"What is it?"
"Aren't there way too many people in here? This is my waiting room, not a men's waiting room."
The day of the wedding had finally arrived, and I had changed into my outfit and was waiting in the dressing room for the ceremony to start. For some reason, the room was overflowing with people.
"I can understand you being here since you're family, Grandpa, but why are Duke Sanga from Primera's side and Albert here?"
On top of those two, Cain and Lion were here as well. Earlier, the King, Lyle, Tida, Ernest, Marquis Samons, and even Border Count Haust had been present too.
To be fair, the King, Tida, Ernest, and Border Count Haust were my invited guests, so it wasn't strange for them to come check on me. But Lyle, Marquis Samons, Cain, and Lion were Primera's invited guests, and Duke Sanga and Albert were Primera's family. There was nothing wrong with them being over here, but you'd normally expect them to spend their time on Primera's side instead.
When I raised this question to Grandpa, his answer was:
"Well, they were probably kicked out. It's improper for men to be hanging around while the bride is getting ready. So they lost somewhere to go and ended up over here. As for Cain and Lion, they're probably just bored. They may be registered as Primera's invited guests, but in practice, they're practically guests invited jointly by Tenma."
As for those two, while Primera had known them longer, I was closer to them, so I'd had a discussion with Primera about which side's guest list to put them on. We agreed it didn't really matter, but in the end, because the three of them — Cain, Lion, and Albert — were seen as a group in the public eye, it was decided they'd sit with Primera's guests. However, after that arrangement was made, another issue came up. It was decided that Border Count Haust would be treated as my guest. While the Border Count was acquainted with Primera through Lion, his relationship with her wasn't as deep as Marquis Samons's, and considering the ties from when the Border Count's territory was visited previously, both Duke Sanga and Marquis Samons told me I had the deeper connection. Fortunately, Kukuri Village was located within the Border Count's domain, so technically I was a former commoner under Border Count Haust's jurisdiction. Well, Duke Sanga later told me the real reason was that publicly showing a good relationship between me and the Border Count was the biggest motivation, but it was probably also meant to reduce the imbalance between my guest count and Primera's.
"If that's the case, then I guess it can't be helped...? Well, whatever, that part doesn't really matter..."
"What is it? Is there some problem with Duke Sanga and Albert?"
I had thought the Cain and Lion issue didn't matter, but that simultaneously reminded me of another problem, and I couldn't help but sigh. Grandpa seemed to take my expression to mean I had an issue with Duke Sanga and Albert being here. The duke and Albert, who had been eavesdropping on our conversation, both froze for an instant.
"No, it's just that with Cain and Lion here, Albert being present is inevitable, and the duke isn't going to cause any problems, so that's fine... But I just remembered that there's someone I forgot to inform about the wedding yesterday..."
"...Who would that be?"
"Namitarou."
"Well, that's... that could be quite problematic."
I didn't know where he was, but if I had at least remembered half a month ago, I might have been able to reach him with the flute he'd given me long ago. As for why I suddenly remembered, it was because lately, every time I fell asleep, I was dragged into banquets hosted by the gods.
The gods had apparently known about my wedding for quite a while, but they said they had been unable to summon me. Three days ago, the Creator God had been tied to a pillar with rope, looking as withered as a mummy. Two days ago, the God of Magic had been in the same state, and yesterday it was the Skill God. Moreover, all three had apparently been beaten up before being tied to the pillars — from the side, they looked so lifeless you might mistake them for dead. Though they did say that wasn't enough to actually kill them.
The reason all three were tied up was simple: they were sacrifices, done in the same way the Creator God had been sacrificed previously to summon me. The Creator God, who was the first to be sacrificed, was gang-beaten by everyone. The God of Magic, the second sacrifice, was ambushed by the God of War on the grounds that using magic would be troublesome. And the Skill God, the final sacrifice, lost a one-on-one against the God of Destruction.
This was discovered on the final day of the ever-growing sacrificial banquets—from last night to the party tonight—because someone brought up Namitarou’s name. The gods immediately tried to contact Namitarou on the spot, but Namitarou didn’t respond to the summons, and that’s how things stand to this day.
"Knowing Namitarou, once he finds out he wasn’t invited… he’ll cause a huge commotion, won’t he? In ways we can’t even imagine…"
Whether it’s him racing across the Royal Capital screaming my name, or bringing a Behemoth (the adult ones are said to have some sense, so it’s probably a young one) as a form of harassment, or firing off ‘Hadou-hou’ from our garden in place of fireworks… it’s impossible to predict. Honestly, I could even see him doing something so outlandish that I’d prefer he just did the things I’ve already thought of.
"Tenma… if Namitarou comes to cause trouble, you must apologize with utmost sincerity and settle it peacefully, alright? It would be best if it could be settled with your sacrifice alone."
It’s a coldhearted way of putting it, saying I should be the only sacrifice, but it’s completely my fault to begin with. And though you tend to forget it because of his usual behavior, Namitarou possesses power comparable to mine. Moreover, unlike me, he isn’t bound to the human world and is a Monster who could live without a care even if he caused a scene that reduced the Royal Capital to ruins. In reality, he probably wouldn’t destroy the capital, but he’d likely do enough damage to put our mansion in a state of semi-demolition.
"So the first big job after getting married is apologizing to Namitarou…"
"Let’s hope it becomes a funny story we can laugh about in the future…"
Grandpa and I were both in resignation mode when it came to Namitarou… or rather, the honest truth was that since we couldn’t predict what kind of action Namitarou would take, we had no choice but to resign ourselves.
It seemed Albert and Duke Sanga noticed the dark atmosphere surrounding Grandpa and me, and they said they were going to check on Primera’s condition as if fleeing from it. But they were back in just a few minutes. It looked like they’d been sent away. Both of them, though not to the same extent as Grandpa and me, had taken on a slightly gloomy air.
"Alright then, let’s discuss the anti-Namitarou strategy before the wedding. First, Tenma will apologize with utmost sincerity. This is an absolute condition."
"Understood."
Doing nothing but waiting for Namitarou’s attack would only increase the damage, so we decided to discuss the minimum countermeasures. Grandpa would lead the discussion, and the members would be the men present (me, Duke Sanga, Albert, Cain, and Lion). Ideally, we would have wanted at least one member of the royal family to join, but they never show up when you need them (and don’t come back), so we had to proceed without them.
"Hopefully, Tenma’s apology alone will be enough, but if that doesn’t settle things, Albert will be added. It’s your first job as his brother-in-law."
"Shouldn’t that be Primera’s job, as his future wife?"
"Albert… even if Primera is going to be Tenma’s wife, when it comes to dealing with Namitarou, you have the deeper relationship. Would you rather have your little sister prostrate herself while you stand there and watch?"
"No, that’s… wait, prostrate herself?!"
"Well, when showing remorse, it’s normal to lower your head lower than the other person’s, so it naturally ends up that way. Albert, do as Merlin says. This is an order."
Albert had been understanding up to a point, but he was shocked when he heard the apology method involved prostration. However, since Duke Sanga had ordered him to do it, it was decided that Albert would follow after me.
"If that doesn’t work either, then Cain and Lion will be added as well. Technically, the two of you aren’t Tenma’s family, so you’d come after Albert… but, well, be prepared."
"I’ll speak to Marquis Samons and Count Houst in advance, so don’t hesitate to bow your heads."
"At the very least, could you do it somewhere that people outside this group won't see?"
"Hold on, isn't that exactly the point where you should be refusing?"
"Leon... Once Tenma and Albert have steeled their resolve, Merlin is overseeing the matter, and Duke Sanga is actively cooperating, the situation has already gone past the point where anyone could stop it—even if they were royalty. If that's the case, the only path left for us is to beg them to at least keep the damage as small as possible."
"That's exactly what he said. Let's do our best to accommodate Cain's request as much as we can."
Cain seemed to have anticipated this outcome the moment he joined the discussion and had already resigned himself to it. He was actually the one persuading Leon, who looked far from satisfied. In the midst of that,
"Pardon the intrusion. Primera is ready, and she would like Tenma to come see her—would that be all right?"
Aina had come to fetch me. We hadn't settled on any clear countermeasure, but it seemed like no matter how much longer we talked, the only option was for me to kowtow, so I decided to temporarily break off and head to where Primera was. At that point, Leon started to walk behind Albert and Duke Sanga, but Cain stopped him by smacking him on the head.
Incidentally, Primera had a maid from the duchy attending to her, but we had also sent help from my side—so that, for instance, she could come to fetch me like this. So Jeanne and Aura were dispatched. However, Aina suggested that two people weren't enough, so just as before, Maria had lent us the Otome household's head maid—provisionally. There was also the reason that most of the cooking this time was based on my recipes, so Aina was needed as the person in charge of everything related to the food.
"I've brought Tenma and all the relevant parties."
When Aina announced this, the door immediately opened. The first person to greet us was,
"Chris, move."
It was Chris. Chris had been positioning herself so that she wouldn't be standing between me and Primera.
"What do you mean, 'move'? It's perfectly natural for the person who opened the door to be standing next to it."
"No, that was absolutely deliberate. Since it's a pull-type door, you only needed to step aside and it would have opened on its own. You were likely trying to take out your frustration about being unable to get married on Tenma. And while Tenma alone might have let it pass as your usual antics, Duke Sanga—Primera's father—is here right now. That's disrespectful."
Chris apparently hadn't expected Duke Sanga to be there, and her face went pale after Aina pointed it out... or rather, it was more puzzling why she had assumed he wouldn't be.
While I was thinking about that, I waited for Chris to be removed by Aina after being dragged out, when,
"Father! You were over here? Please, entertain our guests! And Albert, you hurry over here too!"
Angela appeared in a flustered state, having come looking for Duke Sanga and, by extension, Albert. It seemed that guests invited by Primera's side were arriving one after another, and she wanted the duke and Albert to receive them.
"Fine, but before that, could I at least go say hello to Primera?"
"Please do that later. The Otome household side... *ahem.* I'm sorry for all the commotion. Father, come this way. Albert, you too."
Angela finally seemed to notice that Grandpa and I were standing right beside her, and she pulled Duke Sanga and Albert aside to explain the situation.
"What! His Majesty and Lady Maria are here already? Understood, I'll head over immediately!"
The Duke Sanga let out a startled voice, gave Grandpa and me a slight bow, and hurried off at a quick trot.
"Albert, you should go quickly too. I'll explain things to Tenma."
Urged along by Angela, Albert also took off after the Duke Sanga.
"I'm terribly sorry about this. It appears that His Majesty and Lady Maria arrived at the venue earlier than expected, and a small incident has arisen."
"Hmm, so Alex bears some responsibility as well? Should I have a word with him on my end?"
"No! The fault lies with the guests the ducal house invited — His Majesty is in no way to blame!"
Even if the King and Lady Maria were somehow at fault, it certainly wasn't something Angela could say out loud. Incidentally, I'm fairly sure Grandpa understood all of that too, and was simply teasing Angela about it.
"Grandpa, you really need to pick your targets more carefully when you tease people using the King."
"Tenma, I have to say I more or less agree with that phrasing. Angela, will you be going to see Primera?"
"No, I need to take my leave as well. Forgive me."
Having finished her explanation to us, Angela hurried off in the same direction the Duke Sanga had gone.
"What in the world happened?"
"Maybe one of the guests the Duke invited was rude to the King? Or tried to butter him up or something?"
I had been straining to catch every word of the conversation between Angela and the Duke Sanga, but Angela had been extremely careful to keep her voice low enough that I couldn't make out a single thing. The Duke, on the other hand, hadn't been as successful at suppressing his voice, and somewhere in the middle I caught a furious mutter of "That idiot!" That was enough for me to deduce the general picture — though if it had been anything more serious, I would have expected to be informed directly.
"I haven't received any information on my end either, so I can't say for certain, but right now Primera should be the priority. Now then, door gua— door woman, get back to work. If you don't, I'll tell Lady Maria you were being rude to the Duke."
She was clearly about to say "girl" before switching to "woman" — completely intentional, no doubt. Probably to drive home the point that Chris wasn't exactly that young anymore. But then, right after that, she dropped Lady Maria's name, so Chris started to protest but thought better of it and quietly opened the door.
And then, at long last,
"Primera, you look beautiful."
I was finally able to meet Primera. There might have been a better way to say it, but this was the limit of my vocabulary. Even with just those short words, my face was probably turning red. My body temperature seemed to be rising a little; I was starting to feel warm.
"Thank you. You look really cool too, Tenma-san."
Primera replied with her cheeks flushed pink, so maybe this level of feeling was just right for us.
"Tenma's outfit would qualify as a national treasure, but Primera's dress is no less impressive... and what's more, it's far more demanding of the wearer than Tenma's."
"Grandpa, that's sexual harassment."
"Hmm? I'm simply saying the craftsmanship of this dress is so superb that only a beauty like Primera can wear it without being overwhelmed by it... What were you imagining, Tenma?"
"...Grandpa, what I'm saying is that, depending on the situation, phrasing it that way can also constitute harassment, so you need to be careful."
My mouth said that, but honestly, I felt completely cornered. Grandpa was right—the pure white wedding dress, made with rose-patterned lace, might at first glance seem like there could be many similar ones. However, in reality, it was created by a top-tier artisan selected from among those retained by the Duke's household. Even if it were made from common materials, it would undoubtedly be a wedding dress far superior to anything ordinary. On top of that, most of the material was spider silk I had provided. Grandpa had said it was no less valuable than my outfit, but frankly speaking, in terms of sheer worth, it was probably even higher. From my perspective, Felt's skills were not lacking either, but more than skill, the name recognition between Felt and the Duke's retained artisans was different. Above all, the amount of spider silk used was different, so it was inevitable that there would be a gap.
Primera, wearing that wedding dress, was extremely beautiful with her pure white gown contrasting with her reddish hair and her excellent figure. However, the dress was thinner than what Primera usually wore, and it clearly showed off her silhouette, so my eyes were inevitably drawn to her excellent figure... or to be blunt, her exceptionally large chest, more emphasized than usual. As for this... well, it was probably just because I was a man, and that was precisely why I had fallen into Grandpa's trap.
Grandpa, in response to my excuses, just said, "Well, let's just say that's the case," and laughed. It seemed our conversation wasn't audible to Primera, Jeanne, Aura, Amour (these three had apparently been there from the start, but I hadn't noticed), or Chris-san (whom I had completely forgotten), but Aina had definitely heard it. She looked at me with a meaningful smile... Maybe later I should bribe her to stay quiet about it.
As I was thinking about that, I noticed someone heading towards this room. They seemed to be running, so it might be a servant from the Duke's side. Aina, Grandpa, and the four of us noticed the approaching presence. Aina's smile vanished as she moved toward the door. I stepped in front of Primera, Grandpa took a position between the door and us, and Chris-san casually moved closer to Jeanne and the others. "Appraisal" indicated this was a maid from the Duke's household, but with Duke Sanga apparently dealing with some unexpected trouble, and a Duke's maid running over at a time like this, something serious must have happened. It was better to be cautious.
Aina met the Duke's maid outside before she could open the door and received a report for a few minutes. Then, after waiting for the maid to leave, she re-entered the room.
"Lord Tenma, Lady Primera. It seems the trouble has been resolved safely, but as a result, the start time is going to be a bit delayed. I'm going to inquire about the rest of the schedule now, so please wait here for a moment, Lord Tenma and Merlin-dono."
Saying that, Aina quietly gave some instructions to Jeanne, Aura, Amour, and Chris-san. I felt a sense of oddness about Aina. I focused, trying to catch even a little of her voice, and at the same time, expanded my "Exploration" to cover the wedding venue and its surroundings. As a result, I had a general idea of what caused the commotion.
"Aina, before you go to ask about the schedule, there's something I want to ask."
"What is it?"
After giving instructions to Chris-san and the others, Aina was about to leave the room in a hurry, but I stopped her before she could. Then I asked:
"The cause of the trouble... was the Viscount Brown family involved by any chance? Oh! Grandpa, calm down a little. Even if it looks extremely likely, there's still a tiny chance they weren't the cause. If you charge in now, it could just make things more complicated."
I named my mother's former family home's main branch. In that instant, Grandpa, aiming for Aina (or rather, the door just beyond Aina), tried to lunge forward, but I managed to stop him at the last second.
"Lord Tenma, what makes you think that?"
Aina was clearly nervous, even though she seemed to be trying to play it off. I couldn't very well tell her what I'd learned through 'Search' and 'Appraisal'—those two spells—so instead,
"I just received a report from Slarin."
I said, then used water magic to create something resembling a piece of Slarin's body to show her. Grandpa would probably see through it as something made on the spot, but Aina, who lacked his level of magic knowledge and was standing a little further away, likely wouldn't catch on. I told her that Slarin—using a part of its body like this to keep watch on the surroundings—had reported in, and Aina seemed to resign herself to it, her shoulders drooping slightly. Incidentally, the real Slarin was actually capable of what I'd just described to Aina, but it could only relay fragmented reports, and the accuracy dropped over longer distances. So if a real report had come in, it would have been something along the lines of "Mother," "former family home," and "coming."
Whether this was an ability inherent to the Slime species or one unique to Slarin as an individual, I had no idea—but since I'd never heard of it from anyone else, it was probably the latter. Even if Slarin's abilities were news to Aina, she had no way to verify whether it was true. On top of that, her mother's former family really was coming, so she couldn't very well choose to just stay silent. Besides, I had no reason to follow Aina's lead—even if she tried to stop me, I could simply ignore her and press Duke Sanga or one of his associates for answers. Even if I pushed my way in and it caused a commotion, as one of the main parties involved this time, I could reasonably claim I couldn't just walk away from the trouble that had arisen.
"I've explained the reason to Duke Sanga and asked him to come here. So please wait quietly in this room. Merlin, I'm counting on you too."
Aina seemed to believe that if Grandpa and I went, it would only cause another incident, so she gave us one final reminder before leaving the room.
"Still, what is the Viscount Brown family thinking? And they claimed to be relatives of the Ootori family, so they should have been coming as our side's associates—why would Duke Sanga be the one to handle this?"
"Well, perhaps he thought that if Tenma and I went to deal with it, some fool would lose his head on the spot—or get torn to shreds, or crushed flat. Besides, as the head of the household, Tenma, and I, his stand-in, are both here—so the only temporary authority figures would be Mark or Amy, who was once adopted into the family. But in reality, Maria and Alex would probably show up with one excuse or another, and things would escalate. So it's possible the Duke deliberately went himself to prevent that. Or perhaps..."
"So it was a failure on the Duke's side, then. In fact, the fact that Father rushed over there himself suggests that's the most likely explanation."
Well, normally Primera would be right. If the Viscount Brown family had caused trouble as our guests, they would have at least notified me or Grandpa, and either Grandpa or Aina would have been taken along.
I could think that far, but it still didn't explain why Duke Sanga had gone to deal with the Viscount Brown situation. Primera and Grandpa seemed to be on the same page—all three of us were tilting our heads in confusion. Just then,
"Pardon the intrusion."
Duke Sanga and—
"Brother-in-law?"
Count Hendrik von Salsarmo—Primera's older sister Rachel's husband—had arrived.