The Royal Court’s Silver Rose | The New Rabbit
The royal palace of Morihan was quiet and solemn, yet the queen possessed both grace and a lively nature.
She had become the queen of Morihan, but she hated the atmosphere of the court.
When the first queen of King Guillaume of Morihan died, she was twenty-one years old. That very year her marriage was decided, and her twenty-second new year was spent in the royal palace of Morihan.
To her, the palace of Morihan felt dark and suffocating. She was the daughter of the radiant land of Caria.
She had never planned to adapt and created her own palace instead.
Of course, managing every move of the queen fell to the wives of Morihan. They were also notable figures among the ladies-in-waiting.
Yet the queen preferred the unmarried maids over the wives.
Among them, the one she cherished most was the daughter of the Chamberlain, Arian.
“Wolves are drooling over the Danier young lady.”
A companion whispered to the distant Gotier as he watched her. Gotier snorted.
“They don’t even know how strange that woman is.”
“No, they do know. Just look at her outfit. It’s so unusual.”
The unmarried maids of the queen normally dressed in neat, modest fashion.
Yet they were the trendsetters of the court and so used colors, fabrics, and decorations in subtle ways different from everyone else.
They wore dresses that did not reveal the cleavage but allowed the neckline to be deep, and added sheer lace from the elbows downward to slightly expose the wrists and below.
They wore dresses reaching the ankles, but with lace from below the knees to reveal the silhouette of the calves, in a subtly alluring style that drew many men’s eyes.
In the midst of this, there was one maid with a rigid, almost armor-like appearance. That maid was none other than Arian Danier.
She wore a dress that covered her wrists, ankles, and neck. A plain white dress with not a single thread of lace.
She wore no accessories whatsoever, not even small earrings. No white powder to lighten her skin color, no rosewater to tint her cheeks or lips.
Unlike the other maids who smiled faintly, she maintained a completely cold, expressionless face. She only smiled at fellow maids or, at most, the queen.
When the king held a banquet and asked the Chamberlain sincerely, “Does your daughter… not feel well, perhaps?”
People interpreted his words in many ways.
Some thought the king was saying, “How on earth could your daughter be so cold?”
Others believed, “She’s not stupid enough to not know one must use social skills.”
Of course, Gotier knew that Arian Danier was not merely clever but wicked.
She was the one who had destroyed the marriage his father Count Serpine had schemed to arrange for his brother Amory.
His father had thought only that Arian was clever, but he could never have imagined she had shattered Amory’s marriage.
Gotier had overheard her.
“It would be better to focus on something more important than this. After all, the affairs of the world have the property that one person’s misfortune becomes another’s opportunity. An opportunity is something only the person who has honed themselves can seize.”
Gotier had taken those words to heart like a divine revelation and lived by them.
She was right. All his suffering had been “this matter.” It had helped nothing.
By focusing on the more important matter of the future, his life had completely changed.
Amory’s misfortune had become his opportunity. Legally, he was the perfect blood of the Spoot duchy. In fact, the Duke Spoot himself had believed he was his own grandson.
The duke had no choice but to accept Gisel’s recognition of the bastard Amory as his legitimate child.
But she had forced the marriage contract in secret from the duke.
Of course, the contract contained the clause that Amory, Gisel’s legitimate son, would inherit Serpine.
Yet, like any contract, it had exceptions. “He cannot inherit if a serious disqualification such as rebellion occurs and the vassals rise against him.”
Gisel had no choice but to accept it.
Gotier had never wanted Gisel to make any contract with Count Serpine in the first place.
The count was the one who ruled the Serpine territory and operated the continent’s premier auction house, scooping up money with claws.
How many contracts had he closed? Compared to that, Gisel’s contract experience was pitiful.
And since it was a contract related to the bed, Gisel had felt ashamed and decided it herself without consulting anyone.
Yet even though the count was shameless enough to speak of the contract to the bastard, Gotier felt no pity for her.
He would not help even if she died before his eyes.
But he could at least understand that she was suffering as a human being.
Once he understood that, he could see her weakness. He could also see how to confront her and Amory.
“An odd woman.”
At fifteen, Arian Danier had joined the ladies-in-waiting.
The Chamberlain had not wanted to place his daughter in the service, but when the king asked, “Is your daughter… unwell?”
“She has been sickly since childhood. It would be difficult for her to serve the queen, but she seems to serve with sincere devotion.”
The Chamberlain had clearly meant to remove her at once.
Yet the king laughed, “How filial of you. This is a joyous matter,” and dismissed it.
Those who saw the Chamberlain’s bitter smile whispered that the thirty-year-old daughter was truly rare.
But Gotier had understood. Just as his father had treated Arian as a strategic resource and instructed him to obtain her by any means, even extreme ones, the Danier Chamberlain treated his daughter as a resource and protected her.
Parents who cherished their children as if they were life itself had become relics of ancient legends.
So Arian Danier did more. Even though she gained nothing, she helped Gotier.
In a short time, she had extended her hand to him several times.
She did not even seek credit. She had simply helped because she had to.
“She’s truly beautiful. If you think she’s strange, should I approach her?”
Marriage is decided by parents.
―But with young knights and ladies’ hearts racing and brushing against each other, how could they not notice?
Young knights sent from various territories assisted the king’s subordinates, and carefully chosen young ladies served the queen and princesses.
Glances met, winds carrying the scent of women brushed against men, and eventually two people who had secretly watched each other from afar inevitably crossed paths.
Since this moment might not come again, they exchanged secret methods to contact each other, and couples who secretly began courting had already multiplied.
Gotier himself knew of at least four such couples.
“Don’t do it.”
Gotier frowned and shook his head at the second son of the Comte family walking beside him.
“I might have to kill you.”
At those words, Clement Comte stopped. “Do I not have greater skill than you? I’m a mage, why are you acting like this?” he protested in bewilderment.
But Gotier ignored him and walked ahead.
“You must own that girl. Even if the means are a little rough.”
His father’s voice echoed in Gotier’s ears, like a curse.
“The light of summer is shining even more brilliantly on the silver of the rose. One is dazzled by the splendor.”
Now that eighteen years had passed in this medieval life, why did it still feel so… impossible.
When men and women were crowded together and forced to work, of course the young ones were driven mad with desire.
But why must they always speak in such ridiculous language?
I answered without forcing a stiff face.
“I am not a rose. I am a person.”
With a healthy person in front of me, what kind of silver rose was that? It was absurd.
I knew the court’s courtship was all ridiculous. I knew about the rose, about fate, everything.
But it was not my taste.
My taste was, unfortunately, men who said they liked me and were extremely handsome, competent, and destined to become powerful rulers in the future. The point was “extremely handsome.”
In my third year of palace life, I began to rationally wonder whether Damien might be the world’s top handsome boy.
Damien…
Thinking of Damien made my chest ache.
At eighteen, Damien had gone to Anglier last year to achieve the record of inheriting the title of count.
When Count Saint-Clair became the king of Anglier, a considerable portion of Morihan’s territory had practically become Anglier territory.
Count Saint-Clair had married the heiress of the great duke, Hermangarde Osirbon, and become king of Anglier while she was still with him.
In reality, to avoid diplomatic friction, Osirbon and Saint-Clair remained vassals of Morihan.
But it was the golden pheasant that cackled.
When Count Saint-Clair held the dual position of king of Anglier and vassal of Morihan, which side would the Saint-Clair territory move for?
Even a three-year-old could tell.
Of course, this marriage had enraged King Guillaume.
He had spent a long time using spies to sow discord between the king and queen of Anglier.
The king of Anglier had risen to the throne by self-made effort.
In short, the ultimate self-made man.
And even in modern times, fathers who had climbed from nothing looked down on their children the same way.
He did not distribute real power to his children (perhaps because the children were not as capable as the king. I, a person from a neighboring country, knew this, so Anglier people must have felt it deeply. Those who did not know were probably only the children themselves and their mother, Queen Hermangarde, who had given birth to them. These people were key figures, and being rulers was the problem.)
The sons’ dissatisfaction had reached its peak.
Finally they rebelled, and Queen Hermangarde and Osirbon supported it.
They had bought mercenaries for the rebellion, but in truth those mercenaries were Morihan knights and mages disguised as such.
Damien had also joined as a mercenary and was in the process of annihilating the Anglier king’s soldiers.
Anyway, every day had been a worry because they were in battle.
He was always gloomy and angry, and looking at a nameless fool who could not be called a person but a rose made the mood even worse.
At the words “not a rose but a person,” I turned my back on the man who was chattering like a bream.
I wanted to see Damien.