Chapter 138

Even though the Harvest Festival was over, Merion was in a festive mood.

It was because of a single rumor.

“Lady Serena is getting married!”

People chattered excitedly.

It was a topic of conversation that brought great joy, especially to the women.

In the market streets, in homes, and even in pubs, everyone was celebrating the marriage of the lady of Verchello.

“Who on earth is her partner?”

“You know, that sponsor.”

Since the Harvest Festival, rumors about Shion had also spread throughout Merion.

“They say it’s all thanks to him that she took over Del Conti. He’s supposed to be incredibly rich.”

“I heard he’s a viscount in Maesh, too.”

“Don’t tell me, it’s Viscount Rampo, the one who prepared the Harvest Festival carriage? The one who’s friends with Princess Masiet!”

They squealed, making a commotion.

Among the women, Susanna looked somewhat worried.

She wondered what such an amazing man saw in Verchello to marry Serena.

Having watched Serena since she was young, she felt as if she were looking at a younger sister.

“…Maybe he’s a guy like Kukulo? With a potbelly and a wife……”

“He’s not.”

The bald merchant Sansio said bluntly.

Susanna glared daggers at him.

“What do you know, Sansio?”

“I went to the Verchello estate on business a few days ago and got a peek.”

Sansio seemed somewhat displeased.

“He was handsome. Looked young, too. If anything, Lady Serena looked like the older sister.”

He was slightly more handsome than Sansio……. The women let Sansio’s trailing words pass them by.

Because it was nonsense. Instead, they squealed even louder.

“Oh my goodness! Spring has finally come for our lady!”

“It’s about time! Is there anyone else like Lady Serena!”

Hadn’t she suffered too many hardships for a nineteen-year-old?

So delicate and beautiful, yet hadn’t she worked without a single heart-fluttering moment?

The time had come for her to act her age.

“She deserves to be happy now!”

***

“It will be in a moment, Lady Serena.”

Shion whispered.

He was dressed in a splendid wedding suit, looking like the young master of some noble house.

In reality, he was the son of a noble house.

“The guests are waiting outside the door. If we make our vows before them, we will become husband and wife.”

“I know.”

Serena de Verchello gave a slight nod.

She was in a pure white dress.

It was so different from her usual attire that it felt quite awkward.

Her reflection in the mirror, with her intricate hairstyle and makeup, didn't feel like herself at all.

The fact that she was so beautiful made the sense of disconnect even more severe.

Shion and Serena were the stars of the day, the groom and bride and yet, a strange coldness lingered between them, not befitting a couple about to be wed.

Shion mulled over the coldness and sneered.

“Do you have any regrets, my lady?”

“Regrets?”

Serena chuckled.

Her tone suggested she never expected such words to come from Shion's mouth.

“You’re the one who looks anxious, Shion.”

“Anxious? I am not at all……”

“You’re talking a lot today.”

She grabbed Shion by the lapels.

It was so sudden he had no time to block it.

“Hmph.”

Serena yanked Shion forward.

Shion was pulled along helplessly.

Serena de Verchello slammed her lips against Shion Pollinglight’s.

The two pairs of lips remained pressed together for a moment.

To be precise, they couldn't separate because Serena wouldn't let go of his lapels.

“……!!!”

Amethus's jade eyes, watching from the side, went as round as lozenges.

The shocking scene of two pairs of lips colliding startled even the seemingly invincible swordsman.

The two young handmaidens attending Serena also covered their mouths and widened their eyes.

However, they soon became incredibly excited and giggled like baby larks.

They even started patting each other as if they couldn't hold it in.

“……”

Serena only let Shion go when she was about to run out of breath.

She nonchalantly wiped the spot where another's lips had just been with her finger.

Shion Pollinglight, dumbfounded, touched his own lips.

The red rouge from Serena’s lips had smeared onto his. He still looked bewildered.

“Uh……?”

“You have a cute side. Getting all flustered.”

Serena’s face was completely red.

The recent mutual oral collision, in other words, the kiss, had been a very bold attempt for her as well.

Having worked her entire life, when would she have ever had the chance to do something like this?

However, she believed Shion to be eighteen years old.

A strange sense of responsibility that she, being even one year older, should take the lead in whatever they did, had moved her.

It would be a lie to say there was no flutter of excitement, too.

She declared confidently.

“I am prepared to do my best as a wife. Is Shion prepared?”

“…Yes, uh, yes……”

“Speak confidently. With the awareness that you are now a person of Verchello!”

“…I am more than prepared.”

“Good, then.”

Serena de Verchello raised her hand.

She noticed in the mirror that her face was bright red but tried her best to ignore it.

She had pushed herself so hard that her eyes welled up with a few tears, but she thought no one would notice.

To be precise, she wanted no one to notice.

“I need to redo my lip makeup, so get out!”

***

The door slammed shut with a bang.

Even after leaving the room, I kept touching my lips.

Red rouge smeared off.

I remained silent until I entered the room prepared for the groom.

Amethus, who had followed me out, muttered blankly.

“…She’s quite a bold lady.”

“…Bold, isn’t she?”

I chuckled.

I had been completely caught off guard, yet I felt good.

I even looked relieved.

I shook my head, letting out a constant stream of laughter.

Amethus found his master’s appearance unfamiliar.

“Is this alright, Shion?”

“You worry too much, Amethus.”

I, the regressor prince, quickly regained my composure.

At least on the outside.

“Tell me what we gain from this marriage.”

“A just cause, the support of the people.”

“Right. We’ve become the heroes who saved the failing Verchello.”

The goodwill of people is not something that can be easily bought.

Now, the people of Merion would not question my absurd power and wealth.

Rather, they would be ecstatic that such an amazing person had become one of Verchello’s, one of their own.

I made myself appear to people as if I were some protagonist from a novel.

So that they would not find my secrets suspicious.

Now, Merion would become the foundation for Amethus and me.

Throughout the entire path of fending off disaster and bringing down the Empire.

“And the Verchello name holds a value beyond imagination. It's a fact that even Lady Serena is unaware of.”

Serena de Verchello did not know much about her own family.

It was because she had inherited the position of family head in a hurry while the family was collapsing.

But I, the regressor prince who had turned back 19 years, knew the value of Verchello.

“It’s going smoothly.”

“I don’t mean that, I mean is it alright to drag Lady Serena into this like this?”

“It can’t be helped for the sake of destiny.”

I shrugged. It had turned out as if I had used Serena.

No, it was true that I had used her. I had no intention of denying it.

“I don’t feel sorry. I’m going to fulfill my duties. Didn’t I prepare such a lavish wedding ceremony? I have to respect the lady’s dream.”

I had gathered all sorts of famous figures from the West.

I intended to gather only the best things to create the best moment of Serena’s life.

I had spent an amount of money that others would say was insane if they saw it.

Even Amethus felt it was an over-expenditure.

“The entire West will turn its attention to Shion of Merion in an instant. They’ll be dying of curiosity about who I am.”

It was time to reveal seven years of preparation.

It would now bear fruit.

To climb to the highest place in the West, to stop the disaster prepared by the Empire, to gather old comrades and heroes, and thus… bring down the Empire.

I looked into the mirror.

The wedding ceremony was soon.

I also had much to prepare.

I looked excellent to my own eyes, but I wanted to check one last time.

“More importantly, check my suit for me, Amethus.”

“Mm.”

“My hair too.”

Amethus followed the instructions without a word.

I did not keep a personal attendant, choosing my own suit and doing my hair myself and yet I had attached two hastily acquired handmaidens to Serena.

“……?”

Amethus, who was examining my neatly swept-back blond hair, tilted his head.

He opened his lips cautiously.

“…Your Highness.”

“I told you not to call me Your Highness! What if someone hears!”

“Haven’t you already set up defenses throughout the entire estate?”

“Tsk. I get anxious when you use honorifics.”

The Verchello estate was set to become our second base of operations after the Art Gallery Lamponé.

Therefore, we had secretly, without Serena’s knowledge, installed anti-eavesdropping barriers and the like throughout the estate.

This was to prevent our secrets from leaking out.

Still, just in case.

I took out a metal case from my pocket.

It contained peppermint-flavored raspberry lozenges and was also a mobile barrier device.

When I infused power into the metal case, a thick curtain of mana prevented our conversation from leaking out.

“What is it?”

“Your Highness, by any chance……”

Amethus raised his jade eyes.

His uniquely sensitive jade eyes glinted with intuition.

“Are you serious……?”

My face, the face of the regressor prince, hardened.

I spoke in a very clumsy tone.

“…W-what?”

“…About your marriage to Lady Serena, I’m asking if you are serious.”

“…N-no, I’m not? Why did you think that?”

Amethus slowly pointed at my ear.

Only then did I realize that my ear had turned bright red.

It was the aftermath of the lip-smash from before.

“Your Highness, for you to look this embarrassed… this is the first time I’ve seen it.”

“……”

I let out a deep sigh.

When I touched my ear, it was hot and flushed. I felt like I wanted to hide in a mouse hole.

After acting all cool and composed, for my face to flush from a single kiss like a teenage boy.

Including my life before regression, I was thirty-seven years old; it was impossible not to be embarrassed.

“You said you wouldn’t hide things from me.”

“…Right, I said I wouldn’t hide things from you.”

I looked at the metal case on the table.

I felt anxious talking even with these multiple layers of barriers. It was that much of a secret.

I cautiously brought out the feelings that were seeping out from the depths of my heart, from the far reaches of my memory.

“…You’re right. Serena, even back then… was my wife.”

The image of a woman crying from empty eye sockets was vivid in my mind.

Crying, Poesia, Poesia, my beautiful Chyallo flower, where have you gone?

A fire ignited in my heart.

That time is now gone. It has become nothing.

Serena is perfectly fine in the next room.

I have become eighteen and she is a nineteen-year-old girl.

With a very lovely appearance, she is so bold as to be cute.

I wanted to cry but had no tears to shed.

Instead, I let the hunchback inside my chest cry out.

“…After a long time, I’ve returned.”