Wedding Preparations? – J of Hearts (Part 1) Note: Please don’t read it in the little pop-up for the reader. For some reason it doesn’t reflect my later edits (which I often make a lot of after publishing), so please click ‘view original’.
One Day I Became a Burikko Villainess n.o.ble Girl, . Honto tutorial .
Think of it as throwing money at the author and Alphapolis, and getting a book with squiggles and pretty pictures as a pleasant extra.
After returning from the expedition, I managed to report to His Highness without a problem.
I was about to leave the room, but His Highness called out to me.
“Achille… Mind if I have a minute?”
Camille and the other magicians were headed to the rooms that His Highness provided for them to rest in. I know what His Highness wants to talk about. Even since we got back from the castle, I’ve been preparing for it too.
“There are no problems with the marriage with Camille, right?”
“Yes… The rest depends on her though.”
I’m finally going to get married to Camille.
The truth is before we left for the expedition, His Highness sounded me out. ‘You don’t have a reason to wait for school graduation anymore, so how about becoming husband and wife with Camille?’ he asked. For both His Highness and I, me having the t.i.tle of next marquis makes our jobs easier. So there’s probably that too. With his dealings with Topageria, for now the 2nd Prince has given up on Camille. But with that, there’s the worry about whether or not the 2nd Prince has so easily given up. At any rate, immediately after the deal with Topageria was complete, the 2nd Prince had a secret meeting with Camille in the greenhouse. Camille escaping from the window while she was in recovering is just Camille though.
And then, after we returned from the expedition, the concerns increased by one. The man that we met when we went to suppress the extremists together… The words and behaviour of that man who commanded the extremists, Galuf, has been on my mind. In the middle of the battle, he began to speak as though he were aiming for Camille.
『Well, can’t be helped. As a sorry for losing the town, how ’bout I give you as a present?』
His words indicated that he knew of “Camille Rhodolite”. The interrogaters have been asking about the meanining of “present”, but even now, the man named Galus is apparently not speaking. At present, he’s being detained in the castle as a serious criminal. It is probably only a matter of time before the interrogators use “confession” magic. After all, we’ll be having them leave soon; those problematic geezers that only say stuff like “That’s a human rights violation.” at a time like this.
“Certainly, waiting until everything settles down would make me anxious.”
I told His Highness.
I don’t know when the hands of a demon might reach for Camille. She’s ignorant of the dangers to herself, and each time, despite jumping vigorously into danger, she’s always too careless at the end. During this expedition in particular, seeing the moment just before Camille got her leg caught in the trap felt like my heart was going to freeze over.
“She really… is too worrying. You can’t let her be any longer, huh? Achille.”
“…It seems so.”
Ever since I’ve met Camille, I’ve always wanted to become her husband. At first it was because I was calculating, but gradually there was another emotion as well. I didn’t think that I would be making it a reality in a way like this, but if she consented then I’d like to make her mine this very moment. Having come this far, I’ll absolutely pa.s.s on having someone else s.n.a.t.c.h her away from the side.
I went to meet with Camille in the room that His Highness prepared. She was curled up on a chair by the window, apparently finding the baked sweets quite delicious. Even though she went through such a dangerous experience, she’s already acting like nothing happened. She really is somebody who doesn’t reflect enough.
“Camille.”
“Nn? Oh, are you on break, Achille? Have you already finished your talk with Royce-sama?”
“Mmn. For now.”
“That’s great! With this, the town reclamation incident is over, huh-!”
What the heck is “over, huh-!”, you Bakamille. Completely worrying others like that.
“This happens every time, but… Camille, you haven’t reflected at all, huh?”
Perhaps because she sensed the unrest in my mood… she put some distance between us, and tried to escape to the window. Of course, I didn’t let her escape.
“DAHHHHHHHHHH-! I’m reflecting-! I’ll reflect-! I’m sorry, Achille-!”
Even with her arms pinned behind her back, Camille tenaciously resisted. Like that, I whispered in her ear.
“Camille?”
“nHyauu-…I-, I said I was sorry.”
Camille’s weak in her ears. Ever since I found this out at the age of 5, she’s always been like this. For now, I’ll keep her pinned like this until she behaves. Just as expected, her resistance immediately weakened. With that opening, I pulled her into a hug. Perhaps because she was giving up, Camille obediently let me.
“Honestly. You never think, Camille.”
“Uu… But I mean, you wouldn’t think that that kind of thing would be set up in that kind of place, right!? The magic material used for that trap is super rare, you know? The materials are all rare minerals native to Topageria after all, and even in Garnet basically the only items that use it are the jails in the castle.”
“And so, you jumped in, huh?”
“…”
I sighed. She really never learns…
“It really is… too worrying, so I really don’t think I can leave you be anymore.”
My momentum got messed up. This isn’t good. I didn’t come here to lecture here, but to propose. While I was thinking, I pinned down Camille who was trying to escape from my arms, and closed in on her. While touching her pink, smooth hair, I proposed.
“Camille.”
“W-, What?”
“Marry me?”
“Hah?”
Camille… There’s no need to go “Hah?” with such a stupid expression, right? The difference in our enthusiasm is so great that I want to cry.
“Eh-? Ehhh-?”
It took some time, but it seems that she finally comprehended the meaning of the words. It was cute how her face turned red, and she started getting flutered. But I couldn’t let her escape at this point, so I decided to cautiously progress the conversation.
“Camille, your reply?”
While looking at my face, Camille froze up.
“I mean, well, I have to ask Otousama and stuff as well, so…”
“Already got his blessing.”
“B-, But your family too…”
“No problems there either.”
“Royce-sama…”
“He said he’d be wishing for our happiness with all his heart.”
Sorry, but I had all of the escape routes she brought up, blocked.
“I actually intended for us to get married after we graduated from school. But we’ve withdrawn from school like this, and we probably won’t be able to graduate either, so… we can have it now, right? I’ve already waited plenty after all.”
“Achille?”
“I decided that after we came back from reclaiming the town, I’d properly tell this to you… After this there’s my job at the castle, and I’ll be busy with dealing with the villa too, so I thought that there was no time but now.”
There are still a mountain of things I have to do after this. Completing the major clean-up of the castle, eliminating the extremists, reviving the areas around the Jade family’s villa, and various things outside of that. Speaking frankly, there won’t be a chance to say this later.
“And so, your reply?”
“Uu…”
After peering in on her face at close range, Camille embara.s.sedly averted her eyes. She’s trembling like a small animal. She isn’t doing this on purpose; she just naturally does these sort of things, so it’s amazing, isn’t it?
“Do you, dislike me?”
“Of course I don’t dislike you.”
“I see. Then you’ll agree, right?”
“Eh-, ah-… B-, But,”
Camille still hasn’t given a decisive response.
It can’t be helped, so I decided to settle one other issue. So that I can check her position and status during emergencies, I prepared a collar- …I mean, a ring. In order to avoid things like what happened this time, or last time.
“Give me your hand?”
“Umm, um… Achille?”
“Hurry.”
“YESH!”
I took Camille’s slender hand, and had her wear the ring. She gazed at the ring in wonder.
“Huh? I can’t take it off.”
Did she intend on immediately taking it off? Like I thought, making it so that she couldn’t take it off was the correct decision.
“It’s enchanted so that n.o.body except me can take it off.”
“…Is this something you made yourself, Achille?”
“That’s right. It took me two years to make it, and I used magic to add various enchantments to it. It even covers magic tattoos bypa.s.ses.”
“…Amazing!”
It seems that rather than the issue of being unable to take it off, Camille is more interested in the fact that I crafted it. As expected of her.
“Achille, what if you became a magic item craftsman? Even though you have this much talent for it.”
And it seems that in her eyes, being a magic item craftsman is an even more important position than a prime minister.
“…If I get fired from my job at the castle, I might think about it. Well, let’s leave that topic aside for now.”
“Mn?”
“Won’t you marry me?”
“Uu…”
The time when we got engaged, without waiting for her reply, I completed everything behind her back. The result of that was that up until just recently, I was stuck dealing with various troubles regarding the un-self-consciously super blockheaded Camille. So this time, I decided that I would go through with it after properly asking for her reply.
“I’ll always treasure you. I’ll properly do the work of your marquis family, and I’ll get along with your father and the servants too.”
“Hey, why are you asking now?”
“Because it’s now. I want to become your husband even a little faster, and the truth is, even when we were going to school, I was always enduring…”
It seems that Camille has noticed that I’m in a rush. Having said that though, I don’t want to worry her by telling about the various circ.u.mstances regarding Topageria.
While I was feeling conflicted, Camille suddenly told me in a small voice.
“Okay.”
It’s okay?
It’s something I brought up myself, but I didn’t expect that she would reply so readily. Even I had decided that today I would be persistent until she agreed, it’s suddenly an anti-climax. But it doesn’t change the fact that I’m happy. Even though Camille realised that I hadn’t told her all the circ.u.mstances, she still gave me her consent for the marriage. When I considered that, she was so lovely that I couldn’t bear it.
Your Highness you idiot! Why did you prepare this room so thoroughly with all this furniture? Of all things, to give us this room with this many temptations… It was definitely on purpose. Camille is staring at me with her pure, raspberry eyes… In order to call back my reason, I embraced her tightly, and composed myself.
On that day, on paper, Camille and I became officially husband and wife. Various things were prepared in advanced, so both the doc.u.ments and the witnesses were complete. It seems that rather than the doc.u.ments, Camille was more concerned with the magic item wedding ring but… well, that’s something for her to look forward to on the ceremony, isn’t it?
And so, it was decided that I would be moving to Camille’s house.
It ended up a little long as I was writing it, so the discovery of Camille’s door sealing will be for next time (^^;)