MeruPuri Chapter 19 summary
MERUPURI CHAPTER 19
('Well, DAMMIT, the least she could have done was a dance scene XO')
VERY BRIEFLY: Airi panics on the day of the big party thingy, Mariabel gives her a metamorphical bitchslap. We meet Jeile's fiance Nei and find out that Alam, unsurprisingly, has methods of managing his brother. Thanks to Mariabel's bitchslap, Airi takes a deep breath and goes to the party. Mariabel pays Alam back for several things, Airi is introduced to the nobility of the country and Alam creates their marriage certificate thingy.
--
OK, when I said Airi is panicking? Airi is hanging on a pillar for dear life as the maids attempt to drag her off to get her dressed. She's screaming bloody murder (I mean, she says they're going to have to drag her there in a SACK), the maids are howling she's GOT TO GET READY NOW. Mariabel, listening, is sort of ticked. She tells Airi to get hold of herself.
"Do you know how important this day could be for you and Prince Alam?!"
Cut to the Great Hall. Jeile's looking like a fairly normal human being for once in his life; his hair is down and he's got the whole formal robes thing going on. (He has his retarded ribbon tied on one of the points of his crown turban thingy, if you're wondering.) Alam's also in formal robes, up to and including the retarded crown turban. There's some stuff to get the party officially started -- The Day of Our Country's Founding, Our Beloved King, blah blah blah. I believe this is the first time you see Uidua clearly. If Alam and Jeile didn't look so much alike I'd say Alam took after his mum. His face is shaped like hers and I think he got her hair. (No, their mothers were not sisters, believe it or not. Uidua is actually from Razu's family.)
The there's some Random Conversations to set things up; without spending three hours cursing my dictionary, I BELIEVE this is partly to make up for the ceremony Airi interupted earlier in the series (chap 8, I believe). There's talk about something that disturbed the first ceremony and the princes' fiancees.
Speaking of whom, or which, Alam -- looking as unhappy and worried as he can while still keeping his public face on -- goes slowly down the stairs of the dias. Someone stops him and says that Rei is always depending on his kindness.
It's ... ok, I keep saying this but I am NOT MAKING THIS UP.
"You're Rei's older sister," says Alam.
He gets NO MARKS for observation because Nei, Rei's older sister, looks like Rei with long hair and boobs. I WISH I WAS MAKING THIS SHIT UP. She smiles gently at him (Nei, unlike Rei, is NOT evil incarnate. She's actually very sweet, poor girl) and Alam sizes her up for a long, thoughtful second before he turns around.
"Je -- 'ANIUE'," he calls, "Your FIANCEE is here."
Jeile's loving ear picks up the sound of his darling brother calling him Lord Brother, and responds exactly how his darling brother expected he would. "OMGSQUEEKYOOT!!11!! YOU HAVEN'T CALLED ME 'ANIUE' SINCE THAT SHOWDOWN WE HAD~~♥ Hmm? What do you mean, 'fiancee' -- CRAP."
Alam gives him a deadpan look, Nei sparkles at him. (She, um, really does NOT deserve Jeile. But she seems to love him anyway.) The next frame Jeile is running screaming he doesn't want to see her face -- because she looks like Rei, mostly -- and she's chasing after him anxiously assuring him she'll put on a mask.
Alam watches them run off, and from behind him his mother lightly scolds him for playing a trick on his brother. She calls him her sweet Alam and ... OK.
There's two ways this line can go, and by the look on Alam's face I'd go with the double meaning, but I'm not sure. Uidua says 'tanoshimi' -- which can either mean she enjoyed watching Jeile run screaming OR that she's looking forward to the trick that she thinks Alam is about to play (presenting Airi) OR, well, both. I'm going with both, personally.
Back in Airi's room, there's a brief recap of why she's freaking out -- she thought she was an ordinary girl, she turns out to be descended from a princess of a goddamn MAGICAL KINGDOM, the boy she likes is a PRINCE and and and ... she ends up going 'ohgodmyhusbandisaPRINCE...'. Mariabel quite frankly cannot believe her ears, she's all PRINCE ALAM IS WAITING FOR YOU. ARE YOU NOT PLANNING TO GO?!
Airi stops and thinks, and then says she will.
"Is that a fact," says Mariabel. "GET HER."
The maids leap on Airi.
Back at the schmooze, Alam is waiting in the hallway. The far door opens, and Airi comes in, dressed in traditional Astellean formal robes. Alam, still keeping his public face, manages to give off the distinct impression of *_______*.
She says his name and smiles at him, then curtseys. Then Alam says 'Airi...' and holds out his hand.
Airi begins the long walk down to where Alam waits. She thinks this is a road she will never be able to turn from. She knows she's going to have regrets, but she's only going to look at Alam.
And ...
SHe gets to Alam and trips. Alam freaks out, wanting to know why the hell she tripped on THIN AIR.
She thinks, if Alam is near me I can do it.
She says that her legs are shaking. She wraps her arms around him, burying her face in his shoulder. "Promise me one thing."
She asks him to only show that sort of distracted face (I think she means 'distracted' as in 'not his public face') to her, that it makes her feel calmer.
Alam turns red and puts his face on her shoulder. "You're saying stupid things. It only happens in front of you."
And then, because the poor kid cannot have a tender moment with his own wife without life kicking him in the wossit, he senses magic. He asks if Airi's got something on her, and she says that Mariabel gave her something for him.
It's one of her BLACK FEATHERS. Alam freaks but the thing's already in his hand. The darkness in the feather surrounds him.
The next page, Alam's Big and facing away from Airi, obviously sort of annoyed. "Um.. Alam?" says Airi.
"WILL YOU FOR THE LOVE OF GOD /STOP AND THINK/ BEFORE TAKING THINGS FROM MARIABEL?" roars Alam. There's a little frame of Mariabel going >D and a note by Sensei commenting he seems to be talking about the Memory Box.
Airi apologizes wildly and Alam pretty much goes 'eh, screw it'. He holds out his hand. "Come on. This way matches more." (Looks better, etc, as in, a seven year old is NOT dragging a fifteen year old in a ball room to declare his intention of marrying her.)
Airi stares at his outstretched hand. Sometimes..., she thinks.
"Airi?"
Alam just dazzles me.
"Why ... did you chose me...?" she asks, not taking his hand.
Alam wraps his hand around hers. "You're wrong," he says, pulling her into the room. "I didn't chose you."
Alam looks back at her, smiling. "I MET you."
Airi is so suprised she lets him drag her into the ballroom. (That line -- 'I didn't chose you, I MET you' made the top three favorite lines, incidentally.)
Everybody stares at them, whispering. That's the girl who disturbed the ceremony last month. Haven't I seen someone like her before? What's she doing with Prince Alam?
Alam, calm, pulls her gently to the dias. His father wants to know what he's thinking, and Alam, still calm, says he wants to tell everybody what will happen in his future.
His father says he's willing to forgive his unauthorized behavior but he's made the partygoers very uncomfortable. (NO SHIT.)
Airi pretty much cracks and screams out that her name is Hoshina Airi, etc. Alam tries to HUSH HER UP but she's on a roll. She actually tells him to shut up and be quiet (you see Uidua going >D in the background) and then she says her great great great grandmother's name was Chrisnelle.
"I bear the blood of Astelle Ei Diamonia Ratoreia Chrisnelle."
The place ERUPTS. WHY is the daughter of the betraying princess here?! Prince Alam, get away from her immediately! The words bear into Airi's skull, and she covers her face. Alam, being, you know, Alam, pulls her close.
He turns around and looks at the company. "This person and I," he says, "Have built something that even the king can not erase."
His father orders him to stop. Airi clutches at him, and Alam gives his father a LOOK.
Alam... thinks Airi.
Alam continues. "We have the carved seal over the our hearts -- we have staked our lives on the wedding vows we swore."
One of the nobles -- I think he's the Grand Chamberlain -- says if it is true, he'll enter it into the records (?) but he can't trust anything that Alam says in his false form. Alam kind of goes >_> Well, yeah.
"Then I will ask my beloved maiden to return me to my true form."
Airi squeaks, she gets kissed anyway.
Alam, back to his regular form, says he doesn't want to hear another word about the Raoreia house. There's dead silence.
Alam bites his hand and draws a seven-pointed star on his hand with his own blood.
"Under the name of Astelle Ei Daimonia Eukaristeria Alam, I proclaim my marriage to Airi! Enter it in the book of records."
The blood star on his hand transforms to a piece of parchment bearing the same mark as their tattoos. Alam tosses the parchment to the Chamberlain. "Everyone here is a witness to this."
Airi smiles at her husband.
Uidua kind of smiles. "I have not approved this," she says gently. "I'll make your sweet girl undergo a trial before I do."
END CHAPTER
(EXTRA: Jeile, being a seven year old as Nei searches for him, wonders what the fuss in the main room is about.)
Aw, man, Chapter 20 is going to KILL ME DEAD. I promise to get scans up. Eventually. Possibly Tuesday.