Final Chapter: And So, the Two Begin Their New Life

After spending a little more than two months doing next to nothing but intensive training, the day had finally come.

“That makes you look handsome,” commented His Royal Highness Prince Alphonse, who’d suddenly come to the groom’s waiting room. It was rare for a prince to come to a mere viscount’s wedding ceremony, but in our situation, he had to be there. We needed to show multiple people that I had the third prince’s support.

“That’s generally a compliment, so why am I feeling that you said it in a weird way?” I grumbled.

“Not really. I wasn’t implying in any way that you should care about your appearance more at all.”

“Says the person who works me so hard that I have no time to care about how I look!”

We were doing our usual casual back-and-forth, but I couldn’t blame the priest and other church people in the room for panicking. They didn’t know our relationship, after all.

I was currently decked out in black ceremonial clothing, decorated with golden embroidery and matched with a blue tie to complement Nia’s eyes. I was impressed at the fact that men’s ceremonial clothes could be made in black without looking like mourning clothing. Was it a combination of physique and social rank? Nia would probably tell me all about it if I asked.

“What’s with that sudden gross look on your face?”

“Are you trying to pick a fight with the groom, Your Highness?” I snapped back without thinking. Thinking about Nia made me all smiley again, I thought to myself as I schooled my face once more. A smile on my face was one thing, but it’d be absolutely awful if I relaxed too much and messed up during the ceremony. But being too nervous wasn’t good either. I had to find the emotional sweet spot between the two.

“You’re usually the one trying to pick a fight with me, so can’t I do it back sometimes?”

“Do I really? I don’t think I say anything out of the ordinary.”

“The fact that you don’t realize it makes it even worse. I’m pretty sure the other guys would agree with me if they heard,” His Royal Highness complained.

Well yeah, they would, since you’re their boss and the third prince. I wouldn’t say that though, because it wasn’t actually true. In general, we as his underlings were allowed to speak frankly, and were told to be unrestrained with voicing our opinions. And really, the only people with a rank higher than platoon commander were the people who could actually pull that off. Thinking about His Royal Highness’s personality, you could say that was a given.

And, of course, guys like that wouldn’t surmise anything about a freshly made viscount like me... I wasn’t trying to boast about them, but if they thought like that, they probably would come right out with it.

“Anyway, if you’re calm enough to make a face like that, then you won’t be nervous enough to mess things up in some weird way, right?” His Royal Highness continued.

“I hope so, at least. I’m a bit worried I’ll end up blanking out on everything, though.”

“Don’t worry. I beat them into you too hard for that to happen.”

“And that makes me worry in other ways,” I mumbled, thinking back to the intensive training he’d given me for today. Once he’d taught me the procedure for the ceremony, he’d had me practice it over and over and over again. He’d told me to burn it into my muscle memory so that my body would move without thinking—basically, like combat training. He was right.

I knew quite well how important and unforgettable this day would be, and that made it easier to practice and put all my effort into training. In a way, I needed to bring the same desperate fighting spirit to this ceremony as I would to the battlefield.

Today would change Nia’s life. Definitively. She’d said so herself, and I know that she’d resolved herself to it. I also knew that I was just putting the pressure on myself here. This was all something I was taking on by my own choice, which made it even worse. But it wasn’t like anyone could do anything about it for me.

“Hrm. Ark.”

“Yes? Whoops?”

When His Royal Highness suddenly said my name, I turned around. I caught his fist in my hand, without any prior preparation, and with it coming at me from outside of my line of sight and from below, at a strange angle.

It probably goes without saying, but Prince Alphonse was skilled in almost everything, and he’d trained in self-defense to quite a high level. The punch he just did was sharp, and even Gale might not have been able to react to something thrown at him with such sneak-attack timing.

As I was stunned into silence, not sure why he’d suddenly done that. His Royal Highness gave me one of his usual smiles.

“That’s the level of muscle memory you have. Do you think you’d lose that just because you were somewhere a little bit stricter than usual and with history?”

“I mean, I don’t think ’a little bit’ covers how strict this situation is, but... I mean, yeah... I get what you’re trying to say.”

I really didn’t think it was okay to summarize a ceremony in the kingdom’s oldest church in history conducted by priests who normally performed these services for royalty as just “a little bit stricter.” But I could see what he was getting at.

I wasn’t on a bloody battlefield, where a single mistake could cost me my life. He probably wanted to tell me that if my muscle memory could perform life-saving maneuvers under potentially fatal circumstances, then there was no way it would fail me here. The length of my training with them was completely different, but His Royal Highness himself had beaten them into me, so that probably helped. Thanks to that, I was able to calm down a little bit.

“In the first place, you try to shoulder too much. Even things that aren’t there yet.”

“I try to shoulder too much?”

I knew I was taking on a lot of responsibility. But I hadn’t intended to take on so much that someone would call me out on it.

But His Royal Highness just looked at me and nodded. “Yes. This ceremony isn’t going to decide the rest of your entire life, you know. If it was, then everybody less skilled than you would be utterly miserable.”

“I mean that’s...true?”

“This is saying something,” His Royal Highness continued, “but among all of the knights, you’ve got quite a good memory. Now, think of the married older knights... Or wait, some of them have messed up, but most of them have good marriages, don’t they?”

“Y-Yeah... If they didn’t, then things would’ve been pretty bad around now.”

While most of the senior knights who went on about the marriage doctrine had flubbed things, the ones who didn’t say anything seemed to have pretty good relationships—those guys were the majority. If they didn’t have good relationships, then the knights as a whole just wouldn’t be able to function with everyone in the middle of divorces. And that meant that the majority had done their wedding ceremonies properly.

“But didn’t most of the senior knights have simpler ceremonies?” I asked.

“Don’t worry about that. That just means that they had even less practice than you’ve got.”

“Y-You’re right, but...”

Thinking back, some of them had even been on night patrols literally up until the day before their wedding. If they could do that, they’d either practiced a ton, or hadn’t needed much practice at all... And most of them had really happy family lives.

His Royal Highness continued as if he was reading my mind. “First off, God probably isn’t there wanting to jump on every mistake we make. The important thing is that you want to do the ceremony properly. As long as you do, then God will probably overlook some stuff.”

“You’re kind of being super blunt right now. Is it okay for you to say stuff like that?”

“Of course. God is a lot more tolerant than you think. Right, Father?”

When Prince Alphonse brought the priest into the conversation, he immediately nodded, despite how sudden it had been. Without any doubt.

Seeing their exchange, I felt as if I finally got what His Royal Highness was trying to tell me.

“Now that you put it like that, I don’t think I’d thought about how God would feel about things like this.”

“That’s not like you,” His Royal Highness chided. “It’s not quite a ‘know thine enemy, know thyself’ thing, but you can’t have much of a competition if you don’t get a grip on who you’re up against and what they think.”

“It’s not a competition, but I understand what you mean. God would probably be a bit insulted if I was unnecessarily on guard, wouldn’t they? They sort of created us, after all.”

But that didn’t mean I was going to make light of things, of course. I’d treat today’s proceedings with the respect it deserved, but I wouldn’t fear it more than necessary. The same thinking applied to human relationships. This whole thing was like an extension of that.

“Say a child messed something up. It would be one thing if they’d been screwing around, but you wouldn’t get angry with them if they were doing their best, would you? It’s probably the same with God,” His Royal Highness continued.

“I’m not sure whether that’s an example that’s okay for me to say I understand or not, but... It’s true that I wouldn’t get angry.”

If it was like that, then I probably didn’t need to get so worked up about it. It was strange how I’d come to feel so twisted up inside.

“And isn’t there someone else you should be worrying about?”

“Yes, Nia... She wouldn’t put all of the responsibility of the ceremony on me.”

This time, I was able to answer Prince Alphonse’s question without having to think. Yes, this ceremony wasn’t just for me. It was for both me and Nia.

“So that’s that. Her life is her life, and she should be the one shouldering it. It’s just that she’s asked you to take half of it. That’s it. Though it’s heavy, of course, and she’s a smart woman, so she must understand that she’ll be shouldering half of your life in return.”

“It feels even heavier now that you say that.”

I’d had vague thoughts about it before, but the way he put it out there in actual words made it sound pretty rough, especially the “shouldering half of my life” bit. It was one thing if it was for a mission, but the thought of someone shouldering your own life was scary because you didn’t know how heavy it was. You’d worry that it might crush them...though Nia would probably be fine.

“Give it up. She must know exactly how heavy it is. You don’t have the option of running away,” Prince Alphonse said bluntly.

“Couldn’t you have said that more nicely?” I shot back, but my mind was completely certain. More than anyone else, Nia didn’t have the choice to run away. She was doing this to make a place for herself in this kingdom. So what good would getting scared do?

“Thank you, Your Highness. You’ve calmed me down.”

“Yeah? Then get going.”

“Yes!”

Spurred on by Prince Alphonse’s words, I headed to the bridal waiting room where Nia was. It wasn’t much of a walk, and once I got to the door, I gave it a little knock.

“Nia, can I come in?”

“Ah, I just finished getting ready... Go ahead.”

When I asked, she immediately answered. From what I could hear from inside, they weren’t rushing to clean things up, so she probably was, in fact, finished and not just saying it for my sake. I couldn’t be sure about the “just finished” bit, but it’d be rude to ask.

“Then I’m coming in,” I said, opening the door. I walked inside and immediately froze. “Oh.”

“How does it look?” Nia asked bashfully, and the only thing I could do was nod my head.

The simple dark blue A-line dress perfectly suited Nia’s tidy demeanor. The fabric changed under her bust, and the slowly widening skirt coupled with the embroidered crests on it made it look just like the clothing of a goddess.

I mean, she was my goddess, but...

She had a shawl just where the dress was nearly coming off the shoulder, and the way it hid her shoulders, neck, and neckline was slightly sexy, but also made her look quite elegant.

Her brown hair had grown a bit since we’d first met and was long enough to go slightly past her shoulders. She’d previously wondered if she should change it back to her original hair color, but upon confirming with the priest that dyed hair wouldn’t be an issue, she’d left it brown. A silver hair ornament was neatly coiled within it. Part of the reason it was silver was because that was the best a viscount’s wedding was allowed, but I also felt that it just suited Nia better.

She wasn’t wearing any other accessories like bracelets or a necklace, so she shouldn’t have looked too dazzling. The way she drew the eye and never let it go must have been because the outfit was bringing out her natural charm.

“It looks amazing on you. You’re like a goddess.”

“Hee hee, jeez, you didn’t have to go that far... But thank you.”

“I was being completely honest, though,” I said when she got humble, and for once, Laura was nodding in agreement from her spot behind Nia.

Unlike a normal wedding dress, the one she was wearing put an emphasis on the ceremonial aspect. It gave her the vibes of a priestess, making her seem more mystical than usual. So I didn’t think saying she looked like a goddess was very far off the mark.

Ahh, that must be why.

“With you in that, then I’m sure that God will accept our vows without any issue.”

“It’s really embarrassing for you to go that far...”

Nia was adorable when she was bashful. Absolutely adorable.

Wait, that wasn’t the point.

“No, I didn’t mean that as flattery, I really do think it. From your dress and decorations, you can tell just how seriously you’re taking the ceremony. I’m sure God will get that, and there’s no way they won’t appreciate it.”

His Royal Highness had said that God wasn’t there watching for us to mess up. Seeing Nia like this made me finally feel like I understood. When someone showed their sincerity, it made you want to face them seriously. It was such an obvious thing that I was embarrassed I hadn’t realized it sooner.

“Thank you, Nia. Seeing you has wiped away all my tension.”

“I’m not really sure if I should say that’s a good thing...” she said.

“Ah, no, I don’t mean it like I’m discouraged or anything like that!”

I mean yeah, it’d be an insult to say that seeing her in her dress demotivated me. Nia wasn’t serious, of course, giggling like she was just joking. Whatever. I was even less tense and mostly calmed down.

“Let’s get going, then.”

“Yes, let’s.”

It was around time for the ceremony, and when I held my hand out towards Nia, she took it with a smile.

Everything would be fine as long as I didn’t forget the warmth of her hand. I had no proof of that, but still, it was what I thought.

◆◆◆◆

After that, we left the waiting room together and headed to the church’s ceremonial hall. Laura had accompanied Nia to the waiting room, but from this point on, it was just the two of us.

As we walked inside, there was a long white carpet stretching straight to the altar. The guests—maybe I should call them witnesses—weren’t in the ceremonial hall. They were sitting normally in the arena seats on the second floor. Seeing as Nia’s identity was a secret, the only two in attendance were His Royal Highness and Pops.

Speaking of Pops, when I’d told him the truth about Nia beforehand, he’d fainted. I couldn’t blame him. And now here he was, all alone beside Prince Alphonse and his bodyguard. He looked like he’d pass out with just the littlest poke.

Sorry, Pops. Just hold on a little bit longer.

Anyways. As soon as I’d walked inside the ceremonial hall, I was sure.

“I see, God does exist,” I murmured quietly, and Nia nodded back.

God really was here. Looking at us. Warmly too. Which was why we did things in the right order, walking at the right speed.

It was because God was generous that we wouldn’t take advantage of their generosity. If anything, we would pay our respects to it. God wasn’t our enemy; they weren’t some tyrant who would drop divine punishment on humans for the little things. As long as we were respectful and reverent, then we’d get the same in return. It was only natural.

It must have been the same for a marriage. Nia might have been a kind person, but I shouldn’t take advantage of that. I had no intention to. I’d give her the respect and reverence she deserved, and we would compromise. We’d talk, tell each other our opinions, and reconcile our differences. Those little things must be necessary.

This ceremony was just us doing the same with God, though without using human words. With each and every step of the process, the true meaning of each action would be impressed upon our bodies.

We would swear to God.