Always with All My Heart (1)
Always with All My Heart (1)
Exactly three days after that.
About a week after wrapping up the war with Dharon.
Belletria and I, having received everyone's send-off from early in the morning, were in a carriage heading to the Solty Territory, the most famous resort in the southern part of the Empire and a land full of romance said to be the birthplace of the third-highest number of couples on the continent.
"... I truly cannot understand why everyone is cheering like that."
Belletria, who had been watching the cheering palace servants from the opposite seat with a genuinely perplexed expression, continued.
"Is it natural for people to take an interest in a man and woman going on a date?"
"Hmm... Well, I'm not sure."
Pondering for a moment at the sudden question, I carefully moved my gaze to the window like her, looked at the servants, and cautiously answered.
"Perhaps... I'd like to cautiously speculate that they might be congratulating the Imperial Family, no, Your Majesty, for getting a chance to live like ordinary people...?"
"Live like ordinary people...?"
"I mean love. It's not ordinary for everyone to get married and have children, but isn't love relatively ordinary? But even that wasn't an ordinary thing for the Emperor... no, for Belletria."
"Ordinary love... Children..."
Belletria moved her lips as if chewing over my words for a moment, then slowly turned her head to look straight at me.
I immediately met her gaze.
"Well... It doesn't seem to be an incorrect guess."
Judging by her red eyes being calmer than usual, she seemed to have genuinely accepted it.
And seeing that, I too could feel a bit more at ease.
'...Right, there's no point in digging a tunnel alone over something that hasn't even happened yet.'
I decided to set aside for now the guilt about Ersil that was weighing heavily on a corner of my heart.
Instead, for this woman who had endured a lifetime of loneliness all alone on the icy throne for over a decade.
At least for today, on this trip, I resolved to face her with not falsehood, but sincere effort, and quietly met her eyes.
Clatter.
With a short vibration, the carriage heading for the southern part of the Empire truly began to run.
The warm afternoon sunlight streamed in through the window.
Inside the carriage, where we sat facing each other instead of side by side.
In stark contrast to the gloomy battlefield, the road heading south was simply peaceful.
"Now that I think of it, what was the ending of that knight story... literature you were reading yesterday?"
"Ah, that story about the poor knight? In the end, he defeated the Demon King and returned to his hometown, but his fiancée had already married another noble. So it's a sad ending where he quietly went down to the countryside and lived farming."
At my answer, Belletria slightly narrowed her brow as if displeased and clicked her tongue.
"How bland. If it were me, I would have immediately burned down the fief of that treacherous noble first."
"Well... I thought something similar. If he still had the power to defeat a Demon King, he would have punished the betraying woman and killed the noble too."
It was a bit far from the kind of impressions ordinary lovers would exchange...
But whatever it was, wasn't it enough just to exchange everyday talk?
If the day comes when all the truth is discovered, it might lessen the guilt towards Belletria a little.
'Of course, I also fully intend to confess first before being found out...'
Honestly, I'm not sure if such an opportunity will arise.
If a day really comes where I speak first, it would most likely happen during the war with the Ignesia Kingdom.
Anyway, it was while we were chatting idly like that for a long time.
"Huh?"
Beyond the window I was gazing at thoughtlessly, I saw a hill where not even a single tree was visible.
'Oh... nice? This is the perfect place to warm up the outing atmosphere.'
Thinking that perhaps I could make the atmosphere a bit smoother before starting the real date, I immediately asked Belletria.
"Your Majesty, shall we walk over there for a bit?"
"...?"
As I pointed to the hill visible outside the window and spoke, she too looked out at the grassland outside the window.
She seemed not to understand why we would need to walk across a plain with nothing on it, not even the Imperial Palace's splendid garden.
But she looked at my face once, and at the window once, alternating as if pondering for a very brief moment, then gave a slight nod.
And immediately picked up the communication tube placed beside her and gave an order to the coachman.
"We plan to rest for a while, so take the carriage to a nearby village and attend to your business for about an hour."
-Yes, Your Majesty!
With the coachman's reply, the carriage, which had been running at high speed, gradually began to slow down, and soon came to a complete stop at the entrance of the grassland hill.
Clunk.
As soon as the sound of the door opening from outside was heard, Belletria very naturally tried to lean out first.
"Wait a moment."
I quickly stretched out my hand to block her path.
"......?"
"I couldn't do it for you before because it was chaotic during the war... but now I can't yield."
While Belletria looked up at me with a puzzled expression,
I gently moved past her and stepped outside the carriage first.
Feeling the fresh scent of grass brushing the tip of my nose, I stood by the carriage door, straightened my posture, put one hand behind my back, and politely offered my remaining hand towards her inside the carriage.
"Ahem... Would you be so kind as to grant me the opportunity to escort Her Majesty the Emperor?"
A request for escort permission with a perfectly polite gesture in accordance with etiquette.
Standing on the carriage threshold, Belletria alternately looked at my hand stretched into the air and my face.
Instead of her usual relaxed and arrogant attitude, she couldn't hide a slightly flustered expression.
I understood.
The very act of holding someone's hand and being carefully escorted must have been an intensely unfamiliar experience in her life.
However, that's why I judged this to be precisely the right timing... and fortunately, it seemed to be the correct answer.
"......"
The slender fingers of Belletria, who hesitated for a moment—unbelievable for a swordswoman—wavered as they reached towards me.
Swish.
Finally, our body temperatures touched.
I gently took her small hand and helped her descend the carriage steps.
Rustle.
As soon as Belletria, dressed in light outing clothes, completely stepped onto the grassy field,
the coachman bid farewell and slowly departed towards a nearby village.
On the wide grassland, only the two of us remained.
A cool wind blew, scattering her silver hair.
Belletria, still not pulling her hand from my grasp, quietly surveyed the open scenery around her as if savoring the unfamiliar sensation.
"Now, shall we slowly walk up the hill?"
Putting a slight pressure on our joined hands, I began to move my steps very slowly.
Belletria also, without a word, holding my hand, stepped onto the soft grassy field with a rustle rustle sound.
Exactly after strolling hand-in-hand for about 40 minutes, we arrived at the hilltop.
A place where a landscape that truly seemed to soothe the heart just by looking at it unfolded, with flowers and weeds gently swaying in the cool breeze.
"Wow... It's really too beautiful. Even an ordinary hill along the way in the Archesium Empire is special."
"Perhaps because the Empire's territory is that vast... it's natural if it's natural."
We stood side by side like that for a while, taking in the view of the blue grassland spreading below the hill and the small village visible in the distance.
The coolly blowing wind softly brushed past the backs of our joined hands.
I met her gaze again and tossed out a few more idle jokes.
"Later, Your Majesty must personally guide me to the most beautiful place in the Empire."
"Hmm. I wonder if your standards and my standards will align."
"That too is something we can align slowly."
Nothing problematic.
It was while a truly peaceful and languid conversation was continuing.
Swish.
Suddenly, Belletria gently pulled out her hand that had been holding my warmth.
I tilted my head slightly in puzzlement and looked at her.
Belletria, with her gaze lowered, was rummaging inside her bosom.
A touch as if searching for something.
Soon, from between her white fingers, a single, worn memo paper, about twice the size of a palm with clear crease marks, came out.
"Belletria...?"
"......"
I called her cautiously.
But without any answer, Belletria simply firmly pressed that memo paper into my now-empty hand that had been holding hers.
Her gaze was as quiet as a deeply sunken lake.
An enigmatic expression, completely unreadable, with none of the usual languidness or the subtle possessiveness she had shown recently.
Not understanding, I slowly bowed my head to check the contents written on the memo paper.
And the next moment, I froze stiff right there.
The memo paper was densely filled with new information about me secured by the Imperial Intelligence Unit.
The tips of my fingers holding the paper began to tremble minutely.
Nevertheless, forcing myself to swallow dry saliva and lowering my gaze, I read the single line of sentence written at the end.
[Approximately 4 months before the war between Rehentra and Archesium broke out, the two kingdoms intended to further solidify their alliance through the marriage of the Princess and the Prince. Of course, there was some opposition on the Ignesia side... but it was confirmed that overall, the atmosphere was such that the marriage would proceed within a year at the latest.]
"Ugh..."
A suppressed groan escaped my lips unknowingly.
My breath choked as if I had been strongly hit in the solar plexus.
Cold sweat seeped from my forehead and streamed down my spine.
I couldn't help but react this way, because written there, laid completely bare, was the fundamental contradiction of the intensely devoted man act—the only reason I had been able to endure here in the Empire.
"......"
Looking at me, unable to raise my head while holding the trembling paper, Belletria spoke.
"Did you think... I still hadn't even organized a garrison in the Dharon Kingdom yet?"
A voice much slower and lowered to a suffocating degree compared to usual.
"What reason did you think I had for roughly finishing the cleanup and suddenly leaving on the outing I promised with you, Idelon?"
"Th-that is..."
My mouth had dried up completely.
My mind went blank white, and no excuse, no cunning play of the tongue to survive, came to mind.
I just clenched my teeth so hard I thought they might all shatter, standing there dumbfounded without being able to say anything.
And into Belletria's always perfectly controlled voice, as she quietly looked down at my intense silence, seeped a truly very slight.
A complex emotion so minute it was hard to perceive.
"Don't stay silent, spit out some excuse, Pia..."
She bit her lip as if swallowing the title she was about to use.
"No, Idelon Halden Rehentra, the 3rd Prince."