The Elder Sister Who Ran Away After Being Cheated by Her Fiancé and Younger Sister - Chapter 26

“Speaking of which, I heard that nobles in Hollanders can have multiple wives.”

“Taking additional wives is purely a financial burden. No matter what number wife she is, you can’t treat her carelessly since she’s still a wife. It becomes a matter of trust. So wealthier families might accept it, but ordinary households wouldn’t take on more wives.”

To be blunt, Estelle had thought it was because they were lustful and wanted more wives.

Of course, he read her thoughts, and Fretes answered.

“It’s just legally possible. And for second wives and beyond, it’s often more about the wife’s circumstances.”

“The wife’s circumstances?”

“Yes. Everything from women with nowhere else to go rolling up asking to be taken care of, to those who barge in demanding you lend them your name for business advantages. My mother was one of these cases. Still, she and the family head ended up hitting it off, resulting in my brother and me being born, so well, it is what it is.”

Estelle thought again how noble marriages truly were contracts.

“But no matter how it begins, if feelings of affection for each other develop as a result, isn’t that what matters?”

“Do such feelings develop for you, Fretes?”

Estelle asked something quite probing. She felt a little nervous.

“They have developed. When you pinned me down earlier, my heart was racing quite a bit.”

Hearing him say that with such a serious face, Estelle remembered her earlier actions and her face turned red again.

“I like your cool, observant eyes, Estelle. And how they soften with satisfaction.”

“That’s enough!”

Being told that about her eyes, which people often called cold and harsh, was embarrassing. Estelle hurriedly cut him off. She’d already reached her limit for today.

After that, they exchanged general conditions and decided to formalize them in writing another day with witnesses’ present.

They mostly followed standard Hollanders conditions, but Estelle had her requests accommodated like reducing the excessively high penalty Fretes proposed (she definitely didn’t need a winery) because it created strange pressure.

Apparently, they’d draft a document, then both sides would review it, discuss again, and repeat this process until satisfied. Estelle thought it sounded exhausting for nobles.

Since Fretes was already the head of his family, he had decision-making authority, and Estelle had absolutely no intention of consulting her parents. She didn’t even plan to tell them about the marriage. Commoner marriages basically only required the couple’s signatures.

That reminded her—what about the wedding ceremony? She was surprised to hear they don’t have weddings in Hollanders.

“No, we do have them, but it varies by family or person. For marriages connecting families, they hold a banquet with relatives from both sides. But for marriages based on the couple’s own will, they often just swear vows at the church without a banquet. Actually, it’s more common to hold a banquet later, after some time has passed and their social connections have grown.”

“I-I see…”

Estelle had dreamed of wedding attire, just a little, really just a little, so she was relieved there would at least be a chance to wear special clothes for the vows.

Later, when Fretes prepared an outrageously luxurious Hanzelka-style outfit and accessories, she demanded to see the bill, and he complained she was being unromantic!

◇

And then.

Estelle moved to the royal capital with Fretes, and Valken came too.

Fretes and Valken were handling pre-return handovers. Since they’d originally been stationed here, returning was natural. The acceptance of female soldiers was now smoothly established.

“How many years have you been here?! Isn’t that too long?!”

“You’re quite the old maid now.”

Valken laughed ha-ha at Fretes’s blunt interjection.

It was a truly noble skill—elegantly mocking someone.

“Don’t group me with the good-for-nothing who made Estelle wait eight years. If it’s about men to take me home, I already have one.”

“Whaaat?!”

“Huh?!”

Estelle and Fretes were equally shocked. Genuinely surprised.

When they heard they’d been dating for about five years already, they were shocked again.

“When I said I was returning home, he said he’d come with me, so I figured I’d bring him along.”

“He is human, right?!”

Estelle privately agreed with Fretes’s spontaneous question but managed not to say it aloud.

They had no intention of doubting Valken’s “Of course, I’ll introduce him soon!” but both were still reeling from the shock.

◇

And then.

Estelle didn’t leave the military immediately.

The reason was that this time, Estelle was assigned to the Hollanders military.

She would oversee a program to repatriate Hanzelkan women in the Hollanders military through the Hanzelka military.

Those who genuinely volunteered could stay. But for those who, like Estelle once did, chose it as a refuge, she’d survey their wishes about returning and facilitate their repatriation through transfers.

Since they likely had established lives in Hollanders by now, few would probably want to return, but they couldn’t just ignore and abandon them.

Fretes was discharged first and established his trading company as planned.

They planned to start various ventures together after Estelle’s discharge. Until then, Fretes was developing ideas he’d been nurturing alone.

One week before their wedding, Fretes proposed to Estelle again.

It wasn’t a surprise or anything, they planned it properly: both dressed up, had dinner together at a hotel restaurant, went out to a reserved balcony under the starry sky.

Estelle had expressed her wish, and Fretes handled the planning.

“Let’s do things like this anytime, as many times as we want!”

Fretes, who’d wanted to be an actor as a child, found such ceremonial things unexpectedly fun, and Estelle enjoyed it too.

It was a new side of each other they’d discovered only because they were together, a joy possible only because they were a couple.

Their marriage vows were exchanged with just Estelle, Fretes, and Valken as witness.

The wedding dress, accessories, everything was so extravagantly luxurious it made her dizzy.

But thinking only Fretes and Valken would see anyway, she delighted in it unreservedly, floating on air.

She decided to preserve the outfit to use again if they held a banquet later.

She shut Fretes up when he said they could just make new ones then.