The Sun Is Hot, the Sky Is High, and the Grass Is Green - 3
My first father- and mother-in-law had arrived out of nowhere, and left without so much as sitting down to a meal.
"You've come all the way to the Imperial Capital. Why not stay the night? It may not compare to Father-in-law's estate, but you shouldn't find anything lacking here."
Their departure was so abrupt it left me genuinely off-balance. Given how dearly Father-in-law held Mar, I had assumed he would at least remain a few days. A few days? I never imagined he would be gone in a matter of hours.
"No need. We've confirmed that Mar and our grandchild are well. If we linger in the manor, the servants who ought to be focused on Mar will only tire themselves out."
"We already have servants assigned exclusively to Mar—"
"And this summer is not for Mar."
"…Understood."
Faced with that firm refusal, I could only nod. Once Father-in-law spoke in that tone, further persuasion was impossible.
As he said, the centerpiece of this summer was not Mar but Trixie. If Father-in-law were to dig in his heels and take root in my manor under those circumstances, the attention and congratulations meant for Trixie would inevitably be diluted. As one duke to another, he would rather avoid souring anyone's mood.
"Then I shall take my leave. Next time, we meet as one family."
I stepped back, and Father-in-law extended his hand to Trixie.
She answered the greeting with a gentle smile. Until now he had treated her with formal deference; instead of bowing, he offered a handshake. It amounted to a declaration that he would regard Trixie not as a senior duke, but as his son-in-law's wife.
For Trixie, that had to be a welcome thing. She had been quietly fretting over the family tree twisting itself around her age—and little by little, that tree was returning to something normal.
"Yes. When that time comes, I hope you will speak to me freely."
Taking Father-in-law's hand, Trixie made the request with a smile—an impossibly difficult one.
Speak freely, she says.
Father-in-law's eyes gave the faintest twitch. Even offering this handshake must have required considerable resolve. How stout a heart would a man need to address the Magic Lord with casual speech?
But there was no helping it. Father and Mother, still residing in Tailglehen, were already practicing the informal register with Trixie. It was time for Father-in-law to step into that new world as well.
So I chose to believe it would work out somehow.
It goes without saying that mages are, by nature, a scarce resource.
Few people can even sense and handle mana to begin with, and among them only those with the intellect to comprehend magic itself can walk the mage's path. Even the Uven Alliance—hailed as a magical powerhouse—fields a magical force amounting to roughly 0.1 percent of its total population. And the consensus is that even that figure is somewhat inflated.
Sparse as a proportion of population, though, the absolute number of mages scattered across the continent is hardly small.
And the organizations those mages have formed in every corner of the continent are too numerous to count—
"A gift from the White Night Research Society. They offer their heartfelt congratulations on the marriage of Her Grace the Magic Lord, the great pillar of the magical world, and pray that light may fill the path ahead of her."
"The Operant Sibling Order has sent a large quantity of potions—newly developed in the Operant Principality. They call it a humble token of respect from junior scholars to their senior."
"In the name of the Magic Council, an artifact and—"
—and every last one of those innumerable organizations was sending gifts.
It was enough to drive a man mad. The treasury was already screaming under the weight of presents from acquaintances within the Empire and from my subordinates who had returned to their homelands. Now every manner of object was pouring in on a continental scale.
Fine. I understood. The marriage of a venerable senior of the trade—a living legend—would make anyone want to send something. And if everyone else was sending gifts and you alone were not, you would fear looking bad.
But in that case, shouldn't they have been sending them to Trixie's territory? Why was everything coming to my manor? Because she was living with me, and they were shipping to her actual residence?
Even so, a grand ducal castle is still more appropriate than a private house.
These inconsiderate people. This manor had once belonged to a marquisate, but a residence in the high-priced Imperial Capital and a duke's castle were different in scale from the ground up. Naturally the latter's treasury would be larger.
Mages who claimed to pursue truth, forgetting even a fact that simple. The Magic Lord's husband was thoroughly disappointed in the lot of them.
"My lord."
As I stood blankly watching the gifts flood in, the butler approached with careful steps.
"We no longer have space to store them."
"Already?"
My brow furrowed of its own accord. With an obvious mountain of gifts still en route that had yet to cross the border, a saturated treasury was a real problem.
"The treasury is full, and we have been using empty rooms as temporary warehouses—but even those are no longer enough."
Ah.
The confirmation that it was not merely the treasury but the manor itself that was full made me close my eyes.
This was bad. With no rooms left, there was genuinely nowhere to put anything.
"Stack them in the garden for now. Once the pile reaches a certain size, teleport them elsewhere."
After a brief deliberation, I settled on a luxurious solution. If these damned mages were going to dump every parcel in the world on my manor, I would gladly become the Crassius Logistics Center.
Fortunately I had the Tailglehen County Castle, the Wiridia County Castle, and the Cervez Grand Ducal Castle. Storage capacity itself was ample. Each was larger than this manor; deploying all three would handle the volume without strain.
The problem, if any, was a shortage of knights—no, of mages—to ferry the endless stream of gifts without rest.
"I'll borrow mages from Trixie. Don't worry about that."
"Yes, my lord."
In a pinch I could simply mobilize the Magic Tower's mages. That would be fine.
I was not putting them to work for personal greed. This was about safely transferring gifts their own Tower Master had received; they were hardly going to object.
Besides, a fair number of the presents already lodged in the treasury had come from the Magic Tower itself. If they had any conscience, they would come running even if they were busy.
Being terrorized by gifts is a first for me.
A rare experience I would almost certainly never have again in this life.
Karl's second wedding would be held before long—and not once, but twice.
The first ceremony was to take place at the Katoban Ducal family's villa within the Cervez Grand Duchy. Holding a wedding at a villa rather than the grand ducal castle had struck me as odd, until I learned that my daughter-in-law had been born there. That, I could understand. What could be more meaningful than gaining a new family in the very place where one had entered the world?
After that, the second ceremony would be held in the elf residential district within the non-human sanctuary. Among my second daughter-in-law's blood kin was an elf—someone who had been deeply wounded by humans, and who could not bring themselves to set foot in the Empire. Hence the two separate weddings.
As the groom's mother, I intended to attend both. In truth, had my daughter-in-law's relative preferred otherwise, I would have stayed away from the ceremony in the elf residential district. Thankfully, they said they wished to meet their granddaughter's husband's family in person, so I was free to go.
I was truly grateful. Someone carrying such a deep wound in their heart had chosen to receive us humans. And so I had been carefully selecting a gift that even that elf might find pleasing—
"Pardon the intrusion. We come by order of the Tower Master and His Lordship the Count of Tailglehen."
"……"
—only to find myself the first to be swept under my daughter-in-law's mountain of gifts.
"These are gifts Her Grace the Tower Master has received. But what belongs to the daughter-in-law belongs to the mother-in-law; she asks that you use anything you need without hesitation."
At those words I stared blankly at the heap of presents piled in a corner of the garden.
So many.
Far too many. And beyond the mage currently bowing to me, more mages were appearing one by one—each with a load of gifts on a scale comparable to the pile already in the garden.
"These gifts are more than an unworthy mother-in-law deserves, but please convey my thanks."
"Yes. I shall be sure to do so."
My head spun for a moment, but my mouth delivered a calm reply.
It was a little—no, more than a little—excessive, yet these were the gifts of a prospective daughter-in-law on the eve of her wedding. I could not even imagine how hurt she would be if I refused them.
So, burden or not, I had no choice but to accept. This was a child already conscious that her age and station far surpassed those of her mother-in-law. To add further weight to her shoulders would be unkind.
…A child, I called her.
I nearly laughed. At some point even my private thoughts had begun referring to my second daughter-in-law as a child.
People truly did adapt to the strangest environments, given time. Or perhaps it was simply that the child treated me as a senior, which put me at ease. Had she conducted herself before me as a duke rather than a daughter-in-law, I might never have been able to lower my guard.
A good child.
Come to think of it, for all that she had reigned as a duke for more than a century, I had never heard of her brandishing her authority to cause a scene.
Of course, everyone was careful around a duke on their own, but even allowing for that, she had lived quietly—so quietly one almost forgot she held a duke's rank at all.
Perhaps the title of duke was a shackle for her.
The sorrowful conclusion drew a bitter smile from me. For a child who had lost her family and devoted herself solely to magic, the name of duke must have been an enormous chain—a wall that kept others from approaching her, and kept her from approaching others.
I hoped that from now on she would not have to live alone, bound by that vast shackle. Even after Karl someday left this world, the children born between him and her would be at her side.
"Come, move them at once. We cannot leave valuables out of doors."
"Yes, my lady."
I turned and gave the order to the servants. The precious gifts sent by my dear daughter-in-law could not be left baking in the sun.
One day after the Crassius Logistics Center went into operation.
"My lord."
"Ah, butler. What is it?"
"…Her Ladyship says the castle has run out of space, and asks that you stop sending anything more."
"……"
One of the three pillars I had trusted had collapsed.
Damn it.
Now only Wiridia and Cervez remained.