The Queen's Shadow
Richard staggered toward his bedchamber. His body felt drained of strength, and his head was unbearably heavy. The thought that he should cover himself crossed his mind, but simply walking away from Marion demanded every ounce of effort he possessed. He clutched at the hem of his disheveled clothing and shuffled forward in an awkward, hunched posture. It was a sight he wished no one to witness, yet avoiding every soul within Venterum Castle was impossible.
“Brother?”
Rio’s voice rang out. Richard froze.
“Is that truly you, Brother? My God. What in the world…”
Rio could not finish his sentence. Richard’s condition was beyond words. With his hair wildly tangled, eyes vacant, and body half-exposed, he looked nothing like a sovereign who had just gone to meet his spouse. Instead, he resembled a woman who had just been violated.
The moment their eyes met, Richard spun on his heel and broke into a run. But he did not make it far. His legs tangled after only a few steps, and he fell hard.
Rio rushed to his side.
“You must be more careful! Are you hurt? No— what on earth has happened?”
“……”
Richard scrambled to his feet and fled from Rio. His steps were no longer the proud, long strides of old, but quick, mincing steps as he turned his back on his younger brother. Rio caught him with ease.
“What has happened, Your Majesty?”
“Nothing at all.”
“Nothing? While you’re on the verge of tears! Tell me what happened!”
“When did I ever say I was crying?”
“You are right now!”
Rio spoke sharply as he turned Richard around. Richard’s hair whipped about from the momentum. Only then could Rio see his face clearly.
He was truly weeping.
Rio was struck speechless once more. The tears he had seen that morning had been shocking enough. But the impact of witnessing Richard’s sobs now was on an entirely different scale. It was no longer mere shock—it was terror.
The tears from that morning could have been interpreted as tears of overwhelming emotion. Even if a stalwart knight like Richard shedding tears of deep feeling seemed unlikely, it was not impossible. But this was something else entirely. No one who saw him now would ever mistake these tears for anything but raw anguish.
Rio thought to himself: Richard must never show weakness. Richard was his sun, the most noble and dignified being in existence. Who else on this earth was fit to rule as sovereign? If not Richard—who rode at the forefront of every knight, who commanded vast armies to crush their enemies and ultimately bring peace to the land—who else could it possibly be?
Richard must not sob like a woman who had been raped.
That terror swiftly transformed into rage. Who had reduced Richard to this state? The answer was painfully obvious. Rio wanted nothing more than to storm over to Marion and run her through with his blade. But there was something he had to do first.
Rio placed a hand on Richard’s shoulder. He did not wish to treat his elder brother like a fragile girl, yet if he was to calm a Richard who was crying like one, there was no other way.
As he gently patted the shoulder, Rio spoke softly.
“Do not cry, Your Majesty. Rio is here.”
At last, Richard’s stifled sobs broke into open, wretched weeping. He called Rio’s name and clung to him. He was not crying because he had nearly been ravished in a humiliating manner, nor because he felt defiled. He wept from the shame of having lain beneath Marion, moaning like a girl, like a whore. And he wept from the deeper shame of being comforted by his younger brother as if he were a frightened child.
But from the outside, none of that was visible. And so Richard wept all the more bitterly.
“It’s all right now, Your Majesty. Please calm yourself.”
Rio continued to pat his shoulder and stroke his hair for a long while before Richard’s crying finally subsided. Even then, for some time afterward, Richard remained with his face buried against Rio’s chest, shoulders still trembling. Rio could feel the dampness of Richard’s tears soaking through his tunic. And he felt something else as well.
Rio swallowed hard without meaning to. He prayed the sound had not reached Richard’s ears, but he was far more worried that the thunderous beating of his own heart might be heard.
He could feel every contour of Richard’s full, rounded breasts pressing firmly against him. He could see the glorious golden hair that spilled over Richard’s shoulders, revealing the pale nape of his neck. He could feel the pressure of Richard’s thighs clinging tightly to his own.
“Rio…”
Richard lifted his head and looked up at him with tear-filled eyes. Rio thought his heart might burst. And it was not only his heart—at this rate, the front of his trousers threatened to burst as well.
Richard continued.
“I am sorry. Was I holding you too tightly? Your face has gone red.”
“I-I am fine, Your Majesty! It is nothing. I can endure it.”
Rio stammered, averting his gaze. Richard released the arms that had been wrapped around him, but did not pull away. Instead, he leaned his face against Rio once more and whispered.
“Forgive me, Rio. For continually showing you such unseemly sights.”
“It is all right. That much is nothing at all. You need not apologize to me, so please do not speak that way, Your Majesty.”
“Truly?”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“That is a relief.”
Richard raised his head and smiled at Rio. Rio could no longer control himself. He barely managed to pry Richard away from his body, and only just succeeded in preventing his brother from noticing the state of his lower half.
Richard stared at him with a puzzled expression. Rio continued to stammer.
“M-more importantly, Your Majesty! Let us return to your chambers first.”
“Very well, Rio.”
Once again, Rio removed his outer coat and draped it over Richard’s shoulders. Richard looked puzzled for a moment, then seemed to realize the state of his own attire. His face flushed crimson. In a voice barely above a whisper, he said to Rio,
“It is fine. I shall adjust my clothing myself…”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
Rio finally turned his face away and answered in a voice so faint it was almost inaudible.
The walk back to Richard’s bedchamber was far from smooth. His hastily rearranged garments could hardly be called presentable, and the sight of him walking while supported by his younger brother—with the prince’s coat draped over his shoulders—was more than enough to draw the attention of every maid they passed. Moreover, since he had already run through the entire castle in nothing but his nightclothes that morning, this new spectacle was bound to become even greater fodder for gossip.
Rio had to expend considerable effort silencing the maids, but eventually the two of them reached the bedchamber without too much delay.
Richard sat on the bed, leaned his back against the wall, pulled a blanket over himself, and ordered a servant to bring warmed wine. Rio handed him the cup the servant delivered and pulled up a stool to sit beside him.
Richard tilted the cup as though he meant to drain it in a single gulp.
“Haa.”
As the warm wine spread through his body, his mind steadied and his emotions slowly settled. He managed a weary smile for Rio, who still wore a deeply worried expression, and took another sip.
“I told you I am fine now, you fool.”
“Yes. I know, Brother.”
“Good.”
Richard could not quite suppress a sigh. Now that his mind had calmed, the things he had done filled him with unbearable shame. Being ‘taken’ by Marion, sobbing like a little girl in Rio’s arms—none of it was something he would have done if he had been in his right mind. He wanted to erase that memory, but he could not. No matter how violently he shook his head or scratched at his scalp, he could not erase the past—nor even the memory of it.
Watching him, Rio asked cautiously.
“Brother.”
He pondered seriously over what words would not wound Richard. Only when the puzzled look on Richard’s face began to shift toward irritation did he finish his thought.
“Lady Marion… it seems she was not particularly shocked?”
“Hah.”
Richard let out a derisive snort.
“Shocked? That woman was positively delighted.”
“Delighted?”
“Indeed. She seemed so thrilled she could hardly contain herself.”
In a voice sharp with thorns, Richard recounted what had happened. He told Rio how Marion had dragged a maid into the bed, how she had silenced the other maids, and the things she had said—though he omitted the most humiliating parts. He spoke only of how Marion had never cared for men and had always preferred women.
Of course, Richard did not believe for a moment that Rio would fail to infer the parts he left unsaid.
He began to complain in earnest.
“So it was never because she hated me for visiting brothels. She simply loathed me from the start. And yet she made every excuse under the sun to humiliate me in every possible way. Can you understand that?”
Since he had already heard much of this from Marion herself, Rio was not greatly surprised. What did surprise him was how boldly and skillfully Marion had drawn the maid into her bed.
When Rio offered no reply, Richard spoke again.
“That lecherous wench Marion was overjoyed at the chance to mock me. The moment she became a man, she immediately dragged a woman into bed. Damn her. A savage born with the filthy seed of the North.”
“Brother.”
Rio called out to him with a worried expression, but Richard’s words only grew harsher and faster.
“To think such a creature is the Countess of Zad. Just looking at the representative of the North tells you how tainted their blood must be. Don’t you agree, Rio?”
“Brother, please calm yourself.”
“Does this even make sense? Hm? I went to see her out of concern that she might be suffering—what does that make me? To show me, right before my eyes, how she had become a man and I a woman, and then proceed to toy with a maid in front of me. This is exactly why the Northerners should all be—”
“Brother!”
Only when Rio raised his voice did Richard finally fall silent. Rio spoke quietly.
“You are far too agitated, Brother. Drink some more wine and settle your mind.”
“Yes… I became too excited. Forgive me.”
Richard obediently apologized and took another sip from his cup. There was almost none left, so he tilted his head back and drained the very last drops.
Rio could not help but blush again at the sight of Richard’s pale, slender neck and the white swell of his chest revealed beneath it.
At that moment, the door to Richard’s bedchamber burst open.
Both Richard and Rio turned their heads toward the entrance at the same time. There was only one person in the entire castle who would dare open the door of the queen and prince’s chamber with such rudeness.
That person—she spoke in a booming voice.
“Miss! I heard something terrible has happened?”
“…Damn it.”
Richard muttered a low curse. But the intruder—Richard’s wet nurse, Virginia—did not miss even that tiny sound.
“Miss! You must watch your language! Goodness, even after marriage, how can you still swear so shamelessly?”
“Gina, do not call Brother— I mean—”
Rio began to speak, then glanced at Richard’s expression. Richard’s face was so contorted that he seemed incapable of paying attention to anything Rio might say. Rio continued.
“Do not address Her Majesty the Queen as ‘Miss.’”
“What is wrong with calling the child I nursed with my own milk ‘Miss’? Whether she becomes queen or empress of the East, to me she will always be my Miss.”
Richard finally yanked the blanket over his head and buried himself in the bed. In a voice like that of a wounded beast, he growled at his wet nurse.
“I will speak with you later, so leave for now, Gina.”
But Virginia, Richard’s wet nurse, paid his words no heed. Instead, she tried to drive Rio out.
“I have important woman-to-woman matters to discuss with Miss, so please leave, Your Highness.”
“But Gina, did His Majesty not say he would speak with you later?”
“And what of it? This is a very important matter for a woman. No matter what Miss says, it is you, Prince, who must leave. So please, leave at once!”
“Uuuuugh…”
Richard let out a long, miserable groan that could be heard clearly even from beneath the blanket. Naturally, Virginia ignored it. Instead, she scolded Richard in a thoroughly irritated voice.
“Miss! Do not make such vulgar sounds!”