"Why does Lion have to go and disappoint expectations right when we need her most…"
Late last night, we'd finally managed to reunite with Lion after returning from dinner, but… Cain, who had been all set on leaving Lion behind, still wasn't satisfied about the whole thing and had done nothing but grumble ever since.
"We needed Lion so badly, she kept saying and saying… Could it be she's the tsundere type?"
"No way!"
"That's the kind of thing you'd say as punishment for a game! Stop making it sound so misleading!"
Amour's words made Lion light up with a pleased expression, while Cain looked distinctly uncomfortable.
"You two, stop talking and start working with your hands!"
Right now, we were in the middle of converting the Manpukutei into a wedding venue. Well, "converting" was a generous term—we were mainly just removing things that weren't needed for the wedding and hanging decorations on the walls and such.
"Anli, this is where you exchange rings."
"Y-yes! …Huh?"
"Anli-san, you left them in the waiting room!"
Anli had been having Felt do a final walkthrough of the wedding ceremony's flow while delivering the outfits. Though, to be honest, she'd been so nervous that she kept making mistake after mistake… But I was trusting that she'd manage tomorrow somehow.
"Hey, Tenma. These are done baking, so take these for me too."
The old man was mass-producing food together with the landlady. Serna had been having Felt's wife help her into the dress, but… the men weren't going to get to see Serna in her dress until the big day—that was the rule, and even Anli hadn't seen it yet. By the way, Primera and Jeanne had gone to help Felt's wife. At first, all the women had been helping out, but between there being too many of them and Chris, Amour, and Aura being either useless or just plain in the way, they'd all been chased out by the wife, ultimately leaving just Primera and Jeanne. To elaborate: Chris had been rendered completely useless by her jealousy toward Serna, Amour was hopeless with fine detail work by nature, and Aura's trademark klutziness at critical moments had taken her out of the running. Incidentally, Reni had technically made the cut but had chosen to leave the room with Amour and was now helping her out.
"So, shall we take a break soon?"
Well past noon, we decided to take a break that would double as a late lunch. There was still preparation left, but with Lion and her escort knights joining the effort, we could afford to rest a little longer… In fact, it was going to take a fair amount of time for Anli to recover.
"Still, Felt sure knows his way around weddings."
"Well, it comes with the job. Brides and grooms, along with their guests, come through as customers pretty often. While looking into dress codes and wedding dresses, you naturally pick up that kind of knowledge."
When I asked the reason, it was pretty much what I'd expected. That said, I hadn't pictured Felt as a married man, but on reflection, a woman who knew nothing about—well, guild customers were one thing, but having a clueless female customer consult with a big man about clothes… especially about undergarments… that had to be a pretty high barrier to cross.
"Pretty much exactly what Tenma is thinking right now."
When he read my thoughts, Felt told me he'd heard the same thing from almost everyone he knew. And indeed, most female first-time customers who came in when his wife wasn't there would take one look at Felt and immediately walk right back out. So despite Felt being the one doing most of the designing and crafting, it was his wife who really kept the shop running.
"Tenma! Come help me out in here!"
While I was chatting with Felt, a call for help came from the old man in the kitchen. Normally the landlady would be helping, but with all the wedding preparations keeping her busy, Soleil had been in a foul mood, and the landlady was tied up dealing with that. Because of that, the old man couldn't manage preparing our meals alone, so he'd called me over… You'd think he could ask Jeanne or Aura, who were both maids, but in the old man's eyes, I was probably easier to put to work than either of them.
After that, while I was helping the old man with the cooking, Jeanne and Aura showed up to help serve the food… but mixed in with them, for reasons unknown, Chris was also helping serve.
"Well, Cain… Chris, what's going on with you?"
"Hm? Oh, Chris once confessed to the captain of the knights escorting Lion. She got shot down, though…"
I asked Cain quietly enough that Chris wouldn't hear, but the answer I got nearly made me shout out loud.
"Probably something like, 'I can't let the person I once liked see me looking uncool'… right?"
"Ah… yeah, that tracks."
Chris did have a bit of a pride streak, so it was entirely plausible… Actually, now that he'd said it, that was the only explanation that made sense.
"At any rate, the aftermath's too scary, so let's just pretend we didn't notice."
"Come on, this sounds hilarious—shouldn't we mess with her a little?"
"I'll leave that role to you, Cain."
"Nope, I don't want it either."
"Chris—I'm sorry!"
I was pretty irritated and was about to snitch on Chris, but Cain caught onto my intent and cut me off with an apology.
"Well then, I'll go rile Lion up a bit."
Cain chose Lion as his next target and hurried away from me as if fleeing. A few minutes after he left, Chris's angry shouts, Lion's screams, and Cain's own screams echoed throughout the Manpukutei.
"Ha ha ha, Chris hasn't changed a bit since our school days."
As I watched Chris chew out both Lion and Cain while serving dishes, the knight captain who had escorted Lion all the way to Gunjou City arrived.
This knight captain… Nicholas Hermann, had attended the academy during the same period as Chris, which meant he was young for someone holding the title of knight captain. There was a reason for that: the previous knight captain had resigned over the Kukuri Village incident, which led to Nicholas, then a candidate for the executive staff, being elevated to the position of knight captain at a young age.
This was partly because Nicholas had been expected by those around him to become the next knight captain, but also because appointing someone young was intended to change the organization's image, and because keeping Nicholas in the position for a long time was meant to help stabilize the Border Count's forces. And there was one more major reason: Nicholas was the
adoptive son
of the previous knight captain. While many assumed he'd gotten the position through connections, he had been unanimously recommended by the executive officers, starting with Deputy Captain Lyla, and the Border Count had agreed to the appointment, so there had been no real issues—at least not within the Border Count's army. As for the man himself…
"So, Ōtori-dono, I just need to carry this over there, right?"
That was the general vibe—he'd been cheerfully taking the lead in helping with the food service the entire time. Apparently, the Border Count and the previous knight captain had both instructed him to be as helpful as possible.
"That's the last of it, so please go ahead and take your seats. Chris, that's enough—let's have the meal."
Chris looked in my direction, then noticed Nicholas watching her and quickly straightened up. Putting on a forced smile, she quietly slipped away toward the restroom.
"Haah… I'm exhausted…"
"I feel like I just got chewed out by my big sister for the first time in ages."
Liberated by Chris's escape, the two of them sat down, grumbling. Cain looked worn out, but Lion was beaming—she was clearly overjoyed to be back in her usual spot. By the way, nobody had asked Lion about what had happened to Canon since she'd returned yesterday. Partly because it felt awkward to ask, and partly because there was no guarantee she hadn't gotten tangled up in some trouble. Judging by the atmosphere around Lion, Nicholas, and the other knights, though, it didn't seem like anything too serious had happened. Here's hoping that was the case.
After that, Chris returned as if nothing had happened, sat down far away from Nicholas, and ate more quietly than usual.
"So, this is what we're planning to serve tomorrow. Does anything seem off about it?"
I'd put out all the dishes except dessert for a tasting, and everyone seemed satisfied. A few people had complained that the portions were small and asked for seconds, but since this was a "tasting," I told them we couldn't serve any more, which earned me some unhappy faces. I figured it was natural for them to feel the portions were far too small—less than half of what the actual meal would be—so I set out some extra bread, and even the ones who'd been making unhappy faces started reaching for it one after another. Maybe we should increase the portions for the real thing after all… but there wasn't time to make extra now, so I'd settled on providing extra bread for anyone still hungry.
"Well then… shall we take a little more of a break before resuming?"
Just when I thought it was about time to get back to it, Anli, Lion, and Amour couldn't move, so I extended the break. Anli was just worn out from practice, while Lion and Amour were incapacitated from overeating. As a result, Anli received gentle care from Serna, while Lion and Amour were mercilessly teased. Lion got it especially bad—Albert, Cain, and of course Chris, and even Nicholas were all ganging up on her.
"All right, with that, the preparation is complete. Great work, everyone. Please do your best for the real thing tomorrow as well."
The second half had finished faster than expected. The reason was that the adventurers staying at the inn had joined in to help with the preparations. They'd been planning to attend since the wedding was being held at the Manpukutei, but they'd each had commissions to finish, so they hadn't been able to help with the first half. They'd done their best to wrap those up as quickly as possible.
Because of that, I made a point of being as polite as possible with my wording…
"Tenma… I'm going to be honest—your way of speaking is incredibly unnatural."
That was the old man's response. What's more, almost every face I looked at was nodding in agreement with him.
The moment I thought *Son of a bitch*, the adventurers scattered like spiders fleeing in every direction, each bolting back to their own rooms. Those who stayed behind were the old man and family, but the cowards who'd been nodding along had already evacuated to near the landlady, who was holding Soleil.
"…Come to think of it, Landlady, I made some soap using skin-friendly herbs that should be safe for Soleil too. Would you like to try it?"
When I said that, the landlady looked intrigued and came over to me, still holding Soleil.
"Here you go. I had the women try it out first and it was fine, so if you'd like, you can try it on Soleil and see how she reacts."
I felt a little uneasy about using Soleil as a guinea pig, but the ingredients were all safe, which was why I recommended it. The landlady took the soap I offered, sniffed it, tried a bit on her wrist, asked about the ingredients used, and then headed to the bathroom with Soleil.
"So… if any of you have something to say, I'm all ears."
"Now that you mention it, we need to bake more bread."
"Hmm, I'm all sweaty—probably should take a bath."
"Ah! Master Merlin, I'm terribly sorry, but could you help me change the bath water?"
"Chris, you can't just make Grandpa do all the work. At the very least, you should help clean the men's side."
"She's right. Jeanne, let's go clean."
"Right."
The instant the old man used bread as an excuse to leave, the grandpa immediately vanished, and Chris, Amour, Aura, and Jeanne fled after him.
"We should help with the cleaning too, I suppose."
"Indeed."
"Leave the heavy lifting to me!"
Albert and the others tried to follow after the grandpa and the women, but—
"Oh no, you lot still have one last job to do. We'll handle the cleaning ourselves, so show some gratitude."
They were rejected by Chris. In other words, they'd been abandoned.
"Chris said that, but the last job can wait. Let's work up one more sweat before taking a bath. Come on, let's go."
I threw my arms around Lion and Cain's shoulders and forcibly dragged them to the back of the Manpukutei. Albert had been left to his own devices, but he looked like he'd accepted that there was no escape and quietly followed after us. Well, unlike these two, Albert wouldn't put up pointless resistance, and if he'd run away, I'd have had to deal with the other two who'd been abandoned on top of him.
After roughly an hour of payback—I mean, sparring—we finished our last job and then headed to the bath. The last job didn't take much time or effort, so even in their battered state the three of them should have been fine, but Amour had tried to join in, which led to a big commotion, and the three of them—who were now even more mentally exhausted—nearly fell asleep in the bath and nearly drowned.
"All right, that wraps up the preparations. Everyone's dismissed. Those staying at the Manpukutei, I'm sorry to ask this, but please help with the morning setup."
Since we'd had to handle guest reception and venue preparations starting early in the morning, Jeanne, Aura, Amour, Reni, and Slarin would be staying at the Manpukutei. Everyone else would return to the Sanga Duke's estate and come by carriage in the morning. At first, I'd planned to stay as well since I was playing the role of matchmaker, but it was decided that I should return to the estate so everyone could see me participating as a member of the Ōtori family. For the same reason, Primera would be going back too.
"Aura, Amour, Lily, Nelly, Milly—just to be clear: don't you dare start fighting. Starting a fight here tonight would be like throwing a wrench into Serna and Anli's wedding. If you do fight… I'll be truly angry."
I said this firmly to the five who had been behaving themselves. Even if it wasn't a serious fight, I couldn't turn a blind eye to the possibility of ruining what was supposed to be a joyous occasion. If this were just a casual celebration, you could chalk it up to lively energy, but for a once-in-a-lifetime event like this, even if Serna would forgive it, everyone else wouldn't.
They seemed to grasp that I was serious, and all five nodded repeatedly. The reason they were being so well-behaved was that they'd gotten into their usual fight at dinner and made a racket, waking Soleil and making her cry, which had earned them an enormous scolding from everyone around them. The people who'd been angry included the usual suspects—me, the grandpa, and Chris—as well as the adventurers patronizing the Manpukutei. Since the adventurers had all grown fond of Soleil as well, the Manpukutei had seen far less of the wild shenanigans of old ever since she'd been born, and the regulars' sense of solidarity had only grown stronger.
"With this many adventurers on our side, we'd be fine even if there were an unlikely attack."
Of course, if Anli's father actually had the military strength and the nerve to attack this place, he would have already been causing trouble for Serna and Anli a long time ago.
"He's probably planning to exploit the viscount's authority, but… he's an emperor with no clothes."
If he could use the viscount's power effectively, he could push around ordinary people just fine—but this time he'd been especially unlucky… or rather, the moment he'd thought of using Abyss Viscount, who was fond of Anli, everything was doomed to fail from the start.
"Well, it doesn't really matter what happens to him."
Some guy I'd never even met, who was taking hostile action against Serna—what happened to him was none of my business. My acquaintances would probably tease me about it, but that was about the extent of it.
"All right, we're starting early tomorrow, so everyone go to bed early. Dismissed."
The grandpa and Lion looked like they wanted to have a drinking party, but I could clearly see the hangover in their future, so I told them not to stay up late and dismissed everyone. But after we returned to the estate…
"Hey, Tenma. A little wouldn't hurt, right?"
"Indeed. Just a little, and there's no way we'd get hungover."
"You're not going to be satisfied with just a little. Give it up. Also, let me warn you—if you try to drink in secret… Lion will report to the Border Count, and Grandpa will tell Ernest."
If they heard that someone connected to me had shown up to a wedding hungover—or worse, reeking of alcohol—the one who'd be scarier than the Border Count would be Edilia. As for the grandpa… Ernest would probably give him an earful. But I imagined that would be humiliating for him. Having understood what I was getting at, the two of them left without another word and quietly went back to their rooms.
"Chris, that means no drinking for you either."
Chris had been secretly watching from the shadows as I lectured the other two, so I warned her just in case. Chris kept saying "I know, I know" as she turned her back to me and headed to the kitchen. That should take care of it.
"Time for bed."
I asked a servant nearby to wake me early in the morning and to keep an eye on the grandpa and the others in case they tried to sneak alcohol, then prepared for the next day in my room and went to sleep. And the next morning…
"Whether she drinks or not, Lion's always going to oversleep…"
As I waited for Lion, who was still getting ready right up to the last possible moment before departure, I grumbled to myself.