I, too, merely gave a slight nod in response to her greeting.
“Mother has come to see Sophie as well, I see.”
The Archduchess’s intentions were obvious.
I immediately shifted my gaze to the cradle.
My daughter.
“Sophie.”
As I approached the cradle and tried to pick up the child, Baroness Wendel quickly stepped forward.
“Your Majesty, she has just had her milk—”
“If I, her mother, wish to hold my own child, why should I worry over something like spit-up?”
When I cut her off firmly, she looked not at me, but rather at the Archduchess.
“Empress. Court etiquette does not stand above a child’s health. The Baroness was merely offering the opinion of an expert who has raised children of the Imperial House.”
I carefully lifted Sophie into my arms.
Sophie wriggled in my embrace for a moment, then soon settled into a peaceful expression.
“I know my daughter’s condition best.”
I looked straight at Archduchess Sophie.
“You are still young, Empress.”
“Being young does not mean I lack maternal love.”
The Archduchess looked at Sophie in my arms and said,
“I never said you lacked maternal love.”
Then she jerked her chin at Lady Wendel, signaling for her to withdraw.
Once Lady Wendel disappeared, only tension lingered in the room.
“But, Empress, that maternal love of yours cannot be grounds to disregard the order of the Imperial Court and the advice of experts.”
Sophie remained seated as she continued in an emotionless voice.
“The Empress cast aside advice given out of concern for the child’s health as though it were useless. It is difficult to tell whether that maternal love is truly for the child’s sake, or merely childish defiance toward me.”
Because I am young, even my maternal love is being treated as a weapon for an emotional quarrel?
Sophie glanced at the clock in the room and concluded,
“The child must be tired as well. In five minutes, it will be time for her to sleep, so until then, enjoy the Empress’s maternal love.”
I could not say anything in rebuttal.
If I did, I would be expressing my present emotions and become exactly the emotional Empress the Archduchess had described.
Fighting that five minutes was too short while holding on to the child, or resisting so that she could not be taken from me, would be walking straight into the Archduchess’s trap.
…Wait.
If I do what Archduchess Sophie wants… no, for now, let’s do it.
My faction is still weak, and the Archduchess’s faction still wields strong influence in court.
Just getting Josef to enter the war on Russia’s side was already a tremendous achievement.
Most likely, she is being spiteful because of that.
Because I, the Empress she dislikes, took part in politics.
For the time remaining, I focused on Sophie.
“Maa—”
Adorable.
“Your Majesty, the time is up.”
Lady Wendel, who had returned to the room and was waiting, approached me and spoke when the time Sophie had announced arrived.
“Baroness, take the child.”
I kissed Sophie on the forehead, handed my daughter to Lady Wendel, and bid her farewell.
“Jó éjszakát (good night).”
I’ll come back for you soon.
I glanced at the Archduchess, whose expression was furious, then turned and went outside.
“Chief lady-in-waiting. Let us go at once.”
Archduchess Sophie might say something.
Pfft, I couldn’t hold that in.
*
The Austrian Empire has only German as its official language. Officially.
But depending on the region, the official language changes. In Hungary, Hungarian; in Bohemia, Bohemian (Czech); and in Poland, Polish are designated as official languages alongside German.
So the Archduchess can’t say anything about me using Hungarian.
She doesn’t react much to Bohemian or Polish compared to Hungarian.
Goodness, politics really is exhausting.
You can’t just ban something you dislike on the spot, can you?
“If she were an ordinary Archduchess, she would have scolded me once and that would have been the end of it.”
I glanced at Esterhazy, but she wore a strange expression.
In truth, it was not only Esterhazy. The other ladies-in-waiting also had strange looks on their faces.
Of course, this place is not all that different either.
Because I have been subtly avoiding politics, they simply do not know what sort of reaction to show.
This place, where Hungarians and Austrians were mixed together, was the very expression of that delicate relationship.
Ladies-in-waiting watching one another’s reactions.
What could they be imagining?
Hungarian houses loyal to the Empire, and Austrian houses that believed Germany alone was the answer.
Esterhazy was from a Hungarian house, but she had been raised as a German. That was why there was no one more suitable than her for the position of chief lady-in-waiting.
And here, one also had to consider the division between regional autonomists and centralists.
As expected, politics is exhausting.
“Chief lady-in-waiting. I wish to speak with you alone.”
I gave the order.
Esterhazy quickly understood my meaning and signaled with her eyes for the ladies-in-waiting following us to withdraw.
“Your Majesty, please speak.”
The footsteps that had filled the long corridor gradually faded, until at last only the sound of my steps and Esterhazy’s cut through the silence.
The dull sound of shoes and the light sound of indoor slippers broke the stillness, creating a discordant harmony.
Isn’t she uncomfortable?
As soon as I entered the Empress’s apartments, the anger and deep fatigue I had been suppressing came rushing in all at once.
“It seems Her Imperial Highness the Archduchess finds Hungarian that unpleasant to hear.”
Now that I had said it aloud, it sounded like the childish whining the Archduchess had described.
“It is merely that Her Highness’s direction differs from Your Majesty’s.”
This is why I like Esterhazy.
She had a peculiar persuasiveness that made one feel certain it had not been a simple mistake, but the best possible choice.
“I hope the chief lady-in-waiting will hold the center well. Are you not the only lady-in-waiting who stands at the center between Hungary and Austria?”
I am, after all, from Bavaria.
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
I wish Josef would show something in Italy…
After all, they would claim Tyrol, Venetia, and Dalmatia as Italian territory too.
That was the Italy I knew.
…Though they get stopped by mountain divisions.
***
Contrary to Sisi’s worries, the war on the Italian Peninsula went more smoothly than expected.
At first, they seemed to be pushed back, but Sardinia, with its elite troops in the Crimean Peninsula, was helpless, and the French army withdrew from the Lombardy Plain because of that misunderstanding.
“…We were able to endure thanks to the supplies sent by Her Majesty the Empress.”
Radetzky evaluated the matter coolly.
“Gyulai must be dismissed at once. The man knew nothing of the supply situation and merely won by relying on luck. If Her Majesty the Empress had not sent supplies, including milk, we would have been defeated with soldiers exhausted by forced marches.”
“The Marshal’s words are correct. We must take this opportunity to appoint soldiers who have rolled about in the field to important positions. Men who are not deskbound, but hardened on the battlefield. If you have anyone in mind, speak without hesitation.”
To Josef, Radetzky was Austria’s god of war.
In the desperate crisis of the 1848 Revolution, he had performed a miracle on the Italian front by defeating the Sardinian-Italian allied army of more than two hundred thousand with only seventy thousand troops, literally saving the crumbling empire by himself.
“…Do you mean that sincerely?”
For a moment, Radetzky could not understand. If it had been the Emperor he had met in Milan only a year ago, he would surely have recited Sophie’s lines word for word, saying that political loyalty was more important.
Josef spoke while checking the list sent from Vienna.
‘It was clothing Sisi cherished.’
“Why would I have any reason not to mean it sincerely?”
Josef, excluding emotion, read down the list as the Empire’s foremost official.
The fresh milk written as the first item on the list was not a supply requisitioned from the Empire’s farms.
‘It was private property from the Empress’s personal farm that Sisi had brought into the palace, which Count Grünne mocked as one of the Empress’s eccentricities.’
Something Sisi had been so obsessed with that she had prepared it for her own health and beauty—she had sent it to the army.
The only person who would think of cutting up dresses to make bandages and cloth for soldiers, without caring in the least about the Empress’s dignity, was Sisi.
Josef thought of his mother, Archduchess Sophie.
‘Mother is interested in the dignity of the Imperial House and in politics, but she is not someone who would give up what is hers for a single cup of milk for a soldier.’
“She would have ordered the state to requisition it, or instructed the nobles to donate.”
Josef had no choice but to acknowledge that this difference had brought about victory.
‘Besides, the truly urgent problem was not Italy, but the Balkan Peninsula.’
As Emperor, he knew better than anyone that he had not yet become independent on his own.
‘As Marshal Radetzky said, if I had sided with Russia sooner, would the current front line situation have been better?’
Russia was on the verge of surrender, and was only barely breathing thanks to Austria’s entry into the war.
Judging that defeat in this war was certain, Josef thought about what would happen from now on.
‘Since we entered the war on Russia’s side, Sisi’s power will diminish somewhat.’
But she would not care. To begin with, she did not want to devote her attention to politics.
‘She must be doing even this much only because I asked her to help me.’
“What are you searching for so intently?”
Radetzky asked Josef, who was rummaging through the supply boxes.
“I cannot find a letter.”
The thought that she might not have written a letter in the first place did not exist in Josef’s mind.
***
Ah, I forgot the letter.
“Chief lady-in-waiting. Why are the supplies being sent to the army not dispatched more quickly?”
The reason I had sent the supplies by carriage was that trains gave priority to military use, while civilian carriages had not been requisitioned.
There’s a limit to what trains alone can do.
“In wartime, should not carriages naturally be requisitioned as well?”
That’s common sense, common sense.
“Your Majesty’s question is entirely natural. In wartime, of course, that is what should be done. However, the officials remaining in Vienna do not think so.”
“What do you mean?”
“To them, the front exists only on a map.”
Is the military’s power that weak? Wasn’t Josef a soldier-emperor?
“There was a decision that requisitioning civilian carriages would create unnecessary fear among the citizens and make prices impossible to control.”
Amazing. Truly amazing.
So the aftermath of the revolution has affected even the army politically.
It’s good for me, but… can they win a war against Prussia like this?
“I hope the war ends as soon as possible.”
What kind of husband in this world leaves behind his newborn daughter and his wife who has just given birth?
Just wait until he comes back.