The Merry Wedding - 3
I rubbed the corners of my eyes and let out a small sigh. After hours of overworking them, my eyes felt sore and dry.
I really did send a lot.
I glanced at the pile of unopened letters stacked high on one side of the desk and carefully picked one up. Even after spending several hours on them, it was regrettable that the unread letters still outnumbered the ones I had managed to get through.
But as a noble celebrating a joyous occasion, this was something I simply had to endure. Unless I intended to sever all ties with the world and live alone, interacting with others remained an important duty.
I sincerely congratulate Your Excellency the Minister on your marriage. Although I am unable to offer my greetings in person—
Suppressing my fatigue, I checked the new letter and found it opened with the same familiar repertoire once again.
Anyone sending a letter at this particular time was, by definition, someone who could not attend the wedding. In truth, one could safely assume that every letter contained more or less the same content.
The Commander of the 6th Legion, is it?
I skimmed quickly past the body of the message and checked the sender’s name, which proudly bore the title of the 6th Legion Commander.
He was an officer of the Eastern Front Army that guarded the border. Naturally, making the journey all the way to the Imperial Capital would be difficult for him. I had already expected as much, since other commanders from the Eastern Front Army had also sent letters.
We exchanged greetings from time to time, at least.
Recalling my connection with the 6th Legion Commander, I set his letter aside in a separate pile.
Once congratulations had been received, a reply was only proper—yet one could not send the exact same level of reply to every person. It was only right to consider the recipient’s rank and one’s relationship with them when writing back.
It might look snobbish, but there was no helping it. Treat a count the same as a baron and the count would be furious; treat a close friend the same as a mere acquaintance and the friend would feel slighted. That was simply how society worked.
...Not a single letter from a marquis.
As I continued checking the other letters one by one, I arrived at a truth I would rather not have realized. Among those who had sent letters of apology for their absence, there was not a single marquis.
Every letter I had seen so far had come from counts or lower, or from people of comparable rank. There were none from dukes or marquises above them.
Of course, a mountain of unopened letters still remained, so one of them might be mixed in somewhere—but this tower of letters was a batch the butler had already sorted once before handing it to me. He had arranged them so that I could read correspondence from high-ranking figures first.
And yet even now, there was still nothing from a duke or marquis?
So every last marquis is coming.
It meant they had no need to beg off for absence; every single one of them would attend. All thirteen marquises scattered across the empire’s east, west, south, and north.
A bitter smile rose unbidden. I had already known that all five dukes would attend the wedding, but I had never imagined every marquis would show up as well. I had expected at least a few to stay away.
“How is this the wedding of an Imperial Count?”
In the end I found myself voicing the lament out loud. Even most imperial family weddings would not be this dazzling. This was practically on the level of a wedding for the heir to the throne.
If anyone ever accused a mere noble of enjoying excessive power, I would make them look straight at the Imperial Family. They were the ones who had piled every possible title onto a young man still in his early twenties and created this mess. When a power broker with decades of expected lifespan left was getting married, who could possibly stay away?
And I still have five more of these.
The minor problem was that I still had five weddings remaining.
Centuries as a power broker.
And that my expected lifespan might stretch not merely to decades, but to centuries.
...
Where was I again?
I emptied my mind and returned to reading the letters.
For now, I would simply focus on the situation right in front of me.
I was once again reminded that Mar was the beloved youngest of her family.
“At last our little one is getting married as well. Congratulations.”
Her eldest brother stroked Mar’s hair with a smile.
“Th-that little girl has already found a partner... the child who used to toddle around...”
“Honestly. How many years ago are you talking about?”
The third sister-in-law shed tears over the youngest’s marriage while the other sisters-in-law soothed her. And caught in the middle, face flushed bright red and utterly at a loss, was Mar herself.
Thanks to the visit from her brother and sisters-in-law—who had arrived in the Imperial Capital ahead of her parents—the mansion had grown lively once more.
It’s a nice sight.
Yes, it was a heartwarming, harmonious scene. They were sincerely celebrating a family member’s marriage while also feeling the bittersweet ache of that family member leaving their side.
Of course, I deliberately erased from view the way Mar was being treated like a child. Honestly, there was quite an age gap even between Mar and her next-oldest sister, the fourth sister-in-law. Being treated more like a daughter than a youngest sibling was hardly strange.
“Our Mar... she finally graduated from the Academy only to leave home right away... Deep down I wish my brother-in-law would just live with us...”
Still sniffling and dabbing at her eyes with a handkerchief, the third sister-in-law’s words made me offer an awkward smile.
For me to live together with the Varenti Ducal House instead of Mar leaving it, the only option would be for me to become a live-in son-in-law. That would require giving up the title of Count of Tailglehen.
In truth, the idea held a certain appeal. Casting off the burden of being an Imperial Count and living under the protection of a ducal house? Was that not the perfect route to a life of pure leisure? It was the kind of future any human being would dream of.
Impossible, though.
Unfortunately, I had already come too far to become anyone’s live-in son-in-law. Changing my family name would mean laying down every title I currently held. The Emperor would never permit a one-sided surrender of that much power—not unless I were somehow gaining even more in return.
If only this had happened about four years earlier, it might have been possible. A pity.
“Please don’t worry. I will come to pay my respects often.”
“There’s no need to go that far. She’s only acting like this because Mar is leaving. She’ll be fine in a few days.”
When I spoke up to console the third sister-in-law, her eldest brother firmly shook his head.
The assessment was so harsh and cold that the third sister-in-law glared at him, but he only returned a look that said, “What do you want me to do about it?”
This is what siblings are like.
Watching them, I quietly lowered my gaze. I had forgotten after seeing only the way they doted on their overwhelming youngest, Mar, but for ordinary siblings that kind of exchange was perfectly normal.
No matter how old siblings grew, that remained the average...
“You don’t have to force yourself to come, but if a child is on the way, you must visit. Understood?”
In the midst of it all, the fourth sister-in-law pulled Mar into an embrace and spoke gently. Perhaps because she was the sister immediately above Mar, her affection seemed deeper than the others’—
“The sooner the better, so it doesn’t even have to be after the wedding.”
“S-Sister!”
Hearing Mar’s flustered shriek, I closed my eyes.
I heard nothing.
After the fourth sister-in-law’s devastating strike, Mar’s mental state was visibly fraying. From the perspective of an elegant, refined lady, being told to her face that “speeding is fine” was apparently more than she could endure.
And quite fortunately, we were a regulation-speed-observing couple who had never once broken the speed limit.
What kind of mess would I get into if I sped?
I had only just managed to reverse my father-in-law’s ill will into something resembling favor. If I went and sped with his precious youngest daughter, my spine might end up folding the wrong way. That would be a problem.
My own conscience had also played a part in preventing any speeding. Imperial law considered one an adult from the age of seventeen, but I had lived in a world that treated twenty as the start of adulthood, so the feeling had been a little strange. There was a reason I had deliberately waited until Mar graduated from the Academy.
Of course, if Mar ever found out, she would feel wronged. After all, she had been an adult for three years already, yet her future husband had continued treating her as if she were still underage.
“Karl...”
“Yeah, I’m right here.”
Just as the corner of my mouth was about to lift, Mar’s voice made me answer in a hurry.
Her brother and sisters-in-law had long since left, yet Mar sat collapsed on the sofa as if her soul had left her body. The fourth sister-in-law’s words must have been that intense.
“...You heard what Sister said, didn’t you, Karl?”
“Your sister was only joking because she’s sad to see you leave. Don’t worry about it too much.”
Her voice was so small I couldn’t help a soft laugh as I stroked her hair. It really had been far too stimulating a remark for Mar—
“If we go now, do you think the baby could be born within the year?”
?
My body locked up completely. What did she just say?
“Y-you’re a titled noble too, Karl, so I thought it would be better to have children as soon as possible...”
Reading the bewilderment in my eyes, Mar muttered in an even smaller voice.
I see. So it had been consideration for the stability of House Crassius.
“If we start trying the moment the wedding is over, the baby will be born within the year.”
At those words, Mar quietly nodded.
I pretended not to notice the ears that had turned so red they could not possibly grow any redder.
Every day had been joyful. Entertaining the guests who came in person to congratulate Karl and me on our marriage, meeting my elder brother and sisters who had arrived ahead of the wedding day, meeting Karl’s maternal grandparents whom I had never seen before, reading the letters filled with congratulations—all of it had been joyful.
They were unforgettable memories. Even after ten years, after fifty years, even on the day I died, I would never forget them.
But no memory, however precious, could surpass the happiness of this day.
“Mar.”
Because today was the day I had dreamed of for years, the day I had waited for so desperately and yearned for with all my heart.
“Let’s go. We should arrive before the guests.”
Karl, who always looked dashing yet somehow shone even more brilliantly today, smiled and opened the carriage door himself before holding out his hand to me.
Looking at him, I let my gaze drift for a moment. I took in the servants lined up on both sides from the main building all the way to the front gate, and the smiling faces of my sisters, Luise, and Irina, all urging me to get in.
“Yes.”
I took a small breath and spoke. With a brighter voice than ever before, with a happier feeling than ever before.
“Let’s go.”
I took Karl’s outstretched hand and smiled. Just as he said, it was only right that we arrive before the guests.
Because today we were the protagonists.
The protagonists who had to show the guests how happy we were.
Margeta Crassius.
The moment I thought of the name I would be called in just a few hours, my heart began to race.