The Emperor Who Was Mad Enough to Be Forgiven for Anything
“That problem, I can solve myself.”
“Oh? You can?”
“I happen to have developed a mana restraint device. We can use that.”
Strictly speaking, it had been Regina’s invention, not Herais’s. But he ignored that little detail and claimed the credit for himself.
So far, the only accomplishments Herais could point to openly were trivial things—having the Magic Corps collect materials from slain monsters and process them into magic tools, and similar work that could never have been done without Regina.
Yet he felt no guilt whatsoever.
“A method like that exists!”
“If the rebels’ lackeys refuse orders and try to run, then we simply cut them down, don’t we?”
The emperor clicked his tongue at Herais’s unfiltered cruelty.
“Tsk! To be a ruler, you must also possess compassion.”
Having just put down Herais, who had been starting to act up, the emperor fell briefly silent as if lost in thought before nodding once.
“Still, your words are not wrong. A tool that won’t obey is useless.”
When it came to cruelty, there was no one who could outmatch the emperor. Looking around the room, he seemed satisfied to see the nobles bowing their heads and avoiding his gaze.
“Order the Magic Corps to take charge of the empire’s industry. Keep them using mana so the magic tools can continue operating. I’ll leave the management of it to you, Crown Prince.”
“I shall obey, Your Majesty.”
Herais accepted the emperor’s command with delight, having just secured the most powerful tool in the Ferman Empire in an instant.
As soon as the emperor left the council chamber, the nobles gathered around Herais and began to speak.
“To resolve His Majesty’s worries at once! As expected, you are brilliant, Your Highness the Crown Prince.”
“Congratulations, Your Highness. You’ve achieved exactly what you wanted. If the Magic Corps are used as tools, won’t you be able to produce even more magic tools?”
“And at need, they could even make mana bullets containing their own mana.”
That would be no different from gaining far more weapons, and the nobles showered him with praise one after another.
Herais answered each of them in turn and savored their flattery as he left the chamber.
One person followed after him. The nobles in the council chamber were too busy wondering what effect today’s events would have on them to notice.
Once Herais had slipped into a shadowed corridor where no one could see him, he turned back. At just that moment, an earl who had approached him bowed deeply.
“Your Highness the Crown Prince.”
“Earl Wallas.”
The earl folded his hands and smiled slyly.
“That leaves only the crown.”
“Of course. Do you think I endured all this trouble just to get here?”
Herais recalled everything he had plotted until now.
When, in his childhood, he discovered he possessed no remarkable mana of his own, he had laid plans simply to survive.
As part of those plans, he had continued to trample Regina. But when her mana outshone his, alarm had crept in.
So Herais had made his move again, sending Regina out to the border at the head of the Magic Corps. If she was taken out of the emperor’s sight, then her excellence would be hidden, too.
“Did you find the princess?”
“Not yet, but we discovered traces of monsters.”
To monsters, the blood and flesh of a mage were an irresistible delicacy.
There was no way Regina, battered as she must have been, could have held out against a swarm of monsters.
“She’s dead, without a doubt. What could she have done in that useless body of hers, unable even to use magic?”
Still, Herais could not quite relax.
He felt as though he would not be able to sleep soundly until he had confirmed that the illegitimate girl was truly dead.
If Regina, who had been hailed as the incarnate form of the Archmage, were somehow alive, she might one day put a knife to the throat of the emperor he had become.
Some of the mages who had once followed Regina had already vanished quietly near the border. They might have found traces of their master.
“If she’s dead, bring me the body. If she’s alive, then make sure you turn her into a proper corpse and bring her back.”
Earl Wallas said with a troubled expression, “But... it is not easy to send people beyond the Magic Barrier, Your Highness. You know that.”
“Just in case, I prepared a gap in one part of the barrier that can be opened and closed easily.”
“What? A gap in the barrier?”
Even for a sycophant, the thought of a permanent opening in the border that held back the monster waves was enough to send a chill down his spine.
Herais clicked his tongue and added, “I mean a space made so that only people, not monsters, can pass through.”
This had been designed by Herais from the beginning.
Of course, the barrier itself had been raised by Regina.
But Herais had cleverly worked his way into her magic circle and prepared a passage that could be used to send troops in an emergency.
It was a gap that could be opened only with his blood as the key.
A trap had also been set to reduce approaching monsters to ashes. The idea had come from Regina’s research: the temperature of a human body and the temperature of a monster were different.
“As expected, you are brilliant.”
Herais had exceptional talent for handling mana with precision.
Though he lacked vast reserves of mana, he possessed knowledge that could more than make up for it.
Without Regina, he would surely have made a name for himself through mana control and magic circles alone.
Indeed, Wallas thought, his decision to serve this man had not been wrong.
“I’ll lend you my mages.”
Herais’s own faction was home to the empire’s finest mages after Regina’s Magic Corps.
More than that, they possessed all manner of magic tools Regina had invented over the years. Now that the Magic Corps had fallen, there was no knight order in the Ferman Empire capable of defeating them.
The only one who could even stand against him was Earl Wallas, but he had no desire to hinder Herais—only to help him.
“Very well, Your Highness. I will follow your wishes.”
The earl smiled and stepped closer to Herais.
“Do not worry too much. It is rather concerning that Your Highness, who must soon lead this Ferman Empire, pushes yourself so hard.”
Seen in sunlight, their faces were so similar up close that one might have mistaken them for father and son.
The color of their eyes and hair at least differed, which kept people from easily noticing the resemblance.
Herais stepped away from Earl Wallas and curled one corner of his lips.
“You’re that worried about me?”
“I am, Your Highness. From now on, you must take even better care of your health.”
At the earl’s obedient attitude, Herais issued one more command before moving away.
“Then find the corpse.”
***
Warm golden light fell across Regina’s face.
Her eyelids fluttered, and Conrad, watching her, reached out and shielded her from the glare.
As she settled back into peaceful sleep, Conrad wrapped his arms around her and lowered his lips to her with a satisfied smile.
His lips touched her rounded forehead, then quickly lifted again, lest he wake her—but his blue eyes did not leave her.
Aura has grown stronger.
Regina had only finally fallen asleep at dawn, and now she lay in his arms, breathing evenly.
As Conrad examined her body from head to toe, he could still feel aura and mana flowing between the place where they touched.
He narrowed his eyes at the crescent-shaped seal, faintly glowing red.
I’ll need to look into this further.
Their marriage had been arranged to remove Regina’s seal, but Conrad had no intention of ending this marriage lightly.
That was why he had signed the marriage contract before the wedding was even finalized. In the Fredericks Empire, if one wished to divorce, one first had to find the marriage contract hidden in the temple.
But the contract would not appear at all unless both spouses agreed.
Once, he had sneered at the divine will that seemed to force eternal love between husband and wife.
Why should a god decide the contents of a person’s heart?
Even he could not fully understand his own heart, so Conrad had never liked the idea of submitting a marriage contract to the temple in the first place.
And yet he had never imagined he would one day make use of that very restriction he had disliked.
If he did not consent, Regina could not run away through divorce.
Hmm.
The fact that Regina Ferman, so bold and defiant, now belonged to him completely was more satisfying than he had expected.
A thick finger brushed gently through her soft red hair with quiet contentment.
Then, all at once, he remembered Cain’s eyes as they had rested on Regina yesterday.