One fine morning, a few weeks after their second year began, Arthur was lazing around in his room, watching videos online on his phone.
He heard a knock on his door and sighed before standing up to get it.
'Who the hell is it this morning?'
He didn't even bother buttoning his shirt and just opened the door with his unkempt appearance. Opening the door he was met with the figures of two girls.
One was that of someone who could be considered his best friend, Layla Eryrth, daughter of the Holder of Pride, Grand Duke Eryrth of the Devildom.
The other was the next closest person to Layla, Nicole Harper, the daughter of Count Harper, whose territory shared borders with that of the Grand Duchy.
She was a very cute young girl of average height with straight mid-back-length black hair that she sometimes wears in a rough high ponytail. Her bangs are cut straight across her forehead and cover her eyebrows
She also had rather large indigo-purple eyes that tend to look like they were sparkling sometimes. Nicole was a very ladylike, polite and cheerful girl who is sensible, emotive, friendly, and innocent, coming across as "childlike" in many aspects.
Unlike other nobles, she seems to have a hard time hiding her emotions from showing on her face, an example should be now as she is currently blushing from seeing Arthur's exposed upper body.
"Your exhibitionist tendencies at their best again huh?"
Layla's voice tinged with annoyance rang out, she then pushed Arthur aside and entered the room, dragging the still-blushing Nicole with her.
Arthur turned around and looked at the two with a stunned expression on his face, seeing this Layla tilted her head and asked.
"What?"
"I thought you were supposed to wait for permission before entering someone else's room, or has that been changed these days?"
"What? You always enter my room whenever you feel like it."
It was then that Nicole's quiet voice could be heard, she had her hands on her cheeks, blushing even more seriously while saying.
"...Lord Arthur, entering Lady Layla's room....whenever he feels like it."
Arthur and Layla instantly realized that Nicole was having a big, very big misunderstanding, Layla hurriedly spoke up to clear it up.
"No! No! No! You've got it all wrong, it's definitely not what you're thinking okay?"
She tilted her head and asked Layla with a genuinely curious voice.
"So he doesn't enter your room whenever he pleases?"
"Well, he does but nothing happens, he mostly comes over to laze around when he's bored."
"Oh...I see."
Layla heaved a sigh of relief seeing that the misunderstanding had been cleared up easily, Nicole was a little bit too innocent and tended to believe things at face value.
Looking at this scene, Arthur closed the door and asked,
"Seriously, Layla, where the hell did you find this cute creature, she's too innocent for her own good."
"Honestly, I don't even know how she ended up like this, the Count was worried for her too."
"Dad was worried for me?"
Nicole spoke up, hearing her father being called, Layla looked at her and sighed before speaking.
"Yes, he was scared you might get swindled by someone dangerous out there in future, you should really get to know the ways of the world okay?
I'm not saying to lose your innocence, just to be more doubting of people, don't believe things at face value either."
"But if I doubt people when they tell me things, isn't that considered rude?"
"Nope, not even the slightest bit, it's our nature to have doubts, and it's good to say them out loud without having to hold them in."
She then looked down and twirled her hair around her finger, she seemed to be pondering on something, and after a few moments she finally came to a decision and spoke up in a quiet voice.
"Then are you and Lord Arthur really not engaged?"
"No! I mean Yes! We're not, definitely not, me? And that guy? Never."
"Hey, 'that guy' is standing right here okay?"
"Shut up for a second Arthur."
As Layla and Arthur were about to start bickering, they were interrupted by the sound of laughter. They both turned to Nicole and saw her laughing lightly.
"You seem closer than people who are engaged though."
"That's only because this guy drags me around to ward off other girls okay?"
"I also help you ward off other annoying dudes, it's a win-win situation."
Layla just glared at Arthur, who shrugged and buttoned up his shirt before sitting down and asking.
"So you guys didn't come here for fun, right? You even brought Nicole who you said I'd end up corrupting if she came too close to me."
"Corrupting me?"
As Nicole was about to have another strange misunderstanding, Layla quickly diverted the topic to the reason they originally came over to Arthur.
"Nicole, don't forget why we came here okay?"
"Ah!"
At Layla's words, Nicole's mood visibly worsened and her face became gloomy.
"Huh? What on Kreiz did you come for?"
Layla sighed at Nicole and decided to explain the story to Arthur Herself.
◇ ◇ ◇
To sum it up nicely, Count Harper received an engagement request from a Marquis house, the Marquis of Pearce. The third son of the Marquis wished to marry Nicole, which would mean he would inherit the count's title when he did.
The count was having a hard time rejecting this for various reasons. He was a relatively new noble who just gained his title from his achievements in a battle against the celestials a few decades prior, so the House of Pearce, a marquis house that has had the title for generations, even before Diablo became king was a house he did not wish to offend.
The current Marquis Pearce was one of the major powers in the Devildom, ranking just below the Dukes and Margraves.
He had gained the title after his father retired nearly a hundred years ago and he had four sons since then. His wife, the Marchioness was the second Daughter of another marquis' house and the marriage ties between them gave him more political power.
That was exactly what the count lacked, he possessed enough military power and was even one of the few nobles allowed to have their private full-scale armies in the Devildom, but he was still a relatively new noble so his political standing was not high enough yet.
He also just had a single child, Nicole. And he doted on her to an astonishing degree, he did not want her to be in a marriage against her own will.
So when the Marquis' Engagement request came, he was quite troubled and had been putting off rejecting it. The Marquis naturally noticed this, and began putting pressure on his few business ventures in other to force him to accept.
Normally, Nicole would have considered agreeing for the sake of her father, however, there were reasons she could not.
One; she had feelings for someone else. As for the name of that person, Layla refused to disclose the information. She did glare at Arthur strangely but that was all she did.
Two; the third son of the marquis, Zach Pearce, was, to put it bluntly; a scumbag.
It was an open secret in high society that Zach, despite being just a fourth-year student in the Academy, has had quite a number of scandals with other various other noble ladies.
Most had been covered up by the Marquis but it did not change the fact that they actually happened, the problem was that said scumbag had now set his sights on Nicole.
He apparently noticed her during a ball she attended on behalf of her family during the vacation after their first year.
During high society balls, the most beautiful lady in the ball is usually granted the title of 'Belle', and that day, it was Nicole who went home with that title.
Zach was also there and after that, he began chasing her around, claiming to have fallen for her at first sight. He did this for a few weeks and then finally decided to tell his father who sent the engagement notice.
"So to sum it up… there's a guy who's stalking Nicole."
"Yep. He was making advances towards Nicole ever since the engagement request was sent, and even though Nicole refused him many times, he still came back, to the point of using his family's influence as a threat."
"He's the worst, that guy. When things don't go the way he wanted, he uses his family's influence, so any time now…"
Nicole murmured to herself while shivering slightly. Layla patted her back and continued.
"Since Nicole didn't do as he wanted, it seems he got really mad… So he might do something reckless sooner or later."
"I see..."
Arthur nodded with a look of understanding, he then picked up his phone from his table and spoke.
"Gimme a sec, I wanna make a quick phone call."
He walked over to the window while speed-dialling someone. Layla and Nicole were about to ask him who he wanted to call, when they heard his next words, that is.
"Hey, Uncle Bel!"