Chapter 148: Historical Betrothal and Marriage Alliance

Chapter 148 -118: Historical Betrothal and Marriage Alliance

Sting Litt said with great certainty,

“So, he’s just bluffing. Neither the Creed Clan nor Duke Moria would ever acknowledge him.”

“Heh heh.”

Mary let out a cold laugh. “Do you know why Jack Moria and Duke Moria had such a major falling out back then?”

“Why?”

Sting Litt asked.

The others also looked at Mary with curiosity.

Nancy Scalia poured Mary a glass of rich, dark red wine.

Mary raised her wine glass and looked at her head Maid, Nancy Scalia.

Nancy Scalia slowly explained,

“Duke Moria wanted Jack Moria to marry Marquis Jackson’s second daughter, Megawati Jackson. Jack Moria fled the marriage, which caused the Moria Clan and the Jackson family to grow distant. That is the fundamental reason why Duke Moria drew a line with Jack Moria. Now, Lian Moria is set to marry Catherine, the last remaining woman of the Jackson family. This would fulfill that historic marriage contract. Duke Moria and the entire Moria Clan stand to benefit, so they have no reason not to support Lian Moria.”

“Megawati Jackson? The famously rich, ugly woman? No wonder Jack Moria ran away from the marriage. If it were me, I wouldn’t have been willing either.”

Sting Litt’s focus was always different from others’.

But he also understood now. He most likely had no chance of marrying Catherine.

Lian Moria’s family backing was simply terrifying.

Mary hadn’t expected the Moria family to take this opportunity to step in and try to carve out a piece of her interests.

But even now that she knew, she was completely unafraid.

The Moria family’s power is in the north. Duke Moria is the Empire Prime Minister, and his eldest son, Bell Moria, is known as the Shield of the North. He is responsible for guarding the Empire’s northern border. The Moria family’s army is hailed as the Empire’s mightiest Barrier, defending the highest High Wall within the Empire’s territory against the many Monsters and Alien Races of the north. They enjoy great honor, but they are also shackled by it. They would not easily set foot in the Royal Capital, which is located in the central region of the Holy Empire, let alone pass through the Royal Capital to come to the South.

If the Moria family’s army were to appear in the South, it could only mean one thing: the Moria family had rebelled.

Duke Moria would never allow that to happen. He was both the Empire Prime Minister and a hostage kept by Augustus’s side.

‘So, Lian might have the backing of the Creed Clan, but the Creed Clan would never make a move so easily to carve up the fertile lands of the South.’

‘Blue Moon Territory is still mine for the taking.’

‘Unless Duke Moria wants to offend Augustus over this.’

Augustus agreeing to the marriage between Lian and Catherine was also a way of testing Duke Moria.

Even if Duke Moria hoped for the Moria family to form an alliance with a southern family through marriage, he couldn’t take it too far.

He could only choose to observe from the sidelines, unable to intervene directly.

Otherwise, the suspicious Augustus would start getting new ideas.

“Lady Mary, should we negotiate with Catherine’s people then?”

the Minister of Foreign Affairs inquired.

Mary swirled the wine in her glass,

“Of course. It’s a necessary deception. You just need to keep raising the stakes and stalling for time. We’ll be hearing good news from Blue Moon Territory soon enough.”

The Minister of Foreign Affairs nodded, indicating he knew what to do.

“Are we really sending Grace back to Blue Moon Territory?”

A slight smile touched Mary’s lips. “If Grace wants to go back, then send her back. If she’s unwilling, there’s nothing we can do.”

“Grace won’t want to go back. She will never forgive Lorne Jackson for abandoning her,” Nancy Scalia said.

“Can you give Grace to me? She’s just my type,” Sting Litt said excitedly.

Mary shot him a cold glance, extinguishing all his enthusiasm.

“Sting Litt, if you want to keep that head on your neck, stop thinking about things like that.”

“S-sorry, Lady Mary.”

…

「Blue Moon Territory.」

「Blue Moon Castle.」

In the magnificent Lord’s bedroom, Lian was lounging in a luxurious armchair as comfortable as a modern-day beanbag chair, looking over the various reply cards brought by the Maid, Mina.

For major banquets, nobles would send out invitations, and some of the more proper families would send back reply cards to show respect to the host.

The reply card in Lian’s hand was from none other than the Empire Prime Minister, Lane Moria.

The card mentioned the past engagement between Jack Moria and Megawati Jackson. It expressed pleasure that Lian would be marrying Catherine and promised that as long as Lian and Catherine were wed, he could officially return to the Moria Clan. It also stated that he would personally attend their engagement ceremony.

This took Lian completely by surprise. He had only invited the Empire Prime Minister as a test, fully expecting to be ignored or outright refused. Even so, he could have confidently told all the guests that his grandfather, the Duke, was unable to attend due to official duties. But now, he was personally attending? ‘What’s going on?’

He looked at his exhausted fiancée beside him.

“Catherine, when you came to me for help, was it because the Jackson family and the Moria family already had a past marriage arrangement?”

“Yes. At the time, I was thinking that if you couldn’t accept me, I could perhaps use that reason to convince you. But as it turns out, I didn’t need to.”

Catherine said honestly.

‘Yes,’ Lian thought. ‘The Blue Moon Ore and you were already attractive enough.’

As for returning to the Moria family, Lian had never even considered it.

Duke Moria’s reputation wasn’t great. Besides being licentious like Old Deng, he was also extremely domineering and looked down on any Illegitimate Child.

Old Deng had already tried hard enough, but he still couldn’t get into Duke Moria’s good graces.

Lian believed that compared to the man who had single-handedly established Green Shade Territory, he, an outsider who had benefited from that protection, had no such great and outstanding achievements.

‘The only reason Duke Moria has taken an interest in me now is probably because he’s also after the Blue Moon Ore, isn’t it?’

“Catherine, besides sending an invitation to Duke Moria, who else did you send one to?”

“I wasn’t in charge of that. You’ll have to ask Mina.”

Catherine rubbed her temples. She had been overworking herself lately.

She had to think about how to handle political affairs during the day and deal with Lian’s pestering at night.

Mina bowed respectfully to Lian and said in a low voice,

“Because you previously mentioned that you were a member of the new generation valued by the Creed Clan, I also sent invitations to the Creed Clan.”

Lian narrowed his eyes.

‘This Mina… I thought I’d trained her to be quite obedient, but to think she’d try to trip me up on something like this. Is she doing it on purpose, hoping to see me make a fool of myself?’

‘How could the Creed Clan possibly recognize him, Lian Moria?’

Still, even if no one from the Creed Clan replied, as long as Duke Moria attended in person, it would be enough to prove that everything Lian had said before was true.

What Lian was worried about was someone letting it slip that he had made Duke Moria take on an adopted son for no good reason.

Khrish’s reputation was terrible; calling him a house slave of three surnames wouldn’t be an exaggeration. After his death, Lian had painted him as a righteous, heroic uncle and even made him Duke Moria’s “son.” Only Lian could pull off something like that.

“Forget it. Let’s not worry about them. They definitely won’t come.”

Lian waved his hand, not bothered by Mina’s little scheme.

“Actually, the Simmons family has already replied. They’ve stated that they will attend your and Lady Catherine’s engagement ceremony.”

The Simmons family was a mid-tier family among the Seven Great Creed Families, also located in the South.

If Mary was the Southern Dominator, then the Simmons family was the Shield of the South. Like the Moria family, they were powerful and loyal to the Empire.

The Simmons family was the only Power in the South capable of keeping Mary in check.

The reason Mary hadn’t moved against the Simmons family yet was that she still wanted to hide her ambition.

Once she moved against the Simmons family, it would mean she was ready to move against Augustus.

The Creed Clan’s status in the Holy Empire was so transcendent because they guarded the various fortresses of the Holy Empire. And they did so with manpower, which was different from the protection offered by the Witches.