The Emperor's "Gift"
A faint ripple stirred across the throne room.
The faces of several high ministers who held lands in the north darkened at once.
The moment I heard that outrageous and utterly brutal proposal, I dropped to one knee without hesitation and bowed my head low.
“Your Majesty’s grace is immeasurable, yet this humble subject, Lassen, is unworthy of receiving such favor.”
I poured every ounce of earnestness and sincerity I could muster into my voice as I politely refused.
“Governing a fief and ruling its people is far too noble a task for someone like me. I am simply… grateful that this long and tiresome war has ended beneath Your Majesty’s dignity. All I wish is to live out the rest of my days in quiet peace, without shedding any more blood.”
At my answer, King Valeran furrowed his brows in clear puzzlement.
“You do not want a fief? Then where exactly does a man from Europia—who has no roots in Valerian—intend to live in this vast empire without any land of his own?”
“Grand Duke Sabre has shown me tremendous kindness and granted me permission to reside for the time being at the Calista Mansion in the capital, where his family stays. I plan to remain there for a while… and slowly search for a place to settle while savoring the atmosphere of Your Majesty’s magnificent capital, Valerium.”
I wasn’t sure whether the apjonbeop rule applied in this romance-fantasy world, but I reported my future plans using it anyway.
A short silence fell over the throne room.
King Valeran stroked his chin, lost in thought.
“He wants neither land, nor power, nor gold and jewels…”
The king muttered under his breath.
“How very like the Holy Spear to be so free of greed. A knight’s romance, refusing to stand upon the blood he himself has spilled…”
It seemed he had finished calculating something in his mind.
“A traitor to his own country, yet…”
After that deliberately audible whisper, the corner of his mouth lifted in a sly grin.
“Still, that simply won’t do.”
“…Pardon?”
“I have already declared before the entire world that, as emperor of the unified continent, I would bestow the first reward upon you. If the enemy general who contributed the most merit steps back saying he wants nothing and will simply live as a guest in another man’s house, how stingy and ridiculous will the first reward of Valerian appear in the history books of later generations!”
King Valeran’s voice gradually grew louder.
“For the sake of my own dignity, I must personally place the greatest trophy of all into your hands!”
Something was going horribly wrong.
Standing atop the dais, King Valeran spread his arms wide and shouted so that every person in the throne room could hear him clearly.
“To Lassen, I grant as wife the defeated queen of Europia who stands there—Yuno!”
“…Eh?”
I doubted my own ears and let out a stupid sound.
Beside me, Yuno—who had also been kneeling—jerked her head up.
She was staring at me, eyes wide with shock.
“Ooooh—!”
“We are moved by Your Majesty’s profound and merciful generosity!”
Before I could even open my mouth, the central ministers standing in formation clapped in perfect unison and began showering praise as if on cue.
“What a beautiful harmony this is! The union of an enemy queen and the traitor general who destroyed her homeland!”
“This is a true display of the empire’s magnanimity before all the world!”
King Valeran nodded in response to their flattery and drove the nail in even deeper.
“The marriage of these two shall be held with utmost splendor on the day the imperial palace under construction is completed and I ascend the throne as emperor! I shall summon every noble on the continent to the newly built imperial hall. This is the most glorious reward I bestow upon you!”
“F-Father! That is—!”
Prince Michael, standing below the dais, could no longer hold back and stepped forward.
No matter that she was a princess of a defeated nation, to hand over a woman of royal blood as wife to a traitor who had sold his own country.
To a man of rigid chivalry like Michael, it must have been an utterly intolerable, insulting, and cruel act.
“Though she is of a defeated royal house, she is still a queen! How can you give such a person to a traitor—!”
“Your Highness! Do you dare obstruct His Majesty’s noble decision?!”
“This is a brilliant stratagem for the unification of the empire!”
Yet every time Michael tried to protest, the elderly high ministers swarmed like hornets, cutting him off before he could finish a single sentence.
That perfectly coordinated movement was unmistakable…
…I’ve been had.
It was political calculation disguised as the emperor’s whim.
The previous day, when the chancellor had delivered a report that included an urgent dispatch from Halo, the king had merely scoffed.
The report that General Lassen and Queen Yuno had shared a single room.
Well, it didn’t matter.
If she truly becomes pregnant through affection after spending time together, I can simply charge them with treason and execute them later. If she doesn’t conceive, I can take her myself and have her bear the Europian bloodline that will later serve as a useful pawn for ruling the lands of Europia.
Still, as an old man who held power and as a man himself, his pride had been slightly wounded by the possibility that one of his subordinates might have touched a trophy he might claim.
And into that brief crack of displeasure slipped the recent rumors and intelligence circulating in the capital.
The gossip among those preparing the welcoming banquet.
Although Lassen was a traitor who had sold out his homeland, paradoxically, among the people of Valerian he had already solidified his position as a war hero of common birth who had safely returned their fathers, sons, and husbands.
Moreover, his deep friendship with Sabre, who had now become the Grand Duke of Europia.
Intelligence that the provincial lords along the road to the capital, especially those facing Europia, were competing to offer him marriage proposals.
They intended to take him in as a son-in-law and forge a connection with Sabre.
The young Princess Keres, who carries Europian blood, is also at Sabre’s side. Given her tender age, Sabre can mold her however he wishes and rally the Europian refugees at any time.
If the seeds of rebellion sprouted only within Europian territory, the imperial army could suppress them no matter how long it took.
But if the lords along that route cooperated with Sabre through marriage ties to Lassen…
Then a rebel army could strike straight at the throat of the capital, Valerium, in a single blow.
King Valeran decided he would later test Sabre’s loyalty by offering the return of Keres as a card.
And as for the two people before him—Yuno and Lassen—he would treat them as irritating tumors.
The solution was simple.
Bind the two of them together and confine them in the capital.
Prevent Lassen from marrying into any other noble family, thereby cutting off any possible political connections.
By placing the heaviest and most ostentatious collar around his neck—the defeated queen of an enemy nation—he ensured no other noble house could use Lassen to cooperate with Sabre.
And above all… later, when I need that hunting dog again, I must keep him firmly leashed at my side so I can pull him out whenever I wish.
……
My gaze slowly turned to the side.
Yuno’s eyes were also completely vacant, as if her soul had left her body in the face of this absurd situation.
The moments of self-harm when she had begged me to defile her so she wouldn’t become a broodmare, slamming her face against the carriage wall.
The tearful, desperate struggles to lower her own value and somehow save her younger sister Keres’s life while evading the eyes of the Valerian royal family.
All of it.
With a single choice from the old king on his throne, it had all been rendered meaningless.
In a way she had never wanted.
She had been turned into the scarred wife of a traitor.
That suffocating kiss filled with mutual hatred we had shared in the carriage right before entering the capital.
All those frantic struggles had been nothing more than a pathetic clown show, dancing in the palm of the man who would become emperor.
……
My gaze slowly turned to the side.
Yuno’s eyes were also completely vacant, as if her soul had left her body in the face of this absurd situation.
The moments of self-harm when she had begged me to defile her so she wouldn’t become a broodmare, slamming her face against the carriage wall.
The tearful, desperate struggles to lower her own value and somehow save her younger sister Keres’s life while evading the eyes of the Valerian royal family.
All of it.
With a single choice from the old king on his throne, it had all been rendered meaningless.
In a way she had never wanted.
She had been turned into the scarred wife of a traitor.
That suffocating kiss filled with mutual hatred we had shared in the carriage right before entering the capital.
All those frantic struggles had been nothing more than a pathetic clown show, dancing in the palm of the man who would become emperor.
After the bewildering audience ended, we left the Valerian royal palace and climbed into the carriage heading for Sabre’s main residence—the Calista Mansion—where we would now live.
Clatter.
The carriage began crossing through the city streets.
Sitting across from me was Yuno, her temporarily removed splint now tightly rebound for the audience.
After the emperor’s shocking and coercive announcement of our marriage, we no longer clung to each other as we had during the escort.
There was no longer any need.
……
……
A heavy, awkward silence hung between us.
“Pfft… Ha, hahahahaha!”
A burst of laughter finally escaped Yuno’s lips.
The sound spread to me like a contagious disease.
I, too, pressed a hand to my forehead as my shoulders shook.
“Hahaha, this is insane. Seriously.”
Our situations, the circumstances—we found them so absurd we couldn’t bear it.
The inside of the carriage instantly filled with the deranged, hollow laughter of two people.
“The quiet life you wanted so badly is now completely over, Lassen.”
Yuno laughed until she was gasping for breath and threw out a barbed joke.
“Even if you hide away in the Calista family mansion and hold your breath, do you really think that old emperor will leave you alone? Every letter you send, every breath you take will be under the royal family’s strict surveillance.”
Yuno stroked her broken arm and let out a sneer.
“And that’s not all. If a band of starving thieves rises up in some remote corner of Valerian’s border and someone maliciously plants a single Europian emblem there… the royal family will immediately tie you and me together as the masterminds of rebellion and drag us to the execution ground.”
Completely severed from power, with the blade of a purge that could fall at any moment.
Yuno’s words held not a shred of exaggeration.
Even if the emperor himself had no such intention, if even one of the central ministers harbored a different agenda, our safety would be threatened.
But I refused to back down and struck back.
“That may be true. But have you forgotten, Queen Yuno… Ah, you’re not a queen anymore, are you? Since you are now my wife, personally joined to me by the emperor of Valerian.”
Yuno’s brows furrowed at that word, but I paid it no mind and continued chuckling.
“It has been announced with great fanfare across the entire empire that you have become the wife of the greatest traitor in the world.”
I had already dropped all formal speech.
“You may think you can simply live as a freeloader under house arrest, but do you know what will happen if we don’t share a bed every night and produce a child? The emperor will immediately accuse me of rejecting his gift and taking another woman, charging me with treason.”
I looked into Yuno’s empty eyes and laughed.
“Isn’t your position—having to bear the child of a traitor—far more miserable and ridiculous than mine?”
“…Ha! You rotten bastard.”
At my vicious counterattack, Yuno spat a short curse before bursting into another helpless laugh.
The murderous atmosphere filled with life-or-death mind games and hateful kisses had vanished without a trace. Instead, we were now tearing apart and mocking each other’s pathetic, rock-bottom situations for comfort.
After unleashing a storm of self-deprecating laughter, the sound inside the carriage gradually died down.
I wiped the smile from my face and asked Yuno in a slightly more serious tone.
“In your view… what do you think the old king’s true intentions are?”
I couldn’t understand it.
I could understand him confining me, but was it really necessary to hand over Yuno—who could become the focal point of Europia—to me?
“I’m absolutely terrible at political calculations, so I’m asking.”
At my question, Yuno stared out the carriage window at the streets of Valerium for a moment before answering in a low, sunken voice.
“The king has thrown a card to keep Grand Duke Sabre in check in his own way. A method of restraint completely different from what I had expected…”
The end of Yuno’s sentence trembled faintly.
She lifted her uninjured right hand and slowly stroked the carriage wall she had tried to slam her face against on the first day of our escort.
A deep flush spread across her face, filled with profound shame.
“How embarrassing…”
She leaned her forehead against the wall and muttered as if squeezing the words out.
“A mere defeated queen, yet I arrogantly thought I had seen through the king of the victorious nation. I slammed my face against the wall in front of you, saying I wouldn’t become a broodmare… and even forced a kiss on you to shatter your peaceful life…”
Yuno’s ears had turned bright red all the way to their tips.
“A woman of a ruined country, yet I overstepped my bounds. From your perspective, how ridiculous my pathetic struggles must have looked.”
The one who realized that her life-risking self-harm had ultimately been a completely useless waste of effort covered her eyes.
Watching her, I let out a long, heavy sigh.
“Haa… Never mind the embarrassment, I’m the one who’s truly screwed.”
I groaned and leaned my head against the backrest.
“My original plan was to accept a marriage proposal from a family that Duchess Calista—General Sabre’s wife—would introduce me to… and live out my days comfortably as a live-in son-in-law.”
At my shameless, self-preserving plan, a fresh burst of laughter escaped Yuno’s lips even as her face was still flushed.
“But since I received neither any reward nor land from the emperor besides you…”
If only I had taken an enormous sum of money instead, this wouldn’t have happened.
My attempt to avoid standing out had instead drawn the emperor’s attention.
“Now I’ve been reduced to an annoying freeloader moving into Grand Duke Sabre’s mansion with an unwanted wife in tow.”
At my complaint, Yuno finally clutched her stomach and laughed out loud.
“Heh heh, if Grand Duke Sabre cherishes and trusts you so much, what does it matter if you’re a penniless freeloader? At least he won’t let you starve.”
Yuno wiped away tears as she comforted me, but the uneasy feeling in my chest refused to disappear.
“No… I think I should avoid staying there.”
I frowned and muttered.
“After hearing that the emperor is trying to keep Grand Duke Sabre in check… if I stay too long at the Calista family mansion…”
I had a strong premonition that nothing but troublesome entanglements would follow.