"There were a few hiccups, but it looks like things worked out pretty well overall."
"They did. I was surprised that Primera and Viscount Abyss put on that little act together... but I suppose it's fitting for a noble's daughter. Speaking of which, we need to prepare a room for Primera too — have you decided which room it'll be?"
On the ride back from the party, Grandpa and I were chatting enthusiastically in the carriage the duchy had provided, going over the party and future plans, when the topic of Primera's room came up.
"I've been thinking about it, but..."
"You're being awfully evasive. Don't tell me you're planning to share a room with Tenma?"
Even if we were officially engaged, it simply wouldn't do to share a room before the wedding. Sure, it was agreed that I'd lose my noble status once we married, but until that day Primera was still a noble, and I felt that boundary needed to be properly respected.
"There's no shortage of spare rooms, so there's no need to force ourselves to share. Besides, sleeping in the same room before marriage isn't appropriate. What I was actually thinking is that we should sort through the empty rooms. I don't even know what's in most of them, so rather than doing it alone, it'd be better to have everyone help out."
Right now, our mansion was divided into sections for the women, the men, and guests. This arrangement came about because the King had ordered Grandpa to set aside rooms that he and the people from Kukuri Village could use in case of emergency when Grandpa moved to the Royal Capital. After Grandpa reunited with me and regained his vigor, that precaution was no longer necessary, so the layout was reorganized to fully separate the men's and women's quarters. In practice, there were five rooms occupied by myself, Grandpa, Jeanne, Aura, and Amour, plus three rooms that Tida and the others were using, which still left around ten empty rooms, including the guest rooms.
"Now that I think about it, we really do have too many rooms. And most of them are barely being used — they've basically turned into storage spaces..."
"That's right. I still haven't gotten a full picture of what every room looks like, and some of the spare rooms besides the ones reserved for guests are being used as junk rooms... ahem! As storage."
Jeanne, Aura, and Aina, who did the cleaning, and Luna, who sometimes used a room as a hideout, probably had a good sense of what each room was like. But at the very least, Grandpa and I — despite being the head of the household and former head — only really knew our own rooms and our personal storage spaces (which doubled as workshops), plus the room we used as a study. That was a bit embarrassing.
"So I was thinking we could start by tidying up the area around our own rooms, at least, and increase the number of livable rooms."
In the long run, we might need to clean every room and reassign them, but that was too much to tackle all at once. So I suggested we start with the rooms near ours and see how it went.
As we discussed this and approached the mansion—
"Grandpa, there's a royal carriage heading this way up ahead."
"You mean it's coming toward us? Showing up at a time like this, it's almost certainly about the party."
If someone from the royal family was coming to our mansion, it would be faster to meet them on the road, so I got off the carriage alone to intercept them.
"Honestly, that was reckless... well, not exactly reckless, but nobody in their right mind would do something like that."
After successfully stopping the royal carriage and confirming its destination was the Ootori household mansion, I moved over to their carriage together with Grandpa — and got an earful from Lady Maria.
I had gotten ahead of the royal carriage's route and was about to signal for it to stop, but... I was mistaken for a suspicious person, and out from the carriage came Din-san, sword drawn, charging at me. As it happened, Kurif-san was driving the carriage, and before he could notice that I was the one signaling, he had already reported that "there's a suspicious person up ahead." The moment he realized who the "suspicious person" really was and tried to pass the word back, Din-san had already burst out, so there was no stopping him. Incidentally, the signal I had given to stop the carriage was a thumbs-up with the vibe of "Hey! Taxi!" — so Kurif-san had reported me as "a suspicious person making strange gestures."
What Lady Maria had earlier called a reckless thing to do apparently meant that while I myself wouldn't mind even if I stopped a royal carriage, in a situation where no one knows who you are, getting cut down on the spot wouldn't be out of the question.
While being scolded by Lady Maria, I asked about the reason for their visit and learned that what I had been dreading had come sooner than expected. Well, apparently Lady Maria had come specifically to handle this, so the trouble would definitely be cut by more than half.
"Jeanne and Aura don't seem to have come. I wonder if they haven't noticed, or if they're busy... Either way, that's a demerit."
We had passed through the mansion's gate and made it to the front door, but Jeanne and Aura — who usually open the door at the sound of the gate opening and closing — hadn't come, so Aina stepped in to open the door instead... except—
"Tenma-sama, it seems something interesting is going on, so would you mind opening it yourself?"
she said. Well, it's my own house's door, so I don't feel any reluctance about opening it myself, but I wondered what could be so interesting as I swung it open, and—
"Tenma, what is the meaning of this?!"
"Big brother, explain!"
Standing right on the other side of the door were Chris and Luna, frozen in place. So I quietly closed the door.
"I could have sworn I just heard Chris and Luna's voices. What in the world is going on?"
Grandpa, suspicious of my reaction, pushed me aside and opened the door, but—
"Hmm."
He said, and immediately shut it again.
"So they really were here... Aina."
"Yes."
Lady Maria, who apparently figured out everything the moment she saw Grandpa and me, swapped places with us and had Aina open the door. And then—
"Tenma! Ever since earlier... Eek!"
"Chris, you're in the way! Big broth— You demon!"
They must have thought I was just goofing around (apparently the second time, they hadn't even realized it was Grandpa), but by the third time — with Lady Maria and Aina — the two of them rushed forward aggressively, only to freeze the moment they realized who they were dealing with. And there was an atmosphere suggesting that Luna's slip of the tongue was going to land her in even hotter water than Chris.
"Why don't we continue this inside?"
""Yes...""
The two of them, glared at by Lady Maria, cast a resentful look my way for a moment before obediently making their way to the dining hall.
In the meantime, Grandpa and I headed upstairs to check out the empty rooms. That's when—
"Tenma, Lady Maria started lecturing Chris and Luna — what should we do?"
Jeanne, Aura, and Amur had come looking for us.
The three of them had been in the dining hall — keeping quiet so Chris and Luna, who had stationed themselves at the entrance, wouldn't drag them into it — but when Lady Maria and the others walked in, they could tell from the atmosphere that Chris and Luna were about to get an earful, so they'd fled up here.
When I told the three of them that I was going to tidy up the empty rooms we'd been using as storage while making sure we had a room for Primera, all three immediately raised their hands and offered to help.
Then again, these three had also been helping themselves to the empty rooms as their own personal storage, so they probably wanted to avoid having Grandpa and me rummaging through their stuff.
"If we're all doing it together, should we have invited Primera too?"
In the end, since everyone was going to help clean up the empty rooms, I figured we might as well have called Primera and let her pick whichever room she wanted — but…
"I don't think that would be possible."
Aina said that, having approached from behind without making a sound. By now, Grandpa and I were used to this trick and didn't flinch much, but the other three were startled by her sudden appearance and jumped back, putting distance between themselves and her.
Amur was especially shaken — ears and tail standing straight up — hiding behind Jeanne and Aura like they were shields.
"Is she busy with the post-party cleanup?"
At the level of a ducal household, the servants would handle all of that, but maybe there was something related to the guests that needed her attention. That's what I assumed, but—
"Primera is most likely being scolded by Caesar-sama right now, so even if you were to invite her, the Duke would surely find some reason to decline on her behalf. In that case, I'll help out in her stead. As it happens, I've been curious about how exactly Aura and Jeanne have been squatting in those empty rooms."
I told Aina that I'd already given Jeanne and the others permission to use the empty rooms as they pleased, but she said she still wanted to see for herself, so there was no turning her down.
Amur, figuring Aina's targets were Jeanne and Aura, had been acting all smug — but Aina had been glancing Amur's way several times already, so the target seemed to be not two but three. For all I knew, Grandpa and I might be included too, making it five — but Grandpa and I basically just stuffed things into our Magic Bags, and as the current and former master of this estate, we probably wouldn't be given too hard a time… at least, that's what I wanted to believe.
And so the cleanup of the empty rooms began… Grandpa and I, for our part, started with "It's a bit dusty, but—
it's not messy."
And that was that. As for Jeanne, she received a rather harsh evaluation: "Well, I'd like to say it's reasonably tidy, but as a maid, she barely avoided a failing grade." As for the main targets, Aura and Amur — "This is inexcusable. Now, get started." They were ordered to begin cleaning under supervision, no arguments accepted.
The three of us — Grandpa, Jeanne, and I — watched the two of them from a distance so as not to provoke Aina, while discussing what to do with the empty rooms. That was when—
"Big bro! Why did you keep your engagement a secret!"
Whether she'd been released or had escaped on her own, I couldn't tell, but Luna had come up to the second floor and was making a commotion.
"Luna, did Lady Maria say it was okay for you to come here?"
If she had snuck out, I needed to get her back to Lady Maria's side right away before the trouble spread to me, so I asked—
"It's fine! Grandma told me to come help you, Big bro!"
"If you say so, Luna, then I guess it's fine. But more importantly, Aina — what did you mean earlier about Primera getting scolded?"
It had come up in our earlier conversation and been on my mind, but Aina had immediately started checking the empty rooms, so I'd missed my chance to ask. Now I took the opportunity to bring it up.
"Lord Tenma doesn't seem to be concerned, but Lady Primera went and told Viscount Abyss about the engagement, so she's receiving a reprimand — or rather, more of a warning about it. It wasn't an order, but the Royal Family, the Duke Sanga household, and the Ootori family had all agreed to keep it a secret until the party. So even though everything worked out, the Royal Family still needs to at least issue a warning to save face."
"Then shouldn't I have stayed as well?"
I figured that if the agreement among the three families had been broken, it wasn't exactly none of my business — but Aina said it was just "a nominal warning," and that my being there might actually make things worse. In other words, the Ootori family apparently had no idea the agreement had been broken, and the Royal Family and Duke Sanga's household wanted to quietly handle it as a "political decision" and leave it at that.
"Well, it'd be a hassle to hold a meeting over something that isn't a big deal, and noble pride means nothing to our family anyway. Maybe I'll pretend to find out about it much later and we can all have a good laugh about it someday?"
"I think that would be for the best."
Even though it was called a meeting between noble families, there was really no issue to speak of, so it would probably end with Caesar-sama and Duke Sanga teasing Primera about it, and that would be that.
Now that I'd gotten the answer to what had been bothering me, I was thinking of going to tidy up the other empty rooms when—
"Big bro! You've been ignoring me this whole time!"
Luna had cut off my path and was fuming. Actually, during my conversation with Aina, Luna had tried to talk to me several times, but I was certain whatever she had to say would be a hassle, so I ignored her until I could think of a countermeasure. Well, I did think of one eventually, but I figured she might give up if I pretended not to notice — but that clearly wasn't going to work.
"Why did you keep me out of the engagement news! Big Brother knew about it!"
"Didn't Lady Maria give you the reason?"
I asked because there was no way that topic hadn't come up during her lecture, but she wouldn't buy it, firing back with, "That's no excuse — you didn't tell me because it would've gotten complicated, and I'm supposed to just accept that?!" Well, even if I were in Luna's shoes, I wouldn't have let it slide. Though in my case, "you're not directly involved" probably would've been enough for me.
"Luna, about the secret — you heard what happened to Tida... oh, right, she came here before that, didn't she?"
"What happened to Big Brother?"
I dropped a deliberate hint that something had happened to Tida — who already knew about my engagement to Primera — and just as I expected, Luna took the bait immediately.
"When I went to the royal castle to report on the dungeon clear, we went to see Lady Maria together — you, Tida, and me. Remember?"
"Yeah."
"Back then, you got taken away by Lady Isabella, right? Well, after that, I accidentally let it slip in front of Tida and the engagement came out. But Lady Maria made Tida swear she'd never tell a soul. Tida kept that faithfully and didn't even tell Amy... But today at the announcement, Amy confronted her about it. She was so angry I was worried they might actually break up."
"Really?"
"Well..."
"at"
"least,"
"that's"
"how"
"it"
"seemed"
"from"
"my end."
"...is what I meant. But in truth, Tida really did look exhausted. If even Tida ended up that worn out, then for Luna... the people she'd have angry at her over the engagement leak would be Lady Maria, Caesar-sama, and Lady Isabella. Simple math says that's three times Tida's exhaustion. And mind you — Tida kept the secret and still got drained. Luna actually let it slip. So it wouldn't be just three times."
"......so," I said,
"I'm not that clumsy!"
That was her reply. But,
"Just so you know, Tida was apparently under constant pressure to make sure she didn't let even a slip about it to Amy. Just keeping quiet was already a tremendous burden. Amy is connected to me, so even if the secret got out, it wouldn't really be a problem — but what about Luna? Does she really think she could keep a secret that long from a close friend?"
"Well, that's—! I mean, um, err, that..."
Even Luna, bold as she was, couldn't confidently insist she'd be fine after hearing all that. Her momentum gradually fizzled out.
"If I had told Luna about the engagement, she would have gone through extra hardship — that's why I deliberately
did
not
tell
her. Well, Primera and I were both on that page. As for the royal family, Maria probably had the King make the decision, I'd guess? If you want to know the reason, you'd have to ask one of the two of them… I honestly don't know the royal family's side of things."
I rattled off plausible-sounding excuses, and the plan was complete once attention was redirected toward the King and Maria. Even as their granddaughter, Luna couldn't very well push back against Maria — so if anyone was going to take the heat, it would be the King. That way, no one but the King would have to deal with the fallout.
"It almost sounds like a con artist's technique, the way you make vague statements that leave room for any excuse."
"Aina, you're annoying."
Aina was teasing me in a whisper too quiet for Luna to hear, but it didn't matter since nothing I'd said was a lie. Luna might end up misinterpreting things, but everyone reads situations differently, and sometimes a message simply doesn't land the way it was intended.
"Luna, since you've got the chance, go clean your room. You never know when Maria might show up to inspect it."
Luna made a face at the word "clean," but the moment I mentioned Maria's name, she hurried off toward the room she'd claimed.
"Aura, make sure you clean properly."
Aina — whether she was going to help or just supervise was unclear — gave Aura a firm reminder and immediately chased after Luna.
"Thanks to Aina, gramps and I are mostly done, I think?"
"Aye, that we are. As for Primera's room — during the engagement, set her up near Jeanne and the others, and after the wedding, she can move closer to Tenma if that's what she prefers. Once they're married, I think I'll move rooms too. Wouldn't want to get in the way of Tenma and Primera's nighttime activities — not at all, no sir!"
"Tch!"
He'd been acting goofy at the end, so I thought I'd jab him in the ribs with my thumb as a retort, but Gramps seemed to read that move and dodged with a sideways leap.
"Then until Primera-san visits again, we should probably keep the empty room clean and tidy."
Jeanne wrapped things up as if nothing had happened, so I gave up on landing a hit on Gramps, and the three of us headed to the dining hall. That was when —
"Oh my? Are you done already?"
We ran into Maria-sama coming up the stairs. Din-san was behind her too, so her lecture for Chris must have finished.
"Tenma, Chris is a bit on edge, so calm her down for me, would you? I'll leave the method to you."
"Leave it to you."
It was a complete dump-and-run, but one way or another I'd have to deal with Chris eventually. So —
"Tenma-kun! Why didn't you say anything?!"
"Hey, Tenma-kun, are you listening?"
"Hellloooo~? Can you hear me~?"
"Could it be, Tenma-kun — are you mad?"
The moment I stepped into the dining hall, Chris came charging up to me, but I treated her as though I hadn't ignored her at all. After a little while —
"Big bro, I'm hungry!"
"Indeed you are."
"My goodness, that Luna..."
Amour and Aura, along with Maria-sama and the others, arrived.
"Jeanne, make some tea —"
9
"...people"
"...serving"
"Prepare them for me."
"Shouldn't it be ten servings?"
"There's me, Gramps, Amour, Jeanne, Aura, Maria-sama, Luna, Dinn, and Aina — that's nine. Who else is there?"
"Um... just give me a moment."
"Jeanne! Ten — ten! Ten servings, that's right!"
"Jeanne, don't panic — just make sure it's nine servings."
When I deliberately counted on my fingers, naming everyone except Chris, Jeanne kept glancing at Chris as she set about preparing the tea. Chris protested from behind her, demanding her own share too, but I firmly insisted on nine servings.
Maria-sama and the others, watching our exchange, realized I was treating Chris as though she didn't exist, and sat down without meeting Chris's eyes. Well, Amour and Luna were watching Chris with amusement, and Chris tried to approach them to assert her presence, but Amour —
"Tenma. I caught a big bug, so I'm gonna go toss it in the garden real quick."
"Take it as far away as you can."
—saying things like that, he grabbed Chris in a headlock and tried to drag her out to the garden. Just then —
"Tenma-kun, I'm sorry, so please forgive me! I won't complain about the engagement or anything, so at least treat me like a person!"
Finally, Chris surrendered.
"Huh? Chris, when did you get into the dining hall? I didn't see you around, so I was sure you'd already gone home."
"Indeed, I was supposed to be catching a bug, but somehow Chris ended up here instead — what a shock!"
And so, with acting that wouldn't pass muster in a third-rate troupe, they acknowledged Chris's existence.
"I almost got thrown outside..."
Chris, who had very nearly been tossed out, sipped the tea Jeanne had brought and glared at me with resentful eyes, but she obediently remained seated at the table.
"I wish things would just stay quiet until the wedding ceremony."
When I muttered that offhandedly,
"That's probably not going to happen. The 'Dragon Slayer's' marriage to the Duke Sanga family's eldest son... that alone would make 'wedding-related' matters the biggest topic of the year, but if Tenma does something at the duke's wedding reception party like he did in Gunjou City, there will definitely be more couples holding weddings this year than usual."
"That would make Tenma the center of this year's buzz, wouldn't it?"
"Yes, exactly, Merlin-sama. And what's more, there might even be requests from not just nobles but commoners wanting to imitate Tenma's wedding ceremony,"
Lady Maria responded, and Grandpa chimed in cheerfully beside her.
As far as I was concerned, my stance was that people didn't need my permission—they could just go ahead and do as they pleased. But Lady Maria, seeing my demeanor and reading my thoughts, said,
"Well, when a great noble and his relatives have started doing something, others would feel hesitant to copy it freely. From the nobles' perspective, it could be seen as stealing their party methods, and from the commoners' standpoint, they'd worry that if they imitated it without permission and got reprimanded, it could cost them their lives."
Among the nobility, there were all sorts of complicated conventions, and apparently it wasn't acceptable for commoners to casually copy something that even nobles refrained from doing. Furthermore, the wedding style I had started—if I had remained a commoner, both nobles and commoners copying it freely probably wouldn't have been an issue. But because I, a commoner, had become part of the Duke Sanga family, people now had to show the same level of consideration toward me as they would to a noble.
"That's so troublesome... There must have been someone who did something similar before me, right?"
"Well, someone may have done something similar, but it was only similar in nature. No one in my memory or in the royal records has ever done what Tenma did—serving high-end dishes individually as courses to each guest, providing that many desserts, and especially that enormous cake. So I'd say it's fair to call it a Tenma-original wedding ceremony."
I'd essentially received Lady Maria's official seal of approval on this point... which only made things more troublesome.
"If you want to avoid complications, it might be best to have that person—the King—subtly mention in front of other nobles that 'the wedding ceremony in Gunjou City was an original creation of Tenma's.' After that, if Tenma says, 'You're welcome to hold a wedding in the same style if you'd like,' people will probably go ahead and start doing it on their own."
That was apparently the recommendation, so I asked Lady Maria to convey those details to the King. However, when it came to my own approval, I added the condition that it would apply "only after Albert's wedding." The reasoning was that this way, it would also look like I was being considerate toward the Duke Sanga family, and rumors about me actually being on bad terms with the duke wouldn't surface.
"That's right. No matter how much you advertise that relations are good, there will always be people who say otherwise, and people who believe them—but the majority will just brush it off as gossip. Besides, saying 'after my brother-in-law's wedding, not my own' would also leave a good impression. After all, Tenma's wedding is still more than six months away, but for Albert, people would only need to wait a few months."
Since the plan was to hold Albert and Eliza's wedding during spring if possible, even if people had to wait, it would only be a matter of a few months. On top of that, fewer couples held weddings in winter compared to other seasons, so there should be very few complaints.
"I've been asked by Albert too, and more importantly, this is my brother-in-law's wedding, so I'll do my best to help out with everything."
"Just don't overdo it, okay?"
"I'm already looking forward to the wedding!"
While I was talking with Maria-sama, Luna—who had been listening quietly until now—suddenly jumped into the conversation. It seemed she'd reacted to me saying I'd do my best, but the fact that she latched onto that part meant...
"Don't get your hopes up too high about the food and desserts, Luna. You're more likely not to get invited than to be invited, you know."
"Why not?!"
Luna had a shocked look on her face, but as far as royal attendees went, it would be the King and Maria-sama, or perhaps Caesar-sama and Isabella-sama as a pair. It was even possible that Tida might be invited due to his connection with Amy, which would mean three members of the royal family attending—and any more than that would be too many. Furthermore, compared to those five, Luna's importance was considerably lower, so no matter how you looked at it, the odds were stacked against her being invited.
"I'll go in Onii-sama's place!"
"Luna, attending the weddings of high-ranking nobles is supposed to be a duty of the royal family as well, so I don't think that's going to work. I'll make sure to invite you properly to my own wedding, so just hold tight until spring."
Even then, Luna refused to accept it and kept throwing a tantrum, and in the end she was scolded by Maria-sama and reluctantly quieted down... though for some reason, the condition for her to stop making a fuss was that they ensure she'd be given the food and desserts served at the wedding.