Married off?
Xarion shifted slightly, his body stiff from lying still too long, and extended a hand toward Larion. "Did you bring the dowry?"
"Yes, yes, we did." Larion hurriedly handed him the dowry list. "Please take a look. Are you satisfied?"
Xarion slowly opened the list, skimd it briefly, then nodded with mild approval. "At least my father still has so sense of filial duty."
The items were decent enough.
Larion’s face twitched hard at those words. "The King said that you must stay by your Female Master’s side and live properly with her."
Xarion closed the dowry list and lifted his eyelids to look at Larion. "Where’s my Female Master?"
Larion imdiately pointed at Rory.
"That distinguished and beautiful Lady Roanna Smith is your Female Master."
Rory was still stunned by Xarion’s completely backwards comnt—’at least my father has so filial duty’—when she snapped back to attention.
She saw Xarion glance at her, then slowly climb out of the ice crystal coffin, dowry list in hand.
Literally... climb.
The movent was so slow it looked like he was halfway into the grave already. Rory’s mouth twitched hard.
Xarion dragged himself weakly out of the coffin and staggered over to her, looking utterly frail.
He dropped to one knee and presented the dowry list with both hands. "Female Master, may I discuss sothing with you?"
"What do you want to discuss?" Rory asked. Was he planning to use the dowry to dissolve the bond?
If so, that would be fantastic.
Xarion spoke seriously, his voice weak. "Bond with ... then cut through my beast mark and kill ."
Rory froze for a mont. "Are you... insane?"
Paros, seated across from them, looked at Xarion with undisguised contempt. He murmured sothing under his breath.
Hearing Paros’s voice, Xarion turned his head to look at him.
Still weak, he replied, "So what if I am insane? And you..." his eyes were still on Paros. "If you’ve got the guts, kill yourself, then."
Rory looked stunned.
How could soone have this much nerve?
Paros sighed again, while Xarion added lazily, "It’s not like I didn’t give you chances. You’re just useless—couldn’t kill ."
Paros shot Xarion a disgusted look and turned to Rory. "Rory, this wolf’s brain is clearly not normal. You’d better not agree to this. If you like the dowry he brought, I can give you the sa."
"No—double. Triple. Even quadruple, if you want."
Xarion rolled his eyes hard. "I’m giving my dowry to my Female Master. Why are you butting in? And a beast like you, with nothing but ambition in your head—do you even understand what you’re giving? Go back and play with your grand ambitions. Conquer the galaxy or whatever.
If you can’t manage that, go die sowhere else and stop annoying people here."
That was seriously irritating—interrupting him while he was talking to his Female Master.
After saying that, Xarion spun himself around on the floor and faced Rory again. "Female Master, have you considered my proposal? I look decent enough. You don’t even have to treat as a partner—just think of it as hiring a male for the night."
No one who had ever fought him dared kill him. And he himself couldn’t die on his own.
Letting his Female Master cut through his beast mark and trigger a ntal collapse was the cleanest solution.
It wouldn’t harm her at all.
"Just sleep with once," Xarion continued calmly. "All of this dowry is yours. You won’t lose anything."
Looking at Xarion sprawled on the floor, utterly giving up on life and desperately wanting to die, Rory felt like her horizons had truly expanded.
That said... his suggestion was tempting.
Still, she didn’t understand one thing.
"Why do you want to die so badly?"
Xarion collapsed flat on the ground. "Because living is boring."
Rory found herself speechless again. That reason was unreasonably powerful.
Vincent glanced at Xarion on the floor and asked Rory softly, "Rory, do you want to agree to that?"
Rory hesitated for two seconds... then nodded. It was honestly hard not to agree. So much money and one less male to bother with. Besides, she felt that Xarion didn’t really want to die––he was just looking for sothing to live for.
Perhaps, if she stalled for enough ti, he would manage to achieve that.
"I think it’s acceptable."
If the beast mark was cut, the one who died would be the male; the female wouldn’t be hard at all.
Besides, Xarion looked quite good. She really wasn’t losing anything.
Vincent nodded and said gently, "Then let talk to him, alright?"
Staying was fine. Bonding was fine. Dying was also fine.
But nothing would be free.
In this household, you could choose not to work—but you couldn’t stay idle forever.
Rory nodded. She understood the rules of the house.
If Xarion wanted to stay, he would have to listen to Vincent.
She turned to Xarion, who was still lying on the floor. "I can agree, but if you stay, you must listen to Vincent.
"And as for bonding—that can’t happen anyti soon. If you’re willing to wait, then stay."
"No problem." Xarion suddenly sat upright, looking like a corpse springing back to life.
He turned to Vincent. "Let be clear. As a matched partner, protecting the Female Master and handling her troubles is fine. But I won’t help you deal with any personal matters."
Don’t even think about tricking him into doing work. If the Female Master wasn’t going to sleep with him, he’d just sleep in his ice crystal coffin.
Vincent nodded calmly.
"That’s fine."
Personal matters? They were all family— there was no need to draw lines so clearly.
With Rory confirming that she’d keep him, Xarion stood up again, lay back down into the ice crystal coffin, and waved lazily at Elder Larion and the others.
"The Female Master has agreed to keep . Leave the dowry. You can go now."
Faced with such a heartless young lord, Larion dared not say a single extra word.
He was afraid that if he did, Xarion would change his mind and insist on going back with them.
They had finally managed to send him away—he must not return.
As for all that talk Xarion had said about dying... They were used to it by now.
Larion stepped forward and spoke politely to Rory.
"Lady Roanna, these black boxes are made from black spatial stone unique to the Snow Domain. All the dowry is stored inside."
So the black boxes were actually a Snow Domain specialty.
Rory nodded and had Vincent assign soone to count the dowry together with the Snow Domain people.
Seeing Rory arrange for the inventory check, Larion didn’t even wait for it to finish.
He imdiately said, "Lady Roanna, since the young lord has been delivered safely, I still have matters to attend to and will take my leave."
"Allow to wish you and the young lord a joyful marriage in advance."
After saying that, Larion left behind a single male to oversee the dowry count and fled with the rest of the group.
They ran so fast it looked like a ferocious beast was chasing them.
Watching their retreating figures, Rory felt sothing was... off.
She looked at Xarion, who had already curled back up in the ice crystal coffin—he seed to have fallen asleep again and had even closed the lid himself.
Vincent said, "It’s not appropriate to leave Xarion lying here. I’ll have soone move him to the back and arrange a room for him."
"Mm, do that," Rory nodded. Since she’d decided to keep him, she couldn’t just leave him here.
After Xarion was taken away, Rory finally turned her attention to Paros, who still hadn’t left.
She asked politely, her tone distant, "So, Lord Paros, what actually brings you here today?"
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