Chapter 2

1. Commander Mirane Laster (1)

Not long after returning from the Imperial Palace, Mirane had barely stepped into the entrance hall when a servant came to summon him.

“The Count requests your presence, Young Master.”

Turning around, Mirane met the servant’s pale face, and his own expression stiffened.

At that instant, an almost prophetic sense of unease washed over him.

Suppressing the growing feeling that something was terribly wrong, he replied quietly,

“Understood.”

Without even taking time to recover from the day’s exhaustion, he headed toward his father’s study, struggling to calm the increasingly rapid beat of his heart.

Why am I this anxious?

Because Father and I are practically strangers?

Because being summoned like this is so unusual?

No.

Something about today was different.

And before long, Mirane’s uneasiness proved well-founded.

Standing before the study door, Mirane took a deep breath.

The door creaked open.

The young man held his breath for a moment before speaking.

“Father.”

A large window dominated the room, framed by crimson curtains that were only half drawn.

Brilliant white sunlight streamed through the gap, illuminating the man seated in the chair.

Mirane unconsciously stiffened.

Straightening his back, he stood before his father with unmistakable tension, calmly meeting him with his soft light-green eyes.

The Count was an intellectual-looking middle-aged man with blond hair.

His immaculate crimson court uniform showed he, too, had only recently returned from the palace.

Eyes as cold and blue as winter ice settled upon Mirane.

The corners of his tightly set lips curved ever so slightly into something that could hardly be called a smile.

The Count’s frigid gaze was the complete opposite of Mirane’s warm green eyes.

Even a stranger would have struggled to believe they were father and son.

Their appearances differed greatly.

Their personalities even more so.

“Father…?”

Count Laster did not answer.

He simply sat there in silence, leaving Mirane standing before him.

Knocking ash from the cigarette held between his index and middle fingers into an ashtray, the Count stared at him as though conducting an inspection.

The silence stretched on.

Unable to endure it any longer, Mirane finally spoke.

“I was told you wished to see me.”

Only then did Count Laster open his mouth.

“Indeed.”

Then he uttered words Mirane could never have anticipated.

“You’ll have to resign your position as Commander of the Knight Order.”

Mirane failed to respond immediately.

“…Pardon?”

Leaning back comfortably into his chair, Count Laster continued.

“Compared to such a trivial office, there’s a task through which you can render far greater service to His Majesty and to the Empire. It’s an honor worthy of celebration. For both you and me, being entrusted with such an important duty is a great privilege.”

“Father.”

“Earlier today, I requested that His Majesty arrange a marriage between you and Grand Duke Valenstein.”

The Count’s icy gaze never wavered.

“There is no escaping it.”

Smoke drifted between them, obscuring Mirane’s vision.

“Mirane Laster.”

“You are going to marry Grand Duke Valenstein.”

…

Marry?

Drawing another puff from his cigarette, Count Laster silently watched the shock spreading across his son’s face.

Mirane couldn’t process what he had just heard.

He had only just returned from work.

His father had summoned him…

Only to deliver words that overturned his entire world.

The composed and steady Commander Mirane Laster suddenly felt as though he had been thrown into a deep pit, desperately struggling to climb back out.

Only after a long silence did he regain enough composure for his face to twist in disbelief.

A political marriage alone was shocking enough.

But the name Grand Duke Valenstein carried countless other implications.

He was—

A man.

The head of a rival political faction.

And…

Mirane’s thoughts abruptly stopped.

…No.

What kind of absurd nonsense is this?

“If you have something to say, then say it.”

“Am I even allowed to refuse?”

“If you believe you can, then try.”

A faint sneer tugged at the Count’s lips.

“I’d like to see how useful your struggling will be.”

His father spoke of sending his son to Wicker, to the remote northern territory of Obert, without the slightest trace of hesitation.

His eyes looked upon Mirane with arrogant certainty.

What could you possibly do?

That unspoken message made Mirane’s face harden.

I always knew a day like this would come…

Ironically, his father’s shameless attitude cooled Mirane’s emotions instead of inflaming them.

A chill settled deep within his chest.

Father has always been this kind of man.

To him…

I truly am nothing.

Staring through the thick cigarette smoke drifting from his father’s lips, Mirane quietly said,

“I am not Mother’s shadow.”

The moment those words left his mouth—

Count Laster’s expression cracked like fragile ice.

“You…!”

For the first time, genuine emotion flashed across his face.

Barely restrained anger rippled through his voice.

The mention of Mirane’s mother had struck directly at the Count’s deepest wound.

His icy blue eyes widened as he glared murderously at his son.

Had he simply exploded in rage…

Mirane might actually have felt relieved.

At least that would have proven his father still possessed the heart of a human being.

But it lasted only a moment.

Almost immediately, Count Laster suppressed his emotions once more.

Watching the brief crack in that frozen mask disappear, Mirane finally gave up.

The man who had once been his mother’s lover vanished once again.

Only Count Laster remained—

A man colder than the northern wind.

The initial shock gradually faded.

What remained was not peace…

But resignation.

“I’ll take that as your acceptance, Mirane Laster.”

Mirane slowly raised his eyes again.

His face had become expressionless.

“I’ll give you one month.”

“Settle your affairs.”

“…Yes.”

The sudden marriage arrangement left him utterly bewildered.

Yet he would still have to leave for Wicker.

His father was Count Laster, the Emperor’s most loyal servant.

And Mirane…

Had never once defied him.

Years of living beneath his father’s relentless control had shaped him into this.

Before a man as obsessive, cold-blooded, and almost demonic as Count Laster…

The thought of rebellion had long since become impossible.

That did not mean he felt no resentment.

That night, Mirane could not sleep.

He wandered beside the window for hours.

By the time a brilliant white moon rose into the early dawn sky, cold wind was already pouring into the room.

There was simply no way he could sleep.

Anyone who could calmly rest after hearing news like that…

Surely lacked something essential as a human being.

Castel von Valenstein.

Outside, bare tree branches swayed aimlessly in the wind, whistling softly through the darkness.

Seeing himself reflected in those lonely branches, Mirane quietly thought about the man who would become his husband.

The name Grand Duke Valenstein was anything but unfamiliar.

In truth…

He was probably the most famous man not only in the capital, but throughout the Empire—

Perhaps even the entire continent.

The hero who slew a Chimera.

The ruler of a territory larger than many kingdoms.

The head of all the great nobles.

The only Grand Duke of Obert.

Simply by virtue of his status, he was someone Mirane could never have dreamed of marrying.

An illegitimate son had no right even to aspire to such a match.

To this very moment, Mirane still couldn’t understand why the Grand Duke had accepted it.

The difference in status is simply too great.

House Valenstein descended from a branch of the Imperial Family.

The Grand Duke himself was one of the continent’s most powerful men.

For generations, the Grand Dukes of Wicker had defended the Northern Wall bordering the Kyrgis Mountains, commanding one of the strongest armies on the continent.

He was far more than merely a high-ranking noble.

He was a great lord whom even the Emperor regarded with caution.

Someone like him should be marrying a princess from a foreign kingdom…

Why would he marry an illegitimate son like me?

And another man, at that?

Granted, Imperial law permitted same-sex marriages for political purposes.

The law even allowed secondary spouses so noble bloodlines could continue.

But legal recognition was one thing.

Such marriages remained extremely rare.

In fact…

The marriage between Mirane and the Grand Duke would be the first same-sex political marriage in eighteen years.

Common sense alone dictated that most men preferred women.

Moreover, there had never even been rumors that the Grand Duke favored men.

From Mirane’s perspective, this marriage was certainly disastrous.

Yet if one examined it carefully…

It was arguably an even worse bargain for Grand Duke Valenstein.

There was another issue as well.

Wasn’t Wicker still in conflict with the central government over the sudden death of the previous Grand Duke?

The mysterious death of Joachim von Valenstein, the former Grand Duke, had remained one of the Empire’s greatest controversies for the past twenty years.

Joachim von Valenstein…

The man who had further deepened Wicker’s century-long conflict with the central government.

He had devoted himself to turning Wicker into an independent kingdom, free from the Obert Empire.

Then…

He died suddenly.

Even now, people continued to debate the circumstances of his death.

Anyone looking at the situation would find it suspicious.

The people of Wicker believed the culprit had been Sislia, maid to the Grand Duchess and a second cousin once removed of the Empress Dowager.

Acting on their own judgment, they executed her.

In doing so, they turned their blades toward the central government.

Mirane still remembered that day vividly.

He had been around ten years old.

Count Laster had engaged in a furious argument with an envoy from Wicker.

It was the first—and perhaps only—time Mirane had ever seen his father forced onto the defensive.

Afterward, Count Laster wandered the estate like a living corpse.

Once the negotiations ended, he collapsed from exhaustion and remained bedridden for quite some time.

The bitterness born that day had never disappeared.

There were no witnesses.

No evidence.

Wicker couldn’t officially accuse the Empire of murdering the Grand Duke.

The Emperor despised the Grand Duke for executing a woman related to the Imperial Family.

The Grand Duke, in turn, hated the Emperor for what he believed was the murder of his own kin.

Both sides had every reason to loathe one another.

For twenty years, the Emperor and the Grand Duke had been sworn enemies.

Relations between Wicker and the central government remained abysmal.

And now…

A political marriage?

Mirane’s eyes darkened.

To House Laster—the leading family of the Emperor’s faction—House Valenstein was an irreconcilable enemy.

Count Laster himself was deeply hated throughout Wicker.

Others might accept that this marriage is meant to reconcile the Emperor’s faction and the Grand Duke’s faction…

But knowing Father’s personality…

Knowing His Majesty’s temperament…

There’s no way this is about reconciliation.

The Emperor was famously hot-tempered.

Count Laster was cold and authoritarian.

The Grand Duke was said to be every bit as proud and domineering.

Those three together?

Their compatibility wasn’t merely poor.

It was catastrophic.

Calling this a marriage for peace wasn’t merely difficult to believe.

It was complete nonsense.

Mirane became certain.

There had to be another political scheme hidden beneath the surface.

He simply couldn’t determine what it was.

What exactly is happening behind the scenes?

The unknown filled him with growing anxiety.

Father would have no hesitation using me as a chess piece in the vicious game of politics.

He’d discard me if necessary.

An ordinary father never would…

But mine?

I need to prepare for the worst.

A bitter smile spread across his face.

If he’s willing to hand over his only son to the Monster of Wicker…

What wouldn’t he be willing to do?

A long, weary sigh escaped into the cold night.