321 - The White-Haired Old Fox
So Alfred can be shrewd in ways other than appealing to Alf, I thought, having learned this side of him, then tilted my head once more.
"...Is Alfred-sama earning achievements as a prince a good thing? Or a bad thing?"
"It contributes to the country, so it is a good thing. If he aims to be the next king, it would be good publicity."
"Then, would that put him in competition with Felicia-sama for the throne? Does Alfred-sama want to become king...?"
If Alfred wanted to become the next king, then keeping Felicia confined in my detached palace would seem like an effective move to eliminate a rival. Felicia was bringing her official duties to the detached palace to watch over me, but I had heard her outside work had decreased dramatically.
...Huh? But did he not say he was just insurance in case no one suitable came forward?
Thinking about it that way, it seemed hard to believe Alfred was accumulating achievements with the aim of becoming the next king. As I furrowed my brow, unable to make sense of it, Ethelbert gave a wry smile.
"...What that child thinks about is always just one thing."
"What Alfred-sama thinks about... is it for Alf-san's sake?"
"That is right. That child acts only for the sake of the other Alfred."
Ethelbert's assessment of Alfred was that his interest in other things was too shallow, making him unsuitable as king, which only confused me further. If he became the next king, he would need to take a spouse capable of bearing children. I had never heard what kind of love he held for Alf, but taking a spouse of the opposite sex would surely mean he could not keep shouting only about his love for Alf.
...The only solution I can think of is for him to marry a woman who would not mind him shouting about his love for Alf, though?
In Alfred's case, even if he took a wife, he would probably put Alf first. Not just his wife, but even if children or grandchildren were born, he would likely declare Alf was still number one. I thought Alfred would be capable of that, but if I considered the opposite perspective, there probably were not many wives or children who would tolerate it. A husband and father who shouted about his love for a man who looked just like him over his family... that would be hard to accept.
...Huh? But did Alfred-sama not have Solana in mind as Alf-san's wife...?
Solana works as a maid in the detached palace, but her family's status is Staff Peerage, higher than the two noble attendants. Under normal circumstances, you would never have the milk sibling of the Eighth Princess working as a maid, but Alfred had arranged for her to be brought in and given that work.
"It is best to think of that child simply. It is exasperating how he only has Alfred in his head. Rather, it looks like he is trying to put Felicia on the throne so he himself can remain free."
"Then, does that not contradict what you said earlier?"
"Hmm?" I grew even more confused and bewildered. Alfred was earning achievements, those achievements served as good publicity for becoming the next king, and yet the one considered the strongest candidate for the next throne was Felicia. And Felicia was staying in my detached palace, supposedly appearing less on the public stage, but according to Ethelbert, that seemed like an attempt to put Felicia on the throne.
"...No good. My head is starting to hurt."
"You are overthinking it."
Ethelbert broke it down for me in simple terms. Even if a sibling without a Royal Peerage suddenly got motivated and obtained one, Felicia's advantage would not waver. The first prince, who should have been a strong rival, had already refused his right of succession, and while there were other princesses with Royal Peerages, they apparently had no intention of inheriting the throne either. They were merely fulfilling their responsibilities as territorial lords, having been born as the king's children. Alfred's intentions were not much different from the other Royal Peerages. He worked as a Royal Peer to support the king and the next monarch, and his support for me was apparently part of that. It seemed Alfred was seen as managing me on behalf of the busy Felicia. The reason Felicia appeared to be the primary one sheltering me rather than Alfred was apparently because she was staying in my detached palace.
"...But Felicia-sama's busy schedule is partly because she is confined to the detached palace..."
Originally, Alfred had introduced Felicia to me as someone reliable to call upon during his absences. I had always thought my liaison was Alfred, but hearing from an outside perspective that it looked like Felicia was in charge of me and Alfred was acting as her proxy... that was a new viewpoint I had never considered.
"Oh, yes. Leonardo sent a birthday gift for you, young lady."
Saying it was heavy and he had already had it loaded onto the carriage, Kyuubee handed me an inventory. It felt more like a purchase ledger than a gift list.
"...Rice?"
"I was told it was a birthday gift, but that is certainly a rather unglamorous present. If it is Leonardo-like... well, it is Leonardo-like, I suppose..."
At Ethelbert's slightly exasperated tone, I wanted to retort that even my own brother giving rice as a birthday present must think of his sister as some kind of appetite monster, but then I remembered. Actually, I felt like we had had that conversation. Leonardo had said something about procuring rice, and I had told him, "Give it to me as a birthday gift."
...I never thought he would actually send it! I love Leo so much!
But when I asked why he had entrusted it to Ethelbert, apparently he had not entrusted it, but rather had it shipped together with the rice Ethelbert was ordering. Rather than Leonardo personally searching for a merchant who imported rice from Napaji, it was apparently safer and more reliable to rely on Ethelbert, who already had connections with merchants.
"Indeed. As a reward for reviving the secret arts this time, I will share some Napaji seasonings with you."
There were some seasonings that had just begun to be imported and were hard to come by, Ethelbert said proudly, so I played along and praised him. If he was going to share Napaji seasonings, then Ethelbert was a god to me. As I expressed my gratitude, Ethelbert invited me to become his granddaughter, and during the usual back-and-forth of me declining, Kyuubee brought over an additional inventory. There were some unfamiliar names, but I figured I would recognize some when I saw the actual items, so I accepted it.
"Come to think of it, I brought a gift for you today, Ethelbert-sama."
"Oh? What might that be?"
Kalisa handed a box to Kyuubee, and Kyuubee checked its contents. Kalisa performed a poison taste test of the sweet potato kintsuba she had packed in the box right in front of them, and the handover was complete. Once Kyuubee withdrew with the box, he soon returned with the sweet potato kintsuba on a small plate.
"It is sweet potato kintsuba that Kalisa made for me."
"Sweet potato... kintsuba?"
"Well..."
The word kintsuba did not get through, so I thought for a moment. At the detached palace, we just called it kintsuba, but thinking calmly, the people around probably had no idea what it was and only called it that because I did.
...Come to think of it, the swords in this world do not have tsuba like Japanese swords, do they?
If Napaji had swords, they might have similar guards, but even then, the name could be different.
"Is there nothing like it in Napaji cuisine? It is a sweet made by dipping yokan in wheat flour batter and grilling it..."
Since yokan existed under the name Nakuoyu, I thought sweets using yokan would naturally exist too, but maybe I was wrong. I gave a vague explanation about the origin of kintsuba, but what caught Ethelbert's attention was the method. Apparently, a similar sweet to kintsuba existed under a different name, but Ethelbert was hung up on the filling being made from sweet potato.
"...Anko is basically like jam, so I think you can make anko from Omiamtasu or even pumpkin, you know?"
I wondered if it was really that strange, then remembered. When we ate griddle cakes in the city of Grenore, Leonardo had a mixed reaction to anko but ate the ones with cream filling happily, saying they were delicious. Just as anko was unfamiliar to Leonardo, even Ethelbert, who favored Napaji and was accustomed to anko, apparently had not thought of making anko from sweet potatoes.
...Though I think anko is probably more of a luxury item than sweet potato anko.
I recommended eating it fresh, saying it was at its best right after being made. If there was a similar sweet, then Ethelbert could have his own cooks make it and enjoy it fresh.
"So, about having my cooks make sweet potato anko..."
"Could your cooks not make sweet potato anko just by telling them to use sweet potatoes instead of azuki beans?"
At least Kalisa had completed sweet potato anko just by being told to use sweet potatoes instead of azuki beans. Turning that into yokan was thanks to the cook's guidance, but that same cook was the one who taught Kalisa Napaji cuisine. I did not think Ethelbert's cooks could not make sweet potato anko.
"Then I shall try eating some freshly made as well, at a later date."
"It is still plenty delicious even after it has cooled down, though."
While talking about how Kalisa's Napaji cooking studies were progressing, I listened to stories about Gumons for a while. Gumons, with the desert nearby, seemed quite different from the city of Grenore.
"...By the way, was there anything unusual while I was away?"
"Unusual, sir?"
Hmm, was there anything? I thought about it. When I considered what had happened while Ethelbert was away from the capital, the more I thought, the more came to mind, and I could not tell what exactly Ethelbert was referring to.
"There were traces of an intruder in my detached palace."
"Ah."
So that was it, I said, my voice going flat. Now that he had mentioned it, it was nothing much. It was what that intruder, Rannvald, had been concerned about at the detached palace.
...By traces, does he mean traces of Rannvald using it, or traces of the knights searching under Christoph's orders?
For someone who said he would be killed if it was known he was coming and going from the royal castle so openly, it was rather careless. Leaving traces of having used the detached palace.
...Wait, so Rannvald-sama really was hiding in Ethelbert-sama's detached palace, huh.
I had not heard the full story, but it seemed Christoph's guess had been correct. The more I heard, the more absurd it was. Hiding in the detached palace of someone who must not find him, and leaving traces behind.
...What should I do?
Alfred had asked me to shelter Rannvald. I had not heard anything from Christoph, but I supposed Alfred had sheltered Rannvald in the detached palace on Christoph's orders. After all, Rannvald had a silver-white knight assigned as his royal guard.
"...I think around the Divine King Festival, there was an intruder disturbance at the royal castle, and knights came in to search for the intruder."
I answered within the scope of what I could say without lying, mentioning that even Leonardo had seemed busy at my detached palace. Felicia had picked up on it from just a hint. For Ethelbert, this was about the right level, within the bounds of not lying but not telling everything either.
...Well, not that anything about my detached palace is hidden from Ethelbert-sama anyway.
According to Rannvald, Nadine seemed to be Ethelbert's agent, so it was safe to assume Ethelbert knew about all the personnel entering the detached palace. Similarly, he probably knew about food procurement and merchant visits.
"Why do you not investigate through your usual mysterious information network?"
"I thought asking you, young lady, would be quicker..."
You have learned to hold things back a little, he said, and I straightened my back. But Ethelbert laughed at me, saying that alone was as good as admitting I was hiding something, and I felt once again that secrets really did not suit me.
"So, what is it that you are hiding from me, young lady?"
"A secret is a secret precisely because it is being hidden, you know."
I could not say anything from my own mouth, so I tried to fend him off, saying he should investigate himself. Since he had already figured out I was hiding something, I at least wanted to avoid being the one to reveal Rannvald's stay.
"I always thought you were an easy-to-read young lady whose secrets were written all over her face, but... when you brazen it out like this, it actually becomes harder to tell."
"Huh? Is that so? Then I will keep brazening it out from now on."
"While you are at it, how about letting something slip?"
"I will not fall for that one. Alfred-sama warned me about it properly, you know."
"Is that so, is that so. So that child is involved in this matter."
"...Ah."
Even though he had barely nudged me, I had let his name slip. Just mentioning Alfred's name might not be a fatal wound, but it was still a failure. To avoid any further slips, I covered my mouth with both hands. Signaling with my demeanor that I would not say another word, I thought to myself that this was a strange day where I was covering my ears and mouth for two generations of father and son. As for my eyes, given that Felicia was always in revealing clothing, that ship had long since sailed.
I have a feeling the next story will be a difficult birth, so I will take a day off.
I will fix any typos and errors later~