Once Roelia confirmed that other eyes were gone, she put her strength into pulling free from Carlisle’s hand. Unlike before, Carlisle let her go, and she stood before him rubbing her wrist.

“When did you know?”

“It has not been long since I became certain.”

The gentle curve of Carlisle’s eyes settled back into its usual shape. Carlisle, who would do anything to recover the divine beast’s power, felt a pressing urgency. It was the only chance he had to resolve the matter of legitimacy.

The divine beast’s power was, in every sense, the reason Carlisle was unable to properly establish his imperial authority all this time. If he could only use that power properly, he could break free from the shackles those who opposed him bound him with.

“So it was true that you could make it possible for me to use the divine beast’s power.”

“It has become possible, though not in the direction I had in mind.”

“Then we should hold the wedding ceremony right away.”

Once the ceremony was held and they became a properly married couple, all the problems would be solved. For Carlisle, marriage never held any meaning beyond the ideal union of two houses, a relationship with clear terms of exchange, and he made the proposal to Roelia.

“I think that will be difficult right now.”

Carlisle’s brow furrowed at Roelia’s words, and she already signed the marriage contract. He made no effort to hide his displeasure, and Roelia opened her mouth.

“I need to find a magic tome.”

“Why?”

“Because of me.”

“You?”

Carlisle pressed her again, seeing the hesitation plain on her face. Impatient, he took hold of her shoulders. He was pressing her for an answer, but Roelia did not give one. Carlisle forced his emotions down and looked into her blue eyes. Roelia could no longer avoid it, and her red lips slowly parted.

“The new emperor of Wintergrass used dark arts to send my magical energy into a runaway state.”

Blood welled from Roelia’s lip where she bit down. But she swallowed her anguish and continued as though she did not notice.

“The scheme was to have me surrender my magical energy once it ran out of control.”

“Is that why you fled?”

“If I had not, the new emperor who absorbed my magical energy could have gained the right of succession.”

“Does that even make sense? No, what in the world……!”

Carlisle could not understand it. Roelia was saying something his common sense could not accept. If magical energy could pass from person to person, the world would be full of mages.

If a small amount of magical energy were divided among many people, would they not all become mages?

“That is why I called it dark arts. It is not a method that can be used easily. It requires thousands of lives.”

“Thousands of people?”

“Perhaps even more.”

Roelia squeezed her eyes shut and opened them again, then spoke in a flat voice. Carlisle read the grief in her as she tried with all her effort not to show her feelings.

It was an emotion he knew well. The emotion of one who has had everything taken from them and cannot move an inch. There was no way Carlisle could fail to recognize that familiar feeling, one he carried himself at some point.

“……I had no choice but to seal my own magical energy to stop the runaway, and that caused it to become unstable. Until it stabilizes, reckless contact will be difficult, I think.”

“……If we find the magic tome you are talking about, will it be resolved?”

Carlisle, for whom every moment was urgent, pressed Roelia openly.

“I heard it from the late emperor once. An old story tied to the divine beasts of Wintergrass and Astrux.”

Roelia’s voice grew smaller as she searched her memory. She said nothing more and simply fell silent, and Carlisle fell silent as well.

“To resolve the matter of the Astrux divine beast, I need to restore my own body first.”

Carlisle’s eyebrow moved slightly at Roelia’s answer, which sounded almost like a vow. The conversation drifted past each other from the start.

Already knowing from Kuz that Roelia’s condition was not normal, Carlisle felt the need to find the magic tome without delay.

“What magic tome?”

Carlisle put force behind his words, and Roelia’s eyes sharpened into focus.

“Edra Heintmita’s Reflections on the Management of Magical Energy.”

Carlisle gave a nod, having understood her reflexive answer.

“A treatise.”

“You know of it?”

Carlisle took hold of her wrist and threw the door open with force as he spoke.

“Of course. It is in the imperial palace’s library.”

* * *

“Carlisle came back with some woman?”

“Yes, Your Majesty the Empress Dowager.”

“My, how interesting.”

The Empress Dowager, Annaway Astrux, snapped her fan shut with a sharp crack and let out a bewitching laugh. The noble delivering the report could not quite keep his wits about him in the face of her smile. The noble before her was one of Carlisle’s men who turned his coat and chose to follow Annaway.

Annaway stroked his face gently and parted her vivid red lips.

“Keep talking, my little bird.”

“It is said that His Majesty nearly fell from his horse, and some mage saved him.”

“Oh?”

Annaway thought this was a somewhat interesting piece of news. She listened to the man’s report, but the contents were ordinary enough. Carlisle brought women back with him on several occasions before, so it made no difference. None of them survived.

But this woman was a mage.

In Astrux, mages were rare and precious. The Astrux Empire, an empire of knights, was strangely a country where mages were uncommon. If in the neighboring Wintergrass Empire only the imperial family could wield magic, in the Astrux Empire there were virtually no mages at all.

“Slaves brought over from other empires were sometimes mages.”

“Yes, Your Majesty the Empress Dowager. That woman is surely a slave from another empire as well.”

“And he is bringing a woman like that into the imperial palace?”

“She is already inside.”

“What?”

For Annaway, who accepted only flawless things and dealt only with nobles among people, having someone who might be a slave set foot in the palace was unforgivable. The corners of her eyes climbed higher and higher, and the hand gripping her fan tightened.

“How dare someone bring a slave into this imperial palace.”

“Duke Valintar tried to stop it, but it was not enough, apparently.”

“Father did?”

“Yes.”

“Hmm.”

Even her father, who was as good as her political ally, tried to stop him, and yet Carlisle stubbornly brought the woman into the palace. Anyone could see there was something strange about it.

‘Is she a woman he prepared in advance?’

Nothing else made sense.

“And, well, it seems His Majesty was acting a little strangely.”

“The report you are giving me right now is what is strange.”

“That is not what I meant…….”

The man’s voice grew smaller and smaller. He looked around nervously and made a request of Annaway.

“Might I approach Your Majesty the Empress Dowager and speak to you directly?”

Annaway rounded her eyes and crooked a finger at the man, who clearly wanted something. A soft breeze drifted in from somewhere and brushed against the man, and his expression soon turned hazy. He walked slowly toward the Empress Dowager and whispered in her ear.

“There is a rumor going around that His Majesty fell for that woman at first sight.”

“Ha!”

Annaway was just about to dismiss it as nonsense when the man continued urgently, and she grew serious.

“His Majesty personally escorted her, complimented her name, and even mentioned the founding myth.”

“A lovely name?”

“Yes. And he never once took his eyes off her.”

“My.”

A small exclamation escaped Annaway. She prided herself on knowing Carlisle better than anyone. The idea of him falling in love was beyond imagination. The emperor always kept his guard up against her with a sharp edge.

‘It would have been wonderful if this power worked on the emperor.’

Regrettably, her power did not work on those who possessed the divine beast’s power. Half-listening to the man as he rattled on, Annaway thought.

The one thing that posed the greatest threat to her plans was Carlisle’s marriage. The thought of some worthless woman swanning into the palace under the title of Empress and putting on airs in front of her was something Annaway’s green eyes flashed at the mere thought of.

To hold absolute power in this palace and keep her grip on the inner court, there could be no Empress.

“It seems my little bird has something to do for me.”

Annaway whispered, tapping the cheek of the man who knelt before her at some point with her fan. With each movement of her lips, the man’s eyes grew more and more glazed, but the servants around them could not notice.

They were in the same state.

“I will do as you command.”

* * *

Roelia was completely out of sorts as she was pulled along by Carlisle’s hand through corridors and up and down staircases. It was because the magical energy flowing in from his hand made her body flush and her breath come short.

Light contact only changed the movement of her magical energy, but with the contact sustained, the flow of her magical energy quickened and heat rose through her.

‘Why am I so short of breath?’

She had a vague sense that it was because of the flow of magical energy, but her foggy mind could not reason through it properly. She tried to pull free from Carlisle’s hand to put even a little distance between them, but he held her hand firmly and would not let go.

“It seems you are not feeling well.”

“No, it is not that.”

Carlisle noticed her labored breathing and made a suggestion.

“Let us rest for now. Your body has not fully recovered yet.”