Shock and Horror - 2
It was no ordinary matter. Rio stood rigidly frozen, staring at Richard. Richard stared back at him. The only difference between them lay in their expressions. With a melancholy look, Richard said, “Am I truly that unfeminine?”
“What… do you mean by that, Your Majesty?” Rio’s words carried no trace of jest. He genuinely could not fathom Richard’s intent. That Richard would ask him whether he was unfeminine. Richard was not the sort of person who said such things. Anyone who knew him—not only Rio—would have understood that at once.
Rio cast a sidelong glance at Hubert’s face. As expected, Hubert seemed to share much the same feeling. Buried beneath a mountain of documents, he must not have been visible from Richard’s position, but he looked exactly like a man whose jaw had come unhinged.
Turning his gaze back to Richard, Rio ventured, “Your Majesty, are you quite all right? Perhaps you’ve injured your head…”
“And what exactly do you mean by that?” Richard—no, Richelle—pouted her lips. Once again Rio was struck by shock. He—she—was truly behaving like a woman. The way she pursed her lips and puffed her cheeks slightly was something no man would ever do.
Addressing his renewed astonishment, she continued, “You’re not suggesting that I would never behave in a feminine manner unless I had hit my head, are you, Rio? Surely not?”
“N-no, Your Majesty. Of course not.” Rio struggled to keep his composure as he answered. His older brother must have injured his head. The poor man! The knight among knights, reduced to this. Rio felt on the verge of tears. This was all Hubert’s fault.
He turned eyes brimming with tears toward Hubert and glared. When Rio’s boyishly adorable face fixed on him, Hubert grew flustered. The gaze held inexplicable hatred and sorrow; though it bewildered him at first, he soon understood its meaning. Rio’s eyes were screaming: If only you hadn’t proposed such an absurd duel condition!
Rio’s resentment was not entirely unjustified, yet he was not wholly innocent either. Moreover, the other party was royalty, and the atmosphere hardly invited protest. Most decisively, a great deal of paperwork still awaited him.
“Ahem. Ahem…” He cleared his throat and returned to his remaining duties.
Rio lowered his head. It seemed he no longer had anyone left to confront. Seeing his posture, Richelle asked in a flustered voice, “What’s the matter, Rio? Did I speak too harshly?”
“Ah, no, Your Majesty. It’s not that…” He seized on an excuse. “What you said is correct, and I was simply ashamed of my own fault…”
“Don’t cry, Rio. Come here.” He hesitated for a moment, but after several urgings from Richelle he obediently approached. She drew him into her arms. The sweet scent rising from the bare skin of her openly exposed bosom made Rio’s mind reel.
Stroking his hair, Richelle said, “You know my temper can be rather short, don’t you? Please understand generously. I’ll try to do better too. All right?”
At Richelle’s touch, Rio came back to his senses. The thought that rose in his mind then was pure fury. His brother Richard must not become this kind of person. Striving to regain his calm, Rio answered her, “I shall, Your Majesty.”
“Don’t be so stiff. Aren’t we the only blood kin left to each other in this world?” Richelle’s voice brimmed with reproach.
Caught between bewilderment, sorrow, and oppression, Rio spoke in a voice that sounded almost comical. “Then how should I address you?”
Given the way the conversation had progressed, her desired answer was already obvious. He prayed she would not demand that particular word.
Richelle opened her mouth. “Isn’t it obvious? Call me sister. It must be well over ten years since you last did.”
“Yes… Your Majesty.” The moment he called her “Your Majesty,” Richelle tightened her arms around Rio’s neck and squeezed. “You little rascal?”
“Ah, no! Sister! I understand!” Whether Richelle thought of herself as a woman or not, her strength remained monstrous as ever. Rio made a choking gesture of surrender. Only then did Richelle laugh and release his neck.
Her face was faintly flushed with embarrassment, yet the bright smile that spread across it showed just how delighted she was to be called sister. Rio could not bear the sight. He turned his gaze toward the window facing southeast. He had thought the room seemed to have grown darker; sure enough, the sun had already slipped toward the southwest, and the clock hands pointed to three in the afternoon.
He asked the queen for leave. “Then, if I may be excused… Sister.”
“Hm? Ah, yes. The hour has grown rather late. I was thinking of having a snack with Hubert. Won’t you join us?”
Richelle leaned forward, peering at him. Rio’s face reddened as he desperately searched for words. “It is the greatest honor that you would think of me, Sist— I mean, Sister. However, I have a prior engagement… I apologize. By the way, isn’t the room rather dark? Shall we light the lamps?”
“That’s a fine idea.” Richelle smiled at him, then summoned the servants to light the lamps. Breathing in the smell of burning wicks, Rio fled the study.
As he stepped through the study door, he thought: His promise to meet Marion had originally been made with reluctance. But after seeing Richard’s—Richelle’s—current state, he felt he would go mad if he did not speak with someone about it. The condition he had witnessed after only a week was that dire. The thought fueled a rage that shot straight to the top of his head. How could Marion, who had been meeting her constantly, have failed to notice this change? It was utterly incomprehensible.
==========
Thus, when Rio met Marion, the first thing he asked about was precisely that. The answer that came from Marion was simple.
“Because I liked the change.”
“It did seem you preferred women, but I see it was true.” Marion did not deny it. Someone as perceptive as Rio could hardly have failed to notice after observing her behavior all this time. She merely nodded and replied.
“However, something is very wrong with Her Majesty.”
“In what way do you think so?”
“Before that, why are you so certain that something has gone wrong with Her Majesty, Your Highness?”
Rio hesitated a moment. No matter that she was Richard’s spouse, revealing potential weaknesses of the queen to a northerner felt distasteful. As though she had read his thoughts, Marion said, “It’s all right. Would I do anything that might harm my beloved wife?”
“…That word ‘wife’ grates on me somewhat.”
“What of it? That is reality now.”
“I suppose it is.” Rio let out a sigh and shook his head.
Marion continued, “Then I shall first explain why I believe something has gone wrong with Her Majesty.”
“Go on.”
Marion gave a courteous nod, rested her chin on her interlaced fingers, and spoke with a serious expression. “Her Majesty… invited me to dinner.”
“I beg your pardon?” Rio wondered how many times he had been shocked today alone. At his reaction, Marion’s expression grew icy.
“Why are you so surprised?”
“Well, when I think of how much my brother hated you…”
“Do not tease me.”
“No, surely you knew it too. Would someone who did not even dislike you have so readily accepted advice to ‘conduct sword training’ and then devote an entire afternoon to it?”
Rio protested in a boyish tone. From that less-than-convincing protest, Marion immediately spotted the oddity. With a suspicious look, she asked, “You said ‘advice’… Don’t tell me it was you, Your Highness, who offered that advice?”
“That is not important.”
“Not important? If it was you who gave that advice, then it means I suffered all that hardship because of you.” Marion crossed her arms and glared at him. The petulant, almost girlish gesture was slightly irritating to watch, yet not entirely unpleasant.
Rio feigned annoyance as he answered, “In any case, didn’t you gain the reputation of ‘the consort who defeated Queen Richelle’ thanks to it?”
It had been a bout with an enormous handicap, yet Richard was famed across the three continents as the greatest of swordsmen whether as man or woman. Having defeated such a person, Marion’s reputation could not help but soar. She looked faintly embarrassed, which turned Rio’s pretended irritation into the genuine article.
He went on, “Besides, even if I had offered the advice, it was my brother who decided to act on it. Even if I had said nothing, he would have taught you swordsmanship sooner or later, Marion. Isn’t that so?”
“Now that you mention it, yes.”
But that was not what mattered now. Rio continued, “Moreover, we have no time to dwell on such trivialities. My brother is facing a serious problem. He is not in his right mind. He believes himself to be a woman. Richard, King of Zylan!”
“Well… is that truly the case?”
“Pardon?” Rio looked puzzled.
Marion said, “I mean that we cannot be certain Her Majesty has simply lost her mind.”
“What do you mean? If she has not lost her mind, are you saying my brother did this to himself? That makes even less sense.”
“Exactly. Her Majesty believes she was originally a woman. More precisely, she has lost one set of memories—the memories of having been a man.”
Rio fell into thought. “W-wait a moment.” It was a plausible hypothesis. Certainly there had been something odd about assuming she had merely come to think of herself as a woman. Her behavior was far closer to that of “someone who had always been a woman.”
“Then what you are saying is…”
“Precisely. At present, Her Majesty has lost the memories of Richard the man and retains only those of Richelle the woman. That is why she behaves as she does. She most likely does not remember the time when I was Countess Marion of Zard, and thinks of me only as Count Marion of Zard.”
“Hmm…” Rio pondered, then spoke. The possibility existed, yet a natural question rose in his mind. “But how would we confirm that?”
“That… I do not know either, Your Highness.”
“……”
“……”
Both of them averted their eyes at the same moment. In truth, the method to confirm it was simple enough. They needed someone who knew both Richard and Richelle well—someone who had shared daily life with them for a long time, an old friend, someone who knew their private affairs intimately. They needed a person to whom they could speak of this matter.
And though Rio hated to admit it, the person most necessary right now was Philip. Yet the very Philip who had usually been so loathsome that he could hardly stand the sight of him was nowhere to be found precisely when he was needed. Come to think of it, he had not shown himself once during the past week.
It was then, while the two sat in silence, that a servant announced a new arrival.
“Prince Rio.”
“What is it?”
“His Majesty Philip has come to visit.”
“What?” Though they were prince and consort, Philip was a king even if a captive, and moreover the prisoner of Queen Richelle. He was not in a position to decide whether they would be permitted to enter.
Philip strode into Rio’s room and spoke cheerfully. “Well now, princesses. It seems Ricky must cancel tonight’s dinner appointment. Personal reasons, he says.”
“What do you mean by that?” Rio asked, voice flustered. He had no attention to spare for the word “princesses.”
“Personal reasons? Has something happened to my brother?”
What came from Philip’s mouth was truly shocking. “Well… I asked Dame Virginia what the matter was, and it seems…”