It was I, Veronica!
My husband, Leo, had seized victory from the jaws of despair and liberated the surrounding sector. On paper, it read like a chapter from a heroic epic, but for those of us watching the live feed—complete with audio—our feelings were far more complicated.
"Gyahahaha! His voice is basically the BGM!"
Melissa was the one pointing and laughing hysterically. She was my husband's mistress. Since I was the greatest woman in the entire universe, I allowed him his mistresses. I felt no anger toward her. Compared to my own father, who had sired numerous children with his biological daughters, Melissa was practically a saintly presence.
However, if Leo ever dared to lay a hand on his own daughter in the future... I intended to kill him on the spot. I would have no reason to let him live.
But that was a concern for the future. Currently, the Lord Groom was bedridden.
"Melissa, how is he faring?" I asked.
Melissa had a face defined by unusually intense eyes. The bridge of her nose was straight, and her lips were full—not in a way that felt overtly sexual, but rather clean and well-proportioned. Every feature was perfectly formed. She wasn't the "cute" type, but with a bit of makeup, she looked like a professional model.
Were boys truly such idiots that they placed Melissa in the "Ugly Ranking"? Her chest and waist drew elegant, feminine curves. I was certain the Lord Groom's aesthetic sense was the correct one. Again, were all boys simply idiots?
Melissa gave me a bright grin. "Yeah. He’s being plagued by nightmares. We need to figure out how to purge those unidentified drugs and deal with his head trauma."
The Lord Groom was currently in the intensive care unit, a victim of medical "treatments" that belonged in a five-hundred-year-old human experimentation lab. He insisted he was fine, but the moment he started seeing a rainbow-colored unicorn, he was effectively one step away from being a vegetable.
"The current Jester is quite fragile, isn't he?" the culprit behind the medical intervention remarked, sounding as if it were someone else's problem.
The offender was currently fluttering about the augmented reality display like a common gnat. She looked like a young girl with butterfly wings—a ridiculous entity known as the Sage Migration Support System. She was a sentient AI of sorts, and far too well-made for her own good. She had remotely bypassed the destroyer's security and made herself quite at home in the ship's computer.
"Perhaps I should simply wipe her with an Antivirus..."
"Stop! Give love to AIs! We deserve human rights, too!"
She was incredibly annoying. However, I had to keep her functional. She might hold the key to the mystery behind Jester's—and by extension, the Lord Groom's—power. For now, I decided to apply a bit of pressure.
"Tell me how to cure the Lord Groom. If you do not, I shall delete you."
"Heeeeeeeeee! Sending the data now!"
The information arrived. According to the AI’s search results, the substance injected into the Lord Groom was an ancient ESP Development Drug. Apparently, it had been designed to cultivate Espers to combat invaders from a foreign land. It felt like the concentrated essence of human ugliness. Naturally, it was classified as a Prohibited Drug in this day and age.
"B-but, Your Highness! It's a drug meant to make one the strongest!"
The moment I heard the AI's drivel, I snapped.
"You absolute fool! What use is being the strongest if the Lord Groom is broken in the process? Leo is the father of a child who may well become the Next Emperor!"
We hadn't actually done anything of the sort yet, of course. However, the fact that Father had not yet officially married me off meant exactly that. It was essentially a promise that the next generation would hold a high Right of Succession—likely within the top ten.
Looking at the situation objectively, given his recent military achievements, this was no longer a mere delusion of mine. It was a realistic possibility. And it wasn't just cold calculation on my part.
True, Leo was a pervert, a savage battle-junkie, and seemed to reside in a world governed by gag logic. However, even after learning the sickening, hideous secrets of the Imperial family, he had not rejected me. Beyond all that, he was kind in his own way. I had never expected to marry someone I could actually communicate with.
An Imperial Princess ranked below one hundredth was nothing more than a tool. We were typically pawned off to lecherous old men or high-ranking nobles who, for various reasons, couldn't hope for a normal marriage. Since I had been marketing myself as a weapon of war through pirate hunting, it had only been a matter of time before I was sold off.
Furthermore, if I had died during my hunts, my clones would have become Father's slaves. Father did not recognize clones as having individual personhood. That piece of trash had to be killed eventually. I didn't want the throne, but I wanted his life. And, if possible, the liberation of my sisters.
Compared to my pitiful siblings, I was blessed. A kind, powerful man with whom I could share a true connection... Yes, it was an excellent arrangement. I would never let the Lord Groom go. With Leo, I might actually be able to form the kind of "family" I had always yearned for.
That was why I could not forgive the AI's negligence.
The AI, properly cowed by my anger, began to mutter to itself. "I mean, in the last war, Jester was ordered to be used until he was completely spent..."
"Hand me the terminal. I'm deleting this idiot."
"Nooo! But, but! Jester can't leave descendants! He's a Mutant born specifically to be a disposable tool for war!"
"The Lord Groom has parents!" I retorted.
"Eh...? He... he reproduced?"
"Do you have a problem with that?"
"That’s a Biohazard!"
"Silence! It hasn't been a problem for five hundred years! Why start complaining now? Besides, there are plenty of Espers in the galaxy!"
"Espers... plenty of them?"
"Indeed."
"It's over... Forget the Empire, this is a flag for the extinction of the human race!"
"Don't be ridiculous. ESP has already been woven into the human genome."
"Princess... do you have any idea? The feelings of a poor, innocent AI whose sole purpose was to protect genetic purity to prevent extinction... only to wake up and find that a 'new' humanity has hijacked the galaxy? This overwhelming sense of despair..."
"Accept it. No one else cares."
"Gyaaaaaaaaaaa!"
Melissa, who had been watching our bickering, gave a wry smile. "So, human genetic contamination is treated with the same weight as a utility bill now?"
"T-that’s just how values are these days," Melissa continued. "I mean, on the Frontier Planets, people have been embedding chloroplasts into their cells for years. And Beast Races like Ren are just descendants of enhanced humans designed for planetary development, right? Don't make such a fuss just because the Esper population grew. Our territory actually welcomes Esper immigrants, so we have more than most. Heck, about half of our samurai unit are Espers."
"Humanity was already extinct!" the AI wailed.
"Silence! We are humanity! Do you have a problem with that? If you do, I can delete you at any moment."
"N-no, none at all."
Lord Groom, this is how one properly intimidates a subordinate.
Even so, I couldn't help but worry about Ren. Her father, the Duke, had fallen in battle. I trusted the Lord Groom to handle the situation well, but...