Chapter 444: Is pre-wedding depression a thing?
Gifts are...interesting. I learned that they all had meanings on their own.
It was especially easy to tell how close we were through gifts. Those who knew me personally sent items that were catered to my liking or my needs--like the chest full of rare ingredients rich in mana from Gluttony. All of them were the ingredients for the food that I liked during my stay there, so it could only come from people who dined with me there.
No, it wasn’t for Sada, surprisingly, but one of her children who drank my diluted blood--so...Eruha’s nephew?
I also got a treasure chest full of rare books that had been carefully preserved. Imagined my surprise when I read that it came from the Di family patriarch--you know...the Elder who used to hate me? The grandpa of one of Natha’s vessels?
I mean...we weren’t exactly close, but I reckoned it was some kind of a peace offering without being too obvious. Although thinking that he might know I liked this kind of thing from his spies was kind of icky.
Honestly, I was already surprised that I got wedding gifts at all, so knowing some of them were given on such a personal level got me even more surprised. I got a crate full of fabrics with colorful motifs from the Oasis merchant associations, and Uncle Sol sent me a single journal, in which every page was actually a magic scroll of high-level spells--about a quarter of it was long-distance teleportation scrolls, with a note saying ’punch him and ran away if he annoys you’ tucked between the pages.
Amusing.
Even the vassals went out of their way to give me some gifts despite their busy schedules managing my wedding; from a box full of extremely rare, extremely delicious candy that looked like sparkling jewel from Lesta and Eruha--which finally made Jade happy, to a soft fluffy gloves that could conjure instant barrier from Caba and Haikal.
It was amusing thinking that they chose the gift as if it was my birthday instead of my wedding. But that showed that they actually knew me; that they sent their gift to Valen, not the Lord of Greed’s bride.
That didn’t mean the other gifts weren’t nice, though. But they did feel very generic and more of a courtesy; things like jewelry, beautiful pieces of tableware, vases, or...umm...some stuff that should never catch a minor’s eyes--especially a curious child like Jade. I stuffed those questionable things inside a locked cabinet in Natha’s locked office.
I did not think badly of them or anything, though. I reckoned they had tried to look for information about what I might like but...I really wasn’t around much--if at all. The only times I was out in public were during the banquet, the tour, and the trial. I had never attended any soiree or mingled with the nobles, so...how would they know?