“Your Majesty, His Highness Archduke Maximilian is earnestly requesting that you visit Milan.”
Esterházy held out the telegram with a worried look.
Maximilian wanted to use my popularity to soothe the ominous public sentiment in Milan.
“No, I will not go to Milan.”
“But Your Majesty, if you skip the capital of Lombardy, won’t they think you have abandoned them?”
“I have abandoned them.”
I gazed at the Alpine ranges visible beyond the carriage window.
“Milan is already a pot boiling over. It is past the point where my going there could cool it down. If someone were to throw a stone at me there, Joseph would send in the army and reduce the city to ashes. Is that what you want?”
Esterházy listened quietly.
“The places we must protect are Venice and Trieste. If the Empire loses the sea, it cannot breathe.”
I pointed to Venice on the map.
“If Milan is anger, then Venice is melancholy. An angry man cannot be appeased, but a melancholy woman can be consoled.”
“How shall I inform His Highness Archduke Maximilian?”
“Tell him I will see him in Trient. It is safe there.”
*
After meeting Maximilian, I was being treated as a guest.
The attempted assassination of Napoleon had thrown the whole world into an uproar.
I received a letter from Princess Metternich in France, saying that secret discussions were taking place with the Kingdom of Sardinia.
“Lately, Eugénie has apparently been quarreling often with the Emperor.”
There was only one reason for it.
France had become convinced it would help unify Italy.
It must be because of the Papal States.
“Sisi.”
When Maximilian casually called me by my nickname, Charlotte’s gaze sharpened for an instant.
“Will you truly not go to Milan?”
“What would change if I went?”
“Do the subjects not like you?”
Weren’t those two supposed to be happily married…?
How could he say something like that to his brother’s wife with his own wife sitting beside him?
The reason the subjects liked me was simple.
I was prettier than Charlotte.
At Maximilian’s words, I set down my teacup with a smile, pretending to be troubled.
“Maximilian. Popularity is like foam on the water. They like me because I am a foreigner who wields no political power over them.”
“But Sisi…”
“And the Archduchess sitting beside me right now may feel slighted.”
I turned my gaze to Charlotte, who sat there with a stiff expression.
“Archduchess Charlotte is supporting you so admirably. Is there truly any need for me to step forward?”
Charlotte’s expression remained displeased.
A princess of Belgium, and an ambitious one at that.
She was not satisfied with her husband remaining Austria’s second man. Even the post of viceroy of Lombardy-Venetia had not been enough for her.
That was why, in the future, she would drink from the poisoned chalice called the throne of Mexico.
…Most likely, they were both to blame for that choice.
Maximilian had an inferiority complex toward his brother, and Charlotte had one toward me.
Maximilian, who wanted to become emperor, and Charlotte, who could not understand me, an empress who went off traveling and tried to stay as far from politics as possible.
“You flatter me, Your Majesty.”
Charlotte set down her teacup without a sound.
“But supporting him, you say? Maximilian and I are merely bearing the burden together. Is that not what a married couple ought to do?”
Her gaze swept over Maximilian for an instant, then aimed itself back at me.
“I was impressed by Your Majesty’s wise judgment. As you said, Milan is a place ruled by anger and reality.”
Charlotte spoke as if she were genuinely concerned.
“It is not a place that can be governed with flowers and smiles alone. As the foreigner Your Majesty mentioned, perhaps maintaining your popularity from a safe place is the better path for the imperial house.”
She was plainly mocking me.
“Stepping into the mud and doing the unpleasant work is a role we must bear, is it not? Someone must shoulder responsibility instead of merely upholding the dignity of the imperial family.”
Ah, yes, yes. Do your best.
I merely smiled.
Unlike Archduchess Sophie, Charlotte loved it when I ignored her.
She must be so delighted even now—her teacup was trembling.
When I showed no reaction at all, Charlotte drew an even sharper blade.
“Come to think of it, the rumors coming from Bavaria have been quite fascinating.”
She toyed with her teacup, putting on a look of feigned pity.
“Your elder brother, Duke Ludwig… is said to be renouncing his right of succession?”
News travels quickly.
“And all for the sake of some lowly actress. To think he would cast aside the glory of his house for such a thing.”
Charlotte looked me straight in the eye and condemned the entire House of Wittelsbach along with him.
“The members of the House of Wittelsbach… seem to have a family habit of abandoning duty under the pretext of love.”
That was meant for me to hear.
She was saying I was irresponsible for wandering off in search of love and freedom.
“How truly unfortunate. To trade the duty of noble blood granted at birth for a moment’s lust. Such a thing would be unimaginable in Belgium.”
I let her impassioned speech go in one ear and out the other.
She was not wrong. In aristocratic society, a morganatic marriage was madness.
But it was laughable for a Belgian royal to act as though she alone were a princess.
Did she think I looked like some mere duchess?
“So, Archduchess Charlotte, do you think that is a tragedy?”
“Isn’t it obvious? It is a fall from grace.”
“I wonder.”
I smiled faintly.
“I envy my brother, rather.”
“…Pardon?”
Charlotte’s brow furrowed.
“Think about it. It means he has someone he loves enough to abandon a crown for.”
I ran a finger along the rim of my teacup and drove the wedge in.
“A life chosen not because of conditions, or the interests of one’s house, or a parent’s coercion… but solely because he wanted that one person.”
My gaze moved back and forth between Charlotte and Maximilian.
“Is that not true aristocratic romance? The courage to wager everything one possesses.”
Charlotte’s face flushed red, then blue.
To her, who as a princess of Belgium had married Maximilian solely for political calculation and ambition, it was no different from mockery.
I became empress through love, didn’t I?
I chose romance and became empress, while Charlotte coveted power and remained an archduchess.
“Of course…”
I rose from my seat and brushed off my dress.
“Archduchess Charlotte, who values duty more than life itself, would never understand even if she died and came back to life.”
Oh, right!
“Your elder brother’s name is Leopold, is it not?”
I smiled with my eyes.
“As expected of family, you resemble him.”
Since the king of Belgium right now was also Leopold, her brother would be called this.
Leopold II.
If one were to recall his famous epithet…
The Congo wrist collector.
How dare a country not even thirty years old look down on the Wittelsbachs?
“You have a fine brother.”
Leaving the frozen archducal couple behind, I gave Esterházy a look.
“Let’s go, Sophie. The air here is so stifling I can hardly breathe.”
Just before the door closed, I heard Maximilian sigh.
Her husband needed me, and yet she ruined it because she could not even control her own emotions…
This is why Belgium has no foundations.
“She was not originally like that.”
And yet whenever she stood before me, she acted like some third-rate villain.
I boarded the carriage and headed for the villa in Venice that Joseph had gifted me.
If I were being honest, I wanted to throw away this damned crown. What on earth was so wonderful about it?
…I should at least try to stop Maximilian once before he goes to Mexico.
Why is this family so full of misfortune?
As soon as I arrived in Venice, I threw off the oppressive imperial dress.
The shimmering sound of water, the song of a gondolier.
As I always did, I put on traditional Venetian attire, boarded a gondola, and roamed through Venice.
If I so much as waved, the subjects would fall into the water while staring, and the soldiers assigned to act as water rescue had no time for their clothes to dry.
“Chief lady-in-waiting.”
Just before we reached Piazza San Marco, I was handed a mask.
Judging by the mood, this should work.
And I placed the mask over my face.
The Venetian masquerade festival, banned since the reign of Franz II.
Originally, it ought to be held before Lent, but…
I spoke playfully to the people gathered in the square.
“I am looking for Venetian gentlemen who will hide me.”
The Venetians filling the square fell silent all at once, as if they had stopped breathing.
The Empress of Austria had put on a mask forbidden by imperial law and stood before them.
And in the very heart of the most oppressed city, asking them to hide us.
A brief silence.
The first to react was an old man.
With trembling hands, he removed the worn hat from his head and placed it over his chest.
“A gentleman does not run away and leave a lady in peril.”
Those words lit the fuse.
“Spread your cloaks!”
“Hide the lady of Venice!”
Someone shouted, and soon cheers swept over Piazza San Marco like a wave.
“Long live the Queen of Venice!”
The nobles could not hide their bewilderment, and the commoners burst into joyous cheers.
The guards paled and tried to put their hands on their swords, but I raised a hand to stop them.
Instead of threatening me, the citizens of Venice spread the cloaks they wore and surrounded me.
From somewhere came the melody of a violin.
Venice, sunk in melancholy and silence, transformed in an instant into a city boiling with romance and passion.
I walked among them as if dancing.
Someone kissed the back of my hand, and someone else threw roses at my feet.
When I laughed, they laughed as well, and when I waved, they cheered.
Tonight, no one in this square would curse Austria.
At least for as long as I wore this mask, they were not subjects of the Habsburgs, but lovers of me, Elisabeth.
“Your Majesty, it has grown quite late… you really must return now…”
The captain of the guard pleaded, breaking out in a cold sweat.
True, if this went wrong, there might even be a crushing accident.
“Yes, it would not do to keep them yearning too much.”
I blew an elegant kiss to the reluctant crowd.
“Buona notte, Venezia. Good night, Venice.”
The festival did not stop even as the gondola departed.