Chapter 549 - Reunion
Chapter 549: Reunion
Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Kurisu
Reyne had been thinking, constantly thinking on the way here, what she would do and say when she saw Roland again.
Should she angrily interrogate him on why he’d fooled her like a little girl, hiding such important information from her? Or, should she cry about how much she missed him, like a nagging wife?
But, neither of those seemed to be her current style, nor was Reyne capable of acting like a spoiled little girl anymore.
Seven years had passed already. As the Queen of the Mist, Reyne had experienced countless difficulties and troubles, both internally and externally. Some troubles were on the battlefield, while others were diplomatic. Some troubles could be resolved using military force, while others were such that Reyne could only helplessly lower her head. As the actual ruler of the Northlands if not in name, Reyne had experienced far more than Roland back at this age.
Reyne had now grown up and no longer kept her hair short like a tomboy. Her hair reached her waist now, and she would keep it curled up at diplomatic dance parties paired with the most appropriate formal clothing. But on the battlefield, the way her ponytail flowed in the wind also became one of her most well-known traits.
Reyne had become a skilled diplomat and matured to understand social and diplomatic etiquette. Not only that, she was an outstanding general on the battlefield, as well as an authoritative ruler within the Mist Alliance and Mist Kingdom. She had a forceful diplomatic attitude, combined with the fact that she was the ruler of one of the newest factions on par with a mega empire. This helped the Mist Alliance to become ever more internationally influential.
“Roland picked the right person. He’s always been far better at choosing people than any of us ever could be.”
Even the picky Margaret, who hated admitting defeat, was forced to admit that Reyne had become an outstanding ruler. Although Annie had also done an excellent job ruling the Underground, Annie was still in no way comparable to how accomplished Reyne had become, especially with how Annie always tried to run away from any political tasks and would only be spirited for any military affairs or combat. It was evident that Annie was far more suited for being a general rather than a politician.
Reyne was one of the most brilliant and outstanding individuals of the new generation.
One of the most outstanding among her age group? No, the current Reyne was now one of the most authoritative and powerful individuals in the entire world. She was equal to any mega empire’s emperor in standing.
The princess knight from before had matured. She had been forced to mature.
Childhood? The chance to be a girl? The ruler of a country would never get to enjoy such ordinary times. Every action she took represented the will of her country. Her personal likes and dislikes could determine the life and death of an individual or even an entire species. Something like romance was something she couldn’t even dream about.
To look at the facts, seven years had passed now, making Reyne currently 21 years old. But, since the average human marriage age in Eich was under 18, Reyne was already far past the typical marriageable age.
As Reyne was the most powerful woman with the greatest status in all of Eich, there were naturally countless men who tried to vie for her heart. But, no matter how perfect those men appeared to be on the surface, their past misdeeds and secret ambitions would all automatically float to the surface eventually without Reyne even needing to do anything.
“Tsk, tsk, tsk, yet another scumbag man who wanted to conquer the world with his lower half.”
Perhaps due to Reyne’s loathing of “harem protagonists” (Roland had written many stories based on stories from his previous world, causing this term to be well known even in this world), it was quite clear to everyone how strong her distaste for males was compared to how friendly she was towards other females. Plus, with her past reputation as the Yuri Princess, she had now evolved into the Yuri Queen. Thus, plenty of beautiful women also sought to be conquered by her…
In order to avoid trouble and misunderstandings, Reyne became more and more accustomed to keeping a strict expression on her face when dealing with strangers. But, to her surprise, this caused her to receive another nickname, the “Iron Queen”, which actually amused Reyne.
To be honest, Reyne was only a young female knight who was still somewhat confused and only somewhat sly back when she was 14. A certain irresponsible fellow had forced the heavy responsibility of ruling an entire country upon her at that young age. The responsibility and glory of the position forced her to mature. All the expectations and trust placed on her also forced her to mature.
Her original feelings towards Roland of him being a prince on a white horse who rescued the damsel in distress had now matured into something unknown with the passing of time. Even Reyne herself wouldn’t know how to describe her current feelings towards Roland. But, she knew one thing for certain—whenever she thought about the irresponsible fellow who suddenly abandoned her without so much as a warning, forcing her to lead an entire country, she would always become incredibly angry.
“At the very least, he should have told me something. Am I that untrustworthy…?”
But now, Reyne finally saw the real Roland again. When she saw his familiar figure walking down the stairs to the spirit image training facility level, all of Reyne’s memories, which had been glamorized and solidified by herself with the passing of time, started overlapping with Roland’s childish yet handsome face. All of Reyne’s thoughts and feelings welled up within her chest.
‘Wonderful, he hasn’t changed at all. He’s just gotten slightly skinnier. Is he not eating well…? Wait a moment, this doesn’t seem right.’
When Reyne noticed that her happiness actually surprisingly exceeded her anger, even she herself felt that something was off. And, as Roland’s familiar face looked over her, Reyne felt even more chaotic thoughts coursing through her mind.
This so-called “Iron Queen” suddenly started blushing mysteriously. She almost didn’t even dare to directly exchange glances with that familiar face, yet Roland unhesitatingly looked all over her as if he was looking for every change in her. He even stared for quite a while at her sensitive parts, which was quite rude of him.
Reyne was somewhat angered by his behavior. With her temper that was becoming more like a tyrant’s every day, she typically would have kicked him long ago, but for some reason unknown to herself, she didn’t know what to do. She felt like an elementary school student who hadn’t finished her homework yet. And without her realizing it, her mouth was arcing upwards.
“Um…”
His voice hadn’t changed at all. Although his handsome face had gotten skinnier, this actually made him look more mature. His gentle eyes rested right upon her face (remember that all of this is from Reyne’s point of view), and his expression seemed somewhat hesitant and melancholic. Was he showing guilt?
“I’ll forgive you if you apologize.”
The furious female knight from earlier instantly turned into a little girl who was angry with a parent. She instantly forgot about how she’d been swearing revenge just a few minutes ago.
Meanwhile, I finally spoke what I was thinking after some hesitating.
“Um… Who might you be? Are you also one of our allies? You’ve developed quite a nice chest, much better than that bean sprout Reyne from my family. Nice to meet you for the first time, so please take good care—”
I didn’t even get to finish my slightly sexually harassing greeting when I heard a familiar angry roar.
“Heaven’s Sanction!”
Time and Space would be no restrictions in front of Reyne’s fury. A pitch-black fist suddenly descended from another dimension and sent Roland flying.
This brute force punch originated from the Divine Sins stuck in the Earth Elemental Plane: Emordilorcan’s children. Their powerful fists traveled across dimensions as they were now part of Reyne’s power.
It was impossible to even think about dodging the Divine Sins’ frightening speed and brute force. Although I was the one who gave the power over the Divine Sins to Reyne, I couldn’t be happy right now about her improvement in controlling them, because I was now deeply stuck in the ceiling.
Shattered portions of the ceiling kept falling down as Roland fell completely silent.
“Nice job!”
“That felt so good to watch!”
“Punch him again! Do it in the face this time!”
Whenever a person met with misfortune, seeing others’ reactions would be a good glimpse at how the misfortunate person was thought of by others.
Since Roland received a beating, the witch Amelia laughed out loud, the black cat Harloys laughed out loud, the bald Sword Saint Barton laughed uproariously, and even the great engineer Timlad took out a loudspeaker to announce how pleased he was. Anyone who was familiar with Roland was delighted to see his misfortune.
Katerina and the mercenaries were the only ones who worried if Reyne would accidentally kill Roland like this.
“Relax, in this day and age where the good die young and bad people live for thousands of years, this man… even if Armageddon arrives, he still won’t die!”
Timlad’s explanation had everyone nodding in agreement. Even if Roland took a direct hit from Divine Sins, everyone felt that he would be perfectly fine. It would be nothing more than the equivalent of going on a holiday to him.