Senia did not answer immediately. The sunlight, filtered through the leaves into fine fragments, spilled across her body and fell upon the floor around them.
Iyue lowered her head. Her eyes could only see the shifting specks of light dancing across the ground… yet she could still feel the Queen’s gaze resting upon her.
After a long moment, Senia finally spoke in a soft voice.
“I cannot forgive you.”
Iyue’s face turned deathly pale at those words.
“Back then, it was I who insisted on bringing you into the Royal Court. There were many who opposed your entry into the Knights Order.”
“Not only because of your bloodline, but also because of your aloof nature, your unbridled conduct, your breathtaking talent and the formidable power that was difficult to control… Many urged me to reconsider.”
Iyue raised her head… Senia’s gaze was still just as gentle.
The person she was looking at was not a hero who had saved the world, but that one unruly elf she had encountered during her inspection of the Ranger Corps’ Training Ground all those years ago.
“But I chose you anyway.” Senia said.
“It was I who overruled all objections, who kept you here, who had you don that armor and stand by my side. Since that was my judgment, then no matter what consequences followed, I cannot place the blame solely upon your shoulders.”
Her expression was perfectly calm. There was none of the condescension common to rulers deliberately bestowing favor, nor any performative display of benevolence or magnanimity.
“Your Majesty…!”
Iyue could only force out those two words… Emotions she could not vent were constricting her chest.
She knew Senia was sincere. But the more she knew Senia was sincere, the more ashamed she felt, to the point of wishing the ground would swallow her whole.
Senia looked at her anguished expression and gently shook her head.
“Don’t make such a face, Iyue.”
Senia placed her hand upon her shoulder… The gesture rendered Iyue unable to move.
“The you of today is no longer that half-fae girl who once stood at the edge of the Royal Court, needing me to give her a place to stand. You are the one who defeated the Demon King, the Hero who ended the War, a living Legend in the hearts of countless people across the Empire. Neither my humble Court, nor this city, nor even this Sea of Trees can constrain you any longer.”
“The world finds peace because of your name. Knowing you still walk upon the Empire fills them with belief that Peace endures… I cannot, and will not, pass judgment upon someone like you.”
“But I—”
“This is my true feeling. And I do not attribute the Tragedy of that day to your departure.”
Her voice sank slightly, falling into that old wound in the heart that had never fully healed.
“And in all these years, there have been times when I was almost grateful you were not there. Because if you had been there, you would have fought desperately to protect me and Father… and in the end, you would have died there.”
Iyue’s eyes widened.
“If that had happened,” Senia said, “I would have lost not only my Father, but also a very precious friend. And in the War that followed, perhaps there would have been no Fae Ranger to walk beside that dear Hero to the very end, to shoot the Demon King down from the sky.”
There was no resentment in Senia’s eyes, nor any lingering regret.
The emotion contained within them was more like a tranquility arrived at after enduring countless pains and deliberations.
“I know you are that kind of person, and I have always believed you are that kind of person. And the fact that you have come before me now to say these things only proves that my judgment was not mistaken. So the fact that you were not there that day… is truly for the best.”
Senia bent down and embraced her rigid body.
“We are no longer sovereign and subject.”
Iyue could not speak.
“After all, given your status now, for me to put on the airs of a monarch and demand you show me the same deference as before… I would find it both awkward and ridiculous.”
She rested her head upon Iyue’s shoulder and whispered into her ear.
“However, if you are willing to sit here and listen to me ramble on to an old friend I haven’t seen in years… then I will talk without end.”
Iyue felt her body go limp… As if the iron weight that had pressed upon her shoulders and her heart for so many years had vanished, a sense of relief and liberation welled up within her.
So my heart is still soft after all… So there are still so many people in this world who believe in me, who rejoice at my return. I was never… as alone as I imagined myself to be.
She lowered her head, her shoulders trembling violently.
“Ah… ah… ah… ah…”
Then the sob that could no longer be suppressed burst forth like a dam breaking.
Her tears fell drop by drop upon the wooden floor, splashing into tiny flecks of water.
“I’m sorry… Your Majesty… I’m sorry… Senia…”
There are things in this world that remain unchanging and unmovable—things that even the merciless passage of years cannot erase.
Senia said nothing more. She simply stroked her shoulder as she had done so many years ago… only this time, it was not with the sword of knighthood, but with her own palm.
She gently ran her hand through Iyue’s golden hair. She was not comforting a warrior, a Hero… but a girl who had carried the weight of the entire world upon her slender shoulders, weeping helplessly.
After experiencing the Illusion Realm, her state of mind was indeed different from before.
She had finally seen clearly the true form of the Hero she had adored and been infatuated with for so many years.
Lian was not a perfect person, but an ordinary soul who had been roughly swept along by the tides of Fate, broken by the pain of loss, crying and lost and struggling within it… and who had ultimately risen again, walking unwaveringly toward the goal she had set for herself.
Iyue and Lian… they were really the same kind of people.
She was not perfect. She had been cowardly, she had been selfish, yet she had always preserved that sincerity.
It was that sincerity that meant even when she strayed from the path, she would never use lies to cover herself; even when she walked a road the world would call betrayal, she would still stubbornly walk it to the very end of her strength.
Senia had once believed she loved that flawless radiance… but what she had truly given her heart to was the soul beneath that radiance, battered and bruised, yet still unyielding.
“Yes, this is real. What I have admired, what I have cherished… has always been Heroes like you.”
Once upon a time, she too had wanted to become such a person.
Senia closed her eyes in contentment—because she had confirmed the true face of the feelings within her heart.
It was not something imposed upon her by others… there was nothing in this world that could shake it.
…
…
It was a long while before Iyue gradually calmed down. She raised her hand and roughly wiped the tear tracks from her face with the back of it.
Only then did Senia withdraw her hand, rise to her feet again, and take Iyue’s arm to lead her back to sit at the table.
“Alright,” she said teasingly, “a great Hero can’t be crying like this. If you cry any louder, Waletidina and the Palace Maids outside will think I’m bullying you.”
“…Yes.”
That playful remark made Iyue break into a smile through her tears. She took a deep breath and slowly composed her thoughts.
After a moment, she spoke again. Her voice had recovered considerably, though it still carried a low hoarseness left over from crying:
“Your Majesty… There is one more thing I wish to ask you. Do you know where my enemy, the woman who caused all this Tragedy, is now?”