Seren 35
A Happy Report
✦ ✦ ✦
THE day after the big ball.
At last, I had the opportunity to announce to everyone in the Third Mage Guild that Viol and I were married.
After Lord Viol discussed the matter with my father, they concluded it would be better to keep things under wraps until the wedding was safely over and we could make an announcement officially at the ball.
The Third Mage Guild itself counts among its number quite a few of the aristocracy. It wouldn’t have been possible to swear everyone to secrecy. Father thought we should try to avoid rumors spreading at all costs. Until now, the only person we’d confided our secret to was the deputy division commander, Disto.
Today we could finally announce the news of our marriage to the others in the Guild.
At the end of the Third Mage Guild-wide monthly morning assembly, I held my hand to my chest and anxiously waited for Lord Viol to speak.
“…I’m sorry to bother you with personal matters, but there’s something I want to tell everyone.” Lord Viol cleared his throat and looked around at the others as he spoke. “This may come as a surprise, but… Seren and I have… Actually, we’ve gotten married.”
“…Huh?”
Following Lord Viol’s report, an odd silence hung heavy in the air.
“Whaaat?!”
“Huh? Eh? Come again?!”
“What the? Is this some kind of joke?”
“Lord Viol… Makes jokes?”
“No, no, no, it can’t be…”
Voices filled with shock and confusion… Lord Viol looked taken aback, too.
“I do joke sometimes… But this isn’t a joke…”
Lord Viol looked at me like he was seeking my consent. So I smiled and nodded. Seeing my reaction, the others looked a bit less skeptical.
“Huh…”
“No way, really?”
“No, no… I mean, really?”
“Seren, is it true…?”
I looked around at the group, barraged by questions on all sides.
“It’s true. I’ve been blessed enough to become Lord Viol’s wife,” I said in a loud and clear voice.
“Whaaat?!!!”
“No way!!!”
“You’ve gotta be kidding, Seren!”
“Lord Viol…? I thought he was a lifelong bachelor!”
The morning assembly hall erupted in a fresh round of excited murmurs.
Lord Viol and I exchanged glances and smiled wryly at each other. He and I had been going out on dates after work more often recently and had even gone to balls together, but despite all that, no one expected us to actually get married.
Everyone seemed so surprised that I felt a little guilty, so I bowed my head toward the group.
“I apologize for surprising you with this news so soon after joining the Guild. However, I will make sure that my work is not affected in any way, so please, uh, I mean, I hope you’ll continue to look warmly upon me…”
As I finished speaking, the room fell silent.
“…Huh?”
“…What?”
“But, I mean, what about the honeymoon?”
“You’re going to take some time off following your wedding, right?”
Now, the room filled with restless murmuring. Vellia stepped forward from the crowd and leaned in to speak to me. “Seren! You’re taking some newlywed leave, right? I believe I explained that we all have the right to newlywed leave?”
“Yes, I was informed about that, but since I just joined the team and this is an important time, I’ll wait until things have settled down,” I said.
“She’ll never get around to taking leave…” I heard someone mutter from the crowd. Vellia’s shoulders slumped.
“I mean, I’m so far behind the rest of my peer group… I can’t allow my personal affairs to delay my development any further…” I muttered.
Vellia got a scary look on her face and whipped towards Lord Viol. “Archmage Viol! What are you thinking?! You have to take a firm hand here! You must insist on both of you taking newlywed leave. Poor Seren!”
“What? No, I mean… Well, I was just going along with what Seren wanted…” Lord Viol, finding the finger of blame pointed at him, opened his eyes in surprise and gasped when Vellia looked down, shoulders hitching in emotion.
“Wow.”
“Total boss fail.”
“Total husband fail, more like…!”
“That sounds like Frosty Archmage Viol, all right.”
I heard the whispers all around and was taken aback. Was this really something worthy of such criticism?
At that moment, Lord Viol and I looked at each other, wondering what to do.
“You dunderhead!”
A loud, scolding voice shattered the moment.
Vellia was… angry. She was always so easygoing and laid-back… I always figured she was a person with few extreme emotions. Sort of like Lord Viol, but in a different way.
My shoulders trembled in surprise, and Lord Viol blinked.
“Seren is a work-minded girl; of course, she’d insist on not taking time off! It’s your job to persuade her otherwise, Archmage Viol!”
I gulped. I never imagined my actions would have landed Lord Viol in hot water.
“H-Hold on… But when I joined the Guild, I was told newlywed leave was completely optional… It was my choice not to take it, not—”
“Vellia knows that, Seren. That’s the whole point.”
Three more people stepped forward one by one from among the others. They were the most talented people in the whole Guild, taking the top spot for skill in the fire, earth, and water categories.
“See, we know Archmage Viol. He keeps to himself. He keeps his private matters under wraps, and everyone understands that it’s simply how he prefers to live his life. When it comes to opinions on magical matters, no one has more weight than Archmage Viol. We all trust his word completely.”
“Right. But there is one thing we have to say. The newlywed period of life—that sweet, fleeting time—you’ve got to enjoy it to the utmost! You should go and kick back and enjoy yourselves, enter the love bubble, and cast aside all other concerns for a while!”
“We can cover for Lord Viol for a week or so. Seriously, there’s no reason to worry about a thing.”
Well, what could either Lord Viol or I say when faced with such a chorus? Behind the three of them, the other members of the Mage Guild were all nodding away.
Lord Viol and I looked at one another again, and Vellia smiled broadly.
“So I’ll go ahead and submit your application for newlywed leave.”
“Th-Thank you…” I stuttered. “And sorry… I mean, uh, thank you.”
Vellia’s smile broadened even more. She pushed up her glasses, still grinning. “No problem. If the big cheese doesn’t take his newlywed leave, then none of the smaller fries will feel comfortable doing so, either. Archmage Viol, of all people, needs to take the leave allocated to him.”
“I, I see, right. That may well be true. Sorry, I wasn’t considerate enough.”
Vellia smiled wryly at seeing Lord Viol’s brows lowering a bit in remorse. Then she muttered in a faint voice, “The man’s surprisingly earnest when it comes to things like this,” and, despite her scolding, my heart filled with warmth.
I felt some residual guilt over Lord Viol getting scolded because I declared I wanted to prioritize work over everything else.
I would have to apologize to Lord Viol later. But just as I thought about that, Vellia turned and faced Disto, the man in charge of conducting this morning’s assembly.
“That said, Archmage Viol is really sort of uninformed about these things. He needs you to give him a proper lecture, Commander Disto.” Vellia dropped a jokey wink and said, “Counting on you!”
Disto replied in a dry tone, “I know.”
Uh-oh. Now, even Disto was getting put on the spot. I felt SO guilty.
“We hadn’t yet gotten to the point of talking about newlywed leave. There was no need to worry. I was always going to make sure they took it,” he said.
“Well, good then.”
“Great! Did you hear that, everyone? You all need to make sure to take the leave that’s allocated to you, too!” Following Vellia’s nod, the best Earth magic user in the Guild, Rupi, had looked around the room and then loudly spoke. The entire morning assembly broke out in cheers and smiles.
“Anyway! It’s a surprise, sure, but a happy one! Well done, Lord Viol!” Rupi laughed and slapped Lord Viol on the shoulder.
“That’s right,” Vellia continued. “Who would have thought that springtime would come to the life of Archmage Viol so soon? All right, everyone, I think this warrants a round of applause!”
“Congratulations!”
“Happy marriage!”
“Blessings to you both!”
“Congrats!”
“Darn it, he pipped me to the post!”
“Ah, but what happy news.”
Vellia’s call for applause led to a cacophony of cheers and well-wishes, along with some enthusiastic clapping. Everyone was smiling. The cheers, the congratulations… They were earnest and heartfelt.
I never expected to receive such hearty congratulations. Joy brought tears to my eyes. I tried to hold them back, but they welled up anyway.
“Seren, you have about a week of newlywed leave, so go and enjoy yourself, and you can catch up on your training once you get back.”
“Yeah, have fun!”
Vellia and Rupi encouraged me, followed by the rest of the assembly. I was filled with gratitude and happiness. I’m so lucky, I realized.