Chapter 16.3

To Understand Each: Other Cermiane’s Point of View (3)

As soon as we arrived in the Imperial City, we had a wedding ceremony, and I hurriedly made preparations. Basically, it was a wedding ceremony that suited the status of a lower-ranking noble, but it would not do to have a shameful ceremony when inviting the entire Marquis family. Therefore, I asked the semi-high priest to come and made a large donation to the temple to get new decorations and flowers. The reception was held at the Marquis’s residence, but I had the flowers and decorations delivered.

Honestly, I spent almost all the inheritance I received from my mother on the cost of the proposal and the wedding ceremony and reception. However, I have no regrets. It’s just a small price to pay to marry Ralphine. But I had forgotten something. After we got married and she entered my home, my home budget would become her family’s budget as well. Ralphine was understandably shocked when she found out.

I was a little hesitant about my wedding outfit. I had already worn a knight’s formal attire at a pseudo-wedding ceremony in the Count Caliente’s territory. It wasn’t fresh anymore. As I was staring at my closet, my eyes fell on a blue knight’s formal attire.

It was something that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince had given me with the words “keep it safe.” It seemed to be something worn at ceremonies when the imperial family is in the military. Of course, I had no intention of wearing such a thing, but it was a dress for the imperial family, and the fabric was luxurious and beautiful. The vivid blue would look good against a white wedding dress.

After thinking it over, I decided to wear it. According to my research, someone who was the uncle of the current emperor wore it about thirty years ago, but I thought no one would know it was from that long ago. If anyone questioned the color, I could just say it was tailored for me. There shouldn’t be a law prohibiting the use of “Imperial blue.”

In reality, Ralphine, dressed in the Marquis family’s bridal attire, was gorgeous and dazzlingly beautiful. She wouldn’t have fit in a normal formal dress. However, the rustic wedding dress I had seen at the village banquet suited Ralphine better. It might have been her expression.

So we had a wedding ceremony and became a married couple. I was so moved that I repeated the oath’s kiss and got my foot stepped on by Ralphine.

At the reception at the Marquis’ residence, Ralphine’s sisters repeatedly asked me to take care of Ralphine. When I went through the courtship process, I was treated as if she wasn’t familiar with them very well. I heard that they got to know each other a little while they were preparing for the wedding, and that they were worried about whether it would be all right to marry her off because she was so ill-mannered. They were afraid that I would be angry with their lack of manners and kick her out. Of course, I reassured them that I understood and was willing to marry her.

At the reception, Ralphine was forced to change her dress three times, surrounded by glittering nobles, and was forced to endure cramped, stiff and elaborate socializing. She couldn’t even eat properly, and her face gradually became like a Noh mask. but she was doing well for someone who had said she would burst out when she was debuted. When I said, “You are putting up with a lot,” Ralphine said something unexpected.

“As a wife, I can’t embarrass my husband, can I?”

I was surprised that Ralphine was worried about such a thing, but she smiled desperately, greeted everyone with effort, and did her best at dancing. I felt like I had discovered a new side of Ralphine.

However, when the reception ended and we got in the carriage, Ralphine slumped into the seat and stretched out, looking completely exhausted. She must have pushed herself too hard. I felt sorry for her. She had done her best for me.

But I’m sorry to say that today is our wedding night. We had been waiting for it throughout the journey. I couldn’t wait any longer. I lifted her up and headed straight for the bedroom, laying her down on the new bed with new sheets. She was flustered and seemed to be thinking of a way to escape. I had become aware of this through our travels together and being in close proximity every day.

And I already knew what to say to keep her from escaping. Thanks to the jeering in the Cariente territory.

“Are you scared?”

It goes without saying what Ralphine’s reaction would be.

Our newlywed life had just begun, but I had no intention of tying up Ralphine from the beginning.

If she can be free, that’s good enough for me. If she wants to go hunting, she can go, and it doesn’t matter where in the capital she goes. As long as she comes back to me every day.

That was how I felt, but even I was surprised that she became a professional hunter to help our finances, which had fallen into debt due to our marriage. I realized that I still didn’t understand her well enough.

She was a first-rate hunter, and she would only hunt foxes because she judged that their fur sold for a high price. She would bring them back, turn them into fur, and sell them for a considerable amount of money. I had accompanied her to the Hunter’s Association a few times, and they said that foxes were not easy to catch, even for their members. I wondered how she could catch so many. According to Ralphine, it was simple. She just searched the forest more thoroughly than anyone else.

She had built a workshop in the estate’s garden, where she tanned leather, made fur, boiled and dried herbs, and it didn’t look like a nobleman’s estate, let alone a noblewoman’s. However, Ralphine seemed to be having a great time every day, and I couldn’t ask for anything more.

What was interesting was that Ralphine didn’t leave the housework to the maids. She woke up very early and finished cleaning, cooking, and laundry before having breakfast with me, going hunting, and then coming back to cook dinner and having supper with me. I thought she should leave the housework to the maids since we had  Kemerla, but she said, “I think housework is a wife’s job, and I can’t relax if I don’t do it.”

Furthermore, when the weather was bad, she would sing while doing sewing work in the room and even sewed my everyday clothes. She was a talented wife in various ways and a workaholic. Before I knew it, she had even taken care of the garden, and I was surprised to see it covered in flowers in the spring.

That’s how we started our newlywed life happily, but around a month after our marriage, something troublesome happened.

My father called me.