Myself Before Others - 2
With Mar's approval as the bride-to-be, the wedding venue was settled. How could a groom possibly refuse when his bride was happy with it?
In truth, the moment the Emperor brought it up, a cathedral wedding had become an unavoidable fate—but I never expected Mar to support it too. I had assumed she would find it as overwhelming as I did, or at least look uncomfortable.
What do I do?
After barely managing to soothe a faintly sulky Mar and send her off, I sat fiddling with the communication crystal for a long time.
Fine. The venue was burdensome, but for Mar's sake I could endure it. I had no idea what the Emperor was thinking when he offered us the cathedral, but he had always been a man far removed from common sense, so I decided to leave it at that.
The problem was that changing the wedding venue to St. Paronas Cathedral would render all of Mother's hard work meaningless. A new location meant starting the preparations over from scratch to match it. I simply could not find the courage to deliver that heartbreaking news to her.
She's going to be so disappointed.
A sigh slipped out before I could stop it. I knew full well that Mother carried guilt toward Erich and me. While I had deliberately looked away, the moment I acknowledged her as family, there was no unseeing it no matter how hard I tried.
That was why I hesitated. I knew how passionately she had been preparing for my wedding—how happy she had been simply to be able to do something for her son.
"Karl?"
In the end, after long deliberation, I placed the call. Better to tell her now than right before the wedding.
"I'm sorry to contact you so suddenly. There's something urgent I need to tell you."
"What is there for a son to apologize about when calling his mother? Speak freely."
Seeing Mother smile gently made the triangle spinning in my chest whirl even faster.
Emperor, you bastard. You're the one who just smashed my mother's dreams and hopes to pieces.
"Ah, is this about the wedding preparations? Those are proceeding without a hitch, so don't you worry."
Even through the crystal, her proud satisfaction was so palpable that the hand holding the device trembled. Should I run to the Emperor right this second and beg him to take it back?
"Well, Mother… the thing is…"
Of course, the person I actually needed to beg was Mother, not the Emperor.
"I'm truly sorry, but our wedding venue… has been decided elsewhere."
With those words I squeezed my eyes shut.
I simply did not have the courage to look at her face.
Karl's sudden words made my heart stop. Had he prepared a separate wedding because he didn't trust me?
If that were truly the case, nothing could be more wretched. I had thought Karl and I were finally growing closer—but that happiness would have been nothing more than my own delusion.
"I… I see."
I forced the words out, barely suppressing the heat gathering at the corners of my eyes.
It wasn't a delusion. Karl and I had clearly grown closer than before, and we were still growing closer. Thanks to the son who had forgiven this unworthy mother, we were reclaiming the shape of an ordinary family.
Besides, if Karl hadn't trusted me, he never would have entrusted me with the wedding preparations in the first place. He never would have lowered his head with such an apologetic expression either.
There must be some circumstance.
Yes. That had to be it.
And thinking that made me ashamed. Unlike Karl, who had forgiven the past and was moving toward the future, I—the one who had been forgiven—was still trapped in that past. I had jumped straight to negative assumptions, deciding in advance that Karl must still hate and avoid me.
"May I know where it's been decided? Since it's where my son will be married, I'd like to go see it beforehand."
I spoke with a small smile. Thinking of all the hard work Laura and I had put in left me a little regretful, but the one getting married was Karl. If it was a place he had chosen so urgently, it would surely be the finest possible venue. It was not my place to interfere—
"St. Paronas Cathedral."
"…What?"
A name I had never expected emerged.
St. Paronas Cathedral?
I rapidly combed through my memory. Were there multiple places that bore the name St. Paronas Cathedral? Besides the cathedral seat of the Ausen Archdiocese in the Imperial Capital, were there other places that used the name of Saint Paronas?
"His Majesty the Emperor recommended it himself. It was such an overwhelming offer that I simply could not refuse."
But the words that followed ended my brief flight from reality. If His Majesty the Emperor had recommended it himself, and if Karl was describing it as "overwhelming," then it truly was that St. Paronas Cathedral.
"And since the venue is being changed so suddenly, His Majesty said the Imperial Family would actively support the preparations."
My mind went blank for a moment. I had known that Karl enjoyed His Majesty's trust, but I never imagined it ran this deep. A noble holding a wedding at St. Paronas Cathedral was unprecedented.
"That's wonderful. It will be a memory you'll never forget for the rest of your life."
And so I could speak with complete sincerity. The fact that all my efforts had come to nothing no longer mattered in the slightest.
My son had been granted enormous glory and honor—what did my own labors amount to beside that? What could possibly be more important than a wedding held in the glorious place where the Emperors who led the Empire had been crowned, the beautiful place where the Great Emperor had set the Empress's crown upon the first Empress's head?
"B-but Mother, you must have worked so hard… are you truly all right?"
Karl's cautious question made me smile again. That he would worry over his mother's efforts rather than the glory he was about to receive—what a warm-hearted child he was.
"I worked so hard precisely because I wanted you to have a splendid wedding blessed by all. Now you're going to have a wedding my efforts could never have achieved, so of course I'm all right."
"…Thank you."
After that we asked after each other's recent news and ended the conversation. Karl seemed a little embarrassed and tried to cut the call short, and I had no desire to hold him back either.
"Oh my, is that you? What brings you calling at this hour?"
Instead, I quickly shared the joyful news with my co-mother-in-law.
Naturally, she was delighted as well. Even for a family like the Valenti, having a daughter marry at St. Paronas Cathedral was an extraordinary honor.
The rumor spread quickly. When wedding preparations were underway at the most exalted cathedral not only in the Imperial Capital but in the entire Empire, it would have been stranger if word hadn't gotten around.
And the more the rumor spread, the more fiercely my communication crystal glowed and vibrated.
Damn it.
I stared blankly at the crystal that had vibrated so hard it fell off the desk. I almost wished the fall had broken it—but a communication crystal made by the Demon Duke herself was not going to break from a little fall damage.
I'm going to lose my mind.
After a long while I quietly picked up the crystal still lying on the floor—and still vibrating. Honestly, I wanted to stuff it in the trash and disappear.
But that was impossible. I had long since passed the stage where running or hiding was an option.
This situation really is enormous.
A sigh escaped on its own. No matter how optimistically I tried to frame it, this affair was generating a staggering amount of impact. Granted, none of the things the Imperial Family had put me through had ever been minor—but even accounting for that history, this one was overwhelming.
Youngest department chief? At the end of the day, records like "youngest" or "oldest" get broken eventually. I may have advanced that particular record by a wide margin, but it was still something people could accept.
Minister of a brand-new department? Every department has a first founding, and it is only natural that the inaugural minister becomes the expert in that field. Setting my age aside and looking purely at the post of Audit Department Chief, becoming the minister-designate was the logical outcome.
Godfather to the Crown Princess? Someone had to be godfather anyway. It just happened that someone was me.
But this was different. No matter how hard I spun the happiness circuit, "well, that could happen" simply did not apply.
"Since when does a subject get married in the cathedral?"
In the end I could not hold back the absurdity and muttered it aloud. No wonder people were saying the Emperor must be planning to take a consort. Given the pure love between the Emperor and Empress, the odds of him taking a consort were close to zero—but even that was still higher than the odds of someone else's wedding being held there.
That was how thoroughly St. Paronas Cathedral was a space reserved for the Imperial Family. A place where no one could even imagine an ordinary noble's wedding taking place.
"Congratulations, Karl. I knew His Majesty trusted you, but even I never imagined it would go this far."
The congratulatory words the Duke of Victory had offered a few hours earlier, upon hearing the news, rose in my mind and drew another sigh from me.
Even the Duke of Victory had not known my wedding venue would be the cathedral. So how shocked must the other nobles have been?
At least I don't have to go into the office. Thank goodness for that.
For that, I was genuinely relieved. If I had also had to report for work, I would have been grabbed for an interview every three steps. Even a random encounter would be nightmarish at that frequency—
Knock, knock.
"Karl, it's me."
"Ah—yeah. Come in."
I flinched at the sudden knock, but answered immediately at the sound of Mar's voice that followed.
The door slowly opened and Mar peeked her head through the gap. For some reason her face looked flushed with excitement.
"Karl. A distinguished guest has arrived—would you come greet them with me?"
"A guest?"
I tilted my head at that. If Mar called someone a distinguished guest, of course I would go greet them—but did she really need to come tell me herself? Where was the butler?
As if sensing my confusion, Mar smiled bashfully and continued.
"Her Majesty the Empress sent the Imperial tailor. They're going to make our wedding attire themselves, for both of us."
"Oh…"
An involuntary sound of admiration escaped me. Certainly, a dress made by the Imperial tailor was something even a duke's daughter like Mar would be overjoyed about.
Their skill was, needless to say, the finest on the continent—but because the Imperial Family employed them exclusively, not even a ducal house could hire them. They were that rare a talent.
"All right, let's go. They're a busy person—we can't keep them waiting."
I put an arm around Mar's waist and started walking. My insides were still burning up, but I could not wear a dying expression in front of Mar's happy smile.
Besides, it was St. Paronas Cathedral I disliked—not the wedding itself. It would be a problem if Mar got the wrong idea for no reason.