"To my Ari.
What's the matter? I haven't received a single reply from you. I'm worried that something may have gone wrong with you.
If you don't have time to write a long letter, I would appreciate it if you could send me a reply, even if it's a blank letter.
If you leave your letter on the supply ship of the Republic of Porto, which is where my letter is going, they will deliver it.
The fighting last week was fierce. It was mostly small skirmishes on the outskirts, but now we're slowly moving into the heart of the city and fighting a big battle.
I killed with my own hands a comrade who was badly injured on the battlefield and was crying in pain.
I wanted to let him go comfortably, but I wonder if I did the right thing in the eyes of the heavenly Gods.
But the blood of hundreds of pagans is already on my hands. This too must be hypocrisy.
Can a country like this receive your love? I miss your eyes. I miss your touch.
I wish you, who are pure from sin, would touch my cheek and tell me that it's okay even though I'm a sinner and that you love me anyway.
Even if I fall into hell and burn in the fire and brimstone, I will protect you forever.
Within my fence, so that you may live in peace forever, without ever having to see the filthy places of the world.
- Waiting for your reply, your Alfonso."
Alfonso folded the letter tightly and put it in a rough envelope. It was already the fourth unanswered letter to Ariadne.
He melted the wax, sealed the envelope tightly with the Prince's seal, and asked someone to leave the letter with the Republic of Porto's fleet that was heading to the Central Continent at the end of that month.
Alfonso handed over the letter and sighed lightly.
He had become too accustomed to this barren land filled with blood, slaughter, and religion. Days when he had forgotten the scent of humanity and had become a war machine.
When can I finish it?
Envelopes bearing the seal of Prince Alfonso reached the reinforcements of the Republic of Porto through the barracks.
And together with the Republic's fleet that returned to their homeland carrying the goods they had plundered locally to sell, they safely crossed over to the Central Continent.
However, the letter was delivered to Duke Odes of the Gallico Kingdom, not to its original destination, the Etruscan Kingdom.
“Your Highness, the items you ordered have arrived.”
And it eventually fell into the hands of Princess Lariesa.
Lariesa, her eyes bloodshot, quickly snatched the worn-out envelope from the maid's hand.
For Lariesa, who was living a luxurious and comfortable life in the capital city of Montpellier, the parchment envelope covered in sweat, sea breeze, and blood felt strangely foreign.
But she couldn't take her eyes off that shabby, alien envelope.
As she stood there, hastily opening the envelope, Lariesa suddenly realized how uncivilized she looked and screamed at the maid.
“Get out! Get out!”
The maid hurriedly left the room, and Lariesa, left alone, stuttered and read the beginning of the letter.
“To my... Ari...”
Since it was a foreign language, Lariesa didn't know the meaning and just tried to pronounce it, but after a second, she realized what the words she had read meant and threw the letter on the floor and cried.
“AAAAAAAAAHH..."
A desperate confession of love. Even though he hadn't seen her face for over half a year. And even though he's heard that she betrayed him.
Why on earth are you! Why are you clinging to that bastard son of that worthless Cardinal! Leaving me, who only looks at you!
Lariesa could not accept it at all. In her world, Lariesa de Valoa was obviously superior to Ariadne de Mare.
Bloodline! Legitimacy! Devotion to Alfonso! A reputation as a good, well-educated, faithful virgin born to two parents blessed by the Gods! Nothing was missing.
“But why on earth!”
Lariesa's eyes became bloodshot and the veins began to burst.
Lariesa, one eye of which had turned completely red, picked up the letter from Prince Alfonso that she had thrown on the floor with her eyes wide open.
It was bad handwriting, written in bold letters with blue ink.
“Lari! Lari! You only have Lari, your fiancée!”
Princess Lariesa picked up a red quill.
Likewise, Lariesa, dipping her quill in blood-red ink and then withdrawing it, began to annotate Alfonso's letter as if possessed.
"Lari!!!"
She changed all the names written as "Ari" in the letters to "LAri" by putting a capital L in front of them.
The bright red capital letter 'L' had a tremendous presence on the paper.
“I!! I can’t tolerate it!!!”
Princess Lariesa changed all names from 'Ari' to 'Lari' and howled like an angry animal.
Everything will be as she wants it to be. As it should be.
As Gallico's army began to retreat north, Leo III gave his commander-in-chief, Duke Cesare, a 2,000-man praetorian guard—the very crossbowmen Cesare had been desperately hoping to recruit.
Duke Cesare led them to intercept Gallico's Montpellier cavalry from a distance, killing a considerable number of them.
It was a victory that lost its shape, but a victory was a victory.
Leo III publicized this widely, saying, "The great Etruscan praetorian guard killed today several hundred of the finest troops of the Gallico kingdom."
The administrative organization that received this quickly relayed the news to the south.
The victory of the Great Etruscan Kingdom!
The royal army defeated those dirty Gallico bastards!
It was a measure to quell the growing seditious rumors in the capital—that the girls had saved the country, and that the King had done nothing.
And it was the work of his mother, Duchess Rubina, that gave Cesare this feat, almost a minor victory.
“Your position in the capital has been solidified. Now no one dares to speak out against you.”
In the end, rewards for merit are divided among those in positions of power.
In this affair, public opinion praised Ariadne, but she was neither commander-in-chief nor administrator and held no title or official position.
To promote or award someone, you must select one person from among those who already hold the position.
The biggest beneficiary of this affair was Duke Cesare.
There was no trace of talk about him being kicked out of the capital or being punished for his defeat.
But Duchess Rubina still seemed dissatisfied.
“The ball was set by my son.”
She clutched the teacup in her hand with discontent.
“What kind of baseless girl gets praised?”
Cesare, with his boots on and his feet propped up on the finest sofa, answered gruffly.
He would act even more mischievously than usual when his mother was around.
“It’s only natural that ‘that girl’ should receive the praise since she did it.”
“That kid did it!”
Duchess Rubina cried out in anger.
“You are the commander-in-chief of the army, and you are the one who intercepted and caused casualties in Gallico’s army! No, you are the one who gave the order to open the gates and dig a trap?”
Cesare answered crookedly.
“I opened the gates because she asked me to, and I lent the people because she asked me to. She did everything from planning to detailed work. I just did everything she told me to do, from Alpha to Omega, and the Gallico Army was rendered incapacitated.”
Ah, I feel like drinking, thought Cesare, glancing sideways at his mother.
“If you see someone outstanding, you should consider bringing them to your side. If you just try to suppress them and kill them, what kind of trouble are you going to get into?”
Duchess Rubina's eyes immediately widened.
“What? You’re trying to draw her to your side?”
I don't think he's saying he'll take her as his vassal.
“You, no way..!”
Cesare did not answer, but looked out the window and picked up his ear.
“Cesare!”
And then a staccato scream pierced his cleansed eardrums.
“Are you trying to get that kid to come in?”
Cesare answered calmly.
“If it’s Lady de Mare, isn’t she the best match in San Carlo right now?”
He listed her good points one by one on his fingers.
“First, she is famous. Second, she is rich. Third, she is pretty. She is a perfect fit for the Duchess of Pisano.”
“Cesare!”
Duchess Rubina shuddered.
“What’s so pretty about that twisted, fish-like head!”
“Your standards are very high. If the most popular Lady de Mare in the capital looks like a squid head, there won’t be any women left to take as daughters-in-law.”
“The people of the capital are collectively blind! No, and is appearance the problem?”
Rubina gritted her teeth in betrayal and shouted at her son.
“Don’t you remember when that girl came out and drove this mother to the brink of death during the arsenic incident?”
Duchess Rubina was criticizing her son's memory. Cesare listened to her indifferently and thought.
'It's not that I have a bad memory. I'm just not very filial.'
He also remembered how Ariadne had driven her mother, Rubina, to the brink.
It is true that if Ariadne had stayed still at that time, things could have passed without a hitch, and it is also true that Rubina almost got into big trouble.
But so what?
His mother's friends are not his friends, and his mother's enemies are not his enemies.
He was sick of this forced community of fate. He hated the chirping Rubina even more. He decided to just avoid this place.
“I'm going to go out now.”
“Cesare!”
“I have an appointment.”
There was no promise. But he can make one.
He left his angry mother behind, picked up his coat, and left the room.
Rubina, who was left alone behind, was trembling, but that was none of his business.
Duke Cesare's footsteps naturally led him to the grand mansion of the de Mare family.
It was late autumn, and the autumn breeze was blowing coolly, although it was getting chilly. It was a beautiful season with maple leaves, fallen leaves, and the earth turning a variety of colors.
Duke Cesare, who was a textbook example of a womanizer, had a set course to take the girls he was courting.
The valley behind the Orte Forest is a spectacular sight during this season.
It's also the prettiest, and when meeting several women at the same time, if you take them to different places, things get messy later. It's best to have a consistent date course.
'...Isn't it time to get a little tired of it now?'
But this time Cesare wanted to go to a special place.
The Orte Forest was a place he had already been to with Lady de Mare during the hunting competition, and he didn't want to repeat the same course he had gone to with other women.
So he decided to take the Lake Lecarno as his date course.
It's a place he often went to when he was young and wanted to be alone.
Cesare always felt better when he would just float a small boat on the lakeside and stare blankly at the water's surface.
He has never taken a woman there, because it is his own space.
'Because there are no people, we don't have to worry about the Black Death.'
He made excuses to himself, but deep down he knew that it was a special place and he wanted to share it with someone special.
He knocked on the front door of the de Mare mansion, carrying a huge bouquet of roses.
The guard at the main gate and the domestic staff at the entrance guided him into the reception room without saying a word.
The current Duke of Pisano is practically the most powerful man in San Carlo.
Even if he had burst in on the same day without prior arrangement and asked for Cardinal de Mare instead of Ariadne, no one would have refused him.
But Ariadne's red-haired maid, who appeared after he took his seat in the reception room, poured cold water on his plans.
“I will tell the young lady that the Duke of Pisano has come to visit.”
Ariadne's servant noticed Cesare in his riding attire and cautiously added:
“But... the young lady isn’t feeling well, so it seems like it would be difficult for her to go out.”
No matter how careful the tone, a refusal is still a refusal. If it were Cesare in his usual state, he would have blown up here.
What? You're not allowed to go out? You're not me, you're not the party, why are you the arbitrary judge of that?
What's the matter? I haven't received a single reply from you. I'm worried that something may have gone wrong with you.
If you don't have time to write a long letter, I would appreciate it if you could send me a reply, even if it's a blank letter.
If you leave your letter on the supply ship of the Republic of Porto, which is where my letter is going, they will deliver it.
The fighting last week was fierce. It was mostly small skirmishes on the outskirts, but now we're slowly moving into the heart of the city and fighting a big battle.
I killed with my own hands a comrade who was badly injured on the battlefield and was crying in pain.
I wanted to let him go comfortably, but I wonder if I did the right thing in the eyes of the heavenly Gods.
But the blood of hundreds of pagans is already on my hands. This too must be hypocrisy.
Can a country like this receive your love? I miss your eyes. I miss your touch.
I wish you, who are pure from sin, would touch my cheek and tell me that it's okay even though I'm a sinner and that you love me anyway.
Even if I fall into hell and burn in the fire and brimstone, I will protect you forever.
Within my fence, so that you may live in peace forever, without ever having to see the filthy places of the world.
- Waiting for your reply, your Alfonso."
Alfonso folded the letter tightly and put it in a rough envelope. It was already the fourth unanswered letter to Ariadne.
He melted the wax, sealed the envelope tightly with the Prince's seal, and asked someone to leave the letter with the Republic of Porto's fleet that was heading to the Central Continent at the end of that month.
Alfonso handed over the letter and sighed lightly.
He had become too accustomed to this barren land filled with blood, slaughter, and religion. Days when he had forgotten the scent of humanity and had become a war machine.
When can I finish it?
***
Envelopes bearing the seal of Prince Alfonso reached the reinforcements of the Republic of Porto through the barracks.
And together with the Republic's fleet that returned to their homeland carrying the goods they had plundered locally to sell, they safely crossed over to the Central Continent.
However, the letter was delivered to Duke Odes of the Gallico Kingdom, not to its original destination, the Etruscan Kingdom.
“Your Highness, the items you ordered have arrived.”
And it eventually fell into the hands of Princess Lariesa.
Lariesa, her eyes bloodshot, quickly snatched the worn-out envelope from the maid's hand.
For Lariesa, who was living a luxurious and comfortable life in the capital city of Montpellier, the parchment envelope covered in sweat, sea breeze, and blood felt strangely foreign.
But she couldn't take her eyes off that shabby, alien envelope.
As she stood there, hastily opening the envelope, Lariesa suddenly realized how uncivilized she looked and screamed at the maid.
“Get out! Get out!”
The maid hurriedly left the room, and Lariesa, left alone, stuttered and read the beginning of the letter.
“To my... Ari...”
Since it was a foreign language, Lariesa didn't know the meaning and just tried to pronounce it, but after a second, she realized what the words she had read meant and threw the letter on the floor and cried.
“AAAAAAAAAHH..."
A desperate confession of love. Even though he hadn't seen her face for over half a year. And even though he's heard that she betrayed him.
Why on earth are you! Why are you clinging to that bastard son of that worthless Cardinal! Leaving me, who only looks at you!
Lariesa could not accept it at all. In her world, Lariesa de Valoa was obviously superior to Ariadne de Mare.
Bloodline! Legitimacy! Devotion to Alfonso! A reputation as a good, well-educated, faithful virgin born to two parents blessed by the Gods! Nothing was missing.
“But why on earth!”
Lariesa's eyes became bloodshot and the veins began to burst.
Lariesa, one eye of which had turned completely red, picked up the letter from Prince Alfonso that she had thrown on the floor with her eyes wide open.
It was bad handwriting, written in bold letters with blue ink.
“Lari! Lari! You only have Lari, your fiancée!”
Princess Lariesa picked up a red quill.
Likewise, Lariesa, dipping her quill in blood-red ink and then withdrawing it, began to annotate Alfonso's letter as if possessed.
"Lari!!!"
She changed all the names written as "Ari" in the letters to "LAri" by putting a capital L in front of them.
The bright red capital letter 'L' had a tremendous presence on the paper.
“I!! I can’t tolerate it!!!”
Princess Lariesa changed all names from 'Ari' to 'Lari' and howled like an angry animal.
Everything will be as she wants it to be. As it should be.
***
As Gallico's army began to retreat north, Leo III gave his commander-in-chief, Duke Cesare, a 2,000-man praetorian guard—the very crossbowmen Cesare had been desperately hoping to recruit.
Duke Cesare led them to intercept Gallico's Montpellier cavalry from a distance, killing a considerable number of them.
It was a victory that lost its shape, but a victory was a victory.
Leo III publicized this widely, saying, "The great Etruscan praetorian guard killed today several hundred of the finest troops of the Gallico kingdom."
The administrative organization that received this quickly relayed the news to the south.
The victory of the Great Etruscan Kingdom!
The royal army defeated those dirty Gallico bastards!
It was a measure to quell the growing seditious rumors in the capital—that the girls had saved the country, and that the King had done nothing.
And it was the work of his mother, Duchess Rubina, that gave Cesare this feat, almost a minor victory.
“Your position in the capital has been solidified. Now no one dares to speak out against you.”
In the end, rewards for merit are divided among those in positions of power.
In this affair, public opinion praised Ariadne, but she was neither commander-in-chief nor administrator and held no title or official position.
To promote or award someone, you must select one person from among those who already hold the position.
The biggest beneficiary of this affair was Duke Cesare.
There was no trace of talk about him being kicked out of the capital or being punished for his defeat.
But Duchess Rubina still seemed dissatisfied.
“The ball was set by my son.”
She clutched the teacup in her hand with discontent.
“What kind of baseless girl gets praised?”
Cesare, with his boots on and his feet propped up on the finest sofa, answered gruffly.
He would act even more mischievously than usual when his mother was around.
“It’s only natural that ‘that girl’ should receive the praise since she did it.”
“That kid did it!”
Duchess Rubina cried out in anger.
“You are the commander-in-chief of the army, and you are the one who intercepted and caused casualties in Gallico’s army! No, you are the one who gave the order to open the gates and dig a trap?”
Cesare answered crookedly.
“I opened the gates because she asked me to, and I lent the people because she asked me to. She did everything from planning to detailed work. I just did everything she told me to do, from Alpha to Omega, and the Gallico Army was rendered incapacitated.”
Ah, I feel like drinking, thought Cesare, glancing sideways at his mother.
“If you see someone outstanding, you should consider bringing them to your side. If you just try to suppress them and kill them, what kind of trouble are you going to get into?”
Duchess Rubina's eyes immediately widened.
“What? You’re trying to draw her to your side?”
I don't think he's saying he'll take her as his vassal.
“You, no way..!”
Cesare did not answer, but looked out the window and picked up his ear.
“Cesare!”
And then a staccato scream pierced his cleansed eardrums.
“Are you trying to get that kid to come in?”
Cesare answered calmly.
“If it’s Lady de Mare, isn’t she the best match in San Carlo right now?”
He listed her good points one by one on his fingers.
“First, she is famous. Second, she is rich. Third, she is pretty. She is a perfect fit for the Duchess of Pisano.”
“Cesare!”
Duchess Rubina shuddered.
“What’s so pretty about that twisted, fish-like head!”
“Your standards are very high. If the most popular Lady de Mare in the capital looks like a squid head, there won’t be any women left to take as daughters-in-law.”
“The people of the capital are collectively blind! No, and is appearance the problem?”
Rubina gritted her teeth in betrayal and shouted at her son.
“Don’t you remember when that girl came out and drove this mother to the brink of death during the arsenic incident?”
Duchess Rubina was criticizing her son's memory. Cesare listened to her indifferently and thought.
'It's not that I have a bad memory. I'm just not very filial.'
He also remembered how Ariadne had driven her mother, Rubina, to the brink.
It is true that if Ariadne had stayed still at that time, things could have passed without a hitch, and it is also true that Rubina almost got into big trouble.
But so what?
His mother's friends are not his friends, and his mother's enemies are not his enemies.
He was sick of this forced community of fate. He hated the chirping Rubina even more. He decided to just avoid this place.
“I'm going to go out now.”
“Cesare!”
“I have an appointment.”
There was no promise. But he can make one.
He left his angry mother behind, picked up his coat, and left the room.
Rubina, who was left alone behind, was trembling, but that was none of his business.
***
Duke Cesare's footsteps naturally led him to the grand mansion of the de Mare family.
It was late autumn, and the autumn breeze was blowing coolly, although it was getting chilly. It was a beautiful season with maple leaves, fallen leaves, and the earth turning a variety of colors.
Duke Cesare, who was a textbook example of a womanizer, had a set course to take the girls he was courting.
The valley behind the Orte Forest is a spectacular sight during this season.
It's also the prettiest, and when meeting several women at the same time, if you take them to different places, things get messy later. It's best to have a consistent date course.
'...Isn't it time to get a little tired of it now?'
But this time Cesare wanted to go to a special place.
The Orte Forest was a place he had already been to with Lady de Mare during the hunting competition, and he didn't want to repeat the same course he had gone to with other women.
So he decided to take the Lake Lecarno as his date course.
It's a place he often went to when he was young and wanted to be alone.
Cesare always felt better when he would just float a small boat on the lakeside and stare blankly at the water's surface.
He has never taken a woman there, because it is his own space.
'Because there are no people, we don't have to worry about the Black Death.'
He made excuses to himself, but deep down he knew that it was a special place and he wanted to share it with someone special.
He knocked on the front door of the de Mare mansion, carrying a huge bouquet of roses.
The guard at the main gate and the domestic staff at the entrance guided him into the reception room without saying a word.
The current Duke of Pisano is practically the most powerful man in San Carlo.
Even if he had burst in on the same day without prior arrangement and asked for Cardinal de Mare instead of Ariadne, no one would have refused him.
But Ariadne's red-haired maid, who appeared after he took his seat in the reception room, poured cold water on his plans.
“I will tell the young lady that the Duke of Pisano has come to visit.”
Ariadne's servant noticed Cesare in his riding attire and cautiously added:
“But... the young lady isn’t feeling well, so it seems like it would be difficult for her to go out.”
No matter how careful the tone, a refusal is still a refusal. If it were Cesare in his usual state, he would have blown up here.
What? You're not allowed to go out? You're not me, you're not the party, why are you the arbitrary judge of that?
But today, Cesare's reaction was different from usual. It was so natural that even he didn't feel anything strange.
What? Is the young lady sick? Where is she?
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