Side Story Chapter 1 2024.06.
2
0. It was late at night, but the corridor was bright enough that one need not rely on lanterns. A loose white shirt and dark trousers, simply tied at the waist with a cord. Over them, the man wore a robe of deep navy velvet, its short nap almost without sheen, embroidered with vine patterns in gold thread. His height, towering well above average, and his broad shoulders alone made him sufficiently intimidating. Thud. Thud. There was no one who did not know that the king visited the queen’s bedchamber every single night without fail. In particular, when he was on his way to Clodel’s bedchamber to rest, he tended to act impatiently, as though he had left his reason back in the office. “Your Majesty. I have something urgent to report. A messenger has arrived from the Verhel estate……” “Now?” At the cold reply that came back at once, cutting him off, it was painfully obvious that Kaian’s mood had soured. The servants newly brought into the castle to suit the dignity of a kingdom were soon able to engrave one lesson upon their hearts: one must never stop the king on his way to the queen. The young king did return to his office and work, but he handled matters even more sharply and coldly than usual. “Whew. I thought I was too scared to breathe.” At the complaints of the newcomers, those who had worked there since the days of the Rowen estate squared their shoulders with pride. “What’s so frightening about that? Before Madam—no, before Her Majesty came, he was someone who never once smiled in front of others.” In any case, the way he headed toward Queen Clodel’s bedchamber was like a great beast padding at leisure, so no one wished to offend him. As Kaian, dressed comfortably, walked down the long, straight corridor, the attendants and guards standing in pairs here and there bowed respectfully each time he passed. “How cumbersome.” Kaian sighed inwardly. The Rowen estate had many farmers overall, so there were few of the disputes that occurred in bustling cities. Since the harvest depended on the will of the heavens, those who cultivated the land treated it reverently, like priests praying each day with humble hearts. And because tending and nurturing it was something done together in cooperative units rather than alone, there were not many reasons for them to fight among themselves. If anything, even those with not a drop of blood in common lived like family. A land that, due to its geography, suffered no foreign invasions, where people did not quarrel, and where respect for the lord ran high. As they prepared for war with Vermonte, Temnes held a tremendous advantage in the greatest portion of military expenditures: feeding and clothing the troops. Others had to maintain armies at such expense it was frightening, but here, they could feed them with what they cultivated and solve the matter of clothing by growing cotton in bulk and making cotton-padded winter uniforms. Rowen, whose very foundation was made up of people who diligently did as they were quietly ordered, had its easy points to govern. As a result, there had been little need to concern oneself much with security inside the castle, and anyone who was a subject of the Rowen estate could cross the drawbridge and enter within the castle walls. The problem was that there had been no great difficulty getting even farther inside the castle. After all, an orchard keeper had once infiltrated the lady’s room, and because everyone had gone off somewhere, no one had stopped him. Now, guards standing watch in shifts and attendants were stationed everywhere, their eyes alert. At this hour, Kaian was the only one who would pass through the corridor before Clodel’s room, yet there were eighteen people waiting there to greet him. “This is really something. It isn’t as though I can order them all to withdraw.” Clodel’s safety was one thing, but now they had to be far more cautious than before for Julien’s protection as well. Even so, the sight of people lined up bowing their heads to him along the corridor he walked with wholly selfish intentions subtly clashed with Kaian’s practical tastes, and he sometimes found himself sighing. Creak. Kaian pushed open the door to her bedchamber without knocking. The door opened quietly with only the faint sound of the hinges moving, then closed without a sound. Inside the dim room, a single oil lamp had been lit, its flame lowered. As he approached the spacious bed, he saw Clodel and Julien asleep in the middle. Before he knew it, there were only a little over two months left until Julien’s second birthday. One plump little calf had slipped out from under the blanket. His chubby instep and toes rested adorably atop the blanket, casting round, fluffy shadows like clumps of cloud. Perhaps sensing something in her sleep, Clodel lay on her side, her left arm pulling the baby into her embrace, while her right arm seemed to wrap around the baby’s leg that had escaped the blanket. “Heh.” A laugh escaped him. To Kaian, maternal love was instinctive. Even in her sleep, she must have worried the baby might feel chilled by the cool early spring night breeze, and yet, unable to pull the blanket over him, she had tried to shield him with her own body. Beneath the soft light covered by a glass shade, the sight of his wife sleeping with her red hair spread loose and the baby in her arms made her look almost like a phoenix embracing its chick. Kaian stood still and looked down at that scene for a long while, then suddenly sighed. “Haa.” These were the two people he had to protect, even at the cost of his life. Yet with perfect peace before his eyes, he felt a little stifled in the chest. “A little?” Kaian questioned his own thought. More than a little, perhaps. Clodel had become able to sleep well at night. “Why can’t you sleep? You can’t sleep alone?” “That’s…… It’s been like that ever since I first came to Valmonde Castle.” “You haven’t been able to sleep well since your parents passed away, then.” Even back when things between them were still awkward, had she not pleaded with him to help her sleep? From what he had heard then, Clodel’s insomnia stemmed from the absence of Evan and Leonie. But even her parents’ return alive had not driven away the insomnia that had tormented her for so long. “Perhaps because Madam has suffered from the symptoms for too long, it has become a chronic condition.” The castle’s resident physician had clicked his tongue in pity. Though her parents’ survival had been granted to her life like a miracle, she still could not escape the suffering that plagued her every day. And yet Clodel’s insomnia improved. It was thanks to none other than Julien. What she suffered from was a kind of anxiety that made her unable to sleep if she could not sense another person beside her. Until around his first birthday, Julien slept well in the nursery under the care of Madam Repel and the nurse. But the child changed when he was about a year and a half old. “Waaah!” The baby who woke crying in the middle of the night made a terrible fuss, as though he had been startled out of his wits. “Waaah! Ma! Mama!” Julien, who had just begun making sounds resembling “mama” and “papa” and was at the height of his cuteness, could not calm down and searched for Clodel. Normally, a baby should settle down again and fall asleep once the nanny and nurse soothed him, but he would not stop crying, to the point that even Clodel and Kaian, who were sleeping in their bedchamber, woke. “Hnnng.” The baby, who had cried so hard the corners of his eyes turned red and swollen, finally calmed only when his mother held him and soothed him, then fell asleep again. It was not common in noble families or royal households for parents and child to sleep together. Even for mothers of noble birth, socializing and companionship were far more important than raising their children. Why else did nurses exist? There were many who did not even once put their own newborns to the breast before heading to a party as soon as they had recovered. Kaian, too, had never fallen asleep together with his mother. As far as he remembered, when he was two or three years old, he slept entirely in his own room with his nurse sitting beside him on a chair, patting and soothing him. Madam Elise would sometimes come at night to read him fairy tales or sing him lullabies, but it was not every day. In any case, because Julien cried hysterically every night in search of Clodel, she brought the baby to the bedchamber to soothe him. And perhaps thanks to the baby’s body heat, while soothing Julien, the two would fall asleep together. “……
Has it been about a month since I properly saw her face?” Since Julien’s birthday had been made the founding anniversary, it was easy to tell how time passed. After causing a major incident at his son’s birthday banquet last year, Kaian had been busy in many ways for the next ten months. Even occasionally leaving the castle for a day or two to tour the estate had made for busy days, but now he had to concern himself with the newly incorporated lands beyond Rowen as well. It had been a long time since he had been able to share lunch with Clodel, which he had tried to do almost every day without fail. She, in her own way, also had to spend time inviting the wives of lords as queen or hold social gatherings. “It seems it will be difficult for us to have lunch together for a while.” At Kaian’s words, Clodel smiled lightly. “Why are you bringing that up so solemnly? Am I some child who can’t even eat unless you feed me?” It was because of Herzol that she had been ill and unable to swallow food well. Kaian, who had not known that at the time, had forced her to eat and scolded her, asking why she would eat what he gave her so well but not eat on her own. But he had become intoxicated with the act of the daughter of an enemy family, someone to whom he could not open his heart, obediently eating what he gave her. In truth, he had shared lunch with her in order to speak even one more word to the woman he was drawn to. And then she recovered her health. She ate well on her own even without him feeding her. She vigorously carried out the duties of queen that had suddenly been given to her. And she became able to sleep well even without him putting her to sleep at night. He could not understand why all of that made him feel so lonely. He sighed, then lay down on his side facing Clodel, with Julien between them. “Clodel. ……
Are you asleep?” Out of lingering regret, Kaian quietly called her for no reason, then closed his eyes as he breathed in the scent of the baby beside him. *** Queen Clodel of the Rowen Kingdom was widely known as a beauty. The days when she had been treated coldly in this castle had long since been forgotten. Having even given birth to the child who would become the heir, the now-settled woman always wore a gentle smile, as if to prove her happiness. Today, however, that smile vanished at the shocking words she had just heard. At the words of the physician, who had now become the Rowen royal palace physician because of a lifetime contract, her eyes grew round. “His Majesty has insomnia?”