Epilogue 2. Vacation

The empire was gradually improving.

Whether it was really because the power of protection had weakened causing various problems, things began to stabilize in many areas as soon as Madielle became emperor.

The occurrence rate of abnormal weather that had continued for several years noticeably decreased, and recently, the frequency of demonic beasts rampaging had been gradually reducing. Spontaneous floods and appearances had really diminished a lot.

‘The empire was truly in crisis.’

They say a frog slowly boiled in cold water doesn’t realize its death.

Even while heading toward catastrophe, they didn’t know the reality.

Constantine occasionally thought about ‘what ifs’.

What if Saena hadn’t been able to open the ruins.

What if she hadn’t been able to decipher the black diamond.

What if…

It wasn’t too difficult to work backwards from events that had already occurred and imagine how things might have turned out differently.

What if Saena hadn’t had the power of the Covenant.

What if Saena hadn’t been good at Arlesian.

What if she hadn’t properly interpreted the imperial family’s secret words.

As a result, what if Madielle hadn’t succeeded in inheriting Achelion.

There was no need to consider the details. Even a rough sketch showed the results would have been very different from now, and it was obvious they would have walked the path of decline.

And he would have lived day by day indifferently allowing it, wanting to see the end. Just like a slowly boiling frog.

Though he wouldn’t have abandoned his duties as lord of the Kramer domain, he wouldn’t have tried to change anything or stepped up to make any differences.

He had no reason or motivation to do so.

And above all else…

“Constantine? Did you come to meet me?”

What if,

He hadn’t met her.

Looking down at the woman who immediately broke into a bright smile upon seeing him, he felt his chest tighten somehow.

What if,

She hadn’t been by his side.

If she hadn’t loved him.

If they hadn’t married.

Erasing the unpleasant hypotheticals from his mind, he gazed at her with deep affection.

He seemed to have fallen into unnecessary contemplation while waiting for his wife’s return, who had become even busier than himself.

“You’re late.”

“It wasn’t easy to get away. Everyone was so enthusiastic…”

She trailed off, seemingly embarrassed by the repeated excuse.

Yes. Their enthusiasm was excessive. He really didn’t like it.

Saena had recently published a paper.

[On the New System of Arlesian Grammar Structure and the Correction of Errors in Existing Interpretation Systems]

She said it wasn’t something as grand as a paper, that she just passed along an organized compilation of the grammar system hoping it would help Arlesian scholars even a little, but the academic society went into an uproar over that compilation.

What started as debates among scholars about whether it was real or fake, whether it made sense or not, naturally turned into movements to find errors in the compilation. However, it didn’t take long for the debate to turn into astonishment. Soon the academic society was turned upside down.

In the process, Saena received earnest summons many, many times.

At first, Saena refused, saying she felt burdened about joining in among scholars.

But when a white-haired scholar who had brought his aged body almost knelt down while earnestly pleading, that became more burdensome so she agreed, and the academic society, having learned her weakness(?), began sending increasingly elderly and tired-looking(?) scholars whenever they made requests after that.

Requests to see the interpretation process in person, requests to explain the paper in lecture form, which expanded into requests to hold seminars, requests for interpreting Arlesian inscribed on excavated artifacts (which had been close to a headache as they couldn’t be interpreted at all until then).

Those requests were endless.

He learned for the first time that there were so many people making their living from an ancient language no longer in use, and that there were so many related organizations.

Saena had much of her time stolen away because of it.

“No more, Saya.”

Constantine had to endure for quite a while, suppressing his rising displeasure. But he couldn’t take it anymore. His face became resolute.

“…Mm. Yes, I’m sorry.”

“Is it really over now?”

“Yes. I’m going to say it’s difficult even if requests come now…”

But Saena seemed uncertain even as she spoke.

Looking at his soft-hearted wife, Constantine laughed softly.

“They won’t come anymore.”

“Really? Well, there have been a lot until now.”

She laughed along seeing his smile.

She wouldn’t know, laughing harmlessly along.

That he planned to make it so that even if requests came, they wouldn’t reach her.

Whatever requests arrived would be replied to with polite rejection letters without being delivered to Saena, and whoever came with requests would first meet Constantine from now on. And they would quietly return following his persuasion(?).

“Now you must allow all your time to me.”

Constantine wrapped an arm around her shoulders and led her along.

“You haven’t forgotten our promise from before?”

‘When all this is over… let’s spend a long time just the two of us.’

They had promised this during the period when they were troubled by the former prince and Elizabeth.

“Ah, of course. But that…”

Saena had naturally been looking forward to their vacation together too.

But catching the prince wasn’t the end of it.

The aftermath subtly consumed time, and with Madielle’s coronation and the beginning of the new emperor’s reign, legal and administrative issues ate up an enormous amount of time.

Things were busy because of Saena too. Constantine had to meet very frequently with the emperor and other dukes to coordinate various matters—ensuring she could receive maximum benefits without burdening her as the empire’s new Oathkeeper, and preventing complaints about one family having two Oathkeepers.

While Constantine was running around here and there, she had been relatively free and had finished organizing the compilation to submit to the academic society.

But this caused unexpectedly massive ripples, which in turn made Saena keep Constantine waiting.

“Don’t make excuses. I’ll extract payment in full for neglecting me all this time.”

Saena felt somewhat wronged but stopped trying to explain. After all, she too had been dissatisfied with having little time to spend with Constantine due to her unintentional busyness.

“But… where are we going?”

She didn’t understand the direction Constantine was leading her. She naturally thought they would head to the bedroom, but he was leading her outside the building rather than inside.

“To a place where we can be alone.”

At the portico where she had gotten off the carriage,

The family carriage she had arrived in had disappeared and a different carriage was waiting.

Unlike the previous one, this carriage had no family crest. It was the kind used when one didn’t want to advertise which family the passengers belonged to.

“Right now? Not tomorrow morning?”

But the sun would set soon?

Though she didn’t know where they were going, Saena asked somewhat puzzled.

“Don’t worry. I’ve already taken care of all preparations.”

As if telling her to hurry up and get in, Saena was practically pushed into the carriage and as soon as she sat down inside, Constantine followed and sat down.

When the door closed and he knocked on the carriage wall twice, it immediately started moving. Everything happened quickly.

* * *

“Wow.”

Saena’s eyes grew round as she was looking at something unbelievable.

No, it would be more accurate to say they had stayed wide since earlier.

Wow, woah. The exclamations kept coming.

Finding it both amusing and adorable, Constantine chuckled.

“Is it that amazing?”

“Of course. This place is… really…”

Saena couldn’t stop looking around at her surroundings.

The carriage that left the Kramer townhouse dropped them off at the entrance to the imperial palace, and Constantine entered the building with the warp gate and opened it.

Rather than opening just one door, he began infusing power evenly into all the door frames.

It was the same method as when they went to that neutral territory before, the ‘Forgotten Land’.

He said they were going on vacation but they were heading to the Forgotten Land without carriage, luggage, maids or attendants?

Though puzzled, Saena followed Constantine without complaint.

Constantine was someone who took care of her body more preciously than she did herself. She figured he must have planned the schedule well.

And as soon as they entered the Forgotten Land—

“Wow, woah…”

Saena continued walking around with her mouth open shamelessly.

When they came here before, they had only stayed inside the ruins with the round table and stone chairs before returning. But it seemed quite a large area outside those ruins was also part of this ‘Forgotten Land’.

They could tell because even after riding Morev for quite a while, the uninhabited land continued.

“Why are there no people here?”

“Because it’s the Forgotten Land.”

“But it must exist somewhere on a map, right? Then surely people would live nearby…?”

Despite its vastness, the empire didn’t have a very high proportion of unusable land within its territory.