Chapter 164

Alexei finally agreed when the option to keep his sister at arm’s length came up, and Alexei nodded.

“But who in the branch family is good enough to take care of that girl? I wouldn’t have even considered it if Andrei was single.”

The latter part of his voice took on a mangled tone that was unusual for Alexei. Andrei was Novak’s son. He was strong-eyed, strong-looking, and handsome, and in addition to being a good student, he also had the same magical powers as his mother and father. But he already had a wife and children.

“Foolishness is not an option. If the branch family is no good, I will start a new branch family and get a son-in-law from someone else.”

He easily left the existing branch of the family, probably because he could not find a suitable partner from Novak’s point of view.

“So, the other options would be…”

Alexei glanced at Aaron and Halil, the commercial distribution heads. Other than these two, the legal counsel, Danil, would be the youngest unmarried member of the executive, but Danil was the eldest son and therefore the least likely to be a son-in-law candidate.

Aaron’s scholarly appearance turned bright red. Of the three, he would be the most likely choice. His parents, the Kyle family, were counts, wealthy and influential. He was the fifth son, so becoming a son-in-law would not be a problem. Besides, he has powerful earth magic. His intelligent-like appearance could also be described as ‘refined’.

He remained single until this age because he focused on studying mineralogy during his student days. After graduating from the magic academy, he became a devoted helper of Professor Isaac Yurinova, who he got to know through his studies. Because of all the research and stuff they have done, he missed his chance searching for a partner and was still a bachelor.

Furthermore, his age was 31, more than twice the age of Ekaterina.

Halil was also 33 years old and from another country, which was evident at first glance.

However, he was the son of the head of a large trading company, whose economic power far outstrips that of most small countries. He had an exotic feminine appearance that was eye-catching, and his abilities were also excellent. If he were to become a son-in-law of a branch family, it would not be absolutely impossible.

But either way, Alexei just shrugged and turned his face away. They both laughed together. Inwardly, it was a beautiful fantasy.

Novak rubbed his temples in disappointment.

“If a branch family is no good, then someone from another family will do. If they are of comparable stature to our family, and the son is close to the young lady’s age, then the first choice would be Vladimir of Yurimagna.”

“No way!”

Without thinking, Alexei slammed his palm down on the office desk.

“It’s doubly and triply impossible! There is an unwritten rule that marriage between the three dukes is not encouraged, and Magna’s treatment of women is abominable. I would never send Ekaterina to a place like that!”

The three dukes, who had complicated blood relations through the imperial family, should avoid intermarriage. That was indeed an unwritten rule that had been observed for generations. In reality, it was a measure by the Imperial Household to prevent the ties between the dukes from becoming too strong.

“I am aware of that. I know the unwritten rules and the treatment of women. It may have been sixteen or seventeen years since inheritance laws were proposed to be amended to clearly state the inheritance rights of women, yet it was Yurimagna who opposed it to the very end. The current Duke Giorgie still upholds that view to this day, right?”

Turning against the Crown Prince and Crown Princess of the time and his grandfather Sergei, who was the Prime Minister, Giorgie and his party thoroughly resisted the amendments.

In the ancient Astra Empire, women had no inheritance rights. “We should not go against the ancient wisdom.” Such was his argument.

[TL Note: I have tried to summarize everything in this TL note. You can safely skip this without affecting the story.

In this story, a Mistress and a Duchess are two different positions in which a Duchess is basically an inheritor of the title of a Duke or a Royal Family which have the blood of the house flowing in them, a Mistress on the other hand is only a wife with no power and was only to provide a proper heir.

However, a Duchess has never been declared in this story because of some policies within the political circle of the higher nobles that do not recognize Females as Rulers thus not inheriting the title of Duchess.

There was however talks about this within the circle of dukes and the royal family from the past generations 16 to 17 years ago story wise, but this was completely blocked off by one of the Duke Houses which is the Yurimagna House who only see females as Heir Producers and only Males have rights to inheritance…

These talks have continued until now but with the current duke of Yurimagna still following this principle, never budged so inheritance to houses are still being carried on by males, and if the was no males from the direct bloodline then a Male from a branch family will be married into the current bloodline to produce hoping to get a Male heir to which the title would be inherited into.]