Without that, it couldn’t have been this contradictory.

It was disappointing to become such a pathetically indecisive person. Ophelia let out a small sigh and stood up. The man who had been sitting quietly on the bed, watching her back, seemed startled and hesitated.

Looking straight into his round golden eyes, Ophelia said,

“I don’t like Reden very much.”

In fact, Idren knew this as well.

In his previous life, Idren had seen how she dealt with her home country. He was the one who had witnessed the fall of Reden, which she herself had not seen.

Idren thought she had reason to feel that way. He too had not considered Aglante his country in the past.

He had ascended to the throne simply because he wanted to live. It wasn’t for any grand cause or plausible justification, but because he felt he would truly die if he stayed in those snowy mountains, so he came down.

But once he sat on the throne, there was so much to do.

As he dealt with the things that came before him one by one, Idren finally realized. It was the previous king and his family who had whipped and given him hardships, and the rest of the people had simply existed under them.

Even if the public seemed cold and hateful towards him, it was just the nature of the unspecified masses. In reality, they had each lived their own lives. Naturally, there was no fierce hatred directed at him within that.

Of course, he hadn’t realized these things on his own. He had Penrel and Salode, and others who had been kind to him. Because he could see Aglante through their eyes, Idren was able to face the facts he had been turning away from.

Ophelia probably didn’t have such people.

Though he didn’t know much about her past, Idren could tell that people were not kind to Ophelia.

As a child, Ophelia had been the only one to take his hand when everyone else mocked him. He could imagine how much must have happened for such a person to change like this, even without hearing it directly.

Just as calluses form after repeated injuries, she too must have become this cynical after experiencing countless events.

So to the current Ophelia, Reden and Mahanas might feel the same.

But Ophelia was an intelligent person, so someday she would realize that the kindness from long ago still remained within her.

Idren knew that the casual kindness she had shown back then was Ophelia’s true nature. Even if she seemed like a very cold person now, she was clearly born to be warm.

Of course, even if such a day never came for her, he would still love her. What mattered to him was her very existence. Even if Ophelia remained frozen forever, he knew a part of him would be devoted to her. Even if he went back in time, even if he was hurt by her countless times, that wouldn’t change.

Idren only hoped that someday Ophelia wouldn’t be hurt when she faced the past she had closed her eyes to.

The Ophelia of his previous life probably wouldn’t have felt that way. Back then, she had turned away even from herself.

But if she lived a little longer, if she came to look back on herself and cherish herself in leisure, then things would be different.

As someone who wanted to live with her for as long as possible, Idren didn’t want the future Ophelia to feel such emotions.

He carefully chose his words so as not to offend the woman and asked,

“May I ask what made you stop caring for Reden?”

Ophelia answered in a slightly sulky voice.

“The people of Reden are just like Mahanas. They’re ungrateful and selfish.”

It was a definitive statement without a hint of doubt that her words might be wrong.

Surely there must have been an incident that led her to think this way. Idren cautiously asked her.

“Is there a reason you think that?”

At that, Ophelia let out a deep sigh. Idren flinched involuntarily at the palpable fatigue.

Ophelia looked at the man who sometimes refuted everything she said, yet on days like today acted like someone who had been scolded his entire life.

Of course, she wasn’t entirely unable to understand Idren’s thinking. Though she had driven him out earlier due to the immediate feelings of betrayal and shock, after cooling her head, she could see why he had acted that way.

Idren cherished his country, so he would want her to cherish Reden as well.

Being a kind-hearted man, he might also feel sorry for the people who would be manipulated by her.

But I am different from him.

And she had long since stopped trying to understand that people had their own circumstances. She felt no need to explain her own circumstances, nor could she think to look beyond others’ inner selves.

However, she could tell this much to the current Idren. Ophelia began to speak.

“As you know, Reden had been in a bad situation for a long time. It was inevitable with the king’s continued misrule and the prince’s extravagance.”

“…”

“There was a family that worked to help the poor of Reden and reduce taxes in place of such a royal family. They stepped up purely out of pity for the people of Reden, without any intention of gaining profit.”

She continued.

“One day, the heir of that family was beheaded for the crime of harming the royal family. When his severed head was hung in the execution ground, the people of Reden threw stones at it.”

Suddenly, Ophelia realized that she had never spoken these words to anyone before. Not even to Netepel. She hadn’t wanted to reveal that she was living trapped in a single moment of the past.

But it was already too late to stop. Finally, Ophelia uttered the last sentence.

“I have never forgotten that scene.”

Idren remained silent for a long time after hearing those words. Ophelia sat across from him in the dimly lit room, waiting for his reaction.

In the silence, Ophelia thought that the things around her looked like an old painting. Blurry and full of metaphors, it was hard to tell what they were implying.

How much time had passed? Finally breaking the silence, Idren spoke.

“If you want to use the economic situation to bring down Reden again this time, may I ask a few questions about that?”

And the man added. I’m not trying to interrogate or doubt you. I just need to know the details accurately so that in the future…

Seeing the large man like that made her feel complicated, so Ophelia answered before his excuses could go on any longer.

“Do as you please.”

But Idren, as he often did, hesitated for a moment even after receiving permission. Ophelia didn’t rush him. He had never rushed her either, so she could show that much consideration.

At last, Idren asked in a gentle voice.

“If I remember correctly, it started with the trend of red pigment last time. Will you use the same method this time?”

“I haven’t decided yet.”

The red pigment was chosen after hearing Netepel’s opinion.

Netepel said that if she sparked the trend, he would tell the merchants he knew to help circulate a lot of pigment in the market. He said he would overheat speculation that way.

Hearing that, Ophelia consulted with the financial advisor and concluded it was appropriate, then did so.

She added a brief explanation to help him understand the situation.

“That was something I did in cooperation with Netepel. So it might be different this time.”

“Could you tell me in what way you cooperated?”

That’s not difficult. Ophelia explained the facts that Idren probably didn’t know until now.

“Netepel said he would have the merchants he knew in Egelvamot help with the market movements. I judged his words to be reasonable, so I followed them.”

The plan had actually succeeded.

And through that incident, she had become friendly with the merchants of Egelvamot. Ophelia recalled things that, in hindsight, might have had hidden intentions. It was then that Idren spoke softly.

“I heard it was also the merchants of Egelvamot who bought up Reden’s land.”

“The same ones.”

“Was it also the case when you last used the crash in flower prices?”

“That’s right.”

And Ophelia added out of pure curiosity,

“You knew about the flower business too?”

That had happened just before her death. It was also not very large in scale, as it was done to match Reden’s economic size at the time. Compared to the red trend that had swept across all of Aglante and even spread to neighboring countries like Egelvamot and Reden, it had passed quietly as if it hadn’t happened.

Idren answered in a calm voice.

“I looked into it a bit after you died.”

Hearing those words, Ophelia remembered that this man had said he lived for some time after she died. It was about a month, wasn’t it?