Ashes and Kingdoms

"I thought it was burned by the flames of vengeance and turned into a handful of ashes, by the way. If it becomes difficult, will the woman's weakness still water her? I'll take your place."

"Please don't take away my pleasure."

Elesia responded with a dismal voice as she smiled. When Senion stepped aside and clasped his shoulders, he looked down at Glaus and told him delightfully.

"The men heading for the barracks have traveled one foot ahead."

――

Glaus and Levanus breathe at the same time. Trying to protest, Levanus took half a step. but before its eyes, Senion stuck his fist out and made it stop. When I opened my fingers, the ring fell apart. Many of the citizens of the Empire carry a combination of identity cards, a seal ring. One, two,... just twenty.

The voice of Senion descends from the head of Glaus staring at it with agitation.

"One of us didn't surrender. I don't even compliment him on his cleanliness. Let me tell you something, you stupid stubborn bastards."

A slight but genuine reverence turns to the usual tone of looking down on people. But Glaus wasn't listening. Slowly reach out and grab one of the twenty, slightly bigger. He stared at it for a long time, as he suspected it was a lie. When he was sure that no matter how long he waited, the ring would not disappear, nor would it turn into someone else's, he grabbed it all the time. The whiter your fingers, the stronger they are.

Elecia was also staring at Glaus, who clutched the ring without a voice and clasped it, losing her words.

Chas, why is the flame so quiet? This is what I wanted. It was the desire to bring down the emperor of the empire and lay low those who would be emperors. You can't be unhappy.

No reply. Elecia was desperate and reached for the power of the flames within herself. No, it is like a small, weak, ash-covered bamboo that loses its radiance.

Chas! Answer me, this man is right!? I was blinded by your flaming glow, and I couldn't see anything but anger? That's the price of bonding!?

"It is not. You know, my partner.

Genshas' voice reaches slightly. Elecia bit her lip.

Speaking of the power of dragons, fire is essentially what consumes them. If we run out of what will be burning grass, we will not gush ourselves out.

Once, from within Elesia herself, more or less, anger erupted. If you think of revenge against the emperor, if you think of your husband and children, you could always set the flames on fire. And the flame drove Elesia forward.

But there's no more anger.

One day I'll let the emperor kneel down, and I'll twitch to kill him after making him beg for his life, just as my husband once was, and that's all I should have wished for. I didn't feel like hurting the man in front of me even more. Sending that neck to the emperor and thinking about doing him the pain doesn't make him feel any better.

(I wonder if this was really what I wanted)

But of course, I'm not even willing to forgive you easily.

When Elecia was silent, Glaus finally looked up.

"... Lord Elecia. If you took Alect's neck as well as mine, you'd be satisfied. Alect was my nephew. She's my older sister's kid. I grew up with brothers.... This will keep the Tiol family man alive"

All he had to do was have one sister left, he snapped. The meaning put in there is obvious.

In Elesia's head, a broken bell rang.

(I do the same thing -)

I did the same trick that Emperor Genus once did against the Tius family. the same place as the man who vowed to hate, scorn, and curse you to the last generation.

A comatose flame of joy burns in my heart, while falling into a lake in the middle of winter but very cold.

Unexpectedly, Elecia was standing up. I don't want to stand and do anything, I just flaunt it on the spot.

Glaus stared at it like that. Then I said quietly, to whisper.

"When Varys' neck gives up, will you promise me? Lord Elesia. The people of Nornicom awaited your return. But that's not to restart the battle for revenge. In order to make the land better, wearing the Lord, strong and full of glory."

Saying so much, he dropped his eyes on the ring in his hand and smiled with a painful bitterness.

"Most importantly, if Nornicom were to become independent if he gave up the battle of blades, there would be another, more troublesome battle in the country. I'm sorry about Varys, but either way, I can't do much with that hand fight."

One foot ahead, let me rest.

So crushing, he looked up to Elecia for a response. Between the two gazes, there was no room for the will of the other to interrupt.

"… would be good"

At the end of the silence, Elecia answered with a faint voice. The words I grabbed by the throat and caught with my tongue, however, made it easier all at once when I put them out. Anger and hatred and the will not be stopped here, they all unravel and collapse.

"Let the redemption we have sought against the present emperor Varys be good with his neck. But Nornicom will never give in to the Empire again."

"That's fine."

Glaus smiled and nodded.

He silently collected the ring that remained scattered on the floor and added Alect's ring to it. Pull out what was on your finger and put it on the top. The small mountain did not even resemble a gravestone.

"General..."

Marius speaks up. I don't know what to say, but I can't help but say something, in that way. Glaus just gave me a glimpse and laughed bitterly and didn't answer. Instead, stretch your spine with your knees down to face Elecia.

"One last thing, could you do me a favor?"

"Persistent"

Senion pounds his tongue and tells him to throw up. But nobody else dealt with it.

When Elecia urged him with a trick, Glaus looked a little illuminated and tilted his little neck.

"Let me touch your hand."

……

For an unexpected favor, Elecia flashes face to face. Glaus spread his hands wide to show that there was no fine work of any kind.

"Not included. It's just that... I've never been able to touch you, so I'm not sure if I'm going to stay untrained. I'd like to at least have your hand."

…………

Offered embarrassingly, Elecia blushed to see.

Whatever it is against his unmarried aristocratic daughter, the widow of the enemy, that is also the dragon marquis and the woman who almost burned him to death once, Glause's shyness, to say the least, is not much.

But such shame, before the sincere obsession of Glaus, only disappeared.

(Anyway, before the sun goes down, he's not in the world anymore)

When Elesia told herself, she reached out her right hand in silence.

"Never mind."

Glaus was awed and thanked, and as he advanced forward with his knees, he wrapped her hands with his respectful hands.

During the bundle, meditate your eyes as you pray - gently, open your hands.

As Elecia pulled her hand, Glaus stood up as a dust.

"Okay, sorry."

When he broke his hips deeply and thanked him, he was taken by Levanus and Marius and left the room. Not a prisoner to be taken to the execution site, but in the grand steps of a general who triumphs on the throne of glory.

As Glaus left, the room suddenly felt dim.

Senion coughs deliberately to deceive the air. Damn, he made a grunt sound.

"I hear the man in the empire is distracted. You look good on top. If you want to hold me, you want to hold me, and if I'm honest with you, give me something good."

No reply. Senion, although snotty, immediately regained his mind and stopped by Elecia.

"Well, I guess I'll finally get what I promised too. I can't really say I got the capital back until I've finished the general, and he let me keep it, but that's over. If you were that man, you wouldn't have had to be on guard."

As he said, he turned his arms around Elecia's hips and held her, letting her face up with his hands on her chin.

"You don't look good like that. With your usual strength, entertain me."

"... I did warn you."

Heh, and Elecia spilled a laugh. The vibe returns, as the small, squishy flame shined brightly again. Senion looked, oops, just nodding his tongue. but at the next moment, he sat down with an awesome grin.

"Holding me is the same as holding a flame. If you say it's okay to be ashed, let's go to the bedroom. Until that body burns out, I'll entertain you for a moment."

"Hey."

Senion roared and turned into a sinister face and let Elecia go.

"We don't have that now. What do you think I'm doing here, leading a clan party all the way south? There was no need to be involved in the first place, such as in a dispute between the imperials."

"Though it seems that you have used me to ensure a long standing for the clan. Who said the Dolphins couldn't do politics?"

Elesia sneered, accompanied by words of praise that were confusing with her heart.

The play, which had been played within an implicit understanding, was finally revealed in obvious terms, and Senion was constrained to respond.

By making Dragon Hou his own guest, he increased in fact, his authority over the people. Not only did he recognize and show this expedition as a testament to his generosity and mania, but he also filled it with imperial cereals and luxuries.

Of course, the “outcome” was due to the cooperation between Elesian tease and the Nornicoms, but the Dolphins of the Great do not see the part. A fallen Imperial woman is giving compassion to a young sheikh, and in return she is giving away her wealth. The way Elecia has played on the understanding, keep it up.

Thanks to this, the chief's popularity is no longer known to the ceiling. And Elesia finally took back her homeland and took over one of her hated enemies. We served each other's purpose.

If so - already, the play has a curtain. That is what Elecia's remarks suggested.

Senion roared low as he circled the idea.

"If you burn me to death, the tribe will start acting so unsolicited. Let's offend the daughter of this town, eat and ramble the store's things at will, and plunder them in those villages. And nobody stays in this land any longer. It's time for everyone to have a heart. I've never been this far into the land of the Empire since Dorfaye's history began."

"I don't think we can keep the nomadic people in one place. There's always a lesson to be learned, and I'm not going to hold you back strong, Senion."

Tingly stabbed, Senion plays a tannic surface.

"... seriously, are you going to keep your promise to that man"

"Imperial citizens do not break their vows. It's an ancient tradition."

Unlike you, the content drifts. Senion chipped his tongue. With anger, but seeping through unseen greed and untrained, he once again looked around at Elesia from top to bottom. While calculating which one gains from giving this up or making it your own at all costs.

Most importantly, the answer came from the beginning.

"I guess there's something in return that just satisfies the clan without leaving it. If I am torn apart before I return to the meadows, the people of Dorfaye will not be united with you imperials in the future."

"I don't know, at least in that case, you won't be able to see the results"

Elesia answered plainly, taking the threat away, then turning to her face.

"We're not going to talk differently than we promised before we started going south. All Dolphian slaves in Nornicom will be freed and given citizenship or assisted in their return to the meadows. All the other conditions, as agreed at that time."

As Elesia once said to Liane, the kingdom of Nornicom, which will be a new neighbor, will be a good friend of Dorfae - its, concrete promise. providing cereals on a priority and inexpensive basis in winter; transferring forests currently in Nornicom territory and used by the Dolphaes at a price, etc.

Senion didn't let those fruitful stories smell in public, he acted like he was just obsessed with holding Elecia, but it was just a shame.

It's all about keeping the deal out of everyone's eyes, as we talked about in the orchard the other day. Because he, the chief, the mightiest warrior, should not imitate the humble merchant. Even if that is to the benefit of the Dolphins as a whole.

Well, it's not like I asked for Elecia in total disguise.

Senion sighed loudly and shook his head, for Christ's sake.

"I'm a family laugh for the time being."

"If I gave you what I promised you, shall I tell you the story?"

"Stop it. I'm angry.... Oh, I'll make you laugh at best. Your wife was distracted by the enemy general, who stopped her from holding her soulless body because it was boring."

"Become...!

"Don't get mad, it's not a bad rumor. Unlike the Imperials, we are very tolerant of the men and women we think of. Respecting that, I can keep my face as a man, and you can snow the stigma with the merciless Dragon Marquis, solidified by hatred. But I don't know how to be regarded among the imperials."

Senion said in a whispering tone, laughing gently with his nose at Elecia, whose hands were fisted with shame and anger. So at last, Elesia realized she had to deny it, turn bright red,

"Wow, I... Huh!

Though I almost told you, my voice gets clogged with agitation. Senion pressed with his hand white against his ear, but immediately clasped his shoulders and turned his back.

Don't leave the room, he looked back as he had come up with it and gave me a painful irony.

"Will you at least forgive me enough to hold hands?

For a moment, the blood draws slightly from Elesia's face, which was red. Senion looked at the consequences of his words, and walked away as if nothing had happened.

Left alone, Elecia stood really alone for a long time, tightening up the signs of Genshas from the heart as well.

Cursorily, I lift the right hand I offered to Glaus, feeling like it wasn't my own. Carrying it to her mouth with her left hand, with her lips gently on, she did not move still.

From beneath his laying lashes, a grain of glowing Shizuku passes down his cheeks. Her shoulders were nagging and the whimper that pushed her to death rubbed her throat and leaked, but still, she kept standing on the spot.