290 - Leonardo's Past, Part 3
"Are White Knights... all like that man?"
"It shames me to say it. However, while I cannot claim those sorts are an extreme minority, neither do they represent all of us."
Since she suggested we change locations for the detailed discussion, I asked Giselle as we watched Ulrich being led away. According to Giselle, about half of the White Knights are nobles like Ulrich who mistakenly believe they are great simply because they were born into nobility, and most of them come from the Flower Peerage. If one considers the Loyalty Peerage as the starting line for nobility, falling from there leads to the Flower Peerage, so I could understand why those who misunderstand their standing are plentiful among the Flower Peerage. That was precisely why they were Flower Peerage.
My walk was cut short, since it would reduce the number of guards. As I returned to the detached palace building and asked about the White Knights, Giselle began saying something that made my eyes go wide.
"Regarding Ulrich, we will need to hear his account, but in truth, several offers have come to me as well, suggesting that I participate in a false kidnapping of Christina-sama."
"I love how you honestly tell me these things just like that, Giselle."
I suppose this is what they call an 'adorable fool.' She was the same breed as Leonardo.
Giselle, told that I 'loved' her, sincerely thanked me with a "Thank you very much," then after a brief pause, turned pale. She must have realized I did not mean it literally.
"Ah, no! I simply meant that such offers have come to me as well, not that I bear any ill will toward Christina-sama...!"
"Yes. I do not think scheming suits you, Giselle."
...But I see. If one brought my guard into the plan, kidnapping would be easy enough.
Giselle was the third generation of the Flower Peerage. If she did not restore trust with the territory's people or achieve some great deed in her generation, her family would be returned to commoner status from the next generation onward. Being returned to commoner status was the same as the Merit Peerage, but for a family that had been treated as nobles for at least six generations, falling back to commoner status now would be painful. Moreover, becoming a Flower Peerage was itself the result of having looked down on commoners. Their own descendants would fall to the status of the commoners they had despised. With their pride swollen to excess, the Flower Peerage could not possibly live as commoners now.
"Giselle, what do you think about the possibility of your own children becoming commoners?"
"If that is the result of what my family has done in the past, I will accept it quietly. Perhaps it would even be better to sell the manor in my generation, repay the debts, and marry a commoner man."
Giselle seemed to be thinking not of having her children become commoners from the next generation, but of taking a commoner husband herself and beginning preparations to become a commoner. For a noble's daughter, this was certainly a rare way of thinking.
"Wouldn't... your parents not permit that?"
"My mother said she would be fine with it, but my father... seems to have attachments to the peerage. He is looking for marriage arrangements with Black Knights or nobles who might earn achievements."
There were no eccentric nobles willing to become a son-in-law to a third-generation Flower Peerage with no future, and as for Black Knights, even if she was a Flower Peerage, marrying a noblewoman felt suffocating to them, so none were interested. No matter how Giselle's father struggled, it felt like Giselle would decide her path first.
"...Then, I shall give an honest person like you a gift, Giselle."
"A gift?"
She began declining immediately, saying she had achieved nothing worthy of receiving anything, but I ignored her and continued. What I was giving Giselle was not a physical object.
"Gathering rumors was always Ulrika's specialty. Then you should work out the details with Ulrika. Since it is also part of her guard duties, Aaron may be able to offer advice as well. Accept the false kidnapping offer and gather evidence."
"Christina-sama is telling me to become a kidnapper...?"
"I am only telling you to accept the invitation and gather evidence. Would 'undercover investigation' be a better term?"
A plot to kidnap me... if we gathered evidence and caught all the criminals at once, that would become Giselle's achievement. The plotters may have looked down on a third-generation Flower Peerage as easy prey for earning merit, but I would turn that against them. I wanted Giselle to infiltrate as an asset and eliminate those who engaged in suspicious schemes.
...Ah, I should probably consult with Felicia-sama or Alfred-sama about this, just in case.
This was my first time dealing with something like eliminating noble enemies. I should not leave it all to Giselle alone. I might need the approval of my teacher and guardian.
I persuaded Giselle, who had begun worrying about a knight becoming a kidnapper, that this was for earning achievements. Or rather, that the problem lay with the side that thought of causing a kidnapping in the first place. When considered that way, an undercover investigation was far more proper than staging an incident yourself and aiming for false achievements.
Giselle agonized over it the whole way back to the detached palace, but in the end she agreed.
This was entirely a side note, but Aaron, who had returned after putting Ulrich in the cell, scolded Giselle for doing things like thinking while on guard duty. Since I was the one who made her worry, I felt a little sorry.
"...Speaking of which, what was that about being 'the father of a princess'?"
After returning to the detached palace and formulating Giselle's undercover investigation plan with Ulrika and Aaron, I nibbled on cookies that Kalisa had made. The crispy, melt-in-your-mouth cookies were langue de chat, familiar even from my previous life. I had decided not to think about why the same sweets from my previous life existed here. Regardless of whether one had memories of a previous life, apparently quite a few people had been reincarnated from Earth into this world. Somewhere, someone had probably created the foods they ate in their previous life driven by a desire for delicious things. I decided to let it go at that.
"It was many years ago, but there was an incident where an unmarried princess conceived a child."
"...So that means Ulrich was the one who got that princess pregnant?"
"That is correct."
Since I had already told them about what happened during the walk, Ulrika answered my question instead of Rebecca. According to Ulrika, the princess who became pregnant despite being unmarried incurred her father the king's wrath, was stripped of her status, and was forced to marry the White Knight who was the father of her child. Hearing only this, one might think it was a love story between a knight and a princess that simply got the order of events wrong, but that was not why Christoph, referred to here as the father king, was angry. The princess had been betrothed to a fiance chosen by her father the king, yet she had a relationship with a White Knight and became pregnant. In this country, even when a princess married a vassal, she retained her status as a member of the royal family. And her daughters and sons were also counted as royalty, and if they had talent, they were permitted to obtain a Royal Peerage or move to the royal castle as members of the royal family. However, the child of a princess who incurred her father the king's wrath and was stripped of her status would not be counted as royalty, even as a grandchild of the king.
"So, what Ulrich meant by 'father of a princess' was invalid from the start."
"She is the daughter born to the former princess, and now she is a commoner taken in by a Loyalty Peerage house."
This was still only Rebecca's assessment, but I felt I understood why Ulrich had tried to stage his own incident in pursuit of achievements. It was most likely to make his daughter a princess, or perhaps truly for his own restoration. Either way, Ulrich had chosen the wrong method from beginning to end.
"...And yet, this story sounds familiar somehow."
A story about a betrothed princess being united with another man and incurring her father's wrath. I felt like I had heard it somewhere, but if you prepared two male leads for one princess, it seemed like a story that would come to mind easily. Before I could search my memory for where I had heard it, Ulrika told me the casting of a story I had heard before.
"Nowhere else but here. At that time, the Seventh Princess's fiance was Christina-sama's elder brother."
"Eh? Leonyaldo Big Brother?"
I had never heard about Leonardo having a fiancee. Or rather, Bart had subtly warned me on the very day I arrived in the city of Grenore not to bring up marriage talk with Leonardo. The story he told me then was that there had been marriage talks between Leonardo and a noble princess when he was in the capital, but they had fallen through.
"...I heard that the marriage talk involving Leonyaldo Big Brother was with a noble princess."
"A princess is correct. A princess, yes, but one without a Royal Peerage."
In other words, Christoph had schemed to marry his daughter, the Seventh Princess, to Leonardo and make Leonardo his son-in-law. And the Seventh Princess, apparently dissatisfied with this engagement, used direct action by conceiving another man's child to avoid the marriage. I thought they might have been able to resolve it by talking it out as father and child, but since even an outsider like me could think of that, this was likely the result after sufficient discussion.
"How should I put this... If the princess had acted with a bit more prudence, none of this might have happened? If she disliked Leonyaldo Big Brother, she could have talked it through with Christoph-sama properly."
"I have never heard that Leonardo-sama was disliked."
"Huh? So she got pregnant with another man's child even though she did not dislike Leonyaldo Big Brother?"
My head filled with question marks at how strange this story was. She was supposedly not dissatisfied with her engagement to Leonardo, yet she conceived another man's child, incurred Christoph's wrath, and was stripped of her status. If she did not dislike Leonardo, she could have just married him as Christoph wished.
...And, for some reason, I did not think Christoph-sama was the type to get angry over a shotgun wedding.
He might point out that the order was wrong and scold them a bit, but I could not see it being enough to strip a princess of her status. Just as I began to think there must be something else to it, Ulrika prefaced with "This is merely rumor and speculation in the capital," and told me the story of that time.
Apparently, it all started with Christoph taking a liking to Leonardo. Despite being an orphan, Leonardo became a Silver-White Knight and achieved great feats, and many people envied him for it. To protect Leonardo, who had no significant backing, from such malice, Christoph arranged a marriage between Leonardo and his daughter, the Seventh Princess, intending to serve as his patron. The Seventh Princess Martine also took a liking to Leonardo, and the engagement once seemed close to being finalized, but Leonardo himself declined the match with the Seventh Princess.
Saying that a marriage with a princess was too much for an orphan like himself.
Then Christoph said, "Then we need only give you enough prestige that no one can complain," and sent Leonardo to the border region, which was in dispute at the time. Leonardo returned having achieved military results so remarkable that literally no one could complain. Everyone thought that Leonardo would now happily marry the Seventh Princess and become Christoph's son-in-law, but by then, a child was already growing in the princess's womb. Since the pregnancy occurred during a time when Leonardo was not by her side, anyone could tell that Leonardo was not the father. The Seventh Princess acknowledged her infidelity and offered no excuses, but the man involved was different. He spread the word that he was the true father of the Seventh Princess's child, and that he was the one who loved her and was loved by her. The man thought that since they were a couple in love, even if the order was wrong, the king would surely permit their marriage. He might be punished for impregnating an unmarried princess, but he assumed that the king, doting on his grandchild, would forgive a minor transgression. He was spectacularly mistaken. Christoph favored Leonardo far more than the Seventh Princess, who lacked the spirit to hold a Royal Peerage, or a White Knight whose name he only learned when the man came forward claiming to be "the father of the child in her belly." There was no way he would forgive the Seventh Princess and that White Knight as mere youthful indiscretions when they had robbed him of the chance to make Leonardo his son.
Christoph's fury was immense. He stripped the Seventh Princess of her status and expelled her from the royal castle. It seemed he wanted to drive her out of the capital entirely, but his three wives apparently stopped him, saying it would be too cruel in her pregnant state. The Seventh Princess, expelled from the royal castle, moved into the White Knight's manor, but the White Knight's father, learning of Christoph's anger, panicked and drove his son and his newly acquired daughter-in-law out of the house. He even disowned his son to prevent the king's wrath from falling upon his own house.
"But then, since there was no way a White Knight who had lost his status could find work, Ulrich reportedly wept and pleaded with Elvis-sama, saying that having been driven from his home and lost his position, he could not support his wife and child. He was apparently granted special permission to remain as a White Knight until he found new employment."
"He definitely has no intention of looking for new work. I think he intends to just keep calling himself a White Knight indefinitely."
"I believe so as well."
According to Alfred, Elvis was a 'kind prince.' I never imagined that someone would weep to that kind prince and cling to their current position. I did not know what kind of kindness Elvis possessed, but this was surely a waste of tax money.
"This story was embellished for entertainment and spread throughout the capital as gossip. The part about the princess being changed to a nobleman's daughter probably came from around then. There were also rumors back then that the child in her belly was actually Leonardo-sama's."
Surrounded by these swirling rumors and malice, Leonardo, still in his teens at the time, must have grown tired of being in the capital. Or perhaps Christoph wanted to keep Leonardo away from the bothersome capital for a while. Leonardo became a Black Knight and moved to the city of Grenore, while the Seventh Princess gave birth and shut herself away in her manor. The two subjects of the rumors disappeared from the public eye, and eventually even in the capital, the gossip seemed to fade away.
"What did the Seventh Princess want to do, in the end?"
If she did not dislike Leonardo, there was no reason to conceive Ulrich's child. Was she simply of a lustful nature and accidentally became pregnant?
"I cannot know what the Seventh Princess was thinking, but this is merely the rumor from back then. The story seen from Leonardo-sama's side, or from the Seventh Princess's side, might leave a different impression."
I did not know what Leonardo thought, nor what the Seventh Princess thought, but I could imagine what the White Knight Ulrich thought. He clung to his position as a White Knight not only out of attachment to the status of nobility, but also because he wanted to remain where Christoph could see him. He was waiting to be called upon, hoping that someday Christoph would take pity on his granddaughter and restore the Seventh Princess's status.
...Given that Christoph-sama apparently cut off even the Eighth Princess without hesitation, I doubted he would pay any attention to a daughter he had already abandoned.
And the reasons were what they were. I could not think of any reason Christoph would concern himself with the Seventh Princess.
"For now, it seems I should stay away from Ulrich."
Having heard about his arrogant attitude and the story of that time, I could tell he would likely hold a grudge against me simply for being Leonardo's sister. I had no interest in approaching someone I could already predict would cause me unpleasantness.
...Well, this time he was just treated as a suspicious person, but I hoped Aaron and the others would find some solid evidence.
If they did, formal measures such as prohibition of approach to the detached palace or imprisonment would likely be taken. Then I would not have to unnecessarily stress over the fact that someone who caused my brother unpleasantness was nearby.
...As long as he did not enter my and Leonyaldo-san's field of vision, he could live however and wherever he pleased.
However, I would like a satisfactory explanation for why he was near the detached palace and for the black hood in his pocket. Not to me, but to my guards.
I had only met him once, but I felt thoroughly conditioned to think of him as someone who caused my brother unpleasantness. I did not want him in my field of vision again, and I did not even want to hear his rumors or name.
I decided to pray that Aaron would handle it well.
A bunch of things from Leonardo's time in the capital, from the king's perspective. The title, well, I figured it was roughly part 3. I called it part 3, but part 2 might have been around chapter 2, "Leonardo's Debt" or thereabouts. Part 1 might have been (omitted).
Will fix typos and errors at a later date.