“How can I keep up?”
Thinking that, I pulled Riorem into my arms, and suddenly he spoke.
“Can this end it all?”
“Hm?”
“Is it all resolved by eliminating Alpheios? Or do we have to win at the borders too? Or… do we have to do something else again?”
The arms around my waist tightened.
“To make sure you never have to go through something like this again… What exactly do I have to do?”
I turned my head and looked at Riorem, who had already buried his face in my shoulder.
The answer to his question was: “This will not end it.”
Of course, if Alpheios is purged and the war against the Empire ends in victory, this chaotic situation would be settled.
But even so, the political calculations and conflicts surrounding Riorem and me wouldn’t be resolved.
After all, Riorem is a rising force who suddenly appeared and is viewed warily by the old nobility.
And I am still the last heir to the ‘ownerless’ Duchy of Peroa.
Though the Empire is currently trying to use me, they might one day change their mind and try to get rid of me.
Probably, until I find someone acceptable to everyone as my master or until I die, I will be plagued by similar controversies all my life.
So, I didn’t want to answer Riorem’s question.
Because I didn’t want to remind him of the reality that, due to his background, he would never be fully recognized as the rightful “owner” of me.
But Riorem wasn’t foolish enough to not understand the meaning of my silence.
“This means something like this could happen again anytime, right?”
His cool voice echoed in the bathroom.
I felt the trembling of the man in my arms gradually subside.
Soon, he straightened his back, tightened his muscles, and took a deep breath.
Then Riorem spoke again.
“Understood. I clearly understand what I have to do.”
After saying that, Riorem kissed me again.
The kiss quickly ignited into passion.
Riorem held me more roughly than usual, biting and stirring me.
I closed my eyes amid the relentless pleasure.
What exactly did he understand? What was he planning to do?
To erase all doubts and thoughts as Riorem wished, I surrendered my consciousness to the pleasure he gave.
From the next day, Riorem and I moved our residence inside the royal palace.
The King of Arete had given us a room as an apology.
Officially, it was to protect me from similar attacks, but the real intention was opposition.
“Basically, they want to threaten Riorem.”
I thought as I looked at the tea being poured by a maid.
It was true that staying inside the palace was safer.
It was also true that unnecessary contact could be thoroughly cut off.
But the problem was that it all felt like pressure from the Arete royal family to get what they wanted.
Since moving inside the palace, Riorem was called to the king more often.
I heard that he accompanied him even for trivial matters, apparently as a silent form of pressure.
If the king dealt with Riorem, then the one handling me was the crown prince.
I had tea time with the crown prince twice a day, and sometimes meals together every other day.
“Despite all that effort, they’re just vague and evasive without getting to the point.”
I looked at the man drinking tea in front of me.
The crown prince’s face had been very bright these past few days.
That was because two problems he couldn’t solve on his own were automatically resolved.
The first, of course, was Alpheios.
Until now, the crown prince deliberately left Alpheios’s rampage unchecked.
The bloodthirsty madman took care of dangerous battlefields, fulfilling the defense duties by himself.
But when it became hard to control him, Alpheios started raging that he would marry me.
He also expanded his influence, threatening that if his demands weren’t met, he would make sure he was heard.
At the moment Alpheios was rising as a strong contender for the throne, it was revealed that he was a spy for the Empire.
My testimony that Alpheios confessed to treason played a decisive role.
Since then, clear evidence that he had collaborated with the Empire has been surfacing one after another.
“…Are you saying Riorem dealt with all those assassins by himself?”
Surprised, I asked again, and the crown prince nodded.
“Yes, that’s right. It turns out that the Empire sent all the combat forces meant to cause internal chaos to General Riorem. From our point of view, the enemies basically put their necks on the chopping block themselves.”
I burst out laughing.
Here’s what happened:
The day Alpheios came to the townhouse with knights, a massive attack was launched on the palace.
Spies and assassins planted by the Empire flooded the palace gardens.
According to survivors’ testimonies, Alpheios ordered a surprise attack, saying the opportunity to kill the King of Arete had come.
He provided information that only the family would know—that the king, who always had multiple knights, sometimes rested in the gardens due to insomnia.
But he gave this information separately to different factions within the assassination group, preventing them from sharing the info among themselves.
Moreover, because the attack was ordered with a suitable time gap, the assassins only realized the situation after arriving at the operation site.
That is… the person resting in the garden was not King Arete, but Riorem Belric.
“To be fooled by such a sloppy plan… Well, from the Empire’s point of view, they probably didn’t expect Alpheios to want to kill Riorem that badly.”
At my words, the crown prince gave an awkward smile.
“Well, I guess they underestimated how clever he is tactically.”
“So, the reason the royal family cannot openly suppress Riorem is because of that incident?”
After seeing him cut down all those people, how could they forcibly order him to obey? He’s not an assassin, but a knight; they probably couldn’t even kill him.”
I let out a bitter laugh at the harsh assessment.
The nobles who had been sitting peacefully in the royal capital giving orders for war likely didn’t know why Riorem was called a “living weapon.”
They only seemed to realize the weight of his reputation after seeing him cut assassins down like paper dolls.
Anyway, what the crown prince hinted at with compliments and modesty was ultimately this:
He wanted me to persuade Riorem to win the war.
So that his own position as crown prince, allied with Riorem, would become even more solid.
With Alpheios destroying himself, the crown prince eliminated his most troublesome rival.
At the same time, the second problem that had been troubling him was also absurdly resolved.
Most of the Empire’s spies planted in the castle were originally mixed into Arete’s expedition forces heading to the border.
Though not a huge number, if they had attacked from inside, they could have caused considerable damage.
These must have been elite operatives with considerable training entrusted with such missions.
But all of them died as a result of Alpheios’s personal revenge.
No wonder the Empire suffered damage.
Moreover, we had one more piece of good news.
Just as the kingdom was divided over Alpheios and Riorem, the Empire was also split internally over how to deal with me.
Some wanted to make me a puppet king and turn Peroa into a nominal kingdom under the Empire, while others just wanted to use me as a card for a political marriage.
The shaky operation to ambush me at Dynamis Castle seemed to reflect that division.
Some might not even want to bother restraining the Arete Kingdom by deploying troops.
Anyway, with the Empire divided, the tension on the front lines seemed to have eased significantly.
If this expedition ends successfully, we might not have to worry about war with the Empire for several years.
That’s why the middle-aged crown prince looked so relaxed.
Of course, all of this depends on the war ending in a complete victory.
That’s why the king and crown prince are trying so hard to send Riorem and me on this expedition.
‘Honestly, in the current situation, it’s more advantageous for Riorem to go on the expedition.’
I responded vaguely to the crown prince’s words while thinking.
Even though the Empire has lost the motivation to continue the war due to internal division, now that they know Riorem and I are targets, there’s no reason to lose a war they could win.
If Riorem goes, the war will surely end in victory.
The king will reward him adequately, fearing his power.
The problem is that Riorem, like someone suffering separation anxiety, doesn’t want to be apart from me.
“..If only he would agree to follow me just to the border.”
I hoped Riorem would be rewarded for this expedition—whether a new territory, a noble title, or something else.
I wanted his position to become even firmer.
If the king granted him a hereditary title because of this, Riorem’s only weakness would disappear.
As I continued thinking, I pressed my temple lightly.
‘I’m tired.’
Tea time with the crown prince was always exhausting.
There was too much to think about.
…Still, I have to bring it up at least once.
Tell him to take me along on the expedition.