Chapter 484: At The Lake (1/2)
Upon hearing that Jin had no desire to be with a young woman, the empress opened her eyes widely.
“Wait, Jin… So that’s what it is?”
“What do you mean by ‘it’…?”
Jin had no other answer to such a question. The empress then tried again from a different angle.
“So if it’s not a young woman, then maybe you like them even younger, or perhaps you like them older…”
“That’s not what I’m saying.”
“T-Then… Could it be that you’d prefer the company of a man instead?
“Why are you drawing these weird conclusions?”
Jin was utterly confused. He had never expected the wise and dauntless empress to suddenly start talking about those kinds of things.
“Certainly you don’t prefer automata…”
“Please stop…”
The empress then easily realized that Jin was being serious, so she decided to drop this conversation.
(Actually, she figured Jin would eventually end up together with either Elsa or Saki, so there was no point trying to get anything else out of him.)
Without putting that last thought into words, the empress then changed the topic.
“There’s so much we don’t know about demons. I’m a bit worried.”
“R-Right. But I’ll do everything in my power to help.”
“Hearing that from you feels as if I had an army of thousands behind me. Our country will do as much as we can as well, so if you need anything from us, just say the word.”
“Yes, when it comes to that, I will.”
After that, they traveled in silence for another while.
Then, as soon as the Imperial Palace came into view as a tiny speck in the horizon…
“I want… power.”
A small voice escaped from the empress’ lips.
“Power, huh?”
“Yes, power. Human resources, economy, weaponry. I wish I had more and more power so that I can better protect my people.
“…”
Jin couldn’t say anything in response to the words that had come out from the innermost depths of the empress’ heart.
However, through Reiko’s ears, those words were tightly grasped by Laojun.
＊ ＊ ＊
The hot-air balloons had safely landed on the public square in front of the Imperial Palace.
The Chancellor rushed to meet the empress as she stepped down from the gondola by Jin’s hand, who helped her after getting down himself.
“Your Majesty, I’m glad you’ve returned safely.”
“Yes, thank you. It was a very comfortable flight, with no danger whatsoever.”
The empress turned around and smiled at Jin.
“Thank you very much, Jin Nidou.”
Everyone then went back to the conference room inside the Imperial Palace.
Stearleana and Vivian were waiting for them in the room.
“Jin, Vivian here has become the Shouro Empire’s second registered foreign citizen.”
The empress herself explained that. The overly friendly chancellor seemed to have a troubled expression on his face.
“Ah, that’s good news. Will you be accepting more people seeking asylum from now on as well?”
Jin had asked that question in a casual tone, yet the empress laughed as she replied.
“Yes, that’s right. As long as they really need our help.”
That made Jin remember that there was a rumor that Her Majesty had the ability to determine a person’s true nature simply by looking at them.
In that case, she would be able to see clearly if a person seeking asylum was actually trying to infiltrate the Shouro Empire as a spy or otherwise trying to cause harm. If the rumor was true, it would bring Jin some peace of mind.
(After all, he had quite a lot of friends in the Shouro Empire.)