Have You Never Even Read a Romance Novel? (2)
"El. I'll keep this short. You came here already knowing everything, didn't you?"
"It seems you grew impatient."
She didn't yield a single inch.
Here, regardless of rank or station, there could be no compromise, no negotiation, no concession — and so Seras had been the one to open the exchange.
"So? What then — you expect me to simply give up?"
The princess was as composed as ever.
That dignified, august bearing of hers — peer into it closely, and it revealed itself as nothing short of merciless, cold-blooded. Yet Elhermina herself almost certainly had no awareness of it. Her very existence carried the weight of a law unto itself, a presence that drained the blood of everyone around her over flaws so small, so trivial.
No malice in it.
No coercion, no intimidation either. But her existence stood as firm as statute, as unyielding as rule itself — and that was precisely the problem.
"And if I say I will? What then?"
"…What if, in exchange for handing him over to me, House Esdina threw its full support behind the imperial family?"
"Naive."
"…My grandfather's retirement from politics is close at hand. Now is hardly the time to settle anything."
"Do you intend to inherit his seat? Succeeding to the headship in a woman's body is no trifling matter."
"I'll pass it to Cariel."
Hm?
"After my grandfather steps down, we will shift our position to support the imperial family. That way it becomes no burden on you — nor on His Majesty, Lord Rueld, or Lady Ermina. If anything, we'd only add to your strength."
"Easily said."
Besides — was there truly any need to go that far?
The imperial house preferred, in thorough and deliberate fashion, to shrink its vassals' privileges — seizing them back when it could, weakening them over the long term. Every gain in the nobles' power was a corresponding loss to the crown's. And that meant a return to the age of the faithless — the era of violence and greed that reigned before Berg lent its name to the Empire.
Which was to say —
Another hell, no less terrible than a Demon Realm invasion or an indiscriminate war between nations.
"If my word isn't enough, I'm willing to draft a written pledge as proof."
"The vacancy left by Count Esdina's retirement cannot be filled by your discretion alone. Even if Cariel became your open puppet, it would fall woefully short."
"……"
"However — if he, the very heart of the Noble Faction, were to vanish… unsettling and splitting the remaining lords would become a simple matter indeed."
Truly the reasoning of a fox, Seras thought.
"But no. I refuse."
"…Why?"
"I will not hand Cariel over for so paltry a reason."
"I… see?"
"Raise your banner against me if you must. To guide and steer one's subjects is the very duty of a ruler, the virtue of royalty."
This — this madwoman—
"And yet, so carelessly baring your inner hand is a recklessly dangerous gamble. Surely you knew from the start that I would never give him up?"
"Exactly! All the more reason I had to show you my sincerity!"
"Sincerity. I see… so that is sincerity."
There, the princess rested her chin on her hand and sank into thought, eyes closed. Ten seconds passed. Twenty.
"I understand now."
Elhermina slowly lifted her eyelids.
"I had been mistaken about one thing. This is no instruction or intent of Count Esdina's — this is a scheme drawn entirely by your own hand."
"……"
"Stitching the pieces together to use as material for persuasion, coaxing acceptance even from the Count himself — all of it was your resolve, was it not. Sincerity, indeed. Fitting, then."
Seras sighed inwardly.
God, she's insufferable.
They had exchanged barely a handful of words, and she had already arrived at the heart of the matter. It was always like this. This was exactly why—
This is why I can't stand dealing with her.
"Then by all means."
……?
What? By all means? By all means, what?
"First — taking him as my consort is a settled matter. Therefore, should he wish it, I will permit you an informal relationship with him."
"……?"
What.
Did she just.
Did she just… say—
This — this madwoman, what is she—
"Why that expression, Seras? Old friend. I hold you in complete respect. Thus, so as not to trample your hopes, I proposed a partial compromise. Are you dissatisfied?"
"…You call that a compromise? Have you — have you actually lost your mind?"
"Impudent words."
And yet this woman, this princess, her expression unchanged from the moment they first faced each other, had been spouting the most outrageous nonsense without pause.
"Were he a woman — were we men — this proposal would be unthinkable. But he is a man, and by good fortune so are we both. Hence such a proposal becomes possible. What I cannot embrace, Seras, you may do in my stead; I imagine that, too, would hold meaning for him."
"……"
She means it.
The damned princess genuinely believed, at this very moment, that this arrangement would be to the benefit of herself, of Cariel — and of Seras herself — and had made the offer with the utmost magnanimity. Having spent so many years at her side, Seras knew with grim certainty that it had sprung from the purest good will.
…Seras felt it seep into her bones. A retort ground up from between her clenched teeth and spilled out on its own.
"So you'll bind him beyond escape with tangled, twisted bloodlines? You're telling me, right now, to bear a child who can never even claim a father—"
"I did not speak so far as that, but if you are prepared for it, I shall not dissuade you. Our bonds would only grow the deeper for it."
This madwoman — seriously—?!
"Do you — do you not have a human heart?! How can you say such things so casually?! And that — if the Church ever learned of it, it wouldn't end with mere excommunication! How can you be so calm about any of this?!"
"I cannot give him up. Therefore I can offer no further compromise, and though you may call it extreme, I have no choice but to lay such a proposal on the table."
Which meant, in short, this: give up, or accept this unhinged scheme.
Viewed a certain way, it was true that Elhermina had styled herself as making an enormous concession. But that concession was, in the end…
"Seras. You know it yourself, do you not?"
"I once swore I would take responsibility and protect him — the boy who had gone to a foreign land as a hostage in my place. Though he departed before I could swear it to his face, did you not all watch my vow with your own eyes?"
"You, who went on and on about protecting him! And what have you done all this time but stand aside and watch? While he was driven to the very edge, what exactly did you ever give him?!"
But the princess was resolute. Not a trace of wavering, of disturbance, showed through. She declared it plainly:
"He is strong. He is not a man who would lose his light over this much. He may falter for a time, but even then, he will rise again soon enough."
Seras scoffed.
"…You still can't even bring yourself to grasp that not everyone is an inhuman superhuman like you? Do you truly not know how many people that shamelessness of yours has wounded and broken — that Cariel was among them?"
"If we argue in that fashion, what of your original sin, Seras? In the end, my pitiful younger brother and your foolish twin sister, Eras, had their hand in forging Cariel's present reputation — that much you cannot deny, friend. You, who in the end chose to shield your own kin — did you aid that atrocity with the noble heart of a righteous person?"
"Th-that's — that's not something to be discussing here—!"
"I have waited a very long time. I gave you ample opportunity as well. Having guessed something of your true heart, I waited — whether it would become atonement, confession, or apology, I expected you to act in some fashion or another."
"What? Ample opportunity? You're calling that an opportunity?"
"If not that, then why else would I have come to such a decision only now? I am no such filial daughter as to obey His Majesty and my mother simply because I am forced to."
If only.
If not I myself, then may there be someone — anyone — who will shelter him, lead him, hold him close.
"For his happiness, I was prepared to abandon even my own oath."
And yet.
"But who stands at his side now?"
"……"
"In the end — complacency. Negligence. Idleness. Ignorance."
"……"
"Do you move only when the fire is at your feet? How complacent you are, Seras Esdina."
Shaking her head lightly, the princess at last turned her back.
"The moon has set. From this hour onward, it belongs to the sun alone. If you truly feel wronged — if your blood truly boils — then set your reproach upon your own past, negligent self. And take heed: accept that this hourglass will never be turned again."
……
………
And so it was.
A short stretch of time passed, the place changed, and she found herself walking alone down a silent corridor.
Elhermina thought calmly, eyes half-lidded — just as she always had, always, without exception.
Even if tens of thousands of women across this world and the next adored him, yearned for him — even if every last mote of that affection were gathered up, one grain at a time —
"In the end, it could never match the love this one heart of mine holds."
Commotion upon commotion — but of late, thanks to the Demon King dragging him into his dreams on a regular schedule and dunking him mercilessly, hundreds and thousands of times at that, Cariel had been slipping out of his home in the dead of night to catch his breath and practice his lute far less often.
So much had changed in the span of mere days.
Becoming Elhermina's betrothed. Even confronting the Demon King's ghost and being thrown into turmoil by it.
By his own reckoning, it felt less like days and more like dozens upon dozens had slipped past.
"Sleeping late does you no good in a growth phase, you know."
"…Didn't you say stress relief was necessary?"
"That's the irrationality of sentient beings for you."
Time was gold — and even poured wholly into honing oneself, it was never enough. So why in the world waste it on idle pastimes?
"…So which is it? Are you telling me not to go out, or what?"
"It's your choice. Is it my place to order you about? Anyone watching would take me for your teacher."
"……"
On one side, a former Demon King turned ghost.
On the other, the descendant of the very hero who had slain that Demon King.
…Their circumstances were, without question, hopelessly tangled.
"And you said that if I endured your training, you'd teach me the basics of playing?"
"That much is no great trouble."
Whether you drove men or drove slaves, the principle was the same — initiative in any task was decided by whether a suitable reward waited at the end of it.
Violence, fear, the infliction of pain — those were methods too, but…
'That's even more bother.'
Cursing and craving others was, itself, honest labor. Unless one happened to be one of those vile perverts who couldn't feel satisfied or shed their stress any other way.
"Besides, if you must pick a stringed instrument, I'm on the side of the guitar over the lute."
"Guitar?"
"There is such a thing. A magic guitar, at that. That artifice-laden, tearing electronic wail — simply exquisite."
"……?"
Come to think of it, the musical arts had long been classed as the sole province of demonkind.
In the wake of that, the Church had insisted that only the human voice, unsullied by instrument, could be pure — and yet instrumental music and the whole treasury of oral song had already taken root deep across the world at large.
It was simply treated, among the nobility and the rest of the so-called virtuous set, as a culture one dared not draw near.
"Anything we touch is branded evil, without exception. Utterly inferior creatures, every last one of them."
After all, the Golden Demon King — for all Cariel's imperfect knowledge — had been hailed among the demons as a master of the arts, had he not?
The demons who had joined the human alliance and earned great merit for it. The demon settlements and exchange cities that had since taken root across parts of the continent could, without much exaggeration, be said to lead the continent's every art, great and small, in the present day.
"……?"
Don't tell me.
He's not planning to conquer the continent… with culture and the arts… is he?