The manga version currently serialized in MagComi features NamiTarou's second appearance. Additionally, the three members of the Wildcat Princess make their debut near the end. If you're interested, why not take a look?
"Well then, shall we begin?"
At my signal, the curtains of the Manpukutei — serving as the wedding venue — were drawn shut all at once, plunging the hall into complete darkness. In the meantime, Primera and I moved over to the officiants' seats. Once we were in position, Grandpa used "Light" magic to illuminate the two of us.
"We will now begin the wedding ceremony for Anri, adventurer, and Serna, Adventurers' Guild staff member."
My unusual way of speaking must have been amusing, because a small chuckle rose from the audience — but the moment Primera opened her mouth, the room fell silent again.
"First, we would like to introduce our special guests."
Primera introduced Albert, Cain, and Lion. Apparently, it's not normally done to introduce guests in this manner, but having the heirs to a duke, a marquis, and a margrave presented one by one changed the atmosphere among the attendees. The tension in the room ratcheted up, but if it helped them recognize that this wedding was something special, that was fine by me.
"Now, let us welcome today's stars of the hour."
At my words, Primera's subordinates, who had been standing by near the entrance, opened the doors. The moment the doors swung open, the magic was dispelled, and the ceremony hall was lit only by the light streaming in from behind Serna and Anri, casting their silhouettes into sharp relief.
When the doors closed and the hall went dark once more, Grandpa's magic immediately illuminated the two as they began to walk. Perhaps it was the atmosphere of the venue, but Anri, walking through the light, looked more dashing than usual. And Serna — the gorl and jill threads woven into her dress sparkled with every step, lending her an air of mystical beauty. Her appearance drew gasps of admiration not only from the men but from the female guests as well.
Once I saw that the two of them had made it all the way to the front, I stepped forward to meet them,
"I, the humble Tenma Ootori, shall have the couple make their vows of marriage on behalf of everyone gathered here today."
I had wondered whether I was really the right person for this role, but apparently even in noble weddings it's common to ask priests, people of higher rank, or superiors to officiate, and among commoners it's usually acquaintances or friends — so it wasn't considered unusual at all.
"Groom Anri. Do you vow to love, honor, and cherish Bride Serna, in sickness and in health, in plenty and in want, as your wife?"
"I do!"
"Bride Serna. Do you vow to love, honor, and cherish Groom Anri, in sickness and in health, in plenty and in want, as your husband?"
"I do."
Anri's voice had come out rather loud — whether from nerves or not — but he answered with more conviction than during the rehearsal, while Serna replied softly through tears.
"Next, we will proceed with the exchange of rings."
When I gave the signal, Primera lined up beside me carrying the small box with the ring in it, and she quietly gestured to Anri to place the ring on Serna's finger — but incredibly, Anri picked up the ring meant for himself. The instant that happened, a murderous pressure bore down on Anri from Felt, who had been watching from the guest seats. Because of that, Primera's subordinates, the knights from Lion's escort detail including Nicholas, and the adventurers who had stepped in to help all reacted and started to move, but they quickly seemed to realize the reason and watched while remaining on guard. Things were about to get extremely dicey, but thanks to Felt, Anri immediately noticed his mistake and switched to the ring meant for Serna, placing it on her finger.
As for Serna, her hands were trembling slightly, but unlike Anri's little incident, she managed to complete the ring exchange just as they had practiced.
"Now, for the kiss of vows."
In my previous life, camera flashes would have lit them up like a rainstorm, but since such things didn't exist in this world, I and Grandpa compensated by illuminating them with our magic instead.
"With these vows, I hereby recognize this couple as husband and wife. The witnesses are everyone present here, and I ask that you two live lives that will not shame those who have gathered to watch over your oath."
"We will!"
When the two of them answered, the guests erupted in thunderous applause and cheers. Well, a few of the adventurers had gotten so carried away that they hoisted Anri onto their shoulders and were about to carry him off somewhere to dump him, but the female adventurers chewed them out and the whole thing was nipped in the bud.
"Now then, let's move on to the meal... Primera, I think we have a guest."
Just as we were about to begin the reception, Slarin — who had been keeping watch outside — raised a red flag. Primera also spotted Slarin's signal and gave a gesture to a subordinate stationed near the door. And then,
"How dare you barge in here, you bastards!"
The moment Slarin brought his flag down, the door was thrown open and Anri's father burst in — only to find himself on his rear end with swords pointed at him by several of Primera's subordinates before he could even finish a single sentence.
"What do you think you're doing?! We're Anri's family!"
In place of his father, who was still sprawled on the ground, Falman raised the protest. The father seemed to remember the purpose of their intrusion and,
"You lot! Do you even know who we are?!"
The father shouted this while trying to invoke Viscount Abyss's name, but the viscount in question ignored him entirely and knelt down on the spot.
"It has been too long, Lord Albert. Lady Primera."
The father looked utterly bewildered by the viscount's behavior, and Falman, though trying to appear flustered, knelt down as well, following Viscount Abyss's lead.
"It has indeed been a while, Viscount Abyss. Now then — on this joyous occasion, what business brings you here?"
Albert addressed the viscount in a tone that was not quite an accusation as he asked his purpose, and Viscount Abyss answered with his head still bowed. In the meantime, the father had been forced to his knees by Falman and, upon hearing Albert's true identity whispered in a low voice, was left utterly speechless.
"I apologize for the sudden intrusion, but might we also be given seats?"
After exchanging a few words with Viscount Abyss, he came to request my permission to attend the wedding.
"If they have a personal connection to the two of you and genuinely wish to celebrate, there's no problem. However, while I can arrange a seat near the front for the Viscount himself, everyone else will have to sit toward the back."
Viscount Abyss nodded at my words, but the father did not look satisfied at all.
"Don't screw with me! Why should I have to sit in the back? Just send those random adventurers back there!"
At the father's words, the adventurers who had been sitting quietly until now were getting riled up and starting to rise from their seats. The father, oblivious to this, continued:
"Just who do you think you're talking to! A commoner like you, telling me to go to the back — who do you think you are!"
When the adventurers heard this, they settled back into their chairs.
"You say commoner, but are you a noble yourself? If you don't hold a noble title, then you're a commoner too, aren't you? And you claim to be his father, but since you disowned Henri, the bond between parent and child is severed, isn't it? Why should we have to reserve premium seats for a commoner who crashed someone else's wedding? Even if they are in the very back, you should be grateful we're providing seats at all."
My provocation turned the father's face bright red, and he looked ready to explode at any moment, but—
"Enough already! You've been sitting there quietly this whole time, and now you just spout whatever you please!"
"Viscount Abyss, why did you bring this man along? Because of him, this wonderful wedding is being ruined!"
"Even though I disowned him, I never imagined he would pull something like this at his own son's wedding... In any case, I was foolish to think that with me here, nothing of the sort would happen. I am truly sorry."
The father froze in shock after being yelled at by Viscount Abyss. Then, glared at by Viscount Abyss — who had just apologized to Albert and the assembled guests — his face turned deathly pale. And finally:
"The one you were just calling a commoner is Lord Tenma Ootori, known as the 'Dragon Slayer.' Commoner he may be, but in this country's nobility, it is now common knowledge that the Ootori family demands more deference than most nobles."
The instant the father learned my true identity, he fainted.
"To faint over something like this... All that planning went to waste."
Falman muttered as he looked down at his unconscious father, then turned to apologize to the assembled guests. Seeing Falman's sudden change in attitude, most of the guests were suspicious, but when Albert explained that he had been cooperating with my plan to crush the father, they broke into thunderous applause.
"Well then, now that things have settled down, I'd like to move on to the meal... Alcohol will be served as well, so please enjoy yourselves with the motto 'drink, but don't let the drink drink you.'"
The drinkers let out a cheer at the mention of alcohol, but when I let a hint of killing intent fly at the end, they quieted down. If I did this much, they probably wouldn't start the kind of wild brawls you see at taverns.
Just as we were about to begin the meal, Falman tried to take the father and leave, but Henri and Serna stopped him, and the father was moved to the back—
Letting Them Sleep
We ended up eating at the front table.
"First, we'll start with the appetizers."
We began with lighter fare — the old man's signature chicken ham, soup made with horned rabbit, and marinated Tyrant Salmon — and continued on.
"This is horned rabbit stew and salt-grilled salmon."
We brought out dishes with a bit more heft. The guests seemed to think it was just an ordinary stew and grilled fish, but what actually arrived was a 'stew pie bake' — stew sealed inside a pastry shell and baked — and a 'Tyrant Salmon salt-crusted roast' — surrounded by a casing of salt and baked whole. The unexpected presentation left everyone stunned.
"We'll be cutting the salt-crusted roast right here, so please bear with us for a moment."
The stew was served first, and then the old man cracked open the salt crust right in front of everyone and carved it up. Ordinarily, you'd serve dishes one at a time, but we'd decided to bring both out simultaneously since this time was partly about putting on a show for Henri's father. Well, the father had fainted anyway, so bringing them out together had lost its purpose... but everyone was enjoying themselves, so it didn't matter.
When we brought out the palate-cleansing sherbet, I checked on the guests, and it looked like they still had plenty of room left. If this kept up, they'd be able to enjoy the main course too.
"Next up is the dish. The next course is a platter of dishes made with wyvern meat."
I'd prepared a selection of wyvern meat dishes, portioned out and arranged on a single platter. There was roast wyvern, hamburg steak, katsu, karaage, and skewers — it was a plate that felt like it collected all of my best work. Combined with how rare the ingredient actually was, the guests showed the most excitement yet.
"After the salad comes today's star dish."
Among the guests who had been certain the wyvern meat was the highlight, I could hear surprised voices asking whether there was really something beyond that.
As if responding to those voices, the lights were dimmed, and from the direction of the dining hall, Amour, Jeanne, Aura, Ms. Renny, and the three Lynx Princesses carried in a five-tiered wedding cake roughly a meter tall.
"The bride and groom will perform their first collaborative task together, right here in front of everyone."
Once the cake was placed on the central table of the venue, the two of them were called over.
"Please, go ahead."
At Primera's signal, the two of them sliced into the cake in unison. The moment they did, Albert and the others clapped exactly as we'd planned, and the guests — who had just been watching the couple — joined in with their own applause.
The cake was cut right there by the old man, who sliced the bottom four tiers, but left the top tier intact and detached it, then carried it over to Ms. Serna and Henri.
"First, the bride and groom will have a taste. Please, go ahead."
Once the sliced cake had been distributed to everyone, we decided to have the two guests of honor taste it first. This had been arranged beforehand, but Henri, overcome with nervousness, was about to bring the piece to his own mouth instead of feeding it to his partner. However, Serna quickly moved a piece of cake in front of Henri's mouth, and he caught himself just before it entered. He barely managed to get the cake over to Serna's lips in time.
"Everyone, please dig in."
Once the two of them had taken a bite, a signal was given to the guests... and they spectacularly split into two distinct methods of eating. One was the couple-feeding-each-other approach, just like Serna and Henri had done, while the other was watching the couples and simply eating alone. The leading proponents of the former were Flute and the Guild Master, and the chief representative of the latter was Lion.
With the meal finished, most of the planned events were over. It was time for everyone to simply relax until the closing hour—when Falman announced he would be taking his father home. Apparently, a considerable amount of time had passed since the man had lost consciousness, and nobody knew when he might wake up. Falman said it would be easier to advance their plans if his father regained awareness somewhere more private than the current venue.
"Understood... but whatever you do, don't kill him. Even if ties have been severed, having your father murdered—especially by the groom's older brother—would only be a negative for both of you."
When I pressed the point firmly, Falman smiled, nodded, and swore that he would absolutely do no such thing. He carried his father to the carriage without letting Serna or Henri notice, and departed Manpukutei just like that.
"Tenma! Thank you, thank you so, so much—!"
"Woah!"
The instant I turned back toward my seat after seeing Falman off, a sobbing Marcus latched onto me in a bear hug.
"What a, what a magnificent wedding! Seeing Serna looking so happy! I wish I could have shown this to my sister, too!"
"Hey, Marcus. Let go for a moment, please."
Marcus seemed quite drunk and wasn't listening to a word I said. The only thing I could make out clearly was his initial expression of gratitude—after that, it was nothing but fragments. Most of it was about Serna's murdered mother and father, so I tried to lead him to a corner of the venue where the other guests wouldn't overhear. But Marcus's voice was so loud that it hardly made a difference. Of course, most of the attendees already knew about Serna's situation, so some of them deliberately spoke louder to pretend they weren't listening, or tried to distract those who didn't know the details by striking up conversations with them.
"Tenma, let me take over."
Just as I was struggling to maintain some semblance of a conversation with Marcus, Grandpa came over and offered to step in. For a moment I thought I should keep listening—Marcus had clearly come looking for someone to hear him out—but it was obvious this wasn't going to be a coherent exchange anytime soon, so I decided to leave it to Grandpa's old-age authority.
I stepped back and watched the two of them from a distance, but it turned out my judgment was correct. After a while, Marcus had calmed down considerably and was actually listening to what Grandpa had to say.
"Serna, congratulations."
"Thank you, Tenma. Such a wonderful wedding... I don't even know what to say..."
Serna wiped away tears as she thanked me,
while Primera
gently rubbed her back. I would have expected that to be the groom Henri's role, but Henri himself was surrounded by fellow adventurers and former colleagues, unable to even move.
Friends and colleagues had been gathering around Serna and Henri one after another, so I yielded the spot and went to check on Daniel... but Daniel seemed to be completely wasted, slumped face-down on the table.
"Otori, I truly appreciate you allowing me to attend the wedding."
Viscount Abyss had gone out of his way to come over and express his gratitude.
"You should direct that thanks to Serna and Henri."
"No, in a case like this, the organizers are the ones who decide the attendees. While I am acquainted with Henri, I had never met you before, and I brought troublesome company along. It wouldn't have been unusual to be turned down."
As he spoke, Viscount Abyss cast his gaze toward the four banners adorning the wall. Those four banners bore the crests of the Otori family, the Sanga family, the Sammons family, and the Hausuto Margrave family.
"That was likely an attempt to use me to show off their power to Henri and Serna... but honestly, I'm glad they withdrew before they tried to rope me in. A single viscount household trying to compete against these four families would be nothing but a joke. Whether I was roped in or denied entry, it would have been humiliating either way."
So apparently, it was a relief that they had been granted permission to attend as walk-ins before my father had a chance to bring up Viscount Abyss's name.
"Well then, I should be heading off as well."
After this, Viscount Abyss planned to go help Falman. He had apparently intended to leave the venue before those two, but he had stayed behind to talk with me, so time was going to be tight.
"I don't know if I'll be as useful as Lord Albert and the others, but I'll lend a hand if anything comes up. Also, I'm counting on you to look after Primera."
"Thank you very m—huh?"
I tried to question him about what he meant, but Viscount Abyss hurriedly left the Manpokutei.
"Why does everyone always want to jump to conclusions..."
"I hope that's the case."
As I sighed over Viscount Abyss's misunderstanding, Flute called out to me from behind.
"Well, put that aside... it was quite the wedding, wasn't it? I suppose this is what the 'Dragon Slayer' looks like when they're serious?"
Flute was smiling teasingly. The Guild Master wasn't beside her, and noticing my gaze, Flute pointed to where they were. The Guild Master was...
"If you mean them, they were the first to go tease Henri."
At the very center of the circle surrounding Henri — or rather, right next to Henri — stood the Guild Master. Whether they were drunk or not, the Guild Master was pestering Henri relentlessly.
"Huh? Shouldn't you go check on them?"
"I'll give them an earful when we get home. Doing it now would just kill the mood."
She's really got them under her thumb, huh… I thought, just as—
"More importantly, Tenma, shouldn't you go check on your girlfriend? She looks like she's in trouble."
When Flute pointed that out, I turned to look and saw Primera being harassed by a drunk… a drunk named Chris…
"I'll be right back."
I excused myself to Flute and headed over to Primera and Chris, where Chris was latching onto Primera quite literally.
"Chris, Primera's having a hard time. Come on, let go, let go."
"Noooo, I don't waaaaanna."
I pried Chris away from Primera and sat her down in a chair, and soon enough Renie came over and took Chris away somewhere.
"Thank you so much…"
"That was quite the ordeal. Chris is unbearable like that… Still, the number of drunk people is growing. Maybe we should wrap things up and move on to the after-party."
At this rate, forget about Henri and the guests — Serna, still in her wedding dress, was clearly having a rough time, so I decided to call a break and reset.
When I made the announcement, Serna's face visibly relaxed with relief, and she headed upstairs to change. Henri, however, was still not released from his duties and was made to keep entertaining the Guild Masters.
"Now then, with the guest of honor's costume change complete… the after-party begins! We have plenty of food and drinks prepared, so please enjoy yourselves to your heart's content! Just keep it within the bounds of common sense. Otherwise… I will be angry."
The mention of "food and drinks" got a huge cheer from the guests, but the moment I tacked on "I will be angry" at the end, things got quiet. Well, the instant the food was actually brought out, things got noisy again — but as long as no legitimate complaints about genuinely unacceptable behavior came in, letting people cut loose a bit was probably unavoidable. For the record, the food served was the remaining dishes from the course meal plus some easy-to-make items laid out with bread and such in a buffet style where people could take whatever they wanted. Of course, knowing that would inevitably produce idiots who'd try to walk off with an entire plate, I set a rule: one plate per person, you can only take as much as fits on the plate, and you have to finish it before getting seconds.
Whether that rule was the reason or not, even Serna's colleagues from the Guild staff were able to eat properly alongside the adventurers… As for the sweets that were brought out around the time the main dishes ran out, the women banded together and secured most of the sweets, sharing them among themselves — so the majority of the men missed out entirely.
"Should we have made rules for the sweets too…"
"No, I… actually foresaw that."
"Really? Look over there — they pushed security duty off on a colleague, and even Primera's subordinates have joined in."
"Well, it's Tenma we're talking about — he probably secured a stash of sweets as backup, right? So just bring those out."
While I was watching the women eat sweets alongside Albert and the others, Lion made an unnecessary comment. As a result, everyone's eyes naturally focused on me, and some of the stares were so intense I could practically hear them saying, "If you have any, just hand them over…"
Because their obsession with sweets was so overwhelming, no matter how many times I said I didn't have any, I just couldn't get them to believe me.
"Your obsession with sweets is so terrifying it's actually scary…"
I nearly came away with a mild trauma from the whole ordeal. In any case, the after-party wrapped up without incident, and from there we rolled straight into a third party where all we did was drink and make noise, and after what must have been the fourth — or was it the fifth? — after-party, the venue was nothing but wasted attendees sprawled everywhere.