A knock came to our door when mom was halfway through cooking dinner. I opened the door for her and without saying anything, ushered her inside.

  Did I expect this? No. Not at all. Despite all my planning I never thought Laself would actually come here. But did I want this to happen? Yes. She deserves better than Karuiz in my opinion.

  Howaph will talk to her, it wasn't my business now. Instead I should focus on what I know is my business.

  I'm not stupid, I'm well aware that Laself came here because of what I said to her. Her parents must be angry, and so is Karuiz and his father, a natural reaction from them since I did something stupid, this is something that I'm responsible for.

  Intruding on the business of other people has never been my thing in my past life but I seemed to have grown a spine on this one. I don't know why.

  Can I say that I cared about Laself? Only a little bit, selfishness is what drove me to do what I did. I know I'm being nosey and quite frankly, my brother's love life is supposed to be his. Not mine. Not anyone else's.

  Great, I understand all of that! Then why am I pushing Laself away from Karuiz then? His father supports him and he's also clearly also active when pursuing the woman he loves while Howaph is waiting for something to happen.

  By all means he should be the one who's winning!

  Honestly? It's because of me. Because if Karuiz and his father can be active, then I can too. They're not the only ones who want to win.

  This isn't a matter of pride either– at least not all of it. – because I know damn well that Karuiz is a bad match for Laself... Not just her, but anyone. He needs to grow up first before getting married.

  I'm not even feeling guilty right now, that's how much I view him as scum. He's literally so pathetic, so annoying, that I'm feeling entitled and happy that I took Laself away from him. Says a lot really.

  Karuiz is a villain in my eyes, and he will continue to be unless he changes in some shape or form. Everything I've seen about him so far just screams toxic, and I don't want that for Laself.

  Funny how I started to care about a girl's life even if I only met her a few days ago, I didn't even know she existed before that and now I'm being a hindrance to her arranged marriage. Looking back, I can admit that I did see her around Flotol but I didn't know who she was so I simply ignored her, treating her the same way as background noise.

  Now? Nothing changed. I'm not sure what her dreams are, how she acts, or whether or not she's truly kind but what I do know is that Laself deserves better than getting stuck with an abusive husband.

  Selfish? Yes. I am selfish. I couldn't care less if people call me annoying, upstuck, or any name because at the end of the day, those are just words. And ones directed towards me at that, meanwhile Laself's situation can possibly spiral into something worse.

  Karuiz may also be kind, not like I haven't considered it. But has he shown it so far? No. Not really. Even now I'm still pissed that he didn't do anything to defend Laself when those three adventurers attacked my stall, he just stood there like a coward.

  I swear if Howaph is like that too I'll punch him myself until he realizes that he needs to man up.

  A cold wind blew past me, it quenched my anger and left me with nothing but the present. I'm out of my head and back in my body.

  "Has it always been this cold?" My hands found my forearms and I started rubbing goosebumps off my skin. Huffing out the air in my lungs caused a cloud of white to grow in front of my mouth, the mist dissipating just as quickly as it had appeared.

  Darkness loomed ahead, it's going to rain isn't it? How hard is it going to be? It's not strange for it to happen before winter, moisture builds up in the air and before it gets too cold for snow, rain would come first.

  A flash of blue. Lightning. The world lights up once, then seconds later a roar comes from the skies, splitting the air and disturbing the birds. Cudgi flew away, heading for dry land while rats scurry with their whiskers flickering.

  I follow the rodents with my eyes as they jump into the water and start swimming for land. Schools of Anlaks break the surface and drag some of them to the depths, a miniature shark attack with no blood, just pure suffocation.

  They say that rats can sense storms. I'm not sure if this is true or not but I know that cats can actually do that with their whiskers, they sense the humidity in the environment to determine whether it's going to rain or not. And most times? They're accurate.

  Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  Birds too. The same ones that flew away from here moments earlier.

  Guess the raft will be a bit wavy tonight.

  But before I can weather storms made by nature, I first have to face one created through social structures. There's a certain status quo in Flotol that says– "hey, don't bother other people okay? You guys should help each other, that's how it is when you're a community."

  Most of the time, people follow this status quo. So do I. Honest.

  Problem is though, I couldn't just sit back and watch this time around so I had to interfere.

  Which leads me here. Do I regret this? No. If I did I wouldn't be standing outside our house, posture defiant, and glaring at the approaching figures in the distance. There's three of them in total, all males.

  I'm guessing Laself's mother sat this one out, then. Expecting that she's on our side is wrong so I'm going to assume that her reason for doing so is because she's the kind of person who punishes with silence instead of violence. What does she think of the situation though?

  No, I shouldn't waste my energy thinking about other things right now.

  Narrowing my eyes, I waited for my "guests" to arrive and when they got here I inspected them.

  Karuiz, as expected, is barely holding himself together. He looked like he's a second away from hitting me which is just not right since I'm a kid, I knew my intuition was correct. He's not fit to be a husband for anyone.

  Thankfully, the two older guys standing in front of him didn't have that problem. Well... Except for one guy.

  Turning my head, I look at a bearded man with wide shoulders and a rough look. His eyes are screaming violence but he's holding himself back well enough. I'm guessing this one is Karuiz's father? Great. Like father like son, why did I expect something else?

  I'm out numbered three to one but I have the advantage of being a kid, and no sane adult will punch that low unless they want to be stigmatized by their community.

  "Can't you discipline your son better?" I decided to put all the blame on Karuiz, if his father is frustrated about what's happening then I need him to erupt on his own son. "Karuiz looks like he's about to punch a child."

  I made sure that for my next words, my voice is as loud as it can get. "A [Village Watcher] acts like this?!"

  My plan is working. Karuiz's father flinches and looks ashamed thanks to what I said, his expression shifting for just a second before he turned to his son and saw a reddened face alongside a clenched jaw.

  Not even a second passed before a hand swiftly moved to hit Karuiz's face. Quick to abuse, not a good sign. But from the look of shock that Karuiz wore, I'm guessing his father rarely– if at all. – hits him? Well there's a first time for everything kid, welcome to the real world.

  Seeing this, my intuition is telling me something and I'm guessing the reason why Karuiz is so casual with his abuse towards Laself is because of his father.

  Can I accuse this guy of hurting his wife?.. No, that's considered normal here, my father rarely does it because he has a soft heart. Howaph inherited it but unlike dad, he can't defend our family if necessary. Maybe eventually, when he grows a spine.

  "Well, now I feel safe!" Keep screaming. I tell myself. Attract attention, I know people are watching. "Around [Village Watcher]s at that!"

  What was I even saying? Just pure hysterics.

  I glared at the only person I haven't addressed yet; Laself's father stood to the side, just staring at our house. "Let's talk about your daughter's dowry."

  "W-what?" He said, stunned. "Her dowry?"

  "Yeah. Her dowry." What? Is this guy deaf? Why the hell do I have to repeat it? "Howaph can pay for it just fine, it's his own money even."

  Okay, let me think my next words through. Can I push out the insult bubbling in my tongue? I thought about it for a moment, concluding that yes, I can.

  "He doesn't need our father to pay for it, he's capable of making his own money, after all. I can't imagine having a son that failed that much." Eh, it sounded better in my head.

  Blame Karuiz. I don't care if I get resentment from him. That's how I'm going to get out of this, put all the blame on a failure that's ambitious but so useless that he asked his own father for money to pay a dowry.

  "But..."

  "I'm right aren't I? My father would scold Howaph if he spends his money on trivial things and then asks him for money when he wants something important." And that's basically a natural thing here as well, that sons should learn how to provide. "What kind of failure would Howaph be if he does that?"

  "Are you calling my son a failure?"

  "I didn't mention anyone." Good, get riled up. "Unless you're saying that you are the one paying for Laself's dowry? If so, who's marrying her? You or him?"

  "... No, I'm not paying for that girl's dowry." He shook his head, his eyes moving slightly. He noticed people were watching. "My son can provide for the family he raises."

  "Fair enough." Now how do I finish this? I need to make sure that Karuiz gets punished later so that he actually gets too busy proving himself to his father to bother me. "How much money does he have anyway? I talked to Laself earlier and she said she's buying meat from Igant with the money I paid her."

  No one's moving, yet. Karuiz looks broken, like he knows what's coming later.

  That is not a normal reaction.

  I think I'm starting to see what's going on, Karuiz hasn't been beaten since his class ceremony? I'm guessing? But it happened a lot when he was young, enough to make him look like that when his father is looming over him.

  My eyes moved from Karuiz to his father, now to put the nail in the coffin. "Are you saying I'm making more money than him? Enough that the money I paid Laself is used to buy food instead of his?"

  "No." Karuiz's father turned to him, face red and then– "he was just being an idiot!"

  Huh, I expected him to hit his son again. Instead the man dragged Karuiz by the scuff of his shirt and dragged him away. I swore I heard the sounds of fabric ripping just now.

  Laself's father, now alone and left with no other choice, followed them.

  I let out a sigh of relief. That went better than expected.