Magician Marigold

25.

“Was it this easy to end? Is this even possible?”

“Huh?”

“I’m asking if this makes any sense.”

“What, what are you talking about?”

A quiet café street in the Imperial Capital.

Lancel, seeing Baron Ibil Shen, who had come to collect a 10-year-due debt only to be turned away empty-handed, began to argue back.

“If it was going to end this normally, what was my last 300 years for? There’s a limit to pointless effort, and this is just strange. It’s good, but isn’t it strange? Yes or no?”

“You definitely seem a bit off. I’ll give you a generous three-year extension, so calm down. You’re a married man now, you need to be mindful of appearances, honestly…”

“I’m surprisingly calm. And I will pay back the money someday.”

“Three years…”

“Someday.”

“F-Four years?”

“Someday.”

Lancel gazed at the peaceful streets of the Imperial Capital.

300 years.

Almost 300 years of time.

A period where the regression continued relentlessly.

It wasn’t just once or twice that he felt the frustration of wondering if it would ever stop.

It wasn’t just once or twice that he worried about what would happen if his mind melted into a sticky mess, and he couldn’t even maintain his humanity.

But it was over. In a single day. Ridiculously easily. As if nothing had ever happened.

For a while, chaotic days continued.

‘I don’t really know… but is it a good thing?’

After much deliberation, Lancel came to that conclusion.

Anyway, if it’s over, it must be a good thing, right?

26.

What Lancel found most bewildering when the regression suddenly ended wasn’t the 10-year-due debt he’d squeezed out of Baron Ibil Shen.

‘Come to think of it, I ended up marrying Marigold?’

Now that the regression had stopped, there was no going back. He had inadvertently gained a wife. And that wife was Marigold.

“Sir Lancel! Sir Lancel, Sir Lancel!”

Marigold, in high spirits, held an expensive bottle of wine in her hand.

“Tomorrow is a holiday! A festival! Today is freedom! Let’s have just one drink to celebrate! Just one drink, and then we’ll go out early tomorrow morning to grab the best spot for the parade.”

“Drinking late at night isn’t good for you.”

“Sir Lancel, you have just one drink too, come on, come on!”

She’d become jaded after becoming a Court Wizard, Marigold.

“Hwaaaa!”

“…”

She was a sight to behold, placing ham and cheese on the table and gulping down glasses of wine one after another.

“Mary.”

“Yes, Sir Lancel.”

Lancel gently pulled Marigold, who was clinging closely to his side, away.

“Let’s make some life plans together.”

His voice was serious.

“Life plans? Why all of a sudden… Hot?!”

Instantly, Marigold’s face flushed.

The expression of the girl, who silently put down her glass, suddenly became demure.

“W-Well, I was preparing myself mentally, but if that’s what Sir Lancel wants… a daughter and a son, somehow… Actually, I was waiting for my work as a Court Wizard to become a little less hectic… but if Sir Lancel is in a hurry, I can’t help it…”

“That’s not it.”

“Eek.”

Lancel gently pinched Marigold’s cheek, pulling her back from her reverie.

“Things in life are unpredictable, so I’m saying we should prepare for any eventuality.”

“Any eventuality?”

“Like, a war could suddenly break out.”

Marigold blinked.

“War, when it’s so peaceful?”

“If, I’m saying. If.”

“Is it possible for a war big enough to endanger the Imperial Capital to break out, even if it’s just a hypothetical? It would have to be a pretty big war.”

Indeed, as Marigold said, the Phrygia Empire was incredibly peaceful right now.

A world without war, rebellion, or tragedy. It was to the point where he wondered if the system had ever been this stable even once before.

‘It is a golden age.’

The Imperial Palace was filled with laughter, and there wasn’t a day that the streets didn’t feel lively.

Therefore, Lancel’s worries might just be unfounded.

‘Still, I should do what I need to do.’

Lancel looked directly into Marigold’s eyes.

“I’m not saying we should do anything grand. Just build a villa in a decent place, save some money, and prepare for any eventuality. There’s no harm in doing that.”

But his real intention was different.

‘Our lives are only one now, Marigold!’

Yes. The time when they could live carelessly and die had already passed.

From now on, they had to pursue only a safe and secure future.

“There’s a good place to live in the archipelago. I’ll take care of the preparations, so you just need to know.”

“Archipelago. I understand! I’m all for whatever Sir Lancel does! Yep.”

“Take your hand off.”

Lancel gently removed Marigold’s hand, which was slowly reaching for his thigh.

“Ehehe.”

“…”

Marigold approached with a lecherous expression.

Magic Power faintly emanated from her body.

The glasses and plates on the table floated into the air. They flew all the way to the shelf in the distance and landed quietly.

“Sir Lancel.”

With the obstacles gone, Marigold became even more proactive.

“Haa.”

As if intoxicated, a faint aroma of fruit wine wafted from her mouth.

“Tomorrow is the festival, and I took a day off. Tonight, I’m completely free. What do you think, Sir Lancel? Hehehehe… Ihihihi…”

“…Weren’t we going to prepare early in the morning to grab the best spot?”

“Endure that much with your Knightly stamina.”

Kiss.

Kiss.

Lancel finally seemed to realize the force of Marigold, who was stamping kisses all over his face.

‘Ah! I’ve been had, Marigold.’

Marriage.

The regression, which had ended so abruptly, had bound him and Marigold as lifelong partners.

But it was a relief.

It wasn’t a bitter ending with a bad aftertaste like before. It was a literal marriage. Husband and wife. Nothing more, nothing less.

Maybe this is a life worth living?

“Sir Lancel.”

Marigold’s expression showed no worries or unhappiness in this world. Even including all the previous regressions, she seemed happiest now.

That was enough.

And Lancel’s regression had come to an end. There was nothing holding him back anymore. He had escaped from the eternal time and was facing a real life.

‘Isn’t this enough?’

Lancel lifted Marigold up.

“Kyaa!”

Regression end.

Real life start.

“Sir Lancel, look at this! Sandwiches!”

“It’s been a while, these.”

“Hehe, I remembered that you’ve always liked them.”

Marigold and Lancel headed to the festival as soon as the sun rose.

With a wooden basket filled with sandwiches and fruit.

“You seem to be in a good mood today.”

“…Because it’s a festival.”

The Imperial Capital was bustling with the Harvest Festival.

Every time they passed near an inn, the sound of clinking glasses burst out, children ran through the alleys without stopping, and the smell of sizzling meat wafted from the rows of stalls.

“You need to watch where you’re going.”

“S-Sorry!”

“Be careful.”

Marigold stroked the head of the child she had bumped into.

“Let’s go soon. All the spots will be gone.”

“Yes, Sir Lancel.”

As she turned around with a bright smile, time seemed to slow down for a moment.

Her golden hair tied simply and draped to one side, her blue dress, her radiant smile, the streets of the Imperial Capital and the early summer sky visible behind her.

“…”

Marigold, walking with quick steps, linked arms with him.

“Shall we go?”

.

.

.

‘Was this world always such a good place to live?’

Was it because he had thrown off all his worries as the endless regression ended?

Lancel was enjoying the lively festival atmosphere, watching the long parade procession.

“I’m happy, Sir Lancel.”

Marigold leaned her head on his shoulder.

“Because I have Sir Lancel, I can be at the festival like this, and I can feel the sun rising and summer coming.”

A gentle smile appeared on her face.

“Even if a war breaks out like you said last night, it’s okay. Even if the Imperial Capital is turned upside down, even if we have to run far away, it doesn’t matter.”

Marigold’s voice was soft.

“I feel like I can survive somehow as long as Sir Lancel is by my side. I don’t want anything else. I mean it, Sir Lancel.”

“…Heavy.”

“My heart?”

“No, my shoulder.”

“Shoulder?”

Marigold pouted, looking at Lancel’s shoulder that she was leaning on.

“Why are Knights so lacking in emotion?”

Lancel laughed silently.

“The Emperor Your Majesty is coming!”

A loud voice.

A signal of “Now!” burst out from the rooftops of the surrounding buildings.

As if they had been waiting for this moment, the children raised baskets of flowers. Petals began to pour down endlessly like rain.

The shadows of the falling flowers covered the surrounding scenery hazily, as if drawing with pointillism. It was a moment when the whole world seemed to be in full bloom with various colors.

“Mary.”

“Yes.”

The moment Lancel was about to open his mouth.

“The Emperor Your Majesty is coming!”

The Imperial procession passing through the main street came into view.

The figure of the benevolent Emperor Grandfather, who was on the carriage and waving to the surroundings, was imprinted on his retina.

How long has it been since I saw that Grandfather alive and well? Is this the first time since I opened my eyes in this world?

“Waaaa!”

Cheers echoed.

“The Emperor Your Majesty is coming!”

“Long live the Emperor Your Majesty!”

“Long live the Phrygia Empire!”

Cheers.

Flower rain.

Festival.

Emperor.

Airship.

End of regression.

And Marigold.

“Sir Lancel?”

Lancel, who had been watching silently until the Imperial carriage passed through the main street, finally lowered his head.

I knew something was strange. The suspicion inside Lancel finally reached a conclusion.

“Mary.”

Suddenly, he saw the basket placed at his feet.

It was the sandwich basket that Marigold, suffering from a hangover in the early morning, had painstakingly filled.

Having rolled around on battlefields and picked up tasteless things to eat, Lancel hadn’t become particularly picky about food, but if he had to choose, he preferred simple tastes.

Food that didn’t feel unhealthy with fresh vegetables, but was rich in meat and protein, and where the taste of each ingredient was clearly felt.

Marigold’s sandwich was exactly that.

The sight of vegetables, ham, and cheese stacked neatly between slices of bread. It was truly the perfect form that Lancel was pursuing.

Even the sight of fruit carved and filled in one corner was truly a picnic lunch basket that was Marigold-like.

‘Heavy.’

Yes.

Heavy.

Her heart.

But he knew he had to shake it off.

Lancel and Marigold hadn’t endured until now to live ‘this kind of life’. To be satisfied with just this much would be too much of a waste of the past hundreds of years.

“Mary.”

“…Sir Lancel?”

A question mark appeared on Marigold’s face.

“Now, let me go.”

There was no reaction.

Only Marigold, who knew nothing, blinked.

Lancel reached into the basket. He picked up the silver knife he had prepared to cut the sandwiches.

“I didn’t want to do it this way.”

He stabbed his own neck in one swift motion.

No, he tried to stab it.

Kaaang-!

Something stopped his action.

Magic Power, constructed densely like a shield, was preventing the knife from approaching Lancel’s carotid artery any further.

The world’s time stopped.

The Imperial procession, the pouring flower petals, the cheering people, all froze in that state.

There was only one thing moving.

“First. Return to reality.”

Marigold.

“Second. Continue the happy fantasy forever.”

Deeply sunken emerald eyes slowly stared at Lancel.

“Sir Lancel… which one do you think is better?”