Hades’ cheeks are still hot.  Every breath he releases is mixed with a feverish sigh.  All of this is because his bride is too cute.

“Honestly, Jill, lately you’ve been strangely proactive…”

I wish she would think about my feelings and situation, too.  Just earlier, I was pulled into a storage area out of nowhere and had that happen; it was like a clandestine meeting hidden away from prying eyes.  That alone is the height of indecency.  Just remembering it makes me fidget with embarrassment.

Jill-sama is irritated at my indecisiveness, I understand that, but…

Bu-bu-bu-bu-but, to practice kissing, that’s…

All of a sudden, Hades covered his face with both hands.

The image of Jill-sama last night, eyes closed and quietly waiting for him, floated to the top of his mind.

It’s impossible.  My heart started pounding, and I couldn’t even breathe properly.  It reached a point where I was covered in a cold sweat. What the heck could I possibly do?  If I went and did something like that—

“I’m not confident I’d have been able to put on the breaks…!”
“That’s the problem!?”

Hades gets smacked on the back of the head by the tail of his foster-parent, the Dragon God Rave.  It made a nice sound, but in any case, nobody around could hear it.

“Hey, you, even if the Little Miss will be twelve in the spring, she’s still a child.  What’s wrong with you!?  Don’t you know what’s appropriate!?  I thought you had grown enough to show proper judgement.”
“Come to think if it, I really need to celebrate Jill-sama’s birthday this year…!”

“Listen, idiot!  No, it’s fine if you don’t listen anymore, just remember your circumstances.  You’re in a meeting right now!”

“Ah,” Hades lifts his face as the sound escapes him.  Rave-sama’s figure cannot be seen, nor can his voice be heard.  The meeting’s attendees were all looking at the Emperor seated in the seat of highest honor.

“Does Rave-sama have some sort of opinion?”

Asking, completely unfettered, on the left side of the long and narrow table and at the far end in the seat closest to Hades was Vissel, the chancellor and his older brother.  Beside him, a middle-aged man with slit-like eyes gave a small chuckle.

“A meeting with the honor of hearing our god’s opinion.  It could be said this proves the value of kneeling to the Dragon Emperor.”
“Oh my, the does the Duke of Fairart acknowledges the existence of the Dragon Emperor and the Dragon God.”

Vissel immediately cuts in from the side with a jab.  The Duke of Fairart, Morgan de Fairart, however, turns to Vissel with a gentle gaze and speaks calmly.

“Of course. I have acknowledged them from the start. The one who didn’t was my cousin-dono.”

By “cousin,” he meant the former Emperor Meronis and that man’s younger brother Georg.  Although, at the moment he was probably referring to the latter. About half of those within the conference room knitted their brows, but the man himself maintained a cool and unbothered expression.

The ringleader’s late mother during the False Emperor Mayhem was his aunt, and because he had dispatched a private force to search for Hades, his involvement was suspected.  However, the Duke of Fairart cut Georg off without hesitation and no evidence sufficient to refute his claims that the search party he had dispatched had been done so over a sense of duty, “We must quickly protect His Majesty the Dragon Emperor” had turned up.  Furthermore, the one who had protected Vissel after being driven out of the imperial castle due to opposing Georg’s deployment was him as well.

“I doubt anything will be achieved making issues about that which is in the past.”

For some reason, an exceptionally built, fine man with arms crossed weighed in.

“If the current Three Dukes are gathered in the imperial capital to do nothing more than feel each other out, then we’d be better off devoting ourselves to training.  Granted, I am ready to settle this with arm-wrestling.”

Among those seated near Hades, he was the youngest.  Bruno de Noitral, a man who clearly looked like a warrior and had a fierce expression, was the current Duke of Noitral.  He was also Elynsia’s uncle.

The previous Duke of Noitral retired of his own accord.  Not only did Elynsia side with Georg during the False Emperor Mayhem, his actions, despite stemming from a misunderstanding, also indirectly led to Listeard being arrested.  Thus, using his advancing years as a justification, he allowed his son to succeed him after the engagement ceremony of Jill and Hades.

This meant that Bruno was a youngster who hadn’t even held the position of one of the Three Dukes for a year.  Despite that, he showed no sign of being intimidated.

The Duke of Fairart, sitting directly across from him, however, also didn’t hide his ridicule.

“As expected of the Duke of Noitral. You have an optimistic opinion that rivals your predecessor. Arm-wrestling, you say.”
“Violence solves most things, Mo-san.”
“Oh, that form of address, a gift from your predecessor? How unpleasant. I’ll be leaving the room.”
“Shall I interpret that as a lose by default, Mo-san?”
“Why will you not stop calling me that!?”
“I’m being friendly.  According to my predecessor, the Duke of Fairart should be captured by violence, a neglect play of ‘Please do as you like,’ and an affectionate nickname.”
“You successive muscle-idiot dukes…! Then what about the Duke of Leilsatz!?”
“Violence, brazenly claiming ‘our house is penniless,’ and the affectionate nickname ‘Ii-san.’”
“I can’t help but find the continued existence of the Noitral dukedom an utter mystery…!”

“Calm yourself, Duke of Fairart. And you as well, Duke of Noitral. We three dukes are subjects who equally serve His Majesty the Dragon Emperor.”

A voice that was a bit hoarse but carried clearly stopped the mismatched pair’s quarrel.

Of the Three Dukes, the one seated on the opposite from Vissel, and thus in the seat closest to Hades, was Igor de Leilsatz: the Duke of Leilsatz and grandfather of Listeard and Frida.

He didn’t move at all during the False Emperor Mayhem.  Then, when there was turmoil in Radea, he received the Southern Kingdom’s king, probed Radea’s movements, and aided Listeard.

Unlike the Duke of Fairart who had no choice but to show an attitude of obedience to Hades and the Duke of Noitral who had no interest in power struggles, he was the one among the Three Dukes whose true intentions were the hardest to read.

Even now, he smiled at Hades with a sharp gaze.

“And yet, to leave the room without His Majesty the Dragon Emperor’s permission.  Interpreting that as an act of treason wouldn’t be strange.  I believe the Duke of Noitral stopped one for us.”
“Umu, that’s right.”
“Liar!  …The Duke of Leilsatz, as always, shows complete devotion to the Dragon Emperor.”

“Ho, ho, ho.  Young ones able to serve a Dragon Emperor from early on and have it easy wouldn’t understand.  —Now then, Your Majesty the Dragon Emperor, have you been listening to the discussion?”

His gaze was one meant for a child.  Hades gave a rough answer.

“The soil in Noitral and Leilsatz has been strange since around autumn.  It gets especially pronounced the closer you get to the foothills of the Rakia Mountain Range, places near the border.  In those places worst affect, the trees are starting to rot from the roots.”

Bruno, arms folded, let out a deep breath.

“This year’s grape and apple harvest dropped to nearly half the usual.  Our steward is saying we’ll need to limit the alcohol served at banquets and festivals to the toast only… this is a grave situation!”
“You may as well halt it outright. Noitral’s alcohol consumption is abnormal.  It’s bad for your health.”
“Also, as a countermeasure, we are considering a plan to seize Fairart’s fruit wine by force.”
“I would like you to stop solving things with violence, immediately!”

“Leilsatz mainly farms on the plains, so the damage isn’t that severe.  However, the rotting trees has lead to landslides.  Perhaps because they’ve run out of food, the number of times beasts have come down from the mountains has also doubled compared to usual.  Also, eyewitnesses have reported that dragons are flying away from the Rakia Mountain Range in groups.  A prevailing rumor among my domain’s people claims it is a migration due to sensing an oncoming crisis.  Although, Your Majesty the Dragon Emperor should surely be aware.”

The eyes of the Three Dukes and all the high officials in the conference room gather on Hades. Rave, who had withdrawn into his body, muttered to himself.

“This is probably because the shield of the Rakia Mountain Range disappeared… the goddess is making her move.”

In order to contend with the goddess’ guardian sword in Kratos, Jill took in the Rakia Mountain Range’s magical shield.  Jill was able to recover the ring of the Dragon Consort that had been stolen by the goddess as a result, the power of the Dragon Consort’s divine instrument that strikes the goddess down, but the protective barrier that had repelled the goddess’s power— the magical shield, had disappeared.

“At this rate, even the wedding of His Majesty the Dragon Emperor and Her Highness the Dragon Consort will be hindered.”

Igor plainly opened with that.

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