"It's nothing."
"What is it?"
"Something like being the crown prince's accomplice, providing a place for him to conspire, and acting as his wife on paper?"
Asha said it nonchalantly, but Decker narrowed his eyes and glared at her.
"What is the crown prince trying to conspire about?"
"To reclaim the crown prince's position, of course."
"What is this 'wife on paper' role? What exactly is that?"
"It's exactly what it sounds like. We won't be a married couple in practice, but we'll be married in name and to the outside world. And I can get a divorce when the crown prince wants me to."
"So... the crown prince needs the lawless extraterritorial Pervaz because he has some hidden agenda, and he's using you as an excuse to stay in Pervaz?"
Letting out a hollow laugh, Decker grabbed Asha's shoulders with both hands.
"Asha. Don't you think that's a big deal? The crown prince is going to use you as a shield. The emperor or the empress could kill you to get the crown prince out of Pervaz!"
"That's right, my lord! You might get caught in the crossfire between His Majesty the Emperor and His Highness the Crown Prince!"
"And to live as a married couple only on paper and then get a divorce when His Highness the Crown Prince wants it! Then... then what will happen to my lord...."
Not only Decker, but Luka and Danilo also spoke worriedly.
It was a problem to receive the emperor's wrath, but as Danilo said, it was also a problem after the divorce from the crown prince.
No one would not know that Asha and Carlyle's marriage was just a play, and Asha, who had divorced the crown prince, would have a hard time getting married to someone else.
It wasn't that Asha didn't know that. It was just that it wasn't a big deal to her.
"It doesn't matter."
"It doesn't matter?"
"Decker. If I can save Pervaz by selling myself, I can sell myself as many times as it takes. And this time, I sold myself for a pretty good price."
"Asha!"
Asha threw the luggage she was holding carelessly in a corner and pulled on the knot of her cloak.
"If we go back without getting anything, we'll all die this winter. And I'd rather die fighting the Imperial Knights than starve or freeze to death. Marriage is not even a consideration."
Pervaz was on the brink of collapse, so much so that the lord had to worry about Asha and starvation. Thinking about marriage was a luxury in itself.
"The crown prince promised more support than I thought. He even stamped the contract, so it can't be a lie. If we have that much support...."
Asha paused for a moment, and a faint smile appeared on her lips as if she was happy.
"We can get through the winter without anyone starving or freezing to death. We can treat the wounded. We can see the Kiker Plains filled with grain."
TL/N: Kiker Plains Is the name of their fields
At her words, the party, who had been worried about Asha and trying to dissuade her, stopped.
Asha continued, her voice trembling slightly.
"For that, I would have been willing to offer up my own neck and die."
"Asha, but…"
"Decker, would you not have done the same?"
Once again, Decker was left speechless.
He could understand Asha's feelings completely. The chance to revive her homeland, which had been so brutally trampled upon, was worth more than her own life.
"Decker, Luka, Bastian, Danilo."
Asha smiled warmly at them.
"I am happier than I have ever been."
Her life had always been a desperate race against death. She could say with confidence that she knew despair better than anyone.
But now, for the first time, she was beginning to dream of a hopeful future.
For that dream, Asha was willing to do anything, even if it meant joining hands with an arrogant demon.
* * *
"What on earth is that wretch trying to do?"
Matthias asked, his face twisted with annoyance as he returned from the banquet that had been turned into a farce by Carlyle. A few strands of his carefully combed platinum blonde hair fell over his forehead, but even that seemed intentional, such was his beauty.
And beside him, his mother, who had clearly passed on that beauty, was fiddling with her teacup.
"I know, right. I wish he'd tried to stage a coup instead."
If he had, they could have not only stripped Carlyle of the title of Crown Prince, but also branded him a traitor.
"I thought it would be all over once we took the title of Crown Prince away from him…"
Matthias muttered, chewing his lip as he paced the room.
When he had planned this, he had thought that Carlyle would lash out at the Emperor and be completely stripped of his position as Crown Prince.
But something unexpected had happened. Carlyle, who thought he was the only one who knew what he was doing, had remained calm even after being branded with an unjust and humiliating accusation.
As a result, the Emperor had been forced to reduce the severity of the punishment by granting him a three-year grace period.
'That was annoying enough in itself, but why did the Countess of Pervaz suddenly appear out of nowhere!'
That was the most absurd part of all.
The fact that Carlyle had suddenly agreed to go to Pervaz after agreeing to the ridiculous proposal of the Countess of Pervaz, who had appeared out of nowhere.
Matthias was becoming increasingly anxious as these unexpected events unfolded.
As unexpected events unfolded one after another, Matthias became anxious.
"Mati, stop pacing around and sit down."
At Beatrice's words, Matthias promptly sat on the couch. However, his mouth didn't stop.
"There must be a way to find out if there's a puppet master behind all this, or at least to catch some other loose ends…"
"Matthias."
Beatrice gently called her son, setting down her teacup without a sound.
"Everything has its steps. For now, be content with stripping Carlyle of his princehood and gradually plan the next steps."
"Shouldn't we strike while the iron is hot? My father might weaken again within three years."
"For now, it's best not to provoke Carlyle any further."
Beatrice felt that Carlyle was not to be underestimated.
'He's more cunning than I thought.'
It must have been unexpected for Carlyle when Countess Pervaz suddenly emerged, but he managed to take advantage of the situation in that short time.
Due to Carlyle's decision to marry Countess Pervaz, the imperial household suddenly faced significant expenses, and the emperor found himself ensnared in a trap he laid.
Moreover, Pervaz, being outside imperial jurisdiction, meant that the imperial household couldn't interfere with whatever Carlyle did there.
'Even the designation of his jurisdiction was a gamble for the imperial family.'
While the designation of external jurisdiction only required a majority vote in the noble council, negotiations with the local lord were necessary to lift it.
Of course, Lord Pervaz wouldn't request the lifting of external jurisdiction at this point.
The card of external jurisdiction, which had been useful for the imperial family until now, would now become Carlyle's shield.
"Why did that woman, Pervaz's Countess, come out like that!"
In Matthias's angry voice, Beatrice remembered Asha, who seemed like a person made entirely of darkness.
If she had been a noble lady of the capital, it would have been hard to maneuver in courtly circles. She was too tall for a woman, and she looked tougher than most men.
Just the way she casually wore a cloak lined with animal fur made her seem unlike a woman.
'Her face didn't seem ugly…'
Despite her savage hairstyle and clothing, she seemed somewhat refined. It's unlikely she was unattractive.
Instead, her gloomy attire and hair color probably made her face appear even paler.
"But she had quite the audacity, didn't she? To mock His Majesty like that."
"Even if Carlyle hadn't intervened, that woman would have been dead."
"No. It doesn't seem like she made such a gamble without any thought. Surprisingly bold and clever."
While everyone thought Asha's actions were reckless, the empress by the emperor's side seemed to think Asha was declaring "checkmate" against the emperor.
In that situation, the emperor couldn't refuse Asha's request. If Carlyle hadn't intervened, the emperor would have had to honor the victory reward as promised by the former emperor.
'The emperor has a strong sense of pride. Pretending not to care while being observant of the nobles' reactions. Such a nobleman would never back down from his word, so he probably would offer a large reward to save face.'
Although Asha didn't plan all this, it was clear she quickly caught on that the emperor wouldn't backtrack on his words.
'Even if that woman hadn't fallen into Carlyle's hands…'
She could have been useful someday if nurtured…
Beatrice looked at her still anxious son with a wistful appetite.
"Matthias. The fight has just begun. So don't be impatient."
"But that guy still looks down on me! Now he's even lower in rank than me…"
"You lost in a fair fight. Anyway, we can't touch Carlyle right now. How would you justify detaining someone who volunteered to go to the frontier?"
Everyone knew there was some ulterior motive behind Carlyle's actions, but they couldn't openly point it out.
To save face for the emperor, and to follow his father's order to serve the empire, how could they criticize him openly?
"So what do we do now?"
As Matthias asked eagerly, Beatrice answered calmly.
"Don't worry. This mother has everything prepared."
With a sense of reverence, she thought of the man she met w
ith admiration, who had become her political ally.
'Gabriel, the High priest, will help us, so there's nothing to worry about. Surely, God has chosen us.'
She smiled gently, sipping her warm tea.