Chapter 156: Exposure and Voyeurism
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 156: Exposure and Voyeurism
The soil of the Northern Continent is barren. Most of it is rocky, making it difficult for crops to grow, and the climate is harsh.
In the far north, especially, snow falls year-round, making farming an impossible dream.
That was why commerce had developed. After all, people had to find a way to survive.
Thus, most cities on the Northern Continent grew near the few patches of arable land. Aran, the largest city and the royal capital, was no exception.
Not long after leaving the Holy Land and turning onto the road to Aran, I was greeted by fields of green rye, their sprouts just beginning to push through the soil.
“We should arrive before sunset,” Cynthia said, riding beside me. With the Archbishop remaining in the Holy Land to prepare for the papal coronation, she had volunteered to be my guide.
“Did you say you’ve been to the capital before?”
“For any member of the clergy, the royal capital of Aran is the second most important place to visit in one’s lifetime.”
“Because it’s the birthplace of the empire?”
The Northern Continent was the cradle of the faith and the starting point of the first empire recorded in history.
And it was impossible for an empire founded on the Northern Continent to be unrelated to religion.
The founding emperor himself was a devout believer, so the empire took the lead in spreading the faith. I believe he’s even treated as a saint by the church, isn’t he?
“Most nobles I know recoil at the mere sight of letters, but you, my lord, are quite knowledgeable about history.”
I glanced at Cynthia. Her expression was as unreadable as ever.
“Since when do you stoop to flattery?”
“I was merely stating a fact.”
“But you’re the type of person who wouldn’t bother stating a fact if it could be mistaken for flattery.”
“…”
Sometimes, silence is an answer. This was one of those times. A corner of my mouth twitched at her silence.
“I suppose it makes sense, now that you have nowhere else to go.”
Cynthia disliked Alex. That was an undeniable fact.
However, Alex had also been her reliable safety net. No matter the situation, he would have welcomed her with open arms.
But now he was dead.
Furthermore, the events in the Holy Land had turned the Pope, who had positioned himself as her protector, into an enemy.
Considering her abilities, finding another protector would be easy. The problem was, there was no telling how that new protector would treat her.
Was this not the age of barbarism?
Most potential candidates would likely oppress her and use her as a tool to exploit her powers.
Compared to that, the Pope, who had merely suppressed her freedom and used her as a propaganda tool, was a gentleman. There was a reason she had never left his side.
“Still, it seems I’ve earned at least some of your trust.”
In other words, instead of risking a protector of poor character, she had decided to rely on me, someone who had treated her as an individual.
Our journey together until now must have been a process of confirming whether I was truly someone she could trust.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Cynthia played dumb, drawing a line by insisting she was only accompanying me to the end. I would have to give more thought to her true intentions, however.
“Then, how far will you accompany me?”
“…”
Clip-clop.
As Cynthia fell silent again, the only sound between us was the clopping of hooves. Her lips didn’t part again until the distant walls of Aran came into view.
“I will acknowledge your claim that you don’t want me for my ability. To you, who is immune to it, my value is less than it is to others.”
I nodded.
“You’re right about that. I’m not denying its usefulness, but it doesn’t work on me or my women.”
“If all you truly want is my body and my beauty… very well. I will be your mistress, so do as you please. But I have conditions of my own.”
It was common for a nobleman to keep a mistress in addition to his wife. It was hardly a flaw; in fact, a noble without a mistress or two was considered strange.
However, that was a standard applied only to male nobles. A mistress, on the other hand, was bound to face harsh scrutiny.
Cynthia couldn’t have been ignorant of this, yet she declared her willingness to become my mistress with a calm face.
The problem was, I didn’t want that.
“Conditions?”
I smiled inwardly and decided to see what she was getting at with all this preamble.
“I want a life without want, and I want safety.”
“The former is a given, but I don’t understand the latter. Safety? Who would threaten you?”
“There are your women, are there not?”
“So, you’re saying my women would threaten you?”
Honestly, I couldn’t imagine my women threatening Cynthia.
Aenya would be delighted to have a new toy. The experienced Piole would probably just go along with it, as long as my love for her didn’t diminish.
Eleanor, who might secretly dislike it, was also vying for the position of Aenya’s first wife, so she was highly likely to show magnanimity. Besides, as fellow witches, they would share a sense of kinship.
As for Adeleade and Eusebia, they were obedient women who would follow my word without complaint.
“You shouldn’t underestimate a woman’s jealousy. The world of women is far messier than men think. And if a beauty like myself were to enter the picture, even a chaste noblewoman would become hostile.”
“Aren’t you embarrassed to say that yourself?”
“It is an objective fact.”
Cynthia said it without a change in expression. She was genuinely worried that her life would be in danger due to jealousy over her beauty.
I found it absurd.
“Aren’t you looking down on my women a little too much?”
Cynthia stared at me as if to ask what I was talking about, her fine brow furrowed slightly.
“Not a single one of my women is inferior to you. Moreover, one of them possesses a beauty that overwhelms yours.”
I was talking about Aenya. Every time we reunited after being apart, she had grown so much, becoming more and more like the fatal beauty from the game.
It had already been nearly half a year since I came to the Northern Continent, so she must be even prettier by now. Perhaps so much so that Cynthia couldn’t even compare…
“Are you taking their side just because they’re your women?”
It seemed Cynthia was a woman after all, judging by how sensitively she reacted to the topic of beauty.
“I, too, am stating an objective fact. But more importantly, I’m seeing you in a new light. I never knew you were so confident in your looks.”
“It’s not confidence, it’s a fact.”
There was a new force in Cynthia’s voice. Her face seemed a little flushed, too. I wondered if she knew how cute she looked, trying so hard to hide her embarrassment.
Unable to hold back any longer, I suddenly grabbed her arm and pulled her onto the saddle in front of me. Despite the added person, the warhorse merely snorted once.
“…What are you doing?”
I tied the reins of her horse to my saddle so it would follow, then faced her. The saddle was so narrow that we could feel each other’s breath.
Not satisfied with that, I wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her even closer.
Her neatly tied-up hair accentuated her delicate features, her defiant eyes, and the profound green eyes beneath them that seemed to hold the mysteries of the universe.
“W-Wait…”
Finally showing a flustered expression, Cynthia pushed against my shoulders to create some distance. But there was no way she could escape my strength.
“Didn’t you say I could do as I please?”
I held her gaze as I spoke.
Her trembling eyes darted about, avoiding my stare. But with my hand on the nape of her neck, there was no escape.
Only when I kissed her gently did her wide-open eyes focus and look up at me.
“Hmph-”
I licked her cute lips lightly before pulling away. Cynthia hastily covered her mouth with both hands.
“You’d better get used to it.”
I kissed her cheek, then moved on to nibble her earlobe before whispering into her ear, blowing hot breath. Her body trembled faintly.
A beat later, she pushed against my shoulders again, trying to create distance. Her face, redder than ever before, looked like it was about to burst.
“Are you trying to brush this aside? I still haven’t received an answer to my conditions.”
And yet, she tried to sound cold and composed, seemingly unaware of her own appearance.
“You have nothing to worry about. I will take you as my wife.”
“Am I supposed to believe you’ll take me as your wife, out of all your many women? After saying the others are more beautiful than I am?”
“It’s not just you.”
“What… Don’t tell me you intend to take multiple wives, like they do in the East? That’s heresy!”
Cynthia had studied theology and become a priest out of necessity. Perhaps because of her ability, she seemed to have little to no faith in God when we spoke.
But having grown up in an environment inevitably influenced by religion, her values had unknowingly been shaped to resemble those of a cleric.
“Doesn’t the scripture mention men who had many wives? It says not to neglect your existing wife and her children just because you take a new one.”
“That’s…”
“Is that all? Every so often, a descendant of the Lord with multiple wives appears.”
She must have forced herself to study the scripture to play the part of a saintess, so she would know what I was talking about.
“You’ve studied theology as well?”
Surprise spread across Cynthia’s face.
“Why wouldn’t I have the same concerns as you?”
As the saying goes, you must bring order to your home before you can rule a nation.
A stable household is necessary to govern a country. It’s only natural that the more women there are, the more the sound of breaking plates in the household will increase. I had devised many measures to ensure domestic stability.
“So… you studied theology just so you could take more wives?”
Was it just studying? The reason I went through the trouble of crowning the Archbishop as Pope was to gain the church’s help in advancing my plans.
“Why? Is there a problem with that?”
“Ha…”
Her look of disbelief deepened. In that opening, I slyly moved the hand wrapped around her waist downward.
“W-Wait—people won’t accept it! There’s always resistance to anything new. Furthermore, changing the institution of marriage is…”
“That would be true if I tried to change the whole system. But what if I’m content with a few exceptions? For instance, only nobles or the king being allowed to have multiple wives.”
It was common for nobles to take mistresses. How many would truly object to making that legal?
“The nobles will oppose it too! It will complicate rights of succession! They might even use this as a pretext to attack you!”
Cynthia’s voice grew louder, not because she was worried about me, but because my hand had begun to grope her bottom as if kneading dough.
“There will be no nobles in the empire I build.”
Why do you think I took on all the tedious and headache-inducing administrative tasks myself, without increasing the number of my vassals? It was because an empire could only be established by reducing the power of the nobility.
“What are you—”
“The long war has reduced the number of nobles on the Northern Continent to an unprecedented low. After one final battle, there will be no power left to oppose me.”
And that wasn’t all. Bronx II on the Western Continent was conveniently gathering the nobles, making them easier to deal with. It had been worth leaving my post vacant.
“I will use the church to temporarily fill the void left by the nobles. After that, officials I appoint myself will manage the domains. That will be the beginning of the empire.”
Outside of the cities and grand domains, nobles run their territories with the help of the church. This meant the church could replace the nobility without much trouble.
In fact, weren’t the priests in charge of the Coastal City Alliance’s administration doing a fine job? Even if the dark circles under their eyes were getting worse by the day.
Besides, with the Pope and the Saintess in my hands, getting the church’s help wouldn’t be difficult.
“…You woman-crazy bastard—”
“I can hear you, you know.”
“Hmph—”
Having revealed her inner thoughts by mistake, Cynthia slapped both hands over her mouth in shock. In truth, this raw reaction was closer to her real self.
She had only been acting as a saintess under the Pope’s orders. Having grown up in an orphanage seeing all the ugly sides of the world, there was no way she would be like a noble lady.
“But you don’t seem happy. If my plan succeeds, you’ll become a queen.”
“Me… a queen?”
Only then did the strength in Cynthia’s hands, which had been trying to push me away, slacken slightly. Due to her background, she was bound to have strong material desires. Wasn’t one of her conditions a life without want?
But it was only for a moment. She began to resist fiercely again, struggling to push me away.
“Do you think I’d fall for such sweet talk? Duke Signir and Count Dresden have the justification of royal blood. But you are nothing but a guest commander with no legitimacy whatsoever.”
“Is that so?”
“What are you—”
Before she could finish,
Bwooooo—
The sound of a horn echoed. She whipped her head around to look forward, and her eyes filled with the sight of a dense crowd, flower petals scattering in all directions, and roaring cheers.
We had entered the royal capital while we were bickering.
At the head of the grand welcoming ceremony were Count Dresden and Duke Signir, who had come out to greet us. The Count’s face was brighter than ever.
“Son-in-law! You’ve finally arrived!”
The funny thing was that he didn’t hesitate to call me son-in-law, even though I was on a single horse with Cynthia, practically embracing her.
I whispered in a voice only Cynthia could hear.
“No legitimacy, you say?”
I was Count Dresden’s prospective son-in-law. If the Count and his two sons were to meet an untimely end, my and Adeleade’s son would have the legitimate claim.
“D-Do you think Duke Signir will allow it?”
As if on cue, Duke Signir walked past Count Dresden and approached us.
“Oh! My comrade-in-arms, with whom I shared life and death, has finally returned! I told you before, didn’t I? That I’d introduce you to my daughter. Isabel, say hello. This is Baron Allen.”
Beside him was a young girl who looked to be about fifteen or sixteen.
Cynthia’s brow twitched upon seeing the pretty girl, younger than herself. Moreover, hadn’t both the Duke and the Count treated her as if she were invisible?
She pinched my arm. Just moments ago, she had been struggling against becoming my wife, and now she was starting to act like one.
I let out a soft laugh and whispered again.
“It seems you’re the one who’s truly jealous…”
Cynthia’s face turned red all the way down to her neck.