“Your Majesty, High Priest, Lyell would like to see you.”
After spitting out the words, Colton smoothed his own mouth, which almost called Wilhelm “Your Royal Highness the Prince” as usual.
Since he had not been on the throne for a long time, it was quite difficult to change the title that he had been using for years.
“The High Priest?”
Wilhelm, meanwhile, was puzzled. It was because he thought there was no reason to find him.
“If it’s the High Priest, I met him at the last coronation ceremony.”
“I know. I think he has something special to tell you.”
“Let’s go to the reception room for now.”
As Wilhelm went to the reception room, a rather red-faced Lyell was waiting for him.
“Hello to the new sun of the Empire.”
“Sit down.”
Wilhelm, who replied with a blank face, soon asked.
“What brings you here?”
“Your Majesty.”
Lyell made eye contact with Wilhelm and whispered as if to say something very secret.
“The oracle has come.”
Wilhelm’s eyes shook quickly at Lyell’s words.
An oracle was the will of the precious Goddess who may fall once every 10 years. Wilhelm had never encountered it since he was born.
He couldn’t believe it fell into his generation as soon as he ascended the throne. Wilhelm looked at Lyell with a nervous look.
“Make a girl who is born with my symbol on her shoulders a lifelong companion. The child will save the empire from the fall and tragedy.”
“If it’s a symbol of the goddess…”
“Yes, roses.”
Lyell said politely.
“Your Majesty, have you appointed anyone as Empress?”
Wilhelm shook his head quietly. Not long after taking the throne, there were too many things to pay attention to besides the role of the Empress.
There were occasional talks among the nobles that they had to bring in an Empress, but they were only delaying it after the political situation was stable.
“Then, Your Majesty, I think it would be right for you to follow the will of the Goddess and make the woman of the oracle as your Empress.”
“…”
Wilhelm was silent for a moment. Never had he ever thought deeply about the matter of accepting a wife.
He only had the idea that he should marry a woman of a suitable family, since he was not a threat to Alexander in his days as a prince.
Therefore, the current situation of having to marry the woman chosen by the Goddess felt quite overwhelming.
‘As long as you became the Emperor anyway, marriage will be essential.’
Marrying the woman he loved was an extreme luxury that was not likely in this position.
Crucially, he firmly believed that he had no one to love, and that it would never happen.
Therefore, he quietly nodded.
~~~~
The contents of the oracle, which had been dropped for the first time in decades, spread across the entire empire in an instant.
Of course, there were those who felt that the story that the oracle woman would save the empire from tragedy and catastrophe hinted that something like that would happen to the empire someday.
But the point was that even if that happened, the oracle woman would stop it.
The search for the oracle woman was carried out directly in the Great Temple. And soon the main character was revealed.
“Princess Barantes, obeys the will of His Majesty the Emperor.”
It was Anastasia Barantes, the only daughter of the Duke of Barantes.
~~~~
“I mean, she’s Princess Barantes.”
When the Emperor’s attendant arrived at the Duke Barantes residence, Colton had a terrifying expression on his face.
“Isn’t she a woman who was once well-known in the Empire for her arrogance? I’m very worried that such a woman will become the Empress.”
“As you said, she was.”
Wilhelm also knew to some extent the news that was circulating in the social world.
Anastasia Barantes. A woman who lost her mother as soon as she was born and turned into a child in the arms of the Duke of Barantes.
Maybe that’s why, but she was notorious in her social circles for being quite arrogant.
Of course, there were few who could treat her badly because of her status as Princess Barantes.
‘But for some reason they said two years ago that she suddenly changed as if she had become a different person.’
Did they say that she is gentle and thoughtful, and that she had learned to be considerate of others?
Wilhelm, who was recollecting someone’s testimony, snorted involuntarily.
Is she gentle? Is she considerate? Consideration?
‘It’s surprising. She was an illegitimate child, and she was a shy woman who greeted me even when she met me.’
He hadn’t seen her in the last two years, but during his princely years he, of course, had the opportunity to meet Anastasia a few times.
However, Anastasia was so arrogant and shy that she hardly bowed her head except for Alexander, who was the Crown Prince.
Wilhelm was born from an illicit relationship, and was used to such treatment.
So he was not particularly offended, but curious.
She had been ignoring him, and now that he was her husband, he was curious about her thoughts.
“As far as I know, even to His Majesty, she was like that when you were a prince. Even after Eleanor became queen.”
“Right. That was the case.”
Wilhelm nodded his head politely.
“But my mother must have wanted a daughter-in-law who would be like that.”
And Wilhelm remembered his mother, Eleanor, who had just passed away.
Eleanor, longing for her son to become Emperor, finally made it happen when Alexander died leaving a bloody child.
Ironically, however, the day before Wilhelm’s coronation, she drank her celebratory drink and died that night of a heart attack.
‘After all, she died without seeing her son becoming Emperor and becoming Empress herself.’
As a result, a bitter smile formed on Wilhelm’s lips as he recalled the circumstances in which the coronation ceremony had to be postponed.
“If her mother were still alive, she would have told her that the Empress should be a woman of power who would establish my position as the Emperor.”
“But, Your Majesty, you don’t necessarily see it that way. Isn’t that the Barantes family?”
The sister of Duke Barantes was the mother of the previous Empress, that is, the Empress of the former Emperor. In other words, for Wilhelm, he was marrying his niece.
“They were Your Majesty’s most powerful enemy until the oracle fell. I have no idea if this marriage will be okay.”
“It might have been a good thing. It means that I have subsumed the enemy as my ally.”
Unlike Colton, for Wilhelm this situation felt quite positive from a political point of view.
“As a Duke, wouldn’t you love your daughter more than your son?”
No, it was more than that. In fact, the Duke of Barantes was well-known for being overly doting with his daughter.
In the first place, the reason Princess Barantes’ personality could become infamous was precisely that. Because she was the daughter who grew up without a mother, so she asked for too much.
“You can’t put your hands on the throne and push your daughter through the guillotine.”
“It seems so.”
Colton shook his head as if there was a reason, but then brought up other concerns.
“More than anything else, would you mind? Would you like to spend the rest of your life with a woman like that?”
“…”
“No matter how much has changed in the last two years, human nature does not change. Besides, what if what changed in two years was a play for marriage?”
“If she had been acting for two years, it’s worthy of recognition for her character. The princess I saw was a woman who could not do anything that did not fit her personality for even two minutes, let alone for two years.”
“Your Majesty, this is not the time to joke.”
“What about it, then? I have already sent my attendants to the Barantes mansion.”
Wilhelm looked casual. He added in a voice that was as casual as that expression.
“I don’t care who I marry.”
“…”
“Because it’s certain that whoever it is, I will fulfill my duties as a husband.”
At first glance, it sounded romantic, but the reality was that he would only do his duty.
There was no love in it.
Alexander was the only one who had true love. A loving man who was willing to embrace his wife and children as well as him and his mother.
He wasn’t confident in taking after his brother. On the other hand, he considered himself as being too emotional.
“So Princess Barantes is not a bad option for me either.”
With that, he stopped trying to imagine more of his marriage.
~~~~
The wedding date of Emperor Wilhelm and Princess Anastasia Barantes had been decided.
The date is the last day of love in the month of marriage. It was summer, not too hot.
People all praised Wilhelm, who married the oracle woman, and said that he would become a rare saint.
In fact, Wilhelm spent each day until the wedding without any expectations for this marriage.
“… Do I have to do this?”
And it was the same for the bride’s side, Anastasia.
“I just want to sleep…”
“No way, miss! The wedding is just around the corner. You have to take care of your skin.”
“What is skin care…?”
Anastasia looked displeased with her maid for doing a massage on her face, but she quietly left her face alone. However, her expression was still not very good.
‘A male protagonist who won’t love me anyway.’
It had been two years since she possessed a ‘fake’ in the novel <A Real Marriage Overcoming Fake> that she read all night long.
Anastasia was just tired of all this life that was steadily flowing into the original work.
‘I should be dethroned quietly after fulfilling my minimum duty as an Empress. And I will get a lot of alimony from him and run my orphanage.’
She waited for her wedding with such ambition, and the day finally came to marry her husband, Wilhelm.
“Here’s Anastasia Barantes.”
Anastasia, who became a beautiful white bride, followed the High Priest’s voice into the ceremony.
She wore a veil, so she couldn’t see very well, but she could see her father so clearly as he shrieked and wept in the corner of the banquet hall.
‘Anyway, there’s my father. Anyone who sees it would think that I am getting married and going far away.’
The moment she stood in front of Wilhelm, thinking that the love for his daughter alone was the best in the Empire or the Continent.
“The bride takes off her veil and faces the Emperor.”
Anastasia had to see.
‘… Oh my gosh.’
The promise that she had been firmly committed to since she was possessed was shaking.
