My Beloved Princess ~The Boy Called Incompetent Rises with Only a Sword and the Princess's Devotion~ - Chapter 92: Consort Rakuyō’s Intentions

The palace where the Dragon Emperor resided within the capital, Black Emperor Castle—the Central Palace.

At the end of the corridor extending from the Audience Hall stood the Dragon Emperor’s residence, known as the Phoenix Pavilion.

Other than the personal maids assigned to it, only the Six Consorts were permitted to come and go from the Phoenix Pavilion where the Dragon Emperor lived. Among those Six Consorts, the one who visited most often was General Consort Rakuyō, who held the greatest authority. As Princess Kuroyō’s mother, and as a woman of bewitching beauty who led a flock of one hundred thousand, she frequently came to the Phoenix Pavilion.

That day as well, Rakuyō had come to settle a small matter. She had not brought attendant maids with her. She had come alone.

Gently declining the guidance offered by one of the maids attached to the Dragon Emperor, she crossed the threshold as though it were her own home.

Many rooms had been prepared within the Phoenix Pavilion, but during the day, her husband was almost always shut away in his study. And so, without detouring elsewhere, Rakuyō headed straight there. Considering the reason for her visit that day, the study—where they could speak at leisure in private—was the most convenient place.

However, the instant she opened the study door, Rakuyō was exasperated.

The reason was simple: discarded Dragon Robes were strewn across the floor. The luxurious, splendid robes embroidered all over with dragons were special garments permitted only to the Dragon Emperor. They were symbols of authority.

As she picked them up, Rakuyō let out a sigh.

At the far end of her gaze, the man in question was sitting there in nothing but a thin inner robe, leisurely enjoying a book.

“Anata. Even if this is your residence, the maids still have eyes. Please dress properly. At this rate, Your Majesty’s dignity as the Dragon Emperor will be lost.”

Still nagging him, she gathered up the robes she had picked up and set them aside. At that moment, the portrait hanging on the innermost wall entered her field of view. It was painted with such painstaking detail that it could have been mistaken for a photograph. The woman in it wore a gentle smile.

Rakuyō clicked her tongue quietly.

Lifting his eyes from his book, Kokuren made a troubled face.

“Don’t be so stiff. It’s fine that they’re embroidered lavishly with gold and silver thread, but they make my shoulders ache.”

“When are you going to stop saying childish things like that? Good grief, you truly haven’t changed at all since long ago. Though… that part of you is endearing too.”

With a faint flush in her cheeks, Rakuyō sat down beside her husband and leaned against him.

It had been several hundred years since they first raised the banner of their flock. Her relationship with Kokuren went back to their student days, and they were partners who had shared both joy and hardship together. Naturally, the distance between them was close.

“So? What brings you here today? If it’s about the barbarity in the frontier, I’ve already sent the Imperial Guard. There’s no need for you to trouble yourself over it.”

The Imperial Guard was the elite unit under the Dragon Emperor’s direct command.

Within the Dragon Emperor’s flock, military strength was divided into three branches. One was the territorial army led by General Consort Rakuyō. Another was the capital security force led by the Loyal Consort. And the last was the elite force led by the Dragon Emperor himself: the Imperial Guard.

The force under Rakuyō’s command numbered nine thousand. The capital security force led by the Loyal Consort numbered one thousand. And the Imperial Guard consisted of only two hundred.

Then what kind of unit was the Imperial Guard?

Ordinarily, the upper limit for Dragonkin men within a single flock was one, or at most two. However, the Dragon Emperor’s flock had adopted a policy of actively welcoming Dragonkin men. It was a groundbreaking experiment unlike anything seen elsewhere, and together with the policy of fundamentally not keeping slaves, it was unprecedented in Dragonkin society. A revolutionary system.

And the unit created by gathering those welcomed Dragonkin men was the Imperial Guard, the Dragon Emperor’s elite force under direct command.

It was common sense among the Dragonkin that men were naturally stronger than women. For that reason, the Imperial Guard’s combat strength was considered to surpass even the thousand-strong capital security force led by the Loyal Consort.

“It is regarding that Imperial Guard that I have something to discuss with you.”

To repeat, the Imperial Guard was an elite force under the Dragon Emperor’s direct control.

Even the General Consort, supreme commander of military affairs, was forbidden from interfering with its operation. Kokuren’s expression clouded. Rakuyō hurriedly added,

“It’s not that I want you to move the Imperial Guard itself. Just one person. Yes, only one person—I want you to lend him to us for a little while. Is that no good?”

“Us?”

Setting his book down on the desk, Kokuren, who had been reading at his leisure until then, tilted his head.

“Yes. I want you to lend him to me and Seiran.”

“If that’s the case… does this involve Kuroyō?”

Kokuren was in his mid-two hundreds, though he looked to be in his late twenties. With his rugged features, he stroked his beard and looked up at the ceiling.

“Say, Rakuyō. Wouldn’t it be fine to just let her marry the man she likes?”

“It won’t be that simple! Can I really entrust that child to a man whose only merit is his swordsmanship?”

At that, Kokuren leaned back slightly and cast his gaze toward the innermost part of the room.

“He’s the man Kuroyō chose. I doubt he’s just some swordsmanship fool.”

“The fact that he is a swordsmanship fool is exactly the problem!”

“Is that really an objective assessment? You’re always telling the children to take a step back and look at the whole picture. Is there no possibility that some odd subjectivity has slipped into this and clouded your view?”

At that question, Rakuyō fell silent.

Following the direction of Kokuren’s gaze, keeping it within her sight, she let out a sigh.

“That is precisely why I think it should be proven here.”

“Hm.”

Kokuren groaned thoughtfully. Sensing his hesitation, Rakuyō pressed forward.

“According to that child, her fiancé is a user of swordsmanship on the level of a Dragon Duke.”

“Dragon Duke class? But the opponent is a student, isn’t he?”

“Yes. So I do not believe it either. But what if it were true?”

“That would certainly be remarkable, but… it’s not something I can believe immediately.”

“And that is exactly why, for the sake of confirming it, I want you to lend us the Commander of the Imperial Guard.”

To ask him to lend out the Commander, who led the Imperial Guard, was a request that went very far.

Since the Imperial Guard could not move without its commander, it was effectively the same as asking the Dragon Emperor to cut off one of his own limbs. Viewed cynically, it might even be taken as rebellion.

In a human kingdom, words and conduct like this could provoke the wrath of a suspicious emperor. Mishandled, it might even cost one’s life.

But the sensibilities of the Dragonkin were entirely different. The Consort with whom he had passed through countless scenes of carnage was his wife, his comrade-in-arms, and his precious partner. Betrayal was unthinkable. It was a bold proposal possible precisely because that trust existed.

Even so, because it undeniably exceeded her authority, Kokuren’s expression remained sour.

“I don’t particularly care for political marriage. As long as my daughter is happy, that is enough.”

“And because you indulge her like that, that child gets carried away.”

“In the first place, what exactly is wrong with a swordsmanship fool? Even you know there are exceptions like that, don’t you?”

Rakuyō lifted herself from where she had been leaning against his thick chest and touched a slender finger to her rouged lips. Then she narrowed her eyes and stared at her beloved husband.

“Tell me. Aren’t you the one whose judgment is clouded by some strange subjectivity?”

Kokuren’s eyes wavered for just an instant.

There was no way a wife who had spent so many years beside him could miss such a change. Rakuyō let out a long sigh.

“As I thought… you still haven’t forgotten her, have you?”

Kokuren awkwardly looked away.

Really, just as he had been in their student days, this man had not changed at all. Not in the slightest. Not even the naïve parts of him.

“Since I fell in love with a man like that, I suppose it can’t be helped. I wonder if, even now, I still cannot become number one.”

A painful sigh escaped her.

Perhaps her melancholy expression tugged at his heartstrings, because Kokuren shook his head in resignation.

“Three days. When the Imperial Guard returns from its current mission, I’ll lend him to you for only three days. Will that do?”

Rakuyō leaned into him and wrapped her arms around his sturdy body.

Then, pressing him down as he was, she climbed atop those firmly defined abdominal muscles.

“Anata. I love you.”

“Oi, wait a minute. It’s still daytime.”

“And what of it? So what if the maids see?”

“Where did the Dragon Emperor’s dignity go?”

“I think a little pure skinship, unrelated to making children, is necessary once in a while.”

Feeling the solid warmth of her sturdy husband beneath her, Rakuyō smiled in ecstasy.