Chapter 12
Chapter 12
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 12
Chapter Title: Princess Royal Victoria
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“Your Majesty. The Augusta Empress, Prince Joachim, and Princess Viktoria Luise have arrived.”
The words of her maid, who had been tending to her illness, made Victoria Adelaide open her eyes.
The woman who had once been the pride of the British Empire as the Princess Royal was now an elderly invalid, simply awaiting the day death would claim her. Yet her eyes still shone with the keen intelligence and clarity of her youth.
“Mother.”
“Augusta. It's been too long.”
Soon after, her eldest daughter-in-law, the Augusta Empress, entered the Dowager Empress's bedroom. With the maid's assistance, Victoria Adelaide sat up in bed.
She had once been the despised daughter-in-law who had snatched away the leadership of the German Red Cross and the Patriotic Women's Association—positions Victoria had hoped to inherit from her own mother-in-law.
But during her lonely marriage to Wilhelm II, Augusta had turned to her mother-in-law for support time and again. In doing so, they had mended their old grudges, allowing Victoria to now welcome her eldest daughter-in-law with genuine warmth.
“Grandma.”
“Joachim. Luise. You've grown so much since I last saw you. So very much.”
Victoria Adelaide responded to her young grandchildren's greetings with a smile.
The last time she'd seen them, they had been mere infants. Seeing how much they'd grown now made her marvel at how swiftly time passed.
If only her foolish son hadn't kept the grandchildren away from her, claiming their 'liberal' ideas would rub off on them, she could have spent more time with them and showered them with affection.
Victoria Adelaide could only feel regret.
“By the way, didn't Willy come with you?”
“Yes. When I left Potsdam, he was still in Königsberg. His Majesty should arrive sometime tomorrow.”
“At least Willy is coming to watch his mother die. But the eldest daughter? Not even a word from her.”
“Mother, please don't say that. Charley—Princess Charlotte—just got the news late. I'm sure she'll come to see you soon.”
“Tch. I know that girl well enough. She's probably off at some party right now.”
Despite the defense from her favorite youngest daughter, Margarete, the Dowager Empress still frowned, clearly displeased with her eldest daughter, whose whereabouts she didn't even know.
From childhood, that girl had treated her with nervous irritability, vexing her in ways her brothers never had.
What could have changed now? Back in her youth, she'd abandoned her only daughter to chase the social whirl. Why would she be any different today?
“By the way, who's that child?”
Victoria Adelaide pointed at the small boy standing quietly behind the Augusta Empress.
The Empress nodded reassuringly and brought the boy forward.
“I'm Hans Choi. It's an honor to meet Victoria Adelaide Mary Louisa, Dowager Empress, Princess Royal of England and Empress to the Predecessor.”
“Ho ho. So you're that little Asian boy who saved Willy.”
Hans's polite demeanor drew a curve to Victoria Adelaide's lips.
He looked about the same age as her granddaughter, Princess Viktoria Luise, but he seemed remarkably composed and refined.
“When I heard my fool of a son had brought you into the palace, I thought he'd finally gone mad. Or maybe he'd gotten into some strange drugs.”
“Mother!”
“Oh, don't make that face, Moretta.”
Victoria Adelaide's brazen attitude made her children sigh inwardly.
Their mother had always been like this.
“So, Hans Choi. How's palace life treating you?”
“Do you want the honest answer? Or the one wrapped up nicely to sound good?”
“What?”
“Hans, not again...”
“Ahaha... Ahahahahaha!!”
As the Augusta Empress moved to stop Hans, Victoria Adelaide burst into laughter for the first time in ages, clearly delighted by his response.
“What a witty child. Then tell me honestly.”
“It's tolerable. His Majesty the Emperor, Your Majesty the Empress, and the rest of the imperial family have all treated me well. At least no one's calling me a monkey.”
“Pfft! Augusta, where on earth did Willy pick up a gem like this?”
“Thanks to him, my head aches. The boy's good and smart... but sometimes he overdoes it.”
The Augusta Empress let out a small sigh.
She looked just like a mother exasperated by her mischievous child.
“Not the type your husband would like.”
The Dowager Empress knew her eldest son well—he was the sort who couldn't tolerate anyone talking back to him, a real stickler even with his own family.
Just look at what he'd done when his sister Sossy converted to her husband's country's religion.
“You've piqued my interest.”
“Mother?”
“Elizabeth. Help me out of this damned bed.”
The maid, presumably English, nodded and supported the Dowager Empress.
“Mother, you're not well. Don't push yourself.”
Sophie spoke worriedly, but Victoria Adelaide waved her off, insisting she was fine.
With the maid's help, she painfully settled into the wheelchair beside the bed.
The Augusta Empress and her children watched with pity as Victoria Adelaide, who couldn't move without aid, but she paid it no mind.
She was used to sympathetic gazes by now.
“Fredrick. What's the weather like?”
“Clear skies, not a cloud in sight.”
Victoria Adelaide smiled in satisfaction at Sir Frederick Ponsonby's reply.
“Oh. Perfect weather for a stroll.”
Victoria Adelaide looked at Hans.
“Will you help me?”
Victoria Adelaide wanted to learn more about this boy.
“Ufufufu, Hans. You're such a fun and surprising child.”
“You're too kind, Your Majesty the Dowager Empress.”
“Wilhelm doesn't deserve to keep you by his side.”
I replied as I slowly pushed the wheelchair carrying Victoria Adelaide.
Our private stroll turned out to be far more enjoyable than I'd expected.
I hadn't planned on getting this close to the Dowager Empress, but we clicked remarkably well.
'Most of all, it's great that we can actually talk.'
Victoria Adelaide was remarkably sharp and enlightened for a 19th-century woman.
That very intelligence had made the conservative German imperial court wary of her, treating her with disdain despite her pro-Prussian and pro-German stance.
Even her father, Prince Albert—who had been favorable toward Prussia and the German Empire—had been outraged by it.
“So you believe monarchy is inevitably fading into history?”
“Yes, Your Majesty. Since the French Revolution, the power of the people has grown with each passing era, while the position of kings has shrunk. Monarchies still hold an edge over republics for now, but that will reverse in half a century.”
“Heh heh. Wilhelm calls me a 'liberal' behind my back, yet he's the one who brought a 'republican' into the palace.”
Having seen and heard it all with my own eyes in the 21st century, I knew better.
But affirming her outright could get me in trouble later, so I gently corrected her.
“I don't think monarchies are unnecessary. They can coexist with democracy—like in Your Majesty's homeland, Britain. And that may be the only path for them to survive.”
In reality, after the upheavals of the 20th century, the surviving monarchies in the modern world were almost all constitutional.
The few absolute monarchies persisting into the 21st century were mostly places like Saudi Arabia.
Not exactly common.
“...My husband said much the same.”
“You mean His Late Majesty Friedrich III.”
Victoria Adelaide gave a bittersweet smile, clearly still unable to forget the husband who had passed before her.
Friedrich III had been a liberal like his wife Victoria Adelaide, harboring resentment toward Germany's unique militarism. This had caused friction with his conservative father, Wilhelm I, and the Junkers.
Some argue that if his reign had lasted, Germany's history—and even World War I—might have been different.
Of course, plenty disagreed.
Even in the 21st century, whether Friedrich III truly dreamed of a liberal German Empire remained hotly debated.
But whether he could have changed Germany? No one could know.
He'd died of throat cancer on June 15, 1888—just three months after ascending the throne.
And his successor had been Wilhelm II, who despised liberalism itself, unlike his father.
The Year of the Three Emperors.
1888, when Wilhelm I was followed in quick succession by Friedrich III and then Wilhelm II, had sealed the German Empire's fateful path.
“When Friedrich closed his eyes, Wilhelm blamed me for his father's death.”
She added, grimacing,
“He even ransacked my personal letters to my English family, claiming there might be 'treasonous' content.”
All to drive her out, no doubt.
It must have been a deeply unpleasant memory.
“If only the Predecessor were still alive.”
“...You don't approve of the Kaiser's reign, do you?”
“Hans. A boy your age should know. Wilhelm handles domestic affairs adequately enough, but in foreign policy, he's the pinnacle of incompetence.”
I knew.
All too well.
“That's why I'm afraid, Hans.”
The Dowager Empress turned to me as she spoke.
“Afraid of what my son's reckless actions will bring in the future. Afraid of what fate awaits my beloved homeland and my husband's nation because of it.”
Her eyes darkened with sorrow and regret.
Clack-clack— Clack-clack—
“......”
Inside the rattling train car.
Wilhelm II, Kaiser of the German Empire, stared out the window, lost in deep thought.
“Your Majesty. I've brought your dinner.”
“...No appetite today. Take it back.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
The valet bowed and began loading the Kaiser's meal back onto the tray.
“Wait.”
As the valet turned to leave, Wilhelm II suddenly called him back, something occurring to him.
“What is it, Your Majesty?”
“Still no word from Charlotte?”
“No. We even checked Meiningen, but as usual, she just left word that she was 'going out.'”
“She has to be somewhere in Germany.”
“The Interior Ministry has already mobilized the secret police. News should come soon if you wait a little.”
“Sigh... First that letter fiasco gave me a headache, and now this useless nonsense.”
To think she'd force him to deploy the secret police over something so trivial. What a troublesome sister.
Wilhelm II was closest to Princess Charlotte among his sisters, but her picky, backbiting nature, her extravagance, and her irresponsibility were beyond comprehension.
Honestly, if not for the Augusta Empress's plea—'I don't like Princess Charlotte either, but shouldn't she at least see her mother's final moments?'—he'd have left her be.
“Hah. As if that 'Englishwoman' headache wasn't enough.”
The Englishwoman was, of course, his mother, Victoria Adelaide.
Wilhelm II disliked his mother.
He resented her distinctly English, impure 'liberal' ideas, and her constant criticism of his actions—openly calling him incompetent.
'She's always been that way.'
Cold, heartless. Unworthy of being called a mother.
But soon, even seeing her face would end.
Just a few days.
He only had to endure a few more days.
“So why does my chest feel tight instead of relieved?”
Did he still harbor some lingering affection for her?
No, impossible.
“It's just the exhaustion and irritation of all this.”
Wilhelm II muttered to himself.
But as night deepened, his heart only grew more tangled.