Prologue — Didn't I Tell You? You Are Mine
How on earth did it come to this?
"A title prepared for you, and a fief prepared for you as well—everything stands ready. Do you see? All the land and people spread before your eyes will become yours."
A woman of extraordinary beauty and grace, her long golden hair gleaming so brightly it almost hurt to look at, spoke as she gazed upon me.
"Did I not tell you, Swen? You are mine. For your sake, I would give you everything. Wealth, honor, power… if you so desire, I could even grant you the name of Aingart itself. You understand what that means, do you not? I am certain that neither Lin Brans nor Yuuri Asius could ever offer you as much as I can."
She looked straight into my eyes… and spoke as though gazing upon something infinitely precious.
"Even if that were not so… you can never, ever escape me. You will remain at my side for eternity. From the very moment we first met… it has been a fact written by fate itself. Hehe…♥"
Why?
The woman who had been smiling at me in that low voice now sparkled her eyes like a young girl and posed the question she always asked me.
"So then… grant me your Prophecy of the Mind's Eye as well. Can I—Serpina von Aingart—seize this world in my hands?"
Whether I willed it or not, the moment a question was put to me, the prediction came unbidden.
I turned the matter over in my mind.
Could she quell this age of chaos and become the unifying sovereign who would take this world into her grasp?
Before long, the answer arrived with almost absurd simplicity.
Well—my Intelligence was 100, after all.
And so.
I had no choice but to give her the same answer I always had.
"…My lord cannot seize the world."
At least, that is how things stand for now.