One Artifact for Every Life
“And an artifact, too?”
That the Madarin Barony had a cache of magical artifacts was supposed to be classified information, yet somehow the rumor had already spread this far.
Was it Conrad?
She couldn’t think of anyone else.
But Conrad had nothing to gain from revealing it.
If it wasn’t him, then she had no way of knowing how the rumor had leaked.
It felt as though her heart had frozen solid.
More than saving people with what she had, she could already see the future repeating itself: being used as a tool for power, only to have suspicion and condemnation come back to her in return.
Her unease and pressure settled over her shoulders like a heavy boulder.
“Then what do you intend to do?”
Only when Limutan’s voice reached her did Regina finally pull herself free of those dark thoughts.
“I’ll have to face it head-on. As for the extermination, I’ll think about it after I’ve recovered the financial authority. Prepare a tea party.”
“Understood, Your Imperial Majesty.”
If she could restore the mana she had possessed when she led the mage corps of the Ferman Empire, she was confident she could satisfy the expectations of high society.
No matter how savage the monsters might be, with her power she should be able to buy the knights enough time to shield themselves.
But I don’t have enough mana.
Regina bit down hard on her lip and curled her hand into a fist.
Suddenly, the air felt cold.
The newly prepared study in the Empress's Palace was cozy, but somehow it felt hollow. With the person she always faced nowhere in sight, she had the strange sense that something was missing.
It had only been two days since she moved into the Empress's Palace, yet Regina was already feeling the ache of absence.
Absence?
Had Conrad’s presence become that large before she even realized it?
Regina forcibly pushed the thought away.
“Your Imperial Majesty, His Imperial Majesty has arrived.”
When the study door opened and Conrad stepped inside, Regina drew in a slow breath. Her complexion was still poor.
Conrad strode in and studied her face.
“Are you unwell?”
“No, I’m fine.”
“Limutan.”
She was about to deny it at once, but before she could get another word out, Conrad turned to his aide.
“You’ve heard the latest noise from high society?”
It wasn’t serious enough to report to the emperor, but Limutan repeated to Conrad exactly what he had told Regina.
“I see. You may leave us.”
Limutan quietly tidied the documents on the desk and then slipped out of the study in a hurry.
Conrad had taken in the whole situation at a glance. He came to Regina’s side and took her waist in his hands.
“Ah!”
He lifted her right up and set her on the desk, then stretched out both arms.
His hands landed just beside Regina’s legs. Caught within the circle of his arms, pressed against the desk, Regina flustered.
“Why—”
“Limutan can’t understand us, Regina.”
Conrad’s voice was so soft it might as well have been sweet.
“Only those who stand at the head of a group, like you and me, can truly understand one another.”
“Conrad.”
“I, too, used to forge a new sword for every life that fell.”
“……”
“And you?”
“One artifact for every life.”
That was why Regina had been churning out so many magical artifacts during her years in the Ferman Empire.
In truth, making artifacts was just a pastime for those with little mana in Ferman.
“What the hell do you even plan to do with those worthless trinkets?”
In the Ferman Empire, where nearly everyone awakened their mana, artifacts were hardly useful. If you needed magic, you simply used magic.
Convenience artifacts for daily life were so common they were even exported to the enemy nation, the Fredericks Empire. That was why Herais had never understood Regina, who kept making little gadgets and tools.
“That must have been hard.”
At Conrad’s small, quiet comfort, Regina finally let her tears fall.
When moisture gathered in those large eyes, Conrad lowered his lips to the corner of one eye, gentle and lingering.
“I was the same.”
“Conrad.”
“The lives I carry on my back number in the dozens, the hundreds, the thousands.”
“Mine, too.”
No one valued the lives of the knights and mages who died. Unless they were blood family or close kin, the dead were easily forgotten and just as easily erased.
It was especially true for the mage corps Regina led, since it had been made up of wanderers. Unless they had been classmates in the same corps, people barely remembered them at all.
“Conrad. I’m scared.”
“What are you afraid of?”
Conrad asked her in a gentle voice.
“I’m afraid of the burden the nobles demand I carry.”
It was the same burden Regina had once shouldered in the Ferman Empire. And what had come back to her after carrying it was betrayal.
Once betrayed, who could promise she wouldn’t be betrayed twice?
Regina was afraid of all of it.
For now, everyone looked at her with reverence—but what if they learned she had once been the commander of the Ferman Empire’s mage corps?
Would they throw stones at her, accusing her of killing their families and driving them to the brink? Or would they curse her?
“Regina.”
Conrad rubbed the bridge of his prominent nose against hers. She reflexively tried to turn away, but stopped at the tenderness in the gesture, at the warmth threaded through it.
“From now on, I’ll share your burdens in half.”
“……”
Regina only bit her lip. No one had ever said anything like that to her before. They had only ever demanded duty and obligation.
“If you don’t guard the border, then who will?”
“You’re not going to join the extermination? Do you mean to let all those imperial citizens die?”
“That’s your duty as the commander of the mage corps!”
Her blood relatives had all said the same thing. It has to be you. You must do it.
And once the monster problem was solved, they had discarded her. She had thought there was no more room left in her to be hurt—but that wasn’t true.
The wound she had taken once had split open and festered from within.
“Conrad.”
“From now on, I am your husband and your partner, so I’ll take half the burden you carry. So will you take my burden with me?”
The tears that had been held back at last spilled free, soaking Regina’s cheeks.
Conrad wiped away the tears streaming down her face with his fingers, then smiled at her and teased her gently.
“Is that a no?”
“……No. No, it isn’t.”
How could she not want that?
Regina swallowed the words she couldn’t quite bring herself to say and answered him instead.
She had thought she was holding up well in this strange place, but the truth was, it had been hard.
Seeing her subordinates again had been a relief, but it had also made her nerves tense all the more. She had even asked them to bring her artifacts while keeping it secret from Conrad.
On top of that, she had to spar with the Grand Empress Chloe every single day.
Conrad’s blue eyes slowly traced the broken look on Regina’s face.
With tears caught at the corners of her eyes and that sorrowful smile turned toward him, something in his chest gave a sharp ache.
Why is this…
Conrad’s lips touched the corner of her eye. He had only meant to kiss away the tear, but when she didn’t pull back, he decided he wouldn’t hold himself back any longer.
Regina had been subtly avoiding him all this time, and that had been building into a quiet irritation.
As the light kiss deepened and desire began to seep into it, Regina grew flustered.
“Conrad, th—”
“Don’t want it?”
Before Regina could get the words out, Conrad asked first.
“……No, that’s not it, but—”
“Then behave and give yourself to me.”
Conrad’s weight settled over Regina’s body. Her back met the desk.
He devoured her red lips and roughly plundered her mouth. The heat touching the tip of her tongue made Regina’s fingers curl. In an instant, warmth swallowed her whole from head to toe.
Conrad’s hand, which had been hungrily stealing her lips, moved lower.
In one swift motion, he pulled down Regina’s dress and took in the swaying curve of her breasts. Though he hadn’t properly touched her yet, the sight of her taut nipples made him grin wickedly.
“Why are these already like this?”
“That’s, ahh…!”
He didn’t even wait for her answer before taking one pebbled peak into his mouth and sucking hard.