After the meetings in the South concluded,
several marquess houses had been reaching out.
House Callum and a few others had yet to take a firm stance,
but houses like House Kadla — distant from the Empire — had decided to open trade relations.
Of course, they wouldn't be willing to put everything on the table,
but then again, neither would we.
"What are you doing in here with an axe?"
The moment I stepped into the Hall of Winter, I was taken aback.
There had been a brief cheer of *The Grand Duke has returned!* — but only briefly.
A peculiar undercurrent ran through the castle.
Passing through the gates, along the path leading to the Hall of Winter,
every servant and every minister whose face I could recognize had their foreheads pressed to the floor,
lined up in rows on either side.
"Grand Duke, Your Highness! We come to declare our loyalty!"
I hadn't quite understood even that much, but stepping into the Hall of Winter made the atmosphere all the more unmistakable —
an almost excessive outpouring of devotion.
The Wintergard banner was flying at the center of the Hall of Winter.
I passed through them all
and slowly made my way up to my seat.
Even then, the ministers and nobles kept their heads pressed to the ground, not lifting them once.
A strange silence.
"Daniela, you didn't secretly plan some kind of event, did you?"
"...Of course not. My Lord."
"I haven't the faintest idea what any of this is about. Right now."
The moment I sat down, one man shot to his feet with startling urgency.
White-haired Alfredo, his hair disheveled in every direction,
gripped an enormous axe and planted himself at the center of the Hall of Winter.
Kneeling, he drew a scroll from within his robes and spread it wide across the floor.
"I can't quite read the situation, so — what exactly is going on here?"
"Your Highness!"
Alfredo's voice shook the Hall of Winter to its rafters.
I flinched — I couldn't help it. It wouldn't have mattered if only I had flinched,
but Daniela, seated behind me, flinched as well.
"Your Highness! Winter is coming to the North!"
"It is winter. I'm aware."
"Not that kind of winter! A moment is approaching when the very existence of the North hangs in peril!"
The existence of the North?
Had the nomadic tribes risen again?
"Have the nomads risen in the north? This is hardly the time for that."
"That is not it. The North is crumbling from within!"
"From within?"
"It is so! The North stands on the verge of collapse — from within!"
"Is someone plotting treason?"
Has someone harbored treacherous ambitions?
I've been too lenient lately. This simply won't do. I'll have to muster the North's forces even now.
"That is not it either."
"Then what is it? If it isn't treason, there's no reason the interior should be crumbling."
"It concerns the very foundation of the North."
"The foundation? Me?"
Why me?
I surveyed the faces of the ministers one by one.
Every face wore an expression of fierce, unyielding resolve.
Even when the nomads had come raiding, they had never been wound this tight.
"Though it is presumptuous of me to say — Your Highness is the Grand Duke of the North, the very dignity of the Northern people!"
"Thank you. Yes."
"But the absence of an heir to carry on after you — one cannot say that is anything short of the realm's order standing on the brink of collapse!"
"...Hah."
So that was it.
I scratched the back of my head. I had wondered what on earth was happening.
The tension drained out of me all at once.
The threats I had been bracing for — the problems that could truly endanger the North — had flashed through my mind for a moment,
only to dissolve into relief.
"A matter such as that..."
"Your Highness! The fault is ours — our failure in loyalty. It is our disloyalty that we did not resolve to attend to the matter of an heir for the sake of the North!"
"Wait, wait — the reason you have all gathered here is precisely..."
Was it about my marriage?
At my question, the ministers all but broke into a chorus.
It was nearly impossible to make out any single voice clearly.
Someone was even repeating, over and over, that they would sooner have their heads struck off with an axe.
"The North has far more pressing matters than my marriage, and yet here all the ministers have gathered, neglecting the work they ought to be doing."
"No, Your Highness! There is nothing more important right now than the matter of Your Highness's heir!"
"I can't make heads or tails of this."
I singled out Hexon.
It was a silent command: *You explain it.*
Daniela, seated behind me, began reading the room with careful eyes.
There were mountains of things to be done — the nomadic tribes, economic exchange with the South, the welfare of the Northern people.
"Your Highness! An heir for the Grand Duke is what we ministers desire above all else. Moreover, it is the most urgent crisis facing the North — more pressing than any problem we currently face!"
"Hexon, what I want to ask you is this."
"Your Highness! The problems of the North are not something anyone else can resolve — only the great Grand Duke himself can do so, of that we have not the slightest doubt, and yet—"
Hexon rambled on and on, delivering a lengthy speech.
But the words that followed from Alfredo were enough to break even my standing prohibition.
An extraordinary resolve.
"Your Highness has now passed the age of thirty. What Your Highness must now prioritize is the matter of deciding upon an heir to carry on after you."
"I know I'm not young. But an heir is, by its very nature—"
"If Your Highness were to die suddenly this very day, whom would the ministers and nobles of the North look to as their rightful lord?"
Murmur — murmur —
Alfredo had dropped a bombshell. One might have thought it an excessive thing to say,
and yet, though it was the kind of remark that could have drawn sharp criticism from the ministers, not a single voice of dissent was raised.
If anything, the mood leaned strongly toward agreement.
"Am I to understand that you wish to speak of the matter of House Wintergard?"
"Your Highness, if these words are deemed insolent, then strike this Alfredo's neck with this very axe!"
"I believe I made it quite clear that the matter of House Wintergard was not to be raised."
"Your Highness! If you would sooner take my life to uphold the law, then strike my neck with this axe!"
The Wintergard Rebellion. The worst thing I had lived through, from the age of ten.
My father had died not long after the rebellion ended.
My uncle and the other relatives had followed.
What remained of House Wintergard was scattered somewhere, stripped of all power, barely scraping by.
There were almost no men of sound mind left.
To serve a true Wintergard — in plain terms,
that meant there was only me.
"Most men of the North, if they lived at all, barely made it past forty."
"That is no longer the case, is it?"
"Even so — if Your Highness were to die suddenly at forty, or fifty, there must be an heir in place now."
"That — that is a matter for this Wintergard to see to himself, as I have said."
"And yet there is already a clear and legitimate Grand Duchess-designate. There is absolutely no reason to keep postponing the wedding."
"It has only been a month or two since Daniela was designated."
"That is no obstacle whatsoever!"
I pushed back, saying that it had not been long since Daniela was designated as Grand Duchess — but the ministers and nobles had no intention of listening.
Some even remarked that such a length of time was more than sufficient for her to become Grand Duchess.
There was no longer any meaning in delaying.
Furthermore, since the Grand Duke was not young, there was every advantage to be gained, and since a proper royal education would need to be given in due course,
the conclusion was that they must act quickly. Very quickly indeed.
"I understand your views well. I will see to it myself, so now, enough—"
"One moment!"
It was Daniela who called out.
Every eye in the room turned to look behind me.
*Is it time to show the dignity befitting a Grand Duchess?* I thought —
but Daniela began casting careful, sidelong glances around the room.
I might have been able to stop this from the front,
but Daniela's voice carried the sound of someone who had made up her mind.
Her hand was raised — raised boldly, without hesitation.
"Daniela?"
"I — I will handle this matter!"
"You will?"
You'll handle what?
I was looking at Daniela too. *If I say I won't do it, then that's that!*
If I said that, the ministers would be delighted.
They'd probably come back sharpening their blades, ready to die on the spot.
"I understand your resolve all too well."
"Grand Duchess, Your Grace! We offer you our loyalty! Please, look upon our wishes!"
"I, too, believe your views are entirely correct!"
"Please, look upon our wishes!"
Daniela?
Daniela rose from her seat and stepped forward to the foot of the dais.
I watched her back as she advanced to stand before me.
*This — this has never happened before. Truly never.*
"I, too, am fully aware of your concerns."
"Grand Duchess, Your Grace!"
"The absence of an heir means there is no one to carry on the North — and I understand that a crisis may follow from that."
A stir ran through the room.
It was a different feeling from before — something like a pleasant, buoyant anticipation.
The ministers had, without anyone noticing, fallen completely silent.
"The fault lies largely with me for not attending to this matter more carefully! It is my failing."
"Not at all, Your Grace!"
"I cannot say I bear no fault, for it was my inexperience in such matters that led us here."
Somehow, I was the only one who felt slightly removed from it all.
The first Wintergard to come into being since the Wintergard Rebellion.
The person who had filled the place of a Grand Duchess — a place that should have existed all along.
"Therefore, I will take charge of this matter and see it through!"
*Waaaaah—!*
*Am I just... being left out of this entirely?*
*What if I say I won't do it — what then?*
"And I will most certainly bear a — a son!"
Good grief.