RAMHM Chapter 57

Admit It

The audience chamber. The Emperor looked at Noelvian with a somewhat weary face. His strategist was a man who always exuded a rational, cool atmosphere, but today he seemed slightly flushed for some reason.

"Is it urgent?"

"Your Majesty, the remnants of the rebel army appear to be eyeing the west again."

"Always the west causing problems."

Two years ago, when he'd first heard it, the word "rebel army" had chilled his blood. Now it was almost tiresome.

"The west holds the Second Prince's illustrious reputation in high regard, so if you would only issue the order to deploy—"

"I'm thinking of sending someone else this time."

As the Emperor's voice dropped slightly, Noelvian's sharp gaze lifted. The Emperor opened his mouth with a deliberately benevolent smile.

"The boy seems ready to take a wife, Grand Duke."

"What do you mean?"

"He came to me with a request—said there's someone he has his heart set on."

"...Someone he has his heart set on, you say."

The Emperor nodded heavily. His young son, who had once wanted Adrienne Pirreta, had his first love stolen by the man before him. The Crown Prince had ultimately chosen Doris Castagna as his companion, and while his son was away at the battlefield, Princess Pirreta had chosen Grand Duke Noelvian.

The Emperor still felt strange whenever he recalled that day. He too was a father, so he'd been putting off Noelvian's petition, but Princess Pirreta had accepted his proposal in a single stroke, and after that, everything had proceeded at lightning speed to the wedding. Before he could even inform Rhodness of the news, the newspapers were calling them the couple of the century.

What must his son's feelings have been when he'd received that news on the battlefield? But when Princess Pirreta herself had willed it so, there was nothing he could question.

The Duke of Pirreta in the east hadn't advanced toward the center, but he was a major force, and rather than such an eastern noble forming a marriage alliance with some other power family, it was better in many ways for him to be tied to Noelvian, the Emperor's own man.

"He didn't tell me who, but seeing him today, I understood."

"...Who is it?"

"The Countess Acacia, who recently became a widow."

The Emperor gave a low laugh, rubbing his face with aged hands. In the midst of it all, he'd been thinking with self-derision that at least it was fortunate she was a widow whose husband had died.

"I haven't seen my Grand Duchess Trovika often, but I couldn't help but think of her when I saw that lady. You must have known as well."

"......"

"Her dress and atmosphere were different, so I might have passed her by, but the moment I saw those intelligent eyes, Adrienne—that child came to mind immediately."

Noelvian, who had been frozen stiff, forced a smile. The Emperor sank his weary body into his chair and drew in the air the face of the noblewoman he'd personally commended today.

"Rhoan said this: 'Blood cannot be deceived, it seems.'"

"He said that?"

"I too thought of Letina when I saw Baroness Kuroseida. I can hardly blame the boy."

The Emperor didn't perceive how Noelvian's eyes darkened heavily at those words.

"Rather, it's fortunate that lady became a widow. If she'd had a husband, that scoundrel's already tarnished reputation wouldn't have survived at all."

"I oppose this, Your Majesty."

Noelvian barely managed to compose his emotions. He was seized by an unpleasant anxiety that made his solar plexus itch. The situation was flowing in a strange direction.

"I've watched her for a long time—she's my vassal Count Acacia's wife—but she's not material for an imperial consort."

"Hmm."

"I don't know what methods she used to gain merit this time, but she's a woman too much even for a mere lady-in-waiting position to Her Highness the Crown Princess. Her temperament isn't docile, and her extravagance—"

"For someone like Rhoan who wanders about with blood perpetually on his hands, a woman who can hold him steady from beside him wouldn't be bad, rather than someone docile who'd be dragged along. No matter how extravagant she might be, Rhodness has accumulated enough wealth that several generations could live idly without issue."

"Are you serious? From what I've investigated, that lady's origins may not even be noble—"

"Perhaps that makes her even better for Rhoan."

Noelvian's face was marked with slight shock. The current reality—where the Emperor himself was defending Bliea Acacia's suitability as an imperial consort—was utterly unbelievable. Could all this really come from merely organizing a delegation welcome ceremony well?

"Compared to Bardenaldo, Rhoan's reputation within the Empire isn't particularly good. Even if Rhoan doesn't care, I've always been concerned about it. Rhoan has always wanted to live quietly, and Bardenaldo has you and Duke Castagna firmly supporting him, so if he's to receive a title and live outside the palace someday, wouldn't it be better for him to have a good reputation among the imperial citizens?"

The Emperor handed Noelvian a newspaper from the side table. Noelvian respectfully received the newspaper and read it.

It was a paper that had been sandwiched between the gossip rags he'd seen this morning. The Prince Who Loved a Commoner, or some such nonsense. He had to firmly suppress the urge to crumple it immediately. The portrait imagining Bliea and Rhodness's affectionate appearance looked unbearably like a depiction of Adrienne and Rhodness's tender moments.

"Despite all his accomplishments, he's never asked for what he wants. If he's united with a widow of common birth, the boy will be happy to have won the one he desires, and while the nobles may not care, he might gain quite a bit of favor with the commoners."

"...What if she doesn't want it?"

"What do you mean?"

Noelvian barely parted his parched lips. The feeling of having something he'd carefully constructed stolen before his eyes rose up—hard to endure.

"What if the lady doesn't desire such a relationship? It hasn't even been long since she lost her husband—"

"Ha ha—"

At the Emperor's burst of laughter, Noelvian, who had been urgently speaking, stopped abruptly. The Emperor laughed leisurely, as if hearing something absurd.

"Grand Duke. What woman in this world could refuse Rhodness?"

His methods might be rough, but he was the Empire's greatest beauty, acknowledged even in Ellaconia, and a prince of this nation besides. The Emperor's words, flowing ceaselessly onward, were refreshing to the extreme.

"There's no woman in the world who would refuse a place at Rhoan's side."

The Emperor's leisurely, firm voice pushed Noelvian's mood over a cliff's edge in an instant. Noelvian's vision grew distant at the Emperor's assertion.

"Even so, if by any chance, even one in ten thousand, that lady refuses, what would you do?"

"What choice would there be? In the end, it's still a matter between man and woman."

Noelvian, falling off the cliff, felt as if he'd stopped abruptly in midair at those words. As he barely caught his fleeing reason, he couldn't shake the premonition that Baroness Kuroseida was connected to the end of this absurd hypothetical.

Watching the Emperor list ideals in order to find his mistress, Noelvian sneered coldly. According to your own words, truly, truly this cursed bloodline cannot be deceived.

"...Then as her lord, I will ask the lady's intentions."

"Wouldn't it be better not to interfere?"

As the Emperor spoke with slight reproach, Noelvian wore a thin smile on his face. Ah, this cursed bloodline.

"Of course I will act with the lady's intentions as my foremost priority."

I no longer wish to have what's mine stolen by your son. Eyes like sharply honed blades naturally turned toward the Emperor's feet, and Noelvian bowed his head with extreme courtesy.

Had Noelvian walked this quickly in recent years? He hastened his steps to a degree that made one wonder. Before the Emperor—who thought Rhodness was the only one suitable to find his mistress—could ruin things, he had to meet Bliea.

"Did you come looking for me?"

Just before reaching where the carriages gathered. At the end of a long corridor where almost no light entered, Bliea stood there as if by a lie. Noelvian stopped with only a few steps remaining, looked around, and walked straight toward his own carriage. A space with no one except his tight-lipped coachman. The moment Noelvian leaped into the carriage, Bliea followed and closed the carriage door.

"You have no fear."

"Rather threatening words for someone trying to persuade."

And that calm smile. At the smile flowing across Bliea's face, Noelvian crossed his arms and legs. Even when he lifted his chin and opened his eyes languidly to examine her thoroughly, the woman wore an expression as composed as if she'd discarded somewhere the shock she'd received yesterday.

"Persuade? You're the one who needs to persuade me."

Suddenly, the woman laughed—sharp breath. For just a moment, he held his breath and stared at that face. That she didn't bow before him was quite unexpected. Beyond that, for her to laugh like this before him was completely beyond prediction.

"Just admit it now, Your Grace."

"...Admit what?"

"No matter how much you threaten the people around me, it has no effect on me whatsoever."

Had this woman always been so articulate? Could that attitude be called merely having a loose tongue? The woman's appearance—sitting upright instead of her usual hunched and crooked posture—finally registered in his eyes.

"The person who can move me is you, so I don't understand why you keep touching innocent people and choosing the roundabout path."

"...You're treating me like a murderer."

"Aren't you?"

The woman's face, smiling broadly, shone warmly—kind enough to listen to any story. ...Just like Adrienne. Noelvian hurriedly turned his head and cast his gaze out the window. There was no one around the carriage.

"Count Acacia simply had an unfortunate accident. Don't let words that others might misunderstand pass your lips. You have at least that much intelligence."

"Then are you here now to say again that I shouldn't provoke you by using His Highness the Second Prince?"

What use would such words be now? When the whole world was already talking about Rhodness's new, special lover. Noelvian suppressed his slowly boiling anger again and shifted his gaze to the woman who had ruined things. The woman's eyes—which had been leisurely and confident—turned toward him with a sad light.

'Crazy bastard.'

And that strangely struck his core. Eyes so sad and desolate they created the illusion that the real Adrienne stood before him.

"You try to shake me by using Count Acacia, and I try to shake you by using His Highness the Second Prince. In the end, what we want is the same."

Noelvian stared at the woman who let his words—that he hadn't killed anyone—pass straight through her as if they were nothing. His heart had been strange since earlier. Very strange. The woman's usual love prattling, her grand duchess position prattling—he didn't find it so disagreeable to hear. Why? That expression, not venomous. That voice, sunk desolate and low. And still—despite it all—those eyes shining with intelligence, her posture held straight and true.

"You said it with your own mouth. That you want me, who's before your eyes now, more than the dead Grand Duchess."

The woman rose from the edge of the carriage seat and moved toward him. Those sad, desolate eyes—an emotion he'd never once seen from this woman—naturally drew his gaze.

"I can be touched and felt like this."

The woman pulled his hand with great familiarity, grasped it, and rubbed her cheek against his palm. Though her mouth had always been active and wild, she had never once pressed flesh to flesh in this manner.

"Rather than having your time stolen by what you cannot possess, possess me—whom you can have."

Don't let the Second Prince steal me like this. If I can only be free from your shadow, I'm prepared to give up any other freedom. The woman, who had been like that for a while as if trying to melt all his anger and rage, opened her closed eyes and whispered sweetly.