While talking about that, we arrived at the salon where today’s meeting would be held. I alighted from the carriage and passed through the waiting room. Since the participant was from the host’s kingdom, I arrived with plenty of time to spare. There was still room before the start.

When I sat down on the sofa, the other person who came here early joined me. She was Countess Andre, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Mukin.

“Oh, Lady Liliane, Lady Laurier, it’s been a long time.”

“Andre—Deputy Foreign Minister, I haven’t heard from you in some time.”

“Don’t be so callous, today’s the place for interaction, correct?”

The deputy minister giggled as she hid the lower half of her face with a fan. There was no reason to not be afraid of the women of Mukin. If I were to show weakness, I’d be dancing on top of her palm being manipulated at her will. About three years ago, the same deputy minister had manipulated grain inflation and deflation in several neighboring kingdoms to open up a favorable transportation route to our kingdom.

I may also be from the Kingdom of Mukin, but I couldn’t just get rid of my mindset which lacked a sense of crisis due to being born in a modern world in my previous life. As soon as the opponent was inside, the deputy minister began to talk.

“About the rumors, Lady Liliane, is it true that you’re getting married?”

“Eh?! No, I’m not. Is it the rumors of me marrying a person who scored ten points?”

“Yes, the rumor is widespread in the royal castle. I know there isn’t a single person who has scored 10 points, so the bureaucrats are betting on who would be the one to achieve such score.”

The 5^th Division leader was falsely rumored to be that person, but in all actuality, he wasn’t. Did the bureaucrats have nothing to do?

“A, a bet?”

“Yes, a bet for whom will score ten points, regardless of their genders. However, the rumor keeps spreading. As such, even if Liliane is unwilling, if a person who scored ten points were to appear, you will marry that person. People are ready to celebrate.”

“Wait, what!?”

I screamed. Before I knew it, such rumors were spreading? Certainly, the muscle heads would celebrate and acknowledge the person I chose. But why didn’t I know that? My mother was laughing—“My Liliane is getting married…”

Please, for my sake, refrain from doing that.

But why was such a rumor so widespread? I even felt that there was a mastermind.

Like, if someone were to manipulate the strings of events, that person was most likely—

—I glanced at the deputy minister.

“My boss thinks it’s fun—no, I’m just worried about Lady Liliane’s future. Lately, there have been many who are thinking of robbing Liliane who has authority over this kingdom.”

“Just now, you said something interesting.”

“You’re just overthinking.”

The deputy minister spread her fan and laughed once again. Just now, you definitely said something about having fun, didn’t you?

But, honestly, I felt like it couldn’t be helped if the order came from the deputy minister’s boss—in other words, the foreign affairs minister. The foreign affairs minister was my father’s sister, and also my aunt. She was my benefactor. She supported me when I wanted to start a muscle-related business. At the same time, she was still a person who loved to prank her niece. Therefore, she must had played part in those rumors.

But please don’t decide on someone’s marriage just because someone with authority looked fun to mess with!

At that rate, my aunt would bring in a person who seemed interesting, and I’d be forced to rate that person 10 points… it seemed that my marriage had already been decided…

My eyes grew distant. Both the deputy affairs minister and my mother giggled. Just then, the time came, and I dragged myself to the venue.

Inside the gorgeous venue cColorful flowers were lined up. By the way, the Kingdom of Mukin was the kingdom of flowers and muscles—and by ‘flowers’, they meant both real flowers and women’s beauty. In other words, today, I need to liven up the venue as the flower.

As a signal to start, everyone toasted. Afterwards, we could roam freely. Today, as the representative of the company, I had to expand the sales channels of organic products. I had to be enthusiastic.

“Good morning, everyone.”

With that said, I talked to some diplomats. The person who wore an Ao Dai-like costume seemed to be the wife of the diplomat. She was interested in organic soap and beauty products. I promised to give her a free sample at the end of the meeting. She said she wanted to bring it back to her kingdom if she was satisfied after trying it. I was delighted by the prospect of making more money.

It seemed that some of the other ladies were interested, so I also promised them free samples.

Hopefully, my business could expand considerably. The calculator inside my head started to make a strange noise.

“Liliane.”

My mother was behaving rather unusual. I, whom was in the middle of explaining health benefits of organic food to the men, returned to my mother.

“Mother, what’s wrong?”

“An unexpected person has come, so I wanted to introduce him to Liliane. I’m sorry for the interruption.

“It doesn’t matter, but who is this unexpected person?”

When I asked such, my mother called out for someone. Seeing the person took my breath away.

“Lady Liliane, this will be our first meeting. My name is Raha, and I’m the diplomat of the Principality of the Flories scheduled to come today.”

“He’s the son of my childhood friends. Even though I say ‘childhood friends’, they were seven years older than me. Their son has also grown up. He has only met Liliane once before. Do you remember him?”

“My, I lost my chance to introduce myself—Lady Liliane? What’s wrong?”

I happily regained myself at my mother’s words. It seemed that my heart had gone somewhere—

—it was because Raha was exactly my type!

Plump cheeks like meat buns, soft upper arms which made me want to rub them, and a roundness that made me want to jump on him—

—he was the one!

—he was my type!

Although I was born in the Kingdom of Mukin, my preference was the same as in my previous life. In my kingdom, all the men were exercising, and the diplomats I had met in other kingdoms were also groomed to look good. For the first time in my life, I saw a fat person. I didn’t like a person just because he was fat though.

Not only was he chubby, he also looked useless! There was absolutely no reason for me to not fall in love with him!

“M, mother, Raha, is he single!?”

I asked in a quivering voice. My unfussy mother tilted her head as she asked Raha—it seemed that he was single. A flower bloomed in my head. Compose yourself, me!

Even if he was single, he was surely an aristocrat. He may already have a lover or a fiancée. Calming my heart, I asked him.

“D, do you have a lover?! Or a fiancée?!”

“No, until now, none…”

“Really…!?”

I felt like soaring. With my remaining rationality, I kept myself from bouncing from joy.

I remembered my talk with the deputy minister earlier. My aunt was trying to set me up for marriage. I was basically being forced to find someone who looked interesting and marry him.

Then, there was no choice but to go forward!

I mustn’t let go of my opportunity!

I raised my skirt, and took a card attached to my thigh. It was one I had never used before.

“10 points! Marry me!”

I vigorously pushed the card forward and approached Raha. My mother was surprised while those in my surroundings became noisy. My heart was pounding.

After being shocked a little, Raha averted his gaze, and said yes. I leaped at him, full of joy. I was so happy that I could probably ascend to the Heaven right then and there.

Afterwards, the unconvinced muscle heads challenged Raha. However, they were beaten in the battle of wits. I got proposed to by the first prince because they refused to let me go, considering how influential I was. My aunt also brought in an interesting marriage partner. To heal his heart, Raha went on a trip and I chased after him. Raha’s little sister, whom I met at the destination, told me that I was Raha’s first love. After reconciling our differences, we confirmed each other’s feelings. Meanwhile, his little sister had fallen for the marriage partner my aunt had brought. We ended up having a double marriage—however, that was a story for another day.

In addition to that, Raha was taken away by my father, brother, and sister to the boot camp. In the end, he graduated from being chubby. However, I still ended up holding the same card due to my weakness for him.

“Beautiful muscles. Ten points.”

---

***T/N: Okay, okay hol’ up, hol’ up real fast author, my brain can’t keep up with how you keep shoving sentence after sentence after sentence into one paragraph, much else the paragraph itself! The poor thing must’ve sagged to the floor midway and dies. (Sasasambal the reason why MTL-ing this story hurt your brain might not be because of the translating tool…)

Idk guys, you can blame my lack of interest in business talk for this but, …but, that conclusion up there. That gem right there. It’s all over the places. I feel like the author didn’t know what she’s going for, and decided to be like;

“Okay, okay, I want to make an isekai romance noble lady story, what’s trending this day? Independent business woman, uhuh, uhuh, that’s good, but too subpar. What should I add for the ‘surprise’ element? Aha! Muscle! Ok, nice, nice, the story is almost done–OH SHIT I FORGOT THE ‘ROMANCE’ PART!!!!!!!!!! EMERGENCY 3 MINUTES RESCUE, OK PARAGRAPH, I’M COUNTING ON YOU–YOU SHALL DELIVER!!!’

Bottom line, the pacing is eep but because the muscly premise buffed me up, I shall rate it ten points. Beautiful muscles.

Eeeeey guys, wanna see perfection?

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