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Now it’s not everyday that Caspar came up with a foolproof way to guarantee his future. Sure it wasn’t easy, and it might take time away from his training, but if it worked then he wouldn’t even need to keep up his training!
Wait. No.
He enjoys his training. Sooooo…
Oh!
If this works then he’ll be free to train without worrying about his future!
Yeah, nice!
So all he has to do is—
“Claude, will you marry me?”
See, after talking to Dorothea, he had made a list. A list of people he could marry who could provide for him and his future or whatever. So that if he was provided for then he could just do whatever he wants with his life! Like fighting for justice!
Claude was the first on the list, because he was both fun and rich. Caspar had organized the list (all by himself thank you very much) so that it had all his rich, noble classmates on it, and then he drew a star by all the ones that he thought that he’d actually enjoy marrying. And some of them got an extra star if he thought that they’d get along with Linhardt too! He started with the Golden Deer because they had the smallest amount of suitors. Then he’d go to the Blue Lions, because if he was going to marry a Black Eagle he’d probably have figured that out already. Right?
Back to his proposal. Claude was smiling so that was a good sign!
“Caspar, buddy, not that I’m not absolutely flattered but can I ask why?”
“Well since my brother’s inheriting I need to marry someone rich and powerful so that I can be like free to do what I want you know?”
“And what is it that you want to do that you’d need my money and power for?”
“Well, I wanna train and like travel the world and protect people in it, and I wanna hang out with Linhardt and with someone else who’s fun too.”
Caspar could swear he saw Claude’s eyes light up when he mentioned his friend’s name and he could almost imagine gears turning in Claude’s brain but he didn’t know why anything he said would’ve activated his brain gears.
“Oh I know. And I understand, but alas, I think our dreams are just a bit too different. Maybe in another life we’d be happily married and saving the world together.”
Claude★
Oh well. At least the second person on his list was standing right beside the first person so he didn’t even need to do anything more than turn to her and smile.
“Aww that’s so sweet of you. But you know my brother’s also the one inheriting right? I could mention that you’re interested next time I write.”
Caspar thought of what he knew of Hilda’s brother and could only remember 2 things: he was strong and he liked fighting.
“That sounds great, thanks Hilda!”
Hilda★
Holst?? ★
Next on his list was:
“Oh no, it would not do for someone of my status to take up with one such as yourself. Any marriage of mine must be beneficial for House Gloucester, and I do not know what you could offer me in exchange for my titles. And besides, you do not seem the type to ascend to the elevated standards that are expected for one who desires to espouse Lorenz Hellman Gloucester.”
Lorenz
“Oh. Um. No thank you. Sorry.”
Marianne★
“Do I seem like the type of person to waste my time fantasizing about marriage? I have much more important things to be doing right now so I’d appreciate it if you stopped bothering me with ridiculous questions.”
Lysithea★
***
That was all the potential Golden Deer, which meant it was time for him to head to the next classroom.
“Do you have something that you wish to say to his Highness?”
“Yeah I wanna ask him to marry me!”
Dedue just stared at him.
“Soo can I ask him?”
“Ask me what?”
“Dimitri! Will you marry me?”
“That is quite … kind of you. Unfortunately I must refuse.”
Dimitri ★
“What.”
“Will you marry—”
“No. I heard what you said. Why?”
“Oh! Well if we were married we could just spend all our spare time sparring?”
“Hmm.”
Felix paused to think.
“I’ll pass. On the marriage. You’re still sparring with me after class tomorrow.”
Felix ★
“Heh. Sorry but you’re not my type.”
Sylvain
Mercedes just giggled, her hand coming up to cover her mouth, but in a way that made Caspar feel like he wasn’t being laughed at.
Mercedes ★★
“What? Me? Oh I don’t think I’m ready for marriage yet!”
Annette ★★
“Hey, will you—”
“Sorry, but I don’t want you to even finish that sentence.”
Ingrid
“So are you inheriting Castle Gaspard and all that?”
“I’m not sure. I’m planning to arrange all of it after I graduate. It’s a conversation I need to have with my siblings but we haven’t really had the chance to talk since … well you know.”
Caspar didn't feel like it was right to ask a guy to marry him right after bringing up his dead dad so he just handed a sweet bun to him in a way that he hoped was comforting.
Ashe ★★
***
“Hubert, do you think Edelgard would marry me?”
“Lady Edelgard would,” Hubert paused as his question sunk in, “absolutely not.”
“Would you?”
They stared at each other.
“No Caspar, I would not.”
Edelgard
Hubert
“What??? Oh no, you must’ve been put up to this. Or you want me to say yes just so you can laugh at me because obviously no one would want to marry me!! WaaaaaAAAAAHHHH”
Bernadetta
“I must say this is quite the surprise. I did not believe you held these feelings towards me, nor that you were interested in accepting your noble duty. You are not exactly the type of spouse that I picture for myself, but that is not a fault of your own. Although I do wish to remain Ferdinand Von Aegir and I do not envision you taking on the Von Aegir name, so perhaps it is best if we agree to remain friends.”
Ferdinand
Caspar changed his mind about asking Petra. He didn’t want another proposal to end with talking about someone’s dead dad.
Petra ★★
***
“So…” Dorothea sat across from him on the reception hall bench.
“So?”
“A little birdie told me you’re suddenly interested in proposing to the entire monastery?”
“Not the entire monastery. Just the nobles!”
“Oh. And where did this sudden elitism come from?”
“Well I started thinking after we talked that maybe I could just marry someone to secure my future like you, instead of training for it. So then I could just spend my time going and fighting bad guys because I want to, instead of doing it to prove something!”
“Cas, I didn’t mean that you should give up on your plans for your future. You enjoy fighting so why focus on something that you wouldn’t even enjoy? Unless you actually want to get married? You don’t seem like you’d want to lord over lands and fill out all the noble paperwork and care about Crests.”
“Ugh yeah that does sound gross. But Linhardt’s into Crests so he could be interested for me! And I made sure to ask the fun nobles extra nicely so it’s not like we’d be bored with whoever I married!”
“Sorry, by we, do you mean..?”
“Me and Linhardt!”
“And why exactly is Lin there?”
“Why wouldn't he be? He’s my best friend so of course I’ve gotta marry someone that he’d get along with!”
“So your plan is to spend the rest of your life with your noble spouse, and Linhardt?”
“Yeah! And then we’d go see the world and take down any bad guys in it!”
“All three of you?”
“What? No, just me and Linhardt. My partner would have to stay home and do their noble stuff, and Linhardt doesn’t care about his so I’m sure he’d be up for it as long as the beds are comfy!”
“And does Lin have a spouse to worry about too?”
“What? No. I don’t think so.”
“So your dream life would be one that you spend with Linhardt?”
“Uh yeah, I just said that.”
“And does Lin know about this?”
“Well he’s put up with me for this long so I’m sure he won’t mind keeping that up.”
“Have you asked him?”
“To keep putting up with me? I bet he’d just say something like it would be a waste of his past energy to stop now.”
“Did you ask him about marriage?”
“Nah. But maybe I should’ve asked him his opinions on my—”
“Cas. I think you missed the part where I want to find someone who cares for me. You already have that someone, so why not be with him instead of chasing down some random noble?”
“So you’re saying I should ask … Linhardt to … marry me?”
“Well maybe start a bit smaller and just ask him out first and then—”
But Caspar had already ran off before Dorothea could finish her sentence.
***
“Linhardt!” Caspar shouted at the closed door of his friend’s room. He had already yelled his name three times so hopefully if he kept getting louder then Linhardt would finally hear him.
“What, Caspar?”
Success!
“Will you marry me?”
“Not right now, I’m asleep.”
“Well when you wake up can we get married?”
“I’ll consider it.”
“YEEEAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”
“Hmm well I can’t sleep now.” Caspar could hear Linhardt slowly making his way out of bed. It was very hard to wait to keep talking until the door was opened but it was worth it because once he saw Linhardt he realized that this was a face he wanted to keep looking at for the rest of his life, dried drool and all.
“So can we get married now?”
“I suppose— wait, married?”
“Yeah! We’ve been friends forever and there’s nobody else in this place that I’d rather be with. And Dorothea says you should marry someone you care about and not just someone who can give you money.”
“So we should get married because you care about me and also so I can give you my money?”
“No! I don’t care about money or titles and I know you don’t either. We should get married because we can be free to do whatever we want together.”
“A tempting offer. However, what else can you offer me besides the opportunity to spend time with my favourite person?”
“Oh! Well we could uh, hold hands. And um you could like lean on me when you nap.”
“But we already do those things, what would make them different if we were married?”
“We’d do them romantically .”
“Ah of course.”
“Sooo….”
“So?”
“Are we gonna get married?”
“Didn’t I already say yes?”
“WHAT?”
“Oh my apologies. I must have been too busy imagining what our marriage will be like to actually say it out loud.”
“No that’s okay! So should we do it now?”
“Perhaps we could start with something more simple. Maybe with a date? I can admit that the idea of being wooed appeals to me.”
“I get it, you just want us to hang out while I find ways to pamper you.”
“That does sound nice. But I’m mostly interested in finding excuses to spend even more time with you.”
“Uh, uh, right back at you. Can we hold hands now?”
“Of course.”
“Oh! And we should go find Hilda so that I can tell her that I don’t wanna marry her brother anymore.”