Her True Feelings (1)
In the days that followed, I found myself spending so much time at Serpina's side that I might as well have been her personal attendant. Wherever she went, I went with her—as naturally as breathing.
Serpina had asked me to become her consort.
In other words—a proposal.
She had, in effect, asked me to marry her.
Of course, nothing so nightmarish as her forcing the issue afterward, or threatening to kill me if I refused, ever came to pass. But whenever our eyes happened to meet in the middle of a conversation—
"……♥"
—that smile of hers would set my heart racing for no good reason, and I would lose all focus on whatever work I was supposed to be doing.
Looking back on it, if she had pressed any harder, I would almost certainly have wanted to put distance between us. Yet Serpina kept that line with astonishing precision. The way she hovered right at the edge of crossing it—just enough to make the other person restless—was a strategy so refined I could only call it brilliant.
When a woman of such overwhelming beauty, golden hair gleaming, looked at me with those glittering golden eyes full of nothing but sincerity and told me she wanted to bear my child… well. Maintaining even this much composure under those circumstances felt like something I deserved a little credit for.
Outside the royal palace or any private residence, it was never just the two of us. Four bodyguards always accompanied her, and among them was someone precious beyond measure to me—Irene.
She was the only person who knew Serpina might be assassinated.
Serving as a lord's personal guard was, strictly speaking, a role beneath the deputy commander of an occupying army. But once Irene realized it was my will, she carried out the duty without complaint. Even without that, she had been raised from childhood to serve as Lynn's bodyguard. She had only become a general through sheer ability, earning the title of siege warfare specialist along the way. Performing a task she had trained for since girlhood held no aversion for her at all.
I kept Irene constantly updated on the situation.
"How does it look?"
Irene lowered her voice a notch and answered carefully.
"I haven't sensed anything unusual. No particular rumors circulating, either."
Convinced that any assassination plot would leave some kind of sign, I had been speaking with Irene often of late. According to her, nothing out of the ordinary had surfaced. I had told her to report the slightest strange feeling at once, and she had simply continued focusing on her duties in silence.
"But the odds that something is coming are extremely high."
"I know. It isn't just anyone saying so—it's you, Swen. I'll keep watching, and the other guards are all exceptional people. You don't need to worry too much."
Looking at her as she said that, I suddenly realized something.
At some point, Irene had stopped asking me for evidence.
Even now, she simply believed me when I said her lord was in danger, and quietly did whatever I asked of her so she could be of use.
Serpina, too, once she had come to understand my ability—the Mind's Eye—had stopped prying into my reasons and simply listened.
Both Irene and Serpina… the moment I recalled how much trust they had placed in me after seeing that my words had proven right time and again, another face rose unbidden in my mind.
The lord with ruby eyes who had believed in me unconditionally, even when I had shown her nothing at all.
"……."
"Swen?"
"It's nothing. My head was just a little crowded for a moment."
"If something's wrong, you can tell me. I'll listen."
"Thank you."
After conversations like that with Irene, the time would come again for me to advise Serpina on the full breadth of state affairs.
"As you advised, We have dispatched Rude to Rose Castle."
"A wise decision, my lord."
No doubt the optimal result would roll in once more. I still had no idea by what principle any of it worked, but by now I had grown used to outcomes that always benefited our army.
I held no official title, yet I was effectively serving as State Strategist… For the moment it was fine—Jena was away touring the continent, checking for signs of rebellion. But what would become of this arrangement once she returned?
If I simply seized her position, the problems that would follow were obvious. Another rebellion might even break out. Even if it didn't, plenty of people would resent the sudden appearance of a stone that had rolled in from nowhere.
I had a few firm allies—Irian, Irene—but to many of the other generals I was still the enemy from the Kelstein Castle campaign, a turncoat who had switched lords three times.
And, as always, once she had roughly grasped the nature of my ability, she raised the question she never tired of asking.
"Swen. Can We—Serpina von Aingart—become the sovereign of a unified continent and seize this world in Our hands?"
When she asked it, her eyes looked less like a ruler's and more like those of a curious girl. As if she were saying, I've worked this hard—surely I've earned the right by now, haven't I?
Of course, the answer to that question had never once changed.
"Not yet, it seems."
"Is that so? Then that is how it is."
Hearing nothing but refusal, over and over, would have been enough to discourage anyone. Yet she showed not the slightest sign of it, speaking instead with complete confidence.
"It seems Our devotion—and Our ability—are still lacking."
"My lord…"
"But We do not mind in the least. For We have you. The white-haired mage who came to Our side as if by fate… you are here with Us, are you not?"
As she spoke, she brushed my cheek with her pale hand.
I was startled all over again to find that I did not dislike the touch.
"Swen. If you will continue to stand with Us… We will surely take the world. Rebuilding that glorious empire will no longer be a mere dream—not if you are with Us. Of that We are certain."
I gave her no answer, but she paid it no mind and went on looking at me as she spoke.
"So continue to teach Us all manner of things. Light the path ahead, Swen. Until that day comes, you will spend your life at Our side. Heh heh heh…♥"
Serpina's face flushed deeply as she gazed at me with an expression that said she was hopelessly, madly in love.
I could feel her voice growing thicker, more clinging. The way her eyes hungered for me was becoming more blatant with every passing day.
If there was any other change, it was that the moments when she seemed on the verge of shattering had grown fewer. Having someone at her side who appeared to speak only absolute truth—someone who kept helping her—seemed to be doing her mental health a great deal of good.
She believed what I had told her: that predictions shifted with each new situation. She seemed to think that if she kept knocking, a path would open eventually. Of course she wanted to keep me close. A lord's attachment to a capable subordinate was hardly strange.
And so the next day, and the day after that, I continued to tell her, "My lord cannot become the sovereign of a unified empire"—
—and Serpina, undaunted, continued to rely on me as she guided the state.
To my eyes, it looked like resistance. Resistance against the vast karmic weight crushing her shoulders, against the malice that sought to grind her down at every turn.
…….
The more time I spent with her, the more it felt as though a great stone were pressing down on my heart. And yet, in the long run, was this not a service to Lady Luna as well as to Lady Serpina?
Lady Luna's conditions for unification required Lady Serpina's survival. And with an assassination threat hanging over her, remaining in constant contact with Serpina was the best possible position from which to protect her.
So why did it feel so stifling?
I never reached a conclusion about that turmoil in my chest. Day after day simply slipped away.
How many days had I spent like that already?
That particular day, the sky was an unusually deep blue.
Atop the outer walls encircling the Aingart domain, I attended Serpina at her side. The moment she left the royal palace, her four bodyguards—including Irene—followed her like shadows.
For the past several days, I had been thinking constantly about my promise to Lady Luna.
Was it because Lady Serpina had been begging me not to leave her side? Or because of the smiles she sometimes gave me when she looked my way? Or was it simply that if I did not force myself to remember Lady Luna, even I might forget her?
Even as I walked behind Serpina, I was shamefully thinking of another lord entirely.
……No. Don't think about it now.
I roughly ordered my thoughts, then turned my gaze forward, trailing after her with a small question in mind—why had she brought us out here at all?
She pointed into the distance and asked me,
"Swen. Do you know what that place is?"
"Yutiner Castle, my lord."
Yutiner Castle.
The small domain nearest to Aingart Castle. Modest in scale, yet it possessed its own royal keep, and its proximity to the capital made it strategically vital.
And then, from her lips, came a bombshell of a declaration.
"Indeed. That is the place. The domain We have decided to bestow upon you."
"……Pardon?"
Bestow a domain upon me?
Every territory was under the lord's direct administration. Castellans were appointed, but ever since the empire's collapse, the system had been centralized—no longer the old practice of granting fiefs to vassals and collecting taxes from them. The phrase "bestowing a domain" sounded distinctly strange.
The game had never even had such a function.
Of course, things had been different in the imperial era. For an emperor of the empire, granting land would not have been odd at all. If I hadn't idly read those history books in the Aingart Grand Library out of boredom, I might not even have understood what she meant.
In other words—
It was a declaration that she intended to keep me at her side until the very moment the unified empire was restored.
"Swen. With you alone, this Serpina Army will soon unify the continent and revive the once-great Aingart Empire. When that day comes, We shall grant you a noble title."
Having said so, she turned her head and looked at me again.
Her bright golden hair, catching the sunlight, looked like jewels. In those golden eyes—so boldly promising me a title—there was not a single trace of falsehood. Only pure sincerity.
The Serpina before me, who needed me more desperately than anyone else in the world.
And Lady Luna, who had placed her absolute faith in our promise and given me her trust without asking for anything in return.
I could only lower my head, close my eyes, and sigh.
—Just how, I wondered, had things come to this?