Chapter 29
The wedding day came by in a flash.
Several things happened before the wedding. The Dowager Empress sent an old maid over, and this maid supposably has served her and the young princes all her life, so she holds significant regard in court. The maid is named Chiyo, and she seemed to be extremely loyal to the Dowager Empress. She was in charge of teaching Sakura various court rules and manners, to which Sakura absorbs without complaint, but this does not mean she doesn't try her hardest to duck out of them whenever she has a change. Unfortunately for Sakura, Chiyo brought a small army of court maids that is able to find Sakura and nag her all the time, so she have to attend all etiquette sessions. There seem to be endless rules on etiquette. Most of which Sasuke doesn't care about.
Secondly, for the two months before the wedding, Sasuke did not touch her at all. She could feel a great restraint on his part though, and Sakura have mixed feeling about this. Part of her wants to say just get it over with, and another part is dreading, assuming it wouldn't live up to expectations. She was in her mid to late twenties in her previous life, and she has had sexual experience, and none of it was ever mind blowingly spectacular. She remembered the concubine that was with her when she first moved in, and how pretty they were—most of them.
Speaking of, those concubine have been sent away, and the only female that's eligible to climb onto his bed is her.
Third, he built a small courtyard for her. It was supposed to be a surprise the day when he took her to the Royal Court, and it formed its completion when they returned from their visit to the Haruno household. It was a nature scene courtyard, with willows, cherry blossoms, spring bushes, various succulents and large flowers planted in the most artistic manner, along with a fence in one section of the yard for wildlife. Sasuke went hunting a few times during these past two months, and often he would bring back something for her to keep. At first it was a fawn, then a small bunny, and most recently he gave her a baby duck.
It was fuzzy and brown all over. The Royal Prince, a man of few words, picked it up from some court official who tried to please him, and observed it for a few seconds. The poor creature croaked pathetically, its eyes bright and mischievous. Sasuke smiled and thanked the official with a simple nod and tossed it in Sakura's arms when he arrived back in their manor.
Sakura wondered how old he assume she was, because usually baby chicks and ducks are given to children. Nevertheless the little guy looked so cute, she held onto it and smothered it in hugs and kisses, then brought it back to the courtyard. Her attending maids were delirious with the little creature, bringing pots of water for the little guy to splash in. Until one young servant suddenly exclaimed, "look at its legs, why are they so long!"
It turns out the creature wasn't a duck, it was a baby crane. It haven't formed white features yet.
A little while later, Sakura wanted to do some gardening, so she cleared a space in the courtyard just for planting vegetables and berries. It was a weird adventure, despite many people's argument for against. They mainly avert the idea due to the smell. Fertilizers of the ancient are animal poop, and it might linger around the air for a while. Sakura, despite everyone's wishes, still planted gardens, and fertilized the soil with alfalfa seeds first.
Household affairs were slowly being taken over by Sakura. She has a hand in practically everything, and the butler slowly shifts his role towards reporting to Sakura for none emergency affairs. Such as wages, management of staff, rationing, entertainment and pleasure, finances, equipments and planning... Sakura did come from the 21st century after all. She has worked in corporate office and has gained various experiences, so she took these on with ease after getting familiar with them. She begin to think of ways to save, to stop spending money so luxuriously, and begin to find some charities to fund. She founded a few charities which are set up near the manor, and dismissed servants who wishes to be bought out of their contracts, and welcomed new young recruits who hoped to have a chance to prove themselves. She abolished corporal punishments under her management, and replaced it with more effective discipline strategies such as group discussion, counseling, and pay cuts. There were many more things she wanted to do, but she begin to ease into them bit by bit, hoping to manage the manor with more expeditious efforts.
Every night when Sasuke spends the nights at home, she would sit with him and tell him the changes she makes. Sometimes she would make mistakes, and she wouldn't complain. She would tell them with facts and immediately comes up with plans to rectify. Sometimes she would ask him for advice, and most of the time his answer would be, "Do as you wish" with adoration.
The days seemed to fly by when the wedding was upon them. Due to the fact that this was the Royal Prince's first wedding, despite the bride is not going to be an actual Princess, Princess consorts is pretty much as same as the actual Princess title. Sakura was the one in charge of all household duties, which were generally reserved for the Princess. It's been long rumored that the Prince would never take another Princess after Sakura, so everyone treated it like it's the only wedding the Prince will ever have.
On the day of the wedding, the whole street of the city center, all ten kilometer of it, were lined with red carpets and robes. Red lanterns were hung every two meters, and many, many red confetti and fire crackers were lit. The concession was at least fifty meters long, and there were two hundred children dressed in red all stood in rows throwing cherry blossom petals. All the important officials came, and Sakura rode in the most lavish red carriage garnished with dragons on each of the four corner of the roof. Her wedding gown alone weights eight kilograms, with a robe train extending three meters behind her, and embroidered with a phoenix so life like it looked as if it's going to burst into flames from her red robe. her hair was done up in an elaborate do with curls and twists framing her had, and various jewelries made form gold and jade totes and head crown that made her neck sore. Then her entire head was covered with a red silk clothes that could only be taken off by the Prince. She could barely walk with everything on her. Not to mention the fact her head was covered and she can't see. She was led by a child through the entire entrance into the manor, and arriving at a heavily decorated main courtyard.
A royal officiate was standing in the middle, bellowing out chants, and the couple bowed in between. The Prince does not look out of place at all in all red. He could be wearing rags and make it look fantastic.
Sakura was then led to the newlywed quarters while Sasuke went to entertain all the guests. She knew it would take a while for him to get back, so she flung the red head cover off and begin to eat some of the food being laid out on the tea table.
At the far end of the room, there was a chest decorated in gold trimmings, and Sakura, out of curiosity, opened it and saw what was inside.
It was an ivory seven-layered intricately carved ball. A present from the Emperor.
XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx
TBC
