Isekai Izakaya Nobu Chapter 87

The northern wind, which had been rattling the windows all night long, gradually subsided by dawn. There seemed to be a skilled gla.s.s smith in Aitheria, as the gla.s.s windows that were fitted into the wooden frames had withstood the wind and snow well. Conrad wiped the gla.s.s panels, which had fogged over due to the change in outside temperatures. On the other side, he saw the ancient streets in the clear early morning air.

It was white.
The humid winds from the Northern Sea brought snow to Aitheria and the northern extremes of the Empire. However, by the time the winds reached the capital, the air was merely dry and frigid, all the humidity absorbed by the hills in between. As the cold crept unto the stone walls, Conrad instinctively pulled up his blanket. Underneath the blanket, he was not wearing his accustomed nightwear. Instead, he wore a set of commoners' clothes.

He took a deep breath to control his excitement and began to move quietly so as not to alert Sebastian, who was situated in the room next to his. He hung a prepared rope out the window. Emperor Conrad finally put his long time goal, a small escape, into action.

「Grandfather is really grandfather after all.」

Conrad leaked a murmur of dissatisfaction as he threaded his way across the fresh, flaky snow.
He had been half-kidnapped to Aitheria just for a marriage interview. The other party was the hateful, mortal enemy, Celestine de Oiria, the Princess Regent of the Eastern Kingdom.
Although Conrad was halfway through his thirties, he had never contemplated marriage before.

He did not want a child.
His desire to not sire a child was not a personal wish, but a wish as the Emperor.
Conrad believed that the Emperor should ascend the throne through his abilities alone, and not by blood.

As the eastern sky began to grow brighter, the residents of Aitheria slowly began to start their daily activities.
Some were taking a walk, some were opening stalls that had been taken down the previous night, and others were heading off to work somewhere. Although Conrad occasionally visited the townscape of the Imperial Capital in order to observe the citizens' lives, various things were hidden from him wherever he went. It had been a while since he had seen people acting naturally.

The Emperor was revered to the extent that he should not be allowed to see anything that could cause him inconvenience.
When he had gone to inspect the city, he had noticed that there were no stones lying on the streets. Even though the road was not paved with cobblestone, all the dust and rubbish had been cleared in advance.
Emperor Conrad had long been uncomfortable by this excessive reverence. The only reason he was in this position was because he was the grandson of the former Emperor.

Someone as capable as the former Emperor should have been the one appointed to be the new Emperor instead. It was because of this that he had escaped.
His escape plan was definitely not because he wanted to protest the marriage interview that had suddenly come up.
He also had not decided on whom he would rely upon or where he would go.
There was the Marquis of Sachnussenburg who lived near Aitheria. It was an old family that did not have any blood ties to the Imperial family, but that made it convenient for him to seek shelter from them.
There was no need to ponder deeply, as the Empire would fall into turmoil if he did. The Emperor escaped from the former Emperor after a disagreement, and relied on the local lords. Future historians would come to this unfavourable conclusion.
He understood the implications, but it was a cold hard fact that he had travelled undercover by slipping out through the window just now.

He should probably just return.
Was it his natural disposition that prevented him from stopping a ridiculous thing once it happened? Or was it because he did not have the courage to stop?

Even if he was blamed by Sebastian and the others when he returned to the inn, he was trying to find something to justify himself in his mind.
He wanted to inspect Aitheria?
Or he had someone to meet in secret?
None of these were the reason for his escape. There was no way he could express his true intentions of refusing the marriage interview with a princess of a country they had been enemies with for more than 15 years. If he did, the Eastern Kingdom would have just cause to summon their va.s.sals and rush to the border on the pretext of their wounded reputation. It would turn into a war.

「Grandfather is really grandfather after all.」

Another complaint rose to the tip of his tongue as he kicked a lump of snow into the river.
Why did it have to be the Eastern Kingdom? To top it off, why the Princess Regent?
She was the child of a wicked devil, had no speck of cuteness in her, and liked to trick and deceive while exchanging words in diplomatic letters. It would not be the fifth or sixth time that the Empire had fallen into her scheme to undermine the nation's interests.

Political marriages.
Conrad had spread the Empire's blood to neighbouring countries as part of the former Emperor's foreign policy, but he had not expected himself to be a p.a.w.n of political marriages.
He was not going to marry.
Even if he did, he wanted to marry a more lovely and graceful woman, not a political monster like the Princess Regent.

「Kyaa!」
「I- I'm sorry.」

He seemed to have collided into someone on accident as he was lost in his thoughts.
It was a beautiful lady with silver hair, whom he helped up without thinking. When he saw the glistening eyes behind the silver rimmed spectacles, Conrad was shocked. His mouth opened on his own.

「Miss, may I know your name?」
「I'm Celes.」

At 37 years old, Emperor Conrad had his first experience with love at first sight.

「I'm sorry, please let me treat you.」
「No, I should be the one to apologise. I'm sorry for earlier.」

They sat down on a log by the riverside and ate an eel grilled with fish sauce (Fischsoße) that was being sold at a stall.

「Ohh, this is way better than expected.」
「Right? It was in a report…a letter by an acquaintance.」

The girl named Celes occasionally used some strange words, but Conrad paid no heed to it.
Rather, he was completely charmed by the way she corrected her words and the intellect that could be heard in every word that she spoke. It was definitely lovely to him.

Since he should have brought her back to her house immediately as a gentleman, it was a superhuman feat for Conrad to constantly disregard what was common knowledge. It was unthinkable behaviour for the usual Conrad.
He had not mustered up this much courage since he had given the order, approved by the United Kingdom, to shoot down the pirate fleet that had appeared in the North Sea.

When he first met Celes, she had been a bit reserved, but she gradually became more cheerful as she continued to talk with Conrad. There may have been some troubles, but he was glad to be distracted from it now.

「So, Celes-san, you think that the Cruvaldia Company is pulling the strings behind the heavy fluctuations in the sales of rice?」
「It seems so. It does seem like there was a lucky broker who successfully bought them at the cheapest price or something like that.」

The conversation with the knowledgeable Celes freely jumped from one topic to another, and he did not get bored of it at all.
She was probably the daughter of a n.o.ble from somewhere, considering the fact that she was knowledgeable enough to talk about politics. Initially, he had thought that she might be a merchant's daughter, but that could not explain the air of n.o.bility around her.

He tried to remember the faces of the lords around here, but he could not remember anyone who looked similar to her. That being said, he could not remember all of the Empire's feudal lords and one thousand n.o.bles, so the likelihood of her being some n.o.ble's daughter was more still high.
'Ahh, if only the marriage partner was this girl.'
Conrad took the last bite of the eel from the skewer with those thoughts in mind.

That one was Celes, this was also Celes. How could they be so different even though they were both Celes?
He had never met the Princess Regent Celestine personally, but as far as he could tell from her diabolic actions, she was probably an evil woman.
Should he reveal his ident.i.ty and invite this girl to the Imperial Capital?

His grandfather, the former Emperor, was a man loyal to his wife, but there had been many great Emperors who loved many women. Although it was not like the Great Lord of the West, who had 1000 to 2000 wives, there had been countless Emperors who had kept a second or third wife, while also having girlfriends in public.

However, it was still impossible.
The bespectacled Celes had opened her heart to Conrad, not to Emperor Conrad.
If he revealed his status, her manners would become stiff, just like all the other court ladies.
Just as Garmlich the minstrel once sang, "A king is lonely, then won't the king of kings, the Emperor, be even lonelier?"

The enjoyable times pa.s.sed heartlessly.
Morning turned to noon, noon turned to evening, and eventually, the sun had begun to set.
Although the conversation topic was inexhaustible, they had been talking till their throats hurt, so the conversation began to slow as they continued walking. Both of them knew that the time to part ways was approaching.

'Can I meet you again?'
He could not ask such an irresponsible question as that. Conrad was an Emperor and a public figure.
He had not been a private man ever since he ascended the throne except for today.
Today's happy memory would be kept and treasured in his heart. As he tried to persuade himself, Celes looked up and called out to him.

「This might be impolite, but could you treat me to another one?」

He wondered whether her red cheeks was because of the reflection from the setting sun.
Conrad mustered the most courage in his life, and answered with the best smile.

「Yes, gladly.」