The New Groom in the Romance Fantasy
It was hardly a new observation, but weddings had always been distant affairs for me. Not that I intended to dwell on it on my wedding day itself, yet the truth remained.
In the world before my transmigration I had been an orphan with no occasion to attend anyone’s wedding. After arriving here I had so few acquaintances that I only rarely showed my face as a guest. Even as flattery it was hard to call them events of any deep connection.
Of course there had once been a time when I dreamed of a grand wedding with someone I loved, but after that dream ended as mere fantasy I had closed my heart to it. More precisely, I had given up on a wedding where I truly loved someone and rejoiced.
“You never know what the future holds for a person, after all.”
I really don’t know.
The words the Minister had spoken in the waiting room suddenly returned to me, and the corner of my mouth lifted. I had believed that abandoning personal love for a marriage of noble duty was the only choice left to me. Just two years ago that was how I had thought.
But no longer. I stood here not as a noble, but as an individual.
“The bride, Lady Margeta Barenti, will now enter.”
By my own will I had come to wait for my companion.
As the voice of Cardinal Lisiuko, who had taken the role of master of ceremonies, rang through the hall, Mar walked from the far end of the carpet. Holding her father’s hand, step by step, her shy face veiled by the bridal gauze, little by little.
Watching her, an emotion I could not name ran wild in my chest. Joy was certainly part of it, yet I worried whether I could reduce the feeling to so simple a word as “happy.”
She looks even more beautiful.
I had thought the same thing more times than I could count that day alone as I watched Mar draw nearer.
Then, without meaning to, I widened my gaze—not toward Mar in front of me, but toward the guests seated around her.
…There are so many.
Many. Too simple a word, yet no other came to mind.
My parents and mother-in-law sat in the foremost row. Immediately behind them sat the Emperor and Empress, who had insisted that the true protagonists of a wedding were family. Behind them again my five lovers sat side by side.
Quite a gathering.
And finally the nobles who had flocked from every corner of the Empire. Anyone could see that a considerable crowd filled the cathedral.
Strange. Only yesterday I had been sighing that far too many people were gathering for the wedding of a mere Imperial Count; now that I thought of so many having come to celebrate me, my feelings grew complicated.
A transmigrator who had stolen another’s body, a false son, an incompetent who had failed to protect the first friends and lovers he ever made—that had been my standing in this world. At first it truly had been. Yet I had done my best to move forward as a person living inside this novel’s world. I had known despair and self-loathing, but even so I had advanced, however slowly.
It’s hard to even call myself a transmigrator anymore.
As a result of that progress I had acknowledged and accepted myself.
I had faced my family not as a counterfeit son but as a real one. I had won the peace my friends and lovers had longed for. For the world those people had tried to protect with their lives I had become one of the pillars that held it up. I had come to walk beside lovers who loved me—not the original Karl.
Because this is my world.
From some point onward the world before transmigration had grown hazy. I had never felt any lingering attachment to it in the first place.
I had only forced a distinction because this place was a world from a novel, because I was a transmigrator—yet I no longer wished to do so. I was not a transmigrator trapped inside a story; I was Karl living in this world.
The emotions I had felt here were not fabricated. The bonds I had built were not false.
This very wedding was proof that I was a resident of this world, a member who had lived diligently within it.
…Why am I suddenly like this?
I felt embarrassed a beat too late. Was my sentimentality exploding simply because I was about to become a married man?
“Karl.”
Fortunately my musings ended just before Mar reached me.
“As expected… you look even more dashing up close.”
At the praise offered with a full smile I found myself smiling in return. They say couples grow to resemble each other; if our thoughts were already so alike I almost feared how much more we might come to match.
Throughout the ceremony the face of the Minister of the Inspectorate was full of smiles.
The more I looked at him the more I nearly burst out laughing. Was that fellow even capable of smiling like that? Accustomed only to his half-dead expressions or perpetual frowns, I found the sight utterly alien.
I must have looked the same once.
Watching the Minister, I recalled the day I myself had married the Empress. Back then I too must have been smiling just as he was. The difference was that I had never received the blessings of all as he did now.
The marriage of a half-dead First Prince and a duke’s daughter had been a wedding no one wanted. Of course, for nobles weary of the Second Prince’s tyranny it had been a chance to overturn the board; yet aside from such cases, no one had celebrated that union.
Ah—except for Lady Erzebet.
A wedding without congratulations.
I glanced aside and saw the Empress watching the Minister and the lady with a faint smile.
It was pitiful. From the start she had been unable to take her eyes off the bride and groom-to-be. Perhaps she was comparing her own wedding to this one inside her heart.
“Em—”
Just as I was about to suggest we hold a second wedding just between ourselves, the voice of Cardinal Lisiuko, master of ceremonies, suddenly cut off.
Strange. Known for his swift services, the Cardinal had been proceeding without pause. A brief clearing of the throat might have been nothing, but silence to this degree was unusual.
I turned my gaze from the Empress back to the front—
“…….”
And saw the cross hanging in the cathedral radiating a brilliant light.
…What?
My mind went blank. It was a light more brilliant than any I had ever witnessed, and even I, whose faith was far from strong, felt a devout feeling rise unbidden.
Confusion. What on earth was this situation? Even if it was the cathedral’s cross, could an ordinary cross suddenly shining—and the instant sense of reverence it inspired—truly be dismissed as coincidence?
“Oh God…”
As if giving voice to that feeling, only the Cardinal’s murmur as he finally opened his mouth echoed through the silent cathedral.
What the hell.
What is this now?
A hollow laugh escaped from sheer futility. Seeing that absurdity rose before shock told me I had been through quite a lot lately. Was a mental state that ended at a hollow laugh even after witnessing this still normal?
Anyway, I took Mar’s hand as I stared at the suddenly shining cross. She too was clearly flustered by the random glowing cross.
—Wow.
As Mar flinched at the contact and carefully clasped my hand in return, a familiar voice sounded inside my head.
—Why is that one looking down at the lower world for a change? It’s rare for them to look so openly.
It was Eternal Blue Sky.
A sigh nearly escaped at hearing the very voice I least wanted. The Dawn Church cathedral’s cross was shining, and the divine being Eternal Blue Sky was reacting? Then the identity of that light was all too obvious.
Is it Enen?
—Yeah. The only god who can put out a presence like that on this continent is them.
It was cruelly obvious.
I’m going crazy. As the god of the Dawn Church, showing off their presence inside their own cathedral was understandable. It might not even be rare—dig through history and similar cases would turn up.
But I had no idea why they had to pull this stunt during my wedding. Had they decided on a surprise show while the Empire’s leadership was gathered? A performance to start donating heavily to the church from tomorrow—
—Wait. They’re saying something.
In the midst of that, Eternal Blue Sky spoke words that sounded ominous.
—Settlement… congratulations…? You, really?
What?
I reflexively questioned those words. Had a transmission error occurred while sending text from heaven to earth? What kind of god spoke so choppily.
—That one usually only says things only they understand. Don’t worry about it too much.
But having said something anyone would worry about, Eternal Blue Sky shut their mouth.
Moreover the cross that had been shining so splendidly began gradually to lose its light.
Damn it.
They barged into someone else’s wedding, made a mess, and vanished. Bastard.
The silence mixed with confusion soon transformed into cheers full of congratulations. Anyone with eyes and a brain could easily tell that the glowing-cross incident had been Enen’s doing.
A situation in which the will of God had manifested inside the Empire’s most sacred cathedral. At this wondrous and auspicious omen, not only the Cardinal as master of ceremonies but even the guests looked deeply moved.
“Under the watch of God, Karl Crassius of Tailglehen and Margeta Crassius are declared husband and wife. This is the blessing of the Lord of Heaven, and to deny this is to deny God.”
How else would they say such words while concluding the ceremony.
When entrusting a wedding to a priest one customarily says “under the watch of God,” but this wedding had truly been watched by God. The weight of it was bound to be different.
“Moreover, considering it an honor to have officiated a wedding blessed by God, I wish to present a small gift to the two of you.”
Saying so, the Cardinal stretched both hands toward me and Mar—more precisely toward our left hands—and softly recited a prayer.
It’s glowing again.
Then the wedding ring on my left hand shone. The rings we had exchanged even amid the confusion of Enen’s intrusion—the rings split in half like engagement rings. Even that precious ring now carried the energy of a god.
…Not bad, actually.
Objectively speaking it was rather good. In a world where God’s existence was proven we had held a wedding blessed by God, and now we wore wedding rings blessed by a Cardinal. An item personally blessed by a Cardinal would be treated as a holy relic, its price beyond asking.
Of course I had no intention of selling it. I wasn’t crazy.
“If it’s a wedding blessed by Enen…”
As I looked at the ring emitting a soft white light, Mar’s voice reached me and I turned my gaze.
“Then when we die, whether we meet in heaven or are reborn… we can be with Karl then too, right?”
At Mar smiling bashfully as she spoke, I smiled back. Even if a god had barged into the wedding, if Mar liked it that was enough.
“Yes, that will be so. The Lord especially cherishes the good and the just, so the love of you two will not be limited to this life.”
The Cardinal also seemed pleased with Mar’s shy remark and nodded in agreement.
“By the way, Countess of Tailglehen?”
“…Ah, yes!”
At the Cardinal’s call Mar looked blank for a moment before hurriedly answering.
It was such a cute reaction that the smile which had never left my face grew even deeper. At this rate, for the next few days simply looking at Mar would make me smile automatically.
“Finally, would you throw the bouquet?”
At those words Mar looked down at the bouquet she held, then made a resolute expression as if she had decided something.
“Hm?”
“Oh?”
Wondering how she planned to throw it with such resolve, I watched as Mar did not throw the bouquet at all but gently stepped forward.
Toward where my parents sat. More precisely, behind my parents, where Trixie was seated.
“It’s Sister’s turn next, so I’ll give it to you now.”
Mar walked over with quiet dignity and handed the bouquet to Trixie, who wore a thoroughly dumbfounded expression.
“Pfft.”
In the end laughter burst out of me. What kind of wedding kept producing things I never imagined right up to the final moment.
But I did not feel bad. If I had to choose, it was closer to pleasant.
When have things ever gone as I imagined anyway?
A wedding that did not go according to plan? Fine. Chaos was familiar enough that it felt rather peaceful.
No matter how noisy and off-script it became, in the end only laughter would remain.