Somehow, he felt ashamed. Why did he talk to Elrose excitedly before?

Elrose must have been imagining about her future too.

Lakshan’s shoulders drooped.

He looked like a puppy waiting for a scolding, unlike his size.

Frankly, Lakshan was afraid of what Elrose would say.

She couldn’t live in a place like this. Would she go somewhere else?

Then, it seemed that he’d have to take responsibility and look after her until she found a place to stay.

Elrose then opened her mouth.

“I’m sorry.”

“…?”

‘What do you mean, sorry?’

That was what he wanted to ask. Why did Elrose suddenly say she was sorry?

“Come to think of it, it’s your hometown… I’m sure you’re even more upset now that this happened.”

Elrose felt truly sorry for Lakshan.

Of course, it was true that she was disappointed the first time she saw the place.

But Lakshan would have been more devastated when he saw his village like this.

She couldn’t whine in front of a man whose hometown was destroyed just because her imagination was broken.

Plus, along the way here, Elrose noticed something while listening to people’s conversations.

The northerners hated the Empire.

Of course, now that the North was a part of the Empire, so were the northerners.

But, they still called themselves northerners which drew a line with the Empire.

“The Empire won, but the North is a wreck!”

“Thanks to us, the nobility of the capital are proud of winning the war.”

Because of that, some of the people Elrose encountered on her way stared at her and spat on the floor as if they were unlucky.

Of course, they saw Lakshan around and didn’t pick up any more arguments.

But Lakshan was also a northerner.

Therefore, it would not be strange to see this tragedy and be hostile to the relatively safe southerners.

But in front of her, Lakshan had an expression on his face that he was openly disappointed.

He thought deeply in his heart that he might have thought too lightly about the loss of someone’s life.

Lakshan, who looked at Elrose’s expression, shook his head with a bitter smile.

“It’s nothing for you to be sorry about. It was the Suins who set the fire and ruined it.”

“But…”

“Let’s go faster. You’d better go get some rest, and give me the backpack too.”

Somehow, Lakshan, who looked strangely better than before, pulled Elrose’s backpack up and strode down toward the village.

“Come with me!”

Elrose scurried after him, who left first, but it was hard to catch up with him because he was so fast.

Lakshan’s face as he walked earlier was a little red.

A moment ago, Elrose’s face, when she was truly sorry, kept coming to his mind.

But as an imperial citizen that had been safe while the northerners were dying, she said she was sorry.

Lakshan recalled the people he had met.

Of course, the Emperor grieved because the territory was trampled and his people died. The ministers also expressed regret over the loss in the North.

But, they weren’t sorry.

The citizens he saw in the capital said they were lucky to have been hit only in the North.

If the Suins had come down to the capital, there would have been a lot more damage.

They acted as if the damage in the North was nothing.

But, Elrose apologized first, even though no one noticed.

That apology made Lakshan feel a thorn in his heart melt away.

A smile caught in his mouth as he strode forward.

It occurred to him that he should take better care of Elrose until the day she leaves.

~*~

When the two arrived at the entrance to the village, someone found them from the alley and came closer.

He looked at Lakshan and shouted while waving his hand with a happy face.

“Oh my god! Who is this?! C- cough!”

The man was struck in the stomach by Lakshan’s quick approach and closed his mouth.

Lakshan then whispered to him.

“If you call me captain, I will kill you, Kiyan.”

“Well then…”

“Just call me Lakshan. Understand?”

Kiyan nodded his head and then asked in a low voice.

“Who is that person?”

“She is a friend’s daughter. She had nowhere to go, so I brought her with me.”

After that, Kiyan saw Elrose standing behind Lakshan.

Then, he narrowed his eyes and looked at Lakshan suspiciously.

“…Really?”

“What’s with that look?”

“That’s because you’ve never brought a young woman before. So a person from the Empire? Is that your taste?”

Puck!

He struck Kiyan in the back of his head.

“Don’t sneak a peek. Just go ahead and tell people. After all, I have to live as Lakshan now… Don’t even call me boss, okay?”

“But you can’t hide it for the rest of your life…”

“I won’t. She’ll be the one who will leave here after only a year. Maybe… she’ll even leave sooner than that.”

Lakshan murmured.

Seeing that, Kiyan thought to himself.

‘…Really?’

Kiyan trusted his own intuition.

And now his intuition was saying: Elrose would stay here for quite some time.

4. Elden Village

“Ugh…”

Elose sat on the stairs and rubbed her leg.

When she took off her shoes, she saw that her feet were swollen. The soles of her foot tingled while she walked along the gravel road.

After massaging her calves and ankles again, Elrose looked back.

She was sitting on the porch stairs in front of a small house in the corner of the town.

“Elden village.”

She didn’t know the name of this town until she arrived here.

Welcome to the rich and peaceful village of Elden.

She remembered a wooden sign attached to the fence that was half burned down.

It didn’t seem rich or peaceful at the moment, but that did not change the name of this place.

“Nice name.”

Elden means ‘paradise’ in the ancient language.

It was probably the name given to the people who first settled here in the hope that it would be a beautiful place like paradise.

Elrose, who had been rubbing her legs for a long time, looked at the front door of the house.

“It’s late…”

As soon as Lakshan entered the village, he met an acquaintance who ran to greet him.

It was hard to hear what the two were saying because they were far away, but they looked very close to each other when they hugged each other.

The man, who introduced himself as Kiyan, said, ‘we need to let people know that Lakshan is back’ and then went somewhere.

Afterwards, Lakshan took Elrose to a house and asked her to wait there, saying he would meet some people.

This was Lakshan’s house.

Elrose turned her head.

It was a small two-story house.

The white walls were stained everywhere because they were left unattended for a long time.

In addition, the dried branches of ivy were attached to the wall disgustingly.

Still, she thought it would be able to go back to what it used to be in no time if it was fixed with a little care.

Elrose then approached the porch and opened the door carefully.

Creak.

The black wooden door opened with a creaking sound.

Before leaving, Lakshan said she was allowed to enter the house.

But, he said he didn’t know if it had been properly cleaned or not.

Still, it was not like she went in first without the owner. She kept sitting on the stairs, but Lakshan didn’t come back, so she got bored.

“Excuse me.”

After asking for forgiveness from the owner who was not present, Elrose entered the house.

As she stood on the porch and looked around the house, an exclamation flowed from Elrose’s mouth.

“Wow, it’s dirty.”