Chapter: 200
Morning arrived, and the vampire duo vanished like the wind. It wasn’t for the traditional reasons of melting in the sunlight; one was a student, and the other a professor. Attending school was a significant matter.
Ivan leaned on the terrace, watching the sunrise. Perhaps due to the cool breeze, sounds of rustling were heard from the bedroom.
“Did you cough?”
“Mmm… Water…”
Elizaveta spoke with a voice hoarse and cracked. As she spoke, the door to the chamber opened wide, and a maid approached with hurried steps, handing her a glass of water.
“…Hmm.”
The fact that the attendants outside were murmuring so quietly signified something…
Ivan decided not to continue his thoughts for Elizaveta’s honor.
“I feel… I feel like I can live…”
Elizaveta nodded brightly, as if not realizing anything. As she regained her senses and spotted Ivan, she fell into a daze.
Elizaveta, who had been fidgeting with her fingers on the blanket, immediately turned red and pulled the blanket over her head. It was unbecoming behavior for her.
“Your Majesty, breakfast has been prepared.”
“I have no appetite right now…!”
Elizaveta squeaked, tossing and turning under the blanket. She peeked out slightly and glanced at Ivan, then burrowed back into the blanket.
It would indeed seem like a foolish act for the Iron-Blooded Sovereign, who once encompassed the entirety of Krasilov’s shadows, but now she was the absolute monarch encompassing both the light and shadow of Krasilov. At her command, the maids bowed their heads and retreated immediately.
“Shall I summon the physician…?”
“The physician? No, no…! Hmm! Call the physician! Right now!!”
Suddenly coming to a thought, Elizaveta shouted from under the blanket. As the maids retreated, a pale hand poked out from beneath the bedding.
“Come, come here….”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
Ivan approached her without saying much. He knelt silently a few steps back. He presented the image of a comrade in perfect accordance with decorum.
Elizaveta, seeing him from the gap of the blanket, shouted.
“Closer! Closer!”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“More!! Ugh… Ivan. Are you teasing me right now…?”
“…?”
“I said turn around and get closer!!”
As Ivan sat down with his back turned, her hand gently reached down to his shoulder. A hand that fumbled for a while soon wrapped tightly around his neck.
At that moment, he prepared for a potential assassination, but the tension in his neck didn’t yield such force. Instead, a weight of around 40 kilograms settled on his back.
“My legs have gone numb; I can’t move. Honestly, I don’t know if my legs or my waist have gone numb….”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“I want to feel the wind. You may stand.”
Elizaveta’s voice sounded whiny, different from her usual tone. It was hard to imagine that the Iron-Blooded Rija, who had annihilated several families in a single day, would speak like this.
Ivan silently lifted her. As they approached the window, the cool morning breeze from Frechenkaya brushed against them.
“Ivan.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“Say it like you did yesterday during this kind of time, will you? Do I have to command even this?”
“…Elpheira.”
Once again, the conversation ceased with his response. Ivan felt her small feet fidgeting around his waist. After some time of grunting, Elizaveta regained her composure.
“Krasilov prohibits marriages across social classes.”
“Mmm.”
“You have no noble title legally. The Yeremov family is an existing baron family in the northern colonies, but you are recorded as the third son of Baron Yeremov.”
“…”
Ivan remained silent, facing the wind. Elizaveta’s voice continued quietly in the background.
“In a marriage across classes, there are no inheritance rights. This means that royal blood will not continue.”
“Mmm.”
“To do this, I have distributed the authority of the royal family. Do you know? A year ago, after the first coup succeeded… I declared a Kalion-style constitutional monarchy.”
The royal house of Krasilov could no longer reign above the law. The reason there was no rebellion from the royal family was that all of them had physically vanished.
The nobles did not oppose Elizaveta’s command to distribute authority. They were not fools; they understood that the actual power was still not different from an absolute monarchy.
Though administrative power, judicial power, legislative power, and military power were all divided, Elizaveta still held them firmly in her grasp. The Counterintelligence Command was under her direct authority, and she approved all its operations.
However, it could never be inherited. Neither explicitly nor implicitly.
“Once the inherent rights of royal blood have disappeared, my descendants cannot inherit the rights that I currently possess. Once my time ends, it will naturally become a true ‘constitutional monarchy’.”
As administrative nobility gradually accumulated its history, the authority of the royal family, which reigned without explicit powers, would crumble like a sandcastle.
Elizaveta was fully aware of this while implementing it. Even though it was a plan that would certainly cut off the limbs of the royal family from a macro perspective.
“You may call me a selfish monarch. I have acted solely for my happiness.”
“Elizaveta.”
“No, it would be best not to call me that right now. It’s too destructive.”
Ivan did not question Elizaveta’s command. The reason why the divine right of kings became popular was that both gods and kings had similar MBTI types. Both were fickle and could invoke divine punishment.
“Ivan, my father was incompetent. He was weak, a reed-like figure, and yet he had overwhelming lust for power, wanting to give everything to my son despite even my father’s warnings.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“However, my grandfather… the late king did not. And to be honest, my brother was also not a capable person. What do you think I pondered while observing all this?”
No matter how noble one’s bloodline was. No matter how great an individual may be, their descendants cannot be great.
“If it were not for these times, there would be no problem. If the nobles, the families, and the administrators were competent enough, that would be sufficient. If competent individuals kept watch, a monarch’s incompetence could not lead the state to ruin.”
But then the Demon King arrived. First harvesting the capable, the great, and the virtuous.
Thus, what remained were the maggots that burrowed into the power vacuum left in the corpse of the fallen hero.
“I succeeded in inheriting the royal authority amidst all this. In the process, I buried everyone who followed my brother, and I was able to seize that power in one hand. To be honest, at that point, who could oppose me, even if I married outside my class?”
“….”
“However, I did not do that. I did it for Krasilov, not for my happiness. If the monopoly of power is incompetent, it is destined to crumble… In this deformed structure of a state, absolute monarchy is a poisoned chalice.”
If she could wield all the rights and the royal power were elevated above the laws at the moment of inheriting the throne.
However, if her descendants were incompetent.
If the local warlords and nobles have crumbled to the extent that they cannot keep a check on such incompetence…
“Pulling out the countless nobles was my achievement, so I must bear the side effects as well, shouldn’t I?”
“…Your Majesty.”
“Doesn’t this sound familiar to you?”
“…Yes, Your Majesty.”
“Right, I am this selfish.”
Ivan closed his eyes, listening to Elizaveta’s words.
That statement—that the incompetence of a single ruler should not decide the fate of the entire country—was entirely in agreement with Alexander’s assertion.
Thus, her ousting her brother and assuming that position didn’t imply that there was a better alternative or a superiority in ideology.
Simply to survive. Because if the Crown Prince were alive, she would have to die. It was merely a confession of that reason.
And to express that to the man who had gone to death at the Crown Prince’s command; who had lost all his comrades and returned; and who had finally killed the Crown Prince himself.
It was akin to a grand confession. Essentially, it meant that I am no different from my brother.
“Ivan. Nevertheless, can you remain loyal to me?”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“Is that because I am the only bloodline of the late king?”
“No, Your Majesty.”
Ivan shook his head resolutely.
“The blade does not differentiate between good and evil in the hands that wield it.”
“Should policies and ideologies be judged differently from the morals of the ruler?”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“Then how can I not cherish you?”
Thereupon, Elizaveta chuckled. She stroked Ivan’s messy hair and spoke.
“Since you’ve shaved off your beard, why not tidy your hair as well?”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“Oh, doing so will only attract more pests. Forget what I said.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“Do you acknowledge that you’re quite popular?”
“No, Your Majesty.”
“…I often wonder how extensive your vocabulary is…”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“I’m going mad.”
Elizaveta laughed playfully and continued the conversation with Ivan. It was a morning when the sunlight gently warmed the terrace.
“Let me out!!!”
Ecdysis shouted, banging on her iron cage, another usual day.
A soldier approached her and quietly opened her cage without a word.
“…Huh? All of a sudden?”
“Didn’t you ask to be let out?”
“Um…”
Amidst the confusion of Ecdysis, Isabelle, who was meditating in a cross-legged position, suddenly lifted her head.
“Got played.”
“What? What do you mean?”
“You’ve been released after applying the ointment, right? Hehe.”
They had raided the royal palace fifteen times in three weeks, and now they were being let go? The intent was too obvious to even question it.
They had already won. It meant they were showing the leisure of a victor.
“Ointment…? Could it be…!!”
“Yes, Ecdysis. We’ve been pushed back.”
“—!!”
Ecdysis began to silently scream in despair. However, Isabelle stood up with a cold expression and helped Ecdysis back on her feet.
In the dark and gloomy prison, the figure turned away from the blazing torch stood as a true example for heroes.
“But Ecdysis, isn’t it our duty to find the morning star even in despair?”
“…Yeah?”
“The original essence of a hero is to break through despair. As long as we can achieve our goal, the situation of the war is irrelevant to us!”
So don’t live facedown!!
Under Isabelle’s sharp gaze, Ecdysis nodded in a determined expression and clasped her trembling hands tightly.
“After all, you can’t stay attached to the king of this country forever! Have you forgotten? You’re a part of the Hero Party!”
“Y-Yeah! There’s still a chance…!”
“Yes! As long as we don’t give up, an opportunity will surely come back. Are you really going to give up just because you fell behind a little? How could you call yourself part of the Hero Party then!”
“That’s not wrong… right?!”
In an atmosphere that seemed as if it could forge brotherhood if a peach tree existed, Elpheira quietly shook her head.
“Really, you guys are ridiculous.”
Hero Party, release!
