"... My father tried to arrange a few marriages," Akiha starts. Akiha has even less idea how to do this, but she supposes they'll eventually get into something like a conversation if she just starts talking.

"Some of them were boys my age, some were older. Some of them were kind towards me, some of them were repulsive. But..." Akiha pauses as she searches for the words.

"I understand what you're about to say. 'Nobody would be okay marrying someone because their dad told them to, right?' But that isn't how I felt. It was - the very concept of marrying a man that seemed foreign to me. Of feeling like I'd want to spend the rest of my life with one.

So when you said what you did, it - struck a bit of a chord, yes."