Published at 21st of January 2023 8:44 am

Chapter After Story 18

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“In that way, Milk lived happily with Grandmother for a long time.”

Cedric read the last sentence and glanced at Leticia. Leticia was asleep, snoozing.

“Uuuu, Dad, my Red…….”

Cedric felt a movement, and Leticia turned around.

But her muttering seemed to be a sleep talk. The child went far away to the land of dreams.

Cedric closed the book and looked at the cover. On the cover of the book was a picture of a fluffy white-haired puppy.

It was about a puppy playing hide-and-seek and falling asleep in the cart of the neighbor, and then it went to a distant city, and after an adventure it returned home and reunited with its worried grandmother.

Leticia seemed to think of Red just by hearing the word ‘dog’.

Cedric stood up slightly and put the children’s book in its place. Come to think of it, there were a lot of picture books about dogs on the bookshelf.

In the picture she drew while playing during the day, Red was also drawn next to Mom, Dad, and Mielle.

Cedric picked it up and smiled bitterly.

“I thought she might have forgotten.”

“I know. I thought that she would only say that when she went there to play.”

Artizea, who had been sitting a little away, reading her book, stood up and came to his side.

Cedric showed her the picture and said,

“She’s more persistent than I thought. How about giving her permission now?”

“Let’s do that if Lord Cedric thinks it’s right.”

Cedric looked at Artizea in surprise.

“Didn’t you not want it?”

“I don’t really not want it, I don’t really dislike it. I was just wondering if we could give her everything she asked just because she begged for it.”

Artizea answered.

“Moreover, it is a living thing.”

“Well……. We should watch it closely. It’ll be fine, though. Because Ticia is kind.”

“Yes.”

Cedric grabbed her hand and folded it into his.

The nanny came in and took over. After the two left, the servants closed the veil.

Normally, by this time, it was already time to calm down. But today, there were some people coming and going, and the lights in the hallway were brightly lit.

Hannah and a few other vassals were also setting up accommodations on the same side of the house that was given to Mel’s family. The number of people increased, and besides, each of them had an important task, so there was no way they could have fallen asleep already.

Cedric escorted Artizea to the bedroom. He was going to wait until the time when the Empress’ Palace was all asleep, and then go to the annex quietly by himself.

But Artizea sat neatly on the bed and said,

“Sit down for a moment.”

“Do you have anything important to say?”

“No. It’s not important, but there’s something I want to hear.”

Cedric pulled a chair from the tea table and sat facing Artizea. He felt awkward as he was doing this in the bedroom.

Artizea said,

“Are you hiding something from me?”

Cedric looked at Artizea curiously.

Of course there were things he didn’t say. It’s not that he doesn’t want to tell her, it’s just too much work.

Issues related to his work were not worth discussing, and after Artizea said that she would retire, he did not ask for her opinions about internal affairs, whether it was big or not

But hiding? He had no idea what she was talking about.

Artizea spoke first.

“Apua told me. After the Thold Gate collapsed, you were part of the nine factions that ruled the North.”

“Ah.”

Cedric was surprised to hear something he hadn’t thought of. Because he never had any intention of hiding it.

No, he did hide it. He kept it from being known on the mainland rather than hiding it from Artizea.

The heretical interrogation of the temple was no longer a cause for concern. However, knowing that the North was not completely destroyed, there was a possibility that Lawrence would go crazy even more.

But he thought Artizea knew.

“Did you not know?”

“I’m proud of myself for being able to roll my head quite a bit, but I didn’t even know that I could communicate with Karam, so how would I have thought that an alliance would have been formed?”

“Otherwise, how did you think I could leave the North and wander around so freely?”

Artizea paused for a moment. He was right.

At the time of Lawrence’s reign, Cedric made a long stay in the West, taking her to tour both the East and North.

Artizea had thought he had become one of the warlords of the West after losing the land of Evron.

She didn’t know the details. Because she had already retired.

But now that she thought about it, it was impossible for him to wander around like that without a base in the North. It’s a completely different land from the East, where they can live in abundance.

It was something she could judge because she now knew the North.

If she thought of it differently, it meant that even if the master left with the knights, the base would be unharmed.

“Even if it is an alliance, it is not as political as you think it is. There was no such thing as a proper meeting.”

Cedric said.

“Because the North is wide and there was enough land to share. Besides, at that time Karam was more like a nomadic people. Even if it was called an alliance, it was just at a primitive level.”

“The faction was divided.”

“There was. There was also an attempt to select a king. But Karam has no concept of territory. The law follows the conventional, and there is no concept of administration. There is not even a tax.”

So, even if it’s an alliance, it was to not fight with each other and work together to respond to a common problem, that’s about it.

Karam does not move relative to the ground. Their concept of politics was also different from that of humans. The first thing to check for dispute resolution or profit sharing was blood ties.

So even though he joined the alliance, Cedric was an outsider.

“Actually, a non-aggression pact was formed not to fight the Knights of Evron any more, and humans did not function as a political force in the North at that time.”

But that wouldn’t last long either.

From the beginning, rather than Evron being recognized as one of the nine factions, it was Cedric who received the same level of respect as the head of each faction.

It was a position that would disappear when Cedric grew old and was no longer a great warrior. And that time was soon to come.

He was already middle-aged. He had no illness, but his body was not the same as before. His body had reached its limit due to the injuries and fatigue accumulated over the years.

It was of course unreasonable to fight Karam’s great warrior once again.

That didn’t mean he had a successor to fight for him like that.

Cedric did not have to tell Artizea such a story. It has already passed.

There was no need to add to Artizea’s guilt by saying that the Grand Duke had done so.

Instead, there was one thing he was curious about.

“I thought it wouldn’t affect the general trend. If…… If you had known that, would your judgment have been different?”

“…….”

It was about the time when Cedric asked Artizea for a plan.

It was useless to come and wonder now. When they needed to go back in time, it was already impossible for humans to decide right from wrong.

The total amount of sacrifice would have been reduced. For the two of them as well, in spite of the many sufferings and sorrows they have been through, the situation has improved and they have also had a lovely baby.

Nevertheless, there was always a memory of that time in the corner of Cedric’s heart.

Artizea thought for a long time with her eyes closed. And she asked cautiously,

“Whether I was there or not, could Lord Cedric be able to gather forces from the North and create a land as stable as the Lords of the West?”

“It would have been difficult. In the North, there is no crop that can sustain an army on a small piece of land. The administrative ability to compensate for that had already been lost.”

Cedric didn’t hesitate for long. Because it was a problem he had been thinking about countless times.

If all the remaining Northerners could be gathered in one area, they might have been able to function as a political force.

But Cedric didn’t.

He would rather have declared a certain land as a territory and gathered people there if Karam had a concept of borders, but Karam does not live that way.

It would have been possible enough in the West. He could have rallied warlords and crushed those who resisted, taking the land.

The reason he didn’t do it was because if he did he would be immediately targeted by the Emperor’s central army. Having a fixed base would make it inevitably happen.

Hearing his answer, Artizea said,

“Even without my health issues at the time……, there’s no way I could do it.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes. By then, we were both already……too old. We didn’t have enough time or people to start building a new foundation in the mud…….”

Artizea murmured.

It was not an era when a nation could become a nation where a hero stood tall alone. Artizea thought about how much despair Cedric must have resisted.

She spread her arms and Cedric walked over to her and surrendered his body to her embrace.

Artizea stroked his hair.

“You suffered.”

“…….”

Cedric made a sound that was unknown whether it was a laugh or a moan. Then, he faced Artizea and hugged her tightly.

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