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Chapter XVI. Reunion

<The Harmony of Mathes and Arje, and the New Masters>

Psyche couldn’t take her eyes off the headline written in bold letters for quite some time. Everything that had happened until now flashed through her mind like a kaleidoscope.

It was already a story from three months ago. Being kidnapped by Arje, what happened there, manifesting her ability earlier than planned, rescuing Ruon, and then Ruon playing a crucial role in the war to exile Zephyros. Afterward, Ruon declared to the family heads of Arje, ‘I will leave this terrible land, so do not look for me.’

Ruon no longer desired revenge. He said he didn’t want to spend the remaining precious years of his life hating them, resenting them, and seeking vengeance against them. However, he couldn’t confidently live in this land as if nothing had happened, so he would leave.

Just as she was thinking about Ruon from back then, there was a knock at the door.

“Lord Ruon is in the reception room.”

At the maid’s words, Psyche nodded and ordered her to guide Ruon to the greenhouse garden.

In the afternoon, with golden sunlight pouring down, Psyche looked at Ruon with a renewed feeling in the garden where red roses were in full bloom. The young man standing on the boundary between adolescence and adulthood, whom she was meeting after about a month, had grown taller, and unlike before, he was surrounded by a bright atmosphere. It seemed that leaving Sicardo and living on a distant island, farming, suited him well.

“Have you been well, Ruon?”

She guided him to his seat with a slight smile.

“I’ve been too busy these days. But that’s good. If I had too much free time, it might have been harder…….”

“That’s fortunate. The nightmares…… are they getting better now?”

Ruon nodded with a smile.

“I still have them occasionally, but I fall fast asleep as soon as I lie down on the bed. When I wake up, it’s morning.”

“Don’t push yourself too hard. You’ll get sick that way. If it’s difficult, show it a little.”

“Of course. I’m here today because I wanted to rest.”

Gentle gazes were exchanged.

So much had happened in the three months. After the war ended, Psyche demanded from the family heads of Arje, except Serdin, that she never wanted to see them again, so they shouldn’t linger around her.

Fortunately, Rezus complied with those words, and afterward, Psyche stripped the positions of the family heads of Mathes, except for Paris.

When Zephyros fell, those who tasted defeat lost their morale and surrendered. Only Zephyros screamed to the end that they should kill him instead, but even death was too good for him.

Psyche was now the owner of Rosebel and the head of Mathes, and she passed on the vacant family head positions to collateral bloodlines.

Throughout all this process, Psyche contemplated how to punish those who were the heads of Mathes. Ruon said he didn’t want further revenge, saying he didn’t want to become the same kind of monster as them, but Psyche felt differently.

She stripped them of all their positions, but that wasn’t enough. She wanted to return exactly what they had done to Ruon. Especially to Zephyros.

However, she changed her mind after Ruon said, ‘That would be nothing more than becoming the same kind of monster as them, and even if you take revenge like that, emptiness will overwhelm you more than satisfaction.’

Instead, she decided to exile them. She also took away all the first-class powers they possessed so they couldn’t escape their place of exile for life.

Fearing they might attempt suicide after losing everything and falling into the abyss, she had people monitor them through crystal balls.

Even after doing all this, she didn’t feel better. But as Ruon said, giving them the same treatment probably wouldn’t have made things any better either.

“I may not be able to forgive them……, but at least I’m trying not to hate or resent them.”

Suddenly, Ruon opened his lips as he put down his teacup.

“Hating someone, resenting them, despising them—it’s all too painful and exhausting.”

Psyche also put down her teacup and quietly listened to Ruon’s words.

“We’ve escaped from there now, and everything is going well at the moment.”

Despite having suffered pain that would traumatize someone for a lifetime, a gentle smile pooled at the corners of Ruon’s lips, which had never lost their light.

“Let’s not waste our lives thinking about them anymore, shall we?”

A dull ache throbbed in her chest. She forced herself to smile at Ruon and nodded.

“……Yes, let’s do that.”

A breeze carrying the scent of roses gently swept across their cheeks. The two of them gazed into each other’s eyes for a long time, silently holding their smiles. It was a moment so peaceful that the terrible times they had experienced just a few months ago felt like a distant past.