The north wind, which had been shaking the windows all night, finally calmed down at dawn.
This old city must have some very skilled glass craftsmen, as the glass windows set in wooden frames have withstood the wind and snow well. When Conrad wiped the glass, fogged white by the temperature difference between inside and out, the old cityscape emerged in the clear early morning air.
It was white.
The moist wind from the northern sea blankets the northern part of the Empire, including the old capital, in snow during the winter, but the intervening mountains block it, carrying only dry cold to the Imperial capital.
Conrad instinctively pulled up his blanket against the cold seeping in from the stone walls. Beneath it, he found himself not in his usual pajamas, but in his everyday clothes.
Suppressing his eagerness with a deep breath, he quietly began his preparations, so as not to be noticed by Sebastian, who was waiting in the next room. He lowered the rope he had prepared out the window.
Emperor Conrad of the Empire finally carried out his long-cherished ambition of a modest escape.
“Honestly, Grandfather is just as bad.”
Conrad muttered his complaints under his breath as he crunched through the fresh snow.
He had been brought to the old capital, almost as if kidnapped, for a marriage meeting. And the partner was none other than the princess regent of the Eastern Kingdom, Celestine de Oiria, his hated enemy.
Although Conrad looked young for someone in his mid-thirties, he had never considered marriage.
He did not want children.
This was not a personal desire, but a desire as Emperor.
It was Conrad’s belief that the Emperor should ascend the throne based on ability, not blood.
As the eastern sky began to lighten, the residents of the old capital slowly began their daily routines.
Some were taking walks, some were setting up the food stalls they had folded up the night before, and some were heading off to work somewhere. Conrad sometimes inspected the streets of the Imperial capital to observe the lives of the common people, but the places he went were always cleared of clutter. It had been a long time since he had seen people in their natural state.
The Emperor of the Empire is so revered that those around him take care not to let him see anything inconvenient.
He had noticed this when he found that not a single stone was lying on the street he had gone to inspect. Even though the road was not paved with cobblestones, all the dust and debris had been picked up beforehand.
Emperor Conrad had long felt uncomfortable with the excessive respect shown to him. He was in his current position simply because he was the grandson of the previous Emperor.
A person with ability, like the previous Emperor, should be the one to take the throne. That’s why he ran away from home.
Since this escape was conceived as a protest against the sudden marriage proposal, it was completely unplanned.
He hadn’t decided where to go or who to rely on.
If he was near the old capital, there was the Marquisate of Sachsenburg. It was an old family that had no blood ties to the Imperial family, but that made it convenient for seeking refuge.
Without even needing to think about it calmly, he knew that such a thing would plunge the Empire into chaos. The Emperor flees, relying on a regional lord in opposition to the previous Emperor. Historians of later generations would surely criticize him for it.
He knew this, but the undeniable fact was that he had slipped out of the window of his lodging.
Maybe I should go back after all.
Was it his innate seriousness that made it difficult for him to stop something ridiculous once he had started it? Or was it because he lacked the courage to stop?
He found himself searching for a reason in the back of his mind that would justify himself even if Sebastian and the others blamed him when he returned to the inn.
Because he wanted to inspect the old capital?
Because he needed to meet someone secretly?
None of these were very good reasons. He certainly couldn’t declare his true feelings, that he refused to meet a girl from an enemy country who was more than fifteen years his junior.
If he did that, the Eastern Kingdom, given the justification that their honor had been insulted, might summon their vassals and rush to the border. That would be war.
“Honestly, Grandfather is just as bad.”
He rolled the complaint on his tongue once more and kicked a lump of snow into the river.
Why, of all people, the Eastern Kingdom, and why, of all people, the princess regent?
The woman he exchanged words with in diplomatic documents was a vicious and scheming woman, a child of the devil who showed no trace of a girl’s charm. It was not just five or six times that the Empire had suffered a loss of national interest because of her.
Marriage of convenience, marriage of convenience, marriage of convenience.
As part of the late Emperor’s foreign policy, Conrad had scattered the blood of the Empire among neighboring countries, but he never thought that he himself would become a pawn in a marriage of convenience.
He had no intention of marrying.
Even if he did marry, it would not be to a political monster like the princess regent, but to someone more lovely and gentle.
“Kyaa!”
“I-I’m sorry.”
He almost bumped into someone while lost in thought.
He ended up helping up a beautiful girl with silver hair. Seeing her moist eyes behind her silver-rimmed glasses, Conrad was struck with shock. His mouth opened on its own.
“Miss, what is your name?”
“I am called Celes.”
Emperor Conrad, at the age of thirty-seven, fell in love at first sight for the first time in his life.
“I’m sorry, I even had you treat me to this.”
“No, I should be the one apologizing. This is my apology for earlier.”
They sat on a pile of logs by the river, nibbling on grilled eel with fisosa fish sauce, which was sold at a food stall. It didn’t look very good, but it was surprisingly tasty.
“Hmm, this is surprisingly delicious.”
“Right? An acquaintance of mine told me about it in a report… I mean, in a letter.”
The girl called Celes sometimes used strange words, but Conrad didn’t really mind. More than that, he was completely captivated by her quick wit and the intelligence that peeked through her words. And of course, by her loveliness.
He knew that the gentlemanly thing to do would be to send her home immediately, but Conrad was making a superhuman effort to ignore that common sense. It was an action unthinkable for the usual Conrad.
The last time he had mustered up this much courage was when he made the decision to repel the pirate fleet, sanctioned by the United Kingdom, that had appeared in the northern sea.
When they met, Celes had seemed a little down, but as she talked with Conrad, her expression gradually brightened. She might have had some worries, but he was happy if he had managed to distract her.
“So, Celes, you’re saying that the radical fluctuations in the price of rice were orchestrated by the Curvaldia Company?”
“It seems so. It seems that there were some lucky brokers who managed to buy at the deceptively low price.”
The conversation with the knowledgeable Celes jumped from here to there, and from there to here, in all directions, and was never boring.
Judging by the fact that she could respond to political topics, she must be the daughter of some nobleman. He had thought she might be a merchant’s daughter, but that wouldn’t explain the nobility she exuded.
He thought of the faces of the lords in this area, but he couldn’t recall anyone who resembled her. However, since he didn’t remember all of the Empire’s three hundred lords and one thousand nobles, there was a good chance that she was someone’s daughter somewhere.
Oh, if only this girl were his marriage partner.
Thinking this, Conrad finished the last bite of eel from the skewer.
That one is Celes, and this one is Celes. How can they be so different when they share the same name?
He had never met the princess regent Celes in person, but judging by her villainous behavior, she was undoubtedly a poisonous woman.
Perhaps he should reveal his identity and invite this girl to the Imperial capital.
His grandfather, the late Emperor, had been a man devoted to his wife, but among the emperors of past generations, there were many who, like heroes, had a taste for women. Although no one had a harem of a thousand or two thousand wives like the Great Khan of the West, Tycoon, there was no shortage of emperors who had second and third wives, publicly calling them female friends.
But that was, after all, impossible.
The Celes with the glasses had opened her heart to him not as Emperor Conrad, but as just Conrad.
If he revealed his identity, her attitude would stiffen, and she would become like the other court ladies.
“The king is lonely,” Gamlich sang, but is the Emperor, the king of kings, even lonelier?
The pleasant time passed mercilessly.
Morning turned to noon, noon to evening, and the sun began to set.
The two had talked so much that their throats were sore, but even though they had no shortage of topics, they naturally became less talkative. Both of them knew that the time for parting was approaching.
Will we meet again?
He couldn’t ask such an irresponsible question. Conrad was the Emperor, a public figure. He had never been a private person, except for today, since he ascended the throne.
He tried to convince himself that he would keep this happy day as a memory, tucked away in his heart. Just as he was about to do so, Celes looked up at Conrad invitingly.
“I know it’s impolite, but would you treat me to one more place?”
The blush on her cheeks must have been the reflection of the setting sun. Mustering the greatest courage of his life, Conrad responded with the best smile he could muster.
“Yes, I’d be delighted.”