Forget-Me-Nots and Baby's Breath

The Kedrik Marquis affair.

It had been put to rest — with Jade Kedrik and Luke Kedrik both taken care of.

But there had been casualties. A significant number.

And that was only part of it.

The party that had led the resolution was the Railway Military Police.

Their authority was absolute on the railways — but activity outside that domain was another matter entirely.

And yet here they were, conducting a full military operation in the open, right in the imperial capital.

The Central Police, who had jurisdiction over the capital’s security, and the imperial military were both furious. Simultaneously.

The sharp standoff between armed factions, each jockeying for position, had begun.

Meanwhile, public sentiment had turned uneasy.

The world was lurching in every direction at once — but I was spending my time in the bath.

“Phew.”

I focused and drew up my mana.

Yellow. Third rank.

Green. Fourth rank.

And then, at my fingertips — blue mana.

Fifth rank.

“Is this some kind of 300% experience multiplier?”

Rigen’s growth rate was genuinely absurd.

I had been doing quite a bit of fighting recently, admittedly — but fifth rank?

That was a height most people could only reach after rolling through hundreds of battles.

Of course, if someone had received a Magic Inheritance, or was a war veteran, fifth rank and above wasn’t uncommon.

But just a short while ago I had been at third rank.

Nobody would believe it.

“Next — psychic power.”

I focused, and lifted my body off the floor of the tub.

Hovering in place, sustained by telekinesis, with the water sloshing gently around me.

Holding altitude steady in a shifting medium was a considerably demanding exercise.

But I held it for over three minutes.

“Couldn’t manage one minute before, and now my reserves have grown considerably. And the third ability.”

I could use it now.

I extended my hand toward the towel hanging on the wall rack.

“Mmm.”

Shhhp.

When I concentrated — my hand was holding the towel.

Not pulled over with telekinesis.

The towel was still on the rack, right where it had been.

My body was still sitting in the tub.

My right hand, everything from the wrist up, was simply gone — replaced by a pocket of deep, flat darkness.

Just the hand, displaced through space to where the rack was.

The third psychic ability. Teleportation.

“My teacher was excellent at teleportation. I really am terrible at it.”

I couldn’t manage proper teleportation.

Perhaps because I was a soul that had crossed over rather than a native of Karakas.

So instead I used it like this — moving only a part of the body, an improvised variation.

“Right, then.”

Floating in the bath, I eased my wrist and the towel back across.

Shhhwp.

The wrist returned to normal.

Towel in hand.

“Good, keep going like this……”

I focused again on the rack and concentrated.

The training: teleport only the hand across, rehang the towel, return. Simple to describe, far from simple to execute.

For one thing, maintaining telekinesis continuously while activating a second psychic ability burned through mental reserves at an accelerated rate.

For another, I was only moving the hand — distance judgment had to be managed entirely through visual feedback.

When things didn’t go as intended, the urge to rush took over.

But if I started pouring too much into it——

RIIIP!

“Ah. Slipped.”

In the attempt to pull the towel free, I had ripped the entire rack clean off the wall.

I had let the telekinesis fire with it.

I climbed out of the tub and assessed the damage to the wall.

“Once my reserves build up a bit more this should be fine——”

“What was that! Special Officer!”

Mirei came sprinting in.

I had been bathing. I was not wearing anything.

Mirei was in her Military Police uniform.

“……”

I stared at her. Mirei stared back at me.

“Eek!”

She let out a belated scream and spun around — a full 180 degrees — but kept right on spinning.

One full rotation back to where she started, face redder than before, and then she turned right again.

“Stop spinning!”

Snap!

Mirei locked herself against the wall, standing at attention with her face buried in it.

“I-I’m sorry! Second-Rank Officer Mirei! I heard a loud sound and believed a misfortune had occurred, and in my error I committed this breach of conduct!”

“Understood. Get out.”

“I s-saw, but it was, it was fine! Very impressive, sir!”

“Do me the favor of leaving impressively.”

I clicked my tongue, and at that Mirei finally marched out on stiff legs.

“What is wrong with her?”

Not that being seen undressed was any great issue to me.

I had been the emperor of the Millennial Empire.

Did anyone think I managed my own bathing without attendants? Security alone made that impossible.

Dozens of handmaidens, hands on me, washing and scrubbing and——

“Though I suppose if you’re going to be seen either way, a woman’s bare form is preferable to a man’s.”

Well. That had been then.

I stepped out of the bathroom to find Mirei leaning against the wall outside — clearly not registering that I had emerged, her expression somewhere far away.

Faintly pink in the cheeks.

“……”

She was quite pretty when she kept her mouth shut.

I stood there watching her and she suddenly pressed both hands to her own cheeks and shook her head in rapid short arcs.

Don’t know, don’t know. Her heart was basically speaking aloud.

“Try knowing.”

“EEEK!”

Mirei jolted sideways, lost her footing, and was about to topple over. I shot my hand out and caught her wrist, pulling her upright.

“Hah — hah — hah. Th-thank you, Special Officer!”

“Already burning up this early in the day? What’s gotten into you?”

“Nothing! Everything is fine!”

She said it while snapping to attention.

The same elf who had been drooling over cake like she had no cares in the world was suddenly performing military precision?

I looked her over with a suspicious eye. Mirei’s throat bobbed visibly as she swallowed.

“I have received no special instructions whatsoever from Commander Arsen!”

“What?”

“He said that the Special Officer is a person of the most esteemed dignity, and that I must never defy him, and that I must accommodate whatever he desires!”

“……”

Arsen, you might as well have taken out an advertisement announcing that I’m Sirik.

Whatever he had told her, Mirei was standing like a board.

“You absolute idiot.”

“I’m not hot at all!”

“……”

She was being sincere. That was somehow worse.

The vocabulary of the younger generation really had taken a turn.

“Forget all that. Go back to eating your cake like you always do. That’s what suits you.”

“I will not! I will correct that behavior!”

“Second-Rank Officer Mirei, is that insubordination?”

“I have absolutely no such intention!”

“Ugh. Can you please stop saluting?”

What on earth had Arsen said to her?

I muttered to myself.

“I can’t relax in my own home. Act normally.”

“……”

“Well? Or should you go roll around outside in the rain?”

Mirei stood with her hands clasped behind her back, shifting restlessly.

“……It’s, it’s just that after watching what the Special Officer did to sort everything out, I think I understand why Commander Arsen went to such lengths to recruit you. I sort of — I…… respect you now.”

“Who do you like more — cake or me?”

“Cake!”

“Right, stay exactly like that.”

Mirei nodded earnestly several times, then caught herself.

“Oh, I- I don’t dislike the Special Officer! It’s just that cake is so incredibly delicious, so——”

“I know. Off you go.”

“Oh! That’s right! Call me Rei! It’s what my friends call me! Please, use my nickname!”

Something had clicked — but what, exactly, remained unclear. Mirei’s eyes sparkled.

“Sure thing, ‘burning hot girl.’ Off you go.”

“Does it have to be phrased like that?”

“Go outside and practice your Beidou Stardust Kick.”

I dispatched the newly-renamed Rei and made my way toward the sitting room.

Now that I thought about it — the two of us had handled that whole situation remarkably casually for a man and a woman who had just been in a situation like that.

“Well, comfortable is comfortable.”

I pushed open the sitting room door.

There they were.

Lisera and Miriel.

Miriel was carefully cutting cake with a fork and lifting pieces to Lisera’s mouth.

Lisera couldn’t see well enough to manage the plate herself.

The younger sister — who was chronologically the younger sibling — working earnestly to look after her older one.

I was watching them with a quiet warmth when Lisera turned at the sound of my footsteps, face angled toward me.

“Welcome back.”

“……”

Miriel turned too, and her eyes went wide when she saw me — then immediately dropped to her lap. She said nothing, lips pressed together, suddenly shy.

An awkward pause settled over the room.

I didn’t feel quite right leaving either, so I took a seat.

Lisera spoke quietly.

“What does your schedule look like today?”

“I’m planning to rest for a while. The Military Police, the Central Police, and the imperial military are all posturing at each other right now — I’d rather let that simmer for a bit before wading in.”

“Then — could you spare some time this afternoon?”

“Time is just about the only thing I have too much of at the moment.”

Lisera made her request gently.

“I’d like to pay my respects at Father’s grave. It’s raining, so there shouldn’t be many people — would that be all right?”

“Of course.”

Across the table, Miriel gave a small, shy dip of her head in my direction.

“Please — take good care of my sister.”

“……”

Oh, this child!

I had to actively suppress the expression trying to break across my face. Instead, I gave a single quiet nod.

Miriel turned to Lisera.

“Come home safely, Sera.”

So Lisera was going alone. They had apparently arranged it ahead of time.

My grave.

I had to admit — I was curious.

Afternoon.

The sky had gone grey. Rain fell steadily.

The Imperial National Cemetery.

Lisera ordinarily kept a handmaid close. But for this visit, she had asked to go with just me.

So I walked with one hand holding an umbrella and the other hand holding Lisera’s, careful with each step.

“……”

The veterans’ section.

A long row of headstones.

Many of those buried here, I had known. Far more, I had not. But every last one of them had believed in me and stood against the Seven Sin God.

The courage it took — to face god who ruled the world.

True heroes, every one.

And yet, to my considerable discomfort — my grave had been built furthest in.

“It’s this way. Mind your step.”

I guided Lisera slowly forward.

The rain had cleared everyone else out. We were the only two.

But in front of my grave, flowers were everywhere.

White lilies. Red roses. Blue peonies.

“……”

Every one of them fresh — laid recently. Clearly not left and forgotten.

A hundred years since my death, and the empire’s people were still honoring me.

“Would you help me?”

“Yes, of course.”

I took Lisera’s arm and steadied her as she bent down to lay her offering — an arm around her waist to keep her from falling.

Which meant I couldn’t hold the umbrella.

I levitated it with telekinesis and kept it carefully aimed.

I had spent enough nights sleeping in rain and snow that a few drops meant nothing to me. But my daughter would not be getting so much as a single drop on her.

“……”

Lisera set the forget-me-nots she had brought down in front of the grave.

My own chosen flower, placed on my own grave by my own daughter.

Strange, the feel of it. Under this ground, my past life’s body was sleeping.

Sshhh.

Lisera drew her fingers across the stone face, slow and careful.

A gesture full of quiet sorrow.

I turned and looked at the epitaph carved into the marker.

「The man who built the Millennial Empire. Sirik Karakas, First Emperor.

The boy who cried for freedom to stand against the god who ruled the world.

The youth who sang of life’s worth and showed us we were people, not livestock.

The man of his middle years who built a nation and brought civilization into flower.

Father, son, and brother to all who called the empire home.

He rests in glory among the comrades who walked beside him.

We will not forget him. Never, and not ever.」

“……Father. I’m here.”

A quiet voice.

Lisera’s fingers traced the stone, searching.

“Just one question. Did you hate us?”

“……”

Something in my chest clenched.

Lisera spoke in a low, searching voice, her words aimed at the one sleeping beneath the ground.

“No one has forgotten Father. Everyone says I’m Father’s daughter, that I must bear children who carry Father’s blood. It was hard. But…… I wanted to. I wanted to do that much.”

My throat closed.

I wanted to run from this spot. I wanted to pull Lisera close, right now, at the same time.

I couldn’t move.

Her words found me where I stood.

“……I know Father loved me. I’ve always known. But Mother was different. The others were different.”

A quiet unraveling of something long held in.

Lisera asked a question she knew would go unanswered.

“Father…… did you hate my mother? The others too — so much you couldn’t stand to see their faces?”

“……”

“Ten years. You never came to them once. Not any formal occasion, not a single public appearance alongside them.”

At the time, I could not bring myself to look at any of my wives.

Put on a performance of marital harmony? Absolutely not. I was the emperor — what did I have to be ashamed of or gain anyone’s approval for?

Say something, and they go straight through the window.

My ministers had remonstrated, persistently. I drew a single line.

Anyone who opens their mouth about this, I don’t care who you are.

A few people pushed past that line. They went through the window. After that, things got quiet.

The sound of rain was all that remained for a while.

Lisera rose slowly from where she had crouched.

I moved quickly, taking her arm and arm and steadying her at the waist.

The umbrella, I kept floating with telekinesis.

Once she was upright, I took the umbrella back in hand and straightened the folds of her coat.

“……”

Lisera was looking at me.

Those clear, lightless eyes, aimed at where I stood.

“Would you answer me?”

In an instant, several responses surfaced all at once.

Blank confusion — what are you talking about?

Denial — you’ve misunderstood.

Deflection — this isn’t the moment.

Silence.

But Lisera already knew.

She was certain. Had been certain.

That I was Sirik.

“I……”

And then Lisera pressed one finger gently to my lips.

Cold. The temperature had bled from her fingertip in the rain.

She held my words quiet and turned her face toward what was behind me, expression set.

I followed her gaze and turned slowly.

A woman was approaching through the rain, umbrella in hand.

White baby’s breath in a bouquet.

A black suit that covered everything below the knee — and in deliberate, provocative contrast, left the inside of the thigh exposed.

Eyes fell on warm brown thighs and didn’t want to leave.

“……”

Lifting one’s gaze higher: an impossibly slender waist.

A chest that curved beautifully. A figure built to hold a room’s attention completely.

As the distance closed, the umbrella no longer blocked the face.

A face that more than matched every expectation the body had set.

Striking beauty — but the amethyst-colored eyes that held it were flat and still.

Cold.

The woman walked a straight line toward the two of us and stopped ten meters away.

She looked at Sirik Karakas’s grave marker.

Not at us — not a glance.

She looked at the stone for a long time, rain-dark, and when she finally spoke, it was to no one in particular.

“Tears shed for the dead are worth nothing.”

The most untrustworthy woman in the world.

Leader of the dark elves.

The Third Empress — the Queen of Assassins.

Iselen.