Chapter 43
“……Yes.”
At his belated reply, the Empress sharply furrowed her brow. Startled by the sudden change in her expression, Lionel blinked, and the Empress crossed her arms and said,
“It’s not easy for me either to speak casually and pretend to be friendly.”
Then, with an exaggeratedly displeased expression, she shrugged her shoulders.
“If I’m going this far to try to get along, then at the very least your answer should be longer than that. It would be extremely troublesome if some absurd rumor started going around that the Empress was unilaterally courting Lionel Valdr.”
She spoke in a gloomy, interrogative tone, but the atmosphere itself was light. Soon, a crack appeared in Lionel’s stiff, rigid expression as well. Since this was only a surface-level relationship, it would have been easy enough to respond lightly, and yet, for some reason, his mouth felt parched.
Noticing the change in his expression, Adele glanced at him as if urging him to say anything at all. Unable to bring himself to look the Empress in the eye and hesitating for quite some time, he finally opened his mouth with difficulty.
“I look forward to working with you, Your Majesty the Empress.”
Apparently satisfied, the Empress relaxed her expression and smiled, her eyes curving into long crescents.
“Now then, shall we hear it first? What kind of role the Valdr ducal house wishes me to play.”
“May I speak first?”
At Lionel’s question, the Empress nodded with a relaxed expression, as if telling him to go on. At a glance, she looked like someone facing a comfortable friend—or even a lover—but her cold, golden eyes had not relaxed for a single moment since meeting Lionel. After fiercely organizing his thoughts, Lionel opened his mouth with care.
He laid out, in a clear and orderly manner, the current political situation in Ehmont and its problems, the crisis facing the Valdr ducal house, and what they hoped to accomplish by joining hands with the Empress. He did not forget to carefully select and exclude matters so sensitive that they might come back to bite them later.
The Empress listened intently, asking questions whenever something puzzled her. By the time the long explanation ended, her manner of reviewing and absorbing what she had heard was nothing short of a model student’s exemplar.
While the Empress fell silent to gather her thoughts, Lionel downed the now-cold tea as if it were water. Perhaps he had been more tense than he realized; it was only after he finished speaking that he felt thirsty.
“Have some of this too.”
At that moment, the Empress suddenly slid the tray of refreshments toward him.
“This is the best-tasting thing in Ehmont.”
“…….”
“……If you don’t want it, then don’t.”
“There’s no need for Your Majesty the Empress to go out of your way.”
“How is pushing a tray to tell you to try some refreshments ‘going out of my way’?”
“…….”
“I’ve always been like this.”
It was only that, since coming here, there had been no opportunity for it. Madam Giggs always stood or kept herself busy, as if she dared not sit together with the Empress, and the other maids felt unsettling, like shadows of Diane Poitiers.
The Empress shrugged and popped one of the refreshments from the tray into her mouth, crunching away. After swallowing it and rinsing her mouth with tea, she spoke in a casual tone.
“So, in short, the ducal house wants to pull back the balance of power that’s tilted toward the Mage Corps, to some extent—is that it?”
“Ultimately speaking, yes. In addition, we hope there will be changes to the current way the Tower is handled. In Ehmont, all information regarding the Tower is monopolized by the Mage Corps and not shared.”
“Then the Tower becomes power.”
That was what her mother had wanted.
‘The Tower is an opportunity! A golden chance for divine authority rather than imperial authority! If this power is used well, the Emperor—no, the imperial family—can become gods.’
“Monopolizing information and not sharing it. Even conducting absolutely necessary rescues according to their own tastes. It wouldn’t be strange if the Mage Corps were holding a death list.”
“……What is it that Your Majesty the Empress wants from me?”
Adele smiled faintly as she looked at Lionel.
“Didn’t you already tell me the answer to that on the day you came to interview?”
‘In a place like this, where there is nowhere to rely on, aren’t you seeking an adviser to join hands with a trustworthy power, and to protect your strength and honor by opposing someone who has already taken over the palace?’
“And you said this to me: that no matter whom I chose, it would be worse than choosing you.”
“Yes, I did.”
“Don’t disappoint me. I chose you.”
“I won’t disappoint you.”
Lionel answered without hesitation, and Adele smiled in satisfaction.
“Well then, fortunately, our immediate objectives are the same. I’ll first use the fact that I’m a mage to establish a foothold in Ehmont’s political sphere, so cooperate with me. And before that—”
The Empress’s demeanor, which had been relaxed and smiling until now, instantly turned ominous. Narrowing her eyes, tilting her head, and crossing her arms, she called in Madam Giggs, who had been waiting outside.
“You called for me, Your Majesty the Empress?”
“Madam, bring the documents you brought last time.”
Though the reference was vague, Madam Giggs nodded without asking twice. At her attitude, as if she had been expecting this, Lionel narrowed his eyes and alternated his gaze between the Empress and Madam Giggs.
“Are you planning to respond to the cancellation of the supplementary budget for the Empress’s Palace? I was just about to bring that up. The Valdr ducal house will officially raise an objection directly to His Majesty the Emperor, Your Majesty the Empress.”
“Of everything I’ve heard in the last day or two, that’s my favorite.”
The Empress nodded, pleased. Yes, exactly.
‘But how can you exact any proper revenge by protesting so politely? Since they humiliated me in such a petty way, at the very least I should return the favor.’
She wanted to unleash a scathing tirade laced with vulgarities, but Adele restrained herself for the sake of appearances.
She was, at present, a half-Empress. With the supplementary budget rejected, she could no longer exercise authority over anything that required money.
“Good. The ducal house will lodge a formal protest like that. And I’ll do what I need to do on my end.”
Madam Giggs, who had rushed off like the wind, returned like lightning and presented the documents to Adele. After reading them with a thoroughly satisfied expression, Adele handed them to Lionel. Lionel quickly skimmed the paper she gave him.
“Do you see what I’m planning to do?”
At her subtly probing tone, Lionel placed the paper on the table and looked up.
“You intend to strike back.”
At the adviser’s quick-witted answer, the Witch of Gotrof bared her teeth in a grin.
“Correct.”
She hadn’t wanted to go this far, since it felt like taking out her anger on the Ivory Palace after being slapped in the Imperial Palace. But now that they were joining hands and turning the tables together, was there any reason to distinguish between the two any longer?
＊ ＊ ＊
Around the time the Empress and her adviser were talking, a group of merchants with passage permits appeared at the Empress’s Palace. Startled, the maids waved their hands at the person who seemed to be the head of the merchant group.
“Just a moment! We didn’t call for any merchants!”
At present, Her Majesty the Empress didn’t even have the leisure to summon a merchant group.
But the merchant leader’s eyes shone as if he couldn’t afford to miss this opportunity, and he spoke with vigor.
“Yes, I know. Her Majesty the Empress only needs to choose the items she wants. It’s a sort of gift.”
“……A gift?”
‘Somehow, it feels like I shouldn’t ask any further…….’
A creeping sense of foreboding sent cold sweat down the maid’s back. Nevertheless, the merchant leader continued, beaming.
“Of course! It’s a gift.”
“……Who sent it?”
“Lady Diane Poitiers sent it. She said the payment can be made at the Ivory Palace.”
“…….”
The maids turned pale and looked at one another.
‘Hey, you say it.’
‘Are you trying to get us killed? You say it.’
After passing the responsibility back and forth, the maids ultimately conveyed the news to the Empress through Madam Giggs.
After the supplementary budget for the Empress’s Palace was rejected, the Ivory Palace had sent a “gift” to the Empress. There was even a card. Receiving the card from Madam Giggs, Adele read it without even taking a breath.
“What does it say?”
At Madam Giggs’s cautious question, Lionel also fixed his gaze on the Empress. After dropping the beautifully decorated card onto the table with a thud, she rubbed her brow with her hand. Judging by the tension in her jaw and fingertips, she seemed thoroughly angry.
“The price of one fine horse. It says to buy whatever I want for that amount—the very money that would have been the supplementary budget. To prepare for the upcoming national holiday? Apparently they’re skilled artisans, so I’ll be able to have something satisfactory. It’s so touching I could cry.”
In other words, it meant: spend the money that was cut from the budget on whatever you want. And the people were sent from the Ivory Palace, no less.
Madam Giggs sharply furrowed her brow in anger, while Lionel leaned back in his chair, lost in thought. After taking a moment to steady her breathing and rein in her anger, Adele abruptly sprang to her feet and issued swift orders.
“Madam Giggs, I’ll be writing a command order, so prepare the related documents. You there—go to the merchants and tell them this. I don’t need it, so tell them not to set foot in the Empress’s Palace even once.”
