The Last Vacation - 4
Ever since confirming Trixie's pregnancy, I had naturally kept my distance from that wicked word known as "going to work." The honeymoon had been postponed because of the Ecumenical Council witness summons, so once my role as a witness was finished, it was only right to enjoy the honeymoon properly.
Of course, vacation did not mean holing up in the mansion to savor a peaceful shut-in life. Whenever Mar or First Snow wanted something to eat, I would dash out at a moment's notice, and the triplets were starting to protest that they wanted things too.
"Bbaa!"
"Your Highness, I have no beard."
And roughly once every three or four days I made a not-quite-work appearance at the Empress's palace to play with my goddaughter, the Crown Princess.
Meeting members of the Imperial Family during vacation was mentally exhausting, yet if the justification was growing closer to the Crown Princess, I had no choice but to accept it. You had to get a baby used to your face from early on so that the bond would last as they grew. As her godfather, I could not afford an awkward relationship with my goddaughter.
Instead, I wished she would stop throwing hooks at my chin every time she saw me. This lowly godfather did not possess a magnificent beard like the Retired Emperor's.
Should I strap on a fake beard?
The Crown Princess, beaming with a bright smile, kept trying to grab a beard that simply was not there. Looking at her, I seriously considered it.
If she behaved like this even with someone who had none, how much must she have adored the Retired Emperor's beard? At this rate, arriving with a fake one felt like simple manners. And if it was fake, it would not hurt even when she yanked it.
Not a bad idea.
Treating it as a toy for playing with a baby made it a rather fine notion.
I should prepare one for the Emperor too.
Receiving all of the Crown Princess's love and attention myself would be disloyal. If the Emperor could see her smile in exchange for wearing a fake beard, he would surely be delighted.
Or not.
"Buwaa!"
After flailing both arms for quite some time, the Crown Princess thrashed her whole body as though she had grown sulky.
No—you were the one who went looking for a beard that did not exist in the first place, so why take it out on me?
"I'm sorry, Minister. She's usually such a good child, but she throws tantrums over the strangest things."
At the discontented babbling, the Empress smiled softly and reached to take the Crown Princess into her arms—
"Bba!"
—only for the Crown Princess to reject her hands.
"Ah."
"Oh my."
That bold refusal startled both me and the Empress. A baby rejecting her mother's embrace? Was that not puberty arriving far too early?
Instinctively I checked the Empress's expression. Had the Crown Princess knocked the Empress's hand away while lying on the bed, it would have been a laughable little incident. But she had done it while nestled in my arms. Interpreted a little too strongly, it could be taken as choosing me over the Empress. For a first-time mother, that would be heart-rending.
Damn it.
The moment I saw the Empress's silver eyes tremble ever so slightly, I hurriedly dropped my gaze.
"Hehe. It's a relief that Charlotte seems so close with her godfather."
"You flatter me. She is surely scolding this humble servant for lacking a beard."
Even I knew the excuse was absurd, yet right then I had to offer something—anything.
Otherwise I had the distinct feeling I would not leave the Empress's palace in one piece.
Why is he never around at times like this?
I suddenly thought of the Emperor, no doubt cooped up in his office doing paperwork. The same man who normally stuck to the Crown Princess's side and made ridiculous faces playing peekaboo whenever I visited was nowhere to be seen precisely when anyone would have wanted him present.
Useless bastard. Could a man who neglected his child like that even call himself a father?
Fortunately the Empress's wound healed quickly. Whether she sensed the strange atmosphere or simply tired of my arms, the Crown Princess stretched her hands out toward the Empress, asking to be held.
It was odd of her to reach out again after pushing her mother away first, yet the Empress simply beamed and gathered her daughter close. Thanks to that, the atmosphere that had nearly turned awkward rapidly became warm and affectionate once more.
"Up until then I was seriously wondering whether I ought to crawl out on all fours."
"If you were a thief who stole a daughter, even all fours would not be enough."
After safely withdrawing from the Empress's palace and recounting the hair-raising episode to Eri, she delivered her honest assessment.
The words stung, yet I could not deny them. If First Snow had rejected me and stubbornly clung to some random man's arms, my own heart would have been torn apart—and I would have wanted to tear that man apart to the same degree.
"Still, it was lucky it happened in front of Her Majesty the Empress. If it had been His Majesty the Emperor, he would have grabbed you by the collar on the spot, don't you think?"
Just imagining it made my hair stand on end. Had the one rejected by the Crown Princess been the Emperor, what would have happened? With that man's personality, his eyes would have rolled back and he would have battered me with every bizarre custom and regulation he could invent. And because it would not even have been legally improper, I could not have protested—a truly terrifying form of violence.
"Well... Her Majesty the Empress is no ordinary woman either..."
At my words Eri shook her head with a rather ambiguous look in her eyes.
Of course, as Eri said, the Empress was no ordinary figure. Setting aside her birth into a ducal house, she was the woman of steel who had married the Emperor back when he was still the First Prince—when it would not have been strange for him to die at any moment. If such a person were ordinary, that would have been the stranger thing.
Yet precisely because she was such a woman of steel, nobles and bureaucrats alike regarded her as gentle and merciful of heart. She was certainly more generous and kind than the Emperor, so why was Eri making that reluctant face?
Is there something more?
Considering that Eri had been a close senior-junior friend of the Empress during their academy days, the odds that she knew the Empress's private side were high.
Still, this was the Empress. It was hard to picture her displaying a violent or eccentric side.
She must have been scolded before.
After a brief deliberation I settled on a plausible conclusion: that Eri, who had always been up to eccentricities, had once been thoroughly scolded by the Empress. That would explain her reaction perfectly.
An Empress who was usually kind yet strict when the occasion demanded. Actually, that sounded rather nice.
"Ah! You're thinking something weird right now, aren't you!?"
"No, not at all."
Having noticed the pitying gaze I was directing at her, Eri puffed out her cheeks and protested.
It was regrettable, but separate from my affection for Eri, my trust in her was not exactly high. The inference that she had of course done something wrong and been scolded by the Empress arose quite naturally.
Sorry for being this kind of lover.
After giving snacks to Number One, Number Two, Number Four, and Number Five—who had grown quite large before I knew it—I set off for the Empress's palace.
"You lot wait here."
- Woof! Woof-woof!
- Arf-arf!
"Hey now."
- Whiiine...
At the main gate of the Empress's palace I made the ones who had followed me wait a moment. They were gentle and full of affection, yet they now boasted frames larger than the Crown Princess and were shedding fur as well. Bringing them before a child not even a year old was still too much.
"Once the Crown Princess grows a little more, I'll take you along too."
When I promised we would enter together someday, the ones who had been drooping their tails began panting again.
I knew dogs were intelligent, but these fellows amazed me every time I saw them. This went well beyond mere cleverness.
They will make a fine gift for the Crown Princess.
Their lifespans differed from hers, yet their ages were roughly similar, so they would share her growing years. I hoped they would show her the same side they showed me.
"Your Majesty the Retired Emperor."
Having left the tails behind and stepped inside the Empress's palace, the Empress greeted me with a bow, the maids following suit.
"There is no need to come out and receive me like this merely because of one old man who has stepped down from the throne, Your Majesty the Empress."
"If a daughter-in-law treats her father-in-law poorly, would the people revere the Imperial Family?"
At my suggestion that she relax, since I was no longer Emperor but merely an ordinary old man, the Empress smiled and gently contradicted me. Though I was no longer Emperor, I remained her superior; if the Imperial Family itself failed to revere its elders, who would revere the Imperial Family?
"As expected, Your Majesty the Empress is a model for every noble and subject."
"You flatter me, Your Majesty the Retired Emperor."
Since she was not wrong, I had no choice but to let the matter pass.
Come to think of it, even as Crown Princess Consort she had boldly spoken her mind. Now that I had stepped down as Retired Emperor, I could no longer overcome the Empress.
The Crown Princess, sleeping soundly on the bed, clutched a strange object in her left hand.
"Your Majesty the Empress."
"Yes, Your Majesty the Retired Emperor."
"What exactly is that thing the Crown Princess is holding?"
It was a black fur clump whose identity I could not possibly guess, so I had no choice but to ask. What on earth was it?
"It is the beard of the Minister of the Inspectorate."
The Empress's words, spoken with a small laugh, only deepened my confusion. I had heard nothing about the Minister growing a beard, and even if he had, why was it now in the Crown Princess's hand?
"Ever since the Crown Princess was held in Your Majesty the Retired Emperor's arms, she has longed for someone as dignified and imposing as Your Majesty. Thanks to that, the Minister even came wearing a fake beard to play with her."
With the Empress's explanation I could understand a little.
"I am glad the Minister seems to be faithfully fulfilling his role as godfather."
"Truly a blessing for the Empire."
Leaving her words behind, I carefully stretched my hand toward the Crown Princess's right hand.
Hmm.
As if she had been waiting, the Crown Princess grasped my finger—still deep in sleep.
It was something I experienced every time, yet it felt different every time. When my own children were born I had neither shown nor experienced such a sight.
"Seeing her sleep so deeply, it seems the Minister played well with her before leaving."
"To the point the beard was torn off—how much more so."
At those words I turned my gaze back to the Crown Princess's left hand. Even though it was a fake beard, the wretched state it had been reduced to made clear just how enthusiastic the Minister had been.
"Since he must soon resume his duties as Academy Inspector, he apparently played especially hard."
"I see."
At the Empress's following explanation I quietly closed my eyes.
Two years earlier—the unprecedented situation of major figures from other countries enrolling in the Imperial Academy. The Minister of the Inspectorate had been hastily dispatched to manage the affair.
Half a year until they return home.
Suddenly my chest felt tight. Two years ago I had believed those people enrolled in order to spy on the Empire under legal cover. Indeed, during the first summer vacation they had not returned to their homelands but had remained in the Empire.
Yet after that they had gone home regularly. Suspecting they might be acting during the semester rather than vacation, I had investigated separately, but outside of Academy activities they showed no particular movements.
And so graduation was now just around the corner. The time they could legally remain in the Empire was ending.
Just what is their purpose?
The possibility that they had come for espionage was now vanishingly small. People who had displayed no activity for two and a half years, and who were voluntarily abandoning the chance to stay in the Empire and returning home, could hardly be aiming to spy.
That was precisely why it was a headache. If not for spying, I could not even begin to guess why they had come to the Empire.
I have no choice but to hope the Minister finds out.
Half a year until the Minister's duties ended. Once that half year passed, I would meet him in person.
Having stepped down as Retired Emperor, I did not wish to interfere with the bureaucrats—yet for this matter alone, I wanted to know the circumstances.