Planting a Miracle
The morning after the wedding night.
Lapis had woken long before dawn, yet she deliberately kept her eyes closed, feigning sleep with slow, even breaths.
She could feel Rohen stirring awake beside her any moment now, heard the faint rustle of him rising — and still, in the end, she could not bring herself to choose the option of facing him.
Only after Rohen, with an air of helplessness, left a note behind and quietly exited the bedchamber did Lapis finally let her eyes flutter open, easing herself upright.
Crinkle.
I'm sorry — what was she supposed to make of that?
Was it guilt, perhaps, that the husband felt for leaving his wife — a wife spending her first morning after their union — alone beside a space already gone cold?
'I'm sorry.'
At that tenderness of his, Lapis found herself, for some reason, reaching out to trace the hollow where he had lain.
But no matter how she turned it over in her mind, all she could recall was how utterly graceless she had been on their wedding night — and with the heat of passion long settled, she could not bring herself to face the face of her husband in the sober light of day.
She had studied, in every way she could. She had imagined it all diligently in her head, too. And yet in practice she had been pinned down and reduced to nothing more than a female in heat — what spilled from her lips had not been sweet, honeyed cries but the shameless panting of some beast.
……Though, honestly, looking back on it — Rohen had seemed only more aroused by that side of her. Still, perhaps because she had ended up showing him a self so far from the image she'd wanted to present, a belated wave of embarrassment washed over her.
Lapis gave a small silver bell a shake.
At once the maids filed in, bowing their heads, offering nothing beyond the barest greeting as they set about tidying away the traces of the night and attending to her.
"We shall escort you to the bath, Her Highness Lapis."
"Ah — yes…… but really, you needn't fuss over me like this……"
Lapis smiled awkwardly at the maids reaching out to support her by the arm, and moved to rise from the bed.
"Nngh!"
But a searing ache flared up from her lower back, and her legs gave out beneath her, dropping her right back onto the mattress.
There had been no position that should have strained her so. Unless — pressed down beneath Rohen as he'd moved over her with such rough abandon, her spine had been forced into a bow like a drawn archer's stave.
Only when she felt that dull, tender soreness pulling at her hips and lower back — like the ache of standing up abruptly after hours bent over a desk at her studies — did Lapis finally understand the maids weren't being excessively considerate after all, and accepted their support to the bath.
Splash.
She sank into the broad bath filled with warm water, breathing in the fragrance of the scented oils the maids had dissolved into it, letting the gentle warmth blooming across her skin soothe her as she bowed her head.
She hadn't missed the way the maids had stiffened, faces flushing, at the sight of her bare body when they entered. The emotion swimming in their eyes had certainly been astonishment.
Well, it was hardly surprising — even surveying herself, she was a patchwork of intimate marks almost impossible to believe.
And yet, following the maids in, Lapis felt not shock but a strange, quiet satisfaction.
It was as if her body were a meal thrown to a pack of ravenous wolves and snatched back midway — and yet, running her slender fingers slowly over those marks, she finally felt it: she was Rohen's woman now. His wife.
She had felt it first, truthfully, in the way the maids had begun addressing her. But what made the reality most vivid of all was the still-throbbing sensation low in her belly.
'It hurt quite a bit in the moment, I remember……'
Why was it that the afterglow of that rough lovemaking now returned to her, alongside a deep spiritual satisfaction, as something faintly, sweetly pleasurable?
Lapis, blushing despite herself, let her hand drift down and gently cup the place below her navel.
The memory surfaced unbidden: that weighty, breath-stealing length buried here, grinding against her womb, flooding her at the end with thick, pulsing heat.
As the recollection of that fevered night came back to her, so too did the shameful way her pink buds stiffened and rose — and catching her own reaction in an instant, Lapis flushed scarlet and shook her head.
"Ah……"
But before her mind could even settle, a pale cloud of release drifted up from between her legs, breaking apart across the water's surface, thinning and fading.
No matter how composed she tried to appear, the marks scattered across her body like an unmistakable seal of ownership……
……were imprinting upon her, over and over, an identity not of the woman called Lapis, but of a wife — a female — belonging to the man called Rohen.
And realizing this, Lapis found she didn't entirely hate it; she wriggled her toes beneath the water and let out a long breath.
Once she had soaked enough of the ache away in the warmth, a thought drifted through her — what must Aria be feeling right now? — and Lapis closed her eyes.
Whatever else could be said, the man she loved had married another woman before her very eyes — and the wedding night itself had been spent in the very residence where she lived.
What must it have been like for Aria, forced to watch it all from a distance?
Pity. Sympathy. Compassion.
The most basic stirrings of mercy rose first — but they were swept aside, light as leaves, by something far pettier. A childish sense of superiority.
Yes — precisely, literally, a childish sense of superiority.
And Lapis hated that Aria had let this happiness — the joy of being joined with the man she loved — curdle into something filthy and wretched, a smugness born of jealousy.
If only it weren't for her. If her half-sister had not coveted her own half-brother as a man…
…then she would never have had cause to feel such ugly emotions at all.
"Still……"
Thinking it better, for now, to keep pretending she knew nothing of the two of them — Lapis quietly continued her bath.
"What do you want?"
The flower garden of the detached palace — a garden tended by the current Empress's own hands. Aria had been walking there in quiet solitude, and she offered Rohen no warm welcome when he found her.
"Strolling up here drenched head to toe in Lapis's scent and her marks. Are you trying to flip my stomach inside out?"
"I don't know," Rohen answered.
"……"
"I could predict you'd be in a foul mood, sure…… but I couldn't exactly just leave it alone either, so I came to see you first. I didn't think past that. Worst case, I figured I'd get an earful of cursing."
"Idiot. Is there anything more pathetic than you letting me vent my anger on you here?"
Aria let out a long sigh and stared at Rohen in silence for a while — then closed the distance in a few strides and seized his large hand in both of hers.
She sat him down in one of the chairs placed among the flowerbeds, then swung herself up onto his lap, reaching toward his neatly arranged collar.
"So this is what you left behind to show me, is it?"
"……"
"Lapis really is a naughty one, isn't she."
There, printed vividly on the nape of his neck — a shy little kiss mark.
Aria traced it with a slender fingertip, then at last bowed her head and pressed her own lips over it without a moment's hesitation.
Rohen flinched at the audacity of it, his body stiffening — but he made no move to push her head away.
Instead, he wrapped an arm around her slender waist and let his cheek rest softly against her hair, where that pleasant fragrance drifted up from.
Only after some five minutes had slipped past did Aria lift her head, gazing with evident satisfaction at the kiss mark now overwritten with her own — then rose from his lap.
Truthfully, she wanted to erase every one of Lapis's marks too, all the ones hidden beneath his clothes where no one could see them — but that would be overstepping. Aria forced the surging, ugly jealousy back down.
The mark on his nape had been a blatant provocation, a mockery aimed straight at her, so answering it was fair enough. Anything more would only make her more miserable.
"Hold still."
So Aria stepped up to Rohen as he started to rise after her, tidied the rumpled fabric at his collar into place…
…and, rising onto her toes, gave him a light, fleeting kiss.
"I'll let it slide for that much."
Tap, tap.
Leaving Rohen standing there with a dazed expression, Aria walked away with the smile of a little devil.
A moment later, alone in place, Rohen touched his lips, then glanced around him.
"……"
There were no roses blooming here. Not a single one. So what, exactly, was this stinging sensation — as if pricked by freshly grown thorns — and this heavy scent of roses clinging to his body?
Leaving that remarkably long afterglow behind him, Rohen, too, finally stepped out of the flower garden.
Having formally become Lapis's husband and spent our wedding night, I returned to the duchy, received the report that the temple was complete — and realized that the time had come to start consolidating my footing in earnest.
Since that day, the Allied Kingdoms had offered nothing. Stony silence.
I considered the grace period I'd granted them more than sufficient.
Not that I couldn't understand how they felt. Honestly — how much trust could you build with a nation you held deep grudges against, over a single scrap of paper called a contract?
That was why they'd tried to bridge the gap through a marriage between Aria and the Second Prince, and with that collapsed into nothing, they too should have recognized they were standing in a dead-end alley. Since they hadn't, I had no leisure left to wait for them. Their circumstances were their circumstances. Mine were mine.
And so I chose Iris as the name of the order I would establish.
The name of the rainbow goddess of Greek myth, charged with the role of linking heaven and earth. Though truthfully, I chose it less for its symbolism than for the simple fact that it was easy to pronounce.
"……His Highness is praying over there again today, I see."
"What meaning could there be in that useless, hulking structure?"
"The statue is lovely, though."
"He's devoted to his wife — perhaps he carved it in Lady Lapis's image?"
"But it doesn't look anything like Lady Lapis."
Since the temple stood at the very heart of the duchy, my habit of praying before the goddess statue day after day had stirred considerable curiosity among the people here.
My body, its limits surpassed, picked up every whisper whether I wished to or not — and though a faint embarrassment crept over me, I took quiet satisfaction in seeing the reactions unfold precisely as I had anticipated.
There were certainly spies from the Allied Kingdoms here as well. Even if they couldn't parse my intent yet, having these truths carried back to them was more than enough.
And so, over the course of about a month — as this seemingly meaningless ritual went on — I planted a small seed of change.
"It's true, I swear!"
"And I'm supposed to believe the statue came alive and moved? You?"
"You bastards, then don't!"
Watching me pray before the goddess statue had already become so ordinary a part of daily life here that it scarcely even qualified as gossip — which was exactly why I had staged it. During the small hours, I had Miho transform into the statue's likeness, and had her occasionally, deliberately, be seen stroking her familiar, the Azure Dragon.
"And it wasn't just moving — it… it was a dragon, I tell you! Serpentine scales, a massive body, sharp claws! The horns on its head looked something like a deer's! I can't even describe it properly, it all blurs together — but if you saw it in person, that presence is something else entirely!"
"……Get a hold of yourself."
"Fuck it! If you won't believe me, then don't!"
Rumors that go unbelieved, as a rule, grow exaggerated in the retelling. And when the rumor in question concerns religion, exaggeration was a gain if anything — never a loss.
Then, when the people's curiosity neared its peak, I chose my moment and publicly declared that this structure was a temple devoted to the goddess Iris — adding that the divine power of the Dragon Tongue, passed down through the bloodline of the founding Emperor, was likewise the will of that goddess.
But this was a world that had suppressed religion for ages, and even with a prince of the Empire stepping forward personally, the people showed little faith. What came back was a tepid, wary indifference.
'Well…… fair enough, I suppose.'
Why would gods be revered and worshipped as gods in the first place? Because they are omniscient, omnipotent beings who accomplish things plainly impossible by common sense.
In my past life, too, the gods of religion all bore achievements worthy of veneration.
Certainly, in my old world's faiths, it was doctrine more than deeds that cultivated true devotion — but at this stage, trying to expand a religion's authority through doctrine alone was inefficient.
Tyranny sowing the seeds of collapse. A drought and famine near catastrophe stacking poverty upon desperation. Had those accompanied us, perhaps things would be different — but as things stood now, achievements were the right lever to pull.
"Hundred Ghosts Night Parade."
And so, in the deepest dark before dawn, I walked out into the garden and called for Miho and Bathory.
"My lord calls for me so often of late, I scarce know where to put myself, I do declare."
Miho came padding out of a mist of purest white, tail swaying, and nestled into my arms. I carefully stroked her soft hair and asked her to summon her familiar; then, mounting up with Bathory alongside me, I veiled us all from sight with Mirror Flower, Water Moon.
We shot up through the sky, higher than the clouds — and my breath caught in my throat. Glancing down, the buildings that had seemed so colossal now looked like tiny toys.
"Where are we headed, my lord?"
"The Barren Lands. To the Demonic Tree."
When does the word plague strike the deepest fear into people's hearts?
When it begins with a demon.
The Empire and the Allied Kingdoms had currently placed a ban on hunting demonic beasts — but that didn't mean they left alone the beasts that crept up to the city gates and caused harm. Which was why I intended to use Bathory to spread measles among the demonic beasts, and then carry it across to the humans.
"But would that not hasten the Demonic Tree's revival, with the beasts dying of measles?"
"Measles is overwhelmingly contagious and barely lethal. Leave it untreated long enough, sure, it can kill. But the moment word spreads that an outbreak has begun, I'll purge the plague from every beast across the Barren Lands with a wide-area heal."
The range of wide-area healing extended across everything within the caster's sight. Since the field of vision varies with angle, from this altitude astride the Azure Dragon, quelling a plague that had spread out below us would be no trouble at all.
But when we arrived at the heart of the Barren Lands and I laid eyes on the grown Demonic Tree, I fell into a brief hesitation — no, not hesitation. Curiosity, truly.
If the texts were accurate, the only time the Demonic Tree could be destroyed was after it had fully matured, resurrected the Demon King's army, that entire army had been brought down — and the tree itself had returned to a sprout. Before that, in any grown state, it was all but invincible.
But how could I possibly believe that without seeing it with my own eyes? If it could be destroyed in its current state… nothing could please me more.
So I stayed Bathory's hand for a moment, transmuted the Fangtian Huaji from the armament list, and took it in hand.
CRACK—!
Vessels surged up grotesquely along the hand gripping the halberd's shaft. Our conversation had run its course during the flight, so I signaled with a glance for Bathory to brace against the headwind — and settled my stance.
Then I called upon the mightiest words I possessed.
"With strength to tear down mountains, a spirit to blanket the world."
And drove the Fangtian Huaji straight down upon the crown of the Demonic Tree.
BOOM——!
The instantaneous acceleration broke the sound barrier; the ferocious sonic boom bloomed around us, its delayed thunder rolling down and away in a heartbeat. When halberd and Demonic Tree at last met, a tremendous waterspout of earth and splintered wood erupted skyward, tearing the surrounding trees out by the root and hurling them aside.
It even swept over the slumbering beasts below, wringing pained shrieks out of them. The shockwave pushed the clouds smothering the night sky clean away, and beautiful starlight came pouring down — letting me take in the far brighter landscape beneath.
"……"
Utterly untouched, amid a scene of absolute devastation. The Demonic Tree stood as pristine as ever.
Feeling the truth of the texts settle into my bones, I let out a sigh and turned to Bathory.
"Begin."
A secret play, staged for the eyes of the world.
One of Bathory's other abilities — the propagation of disease — spread out from her, carrying the plague of measles down beneath the Demonic Tree's boughs.
Many people would suffer, for a time, from the outbreak that began in these Barren Lands.
I decided to ignore that guilt entirely.
When the future itself might be within my grasp, I had no desire to waste my time before the main performance squabbling over petty disputes of profit.
Playing the benevolent lord isn't so difficult, perhaps. But setting aside the friction between the Empire and the Allied Kingdoms, the moment I played the religion card, I would also be handing the nobles a convenient pretext to tear into me. If the price of leaping over that infuriating, exhausting stage of conflict was playing the villain for a little while…
…then that seemed an entirely fair exchange to me.
Still — the image of the people who had cheered my speech on the day of my coming-of-age ceremony flickered at the edge of my mind, and I clenched my teeth.
I had no intention of denying it. This act put my own happiness, as an individual, ahead of my responsibility as Emperor.
My parents. Aria. Lapis. If I had truly valued the people's safety above a happy future spent warm and whole beside them, then no matter how tedious and irritating the road back might be, there were paths enough to take.
But in the end, after all the weighing — wasn't it obvious which one my heart and my reason had chosen?
'Even if I won't be a good Emperor……'
When this Demonic Tree bloomed, at the very least, I would be the one to seize a tomorrow.