The next morning, I woke earlier than usual.
Wow… what time does he get up, exactly?
Josef had already left, and I was left all alone on the empty bed.
He came in later than me and left earlier… Being emperor isn’t something just anyone can do, I guess.
I shook the bell beside me.
These days, I’d learned a trick: I simply shook the bell and then immediately lay back down where I had been.
After finishing the usual preparations, I said to Esterhazy,
“Chief lady-in-waiting.”
“You called, Your Majesty.”
“Starting today, add the empress’s official duties to my schedule as well.”
Esterhazy seemed to hesitate for a moment, but soon asked calmly,
“Which duties would Your Majesty like to begin with? Visits to charity hospitals or patronage events require much advance coordination, so they may take some time.”
So I still need the archduchess’s permission, is that it?
Well, that’s fine. Those aren’t the only duties an empress has.
And if patronage is carried out on a large scale, of course it has great political influence, but there’s also the problem that I’d have to clash with the nobles who stand on the archduchess’s side.
“Are there no newly established orphanages, or shelters for workers abandoned due to industrialization?”
“Orphanages and poor relief houses have already been claimed by the nobility and the Church, so they do not suit Your Majesty’s intentions.”
I thought industrialization hadn’t happened yet, but from the way she neatly left that part out, I guess that isn’t the case.
On top of that, places like those are already within Archduchess Sophie’s sphere of influence, so they’re unsuitable for building the independent power I want.
“As Your Majesty said, existing Church- and noble-centered charity alone cannot care for the rapidly increasing urban working poor. Shall I arrange today’s schedule for the Vorstädte?”
The Vorstädte, in other words, the outskirts of the city.
“Before that, are there no shelters for workers?”
And saying she would arrange a schedule means it doesn’t necessarily mean I have to go there myself, right?
“They live based on local communities. There are no official patronage organizations, Your Majesty.”
In truth, I already knew through popular culture that many queens had carried out charitable works like this.
There’s the case of Eva Perón of Argentina, who was made into a musical, and the cases of George V’s queen mother and queen, who appeared in a film.
But the biggest problem is—
I really hate wearing corsets.
It feels like my self-esteem is being whittled away.
The era in the history of human clothing when the pressure exerted on the waist was at its most extreme.
Considering that the era immediately before this was the most comfortable one before the two World Wars…
Should I suggest we start a war right now? The steel that goes into corsets is military material, isn’t it?
While I was thinking such strange thoughts, one of the maids came in and conveyed something to Esterhazy, and Esterhazy bowed to me.
“Your Majesty, the morning salon schedule has been canceled. His Majesty the Emperor wishes to attend a play with Your Majesty.”
“Very well.”
A play from the morning… Is this still the influence of dawn lingering?
When all preparations were complete, I stood before the mirror and, as always, I was beautiful.
It feels like I’m looking at my past self right after a shower.
After I waited for a short while, Josef came personally to escort me.
“Are you ready, Empress?”
I lightly placed my hand on the one he offered, and we rode the imperial carriage toward the Burgtheater.
The theater itself was another palace.
Beneath the light cast by red velvet, gilded decorations, and enormous chandeliers, all the power of Austria had gathered in one place.
“They must have nothing to do from the morning.”
Josef muttered that.
You came here to watch this with me first thing in the morning too, you know?
When we appeared in the imperial box, all the nobles in the hall rose at once and bowed their heads.
In the suffocating silence, hundreds of opera glasses turned silently toward us. I felt like a doll on a display shelf.
Perhaps noticing my tension, Josef lightly took my hand where no one could see.
Soon, all the lights in the theater went out, and spotlights poured only onto the stage.
“Today’s play is Sappho by Franz Grillparzer.”
…Who is Franz Grillparzer?
“Thank you, Your Majesty.”
The curtain rose, and I focused on the play.
It was about Sappho, a female poet of ancient Greece, falling in love with Phaon, but making a tragic choice between love and the life of an artist.
When the play ended, thunderous applause broke out, but I only clapped mechanically while my thoughts were elsewhere.
What on earth did Josef mean by showing me this?
***
Josef looked at Sisi, who was clapping absentmindedly, and thought,
‘You are different from other ladies.’
Sappho was depicted as a figure who surpassed ordinary humans, a genius artist and a semi-divine being.
‘An empress with a free soul, the only one who shines in the mire called the court.’
Even if others saw her as an immature foreigner, it was his confession that he, at least, recognized her true worth.
Only, Sisi did not know that.
But Sappho’s tragedy was that her greatness itself led her to ruin.
He loved her free soul, but at the same time, Sisi’s unexpected behavior at the tea party had caused dangerous ripples the moment it collided with real politics.
Lastly, Josef, who had been taught that an emperor must not have emotions, had clumsily asked,
‘Before such tragedy comes to find us, I want to know you.’
Though Sisi was still shrouded in fog.
***
“Your Majesty, we have arrived.”
Just as I was preparing to get out, Esterhazy’s voice stopped my movement.
“Your Majesty, you cannot disembark here.”
I can’t get out? Then why did we come here?
She drew back the curtain and showed me the situation outside the window.
Instead of answering my question, Esterhazy explained an obvious fact.
“For Your Majesty’s safety, you cannot disembark here.”
She pointed to the bustling crowd outside the window.
“This is not the Hofburg. There may be people here whose identities we cannot know, people dissatisfied with the current system, even people who intend to harm Your Majesty mixed among them.”
But.
“Is that not why there are soldiers escorting me?”
Esterhazy’s voice changed into something that felt as if we had returned to the first day.
“Your Majesty. The duty of the guards is not to clear a path so that Your Majesty may walk through the crowd. Their duty is to build a wall between the sacred being that is Your Majesty and those people.”
Yes, I think she said something like that on the first day too.
“The moment Your Majesty sets foot on that muddy road, to them, Your Majesty will no longer be the empress of the empire. You will merely be a noblewoman in splendid clothes. The authority of an empress comes from reverence, and reverence comes from distance.”
There was no emotion whatsoever in Esterhazy’s voice.
“If they see the mud on the hem of Your Majesty’s dress, see the sweat running down Your Majesty’s cheeks, see Your Majesty panting for breath just as they do, they will no longer look up to Your Majesty.
They may pity Your Majesty, or perhaps despise you. But they will never revere you.”
In the end, the problem is etiquette that has gone back to the old ways.
“If the sun descended to the earth and became covered in dust, who would look up to the sun? The guards are indeed those who protect Your Majesty’s person, but they are also those who protect Your Majesty’s sanctity. Protecting Your Majesty’s very existence from their filthy hands and rude gazes—that is their true duty.”
Esterhazy looked straight into my eyes and once again impressed upon me the true meaning of this visit.
“Your Majesty, Your Majesty’s visit has meaning in the very fact that Her Majesty the Empress ‘existed’ here. Merely by it becoming known that Your Majesty looked down upon this place, the officials responsible for this district will grow tense, and the nobles will try to discern Your Majesty’s intentions.
That is Her Majesty the Empress’s power. Your Majesty, you must not soil your own hands with dirt, but move the unseen hand directly.”
I agreed with Esterhazy’s opinion by nodding according to etiquette.
“I understand. However, I would like to look around this place a little more.”
Esterhazy smiled.
“I shall obey your command, Your Majesty.”
The carriage moved slowly along the narrow alley, at almost a walking pace.
I needed clear targets to move the unseen hand Esterhazy had mentioned.
The first target came into view immediately.
An old communal well in the middle of the alley.
“Chief lady-in-waiting. I would like a report on the condition of that well and the budget needed to improve its water quality.”
But would just that one well be enough?
Here and there along the streets, food waste and household sewage had been dumped as they were, giving off a stench.
If they leave that as it is, wouldn’t the filth contaminate things and cause an epidemic?
Especially when they live together in communal housing no different from chicken coops.
“Is this place inhabited only by children?”
Come to think of it, the only adults I could see were the occasional priest or nun.
“This place is not an orphanage.”
Which means… the adults have already gone out to work, so there are no adults to look after them.
“We must build a school.”
At the very least, if they spend their time at school, they can learn until the adults return.
“Chief lady-in-waiting, have a report prepared with the name of that church over there and the name of its priest.”
Until the moment we left the outskirts of the city, I continued investigating them.
*
Josef entered the marital bedroom with a tired expression, but soon smiled.
He probably didn’t expect that I would still be awake, did he?
Just as I drew one foot back and was about to bend my knees, Josef strode over and gently caught my arm.
“No, you need not do that.”
He straightened my body and shook his head.
“There is no need for that in this room.”
Esterhazy’s complexion looked as though she might faint at the sight, but—
Josef ordered the door closed, then gently cupped my cheek.
Hey now, are you saying you couldn’t do it yesterday, so you’re going to do it today?
Just as I was about to pull away,
Josef lightly kissed my forehead.
“Do not make a Hofknicks to me here. That would mean I must be emperor even in this room, and to me, that would be the saddest thing.”
Ah, uh…
“Your Majesty.”
“What is it?”
“…You’re short.”
Because, well, I’m 173 centimeters tall.
I saw you go up on tiptoe just now.
“Pretend you didn’t see that….”