Her True Feelings (2)
Once more, I carefully turned over that sentence rising unbidden in my mind.
Just how had things come to this?
"What is a mere title worth?"
Serpina turned her head and fixed her gaze squarely on me.
Those eyes again. The eyes of a girl in love.
"What We have prepared is not merely a title for you. Look ahead."
Her outstretched hand pointed toward a small castle faintly visible in the distance.
The vast earth and the blue sky all lay beneath the hand of an absolute sovereign.
"Here, even a fief for you has been made ready in full. Do you see it? The land spread before your eyes, and the people upon it—all of it will become yours."
Once her nation became a unified empire, the old imperial political system would no doubt be restored as it once was.
If I were granted a noble title, then just as she said, I might well become the de facto master of the soil and the people before me.
To me, who still showed no emotion, she whispered carefully.
"Yes. We… this body of Ours will bind you forever to Our side. If that is possible, We can do anything. Bestowing a title, granting a fief… even surrendering a portion of the Emperor's rights themselves—would you not believe Us if We said even that is possible?"
I could not help but believe her.
What filled her eyes was sincerity itself.
A woman of extraordinary beauty and dignity, her long golden hair shining so brightly it almost hurt the eyes.
Lord of the Serpina Army, final victor of the struggle among the imperial princes—Serpina von Aingart.
"Did I not tell you, Swen? You are mine…♥"
She gazed at me fiercely with eyes full of love, her voice burning with longing.
With every step she drew closer, the scent of yuzu reached me, and I felt my ability to form a proper judgment beginning to slip.
"For your sake, We can give everything. Wealth, honor, power… if you only wish it, We can even give you the name 'Aingart' itself."
"……!!"
"Become Our consort, Swen."
"Become Our consort. We shall mingle your blood with Ours. Bound to you by vow, We shall bear your child."
"You understand what that means as well, do you not, Swen?"
As she spoke, Serpina's eyes curved gently into crescents.
Of course.
Of course I knew. It was not the first time I had heard it.
In other words… she was proposing marriage.
If I only wished it, I could become a member of the Aingart family—the most exalted house on this continent.
"I am certain that neither Lin Brans nor Yuuri Asius of the Baranga can give you as much as I can."
Just as she said, neither Lin nor Yuuri could offer something like this.
Lin had never fully trusted me to the end, and Yuuri had never even taken an interest in me.
It was also true that, aside from Lady Luna, only Lady Serpina had ever led a nation by making such thorough use of my ability of Intelligence 100.
And considering that even Lady Luna had never governed for any great length of time… whether anyone could make better use of me than Lady Serpina remained an open question.
She looked straight into my eyes and spoke as though gazing upon something utterly precious.
"Even if that were not so… you can never, never escape me. You will be with me forever."
Serpina clasped my hand tightly.
"From the very moment we first met… it has been a fact decided by fate itself. Fufu…♥"
So saying, she smiled once more.
Her golden hair, steeped in sunlight, again threw my vision into disarray.
Why?
In truth, the greatest sense of dissonance I had felt these past few days was that the way she treated me was a far cry from the way one treats a capable retainer.
I will be honest. Of late, I could no longer deny the thought that she desired me not as a subject, but as a man.
Looking at me with a low voice and a smile, she soon sparkled her eyes like a young girl and posed the question she always asked.
"So then… grant me once more the Prophecy of the Mind's Eye. Can I… can Serpina von Aingart… seize this world in my own hands?"
A question I had received countless times.
Even when she heard the same answer every time, she never despaired, but kept running forward.
Running toward an unattainable goal resembled Lady Irene in the days when she had served under the Brans Army—yet the difference was this:
Where Lady Irene had seemed on the verge of collapse, Lady Serpina appeared filled with drive.
Faced with this maddening irony, there was only one thing I could do.
Predict the answer to the question.
Regardless of my own will, once a question was put to me, I would foresee it.
That was the mechanism of my Intelligence 100.
Can Serpina von Aingart become the sovereign who unifies the continent?
I turned the thought over in my mind.
Could she quell this age of chaos and seize this world as its unifying ruler?
I had already aided her for quite some time. Might an opportunity come to her at last?
My predictions were not always the same. Because the result was drawn from the circumstances at the moment the question was asked, even the same question could yield a different answer than before.
Before long, the answer emerged with absurd simplicity.
Of course—my Intelligence was 100.
[It is not so.]
Of course.
Just as I had expected, the answer that came was that it was not so.
So long as Lady Luna, who held the destiny of continental unification, still lived, Lady Serpina could never ascend to that place.
From the moment Lady Luna's greatest condition for becoming emperor of a unified empire was Lady Serpina's survival—
an opportunity for Lady Serpina was an exceedingly difficult thing to come by.
No matter how hard one strove and strove again, one could not overcome the solemn weight of that "fact."
Unable to explain all of this properly, I had no choice but to give her the same answer I always had.
"…My lord cannot seize the world."
That was all.
Even now, fate had not changed.
"I see."
Serpina nodded slowly once more. Then she turned her head and looked out again over the land spread before her.
"Very well. I am sorry for asking the same question every time. It must be a trial for you as well, always giving the same answer."
"It is not. I…"
Her lonely profile made me want to offer words of comfort, yet I honestly did not even know what words to choose.
I feared that any careless remark would become a blade and cut her. At times, the knowledge of how things would turn out was itself a calamity for me as well.
Just then.
"Swen."
"…?"
"…I thank you."
Seeing her turn her face aside with a faint flush, I opened my mouth in involuntary surprise.
"Yes…?"
"Were you not worrying for me?"
"…!!!"
I felt it afresh once again.
Hiding a sudden emotion before Lady Serpina was probably one of the hardest things in the world.
"You are kind. So kind that I almost think it is not your ability I desire, but that broad heart of yours."
"…"
"I know. It is not something the sovereign of a nation—least of all one who inherits the legitimate line of the empire—ought to say. Before leaning on another's embrace, one ought to be the embrace upon which others lean."
"Is that not the weight of the imperial throne itself? A being who gathers the fervent will of the common people and gives form to the sacred light of a great cause."
Serpina set a smile upon her face once more.
"I do not mind. If it were something that could be accomplished overnight, I would never have attempted it at all. You will come to understand this time as well. I am a woman who cannot rest until I have accomplished whatever I have set my mind to. Fufu…♥"
Without answering her words in particular, I bowed my head.
So long as this destiny existed—the absolute truth that "Serpina von Aingart cannot become the sovereign of a unified empire"—a time of choice would one day come for me as well.
When that time came, I would have to tell her my truth. I would have to leave her side. I had promised as much.
In the Brans Army, in the Asius Army, and even now in the Serpina Army, I had never once forgotten that promise.
And yet, why.
Why, as I watched that smile, did such a deep sadness well up inside me?
Why did I take into my heart that figure of hers, struggling so hard for a goal she could never reach?
Feeling the lingering scent of yuzu at the tip of my nose, I called to mind the ruby-colored resolve I held within.
My lord…
What am I supposed to do to be right?
No—what am I supposed to do… so that I will not regret it?
Even as I cast that unreachable question beyond the sky—
the time of the continent moved slowly, yet without pause, ever forward.
A day no different from any other.
Escorting Serpina as she prepared to go out on inspection to gauge the sentiment of the fief's people were four bodyguards who were as good as her own shadow.
Today, however, there was one small difference.
"He fell from his horse, you say?"
"Yes. He was badly injured and is in the hospital now…"
One of the bodyguards had been hurt, leaving only three remaining here.
There was Leni, the leader who had served as her bodyguard ever since Serpina became lord; Shura, the female general who had volunteered for the post; and Irene, who had only recently been added to the roster of bodyguards.
The one absent was Siegfried, a young elite of roughly the same age as Irene.
"Then today's inspection…?"
"It seems we will proceed as planned. We will not be going as far as the fiefs outside Aingart Castle, after all."
Hearing Shura's words, Irene nodded and sank into thought.
Well… one person is missing, but both General Leni and General Shura are strong. Nothing out of the ordinary should happen.
What concerned her most was the presence or absence of assassins.
There was only one reason. Swen had said an assassination was likely to occur.
In a situation with no evidence whatsoever, she had even conducted investigations through people who trusted her to some degree, yet nowhere could she find any sign that an assassination was about to take place.
Since they were within the Aingart fief, they would not suddenly come under attack—
and even if something similar did occur, she was confident that the three of them could handle it somehow.
After all, having spent a certain amount of time with them, she had come to know that they were quite formidable.
But just as Swen said, the likelihood of an assassination or something equivalent is high. Today I must keep my eyes even sharper and protect my lord.
As Irene steeled herself without letting go of the thread of tension—
"…Forgive me for keeping you waiting."
Serpina emerged from the doorway, and the bodyguards bowed at the waist to receive her.
"I leave myself in your care again today."
"Yes!"
And so once more, an ordinary day began.