Having gotten through the first “objection” battle, Shutola and I had our ceremony in the cathedral and were officially married. This isn’t something I should say about my own wedding, but the ceremony had felt disappointingly uneventful after the parade trial and our fierce fight against Sylvia and Ema.
Yeah, it’s the parade’s fault. It’s got to be. The vows and kiss that one would normally be nervous about were completely overshadowed by that.
Still, I was happy. After the ceremony, my heart felt like it was floating on warm air. And my happiness compounded knowing that Shutola felt the same way. There’d been no need to wonder—one look at her face was enough to tell the whole story. At any rate, we were both very happy.
After the ceremony, it was finally time for the last event: the reception. An entire section of Trycen’s royal castle had been partitioned off for our private party with those family members, friends, and acquaintances we had invited. The guest list was honestly impressive, even from a global view. I was currently going around offering my greetings to the important figures present.
“I’m sure you already know, Kelvin, but take care of Shutola,” Azgrad said to me. “If something happens, I’ll cut you down personally. With no mercy.”
“If that happened, General, I’d join you! Given how master is, he would consider it a reward, and it might serve as a vacation for him!” Huba added.
“Come on, you two, think about it. You use spears, don’t you? You’d be stabbing me, not cutting me down.”
“He’s right, King Azgrad. You should leave that role to me, since I actually use a sword!” Dan interjected.
“General Dan!”
“Ah, then should this old lady participate as well? Why don’t we do it together, Rosalia-chan? Do something with your mother,” Salafia offered.
“Heh heh! That sounds fun. I would love to,” Rosalia replied.
“Even you two?!”
“Kelvin-san, your joy is leaking into your voice.”
Naturally, my newly minted big brother-in-law, the generals, and other people involved in managing Trycen were present.
“The match was amazing to see, Shutola! Especially that last part where you saved Kelvin! That brought tears to my eyes!” Sera exclaimed.
“Sera-nee really did cry,” Rion added.
“Hey, Rion! Don’t say that!” Sera replied in a fluster.
“Oooooaaaaaahhhh! I was moved to tears too!” Gerard shouted as he cried.
“Gerard-san was like this from beginning to end. He had to leave midway through so as not to bother the other spectators...” someone else said.
“You know there are going to be more weddings starting from tomorrow, right, Gerard-san? Are you hydrated well enough?” another voice called out.
“Don’t think sooo!” Gerard replied, still crying.
“Ugh! Shutola-chan was so pretty. And Kelvin-sama looked even more divine than usual up there, fighting with her! Ugh, I just couldn’t stand it in a lot of ways! How should I express my joy at being able to support this battle?!” Colette screamed. “The world is so precious I’ll die!”
“Your wedding is coming up, Colette, so please don’t die before then,” said Mel.
“Ah, Mel-sama is worried for the likes of me!” Colette gushed.
“Mama, Colette-san looks like she’s about to succumb to dehydration,” DarkMel noted.
“You should leave her be for now, DarkMel,” Mel replied. “If you start worrying about her too, she really will dry up.”
“Seriously, bro, congratulations!” Dahak shouted. “As your first underling, my pride over being able to welcome this day with you—”
“Too long, Dahak,” Mdofarak cut him off. “Congratulations, master. And to you too, Shutola. Yes, that’s all.”
“Id...really id...a happy occasion,” Boga added in his strange voice.
Obviously, my party members from home were all here too, creating quite a bit of chaos.
“Mm, this food is good,” said Sylvia. “Congratulations, Shutola. And to you too, Kelvin. Thanks to you, I’m able to enjoy this feast. It’s very good.”
“Sylvia...the stars of the hour are here, so let’s stop eating for now, okay?” Ema suggested.
“Hee hee! It’s fine,” said Shutola. “It makes me happy to see Lunoir enjoying herself so much.”
“Ugh, Shutola’s kindness goes right to my heart. I’m so sorry,” Ema muttered.
“Come on, there’s no need to worry so much. Oh, by the way, there’s something I need to ask you, Ema.”
“Me? What is it?”
“It’s a bit late now that the fight is over, but couldn’t you save Colette from falling over by fixing her barrier in place with your Chains of the Shunned? I heard you can deploy several chains at once, so I considered having you use it on Sylvia and me to make us kind of invincible, but...I assume fixing my death-rewinding ability would be too much?”
“Right, of course it’s about fighting. Well, no surprise there; that’s just like you, Kelvin-san. Anyway, yes, it’s possible. If I wanted to, I could also use Chains of the Shunned on Colette’s barrier,” Ema replied.
“It’s possible?! Isn’t that an insanely strong ability? That would make me like old man Nito, wouldn’t it?”
“It definitely is a powerful effect, but the MP cost to maintain it is really high,” Ema explained. “Maintaining a healthy body is honestly nothing compared to what I’ve been doing.”
“Ah, I see. So it’s not that unbelievably strong...”
“Aha ha! Sorry for getting your hopes up,” Ema replied. “But I have thought about all the situations and strategies where I could use my ability. Still, the result of our match came from the activation of the barrier, didn’t it? Even fixing it in place or rewinding it wouldn’t nullify the result.”
“Mm, that’s why we excluded it from our strategies,” Sylvia added. “It would help in a real fight, but for this match it would only be a waste of MP. Nom nom.”
“You there! Guy with the shitty face and the black hair! Don’t just spend all your time with Sylvia and Ema, let me greet—” Nagua started.
“Yeah, yeah. You’re going to cause a lot of trouble, Nagua, so just shut up. I’ll give our congratulations in your place,” said Ariel.
“Grrr...” Nagua growled.
“I wish you eternal happiness. Our entire party does,” said Kokudori.
Sylvia, Ema, and their party members Ariel and Kokudori gave us warm words of congratulations. I was sure Nagua felt the same way as well, though he was currently restrained. Yeah, I can tell even if you don’t say anything. Mmhmm, I know.
Anyway, there were a whole host of other people here as well. Some of them would also be participating in my other weddings, which would start tomorrow, so I was very grateful to them. After I made a circuit of all the tables, everything calmed down for the moment. I returned to the main table to spend some time with Shutola, though it would be brief.
I paused, breathing a sigh of relief. “Tomorrow is Rion’s wedding, so I’ll need to get to Parth by early tomorrow morning. I prepared myself for it, but this really is a tight schedule.”
“Oh, Kelvin-san, you’re already thinking about another woman?” Shutola asked teasingly. “When I’m right here and we’re still in the middle of our wedding?”
“Ugh! Sorry, Shutola! I can’t believe I—”
“Grrr! That’s what my childish heart wants to say, but it’s Rion-chan’s turn tomorrow,” said Shutola. “I’ll forgive you...this time.”
She giggled as if she’d succeeded at a prank in her child form. You know that face is super effective on me, don’t you, Shutola-san?
“Let’s see, we can’t have you tired for tomorrow’s ceremony or objection battle, so...I’ve decided. I have you until midnight, so we’ll spend the night getting lots of sleep. You don’t mind, do you, Kelvin-san?” Shutola asked.
“Of course not. Do you have any requests in the meantime, Princess Shutola?”
“You...want me to say it out loud?”
I had no words. It seemed I would need to wring a bit more effort out of myself right up until it was time to leave.