I was kneeling in a formal position, getting scolded by the queen.
Usually, I’d just watch from the sidelines while she chewed out the king, Prince Lyle, and Luna, but now it was my turn. Now I finally realized why those three—sometimes four, if you counted Lord Ernest—always looked so miserable during those lectures.
Oh, and you know how people say beautiful women are terrifying when they’re angry? It’s true.
Everyone who’d been in the room while I had given my report on the lich was now watching me get yelled at, including Gramps, Jeanne, Cruyff, and Duke Sanga. The men were giving me exasperated and sympathetic looks. Princess Isabella seemed just as angry as Queen Maria, though, and as the lecture went on, Jeanne took her side too.
Why is this happening?
Well, to explain how I ended up in this situation, I’d have to rewind a bit to the moment when I’d given the queen the report she’d really been waiting for...
“So Tenma, you’re telling me that you officiated the wedding and chose Duke Sanga’s daughter Primera as your partner? Why is that?” Queen Maria asked.
I figured she was asking because women loved to gossip about weddings. Honestly, I thought she was just teasing me about doing the ceremony with Primera, so I kept my answer simple.
“Albert asked me to,” I said. “He told me that it wouldn’t be proper for a man to handle the bride’s side of things and that we needed a noblewoman who’d be easy to get family approval for. That’s why I asked Primera.”
Gramps and Jeanne already knew that, so they didn’t react. However, the color drained from the queen’s and Princess Isabella’s faces. The king and the other men in attendance looked at me like I was a pathetic creature.
“You! Call Duke Sanga and Albert here immediately!” Queen Maria yelled furiously.
The king flinched. “Y-Yes, Cruyff, go ahead and send word!” he ordered.
“At once, Your Majesty!”
“Tenma. Sit down right there,” Queen Maria said.
“Pardon?” I was already sitting in a chair, so I didn’t understand.
But then, the queen pointed to the floor. “Sit. Down.”
I glanced over to the king, but the moment our eyes met, he looked away, and so did Prince Caesar and Prince Zane.
Princess Isabella was giving me a death glare. “Do as my mother-in-law says. Now,” she said sharply.
“O-Okay...?” I had no idea what was happening, but it was very obvious that Queen Maria and Princess Isabella were angrier than I’d ever seen them before. I did as I was told and knelt formally in front of the queen.
“Do you have any idea why I’m angry, Tenma?” she asked. When I shook my head no, she continued. “Do you know what a go-between is?”
“It’s the person who arranges and officiates a wedding,” I said.
She nodded. “That’s right. But traditionally, the role of a go-between is performed by someone who’s already married.”
“Well, I did tell Primera she’d be something like a go-between, and she was fine with it...” I started.
The queen shut me down immediately. “That’s not the point!” she said, cutting me off. “If this had just been a small, private wedding with close friends and family, perhaps your excuse would’ve worked. But this wedding you and Primera officiated had outside guests. Nobles, in fact. The whole town knew about it, and you hosted the wedding. So that won’t cut it.”
“I don’t exactly understand what the problem is here,” I said, letting my emotions get the better of me and pushing back. I didn’t understand why everyone was so mad.
The queen just let out a long sigh and stared at me. “Tenma, you’re a man and an adventurer, so no, there’s no problem for you. And even if there were, it wouldn’t be a big deal. This is about Primera, however. She’s a noblewoman. And I hate to say it like this, but this is going to damage her reputation.”
I was wondering why that would be the case when Princess Isabella interjected.
“You might not understand, but noblewomen are expected to be chaste,” the princess explained. “It’s essential that when she bears her husband’s child, it’s his without any doubt in the matter.”
That made sense to me. If a child born to a noblewoman wasn’t actually her husband’s, it could end up ending the noble bloodline.
“I understand that. But all we did was officiate the ceremony. It’s not like we had any kind of physical relationship.”
“Still, there will be speculation, and there are those who will see her actions as her doing something with a man she isn’t even dating that a married woman should only do with her husband. Some may take that as her being an easy woman. And even if people know there’s nothing going on between you two, there will always be those who will spread rumors to damage her and House Sanga’s reputation.”
The realization that my casual request might’ve really hurt Primera and her family’s reputation made a cold sweat run down my back.
“Queen Maria, I’ve brought Duke Sanga and Lord Albert,” Cruyff said, showing the two men into the room.
For a moment, a rude thought crossed my mind that perhaps they’d rushed over just to get a glimpse of me getting lectured.
“Oh? That was fast,” the queen said.
“I saw their carriage approaching the gates and brought them straight here,” Cruyff explained.
“I see. The duke must’ve had the same concerns, then. Duke Sanga, please have a seat. Albert? You kneel next to Tenma.” The queen gestured for the duke to sit on the opposite side of Princess Isabella and ordered Albert to kneel beside me.
The duke sat in the chair Cruyff prepared without a word. He didn’t even look at me. Albert was pale as a ghost and was shaking so hard that he nearly fell over as he knelt down.
“Now then, Albert. Do you wish to disgrace the Sanga family? Or do you have some great ambition that’s so important that you would sacrifice Primera over it?” the queen asked calmly, glancing once towards the duke first. Her voice was quieter than when she was yelling at me, but since her eyes weren’t smiling at all, she seemed even scarier. “Just like I told Tenma, having Primera act as a matchmaker will destroy her reputation. People are going to think she’s a tramp.”
Her wording had gotten even harsher, and judging by Albert’s expression, it had the desired effect. He looked like he was about to pass out.
The queen continued. “Albert, as the heir to House Sanga, you gave permission for Primera to act as go-between and officiant, didn’t you? And you had Tenma ask her so it wouldn’t come directly from you. Don’t you think that’s cowardly? Officially, it looks like Tenma asked, Primera accepted, and you approved it. So if anyone’s reputation will be damaged, it’ll be theirs and not yours. Tenma’s not a noble, so that’s not much of a problem for him. But your sister is another matter. She doesn’t have that luxury.”
Albert seemed to understand immediately what had taken me some time to comprehend earlier. He began to panic. “Well, it’s just that she said she wasn’t really interested in getting married, so I thought...” he said.
“Not wanting to get married and not having the opportunity to are two completely different things. Just because she’s not looking now doesn’t mean she won’t want to someday,” the queen said. “But thanks to you, Albert, you’ve made that possibility a lot less likely. Or at the very least, hurt her prospects considerably.”
Queen Maria’s logic completely ripped Albert’s excuses to shreds. Duke Sanga had been glaring at him this whole time, but when our eyes met, he quickly looked away and cleared his throat. It seemed like all the other men in the room, including Gramps, were trying to become invisible. Meanwhile, the look on Jeanne’s face said that she thought I deserved every bit of what was going on.
Why did this have to happen...?
Obviously, it was my fault, but I wished I could go back in time and knock both myself and Albert upside the head for even thinking of doing such a thing. That thought must’ve shown on my face, because...