Not An Ordinary Wedding (6)
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Unlike a normal bride, this woman was thinking about politics during the wedding so why was he…
“I don’t think there’s any reason more decisive than that though…”
Aristine mumbled and hearing that, Tarkan opened his mouth:
“Alright.”
“Hm?”
“I’ll smile.”
“Really?”
“Yes. So let go of me.”
Aristine felt slightly regretful about letting go of his unexpectedly smooth cheeks. When she released her hand, a smile appeared on Tarkan’s face as promised.
Even though he was simply raising the corners of his mouth slightly, his atmosphere changed in an instant. His smile was wild yet relaxed, like a beast with a full stomach.
It was the first time she had ever seen someone’s expression change so much. Feeling amazed, Aristine carefully studied Tarkan’s face.
“Princess, you should smile too.”
“Oh, right.”
Aristine nodded and smiled after him.
When a beautiful man and woman smile together, the impact was enormous.
“This is the first time I’ve ever seen His Highness Tarkan smile…”
“I never thought he’d look at his bride with such kind and caring eyes.”
“I knew it; His Highness’ cold heart was melted.”
“With such a bride, anyone would melt.”
Just when people were watching the newlywed’s public display of affection with satisfied faces…
Thud—!
A loud noise rang out and the carriage suddenly tilted.
“Neiigh!”
The startled horse screamed.
The horse quickly tried to run away, and the carriage attached to the horse was dragged forward in its tilted state.
The coachman pulled the reins but the panicked horse only got more agitated.
As the vehicle raced forward still tilted, the carriage couldn’t bear the pressure and began to tilt even further.
Aristine saw the ground approaching very quickly and shut her eyes. At this rate, she was going to slam into the floor and have her entire body dragged till she was a mess.
No, she might even be trampled by the carriage instead.
‘It’s okay. I’m used to pain.’
She also knew how to endure very well. So it was fine.
The carriage tilted over completely and under the force of gravity, Aristine’s body fell helplessly towards the ground.
But at that very moment.
A pair of strong arms wrapped around her waist. Her falling stopped, and she was pulled back upright. Something warm and firm was wrapped around her body.
It was an unfamiliar yet familiar feeling.
When she slowly opened her eyes, she saw Tarkan hugging her.
He protected her again, just like how he protected her from countless stabbing gazes on her that day.
While holding Aristine in his arms, he swung his sword.
Clang!
A sharp explosive sound resounded through the air as the connection between the carriage and the horse was cut down.
Aristine looked at his sword with surprise in her eyes.
It should be a ceremonial sword for the wedding so she didn’t understand how it could cut metal so cleanly.
‘Is Tarkan the amazing one or is it the sword that’s amazing?’
The now freed horse ran straight ahead without pause.
Fortunately, the agitated horse only ran forward instead of running over people.
She could see the guards who were standing along the road trying to calm the horse down. For a guard, it was a basic requirement to be good at horse-riding, so it didn’t seem like there was any need to worry.
After checking the horse’s condition, Tarkan firmly stepped on the carriage which was sliding due to the inertia.
With that, the carriage stopped.
Aristine alternated glances between Tarkan and the carriage with wide eyes. It’s not like the carriage was a piece of paper, how was this possible? Especially since their carriage was practically a lump of gold.
All of this happened in an instant.
The people who were screaming looked at the scene that occurred before them with bewilderment on their faces.
Tarkan put his sword away and carried Aristine, whom he had been holding with one arm, with both arms.
‘Well, this is a pretty familiar position.’
A princess-carry.
Somehow, she even felt at ease. She had never experienced this position before, but after meeting Tarkan, she was already experiencing this position for the second time.
Aristine looked up at him and Tarkan looked down at her.
His golden eyes sparkled like the sun.
‘How pretty.’
Aristine felt a sense of déjà vu.
At that time, their eyes certainly met this way too. It was the moment that Aristine first recognized the man who was going to be her husband.
“Are you okay?” (Tarkan)
“Thanks to you.”(Aristine)
Now, he had really become her husband.
* * *
People were shocked and stood around in a daze.
‘What the heck just happened?’
At first, they were startled by the carriage’s sudden loss of balance and only thought of escaping it.
However, nothing happened.
No, something did happen.
After all, the carriage fell, and the horse ran off agitatedly. But something went ‘swish’, ‘chop’, ‘clang’, and everything was resolved.
They watched the whole thing happen before their eyes, but they couldn’t process it right away.
They were only cognizant of the scene in front of them.
The hero of this country was holding his bride dearly after saving her from danger.
In his wide arms, Aristine looked thinner and more fragile.
Tarkan, who was clad in pitch-black clothing, and Aristine, who was glowing in a pure-white dress, seemed like entirely different beings.
The both of them were complete opposites in appearance, physique and even the clothes they were wearing. But because of that, they looked even more suited for each other.
Clap, clap, clap…
Someone began to applaud. Even that person didn’t know why they were clapping. But with that as the trigger, everyone began to clap.[1]
A roar of applause spread around where Aristine and Tarkan were standing. It was such a romantic and beautiful scene to witness.
“That was so amazing…”
“I am so moved…”
“Their love is beautiful…”
This is definitely a wedding that would be made into a play and passed down to future generations. In people’s minds, Aristine and Tarkan’s wedding was perfectly adapted into a play.
Those who felt touched had tears in their eyes.
While being carried by Tarkan, Aristine looked at the people who were suddenly clapping with puzzlement in her eyes.
She was truly glad that no one got hurt and the atmosphere wasn’t bad.
‘However.’
There was still a serious problem.
“The horse is gone, and the carriage is broken…what do we do now?”
Aristine asked, looking at the overturned carriage.
Despite the state it was in, the carriage was still shining radiantly. However, they couldn’t ride it.
‘Don’t tell me this is because I was thinking about getting a divorce.’
Somehow, the superstitions associated with this wedding parade felt quite credible.
‘No, this isn’t the time to be so relaxed.’
Now that this had happened, the wedding parade will have to be stopped in the middle. And since the wedding parade was symbolic, this was a very serious issue.
This would be seen as an ominous sign that Aristine and Tarkan’s marriage, in other words, the peace treaty between the two countries, would soon be broken.
Translator’s Corner:
[1] I wanted to avoid that silly ‘and everyone clapped’ meme but I had no choice, haha.
T/N: So I know many of you have seen my latest attempt to combat aggregators. I know some don’t like it but at this point, I’m trying whatever I can. I will try to do this as sparingly as possible but I really hope this novel doesn’t fall to the [Lucia] & [YGTWHV] curse where my entire translation is stolen lol.
