Interlude – The Zaldein Empire’s Imperial Council
“Hah! So, Your Majesty is finally tying the knot, eh? My congratulations!”
In response to the mocking tone, Emperor Eckardt of the Zaldein Empire silently raised a single eyebrow. It was a clear sign of his displeasure, but the speaker either didn’t notice… no, that was impossible. He was pretending not to notice as he continued.
“Hahaha! And to a sixteen-year-old human girl, no less! Are you planning on playing house, Your Majesty?!”
“The human race matures at a different rate than we do. The princess has been deemed of sufficient age, which is why she is being sent to marry into our nation.”
The Emperor’s attendant replied in his stead.
The man who had spoken first—the Wolf Duke—shot the attendant a sharp glare before turning back to the Emperor.
“Play house all you want, but don’t you dare think we will accept some little human whelp! As if a proud wolf would ever bend the knee to a human girl. It’s unthinkable!”
The Wolf Duke was agitated, looking as though he might lunge forward at any second, but the Emperor merely looked amused, the corner of his mouth pulling into a smirk.
“Heh. She is my consort, you know. Try not to bully her too much.”
He hadn’t raised his voice or even glared, yet the Emperor was filled with a strange, undeniable pressure. The Wolf Duke instinctively fell silent.
—They were, after all, in the council chamber.
An octagonal table was set with eight chairs, every seat occupied. These were the dukes representing the ‘Eight Holy Ducal Houses,’ the most illustrious families in the Empire. On a dais several steps above the table sat a single throne, where the Emperor lounged, his chin resting in his hand.
—The Emperor was a beautiful man, with black hair and black eyes.
He overflowed with the youthful charm of his early twenties, possessing the supple grace of a predator.
Just as a heavy silence began to settle over the room, a young man with deep violet-blue hair spoke up.
“The Wolf’s foul mouth is nothing new, but I can understand his point. Why must we go out of our way to welcome an Empress from the human race? The Sapphraine Holy Kingdom was the one that transgressed against us first. Should we not simply invade with military force and subjugate them?”
The duke with the violet-blue hair spoke in a tone that was calm, yet laced with discontent. The Emperor, however, simply smiled back at him.
“Eagle, are you opposed as well? The Kingdom is separated from our Empire by an entire sea. How much time and effort do you imagine it would take to conquer it? Furthermore, they are the ‘Crouching Lion,’ the oldest of kingdoms. We have no way of knowing the true extent of their military power. I, at least, have no intention of finding out while I am on the throne.”
The young man with iridescent hair sitting beside the Eagle Duke spoke up, his expression conflicted.
“But Your Majesty, this princess is… something else. She is only sixteen, yet she holds the rank of Commander General, the highest post in their Knight Order. It’s highly unlikely she has the actual ability to back it up, suggesting she is a woman with an insatiable hunger for glory. Furthermore, she apparently bears the moniker ‘Witch of Ruin’ and is said to be the kingdom’s strongest mage. Again, it is impossible to reach such a level at a mere sixteen years of age, so this must be an exaggeration. In short, she is a woman with an intense need for affirmation.”
“Heh. That is how the Kingdom chose to market her, isn’t it? However, Peacock, I have no preference for demure women. Someone with such a strong personality might suit me rather well.”
The Emperor replied, clearly entertained.
A beautiful, red-haired woman, who had been listening to the Emperor with a sour expression, tossed her long hair back over her shoulder.
“It also seems our future Empress is rather… colorful in her relationships with men. I’m told the princess spends all her time embedded with the Knight Order—which is composed entirely of men—and is very intimate with them. What business could a sixteen-year-old girl with a purely ornamental title possibly have there? One needn’t even ask what she gets up to all day, surrounded by male knights. Is such a promiscuous woman truly suitable to be our Empress?”
“I see. Fox, your words have merit. But humans don’t produce pheromones in the first place, do they? I was rather worried about how I could possibly be attracted to a partner who lacks them. If she is so proactive in her… relations with the opposite sex, perhaps she will be skilled at inviting me into her bed as well. Isn’t that a welcome development?”
“””Your Majesty!!”””
Having lost all patience with the Emperor’s flippant replies, the dukes admonished him in unison. Hearing his title shouted in unison, the Emperor widened his eyes in feigned surprise and glanced around at them.
“All of you are far too serious. According to your reports, my bride is a sixteen-year-old Commander General with an inflated sense of honor and self-importance; a mage with a flashy title. What’s more, she’s a master of fraternizing with the opposite sex, adored by her subordinates. Is that about right? Hmph… To summarize, she is a spoiled, hopelessly naive princess, cherished, loved, and allowed to be as selfish as she pleases.”
The Emperor’s tone remained utterly gentle, but a chill ran down the spines of the dukes around him. They swallowed thickly.
“We are welcoming the royal family’s only daughter, the Kingdom’s so-called ‘greatest treasure,’ as our Empress. It is only natural that we all cherish her, is it not? …Yes, we will cherish her, dote on her… And yet, with a partner who produces no pheromones, I will surely never go into heat, will I? Considering the current reality where even our own kind can barely produce offspring, there is simply no way a human could ever conceive my child, correct?”
The Emperor looked at each of the dukes in turn, continuing in that same, amused-sounding voice.
“An Empress’s greatest duty is to produce an heir for the imperial line. An Empress who fails to fulfill that duty… well, it cannot be helped if she is cast aside, can it? I wonder if that will be ten years from now, or perhaps twenty… For us long-lived beastmen, twenty years is but a moment. But for a human, those twenty years are precious, are they not? Now then… when my bride, having wasted the twenty most valuable years of her life from the age of sixteen, is divorced under the disgrace of ‘infertility’… I wonder just what she will be feeling?”
The Emperor smiled—a bright, innocent smile that, combined with his extraordinary beauty, looked utterly terrifying to the dukes.
“Y-Y-Your Majesty…” the Wolf Duke stammered, “You… you were angry, weren’t you?”
The Emperor gave the Wolf Duke a sidelong glance, his expression one of mild surprise. “Oh, my.”
“Had you not realized? One of my own kin was toyed with and then discarded. And I hear the girl was pregnant. Given our current reality, where almost no one among the Eight Holy Houses can bear children, a pregnancy should have been a cause for celebration for the entire clan. And yet, she was cast aside. This princess is the sister of the very man responsible for it. Why would you think I could ever forgive her? And for what purpose do you think I am summoning her to my side? …Heh. When we finally meet face to face, I wonder… what will I feel? And what will I do?”
As he spoke those words, the Emperor’s eyes changed from black to gold.
Ah, this is bad. This was not a matter they could handle. The assembled dukes groaned inwardly. For the first time in a very long time, the Emperor was truly, genuinely furious.
“W-We shall leave it to you! We shall leave everything in Your Majesty’s hands!”
The Wolf Duke was the first to beat a hasty retreat, masked as an act of complete delegation.
“Hey! You coward! That damned wolf…”
The Peacock Duke, who had started to complain about his colleague, froze as his gaze met the Emperor’s.
“A-As… as this wolf says, I too shall act exactly as Your Majesty commands. Yes. That is for the best.”
The Peacock Duke folded just as easily.
The meeting concluded with the rest of the dukes scrambling over one another to voice their agreement with the Emperor.
The Emperor watched their pathetic display with a look of satisfaction, his lips pulling into a wide smirk.
“Well then, since it seems we have reached a consensus, I shall welcome the Kingdom’s princess as my Empress. Heh… We must all be sure to give her a very warm welcome, mustn’t we?”
Looking at their beautifully smiling Emperor, the dukes all shared the same thought.
Ah, that poor, unfortunate future Empress.
Despite the animosity they themselves had felt for the princess just moments before, they couldn’t help but pity her now.
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