CHAPTER 570
NEW TOMORROW (I)
Seya was currently enjoying the seaside breeze, her legs dangling off the tall cliff overlooking the violent and maddening ocean as it clashed against the thick rocky side. The day was beautiful, with the clear, blue sky and the golden sun overhead giving way to another perfect midsummer day.
She could hear the distant chirping of the birds and even songs of the dolphins just a few hundred meters away from the jagged sh.o.r.e, to say nothing of the swaths forming into black clouds in the sky that she couldn"t hear. She had cut her hair short, strands dangling barely to the side, though had otherwise remained largely the same in appearance, if only growing a shade darker.
Even while wearing nothing but a loose, tank top without undergarments beneath and the cut trousers she had shortened to the midway point of her thighs, she still felt rather hot, droplets of sweat occasionally forming on her temples, trickling down the side of her face. It was early in the morning, the morning of a big day, though it would hard to say so from her expression.
"Oi, why didn"t you wake me up!!" a hurried and panicked voice called out to her from behind as she turned around only to see a topless man pointing at her and running, his hair a disheveled mess, eyes fuming in anger. "I told you specifically to wake me up the moment you wake up!"
"Oops. I forgot." She shrugged with a smile, getting up and dusting her behind. "You slept well?"
"—well, yeah, I did—but that"s beside the point! We"re gonna be late!" he exclaimed. "And look at you," he growled, walking up to her and suddenly beginning to straighten her hair. "You should have gotten ready by now! Did you even take a bath? I"ve left out the dress for you right beside the bed, you couldn"t have missed it!"
"Oi, relax," Seya laughed for a moment, grabbing the sides of his face and pressing her forehead against his. "We won"t be late. Besides, if you weren"t freaking out about it, I wouldn"t even be going…"
"How can you not go?!" Avar"s dark skin suddenly paled twelve shades, an expression of horror surfacing on his face. "It"s—it"s one of the most important days for the Empire! The Empire, by the way, that you"re a f.u.c.king Earl of!"
"Eh," Seya shrugged, stretching and yawning lazily. "It"s just a kid taking the throne. Nothing"s gonna change."
"… did… did you just call Princess—no, Empress Aaria a kid?"
"I believe I have," Seya chuckled, hugging her arm around his shoulder and dragging him back down the slope toward their small mansion. "You gotta learn not to always be walking on the road of needles and swords. Your panic attacks are starting to stick to the kids, idiot. What if they grow up neurotic messes that forget how to breathe each time something mildly out of the comfort zone happens?"
"… I—ah, I know…" Avar sighed, his shoulders slumping. "But, you"ve worked hard to get to where we"re now, Seya. I… I just want to ensure it stays this way."
"… what? You wouldn"t want to be with me if I suddenly became a wandering commoner again?" she asked, grinning.
"Eh, at least it would afford me an opportunity to make you a Queen of my own strength," Avar grinned back. "Nonetheless, this is a rare occasion when pretty much all of our friends will trickle to one place. It"s worth going just for that, no?"
"Hah, I guess," Seya said. "I haven"t shared a drink with some of those f.u.c.ks in quite some time."
"Ah, Lord Avar! Lord Seya!" the two were interrupted on their way down by a small entourage, a peddler cutting across the field with a couple of toddlers and some sheep in tow. "It looks like the world itself knows the importance of today, with the sun beaming down on us so warmly!"
"It sure does, Martin," Seya chuckled, glancing at the two toddlers hiding behind the old man"s legs, peaking out. "They"re growing up quite healthy, eh?"
"Ah, blasted children are too shy," the man, Martin, replied with a sigh. "I wish they"d look up to Lord Savar and Lady Eos…"
"Eh? What did those two misfits do now?" Seya asked.
"They organized a full compet.i.tion for cross-country running!" Martin exclaimed, a trace of awe present in his voice. "Can you believe it? With rewards, rest points, and all! Then the two won the first three places! They really are miraculous children…"
"They do take after their mom more than me, I"m afraid." Avar chuckled faintly as Seya sighed, rolling her eyes.
"All for the better; forgive me, Lord Avar, but you can hardly match the Lady." Martin said.
"That is true," Avar nodded. "Be on your way then; come visit us when you get some more of that fish from the last time. It was quite delicious."
"Will do! Best of the day to you, Lord, Lady!"
Avar and Seya watched the peddler urge the two toddlers and the sheep as he continued on cutting the plains. The two, too, resumed their descent, hand in hand, anxiety from before seemingly vanished completely.
"… I wonder if Hannah will come." Seya mumbled after they got close to the mansion without walls and the one with the front doors perennially open. People streamed in and out all the time, each individually greeting the two as they pa.s.sed them by.
"From what I heard, she returned briefly two years ago," Avar replied. "But, her visits have grown less and less frequent."
"… could you endure it?" she asked him. "If I left like her, I mean."
"No. I"d have killed myself."
"Oi."
"I"m serious," Avar said. "It"s a sickness, Seya. I"m too dependent on you. Do you know what I did when I woke up this morning and saw you weren"t there?"
"You had a panic attack?"
"I had a panic attack."
"d.a.m.n dude…"
"Can you blame me?" he asked, chuckling, pulling a few loose strands of her hair behind her ear. "I somehow wound up with the most beautiful woman in the entire world; how could I be moronic enough to let her go?"
"… what do you think he"s feeling, then?" Seya asked, smiling warmly for a moment.
"Lino?"
"Hm."
"… I don"t know," Avar sighed. "He hasn"t made an appearance in the Court for over six years now, pretty much relegating everything to Aaria. Jonttar told me he"s mostly crafting, napping, and drinking. I hardly envy him."
"Well, he"ll show up today," she said as the two entered the mansion amidst the ma.s.ses. "So we"ll see how he"s doing. Though, it"s Lino. Ever since I first met the two of them, I"ve had this feeling that distance pays little dividence to them, you know? Like… all those thousands, millions of miles separating them… are nothing."
"…" Avar stayed silent as the two climbed up to the mansion"s third floor where no one but the two of them could be found.
The two quickly dressed up and went to the Portal Room where a small entourage of guards and escorts of their own awaited them already. Following a quick exchange of greetings, one by one people stepped through the spinning vortex, vanishing into the void beyond, until it was Seya"s and Avar"s turn.
The two felt faint discomfort as they bored through the countless miles of distance within a breath, winding up inside the heart of the entire Empire - its capital city, Inmistus. Just by stepping outside onto the streets, they could clearly tell it was a big day - the usually rather s.p.a.cious streets were absolutely crammed with people running and left and right. Songs were played on a repeat by the street-side bards, all windows flung open, young and old hanging out of them, observing.
Far high up, looming like the third celestial object besides the sun and the moon was the now-immortalized fortress, the location of today"s Coronation. The chunk of stone that was largely abandoned in the last fifteen years would once again see its walls illuminated by light and life of the civilization.
Seya and Avar didn"t dally for too long; due to their status, they had the right to fly overhead rather than mingle with the ma.s.ses, but even they couldn"t head over to the fortress just yet. Instead, they chose to drag their feet over to the gathering place set up beforehand among the n.o.bility - a small, seemingly rundown shanty just outside the city, placed on top of the hill teeming with tall gra.s.s and wildflowers.
Unsurprisingly, at least to Seya, they were the first to arrive and settle outside, on the porch, while the rest of their entourage either stayed in the city or surrounded the hill.
"… sorry." Avar mumbled after a few moments of silence, sighing.
"Eh, it"s fine," Seya shrugged, taking out a bottle of wine. "Either here or there, it"d still be just the two of us. Which is mighty-d.a.m.n-fine, if you ask me."
"You sure it was fine not to bring those two along?"
"… have you learned nothing from the last time we dragged them over against their will?"
"… eeeh… they might… have matured a bit…"
"They haven"t."
"… yup, they haven"t." Avar relented, knowing full-well the two angels he loved beyond words were actually devils in the eyes of many others. "Who do you look forward to seeing the most?"
"… I don"t know," Seya sighed. "All of them, I suppose. I haven"t seen anyone in at least a year. We really drifted… haven"t we?"
"… it"s not that strange if you think about," Avar said, taking the bottle from her and gulping down a few mouthfuls. "The two cornerstones that held you all together are no longer there."
"… yeah," Seya nodded lightly. "I don"t think anybody quite realized just how dependent on Lino and Hannah the rest of our friendships were. With them not acting as the sun of our small system… it feels eerily natural that we"d go adrift from one another."
"But… it"s also that we"ve all found our own lives to live, independent of the two of them," Avar said. "Families, friends, territories… besides, life is long. There will be plenty of chances to sit together and drink."
"—it"s strange how we always think that," Seya said, her gaze drifting toward the sky. "Until someone dies… and we realize we"ll never sit together with them and drink… ever again. In the end, it"s all in the excuses. The younger I was, the more I wanted to share my time with others, to spend the hours and days amidst the vast company. Yet, honestly, right now… I"d much rather snuggle in with you and watch the starry sky than go drinking with any one of them."
"…" Avar stared at the profile of the woman that had captured his heart many moons ago, yet that noose wrapped tightly around the blood-pump never got to loosen, even the slightest bit. He"d found himself frequently questioning just what luck had driven him to that pier on that day when he had no business going there in the first place. He couldn"t even imagine how differently his life would have turned out had he never offered her to be a guide. He didn"t even want to imagine. It would not have been better than this - only much, much worse.