A Birthday Gift for the Third Prince
Regardless of Julia's mood, the meal resumed.
"Your Majesty, we have yet to raise a toast."
Julia decided the atmosphere needed turning around. At her words, Count Kolkos immediately chimed in.
"Quite right, Your Majesty. It is Prince Dayson's birthday, after all."
As he finished speaking, Count Kolkos nudged the noble seated beside him in the ribs.
"A wonderful day, indeed it is. Prince Dayson's coming of age is not far off now. To have so robust a prince—is that not a blessing upon the kingdom?"
When a few nobles stepped forward, Karman silently raised his glass. Everyone followed suit.
The glasses of Diana and Cassion, which had sat empty all this while, were filled with non-alcoholic champagne as well.
Julia felt a wave of relief inwardly. The story of Cassion's private fortune had landed perfectly, and Dayson had captured everyone's attention.
"Congratulations, Dayson. What gift do you desire?"
Dayson beamed, as if he'd finally heard the words he'd been waiting for.
Best not to blurt out whatever I want right here and now, he thought, pressing down his lips as they quivered with joy.
"I have already received more than enough, Your Majesty."
"I suppose you have. You've never once wanted for anything you set your heart on."
He'd expected praise. But there was something strange in Karman's tone—and Dayson was not the only one to notice it.
Julia leaned toward Karman, ready to demand what exactly he meant.
She couldn't say it outright, of course, but she intended to whisper a reminder that today was Dayson's birthday.
Yet Julia missed her moment entirely. Diana cut in first.
"Your Majesty, Prince Cassion's birthday has passed as well. As you know, His Highness has long been in poor health and was unable to hold a birthday feast. Which is to say, I understand he has never once received a gift directly from Your Majesty."
As a father, you've scored a perfect zero there.
Diana turned to face Karman squarely. Karman tilted his head with a crooked expression.
"It seems Lady Diana has a great deal she wishes to say to me. Speak, then."
Karman brought his champagne glass to his lips as he spoke, his mouth curving into a handsome line.
Apparently Karman was rather taken with Diana's bold manner.
Now's my chance!
Diana decided it was time to bring up the real matter.
"Though last year's birthday passed regrettably, there is always next year. Might I suggest you ask Prince Cassion as well what he would like?"
Karman gave a low, thoughtful hum, stroking his chin as he glanced around the room.
"What do the rest of you think?"
He was seeking the others' answers. Diana had a fair guess as to what he was really after.
He's weeding out Cassion's enemies. But why go about it this way?
She could read what Karman's behavior signified, but not his true heart.
All through today, Karman had consistently moved things in Cassion's and Diana's favor. Not openly, but undeniably so.
After pretending not to know all this time, why now?
Diana was burning with curiosity about Karman's motives. But the urgent matter at hand was getting an answer—whether he would actually give the gift.
She hoped at least one person would stand up and voice their approval, but the room stayed stubbornly silent.
"An excellent idea, Your Majesty."
At last it was Kal, who rarely opened his mouth except to answer Karman's questions.
"No one else has an opinion to offer?"
Silence again.
Karman was a king who knew how to wait, yet when it came to private matters, he decided quickly. He was a man who knew precisely when caution was required and when swift judgment was called for.
"Since the aide I trust says as much, then so it shall be. As you all know, there is hardly anything a king may do of his own accord. Everything requires someone's consent—no matter how private the affair."
Whether he judged this a moment demanding a swift decision or not, he did not ask twice.
But there was a needle hidden in his answer. Not one soul in that room could escape the point Karman had driven in.
"Y-yes, I too think it a fine idea, Your Majesty."
One noble after another, warily watching Karman's face, voiced their agreement, and Karman turned to Cassion.
"What do you desire?"
"Before that, Your Majesty—please give me your firm answer that you will grant it, whatever it may be."
Cassion swallowed hard. His mind was reeling from the tension.
A mere breakfast gathering—and yet he had learned just how much was at stake, and been handed an enormous opportunity.
"Whatever could you be planning to ask for, that you need such guarantees?"
Karman laughed, as if he found Cassion's audacious demand amusing.
"Well then, my answer is—ahem."
Cassion, who had been speaking grandly, broke into a cough. He hastily shoved his chair back and doubled over.
"Hk—hng, hk."
Cassion's back heaved up and down. Diana, as if well accustomed to this, thumped his back and pressed a handkerchief to his mouth.
"Y-Your Majesty, hk—your answer, please give your answer."
Even as he coughed violently, Cassion kept demanding his guarantee.
"Yes, yes, ask away. So long as you speak of it—now calm yourself first."
Karman granted it, half by accident. At that, Cassion collapsed straight into Diana's arms as if fainting dead away.
The banquet hall erupted into an uproar.
"Fetch the royal physician at once!"
Karman shouted, eyes blazing. Diana, cradling Cassion against her, spoke up.
"Your Majesty, it would be best to lay His Highness down."
For a heartbeat, Diana feared Karman might order him laid in one of the guest chambers adjoining the banquet hall. After all, this was Julia's palace.
"Yes, Your Majesty. It would be best to send him back to the Third Prince's Palace. Send the physician there as well."
Julia said. Diana could only marvel—there were times when Julia's words were actually welcome.
Karman's brow furrowed. He tried to work out Julia's intent. But with the room in such an uproar, it was impossible to see through the actress's performance.
"Your Majesty, Queen Julia speaks rightly. A quiet place is better than all this commotion."
Diana said.
Julia raised one eyebrow as if in surprise. The corner of Karman's mouth twitched.
"Your Majesty, do as they say."
Only after Kal bowed low and murmured in his ear did Karman nod, slowly.
"Move Cassion to the Third Prince's Palace."
Kal stepped forward and scooped Cassion up in one motion. His arms and legs dangled limply in the air.
"We shall take our leave now, Your Majesty."
Karman waved a careless hand, his gaze never once turning toward Diana. Once Kal, carrying Diana and Cassion both, had receded from view, Julia's voice rang out, calling for the banquet to resume.
***
So what became of the banquet, you ask?
What do I care.
I sat at the edge of Cassion's bed, swinging my legs back and forth.
Kal had taken one look at the state of the Third Prince's Palace, set his jaw, and left without a single word of complaint.
And the moment he was gone, Cassion bolted upright in bed.
"Brilliantly done!"
At my praise, Cassion smiled sheepishly.
His fainting spell had been pure theater.
Here is how it went:
"However it plays out, once the matter of gifts comes up, you must say that Your Highness ought to receive one as well."
"And after that?"
"He asks what he shall give you, and you extract his firm promise to grant it."
"What am I supposed to demand as a gift?"
"Our marriage, of course."
"Wouldn't raising that there cause an enormous stir?"
"Exactly why we don't say it there, and instead create a situation where you can say it later. A situation where you can speak with him alone."
And thus the little performance we had just staged was born.
Julia was bound to cling and insist we say it right then and there no matter how the moment unfolded, so we engineered a situation where we had no choice but to leave the banquet hall altogether.
"I'm worried you're looking a bit too frail to me."
"You've finished your performance and gotten everything you wanted, and yet you fuss over the smallest of things."
"It isn't small. Aren't they all people I'll have to put to work?"
I blinked at him in surprise.
Cassion had improved by leaps and bounds. The pessimist was beginning to show a will to live.
The moment he had a goal, he acted like an entirely different person.
Wow. So the poise and presence I saw in his grown-up self wasn't just an act.
His confident bearing and manner of speech hadn't come from his restored health. That was simply who he was.
His true nature, suppressed all this time by circumstance, was only now coming to light.
It's a little… impressive, actually.
And cute.
It felt like watching a child who couldn't walk take his first run. I reached out to pat Cassion's head—then hesitated yet again.
Cassion looked at me with a what now? expression. I curled my hand into a fist and said instead:
"A fair observation, Your Highness—but you're wrong."
"Wrong about what?"
"Why on earth would we put them to work? They're garbage that can never be used again."
"Hm. That's going a bit far…"
You might think me harsh, but no.
The people gathered at Dayson's birthday celebration banquet that morning were Julia's inner circle, every last one of them.
From Count Kolkos down to the fellow twirling his scraggly little mustache in the farthest, lowliest seat at the very back—not a single exception.
Riding on Julia's back, they had committed every manner of corruption imaginable.
Funneling benefits to favored merchants was merely the baseline; they had moved the noble assembly to bend the very laws to their liking.
And always, behind them, stood Julia.
How did Julia, with no noble house to speak of, come into all that power? Just by bearing Dayson.
So the title of mother to the First Prince—the next king—carried that much weight, did it?
Of humble birth, with no one who knew the truth of her past, she had in a remarkably short time seized control of the nobility and built her faction within the palace.
Whatever I thought of her personally, that much I had to grant her.
Of course, the process had its side effects. Around her swarmed a teeming crowd of sycophants, all flattery and no substance.
Not a single one of them worth reforming, anyway.
"Whatever those people in the banquet hall said about you, you needn't spare it a thought, Your Highness. Once you're king, they'll be people you never have to see again."
The answer that ought to have come from Cassion never did. When I turned around, he was slumped against the headboard, nodding off.
Checking the time, I saw it was the hour Rebert had said the drug would wear off.
I flicked a glance at Flac, and the man who had been standing like a shadow at my side came forward and eased Cassion down flat.
"Mmm… say, Diana…"
Cassion murmured in his sleep.
"What on earth is Father… what could His Majesty be thinking…"
"I wonder the same thing myself, honestly."
But Cassion never heard my answer; he had already sunk deep into sleep. Flac vanished soundlessly somewhere, and soon the royal physician arrived.
He seemed startled to see me, then examined Cassion with practiced ease.
Sure enough, he delivered the entirely unnecessary prescription of plenty of rest and was gone.
I gazed at the sleeping Cassion and fell deep into thought.
What on earth was Karman thinking?