111. The Day Heading to the Academy
111. The Day Heading to the Academy
[Chapter 111] - The Day of Departure for the Academy
Finally, the morning of the day Titania was to leave the royal castle dawned.
The royal castle was quite bustling from the morning. Maids who heard that Titania was leaving flocked to her room to say goodbye, and attendants were busy moving the packed luggage to the carriage. Of course, I was busy moving around, too.
"Titania, did you pack everything? Nothing missing?"
"Yes, I double-checked just in case."
"Why are you so worried? If you left something behind, you can just send it by letter, right?"
Titania and Veronica sighed at the same time. Veronica was scheduled to depart for the Academy through the hut, and Titania was scheduled to head to the Academy in the carriage prepared by the royal castle.
Even though I saw Titania answering confidently, why was I so worried? Unlike me, who was fidgeting and pacing around the room, Titania just sat on the bed and let out a deep sigh.
Is this what a parent's heart feels like? Wanting to send her off without even the slightest lack, I looked around the room a bit more, and felt a bit bitter at the sight of the now-empty room. Now I really am left alone.
While living with Titania, I had never once thought this room was big. But today, the room felt overwhelmingly large. Was the room really this big? A bitter smile escaped me before I knew it.
As I was staring blankly at the room, a knock-knock sound came from behind.
"Your Majesty, Princess. Everything is ready for the departure to the Academy."
"Yes, I'll be down soon."
In the end, the time to part had finally come.
The moment the maid informed me that everything was ready, I felt like I was going to burst into tears. If I could, I wouldn't want to send Titania to the Academy either. I really didn't want to part with Titania.
After all, the reason I had been able to endure here until now was entirely because Titania was by my side. The unfamiliar life, the complex and difficult official duties, the annoying and disgusting high society—I could endure it all because Titania was by my side.
Rather than Titania relying on me, it could be said that I had been living while relying on Titania. But today, that Titania was about to leave my side. I felt like the building that was 'me,' which had been supported by the pillar of Titania, was about to collapse.
"Haa..."
The sigh that escaped my lips felt hot. I touched the corners of my eyes as if tears were coming, and a faint moisture came off on my fingers. Really, I had promised to send her off with a smile at the end.
'It's not easy...'
I slowly approached Titania, who was sitting on the bed, and looked at Ainsel hanging around her neck. I had hated Ainsel for leaving me, but I decided to forgive her since it was for Titania's sake.
I smiled brightly and lifted Ainsel slightly.
"Take good care of Titania while you're there. And try to get along with Veronica, too. Got it?"
-Ah, I got it... I said I'd try...
Ainsel, who was pouting and grumbling at my nagging, looked just adorable. After gently stroking Ainsel's mirror, I turned my head to look at Veronica, who was sitting next to her.
"Do you need nagging, too?"
"Do you have anything to nag about?"
Veronica and I let out a chuckle. Right, Veronica isn't exactly a child who needs nagging. I raised my head, stroked Veronica's cheek, and lightly pressed my lips to her forehead.
Veronica's eyes went wide in surprise at my sudden kiss, which held the meaning of farewell, but as soon as my lips left her forehead, she rubbed it and made a slightly sulky expression.
Next is...
"Titania."
When I called, Titania struggled to lift her head and look at me. There was faint moisture in Titania's eyes as she barely managed to look at me.
As if showing her current feelings exactly, the pupils looking at me were shaking without rest. I carefully touched the corners of Titania's eyes, which looked like they would spill tears at any moment.
'What should I say to her?'
There were so many things I wanted to say to Titania, but all of them couldn't form words and just hovered in my mouth. I didn't know what to say, so I just kept moving my lips.
As I was just blinking while making eye contact with Titania, not knowing what to say, Titania seemed frustrated by the silence and stood up from the bed to hug me tightly.
I was a bit surprised by the sudden hug, but I calmly wrapped both arms around Titania's waist. Titania's body was trembling slightly. As I patted her waist, Titania began to sniffle.
"I'll send letters, so you must reply..."
"...Yes."
"If you don't reply regularly, I'll drop out of the Academy..."
"That's scary even as a joke..."
As I let out a chuckle, Titania replied from my arms, 'It's not a joke...'. It seemed I would have to send letters regularly just to keep Titania attending the Academy.
"Really..."
I smiled bitterly and stroked the cheek of Titania, who was held in my arms. As I stroked her cheek, Titania lifted her head and made eye contact with me.
I wiped down Titania's slightly flushed cheek with my thumb, cupped her face, lowered my head, and lightly pressed my lips to her round forehead.
My lips, carrying heat, bumped against her forehead and made a ticklish sound, then slowly pulled away. When I looked at Titania's face, she was smiling brightly as if it were a lie that she had been crying until just a moment ago.
"...Have a safe trip."
"Yes... I will. So..."
Titania smiled brightly at me.
"When I return, you must come to greet me. You must wait for me at the front gate."
...I won't be here when that time comes.
How should I answer this desperate request?
My lips trembled. I didn't know how to answer, so my lips kept trembling and I felt like I was going to cry. Because of the guilt and apology toward Titania, my voice kept trembling. I learned for the first time today that the act of telling a lie is such a painful act.
"...Yes, I will, I promise."
I'm sorry.
"I will definitely come to greet you first."
Really, I'm sorry.
"This is a promise, too."
Titania, who knew nothing, smiled brightly and held out her pinky finger to me. Titania's pure smile hurt, as if my heart, filled with guilt, was being slashed to pieces.
Really, it hurt so much that it brought tears to my eyes.
"...Yes, a promise."
*
It had already been three days since Titania, Veronica, and Ainsel all left me alone here and went to the Academy together.
I had spent most of my time just being dazed. I couldn't get any work done, and I left eating and washing to the maids and attendants.
The maids and attendants begged me to please cheer up, but I couldn't help it because I had no energy. What should I call this? Lethargy? I just didn't want to do anything.
I just rolled around in bed all day, and had no motivation. I heard rumors that Titania had entered the Academy, and several invitations arrived from high society, but I didn't even bother to open them, let alone read them. I wasn't going to go anyway.
As I was staring blankly at the ceiling, I heard a knock on the door. The door opened even though I hadn't answered to come in, and the bald Vin Chaud, who had poked his head through the door gap, strode into the room, looked at me, and frowned.
"Hoo... Your Majesty, no matter how much this is your room, it's still broad daylight, so please dress properly."
"I am dressed. In pajamas."
"In what world and in what country does a Queen receive a subject in pajamas in the middle of the day?"
"Right in front of your eyes. Besides, I won't even be Queen in three years, so don't expect too much from a temporary Queen, baldy. That's why your hair is falling out."
As I swayed the negligee I was wearing, Vin Chaud wrinkled his brow in annoyance. Seeing that he had brought a pile of documents in his arms, it seemed he had come to ask me to at least do the paperwork I had neglected for three days.
"Just leave the documents on that desk. I'll process them roughly when I have the energy later."
"It has already been three days since you said that. There is no room left on that desk to put documents."
When I turned my head slightly to look at the desk, the documents on the desk were indeed overflowing and hanging off the chair and floor. However, I didn't have the strength to read a single letter right now, so it was impossible.
As I lay in bed, waving my hand as if to say, 'Stack them well like this,' Vin Chaud let out a deep sigh. Then, after stacking them well on the pile of documents so they wouldn't really fall over, he approached me and looked down at me lying in bed.
"Your Majesty. Is it that painful that Princess Titania has left?"
"...It is painful. It feels like there's a hole in my chest."
It was literally like that. The feeling of cold wind passing through my chest. It was so empty because something precious had disappeared from my side. When I rolled my eyes slightly to look at Vin Chaud, he pulled up a chair, sat next to me, and looked at me.
"Have I ever told you about my children, Your Majesty?"
"Were you married?"
"Then would I not have been?"
Vin Chaud looked at me as if I were absurd. No, I wasn't teasing Vin Chaud, I really didn't know he was married.
He hadn't particularly told me about his family, and I had never heard rumors about his children or wife in high society.
Come to think of it, why were there no rumors? I had heard stories about the children of the Minister of Education or the Minister of Foreign Affairs.
"My wife does not live in the capital for her health. She lives in a remote countryside that Your Majesty wouldn't know even if you heard the name. My children are there too, so it's... not strange that you wouldn't know. How can a Queen not know the family relations of a Minister? It has been quite some time since I began serving Your Majesty...!"
"S-stop. I'm sorry. You see, since I never heard stories about your family, I wouldn't know. Y-yes! You know the story from a few years ago about the Minister of Foreign Affairs' child almost messing with a married woman. Compared to that, no news is good news."
"That... is true."
Vin Chaud appealed his grievance in a rapid-fire manner as if he were aggrieved, but I waved my hand and changed the subject to the story of the Minister of Foreign Affairs' child. Vin Chaud, who heard that sordid story, cleared his throat, let out a sigh, and continued.
"Anyway... I have also sent my daughters away many times. I married off three of them."
"You... had more children than I thought."
"Two sons and three daughters. All of them are married. And stop interrupting me. The story won't end."
"Right..."
I tossed and turned, lying facing Vin Chaud, and began to listen. Vin Chaud didn't seem to like my listening attitude, but he continued the story as if he had no choice. Thinking back on the old days, step by step.
"It was 40 years ago, the story of when I married off my first daughter. At that time, I was-"
"W-wait. How long is that story?"
I felt like Vin Chaud's story was going to be a time to look back on his life, so I stopped him first. Even so, I didn't want to listen to this kind of story for a long time.
Vin Chaud glanced at his watch and replied.
"It seems it will end before dinner."
"It's just past lunchtime..."
"Anyway, at that time, there was a custom that valued tradition more than now-"
...Vin Chaud continued his story even though I gave him a hint to stop. I really wasn't interested. I didn't want to listen.
Vin Chaud's story continued until the sun went down. Vin Chaud, who unfolded the grand epic of his first to third daughter's marriages, told me the story as if he were acting, sometimes intensely, sometimes sadly.
About three hours into the story-
"To stop my third daughter, who said she would marry that man even if it meant throwing away the family, I..."
Knock, knock, knock, knock, the sound of someone knocking on the door urgently was heard. The maid who rushed in and opened the door without me even telling her to enter had a pale face.
"Your Majesty...! Minister...! The Queen Dowager has...!!"
At that moment, Vin Chaud and I quickly jumped up from our seats and ran to the Queen Dowager's office. We could grasp the situation even without the maid saying it.
The third day since Titania left for the Academy.
Before news of Titania arriving at the Academy could reach me, news that the Queen Dowager had collapsed arrived.