“Reios-sama.”
After having said her farewells to Clan, Elfaria turned to Koutarou. It was their turn now.
“I'm repeating myself, but thank you very much for everything up until today. I will never forget these days we've spent together.”
“Become a great empress. That's what both I and empress Alaia wish for.”
“Yes.... fufufu.”
While listening to Koutarou's words of encouragement, Elfaria nodded and laughed. Since this wasn't something you laughed at, Koutarou looked at her perplexed.
“What is it?”
“I was just thinking that if you had said that at the very start, it might have only taken five minutes.”
“This kind of thing is something you have to decide for yourself.”
Koutarou firmly believed that everyone decided their own path in life.
“Fufufu, that might be true for men... but unexpectedly, to us women it's not so true.”
Elfaria believed that she would walk down the path shown to her by the person she loved.
“It's true for women to.”
Koutarou was adamant. This stubbornness would later go on to make Ruth cry, but Elfaria only laughed.
“Oh my, fufufu...”
“Can you understand my hardship, Elfaria-san?”
“...Fufufu, I'm starting to.”
After laughing together with Clan for a while, Elfaria turned back towards Koutarou. There was something she wanted to ask him.
“Reios-sama, can I just ask you one last thing?”
“Yeah, what?”
“If I asked you to take me with you, what would you have done?”
If Elfaria hadn't chosen the life as the empress.
And instead chose to walk alongside Koutarou.
Elfaria wanted to know what Koutarou would have done then.
“That wouldn't happen.”
However, Koutarou shook his head.
“Elle, you were a proper princess of Forthorthe since we first met. That's why no matter how much you joke around, in the end you would have chosen this.”
“Reios-sama...”
Tears formed in Elfaria's eyes. Her smile collapsed and tears streamed down her cheeks.
“...Thank you very much, Reios-sama. I will forever take pride in those words...”
So the time for Koutarou and Clan to part ways with Elfaria came.
Koutarou and Clan headed for Earth while Elfaria became the empress.
They wouldn't reunite until another 20 years.
But despite all that time, the bond between them never weakened.