113. A Letter from a Loved One (1)
113. A Letter from a Loved One (1)
[Episode 113] - A Letter from a Loved One (1)
「To my beloved daughter, Titania.」
「Only after reading your letter saying you arrived at the Academy could I finally set my mind at ease.」
「After you left for the Academy, I've been struggling with a sense of emptiness, even though I'm living just as I always do. The royal castle feels so vast just because you aren't by my side that I can't even focus on my work; it's truly troublesome.」
「...It's difficult because I have nothing to write about myself. I'm living just as I always do, to the point where I can see you even when I close my eyes. Instead, I seem to have something to write about the royal castle. A few days ago, I received a good item from the Queen Mother-nim.」
*
"Phew..."
"Why are you sighing as if the earth is about to collapse?"
I was peeling fruit I'd received from a maid for visiting the sick, and I couldn't hold back a sigh even in front of the Queen Mother, who was the patient. Well, I'd had too many worries lately.
Handling state affairs on behalf of the Queen Mother was no easy task. Whenever a meeting was held, ministers and nobles would shout at each other, and they'd even throw punches right there; the stress was truly immense.
I was at the point of wondering how on earth the Queen Mother had managed to control those loud-mouthed beasts all this time. I glanced up at the Queen Mother and began to complain with a bitter smile.
"Every passing day, the respect I hold for you, Queen Mother-nim, rises to pierce the sky. I don't know how you managed to lead the country with nobles like those."
At my complaint, the Queen Mother let out a chuckle. She was busy laughing at me, saying she couldn't stop smiling now that she saw someone suffering the same pain as her, asking if I finally understood her agony.
"Well... there is a good method."
"Really?"
When I asked out of curiosity, the Queen Mother pointed her finger at a desk drawer in the room. I put down the fruit I was peeling, opened the desk drawer she pointed to, and checked inside.
What was in there was...
"That will be of help to you."
"Th-this? This is..."
A long rod made of wood. No, a wooden block.
Next to it was a very thin cane.
A cane that looked like it would really hurt if you got hit.
"Those are what I used back in my day to educate the current ministers."
"With this... you mean?"
"Yes, you can't cut them with a sword just because they don't listen, so you have to hit them with a club, don't you? There isn't a single one of them who hasn't been hit by that by me. So, if you hold that, the ministers will remember the old days and tremble for a while."
Queen Mother-nim... just how much did you go around beating up ministers back in your day...
Perhaps because it had been used for quite a long time, the traces of time remained on the wooden club. As I gripped the handle, which was wrapped in bandages to make it easy to hold, a strange sense of confidence welled up inside me.
I felt like I knew why the Queen Mother had handed this to me. As I gripped the club tightly and looked at the Queen Mother, she smiled contentedly and nodded. I had just received permission from the Queen Mother.
Permission to beat the ministers and nobles with this club.
*
「I can't tell you yet what the item I received is, but I will keep it well-maintained so you can use it even after you graduate. You, too, will surely wonder what this is at first, but once you actually use it, you will be able to understand the merits of this item. It feels like the truths of the world are contained within it.」
「Anyway, after receiving this, my life in the royal castle has become a bit more comfortable. Words of gratitude to the Queen Mother-nim are truly not enough. 」
「Since I brought up the Queen Mother-nim, don't just send letters to me, but write a letter to the Queen Mother-nim as well. The Queen Mother-nim misses you very much.」
*
As the meeting dragged on, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Minister of Education started fighting like mad dogs again. The other ministers and nobles were busy sipping the tea placed in front of them, sighing as if to say, "Here we go again."
Vin Chaud frowned at the sound of the two mad dogs barking at each other. Seeing that, I thought the time had finally come to use the item I received from the Queen Mother.
Yes, if not now, when would I use it?
"Now, everyone, attention."
Rustle, rustle.
I took out the wooden club I had hidden under the desk before the meeting and placed it on the table.
The moment I did, the ministers started making sounds like "Eek!" or "Th-that is!", looking at the wooden club and beginning to suffer from trauma. Is it just my imagination that I feel a strange sense of exhilaration every time such a sound is made?
Of course, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Minister of Education, who had been fighting like dogs just a moment ago, also looked at the wooden club on the desk, instantly fell silent, and sat down quietly. Just how much were they beaten with this club...
As a heavy silence descended upon the meeting hall, which had been like a chaotic marketplace until just a moment ago, I smiled brightly, lifted the wooden club, and struck it against my palm with a thwack! thwack! sound.
"I trust that the intelligent ministers gathered here know what it means for this to be held in my hand. No, if you don't know, I will teach you myself."
"......"
Looking around the meeting hall, which had become deathly quiet, I smiled brightly and continued.
"I hope there will never be a day where I have to use this on you old ministers."
""Yes... Your Majesty the Queen...""
*
「Not only the Queen Mother-nim, but everyone misses you. Even when I was reading the letter that came for you, Vin Chaud came up to my side and asked if there wasn't one for him.」
「If possible, please send a letter to Vin Chaud as well. When I told him there was no letter for him, he pouted his lips so much it was unpleasant to look at.」
「I am doing very well. So, don't worry about me. Rather, I am worried about you. I am truly worried about whether you will be able to adapt well there.」
「You have Ainsel and Veronica by your side, so it should be fine, but I can't help but worry. If it's alright, please write about your Academy life as well.」
「I really miss you. I'll wait for your reply.
Vivian Liliensole, who misses you dearly.」
Click. I stopped my hand that had been playing on the stationery, read the letter I had written, and chuckled. Since this was my first time exchanging letters with Titania, I wondered if I was writing it correctly.
I was confident in writing invitations for high society, but I seemed to have taken too long because I was at a loss for how to write a letter like this. I sighed, folded the letter in half, and put it into the prepared envelope. Then, I handed the beautifully packaged letter to the maid next to me and smiled brightly.
"Please send it as soon as possible."
"Yes, Your Majesty the Queen."
At the same time the maid went out of the room, Vin Chaud knocked on the door and poked his head in. When I told him to come in, Vin Chaud approached me with an exhausted expression. Vin Chaud, who smiled bitterly with an expression no different from mine, was a colleague who had been feeling the vacancy of the Queen Mother-nim along with me for the past few days.
"Your Majesty the Queen, do you have a moment?"
"Yes, come here and sit."
Since time was all I had, it wasn't difficult to spare some. I asked another maid behind me to prepare fresh tea and invited Vin Chaud to sit. Vin Chaud, who sat in front of me, sighed for a moment, then let out a deep sigh as if he didn't know how to bring up the subject.
Vin Chaud, who was sipping the tea the maid had brought, mumbled his lips and then spoke to me.
"Your Majesty the Queen, it's about the 'promise'..."
"...Yes, it would be better if we talked just the two of us."
At my words, the quick-witted maid slipped out of the room. Once only Vin Chaud and I were left in the room, Vin Chaud scratched the back of his head and continued. Even though he didn't have any hair to scratch.
"...According to the promise, Your Majesty the Queen, you are supposed to stay here until Princess Titania graduates from the Academy."
"Yes, that's what we decided."
"By any chance... if the Queen Mother-nim allows it, would you consider staying here a little longer...?"
I, who was sipping tea, widened my eyes and looked at Vin Chaud. Then, I curved my eyes into a smile and answered Vin Chaud.
"Is that 'only' your thought? Or is it the thought of all the ministers?"
"...For now, it is just my own thought."
I thought as much.
There were ministers and nobles who did not approve of the situation where I was working on behalf of the Queen Mother. They said we should hurry and bring back Titania, the remaining royal, from the Academy, and that now was not the time to be playing at the Academy.
Fortunately, that remark was still a minority opinion and was being buried, but depending on the Queen Mother's health, it was a situation where it could become the majority opinion at any moment. If the Queen Mother were to fall into a coma...
"However, I will somehow change the minds of the opposing ministers and nobles. And I will plead with the Queen Mother-nim. So, if the Queen Mother-nim allows it..."
"Vin Chaud."
I carefully put down the teacup I had lifted and met Vin Chaud's eyes.
"...Is the Queen Mother-nim's health not that good?"
"...They said at the shortest, one year, and at the longest, three years. It's not certain, but it's certain that there isn't much time left."
"I see..."
I felt like I knew why Vin Chaud had come to me with an anxious heart. If I leave this place and the Queen Mother passes away, Titania, who has just graduated from the Academy, will be left alone in the royal castle.
Titania will be left alone without anyone to lean on.
Vin Chaud must have been asking me out of concern for that as well. If it were up to my heart, I wouldn't want to leave this place either. I wanted to watch by her side as Titania, who graduated from the Academy, became Queen. However...
"...What you are asking of me is no different from asking me to 'rule from behind the curtain' until Titania becomes Queen after the Queen Mother passes away. Am I wrong?"
"......You are correct. That is exactly it."
"Will the nobles just watch that happen? With Titania no longer a child and having even graduated from the Academy, do you think it's possible for the Second Queen, who hasn't even received the royal surname, to do that? You wouldn't say I've forgotten the reason why I have to leave this place, would you? Vin Chaud?"
There was no way Vin Chaud didn't know this. Even though he knew, he must have come to find me because he was anxious and uneasy about the news of the Queen Mother. I fully understand that feeling, but...
"...The Queen Mother hasn't passed away yet, so stop thinking like that and go out and do your work. The thing you need to do right now is not to ask me for favors like this, but to serve the Queen Mother-nim with all your heart."
"...I will keep that in mind."
"You may go."
Vin Chaud bowed his head to me and then quietly slipped out of the room. After Vin Chaud left, I sipped the tea, and for some reason, it tasted bitter.
It was so bitter that I couldn't drink it anymore.
*
Tap-tap-tap! Bang!
It sounded like someone was running outside the door, and then, with a bang! as the door opened, someone entered the room. Thinking that there was only one person who would enter her room without knocking, Titania sighed and glanced back to see Viola panting in front of the door.
Viola, who was panting with her hair disheveled from running, grinned and took a letter out of her bosom and handed it to Titania. When she looked at the back of the letter, Titania realized it was a letter from the royal castle and smiled brightly.
"I brought your letter while I was picking up my own mail. Did I do well?"
"Yes, thank you, Viola."
As Titania was looking at the letter that had come from the royal castle, Viola took a book she had hidden as if smuggling it out of her bosom and grinned. Looking at the book Viola took out, Titania made an absurd expression.
"Really, did you sneak it in 'again'? You'll get scolded if you get caught..."
"It's fine, it's fine. It doesn't matter if I don't get caught, right?"
"Even though you've already been caught once..."
Titania sighed deeply and shook her head. She thought it was impressive, if anything, that Viola kept sneaking in romance novels that were designated as 'subversive literature' at the Academy. If Viola used that passion for studying, it was clear that being first in the Academy would be a piece of cake.
"If you keep saying things like that, I won't lend it to you?"
"That's a different story. If you don't lend it to me, I won't help you with your assignments from now on either."
"Ah! Princess! I'm sorry! Anything but that...!"
Pfft, Titania and Viola burst into giggles at the same time.
Only after laughing with each other for a while did Viola take the book and return to her room, saying, "I'll read it first and then lend it to you." After the storm-like Viola had passed, in the quiet room, Titania stared blankly at the letter Vivian had sent.
"Really, it takes nearly a month just for letters to go back and forth."
Titania giggled, saying that if she spent her time waiting for her mother's letters, three years would pass by in no time. Then, she stroked the letter and smiled bitterly at the desire to see her mother.
"Three more years..."