TSMMT SS 1

In the Ruins, the Two of Them (1)

Had anyone ever seen a bride wearing a slave collar on her wedding day? Even when a conquered kingdom's captive was bound and exploited, no one went so far as to marry her. No noble, let alone royalty, would willingly tie themselves to a mere slave in equal matrimony.

Yet one man had done exactly that: King Guiscard of Lodbrog. He was the hidden prince, the hero who inherited the purest bloodline of the founding monarch, and the chief architect of victory in the Great Panborough Conquest. The woman chosen by a man with such brilliant titles was, in the end, a captive slave from a defeated kingdom.

She was the most wretched, sorrowful woman on earth. Deathly pale, with bright golden hair and downturned eyes, she brushed past Adelheit and the other wedding guests like a pitiful sacrifice led to the Grim Reaper. Her expression resembled someone marching to the execution block.

The bizarre contrast between the bride's miserable expression and the lavish ceremony burned itself deep into Adelheit's memory. That was the wedding of the Mad King and his Slave Queen.

A knight approached and saluted, snapping him out of his memories.

[Knight] "Your Majesty!"

Adelheit offered a slight nod in return. The title Your Majesty still felt awkward on his tongue. Calling himself a king without a throne or a kingdom flushed his cheeks with embarrassment.

[Knight] "We found the body of the Mad King, Guiscard!"

[Adelheit] "Is it really him?"

[Knight] "Yes, sir. Please follow me."

Anticipation gleamed in his eyes.

Once Adelheit confirmed that the Calamity had completely ceased activity, he arrived to survey the site. He followed the knight and scanned their surroundings.

The royal palace that once symbolized Lodbrog’s might now lay in complete ruins. Though mocked as the world's most pitiful royal seat, it was built at the kingdom's founding, possessing its own dignity and history.

The only redeeming feature of the crumbling palace had been its flowers, blooms imported from Panborough by Lodbrog's king. Now, those flowers were long withered, leaving behind cracked, parched earth. Grey dust coated the smooth marble floors, along with dark stains that hinted at the tragedy that had transpired here.

This was where the Slave Queen's wedding had taken place.

Adelheit sneered coldly as he surveyed the shattered structures that looked as though no grand ceremony had ever occurred.

As he passed the Queen's Palace, memories resurfaced once more.

He had met the Slave Queen, Dianna Brienne, again when he returned to the palace for the New Year. While discussing the Academy with the Prime Minister, they happened to pass by her quarters.

A sudden prickle of awareness made him turn, and in the distance stood a woman.

She looked so deathly pale she might collapse at any moment. Fortunately, no collar bound her neck this time. Yet she sat gazing at the sky with an expression so suffocating it seemed as though invisible hands were choking the breath from her lungs.

[Adelheit] "Who is..."

[Revius] "Ah, Her Majesty the Queen."

Revius answered frostily. Adelheit detected outright hostility in this voice and probed further.

[Adelheit] "I take it she isn't well-liked."

Revius offered a sharp sneer.

[Revius] "Was it that obvious? Though really, who in this palace could possibly like her?"

Adelheit looked back toward Dianna. For a split second, their eyes met, but she quickly turned away and slipped out of sight to avoid drawing attention.

She was the queen of a nation, yet he had not even greeted her. Adelheit realized his breach of etiquette and started forward, but she was already gone.

[Adelheit] "If that's the case... why did His Majesty bring her here in the first place?"

[Revius] "Is it not human nature to crave what shone brightest when you were at your poorest and hungriest? You know as well as I, Grand Duke, what humiliations His Majesty suffered."

[Adelheit] "I... know. It's tragic. Something that should never have happened."

His tone lacked true conviction. Adelheit didn't actively oppose slavery; in truth, he cared little for social hierarchy. Because of the late king's misrule, his favored concubine, Herya, had fled back to her homeland with her hidden son, only to be burned alive in a joint effort between Panborough's monarch and the late Lodbrog king.

It was undoubtedly a tragedy, but the late king had played a role in that crime. Was it right to pin all the blame on Panborough? Was keeping Herya's child alive as a slave truly such an unpardonable sin? From his detached perspective, Adelheit harbored no strong feelings about the matter.

While Guiscard's resentment was understandable, rumor claimed Dianna was the one person who had shown him compassion during his enslavement. Was this cruelty necessary? If keeping someone as a slave to torment them was a crime, was Guiscard not committing that exact same sin against her? Shouldn't his real target be her father?

Unlike in Lodbrog, noblewomen in Panborough held little power. To exact vengeance on such a fragile woman...

It seemed no one dared to tell the King that his vengeance was misdirected.

[Adelheit] "Still, my inquiries revealed that the Queen was quite kind to His Majesty back then. Is such punishment necessary..."

[Revius] "Forgive me, Your Grace, but you sound like a typical noble."

As Adelheit bristled at his insolence, Revius continued.

[Revius] "Have you ever considered how miserable a slave feels receiving such crumbs of kindness?"

[Revius] "To be unjustly enslaved, exposed to the violence of scum, and forced to depend solely on charity masquerading as mercy from their daughter..."

He scoffed.

[Revius] "Gratitude? You call that grace? Elevating her to Queen is already far more honor than a woman like her deserves."

[Adelheit] "I see..."

He offered no further rebuttal. Adelheit had never experienced slavery and couldn't relate. In his smooth, mundane life, his only passions were books on dragons and magical research, not the bitter resentment or wretchedness of a slave.

Though Adelheit's agreement was reluctant, Revius seemed satisfied enough to drop the subject.

Adelheit walked away with a strange discomfort, as though he had become complicit in her torment. Still, his mind remained consumed by those timid, bluish-grey eyes that had locked with his for a fleeting moment.

---

A year passed before Adelheit encountered Dianna again.

He had no interest in capital politics. He had returned merely to procure mana-laced monster byproducts at a low price, since one could never have too much research material.

Yet thoughts of the Queen persistently resurfaced. Though Adelheit was an eligible bachelor who needed to find a wife, her eyes lingered in his memory, impossible to shake.

On a day heavy with falling snow, he found himself lingering near the Queen's Palace.

He wondered what she was doing. Did he want to rescue her? Was he captivated by the tragic allure of a sorrowful woman? Or did his own empty life draw him to her suffering?

He didn't know.

When his feet led him toward her quarters, she was nowhere to be seen. Naturally, no one would venture outside in such freezing weather.

He shook his head with a quiet sigh. But as he turned, a dark silhouette standing amid the swirling white snow caught his attention.

What is that?

Adelheit approached the figure. Strangely, no guards stood watch around the palace grounds. When he reached the spot, astonishment seized him.

A woman with untied, wild hair stood staring blankly at the sky. Her face was unchanged from before, yet her eyes were sunken with an even deeper despair.

[Adelheit] "Excuse me, my lady!"

He intended to address her as the Queen, but the title choked in his throat.

Her long hair whipped wildly in the freezing wind. Clad only in lightweight Panborough garments thin as spring petals, with no fur coat to protect her, she closed her eyes and collapsed.

His heart pounded as he scooped her into his arms and sprinted inside the palace. He dashed deep into the corridor...

He rounded the corner and locked eyes with the King.

The King's glare burned in his mind just as vividly as Dianna had, though for an entirely different reason. The burning hatred radiating from Guiscard as he stared at the man holding his wife was not the gaze of an avenger. It was the glare of a man whose prized possession had been stolen.

[Knight] "Over here!"

The knight's shout shattered his train of thought as they reached their destination.

The moment Adelheit laid eyes on the pair, his breath caught in his throat.

Warm, golden sunlight spilled through the gaps in the collapsed ceiling. Amidst the drained, ash-grey ruins, vibrant flowers carpeted the floor.

And right at the center, two corpses lay side by side in eternal sleep amidst the dust.

One was Dianna Brienne. The other was Guiscard Lodbrog.

A serene stillness enveloped them both. The woman retained her living beauty, while the man appeared wretched, coated in grime and decay.

Adelheit looked upon them and closed his eyes.

Yes, it was indeed Guiscard's body.

This was the Calamity itself, the monster that had tormented Adelheit while he alone survived.

Though the King's former handsome features were long gone, this was the exact hideous creature Adelheit had faced when he lost his comrades.

[Adelheit] "Damn it..."

He spat a low curse.

In the end, the Calamity had taken its own life, and peace had finally returned.