As he began to unfasten his fasteners and remove his armor, Sir Elko immediately joined him and helped him up.
“...Elko.”
Alfonso called him with a bad expression.
“Yes, Your Highness?”
“I don’t need your help. I can do it by myself.”
But Sir Elko shook his head.
“No knight ever takes off his armor without a squire.”
“But you are not a servant.”
“My knight,” Alfonso was about to say but then closed his mouth.
Because Sir Elko was now a knight who could never lift a sword again.
In his mind, Sir Elko was a knight, but he wasn't sure how Sir Elko would feel when he heard those words.
Instead, Alfonso dissuaded Sir Elco.
“If you need servants, just bring them in separately and have them do chores. You shouldn’t do this kind of work.”
Sir Elko shook his head again. His expression was complicated.
“...Your Highness. Please do not cast me out.”
“I'm not kicked you out!”
Alfonso vehemently denied it.
“Nonsense! I’m saying there are more important things you can do.”
“...What more important thing could there be for me to do than to serve the Prince?”
Alfonso was speechless at the thought of Sir Elko coming out like this. Sir Elko spoke strongly.
“Your Highness, you took me in when I had nowhere to go. And you took me in again when I had become useless.”
He emphasized once again.
“My life is yours, Your Highness. The Prince’s work, however trivial, is my pleasure. Please do not cast me out.”
In the end, Alfonso silently handed over the armor.
Sir Elko carefully unfastened all of Alfonso's armor fasteners with his one remaining hand, and he removed each piece of armor, carefully stacking them in a corner of the barracks.
Alfonso, freed from the thick lump of iron, sat down at the desk.
By the light of a candle, he saw that there were two letters on his desk.
Sir Elko did not leave the barracks, but held his breath and wiped Alfonso's armor with an oiled cloth behind him.
The first letter Alfonso picked up was a certificate from the Holy See proving the source of funds.
“The Holy See parish sent me something like this. It’s better than my father.”
At Alfonso's bitter smile, Sir Elko agreed.
“The hearts of the parishioners are truly admirable.”
He added.
“They must be so devoted because they know that the Prince has the makings of a true monarch.”
Not a word was said about Ariadne.
Alfonso only laughed a little and didn't react much to Sir Elko's comment.
Alfonso picked up the second letter. Sir Elko tried to keep his breathing even.
His palms were sweaty.
It was hard to tell whether the slippery feeling on his armor was caused by oil or his own sweat.
Rustle.
Alfonso opened the plain envelope and took out the letter inside.
“...”
He read the first paragraph of the letter over and over again with a stern expression.
“...Elko.”
“...Yes, Your Highness.”
“Can you leave me alone for a moment?”
Sir Elko felt a cold sweat run down his spine.
“What’s the matter...?”
“Leave me alone.”
It was rare for Alfonso to be so firm. Sir Elko could not help but agree.
“...I will follow your orders. Rest well, Your Highness.”
He put down the armor he had been cleaning and reluctantly went out of the barracks.
***
Alfonso, left alone, looked again at the letter in his hand.
"Lariesa, drawing my beloved Alfonso."
It was a letter with long margins after the greeting.
But the long margin was just paper, not content. The first paragraph cuts straight to the point.
"I thought you might be interested in knowing this. Your ex is engaged to your half-brother."
The greeting was uncomfortable from the start, and Alfonso's breath was taken away from the first sentence.
“I told you, she betrayed you and begged His Majesty to acknowledge your half-brother."
It is said that at the ball in honor of Count Cesare de Como's official induction into the royal family, Miss Ariadne de Mare had her first dance with him.
"Now it's clear. She has abandoned you."
Alfonso's face was pale and expressionless.
"The 'Hall of the Sun' was opened, and His Majesty the King himself presided over the engagement ceremony.
She was also awarded the title of Countess of de Mare.
During your absence, she has been ennobled and formally incorporated into San Carlo society, becoming the most prominent unmarried woman in San Carlo as the fiancée of a collateral Duke in the line of succession to the throne.
What was the benefit received in return?"
After that, only useless stories were written.
Princess Lariesa herself shared how much she loved Alfonso, shared her own daily life, and praised Alfonso for his achievements.
'How does she know about the majors I have?'
He had questions, but there were no answers.
The Kingdom of Gallico is the greatest supporter of this crusade, and Grand Duke Odes is one of the most powerful figures in the Gallico royal family.
Reports about the war situation are probably coming in through official and unofficial channels.
The letter, which had been praising Alfonso's excellence for a long time, ended with advice from Lariesa.
"I am glad to hear that your reputation is growing in the Crusades.
But now it's time to come back.
You, of noble blood, have a throne to inherit without having to suffer blood and pus on the battlefield like the pigs and dogs that set out in search of a quick fortune.
The news from San Carlo about your half-brother is quite impressive.
You've heard the story of how he became the commander-in-chief of the Etruscan army. It's past time to let half-assed bastards get away with it. Protect what you have.
Please go back home and settle down so that I can welcome you soon. It's been too long since I've seen you.
Your faithful wife who looks only at you, Lariesa."
'Ariadne betrayed me.'
Prince Alfonso repeated the above sentence to himself several times.
'Ariadne betrayed Alfonso.'
He thought about it once, twice, no, ten or twenty times, but it just didn't feel real.
He considered the possibility that Lariesa might be telling a nasty lie.
However, although Lariesa was a woman who lied to make herself look good, she never lied about basic facts about politics, the military, the current situation, etc.
If she fabricates a story like this and writes it in a letter, she won't have the courage to handle the aftermath that will come.
But how could it be that it was his Ariadne, of all people, who betrayed him?
Alfonso once again reconstructed the sentence in a daze.
'Ariadne de Mare became another man's woman. That man was none other than Cesare de Como.'
Alfonso's lips began to tremble. The sentences took on another form and rearranged themselves haphazardly.
'Ariadne de Mare no longer loves Alfonso de Carlo.'
Thump.
His heart was beating on its own.
Alfonso could tolerate the rest.
It didn't matter if Ariadne had become engaged to Cesare, or if she had sold him out and received the countship.
For now, he could hug her again, telling her that everything was okay, that he could endure it.
If others saw him, they would call him an idiot, but other people's eyes are just other people's eyes.
She was the reason he survived each day on this bleak battlefield.
One day, he dreamed of returning home in glory, holding her in his arms and spinning her around on the walls of San Carlo.
On the wall where she had stood as he left. That day, he really wanted to hold her hand, hug her, and kiss her.
It was a dream that never came true on that day. He definitely wanted to make it a reality someday.
He intended to conclude the Crusades victoriously and return to the Etruscan kingdom in good standing, demanding credit for his accomplishments from his father.
'I am not a chess piece in a political marriage. I will marry Ariadne de Mare.'
To break the forced marriage with the Grand Duchess of Lariesa—Alfonso did not yet know that the marriage contract he had signed was invalid—the Etruscan kingdom had to have an overwhelming advantage over the Gallico kingdom.
This was also the reason why the Prince of the Etruscan kingdom, who could safely remain in the rear, was marching through the front lines with a detachment.
Become a knight King with overwhelming military power, so that the King of Gallico will not even dare to provoke him.
However, the fragmented sentences were reassembled arbitrarily and appeared in Alfonso's head.
'Ariadne de Mare never loved Alfonso de Carlo.'
Thud.
Alfonso's heart sank. The sentences danced again.
'Ariadne de Mare desired titles and positions.
Before, Alfonso de Carlo could give it to you, but not anymore.
Cesare de Como gave her what she wanted.'
“No... That can’t be...”
He tried to utter a negative word.
But simple denial was powerless in the face of the uncontrollable waves of thoughts.
The words that came out of his mouth shattered and scattered as they could not withstand the thoughts that were rushing in.
The thoughts eventually coalesced into one final mass and revealed themselves.
'Ariadne de Mare never loved Alfonso de Carlo.'
No way. No way. No way. No way. No way.
Alfonso shook his head in denial. Those lips, that smile, that body heat, that vitality, none of it could be fake.
Alfonso, who returned intact after sweeping the battlefield for three days and nights, suddenly laid his head on the wooden desk as fatigue washed over him.
It was a weight that couldn't be held back.
And outside Alfonso's barracks, there was Sir Elko, who was always watching the situation inside. The night was getting deeper.
***
Isabella sneaked into her sister's study and looked around.
'You've organized it so well, it's mind-blowing.'
There wasn't a speck of dust. The papers were piled up like a mountain on the desk, and it was a bit boring to look through them, but everything was neat and tidy.
The bookshelves were long and lined with bound books, but the things they contained were all bound books, and there was not a single ledger, secret notebook, jewels from a man, or anything else that could be considered a weakness, as Isabella was looking for.
Knock knock!
Isabella tried to open Ariadne's drawer with rough hands, but there was no result.
There were only ink bottles and new stationery lined up in a row.
“What’s wrong with this person?”
Isabella muttered that it would be nice to have some tangled jewels rolling around on the dressing table and some old cosmetics stuck together to give it some humanity, and threw open the large closet.
“Uh...”
There was a large safe in the closet. Isabella looked at the lock on the safe. It was a lock with a key, not a password.
'Everything I'm looking for is in there.'
The thorn in her eye, the 'Heart of the Blue Deep Sea', various ledgers, Ducato gold coins, and other valuables were all probably inside.
Isabella tried pulling the safe door, hoping for luck, but to no avail.
'Tch.'
She searched through Ariadne's drawers again, just in case, just in case, she found the key.
However, Ariadne was not the kind of fool who would put the safe key in a drawer right next to the safe, and Isabella's search ended in vain.
'Oh, that's annoying.'
As she continued to search through Ariadne's desk, muttering to herself, a heavy wad of parchment came into her grasp.
'What is this?'
It was a bundle of parchment papers stacked on a desk shelf that could be pulled out and extended. It wasn't a new paper. It was a bundle of unfinished letters.
'..?'
Isabella began to read the bundle of letters.
"To Alfonso, whom I miss.
It rained a lot in San Carlo today. I wanted to go for a walk with just an umbrella on a rainy day..."
"What?"
It was a collection of silly love letters.
It wasn't Ariadne who had received them, but letters Ariadne had written to Prince Alfonso. Isabella clicked her tongue.
'I guess you dated a Prince.'
It was of no benefit to Isabella.
'If it's written that the other person wasn't a Prince, but a neighborhood punk and that they had some kind of intimate relationship, it would be spread all over the social circle. Where would they write something like this?'
But this bundle of letters was the only harvest of the day.
Isabella skimmed through the letter, flipping through it quickly.
'...Wait a minute. But why didn't you call?'
Something was off. Isabella scanned the letters again.
The letters were all unfinished, and some seemed to have been actually sent. The dates were blank, and there were also references to 'last letters' that were not in the bundle.
But there was no reply.
Not only was there no reply interspersed among the letters, but Ariadne's writing repeatedly contained the statement that she had 'not received Alfonso's reply'.
'And the date... It's more recent than I thought.'
Isabella skipped to the back of the stack of letters, wondering if there might be some use for it.
As expected, the letter at the very end was written very recently.
"December 22, 1123, Ariadne, your love."
Isabella's eyes widened.
'This was written after the engagement with Duke Cesare!'
She quickly scanned the contents of the last letter.
“As the weather gets colder, I worry about you more. Although Yesak has a milder climate than San Carlo, it’s not like a military camp would be comfortable to live in.”
'He is a virtuous man, he is a virtuous man.'
Isabella clicked her tongue and finished reading.
"...The weather is like this, so I remember you coming to pay your respects at Arabella's funeral. The ice, the snowflakes, the chill from the cloak, and the bittersweet kiss..."
Isabella frowned.
'No, you slept with a guy at your sister's funeral? Are you crazy?'
Isabella didn't even think about why the funeral was being held in the first place.
'This is, pretending to be quiet...'
Isabella's eyes narrowed even though she was swearing.
A small, sinister smile appeared on her lips. This letter will be useful, no matter where it goes.
Isabella quickly packed the letter into her bosom.
She did think about what would happen if Ariadne found out that the letter was missing and started a fuss, but Isabella soon put that aside.
'What would you do if you found out something was missing? Would you search through my belongings without any evidence?'
Still, it was better not to get caught if possible.
Isabella closed Ariadne's drawers tightly and did a quick check to make sure everything was in its proper place.
She went out to the study entrance and listened outside. There was no sound.
Isabella stepped cautiously out of the study.
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