Prologue

Werner Kreutz had never in his life felt such trouble or faced such helplessness.

“Your Grace, Her Grace the Duchess has arrived at the bedchamber.”

Not Imperial Princess or Your Highness, but Duchess.

From the time she had been a tiny blood-covered infant wrapped in a cradle, he had watched every stage of her growth right by her side. The fact that he now had to spend the wedding night with her felt like a lie.

He felt like trash about to commit something he never should.

“Your Grace.”

But whether the butler knew of his anguish or not, he urged Werner once more.

“…Let’s go.”

It was not just any night, but the wedding night after the ceremony.

No matter that this marriage had happened because they had been pushed into it by circumstances, refusing the wedding night would leave an indelible wound on her honor.

Even if he did not truly join their bodies, he still had to enter the bedchamber.

“Then, have a peaceful night.”

The words the butler spoke while withdrawing after escorting Werner to the bedchamber door felt absurd.

Peaceful? How could I possibly be peaceful in this situation?

He had spent his entire life by her side as her escort knight. But the moment he opened this door, he would no longer be able to remain merely the knight protecting the Imperial Princess.

He would be forced to become the most shameless wretch in the world, one who now looked upon and desired as a woman the very girl he had protected since she had been a babbling infant.

“……”

Even after the butler left, Werner stood there blankly for a long time.

Perhaps because they were being considerate of the newlyweds, the corridor where the bedchamber lay was empty to the point of silence. Standing in that quiet corridor, Werner stared at the innocent bedchamber door.

“Hoo….”

After countless worries and agonies, he grabbed and released the doorknob again and again. Repeating that pathetic act more times than he could count, Werner eventually took a step back from the door and turned his body away.

He simply could not summon the courage to open it.

Click.

It was then. The bedchamber door, which had remained tightly shut all this time, suddenly swung open, and a slender white arm shot out and forcefully pulled him inside.

“Why are you trying to leave without coming in?”

“…Imperial Princess.”

“As of today, I have become your wife. I am no longer the Imperial Princess you must guard. Call me Sera, as you did when I was little, or if even that is difficult, call me Madame.”

The Celestia before his eyes was dressed in a way he had never once seen before.

Her pure white negligee, transparent as a dragonfly’s wings, was excessively thin. The line of her neck and collarbones exposed beneath the thin shoulder straps adorned with pearls were so pale and delicate they were almost suffocating, and her bare legs visible between the hem, which rose precariously to mid-thigh, were impossibly smooth.

For Werner, who had never once recognized her as a woman or as a s*xual being, and never should have, that sight dealt quite a shock.

“…Yes, Sera. I will follow your command.”

Unable to bring himself to look directly at Celestia in such provocative clothing, Werner turned his head aside and first gave her his assent.

Seeing only that unfamiliar side of her was enough to make his vision swim and a strange ache stir low in his abdomen.

Mad bastard. He was disgusted with himself for feeling such sensations.

As she herself had said, she was now an adult, but being twelve years younger than he was, she was still no more than a young little sister he ought to protect with his life, the blood relative of a dear friend. And yet he was feeling desire toward Celestia.

“My husband.”

As if mocking the confusion in Werner’s mind, Celestia pressed even closer and whispered that unfamiliar title in a gentle voice.

“I can’t keep addressing you stiffly forever either, so this is what I’ll call you from now on. Calling you ‘Duke’ feels too distant, and I can’t very well call you ‘brother’ the way I did in my girlhood.”

“…As you wish.”

He had to escape.

Having lived his whole life protecting her safety, Werner instinctively sensed the danger approaching Celestia and took a faltering step back. It was deeply ironic that the dangerous thing was none other than the ugly desire raising its head within himself.

The thought that he himself, of all people, had become someone who could harm her was horrifying. But if he somehow maintained his reason as he was now, then what he feared would never happen.

“Why are you stepping back?”

But as if mocking his desperate effort, Celestia pressed her small, soft body against him without leaving a gap and wrapped her arms around his solid waist.

“Imperial Princess. You do not need to force yourself to bear even this duty in a marriage made against your will. I will sleep in another room, so Your Highness, you may stay here comfortably….”

“Why shouldn’t I bear it?”

“That is….”

The height difference between Werner, who was more than a head taller than an average man, and Celestia, who was slightly smaller than an average woman, was extreme. Because of that, in order to meet the eyes of the woman clinging to his waist, Werner naturally had no choice but to bend his upper body quite low.

“…!!”

It happened in an instant. Celestia, grabbing Werner by the collar and rising on tiptoe when he bent down to look at her, crashed her lips against his as if charging at him. At that sudden soft warmth, Werner could not even think to avoid it, and just like that, his lips were taken by her.

“I’m an adult now too. From the moment I married you, I naturally prepared myself for the wedding night. So why are you trying to turn me into a pitiful bride rejected by her husband on the very first day of marriage?”

“Your Highness.”

“I told you not to call me that anymore!”

Watching Celestia flare up in anger, Werner clenched both fists tightly in distress. At times he had found her stubbornness and sulking difficult, but her petulance until now and this of today could not even be compared.

“I want this marriage to be perfect. So do your duty.”

“Sera.”

Celestia laid her small hand over Werner’s large clenched fist and held it tightly. Then, looking up at him with a flushed face, she spoke. In a small voice, but one that was very clear.

“If you still think of me as nothing but a childish girl you have to look after, then you are very mistaken. I am an adult now, and a woman.”

It was a rather aggressive and resolute attitude to call seduction, but both of her hands holding onto Werner were trembling faintly, as though unable to hide the rush of tension.

To be honest, Werner had never thought Celestia would approach this arranged marriage with such sincerity. His careless judgment, assuming she would not take this absurd marriage seriously, had clearly been wrong.

“Hoo….”

And as always, Werner simply could not win against Celestia. Even if he resisted longer here, in the end he would surely still yield to the will of this stubborn Imperial Princess.

“Do not regret it.”

Perhaps this had been destined from the very moment he slipped the ring onto the fourth finger of Celestia’s left hand.

“I won’t regret it.”

At Celestia’s firm answer, Werner swept her up in his arms at once and laid her down on the bed. This time, he did not avoid the lips that came at him boldly again as if they had been waiting for this, and instead accepted them obediently.

It was the moment the boundary between Imperial Princess and escort knight, which he had tried somehow to preserve, was completely destroyed.