[center][h3][color=C0392B]Rudolf Shilage[/color][/h3][/center]

Rudolf's jaw quietly worked in the blessed gap between moments he may have needed to speak, still reeling internally from Halvor's grand announcement[sup]1[/sup]. In the moments just after the words had left the Viscount, the black-garbed young man had opened his mouth with a wry smirk, about to genially brush it all off as Halvor getting back at him for all the cheek from the night prior— but had earned a stern warning at the top of his toes from the Mystrel beside him to [color=736aff][i]Shut the hell up, boy.[/i][/color] Izayoi's [i]geta[/i] were always so persuasive. By the time Eliane spoke up, to congratulate him in spite of detouring her from her family for three whole days behind that impenetrably blank smile of hers, Rudolf had managed to plaster a polite grin over his bafflement and reply with a muted, almost diffident [color=c0392b]"Thanks, Éliane. This is all pretty overwhelming."[/color] 

After that, it was Esben who had been called upon to handle further introductions, and Rudolf was bought a moment to sip the crisp and tart sauvignon that had been served and [i]think[/i] for a damned second, [i]collect[/i] himself again. These days, those seconds seemed to be in ever-shorter supply. So, for the sake of keeping score...

[i]That[/i] was one already that he owed this girl across from him for— [i]Lene[/i], her name was. Of all the people he could be suddenly "provisionally betrothed to", the pretty blonde at the other end of the table was [i]Esben's younger sister[/i]. What the hell was Vania pulling with this? It certainly explained his guardian's coy reassurances that there was 'something there for both of them', but it had been with a dawning, quiet horror that he'd realized this was [i]more[/i] than just a happy little reunion between siblings. Before that, he had weathered her sharp, curious, deep-watered gaze genially, more or less assuming that the scar tissue on the left side of his face was hard to ignore when directly across from you. He could understand the impulse, and blue eyes were nice to look back at anyway. Now...

He tugged at his collar while her eyes drifted along the rest of the Kirins. The damn thing felt stiff as a gorget— he had managed to talk Halvor off the edge of dressing him out completely in Edreni military style, at least— with the way the jacket fit around his frame, he was certain epaulets sized for the bookish ward he'd been sold as would have made for a nightmare to do much more than pose for a portrait in. Still, the customary Red, Black, and Gold made no bones of his heritage— all three being favored by his estranged family even before they had been raised to knighthood.

Now it was his turn to quietly observe, take something like proper measure of somebody the powers that be had seen fit to play matchmaker for him with. In hindsight, it was much more clear that she had known what this was all about coming in— the little laughs, the easy smiles, and of course, the feeling of her eyes settling onto him behind them both, always watching and measuring. The more he reckoned with it, the more he realized that she and her brother, who thankfully seemed about as flabbergasted as he was, operated along similar lines in that respect, despite their presumably very [i]different[/i] adolescences.

He was [i]fairly[/i] sure that he would have learned by now if Esben had a sister that had enrolled in the Garden after him, for instance. That meant all the signal he was picking up was familial, at the end of the day— the flash in her eyes before her 'chastised-and-demure' routine was all but a dead ringer for something he'd suffered a lifetime's share of in two months. 

[color=c0392b][i]They look the same when they're making fun of people. So if I can work backwards from there...[/i][/color]

He'd caught her appraisal of him in the interstices of the brewing conversation well enough, but now that he wasn't vacantly gawking he noted that there were markedly similar ones snuck Halvor's direction. So, given that the siblings were [i]both[/i] saddled with prior understanding of how much of a worrywart the Viscount could be, that meant that she was likely playing some level of crisis mitigation for [i]him[/i], too— at least while he was still hiding behind his genteel facade. 

[color=c0392b]"He's right, Esben,"[/color] Rudolf piled in, threading the needle between Halvor's scolding and the SEED's put-upon huff with a grin and a gadfly drone. [color=c0392b]"Bullying [i]me[/i] is one thing, but you should take it easy on your family after all this travel."[/color]

He [i]did[/i] appreciate that, really— for now, just shipping themselves through the opening course without setting off the man breathing down their necks was the course of action to shoot for. Keep things moving, avoid making the mess bigger than it was, and when they had the opportunity, actually come clean about things.

They'd have to handle the meat of what was in front of them a little later, she and he. With the bombshell of arranged marriages suddenly being [i]back [/i]on his menu still ringing in his ears, the scarred young man could hardly pull his thoughts about the prospect together— save for that he had a lot of clarifying to do down the road if this was to go [i]anywhere[/i], and that he'd rather do it as quick as possible.

[color=c0392b]"Really, though."[/color]

Even if she weren't the blood of his closest friend, she would still hardly deserve being kept in the dark about the real state of affairs, when it came to the strange northerner she was faced with. Looked a little wrong for a reason. Looked [i]flummoxed[/i] for a reason. Traveled with all of these unknown, unheralded faces for a very, very big reason.

[color=c0392b]"I have to admit, I'm shocked by all this— You say you got [i]my[/i] parents to agree to—"[/color]

The thunderbolt heel struck the top of his foot again, and it took more willpower than he cared to admit in not grunting or grumbling some invective at the samurai in undertone. But heeding the warning, he maintained his straightest face, and soldiered on, playing it off as a pensive search for terminology. Dammit, wasn't part of this pact of theirs warning him when he was in danger?[sup]2[/sup]

[color=c0392b]"... [i]foisting their duties onto these two[/i], I suppose would be the phrase for it. My father is a stubborn old gargoyle,"[/color] he explained, pivoting away from his utter disbelief that the man had [i]anything[/i] to do with this arrangement. Their split was sudden and total and five years buried, no matter what Cadmon said about it, to him [i]or[/i] to Halvor. [color=c0392b]"He [i]hates[/i] to delegate things, especially when it involves his children. Always been very hands-on, you know how he is."[/color]

Slowly, the pressure atop his instep relented, as that had evidently been obtuse enough to satisfy Izayoi's unspoken demands. He wanted to gripe— given that she was evidently informed enough of her field adversaries as to at one point attempt to round up their children a country away, he knew that she probably [i]agreed[/i] with his skepticism, at least to a point. It made that element of the charade all the more hollow to uphold.

He cleared his throat, before glancing between his would-be fiancé and the two warriors at his side, favoring her warmly before inclining his head towards them.

[color=c0392b]"Well, at any rate, we're likewise enchanted, Lene. I [i]do[/i] have to admit; your brother, Izayoi-dono, Sir Galahad— the people gathered here, all of them, have been taking good care me during our travels. They keep their eyes on me should I stray, and swiftly correct me when I err. In lieu of my blood, I could hardly ask for better."[/color]

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[*][sub]1.[i][b]—HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA—[/b][/i][/sub]
[*][sub]2. Kick rocks, little man, this is [i]hilarious[/i]! [/sub]
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