Carson and a resemblance in lips, forehead, and eyes.

It was unbelievably mysterious. She must have worn this headpiece back then. It had been truly beautiful.

“My father gave it to me. He said to give it to the woman I would marry.”

“…….”

“This is not an emperor’s but a man’s, a vow dedicated to the woman I want to hold in this world. So, marry me.”

Ines looked at the ornament in her hand. The red gem shook pitifully in her trembling hand.

“Be my wife, not an empress.”

The sturdy Senonia tree in the garden seemed to have been there from the beginning, observing the two. Ines couldn’t answer directly; her breath caught, and she couldn’t speak.

Feeling her hesitation, Carson firmly held Ines’s hand.

“Are you afraid of what comes next?”

At the sudden and irrelevant remark, Ines’s eyebrows shot up.

“Were you worried I might not remember the next verse you mentioned in the scripture?”

Ines literally found herself speechless.

“Don’t use it when proposing?”

He smirked and stared into Ines’s eyes. Her chest tightened at the warm gaze.

“No, I’m going to say it to you now. If I offer my hand, suggesting we take ten steps together, you must give me everything you have.”

Ines somehow didn’t want to hear the next words he would say. If she heard what he said, it seemed unlikely that she would give him an answer to go with him.

But Carson didn’t wait for her fearful heart.

“And, even if you come to want too much……. You’ll never go back empty-handed.”

‘Ah…’

Ines eventually sighed. Tears welled up in her eyes. Like the pure morning dew on leaves or the gentle ripples of a blue forest on the surface of a young lake.

“Because I’ll be holding your hand forever.”

He grinned as he looked at her.

As tears rolled down Ines’s eyes, she answered simultaneously. There was no reason to hesitate anymore.

“Okay.”

With Ines’s permission, he stood up and embraced her again. In the collision of their warm lips, Ines kept answering incessantly.

Okay, okay, okay. I will be your wife.

If the world doesn’t allow us, I’ll be by your side even if I have to die.

The deep green leaves of the tree, firmly rooted in the ground, swayed aimlessly as they fell. The glossy leaves, reflecting sunlight, sparkled.

Without permission, Carson and Ines made a vow with the sacred tree in the divine forest that no one could enter without consent.

Despite all attempts to break it down, what Carson wanted was one thing—the unyielding tree he planted in front of Ines.
Looking at each other with the same heart.

Spending a lifetime together as his companion.

Suddenly, the wind blew in from outside, and Ines shivered. Then she looked outside.

The shining leaves from the sacred forest fell, and the swaying resembled a gesture of resentment, as if asking Ines to send them back to their homeland. Involuntarily, her eyes closed.

That evening, Ines received thick documents from Carson and Noah.

“Not surprised…?”

“Monetary reform is a very risky idea.”

Carson grinned and laughed.

“The term ‘monetary reform’ was somewhat unfamiliar to me.”

At his meaningful expression, Ines’s gaze rolled playfully. Seeing that, Carson’s smile deepened.

“That, too, you must have read in a book.”

“Yes, it was from a history book of a very distant country.”

Finding a country more politically advanced than Keynes on this continent was not an easy task. But not just any book—a history book.

“Now you don’t even bother showing sincerity in lies.”

Ines fake coughed with a grin.

As far as she remembered, monetary reform happened four times. It meant that all three previous attempts had ended in failure.

Monetary reform had to be accompanied by economic reform. Simply changing the value of money wasn’t enough to take any action.

So, the cost of trial and error was much greater than expected. And that pain became the burden of the people.

Of course, it was not an entirely worthless endeavor. It was just that the sacrifices for figuring out what went wrong were too substantial.

“What do you think we should do?”

“Well, after reviewing it… this is a failure.”

Ah, Ines admired Carson’s insight.

The first monetary reform occurred two years from now. At that time, the situation was worse than it is now.

It was when the anger of those who wished for the world to turn upside down reached the heavens. Anthony von Raymond was the Crown Prince at the time, and the former Empress still intervened in all affairs. And the result was dismal.

Major and minor riots occurred everywhere right after the monetary reform.

“What about it…?”

However, Carson already saw the results of that time that no one could guarantee.

Ines felt her heart pounding towards him once again. Ines only knew the fact that monetary reform had failed, and even after the situation ended, many parts remained unexplained.

How could he already know this?

“To explain, it’s a bit long…”

He scratched his chin and chose his words for a moment.