A Walk with Eternity-Chapter 51: Unfazed courage

Seeing Rue leave the dining hall had them sitting in silence for several minutes. The group quietly savored the dessert served in front of them, trying to take in the situation at hand.

"She..." Milera, unable to take the silence, decided to speak up. "...changed a bit, didn’t she?"

"I don’t think so," Kian immediately disagreed, with a somewhat prideful tone. He was one of the two people who was with her the most. "She looked like she was about to cry when she saw you two ladies."

"She did..." Dolunay, with a softened expression, agreed with him and chuckled. "But I do think she carries subtle pride in being the empress, that’s why she refused to look weak like she did before. She certainly matured, that’s for sure." She agreed with Milera’s comment as well.

"You certainly did your best hiding Syvestian from her huh," Cimmerian turns over to Kian with a smirk, recalling how much Kian tried to avoid revealing the name of their other companion. "She looked interested for a moment about Syvestian’s plans."

"Well, that damned deity has the audacity as big as the universe. I can’t believe he would tire himself too much to the point of being unable to attend," Kian rolled his eyes, clearly annoyed. "He’ll be leaving a sour impression to the sirens at this point."

"I doubt Rue would actually mind such rudeness from Yves," Lysander joined in, placing down his fork. "From what I heard, his room is the closest to Her Majesty’s chambers. There’s a high chance for them to meet tonight or tomorrow morning before she even meets us."

"I wonder how she’ll react once she sees him..." Ezio trailed off. "Want to bet on it?"

"I place my bets on her crying her eyes out," Milera says with a confident grin.

"Me too," Dolunay joins Milera.

"Just because you cried when you saw Yves, doesn’t mean Rue would cry too," Kian told Dolunay, but Dolunay shrugged her shoulders.

"Yves is a comforting presence and she seems very tired from work lately," Dolunay says. "And no one can convince me that she hasn’t thought of him over the years while being single and unmarried still."

"Well, then," Kian joins in. "I place my bets on her acting normally like how she did with us."

"I want to take the risk of her actually panicking," Lysander says.

"Oh, that’s more like her, indeed," Cimmerian joins Lysander.

"Then I’ll go with Mil and Luna’s bet!" Ezio joins in. "The losers will accept any punishment possible from the winners."

"Deal!" All the others say in unison.

Moments passed, they left the dining hall, to walk back to their respective rooms.

"Let’s discuss the plan with Syvestian regarding Nilsine tomorrow. It seems Rue knows about her current whereabouts, so we’ll have to ask her about this as well," Kian reminded the others. "Rest well you all."

"Aye~" They all responded, fighting the urge to yawn.

They were indeed exhausted from hours of walking around the whole capital city. It was worth the effort though. Although they have no knowledge for proper comparison, the siren empire certainly looks livelier than what they’ve heard before.

Upon entering the room, Kian immediately took a whole body bath to relax himself. Seeing Rue again reminded him of his responsibilities as the crown prince of the Slora Empire.

Rue seems to have grown accustomed to being the ruler... Kian thought to himself as his mind flashed memories of the past where he was taking lessons with Rue and Nilsine at the Imperial Palace. It was his father’s insistence to help the siren empress in any way he could, because after all, Rue’s father was a trusted ally for long.

Now that I think of it, my birthday comes in three months... Crown Princess Selection is drawing near...

Kian shakes his head to take that thought off his mind.. "I’ve been here for too long," he mumbled under his breath and decided to leave the bathing room.

Wearing his robe, he walked by the open window and balcony door. In which, in the corner of his eyes, saw two distinct figures in a certain balcony.

Kian paused for a moment and carefully looked over there.

It was Syvestian and Rue. There was no doubt about it.

So they finally met...

The door to his room suddenly flung open. Kian was startled, but it was just Dolunay. She is freshly dressed in her white slip on, panting heavily. Her long hair was still damped from bathing.

"Did you see what I just saw?" She asked him, completely unfazed by the fact that he’s in a robe with nothing underneath.

"Yes, just now."

"Let’s spy—"

"No, we all need sleep."

Dolunay was immediately shut down by Kian, and her smile went upside-down. She slowly closed the door behind her and stomped her way to his bed.

"Fine," she sulked. Let’s see if you can sleep with me here, stupid prince.

Kian lets out a sigh. He walked over to her side and carefully sat there.

"Let’s dry your hair properly, come on."

He was used to her sudden outburst at this point, but he doesn’t mind dealing with it for the rest of his life.

I wish life would stay this peaceful.

A moment of silence reigned over the human and the siren. The breeze singing close to their ears as they simply watched over the city. No one wanted to speak at all, but...

Almost a decade of reigning empress over this land, but I can’t even hold a single conversation with the most special person in my life... Had my brain reversed in growth?!

Despite the relaxed expression she’s wearing, Rue was actually breaking down and panicking inside her head. She didn’t expect such a sudden reunion. She never even expected him to show up in her empire. She waited for him for years, and she has expected to wait until they’re probably middle-aged people.

There was no mental preparation for her in any way.

While she was keeping quiet, Syvestian’s mind was completely relaxed.

I wonder how the dinner went with just all of them... It should have gone well, but judging by how she seems unable to sleep, something must be bothering her...

Syvestian was curious about what happened, but he doesn’t think it’s a good time to talk about it when she’s doing her best to get her mind off it. Talking about the missed years together would probably do more damage.

"Have you been able to rest lately?" Syvestian broke the silence, asking about her well being. From his knowledge, she has been busy preparing for the Solstice Festival.

Rue smiles, keeping her eyes on the city. "I’ve been doing it for three years, I’m used to it now. Being an empress has been easier over the years."

"Has it been seven years?" Syvestian asked once again, pertaining to her reign as the empress.

"To be exact, it’s been 13 years since I was titled ruler of this empire," Rue says. "My mother died shortly after I was born, I had no siblings. My father, on the other hand, died by the hands of an outsider. To avoid the complete death of our nation, the people had no choice but to crown the remaining imperial royal as its ruler."

"However, you were gone for a few months, were you not?" Syvestian says, but Rue shakes her head.

"Well, I was kidnapped because of my desire to escape the throne," she says, letting out a subtle laugh. "I was a child going through parental loss and the trauma of having my father killed before my eyes. Having to step up for the people and put aside the grief I was feeling made it feel like I was living in hell. So, without knights or even permission to leave, I sneaked out to the city."

That’s when she was kidnapped... Syvestian trailed off, looking over her. She was still smiling.

"I stayed in Slora for three years right after we parted, and it took that much time before I had the courage to go back to this land," Rue sounded somewhat melancholic. "His Majesty Kyro was kind enough to let me take lessons alongside Nilsine and Kian. I was able to train and grow for my people. It was a rough ride after coming back here... but I didn’t want to waste anymore time. My people have been suffering for years without me."

You’ve built the resolve to make your people happy over the years, and it hasn’t been shaken since... That itself is admirable enough. The words couldn’t come out of his mouth. He remained quiet, keeping his eyes on her.

"How about you?" Rue suddenly shifts the topic to him. She turned to him, meeting his gaze.

Syvestian smiles. "Samael adopted me as his heir, and I’ve been living under his roof, doing my research for the past decade."

Rue’s mouth gaped, her eyes widened in complete surprise. That was something she didn’t even expect.

"Really...?" she asked and Syvestian nodded, keeping a small smile.

"That’s also why I was able to come with Kian here as a delegate."

"Can you tell me more about your life in Grimestone?"

The night went on with the two of them exchanging anecdotes of their life before they reunited at this moment. It was only until Rue was unable to hold in her yawn, did Yves realize it’s gone too late now.

"Oh, I should let you sleep now. I apologize for keeping you up," Syvestian says, but Rue smiles as she shakes her head.

"No... It’s been lovely, knowing more about what you’ve been doing..." she says, her tone soft and meek. At this point, she feels a little intoxicated despite not even consuming any form of liquor. It must be drowsiness.

And it’s giving her some sort of courage.

Rue faced him and grabbed the hem of his sleeve, blushing like a tomato and hoping he wouldn’t notice.

"Can you take me to bed? Like old times."