Chapter 692 Preparations For Parting

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Even if she was of the same species as their lover and also a 'benefactor', it wasn't fair to judge them like this, right?

They weren't sure just how much Cynthia had really helped Emilia, but even if they couldn't compare with her, it wasn't like they hadn't done their best. It was impossible not to feel wronged.

But no matter how dissatisfied they were, none of them dared to speak up at this moment.

If the raven-haired girl held a grudge and her hand 'slipped' while moving… it really wouldn't be funny.

Not to mention that one of them might die, but Emilia would definitely be heartbroken from both the 'betrayal' and the 'loss' of those close to her, and with how fragile Crystal felt her heart was, there was no telling how long it would take for her to recover… if that was even possible.

Of course, Emilia didn't know the dilemma her girlfriends were going through at that moment. Doubting the four of them never even crossed her mind, after all.

Not to mention them, she didn't think that even Penny and Justine would hesitate much when it came to deciding whether to follow her or not. Among her 'old friends', perhaps only Koko was the one she wasn't sure of.

The cheery girl liked her, sure, but Emilia felt that those feelings were probably not that intense. Moreover, she had a mother she was very close to, easily made friends, and thrived on being a social butterfly. Even if someone like her decided to tag along… would she really be happy in Cynthia's world?

Emilia wasn't sure exactly how big the place really was since she'd only seen the area around the 'hut', but simply based on the number of people Koko would be limited to interact with once there… the crimson-haired girl felt that she would probably feel suffocated.

Similarly, for Bella, Alexandria, and many other high-ranking knights… there was no way to be sure.

In the end, Emilia could only sigh. "Alright then, please tell me everything we'll need to do in detail."

As for who will come with her and who will stay… they could decide for themselves.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Not many people knew of Emilia's absence from the Blue Lotus Palace over the previous few weeks, so the news of her return was naturally kept a secret. However, those who knew her personally were soon informed of her will to gather 'everyone' around the Blue Lotus Palace within the next month.

Emilia felt that staying any more than that would be just testing Cynthia's patience. Of course, the list of 'invitees' included not just her friends and family, but also most of her 'high-ranking' knights.

Needless to say, aside from a few who had something important to take care of during that time, everyone quickly started moving to the capital of Blue Dawn almost immediately.

After all, their princess hadn't made this kind of request even during the war, so it was impossible not to worry.

"Do you think this has something to do with 'those' people?"

The topic of the Federation's ex-leaders going missing was still quite 'hot' in most places, and many even worried that it might lead to a war that was many times worse than the one they'd previously started and lost.

Luckily, with no 'culprit' being found and even the 'death' of these people only being a 'speculation', no one was quite sure how to proceed.

"Hmm… I don't want to believe it, but probably, yeah. Some of the media channels keep insisting they're dead, but… where's the proof? Not many believe it."

Since they were all slowly losing the power they once used to hold, from their perspective, wasn't it a wise move to just take whatever they could now and run away, before all was lost?

Refusing to get out of a situation that constantly kept getting worse was no different from waiting for humiliation, after all.

Of course, given that even the people who used to be under their rule didn't seem to particularly lament their 'loss', even Emilia's knights who hated them all with a passion had to admit that going into hiding like this was a 'smart move', though these people definitely didn't deserve the peaceful and luxurious life they were sure to live in the future.

Unless someone found them, that is. Sadly, the commander hadn't taken the initiative to order a search, and then the request from Emilia ended up taking precedence over everything else.

"This timing… it's unlikely to be a coincidence. It looks like they still want to make trouble for our princess, huh..."

"Deserving death!"

"I wish I could tear them apart myself."

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Emilia naturally knew that not everyone could be ready to move at a moment's notice, and this wasn't a clear indicator of their lack of love or obedience, so she didn't particularly mind when only a few thousand people showed up in the capital over the next few days.

Of course, she was aware of the fact that Penny and Crystal had secretly worked together to 'filter' many of the incoming candidates based on their 'qualifications', though she didn't particularly mind.

Her blonde girlfriend's ability was really good at this sort of thing, after all.

Fortunately, her parents did decide to come, and were currently being 'prepared' for the shock by her older sister, with her assisting from the side.

After all, Emilia knew they treated her quite sincerely, and even if they knew their 'real daughter' would be here in her stead, parting from her permanently would probably still be a major shock.

The fact that Sam would be leaving with her didn't help either.

As for the older couple tagging along… Emilia knew that would be a bad idea. They had too many ties to this world, and with Danielle's return, their transfer was sure to fail.

It would be fine if there was no risk, but with Cynthia's warning of the possibility of people being 'lost in transit', Emilia simply didn't want them to take the risk.

Mrs. White frowned. "Wait, wait, hold on… I don't know if I'm misunderstanding something, so just clarify this for me once. Emilia… I want to hear this from you… are you actually being serious when you say you want to leave 'this world'? Or is this some sort of extremely elaborate joke?"

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━