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Volume 3 Chapter 3 Part 7

In defiance of her intended fate, Marine Kraische confronted her father Matthias anf the Lords allied with the Factory Alliance and persuaded them to allow the unification of the Factory Alliance and the Fantasia Union through marriage. Due to their military inferiority at that time, the Lords of the Fantasia Union also approved of the idea, which rhen led to the wedding ceremony that was supposed to be carried out at the Grand Cathedral in Elam… but then 「The Tragedy of the Grand Cathedral 」 happened, and the marriage plans between Alexis and Marine fell through.

(I heard that Marine genuinely loved Alexis. )

However, after her and Alexis father’s lives have been lost to the Demon Lord, Marine kept on blaming herself for it, claiming that the tragedy happened because of her own selfishness, and it is said that it was for the reason she cut off all contact with Alexis and buried her feelings for him deep in her heart.

(I heard that women can be as fickle as a wind when it comes to changing their minds… )

However, since she was still immature as a woman, Siluca did not know how much of that saying was actually true or not.

「To be honest, I am a little bit afraid to ask this… but what is it that you want to do now, Lord Alexis? 」

Siluca wondered if she should be so intrusive about Alexis’ private matters, but she ended up asking about it anyway. One fact that remains true and that is not going to change anytime soon is that Alexis is still the current leader of the Fantasia Union, so whatever he ends up wanting to do is going to have a great impact on the outcome of the Lord’s Conference as a whole.

「I still love Marine, even after everything that happened. If only I could marry her, then I would not mind throwing away my title or all of my territories. 」

Alexis declared quietly, and Siluca involuntarily looked all around them to confirm if no one else was listening. It would be pretty bad in any other person besides Alexis, Siluc and Theo heard him declare as such, because these were not the words that a head of a Marquis family and someone who was a leader of the second biggest military power on the entire continent should say.

「I understand how you must feel right now, but… 」

Siluca began to speak, but she could not bring herself to say anything else, so she simply stopped right there.

From a purely practical standpoint, she thought that it would be incredibly difficult for Alexis and Marine to be together. First of all, neither the Ducet nor the Kraische family were the Archduke families anymore, so even if they were t get married, it would not result in the fusion of their Crests that would end up creating a Grancrest. Secondly, many Lords opposed the idea of them getting married in the first place, and these Lords still oppose that idea even today, so if they were trying to force that idea through, they would most likely endanger their respective positions as the leaders of their own factions. In the worst possible scenario, that could even lead to the Factory Alliance and the Fantasia Union getting split into several smaller factions, which could plunge the entire continent into the new time of Extreme Chaos filled with warfare and death.

Such a turn of events was the one that Siluca did not want to see fulfilled, since her current goal was to ensure that Artuk would continue live in its current prosperous state, but in order to fulfill that goal, the only way is to defeat Waldrind and its Heavy Knights. It would be great if Vilar and Marine who are cousins could fins it in themselves to go past their differences and work together, but at the current moment, the relationship between Artuk and Waldrind is most likely beyond any hopes of repair.
「I know. 」

Alexis nodded while tears begun to run down his face.

「Marine is the kind of woman who possesses as strong sense of responsibility, so I am sure that she is going to faithfully fulfill her duties as the head of the Factory Alliance. 」

Aside from that, as far as Siluca knew, Marine was also incredibly strict with herself. Even now after some time has passed since 「The Tragedy of the Grand Cathedral」, she was still wearing her black dress to mourn the death of her father, and that self-strictness of hers resulted in her always being prepared to take action whenever it was necessary. But even if Marine did not have a strong sense of responsibility, Siluca was convinced that she would not give up her positions as the leader of the Kraische family or the Factory Alliance even if it were to cost her her life.

(I think that between the two of them Alexis is more of a rare breed rather than Marine.)

In order to marry Marine, the Marquis of Halusia was seriously willing to give up all of his tit;es and possessions he had a a Lord, just so that he could be together with the one whom he loves… but he did not end up actually going through with that.

(If he actually did that, then that would be a foolish move from the standpoint of him as a Lord.)

If Siluca was still her old self, she would probably ridiculed him for his weak-mindedness, but right now Siluca was happy that Alexis could still remain true to his sincere personality.

「My wish if for all the Lords across the entire continent to become one without the further need for conflict, so that we could all sit down and elect the Lord that would be the most suitable one to become Emperor through peaceful discussion. If we will be able to do that, then I believe that would be enough to put an end to all the fighting for power and these times filled with Chaos. 」

Alexis spoke quietly once again.

That was a beautiful ideal to have, but making that ideal a reality would be exceedingly difficult. It is not like Siluca was trying to justify waging wars, but in their current situation, war was the simplest and most obvious means of unification available to them.

「During this Lord’s Conference, my aim Is to refrain from coming up with any sort of initiatives myself. 」

Alexis said while looking at Siluca.

「All that I want to do is to support the decision that the rest of the Lords are going to arrive at. As a result of that, even if the decision that the Lords are going to arrive at is that they want to confront the Factory Alliance after all, I will not oppose that decision and will comply with it. 」

Alexis spoke about it while being fully aware that Vilar was one of the Lords who would be in favor of fighting against the Factory Alliance, but it was reassuring to hear that he was going to maintain a neutral stance during the Lord’s Conference despite him possessing the title of Marquis and being a leader of the Fantasia Union, because that means that the Marquis of Halusia is not going to openly support the plans made by Marquis Dawson.

「That is essentially everything that I wanted to say, and I wanted you to be my witnesses whom I knew would hear me out without voicing any sort of complaints. But above all else, I want the two of you to be happy to show everyone around you that there are still things in this world that are more important than titles and territories. 」

「I promise you that we will try to do just that. 」

Theo said strongly. Siluca also nodded her head affirmatively, even though she was still unsure of what she should be doing in order to become truly happy.

「Right now, I am a subordinate Lord of the Earl of Artuk. But putting my master-servant relationship with him aside, I will do everything that is going to be within my powerto make sure that your dream comes true, Lord Alexis. I also believe that someday there will come a day where you will be able to be reunited with Lady Marine, and you are going to make the continent whole. 」

Siluca was wondering if Theo prepared those words beforehand and was waiting for the most opportune moment to speak them, but then she shook her head, knowing that this was not the case, because Theo was always saying exactly what he was thinking without thinking things through.

(If everything could be resolved peacefully, then that would be nothing short of a miracle.)

Siluca thought to herself, hoping for that miracle to really happen.

But unfortunately for her, the reality was heading in an exactly opposite direction.