“Your majesty. How about having some tea?”
“…I have no thoughts.”
It’s been the same answer since a few days ago. Ryan clicked her tongue inside her.
“If you don’t have enough moisture, your face will get damaged.”
“…”
“It’s a face that Her Majesty the Empress said was handsome…”
“…ha.”
Lescal, who was lying on the office couch, covering his face with his arms, moved his arms away and glared at Ryan. Although it was very burdensome to have sharp eyes in the past few days, Ryan persevered.
“Replenish hydration. When your skin becomes rough, you look less attractive.”
Lescal stood up quickly.
“Bring anything.”
“Well thought out.”
There was no way his face would look gaunt just because he had starved for a few days. Ryan just didn’t like the way Lescal was left hanging like a worn-out carpet. After a while, the servant came preparing warm tea, refreshments, and water.
“Please eat.”
Lescal picked up as many glasses of water as he could reach. However, he just held on to the glass of water, as if he had no intention of pouring it down his throat.
“Your majesty.”
“I thought she would like me. Someday.”
“…yes?”
Ryan was also taken aback by the words being so direct.
Shh.
Lescal put down his glass of water and sank back onto the couch. As before, he covered his eyes with his arm and opened his mouth.
“Was the reason the Empress rejected me all this time because of the Duke?”
“Hmm… Are you asking me about Her Majesty’s intentions?”
“Yes.”
The mouth beneath the covered face seemed to be twisted.
“Because I have no idea. No matter how much I think about it.”
“Uh, um… So, Her Majesty was originally in a relationship with Duke Piellion… Well, but marriage was inevitable… But if she couldn’t put her mind together… No, I’m sorry. I don’t know either.”
A person’s love for another person was too complicated compared to swordsmanship. And Ryan was a person who thought that all she had to do was be good at swordsmanship.
“I don’t like it now.”
Lescal blurted out.
“Yes, Your Majesty?”
“The Empress. Even now, I don’t like Little Duke. Because she lost her memory.”
“Umm… I don’t think we know yet whether amnesia is real.”
Crash.
There was a sound of something breaking. Lescal stood up and ripped off the couch handle.
“Your majesty. The chair was broken.”
“If the amnesia is false, why would the Empress feel different?”
Actually, that was something that couldn’t be denied. The Empress has definitely changed. She seemed to have become a completely different person. The conniving and malicious Empress was no longer anywhere.
“What if what I’ve seen over the past four years is a lie?”
“She did that on purpose? Why?”
“Since Her Majesty could not refuse marriage, she may have chosen the next best option. To incur his Majesty’s dislike and induce him to divorce… No, I’m not saying she’s necessarily like that, but there might be a possibility… oh.”
Ryan, who was talking about a thought that came to mind, belatedly covered her mouth as her golden eyes became sharper. After some time had passed, Ryan noticed Lescal’s feelings and added a word of consolation.
“…However, since her amnesia, she has never called the Duke to her palace, Your Majesty. She was visited by the Duke just once.”
After that, Lescal was quiet the whole time. Considering that she has a lover who was so dear to her that she lived a lie for four years at a time, something about that didn’t seem right.
“Did the Empress like the Little Duke very much?”
“I don’t know, Your Majesty.”
“How did she look at him? How did she look at me when I interrupted their time together?”
“Uh, that…”
Looking again, she realized that Lescal was not asking Ryan.
“…Damn it. I don’t remember.”
“…”
“I have no idea what the Empress has been doing for the past four years.”
“That’s because you weren’t paying attention.”
“I know. How I treated her Empress.”
To him, the Empress was nothing more than a picture hanging on the wall. He knew what she looked like, but that’s it. He said she was his pet, but he didn’t have any feelings for her. It was only at that moment when he checked the mark that he felt something. Even that quickly became a thing of the past when the Empress put on her clothes and the mark was obscured. So he thought that was what a companion was. Even as he endured Blue Moon’s pain, he never became more desperate for the Empress’s presence. Since there was the mark, his companion would be a companion, and contact would only need to be established before the thirtieth birthday. Other than that, it didn’t matter what happened. He felt no emotion even in the presence of Duke Piellion. If she were to become pregnant, it would be painful for her, but the Empress said that it would never happen.
“I did…”
He didn’t know at the time. He knew that now that he had come to recall the look in the Empress’s eyes as she looked at the Duke, he could not help but drink a sip of water.
“…Why didn’t I know?”
“What are you saying you didn’t know, Your Majesty?”
“This is what a companion is.”
Ryan looked genuinely sad.
“It would have been better off if you had known from the beginning.”
“I know.”
Lescal’s answer was very small. So, conversely, he told her how much regret he must be feeling right now. Ryan left some difficult words of consolation.
“Still, wouldn’t it be too early to say that their relationship is completely over? Just as it took Her Majesty four years, Her Majesty the Empress may need more time to open her heart.”
That was when she got there.
Tuk, tuk.
Decan appeared with unique footsteps that was slightly different from the twin knights.
* * *
“Ah… Can I come in?”
Perhaps because the air in the room was unusually heavy, Decan paused and asked.
“Come in. What did you find out?”
“Secret letters were exchanged between Duke Piellion and the minister. We are still figuring out the contents.”
While Decan was reporting, he carefully looked at Lescal’s face, which somehow looked rougher than usual. Ryan, who guessed the reason why Decan was doing this, announced with his mouth that it was a ‘rumour’.
“Is it because of the trial?”
“Yes. He appears to have stepped forward as a Duke, as Her Majesty the Empress has said she will stand trial. And one more thing. After the secret letter was sent, traces of witchcraft were discovered around the Duke’s house.”
“Witchcraft?”
“Given the timing, I don’t think it can be said that it was unrelated to the trial.”
Ryan frowned.
“Here’s how things are going. The trial is like that, but why did they bring in a witch doctor? …No, what can a witch doctor do in a trial? It wouldn’t be possible to do anything with magic in a place full of priests. Or do you mean to make a new mark? …Oh, no, wait a minute?”
It was something he had just said, but it felt like he had caught a clue out of nowhere. Decan nodded his head.
“I also made the same assumption. According to the complaint, the marks had been removed for four years. If true, it would have been a big problem for Piellion Street. I think they brought in a shaman as a measure against him a month ago.”
“Uh…? Ah…!”
Ryan briefly shouted. The clue was indeed correct.
“If the shaman brought from Trinidad cast a spell to restore the disappeared mark, and Her Majesty suffered amnesia as a side effect… Huh, it looks like something is going wrong.”
Decan continued.
“Similarly, it is assumed that the spell would have failed. Her first maid, the Marchioness Farshad, could not have known that, and she leaked the story to the temple.”
“So the priests knew that the mark was gone. No, then what is an imperial tailor? If the purpose was to file an indictment, wouldn’t one witness, the Marchioness, have been enough?”
“The Marchioness shut her mouth. On her way to the temple, she had an accident, and the next day, after attending a private meeting with Her Majesty, she locked herself in her house and did not come out. She must have had a deal with the temple gone wrong.”
“Hmm… Or maybe Her Majesty the Empress did a good job of restraining her from joining. Well, that’s what it is.”
“So a new witness would have been needed to file an indictment.”
Lescal cut him off.
“So she manipulated the imperial tailor into checking the Empress’s mark? It makes sense, but it doesn’t make sense. If she could control the imperial tailor, wouldn’t it be easier to control the Marchioness and get her to open her mouth again?”
“You’re right. So we added one more assumption.”
“Continue.”
“The power to control minds is neither magic nor witchcraft. Of course, it’s not divine power.”
“So?”
“That power is limited. For example, the place where the power is used must be inside the temple.”
“Huh?”
Ryan stamped her foot without realizing it.
“You mean they wouldn’t have been able to use the Marchioness even if they wanted to? Because she won’t leave the house?”
“So we followed the footsteps of the imperial tailor. There was a gap the night before, before she entered the palace for the final time, that we couldn’t figure out.”
“I guess you could say she went to the temple at that time.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
Ryan punched Decan on the shoulder.
“Wow, you bastard. She wasn’t just playing around. Unlike usual, there was no news from her, so I was wondering what to do.”
Decan shook his shoulder humbly.
“As usual, I did my best. But this one was quite difficult.”
“Oh yeah. I’ll say yes. Then, the reason why the shaman appeared again in the duchy of Piellion is because of the mark… Oh, wait?”
Ryan looked urgently at Lescal.
“Your Majesty, isn’t it a bit strange?”
“Yes.”
Decan’s family was wonderful. It was a hypothesis made by piecing together small pieces of evidence and traces, but it was close to the truth. There was only one piece of the puzzle left that didn’t fit.
“If the spell failed… Why did Your Majesty come to regard Her Majesty the Empress as a companion after she lost her memory?”
* * *
The timing was just right. There was a spell to restore her mark, and although she did not know whether it failed or succeeded, a gap in the Empress’s memory was created. And right after that, Lescal developed an instinct for a companion. This couldn’t just be said to have happened at the right time. Clearly, the Empress’s memory loss was an opportunity for the relationship between the two to change.
“The spell would not have worked. She made a big accusation against the temple, and judging from the fact that she called the shaman again from the House of Piellion, it is clear that the mark has disappeared.”
“Okay. I agree with that. Then why did Her Majesty, the Empress whose mark disappeared, become a real companion? I don’t even know.”
Decan, who had been thinking for a while while holding his chin, shook his head.
“I went there too…”
Ryan looked back at Lescal.
“What do you think, Your Majesty?”
Lescal frowned and closed his eyes. It was also the first time he saw Ryan’s expression. He had never seen Lescal think so intensely about something. Lescal slowly lifts his eyelids.
“The spell… Is it possible to change people?” he asked towards Decan.
—————————————————————
Translator Note:
Hello there! This is RJR. I hope you liked it <3
If you like my work please support me with Ko-fi or Patreon. Next post will be released on Februeary, 4.
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