Turning around to greet them, I stopped myself from speaking as I was taken aback by what I saw. Having expected to find several arrogant beauties at my door, instead, my eyes fell upon a blonde midget; a skinny, icy blue haired girl with glasses; an agitated red head; and Gorlock the Destroyer. Looking at them closely for a moment, as I was unfamiliar with them, only the midget and red head met my gaze.
"You going to say something?", the red head snapped, "God, men are so fucking stupid."
"Haha…are you four lost?", I inquired, letting the insult slide.
"You are Viscount Victor von Stark, right?", the midget said, pointing at the sign on the door.
"Yeah, that is me.", I acknowledged, "I know for a fact that I did not give you four an invitation because I did not give any out. What brings you four here?"
"Are you fucking stupid?! We are here for tea and sweets, get to it!", the red head snapped.
Getting the sense that she had been kicked out of every tea party she had visited thus far, it was very clear she was not happy with how today was going for her. Assuming that these ladies were at the bottom of the social ladder, I did feel a bit sorry for them, but I also refused to be treated like garbage by them.
"Listen, if you cannot be civil with me, then leave immediately.", I warned her, as I narrowed my eyes, "I understand it is not fun being at the bottom of the class, but continuing to treat me like trash will ensure you never find a way out of your predicament. Unlike the spineless cowards here, I have no qualms with physically throwing you all out of this place."
"Are you threatening me?", she snarled.
"Enough, you have already gotten us thrown out of seven parties, do not make it eight!", the midget scolded her, before clearing her throat, "Viscount Stark, might we enjoy some of your tea and sweets?"
Sensing no immediate hostility toward Lucoa, Olivia, or Roxanne, I agreed to let them join us. Eagerly taking a seat at the table, the women grabbed a few cookies while I poured them tea. Giving them a few minutes to taste everything, I inquired if everything was to their liking.
"It is good…thank you.", the red head replied, much more subdued now.
"They are the best I have ever eaten.", the bulky woman added, staring at her tea.
Letting them have a moment to compose themselves, I began inquiring about what led them here. They might have been at the bottom of the social ladder, but they were still women. Given how desperate the boys here were to find partners, there should be no reason for them to be overlooked. The fact that they were not acting like the typical noblewoman should have made them extremely popular with the boys.
"Not to pry, but how did you ladies end up here? I specifically picked the center of campus to avoid having to deal with the riff raft.", I said, stirring my tea, "Clearly you four have already gone through a lot so far today, so please enlighten me."
"We…we kind of had our fiancées stolen from us by second years.", the midget stated, looking at her cup, "You see…all of us are from poor Baron Households, and- "
In a nutshell, their families arranged the marriages out of convenience for all parties involved. All of them came from the same region so; to strengthen their households, they engaged their heirs with the intent to collapse their eight households into four. Since the marriages were seemingly secure, as expected, the women treated their fiancées like garbage. Until recently, the women had them under their thumb, but a few months back rare minerals were discovered in the fiancées' territories. This significantly improved their standing among the nobility, which drew the attention of some Baronesses from the second-year course. Receiving better treatment from them, their former fiancées kicked them to the curb before they knew what hit them.
"...Not only have we lost our men, but our replacements have also made our lives a living hell. They have been telling our classmates that we are so poor that we must work in the Red-Light district to pay for our necessities.", the bulky woman cried, genuinely torn up about this, "With those rumors floating around, the other girls treat us like trash and the boys will not come within ten feet of us. We tried going to several dozen tea parties today and almost all of them slammed the door in our faces."
"Those that did not goaded me into starting an altercation which got us kicked out.", the red head sigh, hanging her head in defeat.
"I understand now, karma hit you ladies like a wagon full of bricks.", I stated, nodding my head, "I hate to break it to you, but as a Viscount, I can only marry someone of equal or higher standing. Since all of you are from Baronies, I cannot help you out."
It was a well-known rule that Knights, Baronets, and Barons married amongst themselves while Viscounts and above intermingled with one another. This had been the case for several generations now so there was no way they had forgotten it. Assuming they wanted a favor from me, potentially to clear their names, I waited for one of them to speak up.
"We are painful aware you are out of our league.", the slender woman acknowledged, turning to me, "The four of us heard about your run-in with Stephanie Fou Offrey and how you protected the scholarship student from her. I thought maybe we could convince you to shelter us for a few months till this hopefully blows over."
"I see, might I ask what the female student body thinks of me?", I asked, out of curiosity.
"Honestly, they do not know what to make of you. After your run-in with Stephanie, a lot of them are interested in learning more about you. It is not every day that a man is unfazed by a woman's status or authority.", the red head remarked, with a smirk.
'Huh, they sure do not show it. Maybe Jenna has something to do with why I have not seen a change. She is in the second-year class, so it is possible I guess.', I thought, returning to the conversation, "Alright, so what is in this for me exactly? Protecting you from the entire student body is no easy task, and as you stated a moment ago, your families are not well off, so I do not see an upside for me here."
"Well…what do you want from us?", the midget questioned, understanding they had nothing to really offer me, "If you are willing to keep quiet, we…we could do you some sexual favors for your services."
Noticing Lucoa's facial expression change, she clearly did not appreciate that suggestion in the slightest. Since we had started sleeping together, I had noticed a protective side to her that I had never seen before. She did not act that way around Roxanne, given our shared past, but when other women were around, she got particularly agitated when they made a move on me.
"Not to be rude, but the four of you are not my type.", I told her, "If you are willing to do a favor for me, I might be willing to assist you in beginning to rebuild your status. I consider Olivia to be a good friend of mine, these past two weeks have been a lot of fun and I look forward to spending more time with her. That said, when I am not around, she tends to get a lot of flak from other women. You do not need to step in to protect her, but I want to know when things go beyond verbal abuse like it did with Stephanie. If you agree to inform me when that happens, I will help you."
"To clarify, all we would need to do is let you know when she is being assaulted?", the midget asked.
"Correct.", I acknowledged, with a nod.
Taking a moment to look at one another, the four of them nodded in agreement.
"Alright, we agree to your terms.", the red head spoke up.
"Perfect!", I said, rising from my seat, "First thing we need to do is arrange a meeting with the duke's daughter, Angelica Redgrave. If the five of you can get on her good side, a lot of the flak you get from our fellow classmates will disappear very quickly. To arrange the meeting, you will need to speak with one of her representatives and provide a suitable gift."
"Five of us?", the bulky girl inquired, "You mean four, right?"
"No, Olivia is included in this. The only way to stop a large portion of the abuse all five of you endure is to get on Angelica's good side. Sweets, fragrant tea, makeup, or rare perfumes would be excellent choices.", I remarked, having seen the shopping trends myself.
"Victor…I do not think I have the money for the type of things a duke's daughter would buy…", Olivia said, looking in her wallet with a depressed expression.
"It is my suggestion so I will cover it. If you feel the need to pay me back, you can earn the money when our class goes into the dungeon beneath the Academy.", I stated, rising from my seat, "Since I never had any real interest in hosting a stupid party, we can leave now if you want."
Almost jumping out of their seats, the four noblewomen were more than happy to get started on this now. Quickly cleaning up the room, we left the building and made our way to the Market District to do some shopping.