The Annex She Kept
The quiet regret on Hyperion's face, as he looked over the room that had once been his, carried Laniakea back across the past three years—every time he had come to this place.
He returned to the Imperial Palace only about three times a year. Even that, she had been told, was a considerable increase. Before the marriage it had been closer to once a year, and only after he came of age and left the monastery. While he still lived there, he had not been permitted to come to the palace at all.
So she understood why he always turned back for the border so soon, even when he had only just come home after a long absence.
This place must feel strange to him.
He had lived here until he was eight, but after that he had scarcely been allowed to return, and so he could have few memories of it. The empress had made no secret of her displeasure besides; there was no chance he could have stayed long. Perhaps that was why he had almost never set foot in the Annex Palace. Even when he did come in, it was only to wash and change his clothes. Not once had he slept beneath this roof.
"That's true. Your Majesty always left so quickly."
About half the time he never even made it into the room—a meal, and he was gone. She had wondered whether he simply did not care for the place. The way he looked at the annex now told her otherwise.
"Even so, I remember that it was always kept immaculately tidy."
At his reply, Laniakea thought back to the days when she used to put his bedchamber in order. It had been remarkably easy work. What mess could a room make when its master never came home? Dust it once a week, change the bedding, and the cleaning was done.
"Cleaning Your Majesty's room was easy, actually. That's why I insisted to Lucy that I would do it myself..."
"You did it yourself?"
At the startled note in his voice, Laniakea snapped her mouth shut. Aside from Lucy and a very few maids, no one knew she had cleaned it with her own hands. She had known perfectly well how far beneath her it would seem—an imperial prince's consort, scrubbing like any servant.
"Well... denying it now would only be a lie. Yes. I cleaned Your Majesty's room myself."
"Why didn't you have the maids do it?"
"The maids were already busy with so much else. Cleaning your room took the least work of anything, so I asked them to at least let me have that."
"But if you had left it to the maids..."
"I didn't think we needed to take anyone new on, so I kept the annex to the minimum staff. And for myself, I thought moving now and then would be better for my health than sitting still all day."
She laid out her reasons in earnest, but Hyperion's face refused to show that he was convinced. The thought of his own wife—an imperial prince's consort, at that—laboring inside the palace like hired help seemed to have struck him rather hard.
"If what you wanted was to move your body, would banquets not have served better? There must have been social gatherings as well..."
Then he remembered the official records of her duties, the ones he had already reviewed. For the first year or two after she entered the palace, she had attended banquets and shown her face at gatherings. From a year ago onward, there was no record of her attending anything at all.
"Gatherings like those get tangled up in politics, so they wore me out. And I won't deny I meant to save a little more money. After His Majesty the Emperor fell gravely ill, I started thinking more seriously about what would follow his passing."
Her answer came without a hitch, as if she had prepared it. Even so, it troubled him that she had, at some point, stopped going anywhere at all.
I'll have to look into this further.
Keeping the thought from his face, he climbed the stairs with her.
"What were you planning to do, once you went out?"
"Well... I was thinking of farming with Dudeoji."
"Then there is no chance of you going hungry."
"Right? Your Majesty tasted them earlier, so you know. What Dudeoji and I grow together is really delicious."
The proud look on her face as she said it was not unlike the way Dudeoji had puffed itself up at him only a moment before.
"We will be using the Annex Palace again. What would you say to furnishing the interior?"
"Am I allowed to use the annex building?"
"Surely you did not truly mean to use nothing but the soil of the rear garden."
At his words, Laniakea let her gaze flicker aside, then nodded, cautious. He passed a hand down his face.
"Use it as you please. I will not deduct it from the contract."
"You could, though."
"I will not."
Left as they were, she would undoubtedly offer next to deduct her living expenses. Hyperion turned the conversation in haste.
"Buy whatever the annex needs, as freely as you like. I will have it drawn from the palace budget."
"What? But why..."
"You have kept the annex well, even with so few people. I would like you to simply accept this much."
As he spoke, he set a hand against one of the pillars.
The annex was built of stone and stood at the edge of the forest. In a place like that, the slightest neglect and moss came creeping in. If she had kept so few hands that she cleaned the rooms herself, scouring pillars like these must have been grueling work. She might have left them be, and no one would have cared. Yet the annex was scarcely different from the other palace buildings, the ones that had been tended with care all along. Only here and there had the paint begun to lift, as if there had never been money enough to have the walls done over.
The same was true beyond the open door. The attendants had no doubt already been through and cleared it, but even so the floors had not buckled anywhere, and the walls were clean. Neglect would have left at least a few water stains.
"The repair budget ordinarily allotted to a single annex is one hundred thousand gold a year."
"What? But..."
"I know. You were given only fifty thousand gold, everything included. It was hardly a proper budget. And still you have kept the place this carefully."
Laniakea could only manage a sheepish smile.
She had, in truth, tended the annex with real devotion. It was the first home that had ever been hers after she left Priatra, and it was his home as well. He almost never came. Even so, she had thought it would not feel pleasant to return to the palace and find the place called home gone shabby, and so she had kept at it. She had not particularly wanted him to notice...
She rubbed at the corners of her mouth, which kept trying to rise. Embarrassed, and glad—so she had wanted to be acknowledged after all.
Watching her fuss at her lips for no reason he could name, Hyperion spoke.
"And merely letting you use the annex, rather than granting you ownership of it, still does not seem enough for all the trouble you have taken. I will reallocate the budget that ought to have been paid to you. Furnish the place however you wish. To begin with, at least three hundred thousand gold will be assigned..."
"That's far too much!"
"If you do not use it, it will be classified as unexecuted budget from previous years, and the chance of its being paid to the former empress will rise considerably."
"I'll spend all of it."
The instant he spoke of giving the money to the empress, she reversed herself, and satisfaction settled over his face.
"Is there anything else you want?"
"Well..."
He had expected her to say she would think it over.
"I'd like to buy those fruit trees they say were recently improved, and some seeds, and it would be nice to have one large parasol for the rear garden. Light wooden chairs, and—oh, new farming tools as well..."
Contrary to what he had imagined, the things she wanted came spilling out one after another. Watching her, he understood. She had said it was fine. She had said she managed well enough on a small budget. And for three whole years, she had been going without the things she wanted.
Dudeoji stuffed an ear of corn—from who knew where—into the hand of Hyperion, who had been about to turn away.
"You—honestly!"
Dudeoji squeaked at the top of its voice, sounding deeply wronged.
Hyperion bent and accepted the corn held out to him. The moment he took it, Dudeoji looked immensely pleased with itself and waved.
With that, it vanished into the earth. Lucy, as if the work had now fallen to her, trod the ground smooth where Dudeoji had disappeared.
"Dudeoji really seems to have taken a liking to Your Majesty."
"True enough. Last time, Baepsae was gone almost at once."
"Baepsae's temperament is a little... like that... but in any case, thank you for being kind to Dudeoji, Your Majesty. Dudeoji is my oldest friend."
Honestly, she had worried what she would do if Hyperion found Dudeoji disagreeable. But he had taken what the spirit offered without a trace of displeasure, and had even praised the taste. It was the first time she had properly introduced a spirit to anyone. She had never imagined it would be received so easily.
Watching the joy on her face, Hyperion looked down at the corn in his hand.
"For my part, I was glad to be introduced to your friend."
He meant it.
He was the first person to whom she had ever introduced her oldest friend.