Bertia’s [List of things I want to do for my wedding, Best 100] made an appearance again, here.
One of the things written in its contents was, “I want to be princess-carried out after the wedding ceremony!!”
Since this could easily be granted with my physical strength, I decided to fulfill it it.
I was just a bit concerned because recently, I had been doing a lot of desk work, so my physical strength seems to have diminished a bit.
Although I trained in my free time, the wedding ceremony was only experienced once in a lifetime (although there were a few exceptions), so the dress and ornaments were quite fancy. Thus, one’s weight would proportionally increase…
Usually the bride herself is barely able to move when wearing it all, so in that case I wouldn’t mind bearing the bride’s weight as well, but in any case, my companion is Bertia.
Her physical strength that has been tempered daily in the name of dieting has far exceeded that of an average noble daughter’s, so her ability to move around is also considerably higher.
At first glance, the beautiful and sparkling dress looks elegant, but in actuality, it is considerably heavy.
Two to three maids were needed to transport that dress.
…Bertia put it on and spun around, unaided, in front of the mirror, though.
“Then, shall we go, Tia?”
After we finished waving at the venue, I called out to Bertia so that we could exit the area. With a smile blooming over her whole face and looking delighted from the bottom of her heart, she nodded.
Seeing her faintly blushing cheeks as usual, I realized it wasn’t smiling out of joy at being released from the archbishop’s tedious talk… very precious words, but rather out of joy that her wedding ceremony to me concluded safely.
Seeing her like this, naturally my own joy grew as well.
My dull heart seems to constantly revolve with her at its center.
“Hold on tight, okay?”
“Eh? Eh? …Funyaa?!”
When I lifted and carried her body, she let out her cute and amusing scream as usual and circled her arms around my neck in a fluster.
As expected, there was a considerable weight in my arms now, but, actually, it wasn’t so bad.
With her bright-red face suddenly drawing near and this close-up, I felt like most of the weight could be converted into into [the weight of happiness].
“C-c-c-cecil-sama?!”
I smiled at the girl in my arms whose whole body turned scarlet again, and after gently kissing her forehead, I walked through the center passage of the cathedral with relaxed steps.
Our relatives, friends, the influential nobles of our country, and foreign guests sent us off with applause, as if blessing us.
I wondered what kind of reactions we’d get after seeing me carrying my bride like this, since normally, the bride and the groom would only walk together while holding hands, but the reactions were surprisingly positive.
The women’s envious gazes directed towards Bertia who was in my arms.
And the women who were in attendance together with their husbands or fiancés moved closer to their partners as if they were influenced by us.
In such a situation, the men also appeared unruffled but gently hugged their wife or fiancée close by the shoulders or waist.
…Including the royal couple and Marquis Noches and his wife.
Bertia who had been bewildered by my sudden action at first perhaps also gradually calmed down, as when we passed by her friends, though she seemed to be embarrassed, she slightly waved her hand while looking very happy.
Her friends, who were slightly moved by her, waved their hands in return with teary eyes. As for my friends…
“It looks like a good way to train. It might be nice to try squats while holding Miss Cynthia next time.”
“Wait, Your Highness! Please don’t raise the hurdle!! Our ceremonies are coming soon after yours!! …Of course, I will work hard so that I can marry Miss Anne!!”
“Silica, do you want me to lift you up? Should I try training my arms from now on?”
“My cute little sister is finally…”
…You guys, don’t you have any words of blessing for us?
Speaking of which, Shaun who was sitting in the seat for the royal family muttered, “Would Miss Joanna be delighted by that as well? I might not be able to do it as cool as my big brother, but if I try hard from now on…,” but I paid no heed to it and just passed him.
The uniformed knights who were standing on both sides of the doors quietly opened them when we stood in front of them.
On both sides of the short corridor that continued outside, the uniformed Imperial Knights were standing lined up at the sides while raising their ceremonial swords in front of their faces.
Although the atmosphere was quite solemn, the knights’ expressions were all gentle enough to transmit their blessings for us.
I walked straight down the middle without stopping, finally standing in front of the doors that lead outside.
We could hear the noise of the people who were gathered outside to congratulate us.
The knights who were standing by the door shifted their gazes towards me, requesting my permission. When I slightly nodded in response to their inquiring gazes, they slowly opened the large doors.
Light flowed in from between the opened doors.
The people’s shouts of joy became louder and more distinct.
Then, there were many smiling faces before our eyes.
As I was feeling all of that, I took a somewhat large stride forward, stepping outside of the cathedral.
In the whirlpool of the lively applause that arose, Bertia and I gazed at each other and smiled.\n
Some of the nobles who were relatively close to us but didn’t have enough status to enter the venue inside the cathedral were waiting for us there, and they gave their blessings to us as we just came out.
Because the commoners couldn’t enter the grounds, they congratulated us from outside the venue.
From here, since we would be moving to the royal palace, we would pass through the same route from this morning… No, compared to this morning, there were more people who came in order to congratulate us.
“Now, Tia. Wave your hand around.”
I gently said that near Bertia’s ear as she obediently laid in my arms, and incidentally, I dropped a kiss on her cheek.
“…!!”
Even though she had experienced the same thing many times over today, Bertia still reacted without getting used to it at all.
With a bright red face, she quickly covered the cheek that I just touched with her hand.
Seeing us like this, the people who gathered raised an even louder cheer.
“P-please let me down!!”
“After a little bit more.”
As expected, she was slightly embarrassed, but though Bertia complained, I didn’t feel like letting her down yet.
After this, we would be doing the [bouquet toss] and such in accordance to Bertia’s wishes, so I intended to let her down at that time. However, her friends who were to participate hadn’t moved yet from cathedral to here.
My arms were unexpectedly also accustomed to her weight, so since I could still carry her, I wanted to keep making this declaration that she was mine for a bit longer.
“Look, everyone is waiting for you to wave your hand, you know? My hands are fully preoccupied as I’m holding my treasured possession like this, so please cover for my portion too, my wife.”
“…………………………!!”
Bertia had screamed soundlessly many times over today, but even so, she still seemed happy, as she then waved her hand with all her might from within my arms.
Part 2/4
Translated by LynneSuzuran & Senhiro
Now then, after that, our wedding ceremony rushed through turbulent event after turbulent event. Although it was extremely hectic, it was also fun.
Following the wedding ceremony in the cathedral, because the[bouquet toss] was not originally a custom of this world, I didn’t know how many people would open to the idea. Therefore, it was only going to involve the unmarried women who were close to us, but… Upon explaining the gist of the event, some unmarried women among the foreign guests requested to participate as well.
Such as a foreign princess who was anxious over her betrothal selection, with her bloodshot eyes… with a serious expression, so that she could participate, she promised, “This is just something informal. There won’t be any objections afterwards. If there is still trouble, the Alphasta Royal Family will deal with it appropriately as the royal family, and any acts of ad hominem are strictly forbidden.” Therefore, I approved her participation.
Then, just in case, since it was the part of the event, there would be only one bouquet that would be tossed, but we also prepared one for everyone who participated in the event. Therefore, we hurriedly prepared other bouquets to give to all participants.
In other words, though only one would be thrown for the event’s sake, we had already prepared a bouquet to bless one’s luck in marriage (maybe) for each and every one of them, so don’t too heated over the single tossed bouquet, okay?
In this kind of situation where many influential people gathered, we had to avoid our wedding ceremony being seen as stingy if some trouble were to arise from getting worked up over it.
Therefore, since I knew that Bertia had stealthily prepared several matching bouquets filled with the hope that everyone would be happy with the person they liked for her friends aside from the bouquet that’d be tossed, I took the liberty to put that to good use.
However, I felt a bit guilty about mixing her consideration for her friends were with the [prudence bouquets], so the [matching bouquets] were only for her friends. I arranged for something else to be given to the others.
Even though it was kind of unexpected, there was a bizarre excitement about the [bouquet toss].
The women’s bloodcurdling competition the moment the bouquet left Bertia’s hands was slightly terrifying. But the atmosphere turned harmonious once it was over, so I thought everyone enjoyed it.
By the way, the one who received the main bouquet was… Kuro.
After she lightly jumped and caught the bouquet midair, Kuro brought it over to Bertia with sparkling eyes, to which Bertia involuntarily cried, “Kuro, this is not [Fetch]!!”. Truthfully, it was amusing.
Then, in the end, Bertia thoroughly explained the meaning of the event to Kuro once more, and after Kuro was properly aware that the bouquet now belonged to her, the [bouquet toss] ended, but… I’m a little concerned with how Kuro, after Bertia’s explanation of, “the person who obtains this will become the next happy bride”, stared at Zeno who was standing in a corner of the venue.
Later, I advised Zeno, “You can’t lay your hands on a little girl, okay?”, but I was answered with, “Age doesn’t matter for spirits!!”. I wonder what he means by that?
I understand that their physical appearances are just a guise, but if possible, I’d like to avoid having rumors going around about how my attendant is a terrible person who lays his hands on little girls.
After that, we left the cathedral and headed towards the royal palace. What welcomed us on the way was the civilians who congratulated us as they clapped their hands, cheered, and said congratulatory words… and an incessant rain of countless of flower petals.
No, to be more precise, the flower petals were my arrangement.
[Flower shower], “It would be wonderful to have flower petals raining down incessantly when we exit the venue,” was written inside the [List of things I want to do for my wedding, Best 100] that Kuro gave me, so I had Zeno work hard to make it happen.
I requested via Zeno for a large quantity of petals from the spirit of flower lineage. Then, I asked for servants from Charles and the others’ households to distribute the gathered petals among the civilians lining the route, making it possible to prepare something called a [flower shower] through the journey to the royal palace.
Even though it wasn’t that far to the royal palace, there was still some distance, and since it was something so sudden, it had seemed like it would be quite difficult to pull off. However, the participating civilians looked like they had fun, and above all, Bertia’s eyes were glittering in delight, so everything was good.
I’ll pay the participants an appropriate remuneration out of my own private funds as a symbol of my gratitude, later.
At the marriage reception, there was some work left such as greeting the guests and performing the first dance as we were the leading parties. However, with the cooperation of my father and the others, we managed to put aside some time to do as many events as possible.1\n
The first of which was something that Bertia said she would like to do no matter what, [cutting the cake].
When she first brought it up, it’s not that I thought it was just something like “because Bertia likes sweets,” but when she said, “I want it to be the first thing we do together,” I was a bit intrigued.
At the same time, I secretly thought to myself, “Did greeting the guests and the first dance not count as the first thing we did together?” but it would definitely be too insensitive, so I didn’t actually voice it.
[Cutting the cake] itself was something that Bertia had already asked for beforehand, so I had already included it in the schedule, which meant it was good that things could proceed smoothly without changing the schedule again, but…
Even for this, there was something written in the [List of things I want to do for my wedding, Best 100] that Bertia hadn’t mentioned before.
Apparently, that was something called the [first bite].
According to the explanation from the list, the [first bite] appeared to be an event where after the bridge and groom cut the cake, they eat a slice together.
It seemed that when the groom asked the bride to eat, there was an implied meaning of, “We can eat together from now on,” and when the bride asked the groom to eat, the meaning was, “I’ll always make you a delicious meal”, but… in the royal palace, there are a lot of exclusive chefs, so there’s no need for Bertia to cook, though? So I thought.
No, of course I didn’t say this out loud either, okay?
Regardless of how reality would play out, what was most important thing was the intention behind it, so I wasn’t as boorish as to mention that.
It seemed that Bertia had gone to a wedding in her previous world or something and had seen this [first bite] thing, and decided she absolutely wanted to try it for herself.
Besides, when she saw that [first bite], it seemed that the parents of both the bride and the groom were called forward in order under the pretense of giving a demonstration first, which was followed by the bride and the groom going through it themselves.
In the list, Bertia’s commented, “It was extremely lovely so I want to try doing it! But… it’s impossible to do so for the wedding of a member of the royal family. Especially asking the parents to model it, as it would mean asking Their Majesties the King and Queen to do that”.
She had surely been holding back without saying anything even though she wanted to do it.
When I thought of that, I wanted to at least grant her wish of eating the cake together.
It also didn’t take up much time or many expenses, after all.
That was why, before [cutting the cake], I brought this up in secret to my father and mother, and then to Marquis and Marquess Noches.
As I expected, they were hesitant due to embarrassment, but… when I asked with the couple was present at the same time, both husbands were totally onboard.
Under the justification that it was [for the children], it seemed that they wanted to be lovey-dovey with their beloved wife in public.
Although both wives showed hesitation due to the embarrassment, upon seeing that their husbands seemed to be looking forward to it, and upon hearing my story about how it was Bertia’s desire that she’s thoughtfully kept from us, they agreed to it more or less.
As a result, [cutting the cake] and the [first bite] from the [examples] could all be fully completed.
Part 3/4
Translated by LynneSuzuran & Senhiro
Honestly speaking, I thought I heard a slightly raised voice saying, “Shameful,” from among the more obstinate women, but perhaps since our parents and we were all strongly emitting an aura of bliss, the general mood in the venue leaned towards that of watching a pleasant scene.
Most likely under our influence, our high-ranking friends and some of their relatives also greatly emitted a very sweet ambience as they ate together..
Some of the people without partner looked slightly awkward, but in that case, the people with similar situations gathered, giving off slightly pleasant vibes, and seemed to be enjoying the unexpected sense of fellowship that arose.
More than anything, the most important person–Bertia–was surprised. Even so, she was making an extremely delighted face, so I was also satisfied. If there had been a problem, then later I would have thoroughly crushed it… followed up on it, so it was good that things worked out.
At the final stage of the party. Just when I thought that Bertia must have realized that the list she wrote was already in my hands, she softly leaned in closer to me, bringing her lips close to my ear as if she was going to say something in secret.
“Cecil-sama understands me through and through and knew all the things I wanted to do!! As expected!!”
With her who saying that happily with sparkling eyes, I was a bit troubled over how I should answer.
No matter how capable I may be, it’s not like I knew everything about the ways from her previous life, and it’s impossible for me to predict a culture I was unfamiliar with, all right?
Despite that, it was difficult to expose myself in the face of those eyes full of expectation, so I dodged the question by just smiling ambiguously.
Then, when the party’s banquet arrived at its peak, originally, we, as the leading roles, should have quietly slipped away from the party, leaving the rest to our parents to prepare for our first night around the time of the final event.
“Tia, here you go.”
I handed over a sheet of paper.
“What is it?”
“I thought to let you read this letter to your parents now. Didn’t you want to do this? This thing called the last Thank You letter from the bride.”
“Please wait for a moment?! That is right, but I hadn’t prepared any letter!!”
“Yes, that was why I prepared it in your stead. This was written based on the draft that I received from Kuro.”
I gently stroked Bertia’s head as she began to panic, showing Bertia the [List of things I want to do for my wedding, Best 100] that I received from Kuro at this time, letting the cat out of the bag.
Though I felt guilty for keeping it hidden, I’d wanted to reveal it smoothly instead of plunging into a confession.
“Wait-?! Eh?! Why is it here?!”
“Well, let’s put that aside first. Look, it’s starting.”
“Please wait a moment! I haven’t prepared my heart yet!! Actually, the letter from the bride isn’t something where anything is fine as long as you just read it!! It has to be a letter packed with my feelings of gratitude!!”
“Ah, Zeno has brought the flower bouquet for you to give to your parents. …Well, since it’s a letter that I prepared as I thought that you’d be flustered if you were to not have anything at hand, you can just modify it and repack it with your own feelings, right?”
“Eh?! That, do you mean I have to [ad-lib]?!”
“Ad…? I don’t quite understand the meaning of that phrase, but I think that is most likely right? Ah, the music was changed as I requested. Now, go on. Do your best?”
“Wait-!! Uuuu… Th-this is also a trial as the crown princess, right? Fine, then!! I will pour my whole heart out to Father and Mother!! This draft… I-I will use it as a reference!”\n\n
“I, since I ended up snatching Cecil-sama away from the heroine, I thought I’d do my best to become a crown princess who’s useful to the country, but I can’t do iiiiitt!!”
“Tia, calm down? You’re plenty useful, okay?”
It should go without saying, the reason I’m putting this much effort into official matters is because you are staying by my side.
Since you treasure the people of this country, I also consider treasuring them.
With just that alone, I think you’re playing a big role as the crown princess.
But, not only that…
“Tia, you recently received letters from the princesses and daughters of influential nobles here and there, right?”
“Yeah, everyone is doing very well.”
“Among them, there were some that asked you for advice on planning a wedding ceremony, right?”
“I received some praise about how the direction of our wedding ceremony was so dreamy. Because of that, they told me that they wanted to use it as a reference for their own wedding ceremony!!”
“I heard that there were some people who wanted to pay you to consider directing their wedding ceremony, is that right?”
“Now that you mention it, some people were indeed like that. Princess Lisona of the Umyerb country also brought it up the other day.”
“Aah, the princess whose eyes became bloodshot during the [bouquet toss], huh? It seems she found an ideal husband after that and became engaged to him. …Hey, Tia. A wedding ceremony for a member of royalty is a huge event, right?”
“That’s right. I heard that the preparations can even take a year depending on the person.”
“Right. Furthermore, there is also a need to make an extravagant display out of it, so there are many who try to conduct the perfect ceremony without holding back on cost. It holds that much importance.”
“Cecil-sama also listened to a lot of my selfishness back then.”
“That’s because your selfishness is adorable, though it didn’t cost that much money… but putting that aside, does Tia understand the significance of them requesting your cooperation for such an important event?”
“?”
I smiled wryly at Bertia who tilted her head looking like she didn’t understand the meaning of my words.
She was as obtuse to these kinds of things as always..
“A foreign country’s royal is going to be involved in such an important event for the whole country. It’s such a good opportunity to display the intimacy between the two countries, and apart from [receiving their request], it’s quite advantageous if we also have request for them. We essentially ‘sold’ to them a debt of gratitude they’d be obligated to fulfill. Moreover, it’s not only royalty who splurge on weddings, but nobles do as well, so if you just ‘sell’ these requests made of you, they will become quite the string of ‘revenue.’ And if you start that as a ‘business,’ that’s pretty good, I think?”
“It’s the [domestic cheat]!!”
“No, I don’t really understand what that is, but… for the time being, Princess Lisona’s country and her spouse’s country occupy key places where we are expanding our country’s naval routes, so can you get along well with them for me? I’d be very happy about it.”
“Please leave it to me!! Because Princess Lisona’s moe points are identical… because our preferences match, I’m quite excited to talk about her wedding ceremony. We are going to have lots of collaborations as friends just like this!!”
“When monetary matters are involved, you can discuss it with me or Miss Joanna and the others, okay?”
If I leave it all to Bertia, I’m worried because she is a little bit too much of an easy mark.
“Cecil-sama, I can at least count money!!”
“Since there will be quite a bit of money involved, we must get some people to review it. The people who are entrusted with the country’s accounting are also constantly checking one another’s work, whether there is any mistake or not, right? It’s something like that (although it’s a bit different).”
“I see, it’s [double checking], right?”
“Double? Yup, it’s surely that. Anyway, let’s have someone accompany you so that there won’t be any mistakes (in the correspondence in the letters), okay?”
“I understand!! Please [double check] properly so that there won’t be any mistake (in the amount of money)!!”
“Yeah, I’ll entrust it to you.”
“Please leave it to me!!”
Several months after that, an information magazine on marriage by the name of “Barty,” written by Bertia, was published, and it won tremendous popularity with women who dreamt of marrying. However, at that time, I hadn’t predicted it at all.
“Tia really wants to please me, huh?”
“I want Cecil-sama to experience a lot of happiness!!”
With you just being by my side, you’ve already made me happy and amused. Despite that, you still intend to make me even happier, huh?
With this, I will no longer be able to take my eyes from my self-proclaimed villainess wife, won’t I?
Well, I also have no intention of letting you go.
“Tia, let’s be happy together from now on, okay?”
“Yes!!”
Author’s Note:
The happy end？
With this, [Observation Record of A Self-Proclaimed Villainess’ Fiance] has come to an end.
Thank you very much to everyone who has read the novel so far.