It was the day of the wedding reception.

　The wedding reception will be held in the largest city in the Count of Silverlei's territory.

　It's my favorite restaurant in the city, a restaurant I've frequented for a long time.
　The party garden attached to this restaurant will be the venue for the wedding reception.

　Even though it was a wedding reception, it wasn't a very formal affair; it was more of a conversation with the bride and groom and their families while standing for dinner.

　Tina and Rifa hadn't come to the venue yet, as they had to put on their dresses.

　My classmates would be arriving a little later as well.

　I went into the hall first and went around greeting the people who had come.


　Most wedding receptions in Glendale start in the afternoon and continue until the next day.

　But the bride and groom often leave in the middle.
　Even when the bride and groom are gone, the party continues.
　Everyone just wants to call it a celebration and make some noise.

　They can eat and drink as much as they want at the venue, so some people come for that.

　But since our wedding banquet is limited to those who are of noble birth or higher, or who we know, I don't think we'll find anyone like that.


　My father was talking to the duke.
　I make a little face and greet him.

　Next to the king, the duke is the second most powerful person in the country after the king.

　A very important man.

　So my father had to deal with the duke, so I had to go around and greet the others.


'Halt, you're in luck at this time. I'm surprised someone would marry you.

　He talked to me in a very sarcastic way.

　There was a guy I hated most in Glendale.

　He was the second son of the Marquess family, the same age as me.
　He was a bum who wielded his parent's power and was always a pain in the ass.

Thank you.

　I'll give you a short reply.

　My status is superior to theirs, so I have to be polite to them even if they are rude to me.

　When the second son of the Marquis opened his mouth to give me some additional sarcasm, the hall erupted in cheers.


　Tina and Rifa walked into the hall.

　Tina was wearing a pale light blue dress.
　Rifa was wearing a fresh green dress.

　Most of the people in the hall were transfixed by them.

　The two of them walked over to me.

''Halt-sama, we've been waiting for you.
Mr. Hurt, do you like this dress?

You're both beautiful.

　When they had their wedding in Alheim, they were both dressed in pure white.

　That was beautiful, but today's dress matched their image color and looked good on them.

''Huh, thank you.''

Oh, hey!　Halt, are they the ones you're going to marry?

　The second son of the Marquis takes me by the shoulders and shakes me.

'Yes, they are. Yes, they are rare enough to marry me. Aren't they both beautiful?

　I'm going to get back at you for being sarcastic earlier.

'Such a beautiful woman is too good for Hurt. All right, I'll take it!

　What?

　What are you talking about?

　As I froze, the second son of the Marquis called his father, the Marquis-sama.

''Father, I'm going to marry an elf over here.

　Then he points to Rifa.

'Hmm, not a bad face. You deserve better than that.

　The Marquis-sama did not stop his second son.

　On the contrary, he looked at Rifa with disgusting eyes as he licked her around.


''With only the third son of the Count family, it will be hard to feed them both. I'm glad my son likes you.''

　Saying that, the Marquis pulls Rifa's hand and tries to take her away.

''Ha, Mr. Hurt,''

Stop!

'What?　You, a third son of a count, are talking to me, a marquis?

No, but...

　In this world, it is said that it is rare for a higher nobleman to see a lower nobleman's bride at a wedding or wedding reception and take her away from him as it is.

　And the lower nobles would never defy the higher nobles.

　If they disobeyed, the entire family would be de-baronized, and the person who disobeyed would be punished with death.

　All of the people in the hall, those with statuses below the marquis, all looked down and appealed to the people who had no regard for themselves.

''Mr. Hurt........''

　Rifa got teary-eyed when she saw that I couldn't move against the Marquis.

　I can't forgive the Marquis.

　It's been a long time since I've felt this uncomfortable.

　I didn't want to do much, but let's use Yoko's brainwashing magic.

　It's too much trouble to make it add up, so I'll brainwash everyone but my family here.

　There wasn't a single nobleman who was willing to help me, so brainwashing them all wouldn't hurt my heart.

　After brainwashing them, I'm going to pretend that today's wedding reception ended without incident.

　I hate these aristocrats with all my heart.

　I never had a good impression of the nobility outside of my family in the first place.

　I was going to make a telepathic call to Yoko.



"What are you fussing about?

"No commentary from outsiders, Your Majesty!

　King Glendale arrives with my brother Cain and Leon and a few of his fellow soldiers.

　The king notices the Marquis withdrawing his hand from Rifa.

"Marquis, let go of my hand. You are the princess of the Kingdom of Alheim. This is not a man you can touch.

Wha?

　As soon as the Marquis' hand left his, Rifa immediately ran up to me and went behind me to hide.

　The hand that grasps the hem of my clothes is trembling.

　I'm sorry I made you feel bad about it.

　Afterwards, the king asked me what had happened, so I briefly told him what had just happened.

　The Marquis' complexion became bluer and bluer.


''Well you have tried to ruin the friendship between our country and Alheim. I will punish you in no small measure. SS, take them away!

　On the king's orders, the SS took the marquis and the marquis's second son out of the hall.

　I felt a little better as the Marquis looked despairing and the second son of the Marquis had tears in his eyes.


''Rifa, I'm sorry I couldn't help you right away,''

I had faith that Mr. Hurt would be able to handle it.

　Yeah, I'll figure it out.

　One of the possibilities was this amazing mind-blowing technique called brainwashing.


"Thank you, Your Majesty.

　I thank the king.

　Thanks to that, we didn't have to put all the nobles in this country under the brainwashing of Yoko.

　And for some reason, Cain was happy.

　Could it be that he had some kind of super intuition that he realized that Refa was in trouble and brought the king to me?


Good. This country needs my SS commander's brother, Hurt, who was the brother of my SS commander, who brought our hero Tina to this country, and also built a friendship with Al Haym, more than that guy.

"Your words are too good to be true.

Aside from that, Tina is still beautiful.

　The king looks at Tina squarely in front of him.

'What do you think?　Will you be my consort?

　What?

　Now the king asked for your hand in marriage to Tina.

What do you mean, "Your Majesty?
You're kidding me again...

　But Cain and Leon aren't in too much of a hurry.

　Maybe the king isn't serious.
　The two of them are aware of it.

　Hmmm, what should we do?

　Tina seems to understand, but she's pretending to be in trouble because she saw me talking to Rifa earlier.

　Is my love for Tina being tested?

　Alright, if that's the case, I'll do it.

　Even if my country becomes my enemy, I'll still claim Tina and Rifa as mine.