him being generous.

  The human brain did not really finish developing until around that age, although admittedly the exact amount of time was a bit iffy, but that isn’t the point. The point is, as far as Lucas was concerned, Archi was nearly a decade too young to even understand consent- and the fact would be that consent would not matter, because the marriage would essentially be forced on her.

  For that matter, as a noble, Lucas suspected that Archi would be expected to have kids, and considering his status, the family would probably put a lot of pressure on her. Consent, age, morality and all that aside- Lucas did not want a child. Nothing, not even the demons he had seen on his way to the duchy, scared him more than a baby crying. And honestly, he doubted he could raise a kid well anyway with his personality.

  In short, as far as Lucas was concerned, this was not an option. And no, as he thought about it to himself, he did not feel bad ordering thousands to their deaths so that he could avoid marrying some kid. He might be a utilitarian when it came to ethics, but his understanding of development allowed him to argue that this was the best answer, even if thousands died as a result of it.

  “Lucas,” Terrasin seemed to be trying to calm him down. “This really is the best solution, it would not stop you marrying for love later down the line- as the hero you are above that kind of thing.”

  “Having multiple wives does not make this better, Terra.” Lucas sighed, “In fact it makes it worse. Treslux, Terrasin, I rarely speak like this, but allow me to say something as the Hero for this moment- you do not, and can not, understand the problems with what you are suggesting. As I try to educate you, you will get a better grasp on why I refuse this, but even that is only part of the reason. Besides biology, sociology would likewise have a multitude of reasons why this is a bad idea, though I cannot explain those as well. Finally, although she is a nice person, and maybe one day I will call her a friend, Versi is merely an acquaintance at this point- and a kid at that. Speaking now, and for the record, any marriage before eighteen years of age- nevermind, that is my world’s years, not yours. I will do the math later- is wrong ethically, and inadvisable scientifically.”

  “Fine,” Treslux sighed and sat back in defeat. “I won’t push further, but that leaves us without a solution- again. And the day is running short.”

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