The next day.
Before everyone else woke up, Mika sneaked out from the inn and made his way to the place, where the palace should be.
The sun just started to rise on the horizon but it was already busy there as many people began to repair the palace.
"Good morning, Mika. What are you doing here at such an early hour? Shouldn’t you prepare yourself for the academy?" Cylia asked.
It was rather surprising to see her, the queen, taking part in the reparation, which ant that she had to do so labor work. However, as she was responsible for the palace’s destruction, she decided to take responsibility.
Even Tija was seen helping out.
"I ca here to ask for an audience with your Highness." Mika answered sternly.
Cylia sighed with a smile on her face.
"I suppose I cannot say no to you, considering my selfishness from yesterday." she said jokingly.
"But as I’m currently busy with the reparation I could only give you an audience during my break." she added.
"That’s fine with ."
"I see. The break will be in two hours though. What about the academy?"
"..."
Ridden with guilt, Mika averted his face from hers.
"I’d planned to skip it for today..." he admitted quietly.
"Hm~? You have guts for telling that despite being the headmaster of the academy." Cylia teased him with a smirk.
Because of last evening, Mika wanted to avoid his friends for today.
"Well, I will let it slide for once. I have the feeling that I’m also partly to bla." she said, turning her back to Mika as she was about to head back to work.
But Mika followed after her.
"I will help out, too. I also want to take responsibility for last night!" Mika announced earnestly.
"It’s impressive that you can still have a straight face even after wording it like that!" Cylia chuckled.
"?"
At first, Mika tilted his head in confusion but he soon realized his mistake, too, and began to redden.
"M-m-my apologies!"
Thus, Mika took part in the palace’s reparation process until it was ti for the first break. Cylia dragged Mika into a nearby café, which she rented out for the duration of their talk.
"Sorry but this was the only spot nearby, where we could talk in private." she said.
They were sitting at a small table face-to-face.
"I-it’s fine." Mika replied in a hurry.
But his gaze wandered to the workers outside for a mont.
"Sothing caught your attention?"
"Well, no... But isn’t it strange...? Neither the citizens nor the workers seem taken aback or overall affected by the fact that the palace was destroyed."
Cylia giggled again.
"It’s just that my people are already accustod to the palace being destroyed from ti to ti." she explained frankly.
"Ah, I se- Wait, what?"
Frowning a little, Mika wondered if he just misheard her.
"Sara and I sotis spar against each other spontaneously, which causes the palace to get damaged. One ti the whole palace was brought down when she borrowed my relic, haha!"
"I don’t know if I should laugh here..." Mika muttered stunnedly.
After calming down, Cylia put her folded hands on the table.
"Anyways, what is it that you want to tell ?" she asked with a gentle smile.
Mika gulped down his saliva as he faced her sternly.
"I hadn’t had the chance yesterday so I wanted to ask you this today."
"?"
"How much do you know about that man, whom you t a long ti ago and told you about a promised person?"
"I see... That’s what you want to know, huh?" she muttered.
She began to answer after she leaned back on her chair.
"Honestly, I know almost nothing about him. Not even his na."
"Oh, really...?"
Mika sounded down.
"However, it was obvious that he was not a human in appearance and strength. When I pointed that out he started to explain to what angels are. Everything he told was new to but back then, I believed every single word."
She smiled faintly.
"Out of curiosity, I challenged him to a fight but he wiped the floor with ." she huffed.
"But what shocked the most was that he was on the search for a suitable successor to his power and position. Well, he actually never told what kind of position that was but I understood that it was a very important one."
Mika processed the information internally and it was clear that the man was the system. However, that ant that the system wielded the sa power as Mika.
"Do you know why he was searching for a successor?"
"Unfortunately not. The man only said that he was searching."
"I see..."
[You do not need to bother asking . This and many other answers will revealed to you one day.]
"..."
Mika frowned again.
"I thank you for your ti answering my questions, your Highness." Mika said politely, bowing his head slightly.
"No problem. It was nostalgic, thinking back on that ti again." Cylia replied with a satisfied smile.
From this conversation, Mika concluded that her knowledge was on the sa level as Mika’s if it was about angels and the heavenly relics. The only thing she did not know about was the system, or rather, the man, who was giving him quests.
Mika was about to leave as he already stood up but he halted when Cylia touched on another topic.
"So how did your friends react to that?" she asked with a grim expression.
"You knew...?" Mika responded shocked.
"Yes, sowhat. I thought that I saw the figure of one of your classmates yesterday during our talk."
"..."
Mika was impressed that she was able to notice Lisa from afar.
"I can already imagine how it feels like to learn about the upcoming death of a friend." she said empathically.
She began to hold a monologue, trying to cheer him up but her words did not reach him as he had sothing else in mind.
"If there’s anything I can-"
"I want to live." Mika cut her off.
"?"
"After seeing my friends’ reactions, I ca to the conclusion that I want to live longer." Mika repeated firmly.
"However, I know that it’s not possible and just wishful thinking. Still, it hurts , when I think about all the things I want to do and the short ti I have left."
Cylia did not know what to say. After all, being optimistic in this situation would not do.
"I want to use my remaining ti on my friends and those close to . I want to experience as much as possible in the remaining two years with them on my side." Mika stated with an apologetic smile.
He straightened his posture and bowed his head deeply to her.
"That’s why I also want to use this opportunity to officially decline my participation in the potential subjugation of the monster Leviathan!"
Cylia was caught off guard by that statent.
"I know that it’s selfish of to say this but after thinking a lot about life and death, I decided to prioritize a life of safety. And as rude as I may sound, I would rather use the ti for other things than for the preparation and training as well as the actual subjugation."
His lips were slightly trembling.
"A-and if it’s not too much, then may I kindly ask for my friends to be left out of the subjugation...?" he asked nervously but yet firmly.
After his plea, Cylia heaved a tired sigh.
With the people from Loogam not being a part of the calculation for the subjugation anymore, the troupe lost a huge amount of strength. That way, a subjugation would not even make any sense anymore as the losses would be too much for Grat as a whole to handle.
Furthermore, that would revert the South’s stance of not wanting to fight Leviathan, which in turn, would put them at odds with the North again.
"..."
Mika lifted his face and looked at her in anticipation of an answer.
"I understand."
Relaxed, she put her elbow on the table and waved her hand, signaling Mika to leave already.
"I will not drag your people into that matter anymore. Thus, you and your friends can do whatever you want." she added half-heartedly.
Mika’s face lit up in joy.
"Thank you very much, your Highness!" he shouted vigorously before he stord outside the café.
"Hey, your work is not done yet." she joked lightly.
But Cylia’s gaze turned imdiately grim once he left.
If she had prioritized her nation, then she should have forced Mika to take on Leviathan. Without him, the key person, subjugating Leviathan was nothing more than a dream. But as a human, she could not bring herself to force him, a teenager, who only had two years left, to spend most of his ti preparing and fighting a monster.
"Maybe I’m not cut out as a queen..." she mocked herself quietly.
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