39: Flash Marriage

The day of the wedding ceremony.

While being escorted by the Royal Guard Knights, Gadillas and Kuuga headed to the church where Kuuga awakened for the first time.

Kuuga looked like he’s calm, but his ears and tail could not act as he walked beside Gadillas’ horse while being given lukewarm gazes from the surroundings.

――in the end, I wonder if I’m the woman being married.

Feeling depressed at such thoughts, Kuuga went closer and closer to the church.

It was determined that after this day, he would be treated as the Queen Consort. Kuuga decided that he wanted to be as happy as possible with Gadillas, who, like Kuuga, had an unwanted marriage.

But that didn’t mean Kuuga could change his feelings that quickly. He wondered if it’s okay to at least complain.

Kuuga proceeded with a gloomy mood and reached the church at last.

Ada, the Chief Priest, was waiting. He should’ve been happy with these ceremonies, but it’s only this time that he’s showing a depressed look. It’s a face that said he’s sympathizing with Kuuga, who knew the cause.

“I have been waiting for you. Your Majesty, Divine Beast-sama.”

“Is it ready?”

“Yes. You can start at any time… we will guide you to the waiting room.”

Kuuga was then prompted inside and he stepped into the church with Gadillas. As he passed by the priests and acolytes lined up, he found Cary among them.

Kuuga couldn’t meet the eyes of Cary, who was bowing down, but he felt nostalgic though it hadn’t been that long. He thought of the many things that happened in this church, but rather than that, he should concentrate on the wedding ceremony right now.

Kuuga went to the waiting room to which he was guided without thinking much.

“Kuuga-sama, do you remember the setup?”

[I should be fine.]

First, Gadillas, who’d take a long time changing his clothes, would change clothes, and Kuuga would reconfirm the setup with Uros. Hanging from the man’s neck was a chain with a watch magic tool that looked like a pocket watch.

After continuing to grow 1 minute every day, Kuuga was able to humanize for 12 minutes today. And Uros had always kept this magic tool to check.

Looking at Gadillas, who was surrounded by maids who brought his change of clothes, he didn’t seem to like dressing up so much since he had the same face during the coronation.

Kuuga thought that the tight clothing with white as the base and blue lines as decorations here and there looked great, but he didn’t think it fit Gadillas’ image. Kuuga might have gotten that image since the man liked wearing dark clothes so much.

Unlike Kuuga’s clothes, which was only tightened to the extent that his figure could be seen loosely, Gadillas’ well-trained body looked great. It would be even more amazing when he trained with the knights during the day… Kuuga was so sad that he decided not to think further.

“Okay, we’re ready. Uros, get started.”

“Understood… Chief Priest.”

Gadillas was finished preparing, and when Uros spoke to Ada, who was waiting near the door. The others echoed the reply and left the room.

After confirming this, Uros picked up the watch magic tool and turned his gaze to Kuuga.

“Then let’s get started. Kuuga-sama.”

[Got it.]

Kuuga immediately concentrated on humanizing. The maids with the clothes were on standby around Kuuga and waited for the light to settle. As soon as Kuuga got up, they quickly applied the clothes.

It should be due to their professional skill that there’s no hesitation or mistake on the movements of the smoothly moving maids, even finishing a few seconds faster than the trial run.

Uros, who was a little far from Kuuga, took a quick look at the whole thing then checked the time.

“Okay, let’s go.”

“O-oh.”

Anyway, since Kuuga didn’t have time, they immediately opened the door and ran into the ceremony where he was taught the place. The priests watched dumbfoundedly at the two men having the marriage ceremony today run seriously with loud noises.

When they arrived at the front door where the wedding ceremony would occur, the priests looked at the two people with a slightly upset look but managed to return to work mode as the door slowly opened.

The wedding ceremony hall, which was positioned opposite to the one where Kuuga spent 10 days, was wide but looked a lot different.

There’s a straight road to the altar where Ada was on standby with water filled in slight depressions on both sides. The groom and the bride was supposed to split into left and right to enter the water, and the act of walking to the altar was the purification ceremony.

Originally, they would go down the stairs with assistance, but――

Dobon! Kuuga and Gadillas jumped into the water.

The depth of the water was just below Kuuga’s chest. Although it’s difficult to move due to water resistance, he aimed for the other side in a hurry while wading into the water with his arms. Kuuga, who had risen from the water about a second later than Gadillas, lined up with Gadillas in front of the altar with Ada trying to stop his mouth from convulsing.

Ada, who was required to quicken the sacred ritual, might have been unconvinced. Kuuga knew his feelings but he really didn’t have much time.

“F-from now on, I will prepare for the two people to get permission from God to marry――”

<I think it’s fine? I give my permission.>

“…”

“…”

The wedding ceremony for the king of this country was supposed to be a declaration of his preparedness to live for the people while his spouse would declare that they support the king throughout their lives. Only then would they ask God for permission.

It’s just that in this case, they could get words directly from God, Merdechalan, who seemed to have considered that Kuuga was in a hurry, so she blocked Ada’s words and gave permission. It was so unexpected that the three men was speechless.

“God seems to read the air. Chief Priest, next.”

“….then, to the ceremony fountain pool.”

Gadillas and Kuuga headed for the fountain pool behind the altar, not looking at the pitiful looking Ada.

Behind the altar, there was a fountain similar to the one used during Kuuga’s ritual. The only difference was the formation dug at the bottom.

Gadillas and Kuuga lightly cut their fingertips with the beautiful knife at the altar and bled into the fountain pool. Then, the formation dug at the bottom began to shine and appeared lightly on the surface of the water.

The two men, who hurriedly waded into water a while ago, went into the fountain pool relatively quietly. Ada, who was holding his breath, exhaled lightly.

The depth of the pool was just below Kuuga’s chest like before. The two men moved to the center of the formation floating on the surface, and faced each other. Kuuga raised his face so that his eyes were aligned with the slightly higher Gadillas’ eyes and he found that Gadillas seemed to be in a good mood.

While thinking that Gadillas seemed to be having fun, Kuuga closed his eyes and matched his forehead with Gadillas. He’s ready.

After that, Ada, the Chief Priest, sent magic power to the formation. Light overflowed from the formation floating on the water surface and enveloped Kuuga and Gadillas in the center.

The light converged as if it was sucked in by Kuuga and in the end, it fitted on the wrists of the two men.

“――The ceremony is complete.”

When Kuuga heard Ada’s words and opened his eyes, he saw something lightly shining on his wrist. Something like a bracelet made of several ivy wrapped around his wrist and shone softly.

The same pattern appeared on Gadillas’ wrist, which seemed to be the proof that Kuuga heard from Uros.

Gadillas, who confirmed the same thing on his wrist, muttered, “okay.” He then got up from the fountain pool with Kuuga and called out to Uros, who was watching near the entrance during the ceremony.

“Uros!”

“Time is 8 minutes, 45 seconds!”

Uros, who had been checking the time, firmly called out, making the Royal Guard Knights and maids brought from the castle cheer. Kuuga still had 3 minutes left! They were happy.

Although the priests uniformly had faces that said, “that’s not something to celebrate about,” Gadillas and the others didn’t notice.