When Spring Comes, Even the Honeymoon Melts - 2
With the start of term drawing near, I carefully checked every piece of luggage I would take to the Academy myself.
I could have simply reused what I had brought last year, but the clothes at least needed another look. Lately the outfits I used to wear had started feeling a little tight.
"Come in."
After about an hour of going through everything, I called in the attendants waiting outside the door.
"I'll only be taking this much. Prepare a carriage of a suitable size as well."
"Yes, Your Excellency."
The attendants bowed at my instructions and swiftly carried the luggage out. They would load it onto the carriage bound for the Academy without further orders.
The moment the last attendant closed the door behind him, I sank onto the edge of the bed and let out a long sigh.
I never thought I'd still be relying on the palace attendants this year.
Feeling a touch awkward, I scratched my cheek for no particular reason.
I was of imperial blood, yes, but I had received an official title. By custom I should have been living somewhere other than the Imperial Palace. His Majesty, however, had told me to remain here until I found a residence of my own.
Of course the Marquisate of Idrafen had no formally attached territory—only the lands granted alongside the title—but when the Emperor spoke, what choice did a marquis have? I was left to enjoy the luxury of staying in the palace.
And yet… I had a groundless feeling that I would end up living here for several more years.
…Perhaps it's time I made contact.
Pushing the complicated intuition aside, I took the communication orb in hand. Luggage sorted; other matters awaited.
— Who is this?
Barely a moment after I activated the orb, the other party answered.
A young lady whose pale skin and silver hair shone brilliantly, whose voice—trite as the comparison was—sounded like a nightingale singing.
"It is I, Lady Shati."
Shati Gurt, the only child of Marquis Barandiga.
I had called the young lady who was, for all intents and purposes, my fiancée.
— Ah, Marquis Idrafen.
Her reply was as blunt and curt as ever, yet I had grown used to it and felt nothing in particular.
From Lady Shati's perspective she had been forced into an unwanted political marriage with a man she had met only a few months earlier. Even political matches were usually arranged with someone one had known since childhood. That she kept a certain wall up was perfectly understandable.
"The weather is so fine today that thoughts of you suddenly came to me, and I called. I hope I haven't interrupted anything precious of yours?"
— It's fine. This isn't the first or second time you've called out of nowhere.
"I'm glad to hear it."
When I answered with a smile, Lady Shati's expression turned sour, as though she disliked that I had simply laughed off words that could easily have provoked me.
I was sorry for her, but I had no intention of getting angry. Still less of breaking a relationship whose marriage was already a settled fact.
It was not some romantic reason like love at first sight. Perhaps because of the aftermath of having once loved someone else, I now had neither the will nor the room to feel private affection. I was simply acting for the duty of the imperial bloodline, and for the young lady who would become my wife.
"I had hoped to see you in person before leaving for the Academy, but sadly the start of term is right upon us. Never have I resented my student status more than now."
— I think it's a relief you aren't coming. Having a marquis wait on me in some northern backwater would be so embarrassing I couldn't lift my head.
"Your presence alone is more than enough. How can you say such a thing? There is no greater hospitality for me."
Even through the orb I could see Lady Shati's eyes tremble faintly.
Honest as ever today.
The sight drew a soft laugh from me. I felt no romantic attraction toward her, yet as one person to another I was fond of her. How could anyone dislike someone who grew more openly adorable the longer you spoke?
At first she had kept strict etiquette and pushed me away with roundabout remarks. A rumor that a rising noble house had refused marriage to an imperial would endanger her family, after all. So I had pretended not to notice her true feelings as much as possible. When she was polite I approached with smooth charm; when she spoke indirectly I feigned not understanding. Frustrated, she had gradually begun to push me away more directly and clearly.
Of course I had pretended not to notice that either.
"By the way, I've been training diligently of late, just as you advised. One day I shall have to live in the North as well; it would be troublesome if my body couldn't endure it."
— I… see. Thank you for heeding my advice.
"It was your words, after all. Of course I would."
I could hear her grinding her teeth.
Best to leave it here for today.
The moment Marquis Idrafen's face vanished, I flung the communication orb away.
"Uwaaaaaaah!"
I raked my hands violently through my hair and screamed. Nothing else would calm the fire raging inside me.
Infuriating. So thoroughly infuriating. If Marquis Idrafen had been standing in front of me I would have closed my eyes and punched him once. He was that grating, that smooth… that utterly disagreeable in every way.
One good hit and the bastard would drop!
My fists trembled as I ground my teeth. The Marquis Idrafen I first met at the New Year's Audience had looked exactly like a typical prince of a settled kingdom.
Someone who had never known hardship, who had never accomplished anything with his own body. Someone who took being elevated as his due, who had nothing to offer but looks and status. That had been my first impression of him.
Now that first impression had been joined by shameless, smooth-talking, deliberately dense, and thoroughly annoying.
— By the way, I've been training diligently of late, just as you advised. One day I shall have to live in the North as well; it would be troublesome if my body couldn't endure it.
When his words resurfaced, a hollow laugh escaped me. I no longer had the strength even to rage.
Training, my ass.
A few weeks earlier, back when I was still maintaining proper etiquette with him, I had said something of the sort. That the North's environment was harsh and biting, that an ordinary person would find even setting foot there difficult.
I had meant that if he married me he would have to live in that merciless North. Yet Marquis Idrafen had taken it not as pressure to abandon the marriage but as advice to train.
No—he surely knew it was the former and simply pretended to hear the latter. A smooth bastard like him would do exactly that.
Go ahead and train a hundred days for all I care.
I reined in the empty laugh and picked up the communication orb rolling on the floor.
A garden flower that trained would still be a flower that had grown under warm breezes.
It would never become a northern warrior fit to stand beside me.
At this point I seriously began to wonder. Had I committed some great crime in a previous life? Something like selling an entire nation under an emperor's rule—active treason rather than mere silent consent.
Yes, that had to be it. Nothing else could explain why that bastard was this sincere toward me.
"I couldn't just leave the gift the Cardinal sent lying around, so I hung it. Personally, I find it quite pleasing every time I look at it."
I had answered the Emperor's summons and come to the Hall of the Sun, specifically the office where he conducted his work.
In the very room where every affair of the empire received final approval hung a portrait of me as a saint.
Is this guy insane?
My mind reeled. With the start of term approaching I had accepted the summons as a matter of course, yet I had never expected that portrait to greet me the moment I stepped inside.
Crazy bastard. Truly crazy. What emperor in the history of the continent hung a portrait of his own subordinate as a saint? His own portrait would be one thing.
"Well now. Are you so moved you can't speak?"
And of course the Emperor continued to needle me.
Moved? You bastard, go look up the dictionary definition of the word first.
"…That Your Majesty should hang the portrait of this humble servant in the sacred space where you conduct affairs… I am both terrified and overwhelmed with gratitude."
"It is a sacred space, so of course a saint's portrait should hang there."
He burst out laughing—so hearty and unashamed that I almost laughed with him.
"Whenever my head clouds and my chest tightens I look at the Minister's portrait. Knowing that a man destined to become a saint after death is still alive and serving me… I cannot tell you how happy it makes me."
"I am most unworthy, Your Majesty."
I bowed my head as the Emperor patted my shoulder.
If I looked at that bastard's face any longer a sincere punch was going to fly.
Once I had smothered the urge for a sincere punch, we managed an ordinary conversation.
"I'll need the Minister's hard work again this year. No matter how I think about it, sending someone else and inviting chaos would be worse than simply sending you."
"Yes, Your Majesty. I shall do so."
It was an order to deal with the hopeless club members at the Academy again this year, yet I nodded calmly. I had already assumed I would go, and as the Emperor said, there was no need to send anyone else for the final year.
Besides, if someone else were sent and disaster struck, someone would have to clean it up—and that someone would almost certainly be me. Better to handle it myself from the start.
"I'll say this in advance: you've worked hard these three years. What other official has ever attended a foreign royal for three full years? Even the Retired Emperor thought you the right man and sent you to the Academy, yet it cannot have sat easily with him."
To my reply the Emperor offered unexpected comfort. Even to an emperor of ruinous personality, my Academy life had apparently been impressive.
"I merely did what a subject ought to do."
"Doing what one ought to do is precisely why one deserves praise."
The Emperor smiled faintly, fell silent for a moment, then spoke again.
"…You're already a minister, so I can't promote you further, but what if we tried a double ministership the way one holds a double countship—"
"Your Majesty."
"A joke. One man holding multiple ministerial posts is unthinkable by any common sense."
I had interrupted the Emperor himself, yet I felt no regret.
That bastard. He claimed it was unthinkable, yet his eyes had been full of sincerity. If I had shown even a little fluster he might have pushed it through.
"Ah, that reminds me, Minister. I have a personal favor to ask."
"Command me."
My mouth moved on instinct while my head filled with suspicion. A personal favor right after that insane double-minister remark? What the hell was this bastard about to say?
"Ainter has taken an interest in swordsmanship lately. If you have the time, give him a bit of advice."
An unexpected request.
Surprising. After the second prince's downfall, Ainter had kept his distance from martial arts. Now that the Emperor regarded him as a proper member of the imperial family there was no need for distance, yet no particular need to draw closer either.
"Yes. If my advice can be of any help, I shall gladly give it."
Of course, unexpected did not mean unwelcome.
A man might pick up a sword now and then in the course of a life.