Around midday, the actual entirety of the Nemetz bloodline, the princess, and Emma Morin (who had attempted to keep quiet during breakfast) headed into town. Four groups had formed once we arrived.
At the front, my sisters all (seemingly) telepathically decided that it was their duty to dress up "the babies", and thus were relatively far ahead deciding which clothing store they would force the Princess and myself into.
Next was my brothers. They were simply happy to be there, and even happier to muck about. If one of them saw something they were interested in, they'd buy it. If one of them (the one who didn't have a wife yet) saw a girl that caught their eye, they'd chat them up.
If it wasn't already clear, the Nemetz's are full of hyperactive, etiquette and status be-damned, extroverted weirdos. Sadly…
I can't hate them.
Before– I mean before… this… I had nobody. "Having nobody" kinda comes with the territory as an orphan, but that's irrelevant.
Even outside a biological, or even adopted family, not even the orphanages I stayed at cared enough to deal with the weird, quiet, sleep deprived bookworm reading dissertations and law books at six years of age.
Here, though… I was loved. Far too much for my taste, but loved nonetheless.
My only gripe is the feeling, no, the knowledge that I don't deserve it in the slightest. For one, I'm not really Augustine Johan Nemetz, I'm some impostor wearing the skin of the brother they love so much, even if he was destined to be an asshat and a villain. I'm dismissive, weird, closed off, the list goes on.
The original book never went much into the heirs of House Nemetz, so based on the original Johan's personality, I fully expected these people to be insufferable in all the wrong ways.
But, just look at the third group! Mother and Father, bringing up the rear just behind the Princess and me, practically have hearts for eyes! They're looking at each other like nobody else in the world exists, and whenever their attention wraps around to their children, the metaphorical hearts grow larger. They must have saved an entire flock of cupids, love gods, and whatever else to do this to them.
I sighed, leaning in close to the Princess. "I apologise if my family is too… forward with you, Princess," I whispered. "Don't take it personally. As you can see, they're like this with everyone, everywhere, all the time. The cold must have rotted away the last of their mental functions for them to not even be able to control themselves in front of royalty."
She fidgeted, but smiled faintly, "N-no, it's alright… Johan. I think it's n-nice, your family and all."
Still close, I whispered again, "Don't be afraid to set a boundary line. Though I have no evidence that it would work, they'll surely respect your wishes, provided you present them as clearly as possible. I wasn't entirely kidding when I said the cold rotted their minds."
She could only nod at my suggestion.
""...""
The two of us walked in silence as chaos brewed on two fronts before us. I noticed her shivering despite her attempts to hide it.
"Sigh~" Can't have the princess catch a cold day bloody two. I unraveled my scarf and wrapped it around her neck as best I could.
Shit, maybe I could have warned her first.
She stopped dead in her tracks and stared at me wide eyed. Stupid stupid stupid stupid stupid. I need her to not hate me, yet I'm practically doing the same thing the rest of the Nemetz's do! Fuck… they're 100% rubbing off on me.
For some reason, the scarf only seemed to make her face more pink. Is she allergic to the fabric? Lords above, am I really going to be executed for assassinating the princess with a bloody cotton scarf?
"Crap, sorry princess. The scarf's probably uncomfortable, is it?" I asked in the calmest way I could. "You don't have to wear it, no, I should take it back-"
She placed her hands on the scarf and shook her head, "I-It's okay, I was feeling cold, a-and the scarf helps. T-thank you."
I sighed in relief. What a nice girl the Princess is. To handle my hurricane of a family, and myself, this was only the sign of a canonized saint. I would say the fact that she doesn't end up with the main character is a crime against humanity, but that would imply that the other romantic interests weren't also extremely likeable, save for a few.
We turned back to town…
Only to see an uncountable number of mischievous grins. It wasn't limited to the Nemetz siblings; the rest of the town seemed to be looking between the Princess and me with very scary glints in their eyes.
What on god's frigid earth did we do that deserved looks like that.
Slap!
Werner, tied with his twin sister Viola as the second youngest (though, that wasn't saying much as they are both ten years older than me) slapped Noel upside the head and literally cackled like a banshee. With tears in his eyes, he teased him, saying "You're falling too far behind, Noel! Even Han's got a girlfriend before you!"
"H-hey, I'm trying, aren't I?"
"Define trying? Is having completely normal conversations with tavern waitresses and corner store employees and then leaving to bury your head in the sand 'Trying'?"
"There's no sand here!"
"You latched onto the wrong point."
"Define latched!"
"...that makes no sense…"
Everyone giggled at their banter… well I didn't, but that goes without saying. Also, what Werner was referring to is the fact that Noel has famously never been in a relationship at all. Sad, seeing as he's 28 and extremely handsome, tall, rich to no end, and extremely powerful.
That nicely wraps around to the topic of spouses. Normally for nobles of even the lowest standing, marriage and relationships is an extremely difficult topic to deal with. One of the core unwritten laws is that a noble should marry another noble. Most typically another noble that benefitted their house in one way or another.
Now, it wasn't necessarily unheard of for a noble to marry someone purely because they love them, but it wasn't common either.
Despite this, every. single. Nemetz heir and heiress (apart from poor Noel) has done just that. Not only that, but the majority of them have been commoners. There were some baron's daughters and viscount sons (who no doubt had heart attacks when Nemetz heirs and heiresses began fervently vying for their love), but they were all the same under the eyes of the Nemetz siblings.
Take Lillian for example. Her and her husband Manny have been pretty much inseparable since childhood… well, it would be more apt to say that Lillian kidnapped and seduced the poor farm boy until he fell as head over heels for her as she did for him.
Most of said spouses have their own ventures/businesses/duties to attend to, but for those that can stay here, they all have their own (smaller) manors throughout the Nemetz estate.
No kids have yet resulted from the other marriages/engagements, surprisingly. It's not like we are known for our infertility… so it really is only a matter of time.
The rest of our excursion was a bit of a blur. Myself, Princess, and even Emma Morin were forced into becoming living breathing dress-up dolls. I'm used to it at this point, so I practically went limp the entire time as I was tossed about into different coats, boots, hats, etc. The only saving grace was the fact that the Princess seemed to be opening up and even somehow enjoying the process.
Like me, Emma Morin was vehemently opposed to the whole ordeal, but with the combined peer pressure and strength of my Sisters, the game was rigged from the start.
My brothers, parents, and any poor soul within eyeshot acted as the crowd of our little show, coo'ing ooh'ing and aah'ing at us. After everything was wrapped up, my family bought no less than an entire wardrobe between us three unwitting models. This marked the end of the excursion.
.
.
.
POV: Cassandra "Cissy" Elaine Nemetz, third daughter of House Nemetz
"Today was quite successful, brothers and sisters~"
Today marks the fifth anniversary of operation M.J.S (Make Johan Smile), and might actually be our most promising day to date.
"We can't let this go to our head, Cissy," Nara pointed out. "Our little sister-in-law was a variable we didn't have any input in creating, yet her inclusion was likely the most important thing in today's success."
"Yes, but our strategy in taking them into town worked to our advantage. Case in point, the Princess is still wearing Han's scarf."
A cacophony of agreeing murmurs resounded. "Yes, yes, had we not gone out today, Han would have had his nose stuffed in books all day again. But, who knew our little brother was a player?"
""""""...""""""
"Pfft~"
We all laughed at the ridiculous notion. Han? Player? That was an oxymoron. None of us are stupid enough to not understand that Han was only being courteous… probably.
Clap-clap~
Lillian clapped her hands, grabbing everyone's attention. "Let's refocus on the current situation. As we all know, Princess Annelei will be staying here for the next three months, leaving before the cold season starts. By then, we must accomplish three things."
"And those are?" I asked.
"First, she must enjoy her stay here. Enough so that she'll be wanting to come back. If we want to have even the slimmest of chances for Han to fall for her, they cannot spend too much time away from each other."
"I agree," Markus, our third youngest brother, said. "Han's more like a cat than a human. If you don't pet him enough, he'll never open up."
"Precisely," Lillian said, smiling. "Second is to orchestrate more situations like today. Apparently, Han is quite capable at capitalizing on such situations, even if it's unintentional. It's not enough for Han to like her, the Princess must as well."
Another round of nods and hums of agreement.
"Third might be the most difficult of the three." She leaned forward and put her hands together. We all did the same. "We will have to send Han to the capital."
"-What?"
""No way.""
"Not happening."
"...what do you mean?" I asked.
Lillian sighed, "I know, it sounds stupid. But I want you to ask yourselves… what happens in the time between the cold and warm season? Are we just going to let all our hard work go to waste as Han reverts to his old habits? If we, let's say, send Han to the capital for about as long as she stayed here, maybe it would push him enough out of his comfort zone to change something? Besides, currying favor with Annelei's family and staff would make this a two-front battle instead of one."
That's… that's unusually tactical, coming from Lillian. "Where did you come up with this?" I asked.
Instead of looking offended, Lillian puffed her meager chest out, "Hannah helped me out!"
Ah, her husband's sister. That makes sense. That girl is practically a love addict. I remember the day Lilly and Manny got married, she was literally drooling. Like, pools of drool-drooling. There might not have been a single stretch of ten minutes where she wasn't creepily giggling at any small show of affection.
The others all simultaneously understood why the plan seemed so well thought out.
"Well, what are we waiting for?" Viola asked. "It's not getting any warmer!"