“Empress, are you still angry?”
Who are you, and why are you riding in the same carriage as me?
Without so much as reacting to Joseph’s words, I was looking over the list for the Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia.
Among the persons of interest was Clara Maffei.
The hostess of the salon, Salotto Maffei. On the surface, it was an ordinary salon, but in truth, it was a center of the Italian unification movement.
I think I’d heard of Giuseppe Verdi, whom she sponsored, in music class.
“Are you interested in that man?”
“No.”
The fact that she sponsors him means Giuseppe Verdi also wants independence from Austria, doesn’t it?
“He is sometimes called the Wagner of Italy.”
Joseph continued talking even though I answered indifferently.
“And Wagner is famous for being a republican.”
“I thought you said we shouldn’t talk politics.”
When I turned my gaze out the window, Milan Cathedral was drawing closer and closer.
But it isn’t as intense as I expected.
Among the subjects watching our carriage pass, there seemed to be many people waving and cheering.
“Not everyone wants Italy, I see.”
“Hm, that’s right. There were traitors like Borromeo, but most of the nobles opposed unification.”
I listened to Joseph as he talked excitedly.
“And at that moment, Marshal Radetzky appeared—”
He seemed a little worked up, too.
“First he suppressed the rebellion in Venice, and then he headed for Milan—”
…They call him the soldier emperor, and I suppose he really does like the military.
I tapped the seat beside me.
“I wish you knew the anecdote from back then—”
Again and again.
“And the Milanese nobles who were in Vienna also—”
No.
What am I supposed to do with this oblivious emperor?
Unable to hide his overflowing excitement and fervor, Joseph continued to speak passionately. Right until just before we arrived at the royal palace.
***
Until they entered the Royal Palace of Milan, Joseph was restless as he watched the angry Sisi.
‘Wasn’t I clearly trying to make peace when I brought it up?’
Sisi had asked first about Italian unification, so he had simply answered in accordance with her interests. Why, then, had Sisi become angry again?
Joseph could not understand it at all.
‘It would be easier to decipher a battlefield map.’
That night, the welcome banquet held at the Royal Palace of Milan was the very height of splendor.
But Joseph’s heart was far removed from the brilliance that filled the banquet hall.
Even as he mechanically received the greetings of the nobles flattering him, his gaze remained fixed on an old general whose head was covered in white hair.
At last, Joseph made up his mind, asked those around him for their understanding, and approached the governor-general of the Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia, Marshal Joseph Radetzky.
“Marshal, I have something to discuss with you for a moment.”
The old marshal, who was over eighty, received the young emperor not by bending at the waist, but with eyes full of respect.
“Anytime, Your Majesty.”
Joseph took him to a deserted balcony. As the cool night air brushed against him, the tightness in his chest seemed to ease a little.
“Marshal.”
Joseph spoke first.
“Do you know anything about a woman’s heart?”
At that innocent question, Radetzky doubted his own ears for a moment.
For over sixty years he had roamed battlefields and seen through the schemes of countless enemy commanders, including Napoleon, but never had he encountered a question as unpredictable as this one.
‘What does he mean by asking that…?’
His own married life had been a laughingstock not only in Viennese society, but throughout all Europe. His spendthrift wife, a lifetime of discord and separation, and even the lonely bereavement that had come at the beginning of this year.
His marriage had been a Thirty Years’ War without victory, and he had been the clear loser of that war.
“Your Majesty.”
At last, he answered the emperor’s question.
“A woman’s heart was unlike any battlefield I have fought on all my life. On a battlefield, one can see the enemy’s banners, grasp their supply lines, and use the terrain to win. There is logic to everything. But Your Majesty, that place was like a fortress in the fog.”
Joseph waited wordlessly for him to continue.
“I have lived my whole life by breaking through. But that fortress did not yield. When I bombarded it, the fog only thickened, and when I tried to scale the walls, the walls instead grew higher.”
He ended with a bitter smile.
“And so the only thing I dare say to you is this, Your Majesty. The only victory to be had there is not to fight.”
Radetzky left the balcony and returned to the banquet hall.
“Perhaps that place was not a fortress to be conquered, but land where one had to wait for the fog to lift. It was far too difficult a battlefield for an old soldier like me.”
Left alone, Joseph mulled over the riddle-like words he had left behind.
***
Banquets are exhausting no matter when they’re held.
I don’t think they suit someone like me….
If someone asked whether it was fun, I suppose I could answer that it was somewhat fun, at least.
“Chief lady-in-waiting. I wish to relieve the fatigue in my body.”
“I will prepare your bath at once, Your Majesty.”
Joseph had not approached me even once during the banquet.
No matter how awkward he felt, still.
At the event where he was introducing the empress to the Milanese nobles for the first time, was it right for him to take only Radetzky to the balcony?
If he was going to do that, he might as well date Radetzky.
From the carriage ride to Milan, it had been Radetzky, Marshal Radetzky, Governor-General Radetzky.
The wise Tristan had been right. The emperor does not understand people’s hearts.
I entered the bath where hot steam was rising and found peace of mind and body.
The only perfect service in this court that never disappoints me.
“Empress.”
The emperor’s voice came from outside.
Coming to see me while I’m bathing?
The ladies-in-waiting stopped everything they were doing, quietly bowed their heads to me in respect, and swiftly disappeared from the bathroom.
“Come in.”
I sensed the silhouette beyond the folding screen draw a little closer.
“I am sorry about the carriage earlier. I think I talked too much about myself.”
“It’s all right. I heard a great deal about Marshal Radetzky’s great achievements. And about how much Your Majesty respects him.”
“I am also sorry for leaving you alone at the banquet. I had something to discuss with the marshal for a moment….”
I slowly rose from the water.
“It seems the two of you had a very important conversation. You were on the balcony for quite a long time.”
How those nobles must have laughed at me.
“They found it quite entertaining, watching the young empress who had only just arrived in Milan being ignored by her husband from her very first banquet.”
“What do you mean by that! No one would dare laugh at the empress!”
I could hear the bewilderment in Joseph’s voice.
I wrapped myself in the thick towel beside me and stepped in front of the folding screen.
“Your Majesty is the emperor, so such things may not be visible to you, but I was surrounded by enemies throughout the entire banquet, Your Majesty.”
“The security of Lombardy was my greatest duty as emperor.”
“Duty?”
Honestly.
“Then what was my duty? Was it my duty to guard Your Majesty’s empty place there, forcing myself to smile even while I looked like a wife abandoned by her husband? Today was the first banquet. Do you understand?”
It wasn’t even a banquet I’d wanted to hold.
“Sisi….”
“At today’s banquet, the duty Your Majesty should have fulfilled was to be the emperor who was a loving husband to the empress.”
What had been the purpose of this marriage?
To create a festive mood throughout the empire through the marriage of a young emperor in love and a beautiful empress.
“We are touring the empire so that, when Your Imperial Majesty ascends the throne, you establish your authority not only as a powerful monarch, but also through the image of the head of a household to your subjects.”
Without looking back, I opened the door and left.
The young ladies-in-waiting could not hide their bewilderment.
“Chief lady-in-waiting. The water has cooled, and it is no longer comfortable to bathe.”
“I will help you prepare for bed, Your Majesty.”
How am I supposed to make Joseph, who is so buried in nothing but the duties of an emperor, into an emperor?
I have to make him my ally if I’m to gain my freedom.
I tried to sleep, but my mind was tangled in confusion.
For now, today is hopeless.
It would not be good to face each other now, when both our emotions are running high.
Tomorrow morning, I’ll dress as if nothing happened and appear before the emperor. Then, for the rest of our schedule in Milan, I can get along with him naturally and conspicuously, and show the nobles that naturally.
***
The bedroom door slowly opened without a sound.
‘Again, in the middle of the night.’
Irritation surged up, but Sisi did not move a muscle.
She let out steady breaths, pretending to be deeply asleep.
Faint footsteps approached across the carpet and stopped beside the bed.
Joseph said nothing, merely looking down at Sisi.
‘What does he want? An apology? An excuse? Or the emperor’s dignity?’
Contrary to Sisi’s thoughts, Joseph merely gazed at her for a long while.
In the darkness, Sisi’s sleeping figure, weary with exhaustion under the faint moonlight, made him think again of Radetzky’s words.
‘My chatter in the carriage was a bombardment, and leaving her alone in the banquet hall was as good as building the walls even higher.’
He had not been able to refute what Sisi had said to him in the bath.
Because it had not been simple petulance, but a rebuke that the emperor had failed to fulfill his duty to the empress.
While Joseph, as the soldier emperor, had been considering the security of Lombardy, she, as empress, had been considering the image of the empire.
Before he realized it, Joseph’s hand moved toward Sisi, but just before it touched her cheek, he withdrew it and clenched his fist.
Instead, he pulled up the blanket that had slipped down and covered her up to her neck.
‘An emperor must not have emotions.’
The rule his mother, Sophie, had taught him in order to make him emperor.
Joseph left the room as quietly as he had entered.
“…….”
After confirming the sound of the door closing, Sisi slowly opened her eyes.
“What was that….”