Proof of Innocence (7)
“No, that’s impossible. Absolutely not!”
Just as I’d expected, the person who resisted Duke Orphega’s proposal most fiercely was the princess everyone outside knew to be my lover.
“Do you even understand what you’re saying right now, Duke? You know full well what Sian and I are to each other, so how can you say something like that?”
Cartesia was hopping with indignation, clearly furious about something or other, but Duke Orphega answered her in his usual calm tone.
“Of course I know exactly what kind of relationship exists between Sian and Your Highness. I’ve heard the rumors that you’ve taken the boy as your lover, and just before the duel began, you even flaunted your affection for each other in front of everyone there.”
His expression remained strangely indifferent. It seemed he already knew that we were pretending to be a couple burning with love in public.
“But I think my proposal just now is hardly a bad one for the princess, either, if you intend to keep playing child’s games with Sian like this.”
“...What?”
For a moment, I saw Cartesia’s face twist in blatant disbelief.
“You say you love Sian, Your Highness, but at the same time you aren’t showing him your true feelings, are you? That’s because you already have that mysterious fiancé of yours, the one with whom you’ve supposedly promised a future.”
“Th-there’s...”
“In other words, to anyone looking on, you’d seem to be weighing your options between two men. Constantly measuring love against your own future, as if they were scales you could never stop balancing.”
What the duke said was, infuriatingly, all too reasonable.
Of course, that was only if you ignored the trivial fact that the so-called fiancé didn’t actually exist in this world.
“Now, I’m not saying that’s necessarily a bad thing. After all, the person you call your fiancé is surely someone the Emperor forced upon you, a political marriage of sorts. Considering how many nobles in those arrangements are secretly unfaithful, that makes perfect sense.”
“....”
At his words, Cartesia and I silently looked at each other.
Something about hearing the word “unfaithful” from his mouth made it feel like we were somehow committing some enormous sin.
Actually, Cartesia and I are just friends...
But when I thought about it, our relationship no longer seemed like something that could be dismissed as mere “friendship.”
Still, casually touching each other or kissing like it’s nothing... that doesn’t exactly sound like friendship, does it?
If I had to put a name to it, that kind of behavior was something you’d only see between a couple that had been married for years, not between ordinary friends. It just sounded wrong any way I looked at it.
And yet, despite the fact that we’d been acting like that in front of everyone, Cartesia and I weren’t actually dating.
We did call ourselves lovers in public, but even that felt a little dubious if you tried to call it an official relationship...
What the hell? Were we actually cheating all along? Were we really that kind of pair?
As I was getting confused and starting to think the duke might actually be right, he went on speaking without pause.
“But maintaining that sort of relationship can only lead to misfortune for Sian, even if it may suit you, Your Highness. For instance, if the two of you were to have a child, that child wouldn’t be listed among the imperial family’s heirs. At best, he’d be treated as a bastard.”
“A-a bastard...!”
Cartesia’s eyes shook violently. It was obvious the word had dealt her a heavy blow.
“But I have no intention of treating Sian that way. I mean to make him one of my own, and I intend to marry him properly to my daughter. Not leave him in some half-baked, adulterous arrangement like yours, Your Highness, but make it unmistakable in front of everyone.”
“Then why is it assumed that Sian will marry your daughter in the first place? Sian is mine!”
“Then surely it would be enough to let His Highness yield a little of her claim to Sian, would it not?”
“...Huh? What are you talking about?”
Apparently Cartesia didn’t understand him at all, because she blinked at him like an idiot.
So... let her have a share? A share of what, exactly?
“I’m not such a villain that I’d happily tear apart a man and woman who are burning with love for each other. So, if Sian marries my daughter, I’ll overlook your continued relationship with him.”
“...Continued relationship? Overlook?”
Whether he noticed the grotesque twitching at the corner of Cartesia’s mouth or not, Duke Orphega kept right on going.
“I believe my proposal is not entirely unfavorable to you, either. And if you were to suddenly bear a child, I’d promise to enter that child into the dukedom’s registry. I’d say that’s a rather good arrangement for both sides, wouldn’t you?”
Shudder. Shudder.
Cartesia’s body trembled as though there’d been an earthquake right beside her.
I knew her well enough from the months we’d spent together to understand that this was nothing short of a sign she was about to explode.
But there was nothing to gain from Cartesia lashing out at Duke Orphega here, so I let out a sigh and spoke up.
“I appreciate your proposal, Duke, but no matter how I look at it, it seems a little too generous for a mere orphan-born cadet like me. You don’t care about my origins at all?”
“Origins, you say... If I cared about such things, I never would have taken your younger sister in as my disciple in the first place.”
At that, Eli, who had been staring at the ground in silence until now, flinched and drew back slightly.
“It isn’t as though I ignore bloodlines. But when I consider them, I do so only to understand the environment someone grew up in. Which do you think is more likely to produce a good harvest: farming in arid wasteland, or farming in a fertile plain?”
Obviously, crops would fare far better in a plain than in a wasteland.
For a plant to grow in dry, barren ground, countless conditions and a fair amount of luck would have to align before it could even put down roots. In a plain, on the other hand, it would grow freely without much effort at all.
“And precisely because of that, I value those of humble origin who nevertheless rise above themselves in some way. It’s proof that they’ve overcome the circumstances they were born into and the limits they carried, and managed to prove their own worth. Just like you have.”
“...Even if that means a low bloodline enters the precious bloodline of a duke’s house?”
At my words, the duke let out a snort, as though I’d said something absurdly funny.
“Bloodlines are worth nothing. A person’s worth can only be proven through their own ability. And the reason I made this proposal is because you said you wouldn’t become my disciple. I want to hold onto you, one way or another.”
“But objectively speaking, I don’t think I’m worth that much.”
“No, I know. There is definitely... something about you. I can’t explain it in words, but I can feel it. For example, there’s the fact that you’re somehow connected to Princess Cartesia right now.”
“...!”
Cartesia and I both looked at him in shock.
Even though I knew perfectly well I should keep my expression under control, I was too stunned to stop myself from staring straight at the duke’s face.
Don’t tell me he can actually see the connection between me and Cartesia?
No one I’d ever met had noticed the connection created by Life Return.
...No way.
Come to think of it, I’d heard something somewhere long ago, back when I was still working as a mercenary.
The rumor said that humans who reached the realm of Masters, those absolute monsters at the peak of martial power, could acquire a seventh sense beyond the five they were born with and the sixth instinctive one: a transcendent perception.
So was Duke Orphega now instinctively identifying the nature of my ability through that seventh sense, something practically reserved for Masters?
“I am a little curious about what that connection really is... but if you’re uncomfortable with it, you don’t have to tell me. I don’t make a habit of prying into other people’s secrets.”
As he said that, he looked at me with an expression that seemed to carry some lingering regret.
“I’m not trying to force an answer from you here and now. You need to think about your relationship with Princess Cartesia as well, and you’ll have plenty else to consider. But I can promise you this: in this world, there is no one who values you more highly than I do.”
Well, of course. He was even willing to hand over his precious daughter to me wholesale.
“Still, I’d appreciate an answer as soon as possible. I may not look it, but I’m rather greedy by nature. If there’s something I want, I have a habit of taking it by any means necessary. And if that thing happens to be a jewel with no owner, all the more so.”
With that, as if he’d said everything he intended to, the duke walked past me without hesitation and disappeared.
Eli, his disciple, quietly followed after him and vanished into the distance as well.
...But I heard it clearly.
Eli, who had said not a single word during the entire conversation between Duke Orphega and me, murmured something under her breath as she passed by me.
“...Yeah. So this is how you’re trying to take everything from me. Big brother?”
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