Payback: Isekai

Colors of Love

"Your Highness, this week's report,"

Jay looked up from his desk, and motioned for Jet to come inside. Ever since they were in the palace, the half-druid had been refraining himself from coming through the window in his bird form.

He received the papers detailing his fiancé's schedule and training, as well as the security situation in the ruby palace. There was an account from Albert and Barret about what Yoohan and the palace might need—a necessary action since the man never seemed to know what he needed, always content even with the bare minimum.

There was something new too, today. "Lady Radia has sent the expenditure account, and copies of the bills," Jet explained the new, thick envelope with Radia's cursive writing on the corner;Wedding.

Wedding.

Thinking about that still made Jay's heart flutter even now. Remembering Yoohan's face and voice when the younger man asked him for it always put a smile on Jay's face. It helped a lot with his sleep, knowing that soon he'd have that warmth in his room again. And it helped him battle whatever works came his way.

"What is he doing right now?" Jay put the papers down and looked at Jet. It was one of the few things he looked forward to; hearing Jet's report about Yoohan. Even if the details were already laid out in the report.

"Master Lee is doing his measurement today, Your Highness."

Jay tilted his head. "What measurement? Is he making a new outfit? But the tailor should already know his measurement, right?"

Jet looked quite taken aback, or perhaps confused. He raised his brow slightly before answering. "It's for the wedding outfit, Sir."

A silence ensued, as Jay stopped talking. He stopped moving altogether, staring at Jet with widened eyes and parted lips. The officials of the Crown Prince's office were new to this; they had never seen the Prince look so dumbfounded.

"...huh?"

Jay blinked. Wedding outfit. What wedding outfit? Yoohan made a new outfit for the wedding??

"You don't know about this?" Julian, Radia's cousin and Jay's childhood playmate-turned-officials asked carefully, staring at Jay's flickering eyes with fascination. It was the first time he saw the Prince looked like his brain had stopped working.

"...No," Jay answered after a while. "I mean...I thought we'll just going to use a ceremonial outfit."

Unlike the northern kingdom where the wedded couple had to wear the brown color of their patron god, or the southern tribe where it was tradition to don bright, colorful outfits, Corvarrion's aristocrats used their family's ceremonial suit for the wedding, while the commoners used their worship garbs or their best dress. The men would use the coat bearing their house crest in the color of their banner; the outfit they usually wore at official ceremonies. The women, in the same fashion, would use cloaks with their house crest and colors. Jay knew, vaguely, that the women usually made new frocks for this occasion, but men typically just used what was available. For this reason, a wedding in which both sides were men could be arranged in a faster fashion, without the need to wait for a tailor to finish a new frock.

And Jay, a man with no experience of hosting a wedding and with no adult woman in his household to make things sensible, thought that would be the case for them too. In the first place, Yoohan hated new outfits. He always complained he had too much of them, and always refused Jay's offer to buy a new one. The thought of Yoohan wearing a brand new outfit just for the wedding had gone completely out of the Prince's trajectory.

"It seemed like Her Majesty the Dowager and Lady Radia talked him into it, Your Highness,"

Good job, annoying women of my life! Jay wanted to burst out laughing. Although he was kind of regretting it, not being the one to coax Yoohan into this. "Alright, tell him to spare no expenses—no, tell Radia instead," Yoohan and squandering did not belong in the same sentence. "Do whatever he likes, use the best materials. Have it sent from other continents if need be."