Though Hael’s summer was cooler than Florin’s, the midday sun was still aggressively hot. Despite scheduling the victory ceremony for when the sun would be setting in the west to avoid the noon heat for spectators, sweat ran down Divlik’s back from the very beginning.

“It’s hotter than I expected.”

“Is it, Your Majesty? I feel a bit better, perhaps because I’m on horseback.”

From the castle where Divlik’s procession began, through the fields where peach trees had now firmly taken root, all the way to downtown Hael—every space was packed with people without room to step. The ground had no chance to cool with people gathering since early morning, and the heat emanating from the crowds made Divlik feel as though he were in a steam bath throughout the procession.

“If I had known it would be like this, I should have requested more security forces from each territory.”

Riding his horse slightly behind Divlik, Finn spoke with unusual excitement.

“What about the ice we prepared?”

“We’ve already distributed it all and are sourcing more. The Veilen Empire is proving quite helpful in times like these.”

The heat was bearable. They had placed ice in the carriage carrying Eva, and distributing it with food to spectators reduced the risk of people collapsing from the heat.

But Divlik’s appearance was problematic.

As befitting a victory ceremony, he wore his armor from the war, meticulously cleaned—which caused him to sweat profusely from head to toe. While this appearance was appropriate for standing on the platform as an Emperor who had returned victorious from all wars, it hardly seemed presentable for proposing to the woman he loved.

Another issue was that the flower path he had carefully prepared would likely be hidden by the crowds. Though he had anticipated more people than at the imperial coronation, all he could see were bustling crowds in every direction.

“Your Majesty, people are even crowded on the rooftops. Please wave to them.”

Though the situation wasn’t proceeding as he had envisioned, the atmosphere was perfect thanks to his abundant preparations. The buildings, thoroughly cleaned with brushes down to their walls and adorned with ribbons tied to the edges of their roofs, looked like gift boxes filled with people’s joy.

Rather than the artificially created flower path meant to evoke memories of Florin, Eva would likely be more touched by the smiles of these people, freely cheering and rejoicing in the peace Divlik had secured for them.

With this thought, Divlik properly responded to the cheers that erupted as he passed through the triumphal arch, built so large and tall it could be seen even from the castle in the central square. He raised high the sword that had pierced Joseph’s body, sharing the joy of victory with everyone.

“So many people have come.”

After stopping in front of the specially prepared platform amid the people’s cheers, Divlik dismounted and immediately approached the carriage. He opened the door himself and naturally extended his hand toward Eva. As expected, Eva took his hand, stepped down from the carriage, and smiled with shared joy.

Though her speech maintained the formal tone of an Empress, her smile—with corners of her lips fully raised—was identical to the smile of that time when she believed her entire future would be strewn with flower paths.

“Shall we ascend the platform, Empress?”

“Isn’t that title premature, Your Majesty?”

Facing that smile, he felt both joy and a stinging pain in one corner of his heart.

He should have protected that smile, never allowing it to disappear from her face. That’s why he had become a knight, yet in the end, he had failed—an overwhelming sadness threatened to wash over him when…

“You should smile, Your Majesty.”

Eva squeezed Divlik’s hand firmly and once again gave him a bright, full smile.

“Everyone is so happy.”

Eva conveyed her feelings as if speaking for all those present—how happy and grateful they were to be freed not only from Fabian’s tyranny but also from the potential threat of the Veilen Empire.

Happy and grateful. Finally at ease. Able to smile continuously without worries, just like in those carefree times.

Though Divlik felt his desire for Eva, accumulated during days spent decorating the streets instead of visiting her bedroom, might explode at any moment, he controlled himself well.

“Let’s ascend the platform, Empress.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

After announcing to everyone today that Eva would become the new Empress and successfully completing the proposal, Divlik planned to move her quarters to the Empress’s bedroom in advance. Thinking they would have plenty of time to embrace each other without regrets as they grew closer, Divlik led Eva by the hand onto the platform.

He declared victory, introduced Eden, and then boldly announced among the people that Eva would forever remain in history as this empire’s Empress.

* * *

So was Divlik’s proposal that day successful? It was not.

After declaring victory and announcing how he would govern the continent, followed by restoring Eva and Eden to their rightful places, Divlik watched for his opportunity amid the cheering crowds.

“Waaaaaah!!!”

“Long live His Majesty the Emperor!”

“Hurrah!!”

Divlik intended to kneel before Eva. For this moment, he had prepared an extraordinarily large and brilliant diamond ring that he would never have considered in the past.

“If you kneel here, I won’t marry you.”

But somehow Eva knew his intentions and grabbed Divlik’s arm as he was about to kneel, speaking with barely moving lips. She told him not to kneel so easily.

“Eva……”

“I’m not just saying this, Leon. To think you would kneel before me in front of people. Don’t do such a thing.”

Eva continued waving with a smiling face to the people below the platform who were expressing their intense joy, but somehow her eyes looked distant, as if she might cry.

From that look, Divlik understood that Eva wasn’t rejecting him. Though she had pretended not to notice, she had also been thinking a lot about marriage.

He gradually came to understand why Eva had rejected the proposal itself at that moment.

First, Eva wanted Divlik to be a complete Emperor whom no one could easily face. While no one would likely look down on the continent’s Emperor, she didn’t want him to show even the slightest imperfection.

Divlik couldn’t understand why proposing to the woman he loved would make him seem less imperial. He came to understand Eva’s feelings on the journey they took together.

“Your Majesty the Emperor! We are truly moved that you have visited our territory again!”

Marquis Elton and the people of Misihen, who came out to greet Divlik with cherry jam upon hearing of his visit, looked up to him as someone entirely different from themselves, unlike before. From the admiration in their eyes, Divlik could understand what kind of Emperor Eva wanted him to be.

Rather than an approachable Emperor who could kneel before a woman when in love, she wanted an Emperor who would give people absolute confidence that their newly regained peaceful daily lives would never crumble again.

Still, he had worried that while his authority might be maintained this way, what would happen to Eva’s? Fortunately, rumors that had leaked from the castle played a significant role.

—There have been rumors for a while, you know. That Emperor Fabian forcibly brought the Empress to the castle.

—That’s right. There was also talk that he killed the baby the Empress had conceived before.

Rumors circulating in Hael spread to other territories with visitors. Though no one knew the exact truth, Eden’s appearance added certainty to these rumors. No one could deny that Eden, who looked exactly like Divlik, was his son.

“Will this really be alright?”

Though events hadn’t unfolded as Divlik had planned, no one objected to his decision to make Eva Empress again or to establish Eden as Crown Prince.

And the proposal for Eva proceeded as planned. On the way back to the castle after the victory ceremony, Eva boarded the same carriage as Divlik, who had removed his armor and was catching his breath, and said:

—And I want to receive that proposal in Florin.

She asked him to propose beside the daisies that would be blooming modestly along Florin’s roadside, on that flower path where no one would see them. Divlik tried to convince her that the path she remembered likely no longer existed and it would be better not to see it, but Eva insisted.

She felt that only then could she live the rest of her life smiling comfortably by his side, as if nothing had ever happened.

That’s why they had embarked on this journey. The destination was Florin. All of them together—Divlik, Eva, Eden, Finn, and Charlotte.

Letters announcing visits flooded in from across the continent, but they postponed them. Divlik too enjoyed this peace. There were no longer any threats that could arise from him leaving the castle with Finn.

Extra Chapter 6

The carriage stopped in front of the general store that Charlotte had reportedly established after leaving Hael.

“Zoe!”

“Charlotte! Why did you take so long to visit? Do you have any idea how hard it’s been running this shop alone?”

“You’ve worked hard!”

“Of course. Someone had to take care of what was entrusted to us.”

Zoe, who had spotted Charlotte first and greeted her joyfully, later noticed Eva and welcomed her with tears streaming down her face. She also burst into hearty laughter upon seeing Eden, commenting that he looked exactly like Leon.

“By the way, Charlotte, who is this handsome knight standing beside you?”

“My fiancé!”

“Fiancé?”

“Yes! Zoe, I’m getting married!”

The two women screamed “Kyaa!” and clasped hands. Finn smiled alongside them, but there was a subtle shadow across his smiling face.

“Finn?”

“Ah, it’s nothing, Your Majesty. Being back in my hometown after so long…… it makes me think of my family……”

Finn wasn’t the only one whose expression had darkened upon arriving here.

“Anyway, I’m truly delighted to see you again! Eva…… no, Your Majesty the Empress. I heard rumors circulating in the marketplace, and seeing the Crown Prince confirms those rumors were true.”

Eva could hardly smile even in front of Zoe, whom she hadn’t seen for a long time. Unlike Divlik, who had grown increasingly tense as they approached their destination, Eva had shown no particular change—until they entered Floropel. From that moment, she turned pale, seemingly unable to properly hear what people were saying.

Though she had heard about it, facing the ruined Florin with her own eyes apparently required considerable courage.

“Are you really going to be alright? Should we turn back even now?”

But Eva refused to retreat.

“No. It took days to get here, what are you saying?”

She managed a slight smile at Divlik’s concern before turning to Charlotte.

“Charlotte, please look after Eden.”

“Aren’t we all going together?”

“No. We’ll go, just the two of us.”

Yet her fingertips trembled visibly as she gently pushed Eden forward. Her insistence on going alone with Divlik seemed born from a desire to hide any potential breakdown from others.

After entrusting Eden to Charlotte and promising to return soon, Eva rode with Divlik toward Florin. The conflict between her reluctance to go and her determination to visit caused her to gradually increase her riding speed. When they reached the small hill that marked Florin’s entrance, she even surged ahead of Divlik.

“Slow down!”

Divlik couldn’t hide his anxiety, fearing she might reach Florin first, faint at the sight of the ruins, and fall from her horse.

Whether from anxiety or from riding so hastily, Divlik’s heart pounded furiously as he pushed through the trees and entered Florin’s entrance—where he couldn’t help but be somewhat surprised.

“When did this……”

Florin’s atmosphere differed from both his memories and its final appearance when he left for revenge.

The houses that should have been there remained gone, and the peach trees that once welcomed visitors at the entrance were missing, but where the boundaries between roads and fields had disappeared, flowers of every color bloomed, releasing fragrant scents with each breeze.

As he later learned, after meeting Charlotte, Zoe had gathered Florin’s survivors and diligently scattered flower seeds throughout the area, reminiscing about its former appearance.

“Look at this. It’s just the same.”

Standing behind Eva, Divlik could only see her back, but he knew she was crying. Despite the landscape differing from her memories and the absence of the people who had always looked at her with warm eyes, she was moved to tears by the fact that at least the flowers remained the same as before.

Eva jumped down from her horse and walked toward Divlik, who was still mounted. Though Eva herself had changed significantly from the image in his memory, her careful steps—taken to avoid crushing even the smallest flower—and her eyes filled only with him, with hints of gold gradually emerging from her violet eyes, transported Divlik back in time.

—Leon!!

Divlik recalled the first time he had faced Eva after returning here upon completing his knight training. He remembered Eva’s tears that had conveyed how much she had missed him during those three years. Both then and now, Eva was everything to him—his breath, his only love.

Just as he had then, Divlik leaped from his horse before it had fully stopped and embraced Eva as she ran toward him. Though he had often felt this way, at this moment especially, Divlik felt as if he had truly returned to that time, his heart ready to burst.

Wanting to hold Eva tightly in his arms and cry his heart out, Divlik instead knelt before her.

“Eva. Will you marry me?”

He then pulled out the ring he had prepared in advance and held it out to her. Though he already knew she wouldn’t refuse, his heart pounded so heavily that he could almost hear its beating in his ears.

“Of course I will, why even ask such an obvious question!”

Eva shouted loudly, as if to dispel Divlik’s fears, and carefully accepted the ring. She smiled more beautifully than the flowers blooming abundantly around them.

Though the outcome was expected, that smile left a deep resonance in Divlik’s heart. The conviction that they would never part again etched itself into the depths of his soul, and he didn’t even realize his vision had blurred with tears.

Among the flower petals dancing in the wind, Divlik seemed to hear:

‘You’re being dramatic!’

Christine was waving her hands, saying she couldn’t bear to watch.

‘When did our Eva grow up so much……’

Countess Clu was crying with regret, and Marchioness Cloud comforted her with a smile.

‘Don’t you think I’ve raised my son well, Count?’

And the voice of his other father, Butler Kate, proud of how well Divlik had grown.

* * *

Afterward, during the wedding preparations back in Hael, Charlotte cried every day.

“How happy the Marquis and Marchioness would have been to see this.”

When Eva tried on the dress Andre had brought for fitting, Charlotte would smile at how beautiful she looked, then cry. When selecting dishes, she would again comment on their beauty, then cry.

“Why do you keep crying when we’re preparing for such a happy occasion? Did you perhaps want your wedding to be first?”

“Sir Finn too…… That’s not it! If you become happy, Lady Eva, I can’t be happy either!”

Today, even Finn had something to say as he passed by and saw Charlotte crying while discussing new furniture for the garden. Though Charlotte’s swollen eyes from crying were pitiful, thanks to her, Eva could refrain from crying herself.

She had promised her parents that she would never cry from sadness again.

—Of course I will, why even ask such an obvious question!

We took such a long detour for what should have been the most natural path. With mixed emotions, Eva looked at the ring Divlik had placed on her finger, cried, and then visited her parents’ graves, which had reportedly been created by the survivors.

—I’m here.

Fortunately, they hadn’t destroyed the graves of a family with no living members. The Marquis and his wife rested on a sunny slope in the mountains overlooking Florin, as befitted those who had inherited the Cloud name.

Though people might have harbored resentment…

Though they might have directed their arrows of blame toward the Marquis and his wife for Florin’s downfall because of Eva, people had not only collected the bodies and properly laid the Marquis and Marchioness to rest here, but several fresh bouquets of flowers had been placed nearby, suggesting occasional visitors.

Grateful for this, Eva cried, then cried purely from missing her parents, before finally wiping away her tears resolutely and making a vow.

She would never cry again.

This didn’t mean she would hide her tears by forcibly concealing her emotions when happy or sad. Rather, she would not show tears from guilt over what had happened or regret over the irreversible past.

Instead, like her parents who had cherished the territory’s people while at Divlik’s side, she would embrace this country’s people one by one with a smile. She promised that when she was eventually buried here, she would live as a daughter her parents could be proud of when they saw people visiting her.

“It’s true, Lady Eva! I absolutely believed you should have your wedding first!”

“I know, Charlotte.”

Eva smiled gently at Charlotte, who was shouting as if wronged. Despite her resolution, thoughts of her parents threatened to bring tears to her eyes at every moment, but she could endure thanks to Charlotte sincerely crying in her place.

“But Charlotte, that’s a very dangerous thing to say.”

“What? What is?”

While stroking Eden’s head as he drew pictures, seemingly confused about why Charlotte kept crying, Eva said with a smiling face:

“You must find happiness even if I don’t. What if I were to catch some terrible disease and die?”

“How can you say such things!”

“I’m saying that even if something like that happened, you must be happy.”

You’re no longer Charlotte who must stay by my side forever. Even if something happens to me, you must find happiness with Finn, independent of my fate.

“Mother…… die?”

Eva had intended to convey this message, but Eden, who had been quietly drawing, suddenly looked up at her with a tearful voice.

“Why? Is it because I don’t listen well?”

“What?”

“I’ll listen well to my lessons. I won’t pick out the peas at mealtime and will chew them thoroughly. And…… and um……”

Tears poured from Eden’s eyes. Seeing this, Eva found him both pitiful and unbearably cute. She burst into loud laughter, ruffled Eden’s hair, and smiled brightly.

“Mommy will absolutely not die. Even if I get sick later, wouldn’t I recover quickly with such a good son?”

“Really?”

Simple as children are, Eden quickly wiped away his tears and happily shouted that he would definitely attend his lessons well and not be picky about food.

After some time passed with Charlotte crying and Eden laughing—a seemingly ordinary yet extraordinary daily life—the wedding day approached.

* * *

In late summer, when the heat was moderate, clouds dotted the sky, and occasional breezes cooled the air, Divlik and Eva’s wedding was held in front of the castle gates. Even more people than at the victory ceremony gathered near the hill to celebrate the couple’s marriage.

“Come now. Since you’ve secured good spots, please remain quiet.”

Finn tried repeatedly to quiet the crowd before the formal ceremony began, but it was futile. When Divlik first appeared from inside the castle gates, voices erupted from everywhere.

“Congratulations, Your Majesty the Emperor!”

“You look so handsome!”

Divlik wore a white uniform to match Eva’s dress, looking so suitable that it was hard to believe he had ever been called a beast.

The people who had been shouting compliments and congratulations fell silent when Eva emerged through the castle gates in her white dress. With a white orange blossom crown instead of a veil, Eva radiated light as if sunshine itself had descended.

“Your Majesty, you should take the hand of your soon-to-be Empress.”

Divlik, too, had forgotten even to breathe at Eva’s appearance. He should have taken her hand and walked to the platform where the priest waited, but only after Finn whispered at his side did he extend his hand to Eva.

Divlik firmly grasped Eva’s hand as she took his without hesitation, and they moved several steps toward the platform. The high priest delivered predictably standard but remarkably lengthy advice about how they had become one before God and should cherish each other and live well.

Throughout this, Divlik never took his eyes off Eva. Holding both her hands, he felt unbelievably happy as Eva’s sparkling eyes looked back at him, making him fear this might all be a dream.

“The couple will conclude the ceremony with a kiss. Please kiss.”

As they turned to face each other, Eva’s eyes also reddened.

“Are you crying on such a wonderful day?”

“I love you. I love you, Leon.”

She seemed unable to hold back her tears now that what she had thought forever lost had become reality. Divlik smiled gently at Eva’s confession, then raised his hand to wipe away her tears before kissing her.

Never again…… never again will I make you cry.

With this life-staking pledge, Divlik continued to hold Eva and maintain their deep, intense kiss until applause erupted and continued to erupt.