Chapter 65
“Princess! How on earth did you get your dress so dirty!”
Madam Flambard greeted Liene upon her return from the North Tower.
“And of all dresses, it had to be this one! This is one of the few good dresses left!”
“……I’m sorry.”
She truly was sorry. When her clothes got dirty, it was Madam Flambard who suffered. If Liene even offered to help with the laundry, the Madam would vehemently refuse. Other chores were unavoidable, but she couldn’t bear to see the Princess doing menial tasks like laundry as long as she was alive.
“Since it’s fruit juice, wouldn’t it come off if you just dab it gently?”
Madam Flambard shook her head emphatically. Her emotions were clearly running high.
“Not at all. Fruit juice is even harder to remove. Colored fruit juice stains, you know.”
“Oh, dear……. I didn’t know. I’m sorry.”
“First, take off your dress, Princess. It’s a race against time with fruit juice. You have to clean it right away.”
Hearing that made her feel even more apologetic. ……I’m sorry. It’s been a while since it got stained. Mrs. Hinton was crying so much. I wanted to lend her a handkerchief, but I didn’t have one. So I just offered her my sleeve. Mrs. Hinton seemed quite dumbfounded, but in the end, she had no choice but to use it. I think it helped her stop crying a bit faster.
“I’ll take it off now.”
“Yes, yes. Please do.”
Madam Flambard turned Liene around and began to undo the buttons on her back.
“I specifically had you wear this dress today…… Oh well, it can’t be helped. You’ll have to wear the brown dress. Oh dear. That dress is so plain, it won’t look good on you at all.”
“Oh, that’s fine. But why did you want me to wear this dress?”
“Isn’t it obvious? To make you look pretty, of course.”
“It’s okay if I don’t.”
“What do you mean, it’s okay?”
Madam Flambard’s diligent hands, which had been undressing her, faltered for a moment.
“……You have to reconcile.”
“Ah…….”
It seemed Madam Flambard had also noticed the distance between Liene and Black since the wedding dress incident yesterday. Come to think of it, she hadn’t apologized to the Madam. She was the one who had put the most effort into that dress.
“I’m sorry, Madam.”
“No, you should reconcile with Lord Tiwakan, not apologize to me.”
“I mean about ruining the dress. I know how much effort you put into it……”
“My feelings are fine. You put a lot of effort into it too, Princess. But not having a wedding dress is a big problem, Princess. How are we going to get another one like that now?”
That was a big problem too.
“I guess I have no choice but to sell a jewel. If I sell my necklace, I can buy a good dress.”
“Ugh…… Don’t tell me you’re talking about the sapphire necklace? The one Late Majesty wore during his lifetime?”
“There’s nothing else, is there?”
“Oh, Princess!”
Madam Flambard couldn’t help but burst into tears.
“How can you say you’re going to sell it so easily? Do you know what that is?”
She knew that it was a necklace her mother had cherished during her lifetime. Her father had given it to her, and it had become a token of their love before their marriage. Liene squeezed her eyes shut and deliberately spoke coldly.
“It’s not like I can sell the coronation scepter.”
“Princess!”
“We need to hurry because we don’t have much time. Madam, please find some fabric suitable for a wedding dress. Don’t worry about the price, just get the best one.”
“Princess, are you really…… are you really going to sell it?”
“Yes.”
Even remembering my mother, it feels like I’m committing a sin. My father’s death must be a nightmare for that man, so how can I even have memories?
“Please…… Please reconsider, Princess. If we look around, there might be something else we can sell.”
“Madam.”
Perhaps Liene’s voice sounded cold, as Madam Flambard hesitated before answering.
“……Yes, Princess.”
“Tell Masa’s Marten to go to the jeweler. I want to see him by the end of the day.”
“Princess…….”
“I want to at least have the wedding dress my way. I hope you won’t say anything more.”
“I understand…… I understand.”
Madam Flambard, with tears in her eyes, helped Liene put on another dress. The sturdy brown dress, made of thick fabric, was plain and rough with no decorations, making Liene think that her reflection in the mirror looked quite pathetic. * * *
“……Damn it.”
Black spat out in annoyance. Everyone glared at someone sitting in front of Black. That someone was Klima. Klima, not knowing why, was terrified and hunched his shoulders. Klima had been captured in an empty mansion south of the Ebete River. Until ten years ago, the Spalding family, a fairly prestigious noble family, had lived there, but they couldn’t withstand the continuous drought and left Nauk. An unmanaged empty house had naturally been in ruins for a long time. The larger the house, the greater the desolation. Instead of searching every nook and cranny of Nauk as Black had ordered, Fermos came up with a way to lure him in. That was this empty mansion. They set up guards and hung flags as if they had made it their new fortress, and spread the word that Tiwakan was imprisoning people he had captured there. Contrary to concerns that the rumor couldn’t spread that quickly, Klima showed up at dawn the next day. Fermos hummed a tune as he apprehended Klima and brought him before Black. And Black heard everything he had said to Liene without missing a word.
“I had some hope, though.”
Black rubbed his forehead and muttered to himself. Tiwakan’s mercenaries, who knew him, felt that he looked even more untouchable than when he held a sword.
“Damn it……. How do I fix this?”
“It’s…… It’s not necessarily a bad thing, my lord.”
Fermos, unable to bear the increasingly grim atmosphere, finally spoke on behalf of everyone.
“Even though the Princess knows about the past, she still intends to marry, and since she denies any connection with Iza, it means she doesn’t intend to make an issue of the past, does it not?”
“What if she does make an issue of it?”
“Yes?”
Black stared at Fermos with icy, sharp eyes.
“What changes if she makes an issue of it?”
“Um…….”
At that moment, Fermos realized he had been foolish. Marriage was no longer important to Black. That was a foregone conclusion. The question now was how satisfactory the marriage could be.
“The Princess knows she can’t undo this marriage.”
If so, the best thing for Liene was to cover up the past. Secretly, pretending not to know anything. Then the six families wouldn’t need to try to kill Black as they had killed the young Prince Fernand, and Black wouldn’t need to confront the six families either.
“She knows it in her head, but her heart isn’t following.”
Black remembered everything about Liene, clutching the blade of the scissors with her bloodied hand and slashing down on the wedding dress. Her movements were violent, but her eyes were empty. The eyes of someone who had suffered an unresolvable shock.
“I shouldn’t have said anything about the engagement…… No, it wouldn’t have mattered.”
Just as he hadn’t anticipated the existence of Manau or Hinton, the past could pop up anytime, anywhere. The distance between Liene and him, which he thought he had narrowed, had become as vast as it had been at the beginning. Black sighed and stood up.
“I have no choice but to start over from the beginning.”
Fermos and the mercenaries breathed a sigh of relief, finally able to relax their tense chests. The god of war was quick to judge. He knew exactly when to retreat and when to advance. If he had been pushed back, he just had to go again. But it would be different from before. As he said, Liene had no way to undo the marriage. Once the Grand Council was over, the families who had been acting up, trusting in the Lisebery Treaty, would quiet down, and Kleinfelter would disappear from this land. There was nowhere that could interfere with Liene’s and his marriage, nowhere that Liene might even consider joining hands with. With the gnats gone, all he had to do was focus on winning her heart completely.
“……The problem is that I don’t know how.”
A bitter taste lingered in the sigh he swallowed.
“I’m going back.”
He couldn’t just stay cooped up here. Like it or not, he had to face it.
“What about the Sectarian?”
“Ah…….”
His mind, filled with thoughts of Liene, had forgotten about Klima’s existence.
“What do you want to do with him?”
Black approached Klima and asked.
“I… I just want my mother to be safe.”
“Mrs. Hinton will stay at Nauk Castle for the time being. It'll be safest there until we deal with Kleinfelter. Do you want to go to the castle too?”
“I… I don’t know…”
Klima blankly opened her mouth, as if she had never thought about it before.
“Or you can go back to the temple.”
“To the temple…”
“If you like it there. If you don't, then don't.”
“……”
That made it even harder to answer. It had been so long since Klima had thought about what she wanted to do, rather than what she was told to do.
“Think about it slowly. There's plenty of time. Spend some time with Mrs. Hinton and talk it over.”
“Talk to my mother… Is that… Oh, yes! I, I will.”
For a moment, everyone felt that Klima's expression had brightened a little.
“Clean this up.”
Black nodded once and gestured to Fermos.
“Yes, my lord.”
Everyone quickly prepared to return to the castle, like people heading home after a busy day. * * * Coincidentally, the timing was perfect. Madam Flambard, who had found Masa as instructed by Liene, happened to spot Lord Tiwakan's party returning to the castle.
“Wait… isn't that the Sectarian?”
Madam Flambard, who had been secretly admiring Black's upright posture on horseback, exclaimed in surprise. Madam Flambard had vaguely heard that the woman who had ruined the wedding dress was the Sectarian's mother. She had also heard that it was all related to Lord Tiwakan's family, which had supposedly disappeared a long time ago. Liene had avoided going into detail, but even though the woman had ruined the wedding dress, she had not been punished at all.
“The Sectarian is coming into the castle too? I heard he killed the Cardinal?”
Madam Flambard tilted her head and approached Black. The Sectarian issue wasn't really her business, but she had something to say right now. Madam Flambard believed that Black was sincerely courting Liene. As she had told Liene many times, Black was doing things that he wouldn't do unless he was serious.
“Lord Tiwakan.”
Black's expression changed as Madam Flambard approached.
“What is it?”
A chilling tension flashed across his expressionless face, so much so that Madam Flambard was taken aback and took a step back.
“The Princess?”
She wondered for a moment what kind of eyes could be so intimidating, but then she realized why Black's expression had changed. Oh dear. He must think something has happened to the Princess. Well, I wouldn't have approached him first unless something had happened to the Princess.
“She's in her office. Nothing's wrong.”
“Ah…”
The tension then melted away. Now he looked a little more human. Madam Flambard stroked her surprised chest and spoke.
“May I have a word with you for a moment? I have a request.”
Black, who seemed like he had the coldest expression in the world, surprisingly nodded readily. He dismounted from his horse, handed the reins to Fermos, and said,
“Take the Sectarian and go in first. Take her to her mother.”
“Yes, my lord.”
The mercenaries disappeared with Klima. After clearing the area, Black turned his head.
“You can speak.”
“Ah… yes. Well, you see…”
