Ch.170Epilogue. Forever (6)

The brides accepted my opinion.

No, actually it was more than just acceptance. They wholeheartedly agreed.

“That’s a brilliant idea.”

And Rose said the same thing as we were handing out wedding invitations.

“I liked that place. The children were all sweet, and the teacher was wonderful.”

“The children are sweet because the teacher is so wonderful.”

At my words, not just Rose but all my friends nodded in agreement.

There isn’t just one teacher there. There are others too. With so many children, it would be impossible for just one person to take care of them all.

When I first came to this world, I had many complaints. If I was going to be reborn, I wanted to be born into a wealthy family and blessed with better talents.

Isn’t it normal for protagonists in possession stories to be born with transcendent powers incomparable to others?

Well, in some sense, I did have transcendent powers too.

“We still have some time left,” said Dalia as she sipped her iced tea.

It was now mid-September.

The wedding preparations were mostly complete. We had decided on the dress designs and exchanged rings. We didn’t need to prepare a separate house, and we had saved up enough money to live together.

I was still attending university, but that wasn’t a major issue. It’s not like married people can’t attend university, and besides, we weren’t going to be legally married on paper anyway.

However, we did need to convince our parents.

Even if we weren’t inviting too many people, we needed to persuade the parents of my brides.

Hayun was still on awkward terms with her parents. They say no parent can win against their child, and though their frozen relationship had begun to thaw a bit with time, there was still some lingering resentment between them.

In particular, her parents viewed me quite unfavorably. They still seemed to believe I was the reason Hayun had gone astray.

…Well.

I guess it is because of me.

In a way, she did go astray. While same-sex marriage isn’t a big issue these days, our situation is… well, a bit more special than that.

I wasn’t sure if Ju-a’s parents would accept our story at face value either.

But still, I wanted them to give us at least a minimal blessing. I didn’t want the children’s family relationships to be completely destroyed because of me.

…Though I wasn’t really in a position to say that, considering I had practically kidnapped Hayun, but anyway.

“…Who’s going to be the officiant?” asked Delphinium, who had been quietly looking at the invitations we had handed out.

“That’s actually why I called everyone here.”

I said this while looking toward Pang Pang.

The people gathered here now were those I met frequently. You could call them my “friends.”

Pang Pang and the magical girls.

Well… except for the fact that things went a bit poorly in various ways, couldn’t Pang Pang also be categorized as a magical girl?

These days, Pang Pang was busy with company work.

Apparently, sending an exploratory vessel toward another galaxy and ensuring it sends information back to us without time distortion isn’t an easy task.

…No, of course it’s not easy. We’re talking about launching something like a satellite millions of light-years away. It sounds absurd even by Galactic Federation standards.

But this is Pang Pang we’re talking about—someone who came to Earth out of admiration for Voyager.

It wasn’t strange that she found joy in creating a Voyager on a galactic scale.

“Pang Pang, could you be our officiant?”

“Me?”

Pang Pang blinked in response.

“Yes. I’d like you to do it. If you don’t want to, it’s okay to refuse—”

“No, no! I’ll do it.”

Pang Pang exclaimed with a slightly excited expression.

“So, it’s like, standing in front of the wedding venue and conducting the ceremony…”

“Yes, an opportunity to officiate an Earth wedding—probably not something you get often, right?”

At my question, Pang Pang smiled brightly.

Well, even though I called it an Earth wedding, it was an extremely unusual one.

Pang Pang seemed to know this too, but she didn’t appear to take it too seriously.

“And you three—”

“What, want us to sing at the wedding?” Rose asked playfully.

“I’d appreciate that.”

“Huh?”

“…Are you serious?”

Rose was somewhat taken aback by my answer, and Delphinium asked in disbelief.

“I’m serious.”

“…You look serious.”

Dalia said with the same incredulous expression, but she didn’t seem to have any intention of refusing.

In fact, she seemed somewhat eager.

“Let’s do it,” Dalia said to Rose and Delphinium.

“It’s not like we can’t sing, right? We just need to do it well, okay?”

At Dalia’s words, Rose and Delphinium looked at each other with slightly dazed expressions before bursting into laughter.

To be more precise, Rose laughed much louder than Delphinium.

“Well, alright. Since it’s our friends’ wedding, we’ll make it spectacular. Look forward to it.”

“We have plenty of time anyway.”

Dalia added with a smile to Rose’s comment.

And so, the general plan for our wedding was set.

*

Not only Pang Pang, who agreed to be the officiant, but also Rose, Dalia, and Delphinium, who promised to sing, were all enthusiastic about the wedding preparations.

What was interesting was that those four people conspired not to tell us how the wedding would unfold.

Of course, we planned the order of events together, but they didn’t tell us what songs they would sing or what the officiant would say.

Well, I think it’s fine to leave that to them. They’re all wonderful friends after all. I firmly believed they would do a great job.

The other brides felt the same way.

But still, it was inevitable to feel a bit anxious as time passed.

Convincing the children’s parents went better than expected. Of course, most of them disliked the idea at first, but after sincere persuasion, they gradually gave their blessing to our marriage one by one.

My decision to keep the wedding private also helped. While it would inevitably become an issue, they appreciated our intention to keep it as discreet as possible.

Later, I also found out how much Rose, Dalia, and Delphinium had helped behind the scenes.

In the process of convincing my brides’ parents, the persuasion of those three, who had known them for quite a long time, was a great help.

And—

“…”

I went to meet Hayun’s parents.

Looking at Hayun, who had been living with me since she left home, her parents wore very complicated expressions.

Even after everything that happened, Hayun’s family managed to hold up reasonably well. Hayun was still a magical girl, still a warrior fighting against villains.

Even though she wasn’t affiliated with the Galactic Federation, they needed to maintain a relationship with us to benefit from our power.

As a result, as long as I, who possessed the generator, stood firm, Hayun’s family couldn’t completely collapse.

Here too, I was “sincere.”

“I will make Hayun happy.”

At my words, Hayun’s father had an expression that suggested he had many things he wanted to say. He must know that I have two more brides.

“…”

Hayun didn’t say anything.

The relationship still hadn’t fully normalized. Our relationship was still a mystery to these two people.

But—

“…There’s one thing I can’t deny,” Hayun’s father said, looking back and forth between me and Hayun.

“That Hayun, you have a much happier expression when you’re with this child beside you than when you spent time with us.”

“…Dad.”

I imagine they’ve seen many photos of Hayun in news or newspapers.

There are many photos of us together. We went on dates often.

Sometimes it was just the two of us, but often it was the four of us together, or sometimes all of us including Pang Pang and the magical girls.

And during all those times, we could relax and be comfortable.

I’m not sure if Hayun’s relationship with her parents can be normalized or not. Perhaps it will never recover beyond this point.

But both Hayun and I had just one wish.

“…We are going to get married.”

I said.

This was a firm resolve. One that no one else could change.

No matter what the future holds, we have no other choice but each other. We couldn’t find anyone else who made us happier together.

“Whatever you think, that’s your freedom… but we both hope for your blessing, at least for that moment.”

“…”

The two of them were silent for a while.

I placed the wedding invitation in front of them.

“Please, come that day and bless us.”

With just those words, we both stood up from our seats.

We bowed respectfully and turned around.

Hoping that we might see them, even once, on that day, at that place.

That’s what we wished for.