Chapter 16
Chapter 16
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 16
Chapter Title: Mother and Son (4)
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"Margarete. Is Mother here?"
"Big Brother?"
Sudden words from her eldest brother brought a puzzled expression to the face of Wilhelm II's youngest sister, Princess Margarete.
'Why is Big Brother Wilhelm looking for Mother?'
Margarete was honestly surprised and flustered.
And well she might be—after yesterday's dinner, quiet old Willy had suddenly come out with this. Anyone would find it odd.
Some change of heart, perhaps?
"What do you need Mother for...?"
"I want to have a talk with her. Just the two of us."
"Pardon?"
Margarete wondered for a moment if she'd misheard.
Her brother and Mother?
Alone together?
No matter how she thought about it, she couldn't imagine it ending well.
And it hadn't even been that long since 'that incident' yesterday.
"Planning to kick up another fuss?"
As Margarete agonized over what to do, her sister Charlotte's mocking voice came from behind.
A bottle of wine was clutched in her sister's hand—God knows where she'd gotten it.
"Charlotte. This doesn't concern you."
"Hmph. I'm not interested anyway? I just want to get out of this dreary place and go home."
"Hoo..."
Wilhelm II let out a sigh, visibly irritated by his immature little sister.
Years had passed since that scandal of hers, but she still hadn't grown up, lashing out with her sharp tongue and grating on his nerves.
"Don't test my patience, Charlotte."
"Yes, yes, Your Majesty."
"Big Brother Wilhelm. So, what did you want to talk to Mother about?"
Margarete spoke up, trying to salvage the ruined atmosphere her sister had created.
Wilhelm II hesitated for a moment before slowly broaching the subject.
"Hans told me to talk to her directly."
"Hans?"
Margarete tilted her head, surprised to hear Hans's name from her brother's lips.
But Charlotte looked blank, as if she had no idea who that was.
It was only natural.
Princess Charlotte had arrived at Schloss Friedrichshof just last night, and she'd only gotten up moments ago.
She hadn't had a chance to see Hans's face.
"Hans? Who's that?"
"Sister. He's the boy who saved Big Brother's life. He's here at Friedrichshof right now."
"Oh~ that Chinky."
Charlotte let out a gasp as recollection dawned.
Though her choice of words twisted both Margarete's and Wilhelm II's faces in disgust.
"Sister Charlotte. Don't call Hans 'Chinky'... or anything like that."
"What? He's a Chinky—why not call him what he is? Yellow monkey?"
"Sister!"
Margarete raised her voice, but Charlotte turned a deaf ear.
She genuinely had no idea what she'd done wrong.
In truth, Princess Charlotte's remarks weren't all that different from how most Europeans treated those of the yellow race.
But people had their reasons for not spouting such things in public.
"...Charlotte. Watch your mouth."
"What?"
"Hans is the boy who saved my life, and to the Empress and me, he's like family."
That was why, even if the palace or Berlin gossiped about Hans with slurs like 'Chinky' behind his back, no one dared say it openly.
If word reached Wilhelm II's ears, they'd have to face the Kaiser's wrath.
The German nobility had no desire to stir up unnecessary trouble.
"I'll let it slide this time as a mistake. But if I hear that nonsense from you again, I'll exile you from Germany for good. Understand?"
"O-okay."
Startled by Wilhelm II's intensity, Princess Charlotte nodded meekly.
She might act like she owned the world, but even she had a modicum of street smarts.
"So, Margarete. Mother?"
"...I'll go ask."
Stunned by her brother's unprecedented demeanor, Margarete pulled herself together and headed to the Dowager Empress's bedroom.
"Big Brother. Mother says to come in."
And before long, permission was granted.
"...Wilhelm."
"...Mother."
The first words between mother and son, facing each other after their quarrel, were quieter than expected.
With yesterday's events still fresh, sitting down for a private talk felt awkwardly real.
"I heard from Margarete. Hans told you to see me?"
After a brief silence, it was the mother, Victoria Adelaide, who spoke first.
"He said no matter the outcome, I should settle it with you face-to-face."
"Heh heh. He told me he'd talk to you, but I didn't really expect it. I thought it was just comfort. But to think he actually brought it up."
"That's how he is. If he thinks something needs doing, he acts on it. Even telling me straight to my face that I'm 'wrong.'"
Wilhelm II recalled the incident shortly after Hans had entered the palace.
Even now, it left him dumbfounded.
"Mother. Do you remember when I was eight? My first riding lessons."
"...Yes. I do. You couldn't stay on that little foal and kept falling off."
Because of this damned left arm of his.
"I cried nonstop back then. It hurt, and I felt so wronged. But you just kept scolding me. Telling me to get back on even after I fell and got hurt."
"...Are you asking me to apologize for that now?"
"No. I want to know why you did it to me back then."
At her son's words, the Dowager Empress Victoria closed her eyes, dredging up faint memories.
It took quite a while for her answer to come.
"In England, I was the apple of my parents' eye. But when I married into Germany, I wasn't welcomed. As you know, your grandfather and grandmother wanted an obedient daughter-in-law, not a clever one."
"That's right. They didn't like your 'British, liberal ideas' either."
And because of that, he had been separated from his parents and raised under his grandmother, Augusta's, strict eye in Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach.
Wilhelm II held no real grudge about it, but for the Dowager Empress Victoria, forced apart from her children, it had been a deep wound.
"Yes. So I was harsher and stricter with you, Charlotte, and the others than I needed to be. I resented that you favored your grandparents over me, but at the same time, I wanted to prove something."
That the children of the daughter-in-law you all despised were this exceptional.
The Dowager Empress gave a bitter smile as she said it.
"Selfish thinking. In hindsight, utterly pointless."
"All I wanted was for you to hold me warmly, even just once. Like you did with Vikki, Sophie, or Moretta."
Unlike Wilhelm, Charlotte, and Heinrich, Victoria, Sophie, and Margarete had been raised directly by the Dowager Empress Victoria, so they received the full measure of their mother's love—unlike their older brothers and sisters.
That was why Wilhelm II hadn't cared much for his younger sisters as a child.
"Yes. But I realized it too late. Only after losing two sons did I understand how precious children are."
"...Sigismund and Waldemar."
Wilhelm II bowed his head, saddened by the old memory.
Friedrich III and Victoria Adelaide had actually had more sons besides Wilhelm II and Prince Heinrich.
Princes Sigismund (Franz Friedrich Sigismund) and Waldemar (Joachim Friedrich Ernst Waldemar).
But Sigismund died of meningitis just two years after birth, and Waldemar succumbed to diphtheria at eleven, forcing Friedrich III and Victoria Adelaide to bury their young boys.
"It was only after losing them that I realized I needed to give more love to my children. But by then, you and I were already at odds, Wilhelm. And as time passed, we just kept fighting..."
"...And it dragged on to this day."
Wilhelm II muttered darkly.
Talking like this with his mother stirred up complicated feelings.
"But I had my grievances with you too."
Yet it wasn't just Wilhelm II who had words to say.
"Like when your father passed away."
"......"
It was already infamous how, upon Predecessor Friedrich III's death, Wilhelm II had blamed his mother Victoria Adelaide and committed an outrageous act.
Wilhelm II had insisted that among the letters his mother Victoria had sent to her British family, there must be documents colluding with Britain.
Though his real aim was to find letters that might harm his reputation.
Before his father's body had even cooled, Wilhelm II had led soldiers to storm his mother's quarters and rifled through her personal correspondence.
But Wilhelm II found nothing in his mother's room.
Friedrich III, foreseeing such trouble after his death, had entrusted any problematic letters and documents to Windsor Castle in England.
"I wasn't in my right mind then. I thought Father's death was your fault."
Friedrich III's cause of death had been laryngeal cancer.
Thus, German doctors had urged him to undergo laryngectomy while alive, but the British doctors brought by Victoria Adelaide opposed it, citing no signs of malignancy in the biopsy.
This was because laryngectomy was an extremely risky procedure at the time—one that existed only in theory, never performed on a living patient.
Friedrich III knew this and, after discussion with his wife Victoria Adelaide, refused the surgery.
"But His Majesty's condition worsened, and he passed away. If I'd pushed harder for courage and the operation then, would things have turned out differently?"
"...Father still would have refused. He was surprisingly stubborn, after all."
"Yes. And you take after me in that strong pride."
A small chuckle escaped the Kaiser and Dowager Empress, filling the room.
"Speaking of which, did you know?"
As they spoke of his father, something occurred to Wilhelm II.
"Taking in Hans was actually because of Father."
"What?"
Confusion and surprise flickered across the Dowager Empress Victoria's face.
Hans hadn't even been born when her husband died—what could that mean?
"A few days before I met Hans. Father's ghost appeared in my dream."
Wilhelm II slowly recounted the dream he'd never shared with anyone.
How his father Friedrich III had warned that danger approached the German Empire, and the only one who could avert it was an eastern nobleman who would save his life.
"And Hans really saved my life."
"Good heavens..."
"That's why I took him in."
The Dowager Empress Victoria was stunned by her son's unbelievable tale, yet overwhelmed by fresh emotions for her late husband, tears streaming down her cheeks.
But these were not tears of sorrow—they were born of genuine感動.
"Friedrich worried about Germany until his very last breath. Perhaps Hans is a gift he sent us."
"Mother."
"Thanks to him, I could have this deep talk with you, whom I've felt so distant from."
Of course, one couldn't say their long-strained mother-son bond was fully mended.
But for the Dowager Empress, simply opening their hearts before death was enough.
"Thank you, Wilhelm. For sharing this with me."
The Dowager Empress Victoria gently took the hand of her son, now taller than herself.
Wilhelm II flinched briefly but soon closed his eyes, entrusting his hand to her.
It was the warmth he'd so desperately missed.