The door of the reception room opened and a boy appeared.

“Ahh! Who is it?!”

Faibel jumped in surprise. I was also somewhat startled, but I didn’t show it as much as Faibel.

Mereum had the Spirit King, so he could easily deceive the eyes of weak demons and powerless demons.

“Come here. Did you hear any more of the conversation just now?”

“No. I only heard the last part.”

“I see. If it had been someone else, I would have noticed their presence, but I didn’t realize it was you.”

As I acted calmly, Faibel also read the atmosphere and suppressed his surprised expression.

I patted the seat next to me on the sofa, and Mereum approached me without hesitation. I took his hand, sat him down, and explained carefully.

“I need magic cores.”

“Magic cores? You mean those dark red stones embedded in magical beasts?”

“That’s right, those exactly. They’re useless to humans, but I need them.”

Magic cores were usually diamond-shaped stones about the length of a finger.

They were filled with pure magical power, but since they were mostly embedded in the heart, they could only be obtained by killing the magical beast.

“If you have those, will you live longer?”

Mereum, who had been listening to my story with a serious expression, suddenly asked.

“I can’t say that’s not the case.”

I answered honestly.

Partly because I’m not good at lying in the first place, but also because I was curious about how Mereum would respond.

Mereum dragged out a brief silence before asking again.

“If I bring you those, will I be more valuable?”

“That’s true.”

“More than him?”

Mereum’s pupils were as sharp as a hawk’s catching its prey as he lifted his head abruptly.

A fragment of an indescribable emotion reflected light within them.

Thinking it might be dark jealousy from someone not yet fully grown, I laughed and ruffled Mereum’s hair. He grimaced and drooped his eyes in disgust.

“Ah, don’t do that.”

“How cute. You’re already valuable enough now. So don’t do anything dangerous. You’re not old enough to go hunt magical beasts yet. Especially high-rank ones, absolutely not.”

“Then next year?”

Had I ever seen Mereum continue questioning like this before? As I pondered, I shrugged.

“It might be possible next year, but you’d have to go with the knights. You need someone to watch your back.”

“I’ve already caught many on my own.”

“Magical beasts can be quite cunning. And the ones with cores big enough for what I need are quite intelligent.”

As the conversation dragged on, Faibel groaned and sprawled out on the opposite sofa.

Mereum shot a displeased glance at Faibel, then muttered loud enough to be heard.

“I’ll bring you more of what you need than anyone else.”

It was an admirable declaration.

In fact, rather than asking the knights to bring the hearts of magical beasts, it would be cleaner if Mereum, who knew all the circumstances, just brought the cores.

I had no intention of refusing the benefits Mereum would bring me.

“Then I’ll have to see how much you grow in a year. After that, we’ll see if you can go out to subjugate magical beasts.”

“…Okay.”

The long silence before his answer was a bit concerning, but Mereum couldn’t take a single step out of the imperial palace without my permission anyway.

However, it didn’t take long to realize that was a misconception.

Six months later. Mereum presented me with his first magic core.

He had single-handedly defeated a spider-type magical beast that had made its nest near the capital.

It was much faster than I had expected.

After that first success, Mereum went out on expeditions at every opportunity.

He would follow the Holy Knight Order despite knowing he would be unwelcome, or move with the Astaroth Knight Order.

Sometimes he was able to catch high-rank magical beasts and obtain cores, but it wasn’t always the case, so Mereum grew impatient.

It was no use even when I said it was fine.

He acted as if he had to make me healthy no matter what.

Autumn passed with fruits ripening on every tree, and winter came. Though they said it was colder than usual, I didn’t feel that cold.

Probably because there were so many people around me.

During that time, the Emperor sent me at least seven more letters demanding to share my bed, which I tore up and burned without even reading.

Spring, summer, autumn, winter again.

The seasons cycled and repeated like that.

His sword grew sharper, and by the time even I could see no room for improvement.

The number of high-rank magic cores Mereum brought me had well exceeded fifty.

“Are you going to watch me swallow it today too?”

“Yes.”

When he returned from expeditions, he would observe me swallowing the magic cores intently from start to finish.

His gaze, burning like fire, was directed at my fingertips. As I picked up the diamond-shaped magic core and opened my mouth, he stared at my lips intensely.

It felt like I would choke.

Not because it was burdensome… but because the emotion he was emitting was burrowing into me.

I thought it was attachment. No, I thought it should be attachment.

I had saved him, and he was saving me, so I thought that level of obsession was possible.

These were all thoughts purely from a demon’s perspective.

However, the following winter, I learned the cause of the discomfort.

Having practiced diligently to not forget what I had taught him, Mereum became able to play instruments, albeit clumsily.

Sitting cozily by the fireplace, listening to him play the harmonica or violin, I felt an indescribable sense of stability.

That day was like that too.

Greeting him in the morning, making eye contact while conversing, having meals together.

It was an ordinary day that repeated whenever Mereum wasn’t out on an expedition.

By pure chance, I ended up seeing the painting he said he had completed for the first time.

“……”

What was in it was me.

While it couldn’t be called a masterpiece, it was a portrait painted meticulously with affection in every brush stroke.

A single painting that showed signs of being revised over and over again.

He had captured my smiling face on the canvas.

And from that moment on, I decided to distance myself from Mereum.

Even so, he continued to bring me magic cores.

He would silently watch me eat them, then pick up his sword and leave again.

He never revealed his feelings to me. I also never mentioned his painting.

We spent time quietly, holding onto a bomb that could explode at any moment.

Before we knew it, the three years I had discussed with Faibel were passing by.

Over the past few years, the Empress’s Palace had steadily built up its power.

To the point where now no one could tell the Empress to “stand back”.

As the Empress’s Palace grew like that, the Temple faction hurriedly tried to join hands with the Emperor’s faction.

But that wasn’t easy either, as the Emperor’s reaction became peculiar.

The number of times the Emperor appeared at banquets with the Empress instead of the Holy Maiden increased.

The two would fight whenever they met, but to those around them, it seemed His Majesty the Emperor rather enjoyed it.

As evidence, the Emperor’s gaze lingered on the Empress more frequently and for longer.

If there was a male noble hovering around the Empress at a banquet, some problem would surely arise for that family within a fortnight.

At the minor end, corruption would be uncovered, or a business would fail, or funding would be cut off. At the major end, evidence of collusion with foreign countries or harboring treasonous thoughts would be discovered.

After that was repeated more than five times, all the nobles realized.

That the Emperor’s heart had moved to the Empress.

The only person in the world who didn’t know this was just one person. The Empress herself.

As the situation became like that, the Lily Palace became very desolate. Both invitations and footsteps abruptly ceased.

Instead, the Empress’s Palace became just as busy.

Now no one tried to curry favor with the Holy Maiden anymore.

Once, the clothes the Holy Maiden wore set the next trend, but now everyone tried to imitate the incredibly gorgeous Empress.

The Empress’s hairstyle, the Empress’s way of speaking, the fan the Empress held, the Empress’s gait. Everything the Empress wore, used, and enjoyed was the talk of the town day after day.

Given this situation, the Emperor’s advisors as well as the ministers all had the same thought.

‘Now is the chance!’

The Emperor and Empress had shared a bed briefly in the early days of their reign.

But after that, the Emperor had too many things to attend to, and the Empress fell ill frequently.

The Emperor unilaterally disliked the Empress, and the influence of Holy Maiden Helene was strong, so no one could carelessly suggest they share a bed.

However, now that things had come to this, shouldn’t Their Majesties engage in regular conjugal relations?

Conceiving a healthy heir was also the Empress’s duty.

But the Empress’s Palace rejected the request for conjugal relations with a long, roundabout sentence.

Interpreted, it meant, ‘Yeah, get lost.’

Of course, it’s understandable to not look favorably on suddenly being asked to share a bed after keeping mistresses and living it up until now.

But isn’t producing an heir an opportunity to prevent such things in the future? What if his heart turns back to the Holy Maiden?

Moreover, if there was no child even after 10 years of marriage, the Empress’s position itself could be in jeopardy.

The noble faction nobles under Duke Achillo also clamored like that.

“Honestly, His Majesty the Emperor changed too suddenly. Now is the chance! We must seize the opportunity. Who knows when such a chance will come again?”

“Haha, men are drawn to novel tastes, aren’t they?”

“Still, playing hard to get only works a couple of times. What will she do if he turns his eyes back to the docile Holy Maiden, seriously.”

But the Empress remained firm and did not lower the walls of her heart.

Even when Duke Achillo personally stepped in to coax her, time passed swiftly with no results.

It was already time for a child to have been born if one had been conceived.

In late summer, when the ministers could no longer stand it and resolved to submit a joint petition, on a very hot day.

The Empress’s Palace made a sudden announcement to the entire country.

The content of that announcement, which would turn the whole world upside down, was—

That they would select a man to become the Empress’s concubine.