Side Story 11. [After Story] Ash

    Five years have passed, in the Imperial Year 662.

    Ten years since the final battle against the monsters.

    Imperial Capital, New Terra.

    “Gah!”

    I woke up with a jolt, startled out of my sleep as I dozed off in the carriage.

    Sitting across from me was Body... Damn it, even after ten years, I still can’t get used to calling her by her new name. Anyway, Daram was startled too.

    “Are you alright, Your Grace? What’s wrong?”

    “No... It’s nothing. I just had a dream. A dream about five years ago...”

    It was from five years ago, during the autumn festival, the last time the entire main party gathered together. The warm memories of that joyful day flickered before my eyes.

    Still groggy from my interrupted sleep, I muttered absentmindedly.

    “Ha... That was a good time...”

    Daram looked at me with a concerned expression and mumbled as if worried.

    “Our dear lord is escaping reality again...”

    “It’s not escaping reality... It was just a dream, that’s all...”

    At that moment, the window to the coachman’s seat slid open, and Lucas stuck his head in.

    “Are you alright, my lord? Is something the matter?”

    “Gah, you startled me!”

    Lucas now had a beard. Ugh, every time I see him, it shocks me anew!

    This guy had once grumbled about being too busy juggling his duties as my guard and taking care of the kids, saying he barely had time for anything. So he decided to save time by letting his beard grow.

    And now, after just three months of not shaving, he had turned into something akin to a Golden Santa Claus. How could someone’s beard grow that fast? How did he even manage to stay clean-shaven all these years?!

    “Still not used to my beard, are you?”

    “Not in a million years, idiot!”

    “That’s odd. My children seem to like it...”

    “Well, who wouldn’t like it if Golden Santa Claus showed up?”

    Lucas seemed to think his beard was oddly dashing, but to me, it just made him look more like a golden retriever rather than a human. Stop with the beast transformation already! Return to being a person! R?α??o??ВE?§

    “I was planning to shave today anyway... Can’t walk into the palace looking like this, after all...”

    Lucas mumbled in a somewhat dejected tone. This guy seriously liked his beard, didn’t he?

    Anyway, after confirming I was fine, the golden-haired large dog—no, Lucas—shut the coachman’s window. Meanwhile, Body-Daram... no, Body... Ugh, this is driving me insane—Daram resumed working on her paperwork.

    In the now-quiet carriage, I rubbed the tired skin under my eyes from the long journey and let out another yawn. No matter how well the roads are paved, traveling to New Terra by carriage is exhausting.

    ‘Still, it’s an imperial order. I have to go.’

    I was on my way to the palace, summoned by the Emperor himself.

    Officially, it was a meeting between the Duke of the Bringar Duchy and the Emperor to discuss state matters.

    But, well, that was just the formal excuse. These days, we were essentially deliberating the imperial succession issue.

    “...”

    Once again, I thought back to the last time the main party’s five members gathered together five years ago.

    After that day, we parted ways with a vague sense of unease. But surprisingly, nothing major happened.

    Just as life often is—filled with uncertainties about the future, but with its fair share of good and bad days—we simply kept ourselves busy living our lives.

    Though, amidst all of that, there’s been one issue I seem to be frequently nagged about...

    “You still haven’t had any news of a child?”

    This.

    The Emperor gave me a look of disappointment, as if I’d let him down somehow. I flinched at his gaze. What now?

    “Are you at least trying properly, Duke?”

    “O-Of course I am!”

    I’m trying very hard, okay?! Like, really hard! Every single night... burning with passion!@@@@

    “I exchange letters with my daughter-in-law often, and she seems quite worried about this.”

    The Emperor said this with a voice full of affection, completely different from the way he talked to me. Look at this!

    He tormented Serenade endlessly about marriage, but now that we’re wed, he’s all “My dear daughter-in-law~ My beloved Serenade~” showering her with doting praise. Well, Serenade is quite attentive and takes good care of her father-in-law, so there’s that...

    “Hm.”

    The Emperor stroked his lone beard with his single hand and gave me a sharp look with his one eye.

    “Could it be that you... you know?”

    “...What do you mean?”

    The Emperor didn’t state it explicitly but implied it indirectly.

    ‘Lark’s three children...’

    My three nieces and nephews, who continue to live in seclusion, could become the “alternative choice” for those seeking another solution.

    “Whether you produce an heir or eliminate all ‘other options,’ do as you see fit.”

    The Emperor smiled, baring his molars in that characteristic way of his.

    It was a smile that seemed to suggest he was enjoying watching what I’d do next—as a senior statesman finding amusement in the actions of his junior.

    “Everything you do during this period of succession preparation will reveal what kind of Emperor you’ll become in the future.”

    The meeting with the Emperor lasted for about three days.

    Passing down the throne is no simple task, so we proceeded at a deliberate pace. It would likely take several more years to complete.

    Between the discussions, I attended to various tasks in New Terra, the Imperial Capital.

    “Alberto!”

    “Your Grace, it’s been a long time!”

    I was reunited with Alberto, the former Chief Steward of the palace, who was still alive and well.

    Since then, Alberto has been steadily working as the branch manager of the Silver Winter Merchant Guild’s New Terra branch. They say he’s been working energetically, though he looks even younger than he did ten years ago.

    And being the branch manager of the Silver Winter Merchant Guild also means...

    “I’ve brought the two pieces of information you requested, Your Grace.”

    It means he’s the head of an intelligence organization that collects information from all corners of the continent.

    Though calling it an “intelligence organization” sounds grandiose, it’s really just a network that gathers various pieces of information flowing through the continent-wide merchant network. But now, it’s grown significantly in size and established a solid system.

    Wherever money flows in the world, information follows—and it all eventually reaches me. That’s not an exaggeration.

    ‘And yet, it took this long to get answers for these two requests...’

    I had entrusted Alberto with two specific tasks.

    One was to track down the whereabouts of Lark’s wife and their three children in the western part of the continent.

    The other was to find a woman within the Imperial Capital.

    But even though Damien had pinpointed the location of Lark’s wife and children five years ago, they kept moving from place to place, evading capture. So their current whereabouts remained unclear.

    As for the woman in the Imperial Capital... there were either too few clues or she had hidden herself exceptionally well, making her impossible to locate.

    “At last, we’ve found them. There’s no doubt this time.”

    But this time, it was different.

    Alberto handed me two letters with a bright smile spread across his face. The two envelopes were elegantly sealed, each bearing a name on the front.

    The first letter read:

    [Lark.]

    The name of my elder brother, long deceased.

    The strongest swordsman of humanity, who had stood by my side until the very end—through the Campaign of the Imperial Capital and the Final Battle of the Spirit World.

    And the second letter:

    [Mason.]

    “...”

    Mason.

    A man from Lucas’s family. A man who had betrayed us and become a hunting dog for Fernandez.

    A man who injected himself with the beastification serum, transforming into a half-human, half-beast monstrosity, and ultimately followed Fernandez’s orders to reach the deepest part of the dungeon to meet the Demon King.

    And a man who, even so, had fought alongside me for a brief moment in that hell...

    His name was written there.

    “It’s time to fulfill those old promises.”

    I tore open both letters, checked their contents, and folded them back to tuck into my coat.

    Then, turning around, I shouted:

    “Lucas, prepare the carriage! We’re heading out!”

    “Yes, my lord!”

    Lucas sprang out to respond, his beard now cleanly shaved.

    Ack! What the—?! You startled me!

    –TL Notes–

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