The Demon Lord's Bride (BL)
Chapter 286: When you just want a registry office marriage but your fiance is a public figure

Chapter 286: When you just want a registry office marriage but your fiance is a public figure

I had thought that two or three months were enough to prepare for a wedding calmly and leisurely.

Certainly, I was wrong.

Well, for me, whose only job apparently was looking pretty on the ceremony and the banquets--yes, plural--after, I didn’t have much to do except answer the organizer’s inquiry about what I wanted the outfit to look like, the kind of food I would like to have, or the decorations I would prefer.

And honestly? I just answered with ’I trust your judgment’ and be done with it.

Huh? That would only make them even more confused? But except for the ceremony being held in the Lair, I would like to be surprised about everything else.

Definitely not because I was lazy, no.

Ahem. Anyway, I had been spending my time doing interviews with Arta and her seamstress troop these days. With how often they did this, I even came to get familiar with the seamstresses. Panne, as someone who was in charge of my daily outfit, was also there to take note of everything and...umm, learned about hair styling?

"It has to be white, because His Lordship said so," Arta said, opening her journal. She already had a whole journal dedicated to this event.

"So we have to play with accents and accessories,"

"But it only needs to be white for the ceremony. We can play with colors whatever we want for the banquets."

"Oh!"

They brought me a lot of fabric samples, asked me which one felt best on my skin, and tried a lot of combinations of fabrics against my natural color. At the end of the first session, I learned that there were a lot of various kinds of ’white’ in this world.

And if I thought the first session was overwhelming, then it was because this little Val was one naive boy.

Hmm, yes, white had so many shades I didn’t know--or rather, didn’t recognize--before. But other colors had even more shades, and the second session had me drowning in hundreds--you hear me, hundreds--of color samples. Some of the colors were...I couldn’t even describe what they were, had no idea what they called. Some fabrics looked multicolored, some were ever-changing, and there was even a colorless, transparent one.

[Lots of colors! Like rainbows! Like Jade!]

Well, at least my little bird was having fun. It rolled around the fabric samples and literally drowned beneath them.

"Oh, would you like to have an outfit made too, Sir Jade?"

That got the little bird perked up, surfacing from the sea of fabrics. [Clothes for Jade?]

"Is that even possible?" I asked.

"Nothing is impossible for my team," Arta huffed proudly. Well, if there were a team of tailors I would trust, it was certainly the team who managed to make my banquet outfit in three days.

So I turned to look at Jade, who was only here because Vrida was in the middle of extensive grooming. "Do you want it, Jade?"

[Ye--] Jade started to chirp, but stopped itself. Curiously, the little bird started to make a serious contemplative face, even holding the green head between the colorful wings. [Ungg...] It rolled around the fabric in that pose for a while, like a colorful fluff ball, until it stopped and jumped. [Jade will think about it!]

Huh...that was surprising. "Jade says it’ll think about it," I relayed the reply to Arta, who laughed and told the little bird to come to her anytime to request an outfit.

Oh, well--I guessed clothes for a little bird should take a day or two at most, although I had no idea what it might look like.

Jade nodded energetically and continued to play with the fabric samples as Arta and the seamstresses talked about how many outfits they should make. Dreadfully, I heard that they planned to make at least five--like why? Why so many? How many days would the party be?!

Just thinking about it already made me exhausted, even though all I needed to do was sit down and accept people’s congratulations.

Gosh--if it was this exhausting just sitting still, how could Arta and these seamstresses look so energetic the whole time?

And then they brought me design after design after design and told me it was still in the basic stage, and that they would add more accents and accessories later after I chose them; five for now, including the white one.

And I wasn’t allowed to ask Natha’s opinion on this.

"No, you should never let His Lordship know about them! He should never look at you in any of them before the wedding day!" it wasn’t just Arta, but the seamstresses too that warned me about this, looking at me with flare in their eyes.

"Wh...why?"

"It’s a jinx," Arta raised her index finger in front of me. "They said it’ll be unlucky."

"Who are ’they’?"

"People from the old days," Arta shrugged. "Well, whether it’s true or not, it’ll also ruin the fun," she said further. "Isn’t it better as a surprise? Imagine His Lordship nervously waiting for you to show up with an outfit he never saw before!"

Since she promoted it so aggressively, I couldn’t help but imagine the scene. And then I recalled how he looked at me wordlessly for a few seconds on the night of the banquet, and a rush of heat spreading across my cheek.

"Right~?" Arta giggled and pinched my blushing cheek lightly. It was even more embarrassing because I could see my reddened face clearly in the mirror. "Oh! We also need to make an outfit for going away!"

And then, the hectic was back.

I wondered if Arta even had the time to do her other jobs because she seemed to be so focused on this. But when I asked Natha about it, he told me that preparing for the wedding was part of Arta’s job.

What could I do if he said it like that?

Thankfully, Arta had many competent subordinates who helped her with the daily tasks as well as the wedding preparations.

By the end of the week, a committee dedicating themselves to managing this event had been made. Lesta was making a list of people I wanted in the ceremony and those I wanted in the banquets. Malta was making rounds to fix every imperfection her sharp eyes could see around the Castle. Caba and Haikal had the guards and soldiers go through intense training to heighten security. Even Uncle Sol came to check on the Castle’s barrier formations himself.

And that was only a small portion of it.

An announcement had been made about our wedding to the whole realm, even without a certain date. My meal times were now used by the chef to test their best cooking and asked me which ones I loved the most, and which ones I would like to have for the banquets.

It was almost like the wedding would happen tomorrow. Every day felt like it would happen tomorrow. Even by saying ’I trust your judgment’, I was already feeling tired.

Ugh...what would it be if I had to take care of it on my own? I thought about that one day, but then I realized that if I had to take care of it on my own, then I would just have a small family-friend ceremony, register our marriage, and be done with it.

No party, just a small banquet among people I knew well.

But well, what could I do? Eruha told me that our wedding was categorized as a royal one, and advised me on who I should invite--including the children of nature and the demons from the rest of the six realms; the Lords and the nobles.

I got more and more exhausted with every new detail I had to involve myself in.

You said I only need to look pretty, my Lord! What a liar!

I wasn’t exhausted physically; it was just...uhh, let’s say I wasn’t good with talking to people non-stop. It sapped my energy, and I had to get away for a bit. Better yet--I needed to sap some energy from nature. So I asked Jade if it wanted to visit the Lair with me, and we tip-toed our way to the garden after I told Natha.

The flowers were still nonexistent, but the tall hedges that formed the fences within the garden like a maze were evergreen. It was made like that to hide the portal to the Lair, which I hadn’t used for quite some time.

"Hmm...I should tell the guys in the Lair about the wedding too, right?" I muttered. "Angwi might get angry otherwise..."

[Will we have a party in the Lair?] Jade asked. Oh, look at my little bird getting better at speaking.

"Yup, just one small party with our friends and--"

"Am I not your family anymore?!"

Startled by a sudden loud voice, my legs froze and Jade chirped briefly. We looked at each other in surprise, because the voice was familiar. As we hurried toward the nearest hedge, another familiar voice could be heard.

"Arta..."

"I can’t believe you do that without telling me!" she yelled, anger and sadness in her voice. "Me! I share a womb with you! Did you even think about me when you did it? Did you think about our sister?!"

[Master? Why Darky and Noisy fight?]

I grasped Jade and clasped its beak so the twins wouldn’t hear the chirping. Reflexively, I crouched behind the hedge and told Jade to keep silent.

"I’m sorry..."

"Sorry? Sorry?! What’s the use of it after everything’s been done? What?!"

It was the first time I heard Arta sound that agitated, and the first time I heard Lesta sound so defeated. I bit my lips in confusion; it felt wrong listening to this, but they stood on the path leading to the portal. Granted, it was the most secluded part of the garden, but...uhh--what should I do now?

I looked at Jade, but the beady eyes only stared back in confusion. While I fell into a ponder, I didn’t even realize that it had grown quiet.

Oh? Were they gone?

Carefully, I shifted to peek into the path, and met with the dark eyes of the male twin, less than a meter away above my crouching self.

"...oh," I swallowed. "Hi?"

Damnit, Val--how eloquent.

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