When her husband said, “It has never been officially announced,” Grand Duchess Bernadette immediately understood Grand Duke Odo’s intentions.
“Larry. Does Prince Alfonso have a copy of that too...?”
Lariesa's face turned pale.
She didn't know much about contract practices and only did what she read in books, so she only made one marriage contract.
Contrary to what his parents thought, even if two copies had been made and Alfonso had kept one, nothing would have changed.
Because it was certain that Prince Alfonso would try to bury his relationship with the Grand Duchess of Lariesa if it could be done so.
She remembered the shit-eating face he had made when he signed the wedding vows.
“Come here, good girl. Aren’t you going to give it to Daddy...?”
Duke Odes took a step closer to his daughter. Lariesa took a step back and screamed.
“It’s no use telling me this now!”
“Don’t do that. If you just tear off that sheepskin...”
“I have already submitted this document to the Diocese of Montpellier! The Holy See knows about it too!”
"What?!"
If it is the Diocese of Montpellier, it is under the Archbishop of Montpellier. And the Archbishop of Montpellier is a political bishop who is notorious for being tight-lipped.
He is a great man who would run to Philip IV and report this right away.
When the Grand Duke of Odes was frightened and questioned his daughter, Grand Duchess Lariesa began to cry and whine again.
“Ugh!”
Grand Duchess Bernadette desperately tried to appease her daughter, resenting her husband.
It was a meaningless act, similar to soothing a crying newborn.
It was almost an hour before they heard a meaningful answer from Lariesa.
“You didn’t give it to the Archbishop?”
“...To the priest of Holy See...”
“Listen! Go out right now and bring the priest of the Holy See!”
Duke Odes, who immediately sent someone to silence him, sighed.
“It seems like once you get on the list of the Holy Spirit, you can’t stop it.”
The doctor of law, who had not yet left and was holding out, answered.
“Anyone can claim the contents of a document that has been registered in the Holy See management register. The engagement is official.”
“How do I break off an engagement?”
“The method of breaking an engagement is...”
When it appeared that the speech would be prolonged, Grand Duchess Bernadette glared at the Doctor of Law.
The doctor, who had become somewhat accustomed to his superiors' working style, simply came to a conclusion.
“Agreement between both parties is required. Prince Alfonso must appear first.”
Grand Duke Odes shook his head again.
“If the fiancé dies...”
The doctor of law chimed in with an exclamation, 'Oh, that's the way!'
“That’s true too. You can’t ask for an engagement if one of you is dead.”
"Dad!"
Contrary to the Doctor of Law's support for the Grand Duke's policy, this time the daughter was desperate.
She broke free from Grand Duchess Bernadette's embrace, ran to her father, and took hold of the Grand Duke's arm.
“Father, if Prince Alfonso dies, I will die too! Never, never do anything foolish!”
"Larry!"
The Grand Duchess's shrill scream echoed throughout the room. Grand Duke Odes also looked dumbfounded and shouted at his daughter.
“Lariesa, what kind of talk is that where a man goes to war and dies, you will die too?”
Yesak was soon to become a battlefield. The Crusaders' odds of victory were not high.
The First Crusade resulted in a partial victory for the Yesaphites and their safe return, but the Second Crusade was annihilated in the wilderness without even approaching Yesak.
“That man is on his way to the battlefield right now. Who can guarantee the lives of those who fight in war?”
“Father! You said women are just servants!”
Lariesa was not in a position to have a rational conversation at the moment.
“If Yesak is in danger, Dad will take responsibility and save Prince Alfonso. Bring him back alive!”
“Lariesa, stop being stubborn!”
“I don’t know about that, whether it’s forced or not!”
Princess Lariesa's breathing became rapid.
“I can’t imagine life without Prince Alfonso! He means everything to me!”
“Larry! If you’ve seen him, how many times have you seen him!”
Even Grand Duchess Bernadette, who could not stand it any longer, rebuked Lariesa. Her mother's words were true.
Princess Lariesa thought Prince Alfonso would be with her for less than a year at most.
But to a teenage girl, a year felt like an eternity. Especially when it was a year with the Prince of her dreams.
“You sent me to the Etruscan kingdom!”
The indignant Lariesa cried out in a shrill voice.
“Wasn’t that sent to be married? Where can a Princess who spent a year with another man in a foreign palace marry?”
Duke Odes groaned. It was a mistake to send his daughter to the Etruscan kingdom.
He had sent her away under the urging of Philip IV, but until then he had thought that the King really intended to pair Lariesa with Alfonso.
“Mom and Dad ruined my life! And now you want me to just let go and be quiet? I can’t do that! I can’t do that even if I die!”
“Lariesa.”
The Grand Duke of Odes consoled his daughter.
“We can’t possibly find you a good match. Don’t worry about that and just listen to Mom and Dad.”
“A good match?”
Princess Lariesa turned her head sharply and glared at her father. Her eyes were rolling back.
“Ha! What a good match! Would that man be the son of a monarch? Would he have a kingdom to inherit? At best, he would bring a Count’s son or a bastard to match us!”
“Lariesa!”
Grand Duke Odes reprimanded his daughter, but honestly, he had nothing to say. That was the extent of his thoughts.
In fact, Lariesa wasn't very interested in her marriage partner's title.
This is because she was under the illusion that she would always be a Princess wherever she went.
But at that moment, there was nothing she wouldn't do to talk back to her parents.
“Prince Alfonso is my life, my faith, my future! Never, never let him go!”
“That’s not what I’m saying!”
Grand Duchess Bernadette was shocked by her daughter's irreverent statement that it was not God but a man who was the source of her faith.
But Lariesa used her mother's religious beliefs as leverage to dig deeper.
“If Prince Alfonso dies, I will die with him! Where does one go when he takes his own life?”
“They say you will burn forever in the 8th level of hell.”
While the family was having a grand party, the Grand Duke, who was sitting there blankly, answered without even realizing it.
Grand Duke Odes wanted to send the man who had been watching all the household affairs without even leaving to some village at the northernmost tip of Grand Duke's territory, but for now, the priority was to calm his daughter's tantrum.
“Lariesa!”
Even Grand Duchess Bernadette was taken aback by the sight.
“If the Prince dies, I will hang myself! If the Prince dies, your daughter will walk into hell on my own feet!”
"Oh my God!"
At the repeated mention of 'hell', the devout Grand Duchess put her hand on her head and fainted.
The Grand Duke honestly suspected that his wife had not truly fainted but had simply taken the easy way out because she did not want to hear anymore, but it was the duty of a father to clean up the mess even in such a situation.
“Go in first.”
"Father!"
“Calm down, and we’ll talk again later.”
“I promise, father! I will protect Prince Alfonso!”
The crusaders who left for Jesak were the army of the Duchy of Sternheim.
The Kingdom of Gallico had no apparent connection with the Third Crusade, other than providing military support.
However, in fact, the Kingdom of Gallico maintained close relations with the Republic of Porto, which was in charge of transporting supplies to the Crusaders and providing other support, and the person in charge of coordinating with the Republic of Porto was Grand Duke Odes.
In other words, Grand Duke Odes was in a position to influence Prince Alfonso if he wanted to.
“Promise me!”
Lariesa cried again. Grand Duke Odes was unable to respond easily, not knowing how much his daughter knew.
When her father did not speak, the excited Lariesa lifted the candlestick from the nightstand, threw the candle on top onto the floor, and held the sharp end of the candlestick to her neck.
“Promise me!!”
Then Grand Duchess Bernadette, who had been lying unconscious on the floor, jumped up from her seat in shock and shouted.
“Honey!! The kid is dying!”
In the end, Grand Duke Odes, who was attacked by his crazy daughter and angry wife, had no choice but to give up.
“Yes, yes. Let me see what I can do!”
Only then did Lariesa put down the candlestick, still grumbling, and Grand Duchess Bernadette fell back down onto her feet.
Grand Duke Odes, the weakest member of the family, decided to vent his frustrations on a scapegoat.
He glared. The target was a law doctor who had been watching this whole mess with his eyes wide open without even leaving.
“You, be prepared.”
“?”
He was a doctor of law who had no idea what he had done wrong.
***
When Prince Alfonso managed to escape the land of Gallico with his life, the Etruscan kingdom was facing a full-blown outbreak of the Black Death.
“Miss. I heard that the central city of Becaria was completely destroyed by the Black Death.”
CEO Caruso, sitting in Ariadne's study, reported with a serious expression.
“Becaria’s administrative powers have been paralyzed. The city itself has been turned into a gigantic ward, and those who are still able to move are said to be fleeing the city unchecked and moving north.”
Becaria was a town at most half a day's walk from San Carlo.
It was only a matter of time before the plague-infected people who escaped from Becaria entered San Carlo.
No, it was most likely a mistake to think that San Carlo was still safe.
“Have all the people from the company who reported on Becaria’s situation been safely quarantined?”
“Yes, we have completely blocked their entry into the castle. The report itself was received outside, and our merchants who came up from the south are isolated separately in the merchant building outside San Carlo according to the instructions.”
“Yes. Are there any other episodes of infection inside San Carlo?”
When CEO Caruso was about to answer, “No.”
“Hey... Miss...”
From the entrance to Ariadne's study, Sancha's voice sounded like crying.
“What’s the matter, Sancha?”
Sancha was the type of child who would never interfere in the middle of something important like this.
“I’m sorry for interrupting your conversation. But...”
“Tell me, it’s okay.”
“...I think there’s going to be a riot at the Rambouillet Relief Home. No, it might already be happening...”
Ariadne's eyes widened.
“Why, how did that happen?”
“It seems that the food distribution has been suspended for three days due to a shortage of food. The detained poor are currently gathered in the courtyard and protesting. The protest is not normal... It looks like they will burst through the gate and pour out at any moment..."
Ariadne's green eyes were filled with tension.
The Rambouillet hospice in a previous life was the initial epicenter of the Black Death in San Carlo.
The poor, deprived of food, revolted and escaped the almshouse, and the plague patients who were among them spread throughout San Carlo, ruining the city's quarantine efforts.
“Sancha. Take my outer clothes. Let’s go to the relief center right away.”
“Yes? Yourself, Miss?”
Sancha, who had brought up the subject, was surprised and stopped Ariadne as if she had not even expected it to go that far.
“It’s not only unsanitary, but now it’s dangerous! It’s not a place you should go, Miss. If you give me instructions, I’ll go and deliver them.”
“No. If I don’t go myself, the situation at the Rambouillet Relief Home won’t be resolved. Call Giuseppe.”
CEO Caruso, realizing that Ariadne was about to end the monologue, urgently grabbed her.
“Excuse me, Miss. I have one question for you before you go.”
That was the main topic of today.
“The price of grain has already soared 1.5 times. Should we start releasing wheat into the market now?”
Ariadne looked at CEO Caruso as if to ask if his country was that small.
“CEO Caruso.”
“Yes, yes?”
She said firmly.
“It hasn’t even started yet.”
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