<– Previous Chapter | Glossary | ToC | Next Chapter –> | Jump to Volume 24 –>>
“The marriage ceremony of Peter and Emela is going to be held in secret, you say? Will that even be possible?”
“It should work out. Right now, the young nobles of both countries are gathered in the capital, holding social meetings and study groups. Accounting for all of these events, His Majesty’s schedule has been kept open as much as possible. We will limit the number of invitees as much as possible. In short, it’s going to be us, who have been with His Majesty since his childhood, Doushi Armstrong, Burkhart-dono, and Margrave Baumeister’s party, who have surmounted the hardships of the civil war together with us. We also decided to book a very plebian restaurant.”
“I see.”
“Lately His Majesty has been forced to act in a way befitting of an emperor, so we thought he’d prefer a more commoner-like setting for this sort of occasion.”
“Makes sense. Peter also needs some time to relax.”
“Yes.”
Peter told me that he wouldn’t have a wedding ceremony with Emela, but just now I heard from Mark that Peter’s old friends were planning a wedding ceremony in absolute secrecy for him. Because Peter has become emperor and his friends have advanced to important positions in the imperial government, they cannot openly support a wedding between Peter and Emela.
It just shows that people cannot act freely as they did in their youth, once they settle into certain posts and positions. If they pushed the matter of Peter and the commoner Emela marrying officially, it’d spark a huge backlash from the Empire’s influential nobles, and, in the worst case, they might even try to oust Peter as emperor. At the same time, countless nobles would come out and push for their own daughters to become Peter’s wife while denouncing Emela for being a commoner. That was the reason why Peter publicly stuck to being single. This would, of course, be a problem for a royal family, but the empire’s ruler was elected. So, even if Peter is single, it won’t be a problem for now. There’s still the issue of who will succeed the imperial family, but that should be resolved soon, given that Emela was pregnant.
The high-ranking nobles tacitly consented to Emela’s child becoming the heir to the imperial family, but in exchange, Peter isn’t allowed to take Emela as his legal wife, so he can’t officially marry her either. This was an unspoken agreement reached between Peter and the empire’s great nobles. Because of that, Mark and his friends planned to hold the wedding ceremony between Peter and Emela only among a few selected, close friends.
Still, Peter is quite the amazing guy to maintain such old friendships, despite their relationship now being that of a lord and his retainers. It’s a huge difference to me, who’s only good at using magic.
“We would like Elise-san and your other wives to attend as well. We all have suffered through the civil war together for more than a year. I’m certain His Majesty and Emela-dono would be more than delighted as well.”
“That’s a great idea. It will be an honor for us to attend together.”
Right now, my wives are taking care of our children at our mansion in Baulburg, but it won’t be a problem for them to be away for one night. I think it’s going to be a nice occasion to leisurely chat over some food and drinks while celebrating the marriage of two people who went through thick and thin with us.
“I will ask Doushi and Burkhart-san as well and go pick them up with Teleport on the appointed day.”
“Thank you very much. Your Teleport is really convenient to have around, Margrave Baumeister-dono.”
“Though I only use it like this for very private matters.”
“Yes, such peaceful usage of it is for the best, wouldn’t you say? I don’t know what will happen with the whole demon matter, but the young nobles of both our countries are currently mingling, believing in a better future. Let us exuberantly celebrate His Majesty and Emela’s wedding for now. Even if it’s just a few of us.”
Mark has been entrusted with organizing the secret wedding ceremony, but because it puts him in a position of responsibility, he has started taking this job as seriously as his swordsmanship.
『Ooohhh!! The wedding ceremony between His Majesty Peter and Emela-dono, you say? I would love to participate in that! I will bring a good wine with me!』
『I’ll also gladly take part in the ceremony. Still, it’s nice to see how Peter has kept his friendship with his old buddies alive even after becoming the emperor. Kings and emperors are usually isolated, but His Majesty Peter has successfully cleared that issue as well』
It looks like Peter has everything to become an emperor who will leave his name behind in history.
＊
That evening, after I got back home, I talked with my wives.
“Oh my, His Majesty Peter and Emela-san are going to hold a wedding ceremony? That sounds like something to look forward to. We must celebrate it grandly,” Elise sounded as if it were about her.
“Mark said they will secretly rent out a common restaurant in the imperial capital. It seems to be a place that Peter and his friends often frequented in the past.”
“We must prepare some congratulatory gifts.”
“A wedding ceremony among friends…what a great story…,” Ina listened to the story about the secret wedding ceremony with a spellbound expression.
I think that whole situation might have pulled her heartstrings. After all, she’s a sucker for such romantic stories.
“Seeing how he came up with that after being put in charge of making the arrangements, one must pull off their hat in front of Mark-san,” Luise highly praised Mark’s personality.
Not only his appearance, but also his mindset are those of an ikemen.
“This means you all are going to participate as well. I guess I have to prepare a wedding gift, too. I wonder what I should do?”
As a former loner, I’m always troubled since I’d spend my time worrying about how to handle situations like this. If this were a noble’s wedding ceremony, the price and type of gifts would be decided by the customs to some extent, and if it were something troublesome, I could just shove it to Roderich. But, as a friend of those two, I should get them something nice without fussing over customs and costs.
“Wend, you look like you’re going to blunder by thinking about too much silly stuff, so wouldn’t it be okay to go with cookware or something like that?”
“A while ago, His Majesty Peter told me that Emela-san would sometimes cook for them when they were alone.”
“In that case, how about a good set of pots?”
“Blades would be dangerous, so I think it’d be best to pass on those.”
“I definitely look forward to the day of the wedding.”
“True that.”
That night, our conversations were dominated by the marriage ceremony between Peter and Emela. Since I was told that a congratulatory tip would be unnecessary, we decided to go with other gifts instead of money. And although it didn’t really feel like it since I could always come back home with Teleport, I was still supposed to take part in building deeper friendships in the Empire right now…
“Am I contributing anything to encourage the exchange between the young nobles of both countries?”
“I’d think it’s nothing tangible…but, won’t the delegation leader, His Highness Wald, do something about that part?”
“Oh, you’ve got a point. That’s the reason why he’s the leader after all.”
“It’s good that you aren’t the delegation leader, Wend.”
“Indeed.”
“Wouldn’t you usually deny that part?”
“I mean, being the delegation leader sounds like such a chore, doesn’t it? Or, would you do it for me, Erw?”
“I don’t have the necessary qualifications to begin with. Though I’d probably turn it down, even if I was asked to handle it.”
I’m going to leave that side to His Highness Wald, who’s equipped with the necessary ability and sense of responsibility to manage the task. For now, the present to celebrate Peter and Emela’s wedding has a higher priority.
＊ ＊ ＊
“How is it? Did you get it?”
“Yes, I understand.”
“Look at his true nature! Margrave Baumeister is just trying to get benefits for himself by using his connection to the emperor!”
“How despicable! No matter how great his achievements might be, the Baumeister Margraviate will become a major relay point for southern exploration, so the reassignment of its ownership should be of utmost importance. Let’s place that territory under the direct control of the Kingdom.”
“Yes! At present the Helmut Kingdom is in danger of being attacked in a pincer movement by the Empire from the north and the Baumeister Margraviate from the south!”
His Highness Wald is an extremely wise man. He doesn’t stand out, but he’s dutifully carrying out his task as leader of the Friendship Deepening Delegation. Even now, he’s patiently enduring those disappointing young nobles who are slandering Margrave Baumeister, trying to weaken his standing out of jealousy. If you let such people run their mouths about the silly stuff going on in their brainless heads, their words will spread and eventually cause a huge uproar. His Highness Wald is a truly great person, considering that he must solve this issue before it escalates, even though it’s a very thankless role.
“There’s no way that Margrave Baumeister would do something like that.”
“Your Highness, it’s not a problem of him doing or not doing it!”
“We’re taking into account the danger of entrusting the vast southern territory to him while such a possibility exists.”
“Margrave Baumeister is very skilled at developing a territory, so he should be given a new, undeveloped area to expand his power. It will also force him to expend the huge riches he has accumulated. For the sake of the Helmut Kingdom.”
“That’s a great idea.”
“……”
Courageously appealing directly to His Highness Wald was fine and all, but even though the tasks His Majesty entrusted to his eldest son were gradually increasing in volume, the king still held the reins and made the decisions about all crucial matters. It was unthinkable that His Majesty would try to reduce the power of Margrave Baumeister, and since it’d bear no meaning to ask His Majesty about it either, those people likely decided to come with their false charges to His Highness Wald.
However, he also had no reason to believe a single word they said. Still, it was amazing that these young nobles would come to the distant empire and spend their time slandering a cohort they didn’t like instead of following the original aim of this trip to deepen the friendship with the young nobles of the empire. His Highness Wald hated this sort of people, and thus their future careers in the Kingdom were already over before they even started.
Well, they will never notice that fact, though.
“”Ooohh! Your Highness!””
They were awfully happy, but His Highness only said that they should keep those remarks to themselves. He didn’t mention a single thing about punishing Margrave Baumeister in any way. Besides…
“At the same time, make sure to work hard on the friendship with the young nobles of the empire, which is the biggest goal of the Friendship Deepening Delegation, and use those newly found connections during your professional duties in the future. You could also adopt the thinking that Margrave Baumeister, who has ties to His Majesty the Emperor, has achieved outstanding results for this delegation. By the way, did you form any connection with major nobles of the Empire?”
“”……””
As expected, they fell silent, huh? If those two were capable of such a skillful feat, they wouldn’t slander Margrave Baumeister behind his back. Around now, he should be deepening his friendship with imperial nobles and turning those ties into assets as a noble.
“If there’s nothing else, I’d like to excuse myself…”
“”Please forgive us!””
In contrast, those two could only run away when they were asked if they forged any personal connections with other nobles. In the end, the slander by those disappointing young nobles ended in failure, leaving only His Highness and me inside this room.
“Shadow.”
“Yes, Your Highness!”
“What have Margrave Baumeister and his friends been talking about?”
“That’s…”
————– End of Part 1 ————–
<– Previous Chapter | Glossary | ToC | Next Chapter –> | Jump to Volume 24 –>>
Translation Notes:
Pingback: Hachinan tte, sore wa nai deshou! – Volume 23 – Chapter 3 – Part 1 – Infinite Novel Translations