"Why would you think that?"
I was wondering why the conversation had suddenly taken that turn when Cerna, wearing a puzzled expression,
"Well, the two of you had your arms linked, so I simply assumed that was the case..."
Hearing that, Primera and I both looked down for the first time. There, we found Primera's arm looped through mine.
"W-Wait! This is, um, that is—!"
"Calm down, Primera! This was an accident. It's all Albert's fault!"
"Y-Yes, that's right!"
To calm Primera down, I hastily chanted the magic words: "It's all Albert's fault." Normally, that wouldn't be nearly enough to settle anyone's nerves, but it seemed to work wonders on Primera in her current state. She muttered "It's all my brother's fault" under her breath while taking deep breaths, gradually calming herself down. During that time, Cerna remarked something along the lines of "I understand you're not dating, but calling it an accident is rather harsh, don't you think?" — and while I felt bad about it, I didn't have the composure to respond, so I let it slide.
"So, I heard the two of you will be holding a wedding ceremony soon. Is that true?"
After getting my composure back by pinning the blame on Albert, I popped the question. Both Cerna and Henri looked surprised, but when I mentioned I'd heard a rumor about it at the guild, Cerna gave a small nod.
"Congratulations! So, have you decided on a specific date and time?"
I raised my spirits a bit to offer my congratulations, and the two of them, blushing, said it would be in two weeks.
"In two weeks, huh..."
My downcast murmur left both of them looking confused. Just then,
"Sorry about that, Tenma. I ended up being late despite you kindly inviting me."
Marcus — who'd been carefully timing his entrance — walked into Manpukutei looking for all the world like a man delayed by work.
"Um... did something come up?"
"No, it's just that I heard the two of you mention the wedding date, and it happens to overlap with our departure date..."
Noticing the shift in my mood, Marcus launched into the act we'd rehearsed. Before Cerna could grow suspicious, he put on a troubled expression and said, "Is that so... I was really hoping we could all celebrate together..."
"Can't you move the date up, Cerna?"
"Well, since we're holding it at Mantokutei, I don't think it would be impossible..."
Cerna, apparently taken in by our act, ventured that changing the date might be doable. So—
"Hey, old man! We want to attend Cerna's wedding too, so please move the date forward! I'll cover all the wedding costs, so spare no expense—make it as lavish as possible!"
"Wh—Wait, Tenma!"
Cerna blurted out in shock. It wasn't just Cerna—Henri was equally startled, and Marcus too, for that matter. Well, the part about covering the costs was something I'd just made up on the spot, so it was probably news to Marcus as well.
Of course they protested—Cerna, Henri, and Marcus all insisted it would be wrong and that they'd cover the expenses themselves. But then an unexpected ally appeared.
"As far as I'm concerned, I'd be grateful if Tenma footed the bill."
It was Albert, who had recovered just enough from his injuries to move around. He was clearly pushing himself too hard, and Marcus had expressed concern, but Albert dismissed it as travel fatigue and managed to convince him.
Marcus had met with Albert ahead of time and wasn't surprised, but Cerna and Henri were shocked by his sudden appearance and moved to kneel on the spot—only to be gently stopped by Primera.
"Have the three of you heard about what Tenma accomplished in the Housest Margraviate?"
Only Marcus nodded at Albert's question. The feats in question were slaying a swarm of wyverns and constructing a fortress on the border, but of those, it was the fortress that Albert considered significant.
"Normally, building a fortress requires enormous funds and time, but Tenma raised the walls and dug the moat in an instant. Thanks to that, the Margrave was able to redirect most of the construction costs into the economy. Furthermore, once the fortress went up, people began to gather, and merchants and craftsmen of all kinds set up shop to cater to them. Tax revenue climbed, and a stagnating economy started trending upward. We won't see results on the same scale here, but just the fact that Tenma—the man everyone's watching—takes action is more than enough to draw attention."
Albert's story held the rapt attention not only of Cerna and the others, but of me and Grandpa as well.
"Also—and this is important—Tenma has been hoarding too much money. Of course, he earned it all through legitimate means, so it's his business what he does with it, but there are those who resent it. Most of them are nobles, and the vast majority are motivated by jealousy, I'd wager. But among them, there are surely some who worry that with money piling up at Tenma's place, it's siphoning away from the flow of the economy. So by having Tenma spend lavishly on their wedding, there's a chance he can avoid making enemies of those with economic concerns. And, well—I'll admit that part of my personal satisfaction comes from the fact that the money would be flowing into the Sanga Duchy."
I told the three of them that paying for the wedding wasn't just for their sake, but for mine as well, and ultimately, for the good of the kingdom. Beyond that, Albert was subtly making it clear that there was something in it for him too, smoothing over how unnatural it might otherwise seem for me to push so hard on their behalf. His bearing was exactly that of a "big-time
con artist."
...or so it seemed to me.
"Cerna, don't overthink this. I'm just using your wedding to cut down on the number of enemies I have. And even if you refused, I'd make it lavish anyway—by force if I had to. After all, I was your master, even if only for a little while. So please, don't make your master look bad."
I delivered that last part in a completely ridiculous tone, and Cerna finally laughed. She still didn't seem entirely convinced, but when I said, "Wouldn't you rather know in advance than be blindsided by how extravagant it turned out?", she reluctantly agreed to let me cover the wedding costs.
"But this is a problem. With just that, I have no reason to participate. What should I do... Now that I think about it, who's been chosen as the go-between for their wedding?"
I had thought we'd cleared the biggest hurdle in the plan to crush Henri's father's scheme, when Albert suddenly came out with something like that.
"We've asked the Guild Master and Flute, but..."
"That won't do! The Guild Master is unreliable, and his wife is with child, so we can't risk anything happening to her. So here's what I think — why not have Tenma handle it? He's paying for the wedding, so he might as well be the go-between too. And if Primera assists Tenma, then it wouldn't be strange for me to attend either."
Albert praised his own idea as though it were brilliant, but honestly, it still felt like a weak excuse for Albert to show up. Yet when I voiced my concern, Albert responded,
"It's my father we're talking about — he'd want to know how Primera performed as go-between. After all, he dotes on Primera. You could call him embarrassingly doting. So for the sake of my dear father,
I have no choice but to
attend! ...That's the angle we should go with."
Everything would be framed as being for Duke Sanga's sake. Well, it was true that Albert did have the clout to muscle his way in simply because a member of his family was in an important role.
"If that's the case, then I won't be able to participate... What should I do?"
This time, Cain joined the conversation.
"In that case, since there's nothing in this trip that would benefit only the Marquis Samons household, couldn't you argue that you're forcing your way in so you won't be left out any further?"
"That's perfect! As for Lion... with Lion, everyone would accept 'he just came along without overthinking it,' right?"
"No need for all that — I could just invite all three of you as the host. That should work, right, Cerna?"
"Y-yes... at this point, please do as you like, Tenma. We'll just look forward to seeing how lavish the ceremony turns out."
Cerna seemed to have resigned herself to the situation, but when I added, "Marcus will also be involved in the wedding planning," she appeared somewhat relieved.
In the end, it was decided that Albert would attend as Primera's guest, Cain and Lion as mine, and the old men would fill the "family" slots — with Amur counted under the Otouri household's care, and Renie posing as Amur's attendant.
"So then, Dad — about the food for the wedding. For the meat, we've got wyvern, bicorn, and White-furred wild ox..."
"Wait a second! I've never handled bicorn or White-furred wild ox before! Are you seriously planning to serve such ridiculously high-end ingredients?!"
When I listed off the names of what I figured would be the standout items among my ingredients, Dad let out a shout of surprise. The sheer volume of his voice woke Soleil-chan, who had been sleeping peacefully in a corner of the dining hall cradled by the proprietress, and she started bawling just as loudly — which earned me an absolutely furious scolding from the proprietress.
"Dad, you've got a bump on your head. Do you need some ointment?"
"……Thanks, kid."
When I handed my father some ointment for the lump on his head, he quietly took it and began applying it to the injured area.
Dad had been startled when I suddenly proposed pulling out high-end ingredients, and he'd actually wanted me to save those kinds of things for myself down the road. I told him I did have a decent quantity, but he said that bicorn and White-furred wild ox might make the celebrating couple too nervous to actually enjoy themselves, so we decided to go with wyverns instead — lower rank than those two, but available in large quantities. When I casually mentioned that I was planning to blow apart the whole wedding scheme that Henri's father was putting together, Dad silently punched me and snapped, "Say that sort of thing first next time!"
"In that case, we're going to need something with real impact for the food — something that knocks their socks off."
"If this were just a normal banquet, sticking a wyvern head on display would be easy enough, but… obviously we can't do that at a wedding."
I looked around at everyone enjoying themselves, trying to think of anything that might spark an idea…
"Come to think of it, I've never heard of anyone doing that… Dad. I just thought of something that could be really fun."
"Hm? ……Oh! That could actually be pretty interesting. It'd be a bit of a pain to pull off, but if Tenma helps out, there shouldn't be any problem."
I ran my idea by Dad, and he gave it his enthusiastic stamp of approval. The ingredients could all be sourced from what we already had on hand, so as long as we made sure everything was ready in time for the wedding, we'd be good to go.
"For the dishes, we'll go with a format of serving small portions of many different varieties. And if we have Albert and the others supervise the plating and give their official approval, the other side won't be able to file any complaints, right?"
"Making that many varieties sounds like a pain, but if we start tomorrow and store the finished dishes in Tenma's Magic Bag, we should be able to manage."
"Yeah. I'll help out in between other tasks too, so ideally I'd like to prepare around ten different kinds."
Dad said ten was a lot, but since the whole point was to overwhelm the other side, I argued that more was better. Well, the extra work would fall on me too, but between the dishes I already had in stock and the ingredients I'd prepped, I could make time for the other schemes I had in mind.
To nail down a rough menu, I called Albert and Cain over for a discussion, and both of them agreed to help without hesitation. Of course, Albert said "This could become the new signature dish of the Duke Sanga territory," and Cain said "Make sure you do right by me too this time!" — so it wasn't entirely out of pure goodwill. That said, if they were willing to help, the price of a favor like that was practically nothing. For the record, I hadn't invited Chris to the meeting because my sixth sense had been screaming "Absolutely do NOT invite her!" so loudly it actually hurt.
"You have a hole in your kimono!"
"No I don't!"
"Then I'm coming from this side!"
"You're not getting through!"
"Now's my chance — nya!"
"All done!"
I had just wrapped up a discussion with Albert and the others and was looking around the dining hall, thinking I might grab something to eat. That’s when I saw a three-on-three battle in progress: the lynx princess’s group versus Amour, Aura, and Lenny. For reference, the one screaming near the end was Millie, because the moment she tried to outmaneuver Lenny, she was suddenly tied up with a rope that appeared from nowhere.
Meanwhile, Jeanne, who had somehow been left out of it all, was chatting away happily with Primera and Miss Cerna while they watched over Soleil with the landlady. As for Henri, he was surrounded by Grandpa, Chris, and Marcus, who were making him drink. And on top of that, he was being roped into listening to some kind of grumbling.
"Grandpa and Marcus seem to still be in their right minds, but Chris looks like she’s about to get clingy-drunk… Should I send Shiromaru over to distract her?"
With Grandpa and Marcus, I felt like I could probably handle it if I stepped in, but with Chris, she might just get even more annoying. So I decided to leave it to Shiromaru.
And just as I thought, Grandpa and Marcus were only teasing Henri, and they quieted down when I gave them a gentle word. Meanwhile, the moment Shiromaru got close, Chris seemed to forget all about Henri and started demanding the meat intended for Shiromaru, eventually wandering off from Henri entirely.
"Senior Chris should be fine with this now, right?"
"Yeah."
Once Albert and Cain saw that Chris had moved far enough away, they approached. I was wondering what my old man was up to, and it turned out he had retreated into the kitchen and started cooking. Something might have come to him while I was talking with the other two.
"Should we leave the rowdy group of ladies alone and go over to the chatting group instead? I’d like to properly greet the guest of honor again."
"Right, so Tenma, you should come too. It’d probably startle them if we showed up all of a sudden."
We had retreated to the spot in Manpukutei where we thought the least damage would occur, but when Albert and Cain suddenly arrived, Miss Cerna and the landlady became stiff. Noticing the change, Soleil started crying, and all three of us ended up being chased away by Primera. To be precise, I wasn’t exactly chased away—it was more that I was dragged along by the two who had disrupted the atmosphere, and since being the only man among a group of women seemed like it might be rough, I didn’t resist.
"Well now, were you driven off by a crying baby and ended up fleeing here?"
The only people who would accept us three were Grandpa and Marcus, so we came over half-resigned. But the two of them seemed pretty drunk. Compared to them, Henri, who had been teased by them, didn’t seem nearly as intoxicated. Probably because he was being considerate of them and didn’t drink much, and also because they hadn’t forced him to drink excessively. Well, now three more people around the same age had joined, though two of them held quite high social standing, so Henri might not get much of a break… but since this was the only escape route, he’d just have to bear with it.
"Come to think of it, how exactly does one act as a matchmaker for a wedding?"
"I’ve never done it myself, so I’m not entirely sure, but maybe just think of yourself as the emcee or host this time around?"
"That’s right. I don’t have any experience either, but I have seen a senior do it before."
According to Marcus, that senior had handled duties similar to hosting a wedding and acting as a witness, so I casually thought maybe I should just do something like a variety show MC while I took a sip of juice…
"If that’s the case, perhaps we should have Primera help out too."
Albert’s comment made me nearly spit out my drink. I managed not to quite choke on it, but the juice went down the wrong pipe, leaving me in a state like ‘milk out of my nose’.
"Whoa! Tenma, that's gross!"
Cain said that to me, but I was coughing too hard to retort, and I suffered in discomfort for a while until the coughing finally stopped.
"Hah... hah... hah... Albert, what are you suddenly saying?"
I ended up glaring at Albert a little, but he remained completely unfazed.
"Well, being a matchmaker means it has to be a man and a woman, right? It wouldn't be right for a man like you, Tenma, to be attending to the bride."
"He's got a point there."
What Albert said was certainly correct, and Grandpa was the first to agree with him, with everyone else nodding along in succession. However, while I understood the reasoning, I was about to ask why Primera specifically, when—
"First, for someone like Jeanne or Aura, I'm sorry to say, but it wouldn't match their social standing. With Amour or Ren-san, we'd need permission from the viscount family in the South. With the three from the Lynx Princess, they'd end up arguing over who gets to be paired with you, Tenma."
Furthermore, it was explained that people like Flute-san or the proprietress were married, so it would be improper for them to be paired with someone other than their spouse.
"In that regard, for Primera, I can grant the permission myself, and her social standing is impeccable. Plus, she already knows you and the bride, so it wouldn't be unnatural for her to serve as a matchmaker."
When put that way, Primera did seem like the ideal candidate, but I thought there might be one other equally suitable person...
"Senior Chris... wouldn't be able to celebrate from the heart, so..."
I was told that, and I understood that among my acquaintances, there was no one more suitable than Primera.
"As Albert says, having Primera help is the best option."
And so, with everyone convinced, we called Primera over and asked if she would help serve as a matchmaker. Primera had seemed a bit puzzled at first, just like me, but once I relayed Albert's words exactly, she was convinced. Regarding the reason about Chris, though, she just gave a wry smile and didn't say anything...
After that, Grandpa gave a sharp shout to quiet down when the noise from Amour and the others grew too loud, or Soleil-chan started crying again after being startled by Grandpa's voice, or things got noisy once more when the old man brought over soups and dishes that looked kind to the stomach, the lively banquet continued late into the night.
―――On some plain somewhere―――
"Hurry! We can still make it in time if we keep going like this!"
"Please wait! Riding a horse at night is dangerous!"
Despite the surrounding darkness, a young man was attempting to depart under cover of night, aiming for a specific city, and was being stopped by a knight who appeared to be his guard.
"If we don't get there even a little bit faster, Albert and Cain will come up with some excuse or another and leave Gunjou City! Just to ditch me!"
"Even so! Even if we keep riding through the night like this, when and where are we going to take a break? Our horses aren't Golems, you know!"
"Ugh! Th-that's..."
"If we keep pushing like this and one of our horses gets injured, what then? Finding a replacement horse will take considerable time. If that happens, we'll definitely be left behind. Besides, if a horse injury is discovered while we're stopped, that's one thing — but if it happens while we're riding, the chance of being thrown is extremely high. And if the landing is bad, we'll have to turn back all the way to Shellhide... carrying Lord Lion's corpse."
"..."
"Furthermore, after Lord Lion's funeral, we'll likely have our death sentences carried out. After all, we'd be guilty of a crime equivalent to killing our charge, 'the next Margrave of Haust.'"
"No, that's not..."
"Everyone, Lord Lion has declared we press onward regardless. Right now, write letters or wills to your families. Once everyone is finished writing, we will obey Lord Lion's orders and ride through this darkness! Hurry!"
"I'm sorry! I'm seriously reflecting on it! Hey you — stop writing your will while fake-crying! Please, stop muttering your family names while writing letters! It's my fault!"
"Then, from here on, we proceed under my instructions — is that agreed?"
"I leave everything to you..."
In this manner, Lion's reckless actions were halted by the knight's counsel. Incidentally, the following dawn, Lion's party was attacked by a pack of wolves just a few hours after setting out, but thanks to the valiant efforts of their escorting knights, not a single person was injured. However, after the wolf pack was repelled, the knight who had counseled Lion...
"If we had been attacked at night, there may well have been casualties. The fact that there weren't is entirely thanks to Lord Lion's sound judgment."
Hearing these words, Lion never again raised an objection to the knight's instructions. As a result, the traveling speed of Lion's party increased, and they were able to rendezvous with Tenma and the others faster than originally anticipated.