Chapter 110
“I want to bring the slave knight under my command.”
Richard, who had crossed swords directly with Leon, keenly felt his strength.
Leon was the kind of talent the Imperial Knight Order needed.
His master, Princess Aurora, had refused, but Richard judged that if he persuaded the Emperor, it would be possible.
The Emperor narrowed his eyes.
“Richard. Do you know that he is a criminal who defied the imperial command?”
“Yes.”
“And yet you still want to bring him into the Imperial Knight Order?”
He had driven the witch away.
He had defied the command the Emperor had given.
For that alone, it would not have been strange if Leon had already had his head cut off several times over.
Richard answered with his head bowed.
“Yes.”
“Do you know what that means?”
“I do.”
To bring someone who defied the Emperor’s command into the Imperial Knight Order.
To place a criminal who defied the imperial command in the position meant for the Emperor’s sword.
The Emperor looked down at Richard for a while.
“That’s unlike you. Has your loyalty waned?”
Richard answered without hesitation.
“If you doubt my loyalty, I’ll offer my head right here and now.”
“…….”
“Your Majesty. May I dare speak?”
“Speak.”
Richard began to speak carefully.
“Your Majesty knew he was a criminal who defied the imperial command, yet you handed him over to Her Highness Aurora.”
At that moment, the reception room turned cold.
Those words could easily sound like insolent criticism, as though he were revisiting the Emperor’s judgment.
But Richard did not back down.
“This would not mean that Your Majesty has forgotten his crime. Nor would it mean that you judged his crime to be light.”
The Emperor’s eyes grew deeper.
Richard continued.
“Rather, I believe you entrusted him to Her Highness Aurora because you judged that his crime was not one to be punished only by immediate execution or permanent confinement.”
“You are interpreting my will?”
“I have presumed too far.”
“A dangerous remark.”
“I apologize.”
Richard bowed his head even lower. But his guess had been close to the answer.
No matter how much Aurora wanted it, and no matter how capable Leon was, no sane person would keep a criminal at his daughter’s side.
Even so, the reason the Emperor gave Leon to Aurora was because he was both a criminal and a hero.
The hero who had subdued Sersia, the Empire’s headache.
Aside from the political friction it caused, there was no room for dispute on that point.
Moreover, Aither himself had even stepped forward to defend Leon.
He judged that there had to be a reason for a prince to shoulder political risk in order to protect a slave.
The Emperor trusted his son’s eyes.
That was why he had not imposed any special punishment on Leon.
“If he is a criminal, then all the more reason to place him on the battlefield. To raise a sword before enemies that threaten the Empire and shed blood for the Empire—that is the punishment a criminal deserves.”
But that was only the Emperor’s extremely personal judgment.
“If he committed a crime, then let the tip of that blade serve the Empire. If he is one who defied the imperial command, then let him fight under imperial orders for the rest of his life.”
A criminal. A slave. To stroll proudly through the imperial palace. There were many who were dissatisfied with such unprecedented leniency.
It was only natural to send Leon to the battlefield rather than keep him beside the princess.
That was why Kaiser could not simply dismiss Richard’s argument outright.
Silence flowed through the reception room.
The Empress, who had been quietly listening from the side, stepped in to back up the Emperor.
“Sir Richard. His master is Aurora. Why did you come to His Majesty instead of asking that child?”
“I also spoke to Her Highness the Princess, but she flatly refused. She said he was acting as her writing assistant.”
“And yet you came to His Majesty?”
The Empress’s eyes sharpened.
Aurora had refused. And yet he had come to the Emperor to make the same request.
It could look as though he were trying to overrule the princess’s wishes through the Emperor’s authority.
Richard surely knew that.
“I do not intend to disregard Her Highness the Princess’s wishes.”
“It could sound that way.”
“I know.”
Richard did not deny it.
“That is precisely why I’m speaking so cautiously. I am not saying I will take him away right away.”
“Then?”
“I only judged that even Your Majesty should know of his talent. Such talent should not be left idle. Not letting him wield a sword would be a tremendous loss to the Empire.”
The Emperor stared steadily at Richard, who kept his head bowed.
“Is that a report, or a request?”
“Both.”
“Frankly spoken.”
“How could I possibly hide my true feelings before Your Majesty?”
Richard said calmly, his head still bowed. His words were not entirely free of selfish desire.
He wanted Leon.
As the commander of the Imperial Knight Order’s Second Division, it would have been a lie to say he did not covet such a talent right before his eyes.
But the root of that desire was not personal advancement.
It was the loyalty of one who worried about the Empire’s safety.
It was the responsibility of a knight who claimed to be the Emperor’s sword.
Kaiser knew that too.
That was why it was even more troublesome.
If it had been self-interest, he would have cut it off in one stroke.
But if it was loyalty.
If it was counsel for the sake of the Empire.
As Emperor, he could not ignore it.
“I understand your intent. I understand that he is a talent the Imperial family needs. I also understand why you covet him. However.”
The Emperor slowly opened his mouth.
“I already gave that child to Aurora.”
Richard listened silently.
“Aurora asked for him directly, and I granted it. Thus his ownership was transferred to Aurora. But if, now, we were to take back that slave simply because he is useful, what would that look like?”
The Emperor’s gaze deepened.
“It would be like the Emperor taking back, with a simple flip of his hand, what he had given his daughter.”
“…….”
“That would not be fitting for the Emperor’s dignity or a father’s duty. So I cannot step forward and crush Aurora’s wishes.”
The Emperor placed his fingers on the armrest of the chair.
Tap.
Tap.
The slow sound beat against the silence of the reception room.
“For now, at least, keep it in mind.”
“What do you mean...?”
“If I judge that it is difficult for him to remain at Aurora’s side, I’ll consider it then.”
What had already been given could not be taken back.
But if Leon became someone too difficult for Aurora to handle.
Or if his presence at her side brought harm to Aurora.
That meant the Emperor would intervene personally.
“I will obey Your Majesty’s wishes.”
“You may withdraw.”
After showing due respect to the Empress as well, Richard quietly withdrew.
The door closed.
Once again, only the Emperor and Empress remained in the reception room.
Tap.
Tap.
Tap.
Tap.
The Emperor was still tapping the armrest. Only, the pace was faster than before.
The Empress spoke first in the silence.
“Aurora will be displeased if she hears about this.”
“What are you referring to?”
“That you left open the possibility of taking him away.”
The Emperor let out a sigh heavy with fatigue.
“I left the possibility open; I did not say I would take him away.”
“It’ll sound the same to Aurora.”
“If that child is a princess, there are times when she must understand.”
“That sounds less like a father and more like an emperor.”
Kaiser did not answer.
Because it was true.
Giving Leon to Aurora had been a father’s permission.
A father’s heart, wanting to give his child what she wanted.
But if Leon was a talent coveted by the Second Division Commander of the Imperial Knight Order, then this was no longer simply a matter of one slave.
The Empire’s fighting strength.
The Imperial family’s authority.
Aurora’s safety.
All of it was intertwined.
“What a headache.”
To think the day would come when he’d have to rack his brains over a single slave.
All he could do was pray that nothing would happen.
***
“Now then, Leon. You exercised enough, right? Time to write again.”
“Ahh...”
I was forcibly seated in a chair.
Some people get trapped in isekai worlds and can’t get out unless they have sex, but I got trapped in a room where I can’t get out unless I write.
As always, I’m the only one with bad luck.
“Don’t whine. You said you’d write if I sparred with you first.”
Aurora pushed her face right up close and gave me a cool glare.
“If you break your promise, I’ll be disappointed.”
“Nnngh.”
Well, a promise is a promise.
If I do my part, she’ll probably let me get away with it next time.
I decided to write without complaint.
“Then let’s think up your next work. Is there anything you want?”
“Hmm, I’d kind of like to see a novel with me as the protagonist...”
She was seriously asking for a self-insert fic.
She was requesting a self-satisfying work of fiction, filled to the brim with her own desires.
Of course, I had no right to shoot down the plan. If she says kneel, you kneel.
“Then I’ll make the protagonist of the new work a princess. However, there’s room for trouble, so I won’t use the actual person directly.”
“I know that much.”
“Do you prefer a pitiable heroine, or a charismatic heroine?”
“The latter.”
“A charismatic heroine, then...”
I made a quick note.
The protagonist is a princess.
A bold, confident character who drives the story forward on her own.
“Then should we kick things off with a clean coup and seize the throne?”
“Huh?”
“Charisma usually comes from overwhelming power and force. A tyrant princess who swallows the Empire. Just imagining it makes her charismatic, doesn’t it?”
Aurora’s face went pale at my proposal.
“Are you protesting just because you don’t want to do it?”
“I’m serious, you know?”
“If you write something like that, we’re in trouble. Absolutely not.”
A tyrant princess was, in its own way, a pretty popular staple character.
Too bad.
“Something provocative is good, but nothing with room for problems. Even in your previous work, there was so much uproar about people wanting a divorce after reading the novel.”
“Then what?”
“It has to have no social fallout.”
“Hmm...”
I wondered if there was anything good.
After pondering for a long time, a classic yet still enduringly popular hit formula suddenly came to mind.
“Then how about this?”
“What is it?”
“A misunderstood hidden powerhouse story.”
Working title.
The Princess Hides Her Identity.