Original subtitles

You must have nothing to occupy you until the talks end.

Please, have a look around our palace in the meantime.

I'll summon someone to guide you.

U-Um...

Please wait.

If the acting queen of Ozmargo needs a guide, then allow me,

Mother.

Blessings and a Vow for the Future

Tetra! What are you doing here?

Th-This is my fourth daughter, Tetra.

She will accompany you through the palace.

Now, if you'll excuse me.

Um...

Okay. Nice to meet you, Tetra.

Ugly!

Wha?!

What?!

I've never seen a human before, but you're as hideous as everyone says.

No wonder my mother doesn't want to let you hold Calcara.

Where are your manners?! You owe Sari an apology!

Servants should know their place.

So hold your tongues, you cheeky little blobs.

"Blobs"?!

Wait.

So Queen Calra really doesn't want me to perform the ri—

Of course she doesn't.

No mother wants to let an ugly freak touch her baby.

Don't get ideas above your station, ugly.

I knew it.

What should I do?

I might be able to pull some strings for you.

Huh?

Now, listen closely, Sariphi.

I'm going to throw this stone.

You must catch it and bring it back to me.

Don't be ridiculous! Sari's no dog!

Are you sure you want to take that tone with me?

If you become my minion, I'll ask my mother to let you perform the rite of blessing.

So if you want to win her favor, start by doing as I say.

Now fetch!

We don't have time to play along with these childish games!

Oh, and that stone is a national treasure from my mother's trousseau.

Look at you run.

Now, what should I do nex—

Here. You should be more careful with your mom's jewelry.

What? Don't tell me what to do, minion.

But, Tetra—

How impudent! Address me as "Your Highness"!

Now, on to your next task!

Who's been nibbling at tonight's desserts?!

SNEAK SNEAK

RUMBLE

Hm... This is so-so.

Now, how about this?!

And this?!

And... this?!

What, do you admit defeat already?

Yup. What should we play next?

Oh, so these orders are just games to you?

A horse! Your next task is to be my horse!

Get down on all fours, and let me ride you!

Kn-Knock it off! Sari's not your toy!

Toy!

Here. Climb aboard.

Wha...

What's wrong with you? Have you no pride?!

Are you that desperate to curry favor with my mother?!

Your mother?

Oh, that's right. I was having so much fun, it slipped my mind.

Hey, wai—

Giddyup!

Are you stupid, as well as ugly?

Horses don't walk on two legs.

Oh, you're right.

You really are an idiot.

Buttering me up won't improve your chances with my mother.

She only cares about my little brother.

I don't matter to her.

In fact, she sees me as a disobedient nuisance.

I know Calcara is more important.

He's the heir my parents have always wanted.

All three of my elder sisters were married off.

And someday, I'll be given to some man I don't know in a strange country, too.

Like a sacrifice.

My mother can't wait to get rid of me.

I don't think she does.

People with no love at all have darker, colder eyes.

But that wasn't how the queen looked at you.

I'm sure she does love you, but maybe she can't figure out how to show it.

Just like you right now.

Your Highness?!

Don't try to sugarcoat things.

I don't want fake sympathy from you.

I know I'm an unwanted child.

I made up my mind a long time ago.

While the king of Ozmargo is here,

I'll outdo myself and give my mother one last headache

by jumping off the tallest tower in the palace!

Wait!

Another girl?

How long must we wait for the birth of an heir?

Do you realize how hard I labored to marry you into the royal family?

Don't you dare disgrace me further!

Oh, Calcara.

You are my hope.

Your Majesty!

What are you doing, making such a racket? You'll wake Calcara.

I beg your pardon,

but it's about Princess Tetra.

My humble apologies.

I deeply regret these difficulties with the sacred rite of blessing.

Princess Tetra!

Tetra?!

Don't come closer!

I'll jump if you do!

You only get one life! You shouldn't waste it!

Don't!

Even if I die, someone, somewhere is born every day.

That's not what I mean!

If you throw away the life your parents gave you—

Don't lecture me!

I didn't get a say in being born,

so what's wrong with choosing when I end it for myself?

My life belongs to me! Who are you to tell me what to do with it?!

Come down from there, Your Highness.

I'd love to play with you again.

You won't fool me with a lie like—

I mean it.

You're correct that only you have the right to decide your future.

So this is just a selfish request from me.

My mother was always weeping.

Don't cry, Mother.

I'm here. I'll always be here for you.

Then Calcara was born, and her tears stopped.

I wasn't able to do that.

My birth didn't make a single person happy.

Look at this huge fuss.

People hate me more than ever.

I feel great.

My last act will be the biggest payback I could hope for.

Tetra...

Wait!

Your Highness, you said you want to jump to make trouble for the queen,

but are you sure it's not the opposite?

Really, you just want your mom to smile.

I...

I...

Tetra!

Your Majesty!

Were you scared?

You won't try this again, will you?

But... But I...

Thou art a sovereign's child.

May thy noble path through life

be peaceful and many times blessed.

Was that...

a blessing?

I'm so glad that you were born.

Otherwise, I would never have met a girl as kind as you are.

Tetra...

I've never known her to cry so loudly.

Don't cry, Mother.

Mother...

Don't talk to me right now.

You'll wake Calcara. Go elsewhere.

I was so obsessed with Calcara— or rather, with my own duties as queen—

that I never even thought to embrace her like that.

M-My most sincere apologies!

How could I not only allow this commotion, but also tax your holy beast?

I am truly ashamed that you were subjected to such an unsightly spectacle.

Did that princess appear unsightly in your eyes?

Sire?

I take no interest in your family affairs,

but if you heard her words,

then placating me should not be your chief concern.

That is, if you are a father, as well as a king.

Sire?

Mother...

I'm so sor—

I'm sorry, Tetra. I'm so sorry.

Forgive your foolish mother.

Mother!

Acting Queen of Ozmargo,

thank you for aiding my daughter in my stead.

Though it shames me,

might I presume to ask one more favor of you?

No one gets to decide how they're born.

Birthplace, birth order, and status

are out of all of our hands.

And so, I pray,

wishing that new lives

may at least be peaceful and blessed.

I won't accept her.

I refuse to accept her.

Yet perhaps this girl truly can change others.

So you used to be a sacrifice?

Yup.

But you must have hated that, right?

Becoming the queen of beasts must have been the only way you could escape.

No. I had no say in anything, not even whether I lived or died.

But the first decision I made for myself

was that I wanted to live at His Majesty's side.

I guess that's one way to meet someone.

You never know what will happen if you keep living.

The future has all kinds of encounters in store for you, too, Your Highness.

I wonder.

Oh, that reminds me. The chancellor of Ozmargo is awfully young.

He's just my type.

What?!

What? Is he already spoken for?

I... I don't think so, but I wouldn't recommend him.

Wouldn't.

Still, he's a Jackalian.

If we married, my Felidian blood would lose out,

so our children would be Jackalians, too.

Huh? You mean they wouldn't be half and half?

The Wonders of Beasts

That does happen sometimes,

but usually, children take after the parent with the stronger bloodline.

Really?

You don't even know that?

If you're going to be queen, you'll have to bear the king's children someday.

His Majesty's... Oh.

I guess you're right.

BLUUUSH

Don't start acting bashful now! You'll give me secondhand embarrassment!

I guess I'd never thought it through that far.

Doing my duty so I could stay with His Majesty was all I could think about.

But if...

if I could start a real family with him someday, then...

What sorts of challenges would we face?

His Majesty suffers because of his own mixed blood.

How does he feel about the legacy our relationship might leave?

Does he want that to happen?

What's the matter, sire?

Sariphi, I have something to tell you.

We should be safe from prying eyes here.

What do you want to tell me?

Before I speak, let me ask you something.

As king, I am duty bound to produce an heir one day.

Do you understand that?

Yes.

The true royal line of Ozmargo, the blood of the kings of beasts,

mingles with no other strain, passing unchanged to our children.

That is why we have continued to reign over this realm of many peoples.

But the blood in my veins is... different.

I am not confident that I can love a child born of my blood.

I was...

No, I don't recall my parents loving me, either.

By the time of my earliest memories, I had no mother and no siblings.

My father, the previous king, was my only relative,

and he was harsh with me.

Father!

Father, I've learned all the ancient beast runes!

All royals learn to be both warriors and scholars.

Do not boast of your every achievement!

And at times, my father imprisoned me in a small cell.

Father, let me out! Father!

Father!

In time, his motive made itself clear.

I mustn't let anyone see me in this form.

Father is protecting me.

He neither praised nor coddled me.

I felt sure he meant to raise me into a fine king.

I believed that love underpinned all his actions.

And then,

one day, my father fell ill.

My strict and mighty father was wasting away. He didn't have long.

Although saddened, I entertained a faint hope

that at the bitter end, even my hard-hearted father

would hold me tight and tell me that he loved me.

So, I have come... to the end.

Father!

I regret...

that I will leave you... when I die.

Fath—

How mortifying...

Oh, how mortifying it is to die and pass my throne to you!

How I loathe the filthy blood in your veins!

I have always despised you! Detested you! Hated you!

You are an accursed demon child, the greatest blot on my line!

One day, your blood will bring this realm to ru—

The king remained strong and proud in his last illness,

but even he wished to embrace his son at the end.

Or so the priests said, with tears in their eyes.

I learned later that my father's mind had begun ailing long before his body.

The priest who had been his chief physician claimed not to know why,

and the fact was buried, never revealed to the people.

Your Highness will catch a chill.

He loathed human blood so deeply that it drove him mad.

So why did he sire a child with a human?

Why did he never sire a pure-blooded beast?

I never considered those questions.

I merely cursed my own blood.

The thought of passing it to my heirs filled me with nothing but terror.

Forgive me, Sariphi,

for telling you of such unpleasant things.

No, don't apologize.

I still didn't understand.

His Majesty—Leo—doesn't just see his human side as weak or inferior.

To him, it truly is a curse.

Don't look so downhearted, Sariphi.

Today, another of my fears became a thing of the past.

What?

I couldn't choose the blood and status I was born with,

but I was able to choose you.

To me, your presence is the true blessing.

No matter what predicament my blood places my heirs in,

if they are the children of our union,

then I swear on my name, Leonhart, to defend them with all my body and soul.

"Children of our union"?

Then... that means...

When I have become a truly mighty king, as I once promised you I would,

I want you beside me as my queen.

Then,

one day, we shall consummate our union.

Yes!

I pray that someday this curse will become a sign of blessing.

Are you really leaving already?

Yes. Thank you for everything, Te—Your Highness.

"Tetra" is fine.

Come play with me again... Sari.

As her mother, allow me to extend the same invitation.

Please, always remain a friend to my daughter Tetra.

Calcara can play with us, too, once he grows up a little.

I can't wait.

Listen, Calcara. I'm your big sister.

You're the little brother. I'm the big sister.

B-Big... shishta.

He talked!

Talked! Talked!

Say it again, Calcara! Say it again!

I want to hear it again!

Everyone

is moving ahead,

step by step.

You only just completed your first duty at last.

Don't push yourself too hard. Rest.

R-Right. Thank you.

We managed to take a step forward, too, didn't we? A huge stride.

What is the world coming to?!

The king, of all people, slipping out for a tryst with a human wench?!

To top it off, they exchanged that unspeakable vow!

And now, the leader of her personal guard is to be... H-Hyenian?!

Next Episode

A Sympathy Call and a Hyena Guard Captain