So that was what he’d meant by “overwrite.” Sex literally overwrote your lineage.
Hmm... I guess maybe she could get away with it if she slept with her husband again before the act was sussed out... Oh, but if she lost her rights, she might need her name rerecorded on the Right of Rule, so that probably wouldn’t work anyway.
In other words, any instance of infidelity could absolutely be discovered by checking the Right of Rule.
“Do you more or less understand how lineages work?” Wald asked, but he continued before I had a chance to answer. “Now, consider a case wherein a royal princess decides to take a husband. Were they to have sex, her lineage would be overwritten by her husband’s, and she would lose the rights associated with her original house. Given that fact, what do you think should be done?”
The reasonable guess would be adoption, right? Or, wait, maybe that still wouldn’t work? The problem at hand wasn’t about having a name entered into the Right of Rule as a family member, but the fact that sex changed a person’s eligibility to use the Heraldry. So, that meant—
Wald told me what this world’s answer to that was. “Yes. The husband-to-be first accepts sex from a kinsman of his bride. Once he obtains the rights from having lain with a man from his bride’s house, he can then consummate the marriage with his wife.”
Ah.
Aaaaahhhhh!
Damn it. My brain had completely slipped back to my old world; I’d been thinking along the rules of my previous life.
Now that I had been apprised of this nightmarish system, the stunningly gorgeous young man swooped in for the death blow.
“Kariya, do you think I’m handsome?” he asked. “And I’m not trying to be conceited; I’m looking for your objective opinion. I’ve long since gotten used to the way people look at me, but I am aware that my face tends to make me an object of desire for men and women alike.”
“Uh... No. Not even the slightest.”
“Fair enough. You’ve very little interest in the carnal, right? I did notice that, back at Tachyrinn, you rejected advances from everyone regardless of gender, and you never tried to pursue anyone yourself.”
Yup. I’m pretty sure my lust has long since hit rock bottom. It might actually have just dried up completely. I mean, if I count how long I lived in my old life, I’m just about at that age. Unfortunately, my mental age never matured at all.
“I’ve been protected by my status as prince. I could refuse any unwanted advances, and my rank had also been the reason people could not approach me with such proposals,” he said. “Besides, laying a hand on royalty, whether man or woman, would result in execution not only for the offender, but their entire clan. This is because a royal who is taken forcibly will still lose the qualification to rule that was afforded to their bloodline.”
“Even for men?” I asked.
He nodded. “Yes. Both men and women can have their lineages overwritten. If they engage in intercourse as the receiving party, they will lose the rights associated with their previous line.”
I was aware that I was being terribly, awfully rude to him, but I couldn’t help but clutch my head. There was no guarantee that this strikingly beautiful young man, who was so pretty that he could be mistaken for a woman, would be able to get by without being raped. In fact, if left alone, he probably would be.
Whether it be a brigand, thug, or corrupt noble, if he ran into the wrong person at the wrong time, he’d probably be bent over on the spot.
Gender wouldn’t matter. A hole’s a hole.
Being a barbarian living in the remote mountains, I’d been far removed from it all, but the fact that the weak were subjugated and violated by the strong remained a tragic truth of this world.
Just like those women I’d saved all those years ago and the bandits who’d abducted them.
We sat in silence for a moment as I digested this new information.
Before long, Wald spoke once more. “I’m sorry, Kariya. But now, you understand why I must ask you to protect me in certain other ways as well. Right now, I’m certain the castle in Altiuccia must be under lockdown to prevent people from approaching the Right of Rule, as it would reveal my status. Should I perish, the light will die from my name, but if I am assaulted, the light will fade from gold to white. The fact that I have lost my lineage will be made plain.”
I mulled over this for a moment. “Would that mean you’d lose your claim to the throne?”
“If nothing is done to reverse it, yes. But should my lineage be overwritten once more, the rights associated with my house should be restituted. If that were to come to pass, I might be considered the bride of the man who lies with me, but I suppose we could come up with something to gloss over that detail. Such things have always been made vague in any given bloodline.”
Then, I heard him quietly add, under his breath, “Not that I have any intention of continuing the current royal house.”
I pretended not to hear that.
I didn’t need to think about things that would be dealt with after we’d returned to Tiuccia. Right now, I had to focus on figuring out how to get him back there safely.
Of course, I had every intention of bringing him back to his home country untouched and unharmed. But on the other hand, I couldn’t deny that the difficulty of doing so had just skyrocketed.
I nodded, showing that I understood. Under no circumstances could I allow him to be raped. I had to do everything in my power to protect this lovely young man’s virtue.
Speaking of his virtue...
“By the way, I heard that House Tiuccia has nearly no direct members of its line remaining. Um, so... If the worst should come to pass, would it be okay for your bloodline to end up diluted?”
“We still have Lucian,” Wald said. “Although his lack of magical aptitude prevents him from using the Ivory Veil, he is still able to maintain our bloodline. Since he prefers men anyway, I think he would be the perfect candidate to rewrite the lineage, should it somehow be lost.”
“W-Wait, isn’t he your brother?!”
“Yes, but we have different mothers. It’s quite unacceptable—taboo, even—to have sexual relations with a sibling from the same mother, but there is no issue for siblings from different mothers. They are even permitted to marry,” Wald explained unaffectedly.
Holy shit. This world is unbelievable.
In my twenty-five years of life in this land, what Wald had just told me definitely ranked as one of the craziest instances of culture shock I’d ever experienced.