Ulsro Kingdom - Cleanup and Preparation (4)
There was no need to tarnish Serenia’s reputation any further.
Even with a naturally strong spirit, it was never easy to endure the criticism and whispered gossip of those around you. It might not deal a massive blow all at once, but the slow erosion of one’s heart was poison all the same. If something could be avoided or blocked, it was always better to do so. There was a simpler way, so there was no reason to make her suffer unnecessarily.
Lately, there had been no hot scandals in high society, so Serenia’s matter would be talked about for quite a while. But once word of this summit spread, the noise would gradually die down. After all, the summit already had the pretext of a marriage alliance involving Mari, and even without that, contact with a foreign nation was always enough to set the social circles buzzing.
Interest in the adulterous Viscount Hermeng would fade quickly. That was because he came from a family that was barely worth mentioning. High society ultimately ran on the strength of one’s house. Serenia would continue to draw sympathy, of course, but before long there would be people who couldn’t even remember Viscount Hermeng’s name.
And then there was the incident Valdes would unleash in the Ventorino Kingdom.
By that point, no one would care much if some idle noble disappeared.
“Haa… are we going to do it here?”
Serenia parted her lips and caught her breath.
They had been lost in thought for a while, and because of that, the time they spent tasting each other’s lips had grown long. It was more than enough to stir her desire.
“You want to?”
“...Not now. If we do it now, I don’t think I’ll be able to hold back.”
As the captain of the knight order, she had no choice but to shoulder an enormous amount of work. The Pedro Knights were nothing like ordinary knight orders, which existed as nothing more than armed force focused solely on swordsmanship and command. They were the queen’s most loyal blade, and that meant they were closely tied to politics and power as well. Then there were the rivals who clustered nearest to that position.
Things had improved a little since the order had been established, but even after she became captain, there had not been a single day when she wasn’t mentally exhausted.
“If you want, call for me anytime.”
“Hehe, yes. ...But did you tell Merce about our relationship?”
Valdes let out an “ah” of realization.
Come to think of it, he hadn’t properly explained Serenia’s situation. He had told Mercede that there were four women in the knight order who belonged to him, not counting her, but that was all. Mercede naturally knew about three of them, but she had no idea the remaining one was Serenia.
He had meant to bring it up when she asked, but had forgotten amid everything else.
“Now that you mention it, there are seven women in our kingdom alone?”
“For now, yes. But two of them are a bit ambiguous. It’s not really that I liked them so much as I needed them.”
“That’s a sad thing for those girls to hear.”
“But it’s the truth. Besides, Elsa and Grette probably know that well enough.”
At those words, Serenia fell into thought.
Two among the demons, and five in the kingdom. Following Valdes’s explanation, she excluded the two ambiguous ones. On top of that, more women were sure to appear in the course of his revenge. Yueli, the spiritist, was already among them, though Serenia could not know that, since Valdes had not told her.
We’ll need to organize things.
The women around him would have to gather, acknowledge one another, and sort out their ranks.
She could understand that the Demon Queen was the principal wife. No, she had to understand it. Valdes and the Demon Queen were tangled together in a web of complicated ties: rivals, lifesavers to one another, mother and son, succession issues, lovers, and more. On top of that, they had spent eighteen long years together. She was certain no woman could ever wedge herself into that dense, stubborn fate.
Then what mattered was the next position.
The second seat.
His second lover, Irena, she had never met, but from what Valdes had said, she did not seem like the sort to push herself to the front. She would need the principal wife’s opinion too, but it would be difficult to meet her for the time being. For now, she needed to talk with the others who remained.
“We should probably... all get together once.”
“The women, you mean?”
“Of course.”
Valdes nodded as though that was convenient for him too. He had been thinking it was about time as well. If he didn’t need to step in personally, that suited him just fine.
“If you can manage it, I’d appreciate it.”
“I’ll... do my best.”
Serenia clenched her fist and struck a little fighting pose, and Valdes responded by kissing her again.
“Hngh...♡ S-stop kissing me. If you keep doing that, I, I’m going to lose control...”
“And what’ll you do if you can’t hold back?”
Valdes met her cute, resentful glare with a lazy grin.
“Well...”
She opened her mouth as if to answer, then quickly fell silent.
Whatever she said, the one at a disadvantage would be her. She was the one with duties, not him. Now that things had come this far, it wasn’t as if Valdes would suffer much if the knight order’s opinion of him soured a little.
But she was different. Realizing the unfairness of it all, Serenia’s eyes sharpened little by little.
“Sorry, sorry. Don’t get angry.”
“Hoo... my husband has a more playful side than I expected...”
He was truly very different from the Pedro of old. So much so that it was hard to believe the two were the same person. Then again, Serenia had only ever known Pedro after his education, so that much was natural.
That didn’t mean she disliked it. The Hero back then had carried himself with such a solemn, weighty air that he could feel burdensome at times. He had the feel of a classic old-fashioned nobleman or priest. Since the place that had trained the Hero was the Holy Kingdom, that part couldn’t really be helped.
“As a substitute, I’ll teach you a thing or two with the sword after a long while.”
“Ah... I-I’d love that!”
Though she had become a master, there were still plenty of strong people on the continent. And as Valdes himself proved, this world was not yet the end of all sword users.
In swordsmanship and in mana alike, she still had room to grow. But with her duties as captain, the time she could devote to training every day was limited. That made efficiency what mattered most. If she could receive instruction from someone as far above her as he was, that efficiency would be beyond measure.
As a swordswoman, how could she possibly throw away the chance to grow stronger? Her eyes began to burn with a fierce hunger for power.
“My sword isn’t everything, but I did think about what you’re lacking, so pay attention.”
“Yes!”
Master and disciple thus switched roles and crossed blades once more.
After finishing the morning meeting and returning to her office, Mercede flung herself down heavily into her chair. She could feel Amy, her attendant for the day, staring at her with wide eyes, but that was not important.
This is bad.
The agitation in her heart was spilling out through her fingers as she drummed them against the desk. Tap, tap, tap. It was hardly a pleasant sound, but there was no one here who would dare correct her.
Amy could only pray in her heart that Princess Mercede’s mood would recover soon.
“...My place is in danger.”
The words slipped out reflexively, and Amy nearly shot to her feet in shock.
My place? Does she mean the captain’s seat? Or maybe... no, surely not, the kingdom’s heir...?!
When someone said “their place,” it usually meant a position or office.
And the only positions Mercede held were captain of the Pedro Knights, or the future queen’s seat. If she meant the former, there was no way Amy, who was well-informed about the rumors in the knight order, wouldn’t know. And there had been no recent failed missions, so the captain’s position didn’t seem threatened either.
That left the latter as the more likely possibility.
As an ordinary noble’s daughter, Amy had no way of knowing anything about that. But it bothered her that Mercede had not yet been formally appointed crown princess. A kingdom’s crown princess couldn’t remain merely the captain of a knight order forever, after all, and that was why Mercede had gone so far as to beg the queen about it.
Which meant Princess Mari still had a chance.
Of course, leaving aside the fact that Mari had no interest in becoming crown princess, the “place” Mercede was talking about wasn’t even the succession itself. It was only Amy’s misunderstanding.
While Amy was lost in that misunderstanding, Mercede was sinking into a different worry—one she considered far more important than the crown princess title.
How can I capture Vald’s heart even more?
In what should have been a morning meal and meeting held only by the royal mother and daughters, four daily participants had suddenly appeared.
Elsa, Grette, Ethylene, and even Serenia.
Aside from the fact that they were all women and all belonged to the Pedro Knights, there seemed to be no common ground at all. Mercede, however, had recognized what the three women shared—and then realized it applied to Serenia as well.
They were Valdes’s women, members of Valdes’s harem.
The meeting, which now had more than twice the usual number of people, had turned into a place for discussing not the kingdom’s affairs, but theirs. There were more people, yes, but that didn’t mean there were more voices.
Elsa and Grette, both naturally timid to begin with, were so tense that aside from greetings, they said nothing unless answering a question. Ethylene, too, found it hard to open her mouth. On the other hand, she was perceptive enough to know that this was a place where silence was the safest choice.
In the end, this meeting was practically the same as one that had simply gained Serenia.
As the meeting continued, unease began to bloom in Mercede’s mind.
What if she was, among them, the least appealing one?
The five women recognized as loved by Valdes, excluding Elsa and Grette. The information on the five women, herself included, was being compared freely and mercilessly inside her head.
Mercede was not the type to lack confidence in herself, but her rivals were all formidable, each with her own strengths and charms. Yet because her own virtues were harder to grasp, this sort of thing happened.
I was first...!
Leaving the two attendants aside, she had been the first in Ulsro to sleep with Valdes, hear him say he loved her, and become his lover. More than anything else, the last part mattered.
She had become his lover.
And yet, somehow, the other women were calling him with all sorts of impressive titles—older brother, master, husband. Compared to that, their own way of addressing each other felt strangely ordinary. Just the nickname Vald, and the title of older sister.
What made her feel the strongest sense of rivalry and jealousy, in particular, were Queen Beatris, her mother, and the knight captain Serenia.
Now that it had been revealed that Valdes was Pedro, the two women had become tied to him by the strongest of bonds, unlike her.
Because of that, or because he would be leaving for Ventorino and not be able to see them for a while, Valdes had recently seemed to be paying them more attention.
For the sake of the two who didn’t have much free time normally, he had been taking turns sleeping in their bedrooms at night. That meant being tired the next day was the drawback, but aside from that, they could spend the whole night entwined together.
This is so unfair!
Pressed from so many directions, Mercede decided she needed some sort of drastic measure.
She was trying to think of what she had that the other women did not, something that could make her bond with Valdes even stronger. Then, slyly, a small bottle was placed on her desk.
“Amy? This is...”
“Hehe, it’s scented oil. It’s been really popular in the capital lately. They say if your mind is in knots, you put scented oil on your body, sleep for a bit, and wake up feeling wonderfully refreshed.”
“Scented oil... scented oil...”
She muttered the words over and over like a broken machine.
Amy had not meant to, but thanks to her, Mercede found a clue. Excluding the brother-sister relationship, there was one thing that stood very close between the two of them.
“Thank you, Amy.”
“Ah... yes!”
At the princess’s gratitude, Amy’s face brightened.
Watching her go off in high spirits, already imagining the bragging she’d make to the other attendants about how the princess was using the scented oil she’d given her, Mercede thought to herself,
I’ve received from him so many times already. This time, I’ll be the one to give him something.
Valdes was busy in more ways than one. If she didn’t make a promise in advance, she might not even be able to secure her turn. Fortunately, Valdes didn’t only sleep with the two former married women. Once a week, he would rest his body by sleeping in her room.
Mercede intended to aim for that day.
Having made up her mind, she promptly rose and headed straight toward him.
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