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VII. Exposed

It was a matter well over twenty years past. During the era when King Axion was waging large-scale wars of conquest, the Duchess of Erkman at the time—who was also Viern’s mother—was attacked by masked assailants while traveling by carriage to her parental home for childbirth.

Just as they were about to harm the Duchess, one man, notably robust in build, stepped forward to shield her.

‘She’s pregnant.’

‘So what?’

It was learned much later that the group that attacked the carriage was a coalition army fighting for the liberation of the various nations conquered by Laurelai. The assault that day was to secure much-needed military funds, and the man was the leader of the Ersha Liberation Army, part of that coalition.

‘If you’ve got the supplies, that’s enough.’

‘She’s the Laurelai woman who crushed our nation!’

‘Are you people trying to kill a baby that hasn’t even been born?’

‘Move, Defonos! Now!’

‘No. Ersha doesn’t do unnecessary killing.’

An argument broke out between the Ershans, who insisted the pregnant woman must not be killed, and other members of the coalition. And just at that moment, early labor pains began. With two months still left until her due date, the mother’s life itself was now in danger.

The man stood in her defense, declaring that if they wanted to harm the woman, they would have to go through him first. Under his protection, the Duchess safely gave birth and was able to return home alive. However, because of this incident, the Ershans, whose ties with the coalition had soured, were gradually wiped out when the royal forces launched a suppression campaign, receiving help from no one.

‘You owe your birth to many people, Duke. So in the future, when you gain power, please repay the kindness they showed to you and your mother on my behalf.’

His mother’s final wish, spoken before her death, remained etched in Viern’s heart for a long, long time.

After the Ersha Liberation Army was destroyed, a significant number of Ershans were enslaved and sent to the mines in the western region. Subsequently, King Axion rewarded Marquis Silberk, a war hero, with those western mines, and the slaves became his property along with them.

The simplest way to liberate them was to acquire the western plains and mines from the Marquis. However, with the kingdom only just stabilized, there was no need to deliberately antagonize the Marquis. Moreover, enslaving the Ershans and handing them over to the Marquis was a royal decree issued by the current King, Axion. For Viern, who was ruling as Regent under the pretext of protecting the king, to negate a decree personally issued by the monarch could damage his own legitimacy.

Thus, he had intended to resolve the matter as quietly as possible through a marriage alliance with the Marquis… but now, that didn’t matter anymore. Because something more important had come up.

“I’ve realized there’s something much more important.”

At the very moment he said those words to the Marquis’s daughter, Viern felt his own resolve solidify even further.

He didn’t know when he had begun to love her this much. But one thing was certain: she had always been the exception for him. Ever since that moment he pulled her from the burning tower, and always.

“Is that… more important to Your Grace than the will of your late mother, the Duchess?”

Of course, he had no intention of discarding his mother’s wish. But it meant he would likely have to take a far more difficult path. In a fight he started without justification, the meritocratic faction led by the Marquis and the royalist nobles lying in wait might join hands to attack him.

But, even so.

“Sometimes in this world, there exists something so precious and valuable that it cannot be weighed against any other concept, no matter how real.”

Diana Rosenheir. The only being who ever belonged to me, completely.

“Is that…?”

Is that… Her Highness? Sophia couldn’t bring herself to ask further and bit her lip hard. Looking at him with a devastated expression, Sophia let out a painfully bitter laugh and barely managed to continue.

“It’s not me, is it.”

Finishing his conversation with Sophia and sending her away, Viern went to find Diana with a noticeably lighter step.

“My apologies, Your Highness. My affairs with the Marquis’s daughter have been completely resolved.”

“So what?”

However, rendering his apology meaningless, Diana countered with an utterly sullen face.

“So, just because you’ve ended things with the Marquis’s daughter, do I now have to put up with you again?”

“……No.”

Viern had to retreat, soothing a bitter taste in his mouth. Ending things with the Marquis’s family had changed nothing. It had only made the fact painfully clear that Diana’s heart and his own were not aligned. That was already half a month ago.

‘Should I be grateful just that she’s cooperating with recovering her memories?’