Waiting (1)
Waiting
They had arrived in the capital.
The envoy’s mission ended there. Once they reached the royal palace, the party dispersed to their own places under Mercede’s command. Aside from a few of the mission’s core members, the rest had only been there to support them. They would be resting today, but there was no need for everyone to remain together.
The report was Mercede’s responsibility, and the compilation of the details had already been finished before they reached the capital. The nobles and officials, likewise, returned to their mansions or offices to file their own reports.
And when the envoy finally broke apart and scattered, only four remained.
Valdes, Mercede, Mari, and Ethylene.
The two princesses were one thing, but in Valdes’s and Ethylene’s case, plenty of people would have called it blatant favoritism.
It couldn’t be helped. The things they had done while traveling back and forth between the two kingdoms as part of the envoy had been strange enough to make anyone raise an eyebrow. And the whole affair had reached its peak at Marquis Propylene’s estate. Those two, constantly sticking close to the princesses while sidestepping the other nobles and officials, had more than enough to draw the attention of the entire delegation.
Of course, there was no one who could complain out loud.
The princesses’ favor—perhaps even the queen’s. Add to that his status as Serenia’s disciple and the achievements he had already earned in the Ventorino Kingdom, and Valdes was no longer someone anyone could dismiss as a mere commoner, or even as a demonic half-blood. Ethylene was the same; as the next head of the Propylene family, she had long since stepped beyond the reach of petty criticism.
So the four of them had, in effect, become an untouchable zone.
“Then let’s go.”
The luggage had been left to the royal servants.
Their steps toward the audience chamber were light. The queen was hardly a distant or intimidating figure to them. And since the envoy had not achieved any particularly dramatic results, there was no reason to be anxious.
The royal guards standing before the great doors announced their arrival in a ringing voice and slowly opened the way. They had already been informed of the party’s return, but it was still a matter of form.
Unexpectedly, the audience chamber was empty.
Only Beatris sat alone on the throne at the far end.
“……”
Still, there was always the possibility that someone might be waiting out of sight.
Valdes and the others entered according to the proper etiquette for an audience with the queen.
With every step forward, Beatris, who had seemed small from afar, grew clearer and clearer. Of course, this distance meant nothing to Valdes. He could see her perfectly well no matter how far away she stood.
And so, the moment he saw the queen, he knew.
She was trembling with nerves.
It was a faint quiver, but the blush on her cheeks and the thin sheen of sweat on her skin betrayed Beatris’s true feelings all the same.
In the end, she couldn’t hold back any longer, sprang to her feet, and ran straight at him.
“Husband—♥”
Not toward her daughters, but toward the man she loved.
Beatris threw her arms around Valdes.
Her two daughters and Ethylene, standing nearby, all wore complicated expressions. Mercede and Mari were especially affected. The thought kept blooming in their heads that, at times like this, shouldn’t she be welcoming and embracing her daughters first?
“Aren’t you a little too happy to see him? We’re right here.”
“Fufu, what’s wrong with that? It’s not like I’m doing anything bad in front of the children.”
It was the kind of conversation a married couple might have while showing each other plenty of affection in front of their young children.
“Your Majesty… perhaps you should show a little dignity.”
“It’s fine. I’ve sent all the attendants away, so it’s only us here.”
“Even so….”
“The daughters have been with my husband the whole time, haven’t they? At least for today, you should let this mother have him.”
“……”
Seeing that the conversation was going nowhere, Mercede let out a quiet sigh.
Beatris wasn’t wrong. From the moment of their separation, how desperately had her mother longed for him? Even when she occasionally sent word to ask after them and to give her reports, she had still kept asking about Valdes without end. The queen’s obsession with the first love she had found again after eighteen years was no small thing.
That said, it wasn’t as though the daughters had no reason to feel unfairly treated. “Being together” mostly meant the times he traveled to Ventorino and then returned. Even then, she had tried to hold herself back as much as possible because of Mari. And in Ventorino, they had all been too busy to see each other very often.
“Big sister, it’s easier if you just give up.”
“Give up… sigh.”
At her younger sister’s prodding, Mercede glanced over at Ethylene behind them. Ethylene was wearing an awkward expression too, but she didn’t look dissatisfied.
So the events at the Propylene estate must have been that good for her.
Mercede and Mari had rested early that night. The place had been what it was, and after hearing what the marquis said at dinner, they had never imagined Valdes would come looking for them. And in fact, Valdes had spent the night with Ethylene.
It had been surprising enough that Ethylene had visited Valdes’s room, but the next morning her expression was far better, much brighter than before. They couldn’t know exactly what had happened, but both of them considered it a relief in their own way.
Marquis Propylene must have also been unable to say much to Valdes when he saw how happy his daughter looked. Even considering that, the ferocious look in the man’s eyes—the kind that said he wanted to kill Valdes on the spot—was still vivid enough to imagine.
“Still, I should greet you properly first.”
“Hmm?”
“First Princess Mercede Ulsro. By order of Her Majesty, I have completed the envoy mission to the Ventorino Kingdom and returned safely.”
As her eldest daughter bowed slightly and made her report, Beatris reluctantly stepped away from Valdes and smiled softly. Even though she didn’t need to be so formal, the fact that Mercede still behaved according to custom said a lot about her fundamentally strict nature.
“Yes, you’ve worked hard. I’ll receive the detailed report at tomorrow’s royal meeting.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
In truth, the report itself was not all that necessary.
The real purpose of this entire diplomatic journey had been to send Valdes to the Ventorino Kingdom and buy the time he needed to remain there. All the unofficial objectives had been for his sake, and those had already been handled. The official pretext meant little by comparison, and the report on it had already been sent through a crystal orb.
Perhaps that was why Mercede, after formally completing the envoy’s return report, moved over to Valdes and clung to his right arm.
“……?”
“Mercede? What are you doing?”
“A-At any rate… I don’t think it’s right for Mother to monopolize you all by herself.”
“Oh?”
Beatris’s eyes widened.
Ethylene’s transformation had been so dramatic that she had noticed it faintly already. It simply wasn’t something worth paying much attention to on her end. But it seemed that Ethylene wasn’t the only one who had changed.
Mari, her younger sister, was also staring in surprise. She had not expected her older sister to show open resistance to their mother, and the shift in her mood was clearly huge. It made Mari feel unexpectedly impatient herself.
“As expected… you really are my daughter.”
“Huh?”
“I can feel an incredibly strong obsession in Mercede’s eyes—the kind that says you won’t let yourself lose the man you love.”
“Ugh…!”
At her mother’s words, Mercede gave a small jolt.
“To be honest, I was worried you might resemble that man more than you resemble me, but I’m relieved.”
“……”
For a moment, Mercede lost the words to answer. The phrase that Beatris had used—that man—was nearly a forbidden term in their family now. It was an unspecified noun, but in context it usually meant one person in particular.
Unlike Beatris and Mari, Mercede still had not completely shaken off the matter of her father. Unlike her mother, who had never truly loved her husband, or her youngest sister, who had never even seen him, the eldest daughter still clearly remembered the image of the father who had showered her with affection.
To keep the mood from slipping into something awkward, Valdes—who had been quietly watching—spoke up.
“The report’s finished, right? Then, Beth. Let’s talk for a minute.”
“Shall we?”
Valdes offered a light nod of greeting to the three people remaining in the audience chamber, then left with Beatris for her bedroom. There was no better place for a private conversation than the queen’s own bedchamber.
Once they arrived, Beatris hugged Valdes tightly again. This time, he did not simply stand there; he pulled her into his arms as well. Their heights were close enough that their faces crossed over each other’s shoulders.
“I really… missed you.”
“Yeah, I missed you too.”
Only after holding each other like that for a long while did they finally separate.
“Haaah, a long-awaited dose of my husband… I feel like I’ve come back to life…♡”
“You’re overreacting.”
“Overreacting? You have no idea how long we’ve been waiting!”
“...I suppose I should go see Serenia later too.”
A bitter smile slipped from the boy’s lips before he could stop it.
For a moment, he had wondered about the word we. It wasn’t as though he had neglected her, but precisely because of that, he felt a twinge of guilt.
“Please do. Serenia has been waiting desperately ever since she heard you were back. I’ve only been able to contact her once in a while…”
“I haven’t seen Serenia since the moment we left the capital, literally.”
He had contacted Beatris a few times through the communication crystal to ask after the hero and discuss the progress of their work. Most of the time Mercede handled the calls, and Valdes had too much else to do to show his face properly, but even so, it was not remotely comparable to Serenia.
“I’ll give up tonight’s dinner, so you can go ahead and see her.”
“All right, I got it.”
As soon as Serenia’s name was out of the way, Valdes brought up the matter at hand.
“Have you heard anything about the heroes?”
But the queen shook her head.
“No. It’s been quiet.”
“Then they really must still be training for all they’re worth.”
Two heroes had been summoned, and the goddess had even delivered a revelation.
And yet things still remained quiet. That could only mean their abilities were still lacking. As far as he knew, aside from the revelation that had chosen him as a hero more than twenty years ago, it had been decades since the last one had ever descended.
And this time it wasn’t a brief warning, but a long one: a revelation foretelling danger to the entire continent. If it were the Holy Kingdom and the Goddess Church, this was the sort of matter they should have leapt on immediately and spread to every corner of the continent. That alone would have been enough to put pressure on his dark campaign.
In fact, once Valdes heard the news through Beatris, he had been forced to revise the rest of his plans entirely.
“That seems likely. According to the spy I planted in the Holy Kingdom, they hardly even leave the papal court.”
“Is that so? Hmm… Are they weaker than I thought? At this rate, it might take even longer than expected….”
“Longer? Wait, are you planning to go after the heroes’ party?”
Beatris, hearing Valdes mutter to himself, immediately guessed exactly what he was aiming for.
It made sense. When news had once spread of a hero emerging from the Ulsro Kingdom, Beatris herself had looked into every record she could find about heroes and kept her ears open for any hint of his movements. And because she knew Valdes reasonably well, it was easy for her to infer something like this.
“That’s right.”
“Hmm… it would be effective, certainly, but… are you sure that’s all right? If the heroes catch on….”
“That won’t happen. If it could, the goddess would have delivered a more specific revelation. Or maybe she knows something, but the revelation itself has limits. That’s how it was in the last war too. She gave the prophecy so vaguely it took what, two years just to find me?”
“That’s true.”
Hearing his mocking tone, she quickly accepted it.
Because of that, the damage had grown so severe that even the Dezac Empire, which had been watching from the sidelines, was forced to join the war. Whether that was good or bad, the empire also had to expend a great deal of its national power, and as a result, interference never became all that severe.
“Still, this is the first time in history that the goddess herself has let slip the fact that darkness has infiltrated the continent. So it probably won’t take that long.”
“...Fair enough. Nothing is more frightening than an enemy you can’t see. You don’t know how widely it’s spread, or how deeply it’s rooted.”
“At most, three or four months… oh?”
“Why the sudden reaction?”
“Then… you’ll be free for that whole time, won’t you?”
Beatris’s eyes glimmered seductively.
It had been nearly three months since she met him, but the amount of time they had actually spent close together was not very long. At first she had kept to herself as Mercede’s attendant, and later she had gone to the Ventorino Kingdom as part of the envoy. All of that had only made her desire burn hotter.
And now, suddenly, she had been granted a stretch of time that might last as long as four months. He might leave for somewhere else in between, of course, but since no one knew when news might come from the Holy Kingdom, he would not be gone for long. In other words, they had succeeded in putting shackles on Valdes’s feet without ever announcing it aloud.
“Well, yes, but… B-Beth?”
“Yes, my husband♥”
Valdes found himself shivering without meaning to.
“I-I heard something. I heard the main wife, the Demon Queen, got pregnant, and the pregnancy seal was lifted.”
“That’s… right?”
“And the second pregnancy was from… Queen Katarina of Ventorino?”
“……”