The Duke's Reluctant Bride

Chapter 63: Daughter of an Oath

Clara's eyes widened slightly, and she turned toward him.

"I know of them, Your Majesty... but not very well," she admitted. "They rarely appear in Veridonia, so I was never really aware of them."

She paused.

Then something clicked.

Her expression shifted, realization flashing across her face.

"...Does that mean my mother was a paladin?"

The emperor nodded.

"Yes." His voice remained calm. "Would you like to know more about her? I only met her a few times, given the circumstances in the past."

Clara hesitated.

There had been a time when she refused to hear anything about her parents. During the years she was neglected by her mother's family and later taken in by her uncle, she had blamed herself for their deaths, just as her grandparents often said she should.

Especially her mother's.

Even now, a faint ache lingered, tangled with a sense of abandonment she never fully understood.

But things were different now.

Her curiosity had grown stronger than her fear.

"If it's alright," she said quietly, her fingers tightening on her lap, "I would like to hear more about her."

A faint smile curved on the emperor's lips.

"There was a time when Veridonia faced a serious threat," he began. "One that ordinary knights and mages could not easily resolve."

His gaze drifted, as though looking into a distant memory.

"That was when the paladins intervened."

Clara leaned forward slightly, listening more intently.

"Unlike the nine elemental magics," he continued, "a paladin's power does not come from mana. It comes from an oath."

Clara blinked. "An oath...?"

"Yes. Paladins are not bound to my empire, nor to any crown. They answer only to the oath they have sworn. It is both the source of their strength... and their greatest limitation."

"What kind of oath?" she asked softly.

The emperor exhaled quietly before reciting:

"I bind my blade and life to the defense of the innocent.
Where darkness rises against the helpless, there shall I stand.
I seek neither glory, nor crown, nor reward.
My oath is my master; my blade, its servant."

A chill ran down Clara's spine.

Those words felt heavy. Not merely a promise, but a burden meant to be carried for a lifetime.

"So that's what guides them," she murmured.

The emperor studied her reaction before continuing.

"According to old accounts, a paladin's oath aligns the soul with a primordial law of the world itself. Their power does not come from the gods, nor is it granted by authority."

He rested his hands in his lap.

"It is said that it is not the oath that shapes the heart, but the heart that walks the path. When conviction becomes absolute, the world itself begins to answer."

Clara listened without looking away.

"To be a paladin," the emperor went on, "means the oath has acknowledged you. It requires a will strong enough to resonate with it. Many common folk may reach that point... but only a few go beyond it."