Chapter 5: Before the Wedding ④ ~Edel’s Family~

A report arrived that by evening that day, the bandits had been completely wiped out.

There were no survivors who had escaped, so it seemed the soldiers would be spared from retraining.

With the mine secured and to mark the occasion, a banquet was held that night, and Aria dined alongside the soldiers.

She was accustomed to such situations and felt nothing in particular, but her refined manner of eating naturally drew the soldiers’ eyes toward her.

“Come to think of it, Lord Edel eats quite elegantly as well.”

At the commander’s remark, Aria nodded.

“Yes.
I was surprised the first time we ate together.
Despite not having lived as a noble, his manners were impeccable.
When I asked, he said the leader of the troupe he traveled with taught him.”

“Edel, your table manners are excellent.
Who taught you?”

By the time they had decided to marry, prepared all the paperwork, and finished signing where necessary, the sun had already set and it was time for dinner.

His son seemed exhausted and had fallen asleep after bathing, so Aria instructed them to let him rest rather than wake him.

Edel said he was fine, so the two of them ate together.

Aria had assumed that given Edel’s past lifestyle, he wouldn’t have proper manners, but she had planned to let him learn gradually and hadn’t intended to comment regardless of how he ate.

However, Edel, freshly bathed and wearing borrowed clothes from the castle, displayed flawless table manners.

“Oh, manners?
That was the policy of the troupe leader who raised me.”

The leader of the traveling troupe, who could be considered his foster parent, was a strikingly handsome man who was popular with women of all ages wherever they went.

Many noblewomen had taken an interest in him, which often angered their husbands or lovers, leading to spiteful attempts to embarrass him.

The quickest way was to invite him to a formal dinner and ridicule his lack of manners in front of the women.

To counter that, the leader paid to have proper noble etiquette drilled into him.

“He used to say that the look on their faces when their schemes failed was priceless.
He taught us that manners could be a weapon.
Nobles who were friendly toward him even helped teach us kids.
Whether it was superficial or not, knowing it made a huge difference compared to not knowing at all.
There were some regional differences, but the basics were the same everywhere, so it was useful wherever we went.”

Familiar faces came to mind.

The charming leader rumored to be a noble’s illegitimate child somewhere, and the kind members of the troupe.

The children who played together and honed their skills.

“I see.
Then I must thank that leader.
Where are the members of that troupe now?”

“…They are all deceased.”

“I’m… sorry.”

“No, it was a long time ago.
They were unlucky enough to run into a bandit group, and the entire village they were staying in was wiped out.
I survived only because I was away with an illness.”

The troupe’s policy had been to raise all the children together, so the adults took turns caring for them.

Edel also looked after younger children, and with constant travel and work, he had never felt lonely.

He even slept alongside other children, so he never cried at night.

That day, the troupe had been invited to the residence of a friendly lord.

A newly developed village had finally been completed, and they were asked to attend its festival, so the troupe headed there.

Edel, however, had come down with a high fever and was unable to travel, so he was told to rest at the lord’s residence.

The lord was an old acquaintance of the leader, so they trusted him to look after Edel, and Edel resigned himself to waiting for the troupe’s return.

But no matter how long he waited, the troupe never came back.

When contact with the village was lost, the lord sensed something was wrong and led soldiers there, only to find the village annihilated and the entire troupe slaughtered.

The lord buried everyone together and even built graves, but Edel was left alone.

“I stayed with that lord for a while, but then another troupe came along, so I joined them.”

From then on, he moved from troupe to troupe, never settling down.

He had faced some dangerous situations, but overall, he felt he had lived fairly well until now.

He rarely stayed in one place for long, but for the past year, he had remained in the same town mainly for his son’s sake.

“I’ve taught that child basic manners, but there are things I only half remember myself, so I’d like you to teach him properly.
There are also many things I don’t know.”

“I see.
I will assign proper tutors for the child, but I will personally guide you.
As we will be together often, I will better understand what you can and cannot do.
Fufu, your memories with the troupe are precious, but make room for memories with me as well.”

Memories of those who had passed would always remain.

But as long as Aria and Edel lived, new memories would continue to pile up.

Now that they were married, they would surely create many shared memories together.

“Edel, is the place where the troupe rests far from here?”

“From here, it’s a bit east, in the Martel territory.”

“Hmm.
We will go in person someday, but for now, I will send someone with flowers to pay respects.”

“Is that really okay?”

“Of course.
I must greet the family who gave me you.”

“Thank you.
I just… couldn’t bring myself to go.”

He had always thought someday, someday, but whenever he tried, regret welled up over why he alone had survived, and he couldn’t go.

He didn’t think the troupe resented him for living, but still, he couldn’t bring himself to visit.

Perhaps he had been afraid that seeing the graves would make it undeniable that he alone had been left behind.

By not seeing them, some part of him clung unconsciously to the hope that someone might still be alive somewhere.

“Edel, when we go, I will go with you.
You are no longer alone.
You have a family now.
So let us visit the graves together without fear.”

“…Yes.”

He couldn’t go alone, but he could go with Aria.

He would visit the graves, tell them he had a family now, and say he was no longer alone.

“If you wish, we could even move the troupe’s graves here.
Then you could visit them anytime.
They can watch over whether I make you happy.”

“…Yes.
Someday, when I can visit with you, may I bring them back?”

“Of course.
Then I shall strive so that when we visit, they won’t say my wife is terrible.”

“Then I’ll do my best to become the husband you want, so you won’t abandon me.”

“Fufufu.
Let’s talk like this little by little.
After all, we only became husband and wife today.”

They had met today as well, yet somehow skipped countless steps and became married.

If the members of the troupe knew, they would surely laugh and celebrate.