Empty (6)

What was it?

Alicia realized something had changed.

But Reichardt seemed to have no intention of telling her.

Alicia lifted her head from where it had been resting on Reichardt’s shoulder.

Alicia’s lips drew close to his.

Right before Reichardt’s lips, Alicia only smiled softly.

Reichardt kissed Alicia.

Their lips overlapped lightly, and their breaths slowly tangled.

The softly layered breaths soon met deeper.

The kiss continued until their entangled breaths heated up.

Her breathing grew more rapid.

The lips that had been locked together parted gently.

Alicia looked up at Reichardt with flustered eyes.

Her violet irises rippled like waves.

A man’s finger swept across her damp lips as she let out a heated breath.

“Did you not like it?”

Worry clung to the whispered question.

“…N-No…”

Alicia answered in a slightly dazed mood.

Her heart was beating too fast.

It seemed Reichardt had stopped kissing because Alicia’s heart was beating too fast.

“Are you alright?”

He asked in a voice full of concern.

“Yes, of course. I’m fine. …Rei, do you like me?”

Alicia spoke in a strange excitement.

“I like you.”

Reichardt smiled at Alicia for asking something so obvious.

He pressed small kisses to the face that stared at him with startled, trembling eyes.

Tap, tap, tap.

Soft, wet sounds rang out.

“Rei.”

“I love you, Alicia.”

To Alicia’s call, Reichardt answered with a confession.

Alicia’s violet eyes stared hard at Reichardt.

Under that gaze that searched him inch by inch, Reichardt offered her another kiss.

“Then…”

Alicia trailed off, unlike herself.

“Then?”

At Reichardt’s question, Alicia’s wavering settled.

“Propose to me, Rei.”

Reichardt stopped moving.

“Alicia.”

“You said you like me. You said you love me. I like you too, Rei. I love you. So propose to me.”

Alicia spoke with an attitude that made it clear she would not back down.

Reichardt stared into the firm face.

Alicia did not look away from his golden eyes either.

“…I’m not sure yet.”

Reichardt said in a hesitant voice.

About what?

Alicia thought there was something.

Probably something tied to punishment, a curse, or a sacrifice.

That was the only reason Reichardt would suddenly be able to show her affection without restraint.

“The proposal.”

“It feels like the restraint is gone, but no one has definitively confirmed it’s truly disappeared, so…”

Reichardt tried to persuade Alicia.

“As I thought.”

Alicia said in a voice full of certainty at his gentle explanation.

“…”

Only then did Reichardt realize: Alicia had merely suspected it was about the restraint—she had not been sure.

“Rei.”

Alicia looked at Reichardt with a face that said, Hurry up and propose already.

“Alicia.”

Reichardt could tell the dragon that ruled this place was gone, and that the restraint had been lifted.

He could simply feel it.

But fear of punishment still lingered.

He was afraid that traces of some unknown shackle might remain somewhere inside him—and bring Alicia pain.

“Propose to me.”

Alicia said it shortly.

The demand was clear.

Reichardt stared at Alicia with a troubled face for a while, then smiled at the gaze watching him.

He rose, turned away, and brushed the dust from his clothes.

With a small hum in his throat, he dropped to one knee before Alicia and extended his hand.

The hand Reichardt reached toward Alicia trembled faintly.

“My lady, Alicia. Will you marry me? Please—grant me your permission.”

Royal blood was trained in strict etiquette.

Perhaps because of that, Reichardt’s movements were elegant and splendid.

Alicia followed suit, extending her hand beautifully.

“I grant it.”

Her face, accepting the proposal, bloomed into a bright smile.

“Thank you for becoming my lady. It is an honor.”

Reichardt kissed the back of Alicia’s hand.

Alicia grabbed the man’s hand as he tried to release hers and withdraw with graceful smoothness.

She squeezed hard and did not let go.

“Rei.”

“Yeah.”

Reichardt tried to pull his hand free from Alicia’s grip.

Alicia tightened her hold.

“When you gave me my twentieth birthday present, I was really depressed, wasn’t I?”

Alicia sat with both legs gathered to one side, neatly overlapped.

Her expression was delicate, like a fragile lady.

To anyone watching, it would look like a sickly noble lady in a dusty, desolate, isolated castle.

A pitiful lady trapped in an underground labyrinth.

In reality, she was drained from the aftereffects of dropping the monsters swarming into the labyrinth in a single strike.

“You were, then.”

Reichardt felt an unease he couldn’t quite name.

“So even though Rei prepared my birthday present, you said you’d grant me anything I wanted.”

“I did.”

Reichardt’s anxiety spiked.

“I thought of a wish, Rei.”

Alicia said, cheeks reddening like an innocent girl.

“A wish?”

He had told her to say what she wanted; it wasn’t quite “a wish,” but arguing would damage royal dignity.

Reichardt swallowed his complaint and kept it brief.

“Rei, propose to me one more time where everyone can see. That’s my wish. You’ve already done it once, so you can do it better next time, right?”

Reichardt had no intention of retracting the proposal he’d already made.

But Alicia’s intent to announce it to the entire world left him at a loss.

Awkward, but cute.

He had hesitated out of fear, but only now did it occur to him that such hesitation could make the other person sad.

“That isn’t a wish.”

“Then…”

Alicia blinked, surprised at how easily Reichardt was accepting her demand.

“Is there anything you want? Anything you want to have?”

Reichardt said lightly.

“This place.”

Alicia answered without a moment’s hesitation.

This was the Great Temple’s land.

And it was also beneath the Dolore ruins.

Reichardt thought for a moment, then nodded.

“I’ll figure out a way.”

Reichardt’s words sounded reliable.

Alicia, who had blurted it out, fell into thought.

This place—South Fenz.

North Kaya of Mount Kaip.

East Noah of Tessen.

And even White West Alik, which she had nearly claimed after all that struggle.

She wanted all of it.

Wondering if she had always been greedy for land, Alicia suddenly thought of a plan.

“I trust you, of course. But I want this place, and I’ve thought of a sure way to receive it. So, Rei—if the Royal Dot’s punishment is gone, wouldn’t it be possible to become independent from the imperial family?”

Alicia’s expression looked nothing but innocent.

“Independent?”

Reichardt immediately went on guard.

“Until now, countless Grand Dukes of Tessen have suffered, and you suffered too, Rei. Tessen was called a land of death. If we take this place too, it feels like there’s a way for you and Tessen to start anew.”

Alicia chatted with a benevolent face.

“What are you trying to do?”

Reichardt sat down beside Alicia as he spoke.

He looked ready to throw his whole body in the way if she caused trouble.

“Don’t you want to see His Majesty the Emperor collapse while arguing? After getting land taken from him. And then crying because his youngest sibling got taken too, and he’s upset.”

Alicia threw away her kind face and whispered slyly.

A subtle smile flickered across Reichardt’s face.

“What would you have me do, Lady Alicia?”

Reichardt asked politely.

A strange smile faintly lingered on his face as he spoke.

“I wish to have a private audience with His Majesty the Emperor, Your Grace.”

Alicia said it like someone praying for an earnest wish.

“Leave it to me.”

A reliable voice answered—with a hint of laughter.

Alicia spent a night in the underground labyrinth that was practically a ruin.

The monsters that had spread across the Great Temple’s lands had not all disappeared.

This place was absurdly vast, and the number of monsters released from the labyrinth was enormous.

Night was the monsters’ time.

A night with monsters carpeting every direction.

Until Alicia, not understanding her own power, had used it and was barely able to stand.

Alicia spent time feeling as if she had returned to hell.

But she wasn’t afraid.

Alicia had a friend who lent her his knee.

In the barren space where the doors had been torn away, he kept watch in every direction.

For the first time, Alicia spent a peaceful night in hell.

When Alicia woke in the morning, leaning against Reichardt’s knee, she called for Lusa.

Her stamina had not fully returned, making it difficult to move on foot.

Reichardt looked at Alicia quietly.

He looked deeply envious.

“…?”

Alicia felt puzzled by the gaze on her.

Yesterday, the two of them had gotten off the Lusa they had ridden in front of Great Temple Archive No. 2.

Lusa would have gone to find its companions.

And now, hearing Alicia’s call, it was bringing its companions here.

“It’s coming.”

Reichardt helped Alicia to her feet.

Even as he did, he kept looking at Alicia as if he had something to say.

“Rei?”

Unable to hold back, Alicia called to Reichardt.

At the look asking what he wanted to say, Reichardt’s expression grew even more awkward.

He looked worried—like he wasn’t sure if he was allowed to ask.

“That.”

Reichardt cleared his throat like someone painfully shy, then looked away for a moment.

“That?”

Alicia urged him, curious.

“How do you do that? Calling Lusa.”

Reichardt finally managed to finish.

His expression was full of worry.

As if he were asking for someone else’s secret.

He looked embarrassed, and ashamed of himself.

“You want to know?”

Alicia said with a sly smile.

“Yes…”

Reichardt was about to add that if it was something he shouldn’t know, then he didn’t have to—

Just then, a line of Lusa filed into the hall.

Because it had been used as a dragon’s lair, it could accommodate the entire herd.

Lusa were huge, but they were nothing compared to a dragon.

Even so, every Lusa here was large.

And there were an enormous number of them.

A single herd of Lusa numbered around ten.

There were about forty Lusa living in Tessen.

Mount Kaip’s Lusa were similar in number, or more.

The Great Temple’s Lusa numbered over one hundred.

Besides the Lusa that entered the hall, there were others waiting outside the underground labyrinth.

Reichardt stared at the massive herd with admiring eyes.

“I have a request.”

At the sound beside him, Reichardt snapped out of it like waking from a dream.

“A request?”

Reichardt turned to Alicia.

Alicia wrinkled her nose with a grin and nodded hard.

“Pick up all the magic crystals here and take them.”

Alicia’s greed for magic crystals was immense.

“Magic crystals…”

Beside Alicia, the magic crystals Reichardt had gathered yesterday were piled high.

Reichardt, who had pushed aside the non-green crystals, had silently smiled when he saw Alicia collecting them.

She looked like even that much wasn’t enough.

Yesterday, Alicia had absorbed a magic crystal as big as a watermelon.

And she had eaten more than fifty magic crystals to recover her stamina.

And yet she still wanted magic crystals.

Violet eyes, bright as torches, stared at Reichardt.

It was a desperate look.

“Then you’ll tell me how to call Lusa?”

Reichardt said, his eyes sparkling as he looked at the Lusa.

“And the ones outside too.”

Alicia added carefully, reading his mood.

It was dangerous to stay here any longer.

They had been lucky to last a day.

Hoping the second day would be trouble-free was like wishing for luck at every single step.

Alicia’s depleted stamina was a problem, but she was also worried about Reichardt’s stamina, facing every monster alone.

That was why they decided to leave early in the morning.

“Outside?”

Reichardt’s voice dropped.

“I’m not saying we should hunt new monsters. I just want to pick up the magic crystals we couldn’t collect.”

Alicia clasped both hands tightly and pleaded.

Her bright eyes stared straight through Reichardt.