Chapter 133
Interlude: Menexes Kingdom (15)
~Queen Analicia's Point of View~
“Your Majesty the Queen, it seems the Chancellor has visited the Adventurers' Guild.
When he returned to the castle, he appeared to be quite dejected, so it seems the information regarding that matter has been successfully passed on to him.”
“I see. Then he will surely report it to His Majesty today.
I shall go tend to the garden. Prepare everything.”
On a summer morning, while I was enjoying tea after breakfast in my chambers, my lady-in-waiting Meimi brought me this report.
Knowing the Chancellor, even if it were the worst possible news, he would report it immediately.
The floor where His Majesty's office is located has restricted access, so as for how His Majesty would react upon hearing it, I decided to observe things from the garden.
The garden I tend was in full bloom with orange roses.
When I once brought them to His Majesty's office, they ended up decorating a vase in the hallway instead, but no matter how much he longed for pink flowers now, he could never again meet the one who bore that color.
I wonder if it isn't about time he accepted this color instead.
Since the garden had grown so large, my personal maids and butlers carefully handled all the watering.
As Meimi followed beside me holding a parasol over my head, once they finished watering, they would wait in the small room by the entrance to the garden.
Today, I took even more time than usual pruning the roses.
Cutting away the beautifully blooming blossoms, slowly trimming away the thorns as well.
Crash! Shatter!
“Your Majesty!”
After the sound of something breaking, I faintly heard a woman's and a man's voice calling out.
When I happened to look up, the curtains on the third-floor office window were swaying.
(Hehe... Ahaha... Ahahahaha! Judging by that, they must have reported that the commoner woman is dead.)
I contacted the intelligence division immediately afterward and instructed them to confirm the whereabouts of the daughter as well.
There had still been no report that she had entered an orphanage, but the important thing was confirming whether she possessed anything connected to the royal family, so there was no need to rush.
More importantly, I needed to comfort the heartbroken His Majesty.
“Meimi, at tonight's dinner, add our family's secret ingredient to His Majesty's drink.”
“At once. Shall we begin your preparations as well?”
“Yes. Tonight will surely be our first night together after three years, so I'll have to make sure I'm polished to perfection.”
It had been three years since our marriage, yet we had never shared a bed.
However, over the past few years, he had made a point of always dining with me.
Since I stopped forcing myself upon him, he had even allowed me to participate in governmental affairs to a certain extent.
Whenever national policy was decided, he had begun consulting me as well, and I could keenly feel my importance within His Majesty's heart steadily growing.
Until now, he had remained faithful to that commoner woman he had been involved with during his adventurer days. But there was no longer any need for that.
Both in name and in truth, he would finally come to see me as his wife.
◆◇◆◇◆◇
When His Majesty appeared for dinner, he looked as though he had aged considerably in just a single day.
The Chancellor, who always stood beside him, was nowhere to be seen.
Only an attendant and a guard knight accompanied him. Surely this was an excellent opportunity for me. Well, even if the Chancellor had been present, by now he would likely have agreed with my way of thinking. Still, he was an exceedingly fair and upright man. If there were any possibility of troubling His Majesty's heart, he would have insisted on reporting it first.
When I signaled to Meimi with my eyes, she gave a small nod and let a drop of the aphrodisiac used by my ducal house fall into His Majesty's wineglass.
“Your Majesty, you do not look well.”
“Ah... forgive me. Under normal circumstances, I would have canceled dinner as well, but you bear no fault, and I felt guilty about suddenly breaking my promise to you. Even so... perhaps I should have canceled after all.”
Despite looking as though he might collapse at any moment, he had still come to see me. Surely that meant it was all the more my duty to comfort him.
“My, thank you for coming despite feeling so unwell. These moments I spend with Your Majesty are very precious to me, so I am truly happy that you came.”
I smiled gently and raised my glass.
His Majesty accepted the wine poured by Meimi from the attendant, yet instead of raising his glass, he simply stared silently at the surface of the wine.
Could it be... had he noticed the aphrodisiac?
After gazing at the glass for some time, His Majesty quietly muttered something.
Separated as we were by the length of the table, I could not hear him.
He let out a sigh. Then, the next moment, he tilted the glass and took a sip of the wine.
(Alright!)
An unladylike cheer nearly escaped me. Fortunately, it remained only in my thoughts.
After that, dinner ended with very little conversation, and His Majesty retired to his chambers. Normally I would have returned to my own detached residence as well. Tonight was different.
I entered the Queen's chambers adjoining His Majesty's room for the first time in a long while.
This room had been prepared so that, while receiving royal guests from foreign nations, no one would realize that I, the Queen, actually lived separately in the detached residence.
Everything necessary for daily life had been prepared there.
After my body had been thoroughly polished by the enthusiastic maids before dinner, I took a light bath, received a massage with fragrant floral oil, and dressed in a seductive nightgown.
“Your Majesty, you look absolutely stunning.”
“Hehe, thank you. I think so too.”
Accepting Meimi's compliment without reservation, I draped a gown over myself and opened the door to the bedroom that was meant to be shared by husband and wife.
The room, intended to hold a large bed, currently contained nothing. It was completely empty.
Passing through the vacant room, I opened the door on the opposite side leading into His Majesty's bedroom.
Click.
Since this door was never used, it opened immediately, unlocked.
The bed curtains had been drawn, and I could tell His Majesty was inside. He had drunk several glasses of wine, so the aphrodisiac should certainly have taken effect.
Proof of that was the pained voice leaking from within the bed curtains.
(Hehe... Even if he claims to be impotent, he's still a man in the prime of his life. Once stimulated by the aphrodisiac, he's surely overcome with desire.)
Carefully parting the curtains just enough to peek inside, I found that His Majesty was not suffering from arousal.
“Iris... Iris...
Why did you have to die? Why? When did you leave the kingdom? Was it because I became king?
If only I hadn't insisted you gave birth in this kingdom, if only we'd stayed in the Republic… then you wouldn't have died, Iris. And I never would have become king… Iris... Vio… I want to see you both… I want to see you...”
As he clung to something like pink threads wrapped in white paper and wept, I realized the threads were the deceased commoner woman's lock of hair.
Rather than continuing to dwell on a woman who was already dead, if only he would look at me and discover new happiness, he would surely forget her at once.
No… that wasn't it. The truth was simply that I found it infuriating to think I was still losing to that commoner woman.
“Your Majesty... are you all right?”
“Who's there?!”
When I drew back the curtain and spoke, His Majesty instantly turned toward me with astonishing speed.
“Your Majesty, it's me, Analicia. I was worried after seeing how unwell you looked during dinner, so I came to check on you. Then I heard your pained voice, and I became so concerned...”
His Majesty remained wary at first, but after recognizing me and hearing my explanation, he seemed to calm down somewhat. Walking around the bed, I seated myself beside him and gently placed my hand over his.
“Your Majesty, please try to keep up your spirits.
She became nothing more than a viscount's mistress and was killed by the ruffians hired by his wife, was she not? Her death is regrettable, but she was the one who betrayed you first.
You still have me. I shall support you in both body and soul, so for now... please entrust yourself to me.”
I stroked the hand clutching the paper containing the lock of hair and whispered sweet words to him.
Whether she had truly become his mistress remained unknown.
However, it was true that the viscount's wife had hired ruffians because she believed that to be the case. That much would become clear upon investigation.
Letting my gown slip from my shoulders, I remained wearing only a transparent, provocative nightgown that served no purpose whatsoever in concealing my body, then leaned against His Majesty's neck.
Now twenty-two years old, I had inherited my mother's beauty and the feminine features of my father's bloodline.
My soft breasts pressed against His Majesty's arm, changing shape.
Surely he could feel their softness. It was embarrassing to go this far of my own accord. But if I wished to bear his child, I had no choice. Whispering my love into his ear, I slowly ran my left hand up his leg.
“Mistress...?”
After remaining silent the entire time, His Majesty finally spoke a single word.
So he truly hadn't known he had been betrayed. Hehe... If I press that point, I should be able to win him over.
“Yes, indeed. The house that ran the apothecary must have been the viscount's secret hideaway. To think such things were happening in a home where there was even a small child...”
She may have continued refusing him, but it was true that the viscount had been visiting there. So please, forget that unfaithful woman as quickly as possible.
As I whispered those words to His Majesty and leaned in to kiss him, I looked into his face. His eyes were overflowing with fury.
(Commoner woman, now His Majesty will hate you forever. There is no longer any place left for you in his heart.) That's what I thought.
Then why...?
Before I realized it, I had been pinned to the floor, my cheek ground against it.
Without even bothering to cover me with my discarded gown, despite my being dressed only in my nightgown, His Majesty summoned the Royal Guards.
I was taken away to the detached palace.
An order was issued forbidding me from leaving it.
Why...?
The garden I had expanded until it could be seen from the office was destroyed as well. I was told to use only the small garden attached to the detached palace.
As for Meimi, who had been waiting in the Queen's chambers, she was interrogated and executed for putting poison into His Majesty's drink.
The Gardenia Ducal House, my family, was reduced to the rank of marquis for providing the poison.
I was told the only reason it had not been abolished entirely, or reduced all the way to a county, was because of my father's achievements during the previous civil war.
Why...?
All I did was dispose of a mere commoner woman. Why did this happen to me?
---
“If only you had waited another few months before acting, things might have turned out differently. But you were too foolish. You looked down on the woman His Majesty adored simply because she was a commoner, and you spoke accordingly.
I never imagined you would turn out to be such a disappointment. Because of you, our ducal house has been reduced to a marquis house.
It seems His Majesty has decided to summon both children of the late Crown Prince.
King Narcisse himself will personally instruct them in the art of kingship.
I had intended for you to win those children over to your side, but those plans have been ruined as well.
Do nothing more.”
The father who came to visit me spoke those cold words while looking at me as though I were something filthy.
But she was only a commoner. What was wrong with looking down on her?
The late Crown Prince's children… ah, the two children I had once said I hoped would grow attached to me as their stepmother. Yes… children who would become unnecessary once I had children of my own...
The former king himself would personally teach them the art of kingship? So... I am no longer needed?
Ah… why...? Where did I go wrong?
Meimi… please tell me...