Alfonso cleared his throat and opened his mouth.
“I, Alfonso de Carlo, take Ariadne de Mare to be my wife. I swear to be faithful to you in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health.”
Alfonso paused for a moment, his throat choked up, and then continued.
“I will love and respect you until the end of my life.”
And having said this, he looked intently at Ariadne. After a moment of silence, the Prince muttered softly.
Prince Alfonso's rise in fame certainly helped, but even before he made a name for himself in Yesak, Alfonso was already the best matchmaker in the Central Continent. What had changed was his military power.
The present Etruscan kingdom had a military force that Alfonso brought back from Yesak.
Without an army, only marriage to a Princess who has the right to succession to a fief and actual control over the fief to be inherited can make a personal union possible.
There was no such woman physically present in the Central Continent at the time. There was only one. Bianca of Taranto.
If there is an army? Even the Princess of a ruined country suddenly emerges as a potential marriage partner who can make a union of the two armies possible.
If the Etruscan kingdom leads an army and takes over the fallen country and exercises the daughter-in-law's right of succession, assuming the daughter-in-law gives birth to a son, the land becomes permanently Etruscan territory.
“There are rumors that the North Sea Union is also bubbling with activity. There is also the successor of the Dodesa Kingdom and the Princess of the Thrace Kingdom.”
The North Sea Union was a story about the Duchy of Stenburg, the fiefdom of the Grand Duke of Yuldenburg.
The Duchy of Stenburg was not a kingdom, but it was the most powerful state in the vicinity and was a regional leader with a group of lords who followed the duchy, including the County of Achenbach.
However, the leader, the Grand Duke of Yuldenburg, was absent from his post as commander-in-chief of the crusade for a long time.
The power of the Duchy of Stenburg was considerably damaged in Yesak.
If the land of Yesak had been plundered to the ground to supply military supplies, the war would have been beneficial to the country, but the devout Prince of Yuldenburg did not dare to commit such a heinous act in the holy land where Saint was born.
Even the health of the returning Grand Duke himself was not good. Naturally, there was news that the dissatisfied forces were on the move and that the Black Hand was eyeing the position of the leader.
“Aren’t there plenty of older girls around here besides that three-year-old daughter?”
So Leo III's plan was to strike back at the benefactor who had saved his son's life by forming a marriage alliance with someone other than the Grand Duchess of Yuldenburg, who was seeking the Grand Duke's throne.
“If that doesn’t work out, there are also the kingdoms in the Philoa region. The Philoa women are prettier than the Nordic women, so if that’s the case, my son will have to kneel down and bow down to me.”
More recently, the five small principalities that emerged from the dissolution of the old Kingdom of Philoa have experienced the butterfly effects of the Yesak War.
The pagans of the Moorish Empire, who had been driven out of Yesak, attacked the neighboring Philoa region, conquered the kingdoms of Dodesa and Thrace, and assassinated the King of the Dodesan kingdom.
This meant that if he married a royal woman with the right of succession to Dodessa and Thrace and drove the pagans out of those countries, the land would become permanently part of the Etruscan kingdom.
“Find out your soulmate, find out now! Quickly!”
Leo III shouted hysterically.
Countess Isabella de Contarini's life wasn't all that bad these days.
While her husband, Ottavio, was a drunkard and a prisoner at home, Countess Contarini worked diligently to 'get her household back on track.'
She made connections here and there to 'help with the business'.
Of course, in the past, it didn't work out so well, but these days, she's getting respect from people who are much more important than before.
It was all thanks to her older brother, Ippolito.
“Honey, who are you meeting this evening?”
“Count and Countess DiPascal.”
After being kicked out of the house, Ippolito tried not to tell his sister what he had been doing, but he ended up confessing the whole story to his sister.
The reason Ippolito made a lot of money was through tobacco smuggling.
Tobacco smuggling was originally a business run by Camellia's husband, Caruso's Bocanegro Company.
However, when CEO Caruso became the leader of the free city of Unaisola, CEO Caruso ordered his company to stop smuggling tobacco.
This is because the number of items handled has increased significantly, and it was a business item that was not fair to continue even after it came into the open.
The vacancy was filled by several groups of unsavory gangsters. Ippolito had been connected with one of them through his connections during his study abroad and became their supplier for San Carlo.
However, simply being the middle leader of one of several tobacco smuggling groups would not have allowed him to be running around like he is now.
Ippolito took advantage of his experience as an addict to do something nasty early in the year.
There was a beautiful flower that grew only deep in the Moorish Empire, along the Silk Road, far to the east.
When the flower buds were picked and dried, a powder called 'pawak' was produced in the local language.
This was usually used for medicinal purposes, but among serious tobacco addicts, there was a secret rumor that putting a cat's nail-sized amount of pawak powder in a cigarette and smoking it together would make you feel incredibly good.
Ippolito obtained the pawak powder and sold it without even identifying it as pawak, but rather by adding individual grains to each of the tobacco he sold.
Naturally, customers who smoked the cigarettes sold by Ippolito were unable to smoke any other cigarettes.
Ippolito's organization became so popular that there were even gentlemen who begged Ippolito to sell them tobacco.
Count DiPascal, although not a tobacco-smoking man, had many friends who were addicted to Ippolito's tobacco.
So, it was only a matter of time before he became Ippolito's slave.
But Count DiPascal still wanted to show off in front of his friends by becoming friendly with Ippolito, claiming to be a Count, and Ippolito didn't even want to wait for Count DiPascal to become a drug addict and kneel before him.
He was taking his titled sister with him, as he did not want to bow down to the Count of DiPascal.
Isabella, who was all dressed up nicely, asked her brother.
“No more big shots will come out?”
Ippolito was about to get annoyed with his sister, but he said that he thought he could please her easily.
“Count DiPascal’s wife’s family is a great noble of the East.”
It didn't matter to Ippolito whether it was the East or the North. Ippolito was, after all, the general manager of San Carlo.
“You figure it out yourself and try to persuade her.”
At those words, Isabella fell into thought. She had no great expectations of Ippolito. It was enough for him to arrange a seat.
Isabella had to come up with twelve thousand ducats from somewhere. She had some cash now from selling gifts from men, but it wasn't nearly enough.
They hinted that they were willing to open their pockets a little more, but to do so, they expected more from Isabella.
Isabella had no intention of going that far.
'I'm a Countess!'
Lifting up your skirt for any man like a prostitute is not behavior befitting a Countess.
Of course, it wasn't completely ruled out. She would correct her statement that it was 'not even a little bit'.
If there was someone who could pull 12,000 ducats in one room, shr would consider it.
But among the men who had approached Isabella so far, there was no man worthy of such a thing.
She had to go where the money was. If you hang around gold, opportunities will come. Isabella licked her lips in the carriage.
And now the other one was following Isabella's back, biting his lip.
It was Countess Clemente de Bartolini's maid, Minpin, who was spying on Isabella from behind the curtain as she left the Bartolini residence in Ippolito's carriage.
“I, Alfonso de Carlo, take Ariadne de Mare to be my wife. I swear to be faithful to you in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health.”
Alfonso paused for a moment, his throat choked up, and then continued.
“I will love and respect you until the end of my life.”
And having said this, he looked intently at Ariadne. After a moment of silence, the Prince muttered softly.
"I love you."
Ariadne also felt something rise up in her chest as she heard Alfonso's confession.
A pair of deep blue-gray eyes was staring at her with overwhelming emotion.
She couldn't figure out what her overwhelming emotion was. It wasn't sadness, but it was too bitter for happiness.
It might have been the shock of floating through the extraordinary and then realizing anew that her union with Alfonso was real.
Ttorr.
A tear welled up in the corner of Ariadne's eye and rolled down. Alfonso wiped it away with his thumb.
"Bride."
Raphael's voice called attention. He was calling the bride, but in reality, he was warning the groom.
Raphael, who had hesitated for a moment to yell at Alfonso when he had arbitrarily said something that was not on the wedding vow template—I love you—but had made a mistake, did not miss the timing to stop him this time.
This time, he has to stop him. If he leave him alone, he might suck out those tears himself.
Ariadne wiped the tears from her face at Raphael's words and began to recite her wedding vows.
“I, Ariadne de Mare, take Alfonso de Carlo to be my lawful husband, from this moment on, for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do us part... always.”
Even death could not separate them.
If she were to be born again, if she were to open her eyes once again under a familiar ceiling, she would go find Alfonso, hold his hand, and speak to him.
You and I were meant to be together; that's why I came to you. She came back through time just for him. That's how she felt now.
Raphael spoke in a calm voice.
“The groom may kiss the bride.”
Usually it's 'please kiss' but you don't have to.... You don't have to...
But, despite the wind, Alfonso turned his head diagonally and kissed Ariadne right away.
At that very moment, the church bell rang loudly, signaling noon.
Ding! Deeeeeeng!
The golden city of Trevero could be called the city of spires.
Throughout the city, wherever one set foot, there were tall towers, and in all these towers, there were large and small bells to reach the gods.
As soon as the first bell rang, as if on cue, bells began to ring all over the city.
Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding!
Deaeng! Deaeng!
Ding-dong-daeng-dong-.
Alfonso hugged his bride tightly as he received the congratulations that were not his own.
At that moment, he swore before the gods that Ariadne de Mare, or rather Ariadne de Carlo, was now his wife. He would not allow any threats or harm to her.
Until the end of the world, he will protect Ariadne forever.
It was a symbol of his duty and love, and devotion as a husband and head of a household to his wife and family.
“You were offered the Gallico throne? And you turned it down? You’re crazy, you’re crazy!”
The news of Grand Duke Odes's miserable downfall before Pope Louis and Philip IV in an attempted coup spread like lightning throughout the Central Continent.
“You didn’t take it and tell Philip?! You had that woman next to you? Are you really crazy about a woman and doing this?!”
Leo III was furious and ran wild.
Even Duchess Rubina, who would have applauded Alfonso's insults, was so shocked that she had to hide in a corner.
“To me! Without even reporting! Since when did this guy think he was in a position to move independently?”
The old King was furious that all this had been done without his permission.
“I didn’t like it from the moment you started cussing that you married the Grand Duchess of Gallico without my permission...!”
Leo III decided to lick his sore wounds by devising a brilliant alternative.
So, this time, he decided to show his fatherly dignity at his son's wedding. It was just as Alfonso had predicted.
“If we missed the opportunity to devour the Kingdom of Gallico, we must find another country with which we can form a personal union.”
A few years ago, there were virtually no suitable candidates for Alfonso's marriage in the Central Continent, but now the situation was much better.
As the Prince grew older, several monarchs or heirs died, leaving a host of young widows in the line of succession, and Princesses and collateral royals with bloodlines that could spit at the ruling power.
And above all, the fact that Prince Alfonso himself became the chief of Yesak was the biggest factor in increasing the number of concubines.
Ariadne also felt something rise up in her chest as she heard Alfonso's confession.
A pair of deep blue-gray eyes was staring at her with overwhelming emotion.
She couldn't figure out what her overwhelming emotion was. It wasn't sadness, but it was too bitter for happiness.
It might have been the shock of floating through the extraordinary and then realizing anew that her union with Alfonso was real.
Ttorr.
A tear welled up in the corner of Ariadne's eye and rolled down. Alfonso wiped it away with his thumb.
"Bride."
Raphael's voice called attention. He was calling the bride, but in reality, he was warning the groom.
Raphael, who had hesitated for a moment to yell at Alfonso when he had arbitrarily said something that was not on the wedding vow template—I love you—but had made a mistake, did not miss the timing to stop him this time.
This time, he has to stop him. If he leave him alone, he might suck out those tears himself.
Ariadne wiped the tears from her face at Raphael's words and began to recite her wedding vows.
“I, Ariadne de Mare, take Alfonso de Carlo to be my lawful husband, from this moment on, for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do us part... always.”
Even death could not separate them.
If she were to be born again, if she were to open her eyes once again under a familiar ceiling, she would go find Alfonso, hold his hand, and speak to him.
You and I were meant to be together; that's why I came to you. She came back through time just for him. That's how she felt now.
Raphael spoke in a calm voice.
“The groom may kiss the bride.”
Usually it's 'please kiss' but you don't have to.... You don't have to...
But, despite the wind, Alfonso turned his head diagonally and kissed Ariadne right away.
At that very moment, the church bell rang loudly, signaling noon.
Ding! Deeeeeeng!
The golden city of Trevero could be called the city of spires.
Throughout the city, wherever one set foot, there were tall towers, and in all these towers, there were large and small bells to reach the gods.
As soon as the first bell rang, as if on cue, bells began to ring all over the city.
Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding!
Deaeng! Deaeng!
Ding-dong-daeng-dong-.
Alfonso hugged his bride tightly as he received the congratulations that were not his own.
At that moment, he swore before the gods that Ariadne de Mare, or rather Ariadne de Carlo, was now his wife. He would not allow any threats or harm to her.
Until the end of the world, he will protect Ariadne forever.
It was a symbol of his duty and love, and devotion as a husband and head of a household to his wife and family.
***
“You were offered the Gallico throne? And you turned it down? You’re crazy, you’re crazy!”
The news of Grand Duke Odes's miserable downfall before Pope Louis and Philip IV in an attempted coup spread like lightning throughout the Central Continent.
“You didn’t take it and tell Philip?! You had that woman next to you? Are you really crazy about a woman and doing this?!”
Leo III was furious and ran wild.
Even Duchess Rubina, who would have applauded Alfonso's insults, was so shocked that she had to hide in a corner.
“To me! Without even reporting! Since when did this guy think he was in a position to move independently?”
The old King was furious that all this had been done without his permission.
“I didn’t like it from the moment you started cussing that you married the Grand Duchess of Gallico without my permission...!”
Leo III decided to lick his sore wounds by devising a brilliant alternative.
So, this time, he decided to show his fatherly dignity at his son's wedding. It was just as Alfonso had predicted.
“If we missed the opportunity to devour the Kingdom of Gallico, we must find another country with which we can form a personal union.”
A few years ago, there were virtually no suitable candidates for Alfonso's marriage in the Central Continent, but now the situation was much better.
As the Prince grew older, several monarchs or heirs died, leaving a host of young widows in the line of succession, and Princesses and collateral royals with bloodlines that could spit at the ruling power.
And above all, the fact that Prince Alfonso himself became the chief of Yesak was the biggest factor in increasing the number of concubines.
Prince Alfonso's rise in fame certainly helped, but even before he made a name for himself in Yesak, Alfonso was already the best matchmaker in the Central Continent. What had changed was his military power.
The present Etruscan kingdom had a military force that Alfonso brought back from Yesak.
Without an army, only marriage to a Princess who has the right to succession to a fief and actual control over the fief to be inherited can make a personal union possible.
There was no such woman physically present in the Central Continent at the time. There was only one. Bianca of Taranto.
If there is an army? Even the Princess of a ruined country suddenly emerges as a potential marriage partner who can make a union of the two armies possible.
If the Etruscan kingdom leads an army and takes over the fallen country and exercises the daughter-in-law's right of succession, assuming the daughter-in-law gives birth to a son, the land becomes permanently Etruscan territory.
“There are rumors that the North Sea Union is also bubbling with activity. There is also the successor of the Dodesa Kingdom and the Princess of the Thrace Kingdom.”
The North Sea Union was a story about the Duchy of Stenburg, the fiefdom of the Grand Duke of Yuldenburg.
The Duchy of Stenburg was not a kingdom, but it was the most powerful state in the vicinity and was a regional leader with a group of lords who followed the duchy, including the County of Achenbach.
However, the leader, the Grand Duke of Yuldenburg, was absent from his post as commander-in-chief of the crusade for a long time.
The power of the Duchy of Stenburg was considerably damaged in Yesak.
If the land of Yesak had been plundered to the ground to supply military supplies, the war would have been beneficial to the country, but the devout Prince of Yuldenburg did not dare to commit such a heinous act in the holy land where Saint was born.
Even the health of the returning Grand Duke himself was not good. Naturally, there was news that the dissatisfied forces were on the move and that the Black Hand was eyeing the position of the leader.
“Aren’t there plenty of older girls around here besides that three-year-old daughter?”
So Leo III's plan was to strike back at the benefactor who had saved his son's life by forming a marriage alliance with someone other than the Grand Duchess of Yuldenburg, who was seeking the Grand Duke's throne.
“If that doesn’t work out, there are also the kingdoms in the Philoa region. The Philoa women are prettier than the Nordic women, so if that’s the case, my son will have to kneel down and bow down to me.”
More recently, the five small principalities that emerged from the dissolution of the old Kingdom of Philoa have experienced the butterfly effects of the Yesak War.
The pagans of the Moorish Empire, who had been driven out of Yesak, attacked the neighboring Philoa region, conquered the kingdoms of Dodesa and Thrace, and assassinated the King of the Dodesan kingdom.
This meant that if he married a royal woman with the right of succession to Dodessa and Thrace and drove the pagans out of those countries, the land would become permanently part of the Etruscan kingdom.
“Find out your soulmate, find out now! Quickly!”
Leo III shouted hysterically.
***
Countess Isabella de Contarini's life wasn't all that bad these days.
While her husband, Ottavio, was a drunkard and a prisoner at home, Countess Contarini worked diligently to 'get her household back on track.'
She made connections here and there to 'help with the business'.
Of course, in the past, it didn't work out so well, but these days, she's getting respect from people who are much more important than before.
It was all thanks to her older brother, Ippolito.
“Honey, who are you meeting this evening?”
“Count and Countess DiPascal.”
After being kicked out of the house, Ippolito tried not to tell his sister what he had been doing, but he ended up confessing the whole story to his sister.
The reason Ippolito made a lot of money was through tobacco smuggling.
Tobacco smuggling was originally a business run by Camellia's husband, Caruso's Bocanegro Company.
However, when CEO Caruso became the leader of the free city of Unaisola, CEO Caruso ordered his company to stop smuggling tobacco.
This is because the number of items handled has increased significantly, and it was a business item that was not fair to continue even after it came into the open.
The vacancy was filled by several groups of unsavory gangsters. Ippolito had been connected with one of them through his connections during his study abroad and became their supplier for San Carlo.
However, simply being the middle leader of one of several tobacco smuggling groups would not have allowed him to be running around like he is now.
Ippolito took advantage of his experience as an addict to do something nasty early in the year.
There was a beautiful flower that grew only deep in the Moorish Empire, along the Silk Road, far to the east.
When the flower buds were picked and dried, a powder called 'pawak' was produced in the local language.
This was usually used for medicinal purposes, but among serious tobacco addicts, there was a secret rumor that putting a cat's nail-sized amount of pawak powder in a cigarette and smoking it together would make you feel incredibly good.
Ippolito obtained the pawak powder and sold it without even identifying it as pawak, but rather by adding individual grains to each of the tobacco he sold.
Naturally, customers who smoked the cigarettes sold by Ippolito were unable to smoke any other cigarettes.
Ippolito's organization became so popular that there were even gentlemen who begged Ippolito to sell them tobacco.
Count DiPascal, although not a tobacco-smoking man, had many friends who were addicted to Ippolito's tobacco.
So, it was only a matter of time before he became Ippolito's slave.
But Count DiPascal still wanted to show off in front of his friends by becoming friendly with Ippolito, claiming to be a Count, and Ippolito didn't even want to wait for Count DiPascal to become a drug addict and kneel before him.
He was taking his titled sister with him, as he did not want to bow down to the Count of DiPascal.
Isabella, who was all dressed up nicely, asked her brother.
“No more big shots will come out?”
Ippolito was about to get annoyed with his sister, but he said that he thought he could please her easily.
“Count DiPascal’s wife’s family is a great noble of the East.”
It didn't matter to Ippolito whether it was the East or the North. Ippolito was, after all, the general manager of San Carlo.
“You figure it out yourself and try to persuade her.”
At those words, Isabella fell into thought. She had no great expectations of Ippolito. It was enough for him to arrange a seat.
Isabella had to come up with twelve thousand ducats from somewhere. She had some cash now from selling gifts from men, but it wasn't nearly enough.
They hinted that they were willing to open their pockets a little more, but to do so, they expected more from Isabella.
Isabella had no intention of going that far.
'I'm a Countess!'
Lifting up your skirt for any man like a prostitute is not behavior befitting a Countess.
Of course, it wasn't completely ruled out. She would correct her statement that it was 'not even a little bit'.
If there was someone who could pull 12,000 ducats in one room, shr would consider it.
But among the men who had approached Isabella so far, there was no man worthy of such a thing.
She had to go where the money was. If you hang around gold, opportunities will come. Isabella licked her lips in the carriage.
And now the other one was following Isabella's back, biting his lip.
It was Countess Clemente de Bartolini's maid, Minpin, who was spying on Isabella from behind the curtain as she left the Bartolini residence in Ippolito's carriage.
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