The days after Albert’s proposal passed in a flurry. Normally, his family would have been the first people we told. Marriage between nobles was a contract between houses in the Kingdom of Salutania, so we required their permission to move forward. In particular, we needed the approval of Albert’s father, the head of the family. However, Albert said that was unnecessary. They had known about his feelings for me for a long time now, and they had even been encouraging him to hurry up and propose. As such, he didn’t need to seek their permission.
I see. So when we visited, they were welcoming me into their family. That brought me some peace of mind. But if we’re getting married, then we’ll surely have to see them again soon.
Albert was in favor of celebrating with his family. However, both of his brothers held important offices in the kingdom. His parents were awfully busy as well, so it would be difficult to find a day when everyone could come together.
As such, we decided to inform them all by letter. Albert said that if we waited, with his brothers’ assistance, we would sort out a day when everyone would be available.
Thus, the very first person we told was my boss, the head researcher at the institute, who also happened to be Albert’s childhood friend.
When we showed up at Johan’s office together, he raised an inquisitive eyebrow. “What are you two doing here?”
“I’m sorry to bother you while you’re in the middle of work,” I said. “Do you have a few minutes?”
“Of course.”
“Uhhh, so…” Now that it was the moment to tell him, I grew shy and hesitated.
“We’re getting married,” Albert announced without pause.
We had assumed Johan would instantly begin to tease us, so Albert and I had agreed to just say it to him straight out—and to show up without prior notice so he wouldn’t have a chance to study us and figure it out himself.
However, our fears proved groundless.
“Finally did it, eh? Congratulations.” A relieved smile crossed Johan’s face as he offered us a totally ordinary congratulations. After that, however, he smirked at Albert.
“Thanks,” Albert said with a tight smile. Although Johan hadn’t said anything, he knew what he meant.
“Thank you,” I echoed.
With our first mission complete, we were released before Johan could try to pry.
The next two people we told were the king and the prime minister.
As I was the Saint and therefore of equal status with the king, they would treat my wedding as they would the marriage of a member of the royal family. That was why our meeting wouldn’t end with a simple announcement of our engagement; we would have to tend to all kinds of formalities. It was therefore necessary to alert them as soon as possible.
We were soon granted an audience, and by the time Albert and I reached the king’s office, the prime minister was already present. The knights who acted as guards and other officials who helped with various duties were also there.
I had told the king and prime minister that Albert would be accompanying me, so they must have anticipated our announcement. They all wore unusually bright smiles as we entered.
I felt a bit embarrassed by all this. My face was a bit flushed, but I managed to make myself smile too.
After our formal greetings, the king asked us to sit on one of the couches. The king stood from his desk to sit in the opposite couch, so we thanked him and took the neighboring seats he’d directed us to. The prime minister stood beside the king’s seat, as per usual.
“So, I believe you have an announcement to make,” said the king, jumping straight to the main subject we’d come to discuss.
I had prepared my response in advance. “So we do. We have come to inform you of our betrothal.”
At first, I had considered giving the king all kinds of explanations for my choice, but even imagining how I would convey all that made my face hot, so I didn’t think myself capable of offering a proper rundown. Therefore, I had decided to offer the king the minimum necessary amount of information. Even that made my face warm.
“Your fiancé is Knight Commander Hawke?”
“Yes.”
“I see. Congratulations.”
“Congratulations,” the prime minister agreed.
Neither of them looked particularly surprised as they smoothly gave us their congratulations.
“Thank you,” I said.
“Thank you,” Albert echoed.
Then, just as I had predicted, we dove into discussion of all kinds of proceedings and other events that would have to take place. There were a multitude of things we would have to do.
The sequence of getting engaged before getting married was the same as in the world I came from, with the exception that the engagement was a necessary first step in the kingdom. Since this was a contract between houses, I would need to speak with Albert’s father to enter into the contract. Fortunately for me, the king would lead the discussions since he acted as my guardian in such affairs.
According to the prime minister, the major topic of discussion would be assets. As the royal family were acting as my guardians, they would provide my dowry as well.
In my opinion, them serving as my guardians was sufficient favor in itself, and I initially declined additional assistance, but the king wouldn’t accept my refusal. He claimed that because I had achieved so much for Salutania, there had been a delay in providing a proper reward, so he was going to use this opportunity to fulfill that obligation.
That being the case, I had no option but to accept, especially as I had been in the habit of declining everything he offered me. Besides, the dowry was likely to be money rather than rank or land.
After all of the conditions were agreed upon and Albert and I were formally engaged, the next thing to do was to hold a reception. It wasn’t the kind held after a wedding but rather a party to announce our betrothal.
This was common practice for the nobility of Salutania. As part of House Hawke, we were obligated to follow suit. That ran doubly true with regard to my position as the Saint. If we didn’t host a party, the other houses would turn their noses up at House Hawke, and I definitely didn’t want that to happen. I therefore couldn’t refuse—especially not after the prime minister came up with a wonderful suggestion for the reception.
The plague of the black swamps had finally been taken care of, so the palace had been planning to hold a victory banquet. The prime minister suggested that we use the event for our annoucement.
It would be a huge help to piggyback on something they had already been planning, and neither the king nor Albert had any objections, so I gratefully accepted the prime minister’s proposal.
And so, having sorted out our betrothal reception, things were moving along smoothly. However…
No one anticipated that we would receive such news from far away after the reception-slash-victory banquet.