I Miss You

I looked out the window.

The leaves were dyed in shades of yellow and red, set against a crisp, blue sky.

Before winter comes… there really isn’t much time left.

Summer had ended, and now it was fully autumn. This was to be the last season I would spend in the Imperial Palace.

Isaac, who usually stood guarding the door, sat down across from me for a change. I looked at him and chuckled. If I head to the Duchy, I have to part ways with Isaac too. Since he is a noble of the Empire, he can serve as a guard for a Prince, but not for a Grand Duke of a foreign sovereign territory.

I called the visibly depressed Isaac to sit beside me. He moved over without a word. I stroked his hair and then pulled him into a hug. I had worried what I’d do if my crybaby knight started sobbing again, but instead of crying, Isaac held me back firmly.

“Do you truly have to go?”

“Yes.”

“Then take me with…”

If I told him to come along, he’d probably abandon his Earldom right here. The fool. He doesn’t even know how precious that title is.

“Isaac.”

“Yes.”

“Look after Sierra for me.”

“…”

“Kallios… that guy doesn’t stop her even when she does something reckless. So, you have to be the one to restrain her.”

“Your Highness.”

For the first time in a long while, I recalled what I had experienced in the ruins. The seventeen-year-old Sierra was beautiful, lovely, and headstrong. Even though I hadn’t personally seen her riding horses and shooting arrows, I could picture it as clearly as if I had. She will only get more active as she grows, and her accidents will scale up with her age. I wanted Isaac to do the things I couldn’t. Just as he always had.

“I’m leaving because I trust you.”

“Your Highness.”

“She’s our younger sister, after all.”

Whenever I wanted to hug baby Sierra because she was so adorable, I used to ask Isaac. If I tried to hold her with my weak arms and dropped her, she would get seriously hurt. Isaac used to be terrified, saying the baby was too small, but he would hold her anyway. I would stick close to him and carefully stroke baby Sierra’s short hair or her chubby cheeks.

We heard baby Sierra’s first babbling together. We saw the first rice-grain-like teeth sprouting from her gums together. We were together when she fell on her bottom during her first steps. Isaac had panicked and slid across the floor to catch her, while I laughed brightly at the two of them.

She’s our sister.

When I said that while we watched Sierra sleep clutching a toy block.

Instead of refusing by asking how he could dare consider a Princess his sister, Isaac had promised to protect her.

Keep that promise you made back then.

I patted his back as if prompting an answer. Isaac hugged me with all his might before slowly releasing his arms. I knew that was his “yes.”

Kallios. Let’s go see the hill where the Siberian chrysanthemums are in bloom.

As autumn deepened and preparations for my departure flowed like water, I finally sent a letter to the guy who hadn’t shown his face once. At this rate, we were going to part ways without even a proper goodbye. I felt a bit hurt, feeling like I was the only one who found this regrettable… but what can you do? They say the person who loves more is the loser.

After sending the letter with a servant, I headed out with Isaac. Headmaster Herenso had requested a meeting, saying he had something urgent to discuss. I readily agreed. I was in desperate need of administrative personnel for the Duchy. Not just academy students, but graduates. Specifically, I wanted to be introduced to capable, diligent, active workers. As soon as possible. As many as possible.

Until now, Headmaster Herenso had dangled his talent pool like a bargaining chip, showing it in tiny, stingy bits as if he were doing me a huge favor. He was a man with a great talent for making someone’s blood boil. That damn old man. I’ve put up with him so far, but I can’t do it anymore. I need seven more people to serve as my core leadership. If he doesn’t give them to me, I’ll pluck out every hair of that well-groomed Santa beard of his. I practiced the plucking motion in the air, and Isaac, sitting across from me, looked at me as if I were something strange. It’s a gesture filled with deep meaning, so just leave it be.

We arrived at the Academy after a two-year carriage ride. Unlike my last visit, Headmaster Herenso was the only one out to greet me this time.

“I greet the Grand Duke.”

“Your beard is looking magnificent today as well. It looks like you took a piece of a cloud and stuck it on.”

At my compliment, Headmaster Herenso chuckled and stroked his beard.

We headed straight to the Headmaster’s office. While walking across the wide campus and down long hallways, we exchanged the pleasantries we had already sent through Lamierre, talked about the weather, and discussed the harvest festival coming up in a month. I kept a close eye on the position of his beard while I led the conversation with a calm face. I was prepared to rip it out if he continued to spout nothing but slippery, trivial nonsense once we reached the office.

Luckily for Headmaster Herenso and his beard, he got to the point as soon as we sat across from each other on the office sofas. It wasn’t the story I was expecting, though.

“There is a game that has recently become popular on campus.”

He pulled a few sheets of paper from his robe. They looked old at a glance. Some edges were charred. I pulled them toward me to check. A few lines drawn carelessly, circles, and a skull wearing a crown in the corner.

“What is this?”

I asked, looking at the crowned skull.

In my previous world and in this one, a “crown” signified royalty or the imperial family. In my old world, where the class system had vanished, it was used easily, but here, it wasn’t a motif one could use lightly.

Furthermore, a dragon using a skull. It was a drawing that bordered on blasphemy.

“It is a map.”

“This is?”

Now that he mentioned it was a map, it did look like one. A very simplified sketch. As I examined the four sheets of paper spread out on the table, Headmaster Herenso explained.

“It seems to be a relic of the Old Empire.”

To summarize his long explanation: this map, discovered by accident by students, is presumed to belong to the Old Empire, Argenta. To be precise, it seems to have been made by a faction hoping for the restoration of the Empire after Argenta’s fall.

“The scale of the underground ruins is quite substantial.”

Underground ruins. I chewed on those words while leaning back and crossing my legs.

“Do you want it?”

“The professors of the History Department are itching to enter immediately.”

They wanted to excavate it quickly and “study” everything that came out. I’d known since he asked for the Bennett Mana Stone Mine, but this old man is truly greedy.

“It won’t be easy.”

If it were just a regular Argenta relic, it wouldn’t be too hard for the Academy to swallow it whole. But if it was a relic of the “Argenta Restoration Faction,” it was a different story. If something valuable were to be found, they would be hit with all sorts of false charges. The entire Academy could be framed as a treasonous group denying Capresena. This… wasn’t something I could just fix for them.

“Just follow the proper procedures.”

Following the rules and sharing the spoils was the best way. You’d get less in your hands, but you could swallow your portion without getting a stomachache.

“Would you please look at this map?”

Headmaster Herenso pulled out one more sheet of paper. It was a map of the Imperial Capital. I checked the part marked in yellow. Half of the Lebaneh Academy, and… of course, it overlapped with the estate of Duke Tephersa, the head of the Noble Faction. Duke Tephersa was a famous antique collector, well-known even to me who lived cooped up in a room. He’d lose his mind if he knew there were Argenta-era ruins right under his feet.

“We want the ownership of the ruins to belong to the Imperial Family, while we receive ‘financial support’ for excavation and preservation.”

“Is it that amazing?”

Of course, the historical value would be significant. A ruin built for the “restoration” of the Old Empire would surely contain many precious items. Perhaps a room filled with gold bars or a hoard of magical artifacts would be discovered. But as for whether it was valuable enough to take on the Noble Faction… well. The Arnebv Imperial Family lacked power, but that was because their authority had hit rock bottom. It wasn’t because they lacked money.

“The last Crown Prince of Argenta vanished suddenly without a trace.”

I rested my elbow on the armrest and leaned sideways, propping my chin on my hand. The reason Capresena was able to swallow Argenta’s territory so quickly after its founding was because Argenta had no focal point. Unlike the incompetent last Emperor, the last Crown Prince was said to be clever and brilliant, but he disappeared one day out of the blue. Reading that story, I had guessed that perhaps it was something that couldn’t be recorded… like, our side took care of him, or someone betrayed him.

“Our side suspects that the one who built these ruins was the last Crown Prince.”

“Mm.”

It would be a chance to learn the truth behind the massive historical event of the transition from Argenta to Capresena. So, please go through the proper channels and unravel it step by step. I had now lost all interest in the underground ruins. I looked at Headmaster Herenso’s beard with a face that screamed I was bored to death.

“Argenta was a nation that worshipped the Black Dragon.”

“I see…”

“Among the dragons that descended upon the continent, only the Black Dragon did not have an ‘end.’ The Fire Dragon God, the Red Dragon Capre, entrusted the continent to the Arnebv family and returned to the divine realm; the Water Dragon Abbas fell into an eternal sleep on the continent; and it is said the Blue Dragon Celestone and the Light Dragon Febrius left on a long journey from which they could not return. However, the Black Dragon Argen.”

“Might be underground?”

“It is said his love for the Imperial Family was exceptional.”

“Then shouldn’t you avoid touching it altogether?”

It was Capresena that swallowed the Imperial Family he loved and the nation they ruled. What if we get cursed? At my indifferent question, Headmaster Herenso smiled and spoke.

“Duke Tephersa’s side has already begun excavation.”

Oh, my head. I pressed my palm to my forehead. I came here to bait someone and ended up getting entangled in a headache. As I stood up to leave, Headmaster Herenso handed me more papers. This time, it was a bundle of letters. Ten in total. I opened one with a tired expression and then broke into a bright smile. Inside was a resume with a densely packed career history.

I left the Academy’s underground ruins matter to Marquis Lomond. I gave it to him just to give him something to do because his constant visits to talk about marriage were annoying, but he was genuinely delighted. He said he finally had a chance to get back at Duke Tephersa. I don’t care about the bad blood between the two nobles, but I’m glad he’s motivated to dive in headfirst. Now that you have work to do, stop coming here, you tedious Pringles.

After seeing off the excited Marquis Lomond, I let out a yawn. The wind had become much colder now, making it difficult to stay in the garden all day. Two hours in the afternoon when the sun was best. I didn’t mind too much. After bending my back once, almost all the flowers except for the chrysanthemums had withered and fallen. Looking at the garden, which had become bare in preparation for winter, felt strangely lonely. It must be because the time to leave was drawing near.

That’s why I wanted to see the Siberian chrysanthemum hill even more. I felt like my mood would improve if I saw a hill covered in blooming flowers. I wonder if I’ll have to leave without seeing it… I sighed while looking at the deep blue autumn sky through the window. It had been a week since I sent the letter, and he hadn’t replied. Now, instead of feeling resentful or hurt, I was worried. Is he sleeping properly?

I wrote another letter. The flowers are all going to wither, Kallios. Are you very busy? I crumpled it and threw it away. I’m really okay. I crossed that out with heavy lines. The weather has gotten much colder. I’m worried you might have caught a cold. It wasn’t a school newsletter. I cancelled that too. Only after wasting several sheets of paper was I able to write the letter to be sent. I looked at the paper—more of a note than a letter—containing just a single sentence, then folded it twice and put it in an envelope.

I miss you.

So, show me your precious face already, Kallios.