Bibliophile princess vol.., p.20
Bibliophile Princess: Volume 6, page 20
I could tell all of that even though I couldn’t see it. I could distinguish between morning and nighttime by the light that hit my eyelids. Plus, due to my condition, my other senses were much more sensitive than most people’s.
This room we were confined to was fully equipped and decorated with bright colors and furnishings and probably reserved for the most honored of guests. Still, I wondered if my soldiers might be receiving a different treatment.
Just then, I heard the sound of someone setting down a tea set with fragrant tea on the table beside me.
“Prince Reglisse.”
The woman who spoke, an unremarkable maid from Maldura, was the only remaining attendant from my own country. She quietly picked up my hand and placed it on the handle of the teacup. That was the reason only she had been left behind: she acted as my own hands and feet. However, they didn’t know that her presence was the greatest weapon they could have given us.
“Nina, it’s about time.”
A small smile flashed across her face. “Yes, Your Highness,” she replied quietly.
“It seems that both that girl and Rei are doing their best, which is rare.”
“Well, of course,” she muttered bitterly. “They still have a long way to go.”
I quietly laughed to myself. There were guards in the room, so our conversation would of course be overheard and reported. Nevertheless, both the soldiers and those they answered to would probably be perplexed by the fact that there had been nothing to report since we had been incarcerated.
“Hmm. How did that prince know my name?”
I was a prince loved by the gods, and the reason I was called “God’s Beloved Prince” was a secret of Maldura.
Nina’s hand left mine the moment it touched the teacup. Our conversation ended, but I could tell that she had replied with an amused smile, as if to say, “Who knows?”
I enjoyed the flavor of the tea, which was so different from the kind back in my own country. I felt the flow of time, understanding that it would be a while before I could taste that tea again.
~.~.~.~
I went back to the mansion and, in spite of what the butlers said, rushed into the study and closed the door with my back. Not even a creak sounded as it shut.
That was when I, Duke Odin, finally let out my anger. I overturned a nearby vase, and the contents scattered with a loud crash. The foreign woven tablecloth, all the carefully selected knickknacks—I stomped on all of them, destroying them. I swept my arm across the desk, knocking off everything on top of it.
In the midst of the clatter, I slammed my hands on the heavy oak study desk.
“That...prince...!” I snarled. I had been so close. So very close.
The reputation of the royal capital, the recognition within the royal palace, the approval of the nobles, the accumulation of inescapable issues, and the solidifying of the outer moat—with all of that, I had cornered the clever prince to a point where he could neither escape nor cheat his way out. The only thing I had left to do was make him recognize Pharmia as his fiancée and the crown princess, and then she would be the one who would birth his heir—even if I had to force him. And if I couldn’t do that, I would side with the pro-war faction and just wait until the outbreak of war.
Both the prince and the prime minister had understood my silent intimidation. The prime minister had even almost decided that there was no further action the prince could take. And yet...
“Argh!” Everything had suddenly flipped upside down, just like the objects I had tossed onto the floor. In the blink of an eye, the senior ministers had cried excitedly to hear the news of Lady Elianna’s survival. The room had been abuzz.
“How on earth did she manage to escape?”
“How did a woman quell a riot—and discover a cure for the disease?!”
“This is an incredible discovery! Should we immediately organize a team to pick up the cure and administer it to His Majesty?”
“No. First, let the royal pharmacist confirm it!”
“How can we inform the public, and can we secure inventory?”
The excitement and anticipation in the room was quite different from the reaction of Earl Brandt’s faction. The military personnel also seemed interested in our response, but they turned to the usual opponents to question the cure’s credibility. The dissidents were few, however. Some of the faction members also had families affected by the disease, and some had switched sides because of their own insecurity. The tide had turned.
I clenched my teeth, my memory flashing back to the past.
Ever since I first saw him, I had a bad feeling—not when he was a baby, but once he began to think and speak for himself. At first, I thought such things were just my imagination and perhaps it would get sorted out through his education. Unfortunately, that prince grew up in the opposite direction of our expectations, so splendidly that it was embarrassing.
Where had I gone wrong?
I had never gotten along with my younger sister Henrietta. Maybe it was just that our personalities clashed because I often put the family’s development first while my sister valued individual will. Despite our differences, when she became the queen, I heartily congratulated her. I thought it was just another way our family could grow. Sadly, since the prince was raised according to my sister’s way of thinking, nothing went the way I had expected it to go.
My first miscalculation was Elianna Bernstein. It had all started when she had appeared in front of the prince. If that had never happened, the prince might have turned out how I had wanted him to, although there might have been some small deviations along the way. He would have respected the nobility and our country’s own interests and become one of the most prominent monarchs of Sauslind Kingdom, a nation that overwhelmed other countries.
I slammed my hands on the oak desk once again, wondering how I could turn this situation around. I couldn’t take back Elianna meeting the prince, but I might still be able to remedy it. If I could get rid of her, the prince might compromise with me in order to deal with Maldura and coordinate with the military. That was the only option I had left.
Nonetheless, despite my orders, that possibility had disappeared with the appearance of the Ashen Nightmare’s cure. As long as they had that, Pharmia’s preventative medicine would be useless because it would no longer be necessary, and gone would be the profits for my family and merchants.
I had issued orders that in the unlikely event a cure was discovered, it should be stolen, but the fact that the emissary had come to the prince as he had meant that those I’d ordered to do so had been completely incompetent.
“Watteau...”
There was a vulnerability in the royal family’s Shadows that I thought I could exploit, one that had appeared during the previous queen’s reign. All I had done was used that vulnerability to my advantage. After all, it was their own fault for leaving it exposed. I was sure that I had chosen someone particularly skilled with a keen sense of judgment. Had it been my mistake to order nothing less than a report of Elianna Bernstein’s death?
No, I thought, reflecting on my own actions.
The prince had been visibly listless since the news of General Bakula’s death and his fiancée’s disappearance. He had remained silent without objecting to Pharmia’s requests. As expected, he must have reached the limit of mental and physical fatigue. But right now, even the trivial things made me nervous, even though it was such an important time! Only my pride as a great aristocrat of Sauslind made me refrain from cursing.
“I still have options.”
Should I spread false information about the cure? I could say that it was fake and that it was causing people’s deaths, which would shame the name of Elianna Bernstein. No. The information delivered to the royal palace was certain. It would only be a matter of time before it spread among the people.
“Or maybe not,” I murmured as I gathered my thoughts. This battle was now... “All about time...”
That’s right. My thoughts came together. Everything had been flipped upside down, but why? Because there was a key—a trump card that had overturned everything. And if I could get my hands on it, I would be able to win. It was...
Two people were behind this outcome, both still in Ralshen. And this was the prince we were talking about. It was very possible that he already had the cure but had refrained from divulging it because it was the greatest weapon they had for Elianna to regain her position as his fiancée—in order to regain the support base that Pharmia had taken away. But the only thing that mattered was who had it in the end.
“That’s it.” A joy rose up inside me that I hadn’t felt in a very long time.
That was what made this curtain closing so wonderful. My daughter, Pharmia, would go down in history as a saint of the kingdom and as Crown Prince Christopher’s only wife.
While I let the joy well up in my heart, half of my head was coming up with instructions. I was making arrangements to conceal my existence completely, as I always did. Time would determine victory or defeat.
The troublesome prince would lose for not accepting his plight at this point. This time, his arrogance would be the death of the person most important to him.
I felt driven by a sense of joy that very much resembled enmity.
~.~.~.~
The early afternoon was accompanied by its usual hustle and bustle. Lively voices rang from the wild sailors and the boys who ran around them doing chores to earn pocket money. The sea breeze and the gulls’ calls were so calming that it felt like the commotion of the day before had never happened.
Kelk Harbor, the western gateway into Sauslind, was very active even in winter. In the midst of all the commotion, a woman getting off a merchant ship from another country caught my attention. She wore a dark overcoat to hide her appearance, but she could not hide her radiant aura. Sure enough, several people swarmed around her like flies.
The flies tried to make passes at her in the secluded back alley of the harbor town, and she felled them with her splendid martial arts skills as if she were clearing cobwebs from the ceiling. The scene made me burst out laughing, even though I should have been hiding there in the shadows. I’d expect nothing less from her.
“Miseral’s famous female knight. So skilled she doesn’t even give a man the chance to help.”
She turned and directed a cold gaze my way from beneath her cloak as we appeared from the corner of the back alleyway.
I raised both hands with a wry smile on my face. “It’s shameful for a man not to help a woman in danger. I sincerely apologize.” I then slightly lifted the hood pulled over her eyes. “But then again, you don’t seem to need my help...Elen.”
She responded with a faint click of the tongue, which only made me smile more.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t expect you to come alone, or for you to get approached so quickly. I’ll be more careful in the future.”
One of the guards returned and reported that there was nothing amiss in the area. I nodded and urged the female knight to come with me.
I paid for a room at an inn near the bawdy harbor town’s main street, and we both took off our overcoats. I saw before me a woman with glossy black hair tied in a ponytail, a flawless body, and a beautiful face. She was probably in her midtwenties. Her dark green eyes still regarded me with a piercing coldness.
With a wry smile, I nodded to the table and sat down. I quietly sipped the fragrant tea my guard served me, but she still didn’t speak a word. I couldn’t help but laugh.
“You’re still so serious, just like you were that other time. Although, back then, you were like a cat whose hair stood on end.”
She finally responded with a charming smile and a cool gaze when I brought up that old tale.
“Back then, if you had pet that cat on a whim and it had scratched you, you wouldn’t have thought it hurt even a bit. So if it left such an impression on your memories, are you sure it wasn’t a different cat?” she asked, an eyebrow raised in amusement.
“All I remember is that I helped a brand-new knight, but what else?” I said meaningfully. Elen’s mouth twitched with annoyance.
The first time I met her was when she had just recently been knighted and was on duty. I was a person in a position of status from another kingdom. When I reached my destination, I was met with a ruckus and immediately came to the aid of a female knight who was in the middle of it.
Elen had successfully protected the mother and child she was in charge of, but it must have been difficult for her to accept help from someone else when she was a newly minted knight. When I went to apologize to her, my bad habit had come out. I rather enjoyed teasing serious people.
I fondly remembered her seeming like a startled cat, fur standing on end, but apparently she remembered it differently. With some self-derision, I thought it unfortunate that I could not speak for this familiar raven-haired knight.
Just as I was about to make my next move, her voice took on a different tone. “I didn’t know you were coming. Am I correct in thinking that the reason you are here is because you have reliable information that backs our faction and supports the Miseral Dukedom—and Lady Mireille? And does that mean you are someone we can trust to bring that about?”
The maritime dukedom of Miseral was now in turmoil. There was a conflict between the former archduchess, Lady Mireille, who belonged to the former archduke’s faction, and the concubine faction, who were relatives of the current archduke. Did I have information that could turn this dispute on its head, and could I be trusted? I knew the reason she had asked me that.
I was the second in line to inherit the throne of Sauslind Kingdom. Anything that stood in the way of me getting the crown was an eyesore, like the first in line to the throne, Chris, and now also the king of Sauslind, who was rumored to have fallen ill. Duke Odin, who shared a bloodline with the queen, was powerful enough to shake the foundation of those two as well. Although I was at the opposite end of the spectrum, I was still connected to him for my own benefit.
That must be what she suspected. And the evidence she wanted was also related to the Miseral Dukedom’s interests.
Miseral, which had made a name for itself as a maritime territory, freely conducted its own trade. Of course, one couldn’t overlook that it was a threat to national interests, but it was possible that the person who was investigating it had been killed and their death made to look like an accident. I had those doubts myself.
Therefore, Lady Mireille would not join hands with the Odin family. Plus, there was a possibility that the current archduke’s faction was connected to Duke Odin for their own benefit.
Everyone acted in their own interests, so Elen must be wondering if I was too. Her cold, dark-green eyes were still the same as they used to be as they stared straight at me.
The immutable, unshakable, quiet royal archives was a place isolated from troublesome things, and someone stepped out from there and called out to me.
“What do you think, second heir to the throne of Sauslind—His Royal Highness Theodore, uncle of the crown prince?”
I realized that my reflection in her dark-green eyes had lost its color. Instead, it was now deep and dark, as if my true nature, which had been dormant in the depths of the hard earth, had now revealed itself emotionlessly.
Chapter 10: The Place of Dreams
Someone was calling for me in a soft voice. When I dropped my gaze, I saw eyes looking up at me from below my waist. I saw there weren’t any ladders or stools nearby, so I put my toe into the gap between shelves and aimed for the top of the shelf. With a quick stretch, I grabbed the book she was looking at.
The child’s face, which had little emotion, suddenly brightened. Before handing it to her, I glanced at the title of the book in my hand. Bloodsucking Creatures and Insects, Volume 2: Give Me Your Blood.
Involuntarily, I was about to return it to the top shelf, out of reach of the child, but before I could, she reached out and snatched it away from my chest.
“Thank you,” she said. “Thank you, Jean.”
She said my name.
I was sent to the Bernstein march by order of the organization I belonged to. I thought it was a strange place—a small, rather forgotten land near the eastern border, far from the continental highway and with no major industry. For some reason, the relaxed atmosphere suited me well.
The days were brutal as I followed orders from my boss to uncover and expose the weaknesses of political opponents, secrets hidden by others and told to them. It wasn’t just some insipid exchange of lives. But I also had another role here that was very different from the rest: I was the guard of a very small and very odd little girl.
The child’s routine was fixed. In the morning, she would study culture and etiquette at the mansion, befitting the young daughter of an aristocratic family. Under normal circumstances, these studies would take most of the day, but this family wasn’t as strict as other noble families, because she was allowed many breaks during the morning. The atmosphere between her and her teachers was casual as well.
Then, in the afternoon, the child would go to the library in town, which was even larger than her mansion. It was an old-fashioned building made of robust stone construction that had a sense of history to it. One could see splinters of wood here and there, and it was by no means a majestic building. Even so, this library was a symbol of the small domain, the pride of the fiefdom’s inhabitants, with people coming and going and visiting from far away. I thought it was strange, but it didn’t matter.
My daily routine was the same as usual. In the morning, I helped out with various things at the lord’s residence, and in the afternoon, I acted as the young lady’s guard. That was the easiest of my tasks, because the young lady never left the library. She just stayed there reading until the sun went down and the library closed.
I learned she was called the Bibliophile Princess. Like a bookworm, she clung to books and wouldn’t let go. Her obsession was astonishing for a young child, but it also seemed to run in the family. I guess there are just some people like that in the world, I thought without any particular emotion. That was the extent of my recognition.
