…
Midnight.
Roel sat on a chair by the window, gazing at the silver moon while adjusting his breathing. On the bed behind him, Charlotte had already fallen asleep.
It had been eight hours since their conversation with Peytra.
In order to test out the Primordial Earth Goddess’ blessing, the two of them had even skipped dinner.
Roel had always been the aggressive one when it came to their nightly battles, often going at it until Charlotte was forced to beg for mercy. The high elves’ weaker physique placed her at a disadvantage here. However, possibly due to the increased hopes of having a child, Charlotte gritted her teeth and held on for a very long time.
Touching the bite marks on his shoulder, Roel thought about how adorable Charlotte was when she tried to endure it with her shuddering body. With her unyielding spirit, Roel successfully pulled off a ‘ten draws’, just as Peytra had recommended.
This hadn’t been an easy achievement to unlock at all.
Even with his enhanced constitution as a high transcendent, Roel felt deeply lethargic after it was all over. He even had to hold onto the wall to stop himself from collapsing to the ground. To be honest, he felt like he had been too reckless here.
He knew where Charlotte’s limits were. Three hours was already a struggle for her, but she held on for eight whole hours, albeit being mostly out of it by the latter half. This was ridiculous even if it was for the sake of their child.
He solemnly warned himself against blindly going along with Charlotte’s whims in the future, even if she insisted on it. The last thing he wanted in the world was to hurt a woman he loved.
Roel shook those thoughts out of his head and took a sip of wine.
He then turned his attention toward his future plans. With the Diamond Rivière due to arrive in Rosa City in a few days’ time, he knew that it was time for him to consider matters he had been putting off thus far, such as where he ought to head next.
All this while, he had thought that the battlefield on the eastern border would be a good place for him to train while contributing to the war effort against the deviants. However, his confrontation with Flooding Death had spurred other thoughts in his mind.
He realized that what he had done at Golash’s Valley was much more meaningful to humankind than any number of deviants he could kill on the frontlines. He was doing much more here by tying down the ancient monsters and the evil cultists, preventing them from wreaking havoc.
This was in line with what Principal Antonio had told him.
As a descendant of a military house, he did feel uncomfortable not participating in the war alongside his father, but after all that had happened, he could no longer leave the back lines with ease of mind.
Had he not discovered Charlotte’s anomaly and interfered in her affairs, she might have already died to Flooding Death by now. This was not the first time that a woman around him had been threatened by the ancient monsters and evil cultists, and he wasn’t so naive to think that it would be the last time, either.
He couldn’t risk danger befalling those he cared about. That was not something he was willing to bet on. Given so, there was only one thing he could do.
“Until I eliminate the evil cultists and the Six Calamities, I shan’t go to the frontlines,” Roel muttered with a sigh before taking another sip of wine.
To change his mood, he began reminiscing about everything that had happened today.
So many things had happened over the course of the day, from learning about Grandar’s past to receiving Peytra’s blessing. The thought of that naturally brought his attention to the remaining one of his three ancient gods.
“It has been a long time since I last met Artasia,” Roel murmured under his breath.
Since his reunion with Charlotte, he had been so busy taking care of her that he hadn't had time to communicate with his ancient gods. Even for his battle with Flooding Death, he hadn't dared to bring out Peytra and Artasia, knowing that they wouldn’t be able to resist its curses. As a result, they hadn’t met for nearly three months now.
After a long period of absence, Roel found himself missing the unfathomable Witch Queen. Thus, he tried to pay a visit to the latter, only to realize that he was unable to access her realm.
“Hm?”
Roel was initially perplexed before his expression slowly turned grim. But after a moment of thought, he felt confused more than anything else.
Having mostly recovered from his conditions, Roel shouldn’t have had a problem re-establishing his window of connection with Artasia. The fact that he was unable to do so could only mean that their connection had been severed, and the culprit was likely to be the Witch Queen herself…
But why would Artasia do that? Is she angry because I haven’t visited her for too long?
Roel pondered hard about the matter but was unable to figure out an answer to the question. For the time being, he decided to leave things be. He was in a stable position anyway, so there was no need to kick up a fuss over everything. It was not as though he could do anything if Artasia refused to open their window of connection anyway.
Gazing at the silver moon in the sky, he heaved a deep sigh.
…
In the distant Ascart Fiefdom, under the same moon, a silver-haired girl was sitting in Roel’s room, browsing through a newly-arrived letter. It was from the Rosa Merchant Confederacy, a close military ally of the Ascart Fiefdom.
The letter detailed Roel’s condition and his resounding victory in Golash’s Basin.
The demise of Flooding Death was a highly galvanizing event for humankind, and it was likely that the upper echelons of humankind would work to propagate the information.
Alicia could hardly suppress her excitement when she read the letter. This was indubitably a huge glory to the Ascart House… though there was an even bigger reason behind her elation.
“Lord Brother has defeated the enemy, which means that everything has come to an end.”
Alicia rose to her feet, turned to the maid standing by the side of the room, and decisively issued an order.
“Tell the men to prepare themselves. We’ll be heading to Rosa!”