kscans

Chapter 23 - Time That Won't Return

His own daughter had been chosen as the Crown Princess. It was an honor for the entire family, and they had all erupted in celebration, holding a congratulatory party and basking in a blissful moment. Perhaps, in the future, they could aim for a rank even higher than a count's house. Not only the current head of the family, but all the relatives had thought so. Until that letter arrived.

One day, a letter arrived from Falty, who had already moved into the royal palace. Perhaps there was some luggage of hers that she needed. Thinking this, Count Ardia read the letter and desperately suppressed the urge for his eyes to pop out of his head. He also desperately suppressed the wave of nausea that assailed him.

"What... is this...?"

An amount of money that defied belief was written there as if it were the most natural thing in the world. He thought he must be mistaken and read it over and over again, but there was no mistake. If his daughter were here, he would have undoubtedly yelled at her, 'Why did you write such a thing!'

"My dear, what is the matter?"

The Countess came over and peered at the letter her husband was reading from his side. Her normally calm husband was this shocked, so there must be some tremendous reason for it, she had thought. Until she saw the amount.

"...What?"

The Countess's eyes went wide. And then, just like her husband, she was at a loss for words.

"What is... this absurd amount of money...?"

The letter from their beloved daughter contained the casual question and a staggering sum: 'If I ask for a budget supplement from the family in the form of support for the Crown Princess's budget, would this be possible?'

Count Ardia, feeling dizzy, felt a terror as if his daughter had transformed into some kind of monster, a grotesque creature.

"There's no way we can afford this...! What is that foolish girl thinking!"

"But the Crown Prince's former fiancée was the daughter of the Calmond Ducal Family. Could it be that His Grace the Duke... made a fool of Falty, or something of the sort?"

"Even so, our house is in a completely different league! Besides, we're the ones who stole the ducal daughter's fiancé!"

As he said each word with emphasis, the Countess was brought back to her senses with a jolt, as if thinking, 'That's right.' To be honest, the Count himself had been pleased that Falty had seized the position of Crown Princess and taken it for herself. When he had gone to the royal palace, he had uttered some truly outrageous words to the Duke of Calmond, something between a sarcastic jab and a taunt: 'To think something like this could happen... You never know what life has in store, do you!' Words once spoken cannot be taken back. Was this letter the retribution for that? Count Ardia began to tremble.

The words he himself had spoken, 'stole the ducal daughter's fiancé,' began to make him feel increasingly ill. The thought of 'what am I saying now after saying that myself' swelled within him, but then, a sense of unease, like a small fishbone caught in his throat, assailed him.

"The Crown Princess's budget should, by all rights, be properly allocated. ...The ducal family... I heard their family relations were poor... Why would they add to the Crown Princess's budget...?"

Among the nobility, the 'rumor of discord in the ducal family' was always whispered. The Count, who believed it, was furious, thinking, 'This makes no sense!' But his wife, with beads of cold sweat on her brow, softly voiced a possibility.

"What if that information itself is wrong?"

"...What?"

"My dear. Do you truly believe that the image of a family seen from the outside is entirely trustworthy?"

His wife's incredibly calm words made the Count start. What if the Duke had been using his private funds to supplement the costs so that Lupia would not be inconvenienced or have anything said against her? And what if that support disappeared now that Lupia was no longer the fiancée? It was a matter of course, but for some reason, even Liam had initially thought that 'that support should be there as a matter of course.'

Why should the Duke have to use his private funds to make what amounted to a donation to the royal family? Normally, such a foolish idea would be dismissed out of hand, but apparently, there were those who hailed it as a sign of loyalty. This was likely because the budget supplement had been provided as a matter of course ever since Lupia was a candidate for Crown Princess.

"Could it be..."

"I have been hearing it often in social circles recently. That our perception of the Calmond Ducal Family was wrong from the very beginning...

If that were the case, then everything would make sense. The Duke doted on Lupia and cherished her dearly. The ducal family's relations with each other and with their relatives were not poor at all; in fact, their kinship ties were excellent. On the surface, for example, when they went to parties, there was no particular atmosphere of discord, so why were such rumors spreading? Many nobles were unaware that the reason for this was Lupia's educational system, and from a third-party perspective, whispers such as 'Even if she is his own child, such a harsh educational policy...' were common. But the truth, known only to the ducal family and their inner circle, was that Lupia herself had proposed it. If that were so, then how on earth had their own perception become so warped? Combined with the fact that few parents go around publicizing their own family's educational policies, the negative image of the ducal house must have swelled.

Thinking this far, the Count and Countess both felt the blood drain from their faces.

"If that's the case..."

"Yes... It is said that there have been considerable protests from the entire ducal family to the royal house regarding this engagement annulment."

"B-But why!"

"My dear, please calm down. The engagement that the royal family desired was altered because Falty (our daughter) appeared, and because of her deep love with the Crown Prince... well, it's a bit much for us to say, but that, the so-called true love, they were bound by it, and not only did they form a new engagement, but they skipped various stages, and our child became the Crown Princess."

"..."

A weak sound escaped the Count.

"And the ducal daughter, whose engagement was unilaterally dissolved despite the royal family's wishes. Isn't this an act that seems to say the royal family wants to make a laughingstock of the ducal house, or that they should leave this country...!"

Could it really be that drastic? he wondered, but his wife's words had a point. An engagement that the royal family had desired, yet the royal family had dissolved. And normally, only a lady who had completed the Crown Princess's education and been recognized as having the proper qualities would be fit to be Crown Princess. Falty had skipped all that and risen to become Crown Princess. It was like something out of a fairy-tale princess story. Falty, who had soared to become the object of all young ladies' admiration, had gained tremendous support. This was a very welcome development. But he also understood that such things could crumble in an instant, though he didn't know when that would be.

"We are... screaming without a voice that the ducal house itself is unnecessary, is that what you're saying...?"

"It's turning into a situation where it can only be seen that way, isn't it...?!"

In this affair, the lower nobles had all pointed their fingers at the ducal house and laughed. Serves you right. This is what happens to stuck-up women, they had mocked. The people living in the capital all praised Falty and did nothing but tear Lupia down. They never said it openly, of course. But the stories that spread were all ones that made a fool of Lupia. If this reached the ducal house, what kind of punishment would the commoners and lower nobles receive? And the fact that the ducal house was so quiet was somehow terrifying. A state that could be called the calm before the storm.

"...To begin with, if we assume that various things are wrong... the pieces of this affair start to fit together..."

Trembling, the Countess continued.

"First, the members of the ducal family are anything but at odds with each other. They have an incredibly good family relationship."

She finished and held up one finger.

"Next... what if this current silence really is 'the calm before the storm'...?"

At the Count's urging to continue quickly, the Countess took a deep breath and went on.

"If the ducal family has already concluded that they are 'unnecessary to this country'... is there not a possibility that they will renounce their title and... disappear from here...?"

"Ah..."

This incident was one where it couldn't be helped if the ducal family thought that they were deemed unnecessary by the country itself. Yes, their daughter had done well. She had done well, but this was...

"...going too far..."

Unless one could go back in time, spilled juice could never return to the glass. Words once spoken could not be taken back. A mere count's mocking words to a duke, the content of the statement itself, could not be erased. The position as Crown Princess that they had taken from Lupia could never be returned. In the end, what remained, now that it was too late, was a tremendous regret and the bewilderment of what to do about the Crown Princess's future budget.