The Crown Prince’s coronation ceremony, which was held the next day, and his subsequent wedding to his fiancée Nasha were quite sombre.
The crowd along the roadside applauded and cheered the new King and Queen reasonably, but all their attention was focused on the hill to the west, past the King and Queen. The representatives of the neighbouring countries attending the coronation and wedding were no different. They shuffled restlessly, awaiting the moment the tedious ceremony ended and they could excuse themselves and rush to that place on the hill to the west.
It was no surprise.
In any case, Palcemith had gone through its greatest turning point in its thousand years of history.
Long ago, during the founding of Palcemith.
The Ancient Dragon Kharis had a part of his soul snatched by [Quistacis: He who Controls Dragons] in the hands of the Hero Palcemith. With his four limbs stuck to the ground with stakes, he was sealed deep underneath the bedrock plateau.
Palcemith prospered for a millennia, receiving the blessings of the Ancient Dragon submerged in the underground lake.
And as predicted by Sage Asbal, the Sacrificial Priestess who would release the Ancient Dragon Kharis had finally appeared.
The Ancient Dragon Kharis had declared to Crown Prince Vikram that he would protect the Sacrificial Priestess who had freed him from his shackles. Laying down in the small forest close to the mansion on the hill that was Julieta’s residence, he chose to watch over Palcemith from there. For the period of his sojourn there, the blessings Palcemith received would not differ much from the past.
“…That is the final [revenge] I see. Anri.”
We listened to the firewood crackle in the hearth.
I smiled weakly, entrusting my body to Jolga’s embrace.
My fate had not yet reached its conclusion.
Immediately after the Dragon God Festival.
The Knight Commander of the Royal Knights, Jolga, and the Knights who were his subordinates pacified the commoners who had been thrown into turmoil after the release of the Ancient Dragon Kharis. By circulating the words that the Ancient Dragon Kharis had delivered through Julieta, they helped calm down the situation.
Sigurd was the first one to rush up to Julieta, who stood beside the Ancient Dragon Kharis. He shed tears as he picked Julieta up, embracing her in his arms and swearing to never let her go. Malacia, who was nearby, smiled and congratulated them as they cuddled together, alongside Lutora, who had rushed in a little later.
Meanwhile I, along with Prime Minister Morino and his assistant Vanellope, was dealing with a sudden barrage of requests for an audience from the envoys of the neighbouring countries.
It was something to think about.
The Ancient Dragon Kharis, who brought about a powerful blessing for all of Palcemith, had been sealed deep beneath the castle until now.
However, he was now a free being.
The reason why the Ancient Dragon hadn’t left Palcemith, despite having been imprisoned by them for millennia, was solely because of the existence of the Holy Maiden Julieta.
Then what if they succeeded in inviting Julieta to their own countries…?
The poor behaviour of the Crown Prince and his fiancée Nasha in the past six months, along with the matter of his former fiancée, Julieta, becoming Nasha’s replacement as the Sacrificial Priestess, was already well-known among all the nations outside.
It was natural for the envoys to think that they had a chance.
While the bedrock plateau that stretched out behind the Royal Castle now had a large hole in it, fortunately, the foundation of the castle was not affected.
The accession of Crown Prince Vikram to the throne and his wedding to his fiancée, Nasha, took place as planned. With Sigurd serving as her escort, we hid Julieta away in a villa owned by the Osweins while the envoys were kept at bay.
Though the people who flocked to the Ancient Dragon Kharis, who sat in the forest, did not approach close enough to touch him directly as we had expected, Malacia and the Temple Knights, who had previously guarded the Shrine, took up the role of guarding him, just to be safe.
After promising each foreign envoy a chance for an audience in due turn, I made them all return to their homelands for the time being.
Other projects included civil engineering work to plug the great hole left after the Ancient Dragon Kharis flew away, arranging to drain water from the spring left in the underground lake, and plans to level the hill to the west of the capital that had become the new home of the Ancient Dragon Kharis.
For about a month, I continued to assist them with the flurry of government affairs.
After finally coming to this point, I realised my life had not yet reached its end.
Once I was aware of it, I couldn’t hold back any longer.
After determining a general plan of action, I turned the remaining internal affairs over to Morino and Vanellope, and then called the Knight Commander to the castle.
As I was cramming all the food and gear we could need for two people into the saddlebag hanging from Jolga’s favourite horse, my knight arrived to pick me up.
He lifted me onto the horse, and as I relished in the feeling of his chest muscles pressed up against my back, we arrived at our destination— the large forest running along the banks of the river Luft.
The hunter’s lodge where I spent my first night with Jolga was deserted as usual.
As Jolga set about stabling his horse, I retrieved the key from the bottom of the lantern hanging beneath the eaves and unlocked the door.
Before the creaking of the opening door had even faded into silence, Jolga tossed the saddlebag into the room, where it landed on the rug spread out before the fireplace, and then reached out to embrace me. I clung to him, and as we kissed, I began stripping him of the military uniform I was now intimately familiar with. He pushed me down onto the rug, and I stared up at him as the weight of his firm body pinned me down. I spread my legs, begging with my actions for him to ingrain pleasure into my very being, and with one heavy thrust, he obliged, his penis digging deep inside.
“Ngh… Ha…!”
My insides, the womb that had been neglected for a long month, began to tremble with delight as our passions began. His penis thrust in and out, the very tip broaching my deepest parts which had welcomed it so many times before.
“Ah…ahh…”
“Anri…”
“Ngh, good… hah, Jolga, ah. It feels… good…! “
“Haa…”
As if he was unable to resist his urges after seeing me writhe meekly beneath him, Jolga’s stiff cock rubbed against my insides with the vigour expected of a knight wielding a sword. His tongue slid across my nipples and beneath my chin; the wet, sticky sensation left a cool trail of saliva in its wake. Heat and fervent desire welled up from within me as Jolga, well-versed in all the secrets of my body, caressing me with a gentle touch. My climax came at long last. I brushed my cock up against Jolga’s firm abdomen, and as I came, Jolga grabbed me by the waist and drew me close so he could ejaculate as he pleased within me.
“Ahh… ah… mm…”
His warm desire filling my insides only spurred my own lust on. Once simply wasn’t enough, but despite my wishes as soon as Jolga had finished, he pulled out, leaving only his warmth behind. Chiding me for my disgruntled complaints, he turned and fetched something from the saddlebag.
As I watched him, sulking all the while, Jolga built a fire in the hearth using the wood already prepared and thrust a metal rod into the flames.
“…”
He never attempted to disguise his actions from me.
The rod ended in a small round disc, about the size of a thumbnail, and as it sat in the fire, it began to glow a vibrant red, and slowly, the red faded into the white of intense heat. The image engraved into the end of that little rod was without question the Oswein Coat of Arms.
“Are you sure this size is alright?” I asked.
The night we attended the circus, the fake brand I had stuck to my instep had been about the size of my palm.
Jolga gave a slight smile at my words. He reached out and grasped me by the nape of my neck, as if embracing it with his large hand.
“This is more than enough… It’d be best if you could grow out your hair too. I want this to be our secret,†he replied.
“Haha, but is it really alright for it to go here?†I asked as I placed my hand atop the one Jolga was still using to hold my neck.
“Yeah,†Jolga said with a nod
“Such a pervert. …You really are the best.”
I gave a short laugh and then used my hand to hold up my hair, revealing as much of the back of my neck as possible. I turned my back to face Jolga and waited.
The edges of my hand, closest to the point of contact, grew hot.
“…! “
Pain stabbed through my neck, as if someone had dug a blade deep into it. I closed my eyes, enduring the burning pain.
Cold water doused the fire, pouring over the burn to soothe it. Jolga applied a salve smelling of medicinal herbs to the back of my neck, spreading it across the brand, before covering it in a fresh bandage. He must have prepared those in advance, and the combined treatments made the throbbing pain recede faster than I’d expected.
I reached back, gently running my fingers over the loose bandages on my neck.
Beneath them lay the brand.
Proof to anyone who looked that I belonged to Jolga.
It was here, just beneath these meagre bits of fabric.
Jolga wiped down my damp body, replaced the rug below us with a fresh one, and then picked me up and set me on his lap.
Perhaps it was out of concern for the burn, but he faced me towards himself. As we sat, face to face, he thrust into me once more, devouring me like a beast in heat. The thrill of being marked, proof that I belong to him permanently etched onto my body, made me lose myself in the heat. I wrapped my legs around his waist as I whispered saccharine pleas for him to feed me more of his seed.
In the end, we lost ourselves in the throes of passion, our unrestrained lovemaking continuing late into the night without any rest or breaks for meals. Eventually, when we finally stopped, we shared a simple supper made from the goods Jolga had brought along.
Naturally, the conversation turned to the topic of our future path, and when I told him that I wanted to hasten Sigurd and Julieta’s marriage, Jolga nodded in agreement with me
“Originally, I wanted to make sure that Sigurd would take over the Asbal family’s territory and stabilize it, and then after you, Jolga, recognized him and gave him the Oswein family name a few years later, I wanted to make sure that he would go through the proper procedures and marry her, but things are what they are.”
“Certainly… In any case, the queen is ‘that’. We don’t know what she might end up saying. It is better to make the first move.”
A great shift in history had occurred with the release of the Ancient Dragon Kharis.
The King’s accession to the throne and his marriage to his fiancée were not as lively as anticipated.
The belly of the Queen Nasha, whose presence had been outshined, had grown further in this past month.
“Most importantly, the Holy Maiden Julieta, who had become the Ancient Dragon Kharis’ new restraints, is no doubt Anri’s ally. With the humiliation she has suffered at the new King’s hands, there is no way she would stand on his side.”
“…You’re spot on.”
As I curled up the corners of my lips and laughed, Jolga did so too.
“…That is the final [revenge] I see. Anri.”
He was truly a husband who understood my heart well.
He had wealth, power and vitality, and he was a good fighter to the boot.
Such a husband had understood all my wishes and taken actions to fulfill them without saying a word.
“Is it fear? What Anri has gifted to His Majesty Vikram for the rest of his life?”
“You’re correct, Jolga. What I took away from His Majesty forever is his [peace of mind].”
In these thousand years of history.
Why did the Sacrificial Priestess continue to receive such kind treatment?
With that in mind, even without knowledge of the game, one should have had an answer.
The day when a Sacrificial Priestess who can release the Ancient Dragon appears, the one who has the power to destroy all of Palcemith at the snap of her fingers will undoubtedly be the Sacrificial Priestess herself.
It was so she didn’t hold animosity against the Kingdom.
The traditions of the Kingdom, that had been held up for so long, easily succumbed to the desires of a foolish prince.
Because of this, King Vikram will live in fear for the rest of his life.
To avoid a future where he is known as the “Foolish King†who destroyed the kingdom of Placemith, he’ll cling to his throne. Forever at the mercy of the Holy Maiden. At the mercy of the woman he once harmed with his own two hands.
All he can do is pray.
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