[Episode 113] - A Letter from a Beloved (1)
「To my beloved daughter, Titania.」
「Only after reading your letter saying you had arrived at the academy did my heart finally feel at ease.」
「Ever since you left for the academy, I have been troubled by a sense of emptiness, though I am living just as I always have. The mere fact that you are not by my side makes the royal castle feel vast, and I can hardly put my hands to work. It is truly troubling.」
「...As for my own story, I am troubled because there is nothing to write in a letter. I am living so much the same as always that you could see it even with your eyes closed. Instead, it seems there is a little I can write about the royal castle. A few days ago, I received something good from Her Majesty the Queen Dowager.」
*
“Phew...”
“Why are you sighing as if the earth itself is about to sink?”
As I peeled the fruit the maid had brought for a sick visit, I could not hold back my sigh even in front of the Queen Dowager, who was the patient. After all, I had far too many worries these days.
Looking after state affairs in the Queen Dowager’s stead was no easy task. Whenever meetings began, ministers and nobles raised their voices, and they even threw punches right there. It was truly no small amount of stress.
I had reached the point of wondering just how the Queen Dowager had kept those beasts, whose only talent was having loud voices, under control all this time. I glanced up at the Queen Dowager, smiled bitterly, and began to complain.
“With each passing day, my respect for Your Majesty the Queen Dowager rises higher and higher until it seems ready to pierce the heavens. I do not know how you led the nation with nobles like those.”
At my grumbling, the Queen Dowager chuckled. As if to say, now do you understand my suffering, she was busy laughing at me, unable to stop now that she had seen someone enduring the same pain as herself.
“Well... there is a good method.”
“Truly?”
When I asked in curiosity, the Queen Dowager pointed with her finger at a desk drawer in the room. I set down the fruit I had been peeling and opened the drawer she had indicated.
Inside it was...
“That will be of help to you.”
“T-This, you mean? This is...”
A long rod made of wood. No, a carved wooden club.
Beside it was a very thin switch.
A switch that looked as if it would truly hurt if one were struck with it.
“Those are what I used in my younger days when educating the current ministers.”
“With this... you mean?”
“Yes. If they do not listen, I cannot very well cut them down with a sword, so should I not at least beat them with a club? There is not a single one of them who has not been struck by me with that. So if you hold it, the ministers will remember the old days and tremble for a while.”
Your Majesty the Queen Dowager... Just how much did you beat the ministers in your younger days...?
Perhaps because it had been used for quite a long time, the square wooden club bore the marks of years exactly as they were. When I gripped the handle, wrapped in bandages to make it easier to hold, an inexplicable confidence began to boil up inside me.
I felt as though I understood why the Queen Dowager had placed this in my hands. When I gripped the wooden club tightly and looked at her, the Queen Dowager smiled in satisfaction and nodded. Just now, I had received permission from the Queen Dowager.
Permission to beat ministers and nobles with this club.
*
「I still cannot tell you what the item I received is, but I will take good care of it so that you may use it even after you graduate. You too will surely wonder what it is at first, but once you actually use it, you will understand the merits of this object. It feels as though the truths of the world are contained within it.」
「In any case, after receiving this, my life in the royal castle became a little easier. I truly cannot thank Her Majesty the Queen Dowager enough.」
「Since I have brought up Her Majesty the Queen Dowager, do not send letters only to me; write to Her Majesty as well. The Queen Dowager misses you very much.」
*
As the meeting dragged on, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Minister of Education began fighting like mad dogs once again. The other ministers and nobles, as though to say, “Again?” were busy sighing and sipping the tea set before them.
At the sound of the two mad dogs barking at each other, Baengsho frowned. Seeing that, I thought that the time had finally come to use the object I had received from the Queen Dowager.
Yes, if not now, then when would I use it?
“Now, everyone, attention.”
Rustle, rustle.
I took out the wooden club I had hidden beneath the desk before the meeting and placed it on the table.
At that moment, the ministers began to suffer trauma as they stared at the square wooden club, some letting out “Eek!” and others crying, “T-That is!” Was it just my imagination that I felt a strange thrill every time those sounds rang out?
Of course, even the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Minister of Education, who had been fighting like dogs until just now, fell silent in an instant as they looked at the wooden club on the desk and quietly took their seats. Just how badly had they been beaten with this thing...?
As a heavy silence settled over the meeting room, which had been like a marketplace until moments ago, I smiled brightly, lifted the wooden club, and struck it against my palm with a sharp smack! Smack!
“I trust that the clever ministers gathered here understand what it means that this is in my hand. No, if you do not understand, I will tell you myself.”
“......”
I looked around the meeting room, which had gone as quiet as if haunted, then continued with a smile.
“I hope there will be no day when I must use this on elderly ministers.”
““Yes... Your Majesty...””
*
「Not only Her Majesty the Queen Dowager, but everyone misses you. Even while I was reading the letter that came from you, Baengsho approached my side and asked whether there was nothing for him.」
「If possible, send a letter to Baengsho as well. When I told him there was no letter for him, his lips jutted out so far it was unpleasant to look at.」
「I am truly doing well. So do not worry about me. Rather, I worry about you. I am truly concerned whether you will be able to adapt well there.」
「Ainsel is there, and Veronica is by your side as well, so it should be all right, but I cannot help being worried. If you are willing, write to me about your life at the academy too.」
「Truly, I miss you. I will wait for your reply.
Vivian Liliensol, who misses you very much.」
Tap. I stopped the hand that had been moving over the stationery and chuckled as I read the letter I had written. This was my first time exchanging letters with Titania, so I wondered whether this was the right way to write one.
If it were a social invitation, I was confident I could write it well, but I had been at a loss as to how to write this sort of letter, so it seemed to have taken me far too long. I sighed, folded the letter in half, and placed it into the envelope I had prepared. Then I handed the prettily wrapped letter to the maid beside me and smiled.
“Send it as quickly as possible.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
At the same time the maid left the room, Baengsho knocked on the door and poked his head in. When I told him to enter, he came toward me with a weary expression. Baengsho, who smiled bitterly with an expression not much different from my own, had been my coworker these past few days, feeling the Queen Dowager’s absence together with me.
“Your Majesty, may I have a moment?”
“Yes, come and sit here.”
As time was what I had most in abundance, it was not difficult to spare some. I asked another maid standing behind me to prepare fresh tea and urged Baengsho to sit. Baengsho, seated in front of me, let out a sigh for a moment, then sighed deeply as if he did not know how to begin.
After sipping the tea the maid brought, Baengsho moved his lips hesitantly and said to me,
“Your Majesty, it is about the ‘promise’...”
“...I see. It would be better for the two of us to speak alone.”
At my words, the perceptive maid quietly slipped out of the room. Once only Baengsho and I remained in the room, Baengsho scratched the back of his head and continued. Though he had no hair to scratch.
“...According to the promise, Your Majesty is to remain here until Princess Titania graduates from the academy, are you not?”
“Yes, that is what we agreed.”
“By any chance... if Her Majesty the Queen Dowager gives her permission, would you consider remaining here just a little longer...?”
As I was sipping my tea, I opened my eyes wide and looked at Baengsho. Then I curved my eyes into a smile and answered him.
“Is that ‘your’ thought alone? Or is it the thought of all the ministers?”
“...For now, it is my thought alone.”
Of course it is.
There were ministers and nobles who disapproved of the current situation, in which I was working in place of Her Majesty the Queen Dowager. They said that the remaining royal, Titania, should be brought back from the academy at once, that this was no time for her to be playing around at the academy.
Fortunately, those remarks were still buried as the words of a minority, but depending on Her Majesty the Queen Dowager’s health, it was a situation in which they could become the words of the majority at any time. If Her Majesty the Queen Dowager were to fall into a coma, even...
“However, I will change the minds of the ministers and nobles who oppose it, no matter what it takes. And I will plead with Her Majesty the Queen Dowager myself. So, if Her Majesty the Queen Dowager gives her permission...”
“Baengsho.”
I carefully set down the teacup I had lifted and met Baengsho’s eyes.
“...Is Her Majesty the Queen Dowager’s condition that poor?”
“...They say one year if it is short, three years at most if it is long. It is not certain, but what is certain is that she does not have much time left.”
“I see...”
I felt I understood why Baengsho had come running to me in such anxiety. If I left this place and Her Majesty the Queen Dowager passed away, Titania, who would have just graduated from the academy, would be left alone in the royal castle.
Titania would be left alone, with no one to lean on.
Baengsho must surely have been asking me because he was worried about that as well. If I followed only my heart, I did not want to leave this place either. I wanted to welcome Titania when she graduated from the academy and watch by her side as she became queen. But...
“...What you are asking of me is no different from asking me to ‘rule from behind the curtain’ after Her Majesty the Queen Dowager passes away, until Titania becomes queen. Am I wrong?”
“......You are correct. It is exactly as you say.”
“Do you think the nobles would stand by and watch that? Titania is no longer a child, and with her having even graduated from the academy, do you think it would be possible for a second queen, one who has not even received the royal family name, to do such a thing? You are not saying you have forgotten the reason I must leave this place, are you, Baengsho?”
There was no way Baengsho did not know this. He could not have failed to know, yet news of Her Majesty the Queen Dowager must have made him so anxious and uneasy that he came to me. I fully understood that feeling, but...
“...Her Majesty the Queen Dowager has not passed away yet, so stop thinking such things and go out and do your work. What you should be doing now is not making such requests of me, but serving Her Majesty the Queen Dowager with all your heart.”
“...I will keep that in mind.”
“You may go.”
After bowing his head to me, Baengsho quietly slipped out of the room. After Baengsho left, I sipped my tea, and for some reason, it tasted bitter.
So bitter that I could not drink any more.
*
Dadadadat! Bang!
Just as the sound of someone running came from beyond the door, the door opened with a bang, and someone entered the room. Thinking that there was only one person who would enter her room without knocking, Titania sighed and glanced toward the door, where Viola stood panting.
Viola, her hair disheveled from running and her breath ragged, grinned and pulled a letter from her bosom, handing it to Titania. When Titania looked at the back of the letter and realized it had come from the royal castle, she smiled brightly.
“I brought your letter too while I was picking up what I was supposed to get. I did well, right?”
“Yes, thank you, Viola.”
As Titania looked at the letter from the royal castle, Viola pulled a book she had hidden like contraband from her bosom and grinned. Seeing the book Viola had taken out, Titania looked dumbfounded.
“Honestly, you smuggled one in ‘again’? You’ll be scolded if you get caught...”
“It’s fine, it’s fine. As long as I don’t get caught, that’s all that matters, right?”
“You were already caught once...”
Titania let out a deep sigh and shook her head. The academy had designated romance novels as “seditious books,” yet Viola kept secretly bringing them in; if one were to call it impressive, it was certainly impressive. If Viola used that passion for studying, taking first place at the academy would surely be as easy as eating cold porridge.
“If you keep saying things like that, I won’t lend it to you.”
“That’s a different matter. If you don’t lend it to me, I won’t help you with your assignments from now on either.”
“Ah! Princess! I’m sorry! Anything but that...!”
Pfft. Titania and Viola both burst into giggles at the same time.
Only after the two of them had laughed for quite a while did Viola take the book and return to her room, saying, “I’ll read it first and then lend it to you.” After the storm-like Viola had passed, Titania stared quietly at the letter Vivian had sent in the now-silent room.
“Truly, it takes nearly a month just for a letter to come and go.”
If she lived while waiting for her mother’s letters, three years would pass in no time, Titania thought, giggling. Then she stroked the letter and smiled bitterly with longing to see her mother.
“Three more years...”