Seven days had passed since I arrived in Ellana.
I had an audience with the Holy Emperor the day after we arrived, after which officials began to plan the victory celebration. It was held for three days afterward in the Holy City.
During that time, the hero spent every day at the Hero’s Home. His knights were assigned barracks and lived in disciplined order under Deputy General Larutas.
I alone had been exempted from that order and given a state guest room just below the top floor of the east spire. If things had gone to plan, or rather according to our fake plan, I should’ve departed for home today. But instead, I was staying for what would happen the next day.
“Ty, are you really going to marry him?”
“Yes. It’s not something to fuss over,” I said.
“But you don’t even like him, do you?”
The hero had asked me the same question over and over ever since I told him about the marriage the previous night.
“Feelings aren’t necessary in a political marriage between nations.”
This was a matter decided in cooperation with the three great powers, and not something that could be overturned.
The Endian Holy Church had made the first move. It put the faith off-balance not to have a priestess to guide the hero of this generation.
Hence why they were going to make me the priestess. I couldn’t use magic, but they planned to cover that by appointing a sorcerer to stand behind me and perform spells, making it look as if I was casting them.
That had provoked a response from the Holy Emperor’s court in Ellana. They couldn’t ignore the church breaking precedent by conducting its own diplomacy with Gardir.
The compromise was to bring me into the imperial family. First, I would marry into the Ellana family. That would be handled by the Holy Emperor’s court as a diplomatic matter. Once that was done, the church would announce that I had actually been a priestess. If I was an imperial royal, it would be treated as an internal matter, separate from politics. Both sides must’ve agreed to that trade-off.
Originally, this plan should have been canceled. My father had already arranged for me to meet the prime minister’s second son, Sargel, in hopes of a match, and this agreement had only arrived in Gardir after that.
However, my father had accepted this proposal very quickly when I refused that match. After all, it was shameful for Gardir to be without a priestess.
My wishes were never going to be considered in such circumstances. The only concession I had been able to ensure was that I would not be removed from my post as the hero’s commander.
Once I became priestess, it would have been easy for them to replace me. If that happened, the hero’s future would grow even more uncertain—the one thing I would not allow.
“But…” The hero started to say something else, but there was a knock at the door, announcing a visitor. I excused myself and opened it.
“Dear Sister, would you please read this book?” Three priestesses trailed behind a small girl who entered, carrying a book. It was none other than the Holy Emperor of Ellana.
“You’ll get in trouble if you come here like this,” I warned.
“It’s all right. I just told them it would be for a little while before bed.”
She set the book down on the table and gestured for the priestesses to wait outside the room.
“I’ll go back to my room, then.” The hero tried to quietly excuse himself, but the Holy Emperor stopped him.
“You have to stay. You’re going to protect my dear sister and me.”
I had already explained that it was my duty to protect the hero, but the Holy Emperor refused to accept it. So the hero always ended up staying with us, but he didn’t seem to mind. He had a cheerful expression on his face.
My first meeting with the Holy Emperor had been three years ago, when I visited to offer my formal greetings to the previous emperor upon reaching adulthood.
In Gardir, it was customary for royals to pay their respects to the Holy Emperor when they came of age, and the treatment one received in Ellana varied depending on rank.
I had no right of succession and wasn’t a priestess. I was of low status, so everyone assumed that the banquet would be hosted by the court, not by the emperor himself.
Yet it was indeed the previous Holy Emperor who had held the banquet—special treatment that caused surprise both at home and abroad.
The reason immediately became clear. The emperor told me I looked exactly like his deceased elder sister and asked that I treat the current emperor as though she were my own younger sister.
I stayed in Ellana for a month, and the young Holy Emperor called me Sister, growing quite attached to me.
Three years had passed since then, so I assumed she would’ve forgotten me by now. Yet it seemed that even as a child, I remained vivid in her memory.
That attachment was now being used to support this marriage.
No royal marriage could proceed without the Holy Emperor’s consent, no matter what the church or court decreed. The couple had to stand before the emperor and be granted permission, so if they didn’t give you their blessing, the arrangement would be called off. As such, it was customary to sound out the emperor’s feelings in advance.
There was always the potential for interference, as well. Ellana’s nobles never welcomed marriages between their royal house and foreign dynasties, and they often petitioned the Holy Emperor to call them off.
They would say there were too few royals to spare for foreign alliances.
This time was no different; they were trying to intervene. However, the young emperor knew nothing of politics, and when the court told her, “Princess Tylera will become your real sister,” she’d immediately agreed.
In other words, if the Holy Emperor had been someone else, this marriage would never have happened.
“Sister, does the horse with wings in this story really exist?” she asked.
“I’ve never heard of such a creature.”
“Huh? You don’t have them?” Surprisingly, the protest came from another voice.
“Did you have them in your world?” I asked.
“Of course! They weren’t monsters, though. Just animals from the plains.”
“Animals?” echoed the emperor.
“Yes, and we brought them back to our village and raised them. Oh, do you know what racing is?”
“My Imperial Guard holds a horse race every six months,” the emperor said.
“Yeah, just like that! We used to race winged horses in my village the same way. You’d start them running on the ground, then make them take off and fly in a vertical loop, and whoever reached the goal first would win.”
The hero swung his right arm around in a big circle as he explained. His voice grew more animated as he spoke, and the Holy Emperor listened with shining eyes.
However, halfway through their conversation, it was interrupted by a second visitor knocking firmly at the door.
“Your Imperial Majesty, it’s time. I have come to escort you.”
“Brother. Is it that late already?”
The man who opened the door and spoke was Detraas, the Holy Emperor’s older brother, and the man I was about to marry.
The Holy Emperor returned to her chambers, and the hero took that as his sign to leave as well.
I accompanied them both to see them safely delivered.
“Please allow me to escort you last, Princess,” Detraas offered me his hand in front of the Hero’s Home.
“I can protect myself. There’s no need for such concern. You should return to your own quarters.” I ignored his hand and began walking toward the central spire.
“What kind of man would leave his betrothed by herself?” He quickly caught up to me and began walking ahead, but since I said nothing, he soon went quiet, and we continued on in silence.
We passed through the central spire and reached the eastern spire. Statues of Gladia, god of earth, and Saadia, god of the sun, towered over us, made of the same bluesilver alloy and standing ten mer tall.
Yet even these grand statues existed merely to be looked down upon, because in Ellana, these two gods were said to have created beastfolk, and therefore considered lesser or beneath the others.
We passed between them and entered the inner wall of the eastern bridge, stepping into the little chamber that held an elevator.
Detraas opened the door and gestured for me to go in first.
I walked into the center and waited while he closed the door between us. Then I set the room’s key onto the pedestal in the middle.
The Wind magical device activated, and the floor began to rise gently.
“It’s tomorrow at last,” he said. He must’ve known I wouldn’t answer but continued anyway. “I assumed you would come to live in Ellana once our marriage was arranged. But that wasn’t how it turned out. I never imagined you would insist upon keeping your position as the hero’s commander as a condition of accepting the proposal.”
“…”
“I had always assumed that you became the hero’s commander merely as a way to improve your own situation. I know all too well how harshly women are treated in Gardir.”
“…”
“But now I understand that your loyalty to the hero is genuine.”
“…”
“That’s why I have no regrets about this marriage.”
“…”
“Because I know exactly how you feel. I serve the Holy Emperor with my whole heart.”
The elevator came to a halt the exact moment he stopped speaking, almost like he’d timed it that way. I took the key from the pedestal, and Detraas opened the door. He guided me the rest of the way to my room.
I gave a slight bow at the threshold and didn’t say a word. Then I went inside, sat down in a chair, and closed my eyes.
I couldn’t tell whether he was being sincere or not. And honestly, it didn’t matter. This marriage wasn’t something that feelings could undo.