“……Ahem.”

A brief silence passed between them.

But soon, Ferendel began to laugh, even snapping his fingers.

“……Hahaha! Are you really going to kill this old man with laughter? It’s even funnier than the time when Your Majesty wore heels to woo Queen Robina and sprained your ankle.”

“No, that was because Robina said she liked tall people……. Eeek! Hey, don’t laugh! Commander Lucia is actually a Grand Sword Master!!”

The Emperor, who had been hiding it until the end, finally confessed amidst the laughter.

“……A Grand Sword Master, you say? Do you even know what that is, Your Majesty?”

This foolish man must be mistaken.

“Th, those eyes! I know. You’re ignoring me. Even if I have more scars from falling with a sword, I’m not so blind that I can’t distinguish that. Look, I cut a crystal glass with this feather! Have you ever seen such a thing?”

The Emperor excitedly grabbed a large quill and glass, shaking them in front of the minister’s eyes.

Then Ferendel, taking the smoothly cut crystal glass, finally understood the situation.

Roughly, the Emperor’s words seemed to be true.

As he said, the legendary Grand Sword Master is known to handle sword energy as freely as one’s body, similar to a wizard casting magic, controlling the sword energy both inside and outside of the body.

Thus, it would be impossible to move the sword energy without limitations unless one reached that level.

Then, the story changes completely.

That meant it was a realm where even a swarm of Sword Masters could not win, and that meant Lucia was an impregnable human weapon.

“With 5 years of training, such great results, my judgment was indeed correct.”

“I understand it’s the General Commander’s opinion, but anyway, are you saying that the surest shackles to contain her is marriage, Your Majesty?”

“Yes, finally, you understand…… No. Isn’t that too harsh? Shackles? As if there are such beautiful shackles.”

The minister understood instantly, but the Emperor’s thoughts were perhaps the most commonly conceivable.

For example, marrying off the hero to the princess after defeating the demon king is not just gratitude, but an intention to retain talent.

Only the genders of the princess and hero had changed.

And now, the Sword Masters are symbols of various countries.

Praising them as heroes within their country, tying them to the honor of knighthood, so they couldn’t easily go to another country, was important.

So, if a Sword Master affiliated with one country went to another, the label of traitor would be heavily imprinted.

Although Lucia is now called a monster, when she starts to represent the country as a Sword Master, there will no longer be anyone calling her and her knights a criminal group.

But if she is a Grand Sword Master?

That means the label of traitor is meaningless.

Simply, even if it’s a small kingdom, if they possess her, that country will have power comparable to an empire.

So, she would be a hero welcomed with open arms by the citizens of any country, and no one could hinder her whereabouts.

Especially since she has a worse than indifferent relationship with her only family, the earl’s house. Wouldn’t it be strange if she stayed in the empire as is?

So, what the Emperor was thinking was, since there was no father for the child, he wanted any man to create a family for her and hold on to her.

She was already beautiful, so if those shackles were the imperial family, they would surely dance with joy.

“But don’t you know that she has a character that won’t become a member of the imperial family?”
“Ah, I know. I don’t think about forcing it either. It’s not a bad marriage anyway. But our lovely son is sincere. Sincerity always gets through. The Chancellor may not know since he had a strategic marriage, right? Hahaha.”

“…….”

So even if the two don’t get along, it means he’ll marry the Chancellor’s son to a noble within the empire as expected.

Well, even though it’s still the time of national mourning, there’s more than one or two noble young ladies hanging themselves, so chasing after the women’s tails for a while wouldn’t be a flaw.

Thus, rational calculations were going on in his head, but the Chancellor laughed and said to the Emperor who suddenly brought up his own marriage matter.

“You don’t know anything. Pretty things get boring if you look at them for too long. The world favors affectionate and gentle men much more. Like my son.”

The Chancellor halfjokingly pushed his son forward, but he couldn’t hold back his bursting laughter, saying that he knew it would be so.

“Hahahaha! You mean that slender and talented son, right? Have you heard? The rumor that he has escorted a certain lady? Compared to that, our son has had a national marriage, but isn’t his heart firm? His standards are high, like someone he takes after!”

When he teased and disparaged his son, an invisible vein writhed on the Chancellor’s forehead.