387 - Alfred's Perspective: Felicia's Wedding 2
I spent the few days until the Spring Blossom Festival working. Since I had left Solana in the city of Grenore, I handled matters concerning Christina's detached palace myself. As a strategy to quickly spread bobbin lace to the Empire, I had Ulrika weaving bobbin lace to be carried to the Empire. After checking on her progress, I visited the Royal Peers who had been covering my work while I was assigned to Grenore. What surprised me was that Dietfried was helping his father Elvis with his work as part of his Royal Peerage education. It seemed he had become aware of the duties and responsibilities that came with being counted among the royalty without my realizing it, and had begun thinking about fulfilling them.
...Dietfried will come of age next year too.
A few years ago there had been concerns about his educational delays, but it seemed he was beginning to receive education appropriate for his age as a prince. Aside from his cat headpiece, he was growing into a flawless prince. Elvis seemed to be trying to decide on a fiance for him soon, but apparently this was a topic Dietfried skillfully avoided. I heard Christina had clearly refused him, but was he still not giving up? His opponent was too difficult. An ordinary girl would grow out of her attachment to her older brother with time, but Dietfried's first love was Christina. I could not imagine a future where Christina would come to have someone more important to her than her brother.
For both nobles and commoners, weddings were basically conducted in the morning. In this country, multi-day rites were held only for the king's marriage or that of the Royal Peer determined to be the next king. In both cases, the wedding would be held at the autumn Harvest Festival to pray for the prosperity of the nation and its descendants. The fact that Felicia's wedding, as she had been considered the most likely candidate for the next king, was being held to coincide with the Spring Blossom Festival caused no small amount of disappointment among the people. But Felicia swept even that away with a single smile. Seeing her busily fussing over her pale-faced groom trembling with nerves, some people had begun to say that Felicia simply could not wait until autumn.
...Felicia elder sister's beauty truly knows no bounds.
Emotionally, I believed my fiancee Ariel was the cutest and most beautiful in the world. But faced with Felicia's beauty, all my personal feelings were blown away.
Overwhelmingly, simply beautiful.
The bonus points of a lover's affection meant nothing. Piling flowery praise on Felicia would be nothing but vulgar. She was simply beautiful just by being there, and my sister in her wedding dress had the most beautiful smile I had ever seen on her. And I knew that tomorrow's Felicia would be even more beautiful than today's Felicia.
...I had wanted to advertise the bobbin lace, but as expected, I am no match for Felicia elder sister after all.
While Felicia's face was hidden behind her veil, I had been able to draw attention to the bobbin lace adorning the hem of the veil and her wedding dress, but once her beauty was revealed from within the veil, all eyes turned only to that beauty. Even a family member (younger brother) accustomed to Felicia's beauty found his eyes drawn to her, so it could not be helped if strangers forgot to breathe. To ensure the wedding proceeded without incident, our grandfather Ethelbert was serving as today's priest. Even for a royal wedding, ordinarily a priest of the Sopdejania Church, which governed law and order, would conduct the ceremony. The reason Ethelbert was serving as priest only for Felicia's wedding was because they had predicted the priest would forget to breathe at Felicia's beauty and collapse. The priest who was supposed to handle the princess's wedding looked somewhat dissatisfied, but having seen Felicia in her wedding dress beforehand and lost consciousness, he grudgingly accepted this himself.
...Erald seems like he will manage.
Erald occasionally stole glances at Felicia standing beside him, but he did not seem likely to forget to breathe and faint. He sometimes seemed about to forget his words from staring at the bride too much, but Felicia compensated for this with practiced ease. At this rate, they would become a good couple.
...Erald is looked down upon for his face, but he is a Silver-White Knight.
No matter how much he was looked down upon for his delicate and pretty appearance, Erald was a Silver-White Knight. He possessed above a certain standard in both literary and martial arts. While he had a somewhat weak-willed side, he also had the guts to follow through once he made a decision. He seemed to have hesitated about marrying Felicia, but once they became husband and wife, he would steel himself. Felicia had seemed to see him as insufficient as a king's consort, but if something happened to me, Felicia would be the next king, and Erald would be suitable as her consort. That was what I thought.
...Felicia elder sister will finally be able to breathe a sigh of relief now.
Come to think of it, Felicia had been living up to the expectations of those around her since childhood. The Ivizia Kingdom had seen several generations of male heirs inherit the throne, but originally, female children were preferred as successors. Since the current king Christoph had many children including many princesses, Felicia was raised with the expectation that the next generation would surely have a queen, and she had the ability to meet that expectation. Because Felicia herself had a personality that considered it right to meet people's expectations, she had long been unable to choose a husband, torn between her own preferences and someone suitable as a king's consort.
...Even Erald should be able to fulfill the role of king's consort though.
To begin with, the Silver-White Knights were a group drilled in the qualities required of a queen's consort. They had studied enough to be able to temporarily take charge of state affairs, and had acquired the martial prowess to stand on the front lines in place of the queen in times of war. Many were of common birth since they were selected solely on ability, and in the sense that they did not carry the burden of an influential family name, they were convenient as consorts for princesses or queens. The Black Knights who were entrusted with fortresses were also entrusted with governing the surrounding territories for similar reasons. Just as royalty were required to manage territories for several years as a challenge to obtain a Royal Peerage, this was also to accumulate the experience necessary should one need to become involved in state affairs as a queen's consort. If a royal were to serve as the master of a fortress for several years as one of the Black Knights, that person could obtain a Royal Peerage immediately. Because everyone would recognize that they had acquired that much capability.
...Well, Erald's lack of self-confidence and his overly strong devotion might be the problem though.
Erald's argument seemed to be that it was far too much for someone like him to have the goddess (Felicia) as his wife. Since Felicia herself favored Erald, I did not think he needed to hold back at all, but when his devotion to my sister was too strong, he apparently could not help thinking that a mere human (himself) could never become the goddess's husband. Since the goddess herself was saying "please make me your bride," he should just give up and accept the good fortune that had fallen into his lap.
After the wedding ceremony at the royal castle concluded, we paraded through the noble district and inner city in an open carriage to present the bride and groom to the people. Commoner weddings were held at the new home, so there was naturally no carriage parade, but this was a royal wedding. The ceremony was held at the royal castle, then we paraded through the city to present them to the people, and finally we would return to Felicia's residence where the couple would live. Ordinarily, excluding the musicians and such, only the bride and groom would ride in the parade carriage, but this time, Ariel and I would also join the procession in a separate carriage. For us, who had once gone through a broken engagement, this served as an opportunity to announce to the people that we had reconciled, and also carried the meaning of declaring who the next king would be. Even though autumn weddings at the Harvest Festival were customary, Felicia, who had been the most likely candidate for the next king, was holding her wedding at the Spring Blossom Festival, and her younger brother's wedding was scheduled for the autumn of the same year. There could not be anything clearer than this.
"Thank you very much for the beautiful bouquet."
I escorted Ariel into the carriage. After waiting for her to sit down, I sat beside her, and was thanked in a hushed voice. Thank you for the Spring Blossom Festival flowers, she said. Then I also received a scolding that it was too much. The entrance hall and rooms of the residence had been buried in flowers. Please moderate it starting next year.
"Ariel, thank you for the embroidered handkerchief too. It was a spirited horse. Your embroidery skills have really improved."
"It is a Cerberus. Not a horse."
"...By the way, I was wondering about the numbers not matching."
"Numbers?"
The pattern Ariel had sewn was apparently a Cerberus. I had praised it assuming it was a spirited horse, but it seemed I had angered her instead. This was bad. To change the subject, I brought up not the embroidery itself, but the number of embroidered gifts. Knowing Ariel's conscientious nature, there was no way she had made only one embroidered handkerchief for me for the Spring Blossom Festival. I too had given her an abundance of Spring Blossom Festival flowers that I had not been able to openly give for years. If it was Ariel, it would not be strange if she had been faithfully embroidering something for me every year since breaking off our engagement as Alf.
"Knowing you, I think you must have made at least fifteen embroideries of mythical creatures..."
"They are not mythical creatures. ...There are also embroideries of horses and cats."
If I wanted that many new handkerchiefs, she would have them delivered to the residence later, Ariel said, looking away. My fiancee, a talented and beautiful woman with a somewhat strong-willed face, was somehow fatally bad at embroidery alone. I found her, imperfect in that one respect, utterly endearing.
[Author's Note]
It was Alfred's perspective for a change. I feel like I can subtly see Leonardo's Royal Peerage route, but surely it is my imagination.
Will fix typos and errors at a later date. I will aim for updates every other day for a while. Still figuring out the time adjustment.