The congratulatory performance of the pipe organ filled the great chapel, and applause and cheers poured in from both sides, blessing the new couple’s beginning.
Flower children in white dresses came out and handed the two of them bouquets made of statice.
Rubio received it with a dazed face. With the flowers in one hand and Téllez’s arm in the other, he walked out down the long virgin road laid along the center of the chapel.
Pale pink petals fluttered down like rain. The hymn announcing the end of the nuptial Mass rang out and the bells tolled. Rubio could not shake the feeling that each toll of the bell struck the back of his head.
When the central doors of the chapel opened, it seemed as if every person in the world had gathered in the square.
“Now all that remains is for me to take you away.”
The man, whose laughter had grown generous only for his spouse, spoke with a smiling face to the frozen Rubio.
The midday sunlight shone dazzlingly. Amid the blessings of those wishing the two of them happiness, Rubio de la Rosa married Pedro Téllez, as scheduled.
The previous night’s incident was simply buried where no one knew of it.
***
After the ceremony and the reception were all over, at the family dinner, the only sound was the clinking of tableware.
Around Duke de la Rosa at the center of the splendid dining hall, on one side sat the Duchess, Lionela, and Evan, and on the other side sat Rubio and Téllez, who had just become family.
Anyone might have said something, but there was only silence. Where had those faces gone, smiling so brightly in the reception hall? Everyone seemed soaked in the sorrow of having to send the youngest away once this meal ended.
Not to speak of the Duke, his father, but especially the Duchess de la Rosa looked ready to drop tears at any moment, so Lionela, seated beside her, whispered to her, “Mother, Duke Téllez is right here. Your dignity……” and handed her a handkerchief. Evan, too, with his nose tip as red as his mother’s, was unable to say a word.
Rubio had been so famous that Téllez had known of it, but now that he had actually become that family’s son-in-law, he felt as if he were some shameless thief stealing away their precious youngest, and he was on pins and needles.
He glanced sideways at Rubio, seated next to him.
The bride was primly eating his cold soup, as if nothing had happened. It was a meek, gentle face, as if he were always like that.
But the fact that Rubio, once he had come to his senses after the Mass ended and everyone had gone home, had dragged him by the collar into a corner, could not be undone.
He had driven Téllez into a small room prepared off to one side of the chapel, whipped his head around to check that no one was there, and then shrieked.
“You traitor!”
The angel-like beauty glared at him with a face that wanted to kill him, but for some reason Téllez could only laugh. His smile made Rubio all the more heated, and he glared at him with wide eyes.
“You liar!”
“Now, now, Rubio.”
“You deceived me!”
His face flushed red like a strawberry, Rubio, as if explanations were unnecessary, suddenly struck Téllez with the bouquet he was holding.
Cornered in the chapel corner, he was beaten until nothing but withered leaves remained of the bouquet.
Asking how he could sleep so well after telling such lies, whether he had found him that laughable, Rubio threw a young master’s tantrum.
Thinking of the sin he had committed, Téllez meekly took the beating. For all that he looked so delicate, the self-proclaimed master of wall-climbing had a surprisingly strong hand.
“Ouch.”
It was when a stem grazed his cheek and the man winced.
Rubio made a startled expression. Like when they had first kissed, he opened his jewel-like eyes perfectly round, then dropped the bouquet with a plop.
The pitiful bouquet, with only stems remaining, lay forlornly on the floor. When Téllez looked at him with a puzzled expression and their eyes met, Rubio turned around and fled on the spot.
In the place where the bride had run off, only traces remained, petals scattered that resembled him.
Téllez stared in the direction Rubio had vanished, with the air of a man who had been assaulted by a squirrel and could not believe it.
“…Ha.”
The corner of the mouth of the man who had been rubbing his half-scratched cheek for a long while twitched. He bent at the waist and laughed until his stomach hurt.
Ha ha ha ha ha……
It was the first time in his life he had experienced roaring with laughter firsthand. After snickering for a long while with moisture hanging even at the corners of his eyes, Téllez raised his head and stared in the direction Rubio had disappeared.
“How am I supposed to handle that cute thing……”
So he murmured, yet he recalled the previous night. That pretty face glaring sulkily downward while clutching the balcony railing, that small body that had fallen from the sky straight into his arms. What had his impudent, adorable bride said to him? He had clung to him, a man whose identity he did not even know, and asked him to take him anywhere.
Because he hated this marriage. To run away from him.
Téllez gave a crooked smile. He had no intention of letting Rubio run away.
Noticing the trace of laughter on the man beside him, Rubio’s shoulders flinched and trembled. A chill ran down his spine. This time, it was his side that had committed the sin.
“Will he tell them I hit him…?” Having something weighing on his conscience made him flinch for no reason. If it reached his parents’ ears, he would be scolded terribly. If they asked why he had hit his perfectly fine groom, he would have to start by explaining where and how they had met.
Téllez, whose eyes had met his by chance, pointlessly rubbed his scratched cheek. Rubio felt his insides shriveling more and more.
Of all places, the injury was somewhere far too visible. No, it was not only his face he had hit. He had hit him here and there everywhere, so why……
“Does it hurt a lot? He did not look it, but maybe he is a weakling. Should I have controlled my strength? But I was so angry……”
When Rubio grew gloomy, Téllez laughed softly again without his knowing. Really, this was a person whose every thought showed plainly on his face.
After running off like that, he had hovered beside him all through the reception watching for his chance, and when Téllez approached and escorted him as if nothing had happened, Rubio had, with a reluctant face, forced himself to take his arm. He was an adorable person.
“Téllez, what is the matter?”
Duke de la Rosa, having caught him rubbing his cheek pointlessly, asked him.
“It is nothing.”
“Are you unwell somewhere?”
“No. It just itches.”
It was a dining hall where there could not be so much as an insect. Only Rubio flinched in surprise, and the hand holding his fork trembled. Once again, silence fell over the rest.
Rubio’s father looked at him with a face that had seen something strange, then, as if he had suddenly realized something, murmured with a sigh mixed in.
“…You really do look exactly like your predecessor.”
“I hear that often.”
Téllez nodded and drained his wine glass. He grew curious what sort of conversation his late father would have had with Duke de la Rosa, seated before him, had he been in this place. Their relationship had been so bad in life that it would have been a relief if they had not fought.
Perhaps reminded of the man who had left the world first, Duke de la Rosa creased the corners of his eyes.
“It is a pity that Carlos went like that.”
“With a friend who thinks so, he must be sleeping in peace.”
When Téllez nicely dressed up the two men, lifelong rivals who had become something like friends only when one of them was about to die, the Duke clicked his tongue.
“Tsk, you look the same, but your personality is the exact opposite.”
“I hear that a lot, too.”
Téllez answered with a smiling face.
That he was different from his father was only natural. He had no desire to become such an inept man, in his private life or in public settings.
Hmm, clearing his throat, the Duke spoke to Téllez in a coaxing tone.
“As you know well by now, our Rubio is a child like a single lily.”
“……”
Rubio’s father had fire in his eyes, worried for his naive youngest who would now live with a man who was glib of tongue, beneath his years in conduct, and smooth-faced.
A single lily……
Téllez glanced at Rubio in the seat beside him. Flushed red from the tips of his ears to the nape of his neck, Rubio whipped his head in the opposite direction.
“You are quite right. He is a lily.”
He did beat me with his bouquet, though…… As he nodded, laughing only inside, and played along, Duke de la Rosa’s face relaxed a little, as if he liked the agreement.
“It was a long betrothal. It was by His Majesty’s command, but now that we are joined like this, let me give you one request.”
“Yes.”
This was the Duke who had spent all the years Rubio was growing up trying somehow to catch Téllez out and break the engagement. But in the end, publicly and privately, he had found no fault to pick at, and these were the words he spoke as he handed over his son.
“Do not make tears fall from our Rubio’s eyes. If even one drop falls, you lose your head that very day.”
For all anyone knew, it might merely be that Téllez had been careful to show no opening. At Duke de la Rosa’s fierce gaze, Téllez answered with a neat smile.
“I will be careful not to make him cry.”
“If such a thing happens, I will take my child back, even if it means a divorce. Do not forget that Rubio is a child of de la Rosa.”
“Yes.”
He was a man who, because of the betrothal to Rubio, had missed his marriageable years and was now old enough that it would be no surprise if he had a child.
Thinking of an heir, divorce had to be absolutely out of the question.
Téllez resolved it once more. He had not the slightest intention of being cast off by his spouse.
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