Chapter 4: Before the Wedding ③ ~Edel’s Reasoning~

Edel, who had remained behind at the castle, was visiting the Finance Bureau.

For the upcoming wedding, it had been decided to heavily dramatize the story of how Aria and Edel met and eventually married, and entrust it to a theater troupe somewhere.

Since Edel was a self-proclaimed traveling bard who occasionally played female roles, he was being asked for information about theater troupes.

The reason the meeting was held at the Finance Bureau was due to budget concerns.

With little time to spare, they planned to discuss matters in front of the bureau chief and obtain budget approval on the spot.

“A commoner bard winning the heart of the borderland’s empress is a love story the people will adore.
There’s no reason not to use it!”

The staff member in charge was brimming with enthusiasm, but during the proposal scene—known in name only, since it was essentially an order—Edel himself had mostly frozen up and barely spoken at all.

Aria, on the other hand… had seemed amused, like a child who had thought up a mischievous prank.

“I wonder if Aria will get mad…”

Would she be angry at how those scenes were being altered into something humorous and crowd-pleasing?

Or perhaps, since it was already a story about completely different people from the moment they met, she wouldn’t even feel like getting angry.

For some reason, I’ve ended up being portrayed as someone who cross-dressed and worked at a tavern for my son’s sake….

And then, after being mistaken for a real woman and almost assaulted, Aria swoops in gallantly to save me.

Isn’t that a bit too clichéd as a story?

“For the premise to work, our lord must normally walk around looking cool in military uniform.
A female ruler who appears before the people in military attire is basically only our lord.
And given her manner of speech and behavior… she isn’t perceived as cross-dressing at all, just as an incredibly cool woman.”

Aria went into town quite casually, but it seemed she always did so in that outfit.

She already radiated an aura of a women’s-role-model older sister, and on top of that, her sharp words added to the effect.

Apparently, everyone from adults to children was completely smitten.

As for the men, they reportedly felt nothing but defeat.

Even so, her approachability earned her overwhelming popularity among the people.

And now came news of such a ruler’s marriage.

Not to a noble, but to a traveling bard.

Surely there must be some unknown love story behind it.

With that assumption, the people had started getting excited on their own, and so the conclusion was: if they were going to imagine things anyway, they might as well create a convenient story themselves.

That was how this plan came about.

Among the people’s creative stories, there was even one claiming that Chronos had secretly been born from Edel himself.

“That one’s a bit much…”

Edel groaned as he checked the contents of the collection of popular stories about the lord and her spouse that had been gathered to help create this play.

“Well, if someone were to give birth to a child, it would be the lord.
Just to confirm, though… you can’t give birth, right?”

“I can’t.
Physically, I’m male.”

“That’s what I thought.”

Edel himself often dressed in a somewhat feminine way, so at times, even his gender became unclear.

This was the result of the maids’ dedicated efforts to make male clothing appear as feminine as possible.

Standing next to Aria, it looked perfectly balanced, so no one in the castle said anything.

Edel simply wore whatever clothes were prepared for him, without any particular attachment or complaints.

If anything, his attitude was more like, thank you for letting me wear such fine clothes.

“Then shall we have this troupe perform first?
After that, we can gradually circulate the play to other troupes and spread it.”

“Sounds fine to me.”

The troupe selected by the staff member was highly popular even in the Empire, performing in prestigious theaters as well as festival productions like this one.

They decided to commission a long run, starting at the theater in the domain capital of Schreinn, which rivaled the imperial capital in liveliness despite being in the borderlands, and then moving on to the imperial capital of Escala.

“This is turning into something pretty grand.”

As Edel said that, one of the Finance Bureau staff in the room abruptly stood up, talking over him.

“You!
Why are you the one who married our lord?
You don’t bring anything to her or to the borderlands!”

Caught off guard, Edel blinked in confusion, but looking closer, he saw that another young man had also stood up beside the first, glaring at him.

Edel had managed to build decent relationships with most people in the castle, but there were inevitably those who could not accept him and reacted like this.

He didn’t particularly mind that, but what exactly were these two trying to say?

They had just shouted the reason themselves.

Did they not understand it?

“That’s right.
Why you?
You are not worthy of her.”

The other young man echoed the sentiment.

The bureau chief watched the scene with clear amusement.

So, how would Edel handle this situation?

Opposition like this was inevitable.

Especially these two.

They both had highly capable brothers and were known to secretly claim that their brothers were more suitable as the lord’s spouse.

They had even formed a selfish agreement between themselves that whichever brother was chosen, neither would hold a grudge.

“I was chosen as Aria’s partner precisely because, as you said, I bring nothing to her or to this land.”

“What?”

“Huh??
Why don’t you get it?
Do I seriously have to explain this myself?”

Those who had more or less guessed Aria’s reasoning gave Edel sympathetic looks.

Why was the person being questioned the one who had to explain this?

It would have been nice if someone had warned him beforehand.

“What are you talking about!”

It felt like he was being threatened into explaining things by the young man who understood nothing.

And besides, if they were dissatisfied with their lord’s decision, shouldn’t they have protested much earlier?

“Well, um… I have no influence over Aria.
That’s why I won’t deny her.
She can continue handling politics and military affairs exactly as she likes.
There’s also an heir in Chronos, so there’s no problem there.”

He received looks that clearly said, so what?

Did they really still not understand after that?

“When Aria first met me, she said I had no ambition to manipulate the Border Marquis family.
That means the previous candidates for her husband all intended to do something with the family if they married her, right?
That’s the same as trying to change Aria herself.
Trying to deny and reshape everything she has built up is nothing but arrogance.
Isn’t that just looking down on her?”

At Edel’s words, the two young men turned pale.

They had indeed talked about what they would do with the land if their talented brothers became Aria’s husband.

The first to stand up, Nash, came from a distant branch of a branch family so minor that they hadn’t even inherited the distinctive eye color.

His brother served Aria as a military officer and often said, “Once I become the lord’s spouse, I want to take charge of the army and leave politics to her.”

Nash had agreed that sounded good.

The other young man, Lyle, hailed from a count’s family in the imperial capital of Escala and took pride in having come all the way to serve the Border Marquis family.

His brother worked in the Empire’s Ministry of Internal Affairs.

That brother had said, “If I become the Border Marquis’s spouse, I want to strengthen ties with the central government.
The Border Marquis will have to continue leading the army, since I couldn’t control it myself.”

Both brothers were telling Aria to step away from either the military or politics—both of which she currently handled—depending on what suited them best.

“What Aria wants in a spouse is someone who won’t deny or change who she is now.
And someone with talents in areas she’s not strong in.
Well, honestly, I’m not sure I really qualify there, but if Aria says it’s fine, then I guess it is.
And from her perspective, it would be a problem if someone meddled with the Border Marquis family in a strange way, or if husband and wife ended up opposing each other and splitting things in two.
But with me, there’s absolutely no such concern.
That’s probably the reason she married me.
Am I right?”

This was Edel’s own deduction.

Aria had never said it outright.

But when he looked to the people who had supported Aria all this time, they all gave off an air of, well, that’s about right.

“Heh heh heh.
That’s exactly what we think as well, Lord Edel.”

The one who said that with a laugh was the bureau chief.

“Nash, Lyle.
I know you both thought your proud brothers would make suitable spouses for Lady Aria, but what a selfish idea that is.
It’s not about changing things once you become her spouse.
A spouse exists to support Lady Aria.
Offering opinions is fine, but all final decisions rest with her.
Those who don’t understand that can never be her spouse.
Lord Edel may sound like an overly worried mother when he speaks to her, but he says nothing about military or political matters.
That is precisely the kind of person Lady Aria needed.”

And frankly, connections with central nobles were even more unnecessary.

It seemed those central aristocrats mistakenly believed they could look down on the Border Marquis family and do as they pleased.

“Lyle, since you people from the center seem to forget, let me remind you.
The head of the Border Marquis family holds a status equal to His Majesty the Emperor.
This Empire was formed by the unification of two nations.
One ruler took the title of Emperor, the other that of Border Marquis.
At the founding of the nation, it was clearly stated that the two ‘kings’ were equal.
Do not forget that.”

“Y-Yes.”

Under the bureau chief’s sharp gaze, Lyle nodded nervously.

“Nash, the same goes for you.
As a branch family member, focus solely on supporting Lady Aria.
If your entire house is plotting to manipulate her, I wouldn’t hesitate to abolish it.”

“W-We’re not thinking that!”

Pierced by the bureau chief’s blue-violet eyes, Nash trembled.

The bureau chief, who possessed those blue-violet eyes, was the head of the branch families, with blood close to the main house.

One of his duties was overseeing the branches, and any family he deemed unnecessary truly was unnecessary.

“You two will think carefully about what you intend to do from now on and report back later.”

“Yes.”

They could be dismissed without issue.

And above all, Edel truly considered Aria’s position.

This wedding dress matter was likely also for Aria’s sake.

Hopefully it wasn’t his personal taste, but even if it was, it wouldn’t negatively affect Aria, so it was fine.

In any case, thanks to Edel agreeing to wear the wedding dress, everything had settled neatly.

“By the way, Lord Edel, we’ve allocated quite a budget for Lord Chronos, including education-related expenses, but your own budget hasn’t increased much.
Is there anything you’d like?”

With the addition of Edel and Chronos, the budget had been reworked.

Chronos had allocations for education and other future needs, but nothing in particular had been requested for Edel.

At most, there were tavern expenses.

Setting clothing aside, there was little else.

“Well… I can borrow the instruments here, so…
Ah, could you cover the cost of harp strings?
When they snap, they tend to break all at once.”

He wasn’t particularly interested in gemstones or clothing.

But when it came to the strings of his trade, the harp, he was particular.

Cheap strings didn’t produce good sound, so he used expensive ones.

High-quality strings sounded beautiful but were delicate and prone to snapping.

His harp wasn’t some famous masterpiece, but he had used it for years, and it fit his hands perfectly.

“That’s no problem at all.
We’ll tell the supplier to bring several options, so please choose the strings you like.
We’ll also arrange for regular deliveries.”

“Thank you very much.”

Yes.
Now he wouldn’t have to hunt for strings anymore.

Since high-quality strings were only sold at large shops, finding them in small towns had always been a hassle.

He had been thinking of going out to look for some, as his stock had nearly run out after a recent break.

Edel claimed he had no influence on Aria.

It was true that he had no impact on military or political matters.

But he had more than enough influence on Aria’s heart.

Watching the two of them like responsible adults, the bureau chief thought with an inward grin that he would continue to do just that.