At this very moment,
we
were being made to sit in formal seiza while Lady Maria scolded us.
Normally I was the one watching from the sidelines as the King, Lord Lyle, or Luna got scolded, but now that I found myself in that position, I understood perfectly why those three (occasionally four, counting Lord Ernest) always shrank down so small. And they say "a beautiful woman is terrifying when she's angry"—I learned firsthand that it was true.
Watching us being scolded by Lady Maria were the six people who had been in the room when I finished my earlier report to the Lich—Lady Maria included—plus Gramps and Jeanne, who had come with me, along with Kleiff and Duke Sanga. Among them the men were looking at me with either exasperation or sympathy, but Lady Isabella was every bit as angry as Lady Maria, and Jeanne, as she listened to the conversation, seemed to have drifted toward Lady Maria's way of thinking.
(How did it come to this……)
To explain the current situation, I have to go back to the moment I gave the report Lady Maria had really wanted to hear.
"So, Tenma—when you served as the go-between at the wedding, you chose Primera of House Sanga as your partner. Why was that, I wonder?"
When I heard Lady Maria's question, I figured women simply took an interest in wedding talk and the like…… and as for having done the go-between role together with Primera, I assumed she just meant to tease me…… that was about the extent of my thinking. So, trying to be as concise as possible,
"Because Albert told me to. It was decided that it would be a bad idea for a man to handle matters concerning the bride, so we asked Primera—a woman with no issues of standing, and one whose family could grant permission right away."
—was how I answered…… no, was how I went and answered.
At my answer, Gramps and Jeanne, who already knew the reason, didn't change their expressions, but Lady Maria and Lady Isabella went blank-faced, the King and Lord Ernest opened their mouths in shock, Lord Caesar and Lord Zain wore troubled looks, and Kleiff had the face of someone gazing upon a pitiful creature.
"Dear! Summon Duke Sanga and Albert at once!"
"Y-yes! Kleiff, see to the arrangements!"
"At once!"
Startled by Lady Maria's angry shout, the King gave his instructions to Kleiff even as he flinched.
"Tenma…… you, sit down over there."
"Huh?"
I'm already sitting in a chair, though…… was what I was thinking when Lady Maria pointed at the floor and said,
"
Here
—sit down."
—this time pointing at the floor as she spoke. Honestly, I didn't understand what she meant, so I looked at the King seated beside her, but the instant our eyes met, he looked away. It was the same with Lord Caesar and Lord Zain. And as for Lady Isabella, she fixed me with a sharp glare and said,
"Do as Mother says. Sit down there."
—saying much the same thing as Lady Maria, her voice laced with fury.
"U-understood……"
I didn't understand the reason, but I could tell that Lady Maria and Lady Isabella were angrier than I had ever seen them, so I did as told and knelt in seiza on the patch of floor Lady Maria had pointed to.
"So, Tenma. Do you understand why I'm angry…… no, it seems you don't."
Perhaps my genuine bewilderment showed on my face, because Lady Maria cut her question short partway through.
"Then, Tenma—what is a go-between?"
To Lady Maria's question I answered, "A person who mediates a marriage," and Lady Maria nodded and said,
"That's right, the meaning is correct. However, by rights a go-between is a role taken on by a
married person
."
"No, I did tell Primera it was something
like
a go-between, and she accepted it as such."
"That's not what I'm talking about."
My excuse was cut down in a single stroke.
"If it had been a small affair—a truly small wedding with only family attending—that excuse might have passed. But the wedding you and Primera were involved in drew guests from outside, and even nobles attended, making it an affair on a scale the whole town knew about. And it was hosted by you, Tenma…… that excuse won't work."
"Even so, what exactly is the problem here?"
Some part of me felt I shouldn't have to be scolded, so I ended up throwing back an emotional retort, but Lady Maria looked at me, sighed, and said,
"Since you're an adventurer and a man, Tenma, if I say there's no problem, then there's no problem. And even if there were, it wouldn't be a big deal. Primera, by contrast, is a noble and a woman. To put it bluntly, her worth as a woman drops."
Over something like that? Why? I was wondering, when—
"You may find it hard to understand, but noble women are required to be chaste. That's because, in noble society, a woman is expected to bear children who are without question her husband's."
I understood what Lady Isabella meant. If a woman bore a child by someone other than the man she'd married, in the worst case there was the danger that the husband's bloodline could be cut off.
"I understand that reasoning. But all I did with Primera was something like a go-between—I never actually had any physical relationship with her."
"Even so. She might be seen as a loose woman—one who so readily does with a man who isn't even her lover the sort of thing that normally only a married person may do. And even if people know it never actually happened, there may well be scoundrels who deliberately embellish rumors to drag down the reputation of Primera and House Sanga."
Learning that something I'd requested so lightly could end up damaging the reputation of Primera and House Sanga, an unpleasant sweat ran down my back. Just then,
"Lady Maria, I have shown Duke Sanga and Lord Albert in."
"Oh? That was quick."
Faster than expected, Kleiff had brought Duke Sanga and Albert. For an instant a rude thought crossed my mind—that maybe he'd hurried because he wanted to see me being scolded—but……
"At the gate I saw House Sanga's carriage heading toward the castle, so I brought them straight in."
"I see, so the Duke had the same worry. Duke Sanga, over here; Albert, sit beside Tenma."
Lady Maria showed Duke Sanga to the seat beside her (on the opposite side from Lady Isabella), and ordered Albert to kneel in seiza beside me. With a sour face, Duke Sanga silently sat in the chair Kleiff had prepared. The whole time, he seemed not to look at me. And beside me, a pale-faced Albert knelt in seiza, but because his body was trembling, he nearly pitched forward as he sat down.
"Now then…… So, Albert. Do you wish to bring shame upon House Sanga? Or do you have some ambition you'd fulfill even at the cost of sacrificing Primera?"
Lady Maria turned her gaze to Duke Sanga once before questioning Albert. Her voice was quieter than when she'd been reproaching me, but because her eyes weren't smiling in the least, it was all the more frightening.
"As I told Tenma, because you had Primera act as go-between, her reputation from here on will fall. As a loose woman."
The wording was harsher than before, but for Albert as he was now that seemed the more effective approach, and his complexion grew even worse.
"Albert…… as the heir of House Sanga, you permitted Primera to serve as go-between, didn't you? And in a way that had Tenma be the one to make the request. Isn't that cowardly? The one who named her was Tenma, the one who accepted was Primera. All Albert did was grant permission, yet the ones whose reputations suffer are Tenma and Primera. Well, since Tenma isn't a noble it won't amount to much for him, but for Primera—a woman and a noble—it won't go the same way, will it?"
Albert seemed to grasp in one go the point I hadn't been able to understand without having it explained to me, and he clearly began to panic.
"Um, that was because she herself said she had no desire to marry, so……"
"Having no desire and having no prospects are different things. Even if she has none now, the desire to marry can arise all of a sudden. And because of what you arranged this time, Albert, her prospects have surely grown thinner. Or else she'll come to be seen as cheap."
Just like me, Albert had been utterly argued down by Lady Maria. Duke Sanga was watching that Albert with sharp eyes, but the moment our eyes met he quickly looked away and cleared his throat. All the while, the men, Gramps included, had completely turned into part of the scenery. If anything, they seemed to be actively making themselves scenery. As for Jeanne, listening to Lady Maria's talk seemed to have given her something to reflect on, and she had the air of someone who felt it was only natural to be scolded.
(How did it come to this……)
Well, I mean, the root cause lay with me myself, but accepting Albert's advice was also one of the causes, so I honestly wanted to go back to that moment and stop the two of us even if it meant punching myself and Albert…… thinking that was probably what did me in.
"Tenma? It seems you still aren't reflecting enough on this."
"No! Um, well…… I am reflecting on it."
"Reflecting on it, fine—but how do you intend to take responsibility?"
"Responsibility…… is it?"
When it came to responsibility toward a woman in a case like this, only one thing came to mind. That is,
"I'm asking whether you have any intention of marrying Primera."
—was it. Certainly, considering the reputations of Primera and House Sanga, there was no more clear-cut way to take responsibility than that.
"True, Primera comes from a ducal house, so her noble standing is high, and a mere adventurer could hardly be considered her match—but fortunately Tenma's adoptive parents, Ricardo and Celia, are of noble birth, and given Tenma's own accomplishments so far, it wouldn't be anything strange. So, what will you do?"
The conditions were no problem either. The fact that Duke Sanga didn't interject on Lady Maria's proposal must mean the Duke, too, agreed with it. If so, then it all came down to my answer…… but if I just went with the flow and let the conversation carry on, that would mean I'd learned nothing.
"Tenma?"
"I'll do whatever I can, but when it comes to marriage, Primera's feelings matter most. This isn't a conversation to have where Primera isn't present—it's a conversation we mustn't have that way, I think."
"When it comes to a noble marriage, the head of the house's wishes matter more than the person's own. If Duke Sanga tells Primera to 'marry,' that settles the matter, you know?"
"That would be the same as what Albert did."
"Do you have some complaint about Primera?"
"No, thinking of her as a marriage partner, I find Primera's personality and character agreeable—but that matter and this matter are separate."
Having thought it through carefully, I answered clearly. I'd never considered it before, but if it came to marriage, Primera could be called quite an excellent partner.
"That's what he says, but what will the ducal house do?"
When Lady Maria asked for Duke Sanga's opinion, I turned my gaze that way and found the Duke wearing an even sourer face than before…… but,
"Pfft! I—I can't hold it in anymore!"
He suddenly burst out laughing. It was the kind of laughter you'd call a roar. At the sight, Albert and I looked at each other as if we had no idea what had happened, and at that, Lady Maria and the others began to laugh. Looking closely, Lord Caesar and Lord Zain were laughing too, hands pressed over their mouths.
The only ones who couldn't keep up with the shift in the room's atmosphere were the four of us—me, Albert, Gramps, and Jeanne.
"No, no, my apologies. The truth is, I'd received a letter from Primera beforehand. In it she'd written about having served as go-between at the wedding together with young Tenma, her impressions of the ceremony, and that although Albert seemed to be scheming something, young Tenma had nothing at all to do with it. I thought I ought to report this to Lady Maria, who prides herself on being Tenma's point of contact."
It seemed his report to Lady Maria was what led to this whole commotion. Learning that, Albert and I both went slack with relief, but—
"That said, Albert—I'm very angry with you. After all, not only did you use the ducal house's name without leave to make use of Primera, you dragged young Tenma into it."
"Indeed, that part won't do. I'm certain the crown previously issued a notice to the nobility not to make use of Tenma…… which means you broke it."
Thanks to Primera explaining things in her letter beforehand, there seemed to be no anger directed at me—but where Albert was concerned, that wasn't the case.
The moment Lady Maria finished speaking, Duke Sanga handed Albert a letter. That was probably the letter that had been sent from Primera.
"Well, as for that matter, we'll discuss it once we're back at the manor…… today I heard some good news!"
Seeing how delighted Duke Sanga was, I thought back carefully over what I'd said today……
"Indeed, for Tenma to think of Primera as 'agreeable enough that I wouldn't mind marrying her'—that's happy news for me as well. Why, holding Tenma's child isn't such a distant prospect after all!"
It felt a bit embellished, but that was roughly the gist of it.
(This is unbearably embarrassing!)
The gazes of the men, especially the King and the others, were particularly embarrassing. Getting looks like that made me want to say they might as well just tease me outright. Well, if they teased me it'd be embarrassing in its own way……
"Now hold on, Lady Maria. When it comes to holding Primera's child, by order of precedence I'm first!"
"And I reckon I'm about next in line after that."
Duke Sanga was making merry even as he warned Lady Maria off. And then Gramps joined in too. This was getting rough in all sorts of ways……
I looked toward the King and the others to seek help, but the King and Lord Ernest were watching for a chance to join the three's conversation, and Lord Caesar, Lady Isabella, and Lord Lyle were reminiscing about old times among themselves. As for Jeanne, she'd been roped into helping Kleiff prepare the tea.
That left only Albert…… but that Albert was frozen stiff, reading Primera's letter.
(Primera really wrote a lot of pages.)
Even just counting roughly from the side, there were easily five or six sheets. Given that volume, I couldn't imagine it was all reports and impressions of the wedding and Albert's scheme, so some of those sheets might be letters bad-mouthing or condemning Albert. If so, I kind of wanted to read a bit of it.
"Oh? Tenma, you may sit in a chair now."
Lady Maria seemed to have finally remembered me, and she interrupted her chatter with Duke Sanga and the others to grant me permission to sit in a chair. Then, at the same time as me, Albert too rose sluggishly to his feet without taking his eyes off the letter, but—
"Albert, you stay seated."
—at those words from Duke Sanga, he stopped heading for a chair and sluggishly sat back down where he'd been.
"Tenma, tea!"
"Ah, thanks?"
When I sat in a chair, Jeanne brought me tea, but for some reason she seemed to be in a foul mood, setting the cup down a little roughly.
"Well, I understand the feeling, so let's keep quiet about it to Aina."
Watching Jeanne set the cup down so roughly, Kleiff said something like that.
"In any case, Tenma. This time it was resolved without incident thanks to Primera's follow-up, but by rights this is the sort of situation where you'd have to show sincerity by marrying at once or the like."
"Yes."
"Lady Maria, let's leave it around there. From our side, just knowing that young Tenma holds affection for Primera is a worthwhile gain…… But, young Tenma—please don't do this sort of thing with any woman other than Primera again. Even if it was done with Primera's consent, we wouldn't feel good having the same thing done elsewhere, and as her father I can't guarantee I'd be able to stay calm about it either…… all right?"
"Y-yes!"
Duke Sanga as he was now had a frightfulness equal to, or greater than, Lady Maria when she was angry. It felt like the first time I'd come to know the fear a noble possesses, which is different from martial might. Incidentally, Lady Maria's fear is the kind that appeals to the instinct that you must not defy her. And as for the King, I've never felt any fear from him. That's because my only memories of him are of him goofing off, or being pathetic, or being slovenly, so rather than a monarch he just gives off the impression of some uncle relative. The same could be said of Lord Ernest and Lord Lyle, and in my internal priority ranking of the royal family, Lady Maria sits at the top while those three are dead last.
"Lady Maria, how about summoning over the one who's been skulking about beyond the door before long?"
"You're right. There is something I need to caution them about, after all."
"……Besides Steil, is there someone else there?"
At Kleiff's suggestion, Lady Maria answered with a light laugh. Duke Sanga seemed to have thought at first she meant Steil, the guard, but from the two's exchange he judged it was a different person.
"Chris, come in. Lady Maria is calling for you."
Kleiff approached without a sound, and the moment he opened the door he told the person to come in. When he opened the door there was the sound of something colliding and a shriek, but Kleiff returned to his place behind Lady Maria as if nothing had happened.
Chris, holding her head and wearing a somewhat sheepish expression, stepped forward before Lady Maria. And then,
"Chris, I assigned you to Tenma precisely so this wouldn't happen, didn't I?"
"Um…… the vibe was more like, if I had free time, I should go help Tenma……"
"Something to say?"
"I am terribly sorry!"
She got scolded right beside Albert.
Since the lecture at Chris looked like it would go on for a while, I quietly slipped away from Lady Maria's side. I left Albert behind as a matter of course, but he still hadn't recovered from the shock of the letter.
"Tenma, you look quite worn out."
"That was unavoidable. It was your fault, after all, Tenma."
"Well, I do think applying noble standards to an adventurer is a bit much, but……"
"Even so! Behavior that shames a woman is not to be permitted, whether one is a noble or an adventurer!"
"Well then, I'll take my leave with that."
Lady Isabella was arguing back against Lord Caesar's attempt to smooth things over. Watching the two of them out of the corner of his eye, Lord Zain hurriedly left the room.
"Zain's the same as ever."
"That the two of them get along so well as husband and wife is a joy to me as his sister-in-law."
Lord Caesar was a little exasperated, but Lady Isabella seemed to regard it as something agreeable, and she was smiling.
"Lord Caesar, I'm sorry, but we too will be taking our leave before long. I sincerely apologize for the trouble Albert has caused this time. Young Tenma, my apologies."
After greeting Lord Caesar and me, Duke Sanga also gave his greetings to Lady Maria and the King and collected Albert. Albert's legs had probably gone numb from the long stretch of seiza, because his movements were extremely sluggish, but perhaps because he wanted to get away from here quickly, he worked his legs desperately and left the room.
"Come to think of it, I have something I'd like to consult about regarding Amy."
"Did Tiida do something?"
The instant I brought up Amy's name after seeing off the Duke and Albert, Lord Caesar grew wary, cutting in before I could finish. When I said Tiida had nothing to do with it, he looked relieved and lowered his guard, but that reaction must have been quite funny, because Lady Isabella laughed out loud.
"Isabella, is something the matter?"
"You seem to be having fun, hm?"
Lord Ernest and Gramps, who'd heard Lady Isabella's laughter, came over to where we were. Since standing around talking with this many people was a bit much, we moved to a table away from Lady Maria and the others amid the lecture—but as we drew away, Chris seemed to glance our way for an instant and got scolded by Lady Maria. The King, standing beside Lady Maria, couldn't very well ignore Chris being scolded given his position, and he watched us having fun with an envious look.
"So, what's this you want to consult about?"
"There's to be a party at the academy soon, but it seems Amy's family can't come due to work obligations, so I intend to take on the role of standing in for them……"
"If it's that, there's no problem. Since House Otori is already Amy's guardian in the royal capital to begin with, even if her parents were to attend, an invitation should reach Tenma through a separate channel."
The reason the invitation hadn't arrived was apparently that the officials in charge of sending invitations differ between a distant guardian and a guardian in the royal capital. Depending on the distance, invitations to distant places were apparently sent out more than a month earlier than those in the royal capital.
"Also, according to Albert and the others' predictions, students may come forward to propose engagement to Amy—is that so?"
"That's entirely plausible. Even with Tenma behind her, it wouldn't be strange for there to be students who figure that if they push a little forcefully, a commoner like Amy won't be able to refuse. The royal family doesn't want a fuss stirred up, but since Amy isn't Tiida's lover, if Amy herself decides on someone, we can't interfere. Tiida worries about that, and he's become a touch oversensitive……"
For reasons like that, Lord Caesar said, when Amy's name came out of my mouth, he'd been certain Tiida had gone and done something.
"On top of that, watching Tiida lately, there are times when he overlaps with the image of my father……"
"That's worrying, isn't it."
At my words, everyone present nodded.
"Well, going a little strange over matters of love can't be helped. Alex, who's about the same age, was strange all year round."
"That's true…… How many times did I have to smack that fellow's backside……"
Gramps was saying something quite rude (though not a single person denied it), and Lord Ernest was muttering while gazing at his own palm.
"Well, rather than him getting hooked by some weirdo, I'd prefer he stay smitten with Amy…… though when I think about what happens if he's rejected…… hm."
I understood Lady Isabella's worry too. It would be fine if the two of them ended up together, but if not, the concern was whether Tiida might go out of control.
"Amy doesn't seem to dislike Tiida, so as long as he doesn't rush it, I think he has a chance."
"I'd like to hope so. Though even if they do get together, his being a commoner might become an issue…… If that happens, you'll help too, won't you, Tenma?"
"Yes, Amy is an important
disciple
to me, so I intend to do what I can."
I used the word "disciple" because I thought "pupil" was too weak to protect her from fools, and Lord Caesar nodded with satisfaction at that phrasing.
"When the time comes, I'll rely on Tenma. Well, there are various conditions to meet before that…… but considering his age, it's probably not such a distant future."
For now, at least, a framework of cooperation for when Tiida makes a move and Amy accepts it had been set up, I suppose. Just as I thought that, something that had bothered me during my talk with Lady Maria suddenly came to mind.
"Lord Caesar, Lady Maria said that 'in a noble marriage, the head of the house's wishes matter more than the person's own'—so in that case, what happens with Chris?"
Chris had said she'd run away from home because she hated a marriage arranged for debt repayment and after her family's fortune, but I felt there was a contradiction between the royal family's act of helping such a Chris and Lady Maria's words just now. So when I put the question to Lord Caesar, not just Lord Caesar but even Lady Isabella and Lord Ernest wore awkward expressions.
"About that…… even Mother apparently thought it too pitiful to marry off a twelve-year-old girl to a man past forty who'd been divorced three times. And that man had been a problem for quite some time."
"The problem being—his first wife was a woman about his own age, but the second was fifteen, just of age, and the third wasn't even of age yet, a girl about as old as Chris was at the time."
Lord Caesar seemed to be trying to be vague about it, but Lady Isabella exposed the whole thing. Furthermore,
"While he was married to his first wife, he was having an affair with the woman who'd become his second wife. That got found out, they divorced, and he remarried right after…… and it was the same reason with the third one. Apparently the first wife was a marriage to disguise his tastes—in truth, what he liked wasn't
women
but
little girls
. And with both the second and third, once they grew up and fell out of his preferences, he split with them, so I hear."
After his tastes were found out by his first wife, he stopped trying to hide them at all, and with the second and third wives it was less divorce than simply casting them aside, apparently.
"I told Tenma what I did, but Mother isn't so much a demon as to marry off a girl to a man like that."
Put that way, you could almost say Lord Caesar thinks of Lady Maria as close to a demon—not quite that far, but close…… I'll chalk it up to a figure of speech. Well, if it had been Lord Lyle, that's where I'd have retorted without holding back.
"So that's how it was. In other words, Chris's bad luck with men began the moment she was born."
"That's part of it, but Chris's ideals are too high. Having struggled with her father as a child, her wish not to compromise is probably strong."
At Lady Isabella's words we nodded, and together we looked toward Chris, who was being scolded by Lady Maria.