CHAPTER 560

INEFFABLE CROWN

The eerie silence of the world swept past Lino's mind as he sat, alone, contemplating, perched on top of the small balcony's guard, legs hanging off the edge, above the tip-scraped skyline of the fortress. Down below, streets were largely empty, most people still stuck in the deep droves of hangovers and post-jovial emptiness. His gaze appeared evenly dulled, somewhat alien, as his thoughts were reflected in the chaotic turmoil of the still pupils.

He was so absentminded that he hadn't even heard the figure walking out onto the balcony, leaping on the edge and sitting beside him, facing the other way, staring at his profile. A gentle wind blew past suddenly, lifting Hannah's hair and sending it trailing backward like fire. Her emerald-green eyes gazed warmly at the figure next to her that seemed enveloped in the ghastly soot of loneliness. She reached out with her hand and gently touched his cheek, waking him up finally with a startle. He glanced sideways, meeting her gaze, smiling right after.

“My, my, I was this close to stumbling and falling to my death. Your assassination attempt failed, it seems.”

“There’ll always be the next time,” Hannah played along, smiling back. “You were just lucky today.”

“… everything alright?” Lino asked, noticing her strange gaze.

“No.” she shook her head. “Here’s the entire Empire, celebrating, laughing and toasting, and then here’s their Emperor.”

“Eh, they seem to be doin’ just fine without me.” Lino smiled faintly, glancing back down at the fortress and the city further down below it. “If anything, I nearly managed to dampen the celebrations with my shitty speech.”

“… oh? Have we finally reached that point?”

“What point?” Lino quizzed, confused.

“They say that there always comes a point in the married couples’ lives where they start lying to each other… all the time. I figured we’d reach it eventually, but it still feels too soon, if you ask me.”

“… who says that?! Tell me so I can beat him up!”

“… I know you want to use your free time to feel depressed about stuff,” Hannah said, chuckling. “But, you know, I won’t let you.”

“Oh? You won’t?”

“Nope,” she shook her head, jumping off the railing and pulling him back as well. “You used to say often that we can feel depressed all we want once we die. Last I checked, we were very much still alive and kicking.”

“I don’t see us kicking anything, though?” Lino grinned, following behind her as she dragged him back into the room and toward one of the teleportation arrays.

“I’ll kick your ass if you don’t shut it,” she grumbled, rolling her eyes. “When you married me, you promised I’d be your strength, no? Or, were you lying back then already?”

“… you are my strength.”

“Not as far as I can see,” she shrugged, stepping past a small corridor into an even smaller room which only had an etched array on the floor. “It’s fine if you want to keep everyone else at the distance, but I’ll seriously kick your ass if you try that shit with me.”

"Looks like I have no choice then, huh?" Lino chuckled lightly as they stepped through, the world flashing before his eyes momentarily. Just as he blinked, he found himself standing in a rather peculiar place – a small, rundown shanty surrounded by the newly-constructed, empty houses and a stretch of mountains all around. It took him but a moment to recognize where they were. "Boy, you really never hold back, huh?"

“What? I just wanted to remind you of the place where you got smitten for the first time by a girl,” Hannah chuckled as the two walked into the house. “Aah… what happened to you? You used to be quite cute.”

“Are you saying I’m no longer cute?” Lino mumbled, putting on a pained expression. “My heart. Oh no. It’s breaking.”

"… your indifferent, everything's-a-funny-joke attitude really used to be cute," she said as she sat down on a chair that seemed on the verge of breaking. "Especially when intermingled with those broody moments of yours. Now, if I'm being honest…"

“… please don’t.”

“It’s kind of pathetic.”

“Ouch… didn’t you hear me say ‘don’t’?”

“I did.” Hannah chuckled as Lino sat opposite of her. “So… we aren’t leaving this place until you settle your heart.”

“… hm?”

“However long it takes,” she said, taking out a bottle of wine and two glasses. “We’ll stay here.”

“What about the Empire?”

“Fuck the Empire.”

“… oh boy. Is that the attitude the Empress should have?” Lino asked, grinning as he took the glass Hannah filled up. “What would the people think?”

"Fuck the people too," Hannah said, taking a sip of wine and sighing. "Neither you nor I care much about that shitty throne, so we may as well leave it to the people who do, no?"

“… I suppose so.” Lino chuckled, leaning back into his chair. “But, there’s a bubble that you seem wrapped in that I just have to burst.”

“And that is?”

“… I’m not particularly depressed,” Lino said, taking a sip. “Mostly sad, Hannah.”

“… why?” she quizzed.

“Oh, I don’t know, it could be all those trees we’re cutting, or the rodents just merrily living off of the cheese supplies being killed, or it could be the fact I lost my mom.” Hannah chuckled faintly, shaking her head. “It’s not even that I killed her which bothers me,” Lino said. “Just… that she’s gone, Hannah. I just… need some time.”

“And that’s exactly why we came here,” she said. “Away from everything and everyone. Except for me, of course.”

“… we did grow a bit estranged, haven’t we?”

“I wonder whose fault that is.”

“Mine,” Lino admitted immediately. “I’ve been so concerned with running around and putting out fires and putting on the fronts that I’ve forgotten the sole reason I was doing any of that. You.”

"Oh, wow, that's some unhealthy obsession you've got there. It's bordering creepy if I'm being honest."

"Creep, then, is what I am," Lino chuckled, looking directly into her clear, lithe eyes. "It's a good tradeoff if you ask me."

“… what do you want to eat?” following a short silence, Hannah got up with a smile and walked over to the nearly destroyed tables in the corner of the room. “And if you say ‘you’, I’ll chop you in half.”

“Tsk,” Lino clicked his tongue, taking a sip of wine before replying. “Baked potato.”

“Baked potato it is,” Hannah chuckled as she slowly began preparing everything, holding the conversation whilst moving about. “What’s in store for us now?”

“… I was thinking another kid,” Lino said. “L’ and Ally got two, we can’t be lagging behind.”

“In order to have a kid,” Hannah glanced at him, sighing. “You have to fuck me first, you know? Besides,” she grunted as she took out a large pot and threw it over in the corner, over a makeshift fireplace of sorts. “We turned the first one into an insecure, self-loathing, envious creature without even trying.”

"… she'll figure it out," Lino chuckled. "She's finding herself in our shadows, and within the world's expectations. You know well enough how difficult it can be to meet the expectations others have of you. She's already on the right track if you ask me."

"She's better than us, that's for certain at least," Hannah chuckled back, throwing some water into the pot as well as cutting a few potatoes on the side. "She seems to throw herself quite seriously into the whole 'I'm a Princess which means I have a say in the Empire's do-hows’ business.”

“That’s good,” Lino nodded. “We should retire in a few years and let her do her thing.”

“Wow. You really, really don’t want to be crowned, eh?” Hannah said, wiping her hands off her dress after she threw the potatoes in, stoking the flames.

“… I never did,” Lino replied. “You know that.”

“I figured you’d have a change of heart.”

“And I hoped you’d too over my meal.”

“Time and place, time and place.”

“We’re alone, and time is relative to perception.”

“In my perception then,” she said, sitting down. “It’s relatively time for some baked potatoes.”

"… I'll be resurrecting the Edifice in a couple of days," Lino said, taking a sip. "Wanna join?”

“… won’t the entire world technically join?” Hannah quizzed. “I mean, I don’t think it’s gonna be a tiny thing nobody’s going to ever see.”

“Oh, no, it’s going to be massive,” Lino said. “About the size of roughly two million Noterras. But, in truth, we’ll barely see a fraction of it. And that includes me.”

“Hm? Why?” Hannah questioned with interest.

"It's a sprawling entity encompassing all of the dimensions, not just the ones accessible to us," Lino replied. "What you'll see are random chunks of something seemingly warped in a skewed loop."

“… you’ve grown awfully lot more knowledgeable than me recently; I’ll have to rectify that soon enough.”

“Ha ha, I’m counting on you, ‘cause I really can’t be bothered to sift through everything I’ve learned,” Lino laughed, taking another sip. “Besides, we only have a short while to reminiscent so leisurely. We’ll have to make some drastic changes eventually.”

“What sort?” Hannah asked.

“Hmm, changes might be a wrong way to think of it; reinventions is more like it. Our focus is no longer on Noterra, but on establishing our presence on a cosmic scale. That means sifting through the hundreds of millions of people I’ve brought over, finding out their talents, and slowly setting up the classic divisions other civilizations have at the cosmic scale.”

“Hm, yeah, that sounds like—what hundreds of millions?!! Where—what…what? How?!” Hannah exclaimed, wide-eyed, causing Lino to laugh.

“During my journey, rather than just making some trouble for the other side, I swept past a few worlds and saved a couple of kids,” he said. “That guy I came to the ball with is one of them.”

“… but… he looked like an ordinary human?” Hannah questioned, her eyes narrowing.

“A whole slew of them are,” Lino shrugged. “Anyway, those potatoes seem to be burning, so I guess I’ll be eating you for dinner after all.”

“… dropping bombs and changing subjects,” Hannah grumbled, walking over to the now-steaming pot and clearing it up, taking out several dozen burned pieces and aligning them on the plates before bringing them over to the table. “The hell was I worried for? You haven’t changed one bit.”

“… you know,” Lino said, taking one of the pieces, scraping the burned parts and taking a bite. “I wasn’t lying when I said you are my strength, Hannah. While El’s situation did crack my heart, it did not break it. You and Aaria are the shine no darkness will ever submerge. No matter what atrocities I’ll have to commit, so long as it keeps you two by my side, I’ll commit them without blinking my eyes.”

“… there’s no need to commit them alone,” Hannah smiled lightly as she extended her hand over and caressed his cheek gently. “Burdens are easier to bear when shared, Lino. I’ve shared all of mine as a partner wont to do; extend me the courtesy and do the same.”

“… fine,” Lino chuckled, grabbing her hand and holding it gently. “The next time I set out to kill countless people, I’ll be sure to bring you along.”

“Sounds like the best date of my life.”

“… ah, there’s the psychopath that I’ve married. I’m so happy she’s back.”

“She’s never left,” Hannah chuckled. “Was merely too busy running the shit you started so it doesn’t collapse.”

“And I can never thank you enough for it…”

“Alright, eat now; wouldn’t it be rather uncool if you died while choking on the burnt potato after all you’ve lived through?”

“… or would it be the coolest thing ever?”