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Chapter 122: Originally, The Marriage’s Significance

Translator: LynneSuzuran

Several weeks had passed since then.
I asked Kuon-sensei and began studying about the products that could be obtained easily in the Shikino territory and etc.
Wool was especially high-priced and so it would be fine if one were to say that it was the greatest contributing product. Dairy products and meat were also their main products, and a lot of milk was taken from the goats or the cows, and they also made lots of processed goods from the milk.
I was told that a flood occurred some time ago, but it seemed that many farms were damaged by it. Most of them apparently had recovered, but even so, Taiga-san was still preoccupied with it ever since he became the feudal lord.
As for my knitting, I fairly improved. Because I was able to insert a little pattern in the muffler’s stitches as I continued to knit compactly. Since my hands already remembered the plain knitting, I was able to alter it. Yosh, I’ll continue to do my best-.
While I was doing all that, today I’d be trying the wedding dress or checking the temporary sewing, it was finally the day. Ryuuka-san, it had been awhile.
Therefore, it was my first time seeing the dress. It had yet to have all ornaments adorned, and especially the upper half of the dress was made relatively simple. Still, the neckline of the dress was relatively wide, I wonder if this would be all right? Would it suit me, I wonder?

“We’re still going to add more cloth after this, but we still have yet to decide on the position of the additional cloth.”
“Aah. It’s something that you will never know before I try to put it on, right?”

Nonetheless, Ryuuka-san who was the designer was full of confidence, so I decided to leave it up to her. I was more or less used to casual wear already, but as for my sense related to the showy clothes such as this, perhaps I still don’t have any of it.
When I tried to put it on, ooh, it felt unexpectedly comfortable to wear. The button on the back and the string belt on the waist felt like they were tightly fastened, but they didn’t feel that agonizing. It was very different than the first time I tried putting female clothes on after I returned here. I think that I’ve become quite used to wearing them now. Well, in the first place, it’s going to be one year ever since I returned here.

“Ah, it feels nice. It doesn’t get in my way of moving, and it’s also light.”

I tried to raise and lower my arms, and I also tried to twist my waist lightly. It fit properly and moved along with my body, and it was really not getting in the way of my movements.
I mean, look, this dress—especially the lower half of it, it has lots of clothes piled up over one another. However, it is not that heavy. It seems that I can’t say that it’s to be expected, but I can’t figure out how.
I wonder how—as I tilted my head, Ryuuka-san disclosed the trick.

“Since we thought that the part with lots of clothes would be heavy no matter what, we put a lightening magic that was specially used for ceremonial clothes.”
“Haa… I see.”

Uwaa, what a convenient magic! So that kind of magic existed, huh?
Aah, but since she said that it was a special magic, there should exist various types of it, right? I felt like Jigen-san could just perform this kind of magic very easily, though.
Anyway, there was just a little bit of an interesting custom regarding the wedding dresses here. The main color used even here was white, but among it, there was just one place decorated with a beast’s fur no matter how you looked at it. It was quite distinctly pasted in one part of the belt. When I tried to ask what it was, I got the answer of, “That is a wolf’s fur.”

“Wolf, is it?”
“Yes.”

Why, though?
In response to me who was still curious about it, Ryuuka-san slightly pondered about it before telling me about the reason. It was the so-called jinx, or somehing like that.

“Wolves are beasts that sometimes harm the livestock, but at the same time, they are reliable parents that will fight in order to give birth and raise their children. In that sense of auspiciousness, we adopted the custom of pasting an accessory that was made using a wolf’s fur somewhere in the dress.”
“Their children… Aah, the heirs?”
“Yeah, it’s so that the wearer could be blessed with magnificent heirs.”
“…I see, so that’s why.”

The heirs.
I tried to make that word disappear from within my head with all my power, but well, apparently, that was right.
Even in the Shiiya family, they’d still need an heir with me gone, so they adopted Saryuu.
As for the incident with Kaya-san, it also happened due to the issue about Shiiya family’s heir.
The orphanage director and Touka-san were siblings born of different mothers, so there was also the system of concubines in order to make sure that a heir was produced.

In other words, my greatest duty in the Shikino residence—in a sense—it would be to conceive children.

“…U-mu…”

Nah well, it was certainly like that. Anyway, I was being stared at by Ryuuka-san’s curious eyes, so I had to gloss over it anyhow.

“Ah, no. I was away from my home for such a long time. In addition, there is Saryuu in our Shiiya family, so I hadn’t thought about things like the heirs.”
“I see, that is certainly true.”

Hoo.
I managed to explain it away, somehow.
Saryuu was here, so I hadn’t thought about it at all… in a sense, it was the truth.

“However, I think that your husband will surely wish for a child’s birth.”
“H-hahaha…”

Nah, I understand it though, Ryuuka-san.
I wasn’t sure of what answer I should make and what kind of expression I should have in response.
…I wonder what Taiga-san thinks about it?

After I finished trying on the dress and after Ryuuka-san returned, I was completely tired that I hugged the sofa.
And then, Minoa-san brought the tea and chocolate cake there. Ah-, it’s true that when you’re tired, you’ll want sweet things, huh? Thank you.

“Are you all right, Seiren-sama?”
“I’m quite tired, but somehow I’m fine. Thanks.”

I put lots of sugar in the tea and drank it in one go. Ha-, it was so warm and delicious. The chocolate cake that I cut using a fork and put in my mouth, its sweetness gradually spread within my mouth, decreasing my fatigue quite considerably.
…For the time being, I’ve calmed down.

“…Uhm…”
“What is it, Seiren-sama?”

There was no point in asking Minoa-san about it, but it was also embarrassing to ask Kaa-san. Sorry, but hear me out a bit.

“By becoming a feudal lord’s wife, it’s indispensable for one to try hard to give birth to the heir, right?”
“Well, basically, it can be said that it’s the wife’s duty… but that’s right.”

Look, Minoa-san seemed to be troubled, right? And she couldn’t help but say so, too.
However, Minoa-san continued her words after she thought about it for a little while. Perhaps, in order to comfort me.

“Although there’s also the method of adopting a relative’s child just like Saryuu-sama, so I think it’s not necessary to think too much about it?”
“Yup…”

That might be the case.
However, I think that it’s probably expected that a wife would give bith to the heir.
In the first place, Saryuu came to our family as an adopted child because I disappeared, there was such a situation. In this world, it’s a wife’s duty to give birth to a heir, and it can’t be helped. After all, this is such a world.
Or rather, Taiga-san’s children, huh? …Children, huh?

“Please excuse me for asking this, but…”

As if to interrupt my pondering about it, Minoa-san opened her mouth nervously.

“Seiren-sama, the problem might not be about the heir, but wouldn’t you like to give birth and raise Taiga-sama’s child?”
“Eh?”

Ah.
That’s right.
Shikino’s heir, in other words, Taiga-san’s children. It’s not about whether a heir is necessary or not, but it’s about my and Taiga-san’s children.

“…Aah, that might be so.”

When Minoa-san first mentioned about it, I realized that it might not be the problem. That was right, the thing about the heir of the family was a secondary matter. If the others were to view it, the heir problem might be discussed at the same time, but as for myself, perhaps it was something completely different.
…Speaking of which, I just realized something.
Having children with Taiga-san, in other words-, that-, …that kind of thing, right?

“S-Seiren-sama?”

…Sorry, Minoa-san, let me bury my head for a little while. The thing related to that matter started to pop out inside my head, darn it. That kind of thing, huh-, uwaaaa!