When the wedding day arrived, Prince Karl, who had come from Sigmaringen, took over Archduke Ferdinand's duties, while Archduke Ferdinand returned to his daughter Karina's side.
November 3, 1873.
The wedding was held at ten in the morning at St. Augustine's Abbey Church. It was where members of the House of Habsburg were baptized and married; historically, Empress Theresa had married here.
Because the Hechingen Royal Family had moved to East Africa, the wedding could not fully follow the European procedure. After all, the Hechingen Royal Family could not truly invite so many distinguished guests to East Africa. It was not that they lacked the capacity to receive them—rather, the mere word "Africa" was enough to scare off a whole crowd.
The wedding carriage made Ernst want to complain. It looked like the sort of pumpkin carriage from the illustrations of Grimm's Fairy Tales he had seen in his previous life. Although Ernst knew this was perfectly normal in the West, his aesthetic tastes naturally remained, by force of habit, rooted in his previous life.
"Karina!" Ernst gallantly invited Karina into the wedding carriage, and it slowly set off.
Though she was still rather young, Karina had her own opinions. Overall, she was satisfied with Ernst, which was only realistic. Political marriages did not speak of love; being somewhat familiar with one's marriage partner was already a bonus. Besides, Ernst was not ugly. His looks were somewhat ordinary, but there were no real flaws.
The honor guard was jointly formed by East Africa and Austria. Constrained by tradition, the East African soldiers were also dressed in exceptionally gaudy uniforms. Their bright red ceremonial attire utterly failed to bring out the bearing of East African soldiers.
However, they would have a separate chance to perform that afternoon. By then, they would