“There was?”
“Yes. There was. There was and should have been Brother Lawrence’s daughter who exists only on paper.”
Duke Ximel had heard of Menelik’s Young Lady. It was said that she resembled her father and that her body was very weak. It was very appropriate because she never showed her face, but she only exists on paper?
Friedrich grunted as he put the teapot together with the sound.
“But she disappeared. In the best of ways.”
Ximel, who was silent for a moment, organized her thoughts. She doesn’t have to pry on anyone who gives her information that could prove his weakness.
“…I don’t think you’ll go into detail, so I’ll put that aside. In such a difficult situation, wouldn’t the Young Lady have been able to avoid being chosen by pretending to have died in an accident? If the Menelik family doesn’t marry Hadasa, there’s no danger to the family’s prosperity right now. You could have done it if you wanted to refuse.”
“Even Ximel can’t do it, so what can we do?”
She wasn’t sure if it was a joke, serious, or self-deprecating.
She didn’t know what it was, but it seemed like there was a reason. Friedrich murmured with a sigh.
“I need a daughter to marry Prince Delmar… It must be alive, but somehow, whether it fell down the rabbit hole or soared into the sky, she had completely disappeared. I thought so at first. Should I take a girl of the right age and adopt her? That’s convenient. Yes, it’s much easier than finding a child who disappeared without a word. But I forgot about it for a while, the magic tool that checks lineage.”
“Do you mean the one developed by the capital’s magic engineers?”
“Yes. If not for that, I could have taken a little girl with red hair and taught her, but it was unfortunate. Isn’t it impossible if Menelik’s blood doesn’t flow and if there’s no one to prove it? There’s no other way. There’s no other way… Where the hell did that mother and daughter hide?”
Friedrich, who had been muttering as if he had been caught somewhere, raised his head.
“So I wonder how long it will take until His Majesty’s funeral. All state events will be suspended during the funeral. With a little more time, I think I can find it.”
“….”
“You seem to want to dig something behind me, don’t you think I do? I hope we don’t make each other tiring, Your Highness.”
“I will.”
Ximel, who answered plainly, tilted her head.
“Then, Count Friedrich, do you mean that you want the seat of Delmar’s wife?”
“Yes.”
“As you know, he has a soft temper and is clumsy in many ways, so he may be a good gang to work with, but he is not a person that can be made a son-in-law of the family. Do you know that?”
“Yes, exactly.”
Friedrich’s answer was firm.
“It’s embarrassing to tell Your Highness the Duke who is competing for the position of Delmar’s wife….”
“No, no. That’s not what I want.”
“Then?”
“I want an imperial seat.”
Friedrich’s face seemed to ask if that was it.
“The position of the Princess who could become the next great Empress.”
“So, isn’t that what it is?”
“Do you think Prince Delmar can become emperor?”
“Is there any other way? Well, unless there are more hidden royal descendants.”
This time, Ximel waited for Friedrich to realize himself.
Frederick’s complexion turned red, white, and eventually pale to the point of a bluish tinge.
“Then, it can’t be… Are you saying the rumors are true? That there was a child between the Emperor and his dark-haired mistress?”
“How many rumors circulating in the imperial palace were not true?”
“No… Haa. Okay. I understand what you are saying. I can understand why you want to give Princess Alois to the prince who will become the Emperor.
“That depends on which possibilities you put higher, Count Friedrich.”
Friedrich had a really confused face.
Duke Ximel, who had been watching his face for a while, reached out her hand.
“Although we are not close friends, it seems we have the same enemies. Friedrich Menelik.”
“….”
“I don’t think joining hands is bad.”
“What can we do if we join hands?”
Duke Ximel smiled.
“We can hold a public meeting. Planned by the nobles and approved by the Emperor. It must be a meeting in which the Emperor must come out.”
“If so…”
“The meeting that can publicize the Emperor’s illness and impress the whole world that he can no longer function as Emperor.”
“….”
“It’s unclear when the real funeral will be, so let’s start with a social funeral.”
After wiping his face a few times, Friedrich sighed deeply and took her hand.
****
Alois looked through the window at the sight of Frederick leaving and the imperial court attendant hurriedly getting off the carriage and running.
Alois sighed and took a cup of her chamomile tea.
“Princess, I’m sorry to have to say this, but… I’ve been looking into the wine supply for Xenon from time to time, but I haven’t been able to find any specific information about a man named Revinas.”
She thought back to the mumbling voice of Brut merchant Patricia.
“So, Patricia.”
“All I found was the information a kid told me. He said that the very handsome older brother with black hair held up a triangular object and told him to walk.”
“A triangle-shaped thing?”
“Yes. I’m sorry I didn’t find out anything other than that. I should be able to help as much as the princess helped me.”
Patricia, who glanced at her, asked a small question.
“Perhaps, if you could tell me why you are looking for information about that man—”
“No. It’s enough. My mother might notice it if you go around investigating it too specifically. Good job.”
Patricia, who was moving her lips, stopped when she tried to turn around.
“Ah, this is not information about that man. But you asked me to tell you when the red-haired girl visited me.”
“It did. Did the child come to visit you?”
Alois, who was delighted, paused at Patricia’s words.
“About that. It is said that there was a big fire in Xenon Village not long ago. So I asked a few people to see if they were harmed.”
“…But?”
“After that fire, the red-haired girl was nowhere to be seen… No, it’s not just invisible. When I ask people, they just shake their heads, saying, “Why are so many people asking about red hair these days?”
Alois rushed Patricia out and rummaged through her closet to retrieve her paper bag. She was out of breath.
If someone else had heard of it, she might have thought of other possibilities, but at least there was only one that came to Alois’s mind.
‘Could it be that mother, who didn’t trust Lucette, silenced her? So she deliberately sets her fire to harm the child, and she bribed people who knew of the child’s existence with money….’
Duke Ximel is the one who got her daughter involved in an assassination attempt.
So she might have handled such a country girl casually.
It was quite an extreme idea, but it was possible.
Her breathing calmed down, but her hands trembled. Alois looked down at the paper bag that Luce had left behind, and she pursed her lips as if to cry.
‘This is not it. This is really not it. I can’t let my mother keep doing things like this.’
Thinking of that day’s feelings, Alois swallowed her chamomile tea.
‘Rather, if I become the imperial princess… If I became a higher person than my mother, wouldn’t I be able to stop her?’
A vague assumption ran through her head.
****
“Lesson is over! Thank you for today, teacher!”
“Yeah. The lesson is over. Are there any difficulties in learning?”
“Because the teacher is very detailed and meticulous. It’s not difficult, it’s just fun.”
“I never thought you could get into advanced pharmacology so quickly. To be honest, yeah, Lucette, I guess I have to admit now that you’re a pretty good student.”
Luce laughed at Mrs. Plum’s idle talk.
“I study every day these days. I want to learn faster, and I want to improve my skills quickly. That’s what I thought.”
“I wonder what the power is.”
“My power?”
“Yes. You said it was for a precious friend. Is it still the same?”
Mrs. Plum shook her head as she saw her bright smile melt helplessly.
“Even if you changed, I don’t intend to criticize you. Originally, children’s motives change easily.”
“Hmm.”
Luce laughed awkwardly and shook her head.
“It’s more like one more goal has been added rather than changed.”
Luce’s first goal is to find a drug that can cure Rev, who is not feeling well.
The goal remained the same. Rev said he was still taking medicine, though he was taking it less often, so it’s only natural that she wants to help him as a friend.
However, the second goal was also a rather urgent task for Luce.
“Do you have a headache?”
“Yes. How many months has this been….”
She did worry about whether or not she had a serious illness, but other than a headache here and there, everything else was fine.
It was clear that it was not a common headache. She didn’t take any cold medicine or painkillers at all.
There must be some other factor, but Luce couldn’t figure out the cause of her illness for several months.
It was a mess because it wasn’t to the extent that everyday life was impossible.
“Isn’t it a little funny that you have a disease and your dream is to become a pharmacist who heals others?”
It was the same with Mrs. Plum.
Mrs. Plum, who quite adored Luce, her first and last disciple, heard of Luce’s condition and brought the medicine in every way, but there was not a single medicine to cure Luce’s headache.
Mrs. Plum put forward a reasonable guess that it might have been a psychological factor.
Luce agreed, but the problem was that there was nothing out of the ordinary that would trigger a headache.
‘Was the fire really that shocking?’
However, if the fire were the cause of the trauma, she would have to suffer mainly from seeing the flames, but Luce’s headaches came at very unexpected moments.
At least, it was comforting that if she touched Nox, he would subside a little.
‘Animal therapy is also a treatment method.’
“Where are the people without disease? Rather, if you are sick somewhere, you will be able to take better care of your patients. Because you know exactly what it feels like to be sick and painful.”
It had a casual tone, but Luce thought it was a warm word.
Luce told Mrs. Plum, who was getting ready to go out, to be careful on the icy road today, and packed her things.
“You say you study on your own every day, so are you leaving early today?”
“Yes, today is my birthday. I should go back early and have a birthday party.”
“With that friend?”
“Yes.”
It’s already her third birthday at Xenon.
The feeling was so new that Mrs. Plum suddenly spoke to her as she was looking out the window.
“How old are you this year?”
“After my birthday, I will be sixteen.”
“Time already passed that much… As you get older, the concept of time definitely blurs. So it’s been three years since I met you?”
Luce, who laughed mischievously, was about to turn around.
“How old is that friend you say you live with?”
“He is two years older than me. Eighteen.”
“So he’s an adult.”
“Adult, right?”
“Are you going to continue living together with him?”
Luce sneezed vigorously at the sudden question.
“There was?”
“Yes. There was. There was and should have been Brother Lawrence’s daughter who exists only on paper.”
Duke Ximel had heard of Menelik’s Young Lady. It was said that she resembled her father and that her body was very weak. It was very appropriate because she never showed her face, but she only exists on paper?
Friedrich grunted as he put the teapot together with the sound.
“But she disappeared. In the best of ways.”
Ximel, who was silent for a moment, organized her thoughts. She doesn’t have to pry on anyone who gives her information that could prove his weakness.
“…I don’t think you’ll go into detail, so I’ll put that aside. In such a difficult situation, wouldn’t the Young Lady have been able to avoid being chosen by pretending to have died in an accident? If the Menelik family doesn’t marry Hadasa, there’s no danger to the family’s prosperity right now. You could have done it if you wanted to refuse.”
“Even Ximel can’t do it, so what can we do?”
She wasn’t sure if it was a joke, serious, or self-deprecating.
She didn’t know what it was, but it seemed like there was a reason. Friedrich murmured with a sigh.
“I need a daughter to marry Prince Delmar… It must be alive, but somehow, whether it fell down the rabbit hole or soared into the sky, she had completely disappeared. I thought so at first. Should I take a girl of the right age and adopt her? That’s convenient. Yes, it’s much easier than finding a child who disappeared without a word. But I forgot about it for a while, the magic tool that checks lineage.”
“Do you mean the one developed by the capital’s magic engineers?”
“Yes. If not for that, I could have taken a little girl with red hair and taught her, but it was unfortunate. Isn’t it impossible if Menelik’s blood doesn’t flow and if there’s no one to prove it? There’s no other way. There’s no other way… Where the hell did that mother and daughter hide?”
Friedrich, who had been muttering as if he had been caught somewhere, raised his head.
“So I wonder how long it will take until His Majesty’s funeral. All state events will be suspended during the funeral. With a little more time, I think I can find it.”
“….”
“You seem to want to dig something behind me, don’t you think I do? I hope we don’t make each other tiring, Your Highness.”
“I will.”
Ximel, who answered plainly, tilted her head.
“Then, Count Friedrich, do you mean that you want the seat of Delmar’s wife?”
“Yes.”
“As you know, he has a soft temper and is clumsy in many ways, so he may be a good gang to work with, but he is not a person that can be made a son-in-law of the family. Do you know that?”
“Yes, exactly.”
Friedrich’s answer was firm.
“It’s embarrassing to tell Your Highness the Duke who is competing for the position of Delmar’s wife….”
“No, no. That’s not what I want.”
“Then?”
“I want an imperial seat.”
Friedrich’s face seemed to ask if that was it.
“The position of the Princess who could become the next great Empress.”
“So, isn’t that what it is?”
“Do you think Prince Delmar can become emperor?”
“Is there any other way? Well, unless there are more hidden royal descendants.”
This time, Ximel waited for Friedrich to realize himself.
Frederick’s complexion turned red, white, and eventually pale to the point of a bluish tinge.
“Then, it can’t be… Are you saying the rumors are true? That there was a child between the Emperor and his dark-haired mistress?”
“How many rumors circulating in the imperial palace were not true?”
“No… Haa. Okay. I understand what you are saying. I can understand why you want to give Princess Alois to the prince who will become the Emperor.
“That depends on which possibilities you put higher, Count Friedrich.”
Friedrich had a really confused face.
Duke Ximel, who had been watching his face for a while, reached out her hand.
“Although we are not close friends, it seems we have the same enemies. Friedrich Menelik.”
“….”
“I don’t think joining hands is bad.”
“What can we do if we join hands?”
Duke Ximel smiled.
“We can hold a public meeting. Planned by the nobles and approved by the Emperor. It must be a meeting in which the Emperor must come out.”
“If so…”
“The meeting that can publicize the Emperor’s illness and impress the whole world that he can no longer function as Emperor.”
“….”
“It’s unclear when the real funeral will be, so let’s start with a social funeral.”
After wiping his face a few times, Friedrich sighed deeply and took her hand.
****
Alois looked through the window at the sight of Frederick leaving and the imperial court attendant hurriedly getting off the carriage and running.
Alois sighed and took a cup of her chamomile tea.
“Princess, I’m sorry to have to say this, but… I’ve been looking into the wine supply for Xenon from time to time, but I haven’t been able to find any specific information about a man named Revinas.”
She thought back to the mumbling voice of Brut merchant Patricia.
“So, Patricia.”
“All I found was the information a kid told me. He said that the very handsome older brother with black hair held up a triangular object and told him to walk.”
“A triangle-shaped thing?”
“Yes. I’m sorry I didn’t find out anything other than that. I should be able to help as much as the princess helped me.”
Patricia, who glanced at her, asked a small question.
“Perhaps, if you could tell me why you are looking for information about that man—”
“No. It’s enough. My mother might notice it if you go around investigating it too specifically. Good job.”
Patricia, who was moving her lips, stopped when she tried to turn around.
“Ah, this is not information about that man. But you asked me to tell you when the red-haired girl visited me.”
“It did. Did the child come to visit you?”
Alois, who was delighted, paused at Patricia’s words.
“About that. It is said that there was a big fire in Xenon Village not long ago. So I asked a few people to see if they were harmed.”
“…But?”
“After that fire, the red-haired girl was nowhere to be seen… No, it’s not just invisible. When I ask people, they just shake their heads, saying, “Why are so many people asking about red hair these days?”
Alois rushed Patricia out and rummaged through her closet to retrieve her paper bag. She was out of breath.
If someone else had heard of it, she might have thought of other possibilities, but at least there was only one that came to Alois’s mind.
‘Could it be that mother, who didn’t trust Lucette, silenced her? So she deliberately sets her fire to harm the child, and she bribed people who knew of the child’s existence with money….’
Duke Ximel is the one who got her daughter involved in an assassination attempt.
So she might have handled such a country girl casually.
It was quite an extreme idea, but it was possible.
Her breathing calmed down, but her hands trembled. Alois looked down at the paper bag that Luce had left behind, and she pursed her lips as if to cry.
‘This is not it. This is really not it. I can’t let my mother keep doing things like this.’
Thinking of that day’s feelings, Alois swallowed her chamomile tea.
‘Rather, if I become the imperial princess… If I became a higher person than my mother, wouldn’t I be able to stop her?’
A vague assumption ran through her head.
****
“Lesson is over! Thank you for today, teacher!”
“Yeah. The lesson is over. Are there any difficulties in learning?”
“Because the teacher is very detailed and meticulous. It’s not difficult, it’s just fun.”
“I never thought you could get into advanced pharmacology so quickly. To be honest, yeah, Lucette, I guess I have to admit now that you’re a pretty good student.”
Luce laughed at Mrs. Plum’s idle talk.
“I study every day these days. I want to learn faster, and I want to improve my skills quickly. That’s what I thought.”
“I wonder what the power is.”
“My power?”
“Yes. You said it was for a precious friend. Is it still the same?”
Mrs. Plum shook her head as she saw her bright smile melt helplessly.
“Even if you changed, I don’t intend to criticize you. Originally, children’s motives change easily.”
“Hmm.”
Luce laughed awkwardly and shook her head.
“It’s more like one more goal has been added rather than changed.”
Luce’s first goal is to find a drug that can cure Rev, who is not feeling well.
The goal remained the same. Rev said he was still taking medicine, though he was taking it less often, so it’s only natural that she wants to help him as a friend.
However, the second goal was also a rather urgent task for Luce.
“Do you have a headache?”
“Yes. How many months has this been….”
She did worry about whether or not she had a serious illness, but other than a headache here and there, everything else was fine.
It was clear that it was not a common headache. She didn’t take any cold medicine or painkillers at all.
There must be some other factor, but Luce couldn’t figure out the cause of her illness for several months.
It was a mess because it wasn’t to the extent that everyday life was impossible.
“Isn’t it a little funny that you have a disease and your dream is to become a pharmacist who heals others?”
It was the same with Mrs. Plum.
Mrs. Plum, who quite adored Luce, her first and last disciple, heard of Luce’s condition and brought the medicine in every way, but there was not a single medicine to cure Luce’s headache.
Mrs. Plum put forward a reasonable guess that it might have been a psychological factor.
Luce agreed, but the problem was that there was nothing out of the ordinary that would trigger a headache.
‘Was the fire really that shocking?’
However, if the fire were the cause of the trauma, she would have to suffer mainly from seeing the flames, but Luce’s headaches came at very unexpected moments.
At least, it was comforting that if she touched Nox, he would subside a little.
‘Animal therapy is also a treatment method.’
“Where are the people without disease? Rather, if you are sick somewhere, you will be able to take better care of your patients. Because you know exactly what it feels like to be sick and painful.”
It had a casual tone, but Luce thought it was a warm word.
Luce told Mrs. Plum, who was getting ready to go out, to be careful on the icy road today, and packed her things.
“You say you study on your own every day, so are you leaving early today?”
“Yes, today is my birthday. I should go back early and have a birthday party.”
“With that friend?”
“Yes.”
It’s already her third birthday at Xenon.
The feeling was so new that Mrs. Plum suddenly spoke to her as she was looking out the window.
“How old are you this year?”
“After my birthday, I will be sixteen.”
“Time already passed that much… As you get older, the concept of time definitely blurs. So it’s been three years since I met you?”
Luce, who laughed mischievously, was about to turn around.
“How old is that friend you say you live with?”
“He is two years older than me. Eighteen.”
“So he’s an adult.”
“Adult, right?”
“Are you going to continue living together with him?”
Luce sneezed vigorously at the sudden question.
