Jens answered with his smile intact, “I’m going because I received orders.”

“Do you take me for a fool?”

“Not a fool, but a child. I bet you don’t even know what coffee tastes like.”

“Really…”

Irritated, Aira gulped down her coffee. The hot sensation traveled down her throat.

“Neither the Republic’s government nor military would send someone like you to such a dangerous post unless they’d gone mad. Even a child knows that.”

“Someone like me?”

The smile that had lingered on Jens’s face slightly faded. Aira found this expression more familiar.

“Must I recite your achievements to you now?”

“Am I made of achievements alone?”

At his muttered words, Aira frowned.

“What kind of adolescent question is that? What else does a soldier need to be?”

“Then I don’t want to be a soldier.”

Cutting her off, Jens picked up the milk cup he had pulled toward himself earlier.

Jens and milk. It was truly an incongruous combination. As incongruous as Jens being anything but a soldier.

Perhaps noticing her gaze, Jens offered the untouched milk cup to Aira. She accepted it reflexively and, finding it difficult to set it back down, quickly drank it.

But… she could barely distinguish it from the coffee she’d had earlier. There was only the sensation of liquid flowing down, with no taste registering at all.

In truth, it wouldn’t have mattered whether she received coffee or milk. Perhaps drinking milk would have been better for her height.

After pushing both ordered drinks toward Aira, Jens shrugged his shoulders.

“Princess.”

“Yes.”

“You shouldn’t answer to that. I’m the one who received your renunciation of title.”

Aira froze, having responded instinctively. Jens smiled gently at her reaction.

“I understand. After living that way for sixteen years, it must be difficult to change your demeanor.”

No, that’s not it.

She wasn’t accustomed to the princess’s attitude. She was accustomed to his voice calling her.

“But you abandoned all that and chose a new path. Whatever your reasons, you left your path behind.”

Jens’s voice was low and calm.

“Yet after choosing this new path, it hurts a little when you speak to me that way.”

“What way?”

“Assuming I should remain fixed on the tracks.”

Aira blinked. She didn’t quite grasp what he meant. It sounded like…

Like he had changed because of who she was now. Abandoning his guaranteed path to seek what he wanted.

Her throat suddenly tightened. After watching her for a moment, Jens called the vendor and ordered a newspaper and coffee. Aira stared out the window for a long while. The scenery was unfamiliar.

Unlike the Empire’s buildings, which were mostly made of stone, the Republic had many wooden and brick houses, perhaps due to its mountainous terrain.

“How’s your first train ride? Interesting?”

“…The Empire has airships.”

“Ah, right.”

“By the way.”

Aira pushed down the thoughts rising to her throat and asked:

“What was that in your letter?”

“Hm?”

“Admiral Nüer. The airship.”

“Ah.”

Jens wore an apologetic expression.

“I fear I may have caused you unnecessary trouble. I wrote that not thinking we could meet like this. I’m sorry.”

“If you knew, please tell me directly instead of using such puzzling words. I’m sorry, but I don’t think I fully understood your meaning due to my limited knowledge.”

“Your cute reply suggested you understood perfectly.”

When Jens fluttered his hands like a bird, Aira’s face turned red again.

She had written that she noticed 3713 referred to an airship, adding that she wished she could fly like a bird to the training grounds since they were so far. She had felt embarrassed writing what seemed like a complaint, but he had picked up on it precisely.

“What? Are you really okay with that distance? Isn’t it annoying to go to the training grounds every time?”

Jens asked with a serious expression. Hearing the specific term “training grounds” made Jens, who had seemed like a distant figure from across the sea, feel much closer.

Come to think of it, she had become his junior. It was a strange feeling. That they now lived in the same world.

Suddenly, the train they were sitting in together felt like it was heading toward some strange world. Like it might run forever…

Trying to shake off that feeling, Aira continued:

“Those names written on the gear…”

“Shh.”

Jens placed a finger over his lips.

“Keep it to yourself. I can help with most things, but when I’m not on land, it’s difficult to act quickly. If you ever face trouble, you can seek them out. At the very least, they won’t turn you away for being from the Empire.”

Aira pondered his words.

Airships were the Empire’s exclusive domain and represented the Republic’s failure and shame.

After the descendant of Admiral Nüer died in a demonstration airship crash, airships became a taboo subject in the Republic.

Yet he deliberately chose the airship as a symbol, with names secretly hidden.

Clearly, these were names of people with mysterious connections to Jens. Perhaps even dangerously so.

Aira hesitated at her next thought.

This… seemed to hint at an organization opposing the Republic.

Could Jens be connected to such an organization? The admiral who had been so loyal to the Republic?

“Why would you share something so important…”

“What, didn’t you find the treasure hunt fun?”

Jens playfully responded to Aira’s serious mutter.

Then, seemingly unwilling to discuss the topic further, he opened his newspaper. Aira sighed and stretched her back.

The old Jens had been easier to understand. Now he had so many hidden agendas.

Her eyes suddenly caught the newspaper Jens was holding.

[Luten Aigis, Leader of the Archipelago, Lowers Tariff Rates with the Republic.]

The moment she saw Luten’s name, her stomach tightened. But the content caught her attention even more.

‘Lowering tariffs?’

Though the Empire and the Republic despised each other, they needed each other’s resources due to geographical and climatic factors.

Particularly, black gold, the source of the Republic’s power, was more abundant in the Empire than in the Republic’s northwestern continent.

Conversely, magic stones, the foundation of the Empire’s power, ironically came in greater quantity and quality from the Republic, where magic didn’t exist at all.

Long ago, black gold and magic stones secretly moved between the two continents through smuggling, but now the Archipelago had taken over that role.

The Archipelago, which emerged and declared neutrality a century ago, amassed tremendous wealth through intermediary trade between the Empire and the Republic. Naturally, neither the Empire nor the Republic viewed the Archipelago favorably.

Consequently, both powers instigated internal conflicts within the Archipelago, which gradually deteriorated through civil war and conspiracies.

Luten Aigis was the one who ended this. He united the fragmented Archipelago through understanding, tolerance, persuasion, and consensus. Or so it appeared.

Rustle.

Jens folded the newspaper Aira was staring at blankly and offered it to her.

“Want to read it?”

“Thank you.”

Aira took the newspaper with trembling hands. Trying not to show her reaction, she opened the article about Luten.

The main point was that the Archipelago intended to elevate its relationship with the Republic to a new level.

‘Could it be.’

Like the Empire, mages were occasionally born in the Archipelago. But unlike the Empire, which strictly maintained magical bloodlines through marriages between mages and adoption into the imperial family when magic manifested, the Archipelago lacked a proper system.

The Archipelago’s mages interacted normally with humans, fell in love, married, and had mixed-blood children. Thus, the Archipelago’s magic gradually diluted.

However, problems arose as foreign invasions and power struggles within the Archipelago intensified.

The five ruling families of the Archipelago realized the advantages of magic.

So, despite the extremely low probability, they tried to strengthen bloodlines by arranging marriages between mixed-blood children born with magic power.

The result of these efforts was Luten, born in Brenschloph.

His birth was a near-miraculous probability.

Luten used his innate magical powers more efficiently than anyone else. Of course, his success wasn’t due to magic alone but also his exceptional political skills.

But contrary to his outward appearance as a virtuous ruler, no one knew how secretly he eliminated political opponents with magic and exploited it in various ways.

And in the past, the 17th princess of the Empire, a direct daughter of the Emperor with pure magical bloodlines, had walked right into the Archipelago’s embrace.

Filled with the foolish hope that a happy world awaited her outside her shell.

Thanks to this, the Archipelago no longer needed to force various mixed-blood women into the king’s bedroom until a proper magical heir was born.

Because livestock for breeding had rolled in voluntarily.

‘Is he abandoning magic to forge an alliance with the Republic? Without me in this life, the possibility of producing offspring with magic power is very low.’

Aira sank into deep thought while holding the newspaper.

“…Princess!”

“Yes?”

Only when she heard Jens calling did Aira snap out of her thoughts and look up. Jens wore an incredulous expression.

“What were you thinking so deeply about? You didn’t react when called a cadet, but you respond to princess.”

“Ah…”

Aira looked at him with fresh eyes. The butterfly effect might be more powerful than one would think. Just because a useless imperial princess came to the Republic instead of the Archipelago, everything from the Archipelago’s intermediary trade to the future of a great soldier had changed.

But she still didn’t understand. Because I kicked away my fate of my own will, you also kicked away yours?

“Shall we eat? It’s a bit early, but…”

“Ah, yes.”

Leaving Aira still lost in thought, Jens rang the call bell. But before an attendant could arrive, someone stood blocking the open door of the first-class compartment.

“It’s been a while, Lord Jens.”

The large shadow of a woman in a dress fell across the doorway. Aira’s eyes widened. Jens replied in an unwelcoming voice without even standing up.

“It hasn’t been that long, Ms. Schedel.”

The woman gritted her teeth.