Marriage! Right This Instant!
Is this the main story…?
In the chapel of the Holy Order that had taken up residence within the academy—neither particularly large nor particularly small—a full-blown chase was underway.
“Let’s hold the ceremony right now! Marriage! Let’s get married!”
“What kind of nonsense are you suddenly spouting?!”
“Marriage! Right away, then babies! Babies too!”
“What in the world—! Snap out of it! What do you think you’re doing?!”
Even if the successor to the imperial throne had already been decided, even if she claimed to have no particular desire for the seat herself—Yulika was still a princess of the imperial family. Not a collateral branch, either. Direct bloodline. And not a child of a concubine, but a legitimate daughter born of the Empress. Not an illegitimate daughter, in other words.
For a woman like that to suddenly marry into a mere baronial house—not even a grand ducal house—and not even to the heir, but to a younger son who would never inherit a title?
The authority of the imperial family would crash straight into the dirt. No—it would punch clean through the floor.
Even if the other party were a John Nassen, nothing would change. If anything, the fact that it was a John Nassen would only make the gossip worse.
What would those noble bastards say? They’d be thrilled to scream that we sold our own daughter and surrendered to barbarians!
The imperial family was the absolute power of this empire. And an absolute power could not afford even the slightest crack. The tiniest gap, given time, became a gaping hole that leaked water.
Of course it would not collapse immediately. But the fracture would form all the same. And someday that fracture could become the very thing that brought an entire dam crashing down.
That was why every absolute power clung so desperately to “authority.” Once damaged, authority was never easy to restore to its former height. The quickest method was bloodshed—but that risked splitting the empire itself. Excessive blood always bred division, and division always ended in separation.
There’s no way the Emperor would allow this! He’d call her insane!
The Emperor himself was currently saying, “I approve of this marriage,” but Kyle, who had no way of knowing that, was desperately trying to stop the mad princess.
“Enough! Halt!”
Kyle skidded to a stop with a table between them. On the far side stood Yulika, eyes sharp as blades.
“Your Highness. Please, for the love of everything, come to your senses. Why are you suddenly doing this? No—you cannot do this.”
“Why?”
“Why?! You’re a princess! I’m just the son of a baronial house! I’m not even the heir!”
“So?”
“It’s not ‘so’! Search the entire history of the empire—there has never been a single case of a legitimate imperial princess marrying into a baronial house! Not once that I know of!”
Tisha was practically the spirit haunting the academy library. Spending so much time with her meant Kyle spent a lot of time there too. He couldn’t exactly use books for progressive overload every single day, and learning about the empire never hurt. So he had made a proper study of the history texts whenever he had free moments. Of course, the fact that all that study was now being used to block a princess’s marriage proposal was so absurd it almost made him want to laugh.
“Don’t worry about it. I can handle that myself.”
“There’s a limit to what even you can ‘handle yourself’!”
“His Majesty will look on it favorably.”
“See? Even His Majesty— wait, what?”
Kyle stared at Yulika, wondering if he had misheard. The princess gave a soft hmph of a smile and spoke with complete confidence.
“His Majesty the Emperor will also look favorably upon our marriage.”
“…You’re not serious.”
“Who knows? What do you think, Kyle John Nassen?”
Of course the Emperor would roar that he had never said any such thing and fly into a rage—a rage—
A sudden, deeply ominous feeling swept over him.
Come to think of it, Yulika was not the type to scheme or deceive. The aura she had unleashed earlier, and the way she had fought before that—her style was to push straight ahead with pure force. Deception simply didn’t suit her.
What if, against all odds, the Emperor truly was looking on it favorably? What if he was willing to sacrifice imperial authority for some other goal? Then Yulika’s words had a frighteningly high chance of becoming reality.
“His Majesty’s will takes priority over everything else in the world. You know that, Kyle John Nassen.”
“I know. I do know.”
“Then stop running and just marry me already. That’s all it takes.”
Yulika turned and stretched out a hand.
“Eek?!”
“And look, the Saintess is right here. Someone recognized by the Holy Order, capable of performing every priestly rite. You know what that means, right? If a priest stands as witness, a couple can become husband and wife even without a formal ceremony.”
“I know that too. But that’s only in theory—in practice you still have to hold the ceremony and file the paperwork! This is ridiculous, Your Highness. Stop this!”
“Why do you keep saying that? Do you hate me? I’m a princess, you know. And I’m strong.”
As if she genuinely could not understand, Yulika reached for Kyle again. At that moment the Saintess, who had been squirming free of her grip, finally snapped.
“What do you think you’re doing?! Fifth Princess! Even if you are my friend, I will not tolerate this disrespect toward Brother Kyle any longer! If you continue, I will no longer consider you my friend!!”
“…Hilde?”
“Don’t look at me like that! This is completely wrong! What is marriage? It is a sacred rite in which a man and a woman who love each other become one, blessed and supported by those around them! That is why priests themselves stand as witnesses and report it before God!”
“But there are cases that aren’t like that.”
“If you mean political marriages, I understand. But even those show the parties at least appearing to ‘consent’ to the union! Completely different from right now!!”
The Saintess’s firm tone startled Kyle more than he expected. He had always known her as bright and radiant, someone who never lost her smile no matter the situation. Because that was all he had ever seen, he had assumed she was always like that.
But now she was someone else entirely—so stern in her scolding of Yulika that she almost seemed like a different person wearing the Saintess’s face.
“I—”
“Enough!”
The Saintess cut Yulika off sharply and strode forward with decisive steps. She planted herself squarely in front of Kyle and pointed at the door.
“Please leave.”
“Uh…?”
“This is a chapel. A place of the utmost importance and sanctity, where prayers are offered to God. To cause such a disturbance here… even for a princess, this has gone too far.”
It was an expulsion order so cold it went beyond mere severity. No matter that Yulika was a princess—this was Holy Order ground. The imperial family itself had guaranteed the Order’s authority here in recognition of its contributions. Inside the chapel, at least, the Saintess’s command stood higher.
“…Fine.”
Yulika seemed to have no interest in a sharp confrontation with the Saintess. Of course, the expression that said she still had no idea what she had done wrong never changed.
“Think it over carefully and give me your answer again, Kyle John Nassen.”
“I said leave, now!”
“I know. I’m going.”
With that, the Fifth Princess Yulika truly vanished from the chapel.
“….”
“….”
Kyle and the Saintess both stared at the spot where Yulika had stood.
“Haaah…”
And let out deep, simultaneous sighs.
“…So the attempt at persuasion failed, then?”
“It appears so.”
“Not only that—the Empire seems to have already noticed our movements.”
At those grave words, sighs rose from every direction. They had tried so hard to keep everything secret, only to learn the Empire had already seen through it all. At this rate, war was becoming almost unavoidable.
“What of the Empire’s movements?”
“They have yet to take any notable military action. But they are certain to move first. They have more than enough justification; they are simply waiting for the right moment.”
“…I see.”
The middle-aged man nodded, then suddenly rose from his seat.
“In that case, we strike first.”
“What do you intend? A surprise attack?”
“A surprise attack, yes. But not some half-hearted military raid. Something far more dangerous—and far more effective! A strike that will shake the Empire from within!”
The middle-aged man thrust his arm high and gestured. At once a group of men and women appeared and made their way toward a distant clearing.
“For far too long the Empire has looked down on us. And we—pushed back again and again by their oppression—have been driven all the way to this narrow western fringe. Yet even this tiny scrap of land, our last remaining home, the Empire seeks to snatch away.”
Clack, clack!
Those standing in the clearing gripped something with resolute faces—devices that appeared to be magical tools for controlling mana, each bearing a bizarre mana circuit never seen even within the Empire.
“The time has come to exact bloody vengeance upon those imperial dogs. Our Alliance’s wrath—capable of cutting them down in a single stroke—is complete! It will spread across every corner of the Empire and teach them true suffering! The place where the Emperor resides, the places where the nobles reside, and even that so-called place of learning they speak of so proudly—all of them will be filled with scattered blood and shattered corpses!”
“Ooooooh!!”
“Pain to the Empire! Bloody vengeance! Show them our resolve!!”
When the middle-aged man finished speaking, two men behind him roughly dragged another person forward. The prisoner’s true identity was a spy who had been secretly leaking the Alliance’s information to the Empire.
“They started this first, so we shall—”
Someone stepped forward and affixed one of the devices the men and women held to the spy. Moments later mana began to expand violently—then, with a deafening roar, a massive explosion erupted.