Given the event they had just attended, both Reivan and Elsamina understandably did not feel up to a hot and passionate night.

But that was fine. Cuddling as they fell into the embrace of slumber was a very nice alternative. The warmth they felt from each other's presence was the most pleasant blanket and the other's gentle breathing was the most delightful serenade. It made them forget how fragile happiness was, for tragedy could strike at any moment and in entirely unpredictable ways.

The following morning, Reivan expected to wake up first since his routine usually started before the sun peeked out from beyond the horizon. But Elsamina woke up just as he did, though she was adorably rubbing her eyes as she followed him to the mansion's inner courtyard where he meditated.

It was a bit hard to focus though because she was watching.

Unable to take it anymore, Reivan cracked his eyes open and glanced at her. "Why don't you go back to sleep?"

Elsamina couldn't suppress a yawn before answering. "I want to watch. I can't?"

"It's not that you can't..."

"Am I bothering you?"

She was, actually. But Reivan shook his head with a smile and closed his eyes again.

With his impending duties and the need to father some children, he had no plans to Ascend anytime soon. But it didn't hurt to continue practicing so he could when the time came. Helen seemed confident she could do it whenever she wanted to and he wanted to be able to say the same thing.

Immortality.

It still boggled his mind just how close he was to achieving it. As someone who woke up every day wondering if that was the last time he would ever open his eyes, it was strange to think about how he could achieve eternal life.

The two energies within him—mana and qi—fused into essence easily enough due to regular practice. But he still found it difficult to fuse directly with his body.

Over time, he realized that "fusing it with the vessel" actually meant injecting the essence into himself on a molecular level. It was crazy to him how he could now perceive the tiny little building blocks that composed his very being, but he supposed that wasn't even the craziest thing he had come to know since dying.

Naturally, it was difficult. Otherwise, there would be more Ascendants flying around like fruit flies. The body denied the essence. Rejected it, even. Despite essence being a combination of energies that already resided within his body, the moment he tried to infuse it into his cells, rejection would occur.

'There has to be a trick to it.'

He just hasn't figured it out yet, Reivan thought. Internally, he wished he could ask someone for advice but apparently, this step had to be explored alone. Because each individual had a different body and Ascendance wasn't the same for everyone. At least he could find solace in the knowledge that it was possible; just a quick glance at any Ascendant proved that fusing essence and flesh was feasible.

Unfortunately, all he could do was push himself for now. Specifically, he would maintain the state for as long as he could while trying to suss out what he was doing wrong—the brute force method, in other words.

One could only do this for so long, however.

"Haa." Reivan released a tired sigh as he opened his eyes again, noticing how sweaty he'd gotten. His entire body was soaked, strands of hair clinging to his face as beads of sweat trickled down his chin. With a flick of his wrist, however, the sweat was frozen and extracted, leaving behind only a feeling of freshness.

"You weren't moving, but you sweat so much," Elsamina commented from the side, a tray of sandwiches on her lap as she sat right beside him on the grass. She gestured for him to take some before she continued. "It felt like something was happening though."

"I was training to Ascend." He took one and bit into it, immediately realizing that the sandwich had ham, cheese, and bacon in it. It tasted fantastic despite the simplicity, making him unconsciously lick his lips to prevent wasting the meaty juices. "I'm not going to go through with it yet, but it never hurts to know."

"Hmm... I heard Ascendants can't have kids."

"That's right. That's also why I don't really want to Ascend yet." Reivan grinned as he brought his face close. "Who's going to make you a mother if I become an Ascendant? It's natural for me to hold back for now."

Elsamina playfully pushed him away and fed him another sandwich. "But who said Ascendants couldn't?"

"Who...? Well, it isn't as if someone said so. That's just how it is. People have tried. People have failed."

"Really... I wonder why?"

Reivan chewed on his mouthful carefully before opening his mouth to ask her to feed him again—a request she granted with an amused smile. When he was done, he swallowed and began to explain. He wanted her to Ascend one day, so it wouldn't hurt to explain more about Ascendants. Knowledge about them wasn't exactly widespread among the ordinary populace.

Elsamina latched on to one particular fact though. "So Ascendants are basically made of energy and can just take a physical form... And that's part of why they can't have children?"

"Yes, that's right."

"Hmm. So since Ascendants are different from mortals, why do they think doing it the mortal way is going to get them what they want?"

Reivan's hand paused on its way to take the last sandwich. "Huh?"

Elsamina rolled her wrist as she elaborated. "No, see. If they're made of energy, then it only makes sense that trying it the biological way isn't going to work. Humans have sex and everything to procreate, just like most other animals made of flesh and blood. Ascendants aren't flesh and blood."

"I can see your point, yeah..."

"Even among biological creatures, there are different ways of reproduction, right? I got an Aizenian tutor so I can at least be as educated as a graduate, and I know the kingdom even teaches children about this. Humans and a lot of beasts mate, birds and fish lay eggs. And I forgot what it was called, but some creatures split themselves in half to reproduce, right? Little tiny ones you can't see unless you use a special magnifying tool. Maybe Ascendants have a special way too. Just one that nobody's figured out yet."

Slowly, Reivan covered his mouth and fell into thought. Honestly, she was making some very good points. But he realized that if she'd thought about this, plenty of other people in eras past probably thought about it too.

They thought about it, but even then, they still couldn't find what the method was. Or if it even existed at all.

People probably tried all sorts of things but nothing worked.

'It's an interesting line of thought though.'

Everything that is known about everything isn't everything there is to know.

Some old Aizenian scholar said that and someone else saw fit to quote it. Now the same words were engraved on the royal academy's archway. Reivan supposed it was similar to that quote about knowing how little one truly knows, no matter how knowledgeable one becomes.

"You're making some really good points." Reivan smiled as he tucked a tuft of her hair behind her ear, feeling her soft cheeks brush against his fingers. "I'll point it out to some Ascendants I know when I get home."

Elsamina shrugged as she tilted her head toward him. "Hm... It's fine. Considering Aizen's long history, someone has probably thought of the same thing and tried to find a way for Ascendants to make children. They just couldn't find it in the end."

Unconsciously, Reivan smiled. It seemed he and his wife had similar thought processes from time to time.

After finishing off his impromptu breakfast, Reivan went to take a bath. Not to cleanse himself of sweat, seeing as he pulled Elsamina in with him and didn't leave until quite a while. His promise with Helen meant he had to get home by morning though, so he couldn't let it pass.

His time together with Elsa would temporarily end.

That said, she accompanied him all the way to the newly built castle on the eastern edge of Lageton, where the teleportation gate was hidden underground. It was a fact he appreciated greatly.

Reivan opened the magitech carriage door but looked at his seatmate before climbing out. "I'll see you. After the thing."

"Just call it a wedding, honey." Elsa rolled her eyes and shooed him away. "Go. Go get married and come back."

"Yes, ma'am. I'll do my best." Reivan playfully grinned as he beat his chest twice. "Take care of yourself... Gwen is apparently still around so ask her for help if you need anything. She's really great. Oh, and don't feel shy about asking one of the [Ice] affinity knights to help you cool down in this godforsaken heat. Also—"

"I believe you've told me all of this before."

Reivan nodded. He had indeed told her all of this before, but he still couldn't help but worry a little, so he added something else. "You should move into the castle. It's more secure than the mansion."

Elsa's brows furrowed. "Is that really okay?"

"What do you mean? Of course. You're going to be my wife soon, so there is naturally nothing wrong with you staying at my castle."

"But you haven't announced it yet, right? We just appeared at the funeral last night. You were using your Ken face for it."

Reivan slapped himself on the mouth. "Crap. You're right... It'll look bad, won't it?"

Either people would interpret that as the prince stealing someone else's woman. Or the prince was getting cucked. Either way, Elsamina would be seen as a cheating whore. None of the interpretations were real, of course, since the men she was involved with were both him. But in this case, the truth didn't matter—what mattered was what the ordinary populace would believe.

'That's my bad, honestly. I shouldn't have mindlessly shown up with her like that... Wait, won't this mess up the wedding too? I doubt people would forget Elsa walking around arm-in-arm with some other dude.'

Elsa hummed in thought for a moment, offering a reasonable suggestion. "Since the prince isn't officially in the castle yet, I think it'll be fine as long as the stated reason as to why I'm staying there is something reasonable."

Reivan tried to come up with a solution too before eventually shrugging. "Just say you've been given a position. And that's partly why your companies are in charge of relief distribution."

"I suppose that could work... But really, I don't think I need to go this far. The mansion is perfectly safe and is already guarded. You've even granted me an additional escort—which I now know are knights."

"The castle is still safer. Stay there until the situation in Arkhan stabilizes."

"But our people will find it harder to reach me if I live in the castle..."

"This isn't negotiable, Elsa." Reivan licked his lower lip, knowing he was being a little overbearing. "Kindly stay in the castle for the meantime. Nowhere in Arkhan is safe at the moment."

Elsamina smiled as her emerald eyes gazed deeply into his own. "We're not even married yet and you're already like this?"

"Urgh... I'm sor—"

"Don't apologize. I was just joking," she said, momentarily sticking her tongue out. "I can understand your concerns and it's not much trouble to stay here instead. Rather, it'd be an honor, since if any place is having its temperature maintained to a comfortable level, it's this place."

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

Reivan sighed in relief. "That's good to hear."

"Is there a reason you're insisting on this more than I expected? I mean, sure it's a little chaotic right now, but the mansion is fortified and has plenty of guards. I've had no trouble living in it these past few months."

'No, no. You don't get it. Things have a high chance of growing even worse than it is now.'

Arkhan would pretty much be Argonia and Aizen's playground from now on. In this place, they would use mortals to fight each other. According to the Sword Star, it's probably because the War God wanted a land of constant strife to use as proving grounds for his heroes.

Reivan didn't know what exactly that entailed, but using the closest thing he could think of, he supposed it would be akin to summoning a bunch of genius knights like Hector.

'They probably don't compare to Helen or me, though... I hope not, at least.'

But a bunch of Hectors running around with the rabid intention of shoving a blade through his throat was somewhat alarming. They may not even be geniuses of pure strength, but of tactics, administration, or something else.

In any case, going after key personnel like Elsa was right up the imperial playbook. Hence, she needed to be protected.

One would think that the empire was full of fighting junkies that sought out the strongest foes to use as whetstones for their rise to greatness. And that was actually the case. However, they also had a very practical view of warfare where picking off weak but important people whenever they could was acceptable—no, it was downright recommended.

‘Well, it’s not like she’s completely unprotected now.’

Sometime last night, Reivan had helped Elsa form a temporary contract with one of the spirit beasts he’d brought home from the Sanctuary all those months ago. It was a reddish lion with fiery hair that wasn’t actually fire, since he’d pulled on it when they fought.

Though its Might was only at the eight hundreds, that was more than enough to destroy most mortals. Spirit beasts even had the edge of not worrying about their lives, enabling them to be more reckless in their attacks. Additionally, they were born elementalists. What humans worked hard to learn came naturally to them.

‘It’s unfortunate that it didn’t immediately want to form a permanent contract with her like the dragons did with Helen and Hector or the swan with Gwen. But I guess they’re exceptions.’

The lion did seem to view Elsa favorably though, so he had high hopes things would go well. And the unlimited supply of spirit dew pills to sweeten the deal pretty much-guaranteed success. In any case, that added yet another layer of safety for his relatively fragile fiancee—on top of all the knights guarding her too.

It really set his mind at ease.

“See you soon.” Reivan leaned forward and gave her a peck on the forehead before climbing out. “Remember—”

“I know, honey.” Elsamina rolled her eyes with an exasperated giggle. “You worry too much.”

“I worry a moderate amount, thank you very much.”

“Oh, whatever. Get out of here already.”

With that, they truly parted ways. Reivan stood at the castle gates as Elsa’s carriage clankered off, the sounds it produced once again reminding him to ask for a rendition of the magitech carriage made with the art of artificing instead of sorcery. Hopefully, it would ride much smoother.

“Your Highness.”

“Fu—!” Reivan looked back and tried very hard not to make his surprise too apparent. “..Gwen. Don’t sneak up on people like that… You don’t even have the darkness affinity so how’d you even…?”

She gestured at the air, where seemingly nothing resided. It took a moment for him to realize that she must have been referring to her spirit beast. “Grace can hide our presence surprisingly well. Though it still wouldn’t hold a candle to that person.”

‘Filth, huh? Come to think of it, I wonder what that guy’s up to?’

Honestly, he’d forgotten about the person he’d saved and granted an opportunity to lead a second life. It felt so long ago now too, given how much has happened.

Judging by Gwen’s lack of special mention, he was sure Filth was alive somewhere.

‘Actually, now that Ascendants and Transcendents are disallowed in Arkhan, hasn’t his usefulness gone up by, like, a lot?’

Filth could literally go anywhere undetected and basically unopposed too. Perhaps there was no merit in training him up a little now. Just enough for him to run away from most things.

“Oh.” Reivan snapped out of his thoughts when he realized Gwen was just standing there, seemingly letting him think. “Did you need something? I was just about to head back to Aizen though.”

“Rather than need something,” Gwen pushed away a stray bead of sweat dripping down her cheeks before continuing. “I believe you’ll want to participate.”

“Hm? In what?”

“Recent information has made me think it would be a good idea to perform a quick survey of the surrounding land.”

“A survey…” Reivan trailed off in thought.

Come to think of it, most of the maps detailing Arkhan had lost some of their accuracy now. Given how a bunch of Transcendents nuked part of the continent and caused some volcanic eruptions among other things, it was understandable.

After that cataclysmic battle, there were also a bunch of fights between Ascendants from Argonia and the destroyed Spirit Tower's silver cloaks. It could arguably be said that they changed the landscape more than the Transcendents did—though the wide-scale change in climate within Arkhan would be a big point toward the Transcendents on this.

“What do you mean by recent information, by the way?” he asked after only a moment’s contemplation.

Gwen closed her eyes and nodded before her gaze fell in the direction of Lageton. “You may not have heard, refugees from other settlements have started to trickle into Lageton, being much safer than staying where they were.”

Reivan hummed in affirmation. “Yeah. We’ve invited them weeks ago, but they were understandably reluctant to leave their homes. That has changed?”

“Indeed. They’ve started coming in larger and larger groups. According to the words of refugees I had our battlemages question, there are more coming. From various cities at that.”

“This has been happening since when?”

“Though few in number, it started a week ago.”

“A week ago…” Reivan rubbed his chin. “These refugees and the news they bring may be the impetus for the people’s unease about the food situation then. They don’t believe we can sustain them for too long, given the rising number of mouths to feed.”

“Rest assured, Your Highness. I have already resolved to order more rations and plan to orchestrate a ploy to unintentionally reveal just how vast our supplies are. I’ll pay off a few residents to spread rumors too. That should alleviate some of the public's anxiety.”

“You’re always on top of things… Elsa and I actually talked about this exact topic last night. Maybe you two can work together on this?”

“That was what I had planned, yes. She is a highly competent woman so I believe things will go smoothly.”

“Wonderful. Now, let’s get back on the survey…” Reivan tilted his head. “What’s it for?”

Gwen took out a sheaf of papers and presented them to him. “These are a summarized version of various refugees recounting their journey to Lageton. Though lesser mortals don’t have the capability to confirm much, I have reason to believe a large host of monsters are headed our way.”

“Monsters? That’s…”

Reivan’s brows furrowed as he licked his lower lip. Thinking about it now, there were surely some monsters that had somehow survived. And these monsters either had higher resistance to heat or were fortunate enough to be where it wasn’t as bad as everywhere else.

Whatever the case, they were all going to try to move away from the origin of the intense heatwave—which was wherever that elven Transcendent kicked the bucket.

That had happened near the middle of Arkhan. Well, actually, it was more to the southern part of the middle region or the northern part of the lower region. But for simplicity’s sake, it was in the middle.

‘The heatwave spread outward from there, so the farther away you were, the better.’

Worgon Outpost was Aizen’s closest settlement to Arkhan, but it wasn’t affected at all by this heatwave. And though Lageton was suffering a whopping fifty degrees Celsius—without intervention from battlemages and knights—it was apparently worse in the middle.

‘Strangely, the heatwave wasn’t this worse directly after the tragedy. Even in the middle. This all just suddenly happened a long while after the Transcendent’s death, so something strange is afoot.’

Some brave people had apparently surveyed the old capital of Arkhan, so clearly, people didn’t melt just by being there. Now they would though, and a large portion of Arkhan’s lower regions were basically certain death zones.

Anyway, all of that meant that the towns farther away from the point of origin were having a better time than everyone else in the republic.

The monsters likely knew this too. Instinctively, or by noticing the number of people heading in this direction. Some of them were smarter than anyone gave them credit for, so it was quite possible.

‘Surveying the land is a good idea.’

It’d allow them to spot monster herds or particularly large monsters before they did anything serious. Then a sufficient suppression force can be mustered in preparation to put the creatures down. In fact, if the monsters weren't much of a big deal, the survey team could take the monsters out themselves.

“Who’s coming?” Reivan raised a brow and crossed his arms. “Surely it’s not just you and me, right?”

“House Mercer has sent a small force of mortal knights, so we have plenty of knights capable of flying,” Gwen listed off in an even tone. “There are only a hundred of them, however, and a lot of them are being tasked with climate control. So to bolster our survey team, I’ve enlisted battlemages with avian spirit beasts large enough to ride—of which there are surprisingly a lot. Battlemages prefer avian types, and this has worked to our advantage.”

‘Ah. She’s planning to ride Grace, isn’t she?’

He was glad to see that his gift was already enabling her to take even more action.

“Today’s survey will be quick,” she said. “Would you like to join us, Your Highness?”

“Of course.” Reivan nodded.

Since it was quick, surely it wouldn’t take much time. He’d get back before the morning was over.

----------------------------------------

Reivan had initially planned to ride Zouros, but that didn’t seem like a very good idea considering how much his serpentine friend scared the crap out of nearby spirit beasts. Besides, he wasn’t even supposed to be here. A lot of people would seek him out if they knew, and then he wouldn’t get back home in time because they'd bother him in all sorts of ways.

As such, he was forced to tag along with Gwen. Naturally, he was also using a completely different appearance than the ones he usually used so as not to complicate matters.

“There weren’t any battles near Lageton, so it really boggles my mind how the surrounding terrain has changed,” he remarked as he looked down, his hands placed on Gwen’s shoulder to steady himself atop Grace, the giant white swan.

Below them was a glaring lack of greenery, just withered trees and dead earth as far as the eye could see. Dotted here and there were abandoned villages, serving as yet another reminder of just how drastic the lives of Arkhan’s people had changed since the Sage King's demise. He could see everything in great detail despite the distance and without requiring a pair of binoculars, but that pricked at his guilt more than if the scenery was too blurry.

Meanwhile, behind them were about a dozen armored knights lifting themselves up with wind and an even greater number of giant birds, each with a cloaked mage riding atop them.

‘Crazy how so many battlemages work for us now.’

Though they likely knew that Aizen had a hand in why their nation was ravaged, they still believed that Aizen was a better alternative to the empire.

And they also understood that the Sage King’s death meant that they were very dangerous liabilities who didn’t have a powerful backer protecting them. Battlemages could only avoid being hunted down if they joined one of the Treaty of Alexander’s signatories. A large number of their silver cloaks died to imperial witchhunter squads because they couldn’t duck under Aizen’s umbrella in time. What silver cloaks survived were now in Aizen, while all the mortal ones were staying in Lageton and acting as part of its military force.

All in all, however, the spirit dew pills he produced were just an additional boon for them that would also attract the more… practical battlemages who only saw their profession as a job that brought tangible benefits, not a noble calling.

“The terrain won’t trouble our knights, but the golems we salvaged from the Tower…” Gwen muttered to herself as she wrote something on her clipboard.

Reivan took a peek and his brows shot up when he realized she was drawing a map. It was surprisingly detailed too, despite its relative simplicity. Moreover, she was completing it quite fast.

‘Wow, she could make money from making manga if she wasn’t a knight. And if manga existed here.’

“You’re good at that. Drawing, I mean,” he praised, trying very hard not to move her shoulders too much.

“I sometimes draw to train my precision and dexterity,” Gwen revealed, her hands not stopping. “I can memorize what I see rather easily, but I still prefer a physical way of viewing it like this. So my training has unintended boons.”

“Can you draw other things? Or people?”

“I can draw anything.”

“Anything, huh…”

Reivan was tempted to joke around and ask her to draw hentai, but he stopped himself. That was a bit too much for a jest, given the situation. Besides, she wasn’t really the type to enjoy that particular brand of silliness.

“Shouldn’t we split up to cover more ground?” he suggested after a while.

“While that would be more efficient, I’d like to prioritize the safety of our personnel. We don’t have a lot to work with. And I’m not very familiar with how self-sufficient battlemages are. If it were just knights, I could delegate tasks more confidently, but…”

“That makes sense, yeah.”

‘I suppose she’s still getting used to the situation. Makes sense. Nobody adapts instantly to everything.’

Honestly, he was also unfamiliar with just how well battlemages did in combat. He’d been one for a while, sure, but his squad at the Tower was on the lower end of the spectrum—newborn chicks who had yet to take flight or babies who were still crawling on all fours.

Most of the ones on their impromptu survey team were veterans. True battlemages whose spell repertoire could harm even knights and whose spirit beasts had Mights at least at the four to six hundred range, with some being even stronger.

“There’s merit in holding a few spars,” Reivan suggested in a hushed tone, lowering the chance that the others could hear. “Or you could have them fight any of the monsters we see before the knights step in.”

“I will keep this in mind.” Gwen nodded, flipping a page on her clipboard to write a note to herself. “In any case, it doesn’t seem as if there’s anything abnormal nearby. We’ll return for now.”

“Already?”

“We never planned to go too far. I also just wanted to ensure that the roads weren’t entirely unusable. Though the refugees confirmed its state already, I wanted to make sure with my own eyes. We’ll send regular survey teams out from now on, in anticipation of more refugee groups.”

“I see…”

‘Well, I was expecting something exciting to happen, like a dragon showing up out of nowhere to take revenge on the one the old man killed, but I guess life’s not that eventful.’

With his heart torn between relief and a strange disappointment, the survey team returned to Lageton. Afterward, Reivan stepped through the portal and arrived at the palace on time, thereby fulfilling his promise to Helen.