RAMHM Chapter 129

Doris's Gift

The morning after, at the manor in Acacia territory.

People with the look of those who hadn't slept a wink began dragging themselves down to the first-floor lobby.

The handful of servants rushed about, scrambling to host the suddenly swollen number of guests, while Vincento—dressed and ready to depart, a document case already in hand—called everyone to sit.

"Look at you. Slept just fine on your own, shameless as ever. Look at you, all sleek and dressed up."

Vincento ignored Epero's still-murderous glare and pulled a stack of newspapers from his weighty-looking bag.

"I'll be heading straight from here to my grandmother, to deliver His Highness the Second Prince's intentions and the truth of what's happened."

Rhodness sat with his legs crossed, lifting his chin as if to say go on.

"But first, I think you ought to know what's happening in the capital right now. Honestly, that was my main reason for coming. Seems none of you know what's going on in the capital. That's really why I came."

The exhausted faces in the room came instantly alert.

The face splashed across the front pages Vincento had laid out was none other than Doris's, beside Duke Castagna's.

"Duke Castagna has collapsed."

"What?"

Epero startled into the question. The man who'd looked like the healthiest person alive had collapsed—that, at least, was genuinely unexpected.

"It happened the same day the procession left the capital for Ellaconia, so I assumed none of you would have heard."

Vincento explained, his tone serious now.

"Duke Castagna suddenly collapsed, and almost the same moment the quiet Crown Princess announced her intention to take vows at the Grand Temple, an oracle came down. It read—"

Vincento slid the papers further toward Rhodness.

【Her Imperial Highness the Crown Princess has declared her intention to take vows at the Grand Temple.】

【Moved by Her Highness's devotion, the Grand Prelate receives an oracle.】

【The oracle: A saint shall arise who can silence the legend that "red eyes will doom the nation."】

【Could that "saint" be Her Highness the Crown Princess herself?】

"You're joking. Her? A saint? A passing dog would laugh itself sick. Fuck!"

Epero shouted, heat rising in his face.

"And why did the Imperial Daily we get sent never mention any of this? What, did the Crown Princess intercept it on the way? No wonder there's been more gossip rags than real papers lately!"

"I'll look into it. And here's today's edition."

【The dramatic revival of the levirate law! Is this the will of the great god, delivering Ronteaux from the ill-omened red eyes?】

"Last night. Count Raelon and the western nobles banded together and revived the old, abolished law."

The levirate law.

If the elder brother dies, the younger takes his widow as his own wife.

Adrienne's eyes went unsteady.

"It means His Highness the Second Prince, who legally stands highest in succession, may be required to take Doris Castagna as his wife."

Nora Giuseta watched Doris pull out her belongings one by one, handing them out.

"Ellaconian rubies, diamonds from the Principality of Catarina... and for Irene, I'll give this brooch especially. It was a keepsake my mother passed to me when I married into the imperial family. Wear it well at your debut."

"Something this precious? Highness, please reconsider. Once you've taken your vows at the temple, you'll never be able to wear things like this again, not for the rest of your life."

"I've already decided. My husband died as the saint of Ronteaux—I can't go on living in comfort and luxury at the palace as his widow. I'll take up his will and spend what remains of my life praying, only for the great god and for my husband in Abadhelia."

Irene's eyes welled with tears as she threw her arms around Doris. Doris patted her back, gladly.

"I'm sorry, Irene. I promised I'd be your chaperone at your debut next year... I'll promise this instead—before I leave the Crown Princess's household, I'll arrange a lady of standing to chaperone you in my place."

"Highness! How can you think of nothing but looking after everyone else? Don't worry about my debut. And trust me—I'll tell my father in the strongest terms to find some way to treat you with the utmost honor!"

After a while spent trading warm words with Doris, Irene clenched both fists and left the palace. Only Nora remained at Doris's side.

Doris dabbed away the last of her welling tears, opened a small jewelry box sitting on the table, and held it out to Nora.

"Everything that's left is yours, Nora. With His Highness the Crown Prince gone, and now even Father collapsing so suddenly... I felt as if I'd been left utterly alone in the world. I can't tell you how much of a strength it's been, having you with me."

Nora studied Doris—who still called her "Nora," nothing more formal—then looked down into the box she'd been offered.

Large-grained pearls. Sapphires more luminous than the sea. Even the rose-shaped ruby that Bliea Acacia had made fashionable.

'Every one of these, I gave to Her Highness myself.'

The truly valuable treasures had all gone to Irene Syscamythn. What Doris held out to Nora was nothing but the very things Nora herself had once brought as gifts.

Nora felt the sting of it, just for a moment, but forced a smile anyway.

"And before I enter the temple, I have one request for you, Nora."

A flicker of confusion crossed Nora's face as Doris drew a heavy black wooden box from the shelf beneath the table.

The instant Nora saw that box, her smile froze in place on her face.

"The incense I treasured so much I never once let myself burn it here in this palace... you remember it, don't you?"

Remember it. Of course she remembered it.

Beneath the table, Nora pressed her trembling hand flat and curled it into a fist.

"I'd like to send my thanks to Bliea, too, who served the Crown Prince and me so faithfully before she left for the long journey to Ellaconia."

Nora felt the fear she'd been holding down surge upward, and pressed her lips shut.

She had delivered a box just like this one to Duke Castagna. The very next day, the Duke had collapsed.

Nora was certain now—the incense in that box was what had done it to him.

And though it was only a guess—

it had likely had a hand in Grand Duchess Adrienne's death, too.

She remembered clearly hearing Doris slip that box in among the medicines sent to the Grand Duke, and tell the Grand Ducal estate's head maid to take special care to keep the incense burning.

She remembered the warning, too—that since it was meant for a sick woman, it had to be diluted, used only in the smallest amounts.

The Crown Prince, who'd always just told her the names of garden herbs, had said it was a very precious incense made from medicinal herbs meant to nourish the body.

At the time, Nora had thought nothing of it.

Now, Nora quietly ran her hand up her goosebump-raised arm, hiding the motion.

The realization that something called so precious had never once been burned in the Crown Princess's own palace—only ever sent to the Grand Ducal estate—turned suspicion into certainty.

And the incense she'd been told to deliver to the Duke and to Bliea hadn't even come with a warning to dilute it.

"Since I'm about to give up every comfort and wealth I have and become a priestess, I won't need this incense anymore. It'll be a trouble for you, I know, but I'd like you to deliver it. I hear His Highness the Second Prince is... staying briefly in Acacia territory."

Doris's brow creased, just for a second, at the words 'Second Prince'—then she was smiling again, warm as ever.

Nora's eyes went round with shock at being told, so suddenly, to travel all the way north to deliver this herself, to a place where she had no connections at all.

"You—you mean you'd like me to go all the way to Acacia territory myself, to deliver it?"

"Yes."

Even as she made that demand of such a brutal journey, Doris answered without the slightest hesitation.

"I'd like you to tell her it's a gift in the spirit of our friendship, and that I hope she'll burn it thinking of me, while she's alone."

For someone speaking of friendship, the smile that crossed her face was strikingly cold.

Without meaning to, Nora found herself remembering the moment she'd witnessed Duke Castagna's death, on another errand for Doris, at his residence in the capital.

The herb scent that had stung the nose through the maids' screaming.

Slowly, Nora drew the box against herself. Beside her, Doris sipped her tea, her profile lovely as always.

That's exactly what put the chill in her skin.

Several days passed after Vincento's departure from Acacia Territory with his shocking news.

Rhodness was busy in his own way.

Monsters had been appearing regularly — different varieties from that first encounter—and he'd been leading Epero and Viktor on suppression hunts.

When news of the levirate law's revival reached him, Rhodness said exactly one word.

"Revolting."

He told me there was no need to worry. I told him I believed him and went back to working on mana transfer with Rotsy, because doing something felt better than not doing something.

Thanks to Rotsy—who had begun helping me in earnest—I was making real progress. I'd learned to sense the warmth moving through my body, grown familiar with its current, and had already succeeded in moving it into a mana stone and drawing it back out again.

"My lady." A maid appeared in the doorway. "A guest has arrived from the capital asking for you."

"A guest?"

I set down the mana stone I'd been holding and came downstairs.

I stepped into the lobby and stopped.

"Viscountess Giusetta?"

"Hello, Countess Acacia. It's been a while."

It was Nora, her face thin and drawn, her skin gone dull.

Maybe because things hadn't been so bad between us recently, I was glad enough to see her that I quickly told the maids to attend to her properly.

But the more she was attended to, the darker Nora's expression grew.

She sat on the fine new sofa Count Acacia had rushed to buy for us, but couldn't seem to settle, glancing around the room as if for no reason at all.

"His Highness the Second Prince won't be back for a while yet. So you can relax."

I remembered how she'd always seemed both awed by Rhodness's beauty and afraid of him, and said it gently, trying to soothe her.

"It can't have been an easy journey, coming all the way here. If I'd known you wanted to see me this badly, I'd have at least written you a letter."

Even at the joke I made to ease her tension, Nora's tight expression didn't loosen. She took a black box from the maid trailing behind her and set it on the table.

"You've heard, haven't you... that Her Highness the Crown Princess is taking vows at the Grand Temple?"

I watched quietly as she dispensed with any pleasantries and went straight to Doris's news.

"Her Highness said she no longer has any need for her things, and gave them all out among us, her ladies. And of course, in recognition of how you served her for so long—she sent you a parting gift as well."

That Doris wasn't actually so kind—Irene might not know it, but Nora and I both did.

I studied her for a while as she broke into a cold sweat, then smiled brightly.

"How very thoughtful of her. To think of me, when I was always wandering about outside the palace... please pass along my deepest thanks."

I forced up as much warmth as I could manage and took her ice-cold hand in mine, holding it tight. Beneath my grip, the hand that had been hiding its trembling gave a small flinch.

"Honestly, Her Highness shouldn't have. I'd have paid her a proper visit the moment I returned to the capital—there was no need to send you all the way out to this rough northern country alone. Since you've come, why not take a hot spring bath before you go, Viscountess? This region borders Ellaconia, so they've developed enormous bathhouses for hot spring soaking. Even this estate has two great bathing rooms. One is for guests, so I could arrange specially for you to rest—"

"...Viscountess."

I stroked the back of her hand as if to reassure her, but Nora, staring at my mouth with unsteady eyes, cut me off abruptly.

"My lady, my lady, I—"

"What is it, Lady Giusetta?"

"I can't do this, my lady."

She gripped both her cheeks in her hands, her face twisting.

"What's in that box is incense. But once I've left, once those maids Her Highness sent along with me have confirmed that you've burned it... please—please pour it all out and throw it away!"

Nora dropped her voice to its lowest register and cried out in anguish.

As if I'd been waiting for exactly this, the corners of my mouth lifted—mercifully. I took Nora's hand again, and meant it, this time, warmly. I had been waiting, after all, for Nora to tell me the truth.