Chapter 145 – Urban Legend About Marriage

Time passed by, and it would soon be the last day of Ann’s extra 365 days to live. 

Coincidentally, at the end of her extra 365 days to live, what awaited wasn’t the public execution at the gallows. 

It would be her marriage instead!

That’s right.

Ann decided that it would be right to rewrite the day that was supposed to be her character’s death day to be her happy day. 

So, Ann insisted on setting her marriage on this day, with hopes that it would totally rewrite her story for good.

Allen had wanted it to be done earlier, since that meant they could meet earlier, but after hearing Ann’s reasoning, he relented and let Ann set their wedding date.

Only after it was set that Ann realized why Allen had wanted to put their wedding date earlier, as early as they reasonably could.

Apparently, customs in this world dictated them to not meet or communicate from the day their marriage date was set to the D-day.

Coordination about the marriage was done through their families. 

It actually made sense since most of the noble marriages done in this world were arranged marriages. 

Ann spent her time researching about the customs of this world’s marriages, noble marriages in particular.

What predates the rule of the bride-to-be and the groom-to-be to not be in contact from the day their marriage date is agreed on, until the marriage day?

Ann found several answers.

The most logical, yet bleak answer was because they were mostly arranged marriages. Preventing the bride-to-be and groom-to-be to contact each other was to prevent them changing their minds after the marriage arrangements between their families had been made.

Actually, letting the couple contact each other to nurture love was a good thing. However, sometimes one would have unnatural expectations for the other party, and might be disillusioned if, during the communication before the marriage, they found out that the other party wasn’t as they expected. The marriage was an arrangement between families, so breaking them off after arranging the marriage date would cause feud between the families involved.

Putting it in a more positive light, there were cases of the couple falling in love rapidly after their marriage was set. When their families allowed them to meet and communicate with each other unsupervised, they… Needless to say, pregnancies before marriage were still considered shameful, even if their marriage day was already set. Most families would want to prevent that. 

In rare cases where the couples were already in love and that it was more a love marriage than an arranged one, they would say that distance made their hearts yearn for each other more, and that they anticipated their wedding day all the more.

True, prohibiting contact with Allen makes me anticipate the wedding day more since I’ll finally get to see and talk with him again…

Then, apparently there was an urban legend predating this custom.

It was said that there was this apparition called ‘Mimic’. Mimic could perfectly masquerade themselves as a person one knew. 

In the olden days, when Mimic population was still high, it was said that Mimic would often masquerade as either the bride-to-be, or the groom-to-be, approaching their partner.

The Mimic would kidnap the partner of the person whom they masqueraded as, and it was unknown what they would do to the person ‘spirited away’. 

Some said that the person spirited away would become the Mimic’s spouse, while some said that the Mimic would eat that person they spirited away.

And usually, such matters would be known during the D-day, causing an uproar, as the family of the person spirited away would say that the other party took their child away. Meanwhile, the other family would insist that neither their family nor their child had taken the other family’s child away before the marriage day. 

It was the urban legend that became a hit story during a time where bride-to-be or groom-to-be often disappeared and was never found anymore.

Hold a minute… 

Taking out the supernatural element from this story, I think the person who disappeared simply… ran away from the marriage? Or they had eloped with someone else?

Since this was a fantasy world where magic and monsters existed, Ann couldn’t dismiss that the story about the ‘Mimic’ apparition could be real.

But if not, this phenomenon could simply be explained with how the other party simply chose to run away rather than getting married.

Thus, the days Ann had to spend without contacting Allen at all, quickly passed by as she was engrossed in learning more of this world, this world’s customs for marriages, the stories surrounding it, and preparing the marriage itself.

Meanwhile, as for Allen…

“Allen-sama, won’t you rest for a moment?” 

Gwen was at her wits’ end. 

She thought that since Allen’s long-awaited marriage day was nearing, Allen would be more relaxed, preparing himself for marriage.

Alas, she was wrong! Completely wrong!

Allen somehow turned into a total workaholic!

Wouldn’t he collapse on the marriage day if this goes on?

Gwen’s mouth twitched. 

Back when his first marriage was arranged, Allen resumed going on with his activities as usual. 

At the very least, Gwen expected Allen to just be the same as before, if not more relaxed and bubbling with happiness.

Instead, he turned into a work demon, with his subordinates crying in overtime!

Even when Allen told them it was alright for them to not accompany him, what subordinates would dare to leave when their boss was still working?!

After thorough nagging, Allen finally got up and said, “I understand. I’ll go out for some exercises. You’re all dismissed for the rest of the day.”

Cue to his subordinates’ cheers. 

Gwen was so relieved.

However…

“Oi, oi, Allen! Can’t you stop already? Can’t you see that my subordinates are tired?!” Fremont couldn’t take it anymore and approached the man who was sparing his subordinates to death.

“They are weak now. They need to be stronger,” Allen shortly said.

Fremont’s smile froze.

You can’t compare ordinary knight recruits with the legendary duke who played a key role in the revolution around 10 years ago, can you?

“Spare them a bit, won’t you? They had practiced for half a day before you stormed in and asked for sparing…”

“Enemies won’t go easy on you after half a day of battle,” Allen simply said.

“You…,” Fremont was speechless.

“Why don’t you spare with me instead?” Allen shifted the topic.

The collapsed soldiers around them quickly turned their pleading gazes towards Fremont. 

Fremont had no choice but to accept Allen’s request.

“Miles, let’s tire this madman thoroughly,” Fremont gestured to the soldier next to him as if it was natural.

Miles nodded without any hint of hesitation or objection.

Thus, Allen spared against Fremont and Miles.

Amidst the spar…

“You’re soon going to be married to the love of your life, but why can’t I sense happiness? If I dare say, you look frustrated enough at the moment,” Fremont probed.

“Why wouldn’t I be? They have the stupid rule prohibiting communication between us,” Allen finally spilled the beans.

“But… your ‘communication fasting’ period is considered short,” Miles chimed in, clearly surprised hearing Allen’s objection.

Compared to the usual marriages, Allen and Ann’s communication fasting period was indeed short. 

“She was once my wife. Why should we follow that rule?” Allen asked.

“Khe. Listen to yourself. Are you a Mimic? It’s so out of character for the calm and aloof Allen that I know!” Fremont said as he launched an attack that Allen managed to defend well.

“Do you think a Mimic would be able to face off against you like this?” Allen asked as he countered.

“Fair point,” Fremont quickly dropped the joke.

Mila, on the other hand, thought to herself. What kind of Mimic would choose to raise hell to the other people instead of trying to woo the partner of the person they impersonated?!

It was at this time that Prince Kiehl and Saintess Laura visited the training grounds.

Fremont, Miles, and Allen halted their sparing session. 

“Big brother Fremont! Wait, why is my brother-in-law here?!” Laura was surprised.

“Who is your brother-in-law??? I’m your only sibling, so the only sibling-in-law you’ll get will be a sister-in-law, not brother-in-law!” Fremont quickly protested.

“Ann is someone I consider my sister, so Allen will be my brother-in-law! Why is he here?” Laura asked.

“He’s trying hard to distract himself with anything so he won’t feel the frustration of having to limit communication with his beloved!” Fremont didn’t hesitate to spill the beans.

“Whoa, is this the Allen that I know?” Even Prince Kiehl was surprised.

“Right? Don’t you think he’s a Mimic? Shall we go ask Reginald to check whether this Allen is a Mimic or not?” Fremont answered.

“Wait, I’m the saintess! I can sense if it’s indeed an apparition like Mimic! But he’s not, he’s the real Allen!” Laura quickly added.

“Just bear with it. It won’t be long.”

Sensing Allen’s displeasure from their jokes that almost went too overboard, Prince Kiehl finally stopped jesting and tried to comfort Allen.

“Yeah. Do you want me to deliver some messages to Ann?” Laura even offered.

“Hey, you shouldn’t do that unless it’s necessary! That would defeat the purpose!” Fremont scolded his adopted sister. 

“I mean… since their wedding is nearing, he should take care of himself so that he can present his best self during the marriage day to Ann. But he’s too frustrated that he can’t do that! Won’t it be better for me to help deliver messages so he can calm down and prepare to look the best for his marriage day?” Laura argued.

Prince Kiehl then gave a sidelong glance at Allen, one that seemed to say, ‘That’s right. That’s what you should be doing. But look at what you decided to do instead. Do you want to overwork yourself to death just because you want to distract yourself and have time flow quicker?’

“…I don’t think it’s right for you to deliver messages between the two of them. They should have their own privacy,” Mila finally spoke.

“Oh… that’s right. I wouldn’t want to torture myself getting in between their loves as a messenger… Sorry, you’re on your own, buddy,” Laura quickly retracted her offer to Allen, even before Allen managed to answer.

“…,” Allen, who wanted to take Laura’s offer, couldn’t say anything else after that.

Despite saying that, what Laura thought inside her heart was an entirely different matter.

I should definitely report this to Ann!! She would totally be delighted if I were to tell her this!