Prologue:

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It was a very clear and peaceful morning, or- to be exact, it should’ve been.

Erich von Cardion, Emperor of the Cardion Empire, reached out and began slowly reading through all the papers on his desk.

[ To His Majesty the Honorable Emperor…  Well, I don’t respect you that much, to be frank. ]

A sentence that would’ve made anyone else freak out, had they read it.

[I still can’t understand how the nose-bleeding crybaby, who couldn’t even stop a nosebleed properly, ended up sitting on that throne and becoming a respectable emperor.]

Just by looking at the best and elegant handwriting (that didn’t match the contents of the letter), Erich could immediately tell who had left it here.

Of course he knew.

There was only one person in this palace who could say all this without hesitation.

[As you probably already know, I’m leaving you this letter to keep my promise.]

Promise?

Erich bent his arm, bringing the letter closer.

A promise? We hadn’t done anything recently that could be considered making a promise.

He did have a fight recently…

[An old promise.]

But as soon as he read the following sentences, he was able to realize just what this “promise” was.

[You know what Your Majesty always said?]

What had he always said?

[ “I won’t marry you even if I die!”]

“Oh….oh, oh, oh.”

Erich let out a curse.

If anyone was there with him, they would’ve chided him for letting such words come out.

They’d probably be like, “You must maintain your dignity, Your Majesty!” But it didn’t matter.

Anyone who saw this letter would’ve reacted the same way

[He would rather eat the carrots in the palace kitchen raw than marry me.

Oh, and I tried one raw carrot and canceled that, saying it wasn’t too bad.]

I did that?

[ He would also rather enter the monastery than marry me.

Come to think of it, you said you would take that back since you didn’t like the vegetable-based diet there.]

“What? Oh- oh!”

[ There are so many more pledges you made along the lines of “I’d rather instead of marrying you”, but I’m afraid I’ll run out of time if I write them all down, so I’ll just leave this at that.]

The handwriting in this part looked more rushed than before. Erich read the next sentence, trying to calm his trembling hands.

[Anyways, since I didn’t want to get married either, I’m leaving before it’s too late.

Don’t be picky, don’t doze off during Cabinet meetings, and don’t take the lead when fighting monsters because I don’t want you to get hurt.]

“…”

[You’ve done a great job dealing with me these past years, Erich. Now, you deserve to live.* Congratulations. Take care~]

*A reference back to “I’d rather die than marry you!”

There was no name written at the end of that calm last sentence.

Erich already knew who the sender was anyways.

The distinct personality of the letter and the staff placed neatly next to it…

“Elisha.”

Erich crumpled the letter, running his hands roughly through his black hair.

Less than a month after the new emperor had ascended the throne, the Empress-to-be, Elisha, disappeared.

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