Chapter 42
The church door opened. Those who were desperately pushing each other forward stopped at once.
The whole place became silent as if someone had used magic.
“Please move out of the way.”
“Get out of the way!”
The Duke of Sentoren’s large escort knights came out and pushed people away to create a path.
From the front of the cathedral to the main street, a path was made that only one or two people could walk through.
The crowd was bustling with curiosity.
“Who’s coming out?”
“Is it the Duke and Duchess?”
“The Duke of Sentoren and Madame Katana?”
The news of the Duke of Sentoren breaking up with Princess Marianne and secretly marrying Madame Katana was known by everyone.
“Keep a safe distance!”
Although the Duke’s escorts seemed absurdly small in number, they tried to protect the Duke and his bride.
Soon, a tall man in a suit and a bride in a white dress and veil came out of the Cathedral’s open door.
“……?”
The people looked at them and were speechless for a moment.
Everyone knew that the man in the suit was the Duke of Sentoren. The masculine-looking man was very tall and had a red scar on his left cheek like a crack in glass.
The bride holding the man’s hand was also much taller than the average woman.
But.
“Huh?”
“Is that lady Madame Katana?”
Those who peeked at the new bride over the shoulders of the escorts raised their voices in suspicion.
A different woman appeared instead of the bride they expected.
The carriage waiting at the main gate of the Celton Cathedral was about ten meters away.
It was not a close distance, but the new bride and groom gracefully crossed through the midst of the angry crowd and boarded the waiting carriage.
The newlyweds were dignified, and they showed no sign of impatience.
As they passed, time seemed to stop around them.
They safely arrived in front of the carriage, and before boarding, they even bowed gracefully to the crowd.
After that they got on the carriage and left.
The crowd came to their senses only after the Duke’s carriage disappeared from sight. A bitter silence swept over them.
They sighed in disappointment at what they had seen.
“They were a beautiful bride and groom.”
“Madame Katana is a beauty, contrary to the rumors.”
“Wait, Madame Katana is a beauty?
“Is that new bride Madame Katana?”
The crowd realized a terrible contradiction.
“Was the bride Madame Katana?”
The crowd certainly did not see the bride’s bare face under the veil.
The veil worn by the bride was so thin that the contours of her face and her features were clearly visible.
There were no scars or blemishes on her face. Her body was also thin.
“Obviously Madame Katana had dark hair and she wore a mourning dress over her huge body.”
Madame Katana and the new bride of the Duke of Sentoren had nothing in common except that they were tall and had dark hair.
“Isn’t the new Duchess supposed to be Madame Katana? If not, who is she?”
“W-Well.”
Those who came to see Madame Katana’s ugliness began to have a heated discussion. The front of the Cathedral was turned into a forum for discussion.
“I haven’t seen her face, but Madame Katana’s massive size couldn’t have changed in a matter of days.”
“Did Madame Katana even put on makeup?”
“Then who?”
Everyone made assumptions, but no conclusions were reached.
“What will happen to our bets?”
“If Madame Katana, no, if the Duke’s new bride is such a beauty, won’t the marriage be different?”
“Did the person he married change in the middle? If it’s not magic, I don’t know if it’s even possible to transform like that.”
Countless rumors flew around.
“Madame Katana has been with the royal family for a long time, so if anyone could recognize her, it would be them.”
The crowd remembered that Madame Katana was the Queen’s clown maid.
Madame Katana had been under the Queen for over five years. None of her maids had a normal appearance. The Queen’s maids were masters of disguise.
“If she was Queen Selina’s clown maid, wouldn’t she of course wear makeup?”
“For more than five years?”
Queen Selina’s maids were a spectacle.
The Queen’s maids put on so much makeup that it was impossible to recognize their true appearances. Their faces were pasty.
They wore clown makeup and had puffed-up bodies like hunchbacks.
There were many speculations, but no conclusion had been reached. In an instant, the stories that flew from their mouths reached the palace.
***
That afternoon, after a pleasant nap, Marianne woke up to unexpected news from her maids.
“Madame Manon, Madame Reiz, and Madame Yoketo are in the Gold Room.”
“What?”
The Gold Room was Marianne’s favorite drawing room.
Marianne had never invited the three women, meaning they occupied it without her approval.
“Why did they come?”
“I do not know.”
Marianne’s anger boiled to the top of her head as she changed clothes and headed for the Gold Room.
“What?”
“What the hell are you guys doing here?”
Three women in luxurious evening dresses, smelling of strong perfume, sat on Marianne’s sofa. They covered their mouths with their fans or handkerchiefs and seemed to be laughing at Marianne.
“Why the hell did you come here?”
There was a reason for Marianne’s anger.
Marianne hated her father’s lovers as she thought of them as uneducated and uncultured.
Marianne and these women usually did not interact.
The madames who broke into Marianne’s space brazenly lectured her on court rules.
“You have poor hospitality, Princess Marianne.”
“The princess’s maids didn’t even offer tea.”
“What do you want?”
When Marianne became angry, the women giggled.
“We came to comfort the princess, but it seems she hasn’t heard the news yet.”
“What?”
The three of them faced each other.
“The Duke of Sentoren and Madame Katana got married just a few hours ago.”
“We thought that the princess would be depressed by the news, so we came to comfort you, but we didn’t know that you were not aware yet.”
“There are rumors that Madame Katana, no, the Duchess of Sentoren, has become a great beauty.”
Marianne doubted her ears.
She couldn’t believe the things the women had said, so she turned her head to her chief maid and asked.
“What these girls are saying, are they playing with me?”
“Us, playing a joke?”
The handmaiden tried to make excuses, but the women spoke over the maid.
“The crowd that went to the Duke of Sentoren’s secret wedding saw a beautiful bride instead of the ugly Madame Katana.”
“Isn’t it really surprising that a large, ugly woman transformed into a slender beauty?”
Marianne couldn’t understand what they were saying at all. Madame Katana became a beauty and married the Duke.
The three madames were excited to see Marianne’s reaction.
“It seems the princess didn’t know. The Queen’s maids, including Madame Katana, all have to dress up as eccentric clowns.”
“The Queen didn’t want her maids to become His Majesty’s lovers.”
The women roared happily. Marianne covered her ears and shouted at them.
“Shut up, stop it!”
The women stopped laughing. Marianne turned around and asked El and her maid.
“What the b*tches said, is it true?”
El and the maid did not answer and only lowered their eyes.
Marianne cursed again.
“Does it make sense that Madame Katana became a beauty and married Lionel? Why are things I don’t know about happening? Why did I not know these things!”
“Princess Marianne, calm down.”
“Do you think I can be calm? Argh!” Marianne slumped into a chair while swearing. The three uninvited guests slyly arose from their seats.
“You must have been shocked, Princess Marianne.”
“We were only thinking of comforting the princess.”
“You’ll be fine, we’d better get going.”
The women retreated as quickly as they appeared.
Marianne had a shock so great that she had no strength left to stand.
The marriage between the now-beautiful Madame Katana and the Duke of Sentoren, all of it seemed like a terrible joke to Marianne.
But this was reality.
“Ah, yes. My father has to allow nobles to marry. Doesn’t he?”
Marriages between nobles had to be approved by the royal family and the Bishops’. In other words, their marriage was null and void unless Marianne’s father allowed it.
Marianne smiled and prepared to leave. The maid and El hurriedly stopped in front of her.
“Where are you going?”
“I am going to my father. I will stop Lionel and Riv from being allowed to marry.”
The maid said, blocking the doorway.
“Even if you go to His Majesty, the marriage cannot be undone, Princess.”
“Why?”
“The Duke of Sentoren’s wedding was officiated by the Cardinal. In that case, royal approval is not required.”
Marianne stared blankly at her maid.
“Really?”
“Yes.”
The maid couldn’t have lied.
Confused, Marianne asked the maid again.
“Then what will happen to me?”
“Huh?”
“What about me? My pride? How could everyone do this to me!”
Marianne was enraged and burst into tears.
***
A carriage returned from the Celton Cathedral to the Duke’s mansion.
A large crowd had gathered at the main gate, but the carriage passed through safely.
Riv woke up when the carriage stopped in front of the main building. Lionel pulled Riv into his arms.
“We’re home.”