Marshal Loren had been promoted—not only in rank, but in nobility as well.
The title of Baron Frederick, which he had inherited from his mother, had been elevated to the rank of count by King Louis, though he had received no lands.
It wasn't that the king was ungenerous. It was simply that Marshal Loren had half-dwarf blood. Although the king trusted his loyalty greatly, granting land to a half-breed could easily cause unnecessary turmoil in the next generation.
Besides, the Silver Dwarves already owned vast ancestral lands within the Seland Kingdom.
Although Marshal Loren hated his irresponsible dwarf father, as the grandson of the Silver Dwarves' High Duke, his "hereditary territory" in the mountains near Silverkeep was far more fertile than the lands of an ordinary human count.
And once he married Her Highness Livrosa Silverheart, granddaughter of the current Silver Dwarven High Lord—and his cousin—he would own eleven vast mountain peaks stretching from Bourbonte to Anjou as his domain.
The area was already comparable to all of Transia. A little over a century ago, it would have been a duchy in its own right.
So the marshal had no need for such worldly possessions.
It was just that marriage...
How should he put it? It wasn't so easy to arrange.
Although his cousin was only three years younger than him and was already sixty-eight, by the long lifespan of dwarves, Miss Livrosa was clearly still a minor.
Marshal Loren simply couldn't bring himself to do it.
He had grown up in human society. Though he had also received a traditional dwarf education, certain human moral standards held him back, making him resist a marriage alliance that, truthfully, he didn't dislike.
There was another reason, too. Although Marshal Loren had accepted his heritage and, thanks to his distinguished record,