[Episode 29] - What Remained in the Box (2)
Leaving the princess in Ellie’s care, I headed for the “room” where Baengsho was said to be.
When I arrived before the room, the sight before me stood in stark contrast to the way it had always been—deserted, with its doors firmly shut. The two great doors were flung wide open, and the corridor was crowded with knights who had come to inspect the inside.
Among them, I saw Baengsho quietly sobbing, clutching his face as though he could not believe what was happening. After taking a brief deep breath, I approached his side and stood there, looking around the room.
...It was no different from last time.
The room was filled with paintings the king had drawn, and on the bed lay the king’s dried, shriveled corpse. If there was anything different from then, it was the corpse of the First Queen, discovered collapsed on the floor.
The knights seeing the room for the first time could not help but frown at its grotesqueness. Paintings of Aurora plastered all the way up to the ceiling. The corpse of the First Queen, Aurora, who should have been in her tomb.
And the two corpses, so dried and withered they seemed almost entirely drained of blood. Even the physicians who had come to investigate the king’s death could only shake their heads as they looked upon the king’s body in the room.
“His Majesty’s cause of death is...”
In the end, the physicians who examined the king’s corpse could only arrive at this conclusion. The reason the king had died was a simple “death from weakness.” The king, who had loved the First Queen too deeply, had succumbed to lovesickness.
They could not know why the First Queen’s body was here, but judging from the number of paintings of the First Queen piled up in the room and hanging throughout the main palace, the physicians had no choice but to reach that conclusion.
After looking around the room for a while, I let out a heavy sigh and lightly tapped Baengsho, who stood beside me, on the shoulder. Perhaps he had been too dazed to notice me; only then did Baengsho realize I had arrived and look at me with weary eyes.
“Your Majesty...”
“...Are you all right?”
“His Majesty’s door had not opened for four days, so we forced it open to confirm His Majesty’s safety, but... in the end, His Majesty...”
Unable to say anything, I simply nodded.
How was I supposed to react here? Like Vivian, who was said to have loved the king, should I be shocked or grief-stricken? Or should I fly into a jealous rage, demanding to know why the First Queen was here?
...There was no point in acting out emotions I could not even understand. It would only look awkward. I said nothing and did nothing, merely gazing into the room with a bitter expression.
As I stared into the room in silence, Baengsho instead began to comfort me. Sniffling and wiping away his tears, Baengsho held out a fresh handkerchief to me.
“Your Majesty... are you all right...?”
“...I am fine, so wipe your own tears. And...”
Most likely, Baengsho had known as well. Looking at the food rotting before the door, Baengsho must have expected this situation to some extent. I let out a small sigh and gazed distantly into the room.
“Did you not already suspect it too—that a day like this would come someday?”
“Th-that is...”
Perhaps because he could not deny my words, Baengsho searched desperately for an excuse with trembling lips, but in the end, he could not utter a single word. I patted Baengsho on the shoulder, then gave orders to the knights and physicians in the room.
“...Investigate His Majesty’s death thoroughly, then cleanse and prepare the body properly, and make solemn arrangements for the funeral. And inform Her Majesty the Queen Dowager and the Council of Elders of this at once.”
“Yes, Your Majesty!”
“And... issue a gag order regarding the First Queen. For now, speak of it to no one except Her Majesty the Queen Dowager.”
At my command, everyone began to move busily.
For an entire day, the most renowned physicians in the kingdom examined the king’s body, but in the end, they all shook their heads and concluded that the king’s cause of death was a simple “death from weakness.”
The day after the king’s death was confirmed, the national flag hanging from the highest spire of the royal palace was lowered to announce his passing, and a black flag was raised in its place.
Once the flag was hoisted on the spire, knights on horseback began galloping out beyond the palace gates, black flags and national banners fixed to their backs. It was to inform the nobles in the provinces of the king’s death.
And so, amid a solemn atmosphere, the king’s funeral began.
*
The king’s funeral continued for ten days under the direction of the Queen Dowager and the temple.
Originally, a king’s funeral would take a long time—half a year at the shortest, and as long as a year. When the Queen Dowager said the funeral would last only ten days, the nobles objected, saying that ten days was far too short for the funeral of a royal.
However, the Queen Dowager drew the line by saying, “I have considered His Majesty as good as dead since he entered seclusion two years ago. Since two whole years have already passed, ten days should be more than enough for the funeral.”
In the letters sent to the provincial nobles, she added that they should mourn where they were and need not come all the way to the royal castle. Even so, there were still provincial nobles who rode day and night for three days to arrive.
As queen, I also had many duties to perform during the funeral. At the very least, I had to attend every part of the funeral rites. Washing the king’s body, praying for an entire day, and so on.
I had to endure such a busy schedule that I could not even tell how the funeral was progressing, including greeting the nobles in attendance. It was made even harder by the fact that the nobles I met did not look kindly upon me.
After spending such hectic days, the final day of the funeral arrived before I knew it. The last rite was held inside a temple larger and more majestic than the cathedral-like building I had seen at “Vivian’s” funeral.
Everyone attending the funeral gathered in plain attire and commemorated the king’s death in a solemn atmosphere. I, too, attended the funeral dressed simply, holding the princess’s hand.
...Over the past ten days, the princess had not cried once.
She had not shed a single tear over the death of the king, her parent. Even when she was told of the king’s death, the princess had only fallen into shock. She said nothing, merely wearing sorrowful eyes.
That sight pained me.
Because she seemed to have resigned herself to everything, to the point that she could not even grieve for the death of her parent. Because the child who had struggled until the very end to receive her parent’s love seemed to have given up on everything.
“Princess. Let us go and bid him farewell one last time.”
The final rite of the funeral began.
It was the rite of placing flowers in the coffin where the king lay and saying one’s final farewell. I placed a single white lily in the princess’s hand. Then the princess blankly stared at the white lily she held.
Together, the princess and I carried our lilies toward the king’s coffin. As we walked toward it, countless gazes fixed on the princess and me, but I did my best to ignore them and walked forward, holding the princess’s hand.
When we arrived before the coffin, the king’s corpse came into view, his face covered by a white cloth. I gently placed my flower on the king’s hand and offered a brief prayer in my heart.
The princess hesitated for a moment, then placed her lily on the king’s chest. Just as I waited for the princess’s prayer to end, tears began to fall, drop by drop, from her large eyes.
The princess, still holding my hand, looked up at me as tears streamed down her face.
And as if she found it strange, she asked me,
“Like, like Your Majesty... he isn’t waking up... I, I was sure... like Your Majesty... if I gave him a flower... he would wake up... But he, he isn’t waking up...”
Ah.
Seeing the princess’s expression, I unconsciously clenched my teeth.
I felt as though I finally understood why the princess had not cried until now.
The princess had not resigned herself at all. Just as I had opened my eyes at the funeral, she must have been clinging to the tiniest shred of hope that the king might open his eyes during the funeral as well.
But such a thing did not happen.
Even though the princess placed the flower down, the king did not rise from that spot.
When her truly final, single thread of hope collapsed, all that remained for the princess was devastation. As though the heart she had been holding together finally crumbled, the princess’s legs gave out as well.
The princess, who had been standing while holding my hand, dropped to her knees and sank down onto the floor. Wiping away the tears pouring down like a sudden shower again and again with the backs of her hands, the princess wailed before the coffin where the king lay.
“Daddy, Daddy,” she cried.
Calling out for the father she had never once called that before, the princess grieved the death of her parent. I lifted the princess from the floor into my arms and kept stroking her back, again and again.
For the princess, who was sobbing with her entire body and could not even breathe properly from crying, all I could do was hold her like this or stroke her back.
Though they were parents who had never once loved the princess.
To the princess, it seemed they were the only parents she had in the world.
As I looked at the princess sobbing in my arms, I felt that for the first time since coming here, I thought this.
That even if it was only me, I should stay by this child’s side.
By the side of this child, who had nowhere at all to rely on.
That I wanted to become someone this child could depend on.
For the first time, I thought that.
*
Once the ten-day funeral came to an end, before I could even take off my mourning clothes, I was summoned by the Queen Dowager and headed straight for the grand conference hall of the royal castle. It was not only me; all the nobles of the kingdom’s Council of Elders, including Baengsho, had been called together.
Normally, it was not easy for the nobles of the Council of Elders to gather in one place.
Only in a national emergency such as the king’s funeral could they barely be brought together. The Queen Dowager, not letting that opportunity slip, convened a great council before the Council of Elders could leave the royal castle.
...I had a rough idea what sort of meeting it would be.
A meeting to fill the now-empty throne.
The Queen Dowager likely intended to rule as regent in place of the young princess. Honestly, there was no other way. Even if the Queen Dowager was old, it was not as though I could do it in her place.
To begin with, I had no confidence in managing state affairs. And on top of that, I was “Liliensol,” someone who had not received the royal family’s “surname.” So it was obvious no one would suggest entrusting state affairs to me.
‘Thinking about it now, maybe it was fortunate that “Vivian” never spent the first night with the king... No, maybe not...’
...In truth, the most important matter in this meeting was not the Queen Dowager’s regency, but the issue concerning me.
At least when the king had still been alive, even that shut-in of a king could serve as my backing.
After all, as long as the king was alive, there remained the chance that one day I might receive the king’s seed and give birth to this country’s “little sun.” Even if the king was an unemployed shut-in, that opportunity existed as long as he was alive.
But the king had died, and what was more, the Second Queen had not even spent the first night with him in the two years since their marriage.
From the royal family’s perspective, the reason for me to remain here had vanished entirely.
It would be stranger if no one said in this meeting, “Expel the Second Queen, who has not received the royal family’s surname!”
Feeling suffocated, I untied the ribbon binding my hair and arrived before the grand conference hall with my hair loose and disheveled. I was nervous and was about to take a brief deep breath before entering when—
The chamberlain standing before the door met my eyes and, before I could stop him, loudly announced my arrival to the council chamber.
“The Second Queen! Her Majesty Queen Vivian Liliensol is entering!”
No!
The moment that shout ended, the great doors began to open slowly with the sound of scraping against the floor. What appeared beyond the doors was an unbelievably large round table.
At the center of the round table sat the Queen Dowager, dressed in black mourning clothes, and around her sat rows of nobles in mourning clothes who looked like old raccoons.
They were all ministers in charge of the kingdom’s administrative departments. The Ministry of the Royal Household, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of the Interior, and so on—countless ministers glanced at me as I entered the conference hall.
And in the seat directly opposite the Queen Dowager was my place. At the burdensome seating arrangement, I swallowed dryly without realizing it.
When I glanced around the conference hall with only my eyes, everyone except me was already seated, as if I were the last to arrive. What was this? I was sure I had come thirty minutes earlier than the meeting time I had been told.
For the time being, I bowed my head and offered an apology.
“I apologize for being late, Your Majesty the Queen Dowager.”
“No, you arrived on time. Take your seat quickly.”
...What was going on?
For now, I quickly sat down as the Queen Dowager gestured.
Once I took my seat, the pressure of the nobles’ gazes gathering on me from all around was no joke. Fortunately, when the Queen Dowager raised her hand and gestured, the nobles’ gazes shifted to her in an instant.
“Then, since everyone has gathered, let us begin the meeting.”