Yuki pov:
"These are the different things that the previous Lady handled. I too feel that people with a keen eye for detail and appreciation should handle these matters. Women are better at that than men." Nanashi san said with a smile.
I had walked through the mansion with him as he explained the different things that we would be responsible to take care of since that entire town's governing was in our hands now. I for one had zero knowledge in politics. In fact, I never bothered to watch anything about politics even on TV. So Nanashi san was nice enough to explain everything to me from scratch.
He told me that since both Juo and I were new to this, he would send one of his subordinates to help us with things. His subordinate would visit us every week and record our progress as well as clarify any doubts that had risen during the week's time.
While Juo handled documentation, inspection and overall governance, I would be responsible for keeping track of the accounts. Records of trade and gross production in the town would be under my surveillance. I would also handle listening to any complaints or requests of the townspeople whenever they came to me to speak. I in turn would have to convey the requirement to Juo so he could take necessary action.
Well, it didn't sound too tough but it also was the first time I was going to be handling this. I just hope I would do a satisfactory job.
"Thank you so much for your guidance, Nanashi san. I hope that we can perform upto your expectations." I gave him a bow.
I glanced behind me when I felt a hand on my shoulder. Takano nii was giving me a reassuring smile.
"I'm sure you'll do well, Yuki. The most important thing for success here is dedication and unconditional love for the people. Both you and Juo have these qualities. In fact, you also have a lot of patience. I know that the the two of you will do fine."
"That's right, Yuki. We've known for a very long time and we know you'll be able to handle this." Reina nee too walked to my side and took a hold of my hand. "I know you'll be very busy from now on but you have to visit when the baby is born! You're his aunt so you cant give any reasons for being absent!"
I laughed and shook my head. "Of course nee san. I wouldn't miss it for the world."
"Yuki?" We all looked up when Juo joined us in the library. Hanazaki san and Takahiro san were with him too. It looked like they were done with their discussions too.
"You're done too?" I asked with a smile and took a hold of his hand, entwining my fingers with his when he came to stand next to me.
He just gave a cute nod and we looked at the others.
"The three of us will be on our way now. We have a lot of work to do in the city....filing reports about what happened here and deciding what punishment to give to the Ichijou family." Takahiro san gave a rather exasperated sigh, probably thinking of how hectic it was going to be for them for the next couple of days.
"Um....what will happen t the Ichijou family?" I asked hesitantly.
"Well, judging from their crimes, I'm guessing they will receive several whippings as punishment and even spend at least twelve to fifteen years in prison. Poisoning someone to take over their wealth and control over a town isn't a light offence." Nanashi san said grimly.
"O-oh, I see...." I didn't know what else to say. It was expected that they would have to spend a long time in prison but the whipping part made me a little uneasy.
"Don't worry about it, Yuki. The City Government will take care of it. You should concentrate on your new life ahead of you. And we'll be heading back as well, okay?" Hanazaki san said gently making me nod with a smile.
"Thank you for teaching us everything." Juo gave them a bow and was rewarded with a chuckle and a hand on his shoulder.
"We'll be counting on you from now on. Good luck and best wishes for your married life too." They wished us. With another exchange of bows, they left the mansion.
"Nee chan...." Arata tugged at my wedding gown.
Since our three guides didn't have much time to spend on telling us the details, we hadn't even changed out of our wedding clothes. I was wearing a shawl around my bare shoulders to keep warm in this chilly weather. But it was getting pretty uncomfortable now so I was weating to finally get into a comfy pair of jeans and t-shirt. After all, Juo wasn't particular about me wearing gowns like Hitoshi san had been. Uff! These one and a half months of wearing heavy, frilly gowns was tough!
"What is it, Arata?" I crouched in front of my brothers, curious about their squirming.
"Aren't Hitoshi san and Hiru nii chan here? Won't they be angry?"
I laughed softly at his question. I ran my hands through their hair, moving some of the stubborn messy strands aside.
"No....Hitoshi san and Hiru nii chan aren't going to live here anymore. From now on, only you, Akio, Juo and I are going to live here. This is our home now."
"Our home? So we can always be with nee chan and Juo nii chan?" Akio asked excited.
"That's right."
I couldn't help but chuckle as they cheered loudly and jumped around. They even climbed up onto the chairs in the library and jumped. I stood up and watched them feeling content. Juo entwined his fingers with mine again and we looked at each other, sharing a smile.
"It's a good thing that they're happy too, isn't it?" Reina nee joined us.
"That's right....it's been so long since I saw them smile and laugh like that. Hitoshi san and Hiru weren't very nice to them. They've been so quiet that I was starting to worry." I didn't take my eyes off them. I had missed seeing their smiles; I had missed them so much.
"Well! Now that everything has been settled, we should head back home too." I looked at Takano nii as he came to stand nest to nee san with his arm around her shoulders.
"Huh? You're leaving already?? You could stay for a few days, right?" I pouted. We still had to have a party to celebrate the wedding! They couldn't seriously have come just for one day!
"Yuki, it's a weekday. I had to take a day off from work to come here. It's actually been pretty hectic in the office so I cant take more than a day off. Don't worry, we'll see each other again soon. And you can call us and talk to us any time too." He ruffled my head making me chuckle.
"I guess so." I ran a hand through my hair to set it back in place.
"Alrighty then! You take good care of yourselves. We wish we could have stayed longer....but duty calls!" Reina nee said with a smile. "We'll miss you."
"We'll miss you too." I closed my eyes and leaned forward to wrap my arms around nee san as she came to hug me.
I opened my eyes to look at Juo. I was amused to see that he was standing like a statue as Takano nii gave him a brotherly hug. But he slowly loosened up and lifted his arms to place them on nii san's back. He closed his eyes with a sigh and Takano nii gave him a pat on the back before pulling away.
We shared a few more light conversations as we walked with them to the door. They had come in their car and it was parked just a little away from the mansion. We stayed there waving to them until the car was out of sight and then the four of us headed back into the mansion.
Megumi san was waiting for us and she smiled, giving us a bow. "Our new Lord and Lady, please allow me to take you to your new room."
"Megumi san, please don't start being so formal to me! It will make me feel really awkward!" I walked to her and held her hands in mine. She chuckled, shaking her head and proceeded to pull me to the first floor of the mansion.
Juo was holding my brothers' hands and they followed us up the stairs. They were skipping and talking to Juo excitedly and he returned their excitement with enthusiastic responses as well.
When we reached the first floor, Megumi san stopped outside huge double doors and I watched her with a brow raised. She giggled and opened the doors to give us a view of the huge room. My jaw nearly dropped to the floor seeing the spacious room with a big queen size bed against one of the walls, cupboards on one side, huge glass doors that opened to a balcony on the other side and a loveseat with a small coffee table near the personal fireplace in the room.
All of the bed sheets were of silk and so were the drapes of the windows and balcony doors. The blankets though were thick woolen rugs that would definitely keep us warm during these cold winter nights.
My jaw was still slack as I walked into the room and took in the beautiful décor. I'm sure that furnishing this room must have been super expensive!
"I-It's....amazing! This room is for us??" I clarified with Megumi san, still not able to digest the fact that we were really going to be staying here from now on.
"Of course!" She chuckled amused. "This room belonged to Sayuri sama and Hiroto sama. It's a good thing that Hitoshi san and Kiyomi san never used this room. Perhaps they did have some respect for them even though....anyway, this room is yours now. After all, Juo is their son and now the two of you are the Lord and Lady of Hanei Town. Its only right that you use this room from now on."
"This is....mother's and father's room?" Juo mumbled softly before slowly walking into the room to look around.
I followed him silently, watching him with a smile as he touched the furniture, touched the walls and finally stopped in front of the bed. When he looked at the bed though, he tensed and turned bright red. Curious to know what had made him react that way, I came to stand next to him and look at the bed too. I blushed but brought a fist to my lips and giggled.
There were rose petals spread out on the bed in the shape of a big heart and petals of other different colored flowers sprinkled here and there. Our names were written with daisies and placed above the red rose heart.
"Megumi san? What's all this?" I turned to her still blushing.
"It's a welcome note for the two of you, of course! It was my idea....I wanted the welcome to be as romantic as possible." She gave me a teasing wink that made the redness of our faces increase.
"Uwaaahh!! A heart! A heart! Nee chan! It's a heart!" Akio was gazing at the pattern on the bed with sparkling eyes. The bed reached up to his chest so he was leaning against it, his arms spread out in front of him.
"It's made with flowers! It smells nice!" Arata chimed.
Juo and I chuckled, our embarrassment being replaced by joy. We picked up my brothers so they could get a better look at the design and they cheered.
"Well, I will leave you two to get changed and rest for a while. I'll have lunch ready soon." Megumi san gave a short bow.
"We want to eat nee chan's beetroot stew!" Arata pouted while looking at me.
"It has been so long since I ate the food that you cooked, Yuki. Can you prepare lunch?" Juo too asked and I nodded.
"That's fine by me. Megumi san, is it okay for me to take care of the cooking? I like to cook and I'm sure Juo and my brothers would prefer that as well."
"Of course, Yuki. As long as you're fine with it." Megumi san laughed.
She excused herself and Juo and I put my brothers down. I headed into the attached bathroom first so I could wash up a little and change. After the truth had been revealed in front of everyone in the town, the maids and butlers had gotten things set up for us in the mansion. During the time Juo and I had spent talking about the governance, this room had been arranged. Juo's clothes had been arranged in the cupboard and my clothes and other belongings were being shifted from my old house to the mansion too. Since I didn't have any of my clothes at the moment, I took the liberty to use some of Juo's.
His clothes were big for me. The sleeves reached my elbow, the shirt reached my mid thigh and I had to fold up the pants to make sure I didn't end up tripping and falling on my face.
I left Juo to wash up along with my brothers and get changed into something comfortable too. I headed to the kitchen, though I had to ask the maids for directions. This place was so big and I hadn't seen the whole place during my stay here with the Ichijou family. It was going to take me some time to memorize all the places in the mansion.
Most of the maids and butlers got flustered when I passed them. They gave me deep bows before hurriedly scurrying away from me. Some of them even peeked from behind doors and spoke in hushed whispers. Well, I'm sure we were going to have this attention for quite some time so might as well get used to it.
When I made it to the kitchen, I got busy cooking. There was abundant food along with the different seasoning powers. There were many utensils stacked in the shelves and I picked out whatever I needed to prepare the stew.
When I was done with washing, chopping and putting the beets to boil, I heard footstes behind me. I turned my head and smiled seeing Juo enter the kitchen. He joined me near the stove and closed his eyes before taking a deep inhale of the boiling broth.
"Hmmm....it smells delicious." He hummed out with a smile.
"Thank you, Juo. By the way, where are Arata and Akio?"
"Oh, they wanted to have a look around the mansion. They weren't allowed to do so before, right? They insisted on exploring. So I asked Megumi san to keep an eye on them while they went around the mansion." Juo said before coming to stand behind me.
"Oh, that's fine then." I smiled as he leaned forward with his chin resting on my shoulder.
He watched curiously as I crushed some black peppers and grated coconut to make the gravy part of the stew. As I walked around the kitchen, Juo followed me. He constantly stuck to me from behind, watching everything I did from over my shoulder. He even wrapped his arms around my shoulders once or twice and it was sort of making it difficult for me to continue working.
"Ah jeez!" I chuckled and finally made him let me go. "Juo! I cant work if you keep sticking to me like that!"
He gave me a sheepish smile and blushed. "Sorry.....but I keep trying to confirm that all of this is real. It seems like a dream that we're here together in the mansion, you cooking for all of us and no one....no one hates me anymore."
I smiled, shaking my head. Since the beets were still boiling and didn't need my attention, I stepped closer to Juo and cupped his cheeks.
"Of course this is real, Juo. And this happiness is proof of all the struggles we had to overcome." I rubbed his cheeks with my thumbs and he closed his eyes as he placed his hands on mine.
"Yeah.....that's true."
We stayed like that for a few minutes before I pulled away and went back to making the stew.
The rest of the day passed by rather quickly. After we had a scrumptious lunch, all the maids and butlers who had been working in the mansion had called on us to apologize. They all got on their knees to apologize to Juo for how they had treated him until now but all Juo had done was get flustered and say that it wasn't their fault. In the end, they all apologized several times until they went back to their duties.
Juo and I spent some time with my brothers for most of the afternoon. We played tag throughout the mansion, we played hide and seek and even moved all the furniture out of the way in the living room so we could roll around and wrestle each other. We had a lot of fun and many of the maids and butlers who passed by would pause to watch us and laugh as they walked away.
Everything felt so calm now. With all the obstacles out of the way and no fear of being discovered together, it was like a load had been lifted off our shoulders.
We spent the evening mostly going through some documents and discussing the details with each other. I had had one of the butlers buy some play doh for Akio and Arata so they were busy making all kinds of animals and shapes with the colorful clays. They were sitting with us in the library at the other side of the table.
I had prepared our dinner after we were done with discussions. Once we were done with that, we decided to turn in for the night. It had been a long day for all of us. Waking up early, the wedding, the discussion with the three governers, and finally all this brainstorming. It was barely ten in the night and all of us were ready to collapse as we stood.
"Megumi san, we'll be heading to bed first. It's been a tiring day and I don't think any of us can keep our eyes open." I looked at my brothers who were just about nodding off as they stood next to me.
"Of course, Yuki. You should get some rest. After all, things are going to get quite busy from tomorrow, aren't they?" She walked with us to the room and I gave her a bow before shutting the door.
Juo was already in the room and halfway changed into his nightclothes. He was yet to put on his shirt though and I blushed, averting my eyes so I didn't stare at his pale chest. I was distracted, thankfully, by my brothers. I laughed at the adorable way they rubbed the sleep in their eyes.
"C'mon you two. Lets get you changed so you can sleep." I led them to the cupboard in which all of our clothes had finally been arranged in.
I helped them out of their day clothes and they held my shoulders for support as they got into their nightclothes. I led them to the bed when they were changed and they got under the sheets. They snuggled into the pillow and were asleep in seconds. I chuckled, kissing their foreheads before I looked at Juo who was now fully dressed. I gave him a nod and walked into the bathroom with a pair of shorts and a loose t-shirt.
Juo was sitting on the bed waiting for me. When he saw me, he smiled and I waddled across the huge room to the bed. We got in under the covers and I sighed in happiness. It felt so good to lie down on a soft comfy bed after a day's hard work.
Even though this was a room for just Juo and I, it had been so long since we had all been together so all four of us had crashed on the same bed. Well, my brothers were also young so after a few days of getting used to being in the mansion, I could have them sleep in the room right next to this one.
I was brought out of my thoughts when Juo wrapped his arm around me to pull me closer to himself. I smiled, turning to my side to face him. I too scooted closer to him, snuggling into his body. We gazed at each other affectionately and my eyes softened.
"I love you, Juo."
"And I love you, Yuki. So much...." He closed his eyes touching his forehead with mine.
My smile widened and I reached up from under the blankets to cup his cheeks. He opened his scarlet eyes that expressed just how much he yearned for me. I closed my eyes and let my lips touch his gently. He reacted immediately, pulling me closer and pressing his lips against mine more. I parted my lips and so did he. The passion made me lightheaded. My head spun even more than what it was spinning in my sleepiness.
I wanted to increase the passion a little so I took the liberty to lick his lips lightly. Juo froze up and pulled out of the kiss. When I looked at him through my half lidded eyes, he was blushing brightly and looking at me with wide eyes. I giggled and nuzzled his nose with mine.
"I just wanted to love you more....." I mumbled softly.
"Is that okay for me to do too?" I giggled again and nodded slowly.
He came down to kiss me again and this time, both of us tried to explore the passion that we felt in our hearts for each other. We occasionally ran our tongues over each other's lips and enjoyed the gentle show of love. When we pulled away, we were both truly content.
"Good night, my Yuki." Juo kissed my forehead once and I snuggled into him more with my face tucked in the crook of his neck.
"Good night, Juo. Sweet dreams." I closed my eyes with a sigh.
Juo tightened his arms around me and we settled comfortably in each other's embrace. We were the happiest that we had ever been since we met each other. Our wishes had come true and from now onwards, we were bound to each other forever. We were husband and wife, two halves of the same soul. And I wouldn't have it any other way.
Barely a few moments passed and I was enveloped by blissful sleep.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
*sigh* Bliss! Happiness! Content! I'm feeling all of these right now. Aren't you so happy for Yuki and Juo? Ah, the bliss of being in love....
Oh my, Yuki just kicked it up a notch there! *////* But pure love is the sweetest, isn't it? Juo and her brothers are just too cute to handle!!! >.<
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