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Side Story Chapter 318

“Don’t worry.”

“Don’t skip meals even if you’re busy.”

Kireua chuckled. “I’m not a baby.”

“You’ll always be a baby even when you become a father.” Charles took Kireua into her arms. “You can always come back if living abroad is difficult.”

“…I’ll drop by from time to time.”

“Come by often,” Charles firmly instructed before she turned to Anna. “I’ll trust you with my Kireua.”

“Yup, I’ll come back with adorable grandchildren.” Anna beamed confidently.

Behind Charles, Iceline and Icarus also quietly waved their hands at Kireua. Selim, however, wasn’t with them; he still didn’t approve of Kireua’s choice to leave Avalon.

“Then please give my regards to Selim!” Kireua shouted.

Iruca waved her hand at him wildly. “Have a happy marriage! Don’t ever come back!”

“Seriously, it’s about time you shut up,” Kireua snapped at her.

Kireua’s group was swallowed by the light of the warp gate.

Shortly after their departure, Icarus quietly leaned over.

“…I need to talk to you about something.”

Icarus gestured to the Imperial Knights to give them privacy, but they didn’t move more than a certain distance away so that they could be faithful to their duty as guards.

“…You want me to go too?” Iruca pointed at herself.

“Yeah, you too.”

Iruca stepped backward with an awkward look. People with heightened senses still could hear the conversation despite the distance, so Iceline blocked that possibility entirely by using her magic.

“…Silence.”

Icarus silently expressed her gratitude before continuing, “Sir Cain recently submitted his resignation, and…I had to respect his choice. He’s essential to Avalon, but I couldn’t ask him to stay after all he’s done for our country.”

“You made a good choice,” Charles assured her after a brief silence.

Iceline didn’t say much but she nodded in agreement.

“And… I would like to offer my opinion on one more matter.”

“I’m listening,” Iceline responded.

“This is just my opinion, but I believe it’s right for us to retire as well after Selim’s coronation.”

The three of them weren’t interested in keeping their positions as the Queen Consorts anyway, so Iceline and Charles didn’t raise any objections.

“I agree. It’s time for Selim to stand on his own. Besides, it’s the right move unless we want to be known as evil masterminds who use the young emperor as their puppet.” Charles chuckled.

“Sir Cain’s choice gave me a lot of things to consider. On that note… what are your plans for the future?” Icarus asked with a serious look. “I’ll share my retirement plan first.”

“You already know?”

“…I’m going to go to the Academy where I first met His Majesty.” Icarus smiled.

Charles and Iceline gave her a look of astonishment, to Icarus’s amusement.

“I wasn’t aware of it before I started to teach Iruca, but I enjoy teaching quite a lot.”

“Training future scholars… The Academy would be thrilled to have the Heaven’s Mind as a professor—but are you sure you’ll be okay?” Charles inquired, concerned.

Although it was a noble cause, it was certainly not one of the first choices for a queen consort.

“All jobs are honorable, and I just want to spend the rest of my life doing what I want to do. I may be overstepping my bounds a little, but I hope you two will do the same.”

“I’m going to continue running my family’s merchant group,” Charles immediately said, as if she’d already been thinking about it. “That is what my family is known for, and that has been my dream ever since I was little. I jumped for joy when the Pontier Merchant Group became one of the five biggest in Igrant.”

Icarus smiled gently. “You’ll do a great job.”

“Thank you.”

An old memory came to mind. Although they now spoke formally with each other as a sign of respect, they used to be like actual sisters. Icarus had come to save the Pontiers from a crisis—if it hadn’t been for her, the Pontier family would have disappeared into history. Charles wanted to give all the support she could muster for Icarus’s retirement life.

“And…”

Icarus and Charles turned to look at Iceline. Her path was the most unpredictable.

“…I’m thinking about going back to the Magic Tower,” Iceline whispered.

“...The Magic Tower?”

Icarus and Charles blinked. Iceline’s decision caught them by surprise, even knowing that she could do anything.

“No place has as large a collection of books and materials as the Magic Tower does,” Iceline explained.

“So…”

“I can’t give up on him, so I want to focus on research for the time being.”

“Ah…”

Icarus and Charles fell silent. All three of them loved Joshua equally, but if they had to compare it, Iceline’s love would be the deepest. Like Aqua, the primordial stone, everything she had done was for Joshua, which showed why she was the First Queen Consort. The other two could only solemnly accept her devotion.

“I’ll find a way no matter what. I’ll make him descend to this world or become a god myself.” Iceline clenched her fists in determination.

“I’m embarrassed to say this, but please tell us when you find a way.”

“I’ll cheer for you. Tell me any time if you need anything. My merchant group and I will support you.”

A faint smile broke Iceline’s stoic expression.

“Thank you. I’ll gladly accept your help.”

*

Anna returned to the Swallow Palace with the confidence of a victorious general. However, her good mood didn’t last as long as she had hoped. As soon as the war had come to an end, Swallow’s greedy nobles showed their true colors. No matter what she said from the throne, the nobles were silent. Some of them even scoffed when Anna told them the empire should remain on good terms with Avalon.

“If you have a problem, speak now,” she spat. “Stop getting on my nerves like that.”

“There is no way we would have a problem with a lady, Your Majesty.”

Anna knew that the nobles were deliberately emphasizing her gender. Swallow was a country where sexism was still prevalent, so it was the biggest insult they could give to Anna.

Besides, many of these nobles here supported Duke Voltaire. The war was over, and Arash, the strategist, was also gone; Anna was now on the throne with no support of her own, so the nobles must have concluded that this was the perfect timing to make their move.

“…They’re really annoying.” Anna gritted her teeth.

“I told you that you would need support, Your Majesty.” The man who had been quietly standing beside Anna came forward and took off his mask. “Hello, Mercenary King here. I apologize for the sudden interruption, but I don’t have much time.”

“A-Akshuller?”

“I’ve decided to move my mercenary guild’s headquarters right next to the palace,” Akshuller announced.

The nobles opened and closed their mouths several times. The Mercenary King’s sudden declaration of support for the new empress of Swallow completely blindsided them.

Akshuller gestured at the nobles. “Anyhow, I look forward to working with you.”

The nobles came to their senses, exploding into rage.

“Why is a lowly mercenary in the council chamber?!”

“What right does he think he has to be here!”

A quiet footstep crushed their furious shouting.

“He isn’t a ‘lowly mercenary’.”

The nobles turned toward the voice. It belonged to a man who wielded such power within the empire that they could not ignore his presence.

“D-Duke Killian?”

“…He’s my brother.”

It took a while for the nobles to realize what Aaron meant. When it finally sank in, they looked like they’d been hit by a tsunami. Akshuller the Mighty was a Killian.

However, one more person showed up to land the knock-out punch.

“I’ve been watching. How disgusting. After staying silent for so long, you hyenas go wild as soon as a woman is left on her own.”

Despite the blatant insult, the nobles’ jaws were left on the floor because the person who walked out from behind the throne was no ordinary man.

“Kireua Sanders!”

“Why is the Prince of Avalon here again?”

The nobles instantly recognized Kireua from his last visit.

Anna lorded over them with a snide grin.

“Well, he’s here to marry me.”

*

The nobles bowed out for the time being, ending the council meeting. That wasn’t just because of Kireua and Akshuller, the outsiders; if it were only them, the nobles\' pride would never have let them back down. The main reason was the other half of the nobles, who were on Aaron del Killian’s side. They remained silent throughout the meeting and didn’t join in on the argument.

That was not to say that they didn’t have their own grievances.

“Your Grace, are you really going to let the empress have her way?”

Even though they had remained silent during the meeting because of their leader, the nobles on Aaron’s side weren’t pleased about the state the empire was in either.

“After all we’ve endured… this isn’t right.”

“Even the barons and viscounts are complaining about having a woman on the throne.”

Aaron smiled bitterly. “I understand how you feel, but it’s still wrong.”

“Pardon?”

“All of you were in Avalon, so you knew what sacrifice the Martial God made to save the continent.”

The room fell into silence. Joshua Sanders had sacrificed himself to save the world, despite the overwhelming power he had. To Igrant, he was a savior.

“His son is going to become the empress’ husband. Attempting to overthrow the government right now would be poorly received.”

“You do have a point…”

“And there is a practical reason too.” Aaron looked in Thran’s direction. “Out of all the people in the world, we know how desperate the people of Thran are.”

Once again, Aaron and his people went quiet. No one else would know Thran like the Killian family did; they had been living among the people of Thran for decades to escape Grand Duke Lucifer’s surveillance.

“We’ve already betrayed them several times,” Aaron continued after a long silence. “Even if a new person sits on the throne, they won’t trust us.”

On top of that, Thran’s beloved Flame Emperor was dead because of Swallow. Anyone could take advantage of the country’s chaos and start a civil war right now. That was the last thing they wanted.

“But the story changes if Kireua Sanders, the Flame Emperor’s only student, marries the empress. Stabilizing Swallow comes first, so we should help them.”

The nobles\' eyes widened in realization.

“Apologies for our incompetence. We should have known sooner.”

“Let’s wait and see for the time being. We can oust her later if we really don’t like how they get things done.”

“Understood, Your Grace.”

The nobles came to agree with Aaron—but despite what he had said, Aaron didn’t believe that he would ever rebel. From what he had seen of Kireua Sanders, the Martial God’s son, he didn’t doubt that Kireua would be able to do it.