Chapter 64 - The Masquerade Ball and the Grand Duchess of Valoa
Sister, I'm The Queen In This Life
Lariesa, Grand Duchess of Valoa, was so filled with joy at the kindness of the golden Prince of the neighboring country that she almost forgot the sorrow of losing her sister. She quickly came to her senses and shook her head.
'No, I am kind and gentle Lariesa.'
While maintaining her kind image, she has to smoothly continue the conversation on the topic Alfonso raised, as long as she can. But she really, she never talked about herself.
"Would you like to paint? like drawing flowers and vases."
After hesitating for a moment, Larlesa added boldly.
"My work was selected for the Prix de Montpellier a few years ago."
The Prix de Montpellier was the gateway to famous new painters held in the Kingdom of Gallico. After submitting the work with its name obscured, the lid was opened a month later after critics and audiences reviewed the works hanging in the gallery and gave their scores. In addition to first, second, and third place, if you won, you could be officially registered with the Gallico Kingdom Artists Association. The competition was very fierce and it was a high-level competition.
"Is it Prix de Montpellier? Aren't married men under the age of 30 eligible to participate in that competition?"
As long as one was elected to the Prix de Montpellier, wealth and fame followed, so there were severe fights and checks.
Strange restrictions were gradually imposed on the convention, the product of compromises made to one's own advantage after several years of backbiting and suffering. To prevent established artists from publishing works anonymously, a restriction of 'under 30' was imposed, and to prevent overly talented young new artists from suddenly appearing and shaking up the game, a 'married only' restriction was imposed. Recently, a ban on female painters was added to safely share the limited pie.
Lariesa's face, hidden behind the mask, turned red. These were recent restrictions, so she, who was not particularly interested in painting, was not aware of them. Paintings were the favorites of her late sister, the late Grand Duchess Suzanne, and it was the late Grand Duchess Suzanne who entered her into the Prix de Montpellier. The ban on female painters was a result of her election as Grand Duchess Suzanne. They advocated banning the exhibition of works by nobles, but when resistance grew at the last minute, they changed direction to ban female artists. Although it was a historically significant development, Larissa, who had little interest in both society and the paintings, did not know the details.
All she knew and admired was her dead sister's high reputation and the praise she received from her. She swears to heaven that she meant nothing. She just wanted to impress Prince Alfonso, so it was a lie that left the tip of her tongue, but she didn't know that it would immediately hit the target she wanted to impress so much.
Her breathing became heavier as she bowed at the thought of her shame. Prince Alfonso must have sensed something strange, so he raised his head to eye level and asked Lariesa.
“Grand Duchess of Valoa... ?”
In fact, if she had said, 'I was bluffing because I wanted to look good, I'm sorry,' the kind-hearted Alfonso would have laughed it off. But she chose to somatize her symptoms to cover up her rising embarrassment. 'He's angry' she thought, and her breathing began to gradually become more labored. She screamed angrily at Alfonso, gasping for air.
"Are you saying I'm lying?!"
Alfonso was embarrassed and let go of the hand that was escorting Lariesa.
"Are you okay, Grand Duchess Lariesa?”
When Alfonso let go of her hand, Lariesa misunderstood that he was rejecting her and began to struggle in shame. No, it couldn't be like this. How did she meet the 'Golden Prince'? She prayed every day to have Suzanne's luck. Give her everything her sister has. Suzanne's beauty and Suzanne's fame did not come to Lariesa, but instead, Suzanne died. Everything she had that was hers was passed down to Larriesa. Dresses, jewelry, the prettiest bedroom, and even marriage with the perfect Prince.
In her heart, Larriesa thought that Susanne's death might have been a gift bestowed upon her by a heavenly spirit. However, she was given such a gift by the Heavenly God, but she was not good at it, so she could not tolerate a situation where she would miss the opportunity that had come down from heaven due to her own fault. Lariesa did nothing wrong. She had to.
"It certainly happened that an unmarried woman passed the Prix de Montpellier! How could you be so rude to me?"
If Lariesa was not at fault, it was inevitably Alfonso who was at fault in this situation.
Since it actually happened that Suzanne, an unmarried woman, passed the Prix de Montpellier, Lariesa only crushed the subject and accused Prince Alfonso of being rude without knowing anything. The more angry she became, the more she became convinced that Alfonso, who knew nothing, had carelessly conspired against her.
Alfonso was startled and did not know what to do when Lariesa, who was fine, started shaking all over and became angry.
"Is there anyone there? Get the doctor!"
Lariesa knew that Alfonso was calling someone because of his limited Etruscan language, but she did not understand that it was a doctor. It was terrible to bring in other people and have everyone see her in this state. She clutched her mask and curled her body like a shrimp for a moment, suffering from hyperventilation. Alfonso reached out to her to help her, but then Lariesa mistakenly thought that Alfonso was trying to hold her in order to restrain him.
"Let go of this!"
She was so excited that she shook off Alfonso, and Alfonso took a step back, unable to bear to touch Lady's body as she struggled roughly. After holding her breath for a moment in that state, she suddenly ran into the dark garden.
"Grand Duchess Lariesa! Grand Duchess Lariesa!"
Prince Alfonso called loudly, but her back disappeared. Alfonso was left alone in the corridors of the Palace of San Carlo, where they had been walking together, embarrassed and not knowing what to do.
A slight temptation rose up in him. There is no reason for Alfonso to be at fault for this escort ending prematurely. Princess Larriesa got angry without knowing why and ran into the garden. He said,
"Can't I order the Grand Duchess servants to look for her, and can I spend time with someone else?"
But Prince Alfonso quickly shook his head. For that, he was too honest and did not know tricks. Escorting the Grand Duchess of Lariesa was a responsibility entrusted to him, and if she ran into the garden, it was his duty to search for her to the end. After hearing Alfonso's call, a servant came running belatedly. He told his attendant that the Grand Duchess of Lariesa had gone into the garden and that she may have lost her way, so he quietly released her person to look for her so that no word of her would be heard. He told her to have her doctor on standby in the powder room reserved just for her. After explaining in detail the appearance of the Grand Duchess of Lariesa, her clothes, and mask, and confirming how many people would be mobilized to find the Grand Duchess, he herself also sighed.
He exhaled loudly and went in the direction where Grand Princess Larriesa had disappeared to find her.
***
Because he did not want the disappearance of the Grand Duchess to become a diplomatic issue, Alfonso asked,
"Have you ever seen the Grand Duchess of Valoa?"
Instead,
"Have you seen a woman of medium height wearing a golden dress?"
He asked around. In any case, the Grand Duchess of Valoa's face was not known to the San Carlo nobles, and this was also more effective because she was wearing a mask that covered her entire face. Alfonso was not wearing a mask that covered his entire face, but a Bauta mask commonly worn by men. It was an object that emphasized the bridge of the nose to cover the eyes and the bridge of the nose, and had tassels underneath to roughly cover the mouth but was made for eating and drinking.
So people who saw him knew right away that he was a Prince.
"Well, I haven't seen anyone go into the garden before."
People he met did not call the Prince by his name because he was wearing a mask, but they treated him with respect.
"Not just now, but I saw a woman of medium height wearing a golden dress go in there earlier."
"Oh yeah, I saw it too. She was a Lady who looked elegant."
If she had entered the garden a while ago, she would not have been the Grand Duchess of Valoa.
"Is it so? Thank you."
However, despite continuing to ask dress in the direction where the Grand Duchess of Valoa had gone, and Prince Alfonso eventually took steps in the questions, no one came forward who said they had seen the woman in the direction where the woman in the golden dress that he had seen a long time ago had gone.
As he wandered through the geometric maze of symmetrically arranged shrubs carved by a gardener, he ended up not in the grand ballroom and the main garden attached to it, where most of the guests gathered, but in the garden on the way to the Queen's palace. The place where he stopped was in front of a small fountain with ivy vines in full bloom. As if the gardener had not touched it, the ivy vines had indiscriminately covered both the shrubbery and the old fountain that made up the maze. He knew this place. It was the abandoned fountain behind the Queen's palace where he and Ariadne had run away and come to play.
And someone he knew was there too. She was an elegant woman of medium height, wearing a golden dress. Although her entire face was covered by her volto mask, Alfonso knew immediately who she was the moment he saw her.
"Ariadne?"
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