The Queen's Marriage

"So you're Maal's groom!"

"Y-yes!"

Due to being glared at by Ria's Dragon Eyes, the cat beastkin solidified completely.

It was a beastkin with gray tiger stripes originating from his neck. It appeared he was a year older than Maal.

And his name was Niko.

They were at Maal's new house.

Even if it was called a new house, since it was previously used by a family that was moved to another village, it was just a deserted house.

It was completely cleaned out and had the minimum required furnishings. Maal seemed to have prepared it all with money she'd received from Ria.

"Hmph, if you're a man, you should have built a new house yourself."

Ria was saying mean stuff, but she knew that herself.

At any rate, her hug pillow that she loved more than a little sister was being taken away by some other man.

"Well whatever, let's hear how you two fell in love."

She sat down on a chair with a thump. Since it was for a beastkin to use, it was a bit small.

Though she'd said she wanted to know how they fell in love, they were childhood friends to start with.

The boy was still young when Maal had encountered the slave hunters and wasn't able to do anything.

However, he gained experience in that following year during his travels out to find Maal's whereabouts.

There were various things that happened during his journeys, but they'll be left out.

Hearing Ria's most repeated propaganda of releasing beastkin during the war against Cordova, he joined in. It looked as though he'd earned himself a few achievements in attacking their supply lines.

During all that, he appeared to have found Maal after searching for so long.

When he returned to the village after the war with Maal, he learned that she came back after being released from slavery.

Worried that something else might happen, he immediately proposed to her.

Getting her consent, they held a wedding and now there they were.

Ria really wanted to see Maal in her bridal outfit, but beastkin didn't particularly wear bridal outfits; they would simply dress up a bit and hold a party, announcing to everyone that they'd gotten married.

Even when she'd asked Irina—who had participated in it—about what happened, she only really remembered that the food was luxurious.

"I see. Got it."

Ria's Dragon Eyes vanished, finally releasing Niko.

"It's unfortunate that I wasn't able to make it, but there's no fixing that now. However, please come to mine."

"Eeh!? Ria-chan's getting married!?"

Maal was surprised, but that much was natural as she hadn't been filled in on the details yeah.

"Yeah, Carla and Shizuna are already my wives, and Fio talked to her parents."

"Huh?"

Niko's reaction was natural, too.

Ria gave them a brief explanation. About ryuujin. About how they were both genders. And that two of them were already pregnant.

"Heeh, congratulations."

"So there's a race like that…"

The couple had that sort of reaction.

 

*

 

Once she had them promise to come to hers, Ria and the rest returned to Manesh.

It'd turn into another document hell, but they had to prepare for another reception.

It was simple for Ria since she'd be wearing men's clothing, but Carla and Shizuna each had to prepare dresses. In particular, Carla had to pick a dress that didn't constrict her abdomen, so she decided to pick a style that had lace for decoration.

"You two are pretty~"

It was a place where not many humans would be allowed to enter, but since Irina wasn't a human anyways, she basically had a free pass to anywhere she wanted to go.

Moving about here and there in the huge castle with her clinking orichalcum armor, she'd come upon the two trying on clothes.

"D-does it suit me?"

Shizuna didn't feel like she was enough. Even if she could be called a beauty, Carla was overwhelmingly beautiful. Even so, she asked since she knew that Irina wouldn't lie.

"Un, super pretty~"

Since Irina said that, Shizuna was a bit happy.

The time from the announcement to the date of was just a single month.

The fact that Carla and Shizuna were already pregnant was taken into account for the date, so all of the nobles had to do some major restructuring of their schedules to make the event.

Thanks to that, it was even more difficult for Guinevere who was responsible for coordinating it, but her duties matched her hobbies, so she willingly performed her work.

There was only a single other person with an even harder job.

That person was none of than Ria.

Were ryuujin hermaphrodites or asexual? At any rate, since they'd made it public that she could have children even with another woman, there were many, many female candidates sent over.

The first thing done to the army of women wearing beautiful dresses, armed with fashionable hairstyles, and wearing just the right amount of makeup was… they were handed wooden swords.

"And so, please swing the swords one thousand times. If you are unable, Her Majesty is not interested."

With Fio, a knight, saying that, the majority of the young women dispersed in low spirits.

Even so, there were uncharacteristically muscular, brave woman among them who were among the knight orders, but once they were interviewed by Carla, most of them also fled in dejection.

How were they supposed to compete against such a beauty?

But even among those, some made their way past the walls of muscle and beauty.

"To start with, why do you want to be my wife?"

At this point, it was practically the same thing as a presidential interview. Some of the people interviewed had the disposition of only loving women in the first place and were introduced to others that were the same as them… even though it wasn't a matchmaking place.

"Ria, wouldn't it be better to just make an inner palace already?"

Guinevere made the proposal with a laugh, but Ria wasn't fine with just any girl.

Shizuna was amazingly cute when teased despite being strong-willed and she'd felt destined to be with Carla from the get-go. For Fio, she wanted to answer her pure feelings with goodwill.

"Let's finish with the Millennium first. If we make it through that, maybe we'll do a harem or something."

Ria muttered. The most important thing was the battle where the destiny of mankind was on the line, she didn't have the time to have more wives.

"The first in line for the throne is Guinevere's son, so even if they give me more wives, wouldn't it just be for me? No matter how you look at it, how many women would be happy being married to a woman?"

Guinevere's son, Shinji, was already announced as being Ria's adopted son. She'd already said countless times that he'd eventually be inheriting the throne with Guinevere acting as the regent.

But even so, there were many nobles sending their daughters to be Ria's wife.

"Well, rather than being married to some strange man, they want to be married to a woman who is beautiful, dignified, and moreover can have children with them. Isn't that natural for a woman to want?"

When she'd asked Guinevere because she was in the same room handling government affairs, that was the response she received.

"… Perhaps… am I popular?"

"All of the blooming young women are coming to be either your wife or your mistress, do you know how many surplus noble males of suitable age there are?"

Accordingly, Ria made a place for noble men and women to meet up and started a matchmaking party.

Even though she had to work their military preparations for the upcoming Millennium, things like this were also work for the ruler.

"And there's a report from a Cornada count. It says that another small revolt appeared, so they would like for you to make another appearance soon."

A paper fluttered out from Guinevere's hands.

"Guaah! Why's there another revolt already!?"

She wanted to focus more on things that were happening here!

"Um, I've been thinking about that…"

For that, Fio came up with a splendid idea.

"What if you promote the Cornada earl to regional earl? That way, he would have the ability to mobilize the surrounding nobles."

"But if Ria did that and the Cornada earl were to revolt as well, wouldn't it become quite an issue?"

"No, that's good! Good! That guy doesn't feel like the kind of person who'd rebel, so let's give him more stuff he can do!"

Like that, she threw another problem onto someone else.

 

*

 

The day of the ceremony finally arrived.

An audience not normally seen collected together, the nobles and bureaucrats had gathered. Accompanied by Carla and Shizuna on either side, Ria made her way to the throne and sat down on it.

Representing all of the vassals, Guinevere praised Ria's militaristic exploits and rule, praying that her reign be a long one.

Ria stood, giving her thanks for everyone's cooperation in her rule to her vassals, and once again asked for everyone to do their best for the upcoming Millennium.

It was only one of the purposes they were gathered that day, but it was given a large portion of time.

Political criminals, be it due to a minor or major offense, would be released from prison.

In addition, she issued a decree.

This decree was famous for releasing Cao Cao from China's Three Kingdom's Period (220-280 CE), but it was a declaration that would use every person with the ability to help, no questions asked.

This received resistance from the upper ranked nobles who had been making arrangements beforehand, but Ria carried it out decisively nonetheless.

The reason for that was because if she didn't do it, she would be buried in documents.

Even if their conducts were a bit bad, Ria wanted more bureaucrats with the ability to handle paperwork.

In truth, a certain marquis who was supposed to be retiring would be working once again.

This man had made a joint alliance with Cordova and was politically opposed to Guinevere.

So he would make a fringe anti-Guinevere faction for the current Ogress, but since the fundamentally required Cordova was no longer there, it was irrelevant.

"Alright, now I can finally go back home!"

Leaving the man who was able to do the paperwork to be secretary of state in name only by putting him under Guinevere's watch as prime minister, even though there were a lot of nobles who had opposed the former Manesh returning to court, everything was going as Ria planned.

It's a story for later, but on this day, Ria formally proclaimed Uslan Marquess Carla as her queen and Baroness Shizuna as her consort.

Two beautiful women on her sides, Ria made an appearance to her citizens from the royal palace's balcony and received an extremely long cheer.

Even if the Millennium was approaching, she overthrew Cordova and brought peace to the land.

She was a godlike ruler.

(Ah, I also have to go through the legal reforms huh. Well, maybe I can just pick up some street-side scholar and leave it to them?)

Many unplanned things happened throughout, but at any rate, with this event, the Ogress Archduchy had shown its might.

 

*

 

More than five hundred thousand citizens benefited from the temporary stalls and free gladiator competitions that were held in Manesh.

Of course, there were also people who were looking at the situation without being swept away by the fleeting enjoyment.

In the corner of a noisy dining room, Haruto and Ferna were sipping some stew.

"Haah, what now…"

Ferna ended up sticking with Haruto quite forcibly, but she didn't have any vision for what they should do from here on.

However, Haruto, who'd experienced existence as the hero turned into the demon king, had already been thinking about where to go.

As for what Haruto was thinking, it was probably something that would clash with the Black Cats…

"We're going to Casalia, followed by Lemdria after that."

"Lem…!"

That was where Black Cats' base was located.

Ferna had heard that Haruto was avoiding Lemdria.

"It's dangerous!"

"I'll be alright, I still have about three trump cards. Besides, I'm not going there to fight."

Saying that, Haruto put on his usual radiant smile.

"Meanwhile, I want you to defend this country. To be precise, the Manesh duke and the Uslan marquess."

Those two were dragonslayers.

Though either of them should be no weaker than Ferna, what danger would approach them?

"Mmm… they may or may not be attacked by some demon or some organization's assassins. Particularly the pregnant Uslan marquess."

Haruto, the demon king, intended to help Ogress. Even if they had killed one of the demon tribe's leadership, he hadn't changed his mind.

And so, how would the Black Cats make their move? They should be on the side of humans, but since there was a possibility that Ogress was working together with the demon tribe, Ferna couldn't tell what sort of decision Yamato would make.

"Are you really not going to be in danger?"

In the and, that was all.

Ferna was simply worried about Haruto.

"Yes. I'm a coward, after all. I'll run away as soon as I think it's dangerous."

Ferna had no choice but to believe in his words.

Things like that were the pitfalls of being in love.

"And so, Ferna-san, please do that for me."

"Understood."

Even if it was just her delusion, she felt that their relationship was an equal one.

For right now, for Ferna, that was enough.