Lothar scratched his hair, a trace of helplessness appearing on his face.

"With the current contents of our treasury, I doubt there’s anything left that would catch your eye."

"But with merits this immense, if I cannot grant you anything at all, I’m afraid I won’t be able to satisfy the hearts of the people."

Wearing an expression of genuine distress, Lothar lazily rose to his feet and slowly stepped down from his oversized throne. With each step he descended the stairs, the gold ornaments adorning his body jingled softly.

Kanzaki Rei could tell that every one of those ornaments was a powerful magic tool.

But they were probably of no use to him. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

"Come to think of it, when we first met, you were still just a child. And now you’ve grown so much. Looking back... I realize I never even asked what happened to you over these past years."

"Lord Rei, would it be convenient for us to speak in private?"

Lothar had already walked up to him and extended the invitation with a gentle smile.

Rei had no reason to refuse.

"Of course."

"Then come with me."

Lothar personally led Rei toward the rear of the great hall.

The two walked side by side.

Behind them, the assembled ministers whispered among themselves, their thoughts tangled together.

"That Lothar... actually stepped down from the imperial throne?"

"In all these years, this is the first time I’ve ever seen His Majesty leave his seat..."

"Exactly. Since I entered this court, I’ve never once seen him step down from that throne. Even when he led military campaigns in person, he had people carry that broken chair of his."

"Hmph. If it weren’t for the fact that his protection always turns danger into safety... with that temperament of his, he would have been overthrown long ago!"

Not everyone present in the hall was loyal to Lothar.

Among them were many who harbored deep dissatisfaction toward him.

And there were quite a few.

The ministers gathered in court to pay homage to Lothar had originally been discussing their strategy for dealing with the monster threat.

In order to formulate their next course of action, they had gone without sleep for three days and three nights.

If high-level class-advancers did not possess naturally robust constitutions, they would never have been able to endure it.

As for their loyalty...

Heh.

Aside from a handful of old retainers who had followed Lothar since the earliest days of Loren, everyone else had been recruited and appointed from the nations he had conquered.

Over the past ten years, the factions within the royal court had long since woven themselves into a vast web.

Open conflict and hidden currents surged endlessly.

Yet amid this turmoil, an extraordinarily strange balance had formed.

Each faction restrained the others, and on the surface, everything appeared peaceful.

But in truth, among these people were those who had once attempted to usurp the throne.

And in the end...

Nothing came of it.

Those individuals were still serving in official positions, and none had ever been purged.

It was as if Lothar knew nothing about it.

...

Rei and Lothar walked side by side, eventually reaching the garden behind the palace as if they were simply taking an evening stroll.

Now that monsters had invaded and Abyssal corruption had spread, the flowers in the garden were no longer thriving.

No one had the spare energy to maintain it.

The royal garden, once radiant and splendid, now appeared somewhat desolate.

"When you returned before, it was so sudden that I was unable to prepare a proper welcome. And from the look of it, you were in a hurry to attend to other matters, so I did not ask you to stay."

"Ten years have passed. I never had the chance to properly ask where you went during all that time."

Lothar’s voice was warm and gentle.

It was completely different from the lazy attitude he displayed while sitting on the throne.

Rei had no intention of revealing everything to Lothar, so he replied,

"I accidentally entered an ancient ruin and was delayed there for many years."

"By the time I emerged, it was already now."

What he said was entirely true.

He had simply omitted many details.

Lothar understood the meaning behind Rei’s words and responded with a faint smile.

"It seems you encountered another great opportunity."

"And if there was no news of you for so long, then you must truly have spent many years inside that ruin."

"Everyone has their own secrets. I won’t pry any further."

The emperor idly adjusted the withered flowers before him.

The two fell silent for a while.

Rei did not attempt to start a conversation, and Lothar seemed to have no intention of speaking either.

They simply stood there, quietly appreciating the ruined beauty around them.

The sky remained dark.

As Rei’s Absolute Sea of Mana expanded, the range of his perception continued to grow.

He had already swept away the powerful monsters.

At this moment, the Sea of Moon felt strangely empty.

And yet the landscape within his perception remained oppressively bleak.

Black seawater churned endlessly.

Countless islands lay in ruin.

The Land of the Moon seemed like the final sanctuary.

The last piece of pure land where living humans still existed.

"Lord Rei, do you believe in fate?"

Without warning, Lothar suddenly asked the question.

Fate?

Of course he believed in it.

I possess the Prophet class, and after entering the Path, my understanding of fate has deepened considerably.

"Yes. You could say I do."

Rei would never casually claim he didn’t believe in fate.

Because fate was something that genuinely existed.

Lothar continued, gently twirling a blooming white flower between his fingers.

"Lord Rei, have you ever felt that there are certain events in this world that are destined to occur?"

Rei replied with a question of his own.

"Are you referring to true destiny?"

Lothar shook his head.

"Not exactly."

"Or rather, not entirely."

"What I mean is the kind of fate where, once one thing happens, another thing is guaranteed to follow."

"For example, if I place first in the White Tower examination, then I will be admitted to the White Tower."

"Or if I draw the correct pattern, then the corresponding ritual will be summoned."

Rei nodded.

"Fate entanglement."

Lothar laughed.

"Haha. Lord Rei truly is as knowledgeable as ever. That term is remarkably precise."

"The decisions made by one person alter the fate of another. No one’s destiny exists in isolation. All destinies in this world are intertwined."

"Your Majesty, is that what you mean?"

Lothar nodded.

"Yes, more or less."

"Do you think that within this network of intertwined destinies, there exist certain inevitabilities... inevitabilities capable of forcibly binding together two completely unrelated events?"

Rei asked,

"For example?"

A mysterious smile appeared on Lothar’s face.

"For example, as long as I remain the Emperor of Loren, Loren itself will endure forever and never perish. No matter what happens, it will continue to exist."

Oh?

That hypothesis was something Rei had never heard before.

Rei said,

"Is that the reason Loren has managed to survive until now despite so many monster invasions?"

"If such a thing truly exists, then it is unlike anything I have ever encountered. How did Your Majesty accomplish it?"

Despite all his years of study,

Rei had never once heard of something like this.

Binding the fate of one event to another.

Lothar smiled faintly.

Instead of answering directly, he asked in return,

"Lord Rei, do you think I am a good emperor?"