In the context of a contract, the most powerful means to ensure promises are kept is marriage.
There is no more certain method than establishing a kinship when forming an alliance between nations.
Meriel wanted to give a heads-up.
What she was about to say was top secret.
Even the royal shaman should not carelessly know, and it was as important as an alliance between countries.
Yes, that was it.
If Epherna showed any sign of realizing the gravity of the situation, she would naturally retract her words.
‘What on earth did you believe that the man would marry her?’
She had only seen him for the first time a couple of days ago.
His face and physique were tolerable, but she had no idea what his personality was like. She didn’t even want to know; it was enough that he served as a stepping stone to meet Merien.
With only that thought in her head, she couldn’t have anticipated what happened next.
“You mention marriage to a man who is about to be engaged in front of his fiancée. You have some nerve.”
“What…?”
Was that … really the case?
With a face full of confusion, she widened her eyes as Achaz sighed heavily beside her. Did he know? He should have told her in advance!
Fortunately, Epherna smiled as if she was willing to overlook it as a joke.
“Since you didn’t know, I’ll let it pass this time. Just be more careful with your words next time.”
“…”
Meriel bowed her head, overwhelmed by a rising sense of shame and guilt.
To boldly declare her intention to marry her fiancé in front of no one other than the fiancée was almost beyond rudeness.
Thankfully, Epherna didn’t seem to mind, but…
‘…Maybe not.’
Glancing sideways, she scrutinized Epherna’s upper body and face. At first, she appeared like a noble who dismissed common verbal blunders, but now she seemed to be squirming as if announcing to the whole world that she was angry.
It looked like she was desperately trying to hold back her feelings.
‘It’s all too clear…’
Both she and Achaz were on the verge of being ingulfed by with her anger, so the effect of Epherna’s restraint was practically null. It would be better if she just expressed her anger outright.
Meriel recalled her main purpose.
Hadn’t she just been about to explain why she needed to bring Merien back here?
“You know my sister married a human. His name is Valtean. He was a man associated with the empire’s dark forces.”
When explaining the shaman named Merien, Valtean’s story was indispensable.
Epherna listened silently, having anticipated the name.
“At first, our whole family was concerned but didn’t seem inclined to oppose it. A few years had passed since the Empire began to harmonize, and I had seen the man named Valtean myself; his personality was fine. The only flaw was that he was a soldier who only knew how to fight. My sister would lament about it, but it was just normal conversation.”
At that time, the family bond had been warm and harmonious.
Regardless of the situation, they trusted Merien’s judgment after she had served the royals for years.
The trouble began from something truly trivial.
The hidden feelings of the first prince of the Forest, the grandson of Achaz, towards Merien, whom he had cared for so sincerely.
He had been secretly in love with her, and as soon as he learned she was getting married, he unexpectedly confessed his feelings.
“Everyone thought we were going mad at that point. He wasn’t just any kid; he was royalty.”
Moreover, the first prince’s obsession with Merien didn’t end with that confession. Despite Merien politely rejecting his feelings, it seemed he could not bear to see her marry another man and even mobilized soldiers to keep her captive.
Neither the first prince’s father nor Achaz could stand by and watch, and thanks to that, the commotion that shook the palace quickly died down in less than two days. However, there was an issue that arose during that process.
“This scar was inflicted on me back then.”
Meriel removed the cover over her chest. Below her abdomen, where it was bandaged, a deep scar resembling a stab wound was clearly visible.
Epherna used [Observation] magic to examine the wound and could roughly guess what had happened when the first prince had mobilized soldiers in the past.
“…You were attacked by an assault that destroyed your mana circuit.”
“Correct.”
“A level that would make it impossible for a magician or mage to recover. You managed to survive by a stroke of luck.”
“Even now, if I lose focus, I could die. I can’t even make that staff you’re holding anymore.”
Meriel pointed at the wand in Epherna’s hand.
“Did you make that too?”
“Yeah. I made it when I was about ten, I think. I planned to show it off as a piece of jewelry to guests someday.”
“A genius, indeed. It’s unprecedented even when considering the era.”
Epherna didn’t hold back her praise.
The quality of the wand Meriel made was impressive enough to earn admiration from Bergamot.
Creating such an item at the age of ten was ample reason for Meriel to be called a prodigy of the century.
“How are you even alive? It seems you’ve managed to protect your mana circuit somehow, but it looks like you couldn’t avoid the damage. The flow of mana seems compromised as well.”
“I’m controlling it in real time.”
“Please don’t lie.”
If what Meriel said was accurate, it meant she was meticulously controlling the mana that was trying to backflow even at this very moment, something impossible for a human brain.
Of course, Meriel knew that fact very well herself.
“So I borrowed the power of this old man.”
Meriel gestured towards Achaz, who looked apologetic.
“Since he has the Spring Leaf. I’m not sure how he did it, but he divided my mind in two.”
“What…?”
“Don’t ask for details. I can’t explain it either. And it’s not entirely perfect.”
As her mind was split, her usual intelligence was reduced by half.
Sometimes her speech would trail off, and she stubbornly preferred to jump straight to conclusions instead of discussing the process.
“Anyway, back to the main topic: I received an irreversible wound because of that incident, and the first prince was imprisoned in a dungeon for five years.”
Merien’s family had served as attendants to the Forest royal family for generations, with her mother even being a chamberlain.
Although they were a family of attendants, their power and authority were quite high, especially given the deep trust built with the Forest royal family over hundreds of years.
The Forest royal family wanted to maintain that trust, so they couldn’t just brush off the first prince’s grave crime.
“Though we managed to conceal it, that incident brought an indelible disgrace to the Forest royal family. I’m revealing this to you now.”
“Hmm. I understand.”
Indeed, if the crime committed by the first prince, who was designated as the next king of the Forest, became public knowledge, it would be a source of considerable mockery.
However, that alone was not enough.
Mentioning the marriage with the Personal Guard was essential to emphasize the severity of the situation.
“There seems to be more to it.”
“…Yes. In fact, what happened next is the real issue.”
It was when the matter was supposed to conclude. Valtean, Merien’s lover and husband, was declared retired from his position in the shadows as a soldier, and he came to the Shaman Kingdom to marry her.
Then he discovered what had happened during his absence, including the deep wounds Meriel had suffered.
As Meriel explained, Ern, who had been maintaining a neutral expression, frowned deeply.
‘That guy… did something reckless.’
Even without hearing what Meriel was about to say next, he could predict it.
“Valtean. My brother-in-law, upon hearing this, stormed into the dungeon and made the first prince a eunuch.”
That crazy b*stard… no, Valtean loses his composure when it involves his wife.
For reference, when he was retiring to marry Merien, he almost fought Schneider.
At that time, Ern had wondered why he was so desperate to retire, but now that he knew it was for his wife, it made sense.
After retiring, he had said he wouldn’t even urinate toward the imperial palace, yet he started working as an attendant following his wife.
“The fact that my brother-in-law made the first prince like that is an issue that could become a serious problem internationally.”
Indeed.
It would be odd if there weren’t any problems when a soldier of the empire castrated the royal heir.
“However, grandfather hoped the matter wouldn’t escalate, resulting in a cover-up. This was during a time when friendly relations between the empire and the shamans were being established.”
And then…
“My sister left the Shaman country with my brother-in-law, burdened by guilt that I had become half-disabled because of her.”
“I want to tell my sister that it wasn’t her fault.”
“It’s not her fault at all. She was just swept away. I want to ask her to come back and stay with me.”
