Let’s go. It doesn’t seem like a mood for tea anyway.”

Because of Carson’s sudden movement, Ines couldn’t follow him and absentmindedly responded.

“Where to?”

“I said I have something to show you. Get dressed lightly and come out. I’ll be waiting at the front.”

Finishing his words, he headed for the garden with unhurried steps. Only then did Ines come to her senses and called out to him.

“But, my lord, didn’t you say you had a question for me?”

He turned his head, glanced at Ines, and smirked briefly.

“As if you already know the answer.”

Leaving the scene after saying only what he wanted, Carson’s unique aura still lingered around him. Seeing his light hidden in the sunlight, Ines hurriedly ran to prepare.

“Come here, Ines.”

Sometimes, he didn’t use honorifics with Ines. Was it because of the sense of intimacy? Ines found this gap both confusing and oddly pleasant. As she took his outstretched hand, he led her across the damp ground.

The place Carson took her was a mountain overlooking the entire city.

It wasn’t high, but the view extended far and wide.

The mountain was neither steep nor desolate; the whole city seemed warm.

“But Ines, why didn’t you talk to your parents about the mine?”

“Ah, I forgot.”

Carson chuckled with disbelief. The mine wasn’t something to easily forget. For him, who had always believed that money equaled power, it was quite a fresh shock.

“Was my explanation not enough? It’s a tremendously valuable mine.”

“It wasn’t lacking. I guess I didn’t think it was urgent.”

“You’re right. It’s not urgent. The mine isn’t going anywhere.”

In fact, the mine didn’t feel important to Ines at all. She simply wished that her parents could live comfortably without losing their roots.

“Remember when I asked why I was going to Huangcheng?”

“Yes.”

“Watch closely.”

Ines followed where he was pointing.

“A railway will be built along this path.”

Speaking as if prophesizing the future, his face shone brighter than anything in the world.

“Do you see? That’s the Swalden residence.”

The distant house evoked different feelings. It felt both infinitely far and endlessly close.

“The railway is here. The station will be near Conero Square where we first met. The railway will pass right beside your residence, and I plan to build a station there.”

“A station?”

“And the station will be named Swalden.”

“Why…?”

“It’s symbolic.”

There were no visible emotions on his face as he spoke. Symbolic of what? The boundary of the estate?

Then a question came to her. Did she ever have a Swalden station in her past life?

She was primarily involved in railway construction within Lusonia. Occasionally, she went to Landhill but mostly stayed in the mansion. She couldn’t distinguish where in Landhill she was at the time.

“Remember when I asked if there was a place you wanted to go?”

Both then and now, Ines didn’t answer. Neither then nor now did she have any curiosity about the world. Her sole wish had been to stay safely in a world full of contempt and malice towards her.

Did she even have the right to dream of places to go?

“Once the Swalden station is complete, it will naturally connect straight to Lusonia. The railway will cut across all of Lusonia. Do you know what lies at the end?”
When he lowered his head, their gazes met. Carson smiled at Ines without reservation. The radiant look of assurance made Ines’s heart begin to pound.

“Sea.”

“Sea…”

Ines thought about the sea for a moment, quietly uttering a foreign word she had heard but never spoken.

“The sea is truly beautiful. No, ‘beautiful’ is perhaps insufficient. It’s a place where it’s good just to look.”

“…”

“Soon you find yourself thinking. Those waves that are so beautiful yet never become mine for even a moment are a little… sad.”

His golden eyes held Ines’s green irises, making them unable to look away. Would one feel this way watching the sun rise from the sea? It was a beauty that seemed to instantly steal one’s gaze, blinding them.

“The waves crashing white against the sandy shore seem like a mirage. And yet, it doesn’t matter. Even if it’s a mirage, even if it vanishes into foam upon being touched, even if it never shows the same face twice, the waves will always crash in.”

The wind that resembled autumn, the sun moving towards the top, everything seemed to run away into his words.

“So now, Ines.”

Hearing her name from him felt almost like fate.

“From now on, you will want to see the sea.”

Ever since their first meeting, he was someone who could freely change Ines’s thoughts and feelings. So when he said she would want to see the sea, Ines would undoubtedly begin to long for that sea.

The sea that Ines imagined came and went like waves, just like fate.

“Yes, I want to see the sea.”

He nodded and then focused his gaze back to where the railway would be laid.

“I will be the one to take you to the sea you see for the first time. Therefore, I must obtain the right to lay railways across the entire empire. And that’s why I’m going to the capital.”

Ines looked at him with astonished eyes.