Ch.147Wedding Ceremony (7)

“Hmm, ahem.”

Every time the Crown Prince cleared his throat, people seated in the audience shifted uncomfortably.

The Crown Prince was going to sing a congratulatory song. If he sang well, they would simply need to respond enthusiastically and that would be the end of it. But what if the Crown Prince’s singing skills were lacking? What if someone couldn’t hold back their laughter?

The thought alone sent chills down their spines, and the knights of lower rank began nervously biting their lips and praying to gods they didn’t normally believe in.

They prayed they could hold back their laughter for the next ten minutes, and that the Crown Prince’s singing would be exceptional.

Since this had never happened at any official event before,

the Duke’s pupils trembled like there was an earthquake when he first heard that the Imperial Crown Prince would personally perform at this gathering.

His mind went completely blank, like a pure white canvas, and he almost wished he could sing the congratulatory song in the Crown Prince’s place.

“…Everyone seems more nervous than I expected.”

At Airin’s comment, Evan nodded with a faint smile.

He had anticipated this situation, but people were reacting even more strongly than he’d expected.

Everyone was looking at the Crown Prince with anticipation for his song, but also with apprehension.

Perhaps only they and Scarlet were purely supporting the Crown Prince.

As the dazed military band touched their trumpets again, Kaisel quietly extended his hand.

As if it was now his turn, Kaisel slowly looked at the silent audience and finally began to release his voice into that stillness.

“If only…”

The moment his voice echoed, everyone unconsciously grabbed their shoulders from the goosebumps rising on their arms.

A shiver rising from their chests, a dissonant sound that easily tore through the silence of this quiet garden was piercing their eardrums.

“…what’s with that voice.”

At Scarlet’s wide-eyed comment, a knight beside her quietly shut his mouth.

Airin and Evan bowed their heads while holding each other’s hands tightly, and the Duke stared into empty space with a pale face.

Desperately trying to think of a different song in his mind.

For a moment, the nervous Kaisel looked around, but the seemingly positive reactions from the audience made him think he could raise his voice even more.

In his own delusion that everyone was admiring his singing… Kaisel continued his passionate performance.

In the future, this would become one of Scarlet’s private memories—she secretly recorded Kaisel’s song.

Just in case Kaisel got married and acted out of line, she could spread this song throughout the Empire.

#

After the congratulatory song ended, Chris trembled with blue-tinged lips and slowly moved his mouth.

Though his mouth was bleeding from trying to hold back laughter… since everyone at the wedding was experiencing the same pain, no one blamed Chris for his unstable condition.

“Th-that, ahem, hm, was an excellent- *gulp* *sniff* song from His Highness the Crown Prince.”

Kaisel, now seated, wondered why Chris was sobbing,

but soon erased that question from his mind when Scarlet told him he’d done well.

Although people’s reactions seemed a bit strange, didn’t everyone listen with smiles?

He knew he wasn’t talented at singing, but it seemed he had performed quite well this time.

With that thought, Kaisel began to watch the wedding ceremony with a relaxed mind.

*Clap clap clap-!*

At the renewed applause, Chris forcibly pulled up the corners of his mouth. Now that one hurdle was passed, all that remained was his role as officiant.

But even that made him uncertain, and he felt the heavy responsibility weighing on his shoulders, just as when he first stood at this podium.

“Aren’t you being too nervous?”

“Chris, don’t feel too burdened. It’s fine to just say what you’ve always wanted to say.”

“…Haa. Understood.”

When Chris raised his head again after slightly bowing to Airin, everyone was looking at him.

Both Airin and Evan holding hands, and all the guests who had come to this wedding were directing their gaze at Chris.

Swallowing hard and blankly feeling those gazes, Chris painfully opened his mouth while making eye contact with Evan.

“…I met these two people at different times. One was during a spring so cold that the word ‘heat’ felt awkward, and the other was during an autumn so warm that the word ‘cold’ felt strange.”

When Chris first met Airin, he was just a middle-aged knight facing dishonorable retirement.

He had decent skills but couldn’t get along with other knights and was about to quit—a knight others wouldn’t even remember.

Weren’t the Duke who found him and himself who followed the Duke, trusting him, the same kind of people?

With the overwhelming position of personal guard, the Airin he met was a small girl who viewed people with cold eyes.

Someone who couldn’t easily trust others and always feared people’s gazes.

At first, he had words for the Duke who had made the child that way, but he couldn’t continue doing so to a Duke who regretted his actions.

He only wondered if this child would ever be able to forgive her father.

But it ended up like this. The girl who couldn’t trust others grew up and found someone to love,

and she could now look at her father with quite a generous gaze.

The fact that the Duke could be here as a father was entirely because Airin had forgiven him.

“As someone who was present when these two first met, I honestly couldn’t imagine it would turn out like this. Back then, the young lady was someone who suited winter more than now, and Evan was someone who suited summer or spring rather than winter.”

What was reflected in those blue eyes that once felt so cold was now a warm breeze.

A warmth so comforting it made one forget the cool autumn wind, and could even melt winter snow.

Evan, who once awkwardly stood before Airin, now smiled slyly.

He teased Airin, yet his green eyes, unchanged, remained gently curved.

It wouldn’t change. Chris was certain that even as seasons changed many times, even after meeting countless people and going through numerous experiences, it wouldn’t change.

So he smiled slightly and continued speaking while looking at both of their eyes.

“But now I think there is no better match than these two people… One has become too warm to be called winter, and the other matches the other person too well to be called summer, don’t you think?”

As everyone laughed at those words, Chris closed his eyes tightly and opened his mouth again.

“Happiness is truly difficult to grasp. Everyone probably knows that these two have shed much blood to meet, fall in love, and come this far. Defeating extinction, fighting the ancient dragon Mavet, crying, bleeding, getting hurt. The parties involved have suffered more wounds than we know.”

Airin’s gaze turned to Evan. The memories that came to mind at Chris’s words

still remained in a corner of Airin’s heart, causing anxiety.

But now, such things wouldn’t happen anymore. Evan casually took Airin’s hand firmly.

Their hands completely intertwined, fingers interlocked perfectly.

Why was the warmth felt through the cool breeze so reassuring?

It was a hand she always held, and the act had become so familiar that it felt natural now.

Yet the emotion transmitted from their joined hands now was quite different from what she had felt before.

“As you’ve grasped it with such difficulty, I hope both of you hold onto it tightly. Never let go, for your entire lives. That you live happily for a long, long time… that is this old man’s small wish.”

As Airin and Evan nodded together, Chris raised the corners of his mouth contentedly and looked around, shouting.

The magicians’ hands stretched toward the sky, and simultaneously, the dark sky regained its blue color.

Then white petals were scattered, along with colorful autumn leaves drifting on the wind.

Airin, who had been looking at the sun in the sky, eventually turned her gaze toward the guests who were standing up one by one.

Still not letting go of Evan’s hand intertwined with hers, Airin briefly made eye contact with Evan beside her and smiled pleasantly.

“You look happy.”

“How could I not be? Everyone gathered here to congratulate us. The wedding ceremony is almost over, and we’re really husband and wife now, aren’t we?”

“…That’s right, I’ll now be Evan Yuris.”

Evan Yuris, Evan Yuris. As Airin savored that name, she eventually gave a playful smile.

It felt like everything was just beginning now.

Everything they had gone through until now was merely the foundation for this day,

and from this moment, having completed the wedding ceremony and become a married couple… it felt like they could finally start anew.

“Now, would the bride please throw the bouquet to the guests!”

At Chris’s words, Airin quietly gripped the bouquet.

She wondered who to throw it to, but in the end, she could only think of one person.

The woman Evan had risked his life to save—though she hadn’t been entirely pleased about that.

But in the end, she was now with the Crown Prince and doing well, so there was no reason to resent her.

Now she only wished for the two of them to live happily together.

The life Evan had saved—the best repayment for Evan would be for them to live happily without fighting.

*Whoosh-*

The bouquet that cut through the sky stayed in the air for quite a long time.

Women jumped up and down trying to catch it, and Scarlet, perched on Kaisel’s shoulders, stretched her hand toward the bouquet on tiptoe.

Amidst the commotion, while everyone was focused on catching the bouquet, Evan quietly wrapped his arm around Airin’s shoulder.

“…It seems everyone is only interested in that bouquet.”

“Then we should do what we need to do.”

In that brief moment when the Duke, Rofena, and Chris the officiant were all looking at the bouquet,

the faces of the two people who quietly smiled at each other began to slowly draw closer.

Six years since they first met, this was the moment that marked the end of everything—and simultaneously, the starting point announcing a new beginning.

Their lips met lightly and then intertwined, blessing the newly opened future. Softly, and sweetly.

“Boom-“

On that autumn day when the blue sky turned red and yellow,

the happiness these two would enjoy was perhaps just beginning.