Chapter 60
Of all places, the temple.
Normally, he would have ignored both the temple and the Emperor alike.
But as it happened, Lucy was at the ducal castle.
The very test subject the temple was presumed to be searching for.
“I’m going now.”
With those words, he had no choice but to entrust Lucy to Gorgo and send her away.
After soothing his regret as he watched her retreating figure, he came to the reception room, where the priest was waiting.
“Truly. How long I have waited. Is this how the ducal castle treats its guests!”
“I see. Judging by how a priest from the territory, normally so quiet, is flapping his gums, it seems our servants have treated you far too well.”
“…If you recall how close the previous duke was with the temple, I meant that you, Duke Edward, ought not treat me in such a manner…”
“At any rate. Your business?”
“Is it not obvious!”
The priest, arrogant one moment and subtly gauging Edward’s mood the next, demanded two things.
One, that Edward return Lucy—the temple’s test subject he had taken.
It was not a surprising matter, as he had expected it to some degree.
But the second proposal was the problem.
“Ahem! The second is written in the imperial decree sent from the palace.”
It was because of the contents of the decree handed over.
[I hereby command you, Duke Edward Le Thesseron, to marry a young lady of temple origins capable of purifying you.
This is an imperial order, given in the name of the Emperor.]
The moment he read the first sentence, a hollow laugh escaped Edward’s lips.
The Emperor had even written down, in detail, his reasons for doing this.
[I recently heard a story from the northern gate.
Having heard it, I cannot help but think that the fact you are the sole incarnation is a grave threat to the empire’s well-being.
You never know when you might depart for the demon realm, do you not?
And with demonic beasts running rampant these days, it would be best if the next generation of incarnations were born quickly.]
A child born of an incarnation wasn’t even guaranteed to be born as an incarnation.
It was practically nothing short of obstinate insistence, a letter that treated him like a stud horse rather than a human being.
‘You never know when I might depart for the demon realm.’
That, too, was absurd.
Whatever story he had heard, was the Emperor not speaking as if Edward might abandon being an incarnation at any moment and leave for the demon realm?
That an incarnation could go to the demon realm was nothing more than a theoretical tale—that having inherited dragon’s blood, it might be possible to open the gates to the demon realm.
Even if it were actually possible, no incarnation had yet put it into action.
Much less himself…
‘There’s no greater load of horseshit than this.’
He briefly considered racing back to the capital and smashing the imperial palace to pieces, but as it happened, it was an imperial command.
To disobey would be rebellion, and no matter how great a house, it could not avoid becoming an enemy of the empire.
The Emperor’s true intent was obvious.
The Emperor had always pretended to yield to Edward, always pretended to listen to his opinions…
But the moment Edward refused this marriage proposal, it was obvious he would face blatant disadvantages and threats from all sides.
As the faces of the aides standing behind Edward stiffened after reading the decree, the priest, smiling smugly, opened his mouth again.
“Lady Sepina has long been waiting for yo— urk!”
And before he could even finish his sentence, he was thrown out of the reception room.
After that, he had been protesting out there in the corridor all this time.
“It is a marriage you must undertake sooner or later regardless! Your Grace!”
“…”
“Everyone in the empire knows that Lady Sepina and the Duke will marry…!”
“He’s noisy. Shall I go out and slit his throat?”
Shing.
As Tepe finally drew his sword, Rosendal calmly extended a hand and restrained him.
Edward, still wearing a crooked smile, was flicking the decree back and forth.
He could tell who had filled the Emperor’s head with hot air.
‘The temple… the Pope, most likely.’
That crafty old raccoon of a man.
The Emperor, too, had his cunning side, so the two of them got along quite well.
‘Seeing as they’ve even brought out an imperial command… the Emperor must see this as a fine opportunity as well.’
An opportunity to mediate a marriage with Sepina, to control Edward, and at the same time, to place the temple heavily in his debt.
“So that’s how you choose to come at me.”
At Edward’s murmur, his gathered aides added their voices.
“Your Grace. There is no need for you to comply unwillingly.”
“Indeed. Is Thesseron not self-sufficient without the capital’s aid?”
“We will devise a way to stall for time as much as possible.”
Those gathered here knew well that Edward did not like Sepina.
They also knew that the temple was trying to use Sepina to leash Edward.
Edward looked steadily at these people who would play dead for his sake.
They spoke with resolute faces, but…
‘It won’t be the same for the territory’s residents.’
Though it wasn’t a position he had willingly taken, he was the duke and their lord, and his life could not be perfectly separated from others.
If the territory wavered, the aides he had taken under his wing could not remain safe either.
‘What to do.’
It was just as Edward slowly rolled his eyes and examined the decree once more.
[I hereby command you, Duke Edward Le Thesseron, to marry a young lady of temple origins capable of purifying you.]
“…”
That sentence seared itself into his eyes once more.
They had likely phrased it indirectly… if they had outright called her the saintess, Sepina’s request would have been too obvious…
‘…But there is one more.’
A young lady of temple origins.
There was one more person by his side who met this condition.
The little mouse Edward had snatched up…
“…You!”
It was then that the priest who had been protesting outside bellowed loudly.
* * *
At the booming voice, Lucy froze for a moment.
Clara, too, looked back and forth between the priest and Lucy with a bewildered expression.
“Miss?”
All the while, the priest was drawing closer to them, his eyes rolling wildly.
For the priest as well, this was an opportunity he could not afford to miss.
‘This is the task His Holiness entrusted to me!’
Until just moments before, the priest had been seething with spite.
The temple in the territory of Thesseron, unlike elsewhere, held little power.
Normally, a lord’s castle would invariably contain a temple chapel, yet here, even that did not exist.
Perhaps because it was a territory where a dragon incarnation dwelled.
It was a place where people relied more upon the dragon than upon the temple’s gods or priests.
Of course, it had not always been so.
‘The current duke is needlessly arrogant.’
The previous duke had not been like this.
The priest clicked his tongue, recalling the sharp but exemplary previous duke.
When he had been duke, the temple had maintained a fairly close relationship with the territory of Thesseron.
‘Even without the power of a dragon, he was quite a decent duke.’
No— rather, because he lacked the power of a dragon, he had treated the temple with proper deference.
He had known when to bend, and had even been humble.
Now, of course, the House of Thesseron was the ducal house that possessed the empire’s sole incarnation, but it had not always been a family that produced incarnations.
If anything, compared to other families, it had gone a long time without producing one.
The last Thesseron incarnation before Edward had been born a full two hundred years ago.
And even the incarnation that had been born then had been unable to properly wield the dragon’s power and had died young, before reaching the age of ten.
Because of that, when Edward appeared like a comet in the social circles at the age of ten and was introduced as the new dragon incarnation, everyone had been astonished.
According to the previous duke, incarnations had become so rare these days that they had hidden him away and raised him in secret, fearing he might be endangered.
And on top of that, their last incarnation had died before even reaching ten, so they had been especially cautious.
Now that Edward had turned ten and they were certain he was a powerful incarnation, they could safely present him to the world.
Everyone nodded along at that explanation and called Edward the miracle of Thesseron.
Indeed, even at only ten years old, Edward was overwhelmingly stronger than the incarnations before him.
At any rate, until that new incarnation had appeared, the House of Thesseron, whose standing had been gradually narrowing, had actively cooperated with the temple.
Occasionally, they had donated quite substantial sums to assist the temple’s undertakings, and once, they had even secretly funded experiments.
Experiments that the temple itself kept strictly confidential.
‘And in return, they received results of one kind or another.’
