novel
| ← Ch.046 | Ch.048 → |
"There's that too. But after our mother died, I felt uneasy if I didn't see you in front of my eyes. I thought about what I would do if our mother was to take you away."
Sienna, who was only four years old when her mother closed her eyes, was fine because she was too young to remember her mother, but not Jamie.
"Because I was young then. It was only later that it became a habit that I felt sorry for myself if I didn't keep you around me."
"You should have adorned me a little more then. You'd always annoy and bother me instead."
"What do you mean bother you? I lifted you up around on my shoulders because you were so pretty."
"Is that what you've been carrying around on your head? In the summer, you would throw it into a lake in the middle of nowhere and tell it to swim. And if you got bored, you would put it on top of a tall tree. Although I finally came to like climbing and standing on top of trees later on, but when I was hanging from the top of the tree the first time, I thought my real heart was falling."
He shook his head at her words.
"How did it bother you? I was afraid you would be in danger when I'm not there for you."
"Who teaches that to a girl!"
"Are men the only ones who fall into the water? Do monsters only come out and fight men? I can protect you if I'm by your side, but I'm afraid something might happen when I'm away. I couldn't even teach you things for real because you were so pretty. You've seen how soldiers train."
Sienna could not refute Jamie's words. In front of his only sister, her brother often acts like a screw loose, but he was a harsh and charismatic leader in front of knights and soldiers. When she watched him closely, she wondered if he was the same person.
There was a reason why the soldiers called him 'the foolish brother' and 'the captain of the hell's squadron'. She didn't really know too much about the nickname.
"By the way, after hearing about a novel that Chelsea has been reading, she asked me to buy you a dress because you were going to marry the prince and would start whining for one... It's not a prince, but rather, you'll get married to the Crown Prince and become his princess."
As a child, Sienna unnecessarily developed fantasies about being the Empress by reading novels that Chelsea had given or read to her. She had the girlish idea that she would be able to marry herself away to the eyes of the prince as long as she bought a pretty dress right away.
The immature girl's dream really came true. She got married to the Crown Prince. Of course, she had to face a different ending than the main character in the novel, who married the prince and lived happily ever after for the rest of her life.
*
'I'm so sleepy... '
Sienna couldn't sleep yesterday, so she just tossed and turned on the bed. People came from the imperial family, barely falling asleep at dawn. It was because she had to prepare for the wedding.
She painted her face with powder and trimmed her hair with hot, red iron. She couldn't stand her heavy eyelids and sat down in a chair, nodding off. Whenever her head lost its balance and moved, her hair was pulled and heated by the cheeks.
"It's dangerous to move recklessly when we're doing your hair."
"I know, but... Sorry."
"Sienna! Can I get you a cup of tea?"
Jane asked. Jane, who used to be Kelly's servant, became Sienna's cousin as she entered the Grinnie's House as a foster child. At first, she was confused by how their titles changed between Sienna and Jane, reversing in order, but now she was quite accustomed to it.
"Sister, please. If it's that one, please make it very dark and cool for me."
Jane and Kelly were also attending the wedding, and both had already been prepared. The main character, Sienna, had to have a complicated wedding dress, so it took more time.
"Every morning you're so drunk on tiredness that you can't beat yourself awake until the day you get married."
"Brother! When exactly did I do that? And how can it be morning now? The sun hasn't even dawned yet."
"That's a relief. Today, the skies are clear and the stars are nice so it'll be a sunny day."
When the sun came up, the living room was filled with sunlight, as he said. The morning seemed to have come early because it was approaching summer.
"Fortunately, the sky is clear and the sun is fine today."
"It seems so. By the way, brother is very good at observing that."
Jamie was also wearing a tailspin. It was always easy to wield a sword, but today it was neatly tucked and dressed in black robes. Such a tall frame and broad shoulders made the clothes look better together. In particular, the red cape on his shoulders was making his appearance stand out.
"I'm sorry I'm getting married before brother, but I think I'll have the chance to meet my new sister-in-law today if I'm lucky. It seems I'll have to prepare a number table for you. I think there's going to be a line-up of ladies who'll want to marry my brother."
"What nonsense about a line?"
Jamie blushed and shook his hands, but his mouth was filled with smiles as to whether her praise was not really all that bad. He was in a state where his marriage requests were packed full. But a wife wouldn't come in so easily. There was no aristocrat to send hawks to families with no power or money in the northern corner, even though their father was titled as a duke.
'It's not just the bad conditions... '
If he doesn't stay in the northern town of Heidel and just spends his time in the capital and attend a banquet, he will surely find his partner much easier.
Objectively, Jamie had a likable face and a solid body, not because she saw her brother with the eyes as his younger sister, Sienna. Moreover, he was the successor to the Duke of Waters, who was considered to be the greatest warrior.
Of course, it was now politically marginalized, but it was once such an accomplished family that the emperor felt threatened. The lineage had melted away to Jamie. Although not officially known, he began to master swordsmanship at fifteen years old and was probably the youngest swordsman.
He was also a kindhearted man who could save his own people. No one really disliked Jamie, though he said the soldiers or knights trained by him were more vicious than the monsters running around in the north and that they were tougher than trolls. A man must be a charming man, even when he's roughed up.
He's a man with no real drawbacks... well, the biggest problem was being stuck in the northern Heidel, far from the capital.
"When's brother going back to Heidel?"
"I'm thinking of going right after your wedding. There's nothing to do in the capital and I should go back to get stronger too. I don't feel comfortable staying here either."
"I'll stay a few more months and leave."
"In how many more months are you going to stay and then leave?"
"I'm going to look for brother's future wife. Until when will you live alone? It's because I feel sorry for going off and getting married first is all."
"No need to be sorry..."
"So, let's stay in the capital and attend a banquet with me and see if there are any girls you like."
"What's the matter with a girl who falls in love with me?"
Jamie turned his head and slyly smiled. Still, he did not say no, so she seemed determined to find him a wife.
"Now that you're done with your makeup and hair, you can wear this."
Sienna and the ladies, who were holding her dress up, stepped down and waited as she brought the dress onto the stairs. The dress was so long that sixteen maids held onto it.
"I see you've finally prepared yourself and finished wearing that dreadful thing."
Gerald, the one-eyed tailor, bragged that it was beautiful, not terrible, but it felt terrible to her.
This wedding dress, however beautiful it was, was no different from just a pretty torture device. What's more, they even had to wear a corset that was made up of twenty whale bones, a very expensive one that the tailor boasts.
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