Josef was receiving reports on the situation at the front with a grave expression.
‘To think it has come to this even without France.’
If Austria had launched a preemptive attack and France or even Britain had entered the war, it was dreadful just to imagine.
Cold sweat ran down his back, but Josef glared at his ministers with an even colder expression.
“Foreign Minister.”
Count Buol answered, sweating profusely.
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
Before the war began, he had boasted that Sardinia was nothing to fear.
“Is this the extent of your diplomatic insight? Did you not say we could end it as a short, localized war, and occupy Turin before the great powers intervened?”
“Y-Your Majesty. That is…”
“I do not wish to hear excuses.”
Josef’s gaze shifted to the side.
“Count Grünne.”
The very man who had opposed his military reforms and made him cling to the army’s old, outdated ways. And his own closest aide, who had recommended that incompetent commander.
“Did I not say Gyulai would not do? I warned you that I had seen it with my own eyes.”
“…I have no excuse, Your Majesty.”
Only a suffocating silence drifted through the conference room. The hard-liners who had advocated war lowered their heads like criminals.
“When I remained silent, where have all those mouths gone that kept prattling on?”
At Josef’s rebuke, their shoulders shrank even further.
“One week. Did you not boast that one week would be enough to cross the Ticino River and advance to Turin?”
Bang!
Josef slammed his fist down on the map of the war situation. The markers placed on the map toppled over helplessly.
“And where is our army now? It has been half a month since the war began, yet they are still treading water near the border! Did France enter the war without my knowledge? Are you saying they are too frightened of mere Sardinian bumpkins to advance?!”
“Your Majesty, I beg your pardon, but… according to General Gyulai’s report, due to supply line issues and worsening weather…”
As Grünne tried to offer an excuse in a crawling voice, Josef let out a hollow laugh.
“Caution? Are we fighting the Seven Years’ War right now? Crossing the river only to turn back, stopping because it rains! Did that man Gyulai go there to fight a war, or to take a picnic by the river?”
Josef sank weakly into his chair and gave an order in an icy tone, waving his hand as though driving them away.
“Both of you, disappear from my sight. And summon Field Marshal Hess and General Benedek.”
Feeling stifled, Josef looked at the portrait of Sisi hanging on the wall.
‘Is Vienna underwater to you?’
‘Sometimes. Because I cannot breathe.’
He opened a drawer, looked at the letter of credit from Thurn und Taxis, and came up with a plan.
‘If she hates Vienna… perhaps I can build her a villa in the forest, where the air is clear.’
The imperial hunting grounds, the Lainzer Tiergarten.
The quietest, most secretive forest in Vienna, surrounded by high stone walls and forbidden to ordinary people.
It was precious even to him, who enjoyed hunting, but to her, who wanted to leave the suffocating city of Vienna, it would be the perfect refuge.
A castle cut off from the outside world, for Sisi alone.
The thought of building her a villa there.
Josef lightly stroked his fake mustache with his finger.
“Not bad.”
If they won this war, they would be able to wring an enormous war indemnity out of those Sardinians.
***
“We thank Her Majesty the Empress for her grace.”
As Esterházy had said, the curtains were drawn while I met with the subjects.
She said my silhouette would show. Liar.
This was supposed to be an event staged to show the Empress in Bohemia eating the same meal as the soldiers at the front.
“Your Majesty, I have brought the food.”
A lady-in-waiting set a meal on a silver tray before me.
A menu completely different from what the subjects were being rationed.
It was the same hard black bread and thin soup being distributed to the soldiers.
Still, perhaps because it was my portion, they seemed to have taken a little more care; it was steaming warmly.
I silently picked up my spoon.
Outside the curtain, it was as quiet as death.
This feels even more burdensome than when I danced in Venice…
Even after soaking the bread in the soup for a long while, it was still hard.
I put every last piece of bread into my mouth and drank warm milk.
“Tell them I ate well.”
When the empty bowl and my voice passed beyond the curtain, cheers erupted among the subjects.
“Long live Her Majesty the Empress!”
Though not even my shadow had appeared, they went wild like believers who had received a revelation from a saint.
Honestly, even as I hold this kind of event, I do not really understand it.
If you ask whether I have ever seen citizens cheer because a president ate fish cake at a market… I have not.
Still, it feels good.
After the event ended, I moved quietly according to Esterházy’s signal, with the curtain still down.
If only I were not pregnant, I could have met them face-to-face.
Once I returned to my room, the first thing I asked for was milk.
“I had no idea black bread could be this tough.”
It felt less like bread and more like chewing on a brick. My jaw still hurts.
To think I only believed the food was decent for the nineteenth century because I had only been eating imperial cuisine.
The ladies-in-waiting were preparing a table in my room when it happened.
“Your Majesty the Empress, a letter has arrived from His Majesty the Emperor.”
Really?
I suppose it is not a love letter?
Usually, if it was in the form of a love letter, he wrote it on different stationery so I could read it myself.
I emptied a plate of sauerkraut and appeased my hunger.
“Ida. I would like you to read the letter.”
She immediately came near me and began reading the letter aloud.
What will it start with today?
My angel? My beloved child? My everything? My only one? Sweet Sisi?
“My adored Sisi.”
Pffft.
“Your Majesty, are you all right?”
I struggled to stop the cough from choking.
This is a new technique…
“Cough, cough. I am fine, so continue reading.”
Though Ida gave me a worried look, she composed her voice again and continued reading.
“Today, while reprimanding the ministers, I keenly felt how incompetent they are. As I looked upon their foolish faces, I missed your intelligent gaze all the more and could hardly endure it.
As you said, Vienna is a stifling place. Even I sometimes feel as though I cannot breathe here, so how much worse must it have been for free-spirited you?
And so, I have made up my mind.
When I return after leading this war to victory, I shall gift you Titania’s forest.
Like the forest where the fairy queen dwelled in the play by Shakespeare that you love, I shall build and dedicate to you a free castle where only you may breathe.
So please, wait for me there.
Your little husband.”
This man must have lost his mind.
It was a love letter!
The ladies-in-waiting were moved to tears, and Ida clutched the letter to her chest with an enraptured expression.
“…Oh, Your Majesty. How can he be so romantic?”
Am I the only sane person in this room?
“I see.”
I worked very hard to maintain my composure.
No, he knows that a reader-in-waiting reads my letters to me…
He should whisper things like that when we are alone.
I cleared my throat and told Ida to bring pen and paper.
“I must write a reply.”
“Shall I take dictation, Your Majesty?”
Ida stood by with sparkling eyes, pen in hand.
“Prepare it again as a business letter.”
Looking at the newly prepared stationery, I pondered for a moment before speaking the first sentence.
“To my beloved Oberon.”
Ida’s pen hesitated.
“By Oberon… do you mean the king of the fairies?”
“Yes. Titania’s husband ought to be the king of the fairies, not a little husband.”
I continued with a faint smile.
“I shall gladly await the forest you promised.
Today, as I shared the same rough bread as the soldiers, I felt, if only for a brief moment, the weight that you carry.
Thanks to the letter you sent me, it feels as though clear air has entered my heart.
I will always support your opinions. The master of the empire is you alone, and only your judgment is right.
So do not waver, and return having seized nothing less than complete victory.
P.S. Ida read this letter aloud for me in a very moving voice. Next time, please write something proper enough that my face will not turn red even if my reader-in-waiting reads it.
Your queen, Titania.”
Finally, as though it were an official letter, the seal of the double-headed eagle was stamped upon it.
***
“Your Majesty, a letter has arrived from Her Majesty the Empress.”
Josef was pleased for a moment, but after confirming that it was on official stationery, he turned his gaze back to the map.
“Chief Aide-de-Camp. Read it.”
Grünne cut open the letter, and from the moment he read the first sentence, his eyes began to tremble.
“Your Majesty, this is…”
As Grünne stammered awkwardly, Josef’s brow furrowed.
“The situation at the front is urgent. Can you not hear me?”
Ordinarily, Grünne would have handed a letter from the Empress directly to the Emperor, but now, in a position no different from that of a criminal, he could not disobey Josef’s command.
He squeezed his eyes shut and recited the first sentence.
“To my b-beloved Oberon… Eek!”
The situation, in which Grünne, who had been scolded for incompetence only a few days earlier, now had to tremble as he read the Empress’s affectionate letter, was torture for everyone.
For Grünne, who read it aloud, and Josef, who listened, it was a punishment requiring shame so intense they could not lift their heads; for the generals swallowing back coughs, it demanded the patience to hold in their laughter for the sake of the Emperor’s authority.
“…Your queen, Titania.”
With the letter’s closing, Grünne drooped his head as though drained.
Josef had been absorbed in the movements of the markers on the map and, naturally assuming it to be a report on the war situation or words of encouragement, had ordered his adjutant to read it aloud. That had been his undoing.
Field Marshal Hess stroked his beard while clearing his throat, and General Benedek lowered his head as if he would bury his nose in the map, his shoulders shaking.
Josef’s face had turned as red as a ripe tomato.
He roughly snatched the letter from Grünne’s trembling hand.
“…Ahem!”
Josef cleared his throat loudly once, then deliberately gave an order in a stern voice.
“We shall resume the meeting. All of you… pretend you heard nothing.”
But the conference room was already filled to the brim with the sweet, embarrassing air between the Emperor and Empress.
Careful not to crumple the letter, he shoved it deep into the inner pocket of his uniform.
‘Sisi, this must be your revenge.’
Josef bit his lip hard, but he could not help the way the corners of his mouth kept twitching upward.
‘Oberon and Titania, is it? Is she telling me not to be unfaithful?’
Because of Sisi’s affectionate worry, he had to try very hard to focus his mind on the meeting.
“It seems there is now one more reason to end the war quickly.”
Field Marshal Hess, who had once been Radetzky’s chief of staff, teased the unfocused Emperor in a playful tone.