The Sun Is Hot, the Sky Is High, and the Greenery Is Green - 7
The bride had been kidnapped.
Even thinking the words myself left me confused, yet the bride had been kidnapped from the wedding venue.
Is this a hidden-camera prank?
I stared blankly after the group of elves vanishing into the distance. Trixie, her entire body seized by the elves and hauled off like luggage, cast me a pitiful look, but my body refused to move.
What on earth was this? Had they suddenly decided to dive into the “We will not tolerate the elder’s bloodline marrying a mere human!” meta? That would be rather inconvenient.
“Pfft, surprised, aren’t you?”
“Ah… yeah, well…”
Claris approached me as I stood there dumbfounded, chuckling as she patted my back.
“Cut them some slack. Weddings are important ceremonies for elves too. It’s been ages since we had one, so they want to dress her up prettily.”
At her words I turned my gaze back toward the direction Trixie had disappeared.
Thankfully it wasn’t a kidnapping—just a somewhat rough method of transport. Relief washed over me.
An important ceremony, huh.
Certainly, from an elf’s perspective a wedding could only be a rare and significant event.
A population overwhelmingly smaller than humanity’s combined with lifespans overwhelmingly longer. When those two factors met, weddings were bound to sprout as rarely as beans in a drought. With so few people available to marry and each life spanning centuries, even one wedding every few decades would count as remarkable.
Moreover, Trixie was the elder’s only blood relative—the daughter left behind by a friend who had passed first. Of course they would want to adorn such a precious being more beautifully than anyone. I understood.
So she’s going to get even prettier over there?
The thought was rather pitiful, yet I couldn’t help looking forward to it. A bride carefully prepared by elves who had accumulated centuries of experience—what sort of result would that produce?
She might emerge in a dress so dazzling it scarcely seemed of this world, or she might appear in traditional elven attire.
Either way I would be satisfied. Trixie would look radiant in anything.
“Ah, you two must be Trixie’s future parents-in-law? This way, please! The elder is waiting!”
After chuckling for quite some time, Claris spotted my parents standing behind me and began guiding them toward Grandmother’s house.
“They’re lively people.”
Mother whispered quietly beside my ear.
“They treat Trixie like family.”
Her voice sounded rather dazed, so I offered a safe reply. The emotion she felt now was one I myself had experienced about a year earlier.
After all, Trixie—respected as the continent’s greatest mage—was treated like a tiny child whenever she came here. Anyone who could witness that without shock would have to be a robot devoid of human feeling. Small wonder Father kept silent, settling his own thoughts.
Only my lovers who had already seen this dynamic spectacle during last year’s school trip, along with Erich and Sera, wore calm expressions.
People are adaptable creatures; I trusted the two of them would grow used to it.
As the wedding hour drew nearer, elves began gathering one by one in front of Grandmother’s house.
Not only elves—other races appeared as well. It seemed the demi-humans who maintained friendly ties with the elves had come both to celebrate and to enjoy the feast. Suddenly the occasion had become a beautiful multi-racial wedding.
Diverse, all right.
While playing with the fairies that hovered around me, I casually surveyed the multi-racial guests.
Dwarves, the default fantasy race; beastmen of every appearance; even merfolk, whom one rarely had the chance to see even inside the Elf Sanctuary.
Wow.
The moment I saw the merfolk an exclamation escaped me. I had wondered how beings with fish lower halves could move about on land, yet they rode inside enormous aquariums pulled by minotaurs and centaurs. The method of transport was so innovative it bordered on wondrous.
Watching them, I thought the Elf Sanctuary functioned rather well as a paradise. A place where different races helped one another and lived smiling—if this was not paradise, what was?
“Uheehee~ thish ish my firsht time coming all the way out here too~!”
It was truly regrettable that the master of that paradise looked like that.
I suppressed the sigh that nearly escaped by instinct and quietly turned my head. The voice alone told me who it was; I had no desire to see the fa—
“Ah! Nephew!”
Caught.
“Our nephew! Congrats on getting married after five days!”
At that booming shout the other guests’ gazes swung toward me.
Please—please be quiet. It isn’t only me here; other races are present. Please don’t put on that kind of display.
“By the way, where’s my nephew’s wife!?”
Those words, like a final confirmation kill, made me close my eyes.
That’s right. From this day forward Trixie would officially become the Wise Duke’s niece-in-law.
The Empire… was this going to be all right…?
After being tormented for several hours by Mother’s friends, I was finally released.
Yet being caught had been worth it. The reflection in the mirror carried a different atmosphere from the wedding we had held at the villa.
I really am an elf too.
I smiled without meaning to. The airy garments and the small flower crown on my head closely resembled the image of elves from old fairy tales. It felt as though I had become a member of elven society rather than a being of the human world.
I was happy. Roughly a hundred years had passed since Father and Mother died. In all that time I had never denied the blood of Mother that flowed in my veins, yet neither could I deny that because of that blood I had lived as something different from others. At last that blood had blossomed in the space of my kin, wearing the same form as my kin.
In the appearance Mother left me, I could become husband and wife with the person I loved.
“We caught the groom!”
“We have to show him before the ceremony starts! What if the groom faints when he sees her at the wedding!”
In the middle of everything, a few of the friends came running while holding Karl fast. Suddenly seized by both arms, Karl wore a thoroughly bewildered expression—until
“Oh.”
The instant he saw me he let out a short, thick exclamation of admiration.
“If we’d only held the wedding at the villa, I would have regretted it.”
The praise was delivered with an easy smile, yet it pleased me more than any elaborate string of compliments.
It felt as though Karl’s true feeling had surfaced at once.
The second wedding began. Perhaps because it was a ceremony held only five days after the first, I felt no nerves.
That was why it was enjoyable. I could fully take in the emotions I had missed five days earlier while tense—Karl’s smile, the guests’ applause, every word of the officiant.
“While serving as bishop in this place, I never expected I would one day celebrate the birth of a couple. And to officiate the wedding of an Apostle, no less—as a servant of the Lord there could be no greater honor.”
At the words of the bishop of the demi-human diocese who was officiating, soft laughter rippled among the guests.
As the bishop said, marriages among demi-humans were rare, and even when they occurred the couples followed their own traditions. It was nearly impossible for a diocese head who rotated every few years at most to preside over a wedding. Yet having broken through that extreme probability to officiate the wedding of Apostle Karl, that bishop must surely enjoy Enen’s attention as well.
“Yes—as I just said, I am a servant who serves the Lord of Heaven and follows His teachings. And if I know the Lord I know, He would not wish faith forced upon a beautiful place where a couple vows their love.”
Having spoken, the bishop removed the mitre that was the symbol of his office.
“So for this moment I shall stand not as a priest of the Dawn Church, but as a citizen living among kind neighbors in the Elf Sanctuary.”
At that rather radical declaration even greater laughter and cheers rang out.
“Bishop, is that all right?”
“With the Apostle present, should it not be fine? If the Lord scolds me later, please defend me a little from the side.”
“Haha, of course I will.”
Karl laughed and nodded.
Amazing. Live long enough and one meets even priests like this. Whether the man was simply eccentric by nature or had grown generous from living among demi-humans who treasured traditional culture, I could not say.
Yet whether innate personality or acquired change, it was equally remarkable. Where else did one find a priest willing to set aside faith for the sake of others? Perhaps that was why the World Tree itself began to glow in gratitude—
…
Huh?
It was glowing?
Not long after the officiating bishop removed his mitre, the tree that was the World Tree (pending promotion) began to evolve while pouring forth a brilliant light.
A familiar light.
A snort of laughter escaped me for a moment. I gazed at the World Tree that shone as brilliantly as the cross I had seen when I married Mar—larger now than before, its leaves denser and more abundant.
Even I, no elf, could tell. However carefully I tried to weigh the conclusion, this was the World Tree preparing to revive.
“Mom! Mom!”
“Our mom! I missed you!”
As proof, the fairies who had quietly hidden themselves once the wedding began all rushed out at once and began circling the World Tree.
They laughed with the pure delight of children while tears fell from them like rain.
“What… is this…”
While I watched the World Tree the bishop’s mutter reached me; I turned my head slightly.
He was glancing back and forth between the glowing World Tree and his own mitre, wearing a complicated expression—exactly like a civil servant fretting that some enormous accident had just occurred because of him.
What timing.
Thinking about it, the timing was truly exquisite. The instant a priest of the Dawn Church temporarily set aside his faith, Constantina’s legacy revived? If intentional, it was the work of a heavenly director; if coincidence, the entire world was assisting a god’s spectacular return.
“…It has been hundreds of years.”
At last a voice of pure freshness rang through the wedding venue. I wondered whether “fresh” was the proper modifier for a voice, yet I could find no more fitting word.
“To meet again the pitiful children I once let slip away.”
The venue grew chaotic. Guests stirred, fairies grew even happier, and the elves approached the World Tree as though possessed.
“To feel once more the vegetation of the continent.”
The World Tree that had been growing without cease finally stopped. The brilliant light gradually faded as well.
“For my dear friends to be able to see the continent again.”
Then, between the branches and among the leaves of the World Tree, something began to reveal itself.
A red bird, a blue turtle, a green tiger, a yellow snake. And following them, beings of every conceivable form drifted through the air.
“Therefore today is truly a joyous day.”
With those words the light of the World Tree vanished completely.
She’s not the god of vegetation—she’s the god of robbery.
Eternal Blue Sky’s bitter voice echoed inside my head.