Part 2 Chapter 45
***
The Imperial Palace.
Ryan was having lunch with the Crown Prince when he received unexpected news.
“Wh-what did you just say?”
“No need to be so shocked. Nothing really changes.”
With his usual composure, Bain dabbed at his mouth with a napkin and continued.
“His Majesty already transferred most executive powers of state affairs to me seven years ago. The marriage alliance is no exception. The Crown Prince’s seal is effectively the Imperial Seal. No need for the Emperor’s approval.”
“That’s not what I meant, and you know it.”
“Then what’s the problem?”
Ryan swallowed a sigh.
Two days from now, when the Emperor was supposed to return from his retreat, they had planned a luncheon. But that appointment had been canceled.
His Majesty had sent word that he would not be returning to the palace.
It was his way of saying: I will not even see the girl’s face. I oppose this marriage.
“So that’s why he suddenly left to retreat. He fell ill after the Third Prince turned down the political marriage and bolted to Belzer, didn’t he?”
“Yes. But Nike’s refusal wasn’t the real problem.”
“Then it was the woman’s status?”
“Not even her status, really…”
“Because she’s a Bassenberg?”
“Exactly.”
Ryan exhaled a weary sigh. That cursed name—how long would it haunt him?
Even disowned, stripped of title and crest, he and Bania remained of Bassenberg blood. Gifted blood. That could never change.
“I told His Majesty long ago that you weren’t a criminal, that you’d severed ties with the family. He knows all that…”
“Yes. If His Majesty didn’t know, do you think he’d have stood by while Your Highness raised me?”
But that was as far as it went.
As long as the Emperor believed Ryan was merely a pawn in the Crown Prince’s strategy, he tolerated it.
“I suppose I never tried to put myself in His Majesty’s place. I’ve barely ever seen him.”
“You don’t need to. He’s simply been tormented so long that he reacts pathologically to the very name Bassenberg.”
Emperor Alphonse Rod Valensier and Duke Edgar Bassenberg—men of the same age, but hardly equal. One had spent his life tormenting, the other, enduring.
The Emperor had bent his proud neck countless times just to preserve the Empire. What kind of heart had it taken to withstand such humiliation, day after day, year after year?
He must loathe the Duke more than anyone alive. Loathe him so much that even in dreams the name made him tremble with rage.
And Bania was that man’s daughter.
“…Pfft.”
Ryan let out a short laugh.
“Come to think of it, it’s ridiculous, isn’t it?”
“What is?”
“‘She’s cut ties, so she’s not the Duke’s daughter anymore! That’s why I’ll marry her into your family!’ …That’s basically what His Majesty is being told.”
“His permission isn’t necessary, remember. With the previous arrangement broken, I’ll expedite the paperwork. The ceremony can follow.”
“……”
“Ryan.”
“…Haa.”
Ryan sighed again.
“I know, I know. You’ll take care of everything. I’m grateful. But still… wouldn’t it be better if this marriage were blessed by all?”
“That’s impossible. My father’s grudge against Bassenberg is decades deep. It won’t be healed.”
“……”
Ryan fell silent, weighed down by how to explain all this to Bania.
***
“Daddy!”
Returning from Winssen, Bania’s face was bright with excitement.
“You look happy. Things went well with your brother?”
“Of course! Let me tell you everything. Sit down.”
“Slow down. Where’s the Prince?”
“Oh.”
Her eyes rolled sheepishly.
“He took me back and then returned to Winssen. He had work.”
“Work?”
“Mm. We stumbled on Elliot’s human-trafficking ring operating there, so he went to clean it up.”
Ryan’s fist clenched.
What a vile family. Not content with tormenting him all his life, now their filth made Nike work day and night?
And that same family’s daughter wanted to waltz into the Imperial House and be welcomed with smiles? The Emperor was a saint not to have caused more uproar.
“Sweetheart, I’ve got good news and bad news. Which first?”
“Out of nowhere? Um… good news.”
“Alright. Remember how you were so nervous about meeting His Majesty?”
“…Yes?”
“Rejoice. He’s extended his retreat indefinitely. No return in sight.”
“……”
Bania blinked.
She wasn’t a fool. She understood perfectly well what that meant: I don’t want to see you.
“…So it’s both good and bad.”
“Exactly. But don’t worry about the marriage itself. His approval isn’t needed.”
“……”
“I know you’d have wanted a wedding with everyone’s blessing. But, Bania…”
Ryan rested a hand gently on her head.
“You know what His Majesty’s life has been like. Forcing him to smile and congratulate you—it would be cruel.”
“…Yes.”
Bania nodded slowly.
“…I know.”
***
That night, sleep would not come.
Bathed in moonlight, I stood on the terrace, thinking about the Emperor.
The father of the man I love.
To be honest, I didn’t like him. Too weak. Unlike the Crown Prince who bared his fangs at Bassenberg, unlike Nike who bled on the battlefield, he had given up power and dignity too easily, bowing to my house.
He had even made his own child—a young Nike—into an experimental subject, a Gifted.
“Have you never resented him?” I had once asked.
“Never. Not once.”
Nike had answered without hesitation.
“Father is the ruler of the Empire. A ruler always stands at crossroads requiring hard choices. And he always chose what was best for the nation.”
He wasn’t wrong.
To cast stones at the Emperor for sacrificing his son would be the hypocrisy of those who never bore such burdens. The cold truth was: without that choice, the Empire would have rotted long ago.
“Do you know why Father still faces Bassenberg at the negotiating table, even after ceding authority to my brother?”
“Why?”
“To protect him. So that he doesn’t break, the way Father already has.”
Every negotiation with Bassenberg had only two scales: the people’s lives or land and concessions. To save his citizens, the Emperor bowed again and again. It had broken him.
So now, to shield the Crown Prince, still unbowed, he endured that humiliation himself. He was used to it, after all. It was all he had ever known: ridicule, disgrace, the urge to kill his lifelong tormentor…
Who wouldn’t feel that?
And I—was that tormentor’s daughter.
“…Ha.”
This was my original sin.
“Don’t worry, I’m disowned! So it’s fine!”—what a selfish excuse.
If it were my child, I’d have dragged them away by the hair before letting such a marriage happen.
Yet here I was, asking the Emperor to see me kindly. Shameless.
“Why is it always like this?”
Solve one problem, another waited. Always rooted in one thing: the blood of Bassenberg running in my veins.
I was tired. Weary. Helpless.
And nothing I could do would heal the Emperor’s heart.
I want to see him.
Nike. The one who had brought me here, who had always been my reason.
In the moonlight, I thought I saw him before me. I bit my lip, forced a smile through tears.
“…What’s wrong?”
“Eek!”
The vision spoke. My body jolted upright from the railing.
“Wh-what? Is it really you?”
“Then who else would it be?”
“When did you get here?”
“Entered the palace? An hour ago.”
“….”
If he’d arrived an hour ago, he must have been cleaning up filth for quite some time.
“You must be exhausted. But… why here?”
Nike stepped closer.
Since the pregnancy scandal, I’d been moved to a lower-floor room, with a terrace barely one and a half stories up. We now stood face to face across the railing.
“A patrol—”
“…?”
The prince personally on patrol?
“Your maid said you’d been outside for two hours straight.”
“Oh… I didn’t realize. Already two hours?”
“Did something happen?”
“……”
My throat closed. He hadn’t heard yet. He didn’t know about the Emperor’s refusal.
“…No. Nothing.”
I swallowed it. Tomorrow he will learn soon enough.
Even if the wedding itself wasn’t threatened, what did it mean to wed without your father’s blessing? What weight would that bear?
“Bania.”
“Yes?”
“May I come in?”
“…Come in? To my room?”
“Yes.”
“I… I don’t mind, but…”
I glanced at the locked door. Guards stood posted outside.
“If you enter, by tomorrow every guard will be whispering that the Prince came to my chamber—”
I turned back—and gasped.
Nike had already vaulted the railing and was standing right before me.
