MTM 216

Epilogue

Spring.

After a long winter, the spring everyone had been waiting for finally arrived. While winter in the village of Orsha had its own beauty, the spring that followed that bitter cold was radiant and beautiful beyond words.

As he felt the warm breeze carrying the scent of flowers and noticed the fresh green shoots sprouting on the trees and across the fields, Harto suddenly thought that the season of spring resembled Zed.

Perhaps it was because of Zed’s golden hair, which seemed to hold all the sunlight within it. When Zed stood beneath the sun, he shone with a brilliance that was breathtaking. Just imagining Zed standing amidst the flowers in the lush green fields made Harto’s heart swell with delight.

“Hmm, hmm-hmm.”

He found himself humming a tune as he thought of Zed. As he picked wildflowers one by one to give as a gift, he felt excited imagining the happy expression Zed would wear upon receiving the bouquet.

“Sleepy, you shouldn’t eat too much. You’ll get a stomachache again.”

While Harto busily worked with his hands, Sleepy was munching away on clover. At moments like this, he looked exactly like a normal rabbit, yet sometimes, when he gazed at him with his round eyes, Harto felt as though he were trying to speak to him.

“Pyu-pyu!”

Just then, Mir emerged from the bushes. Mir extended a tiny hand and held out a blue flower, one nearly as big as his own body.

“Oh? Mir, is this for me?”

“Pyu!”

Mir nodded, spraying clear droplets of water in all directions. Harto smiled and accepted the flower. The droplets clinging to its leaves caught the sunlight and sparkled like jewels.

Thud, thud, thud.

Moments later, Krom and Spi approached with heavy footsteps. Krom, now twice his usual size, carried a magical carrier frame on his back– crafted by Leon –with Spi riding atop it. Perhaps because the flowers would burn up the instant he touched them, Spi hadn’t picked them himself; instead, Krom held a red flower in one hand and a yellow one in the other.

“Pipit! Pipipit!”

Spi puffed up the flames around him as he excitedly chirped that the red flower Krom was holding was the one he had personally chosen.

“Thank you, Krom, and Spi. They’re beautiful.”

Harto gathered the flowers gifted by the elementals and carefully tucked Read onthem into the breast pocket of his shirt.

“Hmm… It might be nice to put them in a vase…”

The thought left him feeling a twinge of regret. If he had known, he would have asked Zed and Leon, who had gone down to Linden Village early that morning to buy supplies, to pick up a pretty glass bottle for him.

“Or maybe I could ask Leon for one of the items he brought back?”

Leon had stayed there ever since the gathering at the cabin had ended. Strictly speaking, he was staying in the village of Linden– located at the foot of the mountain –but he made the trek up to the cabin every single morning without fail. He would help with repairs around the cabin or cook meals, showcasing his culinary skills.

He heard that Reina was planning to come to Linden Village soon; it seemed he was dedicating himself entirely to helping Zed with his work to save up the funds for the two of them to settle down together.

He gathered this because Leon had once grumbled while working that, once he saved enough money, he intended to take a long vacation and get some proper rest.

The cabin had originally been a communal space for the village with no specific owner, but Zed had recently become its official proprietor. He had visited the local administrator and legally purchased the entire mountain, cabin included. Harto wasn’t sure exactly how much the purchase price was, but judging by how Allen kept sighing and lamenting the cost, it seemed he had paid a hefty sum.

‘Did Zed save up that much money…? But aside from the elixir, there didn’t seem to be anything else that would bring in a fortune…’

Harto thought it unlikely that Zed– even as a former prince of the Regnovar Empire –would have stockpiled such a vast amount of wealth. He assumed it was just Allen’s characteristic tendency to exaggerate.

Allen and Ser had returned to the Land of Abundance the day before yesterday. Originally, only Ser was supposed to go, but Allen had tagged along, using the excuse that he was seeing Ser off since Ser belonged to the Verdant Guild. Harto had heard from Zed that there was a subtle, romantic tension between ​visit our site​the two. Allen was so mischievous that he was hardly trustworthy, but Harto simply hoped that Ser wouldn’t end up with a painful heartbreak this time.

“Oh, right! I need to go see the mermaids in the Land of Abundance…”

It was a shame he couldn’t go right away, but he had promised Zed that they would go see the mermaids together once summer arrived.

Harto’s heart fluttered at the thought of the coming summer that would follow this warm spring. He also decided that while visiting the Land of Abundance, he should meet Crown Prince Damien of the Regnovar Empire.

“…Ah, the letter!”

While picking flowers and lost in thought, he suddenly remembered the letter Crown Prince Damien had sent. He had completely forgotten to read it because he had been too busy renovating and organizing after moving into the cabin.

Just then, Sleepy, who had been chewing on clover nearby, suddenly spat out the grass and pulled the uncrinkled letter right out of his mouth.

“Ah… So you were the one holding onto it, Sleepy?”

“Ppiit!”

Sleepy gave a short reply, then put the clover back in his mouth and went on chewing.

Harto had only just realized it, but Sleepy– while being a familiar to Cynthia –possessed a magical storage pocket inside his mouth, allowing him to keep any object there. It wasn’t that Harto deliberately put things in Sleepy’s mouth; rather, Sleepy would take it upon himself to hold onto [Read on]items Harto was likely to forget. The crown prince’s letter had been one of those cases.

Eager to finally read the letter, Harto set down the wildflowers he had been holding and sat on the soft, grassy ground.

“Whoa…”

Harto carefully tore the envelope and pulled out the letter. His jaw dropped in surprise. The letter was far longer than he had expected. His shock was brief, however; he soon began to slowly read through the news Damien had sent.

The letter focused primarily on the aftermath of the events at Ruinbelt and news regarding Hartiros, a topic of discussion across the entire continent, including the Holy Kingdom of Carseon. Prompted by these events, Carseon had decided to rectify all the erroneous records concerning Hartiros, who had been vilified for three centuries as a symbol of evil and ruin. It was a declaration that history would be rewritten.

The letter also noted that Archpriest Edmund, Commanders Gerard, and Isadora had joined forces to form a comprehensive investigation team dedicated to uncovering the truth and tracing the remaining traces of Hartiros.

“Yes, this is the right thing to do. Even though Hartiros’s soul has found salvation… those three hundred years must have been agonizing. The world ought to restore his honor and make amends.”

Harto nodded as he murmured this to himself. While it wasn’t yet confirmed that Hartiros was an ancient god, he felt that the investigation would eventually bring the truth to light.

The elementals, who had hopped onto Harto’s shoulders, also nodded along earnestly, even though they didn’t understand the situation. Meanwhile, the issue regarding the countless individuals who had gone missing after traveling to Ruinbelt to slay Hartiros demanded that the demons be held strictly accountable. However, the demons were not subject to the laws of the human realm, and there were no realistic alternatives available.

Consequently, it was decided that the demons would enter into a top-secret agreement with the emperor of the Arcadium Empire. In exchange for being allowed to remain in Ruinbelt, Lukaela and the surviving demons pledged to take full responsibility for guarding and managing the sealed Demon King.

Since the Demon King’s resurrection would yield no benefit to the demons, it was likely that world unauthorized copy peace would remain secure.

Furthermore, the illicit elixir, which had caused such havoc and was concocted from the flesh of the deceased Magnus, was immediately destroyed in its entirety. Although there had been some talk in certain circles about continuing research into that potent power, it appeared the matter had been nipped in the bud to ensure there would be no future victims like Walter.

“What a relief…”

Harto let out a sigh of relief. The world was changing in many ways due to an ending that had diverged completely from the original novel. Yet, these changes steering the world toward a better future put Harto at ease.

“Crown Prince Damien cares a lot about Zed.”

The passages that followed the lengthy official reports were filled almost entirely with stories about Zed. The letter’s neat handwriting conveyed respect, concern, and profound fraternal affection for him. Harto was reading through the letter with a smile when his eyes widened at the very last line.

[…And since imperial schedules prevent me from celebrating Brother Ares’s birthday in person this time, I am sending my congratulations early via this letter. I hope you have a wonderful and happy time with Lord Harto.]

“His birthday?!”

Startled, Harto jumped to his feet.

Zed’s birthday!

“When is it? Has it passed already?!”

Harto paced anxiously. It felt like a good four days had already passed since he received the letter; if Zed’s birthday had slipped by unnoticed during that time, it would be a disaster. Of all days, Zed’s birthday was the one occasion he absolutely wanted to celebrate.

A sense of urgency took hold of Harto.

“Let’s hurry back to the cabin!”

He scooped up Sleepy– who was still munching on clover with puffed-out cheeks –and tucked him right into the breast pocket where flowers were already pinned. He grabbed the wildflowers as well and ran toward the cabin.

Caught off guard by Harto’s sudden sprint through the forest, the elementals dangling from his shoulders clung on for dear life to keep from falling off.