Eden, dressed in a blue knight’s summer cloak, stood straight behind Patricia and gazed at the distant sea.

At that moment, three knights ran over from the sea, soaking wet. They knelt before Patricia with exaggerated gestures and greeted her loudly.

“Rising morning sun!! Your Majesty the Empress! Did you sleep well?”

“Hehe, yes. You all look splendid.”

“Your Majesty!! We shall make you even happier!”

The three shouted in unison as if singing in chorus.

“……Pardon?”

As soon as those words ended, the three knights rushed at Eden. Eden, who had been standing with a cold expression, was grabbed by his limbs.

“What, what are you doing?”

They held onto Eden and ran swiftly towards the sea like a shot arrow.

“One, two, three!”

After counting together, the three knights threw Eden into the deep blue seawater. Caught off guard and plunged into the sea, Eden floundered before walking out of the water with a drenched and chilly expression.

Patrick coughed and laughed, having inhaled cigar smoke incorrectly. The Emperor also grinned.

“Splendid fellows.”

Patricia tried to look away from Eden’s soaked appearance, but her head kept turning, and she laughed, thinking she shouldn’t be laughing. But that was only for a moment.

“No, no way…… Har, Harchen!”

When Patricia turned her gaze from Eden, the three knights were standing before her.

“We apologize, Your Majesty.”

Lean and Bern stood on either side of Patricia, lifting her arms and ankles as lightly as if she were a paper doll.

“You’ll die by my hand if you drop the Empress, Calip!”

Harchen said in a low voice. Patrick jumped up, but the knights were faster. They ran straight for the sea. Patrick turned to look at the Emperor. He was smiling leisurely, puffing on his cigar.

“Harchen, stop this.”

“Hmm…… Stop what?”

“The joke is going too far.”

“A joke? Well, let’s just wait and see.”

Patrick and Eden, whose wet clothes clung tightly to his body, ran towards the sea in a hurry, not even waiting to hear the Emperor’s response.

Although Patricia was confident in her swimming abilities, she felt dizzy at the thought of how unsightly she would look when wet.

She disliked the idea of shattering her dignity as the Empire’s Empress and her usual graceful demeanor over such a childish prank, floundering and clinging desperately. She commanded Bern, who was about her age.

“Ah, ah, Sir Bern, Bern. Stop.”

Swoosh, the sound of waves was terrifyingly loud, and cold water touched her arms. Patricia closed her eyes tightly, resigned to her fate.

“One, two, three!”

“Kyaaah…… Huh?”

Calip, having procured it from somewhere, gently placed Patricia in what looked like a lidless wooden box.

Moreover, the wooden box was even lined with a soft blanket. Then Bern and Lean grabbed the handles on either side and ran through the sea.

“Your Majesty, don’t be afraid and open your eyes!”

Swoosh. The wooden box carrying Patricia cut through the waves and glided over the sea.

“Ahhh, what is this? It’s so wonderful.”

Patricia opened her eyes wide. It felt like riding a ship swiftly cutting through rough waves. Water droplets sprayed on her cheeks, but her heart felt clear and refreshed.

Lean and Bern ran for a while before stopping. As they stopped, waves rolled in. They slowly rode over the waves, following the undulating water.

“Ah!”

“Your Majesty, are you enjoying it?”

“Yes, very much!”

“As expected, His Majesty the Emperor was right.”

At Bern’s words, Patricia raised the end of her eyebrow and looked at him.

“Harchen?”

“Yes, it was His Majesty’s instructions. This wooden box boat was made by His Majesty himself.”

“Ah, really…… Then, perhaps. Eden too?”

“Hehe, of course. How could we dare to think of throwing Sir Eden into the sea? Ah, please keep this a secret from him.”

Patricia looked towards the awning where the Emperor and Patrick were sitting. Patrick raised his hand and waved. The Emperor was sitting with his back leaning against the chair, legs crossed arrogantly.

Ah, there. That man with an arrogant exterior but a kind interior is my husband.

A big wave rolled in. Patricia looked up at the deep blue sky with a bright smile. When riding the wave, her heart felt full, as if she had swallowed a white cloud.

*

Patrick went to the Garnet mine with the King of Torun. The mine, which the Lasbur trading company managed from extraction to processing and transportation, was located in the border region of Tane.

Since it was such a small kingdom, the distance wasn’t far, but due to the rugged terrain, they said they might stay overnight and left.

Not long after Patrick’s group departed, Crown Prince Pamuk arrived. Bern and Lean were engaged in a sword duel on the beach.

Patricia was looking for an opportunity to duel with Lean or Calip. Pamuk greeted the Emperor and Empress with proper etiquette.

“Did you sleep well last night?”

“It was fantastic, the sound of waves was so loud I couldn’t sleep until dawn.”

Everyone passed over Patricia’s comment casually. Except for one person.

“Re……ally? The reason you couldn’t sleep until dawn was because of the sound of waves.”

Patricia pretended not to hear his words and turned to Pamuk.

“Patrick went to the Garnet mine.”

“Yes, I’m on my way back from seeing him off. I wanted to ask His Majesty if he’d like to go sea fishing.”

“That’s good. For fishing, a couple should go together.”

At the Emperor’s answer, Pamuk said he had prepared a sailboat. The three knights cheered like boys, unfastening their sword belts and taking off their boots. Patricia wasn’t keen.

“I’ll stay and rest.”

She had been wanting to go to the beach cemetery alone anyway.

“Then, let’s cancel the fishing.”

At the Emperor’s words, the knights who were rolling up their trouser legs and shirt sleeves, along with Pamuk, looked at each other in confusion, unable to continue speaking.

“Why, you should go.”

“I don’t want to, unless we go together.”

“Oh, everyone is out here.”

Just then, Monica Valenti, who was said to be Aldisha’s cousin, came out from the mansion to the beach. She held up a fabric box decorated with lace. She said she had brought a letter from Aldisha in Tane.

After Patricia instructed her maid to prepare tea, she turned to the Emperor and smiled. He approached Patricia while unbuttoning his uniform jacket.

With so many people gathered here, surely he’s not going to do anything strange.

Patricia looked up at the Emperor, whose actions were unpredictable. He leisurely took off his jacket, draped it over his shoulder, and spoke while unbuttoning his shirt collar.

“I’ll take a good nap after having tea with my wife.”

The Emperor looked dangerous just by tilting his head to the side.

“You couldn’t sleep because of the sound of waves? Huh, today I won’t let you sleep even at dawn.”

His voice, low enough for only her to hear, was lewd, and his narrowed eyes were decadent.

While conscious of people’s gazes, Patricia felt her heart flutter as she watched his hands unbuttoning and rolling up his shirt sleeves. Her body felt tingly somewhere, and heat rose to her cheeks.

The Emperor seemed relaxed. Somehow feeling a bit unfair about that, she pulled on the Emperor’s shirt, undoing one more button, and whispered in his ear.

“Of course, tonight I’ll be your mermaid again.”

She met the eyes of the Emperor, whose face had turned as red as hers, gave him a cool smile, and then turned away.

*

Monica was unmarried. The young marquis she was engaged to had died in the war with Tane. So she used the name Valenti and lived in the Valenti Count’s mansion for her entire life, she said.

The small kingdom of Torun had one ducal family and three count families. In the autumn of the year she and Aldisha made their debut, Kazan, the Crown Prince of Tane and a war maniac, invaded.

All the men in the kingdom participated as soldiers, but most of them died within six days.

On the seventh day, the former king acknowledged defeat and proposed a royal marriage. Kazan came to Torun Palace in person, deposed the king, declared Torun a principality, and tried to take Aldisha to Tane.

Aldisha had a private audience with Crown Prince Kazan. She asked him to withdraw the principality declaration and recognize Torun as an independent kingdom. She also asked him not to take her away like in a marriage by abduction, but to send a formal marriage proposal. If he refused, she held out a sword with both hands, asking him to kill her.

Unusually, Kazan withdrew the principality declaration within a day of making it and then retreated. After returning to Tane, he sent a marriage proposal three days later.

After explaining the situation of how her mother came to enter into a royal marriage that Patricia didn’t know about, Monica handed over the box.

The box was made of birch wood planks, covered with floral patterned fabric and decorated with lace. She said her mother made it before leaving for Tane.

“I thought deeply about it. Whether I should show this letter to a bride who has just married. I wrote the epitaph that way, you see. You’ll understand why. Please, after reading it, burn it and scatter the ashes.”

“Yes, I will. Thank you.”

After seeing Monica off, Patricia opened the letter box on the terrace. About twenty letters were arranged in sequential order.

A royal marriage with the war-maniac Crown Prince who had trampled the kingdom, the contempt and ridicule from the nobles and royalty of the huge empire’s capital, the disrespect and mockery she had to endure to protect the beautiful seaside kingdom, the rude and violent indulgence after the Emperor’s ascension under the pretext of an heir, the blood-stained battle dress, the cursed oracle and twin birth, the horrific slaughter that occurred before her eyes, the night she made Patricia a shadow princess of the West Tower to save her, the night path between Patricia and Patrick, the appearance of Empress Pamila, Pamila’s childbirth and the splendid palace for her, the order for the Crown Prince to observe the war, the dawn when she put silver armor on Patricia, the Empress’s visit to the separate palace, illness, hallucinations, pain, fear of death.

And the passage written at the bottom of the very last letter.

「On the day Patrick becomes Emperor, I’ll end my revenge and go to Torun with Patricia and Eva. But Monica, I think I’ll die before that. There’s no hope. If Patricia and Eva go to Torun, build them a wooden house by the sea. I love you.

Rosa, Aldisha.」

Her eyes reddened with each letter she read. But her heart grew cold as if packed with hard snow. Her heart, her internal organs froze.

After reading all the letters, she took a lit candle and went to the fireplace to set fire to the letters.

With a whoosh, the burning paper crumpled and turned to black ash. She put the fabric box, which had a purple background with small white and yellow flower patterns, into a leather travel bag.

She went down the terrace steps to the beach cemetery. She sat leaning against the tombstone.

“The beach roses are red, Mother.”

Mother, why can’t I leave the tower? Five-year-old Patricia asked, clinging to her mother’s dress hem.

Her throat stung. Patricia didn’t cry.

“I can see the sea through the red beach roses, Mother.”

Mother, why do I have to go to the battlefield? I don’t like fighting. I’m scared of the hot blood that splatters everywhere while maintaining the temperature of the dead, of the headless corpses. The thirteen-year-old girl in silver armor said inwardly.

She swallowed the rising hot sobs.

Mother, Patrick will become Emperor soon.

“Rosa, Aldisha. Mother, rest in peace.”

She looked at the distant sea with wet eyes. The boundary between sky and sea blurred, everything melting into a watery hue.

Clop clop clop.

The sound of horse hooves was heard. She turned her head. Red beach roses swayed in the wind.

Beyond them, the Emperor riding a black warhorse came galloping, spotted her, and stopped. He jumped down from the horse and walked quickly towards her.

“Harchen.”