First, Always First
Barely eleven days after the Asbarok Kingdom's delegation returned home—apparently they wasted no time—a single letter arrived at my door.
With this, I can wash away a fair measure of the guilt from back then.
Of course, the Second Prince of Asbarok who had wrecked that diplomatic conference would probably have recreated the exact same scene even without my push—anyone nudging him lightly from behind would have done the trick. Still, the fact remained that I was the one who had orchestrated it from the shadows, and it had cost him his standing because of it.
Time to help him out and bring this to a complete end.
So I made immediate preparations to travel to the fief where the Second Prince resided. When else was I going to test the spatial translocation I'd finally mastered, if not now?
I had just finished packing and was about to step out of my room when a soft knock sounded, the door opened, and Aria walked in. She was carrying a modest bundle of luggage, which likely meant she was due to return to the Magic Tower as well.
「 When you go back this time, will it take about as long again before you can return? 」
"Probably. By then it'll be... hmm, winter, I'd say. More importantly—look at you, barely back and already leaving again. I feel sorry for Lapis, rattling around that mansion all alone."
「 I'm taking her with me this time, actually. It's nothing dangerous. 」
"Take good care of her, then. That way I won't have to feel guilty. I'd rather not wear the unfair label of being the reason you start neglecting her. Though really... would Lapis even be on edge around me anymore, now that you two have already shared a bed?"
"..."
"Honestly, it's hilarious. Already weaving her webs at her age, with that face."
At a joke that was barely a joke at all, I smiled bitterly and wrote my reply.
「 Once I return from this trip, everything I can do right now will be finished. 」
"You've worked hard."
「 So... this winter. When you come back here, there's something I want to say to you. 」
"..."
「 When that time comes, I want you to look me straight in the eye. No more dodging my gaze. 」
Reading my answer, Aria's expression shifted by the moment before she lifted her head with a small, wry laugh.
"More hope torture, huh. You pulled this before I enrolled at the Academy, too."
"..."
"I'll trust that you won't do something that cruel again. Don't make me say with my own mouth that it's fine. Having hope crumble on me once is quite enough—and by then, I don't think I'd manage to hide it on my face."
When I slowly nodded, Aria stepped forward, wrapped her arms around my neck, and pressed a gentle kiss to my lips.
Not that I could answer it properly—it was over almost before it began.
All I could manage was to force down a dry swallow, like a man dying of thirst.
"Come back safe."
「 I will. 」
"It'll be winter when we meet again, so maybe it'll snow."
Having parted from Aria, I made my way to Lapis's chambers. Seeing me packed and ready to go, she wore a wistful look, as if wondering where I was headed this time and preparing to see me off—until I asked her to come along, at which point she hesitated for a beat before breaking into a bright smile.
"The Second Prince of Asbarok... you mean the man from the conference, don't you?"
「 That's right. Once this is over, I won't have any reason to leave again. So get ready and come find me. I'll be waiting in the back garden. 」
After giving her the word, I waited quietly in the rear garden of the estate until Lapis came hurrying toward me with her light luggage in tow, half-trotting. I took her hand, carefully committed the coordinates of the Second Prince's fief to mind, and activated the spatial translocation I had mastered.
"Hnn...!"
The view of the back garden vanished in an instant, replaced by the streets of an unfamiliar city, and the moment we touched down there, Lapis swayed unsteadily, a faint dizziness overtaking her.
"Th-thank you..."
I steadied her in my arms, and she offered her thanks without any real resistance, leaning against my chest. I'd offered to carry her on my back if it got worse, but that seemed to embarrass her; she only asked me to wait a little until she steadied herself, so I rubbed slow circles along her back, sharing what warmth I could.
"I'm all right now."
Once Lapis had recovered and slipped gently from my arms, I took her hand and set off toward the mansion where the Second Prince was staying.
When we came face to face with him, the Prince could not quite hide his flustered surprise that I had arrived so quickly. I suppose, working backward from when my reply would have been sent, he'd concluded that my presence here right now was physically impossible. But he didn't press the matter, simply bowing his head.
"...Honestly, I don't know why you singled me out of all people, but I am grateful."
It would be no exaggeration to say that Prince Ellen—Ellen, the man who had once wrecked that diplomatic conference with our Empire—had also brought shame upon us. From that standpoint, my request to meet with him specifically must have struck him as both bewildering and a stroke of luck.
"You have your own reasons to be thankful as well, so there's no need to lower your head quite so far."
Ellen nodded at my words, though his face clearly said he couldn't fathom what he had to be grateful for. Lapis, on the other hand, flinched visibly.
With a mind as sharp as hers, she would have had no trouble grasping what my remark had just implied.
Truthfully, that answer had been less a reply to Prince Ellen than a quiet signal to Lapis: I would no longer stand by and watch this triangle drift on. Its shape would be decided, here and now.
...In other words—steel your heart.
Maybe she had finished her errands and been quietly looking forward to this as a rare little trip, a modest date. But winter was fast approaching, and with the revival of the Demonic World Tree creeping steadily closer, I knew I could no longer afford to postpone this tangle of feelings.
I did recognize, a little, that perhaps I should have given her more time to brace herself. Honestly, my conversation with Aria before her return to the Magic Tower had sent me charging ahead half-impulsively.
Even so, I had no regrets.
And watching Lapis force a composed expression all the same, I entered the mansion and sat down to talk with the Second Prince.
"When you say 'a vision of the future'?"
"As you know, once the Demonic World Tree is destroyed, producing permanent magic stones in infinite quantities will no longer be possible. Nothing may change immediately, but if we speak of the distant future, civilization will decline bit by bit."
"That is... yes. I suppose it would."
"So I intend to construct facilities built around permanent magic stones, slowly compensating for that weakness. Permanent magic stones installed beneath buildings established and controlled by the state will last far longer than expected barring some unforeseeable accident, providing the benefits of civilization well beyond what we have now. The present era, where every household equips itself with artifacts made from consumable magic stones for the sake of convenience, will gradually recede—but that is a fair trade."
"Then this is a proposal I have no reason to refuse."
The Second Prince smiled faintly, as though some tension had been running through him.
"For the finer details, simply correspond with a craftsman working under me. Under my direction, he has devoted a great deal of thought to how permanent magic stones might be fashioned into artifacts and installed in such public buildings, and he has already produced results."
"Handing over permanent magic stones in such a short span of time, even with a clear purpose... I assume there's a condition attached?"
"I want half a year's transfer of the mining rights to the Orichalcum Mine."
"..."
"I will of course pay for the duration—well, not in coin. I'd rather compensate you in grain, if you prefer. You're free to frame it however you like—as a gain you personally negotiated out of me. You're in a position tantamount to exile out here, after all. This would give you a legitimate pretext to return to the capital."
He fell into thought for a moment, but that moment was not long.
"I accept."
"Then I'll await your correspondence on the matter."
When I rose, he rose with me and bowed deeply.
"...Thank you. Honestly, I don't know why you extend such kindness to me, and from where I stand there is nothing I can do but express my gratitude. Perhaps you simply mean to rescue a foreign prince in a difficult position and turn him into a useful chess piece—but if the task is not beyond me, I will accept it without refusal."
At his sincerity, my lips moved slightly before I spoke.
"The Princess of Ludelia who sat beside you at that conference..."
"We are, thankfully, still together. There was a moment when it nearly fell apart, but with the Church's rise, both kingdoms felt the pull of necessity all over again—that we must stand close, now more than ever. Our engagement did not break."
Truly, I thought that was a genuine blessing, and I nodded.
"If it isn't too much trouble, one last thing—may I borrow a single carriage?"
"That is hardly a difficult request."
His face briefly betrayed the question of how I'd gotten here without a carriage, but the Second Prince erased it almost immediately.
Riding in the borrowed carriage, Lapis and I took in the quiet streets of the unhurried city—and there, resolving things swiftly, I put the power of the Lingual Command behind my words once more.
"I'm sorry."
Perhaps because an apology was the first thing to break the heavy silence, Lapis's shoulders flinched, and she smiled bitterly.
"I already knew."
"..."
"That answer doesn't mean much either way, does it? You two had at least some idea that I'd caught on."
"True. I'm a coward—that's all. I kept putting off the day."
"Honestly, if you demanded I sort my feelings into a simple ledger of like and dislike, I wouldn't welcome it. The ugly desire to have the man I love all to myself—I carry it too. No... if anything, it's Her Highness the Princess who makes such feelings feel ugly, and I resent her for it more than a little. But concubinage isn't forbidden by law, so I know this is greed. And turning a deaf ear to the end, after you're the one who brought it up first... that would be wrong of me, wouldn't it."
A woman so wise and so kind that she seemed too good for me.
And perhaps, all along, I had been leaning on exactly that. A coward who hesitated again and again—yet in some corner of my mind, the conclusion had quietly taken root that Lapis would accept it in the end. It would be a lie to say otherwise.
"Lapis. You don't have to twist yourself to fit whatever image you think I hold of you. I haven't seen into the depths of your heart—but maybe I've accepted things so calmly until now precisely because I didn't want to distort the person you were when you fell in love with me of your own accord. Honestly, even calling that 'distortion' is absurd. Getting angry when something displeases you, sulking over what you hate—that's a perfectly human desire."
Even in a world where polygamy was the norm, sharing the one you loved with someone else was not a matter the custom alone could settle. The ripples of feeling went far deeper than any convention.
"If our positions were reversed... I might have slapped you first, before anything else."
"I..."
"You don't have to understand it with gentle grace and a generous heart. You don't have to talk yourself into anything. I know full well that I hope you'll be that way, and that I have no right to hope it."
At the end of those words, Lapis seized my collar inside the swaying carriage and pulled me down.
Was this the side of her I had never seen before—the jealousy she had hidden, laid bare at last? Through the tears that began to drip onto my cheek, the eyes that met mine were so achingly human that a strange relief bloomed amid the guilt rising in my chest.
"If you join with Her Highness and your love for me changes, then I—I might want to kill her! No... maybe I really would kill her! That's how much I love you, Rohen. And I don't want to share that feeling with anyone!"
"..."
"I want to walk beside you, always unchanging, always loved by you. So please—please, never let it happen that you love Her Highness more than me. Your affection, your touch, your bed... I never want to feel that I'm being treated as lesser in any of it..."
As her raised voice sank little by little, she buried her face against my chest and wept sorrowfully, and I reached out to gather her gently into my arms.
"I'm the first wife. I'm Rohen's first."
"Yes. No one is going to deny that."
"So please, always look to me before Her Highness."
"I will."
"Please, always say you love me first, before Her Highness."
"Gladly."
"Please, always hold me first, before Her Highness."
"Yes."
All she asked was that I put her first. A request so modest—and yet not modest at all.
And I answered it without a shred of refusal. Aria, after all, did not treat Lapis as an enemy, and seemed to have no desire to trample on her standing and rights as the first wife.
It was, perhaps, the most reasonable compromise available.
And so, circling the outskirts of that city, my relationship with Aria—the one that had lingered so long in the margins—was accepted at last.
Joy and guilt, coexisting in my heart. As the years of living accumulated and the bonds I touched multiplied, the pressure weighed on my shoulders: the fence around all of this would have to grow only more solid.
And yet, it no longer left me gasping for air.
Truthfully, I didn't dislike it at all.