4. Marriage

Time flowed on, and the wedding day arrived.

The chirping of birds was cheerful, and the sunshine was warm. Strangely, despite not sleeping properly for the past few days due to work, her body felt light and refreshed.

Eve began her formal preparations. Several maids besides Marie attended to her.

Her silky hair was twisted up into a bun with pearls embedded throughout, making her hair itself look like a jewel.

Perhaps because she had used a face pack the night before, her skin was clearer and more transparent than usual. With powder added, her skin looked like porcelain.

“You look so radiant and beautiful.”

“Really? Thank you.”

Her full eyelashes were emphasized one by one, and light makeup was applied to her face.

The preparation, which had taken nearly three or four hours, was about to be completed once she put on the prepared dress.

“Miss, it’s Hans.”

That would have been the case if Hans, who had gone to check the ceremony hall again, hadn’t returned.

As the door slid open, Hans stood there with a troubled expression, not knowing what to do.

“What’s the matter?”

“Well… When I checked yesterday, all the fresh flowers were fine, but about half of them have withered and need to be removed.”

“What are you saying? The fresh flowers that were set up last night withered in half a day? There shouldn’t have been any problem if we maintained them with magic stones.”

“Yes, that’s right… But when I checked again, somehow the magic stones had lost their power. It might be because it’s a dry day, making it difficult for fresh flowers to survive. Despite checking multiple times… I’m sorry.”

Eve was momentarily at a loss for words.

Fresh flowers suddenly withering? Unless someone had deliberately caused this, it made no sense.

The maids standing behind Eve with her dress looked at each other with bewildered expressions.

“It’s my mistake. I’ll try to find fresh flowers again somehow.”

She placed her hand on her throbbing forehead. Even if they tried to find more, there was no way they could procure that many fresh flowers in such a short time. This wasn’t a matter of money.

“It’s too early now; no shops will be open. Even if they were, it would be difficult to find a place that could match the quantity we need.”

“It’s all my responsibility. I will take full responsibility and accept punishment from the Duke.”

“Hans, that doesn’t solve our problem right now. First… Yes. I’ll go check it myself. Fortunately, we started preparations early, so I just need to change clothes. Marie, I’ll change later, so please keep everything ready.”

Hans could only lower his head further, unable to say anything more.

Hans had been handling the duties of the lady of the house at the mansion for a long time. To make such a mistake on such an important day, when he had been doing his job flawlessly…

His slumped shoulders reflected his feelings.

“Hans, could you guide me to the banquet hall?”

Eve followed Hans’s guidance to check the banquet hall.

Fresh flowers were an indispensable decoration for a banquet. Moreover, it was obvious that people would talk later if fresh flowers weren’t used in the banquet hall on such a blessed day.

Eve quickly thought through the situation.

Fortunately, the flowers in the ceremony hall were fine. The problem was with the flowers in the banquet hall.

She had hoped that if the flowers were just slightly wilted, she could try to revive them with her divine power as a last resort, but the flowers before her eyes were as good as dead.

Guests would be moving through three areas of the mansion: the lobby, the ceremony hall, and the banquet hall.

The wedding ceremony would take place in the ceremony hall, and a long reception would be held in the banquet hall. Fresh flowers were essential for the reception. So the first thing to do was clear.

“First, please move all the fresh flowers from the ceremony hall to the banquet hall.”

“Yes, understood.”

At Eve’s words, the servants around her began to move busily.

The problem was what to do next. What about the now-empty ceremony hall?

Hans was stamping his feet anxiously, and in his self-reproach for his mistake, he was not in his usual calm state. It seemed difficult to expect a clever solution from him.

News of the withered flowers had spread throughout the mansion. Even Medric, who should have been busy with preparations, came to check on Eve.

After all the flowers had been moved to the banquet hall, leaving the ceremony hall empty, Medric arrived and looked around, asking:

“I heard the fresh flowers withered.”

“Yes, it’s my oversight.”

Eve finally bowed her head. Seeing this, Hans couldn’t hold back and stepped forward.

“It happened due to my carelessness. The young lady only gave me instructions, but I failed to carry them out.”

“Enough. I didn’t come to determine who’s at fault. Is there a solution?”

Eve raised her head and met Medric’s eyes.

“Currently…”

As Eve’s words trailed off, Medric looked around. Since his arrival, he had been checking the surroundings excessively. He didn’t seem to be examining the withered flowers.

“I suppose there’s no place that can supply this many fresh flowers right away.”

“We’ve been asking merchants who deal with fresh flowers, but they all say that quantity is difficult…”

Hans, who had been checking the situation, quietly reported.

With Hans’s update, the atmosphere became even more subdued.

Eve pressed her lips tightly together. To think she had caused him to intervene because she couldn’t even properly prepare a single ceremony. It was humiliating. Even if the wedding ended well, she couldn’t possibly claim anywhere that she had prepared the ceremony properly.

‘No, I need to focus on finding a solution to this problem first.’

This wasn’t the time for self-reproach. There were barely four hours left until the ceremony. Since her preparations weren’t complete, with an hour needed to change clothes, they had about three hours left.

As negative thoughts kept flooding her mind, Eve took a deep breath internally to clear her head.

She considered ways to overcome the current situation.

Fresh flowers couldn’t be used. Since they had moved all the flowers to the banquet hall, the ceremony hall needed to be decorated with something else.

What could decorate the ceremony hall besides fresh flowers?

Following the current trend was already out of the question.

‘Trend… trend?’

Then she thought of her own dress that didn’t follow the trend.

Eve’s wedding dress wasn’t embroidered like the currently fashionable ones. Of course, she had reduced the risk by having Madam Laurent design it, but it was still a risk.

If she had chosen a different approach for her dress, she could do the same for the wedding ceremony.

If she used decorations in the same style as the dress entrusted to Laurent Fashion House, she could minimize the risk.

Fabric. Yes, she could decorate with embroidered fabric, just like her dress.

“Hans, could you contact Laurent Fashion House? No, it doesn’t have to be Laurent specifically. Please contact any nearby fashion houses.”

“A fashion house all of a sudden…? What should I tell them when I contact them?”

Both Hans and Medric stared at her with puzzled expressions at her words.

“Ask them to send plenty of embroidered fabric.”

“Embroidered fabric… Are you planning to decorate the ceremony hall with that?”

“That’s right. I think it would be better to use shimmering fabric like what’s used for clothing, rather than plain fabric.”

It must be unimaginable. Decorating a ceremony hall with fabric meant for making clothes.

The more Eve thought about it, the more she felt she had found a decent solution for the current situation, and her mood improved considerably.

“Is that acceptable?”

“Decorating with fabric may be unfamiliar, but it could work well in its own way.”

Despite giving a positive response, Medric’s expression remained troubled.

He continued to check the surroundings thoroughly, as if something was bothering him.

***

“Baron Hesse’s adopted daughter?”

“That’s what I heard. I’ve never heard of her before, yet she’s marrying Duke Archild… I’d like to ask how they met.”

“Me too. Duke Archild doesn’t even attend parties often, so how did they connect?”

“Anyway, I can’t wait to see Baron Hesse’s hidden daughter.”

Noble ladies who had just arrived at the Archild mansion gathered in small groups, strolling through the lobby.

When they reached the ceremony hall, they gasped.

“Is this… the ceremony hall?”

Surprised voices emerged from all around.

The ceremony hall, lavishly decorated with silk and embroidered fabric hanging from the ceiling, was a completely unfamiliar sight to them.

“It’s like a temple…”

The hall, with its softly shimmering fabric hanging down, gave viewers a sense of sacredness.

The noble ladies felt overwhelmed just by the atmosphere of the ceremony hall.

They didn’t even think about the absence of fresh flowers.

Everyone who arrived whispered in surprised tones.

While everyone was exclaiming in admiration at the beautifully decorated hall, only one person, Clareta Marvel, was biting her drying lips with her teeth.

Clareta had been in a bad mood since receiving the invitation to this wedding reception.

Having grown up in the Marvel duchy located in the south where food was abundant, she had wanted for nothing.

In Ptotr, three families were called the guardians of Ptotr: Duke Maltein in the east, Duke Archild in the west, and Duke Marvel in the south.

Among them, Medric and Clareta, whose conditions and positions matched, were openly spoken of as future partners.

From a young age, Clareta had prepared perfectly based on her father’s words that she would be engaged to Duke Archild.

And she had risen to a position in society where it would be hard to find a better marriage partner than herself.

She naturally thought Duke Archild would marry her.

‘But now!’

Her thin lips, reddened from being bitten, trembled.

Clareta couldn’t believe what she was seeing.

The feeling of having everything she had built up taken away by a mere baron’s daughter was miserable.

Moreover, this beautiful ceremony hall was something else. It wasn’t what she had expected.

She had ordered her servant to tamper with the fresh flowers being delivered to the duke’s mansion, but there were no fresh flowers visible in the ceremony hall.

‘I’m furious… furious!’