Ch154 - Side 1 - Lex Talionis (2)

Rustle, rustle, rustle.With every step, the hem of her dress brushed against the garden grass. If this were a game of hide-and-seek, the noise would have been so conspicuous that no effort could have concealed her presence.

It did not seem that she had walked very far, yet to make matters worse, her shoes were already acting up. The soles, made of thin lambskin lined with soft silk, had begun to fray, making each step increasingly uncomfortable.

Though it was spring, the night air remained chill. Lady Ireine, dressed in the latest fashion that left her shoulders nearly bare, felt the cold creeping in and wrapped her arms around herself. A decorative lace shawl draped over her exposed shoulders offered little warmth; it was purely ornamental, not protective.

Lucky, am I?

She let out a bitter laugh, blowing white puffs of breath into the air. Lucky? The thought was absurd. Every time people proclaimed her fortunate, she felt an irresistible urge to ask them: if you were in my place, could you truly say the same? Could you really be satisfied there?

Her eyes gleamed a deep, piercing blue, and it was impossible to tell whether the light shimmering behind her lowered lashes was tears or anger. Exhausted from walking aimlessly, she stopped and stood dazed, unable to move further. Though she wished to hide her expression, the moonlight cascading above her was unforgivingly bright.

It was a full moon night, no different from when she had first met him.

“…Then continue to turn away if you wish. Why do you keep looking back?”

Lady Ireine whispered, lowering her gaze. Unnoticed until now, the man had been quietly following, keeping his eyes fixed on her. A few steps away, he stood still. The shadows cast by the hedges of the labyrinth hid half of him, yet she could recognize him perfectly.

“Then why have you come all this way? You could be hurt by meddlesome people.”

His voice carried a muted melancholy. So he had been watching her from the start, she realized, and she closed her eyes.

“It has been so long, and yet this is all you can say?”

The sorrow rising in her chest spilled out despite her best efforts to restrain it. Crown Prince Gideon’s lips curved in a wry, bitter smile at her words.

“I wish not to see you harmed at any moment. Even if I were the cause of it, I cannot bear to watch.”

“Those are kind words, truly… yet cruel all the same.”

Even words of care from a loved one, when they carry parting’s weight, can feel merciless. As Lady Ireine murmured her grief aloud, a shadow of anguish flickered in Crown Prince Gideon’s eyes.

For a man who bore the title of crown prince of a nation to be forced to let go of the woman he loved, even though his feelings had not changed at all…. The young Crown Prince found it hard to endure the frustration boiling up from the depths of his heart, and he turned his gaze away from her.

“Even if you call it cruel, there is no help for it. If only to protect you, I have no choice but to be realistic. You are, inevitably, your sisters’ younger sibling, my beloved Ireine. So long as you are their sister and the daughter of the Marquis Lecaster, you cannot deny that bloodline for any reason.”

“That does not matter to me. So long as I have you, nothing else is needed.”

“I know.”

“And knowing that, you will still send me away?”

“What other choice do I have? For the sake of love alone, I cannot condemn you to everlasting suffering. I cannot use myself as a pretext to force you to abandon your blood.”

The royal house of Kamann and House Lecaster stood at irreconcilable extremes. Sensing that nothing remained between the two factions but a descent into open mire, Crown Prince Gideon cut her off without leaving any further room.

“Then use me as your shield. Does a man not even have that much resolve?”

“Do not say such a wretched thing. I cannot do that to you.”

“I am telling you to do it. Why can you not?”

“If you were in my place, would you force such a life upon someone you loved? When it is plain that you would be miserable, torn between husband and father?”

“It will be the same misery either way. What difference is there? I will abandon you for the sake of my own safety, and be abandoned by you in turn. For the sake of that fine stability, I will meet some insignificant man and live out the rest of my life. All the while remembering that your blood stains my father’s hands, recalling how he killed you every time he lays a hand upon my head!”

Her complaint, which had begun in trembling unease, ended at last in a scream. As Lady Ireine gradually lost her composure while pleading again and again with the lover who sought to cast her aside under the guise of kindness, she finally broke, tears spilling as she buried her face in her slender hands.

“Do not.”

“……”

“Please do not cry before me, when I cannot even hold you. I do not wish to make you weep. From the moment we first met until now, I have only ever wanted to see you smile.”

“IMd gCw Pnw MOw bnM JgvwT Jw kCj. IMd grbgjT ngZw, gOt jMd grbgjT bfrr. lj PwgCT bfrr pMCwZwC JMdCO Pnw rMTT Mp jMd.”

ktOEy BtfyhJ SfzJOy hLJyhCJz CfI mJJmC fy NyqDfIC. dJ ENymJz mO qNmCJt mCNm RfmfADL, gJLOFJz EOoNy fymO CfI NtoI Nyz EfRJ NENe CJt mJNtI EfmC CfI LfRI. dJ ENymJz mO zO IO mO mCJ ROfym OA oNzyJII. cDm CJ hODLz yOm gtfyq CfoIJLA mO mODhC CJt. vA CJ EJtJ mO COLz CJt JFJy OyhJ, CJ AJLm CJ EODLz yJFJt gJ NgLJ mO LJm CJt qO NqNfy.

“snfT Wrgkw tMwT OMP TdfP jMd. zwPdCO nMJw, Jj VCwfOw. V bfrr OMP Tww jMd Mpp.”

Suppressing his longing to step forward, he retreated into the shadows. Lady Ireine wished to stop him, but in the end, she could not. The man she loved was not one who would come back easily after rejecting her so completely. For now, there was nothing to be done but to let him go.

For now, she had to let him go.

Left alone, she trembled through her slender shoulders and wept for a long while. Large, pearl-like tears fell endlessly down her pale cheeks. How long had she cried? Only when the warmth returned to her flushed cheeks, faintly coloring them after the redness from crying, did she finally lift a hand to dab beneath her eyes with the handkerchief she had tucked in her sleeve, trudging back slowly.

The bright moonlight followed her. She moved forward in a daze.

The rustle of fabric brushing against grass reached her ears. The night-dew–soaked lawn crunched beneath her feet, carrying a faintly pungent scent of grass far into the still night air. Her footsteps repeated, one set, then another, contrasting against the first.

She stopped walking.

The unfamiliar steps also stopped.

Back straightened, she hesitated for a long moment before cautiously continuing her path.

Again, footsteps echoed behind her.

“…Who is it?”

She clutched her handkerchief anxiously and looked back. For a fleeting moment, she indulged a vain hope that the person had not yet left, but it was only for an instant. Unlike her lover, who quietly followed without revealing himself to avoid startling her, this man made no effort to conceal his presence.

“If you do not intend to threaten me, then reveal yourself.”

“Please worry not. Just continue on your way. I am following only to see you safely home.”

The man emerging from the darkness had an unexpected face. Lady Ireine regarded him with distrust, as she had increasingly come to do in recent encounters. Jacob Mackford, was it? A suspicious sort, no doubt about it.

“Why are you following me?”

The man, seemingly unconcerned by her wary gaze, smiled with brazen ease and shrugged his shoulders.

“He said he would not see you off, but think about it. Could our Crown Prince behave in such an ungentlemanly manner? I was simply ordered to ensure your safe passage along the dark path.”

Hearing this, Lady Ireine felt more than a little bewildered. Whether he truly acted on the Crown Prince’s command was unknown, but at the very least, one thing was clear.

That he was quoting the Crown Prince’s final words meant that this man had witnessed the scene in which she lost her composure and wept without restraint. The nape of her neck flushed hot at the realization that a complete stranger had seen her at her most private and vulnerable.

“His Highness ordered you to do this?”

“Do you doubt it?”

“Then why did you reveal your presence?”

“For a delicate young lady like yourself, is it not more frightening for an unknown man to follow in secret? Especially when I look like this,” he said, lifting a finger to point at his eyepatch, “and have such a villainous impression to begin with.”

Unlike before, the man’s attitude was far from courteous. Lady Ireine felt a sharp surge of displeasure at his insolence, but given that it was the dead of night, and that she was alone with an unfamiliar man in an empty hedge maze, she forced herself to endure it. Naturally cautious by temperament, she had no desire to provoke him unnecessarily.

“…I understand well enough. If it were His Highness, it would not be unlike him at all. Convey my gratitude to him.”

“I shall do so with pleasure.”

The man bent his waist in an exaggerated show of a bow, then extended his hand to gesture ahead. It was a clear signal to continue on her way.

They walked for some time in silence. The night was still, and the maze garden was vast and deep enough to show the care the Duchess of Témore had lavished upon it.

When had I come in this far?Even after walking shoulder to shoulder for quite a while, there was no end in sight. The paths, endlessly repeating and all too similar, were enough to make one suspect that they were circling the same place over and over, had one not known the way out.

“There is something I would like to ask.”

The man, who had been following behind her in bored silence, asked a question. Lady Ireine, staring blankly into the darkness, answered absentmindedly.

“What is it?”

“Was that sincere?”

“What are you referring to?”

“That is to say, plainly speaking, your feelings toward His Highness Crown Prince Gideon.”

Upon hearing that, Lady Ireine stopped walking. She had endured and endured, but this was beyond the pale. Her youthful face filled with anger, she turned on him with a fierce glare.

“You are growing far too familiar.”

Her voice, imbued with aristocratic authority, dropped lower than usual. No matter how perilous the situation, this was an insolence she could not tolerate.

“You granted me permission to ask, did you not?”

“His Highness and I share no private affairs that are fodder for your personal curiosity. Do you not know the meaning of restraint?”

“Now, now, why are you reacting so strongly? I ask out of concern, in my own way.”

“Concern, you say?”

“As you can imagine, I ended up witnessing the two of you from beginning to end, whether I wished to or not. Watching it all unfold, I found it rather perplexing. His Highness seems entirely sincere, yet I could not grasp your feelings at all, my lady. Perhaps it is because you are so very much a lady of a noble house, but you are not exactly forthright when it comes to expressing your emotions.”

He even went so far as to pass judgment on her feelings. Lady Ireine was at a loss for words. She could not endure it any longer. Just as she was about to cry out in anger at last.

But before she could speak, the man opened his mouth first.

“Do you really think a naive woman in love would be resentful about having to live out the rest of her life with an ‘insignificant man’? At the very least, should it not be a ‘man she does not even love’?”

“!”

Lady Ireine’s lips, just about to part, froze in midair. The man, meanwhile, bared his white teeth in a threatening smile.

“Even the way you cried was no small thing. To be forced to part from the one you love and fall into despair, yet to weep so beautifully that even your makeup was not ruined…. You looked just like an actress on a stage. An actress performing while conscious of the gaze of someone who might be watching.”

“You insolent–.”

By now, the man was speaking to her in outright familiar speech. Even so, Lady Ireine could not muster a proper retort. Her mind turned white, then darkened as if drained of blood. Her entire face burned and stung, as though she had been struck across the cheek.

Until now, no one had ever seen through her inner thoughts with such precision. Not her eldest sister, who loomed over her in every way. Not the nursemaid who, no matter how much time passed, treated her as a child still unable to be weaned. Not her father, who doted on his youngest daughter, who had lost her mother early, like a cat raised indulgently yet left to roam unattended.

Not her brother and sister-in-law, who showed not the slightest interest in their four younger sisters. Not even her sisters, all too busy with their own lives…. Among her family, not a single person had ever asked what she truly wanted.

Born the youngest, she had many grievances she could not set aside. All her sisters had been married off to men powerful enough to sway entire nations, yet she had never even been given such an opportunity from the start.

“To maintain the balance,” she was fated, by her father’s decree, to content herself at best with becoming the wife of a count or a viscount, living a life of lesser rank than her sisters. How very fortunate she was, to be placed in a position where she must survive by relying solely on the magnanimity and indulgence of her superiors.

“They say the blood of a lion can only give rise to a lion. Do you, too, wish to become queen? Do you wish to be revered as the most noble of women, like your eldest sister?”

“…Shut your mouth.”

“So that must be why you devoted yourself to ensnaring Crown Prince Gideon the moment you debuted, drawing him firmly into the folds of your skirt. But is such a marriage even possible? Your father, not to mention all your siblings, would oppose it. Considering your father’s position, would that not amount to political suicide?”

“I said shut your mouth!”

“What do you intend to do by clinging to an incompetent crown prince who cannot propose a single solution even as the royal house teeters on the brink of ruin? Do you have some stratagem prepared for afterward?”

“…….”

“Surely you are not such a thoughtless optimist as to believe that everything will be resolved simply by marriage?”

Lady Ireine clenched her hands together so fiercely that her nails bit into her palms, drawing blood. As the fury surging within her reached its peak, the blood that had been boiling hot turned cold instead. She was so enraged that she wished to lunge at him at once and claw out his single remaining eye with her nails, yet in one corner of her heart, a faint question began to take shape.

Why is this man saying such things to me?

She struggled to maintain her composure and thought carefully. A man shrewd enough to peer beneath the mask that no one had ever pierced before could not be speaking merely to toy with her. But the questions he hurled at her were far too laden with meaning to dismiss.

“…So what is it that you want to say. Why are you doing this to me?”

Lady Ireine forced her lips to part and demanded his intent with difficulty. The man looked down at her with a smile steeped in deep mockery.

“You do not need to think so hard. Why do you suppose an ambitious jeweler like myself would approach the daughter of a magnate such as you?”

“After stirring a person up this much? Do not trifle with me.”

“To think you would take it as a jest wounds me deeply. I am quite serious about selling jewels.”

Murmuring as though genuinely aggrieved, the man placed a hand over his chest, then rummaged inside his coat and produced a velvet pouch. When he opened it and displayed its contents with pride, there lay a beautiful ring set with a blue diamond.

“Is it not truly beautiful? It is the finest piece I possess.”

Lady Ireine stared in disbelief at the jewel, which gleamed with an almost baleful brilliance under the light of the full moon. A fondness for rare jewels was the natural inclination of noble ladies, and Lady Ireine was no different from the rest. Had she encountered it elsewhere, it might have been an object she coveted so deeply that it would have robbed her of sleep, yet its appearance at such a moment was far too incongruous.

“What is this supposed to be?”

“The birthday tribute you will present to your eldest sister this year.”

“Do you want to establish a line with Her Majesty Queen Gwyneth through me?”

“That was my original intention. But once I learned of our young lady’s charming ambitions, the circumstances changed. To win at the gambling table, is it not far more reliable to secure an accomplice on the inside than to entrust everything to fickle luck?”

Even now, she could not grasp his intent. She had no idea what he was trying to say. Lady Ireine pressed her lips tightly together, her eyes shining sharply. However, an unnameable sense of foreboding tugged at the back of her head. Somehow, she felt that this conversation should not be allowed to continue.

“Do you know the provenance of this piece? Ever since it was first mined from a lode owned by the Imperial House, it has been a precious jewel reserved solely for empresses and imperial princesses, passed down through the generations. It was the Empress Bénétin, the Empress of the Western Empire two generations ago, who had this diamond cut into a ring. After her death, it was inherited by Grand Duchess Alienor, who passed away only recently. According to rumor, Grand Duchess Alienor cherished this ring so deeply that, after inheriting it, she never once removed it from her person. Not even at the very end.”

“…Not even at the very end?”

“Yes. Not even at the very end.”

Lady Ireine questioned whether she had heard him correctly and asked again. The man dispelled her doubt without the slightest hesitation.

Last autumn, a shocking rebellion erupted in the Western Empire. The instigator was Prince Merrick, the Emperor’s cousin. In the midst of a distinctly Western Imperial ceremony known as the Grand Feaute, he devised and even carried out a daring plot to assassinate the Emperor, only to fail miserably. Having received intelligence in advance, the Emperor had instead turned the cathedral into a lethal trap and lay in wait for him.

The Emperor, enraged to the depths of his being, brutally punished the rebels. Not a single one of those who stormed the cathedral that day survived.

The fate of Grand Duchess Alienor, the mother of Prince Merrick and his greatest political supporter, proved no exception. As the only surviving elder of the imperial family, her life could not be taken, but Ebroin V stripped her of everything else.

In the end, less than a month later, Grand Duchess Alienor was found dead. The official cause was heart failure due to old age, but according to the rumors circulating, that was not the truth.

Gossipmongers chattered that the likelihood of her committing suicide was higher. They said that Grand Duchess Alienor always carried with her a poison that left no trace, used to quietly eliminate political enemies, and that in the end, the final target of that poison had been herself.

“How dare you suggest such a thing to me?”

Lady Ireine was a clever woman. From the moment Grand Duchess Alienor’s name had surfaced, a vague suspicion had already taken root. Now that it had been confirmed, she glared at the man with a face drained of color. She had known he carried a dangerous air, but she had not imagined he would be this audacious. To speak of assassinating Queen Gwyneth, and before a blood member of House Lecaster no less!

“Do you not want to become queen? I merely showed you the shortest path.”

“How would killing my eldest sister make me queen?”