"Then… Duchess Asha Haven."
The answer from the man kneeling on one knee before the Emperor caused the Imperial family and nobles to wear expressions of astonishment.
Silence flowed through the hall where they were gathered.
"Wh-what? Who?"
The Emperor asked again, his voice as if suppressing anger.
However, the answer from Carlyle Pervaz, Count of Pervaz, who had come bearing a victory report instead of his deceased father and brothers from the remote territory of Pervaz, remained unchanged.
"I am well aware of how great an opportunity Your Majesty's words of 'granting the right to choose a marriage partner' are. Therefore, following Your Majesty's words, I have chosen the young lady as the highest-ranking unmarried noblewoman."
A faint smile even played on his lips at the end, as if saying, "How about it? Did I choose well?"
At that arrogant attitude, the nobles' eyes darted towards Crown Princess Asha Evaristo, who was sitting on the dais, no, the former Crown Princess Asha Evaristo.
However, her expression remained indifferent, unchanged since the beginning of the banquet.
Her chilling grey eyes were directed towards Carlyle, but it was impossible to know what it meant.
Only the Emperor's enraged roar echoed.
"You are greedy, Count Pervaz! It is commendable that you defended Pervaz from the barbarians, but to dare ask for the Crown Princess…!"
"There is not a single word wrong with what he said, Your Majesty."
It was Asha who cut off the Emperor's words.
Asha Evaristo, the former Crown Princess who was stripped of her title and pushed out of the Imperial family due to the scheming of the current Empress not long ago.
"Your Majesty promised the Count of Pervaz the right to choose any marriage partner as a reward for repelling the barbarians. And I am, as you say, the highest-ranking unmarried noblewoman."
A faint smile played at the corners of her lips. People thought that Asha was quite upset.
'That country bumpkin, I think he'll die here today.'
Carlyle, who had erased his playful smile, said with force in his voice.
"If you refuse, your family will have to pay a large sum of money as compensation."
Everyone was amazed. It was clear that this was Carlyle's true motive.
'Since the House of Haven doesn't actually exist, the compensation for Her Highness the former Crown Princess's refusal of marriage will have to be paid by the Imperial family!'
'It seems he's made him cough up the victory reward he was supposed to give in the first place!'
The nobles were clearly gloating at the Emperor's misfortune, and his face turned red with anger.
Then, Asha's soft laughter began to echo in the hall filled with an awkward silence.
"Pffft. Pffuhuhh…"
The sight of the usually stoic Crown Princess shaking her shoulders and laughing was strangely unsettling.
The Emperor desperately offered a suggestion to Carlyle.
"I will give you one more chance to reconsider."
"The only person I want to marry is Duchess Asha Haven. If you give me a generous war compensation, I might consider someone else."
Just then, Carlyle was trying to extort war reparations.
"No, there's no need for that."
Asha, who had been laughing eerily, stopped Carlyle.
"I cannot make a mockery of His Majesty's promise. Very well, I, Asha Evaristo, will accept your proposal as Duchess of Haven."
Everyone gasped in shock at the decision no one had expected. The marriage of Asha, the first princess of the vast Chad Empire, no, the former crown princess, had been decided in an absurd way.
However, the one most surprised by his declaration was Carlyle, not the general nobles or the emperor.
'What on earth is that woman up to?'
He had planned to use the emperor's shameless proposal to his advantage and get war compensation. He wondered why he had to 'extort' the compensation he was rightfully entitled to.
However, the situation became strangely complicated when Asha accepted this absurd marriage proposal.
* * *
With the Emperor's permission, whether out of self-abandonment or ulterior motives, he granted Asha and Carlyle a private audience.
As the door to the drawing room opened, a magnificent room with a red carpet appeared before Carlyle's eyes.
However, the woman with raven hair sitting in the center of the room was eerily calm and cool, seemingly out of place with the atmosphere.
"You're here."
She greeted Carlyle with a short, unwelcoming remark.
"May the utmost glory be upon the Imperial House. I, Carlyle Pervaz, present myself to Her Imperial Highness the Crown Princess."
Carlyle's call of Asha as "Crown Princess" was purely a mistake. After all, Asha had been the Crown Princess for far too long.
Carlyle hesitated for a moment, contemplating whether to correct his mistake, but seeing Asha's empty smile, he closed his mouth.
"Calling me 'Duchess Haven' while choosing me as your marriage partner means you know I'm no longer an Imperial, right?"
"I apologize. It's a title that's been ingrained in me for a long time. I'll be more careful in the future."
"I see. That would be a good thing for you too."
Unlike the rumors that she was intoxicated by her own popularity and tried to kill her father's mistress, there was no sense of arrogance in her. Nor was there the arrogance that one would expect from an Imperial.
On the contrary, she seemed rather detached, or perhaps even resigned.
And that's where Carlyle got it wrong.
"Why did Your Highness accept my proposal? Surely you can't be unaware that my proposal is a plan to extract war reparations from His Majesty the Emperor...."
"I told you, it's for my father's honor."
"Are you asking me to believe that? I don't think Your Highness, who has lived as the Crown Princess for over 20 years, is that naive."
Asha smiled faintly at Carlyle's audacity, which even bordered on impudence.
'I think I made a good choice.'
To her, who needed an excuse to escape this suffocating palace for a while, Carlyle was a pumpkin that had rolled in at just the right time. And a rather interesting pumpkin at that.
Of course, she had no intention of asking him to make a sacrifice without compensation. After all, all Carlyle needed was funding to rebuild Pervaz, and that wouldn't be difficult to provide.
"Yes, since you think that way, it will be easier to talk."
Asha put the prepared paper and pen in front of Carlyle and raised her eyes.
"Let's make a deal."
"If it's a deal, you're saying there's something to give and take."
"I'll give you what you want. The funds and connections you need to rebuild Pervaz, that sort of thing. Oh, before that."
"...?"
"It couldn't have been easy to completely defeat the Lure tribe, but you really worked hard. As a representative of the Empire...I don't know if that's the right word, but anyway, as the Princess, I would like to thank everyone in Pervaz."
The words that Carlyle had wanted to hear from the Emperor's lips came out of the 'former' Crown Princess.
'Why does it have to be this person? If I'm going to be under someone's thumb, it should be a more powerful noble. Not someone like a princess who's at the mercy of the empress!'
TL/N: Author is insistent on making Carlyle the arrogant one even when he's poor, lol!!
But seeing how his twisted heart seemed to suddenly untangle at those words, it was clear he had desperately hoped for that response.
Carlyle nodded with a strangely contorted expression, unable to laugh, get angry, or mock.
"Thank you for saying that…"
"It's rather pitiful. It would have been better if you had thought of Pervaz when you were still a princess. But then again, it's too shameless to say that now. I apologize."
It was a sincere apology.
But Carlyle knew. When Asha was a princess, she was too preoccupied to think of someone like Pervaz, just as she was too preoccupied to think of anyone in front of her.
"Is that the fault of Your Highness? Surely, Your Highness was also busy with the life-and-death struggles on the battlefield."
A princess with a sword, said to be blessed by the god of war.
Since childhood, she had been skilled with the sword. At the age of fifteen, she had to leap into the battlefield, representing the emperor.
Perhaps she had sent herself away, not hoping to return alive.
'Whether it's the emperor or the empress, they treated the princess, the daughter of the late empress, like a thorn in their side.'
Yet with each war she participated in, Asha's national popularity soared higher and higher.
Any justification for taking the princess's position away from her seemed weak.
[Oh beautiful messenger of despair to our enemies! Wield your sword to uphold justice and protect Chad!]
The bards' "Hymn to Asha" did not exaggerate her achievements in the slightest.
Yet, the current empress successfully managed to temporarily remove Asha from her position as princess, provoking the ugly envy of a father.
"Anyway, since you mentioned a deal, there must be something you want from me as well. What is it? As the lord of Pervaz, who has nothing left but the roots."
"Not much. I just want to rest in Pervaz for a while. In Pervaz, I won't be subjected to the curious gazes of those wondering about my every move."
"…By rest, do you mean, specifically, what do you plan to do?"
"Resting means resting, do I have to do something else?"
"So, just… relax, eat, sleep…?"
It was an uncomfortable tone, but Asha nodded, thinking she must have misunderstood.
"Ultimately, that's it."
This time, a completely incredulous expression appeared on Carlyle's face.
"Don't you have any ambition at all, Your Highness?"
"What…?"
"I mean, everyone knows that you were stripped of your position as princess by the empress's scheme. And in this situation, you're just going to relax comfortably…?"
Asha tried to reconsider where she might have misspoken, but it seemed she had never received such a response.
"Did that hurt your feelings, by any chance?"
"Your Highness, listen carefully."
Asha involuntarily drew back from Carlyle, who was leaning towards her, but Carlyle spoke with a very serious face, making a bombshell statement.
"Your Highness will be preparing to reclaim the Imperial Crown Princess title from Pervaz. Do you understand that?"