256 - Secret Tea Party 3
While eating sweets and talking about Dietfried's educational progress and whether there were any inconveniences in life at the detached palace, one steward whispered something to Elvis. After the steward left, Elvis stood up, and Gloriana followed suit. I'm not sure if it was the fruit of my ladyship education or my skill as a former Japanese person at reading the atmosphere that let me realize I should do the same. Since Felicia also rose at almost the same time as me, standing up was probably the right call. Leonardo and the other Silver-White knights who had been standing near the door as guards lined up to welcome whoever was coming, facing the front where Elvis stood.
...What day is it really today?
Having not been told anything in advance, I could only be confused. The new arrival that the Silver-White knights lined up for and Elvis went to greet was King Christoph, accompanied by one lady's maid.
When Christoph entered the reception room, Gloriana helped him remove his luxurious cloak. I would think that sort of thing is the lady's maid's job, but the maid Christoph brought had both hands full with a box, so she couldn't attend to Christoph. Then shouldn't Nadine do it, I also wondered, but I was smiling at the sight of Gloriana busily tending to her husband. Perhaps today's reception room was a private space, and this was simply a wife taking care of her husband.
"I think it would be better if I didn't intrude."
Handing Christoph's cloak to her own lady's maid, Gloriana took her leave. I was supposed to be at the consort's detached palace, yet what kind of tea party was this where the consort herself became an 'intrusion'? Feeling anxious, I turned my gaze toward Leonardo, but it seemed that even outsiders couldn't remain in a tea party the consort was leaving, as the Silver-White knights were also being ushered out.
...Huh? Wait. What kind of conversation is really about to start here?
Left in the room were me, Felicia, Elvis, Nadine, Christoph, and the lady's maid he had brought with him. In a place that drove out even Gloriana, Christoph's lady's maid seemed to be the kind of person who would be kept.
"...Is Alfred doing well?"
Taking a sip of the tea freshly brewed by Nadine, Christoph, who had also moistened his own lips, brought that up. I thought it was a rather strange question, but it seemed I was the one being asked, so I thought about it a little.
"I believe Alfred-sama headed toward the city of Grenore, but did you not meet with him before he departed?"
After all, Christoph was his father, so he should have had more opportunities to meet with Alfred than I did. Yet he was asking me whether his son (Alfred) was doing well. As my head filled with question marks, Elvis provided the answer to my question.
"What Father meant just now is the Alfred who is in the city of Grenore. He goes by Alf now, doesn't he?"
Apparently, since going to the city of Grenore with Leonardo, Alf hadn't sent a single personal letter to the capital or to his family home. Regular report-like letters did arrive, but there seemed to be no personal content whatsoever about how he was doing. Since his private life was completely invisible, they had been worried, it seemed.
"This lady's maid here is Clarice. She serves the queen, but she was Alfred's wet nurse."
"Alfred-sama's wet nurse, you say... Then she's Alf-san's mother?"
"That's right."
The lady's maid introduced as Clarice lowered her head slightly. Hearing she was Alf's mother, I observed her anew, but she didn't seem very similar to him. She was a rather plain-featured woman. If I had to forcibly find something similar between her and Alf, it would be the color of her hair, perhaps.
...Alf-san takes after his father, huh.
I've heard stories about mothers being wet nurses for princes and the children becoming milk siblings, but I felt like I'd never once heard about Alf's father. When I returned to Grenore, it might be interesting to ask him about it sometime.
...Also, I think I understand now why Christoph-sama suddenly asked about Alf-san. He wanted to let Alf-san's mother hear about how Alf-san is doing.
Once I understood that, there was plenty I could talk about. All I had to do was tell them about Alf's recent situation, so it was easy.
"Alf-san is doing well. He's kind, gentle, a gentleman... and he's more reliable than Leonyaldo Big Brother, though that's a secret or he'll get sulky."
I added that he was also a valuable person in Grenore who scolded Leonardo, and Clarice smiled a troubled smile. The atmosphere of that smiling face resembled Alf, so I thought they were definitely mother and child.
"There's one more reason I barged into this tea party today."
After I finished telling them about Alf's situation in Grenore for a while, Christoph straightened his posture, and my back naturally straightened too. There was no way the king would clear the room just to let his wife's lady's maid hear news of Alf.
"Please take a look at this."
What was placed before me as he said this was the box Clarice had been carrying. I wonder what this is? Leaning forward to peek inside, Clarice opened the lid and showed me the contents.
"Documents?"
The bundle of papers packed into the box with almost no gaps was clearly documents. And judging by the contents I saw when I flipped through them, they were similar to reports.
...Why are you showing me reports?
I wondered what kind of reports these were, and picked out some words to read. Vomiting, coma, spitting blood, rash, drop in body temperature -- the reports contained rather ominous words.
"What kind of reports are these?"
"These are records of the condition of my queen, Evelina."
"Her condition?"
I've never once met Evelina, who was the mother of Alfred and Felicia. Normally, there should be no chance for a commoner like me to meet the queen, but the royalty of this country were more than a little different from what I considered normal. I could think it wouldn't be strange if she barged into the detached palace for fun, but that hadn't happened. Then perhaps Evelina was a queen full of the kind of aristocratic elitism that looked down on others? That was a possibility I could consider, but if she were that kind of queen, she wouldn't be able to endure a son as free-spirited as Alfred. So I thought, then why doesn't she show herself, and the reason was probably in these reports. The reports said to record her condition existed not in a cute little bundle, but in a substantial pile.
"Evelina is, how should I say... she lives a life mostly bedridden."
Although she was treated as the legal wife due to her family's status and called 'Her Majesty the Queen,' her presence was surprisingly faint. She apparently lived a life of lying in bed all year round, a queen who could rarely be seen even within the royal castle. However, she seemed sensitive to her own condition, and both those around her and she herself were careful not to let her health deteriorate. That care showed results, and she sometimes could leave her bed for short periods, but the moment she let her guard down even a little, she would immediately become a resident of the bed again. She had apparently been living like that for a long time.
...Why are you telling me all this?
I thought so, but I listened with a solemn face. Even I could tell this wasn't just casual chatter.
"Was Her Majesty the Queen originally a person with a weak constitution?"
"If she had been sickly from the start, she wouldn't have borne five children. She was healthy before marriage and apparently rarely fell ill."
After all, if she were an unhealthy daughter, she would never have been recommended as a bride for a prince. I could only nod at these words. Even though there were two other consorts, of course they would want children from the legal wife. There was no way they would offer a prince a sickly daughter who might not even be able to bear children.
...But she used to be healthy, and now she lives a bedridden life...?
Incidentally, Gloriana, Christoph's other wife, had left the tea party, saying she would be in the way. The consorts seemed to get along well, supporting Christoph, but if the queen Evelina were there, would things be different? I had a bad feeling about this, and naturally, a frown formed between my brows.
"We believe someone is poisoning her."
Even though she herself and those around her were careful, the fact that she still fell ill suggested there was likely someone who had infiltrated deep within the royal castle.
"...Why would you tell a child like me about such important matters?"
Honestly, this conversation is too heavy and exhausting, I swallowed that thought. No matter how you looked at it, this wasn't content for telling an eleven-year-old child, even if she was a reincarnator.
"I thought that if you could decipher Saint Yuuta Hiraga's research materials, you might be able to alleviate the queen's symptoms. That among that treasure trove, there might be an antidote."
"If there was an antidote among the Saint's secret arts, wouldn't you have asked Aurelia-san?"
"Of course, I've had Aurelia's help for some time now. I believe it's entirely thanks to Aurelia's skill that the queen has managed to recover every time she's collapsed. But..."
Aurelia is dead, Christoph said. With Aurelia, who had protected Evelina's life all this time, now gone, if something happened next, it might be the end for the queen.
"Until Alfred returns from Grenore, you will have some time. Please use that time to look through these records, and when you decipher the Saint's research materials, keep an eye out for an antidote effective against the queen's symptoms. That is all I ask."
He wanted clues to an antidote, but didn't ask for anything beyond that. The compounding of medicines would be handled by the Sedovara Church, so I didn't need to worry about it, Christoph said. I only needed to find clues.
"I understand about looking through the records, but there's no guarantee there's an antidote in Saint Yuuta Hiraga's research materials, you know?"
Although they were called research materials, they had a strong diary-like quality to them, I honestly touched on the contents of the research materials. The pile of papers could probably be compiled into several thick books, but I thought the number of medicines that could actually be picked out from them wouldn't match the expectations set by their thickness.
"That's fine too. If there's even a possibility it might keep the queen alive, I want to cling to it."
...Isn't he expecting a bit too much? Of Saint Yuuta Hiraga-san.
Even the king couldn't help but bow his head, he was so hopeful and expectant. It wasn't expectation directed at me, but even so, it was more than a little heavy. I wondered if Saint Yuuta Hiraga had felt like this during his lifetime.
"A girl shouldn't be furrowing her brow like that."
Felicia's white finger smoothed out my brow, and the frown between my eyes relaxed. It seemed I had been lost in thought while being rocked in the carriage on the way back from the detached palace.
"I understand everyone's expectations of Saint Yuuta Hiraga's research materials, but are medicine and antidote the same thing?"
I'd heard that Saint Yuuta Hiraga created medicines to cure illnesses, but I didn't know of any story about him making antidotes for poison. If we're considering medicines with detoxifying properties, there might be a possibility, but from the way Christoph spoke, it seemed he was convinced there was a method of detoxification among the Saint's secret arts. And if he might be convinced of that, it wouldn't be strange if Christoph had already identified the nature of the poison, or even the person who might possess it.
...Huh? It's not about finding the culprit, but about making an antidote? Wouldn't that just be playing whack-a-mole?
If a new poison was administered every time an antidote was made, the queen would never recover her health. That meant the culprit hadn't been identified yet, perhaps.
As I grew confused, not understanding what was going on, Felicia slightly furrowed her willow-leaf brows.
"Have you never heard about the sages and the witches? About the time when those who correctly inherited Saint Yuuta Hiraga's secret arts were called sages or wise women, and all others were called witches."
"I think I've heard of it. That someone tried to perform the secret arts with half-baked knowledge, and the medicine turned into poison... Ah."
Saying it out loud, I realized. The medicine Saint Yuuta Hiraga created and the poison the witches made were, at their root, the same thing. I'd heard that from truly trivial mistakes in procedure or the like, medicine transformed into poison.
"...That's why Aurelia-san was able to deal with it."
Aurelia probably understood, just from hearing the symptoms, which medicine had transformed into which poison. Because she would prescribe according to the symptoms, it always took time, but even so, it had managed to work up until now. And now, Aurelia, who had been protecting Evelina's life all this time, was no more.
"Did Christoph-sama have any idea who was administering the poison?"
"About twenty years ago, one witch died."
From the flow of the conversation, I understood 'witch' didn't refer to the kind Aurelia was sometimes called, but to an inheritor of the secret arts who had created poison. Still, I was a little surprised that someone called a witch had existed as recently as twenty years ago. I had felt like the era when wise women were called witches, and when they were hunted, was in the distant past.
...But if there was a wise woman (Aurelia), it wouldn't be strange for there to be witches... would it?
Something felt off, but I tilted my head and continued listening to Felicia's words. The witch's death and Evelina being bedridden from poison didn't connect.
"Wasn't the witch managed by the Sedovara Church and made to disappear?"
I'd heard that after the proliferation of witches and wise women, the Sedovara Church strictly managed Saint Yuuta Hiraga's secret arts. If that were the case, the witch's poisons should naturally have been managed or disposed of.
"It's a sad story, but poison can also be a weapon. I wish the medicines that saved people had been the ones to remain, but it was the poisons that killed people that ended up surviving."
"...I think I understand that, somehow."
As Felicia said, it would have been better if the medicines that saved people had survived, but humans weren't such pure creatures. If it was medicine for family, they wanted it, but they didn't need medicine to heal their enemies. What they wanted to put into their enemies' mouths was not medicine to heal illness, but poison to take life. It wouldn't be strange at all if people chose to actively use poison. Even if the Sedovara Church managed the witches and wise women, the difficult secret arts for healing were lost somewhere along the way, while the much easier-to-handle poison took root in this world. The original forms Saint Yuuta Hiraga had created were already lost, and in various places, they were being used as poison, for better or worse.
"But why bring up the witch from twenty years ago?"
"Mother has collapsed many times, but I think it all started with an incident twenty years ago."
Probably the first time poison was administered was to Alfred, Felicia said. Alfred had inexplicably fallen ill, and when the concerned Evelina nursed him, she noticed the poison that had been administered to Alfred.
"Alfred-sama was poisoned too?"
"Back then, Alfred was being praised as a prodigy born of the legal wife and all that... so someone must have been jealous."
"Jealousy..."
Was this really something that could be glossed over with such a light tone? I thought so, but it wasn't my place to interfere, so I kept quiet. I'd forgotten because the royals were unbelievably approachable, but nobles were indeed a race of people you couldn't let your guard down around.
"Of course Father searched for the culprit. The lady's maid who carried it out committed suicide. By the time they traced the poison's supply route and reached one witch, that witch too had apparently swallowed her own poison and died."
"To silence her?"
"There was no other explanation. But no evidence whatsoever remained. Frustratingly, that incident was dismissed as the culprit's poison suicide."
Felicia said the details might be recorded in the documents I'd been given, so I couldn't help but drop my gaze to the box on my lap. It was important, so instead of putting it on the luggage rack, I'd brought it onto the seat with me.
It seemed Felicia wasn't the only one who thought the attempted poisoning of Alfred might be the beginning of the poison being administered to Evelina. The details of the incident when Alfred was poisoned were placed on top, so I could see them immediately.
"...Whoa. This is pitch black. There's no way the culprit isn't still alive and kicking."
Among the records I flipped through, there were details about the witch's residence where her body was found. The room had been set on fire and ransacked, and medicine bottles were smashed. They hadn't been able to identify it immediately, but it seemed the witch had been meticulous, and records of purchases for materials and such were found in the burned remains, and by cross-referencing them, they discovered that several poisons and books had been taken out. I'd like to see the face of any idiot who could consider this case closed with the witch as the culprit.
...Who was the fool who marked this as resolved? There's still plenty of investigation needed.
Clarice's trivial secret. It was supposed to be the queen's name, but I forgot I'd named her and used a generator instead (idiot), so I recycled it as the lady's maid's name... ahem.