In a corner of the palace, I was holding what one would call a tea party with my dear friends. In other words, I was having yet another girls’ day out at what had become our usual spot: a gazebo in one of the gardens.
“You really caught me off guard there. I had no idea,” I said.
“I apologize for that. We kept the whole thing private,” Liz confessed.
“Ooh. So you didn’t know either, Aira?”
“No! But I had heard a rumor from one of my seniors at work, so I knew it was a possibility.”
Right from the start, we jumped straight into discussing Prince Rayne and Liz. To me, the announcement of their engagement during the celebration had hit like a bolt from the blue, but Aira had already known a bit.
By her “senior at work,” she doubtless meant one of the mages at the Royal Magi Assembly. If they’d been talking about it, then it was likely most of the nobility had also already been in the know. A lot of mages in the Assembly were nobles, after all.
Of course, there were also nobles at the Research Institute of Medicinal Flora, but we only ever talked about herbs and potions. We hardly ever discussed high society. At least, I hoped I wasn’t the only one ignorant of the goings-on in the greater world.
“Have you guys been negotiating it for some time, then?”
“Yes. But it was only just recently that everything finally aligned. We decided that since a celebration was already being held, we would take the opportunity to announce our engagement at that time.”
“Just like us, then.”
“Oh, that’s how it went for you too?”
“Yeah, pretty much.”
When I thought about it, Liz had probably been planning her engagement to Prince Rayne ever since her original engagement to the crown prince, Kyle, was broken. When I asked about it indirectly, she confirmed my suspicions. By “everything finally aligned,” she was likely referring to some behind-the-scenes maneuvering she had been doing. When they’d finally reached the point of announcing their engagement, they’d come up with the idea of using the party to do so, just as it had happened with me.
But why did she break off her engagement to Prince Kyle? The question popped into my mind, but I didn’t ask it out loud. I had a feeling I knew why, and that even if I were to ask, she wouldn’t give me a straight answer.
What if, for instance, it was because Prince Kyle had lost his right to the throne after he had treated the Saint with such insolence? If that was the case, then I doubted she would admit it to me, since I was an involved party. Liz, considerate as she was, wouldn’t want to make me feel guilty by association.
“Were you okay with folding your announcement into another celebration?” I asked. (The question had just popped into my mind while I was trying to think of another topic.) “I heard the proper thing to do is to have a party specifically for the event.”
If they had been planning this for a while now, then surely they could have arranged their own special party just for them. Engagement parties weren’t really a thing back in my original world, so I didn’t have any emotional attachment to the idea, but I thought Liz might.
Liz smiled and shook her head. “Oh, I wasn’t bothered at all. As it happens, when a member of the royal family gets engaged, it’s typically announced at the annual ball hosted by their family.”
“I see.”
“It’s also more cost and time efficient to wrap all of these sorts of things into a single event rather than hosting several.”
“Oh, Liz. There you go again.”
That sounded weirdly pragmatic. She said it in a joking tone, so surely that wasn’t the main reason. I certainly hoped that was the case.
“What about you, Sei? You could have hosted your own special party as well.” Liz turned my question right back on me, but honestly? I had no problem with it either.
“I was grateful for the way it came together, actually. My guardian is the king, after all. I’m sure it would have been a pain for him to make time to attend multiple parties.” I was surrounded by my close friends, so I answered honestly, eliciting their lovely laughter.
“Now that you’ve announced your engagement, are you going to start preparing for the ceremony?” Aira asked excitedly.
“I guess that’s how it goes, right?” I had assumed as much myself, but I had yet to hear about anything from anyone, which made me wonder if there was another step to the process. I looked at Liz for confirmation.
“Indeed,” she said. “I am planning for our wedding to be held next spring, so I’m already in the thick of preparations.”
“Whoa, that was fast!”
She didn’t mention the date, but at the soonest, it would be nearly a year from now. Hearing that she was already gearing up for the wedding, I couldn’t help but tease. But Liz stared at me with open shock.
“What do you mean? Selecting and preparing the venue, determining the guest list, having your dress made—it all takes quite a lot of time.”
“Right, I suppose you have to do all that stuff yourself, don’t you?” I had never had to pull a wedding together, so I didn’t really know just how much work it entailed. But I got the gist well enough; it was clearly going to require a lot of time and energy. The venue stuff alone was sure to require a whole slew of things to be picked out and decided.
Back in my old world, royal weddings had involved sending invitations to a ton of people from both inside and outside the country, and I was sure that in Salutania, it was more or less the same. Part of my old job back in Japan had involved organizing drinking parties between multiple departments, which hadn’t exactly been a cake walk, so I could easily imagine how much more difficult this would be.
And as for having your dress made? Well, I wasn’t so sure about any of that. I imagined I’d just leave everything like the design and so forth to Mary and her crew, just like I usually did. Which meant that all I had to do was let them take my measurements, then come back again later for the first fitting. But there was no way they could have a custom dress made in only a couple of days, so that part would definitely take a lot of time too.
Furthermore, this time they would be making my wedding dress. Even back in my old world, women fantasized about the day they’d get to wear that kind of dress, so this time, I doubted I would be able to leave everything up to my maids. They were probably going to ask me all kinds of things, like what kind of cut I wanted, etc., etc.—all things that I doubted I would be able to actually answer.
Back in Japan, I had never experienced any kind of romance, and I had never once pictured myself getting married. So, I had never daydreamed about what I’d like for my wedding dress, let alone the ceremony. It would be a bit troublesome, but perhaps I needed to start thinking up some answers now so that I was ready for the inevitable questions.
I grew weary as I imagined what awaited me in the coming months, which prompted a chuckle from Liz.
“Don’t worry, you won’t have to figure it out all by yourself. I myself have received a great deal of help.”
“Really?”
“Oh, yes. I’ve been given all manner of advice as to the design of the dress and the arrangement of the venue. And as for guest list, we are obliged to invite all the associates of our families, so we have, of course, been consulting with our houses.”
Hearing these words gave me at least a bit of relief.
Right. I could just ask for help with all that, just like I did for my wardrobe. Also, though it had only just occurred to me when she mentioned “consulting with our families,” I wasn’t the only one getting married here! The knight commander was too. Which meant I should consult with House Hawke.
We continued discussing wedding ceremonies as I started plotting my strategy in my head. Thus, the day after our wonderful tea party, I decided to go and speak directly with Albert.
But then the unthinkable happened.