...What is this...?

　'! Do you understand?　Can you hear me?　Blink twice if you can hear me!

　Abraham's consciousness began to slowly awaken by a high-pitched female voice.
　Abraham blinked twice, uncomprehendingly.

　''He's awakened!　Calling Your Majesty, Lady Julia and Tetra..........!

　The woman ... Lulu orders her subordinate sorcerers to do the same.
　With a flurry of activity, the sorcerers begin to act.

　As I watched the spellcasters' footsteps and panic, Abraham's memory came back to me.

　

　Abraham remembered his last action from memory.
　The base of Abraham's ring had been prepared with a deadly poison on the base of Abraham's ring.
　It was prepared before he was taken away.

　He had prepared it before he was taken away, in order to die by poisoning.

　But he did not die as a result.　
　Either the amount of poison was low, or the sorcerer in King Losey's country had excellent medical skills.

　'Grandfather!'

　The door is opened and a woman with sky-blue hair enters the room with great vigor.
　It's Tetra.

　'Tetra-san!　You don't want to mess with a baby!　Walk!

　Lulu hurriedly holds Tetra back as she tries to jump on Abraham.
　Most of all, it is clear that Lulu is in quite a hurry, too, around the reverence for Tetra going back to the old days.

　Tetra seems to have cooled down a bit after Lulu stopped her, and she walked quickly to Abraham's side.
　She grabs Abraham's dead tree-like hand.

　''........I was worried. Stupid.........''
　I am... it's... it's... it's... it's...

　The words of apology that came out of Abraham's mouth were not human words, but disappeared with a sound like the scraping of dry grass.
　Abraham smiled bitterly.

　'Abraham. How are you feeling?　No, you don't have to answer that. It's going to take a lot of strength. You need to heal your body first. That's what I'm going to preach to you first.

　 You can't run a pregnant woman away, can you?

　Julia complains with a sigh.
　But her expression is calm.

　''My lord. I will have you drink this medicine. If you cannot drink it, then I will spoon a little bit to your mouth. Blink once if you can drink the whole bowl, and twice if you take a little bit with the spoon.

　Abraham blinked twice.

　Lulu brought a wooden bowl of sludgy liquid, a small amount of flour dissolved in the medicinal water, close to Abraham's mouth.
　Lulu carefully poured the medicinal water down Abraham's throat, taking care of the angle.

　Little by little, Abraham took the medicinal water into his stomach.

　Almost as soon as he finished drinking it, Abraham was struck by an intense sleepiness.
　All at once, he felt his strength draining away.

　'Don't worry. It's just a mixture of sleeping pills. Take your time to rest your body.'

　Abraham's consciousness sank into darkness.





　'Lord Abraham will be a hostage against Gehenna.
　I see.

　Abraham hung in a paragraph, as if he had given up.
　He didn't seem to have any intention of killing himself anymore.

　In the two weeks since then, Abraham's strength has been restored.
　It was thanks to the antidote Julia had made.

　Afterwards, Tetra scolded him severely.
　Crying.

　Tetra's only blood relative apart from her own son was Abraham.

　I never had parents in my previous life or this one.
　Julia has lost her parents but her mother died before she could remember, and as for her father, he died after exhausting all possible means, so she won't have that much grief.

　But Tetra is different.
　Tetra's parents were murdered by her subordinates, and Tetra's own identity was tumbled.

　The shock must have been great.
　Vengeance is over, and although there will be no more thoughts now there will be an old wound in her mind.

　Abraham's suicide must have stimulated Tetra's old wounds.

　Abraham may have gotten the message, and he apologized to Tetra and vowed never to kill himself again.
　Depending on how you look at it, we can think of Abraham as a pretender, completely abandoning Abraham as a pretender and becoming Abraham as Tetra's grandfather.......


　What happens now to Gehenna?
　Many of the city-states that were already under Gehenna's control have severed their ties with Gehenna and have formed an alliance with our country that is equivalent to Gehenna's. Already the great power Gehenna has ceased to exist.

　This is true for Rezad, Gehenna and Nemeth as well.
　They once had many city-states in their midst, but now they have fallen into one small city-state.

　However, the same is true in that they still have a large population and a national power to be reckoned with.

　''........I see, so all my efforts up to now are in vain.''
　'I don't think so. It's true that the people of Gehenna have become richer in life. I have no intention of exploiting them. I promise to give Gehenna the same autonomy as before.
　"Thank you, Your Majesty. His Majesty Almus.

　Abraham bowed his head deeply.
　There is no sign of defiance.

　That's all settled.

　''But isn't it going to be a lot of work now?''
　Is it bad?
　'I hear that the western conquest is going well. Moreover, you have annexed Gehenna as well. You could be called the greatest power in the Adelian Peninsula. This alliance against Gaul won't last.

　I should say quintessential Abraham.
　That's what I'm most concerned about right now.

　'What if you're a Fardham, Gilbed, or Domorgal?'
　Equus, Evil, and Belvedil. We will try to make diplomatic maneuvers to get these three countries on our side. Equus is especially troublesome. On the contrary, if the military alliance between Equus and Rosais breaks down, Rosais will be unable to move.

　Hmmm....
　That's exactly what I assumed.

　How would you respond?
　If you're confident in your friendship, make a marriage or strengthen your alliance to take advantage. If you are not confident, then you have to make the first move. Destroy them first. Especially Belvedil, we will be fine with destroying it.

　Well......

　By the look on your face, you look a little different, don't you?
　Well. You're lucky. You get to see a page of history.

　It's about time we kicked it up a notch with Evil, Belvedil, and the delicate hierarchical relationship with Equus.
　Of course, if we do that, King Faldum and King Gilbed, not to mention King Domorgal, will frown upon us.

　The alliance against Gallia will be maintained until the battle with King Zordias.
　After that it's.......unnecessary.

　It's time to get down to brass tacks and get on with the big business.

　'I suggest that you live another five or six years longer. Then you will see the unification of the Adelian peninsula.
　 It's one more reason why you can't die.

　Abraham laughed with amusement.

　'If you need any help, you can talk to me. This is still an old man who has ruled a country for a long time. You'll be of some use to me.

　''The stare to the south it should be necessary to counter Pofenia as well. I will hand over all command authority to the clandestines I have been unleashing on Pofenia to His Majesty. It should work fine.
　That will help. Thank you, Lord Abraham.

　I bailed lightly to Abraham.







　'Ial, regarding the matter of the alliance against the Gallic Alliance did your maneuvering of the example work?'

　I asked Ial how the maneuvering I had ordered to avert the war to liberate the Adelnians was going.
　Ial gives me a big smile.

　'Yes, you fooled me well.
　Oh, yeah. Very well then. If all goes well, the war to liberate the Adelian people will be aborted.

　The aborted war for the liberation of the Adelnians means that the Roselle Kingdom is back in authority.
　In other words, it looks like the Roselle Kingdom is starting to get on a roll again.

　In reality, as long as the suppression of the northeastern part of the country has not been completed, it cannot move southward to the Adelunian Peninsula.
　However, from the side, it looks like they have made a comeback.

　If that were to happen, the Adelian countries would have to prepare for the southward movement of the Roselle Kingdom.

　Our country's need will naturally rise as well.
　This will extend the life of the alliance against Gaul a bit.

　........just a little longer.
　

　As long as we can bring Zordias to his knees, we no longer need an alliance.
　We have a clear path.
　All we have to do now is follow it.


　If there are two problems, there are two.

　One is whether Yulia will have a boy or not.
　I guess we'll just have to leave that to the heavens there's nothing we can do about it.

　Well......
　No matter how hard I try, life is ultimately determined by random numbers.
　I'll just have to pray that God will be on my side.

　And the other thing is....

　I wonder if Nikolaos' eclipse predictions will come true.

　According to Nikolaos, there will be a total solar eclipse in the middle of September.
　The moon in this world is bigger than the sun, and it will be completely dark.

　I've seen an annular solar eclipse in the past, but this will be the first total solar eclipse.
　To tell the truth, I'm quite looking forward to it.

　Why is this important?

　If I predicted a total solar eclipse, it would be interesting.
　Is it possible for the sun to really hide?

　Well, come September, we'll see.
　Julia's baby and the Nikolaos eclipse predictions.

　Let's hope it all works out.
　Hopefully, God bless.

　What's the pattern?

　Do you want to take steps to deal with Julia's kid when she's a girl and the eclipse is off?
　The latter, but the former....

　The engagement of Fiona to a boy from the Lossies clan or the engagement of Anx to a girl from the Lossies clan?
　Which one is safer....