We completed one last check inside the carriage.
“France found nothing to take issue with in Your Majesty’s appearance at the Place de la Concorde.”
Count Buol said, smoothing his mustache.
“Of course, there have been words of criticism against Your Majesty from the more extreme nationalists… Does it trouble you?”
No?
“I am not their empress, so what reason would I have to concern myself with it now?”
“There is no need for you to do so. If anything, Your Majesty covered for the French Empress’s mistake.”
“Still, it is a great relief that the conference wrapped up early. If it had dragged on like the Congress of Vienna…”
Ugh, I don’t even want to imagine it.
Count Buol offered me praise.
“It is fortunate that Your Majesty has formed connections with the French Empress. Thanks to that, Italy may gain a little time.”
“Why is that?”
“The reason Bonaparte is passive on the Italian issue is because of the French Empress.”
“Because of Empress Eugénie?”
“She is a devout believer, after all.”
Aha.
To unify Italy, they would have to attack the Papal States. That was what he meant.
“But just because the empresses are friendly, that does not mean she will involve herself in politics, does it?”
“France is a little different. The Empress tends not to meddle in politics, but… there are times when she moves the Emperor’s heart, as Your Majesty does.”
Count Buol was a Greater Germanist too, wasn’t he?
“Foreign Minister.”
“Speak, Court Minister.”
“Are you attempting to instruct Her Majesty?”
“Surely not.”
Count Buol laughed it off as smoothly as a snake slipping over a wall.
“If I have caused Her Majesty any discomfort, I apologize here and now.”
“I am fine.”
In any case, we would be riding separately again now.
The reason we had gathered here was because, as the senior party for the time being, I had to be made aware of the details.
When I gave him a signal, he stepped down from the carriage.
“By your leave, Your Majesty.”
Farewell.
Now that the enemy outside was gone, the internal power struggles would begin again.
*
“Schönbrunn is in sight.”
The imperial family alternates between using the Hofburg and Schönbrunn.
In summer, the breeze makes it pleasant, but in winter, that same wind makes it hardly fit for human habitation.
“I feel this every time I see it, but…”
“Your Majesty.”
All right, all right.
I won’t say it looks too much like Versailles.
When I stepped down from the carriage, Archduchess Sophie looked at me with discomfort in her eyes.
Most likely, she disliked the Empire-style dress itself.
Joseph was standing right beside Archduchess Sophie.
It seemed he was quite displeased with this situation.
Unlike his mother, his expression was a mix of relief and joy, as if he might run to me at any moment.
But because his mother was beside him, he appeared to be trying hard to maintain his dignity as emperor.
I briefly hid the smile I had for Joseph and greeted Archduchess Sophie first.
“I have returned, Archduchess.”
“It seems the free atmosphere of Paris was too much for the Empress.”
“Well.”
If anything, the Hofburg suited me better.
There was a reason people said leaving home meant suffering like a dog.
But had it really been better? I wasn’t sure.
“I had no choice but to wear this sort of clothing.”
Sophie’s brows rose slightly.
“Do not worry about the rumors.”
Sophie, strangely enough, said only that to me.
Joseph must have judged that my conversation with Sophie was over, for he offered me his hand.
“You have endured much, Empress. Let us go inside.”
With his escort, I returned to the palace and brought this long journey to an end.
*
Joseph acted like Joseph, as always.
In other words, he escorted me to my room and immediately went off to work.
“I suppose I will not be able to ride for a while.”
“The Stairway to Heaven is forbidden as well.”
…When did she see that?
“I thought I had hidden it well.”
“There are no secrets of the Empress’s Palace that I do not know.”
To think my stepmill had been banned.
“I was never pleased to see Your Majesty using an object that seemed fit for criminals.”
Fit for prisoners, she said.
“That is meant for multiple people, is it not?”
“Whether you step on it together or use it alone, nothing changes.”
Well… even so, I still had many—
“Naturally, the gymnastic rings, wall bars, and vaulting horse are also forbidden.”
A bolt from the blue came from Esterházy’s mouth.
“You let me do them last time.”
“That was when I judged them to be appropriate exercise.”
Esterházy firmly ignored my demand.
“And this is Schönbrunn, not the Hofburg. It means Your Majesty’s exercise room has not been prepared.”
Ah, right.
“I will be moving to the Hofburg in advance tomorrow, though.”
During pregnancy, rather than alternating between Schönbrunn and the Hofburg, one usually waited at the Hofburg.
“I am tired from the long journey.”
“We will prepare you for bed shortly.”
***
Joseph had recently been suffering from withdrawal symptoms.
Separate from having spent two months constantly together, not seeing Sisi for over a month had been torment for him.
“Your Majesty, you seem to be in good spirits today.”
At Count Grünne’s words, Joseph snapped back to his senses and composed his expression.
“It is simply that, now that the Empress has returned safely, there is one fewer matter concerning the empire’s well-being for me to worry about.”
He gave an unnecessary cough and turned his gaze to the documents on his desk, but the letters did not enter his eyes.
Grünne was not close enough to the Emperor to pry into his thoughts.
He merely pushed the next report onto the Emperor’s desk.
“Your Majesty, this is a report from the troops stationed in Italy.”
“I am reading it.”
His mind was filled entirely with the image of his wife he had just seen.
Sisi, returned after a month. Her face, somehow more mature than when she had left Vienna, and… the loose dress that did not cinch her waist at all.
There was no way he had failed to notice how openly displeased his mother’s expression had become.
‘But rumors?’
In Joseph’s eyes, it had simply looked as though his wife, having completed a tiring journey, had changed into comfortable clothes.
‘You are beautiful.’
He keenly regretted not having said those words at the palace entrance earlier.
“Your Majesty?”
Grünne called Joseph again.
Joseph hurriedly scrawled his signature on the document.
“Give me the next report.”
He barely read the remaining documents, tossing them one by one into the approval box.
“That will be all for today.”
“Your Majesty, but Baron Bach’s interior report is still…!”
“I will look at it again early tomorrow morning.”
Joseph sprang up from his seat.
Count Grünne realized he could no longer hold the Emperor back and merely withdrew with a bow.
“Understood, Your Majesty.”
He went to the marital bedroom prepared in Schönbrunn Palace, but the Empress was nowhere to be seen.
‘Why?’
He had thought they would be able to share a bed for the first time in a month, but Sisi was not in the marital bedroom.
Coming back out and making his way to the Empress’s bedroom, he saw the ladies-in-waiting standing outside.
“Court Minister.”
“Please speak, Your Majesty.”
‘How should I say this?’
“What is the Empress doing?”
“Her Majesty the Empress is resting in order to recover from the fatigue of her long journey.”
‘Is that not something she could do in the marital bedroom?’
At that unsatisfactory answer, Joseph frowned slightly.
“Can she not take that rest together with me?”
Esterházy lowered her head without the slightest disturbance in her composure.
“Your Majesty. Her Majesty the Empress requires a bath and special care to relieve the exhaustion of her long journey from Paris.”
“Special care?”
Esterházy answered without hesitation.
“She has traveled a great distance by carriage for over a month in a woman’s body. There are many areas where the ladies-in-waiting must examine and tend to Her Majesty’s person. Please wait just a little until Her Majesty the Empress has finished preparing herself.”
Joseph once more recalled his mother’s gaze as she had looked at the dress with displeasure.
There was nothing wrong with Esterházy’s words.
For the Empress to prepare herself before meeting the Emperor was only proper etiquette.
“…Very well. When the Empress is ready, send word to my study.”
Joseph forced himself to hide his disappointment and turned his heavy steps toward his study.
‘If I am to rest tomorrow, I shall have to handle Baron Bach’s report.’
Watching the Emperor leave, Esterházy returned to her composed manner.
‘Certainly… His Majesty has changed a great deal as well.’
These were things that would have been unimaginable before.
If the Empress was not in the marital bedroom, the Emperor had never gone looking for her himself.
The position of emperor was one that sent attendants to do his bidding, not one that came all the way to the door of the Empress’s bedroom to seek out his wife.
The Archduchess’s court physician came separately.
“I wish to examine Her Majesty the Empress’s condition.”
Esterházy nodded.
There was a high chance the Archduchess had already realized it.
The Archduchess’s court physician took Sisi’s pulse several times as she slept, then tilted his head slightly.
“Is it pregnancy?”
Esterházy asked, but the physician still seemed uncertain.
“The pulse… for the moment, it does seem to be pregnancy.”
‘For the moment?’
“We would know for certain once fetal movement can be felt, but for now, this is the best I can say.”
“Physician. I must know Her Majesty the Empress’s body better than anyone. So answer me properly.”
“…It does seem to be a pregnancy pulse, but it is subtly different from the pulses I have known.”
“Be specific.”
“Well… this is my first time encountering such a case as well. We would have to ask an accoucheur or a midwife to know precisely.”
Esterházy realized that no matter how much more she asked him, she would not receive the answer she wanted.
“Then may we return to the Hofburg as soon as preparations are complete?”
“Yes, do so.”
The next morning, Joseph approached the Empress’s bedroom, where people were busily moving about.
***
“Your Majesty.”
“Empress, what is the meaning of this?”
I carefully approached Joseph.
“It seems I am with child.”
“Who is—no. You, Empress?”
I nodded.
“So now… are you perhaps returning to the main palace?”
“I must. I cannot spend the winter here.”
…That is not the face of someone pleased at all.
When I was pregnant with Sophie, he had not reacted like this, had he?
“…Your Majesty?”