Chapter 36
Chapter 36
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>Translator: Lord First
>Chapter: 36
>Chapter Title: A Night of Counting Stars
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*
When Ivan arrived at the Counter-Espionage Command, everyone from the guards to the agents at the desk stood at his arrival.
"My God, it's really him."
"Little Ivan..."
Small whispers filled the Command's interior. As Ivan walked, they fell silent behind him, and those in front stood stiffly, bowing their heads in silent acknowledgment.
An agent who happened to meet his gaze quickly raised a hand in salute and approached him.
"I-It's an honor to meet you, Lieutenant Colonel Petrovich!"
"Do you know me?"
"I do."
The young man, meeting Ivan's gaze, shivered slightly before speaking hastily.
"I'm from the generation that learned from the manual you wrote, sir!"
"Ah, that."
Ivan nodded. He remembered writing something like that.
It chronicled his experiences infiltrating demon territories and assassinating key figures in the field... a sort of diary.
And as is often the case with diaries, it becomes incredibly embarrassing when someone who has read it appears. Ivan turned his head away, his expression impassive.
"Are you here to see Lieutenant Colonel Cherkatov?"
"Mm. Tell him I have a matter to report directly to Lord Chamberlain Kirillovna."
"...I will escort you to the East Palace. This way."
Ivan gave a short nod and followed the nameless agent. A suffocating silence pressed down on them.
A direct report to Her Highness the Princess? Just how important could this be?
The agents, each stiff with tension, bowed their heads to Ivan from behind before returning to their posts. They had a premonition that things were about to get busy.
They didn't know what was about to happen, but if 'Little' Ivan was having a direct audience with the princess, the repercussions were sure to reach them.
*
The Krasilov East Palace was a massive marble structure built solely for the princess.
Due to the princess's personality, it tended to favor extreme practicality over palatial dignity, but its sheer size and symbolism alone left a powerful impression.
Ivan disembarked in front of the large main gate, which was adorned with reliefs. The agent driving the carriage saluted wordlessly and disappeared down the street.
Being in front of the palace, it wouldn't be strange if someone was watching. But Ivan paid it no mind.
"Dmitry."
"Oh, Senior!"
Dmitry looked as if he had rushed out the moment he received the report, still looking half-asleep. He swept his hair back and smiled affably.
"Let's go right away! Her Excellency is already waiting."
"She knew I was coming?"
"Of course! She hasn't retired to her chambers tonight!"
Dmitry chuckled, imagining Elizaveta pacing anxiously.
If the mission had been a success, the airship would have disappeared from the skies above Pritzhenkaya.
And if it had failed, news of Ivan's death would have arrived.
Either way, it was a situation that made sleep difficult. Anticipating Elizaveta's anxiety, Dmitry had also been working with his eyes wide open.
"Her Excellency is in the rear garden. Let's go!"
The East Palace's rear garden opened up toward the main castle road leading to Yansk University. This meant that if you sat in the garden and looked up, you could see the airship.
She was the kind of woman who would sit there, watching the sky, waiting for confirmation of the mission's success or failure. That meticulous woman, yet at the same time, that deeply affectionate woman.
Dmitry walked ahead, smiling faintly.
-Our meeting should be a reunion at a more fitting time, in a more fitting place.
In the end, it turned out to be a less-than-romantic meeting. He chuckled, recalling Elizaveta's words.
*
Ivan walked toward the rear garden, lost in thought, recalling his last memory of Elizaveta.
-I'm sorry. I'm so sorry... Vanka. Truly, truly sorry.
On that dreary, rainy day, she had stood there, on the verge of tears. Such a small woman. He suddenly wondered how a woman like her could have been born from the bloodline of that robust former king.
-You... of all people, you had the right to resent me, to resent this country. You earned that right. Even if you had run away, I would not have blamed you.
What had he said in reply to the princess sobbing in the rain?
Ivan remembered it instantly.
-Do you happen to have any roses?
-...What?
-Cherenovika liked roses.
That place was a funeral hall and, at the same time, a burial ground.
One with no headstones and no mourners.
It was a funeral hall for the agents' final moments, a place where no one else mourned. A place for those who were meant to be forgotten.
Until the building known as the Counter-Espionage Command was later built, it was just a desolate, empty lot in a corner of Pritzhenkaya that had been ruined by the war.
In a place with not even a single eave to block the falling rain, Elizaveta, drenched in the cold winter downpour, asked with a haggard face.
-Do you remember what the others liked, too?
-Yes. Every one of them, everything.
-Tell me. I will remember.
Those words were enough. Ivan quietly began to speak. When he had finished, Elizaveta whispered softly.
-Roses, chocolate cake, musk perfume, silk handkerchiefs....
Mumbling the names of the departed agents and the things they had loved, Elizaveta whispered them over and over.
As the rain began to subside, she looked up at him with tear-filled eyes and reached out her hand.
It was cold. Her chilled fingertips trembled slightly, perhaps from the cold.
Ivan stood motionless, feeling Elizaveta's slender hand caress his cheek.
-Vanka. Please, live quietly. Stay out of sight. So that this country can forget you.
Ivan was a specialized agent trained in lip-reading, so he could even decipher the words Elizaveta mumbled without speaking aloud.
So that only I can remember you.
Because no one else in this country deserves to.
-But don't go ruining your face. Hmm... yes. How about growing a beard?
-A beard... you say?
-Yes, like my grandfather. I think it would suit you.
Ivan, recalling the face of the great former king, gave a small nod. It had been a magnificent beard. Stern and manly.
After that, Ivan stood in the rain a little longer before turning and leaving.
That was the last time he saw the princess. Four years had passed since then.
Thanks to the princess's help, many had forgotten him.
Fortunately, because he had once been a high-ranking officer in the Royal Guard, his name remained in the national cemetery.
*
Past the entrance to the rear garden, a vast flower garden appeared.
Flowers, meticulously cared for with magic, were in full bloom under the night sky.
Ivan paused for a moment.
Roses, lilies, freesias... to some, the sight of these and other flowers blooming together without distinction might have looked like nothing more than a haphazardly planted, unplanned flowerbed.
But Ivan knew. This was a memorial park for those who had fallen in the last war.
She must have somehow found out the favorite flowers of the deceased and planted them here. So they could bloom all year round.
So that she would never forget.
"Your Excellency, Dmitry Cherkatov announces his presence."
"Approach."
A cold voice rang out. Beyond the flower garden, a long outdoor table was visible.
The table, glowing white in the moonlight, was set with simple refreshments.
Beyond it, a small woman could be seen shuffling through a pile of documents.
"Vanka. It has been a long time."
The woman, her silver hair neatly arranged and fastened with a bright blue pin, was not wearing the inorganic uniform he remembered her in. She wore a royal dress.
Dressed in blue, the woman looked up at him.
As Ivan was choosing his words, her eyes widened in shock.
"My... goodness...."
Ivan, being a trained agent, could deduce the rest of her swallowed words through lip-reading.
What on earth have I done....
Her gaze was fixed on Ivan's chin.
*
Some time passed before Elizaveta recovered from her shock.
She struggled to avoid looking directly at Ivan's face, clearing her throat several times.
By the time Ivan finished his report, she had shed her bewilderment and returned to her cold expression.
"So, Veolgrin appeared in person and said that."
"Yes, Your Highness."
"Hmm."
Elizaveta tapped the table, lost in thought.
After a moment, she looked up at the sky. Stars were scattered across the dark night.
"Vanka. My most trusted woodcutter."
"Yes, Your Highness."
"You've met my father. What do you think of him?"
"...The Great King was..."
Listening to Ivan, Elizaveta let out a small laugh and spoke.
"Great King. Is he truly?"
"..."
"He's a fool who believes all problems will be solved if he just sits quietly with his mouth shut. I will gladly despise my father. I must."
Her eyes burned fiercely.
"The Allied Kingdoms feared a sharp blade. Did you know? If the Hero's Party hadn't disbanded, a second war would have broken out. A war that would have been recorded in history as a conflict between individuals and the collective."
Since the advent of the Demon King, the monarchs of the Allied Kingdoms had been plunged into deep contemplation.
The enemy's forces were terrifying, but what they feared most was the fact that an individual could overwhelm an army.
The existence of an individual capable of fighting a collective was, in itself, a challenge to authority.
Thus, if the Hero's Party had not disbanded, if they had not returned to their respective homelands as members of society, the world would have faced a second war.
"He said Maximilian didn't disappear.... And that Veolgrin is looking for my brother."
"Yes, Your Highness."
"I will deal with the 'fake' brother in this city myself. You need not concern yourself with him. But, yes... why on earth would my 'real' brother have formed a connection with the great mage of the Hero's Party?"
Elizaveta's eyes glinted sharply.
"Just as there was a reason you all had to fall in those days, what if we assume the Hero's Party had a similar reason? Setting the others aside, if we assume there was one person who absolutely had to be eliminated, who do you think that would be?"
"...Maximilian."
"Yes. It would be. The strongest of humanity. The greatest of all time. 'Demon King Slayer' Maximilian. It would be him."
Veolgrin had planned all this to ascertain the true crown prince's location.
If, in the midst of that, he mentioned Maximilian's seclusion, it was reasonable to assume there was some significant connection between the two.
In that case, only one question remained.
'How.'
How could they dare make such a powerful man 'disappear'?
What on earth could be done to eliminate him? Was such a thing even possible? Even Ivan, who knew countless powerful individuals in the Allied Kingdoms, couldn't easily imagine it.
It might be possible if the entire Hero's Party ambushed Maximilian.
But that was impossible. And if that wasn't the case, Maximilian would never have fallen by human hands.
"You will wait. The method... and the reason it had to be done, I will find them."
"Yes."
"Sit. I've kept my guest standing for too long. My apologies."
Ivan sat in the seat prepared for him. A maid approached and poured steaming hot black tea into his cup.
-Scrape.
Elizaveta pulled a chair over and sat beside him.
"Let's put work aside for a moment. For now, yes. Can you enjoy the moment?"
"..."
"It's been four years, Vanka. I had hoped our reunion would be more romantic than this, but well. The world rarely goes as expected."
They sat side by side, looking at the flower garden.
The flowers, shimmering under the moonlight, swayed gently in the breeze.
"Do you recognize them?"
"Yes, Your Highness."
"I have not forgotten."
This small woman, who still only came up to his chest, smiled faintly.
It was a smile tinged with deep fatigue and pain, yet one that still held traces of her once vibrant, brilliant days.
"From my office, if I step out onto the terrace, I can see this garden directly."
"Your Highness. I would rather you did not look at the flowers."
"Oh?"
"There is something the former king once told me."
Ivan paused, recalling the old days as he chose his words.
It was from his time serving in the Royal Guard.
"He wished for Your Highness the Princess to live looking at the sky, not the ground, for the duty of bearing the war, the hardships, and their price in blood was his alone."
"..."
Elizaveta silently stroked her teacup. Ivan raised his head and looked at the sky.
In the night sky, stars were scattered like grains of sand.
If there were few advantages to this pre-modern fantasy world with little light pollution, wouldn't the beautiful night sky be one of them?
Ivan spoke in a calm voice.
"Your Highness said you remember the departed when you look at the flowers. But that is not right. Do you remember our company's motto?"
"...Do not mourn the departed."
"Yes, for we stand in the same ranks as them. For we are all people who will one day leave this land."
At Ivan's words, Elizaveta closed her eyes.
He poured tea into Elizaveta's cup and placed it in her hand.
The white teacup was pleasantly warm from the black tea. It was warm.
"Your Highness, please carry on the will of His late Majesty. Walk with your eyes on the sky, not the ground. When you sometimes long for the departed, look instead to the night sky."
Elizaveta opened her eyes at his words. The night sky was not dark. Beyond the black expanse, between the clouds that had drifted by, starlight spread out in abundance.
"Do not see the departed in the flowers. Count us among the stars. They, too, would want that from Your Highness."
"Vanka..."
Elizaveta turned her gaze to Ivan.
She looked at Ivan for a long moment with teary eyes before quietly reaching out her hand.
The hand, warmed by the teacup, rested on his cheek. After looking at him for a moment, Elizaveta asked softly.
"How about trimming your beard just a little?"
"...Please, have mercy."
"What if I order it?"
"This humble servant has already retired from service."
"It seems your silver tongue is all that's improved since then."
After saying something that would have made Enrique vehemently protest, Elizaveta smiled brightly.
*