"Yes?"
Sir Delpiano looked at his lord with a face full of doubt.
“What kind of idea are you talking about? Sending the military to forcibly relocate them is impossible....”
What he really wanted to say was, 'What are you planning to do this time?', but Sir Delpiano couldn't bring himself to say that and nitpicked on a minor point.
But the nuance is conveyed.
Leo III also seemed bothered by his aide's gaze directed at him—a look of pity—and waved his hand and said:
“No, no. That’s not it. It’s really amazing! Sir, listen to me.”
Sir Delpiano thought, 'Where on earth is there an ear to avoid in the King's office? Aren't they all royal servants?' and he listened to the King's rhythm.
At first, he only felt uncomfortable with the breath of a King in his sixties coming so close.
“Because..., ....If we do this...!”
But as Leo III continued speaking, he unconsciously covered his mouth with both hands.
“...That’s right! What do you think, my opinion?”
“No... This...! It’s really worth whispering.”
“What do you think? Isn’t it amazing? Isn’t it great?”
“Certainly... It’s surprising, but...”
“This can solve all our problems at once!”
“That’s true, but...”
It was out of the ordinary. It was something that a person of common sense like Sir Delpiano could never have imagined.
There were so many tackles to do that it was hard to know where to start.
'Common sense... Morality... Will the people involved agree...?'
But Leo III raised his voice to the hostile Delpiano.
“Hey, Delpiano. This is an emergency! We need every resource we can get!”
“Well, that’s true, but...”
“Think about it. Right now, the local lords are not raising taxes! If they spend all the money in the national treasury, then it’s over! If it’s just this one thing, I don’t know, but for a year, I won’t have to worry about taxes!”
“...Are there really that many sheep?”
“How can you spend so much without having much?”
Leo III's eyes sparkled.
“Besides, if the nobles don’t listen, then where will we turn to for help?”
“...A foreign monarch?”
“How stupid! They are the people!”
Leo III gave a long speech, spitting out spittle.
“What do we have to get from the local chieftains? In the end, it’s taxes and military forces! This is how we can solve the money problem, and if we just choose this method, the people’s popularity will definitely increase!”
Leo III was quite concerned about the increasing number of songs in the marketplaces that were insulting the King.
Although he was a King without any fault in terms of legitimacy, he was very lacking in the support of the nobles.
This was because he had been beating up local lords throughout his reign.
In such a relationship, support from the grassroots lower classes had to be solid.
“If you have money and popularity, you can raise a central army. Why rely on the powerful clans anymore? Just encourage the ignorant commoners to enlist in the central army and create a standing army!”
He looked into the sky, dreaming of a beautiful, rosy future.
“We should go beyond the scale of the royal guard and create a standing army that can be stationed throughout the entire country! Even if we don’t pay the commoners a proper salary, we can create a group they admire and encourage a sense of belonging!”
Delpiano wanted to say that was absolutely not the case, but he felt that it would be embarrassing to interrupt the King's monologue now.
Leo III was absorbed in himself and dreamed of a future.
“Then the local foxes will be finished! The reign of the capital by the capital will begin!”
At that moment, a rustling sound was heard behind Leo III, piercing through his excited shouts.
It was the sound of the hem of a woman's dress.
“Oh my, what are you two having such an interesting conversation about without me?”
It was Duchess Rubina who brought in a silver platter filled with oranges.
“Fruit has arrived from the south. These are fresh oranges that were hard to obtain because trade has been cut off recently.”
She smiled faintly and advised him.
“Taste it, Your Majesty.”
And she added as if she was bestowing a favor.
“Hey, listen to the Delpianos too.”
But when Duchess Rubina spoke to him, Sir Delpianosa looked at her like a child caught doing something wrong, and then he started hiccups.
Hiccup!
“Oh my, why are you so surprised?”
Hiccup!
Sir Delpiano tried desperately to stop the hiccups by holding his nose with both hands, but his diaphragm was beyond his control.
Hiccup!
When the hiccups of the Duke of Delpiano got out of control, Leo III became angry with the Duchess Rubina.
“No, why did you come in so quietly?!”
Duchess Rubina cast a sidelong glance at the King.
“Where did I come in that I can’t enter?”
She had a graceful appearance that made it seem like she was an older woman with a grown son.
She was a beauty that would make any young man blush if he saw her. However, Leo III was very annoyed by the beautiful lady.
“This is not a place you can come in! You are officially my sister-in-law, so how can you be loitering around my office?”
Duchess Rubina looked at Leo III with an expression that said, "What did this man eat wrong?"
“No, since when have you been asking questions like that?”
From the time Cesare was proclaimed Duke of Pisano, Rubina was the Queen of San Carlo society.
Although her time in the position was short-lived due to the pandemic, she enjoyed it to the fullest.
At every party, at every social gathering, Rubina sat at the top of the table. She was truly the most prestigious woman in the entire country.
After Queen Marguerite left, Duchess Rubina took over the palace management.
The excuse that she was the King's sister-in-law was also good. The salary paid to the Queen's palace went entirely to her.
Marguerite's spending habits were not small, despite her reputation as being frugal.
In particular, the money going to the Rambouillet Relief Center was enormous. Rubina cut all of it and poured it into the palace's finances.
The candles she used and the clothes of her servants were upgraded by one level. The praise from her servants reached the sky. It was a good time.
“Your Majesty, please take a bite of the orange. Ah—.”
Duchess Rubina lifted a peeled orange and held it near Leo III's mouth.
Normally, he would have accepted it and said it was fine. But he got really annoyed and slapped her hand away.
“I told you to stop! You have eyes to see!”
At this point, Duchess Rubina also became angry.
“Your Majesty, why are you like this today?”
It was astonishing and disgusting that she was asked to maintain her dignity by coming into the office after having practically let her do all the work of a Queen.
She glared at Leo III with considerable scorn.
Rubina, who displayed a fearsome temperament towards her son Cesare and her subordinates, never once raised a finger against Leo III in her forty-three years of life.
That was the position of government (lover).
But now? She is the de facto Queen consort, and her son is the Duke of this country, in line for the throne.
His only son left is Alfonso, who is wandering in a foreign land somewhere. If she is lucky, he will die on the battlefield.
That gave Rubina courage.
“Where on earth are the eyes that see! Who sees, who? This Delpiano? That palace attendant? If you don’t see it today, what you saw yesterday will be erased from your brain?”
“What, what?”
“I have endured Your Majesty’s whims for over 25 years, and I can’t take it anymore! Are you talking senselessly?”
"Hey!"
Leo III gasped, clutching the back of his head.
“I’m right, Delpiano!”
He answered while looking at Delpiano's gaze, who was still struggling with hiccups.
“Ah, yes, yes... Hiccup!”
Leo III frowned at the unclean sound and shouted.
“Get ready like I said! Got it?”
“Hiccup! I, I will do so, Your Majesty!”
Rubina frowned and asked Leo III.
“What on earth are you talking about?”
“You don’t know! Get out! Get out!”
Duchess Rubina frowned as she was driven out of the King's office by Leo III. She had a bad feeling.
Ariadne herself was somewhat disappointed to have been given the title of Director of the Rambouillet Relief Center rather than a title—Cardinal de Mare had not told her that there was a successor—but even that was an object of envy to those who did not have it.
“It’s all Dad’s fault!”
Isabella threw her shawl roughly onto the floor of the 'girls' drawing room'.
“I also went to the Rambouillet Relief Center to do volunteer work!”
In fact, Isabella also knew it in her head.
The position of director of a relief center cannot be obtained through simple volunteer work, but rather through fame that spread throughout the country beyond the capital and through grain donations.
But it hurt too much to face it.
“If only that girl Ariadne hadn’t stopped me from doing volunteer work back then! If only my father hadn’t taken that girl’s side! The title of ‘Saint of the Relief Center’ would have been mine!”
“You are right.”
Ippolito, who had been forced to come to the 'girls' drawing room' to use the desk after Ariadne took his room away from him, pretended to be serious and agreed with Isabella.
He was sitting on white furniture in a pretty drawing room decorated with pink lace and ribbons, and he looked serious, even though it wasn't funny.
“She had it all planned out. She had it all planned out in advance!”
The easiest food for anger was conspiracy theories.
“Did she know in advance that the plague would spread to the capital? Didn’t she spread it herself?”
“She would do that and still be left behind, she’s such a vicious bitch!”
After the conspiracy theories came an attack on humanity.
“She doesn’t even know the topic, how can she be so self-centered and not think about her family at all?”
“It’s because she has a bad personality. Wasn’t that how she was originally? It’s because you didn’t see her. She was so upset when she first came up from the farm! I tried so hard to treat her well!”
“What did she do?”
“She curses at me and steals all my friends! I introduced her to them all with really good intentions!”
Paradoxically, when a public enemy was created, the friendship between the full-blooded siblings became stronger.
“You must be really upset.”
“Yeah, even you think so, brother?”
“Slap that little girl!”
It was their father who put a stop to the siblings' boasting.
“Tsk tsk tsk tsk tsk.”
Cardinal de Mare, leaning against the door of the girls' drawing room, clicked his tongue openly.
“...Dad!”
Isabella looked back in surprise.
“I thought you guys might be disappointed, so I came to take a look.”
Cardinal de Mare did not even hide his disappointment.
“Is all you do is badmouth your little sister?”
“But Dad!”
Isabella appealed with an expression of utter indignation.
“How can you proceed with this work while leaving us out like this?”
Isabella jumped to her feet and stood before her father.
“Even so, Ippolito is the eldest son! If something good happens in the family, shouldn’t she discuss it with him and give it to him if possible?”
The position of the Rambouillet Relief Center director was special, so Isabella's words did not apply, but if you change it to a title, it was not wrong.
But Cardinal de Mare sighed.
“If you guys do well, I won’t think about it either. If you’re just planning to stab your little sister in the back of the head, how can she trust you and consult with you? Or give you a hat?”
Ippolito looked shocked.
He thought that parents should naturally give all the best to their children, more precisely to him as the eldest and only son.
But you have to compete to get that?
“Are you thinking of treating your little sister well?”
Cardinal de Mare said coldly.
Now he couldn't ask the King to change the title of Ippolito, and seeing this, he honestly didn't want to do that.
“Family should stick together as one. That’s what happens when you guys are supporting each other from behind, and it’s the same when your younger siblings come to the forefront. Did you think you’d always get to enjoy only the good things?”
Tears welled up in Isabella's purple eyes at the cold Cardinal's words. But this father was merciless.
“If you look good, even the beans won’t fall.”
He added one more thing.
“They say that childlessness is a lucky fate.”
"Dad!"
The Cardinal turned around and walked out of the reception room, leaving behind those bastards he hated so much.
The Cardinal's white robes fluttered.
It was a white robe that would protect them only while the Cardinal was in office. Isabella felt a sense of crisis.
While her father is still there, she has to figure out a way to make a living on her own.
Her purple eyes blinked busily.
She didn't know it, but those pupils were about to start shaking for real three weeks later when her sister received her second teaching.
Sir Delpiano looked at his lord with a face full of doubt.
“What kind of idea are you talking about? Sending the military to forcibly relocate them is impossible....”
What he really wanted to say was, 'What are you planning to do this time?', but Sir Delpiano couldn't bring himself to say that and nitpicked on a minor point.
But the nuance is conveyed.
Leo III also seemed bothered by his aide's gaze directed at him—a look of pity—and waved his hand and said:
“No, no. That’s not it. It’s really amazing! Sir, listen to me.”
Sir Delpiano thought, 'Where on earth is there an ear to avoid in the King's office? Aren't they all royal servants?' and he listened to the King's rhythm.
At first, he only felt uncomfortable with the breath of a King in his sixties coming so close.
“Because..., ....If we do this...!”
But as Leo III continued speaking, he unconsciously covered his mouth with both hands.
“...That’s right! What do you think, my opinion?”
“No... This...! It’s really worth whispering.”
“What do you think? Isn’t it amazing? Isn’t it great?”
“Certainly... It’s surprising, but...”
“This can solve all our problems at once!”
“That’s true, but...”
It was out of the ordinary. It was something that a person of common sense like Sir Delpiano could never have imagined.
There were so many tackles to do that it was hard to know where to start.
'Common sense... Morality... Will the people involved agree...?'
But Leo III raised his voice to the hostile Delpiano.
“Hey, Delpiano. This is an emergency! We need every resource we can get!”
“Well, that’s true, but...”
“Think about it. Right now, the local lords are not raising taxes! If they spend all the money in the national treasury, then it’s over! If it’s just this one thing, I don’t know, but for a year, I won’t have to worry about taxes!”
“...Are there really that many sheep?”
“How can you spend so much without having much?”
Leo III's eyes sparkled.
“Besides, if the nobles don’t listen, then where will we turn to for help?”
“...A foreign monarch?”
“How stupid! They are the people!”
Leo III gave a long speech, spitting out spittle.
“What do we have to get from the local chieftains? In the end, it’s taxes and military forces! This is how we can solve the money problem, and if we just choose this method, the people’s popularity will definitely increase!”
Leo III was quite concerned about the increasing number of songs in the marketplaces that were insulting the King.
Although he was a King without any fault in terms of legitimacy, he was very lacking in the support of the nobles.
This was because he had been beating up local lords throughout his reign.
In such a relationship, support from the grassroots lower classes had to be solid.
“If you have money and popularity, you can raise a central army. Why rely on the powerful clans anymore? Just encourage the ignorant commoners to enlist in the central army and create a standing army!”
He looked into the sky, dreaming of a beautiful, rosy future.
“We should go beyond the scale of the royal guard and create a standing army that can be stationed throughout the entire country! Even if we don’t pay the commoners a proper salary, we can create a group they admire and encourage a sense of belonging!”
Delpiano wanted to say that was absolutely not the case, but he felt that it would be embarrassing to interrupt the King's monologue now.
Leo III was absorbed in himself and dreamed of a future.
“Then the local foxes will be finished! The reign of the capital by the capital will begin!”
At that moment, a rustling sound was heard behind Leo III, piercing through his excited shouts.
It was the sound of the hem of a woman's dress.
“Oh my, what are you two having such an interesting conversation about without me?”
It was Duchess Rubina who brought in a silver platter filled with oranges.
“Fruit has arrived from the south. These are fresh oranges that were hard to obtain because trade has been cut off recently.”
She smiled faintly and advised him.
“Taste it, Your Majesty.”
And she added as if she was bestowing a favor.
“Hey, listen to the Delpianos too.”
But when Duchess Rubina spoke to him, Sir Delpianosa looked at her like a child caught doing something wrong, and then he started hiccups.
Hiccup!
“Oh my, why are you so surprised?”
Hiccup!
Sir Delpiano tried desperately to stop the hiccups by holding his nose with both hands, but his diaphragm was beyond his control.
Hiccup!
When the hiccups of the Duke of Delpiano got out of control, Leo III became angry with the Duchess Rubina.
“No, why did you come in so quietly?!”
Duchess Rubina cast a sidelong glance at the King.
“Where did I come in that I can’t enter?”
She had a graceful appearance that made it seem like she was an older woman with a grown son.
She was a beauty that would make any young man blush if he saw her. However, Leo III was very annoyed by the beautiful lady.
“This is not a place you can come in! You are officially my sister-in-law, so how can you be loitering around my office?”
Duchess Rubina looked at Leo III with an expression that said, "What did this man eat wrong?"
“No, since when have you been asking questions like that?”
From the time Cesare was proclaimed Duke of Pisano, Rubina was the Queen of San Carlo society.
Although her time in the position was short-lived due to the pandemic, she enjoyed it to the fullest.
At every party, at every social gathering, Rubina sat at the top of the table. She was truly the most prestigious woman in the entire country.
After Queen Marguerite left, Duchess Rubina took over the palace management.
The excuse that she was the King's sister-in-law was also good. The salary paid to the Queen's palace went entirely to her.
Marguerite's spending habits were not small, despite her reputation as being frugal.
In particular, the money going to the Rambouillet Relief Center was enormous. Rubina cut all of it and poured it into the palace's finances.
The candles she used and the clothes of her servants were upgraded by one level. The praise from her servants reached the sky. It was a good time.
“Your Majesty, please take a bite of the orange. Ah—.”
Duchess Rubina lifted a peeled orange and held it near Leo III's mouth.
Normally, he would have accepted it and said it was fine. But he got really annoyed and slapped her hand away.
“I told you to stop! You have eyes to see!”
At this point, Duchess Rubina also became angry.
“Your Majesty, why are you like this today?”
It was astonishing and disgusting that she was asked to maintain her dignity by coming into the office after having practically let her do all the work of a Queen.
She glared at Leo III with considerable scorn.
Rubina, who displayed a fearsome temperament towards her son Cesare and her subordinates, never once raised a finger against Leo III in her forty-three years of life.
That was the position of government (lover).
But now? She is the de facto Queen consort, and her son is the Duke of this country, in line for the throne.
His only son left is Alfonso, who is wandering in a foreign land somewhere. If she is lucky, he will die on the battlefield.
That gave Rubina courage.
“Where on earth are the eyes that see! Who sees, who? This Delpiano? That palace attendant? If you don’t see it today, what you saw yesterday will be erased from your brain?”
“What, what?”
“I have endured Your Majesty’s whims for over 25 years, and I can’t take it anymore! Are you talking senselessly?”
"Hey!"
Leo III gasped, clutching the back of his head.
“I’m right, Delpiano!”
He answered while looking at Delpiano's gaze, who was still struggling with hiccups.
“Ah, yes, yes... Hiccup!”
Leo III frowned at the unclean sound and shouted.
“Get ready like I said! Got it?”
“Hiccup! I, I will do so, Your Majesty!”
Rubina frowned and asked Leo III.
“What on earth are you talking about?”
“You don’t know! Get out! Get out!”
Duchess Rubina frowned as she was driven out of the King's office by Leo III. She had a bad feeling.
***
Ariadne herself was somewhat disappointed to have been given the title of Director of the Rambouillet Relief Center rather than a title—Cardinal de Mare had not told her that there was a successor—but even that was an object of envy to those who did not have it.
“It’s all Dad’s fault!”
Isabella threw her shawl roughly onto the floor of the 'girls' drawing room'.
“I also went to the Rambouillet Relief Center to do volunteer work!”
In fact, Isabella also knew it in her head.
The position of director of a relief center cannot be obtained through simple volunteer work, but rather through fame that spread throughout the country beyond the capital and through grain donations.
But it hurt too much to face it.
“If only that girl Ariadne hadn’t stopped me from doing volunteer work back then! If only my father hadn’t taken that girl’s side! The title of ‘Saint of the Relief Center’ would have been mine!”
“You are right.”
Ippolito, who had been forced to come to the 'girls' drawing room' to use the desk after Ariadne took his room away from him, pretended to be serious and agreed with Isabella.
He was sitting on white furniture in a pretty drawing room decorated with pink lace and ribbons, and he looked serious, even though it wasn't funny.
“She had it all planned out. She had it all planned out in advance!”
The easiest food for anger was conspiracy theories.
“Did she know in advance that the plague would spread to the capital? Didn’t she spread it herself?”
“She would do that and still be left behind, she’s such a vicious bitch!”
After the conspiracy theories came an attack on humanity.
“She doesn’t even know the topic, how can she be so self-centered and not think about her family at all?”
“It’s because she has a bad personality. Wasn’t that how she was originally? It’s because you didn’t see her. She was so upset when she first came up from the farm! I tried so hard to treat her well!”
“What did she do?”
“She curses at me and steals all my friends! I introduced her to them all with really good intentions!”
Paradoxically, when a public enemy was created, the friendship between the full-blooded siblings became stronger.
“You must be really upset.”
“Yeah, even you think so, brother?”
“Slap that little girl!”
It was their father who put a stop to the siblings' boasting.
“Tsk tsk tsk tsk tsk.”
Cardinal de Mare, leaning against the door of the girls' drawing room, clicked his tongue openly.
“...Dad!”
Isabella looked back in surprise.
“I thought you guys might be disappointed, so I came to take a look.”
Cardinal de Mare did not even hide his disappointment.
“Is all you do is badmouth your little sister?”
“But Dad!”
Isabella appealed with an expression of utter indignation.
“How can you proceed with this work while leaving us out like this?”
Isabella jumped to her feet and stood before her father.
“Even so, Ippolito is the eldest son! If something good happens in the family, shouldn’t she discuss it with him and give it to him if possible?”
The position of the Rambouillet Relief Center director was special, so Isabella's words did not apply, but if you change it to a title, it was not wrong.
But Cardinal de Mare sighed.
“If you guys do well, I won’t think about it either. If you’re just planning to stab your little sister in the back of the head, how can she trust you and consult with you? Or give you a hat?”
Ippolito looked shocked.
He thought that parents should naturally give all the best to their children, more precisely to him as the eldest and only son.
But you have to compete to get that?
“Are you thinking of treating your little sister well?”
Cardinal de Mare said coldly.
Now he couldn't ask the King to change the title of Ippolito, and seeing this, he honestly didn't want to do that.
“Family should stick together as one. That’s what happens when you guys are supporting each other from behind, and it’s the same when your younger siblings come to the forefront. Did you think you’d always get to enjoy only the good things?”
Tears welled up in Isabella's purple eyes at the cold Cardinal's words. But this father was merciless.
“If you look good, even the beans won’t fall.”
He added one more thing.
“They say that childlessness is a lucky fate.”
"Dad!"
The Cardinal turned around and walked out of the reception room, leaving behind those bastards he hated so much.
The Cardinal's white robes fluttered.
It was a white robe that would protect them only while the Cardinal was in office. Isabella felt a sense of crisis.
While her father is still there, she has to figure out a way to make a living on her own.
Her purple eyes blinked busily.
She didn't know it, but those pupils were about to start shaking for real three weeks later when her sister received her second teaching.
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