The Victory Ceremony
Once she had calmed herself somewhat, Darin resolved to go at once to the central hall where the victory ceremony was being held.
The fit had not entirely left her, but this was a place meant to celebrate her treasure. She had already made a spectacle of herself before the eyes of others; as the mother of a hero, she could not afford to show any further disgrace.
"People may call the young lord of Bayorn a cold-blooded man, but seeing the way he treats Lady Orange, he seems a true romantic."
"W-well, of course. Kael is so thoughtful."
"My goodness, I've never met a peer who addresses the young lord of Bayorn so casually! Usually it's only the heads of houses that have stood with Bayorn for generations who dare."
"Ah… well, we've always been together, so calling him Kael just feels natural. I should have been more careful in public, though…"
"Not at all! What does difference in standing or rank matter between people who love each other?"
"B-but I only think of Kael as a friend…"
"Oh, come now~ Since when do men and women stay just friends~? Lady Orange, you really do have a sense of humor!"
"Hahaha…"
Darin had taken a seat in a relatively secluded corner of the central hall, accompanied by the young ladies Kael had arranged for her. She had even asked whether she might speak with the other party members besides the Hero, out of simple curiosity—
I could hardly leave Mother among those loose women. I'll escort you to the young ladies with whom I have some acquaintance.
Loose women—she knew they had shared the Hero's bed, but was that truly grounds for such condemnation? Aside from one of them, they weren't even nobles who prized virginity. Kael's manner of speaking had grown so much rougher than before that Darin found herself fretting over him in more ways than one.
She still didn't understand why her son had introduced her as a childhood friend and the object of his unrequited love. But if that was the will of Kael, the young heir of the house, Darin had already decided to go along with even this.
After this, I won't be going freely to social gatherings anyway, so it shouldn't be a problem. I'll stay as quiet as I can so I don't cause trouble for whatever young lady becomes Kael's partner later, and then leave.
She would leave the cleanup to her son. For now, making conversation with the young ladies as instructed was the best she could do. Since things had come to this, she would at least try to act natural.
Every girl speaking with Darin belonged to a house connected to the Bayorn viscounty. She was, after all, a viscountess herself, so the names were all familiar. She had simply never been allowed to make their acquaintance, thanks to her husband's restrictions.
Now that I'm actually meeting them face to face, I feel rather glad…?
They had been nothing more than names on paper until now, so the encounter was both strange and pleasant. She received more than a few flustering questions, but managed to deflect them without much difficulty through a bit of social skill.
I was worried we wouldn't have anything to talk about, given how much younger they are…
Her son's claim that he had carefully selected them had not been empty boasting. Every one of them was sincerely considerate, making sure she never felt left out.
Kael sat right beside her, clasping his mother's hand and steadying her unsettled heart—pressing close enough that it was almost oppressive.
Even for a childhood-friend act, this is far too close.
At first Darin had raised her voice, demanding he let go and asking what on earth he thought he was doing. But Kael had coaxed her with the claim that if his mother's heart could not settle, neither could her son's—and she had been left unable to move. Darin thought to herself that when her son's fiancée eventually married into the family, she would have to confess all of this so there would be no misunderstanding.
I'm a little hungry…
After some time spent in light conversation, Darin's appetite stirred. And there, right before her eyes, she spotted a fresh cream cake piled high with strawberry mousse.
But was it proper to put food in her mouth while surrounded by young ladies like this? Darin could not tear her gaze from the strawberry cake, yet she could not quite bring herself to leave her seat.
"Sister, it would be nice to continue our chat over some tea."
"…Thank you, Kael."
Fortunately, her son had read her mind and handed her the cake along with tea, allowing her both to ease her hunger and to preserve her dignity. The word sister stirred a faint resistance in her, but what of it? For her son's sake, Darin could be not only a mother but a younger sister, an older sister—anything at all. Kael was the treasure she loved more than anyone.
Her lightly puffed cheeks were as adorable as a hamster's. The cake was enormous compared to her small frame, yet she worked her fork so diligently that it soon vanished without a trace. She had that sturdy, unpretentious quality of a country noble.
"Allow me to wipe that for you."
Perhaps she had eaten a little too hastily. A smear of bright red strawberry mousse clung to the corner of the vermilion-haired woman's mouth. Just as Kael moved to wipe it away—
"Kyaa~ Hehe, don't I look like a vampire, your mother?"
Grateful for her son's kindness, Darin leaned in and whispered the playful remark against his ear. Had the two of them been lovers, it would have been unconscious flirting—but they were mother and son. Darin's show of affection sprang from the purest of intentions.
Kael swallowed hard.
But already, in Kael's fantasies, Darin was spreading her legs and offering her heavy breasts, ready to take her son into her arms. Would you like to go back inside the place you came from? she would say.
It will happen soon enough. No need to grow impatient.
Darin, of course, could not even begin to guess at any of this.
The time for light conversation on various topics drew to a close, and at last the victory ceremony began. Still holding her son's hand tightly, Darin exchanged farewells with the young ladies and walked to her assigned seat.
Before long, hundreds of soldiers in costly plate armor appeared in the central hall, performing all manner of martial displays as they praised the achievements of the heroes who had slain the Demon King. The nobles, Darin and Kael among them, sat and watched.
"Waaah…"
It was a magnificent, grand spectacle of a kind never seen in a frontier territory like Bayorn. This was no modest commoners' festival held in the streets, but a true noble investiture glittering with brilliant metal and props—and for someone of Darin's station, her mouth could only hang open in awe.
Kael was one of the ceremony's central figures and was scheduled to deliver a speech alongside the Hero. She had heard that among the party members, his achievements ranked second only to the Hero himself. The thought that the tiny infant she had once labored to bring into the world had grown to accomplish such feats filled Darin with such emotion that tears nearly welled up.
I—I have to pull myself together!
But for now she needed to keep her eyes wide open and focus. Partly because it was her son's investiture—but also because the members of the Hero's party would, as a matter of course, pin golden brooches bestowed by the regent to their chests before receiving their rewards from the king.
And by tradition, that golden brooch was fastened by the person's lover. If they had none, the Emperor himself—the father of the Empire—would pin it on.
That was why this moment might be Darin's only chance to face her son's lover. Kael, who did not know how to lie, had said that the woman who loved him would be present. There was no room for doubt.
Until just now he had claimed that the woman he had chosen was her—but considering this moment, that had almost certainly been a wicked joke.
Any minute now he would ask his future daughter-in-law to pin the brooch, then confess that this vermilion-haired girl was in fact his mother, wouldn't he? Coming from a man of Kael's standing, even that could be smoothed over as a minor incident.
Her husband's warning that other nobles might target her still circled in her mind, but if her war-hero son protected her and boldly declared her his mother, she would face no threat to her safety.
Come to think of it, most of the party members are girls…?
The Hero was having several female party members take turns pinning brooches on him. Looking at the scene, it really was like the animal kingdom, just as her son had said. One powerful male lion and the many lionesses who worshipped him? Still, a superior man keeping a harem was not unheard of—and above all, it was someone else's business. There was no need to interfere.
Darin simply turned her head toward her son with a flushed, expectant expression, determined to identify the woman who would soon be her daughter-in-law. And yet, strangely—
"Sister."
The son she had thought was briefly away with his lover was standing squarely right in front of her, holding out a golden brooch he had obtained from somewhere.
"……"
"Sister."
Darin whipped her head around, desperate to dispel the anxiety surging up inside her. She hoped the "sister" her son was calling was not her but his lover. Yes—and if that lover were older, so much the better. Then the title of sister would not feel awkward at all.
And if he handed the brooch to his true fiancée and shouted "Surprise!" declaring that everything had been a joke, then even this wretched day could end as merely a slightly awkward one.
As she had just told herself—given Kael's standing, a little impropriety would hardly be a serious problem, would it? Darin spun out these fantasies, fleeing a reality she did not want to accept.
"Darin."
That final word shattered even her small hope. She could no longer deny that the person her son was calling was her.
"…Kael, where is your lover? You should hurry and ask her to pin the brooch."
"Hahaha…"
Before his mother, whose cold sweat was rising, her son began to smile brightly. It was a clear, pure smile—yet somehow Darin could not smile back. Her body only stiffened like wood under the tension that flooded her in an instant.
"Sister, many eyes are watching. Please pin it on me at once."
Yes—of course there were many eyes. People curious about who would pin the brooch on a pillar of the Hero's party were everywhere. Among them were even the Hero Lucas and the Emperor himself, master of the Empire.
"Th-this is strange, Kael. You never said it would be like this. It's too sudden…"
Not knowing what to do, the girl's pupils trembled without rest, as if an earthquake had struck. The hands that held the brooch she had been given began to shake violently as well.
The premise had been that Kael harbored an unrequited love for her—but in the end, if they never married, it would have remained a minor scandal. Pinning this brooch, however, was tantamount to an official declaration that they were lovers. Even a noble—no, especially a noble—could not casually request the breaking of an engagement. A noble betrothal was, in a sense, an act of binding itself.
Because it was a traditional rite performed before the Emperor, one could not later reverse one's words when the couple's names were entered in the noble registry. Darin was already listed as a viscountess, so for even Kael to do something like this now would clearly bring an enormous aftermath.
The only way to cover it up would be never to visit the Imperial Capital again—neither as a viscountess nor as the young lady of the Orange family created under an alias.
Perhaps never leaving Bayorn territory until the day she died was the only alternative. Even that would be exposed if a noble in the capital or their liege, the Northern Grand Duke, simply asked to see her face.
How did this happen? How could this…?
The thousands of gazes fixed upon her made Darin feel as though she were losing her mind. Her son had clearly said there was a woman he had chosen, and that the woman would attend the victory ceremony. So why on earth was he handing the brooch to her…? Nothing added up.
"N-not me—please go to someone else, to the young lady who loves you, hurry!"
Darin babbled, trying to escape the situation, but one of her hands was bound by Kael and she could not pull free. On second thought, she had also heard that for a noble young lord to have a proposal rejected was an enormous disgrace—so continuing to resist felt difficult as well.
And yet if she pinned the brooch to her son's chest, a catastrophe would unfold from which there would be no recovery even when her husband returned.
If she refused, she would damage her son's honor. The woman who had spurned a man of his caliber might draw even greater attention.
"Mother, it's all right. It's all right, so trust me and pin the brooch on."
Kael whispered gently against her ear, soft enough that no one else could hear. In the end, Darin could neither go forward nor back; tears streamed down her face as she had no choice but to pin the brooch on. To onlookers, she would have seemed a woman moved to tears by a romanticist's proposal.
"Ah…"
Her violently trembling hands could not even manage the simple act of fastening the brooch properly. Tears kept clouding her vision. She felt as though she were committing a great sin behind her husband's back, and shame gave way to guilt.
However much she hated her husband, they had shared more than thirty years together. There had been affection. So she could not help the self-loathing that rose in her for sneaking out and causing nothing but trouble.
"Stop crying and look carefully. You might prick yourself on the pin, so be careful."
Her son gently took hold of the hand with which his mother held the brooch and soothed her in a soft voice, helping her pin it as he did. She was crying, and Kael seemed to be smiling. Did that mean it was a good thing after all? She no longer understood anything.
"Well done."
Somehow the tone was like one used to soothe a child. The words alone were polite—yet Darin felt as though the positions of parent and child had been reversed, and her heart grew complicated.
His adornment complete, Kael straightened his back and displayed his magnificent frame. There was not a shred of shame in him; his bearing was utterly confident. A man in a pure white suit with a golden brooch pinned to his chest would look like a hero to anyone who saw him.
For a final greeting, Kael tightly embraced the pitifully trembling woman and whispered against her ear.
"Thank you."
Strangely, it sounded like the tone of someone announcing a farewell. They were supposed to always be together from now on—so why would he say such a thing? Darin felt as though she had somehow lost the son she had known.
The man who released his mother from his arms began to climb the platform slowly, following the Hero and the party members.
"Hic… hhk…!"
Even as she wept, Darin gazed at her son standing solidly on the platform with the brooch she had pinned upon him.
And Kael, wearing a smile more radiant than anyone else at the victory ceremony, looked back at the mother who was wiping away her tears.