How the Villainous Consort Avoids His Death Ending

“The route to the Sarr Empire can be taken in two ways. The inland trade route that the Empire has traditionally used is, in many ways, unusable now.”

Tristan already knew this well. I lowered my voice and continued speaking.

“The second way is this. There is no need to go south toward the Empire. We can depart from Hezekia and sail around the sea to reach the Sarr Empire. It is a long and dangerous route, but the cargo you can load at once is tens or even hundreds of times greater than by land. With our newly constructed fleet, we can make enormous profit.”

Tristan’s eyes changed. His tone became more cautious than usual.

“Are you saying we should cross the Sea of Death?”

The reason no one had ever taken the second option was because of the danger that route carried.

Sailing for months across an endless ocean was already difficult with current navigation technology. Even setting that aside, a far greater obstacle existed in the middle of the great ocean between Hezekia and the Sarr Empire. It was known as the Sea of Death.

It was the term used for a windless zone where no wind blew at all.

Tristan frowned.

“Nine out of ten ships are trapped in the Sea of Death and vanish without a trace. Are you saying you want to chase the one chance that remains?”

I looked directly into his eyes. I knew very well how dangerous this suggestion was.

“Yes. I want to aim for that one chance.”

But it was worth attempting.

“Ruellin, we cannot risk encountering the Sea of Death. You cannot gamble with your own life, nor Constantine’s.”

“It is not a gamble, Your Grace.”

Until recently, it certainly could have been called that. A gamble with extremely low odds. But now the situation is different.

Because I had something solid to rely on.

“What if a new nautical chart has appeared, one that shows a route to avoid the Sea of Death?”

“Are you joking?”

Tristan’s eyes widened. His face held doubt, but I also clearly saw a faint spark of expectation and excitement.

I smiled slightly and shook my head.

“No, Your Grace. It is not a joke.”

There is no way I would waste my breath on nonsense at a time like this. That new nautical chart was exactly the reason I could confidently present East Continent trade to Tristan.

❖ ❖ ❖

Of course, there was one small problem. That reliable foundation was not actually in my hands yet. But that was something that could be solved soon. As long as the System cooperated a little.

I tried calling out to the System, which had stayed strangely quiet lately, maybe because it was updating again.

“System. Why have you been so cold to me lately. You have not even given me events. You got lazy, did you?”

Good morning. The System is currently checking all possible event conditions requested by the user (…).

“No, no. I never asked for that. I was joking. Stop checking. Do not do it.”

Yes. The System will stop the check.

“I cannot say anything. I was not asking for events. I was just curious. Why have there been no events lately?”

Even the common rut and heat cycle events had stopped appearing completely. Thanks to that, even while staying together in Tristan’s admiral cabin, our peaceful life had continued like a pair of friendly roommates. It is not that I am complaining about that at all.

System events are set to occur based on the original story.
However, whenever a gap arises between the progress of the original and the user’s current actions, the System updates the event contents.
There have been many recent updates, which caused difficulty in the System’s stable operation. We ask for the user’s understanding.

So it meant the System had overflowed with data and went down for a while. It made sense. I nodded as I remembered how often the System had been in a non responsive state lately.