“Eliza, um. I have always wanted to say this since before, but can I?”
“What is it?”
“Will you marry me?”
“……That’s fine with me?”
“Ah, in that case let’s do it? Hey, I hope you can make potato soup for tomorrow’s dinner.”
“That’s fine. Poobe has requested for that too.”
“Tsk. He’s always overeating and to think that he’s even making requests.”
“That’s fine. That side of Poobe is cute after all.”
“Is he cute? That guy…”
“He is cute. You kept saying those things and that is precisely the reason why Poobe warms up to me the most.”
“I don’t really care. If you want, I can give him to you.”
“That’s terrible. I’m going to tell that to Poobe. I’m sure he will be furious. He might even leave you. You better apologize now while you can.”
“……Yes, sorry. I said too much. I will treat Poobe preciously so please forgive me.”
“Okay, I will forgive you. Well then, everyone seems to be knocked out, shall we go home soon?”
“Let’s do that. Shall we go back? To our home”
Eliza and I returned to the mansion with good ties. I don’t know what’s going to happen to those who knocked out from overdrinking. I will leave them alone. While the journey to the mansion was long, it felt short as I was talking with Eliza, and we soon arrived.
The bunch of people who drank and ate merrily yesterday to the point of destruction, are wearing the usual proper clothes with formal expressions today. That’s right, today is finally the day when the autonomous feudal lord inauguration ceremony will take place.
For the ceremony, large droves of civilians gathered at the Helan national park, and many nobles donning ceremony attires also came. They were all there to celebrate my inauguration as the feudal lord. Happiness, awkwardness, and pride filled me.
A seat for the autonomous feudal lord was prepared on the platform. The chair, designed with silver as the base color, sure looked very comfortable. While golden color was used for the royalty, silver color was used for autonomous feudal lords. It is apparently a custom that has been passed down since the old ages.
As it has been a few hundred years since the birth of an autonomous feudal lord, I do not really care for customs, but it does feel weird if the same gold color reserved for the royalty is used for autonomous feudal lords.
I stared at Prince Arch’s back from the autonomous feudal lord seat; he is standing in front of me and delivering a speech to the public. For some reason, Prince Arch doesn’t seem like himself, as he kept extolling praises to me nonstop. Each time he does that, the crowd cheered and created a strange uproar.
In other words, my popularity has apparently become immense. Whenever the cheers happened, the platform shook and clattered. The vibration reverberated within me, and I feel horribly prideful. Prince Arch’s speech was about to come to an end.
“That is all I have to say. Let’s listen to the words of autonomous feudal lord Kururi Helan’s words next.”
I guess it is finally my turn. To be honest, I don’t have anything to say but not saying anything would be boring. Having been passed the baton to speak, I stood up, and once again a tremendous cheer dominated the vicinity. I raised my hand in response to that. I waited for the cheers to cool down and spoke about my current feelings.
“I’m extremely happy that Helan territory has become autonomous. As the head of it, I will be pleased if I can be a help to everyone.”
Each time I speak, the cheers followed, so I left pauses in between.
“Even though we have become autonomous, there is no different from being Kudan citizens. We will continue to pay respect to the royalty and support Prince Arch, who has come here today. We will work diligently as we always have, and spend our lives healthily with the Helan territory. However, there is one big change-”
The big change is…that is.
“Pride. I want you guys to strongly hold the pride of being Helan autonomous civilians. We ought to become a model to the Kudan country and propagate culture; I wish you guys will constantly have that in mind as we carry on with our lives. This Helan autonomous territory will eventually perish one day. However, the more people there are who think of this land, the further away that day will be. This is all I wanted to convey to you guys.”
I shook my hand in response to the cheers and ended the speech.
Finally, it is time for the imperial crown. Prince Arch held the silver crown and stood on the platform. I approached towards the side and looked straight at Prince Arch’s face. I bowed slightly and bent my knees to crouch down on the spot.
Prince Arch stepped up towards me. He then placed the silver crown on top of my head. Right now is the moment of the official birth of an autonomous feudal lord. The flag of Helan autonomous territory was raised in the plaza at the same time.
While I cannot promise eternal prosperity, as long as I am here, I will continue to support this Helan territory.
The civilians split up for the parade. It is an easy job of riding and waving my hands while on the enormous wagon pulled by six horses. On the wagon with me are my wife-to-be Eliza and the king-to-be Prince Arch. In order to show more people our faces, the horse wagon proceeded slowly.
In the middle of which, a large amount of nice-smelling petals were thrown at us, filling up the horse wagon; it seems like it was the doing of the Gapp company.
The cheers increased in intensity, to the point that we cannot make decent conversations in the horse wagon, but it seems like Prince Arch has suddenly thought of something and leaned his mouth towards my ears.
“Oh right, there was something I forgot. I heard that my father passed you a silver watch. With that one watch, you can mobilize the army, so I would like to get it back from you as you have become an autonomous feudal lord. I will like to collect it after this.”
…That silver watch. I lost it when the Helan territory experienced the severe drought. What should I do? I was told to take care of it properly. Alright, I will pretend I did not hear that. I broke into a wider smile and waved to the civilians.
Brushing aside Prince Arch who has been persistently trying to talk to me, I leaned towards Eliza beside me. I got closer to her and embraced her so that no one will approach us anymore. This is a great opportunity for me to let this news be made known to the civilians too.
Eliza looked embarrassed but she didn’t force my hand, wrapped around her, away. Prince Arch looks like he’s still trying to tell me something, so I will continue for a while. Also, there are probably no husbands who will let go when their wives are embarrassed with such wonderful faces.