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“BUT anyway, why is Reynaldo so fixated on my wedding dress?” I asked.
Albert and I had moved to the feudal lord’s manor in the McClain region. While I sat in an office chair, Albert signed papers. Rosemary hadn’t spent much time in this building. It was a separate manor that her father had used for work. Though she knew of the home’s location and purpose, she’d never been inside the office.
“You don’t know?” Albert asked, surprised.
“Well, I know it must have something to do with Rosemary.”
Nine times out of ten, when Reynaldo acted hardheaded, it involved his sister.
“Rosemary’s wedding dress was the only thing she had to look forward to in her marriage to Prince Grey,” Albert said. “Do you not remember that?”
“What?”
This was news to me. I couldn’t recall Rosemary thinking this.
“According to Rosemary, she didn’t want to become the crown princess, but she was looking forward to wearing the most beautiful dress a bride could hope for,” Albert explained. “But if you don’t remember that, perhaps it was a lie to set Reynaldo’s mind at ease.”
I had no recollection of Rosemary looking forward to her wedding dress. However, I recalled her wanting to provide Reynaldo with the brightest future she could.
“What will I do when you leave, Rosemary?” he’d asked.
“Oh…!” I cried.
A memory rushed back to me. Though Rosemary was still young, her engagement to Crown Prince Grey was already decided. While Hubert was abuzz with the good news, Reynaldo uttered those words sadly. Rosemary was the only person he’d ever trusted, and the idea of her leaving had made him anxious. Likewise, he’d been concerned for his older sister, as she hadn’t truly wished to become the crown princess. Thus, she’d occasionally speak of a bright future to cheer him up.
“Someday, we might be able to live in the capital together, so make sure you study hard, okay?”
“I’m not sad, Reynaldo. After all, I get to wear a beautiful wedding dress like the princess in my favorite picture book.”
I recalled Rosemary saying that to Reynaldo. The torrent of memories crashing over me was enough to cause a dizzy spell. As I nearly swooned, Albert came over to support me.
“What’s wrong?” he asked. “Are you okay?”
“I am—thank you,” I answered. “Some of Rosemary’s memories just came back to me. As you said, she tried to set Reynaldo’s mind at ease by comparing her situation to her favorite picture book.”
“…I see.”
Rosemary loved a picture book in which a knight protected a beautiful princess, and in the end, she married a prince. To allay Reynaldo’s concerns, Rosemary claimed to want such a fairy tale life.
Sadly, being engaged to the prince hadn’t been a dream. Rosemary endured a harsh education to become the perfect queen, and she and Grey hadn’t loved each other in the slightest. Meanwhile, she’d been forced to deal with constant politics and conspiracies.
Though Rosemary loved that picture book, only the princess and the knight caught her fancy. She never longed to marry a prince. Even so, she lied about looking forward to the wedding so as not to worry Reynaldo. Even if he saw through her falsehoods, it was the most she’d been able to do.
“I expect Reynaldo knows the truth,” Albert said. “At the same time, he still wants to grant Rosemary’s wish, regardless of whether she was being genuine.”
Hearing this, I made up my mind. “Albert, may I leave the dress to Reynaldo?”
This could give rise to more strange rumors, and Albert could even face slander. Even so, he merely smiled. “As I said, the choice is yours, remember? I’m sure you'll look beautiful, no matter what dress you wear.”
Albert kissed me on the forehead, his expression aglow with happiness. I pressed my face into his chest to hide my flushed cheeks.
When I spoke to Reynaldo about the dress the next day, he took to the task enthusiastically. Whenever he set his mind to something, he was unstoppable.
Yet, as for the finished product—
“Aha…” I laughed awkwardly.
Reynaldo finished the dress a few months before my wedding. When I came to view it, the sight rendered me speechless. One of my friends was a seamstress, and I’d even tailored my own dress for my debutante. As such, I knew how over the top it was.
“He’s gone way too far!” I cried.
The pure white fabric could only be obtained in the Camille region and was used exclusively for high-end dresses. Furthermore, the silver embroidery thread—which Reynaldo used lavishly—was also extremely high quality. It had been sewn tastefully onto the hems and bust of the dress in rose and lily patterns. At the very least, it would take several seamstresses over half a year to do this much work.
Even more striking were the small gemstones inlaid into the dress. These rare diamonds were mixed with a pale honey color. I had no idea how much even one of these small, droplet-sized gemstones would cost, and Reynaldo used them unsparingly. This single dress was probably worth an entire castle. Seeing something so valuable terrified me.
I don’t even want to know this exists, much less wear it, I thought. If even a speck of dirt lands on this dress, I’ll probably pass out.
“What’s done is done.” Albert patted me on the shoulders. “It’s not as though we can unmake the dress, and if we returned it, Reynaldo would tailor a new one.”
“Ugh,” I groaned, my eyes brimming with tears as I covered the dress. I couldn’t let this terrifying garment see the light of day until absolutely necessary; otherwise, I would never rest easy. I vowed to keep it hidden until my wedding.
“That aside, I have a gift for you,” Albert said. “Although it might pale in comparison to this nightmare of a dress.”
As I cocked my head, puzzled, Albert withdrew something from his pocket. After taking my left hand, he placed it around my wrist. It was a bracelet.
“What’s this for?” I asked.
“I might have let Reynaldo take charge of the dress, but at the very least, I still wanted to give you this myself.”
Per tradition in Dirésias, engaged couples exchanged gifts with each other, such as bracelets, necklaces, and so forth.
“Thank you so much.” My chest swelled with happiness as I gazed at the present.
“You only wear a wedding dress once, but you can put this on every day, right?”
“Huh?”
After he finished slipping on the bracelet, Albert looked at me bashfully. “Do you think I’m being petty?”
Don’t tell me…
“Did Reynaldo’s involvement in the dress bother you?” I asked.
Since he’d acted unperturbed, I doubted myself while asking the question.
Albert shrugged. “Well… Perhaps a little bit.”
Not expecting that answer in the slightest, I looked at the bracelet and smiled.
“If you’d asked Reynaldo to take care of this as well, I might have been angry,” Albert admitted.
That got a laugh from me.
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“WHAT’S this?” Reynaldo asked the next day. “Did Albert beat me to the punch?”
He’d brought another bracelet because, in his words, it matched the dress. Of course, it also looked incredibly expensive. Albert and I both exhaled quiet sighs of relief, knowing we’d dodged an arrow.