The Broken Queen
The next morning.
The gates of Eurosola's royal castle were bustling with preparations as the escort carriages and troops readied for their departure to Valerium, the capital of Valerian.
The lively movements of the Valerian soldiers, drunk on the joy of victory, clashed with the hollow stares of the displaced Europian citizens who had lost their homeland.
"Ugh... General...!"
Right in front of me, Biensen was weeping.
Since he was my direct adjutant who had shared life and death with me ever since the muddy execution grounds, my own nose began to tingle with emotion.
"General... why would you place such a heavy burden on a worthless wretch like me?!"
Biensen wailed, clutching onto the hem of my clothes.
It seemed Sabre had already spilled the beans.
He must have subtly let slip that the title of second-class meritorious retainer and the position of Count of Kalsten—both of which I had adamantly refused—would be bestowed upon Biensen.
A low-ranking knight who had spent his entire life holding nothing but a sword was suddenly appointed to a key position as the count of a strategic territory that would soon become a grand duchy.
He must have felt twice the pressure I did.
"Please... please, General, take the Kalsten territory instead of me! I understand your noble intention to shield me by hiding behind me, not wanting to stain my name with the brand of a Europian traitor... but I, Biensen, do not have the ability to bear such weight!"
No, there's no noble intention. I just dumped the dirty work on you because I didn't want to get stabbed, you idiot.
I did my best to suppress the pangs of guilt in my conscience.
"Do not weep, Biensen."
At my single word, Biensen hiccuped and raised his head.
"From what I have seen of you, you will surely rule that territory and embrace the displaced people far better than I ever could."
"General...!"
"Once everything settles down and you find yourself coming up to the capital... seek me out then. I imagine I will be missing the drinks we used to share by that time."
At this parting speech, which made even me cringe, Biensen finally fell to his knees, kissed the top of my foot, and swore his loyalty.
Leaving Biensen behind, I climbed into the carriage, swallowing the sigh of relief that threatened to burst from my lips.
Whew, I survived. With this, the most dangerous chore is taken care of. Now all I have to do is go to the capital, hole up in Sabre's family mansion, and live a sweet, easy life.
Screeech—
However, the moment I opened the carriage door and stepped inside, I had to quickly stiffen the expression that had briefly relaxed.
Inside the escort carriage.
On the opposite seat, Yuno, the defeated queen of Europia now dressed in black mourning clothes, stared at me with an expressionless face.
"..."
"..."
Clunk.
The carriage set off with the heavy rumble of its wheels.
Blocked off from the outside noise, the interior of the carriage was silent.
Not knowing where to look, I merely glanced out the window at the receding walls of Eurosola.
This was the country of the father whose head I had personally severed, the homeland I had personally sold out.
I couldn't even begin to imagine how utterly devastated Yuno's heart must be.
I tried my best to suppress my presence and sit there like a folding screen.
But.
"...Why did you betray Europia?"
Breaking the silence, Yuno suddenly threw a question at me.
Startled, I looked at Yuno.
I had nothing to say.
I couldn't exactly say, I transmigrated into this body and surrendered because I didn't want to die.
So, tracing back through the original Lassen's memories, I spat out the most plausible answer.
"...Did Europia not betray me first?"
I pointed out the tosa-gupaeng—the political betrayal—where Chronos had driven Lassen into a dead end.
Yuno did not make excuses or get angry at my reply.
Instead, she nodded lonely.
"...I have nothing to say to that. It was my uncle's choice. His misjudgment ultimately brought about this entire catastrophe."
Yuno did not evade responsibility.
However.
"But... the man named Lassen whom I have observed all this time was not someone who would plunge a blade into his homeland, even in such a disgraceful situation."
...What?
My eyes darted around.
Wait a minute. Yuno and I... were we acquainted even before the war? She observed me?
In the original novel, Lassen was a character mentioned in a single line for early world-building before exiting the stage.
What kind of interactions he had with the royal family during his lifetime was not in my head.
A look of panic almost crossed my face, but I managed to stiffen my expression and vaguely averted my gaze, pretending to stroke my chin.
"People... are bound to change."
Yuno did not refute my pathetic answer, merely turning her gaze out the window with a hollow smile.
"Indeed... to Europia... no, Europia betrayed your expectations. It is all... Europia's shame... everything..."
Thank goodness.
As expected, Lassen's excessive loyalty had been abnormal.
She seemed to be misunderstanding me, in a similar vein to Sabre, as some wounded, fallen loyalist who had turned to the dark side.
But it was obvious things would get difficult if she started digging deeper into the past.
To change the subject, I threw a question back at her.
"...Do you trust Grand Duke Sabre? I heard you are going to Valerium as a captive yourself, leaving the young Princess Ceres behind in Eurosola."
At my question, Yuno turned her head to look at me again.
Not a single shred of lingering attachment remained in her eyes.
"At the very least... I only trust those I have witnessed with my own eyes. The only people from Valerian I have seen are Grand Duke Sabre, who keeps a minimum of faith... and you, Lassen, the traitor."
It was a truly dry assessment.
A queen of a defeated nation, stripped of everything and thrown into the heart of an enemy country.
From my perspective, she's just a romance fantasy female lead who's supposed to be flirting...
I felt deeply sorry for Yuno's plight.
Even though I had played a part in destroying her country, she was still the original female lead.
I wanted to ease her mind by using my knowledge of the original work to subtly hint that the future awaiting her wasn't entirely bleak.
"Once you enter Valerium, as a bloodline of the defeated royal family, you will inevitably be forcibly linked to the Valerian royal family. A marriage is highly likely."
I spoke in as light and positive a tone as possible.
"Perhaps... you will be matched with Prince Michael, who is of a similar age? Well, from what I have heard, he is a man of upright character, so it will not be such a bad marriage."
Prince Michael.
The male lead of the original novel, the innocent prince who would bicker with Yuno before eventually falling sweetly in love.
I was throwing her a spoiler-esque hope in my own way.
However.
"Haha... ha..."
Hearing my naive words, Yuno's shoulders suddenly shook, and she began to let out a small, incredulous laugh.
"Do you think... that would ever be accepted in Valerian?"
"Pardon?"
"Prince Michael is the prince standing highest in the line of succession to the Valerian throne. The capital will be teeming with powerful nobles seeking to become maternal relatives of the royal family... Do you think those cunning jackals will just stand by and watch me, a captive from a defeated nation, take the position of the next king's primary wife?"
For a moment, I was dazed, as if I had been struck hard on the back of the head.
"At best... I would be lucky to be thrown to some old duke in the provinces who was pushed out of the power struggle, or to become one of the concubines satisfying the lust of the current King of Valerian."
I really ruined things to an unbelievable degree.
The romance in the original novel I read was only possible because it was a political marriage predicated on a peace treaty signed when the two nations were equal in power.
But now, it was different.
Europia was a trampled, destroyed, defeated nation.
For the royalty of a defeated nation, there was no such thing as a political marriage as equal business partners.
She was merely destined to be thrown away as a sex toy, a trophy of the victorious nation.
"...Do you pity me?"
The profile of Yuno looking out the window in resignation was utterly sorrowful.
"O traitor Lassen, who was once Europia's proudest Holy Spear."
A corner of my chest throbbed with pain.
Pity welled up inside me.
But there was nothing I could do.
I can't afford to stand out anymore.
Simply keeping my head down to survive the war and leading the destruction of the kingdom had already pushed the value of my life to its absolute limit.
If I did something reckless like jumping into the capital's political arena under the guise of helping this pitiful female lead, the peaceful life of unemployment I dreamed of would be completely blown away.
I firmly shut my mouth, forcing my gaze down to the floor at Yuno's chilling question.
Silence settled over the carriage once more.
Yuno was lost in deep thought, staring at the scenery outside.
But then.
"..."
Yuno's pupils, which had been staring blankly out the window, suddenly shook precariously, and she whipped around to look at me.
"If... I am forced into the bed of someone in the Valerian royal family as a concubine, and I give birth to a child who carries both the blood of the royal family and the royalty of Europia..."
"Pardon?"
"If, by some chance, that child is born a son... even if the justification is lacking right now, the Valerian royal family are greedy enough to inflate even the smallest pretext..."
From the perspective of the Valerian royal family, who wished to declare an empire and seize centralized imperial power, a child carrying both Europian and Valerian blood would be an attractive excuse.
The royal family would use that child as a figurehead to push out Sabre, who was currently ruling Europia by proxy, and greedily seat a royal in his place to directly swallow the Europian lands.
"I... left Ceres in the care of Sabre, who at least has some honor, wishing for her to live a whole life without seeing any more blood... But what if a political war breaks out between Sabre and the royal family because of the bloodline born from me?"
Ceres, who was under Sabre's protection, would also be swept up and lose her life.
"...That can never happen."
A groan-like mutter escaped Yuno's lips.
Her two fists were clenched so tightly they had turned white, devoid of blood.
"Pardon? What did you just..."
Before I could even ask in my confusion—
Whoosh!
Yuno, who had been sitting opposite me, suddenly threw herself at me.
"Ack?!"
Sitting completely off-guard, I was pushed by Yuno's weight and slammed my back hard against the carriage wall.
And in the next instant—
Grab.
Yuno's two hands roughly grabbed my face, and her bloodless lips crashed onto mine.
"Mmph?! Umph!!"
There wasn't a single shred of sweetness.
There was only the stinging pain of clashing teeth inside my mouth.
W-what is this... Crazy, why is she suddenly doing this?!
The moment I grabbed her shoulders in surprise to push her away, Yuno pulled her lips back, panting.
And at a distance where our noses almost touched, she glared at me with eyes full of madness and commanded:
"Ravish me."
"...What? S-suddenly? Are you insane?!"
I let out a dumbfounded shriek in my panic.
But Yuno was already completely consumed by obsession and terror.
"Defile my body so those bastards of the Valerian royal family won't dare take me as a concubine! Make me a whore who cannot even set foot in the pure chambers of the royal palace! Destroy me... into a flawed woman who, though alive, is too shudderingly repulsive to even embrace!!"
Tears streamed down Yuno's face.
"The worst traitor of Europia, who killed my brother Hadeon... decapitated my cousin Jupiter... and pierced my uncle's heart! With those very filthy hands of yours... ravish me right now!!"
This woman... is completely out of her mind. Her obsession has crossed the limit!
Genuinely horrified, I felt a surge of fear as I grabbed Yuno's shoulders as she clung to me and shoved her away roughly.
"Get off me! Pull yourself together!!"
Thud!
Coinciding with a violent lurch of the carriage, the force of my push was too strong.
Yuno's body flew back and slammed hard against the opposite carriage wall.
Crack!
"Argh...!"
From the impact of hitting the wall, Yuno's slender left arm bent at a bizarre angle.
The bone was broken.
"Gasp! A-are you alright?!"
Just as I was about to reach out in shock.
Yuno didn't even look at her broken, dangling left arm.