When the clock struck 9am, the bells of the church started ringing. It’s about time for the mass to begin.
“We have to hurry!”
I grab Serea’s hand and start running towards the church.
“Little brother!!! You can’t go off alone!”
There is a line in front of the church already. We line up like everyone else.
Shreegan and miss Bell got a separated from us so they are a bit farther back in the line.
Shreegan is talking to miss Bell, while smiling with his scary face, and she is in turn responding with a serious expression.
Are you on a date!? Don’t forget about your job!
“It’s like a double date, isn’t it?”
Serea says some mysterious words.
“What’s that?”
“That’s when two couples go together to town on a date. There was an event in the game like that too. It was a stomach churning even though, since you would flirt in front of the rival character and capture target, whatever you did someone’s favourability would always drop.”
......The setting in that game is very detailed......
I look up at the church. I think about a hundred people can get in. It’s pretty small.
“The church in our domain is about this size as well.”
“It’s because this is the town church. We will probably have our wedding in the cathedral within the castle grounds.”
“I’m somehow scared of something that grandiose...... I’d prefer to have a wedding ceremony in a normal church like this one. Whenever there was a wedding in our territory, friends and family would all gather and celebrate together. I’m jealous of how happy they looked when they did it that way.”
“Hmm yeah, that would be nice too.”
The priest that greeted everyone at the entrance got surprised when he saw our faces.
I put my index finger to my lips and gestured for him to keep quiet about it.
He winked at me to show how he understands, and then he greeted us like all of the other believers and let us through.
A nun is playing the organ, and all of the believers are singing a hymn.
After that, the priest starts preaching the words of the goddess Lanathes from the holy scriptures.
He was very eloquent, he didn’t use any difficult words, making the sermon easy to understand for the commoners.
Shreegan, please stop sleeping.
I gave Serea a silver coin, then we both gave our offerings, and left the church.
“The church was wonderful, right?”
“I wonder why girls love churches. I don’t really like them, the priests just complain, you can’t do this, you can’t do that. It’s not that I don’t believe in god though, I think the teachings are reasonable as well.”
“I mean, it’s stained glass windows are glistening and pretty, and it’s kind of mysterious.”
Probably because the church belongs to a goddess, it has somewhat of a girlish design. As a guy it just seems out of place to me. How should I say it, it gives off a feeling like a flower garden......
“Well now... with this our obligations for the day areover and done with, so where do you want to go next?”
Shreegan, you really are something, saying something like that even though you slept through the whole thing.
“I’d like to see a play. What do you think Serea?”
“I’m all of it!”
Shreegan, knowing nothing on the subject looks at miss Bell.
“Are they showing something now miss Bell?”
“They are showing ‘Hamlet’ at the globe theatre. It’s very popular.”
“Then, let’s go there!”
This is horrible.
It’s so dark. What’s with this story.
It’s the story of Prince Hamlet who is debating himself whether or not to enact revenge for the assassination of his father. It was Hamlet’s own uncle that killed his father. Now the king’s ghost haunts his own child telling him to enact revenge on his behalf, but Hamlet’s mother, the queen, got married to his uncle making him the king, so because of that he is unable to enact revenge.
The worst part is the scene when the prince, while pretending to be insane, tells his lover Ophelia to go to a nunnery and one-sidedly breaks up with her. After that he kills her father, causing her to go mad and drown herself in a river.
Eventually the prince has a duel with Ophelia’s brother, and in the end he, the king who killed his father, who was the previous king, and his mother all end up dying. What kind of story is this?
It’s just a ‘bad end’. There is no redeeming point. Why is a story like this popular?
It also looks like the phrase ‘Should he live, or should he die?’ has become popular throughout the town. Maybe performing this play should be banned. ......That’s not something the royal family should do though because the people would make fun of us as being small-minded......
This is bad.
This thing resembles the bad end from the game Serea played where the prince abandons and exiles his fiancée, and then she, as a villainess, dies in the end.
What makes it even worse is that here, the prince’s lover Ophelia has done absolutely nothing wrong.
Why did miss Bell chose such a play.
“So, what happened in the end?”
“Everyone died......”
Were you sleeping again Shreegan, why did you even come along?
Serea is ghastly pale. She isn’t saying anything either.
“My deepest apologies my lady. I thought that it was a more decent play...”
Miss Bell apologises, but it probably won’t help much. I feel that even if we went to eat at a restaurant or go shopping, her heart won’t settle.
I have to do everything in my power to make her feel better here.
“We are entering this store Shreegan.”
“Eh?”
It’s a jewellery store. I walk in while pulling Serea by her hand, and subsequently miss Bell and Shreegan enter as well.
As expected, as soon as Shreegan entered the store, the atmosphere froze. It’s almost like a jewellery thief had entered the store. Having a scary face sure is inconvenient for a lot of things.
In the store that is full of sparkling jewellery, I look around the display cases. From among those I head towards one in the corner.
This one is nice, let’s go with this.
“Could you show me this pair of rings?”
The clerk is definitely laughing.
“Lad, you know that these are wedding rings right? Isn’t it a bit early to give her that sort of present?”
While looking at us, who are still ten, he exaggeratedly raises an eyebrow.
“It’s fine. The two of us are engaged after all.”
“Aren’t kids real mature nowadays...... It’s not like you are nobles or royalty. Those types of customers would never enter a cheap looking store like this one. Actually, if you really are customers the story changes. Are the two of you the guardians of these kids?”
“Yeah, basically.”
“That is correct.”
Shreegan and miss Bell answer him.
“Aren’t you rushing things a bit? This is a business, so we would be grateful for your patronage, but we don’t have anything small for these kids.”
“That isn’t a problem.”
As I said that, the clerk took out the pair of gold rings and gave them to me.
I try putting on the larger one, but it’s too big.
“Serea, give me your left hand.”
I try putting on the smaller ring on Serea’s outstretched finger, but as expected, it’s too big.
“Please put a chain through this and make it into a pendant.”
“I don’t mind, but that will be 2 gold coins.”
“Here you are.”
I take out the gold coins from my pocket and put them on the counter.
“......Wow, that surprised me! You sure have a lot of savings lad! If that’s the case young man, I’ll do my part properly too. Just wait a bit.”
After saying that, he took a suitable gold chain and threaded it through the ring.
“Take it.”
I put the necklace, with the ring on it, around Serea’s neck.
I put the one with my ring around my own neck as well.
Serea hugged me, with large tears falling from her face.
Everyone in the store, from the clerk to the other customers, started clapping and cheering. Somehow, this feels embarrassing.
TL note: Honestly, the title got me a bit worried and got me to wonder what the hell happened, never expected it to be Hamlet, but we got some sweet cheering up afterwards, so I’m satisfied with how that went. Wonder where they’ll go next chapter and if more sugary content is waiting for us(let’s be honest it probably is).
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