Chloe whispered in a voice that had sunk low.
“Last time, you left this book behind.”
“Yes, you did.”
“Did you open it?”
There was no reason to lie.
I quietly nodded.
“…Yes, I did.”
I remembered the short sentence that had caught my eye when I first opened the book.
The brief congratulatory message, written with care in pretty, neat handwriting, and the unfamiliar name left at the end of it: Adrian.
……I had already guessed, more or less. That makes this easier to talk about.”
At my affirmation, Chloe let out a small, long sigh.
Lightly stroking the book held against her chest, she slowly began to tell an old story.
“It happened four years ago…… when I was fifteen.”
Her gaze was fixed somewhere far off in empty air.
“At the time, the Empire invaded a fairly large and powerful kingdom in the southwest called Hernand. As soon as Hernand lost the first battle, they very quickly declared their surrender to the Empire. Thanks to that, they were incorporated as a vassal state of the Empire under extremely favorable conditions.”
“……”
“For the Empire, which had been prepared for great sacrifices because Hernand was a kingdom with considerable military power, it was something to rejoice over. So Father granted them all sorts of extraordinary privileges that he would never have allowed most defeated nations. He reduced their taxes, said he would delay sending a governor for a while, and incorporated most of the nobles of the Kingdom of Hernand into the imperial nobility…”
“Those are tremendous privileges.”
“Yes, they were. He even promised to treat the hostage unusually well. And at that time…… the person brought to the Empire as a hostage was Princess Adrian, the one whose name is written in this book.”
“……”
“She was truly kind, warm, capable, and admirable. Like Ian is now, she got along well with all the members of the imperial family without any friction. She wasn’t loved by everyone to the same extent Ian is… but at the very least, she was not someone who deserved hatred or contempt.”
A faint, sorrowful smile spread across Chloe’s lips.
“Among them, the one closest to Adrian was me. At the time, I was fifteen, and I followed her around as if she were my real older sister. With Sister Victoria, our interests and goals had been too different ever since we were young, so it was difficult for us to grow close…… but Sister Adrian was different. She always listened to me with kindness.”
“……”
“We read books together, drank tea, talked about history, wrote novels and shared them, wrote poems together, talked about romance… We spent such happy times together. Aside from now, I suppose I could say that was the happiest period of my life.”
A blissful smile appeared on Chloe’s face, as if she were dreaming.
But Chloe’s smile did not last long.
“For about a year, we had a time that was truly as happy as a dream… but then one day, a report came in that there were suspicious movements in the Kingdom of Hernand. The Empire immediately tried to grasp the situation…… but they launched a surprise attack on the imperial troops stationed in Hernand at the time, massacred them, and began a full-scale rebellion.”
“There’s no way the imperial army would have been taken down so carelessly…”
“There was talk that information had leaked from the inside. Their response was strangely quick, and the enemy knew far too much about the imperial army’s size, organization, and chain of command.”
“Even so, was their military strength powerful enough to annihilate the imperial army like that?”
“They were already considered powerful enough to fight the Empire in a proper war.”
With a bitter expression, Chloe lowered her head.
“…Adrian was immediately dragged before Father, questioned about several matters, and then nearly taken straight to the execution ground. Under imperial law, if a vassal state rebels, the hostage is to be executed at once.”
Chloe’s voice trembled as she tightened her grip on the book.
“But…… I couldn’t bear to let Sister Adrian die. So I stopped Father. To be honest, what sin had she committed? She had been trapped here, knowing nothing about the rebellion…… The Kingdom of Hernand had used Sister Adrian as a discarded pawn.”
Perhaps it was because of Chloe’s desperate tears. In the end, the emperor could not break his youngest daughter’s stubbornness, and Adrian’s execution was postponed.
Chloe said she prayed desperately.
So desperately that she even prayed for the absurd dream that the rebellion was all a misunderstanding, and that in truth, nothing had happened.
But the situation did not unfold as Chloe wished.
“The Kingdom of Hernand’s rebellion was fiercer than the Empire expected. The main imperial army was defeated twice and driven back. It wasn’t so much that our army lacked ability…… It was as if the other side held the advantage of perfect information.”
The moment I heard that, my image of this person named Adrian changed completely.
Perhaps the kindness she had shown Chloe had not been goodwill, but a deliberate approach. Perhaps she had in fact been a top-class spy sent by the kingdom into the Empire.
“……So within the imperial family, they suspected Princess Adrian of leaking internal information and successfully guiding the rebellion.”
“That’s right. Everyone pointed fingers at her, saying she had leaked the Empire’s information. But I never believed it, not until the very end. I told myself that she was absolutely not that kind of person……”
Unlike Chloe’s unwavering faith, I quietly shook my head inwardly.
No matter how kind and warm someone was, this was a matter that concerned the survival of her homeland.
Adrian must have used her friendship with the imperial family, including Chloe, to smuggle out the Empire’s information.
Because that was the only way a hostage from a weaker nation could fight for her homeland.
‘What an incredible person. To be able to go that far, risking her own life…’
But I did not bother to speak the truth aloud and shatter her illusion. I merely listened to her in silence.
“After the imperial army was defeated twice, Father finally ordered the main imperial forces to be dispatched. Perhaps they had gained confidence after a few victories, because the Kingdom of Hernand prepared for a large-scale battle on open ground. But that was exactly what the Empire had been aiming for. The moment when an opponent, after taking a few small victories, pours everything they have into one final blow.”
“The heavy cavalry.”
“Yes, that’s right. The Kingdom of Hernand suffered a crushing defeat against the heavy cavalry led by Sister Victoria, losing over fifty thousand men in a single battle. The kingdom’s main army was completely wiped out in one battle, and the rebellion was suppressed.”
“I assume that is not why you resent your sister.”
At my question, Chloe shook her head, her eyes reddening.
“Winning a war is a soldier’s duty. I’m not foolish enough to resent her for that.”
“…Then what was it that you hated so much?”
“In the process of killing Princess Adrian… she did something no human being should ever do. If she had simply drawn her sword and stabbed Adrian to death, I would have hated her less.”
“……”
“Sister Victoria was not in her right mind after several people close to her were swept up in the rebellion and died in that battle. That was why she wanted Sister Adrian dead, but because I stopped it, she was enraged that Sister Adrian was still alive. Before leaving for the front, she came to my detached palace several times and shouted at Sister Adrian to die… but I stopped her desperately, so in the end, she couldn’t do it.”
“……”
“When what she wanted did not happen, the method she came up with was far more cruel. She tried to make Adrian kill herself.”
“……Herself?”
At last, a large tear dropped from Chloe’s eyes.
“After suppressing the rebellion and destroying the kingdom, Sister Victoria killed all of Adrian’s family and returned with their heads. Well, that in itself is hardly surprising, is it? The royal family of a country that rebels is always put to death.”
“…And after that, what on earth happened…”
“After returning from suppressing the rebellion, Sister held a banquet. Then she invited Adrian. As soon as the banquet began, Sister Victoria briefly left her seat, and a short while later, she approached Sister Adrian, who was eating, and whispered a single sentence into her ear.”
“……?”
“When Sister Adrian heard those words, she gagged, then cried and cried as she vomited up everything she had eaten… And then…… the next day, she hanged herself by the window of the detached palace.”
For a moment, nausea rose in my throat.
All sorts of curses and complicated thoughts passed through my mind, but there was only one thing I could say.
“…Don’t tell me what I’m thinking is correct.”
“On that day of all days, the imperial mages who were supposed to be watching the surroundings were strangely slow to respond. As if they had waited until she had surely breathed her last.”
Chloe sobbed for breath. Her tears fell, drop by drop, onto the old book she had taken back from me.
“Ever since that day…… I have been unable to forgive Sister Victoria. I never will, not until the day I die.”
In the vast, quiet library, only the wounded youngest imperial princess’s sorrowful tears continued to pour without end.