Some people hold a pessimistic view of love, believing that marriage is the grave of romance.
Once that threshold is crossed, the sweetness of first love gradually gives way to the trivial realities of daily life, along with endless quarrels and compromises.
Because of that, many people would rather not marry at all, or rather, not even think about marriage. Part of the reason is the helplessness imposed by reality, and another part is uncertainty about the future.
After all, every person is an independent individual. When facing the future, and the partner who will live beside you day and night, can you truly always put pure love first? Can you truly act without regret or guilt forever?
This was something Felix had once thought about.
In his previous life, he had been extremely rational about relationships, so rational that he had never truly fallen into what people called love. Because he had never loved anyone passionately, he had also never been hurt. But after coming to Terra, everything felt like a burden pressing heavily on his shoulders.
Perhaps love was nothing more than a good medicine for relieving stress.
At first, Felix had no intention of developing feelings for anyone.
He had simply wanted to survive.
Standing before the mirror, Felix adjusted his collar.
Then he turned and headed out.
This meeting required his personal attendance. As he pushed open the door, he nodded and smiled at Irene, who had already been waiting outside. Irene immediately followed behind him with a stack of documents in hand, her habit of trailing closely behind now looking very much like Ines.
As for Ines, Felix had given her leave during this period.
After all, as one of the brides, she deserved it.
Back then, Felix had not wanted to make any choices.
At that time, he had neither grand ambitions nor any greater sense of purpose. He wandered across the land with the simple thought that, at worst, he could always retreat to Laterano and eat, sleep, and wait for death. Later, however, he encountered many people and many events that stirred his emotions.
There was no denying that, at first, Felix had thought of the people of Terra as NPCs.
He had treated the head of the Saluzzo family in exactly that way, even though, at the time, he himself was weaker than that man.
But in Felix's eyes, the other party had merely been a speaking program.
Later, he realized he had been wrong.
Even then, however, he still had not developed any real feelings, because he simply did not care.
In his previous life, people often said that love was like two irregular shapes finding a way to fit together. Whoever matched the other, stayed with the other.
Felix, however, believed that he himself was already a circle.
After two lifetimes, all his sharp edges had long since been ground away by the wear of office life and by the harsh conditions of Terra. He no longer cared too much, nor did he bother himself with unnecessary things. When others showed him kindness, he would nod, thank them, and remember it.
But he never expected too much.
Until two special girls appeared beside him and, little by little, tried to make themselves part of Felix's circle.
"Your Highness, after this meeting, there is another one with Miss Mostima regarding Penguin Logistics' new transport methods."
"Alright. Proceed according to the original schedule."
Felix pushed open the conference room door and saw the projected figures of several national leaders already waiting inside. The subject of today's discussion was the opening of the maritime routes connecting the nations of Terra.
The meeting was neither too long nor too short. It ended exactly on schedule.
Compared to aircraft, sea travel was naturally much slower, but it had the advantage of carrying large numbers of passengers and stopping at far more locations. Some small towns that had never had airports before now had transport docks, greatly increasing mobility and allowing people to reach nearly any city they wished to travel to.
Of course, this also inevitably created another problem: in some smaller towns, all the young people left to seek work elsewhere, causing the local population to shrink year by year.
Whether that was a good thing or a bad thing depended entirely on one's point of view.
After the meeting, Felix felt slightly tired.
He accepted the hot cocoa Irene handed him. It was very sweet. Tasting that sweetness made his mind a little clearer and more alert.
When Felix entered the next meeting room, Irene quietly departed to sort out the minutes from the previous session.
That left only Felix and Mostima inside the room.
The last time the two had met was just the week before. Mostima had approached Felix under the excuse of discussing wedding procedures and arrangements.
Of course, those had only been excuses.
What Mostima had really wanted was to sleep with Felix and have him all to herself for a while.
"What has Emperor been up to lately? I heard him jumping around in the office on the Venus and causing a commotion."
"The waterway has been opened, hasn't it?" Mostima covered her mouth and laughed softly. "Emperor is thinking of using it for sightseeing. He says he wants to visit every city connected by the route."
Felix's lips twitched.
"So how long is he planning to take off?"
"One year."
The moment Mostima said it, Felix felt his fist tighten instinctively. For one brief second, all he wanted to do was turn that penguin into soup.
The most important point was that he actually had the strength to catch the Emperor and do whatever he wanted to him.
But then he remembered that Emperor was originally one of the Beast Lords and had accompanied Tomorrow's Development for all these years.
Fine.
If he wanted a vacation, then he could have one.
Seeing the expression on Felix's face, the kind that looked like he had just been tricked by the Emperor and still had to swallow it, Mostima laughed softly.
She stepped forward, leaned gently against Felix's shoulder, and revealed that familiar, peaceful smile.
"The development of Talos-II is progressing very quickly. The spacecraft intended for deep space should be completed and ready for its test flight in about six months." Felix frowned slightly, as if trying to express a complicated feeling while breathing in that soothing fragrance. "This is also thanks to your connection with Laterano. We received a great deal of manpower and resources from them."
"So why am I doing all this?"
As they murmured sweetly to one another, Mostima's ears turned a little red. It was almost strange; after spending so long together, she still blushed over small things.
"So, Felix, Is this really just because you wanted to see me?"
"What if it is?"
Mostima lightly touched Felix's lips and laughed softly. "Do you want to see what my wedding dress looks like?"
"…I do."
"Too bad~ You can't see it now."
"..."
Mostima pursed her lips, kissed Felix on the cheek, and smiled. "Alright, alright, you'll see it soon enough. So today you just wanted to chat and go on a date with me? If I remember correctly, you don't have any more plans for the rest of the day, right?"
"I want to go back to Laterano."
Felix gently squeezed Mostima's soft hand. "This counts as… a date with you, right?"
Mostima's face lit up with happiness. She swayed lightly and smiled at Felix. "Then I'll go change."
"Mm. Kazdel isn't far from Laterano. Let's take the sea route."
"Okay~"
Mostima moved quickly. In less than ten minutes, she had changed into a casual outfit and stood elegantly before Felix. To be honest, if people did not know her age, they would think she was still an eighteen-year-old girl.
Perhaps it was true that the Sankta simply did not seem to age. They were long-lived, though not quite as extreme as the Sarkaz.
Felix held Mostima's hand. Her palm was warm, just like the gentle, curious look Mostima had once given him in the studio when Felix first returned to Laterano and entered the church school.
The sea route was like a high-speed railway. It was not as fast as an airplane, but it was convenient, with many departures every day. There was also a rail line between Kazdel and Laterano, but not many Sarkaz boarded it. The Holy City was still the Holy City. Although it was now officially said that the nations of Terra had become part of the Terran Alliance, traditions accumulated over centuries still caused the Sankta to look at the Sarkaz with complicated expressions. Those looks made the Sarkaz uncomfortable, and so the ties between the two peoples remained far less intimate than those between many other nations of Terra.
On this point, both the Pope and Felix believed that only time could heal such wounds. Even if the Sankta and Sarkaz had once fought side by side on the battlefield, how could hatred built up over centuries, even millennia, possibly disappear in a single day?
The train heading toward Laterano was filled mostly with merchants traveling between the two countries, as well as ordinary travelers touring Terra during this period.
Now that people could finally move across Terra quickly and affordably, the first thing many of them wanted to do was leave the home where they had spent half their lives, or even all of it, and see a foreign land with their own eyes.
The Holy City of Laterano was no exception. It welcomed travelers, allowing them to marvel at Laterano's scale and grandeur and to see for themselves what the Holy City looked like.
At this point, the Infected must be mentioned again. After Terra rediscovered its true starry sky, perhaps because of radiation changes or some kind of magnetic disturbance, the Originium particles flowing through the blood of Terrans, which once posed a constant threat to health, still remained, but they no longer increased over time.
Coupled with a special medicine that could significantly alleviate the symptoms of infection, news spread across all of Terra three months ago that the first mild case of Oripathy had been cured.
The attending physician was Kal'tsit, and Rhodes Island Pharmaceuticals, which had existed under her leadership for so long, finally entered the public eye in this way. After that, business partnerships and medical collaborations followed one after another. The Doctor became so busy that she practically could not leave the office around the clock, and Amiya was in much the same situation. As the public face of Rhodes Island Pharmaceuticals, Kal'tsit and her apprentice Folinic began attending one press conference and banquet after another. Kal'tsit said that all of their efforts had not been in vain.
Thinking of the letter Kal'tsit had sent him, and looking out the window toward the distant Holy City, Felix found that he did not care much about her gratitude. Because even without him, he believed Kal'tsit would still have kept moving toward that goal.
The train came to a stop at Laterano Station. Holding Mostima's hand, Felix stepped off with her. Back in Laterano, they used the tourist passage. However, the Liberi officer in charge of security still recognized Felix despite the mechanical mask. She glanced at Mostima, who was smiling happily at his side, and quietly offered her blessing.
"Have fun."
Felix and Mostima nodded their thanks. They first returned to the church school to visit their old teachers. As an outstanding graduate, Mostima was invited onstage to give a speech, and the younger students greeted her with warm applause and admiration. Felix was among those applauding as well.
After that, they returned to the Notarial Hall and met Federico and the other overworked staff members. Mostima merely waved at them, and they immediately began joking that they would all be attending the wedding in a month. The teasing made Mostima's cheeks flush slightly, and she leaned affectionately into Felix's arms.
"Are we going to the Papal Palace?"
Seeing Felix guiding her in that direction, Mostima asked with some confusion.
Felix nodded, then looked at her seriously. "Mostima, you once told me that you wanted to become like me, didn't you?"
"Yes. Because I don't want you to be alone forever." Mostima smiled without hesitation, then added, "I already told you. I want to walk beside you forever. Through sickness and health, I will always stay with you, until death do us part."
"...Have you really thought it through? You'll be giving up your Sankta identity, and you may end up like me, needing to wear a mask even when you return to Laterano."
Mostima laughed softly. "Is that all? Wherever you are, that is my home. Kazdel is my home now, even more than Laterano."
Felix smiled, took Mostima's hand, and led her up the steps, where they were met by the Pope's smiling gaze.
"You've come."
"Yes. I brought Mostima with me."
The Pope stroked his beard and smiled faintly. "Since you already have access to the Law, this old man won't bother leading you there again."
Felix took Mostima past the Pope and headed deeper underground.
Mostima said nothing, but she could feel the cool air constantly brushing against her body. As she looked around curiously, her eyes widened slightly.
"This is the truth of Laterano."
Felix watched the images moving across the terminal screen and smiled faintly. "Back then, I learned the truth about the Sankta here, and it was because I wanted greater power that I chose this path."
"This is… a return to ancestral traits?" Mostima paused for a moment, then smiled. "And after becoming a Teekaz, lifespan increases too?"
"Yes. Probably by several thousand years compared to an ordinary Sankta."
"Then there is nothing left to hesitate over."
Mostima slowly released Felix's hand and stepped forward, stopping before the long-silent gears and lifting her head to look at them.
Felix had never personally witnessed the evolution of another people. After all, in all of Terra, he was the only one who had ever evolved, and even he did not fully understand how his own transformation had occurred.
Now Mostima was gradually enveloped in a soft fluorescent glow. Her fingers interlocked before her chest as she stood there, eyes closed, looking almost devout, as if she were praying or quietly pouring out her heart.
Little by little, Mostima's original luminous wings dimmed, though they still retained a faint, gentle radiance. The halo above her head seemed to grow slightly larger. The most obvious change, however, was the appearance of a pair of horns on her forehead, horns that symbolized the Sarkaz. Like her wings, and like the tail that had appeared behind her, they were black, yet translucent.
After an unknown amount of time, Mostima slowly opened her eyes. She turned around, smiled, and mischievously stuck out her tongue at Felix.
"So now… can I stay with you for even longer?"
Felix stepped forward and gently took her hand.
Now, Mostima truly resembled the self she might once have been, except she was no longer burdened by Lemuen's hatred, nor did she carry that detached, carefree indifference anymore.
Their fingers intertwined, and Felix gave a quiet nod.
"Yes."