No Flaw Permitted
For the first time in a long while, Odelli rose from the bed and looked out the window.
The room where she stayed was quiet, and yet the whole castle seemed strangely busy. Servants hurried past at a near run, and she could see lengths of ceremonial cloth being hung from the balconies. The air was that of a place bracing for some grand occasion.
……What is going on?
Curious, she caught Leona as the girl came rushing down the corridor from the opposite side.
"Leona. Is something the matter? Why is it so noisy?"
Leona finally came face to face with her and smiled, gladness and excitement tangled together.
"Oh, my lady……. No—I ought to call you madam now, shouldn't I!"
"That's the plan, but not quite yet……."
"Oh, come now, you are madam! They're preparing the wedding, you know. The ceremony's been set for the Great Cathedral! The butler said so. He said it's a place only the imperial family uses, and that we have to prepare something splendid enough to match our standing……."
Odelli stared at her, at a loss for words.
"……A wedding is being prepared?"
"What? Yes! I heard His Grace gave the order to the butler himself!"
Only then did Odelli understand the cause of the peculiar bustle that had settled over the castle.
When he lost his memory, did Ludville lose the very idea of a contract marriage along with it?
They were only meant to become husband and wife on paper. She was utterly taken aback, but the work was already far along, and the mood was such that she could no longer say a simple ceremony would do.
Not long after, a woman came to see her.
"This is the first time I have greeted you properly."
She was a middle-aged woman in a black linen dress, a silver brooch pinned at her breast, and not a single strand of her hair was out of place. She stood perfectly upright. There clung to her that particular air of a person who would not suffer the smallest lapse—so much so that even Theodore, set before her, would have seemed a kindly old grandfather.
"I am Freya, the head maid who will be assisting with the wedding preparations from today."
Odelli had the distinct feeling that things were about to become a great deal of trouble.
"The ceremonial gown has already been transferred to the robing room. Your measurements were taken from the physician's examination records, and three rehearsals of your movements after you are dressed have been scheduled. The timetable is here."
She held out a neatly stacked sheaf of papers on a wooden tray.
"It includes everything: the route for the reverence before the ceremony, the order in which you will move to the dais after you withdraw, even the precise moment you are to take His Grace the Archduke's hand."
"……You've already decided all of that?"
"I did not decide it, my lady. These are the standard procedures prescribed by the norms of traditional court etiquette."
Odelli had been married many times.
All of them to Ludville, admittedly…….
But none of those weddings had followed a traditional form this intricate. As a rule, only what was necessary was borrowed for the sake of ritual, and the rest was left to the bride's wishes. Even when she married Emperor Ludville and became empress, it had not gone this far.
The head maid's standard, however, was perfectly clear.
"The northern vassals and the nobles of the center will be in attendance—the imperial delegation most of all."
"Not a single flaw will be permitted," she added, her tone absolute.
The voice was courteous, but there was no room in it for compromise.
"Your hair will be dressed at eight o'clock sharp. Your nails are split, so they will be tended anew. Come, sit."
Swept along by Freya's momentum, Odelli sat before she quite realized she had.
The head maid took in the room in an instant and began issuing orders to the maids.
"The curtains by the window. The light will strike His Grace at the wrong angle when he enters. Adjust them."
"The embroidery will mix silver thread with gold. The crests of the archducal house and of Cardel must be worked into it together."
With her own hands she inspected every jewel that would be set into the earrings, the necklace, and the hair ornaments for the wedding day: diamonds whose light, by a special cut, shone with uncommon brilliance; a tiara made in the traditional manner by a craftsman of the north; sapphires of a blue so deep and clear they seemed to have imprisoned a winter sea.
She looked up from the stones.
"Just as I expected, the sapphires suit you best. These will serve as the principal ornaments."
And then, without asking Odelli's opinion or consulting her at all, she simply decided and pressed on. There was a convenience in being managed so deftly, but it was bewildering all the same.
Freya's fingertips were exact, her movements without a hitch. Yet Odelli could feel it. This was not mere fastidiousness. It was something closer to compulsion. She understood at a glance how many rules the woman had used, all this time, to shut herself in.
"Thank you. It must be a great deal of trouble. I appreciate you taking such pains."
She spoke quietly to the head maid, who was setting a sapphire atop a hair ornament and studying the angle.
Freya's hand faltered for the briefest moment. It lasted only that long. Then, as if nothing at all had happened, she set her hands moving again and answered.
"That much is merely what is expected. I would ask you to speak in a manner befitting a lady of rank. To offer thanks for what is only one's duty can injure one's dignity."
She's shaken.
Odelli felt the touch soften in a way no one else would have noticed. The difference was minute, but it was real, and she did not let the opening pass.
"Don't push yourself too hard. I'd like you to look after yourself while you do this."
Freya stilled her hands and narrowed her eyes.
"Do not say such soft things. The dignity of House Exepsion is at stake. A wedding is not a festival. It is an affair of state. You must conduct yourself as befits the one who is to become Her Grace the Archduchess."
Hmm…….
Odelli knew why the head maid's edge was so sharp.
This woman used to be at the Imperial Palace.
The Freya of before had been capable, yes, but her nature had never been perfectionist to this extreme. A single trivial mistake had drawn the imperial family's wrath and driven her from the palace, and in the end she had drifted north. She had given Ludville her loyalty, built her honor upon it, and was now head maid of the Archduchy of Exepsion.
Freya clung to rules more fiercely than anyone. It was not to keep herself from erring. It was a shield, so that she would never again be discarded by anyone.
And this time, even the imperial delegation is coming.
To present a flawless archduchess before the very imperials who had cast her out—perhaps that was the only revenge left to her.
Will she be all right?
Odelli swallowed a sigh. Freya had a chronic illness. But so long as Freya herself kept that fact so thoroughly hidden, it was hardly Odelli's place to name it first. She was someone who strove so hard to appear perfect.
In the end, Odelli resigned herself to accepting the woman's stubbornness and letting it pass—in Freya's own way, and only so far as it guarded Freya's pride.
……Because this will be my last wedding with Ludville.