Chapter 6.3

The Newly-Wed Huntswoman Life (3)

Looking back, there were a couple of weird things I should have noticed.

First, although Cermiane would sometimes talk about his mother who passed away when he was twelve, he would never talk about his father. Thus, I had imagined that he was born out of wedlock.

But, he was able to become a knight. People who became knights were from noble families who didn’t have enough funds or had some other circumstance and were forced to become a knight; they couldn’t become a commoner. Commoners who raised enough achievements of their own and became a noble were conferred the title of a baron. People who were born out of a wedlock weren’t recognized by their fathers and thus weren’t nobles, so they couldn’t become knights.

Next, the mansion. This mansion was clearly one that looked like it belonged to a viscount, and was too luxurious for a knight. As such, his single co-workers lived in the knights dormitory, and those who were married lived in apartments. When Cermiane’s coworkers and subordinates came to visit once in a while, they would always be shocked and then envious when they saw our home. This meant that his mother was a viscountess, but then, as the eldest surviving son, Cermiane should be a viscount, not a knight.

Next, Jamal and Quemella. This elderly couple was really refined in their manners, and after talking with them for a while, it seemed like they used to work at the palace. Commoners weren’t allowed to work at the palace. So although they never explicitly said it, they probably have the title of some noble rank. And these two nobles are working for Cermiane, a knight. Something was clearly off.

But, I noticed all these weird things only after everything was revealed. It was nothing more than a “Now that I think of it…” sort of thing. I don’t really pay attention to the details, and I have no hobby of asking about other people’s secrets.

However, there was one really important event that was clearly weird, but I didn’t notice until afterwards, and I would seriously regret not noticing this later on. This happened about a month after our wedding.

That day, when we were eating dinner, Jamal came. Since I was the one who made dinner, it was just stew, deer roast, bread, and beer. It was your typical commoner dinner, nothing fancy. Jamal gave Cermiane an unopened envelope.

“A letter has arrived for you.”

It was rare for a letter to come. Paper was expensive and sending a letter costs money, so you rarely see letters as a commoner. I tilted my head in confusion, but Cermiane just grimaced and took the letter; when he saw the wax seal on the back, he frowned even more.

“What’s wrong, Mia?”

“Nothing much”

Cermiane opened the envelope, scanned through the contents of the letter, and groaned in dismay. I wonder what was written in the letter to make him react like this…

“Ral, now we’ll need to go somewhere tomorrow.”

Hm? That’s a weird way of phrasing things. Since he said, we’ll need to go somewhere now, the letter was probably the reason.

“I don’t mind, but where are we going?”

“About that… we’ll just be meeting some acquaintances of mine.”

For some reason, Cermiane was being vague. Then, he uttered even stranger words.

“Could you wear a dress tomorrow?”

What? A dress? Ever since our wedding ended and we started our newly-wed life, I tossed aside my fancy dresses and always wore commoner clothing. Today’s outfit was a one-piece dress with an apron. Not to mention, I was wearing wooden boots.

I did have formal dresses, just in case though. They were part of the bride set that I was forced to bring with me: a couple of dresses, shoes, undergarments, and corsets, and a full set of accessories. Since I had no intention of using them, I tossed them somewhere, but Quemella had been taking care of them for me.

It was my turn to grimace. Cermiane looked as he was pleading:

“We can’t enter unless we’re in formal attire. Please, Ral, I’m begging you.”

If he’s going this far, I guess it can’t be helped. I wonder where we’re going, for us to wear formal attire. Will we be going to a government office?’

The next day, Quemella was really fired up for getting me dressed and prepared for our outing. She was saying something like, “It had always been my dream to ready My Lord’s wife.” I see. Maybe I shouldn’t have had her help me field-dress and skin my prey all this time?

In the first place, even though I said it wasn’t necessary, Quemella always prepared a bath for me; she also helped me wash no matter how unwilling I was, and always took good care of my hair and skin condition. As a huntswoman, I always get sunburnt, get scratches, and my hands get rough with all the field-dressing and skinning I do, but she always takes really good care of me. Due to her consistent efforts, my hair and skin conditions were good enough that I could pull off wearing this fancy dress.

I wore the vermilion dress that I received from Mother, and put on my accessories. I should look somewhat like a noble wife. Cermiane was wearing a forest green coat and looked entirely like an aristocrat. However, with our outfits, we wouldn’t be able to ride a horse, so I had thought we would be walking, but to my surprise, there was a carriage waiting for us. The driver was Jamal. He had apparently rented a carriage.

With my poor knowledge, I couldn’t think of any places that would require me to dress up and take a carriage there. Cermiane was making it obvious that he didn’t want to go, and the ride felt slightly uncomfortable since I had never before seen Cermiane be in such a bad mood.