Chapter 24 — The Princess Can't Sleep (3)
Chapter 24 — The Princess Can't Sleep (3)
A party of demons, a forest elf, and a human walked the corridor late at night.
When they announced they wished to see the emperor, they were told he was in his office, and they headed that way.
'Past ten o'clock and he's still in his office?'
The princess's bedtime was nine.
The office door was slightly ajar. The bright light of an illumination magic orb seeped through the gap. The vampire attendant peered carefully inside. Just beyond the office door lay the secretarial room.
The faunus secretary, who had been watching for cues, had left work at the Demon King's urging.
But in the end, unable to overcome his guilt, he had brought in one of his subordinate clerical officers as a replacement.
So the imp officer, unlucky with both his immediate and higher superior, had been nodding off until the attendant's presence startled him awake.
"Oh, oh dear. What business do you have?"
"We have come to see His Majesty."
"Hssp. Mm, I see. At this late hour. What time even is it."
After glancing at the clock, the imp looked over the princess and Rauka once, yawned, then cleared his throat.
"Hm. Hm. Your Majesty, the human princess residing in the tower has come to see you."
"...Let her enter."
The imp opened the door, and Rauka slumped into a chair in one corner of the secretarial room. The princess glanced at Rauka once before stepping into the office.
Observing Grünent's attire, merely a light gown over her sleeping clothes, Roan asked with a note of puzzlement.
"What's the matter? Have you just come from bed?"
There was no way Grünent could say, 'I wanted to see your face.'
"Earlier, Your Majesty said... to come if it was difficult...."
"Ah. Are you feeling unwell?"
Roan furrowed his brow slightly and checked his Detection. Grünent didn't seem to be in poor health. If anything, this was a pleasant....
Realizing it was a pleasant sensation, Roan smiled faintly.
Seeing that expression, the princess felt as if her heart were dropping.
Slight fatigue showing on his face, his disheveled hair was suggestive. The smile that bloomed on that face was far too alluring.
'D-d... deep breath. Deep breath. Hoo....'
The princess took a deep breath and surveyed the emperor's desk.
"I came to tell you that I seem unable to sleep, perhaps because I was a bit startled, Your Majesty. I believe it is not a serious matter."
"That's a relief."
"Were you reading a book in the Ancient Language?"
Roan looked down at his desk at Grünent's words. An Ancient Language dictionary he hadn't quite managed to hide was poking out.
The Demon King swept his hair back as if unconcerned.
"Mm, I've had something I needed to look into lately."
"It is remarkable. I found the Ancient Language so difficult that I learned it while being scolded by a friend from childhood."
Roan knew exactly who that friend in the story was.
"A friend taught you the Ancient Language, you say? At a young age? Remarkable indeed."
Right. He was an extraordinary person.
And sooner or later, he'd come charging in to rescue you.
"Yes. That is so.... Though I did not match my friend's ability."
The princess seemed to recall her past in the kingdom with nostalgic eyes. Roan thought it best to change the subject.
"Mm. Now that I think of it, I once mentioned I had a matter for which I would seek your help."
"Ah, yes. Your Majesty. I remember."
Roan offered her a chair.
"I'll discuss the full details with my ministers present later, but... I intend to purchase grain from another place."
"Grain... you said?"
Grünent instantly lowered the voice she had unconsciously raised. Then she darted a glance toward the door.
Seeing that, Roan spoke toward the outside.
"Clerical officer."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
"Don't just hold out there; go inside and get some proper rest. On your way, escort that attendant and the forest elf back."
The imp was silent. He was probably embarrassed.
"...Yes, Your Majesty. Thank you."
Rauka's grumbling to the attendant and the clerical officer could be heard faintly. Since she was already under magic that sealed her power anyway, she wouldn't offer meaningful resistance.
'It's just... the two of us....'
Grünent tried to consciously focus on the topic of business to push aside the thoughts that kept surfacing.
"Where do you intend to procure the grain?"
"Arteala."
"Do you mean... Arteala, the city-state league northwest of Evirgio?"
Grünent corrected herself, having unconsciously thought in terms of the Kingdom of Merde. Roan nodded readily, but Grünent spoke with concern.
"That place shares a border with Merde, so Merde's influence currently acts strongly upon it."
"I'm aware. They refused to sell grain, I was told."
"...Yes."
It was something the princess herself had proposed to her royal father. Grünent bit her lip and lowered her head.
"But merchants make no profit if they simply stockpile goods."
"That is true, but all of a sudden..."
"If I said I had a method to bring it in, would you help?"
At the confidence in Roan's words, Grünent's eyes widened.
Arteala in the west was a league of city-states bordering Merde, and its northern protrusion was a peninsula nation facing Evirgio to the east.
Since it was separated from Evirgio by a not-especially-wide sea, it was reachable by ship in one week, which made it likely the human nation with the most trade volume before the war.
But Merde shared a land border with it. No matter how much they were at war, Merde's military power was incomparably greater than that of a city-state league like Arteala.
And yet the emperor looked as if he held some card.
The princess slowly blinked and lowered her head in deference.
"Even if there is no method, I will assist Your Majesty."
A smile rose on Roan's face.
"Those are grateful and deeply meaningful words."
"Thank you, Your Majesty."
"All the more so, since they now come from you, who once in this very place prayed for my failure."
With astonishing speed, Grünent looked up at him.
Roan wore a teasing expression.
It was a relaxed joke he could make because her Affection had surpassed +60.
This was no longer the negative Affection range where every word he spoke sounded bad. Now the value was so high that anything he said would be favorably interpreted.
Just as Roan thought, Grünent turned as red as a carrot and hung her head deeply. In the previous situation, she might have flared up, demanding to know what he was mocking.
"Th-that kind of talk...."
The Demon King rose from his office desk and approached the princess, who was seated in the visitor's chair staring at the floor.
Roan slowly brought his own face close to hers.
'...Ah, his breathing is....'
It was the same sweet scent she had noticed before. The princess felt her consciousness grow hazy.
The Demon King whispered into her ear.
"The clothes you wore then, to tell you the truth, were cute."
"...!!"
Like a cartoon, the princess's face, from her neck to her ears, turned bright red.
"Th-that is.... Your Majesty, no..., such an embarrassing...."
Watching the princess stammer, Roan gave a small laugh.
"Why are you like that? I think it was pretty."
"Uu...."
And at the princess's next words, Roan's smile deepened.
"Your M-Majesty, if you... like such clothes.... I have no choice... but.... Perhaps... next time...?"
He could bear it no longer.
Roan lifted the princess up in his arms.
"Kyaa?!"
Grünent let out a small cry, but Roan strode out of the office with her in his arms.
"Y-Your Majesty! If the servants see...!"
"Doesn't everyone know you are my concubine?"
At the amused remark, Grünent silently buried herself in the Demon King's embrace and clutched tightly at his clothes.
Roan used Detection while erasing his presence.
It was late, so avoiding the few servants around to enter the bedchamber was easy.
He had no wish to be greeted by the servants and have this mood disturbed.
Looking at the bedchamber attendant hurriedly bowing, Roan spoke coldly.
"Leave. And do not come until morning."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
Even in that moment, Grünent felt a throbbing in her heart at the sight of him considering her own embarrassment.
Roan carefully laid her down on the bed. Grünent felt regret as the hot body heat that had enveloped her faded.
But then, seeing Roan's next movement, she forgot even that regret and squeezed her eyes shut.
"I was waiting."
Roan's lips touched her forehead lightly before pulling away.
"For the day you would accept me."
Roan's large hand carefully stroked back her light pink-brown hair.
Grünent spoke, panting.
"...Your Majesty.... I can't breathe...."
Roan sat on the edge of the bed and looked down at Grünent. Right now, Mihon and Overwhelm were completely suppressed.
The trembling and excitement she felt now stemmed entirely from her affection for him.
That fact pleased Roan even more.
He gently stroked her cheek and said,
"It's fine. Breathe slowly. In any case...."
To Grünent, who was gazing up at him vacantly, Roan slowly leaned in.
"After this, you won't be able to worry about such things."
"...?!"
The princess's tender lips met Roan's.
Her small body leaped like a freshly caught little fish. The Demon King's thick arms caged her in.
"...Uu... uh..."
The careful touch of his lips was so hot that Grünent tried to twist her body slightly away. But the Demon King did not let her go.
Holding her tight, Roan kissed along her lips and licked them with his tongue. It was a persistent movement, as if trying to learn the shape of her lips.
The princess, who was about to turn her head, barely pulled her consciousness together and endured.
'I don't want to seem like I dislike it.'
She did not wish to avoid it.
She wanted to know everything about him.
The movements that had explored her lips several times stopped.
'...Huh?'
At the sudden halt, Grünent softly opened her eyes.
And she realized that the Demon King's eyes, like amethysts, were gazing at her.
"...Your Majesty."
"Look at me. Princess."
A smile rose on Roan's face. It was a smile that seemed somehow lonesome, yearning, and stirring to a woman's heart.
"Don't turn your eyes away."
And Grünent responded without knowing it.
"Your Majesty. I won't turn my eyes away."
The princess embraced the Demon King.
At the sudden hug, Roan stayed still for a moment as if surprised, then wrapped both arms completely around her once more.
Grünent kept murmuring.
"Your Majesty.... I cherish you. Your Majesty."
"Mm."
Roan gently, gently stroked her hair.
For a while, he simply enjoyed her embrace. Then he carefully separated her body from his and looked into the face of the princess, who had frozen stiff after finishing her impulsive confession.
"I, too, hold you dear."
"Grünent...."
"Hm?"
The princess's blue eyes sparkled.
"Call my name.... I am Your Majesty's concubine.... I am someone who must now live here."
That firm resolution was so utterly lovely that Roan thought he might go mad.
Things that had never been conveyed by mere drawings and letters on a monitor—
body heat, voice. movement. emotion.
All came through his Detection, heightened and focused to the extreme,
shaking his heart even more fiercely.
"Yes. Grünent."
"...Your Majesty."
"Grünent. Mine."
At Roan's words, Grünent felt an incomparable joy. But soon, a strange feeling came over her, and she quietly drew away from the emperor's embrace.
"I...."
"?"
"Something keeps pressing...."
"...!"
Reflecting Roan's intense excitement directly, his lower body had already swelled enormously and was firmly pressing against the princess's thigh.
The princess had seen something similar in the prison.
She had never seen a demon similar to humans, like the Demon King, use it. But the vague, embodied terror surfaced in her mind.
The stick-like things of the orc and ogre guards moving in and out of the attendants' bodies, and the moments those attendants screamed, flashed through her mind.
"...Y-Your Majesty, th-this is...."
And the Demon King, too, felt her terror completely. This was thanks to his Detection, now refined to a dimension wholly different from when he had first inhabited the Demon King's body and sensed the slaves' fear.
Therefore, to soothe the princess, Roan spoke gently and slightly released his Mihon. The intensity was just enough to act as a light medicine to make her forget the painful memories for a moment.
"Grünent. It's fine."
"...Your Majesty...."
"It became this way because I find you so lovely. But I will not cause you pain."
"Yes...."
Her voice now somewhat languid, Grünent nodded.
"It's fine, Your Majesty...."
She spoke vacantly, looking at Roan.
Staring at her parted lips, Roan began to kiss her.
It was the beginning of a passionate night.