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“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 ————–
My name is Shadow. My real name is to be kept secret. As such, I always carry out my duties under the code name Shadow. I’m a spy personally hired by His Highness Wald.
Anyway, it’s certainly true that His Highness is doing everything to become friends with Margrave Baumeister, but that doesn’t mean he’ll blindly believe all he’s told. That’s why I’ve been investigating Margrave Baumeister thoroughly.
“Also, it looks like His Majesty the Emperor is going to have a marriage ceremony in absolute secrecy with only his innermost circle attending.”
“Ah, if I remember correctly, the Lady Head Wizard…”
“Correct.”
Officially, His Majesty is insisting on remaining single, but in reality, you can already say that he’s married to Emela, the head wizard of the Empire. As for the reason why he’d go to such lengths to cover it up, it’d be Emela’s descent as a commoner.
If the emperor officially married a commoner, it’d definitely cause a huge backlash among the high-ranking nobles who are proud of their lineage. That woman appears to be pregnant with the emperor’s child, so His Majesty probably struck a deal with those nobles: never make this marriage public in exchange for allowing their child to inherit the imperial family. It’d be a tacit agreement as it’s so characteristic among royalty, imperial families, and nobles.
In the eyes of a commoner like me, I cannot help but wonder why they had gone through so much pain and suffering during the civil war, just to fuss over such trivial matters afterward. But, if a similar story cropped up in the Kingdom, I expect it’d also be difficult for a royal or noble to marry a commoner. As temporary solutions, the woman would become the adopted daughter of some noble…but even that method was mostly used, if at all, by low-ranking nobles. All of this just showed what an insurmountable wall social status is.
“Given that they cannot marry officially, they decided to have a secret wedding ceremony in private. Accordingly, Margrave Baumeister, who went through the hardships of the civil war together with them, was invited too, I assume.”
“You grasped it perfectly, Your Highness.”
His Highness is smart, so it helps that he’s quick on the uptake. He will usually get a precise read on things, even without me having to explain it down to the last detail.
“I see. So that’s the reason…,” His Highness curtly commented after brooding over this for a while. “We are humans before being nobles. They have their circumstances, which prevent them from holding a public wedding ceremony, so I don’t want to deny that he’s acting for his friend. Much less to say about something like suspecting that to be a prelude to treason.”
“Yes.”
The two nobles from before will come up with the wildest conspiracy theories as long as they get hold of a sliver of information, if it’s for the sake of denouncing Margrave Baumeister. But, there’s no way for His Highness Wald to desire something like that.
“Currently, the Kingdom is in the process of expanding and developing. It shocks me to see how some people are trying to take down Margrave Baumeister, one of the cornerstones of the Kingdom’s growth, although there are so many great opportunities to earn achievements through proper effort. Their acting in such a way despite still being so young means they’re going to have it hard in the future.”
“Yes.”
His Highness probably wanted to advise them that they were putting their efforts in the wrong direction, but I think they won’t listen, no matter what you tell them. After all, they’re genuine idiots. And idiots are called idiots because they don’t realize how stupid their own actions and words are. If they seemed to fix their attitude after it was pointed out to them, they would have become decent people a long time ago.
“But…”
“What might it be, Your Highness?”
“That wedding ceremony will be held in secret, right?”
“So I heard. They cannot go public with it, after all.”
If the high-ranking nobles of the Empire found out about this, they’d surely cause a big uproar. The capable, upstart nobles, who are His Majesty’s old friends, are doing everything in their power to hide it.
“In that case, those attending the ceremony won’t need to worry about being exposed, correct?”
“Yes. The participants will likely be kept secret.”
Given the circumstances of the wedding ceremony, the organizers are very cautious and, naturally, tight-lipped. I don’t mean to brag, but I was only able to get hold of the information about this secret wedding ceremony because of my skills. As a matter of fact, the spies of the imperial nobles haven’t picked up on this at all yet. The only ones who seem like they’d be able to investigate it are the 『Shinobi』 of Duke Mizuho, I think…
However, even if Duke Mizuho learns of this, he would sell the information to random imperial nobles while being aware that it’d incur Margrave Baumeister’s displeasure. He and his family will likely cherish their friendship with Margrave Baumeister more than their ties to imperial nobles. Still, you have to admit the amazingness of Margrave Baumeister’s personal connections.
“I see…Peter-dono and Wendelin will be traveling incognito. That’s why no one will learn what they’re doing on the appointed day in the evening. Right?”
“Yes, that should be the case.”
Why is His Highness deliberately asking me something so obvious?
“Say, Shadow.”
“Yes?”
“Do you believe it is possible for me to attend that secret wedding ceremony?”
“…That is…extremely difficult, I think…”
No, no, no! No matter how you look at it, that’s impossible! Margrave Baumeister has been invited to His Majesty’s secret wedding ceremony only because he put his life on the line to fight in the civil war together with Emela-dono and His Majesty’s other friends. There exists absolutely no reason why His Highness, who didn’t participate in the civil war, would be invited. This man always turns into a silly dolt whenever it comes to him trying to deepen his friendship with Margrave Baumeister.
“I don’t know whether I, who has never experienced going to war, should be the one saying this, but I assume it’s extremely difficult to enter a circle of friends who have literally traveled battlefields together…”
“As I thought… Still, I want to participate…”
“(I do understand his feelings on this, but if His Highness forcibly demands to participate, the cozy wedding ceremony among close friends will be completely spoiled…)”
But there was no way I could tell all of this to my employer, and thus I kept it to myself.
“Even though I went out of my way to come to the empire under the pretext of being the leader of the Friendship Deepening Delegation, I haven’t been able to get closer to Wendelin. Is it maybe necessary to rework my strategy?”
If I were allowed to speak my mind, I feel like it’d be fine for him to use his own status to force a close relationship, but maybe he’s oddly serious, possesses pointlessly high standards only when it comes to making friends…or maybe he wants to put emphasis on the process.
“I’d love to attend… How about pretending for it to be a coincidence?”
“The restaurant for the ceremony has been reserved, so I think it would be strange if you suddenly showed up there, Your Highness.”
“Figures…”
This is something I can never say out loud, but the probability of His Highness deepening his friendship with Margrave Baumeister during his activities for the Friendship Deepening Delegation is fairly low to begin with, I’d say.
＊ ＊ ＊
“Dear, we have finished the fine adjustment of the suit and wedding dress.”
“You’re even capable of handling such things, Elise? You’re really incredible.”
“It’s because everyone helped out.”
“We were taught by Candy-san.”
“I also became decent at sewing. Thanks to Candy-san,” Luise chimed in.
“All of you are pretty close to Candy-san, aren’t you?”
“Candy-san has many friends.”
“He’s far better connected than someone like me.”
On the evening of the wedding day, we were wrapping up some preparation inside the booked restaurant. Given the secrecy of the ceremony, we thought it’d be best to avoid involving unrelated people as much as possible. Thus, my wives and I were in charge of decorating the venue, arranging the food, setting the table, and adjusting the wedding dress for Emela.
For me, who had two left hands when it came to sewing, it was scary to even touch the wedding dress, but my wives apparently took lessons from Candy-san on various occasions, and hence they endeavored to make the wedding dress prepared by Mark and the others immediately wearable.
“Mmh, it is a marvelous wedding dress!” Doushi said.
But is he that knowledgeable about wedding dresses to begin with? I mean, I can tell that it’s pretty, but…
“Hey, Wend.”
“What’s up, Erw?”
“I’ve suddenly started to wonder about this, but how do they know all the sizes of Emela-san? It’s a surprise party, isn’t it?”
Today’s party had also been kept secret from Peter and Emela. It had been camouflaged as a banquet among friends in a restaurant. For obvious reasons, it’d be a problem if men other than Peter knew the sizes of Emela’s body. Accordingly, it was Luise’s duty to precisely measure Emela’s body with her eyes.
“Come to think of it, Luise did possess such a special skill with an unclear purpose.”
“Baahhh! Keep your rudeness at bay, Erw! It proved to be super useful, didn’t it!?”
Certainly, it was a big help. It allowed my wives to adjust the dress without Emela actually having to try it on.
“I see. You also adjusted His Majesty’s tuxedo, using that skill, huh?”
“Huh? No, I didn’t do anything like that.”
“Eeehhhh!? But wait, it won’t be completely without His Majesty wearing his tuxedo, you know?”
“Naturally, we’ve also prepared a tuxedo for His Majesty, but the suits of men just need to fit somewhat. I don’t know the accurate sizes of a man’s body.”
“How terrible! That special skill is limited to women!?”
It’s a special skill that didn’t have much of a purpose up until now, right?
“Wend, isn’t it just common sense for the bride to play the main role in a wedding ceremony? His Majesty will be fine as long as he can wear the tuxedo.”
True. Something like the exact sizes of men’s wear doesn’t really matter…or, in other words, it’s fine as long as the outfit isn’t baggy or too tight. Besides, Mark and the other guys probably know the sizes of Peter’s clothes. Rather than wasting time on fine-tuning his tuxedo, it’s more important to perfectly finish the bride’s wedding dress.
“Is that how it works?”
“Yep. It’s basically a rule for the bride to be the main act of a wedding ceremony,” Erw agreed with Luise’s opinion after he had just married Lea last month.
“Still, the high-ranking nobles of the Empire are as unaccommodating as usual. That gave me so much trouble in the past… Emela-dono accumulated quite a few achievements during the end of the civil war, so it would have been reasonable enough to acknowledge her… Then again, being able to say so means I am in a blessed position myself, I suppose,” Therese muttered to no one in particular while helping with the decoration of the restaurant.
“Given that only members who took part in the civil war were present at this party, Therese, as a qualified person, helped out with the preparations too. She had tied her hair into pigtails once again, but there’s no need to do that any longer, is there? She herself hasn’t lost a single word about it, so maybe she has unexpectedly taken a liking to that hairstyle.
“Oh, right!”
“What’s the matter, Wendelin?”
“I was thinking about asking you to take care of a small errand for us, Therese.”
“Me? In the imperial capital? My true identity might be revealed.”
“No need to worry about that. I’d like you to go to a store where Mark ordered silken gloves for the bride and pick them up. He also bought spares just in case, so please make sure to get both pairs.”
Since Therese is already wearing a robe, her cover won’t be blown. Elise, Ina──and although it might be rude to say so──surprisingly Katharina couldn’t go because they had to take care of the adjustment for Emela’s wedding dress. Hence, you could say Therese was the perfect person for this job.
“Wilma and I will secure your flanks, Therese, so you don’t have to worry.”
“All safe. Let’s go,” Wilma added.
“I don’t particularly mind, but where is that store?”
“It’s a good distance away from here, so I will hand you a map.”
“Thanks, Mark,” Therese answered.
Receiving the map from him, Therese left to pick up the bride’s gloves with Luise and Wilma as her guards.
———– End of Part 2 ———–
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