My Prison Chronicle - 2
Glad tidings always arrive without warning.
"My Lady."
While I was handling paperwork in the Tower Lord's office as usual, my secretary approached. I had told her that unless a matter was truly urgent, she was to report in writing rather than in person.
She was a girl I had known for decades. She would never dare ignore or forget an order of mine, so whatever had brought her here in person must be worth the face-to-face report.
"What is it?"
"The teleportation mage summoned by His Highness the Crown Prince has returned. The Audit Department Chief is said to have arrived in the Imperial Capital as well."
It was news more than worthy of a personal report.
Truth be told, I had been hoping for something like this. The last time the Crown Prince called for a teleportation mage, my baby had come afterward. I had been cradling the vague expectation that it might happen again this time.
"Very well. You may go."
"Yes, My Lady."
The secretary who had brought me such happy news turned away without adding a single unnecessary word.
She was already a hardworking girl, yet today she looked especially dear. I would have to arrange a performance bonus for her soon.
Once I confirmed she had left, I turned my gaze toward the window and found a sky so clear it held not a single cloud.
"What a fine day."
The words slipped out of their own accord, born of pure contentment.
Yes. Today was truly a fine day.
I should have done this from the start.
After my baby received that unprecedented Academy punishment of confinement, I had issued an order to every mage belonging to the Magic Tower: report the moment he set foot in the Capital.
Before that, I had known nothing until I heard of his arrival far too late. Fortunately he had never returned without my learning of it first, but there was no telling when such a heartbreaking mishap might occur.
For my baby to come to the Capital, he inevitably had to come into contact with the Tower's mages. And if he arrived by carriage, that would mean a long stay, so there would be no need to rush.
To think I am this happy...
I rested a hand lightly against my chest and felt my heart beating faster than usual.
I had told him more than once that he must visit the Magic Tower whenever he came to the Capital. After so many reminders, he would surely come of his own accord even if I did not go to him.
Of course, since it was a summons from the Crown Prince, he would not be able to come at once. Anything that required him to travel all the way from the Academy to the Capital could hardly be a trivial matter.
Even so, the mere thought that my baby would come filled me with happiness already.
Even if he arrived only in the evening, I could treasure the waiting itself from the very morning and be glad.
It is a little unfair that I alone am fretting so,
but someday my baby would grow just as impatient to see me. It would happen without fail. All our relationship needed was time.
And yet my baby did not come, not even when night fell.
...He is late.
Irritation tightened the fingers that held my pen. I had braced myself for a delay, yet I never imagined there would be no word of him even into the night.
The moon had climbed to an almost spiteful height, yet I could not bring myself to leave the Tower Lord's office. What if he came late after all? What if he saw I was not here and simply turned around and left?
If he arrived late, I would keep him for every hour of that lateness. And if he had gone back without my knowing, I would go to the Academy myself.
A man who set a lady's heart racing from morning had a responsibility to answer for it. I trusted my baby was not so heartless a gentleman as to be unaware of that.
"My Lady!"
"You are making a racket. What will the other mages think if they see you like this?"
Earlier the secretary had looked so pretty, yet my temper was frayed enough that a sharp reply slipped out.
Even so, the girl still radiated a scattered air. Strange. She was not normally so lacking in composure.
"Th-the Audit Department Chief, My Lady..."
News of the baby I had been so desperately waiting for. I felt my ears prick up of their own accord.
And a single sentence was all it took for those ears, which had been pointed toward the heavens, to plummet.
"He has been detained!"
"...What?"
What did she just say?
The instant I heard it, I nearly bolted for wherever my baby was being held.
"The Audit Department Chief has requested no visitors for the entire day. Aside from the Minister of Finance, he has met with no one."
The secretary's restraint stopped me, however.
No visitors.
At those words I sank weakly into my seat. No visitors... he wanted to see no one at all.
How deep must his anguish have been for him to make such a choice? How terribly, terribly he must have suffered...
Fortunately the ban on visitors covered only a single day, not the entire term of detention. Yes. I would endure for one day. For one day I would leave him alone so that he might settle his heart.
"Y-Your Grace the Demon Duke, I present—"
"There is no need for lengthy speech. I have come to see the Audit Department Chief. Show me the way."
Of course, the moment the next day dawned I headed straight for the underground prison. From today, visits were permitted.
In a place like this...
I watched the back of the hurriedly retreating guard, then looked around me.
An underground prison. A place that had never held any connection to me, and one I had assumed never would. That was why, even when I had glimpsed it in passing, I had never spared it a thought.
...A place like this...
My hands trembled. A hard, cold aura roiled through the air. Because the place had been built with the sole purpose of confinement, not a shred of warmth could be felt.
My baby... my baby was in a place like this? That young, pitiful, more precious than anyone else, baby of mine?
No.
I shook my head hard. The thought of him locked alone in such a frigid place felt as if it would tear my chest apart.
If I had my way I would drag him out this very instant. I wanted to shout, How dare you imprison him? What do you think you are doing to the man who will be a Duke's consort?
But I held myself back. If I made a useless scene, it would only make things harder for my baby.
"The... prisoner has accepted the visit."
A different figure came running—not the earlier guard. The insignia on his shoulder marked him as a jailer.
Prisoner.
The word grated on me badly, yet the man before me looked equally uncomfortable with it, so I let it pass.
Oddly, it brought a small measure of relief. Even inside the prison there were people who found it strange that my baby was a prisoner.
"I will guide you. He is being held rather deep inside, so the path is complicated."
I followed the jailer down the stairs. The farther down we went, the deeper we descended, the closer I came to tears.
Was he truly in a place like this? I found myself hoping it was all a prank. I even entertained the absurd fantasy that my baby had conspired with the secretary and the jailer just to tease me.
If only that were true. If someone would just say it was a joke even now, I would laugh and let it go.
"Your Grace. Thank you for coming all this way."
But the moment I saw my baby beyond the iron bars, my heart crumbled.
Not long after I accepted the visit in a bleak frame of mind, the jailer and the Demon Duke arrived.
The jailer fled the moment he reached us. The Demon Duke approached the bars even faster.
"Baby, are you all right?"
No, I am not all right.
I swallowed the words I could not bring myself to speak. Until a moment ago I had not particularly cared, but seeing Mother—the Demon Duke—in a place like this filled me with unbearable shame and misery.
When I failed to open my mouth, the Demon Duke seemed to interpret my silence in her own way; her ears drooped limply as she gripped the bars.
"You must have suffered so much you cannot even speak properly..."
The hands that held the iron bars trembled faintly.
Yet contrary to her thoughts, I had simply been too embarrassed to answer.
"Has anything been inconvenient while you have been here? Do you not miss the outside?"
I had only come in yesterday. There had not even been time to feel longing or discomfort.
"You cannot be eating properly either..."
I was eating just fine. The Minister had sent in so much outside food that I had shared the leftovers with the jailers.
"And of all times it has to grow cold. You must not catch a chill."
Thanks to the mountain of blankets the jailers had brought, I had not felt cold at all. If anything, I even broke a light sweat when I slept.
...Strange. Every word was clearly spoken out of concern for me.
So why does my conscience sting?
Each remark stabbed into my chest like a dagger. It almost felt as if she knew my situation and was teasing me on purpose.
But the Demon Duke could not lie. The ears that always told the truth hung limp toward the floor, and her eyes and hands trembled with such heartbreaking intensity that if it had been an act, even the victim would have had to give a standing ovation.
"I am fine, Your Grace. Please do not worry. I am getting by well."
"In what way are you fine...?"
I had spoken only to soothe the startled elder, yet the Demon Duke's condition only grew worse.
Damn it.
I had been shortsighted. For the man currently locked behind bars to say in real time that he was "happy" and "doing well" was nothing but a tear-jerker.
When my mouth closed again, the Demon Duke thrust her trembling hands into her robes as if frantically searching for something.
"Baby, take this."
Before long a thoroughly familiar bottle emerged from her bosom.
The red ginseng concentrate made from my own blood. Come to think of it, I had been locked up so suddenly that I had never had a chance to bring any with me.
No wonder my body felt so heavy.
It was because I had gone without the dose I always took.
"Thank you, Your Grace."
When I stretched my hand through the gap in the bars, the Demon Duke gently stroked the fingers that protruded.
It was the touch of someone terrified that the slightest mishandling might break me, that if she let go I might vanish somewhere. At this rate even I was growing embarrassed.
"Baby... baby..."
The way she called for me in that trembling voice truly made her look like a mother who had lost her child.
But Your Grace. This is a five-day sentence.
You did not somehow mishear it as five years or fifty, did you?
Is it actually five years?
Now I was the one growing anxious. The Demon Duke looked so utterly devastated that I began to wonder whether she had rushed here after hearing that my detention period had been extended.
Reason shouted that such a thing was impossible, yet the pitiful sight of the Demon Duke was more than enough to silence even that reason.
And so the Demon Duke held my hand for a long, long time and would not let go.