The morning came, and the vampire duo vanished like the wind. Not because of traditional reasons like sunlight melting their bodies, but because one was a student and the other a professor. Going to school was a matter of utmost importance.
Ivan leaned against the terrace, watching the sunrise. Perhaps due to the cool breeze, he could hear someone stirring in the bedroom.
"Did you cough, Your Majesty?"
"Mmm... water..."
Elizabeta spoke with a strained, cracked voice. As soon as she spoke, the bedroom door swung open and a maid hurried over with a glass of water.
"...Hmm."
The fact that servants outside the chamber reacted to such a quiet murmur...
Ivan decided not to continue that line of thought for Elizabeta's honor.
"I think... I think I'll live..."
Elizabeta nodded brightly with an expression that suggested she hadn't realized anything. Upon noticing Ivan, she soon fell into a daze.
Fidgeting with her fingers on the blanket, Elizabeta suddenly blushed deeply and pulled the covers over her head. It was behavior unbefitting her dignity.
"Your Majesty, your meal has been prepared."
"I have no appetite right now...!"
Elizabeta made groaning sounds and fidgeted under the blanket. She slightly lowered the edge of the blanket to peek at Ivan, then burrowed back under the covers.
This might seem quite undignified behavior for the Iron-Blooded ruler who once oversaw all of Krasilov's shadows, but now she was the absolute monarch who encompassed both Krasilov's light and shadow. At her stern command, the maids immediately bowed their heads and withdrew.
"Should we call for the royal physician...?"
"What physician! No, no... Um! Call the physician! Right now!!"
As if something had occurred to her, Elizabeta shouted from under the blanket. After the maids withdrew, a pale white hand peeked out from under the covers.
"C-come, come here..."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
Ivan silently approached her. Five steps away, he quietly knelt on one knee. It was the perfect image of ruler and subject according to protocol.
Watching this through the gap in her blanket, Elizabeta shouted loudly.
"C-closer!"
"Yes, Your Majesty."
"Closer!! Ugh... Vanka. Are you mocking me right now...?"
"...?"
"Turn around and come closer!!"
As Ivan sat with his back turned, a slender arm gently came down around his shoulder. After fumbling around his shoulder area for a while, the arm firmly wrapped around his neck.
For a moment he prepared for an assassination attempt, but no force strong enough to twist his neck muscles was applied. Instead, a weight of about 40-something kilograms settled on his back.
"My legs feel weak and I can't move properly. Honestly, I'm not sure if it's my legs or my waist that's weak..."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
"I want some fresh air. You may stand."
Elizabeta's voice had a whining tone unlike her usual self. It was difficult to imagine that this was the same Iron-Blooded Liza who had exterminated a dozen families overnight.
Ivan silently lifted her. As they approached the window, the cool morning breeze of Pritzenkaya swept through their hair.
"Vanka."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
"At times like this, speak to me like you did yesterday. Must I command even this small thing?"
"...Elize."
The conversation fell silent after his response. He could feel her feet fidgeting slightly around his waist. After struggling internally for a while, Elizabeta regained her composure.
"Krasilov forbids marriage between nobility and commoners."
"Hmm."
"Your legal position holds no title. The Yeremov family is a real barony in the northern colonial territory, but you're recorded as the third son of Baron Yeremov."
"..."
Ivan faced the wind without answering. Elizabeta's voice continued softly through the breeze.
"In the case of noble-commoner marriage, there are no inheritance rights. Meaning the royal bloodline would not continue."
"Hmm."
"For this reason, I distributed the royal authority. Do you know? Last year, when the coup first succeeded... I declared Krasilov a constitutional monarchy in the Kalion style."
The Krasilov royal family no longer reigns above the law. The reason there was no opposition from other royals was because, physically, all other royals had disappeared.
The nobles didn't oppose Elizabeta's order to distribute power. They weren't fools, so they knew that the actual authority remained no different from an absolute monarchy.
Although administrative, judicial, legislative, and military powers were all divided, Elizabeta still held them all in her grasp. The Intelligence Command was her direct organization, and she approved all of its operations.
However, this could never be inherited. Neither explicitly nor implicitly.
"Since the birthright of royal blood has disappeared, my descendants cannot inherit the same rights I have now. When my era ends, naturally, it will become a true 'constitutional monarchy'."
As administrative nobles and other aristocratic families gradually build their history, the authority of the royal family ruling without explicit power will crumble like a sand castle.
Elizabeta implemented this despite being fully aware of it. Despite knowing it was a plan that would clearly cut off the royal family's limbs from a macroscopic perspective.
"You may call me a selfish monarch. I acted solely for my own happiness."
"Elize."
"No, it's better not to call me that right now. It's too powerful."
Ivan doesn't question Elizabeta's commands. The original popularity of the divine right of kings can be confirmed by the fact that God and kings have similar MBTI types. Both are capricious, and both can bring divine punishment.
"Vanka, my father was incompetent. He was weak, a reed-like creature, yet full of lust for power, and despite being wary of his own father, he wanted to do everything for his son."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
"But my grandfather... the previous king was not like that. And frankly speaking, my brother could hardly be called incompetent. Watching this, what do you think I thought?"
No matter how good the bloodline, no matter how great the individual, their descendants cannot all be great.
"In normal times, this wouldn't be a problem. If the nobles, aristocrats, and administrators are competent enough, that's all that matters. If competent people keep each other in check, a monarch's incompetence cannot bring down a nation."
But the Demon King arrived. Harvesting the competent ones, the great ones, the good ones first.
And what remained were the maggots that dug into the power vacuum left after the heroes died.
"In the midst of this, I succeeded in inheriting the throne. In the process, I buried all those who followed my brother, and could grasp all power in one hand. Honestly, at that point, if I had married a commoner, who could have opposed me?"
"..."
"But I did not. I did this not for my happiness but for Krasilov. A structure where unchecked power will inevitably collapse if incompetent... absolute monarchy is a poisoned chalice for this deformed structure of a country."
If she can grasp and wield all rights, and the throne is inherited at a point where royal authority is higher than the law.
But if her descendants are incompetent.
If the local warlords and nobles are too broken to check the incompetence of such descendants.
"I uprooted the nobles, so I should bear the side effects as well, shouldn't I?"
"...Your Majesty."
"Doesn't this sound familiar to you?"
"...Yes, Your Majesty."
"Yes, I am this selfish."
Ivan closed his eyes as he listened to Elizabeta's words.
That statement, that an incompetent single person in power should not determine the entire direction of the country... it had something completely identical to Alexandr's argument.
So, her ousting her brother and taking his place was not because there was a better alternative, or because she had ideological superiority.
It was simply to survive. Because if the Crown Prince had lived, she would have had to die. That was the only reason, she confessed.
And to say this to a man who had marched to his death on the Crown Prince's orders. Who had lost all his comrades and returned. And who had finally killed the Crown Prince himself and returned.
It was like a grand confession. Essentially saying: I am no different from my brother.
"Vanka. Can you still be loyal to me despite this?"
"Yes, Your Majesty."
"Is that because I am the only blood of the previous king?"
"No, Your Majesty."
Ivan shook his head firmly.
"A blade does not distinguish between good and evil in the hand that holds its hilt."
"Policies and ideologies should be judged differently from the ruler's morality?"
"Yes, Your Majesty."
"How could I not cherish you for this?"
Elizabeta chuckled. She stroked Ivan's spiky hair and said:
"Since you've shaved your beard, why not trim your hair as well?"
"Yes, Your Majesty."
"Ah, but then other vermin would flock to you even more. Forget what I said."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
"Are you admitting that you are popular?"
"No, Your Majesty."
"...Sometimes I wonder about the range of vocabulary you know..."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
"This is maddening."
Elizabeta continued her conversation with Ivan, laughing playfully. It was a morning when the sunlight gently warmed the terrace.
"Let me out!!!"
Asidis was banging on the iron bars and shouting—a typical day.
A soldier approached steadily and opened her cell without a word.
"...Huh? Suddenly?"
"Didn't you ask to be let out?"
"Uh...?"
Beyond the confused Asidis, Isabelle, who had been meditating cross-legged, suddenly raised her head.
"We've been had."
"Huh? What? What does that mean?"
"They've applied the finishing touch now... hehe."
Releasing them now after they had infiltrated the palace fifteen times in three weeks? The intention was too obvious to even question.
They've already won. That's what it means. They're showing the leisure of victors.
"Applied the... finishing touch? No way...!!"
"Yes, Essie. We've been pushed back."
"—!!"
Asidis began a silent scream. But Isabelle, with a cool face, stood up and raised the crumbled Asidis back to her feet.
In the dark, gloomy prison, with her back to the blazing torch, she truly embodied the model of a hero.
"But Essie, isn't it our duty to seek the morning star even in despair?"
"...Yes...?"
"The true essence of a hero is to penetrate deep into enemy lines even in defeat. As long as we can accomplish our goal, the favorable or unfavorable war situation doesn't matter to us!"
So don't lie down and accept defeat!!
With Isabelle's intense gaze, Asidis also nodded with a firm expression and reached out with trembling hands to grasp hers tightly.
"Uncle can't stay with this country's queen forever anyway! Remember? Uncle is also part of the Hero Party!"
"Y-yes! We still have a chance...!"
"That's right! If we don't give up, opportunity will surely return. Are you going to give up just because we're a little behind now? How can we call ourselves the Hero Party then!"
"That's... not wrong?!"
In a solemn atmosphere where they might have sworn brotherhood under a peach tree if one were available, Elfihera quietly shook her head.
"They're really just playing around."
The Hero Party, released!