Ch155 - Side 1 - Lex Talionis (3)

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

“Think carefully. Do you truly not see it?”

As her anger became unmistakably real, the man, who had been smiling lazily while turning the ring atop his palm, let a chilling light enter his eyes. Erasing his smile completely, he met Lady Ireine’s gaze head-on and asked in a cold voice.

“Why do you think your father is advocating a federal system centered on the Rodom royal house?”

“That is because the prince who will inherit the Rodom throne carries Lecaster blood.”

“For now, perhaps. But if your sister were gone, could your nephew truly inherit the throne? A boy of only fifteen, no more than fifth in the line of succession?”

Lady Ireine’s eyes widened.

It was a question she had never once considered precisely because it had seemed so self-evident. Now it struck the back of her head with brutal force.

“On the other hand, the First Prince by the former queen is thirty this year. He is only eight years younger than your sister. Moreover, legitimacy favors him. He is first in the line of succession, and his mother was a royal herself, a princess of Myra.”

Almost all of the children of House Lecaster had entered into political marriages, but only the eldest daughter had succeeded in marrying into royalty. That marriage had not even been devised by the Marquis himself. There had been only one reason Queen Gwyneth had become Rodom’s Queen Consort.

The king had fallen in love with her.

From that point on, House Lecaster rose sharply. With the family’s status elevated through royal ties, the Marquis of Lecaster did not let the opportunity slip away. The Grand Duke Lowein, whom the second sister married, was nineteen years her senior. Count Melgart, the greatest magnate of the Confederation of Five Nations, was exactly twenty years older than the third sister and three times her weight.

Lady Ireine’s mind spun rapidly. All at once, the voice of the Duchess of Témore brushed past her thoughts.‘Judging by the way you still round your vowels, you must be from Rodom, then?’The man had evaded the question then, but to Lady Ireine that inference had been very close to the truth. Even if his precise lineage was unknown, there was a strong likelihood that the country in which he had been raised was Rodom.

“…You. Do not tell me you were sent by Prince Aberdeen?”

As she sorted through the situation in her mind, she finally arrived at a single conclusion and swallowed a deep groan. Once again, the man did not give a clear yes or no, but the ambiguous smile he wore only encouraged her suspicion.

“If Queen Gwyneth were assassinated, he would certainly be the most likely suspect. But can you not imagine how desperate his circumstances must be? He is not alone. He has three children in tow. How could he not be beside himself with fear?”

Without ever offering a definitive answer, he deftly spoke on behalf of the First Prince’s position. Watching him, Lady Ireine gained a strong sense of certainty.

His words were not wrong. For Prince Dominic, the second-born, to ascend the throne, not only Prince Aberdeen but also his three sons would have to lose their lives or be stripped of their rights of succession. The anxiety of Prince Aberdeen and his wife over this matter was so severe that rumors of it had reached even distant Kamann.

So that is how it is. In the end, the First Prince was the one who drew his sword first.

Biting down gently on her red lips, Lady Ireine sank into thought. Indeed, no matter how favorably the federalist discussions progressed for Rodom, they had nothing to do with Prince Aberdeen himself. For the Marquis of Lecaster’s ambitions to be fulfilled, the deaths of Prince Aberdeen and his family would be a prerequisite. From that perspective, the situation would be unsettling rather than advantageous.

“So what you are telling me is that I should betray not only my own elder sister, but even my nephews who share my blood?”

“If one were to summarize it briefly, that would be so. But is there really a need to put it so bluntly? Let us gloss over it gently, smoothly, like letting a snake slip over a wall.”

“Gently?”

“Your father supports Rodom because his family’s blood has been mixed into the Rodom royal line, correct? Now think in reverse. If Prince Dominic’s succession, which seemed all but assured, were to fall apart, do you believe that man would still insist on Rodom alone?”

“What are you saying…?”

“This would be precisely the moment when another child married to a successor to the throne would become necessary. Moreover, in this case, the groom stands first in the line of succession, with no rival who needs to be removed by intrigue. As you well know, the Marquis of Lecaster is an exceedingly rational man. If such a situation were to arise, whose hand do you think he would favor?”

Upon hearing those words, Lady Ireine’s vision swam. Only then did she realize that she had been stepping, one pace at a time, into the trap the man had laid.

If she had no intention of accepting it, she should have turned away the moment she grasped what the man was proposing. Even if lingering attachment had prevented her from doing so at once, any reasonable person would have withdrawn before the conversation reached anything concrete.

idP ugtj VCwfOw kMdrt OMP tM PngP. qZwO gT Tnw Cgxwt fObgCtrj, Tnw grrMbwt Pnw JgO PM kMOPfOdw TWwgvfOx.

A devil of a man.

Lady Ireine ground her teeth, yet she could not tear her gaze away from him. Beneath the wavering moonlight, the man was smiling. His single remaining eye gleamed with arrogance, his expression brazenly mocking her as though to say, ‘Can you truly refuse this offer?’

ZaI hIE aQt VGRI HQbIvESN, EaIw SJLIbIH aIb INIt EJ SJJB GE EaI bQwV bItEQwV Qw aQt aGwH. ZaI BwIL QE LGt Gw IwEbGwvI SIGHQwV tEbGQVaE QwEJ aISS. Ft G hIhiIb JY EaI sJktI JY uIvGtEIb, Gt aIb tQtEIb’t NJkwVIb tQiSQwV.

…dJ, IAIw iIYJbI EaGE. Ft G hGEEIb JY iGtQv akhGw hJbGSQEN, taI LGt LISS GLGbI EaGE EaQt LGt G vaJQvI EaGE taJkSH wIAIb iI hGHI.

FwH NIE, taI kSEQhGEISN vJkSH wJE bIYktI EaI HIAQS’t EIhrEGEQJw. ZaI iQE HJLw Jw aIb EbIhiSQwV SQrt GwH aItQEGEIH YJb G SJwV LaQSI, ikE Qw EaI IwH taI tMkIIRIH aIb INIt takE GwH rQvBIH kr EaI bQwV. Ft EaJkVa vISIibGEQwV aIb HIvQtQJw, EaI hGw iJLIH LQEa G EaIGEbQvGS YSJkbQta. TaIw, Qw G EJwI rJSQtaIH EJ rIbYIvEQJw, aI trGE JkE G taGbr EGkwE.

“Long live the Queen, for all eternity.”

The cub of a lion is a lion.

And the offspring of a serpent can only ever be a serpent.

The man who achieved his purpose lifted his head with a refreshing smile. It was something that happened on a dazzlingly beautiful full moon night.

***

Victor Adelphe reported to the Emperor, who was reclining against a long chair and looking a stack of design drafts.

“A message has arrived from Hunter. He says Operation Talion has concluded flawlessly.”

“Has it?”

I do not like this design. It is far too ornate. Not this either. Nor this… What in the world are these people thinking, piling embellishments on like this one after another? Do they have no regard for the Emperor’s special instructions?

Unable to find a design that was as simple and distinctive as he desired, Ebroin V, in a foul mood, flipped briskly through the refined drafts submitted by the finest dessinateurs and replied absentmindedly. However, Victor, long accustomed to such reactions, paid it no heed and continued his report.

“Ten days ago, a civil war broke out in the Rodom capital. Forces loyal to the First Prince opposed the sudden detention order and stormed the Delian Palace in an attempt to rescue the prince and his consort. In the process, they clashed violently with the Royal Guard on duty. Fortunately, the prince escaped unharmed, but the princess consort lost her life.”

A civil war tied to the succession to a nation’s throne was information of enormous consequence. The fact that it had crossed the sea and reached the imperial court in only ten days marked it as an extraordinary dispatch. But neither Victor, who delivered the report, nor the Emperor showed any sign of agitation, as though they had anticipated it all along.

In truth, they had known all along that something like this would happen.

“Is that so? How unfortunate.”

“Yes. As a result, there are troubling movements on the Belfasset side. Even if the Belfasset royal house is little more than a name now, they cannot remain idle after a princess has died in such a manner.”

When Victor cautiously added his own assessment, the Emperor nodded readily, as though in agreement.

“Of course. The royal grandchildren carry the blood of the Belfasset royal house, after all.”

One month earlier, Queen Gwyneth, the Queen Consort of Rodom, had suddenly lost her life. It occurred just after she had reunited with her family, who had come to visit her for her birthday after a long absence, and after a grand banquet had been held in celebration. The court physicians diagnosed the cause of death as a sudden heart attack, but few believed their conclusion. There were simply too many who had seen her in good health until the very day before.

Queen Gwyneth was thirty-nine years old. Far too young an age to die. King Feldiner, already past his sixtieth year, remained vigorous and hale, yet she had not even reached forty.

The old king, having lost his beloved queen under suspicious circumstances, was consumed by rage and grief. The one who suffered the fallout was, unfairly enough, Prince Aberdeen, the First Prince born of the former queen. Locked in a sharp confrontation with his stepmother over matters of succession, Prince Aberdeen had, upon hearing of the queen’s death, let slip to those around him the remark,“At least I can finally breathe easier now.”That careless utterance proved decisive in provoking the king’s wrath.

Already inclined to suspect the First Prince, King Feldiner immediately branded him as the mastermind behind the assassination and ordered his personal guard to arrest his eldest son. It was a reckless arrest order, lacking both clear evidence and legitimate grounds, based on nothing more than suspicion. In the end, that decision became King Feldiner’s fatal miscalculation.

“It seems Myra, the maternal family of Prince Aberdeen, will also enter the fray. Grand Duke Tyrone, the political rival of Grand Duke Lowein, is not the sort of man foolish enough to let an opportunity like this slip by.”

Grand Duke Lowein of Myra, the second son-in-law of the Marquis of Lecaster, was a leading noble who, since forming a marriage alliance, had worked in close cooperation with the Marquis to expand the influence of the parliamentary faction.

That effort had been highly successful thus far, but the rapid rise of any one faction inevitably bred enemies. Grand Duke Tyrone, who had once held power equal to Grand Duke Lowein’s before the latter joined hands with the Marquis of Lecaster, was a prime example.

According to rumor, Grand Duke Tyrone harbored deep hatred toward Grand Duke Lowein, who had grown his power swiftly by aligning himself with foreign forces, viewing him as an enemy who could never share the same harbor.

“And what of Randall and Kamann?”

“They remain quiet for now, but it is widely expected that they will back Prince Dominic, the second son. Count Baltenor, who effectively controls Randall, is little more than an extension of the Marquis of Lecaster’s will, and Kamann is the Marquis’s main stronghold.”

“Still, the Marquis of Lecaster is no ordinary fox. Keep a close watch, just in case.”

“Yes. Understood.”

What no one among the people of the Confederation of Five Nations could have imagined was that the assassination of Queen Gwyneth was the result of a scheme carried out by the Anti-Chevaliers. The operation was calledTalion, a name personally bestowed by Ebroin V himself.

Everything was proceeding exactly as planned, yet the Emperor did not so much as twitch an eyebrow. The death of a single woman was hardly enough to erase the sins the Confederation of Five Nations had committed against his empire by attempting to incite civil war. For him, who had not forgotten the events of past years, this affair was no more than the beginning.

“As it happens, preparations are also underway to counter him. The Kamann royal house harbors considerable resentment toward the House Lecaster. Moreover, the current heir to Kamann’s throne carries the blood of the Randall royal house as well. -That said, Your Majesty.”

Victor, who had been delivering his report with diligence until then, hesitated at that point. The Emperor, already quietly irritated by the lack of any design to his liking, cast a questioning glance at his milk brother.

“Is there still more to report?”

“Now that Operation Talion has concluded, we ordered his return, but Hunter has refused to comply. He sent back an unusually long cipher, so I hurried to have it deciphered, thinking it might contain important intelligence. Instead, it was a complaint asking why we would douse the flames when things were only just becoming interesting. From the looks of it, his return will be delayed for some time.”

“Chasseur?”

Chasseur, or Hunter. The leader of the Jackdaws and the finest information trader of the underworld, he had been the foremost contributor in dismantling the rebels’ trap during last year’s uprising. Even so, the Emperor still did not know his true name.

All the Emperor knew was that he was the sole survivor of the House of Count Caivenne, which had been purged by the faction of the Marquis of Lecaster, that he was currently operating within the Confederation of Five Nations under the assumed identity of Jacob Macford, and, as Eugène had personally vouched, that he was a“master of black propaganda and slander.”That was the extent of it.

“In any case, he is not formally affiliated with the Anti-Chevalier. He only slithered his way in because he has his own aims to pursue, so leave him be for the time being. It is a revenge he has waited more than a decade for. It would be unkind to snatch away an opportunity he has only just seized.”

After giving the matter a brief thought, the Emperor lightly shook his head. Victor felt a quiet sense of deflation upon seeing the Emperor’s reaction. He had thought so for some time now, but Ebroin V was strangely lenient toward Chasseur.

That was not to say that His Majesty was absurdly softhearted across the board, as he was with a certain scepter custodian. Rather, he was exceedingly lenient only in very specific respects. According to Victor’s analysis, this generosity was chiefly related to Chasseur’s activities within the Confederation of Five Nations. For reasons unknown, His Majesty seemed to regard Chasseur’s long-term stay in the Confederation in a very favorable light.

“If your report is finished, come closer.Weneed your help with something.”

At the beckoning finger that crooked back and forth as though summoning a passing dog, Victor hurried over to the Emperor’s side. Resting his chin on one hand, the Emperor spread three or four design sketches across the table and looked up at Victor.

“In your opinion, which of these looks like a design that person would wear on a regular basis?”

Lately, the person the Emperor referred to as“that person”was, in most cases, the Duke of La Mer. Victor looked down at the sketches with a flustered expression, then silently turned his gaze back to the Emperor.

“…No matter how I think about it, I cannot imagine that he would favor such flashy ornaments. Must it be a ring?”

“It must be a ring.”

Victor, who had a fair understanding of Eugène’s tastes, questioned him skeptically, but the Emperor’s resolve was unwavering.

“Then how about a plain gold band with no pattern at all?”

“If it is too plain, it will not stand out either, will it?Wewant a symbol striking enough to catch the eye even from a distance. Then what about this ruby ring?”

“Would not a ruby clash too much with his complexion? If he had skin as pale as a noble lady’s, perhaps, but he has a sun-bronzed, healthy—no, a pleasingly colored complexion.”

Imagining Eugène wearing a gaudy ruby ring on that strong finger, Victor turned pale and hastily tried to dissuade him. The Emperor shot Victor a sidelong glance, but seemed to accept the point, for he said nothing and set that sketch aside.

He proceeded to set aside, one after another, the designs of a heavy emerald ring cut in a square shape, and an enormous star sapphire ring with six radiant rays boldly emphasized. The shape itself was plausible, but Victor frowned as he spotted traces suggesting a jeweler’s desperate attempt to offload expensive inventory. At last, the Emperor fixed his gaze on the remaining diamond ring.

Even to Victor’s eye, that one looked the best of the lot. As it was achromatic, it did not clash against darker skin tones, and its distinctive cut, elongated vertically like a pair of lips and unlike anything he had seen before, was remarkably striking and drew the viewer’s attention.

“…Does not this resemble that person’s lips somewhat?”

After staring intently at the sketch for a while, the Emperor uttered this blatant nonsense in broad daylight. Victor desperately wanted to blurt out,“Good heavens, in what way?”but seeing no need to hasten his own demise with a single impulsive remark, he pressed his lips together and barely held back.

Our Emperor was not ordinarily such a frivolous man, yet of late he had occasionally been making these strange remarks. Though it happened only once in a while, he would casually toss out statements so astonishingly incomprehensible that they left his loyal vassal utterly flustered.

“Hm. There is a separate note attached here. A cutting technique newly devised by the heir of House Castellui…Marquis cut? It says it was modeled after the lips of some Margrave?”

The House Castellui was the foremost family of jewelers, one that had firmly maintained its status as an imperial supplier for some one hundred and fifty years, and by now was little different from a vassal of the Imperial House Ardi itself.

The Imperial House Ardi, which owned the empire’s largest gemstone mines, had traditionally patronized accessory craftsmen and designers, encouraging the advancement of cutting techniques. Among them all, the Castelluis occupied an unrivaled position.

They were renowned for adhering to techniques unique to their house while continually attempting new innovations, and for that reason had earned a reputation for securing both tradition and innovation at once. But now that he saw this, it seemed their ability to form a lineage extended beyond the field of gem cutting alone.

The manner of flattery by which they sought to curry favor with their patron far exceeded Victor’s imagination. He was baffled by the fact that the cut truly had been modeled after Eugène’s lips, and was even more deeply astonished by the fact that the Emperor had been able to think of Eugène upon seeing that shape in the first place.

In Victor’s view, whatever this Marquis cut might be, and Eugène’s lips, resembled one another only from an exceedingly metaphysical standpoint. That was to say, they were similar only in a realm that was transcendent of experience and utterly unreal.

“Yes. This will do.”

At present, Eugène was not even a Marquis, and he had never in his life possessed lips like those. Victor thought this very strongly. Even so, the Emperor appeared highly pleased with the Castelluis’ flattery. A man who, whether in private or in public, was famously deaf to sweet words. He had never once shown pleasure at another’s sycophancy. Why, then, he should yield so easily on this occasion was something Victor could not fathom.

Ebroin V picked up his pen and added his signature to the design, a mark ordering its production. Naturally, he did not even bother to ask about the price.

“It is a belated question, but may I ask why it must be a ring?”

The Emperor appeared to be in an exceptionally good mood, so Victor did not wish to spoil it. Even so, a strange sense of foreboding that made his spine prickle compelled him to speak. It was, however, a question that would have been better left unasked.

“Weintend to propose.”

“…Pardon?”

“Some time ago,Wevowed that onceWewere properly qualified,Wewould propose to him.Webelieve the time has come.”

Even knowing that His Majesty was answering with complete seriousness, Victor felt an overwhelming urge to ask again. Pardon me? What exactly do you mean? Marriage? With Baron Ami-, no, the Duke of La Mer? …Surely this cannot be meant in earnest.

Victor found himself wishing, futilely, that his hearing had failed him entirely and that he had not heard those words at all.Of all people, His Majesty… My lord, who had always been so wise and clear-headed. Why, of all things, why this?!?

What was even more tragic was that this would not be the last time Victor found himself thinking the same thoughts. In the days to come, he would be forced to repeat them again and again, and to suffer the same torment each time. The situation was the same not only for King Feldiner but also for Ebroin V.

A man’s late-blooming love was a frightening thing. And when that love was the belated first love of a powerful ruler, it was utterly beyond remedy.

<Side 1, The End>