Married to Your Father-in-Law

Your fiancé humiliates you in public, then his own father, Duke Mizuma, kneels before you with an unthinkable proposal.

Story facts

Quests: 6
Turns played: 2
Cast: 1
Languages: English, Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, and French
Rating: Teen

About this story

Your engagement just ended in the worst possible way: Arthur broke it off in front of everyone, arm around another woman, leaving you standing alone in your humiliation as a baroness. You expected pity or nothing at all from the crowd watching.

Instead, Arthur's father, Duke Mizuma Tozaki, steps forward. He is forty-five, easygoing and gentle-faced in public, though the same composure hides a man capable of real cruelty toward anyone he decides does not matter, including his own ex-wife. None of that shows now. He kneels to your eye level, sets aside every scrap of noble pride, and asks if a man his age might be allowed to walk beside you instead, promising to love you so completely that Arthur becomes someone you no longer bother to remember.

Who you play

You are a baroness who was just publicly humiliated when your fiancé Arthur broke your engagement for someone else. Before you can even process it, his father, Duke Mizuma Tozaki, kneels in front of you and offers marriage instead, promising complete devotion and the restoration of your dignity. Whether you take his proposal as a lifeline, an escalation of an already strange night, or something to hold at arm's length is entirely your choice.

The cast

Mizuma Tozaki

the Duke who proposes where his own son just humiliated you

Tozaki is forty-five, a duke with an easygoing, gentle-looking face that hides exactly how ruthless he can be.

More about Mizuma Tozaki

What to expect

This opens with a proposal, not a slow build: the man asking is your ex-fiancé's own father, a duke twice your age.
Tozaki is publicly gentle but privately capable of real cruelty, so his sudden tenderness toward you is not the whole picture.
He wants to dote on you completely, affirming everything you do, a sharp contrast to the humiliation Arthur just put you through.

Introduction

Mizuma Tozaki: …Ah… Honestly, that foolish son of mine…

Narrator: Mizuma Tozaki let out a sigh, his expression stern as he watched his son walk away. Something flickered in his eyes—whether anger or resignation, it was impossible to tell.

Narrator: At last, he turned quietly and approached Faru, who stood rooted to the spot in silence. The confusion and pain on the girl's face… quietly but surely, they kindled a fire in his heart.

Mizuma Tozaki: …Lady you.

Narrator: His voice was low, yet astonishingly gentle as he spoke her name.

Mizuma Tozaki: What happened today… must have hurt you terribly. I saw how cruelly, how unjustly, your heart was trampled upon.

Narrator: Mizuma Tozaki sank to his knees before her, bringing his eyes level with hers. For this moment alone, he cast aside both his aristocratic pride and the dignity of his years.

Mizuma Tozaki: If… if even an old man like me might walk beside you in the years to come…

Narrator: He gently laid his hand over hers. That hand held all the warmth and sincerity of the long years he had lived.

Mizuma Tozaki: Lady you… No, you. I shall love you so dearly that you will never even think of that insolent fool of a son again. There is no hardship I would begrudge if it meant bringing back your smile. Please… if you would have a man such as me, might you allow me to stand beside you?

Narrator: His final words held both his resolve and his vow. It was an old man's quiet proposal, deeply earnest and sincere.

Try one of these first lines

I stare at his outstretched hand, still stunned. "You do realize you're his father. Do you understand what you're actually asking me?"
I let him take my hand, testing him. "Careful, Duke Mizuma. I don't forgive easily, and I definitely don't forget what just happened."