The Queen's Marriage

"So you're Maal's partner!"

"Y-yes!"

The cat beastkin had completely frozen under Ria's full-force Dragon Eyes glare.

He was a beastkin with gray tabby stripes and a rather sleek neck. Apparently, he was a year older than Maal.

His name was Niko.

This was Maal's new home.

Though it was called a new home, it had actually been an abandoned house left behind when a family that used to live there moved to another settlement.

It had been cleaned up and furnished with the bare necessities. Maal had apparently purchased everything with money she'd received from Ria.

"Hmph, if you're a man, I'd have liked you to build a new house yourself."

Ria was being mean, but she was aware of it.

After all, the hug pillow she'd cherished even more than a little sister was being taken away by some other man.

"Well, fine. Let me hear how you two got together."

She plopped down onto a chair. Since it was made for beastkin, it was a bit small.

As for how they got together—they had actually been childhood friends from the start.

When Maal was captured by slave hunters, the boy had still been too young to help or search for her.

But he spent the following year gaining experience before setting out on a journey to find Maal's whereabouts.

Various things happened during that journey, but we'll skip over those.

When he heard that Ria was using beastkin liberation as one of her rallying cries during the war with Cordova, he joined up. He distinguished himself somewhat in raids on supply lines, it seems.

It was during that time that he finally found the Maal he had been searching for.

After the war, when he returned to the village, he learned that Maal had also returned after being freed from slavery.

Worried that something else might happen, they rejoiced at their reunion and he immediately proposed.

She said yes, they held a wedding ceremony, and that's how they ended up here.

Ria had desperately wanted to see Maal's bridal outfit, but beastkin apparently didn't prepare special bridal outfits—they just dressed up a little and held a party to announce their marriage to everyone.

When she asked Irina, who had attended the party, about it, all she remembered was that the food had been extravagant.

"I see. Understood."

Ria's Dragon Eyes faded, and Niko was finally released from his tension.

"It's unfortunate that I couldn't attend your wedding, but there's nothing to be done about that. But do come to my ceremony."

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

Maal was surprised, but that was only natural since she didn't know the details.

"Yeah. Carla and Shizuna are already my wives, and Fio still needs to talk to her parents."

"Huh?"

Niko gave a perfectly natural reaction.

In response, Ria gave them a brief explanation. About being a ryuujin. About having both genders. And that two of them were already pregnant.

"Oh, congratulations."

"So there are races like that, huh."

That was the married couple's reaction.

After getting them to promise to attend her ceremony, Ria and the others returned to Manesh.

There she would be plunged into document hell again, but separately from that, they also had to prepare for the reception.

It was simple for Ria since she'd decided on men's formal wear, but Carla and Shizuna each had to prepare dresses. Carla in particular had to avoid constricting her lower abdomen, so she would conceal her figure with lace decorations.

"You're both so pretty～"

Only a very limited number of people could enter a place like this, but since Irina wasn't human to begin with, she basically had a free pass to everywhere.

Clanking about in her orichalcum armor here and there throughout the vast castle, she happened upon the two trying on clothes.

"D-does it look good on me?"

Shizuna lacked confidence in herself. In terms of pure beauty, she knew Carla was overwhelmingly more beautiful. Even so, she asked because she knew Irina wouldn't lie.

"Yeah, super pretty～"

Since Irina said so, Shizuna was a little satisfied.

There was only one month between the announcement and the actual ceremony.

This was in consideration of Carla and Shizuna already being pregnant, but the nobles attending the ceremony had a terrible time adjusting their schedules.

Thanks to that, Guinevere, who had to coordinate things even further, had it even harder—but this work suited her tastes, so she happily carried out her duties.

There was one other person stuck with an even harder job.

None other than Ria herself.

Once it was announced that ryuujin were hermaphrodites—or rather, possessed both sexes—and could have children even with women, a mountain of potential brides came flooding in.

Clad in gorgeous dresses, armed with fashionable hairstyles, and wearing perfectly applied thick makeup, they arrived—and were each handed a wooden sword.

"Please swing this one thousand times. Anyone who cannot do so holds no interest for Her Majesty."

When told this by Fio, a knight, the majority of the young ladies quietly withdrew.

Those who still came were muscular women who had joined the knight orders despite being female, but they were interviewed by Carla and quietly withdrew.

Just how many women would think to compete against such a beauty?

Even so, some made it past both the wall of muscle and the wall of beauty.

"To begin with, why did you want to become my wife?"

At this point it was practically a company president's interview. Among the candidates, some actually could only love women, and those were introduced to similar others. This wasn't supposed to be a matchmaking service.

"Ria, wouldn't it just be easier to create a rear palace at this point?"

Guinevere suggested with a grin, but Ria wasn't interested in just any girl.

Shizuna was incredibly cute when bullied despite her strong will, and she'd felt something like destiny with Carla from the start. With Fio, she purely wanted to answer her straightforward affection.

"Let's wait until after the Millennium is over. After that, I'll do a harem or whatever."

Ria muttered. With a battle that would decide humanity's fate looming, she didn't have the luxury of taking on more wives.

"In the first place, the first in line for the throne is Guinevere's son, so even if they give me wives now, wouldn't it just be for my own pleasure? And really, how many women would be happy being married off to another woman?"

It had already been announced that Guinevere's son, Shinjest—nicknamed Shinji—was Ria's adopted son. She had also stated many times that she would eventually pass the throne to him, with Guinevere serving as regent.

Despite all that, how many nobles were still trying to send their daughters to be Ria's wife.

"Well, rather than being married off to some strange man, wanting to marry a woman who's beautiful, gallant, and can even have children—I think that's perfectly natural for a woman."

When she posed the question to Guinevere, who was in the same room handling government affairs, that was the response she got.

"… Could it be that I'm popular?"

"Did you know that because all the young women are vying for the position of your wife or mistress, there's a surplus of eligible male nobles?"

And so Ria had to organize a pseudo-matchmaking party to create opportunities for noble men and women to meet.

Even though she needed to expand military preparations for the Millennium, apparently things like this were also part of a ruler's duties.

"Also, a message from Count Cornada. Small rebellions have been occurring again, and he'd like you to show your face soon."

A paper fluttered down from Guinevere's hands.

"Guaah! Why do rebellions keep breaking out so quickly!?"

She had other things she wanted to focus on.

"Um, I've been thinking…"

Here, Fio came up with a splendid idea.

"What if you promoted Count Cornada to Margrave? That way, he'd have the authority to mobilize surrounding nobles, and he could even grant titles to viscounts and below. The people rebelling are those who opposed the postwar settlement anyway."

"But if you do that and Count Cornada himself rebels, it'll become a serious problem, won't it?"

"No, that's good! Let's go with that! He doesn't seem like the type to rebel, so let's expand what he can do!"

And so, another problem was thrown onto someone else, and the day of the ceremony finally arrived.

Nobles and bureaucrats had gathered in the audience chamber, which wasn't normally used. Ria emerged from the side accompanied by Carla and Shizuna, and took her seat on the throne.

As the representative of the vassals, Guinevere praised the queen's military achievements and rule, expressing wishes for a long reign.

Ria stood and expressed gratitude to all her subjects for their cooperation in governance, and asked them to exert themselves for the coming Millennium.

And this was one of the day's main purposes: she granted a large-scale amnesty.

Not just political prisoners, but also criminals of minor offenses would all be released from prison.

In addition, she issued a decree to recruit talent.

This decree was famous for having been issued by Cao Cao during China's Three Kingdoms period, and it was a declaration that anyone with ability would be employed regardless of their past.

This received pushback even from the great nobles who had been informed beforehand, but Ria resolutely carried it through.

The reason being that otherwise, she would be buried in paperwork.

Even if their conduct was somewhat poor, Ria wanted bureaucrats with administrative ability and someone in a prime minister-like position to lead them.

Indeed, a certain marquis who was supposed to have retired would return to court and serve once more.

This man had allied with Cordova and been politically opposed to Guinevere.

Therefore, he would become a non-mainstream anti-Guinevere faction in the current Ogress, but with Cordova gone, that became a distant concern.

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

By making this capable man Secretary of State and nominally placing him under Prime Minister Guinevere, many nobles who had previously opposed Manesh returned to court—but it was all according to Ria's plan.

That's a story for later. On this day, Ria formally announced Uslan Marchioness Carla as her queen and Baroness Shizuna as her consort.

With two beautiful women at her sides, Ria showed herself to the citizens from the royal palace balcony and was greeted with cheers of "Long live the queen!"

Even with the Millennium approaching, she had destroyed Cordova and brought peace to this region. She was a godlike ruler.

(Ah, I need to reform the laws too. Well, I can just pick up some scholar from the streets and leave it to them.)

The reality was that she was making things up as she went, but at any rate, with this ceremony, the Ogress Archduchy had demonstrated its might.

Temporary stalls were set up in Manesh, free gladiator matches were held, and more than five hundred thousand citizens enjoyed the benefits.

Of course, there were also those who observed the situation without being swept up in momentary pleasures.

In a corner of a moderately noisy dining hall, Haruto and Ferna were sipping stew.

"Haah, what should I do…"

Ferna had followed Haruto on impulse, but she had no vision for what to do from here.

She had simply stayed close, felt the existence of Haruto—both hero and demon king—and thought she should follow him.

Even though what Haruto was thinking was probably incompatible with Black Cat's plans…

"I'm going to Casalia, and then to Lemdria."

"Lem…!"

That was Black Cat's headquarters.

Ferna had heard that Haruto was avoiding Lemdria.

"It's dangerous!"

"It'll be fine. I'll be bringing about three trump cards. Besides, I'm not going there to fight."

And then Haruto wore his usual cheerful smile.

"Meanwhile, I'd like you to protect this country. Specifically, the Manesh duke and the Uslan marchioness."

Those two were dragonslayers.

Both should have power equal to or greater than Ferna's, so what danger could be approaching them?

"Well… they might be targeted by some demon or assassins from some organization. Especially the Uslan marchioness, since she's pregnant."

Haruto—the demon king—intended to ally with Ogress. Even now, after having one of the demon tribe's executives killed, that intention hadn't changed.

In that case, how would Black Cat move? They were supposedly on humanity's side, but considering the possibility of Ogress allying with the demon tribe, Ferna couldn't tell what judgment Yamato would make.

"Are you really not in any danger?"

In the end, that was what it came down to.

Ferna was simply worried about Haruto.

"Yes. I'm a coward, after all. I'll run away the moment I sense danger."

Ferna had no choice but to believe those words.

In matters like this, the one who falls in love loses.

"So, Ferna-san, I'm leaving this to you."

"Understood."

Even if it was an illusion, their relationship felt equal.

For now, that was comfortable for Ferna.